Thanksgiving week!

So I have to say I went into Thanksgiving weekend with some reservations. I'm always super emotional/nastalgic during Thanksgiving because we are some of the only people here without any family close. Last year for Thanksgiving David and I had an awesome time, but it was just the two of us. Was kind of hilarious because we made all the food and barely finished half of it...but still a good time. Made me realize just how far we were from family. But this year we found ONE couple that didn't have family to spend Thanksgiving with! So we spent this year with Jenny & Brian. They are both originally from Chicago so Sarasota is quite a transition. I remember how I felt last year spending Thanksgiving alone and knew that it would mean a lot to Jenny. Turned out to be an amazing time. Had my first deep fried turkey, made with vodka for some reason (I don't know ask Brian), watched football, laughed a lot, and ate a whole lot! So for me, that equals a good time. I truely feel that living in Florida for nearly 2 years has made me truely thankful for friends. I've always been close to my family but when you live far away your friends truely become your new family. We've had people pour into our lives like I've never experienced. I never realized friends could be this close, close as family. I thank God for the new friends we've made here and the interesting experiences we've had! And you know, I really am thankful for my husband, he's so fun, hilarious, always up for something new. We just finished decorating our house for Christmas and he worked alongside me like a little kid, excited mostly to decorate the palm tree's in our front yard. So thank God for your amazing blessings!

How rich are you??

My sister posted this website on her blog and had to pass it along! It compares your yearly income with the average income of the world's population. So we feel  rich blessed today.
We're 55,146,441 richest person in the world! We're in the TOP .91% richest people in the world.
Calculate your income and give today Global Rich List

What I'm listening to today

"Everything" by Alanis Morissette
So I've loved Alanis' music since her first woman empowering, man hating album Jagged Little Pill, singing at the top of my lungs to "You Oughta Know"...not knowing the true meaning behind her bitter words, just liking the feeling of being a tough woman! Picture a 14 year old screaming "well I'm here to remind you of the mess you left when you went away!!" Rocking out from my gray Walkman. I think that love for her raw, at times brutually honest lyrics speak to me still. Recently I downloaded her Collection album with the best of all her songs and have been touched by "Everything". If it was playing on the radio I would, for the first time in my life, call in the local radio station and dedicate it to my husband David. Its a song I picture singing to him at our 50th wedding anniversary (minus the first line if you end up listening to it...). But its sweet, sarcastic, refreshing, honest, pure. It makes me smile everytime I listen to it. Pick it up on iTunes :)
Chorus
"You see everything
You see every part
You see all my light
And you love my dark
You dig everything of which I'm ashamed
There's not anything to which you can't relate
And your still here..."

BUY THIS NOW series by Katy :)

I thought I'd start a new series of household items that have changed the way I clean. I have two cats and two dogs and we constantly leave the windows open at our house because of the great weather- therefore- my house always has a film of dirt on the floor! I have two pets especially that shed chunks of fur. So yesterday David and I got a Hoover SteamVac and its amazing! We've only lived in this rental house for 4 months but the water we were throwing out was BLACK! It was a disgusting/revealing cleaning. Plus we both had a lot of fun cleaning (which is a plus ladies if your husband isn't the clean type) because you can see the line where it cleans! We got a Hoover because its easy to use, the clean water is separated from the dirty water (which in other brands it for some reason mixes together the dirty and clean water making it gross to clean. So we picked ours up at Best Buy for $175 and it has already paid for itself. Renting a Rug Doctor from Home Depot is $60 for 45 minutes! So go BUY THIS NOW!

Beauty

Looking out of my window at the palm trees and sunny bright sky I am so captured by the beauty of nature. I never thought I'd enjoy the beauty of Florida as much as I have. Of course the white sand beaches and blue green water is obviously beautiful but I always missed the mossy creeks of Arkansas. My dad and I used to go on hikes every month to the Buffalo River and one time we decided to bushwack our way through the trail so we could make the trailhead before sundown. And we found this little pocket of ferns with a small stream running through in a crevice of a mountain. It was like one of those weird moments where you feel like you were the first person to ever see this sight. Like a scene out of a JRR Tolkein novel. I always go back to that moment and think it was the most beautiful sight I'd ever seen. Its amazing how different beauty can be, even in the overgrown backyard of mine, the twisting vines...which David says are killing the trees but whatever! I never knew before living in Florida how noisy palm trees were. When its windy outside you can hear them creaking and crackling. I was informed that it was because they self prune by breaking off the dead branches in the wind. Its the same sound as someone chopping wood. For the rest of my life I think I'll be encountering these small moments in nature, the diversity of beauty, if I'm just willing to listen and see it.

Barbie got the boot!

Well not actually, lovely little Barbie is still flouncing that perfect 34,28 (what are the other measurements?)body of hers around town but listen up, there's some new girls on the block. Anyways, I heard on NPR the other day that the provacative Bratz dolls are getting replaced by "Moxie" dolls after a lawsuit...from the makers of Barbie! That they are too similar to the Barbie prototype. *Gasp*
Does this not seem like some sort of high school cat fight? Hilarious. The new Moxie girls feature a plethora of races fully clad in colorful teenie bopperish clothing. It is said, however, that they resemble a less, how do I say, Hooker-ish version of Bratz. They are a bit more conservative than the other girls.
I remember playing with Barbies growing up. My sister and I had an aaaamaaazing time. And we had the old group- Ken, Barbie, Skipper, a pre-teen size (what were their names?) and even the babies! When my sister and I played though we weren't just going to the mall or the movies- we had epic adventures as pirate princesses, Amazonian treasure hunters, deep sea divers!! I mean these adventures we had with our Barbies lasted for weeks! We made clothes out of old rags that my mom gave us, put music to it (Phantom of the Opera was classic) and even drug my brother into playing with us. (We were that fun!) My sister and I bought Barbies into our teens and even had a code word when we were shopping for one saying- "Oh we should get this for our sister 'Emily'..." Well needless to say "Emily" had plenty of dolls! haha Oh man, I really am looking forward to the day either Heidi has a girl or me because then we can pass on our epic adventures to them...and also get a chance to play dolls again!

Don't buy Reebok

So I don't know how many of you have seen the new Reebok commercial featuring woman's shoes to specifically tone a woman's butt. I think the commercial is so embarrassing. Once again we are objectifying women..classic. So I wrote Reebok's Customer Service an email:
"Hello
I just wanted to write you and say how dissapointed I am that your newest advertisement for a woman's shoe (specifically designed to "tone your butt") objectifies women. In the commercial it focuses on her butt twice. I guess your marketing department assumes that women will want your product to tone their butts, but you use sexual objectification to attract women? I understand that sex sells but its almost hilarious your doing it for a women's shoe! I don't even have kids and it grosses me out. I'm in my mid twenties and work out often and I know now that I will never use your product and will go out of my way to tell others not to use your product either. It would be refreshing if a shoe company would actually sell shoes instead of resembling a rap video.
Thanks"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCHKXICefFw