my guy

Okay I know I don't post much about Jeff (he hates having his picture taken so I figured if I talk to much about him and fail to provide proof, you will all be talking about me and clucking your tongues about how sad it is that she has to invent a boyfriend to talk about...) but I just need to write a short post to say that I am indeed thankful for him.
Without going into too much detail I had a moment of pure crazy yesterday that fit right in with every stereotype of "nutjob girlfriend". During my moment of insanity, I was very aware that I was being unreasonable and indeed psycho, but refused to cave out of sheer spite.
Rather than declaring me a looney, he simply gave me a hug(while I was still trying to work out in my head how the situation was HIS fault..) and a kiss and left to work on his duck blind and came home for supper later like nothing happened.
I think I shall bake my man some cookies and/or brownies. And I'll even put frosting on the brownies.

Jeff in the duck blind. His favorite place in the whole wide world.

Autumn Princess and cakes

Melina came to visit us at the store today and she sat on one of the pumpkins out in the flower shop. She looked so cute I couldn't resist snapping a picture.







On a completely unrelated note, I have discovered the incredibly funny www.cakewrecks.blogspot.com . It is hilarious and I have had tears in my eyes from trying to hold my laughter in (I read it when I'm supposed to be working, and no matter how great my sales pitch was, convincing them that paperwork is laugh out loud funny would be a bit of a stretch, so I am forced to stifle) (although boss lady Carol reads my blog so it appears the secret is out.....) (oh well).

Homecoming Princess

Today was Limestone's Homecoming Parade. They normally have it on Saturday morning but this year decided to have it on Friday. The route runs right in front of the store and the streets are shut down so we always get a break at the store to enjoy. This year Jeff's niece Melina was on one of the floats with her preschool. Here are some pics.

Here she is with mom Gina right behind her. She had spotted dad Tim and was getting ready to throw a piece of candy to him.

The sun wouldn't let my camera focus at the right time so this snapped a little late but you can see Tim in the black shirt picking up the candy she threw him. She was yelling "Hi Daddy!" at him the whole time!

She may not be on the homecoming court but she's definitely the princess around here!

curse you baked goods!

Today I decided I needed a small pick-me-up and stopped at the little village bakery that just opened in B-ville last week (had a headache, people were hounding me for paychecks, etc.).

Literally, just last night, after trying on a shirt my mom bought me for my birthday, I vowed that it was time to eat better and start excercising.

Isn't Monday a better day to start stuff like that anyway...

The ABC's of Andi

I actually got this emailed to me but rather than forward it, I'll throw it on here and if anybody wishes they can read.

A. Attatched or Single- attatched :)

B. Best Friend- My sister Amy, Jeff, Nay, and Susie.

C. Cake or pie- yes please

D. Day- Friday

E. Essential item - face moisturizer...can't stand how my face feels without it

F. Favorite Color- blue and green

G. Gummy bear or worms- worms definitely

H. Hometown- P-Town

I. Indulgences- bubble baths, popsicles, and Ben & Jerry's ice cream.

J. January or July- January

K. Kids - someday

L. Life would be incomplete without- family, friends, and coffee

M. Marriage date- hopefully soon (sigh...)

N. Number of siblings- 3-Dina, Amy, & Aron.

O. Oranges or apples- depends on the season, summer-oranges, fall-apples

P. Phobias or fears-the usual "something bad happening to someone I love" and a wierd "getting bitten by something poisonous (like a spider) like in the middle of the night and not realizing it until it's too late and my leg falls off.." I watch too much t.v. I think.

Q. Quote - "It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt"-Abraham Lincoln

R. Reason to smile- Jeff

S. Season- Fall. Apples, leaves falling, I even like the smell of them burning, and pumpkins.

T. Tag- not going to do that(thank me later Charity :)

U. Unknown fact about me-I put potato chips on bologna sandwiches.

V. Vegan or oppressor- I like steak. A lot. So oppressor I guess.

W. Worst habit- procrastinating

X. Xrays or ultrasounds- well, never had an ultrasound. So X-rays I guess? Although, you only get those when something hurts, so ultrasound. The baby kind, not the "we're looking for gall bladder problems" kind.

Y. Your favorite food- all things carbohydrates (potato, bread, pasta, you name it.)

Z. Zodiac Sign- Virgo

Not going to tag anyone because I'm nice like that. Fill it out if you wish.

Go Cubs Go!

My beloved Cubbies had their first no hitter in 32 years yesterday! WooHoo! Carlos Zambrano was on FIRE!!! And even more amazing he was just coming back from a rotator cuff injury! I'll be the first to admit that when Big Z is having an "off" day I'm one of those crazies yelling at Lou Piniella through the t.v. to get him out of the game but he was all magic yesterday! We're back on the upswing! 7.5 games ahead! Can't wait for October!

Go Cubs Go!

Tag, I'm it

I have been tagged by Charity to make a post in which I reveal 5 little known facts about myself. I'm sure different people know some of these but maybe you'll learn something new.

1. I am the fourth generation to have the middle name Louise. My mother-Leslie Louise, grandmother-Anna Louisa, and great-grandmother, Freidreka Louisa go before me and if I am blessed with a daughter, she too will be blessed with that middle name (and sisters who think it's funny to call her "wheezy").

2. My first name was going to be Stephanie (after my dad Stephen) until a couple of days before I was born. My dad came home and said "what do you think of the name Andrea?" and so I became Andrea. Had I been a boy I would be Brandt.

3. My ultimate comfort food is spaghetti noodles with a little bit of butter and salt. I didn't like sauce when I was little so this is how I ate spaghetti and I still make it that way when I need some comfort.

4. I have a secret fantasy of being a back-up singer for a local cover band. I have no desire to be in a big famous band, just a hometown one that plays random weekend gigs and sings the songs I love. I could totally be the tambourine girl. Or cowbell. Or both....

5. I'm secretly a bit of a science nerd. Weather and Outer Space are my two science areas of interest. I watch almost every shuttle launch on my computer and check the space station camera during missions and it never fails to amaze me. I am addicted to the weather radar and I like storms and tornados. Not the death/destruction part but the actual science behind them and trying to learn about them and predict them. I want to go on a tornado chase someday.

Ok that's five things. I can't tag anybody because I don't actually know a lot of people with blogs(we're not a blogging family). So it ends with me I suppose.

Protons and Black Holes

So I read today on CNN that scientists in Europe fired up the largest proton collider ever built in hopes of finding out more about what happens when you smash protons into each other. It's a giant 17 mile circular tunnel underneath the Switzerland/France border.
The article stated that if everything goes to plan, scientists could potentially unlock secrets of how the universe was formed and what materials were present when it was just a baby universe.
However, if something goes wrong, scientists could potentially open up a black hole large enough to swallow the planet.
I'm not sure what worries me more, the possibility of the whole black hole/swallowed planet/end of the world thing, or the fact that I jadedly continued sipping my Cran-Grape juice and clicked on the next headline.

More Fish

My aquarium got done cycling a couple of weeks ago so I've been adding fish lately. Lost another Molly. I'm down to just one Dalmatian and one Black, plus a bunch of baby Dalmatians.

Got a pretty new betta to replace poor Gil.

The baby fish say "hi!"

Got two of these plecos, they hide most of the time though.

Noah helped pick out these Tiger Barbs

I love these little Cardinal Tetras. They show up so well in the aquarium.

I bought two of these Bosemani Rainbowfish. The blue and gold colors will get brighter as they get older.

I also have two of these Red Rainbows. The red color will be brighter as they get older too.

These little wormie guys are Kuhli Loaches. They hide a lot too, but they sure come out for feeding time.

I have a pair of these Zebra Botia.

I spy

I had to pick my nephew Noah up from school the other day and whenever I pick him up, we play "I spy" on the way home. Well, let me tell you, the game of "I spy" certainly has changed from when I was little (and yes, I can hear you all groaning because I'm too young to tell those "when I was younger" stories). He introduced me to the new version (I Spy 2.0) in which you get points for answering, but the points decline with each guess (first guess 10, second guess 5 and so on...). Then apparently you redeem these points to buy these things called "power ups". These power ups then allow you to change something in your clue to trick the person guessing. For example if you are describing a tree you could say I spy something blue and tall, etc. And on top of that you can buy a small, medium, or large power up and those govern the number of words that you are allowed to change in your clue. The game that I grew up playing apparently got eaten by some new-fangled (yes, I know I just used new-fangled) video game or something.
By the time he got done explaining all the new rules and tricks to me, we were at his house.

Whatever happened to plain ol' I spy?