Full Moon? Twilight Zone? Weird Dream? Who knows?!

I truly believe that Sunday morning church can set your tone for the entire week.  I love going to church on Sunday mornings and getting fired up for God and encouraged to be the best me I can be.  This past Sunday Brook and I decided to try another new church, an Assembly of God Church.  We attended an AOG church in Newburgh and loved it.  This church, however, made us feel like we were in the twilight zone, and I feel like I haven't come back ever since.

Brook and I both have just been in a "funk" of weird occurrences all week.  Sunday night my phone decided not to work unless I talked through speaker phone and remained that way until Wednesday, on my day off, just before I left to take it in to Sprint to get a new phone.  I still took the phone in anyways, they did some software updates and said it would help, then last night the speaker phone option went out and it only works in reverse now.  Ahh really?

This week we switched our computer systems at work from Aloha to POSI, which has made for interesting adjustments at work.  I have caught on pretty fast, but there are still kinks in the system that make for not-so-smooth nights.  Anyone who has been a server knows what I am talking about when I say the "weeds dream," or should I say nightmare.  The weeds dream is when you are running around the restaurant frantically and can never get caught up--they are crazy and awful.  You wake up in almost panic attacks because you can't leave work even in your sleep!  I lived out a real-life weeds dream last night as part of my twilight-ish funky week.  My first table was an old couple as odd as odd can be.  They didn't know what they had ordered, kept ordering and reordering the same thing.  They must have gotten into a fight while they were at the table because they asked for their food to go and the guy asked for another glass of wine, while the women insisted "NO!" And no, they weren't already drunk or buzzed-just old, confused, and sick of each other.  When I said "Have a great night," the man responded, "You really think I'm going to have a great night?"  Ha ha touche!  Weird start to the night only to move on to more weird situations and people.  Things were happening like my food tickets were running through, but my salads weren't--which they are supposed to go through at the same time, and so on.  I had a split party go awful, and not really sure why or how.  Oh, and when I thought I was cut, and had finished all of my side work and tables, a ten top walks in at about 9:40 (we close at 10 and I was cut 8 of 12, not including closers), and the host sat it as a split party in my section and left me and cut 7 to take it.  AHHH!!  We were the last two to leave at 11:30.  Fun stuff!

Brook has had some weird requests and stops at work this week as well.  Out of product cups for a residential stop..really?  Also, there is a somewhat mysterious guy Brook delivers to that has all sorts of weird requests and will even "accidentally" call Brook at off work hours.  He even tried to talk Brook in to coming to work for him this week.  That being said, we have no idea what this guy does.

I am probably missing little weird details to the week-but you get it we are in a funk this week. Pray that we get out of it haha!

Tornadoes, Tomatoes, and TVs---a scattered and random post from the weeks happenings

It has been an entire week since I have written!  Let's play a little catch up.  Our house guests left a week ago today, which meant Wednesday, my day off, was spent restocking everything from toilet paper to tomatoes and trying to pick up the tornado that hit our house!

holy guest room!  yikes!

The day was finished off with dinner and a movie with my hubby.  Spinach and berry salad, Grand's biscuits, ribeye steak, grilled chicken, and the movie Hall Pass.  We cherish nights like these since it's rare that we get them!

yummy and healthy!

hey stud!

The movie Hall Pass stars Owen Wilson, Jason Sudeikis, Jenna Fischer, and Christina Applegate and is a comedy based on the idea of two women giving their sex-obsessed husbands a week off from marriage.  Very funny-I recommend!  

Unfortunately our big screen plasma went out last week : (.  I keep telling Brook I broke it because he has been too mesmerized with HGTV.  The sound still works on the TV, but there is no picture.  We thought it might be something simple to fix so we called a TV repairman to come out Thursday.  You know how I talked about the rude people at Carrabba's and the rude man in church a couple of weeks ago?  This TV repairman must have been a love child of those two.  What a jerk!  Rude from the second he walked in to OUR home.  "What do you expect when you buy a piece of crap TV like this from Walmart?  Why would you even try to fix this it has way outlived its life expectancy.  Why would you move here it sucks?"  He continually contradicted everything I said and had a rude comment back.  Grr!  Charged me $65 for 100 rude comments and not even an effort to make a repair.  So we are in the market for a new TV-if anyone knows of any good deals or brands to go for or stay away from as we shop let me know.  

busted!

After work I went out with some co-workers to Legacy Grille for ladies night (free drinks!!).  It's right next to Carrabba's and has a nice outdoor bar area.  We had a good time and it's always fun to play with your co-workers outside of work.  

Friday night we played with Brook's co-workers.  I met Brook and the other guys at Aces Lounge in Bradenton to see Chris Duarte play.  He is a pretty incredible blues/rock musician.  Brook works with a great group of guys-they are always a lot of fun to hang out with. 

My amazing hubby completely cleaned the house on Saturday-which means today, on my day off I can write, shop, and play outside a little!  He's the best!  

I worked Saturday night, and to my surprise our friends Tim and Ashton came in to eat.  They moved to Sarasota a couple of months before we did to start a Young Life movement in the Sarasota area.  They are an amazing couple that is doing amazing things with the Sarasota youth.  They have been at camp for what feels like all summer and they are finally back, so it was good to see them!  

tis picture pretty much describes why we love them!

We decided to try Woodland Church in Bradenton with Tim and Ashton sunday morning.  Unfortunately the church had lost their worship leader to cancer on Friday, so the service was directed towards honoring and remembering what seemed to be an incredible man of God.  Of course it was an odd first visit for us, but I couldn't help but hold back tears the whole time and I didn't even know the guy.  I really admired the church for taking the whole service to honor this man.  We really felt a sense of "realness"  in the church.  I'm not sure if most churches would take the ENTIRE service to talk about this one person-with the risk of there being people there who didn't even know them, but this church did and we admired that.  

After church we went out to eat at First Watch in Lakewood Ranch with Tim and Ashton.  They told us it was like "old people's crack"  haha!  It was pretty delicious-I recommend it!

I'm off to do some grocery shopping and play in my pool!

that lounge chair is calling my name!

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday to my beautiful Momma!

She has made so many birthdays so special for me and I hope that she had a truly special day herself.  

My mom has always poured her heart and soul in to making the best life for her kids that she possibly can, and she has succeeded.  I am so grateful for her!

Thanks Mom, and Happy Birthday!

Treasure Hunting

These guys are always all over the beach looking for that wedding ring you lost, loose change that fell out of your beach bag, and only God knows what else.  They crack me up!  

My mom and I were on Venice Beach a couple of years ago and there was a guy with shorter shorts than I wear, shirtless with a belly that stuck out too far for him to be even be able to see the treasure his metal detector picked up, and what looked like was the latest and greatest equipment in metal detecting. 

 It was a little chilly on the beach and I was feeling a little ornery, so I asked my mom for some change.  I tried to plant a penny trail for him to follow--you know get him excited like he found all of this stuff and then they would just be pennies.  I text Brook a picture of him and told him I had found a man that can provide me the finer things in life and I also told him about the penny trail I had planted.  

Brook just laughed and said you do realize that metal detectors don't pick up copper. 

Joke was on me!  

The picture above was from yesterday at Siesta Key beach.  The beach was so crowded I'm sure he found all sorts of goodies!  

Brook and I laugh at these guys, but we are like little kids when it comes to finding little treasures-whether it is a good deal, the perfect snack, or just the right piece for our home.   We love feeling like we found something that no one else could find at a price no one else could get it at.

I figured I would share a couple of our restored "treasures" that have filled our new home.

The Before:

Chandelier:  $30 @ thrift store

Shades: $2 clearance @ Stein Mart

The After:

We white-washed it, antiqued it, and added new shades for a new look. 

 (and yes, I realize some of the shades are crooked--Brook accidentally bought the the candle-like curve-tipped light bulbs--you live, you learn--bulbs to be changed soon!!)  

The shades match the patterns and colors in our favorite rug in our living room:

This is the remains of what the previous owners had:

Yuck!

We love the shop Pamaro here in Florida.  They have some of the coolest furniture that fits our style perfectly.  It's kind of the rustic beachy look.  I found this sofa table for $25.00 at Blessings thrift shop and figured we could put our own Pamaro twist on it:

The chest was actually white with all of the hardware that you see here.  We painted it the same blue that we used to paint our kitchen, antiqued and stained it, and turned it into a new piece!  Maybe not quite a Pamaro piece, but it is a one-of-a-kind piece!  

This desk is another thrift shop find: $30 and we painted it, antiqued it, and stained it. We still need to finish it with bead-board backing and a cute rug underneath, but it's a start to our office.

We have several other projects and goodies up our sleeves, but I will continue to share them as we fit them in to place.  Oh, and of course we do have some pretty sweet new treasures too--pictures to come!

Hope everyone is having a great start to the week!

Visitors

So I haven't gotten much of a chance to write on here this week because we have been busy with visitors.  My brother-in-law and sister-in-law, Donnie and Michelle, came in late on Friday and are here until Tuesday.  I recently found out that I am going to be an aunt to their baby.  I had been having the aunt cravings lately, not mom, but aunt cravings.  I am super excited for them and for myself haha!  She is 9 weeks in to her pregnancy and has been pretty sick so far.  Poor thing : (.  

Of course all I can do is look at cute baby clothes online, but until we know the sex in a couple of weeks I guess I will have to stick with funny little onesies:

Donnie and Michelle are huge St. Louis Cardinals fans, so on Saturday Brook took them to the Tampa Bay Rays/Cards game.  Unfortunately the Cardinals lost, but I think they had a good time anyways!

I had Wednesday off work so Michelle and I went to Venice for the day.  Of course we stopped by my favorite thrift shop: Blessings Thrift Shop.  It's a little hole in the wall place that is part dry cleaner and part thrift shop.  Super cheap prices, treasure hunt atmosphere, and super sweet people.  Didn't find anything this week, but next post I will have to post some of my past finds!  We then did a little shopping and spent a couple of hours on Venice beach.  For dinner we went to Pop's Sunset Grill and each had a tasty salad.

It has been rainy in Florida this week, so we are hoping that turns around this weekend and we can spend some time on Siesta Key beach!  

On another note, my brother Jim passed the GARP Energy Risk Professional Examination test he took a month or so ago. I am so proud of him-I know that he worked his butt off studying for this exam, and it's nice to see it paid off! Less than about 1,000 people hold this certification, and now he is one of them! Good Job Jim!

I am excited to see what God has planned for my family-all sorts of exciting things going on in their lives!