Lions & Tigers & Dancing Elephants? Oh my!

Donna and Adam came to visit us for the weekend. We have been so excited for them to come since we rarely have visitors and they hadn't been to our house since we moved in so I couldn't wait for Donna to see the changes. Plus, our new furniture came on Thursday .. woohoo!!

They got here Friday night and we hung out at the house. I talked Donna's ear off and showed her the 400 pictures I had finally printed from the last 3 years of my life. Nick convinced me to let him buy Mario Kart ($50 for a game..rediculous!) so him and Adam played that all night.

On Saturday, we woke up bright and early to the sound of Donna fumbling around in the kitchen in search of coffee supplies. We both hate coffee, so although we do have the stuff, it is not easily accessible. We spent the morning crunching on some good old Cap'n Crunch and lazying around. But then it was time for the big event .. The James Cristy Cole Circus. We headed to Spencer for one heck of a show.

I decided during and after the circus, that people in the circus are just plain stupid. Not talented. Stupid. I don't care how much you've practiced or how "balanced" or "strong" you are, to run around the outside of a giant spinning wheel blindfolded with no mat or net below you just isn't smart. Entertaining, yes. Donna made the comment, "This is worse than riding in a car with Nick." I really enjoyed the trapeze artists, aerial dancers, and the dancing elephant. Adam's favorites included the man on the space wheel and the "ball of death" which was three guys driving motorcycles in an enclosed sphere at the same time without running into each other. That was also Nick's favorite, but Donna really enjoyed the tigers/lion.

After the circus, it was stir fry for supper, a comical game of Apples to Apples (Adam's FAVORITE game .. even though he doesn't know what half the cards mean!), and watching Ghostbusters until we all fell asleep on the new furniture.

They left this morning and even though there was plenty to get done around here, I napped for quite awhile and then kicked Benny's butt in Mario Kart. It was a very good weekend and we look forward to the next time we have company! And since Donna took the pictures this weekend, all I have is one of our new loveseat which includes a shot of Donna in the background. We also got a matching couch and recliner!!

Right where we left off...

There's nothing I love more than a friend who you can go months with only occasional life updates or without hardly speaking to at all, and when you meet up, it's like you never missed a beat.

It's been really hard trying to make friends in a new town where we essentially don't know anybody. Most of my co-workers don't live here and neither do Benny's since he works in Minnesota. It's not like the college days where friends lived in the same building as you and you had a ton of opportunities to meet new people. Although we're starting to get out more and try a little harder at having a social life, I get VERY excited when someone I know is coming to down. A familiar face always makes my day.

My friend, Krista, and one of her friends for college met me for supper tonight and it was wonderful. Krista and I have been friends since high school. We danced together, but it wasn't until we were both at Iowa State that we became really close. It's been fun to watch Krista change .. and she really has changed a lot .. and become such a wonderful young lady (not that she wasn't wonderful before, but you know what I mean). I always get so proud of her accomplishments .. it's like she's my little sister! But I don't worry about telling her anything and everything because I know she won't tell a soul or judge me. We've had some really great conversations (and wine + so you think you can dance nights). She's just one of those girlfriends I love being around!

Tonight was a great reminder that no matter how far away I may travel in life, those old friends will always be the best of friends and will always brighten my day!!

Oh, and the pizza wasn't bad either...

Breaking the Facebook Addiction: Week One

I logged onto Facebook for the last time last Wednesday to tell Robyn "Happy Birthday" ... it was tough walking away knowing it'd be a month before I logged back in. When I got home from work, I instantly came to my computer, just like I do every day, only to realize I wouldn't get to waste the next half an hour on Facebook. I think it's going to take a week just to remember I can't let myself go to it.

My morning ritual is to get a bowl of cereal and plop down next to my computer. I always check Facebook "real quick" while I'm eating, which turns into a 1/2 hour of sitting there staring at the computer and causes me to be late for work. One morning last week, I got up and got my bowl of cereal. I sat down in front of my computer out of habit .. I even went to Facebook and started typing in my login information and then realized what I was doing just in time. I'm so glad I realized it because I'd hate to fail without it being intentional.

We went back home for the weekend to visit family & friends so it was easy not to be tempted since I was so busy .. except when Robyn was sitting on the other end of the couch facebooking on her phone. My relatives kept asking if I was having withdrawals and said they missed seeing my updates every 20 minutes, but other than that I made it my first weekend without even going to the website!

I've officially made it ONE week! I'm actually handling it pretty well. Other than the first couple days being rough, I don't even really think about it as much now unless someone says something about it. I have SO much more time on my hands. I've been working out and getting to work on time and going to bed earlier! I feel pretty wonderful. I haven't really been using that extra time to keep my house clean, but oh well. I do miss getting to "communicate" with everyone and see what everyone is up to, but like I said, I don't really think about it that much.

I didn't know if I'd make it, but now I'm positive I will!! Especially if Benny gives in and buys me the Birthday gift I want as an incentive! :)

Breaking the Facebook Addiction: Preparation Stages

I'm officially breaking the Facebook addiction. Although I'd like to think that being addicted to Facebook officially makes me a loser, I truly believe there are far too many people who are dealing with the same problem. You log on just to see if anyone "wrote on your wall" or "commented on your photo" or "liked your status" and the next thing you know, it's 3 hours later and you're looking at pictures of a baby who belongs to a friend of a friend's mom's sister's aunt .. yep, I'm a loser. They say that it's possible to be addicted to sugar (another problem of mine..ha!) and I think that not being able to go a day without checking Facebook constitutes a problem. So while I won't be on Facebook again (after tomorrow) until April 9th (hated to miss all my "Happy Birthday" posts), you can keep up with my progress through my blog.

The reasons I love Facebook:
1. I get to keep in touch with family members I could call every now & then, but let's face it, I don't .. and this is a great way for us to keep in contact!
2. I get to see pictures of everyone's big life events -- engagements, weddings, babies, birthday parties, etc.
3. I can share my photos with family members and friends I don't get to see very often.
4. If I ever need sympathy, advice on what car to buy, recommendations for supper, etc. all I have to do is post it as my status and the notifications will be popping up right and left.
5. I can create an event and invite all my guests or send a message to several people at one time (turns out, there used to be a thing called email .. and mail .. that could accomplish the same thing..who knew?)

Here are the reasons I've decided to break my Facebook addiction:
1. I need to get to work on time or I might get fired.
2. No one believes I can do it .. which goes to show how addicted I really am.
3. I really don't need to know what some person I met 7 years ago at summer camp is doing today nor do they need to know what I'm doing.

What I hope to accomplish:
1. A cleaner house (Instead of immediately getting on Facebook after work, I hope to spend 20 minutes picking up around the house/doing laundry)
2. An enjoyment of reading -- I can't remember the last time I read a book for enjoyment. I keep buying them, but now I've got one I REALLY want to read so I'm going to.
3. I'm FINALLY going to print pictures and start scrapbooking.
4. Working out.  We paid for a February membership at the Y and went once. With all this extra time I'll have on my hands, I'll be in shape in no time. ;)
5. When I rejoin the Facebook world, I will spend much less time on it because I will realize how big of a time waster it really is.
6. PROVE EVERYONE WRONG!

So, what does one have to do to give up Facebook for a month? I wouldn't dare delete my account after all the hours I've spent uploading photos.

The steps I'm taking to avoid all temptations:
1. Telling everyone via my facebook status that I'll be MIA for a month ... so that all 346 of my "friends" will know if I fail.
2. Changing my homepage
3. Benny will be changing my password tomorrow
4. Benny will be changing HIS password tomorrow
5. I will be cancelling email notifications from Facebook (really, that would be cheating, but I considered it!)
6. Since I haven't joined the smart phone era, I don't need to worry about anything coming to my phone.


Wish me luck. Text me (please...). Enjoy my progress. Join me?

Signing Out.