mmm... popcorn!

Popcorn is one of my favorite foods, among other things like biscuits, sandwiches, Chinese food, chocolate and desserts. It's just so good! A perfect snack!

One of my Christmas presents this year was a whirly pop. Check it out here. A whirly pop is something you use on your stovetop to make popcorn. It's relatively inexpensive ($22) and it makes really good popcorn! You can also make kettle corn, which is my personal favorite. My sister Kristin has some friends that used to make the best kettle corn with a whirly pop for their parties. She got their tips and tricks and passed them along to me. The popcorn takes about 5 minutes to make, and it turns out so crispy with just the right balance of salty and sweet. I love it!

Am I weird?!

I love watching movies, especially on my laptop because I can set them on fast-forward mode, so I get through the movie faster. You're still seeing the entire movie, it just plays a little faster than it normally would. (What would normally take 10 minutes to watch might only take 7 minutes, depending on how fast I have it set.) You're not missing anything, people just talk a little faster, walk a little faster, things like that.

My sister Chandra makes fun of me and laughs when she sees me watching a movie in fast-forward mode on my laptop. I have a perfectly logical reason why I do this, though. I'm a busy girl! I've got lots to do (including watching movies) and if I can shave say, 30 minutes off of a movie, then it's a win-win situation because I've been able to watch the entire movie I want to see, and I have the extra time that I've saved to do something else.

So my question is, am I weird, or am I just really good at managing my time?!

Let it snow!

I absolutely love snow and always have. When I was a little girl and snow would be in the forecast, I'd constantly go to the back door, turn on the patio light and look out, just hoping to see some sign of snow. I'd always get so disappointed when we were supposed to get snow, and it didn't happen, or it only snowed a little bit. I also have fond memories of getting up in the morning when it had snowed and listening to the radio to see if school was canceled. I'd always cheer when my schools name would be on the list of canceled schools.

Snow was in the forecast yesterday, and even though I'm 26 years old, I still get giddy and excited! It started snowing last night sometime around eight, and everything was white when I woke up this morning. My mom went out to shovel the driveway (she loves shoveling!) and she thought we'd gotten about 3 inches of snow. It has continued to snow and is still snowing now, although the flakes are very tiny. I'd estimate that there's 4 or 5 inches of snow on the ground right now. (Although, it's hard to tell since I'm eyeballing it from the inside.) It's definitely not as much snow as I would would like, but I'm just glad that there's enough snow to cover the grass and make everything look pretty. I love having a huge window in my room so that I can enjoy looking at the snow.

I'm not sure why, but the county that I live in always seems to get the shaft when it comes to getting snow. My mom is wondering if it maybe has something to do with the rivers in the area, but we always seem to get considerably less snow than the other counties in our area. I'll take all the snow I can get, but I don't like drawing the short end of the stick!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful day!

The saddest day of the year

For the past week I've been hearing on the news that January 17 is the saddest day of the year. The reasons that they gave are that the holidays are over, the Christmas bills are starting to roll in and people are starting to slip on their New Year's resolutions (if they haven't already completely given them up).

Ironically, January 17th is the day that my dad died, so it has the potential to be the saddest day of the year for me, but it's not. The anniversary of my dad's death isn't a sad day for me at all. It's actually a happy day as I reflect on the good times and look forward to the day when I'll see Dad again. If I didn't know that I absolutely would see Dad again, then it would be a sad day. What do people who don't know that they will see their loved ones again do? Now that's a sad thing to think about!

It's hard to believe that that Dad's been gone for so long. 11 years of growth and changes! When Dad died I was still in high school and I could still move! Three new sons-in-law/brothers-in-law have been added to my family, as well as all 16 grandchildren. I can't imagine my life any other way than it is now, but it would definitely be interesting to see what life would be like if Dad were still living.

I hope everyone's having a great day, but if you aren't, hang in there and know that things always have a way of turning up! :)

Kindness from family, friends and strangers

I just want to make a quick update about my sister Kristin and her family. They've been in their new town for two weeks now and they are settling in. Kristin enrolled her oldest son in first grade and he likes his new class. Scott started his new job last Monday and that's going well, too.

Their U-Haul trailer was found a few days after it was stolen, but it was empty, of course. Even though Scott had taken out the full amount of insurance that U-Haul offered, they said that their insurance doesn't cover theft. After my sister's experience with U-Haul, I would never use them or recommend their services to anyone. They were extremely slow to respond when my sister called to talk about things, and they just had an awful experience with U-Haul all around.

People have been so generous to my sister and her family. Family and friends have sent money or gift cards, or have sent clothing or other care packages. Even perfect strangers who have heard about my sister's situation have reached out to help. Here's one example: our younger sister Laura is on a mommy blog and she wrote about Kristin's situation. One of the other moms on the blog sent Kristin a big box of brand-new clothes from Children's Place. Other people that Kristin hasn't seen since high school have sent packages, too. Kristin has been so touched at the outpouring of love and help.

It just warms my heart to see the way people react when someone's in need. It's really the way it should be!