21 Questions

Actually 21 things about me that you might not know! Here goes nothing...

1.) I won first place in an art contest consisting of everyone in my whole school when I was in kindergarten.

2.) I started a club with me and 3 best friends in elementary school called The Candy & Nut Stealer's Club. Every time we went to the grocery store with our moms or whoever we had to steal 1 piece of candy or a nut. My favorite items to smuggle were walnuts...

3.) One summer back in the 90's I punched the boy down the street in the stomach because he pushed me off the bike pegs of my former flame.

4.) I tend to not wear underwear on random occasion.

5.) I got sick in a Mattress Firm bathroom one time and left quite a mess for whoever worked there.

6.) I got in a ton of trouble one day in fourth grade with one of my best friends because we called another classmate a lesbian on the playground. At the time, I had absolutely no idea what that meant.

7.) I was victim to the whole "blow up furniture" fad back in the day when they sold it at Claire's in the mall. I would flip it over and ride it down the stairs.

8.) I had a baby snake named Octon whom a friend and I made a special home for out of a frisbee. He ended up getting lost. We found him stuck to some kind of auto tape under the front seat in my mom's car.

9.) That same friend and I were obsessed with Chuck E. Cheese (the mouse himself, not the place) and at one point in time believed he was evil. We visited one day and against the rules, went backstage to look for him.

10.) I eat Chex Mix, Goldfish, & other random assorted snacks in specific numbers.

11.) I was sick one time and stayed home from school. All I did all day was watch the Food Network, and thus became obsessed with becoming a chef and making crepes. That phase has passed but I still love to cook.

12.) I let my dog kiss me. In the mouth. It's fine I promise.

13.) I once wore a poncho in the rain to school freshman year in college. Everyone else had umbrellas and was staring at me. I had nothing else so what was I supposed to do people!

14.) I've eaten a Subway foot long sandwich and I'm proud of it... but won't ever do it again.

15.) My grandmother (my Nuna) is convinced that we never went to the moon. She thinks it was staged.

16.) I've always though that going to HEB Central Market in Highland Village was like a sort of spiritual experience. I always feel really good about myself and my life after going there. It's so healthy and clean and optimistic in there.

17.) In high school some friends and I put laundry detergent in a fountain outside an apartment complex once. The sight the next day was hilarious and I don't feel bad about it one bit. We were bored and sixteen.

18.) My mom has seen countless ghosts. I trust her completely and know she wouldn't lie about something like that so I believe in them.

19.) My neighbors growing up were gay and had a wiener dog. My parents caught them skinny dipping in their backyard once and are scarred for life.

20.) I hate walking around campus at school by myself. I feel awkward and worry people are looking at me and get super self conscious.

21.) I accepted Christ into my life the summer after 6th grade at Pine Cove Christian Camp. My life has never been the same since and I can't imagine living it without a relationship with our loving, merciful, gracious Creator.

Sleeping Is Overrated

Here I am again, up at 1:39AM. Not tired. At all.

What on God's green earth is my problem? At this point, I am so frustrated with my lack of a normal sleep schedule that I've decided I'm going to stay up all night and see if I get tired just from sitting here, or if I can go all night and not feel the need or want to doze off. Never mind that tomorrow is one of two of the best shopping days on the face of the planet (AKA sale #1 out of the 2 of Victoria's Secret's Semi-Annual Sales). My bet is that I sit here and think of random nonsense to write about and be tired while hitting up the greatest panty fest known to man. Lord have mercy...

I started a diet today. I had a Lean Cuisine pizza for lunch and My Fit Foods chicken fettuccine alfredo for dinner. Not to mention I discovered the deliciousness that is hummus and pita chips thanks to a run in with a family friend at HEB. Paige & my mom are also on somewhat of a diet also. I say "somewhat" because both of them are not following the rules of your average diet. My mom would not do the workout DVD I bought for us with Paige & I this morning... and Paige decided to eat almost half a bag of Julio's tortilla chips and peach salsa mid-afternoon. Her reasoning was that salsa is healthy for you and contains no fat. I told her "yes Rags, but those chips have enough to last you the rest of the day".

Something you might be wondering about is why I call my sister Rags...
Two reasons:

#1... Paige has impeccable skin that is pretty much perpetually blemish free. The funny thing is that she doesn't wash her face with anything but water on a washcloth. She sits there and just pats at her little face. It's kind of a funny sight actually. It boggles my mind how this could work for her. And she leaves these "rags" on our bathroom countertop. Sometimes on my side of the sink too! So not only does she do very minimal work to keep her complexion clear, she leaves the evidence of it in my territory of our Shabby Chic bathroom.

#2... In my phone, it takes three tries to get her name to show up. I press the letters in... and first it says "ragge", then it says "sagge", & then it says "Paige". So that first try "ragge" (pronounced raggy in my opinion) is another tribute to her love of the good old bathroom staple that is the washcloth.

Yes I am weird. But please take into account that it is now 2:06AM.

Nora Roberts I Adore You

I love wedding novels. I love reading in general but this genre of movies and books remains my absolute favorite. If you need a good summer read (or anytime of the year) you MUST get The Bride Quartet Series by Nora Roberts! It's about 4 wedding planners who have a business together and live on the property they host the events on. Each girl has her own novel in the series that tell their tale of falling in love. The photographer, the florist, the cake designer, and the head bridal consultant. I've never read a book so fast in all my life as I have each of these. I'm starting the countdown till this November... I can't wait for the last book :)

"In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world."

Every night before I go to sleep my mind seems to always feel the need to think of something to think about. I might be really tired and want to go to sleep but I still think about a bunch of random stuff every night. This is probably why it takes me 2-3 hours to fall asleep every single night. I mention this all the time but I really don't think people believe me. So... you should believe me :) This will probably be the first of many blogged accounts of my nightly brainstorms.

Anyways, I don't think about this often (and usually my nighttime thinking sessions are wayyy lighter subject material I assure you) but last night for some reason I was replaying the day when our house caught on fire. It was the day we got out of school for winter break and I remember being so happy and excited that my little boyfriend at the time had given me the cutest silver heart bracelet as my Christmas present. I don't need to (or want to) go into detail of everything that happened that day but it was a specific point in my life that has left a lasting scar on my heart. A lot of things have stemmed from it that have affected me since then. To be honest, I have never told anyone what all I've been through. I can't decide if it's because I don't want to because I don't think people will understand... or if it's because the questions aren't asked. Even if you asked though I probably wouldn't want to tell you :) Mostly because I wouldn't want to get upset. But I think I need to be stronger and know that it's better to allow those around you to understand where you're coming from and why you are the way you are. Why you have certain fears that aren't easily explained. Why you aren't like everyone else when it comes to how you do things.

Losing everything can make you so thankful for what you do have. In my case, it can also leave you with a constant fear in the back of your mind of something similar happening again or losing something you can't replace. But...

"When I am afraid, I will trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I will not be afraid." Psalm 56:3-4

How to Remove Glitter Nail Polish

Tell me I'm not the only one who's been troubled by this question for years! I used to be an avid glitter nail polisher back in the day. I stopped because it was so hard to get off! Paige regrettably decided to paint her nails with pink glitter polish the other day and she's been sitting at our kitchen counter for quite some time now trying to remove it. She saw me on my laptop and was like, "Erin, can you PLEASE look up a trick to getting this off?". So now, after 20 years of living, I've figured out the trick. Thank you eHow.com. I don't know why I didn't ask you before.

Retail Saleswoman Extraordinaire

Today was quite the interesting work day. We had a 10% off sale for three of the private schools we sell to so needless to say, we were busy. Actually let's be honest... I was busy! Paige and the other kids who work there, as well as our managers, who are two super cool ladies that love to talk and tell stories and joke around with us (one of which has known us over 10 years) decided to sit in the back and socialize all afternoon. Trust me, they work really hard and have been doing this a long time but today they took somewhat of a break. The little parts of the conversation I did hear consisted of robberies by rapists and little kids pooping in the store's bathroom sink). Such motivation right? Nevertheless I took it upon myself to clothe Houston's private school children with the best customer service I could muster after working from 10am to 6pm in uncomfy ballet flats the day before. I made a wiser choice today and wore Sperry's, which makes a huge difference when your running around at the beck and call of private school mothers. It's not an easy task to explain the different outfits for each day, find the right sizes in each and every piece of clothing they need, and answer questions using my personal opinion on how well something fits. But I can proudly say that at the end of the day my last customer looked at me and said, "You really know what you're doing with all this uniform stuff don't you?". I wasn't going to lie because I'm not very good at lying... so I stated the truth and said, "Actually this is my 2nd day working here." It wasn't my 2nd day in the store, (because we did have training days), but it was my 2nd day to be working the floor and actually servicing customers. So that made me feel pretty good. I walked away thinking that this comment probably stemmed from the fact that I managed to help everyone in the store by myself and had to learn very quickly how to remember all the uniform combinations and sizing numbers and which school wore what plaid. Lord help me.

I had a great time though. Pretty much everyone was really nice and appreciated my help. I have a newfound respect for those in retail. When they ask if they can help you find anything, say yes! They want to help you and it keeps them from sitting around all day! I never know what I'm looking for in the first place so I always say I'm just looking. I guess I need to stop that.

Being the nice sister that I am, I let Paige (who, let me remind you, barely lifted a finger at work today) and Brad pick out what we got for dinner since my parents are downtown eating at Artista (yes Blaire, I recommended it to them and their friends!) and seeing Young Frankenstein at the Hobby Center tonight. They chose Ninfa's even though we had fajitas for dinner last night and now I'm ending my night with a stomach ache. You've done this to me multiple times Ninfa's, however I keep coming back for the green salsa.

Cute As a Button

My baby cousins are SO adorable! Camden is 4, Everett is 3, and Anna Claire is 5 months. I love going to babysit the boys, especially since I don't get to see them too often during the school year. They always want to play a game we made up called Nike Speed. It's kind of like Hide & Seek, but with our own little twist. Someone counts to 30 and everyone else finds a hiding place. If you decide you want to leave your hiding spot, you can quietly head to another location. If the person who's "it" sees you though, they can chase you and try to tag you to make you "it". However, if you make it to the TV room and touch the couch once you've left your spot then you're okay. This game usually ends up with me leaving my spot and heading up stairs, even if I know who's "it" is going to see me (mainly because I can run up the stairs pretty quick and find a spot while they take the stairs one step at a time with their little, twiggy kid legs :) I'm cruel, I know. I'm not even sure why we named it Nike Speed. Sometimes if you're running around when you're "it" or leaving your spot we like to yell it out though. Just to be silly. We always have the same thing for lunch too. I make them Easy Mac or Spaghettio's... and I as well will eat Spaghettio's. I take pride in the fact that I find myself to be one of the only 20 year olds I know who eats those on a regular basis. At school I'm talking like... 3 times a week. They're great, and no one can convince me otherwise. Babysitting them always reminds me of the happy, simple things in life. Its funny how I would never want to eat animal crackers at home for a snack, but when I'm at their house they sound so so good with some apple juice and a rerun of Wonder Pets.

Hairy Potter

I used to have this shirt! I got it from Value Village... back when it was really cool to go to hand-me-down thrift stores and wear raggedy, 2nd hand apparel. I wish shopping for clothes was that easy now. Cheap and fun and silly. I'm very picky and extremely hard to shop with (or so says my family). The thing is... when I actually do find something it's not even that cute in the first place. Paige says I find things that are so ugly, they're actually cute. Needless to say, I wear her clothes when we're both home from school (and sneak as many of them back with me after holidays and breaks). I think my problem is that I go out looking for something in particular. A specific piece of exact clothing that I've seen somewhere before. And chances are, I'm not going to find precisely what I'm looking for. Part of me seems to think it's out there though and that I'll come across it at some point.

Yes I could go to Anthropologie or Nordstrom and take home a carful of stuff I wanted, but who can afford that? Maybe you can, and I'm so happy for you believe me... ;) It's fun though when you get to go and get a few things at places like that. It makes those items all the more special to you and exciting to buy! For the most part I'll stick with XXI, even though it takes me hours to go through all that stuff to find a few noteworthy outfits. I make it work though. Which reminds me, I have an $80 gift card I got as merchandise credit for returning a ton of stuff I left the tags on in my closet for weeks. That's just how I roll. Long live my daily uniform... Nike shorts & a T-shirt, you never let me down.

Reasons Behind the Writings

A lot of people might look down on the new trends that are Facebooking, Twittering, and Blogging... but if this digital age is something that is here and now (and most likely going to continue to thrive), I for one want to be a part of it in every shape and form! So here is my blog :) I got the idea to start one from my amazing friends who have shared theirs with me and inspired me. Will they or anyone else get to read mine? I have yet to decide. However, either way I think this is going to be good for me. Therapeutic even. I have a lot of thoughts and this is the perfect avenue with which I can share them with. Maybe now it won't take me three hours to fall asleep every night due to my constantly reeling mind. My thoughts can be spilled onto the canvas of my digital diary. I've told many people, many times... I don't tend to share my life with others. Details, stories, ideas. I usually listen more than I speak when it comes to everyday matters... and I don't mind! I love to listen. If you want to have a good time and laugh and drink some Mango-Ritas then I'm right there with you carrying on about God knows what... but conversations about life in general not so much. So if I do share this with anyone, maybe they will get a better understanding of me and what goes on in the everyday life of a chihuahua mothering, food-loving, Hello Kitty obsessed, manically indecisive 20 year old who's just trying to find her way in the world.