Mustaches are gross

Someone that we know has recently grown a mustache. No beard, just a mustache. It rests extremely prominent on his upper lip, with nothing else there to help those who look at him make any sense of it. It is all alone, almost as if the rest of his facial hair saw it coming and ran in the other direction.

This person is family.

I am the type of person who tells people what is on my mind, and I don't have a very strong filter. Especially if the thought is in relation to something extremely ridiculous. This no-filter-asshole-behavior has no exceptions for family. If anything, family gets it a little worse than most because they know me, and they know to expect it.

When said family member showed up to Thanksgiving, and I caught sight of the ghastly thing, I blatantly laughed out loud and called him a pedophile as soon as he was within earshot. I felt a little bit like Nelson from the Simpson's, only without the pointing.

Anyone who has a mustache, without an accompanying beard, looks like they should stay the hell away from small children. Even Brad Pitt:

I don't understand this trend, and hopefully I never will. There is just something so wrong about it. It just looks like an extra eyebrow.

Am I the only one who feels this way about them?  Tell me I'm not alone here!

Doing things a little differently

Thanksgiving has never traditionally been a holiday that I look forward to. I don't know about you, but If I am going to spend one day of the year devoted to eating, my food of choice wouldn't be turkey. Pretty much the only thing that I am ever excited to have on Thanksgiving is the stuffing, and I can make that any day of the week.

This year we will be the only ones going out to Brett's parents house, so there's really no sense in making all of that food for just the four of us. I proposed to Brett's mom that we do something different this year, to which she replied: "We will eat whatever you want".

You guys, do you know what this means?

It means that we are going to have pizza for Thanksgiving.

I am a total pizza junkie, so when she gave me the freedom to choose the Thanksgiving meal, I thought that it would be fun if we spent the day together making homemade pizza. Then eating it. Isn't that brilliant?

What are your plans for Thanksgiving? Do you have any traditions?

Something that I will never understand

Why is it that people make such a big deal about black Friday?

You have a nice relaxing Thanksgiving holiday, where you get to spend time with your family and enjoy good food, only to wake up the following morning far too early and go fight crowds of people to get deals on shit that you really don't need.

I remember when my mom used to come home after a long day of black Friday shopping. Exhausted and broke with bags and bags of stuff. Just stuff. Half of the things that she would buy weren't even on the list she had taken with her, and when she got back she would spend the rest of the week trying to decide who she was even going to give all of this stuff to. She didn't need it, she just bought it because it was such a great deal! 

I have only ever ventured out on black Friday once, and it will never happen again.

It was right after we moved in with Brett's sister. She had caught wind of the fact that Joann Fabrics was going to have their flannel on sale for ninety nine cents a yard, and both of us thought it would be totally worth it to go. We were planning on being there as soon as they opened so that we would get a great spot in line and be out of there in no time. If there's one thing that I know now from that experience, it's that things never go according to plan. Ever. When we got there, the doors had only been open for a brief fifteen minutes or so, and we went straight to the cut table to pull a number so that we wouldn't have to wait long once we got our fabric cut. The number that we pulled was something like 107 (come on, how do you expect me to remember the exact number? It was like four years ago.) and they were currently serving guest number 3.

The biggest mistake we made that day was not turning around, right then and there, and walking out of that store.

We started filling a cart with bolts of flannel with all kinds of patterns, there were so many to choose from. By the time we were ready to have our fabric cut, they were only serving guest number 12. We decided to wait it out, because how long could it really take, right? Well when everyone ahead of you has an average of 30 bolts of fabric, it can take a long damn time. Brett kept calling to see where we were, because before I had left the house that morning at 5:00, I had assured him that we would be home by no later than 7:30. I was so wrong. It got so bad that when we were still there, waiting to have our fabric cut and it was only noon, Kristi called a friend of hers who lived in the area and begged her to bring us Cafe Rio. We had no shame. We sat there at the pattern table with our lunch and ate it in front of everyone there.

By the time we got out of there it was almost 2:00 in the afternoon.

Tell me why people do this to themselves year after year, just to save a few bucks. I don't get it. I would rather spend the extra money and shop on a day that there aren't hundreds (thousands?) of other people fighting to get to the same thing.

Are you a black Friday shopper? Why do you do it?

And I was like, Emilioooo!!

There has always been a special place in my heart for the comedic combination of Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan. There is just something about the two of them together in Night at the Roxbury that makes me laugh constantly for the entire ninety minutes. They are the ultimate dynamic duo. I have seen it a million times, which probably explains why I can recite almost every line in the whole movie, and it still never gets old. 

Brett, on the other hand, has never really been a fan of the show. In his defense, I don't think he had ever actually seen it all the way through until the other day. We were hanging out at home a few days ago, and I convinced him to watch it with me. A few minutes into the first scene, I noticed that Brett was laughing a little bit under his breath. I was a happy to see it, but figured that it wouldn't last. However, a few minutes later I noticed him laughing again. This continued on sporadically throughout the whole show, and during some parts he even laughed out loud.

Needless to say, I think we now know what Brett and Chaz are going to be for Halloween next year.

Because we could all use a laugh on Friday....

Last night we were browsing Vimeo, which is a new found love of ours, and found these two little gems.  I could not resist sharing, because as we were watching the first one I started laughing so hard that I had tears rolling down my cheeks. It's so simple, but also so brilliant.

There are two parts in the series, and I can only hope that they will continue on with more. I could watch this little guy for hours.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, Marcel the Shell with shoes on:

MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON from Dean Fleischer-Camp on Vimeo.

MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON, TWO from Dean Fleischer-Camp on Vimeo.

Refreshing

For the past three months or so, I have been working four ten hour shifts at work so that I could have Friday's off.  I was convinced that a three day weekend would be the answer to my prayers. At first it was nice having an extra day off every week, and I thought that I was living the life.

Let me just tell you how wrong I was.......

I was working until 8:00 every night, and by the time my forty minute commute was over all motivation had been long gone. I never really did anything productive when I got home and stopped working out, so I wasn't feeling up to par. Sure, I got to sleep in a little bit each day and didn't have to go to work on Friday's, but what good is being off on Friday when your husband works or has school all day and your best friend lives an hour and a half away?  No good. 

I have recently changed my schedule so that I am working earlier, five days a week, and I am off each day by 3:30 or 4:00. It's still new, but man is it making a huge difference in my day.  I get to see my husband more often, and actually eat dinner with him at a reasonable hour on occasion. I am less bitchy. What?  I can admit that ten hour days doing customer service on the phones makes me bitchy.  I feel like I have so much more time in my day, and yesterday I got to do something that I haven't been able to do for a while...read. I got my house cleaned, and some laundry done, then while Brett was working on homework I actually took some time to read. I have been working on the same book now for so long that I am starting to forget how it started.

It's going to be great to have myself back. I miss being a productive wife. Wait. Brett, was I a productive wife before?

Don't answer that....

In Time

As someone who loves to write, I find myself noticing that there are more movies than not that are a repeat of some other story that is already in existence. It's very rare to find an original storyline, so when I do, I get pretty excited.

Going into this movie, I wasn't really sure what to expect.  The previews were just vague enough that you didn't really have a grasp of how intense the plot was going to be, but it drew you in and peaked your interest. I had this whole other idea in my brain of the direction it was going to take. I think that is part of what I loved about it though. As we were watching it, I had no idea what to expect so it made things that much more exciting for me.

The only criticism that I really have, is that I wish the leading lady was not Amanda Seyfried. I'm not really a fan of her acting, and that wig just looked ridiculous. I would have much rather watched him get naked in the ocean with Olivia Wilde who, oddly, was cast as his mother instead of his love interest. I would've done it the other way around. Everyone else, in my opinion, was cast brilliantly.

I love it when a movie challenges my brain like this one did. I can only hope that there will be others just as good.  I am not looking forward to the day when time is our currency.

Have you seen it?  What did you think?

Quite possibly the best YouTube video of all time

Who dunnit?

This year's Halloween party was a Murder Mystery dinner. It was a lot of work to put it all together, but in the end it was worth the effort. The costumes turned out amazing, and everyone did a great job with their characters. 

The hostess of the evening:

Shay's character was Countess Bathory, a 16th century mass murderess.

As usual, Shay went all out on the decor, and it turned out so beautiful:

Here are some pictures from the evening:

 Kaylyn and Shay

 Amber and Kaylyn

 Teri and Kaylyn

Kaylyn, Brandi and Kate

 The guys - Danny, Chaz, Mike, Brett, Ryan and Nick

Kaylyn, Shay, Jen and Kate

The company that we ordered the party kit from was a little disorganized, so a lot of work went into rewriting the clues and the format in which their questions and answers were set up was a bit scattered. I really enjoyed writing the character stories though, and I am seriously thinking about making my own Murder Mystery dinner party business. It would be a great creative outlet. 

Overall, I am so glad that we opted to go with the Murder Mystery theme, and I really do think that we will do it again next year. 

I want to send a special thanks to Chaz and Shay for always hosting these great shindigs!  Maybe next year we'll live closer and I can host so that you two can take a break. 

I am the luckiest girl alive

If it wasn't for him, I'd be completely lost.

He has done so much for me in my life, and has made so many sacrifices for us to better our situation.  He is the most thoughtful person I know.  I've never met anyone who works harder than he does. He would go to the end of the earth and back to help someone that he loves, and he would give anyone the shirt off his back if they needed it. 

It's hard for me to imagine what life would be like without him.  I have known him for almost half of my life, and I can't even remember what things were like before he was here. I don't want to.  He is my number one fan, and he encourages me to be the best person that I can be. He supports anything I do, and that means the world to me.

The best thing about him though, is the incredible amount of fun we have together. I can't even begin to tell you how often he makes me laugh. I love spending my days off with him, even if we are just hanging out at home.  He is my favorite person in the whole world!

I love him completely.

Happy birthday love!  I hope that this one is the best one yet.