Life's like an hourglass

"Life's like an hourglass, glued to the table..."

You don't know how full your hourglass is, or how full those around you are. So cherish each and every moment, cherish those you love, cherish each other. Make sure everyone you care about knows how much you care, because you may not get another chance to share your feelings.

And LOVE. Just love. Always love. There is no such thing as too much love.

"Life's too short, so love the ones you've got..."

...for you never know when your hourglass will run out...

Sending love to all my dear family and friends watching over all of us from Heaven...your hourglasses all ran out far too soon. We were not done with you down here, but someone needed you up there...XOXO

Fill in the Blank Friday!!

1. My most prized possession is a tie between 3 different things: my wedding/engagement ring combo (Josh did an excellent job picking them out!), my gorgeous leather-bound wedding album by Heather Neckers Photography(a perfect capture of the best day of my life thus far), and my laptop computer, which has all my pictures, contacts, and important files on it.

2. If I could be one age for the rest of my life, I would want to be 27. It's only one year younger than were I am now, but it's the age I was when I got married to the best man I know! :-) I also grew much closer to my mother in that year leading up to the wedding. I really do cherish the relationship we have grown into! I do not want to go back to school--neither high school nor college--I am so over those times; my 28th birthday wasn't so bad, nor the vacation in Hawaii in the following 12 days, but I guess 27 seemed awesome!! :-)

3. The best way to spend a weekend is a Friday night in the house--a good steak dinner prepared by Josh with some wine or margaritas and a few movies, a Saturday up early to accomplish some things around the house or yard followed by an afternoon/evening out doing something fun (like a trip to Presque Isle followed by dinner out at a nice restaurant and meeting up with friends later on, probably listening to/watching one of our friend's bands playing somewhere), and Sunday morning waking up early to a delicious breakfast (again made by my hubby!), doing laundry or gardening, watching NASCAR/NFL depending on the season, playing with the dogs, and wrapping it all up watching Fox cartoons at night!

4. My outlook on life is optimistic. This may seem funny to some, but it's true. In the past year or so, I have realized and learned so many new things, have been affected by so many people and events, and have learned so much from it all. I try to find the beauty in everything, I try to take a breath and step back before becoming angry or before I snap. I am so much more slow to anger, I try not to judge, and I am humble like I have never been. I have seen more and more proof that life is too damn short to waste any time angry or unhappy or sad or disgruntled. Of course, these things sneak into our lives from time to time despite our best efforts, but we need to get over them quickly and without holding grudges. Forgive quickly, love intensely, love unconditionally, live life wholly and without regret. We have one chance at this...we may not always get everything right, but we are given so many opportunities...so shine!!!

5. If you want to annoy me, chew with your mouth open, snap your gum, speak with improper English (I WILL correct you), misspell words (I will find the flaws faster than you would believe), or talk down to me / treat me with disrespect (you will get the same from me).

6. I am completely defenseless when it comes to Cash, my beagle/basset doggy. He is my "Oogie Bear", my Cuddle Bug. In my eyes, he can do no wrong! He's my privileged one. He sleeps in the bed almost every night and on my lap on the couch when the others are not allowed up. The only thing he doesn't get more often is treats--he has a figure to maintain!! I love all our pups, but Cashy....I just love that dog... :-)

7. When dressing for the day one should look in the mirror and acknowledge your age and your flaws...seriously, some of you should not be wearing what you are wearing. We are all graced with different shapes and sizes, and, contrary to what some of you all believe, there are clothes out there made to fit and flatter all of our various shapes and sizes. If in doubt, ask someone who will be honest with you!

To play along each week check out The Little Things We Do…

Fill in the Blank Friday...on Monday!

So I haven't been keeping up with this blog of mine as much as I really hoped to initially. It's a bit disappointing to me, since I am sure no one has even read this at all yet. :-(

But, I do occasionally look around at some friend's blogs, and came across this "fun weekly challenge" via my wedding photographer, Heather Neckers. She had it in amongst her photography updates, and I thought it would be a good way to keep up with my own blog here, and maybe make me get on here at least once a week!

So here goes the first edition of "Fill in the Blank Friday!" but I am going to jump the gun a bit and fill the first one in on a Monday!! I'm just too excited to start this up! :-)

1. The best deal I’ve ever gotten is a round of golf for two with cart rental to Whispering Woods Golf Club for $49. It usually costs $104! Thank goodness for Groupon! It just allowed me to get a round of golf for me and Hubby this summer to a course we really want to try out! And it's supposed to be one awesome course...I can't wait for the weather to break and the courses to open up! Yay!
2. If I were hosting a dinner party and could invite people from my fantasy guest list it would include my G'Ma and G'Pa Fuhrer (who are deceased, but if they could come back for a dinner with me I would absolutely do that and come up with a list of things I always wanted to know but never had the chance to ask before they were gone), Emmett Smith and Thurman Thomas (my favorite football players of all time!), Toby Keith (love his songs, I'd ask him to sing for me and my friends!), Jon Stewart (he is funny and very intelligent), Dane Cook (my favorite comedian), and Bill Clinton (he is such an influential, charismatic, powerful figure, and I would love the chance to talk to him about so many different topics).
3. Something that inspires me is music and nature. Definitely two of my favorite things. A beautiful song, and a beautiful scene are enough to stop my heart and move me to tears. The sheer beauty of both things just takes my breath away. I definitely love music, and it relates to so many different aspects of my life, both good and bad and otherwise. I could not live in a world without music. I listen to it constantly! And the beauty of nature is just...natural. It's serene, surreal, breathtaking, awestriking, amazing. Each sunset, sunrise, each leaf, each insect, each feather, flower...just look around you...it's all there for you to enjoy. Sigh... :-)
4. If I could only choose to eat one flavor of food for the rest of eternity (sweet, salty, spicy, bitter….) I'd have to go with salty. I find myself craving salty more often than anything else. I like to eat salt off of sourdough pretzels, and could care less if I actually eat the darn pretzel! I even prefer to wait for the end of the bag and eat the remnants so I can add more salt to them from the bottom of the bag. And I've always been that way...I used to do that as a child!
5. I dream about so many things...my dreams have been so vivid for the past two years that I sometimes have problems differentiating between my dreams and reality and have many instances of deja vu, or don't tell Josh things because I thought I already had the conversation with him! But my "big dream" right now is our new house...Josh has been working on it for a long time now. Our wedding put most progress on hold all of last year, but he's been working on it this year so far. I can't wait for it to be done. I can't wait to be out of our trailer, I can't wait to decorate "our house", I can't wait to pick out paints and furniture and flooring and countertops! I can't wait to move all our stuff in there! I CANNOT WAIT!!!
6. My weekend will be spent...I am not sure yet! It's too far away for me to even try to predict! My past weekend was spent watching all 3 games of the 2011 NCAA Women's Frozen Four with my mom, sissy, and Josh (which was a lot of fun even though Cornell didn't make it past Friday's game...at least BU lost (Screw BU!)), cleaning the house (mostly laundry and the kitchen so far), and dinner at Texas Roadhouse on Sunday night. It was a tad busy, but it was a good weekend overall!
7. If I could only watch one movie or TV show for the rest of my life it would be Modern Family or Family Guy or Dead Like Me. All 3 shows crack me up like none other, for very different reasons and different forms of humor. This, of course, is assuming that I could be allowed to have access to the news somehow, because I must watch both the local and the world news every day possible. Or read up on it on the internet. I absolutely hate hate HATE not knowing what is going on in the world!