Footprints on the Moon

Me, this morning when I was still trying to work up the motivation to go to the grocery store. I did eventually make it out there, so don’t worry, I’m not starving to death lol Not that that was ever a large concern, but I was on the verge of having to put together some very strange meals.

I can’t believe this weekend is almost over already! Though, I do believe I say that every weekend, but that is entirely beside the point. I spent this weekend cleaning, shopping, and otherwise trying to get ready for leaving later this week. I got several travel size items… everything from packs of qtips, and acne products, to soap and toothpaste. I think I’ve got everything I need at this point. I’ll be headed for Florida on Thursday… woohoo! I got out my suitcase and started putting a few things in it, so of course both the cats are uneasy. They know I’m leaving, so Pudge especially is being very needy.

Well, I’m sure there’s more I could say, but I really need to be getting to bed. Hopefully we’ll start the new work week on the right foot– it’s usually hard to get up Monday morning, running late, and stressful all morning. Let’s face it, that will probably never change, but look at me try anyways!

Mom, Ash-lee and I went to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago last Saturday to see the museum, and to see the Harry Potter Exhibit that closes tomorrow. If you’ve never been to the museum, and you are in the area, take a day and go. I’m telling you, I think they have everything there except for a display of patio furniture, and it could be I just missed those! lol

They have a fairy castle, antique firetrucks, genetics and a baby chick hatchery, a coal mine, a U-505 Submarine, a whispering gallery, a circus…

Old main street, where I saw my name on glass…

well, what Aiden calls me anyway

And of course, the Harry Potter exhibit…

The flying Ford Anglica in that picture is the only part of the exhibit you could take pictures of. It was really neat, but rather poorly executed. At the beginning of each entry time, they scanned tickets and then you gathered into a room together with everyone in the group to be “sorted.” Then into another room to watch clips from the movies, and then you walk past the Hogwarts Express into the rest of the exhibit.

There, they had costumes and other displays on both sides of the room, but the previous entry time was still right there, so all forward movement basically stopped. By the time you got down one side of the room, and went back to the other side to see the rest of the costumes, one of the later entry times was entering the room so it was really slow going and hard to see everything. And HOT. Oh my goodness… between not having the air cranked high enough and just SO MANY BODIES crammed into the space, I was dying by the time we got through the whole exhibit.

It was crazy to see the costumes from the first movie compared to the costumes from the more recent movies… they were so tiny in year one! But you could walk through Hagrid’s hut and sit in his chair. They had costumes from just about any character you can think of, their wands, death eater masks, a dementor, Umbridge’s whole pink office… the final room of the exhibit even had the candles suspended from the ceiling like the hall at Hogwarts. Definitely worth the trip and the money if you’re into Harry Potter, I just wish we could have taken pictures!

Yes, I do realize that we just *had* a weekend, but I need another one! A weekend to recover from my weekend! Hopefully I will be able to write better entries about this weekend’s festivities when I remember to upload the pictures to my Flickr account, but for now, suffice it to say, I was not in any need of fat burner pills over the last two days. I felt like I was on the go from the second I got off work on Friday until I crashed into bed last night!

Friday night, Sarah and I hung out after work, and I crashed just a few minutes after she left. Saturday, I went to Chicago with my mom and my sister-in-law– we went to the Museum of Science and Industry for the Harry Potter Exhibit. Came home, took Grandma to MedPoint, then spent ages trying to find a pharmacy that was open, and it was only about 7:30! Yesterday was the JDRF Walk, which I only walked part of because my feet were killing me from having been on them all day the day before. I had Killian with me, so after the walk, we went to “Donald’s” with Erica and her kids to let them play. There was a playground at the park where the walk was held but there were WAY too many kids on it, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep track of him so I wouldn’t let him go play. It was frustrating him, so Aunt Jennifer promised we’d go play somewhere afterwards. We ended up at McDonald’s so Erica and I could get dinner and not get rained on at the park.

I dropped the booger off at home, and then went home myself and was a vegetable for about 2 hours before I dropped into bed. I briefly considered taking a picture for Self Portrait Sunday, but the dark circles under my eyes were truly scary by then so I didn’t lol

While I was being a blogging slacker, one of the things I neglected to write about was the Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund (JDRF) walk. It is this Sunday, September 20th and I’m walking with my mom and a team from work. It’s a THREE MILE WALK. Am I crazy?! Don’t answer that!! (The three miles probably wouldn’t be so bad on its own if we weren’t going to be walking in Chicago all day on Saturday.)

The proceeds of the walk will be going to fund the research for a cure for Type 1 Diabetes and the complications. Type 1 is usually controlled by insulin, but it’s not a cure. There are still daily challenges, and severe, often fatal, complications for those who suffer from the disease.

My personal fundraising goal is a modest $100. I currently have $10 (I haven’t made my own contribution yet.) Would you be willing to help? All it takes is a few people willing to give a few dollars. Every little bit helps. If you’d like to donate to my personal walk, you can click here. If you have some extra money to donate, I’d really appreciate it! If not, no worries, I understand that money is tight these days!

I didn’t quite get around to this yesterday, but I didn’t want to skip it again, so you get a Self Portrait Sunday Monday post from me this week. Taken from the webcam on my laptop just a few minutes ago. I wish I could tell you that I’ve been so quiet on this blog because I’ve been working hard putting together website directories or something equally important, but that would be a lie. It’s because I’m lazy LOL

My weekend was pretty busy. I headed straight to my Dad’s after work on Friday for dinner. Turned out they were going to be keeping Killian over night, so I had fun playing with him. I didn’t leave there until after 9pm, and even then he was trying to convince me to stay. I told him I needed to go home and go to sleep, so he told me to sleep on the couch. So cute! He’s finally added the Aunt to my name (most of the time, anyways) and it’s adorable. “Aunt Jenn-i-per!” He was saying “Boo!” to me, and then I’d pretend to be scared and he’d giggle like mad. It was so funny. Except he wasn’t saying boo, he was yelling “Ah-ah-ah-aaaaaah-BOOOOOO!” Kind of like he was sneezing, but scaring me at the end instead.

Saturday I spent the entire day cleaning… then I made a trip to the store to pick up a couple things and baked Cheesecake Brownies. They were soooo good! I took them over to my Grandma’s on Sunday afternoon. Where my mom had made Swiss Steak, mashed potatoes, corn, and my favorite salad. A wonderful home cooked meal and family, can’t beat that!!

I came home, washed my uniform tops, and then it was time to go to bed to start another work week!

Happy Sunday! I took this picture earlier this afternoon, just after I got home from the movies. I went to see the Time Traveler’s Wife. Very good movie, although not as good as the book, as is usually the case. Good in its own right, but I *adored* the book.

Other than that, my weekend has been a lot of cleaning and relaxing. Judging from a page full of status updates on Facebook, that’s what you all were doing a lot of too. Well, you guys were watching football, but I was watching reruns of Bones. And uh, just maybe, the Hannah Montana Movie. Anyways, I have a clean bathroom, down to the litterboxes, and a clean kitchen including the oven. Do you have any idea how hard it is to clean an oven when your arms are shorter than your oven is deep? I’ll be collapsing on top of my mattresses shortly and hoping to sleep in in the morning. Gotta take advantage of those 3 day weekends!

I don’t really have plans for my day tomorrow just yet. I had thought about taking myself off to the Museum of Science and Industry and the Harry Potter exhibit tomorrow, but I’m not too keen on the idea of going by myself. Plus I could better afford it AFTER payday than before. The exhibit only runs through the 27th though, so maybe this weekend? I’ll go by myself if I have to! I do need to go grocery shopping, and could stand to do a couple loads of laundry, so I imagine that’s what tomorrow will end up looking like. Maybe some baking if I remember to pick something and add those things to the grocery list.

Hope you all have a great Labor day. If you’re celebrating, be safe!

As usual, I’m being a slacker again! I’ve meant to get over here all week and make a post, update my finances for the month of August if nothing else, but Oooh Shiny! I always manage to get distracted and never quite make it over here. I still don’t have much exciting to say. The most exciting thing to happen was the work picnic, and a friend’s 25th anniversary party on Saturday, but other than that, it’s basically been: work, sleep, work, sleep, work, sleep, work, sleep…. I think you get the idea.

BUT! I wanted to share with you the strange thing I saw yesterday afternoon. Turn up the dial on your HDTV there, and tell me what you think is happening here:

Sorry bout the reflections, I was inside another door… I was afraid if I opened that one, I’d spook him. So what’s going on?

Oh yeah, that’s right…

It’s a squirrel, right outside the lobby door at work and HE’S LICKING THE BRICK WALL!

I do have to say that’s the first time I’ve seen that!