See ya later, Sami!

Why am I so horrible at consistently posting?  I apologize.

In late October, one of my favorite co-workers moved back home to (*gasp*) the North.  Sami is hilarious and brings so much fun and laughter to those around her, and I miss her terribly already.  We threw her a good-bye party, and I promised to put pictures up, so this is me putting pictures up (about a month late...).

Please notice my OCD - I had to put an apostrophe on the "E" flag of "WE'LL" and a comma after the "U" of "YOU".

Props to myself for an artsy picture of a cake.  Now that I type it out, it sounds kinda lame.

Apparently, hugs from Angela don't happen often.

A few of us girls who closed out the party.  And Baby Grayson.  And, being women, we took like 5 pictures and voted on which one we liked best, and this was my least favorite of me but everyone else's favorite of themselves.  In another one, Jonetta looked genuinely stoned.  I was very tempted to post that one, but obviously I didn't.  That's what makes me a good friend.

Baby Grayson looking especially angelic.

I just put these pics up to show there were actually more people there than just the few of us and Baby Grayson.

See?  Look at all these people who love and miss our Sami!!

We had a very fun time at the party and I didn't bawl like a baby, so I call it a success!  Although I will say it again, I miss Sami a ton.

In closing, a story of how an almost 2-year-old broke my heart the other day.  Jonetta's kids are some of my favorite children, probably because they're the ones I spend the most time with.  Ian, who will be 2 next month, was leaving the other day when Jonetta, Erica, and I were all together.  I said, "Ian, can I have a hug to say goodbye?"  He usually is quick to give me hugs and love, but he quickly said, "No" and when I tried to hug him anyway, he kinda freaked out.  So then Erica said, "Ian, can I have a hug goodbye?"  He said, "Yes", and went and hopped in her lap and gave her a big hug!  She said, "I love you, Ian".  He said, "I love youuu."  I was like, "WTF, mate?"  So Erica said, "Ian, you better give Leah a hug too or else she's going to be sad."  I said, "Ian, can I have a hug?"  He said, "Yes!" and proceeded to give me a hug and let me kiss his face before he left.  I was devastated for like 30 seconds.  But Erica made it better.  That child is a mess.

Beach vacation - 2013 edition

Usually, my husband's family and I go on a beach vacation in May.  His sister got married at the beginning of May this past year, and there was no way she was going to be able to get so much time off work.  So we bumped our vacation to the second week of September.  It was almost better for me that way because I had something to look forward to all summer.

Let me preface this post with the fact that I love sandpipers.  Like I really love them.  I really really love them.  I absolutely love the way their little legs move while they're running around looking for food.  I feel like the sound effect that their legs make should be "dinky dinky dinky dinky dinky dinky" (said in a high pitched voice), so I always make that sound in my head when I see them running. They tickle me to no end.  So on this beach vacation, I probably took around 85 pictures of sandpipers, and about 15 of humans, if that's any indication about how much I love these birds.

The sandpiper on the left was chasing the one on the right!  It was one of the most adorable things I've ever seen.  Eventually the one being chased got frustrated and flew off.

One day a whole freaking FLOCK of them showed up.  There had to have been at least 20 of them.  It was a great moment in my life.

I just can't express how much I love these birds.

Where we vacationed had a lot of awesome wildlife.  I never fed any of them, because my friend Jackie told me that it's really bad to feed them because they get accustomed to people and then will venture in the road and stuff to get food from the people and get hit by cars.  That made me really upset.  So I didn't feed any of them on this trip, but I did take a lot of pictures!

Doesn't this guy look like he's smiling for the camera??

I took this picture from the back porch of the house we rented for the week.  It was amazing.

We also had some good beach time.  I read 3 books during that week.  And one of them was a Game of Thrones book, which is not an easy read for me.  One of the days was super windy and Hunter and his dad decided to come to the beach with us since it'd be hard to fish from the boat with all the wind.

The guys did some surf fishing and I caught this cool picture of Hunter with the building storm clouds.

Eventually, I gave up trying to be on the beach because the wind was whipping the sand around and stinging when I tried to lay on my stomach to read.  So Hunter's mom and I ended up by the pool.

It was overall a great vacation!  I look forward to it every year!

Here's my ending random conversation that I'm sure no one will think is funny unless you were there and incredibly sleep-deprived like we were.

At work, Jonetta stands up to go into the bathroom...

Jonetta: "Do you think I should wash my hands before I go to the bathroom, or can I pull my pants down with one hand?"

Me:  "Why would you wash your hands before you pee?"

Jonetta:  (raising a clenched left fist and inclining her head in its direction) "My hand is dirty."
Me:  "What's wrong with your hand?"

Jonetta:  "It's wetness...from my mouth."

Me:  "I'm sorry, what??"

Jonetta:  "...I sneezed."

I laughed for approximately 3 minutes straight.  It was awesome.  That's all for now.

Crafty Crafty

This post is gonna be pretty picture heavy, so I apologize.

I also am terrible at regularly posting.  A friend told me yesterday, and I quote, "Leah, it has been 2 months and 2 days since you last posted on the Crumley Chronicles!!"  So I promised her a post yesterday or today.  And there's still a little under an hour left in today, so I'm still good!

A few months ago, we bought a new table for our entryway.  This set off a chain of kind of sprucing up the apartment.  We eventually got a new TV stand and coffee table.  After that I got a little Pinterest-inspired.  We had these old stools and I saw a pin where someone had painted a nice light green chevron on the top of the stool.  So I wanted to do that!

I took Painter's tape and taped up the stools in a chevron pattern.  But my OCD would not allow the patterns to not be facing the same direction so...

... I fixed it.

Then I sponge painted some acrylic paint over them.

After 3 coats of paint had dried, this was the end result!  I also put a coat of matte Mod Podge over the top of it to keep it protected.  It turned out a little brighter than I wanted, but it still livens things up.

We also have a bookcase that Hunter has had since college.  It's kinda one of those cheapy bookcases, but it serves its purpose.  Since we had a lot of large cardboard pieces left over from the boxes that our TV stand and coffee table came in, I decided to measure the spaces between the shelves on the bookcase, cut pieces of cardboard to fit the spaces, and covered them with fabric.

Our Walmart didn't have an awesome selection of fabric to choose from.  I didn't want anything too bright or geometric (my OCD wouldn't like it if I messed up), so I went with a paisley-ish beige fabric.

Which turned our ordinary bookcase...

...into a less ordinary bookcase!

My first project was a little too bright, and my second project wasn't quite bold enough.  But all in all, I think it was a very successful day!

I also have a story about my sweet brown boy and several pictures to share, but that one may have to wait since I've already bogged this post down with several "snapshots", as Erica likes to say.

And I know there was an either racist or vulgar quote of Jonetta's that I threatened to post at the end of this, but now I've forgotten what it was.  Sorry folks.  Until next time...

Don't go ninjin' nobody 't don't need ninjin'

First of all, if you read this thing regularly then you may notice that I changed the way the blog looks. I am loving it. The font of "The Crumley Chronicles" is called something like "freshly baked apple". I thought it was appropriate because it's cute and I love apples. Just a fun fact for you kids. Back to our regularly scheduled programming. 

I LOVE birthdays. Growing up, my family would go all out decorating our dining room for birthdays. I mean there was the "Happy Birthday" table cloth, streamers, balloons, confetti, the whole nine yards. So it's a special time to me. I've kinda backed down on the decorations over the years, but I still try to make it meaningful. Hunter and I were born 5 days apart, which I think is cool. We kinda share it, but we try to make it special for each of us. We do, however, share whatever goodies we get, which recently has been cupcakes. 

On Hunter's birthday, I went down to the local cupcake place, wanting to get at least 4-6 of our favorite Oreo cupcakes. They are phenomenal. The cupcake place has been generally empty when I go to get cupcakes, but of course on this day, there was a group of 4 people at the counter, another group of 2 waiting, and a young lady and her daughter waiting as well. When I walked in the young lady told me that I could go ahead and get what I wanted because they were all waiting on the red velvet cupcakes to cool and be iced. But I didn't want to jump in front of anyone, so I waited my turn. I guess the cupcake place had been hoppin that day, because there were slim pickins left. There was only 1 Oreo cupcake left (dun dun DUUUN), 1 carrot cake cupcake, 2 peanut butter banana cupcakes, and other ones that we hadn't tried before and other ones that didn't sound too favorable to my taste buds. So the group of 4 got their red velvet cupcakes and left. Then the group of 2 got their red velvet cupcakes and left. Then the young lady and her daughter went up to the counter and began to list the cupcakes that they wanted. As luck would have it, she told the woman behind the counter that she wanted the Oreo cupcake, the carrot cake cupcake, and other random ones. My heart was a little crushed. I felt so bad about not having Hunter's favorite cupcake for his birthday! So the young lady and her daughter got their cupcakes and left. I was the only one left in the store. Full of hope, I asked if perchance they had some more Oreo cupcakes in the back, and she told me no. Hope dashed. She offered to bake more, but I didn't want her to have to bake a whole batch just because I'm a Fatty McFatterson. Plus, it just gave me an excuse to go back the next day and get a whole half dozen of Oreo cupcakes!! Which is precisely what happened. All was well. And Hunter was still a happy guy on his birthday... 

...even without Oreo cupcakes. 

We went to Hunter's parents' lake house the weekend after our birthdays.  We hung out with extended family on the 4th, took a trip to Clemson and shopped around, and the next day we went out on the boat.  The weather was fairly rainy the whole time, but we still had a great time!

So you know how everything is exponentially more funny when you're incredibly sleepy? Well, we were playing Spades the night before we left the lake house. I'm not particularly good at Spades because you have to be a little sneaky and sometimes malicious while playing Spades. I was borderline not willing to play because I was so tired. But about halfway through the game I started getting really giddy. Out of nowhere, Hunter flings his arm towards me and says, "JUDY CHOP", from this little gem of a youtube video:

   

I was silent for a second, then the hilarity of it just hit me, and I giggled for like 2 minutes straight, taking breaks for breathing and that was about it. So of course, he keeps on saying it every few minutes just to get me tickled again. Even thinking about it now makes me chuckle. The weather was very rainy over the weekend and we lost at Spades, but I still call the weekend a success. There was really no point to that story, and you most likely won't think it's as funny as I do. But just like Diemon Dave says, "sometimes it don't always work for a ninjer, but a practice makes a perfect." So good news, it can only go up from here. And don't complain about it, because I might have to perform a "Ninji Whoompin Action".

Celebrate good times

Come on!!  (I still love that song...)  There have been SO many things going on lately!  This is just a quick recap of all the events that have taken place in the ummmm... 2 months since I've posted...  Sorry 'bout that.  This post is also pretty photo heavy.  Sorry 'bout that as well.

Tracy (a friend from the workplace) is expecting her second child this Fall, but she was moving away so my friend Erica and I threw her a going-away/baby presents party.  I fully tried to convince Hunter that it was NOT a baby shower, so I refuse to use that term to describe this get-together.  And by "Erica and I", I mean Erica decided what to do and chose the theme/location/decor, and I made the lists.  I guess I also baked some cupcakes and made the oreo bites (with help from Sami and Angela... so it wasn't a huge feat...), however Erica decorated them and made them adorable.  I'm quite proud of our accomplishments, so feast your eyes on our homemade goodies.

Like I said, I can't take a lot of credit, but aren't they so CUTE??  Plus they were delish.

The hostesses with the most-est-es and the soon-to-be mother of 2.

Next up, we had some coworkers who were graduating from their BSN program!  I am quite upset at the quality of my photos, and I had to tweak this one to get it to look presentable, but here it is nonetheless...

This was taken while they were reciting the Florence Nightingale Pledge.

Then Hunter's sister got married!!  It was SUCH a fun weekend!  Despite the weather, we had a blast!  The bride did SO much work to make the wedding and reception personal and beautiful, and it was absolutely breathtaking.  It was a really cool wedding.  P.S. - I did a HORRIBLE job taking pictures this weekend.  I'm fairly disappointed in myself.

3 generations of Crumley women before the youngest one changed her last name!  This was at the bridal luncheon.  The place where it was held had the most AMAZING sweet potato cake.  It sounds like it would be weird, but it's totally not.  It's fantastic in every sense of the word.

Up to bat next was another coworker's pinning ceremony.  It's always exciting getting to watch a new nurse receive her nursing pin!  Congrats!!

A few weekends later, it was one of my best nursing school friend's bachelorette party!  It was also a lot of fun!  Having a girls' weekend is so nice, and celebrating Jennifer's upcoming nuptials was a perfect reason to have a girly getaway.  (...And don't worry ladies, I'll post more pictures on facebook later.  But I've found that posting pictures to facebook exhausts me.  It will get done.)

Yesterday, said friend Jennifer married her now husband Chris!  I enjoyed pretty much everything about this wedding weekend!  All of the bridesmaids were amazing women who were fun to be around, and their wedding was a perfect reminder of what God intended when he created the institution of marriage.  Plus, it was really great getting to see friends I haven't seen in a long time and catching up!

Congratulations, Chris and Jennifer!!  I hope you're having the most AWESOME time on your tropical honeymoon!

I have one more commitment for the month and I'm reeeeeally hoping the sun will decide to show its face again so I don't lose this tan I've got goin on.  But that's about all I have to say for now, homies.  It's been real, it's been fun, it's been real fun.  Until next time.

I can ride my bike with no handlebars

...Not really.  I can barely stay upright and not crash into things even using both handlebars.  I just sing that song in my head sometimes when bike-riding.

We live in an absolutely beautiful place.  I wasn't too keen on moving here at first, but it's really grown on me.  It really hits me when people come to visit us and dote on how beautiful the landscape is, because sadly people get used to the beauty when we see it every day.  We've decided to take advantage of our surroundings.  We've been going to more local restaurants, enjoying the outdoors (I have been going to the pool, Hunter - not so much), and we plan on going to the beach often once the upcoming weddings in which we're involved are finished.

I mentioned our bike ride a few weekends ago.  Here are some pictures from our outing.

A whole lot of driftwood on a "beach" that Hunter claims is actually a beach when the tide is low.

Hunter enjoying the "beach".

So this is one of the first pictures I took when we got to the "beach", and I didn't really look at it.  Then I saw the water crashing around this big piece of wood and I really wanted a picture of it.  So I took like 10 more pictures trying to get a good one, and when we got home and I was looking over my pictures, I saw that this one was the best, and the first one I took.

Our rides!

The path leading up to the bridge over the lagoon.

Since Hunter posted that picture of me sleeping after I posted his quote about Aerosmith, I figured I'd repay the favor.  This is most likely going to open up a HUGE can of worms, or just a lot of sneaky sleeping picture-taking.  This is Hunter finishing his "shoulder workout" to fix his bum shoulder.  Apparently it was exhausting.

I love you, honey!  Please don't hate me!

Sibling's Day and my new ride

So, apparently yesterday was National Sibling's Day.  And being the wonderful sister that I am, I had no idea.  Anna texted me at like 8:00 p.m. wishing me a good one.  And I also did not blog about her birthday OR her visit with us over her Spring break.  So let's roll.

Birthday:  My baby sister turned 22!!  I love her intensely.  Mom would work nights, and when we were little we would sleep in the same bed.  When Mom was at work, we would sometimes play movies and leave the TV on to help us fall asleep.  It couldn't be something too scary in the first 30 minutes, though.  Two of our most frequent fliers were "Stuart Little" and "Fantasia".  I had a point to this story when I started it, but now I don't remember.  So there's just a little fun fact for you.  We got along great then and now we get along great.  It wasn't always that way, however.  When she was about 10 years old, I did not enjoy being around her.  She was very moody and just mean to me.  (I was like 13-14 years old so I'm sure I was insufferable, too, but that's not the point here.)  But then the most glorious thing happened.  She got put on Yaz.  After those hormones evened out, it's been pretty much smooth sailing ever since.  I joke that I need to write Yaz a thank-you letter for changing our relationship.  But in all honesty, I don't know what I'd do without my baby sister in my life.  OH!  Now I remember where I was going with the whole "Fantasia" thing.  It was to say that I have always felt a strong urge to protect Anna, and I think it's from all the nights that we kept each other company and what not.  So I may stress about her future sometimes, but it's just because I see her great potential and I want the absolute best for her in life.  I know she's gonna do amazing things.

Spring Break:  Anna came to visit for a few days.  We went downtown, shopped a little, went to the local lighthouse, had home-cooked meals.  It was a lot of fun.  Of course on the day that we went to the lighthouse, I didn't have my nice camera.  But when we went to the outlet stores, I had my camera and didn't take any pictures.  Terri would be ashamed.  She also made me watch Pitch Perfect for the first time.  It was phenomenal.  I'm very upset with myself that I haven't seen it before now.

(I'm fairly certain this night/montage of pictures is where my mild obsession with mustache-related paraphernalia originated...)

Sibling's Day:  I was thinking on my way home of what my favorite memory with Anna would be. I had like an hour drive, and I could not come up with a favorite!  There are too many goodies to choose from.  After junior year of college, I got home and started to unpack and realized that I had left the entirety of my underwear drawer in the actual drawer.  Anna offered to ride with me back to school to get my unmentionables.  On the way, we taped her camera up in the corner of the car and recorded us dancing and lip-syncing.  Anna was shocked to learn that I know the actual lyrics to "Macarena".  On our family trip to Boston, we jumped back and forth on the double beds in the hotel room, laughing and singing.  We were singing "Nobody's Perfect", by Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana.  We were 17 and 21.  These are just two examples of some of our fabulous memories of which I cannot choose a favorite.

My new ride!  It's not a car, it's a bike.  A bicycle.  And I love it!  Hunter has been riding his bike around and I wanted to partake.  We took a Saturday and went shopping around and found the perfect bike!

We went riding on Sunday and I'll post the pictures later!

I'm going to pay for this later, but I keep thinking about it and giggling.  On the drive to our bike ride, Aerosmith's "I Don't Wanna Miss a Thing" came on the radio.  Here is a snippet of our ensuing conversation...

Hunter:  "The main guy's name is Steven Aerosmith, right?"

Me:  "You mean Steven Tyler?"

Hunter:  "That's what I said..."

Me:  "No.  It isn't..."

Take that, Diabeetus!!

So today I had an appointment that I used to absolutely dread.  I had my endocrinologist appointment.  My diabetes doctor.  Dun dun duuuuuun.  But lately, they haven't been too shabby!

For those of you who don't know, I was diagnosed with diabetes at age 12, in November 1999. Right before Thanksgiving.  Worst Thanksgiving ever.  Anyway, I had been drinking a lot and peeing a lot.  We went to the movies as a family (on some random weeknight, I'm sure, which I loved), and I drank a ginormous Coke by myself before the previews even started.  Dad was like, "Okay, that's it.  We're checking her bloodsugar when we get home!"  Mom had gestational diabetes while pregnant with my little sis, so we checked my sugar when we got home and it was like 475 (holy moly!  Normal bloodsugar is 70-110, actually back then I think it was 80-120...still crazy high).  So just to be sure it was really bad and not some coke and popcorn-induced hyperglycemia, we checked it in the morning after not eating and it was still like 375.  So BAM.  Welcome to my life, Type 1 Diabetes!  I didn't take care of myself like I should have the first few years because A) I didn't want to be different and B) I didn't really understand anything like the actual process of the diet and insulin and the horrible consequences that come from not controlling this disease.

Even as an adult and with an insulin pump, I still used to have difficulty regulating my sugars and keeping my lab levels normal.  But for the last like 1-1.5 years, my lab levels have been glorious, and my blood sugars fairly well under control.  For you who understand, my hemoglobin A1c level from today was 6.1!!  I'm fairly certain that it's the best it's ever been!  I think when I was in 11th grade and got dumped and basically refused to eat for several weeks because I was convinced I got broken up with because I was not skinny enough to keep the guy (I never said I was a rational teenager...) my hemoglobin A1c was like 6.2.  That level is supposed to be less than 6.5 in diabetics, and I could barely keep it below 7.5 or 8 like 3 years ago.  So I am very pleased!  Blood tests to check the function of my kindeys and liver were great as well!  However, cholesterol is kinda getting the drop on me (as usual), but I blame genetics.  It runs in the family.  And my blood pressure has been slightly elevated, but unfortunately it's kinda par for the course with diabetics.  Overall, I am SO very blessed to be in such good health considering all of my diagnosed maladies.

My life changed tremendously in November 1999, but I think it changed me for the better.  I think about how I would probably eat if I weren't diabetic and had to be conscious of everything I put in my mouth all the time (not that I always make the best decisions), and it is astounding.  I love chicken fingers, pasta, french fries, chocolate... practically everything that's terrible for me.  But I have to eat that stuff in moderation.  And Hunter helps me out a lot in that arena, too.  He's healthy voluntarily, and he's probably more healthy than I am anyway.

In other news, here are some photos from the past months that I've sucked at posting:

Me and my man on Christmas, complete with the lovely scarf from my sis.

I just love this gift bag and wanted to share it with everyone.  Just to prove that my sister is better than your sister.

Dad and Robin came to visit, and I was slack about taking pictures, but we were in a store downtown and Dad found a hilarious book and he kept cracking up.  It was almost funnier watching him lose his mind laughing than the book itself!

Some of the girls on a shopping trip!  Very fun night!

AND MY BABY GIRL TURNED TWENTY-TWO YEARS OLD!!  I CAN'T HANDLE IT!

Here's a pic but I'll make a separate post about it.  She deserves it.

We all met in Columbia to dine together to celebrate Anna making it to 22 years, haha.

Here's the funny quote for the post.  My friend Jonetta had her wisdom teeth out, and we had been texting beforehand so when she got out of surgery and was still quite under the influence of the anesthesia, she thought it would be a good idea to call me.  I can't quote my favorite one because it has a dirty word in it (surprise, surprise), but here goes:

"Leah, my mouth used to be pretty.  It's not pretty anymore..."

Now that I typed it out, it's not that funny.  But listening to her say it while she was still pretty high and seeing it again on the video that her significant other took, it was hilarious.  I love her intensely.

Ian turns ONE!

So my favorite brown baby turned ONE YEAR OLD over a month ago.  His birthday party was the weekend before Christmas, so I didn't get a chance to post about it before then, and Christmas was busy as I'm sure it was for everyone.  But after that I have no excuse.  Just that I'm lazy.

So Happy Belated Birthday, Ian!!

A coworker of ours made the beautiful Dr. Seuss cake!  Complete with One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish!  And it tasted fantastic.  Though I rarely meet a cake I don't like.

And this is what I spend my morning of Ian's party doing.  While Ian's mom, Jonetta. was failing miserably at creating these whimsical cookies that looked a lot easier online than they actually were, I was making the centerpieces.  I would love to say I made the Cat in the Hat's hats, but I didn't.  Jonetta bought them and I just hot glued them onto sticks.

 At first, my brown baby wasn't feeling being at the party.  He had been getting tired even at the house while preparations were going on.  He had food in his mouth that he refused to swallow for some reason in this picture.  He's not usually that chipmunk-y/

After some food in his belly and a little play time, he started being his usually adorable, happy self.  It made me a little happier.  Those noise-maker things didn't make noise, which I think was a blessing with so many children running around.

And in true older-sibling fashion, big brother Austin blew out the candles on Ian's cake.  There are approximately a thousand pictures of me doing this to my little sister throughout the years.  So be expecting one come February, haha.

And here's the whole family!  They begrudgingly took this picture while they were trying to clean up, but it's not complete without the family picture!

Happy Birthday, Ian!  I can't believe you've been around for over a year already!  I remember when you were just a he-tus fetus.

Here's my new quote of the post  as promised:

"Leah!  I found a saying that matches us perfectly!  'Best friends are two bodies and one heart'... or some s*** like that..." - Jonetta.