Meeting Nicholas Sparks

Last week, my best friend Abby and I got to meet Nicholas Sparks.  

Nicholas was going to be appearing at our local college for a question and answer session as part of their Visiting Writer's series.  He was also scheduled for a book signing at our local library from 4-5:30 that day.  

I knew there was going to be a long line, so I thought I'd arrive about half an hour early.  That's the earliest I could get there since I have to pick the boys up from school.  

I don't think *anybody*, even the library, anticipated just how many people would actually be there.  I could tell it was going to be bad before I even got to the library, because there were cars lining up alongside the entire city block.  I drove around for at least 15 minutes before I finally wedged my van in between the cars in one part of the parking lot and the sidewalk.  

The line went all through the library, out into the library parking lot, curved around again, and went all the way back to the Science Center next to the library.  

We waited in line for almost two hours, but it was totally worth it.  

Originally, you were supposed to be able to get 2 books signed, but because of the amount of people that showed up, it was changed to 1 book at the last minute. 

The meeting was a little impersonal, but I guess that's just the way it goes when you have so many people.  A library worker took your book before you even got up to Nicholas and had it lined up on a table with the books of the other people in line.  Nicholas was just signing book after book and pausing for a few seconds in between to take a picture.  

Abby and I were so afraid that we would end up not being able to meet him since he was supposed to leave at 5:30 since he had the session at the college to do after the signing.  Luckily though we made it up to him right at 5:30.  I heard that he stayed until 6:30 signing books :).

Nicholas was really nice and I'm so glad I got the chance to meet him!  

this is just a small part of the line.  The line in front of me
goes up, around, and then down into the library

in line, almost in the library now.  It was sooo hot outside

inside the library
after we went around the first corner, we could catch a glimpse of him ;)

my best friend Abby and I

a little bit of Peeta eye-candy while we waited ;)

signing my book <3

Nicholas and I

finally made it out of there with my signed book!

this is a picture that Abby took
what a great smile, don't you think?  :)

Oh, How Pinteresting

Today I'm linking up with The Vintage Apple for oh, how pinteresting Wednesday.  

If you'd like, you can:

Here are some things I've pinned recently.

isn't that the truth?  ;)

this is so true!  One time, for an appointment for one of the boys,
we waited for almost 2 hours!

aren't they just lovely? <3 

I do this all the time.  You don't want to leave right
away and seem rude, but if you stay too long they
might think you are avoiding them :-/  haha

this is such a cute idea.  pick a movie
and a "menu" to go with it

I really want to do the "elf on the shelf" with the boys this year.
I love seeing what other people have done with it.

Put your child's graduation year on a t-shirt
and put it on them at the beginning of each
school year to see how they've grown

I so need this.  I'm always forgetting my passwords.

Six Places

This week, as the next installment of the 10 day YOU challenge, I'm going to be listing 6 places that I would like to visit someday.  

{one}  Disneyland

This is like the ultimate family vacation spot.  I've never been and neither have the boys, so I would absolutely LOVE to have the opportunity to take them sometime.  I know they would enjoy it a lot.  

{two}  New York City

I don't know what it is about the place, but I have always wanted to visit New York..... NYC specifically.  I think it would be *awesome* to be at Times Square on New Years Eve.  

{three}  Italy

Italy is one of my top dream travel places.  If I could ever get over my fear of flying, maybe I'll be able to make it happen one day.  :)  Isn't it just beautiful?  

{four}  Ireland

I have always wanted to travel to Ireland also.  

{five}  Paris

What girl wouldn't want to visit the "city of love"?  ;)

{six}  London

London is another place I would like to visit someday.  This may be lame, but I always thought it'd be cool to ride on one of those double decker buses :D

Play That Funky Music

Today I'm linking up for Monday Listicles.  This week's list is really fun so I couldn't resist participating.  It's 10 songs.  

I'm going to do a little bit of a mix, so first off, here are 6 songs that you just can't help dancing to.  

1.  Jump On It

 2. C'mon n Ride It (The Train)
 



3. Cupid Shuffle



 4. Cha Cha Slide
 



5. Sexy and I Know It



6. Boyfriend
 




Now I'm going to list 4 of my favorite religious songs.


 7. Your Love Never Fails
 



8. Beautiful Things



9. Our God
 



 10. Here I Am To Worship
 

What I'm Loving Wednesday

*  I'm loving that we are coming off of a long weekend.  It seems to make things go by much faster and then the next weekend is just that much closer ;)  I love weekends together with my family.  

*  I'm loving that Chris' birthday is coming up in a few weeks.  I'm extremely behind in the planning though.  With Eric's work being so sporadic, I'm having a hard time deciding if I'll have the money to pay for a skating party, which is what he wants, or if we'll need to keep it cheap and go to a park or something.  It's really up in the air at the moment.  I at least have a theme to work with though :D  Earlier in the year he decided he wanted a Batman party and he hasn't changed his mind, so that's what we're going with.  He's all about the superheros right now.

*  I'm loving that Chris and Logan are doing so well in school.  Chris started getting spelling words as part of his homework this year and he's actually doing really well at that.  Logan's gotten much better about his behavior at school also.

*  I'm loving that TOMORROW I will be going with my best friend Abby to meet Nicholas Sparks!!!!!!  Oh my gosh, I can't even begin to describe how excited I am.  He will be at our local library doing a book signing.  He has made appearances at cities around us before but I've never been able to go so it's really awesome that he's coming here :D.  

*  I'm loving that I got some quiet time to myself tonight.  My parents took the boys skating and Eric was at work so I had the house to myself.  With both boys in school now you would think I'd get "quiet time" during the day, but that doesn't happen when your husband is blaring the TV or snoring ;).  

*  I'm loving that Wal-Mart has improved their layaway and is starting it earlier in the year this year.  I'm planning on doing a layaway for Christmas gifts and Logan's birthday gifts.  We did a layaway at Toys R Us last year and that was just a horrible experience.  Definitely won't be repeating that again.  

*  I'm loving that I was able to recover some lost pictures.  I realized a while back that I had lost every single one of the pictures from Logan's first year of life.  I have no idea what happened to them.  I'm assuming I lost the memory card they were on.  I was so upset.  Last night, on a hunch, I decided to check my old myspace page and was able to find some of them!  It's not all of them but I'm so so glad I was at least able to get some of them back.  

What are you loving this week?

Seven Wants

Linking up again this week for another part of the 10 Day YOU Challenge.  This week is about 7 wants.  Here is my list.

- a really nice camera.  I've never had one, mostly because we can't ever afford it.  It'd be great to have though.  I'm hoping I'll finally be able to buy one next year with our tax money.

- to finally lose weight and keep it off.  I've been struggling with this for a long time.  I want to get down to a healthy weight and stay there.  I need to be healthy for my family. 

- to be better at cooking and doing crafty things.  I'm so jealous of all of my crafty friends.  :)  

- to own our own home, especially one by the beach.  This may never actually happen for us but it's nice to dream, right?  ;)

- to be less stressed.  I am so stressed all of the time.  I guess it comes from being such a control freak - most of the things I stress about I don't have any control over.  I need to learn to let all of that go and chill out a little.  :) 

- have another girls night with my Fab 4.  It's not very often that we can all get together at the same time with everyone's different schedules and such, so it's always a special treat when it does happen.  We have so much fun together.  I have the best friends anyone could ask for!  

- to take a spur of the moment trip with the family.  Wouldn't that be awesome?  We have only been on vacation one time as a family.  I'd love to go to the beach.  I haven't been since I was a child, and Chris and Logan have never been at all.  It seems like every time we plan to go, something happens and we end up not being able to.  

How Pinteresting Wednesday

Happy Wednesday everyone!  Hope you all are having a great week so far.  Today I'm linking up with The Vintage Apple for Oh, How Pinteresting Wednesday.  Here are some of the things I've pinned recently.  If you haven't already, you can

Source: t.qkme.me via Jackie on Pinterest

Source: google.com via Jackie on Pinterest

Source: mirabellesinks.com via Jackie on Pinterest

Source: google.com via Jackie on Pinterest

Source: someecards.com via Jackie on Pinterest

Source: so-relatable.tumblr.com via Jackie on Pinterest

Source: so-relatable.tumblr.com via Jackie on Pinterest

Source: fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net via Jackie on Pinterest

Source: sphaha.alone.at via Jackie on Pinterest

Eight Fears

This week's 10 Day You Challenge is about 8 fears.  So here are mine.

{one}  Spiders.  They are my number one biggest fear.  Big, small, black, brown... it doesn't matter.  I am *terrified* of all of them.  I'll go into a full blown panic attack just seeing one.  I seriously almost had one just trying to get the picture for this post.  

{two}  Bridges over water.  Bridges freak me out enough on their own, but a bridge over water?  Forget about it.  I'll fall apart.  I do my very best to avoid driving over them, but when I have to, I have a death grip on the steering wheel and I'm cringing the entire time.  

{three}  Something happening to a member of my family or one of my friends.  

{four}  The dark.  Yes, I'm an adult still scared of the dark :P.  My husband works the night shift so I'm always alone with the boys at night.  Every little creak or rustle sends about a million little paranoid scenarios through my mind.  

{five}  Terminal illness.  I am soo afraid that I will end up with cancer or some other terminal illness.  Something without a cure or a very small survival rate.  Also, I'm just afraid of dying in general.

{six}  Heights.  See that pic?  Yeah... that would NOT be happening for me.  

{seven}  Not sure if this is a fear or not but I don't like being in crowds of people.  It could be in a small space or it could be in a mall.  I have to have my space.  When people start crowding in on me, I start to get really anxious and feel like I'm going to have a panic attack.

{eight}  I have this fear that I will be out somewhere alone, or with my family, and I/we will get shot at, robbed, or something like that.  

Whew, glad that's over.  I'm sure I could keep going but the post only calls for 8, haha.  Hopefully you all don't think I'm a paranoid freak now ;).

Sunday Social

linking up with Neely and Ashley this week for the Sunday Social :) 


1.  What is the first website you log on to each day?  Facebook is the first website that I go to.  After that, it's email, blogger, and then pinterest. 

2.  Give us some funny websites you visit that we need to know about.   D*mn You Auto Correct People of WalMart
3.  Pinterest or Facebook?  Why?  Wow, that's a really hard choice.  I like them both a lot for different reasons.  If I absolutely had to choose one though, I'd go with facebook.  It's how I stay in touch with everybody.  
4.  Twitter or Instagram?  Why?  I'd have to go with neither on this one.  I've tried using twitter a few different times and I just don't get it.  And I don't have the phone required for instagram, so I don't use that either.  
5.  Favorite YouTube video....post it.  
Ohhh my gosh, I absolutely love this video.  How cute is that baby's laugh?!


6.  Biggest online pet peeve?  Ppl who typ lyk dis.  I can't stand that.  Also, people who run their mouth on Facebook or some online forum like that, when they sure as heck wouldn't do something like that face to face with someone.  

His and Her Q&A

I always love filling these out.  It's always interesting to see how different (or similar) the answers are between a man and a woman :)  Here are mine and my husband Eric's answers to these questions.

Your house is on fire.  What five items do you grab before you leave?  

His:  Nothing.  I would just worry about getting y'all (me and the boys) out. 

(Me:  Really?)(Him:  Yeah, I don't worry about material things)

Her:  Assuming Eric and the boys have gotten out, I'd grab the boys' pet birds, my purse, my camera, our safe, and the computer.  

If you could be/had to be the main character of any movie, who would you be?

His:  I don't know, Harry Potter?  It'd be pretty cool to have magic and do those spells and stuff.

Her:  I think Meg Ryan in French Kiss or Julia Roberts in My Best Friend's Wedding.

What physical feature do you love most about yourself?  

His:  I really don't have one.  

Hers:  My eyes.  I've always been told I have pretty eyes and I agree ;)  haha

Tell us why your name is your name. And if you don't have (or know) an answer, make one up.

His:  My parents just randomly picked Eric.

Hers:  My mom named me Jacqulene, which is her middle name.

What is the greatest place you've ever traveled to?  

His:  Washington DC.

Hers:  We really haven't gotten to do very much traveling.  I did really enjoy our trip to DC though, minus the scare we had on the first day.  

Are you a morning person or a night person? 

His:  Neither.  More of a mid-day person.

Hers:  I'm most definitely a night person.

Who is someone you wish you were closer to? 

His:  You (talking about me).  

Hers:  The in-laws.  We've always had a horrible relationship with them and eventually had to cut all ties with them.  I wish things had turned out differently.

What quality do you have that you hope your kids inherit? 

His:  Work ethic.

Hers:  Compassion and loyalty.

What's your favorite memory with your childhood best friend?  

His:  Can't think of anything.

Hers:  Sleepovers, singing along to music and dancing

If you had to move out of the country, where would you move to?  

His:  Ireland, definitely.

Hers:  Wow, there are several places I'd like to live.  Ireland, Italy, England... I love them all.