Day 6 – My Favorite Superhero and Why

My favorite Superhero you ask? Well, I think the meaning of Superhero here is kind of left open to interpretation so I am going to be putting my own unique spin on it.

Now normally when most people think Superhero I believe they think of those wonderful guys and gals that show up in Marvel Comics.  I am going to admit that this was my first thought as well. So if I was picking someone in that fashion it would be (drum roll please) . .  .

IRON MAN

Why Iron Man you ask? Well, I think he is “real.” He has a huge ego, is a bit of a smart aleck, and he saves the world in his spare time. Plus the movies really rock!!!

Now for my real favorite superhero. Once again, please remember that was chosen by my own interpretation of superhero. The winner is . . . .

April’s Real Favorite Superhero

HURLEY from LOST

 

Now I know you are sitting there going- Say What? Let me explain.

Okay, first off Hurley was able to see and speak to dead people on the Island, which to me is a legitimate Superhero power. Furthermore, Hurley performed several heroic acts while on the Island. Remember that time he ran the VW bus right though the Others before Jin got shot, that was pretty heroic in my book. Also he ultimately got left in charge of the Island, pretty big job!

Now I know some of you are still not convinced. You are thinking she is having LOST withdrawals and has lost her mind. That might be the case, but let me tell you the final and ultimate reason Hurley is a superhero to me. He never really saw himself as a leader or a hero. He wanted to take care of people and diffuse conflict where he could. That to me is the mark of a true superhero someone who can look out for others and check their own ego. Quite the opposite of Iron Man!

So Here’s to Hugo Hurley Reyes! I just wish there were more real superheroes like him out there.

PS- For all you Losties there is actually a LOST Encyclopedia out now. YAY! I know what is going on my Christmas list.

Day 5- A Picture of A Place I Have Been

Ohhh the places I have been! In the last several years Nick and I have been able to visit a lot of truly wonderful places. Such a Blessing to be able to travel. As most of you know we took our dream vacation to Italy this year and it was such a wonderful trip.

For today’s picture I am going to take you back to our humble travel beginnings. The 1st week long vacation we ever took together was a trip to California in September 2006 to visit Nick’s grandmother and family on the west coast. It was on this trip that we got engaged so it holds a lot of memories for us.

 

Here is the younger skinner me taking a ferry tour of the San Francisco Bay. It was cold and windy as you can probably tell in  the picture. Nick did not propose here but rather at the really pretty Sun Dial Bridge in Redding, CA a few days later.

This was the beginning of our travels together and I hope they never end!

Day 4- A Habit I Wish I Did Not Have

A habit I wish I did not have?  Hmmm, where to begin? I actually asked Nick if I had a habit that he wished I didn’t and his answer to that was “Buying shoes.” He does have a valid point about the shoe buying being a habit however it is a habit that I am HAPPY to have :) Sorry sweetie!

One  habit I would like to get rid of is the horrible tendency I have to pick at the skin at the side of my fingers. It is a nervous habit that I have had for years and is really kind of icky. Whenever I find myself in tense situation or just nervous about something I just pick at the skin on the side of my fingers sometimes until I bleed a little. Gross I know! Usually after I reach the stage where I have to wear a band-aid on my finger for a day I will quit for a week or so but I always fall right back into the habit. My wonderful Dad tried to get me to quit my picking when I was younger by telling me about infections and fingers falling off but it was to no avail.  I still have the yucky habit today. If anyone has any suggestions for kicking this one I am open to them!

The root off the finger picking habit is the dreaded and horrible “Worry.” I will admit it consumes me at times. I worry about the smallest silliest things. I am working hard on over coming this and giving my worries to God. Prayers please for this as I still struggle at times. I try to remind myself on a daily basis that I am to BLESSED to be STRESSED! I just need to pray, have faith, and let God take care of the rest!

Well, those are just a few of my bad habits there are plenty more! Please pray that I can overcome these and not develop anymore :)

Day 3- A Picture of Me and My Friends

Wow- It was so hard to narrow this one down. I have many wonderful friends that mean so much to me. So if you do not see yourself in this post do not be offended  Day11 is the same theme.

 

Sisters

I have 2 wonderful sister in-laws that I consider to be true sisters and wonderful friends. Having Nicole and Megan as sisters and best friends is invaluable to me and I feel truly blessed to have both of them in my life .

Megan – As Megan said on her blog we had a rather slow developing friendship and it seemed for a while we had nothing in common. As it turned out once we really got to know each other we had tons is common and now have a wonderful friendship that has been a blessing to me in so many ways. I know that I can count on Megan for everything from prayers to just listening to me vent. It is sad for me that she is so far away and we can not spend more time together. I look forward to the day we live closer to each other or well at least in the same country and can spend more time with each other. Until then we have future vacations to look forward to and plenty of Facebook! Love you SISTER!

Nicole- One of my first memories of Nicole is rooming together at a retreat at Lake Juneluska in 2004 and just laying in the room and watching Gilmore Girls. I think we have been great friends ever since. I know I can call on Nicole for anything from being my security blanket at a place to having a good girl chat. Luckily, she lives about 15 minutes away and we usually see each other once a week. Nicole is always there for me and I feel blessed to have her as a part of my life. I love you SISTER!

PS- Zumba next week for sure!

 

Much love to both my sisters and wonderful friends!

Ohhh and please come back for Day 11 for more of my  friends!!!

Day 2- The Meaning Behind My Blog Name

When I decided to start blogging about a year and a half ago I had a terribly difficult time selecting a blog name. I wanted my blog itself to be about sort of reviewing different things- books, movies, restaurants, really just anything that revolved around my Fabulous life. I wanted a really catchy name in case anyone ever picked up on my blog and I went national. I am still waiting by the way :) Since Life in the Fab Lane was already taken by Kimora Lee Simmons I had to come up with something else So I settled on The Good, The Bad, and The Fabulous and here we are today with that same title.

My blog has kind of morphed itself over the course of time to be more about my Fabulous Life and less about reviews. Although I do sort of review things on occassion but I find I mostly review things that I like and rate them a FABULOUS. I have considered changing the title but it was so hard to come up with the 1st time that I can’t even fathom what it would take to re-vamp the whole thing.

So I guess we are all stuck with it- The Good, The Bad, and The Fabulous of my life.

 

And yes I am rating this blog post a FABULOUS!

Day 1- A Recent Pic & 15 Interesting Facts

15. My 1st job ever was in high school teaching swimming lessons during the summer. Aww the memories of chlorine filled days, having kids literally jump on top of you from the diving board, and the crying.

14. I was in Show Choir in High School back before it was cool. I was in an all girls choir, The Pizazzy Ladies! We rocked!!! PL does not exist anymore and it is very sad.

13. I pass out at sight of blood or even an in depth conversation about blood or blood/medical related situations. I have done this since I was about 5 years old.

12. I  found out the place I was working at at the time was closing on the same day that I got engage. Needless to say the excitement about the engagement far overshadowed worries about losing my job at the time.

11. I was held back a year in kindergarten due to my age, my birthday was very close to the start date. My husband skipped a grade when he moved here from California. If I had not been held back and he had not skipped a grade we both would have graduated from high school the same year. It would have been different high schools, but I always thought that was cool to think about.

10. I changed my major about 3 times while I was in college before I finally landed on Business with a concentration in Human Resources.

9. Nick and I have been married for 3 years and still have a disagreement about when our first date occurred. He says in December 2003 when he took me to see Return of the King. That did occur but I was not sure it was a date at the time since we did not go out again till May 15,2004 to see Troy. I count the date to see Troy as our first date we both knew we were interested in each other then and there was a mutual understanding that it was a date.

8. I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior at  VBS at Higher Ground Baptist Church on June 29, 1995. I thank the Lord everyday for my salvation because with out it I would truly have nothing.

7. I am a planner almost to a fault. I sometimes have a hard time adjusting when plans do not go exactly my way, but I am working on that.

6. My Myers-Briggs personality type is ESFJ. To learn more check out this web-site.

5. When I get really nervous and out of my comfort zone I try to laugh and make others laugh to distract myself.

4. I NEVER bottle up my feelings. If I am upset, angry, sad, or happy I let people know. I can not hide my feelings and I always share. 

3. I have been blessed with a wonderful family both by birth and marriage and I am very thankful for each and every one of them.

2. Marriage has made me put on a few more pounds than I would have liked. So I am currently doing Weight Watchers to try to lose some of my wedding weight. It is so hard! I love food and it is hard to stay away from certain things but I know it is for my own good health.

1. The Lord has blessed me with so much in my life and I give him all the Praise and Glory!

30 Days of the FABULOUS Me!

After some powerful persuasion guilt trip I have decided to do the 30 Days of Me blog series that a lot of bloggers have been doing.

   Here is how it works- Each day, for 30 days, you enter a short blog about yourself. Each day has a specific title you follow, so not to worry about having to think of 30 different things to talk about! Basically this is just a way to learn a little more about your friends and spend some time focusing on yourself for a month. Let’s face it who loves me more than well . . .Me! And you know you want to know more about the Fabulous Me!

Here are the 30 titles I will be bringing to you :

Day 1- A recent pic of you and 15 interesting facts about yourself

Day 2- Meaning behind your blog name

Day 3- A pic of you and your friends

Day 4- A habit you wish you didn't have

Day 5- A pic of a place you have been to

Day 6- Favorite superhero and why

Day 7- Picture of something or someone who has had the biggest impact on you

Day 8- Short term goals for this month and why

Day 9- Something you are proud of in the past week

Day 10- Songs you listen to when you are happy, sad, hyped, mad

Day 11- Another pic of you and your friends

Day 12- How you found out about blogger and why you made one

Day 13- A letter to someone who has hurt you recently

Day 14- A pic of you and your family

Day 15- Put your ipod on shuffle- first 10 songs to play

Day 16- Another pic of yourself

Day 17- Someone you would want to switch lives with for one day and why

Day 18- Plans/dreams/goals you have

Day 19- Nicknames you have and why

Day 20- Someone you see yourself marrying, being with in the future. Or about your spouse.

Day 21-A pic of something that makes you happy

Day 22- Something that makes you different from everyone else

Day 23-Something you crave for a lot

Day 24- A letter to your parents

Day 25- What I would find in your bag

Day 26- What you think about your friends

Day 27- Why are you doing this 30 day challenge

Day 28- A pic of you last year and now- how have you changed?

Day 29- In this past month, what have you learned?

Day 30- Favorite song

Hopefully, I will make it every day if not I will have to ask you all to forgive me in advance.

ITALY!!!!

It is the moment you have all been waiting for: the ITALY blog has arrived!!! Anytime I blog a vacation or a huge event I always have a really hard time condensing the information, and this time it has been even harder.  I have actually started this blog 3 times scrapped the whole thing and started all over. This trip was so wonderful and meant so much to us that it has made it very challenging for me to summarize it into 1 blog. My sister in-law, Megan, kept a travel journal while we were on our trip which was a great idea! She then turned the journal into a blog, another great idea! Since we took almost 2,000 pictures I have decided to give you 7 of our  favorite pictures from each place we visited.  So away we go . . .

 Day 1- Venice/Venezia

Canals, Flooded Squares, Dollywood Naps and the long road to Rome

 

Off the back of the Water Taxi

 

Here I am in the Flooded San Marco Square

 

 San Marco Cathedral

 

On our Gondola Ride

 

 Beautiful!!

Our FAVORITE picture from Venice!

Our wonderful hosts! (San Marco finally drained out)

 

 

Day 2- ROME on My Birthday!!!

British friends, buses, trains, The Vatican, 1st pizza in Italy, The Colosseum, Spanish Steps by accident, and the  Trevi Fountain.

Riding the train in Rome- it was the best way to get from place to place.

Sweet family!

Everything in the Vatican is a work of art. This is just one of the beautiful ceilings!

St. Peter’s

The Colosseum

Creepy Italian Trees

 

At the Trevi Fountain

Okay- this is the 8th picture for Rome but I really liked this one!

Day 3- Pompeii

Dirty Naples, going to the volcano, Jupiter’s Temple, preserved bodies, trees to hug, 5 poops, and gypsy kids.

The EPIC vineyard picture at Pompeii

2 cuties!

The guys at Jupiter’s Temple

Mt. Vesuvius

One of the bodies

Sometimes you gotta just hug a tree!

Oaks x 4

Day 4- Pisa & Lucca

Supporting driving decisions, seeing the Amalfi Coast, the Golden Arches, Willie the Sparrow, Camp Darby, rain and farts at the Tower, blue skies, a fall in the mud, carousel ride, scary walk in the dark and . . .”I’ve got cereal on my butt!” (14 pics because we have 2 places)

Our faithful driver- he did a great job!

Yes , we ate at McDonald’s in Italy

At the Leaning Tower

Rain means cute umbrella pics!

The Duomo- post rain with pretty skies

I love this pic and I am not really sure why?

Chris Oaks- a self portrait

At Lucca- it is a city completely surrounded by a wall

Standing on the Wall

 

Someone took a little mud tumble

Riding the carousel

Back at the wall

Walking with Uncle Nick

The walls of Lucca at night

Day 5- Heading to Aviano

Cold shower for me, the van rocks, BLUE, Taco Bell, Winery for some tasting, MUSCATO, Shoe Shopping,  BFed, Chris “rocks” at Rock Band, Ace loves Nick

Getting ready to leave Camp Darby

My friend and I at Aviano

The Winery where we got the Muscato

Wild and Crazy in the van

Dinner at Bfed

Chris schooling Nick at Rock Band

Ace and Nick

Day 6- Piancavallo, Barcis, Polcenigo, Etc.

I can’t order my own pastry, Spaghetti House, Family Photo Shoot day :), really big fish, beautiful mountains and lake, rock picking, rock throwing, who brings an Escalade to Italy, JEOPARDY (Who knows how many pictures this will be, just enjoy).

Pretty cappuccino

These brothers just wanna hug

These brothers just wanna hold hands

At Piancavallo

Part of the Italian Alps

At Barcis- Love them all!!! (One of my FAVORITE pics)

Throwing rocks

Finding rocks

Holding Rocks

Guy picture

Girl Picture- miss you!

Love him!

Mom am I too far away??

Love this!

Going down?

Can we say- EPIC?!

View from the top

On top of the world- well it felt like it anyway

The trusty van!

Polcenigo

Beautiful!

I think the cave system is under there somewhere?

Pretty

The big fish!

Just love this one!

 Another one of my favorites 

Day 7 (the last day in Italy)- Trieste

GPS hates the Autostrada, Topher loses his OJ, Someone did not take his airborne and made someone else sick, Giant Cave, 1,000 Steps! Who picked this?, Tour guide almost didn’t 'make it, Nick attempted to conquer his fear of heights, no pictures allowed had to buy postcards, Gelato lunch, yay!!!, naps and packing, Bierengle, If I eat anymore I am going to have to leave here naked,. squatty potty

Giant Cave with 1,000 steps in Trieste

The exit out of the cave, no pics allowed inside.

The last meal- Bierengle, German restaurant

The 4 of us- we never got to take that picture (my only regret!)

Yikes- It’s the Squatty Potty!!!

Did you think I had forgotten the Green Shirt picture?

I know this blog was A LOT of pictures but to explain this entire trip in a blog would have been impossible. If you can’t tell from the pics we had a FABULOUS time. Italy is beautiful and we saw a ton of a amazing stuff. BUT this trip was more than site seeing for us, it was first and for most an amazing week with family. Family that we had not seen in a year. Nick actually realized on the last day of our trip that it was the longest period of time he had spent with his brother in five years, and it was the longest time that the two  of us had spent with Chris, Megan, and the boys ever. So every moment truly meant so much! All the laughs, inside jokes, and memories will be cherished forever! :)

I leave you with one final picture:

All of us

Chris, Megan, Topher, and Cannon we love you all very much and thank you for such a wonderful trip. We miss you every day and wish we were still there with you! By the way, we are so there for Ireland or a Mediterranean Cruise, just say the word ;)