7 Quick Takes: Spiders, Sisters, and Craftiness

Linking up with Jen's friend Carolyn for this edition of 7QT - yay, new friends!

1. Biggest and most exciting news first: I finished my Doctor Who scarf yesterday!!!! Woot! A more complete blog post on that is coming soon, don't you worry. This fangirl cannot limit her excitement to one little Take; a full post is definitely required. I mean, I crocheted the full scarf... I owe it to the scarf to write a full post about it. Here, I've already 'grammed it :) And here's a Flashback Friday to when two of my friends and I wrapped the first half around ourselves.

2. Speaking of crafty things, tomorrow night is officially Craft Night. A few friends and I are getting together to make Moscow Mules, do crafty things, talk, laugh, and perhaps watch a movie {if we can remember the three we said we would remember for such a time as this}. My craft is putting ribbons on cookie holders for a friend's wedding - wish me luck. It's going to be a blast, and it has been the happy thought getting me through this week.

3. My happy thought for next week is a person! My good friend Laurie {from the Frozen Tundra} is coming out for a business meetings our fathers have, and she is spending the week at my house! I will try and remember to take some pictures of us together - promise!

4. Alright, deep dark confession time: I don't get Twitter. Conceptually I understand it involves short notes and links and following and tweeting and retweets and favorites and hashtags... but I don't love it or use it frequently. Am I missing a crucial piece of knowledge that makes Twitter cooler than fro yo? Am I doing it wrong? Twitter Jedis, teach me your ways, for I am only a baby Twitter-bird.

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5. I get to hang out with my sister Jayna today! She came down for my dad's birthday dinner yesterday, and today we are going to coffee before she has to go back to work. I love spending time with my sister!

6. Just this week, I've killed three spiders. THREE! This. Week.
I don't care if the weather goes from 90* to 20* - spiders need to stay out of my house! Anybody have some good recipes for spider repellent? I'm frantically searching Pinterest as I type, because y'all know me and spiders do not get along.
The plus side of this story is that 2 of the 3 spiders were encountered before I left for work, so I couldn't just yell for Samara to come kill them. So I killed them. And then I killed them again, just for good measure. This picture sums up my life pretty well this week:

7. To end with a Funny Friday, here is Yzma as a Disney Princess:

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Happy Friday, friends! Enjoy your weekend :)

Finish This: Week Twenty-two

Hey there! Today I'm linking up with these fabulous link-up hosts: Nicole at Three 31, Jen at The Arizona Russums, Lisa at Coastlined, and Becky at The Java Mama.

I conquer fear by using the extension of the vacuum cleaner to suck up spiders. By reminding myself that as long as the house doesn't catch on fire, it won't kill me to try a new recipe. By laughing at whatever scares me...or laughing at myself being scared. And if I could whistle, I totally would, a la "The King and I."

I follow my heart by volunteering at Care Net as a client advocate. Getting to discuss options with a lady facing a crisis pregnancy is one of the most intimidating and most rewarding conversations I'll ever have. I love it, even when it's challenging. 

I feed my soul by reading wonderful books. By laughing with my bestie. By a phone date with my bosom friend. By babysitting. By watching "Miranda." By baking cookies. By cleaning my room. 

I used to worry about making friends after moving home, but then I found that by letting go of my preconceived ideas of people allowed {and still allows} me to get to know some amazing people. As Yvonne and I shared, and then as I shared for the Not Alone Series, making friends is about making a risk and then sharing the reward. Also, blogging friends can become real friends! :)

Thanks for reading! Come back next week for more Finish This prompts.

Learning About Blood and Spider Guts and Squishes

Linking up with Emily from Chatting At the Sky for this "educational" post. Ha.

I learned that there is a reason for the rule about washing new jeans before you wear them. Specifically, this is a rule of thumb if you typically rest your thumb on your legs while you work. Whatever color your jeans are, so also shall be that thumb.

I learned a new vocabulary word: squish. Not like Dory's Squishy, but squish the noun. Here, look, proof:

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I learned that opening cans is dangerous, even if they have a deceptively easy handle to remove the lid. On Sunday before Memorial Day, I was cooking mexican lasagna for the next day, and when I opened the can of corn, the lid sliced into my pinky. Ew ew ew. I didn't faint, but I definitely felt woozy and light-headed, so my sister came over and after we determined that it had been bleeding for an hour, we went to Urgent Care. NO STITCHES! Praise God! I'm still wearing a band-aid, but I'd wear a band-aid for three weeks if it meant no stitches. 

After overhearing my bestie's skype conversation, I learned/had a revelation/lightbulb turned on/heavens opened up to reveal that I actually want to pursue something verrrrry different than what I had thought. 

After telling some friends and hearing their overwhelming "Bek, absolutely you can do that!" responses {thanks, everyone!}, I learned that this is what Eleanor Roosevelt meant when she said: "Do one thing every day that scares you." 

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Finally, I learned that a vacuum is the best tool ever in terms of spider killing. If you know my history with spiders, you know that of my little flat, it is my flatmate who kills spiders, not I. But last night she was out, and there was a spider on my ceiling, and I didn't want to go to Zumba and come back and not know where it went, so I got my vacuum and sucked it up {literally - ha!}. Clean ceiling {not like that was a problem before}, dead spider, and peace while at Zumba = win win win. 

That's all, folks! See ya next month for some more learning. 

Finish This: Week Five

Linking up with Jen at The Arizona Russums, Becky at The Java Mama, Lisa at Coastlined, and Nicole at Three 31.

I will never outgrow holding babies, staying up way too late reading, hating, fearing, and killing spiders, sleeping with Sylvester, wanting to live in both Washington and Kentucky, drinking mojitos, and wiping ketchup off my hamburger from Dick's Drive-In.

I splurge on good shoes. Good books. The clearance rack at Target.

My worst habit is leaving things in a pile for weeks on end. The house is clean...except for all the stuff sitting on my desk and dresser. But if I can shut the bedroom door, it still counts as clean, right?

My passport represents adventure! Last year, I traveled internationally three times within 12 months, which is pretty cool. You can read about two of those trips here.

My most ridiculous fear is probably having my car blown up because of someone's cigarette. I wrote about it here, for your amusement reading pleasure.

My favorite thing to give is time, because then we're both getting something! But if this prompt is asking for something tangible, then I will say I love to give books. It's the gift that keeps on giving :)

Ta-da! Go check out the link-up to read more.

Blog Every Day Feb: Day Three - Scared

Linking up with Bailey Jean for Blog Every Day in February!

Here are the prompts for both your benefit and mine. And because this fabulous shade of pink needs to be admired more.

Something that scares me... besides spiders hiding somewhere in my house???

When I was younger, I was petrified for skeletons. My family went put-put golfing at a pirate-themed course, and because there was a skeleton on the back wall, I didn't want to golf. At night, I was always imagining skeletons at the foot of my bed. Once, I got so scared of these skeletons that I slept in a crouching position on top of my pillow, which put me literally the farthest distance from the skeletons as possible. I told you I was petrified!

Nowadays, my fear of skeletons has calmed down to just a general dislike. I'm more afraid of accidentally burning my house down via cooking or leaving on the hair straightener. Also, I'm not terribly fond of crosswalks, and I'm pretty sure I'm justified in this concern.

Like Bailey, I struggle with being afraid of what others think of me. Some days aren't bad, but other days my every conversation is under the scrutiny of my insecurities and I want to hide in a cave and not let anyone know me.

I'm also afraid of missing God's will for my life. Some of this is a good, holy, fear-of-the-Lord kind of fear, and I'm glad to have that. But some of this is a selfish, me-based fear that doesn't believe God is good enough or that I'm good enough for Him or that He can use me whenever He wants.

How do I overcome these fears? The Word of God, the Blood papers, dialogue with my parents and close friends, and journaling and praying all help me get focused on the Truth. The truth is that I have nothing to fear, that God loves me so I don't have to worry what others think of me, that He is using me now in my flawed state, and that nothing I do can screw up God's plans.

Thank you, Bailey, for such a great prompt! If you would like to join the link-up, hop on over to Anchored in Love and share your story, what fires you up, and what scares you.

Along Came A Spider...

You may have caught the gist of this story on Facebook. However, my mind is so scarred that this is all I can think of. So please enjoy.

Last night, I vacuumed the entire condo.

Let me back up.

There I was, minding my own business, bawling over Doctor Who {yes, I've already seen these episodes, and yes, I still cried. Ten saying goodbye to all his companions? Tearing up as I type!}

So I'm sitting on the floor wearing my Princess Diaries-inspired pajamas, wrapped in a cocoon of my pink blanket, and in the corner of my eye, I see something move. Now, Samara is out for the evening, so there should be no movement except for me and the television screen. Nevertheless, something moved.

What my eyes beheld was not something that brought joy to my heart. Or as someone commented on Facebook, "that did not bless me."

There was a HUGE spider making a move on my Kleenex box. As in, it was between me and my tissue. As in, just a few inches from my person. But don't worry. Our close proximity only lasted about half a second.

I leaped onto the couch and let loose an expression that I will not share here. By the time I turned around to look at the spider, it was gone. Completely gone. 

On the one hand, I was really glad the spider hadn't attached itself to me or my blanket. On the other hand, I wanted to know where the darned thing was hiding!

Soooo I vacuumed the entire condo. I even vacuumed the closet in which the vacuum resides. The couch got a good once-over. The recliner {upon which I was leaning at the time of this incident} got pulled out and the whole area was vacuumed over a couple of times. I even did the hand-held and vacuumed as far behind the bookshelf as I could reach. 

But the spider was nowhere to be found. It was partially not at all reassuring, but I had also vacuumed my room, so I went to bed in peace. But just to be safe, I warned Samara via text: "beware the loose spider!"

This morning, Samara reported that the spider had been waiting for her...in her room...the one place I hadn't vacuumed because, like, personal space and stuff. But that spider was smart- it went to the one place I wouldn't vacuum!

Rest well, readers: Samara's nickname is "Sting, the Spider Slayer" because that woman takes out spiders like a Seattlite takes out recycling. Which is like a boss, in case you don't get my made-up analogy. 

Anyway, this story has a two-part happy ending. The condo is vacuumed and the spider is dead. Holla. 

UPDATE: If you would like to read Samara's version, please brace for a chuckle and enjoy :)