Just....Wow!

A little treat for you guys right before Thanksgiving, just in case you haven't seen these guys before, they are freaking amazing!! Plus I have to go to work again soon....these are the long days with two jobs :P

Love,
Sara :)

Mini Soapbox: Thanksgiving Forgotten?

Why is it that all the stores all over are already advertising for the holiday season? I mean, I am as much a fan if decorating for Christmas, doing holiday crafts and cards, and celebrating, but what happened to thanksgiving?! I'm getting the feeling that people are forgetting about Christmas. We live in a society so materialistic and single-minded that we can go from celebrating and being thankful for what we have, to everyone rushing to the stores on Black Friday in irder to get the best deals on more stuff. Sigh, in all this rush I think we forget the true meaning of the holiday season and thanksgiving. This is a time to celebrate with friends and family and realize what we have and what we can give to those who do not have what we do. While ideally this is something that should be practiced year round, at least there is one time of year when nearly everyone realizes that we can share what we have.

Where did this rant come from? Well, I was on Pinterest today and I read a quote about how materialistic our society is and realizing that for the past two hours I had been pinning things that have to do with decorating for thanksgiving and Christmas and planning parties. I came to the sudden realization that I do the same thing at this time of year, when it is before thanksgiving and Christmas and all I want to do is celebrate. I can't wait until I have somewhere I can do these things and I was thinking about what I would do when I suddenly realized what I was thinking about. Wow, reality check!

So, this rant us really just that, a rant. I guess I am a little annoyed today with all of the materialism going on around me. I will have to share later what I do to help this during the holiday season and throughout the rest of the year too. I will probably be back to being slightly more materialistic later on, but I guess this is just a bit of food for thought.

So, maybe this year I can buy a turkey not for myself (since I'm a vegetarian and don't eat turkey) but for someone who might not have one this year! I believe it was last year that California ran out if turkey's for thanksgiving? Sounds like there's lots of people who could use help or at least a little bit of assistance with some things. I'm not sure exactly what I'm talking about now but I guess I must have made my point somewhere in this languish rant! I hope you guys are having a great week and I'll be back with less....depressing?...stuff later :)

Love,

Sara :)

Climbing Update

Alright so today's climbing update is a bit more than just a quick update on my climbing stats, I'm also going to share and "if only..." that has to do with climbing gear. Here goes!
This past week-ish (yea a while ago, oops!), I was back home for Thanksgiving Break. So, while I was there, on Friday, Matt and I decided to go rock climbing, because we obviously haven't gone together in a long while. We went down there and found that they had put up some new routes (apparently they try to put up and new route or two every month) down at Turner Hall, meaning of course we had to try at least a few of them. We did, and it was pretty fun! I got a little lazy at one point but we continued to climb about 4 or 5 times up the wall (which is like half the size of the wall here at Olaf, but still functional and pretty fun) and did several boldering challenges. We ended up climbing alone, a little sad, but friends were able to stop by which was nice. I feel like I'm finally getting better at climbing!
After climbing, we talked for a while about the different equipment and looked at what Turner Hall had for sale. We learned that harnesses cost between $65-$95 and that doesn't include shoes, chalk bags, chalk, or a belay device. We did a little research when we got home and found that there is a place at Bayshore Mall (the closest mall to us) that had a store called Erehwon, which carried climbing gear! This was news to us and so we decided to investigate later on.
On Saturday, we headed down to Erehwon (nowhere spelled backwards) and talked to someone about the harnesses they had there. We learned that one big difference between harnesses was the leg straps; meaning some harnesses had adjustable ones while others didn't. We definitely decided that we would want the adjustable ones (you never know! we might grow!). The other difference was the double backing loops, these were I believe all automatically double backed now, which is pretty nice! It save a lot of hassle and extra work when putting on the harness.
Unfortunately I can't show any pictures because the website is a little lacking in the accuracy area (at least when we first checked it). But if me or Matt gets one for Christmas or at any point, I will be sure to post some pictures for you to see.
Have an great Tuesday :D
Love,
Sara :)

Break Update

Hey guys!
So as you may have learned/guessed, it's Thanksgiving Break currently (yay!!), which means I'm home for the first time this school year :). I do enjoy being home, but unfortunately, being in the middle of a busy and slightly stressful semester of college, I have homework to do over break as well. I will give you a quick little run down of what has been happening so far during my break.
To start off with, I got home late Tuesday night (meaning a bit after 10 pm). I got to say hi to my family and meet our new cat, Dorito (I will have some pictures up of Dorito in a later post, probably tomorrow), and try out a new coffee machine that we have (pretty snazy!). On Wednesday, we cleaned the entire house, which really took most of a day, we also got food ready for the family that was coming up for Thanksgiving on Thursday (yesterday). I got to cut up the cheese and sausage and arrange them on the plate. That night I visited Matt for a while and we talked about Thanksgiving, school, made some plans for Friday, and just enjoyed each other's company.
Thanksgiving day (happy belated Thanksgiving everyone!) was a very busy day that included lots of food preparation and I was placed in charge of the stuffing, gravy, creamed corn, and sweet potatoes. Also, I was by the microwave, so when relatives brought in mashed potatoes and rolls, I heated them up. We had many people at our house yesterday for thanksgiving, I believe it was around 16-20 people, it was nice to be able to catch up with the family and to see them again. We haven't all been able to get together in several months, I believe the last time was June and before that was last December! While not everyone was able to make it, the majority was and that was very nice to have :)
Today is a homework day. I'm hoping to get most, if not all of my outline done for my history research paper done. The outline itself is due on Monday, and is a big part of our grade for the paper. I'm going to be working on that until around 4, when I'm heading out to dinner with Matt, and then we are going rock climbing with his sister and her boyfriend. I hope to get a majority of this (if not all!) outline done before 4 pm, and then to have a good time tonight! :)
How was everyone's Thanksgiving? What are some of your plans for the rest of the week? Did anyne go to Black Friday?
Have a great day!
Love,
Sara :)

Musica Monday

Ok I failed...I got distracted by Netflix last night and never posted my Musica Monday...fail on my part. :( I can say however that not only do I have a Musica Monday for you, but I have a drawing that I've finished and another I started and finished sketching out last night! :) I could also blame the fact that Thanksgiving Break starts TODAY!! I'm heading home in less than an hour (I think :P), which is nice, it's the first time I've been home since September!
So, the musica I have for you today (ik not Monday...sorry!) is from a British singer/songwriter named Frank Turner. I was lucky enough to see him and his band in concert this past February, when I went to a Dropkick Murphy's concert! It was really quite awesome and the entire concert was pretty sweet! There are so many good songs that I could post your you guys and I wasn't sure which one to do, so I'm going to (again) put up more than one and I encourage you to watch as many as you'd like or none if you'd rather.

What new bands have you discovered/come across lately? I'd love to hear!
Love,
Sara :)

Climbing Update

All I really should say about my climbing from Saturday is that I made it up the wall twice. And I did! I failed however to follow any sort of route and I have discovered that I really need to workout more if I want to improve! I'm hoping to go climbing again this Friday when I head back home for thanksgiving this Tuesday through Sunday :) what are your thanksgiving plans?
Love,
Sara :)