Officially Autumn.

The first day of fall certainly warrants a blog post. I have been waiting for today since the first scorching hot day of the summer. Are we in agreement that the summer was unbearable? Yes, we are. ...I thought so.

I'm not typically a morning person - usually I will not talk to you until I completely wake up, which takes a couple of hours - but I am feeling particularly happy today. I think because the events of today have been quite comical, and I have only been awake for less than 2 hours.

Ash woke me up this morning so that I could braid her hair. She told me my alarm had been going off for a long time and that she herself was almost late for work. This gave me the idea that I was running late. In a hurry, I checked the time; it said 7:30 on my phone but my brain registered that it was 8:30. So, like usual, I let myself lay in bed for 10 or 15 more minutes. I had planned on getting up early to straighten my hair, but at this point, I threw my hair up in messy pigtails. I rushed out to my car and was on my way to work, running just a few minutes behind... like normal. I walked up to our office door and almost unlocked it when I noticed that there were no lights on in LensCrafters and they are always here before the doctor's side. I checked my phone to see if someone tried to contact me because they were late and that is the point that I noticed it had just turned 8:03 am. Not 9:03. I was one whole hour early to work. There was nothing I could do but laugh. I felt a little dumb. And a little embarrassed.

But I quickly absolved my embarrassment by treating myself to a Pumpkin Spiced Latte for the first day of fall. How convenient is it that Starbucks is just across the parking lot from my work? I am one lucky optometric technician. ;)

I enjoyed the latte in Starbucks for a while before retreating to my car to finish it off while listening to The Cab. (BTW, they have a new album "Symphony Soldier" that is to die for. I am in love with the entire album and have been able to listen to nothing else. You must go out and buy it!) While sitting in my car, a few drops of the orange colored latte dropped onto my light green scrubs. I had a napkin so I dipped it in the cup of water I had with me and scrubbed the two spots until it was only semi-noticeable. A few minutes later, I did it again - this time, it was more like splashes of latte. I then happened to notice a random pair of nicely-folded-and-ready-to-be-worn scrubs in my car. I just had to chuckle at the situation.

Nothing went "right" this morning but everything turned out better than I had wanted/planned. I think it was God who orchestrated this entire thing. It's Friday. It's Fall. It feels fabulous outside. He sure knows how to make me happy. :)

Happy Friday, lovelies!

Locks of Love.

Kind of hard to see, but
this was the night before.



Cousin It.



12 inches.



New hair.



Half a century.

Daddy is 50 years young today! In celebration, here are 50 things you probably didn't know about him...

1. He is the youngest of four.
2. He is an engineer for SRS.
3. His transportation is a motorcycle.
4. He is the funniest person alive.
5. He calls me Bucket.
6. He has taught himself to play many many instruments, including guitar, banjo, piano, drums, etc.
7. His mind is incredibly creative; he used to help my siblings and I with projects and such.
8. His middle name is Alan.
9. He played soccer in college as a goalie.
10. He filmed hours and hours of our lives as we were growing up.
11. He graduated from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
12. He used to DJ for all of our school dances. (The high school pageants, too.)
13. He gave me my middle name. (Brooke)
14. He  is the parent from which my siblings and I learned our sarcasm/humor/quick wit.
15. He's a trekkie.
16. He looks exactly like his father did.
17. He is relatively a quiet person (I take after him).
18. He helped coach the softball teams I was on.
19. He used to rock a mustache.
20. His favorite movie is The Blues Brothers.
21. He watched all of the Harry Potters so he could go with my siblings and I to the Deathly Hallows
part 2 midnight premier.
22. He is an avid reader.
23. He has two brothers and one sister.
24. He broke both arms when he was little. (I think he fell off of a tree.)
25. He can fix anything.
26. He gave his physical genes to Cody and Brandy.
27. He is a runner.
28. He rode the dragon on his motorcycle. (a winding, narrow, curvy road in the mountains)
29. He will "hit the deck" at every rapid.
30. He chews on toothpicks until there is barely anything left.
31. He is the master griller.
32. If our old (long time dead) dog, Scotty, was a person, he would be my dad.
33. He once burned me with boiling water on accident. (we were making macaroni and cheese)
34. He was the tooth puller and fairy.
35. He would call every single one of our pets "Biscuit."
36. He taught my siblings and I the Smartt family secret.
37. He knows how to turn a phrase for a paper. (He helped us plenty of times.)
38. He has done (possibly is still doing?) the Caveman Diet.
39. He used to play "Everybody Dance Now" on the stereo for us in the living room so he could
watch/film us dancing.
40. He tried a Krystal at the Krystal Headquarters in Chattanooga before it came out.
41. When he was little, he used to lay under the record player to watch the gears turn.
42. He wears contacts. (In fact, he is the one that contributed to my bad vision. :P)
43. He built us a fort in our backyard.
44. He is very handy with tools.
45. He is an incredible artist.
46. As a teen, he had perfect helmet shaped hair.
47. He had a red '68 or '69 Camaro. And I think he had it until Brandy was born; they traded it in for a
Ford Aerostar aka The Pimp Van.
48. His first worked at TVA before moving us to North Augusta to work at SRS.
49. He tans very quickly.
50. He used to put all of our drawings on the wall in his old office behind his computer. It was
completely filled.

Happy Birthday, Fah-jah!

I love you so much!!

Blood & Music.

The deep crimson hue of a half a liter of blood is quite pretty. I watched that amount of my own blood flow from my arm through a long, clear tube and into an IV bag. It was my first time to give blood. I hadn't planned on doing that for my afternoon off, but Ash did and she asked me to come along. I was pretty excited because I have always wanted to donate. The tube sat on the length of my arm as it transported life juice from my body; I could feel the warmth of the blood. It was rather neat. I could definitely feel the change in my body as I sat in that chair. It's been a couple hours now and I can still feel the after effects. It's not bad, just uncomfortable; I'm a bit woozy. And they gave us a free T-shirt! That's always a good thing, and the shirts are actually really cute. Win-win, eh?

You know, the iPod song shuffle survey thing...

How am I feeling today? Ordinary - Candlefuse
How do my friends see me? Forgiven - Sanctus Real
What is my best friend's theme song? Enchanted - Taylor Swift
What is the story of my life? Good Girls Go Bad - Cobra Starship ..haha
What is the best thing about me? Miracle - Paramore
What is today going to be like? The Broken - Coheed and Cambria 
What is in store for this week? The Moment - Safteysuit
What song describes my mom? I Don't Need a Soul - Relient K
What song describes my dad? Just Like Somebody Else - Big Daddy Weave
To describe my grandparents? Beautiful Words - The Afters
How is my life going? Enjoy the Silence - Anberlin
What song will they play at my funeral? Last Flight Home - All Time Low
How does the world see me? Thinking About You - Norah Jones
Will I have a happy life? Next Year - Corey Smith
What do my friends really think of me? Burn This City - Cartel
How can I make myself happy? Promise the Stars - We The Kings
What should I do with my life? Crank Dat Soulja Boy - Soulja Boy
What is some good advice for me? She is Love - Parachute
How will i be remembered? From the Bottom of my Broken Heart - Britney Spears
What is my signature dancing song? The Party Scene - All Time Low
What is my current theme song? Perfectly Lonely - John Mayer ..haha, great.
What does everyone else think my current theme song is? Word of God Speak - Kutless ..dang.

LIFE STORY:
Opening Credits: One Sweet Love - Sara Bareilles
Waking Up: The Real - Nevertheless
First Day At School: Brighter - Paramore
Falling In Love: Endless Love - Glee version
Fight Song: One Time - Justin Bieber ..haha
Breaking Up: Forgiven - Alan Lastufka & Luke Conard
Prom: You Got It Bad - Usher
Life's OK: World of Warcraft Ruined My Life - All Caps
Mental Breakdown: Left All Alone - There For Tomorrow
Driving: Decode - Paramore
Flashback: Love Like Woe - The Ready Set
Getting Back Together: Other Side of the Door - Taylor Swift
Wedding: Lullaby - The Spill Canvas
Birth of Child: Brink of Disaster - Mae
Final Battle: You Make Me Sick - Pink
Death Scene: This is How I Disappear - My Chemical Romance
Funeral Song: Party Foul - Family Force 5
End Credits: You'll Be In My Heart - Usher singing the Disney song from Tarzan

What song describes my mood right now? Shackles - Mandisa
What song do I listen to when Im depressed? Somebody to Love - Anne Hathaway
Happy? Billionaire - Glee version
Scared? Yule Shoot Your Eye Out - Fall Out Boy
Bored? Banana Pancakes - Jack Johnson


Movies seen in theater: 47
DvDs bought: 72 (it changed!)

The (not-so) Great Pyramid.

Instead of writing what I actually want to write, I am going to write about those things that I want to write about. Confusing, eh?

I have several unfinished posts that I eventually want to put on here, but it just requires so much thinking right now. I am currently listening to some great music and it seems that is where my attention is going to stay.

So, the posts I need to get to soon:
...Smartt Sibling Staycation '11
...an awesome dream from last night
...The Wonder Years (elementary age but looking at life outside of school)

There, now someone can hold me accountable. (Bear Jew? Loretta? Ace? Jacques?) Make me do these this week.

I know I have skipped two days in a row (oops!) but here is my excuse for last night:

My friends and I went to Leah and Chris' house for game night. (Ash was there too, but she isn't fully pictured. That's her arm in the background. Ha) And the night before, I just chose not to do it. I had all day to write something, seeing as I was off of work, so I had no excuse. I was just being a lazy bum.

Today was a great day in RiverKidz at church! We had 11 youngsters... not too shabby, eh? We tried to make a human pyramid, but we couldn't get everyone to stack that high without casualties. So, here are a few of the kids and the other 3 RiverKidz workers doing their best:

I sure do love being in there with these awesome kids!

Movies seen in theater: 46
DvDs bought: 70 (this number hasn't changed in quite a long time.)

These are a few of my favorite things.

Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes
Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eye lashes

Silver white winters that melt into spring

These are a few of my favorite things.

I once saw a book that was just one long list of the things that made the author happy. Really, it listed anything and everything the author could think of. I decided to make my own (significantly shorter) list:
(You may think some are cheesy. If so, bite me.)


Rain

Lessening the impact of a horror movie by filtering it through my fingers

Old movie posters

Smiling

Home videos

A true friend

Holding hands

Laughter being the best medicine

Lazy days

Sharing a secret with only one other person

Driving

Daisies

A non-humid, warm day

 

Scavenger hunts

 

Getting off of work early

Waking up earlier than needed and just laying there in bed

Making s’mores by the fire

Backyard football in the fall

Jesus

Winter

& Fall

Texting

Tennessee Mountains

Doodling

Old photographs

Weddings

Star gazing/seeing a shooting star

Lovely Facebook comments

The atmosphere of a hotel

A full tank of gas

Seeing the sun set and moon rise

The “snuggle right in” feeling

A dark room while relaxing

New ringtones

Reading a journal I kept from some time ago

Pleasant dreams

A saxophone playing softly in the background

Singing as loud as I want to my favorite song

Writing

Reminiscing 

Finding the perfect outfit

Using a word I just learned

Stating a useless fact for the heck of it

Taking a much needed nap

A sea breeze on a hot day

Finding something I thought I’d lost 

Learning something new and interesting

Falling asleep listening to my favorite CD 

The love of my family

A fresh pair of contacts

Excitement about seeing a movie in theaters 

Watching someone’s face as they open my gift

Compliments

Getting my work done and having time to spare

Reading a great book, then wanting to reread it

Girls night out

Putting on warm clothes from the dryer

Long, hot showers

Getting the last piece of Mawmaw’s chocolate cake

Sharing clothes with my sisters

New hairdo/color

Freshly painted toenails

Sunlight through the trees

Taking pictures

Seeing my family after a couple months

Cuddling

Homemade cooking

Playing make-believe with my little cousin

Movie extras

Seeing old friends

Watching favorite TV shows and movies from my childhood

Chapstick

Softball

Sweet love songs

Cute AND comfortable shoes

Recurring dream.

I don't know what it is with my subconscious, but I have some of the most disturbing dreams. What's worse is that this particular dream occurred last night for the third time. You know, after the first time a disturbing dream happens, I think to myself I don't ever want to have that dream or a dream like it again. Sadly, I can not control my subconscious or the dream itself no matter how hard I try. It's awful. Anyway, here it goes:

In my dream, I lived back in SC in my old house. I was of a preteen age and Cody just happened to be around 5 or 6 (not our normal age difference). Cody and a little girl friend he had visited this elderly couple almost everyday in our neighborhood. The couple would feed them treats. I could feel in the dream my uneasiness towards that house every time I passed it. The particular day of the dream, Cody and his friend were over there and I told my mom that I just didn't like it anymore and that I was going to get them.

As I walked nearer to the front door, all sorts of bad feelings flooded my body. I heard Cody and his friend talking to the man around the back of the house. The man started to usher the kids inside so I asked if I could join them. The man looked to the window and gave his wife a suspicious expression at my request, but in the end, he invited me inside.

The lady sat us down at their kitchen table and handed us each a plate of - well, I'm not quite sure what it was. I didn't eat any of it. Anyway, the man pulled the lady from the room and that is when my nightmare had been confirmed. Cody and his friend whispered to me that after they eat what was prepared, they would have to go into a room and the couple would do things to them. (I will spare you the details.) The kids were always told that if they tell anyone, bad things would happen and that had to keep coming back or those same bad things would happen.

At that moment, I grabbed them both by the arm and we ran out the side door. As I looked around, I saw Brandy and Mom getting ready to walk to the front door so I called them to where we were. Luckily, the couple did not return to the kitchen to see that we had fled. Instead, I heard the back door open and we ran as fast as we could to the only thing we could hide behind - this "wall" of windows. There was a small amount of wood covering the bottom area of the wall, so if we layed still enough on the ground, it could have possibly hidden us. Brandy had Cody wedged under her and I had the girl. We told them they had to be really still and quiet until I told them to get up.

I would peek through a window every few seconds to view the situation. The man was out back smoking a cigarette when the lady yelled to him that we were gone. They frantically searched the area and eventually concluded that we were long gone and then, he noticed the top of my head as I peeked for the last time. He started running at us, yelling in a deep, low voice and his face contorting into the scariest face possible...

Then, my body jerks itself awake.