I hope everyone is enjoying their Thursday! It’s a good day to be inside. How did September get so cold? My dog, Olive, won’t even go outside. That has been quite a joy for me today.

Hopefully tomorrow is sunny!

I really do love this time of year. Today was beautiful outside, and you can really tell that fall is upon us. This weekend’s task is to switch out clothing in the closet.

What I hate is being sick. It seems to happen every time the seasons change like this.. and I know I’m not alone. Hopefully my body adjusts to the changes soon. Until then, I’m just going to take the opportunity to rest.

No matter who you are, you couldn’t get through yesterday without thinking about where you were on 9/11.
On the 10th anniversary, I found most of the coverage fascinating. We heard stories from people who were born on that day, we heard from some victims’ children. We also heard from people who decided to mold their career choices because of what happened on that day.

On 9/11 I was a freshman in college. I think I had been there about two weeks before the terror attacks happened. I woke up in my dorm room to a flurry of other people on my floor asking us to turn on the TV.

Such a weird time in my life in general. Obviously, it was exciting to be in college and away from home for the first time. But, I was in a bubble.

A few days before 9/11, my younger brother Danny was hit by a truck.

Seriously. It was awful.

No one at home wanted to upset me, so I found out on the computer, which was just the worst.

He was only in the 7th grade and was riding bikes with a friend, when an old man hit him.

Thank God he’s here right now.. and it wasn’t worse than it was.

By the time 9/11 happened I thought, wow.. what’s going to happen next.

I honestly feel like being in college on 9/11 was strange.. in the sense that I didn’t understand everything that was going on at first. I guess no one did right away.

But for me, being at home on 9/11 would have had much more of an immediate impact on my life. Even just talking to my parents at home during that time period would have made the terror attacks much more real to me I’m sure. 

In ten years so much has changed. I mean, I have changed, the country has changed. I will always be able to say that I lived through a very difficult in our nation’s history. I hope we never go through anything like that again.

She danced with my brother at my sister’s wedding. She was tall, beautiful, and full of life. I didn’t know her, only saw her once, but she was a great friend of my sister’s sister-in law.

I don’t even think I was ever formally introduced to Meagan Toothman.

But after she became a victim in the Indiana State Fair stage collapse.. I will say that I prayed for her and thought about her often.

The amateur footage of the stage collapse was just heart breaking.  And to find out someone I even remotely knew was apart of the accident made it even worse.

I was told she was in the Sugar Pit, and was caught in the collapse.  I know she had a stage light fall on her and she sustained burns.  Even though I didn’t know her, the way she had been injured just made me sick.

When she was in a medically induced coma, I kept thinking about her family, friends—people who loved her so much, and hoped that she would wake up, good as new.

But only a few days, Meagan died because her injuries were just too much.

Tragedy like this happens so suddenly, and this one was so bizarre–and pubic.  One minute life is completely normal, the next, the world is turned inside out.

It makes me think about how much impact one life has.  The fact that I didn’t even know this person, but her death impacted me in some way.

I don’t know of anyone who saw that stage collapse and didn’t cringe.

I wish things like this didn’t happen, but they do.  I feel bad that people I know and love have suffered because of this accident.

You just have to believe that when you go, you are in a much better place than we can ever dream of here.

Lately I have really been into antiquing. There are plenty of places in northwest Ohio to go and find hidden treasures that people would pay full price for at the stores if they were cleaned up.

Recently I bought some old cameras and a piece of artwork for our living room. It’s crazy how great the picture looks there.

I have been to a few antique stores in Perrysburg, but I need to head to the Maumee Antique Mall or go down to the big antique place off of I-75 near Findlay.

Also, a few weeks ago when I was back home, near Cleveland, my family and I went to a place called the Miscellaneous Barn.

When we drove up to the building I thought I would never find anything inside, but it turned out to be an extremely fun day.

My mom and sister tried on some old-time hats. Then I bought a chair for our office for $20 bucks.

Perfect.

Here are some web sites that I absolutely love. They help inspire some of my apparel, home decorating, accessory, even recipe choices.

Most of the time I don’t buy anything on these sites, but I get really great ideas.  Here’s to your inner creative-self!

http://pinterest.com/

www.anthropologie.com
www.etsy.com

I am so excited to say that I get to see my family twice in one week. My parents, sister, and niece just came to town last weekend for a visit. In about 7 hours I’ll be driving home to Cleveland to see them again.

I love my family. Can’t say it enough…

This week my husband are going through some of our junk, and giving it away (or throwing it away). I must say it has been an interesting process.
I’d say it’s high time I got rid of high school boyfriend cards/etc. Didn’t even realize I had some of that stuff… woops.
Also, I didn’t realize that Luke and I had so many kitchen glasses. I also have too many pairs of shoes. Size 10… some pairs never worn.  Want them?
It really leads me to think about how you tend to always fill the area you live in.. even unnecessarily. Perhaps we should get a smaller place.

Lord, what would I do without my I-Pod during a long run.
Here are some of the songs on my current workout playlist:

1. Machu Picchu: The Strokes
2. This Modern Love: Bloc Party 
3. Magical Mystery Tour: The Beatles
4. Good to Me: The White Stripes
5. Do You Want it All: Two Door Cinema Club
6. A Chore: Tom Vek
7. Ready to Start: Arcade Fire 
8. Barton Hollow: The Civil Wars
9. Bennie and the Jets: Elton John

Here’s to my next run..