Archive for May, 2009
the lake
This past weekend we got to visit my grandparents at their LakeHouse for Memorial Weekend. We had an awesome time, and although it did rain the entire trip, it was great getting to see my grandparents, cousin Lindsey, Aunt Vicci, and Uncle Steve. I was completely floored when I discovered that we hadn’t been up to the cabin since last memorial weekend (a whole stinking year)! Because of the rain our outdoor activity was slightly limited. We didn’t get to do the ususal boating, skiing, swimming, and getting nice and tan while lying on a raft floating in the water (my personal favorite). However, rain did not prevent us from one thing we love at the lake, some good solid time with slimy-worm on hooks fishing! I always forget how much I enjoy fishing until I visit the lake. We aren’t the usual “quiet” fishers, we all just hang on the dock and catch up on life, it’s so relaxing. I got to hear about my cousin Lindsey’s new job, and heck, I even caught up my sister while we were there (and we live less than a 1/2 mile from eachother)!
Basically what I’m saying is that the lakehouse is awesome! While hanging inside (away from the rain) I got to happily eat my share of some scrumpteous cheesedip and we had a hilarious time playing Taboo. I’m so glad my Papa decided to build the lakehouse, and even more glad that it’s been ‘updated’ so that us kids don’t all have to sleep in the same room on a bunkbed 
My overall lakehouse report: As usual the food was AMAZing and the relaxation of just hanging out with family made it a fantastic trip. Now I will do the awesome treat of providing some pictures of our trip:
don’t fret, there are more pictures coming soon… (gotta get them from mom’s camera) Happy Friday 
Tech support
This is a picture of my boss. Yes, he’s talking on two phones at the same time. It seems it’s going to be one of those fun sorts of days!
LOST'mania
Stephen sent this to me and it really made me laugh. Gotta love the shows that have taken place on Islands over the years…
Wand-Making Galore
I know you must be wondering what in the world this post is about, with a title that intriguing!! Well let me show you:
That picture is exactly what it looks like, super cool looking wands!
For those of you who don’t know, the new Harry Potter movie, “The Half-Blood Prince”, is coming out this summer (July 15th to be exact). I am a bit of a fan of the Harry Potter series, it was the first book series I read, and led to me falling in love with fiction. Reading an entire set of 7 books was new to me, especially since just 1 of the books has an upward of almost 800 pages. Reading those books led me into reading other great series, such as ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’, which were fabulous; ‘The Lord of the Rings’, which I’m still working on; and most currently I am waiting to finish ‘The Kingkiller Chronicle’ series, which starts with a book titled ‘The Name of the Wind’, I highly recommend this series, it’s fantastic (if you enjoy fiction that is)!
So back to the post topic – wands. In a recent post I talked about a new hobby, wood working. A friend, Jon, helped teach me how to shape and carve a stick into a wand. That’s right, Stephen and I had a double date so I could learn how to make a wand!! At first Stephen thought I was joking when I told him what we were doing on our double date, but he soon learned I was definitely NOT joking, haha. My wand is just now completed and I hope the pictures do it some justice, a lot of fun work went into it 
The picture of wands above are pretty darn good, and there are endless options of how-to’s online. Now while mine doesn’t come in a cool box like this …
…I also didn’t pay $35.00 plus shipping for mine. So as you can probalby tell I’m ultra excited about this. Jon and Ashley came up with the brilliant idea to go to the midnight premier of the movie, and we are making the wands to go with dressing up! It will be my first midnight premier and although Stephen says he isn’t go to dressup I have a feeling he will change his mind once he sees our super-cool costumes Exciting, right?!?!?
It’s so funny and awesome to me that I am having more fun at 25 than I ever have before in my life. God has been so good to me. 5 years ago I never would have imagined where I am now, which just shows that God’s plans can be totally unexpected and lead to more joy than I ever knew possible. I’m so glad I serve such a loving and personal God!
So now, ladies and gentleman, without further ado, I present:
~ The famous wandmaking of Cassie Ringl~
nothing like a good tee
I have always been a big fan of t-shirts. In middle school my mom and I frequented thrift shops and goodwilll stores so I could get some good finds. With 4 teenagers in the house thrift stores were a good way to get more for your dollar. There is a website I check, www.shirt.woot.com, that sells t-shirts that are often followed with a good laugh and somtimes purchase (they tend to be rather hilarious). I thought I would share some of these, and in case you haven’t been to the website you should check it out. Sometimes a $10 tee can really brighten a day, even if it’s just viewing it
That is just a peek at what you can find in t-shirt world. My brother Jason has a few of these, and it’s great to know there is a website where I can always find a good gift at a good price!
See there, t-shirts bring joy
the andrews
this past weekend Stephen and I had the pleasure of hanging out with our friends Jon and Ashley. Jon and Ashley moved back to Pensacola in January, and I feel that was the best idea they could have had I am a bit biased of course, but only a little.
We met up with the Andrew’s for dinner on Friday night, and as expected fun-times followed. We started the night by getting some grub from a place called Guthrie’s, and it was pretty darn good. Apparently they have a special secret sauce, which was rather delicious, so the word ‘special’ does fit it quite well. After dinner I had some ice cream called ‘tirimasu’ which was delicious, I definitely recommend it. It was a cross between coffee, toffee, and vanilla – oooh how I love ice cream! Now moving on; what is great about hanging out with Jon and Ashley is we always do really fun stuff. After turning on some ‘Arrested Development’ (which is our new show while we wait for the next season of LOST) and coming up with a FANtastic t-shirt idea, Jon gave me a stick he had picked out for me so that I could begin my first wood-working project. Yes, once again I have picked up a new hobby. Hooray for hobby #2
So, I’m sure you are wondering what in the world I would make with a stick but I’m afraid I can not reveal that just yet because my project is not yet complete. I will post some pictures of ‘in the process’, but I feel it would be unfair to you to tell you what I am making without wonderful pictures to show the completed project. However, I can tell you that it is ultra exciting. Soooo, follow-up post w/ pictures coming soon…
Also, I got my birthday present from my brother Matt on Friday (it was one good Friday!) The first picture is me w/ the gift and the 2nd picture is so you can click on it and see what the poster looks like. It’s totally GREAT!!!
Curious, does anyone know what book or movie this hilarious sketch is inspired by??!!??
Thursdays
My schedule is made that I have 1 day off during the week, my day is Thursday. For me Thursdays are a wonderful blessing! Whether I spend them catching up on chores and grocery shopping or hanging out with friends, i have yet to encounter a Thursday I did not enjoy. This past Thursday held that statement to be true. My mom and I went out to Pensacola Beach and enjoyed some time in the sun. The weather was amazing and we had a blast. It was probably the most humorous beach visit I have had yet. Apparently mom LOVES to go body-surfing. I usually don’t get in the water (this has come from multiple experiences of accidently consuming mouth fulls of salt water + jellyfish + sand-filled swimsuits), however upon mom’s insistence I decided to go for it. I don’t remember the last time I went body surfing, I was probably 10, but this experience was a lot of fun. When i was watching mom I felt like i was 10 years in the future and I was at the beach with my future-child. She was laughing like crazy and hilarious to watch. Because of her child-like laughter I did the adult thing and busted out a camera to snap her in action! These pictures don’t quite do our visit justice, but they should get the idea across From henceforth I’m sure I will enjoy many future in-water beach visits, thanks mom!
Putting it simple: Words can not do these pictures justice!
Mother's Day Lunch
Cassie and I are having lunch with her parents today for mother’s day. I decided I really like chicken wings. Anyhow, here’s a picture of Cassie and her mom. So all you moms have a great day today!
–Ringl
House-Sitting
This past week Stephen and I were housesitting for a family from our church. Well to be more precise we were more so dog-sitting, since I’m sure the house would have been fine on it’s own for a few days. The Sunday before they left the Ward family had us over for some delicious spaghetti so we could get to know Abbott, their family protecting, house guarding, fun loving dog. When we first pulled up I was totally thrilled, the Ward’s house is surrounded by a lot with trees, like a tree-fortress, it made me feel like I was in Swiss Family Robinson (minus living IN the trees of course). The house is a big 2 story with tons of windows. After getting out of the car and going to the door we were met by 2 of their awesome kids; Tucker and Michelle, as well as a dog like none I have met before. Abbott is absolutely adorable with his shaggy black coat and huge personality. However, when we first arrived he was not a happy puppy. If I hadn’t grown up with pets I might have been a bit taken back by his big bark, but with a family like his I knew he had to be a sweetheart, which he was. We hung out with the Ward Family; Kelly, LeeAnn, Michelle, Tucker, and Abbott for most of the afternoon. Michelle gave me a tour of the house and it was really cool. The 2nd floor is just 1 giant bedroom with a huge closet turned-office and bathroom. It has a HUGE wall-window and sky lights, which I love (I’m a HUGE natural light person). The bottom floor is even more fun, but I’ll spare you my room-by-room explanations. After some great spaghetti and Publx ice cream for dessert we hung out for a bit and let Abbott get used to us.
So that following Thursday I headed over for the first night of our week visit. When arriving I don’t think Abbott remembered me, but after taking him out for a walk and giving him dinner he was pretty happy with me. Without doing a day-by-day tell of what went down I’m going to highlight on the best parts:
Event/Day 1: Friday after work I headed to the house. Upon arriving I headed inside where Abbott happiily greeted me. We went on a walk and I let Abbott ‘take care of business’ and then when we headed to go back inside I realized something, we were locked out. Yea, you read that right, my 1st day on the job I locked myself and the dog outside. My carkeys, cell phone and house key were laying inside on the kitchen table where I sat them down just 15 minutes prior. While on my way to the neighbors house to use the phone I remembered Mrs. Ward telling us what to do “in case” we were to get locked out. Go figure, it took me less than 1 day to have that happen. So after a bit Abbott and I were happily back inside escaping the blood-thirsty mosquitos.
Event 2/Day 1, 2, 3 & 4: We found out, pretty fast, that Abbott was not a big fan of Stephen. Stephen had a super busy week at work, so he wasn’t getting off until after 10 most nights. With the dog seeing him so little he had to be “re-introduced” each time he came over. What was funniest was that anytime Stephen would give me a hug or kiss Abbott would start barking at him. We couldn’t figure out if Abbott was being protective or just goofy so after a few days of that happening Stephen decided to do an experiment ( I think he just wanted to kiss and hug me a lot, but either way I was okay with it ). We still aren’t sure which it was, but after Stephen played with Abbott and took him out a few times the ‘hug barking’ stopped (If you ask me I think Stephen slipped him some treats when I wasn’t looking cause they bonded super fast during his “supposed experiment”).
Okay, that about sums up the funny moments that I can think of right now. To make up for my lack of story-telling I will provide some pictures. Enjoy!
Pensacola at it's finest
Florida is known by most as the Sunshine State. Full of beaches, palm trees and fruity drinks with umbrellas. I’m sure tv, brochures, postcards and spring break vacations have a lot to do with this common misconception. Sadly, this is not completely accurate. Where there are beaches there is humidity. Where there are palm trees there are beaches, therefore there is humidity. Where there are fruity drinks with umbrellas there are usually palm trees, on the beach, surrounded by massive amounts of obnoxious humidity!
I am telling you these facts so you can understand just how joyously wonderful it is when Florida has a rain/humid-free day, or if I’m lucky, week. This past weekend we had such a day! On Saturday my friend Sara and I went out to the beach and it was AMAZING. It was slightly overcast with low wind, so it was a humid and sweat-free visit to the beach. Here are some pictures to show you the wonderful trip we had on a humid-free saturday at the beach.
Thank the Lord for a much-needed beach visit !!
