Sniffley Sunday.

What I thought was a severe case of allergies yesterday appears to actually be a cold. This is not good on so many levels:

1. I am a huge baby when I get sick
2. When I have head colds, I get really off balance as I already have horrible coordination from back and neck problems, but when my ears are popping, and my head is all stuffy, it's worse.
3. When I get sick, I get sick. I spent the ENTIRE month of July 2010 SICK. Literally, no joke, from July 1st, through the end of the month, with the lingering cough going on through part of August as it moved to my chest and effected my asthma.


So yeah, I am really hoping this is just a small cold, and that I will bounce back and be feeling better in no time. I'm sure my immunity got down last week due to lack of sleep as I actually worked some overtime (usually I am lucky to get 25-30 hours a week). As for today, I am vitamin-C-n up, and about to eat an Edy Antioxidant Popsicle. They are a new addiction that I buy with each grocery trip.

On a side note, me and some girlfriends saw Something Borrowed last night. I am a huge Kate Hudson fan so any new movie with her is a must see. It didn't disappoint. Kate's character was a bit annoying, but I still enjoyed the movie, and the time with my friends, AND it was a chick flick and I didn't cry. That's surprising! Actually wait, there was a moment that I teared up. But not a full out cry fest.

Welp, I've got four small dogs pawing at my feet, and I am going to relax and catch up on biggest loser. Here's to a happy Monday for each and every one of you tomorrow.

XOXO

Supporting Zoe, Late Mother's Day & Birthday, & Saturday

I wanted to write yesterday, but the day just escaped me, so I will just have a sporadic blog today, with a variety of topics.

Thursday night J & S came over, as planned to watch Gossip Girl. I think we squeezed in three episodes (and are still way far behind) we just aren't as in to it as we used to be, as S said "it's the same ol' drama, just in a new way, in a new episode", but we still put along. Trying to finish out this season, with hope that it will pick up. In the mean time, we are on the look out for a new show we can all watch. Before the girls got there, I made a run up to our local mall as the Chick-Fil-A there was holding a fundraising event for Praying for Zoe. Zoe is the little sister of one of my friends. She lost part of her leg in a jet ski accident on April 24th. As you can imagine, this young (8th grade) athlete has had her world turned upside down, and we are all standing beside her, raising community support to help raise money for her hospital stay (she is still in the hospital) and all her surgeries. There will be plenty more events to come, so you will most likely be hearing more. The tremendous amount of community support has been mind blowing. It truly is a blessing. Raising awareness for this kind of stuff is my passion, and it brings me such joy to see the outpouring of support this family is receiving.

Create a Card station for Zoe

On Friday we had plans for me to cook dinner (Chili & Cornbread) and take it over to my in-laws house in (late) celebration of mother's day, and my father's birthday. My husband and I both worked on mother's day, and the birthday, so we wanted to all get together to celebrate. My cornbread was quite interesting as I had never made it from scratch before, but attempted it, using my new recipe from The Pioneer Woman Cooks. Well, embarrassingly enough, I wasn't sure what an iron skillet was, and the recipe called for me to cook the cornbread in an iron skillet for one minute, and transfer it to the oven for 20 minutes. Since I really had no clue, I attempted to cook in my regular skillet, then transfer (because I knew I shouldn't put my regular skillet in the oven) well let's just say where it had already cooked on the bottom, it was nice and brown, so when  transferred it, I had mushy still, with chunks of brown. So, let's just say it wasn't aesthetically pleasing but still was pleasing to the taste buds :D I just warned everyone why it looked funky. Hey, you live and learn, right? Now I know I need to invest in an iron skillet.

Today was another "dur" moment. Sometimes I tend to get so busy with one thing, I will forget to do something else, just like that. Happened today. In my defense, I was running on little sleep. I ran R up to the dealership to drop his truck off, came home, the plan was to change clothes, and run to the gym and squeeze in a workout. I ran inside, got busy doing something, left for the gym, got to the gym, was grabbing my towel and IPOD when I looked down and realized I was still in my regular shorts. "Darn" I thought, followed by "it's okay, I can make it work, at least it's not jeans" then my eyes went further south. Yup, definitely didn't change into my tennis shoes. And really wasn't feeling like taking a jog in flip flops, so defeated, I got in my car, called R, told him of my stupid moment, and headed home. At that point I just decided I'd work out from home (Brighthouse has channel 353, exercise on demand) and I did. At least I was able to squeeze a workout in!

Not the best workout gear

Now I am getting ready for a quiet little girls night out. Me and a few friends are going to grab a bite to eat, followed by a chick flick. Ah, love these kind of nights.

Have a great weekend everyone. I hope you do something fun :)

XOXO

PS - I received a cd full of photo's from my photographer last night, SO, expect a photo-filled blog. SOON.

Sleepy Thursday

Welp, I'm running on just a few hours sleep again today. No bueno. Sadly, my body truly requires 8 hours of good sleep to function properly. Seriously, if not, I just feel off balance, dizzy, off key. And I get migraines super easy from lack of sleep.

I got home super late last night, and then of course could not fall asleep right away. Once I finally drifted to sleep, the dogs woke me up to go outside (argh! THAT'S exactly why they suggest you don't allow pets to sleep in bed with you). Crawled back in bed, and before I knew it my alarm was going off to tell me I had to get to the vet to get Bullseyes final booster shots from the puppy annual. So, Bullseye is all vaccinated up, and good to go, next up, the balls are coming off! and a microchip! If this precious baby gets lost again, I want to ensure that he is chipped so that if someone (like I did) finds him, they can locate the owner easily.

I decided instead of going right back to sleep after the appointment, to go grocery shopping with my room mate. We desperately (she was eating Tuna!) needed to go. I figured Thursday AM would be better than any time over the weekend. So off we went. MISTAKE. Our Walmart should be dubbed destruction-mart. They are in the process of remodeling and it's a hot mess. Alas, we did make it in and out alive, and within an hour.

Now I am gearing up to run off to a massage appointment, in hopes that it will loosen up my back that has been horrible tense lately. Afterwards I hope I can catch a nap. Overtime that I am not used to has really caught up with me this week!

I even canceled a yard sale that was planned at my house on Friday and Saturday so that I could get some extra ZZZ's before going back to work. The yard sale was actually to help me and 6 of my closest girlfriends raise money to pay for an annual trip to AMI.We will reschedule that yard sale. :)











My only other agenda for the day is meeting up with a lady from craigslist that wants to buy all my left over gerber daisies from the wedding *YAY!* and then tonight S & J are coming over to get caught up on Gossip Girl. Yup, you heard that right. We are that group of friends that get together for girly shows. haha.

XOXO :)

A child hood dream lost... thankfully.

Last night I was watching some old school early 1980's wrestling with my dad, and it reminded me of my childhood dream.... to be a wrestling manager. No, seriously, you can giggle, but that was my aspiration as a young girl. I wanted to be a wrestling manager, just like Sunny, Miss Elizabeth and Woman.

Sunny

Miss Elizabeth

Woman & Liz

 Yup, I was a strange little girl, BUT, that was my dream. We ALL dream, right?

Sadly, Miss Elizabeth and Woman are no longer with us. Likely due to their part in the wrestling world. Miss Elizabeth had a drug over dose, and Woman was actually murdered in a murder suicide from former WCW/WWF/WWE wrestler Chris Benoit. How tragic. :(

I am very very happy my childhood dream did NOT come true. I'm much happier where I am at.

XOXO

BITSA

.Back In The Saddle Again.

Urban Definition?

Back to work, or whatever you are supposed to be doing. When you are back to doing what you do best, or when you are back from a long trip.

A coworker of mine used the term on Sunday, and I had to use it today as that is exactly how I've been feeling this week.

You see, I work in a call center that performs market research (we call people and conduct surveys). My schedule is not set at all, as work load depends on how many jobs we have running on any particular night. I DO have set DAYS of the week that I am SCHEDULED to work, and likewise, days that I am scheduled OFF. However, as I said about, our work load depends on what we have running. There are times when NOTHING might run on a day I am scheduled, therefore, I lose out on that day and hours completely, so if I wanted to make it up, I'd need to go into work on one of my days off. We can never predict when there will or won't be work, and sometimes shift may be canceled for weeks at a time. This is definitely not the job for someone that relies solely on their own income, BUT, for me, it works. There are weeks when I work 60 hours, and weeks when I work 10. 

Here lately, I had been averaging about 25-30 hours a week, and even LESS in April, as I took many days off to prepare and recover from all the wedding festivities. Not that any of that mattered anyways, because while I had requested the time off previously, it ended up there really wasn't much work in April, and most peoples shifts were canceled.

Anyways, Sunday was my first day back at work after my honeymoon and that's where the back in the saddle again came from. I quite frankly was thrown back in the saddle again, and they weren't kidding, I had 6 jobs running on Sunday when I usually have 1 or 2. Monday was even better, we ran 15 jobs, and 14 today. I went from working anywhere from 3-6 hours a night to 12-14 hours. WOO! 

Many of us prayed for more hours, and it's here. Political season is upon us - we do lots of political research, so we get extremely busy as politics flair up, and it's about that time. Next year is election year.

So yeah, I only got about 5 hours sleep last night, so it's about time to hit the sack.

Urban Definition?

to go to bed, go to sleep.

XOXO

Dear Mommy...

I don't think I told you enough while you were here with me just how much I Love(d) You. And just how proud I am that God chose me to be YOUR daughter. While you never took the credit you deserved, you did so much for me, gave up so much of your life, for me. And I am so appreciative. I wish I wouldn't have been so blind and naive as a child, and seen the sacrifices you made as they happened, so I could have thanked you in person. I am so proud of you, and everything you accomplished. Though I didn't tell you often enough, you were a wonderful mother, and with the way I acted as a bratty child, I probably didn't deserve your kindness. You definitely didn't deserve the way I treated you.

My heart aches as mother's day has come again, and again, I went to visit you at the cemetery. I miss you more than words can describe. There are so many life experiences I want to share with you. When I see the close relationship some mothers and daughters have, my heart aches, yet at the same time, smiles. I smile because I know if you were still here with me, we'd be the best of friends, and share everything together. I love you Mommy, and know that even though I may feel empty sometimes, I know I am not, that you, are my specialist of Guardian Angels, watching over me now, just as you did when I was a child.

I love you Mommy.

I will again quote a letter I received from my half sisters adoptive mother, detailing the day she met my mother:

 

"We were sitting in the sunroom of the Children's home with the Florida sun beaming through the window behind her. She held your sister - who was about nine months old at the time and talked about mothers and daughters.  "I know what I want" she said simply"  But I can't provide that now. Children, daughters especially, need to know how much they are treasured, what an amazing difference they can make in their Mom's life. They need warmth and security - but more than anything - they need love. There are some things I want for my daughter. I want her to know God - to have a faith to help her through hard times. I want her to love learning. It would be great if she goes to college, but it's more important that she always wants to improve herself - no matter how. I want her to respect others and to help people when they need it. I want her to have confidence so that she can stand up for herself when necessary. I want her to be the kind of person that others will look to for advice and help. I want her to know that love - hard as it is sometimes - gives your life meaning in a way you never imagined.

She was quiet for awhile - stroking your sisters hair. It was then that she asked me to adopt her baby. I have never in my life seen such selfless love. Your mother was such a special person and I know your missing her now."

I am so grateful that these memories were shared with me. I will forever cherish them. They bring a smile to my face, knowing that while my mom could not provide everything she wanted to, to her first daughter, that she was able to provide all that, and more to me. I hope she realizes that everything believed a daughter should have, I did.

As Mother's Day winds down here on the east coast, I hope each and every one of you have had a blessed day, and that you showed all the special ladies just how much you love them and appreciate them, and don't just do it today, because it's Mother's Day, show them every day, because you mean it.

Mommy & Me :) <3

XOXO

 

The Honeymoon is Over

but settling into married life has just begun :)

Hello my blogging friends! We have made it back safe and sound from our honeymoon. The 5 nights went entirely too quick. But, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Tomorrow is back to work for me, and Monday is back to work for the hubs. We are not nearly as excited about that aspect of the honeymoon being over. BUT, we are excited to start settling into life as husband and wife.

Anyways, I am beyond pooped so this blog is short and sweet. I'll leave a few pics from departure, and the fun day at sea.

Boarding the ship, 5-2-11

Captains Dinner

Warm Chocolate Melting Cake

Chilled Strawberry Soup was AH-mazing

Rings <3

I think I need a vacation FROM my vacation. Goodnight Bloggers. More to come this week, from both the honeymoon and wedding. :)

XOXO