Sarah-ism's

things that make me go hmmmmm..

2012-02-15T19:24:00.001-05:00

A i sit here and go through yet another wedding website, another pinterest board, and more wedding DIY stuff, I keep comming across the same few things. And they make me think/say "what the..." or "why would anyone ever do that" or even "someone actullay did that at their wedding ::Shudders::". Id like to share a few of these things with you. you let me know if im insane/crazy/ultra conservative in my thinking.1. Boudoir photos/photo sessions: Im sorry, what is the appeal of this. yes so that your kids can some day find these hiding in the back of a closet, so that your extra nosy family members can accidentally come across them. I mean who is he gonna show them to? WILL he show them to anyone. To me photos are meant to be shared and viewed by lots of people in order to share a memory or a date/place in time. TO take photos that no one will ever see other than the photographer, editor, you and significant other, to me seems pointless. And I feel like every website I go to, go thorugh, I feel like this idea is being crammed down my throat. Ugh. Im so sick of seeing it. Im also not into sharing my naked/nearly nakedness with anyone other than me or my significant other. hell most days I try to hide from the mirror!!2. Messy hair: okay ladies, this is your wedding day. you should look beautiful and polished, not like you just rolled out of bed. UGH!3. Monograms everywhere: on the napkins, the tablecloths, the candles, the dance floor, on the cake, etc. Granted a monogram here or there is okay, but if you need it all over, its like wow, look at out initials. or damm i really need to remember what my new last name is gonna be. LOL!4. White/off white bridal party dresses: lets just go with umm no. the only one in white should be the bride. just the way i see it. its a preference and an opinion. 5. trash the dress photo sessions: i don't know about you, but my wedding dress is something I will treasure forever. i don't want to trash it.... ever. why you would want to wear it shred it soak it dirty it in mud etc i will never know. It just baffles me. That's all I got. the same five things over and over and over again. I guess I'm just so tired of seeing them as I do more web research for things I can do myself to save money etc. And also as I look for vendors. Its hard to find a vendor when you don't live near your wedding. we are having a semi-destination wedding. So trying to make an appointment to see someone etc is difficult. I try to cram as much as I can in to short periods of time when I am in that area. which is only once every few months. So the interwebs are my key to all of this. On the upside (cause I need a positive spin after all that negativity) I have done a lot from a distance and have saved a ton of money by doing some stuff myself instead of paying someone to do it for me. Also having such a long lead time until the wedding also helps. Our save the dates are going in the mail in the morning. meant to do it today, but i was glued to my computer working from home all day. so have to make sure i do that tomorrow. One of my bridesmaids was able to spare a couple of hours yesterday and helped me assemble them and stuff them in envelopes with labels and stamps. so that was cool. :-) I love spending time with my bridesmaids. :-)

Hallmark holiday or not... Happy Valentines Day!

2012-02-14T13:49:00.003-05:00

Today is what most people call a made up holiday, or a hallmark holiday. Its valentines day. A lot of people poo-poo it saying its nonsense, etc. A lot of single people walk around miserable. It is statistically the one day out of the year when there are the most breakups. So all that being said, Happy Valentines Day!!! I enjoy the day by staying home, instead of attempting to go out for dinner (which is damm near impossible), cooking a dinner for my loving husband-to-be, and all in all just spending time with him this evening. We've had some disasterous valentines days in the past. like pats mother wanting to go to the pallisads mall for dinner at the last minute, and we wandered all over the mall from one resturaunt to another trying to get a table, then they found the craptastic Chinese buffet, which was aweful for me, because I dont like chinese food a whole lot, our table was next to the bathroom and the food was not so good. She's tried this before, and after the mall incident, Going out for Valentines day with her and pats little sister was immedietly put on the Hell-F^King-NEver again list. Weve gone out for Valentines Dinner a couple of times, and it just doesnt work out well. So we just stay home, and I try to make a nice dinner. TOnight we will have grilled prime rib steaks, homemade spinach au-gratin, homemade bread, and a steakhouse salad. Valentines day isn't just a day for couples in love, its a day to celebrate the love you have for everyone in your life.. Friends & Family alike. Treasure those people and let them know you love them today, especially if they don't have anyone to spend the day with! Trust me when I tell you it will make a huge difference to them.To All my friends and family, I love you and wish you a wonderful happy valentines day!I wish you all Love & Friendship, not just today, but every single day from now until forever!

Parenting in the 21st century

2012-02-10T21:55:00.000-05:00

It has got to be hard to be a parent. I remember being extremely critical of my parents and fighting them every chance I got when I was a teenager and when I was living at home with them. I didn't make their lives easy. Now, granted, I still don't agree with a lot of the things they did as parents or the methods they chose, but I sure as hell didn't go airing my dirty laundry to the world. We also didn't have things like facebook, twitter, myspace or even blogs! (yeah I know, the dark ages right?) hahaha. Seriously it wasn't all that long ago that it was really awesome to have your own email address and it was awesome to "dial-up" to AOL & AIM and IM people. Mind you, that was high school. before that, we wrote letters, ya know with a pen/pencil and paper. and we used stamps and went to the post office and...... OKay, I am now severly off topic of where I was going with this.... Lets get back on track.

All that said, parenting, its rough. making decisions that affect your life, attempting to instill morality and common sense into another human being and trying to guide them down the right paths in life so that they dont wide up on drugs and in a ditch somewhere. You want you children to be respecteful of others, to be intelligent and most importantly to be happy. Im not a parent, but I hope to be some day. I really do want children. It just isnt time for that just yet. I hope that I will be some time soon.

This guy, who's video has gone viral, Good grief, I applaud him. He took his daughters nasty rant that she thought was "hidden" on facebook from her family, read it to a camera, and then "disposed" of her computer. This man embodies what parenting is all about, you try your dammdest to bea good parent, to guide your children and teach them whats right and whats wrong, and sometimes it doesnt go according to plan. This young lady, seems to have a large set of balls. to post something so defamatory about her parents on a public forum in what seems like an attempt to make them look like the bad guys. And seemingly shes like every other teenager in the world, lazy. okay, not all of them, but lets say more than a large majority of them.

And considering how this young lady set out to embarasses her parents, I would say that his public responce, is well within reasonable, although I can see how he may have stooped to her level. But in his defense, he at least took a stand and posted it to her Facebook wall to show all her friends that you can't say shit like she did and just get away with it. I mean now, comeon, dad works in IT after all.

So to this man, I say, Job well done!

What do you think? Was this guy justified in what he did? He certainly has a nice .45 hand gun. HAHA! Did you like his answer to his daughter? Was it appropriate? Would you have said anything else to this girl?

::Insert a witty/fun blog title here...' cause I can't think of one::

2012-02-02T23:00:00.001-05:00

Well let's start this off right....... Happy new year blog Readers!!!

Told you it would be a while before I posted, and well, its been over a month. Things around this happy little world of mine have been a little nutty. Just average every day life getting in the way of me having the time (and something) to blog about.

To be honest, Im not sure why I still have this blog, but Im gonna try to stick it out a little bit longer and see if I can't find something to blog about every now and again. All I can do is try, I can't promise that Im going to be a better blogger, but I will try. Fair enough? yes? hope so...

So why don't we start with New Years. We had a great time going out to dinner with friends and ringing in the new year with our best friends, even a bunch that live out of town! So that was awesome! How was your new Years? did you do anything exciting? I would love to hear what you did and how you rung in the new year!

See that's me on the right, with the smaller smile. Oh and the other gal, one of my bridesmaids, the very awesome Maria!

Now I know this is an aweful grainy photo, but not too bad for a phone pic right?

I am also a terrible blog reader. I'm down to a couple that I read religiously, a few others that I read now and again, but to be honest my "reader" list currently has over 300 blog entries to read. OMG! and that's only a couple of weeks worth. Now granted there is one blog I read that has about 4 posts a day, but still that's a lot of entries to try and read. I'm trying to catch up, but it just feels like a loosing battle some days. Anyone else have these issues? I think I just follow too many blogs. May have to cut back on some, like the ones that post multiple times a day. I think that's a good place to start. yeah, maybe I'll get to that next week? maybe? ah, who knows...

In other random thinking, as the TV is blaring in the background, I am reminded of how much I dislike and truly find utterly disturbing the "Sun Drop" Commercial. Its just so odd, and that guy doing booty drops, so, so , so , SO wrong. It reminds me of some of the horrible commercials from the 80's for some reason. Have you seen it? No. well Here, I am putting it here for you so you can see some of the awefulness and share in some of my pain.

And some other TV related thinking, has anyone else seen the Michael Jackson episode of glee? Loved some of it, really didn't like other parts of it, like when they did the song "Ben". I personally think Artie made a great MJ. And without ruining the end for anyone, I found it cheese-tastic and I'm not really sure I liked it for the episode/overall story line development. Still trying to decide if I like it or not. For me, Glee has unfortunately been kind of forgettable this season so far. I dunno, I guess I am falling out of love with it.

Oh, yeah, we went to Atlantic City last week for a couple of days. We ate, a lot, some of good, some of it average, but none of it great. The hotel was disappointing, and the spa was a wonderful atmosphere, but the massage was only kind of average. So our mid week getaway was more or a mid week let down. I told Pat, next time we go to AC, I don't care how much we save, we were not staying at that hotel again. It was just mediocre experience after mediocre or disappointing experience. I mean, hell, there was mold growing on the ceiling in our room! Gross!

I've been having a lot of wedding related nightmares. Mostly about the few things I haven't done yet, like getting an officiant, a photographer, or someone for hair & makeup. But a few about just sheer and utter disaster, like my dress being died sixteen different colors all at the same time, about people giving birth at my wedding (and I mean like every woman in the room is suddenly pregnant and now delivering in the room), nightmares about other random things as well such as people taking over my wedding, people trying to re-create or re-live their weddings through mine, people fighting with each other (like cage match style), my bridesmaids all of a sudden deciding to wear whatever the hell they want instead of the dress I chose, Bridesmaids refusing to be bridesmaids, etc. I mean some of these nightmares have been intense. I wake up in a cold sweat or crying, or both. And miraculously this all seems to happen when Pat is not home. So all I have to comfort me is the cat, who just doesn't understand why my face is wet, and mostly just tries to run away. And when I tell Pat about these things, he tells me I have a vivid imagination and need to stop watching so much TV about wedding disasters (which is probably true) but a little bit of sympathy would be nice too. Has this ever happened to any of you? I mean the crazy pre-wedding nightmares part.

I've done loads and loads and loads of stuff for the wedding already, and I really do have very little left to do. Here's the list of stuff I need to do...

- get and officiant
- get a photographer
- get our marriage license
- finalize our menu at our tasting
- find a place to have my wedding gown altered/fitted since I bought it in NC while on vacation
- mail out my save the dates & invitations (these are already ordered and being printed)
- Pick our first dance song as well as a few other key songs for the night
- have our wedding program printed after we choose a design for that
- find someone/somewhere to have my hair & makeup done
- get pat a new suit for the wedding
- buy the groomsmans gifts
- plan my bachelorette party (i suppose this should be done by my 'maids and not me, right?)
- buy my shoes and appropriate undergarments for my dress
- find a dress for the rehersal dinner
- some random crafty projects which I hope to share with you at some point

I'm sure there are a few things I am forgetting, but in reality, that's really about all we have left to do. As you can see, there truly isn't much to be done. A few of these things are time sensitive, like the tasting, mailing things out and license. The rest of it can kind of be done whenever, except for finding a place to have my dress altered, I kind of need to get on top of that, like soon.

Having this much done, this early, hell I've still got 296 days to go until our wedding, according to our wedding website anyway. But who's counting? ;-)

Im still looking for a full time job, still in the process or renewing my EMT license, trying to figure out if Im going to work at scout camp again this summer (which I would love to do, but may not be able to if I get a full time job elsewhere), and still trying to motivate myself to get up off my fat ass and go to the gym. I am also still trying to find ways to cross things off of my Life List, which you can read by clicking on the Life list tab at the top of the page. (its almost 11pm, Im tired and too lazy to insert the link, but not too lazy to type it all out. yeah i know, it makes no sense at all)

Are any of you still out there? Does anyone actually read this page anymore???

What have you been up to? I love hearing from you guys. It kind of makes my day a whole lot brighter.

PS- any thoughts on a blog-post title for this entry? I just couldn't come up with one.

PPS- new favorite food combination Bacon and Ranch. It seems to make every little thing I put it on fucking awesome! (this is probably why I'm still fat and not loosing weight)

2011 in Review

2011-12-31T11:32:00.002-05:00

2011 was an interesting year for me. It had up's and down's, but then again what year doesn't? I am a true believer in this simple fact, that if we dont experience things like sadness and anger and depressive feelings, then we will never be able to appreciate the good and special things in life. So lets focus on a few things that happened in my life in the past year.

-I attempted to cook 25 new recipes in a year and failed. I dont even think I got to 10, but that's okay because I got to try a few pretty awesome recipes anyway. :-)

-I attempted and failed project 365. Maybe some day I will take it on again. Also thinking of starting photo of the week thing to chronicle my life through the course of one year. would anyone else be interested in something like that? I find that it may be less daunting than a picture a day.

-I celebrated the last birthday of my 20's. ugh. not such a great milestone. But it was a nice quiet peaceful birthday. Birthday #30, Id like to have a big 'ol b-day bash, but I guess we will see what happens after the year is officialy 2012.

-I crossed a few things off of my life list this year, I got engaged! That was such a supremely awesome feeling, and it still is.

-I also went to three new breweries, again very awesome. Especially since the beer at each place was rather tasty.

-I worked at a Scout camp for the summer as the medical officer. Meaning I finally did something with my EMT-B License. I fell in love with the camp and the experience and it broke my heart to a million pieces when the summer ended. I made some awesome friends while I was there and hope to see most, if not all of them next summer, if I am able to go back and work there for one more summer. I know a lot of the guys won't be able to come back, but I do hope that most of the people will come back for another amazing summer!

-I planned my wedding almost 100% all on my own and without stress. Its a wonderful feeling to have about a year left before my wedding and to know that the large majority of the planning is done. :-)

I did a few other things this year as well, but those are the noteworthy ones. There were also some down sides to this past year, and some of them I choose not to relive. I don't have t forget those parts of the year, and Lord knows I never (ever) will, but it doesnt mean I have to relive them.

Lots of good and bad in the past year and lots of good to come in the new year as well. What great things happened in your year? Anyone care to share?

I still have a blog? I guess so...

2011-12-20T21:14:00.000-05:00

I am a terrible blogger. I am seemingly never here anymore. It seems like my going rate is once a month, and not even that happens sometimes.

We have truly been busy as all holy heck since the last blog post. I went wedding dress shopping and of course got a dress :-) So exciting, its sitting in my mothers house in her guest room. Now all I need is a place to have it fitted/altered. My flowers are all set and ready to go. Girls dresses are all ordered and mostly in already :-) and for the majority the wedding planning is done. Dont get me wrong I still have things to do, but not much that I can do right now. Big things I still need, photographer (within in my miniscule budget), hair & makeup person/people, and an officiant. Smaller things that we need to do, get wedding rings, send out save the date cards, choose invitation design (not urgent), get my shoes (this will be a guilty pleassure of mine), go to our tasting etc.

Christmas is this weekend. I thankfully finished all my shopping a week or so ago. wrapping, well there is still a lot to be done there. Unfortunately for the past 5 days or so I have been some level of "sick" be it with a cold, pink eye, a sinus infection or some combination there of. Its been great (not!). I really do get awfully whiny and complainy (yes, new word that i just made up) when I get sick. I have missed several days of work and that has made me feel even worse. Mostly because I hate feeling like I have no control over my body. It sucks. On the upside, I am on antibiotics for the pink eye and the sinus infection. The "cold" is gonna take its sweet time clear its way out of my system. And oh yeah, I have laryngitis. Awesome.

Okay done complaining. Yesterday was Pat's 34th birthday! How did he celebrate? He worked. 2 jobs. Poor guy. Although, he hates celebrating his birthday or any holiday in general. Especially the "Hallmark Holidays" i.e. Valentines day. I celebrated his birthday by blowing my nose, coughing, going to the doctor, taking pills and putting drops in my eyes. He says I have "the death". haha!! yes yes yes, I know, no more complaining (i really just cant help myself though, so please bear with me).

Im kind of excited for christmas and new years. I havent put out a single christmas decoration. Mostly because one of our three cats loves to eat/destroy any and all decorations possible. She also loves to eat my artificial tree. Being sick hasn't helped my motivation to decorate either. Initally my plan was to decorate of this past weekend, but since I spent it in bed, it didn't happen.

Oh yeah, we also had our annual Post Giving Party the saturday after thanksgiving, except this year we called it a Post-Giving Engagement party. Approximately 25 of our closest friends crammed into our home for a fun celebration. Even some friends from camp came, which was totally awesome!

Other than that life goes on, as pat says I pass on "the death", Christmas comes and goes and so does the ringing in of new year. and this ringing in of a new year will be my last one as a single lady, which is rather exciting, as a new chapter in my life is about to begin, and that is certainly something to look forward to. I likely won't post before the end of the year, so to all of you out there in the blog-iverse (all 4 of you who still read this), Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanza, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and a very merry Festivus for the rest of us to everyone!!!!

PB & Beer!!!!!!

2011-11-03T12:36:00.000-04:00

Yes, it is exactly what it sounds like.. Peanut Butter & Beer!! We went to a tasting last night at a local Brewery, Brooklyn Brewery, and the ever so popular Peanut Butter & Co.with our friends Robin & Ken. First impression was, are you kidding me, Peanut Butter & Beer? Five minutes later the potential awesomeness of this pairing sank in. So off we went on a Wednesday night to Brooklyn. We were treated to 2 hours of Beer & Peanut Butter pairings, a total of 7 different pairings. There were some pairings that we definitely all liked, some that we definitely didn't like, and we all had a favorite.

These were the Beer-Peanut Butter Pairings that we tasted and a short summation of what I liked and what I recall other people liking/disliking.(we personally sampled all of our penautbutter on a spoon and not on a cracker, so we got the pure flavor pairings that they were telling us about)

1. Elevated Wheat & The Bee's Knees

this was a super yummy pairing. Lots of honey flavor, because well there was honey in there! I can definitely say that I really enjoyed both the Beer and PB separately as well as together.

2. Pennant Ale & Old Fashioned Smooth or Crunchy

Another great combination of flavors. I'm sorry I can't tell you what I tasted here, I just don't remember. But I do remember that it was extremely tasty. I preferred the Beer to the PB. The PB being an "old fashioned" style was very runny and smooth and there is no additional sugar added to the PB making process. And I'm not a chunky PB fan either. Not that either PB was bad, just not my taste.

3. Brown Ale & Cinnamon Raisin Swirl

This was not my favorite, mostly cause I hate Cinnamon Raisin flavor combination. But it was Pat's, Robin's & Ken's favorite. (or at least thats how I remember it) Now I can tell you I am a sucker for Brooklyn Brown. So the beer I was very happy with, the PB not so much. I did try it, but it just wasn't my cup of tea.

4. Local 2 & Mighty Maple

There was some debate here as to weather or not we got the right PB served to us. Its still under debate. The guys swear we got the right one, Robin & I, say nay. We swore we got the white Chocolate. But this may have been the point where our taste buds were starting to waver..... But who knows. Anyway, combination wise, not the best combination for us. The Beer was very good, very tasty, the PB is still up for debate.. LOL!

5. Black Ops & White Chocolate Wonderful

Now Robin and I took the PB that was placed in front of us for this pairing and tried it with the previous beer, that was a better combination for us, the guys again did not agree so much. Anyway, the PB that they gave us with the beer that they gave us was a very nice combination. However... this beer is aged in white american oak Bourbon barrels. And the Bourbon that was aged in them prior to the beer is Woodford Reserve, which is one of pats favorite Bourbons. I happen to dislike Bouborn for the most part, but I do appreciate the taste of the Woodford. I found that this beer was rather strong for me and didnt really care for it. Pat on the other hand, LOVED it. I mean why wouldnt he, its more or less got Woodford in it. he liked it so much he drank my Beer as well.

6. Dark Chocolate Stout (served warm) & Dark Chocolate Dreams

this was by far my favorite pairing. It was like a chocolate covered espresso bean. This PB was the one I have been dying to try and it lived up and surpassed all my expecations. Now I'm not a stout beer drinker or fan, but together with the PB it was fantastic. Nothing more need be said here. It was just wonderful.

7. Brooklyn Blast & The Heat is on

This beer is not yet available for release, its one of those things that Brooklyn Brewery is making but not selling, as of yet anyway. The Beer, OMG, fantastic, this was my favorite stand alone beer. And the PB, it was described as "controversial", well let me tell you, OMG, this was the absolute positive most disliked PB of the night by our group. It was a peppery/Hot PB. I tried the pairing even though the smell of the PB was burning my nose hairs. I literally openend my mouth with beer and PB in it and well, it came pouring back out. LOL! That pepper taste stayed with me all night, and I just couldnt shake it. however, I can not wait for Brooklyn Blast to hit the market, cause that was simply phenominal.

I attempted to take as many photos as I could, cause I mean really, when the hell is this gonna happen again?... Umm probably never!

Our tasting maps for our beer

Some of the stuff in and around the tasting room in the Brooklyn Brewery

The wall of cases reminded of Christmas wrapping paper. If only I could have scored a few of those and taken them home, it would have made x-mas gift wrapping so much damm easier this year!

Our hosts for the evening... Garrett Oliver (left) Brewmaster of Brooklyn Brewery and Lee Zalben (right) Founder and President of Peanut Butter & Co.

and the pouring and tasting beings....

yummmmm....

The end of all of the tasting and pairing of Beer & PB. It was a load of fun.

fun shot of Pat's glasses which he balanced his PB cups in the top of.

The contents of two swag bags. :-)

Our PB!

And the ever most awesome Bags :-)

A million thanks to both Brooklyn Brewery and Peanut Butter & Co. for hosting this simply superb event! It was a ton of fun and I hope that you guys can pair up again some time with some more wonderful flavor combinations!!!

Now that you have made it to the end of this long post, I also wanted to share with you my pinterest boards which you can follow simply by clicking on the follow me button here and also at the top right hand corner of my page.

**the opinions above were not solicited by anyone nor was it requested that i make a post for any reason. i was not compensated for my blog post. i simply posted about a tasting event that i went to and had a good time at. the swag bags listed above were given to every participant at the pairing**

I need to blog more, I need things to blog about....

2011-11-02T18:58:00.000-04:00

I happen to love my blog. Its not huge. Its random, just like me. But its lacking something, some sort of pizazz. I dunno where to start to give it some. Its jut lacking something, just cant put my finger on it.

Anyway, I've seen a bunch of these "list" things lately. And while they do remind me of the list things from myspace and facebook and chain e-mails, I have to admit, they are kind of a guilty pleasure of mine. Short, concise, straight forward, non-lenghty, light reading... its kinda right up my alley. It makes blogging easy sometimes. And I'm sure that you are all tired of reading about my cats and me being unemployed. I've tried to stay away from the "OMG Im engaged and planning my own wedding" stuff. Mostly cause I want the people who are in my wedding party and attending my wedding to be surprised and now know every detail. I have a number of surprises lined up so far and have had to stomp on my own foot to keep from telling members of my bridal party about them cause i am so excited about a few of these things. For the most part I am great at keeping a secret, just terrible at keeping my own secrets (does this make me strange? feedback?)

Its 630pm on a wednesday night, its pitch black outside, and I am sitting on the sofa waiting to get in the car to head to Brooklyn for a PeanutButter & Beer tasting at Brooklyn Brewery! Yeah thats right, PeanutButter & Beer. I thought it was strange, but oddly appealing. So we're going, and we're going with a couple of friends as well. Can't wait to go actually. (Like a total dork, I got dressed for going out hours and hours ago)

Tomorrow we are going to a Makers Mark tasting at a Steakhouse in Whiteplains. And while I am not a Burbon or Whiskey drinker, this also sounded oddly appealing, so tomorrow we are going there.

We've got a few things going on and it helps to kill the boredum, but what I really need is something to occupy my life and my mind on a constant basis. Now, granted, I am going to be going back to school 2 days a week starting on monday to re-cert my EMT license, but that is shrot lived. And to be quite honest, I have been out of work for so long, I am down right scared whitless about going back to work full time at some point. It doesnt stop me from applying and applying and searching and searching etc, but I have fear. Can I still hack it? Am I actually any good at what is was that I was doing? Can I do the job? Can I get over this fear/axiety? (the last one being the big doosey of a question).

The older the I get the more fear & anxiety I seem to acquire and for the msot part I have no idea where its coming from.

Anyway, lets try to get back to a happier, lighter topic... A list thingy.

Things I have/have never done/will never do.

1. I have gotten tattooed... twice.
2. I have caught the boquet at a wedding...twice.
3. I have snuck into a movie. its not as thrilling as it sounds, it was lame.
4. I have Never felt a baby kick insdie its mother stomach, they all seem to settle down and do nothing when I am around. Its kind of depressing actually.
5. I have never gone sky-diving or bungee jumping and never will. I have this thing with heights and I do get a touch of vertigo. But I have no real issues flying. go figure
6. I have cooked thanksgiving dinner for my whole family a few times. Its not all its cracked up to be.
7. I have made a multi tier wedding cake. It was fun, but a $hit ton of work.
8. I donte blood as often as I can. Makes me feel like a better person when I do.
9. I have never seen or read anything relate to the Twilight series. I intend on leaving it that way. I see it as Necrophelia vs Beastiality. Im sorry if I offended anyone by saying that, but its just the way I feel.
10. I have an unhealthy obsession with watching NCIS, the shawshank redmeption & the green mile.
11. I have never gone scuba diving and never will. I have issues equalizing.
12. I have never gone on a cruise and would very much like to
13. I have never gone to Europe, but would love to go
14. I have never touched a snake and never will as I am deathly and inexplicably afraid of them.
15. I have never pierced anything other than my ears. This will likely never change.
16. Never have I ever gone to a football game. Probably never will.
17. I havent driven across the whole USA, only as far as Arkansas. And that was with my family as a teenager.
18. I Have never Tried on a wedding dress! (although this is going to change in a a week and a half)
19. I have never run any distance. Me + Running=disaster. I am truly that uncordinated.
20. I have never done a proper dive. mostly cause I still have to hold my nose when I go underwater. Yup, Im one of "those" people.
21. I have never kept my hair the same color for more than 6 months. I am prematurely grey and have a lot of it. So I have been full-head dying my hair since I was about 14-15.
22. I have never done any crazy drinking things like body shots, keg stands, funnels, or fish bowls to name a few. Probably never will. ALthough I won't rule out a "yard" glass of anything, yeah I know a contradiction.
23. I have eaten alligator, suckling pig, rabbit, duck, black bear, wild turkey, venicin, and a few other odd things I can't recall off hand.
24. I have tried Chinese wine, it sucked so bad I made my friend drink it so she could share my pain. (LOL!!!)
25. I have never traveled to the west cost of the US and would very much like to, Its on my Life List. (which needs updating)

Anything you have or havent done? I want to hear more about you my readers, if you even exist.

bloggity bloggity blog...

2011-10-24T19:28:00.000-04:00

I am finding it increasingly difficult to find things to blog about lately. Im sure I could go on and on and on about my wedding, but hell even that gets boring to talk about or write about over and over and over again. I havent seen any new or exciting movies, havent done anything new or exciting lately either. I have a few fun things coming up and hopefully I remember to bring the camera with me so I can document those things, but that really is about it.

We did however go out for a drive and lunch on saturday. We drove all the way up to Red Hook NY which is about 2hrs away more or less just for lunch. It was nice. We ate at a place called Rusty's Farm Fresh Eatery, which I suggest you go to if you are ever anywhere near it. Its all farm fresh food; free range chicken, grass fed beef, and they grow their own peppers and such just outside their front door!!! its amazing, considering how they are in a mini-strip mall kind of setup. The food is awesome, I really enjoyed it and so did Pat, which is saying something since all I ever get out of him is "its fine". he has added it to our, we must go back here list.

On the drive up on saturday, we were looking at the sky since it was a fantastically beautiful day, and we were looking at the clouds and we both thought that the clouds looked remarkably cartoonish. they looked like there were drawn into the sky.

what do you think? does it look like an episode of the simpsons is about to start or what?
also I didn't edit this photo at all. this is straight out of the camera. the sky was truly incredible on saturday. hope we have a few more days like that.

Other than that, I got nothing. wish i had a story to tell you that could even come close to comparing to the Bloggess' 5ft Metal Chicken story, but I don't. PS-she is awesomely hysterical to read, you really need to go and check her out.

New Camera

2011-10-16T17:33:00.000-04:00

So I forgot to tell you all, I finally upgraded my camera. It took me loaning my camera to someone who accidentally dropped it and ultimately i had to replace it cause the last one well, was no longer functional (the view screen was shattered, the lens wouldnt retract anymore & the card reader wouldnt read). So off I went in serach of a new camera, simply to replace the one I had, since I had really liked it. Of course, when I went into the store and saw all the new fancy stuff, my eyes lit up with delight and the brain simply told me one thing... UPGRADE Time! LOL! (insert pat cringing here...)

So I spent more than twice what I wanted to pay, But in my humble opinion, got a great new compact camera. Here is what it looks like. I am using the pictures on sony's wesbite since its hard to take a picture of my camera with my camera.

Its got a lot of built in features, like backlight correction, 3D image and movie capture, HD Video, and loads more of pre-sets, that I have been playing with here and there. So I get a lot of great SOOC shots. Its got a 16x optical zoom, which I have been treasuring a lot, since my last camera only had 5x optical and 10x digital zoom. Im not ready for a DSLR yet, not ready for that kind of responsibility yet. So for now, I will continue to use my compact and enjoy all the presets.

What kind of camera are you all using? When did you make the move to a DSLR?

Etsy is awesome!!!

2011-10-13T13:54:00.000-04:00

So Etsy is something fairly new to me, and dear god, someone needs to save me from spending every last dime on all things Etsy!!! I could easily blow all the money we have saved for the wedding on Etsy stuff. I mean seriously I could do that without even batting a single eyelash. LOL! I have found damm near a million things that I ~~need~~ want for the wedding. Thankfully there is this lovely little thing called pinterest, where i can save all my favorite things from a million and one websites in one spot. (this way i can stop sending myself a million-bajillion emails).

Anyway, one of my favorite etsy stores is having a huge giveaway. You should really go and check her out, cause she is in fact rather awesome!


check out the blog and enter for the giveaway here!

There are tons of things on her site that are supremely awesome. I'm currently eyeing some earings that I would love to have for my bridal party. :-)

Planning for the future

2011-10-12T18:52:00.000-04:00

I have been doing a lot, and I mean A LOT of planning lately. Renewal of my EMT License, planning for small jobs here and there to make whatever money I can where ever I can, and of course planning for the wedding! The wedding planning thus far has been really fun. I am enjoying it. And for the most part, I would say we are well on our way to having most things done and planned within the next few months. The most important thing is the Place. That is done and booked. Yeah we will have to go back and have a taste test and cake sampling and that kind of stuff, but for the most part I know what direction I want to head in for most everything.

Things otherwise at home are more or less back to normal, which you can see as the kitties are back to acting like they don't care about us humans in the house anymore.

We also went up to our wedding venue and took a few photos while we were there. These are just a few photos showing the rooms we will be using for our ceremony and reception. So Stoked!!!!

Its nothing over the top, its really just kind of average, and for us, thats perfect.

While we were walking around outside, there was this one squirel that seemed to follow us, I finally got his picture. :-)

In other news, since I've been home, I've gotten back to crocheting and have been working slowly on my "scrap-gan" afghan. I've also been working on an afghan for my sister who just started her first semester in college. I'll be working on that one for quite a while, since its a solid afghan and its quite large to begin with.

So thats pretty much my life in a nut shell right now. Oh yeah, I get to go back to "school" so to speak to re-cert my EMT license. That starts Nov 7th, and I'm really looking forward to it. It will give me something to do, which will be nice.

I also hope to get back to posting and blogging on the regular. It would be nice wouldn't it? Yeah I think so.

A feeling of progress

2011-10-02T21:21:00.000-04:00

I have been engaged for 2 whole months now! I can't believe it, I really can't. I still get kinda giggly when I get to tell someone I am now Engaged, a Fiance, a Future Wife! It really is an awesome feeling.

We have made some progress in the wedding planning though. And that also feels really awesome. I get more and more and more excited with each decision we make. Biggest decision was a date, and that we h

ave Sat Nov 24, 2012! We will be getting married at a resort in the poconos. It really is so pretty, and I am extermely excited for our guests to share in our special day with us :-) We are planning one hell of a shindig if I don't say so myself. We have also chosen our wedding party and we have asked all 14 of them (yup, I know, large) 7 Guys and 7 Gals to be a part of our day with us. they of course have all said yes. A part of me was questioning weather or not someone might say no, about how I would handle that if it happened. Mild panic and anxiety set in for each and every one of those conversations. LOL! Thankfully no one said no. Dont know what I would have done otherwise. Cry most likely. haha.

We have more or less gotten our guest list together. There are 123 names on the list! Yipes!!! There are A lot of those that are courtesy invites to people who you almost pray will NOT show up. I am also planning a child free wedding. Not a fan of kids at weddings in general, but that is just my personal preference. Also if I were to add the children to the guest list, my numbers would drastically increase, we're talking another 30 people here!! Since we are paying for our wedding reception ourselves, its a lot of money we are shelling out. My parents are helping to pay for stuff where they can, but the reception thats all us. and since I have been out of work for a year and a half with no real hope of finding anything right now, its an even larger financial undertaking for us.

As with any family setting, there is drama. I am doing my best to not let it bother me. Although some of the things do bug the ever living crap out of me. But I won't get into those things, cause I could probably go on and on and on and on about them.

I still haven't had my ring sized. Have to get on that. The most I have taken it off for is showering. I don't think I have taken it off for a longer period than that. I also still need to choose my colors. Thats been proving to be difficult for me so far. Other than that the planning process is moving along rather quickly and smoothly. And for that I am thankful.

Overall, I am enjoying the process. i have a few DIY crafty ideas that I want to do for the wedding. Not sure how those will go in the long run, but I am looking forward to that as well. Mostly I am just enjoying myself and the process in general. And for me, its been a long since i have done that.

Blech!!!

2011-09-28T11:56:00.000-04:00

Im home from camp for about a month now. I'd much rather be back there were things were simple. There was Zero family drama, there was no worry about working, since I was working, food magically appeared, i didnt have to worry about what I was gonna wear each day, there was a good feeling at the end of each day, I was comfortable in what I was doing, halfway through I was engaged and happy and elated for a new chapter in my life.

Now I am home. I am again unemployed. My EMS license is days away from expiration. I have little to no expectation of getting it renewed due to cost and other irritating factors. I had an interview a week ago and they said they were going to call me back, low and behold they never did. shocking considering the unemployment rate is 9.1% or higher, i dont even know these days, its ridonculous.(insert sarcasm)

I have no desire to talk to "the other people" who live in my house because they can't seem follow some simple rules that we have laid down. the glaring disrespect for us, the general inconsiderateness, its all too much to handle.

we won't even get into the general finance problems we have. its insane that we have so many problems. i want so badly to unload them, and it seems that the moment i unload one burden six more come and land in my lap. i just cant seem to get ahead in life. i really am depressed. i want o just sit here and cry, and scream and yell and hit things, etc. i want to throw things at people, and mean it! chances are im not going to miss right now.

i have no idea how to alleviate my stress, i just want so badly to be back in camp, i want for it to be june 30th all over again, i want to be starting something new and exciting all over again. I want joy to come back into my life, and right now that is so far away, I dont know when or if Ill ever get back there. Depressed, doesnt even come close to how I feel right now.

Is anyone still out there?

2011-09-16T09:34:00.000-04:00

Yeah, its been a while, almost 2 months since I've had a post. Life at camp was crazy insane, and then moving back home was another crazy insane thing. As a matter of fact, Ive been home for a few weeks, and am still trying to get my life back to normal. Its taking a lot longer than I thought it would.

We've been living in wedding planning world. Budgeting, Bridal Party decisions, Location Ideas, Overall look and feel of our special day etc. Its a lot of work, but I am enjoying it. Enjoying it until people start asking stupid questions like, why do you want to have your wedding there? or why aren't you planning or thinking of doing this? etc. Just a quick word out to those people. Hey Numb-Nut, MY wedding, not yours! If you don't like what Im planning, they stay home, and I won't bother sending you an invitation, Ill save a lot of money on postage this way.

To be honest, I just haven't had much to blog about lately. well hell, Ive had nothing to blog about so far. Yeah the engagement was pretty much the last notable thing that happened. There really isnt anything new in my life.
Im still unemployed, Im engaged (but you knew that already), I still have my kitties to make me feel better when Im feeling down, and Im still bound and determined to try to remember to find things to blog about from time to time.

So Ill end this post here and hopefully will have a few things to write about next week. Perhaps some new recipes or something like that, who knows. Until then, Happy Blogging!

OMG, I'M ENGAGED!!!

2011-08-02T11:55:00.000-04:00

Yup yup, as you can tell by the title, i am one very happy person right now!!!!!!!!!!!! extremely happy!!!!!!!!!!!! After 11 years of being with Pat, we are now.....ENGAGED!!!!!!!!!!! Everytime i think about that i am now a "fiance" and he is my "fiance" my heart skips a beat. Its pretty awesome feeling. Im excited to be able to say that I will spend the rest of my life with this man whom I love ever so deeply.

But enough of that, you are all wondering, well how did he pop the question(and more importantly, where's the ring). so here's the story(and the ring)....

Rewind to about 7:30 sunday morning July 31st. technically its my day off from work at the camp and my only day of the week to sleep in. Pat was away at a bachelor party all weekend near Hunter Mt. The phone rings (gernally when this happens at that hour, that means a camper is very ill/injured) with heart racing I answer the phone, its Pat. He's asking if Im awake and wanting to go to breakfast. Huh? you're supposed to be in Hunter, what do you mean do I want to go to breakfast. He said he was on his way to camp and would be there in about 20 min or less. Answer, OKay, thats fine. Phone hung up, Sarah goes back to sleep. I mean afterall, we're only going to breakfast, right? Now he shows up and i get a good laugh cause he is very sunburnt from the day before after lounging in the pool all day. (LOL) He tells me he has a present for me. so now of course I am awake but still sitting in bed, hair uncombed, teeth unbrushed and he is giving me this beautiful box...

Its a puzzle box, that I have to figure out how to open to get at what is inside. If you can see in the picture above, in the bottom corner there appears to be a small imperfection in the wood, its actually a small carved heart. and I got a few clues on how to open it, such as consider its shape, let the heart guide you as a compass rose does etc. I got the box open (not in the way it was supposed to work, which upset pat, but it opened none the less. i didn't break it open either) and inside the box was this...

As you can see in the second picture, there is some paper on top of the earings. That paper was the second part of the puzzle. I had to figure out the word puzzle. (I happen to love word games, so he made me my very own word game. he's so thoughtful) Here I was thinking that I got an awesome little jewlery box and some very pretty earings. At this point, I kind of guessed something was up, but I wasn't sure. After 11 years, you kind of get used to not expecting to be proposed to. So I started putting together the word puzzle...

There were a total of 3 "Words", my first name, middle name and Pat's last name, not shown for obvious reasons. So when I put it all together, I just looked at him, and he said, will you? and of course the answer was YES! Insert lots of girly awesome emotion here. He pulls the green foam out of the box and underneath was this....

And here is the ring!!! It doesnt quite fit, we need to go and have it sized. I've been wearing it on my pinky finger, cause it is so pretty afterall. Its amazing, all the things I could have dreamed of in a ring, he got in a ring. Its so perfect. Im so damm happy to be able to plan my wedding and all that good stuff. I've been walking around with my head in the clouds and sitting on cloud 9. This is such an amazing feeling.

Greetings from Camp & graduation re-cap

2011-07-06T17:15:00.000-04:00

Well I'm here!!! Been here since 6/30/11. Just now have had the time to be able to sit down with my computer and do a blog posting. I also have a ton of blog reading to do. Eeps!! and there is no internet in my living quarters, so it has to be while I am in my office. So since this time of the day is not technically my "office hours" I have a little bit of down time to be able to sit here and write to all you nice folks who read my blog, I think there is what, about 3 of you? Well, Just letting you know, I haven't forgotten you guys :-) In fact I miss writing to you.

But in any event, here are some photos from my sister's high school graduation which was almost 2 weeks ago now. Craziness, I tell you, sheer craziness!!!! (hopefully, I will have some pics from camp up soon)

Mom dad and sister outside of the middle school where the graduation was. Yes, you read that right, the high school graduation was at the mdidle school. It was supposed to be outside in the yard of the high school, but there was a threat of rain (which it never did) so they crammed us all in the gym of the middle school. So all the pictures have cloudy, white skies. icky.

Kris's diploma, class ring, and pretty corsage. :-) I think this is my favorite photo from graduation. it just came out so nice. I love the vibrant colors.

My beautiful sister trying to tell me to hurry up and stop taking pictures of her. ;-p

This photo and the next few were all in front of the high school. we drove there to take some pictures. :-)

Grimacing at the sign regarding the weather.

her diploma and two tassles. One from the school, one for national honor society

(so smart, that sister of mine)

At home with her cap, gown, tassles, History & Language Honor Society ropes, diploma & a single rose from Pat. Awwwww....

me, Kris & dad

Me, Kris & Pat. apparently mom is the best photographer....

And whats a celebration without cake. :-) tasty cake, but very rich.

last ten on tuesday before camp!!

2011-06-28T12:52:00.000-04:00

I can not believe that I am leaving for camp on thursday morning!!! Im excited, Im nervous, Im happy, Im already a tad homesick , Im anxious, Im a ball of emotion!!!!! I've been packing, and while packing making the house into a glorified disaster area as I look for things, pack things, unpack things, repack things etc. Oh and I'm sick. Yup, perfect frickin timing right? a nice cold with a sore throat. So these things are all taking me far longer than they normally would. And throw in unwanted, unschedueled but much needed naps. I am living on cough drops, vitamins, cold medicine and fluids. So far I have managed to keep this cold from getting worse. I kinda just wish it would just leave.

And to top it all off, its hot, humid and gross outside. Blech!!!! But at least the sun is shining. I have to be thankful for that. But now on to Ten on Tuesday :-)

one
What’s the recipe for your favorite drink? (Smoothie, alchoholic, coffee, whatever.)
Hmm, I have a lot of favorites. Ill try and give you one recipe type thing for each. smoothie, i happen to love strawberry banana smoothies. i don't make them at home, i usually get them when i am out somewhere, so i can't give you a recipe. If you have recipe without yogurt as the base, e-mail it to me please!!!! Alcoholic drink.. this is easy, pineapple juice and malibu rum. or or or a frozen malibu pina colada :-) yummm. Coffee... hmmm i happen to love starbucks via carmel instant coffee. that, two-three sugars and milk and wham, perfect cup of coffee for me. :-) Other than that, I usually almost always drink unsweetened iced tea (fresh brewed of course) with lemon.

two
What kind of razor do you use?
I use the Venus. It’s nice but it’s expensive. I also have an electric razor to keep up appearences between shower shaves.

three
Who is your favorite Sesame Street character?
I always liked snuffy & tele. they were kind of doofy and sweet. they also werent the main characters which also appealed to me.

four
What makes the perfect salad? (Lettuce type, toppings, dressing, etc.)
I love the mixed greens packs you can get at the super markets, then i add tomatos, cucumbers, green bell peppers, pancetta, shredded chedder, croutons, occassionally some hard boiled egg, and then a nice light italian dressing or a creamy cesaer. i love salads. :-)

five
What was your favorite subject in school?
I always love art & music. i also really loved my high school senior year physics class. we had a lot of fun in that class

six
What’s your favorite summer tradition?
i am missing it this year. usually all our friends get together at one of our houses and watch fireworks somewhere. we've gone to our friends house's in asbury park NJ, groton CT, alexandria VA. as far as i know no one planned anything this year, but we wouldnt be around anyway. kinda depressing, I miss seeing them all together.

seven
Do you suffer from season allergies? How do you combat them?
i do. usually i ignore it and just deal with it, and if gets to out of control i will take bendryl. its really the only thing that makes me feel better.

eight
How often do you have to charge your cell phone?
daily, if not more. depends on how much i use the phone during the day and the farther i get away from normal cell service area, the faster the battery dies.

nine
Do you have a bucket list?
I have a life list which you can read here.

ten
Do you have any desire to go back to school?
yes and no. depends on what kind of mood i am in and what i am doing in life at the moment.

My first TERRIBLE online shopping experience

2011-06-22T23:21:00.000-04:00

Interested in a blog sponsor/button swap, check it out here

Never, and I mean never, have I ever had such a bad online shopping experience as I have recently had with target. Never, and I mean never have I been this disappointed in a store. I recently (on 5/15/2011)purchased "the watchmen; the ultimate cut" which I have been so looking forward to. includes the theatre relesase movie, the extended movie, behind the scenes stuff, the movie intercut with the "tails of the black freighter" and the digital copy of the movie. The movie came in damm near record time for ground shipping. And until today I really haven't had time to open it up and look through everything. I've attempted to do so, but have failed miserably, my schedule just hasnt allowed for it.

Today I finally sat down and opened up the box and took out the digital edition disk and put it in the computer to redeem my digital copy, plug in the redemption code, and guess what, no good. The redemption of the digital copy apparently expired on Nov 3 2010!!!!! seriously, how can a website advertise a movie coming with a digital copy and you can't redeeem it. Look Im not crazy or anything, and Im far from a nasty person, but seriously, I am a victim of false advertising. Im bordering on insane right now, cause I really do like the movie and do not want to bring the DVD box set with me to camp next month, I just wanted to be able to pack my laptop with all my other digital copy movies on it and enjoy them in camp at night before I go to bed. Mostly because I just dont have the space in my living quarters for a bunch of DVD's and I also dont want them to be ruined or scratched or anything like that. So below, you can see that I am not in fact a total crazy person.....

below is my order confirmation, and you can see the date and time of the order in the top right corner...

Next is a screen shot from Target's website TODAY showing that the movie comes with a digital copy.....Next up you can see the expiration date on the enclosed redemption form....

I really am a bit mad. I sent them an e-mail and a facebook message. I really do hope that they respond and that there is positive outcome from all of this. Ordinarily I would take this back to the store and deal with it there, but my local store is under construction and having dealt with the customer service people there before, they really aren't the best, teeth sucking and rolling eyes at customers is not my idea of ideal or even appropriate customer service. But that's neither here nor there right now. I really want to be able to claim my digital copy, or have them compensate me for having to spend money in order to purchase the digital copy of the ultimate cut of the movie. Lets see what happens.

Please keep your fingers crossed for me, will ya?

have you ever had a similar experience? how did you deal with it?

Commenting...

2011-06-22T21:55:00.000-04:00

Interested in a blog sponsor/button swap, check it out here

OKay, so bloggers coment form sucks ~~ass~~. There is no place for anyone to put an e-mail address so I can reply to comments I get. Its just "choose a profile", which is weird. I have been looking for a new form/format/hmtl code to replace what is there. But to be honest, I just don't have the money to spare to spend to pay someone to fix it for me or pay for some other annoymous website source for their code. Does anyone know of a way to fix this? or will you all at least please choose an option in the profile area or whatever you wanna call it (ya know, that little drop down box thingy-ma-bob) that you choose to have your email address show in my inbox instead of all the no-reply@blogger.com email senders that I keep getting. I love your comments and love to be able to chat back and forth with you about the lovely notes you leave on my blog.

Is there anyone out there in the great wide world of web help me?

snip, clip, send

2011-06-22T18:27:00.000-04:00

Interested in a blog sponsor/button swap, check it out here

Sounds so easy right? snip clip and send? no idea what I'm talking about huh? Let me explain....

Coups for Troops. Simply, they collect any manufactures coupons, expired or still valid, send them to military bases and posts all over the world and give them to the stationed military personnel. The overseas commissaries and PX's will accept the coupons 6 months past the date of expiration!!! crazy huh? that's what I thought. But its all very real and very true. Don't believe me... check it out for yourself here. They even have a Facebook page where you can check them out.

I'll be collecting them and sending them in, care to join me? Let me know! Do you know of anyone who has benefited from this program? I would love to hear all about it.

Ten on first Tuesday & a Hair cut

2011-06-21T18:12:00.000-04:00

First things first, Ten on Tuesday....

one

What’s the perfect meal?
hmmm, thats tough. there are a few things that would make the perfect meal, such as an amazing sushi dinner or an amazing steak dinner with garlic mash on the side, a cesar salad and homemade mac & cheese, or seared ahi tuna dinner wtih broiled tomatos fresh mozzaerlla. I suppose it really depends on my mood.

two

What are the perfect pair of shoes?
I have no clue. Im currently wearing my 3yr old flip flops.

three

What is the perfect afternoon?
I suppose it would be a day on a boat out in the middle of a peaceful lake somewhere.

four

What’s the perfect house?
a yard, central air & heating, 3-4 bedrooms, living room dinning room, eat in kitchen, large master bathroom with a jacuzzi tub, garage, wood floors, family room, etc. basically think white picket fence. and it would be really nice if there was no mortgage either. LOL, yup Im a dreamer

five

What is the perfect outfit?
a comfortable one.

doesnt matter what it is as long as its comfy.

six

What’s the perfect wedding song?
i don't know. im not engaged. its been 11 years, but the day I get engaged I will think about that. Otherwise I find thinking about that stuff a little bit depressing

seven

What is the perfect job?
for me, right now any job is a perfect job as I dont have one. however stay at home mom would be awesome. I can see myself doing that. Or a job where my boss appreciates me instead of treats me like crap. that would be nice.

eight

What’s the perfect hairstyle?
the one I just got, see the pictures below

nine

What’s the perfect music festival?
the one I dont go to. I dont like the concert atmosphere. Had a couple of bad experiences, and Im not a fan of large crowds of people

ten

What’s the perfect day to yourself?
the one where no one bothers me. movies, tv, xbox, wii, a book, blogging, shopping, drinking on a beach or poolside, swimming, sitting outside, camping etc. basically it would be whatever the mood calls for that day. nothing in particular.

So I got my hair cut today. Here are the before and after pictures. what do you think??

These are the before pictures. Long long long mop of hair....

And this is after...

Changed the color and the length and it feels great. The weight of the hair being gone is great, but its so strange to run my fingers through it and suddenly there is no more hair.

Let me say this, Ive had a lot, and I mean a lot, of bad, horrible chop job hair cuts. I normally opt to not do anything to my hair over having someone do it for me. Ive been more or less traumatized by previous hair cuts. And today I think I may have possibly just maybe may have found someone who I trust. I explained my anxiety to her and she kept asking me how I felt, if I liked what was being done etc. It was so nice to have someone look at me and understand my anxiety as opposed to just saying, thats not possible etc. So Ill go back there again for a trim and color touch ups. Dont get me wrong I spent a lot of money on my hair today, but it was so worth it.

Service Project, Plaque Dedication & More

2011-06-20T17:33:00.000-04:00

The past few weeks have been absolutely insane. The scout year coming to a close, school ending for all the kids, scouts graduation from high school, work, getting ready for summer camp, getting prepared for my sister's high school graduation and who knows what else. I've taken some pitctures through some of the scouting events and would like to share them with you in slideshow format. its just easier than constantly scrolling through a million top-bottom images.

So this slideshow is pictures of the kids who worked on an Eagle Scout Service Project this past weekend. they built a gazebo for a local nursing home/extended care facility for the elderly.

These are the few pictures I took at the plaque dedication weekend camping trip at Alpine Scout Camp in memory of John Costello. It was a very touching dedication and I cried through the whole damm thing, and was then called upon to remove and fold the flag that was covering the plaque. I still want to cry just thinking about it. Thankfully, I had the support of a lot of people who were both there and from those who couldn't make it that day. We had a wonderfully warm & sunny day and I know he was there with us in spirit that day.

All of this has got me thinking about my first ever blog post, which you can read here. I knew nothing of the blogging world then, and still don't know a whole lot now either other than how the mechanics of blogging work (well from what I have taught myself anyway).

There are lots of things that make me think of the people in my life who are gone such as poignant movie quotes like Morgan Freeman's voice over monologue's from "The Shawshank Redemption", silly quotes from "Kung Fu Panda", another monologue from some "CSI" show, certain music lyrics, etc. there are lots of things that make me think about the past, about regrets, happy times, fond memories, and so on. I do try to learn from my mistakes and regrets, but not being a perfect person, I still, often, do make mistakes and create new regrets from time to time.

I have a huge opportunity for growth in front of me facing working at a summer camp. I hope to learn a lot, experience some new things in the scouting world, and mostly hoping for healthy happy people and no major medical emergencies, as I am going to be the medical officer. I can't lie and say that I am a little bit scared about the possibility that someone can get really sick or seriously injured in camp. However I know that my "fear" will keep me grounded and on the level mentally. I'm still fairly anxious about the whole new experience, but its the good kind of anxiety. I have just shy of 9 days before I leave.

Also while there, we will be dedicating another plaque, this one granite, in John's memory at the Ten Mile River Scout Camp Museum. That day will be another rough day. Not sure what will be done that day or how anything will be done and dont know who will be there. Its going to be an interesting day to say the least.

July Blog Sponsor/Button Swap

2011-06-20T13:30:00.000-04:00

Okay folks, just shy of 10 day s left until I leave to work at Ten Mile River Scout Camp for the summer and also only just 10 days left until July1st, which means you have 10 days to sign up for a Blog Sponsor/Button Swap space just there to the right in my sidebar.

Jessica from The Moments in Between has been my lovely sponsor/button swap buddy for the month of June. She has one very adorable button which you can click on below and be transported to her most awesome blog. :-)

New to this idea? No Problem!!! Here is how simple it is.... You post my button on your blog from July 1st-July 31st and I post your button on my blog from July 1st-July 31st. Its really that simple. I mean really, what could be any easier?,....ummm nothing.

Should you be interested, please E-MAIL me by clicking here or click on the Contact Me! tab above and send me a direct message with your first name, blog address and tell me your interested.

One more thing, please repost this wonderful sharing idea on your blog and leave a link back to me here so others can share their buttons with me too!!

Okie dokie, thats about all I got for today. I took a $hit ton of pictures yesterday and I need to go through them and edit them. Hope to share them with you tomorrow or later tonight if I'm lucky enough to finish that early. haha! I'm also hoping to make a new button as well. Lets see how far I can get with that.

Its a Good Anxiety

2011-06-14T15:29:00.000-04:00

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I am really very anxious & rather excited about working at a summer camp, but its the good type of anxiety.
Im trying to make sure all of "stuff" is in order before I go, such as making sure bills are paid here at home, that I have everything I need in order to be the best medical officer/EMT that I can be, making sure I have all my uniform items with me and together, packing up the computer, the camera, all the appropriate wires, packing my movies & tv shows (not that I think I will actually have time to watch them, LOL, but packed they shall be). And oh so many more things going through my head, lists being made, torn up and re-written, items to be packed are all kind of heaped in one room of the house right now, and the kitties, cute as they are, seem to think that my items for camp are their new play things, silly kitties. I still have a bunch of things I have to buy, but a lot of that I have left until the day I check in. Thankfully there is a Wally-World (its what we call Wal-Mart) near by.

There is only one thing I am truly uncomfortable about, knowing my way around the camp. So many trails and sites and different places to go to. I am also bringing the motorcycle with me to camp, well at least I think I am anyway. I truly havent made up my mind about that just yet. I may wind up leaving it at home. This is the one major decision I have to make, weather or not to take the bike with me. meh, who knows. i still have about 15 days to decide.

Ten on Tuesday!!

2011-06-14T12:39:00.000-04:00

I dont know why I have a compulsion to do things like this, perhaps it just makes blogging easier. Just answer some questions that someone else has come up with and post them on your page and then link up with the host site. I dunno, but for whatever reason, I really do look forward to this kind of stuff. It just seems to make my week go by even faster, not sure if thats a good thing or a bad, thing, but it just does what it does. So in any event, here we are...

one

How do you pronounce the word aunt? Does your pronunciation rhyme with ‘haunt’ or ‘can’t'?

Being from the Bronx, it completely rhymes with "can't". I can't lie and say that I've never tried to self correct it, I've managed to correct most of my "bronx tawk" over the years, but there are a few words such as aunt & coffee that I just can't seem to shake the unmistakable bronx accent from.

two

Do most of the people in your life know you blog? Or are you partially or totally anonymous?

I'm gonna go with most people don't know I blog, and if they do, they keep it a great secret that they do read my blog. I am partially anonymous anyway. Being unemployed for such a long period of time, I know that for each job I apply for, some companies do extensive online research to see what they can dig up, such as faceook, twitter, and any other social media that they can get their hands on to find out what kind of person you are. I can't say I blame them, they are doing what they have to do to ensure that they are not hiring a complete and total nut job. I am also fortunate enough to share my first and last name (all spelled exactly the same) as a popular childrens television executive. so searching for me takes some talent. LOL.

three

When you grocery shop, do you prefer to bag your own groceries or do you like it when the store bags them for you? Paper, plastic, or reusable bags?

I like them to bag them myself, but I don't mind if they are bagged for me on occassion. I find that the people who bag them either put one item in each double bagged bag, or they squeeze as much as humanly possible to a single bag that is now impossible to double bag. I have a boat load of reusable bags, but they never seem to make it to the grocery store. All the stores around here use plastic bags. Although I do prefer the paper & plastic double bag combination. I wish stores would go back to that.

four

Do you have a green thumb?

as a matter of fact, my thumbs are black when it comes to plants. I can barely keep a small arrangement of cut flowers "alive" for more than 48 hrs. I really do wish I had a green thumb. My patch of dirt in front of my house would look so much better with flowers and plants in it.

five

If you watch the Food Network, which chef/show host is your favorite?

I don't watch the food network. I learned a long time ago that when I do watch it, all I learn is how to eat more food, cause watching the shows makes me hungry, like a bear who just woke up from hibrination. LOL!!

six

Do you like to take baths? Do you take them very often?

I love to take a nice relaxing bath every now and again. I find it do it most often when I don't feel good. for whatever reason, weather Im sick or just plain down in the dumps, a bath seems to make everything okay again.

seven

What color are the walls in your kitchen?

white for the little bit of wall you can see above the cabinets. the cabinets are white washed oak, which looks pink to me and I hate them, and the back splash matches the counter tops which is a lamenet of black marble. and I dont like them either.

eight

Do you prefer to dine outdoors or indoors?

both actually. it depends on my mood and the weather and where we are.

nine

Describe your ideal weather.

about 75-80 degrees and sunny with a light cool breeze.

ten

If you could learn any foreign language, which would you choose to learn?

i have attempted in the past to learn spanish. for years I took lessons. none of it took. At this point I would say I would love to learn another language, perhaps italian or german. But fact of the matter is I am just far to lazy to take something like that on.

A Good Documentary & a Docudrama

2011-06-13T16:36:00.000-04:00

As I sit here with T-16 days before I leave to work at a Boy Scout Resident Summer Camp in Narrowsburg, NY, I am trying to catch up with my DVR, favorite TV show re-runs, Movies I haven't seen etc, I have come across two pieces that I really just can't but share with you. Both are sad in nature, and one may even stir up a boat load of religious & moral controversy. However, I say this, weather of not you agree with the nature/subject matter of the Documentary, I still think that you should consider watching it in order to understand what compelled these people to make the decision that they did.

But first we will talk about the best made Docu-drama that I have seen in an extremely long time.

What a lot of people, including you my reader, do not know about me, is that I happen to love historically accurate war/military type movies. I guess I take after my father in that respect. He loves history, ALL history. He also loves to read Tom Clancy novels, which I never got into. But at least I know where my interest for these types of things comes from. But I digress.... back to the movie.

This movie was initially suggested to Pat & I about two weeks ago by a friend and the story of how I came to watch it is as equally as prominent as the movie is in and of itself. Our friend lost his nephew in Iraq on Nov 29, 2004. At the time of his death, he was on active duty serving with the Army National Guard. He was also a NYC 9/11 first responder and other details regarding his life can be seen here. (I will hopefully have more posts regarding this Finest & Bravest man following the 10 yr anniversary of 9/11 this September). His nephew is now interred in Arlington National Cemetery in Alexandria, VA, & when they went to visit his gave site HBO was filming a documentary, Section 60: Arlington National Cemetery, (another great and moving documentary) and their family was interviewed, but ultimately did not make the final cut. So when that documentary initially hit HBO's airwaves, we of course watched it and silently paid our respects to all those who have sacrificed their lives for the freedom of our country from the comfort of our home in Bronx, NY. When he was over our house one night "Taking Chance" happened to be on in background as the program we were watching on the DVR had ended. I saw Kevin Bacon on the screen in a military uniform. And at the time I had only glanced at the TV in order to point the remote at the box to find something else to watch. When our friend said, "This movie, 'Taking Chance', great movie, you have to sit and watch it". Instantly I hit record. When we asked what the movie was about, he said "you just have to sit and watch it. Its about a man who escorts a Marine who was killed in action back home". so with that being all we knew, we waited for the movie to record.

A couple of days later scrolling through the DVR, I saw that this movie "Taking Chance" had recorded. Not remembering why it was on there, I hit the info button and it brought up the description. Instantly now remembering, I hit play.

The movie follows Lt Col Michael Strobl and the PFC Chance R. Phelps through their journey through the Dover AFB Mortuary to Philadelphia's Airport to Minneapolis, MN to Billings, Montana to Riverton and then to Dubois, Wyoming. The movie is extremely emotional (for me anyway) and very very moving. I suggest you watch with a box of tissues. I cried profusely for the entirety of the movie, that's almost 2 hrs folks!

I don't know if I'd be able to watch this movie again. As I have already seen it and Pat has not, I've already informed him, that I will not sit and watch the movie again. He will have to sit and watch it alone. He asked why, and I said, I'm just not prepared to sit and cry for two straight hours again. He normally laughs at me when I say crap like that, but this time he looked at me and said, Okay. that also made me want to cry for some reason, but I didn't! Go ME!!

Just a quick tidbit or regarding this movie, it was initially made for national theatre release, but instead it skipped the theatres and went directly to HBO. So for right now that is the only place that I know of that you can watch it, unless Netflix and/or other rental companies have picked it up as of yet, and that I just don't know. This is a recount of the real life events that Lt Col Michael Strobl experienced in April 2004. You can read his journal of his journey here. However, I do suggest that you watch the movie first.

Okay now onto the second movie...

Another emotional movie, but having watched it after "Taking Chance" I was kinda of call cried out (if that's even possible).

This movie is an HBO Films documentary. This documentary is all about physician assisted suicide and the right to die.

I will preface the rest of this post with this. If you have any strong religious/moral beliefs opposing the right to die, the right to self terminate, physician assisted suicide, etc., I suggest that you a) stop reading here b) please do not send me any "hate mail" regarding the matter as I respect everyone and every person and their beliefs and opinions and am not attempting to "make a case" for any one side or the other c) my opinion is simply that, an opinion.

In 1994, the state of Oregon, legalized physician assisted suicide under the "Death with Dignity" Act. Under this act, a patient (and legal resident of the state) can lawfully request that two physicians who mutually agree that the patient has a terminal illness with less than 6 months to live can write a prescription for a lethal dose of a barbiturate which the patient must administer to themselves to end their life (please note that this is severely paraphrased). In 2008 Washington State passed Initiative 1000 (I-1000), "death with dignity". This initiative now gave residents of Washington Sate the same opportunity to terminally ill patients as those in Oregon already have.

This documentary follows patients and families in their journey to exercise their rite to self terminate, the questions of weather or not to do so and if they choose to do so, then when is the appropriate time. It also follows a woman who is on a mission to fulfill her husbands dying wish to legalize "Death with Dignity" in the state of Washington.

I personally support this movement. But again this strictly my opinion. Please do not bombard me with why you think I am wrong. However if you wish to have an adult intellectual conversation without ramming your religious beliefs down my gullet, then I will be more than happy to indulge that conversation. As one of my friends says, "Don't try and convert me and I won't throw poop at you".

I found this film to be intensely informative and also again, very moving. If you can handle it, I suggest that you watch it, regardless of what your personal beliefs are. It may just enlighten you to at the very least respect someone else's rite to choose.

You can read more about the "How to Die in Oregon" and check for local listings here.

If you have seen either film, what did you think? I would love to hear from some of you about these films.

**In no way was I paid/compensated for this post regarding these movies, which both coincidentally are being featured on HBO. The opinions expressed above are strictly my own and the images above also do not belong to me and I claim no credit for them.**

Humbled

2011-06-12T20:05:00.000-04:00

For the all the b^tching and complaining that I do on a semi-regular basis about the Scouts and my self proclaimed "over-involvement" and other peoples lack of concern etc, today I am truly humbled. Both pat and I received a special award from both Pack & Troop thanking us for our continuous service. We were both kind of "hoodwinked" as pat is calling it, into a recognition dinner this evening. Granted we knew that the dinner was to say thanks for our help this past year, but we had no idea that a) so many people would come out & b) we're completely shocked to see some other faces there this evening. Truly we are in awe that people went out of their way to put tonight's dinner together just for us.

I honestly and truly tried to get out of this for the past 6 weeks. I managed to skirt around the district recognition dinner (which is a cluster f^k at best), but this one kept getting rescheduled around my schedule, so I figured I'd be going weather I wanted to or not. I am not one for going for awards or special honors or having a fuss made about me etc. I have always enjoyed scouting and believed & embodied its principals for as long as I have been involved; I am involved because I enjoy it. I believe in the program. I believe in the results it produces. I'm not involved because I can receive this award or that award, or because I want to the center of attention.

I am truly grateful for all of their thanks, their appreciation & support. I am truly and utterly humbled by their thanks. So if any of you from the pack or troop or reading this, please know that it is Pat & I who are truly thankful of you.

I know the following are cruddy pictures, but its as good as its gonna get with the iPhone right now. Not really in the mood to drag out the camera at the moment. Just kinda enjoying this.

This one is from of my Webelos who "flew-up" from the pack to the troop on Friday night. Reading it kinda made me a bit misty eyed. Thank god for sunglasses and beer at dinner. I also got another card from another Webelos scout who also flew up on Friday, it was from him and his family. I just happen to snap a pic this one. Their parents came to the dinner tonight as well.

This is the award that Pat & I received. We each got our own, his has his name on it. Again, another iphone picture.

I will leave you with this scout blessing...
"May the great Scoutmaster of all Scouts guide and protect us until we meet again."

Serenity, can I have some?

2011-06-10T16:15:00.000-04:00

You know, serenity and sanity are funny things. Sometimes we have lots of both, or lots of some and not the other, or sometimes absolutley none of the above. Today, for me, it's the latter.

I also find it amazing, how in the blink of an eye, peoples ~~rampant stupidity, idiocy~~ complete lack of ~~caring~~ thought for others can completely overwhelm your every thought. Is that a bus I hear coming, oh yes, it is, here let me help you throw me in front of it. Ready? Set? WHAM!!! ah thank you, the hit by the crosstown express was much appreciated and felt as relaxing as a five star spa massage.

I'm lost, confounded, and confused by all of this. I shouldn't be shocked anymore when people aspire to new lows in life. I shouldn't be, but I am. Perhaps I have too much faith in humanity. Perhaps I need to go back to being a complete and total cynic & pessimist and embody all the negative things implied by those words.

My faith in humanity and new people I let into my closely guarded life is something I value more than I can describe. I've been burned far to many times in my short life. I don't open up easily and I certainly don't let just anyone into my life. And when I let someone in (even in the smallest measure) and am let down, dissapointed, baffeled, etc, I feel like just shutting myself off from the rest of the world and not letting anyone else in.

I am so disappointed in myself for allowing myself to be deceived by a seemingly warm smile. I wish I could end this post, with some powerful "never again" type thing, but I can't. I'm truly at a loss this time around.

But I will leave off with this funny that I found on the web somewhere, and no I didn't come up with it, and no I don't know who did. (but its making me laugh right now which is what I need right now)

"Lord grant me the serenity to accept the fucktards I can not change

and the restraint to not punch them in the face"

WeeBit Wednesday!

2011-06-08T13:17:00.000-04:00

Its Wednesday again... so you know what that means, time for some Q&A with Leigh Ashley (who has one awesome etsy store, btw. you really need to go check it out and buy something beautiful). :-)

one

how many times have you been a bridesmaid/maid of honor?

I was once a Junior Bridesmaid. I've been to tons of weddings, but have never been asked to be a part of anyones wedding party. Perhaps someday I can skip the bridesmaid thing and head right on over to being a bride. I can hope right?

two

what’s the last thing your do before you fall asleep at night?

Set the sleep timer on the TV if I'm at home. If I'm away at camp, generally the last thing I do is attempt to get comfy and make sure I don't have to go to the bathroom. LOL. when you're at camp, sometimes the bathroom is a little bit away so its best to make sure you don't need to go immediately.

three

you just won your dream vacation, all expenses paid. where are you going?

Everywhere I ever wanted to go, Eurpoe, the medeterainian, Japan, Disney World, Vegas(again), Alaska, Hawaii, New Zeland, Fiji, Bora Bora, the caribean, cruises and also to Richard Branson's private island, theme parks, spas etc. Truly, if you said all expenses paid, and anywhere I want to go, my answer is going to be EVERYWHERE I ever wanted to go. Don't tempt me. LOL.

four

what is your favorite outdoor activity?

Camping. I would also say hiking, but my dumb fat ass is so out of shape, I just don't enjoy it anymore. I would love to enjoy it again, but that is going to take time. I also love to lounge in the pool. Its just so damm relaxing.

five

as a child, what did you want to “be when you grew up”? did you end up there?

I wanted to be so many things, a nurse, a teacher, a pilot, an actress, a signer. and no I didn't wind up in any of those places.

six

what are 3 things your dream home would have that you don’t currently have?

A huge yard with lots of lush grass and trees, a pool with attached hot tub, & lastly no mortgage :-)

hey you did say "dream". haha. I'm a dreamer.

seven

what’s for dinner tonight?

OMG, its over 90 degrees here today, so who the hell knows. but sure as shit I ain't f^king cooking. so looks like take out or going out somewhere.

eight

if someone stopped by your house unannounced on a typical Saturday night, what would they find you doing?

Hmmm, they may find that no one is home. We've been doing a whole lot of working & camping lately. So we haven't been home much on saturday nights. although if you do find us at home, you will find us sitting on the sofa, trying to catch up on the week's recorded tv shows.

nine

what’s your average monthly water bill?

We get out water bill quarterly. and I think we paid a total of about $900 for water/sewage for all of 2010. so yeah, you can do the math, I'm just trying to not think about the heat outside right now.

ten

what do you do to relax?

usually just kick back and do nothing. watch tv, listen to music, read a book, whatever really.

Ten on Tuesday!!

2011-06-07T15:52:00.000-04:00

Its time for 10 on tuesday with Chelsea from Roots and Rings. This week we have a cell phone theme. Its kinda neat actually.

1. What type of phone do you have? Do you like it?
I have a white iPhone 3GS. I do like it. It goes everywhere that I do. I mean the thing might as well be surgically attached to my hand. haha. ( yeah i know kinda lame)

2. How old were you when you got your first cell phone?
18 I think. I got one my senior year in high school. Although, that didnt last long, I abused it and it got taken away by my parents who were paying the bill and i managed to somehow run up a $250 bill. Eeeps!!! After that I bought one for myself when i started driving my own car a year and a half later.

3. How many cell phones have you owned since your first?
I think I am on phone number 7. between upgrades and breakages.

4. How much is your average monthly phone bill?
165. there are two iphones in our house and we have a family plan. so thats the price of the family plan after taxes for the 2 of us.

5. When you were a kid/teenager, were you allowed to have a phone in your room?
No. I had a cell phone in my room for a short time. very short time, like a month. see above for reason why it was so short.

6. Do you like talking on the phone or do you despise it? Or somewhere in-between?
i prefer to text/email/write. Its just faster and easier for me. i also have a very limited number of minutes. For the most part I hate being on the phone. I prefer to say what I have to say and get it over with. I dont necessarily have time for all this yip-yapping on the phone. This all comes from spending far far far far too much time on the phone as a teenager. I would spend hours on the phone then.

7. Do you text a lot? Is texting/talking while driving illegal where you live? Are you guilty of it anyway?

I text as much as humanly possible. being on the phone in anyway shape or form while you are driving in NY is illegal, unless you are using a hands free device, which is still distracting. i have been guilty of it once or twice, but I dont like being on the phone while I drive. and texting, well i occassionaly do that at a stop sign or stop light, as long as its a two word or less answer.

8. What sort of texting keyboard does your phone have? Touch screen, slide out, or something different? Do you care?
its a touch screen, it took me a long time to get used it. now i dont care so much though.

9. Look at the last call in your call log – who is it? What were they calling about? Who calls you the most?
a cub scout parent, regarding tonights meeting. people who call me the most? hmmm i owuld have to say Pat and the lady i run the cub scouts with. spend lots of time with her ont he phone.

10. What is the longest phone call you can recall having?
Probably a few hours when i was away at college on the phone with pat. yeah that was expensive. college rates are highway robbery.

I (heart) the Muppets

2011-06-01T22:54:00.000-04:00

This was just too awesome to not share. That is all, I<3 the muppets. :-)

aaahhhhhhhhh! grrrrrrrrrr!!! arg!!!!!

2011-06-01T21:05:00.000-04:00

Okay, I'm gonna apologize for this post in advance, I need to vent. Im just having a bad day and need to get it out of my system. I am so taking out my fictional "soap box" for this one and standing on it......

My day started with reading my email and finding and an email with a change in schedule for the weekend plans and as I am reading this email, I'm thinking, "self, you best pick up the phone and find out why and also make sure you read this right" so I do as I said to my self and dialed the phone. I ask the question as to why this change was made only to find out it is to accommodate people who are not involved with our organization and that we have to cow-tow to them because of the positions they hold (which are unpaid btw). meanwhile these people on a regular basis want absolutely nothing to do with us, constantly disrespect us, and more over don't like us in anyway shape or form and now all of a sudden that we are holding a public ceremony these ~~duche-wads~~ people want to be involved. so we go and turn our schedule upside down 1 week before out ceremony to accommodate ~~assholes~~ who admittedly likely may not come (insert vehement swearing, high blood pressure and 2 bloody noses here). So now as the schedule has been upturned and moved to 8 hrs earlier in the day (yeah I know, right? so f^d up), I am now bending myself in half and twisting around on my sofa trying to get a hold of a lot of people to let them know a) of the huge change b) to find out is they can still attend and c) trying to get all of this info to the person doing the food shopping and cooking, so they in turn can be fully prepared for more and more and more people (since someone forgot to account for these people in the first place)

So then after I spent 2 hrs sending texts, emails, facebook messages, and phone calls, I partake in some retail therapy, which honestly got rid of the urge to ~~smack the $hit out of~~ have stern talking to a few people.

Then a few hours later, I again find out that there is something conflicting with another one of my events. so I make a phone call regarding that, and what I get is, Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you, what other dates do we have. So wait a second, rewind, YOU KNEW & didn't tell anyone about it? I mean seriously this is a huge event and you knew?!?!?!?!? and if it turns out that you didn't know, then what are we going to do about this double booking of the space (you know cause we booked this date back in F^king September?), oh yes, thats right, your gonna roll over once again and let someone else again walk all over us. yes yes yes, that makes everything better.

Truly, I am so tired of trying to help, trying to do the right thing all the time. I stick my neck out to help people and all I get is burned. its like constantly jumping out the pot and into the fire. This sucks. I am so done with in depth volunteering and helping.

And I'm sure that like always, I will get over this and go right back to volunteering and helping and sticking my neck out again. Its like Im a glutton for punishment. I just have this thing in me that says be involved, do the right thing no matter what.

There has got to be a way to do the right thing and not get burned so much. right?

I'm stepping down off my soap box now. thanks for letting me vent bloggers.

Weebit Wednesday...

2011-06-01T15:16:00.000-04:00

Interested in a blog button sponsor swap? Click here for details...

Its wednesday so you know what that means, WeeBitWednesday with Leigh Ashley :-) I love WeeBit Wednesdays. So much fun. this week she is recaping (is that even a word, if not, now it is) about WeeBit Wednesdays. She's been hosting it for almost a whole year! Awesomeness and much thanks to her for doing hosting it for the rest of us! This weeks questions from week #5 of WeeBit Wednesday which I never did, so this week I will answer these questions for me, for the first time. She also has one beautiful and awesome site, so truly go and check it out. also check out her Etsy shop, so many adorable and lovely things there as well. And considering I just "Place Order" on a few things, Im Super-de-duper excited for my new things to come in the mail. :-) damm its nice to spoil myself sometimes. :-) makes me feel loads and loads and loads better. I love retail therapy.ahhhhh guilty pleaseures......

anyway moving right along..... here is what you really came here for, WeeBit Wednesday!

{one} do you believe in ghosts?

Not ghosts persay, but spirits of loved ones commign back to us to help us through bad times and share joy during the good times yes.

{two} are you more of a talker or more of a listener? Definetly a listener, although, there are times when I do a shit ton of talking.

{three} would you rather get up early or sleep late?
I would love to say get up early, but truly sleeping late, its what i do best. haha. im trying to make myself an early riser, but its just so damm hard.

{four} if you could instantly become an expert at one type of dance, what type would you choose?
In general, classical ballroom. ya know, the waltz, the foxtrot etc. I just think its so elegant and so graceful and the poise! I love it. It also appeals to my romantic side. :-)

{five} what's your favorite drink?
Alcoholic: pina coladas, yummy
Non-Alcoholic: Fresh brewed Iced Tea with fresh lemons.

{six} if your house caught fire and you could only grab three things, what would they be?
Short of counting my kitties, which would be items one two and three, I would grab my computer, my purse and my phone.

{seven} if you could only visit one restaurant for the next five years, which would it be?
Anywhere where they serve really good sushi. I love fish, and sushi is awesome. you dont have to be a raw fish lover or a fish lover in general to enjoy sushi. there are tons of cooked fish and vegetable rolls out there, jus'sayin.

{eight} who inspires you the most?
I dunno. diferent people inspire me in different ways. Miss LaceyBean inspires me to try new things and to branch out with my blogging etc, so she inspires me a lot in general (we're going to a beginners knitting class on 6/18 and I'm super stoked for that, provided there is room in the class as I am currently wait listed, blech). My friend Robin inspires me to just push through the hard times and to better myself. My friends inspire me to be me. The B.F. inspires me to be a better me because he knows I can be what I dream myself to be and he supports me in all of my crazy antics, half assed day dreams, and all my pursuits (and helps me to get there). so a bunch of people inspire me for different reasons.

{nine} if you had your own talk show, who would your first three guests be?
haha, you know what, i have to think about this one for a few minutes. lol. (fast forward a few minutes) I would have to say Liam Nesson, Jude Law, & Hugh Laurie. God I love those actors.

{ten} sneakers or sandals?
Definetly Sandals. i hate having shoes on and sandals are so damm comfy. Sadly, I have terribly sweaty feet. yeah yeah yeah, i know you didnt need to know that. so sandals over sneakers any day of the week.

I hope you enjoyed my answers to this weeks WeeBit Wednesday Questions. :-) Hope to see you again soon.

PS- If you liked my post, perhaps you could grab my button and pass it on.
PPS- Follow me for more blogging fun

Blog Button Sponsor Swap

2011-06-01T11:05:00.000-04:00

I cant believe that someone didn't think of this sooner. its just so damm amazingly simple and awesome. so here it is....... Its a monthly Button/Sponsor Swap. I saw it over on Jessica's blog last week and I said to myself, "self, this is too awesome to not partake in, so send this nice lady a message and sign up ASAP!". and so I did.

It works like this, we swap buttons for 1 month, and keep them on each others blogs for that month. (couldn't be any simpler could it, right?) Its a great way for you as a blogger to get more exposure & traffic from other bloggers.

Since its June1st, if you get back to me by the end of the day, I can add your button to my sponsor area over there to the right. So leave a comment or click here to contact me (its new and a bit elementary, but it works). Otherwise, I will set up another button swap for july, providing of course I have interweb access up in camp, which I probably will.

Ten on Tuesday :-)

2011-05-31T10:28:00.000-04:00

So as I search for things to blog about, I have come across some new blogs and am trying to participate in some of the weekly things that they do. this week I am joining up with Chelsea of Roots and Rings for Ten on Tuesday. I figured hey, why not, I love to learn more about the bloggers that I read, so perhaps you, reader of my blog, would like to know a bit more about me.

1. From your childhood, what do you miss most about summer vacation?
Having time off to spend with friends, visiting my grandparents for a week or so at a time, going to the park, going on vacation to Jonestown, PA with my parents which of course meant a trip to Hershey Park and the Amish Country, playing outside with friends etc. There is a lot of things about my childhood summer vacations that I miss.

2. Are you going anywhere on vacation this summer?
Well not technically going on vacation, but I'm looking forward to it like I look forward to a vacation. I'm going to be working at one of the camps in Ten Mile River Scout Camp in Narrowsburg, NY this summer and I am so damm excited, I can barely contain myself.

3. What foods do you like to barbecue?
Pretty much anything really. Steak, Chicken, Sausage, Ribs, Hot Dogs, Hamburgers, Vegetables, Fish. Like I said pretty much anything.

4. How do you celebrate the fourth of July?

Normally we travel to spend it with friends. But this year I will be spending it with fellow staffers at camp. I'm gonna miss my friends and Pat this year on the 4th, but I think it will be a good time anyway.

5. What’s your favorite beverage to drink in the summertime?
Fresh Home Brewed Iced tea with lemon, Water with fresh lemon, Summer Ales, Pina Coladas, Malibu Bay Breeze's. Im all about the summer time refreshing drinks. :-)

6. What movie are you looking forward to seeing this summer?
Harry Potter!!!!!!!! the green lantern. Again, due to my summer job, I wont have much time for the movies, so they will either have to wait till I get home, or sadly until I can find it somewhere to be able to watch at home.

7. In the car: windows down or AC?
I truly wish I could say A/C. However the A/C in the truck has been broken for 2 years and every time we fix it, it just breaks again. we are so tired of attempting to fix it. so its always windows down for us.

8. Have you ever had a summer fling?
No, never have. don't think I ever will.

9. Do you wear sunscreen?
always, my complexion is about as white as the background on my screen right now. i burn so fast and so easily. I buy bottles of the stuff at a time. Always the same one too. The Coppertone continuous spray SPF 30. (Note: when i go somewhere when I am carrying a cooler, like the beach or Belmont stakes or anywhere where i have a cooler, I stick the can of sunscreen in the cooler, this way when you spray it is nice and refreshingly cold)

10. Do you have any favorite summertime activities?
Spending time with our friends who don't like the greater NY area anymore. We miss our friends who live in PA and DC a lot. And generally a group of us who still live here in the city will travel together to go and see them at some point in the summer. So road trips are awesome. We also really love to go on motorcycle trips. Im going to miss a lot of my favorite "summertime pastimes" this year, but I am truly excited for the change of pace this summer with my new job.

I do hope that you have enjoyed my ten on Tuesday. And don't forget to go and visit Chelsea of Roots and Rings and Link up with her. :-)

PS- If you like this post, follow me. While your at it, grab the button, share it and pass it on.

Sunday Randomness

2011-05-29T22:15:00.000-04:00

Its been a long yet productive weekend so far. and just think there's a whole other day left this weekend. :-)

We went to our friends annual birthday BBQ in Queens yesterday. he's been holding this B-day BBQ for 15 straight years!!! thats f-king impressive. Anyway, while we were there, a bunch of us got to talking about the evolution of the party, how when it started we were all teenagers and then the parties turned into all night keggers, then all of a sudden it was friends with their significant others, and then before you knew it was guys and gals talking about wedding planning, and then the happy newlyweds talking about being newlyweds, and then it was baby planning and now its all kids! its weird, it still feels like we are kids and the kids have kids. but its always a good time. friends drive in from all over the east cost to come to the party. I made cake pops and a big chocolate cake for the party. its one of those parties where everyone brings something :-) Cake pops were a huge success and there was not a single one left. I had a few moments of "im pretty damm proud of myself" so it was nice to feel that way for a change.

Last week we went to the brand new REI store in Yonkers. There were huge sales and giveaways, which were totally awesome. Last week I finally got my new pack. Its an Osprey Ariel 65. Its pretty freaking awesome. the whole harness system is designed for women, so the straps fit comfotably through the back, chest shoulders and the waist belt is super-de-duper compfy. I can not wait to take it out and use it!!! We went back to REI again this morning. we used the 20% off coupon we got last week when we became REI members. So i got myself a brand new sleeping bag and a new lite weight sleeping pad. I needed a new sleeping bag because the one i have currently is a) not meant for the winter b) very old c) absolutely huge and heavy. So with the sales and what not going on at the brand new REI store in Yonkers, we finally decided it was time for an investment for me in a newer better sleeping bag. The name brand is Marmot, the model name is Trestles and its 15+ degree sleeping bag, so sure as hell its nice and warm. I "tried it on" in the store and started sweating, only thought that went through my head, AWESOME! Its also a sleeping bag meant for women, so it has extra insulation through the small of the back and around the feet, ankles and calves. so again, awesomeness for camping products meant for women. Also the sleeping pad I got is also meant for women, and has extra insulation in the hip and back area. it also has these neat little grippy things on it that keep the sleeping bag from sliding off of it. Here are the pictures of my new stuff. (these are not my photos and I do not claim credit for them, they are from the REI website.

Its pretty neat stuff to finally have some brand new camping gear. and again Im fairly excited to take it all out and use it. Ill be taking it out this comming weekend for a test drive. Not gonna need to have that warm of a sleeping bag, but i think ill take it with me anyway, just for fun. :-)

Also thanks to Miss Lacey I get to go and take a knitting class on June 18th. I have to call and sign up for the class once the holiday weekend is over. Can't wait to take my camera, take pictures and more or less just have a nice day in the city with her. So you could say that im kinda stoked, but that may well be an understatement. HAHA!

thats about it for the randomness this week. See ya soon bloggers.

PS- if you like this post, follow my blog and grab the button and pass it on :-)

this, that and some photos

2011-05-28T14:01:00.000-04:00

The weather here has finally turned around. the sun is out, its warm, and the rain is gone. Its been a busy week. I even got a surprise visit from my mom, sister and great aunt yesterday afternoon. I have been doing a ton of cleaning and organizing, the first floor (living room, dining room & kitchen) are for the large majority, done. The bedroom is also well on its way to looking nice and clean and organized. The spare bedroom and bathroom have much to be desired though. I hate cleaning the bathrooms, mostly just the toilets. the rest I can deal with. just the toilet, inside and out, blech, gross. Trying to get pat to do that part. but since his job is to clean all day long and he does lots of bathrooms, i keep getting the "yeah, I dont think so" look from him. Dont get me wrong, i still clean them, i just absolutley loathe it. We've also been trying really hard to keep the cat hair in check around the house, and with 3 cats, thats a chore.

I've also been watching a lot of movies. I've been trying to catch up on movies I missed seeing in the theatres. Ive watched Gnomeo and Juliet, it was cute, but not my favorite; How to train your dragon, OMG, truly my fave!!! i watch it constantly!!!; Tangled, I really liked it. for a disney cartoon musical it was actually really good; Sucker Punch, it was okay, but i didnt understand where the movie got its name, but the movie was good, I need to watch it again though; Thor, mediocre at best in my opinion. But that pretty much sums up the movies that Ive seen recently.

But anyway, in my business, i have taken a few photos along the way. And I thought I would share them with you :-)

Yesterday morning I baked a cake for a friends birthday party today. Its insanely moist and yummy. I can not wait to have a piece later. So its a chocolate cake (duh!) with fresh homemade cannoli cream filling. and this cake I did not cover in fondant, i did this one in butter-cream. My butter-cream skills are lacking, so i used this cake as practice.

In one of my many outings this past week I came across some pretty flowers, they are probably just weeds in someones garden, since these were the only flowers of this sort in sight. I had some fun with editing here. :-)

Again some more pretty flowers. :-)

Stylish Blogger Award!

2011-05-23T13:12:00.000-04:00

Todays weather forecast for NY, rain. Forecast for the rest of the week.... rain. So dreary here this week, just like last week. Ugh! But let me tell you that dreary feeling is all but gone now and here's why....

I can not tell you how awesome it was to wake up this morning, check my email and see that I had a new comment in my inbox. So not only do comments make me happy, i was super-de-duper excited to see that Sarah from Sunlight After Rain had given little 'ol me a stylish blogger award.

The rules: tell me seven thigns about yourself and then pass it on to 10 more bloggers.

One: I have two tattoos and pierced ears. I used to have two holes in each ear and the cartilage on my right ear pierced, but it didn't heal right so i took those piercings out, and now i want them back, but I am too chicken to go and get the piercings done again because I am worried they wont heal right again.

Two: I love shoes and purses. Granted I have been wearing the same pair of shitty sneakers for a very long time and they look like crap and really arent event hat comfortable anymore, I still wear them becasue they are just slip on sneakers. I also own a pair of bright pink sneakers, which you can see here. They are pink vans with skulls on them that I had custom ordered years and years ago when vans were the super cool awesome thing to have. As much as I don't wear all the shoes that I buy, I do use all the purses that I own. I happen to love all my Kathy Van Zeeland Bags. LOVE THEM!

Three: I have only dated one person in my life, and I am still with him. Its been 11 years. We're still not engaged :-/ But I love him with all my heart and wouldn't change a damm thing.

Four: I am still trying to figure out this whole "blogging" thing. Not sure if I actually have a direction or a focus, just random stuff, which I wish wasn't so random.

Five: I have been unemployed for over a year now. However I will be working at a summer camp this summer up in Narrowsburg, NY as the Medical Officer/EMT beginning on June 30th. I am really excited to spend my summer at summer camp and can't wait to check in. I also get to meet my new boss for the first time tomorrow night at my weekly cub scout meeting which I am also really excited about.

Six: I really do dislike the way I look. I am overweight, but i have been loosing weight. Not sure how, but I have been. I just wish I had far more ambition and motivation to truly make myself healthier. The gym, I find that intimidating. Working out at home, I find it weird and uncomfortable. I hate makeup and don't know how to use it properly to make me look nicer when I go out. Can't say I truly care either, Im a jeans and t-shirt kinda gal anyway.

Seven: I LOVE SUSHI and fish and going out to eat at new places, mostly sushi places. I know, its an issue. Its an expensive issue, especially for someone who is unemployed, But I love the fishy!

So there you have it, seven facts about me. I could probably tell you more, but we will save that for another day. perhaps I will order some sushi for lunch now. :-) Hooray for guilty pleasures and dreary weather and take out :-)

Again, a big thank you to Sarah at Sunlight After Rain for this most awesome award!!!

Here are the 10 blogs I am passing this along to.

(they are quite awesome, so go ahead and go check them out)

1. Untangled

2. NapTimeMomTog

3. Leigh Ashley

4. Ramblings and Photos by Ashely Sisk

5. Wearing Mascara

6. Blogging from Bolivia

7. Becoming Sarah

8. Grace Loves the Beatles

9. And Then she {snapped}

10. Perks of Being a Jap

WeeBit Wednesday

2011-05-18T14:47:00.000-04:00

Thanks for stopping by for WeeBit Wednesday hosted by the lovely Leigh Ashley. While you are here, if you wouldnt mind letting me know what you think of my new header and background, I would greatly appreicate it. and if you've never stopped by before, thanks for stopping by and let me know what you think anyway. :-)

{one} do you watch the history channel? if so, what’s your favorite program?i dont think i do, not consciously anyway

{two} what is your favorite thing to do on a rainy day?oh you mean like today. its been pouring on and off here in NYC for a few days, so I'll tell you what I have been doing for the past few days.. bloging, watch tv, read, clean, loaf on the sofa.

{three} what does your dream house look like?I have a few dream houses. I love the feel of old farm houses and old log cabins, but i want the comfort and luxuries of modern houses, like central air & heating, outlets where ever i need them, non drafty windows & doors, etc.

{four} what state were you born in?New York

{five} do you have a change jar? if so, what do you use it for when it gets full?I used to have one, it never got full. lol.

{six} what’s the first website you look at when you get on the computer?Gmail

{seven} what is your favorite breakfast?depends on my mood, but favorite is a western omlet with american cheese and a side of well done crispy french fries, french vanilla coffee and a donut.

{eight} what’s the most memorable trip you’ve ever taken?My trip to china 3 years ago. not that it was the best trip ive ever taken, just the most memorable.

{nine} do you prefer your coffee black or with cream/milk/sugar?i like my coffee light and sweet. cant drink black coffee.

{ten} have you ever done a professional photo shoot?nope. never. it would be nice to do that one day though. perhaps some day when i am engaged. maybe.

Macro Friday :-)

2011-05-13T20:21:00.002-04:00

Its been a while since I partook in Macro Friday, thought I'd submit one of the photos I took earlier today but didnt post:-)

Some Recent Photos, FINALLY!

2011-05-13T13:25:00.001-04:00

Its been months since I picked up my camera, nevermind, did any editing. Yesterday the weather here was so damm beautiful, i mean almost drop dead georgas outside. Perfect temperature, nice cool breeze, lower amount of pollen in the air etc. damm near perfect. so the mood struck, i took my camera, took some photos, sat in my bay window with my PC and did some editing. Id like to share with you the results. :-) Let me know what you think... I really do appreciate all of your comments. And I know ive been a bad blogger lately, but Im trying to get better. Its just been rough here.

I also have a few SOOC shots in there (it took me an eternity to figure out what SOOC was, doh!)

This first pic is of my Friend Robin, I asked her if I could take picture of the flower in her hair, cause she always has these beautiful flower pins in her hair. And truly, this photo came out awesome! I loves it a lot.

Our one kitty, april, loves to be photographed, she sees the camera and suddenly strikes a pose, or several. This is apparently her doing sexy kitty.

I love this face. Smooshy!! (SOOC)

this is her fierce face. haha.

again, smoosh!!! (SOOC)

when i die, i would like to be reincarnated as this pampered kitty.

one of the many things we do in Boy scouts, is rifle shooting. I am an NRA certified Range Safety Officer (RSO) and Rifle Instructor. so on several occasions throughout the course of the year, there are several competitions. This is a full loaded line of shooters, awaiting the "fire at will" command.

On this last trip we went on, my dad came with us. He really wanted to shoot shot gun. so he finally wandered over to the trap range, and got to have some fun.I really do love this shot, because you can see the clay pigeon leaving the launcher.

this is one of our scouts in our troop, this is one of the first times he had fired the rifle, he did rather well.

last friday my friend and I went to the melting pot, i had a coupon and i took her out for mothers day, since shes a mommy of two now. she didnt know i was taking her to dinner for mothers day, so she was nicely surprised. this was our tray of dessert dippers. :-)

and these were our super yummy godiva white chocolate liquer cappuchinos. so fricking yummy. you have no idea!

some pretty cut flowers that i have in the house :-)

and this is me, playing with the self timer on the camera.

me again in silhouette. (and this one is SOOC, btw)

again pretty flowers on my dinning room table.

Ill also probably be taking some of these photos to change the background on my blog and the header as well. Not sure which ones I will use yet, or even when I will be doing it, but Im going to try and do it before I leave for the summer.

Oh yeah I forgot to tell you, I got a job for the summer. Going to be the EMT/Medical Officer at one of the camps at Ten Mile River Scout Reservation for the summer. I am completely excited and totally stoked to a) have work b) to spend my summer at summer camp c) to have plans for the summer :-)

I will try to blog with photos from up there, but I have no idea if I can or not. Not sure what the internet connections are like up there, i know there is internet, just not sure if there is in my little living area.

Apparently its as easy as A-B-C.....

2011-05-03T13:01:00.000-04:00

As I scroll through my google reader and attempt to read the 200+ blog entries that are there (I am doing a bunch of skimming though) I am seeing this "ABC's of me" thing. I figured it would be a good idea to go ahead and do one. I mean why not, right?

Age:29

Bed Size:Queen

Chore you hate: Cleaning the bathrooms

Dogs: none but my parents have two golden retreivers

Essential start of your day: a nuzzle from the kitty cat. :-)

Favorite Color: Red

Gold or silver: White Gold.

Height: 5'4"

Instruments I play (or have played): none. i used to kid myself in thinking i could play piano.

Job Title: Unemployed dreamer

Kids: none, unless you count the kitties

Live: Bronx, NY

Mom's Name:Debbie

Nickname: can't say I have any

Overnight hospital stays: proud to say none

Pet Peeve: stupidity & ignorance

Quote from a movie: "Sometimes it makes me sad, though... Andy being gone. I have to remind myself that some birds aren't meant to be caged. Their feathers are just too bright. And when they fly away, the part of you that knows it was a sin to lock them up DOES rejoice. But still, the place you live in is that much more drab and empty that they're gone. I guess I just miss my friend." - The Shawshank Redmption

Right or left handed: right

Siblings: one younger sister who graduates from high school at the end of June.

Time you wake up: 5:40am

Underwear: plain ol white right now

Vegetables you dislike: spinach, kale, cabbage, and a few others

What makes you run late: when i can't find something or when i have to turn around and go back becuase i forgot something.

X-rays you've had done: knees, left and right hands.

Yummy food you make: a few things. :-) cakes, pulled pork, scalloped potatoes, etc.

Zoo animal: red pandas are adorable. more or less anything cute and furry. :-)

Brilliance

2011-05-02T11:40:00.000-04:00

okay, im going to preface this by saying that i don't have a political bone in my body. i dont take part in any of the discussions etc. heck, i dont even read the news paper very often. but when i got up this morning, there were text messages on my phone telling me that osama bin laden had been killed, millions of facebook posts appluading his death etc. however as I scrolled through facebook, one of my friends posted this.

"I've never wished a man dead, but I've read some obituaries with great pleasure." - Mark Twain

With that, I am going to say its probably the most applaudable thing on facebook I have ever seen, inparticular regarding this particular situation.

Blogging is Sarah-rific!!!

2011-04-28T11:21:00.000-04:00

I always find it amusing when I see this as the sender name and subject title in my inbox....

It always makes me think I've been hacked ~~again.~~ But then I remember how many "Sarahs" there are in the blogging world. So that's what todays post is about... Bloggers that I follow named Sarah (spelled with an "H" at the end of course, cause its the best way to spell "Sarah", DUH!)

Don't get me wrong there are lots of other names out there too that I follow, but the Sarahs always seem to be tuned into a special part of me.. Its almost like they read my mind sometimes. They are also seemingly the most popular blogger name I have come across. :-)

So here, in no particular order, are the Sarahs.....

The newest Sarah I am reading is Sarah from Sunlight after the rain, grab her button, its too awesome not to.

Another Sarah that I love to read is Sarah from NapTimeMomTog. She is an amazing photographer and a wonderful mother to two beautiful boys. I love reading her posts about her family and photography. She always seems to have a positive outlook in life, no matter what is going on. :-) You can grab her most awesome button here....

The last Sarah that I am currently reading is Becomming Sarah. And her blog name is one that I wanted, I am jealous. Its an awesome name for a blog. Her blog always makes me burst into laughter, and I also love her photography :-) its truly amazing. She too is a wonderful mother who loves to capture her daughter on digital film :-) and of course her most adorable button is here...

I hope you enjoy reading all the Sarah's, including me. Im not nearly as talented as these ladies, but it gives me something to aspire to.... I have an apparently awesome name to live up to :-) So off into the great wide world I shall go. perhaps even take a few pictures along the way.

WeeBitWednesday!

2011-04-27T13:48:00.000-04:00

Its Wednesday again. Time for some WeeBit wednesday. perhaps, I will be inspired to write about something. Don't know just yet what will happen, but stay tuned in for a potential giveaway of home-made crafty goodness. :-)

{one} have you ever been stuck in an elevator?Unfortunately, yes. It sucks. I hate elevators for this very reason.

{two} have you ever ridden on an elephant?Yup, i was about 7. :-)

{three} have you ever met a well known celebrity?When I was about 3-4 I met and was held by Julio Iglesias. Yeah, yeah yeah I know not a mega-major celebrity. But back in the day, he was a huge crooner. I still enjoy some of his music. PS-I freaked out, cause mom and dad weren't holding me, and some stranger was. LOL. I have picture proof of this somewhere in my parents house. short of the pictures, i dont recall this actually happening.

{four} do you have any food allergies?Nope. not that I know of anyway...

{five} do you know how to sew?Kinda-sorta. I can fix very very basic things, like a seem comming undone or sewing on a patch to a uniform. thats about all i can do. and believe me it ain't pretty. I really do need to learn how to sew better. Who wants to teach me? LOL!

{six} did you get an allowance when you were young?I did. $2 a week to clean out the litter box. it was a shitty job and someone had to do it, for a shitty pay. LOL!!!!

{seven} how often do you fill up your gas tank?On the bikes, depends on how much we ride them, but normally every couple of weeks on average. the truck, well, more often than i care to admit. damm gas guzzling 40 gal tank. blech.

{eight} have you ever been stung by a jelly fish?Nope, I freak out when I see those suckers. even dead on the beach i take a 6ft wide detour around them. can we say irrational phobia?

{nine} have you ever been robbed?yeah, back in high school. not fun.

{ten} what is the worst haircut you’ve ever had?Dear god, there have been so many, all mom-induced. perms, long in the front short in the back, bob's etc. also had a woman cut my hair a few years ago who totally butchered my hair. took seemingly forever to grow back in. they were all "the worst" for a variety of different reasons.

My Birthday

2011-04-18T22:19:00.000-04:00

Ugh, one more year until my 20's are over. only 363 days left in my 20's. and after that, I will never get another year older. As one conversation with a friend went, I get one more birthday where I will be my age. then next year, we go back a year, and then go back one more year after that. then we move forward again until we hit 30, then go backwards again. LOL. it sounds insane, but when your 25 and have a head full of grey hair, numbers all of a sudden start to mean something, and considering 25 was 4 years ago..... needless to say im just a touch vain.

anyway... my brithday this year was nice and peacfully quiet. Just Pat and I enjoying the nice weather while it was here. He kept asking me where I wanted to go out for my birthday. I told him to surprise me. So first he suggested Dinosaur BBQ, which I do like a lot, but seriously, how many times can you go there (i always order the same thing, and the service is usually lowsy). So he suggested someplace I hadn't been to before, Peekskill Brewery. I happen to love breweries because the food is always awesome and the beer is the best, because it only traveled about 50ft from where it was made, likely within the week, to where you are sitting. We ordered some yummy brisket nachos, and fantastic burgers :-) and let me tell you their homemade mac & Cheese... OMG, A-Mazing!!!! i also ordered their "pub crawler" which is a sampling of all of Peekskill Breweries Beers that they happen to have on tap, 5 in total. There was the Sally Sweeny stoudt, which i liked, the vanilla burbon stoudt, whcih i didnt really care for, the Cream ale, also not at the top of the like list,the hop common and old wagon, those were the favorites.

The Peekskill Brewery sits right on the hudson river right next to a beautiful river front park. so after lunch we went and took a nice walk taking in the sun, watched some people fly some kites and then we headed back home. althogh not without stopping at stew leonards on the way home. :-) Love that place.

My birthday gift, we picked up this afternoon at costco. Replacement of my Keriug machine. Won't get into what happened with the last one. so this wonderful machine is sitting on my counter and has literally been used bunches of times today :-) made a whole load of unsweetened tea, which is now iced tea in my fridge. :-) yumm.

(this is the immage from the Keruig site, since I cant manage to find my camera at the time being)

So that's my birthday in a nutshell. Like I said, nothing special, just nice and peaceful. Or at least it was until my phone rang and it was my parents "serranading" me with "happy birhtday" over the speaker phone. the only thing missing was the dog howling in the background. LOL. I will celebrate my birthday with them in person on easter sunday.

its been 30 days and its weebit thursday???

2011-04-14T13:35:00.000-04:00

so its been 30 days since i posted anything to my blog. im not gonna lie, im still in a funk. its 3 days until my birthday and not a single solitary person has asked me what i want for my birthday, if id like to go out for my birthday, or even if i already had plans for MY day. so disheartening. it really is. granted i will now of course get a bunch of emails/comments asking etc., but that is so not what i wanted. i just feel bummed and it seemingly feels like no one cares, and what i really don't want is pitty. this is the last birthday of my 20's. im going to be 29 on sunday (shudders). it would have been nice if someone other than me had acknowledged this. just sayin....

anyway, in other low down news, tuesday marked one year since i got fired. let me tell you, the feeling last year was equally as horrible, except maybe for the fact that it was worse.

so we will end this sob story saying that its been a abso-fucking-lutely "great" week......

but moving right along.... its been forever and a day since i participated in Leigh Ashely's WeeBit Wednesday. and i figured it was a good thing to do today, since its thursday and all....

I see she has a new "badge" for weebit wednesdays, and let me say that I LOVE IT!!

{one} have you ever fainted?yup, a few times actually. but i haven't done that in a very long time.

{two} what is your favorite casino game?Roulette. there is just something about it not being a game of skill and being pure luck that keeps me interested. its also a boat load of fun.

{three} do you have a good sense of direction?I think I do for the most part anyway.

{four} laptop or desktop?both. but primarily use the lap top as the desktop PC doesnt connect to the interwebs for some reason. having some router issues in that end of the house.

{five} what is your go-to hair style when having a bad hair day?pony tail or bun. its also my daily hair style for the most part.

{six} do you read the newspaper on a daily basis?no, not really. i check the headlines online for a local newspaper and thats about it.

{seven} do you have a favorite celebrity chef?i love watching top chef, but i can't say i have a favorite celebrity chef.

{eight} what tv show would you like to make a guest appearance on?hmmm, i would love to be an extra on "Stargate: SG1", but since that is not longer in production, i would have to say "Merlin", "Burn Notice" or"Justified". Love those shows. I love some of the leading men in those shows even more X-D

{nine} do you have satellite radio in your car?nope, not any more. we got rid of it quite some time ago.

{ten} what was the last movie that made you cry?"My sisters Keeper" watched it the other day and tried so hard to not cry as Pat was sitting right next to me, but I cried anyway. I blamed my teary eyes and running nose on my cold. It was legit, he bought it when a coughing fit came in the middle of the explination. LOL.

Forget about me? i did

2011-03-14T14:10:00.000-04:00

My last blog entry was Feb 2nd! umm yeah it's been a while since I blogged. But a lot has happened and been going on since then. Life has been in more or less upheaval. For a while I didnt know which way was up, and still really don't. I have spent a fair amount of the past 6 weeks or so just crying. Crying because I'm mad at me, mad at someone else, mad at the fact that I'm still unemployed, mad that money is so tight that I can't do the few things that I enjoy, mad because I volunteer for too many things, disappointed because I feel unincluded in things my friends are doing, depressed at the fact that I hate the shape I'm in and have no ambition to change it, thoroughly let down by people I have repeatedly stuck my neck out for, sad that I am still not engaged/married/pregnant/a mom and I know why none of this has happened yet, which makes me even more depressed.

I have had no ambition for anything lately. I have half finished products all over this house. I have bills that I need to pay and can't due to another depressing situation that I am just not going to get into publicly because its embarrassing beyond all belief. I have truly gotten to the point in my life where I truly do hate myself most days when I wake up. So much so that I just roll over and go back to sleep with the "why do I even bother" attitude.

February was nuts schedule wise. There was so much going on with cub scouts leading up to our annual Blue & Gold awards dinner which was a huge success. and now with all of that over, I am preparing my WeBeLoS den (stands for We'll Be Loyal Scouts)for the end of the year where they will "fly up" into the troop. So there is a lot of work there to be done, but they have to do 90% of it themselves on their own.

In the time since my last blog post, I have completely and utterly failed at project 365. I was so into it and then it seemed like my world up and disintegrated out from underneath my feet. so much so that I don't even know where my camera is right now. I really am not happy that I failed at it. I have missed so many days, that I think I am just going to drop it for now, and maybe start over again when I am feeling better about me, feeling better about life, and when I get into a clear head-space.

On the upside of life, we are ~~escaping from life~~ going away to visit friends this weekend. We will be visiting them at their lovely home in Altoona, PA. its about a 5 hour drive for us from door to door. We plan to make a couple of stops along the way, one definitely being the mega awesome Cabela's :-) Its a outdoors-mans paradise. I've been told its very very awesome. So we will stop and eat lunch there, since they have a little cafe thing there. They also have a small aquarium, so that should also be pretty cool. Good thing is that this stop is just shy of half way for us, so it will break up the trip a little bit, which is nice.

I suppose in other great wide news of "My thoughts/current head-space" the one thing that has really started to "pang" in me is the desire to have my own family, a husband & children of my own. I see the cub scouts and the close bond that the leaders have with their children, and I want so much to feel what they feel. I don't just want to be the other adult in the room. The kids look at you differently when you are someone's mom as opposed to just some adult. I'd be lying if i said, they aren't my kids and I just don't care. I try to find ways to disconnect myself from them a little bit so that I don't feel so hurt all the time that I don't have a child of my own.

I guess you could say I am a jealous person. but then again who isn't?
Im jealous of my friends who are engaged, who are married, who are parents, who have great friends that they are in constant contact with, who have jobs, better who have careers, etc. This list could go on forever. Not jealous in a bad way, just that I don't know how to "fix" my life so I can have some of these wonderful things. I don't like to feel left out of the fun things my friends do. I guess I feel like I am never invited to anything (which isn't true) but the invites are so few and far between these days that it feels like I am back in grade school all over again sitting in the corner by myself as the rest of my classmates run and play and point and laugh at me because I am sitting in the corner alone. As you can see i also have huge self image problems as well. You can call me a basket case Its okay, I know I am.

Being a child who was made fun of and left out all through childhood, that truly screws you up for the rest of your life. Believe me I know. Its very hard to get past those feelings of betrayal when someone became your friend just to set you up to be made fun of later on. Its hard to trust people after that. I am a very guarded person and it takes me seemingly forever to open up to people which is something I have tried to work on, but hell, not even my boyfriend of 11 years knows all of this, but you my annonymous read does. He already knows that I am fractured and of a fragile state of mind, he doesnt need to walk on more egg shells around me ya know? Hes got more than enough on his plate as it is.

So all that being said, I guess what I want to know is where can I trade in this broken life of mine and get a new one. or better yet, where can I trade in my constant ill at ease mind for a stronger more confident one. Im not sure how much longer I can stand feeling like this all the time. Life really has taken so much out of me all while piling on so much more stress & anxiety on top of me in the past couple of months.

Weeeeeeeeee Bit Wednesday

2011-02-02T13:04:00.000-05:00

Have I mentioned how much I love wednesdays since I discovered weebit wednesday???? No, well let me tell you I LOVE (WeeBit) Wednesday!!!!

{one} what was your favorite sitcom growing up?
hmm, im gonna have to say perfect strangers

{two} what song always makes you happy when you hear it?
"a girl, a boy, & a graveyard" - Jeremy Messersmith
it really is a rather awesome song, and I suggest you check it out...

{three} do you still have your wisdom teeth?
yup sure do. since im such a big mouth i get to keep them, LOL!!

{four} what is your go to way to relax?
watch a good movie with my favorite blanket and a kitty in my lap

{five} do you play any instruments?
no, i don't. wanted to try and learn piano when i was younger, just didnt have the commitment to stick with it

{six} nude beaches: yes or no?
nope, noway, nohow, not me not ever!

{seven} do you chew your pens/pencils?
i used to, until i had a few that i chewed so much that they burst in my mouth.

{eight} can you change the oil in your car?
no i am inept in that category.

{nine} can you curl your tongue?
a little bit.

{ten} can you knit or crochet?
i can crochet. i want to learn to knit though. ive been crocheting a lot lately. it gives me something to do while i am unemployed.

Buhbye stupid!

2011-02-01T11:20:00.000-05:00

Where does common sense end and sheer idiocy begin? its a fine gray line I suppose. and it seems that the worse the weather, the dumber the person seems to be. Be it suddenly not knowing how to drive when there is wet stuff falling from the sky, wet stuff on the ground, or plainly knowing how to parallel park (which admittedly I'm not great at it, but I'm better than most people in my neighborhood).

We live in NYC, and we have had A LOT of snow in the past 3 weeks. we live on a secondary roadway that is an "emergency snow route", yeah let that conundrum sit for a bit. secondary emergency street, hmmmm yeah... anyway.... moving right along. so we don't have parking meters on our block as we are majoritively residential, which means no alternate side parking, which means, the city does not have the chance to come in and plow away all the snow in the parking spaces on the street. so as we have run out of places to pile the snow and ice and whatever else, the parking spots are full of snow. which leads to inconsiderate bastards using my driveway as a parkign space. normally this isnt too bad, its normally one of the idiot customers across the street in the deli, and they are only there a few minutes, however that doesnt excuse this behaviour.

poor pat and his brother were up really early this morning (4am) to head to their job at a school not to far from our house where they were ready to go and clear all the snow from the grounds for the little rugrats. so as there is not much parking around here, we parked int he driveway last night, which is a shared driveway with our neighbor. low and behold, when the boys wake up this morning to go to work, there is a cargo van blocking a majority of the driveway which made getting out of the driveway with a suburban very difficult. and led to both of them being extremely pissed off. i get a phone call a few hours later telling me about said jackass. (cause you know i was sleeping and all) then begins the phone calls to the city to have the vehicle towed.

so wouldn't ya know, they actually came within a decent amount of time and towed the van!!!

So if this is your van, thanks a lot a--hole, now go deal with your damm van at some impound/tow lot. hope you enjoyed leaving your van parked in my damm driveway. your gonna enjoy that tow bill about as much as i enjoyed finding you parked in my damm driveway!!! F--K You!! Buh-bye......

Project 365 Week 4

2011-01-30T12:41:00.000-05:00

Week 4 of Project365 complete!!!

Check out my photos from the week and let me know what you think :-)

and now for a tid bit about each photo...

22 - frozen iced over footstep in snow on our front stoop.

23- my cute little kitty-girl sleeping in the top of the recliner

24- I got to have lunch in Grand Central Station on my way home from downtown Manhattan and I had soup from the ever awesome Hale & Hearty Soup. This is a completely accidental random shot, I accidentally leaned on the shutter button of my camera as I was reaching for something in my jacket pocket, so for more than one reason I really really like this photo.

25- We went to a workshop with our mortgage company on Tues at the Brooklyn Marriott. This was the pretty chandelier in the main ballroom. :-)

26- My neighbor had a shed built at the end of the summer with windows and window boxes. I thought that with the snow and dead flowers (which dont look dead here), that it made for a really nice photo op.

27- Jan 27th was national chocolate cake day, so I made a chocolate banana cake and had my self a nice slice with a nice cold glass of milk. nom nom nom...

28- We were in NJ visiting a friend and as we were walking back to our car to go home, I saw some snow covered bushes and trees, so I took a picture.

29- Ah friends, thats all Im gonna say. Oh yeah and if you look too quickly, the two bearded guys look alike. some people actually did confuse them. the hat served as the way of telling them apart at a quick glance.

so grab the button(s), click 'em, share 'em, and leave some feedback :-)

WeeBit Wednesday

2011-01-26T16:39:00.000-05:00

{one} how tall are you?

i'm 5’4”. so you could say I'm of average height

{two} besides bills, what do you spend most of your money on?

Probably food, be it take out, groceries, cat food.... but yeah food in general. second to that would be probably health & beauty aides type stuff.

{three} what are your three favorite websites?

blogger, gmail & facebook. yup im a bit of a social network ~~whore~~ junkie. LOL

{four} what brand of tennis shoes do you prefer?

two brands actually dr scholls. they have the neat squishy gel thing built in which is super comfy, and they are usually reasonably priced. and sketchers, they are just plain comfy

{five} what food can you absolutely not stand to eat?

peas. blech, gorss. dont get me wrong, if they are in my rice, pasta whatever, i do my best to not pick them out, and suck it up and eat them, but mere sight of anything "pea" turns my stomach

{six} How many pairs of jeans do you own?

several. i can't count how many. but i do have a fair amount. half of them are capri length for the summer the rest are regular length pants. i live in jeans. my favorite most comfy pair of jeans recently fell appart at the seams because they are so old. picture below.... farewell my favorite pair of jeans. :'-( ::sniffle, sniffle::

{seven} if you could have any job, what would it be?

I really want to be a few things. a Paramedic, a wedding planner, a singer (hahahahaha, thats a dream, not a reality) I guess I still havent figured out what I want to be when I grow up yet. (yeah i know im a bit behind in the game, as I am quickly aproaching 30 eek)

{eight} have you ever ridden in an ambulance?

yes, but not as a patient.

{nine} how many pillows do you sleep with?

two. one for me and one for the cat.

{ten} on a scale of 1-5, how organized are you?

i like to think im a 4, but im really about a 2.

Brrrrrrrrr

2011-01-23T23:03:00.000-05:00

Okay folks, Its cold here in the big apple, as in frigid!! its warmer in my freezer than it is outside. I actually considered opening the freezer to warm up!!! (Yeah okay now I'm getting carried away)

But seriously folks, its cold. I went to weather.com to check the weather for my commute to Manhattan in the morning, to see what clothes I was going to pull out tonight before bed, and to my surprise this is what I see...

Umm wow....... I'm sure its been this cold in the city in the past, but dammmmmm, its rare that the temperature dips that low. Just thought I'd share how cold it is here. How cold is it where you live??

22/365

2011-01-22T22:04:00.000-05:00

There is still a lot of snow and ice here. Yesterday's snow hasnt melted as the temperatures havent been above freezing in a few days. I had no desire to go outside into the yard, or to take a walk down the block, or to go anywhere for that matter, although I did go out to run a few errands later in the day (blech). So when I got up this morning, I decided to take a few pictures of the outside from inside the house. I also took a few other pictures of my door. But first the project 365 picture...

The icy foot print from the mailman frozen in the snow, the shadows, and little bit of my porch that didn't have snow on it, it was just cool. :-)

Here are some other photos from the morning...

Nom Nom Yum...

2011-01-22T21:24:00.000-05:00

So let me preface this by saying its absolutely firgid in the Bronx right now. The temperature outside is 22, however it feels like it is far colder than that. I figured today would be a good day for soup. So serendipitious as it was, when i opened my e-mail, there was a recipe for "Baked Potato Soup" from one of my daily recipe subscriptions. So off I went, out into the cold, to run my errands and pick up the few things that I needed for the soup (i.e. bacon and more milk). It was so easy. very tasty, very creamy, and Pat approved (which is hard most times to get anything more than "its fine" from him, lol). Also since this is something have never made before, it counts towards my 30 new recipes in a year goal!

I figured I'd share it with you, since many of my readers are mom's, its something simple, easy, & tasty. Lets just say this, since pat liked it, a majority of kids should also like it as well.

Ingredients:

12 slices bacon ( I used a small package of fresh crumbled bacon bits)

2/3 cup margarine/butter

2/3 cup all-purpose flour

7 cups milk

4 large baked potatoes, peeled and

cubed

4 green onions, chopped

1 1/4 cups shredded Cheddar cheese (or more if you happen to like cheese, like me)

1 cup sour cream

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

* 1/2 tablespoon garlic powder ( I had added this as we happen LOVE garlic here, and the soup just seemed to need something else to polish it off)

Directions:

1. Place bacon in a large, deep skillet. Cook over medium heat until browned. Drain, crumble, and set aside.

(or in my case, open ziploc thingy of bacon bits, snag a couple of bits for "quality control" and place to the side and avoid eating the rest of the bacony goodness, so there is some left to put in the soup)

2. In a stock pot or Dutch oven, melt the margarine over medium heat. Whisk in flour until smooth. Gradually stir in milk, whisking constantly until thickened. Stir in potatoes and onions. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently.

3. Reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes. Mix in bacon, cheese, sour cream, (garlic if desiered),salt, and pepper. Continue cooking, stirring frequently, until cheese is melted.

4. serving option, add a dolup or two of sour cream, a few green onions and some extra cheese for making your bowl look pretty and soup extra tasty. :-)

I made a side of pillsbury homestyle biscuts as a finishing touch for this meal, and let me tell you, it was "soup"-er yummy :-)

Oh, did you think I would end this post with out showing you a picture.... hahahaha... never...

Here it is...

Who's got a button? I've got a button!!!!!!

2011-01-22T13:39:00.001-05:00

Hey Blogiverse... Look at me!!! I've got my own "button" now!!! Grab it and pass it on. I'm going to work on one for Project 365 later today or tomorrow. My button is all courtesy of the tutorial on Gracely Designs!! Grace, the author also has another blog, Grace Loves the Beatles. She is a wonderfully talented teenager who is sharing her talents with the rest of us, both in photography and in blog editing!!!

So thanks again to Grace!!!!

Speaking of buttons, check out some of the other buttons on the side of my page, and check out some of the other blogs I follow!!!!

That's it...

just there....

down to the right....

Fun with photoscape & photoshop

2011-01-22T01:08:00.000-05:00

Its almost 1am here in NY. I'm still awake, still trying to learn how to better edit my photos, and catching up on some blog reading. In my reading I came across Sarah's posted collage of photos for her Project365 for the week. So since I am so bored and still awake and still learning, I decided to make a collage for myself. So While this may be a repeat post for most of you, I do apologize for that, but hey, check me out, my skills with these programs are getting better. So no more blathering on, here's the collage of my photos for the week.

Its not great, but I'm gonna work on it. I promise. I will work on it during the week :-) In the mean time you can check out all of my photos for my project 365 here.

21/365

2011-01-21T19:18:00.000-05:00

After a lot of thought, I've decided that this will be my picture of the day for project 365. I had a lot of good photos today with the snow storm. I have spent most of the day "hemming & hawing" over which one to pick for project 365, so I choose this one, which now serves a dual purpose this week as both my Macro Friday entry and my POTD. so here it is (again).

I really wound up liking this one a lot! Now I'm not one for having my photos printed and framed, but this may be the first. Strange thing is, that when I walked out of the door this morning to get the snow blower out, I could see the pink of this flower from across the yard. It really is extremely vibrant in person and to the naked eye. It more or less screamed, "go get your camera and photograph me!!" So since it screamed, I listened. :-) I know a number of you already have commented on your liking of this in my MacroFriday entry, and I thank you all for your wonderful comments, they are much appreciated :-)

Snowy Days

2011-01-21T12:32:00.000-05:00

NYC has gotten a lot of snow lately. it seems that just as the city is recovered and all caught up after one snow storm we get another one right on top of it. Christmas was almost 4 weeks ago and we've gotten almost 1 snow storm a week since then. Its nuts. I dont mind the snow, mostly because we have a snow blower here for the house. Its a small one, cant really handle more than 6" of accumulated snow at a time, but at least we have one.

Very early this morning we again got more snow, and in all honesty, enough is enough already. we've gotten our fair share of snow for the season. But guess what, we're supposed to get yet another snow storm on tuesday. Its enough to drive you insane.

So here we are, several snow storms into the season and really winter officially began only a month ago! So, unfortunately, we have a long way to go yet {so much for the forecasters predictions that we wouldn't get a lot of snow this season}.

Anyway, since we only got maybe 2-3" here in the city, it took me no time at all to clear the snow from our sidewalk and driveway, so I went back into the house, grabbed the camera and went and took a few pictures....

Macro Firday

2011-01-21T12:12:00.000-05:00

Its been a while since I have participated in Macro Friday over on Laura's blog. So since it snowed here in the big apple very early this morning, I figured I would go outside with the camera and see what I could come up with. I will post a few pictures from the snow storm and my picture of the day later on when I choose which one I want for that. Still debating.

Post #100 & 20/365

2011-01-20T22:36:00.000-05:00

So let me start by saying HOORAY!!! this is post #100 on my little blog here. Im proud of myself for keeping it going, for taking on new things and sharing them all with you on my blog.

Also we have pic #20 of 365 for project 365! I decided that i wanted to take picture of a project that I started last night and finished literally a few minutes ago. :-) {go me!}

Its a small crocheted bag that I can keep all my crocheting supplies in. It looks lumpy because its already full of all my stuff. LOL. It really did come out cute. I happen to like it. I also like that this picture kinda looks like an ad for a magazine...

You can follow me on the web and view all my past entries here @ 365project.org

Project 365 Jan 13-19

2011-01-20T00:03:00.000-05:00

So its time to do some more catching up on project 365. Its been a busy week. and the next couple of weeks will probably be the same with me playing catch up once a week. Its funny, I'm unemployed and still very busy, but the funny thing is, I'd still be doing all of this stuff even if I did have a job. So I am in a way kind of greatful that I don't have to get up early in the morning after late nights of doing stuff or after long weekends jam packed with things to do. On the other hand, I would kind of kill for that grumpy horrible, I'm exhausted and now need to go to work feeling. Anyway.... enough of my griping and complaining..... On with the pictures and associated stories :-)

Jan 13

(taken with iPhone)

I mean really, isn't that the best coat check number ever???? Ummm Yeah, well at least I think so.

Jan 14

(taken with iPhone)

There is nothing better than a kitty in your lap..... well maybe there is something better... when they reach out and hold your finger like a baby does. It was far to precious to not take a picture of.

Jan 15

(taken with iPhone)

I started crocheting a blanket for my friend who just had a baby boy. I started on Friday night and finished on Monday afternoon. This was near the end. total time was probably about 10hrs.

Jan 16

(taken with iPhone)

On Sunday both Pat & I helped to work a fundraiser for the church where both our Cub Scout Pack & Boy Scout Troop meet. This event also raised money for the Memorial Campership fund for our Troop. These are some of the cupcakes that were made by the lovely and ever charming Robin of Land of Cake Believe. She donated some lovely and DELICIOUS cupcakes for the cause! (so sad I didn't get one, they all sold out!)

Jan 17

(taken with iPhone)

Monday, was a day for relaxing.. Both Pat and Missy embraced that whole-heartedly.

(also Missy is never one for "Cuddling" so I thought that made this pic far more precious)

Jan 18

Let me tell you, when I finally dug out the camera from its hiding spot (it was hiding from me for some reason) I had some fun. This is my right eye. I hope you like my eye, cause I happen to like this picture of me. Its rare I take self portraits, but this one I like. :-) Not to mention the editing. Me likey :-)

Jan 19

So me picking up crocheting after about 20 years, yeah thats right, I haven't done this since my age was in the single digits. So I was working on a scarf (seen to the left) and I went back to my local Michael's store to get more of the same multi color yarn and they didn't have it... So I bought 5 different balls of yarn, 3 of one kind (the peachy/white balls in the center) and 2 balls of a multi color purple. The other two skanes you see are left overs from other projects. I'll probably make a "leftovers" blanket for the house. Or on second thought, perhaps I'll just keep the extras in a bag until I need them....

Well that's it for this week. Let me know what you thought of my photos.

WeeBit Wednesday

2011-01-19T22:53:00.000-05:00

Its wednesday again, time for WeeBit Wednesday with Leigh Ashley

I really do look forward to each wednesday :-)

{one} name one thing you worry about running out of.

hmmm, probably iced tea. we kind of live on it here. trying to change that, but its rough

{two} what is your favorite pizza topping?

sausage and garlic, from a particular local pizzeria in our neighborhood.

{three} what is your favorite harrison ford movie?

its a tie between "Indiana Jones and the last Crusade" and "Regarding Henry". both are excellent movies, and I really cant decide.

{four} apple juice or orange juice?

apple juice.

{five} what’s your favorite thing to do on a sunday afternoon?

nothing. lol. i love to just relax on sundays around the house

{six} what is the wallpaper on your cellphone of?

a picture of my kitty cat april.

{seven} do you have a favorite tv commercial?

we really like the mayhem commercials in general, but i like the one where mayhem in the tree saying "shakey... shakey shakey..."

{eight} what is the weirdest thing you’ve ever eaten?

i've eaten a fair amount of "weird" food, weirdest, probably stewed black bear.

{nine} what is one piece of clothing you can’t live without?

pj's, i more or less live in them.

{ten} if you were a character from “lost”, who would you be?

not a clue. i never watched the show. it just didnt interest me at all.

time to vent.....(just a bit, not a lot)

2011-01-18T16:43:00.000-05:00

Im not having a good day, hell im not having a good week/month/year etc. ive got financial issues, personal issues, employment issues. and i feel like im falling down the rabbit hole again. i cant seem to clasp on to anything to try and stop falling and begin to pull myself out. my life feels like an infinate bottomless well. im just at a loss for a sane thought right now. i dont know what to do, i dont know where to turn, so i turn in every direction which does nothing but make me dizzy. does this sinking/falling feeling ever stop? will my life ever improve? can't i just catch a break somewhere, PLEASE?!?!

I am one panic attack into my day, in an hour i have to face a room full of eager excited kids and be positive and pulled together for them. how can i manage all of this? oh wait, i cant..... so instead i just trudge through the shit and hope to come out clean if i ever reaach the other side of this pit o shit.

ps-if you look up crazy white girl, a life in ruin, or financially unsound you should be able to find my picture.

(yes im having a rough spot, but at least i can still make fun of myself. afterall if i cant laugh at myself, who can i laugh at?)

Today is Bloggerific, WeeBit Wednesday is back!

2011-01-12T13:15:00.000-05:00

I love WeeBit Wednesday! So much fun thinking and so many fun questions, I just love it!! and also Leigh Ashley has a pretty awesome blog, so go check her out....

{one} have you ever been on tv?

not that I am aware of

{two} what was the best movie you saw last year?

Definitely gonna have to say Despicable Me or Inception. It really is a tie. I loved both movies a lot.

{three} do you sleep with your sheets tucked in or out?

The bottom is tucked in, but not the sides, my bed is too thick to tuck in sheets on the sides. (18" mattress and a 4" memory foam pad ontop)

{four} do you cut coupons?

I do, but they never seem to make it to the store. Well the fast food coupons make it there, but not for regular food shopping. LOL

{five} do you ever count your steps when you walk?

occassionally, not sure why, but occassionally I do.

{six} what sauce do you dip your chicken nuggets in?

Sweet & Sour. i hate all forms of mustard, and occassionally I pick up a BBQ sauce but definetly Sweet & sour for the favorite

{seven} do you have any magazine subscriptions?

no, however pat does have a few.

{eight} when was the last time you wrote a letter on paper?

At Christmas actually. made it a point to do so to a few people. :-)

{nine} what’s your favorite fruit pie?

Apple. its the only fruit pie I really eat. Occassionally a peach pie, but I can never find a good one.

{ten} black olives or green olives?

Got to be the black olives. Its the only kind I like.

Catching up on project 365

2011-01-12T12:47:00.000-05:00

Okay, I was doing pretty good last week with uploading a new pic every day for project 365, but the past week has been suprememly busy. Thursday we prep'ed for a Troop camping trip and I started work on the Cub scout klondkie derby sled, Friday we hit the road in the snow to go on said camping trip and we came home on sunday, Monday was a wash cause I was exhausted and was getting ready for helping a friend on Tuesday in Manhattan all day and here we are, its wednesday, its snowed about 8" last night, so I spent some more quality time with my small yet mighty snow blower. LOL!!! So like I said, I was busy...

So here are the fruits of my labor over the past week with the camera. and one iphone picture because the camera battery was dead that day...

Thursday Jan 7th
Not sure what it is that I like about this photo so much, but Im gonna say it appeals to idea that there is some sort of exchange of knowledge between not only two scouts, but an adult (my Pat on the left) and a senior scout

Friday Jan 8th
Let me tell you this shot came out AMAZING for having taken it through the window of a car moving about 65 on the highway. The fact that it is not blurry is fan-freaking-tabulous.

Saturday Jan 9th
One of the things we get to do on this annual camping trip is head to a gun range for some fun. Here you can see one of our friends sighting in his 30/30 rifle. The concussive force of the sound-wave from the shot shook the snow off the top of the range. I tried to catch that on film, but every time I took a picture while he shot, I jumped.

Sunday Jan 10th
This is what we can see out of the door of the cabin. This beautiful snow lined tree along the side of the road that leads farther back into the camp. It was just so damm pretty outside on sunday morning.

Monday Jan 11th
Camera battery official dead from having spent time in the cold weather all weekend while I took pictures. You forget occasionally that the cold sucks the life out of a battery in what seems like 2 seconds flat. So this is what was waiting for me outside our bedroom as I went to go to bed on Monday night. Too cute to not take a picture of.

Tuesday Jan 11th
With the snow storm looming over our heads, we drove out to Larchmont to go to dinner to celebrate our friends 30th birthday! No snow when dinner started, by the time we went to go home it was falling hard and fast. Thankfully it didn't keep up as long as they had forecast-ed for.

Wednesday Jan 12th
Good grief it snowed (again)... wonderful... more work for me. My small and mighty snow blower did just fine, and hooray for me, I got to take a few pictures of the aftermath of this storm. We got hit with about 8" of snow overnight and luckily NYC streets were all clean and driveable at 7:30am this morning. Can't say if they were in some areas, but they were where I live. :-) I think this picture of the dead vine that is intertwined in my fence is really really pretty. :-)

Okay so there you have it, a weeks worth of photos, what do you think? Let me know!!

ack!!!

2011-01-12T10:11:00.000-05:00

okay its been an entire week since I posted anything, but I do swear i have been taking my daily pictures for project 365, I just have to get them off the camera and on the computer. but since I just came inside from removing 8.someodd inches of snow from in front of my house, driveway & sidewalk, im gonna go take a hot shower, perhaps dye my hair so its not gray anymore and take a nap. or perhaps i will do that in the reverse order... hmmm decisions decisions decisions....

okay blogiverse, see you later.

5/365

2011-01-05T22:24:00.003-05:00

Day 5 - note to self, get out of the house and take more pictures of things that are not cats....

4/365

2011-01-04T22:39:00.000-05:00

for the record.... I really this pic. :-)

Pay it forward

2011-01-04T22:20:00.000-05:00

This sounded like way too much fun to not pass on and try....

Tonight, Ashley Sisk posted the following message::

I promise to send something handmade

to the first 3 people who leave a comment here.

To be eligible, you must also post this in your blog,

offering the same thing to 3 other people.

The rules are that it must be handmade by you and it

must be sent to your 3 people *sometime* in 2011.

Ready...

Set....

Comment!!

Challenges & 3/365

2011-01-03T20:01:00.000-05:00

Its going to be a challenging year, mostly because I am choosing to challenge myself. There are a great number of things I want to do, and I would like to start working on them this year and start crossing a few things off of the proverbial list. (there is now an actual list.. check it out here).

So to start things off right, I am starting with 2 recipes; one is an Old Bay Seasoning substitute and the other uses the seasoning as part of it, a chicken and hard cider dish. Its very tasty, but a bit spicy. You can check out the recipes and a picture of the chicken dish with the link above. I try asking Pat what he thinks of the food, but all I ever get as a response is "It's good". I asked him is this on the "cook again" list. He answered, "It's good". So I dunno what to make of that, Perhaps I will make it again and find a way to make a tinge bit less spicy.

Its also time for my photo of the day for project 365 :-) Inspired by my dinner tonight....

As a side note we are big Woodchuck fans to begin with and they have a lot of other recipes that I hope to try some on in the future.

2/365

2011-01-02T23:16:00.000-05:00

Here is Day 2 of 365's photo for my Project365. Just another lazy day at home before Pat goes back to work tomorrow after having a staggering 2 days off in a row!!!

For those of you that are new to my blog, please note, I have 4 cats and they are my "fur-children" and I love them dearly and are often find themselves into my blog writing and photography.

Anyway.... These 3 get along and play very well together, the 4th one, well not so much, shes a "princess". However I try to never miss a moment of their cuteness, especially when April (gray blur in the far cube)plays in the cube/tube combo toy. Today Missy (bottom right) and Patch (bottom left) decided to stalk April and wait for her to come out so they could pounce her. No pouncing happened, April decided it was a good place to take a nap. Ha!

Memories, Dreams & Reflections

2011-01-02T18:14:00.000-05:00

Wow what a year 2010 was. I can't say I'm sad to see it go, I was actually glad the year was over. quite literally 3/4 of the year for me sucked because I didn't (and still don't) have a job. I'm doing my best to work on that, but it is very hard right now to even find one. but with that being over emphasized here in the past few blog entries, I will just leave it at that. It sucked, its over, and moving right along now.

I was pretty stoked to participate in Ashley's Memories, Dreams & Reflections photo scavenger hunt of 2010 photos. It has taken me most of the week to gather together and go through all the photos. Now I get to share them all with you. I hope you like them. They aren't all good photos. some are mediocre at best, but it is something I am hoping to improve over the course of the year by participating in Project 365 and I have also linked up with Sarah H. on her project 365 blog, so go and check out everyone else who has linked up with her on her blog and check out all their photos throughout the year.

So now onto Memories Dreams and Reflections....

1. Me!!

So this is me, teaching cub scouts on the last camping trip they had. This is mostly what I do with cub scouts, teach. In this case I was teaching them about the different parts of the axe and the difference between a hatchet, hand and a half axe, maul, wedge and sledge hammer and what they are all used for. we also went over different types of saws. They like it when I break out the sharp objects.... LOL!

2. I Love you

The man in the middle, my love, my life. Always there for me to give me a hug, and he has been for the past 10 almost 11 years. My Patrick, what else is there to say other than, "I Love you". Through the good the bad and the in between he is always here for me, even if he is on the sofa snoring with the kitty in his lap, he is always here.

3. Still Laughing....

At our friends wedding in October, towards the end of the night when everyone was well liquored up, but still having lots of fun, one of the elder family members from one side of the family or the other was having far more fun that the rest of us who were all quite inebriated. So she decided to grab the first good looking man she could find, make him dance with her and further pour spirits down his throat. she latched on firmly and wouldn't let go. Luckily for him, we caught this magical moment on camera and ask him frequently how his new friend was doing. LOL. later on in the evening however, all the women took turns rescuing the groom from this lovely lady. hahahahaha.

4. Winter Wonderland.

The day after Christmas NYC got approximately 2 feet of snow inside of about 18 hrs. It was a tad insane. So as I was outside clearing the sidewalk, driveway and our general property of snow, I didn't have the chance to get a picture of the snowy wonderland that was previously there. So When i was done with the snow blower and the shovels and the ice melt etc, I finally grabbed the camera and took a picture from the nice warm dry-ness that is my house. :-)

5. Birthday!

Every year for the past 15 years or so, our friend Dave, has had an annual Birthday BBQ in his parents backyard to celebrate his Birthday. This year, I had some fun with a candid photo I took.

6. Friends

Our group of friends, we have a few annual traditions, Post-giving at our house, is one of them. These are the attendees at this years dinner.

7. I was Inspired...

I am continually inspired by several people all the time. People who push past the difficult things in life to bring other people joy and fun and laughs etc. I am inspired by young people who choose to be a part of an organization for which their friends make fun of them for being a part of because they have to wear a uniform to meetings, and have to learn things that aren't taught in school. This photo compilation is a small sampling of the people who inspire me to do bigger and better thins with my life..

8. Spring Fever

Ah spring, one of my favorite times of the year. I love the weather, love the colors, love the new growth. It represents a lot of things for me. But mostly I love the weather. Warm during the day cool at night and all around just comfortable. It also means my birthday will soon be here. (hehehe) Okay so if you are a regular reader of my blog, you'll notice that I didn't actually take this picture in the spring, I took it in October in Ithaca, NY. But it sure does remind me of spring.

9. Travel or vacation

This is the only photo I am pulling from the depths of my archives. Its a few years old. But it represents somewhere I would like to return to, the coast of RI. We went a few years ago on a motorcycle ride with friends who lived in CT and this is one of the scenic spots we stopped. it was so beautiful that day, I would love to go back and just sit on that sea wall with a book and a picnic lunch.

10. Summer Days

Whats better than sitting around a campfire and having a drink with friends during the summer? umm

11. A Day in My Life

We don't have kids, but we do have 4 fur children, this is the smallest one, April. She follows me around the house, sits near me every time I sit, if not sitting on me. Sleeps in the bed with us and will even sit on the edge of the tub when we shower or bathe. So its not a typical day unless this priceless little face is staring back at me doing something cute.

12. All Smiles

This is Miss Lauren, who traveled with the above mentioned Birthday boy from their home outside of Washington, DC all the way up to Ithaca NY for a wedding weekend of funness. Lauren is always smiling and upbeat. Its hard to not think of her when you think of the word "SMILE"

13.Autumn Harvest

This was one of the very first photos I edited ever and I love the way it came out. Its far f rm perfect, but I love it. these are apples that I got to pick right off the tree this fall, so I love it!

14. Family

I have a very small family. Mom Dad Sister that's it really, and we don't always have the best of relationships. But the people who I surround myself with, my friends, they are like my huge adoptive family. these people welcome me into their homes with open arms, are there for me when I cry or need encouragement or sometimes just good food or a hug. For that they have earned the title of family in my book.

15. Celebrate

We have had a lot of celebrations this year. babies being born, weddings (oh boy, lots of weddings) So here are two photos from weddings we went to this year.

16. Lets Do It Again

Oh Yeah!!! Top Gun, 1st and 2nd place, that's right, Bronx Troop 182 took the top 3 places of the day in the latest local shooting competition. Lets keep up the great work boys, so damn proud of you, I know you can do it again in April!!!

So center is Shane who shot a 100 3x (he was top gun for the day), on the left is Mike who took 2nd place (scoring a 95), and the right is Sean who took 1st place (scoring a 97).

{as a side note, not bad for an iPhone picture}

17. I miss you

Our friend John passed away a year ago this past September. In his honor we lowered the flag to half-mast at our scout meeting that week. he was a great man, and an assistant scout master. So to him, we bow our heads, lower the flag reverently and keep you in our hearts always....

18. Beautiful

there is nothing on this earth that is more beautiful than a bride on her wedding day. So here is LaceyBean on her wedding day.

19. Dress Up

Its so cute to see my parents get all dressed up especially when it is my dad in his uniform. This was taken the day he was sworn into the USMS at Kings Point this year. Congrats to dad!!!

20. Macro

My favorite Macro photo of the year...was taken with my iPhone!!! Go figure. Granted there was a bit of editing after the fact, but still, its a nice crisp clear photo and it has incredible detail for a camera phone.

21. Holidays

From our home to yours, I hope you all had a wonderful Holiday Season. I took this photo of Pat's younger sister for his mom's annual holiday card. didn't edit anything in this photo. I just set it all up right in the house. :-) I was proud of this "photo shoot"

22. My Favorite photo memory

At the same October wedding we went to the flower girl and her dad, they were too cute for words. this was a random shot as I was walking behind them to go and take some shots while everyone was posed together.

23. Don't ever Change

I love my friends like family like i said before. I hope they never change. Ever!!

24. Just Because... So there!

I did some baking this year and was proud of the stuff I made, but in particular i was proud of the wedding cake I did and also proud of myself for learning about photo editing in its most simplistic form. so here are a couple of photos of each...

25. Hopes & Dreams

My hopes and dreams for 2011 are simple, find a job and keep the roof over my head. But I would also like to improve upon my photography and photo editing skills. so I have started project 365 to attempt to improve my skills and I am determined to see this through to the end (yeah I'm saying that now, but we will see what I am saying in 3 months or so. LOL)

Happy New Year & Project 365

2011-01-01T22:39:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year Blogiverse!!!! I hope you all had a wonderful New Years celebration where ever you are on this great wide planet. We spent the evening with friends at a local restaurant for dinner and then back to a friend's home to ring in the new year all low key like. No crazy drunken parties, just a nice & quiet, peaceful and fun filled celebration with friends. It was very nice to ring in the new year surrounded by friends who are like family to me.

With the start of the new year I am taking on a new project to see if I can do it... Project 365. Its gonna be a long haul for me. I've never committed to anything like this before (with the exception of the boyfriend, that's almost 11 years strong now, wow, long time). I can certainly tell you that I wont be able to post a photo on the blog everyday, but I will surely do my best to represent each day and post my photos at least weekly. Both the boyfriend and I are pretty heavily involved in our local Boy Scout Troop and I also work with the associated Cub Scout Pack. We do a lot of camping and have many meetings to attend on a weekly basis, so photo editing and posting always seems to get pushed to the back burner. It really shouldn't since at the current time I am still unemployed (8.5 months and counting... blech), so I really do have a lot of free time being home all the time. Hoping to kill some of that time by going back to the gym again.

So without further adieu here is picture #1 of (hopefully) 365...

My New Years wish...

2010-12-31T14:11:00.000-05:00

I haven't made a new years resolution in years. Mostly because I don't feel the need to. If i put my mind to something chances are I will accomplish it. (with the exception of weight loss, mostly because my love of food is a far greater influence)

There are only two things I actually want for the new year. They are in no particular order, a job and to be able to pay my mortgage in order to keep the roof over my head.

In the interm i keep my fingers crossed and keep praying for a miracle in regard to both of the above...

Christmas Gifts 2010

2010-12-21T21:00:00.000-05:00

So I finally finished my Xmas shopping today. what a rat race. I really do try to do as much shopping online at the holidays as possible because i find the patrons in the stores in my area to be very very rude. And as on of my family members says, "God don't like ugly". But this year online shopping was not to be for me and to the stores i went (today and on black friday). I would like to share some of my bounty with you. Let me know what you think. {please note that I did not take any of these pictures}

For mother we got her a few things that she wanted this year and one or two thing she doesnt know she is getting.

She wanted this cast iron enamel coated 5 qt (in red of course) pot, so she is getting that. (let me tell you, this sucker is heavy as sh!t and what a burden to lug this all over the store on black friday. Let me tell you, thats love.... LOL!!!

Up next is something else she wanted for her trip to Europe next summer.... (this isnt the exact one I got her, but its more or less the same thing, just from a different company)

Oh and next is the item she doesnt know that she is getting. if you remember from last year's blog post, I bought mom two cookie jars. well this year, that will continue again with a double decker cookie jar (so technically two again) from pfelzcraft's winterberry collection...

Mom loves all things christmas, so i figured she would like this one. Next year I will have to consult her on the addition of more cookie jars, since a kitchen can only hold so many and these aren't exactly small pieces. haha.

Now for dad's gift.... I knew what I was getting him a long time ago, it just took me forever to find the right one. It came in tonight via UPS and I was so excited that I had to share what I was getting with mother and sister via text message. Mom called back to say that he is going to love it. I really do hope so. It appeals to his meticulous nature in knowing how things work etc....

Its a Stuhrling watch. Its amazing and I am honestly in love with it. I can''t wait for him to open it. Got him a couple of other things as well that I wont bother scavenging the internet for pictures of. He will also be getting a Mel Brooks movie (sure to drive mother insane) and a T-shirt. I spent most of the money on his watch, so his other gifts total a whopping $15 total!!! I just think you should have more than one thing to open on Christmas, so he gets little stuff on top. ;-)

Kris, is all about opening numerous things, so she gets a bunch of stuff as well, small stuff this year, last year she got a brand new Ipod. Might torture her with the box in a box in a box in a box etc to get her stuff. Cause that is always fun for torturing teenagers. especially when they are sisters ;-) Its all about love...

Now for the rest of the family, hmmm.... they have the potential of accessing this info, so we will leave their gifts out for now and will post them after they open them. I hope everyone likes what I got them, because as I said last year, I have this overwhelming compulsion to buy things for people at Christmas even though I can't afford them. Why, who knows. I suppose its just my nature to make the people in my life happy.

I will do my best to have it all wrapped up and under the tree tomorrow to take a picture of and show you all what a gift filled tree looks like :-)

Winding down the year

2010-12-19T22:57:00.000-05:00

This year, the year 2010 will be gone and only a memory in 11 short days. Its amazing how quickly a year goes by. In the past year many things have happened, I lost my job, I went to 3 weddings, watched a friend who was married only a year before give birth to their first child, I went to "long term" for the first time with our scout troop, got to see a child have appendicitis up close and personal (not at the top of the thrill list), I watched my father get a new job that is actually worth his talents, I've gained and lost friendships, went to atlantic city for the first time, went to visit colleges with my sister (which made me feel really old), celebrated birthdays and who knows what else. In cyber space I always appear to be on the run. But for me Its a normal activity level.

Don't get me wrong, keeping busy is what keeps me from going insane. But I really do wish I could be far more active with things around my house, like cleaning and laundry. two things I loathe with pretty much every fiber of my being. Overall for me personally Its been a somewhat depressing year, all 100% faulted to the loss of my job. A few other things have contributed to the depression/funk that I am in, but the loss of the job takes 100% of the blame.

I thought I would have come farther in my life goals. I thought that at this point in my life I would be engaged and planning a wedding if not already married. I thought that I would be beginning a family of my own. thought that I would have a good and stable job. There are lots of things I wish were different in my life. However, how can I really complain? I have a roof over my head. the lights are still on, my cubbards are remarkable not bare, the water is still running, i still have a cell phone, directv, a gym membership (this is only cause I am under contract and its a mere $20 per month) and various other small luxuries that until recently I have taken for granted. Most importantly I have my health and my life and my kitties :-)

There are lots of many little things in my life that I want to change and lots of large things I need to change (like my weight and getting a job) but overall do I really have the right to complain? My life is not to the standard that I have set for myself and while I try to work to get it back closer to that self-set-standard I bitch, moan, groan, whine, complain, & carryon about how its not perfect. People piss me off, attitudes and lack there of also annoy the ever living hell out of me, rude uncarring self centered mofo's also erk me to no end. Ive made a previous promise to my readers that this blog would no longer be an outlet for my random frustrations and venting, however a girl has to annonymously vent sometimes doesnt she? to just let it out for all the world to see and seemingly pay no mind to....

I do my best to keep it together and to keep from spinning out of control in my head over stupid shit, but its getting harder each day to not lash out. Mostly i wait until whomever or whatever is frustrating me to leave or me leave the situation and then I do a lot of mumbling, swearing under my breath, putzing around the house somewhat uselessly looking for things that I don't need (i went on a rant looking for a particular pen, dont ask).

Yet I go back to beginning of this post, where has 2010 gone???? Its gone by far to fast and it needs to be rewound a bit for me to get some things in order and on track. But since thats not going to happen, i suppose i will press on and move onward and hopefully upward. I still have the same goals for last year as I did for this year, and i will sum it up in two words, job & family.

Holiday Greetings from our home to yours!!

2010-12-17T15:07:00.000-05:00

For the first time ever we sent out Christmas photo cards. We didnt order many as we dont send out to many. our family is not very big, and not all of our friends wants pic's of pat's little sister in their home.

So from our home to yours (this is a picture in my home, that I took and lightly edited) Seasons Greetings, Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, & Happy New Year!!!

Weebit wednesday christmasy edition

2010-12-15T23:20:00.000-05:00

So I'm still working on figuring out how to use photoshop. My favorite thing is working with the selective coloring effect. This is by far the funnest thing for me to work on. I didn't have a whole lot of time today to work on improving my skills, as I was working on other things around the house. But I did remember that today is wee-bit Wednesday, so we will start there

{one} did you buy a christmas tree this year?

no, not this year. I bought my fake tree 2 years ago.

{two} what is your favorite holiday tradition?

baking christmas cookies. By far my favorite thing ever to do at the holidays.

{three} do you open your gifts on christmas eve or christmas day?

christmas day. only once did we open our gifts on christmas eve, because we were traveling by plane the day after for a wedding.

{four} at what age did you stop believing in santa claus?

I cant recall exactly but I would say I was about 10 or so.

{five} do you fill stockings?

sure do :-)

{six} handmade presents or store bought presents?

mostly store bought, but handmade is always appreciated

{seven} do you have a favorite christmas meal?

can't say I do. but I will default to dessert and my moms most famous pink cookies.

{eight} is your christmas tree real or artificial?

artificial. I would love a real one some day, but my kitties like to climb the one I have (and one likes to eat it) so i think a real one is out of the question until the kitties outgrow the christmas crazies

{nine} what is your favorite christmas song?

I have a few actually. O Holy night, Silent Night, Silver Bells, and basically all the olden melodic type songs.

{ten} did you send out christmas cards this year?

no not yet. I have to do that tomorrow. its getting late....

Finally photoshop!!!

2010-12-14T20:15:00.000-05:00

So I finally sat down and experimented with some basic stuff in photshop CS3. I did a selective color edit and added my signature in the bottom right hand corner. Its very basic. but hey, I tried. Let me know what you think...

I still have a ton to learn but I'm going to try one new thing a day. I don't have a full handle on all of the controls yet but I'm going to work on that too. :-)

Returning to Macro Friday

2010-12-10T12:18:00.000-05:00

Its been a long time since I have posted a Macro Friday Entry. I haven't had any good macro shots lately but I hope you all like this one :-) I took it yesterday. its actually the new background for the blog layout, so now you get to see the whole photo. the color ornament is actually one of my favorite ornaments on my tree. :-)

wednesdays are awesome....

2010-12-09T00:25:00.000-05:00

I love wednesdays. Wednesdays make me think. what do they make me think about you ask? 10 new things each week. some involve some serious thinking, and some are short thoughts or recollections. Its all about WeeBit Wednesdays.... Weeeeeeeeeeeee......

{one} if you were granted three wishes, what would they be?

ouch, thats tough for me. so many things in the world that I want in my life and for my life. if i had to choose only three i guess i would go with these..

1. i wish to always have enough money in my bank account that i never have to worry about paying my bills and buying the things i want

2. I wish for good health for all of the people in my life

3. I wish to have a job...

{two} who is your favorite author?

can't say I have a favorite author, but there are several that I read such as Dan Brown, Nelson DeMille, and James Patterson to name a few.

{three} what crowd were you involved in during high school?

lets see, thats a strange answer. lol. I was in the chior, the art club, the science club, the speech team, the recruitment squad, student government and the unrecognized group called the idiots society (hey dont knock it because of the name, we had elections, dues, a newsletter and regular meetings)

{four} what is your favorite thing to do when you have time to yourself?

thats easy, spend time on the sofa with my kitties while I watch a movie or something on my DVR.

{five} do you have any hidden talents?

not anymore. some people thinking i do, if you think i have a hidden talent let me know. LOL

{six} can you fake any accents?

nope. Im terrible at it. I start laughing at myself.

{seven} have you ever been mentioned in the newspaper?

yeah, but its a joke really. the local newspaper around here publishes the names of all the graduates of the local high schools and grade schools.

{eight} have you ever been arrested?

nope.

{nine} what is your favorite job you’ve had?

favorite so far has been working as a teller in a bank. the people I worked with were great and the job was fun and easy. I miss that job. Wish I could go back in time and never leave it.

{ten} do you have any scars?

i have a couple of small ones. one is right next to my right eye. i fell and cut my face open 3 days before x-mas when i was 5 years old. thats what happens when its 65 degrees out in NYC 3 days before x-mas. haha. my mom was so happy (insert dripping sarcasm here) with those x-mas photos that year.

Well beyond weebit wednesdays, its been a busy week. Weekly cub scout meeting last week, Committee Meeting tonight followed by the first meeting of the Blue & Gold Committee for the year. We've got some lofty ideas this year for the blue & gold. We also have a lot of work to do and need to recruit more people. Its a lot of work in general, but the blue & gold is really the highlight of the scouting year. Its the month of the year in which scouting was founded, that being february. so we as a scouting community take february and celebrate a Blue & gold Banquet/dinner & awards night. If its not in february its not a blue & gold. Blue & Gold are the cub scout colors, hence the name. There is a history of how the dinner came to be, but thats for another time and place. This year we are adding something new to our program for the evening...... a photo.

How do they look? I think they look adorable!!! Granted we were missing a couple of the kids, but its a good representation. I touched up the photo a little bit, but nothing special. more or less just evened out the photo as a whole color wise.

as a side note, the new commercials for blockbuster and on demand movies, hysterical. blockbusters is showing horrible things for people to wait 28 days for, like emergency medical attention and ondemand is saying waiting four weeks for a table at a resturaunt etc. too funny.

Post-Giving 2010 Group Photo.

2010-12-04T14:51:00.000-05:00

So Post-giving was a wonderful gathering of friends once again. Here is our first ever group photo. Its not the greatest, but I've been working at it most of the morning to try and make it look nice. I wanted it to have that warm & fuzzy yet a little old look. Hope I succeeded. Let me know what you think.

WeeBit Wednesday on a Thursday!

2010-12-02T16:23:00.000-05:00

So its thursday, I'm still feeling under the weather. Thankfully the fever is gone, but the sinus pressure, sore throat and overall blech feeling are still here, unwelcome guests that they are.

I am going to try and get my camera connected to the puter tomorrow to do some photo editing on whatever photos I have taken. (geez I hope there there something there to work with). Oh and I will try to take some photos tonight at the Eagle Court of Honor. Perhaps you will even see me in uniform (gag). Lets see how photogenic I am feeling later tonight.

In the interm I sit here and continue to search for a job. I apply to countless positions and never get a responce other than the occasional form rejection email which is good for sending my self esteem through the floor at light speed. We've had a few of those bad days back to back lately.... le sigh....

but instead of the hum drum averageness of my depression we are going to do something a bit more fun, WeeBit Wednesday!!! I love these little questioniere things, they make me think and I look forward to humpday every week. The questions are fun and they make me think and I always read them even though I dont always have time to make a post of my own. So without further adeiu here it is....

{one} if you were going to a remote place and could only bring one CD, what would it be?

that’s tough, i am very eclectic in my musical tastes. But I suppose I would bring the soundtrack to Across the universe with me. Its got a lot of different tempos and feelings and instrumentation through out the soundtrack and its got great (what I like to call) "sing-a-long-ability"

{two} are you generally more of an optimist, pessimist, or realist?

i dunno. I guess it depends on the mood I am in. I can't say I subscribe to one point of view or another.

{three} have you ever picked up a hitchhiker? if not, would you?

nope. dont think I ever would unless its someone I actually know.

{four} what spice or seasoning is your favorite?

garlic. I pretty much put it on/in everything. Now if you want to talk marinades, my favorite is a sesame ginger or sesame teriyaki.

{five} what’s your birthstone? do you like it?

Diamonds :-) and Of course I like diamonds, but to be honest I prefer vibrant blue sapphires

{six} do you know what your name means?

Sarah is of herbrew origin and it means "princess" hehehe, I'm a princess. lol

{seven} what is your favorite breakfast cereal?

hands down cocoa pebbles. unhealthy yet delicious at any time of day

{eight} if there was an extra hour in each day, what would you spend it doing?

right now I would spend it job hunting. If I were employed, perhaps with some sort of hobby or maybe sleeping. Who knows.

{nine} if you could turn any book into a movie, which would it be?

ouch, thats a tough one, been thinking on this one for a while now as I answered other questions and set up my blog post etc. I suppose since most of my favorite books have already been made into movies (some successfully and some not so much) I would have to go with something from the John Corey Series written by Nelson Demille. He is one of my favorite writers.

{ten} if you could go back and play out one day of your life to watch (like scrooge), what day would it be?

hmmmm, this thought brings back a flood of emotions, some good and some bad. But I suppose it would be any day in which I spent with my paternal grandmother where she told me she was proud of me and loved me and held me close. I miss that woman more than anything in the world. It will be 10 years since she passed this coming June. sadly it still feels like yesterday...

ps. if you have questions that you’d like to see on wee bit wednesday, email (Leigh Ashley) {here}!

30 days and (not) counting (anymore)

2010-12-01T15:13:00.000-05:00

Yeah, so um hi blogiverse. its been a while since we have gotten together to do anything productive, or at all really. its been over 30 days! i cant believe it. where has the past month gone? apparently down the drain or up in a whirlwind.

lets see what have i done in the past 30 days.....

planned and executed a cub scout halloween party
hung out at home on halloween
made birthday cupcakes for Crystal's 10th b-day
went on a boy scout camping trip
went college shopping with my mother and sister we went from bronx, ny to binghamton to SUNY cotrland to batavia to SUNY fredonia back to binghamton and then back to bronx, ny in the span of 4 days. oh and antiquing along the way
watched my father get sworn into the USMS :-D
watched pat get his APO of the year award at 1 police plaza
went to a baby "debut" party in Staten island
went to weekly cub scout and boy scout meetings
planned and executed the annual post-giving party at our house
cleaned and scrubbed the hosue from tippy top to bottom
put up my xmas tree
visited my family for thanksgiving

okay so i guess i have been pretty busy. there were some other things in there as well that i cant quite recall right now, but i know there was other stuff.

on a slightly sour note, my camera has not been out much in the past 30 days. i have taken a lot of pictures of my kitties with the camera on my phone, but thats just a guilty pleasure. nothign really to share there. going to see if i can rustle up anything for macro friday or scavenger hunt sunday this week. i know i wont be home on friday and saturday nights so we will see how it goes. im not expecting to have much or any pictures, as i am currently sick (blech).

so lets keep our fingers crossed and see what happens...

busy busy & weebit wednesday

2010-10-30T12:02:00.000-04:00

I havent touch my camera in a couple of weeks so I havent been able to participate in Scavenger Hunt Sunday, Macro Friday, or even the October Photo Scavenger Hunt. Im kinda dissappointed in myself for not carrying through on those things. Between Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, Family, and life in general. Granted I have taken the camera along no matter where I went, it just never came out of my purse, except for one function, those pictures will follow and I will post in the next few days, when I have time to sit down and download them and see how they came out.

And now on to weebit wednesday before I start getting ready for yet another cub scout event, its their halloween party today :-)

{one} have you ever seen a ghost?no. not a big believer in ghosts, even though my high school had one, archie, he was cool, he slammed doors and windows. not that i ever saw him, just kinda heard him.
{two} when was the last time you dressed up for halloween?i have no idea. its been a few years though.
{three} what’s your favorite candy?hmmmmm, thats tough, i love candy and chocolate and all things unhealthy. but favorite candies are regular size snickers bars (the mini ones just dont taste right to me, yeah i know weird) plain old hershey bars, hershey with almonds (again not miniture), reese's peanut butter cups, kitkats, and grape jolly ranchers. those are the tops. i cant choose a favorite.
{four} did you have a favorite costume growing up?two actually, the angel and witch costumes that my grandma hand made for me from scratch years and years ago. those were awesome, i wore them several times.
{five} did you carve pumpkins this year?no not this year. im just not in the halloween mood.
{six} what’s your favorite scary movie?i have no idea. i like thriller movies over horror movies. granted ive seen several. there is one that is a thriller that scared the bejesus out of me though at some points."what lies beneth" its 10 years old, but it is such a good movie.
{seven} haunted houses or corn mazes?corn mazes… i loathe haunted houses. im such a chicken.
{eight} are you superstitious?not really.
{nine} have you ever owned a black cat?yup. she wasn't totally black though. she had a white belly and feet. Miss Lucy, she was such a good kitty. she passed away when I was in high school
{ten} what are you plans for this coming halloween?none actually. avoiding trick or treaters this year. didnt put out any decor, or carve pumpkins. i have a few "fall" themed decorations around the house, but nothing overly halloweenish. i'll probably sit home and watch the peanuts halloween special on hulu, bednknobs and broomsticks, and really not much else. might break out some popcorn and do some cleaning around the house. kind of a lame halloween this year...