Hello!

That picture is from last year, but I love it! As I type, Baileigh is snoozing on the couch, barking in her sleep! I would love to know what dogs dream about! It reminds me of this video:



That never gets old!!

I had a semi-productive day today. I got my oil changed, it took longer to get an attendant to the counter than it did to actually get the oil changed. I bought some Starbucks coffee to brew at home since stopping at Sheetz before class is getting too time consuming! Have you ever seen Sheetz in the morning?? I stopped into BigLots the other day to find a great deal on Snapple, Trop-a-Rocka flavor! Yum! This is mine and Mason's favorite flavor. I am going to save the bottles and brew my own iced tea to have around for awhile.

That's all I have for now, Mason is due home any minute. I am sure that means we will have hours of fraction homework to do (insert dreaded feeling here).

Brrrr....

I guess we have been lucky so far this winter, but WOW, is it cold outside tonight! I went outside to take Mason to basketball practice and was not expecting to have to scrape ice off the windshield. I question myself time and time again why I do not want to move to a warmer climate when I make my move after Mason graduates.

I am enjoying basketball season but I REALLY can't wait until baseball season! Mason will have football sign-ups and weigh-ins in March and I am afraid that he will not make the weight limit. I don't know what to do, starving him seems so cruel (haha!).

In other news, I have a giant grocery-store list and we plan to shop on Saturday. I have some new recipes to try out. I started the year off by drinking a kale smoothie everyday and ginger tea. I feel great! I need to restock those supplies. I can honestly say that ever since I have been drinking them, I have not had a single sniffle! My days have been so busy, its been hard to actually make a decent grocery shopping trip. No basketball on Saturday, so we will be shopping instead. The worst part is carrying all the groceries inside and putting them away. I could do without that!

Stay warm!!

Lazy. Lazy. Lazy

Lazy seems to be a theme around here lately. I guess with the added pressures of school and Mason bringing home fractions for homework, most of our free time is spent lounging. That even applies to the cat! She fell asleep cleaning herself in the picture above! I have decided that tomorrow Facebook will not hold me hostage, I will not even log-in until all the cleaning is done! Yeah, we'll see about that one. Facebook = evil time-thief. I think it might be easier to survive living in a Turkish prison. [Jerry Seinfeld "Newman" voice] "Facebook"

The Giants won the superbowl!! It was a great game. The commercials were, once again, not up to par. There were a few good ones. There were more scantily clad women than I care for my 11 year old boy to see in a lot of the 30 second, million dollar ads. It just shows what society has come to. Less creativity and more skin is what sells, I suppose.


Anyone who knows me, knows that I LOVE inspirational quotes! I fill my house with them as daily reminders of how great life is even when it isn't so much. Sometimes the quotes are hand painted on canvas or printed on an item that was bought. However, most of them are hand written on the nearest index card or old reciept lying on the table, it adds character, ya know??!

Words that I live by:



Words that everyone should live by:



I really can't wait for flea market/yard sale season to get here! I have been on the lookout at the thrift stores for an old dresser to paint or re-finish. No luck. I have been feeling really creative on a redecorating level lately. Of course, I don't have the means to go buy all new, but even if I did that isn't my style. Unless we are talking about Pier 1. Let me tell you about Pier 1. That store actually makes me, the thriftiest of all thrift shoppers, think (if only for a few minutes) that it is ok to spend $450 on a side chair. A $300 framed mirror? Sure! Curtains that cost more than all the furniture in my house, combined? Not a problem. I love every single thing in that store. All the sparkle and glitter!! Don't get me started on glitter. When the Pier 1 catalog graces my mailbox, I act like a child in a candy store. I grab a cup of tea and get lost in the fantasy of having an entire house furnished with those items, some that I can't even pronounce. Thirty minutes later I am back to reality. Someday. Someday at least 25% of my house will be furnished with goodies from Pier 1!

It's Sunday (and it's SUPER)!

The countdown until game time is getting smaller and smaller! Of course it won't be as thrilling of a game (for me, anyway) but it's still the SUPERBOWL. Since the Steelers lost in a horrific two-second OT to end their chances for #7, I will be rooting for ABB (Anyone But Brady). It's still not a tough choice to root for the Giants because I have family that tend to live and breathe NY Giants, soooo GO GIANTS! I hope the commercials are better than last year! I will not remind Mason that the Puppy Bowl is on because I would rather poke my eyes out (and I LOVE puppies!!).

On to the menu. SuperBowl is always known for SNACK-TIME! I will be making veggie mini corndog muffins, chips & veggies with dip, tomatillo pizza, my famous (only to Mason and I!) hot spinach and artichoke dip and homemade brownies! Yum! I have "healthified" the spinach and artichoke dip and per Mason's request he asked that I NOT make "healthified" brownies again! It shall be a good night!




My (slight) obsession with Jimmy Fallon continues to grow. Comedy is so subjective. Of course there are comedians who have stood the test of time, but really I can only think of a few that are actually really funny. When I really got into SNL Jimmy Fallon was a cast member. He was memorable. I liked a lot of his skits. Only since he has had his own talk show did I really pay attention to his amazing talent. He.Is.So.Funny!!!! After I got laid-off from my job and before I got a plan for my life I was in a slump. For about two weeks my days consisted of watching the ID channel, forensic files and cold case files and watching countless youtube videos of Jimmy Fallon's comedy career. I could not get enough. Each one seemed funnier and funnier. I would stay up late to catch his 12:37am talk show every single day. Now, I usually DVR it (unless I've had some serious coffee consumption). He seems to top himself on every new skit. Have you seen The Jersey Floor skits?? He's a comedic genius and I really think he has a long-lasting career. He makes me laugh and we all need a lot of that in our life. He is doing a LIVE show after the superbowl tonight, I am sure it won't disappoint!

GOOD LUCK, GIANTS!!

Goodbye.

If inanimate objects could speak, I would love to know what this clock would say. This clock is older than most of the students in my college classes. I remember where this clock sat in the house that I lived in in 1987. I don't how I got this clock, I don't remember if it was a gift or if it was simply put in my room one day. All I know is this clock is at least 25 years old. I really can't say that I know of any other object that has been with me for 25 years. I was eight when I remember this clock appearing in my room. It moved with me to so many different places. It has a seconds counter on it when a button is pushed. For some strange reason I remember going through a phase in my teens where I slept on the floor and put this clock right next to me. I remember pushing that seconds button over and over again as I lie there trying to fall asleep. I would try to guess what "second" it was on. Then it went to Penn State with me. One morning I was supposed to be at work very early during the hectic holiday season. I was considered one of the most reliable employees, that was until I set this alarm to "PM" instead of "AM". Every time the lights flicker during a storm, the notorious flashing 12 would appear. I would have to reset it.




The AM/FM buttons stopped sliding, the alarm button fell off (I would have to slide it with a pen) and if the button was down too far, I would wake up to a loud, static filled FM station. Wow, was that annoying! However, this trusty old clock still stuck with me. I hated the alarm sound. It was so brash. I even dropped it a few times trying to find my way through a dark bedroom. During some tough times, I remember lying in bed just staring at the bright red time slowly tick by. A few weeks ago, the lights flickered. When I went to bed, the flashing 12 was annoying, so I unplugged the clock. It was never plugged in again. I decided that a 25 year old electric cord was just too risky to plug back in. The clock has been replaced with my cell phone alarm that is equally annoying. So, it is going out in the trash tomorrow. I feel a very strange feeling of loss knowing I will never see this clock again. I know that is weird but it's true.




Way to go, Inspector B25. You did your job well!

Caffeine. My Friend. My Foe.

Yesterday before school I stopped to fill up my car with gas and of course, grab a coffee. As I eavesdropped on the conversation between the cashier and the apparent long-time "regular" of the store (even though this particular store has only been open for a few months) I noticed something that I never see at Sheetz. Along side the regular coffee flavors, a light shined down, a warm breeze washed by and guided me to a particular brew. Although the label clearly stated, "High Caffeine", I read much more into it. I seemed to think that magic cup of joe would not only sail me right though my morning classes but it would clean my house and do the dishes that seem to taunt me on a daily basis. I pictured a beautifully clean house (you know, the kind of clean when company comes over), a cleaned out pantry and smells of a freshly scrubbed floor. I must have been dreaming. I have to give the coffee credit, it kept me up until 3am at which point I was cursing it. Next time I decide to grab a cup of high-octane I am going to make sure the label clearly states, "Motivation Included."





I won tickets!!! The local radio station was giving away quite a few tickets to tonight's Harlem Globetrotter's show and I scored some! I am so excited! Mason and I haven't been able to go out and do too much except rent a movie for awhile, so this is going to be a fun night. It has been kept secret, with a few clues. At this point he thinks he is seeing Scooby Doo on ice (WHY would I take him to see Scooby Doo on ice??). There is a subtle disappointment in his eyes every time he thinks he's going to see Scooby Doo on ice! Mom torture, it's priceless.



We have court side seats (ohh la la). Apparently there is going to be a basketball player there that is 7'9", WOWZA. I wonder if I can take my camera there?

That's all for now!

Guess Who's Back??

Nope, not Jack....ME!!!

So, the last post from me was somewhere around December 2010. 2010? Did 2011 not exist? I was up in the air on whether to update my audience (...crickets) on my entire 2011 or to simply start where I am today in my life. I have decided to not talk much about the events from last year, but a brief summary will do. January's events with my car or February's events with car rentals can totally be erased. March rolled around and the entire month was a lion, no lambs to speak of. April is a blur. May 2011 is when things just started to look up. Mason had the best baseball season, ever! There were times I only got through life by anticipating the next baseball game. June was filled with games, in July the divorce was final. In August we moved (just next door!), in September I lost my job. By October I was on a roll with motivation. Enrolling in an AP Chemistry class was just the start of it. In November my baby boy turned 11! He had some friends come over to play video games and to eat! December wrapped up a long year of change, I received an "A" in my Chemistry class, enrolled in classes and have a PLAN. Did you hear that? A PLAN!! I have never had a plan in my life before this. I would not have been able to get through any of it without the love and support of my family.

December 2011 marked another major event in Mason's life. He finally got to watch THE (and I mean THE) best 80's movie EVER made (it could possibly be THE BEST movie ever made, I'll let that up to you):




It brought a tear to my eye to watch my son enjoy this movie as much as I do (not really, but I wanted some added drama).

So, in between good days and bad days, crying, laughing and getting my life in order, 2012 was here in the blink of an eye.

So, here is the real reason that I decided to get back into blogging: English class. BUT, I actually did miss it. During English class today we were talking about journaling and blogs. We have to choose one or the other for a graded project. I journal all the time, I love to write. However, I am choosing to do the blog (an extra 10 points doesn't hurt either!). Even though I am a bit rusty here at this ole' blog, I decided to try to remove it from life support and see what happens. I hope I can bring it back to life, I know I love to bring a little bit of my life to my family many miles away. I think that they like it, too!

So, here I am. I'm back. Here's a picture of Mason on Christmas morning:



He needs to stop growing. Now. That's all for now, I hope you enjoyed! I feel like watching the Shining...