Recurring Series

Five For Friday (v. 26)

1) Well, my mom and her fiance have picked a wedding date. (I know – they don’t waste time, do they?) They’ll be married on October 11, 2014 on Clearwater Beach. I am SO excited! I will be the maid of honor and I honestly have no idea what that entails or what I need to do. I’ve been Googling like crazy for beach wedding packages and venues and trying to figure things out. They want something small and intimate, with just close family members and a few friends. And now… I have 10 months to lose 50 lbs so I can look amazing in my dress! Let’s do this!

2) So let’s talk Scandal, shall we? I have never watched this show, until a few weeks ago when I decided to download the pilot episode on my iPad. And now I am hooked. I flew through the first season and I’m working my way through the second season and I’m just in complete unabashed love with this show. It is really, really good and all I can think about is when I can watch the next episode. My thoughts so far: Huck is my favorite character with Quinn a close second, I think Mellie is kickass and I kinda love her even though I feel like I shouldn’t, Fitz is a putz and I kinda don’t love him even though I feel like I should, and Olivia is just plain awesome and dazzling and wonderful and scary. We’ll see how my feelings change throughout this second season.

3) My mom and I have been talking seriously about quitting cable. Right now, we pay around $164 for a digital cable with two DVR boxes + a high-speed Internet combo. If we keep the high-speed Internet and then add Netflix and Hulu+ accounts, that brings us down to $68 a month, which is a much nicer price, wouldn’t you say? Almost 60% cheaper! My only qualm with quitting cable is what to do when football season is back, but I figure there has to be a solution for this and I have until September to figure it out. (We wouldn’t get rid of cable until after the Superbowl.) But it just makes so much sense to go this route. We’d definitely order a Roku box so we can stream to our TV and we both have tablets so we can watch on there if we want, too. Here’s my question: should I go the Netflix & Hulu+ route, or just stick with Hulu+? (I wouldn’t just do Netflix, because I would need current TV shows. And I’m not terribly concerned about a great movie selection.) And if you have a Roku (or whatever you use to stream to your TV), how do you like it?

4) This past weekend, I saw my dad again. My mom and I were in the car and leaving Target and my dad biked past us going the opposite way. He was pretty far away so I know he didn’t see us, but it was still so startling. Every time I see him, I just remember that he still exists. He’s still here and his face is so familiar and I can still hear him laugh and say my name… but at the same time, he’s not here. He’s gone. He’s left. He was a toxic force in my life and I had to exorcise him from my life. It’s just weird because it’s what I want but then I don’t. I just want to have a dad again. Especially because I can have a dad when so many others can’t. I wish things were different. I wish he was different and I was different and we both knew how to have a functioning relationship but we didn’t and we don’t and I just couldn’t do it anymore. Deep breaths. I still hold so much hope we can one day have a relationship. I still have hope he will walk me down the aisle and I’ll be able to tell him I love him again. There’s always that hope.

5) On a happier note, I have a full weekend planned! Tonight, I am attending a farewell dinner for one of my book club friends at The Cheesecake Factory. (She’s moving to Texas and I am basically devastated because I love this girl and was hoping to become closer to her this year.) (Also, I have never been to The Cheesecake Factory. Never!) Then, on Saturday, I am going on a brunch date and later, my brother is coming over to watch the NFL playoff games. On Sunday, I need to get the headlights in my car replaced (oh, fun) and then my brother is coming over again for the games. I’ll be rooting for the Saints, Colts, Niners, and Broncos this weekend. It should be a great weekend for football!

Categories: Holidays, Recurring Series

Five for Friday: The Christmas Edition

Happy Friday, friends! I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and enjoyed their time with family. I took a little bit of a blog break for the holiday, but I’m back with a Christmas recap, Five for Friday style!

One – Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was a busy day for me! I woke up early, so I decided to spend some time finishing up Holiday Council work (including listening to the last live call! How is it over so quickly?!). There was a quick stop at Target to return a few gifts (emerged unscathed!) and then I picked up lunch at Publix. The afternoon was spent baking cookies, wrapping Christmas presents, and watching Christmas movies (A Boyfriend for Christmas and National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation). That night, my mom’s boyfriend (who is home for the holidays, after being on the road since early October!) took my mom and me out to Carrabba’s for dinner. Yum, yum. He is further endearing me to him, that’s for sure. There was a round of peach sangria, multiple baskets of bread consumed, friendly service, and delicious food. While I intended to make another batch of cookies for our holiday celebration tomorrow, I just wasn’t in the mood when I came home from dinner. Instead, I took a long, relaxing bubble bath and read for a bit before calling it a night.

Two – Presents!

Oh, I was completely and utterly spoiled this year. I received an iPad Mini + case, Otterbox case for my iPhone, two gorgeous bras from Victoria’s Secret (I don’t even want to tell you how much I needed new bras! TMI?), two planners (one for work and one for home!), a new cardigan, a new blouse, cute headbands, and a most generous Target gift card from my mom’s boyfriend. Spoiled, I tell you, spoiled!

Three – Family!

My aunt and uncle hosted the family for a wonderful Christmas dinner. There were presents, pictures in front of the tree, tons of laughs, yummy food, spiked eggnog, and so much fun. It was also the first time some of the family met my mom’s boyfriend! (Can you believe they’ve been dating for a year now?!) It was such an enjoyable afternoon, though, and it made me realize how much I love my family. No, we’re not perfect and we’ve been through many trying times together, but through it all, they’re my blood and nothing is more precious than that.

Four – Nephew time!

After enjoying Christmas with our extended family, we still had to exchange gifts with my brother, sister-in-law, and nephew! We all left the party around the same time to head back to our apartment and do more present unwrapping. My nephew was spoiled, as per usual, and he loved all his gifts. Lots of action figures, LEGO sets, clothes, a coloring book, and a remote-controlled helicopter. He made out like a bandit! After all the gifts had been opened, he, of course, wanted to open up every single box and play with everything! By this time, I was exhausted from an already busy day (as were all the adults, it seemed!) but this little boy has unlimited amounts of energy. Toward the end of the evening, I showed him Photobooth on my iPad and he thought it was the greatest thing ever. We had a blast with it, as evidenced above!

Five – A Silent Night

After the busyness of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, I was thankful that Christmas Day night was peaceful and quiet. Once my brother and his family left, I took a relaxing bubble bath and then settled in with a good book and some goal-setting prompts to brainstorm with. I am in full-on goal-setting, dream-envisioning mode, as I prepare to set my resolutions for this upcoming year, so it was the perfect way to round out the holidays.

How was your Christmas? What was the best present you received?

Categories: Recurring Series

A Virtual (Christmas!) Coffee Date

I think it’s high time we sat down and had a virtual coffee date, right? The holidays are fast approaching, so let’s wrap our hands around our warm mugs of coffee (I’m having a mocha!) and get to chatting!

If we were having coffee today, I would probably talk about how overwhelmed I feel at work currently. This is my first month with a full workload. Together, with three other coworkers, I’ve started a massive rebranding project for a big client, which involves proofing and editing all of their content that has been posted on their website for the past few years. It’s a lot of work and it was a bit like fumbling around in the dark in the beginning, but we’re all slowly getting better at what needs to be done. Along with that project (which consists of proofing 200 pages a month!), I also have five clients of my own I am writing for. It equals out to a little over 50 pages of content a month, with each page being around 300 words, give or take. I feel a little frantic most days, but I think it’ll get better as the months go by. It makes the days go by fast, that’s for sure!

If we were having coffee today, I would tell you that I’m feeling completely unmotivated for healthy eating and exercise. And that I haven’t exercised in over a week! I’m falling into the “I’ll start on January 1st” mentality, which isn’t good at all. I don’t want to end the year feeling like a lump, but it’s just been really hard lately. Harder than usual.

If we were having coffee today, I would talk about how I’m two books away from hitting my goal of reading 100 books in a year. I have 11 days to read two books, something absolutely doable, especially with my upcoming holiday time off. I’m not sure if I’ll ever be able to read 100 books in a year again (it’s really an insane goal!), but it was fun to shoot for this and make it happen.

If we were having coffee today, I’d share a funny story about Dutch. My mom came home on her lunch break this week to find out Dutch had gotten into a present under the tree! Thankfully, it was just a pair of socks my mom bought for her boyfriend and nothing I bought her! And it was the only present he got into, which is strange. The weird thing is that we’ve had presents until the tree since Friday night and he didn’t touch them. The other weird thing? It was a present to my mom’s boyfriend from Dutch (yes, we do this. No, it’s not weird.) so, like, he’s a genius! He can read! He thought it was for him! Ha.

If we were having coffee today, I would talk about my work holiday party that took place yesterday! It was held at a nice restaurant right next to my work and was a lot of fun. There was an open bar, delicious food, and everyone dressed up! It was a good time, indeed. It was fun to chit-chat with coworkers because we’re all stuck in our little cubicles all day and interaction is at a minimum. We even held a white elephant gift exchange and I ended up with a “booty slide” workout DVD system. Ohhh, yeah! 😉 They also held a raffle at the end of the night, with some incredible prizes, and I won a $50 Amazon gift card! What what! (Makes up for the white elephant gift, yes?) All in all, it ended up being more fun than I anticipated.

If we were having coffee today, I would tell you how nervous I am about the Dolphins’ next two games! I know I don’t talk a lot about football, but it’s such a huge passion of mine and, though I know we won’t make it to the Superbowl or anything, just making the playoffs would be amazing! We need some help, as in winning our next two games and hoping Baltimore and/or Cincinnati falter in their two games (though those two teams play each other Week 17, which should be a great match-up!). I spent probably 20 minutes on ESPN’s playoff generator yesterday, looking at the different scenarios. The way it appears to me, if we win on Sunday, we’re in the playoffs, no matter what. So I’ll be on the edge of my seat all Sunday afternoon. Go, Miami, go!

If we were having coffee today, I would confess my anxiety has been feeling a bit unmanageable lately. I’m not sure why, but I feel a bit off-balance with my emotions, as if one little thing has the potential to set me off, but I’m so concerned with keeping it all together that I’m not properly dealing with my emotions. I don’t know. I just feel a little shaky, a little uncertain. (Therapy starts in January! Declaring it!)

If we were having coffee today, I would talk about my weekend plans! Tonight, my mom and I are going to a holiday lights show at the Florida Botanical Gardens and then on Saturday, my brother and nephew are coming over to decorate Christmas cookies! There will probably be some last-minute Christmas shopping thrown in there (I’m mostly done, just need a few little things for family members). The weekend will be mostly low-key, though, and for that, I am grateful. I need it after the crazy week I’ve had!

If we were having coffee today, what would you tell me?

I’m going to take a bit of a blogging break for the holidays, so I want to wish everyone who celebrates a very merry Christmas! I will be back in a week with a Christmas recap, and then I’ll dive right into recapping 2013 with a whole slew of fun posts. Enjoy your holiday!

Categories: Holidays, Recurring Series

A Weekend in Pictures: Birthsgiving

Oh, what a weekend this was! I always love the long Thanksgiving weekend, because my birthday usually falls somewhere in the midst of it, and it’s just nice having four full days off work. This weekend felt especially long, but I can’t lie that I whimpered a little when I woke up this morning. It’s hard getting back to routine after a holiday! But alas, here we are. It’s December and we have 23 days until Christmas. I have done zero Christmas shopping.

But no matter. It will get done! For now, let’s take a look back on this weekend, shall we?

The oh-so-lovely Natasha coined the term “Birthsgiving” for my birthday and I loved it so I stole it for the day. Birthsgiving started early with a 5am wake-up call. My mom and I, and our house guests (my uncle, aunt, and two cousins from Georgia!) ran the Turkey Trot 5K so we had to be up and attem early. It was 43 degrees that morning so we were all freezing. The race was good, though I ended up walking more than I wanted to.

The rest of the morning and part of the afternoon were spent lounging around and slowly getting ready for Thanksgiving dinner. There was a quick trip to Cracker Barrel because we were all hungry and not going to last until dinner. Dinner itself was great. We had a big group this year – 23 people in total! I got my fill of turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes. (My favorite Thanksgiving foods!) And the desserts topped everything off, leaving me feeling as if my stomach would burst from all the good food. And the best part? The best part was that my grandma hosted and seeing her feeling and looking so good made me the happiest. She’s on the path to recovery after being diagnosed with cancer for the third time and we’re all just praying it stays away for good this time.

After dinner, my mom & I and our house guests settled in for the night at our apartment with some drinks, UNO, and good quality gossip. Having our Georgia family here in town was the best, and I love them dearly. I wish they could come down more often! Maybe a trip to Georgia is needed soon? Yes?

Friday started a bit early, as we wished our house guests safe travels back to Georgia, and then I took Dutch on a 30-minute walk. After coming back inside and fooling around online for a bit, Dutch and I went back to sleep for a few hours, because what else are holiday weekends for? Gradually, my mom and I got up and ready for the day. We went out for lunch and then shopping for my birthday present: new boots! I’ve been looking around for the perfect knee-high boots for a long time because I guess I have fat calves and most boots won’t fit over them. (Wonderful.) But then I found these by chance and they fit perfectly. I want to wear them every day. But we have highs in the mid- to upper-70s for the next week so we’ll see how much use I get out of them!

After that, I took another nap (because, holidays) and then Friday night was spent lounging. I caught up on almost all my TV shows, ate good food, and worked on some blog things. A perfect night, in my opinion!

Oh, what a day Saturday was! I woke up around 7:30 after not getting to bed until 2am, so I was tired throughout the whole day but there was no rest for the weary! My mom and I went for a run, and then came home to shower and start Christmas decorating! After setting up the tree and stringing the lights, we took a break to have lunch and then do some shopping. We stopped at the mall (where I picked up my favorite pair of Old Navy skinnies!) and then at Target to get some more holiday decorations.

We finished decorating our apartment just as my brother and nephew arrived for some Saturday night fun. We ordered pizza, I baked cookies, and we spent the night watching TV and just hanging out. It was a wonderful night! I love having those boys over. It was a bit of a belated birthday celebration since my birthday was taken over by Thanksgiving, so I got to make all the decisions on what to do! Woo!

Sunday was another early morning, as my mom signed up for a 5K in Brandon. I opted not to run it, since I didn’t feel confident after my 5K on Thanksgiving. She did wonderful, as per usual, and then we came home for showers before heading out to brunch. And then? Then, we came home and I took an epic 5-hour nap. It was beautiful. So, so needed. I was out cold from the minute my head hit the pillow until Dutch woke me up by licking my ear. The rest of the day was spent watching football, grocery shopping, meal prepping, doing laundry, and trying to hold on to the last few seconds of my holiday weekend.

And that was my weekend! Full of fun, food, family, and plenty of naps. And now it’s time to get back into my routine, especially healthy eating and exercising!

How was your weekend?

Categories: Recurring Series

Gratitude in the Everyday, Part I

I came across this wonderful worksheet on thankfulness and gratitude from Lisa, who went through the prompts last month. I really loved reading her answers, and the questions that were posed, so I thought it would be great to work through them on my own, leading up to Thanksgiving. Today, I’m posting the first installment and will continue them throughout the next few weeks.

1 – I’m most grateful for my ability to write.

Writing is one of my biggest passions, and I’m not sure where I would be without it. I’m thankful that not only do I have the ability to write well, but that I also love it. Because doing something well doesn’t always mean you will love that thing! It blows my mind sometimes that I am actually writing for a living and while, sure, the writing isn’t exciting (one can only talk so long about the benefits of window installation before they want to scream), it’s also growing my writing so much. My writing ability is what landed me my current job and I can honestly say I love what I do.

2 – In this moment, the things I love most about my family are the way they always have my back, the way they make me laugh, and the fact that they can tell me like it is when I need it.

I love my family. My mom is the absolute best person I know. She has always had my back for anything I want to do – even when I decided to switch majors when I was one internship away from graduating. My brother has also been such a wonderful support system for me, and he has no problem telling me like it is and helping me not take life too seriously.

And my family just makes me laugh. A lot. We are silly and sarcastic and I just love them.

3 – Something that made me smile today was a sweet good morning hug and kiss from my pup.

This morning, Dutch was a bit restless to get up. (I think he knows that if it’s after 6am, it’s time to be up.) So after trying to snuggle with him to no avail (he just kept licking my face!), I sat up in bed and picked him up for a hug and kiss. It’s my favorite part of the morning because he’s all warm and snuggly from sleep. And since I don’t yet have a man I can wake up to for a hug and a kiss, a dog will have to do. 😉

4 – The best thing I smelled today was bags of coffee beans as I walked through the grocery store.

I don’t drink coffee too often, but I adore the smell of it. It’s one of the best smells, in my opinion.

5 – One of the memories I’m most grateful for is receiving my Bachelor’s degree.

Sometimes, it still blows my mind that I did it. I know, it happened over two years ago but sometimes, I sit back and reflect on all it took to get me where I am today. It’s crazy I am in this period of my life – in my twenties, figuring out my career, and finished with all my schooling. I feel so grateful I was able to go to get my degree and that all the hard work paid off. The night of my graduation is my most treasured memory.

6 – Thank goodness someone taught me how to develop systems for working.

I had a wonderful mentor at my last job, my boss. I came into that job as a green college grad, and my only experience in a work environment was an internship at a theater (but even then, I was out canvassing more than I was in the office). My boss would continually stress about finding my way to work, to find my own system for getting things done. And it took me a while, but I found my way. I developed checklists and to-do lists and my own way of working. Some of them, I adopted from my boss, and some I developed on my own.

I’m seeing how useful this is in my job now, especially as my workload increases and I’m finding myself needed to implement systems to get things done. I’m definitely a systems girl now, thanks to my boss.

What ability are you most grateful for? What has made you smile today?