Taking invading my personal space to a whole new level

I arrived home from a long hard day at work last night to be slapped with the reality that some people don't work for a living, they chose to take from people that do. During the only hour that my house was empty three men seized the opportunity to break in and steal from me.

They entered through my brothers room but ended up finding what they were looking for in my room. Though everyone in the house in understandably shaken by this sever invasion of privacy I can't help but feel targeted because the bulk of the items taken were mine. At this point I'm done being nervous, I'm no longer shaken, I've escalated to extremely pissed off. However, I am grateful that more was not taken, that nothing irreplaceable is gone and no one was physically hurt. I just wish that more people were honest, upstanding citizens.

Thanks to eye witnesses at several residences that were burglarized yesterday the police do have some leads. It would be nice to get my stuff back, but at this point I would rather just see these scumbags taught a lesson. In the mean time I just need to focus on explaining to my hotheaded ex-marine brother that street justice is not the route to take and stop my mother from banning all non residence from the house and putting bars on the windows.

Thanks, assholes.

Absolutely Facinating

Have you heard about the Day Zero Project?

If not you can learn more about it here. I've recently decided to opt in to this. There's a button on the side if you'd like to follow my progress but I'm sure I'll be blogging like crazy about it. I don't like the way the site isn't letting me organize all the tasks I've put up there so I've categorized all of them below. I'm not expecting anyone to read through all of them I just need them organized somewhere.

My completion date is August 8, 2014.

There are no words for how excited I am about this.


Holiday
Make a birthday cake for a friend
Try two new cookie recipes this Christmas
Start a holiday tradition
Go through a corn maze
Host a murder mystery party
Send Christmas cards
Stay up and watch the sunrise on New Years
Build a snow man
Make a snow angel
Have a snowball fight

Food
Host a dinner party
Try 5 new foods
Have dinner by candelight
Go vegetarian for a month
Make a custom recipe book
Make homemade bread
Stop drinking booze for a month
Eat only raw food for a day
Eat a raw diet for one week
Don't eat chocolate for a week
Don't drink soda for a week
Eat Vegan for a weekend
Learn to eat with chop sticks
Eat at 10 new resturants
Make my own beef jerky
Try a new recipe each month
Bake a cake for someone (for no reason)
Open a cookbook to a random page and make whatever it on it
Take a cooking class

Exercise
Go to a yoga class
Run a half marathon
Get to my ideal weight
Do the 200 sit-ups challenge (www.twohundredsitups.com)
Be able to do 100 push-ups
Wake up early every day for 5 days and go for a run
Complete a 5k run
Quit smoking for a month
Participate in some kind of dance class
Run a mile
Join a gym


Technology
Attend the midnight premiere of a movie
See a drive-in movie
Not log into facebook for a whole week
Sing karakoe at a bar
Learn how to drive a stick shift
Watch casablanca
Go electronic free for a weekend (no cell, tv, internet, computer)
Go a week with no cellphone, computer or TV
Listen to 5 DVD commentaries
Host a movie marathon


Books
Read 100 books (Sign up for goodreads.com and keep rack of books read)
Find 10 books that inspire me
Keep a diary for a year
Read Catch 22
Read 5 classic books


Nature
Carve my name on a tree
Hug a tree
Spend an entire day naked
Go barefoot for an entire day
Visit a botanical garden
Visit a national park
Watch the sunrise on a beach
Go camping for a weekend
Visit a planetarium
Go on a hike

Travel
Take a road trip with friends
Visit Washington, CD
Meet an online friend in person
Travel somewhere by train
Go on a travel holiday or cruise

Love
Donate Blood
Become a bone marrow donor
Get certified in CPR
Visit a dentist
Floss every day for a month
Complete a 365 day photo challenge
Answer the "50 Questions That Will Free Your Mind"
Take care of my skin
Spend the night in a blanket fort
Move into my own apartment
Get professional photos done
Get professional black & white boudoir photos done
Pay for someone's order behind me in line
Buy someone flowers
Write a love letter to my husband (boyfriend)

Pampering
Get a pedicure
Get my eyebrows waxed

Art
Find a personally inspirational quote and work it into a piece of art or home decor
Write a short story
See a play/musical
Paint a canvas
Go to shakespear in the park
Complete a cross stitch project
Make my own board game
Take a picture for each letter of the alphabet from the nature
Learn how to knit or crochet
Finish my tattoo

Money
Save $10 for every task I complete
Go a month without buying anything that isn't a necessity
Sell something on ebay or craigslist
Cut my debt by 1/3

Come on, get happy!

Since it's Monday and most people don't like Mondays I've decided to refocus to things that make me happy instead of dwelling on the long week that's stretched out in front of me.

So here we go, 5 things that are making me happy right now.

Cuddles

The weather is a little bit colder, the flannel sheets are on the bed and even though there's been a fight over the thermostat I can always open my window. Apparently The Big Cheese (my father) is part polar bear and I inherited his sleeping habits.

One of the nice things about this is that The Beef is also big into cuddling, so even if he's just woken up, looked at the clock and realized he's horribly late for work I still get my morning cuddles right before he goes zooming around the house getting ready to leave.

Singing

I love singing though even when drinking I still don't have the courage to do it in front of anyone. I'm pretty sure I make Marla Hooch sound like a choir of angles when I open my mouth to belt out a tune. That doesn't matter though b/c if I'm alone in my car or hanging out with The Beef and something I know the words to comes on, away I go. One of my most favorite times to start yowling away is when he's designated driving me home from the bar, not a care in the world, I control the ipod and I'm putting on a hell of a show.

Pinterest

If you don't know what pinterest is you're really missing out. It's a magical place where you can collect all of the things you like on the internet. If you want to save tips or pictures on organization, cooking, wardrobe, interior decorating, crafting, it is your one stop shop. I'm real not sure how I ever managed to live without it. Oh yeah, I book marked the hell out of everything and never went back to it...

Slippers

I hate socks. I think they're evil. I can't stand wearing them but sometimes it's necessary. On the other hand I love my slippers. It's cold enough now to run around the house in them without looking like a crazy person and you can believe that the very minute I get home the socks are gone and the slippers are on. So heavenly...

Christmas

I know I know, it's a bit early for this. Most of my friends are in the one holiday at a time camp and think it's way too early for this but I don't care. I've already been bumping the holiday tunes in the car (and singing my heart out) and planning my decorations this year. No offense to Thanksgiving but my favorite part about it is that that's the night The Big Cheese turns on his insane front lawn Christmas decorations. Everything is bright and shiny, why would you want to wait to celebrate all of that?

What's making you happy right now?

Plaid Squares!

Something I love very much is plaid. I lucked out in that the beef is just as big a fan as I am. I was doing a test run of something I'd like to do as Christmas presents this year and ended up liking my practice run so much I made another one and they both now hang in our bedroom.

Since I didn't know I'd be blogging about the project I didn't take step by step pictures. None the less I'll try to describe the process as accurately as I can.

What you need to do it the way I did it:
Canvas
Square piece of fabric big enough to stretch over the canvas
8 1/2" x 11" piece of freezer paper
81/2" x 11" piece of regular paper
Scotch tape
A piece of cardboard
Computer/Printer
X-acto knife
Iron/Ironing board
Spray paint
newspaper

Step by step.

Chose the word or phrase that you want on your finished project.
Type it in to a word program in the format that you desire.
Using the tape attatched the two pieces of paper together before you feed them into the printer. Arrange the paper so that the words will be printed on the dull side of the freezer paper. Putting the freezer paper on the regular paper will stop it from jamming in the printer.
Print out your words and then cut them out with the x-acto knife.
Place the cardboard under the paper so you don't cute whatever surface you're using.
Remember to leave bridges on any of the letters that need them. (O's, A'S, e's etc) these will be removed later, for now if you don't do this then the letters will have big holes in them.
Once the phrase is cut out line up the freezer paper on the fabric.
Once the placement is to your liking iron the paper to the fabric, this will make it stick.
Once the paper is firmly in place you can cut out the bridges.
Iron the paper again to make sure the little pieces are in place, you may need to arrange them.
Bring the fabric/paper to a well ventilated area, cover the fabric that is exposed outside of the freezer paper with newspaper so it doesn't get paint on it.
Spray paint the freezer paper/fabric with as many layers as you deem necessary.
When the pain is dry peel off the freezer paper and remove the areas left by the bridges.
Staple the fabric to the canvas, and ta-dah! You're done.

Here are the two that I made.

 

Hello Autumn?

A couple of weeks ago the beef and I decided it was autumn and we should start acting like it so we went on a little adventure.

First stop was to a local orchard where we picked up cider, apples and the oh so heavenly pumpkin butter.

Next we decided to go for a hike at a local state park that has a castle, but along the way we kept seeing signs for this antique tractor show. I'm kind of a tractor nerd so we just had to stop. It was pretty cheesy but I loved the heck out of it.

After getting my fill of tractor cheese we decided we were hungry and happened upon an adorable little road side shack that specializes in gloriously greasy burgers. Certainly not something I would do every day but certainly nice to quell any junk food craving and absolutely excusable right before a hike. Also, they had birch beer, that always clinches the deal for me. ;)

After enjoying our food we headed up to the park for the castle tour. The views of the Connecticut River were amazing.

The castle tour didn't allow flash photography so my pictures all stuck but this one of the outside should be enough to display the awesomness.

Once that was over we decided to go exploring the grounds. We didn't get terribly far because the weather decided it wasn't quite fall after all and my sweater was suddenly impractical. Also I had some clunky shoes on that look like they might but good for hiking but that is a lie. Still it was fun to run around the woods with the beef and take silly pictures.

It really was a perfect not quite fall day. :)

House stuff.

Another big change in my life is where I live. Earlier this year it became clear to me that staying in my old beloved apartment just wasn't going to work out. I sucked up my pride and for the first time in 7 years I found myself living back at home.

I'm not an overly religious person but sometimes wonder if there isn't something to that whole "the lord works in mysterious ways" mantra. Shortly after I moved home my mother became ill and my presence here was desperately needed. I'm happy to say she's full recovered and doing well now but that really was an important time for me.

It seemed like a hell of a mess at the time but looking back I can see that all that craziness was necessary. It allowed me to have a purpose for being back home instead of feeling sorry for myself and it was during that time that I started to suspect that my friendship with the beef (still friendship at this point) was more meaningful than I'd originally thought (we know how that turned out). It also allowed me a small bit of comfort and sanity when work was at it's worse.

During the height of my mothers illness when I was taking care of the house all by myself the beef moved in to help out. It worked out so well my mother asked him to stay. We were still getting used to each other and having him around as a buffer was a bigger help than anyone of us could have ever dreamed of. In the months that have passed we've all settled into a comfortable routine.

Things got even more interesting about a month ago when my little brothers time in the USMC was over and he came home. So now it's the four of us living here. It's been another readjustment period but for the time being it's comforting to be around so much family again, who knows when this will ever happen again.

The beef and I have been talking about moving on and the decision has been made to save up some extra money while we wait for me to finish class and get a new job. My employment options will be much less limited if we don't have to worry about the driving distance.

I currently have a 15 minute commute to work, we could move even closer than we are now but with some of that options available to me (the connections I have at school make my current residence the center point from which all employment options spiral out) that could leave with me an hour commute. I'm not really up to that with the snow storm we just had fresh in my mind. So we're patiently waiting for the job situation to straighten itself out before the housing one does.

I'm not going to lie, not being able to decorate my own place for Christmas this year is kind of a bummer but on the other hand having my mom handy to help me with all of my Christmas crafting is a really decent trade off. :)

Candles!!

Maybe I'm a fire bug but I really love candles. I always have one burning in my room. I don't love all candles though, maybe I'm a bit of a candle snob.

When I can I find myself the big over priced ones, usually from yankee candle. I'm really picky about the scent. I don't like candles that smell floral in anyway or ones that are citrus. Typically I like warm mellow scents. Usually these come in the form of food scents. I absolutely love food scents.

Every season I gravitate towards a certain scent and if I can manage that is the only one I use until the season changes. For instance this summer the scent of my choice was peach. Currently, and this should come as no surprise to anyone who knows me, my room smells of pumpkin. I've had some medical expenses recently so I had to get the Walmart candles for this one but because of the price difference I was able to stock up and I'm actually very pleased with the quality of scent, I just feel like they don't burn as long as the pricier ones.

I did also go out on a limb and bring home an apple pie candle and a creme brule candle but I'm still on the fence about those. I suppose there really is no competing with pumpkin.

I know for the last few years my winter scent has been Christmas cookie, if memory serves me correctly I really stocked up last year so if I can find the boxes I stored them away in I won't be needing to buy candles for a while. That really is my favorite scent ever and I know it's super predictable, it's a lot of peoples favorite scent, but it reminds me of growing up so much that I don't even care.

Are you a candle person? What scents do you like?

Work Stuff.

Another big change that caused my abandonment of the blog was my job situation. My office job had to let me go because of the economy and I went "full time" at the mall. What that actually means is that they had me there like a full time employee because they knew I needed the money but because they are shiesty I didn't get benefits and every so often my hours would drop. I was promoted to a management position which gave me more money but also added to my stress level. It stayed like that for almost an entire year and got worse every second.

We went though 5 store managers and countless employees. Describing it as hell on earth would be an understatement. Due to my incredible work ethic and the lack of other employment options I allowed myself to become their bitch. During that time I did manage to learn a lot about the business, the public at large and myself.

I know now that I'm much stronger than I ever gave myself credit for. I've never been more miserable in my entire life. I would come home almost every night surrounded by a little doom cloud of stress that I just couldn't seem to shake. It got so bad that several time the beef offered to support me financially while I looked for another job. I stuck to my guns though and eventually found another job that allowed me to leave the mall.

I work at a spa now, which just by it's nature is a much more relaxing. The people I work with are a lot nicer and the bosses are actually humane. I'm extremely happy at work now, succeeding, making friends and when I come home at night I'm smiling.

The spa is just a temporary stop though, something to keep my sanity in the mean time. I've been taking CNA classes and I'm scheduled to take the state certification test in December. From there I'm hoping to move into the health care field. I've always had an inclination towards that area and I feel like now is as good a time as any to get started.

No matter what happens right now as far as work stuff is concerned I could not be happier. :-D

Man stuff.

One of the many reasons that I stopped blogging was because my relationship ended. I feel like that's a very sensitive time. Emotions run high, everything gets confusing, and people say things they don't mean. I had several other stressful things going on as well and I just didn't feel like airing my thoughts out into the unknown was a very wise decision.

I'm really glad that I made that decision because as emotional I know I can be I'm quite certain that anything I would have penned at 2am after a cocktail or two would be cringe worthy.

I did come back to the blogging world for a short while though. I started a new blog documenting my adventures into the dating world for the first time as an adult. It was short lived though, not because I found prince charming, but because I became paranoid someone I'd written about would come across it. It wasn't a mean blog, just very honest and even if someone was a total creep I didn't want to be the one to tell them.

Here are some highlights b/c I'm sure that last paragraph made you curious.
There was the guy who dropped the L-bomb on date #2.
Then the guy who gushed about how much his mother would love me before the food arrived on our 1st and only date.
And finally the one who postponed our date b/c he spend all his cash the night before drinking with his buddies only to reschedule b/c he sold some guns to round up the money to take me out.

Basically, it's a jungle out there and I'm happy to say I no longer need to brave it.

So what happened to me? Well, my happily ever after came in the form of my eyes finally being opened to what's been right in front of me on and off for the last 15 years. I'm happy to have fallen head over heels for the boy who made fun of me in 6th grade English. Thankfully, we've both matured a bit since then.

My new smart phone decided to bestow him with a nickname via the auto correct feature. As I'd tried to type "the bf" my phone thought it was smarter than me and changed it to "the beef". Speedy little typer that I am I didn't even notice the change and sent it that way. He's been known as The Beef ever since.

In my humble opinion I think that as the unit we're the bees knees. I'm always telling him how cool I think we are (usually after catching and throwing something to each other and then followed by a high five). In my families opinion he's about the best thing that could ever happen to me and if the chatter of those around us is to be taken into account apparently we're extremely adorable together.

I mean really, what's cuter than this?

I'm sure you'll be hearing an awful lot about it in the blogs to come, stay tuned. :)

Awwww Snap!

I feel like I need to reintroduce myself. It's been more than a year since I've updated this blog.

I can't even begin to tell you how much has changed. So I won't even try. I have tried, actually, over the last few months. I really wanted to come back here but every time I tried to write a post about everything that's gone on I became so overwhelmed that I quit.

Baby steps is the path that I have chosen.  So, for now consider this your heads up: I'm back. :)