34? Really?

I called my Mom on the way home as I do most evenings to discuss my day, her day, what's new; it's "our thing." She asked, "Do you feel 34?" I flippantly replied, "I don't feel a day over 25." We continued our discussion about my birthday tradition at my favorite sushi restaurant tomorrow night, my upcoming trip to Chicago this weekend to celebrate, family events, work events, etc and I didn't really think about the number attached to my age again.

But as I sit here and reflect on the last year and my Mom's question, I really don't feel 34. But how is 34 supposed to feel??? Am I suppose to feel "old?" I don't. Age is just a number. I've lived through a lot of life "stuff" that some 34 year olds have not had to deal with and I haven't experienced a lot of life "stuff" that some 34 year olds have had to deal with. When I was a little girl, I thought 34 was old and I also had an image of what I would be like at 34. Sadly and happily I haven't turned out to be the image of what my 5 year old mind envisioned.

I am not an anchorwoman for the evening news, I don't have a child, I'm not rich and I don't look like Barbie; I don't know why but for some reason at 5, I thought for sure I would have Barbie's boobs by the ripe old age of 34. My image and goals for myself have changed dramatically over the years. Some have even changed A LOT in the last 5 years; I quit a great job, went back to school, went through a divorce, decided I really didn't want children of my own, all because for once I decided to be true to me and quit pleasing everyone around me.

Here is why I do feel 34: I am ok with me, I can go to lunch by myself in a nice restaurant and have a good time, I can go out with a group of people and hold my head up because I know I am living the life I want, I have learned how to stand up for myself and speak my mind without feeling guilty, I can cook and host a great dinner with friends, I have a sense of security I have never felt, and I can look in the mirror and be proud of the woman I have become. I didn't feel this way at 30 and I love it!!!

Age is just a number. If everyone is living the life they want and not letting the small stuff get in the way of true happiness than it doesn't matter if you are 21 of 85. I can honestly say I wouldn't go back to 25 or even 30, but I wouldn't give up the lessons I learned through the years either. My life isn't perfect today, but I have all I need and a lot of what I want. I have a wonderful boyfriend who really knows me and loves me. I have a close friends that I trust explictly. I have a dog who is my "fur baby." I have a Mom who is one of my best friends. All of these things have come with time and with time comes more birthdays.

So bring on the birthdays because I don't want to miss a moment of this journey I am on. And to my 5 year old self, we may not have Barbie's boobs or be on the evening news, but we turn out pretty good and one day we'll buy those boobs.

Are you Ready for some FOOTBALL?

It's like Christmas morning at our house.  Sure we love summer, cookouts, and hot days but summer lacks one thing......FOOTBALL!!!  It has been a long 7 months as we anxiously awaited the return of Football Sunday at our home.

First of all we do Football Sunday right.  Justin and I both play fantasy football so we have a vested interest in almost all games.  Also we purchased NFL Sunday ticket last year to save money from going out every Sunday and spending way too much money on food and beer.  We have 2 big screen televisions set up in our living room; no doubt I'm a huge fan to allow that, huh?  We usually watch Red Zone on one and a game of our choice on the other.   I always cook some good "football food"; today is going to be jamabalaya.  When we go to Chicago next weekend, we will stock up on all the fixins to do real Chicago dogs.....YUM-O!

So put on your favorite jersey, pop open a beer, cook some good food and enjoy the day with those you love!

Bear, Bears and Prawns

I am in the midst of a four day weekend.  WHOOHOOO!!! Due to my odd work schedule, I work 4 tens every other week and have Friday off.  Also when I have to work a Saturday I get another day off throughout the week; working next Saturday = OFF ON MONDAY!!!  Now, I am loosely using the word off because I am helping my "person" (aka Stacy / best friend) with childcare for her almost 4 year old little boy Charlie (Bear).  I spent the day with him Friday; Jacobson Park, swimming, riding his bike, and answering non-stop questions.  I know he had to have asked "why" at least 403 times in 8 hours.  Since I probably won't be having kids of my own, this little guy truly has a piece of his Sissy's heart.  I'm thinking tomorrow we may check out Monkey Joes or the Explorium.

As of Friday evening we didn't have a/c again; third time this summer.  A little over $350 spent and it is now cool again.  We know we have to buy a new unit, we are just trying to milk every last drop out of this one before we pay an arm, a leg, and possibly a finger or two for the next one. 

We watched Da Bears preseason game with one of Justin's good friends last night.  Although the Raiders won it was still good to see football again! 

I'm now in the midst of laundry.  It never ceases to amaze me the amount of laundry 2 adults can produce.  I just don't know how some of my friends with 2 and 3 kids keep up with it.  Justin is outside edging and eventually I have to head out and help him trim some trees, but for the moment I'm certainly enjoying this a/c.

This evening we are going to chill out, grill some yummy prawns and just be.  I have to rest up for my play date tomorrow.  Hope all is well with each one of you.  Make time for a little bit of fun and laughter today.  I just read a quote on my Mom's Facebook page and I loved it, it is from Danny Kaye....."Life is a great big canvas you should throw all the paint on it you can."  I think I'm going to ask myself every day if I'm throwing enough paint on my canvas, how about you?

Uncle!!!

I am simply done for the moment.  I normally don't write blogs complaining about my job, my life, etc because all in all I am blessed.  I look at all the heartache those I love have had to endure in the past year and I have no right to complain.

But today I am having "one of those days!"  I'm pissed, I'm bitchy, and  I really don't like people.  There, I said it, I don't like people today!!!  I have one more hour left at work and I'm just sitting here hoping a student doesn't come to the office wanting to know where his or her "surplus" (refund) money is......for the love of all things holy, please don't let this happen.  I can't promise you that I won't answer with bodily harm. 
I won't go into other details of my job as a financial aid officer, but lets just say.....it sucks today!

I'm also sad for close family members who lost their Mom / Grandmother today. I hurt with them because I know what it is like to bury your last living grandparent; a piece of your past, your history, dies too.  All in all I am irritable, cranky and sad....not a good combination.

Tomorrow is a new day and it will be better.  Did you hear that Universe?  Tomorrow WILL be better.

 

Catching Up

It has been way too long since I have taken the time to sit down and blog a little. We have been busy! We had a wonderful 4th of July with the "usual suspects"; our friend Chris put on a fireworks show for our friend's kids and the entire neighborhood. It is such a blessing to have close friends like we do. It is simply easy to throw together a gathering because everyone helps and we just enjoy being around one another.

The weekend after the 4th Mom and I took off on our Annual Mother / Daughter Long Weekend. This year we chose Tybee Island / Savannah because I had never been to Savannah. I look forward to this weekend with my Mom all year. It is our time to catch up; even though we talk almost every day on the phone. We relax and just enjoy each other's company. It's easy when your Mom is one of your best friends.

Tybee Island was wonderful. It is a small island, family friendly, with great local seafood shacks, and a true island feel. I would love to go back, rent a house, and spend a week. We went to Savannah Saturday night and lucked into seeing the real Lady Chablis. If you don't know who she is, read or watch Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. She was fabulous. Sunday was also spent in Savannah and one word describes the day; H-O-T!!! We braved the hinges of hell and spent the day soaking up the history of Savannah and the excellent food. As usual our trip was perfect. By the way, it is easy to have perfect trips when you travel as we do; no real plans, only ideas and let each day take you to where it leads you.

Tomorrow we are off the Hullabaloo at Churchill Downs for a day of bands! Thanks to my co-worker, Amy "Radio" Smith, for winning me the tickets.  Amy can and will win you any tickets a radio station is giving away; its kind of her thing.  Even though tomorrow is a lot of country bands (Kenny Chesney and Jason Aldean), Justin has agreed to come along.....I'm sure there will be a later post involving his participation in a country concert.

Hope you all have a great weekend.  Take time to slow down and enjoy!!!

Hot Water

First words I hear this morning as Justin is leaving to teach class were, "Baby, I need you to go ahead and get up and start calling plumbers, we have no hot water and the hot water heater is leaking." Great, we just purchased a fridge and dishwasher two weeks ago and now this??? So I got out of bed, got some coffee down me and started calling random plumbers on a Saturday morning. Initially, I spoke to no one, just left voicemails or messages with call centers. Eventually I started receiving return calls and one thing was evident most plumbers did NOT want to work today.

Here is a brief synopsis of what I learned today:

1) 80 gallon hot water heaters are not cheap; I was thinking a couple hundred bucks.....wrong!
2) All plumbers think Whirlpool and GE water heaters you can purchase at Lowe's or Home Depot are crap and highly suggest you buy a "professional" one.
3) Most plumbers don't keep stock in hot water heaters and most plumbing supply stores are closed on Saturday.
4) The one company who had one in stock and could install today was going to charge $1600 + $79 Saturday fee for the heater and installation. Are you freaking kidding me???? My car wasn't much more than that, granted I drive a 2001 Cavalier, but damnnnnnnn!
5) Always do your own research so you know exactly how much you are really spending on the heater and the labor. I found out we could purchase and have a "professional" heater shipped to us for around $650......so we would be paying $1000 for installation???? (See lesson #4 above)
6) Ask for what you want, you may get it.
7) Called back plumber with the $1600 "company quote" and told him about my online research, he suggested I call the one supply company open for 45 more minutes and see if they had what I needed in stock. SCORE!!!!
8) Met Justin, purchased and picked up water heater, called above plumber and made a deal about a "side job"......must learn to speak in code at this point in the game. Plumber is currently here installing the new water heater at $150 discount than what his company would have charged.
9) Do your own research, ask for what you want, use your common sense and in the end save over $800.
10) I may want to reconsider my accounting profession; these plumbers are making the jack. But then again, I don't really want sewage as a daily job hazard.


Even with all the stress and cost of today, at least we were able to do it and that's the blessing. I may get a shower in a few hours too.

Who Needs Diamonds?

We hopped in Clyde, our F-150, yesterday with expectations of finding a new dishwasher. First of all, yes ALL of our vehicles have names; "Hawn" is my old 2001 trusty Cavalier, the "Tick" is Justin's Toyota Yaris, "Daisy" is our fun, old, CJ-7 Jeep, and then "Clyde" is our workhorse. Anyway, we headed off to Lowe's to purchase a dishwasher and "look" at new refrigerators. We spent about a hour perusing the appliances, asking tons of questions, and debating the pros and cons of purchasing both. We have a major space issue in relation to the fridge though.....33inches is the MAXIMUM width to fit in the pre-exisiting hole unless I choose to not have an oven or a pantry and well.....I NEED both of those. Lowe's just didn't have a fridge that met our wants and needs. So we hopped back into Clyde and kept looking. Home Depot, horrible layout and not ONE fridge in stock to meet our space issue. Pieratts, we'll be back one day when money isn't an option and we can have our dream Electolux or Thermador kitchen. HH Gregg......ahhhhh, I love you.

We walked into HH Gregg and within 5 minutes had found TWO 33 inch fridges with bottom freezer and we had our choice of manufacturers. Oh, and they had the dishwasher we wanted too; that is what we were shopping for right? They were willing to price match on the needed dishwasher and the fridge was on sale!!! One trip home to measure the height of the available space for the fridge and we were the proud owners of not one, but TWO new appliances.

Now....delivery. They could deliver on a Sunday, score!!! However, the people who deliver and hook-up the dishwasher don't work on Sundays, bummer!!! I look at Justin, a mechanic in a previous career, and say, "How hard can it be to hook-up a dishwasher? It's a water line, a drain, and electric?" After about 15 minutes of debate regarding installing the dishwasher ourselves, I have completely gotten John, our salesman, on my side and we leave with delivery scheduled for today.

So this is how our day unfolded: delivery at 11:00 a.m., refrigerator installed without a hitch, delivery men leave and forget old dishwasher they were suppose to take with them, call back to them and they say they'll come back for old dishwasher, trip to Lowe's for new water line and other "necessary" parts for dishwasher installation, dishwasher installed, dishwasher not installed, Justin throws screwdriver, Justin punches cabinet, problems addressed, dishwasher installed and all is well again in our little world 3 hours later.




Who needs diamonds? I couldn't be happier with my new "sparkly" kitchen appliances. Oh yea, and the old dishwasher is still sitting in our driveway.......

Summertime at Our Home

Our summer has started out typical for us. Buffett concert with Stacy and Mom, Memorial Day cookout with friends, all dinners cooked on the grill, bonfires in the fire pit, hot humid Kentucky evenings spent talking about the day and of course, our annual visit from the A/C repairman. We have a geo-thermal unit that is on its last leg and we keep putting off replacing it due to the $15K cost; unless you have an extra fifteen thousand in the bank then you understand.







Justin is getting ready to start a new job and is really excited. Although he liked his current job this one offered an opportunity to broaden his skill set and make a little more dough :-) I'm so proud of him for always wanting to do better for himself, me and our little family. I never knew I could be so blessed in a relationship until J. Its really something when you fall in love with your best friend.




We are going to hang out tonight with cold beer, baby back ribs on the grill, and good conversation. There truly is no place I enjoy more than our home on a summer night. For years I thought so many other things would make me happy; more money, a better job, a child, etc. And all it takes now is our home, our big baby Zeek, and my "spousal equivalent." Life is good.

I am trying to blog more often to exercise my writing skills. One of my favorite authors, Jen Lancaster, says if you want to be a writer then write! So this blog has the following purposes for me: to keep family and friends up to date, to allow me an outlet to vent, and to hone my writing skills. Bare with me people, the blog will improve.....maybe.

So raise your wine glass, your beer or your Diet Coke and Cheers to Summer! I love hot, humid days......now that our A/C is fixed.

Oh yea, we get to go to Lowe's tomorrow and buy a new dishwasher; when it rains it pours. But the blessing is we CAN go to Lowe's and buy one and that is more than a lot of people have. I'm trying hard to find the blessings and gratitude even in the stresses of our life. Our little world is a happy place to be.

Second Chances

I've decided to give blogging another shot. I enjoyed it before, but never took the time to develop any mad blogging skills; I just rambled about our latest adventures or nothing at all. Anyway, my life path has changed again......funny, how it NEVER stays the same, huh? But, how freakin' boring would that be?

I attempted to open a restaurant with a crook. And no that is NOT suppose to read cook. Part of the deal was I would receive a salary as general manager, but receive 25% ownership of the restaurant via the sweat equity I was putting into this endeavor. Well after working 3 months with no salary as general manager, seeing how the crook truly had no clue what he was doing, having to answer to vendors regarding the "rubber checks" they were given, I decided I should cut my loses and move on. So I resigned without ever having earned one single dime. However,during those months I learned a lot about me, about opening a business, and what I was and was not willing to endure for a paycheck and I can't put a money value on those lessons. By the way, the crook had to close the doors about a month after I cut my ties.

I am now a Financial Planning Coordinator at a local private university. In a nutshell, I figure out how students are going to pay for their college. Sometimes it is rewarding, sometimes it mundane, sometimes I am not challenged, sometimes it is entertaining, but an employee benefit is we receive free tuition...enough said, huh?

Anyway I intend on using this blog to get back in touch with the writer within me, stay in touch with family and friends, and maybe touch someone's heart or at the least their funny bone.