Food and Fun!

Food and fun shared with you by pictures!

So since my dreadful last post about being miserable, I have managed to get out of the house and hang out with some pretty awesome friends of mine, while taking pictures to share with the world. So breifly, here they are.....

One night - I decided to take it upon myself to ask a bunch of friends to hangout at my other friend's house - where she has a fire most nights, along with some physically fun activities like bat mitten and volleyball. She also usually has a stocked fridge of coronas and twisted teas too! Although you can't tell in my pictures because I only took a few - all of my friends (besides one) have children. So while all us girls & (about ten of us) and James sat around the camp fire, talking shit, and reminiscing about crazy old times... we also had about ten kids (and two dogs) running around the yard like a bunch of hellians. Mind you, bat mitten is my all time favorite game to play, but as soon as the ADULTS want to play, along come the kids to take it over. We couldnt play for more than five minutes without a child running off with the "birdie." Anyways - it was a great night to catch up with friends and have a few drinks and two smores!

Another day, one of my besties {Lauren} invited me to a SUMMER BASH. Probably the b-e-s-t one that I have been to, maybe ever. Lauren and Michelle picked me up in the [cadillac escalade] packed with four adults and five kids!! We drove about 40 minutes away on a hot summer day and arrived at Dave's house. It was awesome. There was a live band, portable potties, four grills with a shit load of food, a humongous blow up slide, and games like sack in the hole, beer pong, and delicious jello shots!



While in the midst of people watching, enjoying the music, and having a BLAST... my friends (lauren, michelle and lisa lips) got WASTED. Which was fine, they told me early on that I was the "designated driver" which was okay because afterall, I didn't come prepared so had no liquor of my own, and cant stand the dreadful taste of beer. So I sucked down a few jellow shots just to relax and filled up on fruit. There was literally over fifty people there, all strangers, but we had a great time, it was a great party. When we were ready to leave I was worried about driving because the cadillac is HUGE, I am really bad at directions when it comes to highways, and all my friends were drunk! We packed the kids back in the truck and took off. I took the advice of a drunken friend and got us on the wrong highway initially, and once we got back on track I had to get off at the nearest exit because boligerant people might piss themselves! Overall, it took us about an hour to get home that night but it was well worth the craziness :)

Then lastnight was Yankee Homecoming a few towns away. It's a tradition in the town of Newburyport, Ma. where every summer in the center of town they have a ton of food vendors, leisure activites, performers, a live band, boat parade, and fireworks. Although me and the boys didn't make it till about 8pm, we got a great seat right on the boardwalk where we got to feel the ocean breeze and see the fireworks. It was also great to people watch!

Now... here it is, the last day of my "vacation" and I am watching Coraline on dvd, listening to the puppies and my husband snore beside me. It is a groggy, muggy, rainy, day and I'd much rather fold laundry and re-organize my closet than go outside in this weather. Though, I am eager to get back to work tomorrow to see my awesome co-workers and weigh in on Wednesday.

Speaking of weightloss. We did grocery shopping yesterday and for the first time in my life I skipped out on a bag of potatoes. I am a potatoe queen and it was literally like giving up heroin. I stood beside the bag of potatoes for five minutes wondering if I could go without, almost sweating with anxiety, and then in the freezer aisle (where I normally skip) I came across an already chopped bag of potatoes and I had to open and close the freezer door three times before walking away. I cook potatoes in many forms during the week - I like to cut up baby reds and throw them in the skillet with all sorts of things, mostly various veggies. In my house, we are not junk food junkies. Growing up my mother always bought snacks; ding dongs, funny bones, cookies, and ice cream. In my house we pleasure more on chips and dip and pudding. Other than that, I cannot remember the last time we had a package of cookies or ring dings in the cabinet. My guilty pleasure is CARBOHYDRATES! I love bread, I love chips, and I love potatoes! Yesterday I replaced chips with a bag of grapes, and I replaced potatoes with more fresh vegetables. I've also been struggling with finding something healthy and quenching to drink. While I have finally gone 100% at drinking water all day at work, I just cannot do it at home. I was filling up on gatorade but I am sick of it, and v8 is becoming dreadful too. So yesterday I got myself a bottle of Sprite Zero. Figured I could have a glass with my sandwiches or as a "dessert" to myself when I am craving soda. I gave up soda a few months ago cold turkey. Went from 2-3 bottles in the house a week to NONE! Also, SPINACH HAS BECOME MY FAVORITE FOOD ACCESSORY lately. It is absolutely delicious in grilled cheese and on every cold cut sandwich ever! However, it does go bad very quickly if you do not store it properly, which I havent figured out yet....

Anyways - I have to pee and pretty soon I am going to take a shower and go over to my mom's house. I decided that I need a hair cut. Quite honestly, I am very careless with my hair. I would let a homeless man on the sidewalk cut my hair if he wanted to. My hair is just so thick and grows so fast that I don't even care who messes it up, and right now Im at the point where it is even getting too heavy for a pony tail so I need a change! Pictures later in the week..... toodles :)

I Should Be...

.... Doing something else on my "mini-vacay."

Instead of sitting on my laptop and wishing that I could watch t.v. and being miserable. I'll admit we have had a hard time paying our bills. I only make a little more than minimum wage and my husband pays a shitload of child support, so we very rarely make our bills on time or have money for sweet extras. About a month ago Comcast shut off our cable & internet, because we had an outstanding bill & hadn't paid it in full yet. (We were just making enough payments to keep it on because we had other more important things to pay for.) When they did that, we were able to plug the cable directly into the t.v. so then we got atleast 10 basic channels. And I could luckily get an internet connection off a neighbor or from the wi-fi on my cell. Needless to say, I was sticking it out and trying not to bitch at my husband (or anyone else) about my miserable-ness and withdrawals from reality tv. But then..... my employer decided to switch us to EVERY 2-WEEK pay days. Which then through off my rent that was due, and my cell phone bill - so my husband had to explain to our "management" (we live in an apartment complex) why it wasnt being paid in full & then my phone got shut off. 

Last month I decided I would take some time off from work to use the rest of my vacation time. So I have 5 days off this week and was really looking forward to cleaning my house, watching tv, hanging with the dogs, working on the free layouts I owe people, going to the gym, and hanging out with friends & family. But..... comcast showed up at my door yesterday & took back my cable boxes and must have disconnected us from the pole because now I have NO cable, not even basic through the wall. My cell phone is still off and I dont have a house phone. We barely had enough money for gas last week so my truck is below empty and the "low-gas-light" is on so I cant even drive anywhere! I have not even a dollar. And it's making me really annoyed. I feel like my vacation is a waste.....

I did although, manage to get to page 88 on my work-book for my pharmacy test (which is scheduled for next month, a date I will keep secret for now) I am much smarter than I think I am. I knew practically everything up to page 88 so far. Only referencing the back for a few answers. And I only skipped one chapter which was ALOT of math, cause I need James to help me with it to understand it better. It's a bunch of equasions consisting of millileters & such.

Today, I am on day 2 of my vacation. I would really like to be hanging out with a friend, enjoying the sunshine, maybe hitting some waves, or being productive outside somewhere. But being phoneless and gasless makes it near impossible to get ahold of anyone. I've tried communicating via facebook but it's just not fast enough and my internet connection keeps going in and out. I've thought hard about throwing on some leggings and kicks and going for a LONG walk but for some reason I am just terrified. I have not become comfortable enough with myself to walk around in this neighborhood looking like a fat ass. I don't know how better to explain? When I moved away from here (my home town) and lived on the beach (an amazing tourish attraction about 20 min away) even with all the skinny bitches and all the hot men there, I felt comfortable enough to walk around in tight pants and a tank top, burning some calories. I think it was because I didnt "know" anybody and I felt like I was free to be whoever I wanted. Here, it's like everywhere I turn there is someone I know wanting to say hello and chat for a minute, or making judgements on me (probably.) Not to mention, I dont live in the "good part of town" anymore- so that leaves me aprehensive aswell. And obviously, because I could barely pay my bills this month I havent been able to afford a membership to the gym like I wanted, so that's out of the question.

Needless to say, I have been feeling down in the dumps. I haven't been able to get up and get out of the house on my own, and I haven't had the energy or the creativity to make any layouts (sorry guys.) I've been listening (not even watching) dvd's because Im so fed up with not having cable, slugging around my house, cleaning up, and napping with the dogs. Maybe, just maybe.... I will go out for a walk later and take some pictures? We'll see...... that's all for now, until my next rambling.

Vacation and Weigh-In

I have the next 5 days off! Hallelujah! I am so excited! Besides the fact that I have no cable, internet, cellphone, money, or even gas in my truck..... I am blessed to be alive and will be able to sleep in and hang out with my dogs every day. I am however, scheduled to take a test in the next couple months for work, to become Nationally pharm. tech. certified..... so I will be studying for that & completing some online assesment tests to maybe further my position at my job, or atleast for someday at CVS.

I am also very heavily considering pharmacy school. Which means that first I have to stop by my local community college, talk to an advisor, take the assesment test there, and get into some classes that I need. Two years at the community college completing all the pre-reqs to get into pharmacy school and hopefully in two years I will be able to get in. Then it's another three year's in school and then making a hundred grand a year working as a pharmacist. It seems like an easy plan, but it's alot of hard work and I really need tonti just shut up and commit to this and just go do it.... I'm such a procrastanator (spelling? ) haha

Oh yes! Weigh in! I weighed in today {blah} and although I am down 1 lb from last week, I am still up 4 lbs altogether. So I will be working hard on eating very well for the rest of the month.....

Anyways - just wanted to update everyone & say hello. Those of you that I "owe free layouts to" I will be working on in my down time this week, and emailing you with details, so be patient.

Until tomorrow probably, peace out :)

{ just some throw backs incase you missed my face hehe }