A new start!

Where to begin??

I've since left Cincinnati and recently moved to the Dallas, TX area for a new job! Nick is actually still living in Cincy with his daddy because I'll be traveling a lot my first year or so for work. I'm still working with OnBase and I'll have a lot more responsibility which is nice, yet kind of nerve-wracking.

I'm loving living down here so far...my new digs are nice, comfortable, decently price and close to work but not too close. It's been fun exploring the city - finding quirky restaurants to try, the awesome farmers market downtown and the aquarium. I do get a little homesick for Ohio though sometimes, mostly I miss all my friends back in Ohio and I miss Bubba. :(

On the personal front, I met a new guy and he's awesome! He's got a really twisted sense of humor but that's the norm for folks in his profession. I love it though, lol. We've been dating for a little over 10 months now. He works in law enforcement (LE) and he's based out in DC. It's been an interesting, a little crazy, but awesome ride! Things have gotten pretty serious too. It's all good!

That's pretty much it for now... Continue reading >>

I'mmmm baaaccckkk! Man, it's been awhile, hasn't it? Over a year, eh? Lots of things have happened - opportunities have ended while others have opened...

More details to come!







Later, when I get home from work! :p Continue reading >>

And so the journey begins...

After a couple of days to think upon what has transpired in my life, I've identified some things that I need to work on. Mainly building self confidence. What is self confidence anyways? Whatever it is, I'd like to have bucketfuls of it, please.

I don't have much of it and I don't think I've ever had a whole lot of it. I guess some of that stems from how I grew up in the environment I grew up in. Now don't get me wrong as I'm not hating on my parents or anything like that. It is what it is.

I've been doing some reading on the Intrawebs on building self-confidence and stumbled upon this fabulous blog article on 25 killer actions to boost your self-confidence from Zenhabits. It's looking at the positives and having a belief in yourself that you can do whatever it is that you want to do.

Quite the attitude shift. Kind of daunting from a gal who had always focused on the negative. Thankfully, self confidence is something that can be learned/grown/cultivated/whatever. Baby steps.

Here's a quote that I came across yesterday that really resonated with me.

I don't want to leave any darkness behind me. I think we should all have a responsibility not to affect people in a negative way.

Continue reading >>

Untitled

**Ultra personal journaling ahead for the next 5000 miles**

I don't even know how to start this...

Eric & I have split up. We've been split up for the past 3 weeks, but we're still living together because it's what works and honestly I can't afford to move out. It's effin complicated.

I've never been one to share with the world my inner dialogue. This along with a constantly waffling between wanting/not wanting to be a mommy and an outrageous addiction to shopping has caused me to hit abso-effing-lutely rock bottom. It has (or will) cost me tons not only in the $$ department but also in the relationship (or lack thereof) department. It all came to a head last night as he couldn't take it anymore. An ultimatum was given, essentially grow-up or GTFO! No where else to go but up, right?

So here I am, stressed out beyond belief, depressed as all get out and rambling on. I need to get this stuff out or I'm just going to shut down permanently. Journaling seemed like the best thing to do as I'm more comfortable writing all this stuff out instead of talking to someone about it. Logging my moods, inner monologue and the long hard road. So, Welcome to my effed up world. Pull up a chair and hold on, it's gonna be an ultra bumpy ride.

There is a plan in motion to pay off my debt, a la Dave Ramsey. Nobody believes that I'll do it. Fine, I get that. If you don't have anything nice/encouraging/supportive to say, then don't please don't say anything at all. I wanted to take care of this before tackling the other stuff but the gauntlet has been thrown down.

As for the ultimatum, I don't know what to do. I know I don't want to be alone. I've hurt Eric horribly, lost his trust, etc. Honestly, he is an amazing guy who stuck it out for 5+ years and in the end, trying to help in all the ways he knew how but couldn't take it anymore because it was killing him emotionally/physically. I really, really effed everything up. Seriously effed everything up. I was incredibly stupid. My parents think I'm incredibly stupid. His mom thinks I'm incredibly stupid.

I am scared shitless.

I've been neglecting my jewelery making & Etsy shop.

I haven't skated or played hockey in 3+ years.



My god, I need a beer. And a double shot of Tequila. Stat.




Eff Mondays.

Continue reading >>

Back from the dead! The Jackets are in!!

Back from the dead! Been busy with the roller coaster that is life...good things & bad things. Such is life.

My boys have clinched a spot in the NHL Stanley Cup Play-offs!! After 8.5 years of ups & downs, the Columbus Blue Jackets have finally made it to the post season. And how sweet it is!

Our young captain, Rick Nash, scored the game tying goal last night to take the game against the Chicago Blackhawks into OT. Defenseman Fedor Tyutin scored the lone shootout goal to clinch the win and the play-off spot.

A picture is worth a thousand words...


Woohoo!! Continue reading >>

19 Days until Spring!

I'm ready! Are you ready for Spring?

19 days until it is officially Spring! :)

It sure doesn't look nor feel like it here in the Southwestern corner of Ohio. We're still getting the typical dreary cloudy days of winter but the sun is making an effort here and there to shine! Temps this morning were in the teens. Looking ahead for the next couple of days, we'll peak at 60 degrees on Friday and then cool off in the low 40s by next Weds.

It's getting there though!

I love going hiking & camping during the spring, especially during the melt as the streams & rivers are gushing with melt water. There's still a little ice along the banks and you can see the little green buds of fresh growth peaking out from the ground and the surrounding trees. It's still a little nippy in the morning, but it's a refreshing kind of nippy. You know you have a little longer before the bugs show up...a little calm before the storm per se. :)

Actually, we've got a family trip planned in May to do a little camping down by Mammoth Caves in Kentucky. We've invited our parents and siblings! It should be a good time!

What do you like to do during the spring? Have anything fun planned?
Continue reading >>

Catching up with old friends!

I had the wonderful opportunity today to catch up with some old friends of mine from the zoo. We spent time catching up on what everyone was up to nowadays as well as going back down memory lane and reminiscing about the good old days at the Columbus Zoo. :)

Perhaps a little background for y'all?

My mom had signed me up as a teenage volunteer at the Columbus Zoo when I was in high school. Little did she know what kind of monster she was unleashing...heh. I spent an awesome 4 years spending my summers at the zoo helping out in the depts I was assigned. You know all that fun stuff - cleaning, manning the yard at the children's zoo, cleaning, face painting, cleaning & more cleaning. It was not glamorous at all but I loved it! Soon I spent most of my time with the Shows department, cleaning out cages, cutting up produce, watching the hawk weathering yard and other small jobs. The end of my senior year, I had hit the age cap for being a Zooaide, but I didn't want to leave.

I eventually got hired on full time and spent my first 1 1/2 working the front gate & parking. Then I went to talk to the Shows supervisor. Sent in my resume and interviewed. Got hired on and spent the next couple of years working in the Shows dept. while going to school at Ohio State.

Man, were those days crazy & chaotic but unforgettable!

Good times!
Continue reading >>

Been MIA!

Sorry I've been away and not posting. I've just felt very uninspired and lazy these past days. The Etsy shop has been equally neglected as well. Haven't really made any new jewelery pieces for a couple weeks. I'm totally in a jewelery making rut...oy. How do you go about sparking the ol' creative juices again?

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

Although I've gotta confess...I've been feeding my inner computer nerd and have been working on a new blog design. I didn't want to use one of those free templates that one can find on the web. I wanted to stretch the old noodle and make one from scratch. :) Learning about CSS and XML...

Here's a little preview of my new design...


Whatcha think?

I've been developing over at my test blog and I'm still tweaking things here and there, but it's almost done!

If you wanna try your hand at creating your own Blogger template, check out BloggerBuster! Amanda, the head chica over there, has written some fabulous & easy to follow tutorials on creating your own Blogger template as well as other great tips and tricks for you to use for your Blogger blog!
Continue reading >>

Snowpocalypse Part II

Ugh...I just spent 2 1/2 hours on the bus ride home.

It had started to spit snow around lunch and by the time I got off of work, it was coming down at a pretty good clip. Needless to say, the bus got to the bus stop about an hour late. Traffic had slowed down to a crawl and by the time we were close, everyone was tired of being on the bus.

Oy. And I think we're supposed to get another couple of inches tonight.

I wonder if Nick's daycare will be open tomorrow. Wonder if work will be closed.

And they say that we're gonna hit 50 this weekend?



By the way, here are the pics I had promised yesterday from our little Hocking Hills excursion.

The drive out to Hocking Hills. It was gonna be a beautiful day!

The ice cone at Ash Cave. Notice the people in the pic...

Eric & Nick at Ash Cave

Frozen waterfall at the climbing area by Conkles Hollow.

Nick & I trekking back to our car...

Continue reading >>

Crazy weekend - Hocking Hills, Jackets hockey and parenting woes...

Hope everyone's weekend was delightful!

Ours started out great! Saturday morning, we went a little northeast to do a little winter hiking in the Hocking Hills region. We checked out Ash Cave and the climbing area up by Conkles Hollow. If it's been cold enough during the winter, a huge cone of ice forms at the bottom of the water fall at Ash Cave. It spits down from the top of the cave and ends in a small pool below. It'll freeze up like a faucet at top with the water dripping out over the ice cone below. It's pretty cool looking and very tempting to climb.

We haven't grabbed the pics off of our digital camera yet, so the pictures will be forthcoming this evening. ;)

There's a designated rock climbing/rappelling area in the park and we checked that out too. It's over by Conkles Hollow. There's a few waterfalls in that area too and they were nicely frozen. Although the big one was not quite ready...the top portion wasn't connected to the bottom part. It'll be another few weeks before it's climbable. With the unpredictable winters in Ohio, I wouldn't count on it coming in...

Later that night, I took Nick with me to the Blue Jackets game. The boys played hard but looked really discombobulated out there on the ice. Our goalie, Mase was pulled halfway through the first period. We ended up getting embarrassed, 7-3 by the Dallas Stars. Ugh.

It didn't help that Nick was not listening to me at all that night. He minds when Eric is around but when he's just with me...man, it's so frustrating. Needless to say we left early as Nick was getting cranky and mommy was getting super cranky. I don't know what it is but I've got to figure out my own way making him mind. Erg.

Like I said picture from our Hocking Hills excursion will be forthcoming so check back in later tonight! Continue reading >>

Crazy weather day!

What a crazy weather day!

Bucketfuls of snow this morning, about 8 inches. I ended up staying at home with Nicklaus as his daycare was closed for the day. I did log into work to check on things and everything was peachy keen.

I took a couple of pictures of our backyard this morning around 8am.

It would snow off and on all day then around 3:30pm it started to change over to sleet/freezing rain.

Eric had gone out a bit ago to carve out a snow tunnel/cave in the huge mound of snow that was piled up at the side of our driveway. It's pretty cool... :)

We just got in a few minutes ago from horsing around outside - pulling each other around on a sled, winding around the trees in the backyard & sliding down our uber icy driveway on a sled.

There's about a 1/4" of ice on everything outside and the cul-de-sac is just an ice rink. And it's still raining out there so tomorrow morning's commute is going to be a blast. :| Continue reading >>

Sore...

So last night our plans for the Mt. Washington trip were finalized...

We head out from the Cincy area after work on Friday, 2/20 and head out towards New Hampshire. We'll be picking up our friends along the way. Get into North Conway Saturday (2/21) morning, grab some breakfast, maybe grab a nap, gear up and start our summit attempt. Then drive home Sunday, the 22nd.

The mission of this crazy trip is 'Get some winter mountaineering done safely without missing a day's work." :p

I'm sore from my workout last night. It's a good sore though. I need to get in shape. To get my endurance level up. It's what killed me the last time I attempted to summit Mt. Washington.

Since it was butt cold outside, I didn't go running. Instead I did 2 sets of 40 jumping jacks with 2 sets of 10 lunge jumps. I also worked in bicep curls, dumbbell rows, the plank and a couple other free weight exercises.

I've got a little over a month to get into some sort of decent shape! Continue reading >>

Busy Weekend...

Oh what a busy weekend! How was yours?

Originally Nick & I had planned to go up to Columbus to go to the Jackets game Saturday night, but the weather was gonna be bad so I decided to stay home. The Jackets are having a promo where when you buy 4 12 packs of any Pepsi product at any Columbus Giant Eagle, you'll get a voucher for 4 free tickets to any Jackets home game until March 3rd.

Got some cleaning done, some photos redone, made some jewelery, horsed around with Nick & watched some hockey on the toob. :)


Eric was down in Louisville helping his best friend Jon move into his new digs. Jon's wife Kat accepted a position with the orchestra down there so they needed to relocate from Ft. Wayne.

Then later that night, I remembered that I was invited to a my friend Sarah's housewarming party Sunday afternoon...ack! A quick text message to Eric letting him know that I had to drive up to Cbus the next morning.

The party was a good time and Sarah's new digs are awesome! Half of a double, spacious with nice hardwood floors throughout. :) Thanks for the invite Sarah!

The drive back was fun...the weather was turning. Snow and it was blowing all around. The roads were icing up and there were SUV's blowing by at like 80+ MPH.

WTF, people?!

Do you think that because you drive a SUV with or without 4WD that you are invincible to inclement weather?

*shakes head*

Meh.

Anyways, it's cold out today and it's supposed to snow. As the week goes on, it's only going to get colder and more snowy. Yay! Winter!

I think that's the only thing I dislike about living in Ohio...unless you live up in the northern portions by Lake Erie, you really don't get a proper winter with bucketfuls of snow. You just get drab grey skies, freezing, slushy crap rain and temps hovering between 32 and 40 degrees.

Bleck. Continue reading >>

The 'Daily Brady'

Thought I'd add a new photo feature here showcasing the antics of my crazy cat, Brady. The pics will be showcased on the right side under the Followers section.

I had decided on getting a cat about 5 years ago to keep me company. I started researching the different breeds on the web and came across a relatively new breed, the Savannah. They're a cross between an African Serval and a domestic.

I was looking at a couple different breeders and they're cats and decided to go with JoyKatz based out of Texas. Joy was great to work with, such a sweetheart! Since she was moving , Brady was shipped out at 6 weeks of age instead of the normal 8 weeks that would be normal for Joy.

I was amused when the guy at the airport gave me the meowing & rocking crate of kitty. :)

5 years later, Brady has mellowed out considerably but still gets moments of craziness time to time!

Brady @ 3 weeks

Continue reading >>

The Monday after Christmas...

I hope everyone had a fabulous Christmas! Family, friends & good times. :)

First, a random funny for you all...


Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

OK, onwards to your regularly scheduled program...

Our little one, Nicklaus, made out like a bandit again this year. I finally got off my lazy arse and cleaned out his toys. There are three boxes of toys sitting in the trunk of my car that I'll be dropping off at Goodwill after work today. Somewhere out there little boys will be made happy. :)

It's a good time of year to take stock on what's happened and think about the things that you'd like to do...

• I hope to get out more, you know camping, hiking & climbing. I've been stupidly lax about it and it's actually been bumming me out. All my gear is sitting in bins in our closet gathering dust.
• Starting a 'Daily Brady' feature here on January 1st. A new picture daily of my crazy cat's antics. Just to add a little spice to this place...
• I think I'm going to look into selling my wares on 1000 Markets. I've checked the site out and signed up for an account. Just need to setup up shop. ;)
• I'm also going to explore others ways to promote my shop. I've already listed my shop in a few directories, American Craft Guide's Directory of Handcrafters and Indie Artists & The Hand Made Product Shopping Directory.
  

How about you all? What have you got planned for the new year?

Speaking of the new year...got any fun plans for New Years?

We're headed out to Ft. Wayne to attend a friends New Years party. Speaking of, I have to call my mom to see if she can watch Bubba for us... Continue reading >>

2 days until Christmas...

Are ya ready?

We are! :) I'm excited to see everyone in a few days! All the yummy food & just hanging out with everyone.

Usually our holidays are drama free but we couldn't escape it this year.

All I'm going to say is that if you want us to be somewhere on a certain day then you need to let us know in advance that that's what you'd like. Not like 3 days in advance either... Sometimes we've already made plans with the 'other side' on that day you wish us to be present and when we made those other plans, we let you know immediately that that's what we're doing.

I'm sorry but, do not get pissed at us if your memory sucks!

Meh.

Hope yours are as drama-free as possible! ;)

Now let's balance out the drama induced rant with a funny story, ya? Ya.

Last Christmas, we were at my mom's having dinner. We all had finished the main meal and it was time for desert. For some reason, my mom decided to try to make this funky fruit-cake-esque sweet rice desert thing. You know, made a big show of it & all that good jazz...

Eric, being the good future son-in-law, went to spoon some into his plate. Jeff, my younger brother lent over towards him and desperately whispered under his breath, "go for the pie! the pie! go for the pie!" Eric glance at him and gave a little shake no and proceeded to spoon a rather large portion of the sweet rice concoction onto his plate. I, on the other hand, hearing Jeff's desperate warning plea and got a wee portion to try. Wow was all I could say to my mom. In my mind, other things like 'gah, that was horrible! oh, god, Eric got a huge portion of it!'

Poor mom. I know she meant well. You know, she hasn't made that funky desert since...

Later on that night, Jeff asked why Eric went for the rice thing and Eric said it wouldn't be proper to refuse and he didn't want to offend. Awww. God love him. :)

Now 'go for the pie' has become something of an inside joke between all of us... Continue reading >>

Stop the presses!

Our 3 year old boy, Nicklaus has reached a milestone!

During dinner, my boyfriend Eric farted and excused himself. Then Nicklaus our 3 year old piped up, "Nuh-uh, Daddy. You didn't fart. I was just getting off of my chair like this..."

LOL!

:p

Man, you just never know what going to come out of his mouth... Continue reading >>

It's snowing bucketfuls!

I've been watching it snow here for the past 2 hours...

It started out with flurries then just let loose with the big flakes in bucketfuls!

Woo!

I wish I had a camera with me because it's so pretty out... Continue reading >>

Pleasantly surprised!

Got a crazy surprise this morning when I checked my email...Made 4 sales last night!

Needless to say I was a bit shocked. :) Then the happy dance kicked in!


In other news, I've been given an award by my fellow blogger, TMCPhoto. Her photos are amazing! Check out her Etsy shop.

Her blog, So Anyways is a great read and I always look forward to what she has to say.

Here are the rules
1. Post a copy on your blog.
2. Mention who gave you the award.
3. Pass the award on to 10 others.
4. Leave a message on their blog letting them know the honor has been bestowed upon them.

10 others, huh? I usually don't have time to read 10 blogs...how about 5? :)

The Awarded
1. The Empty Envelope
2. Four Dog Day
3. Baroness Bijoutery
4. The Neutral Zone Trap
5. The Lone Beader Continue reading >>

My Chrstmas shopping is finished!

Is yours?

I finally got all my Christmas shopping done over the weekend. It's such a relief! :)

I've got to make a necklace for my mom & load up some pics of my little one on this digital photo frame I got my dad then I'll be done done. :p

10 more days until Christmas!

Continue reading >>