2/15/14

Oh my word. We've had at least one snow day per week from school since my last post. Another 8-12 inches is expected today. At least the last storm was only rain for us here on the RI coast while the rest of the east, Georgia-Maine got snow and ice. We won't be so lucky with this next one. It's coming in off the water, in true Nor Eastern style. Puke, right? The good news is that I have no where to be until the 24th of February. So let it freaking snow, if it must. I had better have a spectacular spring/summer/fall after this.

Valentines was nice. I had a great dinner and yummy drinks with my fabulous, sexy husband. He bought me a new North Face Denali jacket. Time to retire my pink one. This new one is all black. I love it. Makes the weather a little more bearable. He's getting a good watch per his request, assuming the weather lets up so we can go pick it up. And we're making plans for our next vacation...Vegas!! I've never been. He's been several times. I'm so excited.

I finished Zach's wool hat. He's worn it all day, every day since I've made it. Haha. I'm finishing up a bulky alpaca cowl for myself. Not sure why exactly, but this yarn is a giant pain in the butt to knit with. Maybe it's the color...charcoal-ish...maybe it's the weight...could be my needles...size 15 bamboo circular. Could be me. Unlikely. I've finished Bella's knit cotton bunny. Just have to sew it together and stuff it. I'm going to cast on my husband's hat now that Zach's is off my needles.

So today is Saturday. I'm having a pajama-Lost marathon-knitting day to ride out the storm.

1/13/14

It's been a strange start to the new year. Not bad, just strange. The weather for instance. Yes, it's winter, but no it is never really really cold where we live. It typically hovers in the 30s-50s December through February. In these first weeks of January, we've had a snowstorm, followed by 60 degree weather and rain to melt it all immediately, then freezing weather between 0-30 degrees for almost 10 days and now we've been in the 50s for a five day stretch. My sinuses are really struggling to keep up with the temp/humidity changes. Other things are strange. Bella's behaving. My husband is organizing. I'm caught up on all in services at both of my jobs. Paperwork is complete and turned in on time. I know! Strange. My knitting has turned a huge corner. I will be finished with my husband's hat by tomorrow or Wednesday. I can knit socks, mittens, scarves, cozies, cables...but I'm finding hats to be my zen knitting. As much as I love my Addi Turbos, I really love my bamboo 16-inch circular. Thank you goes to my husband for accompanying me to the yarn store. I'm sure it was the least fun he's had in a while but he and Bella were good sports while I decided on the right wool for the project. I totally want to raise my own sheep. I'm running at a pretty good rate these days. Tried on one of my bikinis and can't say I had that mid-winter "oh my god" shock. Actually looked pretty darn good so this summer will be an awesome one, especially since Bella is more agreeable these days. I plan on being at the beach in all of my spare time and I will even try to tolerate the tourists. Try. I will try.

Happy Snow Day!

Happy New Year too. I got my eight point five hours in last night. Awake by 7:30. Second cup of coffee down the hatch. Listening to Pandora. House cleaned. Gonna go for my three mile run here in a bit and shower up. My crazy busy work schedule restarts full force on Monday. Totally need to get my head in the game. I think that was a High School Musical reference. Should finish up my second knitting project of the year this weekend. These are going to be cute little gifts. Birthdays probably. Goals for this month...clean out my closet. Get paperwork caught up for job number 2. Register for some races.

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

I love Christmas! I start listening to the music while floating in my pool around July! Why? It helps ease the sadness of knowing you'll be saying goodbye to summer all too soon. I like my tree up the day after Thanksgiving by the latest. People complain daily about "It's too soon. It's too soon. The stores have stuff out too soon.". These same people then bitch about the Season going by too fast. Enjoy it then idiots! Stop being stingy. Stop being depressed. Enjoy. It. Stop comparing yourself with others. Christmas for me is quiet time. I slow down. I eat what I want. I read. I play games. I SMILE. I knit. I take a few days off. My husband and I like to gift each other items throughout the year and we rarely wait for Christmas, so by the time the big day arrives, neither of us really need or want anything. We had fun shopping this weekend for Bella because she's three and toys are fun to shop for! Yesterday she and I both got our nails done. She was so cute getting her first professional manicure! Hopefully a fun holiday tradition I can share with my best girl. Of course it was in the 60s this weekend, so I have more spring fever in me now than Christmas spirit! Bring on the beach days! Okay, bring on the WARM beach days! I live on the ocean, so every day is a beach day.

Happy Thanksgiving Eve!

I dare say we're a bit ahead of the game this year! Most of the food prep done. Kitchen cleaned and floor mopped. Bathroom semi-cleaned. Plans for tomorrow?? Just enjoy ourselves. Hopefully play some video games and board games and enjoy our yummy food.

11/15/13

I'm up early. Wanted to sleep in since I could but I'm up an hour earlier than my alarm. I slept hard last night so maybe what I needed was a few hours of good, solid sleep instead of more hours of tossing and turning. So I am a regular reader of a blog and she's nice, so I won't call her out, and on her recommendation started reading Edenbrooke. I got about 25 pages into it in THREE weeks time and finally just brought it back to the library. How this book got 4 stars on Goodreads is beyond me. I started thinking maybe there was something wrong with me...I started Jeremy Robinson's Island 731 yesterday and am half way through, so yeah, the problem is not on my end. Can I just say how relieved I am to just get that book out of here? I have this problem about finishing books even if I can't stand them and this book has been cramping my reading style, constantly reminding me of its horrid presence, silently berating me for not picking it up. But I DID pick it up, and it was so bad, I would abandon it to clean my house. It's been three weeks of sad Hell. I handed it back to the librarian and I swear, it seemed like she sniffed it and touched it and was like, you didn't finish this. I simply averted my eyes and asked to check out Island 731 please and thank you. I half-ran/half-skipped out of there. I'm still a bit giddy with glee of having the book gone and on a high after having pulled a fast one on the librarian. The author of the blog,who recommended Edenbrooke didn't enjoy Gone Girl. I know, right??? That should have been my first clue we weren't on the same level. I don't enjoy poorly written romance. I like adventure, distant lands, strong heroines, uplifting or powerful stories of beating the odds. You get the idea. I live my life like I'm training for The Hunger Games. I want my books to match. The thought of sitting back and waiting for a man to come in and save the day...seriously, WHAT IS THAT??? I love my husband so very much and he has saved many a day but I'm proud of saving many a day myself!! Okay, long rant over. Sort of. I'm proof a woman can raise kids, work, and take care of a home, which includes cooking and cleaning, AND workout and look awesome. Arrogant? No. Confident. I've gotten here myself, with the help of God. Now my rant is over. Blog time is over. I have to pack and drive to Maine. My husband's team is playing against my college team. Can't wait to visit with family and friends!! Should be a fantastic weekend!

Great Weekend

Most weekends are good because hello, it's the weekend, but sometimes you just get an extra special one and this weekend was one of those. My husband and I went to see Elton John in concert. We figured it'd be a good night because it's Elton John and he's had huge hits in every decade our (mine and my husband's) lives and sometimes it's nice to go to a show where you know all the songs but I don't think we were expecting such a fantastic night. This man was so incredibly generous with his time, playing for three solid hours, singing all of his crowd pleasers plus some new ones. He signed autographs, played around with the audience, and just enjoyed himself. He had the 2Cellos playing with him this evening and if you don't know who they are, YouTube them right this minute. Fantastic guys. Plus my husband and I just had fun making fun of some of our surrounding seat mates. He had the very robust gay married couple next to him and to my left, I had a singing Scotsman who clearly and loudly sang along with Sir Elton. We had some drunk douches behind us and some big hair in front of us but it was so much fun. It was nice to just laugh with my husband. We don't do that enough sometimes. And then last night, after Bella went home, we had a few hours to drink some wine, break my iPhone, listen to music and watch some tv before bed. And we went to bed early. Amazing how exhausted two people can be. So yes, this weekend was perfect. It'll go down in the history books as one of my favorites.

11/6/13

So apparently my new trend is blogging only once a month. All is well just busy busy. Huge breakthroughs in my running recently. I'm beating my mile times daily and I finally got my 5K under 30 minutes. Not the 21 minute 5K of my youth, but getting there. I'm also doing circuit training 3 days a week or so and toning and lifting weights. This week, I've begun cleaning up my eating. It wasn't bad to begin with but I am really trying to cut out as much processed food as I can and I'm cutting down on my added sugar. One teaspoon at a time. Honestly though, what is the point of living if I can't have sugar in my coffee??? My body is changing daily. I'm loving it! I've certainly weighed less but this time, I'm really focusing on fitness and endurance and challenging myself and not so much on what the scale says. I've finally plowed through the worst plateau ever though, so now the scale is moving down again. I think what was happening, since I'm by no means overweight, was that I was gaining muscle at almost the same rate as I was losing fat, so while my clothes were getting looser and my body getting better looking, the scale wasn't really moving. Basically what I did was take a few days off and just eat what I wanted, within reason, then jumped right back in. Seemed to do the trick. I'm also making the effort to eat more protein after a long run...so I always have some hardboiled eggs on hand in the fridge. Also eating an apple a day. And finally, I'm sinking a lot more water and green tea.

10/10/13

Well hello!  

I've been so stinking crazy busy. Seems like I'm always on the go!  Work is busy. Working out is keeping me busy. I'm running about 21 miles per week. I need to step it up though if I want to shoot for a 10k, followed by a 1/2 marathon. 

In other news, I'm headed to Maine this weekend. Visiting family and hopefully some friends. I need some social time. I don't have any of that around here because I'm so busy working all the time. Then hopefully the movies Sunday night with my husband!  I want to see Gravity. On November 6th, we're going to see Elton John in Providence and on November 16th, back in Maine for a fun match up between my husband's football team URI and my alma mater UMaine. Not sure which side I will sit on. :)

November 16th is also my love's birthday!!  

It's Been A Long time...

I realized that it has been a long time since you have heard from Mr. Jennifer and because the public outcry has been so loud, I decided to post something.

In reality I have never posted on here for any other reason than to let you all know how awesome my wife is and to hopefully make her smile and feel loved. The past couple of months have been tough as I have started the hectic part of the year for my new job. Working close to 100 hours a week, doesn't leave much time for anything let alone being a great husband and that is something I have always prided myself on. Not being able to be there to take care of everything and just spending time doing little things like listening to 80's music on Pandora or holding hands, stinks! On top of me working all the time, she is working two jobs, watching Bella at least four days a week and driving the rest of the family all over the place. She is truly amazing. Because she is so amazing I thought I would write her a love letter...

Dear My Darling Angel Daisy,

I am the luckiest man alive. After so many wrong turns and stupid mistakes, God has for some reason blessed me with you. Who would have know that my angel was in the next town over my whole childhood and I never knew. God certainly does work in mysterious ways, and He clearly had a plan for us. Like all of Gods gifts, I am undeserving of you. I work everyday to overcome my short comings so that my gift is not your purgatory. You are the most intelligent, fun, attractive, sexy and loving person I know. The thought of getting to see you, talk to you and have you fall asleep in my arms is what keeps me going everyday. I know I fall short everyday of the greatness that I expect of myself when it comes to being your husband and I am truly sorry. There is no excuses for that and I am committed to being what you deserve.

You are my Daisy. The flower that makes the sun hesitate when it rises to take an extra look at your beauty. You are my Athena. The one that everyone turns to for the correct answer. You are my Jester. The one that makes me laugh so that any worries disappear. You are my Aphrodite. The one that everyone can't take there eyes off. You are my answer. The answer to all my prayers, questions and happiness.

I LOVE YOU MY PERFECT DARLING ANGEL DAISY!!!!

Love,
Me

9/10/13

I had such a yucky day yesterday! What was supposed to be a day when I caught up on all of my own things and got myself prepared for my week, turned into getting woken up by my boss, a schedule change and with that, all of the free time in which I was going to get things in place, disappearing before I had the chance to wipe the sleep out of my eyes. So that just set the tone for the day, to say the least. Work itself is rarely painful, and I enjoy my work, I just like more than 2 seconds notice is all, so I can cancel obligations I may have made thinking I had the day off. I'm glad days like yesterday do not happen often, but I can't help but feel there is something in the air? I just can't seem to shake it off. ALL of my enthusiasm and energy has disappeared. Let's see, it's 9:15...I need to workout because I had zero time to do so yesterday. This means I have to workout and manage to keep Bella out of trouble at the same time. I need to get my shower in there somewhere. It's going to be 90 degrees tomorrow. Hello Autumn?? I love the heat, but once school is in session, professional attire is required. Super suck, right there. Okay, I feel better venting. Bella woke up and took her adorably pajama clad body into my room for morning cuddles. We watched Lilo and Stitch, while I caught up on paperwork, and now she's eating her breakfast, painting and playing with Play-doh. Once required work is turned in via email, I'm going offline and am going to remain that way until after dinner. Tomorrow is another busy day and it will remain busy right through until Thursday night at 6. Actually, to get technical, it starts at 8 pm tonight. I work the overnight, get home at 7, turn around and be at job 2 for 9 am until 2 pm. Home at 2:30. Meeting 3:30-5:30. Pick up Zach, pick up Bella, home for dinner, back at job 1 for another overnight, home at 7 am, work at job number 2, 9 am until 2 pm and then at job number one, 3-6. CONFUSED? It's not usually this hectic. I rarely have meetings and I picked up an additional overnight so another person could take their vacation. Needless to say however, this was NOT the week to mess with my schedule.

8/27/13

I ended up working last week and have this week off instead. Geez Luis. Glad I don't actually plan on going anywhere in August. I finally got some writing done on Friday. Hallelujah! My running is going ok. Lots of different issues creeping up. My feet and knees are great, though Trouble with my lower back and inside thigh/hip joint area last week and yesterday, my asthma was giving me some trouble. The issues only appear when I increase my time/distance. I typically just run through the pain but I did take some time off last week. I AM getting older and at some point I'm probably going to just have to accept that and the pain that comes with it.

Soooooooo

So much for my vacation. My boss called Sunday in a bind and asked if I could work Monday thru Thursday. Of course, I said. I've had a backache for three days and I blame my week off last week for it. I over did it working out and spent a lot of downtime relaxing in my bedroom catching up on television.

Day 3

This is definitely harder than it looks. I know, oh, poor me, I get time off from work...mind you, this is time off from one full-time job only, as I'm not taking time off from my other job, OR time off from watching Bella 45 hours per week. I don't really know what I'd do with myself with even 24 hours of me time, let alone a whole week of it. I'm not a stay-cation kind of person. If I'm on vacation, I want a VACATION. Hotels, meals out, sightseeing. The whole 9. It rained all day yesterday so any outside activity wasn't happening for Bella and me. Plus, she had a very cranky day, after a cranky night...runny nose, congestion, CRANKINESS...not sure if it's her big teeth coming in or just a cold but HOLY!! Finally after resting and watching movies all day, she turned back into her sweet self around dinner time. I'm going to try and get some reading done today. I've totally been sucked into catching up on my favorite tv shows. Errands to run today with Zach, for Zach. I will be finished just in time to pick up Bella for our 7 hours of fun time. Aside from 3 hours, tomorrow is mine. Same goes for Friday as well.

Day 1

I'd say this morning was a good start to my 3 weeks of slower pace life, that is, 3 weeks before life gets all crazy busy again. I like the busy because it keeps my mind occupied but I recognize that I need to do some healthy things for me and I need to learn to be able to enjoy the slow, so I can continue at high speed without burning out. I thought that might mean sleeping in this morning. My body had other ideas. I've been up since 6:30. I slept in on Saturday so maybe that was all I needed. I took a 1/2 hour run, followed by a nice shower. I will workout my abs and arms later. I've decided I'm going to treat these three weeks almost like a rehab, except I can drink and eat what I want! Three weeks to focus on eating, exercising, experimenting with different teas, coffees and wine, reading, writing and meditating. Good plan!

Finally...I get some time off. I do not have to be anywhere till 3pm on Monday. I do not even have to talk to one person today until around 4, when I pick up Bella for the weekend. I slept until 8:30 this morning. I finished two books last week. I finally saw The Conjuring last night. I did manage to squeeze my workouts in last week, but I'm definitely looking forward to being able to spend a few weeks getting my healthy ways back on track. Pre-football season has started, which means 16 hour days for my husband and means more often than not, I'm dining alone, which also means I'm not dining. I do not eat when I'm alone. I will graze. A few slices of cheese. A handful of crackers. Occasionally a bowl of cereal. I will cook Monday night because Kayla, Bella and Zach will be here for dinner, but I'm foreseeing a lot of lean cuisines in my future for the next few weeks. So big plans for my day today...whatever the Hell I want to do!!! I think I'm going to organize my closet because school will be starting after Labor day, and it'll be back to over full-time work for me. I also think I will sit in the sun for a bit and read. Maybe I will clean out the fridge and scrub it down. Gosh, I live a thrilling life!

8/4/13

Spending the day with a wild child named Annabella. Not sure what we're going to do today. Quite possibly we will just hang out here, in the back yard, swimming in the pool. The weather is quite nice for today. High 70/low 80 as a temp with little humidity, so it'd be nice to have an adventure. Then again, managing Bella alone is always an adventure. Almost done reading In Cold Blood. It was a fast read for me. I have enjoyed the writing. Gearing up for our last week of summer programming at work and finally, finally, I should have a few weeks off to do absolutely nothing but work out, read, tan...of course, I will still have work at my other job and I will have Bella 4 days a week per usual, but a break from our summer programming is huge. School starts around here after Labor Day and then it's the countdown to our first holiday break! :)

8/3/13

Happy (?) August. July is a frenzy in this beach town in the summer. Come August, most of us who live here year round have the same grimace and attitude. Things do slow down in August, as it appears most folks take their vacas in July, but come September, the beaches are empty, except for us locals and we LOVE it!!! And I do get lots of beach time September till December. I'm having a relaxing day today. It's overcast and I don't have Bella until around 4 so I'm just hanging out, watching some old Shark Week episodes, contemplating getting my workout in and getting my nails done. Wonderfully boring.

7/20/13

Eight days till my birthday. I have most of next week off. I slept for about 12 hours last night. I think I am more exhausted as a result of my summer schedule as opposed to the regular school year. I'm enjoying our heat wave. In all of my years living in Rhode Island, I have never felt the ocean as warm as it was on Wednesday. If I wanted bath water, I guess I'd move down south. Even our pool is at 95 degrees. That's more than the temp of a therapeutic pool. I'm trying to get through From a Buick 8 by Stephen King. Not his best. My least favorite book of his, I suspect. Or maybe I'm just not as into it after reading 11/23/63 and Under the Dome...both books I finished in about 2 days. Bag of Bones was my favorite, followed closely by Tommyknockers. It is chilling to realize he started writing the book (Buick) right before he was almost killed in a car/pedestrian accident...he being the pedestrian. A classic life imitating art imitating life conundrum. I just finished JK Rowling's A Casual Vacancy. It took about 100 pages for me to get into it simply because there were so many characters, and it took at least that many pages to get to know them and want to stick with them till the end of the story. I also feel like she would throw in some random vulgarity to remind readers that this was not your Harry Potter and for someone who professed to want this book to NOT be compared to Harry Potter, I think she was better off letting readers get lost in the story and not constantly remind them of what she didn't want us to do. She could have possibly benefited from a better editor. All in all, it makes you wonder why some authors can go on and create wonderful stories and characters time and time again (Stephen King) to great reviews and some who seem to struggle after their "swan song"...then again, Stephen King didn't create Harry Potter.

7/8/13

Well last week was a blur. I'm almost ready for the more tranquil days of early fall. Empty beaches, water warmed by the heat of the summer and glorious sunsets. I enjoyed six days off from work. I don't think I've driven anywhere since last Tuesday! I'm not really a stay cation kind of person. I do love a long weekend at home but anything longer than that and I begin feeling a bit bored and resentful and a whole list of other thoughts and feelings that being busy at work keeps at bay. My house is freezing. I have to go outside to warm up. I think I'm colder in the summer than winter with all the ACs running everywhere I go. I love the heat. The hotter the better. I love hot and humid weather. It feels like you're always covered with a nice warm blanket. We had quite a few friends and family over for the 4th. It was a lot of fun but I was glad to have the quiet back when everyone left. We had a cookout, fire, fireworks, lots and lots of alcohol, swimming in the pool and some good laughs. Next Monday is Hayley's birthday but it is also the middle of July!!! Crazy to realize that.