2012 in review

So 2012 has been ... well a lot has happened in the past 366 days. (It was a leap year after all!)

Highlights & Lowlights

January. Hubby and I attended a giant Scottish Festival. We're not Scottish, Hubby is Irish (and English) but Hubby got a chance to play his Irish/Gaelic sport, Hurling. I got a chance to hang out with my best friend from college and eat fun (fried) foods all day! 

source: Scottish-American Society of Central Florida

February. Hubby ruined didn't do well for Valentine's day, as usual. He offered to "pay for 1/2 of those Toms flats you wanted. Buy them and just use half of the money from my part of the money in our [joint] account." Yeah that wasn't what any girl wants to hear. Worst part I never did get those shoes (even after my Mom offered to buy them for me), they never got them in stock in my size.

These did not wind up in my closet, despite my best efforts

Source: google images via meohmydesign

March. I don't know when but Hubby and I joined a cross training gym the beginning of 2012. For a while we kept it up, Hubby more than me, and we were both really happy about it. So I was totally working out around this time. Yay! (Boo that it didn't last)
April. Hubby got health insurance for the first time in over 8 years! (Thank you Hubs for working for a company that will pay for insurance. That's why I don't want you to leave!) He also promptly used it the day it became effective. And we wound up having to take him to ER and that bill was insane. But he's healthy! And covered. The next day was my birthday, I'm a big oldie and turned 26, I'm over a quarter of a century old now! 
May. Hubby's Dad (aka my father-in-law) was assaulted and seriously injured, he had his jaw and soft pallet broken. We were lucky that it happened on a random weekend we were in town visiting them and were able to stay a few extra days to try to help out. He's doing a lot better but without insurance or funds to pay for anything else himself he didn't follow through with the neurologist again like he should have. Fingers crossed nothing comes up again over this. The stupid drunk and horrible person that did this was never caught (he ran from town) so charges were never able to be officially be brought up. But he (my father-in-law) acts like it never happened, he's such an optimistic guy.  
June/July. We went to Atlanta! Neither of us had been before and it was a blast. (Besides killing a tire after hitting a curb at 12:30 in the morning on the drive in and the hours it took the next afternoon to replace the broken wheel hub/cover/rim. Of course they couldn't get the same part in time before we drove back so I had to buy a different kind so my car looks ghetto with one different than the rest.) We went to the Aquarium, the Coke museum, a Trader Joes (twice, I'm in love) and overall had a ton of fun. 

Personal photo. 

Hubby's car died, as in stalled out in the middle of an intersection in traffic at rush hour. Several times. We were doing the one car thing but it was killing us. We used our wedding present money for a down payment and bought Hubby the truck of his dreams. I don't dream about those payments but it's so nice to have a reliable second vehicle. And that photo, that's from the first weekend we owned it and I drove that thing myself! Thank you back up camera for the parking job. Oh and Hubby turned 26 that month as well!
September. I saw my Mom for the first time in months (since November of 2011, at the wedding). It was so incredibly nice to have her. Even though she just flew in for the weekend. It was frivolous but fabulous. 

We discovered this sign was exactly where we had to leave our grill in the middle of moving. oops!

Personal photo.

October. We moved! We were getting bored of our old house (even if it worked well for us) but we were forced out when it went into the final stages of foreclosure. Even though our rent paid their mortgage and we paid our rent every month of the 3 1/2 years we lived there. That was an adventure. But we're enjoying our new place and having neighbors that are nice. And we're actually friends with our neighbors now, it's awesome! Oh I celebrated three years at my office, that's a big deal!  
November. We celebrated our first wedding anniversary. Year old cake tasted amazing! We also made a trip to visit both of our families over Thanksgiving weekend and we drove down in the truck! While it was exhausting we had a great time.  (Hubby had to work late Wednesday so we arrived in Miami around 2:30 AM Thanksgiving morning. We also drove over 1,110 miles in long weekend.) I also got to sneak in an anniversary photo shoot at the park where we were married. We also got pictures of Zoe with us. And I got pictures of my Mom and I. The pictures have finally come back in and they're amazing. I'm going to share some soon, promise! But now I've convinced Hubby that we can get those taken each year something big happens (pregnancy/new baby, big anniversary, etc.) Totally win win!
December. We threw a holiday cookie exchange party at the new house. It was the first official party I've ever thrown at my house as an adult. We spent crazy money to get everything anyone might possibly need but everyone had a blast and it was great to accomplish everything I set out to! (Plenty adult beverage options, decorations, food, and party favors! I planned and cooked and baked my you know what off!) Oh yeah and we also had all the other holidays to celebrate this month. I made a crazy amount of latkes and shared that Chanukah traditional treat with friends and then we had a Christmas full of love and helped out a friend.

it's beginning to look a lot like ... a blog

So I can't say I get the technical side of blogging yet. Despite my best hopes (dreams) no one magically reached out to me and explained what was going on, what I was doing wrong, and what I'm actually supposed to be doing. That said I am kind of handy able to do the basics with PhotoShop so at least I can attempt to work on making this thing look pretty. And you know, like a real blog. Since I got my hands on our laptop today I made it happen. So if you're reading this, let me know what you think of the updates. Actually most of the updates are pictures. So if you have something negative to say about how I look keep it to yourself. Now if you think I'm pretty, or this is the prettiest blog you've ever seen, or something else amazing then feel free to let me know!

high five for friday

A 3 day work week. I got Monday and Tuesday off because my office is amazing with holidays off.
Presents. Hello, it's great to give but it's a lot of fun to get! *
Being a good person. Hubby's friend was without a car and all by himself in his apartment over the holiday. Hubby being the amazing person he is invited him to be with us when he made this discovery about said friend. (After sweetly double checking with me first) While our plans were drastically changed to accommodate him (aka I spent the entire time with two men acting like boys/bachelors, of which only one was, and then cooking for them the entire time) it was nice to make someone else feel loved and included over the holidays.
Crappy 3 days of work. That's right, the downside of a short work weeks is that without fail those few days you have left to work are terrible, horrible, extremely bad. They were.
Another 4 day weekend and 3 day work week! The best cure for a bad work week, a long weekend! Whoo I get Monday and Tuesday off next week, yay for a nice long weekend!

* Presents, the extended version. You'd think I'm an exercise junky off of the presents Hubby got me. I got a set of 2.5 and 5 pound weights to go on a bar, you know what you use to life weights, whatever that's called. I got exercise gloves, sporty hat to wear while exercising, workout top, workout jacket, and workout pants.

Old Navy Women's Active Compression Bermudas 

Source: via my Pinterest via Old Navy

Old Navy Women's Active Compression Jackets

Source: Old Navy

Of all of that above I only requested one (hint: work out bottoms). The pictures above are of my two favorites. (And also the only ones I know where he got them from that I could find pictures of them then.) He was very sweet and said this will help with my plans to loose weight. And will suit me well with our cold weather, I can exercise outside now! (Yay! That was sarcasm) It was VERY sweet. Still not exactly what I had in my mind of gifts he was going to get me. 

But he did get one "good" one: a curling iron! (It was the one thing I really, really, really wanted and hoped upon a shooting star he actually got me.) But as we work out (aka how Hubby is the worst at gifting me things) he got a 1 1/2" curling iron instead of the 1 1/4" I asked for.  

Hot Tools 1 1/2" curling iron

Source: Amazon

I should have asked for this had I known it existed before (seriously a purple curling iron!?!)

Hot Tools Ceramic Titanium 1 1/2 inch Professional Curling Iron 

Source: Amazon

 
I also have no clue how to use the thing so I burned the you know what out of my hands/ear and hair and did not have curls and instead had burnt hair in right angles. (I tried to do my hair Christmas day, that was an utter hair fail. I had to pull it back in braids to hide that insanity that was my hair after my attempts.)

My Mom on the other hand is the best at gifts for me. (I do admit that my Mom has had a) had 26 years to perfect it, b) a woman, and c) well she's my Mom.) She decided I needed a new hair dryer (after using mine and declaring it was the worst and she'd get me a new, better one this year).

per Kate at TheSmallThingsBlog's suggestion, my future (hopefully) favorite blow dryer ever

Source: Rusk Speed Freak Dryer at Amazon

 

 It's now been ordered and on it's merry way to my excited little hands. (I told my Mom I wouldn't order it until after Christmas because there was no use in battling with holiday mail.) And now to begin the post holiday buzz cool down to adjust back to normal life. Ugh!

battle of wills: dog vs. human

Hair cuts for Zoe are a several day ordeal, because I do her hair cuts myself. It's a battle of wills and there's only so much either of us can take of the other. So it takes a few days. I split it up over several "sessions" and they last for as long as I can still accomplishing something with her, then a break, and then whenever another window of opportunity comes around another "session".  Needless to say I put haircuts off for a while simply because no one wants to deal with something like that if they can avoid it. But I mustered my patience and decided it was time. I'm never really able to finish her cut 100%, it's more like 80-90% and no final finishing. But I'm still going to call this a success!

 

My torture grooming tools 

 

 

 Where by the looks of it someone was murdered Where the battles took place

{Insert imaginary pic of Zoe with cute hair}

Finished pretty princess! 

Note: I actually wrote this post months ago, yeah as in the last time I went to cut Zoe's hair. I never got a completed picture of her from that cut. 

Anyway, this weekend I decided while I had several days off I should try to give the princess a hair cut. So she got a bath and some hair was cut, but I wouldn't go so far as to say she got a hair cut. Also, this time I cut her hair in the middle of the living room but the torture tools remained the same even if the location changed. Doing it out in the open wasn't a smart plan because given my slightest hesitation Zoe darted out of my reach and ran for "safety". It took a lot of treats to even get what little hair was cut. 

I'd say one day I'd get good pictures of all of this, but the whole thing is such chaos I know that will never happen. What battles do you encounter in your lives? Anything as menacing as me battle Zoe for a hair cut?

My present to you

My most embarrassing Christmas/holiday memory. That should make a really great gift this holiday season to my readers. Don't mind me as I'm turning red and trying to hide in the virtual corner as I imagine everyone on the interwebs reading this.

I was living the dream childhood as a kid. I woke up, ate my breakfast, and watched cartoons before heading off for pre-school or school. (I can't exactly remember how old I was when this happened so I'm not sure which it'd have been.) My favorite thing to watch before leaving was Ninja Turtles. I loved them. Seriously loved them. 

A friend had a birthday party at Pizza Hut where we made our own ninja turtle felt puppets. It was the coolest thing ever. I couldn't believe how cool Jared was to have that as his birthday party. (Yes that was his name, I totally remember his name but can't remember what year/how old I was.) I had to make the purple one. Yeah for loving them I don't think I actually knew their names, just the colors. Well and Splinter of course, because he was the coolest of all of them! Back to the story. 

Anyway, I woke up Christmas morning (like all little kids do) at the crack of dawn, which meant I was allowed to open presents since it was finally Christmas. I'm tearing through my gifts (okay actually I nicely unwrapped everything and left the wrapping paper as intact as I could, I was that kind of kid) and one stands out. 

 Source: image via google images via MTV News

I got ninja turtle action figures. And I was DEVASTATED. "Well you love ninja turtles," my parents must have said, "Why don't you like them?" I screamed at them "Because they're BOY toys and I'm a girl, how could Santa do this!?! They're boy toys!!!!" My poor young brain was so put off over the prospect of having a boy toy (action figures are not girl toys, Poly Pockets and Care Bears and Barbies are girl dolls) I was besides myself. I probably would have loved them but I couldn't let myself enjoy them and I don't think I ever played with them. Simply because they were boy toys.

It's hard not to laugh when even just thinking about it now but at the time it was the worst thing to have happened to me ever. (Or so I thought) And for a while I had this mistrust in Santa because of this horrible horrible horrible let down. I hope I never disappoint my future children with such horrible misjudgements of gifts. But if I do hopefully it'll be as ludicrous and silly as my Christmas breakdown/temper tantrum was.

high five for friday

There's no place like home. That's kind of how it feels being back to blogging and participating in h54f again.  Here's been my week this week...

Buzzed from gifting. So I mentioned this but I was a bit buzzed from the thrill of buying and gifting things to people I care about.
Pointless Meetings. Not exactly something I'm happy about, I was mandated to attend a work meeting where I was told to be at 45 minutes early, when my boss didn't show up until 5 minutes after it was supposed to start, and where I was told I wasn't supposed to say anything but just be there. But I got flex time from that so my weekend's come early today!
Laser Hair Removal. I just bought myself a discounted package to have my underarm hairs lasered off. That's right, in several months after 5 more treatments I will never have to shave my armpits again!!!! (I was entirely too excited for this first appointment to start this. Still entirely too excited for all my future appointments for this too!)
Back to blogging, hopefully. The home computer situation hasn't really been worked out yet. But I've missed blogging (even if I haven't found my direction and haven't figured out my technical difficulties in formatting this thing). So I'm sneaking time at my work computer to try to get back into blogging.
We're alive/The end of the world didn't happen. So yeah, that didn't happen. Glad to still be around!

Because I'm in a giving mood (more like because I just saw this and wanted to share it with others in the hope that you'll laugh like I did), here's a little something:

 Source: via someecards via someone's facebook

linked up to Lauren/frommygreydeskblog's High Five For Friday

 

it's the end of the world as we know it....

So the world is going to end tomorrow, well that's what some people are saying.

Credit: via google images via wnd.com

 "Stormy Smith here with your weather. It'll be rainy and cool this week, then we'll all die and the earth will burn up Friday. No need to predict what the weather will be like Saturday since no one will be around!"

Credit: Via google images via this tumblr 

 Queen and the apocalypse, makes you laugh and cry all at once. 

Why it's okay if the world ends tomorrow
- I'll have ended my last day having happy hour with Hubby and his friends. Laughter and yummy bar food appetizers. That's okay by me.
- I didn't have to wait until I was using my walker with tennis balls on it walking down the hallway of my nursing home to find my husband. (I totally was afraid of that scenario as a child.)
- I did my nails last night so I'll have pretty, well manicured finger nails. 
- Tonight I'll go to bed snuggled with my cutie pie angel face puppy, Zoe, and my amazing Hubby. I'll sleep well, even if I'm woken up by fire and brimstone coming to announce the world is ending.
- I won't have to worry about being a "fattie" and loosing weight anymore. (We'll all be our ideal weights in heaven, right?!)

credit: via someecards.com

Sad but true, why I'd not survive the apocalypse.

Disclaimer: I do not believe the world will actually be ending. This is all supposed to be in good fun, not meant to actually scare or worry anyone. Kind of like the whole Y2K thing, or you know any of the gazillion times people have proclaimed the rapture was going to come. 

No lie to combat all the question NASA's been asked about end of the world issues they've created an FAQ page on all of them! Go visit NASA's website if you need real science based reasons why there's no need to really freak out.

 

Linking up (for the first time) to It's Okay Thursdays at A Complete Waste of Makeup

 

gifting thrill

Saturday I shopped until I dropped. Seriously. I was wearing cute yet comfortable clothes/shoes and I was dead on my feet by the time I got home. I was out all day shopping for the hubby. Like a spoiled 7 year old he presented me a long list of gift ideas. 

I'd had car troubles last week so I hadn't been able to start shopping off his list yet. Saturday I told him I loved him but Santa's elf needed to get down to business and from 10 AM until 7:30 PM were did our own things. 

Let me tell you Hubby is one lucky man. The things I didn't gift him, my parents decided to. He's getting just about everything on his list. Seriously. I'm trying to think of things he didn't tell me about to add underneath the tree! I just can't help myself, I want to make him happy. I love this season, passing it forward to those you care about (and those you don't know if you partake in a random act of kindness). There's that special type of happiness you get out of it. 

Tonight I've got to handle all the (good) ladies in my office this year. Sadly several would deserve the proverbial lump of coal but the others were good and will get something sweet for their kindness. 

Have any of you caught the gifting happiness bug?

week wrap-up

1. Holiday party at a stranger's house. That's right, I not only went to a party where I knew I'd know no one (hubby doesn't count, the couple who invited us I'd met briefly one before) and I just went with it. If you knew me, you'd know that's a huge step out of my comfort zone. And know what? I had a good time. Except for the fact that the one thing that made them all friends (their mutual church) is something that'd never be something I have in common with them.
2. It's Chanukkah. I haven't really been able to celebrate this year yet but I'm going to try. And thankfully this bad boy is 8 nights so I have a little time left to celebrate. Last night I did make latkes and it was a pain because I only have baby potatoes but it was soooooo worth it, they're delicious!
3. Bringing Willpower Back. At my office we get a lot of gifted holiday treats, desserts and sweets like crazy in December. Monday we got a box of cookies. I ate a piece of some fruit bar looking thing, decided it wasn't worth it and threw the rest out. Wednesday we got a tub of cookies from Costco (that I know firsthand are amazing) and Thursday we got containers of cinnamon buns. I didn't eat any of those! 
4. Apples. I love apples, I love fruit. But apples I have a love hate relationship with. I'll be all about them and then get tired of them. And then I'll eat another and remember how much I love them. I'm back to loving them right now. (Because I left one in my office fridge ages ago and when I ran out of snacks it was still there, still good, and yummy!)

5. Food, we need to talk. (aka I have a problem). That's the first step to recovery right? Somehow me and food don't yet have a healthy working relationship, 26 years and still no luck. I've eaten way too little and lost weight, but not happy with eating how I had as a lifestyle. So then I'll rebounding and try to eat more "normal". For the past few months I've tried the "normal" with a few splurges thing and it's clearly not worked. I gained 18 pounds this past year (with minor losses and gains in-between, I gained at least 3 pounds since Thanksgiving!). I wish I could say I ate everything I wanted this past year (and it was worth it) but that's not true. That was me half assed trying! So I'm going to try with more purpose and planning and see what happens. Because I'm not happy right now.



Linked up to High Five For Friday (even though this isn't a celebrate the week kind of post).

 

Premium channels I love thee!

So Comcast is more fun than Dish because of OnDemand. But then agian they're less fun because it took them almost 2 1/2 months to get our TV right and I think it's "fixed" totally by accident now. But Comcast is also fun because we got HBO for free for 3 months for starting with them and then Showtime for free for 3 months because they messed up. So I've got movie channels, for the first time in FOUR years. I'm so freaking happy over this it's sad. (When facing financial difficulties it takes almost financial ruin for me to consider giving up cable, it's a necessity for me, I know that's bad but I know it is and work around it.) 

I've gone premium channel happy. I've literally watched two entire series. 

The Newsroom, which I really enjoyed. I don't agree with the bad reviews it got, but all the same it's enjoyable to watch!

Source: google images via The Hollywood Reporter

And Homeland, which is addicting! I can't wait for the season finale of Homeland, what is going to happen!?!!

Source: google images via ScreenInvasion


I caught up on the entire last season of True Blood, that was ... interesting. And I've also been watching movies in between all of this. (In addition to regular tv) I've been able to OnDemand or DVR several movies these last few weeks. The ones I wanted to see when they came out but I was too busy, cheap and/or lazy to go out and see? Yeah I've seen a bunch of those. Reel Steel (not so great even with hunky Hugh Jackman, but still okay) and In Time (so bad I couldn't believe but still we watched the whole thing) are the first two to come to mind. I've got DVR timers set for at least a few more coming up in the next few days. You better believe I'm going to use this free programing as much as I can! The worst part, I'm almost seriously considering keeping one channel when the free trial ends (but can't decide which one and how I'll reason spending for it).

boots update

My Mom is amazing. Okay that's out of the way. 

I told her I was thinking about a pair of BP Nordstrom boots she rushed out to the store (even with pre-Thanksgiving shopping mess) at one of the busiest malls in the entire state of Florida just to get them for me. And then took pictures of them on her own feet to double check I was still interested. Anyway, the sad news is that as pretty as they were my calves are simply too big. They zipped, barely (I did totally hold my breath and hope that somehow that'd mean I wouldn't zip my actual leg) and certainly not with enough room to tuck any pants into them. And isn't that 80% the point of owning boots!?! So those were a no go, I'm just not sure what pair to try next. Oh and looking at the measurements of the three boots on my boots hit list the Steve Madden and Nine West are two small for me! The Aerosoles are too tall, shortie here can't wear boots that are meant to be over the knee for regular sized people!

Boot body count: 2 tried on, 5 no goes

Minor Update

So after spending WAY too much money and several days of changing responses I've got two working computers, so of, not really. The desktop is too old to do anything else more to. In fact the new plan is to wipe it clean and try to sell it, because apparently it's only good for surfing the internet now. We've got a working laptop but Hubby keeps needing it which means I haven't really used it since it came back into our house working again.

Which means we're getting closer to resolving our technical issues but not entirely there.

I'm still reading and loving all the other blogs out there that inspired me to try one of my own. And while it's fun to read what everyone is saying and up to it makes me feel less motivated for my own. I'm still not entirely sure what this blog will be/is all about. Without a concrete direction I'm floundering (forgetting technically issues preventing me from posting lately). And if I don't know what I want how am I to expect anyone out there on the interwebs to want to visit (let alone come back again)!? These are all my stupid first world struggles right now. I'll try to work through it and just wing it and get back to trying when things settle back out with the laptop.

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving. The holiday season is officially upon us. From me (and my family) to you and your family: Happy Holidays!