Category Archives: Life in General

That my 18 year old daughter has taken up the guitar? I don’t think I have, but it really shouldn’t come as a surprise since her father is rather musically inclined and plays multiple musical instruments, including the guitar and piano. A little over a month ago, after searching locally with no avail for a guitar that called to her, we drove a pretty good distance so she could look for one at a rather large music store located in Parkersburg. After looking through all the items they had to offer, from the fender bass pickguards to the tambourines, she chose an Ibanez, while her father picked up an Epiphone Les Paul Custom Pro.

After about a week of playing it, however, she decided that it just wasn’t the right fit for her. Luckily, the music store where she purchased her guitar has a 14-day exchange policy that allows you to exchange or return the items for any reason what-so-ever. They want to make sure their customers are completely satisfied. So we made the hour and a half trip back down to the store so she could exchange it. And after a few hours of trying to find the right guitar for her, she decided on a Gibson herself. She’s actually pretty good, I’m not just saying that cause I’m her mother, especially when you think that she has only been seriously trying to learn the guitar for the past few months. She has, however, “played” with a guitar since she was a wee lassie.

West Virginia is no stranger to horrible winters, which is one of the reasons why I want to move out of this state and head down south where the temperatures are warm and the cost of living is cheaper. While we haven’t had much of a winter this year, that all changed on Friday when winter storm Jonas decided to leave a huge white foot print along the east coast. In about 24 hours, we got close to 2 feet of snow. The governor declared a state of emergency and most everything was shut down Saturday. We got Mike’s vehicle dug out so he could go to work on Monday but Raven’s car is buried and isn’t moving anytime soon. Thankfully, the sun is out and the snow is beginning to melt.

Saturday: That big lump is Raven’s car.

Sunday: After digging out the driveway so Mike could get his truck out of the garage.

I cannot wait until summer.

 

I am not happy. Well, let me rephrase that; I am not happy with certain areas of my life. There are a lot of aspects that I am happy with. I have a great daughter who I am extremely proud of, a handsome husband who I love dearly, 3 wonderful cats, a house that will be paid off this summer and a job that, despite frustrating me at times, is something I love doing. I am not, however, happy with the way I look or how I manage my time.

This past year I have gained weight, which sucks for obvious reasons. I won’t say how much weight I have gained because it is beyond embarrassing but if I don’t do something soon, I will gain the entire 70 pounds back that I previously lost years ago. Some days I will eat and eat and eat, not ever filling full, while other days I will be so busy that I won’t eat anything at all. So like millions of other people, I am setting out to lose weight in the new year. I’m not going to, however, wait until January 1st to begin. Starting today, I am on a mission to drop some poundage. I won’t deprive myself of the foods I enjoy. But I will stop my mindless snacking and make sure to fit in some form of exercise every day.

Will I be able to do it? Who knows. I hope I can stick with it and that my love of food and my love of not exercising doesn’t overpower my will to lose weight.

As far as managing my time, that is a demon that I have been trying to conquer for awhile now. Since I work from home, it’s hard for me to sit down and actually do the work I need to get done without getting majorly distracted. Add in the procrastination gene and you get a recipe for disaster when it comes to getting my work done in a timely manner. In order to try to combat that, I am going to use a timer app on my computer that will hopefully help reign in my distinctive nature a bit.

What about you? Are you making any New Year resolutions?

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. We had a pretty darn good one. Raven got various Xbox One and Xbox 360 games, the season pass for Fallout 4, a record player, an action figure from Alien, two Fallout shirts and various odds and ends. Mike got a new jacket, Rainbow Six Siege for the Xbox One, Ancestry DNA kit and some stocking stuffers. I got a Kaylee Frye messenger bag, Browncoat socks, Leaf on the Wind necklace and 4 Disney hairbows (Mad Hatter, Cheshire Cat and White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland and Evil Queen from Snow White). Jedi got catnip bacon, toast and egg, Nefarian got a new catnip kiss and Widget got 2 new feathered mice.

The day before Christmas was spent running around getting last minute shopping done and then spending several hours in the kitchen cooking and baking for the get-together at my father-in-law’s that night. The next afternoon (Christmas afternoon to be exact) was spend at my sister-in-law’s. Both days were filled with good food and even better people.

How did you spend your holiday?

So, Tsubasacon 2015 was amazing! Better than the previous 2 years we went. Unfortunately, my cosplay didn’t happen. The morning of the con, I got up a little earlier than everyone else to put some finishing touches on my Barf cosplay. Of course, I had a little mishap that, for me, ruined the entire outfit. I was upset to say the least. Mike and Raven said it looked fine, but I didn’t agree. So, since I had no time to fix it, I decided to forgo cosplaying this year. But that just means I have everything I need for next year, including plenty of time to correct the problem so I can cosplay as Barf for Tsubasacon 2016. And it was probably better that I didn’t cosplay because, since Mike couldn’t see very well out of the Pyramid Head helmet, I had to lead him around the convention.

Everyone seemed to enjoy Mike’s cosplay, he had a lot of other con-goers taking his picture. And Raven and her boyfriend were awesome as Columbia and Eddie from Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Tsubasacon 2015 Pictures

It’s been awhile since my last blog post. There really isn’t a good reason for why I haven’t blog much this past year. It’s just that I seemed to have lost my blogging mojo. Years ago, I would post regularly, but as I have gotten older, I find that it’s getting harder and harder to make time to post. I always say that this month will be different, that I will post more, but it never happens. So I’m not going to make any promises, I’m just going to go with the flow and if I feel like blogging, great! If not, well that’s okay too.

Anyway, I was able to find a home for the white stray kitten (see this post if you don’t know what I’m taking about), but the ginger and tabby kittens are still looking for their “furever” home. I have been trying to talk Mike into letting me keep the tabby kitten since that’s the one he likes the best, but so far it’s a no go.

Here in a week, we will be going to Tsubasacon! This will be mine and Raven’s third time attending and Mike’s second. Raven’s boyfriend is going as well. My cosplay isn’t even close to being done, but that’s because it was a last minute idea that I came up with last week. Mike still has some work to do on his and Raven’s is pretty much done, we just need to dye her hair.

I’m going as Barf from Spaceballs

Mike is going as Pyramid Head from the Silent Hill games/movies

Raven and her boyfriend are going as Columbia and Eddie from Rocky Horror Picture Show

I’m hoping that we can actually pull it all off. Sometimes, the ideas you have in your head don’t turn out as good as you originally thought. For example, I decided to make my version of Barf without the wig or mullet like hair and instead just keep my hair long or in ponytails. We will see how it actually turns out.

At the end of June, Mike and I went to Myrtle Beach for a week. Raven didn’t want to go (she said her vacation was having the house to herself for the week) so she stayed home and took care of the cats. To say I was nervous about being away from her and the cats for a week is a bit of an understatement. I called her daily and texted her several times throughout the day for the entire week. I think she got a little perturbed about how many times I was bothering her. If that is how I act when I’m away from her for a mere 7 days, how am I going to handle it when she goes off to college in about a month?

Anywho, despite the worrying about Raven and the cats, I had a great time. Spent the week swimming in the pool, playing in the ocean, walking along the beach, shopping and eating way to much!

We, well mostly I, have already decided that if we take a vacation to the beach again next year, Raven and the cats are coming with us.

So, on to the pictures. Click on the thumbnail to view larger size.

And finally, two videos of sharks at Ripley’s Aquarium.

Tomorrow is the end of week two on the Whole30 diet and, despite the temptations, we’re doing pretty darn good. The hardest part is grocery shopping. We have to check labels because you wouldn’t believe the things that they sneak sugar into. Some of the fresh chicken breasts in the meat department even have sugar added to it. Like what? Why the hell does fresh chicken breasts need sugar? It’s a pain in the ass. Most prepackaged items have unnecessary sugar, corn syrup, dextrose or any of the other 50+ names manufacturers use to hide added sugar. It’s astonishing and more than a bit scary. I mean, if I have a candy bar or a piece of cake, I know I’m consuming an abundance of sugar. But sugar in taco seasoning!? And on that note, I’m looking forward to watching the documentary Fed Up, which is about added sugar in processed foods.

Anyway, because we’re at the halfway mark, I went ahead and weighed myself. And I lost 4 more pounds! That’s a total of 6 pounds in 2 weeks. So, I am pretty happy about that. Two more weeks to go and then we can, if desired, start to reintroduce foods back into our diet. I think, however, that, after this month, we are going to maintain some portion of the Whole30 diet. That doesn’t mean I won’t eat candy, cookies, ice cream, cake, excreta because there is no way I can not have those things for the rest of my life. But I think we will contain to pay attention to labels, try to avoid added sugars and limit the amount of “junk” we eat.

So, tomorrow makes a week of us being on the Whole30 plan and it’s going OK. There are, of course, things I miss. Like cheese on my burgers. If you know me, you know that my number one food of choice is cheeseburgers. When we go out to eat, I will order a cheeseburger 99-percent of the time. I just love them. But since dairy is not allowed on the Whole30 plan, my burgers are cheese-less, which sucks a little. But hey, at least I get to eat burgers.

I also miss my water enhancer that I add to my water. Since January 2014, I switched to drinking water most of the time. Every once in awhile, I would have a cup of apple juice or something like that, but water was my drink of choice. And I would add a few squirts of black raspberry tea water enhancer, which has sucralose in it. But since this diet says No! to sugar and artificial sweeteners, I have to give up water enhancer up for the month.

Miniature Reese’s cups is another weakness of mine that I am craving like crazy. The regular size Reese’s cups and the Reese’s cup minis I couldn’t care less about. The either have too much peanut butter or too much chocolate to peanut butter ratio. But the Reese’s miniatures have the perfect amount of peanut butter to chocolate and they taste so damn good.

But besides those three items, I think I’m doing pretty good. One thing I did do that was a big No-No was stepping on the scale. With the Whole30, you’re not supposed to weigh yourself for the entire time you are on the program. But, if you have been reading my blog for awhile, you know the mental struggle I have with not stepping on the scale. I get anxious if I don’t know how much a weigh. So, on Wednesday morning, I stepped on the scale. And I had lost 2 pounds! Now, I know how weight works. And I know it fluctuates like crazy from day to day. But to say I was happy to see a loss, no matter how small, on the scale is a bit of an understatement. I was ecstatic! Two pounds in five days is pretty darn good. This plan, however, is not supposed to be about weight loss. It’s more about detoxing so-called “bad” food out of your body and hopefully learning how to eat to live and not live to eat.

 

*This post is rather long, may be full of typos (because it can be a bit emotional for me) and is a little all over the place. You have been warned.*

That big decision that I was suppose to decide by the end of January… yeah, I’m still on the fence. But since Mike and I spoke to our parents about what we were considering, I might as well tell y’all.

We are thinking about trying to have another kid. Mike has always wanted to have another kid, but I’m not a baby person. Once they reach 8 months old, I’m fine with them. But the whole pregnancy and baby thing is not something that I like.

I keep going back and forth on the issue. On one hand, I don’t want to start over. Raven will be leaving for college in the fall and if we had another kid it would really be starting over from scratch. But then on the other hand, I like the idea of being able to do things that we were not able to do with Raven because of our situation (being teenagers, living with our parents, et cetera).

Also, I’m worried that I won’t be able to do it. I have very little energy (I have severe iron deficiency, have had it since I was born, so that means I have zero energy and live off caffeine and my prescription iron supplements just to get me through the day) and honestly don’t know if I can handle having another kid. And that scares the shit out of me because it’s not like I can return the kid if I find out I cannot deal with it.

I am also worried how a baby would effect Jedi and Nefarian. I think Nefarian would handle it just fine, but Jedi doesn’t like little kids and stays away from them at all costs. And since my cats are a huge part of my life, it’s only natural that I would consider them in the decision. And there is no way in hell I am giving up my cats, kicking them outside or confining them to a room. I would rather lay down and die than give them up or harm them in anyway.

And, when it comes to pregnancy and babies, I still have that same mindset as my scared 16-year old self. Seriously, I am so worried that if I would get pregnant, my parents would yell at me or something. I am a married, almost 35 year old who owns her own home and has a 17 year old daughter. Yet I’m still worried that my parents would get pissed or try to ground me if I got pregnant. I don’t think it helps the fact that when I told my Mom what Mike and I were discussing she flip her shit and spent 20 minutes on the phone shaming me for even considering it. Yeah, that was completely unexpected. Especially since I don’t ask my Mom for shit and me and Mike raised Raven on our own and she turned out pretty damn well. I ended up spending the next few hours crying my eyes out because of that. My Mom even went as far as to say I wasn’t thinking about Raven or my cats. The funny thing is, Raven has known almost from the beginning that we were considering trying to have another child. She said she doesn’t care one way or another. And we have made it clear that another kid wouldn’t be replacing her, nor would it take over her room. And I consider my two cats in everything I do. They are my babies, always will be, and the only thing that comes before them is Raven. So for my mom to accuse me of not thinking about them is a huge insult to me. Thankfully, my awesome Stepmom said that her and my Dad would support us no matter what our decision.

On the plus side, however, I would like to raise another cat-loving geek. And it would be completely different than the last time since we are no longer teenagers living with our parents. We are responsible adults with our own home, jobs and all that other stuff. And Mike and I already have the names picked out for both a girl and a boy. A guarantee that we would have a boy would increase my desire to have another kid. We already have a girl (full of talent, intelligence and beauty), and it would be nice to have one of each.

The funny thing is, I have being debating this issue seriously for over a year, yet I see women on my Facebook feed who — after dating a guy for a few weeks — announce they are trying to conceive. It’s like, really? Mike and I have know each other since we were 5 years old and have been together as a couple for going on 20 years, and I put more thought into what to eat for breakfast then some people do on whether or not to have a baby.