Month in Review: July 2015

1. Dead Mountain by Donnie Eicher

This was a history book, and the best history book I've read in a while.  I recently learned about the Dyatlov Pass Incident on a history podcast, and I became really fascinated. And when I become fascinated by something I want to learn all about it. This book details his theory of what happened, and I feel like he has good supporting evidence. The last chapter of the book is absolutely riveting and heartbreaking, as he recreates how he saw their deaths occurring. 

2.The Princes in the Tower by Alison Weir

Since I've been reading the War of Roses Series lately, and now I know all the key players, I became interested in learning more about the disappearance of the princes in the tower.  At times I got confused in the book, and at times it was a little bit of a dry read. But overall I enjoyed it. And my verdict? Richard III is totally guilty! 

3. Seen, Unseen Disneyland by Russell Flores

This was a quick little read, mostly pictures and trivia. It highlights all the small details that most people miss when walking around Disneyland. I enjoyed it, although it was nothing too surprising. But I will definitely noticed those little details when I'm in California next month!

4. Down the Rabbit Hole by Holly Madison

I devoured this book in two days. I really, really love juicy memoirs  like this. If this book is to be believed, Hugh Hefner is quite the controlling fellow and somewhat of an arse. And I do tend to believe her, but there are two sides to every story. But the book is a really fun read, and I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in the history of playboy or The Girls Next Door. Even if it is just a passing curiosity. 

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The Weekend Report

This weekend flew by, but I have no complaints, as I am actually ready to start the work week! This will be the last week of summer camp at work, and then I can get back to work being just regular work. Which is good because I'm utterly exhausted.

Saturday morning, I woke up early @ 6:30 a.m! How totally unfair and awful is that? 6:30 a.m. on a Saturday! Adam didn't get up till 10:30 a.m (that was when I decided I could no longer deal with the boredom and woke him up, ha), and I convinced him we had to go out for the day. 

We headed down to a local shopping area, Bridgestreet, and grabbed lunch at a new place that had just opened up, BJ's Restaurant and Brewhouse. We were excited about this because we had frequented one when we lived in California. I got the honey sriracha brussel sprouts for my whole meal, and they were so good! Adam thought I was crazy for ordering brussel sprouts anyway, it was even worse to him that it was my entree. No regrets.

Next, we hit up Steel City Pops for some dessert. I had been wanting to stop by this place for a bit, but I just hadn't gotten the opportunity to do so. But I'm so glad we did, I got a strawberry shortcake one, and it was AMAZING. Now I must try all the flavors (Adam got nothing, what a party pooper). I had put try Suzy's Pops on my summer manifesto as #8, but I'm substituting Steel City Pops there instead. I'm thinking a gourmet pop is a gourmet pop!

We headed home after that, and spent all day on the couch being lazy with Linky (playing video games and catching up on shows). 

Sunday, I tried to surprise Adam by making him waffles for breakfast. I had to go the dollar store to pick up some stuff we needed. I was going to get his regular chocolate chips, but I decided to get fancy, and try out reeses peanut butter chips.  The breakfast was an epic fail, and not just because I realized we had no syrup after the first trip to the store, so I had to go back (boo). Nope, I went too heavy on the chips, so it was more like eating straight peanut butter than a waffle. But Adam pretended to like it anyway. I guess he loves me.

Now I'm sitting here watching TV with Adam, mentally getting ready for the week ahead. Let's do this thing. 

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Project Life 2015: Week 29

I had originally planned to use a new project life kit I recently purchased this week (The Adventure Edition), which I love so much. But so many of these pictures were so summery, that I thought I needed bolder colors, so I went with my strawberry kit instead. I like the choice. 

Week 29 was one hot week, which really influenced the activities this week, and side one really shows this. I wear flip flops and drink sonic unsweet tea nearly every day, so I wanted to show that. I also swam a lot (jumping off the diving board at the aquadome and swimming at the local water park). And we played bingo one day at summer camp instead of taking the kids to the park to beat the heat.

Side two showcases our evening and weekend at the Pop-up Pinball event (and the gelato we shared, yum). I took the graphic advertizement from online and made it extra big, to include in the lay out. I kind of love it because it gives all the details on the event (date, time place). 

First off, I know that I totally used the wrong tense of "dive." And the minute I wrote it, I cringed! But I had already glued down the pictures and used my sticker that came on my sonic drink, so I decided just to roll with it. Even if it tortures me for eons! The Point Mallard logo was cut up from the bracelet they give you at the park, so you can reenter without paying again. I'm trying to use more ephermera (a fancy word for all those little paper items you collect in my layouts).

Materials Used:

Project Life: Strawberry Kit

Studio Calico: Park Ave Kit and Love Stamp from Fairground Kit

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Just Keep Swimming

I may have been born a Taurus, but I should have been born a water sign because I've always loved to swim. In fact, I don't remember not knowing how to swim. As a young girl/tween/teen, I would spend all day at the pool at my grandmother's country club every summer. I loved those summers! There was sun bathing and going for dips when it got too hot. I could order whatever I wanted to eat, charge it to grandma's tab, and eat it pool side. It all felt so fancy.

And although I continued to swim throughout the years, as I became overweight, I, of course, started to feel ashamed of how I looked in a swimsuit. Especially the tortuous chore of trying of swimsuits.

This year was the first year I didn't have to go to a plus size clothing store and spend nearly 100 dollars for a swimsuit. I was able to get one off the rack at Target. It wasn't the biggest size available, and it was not in the plus size section. And I feel really good in it, dare I say cute?  Losing 200 lbs will do that for you!

During our summer camp at work, we take the kids swimming every week. For the first two years of the program, I would never get in the pool with the children. I didn't want the children to say anything about my weight. Children have always had a tendency to comment on my weight, which has never bothered me! But when other adults would hear the comment, they would often start lecturing the child, which was mortifying. 

This year I have gotten in the pool with the children, and they love when I do. And this last week, I even jumped off the diving board for the first time in years and years. Now that I'm not scared of people watching me, I wanted to go for it. Jumping off the diving board was exhilarating and slightly terrifying. 

I did it several more times. 

I spend a good deal of my summer time at our local water park, mostly floating on the lazy river for hours and hours (Summer Manifesto #5).  It is so freeing to splash around without a concern about how my body looks, or what people may be thinking about me.

Last Sunday, I decided I wanted to try a slide there, known as the space bowl. A type of ride that I had ridden a few times at a water park close to where I grew up in St.Louis. So I did. I actually ended up not liking the ride, I fell down too hard and water went up my nose in the most miserable way.

But the point is I would (sadly) of never had the courage to go at all, if I wasn't at the weight I am now. I wouldn't want people watching me, I always thought I stood out (although this is probably was just self-absorption).

But I have to say that summer is great this year, and life is pretty good. Small victories are still happening everyday, even a year and a half past my surgery! What more could I ask for?

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Pop-Up Pin Ball

I had such a really bad week. One of the hardest ones in my working careers, there are a lot of factors that lead up to it, both personally and professionally that I won't get into, but for the first time in the history of ever, I had a complete meltdown, and cried in front of my boss. And it was one of the most mortifying moments ever! It culminated in me sitting in a nearby park, crying to Adam, saying "How can I even go back there?" "I'll never go back there." I'm nothing if not dramatic.

I'm sure this has happened to others, but I've never done it, and I'm just worried I came off as an emotional basket case. Although hopefully the fact that I have been completely level headed over my 3 years with the company will give me some credibility.

So to say the least, I was looking forward to the weekend.

Adam and I had heard about a pop-up pinball event in downtown Huntsville. And we truly love some pinball. We always scope them out when we stop by arcades, and we often talk about wanting to one day own a pinball machine. So we were stocked.

There were three machines (ACDC, Spiderman, and Monopoly), and the event organizers kept up with the high scores, to have a little competition. We played all the games several times, and never even came close to placing in the top three. But we didn't care, we were just having a good time.

Adam got to geek out with some local pinball aficionados, and it was so good to see him having such a great time, as he is usually pretty chill about everything we do. Like he will go do anything I want to do and he has a good time, but he is not ever totally enthralled like he was Friday night.

It was hot, hot, hot! So we took a quick break for some Birthday cake gelato from Sam & Gregs. Yum.

We probably played and chatted with everyone for about two and a half hours, before heading out to grab some dinner from Mellow Mushroom. We joked and played around so much in the restaurant. I was so happy to have such a great evening after such an awful week.

The good news is we learned they we be setting up a pinball arcade in Huntsville some time soon, Pints & Pixels, and we just can't wait.

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Project Life 2015: Week 28

I really look forward to my Friday afternoons. I get off work a little early, and I typically do my weekly scrap-booking then, while I catch up on podcasts. It is a nice, slow kick off to the weekend.

For week 28, I featured the typical daycare drop off, my car reaching the 100,000 miles mark, my new obsession with eating popcorn, a beautiful sky on the playground, and a dinosaur craft we did with the kids at work.

We also had this moment at work where it took 3 of our junior staff helpers to lower our basketball goal (The circles are where I had to block out children's faces for privacy reasons).

Side 2 was just about the weekend.  I worked out at Pure Barre, I went to the local farmer's market, and Carlee joined us for the week. I also wanted to feature a book I just finished reading, Dead Mountain, because I loved it so much. 

I just wanted to do a few close up shots of some of the details!

One thing I did differently this week was I ordered my prints from persnickety prints instead of wal-mart. And I'm really liking the results, although it is a few dollars more expensive. But worth it! I also resigned up for studio calico. I went one month without it, and I just missed it so much! And as you can see these pages were made almost exclusively from their Fairground kit.

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A Morning Kerfuffle

As mentioned previously, Carlee is visiting for the week, which always leads to its own set of challenges and hi-jinks. Being that Carlee is a calm dog of a distinguished age, and Link is a rambunctious puppy. Morning times are particularly interesting, because I am trying to get two dogs fed (who are very excited), while also preparing Carlee's cocktails of vitamins, thyroid pills, and arthritis pain killers. 

Carlee's pain killers go into pill pockets, which are tasty treats that you place pills in for dogs who don't like to take pills.I have to hold Link back by his collar to keep him from taking Carlee's pills every single time. This is exactly what I did on Thursday morning. And everything was going fine, until I glanced down and realized one of Carlee's pain pills did not make it into the pocket, and it was sitting on the counter.

Carlee is notorious for not wanting to take pills, and always sniffing them out. But It was such a tiny pill, so I thought I would just put it in her food bowl with her breakfast, and she would never know the difference. Right? Wrong!  After she wolfed down her breakfast, and I let the dogs out to do their business, I saw the little white pill sitting neatly beside her food bowl. She had found that TINY sucker, and she wanted me to know that she knew what I had attempted to do, and it didn't fool her. 

I had no choice but to break out another pill pocket. I got the treat ready, and let Carlee in as she was at the patio door barking to be let in. Link was nowhere in sight, so I left the patio door open, expecting him to come in a few minutes later.

I gave Carlee the pill pocket, and she accidentally dropped it. And in that split second, Link swooped in from out of nowhere, and faster than greased lightning ate Carlee's pain pill. I was just in shock. I don't know how he even saw it on the floor!

Once the shock wore off, I was concerned because my 35 lb beagle just swallowed a heavy duty pain pill intended for a 65 lb Labrador retriever....I didn't quite know what to do.

I always take Link upstairs before I head out for work, and let him sleep with Adam for a couple more hours. I woke Adam up becase I wanted Link to be supervised, so we could make sure he didn't need a trip to the vet.

I called Adam a few hours afterwards to check in on our little pill popper, and he said he seemed lethargic for a while, but then he was our regular, perky pup. No harm, no foul.

 He is our Stinky Linky after all.

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