It's Aliiiive

Guess what! I'm alive. :) Life has been INSANE but is finally settling back into a rhythm. Let's see what has happened. My hubby turned 30, his grandfather passed away, his dad got sick, CJ and both got sick twice, I started teaching first grade (WHAT!?), I finished another semester of grad school, we moved from NH to MA, and chaos has reigned supreme in our life. We still aren't completely unpacked since I only have Saturday to get it done and have to spend the rest of the days educating some children. I promise the blog will slowly but surely come back to life. Pin It

Too much

Me when my alarm goes off at 6am.

Between teaching full time for the first time ever, going to grad school full time, taking care of CJ, moving, planning a bachelorette party/ bridal shower, life has just gotten too hectic for me. Something has to suffer, and I'm afraid it is going to be this blog. I apologize, but it's just the truth.

I will continue to post, but it will be sporadic and random at best. I would love some guest posts if any of you are interested, just to keep things fresh. Hopefully I will be able to get into a routine and be able to get on here once in a while. Don't worry sponsors, your posts will be scheduled as promised.

I know Big Ang, I know!

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Saving the world, one blog at a time

I'm alive!!! School has been crazy, and it is absolutely kicking my butt. We are out of the house almost all day everyday, so I haven't had time to sit and read all my favorite blogs and write all my blog posts. It makes me sad. The good thing is, some of my classes have given me some awesome fodder for my blog. The bad thing is, one of my classes has me going through quite an existential crisis.

I have always been a bleeding heart. I want to save everyone and I want everyone to love everyone and for the world to be a happy wonderful place. Unfortunately it is not. I feel like I am not doing enough to make the world a better place. I love this blog. I love all the people I've met through it. I love the blogging community. But I can't help wondering if I could be doing more. How can I use this blog (or maybe a new blog) to help make the world a better place?

Don't worry, the blog isn't going to change overnight. I'll still have my reviews and giveaways and posts about books and education. I just wanted to share where my head space is currently. I look forward to seeing you all along the way. Pin It

Happy birthday to me!!

Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday dear meeeeee, happy birthday to me!

For reals though, happy birthday to me.

As of 5:39 Eastern Standard Time, I am 28 years old. Wahooo! My mom said she couldn't believe her baby girl was turning 28 and I said "I know. You are SO OLD." Hehe.

I am sure that we will have a low key day today. Might go see the Tall Ships. Might get a pedicure. I'd love to get a facial. Spend time with my hubby and my baby. Maybe go to dinner with some friends. My mother-in-law took me shopping today for some summer clothes. I was in desperate need of some new clothes. I am not a size 10 anymore, no sirreebob.

In honor of my 28th birthday, I wanted to list and share with you 28 things I am grateful for.

28 Things to Be Grateful for on my 28th Birthday

1. My husband who works his hiney off for us.
2. My son who works his hiney off to drive me nuts, but is freaking adorable while doing so.
3. My health. I may be in pain from time to time, but I'm alive and not sick.
4. My in-laws. I lucked out when it came to my in-laws. I am so grateful for each of them, especially my mother-in-law. And how many people can say that? 
5. My mom and her health. My mom had a scare recently with breast cancer. She had some chemo and the growth shrunk and hopefully will not come back. 
6. Old friends. I may not see them very often, but they are all just a phone call away.
7. New friends. Those I've just met but seem to have known forever. 
8. My college acceptance. I found out yesterday that I've been accepted into a Master's in Elementary Education program. So excited to go back to school!
9. My family. They're mostly crazy but I love them anyway. 
10. The VA (Veteran's Administration). Thanks to them, I'm going to be able to go to school for my Master's. 
11. The Army. It valiantly tried to kill me, but I got to meet so many amazing and wonderful people that  it was all worth it. 
12. Books. Books are what gave me dreams and showed me the much bigger world out there.
13. Music. It has provided the soundtrack to my life. 
14. The moon. I just love the moon.
15. Stars. For giving me something to teach CJ to wish on.
16. My dog. She may be the laziest dog ever, but she's my Kamipoopaloo.
17. Blogging. For introducing me to a wonderful world of people I never would have met. 
18. My bed. For being really comfy and having the perfect little divot for me to sleep in while still having my hubby just a stretch away. 
19. My grandmothers. I have 4 grandmothers still living. A great-grandmother, step-grandmother, and both my parent's mothers. I may not see them much, but I am grateful for all I've learned from them. 
20. My village. It truly took a village to raise me, so I'm thankful for all of those who helped out.
21. Laughter. For keeping me sane.
22. Myself. Because I am awesome.
23. Delicious food. Usually cooked by my hubby. Yummy.
24. Egypt. It's always been my dream to go there and I did and I still love it.
25. The ghetto I grew up in. I survived and I don't ever have to go back unless I want to.
26. Rain. Is there anything better than the sound of rain and the feel of a cool rain on a hot day? I don't think so. And the smell? Heavenly. 
27. Hot showers. For helping me relax while also getting less stinky. Appreciate it.
28. God. I know most people thank him first, but I wanted to list all of the things that I wouldn't have if it weren't for him and his plans for me. 

I will not be blogging tomorrow, so you might not hear from me. Have a great weekend. See you on the flip side. 

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Moments I Am Most Proud Of - Listable Life

Listable Life - Moments that I am Proud of. 


I like to link up with Listable Life every once in a while. This was a post I planned on writing eventually, so now I got a little boot in the fanny to go and write it. Here are five moments in my life that I am proud of. In no particular order...

Surviving childbirth - I thought that being pregnant for 9 months was going to be the hard part. Not so. I was very lucky to have an amazingly easy pregnant. Don't hate me, but I never threw up once. I had plans for how my labor was going to go. I wanted it as simple and natural as possible. Well, that was not to be. Someday, when it isn't such a painful memory, I will share the full story of my son's birth. I will tell you that after 51 hours of labor, I had an emergency C-section. Because they waited too long after my water broke, I got several infections and ended up in the ICU. I was separated from my son for several days. But I survived. Are all my baby-making parts still intact? I suppose we will find out if I ever get pregnant again. But I'm alive, and so is my absolutely perfect baby boy. So it was completely worth it. (Not that I ever want heart failure ever again.)

PS. If anyone knows my battle buddy, Cox,
please let me know. I miss her terribly.

Graduating Boot Camp - I attended a military college, so you would think that I would be disciplined and in good shape before I got to basic training. Yea, not at all. They made it really easy to get away with doing the bare minimum of everything. It was almost a joke, how little  can we get away with today? So I sort of slid right through military school. I thought basic might be the same way. And in some ways it was very easy. There was a lot less yelling than there was at military school. But physically, I got my ass handed to me on a daily basis and then thanked my Drill Sergeants for the privilege. Basic training was hard. Don't let anyone tell you differently. If the physical demands don't kill you, dealing with unwashed barbarians on a daily basis will. Having every freedom taken from you and then feeling like you won the lottery just to get a tiny morsel of humanity back. Basic training really did break me down and then build me back up. Sometimes I wish my Drill Sergeant could come and be in charge of my life to keep me from becoming lazy again. So I'm extremely proud that I graduated and I didn't even have to kill one of my redneck battle buddies. "But Bigfoot isn't in the bible. That's how I know he doesn't exist." <- words actually spoken to me at basic training.

Leaving the United States - Not many people from my hometown ever leave the state, let alone the country. I vowed that I would not be like that. I wanted to see the world, explore whole new worlds. I knew that someday I would escape and be able to leave the country. Even before I joined the Army, I made that happen. I even got to go to the number one place I had wanted to visit since I was a child - Egypt. I'm very proud of myself for making that happen. I remember looking up at the sphinx and thinking to myself, wow, this little girl from the ghetto really is standing where so much history has happened. And then a little man tried to kidnap me on a donkey.

Marrying a good man - I never had many good male role models. I had a few, but not many. It seemed like most of the men in my hometown were not interested in doing much with their lives. I knew I was destined to leave, so sticking with some guy who was content to live in Lynn, Ma his whole life just wasn't going to work for me. I met Craig in college, but we didn't really know each other at all. Then I re-met him when I was stationed in Korea. And then I married him. :) It was almost exactly that quick. I thank God that I married a good, strong, hard-working man. We don't always see eye to eye, but he loves me and is good to me. He works very hard to take care of his family and I know he would do anything for us. Love that man. I'm proud of him, and I'm proud of myself for not marrying an alcoholic, drug-abusing, wife-beating kind of man. That is kind of rare in my family.

One of the greatest nights of my life. 

Being a positive person - There are many reasons that I could be a negative angry person today. But I'm not. I dealt with some horrible things, abuse, homelessness, neglect. I could have very easily become a victim of my upbringing and my environment. I won't lie, I wallowed in self-pity for a few years of my life. Then I got over it. Life was too short and filled with too many good things to allow myself to be a negative person. I saw those around me who responded to their lives with negativity. They never enjoyed the good things, even if there were few of them. I resolved not to be that type of person. I'm not perfect, and I get angry, and I have days where I just want to cry. So I allow myself to feel that emotion, and then I move on. I have a husband to love and a baby to take care of. I don't have time to focus on all the negative things happening in the world today. So I'm proud of myself for being able to do that.

So what are you most proud of? Leave a comment below, or write a blog post about it. Then click on the box to be taken to Moments that Define Life and link up. Pin It

Menu Plan Monday & Busy-ness

So this month is crazy busy, but all in a good way. We went to a baby shower on Sunday for one of our college classmates. This weekend we are going up to Vermont for the wedding of another classmate. Life changes all around! We are also still settling into the house. CJ lets me empty out about one box a day. Other than that he needs my attention 24/7. The hubby is working 12 days in a row. IN A ROW. So we haven't seen much of him. I'm excited to spend the weekend as a family up in Vermont. It should be beautiful out. If you've never been to Vermont in the Spring, it is gorgeous.

Here is our menu plan for this week. Since we are going to be busy, I'm planning some quick and easy dinners. I'm going to get a rotisserie chicken and use that in a couple of meals. But anywho, here's the plan, along with links to where I got the recipes. Thank you Pinterest. 

Monday - I ordered subs. 

Tuesday - Sloppy Joe's.

Wednesday - Chicken Caprese.

Thursday - Pepperoncini & Chicken Salad.

Friday - Quinoa & Black Bean Salad. 

Oh, I also wanted to mention that there was a turkey in our yard today. A wild freaking turkey. It just strolled right on up the drive into the woods like it owned the joint. It saw me and slowed down just strutting its turkey self. I will eat you turkey. I will cook you in the oven. I don't like birds in case anyone was wondering. The first thing I saw was its leg go behind Craig's car and my first instinct was OMG THERE'S A VELOCIRAPTOR IN THE DRIVEWAY! Completely normal reaction right? But no, it was just a stupid wild turkey.

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St. Patrick's Day and Dog Fights

Don't worry, you aren't about to find out that I am secretly a dog fighter. :)

So how was everyone's St. Patrick's Day weekend? Are you hungover? Just a little bit? Well, then, I'm glad you had fun. Ours was pretty low-key. We hung around the house all day and then the hubby took CJ grocery shopping while I took a nap. When they came home, hubby made a delicious corned beef dinner. Yum! Oh and we watched Boondock Saints. Obviously.

Yesterday, the weather here in Massachusetts was freaking goooorgeous. So we had to get out. After hubby turned the corned beef dinner into a delicious corned beef hash for breakfast, we met up with Craig's sister at the park. The first thing CJ did when we got to the park was climb a set of stairs up to a woman he'd never met before and sit down on her lap. She was nice and didn't mind at all. She and CJ had a little conversation. Then CJ played on the swings for a little while. Kami, our dog, came with us and so we walked her all around the park. This is where the dog fighting comes in.

CJ's new friend. 

There was a dog, a little collie mutt thing. It was bigger than Kami, who is about 25 lbs. This dog was probably about 40-50lbs. Not a huge dog, but bigger than her. He was barking the entire time from where he was sitting by the benches. Well when Kami walked by, about 20 feet away from the dog, the dog FREAKED out and ran so fast that the woman dropped the leash. The dog lunged at Kami and just attacked. It was on top of her in a matter of seconds and was trying to bite her neck. I did everything that you shouldn't do in a dog fight. I jumped in the middle to try to shove him off of her and pull Kami away. Luckily, the woman ran over to and was able to grab the leash and pull him off. Kami wasn't injured, just scared out of her mind. As were we all. The lady was so horrified, she couldn't stop apologizing and asking if Kami was ok. There wasn't anything to be done, it was just a freak dog thing. Kami either smelled wrong to him or reminded him of another dog he wasn't too fond of or something. But Kami is fine now. He didn't manage to bite her, so it was just her pride that was hurt. She did fight him off as best she could though. Poor pup.

After the dog fight, CJ was being so protective of his doggie. Another little dog came over to sniff around her and CJ stood between the two of them so it couldn't get to Kami. Then when it got too close, he gave a little kick at her. He didn't hit it, was just warning it not to get too close. Such a good little brother, protecting his sister.

CJ and Auntie. He alternated between laughing like this and looking like he was going to vomit. 

So this weekend, CJ rebelled against napping. He didn't nap on Saturday just because he was busy hanging out with daddy. Then on Sunday, instead of napping, he threw a full-on fit. He didn't stop crying and screaming for an hour. I know he is getting another tooth, but I don't know if that is what was going on. We tried everything. We snuggled with him in bed, dada snuggled with him in the chair and then on the couch. I finally got him to sleep for about 20 minutes in the bed, but the second he woke up, he started screaming. Any advice on getting a 20 month old to nap?

Attempt #1 - 70 degrees and he needed all of the blankets. All of them. 

Last night hubby and I had a date night. We went to Wendy's (fancy huh?) and then to the movies. We saw Safe House with Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds. Suuuuch a good movie. I'll be reviewing it later this week.

Attempt #2 - As you can see, he wasn't at all tired....

So that was our super-exciting weekend. Now we are back to our regularly scheduled week. Tomorrow, we'll be going to look at the house we might be buying with Craig's mom. We haven't seen the inside during daylight, so I'm hoping we still like it. We shall see. I am also going to be trying to get CJ back on his regular sleeping/eating/napping schedule. I think that is a big part of why he didn't want to nap this weekend.

As far as reading, I've got a bunch of picture books that I'm reading to review in the coming weeks. I've got some netgalley books to read. I'm listening to the audiobook  of The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie. I read half of this book and I really liked it, but the writing is incredibly flowery and descriptive that it started to give me a headache. Hearing it read is much easier. The narrator is doing a wonderful job. I might review this when I'm done too. I have 10 hours of it left since I only get about an hour of it a night. OH! And I'm almost done reading A Dance with Dragons, the 5th Game of Thrones/ Song of Fire and Ice book. I'm so sad! I need George to finish writing book 6 right now. I put off finishing it for months because I didn't want to have to wait years for the next one, but I needed more Tyrion, Jaime, and Jon Snow in my life.

So that's what is going on with us. What are you guys reading these days ? How did you celebrate St. Patrick's Day? Don't forget to enter my giveaways this week.

This post contains affiliate links. If you click on them and purchase from amazon, I will receive a percentage of the price. This money goes towards books and products for giveaways and is much appreciated.

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Apologies then Moving On

I just wanted to apologize that my blog got a little meme-crazy in the past few months. I sort of lost my blog focus for a little while, but I didn't want to abandon you all, so I just did every meme there was. But who wants to read a blog that is nothing but memes? If you wanted that, we'd all still be on myspace, am I right? I'll still be doing memes from time to time, but I won't be doing Meal Plan Monday then Top Ten Tuesday then Wordless Wednesday then Fun Meme Friday. It is just ridiculous.

My goal is to review every week, one children's book, one middle grade book, and then one "other" book. Obviously this won't happen all the time, especially with us moving next month (more on that in a future post) but it will help me to have goals.

I'm also going to stop saying yes to every single review request. I end up reading books that I don't want to read and I just drag my feet getting to them. Not that all the books I am reviewing right now are that way. I am genuinely liking most of the books I review, I'd tell you in the review if I didn't like it, but  I have to wade through some meh books that I have no interest reading to get to the good ones. So I'm only saying yes to books and products that I GENUINELY want to read and/or review.

So now that I got that out of the way, here's some news. We might be buying a house. What!? Serious, this came out of pretty much nowhere but we might be getting a house. I don't want to jinx it until it is absolutely official, but look forward to more information. Pin It

5 People Who Helped Me Become Me - Listable Life

I saw this today over at Counting My Kisses and I decided to join in. She got the list idea from Listable Life. I think about this often, how people become who they are, and how I became who I am. The easy answer is "your parents" but it is so much more than that. They say it takes a village, and I feel like that really is true. This isn't an exhaustive list, I think that everyone who knows me has impacted my life in some way, so these are just a few. So anyway, here's my list.

5 People Who Helped Me Become Me

1. My former best friend - When I was 12, my best friend killed himself. That in itself can have a huge impact on your life. Not knowing what happened or why almost defined me. But because of his death, I grew up, maybe too fast. His death caused me to decide to go to the high school on the other side of town where I didn't know anyone. I didn't want to be that girl whose best friend killed himself. Deciding to go to that school greatly impacted my future. It is where I participated in JROTC, which led to me going to military college (and just going to college), and eventually joining the military. Since I didn't know anyone, I was able to get over being the shy, quiet, weird girl and grow into who I was going to become. That may have happened if I'd stayed on the other side of town, but maybe I would have just gone deeper into my shell and become a completely different person.

2. My grandmother - I call her my grandmother, but she's my former step-dad's mom. She doesn't have to be involved in my life at all, but she chooses to be. For most of my life, she was my hero. We call her Pope Joan for her devout Catholicism. I used to think she had a direct line to the Pope. We've had our moments where we didn't get along, and as I've grown up, I've seen that she isn't the perfect infallible person that I thought she was. But she's human, and a beautiful person, and I'm grateful that she was brought into my life. When I met her at three years old, she said to me "Hello Lindsey, I'm your grammy." I didn't say a word, I just climbed up into her bed and took a nap with her. That says something I think.

3. My Uncle Bob - I realized just the other day that I am at the age now that my Uncle Bob was when I went to live with him and my aunt. I don't know how he did it. At 27, I can't imagine having an obnoxious 16 year old just thrust into my life and having to parent her. Luckily, I have the most awesome uncle ever. He became a father figure without trying. His sense of humor probably saved me from having the worst teenage years ever. He became someone to talk to about anything really. We would talk about crazy things like the JFK conspiracy theories on the way to school. (School that I was supposed to take the bus to, but would miss it and have to wake him up to drive me.) He read me from The Hobbit while I was sick in the ER with SARS. I still remember how he kept giggling because the medicine made me twitch. His letters to me during military school and basic training kept me laughing when I thought was going to die. My aunt says that it is eerie how similar we are considering we aren't genetically related at all.

Uncle Frodo (Bob) and I

4. My first boyfriend Joe - Before Joe, I couldn't even look at a boy, let alone talk to one. He encouraged me to come out of my ridiculously shy shell and get to know people. He introduced me to a whole different set of people that I never would have met and helped me to learn the power of being a woman. That probably sounds corny, but it is true. When someone tells you everyday that you are beautiful, you start to see yourself differently. You start to think, oh, maybe I am an attractive person. Joe isn't really a part of my life anymore, but I am grateful for his having been in my life.

5. Mr. Hancock - At least, I think that was his name. When I was young, I was a "troubled" kid. I got in trouble and fights and raised hell in school. Mr. Hancock was the school therapist. We never talked in his office though. We would take walks around the neighborhood while we talked, we would go get a slice of pizza and talk, we would go to a playground and talk. He was the first adult that I felt listened to me. I can't even remember what he looked like, but I still appreciate his being there for me when I felt like no one else was.

So that's my list. Like I said I could go on and on. My son, my husband, my aunt, my mom, my sister. So many people have come together to make up my amazing and wonderful life. I'm grateful for each and every one of them.

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