Friday Randoms

• I haven't done a bullet point post in a while.  
• Gianna went with my parents this weekend camping - she was SO excited! I love their relationship, it makes my heart happy knowing how much those three love each other.  Can't wait until the littlest girls get in on the fun Gram and Papa trips!
• Speaking of littlest girls - I traded a Gianna for my niece Luci for tonight.  That girl kills me.  And, she is the easiest baby ever. Makes babysitting so simple and fun!
• And speaking of MY littlest girl - she has had a tough week.  Tummy troubles, trouble sleeping, lots of crying.  I hate being at work when she is like that.  And I hate even more being a zombie at work on little sleep.
• But this week zombie status hasn't much mattered - it's been a slow one at work.  Which is nice for a minute, but, I do much better on Maximum Busy mode.
• And speaking of that! I might be teaching this fall (or spring).  It's an opportunity that came out of nowhere, but I think it would be good for me to keep my foot in that door.
• I didn't even realize that the 4th of July was next week and that therefore there might be fun weekend festivities this weekend and next.  I love summer fun - it is harder with the babes in tow, but still, next weekend I will have to find something fun to do with the girls while Mike works.
• Do you celebrate the 4th? I'm mostly just excited for a random weekday off of work!
• Last week I had a skin check at the dermatologist (I do mole mapping every year or two) and yet another mole has to be taken off and biopsied.  It's fine, and was expected, and in comparison to what JJ is going through, it's no.big.deal.  So - PSA: get your skin checked. Wear your sunscreen. Etc.
• I am looking forward to our vacation next month SO MUCH! I can't stop thinking about it actually.
• Especially when I am wrapped up in a fleece blanket at my desk because it is OMGFREEZING in my office.
• My sister and I are splitting a summer share from a local crop share arrangement - this week's share had cherries that were SO GOOD. and we are doing stir fry tonight! And I am going to make some baby food for Miss A if I am feeling really ambitious!
• I think I moved everything over to Feedly from Reader okay - I am crossing my fingers that I did it right anyway....

On-line action & dating

More summer camp fun coming your way:

Day 23 – What are your favorite activities to do on-line? Is there more to do beyond blogging?

Since I do most of my blogging “off-line” thank you windows live writer, I say yes! there is more to do. Like shopping! And blog reading! And FB Stalking!

No really, I find myself really BORED with the internet lately, it’s a strange feeling.

Day 24: What is your dream date? Have you ever dated anyone you met from the internet?

I have no idea what my dream date would be – isn’t that totally lame? What is yours? If it sounds good maybe I’ll borrow it!!  I started dating the hubs in high school, so no internet dating for me. I know quite a few people that are happily married to their internet dates!

Friday Night Leftovers!!

• Thank you to the lovely Danifred for hosting this – it helps me out so much each week! Be sure to visit the other leftover-er’s too!
• Tomorrow is the BIG **SOLD OUT!!** EVENT!! I am so stoked for what we have been able to do for this family – I hope it puts a huge smile on their faces knowing how many people, from all of the WORLD, care about them are are in their corner.
• Speaking of – only a few more hours left on the online auctions – I will fight you for that shower head!
• We cooked the pasta for tomorrow, or I should say my amazing Mom did the bulk of that – she is totally awesome. Pasta for 200, coming right up!
• Summer camp prompt: I don’t know if I have ONE favorite childhood memory, but 98% of my favorite memories involve my grandparents – one of the best things was going to the local ice cream shop with them and being able to eat as many 25 cent twist ice cream cones as I could! I can’t eat twist ice cream without thinking of that and smiling.
• 2 year olds are so funny – since potty training ended on a sour note – Gianna has decided to scream NOOOO each time we mention going to the bathroom. It’s stellar.
• Also, she just cracks me up. The one-liners she unknowingly spits out kill me. Today? She was “sweeping” at my mom’s and told me she had to finish her morning duties! (a’la Cinderella)
• She also got to hang out with Baby Mia for a little bit today and she is just so funny when she sees a baby – makes the uterus ache, that is for sure!
• Looking forward to a huge day tomorrow – can’t wait to report back with an event recap and fundraiser totals!

Summer Camp Ketchup & Stuff

I have totally been a slacker with my Summer Camp posts – but I am going to do a quick & dirty catch-up

Day 13: The best job I ever had was when I was in high school/college – I worked at a group home for DD adults and it was the most rewarding thing I have ever done! And I had awesome coworkers who I am still friends with, BONUS! I am sure I blogged/read blogs at my last job – I really disliked it.

Day 14: I normally dress in a dress during the summer – I am a dress whore. In the fall/spring – jeans and a cute top. Winter – I try not to go anywhere, I hate the cold!  I think bloggers are cooler than everyone else, so that naturally means they dress better!

Day 15: College was a whirlwind – I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 20 months, worked part-time & still had a good time with my friends! I went out with my friends a lot, but I wasn’t really involved in much besides research. [SUPER NERD!]

Day 16: Not a whole lot of my “in real life” friends blog or tweet – isn’t everyone active on facebook?! The one thing that I can say – social media has impacted my friendships in that if they read, which most do, I sometimes feel I have to be careful what I write – or they read WAY into something they don’t know all the details about. That can get annoying sometimes, but in general, it’s not a real issue.

Day 17: I love the weekend!!!! Even though our weekends are usually PACKED I still love them. The weekends are actually when I catch up on blogs because my husband works most weekend nights.

Day 18: I could care less about astrology!

Day 19: He likes PDA more than I do, but we aren’t groping each other in public or anything! He knows I blog – I think the only time he has blogged for me is after we had G!

Day 20 – I really don’t know the kindest thing that has ever been done for me… is that sad? I am sure I would blog about it if I could remember!

Day 21: I am a huge name-phobe, that needs to be a whole separate post! I love my name actually. My blog name? I have been wanting to change it for a while – what do you think? Opinions? Thoughts? Suggestions welcome!!

And HIIIIIII to all the ICLWers!!

 

Don’t forget to stop by the Block Party & the Just Relax Online Auction

Beer:Thirty

You know what I love about summer?

Drinking in the daytime. Since we can’t actually DRINK together – I’ll just tell you about it.

Day 12 – Tell us about the first time you got drunk or tipsy (as far as you can remember…) Do you ever stop yourself from telling too much when you write on-line or do you think you tell too much?

I was in high school the first time I got tips-ay, at a friend’s brother’s apartment. It was probably off of something ridiculous like wine coolers, and I am sure I felt all kinds of cool for sneaking around. But, that’s about as much as I can remember.

I like a good beer. or a good wine. or whatever. I’m not all that picky.

I am not a drunk-dialer or texter. But I am a talker. WOAH look out.

I do sometimes top myself online, but not really usually. This is my special place on the internet, you don’t have to read it but writing whatever I want is like therapy for me. My mom FOR sure thinks I overshare sometimes, but again, my internet my choice!

What about you? Tell me about your tips-ay experience and your oversharing abilities!

Summer camp Catch up

I need to catch up with all my other campers!

Day 8 – If you had to teach something, what would you teach? (If you DO teach, when did you discover your love for teaching/the subject?) Do you think blogs can play a role in education?

I actually DO teach – something I never ever in 3857309 years thought I would do. I teach anatomy (and other medically related courses) to allied health students. It was something that kind of just fell in my lap and I ended up liking it. Liking it so much that I want to get a PhD and keep on teaching. Bizarre how life works sometimes!

Blogs absolutely can play a role in education – both for children AND adults. As I was finishing up my Master’s this year I connected with quite a few other bloggers/tweeters who were also continuing their education, working full time and being a parent. It is SO nice to have that kind of connection, especially when the wheels don’t want to turn anymore.

Day 9 – What is the most important lesson you learned from your own mother (or other primary caretaker)? What do you imagine the name of your Grandmother’s blog would be and what would she write about?

Oh this is so hard and should really be a post all in it’s own. I ADORE my mother. For a million and 2918 reasons, she is amazing to me. She keeps  me grounded, makes me laugh, supports me and loves me all the time.

The most important lesson I have learned from is probably the hardest one I have had to experience – we all know that things happens for a reason, everything in life does. But if you don’t get up, dust yourself off and keep moving forward – you’ll never know the reason. And you’ll never learn anything from it.

My mom has been through a lot in her life, but you wouldn’t know her struggles by looking at her. You would simply see a woman who loves her family more than anything, who smiles often and has the most comforting hands in the world.

I am blessed to have her hand to hold, because sometimes, being an adult SUCKS and a girl just needs her mama.

My grandmother was an equally amazing woman – I don’t know what it would have been named, but it certainly would have been whitty and full of information you didn’t know you needed to know. Like how important it is to use a separate spoon for the pasta and the sauce.

Day 10 – Share your favorite recipe (or two) (see! You CAN be a food blogger!)
I am not much of a recipe person – but sometimes I share here when something comes out really yummy.

One of my favorites is Mac & Cheese Soup. Because it’s macaroni and cheese soup!!!

Read more: 31 Days of Blog Juice at Creating Motherhood

Adventurous eats

I have to combine days 6 & 7 of summer camp because well, yesterday was spent poolside with my peanut!

Day 6: When was the last time you tried something new? What was it and what was the result? Have you ever done something just so that you could blog about it?

I feel like I try new things all the time – the newest was potty training! The result? FAIL! for now, we’ll get there.  I also tried AboutOne – and I did blog about it!

I really want to try a green smoothie (learned about them through my LeanGreenYOU lifestyle bootcamp) but have yet to build up the courage to do it!  When I do, I will SOOOO be blogging about it.

I really enjoy documenting new things, my brain is usually quite dusty so it helps if I ever want to reference an event or product or experience.

How about you? What adventures have you gone on lately? How do you remember them?

Day 7 – What’s your favorite thing to eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner? Do you read food blogs or would you ever consider writing one?

My favorite foods are so basic, probably because I am not really awesome at cooking and have 2 incredibly picky eaters in my house. I try to meal plan but that has been a huge challenge with the summer being so busy.

Breakfast foods could (and often are) eaten at all hours of the day. I LOVE pancakes. Probably  more than I should. 

Lunch is usually something easy, my favorite lunch foods are pb&j and mac & cheese.

Dinner? Pasta made by my mom! Or this awesome bruschetta chicken dish that I make – it’s really super tasty.

I don’t think I have ever read a food blog, but maybe I should. My menu ideas are getting a little stale. I would probably never write one, unless I figure out how to feed a houseful of picky eaters and not have waffles, chicken nuggets or pizza at every meal.

Do you read [or write!] food blogs? I would love some referrals!

Celebration, birthday style

It’s day 5 of summer camp and today we are talking about birthday celebrations around the campfire.

My rules about birthday celebrations are simple: they last for a week, include lots of family time and something fun to do.

Since my birthday lands on or near the holiday weekend that signals warm weather ahead – it’s usually pretty easy to come up with something fun to do!

I don’t have a “preference” on how I spend the day – just that I am with the people I love.

And since I share a birthday – she always has to be there too.

Being a grown up is…..

Day 4 of summer camp and today’s topic is: What has most surprised you about being an adult? What have you learned about yourself through blogging?

This is kind of a funny topic because a lot of times I don’t feel like an adult – I mean yes, I do a lot of adult things every day, but I don’t always FEEL grown up or qualified to be an adult.

One of the most surprising things to me in regards to adulthood is how different it is than I ever imagined it to be. I don’t know what I thought being adult would be like when I grew up, but it wasn’t anything like my life!

I guess I thought it was all 8-5 jobs, family dinners, carefree weekends, 2.5 kids and a white picket fence.

As we all know, that is pretty far from my truth.

I work random hours, mostly in my PJ’s, cook dinner on occasion because I live with 2 VERY picky eaters, have jam-packed weekends filled with extended family and 1 very rambunctious toddler. Our house doesn’t have a white picket fence, but it has awesome blue walls and gorgeous black & white pictures all over.

We have our own normal, our own way of doing things that generally works pretty well, our own {constantly evolving} definition of being grown up. I can tell you that I didn’t ever feel “grown up” though until we bought our own home last year, that was the one day that I said “okay, NOW I am an adult”.

Through blogging I have learned that I am qualified to be an adult, a wife, a mother because it is as good as I make it – not what everyone else expects. I’ve learned to use my voice not only through writing but in real life and for that, I am most proud.

How about you? What does “adulthood” feel like to you?

What’s your pleasure

Day 3 of summer camp and we are going to discuss guilty pleasures. I have a few too many.

crockpot chocolate cake. OMG it is to.die.for good. Not good if you are watching your figure – unless of course you want to watch it expand.

Target. Gianna loves her some Target as well. Only the cool chic’s go there.

Beverages. Both of the alcoholic and coffee varieties. I drink water the most though. Really, I do…..

Shoes. I have a 50 pair shoe rack that is bursting at the seams and I often say “I have no shoes to wear with this outfit!”. (seriously, I don’t).

My phone. I’m on it way too much. But how else can I keep up with twitter and play WWF?

What’s YOUR pleasure?

Friday Night Leftovers: I’m going to Summer Camp ed.

• Because I have never been to summer camp {because I don’t like bugs}, I had to take Calliope up on her offer that doesn’t include bugs. It’s a bloggy summer camp!
• I’ll normally be blogging camping from here – the corner of the couch where the cute girl is sitting, that’s MY spot. Good thing I am a good share-er.      
• I wish I could normally blog from here. Less sandy than the beach, equally good view.
• Since we have been in the potty training bootcamp this week, I am ready for something a little more fun than watching my daughter for “cues” on when she has to eliminate her waste and BEING SOOOO.EXCITED EVERY TIME SHE DOES IT WITHOUT PEEING ON THE PRINCESSES
• She is doing really well, she has her moments, but she’s 2 so I will cut her some slack. For now.
• We have been working hard on the Just Relax fundraiser for the Knepper family – I can.not believe it is in 3 weeks!! A few tickets are still available and donations are still being accepted – contact me ASAP!
• Speaking of donations – I am working on a way to get you ALL in on the silent auction action. We have some really fabulous stuff and we wouldn’t have most of it without the amazing people in the internet. Stay tuned, more details soon.
• I can’t believe it is July. What the heck happened to June?
• In 12 days I am going away for a week. Without my husband. Or my child. (it’s for a  Premier Designs conference – it will be fun! Want to get a first look at our new jewelry and get your favorite pieces for free? email me!) to DFW. Very excited to meet a good bloggy friend while I am there, but suddenly feeling very apprehensive at leaving my family for so long.
• If you are visiting from summer camp – say hi! stick around – I’ll make s’mores, or s’mores flavored coffee – whatever your pleasure.
• Trying to decide if we should take G to see fireworks this weekend. It could go great or be disastrous.

Visit Danifred for more leftovers, maybe she has s’mores too!