This is where i'm at

I had today off.  Its been quite awhile since I've had a day to myself.  It was nice, gave me some time to take a beat and check in with me.  I tend to keep pretty busy.  Work, kids, friends, Netflix!!!  Its not too often that I get a day just to myself :)  It was pretty great, got me to thinking alot.  About a year and a half ago I was in a completely different space in my head and wanted to take this opportunity to blog because I miss it so, and throw out a little update for anyone who is listening and just for myself.  To document it.
I've mentioned before in my online ramblings that I really really enjoy writing, not in a structured way at all, just getting things out of my head and on to paper. Just like chatting w/ an old friend.  So much has changed for me in the last year that I wanna reflect on that :)  I haven't blogged in a few years. Maybe a few private ones.  I haven't even journaled.  I find keeping a journal or diary kind of depressing.  I tend to write all the things that are bugging me in it...which can be very therapeutic.  However I feel that blogging keeps it more on the positive side, its more sharable and its really the things i want to remember, or want other to remember about me :)
I heard a quote awhile ago that i just loved, and did not jot it down as i do with so many quotes that i relate to.  i've even tried searching for it....Google is my best friend. I remember the general idea of the quote, but came up with nothing.  I believe it was from a movie or a trailer.  I'm sad a little this quote didnt make it into my 7th grade quote book journal. Yes Mrs. Miller had us all make journals of quotes so so long ago and I still have mine, I actually have a second one full of all my favorite quotes. Its quite a mess and I cant find any organization in it, but its one of my favorite things :)  So this quote went something like this....we are all just looking for someone to tell our story to and have them relate to it.  im sure there was more to it, and definitely better wording but i just love that idea.  For me life is all about those little moments you connect with another person.  Even if its just for a minute or two.  Its such a wonderful feeling.  Sometimes I think that is part of why I enjoy blogging.  I can ramble on and on and maybe someone can enjoy parts of it, or maybe i will go back and read it someday or maybe my kids will when they grow up and realize they wish they would've hung out with me more when they were teenagers ;)

I love to listen to music when I blog.  It sometimes distracts me and sometimes I cant focus, but it makes me so happy :)  I'm really into Spotify right now, newly converted from Pandora.  We can listen to our head phones at work and don't get great connection so being able to download my music to my phone with them is worth the monthly fee for me, especially since I can choose which songs :)  Im so into Coconut Records right now.  If you havent checked them out, you should.  Its Jason Schwartzman, the actor's solo project, as they say...you know Jason S....Rushmore, Marie Antoinette, a few odd balls like Moonrise Kingdom and Darjeeling Limited. ya know IMDB him, if you dont know IMDB, stop what you are doing and call me, i will walk you thru it, its the best thing since google!  It has all the movie info you could ever need!!!  Ya know your watching a movie and your like who's that actor, what was he in, i like him! and you look him up on your handy dandy IMDB app, and it tells you all his info!!!  Its amazing!  He's an odd ball, I love him, that Jason S man :)  My star soul sister Angela Dollface turned me on to Coconut Records with fun tracts like Nighttiming and West Coast :)

So here i am with my good mood music and tons of thoughts bouncing around in my head ready to share :)  Let me walk ya thru what got me in the bloggy mood today.  So day off, no work, its a Friday.  with me so far?  Im working full time 7-5, M-F now, big change from about a yr ago.  Back then I was working mostly weekends, 5 pm to 5 am and running errands for the restaurant and hauling the kids around.  It left me with much more time to think and blog.  I do my best thinking alone in the car :)  But now I get up at 530 Monday thru Friday and am in work mode until 5 when I run to pick up Tyler and then im in kid mode...homework, Ty's gymnastics,  tired tired.  not that i wasn't tired before.  That was a different kind of tired but I had my mornings free when the kids were at school and I had more time to get lost in my own thoughts.  As us women tend to do...think too much when given a chance.  I like to keep busy or i drive myself nuts!  So this a.m. I got the kids up and dropped them off, it felt odd to wake a little later and not have to get dressed more than some jean's (i opted for the paint stained ones today, since I am behind on laundry) and my favorite item of clothing, my dear friend Hoodie :)  I use to spend so much time driving the kids around and since I started working in Elkhart, Timothy has graciously taken over that responsibility.  I felt a little odd to be back in that position, I had to ask the kids what time they had to be at school.  Tyler made my reunion w/ carpooling quite exciting by poking his straw thru the bottom of his Chic Fil A lemonade and getting his pants completely soaked making a trip past the school and back to the house for a quick wardrobe change!  Then I dropped him off  just a tad bit late, which i hate doing!  Then I had all this free time until 3!  I forgot how nice that is.  Im away from the kids, who really dont require much at the ages of 7 and 14 these days, its not like the wee bit yrs.  I was free, for awhile, where to start!  well lets not get too crazy b/c I had a 1030 apt with the gyno....how fun!  Lets not get into that right now, maybe a topic for another day about all the personal questions they ask you, and things they do to you, but lets not scare the kids today.
Ok what did I do with all this freedom! that I havent had in 13 months....just a day to myself....errands of coarse...Meijer, well Starbucks first :)  i'm addicted!  Had to get body wash, shave gel, etc...only to come home later to discover there were so many more things we needed like toilet paper!  i discovered this because someone used paper towels in the downstairs bathroom and gunked it all up and so the poo didnt flush! i hate running into someone elses mess in the bathroom. People are gross. I live w/ some gross ppl.  It prompted me to write this letter to my fellow house mates this a.m. and a very long text to the boyfriend who is out of town. Which is why I was carting the kids around to begin with.  He was in Indy w/ Melissa and Nadja for a competition, more on that later when I give ya a kid update ;)

So went to store, gyno, then had some hours to spare before I had to grab the kids.  Knew i'd need to get some cleaning done, I really really really hate cleaning!  its not my thing, I live w/ too many people and dont like to even clean up after myself. Working all day then cleaning, not gunna happen, so with my free day, I knew I needed to get some long put off things in motion...the sheets havent been changed in quite some time, which is scary w/ Timothy and Tyler always eating in the bed and boy feet, ewwwwww.  The kitchen is always a mess as is our bedroom.  But I wasnt expecting all I could see in the light of day that I avoid when I get home at 6 and can see it all, like my Christmas tree, yes its still up. I didnt wanna put it up I sure dont wanna take it down.  So I got some cleaning done...and a little project done that i had been putting off but really wanted to get done.  A picture collage for my sunshine friend at work Ms. Linda.  I had tried to make one using an app on my phone and it looked great but then when I had it printed, some pics where pixily and some where chopped off. Blah, so I stopped being lazy and sent them to my email  then saved them to my computer and then uploaded them to Snapfish! love them, great photo printing site if ya dont kno!  Anyways they will be better quality and not chopped off like this....and here is the finished product  which i hope will make Linda's day b/c she is so super nice and I love my little work family

So yes, work, the biggest change in my life this last year.  Where to start, where to start.  Those of you who are close to me will know that working at Vesuvio's and frankly working with Tim was driving me mental!!  The hours were not great for working w/ the kids, and I much rather enjoy being awake during the day then working till the sun comes up. Tim prefers the later, to each his own.  We definitly had different ideas about stuff. I'd been taking for years about getting a job but frankly was scared. I hadnt worked in an office setting, which is what i prefer to being covered in flour and dealing w/ drunk people, in so long I wasnt sure how to get back into it.  So Timothy and I went through a really rough time after the holidays last year, and decided to make some real changes and had did alot of talking which we dont do.  And decided we would keep at it, and got these tattoo's for vday as a reminder that ya know we love each-other and its not all roses all the time... It was  very nice vday gift from Timothy, he is not a tattoo person.  He also took me to Cafe Navare afterwards, so yum!

5 days later I started my job in the account payable department at The Forest River corporate office!

It was a little scary but it was very organized, daytime hours and people left me alone.  It was exactly what  I needed.   A year later, things seem so different from that first month or so that everyone left me alone other than Lisa introducing herself to me, and Kristle telling me that I could listen to music while I worked :)  Now I have so many amazing friends from work, and really truely enjoy going to work every day :)  These girls make work so much more enjoyable!!! I like my job, its easy, there is always stuff to do, and i love the people.  I dont even mind that its in Elkhart, which i was so scared of when the temp agency wanted to send me there :)  Side note, I even made it home last night from the Hacienda in Elkhart without my GPS! WHOOO !   Lori and I went and saw Spanked a 50 shades parody, was pretty good :)

Sitting down today at the real computer not just accessing the internet on my phone today making that collage reminded me of the time spent sitting at this old old computer and a neat little old desk my mom refurbished and just letting the words come out...This tasty wine helped make that possible.  Im gunna have to follow it with some yumminess from the crock pot that I actually made. Which I havent done in so long or im really gunna start rambling and spelling stuff wrong :)

So thats a little update on whats up w/ me...how about a kid update.
This might take a minute we have a few....



Lets start w/ that little cutie Tyler.
He's just getting too dang smart for his own good.  Ha!  Smart and cute, he's already such a handful at 7.  He's been at Liberty in their DEEP program for smart kids, as he would say.  He tells random people like the check out lady at TJ Max, that he's in 2nd grade but does 3rd grade math.  He's a bragger.  And a lover. That kid is so sweet.  We love him bunches :) He is enjoying gymnastics twice a week for about a year now, and is really into Minecraft right now and Diary of a Wimpy Kid books.  Currently watching Charlottes Web on Netflix....he said they are reading in class.  My little bro JM is getting so big too!  He's in kindergarten now!

Lily is next!  She's in full teenager mode these days, complete with boyfriend!  They have been together for over 3 months now, and the are completely adorable together!  She is still playing the clarinet, first chair :) She was on the dance team at school this year and will be in high school next year!  wow i feel old.  she wont let me post a pic to instagram unless its approved, Facebook is probably ok, the kids are so over that now.   This one she took selfie style so I should be safe.  Its from our lunch date a few weeks ago, yeah I never see her anymore b/c of this bf and her friends and youth group that i have to schedule lunch dates with her.  I actually told her it was nice to bump into her in the kitchen a little while ago!  We do try and watch Walking Dead together on Sunday nights!!  We love it!  She has gone thru a few hair color changes this past few years...she wants to go purple over the summer.  And got her nose pieced last summer.  I had to say no to the gages in her ears tho.  the boyfriend has them. She can look at his.

They both are growing way too fast!

Speaking of growning too fast, this next kid wasnt even in kindergarten yet when I met Timothy!  This week she got her license!  Nadja is doing amazing things with her teenage years.  points away from straight A's for her highschool years.  Started a wonderful cake making charity.  And she's so darn cute!  We are all so proud of her, and cant wait to see what she is up to next :)

Jordan! Now this fool is up to some great things also.  He found himself a little hottie and we just love her so much and they are gunna have a little baby boy in June named Liam.  We are so super excited to meet Liam.  And it is so great to see them so young and in love :) Mercedes is such a great little addition to our crazy family!!  They are building a house in Millersberg tho and will be farther away when that little bundle comes.

 

Baby Liam already has that Hines boy nose :)

Bo, last not but not least the oldest one, who is not anywhere near a kid anymore!  Bo just moved back up here from Bloomington recenlty so we dont have too many pics of that fool. He is working for Vesuvios again, driving this time, as he finally got his lisence and a car :)  whoo hoo congrats Bofus, glad you beat Nadja to it!

Here are a few of them joking around on Halloween.  Ethan is getting so big.  Hope to see him more often when he moves up here with Bo.

I think I covered all the kids!  Except the big one!  Timothy is keeping busy as Timothy likes to do.  Working alot, making those pizza's, trying to sneak in a movie or dinner date with us here and there.

What im obsessed with right now!

 Starbucks coffee!!!  So much work, so much sitting on my butt, so many invoices, not enough time!  need my Carmel Macchiato!

Totally obsessed with Walking Dead!  Love Love Love end of the world, what happens next, apocalypse stuff!  Cant get enough of this show, and white trash hottie Daryl, even with all the gore!

Timothy got me hooked on HBO's Girls!  Love Lena Dunham and everything about her! This show is crazy and real and love it!

House of Lies, ok im obssessed with almost anything on shotime...weeds, dexter, Nurse Jackie, The Big C, Californication! Love me some Don Cheadle and Kristen Bell!

Shameless! Jordan told me to watch this and I was like, ehh. idk.  But is so freaking awesome. I love the characters, the city, the shenanigans!  The hotties.  I cant get enough of the Galligers!

Lori at work got me listening to Podcasts.  Love the free entertainment in my ear while im doing my checking and data entry!  The Nerdist always has people I know on the show.  Just listen to Michael C Hall (aka Dexter) Chris Hardwick, who is the Nerdist, and does Talking Dead for those of you who are Walking Dead fans! I love Chris!  Zac Galf..from ya know Hangover was on, and too funny.  Its so easy to listen to at work.  Look at this they should pay me to advertise, ha! and Who Charted has me laughing out loud Howard and Kulap are crazy hilarous!  I use the free app to listen, Beyond Pod.

Ok now im super tired even tho it is 930 on Friday, and im going to go zone out with some tv! love ya all! esp you soul star sister Angela dollface number one fan of my blogging..... ;)

xo

S

Cant wait for....

All this snow to melt! is it spring yet!!!

The new season of Mad Men!  

The animated Wizard of Oz movie

I love fall

I had to pull myself away from Pinterest and Facebook long enough to do a little post about how much i've been looking forward to fall!  I've been thinking about it for awhile now.  Especially since the kids are back to school. I know its not officially fall until the 22nd of this month, but it always feels like fall when the kids are back and school and ND starts playing football.  
Fall is my favorite season.  There are so many things i love about fall.  Wanted to share a few of them.  And a few things i'm looking forward to specifically this fall :) 

First of all fall colors just make me happy.  Especially orange and all the lovely changing of the leaves, not the raking of the leaves but the looking at the warm happy colors makes me smile :)  Orange is one of my favorite colors.  Pumpkins make me super happy.  Pumpkin is just so tasty and definitely the official taste of fall if you ask me.
Cooler weather is another thing im looking forward to.  Im a blue jeans and hoodie kind of girl, not ready yet to put away my flip flops but i'll be happy when im not sweating in my non air conditioned car...

The kids back in school, and me on more of a organized schedule is something ive been looking forward to for a while now.  Both of the kids are at new schools this year and are happy with them :)  Back to school means new school supplies, and new school supplies make me so happy.  reminds me of the line in you've got mail where Tom Hanks says "Don't you love New York in the fall? It makes me want to buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly-sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address."  I know exactly how he feels!  new stuff, blank notebooks and sharpened pencils and the anticipation of going back to school, i love it!

Fall and football are unavoidable. i'm not really a sports person. but i love the football in the fall air.  tailgating and people excited, rooting for their team. the only sport i've ever really followed was ND b/c its local and it affects the whole town business wise.  I do know Vesuvio's is excited for some football money.  i do quite enjoy tailgating w/ my girls on occasion also.  the spirit in the air at the stadium is so fun! ok i think this one of ana and i is st patty's day tent party but its green and there is beer so its pretty much what we'd look like tailgating!

ok this one definitly is tailgating...wonder what happen to that shirt....i bet its hiding in timothys closet...

ok now we really going old school! love my girls!

Halloween is such a fun holiday its changed for me over the years from dressing up w/ the girls and going out to Trumans, and Linebacker, to just friends/family and trick or treating with the kids.  its so fun to watch your kids dress up and go knocking on strangers doors begging for candy!  he he.  This year i dont know if Lily will be dressing up this year but Ty has decided to be Luigi..he has a bit of a Mario Bro's obsession lately...and yeah he says bro's not brothers...ha.

Thanksgiving is my favorite Holiday maybe because i love food and maybe because I was born on Thanksgiving and it means birthday time for me.  The start of the holiday season and is upon us folks! Hobby Lobby already has Christmas stuff out for those of you overachievers!  im looking forward to thanksgiving...i love having everyone over and making tons of food.  
Will be interesting to see if by this thanksgiving lily and i are eating meat.  Lily went Pescatarian on us recently, and is doing so great! No meat this week, and only once i think last week, just fish.  im really proud of her, and frankly very surprised, she's my meat eater! and i've been following it as well, excluding more cheese and dairy than she is tho, aiming towards vegan again. for some reason vegan and fall time go hand and hand for me.  it seems the times i have tried to follow a vegan diet that its been fall.   we are both feeling much lighter and healthier.  my plans in the near future are to be more structured and balanced in what we eat and exercise more!  
Im also excited about TV for the fall.  All the new shows start in the fall.  New Girl being on of my top favs!  Zoey D, is just one of the most awesome people ever!!  She was in my favorite Oz remake, a made for TV movie, TinMan, if you havent seen it, see it!! Its right up there with The 10th Kingdom for me.  I love fantasy :) I use to own it but cant seem to find it anymore...guess it will have to go on my Christmas list this year.

I always think of fall and new tv shows, and more time inside.  although i'm currently watching the 8th season of Grey's Anatomy, love me some McDreamy and McSteamy!!  

Modern Family is my wednesday night favorite!!  Ana and i either watch it together since we do wednesday nights in at my place, i cook she bakes its perfect, especially when there is wine and catching up!  or we text about how much we love Sophia Vergara!  She is hilarious!! Some how i'm i season behind on this show tho...



2 Broke Girls, I love, but never seem to catch it on TV and its not On Demand :(  New Girl also use to be On Demand through Comcast but doesnt seem to be anymore....guess will have to wait for Netflix....Big Bang is always entertaining and i heard this season is the last season for the office so will be definitly interested to see what goes on there!  although its just not the same without Steve Carell... john krasinski, is my fav. as jim tho. for some reason he reminds me of my brother, the oldest one...sometimes i forget i have 3 :)









Some movies i'm looking forward to the fall are....

Well being a huge fan of the Twilight books and enjoying the movies i'm looking forward to seeing what they do with the last movie of the series...breaking dawn part 2!  i love how the books ended. im a sucker for happily ever after! especially if you can live forever with the ones you love!
here is the trailer if you are as excited as me!!  November 16th!
Breaking Dawn Part 2

I am also super excited for The Hobbit movies!  December 14th! which probably is winter but ya know! im super excited about it, i loved it more than the triology and so excited to see what they do with the movie!
The trailer isnt as exciting as i want it to be but i'm sure i will love the movies!
The Hobbit, An Unexpected Journey
I really love Bilbo's home...i think i really could enjoy living in that hobbit hole and hiding out from the world for quite a while!  hobbits dont seem to be stressed they live such a peaceful life, well unless you count the whole evil war thing that happens....but i would enjoy living in the pre war ignorance in Hobbiton

oh my while using google to check how to spell Hobbiton i just realized that you can go to New Zealand and tour hobbiton!! oh my, the first thing i will be buying if i win the lotto!!! i assumed this was out there but i sure never did check and it makes me so super happy that you can go to Hobbiton!!!  Who's going with me. because lily obviously isnt she just looked at me like i was an alien when i told her about it...like she doesnt know what Lord of The Rings is!!!  she's so crazy.

Hobiton Tours

Super excited for new wizard of oz movie! its not till like march of next year but still have to mention it here! james franco and alice and wonderland like oz movie! cant wait!!!

Oz the great and powerful! trailer

Well thats all i can think of for now :)  have an excellent fall everyone!  Fall = fun!

xo

S