2011 Finale

Well my dear friends this is my last post of 2011. It is so weird to think we have gone through another year. I guess it is true what they say time goes by faster when you get older. All the more reason to start doing more things that I want to do. Anyways I figured this would be a great time to recap on the year. Well, I can't remember most of it from month to month but I will do my best.

January- I started my last semester of college ever. I continued to babysit the most awesome kid on the planet. Nothing too exciting here.

February- Can't say much happened here either.

March- Again, I'm beginning to see a pattern here. Oh well, when you are focused on finishing school, there is not much time for anything else. I did go down to Florida for a few days for my spring break.

April- The pattern continues. Along with chaos at the end of the school year thinking for a second I would have to come back for another semester in fall which pushed me to my ultimate limit. This was the point I realized how stressed I was making myself and how much of me I was losing. It was at this time I decided to stop and restart. From that moment on I learned not to let things wear me down and I learned how to deal with stress in a better way. Also I believe this was the time my brother had a collapsed lung.

May- finished my last semester and started my summer classes. Started counting down til when I'd officially be done.

June- The trend continues, school and work. Lots more beach time.

July- I went to North Carolina for the 4th of July with my brother and my aunt and uncle. I believe I posted about this trip and I won't go into detail about it. It was a pain getting there thats all that needs to be said. It was a good time, but after I left I found out that my brother was in the hospital because his lung collapsed again. At the end of the month, I finally drove down to Charleston and died from walking around in the obnoxious heat we had. The city was absolutely gorgeous. I'd go back tomorrow if I could.

August- finished up school. Drove back to WI to live with my friend Aimee. My first weekend back I went camping in Door County. It was a nice trip, but then reality hit and I needed to start looking for a job. God blessed me immediatley and I found a job and was working there at the end of the month.

September- I was no longer allowed to live with Aimee so halfway through the month I moved in with my friend Erin and its been a good time ever since. I started officially working full time and have enjoyed that nearly every minute. My brother also went into surgery to repair his baby lung.

October- Wisconsin was blessed with such warm weather. I managed to make the most of my time outside. I hit up Devil's Lake with Amber and enjoyed the 80 degree weather. I carved pumpkins with Erin, she hasn't done that in years so it was cool to see her excitement.

November- I got the news no child ever wants to hear that my parents were getting a divorce. I didn't take it as bad as I thought I could. But like I said, I've learned to deal with stress and bad things in a much better way. I hung out with 2 friends I haven't seen since my days at MLC and that was fun. I had Thanksgiving with my grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins. I made my first ever pumpkin pie which turned out delicious.

December- I went to my first staff Christmas party and had a blast. I met a pretty nice guy and just waiting to see where that goes. I celebrated Christmas low key this year since my family has had its own issues. We managed to skype each other which was nice. I also receieved a visit from my brother who has been staying with me the past week. He leaves tomorrow. :( Today I'm going over to a friends place who I haven't seen in nearly 2 years and we are getting our drink on. I will fill you in on details tomorrow. I also received my diploma and am an official graduate of Coastal Carolina University. To all those naysayers out there who said I was making a wrong choice or couldn't do it, there is no way, well look at me now biotches!

Overall, it's been a pretty good year. I've learned so much about myself and continue to learn and laugh and love and cry and live. 2011 I say goodbye to you and wish you adieu. Dear 2012, I hope you to be not quite as stressful as 2011 and allow me to learn a lot and experience so much more. Happy New Year to you all!!!

Peace&Love
~L

Cross the Line

I can't believe 2011 is almost over! I feel like I was just writing a post reflecting on 2010. I actually have plans for New Year's Eve and it doesn't involve work! But I will fill you in on those plans in a later post. I will also fill you in on what I plan to accomplish for 2012. Today however I just want to share a quote with you. I found it on Pinterest and really felt it fits me to a T.

"It's better to cross the line and suffer the consequences than to just stare at the line for the rest of your life."

Haven't we all been here at this point? Standing at the line wondering if we should cross over, take the risk. So many of us, however, sit too long and weigh all the options and never cross that line. We feel that whatever the risk it isn't worth it or more than likely, we're too afraid. I can say that I did not cross the line as often as I should have. I didn't take many risks. However, in the past few years I can say that I've taken more risks and crossed more lines. Example: leaving my comfort zone to go to school in South Carolina. Nowadays I'd rather not just stare at the line and wonder about the what ifs, I'd rather cross that line and deal with whatever comes my way as a result of that decision. I think we can all relate to this quote and use it as a resolution as we start 2012. No more staring at the line. It's time to start taking risks. It's time to start living!

Peace&Love
~L

It's time

Yesterday did not finish on a very good note, but I will keep that to myself for now. It's just another thing that I have to think about. I need to weigh my options. I've decided it's time to get into the car and just drive again, with no destination in mind, with no map in hand. Just me and the open road. Me alone with my thoughts and prayers. I need to stop letting people control my life. I need to stop letting people walk in and walk out just as fast. I can't make someone stay, but it's harder to watch them leave without a good explanation. The people who I don't want in my life manage to make it worse for me. I want to lay down some ultimatims here, but I'm way too nice to hurt someone. It's not fair. Thank God for this day off so I can run away at least for a little bit. It's that time again!

Peace&Love
~L

Merry Christmas!

I can't believe the day is actually here! It certainly does not feel like Christmas. This year was the first year I spent it without my immediate family and maybe thats why it didn't feel like Christmas. I did however skype with them and that made it feel a little closer to the holiday, but nothing compares to actually being there with them. This year I asked for quite a bit of unrealistic gifts like a kayak and a new fancy camera, but I knew I wasn't really going to get them. I've learned over the year to become less materialistic which is definately a good thing. I did however receive some very nice gifts which are pictured below. I can't believe how quickly this one has come and nearly gone. I'm headed over to my cousins house to hang out with some relatives and maybe that will get me in the Christmasy spirit at least for a little bit. I hope that everyone had a very blessed Christmas and received everything they wanted, but remembered why we celebrate this holiday in the first place: Christ's birth! Merry Christmas to all!

Sister and brother on skype

The book I had been eyeing for awhile. I can't wait to read!

Gift card for Victoria's Secret! Score

Cute cami

Penguin platter...long story with penguins in my family, but they think its funny to buy me them

Yes you read that right...gingerDEAD men

Ahhh christmas movies

Yes a penguin pooper...what has the world come to?

I can't wait to try some of these...love grilled cheese

My new Minny Wild mug :)

A hammock apparently for when I go camping

My new feather jewelry

I also got a few other penguin stuff and gift cards and can't wait to get the package from my sister and brother-in-law.

Peace&Love
~L

High on Happiness

I can't remember the last time I was this happy. Actually I don't know that I've ever been this happy. Even though this hasn't exactly been the best year of my life, as a matter of fact none of them are easy or always happy, but the good days far outnumber the bad days. For once in my life I'm actually ok with where I'm at and what I'm doing and I'm not trying to find another solution or move on from whatever I've been running from. I love my job, even though the pay isn't the greatest. I have a good support system of friends, who love me for who I am and even though distant separates us, whenever we do get together its like we haven't stopped seeing each other. I love my family and I know even though over the past few months it hasn't been easy seeing my parents split, I know it is for the best and eventually we will all see that. I know things don't just happen without a reason. I love the fact that its almost Christmas and I'm officially on my 4 day break from work and that gets me all sorts of excited. Finally, I met a really great guy, who I never would have imagined to be in my life, but he is. I know we just me and have hung out only once, but he gives me preventricular contractions. Thats all I can ask for right now. Right now I am high on happiness and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Peace&Love
~L

TGIF

Dang right! Most people have claimed this week to be the week from hell. At moments I thought I was going to go crazy. The children are on something that is for sure. My boss blamed their craziness on the recent full moon and the anticipation of Christmas, both are probably right on the money. I don't think it was a week from hell, that was last week for me. When I felt like death. I still have an annoying cough, I figure I have another case of bronchitis. But I can deal with it. The week went by pretty fast and next week will be here before I know it. I have lots of plans to do this weekend. START Christmas shopping. Yes start it. I don't know why I waited so long. I have to hit the bank, post office and grocery store. I also have to do laundry and clean. Boooo. But on Sunday I'm going to close off the week with a haircut. It feels like I just got one, but really its been almost 6 months and as much as I wanted to keep growing out my hair, I'm just sick of it. Here's to a pretty good week and here's to a weekend that will fly by fast!

Peace&Love
~L

Food Inc.

I was told to watch this documentary by a coworker. I have an interest in food and health and decided it would be worth the watch and boy was it ever. I was so furious after watching it I wanted to march up to Capitol Hill and demand changed be made to our current food system. There is no way I want to eat the food they put out in stores. I've always been really cautious about what I eat and knew that all of this stuff happened, but I just became ignorant and pretended that they didn't treat animals the way they did. These companies employees could get sued for talking about this stuff. Heck, I could get in trouble for even writing this, but I don't care. My body was not meant to eat any genetically modified foods. Just like cows are not meant to eat corn, I'm not meant to eat RoundUp. Whats really sad is that the government hires people from these companies to run the FDA and USDA. You can't tell me there isn't a conspiracy going on in Washington. I hate being lied to. I hate being herded like animals. Then we have issues with our health with direct links to the foods we eat. They say the healthiest foods to eat are organic but they aren't affordable. So what do we do? We are caught in this neverending circle? How do we afford foods that haven't been altered or processed? How do we get more people to see and understand where their food is coming from? How do we get away from treating animals like they are worth nothing? How about those who work in those disgusting factories? Oh yes I forgot many of them are illegal immigrants so it's no big deal. Then when a company gets in trouble they can just throw them under the bus and not take any responsibility for what went wrong. Someone needs to check the authorities and get them out of their positions. We need to go back to the way things were. When our food came directly from a farm and not a processing plant. Where animals are treated a little more humanely, even though eventually they will be slaughtered. Something needs to change and I'm more than willing to get the ball rolling. Washington I'm coming for you!

Peace&Love
~L

Staff Christmas Party

Oh the holiday season how I have a love/hate relationship with you! I love the feeling of being together with people who love you and support you and who you are glad to call friends. I also don't mind getting a few gifts along with that. I don't like shopping for gifts, standing in long lines, or waiting forever to mail my package(again long lines.)

Last night was our staff Christmas party and since I'm still a newbie I wasn't sure how much fun I'd have. I really only talk to like 3 out of 10 coworkers on a daily basis. There are some who still won't talk to me or give me the time of day, even though I try to talk to them. Besides the fact most of them have known each other for years, whereas I just started a few months ago and am trying to fit into their lives. However, I was surprised how easy it was just to sit there with everyone and talk and laugh about everything. We had ordered in food from Olive Garden, which was decent. We had lots of desserts. Of course it wouldn't be a Christmas party without alcohol. We also revealed who are secret santas were and got our final gifts of the week. There were lots of fun stories that were told about that as well. We finished off the night by playing apples to apples which is always a good time. All in all I have to say we had a wonderful night of eating and drinking and most of all laughing and bonding! (Wish I had brought my camera to take some awesome pictures of this night.)

Peace&Love
~L

Lack of Inspiration

Ugh I'm a failure again! I wanted to do better than last time with this picture challenge, but have had lack of inspiration the past week. When you are doing the same thing day in and day out you lose inspiration. Working everyday in a daycare and never getting out much tends to do that to you. Plus I picked up another round of some weird illness. It started on Wednesday midday. I started feeling sharp stomach pains and felt really nauseous and dizzy. I managed to make it through the work day and got home and was completely wiped. At this point I had on layers I was so cold. I had leggings and sweatpants, socks, slippers, t-shirt, long sleeve t-shirt, sweatshirt, my winter coat, hat and mittens on and was still freezing. No doubt I had a severe fever. At this point I'm thinking the worst. Maybe I had appendicitis or something of that nature, but knew that I would have been in a lot more pain than I was. I went to bed at about 830 and slept until 745 the next day. Yes straight through. I felt quite a bit better the next day and went to work. I no longer had stomach pains, but I had no appetite. Basically for 2 full days I ate absoultely nothing and just drank Sierra Mist. By the end of Thursday I was tired but not as bad as the night before. Friday rolls along and I feel worse. The cold is settling into my lungs and I debate whether or not to go urgent care. I feel like I've been going a lot recently. I'm not sure why this is happening. Perhaps its because I'm living with a cat and I'm allergic to them and it makes me feel worse. But really that shouldn't be making me sick all the time. Especially when I'm really aware of what I'm eating and drinking and I workout almost everyday. Maybe I'm just pushing my body too much and not giving the rest it needs. But whatever is going on, I wish it to stop. I'm still feeling blah today, but no more fever and no more stomach pain. Just a stuffy nose and intermittent breathing problems.

On other news I took my first aid/CPR training class today which I passed with flying colors, as if you could really fail. I also have a staff Christmas party to attend tonight. I'm not really sure what to expect, but I know it will be fun.

Peace&Love
~L

5&6

So I skipped a day, sue me! I lost my inspriation for 24 hrs apparently, but I will get over it and so should you!

My next photos are great. Photo 5 is of a great night out with the 3 man wolfpack. I do believe this was about the time Dom said he got a job offer in Vancouver. Aimee and I told him he has to take it. Opportunities like this don't come often. Besides, it gives us an excuse to go to Vancouver now. The only thing he has to learn is the art of speaking Canadian, eh?

Photo 6 is of my uber belated birthday present from my sister and brother-in-law. Apparently they ordered my gift from China and it took awhile to get here. Then in much confusion, I never receieved a slip from the post office saying it was here, so today I went to the post office to pick it up. I was so excited I got my Minnesota Wild jersey I didn't even notice what it was missing...

Enjoy your weekend!

Peace&Love
~L