Why You're Not Married and Don't Give a S#@!

Borrowed from BlogHer..6 Reasons Why You're Not Married

I love this SOOOOOOOOOOO much! Finally, some one who makes me feel like I am doing the right thing.
Because there's NOTHING wrong with waiting on the right guy - (even if you have been with him for 7 years). It's worth taking your time. :)

Thursday Things to Love

• Black Nail Polish! Every year I paint my nails black in honor of Halloween. I know this is weird, but I like it! It's my own little tradition. I occasionally rock black nails at other times during the year, but mainly I keep it strictly for All Hallows Eve.

• Halloween Weekend also equals the TENNESSEE VS. SOUTH CAROLINA FOOTBALL GAME! Two years ago, during the dreaded Lane Kiffin era, TN surprised everyone in attendance on the SC game with the Black Jerseys. It was such a good hype tool. Well, that was 2 years ago....this year we are in a horrid rebuilding phase. Not sure if the black jerseys will make their appearance this year, but I liked them when they did!

• Margarita Night Tomorrow!! I am meeting up with my dear friend Lauren tomorrow night for some good old fashioned girl time. I HEART margaritas!

 
• HEDGEHOGS! Yes, Like Sonic, but no it's not blue. My friend at work got a hedgehog for a pet and she brought it in last week for us to play with! I can't stop looking at the lil' cutie's picture. She was awesome!

Me and Amelia the hedgehog

Leadership

I would not necessarily call myself a "leader"; however I have been honored over the past year to be part of the 2011 Class of Leadership Oak Ridge. This is an annual program of about 25-30 people chosen from companies all across the town I work in. You must be nominated to enter the class and you must be an emerging leader in the community. I was nominated by my boss last year, and here I am about to graduate the class on November 1st. I have a wonderful group of people in my class, and it has been a blessing getting to know them. It's almost sad to say goodbye to these folks because we have spent so much time together over the past year. It has been so much fun! I wasn't quite sure what to expect at first. How do you hone your leadership skills? How do you get together with a large group to develop yourself further? Am I going to look like a fool being in a class with CEOs and VPs? I am a measly little Business Development and Marketing person at a local public utility company. I believe that I was able to bring an interesting angle to the class, and I rarely felt out of place (even though several of the people in my class have 3-4 degrees to brag about). They often tell us that we have the ability to make a change in Oak Ridge, in Tennessee, in the US, maybe even the world. They encourage us to think outside the box and stand up for what you believe - even if you have opposers. There will always be people on the opposite side of the fence from you in life. BE THE CHANGE IN THE WORLD.

We met two full days a month, every month since January. As well as, two overnight trips - one to Nashville and one to Gatlinburg. We've mingled with Governor Haslam, toured a top notch national lab (ORNL) and saw the world's largest super computer, toured a national security facility (Y-12) where they house weapons of mass destruction, learned about Oak Ridge's super secret role in WWII, as well as the current economic situation that our community faces. I even have the manager of the Dept. of Energy's Operations Complex in my class! I was very in awe of him at first, but turns out he's a pretty normal down-to-earth guy. Although I am not an Oak Ridge resident, I grew up in Clinton which is literally 10 minutes north of Oak Ridge. I have always been familiar with Oak Ridge's past, and most of the people I knew growing up had parents working at the plants out here. I find all the mystery surrounding the past of this city very intriguing! I love a good history mystery!

Anyway, I just wanted to share my little accomplishment. I'm not kidding when I say that I feel very honored to have been chosen as part of this year's class. Everyone who is anyone is this town is a LOR alumni. Groups like these are where you can make lifelong connections. It feels good to be surrounded by fellow fun working professionals - some of whom are able to mentor me.
Here are some pictures of our class sessions over the year -

PS - check out how chubby I was in some of the pics! In some of our earlier sessions I was rocking the red hair too!

Some of the class on the front steps of the Capitol Building in Nashville - learning about how our state government affects local economy

Class at the Bijou Theatre in downtown Knoxville

Class at Smokies Park in Gatlinburg - windy day! haha

Class in Nashville at the Capitol Building with TN Gov. Bill Haslam and State Senator Randy McNally

Class on our first day together in front of the OR Chamber of Commerce

Don't Sweat the Small Stuff

I am moody pa-tootie this week - UGH! I'm feeling much better today vs. Monday & Tuesday, but I still feel a little kick in my 'tude this morning. With that being said, I was enlightened this morning but an article that I found in a mommy blog that I read frequently. Notes From a Dragon Mom is the article - take a read and let it get your mind churning too!

This article represents how we should all strive to be. Yes, Life is hard. Life gets ugly and sticky. Parenting is hard (I'm guessing since I'm not an actual parent yet, unless you count my dogs - which I do!). Jobs suck sometimes. Problems arise. LIFE GOES ON. I try to be thankful for what I have on a daily basis. However, this usually ends up being a weekly or less basis. We are all blessed. I've had my fair share of problems, you've had your fair share of problems. But we are still kickin' and moving on to the next day to face a whole new set of problems, arent' we?

On a kind of related note -I've realized that I'm a frequent reader of several bloggers who are moms, and often write about their kids. I think this is because I find their daily chatter about their lives fascinating and funny. Most of the blogs I follow are women who seems like awesome moms, who have had struggles, who work and still get it together at the end of the day. I'm sure there are days when they pick the little things in their lives to death. We all have those days, weeks, years. But I am inspired by strong women, hopefully like myself, who can do it ALL.

So lessons from today: DON'T SWEAT THE SMALL STUFF & GIRLS ROCK! Easy as that!

Cleaning Out My Closet

I was feeling frisky last week and decided to clean out the two huge clothes closets we have. Mainly, our upstairs closet. We have lived in our house for about 3 1/2 years, it has 3 bedrooms, with 3 pretty good sized closets. Our master bedroom actually has the smallest closet of all the room. The spare bedroom closet is the biggest, and we don't keep any of our clothes in there - just Christmas trees! The 2nd spare room (not really a bedroom, more like a junk room) is where I keep my winter clothes, our snowboarding clothes, Skye's suits and dress up clothes, etc.
Since March, Skye has lost around 55 lbs and I've lost about 27 lbs. This is NO small feat and we are both very happy with our new sizes - I think we would both still like to lose just a touch more, but maybe just 10 lbs give or take. Luckily, I kept a lot of my skinny clothes for when this glorious day came up us. I'm in pretty good shape with jeans and shirts because I've always been around the same size about a 7-8. Last October after I had my "accident", I was literally unable to move regularly for almost a month, and even after that I took baby steps when walking, it was even longer before I could do any exercise, and so forth. Basically, I sat on my ass and got myself hooked on new TV shows while stuffing my face AKA I gained about 20 lbs in a couple months. It was the biggest I have EVER been and the biggest that I EVER want to be. Looking back at pictures I look like such a chubster. I was wearing some pants that were size 14! And I'm only a measly little 5'4"! Skye was also at his biggest weight - I believe he was about 280lbs and he's 6'4". We are both so much happier now with the way we look. People ask me all the time how we did it, and it's true that we are believers in the old fashioned way. We joined a cheap gym and both counted calories from March until about July. It took A LOT of self discipline, but it was so much easier because we were in it together. We were workout buddies and we would eat together so it was literally so much easier than I thought it would be. I was losing a steady 2-3 pounds a week, and Skye was losing about 5 lbs a week, if not more sometimes. ANYHOO - good for us for losing all that weight, but poor Skye could not keep his pants up to save his life. We bought him a couple pairs of transition pants along the way, but now even they are falling off him. This boy needs a whole new wardrobe so we are slowly replenishing it. My #1 rule is ALWAYS KEEP YOUR SKINNY CLOTHES, BUT QUICKLY DITCH YOUR FAT CLOTHES. I went through out closets and cleaned out 6 trash bags worth of his clothes - pants ranging from size 42 to size 38. He's the incredible shrinking man!! I have gotten rid of a few of my unreasonably skinny clothes that I probably couldn't ever dream of getting back into. I'm all for being rational in my weight loss journey and my high school size is not my goal.
It feels good to reward yourself with new SMALLER clothes! I am not going crazy buying myself all new clothes yet, because I'm sitting about at a size 10 right now and I would really like to get back into all my size 8's. Another 10 lbs down and I'm there baby! Since July, when Skye started the academy, I have slacked off on my healthy eating and my workouts. He now does physcial training at work 3x a week (they are running about an average of 15-20 miles a week), and most of the time he doesn't feel like coming home and working out again with me. Thus, I've allowed myself to get lazy. But with winter quickly approaching I know that I cannot allow myself to be lax on my diet and workouts. My goal is to lose this last 10 lbs before the end of the year, and I know I can do it!!

HURRAY for a combined household total of  82 POUNDS down!!
So, anybody need a TON of men's clothes??? Pants from 42s to 38s, shirts XXL and XL???

I look HUGE! FAT! February 2011

DOUBLE FAT! Late Jan 2011

Christmas 2010

Medium sized - May 2011

Disappearing! July 2011

Skinny necks - July 2011

Sexy couple! Sept 2011

Oh, God

Over the past couple years, I have been a bad little Baptist girl and I've strayed from my church going roots. In my "impressionable" years, I was very much active in a youth group at a wonderful church - conservative, but caring. I made wonderful friends and learned wonderful lessons that I credit for helping to mold me into the woman that I am today. When I turned about 18, I began to lose interest in going to church every Sunday. Quite frankly, I found things that I'd rather do which not require waking up early Sunday after staying up late on Saturday. Since then, I have yet to get back into church the way I feel I should. I say prayers for people who need it, I say prayers of thanks when I think of it, but that's about the extent of my religion these days.

Growing up, neither one of my parents were super religious. My mom's parents both suffered from addiction problems throughout their lives. Her dad was an abusive alcoholic and heavy drug user for her entire life, and her mom spent years battling prescription pain pill addictions, shopping addictions, etc. My mamaw had big dreams of being a singer, and she was actually really good. She sang with Dolly Parton back in the day on the Cas Walker Show in Knoxville. A professional singing career is hard to manage with young children, so I think she was probably not the best mother to my mom and aunt. Needless to say, my mom inherited this easily addictive personality. She has also battled drug, alcohol and other addictions throughout her life. Both of my mom's parents are dead; both deaths to blame on either a lifelong alcohol addition or a supposedly purposeful prescription drug overdose. It's been hard for my mom to find the time to go to church when she's always battling a demon. It's also hard for her to make sense of religion after all she's been through during her childhood and adult life.
My dad's parents both chose to cling to the religion as they needed it, if that makes sense. Both of my dad's parents also struggled with alcohol addiction at times, neither of which face that problem anymore. My papaw attends church now, but that has not always been the case. My mamaw moved down here after she met my papaw in the Army in the early 60's. She left her whole family in Pennsylvania to come to TN for love. After my dad and his brother were semi-grown, my papaw left my mamaw for a younger woman he worked with. That young woman is now my gran gran and they have been married for 30 years. Good for them, yeah, but not so good for my mamaw who was down here mostly alone with 2 teenage boys. That drove her to drink. My dad has always resented my gran gran for breaking up his parents. My wonderful daddy can also be a bit cynical. He's spent his entire career dealing with criminals and bad people, so I believe that's changed him and turned him hard on the inside just a little bit. He has not turned to God to ease this burden.
Skye was raised a Methodist and his church up bringing was about like mine. He went and enjoyed himself when he did, but when he got old enough to go on his own the tradition slipped through the cracks. All this serious talk about his police gig has me feeling like a need Jesus in my life!
For my brother and I having a big of a messed up family, we have actually turned into fine functioning citizens of society. We both often crave a touch of religion in our lives, but we both have a wild streak that keeps us from getting too involved as well. I have rambled on here forever now and gotten a little bit off my original topic....but basically my point was I am fishing for religion these days. I am thinking about starting my own little devotional before I jump back into church. I am a little lost sheep right now.
What do you do when you're fishing for religion? How do you find comfort in a crazy world?

Boob Tube

I played a little catch up last night with my DVR and Lordy I watched some good TV!!! It's season finale time which means BRING ON THE DRAMA!!!
First thing's first - the Real Housewives of New Jersey Reunion Part 1 - (wow, that's a mouthful). The NJ girls are typically my favorite and holy shit they did not lead me astray this time! Drama, DRAMA,  and more DRAMA! One of the girls didn't even show up to the reunion because so much shit has been started among the cast mates. Teresa used to be one of my favorite housewives, across all the casts. However, now she's turned into a snippy, jealous little backstabber. Her ex-best friends are against her, her sister-in-law can't seem to keep the peace with her, and her own cousin has nothing but bad things to say about her. All signs point to the fact that Teresa has flipped her wig, much like she's flipped tables in the past. Skye says it's all fake and set up...but of course he's just a hater. There is NO way that much drama can be manufactured! You can't make this shit up - I swear! I give it an A+!

Then I moseyed on over to the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. The drama just continued to follow me, even as I changed zip codes. The newest housewives on this season are cracking  my ass up! There's Dana, who is a brand name-dropper, flaunts her money and would eat a dog turd to fit in with these women. It's hilarious! Plus, she always seems like she's a little zonked out of her mind - which equals entertainment. Then there's Brandy - oh Brandy. She's the ex-wife of Eddie Cibrian, who is now married to LeAnn Rimes. Apparently, he cheated on Brandy while on set filming a Lifetime movie with the songbird Ms. Rimes. Honestly, I have no idea how else Brandy has money but somehow she's worked her way into the cast of RHOBH. Brandy is what you would call a shit stirrer. She is mouthy, unfiltered and kind of a bitch - as you can imagine she's having a bit of a tough time fitting in with her new friends. She accused one girl of doing crystal meth in the bathroom, and then called her sister a bitch - WOW! This season is young so we'll see how it plays out, but thus far Bravo is not letting me down on the drama scale. I give this episode an A all the way!

Next, I watched Most Eligible Dallas. This is a new show for me, and it's still in it's first season so the drama is relatively low. Two cast mates, Courtney & Matt did go on a romantic get-away together and manged to FINALLY hook up! It wasn't very juicy, but it left me wandering what really happened behind closed doors and/or what's yet to come. Another girl, Neill's, band finally performed and she was actually a really good singer! They had been talking her up all season, but hadn't shown me the goods. I was pleased with her, plus she's cute as a button. I give the finale a solid B+! I will definitely keep watching this show if Bravo keeps offering it.

Then onto Jerseylicious, which is losing it's grip on my attention. The season finale was decent and did offer some drama, but I do feel like this one is staged more than others. The characters are a little too over the top, and it just doesn't feel real. I am considering not watching it anymore at all. I give it a D-. One of the girls from the show did manage to get her own spin-off show, The Glam Fairy, coming on Style soon near you! I don't think I'll be rushing to schedule either of these for the latest seasons on my DVR. The good news is, that frees me up for MORE NEW SHOWS!

I got caught up on SisterWives too, but it wasn't the finale. They did announce that the newest baby will be a boy and his name will be Solomon, which I loved! This will make 17 kids total by 4 wives. I like Robyn (the newest wife, and the preggo one) more and more as the show unfolds. She's quite quirky, but I like it! I'm not sure why I originally jumped on this show so early on the bandwagon, but now I'm hooked. I don't officially know any polygamists (or do I!?!??!?!), but for some reason I don't view the Brown family so complete odd balls. Kody, the husband, is....er...different? But the wives all seem awesome and much to my dismay, very normal.

Bravo also reminded me about 200 times that The Real Housewives of Atlanta is coming back on November 6th. This girl is super excited about that! The Atlanta cast is probably my 2nd favorite.

Three cheers for GREAT fall TV!

Reading Rainbow

Last week I made a little visit to my FAVORITE STORE ON EARTH, McKay's Used Bookstore. 11 books for $50 - can't beat that with a stick! I am totally one of those old school people who likes to read from an actual book. I got a Kindle last year for Christmas, and I didn't take well to it. So I sold it and I'm back at it with the real thing, preferably paperbacks. I have always been an avid reader, even though most of generation tends to shy away from this timeless hobby. I feel a little nerdy when I express my great love for reading because it's not often shared with people my age, but nevertheless I'm hooked and have been for quite some time.My mom shared her love of books with me at an early age, and it stuck. My mom is a big Stephen King and horror/paranormal/mystery genre fan. I also adopted her love of that same style of book, however I am a much bigger wuss than her so I can't handle all the books she reads. My parents say that I was reading at an early age...but I think all parents say that about their kids. I remember absolutely adoring the Berenstain Bears series, the American Girl books, and of course my favorite, R.L. Stine books. Goosebumps was an all-time favorite, but all his books in general. I have always been a history buff too - Civil War in particular. I enjoy reading historical biographies and historical fiction....are you bored yet????


Some of my favorite writers-
Jodi Picoult - One of my all time favorite books, The Pact. I have read almost all of her other books also and they are wonderful! She usually throws a twist in, and features recurring characters, which I dig. She's made it into the main steam fairly recently with My Sister's Keeper - also a fabulous book, if you don't mind a tear jerker.

Nora Roberts - Good ole' Nora! Nora writes 3 styles of books - Romance (GAG), Mystery, and under a pen name JD Robb. I'm not big on the Romance books, so I've only read a few of those series. I have read every single one of Nora's mystery books and I keep coming back for more. They are similar to Lifetime movies in that they are all based on the same predictable premise, but I can't help myself. She's big on trilogies. She has a new series coming out in November that I am excited about! Inn BoonsBoro Trilogy

JK Rowling - Gotta give it up to Ms. Harry Potter herself. I have adored these books, and been a die hard HP fan since about 2002. They are created with such imagination and character that I don't see how anyone can help but get into the story line. Classic.

Kennedy Books- I also have always carried a slight obsession with the Kennedy family. Could be my love of celebrity + history combined. I have read lots of conspiracies, biographies and tell-all books about this family.

Jennifer Weiner - I adore her sense of humor. Her books are hilarious, thoughtful and fun.

Since I've eagerly flown threw most of my favorite author's titles, I need more to feed my urge. Give me some suggestions of books you are reading that you can't tear yourself away from. I am looking to expand my reading repitore and I need YOUR help!

Baby Fever

OMG I'M ABOUT TO ADMIT IT-
Maybe it's my age and my biological clock taking over my body like a ravaging alien, but I have baby fever. Everywhere I look I am surrounded by people around my age who are reproducing like rabbits. Facebook constantly slaps me with engagement pictures, wedding pictures and baby pictures. I'm all for let's all grow up and be mature responsible adults, but when did everyone get SO FAR AHEAD OF ME? If you read this tiny lil' blog o'mine, I'm sure you are starting to see a trend about my fear that I am lagging behind the other women I know. My status in life is nothing to brush off, by any means. I have a wonderful FABULOUS boyfriend of almost 7 years. I could not ask for a more loving and equal partner in my life. We are just starting to get in the grooves of our adult life and things are falling into place for us. Up until this point, we've just been having ourselves a good ole time and not worrying about what the future might hold. Now I feel like I'm playing catch up and I have to wrap speed ahead to my engagement, rush through that joyous time and fly through my wedding to hurry up and (get fat) have a baby. Why is this bothering me so much lately???

We have been spending a lot of time lately with a sweet little 2 (almost 3 year old) named Cayson. One of Skye's best friends in his academy right now is Cayson's dad. So for the last couple of months we've spent some quality time getting to know his classmates and their families. Cayson and his family live the closest to us, so naturally it's easiest for us to spend more time with them. We've developed "family dinner night" which is an on going weekly dinner date with me, Skye, TJ (Cayson's dad), AB (Cayson's mom) and of course Cayson, and occasionally another friend from the academy. Basically the moral of this little story is that he's an absolute doll baby! Not only is he the cutest little blond hair, blue eyed toddler, but he's also quite well behaved. I have heard Skye say quite a few times recently that he would love to have a kid, if it would turn out like Cayson. Which kind of gets my hopes up that maybe we are getting closer to moving down that "adult" path of settling down together. I honestly feel like it's more a matter of when than if. I have no doubts that we will make the move, just when the timing is right for us. We wanted to buy our house first and get settled in there - We've lived there for about 3 years now. We wanted Skye to get through the police academy and be stable with a career vs. just a job - he graduates in December, then faces only 4 mere months of training left before he's out on his own. Spending time with other couples who have kids is pretty new to us. Until now, most of our friends have been single, dating or married - no kids. We've had a pretty strict no kids policy in our lives. In fact, we were down right anti-kid. My best friend has 2 kids, but she lives in Nashville so we do not get to spend time with her and the kids on the regular basis. She moved there when her first kid was 1 and the 2nd kid hadn't even been born yet. She is the last person on Earth you would have ever expected to have kids (sort of like myself), and turns out she's a terrific mom. It makes me oh so proud to see her with the kids and see the mom that she's evolved into.

Having kids in the next couple years...or ever...is a terrifying thought. But also, it's kind of neat to picture a mini-me or mini-Skye running around. I know I'm wearing this topic out so I won't post about it again for a little bit, but we spent yesterday with Cayson so of course my heart is fresh with toddler love.

Thursday Things to Love

Things I'm lovin' on a rainy Thursday morning:

• I got my hair done last night - I always love and look forward to beauty days!
• I got my flu shot this morning. That's not really something I love, but I do love not getting sick!

• We are going to pick up our new car tonight! yay! FINALLY! Skye has been searching for a car for months now, we finally found the right one with the right price. This evening we are saying goodbye to the old 95 4Runner, and moving on up in the world to an 08 Suburban.

• My new Northface rainjacket that I got for my birthday. It's serving it's primary purpose today!

• "Moves Like Jagger" - Maroon 5 & Christina Ag - LOVE that song!

WHAT THE HELL?!?!?!?!!?

This news story was in my local paper today....and I can only say....WHAT THE HELL?!?!?!?!
This fella pulled a Penguin from Batman move and bit his wife's face?? Lord, what a crazy world!
I took out all the suspect and wife names for their privacy.

Powell man charged with biting wife in face

• Knoxville News Sentinel
• Posted October 10, 2011 at 2:56 p.m., updated October 10, 2011 at 5:49 p.m.

CLINTON — A Powell man remains in the Anderson County Jail this afternoon, accused of biting his wife in the face, choking her, stealing her purse, trying to crash her vehicle and restraining her against her will.
The suspect, 29, is charged with aggravated assault, false imprisonment, reckless endangerment, tampering with evidence and theft.
Anderson County Deputy Charles Faircloth reported he encountered the suspect and his wife,30, of Oliver Springs seated in her car at the end of her husband's Mehaffey Road driveway Friday afternoon. The deputy said the suspect was holding his wife by the hair and face.
The wife told the deputy she had been in an argument with her husband, who claimed she had run over his foot. She said her husband jumped on the car hood, climbed into the passenger side door's open window and demanded she drive him to the hospital.
As she drove off, the argument continued and the suspect grabbed the steering wheel, almost causing her to crash, she told the deputy.
She said she drove back to the driveway of her husband's residence, where he held her by the hair and face and bit her on the face, according to the deputy's incident report.
Faircloth said he observed what appeared to be a bite mark on the wife's forehead, There was no sign of trauma to the suspect's feet, according to the deputy's report.
More details as they develop online and in Tuesday's News Sentinel

© 2011, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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© 2011 Knoxville News Sentinel. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

In All Seriousness

For whoever is wondering...all went well with my "closing" on Friday! Hopefully now I can begin to fully heal emotionally and put the past weird ass year behind me! :) Thanks for the good vibes, I swear they helped!

Tonight I have to go to a work function for Skye's "new" job. We are meeting with the police chaplains tonight to discuss the severity of his job once he gets out on the road. All along throughout this process of him being in the academy, I have been pretty lax about it. Coming from a family of police officers, I felt like I knew the drill. The number one question people ask me is if I'm scared about him being out on his own in the world with crazy people. Knoxville is not often recognized (I don't think) for it's outrageous crime rates, but we do have some bad areas of town. Typically, my answer to this question is no I'm not worried about him at all. Skye is a big guy at 6'4" and I don't think he's ever really had a problem with people doubting his ability to kick their ass, just due to his size. HOWEVER, this event tonight is beginning to make me a little bit worried about my honey in his new profession. I know they are going to go over their little spill about the worst possible scenarios that could have happened. KPD has not had an officer death since 1989, that man in fact was my dad's best friend and someone he went through the academy with. My brother was named after him when he was born a couple months later in 1990. Everytime I've read the newspaper lately, it seems that there has been an officer related shooting. There have been 7 in the past two weeks from what I understand. When my dad was on street patrol, I was too young to realize what type of danger he could be in. My dad graduated his police academy in 1986 so I was 2 at the time. Then he worked his beat for maybe 10 years, until I was in about 6th grade. Since I've been in high school, my dad has been on motors. And he's a boss, so he spends half his day in an office doing paperwork. The only time he works on weekends is football games and 5ks. My parents did an amazing job of shielding us from the possible worries about my dad's job. Now that I'm older, I realize that how heavy the job is. I guess it's all starting to become a little more real for me. Midterms are over and he's only 10 weeks out from graduation in December.

SO proud!!!

Must Love Dogs

I already have a Halloween costume for my sweet Tilly this year. She is going to be a little witch. It's a cute little bodysuit with a tutu. And before you even ask, yes I know she's a dog...and yes, I am one of those people who dresses up my dog. This weekend I was at TJMaxx and I found this cute little number, and thought about changing her outfit. It was even more compelling to me since the tag on the outfit had a little pomeranian, like my girl, wearing it. I laughed my ass off when I saw this. I still giggle when I look at it now.
Unfortunately, I didn't go with this one. As cute and funny as it was, I know my girl and she would have torn that stuffed animal on her head to shreds. She's pretty good about wearing shirts, but stuffed animals disguised as hats? Not so much.

Making it Work

I read an interesting article today that triggered some thoughts about how people make it work in their relationships...

Here is a link to the Yahoo! article:
lessons learned from 18 years of marriage

I am a stubborn person and I'm a grudge holder. Both of these qualities are just part of who I am, however annoying that may be. I have focused on the grudge thing and tried to get better, but obviously it's just not that easy for me to "let it go". It's usually something that bites me in relationships too. My wonderful boyfriend is the type who can fight one minute and be fine and happy the next minute. I want to stay mad all night. I know that's awful, and it's hard to admit, but it's very true. Not to defend myself in the least, but I am very much a Type-A personality when it comes to control in a relationship. If someone causes me to feel a loss of control, I want them to know it and remember it - hence, the grudge holding to prove a point (I guess?). Anyhow, it sounds like I am creating a long list of why in fact I am not married. I am also an eye roller. I noticed in the above article it suggests not to roll your eyes or make sarcastic comments...guilty and guilty.

Skye and I have almost been together for 7 years, come this December. 7 years is not a short amount of time so we must be doing SOMETHING right to have made it this far, right? I am working on coming up with a list of things that have proved to work for us over our relationship. I am finding that my list includes things that Skye often does, but I need to work on. Sounds like I need a tutorial in executing things that can "make it work".

This is what I have so far:
1. Pick your battles
2. No namecalling
3. Don't bring up past battles
4. Make time for each other

For that maybe one person who is reading this blog, what do you do to make it work with your significant other?