Honey Harmonies

Yesterday afternoon Honey( Heather) and I hit the road for New Orleans... or more accurately LaPlace and Kenner. We met our oldest sister, Rachel, at La Carettas for some thing Mexican food for dinner. I had to laugh at this picture. Honey is leading across the table and the napkin behind her looks like is tucked in her shirt. Haha

I just love spending time with my older sisters.

Honey and I. Gotta love blurry iPhone pictures

Rachel and I

Heather and I wandered around for a while before hearing to the theater. Rachel was on the tech crew for Legally Blonde The Musical and got comp tickets for the two of us. We still had some time to kill before the party started so we walked around the quaint blocks surrounding the theater. It was adorable. Unfortunately, 8th was to dark for phone pictures.

The theater was small but very nice. The overall production was great. Because of some ticket confusion we sat up in the overflow seating.

After the play, Honey and I hit up Cafe du Monde for beignets and so she could have a coffee.

 It was a long day but a good, short trip. Honey and I always enjoy road trips together because we love singing together - Honey Harmonies!

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My week in review

Monday - After work I went to church for our last comedy night. I didn't make if to the other comedy nights but I am so glad I went! I have definitely needed some extra laughter. Michael JR was the comedian for the night. He was great. My friend Jessica joined me with her boyfriend. It was 9 o'clock by the time we got out. By the time I got home Coach was beyond ready to go for a walk and it was my bedtime. ;-)

Tuesday - work, looked at used cars with Justin, grocery shopping, and home.

Wednesday - after work I went to my friend Dara's for dinner. It was a very much needed! Even though I didn't end up eating dinner I enjoyed her company and encouragement. I've decided I'm on a new diet called the "I have no air in my car". I get so hot on my ride home from work, that I don't eat dinner.

Thursday - after work I came straight home to spend time with my Coach-man... and go to bed early. Yes, I am an old lady. Work is mentally draining and I have been going through some spiritual and emotional "growing" and changes. Rest is even more essential right now. I love sleep anyway. :-)

Friday - I worked a half day and left at noon to pick up my sister Heather's car. She dog sat for me and let me use her car(Violla the Corolla) to drive to Panama City beach. I went and met up with my sweet friend April and her family. They had been at the beach all week. I only have 3 vacation days for the year so I decided going for the night was better than nothing. It rained lightly my whole drive. And I, being the genius that I am, decided to take the scenic route down 98 along the beaches. Beautiful ride but my legs were killing me by the time I got to the resort. Heather's car is a manual and I've only ever owned automatics.. but I only stalled twice. ;-) Thank you, Honey. I don't think the Echo is up to long trips and it would have been a hot trip in the rain with no air. I had a great night with April and her wonderful kids.

Saturday - They had to check out Saturday so we were up early even after a late night of chatting. I woke up with a horrible headache, fever and nausea. I hit the road when they checked out at 10. I hated having to say goodbye after such a skirt visit but I am hoping to go see them again over labor day weekend. I stopped at a rest area with the intention of just closing my eyes for a few minutes and hopefully make my head stop pounding. I locked the doors and cracked the windows... and apparently fell asleep for about 30 minutes. But I felt SO much better when I woke up. Aside from being sweaty. Haha. I made it back to Mobile, exchanged cars with Heather, took care of Coach as soon as I got home, unloaded my car( and put everything away which is a serious shocker for me) then crashed for a few hours. I woke up still running a fever but my head want hurting as bad. I cleaned the living room and kitchen and cleaned all of Heather's quilt set and pillows so I can( finally) return them to her. Jessica cane over for a bit and then I was ready to crash again. I felt physically exhausted.

Sunday - I wrote up feeling much more refreshed this morning. I went to church and ran some errands. It was too hot to take Coach to the dog park so we stayed in and played in the air conditioning. :-) I put the first layer of paint on my dining room table. I'm so excited to see the finished product but it is going to take several days of work to get the different layers and colors done. I will probably work on it a little bit every night this week. I'm finishing my night up with watching The Love Boat, season 1, disc 1.

Goals for next week -
* work out at least 3 times. No point paying for a gym membership if I am not going to use it.
* take Coach to the dog park, bath then flea treatment
* get my new lenses for my glasses while they are still under warranty.
* read more - my Bible and for pleasure. I did well with my quiet time and prayer this week. I didn't read at all for pleasure. I need to start making a dent in all my free kindle books I download from Inspired Reads.
* don't eat out, pack all of my lunches.

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For me

I have intended to blog for so long... but when it came down to sit down and actually write I didn't know what to say, where to begin, or if I should even bother. For the last time I put off blogging simply because I don't have a computer and blogging from my phone isn't the easiest. I now have an android tablet, which I absolutely LOVE, so I lost a huge chunk of my excuse. But ultimately it's for me, not for anyone else. So here I am! :-)

When I did blog, I took more pictures and I could actually remember what I did with my days( or what months). I honestly have no idea where 2012 has disappeared to, ha!

I have been at my new job for a little over 2 months. I like the people I work with and the basic jest of my join. I worked as a recruiter under our corporate office in Jacksonville for the first month. During that time I rent like the guinea pig. :-) I was the first full-time recruiter working at the  branch level, so it took them a while to figure out what the wanted me to do or how they want me to do it. I rent like a definite yo yo. I now work as a branch employee. I actually like it better. Before I was a corporate member sitting in the branch. Now I actually feel like I am more a part of the team. The only problem is that his the corporate recruiters view me as competition. From my understanding, they eventually want to do all recruiting it of the branch so if I succeed then their books are at stake. Recruiting from a branch level is much more effective than doing all of their recruiting out of a call center. I just don't know that I am cut throat enough to succeed at this as a career...  but I have been praying for contentment and for a better attitude. I know God brought me to the job for a reason. I think the hardest thing for me is that my work does not get to speak for itself. My success and income is dependent entirely on other people - whether they accept the job, site up to test, pass the test and go to work. Thankfully I do have a livable salary and I am not dependent on my hire compensations. I'm learning less of lessons in faith and patience too. :-)

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Production entrance

I am in my second week of this movie. It will be over before I know it. Not sure how I feel about that. I don't like contract work at all but those are typically the best paying jobs. IF I do work another movie I am hoping to work with an actual production crew team. In this industry education and experience don't seem to matter. "It's all about who you know, not what you know."
I'll be moving in the next couple of weeks. I have until the end of April to move out of my little midtown manor. I'll be moving into a 1 bedroom apartment on the other side of town. Away from downtown, within walking distance of the studio and in a safer part of town. I am most excited about space and upgrades. My house is do little and has nothing in the way of storage, especially in the kitchen. Speaking of kitchens, I will never take dishwashers or double sinks for granted again. This whole single sink and no countertop business killed my "don't go to bed with the kitchen dirty" habit. Ha. On a bright note, I got off work an hour early yesterday and when I got to my house to get ready for date night Tuesday Justin was sitting on my couch, my kitchen was completely cleaned and Nemo's litter box cleaned. I SO appreciate the little things. :-) It was such a relief and breathe of fresh air.

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Time flies

It's March already? Excuse me, but where in the world did the time go? It was just Christmas! :-)
Obviously making a big blogging comeback was not part of my new years' resolutions. I still read and comment when I can. I've been computer-less for 2 months now. I miss my laptop terribly! I mean, imagine how much more time I could waste in pinterest, blogger and social media. Haha! I do miss coupon inch though. *sigh* It just takes way to much time to do the matchups on my own.
What has happened in the past two months? Good question. I was so good at taking a picture a day for the first couple of weeks of 2012, a feeble attempt at documenting my life in some form. In the mundane day-to-day I just don't think to take pictures.
I was able to go home a lot in January and February, so I have some pictures from that. Unfortunately they're on my camera and I can only blog from my phone right now. Rather than try and even post document my life, I'll document the here and now. I am no longer the manager at work. I resigned and now bake. The hours are not full-time but the schedule is super flexible which is exactly what I will be needing in a couple of weeks. Remember on my crazy, ridiculous workaholic summer last year when I was working a day or so a week for a movie company here in town? No? Didn't think so. Haha. Well they gave offered me a full-time contract position. The start filming their next movie in a couple of weeks and will film for 8-10 weeks. I will work for them Monday though Friday. I will also continue to work at the bakery for atleast a few weeks on weekends. My biggest goal is to put the extra income from the movie into savings and my entire bakery paycheck towards debt. I paid off my first credit card on Friday and it was so nice. I finally felt like I was accomplishing something! I also plan on going back to school, either in the summer or fall. I WILL get my bachelors degree. I'm putting my stubbornness to good use!

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Ringing in 2012

I probably had the best New Years Eve of my life this year. Rather than having a plan, I followed Justin's suggestion and just went with the flow. We had sushi for lunch at Rock N Roll sushi in the mall. We don't typically eat there because their sushi is on the higher end, but our favorite sushi place closed and we both wanted sushi. However, since we were celebrating New Years and still celebrating Justin's birthday(December 30th), we decided to go again. We got one of their signature rolls and tried some of their new, less expensive rolls. The atmosphere is great, the service is awesome and I can honestly say it was some of the best sushi I have ever had. And I love me some sushi!

We did a little bit of shopping after we ate. I found a fuzzy jacket in my favorite color at Forever21 and it was marked down to $10! And I bought my first pair of leggings. Ha, yeah, I am a little behind on that trend.
Justin finally found the perfect watch(my Christmas present to him). It was a little late but I am glad he finally found the exact one he wanted.

After we shopped, I came back to my house and took a nap. There was no way the old  lady in me would have been able to ring in the new year without a nap. I got a good little nap in before the neighbors started shooting fireworks.

Justin and his friend Kevin came and picked me up. We made our way downtown. I completely forgot they were having a parade until we literally ran into it. We had dinner at a new restaurant downtown, Cabo(a mexican cantina). Of course, it was crowded so rather than wait for a table of our own, we were able to split a large table with another group. The food was delicious! We will definitely be going back. The people that we initially shared our table with left and 2 ladies asked if they could have the other end of our table. After they sat down, we all started talking. It turned out to be one of those situations that only God could have orchestrated. They both work at Austal(where Justin just finished his training and will start working Tuesday) and are both very high up in different divisions. One lady, Elizabeth, is the executive assistant to "big whig" of Austal(not sure what his official title is). Her son is only 20, started Austal when he was 18, and has already worked his way up through the ranks as a welder. He is going to be working in the same area as Justin so they enjoyed talking for a good long while.

We had to make a trip back to the car before going to find a spot to watch the Moon Pie drop. Despite the crazy crowd, we were able to catch up with my "sistah friend" Jessica. Yes, here in Mobile we have a Moon Pie drop. Our 10% tax is being put to good use. ;-) It was a fun experience. They were supposed to do fireworks over the water on both sides of the bay but, unfortunately, it was too foggy so they didn't do the big fireworks.

All in all, it was a wonderful New Year's Eve. 2011 was a good year. Much better than 2010. It was filled with learning, growing, and challenges, lots of smiles, laughter and love. I am really excited about 2012 and what God has in store!

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