Turning a New Leaf...Part Two

Holy Bajeezus where have I been?! Forgive my lack of blogging. I have no real excuse other than I have been busy so not only didn't have time but I also did not have much motivation. Over the last couple weeks though I have really been missing my blog like crazy. So out with the Blogging Blues and in with all the new ideas that have me literally bursting at the seams!!

First, let me start with Part 2 of Turning a New Leaf.

A. I have a new job! I actually did have another job before this one that was absolutely horrible. I worked at an Amazon warehouse for 2 weeks. I was a "picker" and wanted to die after the second day. All the walking on concrete floors for 10 hours (we were told the average picker walked anywhere from 10-12 miles a day) was murder on my feet. Even though I wore extremely comfy gym shoes it didn't matter. My legs and everything were fine, I wasn't even really that tired afterward, it was just that my feet were in excrutiating pain!! I had to quickly find another job and luckily was able to. I now work at Nestle. I'm just a temp for now but I don't care. I'm much happier than I was at The Hartford even though I make a lot less money and don't have health insurance for the time being. (I will hopefully be hired on permanently soon.) I like the job a lot so far. Right now my job consists of being in "the guard shack" which is a lot nicer than I imagined when the job was described to me! I seriously pictured some kind of toll booth situation. It's actually just a small office that is unattached from the entire warehouse. Giant tractor trailers come into the driveway and call a phone way at the end. I answer the phone and find out whether they are delivering something, picking something up, if they are coming to the Nestle building or going to the water plant. Then I do some stuff on the computer to get the info they need and give info to the people inside to let them know a truck is here. That's basically the extent of it. One awesome purk is the drivers that have dogs! When they come to the window (after they are at the phone and I get their info, I tell them to come to the window at the guard shack...think a drive thru at a fast food place) and give them their paperwork or take theirs, accordingly. Some of the drives have dogs and we give them treats, it's pretty awesome! The people I work with all seem pretty nice and even when it's busy it's not super stressful.

B. I am starting (or really want to start, it depends on financial aid) school this semester. I decided that I keep going from one crappy job to the next and need to do something about that! I looked into what kind of programs are offered at the schools around here and what kinds of jobs are available around here too. There are quite a few hospitals near me, I can think of 4 off the top of my head that are all within 10 minutes of me. When I was looking for the new job I have, I kept seeing postings for nurses but I know I could never be a nurse. I've actually even mulled the idea of it around in the past. Both my Grandmothers were nurses as well as my Aunt. I could never 1. take blood from people and 2. since my experience in the hospital and rehab after my accident and knowing all the things those ladies had to do for me, I'm not even sure I could do them for a loved one let alone a stranger! However, I do still have some very fond memories of different nurses that I've come across in my life (I've been in the hospital and gone to doctors a ridiculous amount of times in my life) and truely appreciate and respect these women and what they did for me. I would like to be a person like that...just minus a lot of the bodily fluids! Enter the "Diagnostic Medical Sonographer" program! That's just a fancy name for an Ultrasound Technician. After a lot of thinking and discussing it with Jeremy, Liz, my sister and Mom I have decided that is what I am going to do. I've even had experience with one that had nothing to do with babies. When I was a freshman in high school I had all these lumps on my neck and had to have one removed and they had to ultrasound it! I have to first complete the prerequisites and hopefully will be able to start the 2 year program in the Fall of 2013. That's the plan for now. I'm really looking foward to it!

Alright dearies, I am glad to be back and I hope you stick around for some of the fun things I have planned to share with you!!


Jamie

Turning a New Leaf...Part One

As I mentioned at the end of my previous post (so long ago) a lot of big things have happened in my life over the last 2 months. All really awesome, great, scary, different things! So much that I am going to split it up into two different posts otherwise this will turn from a blog into a novel!

So first...my mom moved to Arizona!
I may have mentioned it here once before but pretty much my whole life all I've ever heard from my mom has been "I loved training horses. I wish I could still work with horses. When I win the lottery, I'm buying a horse farm." etc.

Flash back to before I was born and she was a kid, she always had horses and worked on horse farms.
She lived in Arizona for a few years training horses but eventually came back to Jersey.
Her and my dad met while both working on a horse farm.
My mom found out she was pregnant with me because she fell off a horse and had to go to the hospital.

So needless to say, horses are a ginormous part of my mom's life. I've gone riding quite a few times, in Colorado, Tennessee, Jersey, PA, all over the place. It really is wonderful and horses are beautiful, gentle animals. I can see why people love them. It's also really fun to pretend to be a cowboy while riding LOL However, I am allergic...not to the horses themselves (I recently found out and was shocked about because anything else with fur or feathers I'm allergic to). Everything else around the horses, the hay, the other animals, the fields they live in, I'm allergic to all that and it sucks!
Actually here is a pic of me from this past Labor Day when a bunch of my family went riding together...I made that face in like half the pictures! Oh and I'm not that short, he's a clydesdale!



Anyway, my mom and her boyfriend of 13 years broke up. It was shitty so I won't get into the grimey details. My sister, her sisters and friends...we all pushed her to finally make the move out to AZ. She has gone on vacation the last few years out there to a ranch and made some friends. She was even offered a job as a massage therapist at one of the dude ranches for people on vacation. After much deliberation and what I imagine had to be one of the hardest decisions she ever made, she went. My sister drove out with her (which I will forever be jealous of) and she's been there for about 2 months now.

I miss her SO much!!! I probably mentioned it another time but my mom also worked at the same place as me and I got so used to seeing her everyday. We've been texting and talking on the phone a lot and she's been sending me pics of her new apartment. Of road runners and lizards and cacti and just all the beauty of this new part of her life. I am so incredibly proud of her. It just proves that it is NEVER too late to do what you love in life. It must be so scary for her to be by herself making this drastic change. I told her though, Jessie and I don't "need" her right now. We're grown and live on our own. We aren't getting married or having babies. Right now is the perfect time for her to go. Plus...if she hates it, she can always come home. But she will never have to regret not going or constantly having those nagging "what if..." or "I wish..." thoughts.

She is coming home for Christmas which I'm really happy about. It's just finally starting to sink in that I can't just hop in the car and be at my moms house in less than 30 minutes, or give her a book I think she'd like when I see her at work. I can't ask if I can come over to borrow her printer or if I can store something in the attic because it won't fit in my apartment. I do think that not seeing her on Chrismas would have been exceptionally hard though.

The word 'proud' doesn't really even describe how I feel about her right now. The last few years my mom has dealt with a lot of stuff and put a lot of people before herself.. First there was my accident and she had to help me A LOT, then my Nana (her mom) got really sick and passed away, her boyfriend's father also got sick and passed away, then my Uncle had some struggles of his own that my mom has helped him with. It's just time that she lives her life for herself, after all...it's the only one she's got.

I love my mother to pieces and I miss her so much but I am so glad that she made this giant move in her life!!!


It has inspired me greatly which is what Part Two will be all about...


Jamie

My Afghan is DONE!!

I am so freaking excited that I finished this last night!!! I attached the last row of squares and added the border and she is now resting comfortably on my bed. I will say that I hoped it was going to be a bit bigger, I'm horrible at measurements and things like that. It's the perfect size for a twin bed but gets the job done on my full size. This baby was a labor of love and I am so proud of her!







You can check out the progress of this afghan throughtout a bunch of different posts I did since I started her back in January.

January
January Again
February
April
May
(a few months of no progress)
October

I am so proud of myself that even though it took this long I really stuck with it. I definitely don't want to make anymore granny squares for quite a while. Between that craftster swap, the blogger blanket project and this afghan, I am all grannied out! Although...I do really want some cute granny throw pillows LOL I'll wait on that for a while though. I am now onto starting all the Christmas presents I am going to make this year. Lots of hats and scarves I think.

I also have a ton of stuff to share with you guys...so much has happened in my life over the last month. Like giant stuff!
My mom moved to Arizona.
I quit my job and got a new one (I start Sunday!) that is COMPLETELY different.
I have a new life plan and career goal that I am really looking forward to which also means I am going back to school in January.
Anyway...that is all going to be a post of it's own!

Thanks so much for popping by and checking out my loverly new afghan, have a wonderful weekend friends!

Jamie

Halloween...Finally!

I know it's a few weeks late but because of the stupid snow storm we got over Halloween weekend we had to postpone our party for a week. Saturday we got all dressed up and headed out to Jersey for the 3rd Annual Rolak (Shannon and JP's) Halloween Party.
I was a skeleton, Jeremy was the Tooth Fairy and my sister was a Racoon (she has a thing for woodland creatures).
I cut out and sewed these bones onto the shirt and pants, I even sewed the cracks in my pelvis and attached a screw to the ankle where I still have one in me LOL!! I had so much fun painting my face, I followed a youtube video done by Letzmakeup. Painting my face is one of my favorite parts of Halloween. Please ignore my blue socks!! I don't have any black ones =/





This is Jeremy as the tooth fairy, this was fully his idea and the fact that he wore that tutu all night was pretty amazing!! I made that whole thing out of over 5 yards of 4 different fabrics and 15 yards of 2 different ribbons. It's so pretty in real life but I have no idea what to do with it now!



I hope you all had an awesome Halloween and now I am looking forward to Thanksgiving!!

Jamie

Happy Anniversary!

I won't go into all the sappy details about how Jeremy and I are a match made in heaven or how in love we are or how we met (you can read all that here.) For now I will just say it has been a wonderful 3 years and I am very excited about some of our future plans we've been talking about! I will be sharing the details once the time gets closer...and no it's not THAT! We're planning to get a place together early next year =D



Have a wonderful day friends!