Shower.

This evening I sat and pondered the correct verbiage of "to shower." Yes, I do a lot of serious deep mental cleansing in the shower and this is what the depths of my brain were reaching tonight. Don't judge, sometimes random thoughts are the best thoughts.

Anyway, I've always been a user of "taking a shower." As in, "I'm going to take a shower," or "Get out of the bathroom I'm taking a shower!"

I've also heard "getting a shower," one of my personal least favorites. "Be right back I'm getting a shower," or "I've got to get a shower before I can go." (I always thought it should be getting in the shower, but I digress, wouldn't taking a shower - my favorite - be picking it up and moving it somewhere?).

And then the less popular (in my world, anyway) but still there, "having a shower." The one time I heard this it was something along the lines of "I'll be there after I'm done having a shower." Just sounds like too many extra words to me, but actually kind of makes sense when you think about it, at least more so than taking or getting...

So, the point of this, rather pointless post (hey, we're all entitled to one every so often) is because I've decided what I would like to say. I would like to cut it straight and to the point and use it as the word, in my opinion, was designed to be used. Showering. It is one of those words that can be both noun and verb. Like "bat." I'm holding the bat. I'm batting. I think showering is just sufficient to describe what you're going to be doing in the bathroom for the next 5-60 minutes.

Who am I kidding, I'll probably still say taking a shower. And waste those extra seconds with words just as I did writing this ridiculous post. Heh.

Hope everyone had a great Monday! No Moody Mondays (But Manic ones are fine!!)


PS While typing this I got slightly sidetracked by my rings picking up the light and sparkling in the reflection of the computer screen. I thought I was seeing sparkles but no it was just my rings, I have never noticed that before. Neat.

My Baby Girl is the Big UNO

Well, this past weekend, my little princess turned ONE. I can not believe she is one. In some ways it feels as though time as crawled but in most ways and on most days, time has flown by. It was a very exciting weekend. Jonny's mom, 2 of his sisters, and nephew and niece came up and it was so awesome having them here to celebrate. As well as my mommy (who'd been there for about 2 weeks helping me move) my daddy, and sister, Jonny's best friend Frankie and his fiance Cayla, and one of my closest friends (and matron of honor!), Maggie and her family! So glad people took quite a trek to be with us on such a special day! We had a great turnout which really made my heart smile to know that Ariana means so much to so many people. The decorations turned out wonderfully (many thanks to my sister in law, the streamer queen) and I ordered just enough food - and I gotta tell ya, Walmart's party trays really hit the spot! There were definitely some rough spots for me, it was once again another thing that Jonathan should have been partaking with us and it was hard without him here. I cried a couple times but kept myself together for the most part. I just kept thinking about being on the phone with him in the delivery room and it's so hard to think about how he never met the little girl he was so in love with. But as usual, I know he was there with us and was celebrating and so proud of his gorgeous little girl and of me, for getting her to a whole year! (Lol). So without further ado, I give you what you're all really waiting for... THE PHOTOS (oh, and there will be some house photos too!)

The new crib

Starting to set up for party time!
Just getting started to decorate!
Gift table
Living room, party guests, and purple decorations (we had to get our Ravens love on too... don't talk to me about the game GRR! haha)
The "Everyone" cake - first two layers yellow cake, bottom chocolate and it says Happy Birthday Ariana on the top - I MADE IT!
Ariana's personal cake - MADE THIS ONE TOO!
The food spread, decorations, and guests
Getting ready for lunch before cake
Making a wish and blowing out the candle
Taking a hand full and...
...CAKE FACE!!
Some more guests in the play room having cake
Present time!
Checkin out what kinda gifts she got

Hanging out with Grammy (Jonny's mom)
Playing with her cousin (with the birthday "I'm One Today!" button on her back where it couldn't be ripped off!)
Swing set from mommy and playhouse from Gramma and Grampa
Cousins playing
The little ones with Grammy
All of us together before Jonny's fam left

There are a ton more but I tried to pick ones to showcase the whole day (and other parts of the weekend). I hope that satisfies for those who wanted to see some pics (and for those who didn't... well... sorry you had to suffer through a pic packed post - 000 alliteration! haha)

And now I'm off, busy week ahead of me and school starts very soon! EEE!! :)

DStripped

I just did my first personal piece for DStripped Magazine, the online magazine I write for monthly. I am so proud of it and I think it turned out wonderfully. I get so excited every time I see my writing out there somewhere and love the opportunity to write for such a cool magazine and work with some really rad people. The stories on there are phenomenal and the other writers are just outstanding. So, if you've got a chance, check out my article and the other amazing articles as well. I'm a real writer and it feels so good! I'M A WRITER (I just can't get over that, FINALLY!!)

A Few Points of Interest

1. Moving sucks.
2. I'm making lots of progress on setting up the new house but it feels like the boxes are never ending!
3. Ariana's birthday is almost here and we've got 15 people staying at our house (no hyperbole). I've got a lot to do!
4. Ariana's birthday falls on the day of the Ravens/Steelers game - purple rain and purple party!! haha.
5. I am still alive even though moving has taken over my whole life.
6. I'm surviving the winter weather here in NC... where is that good ol' southern sun??
7. I have a lot of catching up to do!
8. Standby for photos in a future post!

Thankful Prayers

The other night I was laying in bed saying my prayers and asking for this and asking for that. And then... then I just stopped. And I thanked God. I thanked Him for the amazing people in my life. I thanked Him for being able to breathe, for a roof over my head, and for the daily comforts I have in my life. I thanked him for my friends who have stuck it out and the new ones I've met along the journey. I thanked Him for my incredible, supportive family. I thanked Him for my amazing daughter who pulls me through some of the roughest times and is the most beautiful little girl I've ever seen. And I thanked Him for Jonathan. I thanked him for true love. I realized that not everyone gets to feel that, and I did. I had true love, I have true love and I am eternally thankful for that. Some days, I don't feel so great. Some days I feel like life sucks and the world's just out to shit on me. And then there are the days. The days where I feel like I am the luckiest girl in the world. I need to thank God more often.

Movin on out (And My Mandy)

The move is nearing success. I really hope I didn't speak too soon, however I've been moving for like a week or something and I've survived that long, so aren't I entitled to say nearing success? The old house is nearly empty, one small load left and the new house looks and FEELS like home. Amazing how it feels like home, I didn't think it'd happen but here I am lounging on my couch in my new home feeling like... well, like it's my home. I've just got to say though, you never realize how much crap you have until you have to move it. And I'm apt to call myself Mary Poppins because stuff just keeps coming out of the small house we started in! We seriously thought we were close to done and today we thought we were doing the last minute stuff aaaannndddd.... we had enough stuff to fill up another small house (and there's still some left)! Where I kept it all this time beats me...

Also, I'd like to set one thing straight. MandyMy is one of my best friends. A couple people were a little concerned about her comment but the crazy thing is as soon as she left it, before I even approved it, I called her almost peeing my pants because of how funny it was to me. Mandy is a fellow widster and one of my very closest friends. I've never met her. I "met" her along this journey over the interwebs (internet girlfriend!) and we've developed this amazing relationship that I've grown quite fond of. She has been a pillar of strength to me and there is always a hilarious moment when we speak (which is usually daily but when it's not I hit Mandy withdrawals). We have several inside jokes and we both are on the "widow humor" train. Widow humor is just... dark and often sarcastic humor. My friends "in real life" have experienced this and sometimes I think it freaks some people out. But Mandy and I, well, we think we're hilarious. I so very much appreciate so many people sticking up for me but please don't attack My Mandy, I love her dearly and it's just one of the times that we think we're hilarious and other people think we're weird (happens every time we try to let someone in on one of our several inside jokes). I wish I could have written such a lovely post as she did, I'll chalk it up to my exhaustion and lack of internet over the past week that this comes off so rushed and leave it with an "I LOVE YOU MANDY, YOU ROCK MY SOCKS RIGHT OFF... even though it's my worse nightmare to have my socks rocked."

I'll be working on updating more frequently (and getting back to my long neglected photo challenge...) now that the interwebs are back in my place of residence but I can't make any promises, moving is time consuming! Holler 2011, new year, new place, new school, new possibilities. Ok, being overtired is making me way too optimistic. ;)