Who missed me???!!

Can you see my pretty striped shirt?  I'm into stripes.  Also, ignore the nasty keyboard- I've borrowed my brother's old computer since my computer died a few months ago.

After an extended hiatus, I am back to blogging.  Did you guys miss me?  I missed you!  I really did.  I didn't miss the familial nagging, "why haven't you blogged yet today?" (at 9 am), or the "you haven't blogged since such and such date, Jessica, this is ridiculous."  All of these semi-abusive statements came from family, so go ahead and judge them.  They totally deserve it.

But I did miss the comments and the few readers I had, and the blogging ideas that my creative mind just never quit imagining.  Over the past few months, there were many, many times I thought, wow, that would be a great blog.  Its too late to go back now, but from now on, none of you will miss a single blog-able snuggle moment with Parker or boring, sci-fi movie night at the house.  Aren't you excited!?

Here are a few things that have changed since my last blog:

- I've moved from my utterly adorable rental house to a house across town with a roommate.  Her name is Meghann and I'm sure you'll hear more about her in the future.  This move saves me lots of money as well as gives Parker and me some company in the form of Meghann, her cat, Mr. McCarty, and her dog, Atticus.

- I've changed jobs- somewhat.  I'm still doing the same thing-- working for DHS, Child Support.  But back in June, I left the Clarksdale office and moved to the Cleveland office.  New co-workers, new judges, new attorneys, same type cases.  This move saved me money and gave me a lot more time, now that I'm not driving 40 minutes each way.  The jury's still out on this move.  (Thats a nice way of saying that I'm not too happy with this change.  Some things are better, but for the most part, I really, really miss my Clarksdale office.  I'm sure I'll be talking more about this another time.)  For now, I'm glad to have more time and save some gas money, so I'll be focusing on that, instead of the bad things I cannot change.

- Parker is still sweet as ever.  That has not and will not ever change.

- I've had knee surgery.  I had a scope done on my right knee a few weeks ago.  I was lucky enough to get to stay with my mom during the recovery and she was, for the most part, an excellent nurse.  I'm headed back to the doctor this week to discuss options for my left knee.  We shall see.

- My sister, Betsy, is getting married!  She's set the date and we're all getting ready for the Big Day in May!  In unrelated news, my blood pressure has gone through the roof and my dad's bank account has gone through the basement.

I guess those are the major points.  I'm sure the other things will come up eventually, but I won't bore them with you now.

Today I'm getting ready for a friend's baby shower.  My friend, Corley Mullins, is expecting little Lucy in a couple months and we are throwing her a shower at Mississippi Grounds.  I'm using this time to borrow the internet.  Then I'm headed to Greenville for some Christmas shopping, dinner and a Christmas party at a friend's house.  My life is just so packed.

Happy Birthday to me, Part 1!!

I'm sure all your readers know that March is a super exciting month for yours truly.  And if you don't then we need to have a little talk and you need to re-read my phamplet o'fun facts I hand out to all my new friends.  Its my birthday month!  Its also my mom's birthday month!  And its my new friend Ginni's birthday month!  Well, she's not my "new" friend in that I've known her for a while now, but its my first March birthday month to know her.  Remember Ginni?  You met her here.  She's a fun girl.  And her birthday was this past Monday.  And mine is next Saturday.  We're practically twins, you know.

Yesterday, I got to work and there was a table with a tablecloth in the middle of the little trailer I share with Cassandra and Jerome and a crockpot with something yummy inside.  I asked Cassandra about it and she denied all knowledge of this, but with a hint of a wicked smile.  Later on the morning, I went over to the other trailer to do some work.  Or, hang out and talk to Ginni.  Something like that.  We were then called back to my area and lo and behold, it was a birthday party for both of us!!!!

 The decorated table!  See the little flower pots on the edges?  I found those at Dollar Tree and bought everyone one-- they are solar-powered and wave their little leaves and flowers.  Its so cute!!!

 Ginni eyeing the food.  I'm not sure what Marietta or Doretha are doing. 

 In this picture, you can barely see Valerie, sitting so lady-like in her pretty turquoise and black and white dress, and Vanessa in the back.  Vanessa is so picture-shy- she never wants me to take her picture!  I don't know why!  She's so pretty and I love Vanessa!!!

 Me and the other birthday girl, Ginni Mitchell!  I love this supervisor!!  She's my favorite!

 Me and Doretha-- she was amazed at how my camera phone showed you the picture while you were taking it-- right before this she was all fixing her hair and stuff!!!

 Jerome's absolutely fantastic salad-- craisins, strawberries, mixed greens cause thats what Ginni likes, cucumbers, almonds-- it was great!! Jerome is officially in charge of making our salads from now on at all office functions!

 I shoulda known something was up when this little toaster oven showed up in our office yesterday and Vanessa waved it off and said something like, "oh I have to take it back"!  She used it to toast us some garlic bread!  Yum!!!
 

 Ginni looks awfully guilty tasting those cupcakes!!!

 My card and the best gift you can give someone who spends all day in her office-- office supplies!!  Ginni got some too and she also got the largest jar of pickles I've ever seen.  She's obsessed with pickles. 

And then, the best part- my legal clerk, Cassandra, whom I adore, got me and Ginni

these pretty potted plants!! 

 Ginni is attempting to hide behind the plant so she won't have to do anymore work.  Nice try...

This was a fantastic birthday lunch!  It made my day, it really did!  I've worked with some really great people in my life and enjoyed them so very much.  But this group is absolutely the best group I've ever worked with entirely.  I love them all!  I'm so happy to have a job where I really, really love going to work.  Oh this job drives me crazy sometimes, it really does.  But rarely do these co-workers drive me crazy!  Its usually more like the clients!  We have so much fun laughing and cutting up about the most random things and we really band together when we have to deal with some crazy folks!  Its nice to have people who know what you are dealing with and help you when you have bad days and such.

I'm really blessed to have a job I love so much, especially after my last job, wherein that boss was just awful!  I'm a lucky girl to have co-workers who love me enough to have a birthday party for me!  They just really make my heart happy!  Thank you to Vanessa, Jerome, Doretha, Marietta, and Cassandra, and the newest addition to the group, Valerie!  I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!

Pizza, Tennis and Draw Something....

Last night, my friend Jennifer and I went to watch her husband, Cliff, and our friend Paul, play tennis in a local tennis league.  We cheered super loud, made all sorts of Rodick/Nadal/Williams catcalls, and then left when it got a little bit cold.  I've never been accused of anything other than being a fair-weather fan.  We then headed over to our friend Andrews house for an impromptu pizza party.  I've fallen into a pretty great group of friends here in Cleveland, and thus far, they continue to let me hang out with them, and, usually, sit at the same table in public. 

Anyway, it was a spur-of-the-moment thing and I don't really know where the idea originated, but it was a great idea!  Joannah made some yummy pizza dough and everyone had individual pizzas with their own choice of toppings- chicken, cheeses, pepperoni, tomatoes.  Another part of the evening was my new favorite game- Draw Something!  I've seen a lot of people on facebook talking about this new game and yesterday, a friend of mine introduced me.  I've spent entirely too much time playing it since then.  And last night, everyone saw me playing it and downloaded it themselves, and we spend a good portion of the evening playing it amongst ourselves with each other, saying things like "what in the world were you thinking when you drew that?" or "how could you not see that was a grandma?  Are you blind!??" or "hurry up and play your turn!".  Its addictive and also quite humbling when you realize you cannot draw a dolphin or a duck.  Its a whole lot of fun.  And once you readers download it, let's play!

Here are some pictures from the night:

 From l-r, Laura Beth, yours truly, Corley, Joannah and Andrew the host

 Here they are cooking up a storm.  I also love this picture cause Jennifer doesn't look posed at all-- this is actually how she cooks, people.  With a pretty smile and her arm picking up the cheese.  For no apparent reason. 

 Doesn't Andrew sorta look like a cooking show host?  Thats like posing with some fans or something?!

 My pizza.  What it lacked in symmetry, it made up for in good, old-fashioned taste!!

Me taking a picture of Corley taking a picture of the group.  Spooky, right?

Like mother, like daughter....

Now, this is not a post about Ole Miss v. State.  I'm not about to go there anymore.  In my opinion, Ole Miss has had a rough few years (mostly self-inflicted) and MSU is having a lot of good things going for it these days.  This is also not a blog post about Ole Miss's recent public relations snafus or MSU's over-reliance and insistence on a whole lot of hashtags.  Its also not a post about the many, many MSU fans that I've had to delete from Twitter and Facebook in the last two years due to obscene comments about my school (again, GTHOM is offensive and GFY, Ole Miss is even worse). 

What this blog post is about is how I've raised my Parker to be, apparently, just like me.  A few weeks ago, FBC, Cleveland, was doing a women's ministry "Festival of Tables" and I, along with my friend Jessica (one of the cooler MSU fans, I do believe), had decided to decorate a table with a "House Divided" theme of Ole Miss/MSU decorations.  Not only did I think it would be super cute, but it would also mean that we could be a part of the evening without having to shoulder the entire table all on our own (which would be heavy, you know, putting a table, with decorations and everything on our shoulders.  Also, uneven.)

Ultimately, our table got scrapped (table scraps!) because there were more than enough tables and decorations and we didn't mind stepping back and letting some of the other, more creative ladies in the church decorate.  But before we decided not to decorate, I went to the Wal-Mart in Clarksdale with a co-worker (also of the cool MSU kind- I'm glad I'm a cool enough Ole Miss fan to attract cool MSU fans in my life!) to get some fabric.  Cleveland Wal-Mart, among its other inefficiences, does not have fabric, thanks to the two, more expensive downtown fabric stores that would be perfect for most people, but don't work at all for an out-of-town working girl like me who can never get to downtown Cleveland during weekdays.

Anyway, I bought some fabric for us to use as a tablecloth/centerpiece runner on our table.  I figured I can always use red/blue fabric during football season and Jessica felt the same way.  Albeit about maroon/gray, not red/blue.  I bought some some fabric, and then, as we were walking away, I found some actual fabric with MSU and Ole Miss decals on it, so I bought that too.

Since we decided not to do our table, that fabric has sat on my chair in my living room, waiting for me to 1. put it where it belongs, 2.  decide where it belongs, and 3.  give the MSU fabric to Jessica, who I've seen several times since that day but keep forgetting to bring it with me.  Yesterday, I came home to this:

  

Parker loves sitting in this chair.  Actually, Parker loves laying on all my chairs.  And the couch.  The floor, the rug, the bed, the guest bed, the rug in the bathroom, the cushions under the window, the floor in the closet, pretty much everywhere. She likes to get into her spot, rub her face and body around, have fights with whatever blanket, shirt, pillow, etc. that might be on that spot.  Then she likes to lay down and relax, tuckered out from her fight.  But this time, she apparently, threw all the MSU fabric onto the ground while leaving the Ole Miss fabric in the chair.  Its kinda, funny, right?!

Even funnier, when I placed this fabric on the chair, I specifically put the Ole Miss fabric ON TOP of the MSU fabric (so I wouldn't have to look at it, natch) and she still managed to only throw off the MSU fabric.  She did this on purpose, I know.  I'm kinda proud. 

Happy Mardi GRAS!

This is my new wreath I made for my front door! I'm loving it even though it's too big to shut the door without pushing the glass door open!

My most favorite vehicle ever...

Is this one...

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know this is super random, and its not really like me to like an obnoxious blue "Miller Lite" vehicle, but let me explain. 

When I first moved to Cleveland, I saw this vehicle.  A lot.  Its kinda noticeable so every time I saw it, it made an impression on me.  And then I began to see it all over the place.  I saw it going south on 61 towards Cleveland in the mornings.  I saw it parked at Kroger late at night.  I saw it going north towards Clarksdale in the afternoon.  I saw it parked at the house five doors down from mine on a weekend.  I saw it in Indianola.  Leland.  Greenville.  Several times in Clarksdale- driving, parked at businesses, parked at a house.  Once parked on the side of the road.  I saw it at night, in the morning, weekdays, weekends, going this way, that way, every whichway. 

It became my new hobby, a new obsession.  I'd try to determine what kind of person would drive this and where they might be going.  Did they live in Clarksdale and drive to Cleveland to work for the beer distributor?  Did they have a friend who lives several houses down from mine and they'd come over to watch a movie on a weekend?  Did they drive to Clarksdale in the morning?  What about mornings when I'd see them driving towards Cleveland?  Did they visit Leland and Indianola a lot for what purpose?  What does this person do?  When do they work?  Is this their only vehicle?  Their company vehicle?  Who are their friends?  Where do their friends live?  It was fascinating. 

And then, one day, I drive, on my regular route home, past a metal building and there are THREE of these vehicles.  Yeah, it answered a lot of my questions. 

When I snapped this picture, there were only two, and I've since never seen all three vehicles at once, but it makes much more sense to think there are actually three of these!  Its not nearly as much fun when I see these vehicles, but I still get a bit tickled when I think of the many months and the amounts of energy I wasted trying to make sense of this one (err, three) vehicle!!

A cup of tea?

I've joined a book club.  Its totally awesome!  I even made the front page of the newspaper that week, although I've not been able to see the actual picture so its possible its not a good one of me, which means I will totally deny its me. 

I play trivia each week with a big group of local Clevelandites (Clevelandians?  Clevelanders?) and one girl, Katie, and I have bonded over our love of books and specific authors, include Carolyn Haines (check her website out here).  She recently invited me to her book club which meets once a month and reads a large variety of different types of books.  My first time to attend was in January and we read "Game of Thrones" . 

You've possibly heard of this series of books because there is now an HBO television series based on them.  We read the first book for book club and there are five, I believe, books out now, the most recent came out in the last few months.  I really enjoyed this book- its right up my alley-- kinda scifi, a bit weird, lots of strange characters, a fantasy world, made up cultures, etc.  I thought it was great.  Its super long, and there are a LOT of characters to keep straight, but it was good.  I'd love to watch the television show, but I don't get HBO.  Since book club, I've read the first four books, and I'm contemplating getting the fifth.  Honestly, I'm a bit burnt out-- the books follow so many characters and they flip back and forth between them and different plot lines.  At first, it was great, and then, as time has gone by, I've gotten less patient with the entire series.  this last book only followed a few of the original characters and introduced a whole bunch of entirely new ones.  That was basically the last straw for me- I'm invested in the original characters and to ignore some of those original ones for an entire book while introducing new ones was an abuse of my loyalty, I believe.  I'm debating if I want to buy the fifth book or just wait a while.  I found myself skipping entire chapters with the new characters and its entirely possible I will regret that when their stories become more important to the book.  I'm sure I'll get over it though.

But the first book was good and I'm really glad I read them all, to be honest.  I'm glad I read them on my nook because these books are very thick.

My first book club was a hit and I enjoyed getting to know some of my friend better and meeting new people.  Plus we had a fabulous dinner at the Cleveland Country Club (the hostess's husband is the chef so he brought out some yummy appetizers!)  And the best part was the end-- the club had just had a fancy party and the chef had bought some chocolate teacups for the dessert-- and he had just enough leftover to make us a fabulous orange cream dessert and put it in the chocolate teacups!!  It was really, really fun!  I'm not into eating that much chocolate all at once, but it was so much fun to look at!

After I'd eaten some of the saucer.  I took the cup home with me to show my mom!

 

I love going to court.  Not personally, of course, since I haven't had to go to court for personal reasons since that night back in '93 (and to be fair, that old lady was asking for it...).  But professional reasons.  Even when I disliked solo practice, I enjoyed getting to go to court.  There's something that requires your mind to be focused and sharp- you are constantly preparing for the next question and the next answer, thinking two steps ahead of where you are, noticing the small details, ready for anything.  And being a DHS Child Support attorney is just like that but like 100x more.  Before, in court, I had one, maybe two cases, with a few or more issues per case.  I was focused and ready for those two cases.  I knew those cases like the back of my hand (presumably!).  But now that I handle child support cases, its a whole different ballgame.  I have dozens and dozens of cases each court date.  I might know a lot about those cases, and I might know everything about a few of those cases, but there are always a few that I know nothing about.  Its all playing it by ear, looking confident, acting like you know what you are doing.  Bluffing, in a sense.  People ask questions, I answer as best I can- but since I'm the attorney, I'm expected to know the answer.  And most of the time, I totally do.   I know child support law pretty good now! 

And I love going to court-- I love it.  I'm the only attorney, and in the morning, its just me.  The Family Master comes in after lunch to hear some cases but for the most part, I'm on my own, totally in charge.  Love it! 

Recently, I've started filling in for other attorneys in different counties-- first Washington County some, now Bolivar County.  So, its even more of a challenge because I'm not familiar with these cases or these court procedures or how the specific judge handles things.  Its a bit nerve-wracking at first, but now I'm getting my sea legs and really enjoying it. 

Today, however, was an unusual court date.  In Coahoma County, like I mentioned, I'm in charge.  I'm sitting at the desk alone and I deal with the clients and the non-custodial parents entirely on my own.  So, if I'm not doing something, something is wrong.  I'm constantly seeing people, filling out their judgments, explaining their court papers to them, talking to them, organizing my docket, etc.  Its non-stop till the last case is heard.  Now that I write about it, its kinda exhausting!!! 

But today I was in Bolivar County for the first time, and Bolivar has a different judge and a different family master than Coahoma.  And they take the time to review the case, ask thoughtful questions, look over documents, etc.  Which is great.  But what it means for me is--- a lot of extra time with nothing to do.  So my mind wanders.  A lot.  Here are some of the things I thought about today. 

Arrerage is a strange word.  What is the plural of "arrearage"?  Should I have just said "the arrearage is" or "the arrerages are"? Does it really matter?  Did anyone even hear what I just said?  Amya is a strange name?  Am ya having fun?  Sounds like bad grammar.  Is that word Fergusson?  Plessy v. Ferguson.  What court case is that?  Is that the Ferguson factors for family law?  No, Ferguson is "separate but equal"?  I think?  I should really know that.  Oh wait, that word is not "Ferguson", its "forgiven".  Wow, big difference.  Wonder where that girl got her necklace?  I want to go back to Charming Charlie's soon.  I need to call my aunt and tell her I want to go to the beach soon so give me a weekend when the condo is free.  I forgot to call Betsy back this morning.  Ok I will do it later.  Why didn't I print out the FSUM screen?  Man, I did a terrible job on court prep this week.  Oh well.   


Seriously, this is a small portion of what I thought during the long pauses.  It was a smorgasbord of entirely useless stuff.  And it all was linked together in a way that made perfect sense in my mind.  Luckily for me (and readers of that boring, random paragraph above), the pauses didn't last too long and I was able to handle court fairly well today.  Its always a bit stressful for me to go into a new court for the first time, and this one was particularly stressful, but I think I did just fine!!!

The proof is in the trifle...

Musta been pretty good cause it's all gone!!!

Trifle, Truffle, Potatoe, Po-ta-toe

Today's one of my Monday's off (love working for the State) and I'm putting it to good use.  I spent all weekend laying around, reading and "sorta" cleaning up, so its nice for a change to get things done!  I went to Wal-Mart, spent entirely too much money on food, and then came home and cooked two casseroles for friends who've recently had babies.  I went to lunch with my new friend Brett and saw some other friends while we were there.  We spent a while of our lunch debating the world trifle v. truffle.  She suggested what I was making was a "trifle" as a "truffle" is like a Lindor truffle.  Also, my friend Laura Beth reminded me that on Friends, Rachel made a "Trifle" and messed up the recipe and added meat and potatoes and vegetables.  I'm pretty sure mine will be better than that!

And now I'm back at home making a Chocolate Peanut Butter Trifle for a NCAA Football Championship get-together tonight at one of my friends.  Its my trivia friends that are getting together tonight and we are eating chili and I'm bringing a dessert.  Now, at first glance, my trivia group seems pretty normal.  But these are the people who came to my house for a Christmas party and didn't leave till after 1 a.m.-- and the karoke machine make an appearance.  So, honestly, there's no telling about tonight!!! 

I got on Pinterest and found a yummy looking dessert.  I watched Barefoot Contessa while I was making this and I am pretty darn proud of myself. 

First you make fudge brownies like normal.  Two points here:

1.  The recipe calls for peanut butter chips to be added to the batter, but after reading some of the reviews, I decided not to, as a lot of the reviewers said it was a bit too much peanut butter.  Also, this recipe is quite expensive so that saved me like $3.00. 

2.  Yes, there IS a fingerprint in the middle of the brownies.  Some people use fancy cooking tools like toothpicks or forks to check the done-ness of their brownies.  Pshaw, I say-- hands are your best cooking tools. 

Two large vanilla pudding mixes.  Add 4 cups cold milk, stir.  Let it sit for a few minutes and add 4 tsps vanilla extract (I didn't have that much so I used what I had!), and 1 cup peanut butter.  Mix with 1 and a half things of cool whip.  Actually, now that I'm typing this up, I'm realizing I didn't use near that much whip cream.  Oh well.

Cut up two bags of small Reese's Pieces.  

Cut brownies up in small squares.  Add layer to the bottom of a large bowl.  Next a layer of peanut butter cups.  Then layer the peanut butter pudding mix.  And so on and so on.  The recipe suggested that I would be able to do three layers but I only did 2 and a half.  Doesn't really matter-- its going to be so good that following a recipe is unnecessary!!! 

 And what did Parker do?  First she stood underneath me and ate all crumbs that I dropped.  All of that being underfoot made her tired and she decided to nap the rest of the time.  I'm still waiting on her to clean the kitchen up like I asked. 

I hate you, Siri,,,

A few weeks ago, my old Blackberry phone finally died.  Luckily for me, CellSouth (I refuse to call it CSpire which is a terribly stupid name and sounds like ceasefire) had just started carrying iPhones!  A few weeks before, my Blackberry had started messing up a whole lot, and I called my brother (the Carr family resident apple-head) to see when the iPhone would be available to CellSouth customers and I hoped my old phone would last that long.  It did and so, one Friday afternoon, I headed to CellSouth in Laurel to buy me a new phone.  I spent two long hours in there, getting the phone, setting up the phone, paying for the phone and then attempting to transfer my contacts and pictures from the old phone.  I have had fits with that Blackberry, but it got the last laugh when it took over an hour to transfer all of my contacts-- 999 to be exact.  Yeah, I'm not quite that popular.  When the sales rep told me that, I figured she was wrong, but I quickly learned that my blackberry had multiplied a couple of my contacts hundreds of times.  So I spent that entire evening deleting those "extra" contacts on my fancy new black iphone! 

Now that I have an iphone, I'm finally feeling like a cool kid.  I can play words with friends.  I can act interested when someone says "there's an app for that" because I might actually want that app.  I can sweep my finger across the screen like someone living in the future.  I'm super cool now. 

One thing that's not super cool?  Siri.  Seriously, Siri stinks.  I'm afraid to ask my brother, but I'm pretty sure that the extra money I spent to get the 4gs (or whatever the number/letter combination is) was only to get Siri on my phone.  I'd rather not know, if that's the case. 

If you haven't heard of Siri (and to be honest, I'd not really  heard of it before I got this phone), let me introduce you.  According to the apple website, Siri "lets you use your voice to send messages, schedule meetings, place phone calls, and more.  Ask Siri to do things just by talking the way you talk.  Siri understands what you say, knows what you mean, and even talks back. Siri is so easy to use and does so much, you’ll keep finding more and more ways to use it."

Yeah.

According to Nicholas, you can ask Siri all types of stuff and it will look it up for you.  So, I'm all excited and start trying to ask Siri to get information for me.  And, well, it didn't work out quite as I'd hoped.  I've tried many times, over the last couple weeks to ask Siri questions and to get answers.  And I've only once gotten an actual, correct answer, and that was when Nicholas told me what to say.  Talk to it like a child, he says.  Whatever, Siri simply hates me.  Its the only explanation.  "Surely, you jest" I hear you all saying.  First off, don't call me Shirley.  Secondly, its true.  Siri never gives me the correct information, never understands my questions, never ceases to insult me whenever it has a chance. 

To prove my point, I'm going to ask Siri some questions right now, and type the answers on here, so you will all know.  The things I do for this blog. 

Me:  Call Mom. 

Siri:  Call.  Who would you like to call? 

Me:  Mom. 

Siri:  Aren't.  I don't see Aren't in your address book. 


Me:  Set an appointment for March 24 (Blogger's sidenote:  You all should be setting an appointment reminder for that day.)

Siri:  Set an appointment for March 24.  What time would you like that appointment?

Me:  9 am

Siri:  Marianne.  I don't understand what you mean by Marianne.  What time would you like your appointment? 


Me:  Walmart, Cleveland, Mississippi

Siri:  I don't understand.  Walled, Claiborne, Mississippi

Me:  Walmart, Cleveland, Mississippi

Siri:  Sorry I can only look for businesses, map and traffic in the United States and when you're using U.S. English.  Sorry about that.


Me:  Hobby Lobby, Hattiesburg, Mississippi

Siri: Haridya, Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Sorry I can only look for businesses, map and traffic in the United States and when you're using U.S. English.  Sorry about that.

Yeah, people you get the picture.  Siri hates me.  Siri laughs at me, mocking me to use U.S. English.

Me:  I hate you Siri.

Siri:  I hate theory.  I'm sorry. 

At least it had the manners to apologize. 

So proud of myself

Yesterday I mentioned New Year's Resolutions and today I've got some great news I'm just bursting to share. I didn't really make formal resolutions or anything but I've decided to make being healthier a higher priority in my life and I want to... Lose some weight. Now I don't normally discuss weight and weight- related matters. At least not in mixed company and never on this blog before. But it's a part of my life and I'm going to let you people share in this journey.

Which, by the way, is going so much better than I ever imagined. Yesterday I went to Wal-Mart and bought myself a scale. Then I weight yesterday afternoon and I weighed even more than I realized, but hey, that's why I'm doing this. Last night I did some meal planning ("failing to plan is planning to fail!) and researched good food an recipe ideas. I also worked some on my new notebook which will house all my recipes, quotes, stats, etc.

And readers, today I have some great news to share with you. This morning when I woke up, I weighed myself again. I lost 18 pounds.

I mean, wow. I'm so freaking proud of myself, it's not even funny. And all that hard work I've put in these last few hours really paid off. I just can't believe how good I've done. I've still got a log way to go, but at this rate I will be to my goal by like next Tuesday!

So for everyone who is out there, struggling with their resolutions, I'm sorry you can be as awesome as me and lose 18 pounds in one day, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't keep trying.

Below- picture of the apparently faulty scale although today my numbers have been more in line with the second number. Who knows about tomorrow!

2012

So I'm back.  Its been a while since I've blogged and my last few months have been full of all sorts of great and not-so-great things, and honestly, I just ran out of excitement about blogging.  It also didn't help that my family constantly nagged me about why I hadn't blogged and therefore, I was forced to simply quit blogging for a while just to make them even madder. 

But I miss blogging and I miss all you many, many, readers, so I've decided to get back into the blogging swing of things.  I won't be promising to blog everyday, or even every week (that's HARD to do, folks!! but I do promise to blog as often as I want to! 

I would have started blogging yesterday, just to get the new year started off in a good way, but that's really so very cliche.  I do have a few New Year's Resolutions that I'd like to share with you all!

1.  Stop forgetting which day is trash day.

2.  Subscribe to a local newspaper. 

3.  Get to work on-time.  Occasionally. 

4.  Snuggle more with Parker.

5.  Learn how to block all tv channels I don't get so I won't get my hopes up. 

Parker has a couple resolutions as well. 

1.  Wear her hair in a ponytail more often. 

2.  Snuggle more with Jessica. 

What are your resolutions, dear readers?