When I go deaf, I won't even mind. Yeah, I'll be all right, I'll be just fine.

First, back story...About a year ago, I lost hearing in my right ear for about two weeks. Just woke up one day and couldn't hear. I went to a few doctors and finally saw a ENT specialist, and got it all worked out. I had some stuff in there and an ear infection, but with some antibiotics it all turned out ok.

But my co-workers, to this day, still think it's one of the funniest things that's ever happened. As soon as they found out I was going to be ok, they started using "sign langauge" and cracked jokes about it all.the.time.

And they still do.

Fast foward to last week. I had to run an errand for work to drop something off with one of our customers who happens to be a fish monger. On my way out, my boss asked me to pick up some wine herring and bring it back for him. I had never heard of it, but took his $20 and went on my way. I brought it back and he insisted we all taste it-luckily it wasn't nearly as bad as it looked haha

The next day, we were having our weekly meeting and he thanked me for getting his fish. He even said (jokingly) they would name a sandwich after me (having a sandwich, or any product, named after you here is a *huge* honor). When I asked what it would be he said...

"It'll be called...


Amanda's Hard of Herring!"

Everyone about died they were laughing so hard.

(PS My dad suggested the call it Amanda's Herring Aid-haha)

What? you work at Bally's? Look at your physique.

Week 3

Workouts
Saturday: 20 mins treadmill/intervals, 8x15 tricep press, 4x15 row/rear deltoid, 8x15 pulldown, 4x15 chest press, 10 mins arc trainer
Sunday: Day off
Monday: 20 mins treadmill/intervals
Tuesday: 10 mins elliptical, 8x15 back extension, 4x15 abdominal crunch, 8x15 torso rotation, 4x15 abcoaster, 30 mins arctrainer
Wednesday: 10 mins arctrainer, 8x15 hip adduction, 8x15 hip abduction, 8x15 glute, 8x15 calf extension, 20 mins treadmill/intervals
Thursday: Jillian Micheal's Ripped in 30 (week 1)
Friday: Jillian Micheal's Ripped in 30 (week 1)


Food
Saturday: Breakfast-Malt-o meal with raisins, matzah with peanut butter and nutella, Snack-half a donut, Lunch-semolina dumpling soup (from work), sourcream and chive chips, Snack-pear, Dinner-small antipasto salad (Mr. Pita), Snack-cheese curds, diet root beer float (A&W)
Drinks: 32+oz water
Sunday: Breakfast-matzah with cream cheese and jam, Snack-matzah, banana, Lunch-semolina dumpling soup (leftover from yesterday), lemon sponge cake, bi bim bop with zucchini, broccoli, mushrooms, sprouts, cabbage and steak, key lime passover pie,
Drinks: 12 oz mint tea, McD's Sweet Tea, 4 oz milk, 16 oz water
Monday: Breakfast-oatmeal, 1 egg, Snack-matzah with nutella, Lunch-salad with a little bit of ranch, apple, 5 potato chips, Snack-100 cal pack almonds, dried apricots, Dinner-Pizza (Happy's)
Drinks: 30 oz water, 20 oz Sprite
Tuesday: Breakfast-oatmeal, 1 egg, Snack-banana, Lunch-ham sandwich, apple, lemon sponge, Snack-half a cupcake, Dinner-clam chowder and toast (Monahan's), peanut brittle, Snack-Jell-o Temptations Double Chocolate
Drinks: 32+oz water
Wednesday: Breakfast-oatmeal, 1 egg, Snack-coconut pie (tasting at work), Lunch-tortellini and sausage soup, paesano (from work), Dinner-chicken and vegetables, rice, egg roll (Lucky 7)
Drinks: 32 oz water
Thursday: Breakfast-cornflakes, 1 egg, Lunch-chicken and vegetables, rice (leftovers), Dinner-grilled cheese, tortilla chips, mini cookie s'mores, Snack-Ice pop, pretzels
Drinks: 8 oz sparkling water/pomegranate juice, 6 oz milk, 32 oz water
Friday: Breakfast-egg sandwich, Lunch- mac and cheese, strawberries, Snack-peanut butter and banana on toast, Dinner-Taco and 1/2 burrito (Pacific Beach), Snack- 1 cookie
Drinks:8 oz sparkling water/pomegranate juice, 32 oz water

'Cause I know what this is, this is what we talk about when we talk about love

Today is Wednesday so let's see what I'm loving with this kind of love!



I'm loving my job! Yesterday, I had to run some bread to a customer and they gave me some delicious clam chowder as a thank you...it was seriously yummy.

I'm loving my co-workers as well! My sweet friend Sider brought me two new nail polishes and Randy brought me a bunch of hoodies...They spoil me!

I'm loving the new Essie French Affair collection. Unfortunately, stores around here don't have it yet so I'll be ordering it online soon :-)

via

I'm loving being back in my own bed-even though I had a great time house sitting, it's nice to be back home :-)

I'm loving all the lovely green grass we have since it's been raining for 2 weeks straight haha

Hope ya'll are having a lovely Wednesday!

Dig down, dig down the lost and found, nothing green can gather on a rollong stone.

This week seriously flew by. I'm pretty much kind of exhausted but this week things should calm down and I'll hopefully get a day to recoup.

The week before holidays are always really busy for the bakery, and Easter was no exception. The good thing about that is that our sales are way higher than expected, and we are well on our way to getting our end of the year bonus, which would be super exciting!

Monday night was the first night of Passover, so we all headed over to my grandfather's house for dinner. It was probably one of the weirdest dinners I've ever been to-my cousin kept yelling randomly during the readings, my aunt was rapping, my grandmother was almost in tears. Awkward.

The people at our seder were not nearly as happy as they are haha
via

But our family tradition is that we all write haikus about the dinner so these are what we came up with...

My Aunt Beth's

Seder was delicious
It was almost perfection
There were no soup spoons
(my grandmother was so upset no one let her know we were using teaspoons to eat our soup. None of us even noticed we were sans soup spoons.)

My Cousin Haley's
Afikomen: Found.
But way too soon for Judi.
Maybe I'm too old?
(My grandmother was also upset that Haley found the Afikomen before my grandfather asked for it. I'm pretty sure she raised her voice and Haley just laughed because it was so unexpected haha)

My Uncle David's
Grape juice I'm not quite sure
Rapper's Delight wasn't quite
Late night pizza good
(Me and him argued all dinner about whether it was wine or grape juice because Manichewitz is so sweet you can't tell. Also, my aunt busted out Rapper's Delight and it was...awkward.)

And mine...
Wax in my water
I cannot drink anymore
I'm very thirsty
(A candle fell out of the holder and the wax got in my drink but I felt so bad about all the nonsense going on, I felt bad asking for a new glass of water)

It really was the most random, awkward, dinner I've been to in a long time.

But it was topped by the one I went to the next night! (ugh)

I got invited by a friend to his family's seder, which was very sweet and I was actually looking forward to it. But when I got there I saw a bunch of people, who I know, but am not really friends with so that was awkward. Then dinner took 4 hours, and the person leading it was taking forrrrrrrrreverrrrrrrr! He also kept telling me my family traditions were wrong! Um, what? haha But the worst was that at the end of the meal, everyone left. Meaning all the dishes from this 20 person dinner, which were stacked to the ceiling, were going to be left for this kid to do himself.

Like this x2144654354364...for reals

via

I felt bad and stayed to help, which meant I didn't get home till almost midnight-I was exhausted.

Wednesday wasn't too bad-my co-worker brought in her 1 year old daughter for a meeting we were having and needless to say, I didn't pay much attention to what was going on but me and the baby had lots of fun playing!

I headed home to do some packing after work because I am house sitting this weekend and in to next week for a co-worker while she goes out of town. She has two kitties so I'm staying with them untill she gets back. Her house is sooooo gorgeous-she's travelled all over the world and has the most amazing collection of art, and sculpture, and china, and books, and just everything. I'm gonna snag some pictures and post them later :-)

Friday was my brother's 19th birthday so my family went to get some sushi and some ice cream.

My baby bro asleep on our grandpa's boat

After dinner I headed out to see a friend who was in town for the week. I was soooo excited! We worked together and she trained me when I first started at the bakery, and even thought she annoyed me to no end back then, she ended up being of my closest friends and I've been missing her something fierce since she moved. But she came back for a week and a bunch of co-workers met up to hang out and catch up. It was a lot of fun! I work with some pretty cool people and it's always nice to see them outside of work :-)

All the girls...plus Gary (P.S. I'm not that pale-me and flashes don't mix lol)

After that I stopped by the bowling alley to say goodbye to another friend who is moving to Louisville at the end of the week. We used to be super close, but unfortunately have grown apart :-( Even though were not as tight as we used to be, I didn't want him to leave with out a good bye so I stopped by and left pretty quickly as I was trying to get "home" (where I'm house sitting) before the thunderstorms hit.

I had every intention of sleeping in this morning, but the cats woke me up at 7am so I headed to the gym before work and now, I'm about to get off make myself some dinner and go to bed-such an exciting Saturday night! haha

You can do side bends or sit ups, but please don't lose that butt.

Week 2

Workouts
Saturday: 30 mins arctrainer, 8x15 tricep press, 6x15 row/rear deltoid, 8x15 pulldown, 4x15 chest press
Sunday: day off
Monday: 30 mins arctrainer

Tuesday: 20 mins treadmill/intervals, 8x15 tricep press, 8x15 row/rear delt, 8x15 pulldown, 4x15 chest press, 4x15 fly
Wednesday: (unexpected) day off
Thursday: 20 mins treadmill/intervals, 6x15 abcoaster, 8x15 back extension, 8x15 torso rotation, 4x15 abdominal crunch
Friday: 20 mins treadmill/intervals, 8x15 hip abduction, 8x15 hip adduction, 8x15 glute, 8x15 calf extension, 8x15 leg curl, 10 mins arctrainer

Food
Saturday: Breakfast-oatmeal, 1 egg, Snack-banana, piece of strudel, Lunch-broccoli with tzatziki sauce, chicken and rice (leftovers from take-out), homemade oatmeal bar, Dinner-chicken sandwich with cheddar cheese, caprese salad, pickle, Snack- Jell-O Double Chocolate
Drinks: 32+ oz water
Sunday: Breakfast-bagel with cream cheese, Snack-banana, celery and brocoli with tzatziki sauce, Lunch-pear, Chobani Greek Yogurt, piece of foccacia, Dinner-cheese ravioli, Snack-angel food cake, chocolate whipped cream
Drinks: 12 oz black tea, 32+oz water
Monday: Breakfast-oatmeal, 1 egg, Snack-dried apricots, almonds, banana, Lunch-ham sandwich, apple, half hummingbird cupcake, Snack-angel food cake, chocolate whipped cream, Dinner-Seder (egg, matzoh, horseradish/apple, brisket, kugel, broccoli, cauliflower, half piece cake, raspberries, pineapple, blackberries)

Drinks: 12 oz Coke, ~30 oz water

Tuesday: Breakfast-oatmeal, 1 egg, Snack-IKEA soft serve (no cone), Lunch-matzah pizza, Snack-Chobani Greek yogurt, banana, Dinner-seder #2
Drinks: 8 oz iced coffee, 4 oz grape juice, 25 oz water
Wednesday: Breakfast-matzah w/ cream cheese and jelly, Snack-piece of chocolate/orange flourless torte, Lunch-Banana, Caprese Salad, Dinner- Greek Salad, Matzah toffee, Snack-hard boiled egg
Drinks: 8 oz coffee, ~25 oz water
Thursday: Breakfast-matzah with peanut butter and nutella, Snack-apple, matzah, Lunch-chilli (from work), matzah, Snack-Chobani Greek yogurt, dried apricots, 100 cal pack almonds, Dinner- Taco Bell (oops)
Drinks: 12 oz milk, 30 oz water, 24 oz Sprite

Friday: Lunch-bowl of CornFlakes, Snack-Matzah with nutella, Dinner-Miso soup, edamame, sushi, Dairy Queen Mini Blizzard (for brother's birthday)
Drinks: 6 oz milk, 8 oz green tea, 24 oz water

I'm talkin' bout love.

It's Wednesday again, so let's see What I'm Loving with this kind of love!



I'm loving my trip to IKEA yesterday. I didn't buy a ton of stuff but I just love walking around-I could live there!

I'm loving that my co-worker brought her 1 year old daughter to visit at work today. It may have been the most unproductive meeting I've ever been to, but definitely the most adorable!

I'm loving matazh...not! haha Actually, it's not too bad, but I'm already ready to eat some delicious leavened bread lol

I'm loving The Pioneer Woman for sharing the recipe for this delicious salad that I'm going to be making tonight...

via

Yummy greek salad!

I'm loving that the week is half way over and the madness will be over soon (hopefully....)!

Hope everyone is having a lovely Wednesday!

I tell you what it is on my mind. I only want to be in your record collection.

Today for Top Two Tuesday with The Undomectic Momma it's Top Two Things you collect!

1. Key Chainsvia

When I was younger, I used to collect key chains. Everywhere we went, I would pick one up and when friends travelled they always brought one back for me. I think I had close to 500 when I stopped collecting them. I'm pretty sure they are still in the back on my closet somewhere haha

2.Pandas via
My nickname since I was a baby is "Panda" so I've been collecting panda stuff all my life. I have shirts, books, greeting cards-pretty much anything with a panda on it I have. But the part of my collection that takes up the most room is definitely the stuffed panda bears! I have soooo many- some are super tiny and some are so big they are almost body pillows! They are all still taking up room in my old bedroom at my parents lol

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Tuesday!

You can get tangled up in a ball of rubber bands and twine, the cowhide and pine tar, snuff, spit and chalk dust lines.

It's been a pretty crazy week here-usually we don't get too busy for Easter, but between that and Passover the phones at work have been off the hook! Add that to the end of the semester (which is actually relatively easy this time around!) and I've been a little crazy but it keeps me busy so I can't really complain :-)

A few weeks ago I asked my boss is I could have the 13th off (this past Wednesday) to go to the Tigers game if I found someone to go with me. He told me I could but I couldn't find anyone who had the day off and/or wanted to go with me! My heart was a little broken, to be honest :-(

At the gym Wednesday morning, I was talking to my mom and asked how she would feel if I went to Detroit by myself. I've been to the city more times than I can count, but always with someone. She said she didn't really see a problem with it, so at 8 am I called my boss and asked if I could work a half day-because he's the best boss ever he said yes and I bought my ticket!

I went in to work for a few hours and then headed to Detroit. It was seriously probably one of the best things I've ever done. I got my peanuts, headed into the ball park, got my scorecard and found my seat about 15 mins before first pitch. It was perfect.

The weather was pretty great too-58 degrees and sunny. It got a little hot but the breeze picked up in the second half of the game so that was great. The best part though was that they won! Come from behind-down 2-0 in the 7th, tied it at 2 all and then Brandon Inge hit a walk-off homer in the 9th :-)

The only bad thing was I walked away with a sunburn :-( Most of it has started to turn into a tan, but my nose is still red and I have a pretty bad burn on my chest-it's all red and angry looking lol It's been hurting all week but today it feels better so hopefully I won't have to go to the doctor or anything

On Thursday, I had my first Safety Committee meeting, where I got nominated to write the Safety Article for our monthly newsletter! I'm really looking forward to working on the committee-it seems like it's going to be fun!

After that I grabbed some ice cream with a friend (because I'm obsessed with dirt sundaes from Ice Cream Time right now...oops!) and then met up with some other friends to watch Survivor. I just started watching this season, so I'm super behind but can I just say Boston Rob is a d-bag? Also, Matt is super cute (even if he got voted off!)

I didn't really do much with my day off on Thursday so on Friday, I headed into Canton to go shopping. I didn't really find much (still searching for a new purse-ugh!) but I did find these at Target...And for all five it cost me $5! Love it!

I really wanted the green-ish one on the far left (the picture doesn't do it justice-on my fingers its a really gorgeous light mint green-I'm in love!) and the one in the middle, which looks nothing like it does in the picture. In the picture it's pink but in real life, it's a coral/orange/cream-sicle kind of color. I love them!

The rest of Friday involved watching All Worked Up with Dan, which is like Lizard Lick Towing but with other people too! I seriously can't get enough of it-it's replaced the hole Jersey Shore and Teen Mom have left haha

'Cause you're gonna go to the record store, you're gonna give 'em all your money.

I'm linking up with FTLOB today :-)

In honor of yesterday being National Record Store Day, I wanted to share a few memories I have of record stores.

First and foremost, I can't really think of record stores, or music in general most times, without thinking of my dad. When I was younger, we would go downtown on Saturdays and check out the used record stores, especially Wazoo.

He would look through the crates upon crates of discs and I would stand on my tip toes to even see most of them. Usually, I spent most of the time looking at all the old posters on the wall-they were so intricate and interesting. After he got done and picked out his discs, we would go to the coffee shop downstairs so he could get his coffee and I could get steamed milk and honey.

The record store we used to go to also bought/traded in cd's. I had a few that I didn't listen to anymore and decided I was going to trade them in. The guy working the counter was a college student who we'd seen pretty much every week we went there so he recognized my dad and me alongside him. I showed him my cd's for trade-in, which were probably a few kids music compilations and some classical music, and looking back on it, I can tell he didn't really want to give me any money back because he probably wasn't going to sell them, but he did anyway. I'm not even sure what I ended up getting, but I thought it was just the coolest.



We also used to stop by Tower Records and I would browse the used cd's there, too. One time, I bought Savage Garden but when I took it home, the cd was broke in half! I took it back and exchanged it for No Doubt's Tragic Kingdom, which ended up changing a lot of my musical taste. I'm thoroughly convinced that the music god's played some divine intervention on that one.

When I was in middle school, a record store, Rubber Sole, opened up in Ypsi, so my dad went there a few times a week and became pretty good friends with the owners (we still see them around town even though the shop closed a few years ago). Upstairs from store, they had a space that they used for performaces. One day when I was there, they were playing a local musician's album, names Brandon Wiard. I was in love at first listen (and it's still one of my favorite albums). He was playing a show a few weeks later and my dad brought me to watch him. I can so clearly remember standing in the corner, staring at him while he played. I was in awe and just so impressed. I had a crush on him for years-bought all his albums, saw him play, wore his tee shirts and merch. I ended up seeing him at a concert last fall and I still got all smile-y, even almost 10 years later.

I have lots of great memories, but these are just a few of my favorites :-)

Our aspirations are wrapped up in books.

Today ..err yesterday-at Kelly's Korner it's "Show Us Your Life-What's your reading list?"

I'm reading a few books right now and just finished one so I'll share those :-)

1. Moneyball


I always keep a book at my parents when I spend the night so it takes me a while to finish them, but this is my newest one. I've been meaning to read it for a while (my dad got it when it came out and that was like 5+ years ago lol) but it's about how the Oakland A's changed baseball with the way they draft players-not looking at normal stats like batting average, but rather things like on base percentage. So far I really like it-it's a pretty perfect spring book...I get to watch baseball and read about it :-)

2. The Happiness Project

I also keep a book at work to read on my lunch break. I've been reading this one lately and I love it. It's about a woman who decided she wanted to be happier and set monthly goals for herself like boosting energy and making time for friends. It's been really interesting to see who she went about it and I've been putting some of the things she learned in to practice in my own life as well.

3. How to Be Good

I just finished this not too long ago and even though it took me a while to get through it, I ended up enjoying it. Nick Hornby is a really good writer and this was interesting. It coincided with me doing some thinking about what it meant to be good, so it definitely brought up some thoughts about human nature and what being good is all about.

You just popped in the Kanye West Get right for the summer workout tape.

I've really been trying to get into shape, watch what I eat, work out, etc. I started this saying that I didn't want to lose weight necessarily, I just wanted to feel better (but who am I kidding, losing weight will most def make me feel better!).

And while that's true, I feel like I should keep track of what I'm doing-I'm not going to weigh in or anything, because numbers take the fun out of it for me, and really just depress me.

I think I'm going to do a weekly recap, so I'll just to write down what exercises I did, what I ate, what days I make my water goal, just to keep track of what I did.

I really only get weighed when I go to the doctors so when I have my next appointment on May 19th, I'll see if I've actually made any progress :-)

(I should also mention everything is homemade unless I point it out :-)

Workouts

Monday: Slept in-oops!

Tuesday: 30 mins on elipitical, 8x15 tricep presses, 4x10 row/rear deltoid

Wednesday: 30 mins arctrainer, 8x15 back extension, 8x15 torso rotation, 5x15 abdominal crunch, 6x15 abcruncher

Thursday: 30 mins arctrainer, 8x15 hip abduction, 8x15 hip adduction, 8x15 glute, 8x15 calf extension
Friday: 15 mins pilates/yoga, 35 mins hip hop dance

Food

Monday: Breakfast-1 packet Blueberry Instant oatmeal, Snack-grapes, Lunch-Chobani Greek yogurt, Chicken Salad Sandwich, Snack-100 cal pack almonds, dried apricots, Dinner-Sloppy Joe, ~7 tortilla chips, 1/4 moon pie

Drinks: 32+oz water

Tuesday: Breakfast-oatmeal and 1 egg, Snack-grapes, Lunch-Hard boiled egg, Chobani Greek yogurt,Banana, 1/2 plain, dry bagel Snack- celery, cucumber, broccoli (throughout the day), 100 cal pack almonds, dried apricots, Dinner: Calzone with ricotta, mozzarella, spinach, pepperoni, Jell-O French Silk, Misc: small piece thin crust pizza

Drinks: 6 oz milk, 32+oz water

Wednesday: Breakfast-homemade oatmeal bar, oatmeal and 1 egg, Snack-maple cookie, Lunch-hot dog, peanuts, Dinner-pasta with yellow squash, zucchini, spinach and mushrooms, piece of cake

Drinks: 6 oz milk, ~30 oz water, Starbucks Passion tea/lemonade

Thursday: Breakfast-oatmeal, 1 egg, Lunch-half portion chicken and vegetables, rice, egg roll, (all ordered in) Snack-brownie bite, Dinner-cornflakes, banana, Snack-ice cream
Drinks: 6, 0z milk, 32+oz water
Friday:Breakfast-oatmeal, 1 egg, Lunch-chips and salsa, banana, pasta with pesto and olives, Dinner-Burger with onions and bleu cheese, Snack-Jell-O Strawberry Cheesecake and pretzels
Drinks-32+oz water

Usually, I'll do Saturday through Friday, but I started this on Tuesday and had already forgotten what I did on the weekend haha

All you need is love, love, love is all you need.

I can't believe it's been already been a week! It's time for What I'm Loving Wednesday with this kind of love!

I'm loving the green grass that has started to pop up after the rainy weekend we had.

I'm loving sleeping with my windows open-soooo nice!

I'm loving Jell-o Temptations. A co-worker of mine suggested them to me and oh, my god, I'm in love. They are delicious! French Silk is my absolute fave!



I'm loving the 2 grand I have coming from my taxes. I wish I could use it for something fun, but paying bills will be just as rewarding, right!?!?!

I'm loving my Tigers! Even though they aren't playing the best right now, it's only the beginning of the season and I still have faith they'll pick it up :-)

and I'm especially loving that when you all read this, I'll be heading downtown for my first game of the season! Eat 'em up Tigers, eat 'em up!

Hope everyone is have a lovely Wednesday ♥

I miss Mayberry, sitting on the porch drinking ice cold cherry coke.

Today for Top 2 Tuesday with The Undomestic Momma, it's "Top 2 Favorite Drinks"!

1. Cherry Pepsi

I have pretty much given up drinking pop, but when I want to treat myself, I love Cherry Pepsi!
I usually drink the diet, which is soooo good, (it honestly doesn't taste like diet!) but if I'm out to dinner, I can't resist Cherry Pepsi made with grenadine. It's so syrup-y sweet and delicious-yum!

2. McDonald's Sweet Tea

We don't really have "sweet tea" up here in Michigan, but a few years ago when I visited my faily in North Carolina, I tried some and fell in love haha Now when ever I need a pick me up, I stop by Mickey D's because delicious and $1...um, yes please.

Sometimes I dream of Willie Mays, and the wind dies down, and the sun comes out, and the scoreboard works, and the fog lifts.

A few random things from this weekend I forgot about...

In between my morning meetings and meeting up with my parents on Friday, I was able to enjoy watching the Tigers Home Opener!

After my meeting, I headed back to my place for my special opening day lunch of a brat with caramelized onions, because I'm a dork and wanted to feel like I was at the ball park! haha

The Tigers ended up winning, which was a nice change of pace considering they've been not playing so well lately. They are 3-6 so far, and I'm hoping they will be able to pick up the pace here soon!

I was back to work for Saturday and Sunday, but on Sunday I headed over to my parents house to watch gold and to have my dad to help me with my taxes. It was sooo nice outside-I think it got up into the mid-70's which is almost unheard of for Michigan in April. It was so nice to have the windows open and to be able to drive with the windows down, bumping my Lil' Wayne haha

I finally did my taxes and found out I am getting a pretty big refund which is amazing! I'm going to pay off the last of my debt, and put the rest into savings for if when something happens. Although, I'm sure now that I have money for emergencies everything will be smooth sailing! lol After I finished up my taxes, my dad and I watched the end of the final round at the Masters. I entered a bracket pool for the tournament, but unfortunately, didn't win any money (they pay out for first was $2000!). I had a couple different ways I could have won, but no one I picked to win played very well on Saturday or Sunday. Except Rory McIlroy and the poor kid just imploded on the back nine :-(

We're getting into the final stretch of the semester right now, and I could not be more ready! I had a paper due yesterday that was due at 11:55 pm, and I wasn't even sure what I was going to write about until 7:30 am! Luckily, we were pretty slow at work and I was able to finish it by the time I left, so all I had to do was take it home, make a few corrections and send it in. It ended up being pretty good to be honest, and even better considering the fact that I wrote it in about 8 hours!

But there ain't nothin' wrong with the way she moves, all scarlet begonias and a touch of the blues.

In all reality, it's been a pretty mundane week for me. But for some reason, I felt really really really good this week. Like "I woke up happy and smiling" good.

I think a lot of it has to do with my acceptance about moving on from certain people and situations. Seriously, it felt like a huge weight had been lifted from me. I'm not going to dwell and just try to move on and be happy with where ever I end up and who ever is there with me :-)

In an effort to put all that into action, I hung out with some new people this week. I've known a lot of them for a while, and some I've hung out with before, but not in a while. We all sat around and watched Survivor, which I haven't watched in like 5 years and I am now of course hooked! haha I'm looking forward to spending some more time with them and watching Survivor this week-yay for ladies nights!

The work week was pretty blah, but my two days off were full of errands and lots of running around. Thursday I got up and di my grocery shopping-which involved going to the produce market, then Meijer's, Kroger's and Target! But I only spent like $60 total so I was pretty happy about that!

Friday, I had to come to a meeting at work and after my meeting I had to meet with a HR rep because I'm joining the safety committee! Basically, the safety committee just tracks what accidents happen, files accident reports and tries to keep everyone safe. Nothing too exciting but I'm looking forward to it! I have to get certified to teach a safety class, and I'm also getting certified to teach a service class so this summer will be filled with lots of not quite work work stuff. But I get paid for all of it, so I can't really complain!

I also had to drop some stuff off to my aunt and stopped by TJMaxx which is out by her house. I'm really looking for a new purse and just can't seem to find anything I love! I already have a yellow Steve Madden, so I'd like something orange or green, maybe even pink or red. But everything just looked kind of cheap and nothing really stood out to me. Oh well-guess I'll just keep looking lol

Friday night, I picked my mom up from work and we got some delicious korean food from a place called Kosmo's downtown. It was so good and even though we split everything, we were both so stuffed! I worked out extra hard on Friday and got up Saturday before work so the splurge was worth it lol

It was the anniversary of my grandpa's death so we met my dad at temple for services. It was such a great service-really small since it's summer, but really beautiful. I'm such a sap, but sometimes the songs bring tears to my eyes haha The sermon was perfect too-all about a part of Leviticus and the rabbi (who is newto our congregation-I love her!) talked about mourning and how the people surrounding the person who's mourning have a responsibility to help the mourners get adjusted to a new normal and how important community is in times like that. She was much more eloquent then I, but it really spoke to me and my mom. Just so perfect for everything that ahs been going on lately.

I worked out five times this week and am thinking about jumping on the 30 Day Shred wagon. A lot of people have had such good results so it's seriously tempting me. I'm going on vacation the first weekend in May and even though it's not some exotic location that requires bikinis and short shorts, I'd like to go shopping before hand and buy some new things to wear, but I'd like to look good while doing it so I'm really pushing myself this month to workout, eat right, sleep well, and my new thing-drink lots of water! I'm trying for 32+ ozs a day, which means I'm in the bathroom often but I'm hoping my skin and my energy levels will thank me!

When it's love you give, then in love you'll live.

Happy Wednesday ya'll! Let's see What I'm Loving this week!

I'm loving that I won my bracket pool! I think there were like 50 people entered and my Huskies pulled through and got me $400!

I'm loving the weather! I know I say it all the time, but I'm so thankful for the sun and that it's supposed to be almost 70 this weekend-woo hoo!

I'm loving that I'm winning my first fantasy baseball game-which happens to be against my dad and makes the win that much sweeter :-)

I'm loving Ice Cream Time! Ice Cream Time is the ice cream place by my house and is officially open! I celebrated with a Dirt Sundae last night hehe

I'm loving Snooki on Wrestlemania-I'm not a wrestling fan, but I love Snooki! My co-worker sent me a clip of her "performance" last night:

Hope everyone is having a lovely Wednesday ♥

Tag you're it, sweetie.

Katie at Words by Katie was tagged to fill out this survey and I'm going to play along too!

1. What is your dream job? My real dream job would be on ESPN, doing something in front of the camera. But a close second would be doing public relations and marketing for a major sports team (especially my Tigers :-)

2. What is your favorite drink? I love love love cherry Pepsi made with grenadine (extra points if it has a cherry in it!)

3. What is you most important beauty secret? Not really a secret, but smiling! Everyone look so much better when they smile!

4. If you had an all-expense paid vacation to go anywhere, where would you go? Hmmm...this is hard, but I think I'd go to France and/or Italy. I'd love to see Paris and Rome!

5. If a genie popped up right now, what would your three wishes be? 1. To have all my debt cleared (I don't have a ton, but I'd still like it gone lol) 2. To be living in my dream loft, which is downtown Ypsi above a spa. 3. Some extra money so I could buy myself some new clothes and shoes.

6. If you could only have one type of food for the rest of your life, what would it be? Italian! Aside from my love of pizza, I could eat pasta pretty much everyday (although I'd weigh 24135312 lbs haha)

7. What one talent do you wish you had? It's kind of weird, but my grandpa can wiggle his ears-I've tried for *years* but I can't do it!

8. Who is your biggest celebrity crush? There's a few but right now it's this guy:

Joshua Jackson-Love him!

9. If you could look into the future, would you? I used to really want to just skip this part of life and get to the part where I'm married with kids, but now, I have to say I'm really enjoying it and having fun, not to mention learning a lot!

10. What made you start a blog? It really started as a place to write poetry (because I'm a 13 year old emo girl at heart) but I realized I want to be able to look back and see what was going on. And I know there will be lots of more good stuff to blog about!

I tag...Anyone who reads this! And if you do, leave a comment so I can come check it out :-)

Mick Jagger with my swagger.

Today for Top Two Tuesday it's Top Two Songs on your Ipod!

To be honest, I have song ADD, and rarely listen to a whole song all the way through so my ITunes doesn't count it as being "played" haha I mostly listen to my IPod on shuffle, but when I hear these two songs, I definitely stop and listen to them almost all the way through

1. The Hold Steady-Chillout Tent

2. Lil Wayne-Party Like a Rockstar

You've got to trust your instinct, and let go of regret.

If last week was weird, this week was hard. I think that the stress of everything going on at work, plus being in the final stretch of school was starting to take it's toll on me. Add some drama with friends and the whole week kind of went to hell in a handbag.

I guess saying the whole week is a *bit* of an exaggeration. The weather has been pretty nice this week-sun shining, even if it's a little cold- and I got to play tennis on both of my off days. I'm excited for this summer-I'm trying to play twice a week as long as it's nice out! I also got to talk to a few friends that I don't see to often and that definitely lifted my spirits as well :-)

On Tuesday, I found out some stuff about a few friends of mine that really put me in a foul mood. I was angry, frusterated, disappointed, hurt-basically all sorts of not so nice feelings. Luckily, a good friend of mine after I got off that phone call and we talked for a bit, which made my night tons better. Seriously, it was like everything just spilled over. I had a nice cry, prayed about it and went to bed, and luckily, woke up feeling much better the next morning.

I figured everything would be fine but I ended up seeing my friends on Friday night, and did the obligatory "hi and bye" because, honestly, I didn't have much to say to them at that point. I was still angry and hurt and instead of saying something mean, I just walked away. Here's the thing about me-I try to be a "head shaking-finger wagging-chest puffed out" tough girl, but I'm not really. I hate confrontation and would much rather hide and avoid it, than say anything.

But this is how I know God was working in my life. My friend ended up calling later that night and asked me what was going on. Instead of saying "I'm fine, it's all good!" and harboring a resentment for a long while, I was honest with her. I told her my feelings were hurt, I was worried about her and the way she was acting-it seems kind of small, but it's really out of character for me to be honest about how I'm feeling, especially if it's in a situation where me being hurt and being honest about might hurt another persons feelings (sorry if that doesn't make any sense haha) We ended up saying we'd sleep on it and talk about it the next day-and I figured we were all good at that point.

Unfortunately, I ended up getting a text message from her that was supposed to go to someone else that was *about* me. Needless to say, I was not happy. After some texting back and forth, nothing really got accomplished (because we were both kind of heated) so I ended the conversation and went to bed.

But that was just another example of God working. This person has been a negative influence in my life pretty much since we started hanging out. Sure, she's fun, but it's a "Mean Girls" kind of fun- judgmental, gossiping, being negative. I kind of enjoyed living vicariously through her, but it was really taking a toll on me. I'm an optimist and being with someone who's a pessimist all the time is draining! God was trying to show me that I probably needed to cut this person out, but I just wasn't listening. So finally, he hit me over the head, and put a situation in front of me that was too big to ignore. And now, even thought I don't think I'm going to completely cut her out of my life, I've realized I definitely need to scale back the amount of time we spend together.

I know this probably doesn't make much sense, but for me, I was just really grateful to be able have some peace with the situation because I really felt God in those moments. It makes a hard and uncomfortable situation so much easier to bear!