2014 Retrospect

I try and do a retrospect of my year (at least via my blog) every year. Here is 2014. This was a rough year for me and for my family. We had a lot of things go wrong, dear family members passed away, relationships faltered and regained footing, accidents happened, illnesses... definitely not one of my better years. I am severely depending on 2015 to be better than this!

Past retrospects:
2013
2012
2011
2010

January

We spent our New Year's Eve in Morehead City at the Crystal Coast Countdown. New Year's Day was spent watching the Capital One Bowl.

I started working out again, this time weightlifting. Also didn't last.

Then we booked our AMAZING trip around the Mediterranean. I spent many later entries blogging about it afterwards, but the trip itself was in January. It was fantastic but...

The week we returned my beautiful Aunt Joan lost her battle with cancer. Our family was devastated.

 

February

I was still reeling from my Aunt's passing and as soon as I returned to North Carolina I started rehearsals for a show at the community theatre. I honestly didn't blog the entire month save for one give away. Probably the least amount of blogging I did since I began this thing five years ago.

 

March

I spent most of March blogging about our Trip from January.

Getting There and Pisa, Italy, Florence, Italy, Monaco, Toulon France, Barcelona, Spain, Valencia, Spain, Mallorca, Spain, At Sea and Tunisia, Africa, Palermo, Sicily Italy, Naples and Pompei Italy

I was cast in a production of A Doll's House that performed in March and April.

April

I blogged about acting and the show again.
I realized how badly I was slacking on my blog and talked about it. Plus I made Pisanki.
And I worked Easter Sunday. Which kind of stunk.

May

Ryan and I celebrated our Fourth Wedding Anniversary.
We had tickets to see Lady Antebellum in Raleigh, our first country concert!
I acknowledged how awesome all the mothers in my life are, especially my mom, for Mother's Day.
Ryan and I took a trip to Duplin Winery to celebrate our anniversary.
I attended the Paraprofessional Library Conference
And my BEST FRIEND in the whole world GOT MARRIED and I got to be a bridesmaid for the first time! Plus Ryan and I had a day to play in NYC and see a Broadway show together for the first time.

 

 

 

June

 

I blogged about being frustrated.

Then, a first for me, I angrily posted about a current event... I never do that!

Hurry up and wait strikes again. The Career Planner didn't submit my husband's SDA package (it sat on his desk for two weeks) so my husband had to come up with a Plan B.
 I had my first major sickness of the year and ended up in the ER... they thought I had meningitis but luckily that was not the case.
Plus we went fishing. And had lots of Stormy Weather days.
And Josh Groban answered me on Facebook, completing my life.


July

We had my sister in law Hannah here and spent the 4th of July with friends.
Ryan asked me out for a special Date Night.
I made some Observations stemming from my job.

August

 I mention my lack of blogging again, a theme for this year.
I was shattered when my childhood icon and favorite actor Robin Williams passed away.
I QUIT SMOKING. Finally.
Then Ryan and I got into a serious accident in our truck. We were lucky to walk away with cuts and bruises but our truck was totalled. We went to the ER to get checked out to be sure we were ok, my second trip this year.


September

I turned 27.
 Ryan and I had a "redo" of our Labor Day Weekend, what we would have done originally had the accident not happened. First he had a goodbye dinner with his shop since his SDA was finally approved and then we started our time together at Battleship North Carolina.
Then we did Hungry Town Bike Tours and Fort Macon.


October

I officially mention Ryan starting his SDA and we attend Oktoberfest.
 Then I got really sick. Sick enough I was out of work and rehearsals for about a week. ER trip number three as well as Urgent Care and my regular doctor.
The Dup turned 3!
I was in another show, Dracula, over Halloween weekend playing Lady Van Helsing.


November

The Marine Corps turns 239.
I finally got some answers as to why I was so sick. My gallbladder basically stopped working.
Ryan and I spent some much needed time together.
We attend the Birthday Ball for SOI in Wilmington.
I blog about being Thankful, regardless of the rough year.
We spend Thanksgiving in South Carolina with both of our families.




December

My childhood dog Dippy crossed the Rainbow Bridge at 13 and a half years old.
I shared our Christmas Decorations.
Ryan graduates SOI Instructor School.
My surgery gets scheduled for January 28th, 2015... adios gallbladder and nausea!
We spend a cozy Christmas at home together.
And for New Year's we plan on visiting my family in the mountains. I will probably blog about that in the New Year.

I hope you all had a fabulous 2014. Our was a little rough, one of our roughest, but there were still some great high points. I don't blog about everything, most of the good and bad made it here, but some things do not need to be shared with the internet. I know many bloggers braver than I who do share everything, but I am not able to do that. Know things are getting better and I am optimistic for the year ahead. I hope 2015 strengthens my relationships, my faith and gives us more ups than downs. I know Ryan's work schedule will be absolutely INSANE but I hope I use that time constructively too. I hope I am happy. I hope when I do my 2015 retrospective I make you all positively nauseous with how amazing the year is.

 

Happy New Year everyone. Once again, thanks for sticking with me through another year.

 

Slacking

I have been severely slacking on my blog lately. Sometimes I think, I should really blog about this... but then I don't. I have had more free time since the show ended, but I have been spending it with Ryan basically. And working. And back in the gym :P. I feel my blog suffering, I know I have lost readers (half my trip entries didn't even get a single comment) and I am not sure where to go from here really.

Do I want to keep this blog about me? Just something I enjoy, people read and interact on, and family can see a bit more of what we are up to? Or do I want to broaden my horizons... make it more about readership or even profit? Reviews and give aways and link ups... oh my! I honestly just don't know.

I have a lot on my mind at the moment and most of it really is not blogworthy. Ryan has een submitting his package for an SDA (or b-billet of sorts) to hopefully better his chances of picking up/staying in. He wants to be a security forces instructor but if that doesn't pan out then he will try for recruiting duty. Things keep getting shuffld and pushed around so we really have no idea what will happen, they won't even look at things until May. Hurry up and wait once again.

I am applying for a higher position within the library, a level two position that is full time in reference. As much as I love working in tech services the extra money of going up a level and to full time will really help us out. I have my interview Tuesday, so fingers crossed!

At the moment I am working circulation for the weekend... Easter weekend. I am pretty bummed to be working Easter, full hours, but they have been so accomodating with my schedule (between our trip, weddings and other things) I wouldn't dare complain. Easter is a special time for me (being Catholic and all) so I am trying to do everything I can while still working. Pisanki were made last night, mass is still being attended, and tons of smidgens are being eaten. It's a start right?

 

Ryan's pisanki are the four in the top row, mine are the five on the bottom row.

For all of you still around, thanks for sticking with me. I don't want to abandon my blog, four years of my life have gone into this thing, but I hope I will invigorate it a bit more in the near future.

Stay tuned my friends.

And Happy Easter.

Rocking 2013

I have to say the beginning of this year has been quite awesome. I feel like certain things have finally fallen into place and we are finally moving forward with our lives in some way. Being unemployed was one of the biggest and most frustrating hurdles. After clearing that one, others seem to follow suit.

Since the start of 2013 I have...

Finally sucked up my dentist fear and got my wisdome teeth removed.

Got cast as an extra in NBCs Revolution... and filmed!

Started working out with the C25K (ok, this one has paused the last week or so but I intend to go back!)

And of course, started my new job. And my mom got a job too about a week later! We are both employed! She is back to being a Church Lady, but Episcopal not Catholic this time. Score for us both in the job market.

I also was cast in another show at the community college. We are doing Moliere's The Doctor in Spite of Himself and I am playing Jacqueline. This show is definitely a lot more male heavy but I am still really enjoying working with everyone, both old and new!

I went from days of doing nothing to working at the library, rehearsing at night, ballet once a week and trying to go to the gym where I can. Whew. Talk about a busy schedule. And with the dreaded military "D-word" floating in the air something tells me this year got busy for me for the right reason.

So my blogging hasn't been stellar, I hope to change that now that I have more to write about, but it is the time to do it that is now the issue! I went from tons of time with not much to say to tons to say and not much time to write. I will work on it. Hopefully my next entry can tell you a little bit more about my job at the library and share some fun pictures of the past few weeks.

Thanks for sticking with me, yet again.

At long last, a job!

After ten months of unemployment I finally have a job!!! After sending in tons of job applications to various sources I scored my first interview. I applied in November, interviewed in December, trained in January and will start Monday (aka in February)! It was a long process (including a background check that took me almost two hours to do) but it ended up being worth it. I was hired!

I am an official Library Aid for MCCS.

This week was my MCCS customer service training, three long days of powerpoints and presentations and trust games that at times were enjoyable. Our main trainer was wonderful and tried to make things as fun as possible, which was appreciated, but some presentations were just the kinds you needed to chug caffeine to get through!

Did you know the only 'I' in team is in the a-hole? ;)

 Also being on base for long periods of time was interesting. Especially those moments when helicopters fly so low you feel like you got a little trim off the top of your head!

We also had an interesting little bus tour. I now know where the post office is. Score.

Like I said, our trainer made it fun and every day pumped us up with the Chicago Bulls entrance theme. There was clapping, cheering and maybe even the wave. Well HR got jealous of our fun so one day they started playing the macarena in the hallway and dragged us out of training for a flash mob up and down the hall!

At the end of it all I met my new supervisor and I am pretty excited to start Monday. I will work some evenings but the library I am working in doesn't stay open past 7, so not too late. Also I will probably be working every other weekend, but that is doable. I hope my coworkers like me and I am excited for the opportunity. I will be surrounded by books and that is heavenly to me. We have so many resources that I am anxious to take part in.... if your base has a library check it out! There is so much more than just books.... Rosetta Stone, nooks, DVDs, Wii and XBox and Playstation games for rent, and so much more.

My supervisor took over the library late last year and is open for suggestions and program ideas and I have so many ideas that I hope I can put into fruition.

It has been a long wait but I am so thankful that I got this job. I am hoping it is really meant to be, maybe I had to wait this long because this is the place I needed to go.

Let's hope!

I will keep you posted on how it goes after my first day.

And I plan on auditioning for the show at the community college on Monday so I see a busy few months in my future if I am cast. Fingers crossed!

Ringing in the New Year

Our New Year's weekend was rather low key. After traveling for Thanksgiving and Christmas we decided to stay in town and just spend the weekend with friends. Saturday night Ben and Chelsea came over and we walked over to the bar and just had a good night letting loose. We played pool and talked and just had a good time. Sunday we recovered and Monday was New Years Eve.

Nicole invited us to her house for dinner and games and we had a blast. I tried some no heat curls to fancy myself up a little and I think they turned out pretty well! Ryan was funny since he never heard of any of the games (um, I hadn't really either!) and he kept saying he was being played. Actually by the end of the night we were three dollars up some how! Not bad considering how many games we both played and lost before we won.

We played dice games (left, right, center), golf, 99, and screw your neighbor. Nicole and Laura sang karaoke but I know better than to sing in public so I stayed at the game table!

 I was the DD for the night but I did have some champagne at midnight! Delicious!

Our New Years kiss! After watching the ball drop Ryan danced me around the living room to Frank Sinatra. Perfect.

My hand from the one game I won!

 New Years Day we went to Buffalo Wild Wings and watched the Gamecocks play in the Outback Bowl.... and they won! We sat there for about four hours watching the game and dragging out our dinner, but it was so worth it.

THE hit heard around the world! We literally jumped out of our chairs when it happened!

 Yesterday was a trip to the commissary which was absolutely heinous. I normally shop during the day and on my own and never on pay day. Between everyone checking in and then the registers all crashing the line literally went around the entire store back towards the entrance near the produce section. I took my time shopping and after Ryan checked in he came and stood in line for me while I finished up. Luckily I always do self check out so the line was a little less bad, but still pretty awful.

Now there may be a mini employment thing in the works, I will blog about it more later when I have more information.... but there is a trial run tonight! Still waiting to hear from the library.

Tomorrow I am getting my wisdom teeth out (and completely freaking out) but I assume I will be lounging in bed this weekend and not on the blog world. I hope you all had a wonderful New Years and are kicking off 2013 in the best way possible. See you all soon!

Job Interview

After eight months of applying for jobs in North Carolina I finally scored my first job interview this week! It is for a library aide on base at one of the base libraries. I love books so it is actually something that appeals to me! Sadly the pay is pretty dismal and the hours are 0-40 (never zero but anywhere in between) and rotating with some nights and weekends. At this point we are willing to look past that even though Ryan and I both wanted me to get a day job with normal hours. After eight months we are realizing that it is impossible in this town (or so it seems) so I decided to go for this.

I was pretty excited to score an interview, but it ended being a lot more intimidating than I imagined! I wore a suit for the first time since April and made my way to the interview on base.

I was very surprised to learn I was being interviewed by three different people at once! That was new for me. They all had packets and asked me tons of questions which they then all wrote my answers down on. Everything from team work to high stress situations to past jobs to how I handled certain situations. My thinking cap was on for sure. I made them laugh once or twice so maybe that is a good sign (especially since it was attempted). The interview lasted over forty-five minutes and I will hear either way come mid January. Oy. Keep your fingers crossed for me! Hopefully I get it! They are hiring two aides at the research library and one at the main library (which is the one I am really hoping for). I know it is competitive as they had three days of interviews but you never know.


And Wednesday I managed to get all my baking done!

I made chocolate walnut crumb bars (my mom's recipe), peanut butter chocolate chip brownies, rolo pecan pretzels and forgotten kiss cookies (recipe is here on Mommy Musing's Blog (although I did add an egg to it)). Breanna helped me out, which I really appreciated, and she even brought her KitchenAid mixer and her dog so Rylie could play with Bo outside and be out of our hair. Well done!

And it is official: My wisdom teeth, two uppers, are coming out on January 4th. I am mildly terrified as I have an illogial fear of the dentist. So send good thoughts my way. I may not blog for a bit, depending on how drugged up I am following the whole procedure (of ripping perfectly good teeth out of my mouth), so if you want to send me some guest blogs for that weekend I'd appreciate it. Anyone ever been in my position? Feel free to share: imyewneek@yahoo.com

We are heading to my parents' house today for the holidays. Merry Christmas everyone and hope we don't get snowed in on the mountain! And I hope we all survive the Mayan end of the world... even though it means getting my wisdom teeth out when we do....

South Carolina and the First Day of Work!

My title is very descriptive of my post, no? :P

Thursday Ryan got off at noon so we drove down to South Carolina (no South of the Border stops this trip, the "I have to go to the bathroom!" thing works only once). We got there just in time to watch the Gamecocks slaughter Southern Miss! It was a lovely, relaxing weekend. My Mother-in-law and I got pedicures, Hannah (my sister-in-law) and I played board games, and we had so much good food!!!

McAllisters, and awesome sandwich shop was one. Ryan of course got his Chik-fil-A fix. We also went to a Spansish restaurant near his house, had some yellow bbq and boiled peanuts and his grandmother's cooking which was amazing. His grandparents got me a big birthday cake (yellow cake with chocolate icing, the best!) a card, and a balloon. Very sweet.

We saw all of his family, went bowling (I broke 100!! Ok I got 100 but it counts), and spent a day on the lake on my MIL's friend's boat. Ryan tried waterskiing and actually got it! A video will be posted soon, I promise. Some of his attempts before getting it are kinda hilarious.

Last night we had dinner with Josh and Richie when we braved the awful traffic of 95N back home. It was a delicious dinner too!!!! I had a bread with tomato basil and mozerella fried lightly for appetizer, mahi mahi with asparagus risotto, and mango sorbet with an amazing cabernet sauvingion. YUM.


Now, work. My first day! Everyone is very nice, the phone system is crazy complicated but I got on it after lunch, and I like it so far! The drawer of chocolate under our desk helps. My co-worker is very sweet and I think once I get comfortable with everything I should be pretty happy. No blogging at work though! And I won't talk about the name or clients or anyone to jeopardize my newfound career... vague yes, but safe!

I turn 23 tomorrow. Holy cannoli I feel old!

Last Week!

I am SO excited that it is the last week of camp!!!!! Part of me cannot believe it is week 9 already and the other part is wondering if it were possible for time to go any slower. Our numbers (of campers and counselors) are MUCH smaller this week. Luckily my two co-counselors are still here. The camp itself has had some counselors who work at other sites come down for the week to help us out since our numbers were too low. Imagine after two months with the same people having this weird cluster of people who worked together that amount of time too thrown in with you! It is a bit strange. Well as for kids, tribes had only seven kids or combined to form a normal size, but not Cherokee. Oh no. We have 16. Did I mention 15 boys and ONE GIRL?? How do some tribes have eight, nine, or ten girls... and we have one?!?!

Plus we have 5 LTS! (Reminder: LT = Life Threatening, meaning a kid with a life threatening food allerguy...) So we have five bright red fanny packs between the three of us which carries each child's Epi-Pen. Carmen, Kaego and I are rocking it. Yahhoooo....

Today we had three campers out, including 2 LTs and our only girl! So we had thirteen six year old boys running around like crazy all day. Oye vey. My feet hurt so badly when I got in the car to do my hour drive home. And it is so hot and humid.



Is it Friday yet???

No. Saturday! Friday means working OT (over time, the kids who stay after camp) then working til 9pm to help with site breakdown. It's paid, what the heck. Hubby has a parade anyway and won't be home til outrageously late. So I need my weekend! And three weeks off before my next job starts.

It helps knowing my paycheck will be three times bigger next month. Man oh man it helps!!!!

Such A Slacker!

But the good news is....

I GOT THE JOB!!!!

I start September 7th. And the best thing, the commute is SHORT. I mean, maybe two miles at most. After driving forty minutes one way and an hour the other it is going to bliss. I can walk. Or take bus. No beltway!!! My amazing friend Meghan works for this company and passed on my resume and I interviewed Monday. My friend from school Jen did too and even better, they hired her at another location with the probability of her transfering to mine.

Speaking of awful commutes check out mine from this morning...


It was light and a little overcast when I left the apartment. I was on the phone with our family friend Fran when I looked up and saw that. It started to drizzle slightly and I said, "Fran, I think I gotta go." Not a moment too soon as the skies opened up. I have never driven in anything like this in my life. I couldn't see two feet in front of me. I would have pulled over but there is no shoulder on the parkway and I was NOT about to go into the grass. Every now and then lightening would blind me and it took me ages to go at barely 30 miles an hour. The roads instantly flooded and I was honestly following the brake lights of the car in front of me.



I hit the beltway and it stops. Like dead. There was even blue sky!! I was shocked. But when I hit 270 I saw that tree. I had to go around three lanes of traffic to get to my exit. Then all the traffic lights were out... AGAIN.

Surprise surprise I get to camp and there is no power. You'd think after last time they'd send us home. Oh no. The owner, who is in Phili mind you, doesn't want to close. So there is no swimming, we have to be totally outside all day for everything and it is hot as heck and a pain in the neck! Finally they get some sense and do early dismissal at 12:45. I got home by three as car line as usual took an hour but Ryan got home early too! It was great.

We just had a nice dinner and now are drinking some wine. <3