2011 in Review

What a year it has been. Oh 2011, I will be so very glad to see you go!

I rang in the new year with my new roommate after moving into a gorgeous house in Charlotte, NC.

Piper had a second best friend with her dog Charley and we saw some more snow!

February came along and I started a small dog group on Meetup.com which lead to meeting lots of amazing people I still call my close friends. My husband also came for a visit after being separated for 5 months.

March was a roller coaster as another visit lead us to decide divorce was what we had to do. I celebrated my 26th birthday with my awesome friend Kate (Every Mile A Memory) at Cirque and a week later, my divorce was finalized. March also marked the one year anniversary of my miscarriage.

April was something to look forward to as I came home for a mini divorce party AND went on my first cruise ever, The VH1 Best Cruise Ever. I also started a new job at a marketing company as a scheduling coordinator.

In May, we celebrated Piper's first birthday with the group and a massive storm came through and a tree fell on our house :(

In June, I made a special visit to MD/DC/VA to visit friends and attend the US Open, which was on my bucket list!

In August, a special *secret* (at the time) visitor came to Charlotte and I decided my time in North Carolina was coming to an end. I moved out of the house and in with friends for a couple weeks.

September brought a special wedding where I served as MOH for Reina from Semper Gumby. I also spent the 9.11 anniversary in Washington, DC. Several days later, after almost exactly a year in the Queen City, I moved back to Orlando, which was a tough but necessary decision. I was able to continue working for my company in Charlotte, on a fluctuating PT/FT basis.

In October, we enjoyed visiting the pumpkin patch and carving a pumpkin and I was lucky enough to go to Cabo San Lucas for a video shoot for Barcelo Resorts!

November brought one of my favorites to Orlando, The Greek Fest!

December was busier than ever with a quick couples weekend in Tampa with friends Kate & Bryan, Christmas, AND J and his sisters birthday.

What a year it has been. I'll be posting tomorrow on my reflections of 2011 and my hopes for 2012. Hope you enjoyed the pictures!!! :)

Mad Men

Thanks to Netflix on our recently acquired Wii, I am now indulging in all seasons of Mad Men. I've always wanted to watch this show, but I am one who doesn't begin watching a show unless I can see it from the very beginning. Then once I start, I can't miss a single episode.


I adore this era they depict and LOVE LOVE LOVE all of the characters and the fashion. I can't wait to plow through all of the episodes.


Are any of you guys Mad Men fanatics?

Happy Christmas!

I hope all of my bloggie friends and followers had a fabulous Christmas. I sure did!

This year was one of my favorite Christmases to date. It was nice having a real Christmas with J. When we were younger & Christmas came around, he and I were dunzo, so it was lame. Here's my Christmas in pictures.

Merry Christmas from Piper Annabelle!

My amazing Church for candlelight service.

5,000 Candles. This shows only half the sanctuary.

Piper checks out her stocking.

My dad & my uncles gave my grandma a new patio set!

J gets tickets from me to The Players Championship!

My 2nd cousin, Corbin

Kenzie, Corbin, & I

<3

My last surprise present from J. What could it be?

Yay!!! A super impossible, sold out everywhere until April, Women's Tebow jersey!!!!

Family table shot

Facebook Drama

Oh, Facebook. Social Media. You're both an enormous blessing and a massive, ugly curse.

Sometimes, okay...all the time, I wish we could go back to a world free of Facebook.

I'm a Facebooker who posts a status update about once a day or so. I don't document every step of every day, check in at every location, or share crazy pictures of things I snap as my day progresses. I don't play games, except for the occasional Words With Friends because J begs me to. None the less, my completely harmless, no hidden meaning Facebook statuses are causing drama. I'm not a fan of posting something about playing nurse, baking cheesecake, and drinking wine and 5 minutes later...someone's phone is ringing and someone on the other end asks said person if they've seen my status. REALLY? I mean literally, cheesecake, wine, and playing nurse constitutes a reason to bring it up in a phone conversation? Then I get to hear about it from a certain someone once the phone is hung up. REALLY?????

Nothing annoys me more than when people try to tell you how you should and should not be living your life and something as insignificant as Facebook is ridiculous. It's just not that important. I'm not into it.

SO...I did the most amazing thing in the universe and put about 80% of my friends list into an "Acquaintance" list. Now, everything I post I can choose to show them or choose not to. Drama problem solved. Love it.

Merry Christmas from Hawaii!!

Yeah, I wish.

None the less, enjoy this awesome tune from one of my beloved favorites, Bing Crosby <3

Don't forget to link-up with Goodnight Moon too :)

Bucket List - Pinterest Version

{{Follow Me!!!}}

Back to School I Go

Hooray! Some of the best news came this week when my dad decided he would pay for this semester of college!


Right out of high school, he did, and I sure didn't take it seriously. So, he had reservations about doing it again and last year, I paid for it myself. I don't want to have to do that right now with loans so I am blessed my dad has agreed to help.


I will be going back to a local community college and completing my A.S. in Paralegal Studies. I was on the business and marketing track but having to complete a few more math courses is just going to slow me down. I'm ready to get this part over and think about where I'm going in the future. I love law and had I not goofed around for years after I graduated high school, I probably would have pursued a degree in Law and practiced. Le sigh. Sure, I can still do that if I really wanted, but I don't want to be in school past 30 years old. I just don't.


So, fingers crossed and yay for me that I will finish my A.S. this year and have a clear idea of where I should be.

Source of Inspiration

I <3 The Fray & it's no secret I <3 Tim Tebow. What's been happening this season with the Broncos is pretty unbelievable. I'm loving every second of every naysayer, doubter, and non-believer starting to turn the tide and realize how incredible he really is. I loved this piece ESPN did on him last week and wanted to share. He really is a huge inspiration to so many people. There should be more men like him in this world.

Everybody Love Everybody

Watch this and try not to cry. Try not to let it touch your heart.

You can't.

Snoops

There is nothing more amusing to me than snoopy people running around your blog. One of the wonders of being a blogger is dealing with such people. If you have a blog, you absolutely know what I mean. At some point, you discover your ex is still sticking his nose in your biz, people from your old circles are muddling over every aspect of your life, and everything you say and do finds it's way back to you. HI-LARIOUS.


The greatest part of it all, is 9 times out of 10, people who are insanely jealous of you and/or have no life whatsoever are the ones drooling over every page and picking up their phones to start gossiping...over something that is so insignificant, but it's insanely important to them. 99.9% of these people are people you don't speak to and find fairly revolting. I find all of that super flattering.


The sad part to me is that people think you won't find out. You won't hear about it. The sad thing is they don't have the guts to ask you. They blab and blab and blab until it makes them look like fools. The hilarious thing is that most of us bloggers know better. We have trackers on our blog that tells us who is looking, where they are looking, and when they looked. They can even be as detailed as to give IP addresses and pretty specific locations to where people are located. Nothing is a secret in this day and age. Nothing.


What saddens me most is when people are so insecure in their own relationships, they think playing tricks and making up rumors is going to somehow help their case. OR when they are so miserable in their own relationships, they become jealous of others and try to do whatever they can to rip someone else's relationship apart. Really? What's even more sad is when people twice my age resort to lies and Facebook updates to attempt all of this. Sad. Sad. Sad.


My reasoning behind this is laughter. I know my fellow bloggers are laughing hysterically, nodding their heads, and agreeing with me entirely. I don't know what it is about blogging that makes all the yucky people come out of the wood works. I can't imagine having the time to search the internet for people I dislike's blogs in the first place, let alone troll the internet reading all day. Man oh man.


I've posted on this subject a few times before...even gone as far as temporarily shutting my blog down because someone felt the need to email my husband at the time about something I said. Then I realized how ridiculous some people can be and how a lot of people need to get better at getting a life. If my life is so interesting to you that you feel the need to gossip, all I can say is thank you. You're making me famous. Just like I posted the other day, there are always going to be haters, naysayers, and people trying to break you apart and bring you down. You don't stop doing what you're doing or living your life or change your plans because of these people. You feel super, super sorry for them, pray for them, and move on.

Enough said.