Moving on...

Hey Lovelies....

I wanted to write this today...and I worried whether or not I should. You know protecting the innocent, or not so innocent, and all. If I can't share 'me' on this blog though where can I right?

There was a time, not so long ago, that I could not drive past a Volvo s60 without flying into a 'Towanda' rage. (Have you guys seen Fried Green Tomatoes...no? Go watch it and then you'll understand.) That car was my ex's baby. There was money spent on a few sets of rims, and lowering the suspension, and tinting the windows.... This while we had broken furniture, all Boomer had was a crib, and I was berated for not paying bills with my student loan money. EVERY time I saw a silver Volvo I got angry. I saw red, black,....sometimes I just stopped thinking for a few minutes because I was so angry. At. A. Car. I'll let that sink in for a few minutes.

There was a time, when I avoided an entire suburb of my city. Any time I was there all I could think about was the huge betrayal I had suffered. I blamed A CITY!!! I would drive past his former place of employment and I would cry. I refused to meet friends at bars or restaurants there.

Social media was a constant minefield. I never knew when a 'friend' would pop up. That smiling face would send me into an absolute tailspin. For days I would compare myself. I would question what was wrong with me? What did I do wrong? What could I have done better? Was this all somehow my fault?

I did everything I could. I am not perfect. I learned. I grew. I am not the same girl that said 'I do', almost 8 years ago.

I don't get mad at cars any more. I drove through that part of town yesterday just fine. I sat down with Boomer when she wanted to see my wedding pictures. I see people out and on social media and I'm fine. I'm no longer questioning myself and I no longer need to blame.

It wasn't easy, it wasn't fast, but I'm ok. I've moved on.

Weekend Birthday Shenans....

Hey look, I know Shenans isn't a word....but I use it a lot so sue me! (Linking up with Sami!)

I had a GREAT weekend. No really it was great. It started a little rough, because Boomer left me Wednesday night and I missed her something fierce, but other than that it was great.

So let's see....

Friday!

I left work and went to teach voice lessons. I've been doing that all summer and I LOVE it. Music and singing are such a huge part of my life, and now passing on my knowledge to another little diva is super rewarding.

After I left voice lessons I went to Target because I had convinced myself I needed a new outfit for the concert. (I did not need a new outfit.) I tried on a bunch of crazy stuff. Like an acid wash denim dress (NO), an xs denim floral print dress (HELL NO...Whit...you are not an xs anymore...face it.), and some wedge sneakers. (Once again this is not a trend for me.) In my defense I tried on the acid wash denim dress because its a concert with all 90s bands and I was going for nostalgia. But the I spotted it. The perfect shirt.

Yes. Ariel. Nuff Said. (Also this shirt was $12 so.....)

I'm also super proud of myself for leaving Target for under $15...like who am I?

Then it was time to get ready and rock out to the following bands : Fastball, Vertical Horizon, Gin Blossoms, Sugar Ray, and Smash Mouth. It was like the 90s and high school came together and gave me a huge hug.

I have a habit of posing for pics with my tongue out.....This lovely girl gifted my ticket for my bday!

This thing about going to concerts where they play tunes from high school is that you'll probably run into old classmates. Which is where this pic comes from. That guy up there? I've known him since 5th grade I think. We go waaaay back!

I think that's Smash Mouth on stage....

So in my opinion....Fastball, Vertical Horizon, Gin Blossoms, and Sugar Ray killed it!!!! Smash Mouth....erm...not so much.

There were a lot of lime-a-rita's at this concert. Also there was half a cigarette. (Hadn't had one for three years up to that point.) Drinking and smoking all while listening to Sugar Ray made me feel like a rebel. Like any minute my mom was going to pop up and ground me. So basically AWESOME.

After this is was a short walk to Arena District where a bunch of bars and clubs are...also I was tipsy enough to think glasses at night was cool.

 

 After some crazy dancing and goofing off my girls decided they were tired and started to head home. But THIS GIRL! No way was my night over. Just so happens my bestie text me and asked if I was out, so he headed downtown to meet me and hang.

There was beer.

I've decided I like it.

Thanks to the weather my hair was now too big for humans...ponytailed it like a pro

There was also some really great conversation had. I respect his advice so much, he's never been wrong about his guy advice. EVER. He's usually pretty spot on, with his life advice too. We shut the bar down and then headed our separate ways home.

Saturday was relatively quiet until my mom came over to hang. I love love love my mom. She lives right across the street from me and is such a huge part of my life. I refer to her as my best friend and she totally is. I then talked her into getting ice cream with me. Yum Yum. Anyone who has access to Graeters where they live should try their new summer flavor of watermelon sorbet. Its like a frozen icy jolly rancher. So basically heaven.

Sunday Mom and I hung out again and went on a walking tour of Historic Downtown Westerville. There is a lot of history down there that affects American history too. For example the Hanby House.

The people that lived here not only helped to found our local Otterbein University, but they were also active abolitionists, and worked on the underground railroad. Ben Hanby was actually a prolific song writer. One of his most famous tunes we still sing. (Up on the Housetop!)

Also Westerville was a hotbed for the Anti Saloon League. Westerville was actually still a dry city up until just a few years ago.

This clock was handmade in 1800

Otterbein's Tower Hall constructed in 1870

Pretty stained glass from Tower Hall

After the tour Mom and I had worked up quite and appetite so we hit Old Bag of Nails, a pub in Downtown Westerville.

We both chose fish n chips with latkes!

Then I had to hurry home because my angel baby was coming home early!!!

(Well early ended up being close to 1am....but its earlier than the originally scheduled TWO WEEKS)

Clearly she is happy to be back too!

Hope you all had a great weekend!!

 
PS If you made it through all that....you deserve a medal.

Is a big booty.......

Linking up with my love Whitney again today for backthatazzup Friday!!

As promised yesterday I'm returning with the song that inspired the title of my blog post....

Although in fact, I do not want a 'big booty hoe' for my birthday. My booty is doing enough on its own.




 

I'm really looking forward to tonight shenans!!

Much like my name twin I like to spread my birthday out as long as possible so we're kicking it off tonight with a concert!!!! Some girlfriends and I, and one of their BFs, are going to see Smash Mouth and Sugar Ray. Oh be still my 90s girl heart! I. Can't. Wait.

Of course since we'll already be downtown we are going to keep the party going afterwards at some clubs/patios.....I will make sure to take plenty 'o pics for you chicas.

Ok...this post is short and sweet....buuuuuuut....

I POSTED EVERY DAY THIS WEEK!!!!!

Everyone slow clap now.

All I Want For My Birthday.....

Hey Lovelies....

Can you finish that line?

Last week my love Whit posted about what she wanted for her birthday. If you're new around here you should know that Whitney and I randomly discovered not only do we share the same first name, but we also share the same birthday, AND IT IS NEXT THURSDAY!!! It came up one day while we were talking about all the things we had in common. (Seriously....its almost scary.) We are a year apart though, (I'm older) so that nixes our theory that our parents needed to tell us something about a long lost twin.

If you read Whit's post you will see her list is a little....out there. I mean don't get me wrong, a unicorn would be a pretty cool birthday gift....but I'm the more....literal one of the two of us. So here is my bday list.

1. Gift cards

I know that people for whatever reason feel that giving someone a gift card is akin to saying I don't care enough about you to pick out a gift, but au contraire. Giving me a gift card, to say Starbucks, Sephora, Ann Taylor, or Ulta, is like saying, 'Whitney I love you so much I trust you to pick out something really awesome for yourself.'

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2. Flowers

I am a sucker for fresh flowers. If you're wondering I enjoy gladiolus (the flower of our birth month), lilies, gerbera daisies, and calla lilies. A guy gave me calla lilies once and I about kisses his face off.

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3. No more hangovers

Ok I'm totally with Whitney on this outlandish birthday request. But like I told her....they only get worse the older you get. Cross the threshold of 25 and they become 2 days long. I'm terrified what they'll be like after 30. (You haven't lived until your 7 year old is scolding you for having 'too much grown up drink', while fetching your powerade.)

4. A blender

Yep. I want a blender. I want to make breakfast smoothies for Boomer and I.

5. These shoes.

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My best friend thinks they are ugly, and they aren't my typical style at all...but I do not care. These shoes will be MINE.

6. A new tattoo

Or really a cover on the old one. It took me 7 years, but I've finally figured out what I want to permanently mark on my body for my kiddo. (You know cuz the stretch marks weren't enough.) So I guess that's two tattoos. 

As for the rest of Whitney's list, if she gets Luke Bryan I will take John Mayer. Not as a boyfriend, but as a musical jam buddy. She can keep her Miller Lite, I've only just recently decided I like beer. If she wins the lottery she needs to shoot me a ticket to FL, and I will do my damndest to link up tomorrow for back that azz up Friday. Using the song from my title.

What inspires you to blog?

Hey Lovelies!

Today I'm linking up with Helene and Sarah to talk about what inspires me to post.

When I first started blogging I was mainly inspired by the 'Oh...I can do that!' drive. That said...this whole blogging thing is so much harder than it looks.

The twitterverse!

People tweet links, comments, funny pictures and it makes me think 'I should totally blog about that!'

This chick.

No seriously...have a child and you will have infinite things to blog about. Have you read any of the Sh*t Boomer Says posts? Get on that.

My ADD.

My brain wanders and occasionally stops on cool stuff that I like to write about. Great for blogging....not so awesome for work....although oddly I'm a much more prolific blogger when I take the ADD meds. Laser focused over here.

My life.

Duh I'm a lifestyle blogger. (Or so they tell me.) So whatever is going on in my life is fair game to be blogged. Of course I have to respect things like my mom not wanting her picture on the Internet, and certain peeps wanting nicknames. But I think that's fair. I write about what happens to me, what happens in the world, and what I think about it. Often those posts that I'm most worried about tend to be the ones you all respond to the most. Weird how that works.

Can't wait to hop around and see what inspires you guys!

Mommy! I want to see the world!

Hey Lovelies!

Yesterday when I picked up Boomer she handed me this piece of paper.

She proudly announced to me that these were all places she wanted to see. 'Mommy, I want to see the world.'

I almost told her that South Dakota and Kansas do not equal seeing the world, but I stopped myself.

She was so excited and enthusiastic, and well....its a part of the world. (No offense to Kansas folks...but its not high on my list of places to revisit.)

I love her excitement. She doesn't yet understand things like the price of plane tickets, and exactly how many hours you have to work to earn the vacation hours to get on that plane. Then the price of a hotel, and the fact that half the world hates 'ugly' Americans. (Add to that my ex saying he didn't want to visit any country where they don't speak American.....oy.)

It got me thinking though. I've wanted to travel my whole life. I've read books about all of these places. Studied them in detail while getting my degree. Learning languages. (Only one really stuck though.) What's stopping me?

Oh I have the usual excuses. I'm broke. No really I am. Single parenting is no joke.

I have Boomer. Valid...I'm not paying for my seven year old to see Europe. Maybe when she is 12 and up...but right now I'm just not willing to shell out that cash for her to have a meltdown in a foreign country. Which would inevitably happen. Like full screaming fit in the middle of the Louvre. Can you imagine?

I don't have time. Ok...this is kind of not true. I have about 2.5 weeks (and counting) of vacation just sitting there. Waiting to be used up.

I don't have a passport. This excuse is dumb. Not like its hard to get one.

So back to being broke. If I could really commit to saving and not eating out (crappy fast food) all the time, and possibly stop buying nail polish, I could pretty easily scrape together the funds for a week long trip by next spring. I'm not saying I'll stay in 5 star hotels the whole time, but its not impossible.

Boomer. I'm sure that I can work something out with my ex, or her myriad of grandparents (no seriously, both JJ and I come from divorces and remarried parents...I counted one day and including living great-grandparents she has 7!), someone could take care of her for 5-7 days while I'm out of the country.

That being said...this beautiful country...even this beautiful state is a part of the world. (YES America is on the globe....fascinating.) While at the library yesterday I noticed a flyer for a walking tour of a historic part of one of the suburbs of Columbus. I thought how cool?!?!? Boomer can start exploring and learning about the world right here! Being adventurous doesn't have to be back packing in the wilderness of some third world country. (Which is oddly appealing togirly girl....).
this

Maybe when I see my mom this evening I'll let her know I want to see the world too.

I miss my blog....

Hey Lovelies-

I miss my blog.

There I said it.

I miss writing, I miss people talking to me about what I write....I miss it.

That being said, its been hard to blog. I feel like my pictures aren't good enough...or that what I have to say might not be interesting enough, or....whatever.

I read all of your blogs, and I'm totally getting better on the commenting part. I'm just suffering from issues of blogging inadequacy.

I can instagram like crazy. I FB, I tweet.....but blogging takes a lot of work.

Add to all this the stress of single parenting, and working a job, and well you know life....it gets harder and harder to sit down in front of a computer at the end of the day.

But I miss it.

So here I am.

This weekend I got to hang out with some of my high school buddies for a birthday gathering. I always have fun with this group, even though they tease me for being a few years ahead of them. (What can I say...my class had some issues with each other....we haven't gotten over lol).

The birthday boy...who told me he reads my blog......

I never drink beer....we can count the beers in my life on one hand.

Me and Heather....or as the group likes to call us 'Trouble'

 Yesterday was 'hair day' in our house.

Yes when you have as much as we do...its a day long thing. (No not really, I just lumped us both together....technically it was a hair afternoon.)

Every time I wash Boomer's hair I am waiting for CPS to be called. She always screams bloody murder like shes being killed.

"Mommy!!! Stop! Please! No, no no!'

Yep all that at the top of her lungs and that's before I bother combing out her hair.

The end result....I love that her teeth are still out.

Then it was time to do my hair. I'm a little less dramatic.

Once I combed it all out I realized its grown back veeeeery long again.

 I'm leaned forward a bit in this picture and its obviously curly still. If I pull the curl all the way out its down to my belt line. So I'm thinking about donating my hair again and doing another 'big chop'. Kind of like this.

This beautiful lady is a model and singer. (She's also dating Miguel....swoon.)

I've been loving her haircut for months and I'm thinking about doing it after the summer is over. What do you guys think?

Boomer and I spent the rest of yesterday being lazy and watching movies. Which is really a wonderful way to spend a Sunday.

Linking up with Sami girl!