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Let it be?
Did anyone else know there is an “other” message inbox in your FB messages? Oh, you didn’t either. Well you do. Apparently this is where messages from non friends go. You can only get to this from your computer. I didn’t see it as an option on my mobile app.
I just discovered this little gem today. Come to find out I had quite a few messages dating back to 2008. Whoopsy. 😉 I’m mentioning this because there is one message I want to talk about. It was from a former best friend. When I lived in Austin this person interviewed me and when she called with the rejection, it was the nicest, best rejection ever. She said I was more than qualified but she didn’t think it was the right school for me. It was a position working in a high school helping kids with career counseling. It was also a job I’d done previously with out of school youth in Alabama.
A few months later she called me with a position working with out of school youth. I accepted and spent that summer locating kids that had fallen out of the system. I must say, I was good at this. Really good! I found kids others couldn’t find. I even tracked a kid down in Las Vegas (my prize accomplishment). Anyway, S and I became friends and then we became really good friends. We each dealt with a lot of up and downs while I lived in Austin. Eventually I moved to Raleigh and we were still great friends but things started changing. Her life was still quite dramatic and mine was starting to settle down. Eventually we had a falling out. This was 5-6 years ago and some days I miss our friendship. At this point there are no ill feelings, at least on my side, and I hope all is well with her.
Cue today. I realized I had an “others” inbox on FB and found a message from her. From 2012 She said I popped up as someone she might know and noticed I was married and she wanted to wish me well. I feel bad I never saw the message and to be honest I don’t know that I would have responded but maybe I wouldn’t have. I honestly don’t know. I started thinking about it this morning and I think I’ve decided somethings are better left alone. While I valued her friendship while I had it, she brought a lot of chaos to my life because she had a lot chaos in her life. I feel like I’ve grown so much since then and hopefully she has too but I don’t think it’s worth diving into that again. Plus that was over 2 years ago so it is really worth rehashing the past?
~k
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There are so many other things I could be writing about right now but I am stuck on something I saw on FB this morning. As I was scrolling a video started to play, I wasn’t really trying to watch it but I caught something being thrown into water. I paused for a moment and realized it was a video of a girl with a 5 gal bucket of puppies and she was throwing them in a river. My heart immediately sank and my blood started to boil. My first thought was OMG poor puppies. The next was WHAT THE HELL is wrong with people?!?!? And then I realized it wasn’t just some asshole girl, but there was someone recording the whole thing.
What is wrong with people today? Who gets joy out of something like that? More than that, how do you decide that seems like fun? There is something about people hurting innocent animals that just makes me want to hurt them back. It’s one thing to pick on someone your own size but in this case we’re talking days old puppies.
It seems like you hear so many bad stories these days of violence towards animals, or children and it makes me sick. Sick to think there are people out there who have no conscience, no morals, no regard for right or wrong. I can’t help but wonder if society itself hasn’t increased the problem with the explosion of social media. Now anyone (and everyone) can have their 5 minutes of fame especially if it’s violent.
I want to add that I hope these people are caught and thrown in jail where bad things happen to them!
~k
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365 Challenge – Week
I combined weeks 1 and 2 since week 1 was short. Anyhoo, on to the pics. We had a few nice days last week so during my lunch walk I took a few pics. I also took a few around the house this weekend. Including one of my new purse. 😀
I think the rain drops on the pine needles are my fave. Followed by the plate pics. We had some great light filtering through the kitchen yesterday afternoon. Here is a link to the purse I ended up buying. I made Matt run to Triangle Town Center on Saturday and they had this bag in a creamy light mushroom color. So much better than the weird yellowish brown color. It was also ridiculously on sale. 😉
~k
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It was a bag bust
I got some money for Christmas and decided I wanted to buy a nice, as in designer, handbag with it. I’ve been wanting a new one and now that I had a little fun money I decided this was going to happen. About a week ago I decided to actually start looking. My first thought was Michael Kors. They are super popular right now plus they sell them at Stein Mart. Mom currently works at Stein Mart, which equals discount. 😀 I searched all of the Stein Marts near me and didn’t really find what I was looking for so I started searching ebay. One night I finally found an amazing MK bag and placed a bid. Then, with seconds, left, I was outbid! Bummer. I kept looking and found a few others I might be interested in but nothing I was willing to spend the money for.
Finally last weekend I ran to TJ Maxx to check out what they had. I found the MK bag I bid on in black but I don’t want a black bag. I’d prefer something off white or tan even. The one thing I did notice was that for the price, I was not completely blown away with the MK quality. One thing I did find at TJ Maxx was an amazing Badgley Mischka bag. It wasn’t what I was looking for stylewise but the quality was AMAZING! Soft supple leather. It was heaven. When I got home I searched ebay again for Badgley Mischka this time and found a really cute bag. It had been a closeout, or something, at Nordstrom selling for $109.00. The problem was the big seemed huge. Awesome, but too big.
Then I got an email from Coach. I’d been eyeing one of their Hobo bags for a few weeks. It was on sale so I bought it. It arrived today at my office around lunch. I tore into the box only to discover a small tear in the leather along with some brown speckles. BOOO! I was disappointed it was defective but I was even more disappointed that shoulder drop was way too short. It basically sits right under your arm so while I did like the bag it makes it very difficult to carry with any sort of jacket. Ugh!
Now it’s back to the drawing board. I was so happy to find a handbag because I was starting to dream about them I was looking so hard. HAHA!
~k
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365 Challenge
What is a 365 Challenge you ask? Well it’s when you commit to doing a certain thing everyday for a year. In my case it’s a photography challenge. The goal is to help me get better with my camera and take better pics. Now, with that said, I’m only 13 days into my challenge and I haven’t quite taken a pic a day. Guys, let me tell you, this is hard! So instead of giving up on the idea I’ve decided to stick with it in a less rigid fashion. I WILL take 365 pictures this year but some days I make take 2 and a skip a few days of actual photography. I feel like this will still help me accomplish my goal without completely burning me out.
Part of the problem too, is my lack of confidence in stopping the car to take a pic. I am much more confident to do this when I have someone with me, but being on my own tends to be quite difficult. Not to make excuses, but as a child I was pretty shy and still am to a point. It takes me a little while in new situations to warm up. Stopping to take a pic definitely puts me outside my comfort zone. Hopefully this challenge will also help with this as well.
I’m going to try and do these posts on Mondays starting today.
New Year’s Eve at the stroke of midnight. 
This is from my lightbox and probably my least favorite pic of the bunch. 
The Raleigh Acorn. This is our NYE “ball.” It was in the park across from my tattoo artist. 
My tattoo boutique. 
I liked all 3 of these and I couldn’t decide. 
A little memento from this football season and my pic for the 6th. 
Some glittery sticks beside the fireplace. 
Some wires in the parking garage at work. 
The holly bush beside our house. 
The tree in our yard. 
We had a beautiful sunset yesterday. -
It was a good fight! (Warning it’s a football post)
Last night was the BCS Championship game. My beloved Auburn Tigers miraculously made it to the final game after a crazy season. I think I mentioned I had no expectations for this season. Last year we were awful and I just hoped to win a few games. Armed with a new head coach and a new QB we had to be a little better right?
I’m not going to recap the season or even last night’s game but I want to say that Auburn played their hearts out last night. They were ahead for most of the game and pretty much dominated the first half. A late touchdown at the end of the half swung the momentum back to FSU and they seemed to keep it up until the end.
With a minute left Auburn was leading by 4 but a drive down the field and a costly penalty resulted in a FSU touchdown to put them ahead. Unfortunately there wasn’t much Auburn could do with only seconds left in the game.
I’m not gonna lie, I was pretty bummed we didn’t pull out the win. Not because the guys didn’t try because they did. They played their hearts out and you can’t fault that. But losing sucks! Even when you play hard, or maybe even more because you played hard. In the end, Auburn did what I wanted and that was, show up and play hard and it was great game. A nail biter but a great game! I couldn’t be PROUDER to BE AN AUBURN TIGER!
WAR EAGLE!
~k
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Oh Bobbi….
Before Christmas, I booked a “makeover” at the Bobbi Brown counter. Even after the disastrous foundation debacle I wanted to see what a pro could do. I was able to book a 4:30 appt on Friday the 20th. I get to the mall early and walk around for a few minutes. I pass by the Bobbi Brown store and notice it seems eerily empty but I’m early so I head to Belk for a few minutes. About 10 minutes before my appt I head back to the Bobbi Brown store only to find out the makeovers are happening at Belk! Ugh! Back I go.
I get to the BB counter and am given a makeup artist. She’s asks what I’d like to focus on so I say a smokey eye. Now I’m a little thrown because I thought this would be a full makeover but whatever, if someone can teach me how to do a good blown out smokey eye then I’m down. Plus I’ve already gotten the Stila foundation so I’m not sure it’s worth checking out the BB again anyway.
I sit down and the girl hands me some eye makeup remover. After a few minutes and several cotton balls later I still can’t get my mascara off so I comment that it’s not coming. She then realizes I have on waterproof and gives me something that will actually remove it. By this time my eyes are starting to red from so much rubbing. Once I’m done she begins working on my smokey eye. She starts, removes, starts again, removes again, thinks for a while and starts over, again! Then she grabs another girl. At this point she tells me she’s “hit a wall.” Okay then. The other girl comes over and offers a few suggestions. I also pipe in and tell her she can use black on me. Despite my fair skin I can pull off black eye shadow. Actually the darker the better. It makes my green eyes look bluer.
She finally dives in using the BB Smokey Eye palette. At this point all the other makeup artists are packed up and leaving and she’s still working on my smokey eye. I didn’t have anywhere to be so I wasn’t really worried about how long it was taking but I felt bad she wasn’t done yet. Finally close to 5:30 she finishes up. I tell her it looks good and head home but really I’m not that impressed. By this time my eyes are burning and itchy from all the rubbing and removing so when I get home I take a pic and wash my face.
A few days later I decide to try my own smokey eye. I personally think it looked as good if not better than the pro. So once again I was pretty disappointed with my Bobbi Brown experience.
The top pic is from Bobbi Brown. The bottom pic is my smokey eye.
~k
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2013 – A Year End Book Review
Several months ago Matt bought me a Kindle Paperwhite just because. I replaced my old regular Kindle. Since then I have been reading up a storm. I LOVE the Kindle Paperwhite. It is small, compact, easy to read in the dark and well I have a cute case. 🙂 Since I’ve read so many books this past year I thought I’d do a year end review. I like to find free or cheap books on Amazon. I still have quite a few sitting waiting to be read that were free.
These are in order from newest to oldest.
1 Here (On the Otherside) Swank, Denise Grover
2 Redemption (The Chosen #4) Swank, Denise Grover
3 Sacrifice (The Chosen #3) Swank, Denise Grover
4 Hunted (The Chosen #2) Swank, Denise Grover
5 Chosen (The Chosen #1) Swank, Denise Grover
6 Takedown Twenty: A Stephanie Plum Novel Evanovich, Janet
7 Angels of Bourbon Street (Jade Calhoun Series: Book 4) Chase, Deanna
8 Jade Calhoun Series Boxed Set (Books 1-3) Chase, Deanna
9 Haunted on Bourbon Street (Jade Calhoun Series: Book 1) Chase, Deanna
10 Night Marchers Gober, Rebecca, Nuckels, Courtney
11 Dentelle (#3 The Guardian Series) Bowhay, Heather
12 Linked (#2 The Guardian Series) Bowhay, Heather
13 Amethyst (#1 of the Guardian series) Bowhay, Heather
14 Collateral Damage: A Matt Royal Mystery Griffin, H. Terrell
15 Honeymoon For One Keniston, Chris
16 One Tiny Miracle… (Harlequin Medical Romance) Marinelli, Carol
17 The Isle of Devils Janacek, Craig
18 Death by Honeymoon (Book #1 in the Caribbean Murder Series) Skye, Jaden
19 Hot Summer (The HOT CARIBBEAN LOVE Series) Powell, Judy
20 Uncharted: An On the Island Novella Graves, Tracey Garvis
21 Longboat Blues Griffin, H. Terrell
22 Life’s a Beach Then You Die (Max Fried Mystery) Jones, Falafel
23 The Shortcut Sabol, William
24 The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls: A Novel DiSclafani, Anton
25 Murder Key (Matt Royal Mysteries) Griffin, H. Terrell
26 Blood Island: A Matt Royal Mystery (Matt Royal Mysteries)Griffin, H. Terrell
27 Going Under Walden, S.
28 Summer Secrets Freethy, Barbara
29 Alone – Book 8 in the Chop, Chop Series Cronk, L.N.
30 Not Quickly Broken (Chop, Chop Series – Book 7) Cronk, L.N.
31 Gone (Chop, Chop Series – Book 6) Cronk, L.N.
32 The Other Mothers (Chop, Chop Series – Book 5) Cronk, L.N.
33 The Other Brother (Chop, Chop Series – Book 4) Cronk, L.N.
34 Pon, Pon (Chop, Chop Series – Book 3) Cronk, L.N.
35 Day-Day (Chop, Chop Series – Book Two) Cronk, L.N.
36 Chop, Chop (Chop, Chop Series – Book 1)
37 Ryan’s Return Freethy, Barbara
38 The Last Call (The Bill Travis Mysteries) Wier, George
39 LOVE, LIES AND HIGH HEELS CONRAD, DEBBYHere are a few of the highlights: I started out 2013 reading the Chop, Chop Series. This series spans 8 books and chronicles the lives of a boy and girl from highschool to death. Clearly I got hooked because I read all EIGHT books. I did enjoy them but I must say they are heavy on religion. Not normally something I would pick up but still a good read. If you are looking for a good series this is definitely one to pick up.
Going Under. I read this on our trip to Jamaica. I was surprised to find it set in Raleigh however, I was NOT prepared for this book at all. It’s about a teenage girl determined to discover the truth behind her friend’s suicide. What the girl discovers is a secret club that has teenage boys drugging and raping girls. While the rape scene isn’t incredibly graphic, it still haunts me. I would NOT suggest reading this book. While it was a decent storyline, it bothered me.
The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls was on the list of top summer books on Yahoo. I took a chance, and spent $12.00 for this one. I really enjoyed this book. It was very well written with an interesting storyline set in 1930’s North Carolina. It wasn’t overly exciting but def worth the money.
Ohh, The Shortcut. I made it about halfway through this one and well, the writing was TERRIBLE. So bad in fact, I (and quite a few others) wrote a review on Amazon. The terrible grammar wasn’t what sent me over the edge, though close. The story itself was interesting enough until I realized it was about aliens. Whomp Whomp Whomp. I don’t do aliens and I sure as hell wasn’t going to suffer through anymore awful writing to find out what happened. You’ve been warned!
The Guardian series is next on my list of good reads. This series borders on Twilight but they are NOT vampires. The characters do however, have mystical powers set in modern day Washington state. This is definitely not my usual reading style but the books were well written and at the end of Book 3 I still wanted more. Unfortunately this seems to be all the author has written to date. 🙁
The Chosen Series is another good read. Again, I didn’t really know what the books were about and was not prepared for mystical parts. With that said, I clearly liked it and read all 4 books. I think the 1st was the best but it leaves you hanging to the point you want to keep reading. I really liked the author and picked up the On the Otherside Series a few days ago. I just finished Here last night and started on There.
In recent months I’ve been drawn to more paranormal books. I have no idea why. I think it started with the Guardian series. Since then I’ve read about witches, angels and even shapeshifters but NO vampires! I draw the line there. 😉
Happy New Year!
~k
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Deck the halls
The other day I received a Big Lots ad. I normally trash them straight away but the subject caught my eye. Christmas stuff was on sale. I’m looking for a new tree so I decided to check out the ad. While I didn’t see any trees I felt would work, I did see a pair of 4.5 foot lighted trees in urns for $35.00. Umm sold! I called the Big Lots near my office but they were out so I called the store closest to my house and they still had some in stock. I ran to Big Lots after work and picked up my new trees.
I got home and put them together and got them fluffed and ready for outside. Then Matt asks how I plan to light them. Umm, I don’t know. He’s the outside light guy! Since our timer only had one additional plug and the cords on the trees weren’t long enough I was unable to immediately plug them in. I ran to Lowes on Saturday and found a cool split plug. It’s a little bigger than we needed but I’m sure it will come in handy. I now have the icicle lights, and both trees plugged into the timer. YAY!
That left my wreath. I guess sitting in the garage for a year didn’t do much for the lights because when Matt plugged it in a few weeks ago it didn’t work. I picked up more lights and I told Matt I’d redo them yesterday. About 3 pm he grabs the wreath and starts trying to take the lights off only to realize they were clipped in place. He spent the next half hour or so taking them off while I took a quick nap. I woke to find new, working, lights on the wreath. I fluffed and secured a few of the new lights before reattaching the bow and adding a few Christmas ornaments. It’s not my best Christmas wreath by far but it will do. So now I think I have all of my Christmas stuff up and in place. With the exception of the table. I think I want to do a little more with it but I’m not sure what. I feel like table settings are my weakness.
~k
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SEC Champ to National Title
Saturday was the SEC Championship game. Third ranked Auburn played #5 Mizzou. I thought this was kind of cool considering both teams were at the bottom of their divisions last year. Both had improved and kicked ass. I’m not gonna lie, I was nervous. Mizzou is tough and I was scared the game might not go Auburn’s way. The score was back and forth and by the end of the first half, it was the highest scoring first half ever for an SEC championship game.
My Tigers hung in there and were able to pull away from Mizzou in the second half and secure the win. Then I got really nervous. One of 3 things needed to happen for Auburn to go to the National Title game: # 2 Ohio State needed to lose to #10 Michigan State, #1 Florida State needed to lose to #20-something Duke, or Ohio State AND Florida State needed to lose. Florida State losing was pretty improbable. Both Ohio State and Florida State losing also seemed never impossible so that left Ohio State losing.
Auburn had clearly played and beaten more and higher ranked teams than Ohio State (so really Auburn should have been #2 but the only way for Auburn to leapfrog OSU was to have them lose at this point.) So when the Ohio State v. Michigan State game started Matt and I were rooting for good ol’ Sparty! It was a close game but in the end Michigan State pulled out the win. Matt and I were ecstatic! This meant Auburn was going to Pasadena to play the National Title game at the Rose Bowl. It also meant Michigan State was playing Stanford at the Rose Bowl. (Just something else I thought was neat.)
Auburn has had a miraculous season. A season I never dreamed possible. After such a disappointing season last year I was just hoping for a few more wins than losses this year. Never did I believe we would end up back at the Title game. Actually it never even crossed my mind, at least not till the very end of the season.
WAR EAGLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
~k