Beak To The Cheek

Heeeyyyy y'all! I know it's been a minute from me and I was supposed to have done something as a countdown each day up to my birthday. Well, my birthday has come & gone. I've been extra busy preparing for my summer work season and haven't had the time to do what I need to do here. We still good right?

Hopefully so because I have a story for you!! Best story I've had in a long time. Y'all ready? Here we go.

I'd gotten home, put the lil man down for his nap, and eaten my lunch. It was time to get down to the business of preparing dinner and completing my current kitchen project [post to come]. I get out my Playaway, place my ear buds in my ear and get to getting. Well, I know there's no meat in the fridge so I needed to run downstairs real quick to get some out of the freezer. So off to the basement, I go. Flip the light switch, close the door, and proceed down the stairs. I got to the bottom of the stairs and heard fluttering and saw something fly past me. BOOM! I snatch my ear buds out and listen. Flutter! Flutter! Flutter! Quiet. What the??!! Flutter! Flutter! Quiet. Aaww man! Something is down here with me. The only weapon near me are lil man's plastic golf clubs and balls. I think maybe if I throw them to the other side, the thing will go towards the sound so I can get up the stairs and out the door. I throw 2 of them and nothing happens. I take the other and peek around the corner. I see this up on the light closest to the door out:

Bird in Basement Cousin

May not look menacing to you out in its element, but in my not so bright & open basement, it looked as though it would attack. I flipped the lights on & off and ran back over by the freezer. It didn't move. No flutter at all. I peered around the corner again and the thing fluttered, looked around, and stayed perched there on the light. Keep in mind this is a light on the wall, not the ceiling and it's right at the door leading out of the basement. I quickly proceeded into the storage area of my basement - it has a door - to think.

Cheap White Curtain Rods

My first thought was "I have so lost my I am woman, hear me roar" card being afraid of a doggone bird. Also, I had no phone or any kind of communication option down in that basement. I decided that noise was my only option because I couldn't let this thing get into the rest of my house. My baby was sleeping upstairs. So I armed myself with one of those cheap white curtain rods and thought some more. Flutter! Flutter! Flutter! Quiet.

I came up with a plan to make a bit of noise in the storage, get the bird down the doggone stairs, and run like **** out of there. I banged the storage room door a few times to lure him. I heard the fluttering and then bang into the vent above the door leading into the storage room. More fluttering and quiet. I gather my nerves and remember that I have got to get out of this doggone basement to my baby without being attacked my this menacing bird that somehow got into my basement. I peeked out of the storage room, see the bird perched on lil man's basketball hoop and immediately run like **** up the stairs and out of the basement closing the door as I hit the landing. Flutter! Flutter! Swoosh! Boom! Flutter! Flutter! Flutter! Quiet.

Heart pounding, feeling like it's gonna jump out of my chest, I head straight for the phone. Picking up my phone with hands shaking, I call my protector. He answers. I respond with, "We have a bird in our basement and we're not having meat for dinner." After explaining that I'll tell him the whole story later, but I'm okay, he laughs. If you know my husband, you know it was to be expected. Laughter is his cure-all. He promises to get it out with my help later and we hang up. I'm still shaking and can't concentrate on my kitchen project. I go print my birthday coupons so I can begin to organize my freebies.

So fast forward ahead. I finally stop shaking, finish up my prints, and wake lil man from his nap. We head down for snack and a lil TV time. While watching Cyberchase ... Boom! Flutter! Flutter! Boom! Flutter! Quiet. That doggone bird had heard the TV & prolly followed the lights to our living room vents. Oooohhh NO! Not while my baby is up here. I cover up all vents with dark heavy items and settle back down. No noise is heard anymore.

Through Hangouts, we devise a plan to get this bird out once Husband has arrived home from work. I researched a few sites about removing birds, but I wasn't feeling the whole towel & box options I found. Didn't want to have to control that fluttering bird. It seemed frustrated and I totally understood. I'd be frustrated stuck in a basement too. Anyway ... on to our plans.

We planned to lead the bird out with old sheets. So when he got in, we put up a sheet right by the door of the basement to prevent the bird from going towards the rest of the house. Then he covered the mud closet on the other side to prevent the bird from finding a nook to perch there. Husband had the garage door up and opened the door out to the garage. We were ready. The bird should fly out of the basement out into the garage and out into the world ... out of my basement.

1st try: Husband opens the basement door, turns on light, and hides behind door. No sound is heard. I make noise from my perch behind the sheet (on the side of the rest of the house). Nothing. He closes the door and we make more noise to see if we hear anything. Nothing. Okay, so we decide to try again. This time, husband peeks to see if he can see anything first. He saw it & completely understood my earlier issue. HEH HEH HEH! (My turn to laugh behind the safety of that sheet.)

2nd try: Husband prepares himself and opens the basement door again, turns on light, and hides behind door. Nothing happens again. We make noise back & forth to lure the bird. Nothing happens. He decides to head into the garage (for his safety goggles). He's looking for them. I'm waiting. Flutter! Flutter! I yell, "The bird is coming. This bird is coming." He apparently hits the garage floor like shots were being fired. Saw the black flash of bird go by, perch into a corner of the garage, look around, and then fly away. It's out.

Total relief! Laughter ensued for a LONG time!

We took the sheets down and went on about our day. We haven't checked the basement for where that bird got in just yet, but that's on deck for later today. I'm not ready to go down just yet, but it'll be fine. My comedic protector of a husband will be right by my side when it's time. {Ssshhh- he may not know that just yet. Heh heh heh!}

Oh yeah, we discussed the whole incident later and found out an interesting fact about myself. I can take a burn to the face, but not a beak to the cheek. LMBO!

And that folks is my story of yesterday's healthy dose of laughter.

Laugh on folks & close up any openings into your house.

Flutter! Flutter! Boom!

I don't condone it... But I am a mean sarcastic son of a ...

What up my friends?

Today, I had an opportunity to sit back and chill while Lady Wife drove.  It doesn't happen too often, but every now and again, she drives and I get a chance to sit back. Sleep, play on my phone, text, look at twitter, etc... Well while I was looking on twitter, I saw a tweet about something Ray Rice's lawyer said.  In case you don't know, Ray Rice was indicted for assault against his, then, fianceé.  Now this is no real surprise.  Not so much because he is a professional athlete or anything, but really, I see stories of domestic violence EVERY day via twitter, the news (and of course) TMZ.  What does surprise me is that Rice's Lawyer could go as far as to make a statement, or excuse as to what happened that night.

Before I continue with this post, allow me to fully disclose how I feel.  I do NOT condone the hitting of anyone, unless in the case of self defense - Especially one that you share a domestic relationship with.  That's childish, cowardly, and downright disrespectful, and I will not stand or allow it, ESPECIALLY if I'm near enough to stop or do something about the situation.

With that being said though, I had to stop and think, what possibly the lawyer could have been thinking to justify or rationalize the situation.  He made the comment that he could hypothesize what possibly took place the night of the incident.  But being the person that I am, I can only imagine (and trust me I did) what reasons the lawyer may have come up with to justify Ray Rice's knock out blow on his fianceé.  Here are just a few reasons that I could think of that he could have come up with for his defense:

10) She kept tickling him.
9) She didn't tell him that his zipper was down.
8) She kept hogging the mirror in the elevator.
7) She didn't think he could swing with his left hand.
6) He really meant to just give her a "love tap".
5) He wanted to make a quick get-away, and she was slowing him up.
4) She didn't straighten his tie "right".
3) She rubbed her feet on the carpet and gave him a static shock.
2) She's a Denver Bronco's fan.

And the top reason that he knocked her out in the hotel elevator:

1) She pressed all the buttons on the elevator, just to be funny.

Now once again, I do not condone domestic violence at all.  I just find humor in all things, and good, bad, or ugly, I believe that all things happen for a reason, and we all should learn from these experiences.  But in the mean time, I can always laugh at what has been thrown at me...

Even a broken watch is right twice a day...

Good day everyone!

Have you ever heard those expressions that make no sense, but make sense? I've always been around older people that used to voluntarily give out little pearls of wisdom like the title.  They would crack me up, but now that I'm older, I find myself actually "getting" their meaning.  Not just understanding or comprehending what they are saying, but really "getting it".  It doesn't help that I married a woman that, while she is 7 years younger than me, she has an "old soul" and a 3 year old little boy, that acts like a little old man most days. {This interaction between the 3 of us makes for a very interesting day by the way.}

But back to the post at hand.  Statements like, "even the sun shines on a dogs ass every now and again" or "a watched pot never boils" always throw me for a loop.  Yeah, I get them "literally" but their figuratively meanings - have me all types of confused. When I look back at what people are trying to say when using these phrases, I used to ask myself, "why not just say what you mean, without having to go all 'Confucius' on me?" But I realize that the point is not to simply state what you want, but make the other person think about why they should take that statement into account.

Dealing with the boy, I've learned that saying something, once, twice, five times, does not always yield the expected result.  But when he comes up with the answer himself, he is more likely to find a way to make what he is doing. On top of that, I find myself doing what I swore I would never do, saying them myself...

I'm always dishing out little nuggents of wisdom to those around me, i.e. the boy.  Even my wife looks at me sideways when I say things to him.  The other day I told him that he has an "inner ear listening deficiency" issue.  But I am not alone in this "journey" to random literary expressionism.  Lady Wife told my son, during one of his fits as we were leaving the house, that he better stop crying before his tears freeze on his face.  But in her defense it was hella cold this past winter.

I've even come to the point where I realize the necessarity of these statements.  While I would never want to be convicted of saying stuff "out the side of my neck" It's quite fun to get your point across.  Especially that little pause I get from my son when I do say things to him.  He stops and can't quite figure out if he should laugh or he's in trouble.  Most of the time when I say these things, he's not.  But every now and again, I have to admit, I still confuse myself...

Scarface

It's 6:30am and I'm getting ready for school. I wrapped my hair the night before, but my lil side curl needed a bit of a touch up. That meant breaking out the curling iron. So I heated it while I dressed knowing it would be the last thing I did before headed downstairs. It's quiet in my household as I ready myself. I begin to curl my hair, taken care because of the heat. Then a loud yell comes and startles me so much that I jerk the curling iron. It hits my face before I catch it and place it on the counter. I immediately grab a face rag, wet it with cold water and apply it to my face as I head down to catch my ride to school. I grab a couple ice cubes from the freezer and wrap the rag around them to go back on my face as I head out the door on my way out to the car. I enter the car and my mom immediately asks me about the rag. I explain and show her the burn. She cringed, but I tell her I'm okay. I walk around all day at school with this rag on my face replenishing my ice as needed. {Meanwhile (I found out later), my mom was at work fearful that she'd get a call from CPS or a visit from a colleague (she worked at the police station). It was funny when she told me later that day.}

After school, I headed over to Ebe's and discovered I had a 3rd degree burn. She doctored on it and handed me a piece of her aloe vera plant. I had to keep rubbing that plant on my face throughout the day after I cleaned the wound several times each day. As the weeks went by, a scar appeared. I received the nickname "Scarface" until the scar faded away over the next few months. I still have that scar today.

Yesterday, I received a few more. Same side of the face. Smaller than the previous, but still. This time I responded quicker and with more knowledge than the last so I'm not walking around with a rag on my face. However, I'm beginning to think that my face likes the burns. Oh well ... I still live to see another day.

Burn baby burn ... #11days

Hair Journey

Good Morning!

So I've been growing my hair for about 5 months now. See, it was cut real low & I loved it. I decided to grow it out this year to check out the natural scene. Well, my natural hair is NOT for the light of heart especially if you want to be stylish on a time budget. So I've been itching to chop it off again. However, I'm trying to keep up the growth so it's that time to do something to keep my head from looking all kinds of messy.

Because we're approaching upon Summer, I should be fine until the Fall, but I'm a planner. During the Summer I can easily do the whole wash & go thing which looks fairly nice when I get my curls activated {heh heh heh ...}. However, that gets old real quick for me so I'm already looking for that next thing to do.

Here's my current "style" I'm trying to perfect for the Spring. Kind of a wash & go twist.

And here are my current hairstyle choices that I'm debating for the Fall. I might even get them earlier if I make my decision sooner than later.

Texturize vs Twists

GHE has asked that I texturize it cause he'd like to see my curls loose. Well, I bought the kit before I did my research and found that may not be what we really want. It's a mild perm and I don't really want to perm my hair at the moment. Plus, my research says I shouldn't do it on my own the 1st time just like a perm so I'm a little fearful of messing up my hair if I was to do it. It'd mean another big chop is on deck and I just said I'm trying to keep up the growth. So we've moved on to thinking about the twists and other such styles.

Twist vs Locks

I love being able to change up my hair because it's pretty much how I differentiate between looks since I'm not big into makeup. I could learn to make myself up, but I'm not too inclined to keep up stuff like that {have you seen my eyebrows lately?} so I'll stick to the hair. Twists are really easy to get and take out, BUT I'd have to get them redone regularly. Locks are a bit more permanent after how ever long. I've been advised that maybe I should do twists for however long to really determine if I want locks or not. I get that, but then I don't know.

Locks: Sister vs Dread

Locks look great on certain people to me. They also seem like something I could handle given I used to braid up my hair all the time in high school and style them. However, they are so permanent. I thought I would have to chop my hair again once I wanted something different, but would I? I was told Sister Locks take time before the really lock up. I think dreads lock sooner. I'm still researching, but we'll see. I did see someone the other day with dreads and she had the highlights going on and I really liked it. I'm thinking if I do decided to lock, I'm going to definitely have to try out the red coloring cause I love that color on myself. Wait ... what would y'all think of a deep purple color? Purple is my favorite color. Why not try it eh?

Well y'all, that's it for now. #12days

Rainy Day Shoes

Hey folks! 

I missed my weekend posts didn't I? Yeah, well I suppose to make up for it - I'll have to do a 3 part-er here eh? Cool. I can do that. Here we go ...

Saturday God-Sister Day

So I rarely get a "free" day, a day in which I'm not working for somebody. Weekdays, I work for a certain University. Saturday & Sunday are spent working for my Jesus in some way. So this Saturday was no different. I love my Jesus and I love the chil'ren I work with on Saturdays. Anyway, some of these Saturdays I get the joy of experiencing life with more than 1 child. This Saturday was one such Saturday and it was a hilarious one. Kavi, our goddaughter spent the day with us. Her & Jairus act just like I imagine siblings do so our day was very eventful. They began the day fine "playing nice together" {they're words}. They finished the day fine with "quiet activities time" {my words} after not cleaning up nicely together. They still enjoyed their day though so it's all good. Here are a few pics from that day.

Mother's Day

So yesterday was my 3rd Mother's Day and it didn't disappoint at all. My men really know how to treat a lady! My lil man made this here lil charmer for me ...

and then we all got dressed with our hats cause mommy loves hats ...

We then headed out for Mother's Day brunch with the greatest in-laws EVER!

After brunch, we enjoyed the rest of the day. We even were able to hit up the park getting in a family bike ride and some play time. We had a great day! 

Rainy Day Shoes

Now to today. I did not want to get out of bed today, but my dear husband ensured that I did. We even left the house on time to all get to our respective places on time. I love when we do that. Anyway, I got up to check the weather only to find my phone completely dead. Sooo, I charged it. Forgot about the weather until I got to my office. Can you guess what happened? It has rained & poured. I had a meeting  and here's the breakdown as I related it to the mister over Hangouts.

"Forgot the umbrella in the car. It started pouring after my mtg. Visited until it calmed again. Bus was coming as I headed back to my office. Decided to go get the umbrella."

Going to get the umbrella was a GREAT idea because it of course began to pour again once I returned to my office.

Walking to & from today, I realized that I need some rainy day shoes. I do well in the Winter cause my winter boots are supposedly waterproof, but I'm not wearing those things during these awesome Spring Showers {Yes, I love Spring Showers} cause my feet would NOT be happy about that one bit. Nor would the boots go very well with my Spring outfits. So I was thinking I also don't necessarily want rain boots. I do, but those are the shoes I'm talking about here. Here, I speak of nice shoes that will definitely have their own "voice" and will also keep my feet nice & dry. Most of my shoes like that are NOT waterproof. Oh well, you have any ideas for nice rainy day shoes? 

Sunshine & KIT

So yesterday was so beautiful that I spent most of my day enjoying it. But also, I played catch-up with some old friends of mine. That means I didn't get around to positing here - I did my due diligence on IG though. Anyway, because of that today's post will consist of 2 sections to make up for yesterday.

Sunshine, Blue Skies

Yesterday was a lovely day. Dude it got to 80 ... here ... in Michigan! Can you believe it? Finally, the weather is coming to terms with the fact that it's Spring and time to warm up. I was sssooo excited. I LOVE it! Been waiting on it. So since it was here, I had to take a bike ride. It was a rather short one due to the lil person only wanting to go around the neighborhood perimeter one cause it was "hard work" ... SMH! It felt wonderful though.

Oh AND why this joker (the GHE) decided to ride his tail up to the library to get some books we had ready? I thought that was MY goal, but whatevs. He made it there & back in half an hour so I should be able to do it within an hour :D We'll see. I'll try another day. For now, I'll work on controlling my bike and whatnot. I did much better following my silly-behind son who likes to not look forward and run into the grass and get stuck. Yeah, but kids got bike riding down so it was all good. Maybe we'll see if he wants to elevate out of the tricycle mode by the end of the summer. He could clearly walk his bike across the street better without those extra wheels.

Anyway I hope my Midwest {Y'all do know this is not the middle of the west right?} ... I hope y'all enjoyed the warmth yesterday and I'm praying for many many more days of it. Woo hoo! Come on Spring & Summer!!

K.I.T.

I had the unction to get in touch with my sister and a few old friends yesterday. That unction comes often, but I actually did it yesterday and realized how much I miss those girls. See I've been beating myself up for some while about how terrible of a friend I am cause I just keep dropping "friends" left & right. To be truthful most of those "friends" were just associates, but they wanted more. I couldn't give them more for whatever reason and it made me question myself. That's a series of sidebar stories that I just don't want to share so moving right along. My unction yesterday got me to thinking. I have friends and I'm a pretty good friend to them. The difference is we don't have a need to speak to each other every day. We can not speak for months and not miss a beat with each other. My messages with them yesterday proved just that. These girls represent different periods in my life and I haven't spoken to one in years I believe, but it's like it was yesterday. Yeah, we play catch-up on family life & career, but our conversations are beyond what I have with many folks I see every week. {The ONLY people that I see/speak to everyday are my GHE and lil man.} But yeah, my heart was on a high yesterday from speaking with those ladies. Not sure if they'll ever read this, but I hope they know I love them dearly and would never wish for better girlfriends. I love those chicks!

Now I've been told in a past life that I should do better about keeping in touch with folks especially these girls. For awhile, I tried that, but realized that I just don't have that much to talk about. What do you guys think? i don't agree that I should change the type of relationship I have with folks if it works for us to appease someone else's view of what a friendship should be. I'm no longer in a space to really give that a lot of thought, but I'd love to know what folks think. Do you speak with your besties everyday? Is one no longer your friend once you've lost touch for awhile? How does one regain that status? I generally hold people close to my heart rather they are there for awhile or not. As long as nothing has severed that relationship, their spot is always there. That could just be me.

Well, I'm out. While today isn't as sunny as yesterday, it is still warm so I'm still on a high.

Positive Aura

You ever just love somebody just because? You can't explain it or anything, but you know that person makes you smile? Whenever you see them, your day is immediately brighter? Well, I have a hand full of folks like that in my life. And it amazes me just how I immediately feel better no matter what was just going on. You have anybody like that in your life? If not, let me explain.

So yes, you can guess that one of the persons in my life that brightens my day immediately (even when their the culprit of my anxiety) is my husband. He is the greatest husband ever & I'm a jerk of a wife cause I don't want it to go to his head. That means I won't show him ALL the time. Just every so often, but he does KNOW that he's the greatest husband in the world to me. My dark days are never as dark as they used to be because he is always there to illuminate my heart. SO yeah .... I love that dude for being that for me. But y'all know I love him & this post is not even about him.

This post is about my other few day brighteners, one of which I saw this morning. Every time I see her or talk to her, my day is just that much better. She's awesome at just being herself and making me feel awesome just being knowing her. I love it. Now, on the other hand ... I SUCK at keeping in touch with people. Seriously - I am THE worse! You would think I'd call these day brighteners all the time to keep my spirits up when GHE/GHitW needs some backup, but I don't. Actually, when I'm miserable, I prefer to be alone. I don't want company in that space cause I'm miserable enough for a crowd. Terrible huh? Yeah, well between the miserable days, the lazy days, and the where-the-heck-did-my-day-go days, I forget to keep in touch.

With that in mind, I realize that I haven't talked to several of my day brighteners in months. I'm not that busy, but I have very little social skills. I actually have to practice what I'm going to say before calling someone. Why? Because I just don't know what to say. I can write all day. I can actually talk all day too if you give me a topic I'm passionate about, but I SUCK at starting the conversation. I'd rather eat squash [I HATE squash!] than start a conversation. I can keep the conversation going to move it along, but those first few seconds following the "hey" is a little piece of Hell for me. I also usually don't want to infest others with my miserable life so sometimes I have nothing to say cause my positive flow has been plugged.

I must do better. The positive aura of my day brighteners is missed when so much time has elapsed that I feel like I'm on positive overload when I see/talk to them. So yeah, I'm gonna work on doing better at that ... too. {This self-discovery year has been murderous to my lil self-confidence, whew!}

Anyway, big thanks to all you positive day brighteners out there. It's a rainy day and all, but I have sunshine on this cloudy day because of 2 of mine.

Have a sunshiny day folks! #18days

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Review

Good afternoon everyone,

Today, I'm going to be giving my 2 cents about the new Spidey flick... The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (I know, real original title).  We actually saw this movie on Friday night, but I have been hesitant to write a review for some odd reason, not to mention it was a kinda busy weekend (see Lady Wife's earlier posts).  But I finally decided to sit down and just do it.

First - "The good": The action was good, and the story line, as it goes for a super hero movie was good.  Jamie Foxx played his tail off (as usual).  I don't think there are too many roles that he gets that he doesn't do it justice.  I mean, Max Dillon/Electro was a GREAT character.  He wasn't a cheesy villain either, and he definitely had a story behind him and a better costume.  The plot was even remarkable.  This one was definitely better than the first attempt at this reboot starring Andrew Garfield.

"The Bad": As it always seems with Spider-Man movies of late, it is overstuffed with bad guys.  It just seems that if there is one good guy and one bad guy that is not enough.  I mean, really, doesn't Spidey go through enough on the regular where he should only have to deal with 1 maaaaaayyyybbbeee 2 villains at the most?!  There just also seems to be a need to use slow motion EVERY time Spidey does something big.  It's like the "Finish Him" move on mortal combat.  It's really cool the first 50 times, but honestly, after a while it takes away from the significance of the event.  I dunno, I'm just sayin...

"The Ugly": Fine, I'll admit it, I didn't like this movie.  I couldn't quite put my finger on why I wasn't really feeling it.  Maybe because it was more of a love story with some action, than an action/adventure film with some love scenes.  But that wasn't it.  Shoot, for the longest I could relate to Spider-Man.  The man could never really catch a break.  He would start off down on his luck and then just as things are getting a little less "bleak" something good happens, only to be interrupted again by more bad stuff... Sucks, but that's what made him such a great "tragic hero".  Then it hit me, I figured out what it was.  Andrew Garfield.  He's a GREAT Spider-Man.  The one-liners, the bravado, the smart-alec-ness. I think when he's the wall crawler, he's doing the thing.  But man! As Peter Parker, he just didn't do it for me.  He was too confident.  Too brash.  Too much.  That's not the Peter Parker I grew up knowing.  The kid was a geek in every sense of the word.  I couldn't buy it from Garfield.

Does this mean, if they come out with another Spider-Man, with Andrew Garfield in the lead, will I boycott it?  Absolutely not. I'll probably still go and see it on opening weekend.  I might even still complain about his Parker portrayal...  But when it boils down to it, the movie is called The Amazing "Spider-Man" not The Amazing "Peter Parker".

I'm out y'all!

Rock Meet Hard Place

So honestly, I'm not really into writing anything today, but I said I'd post everyday. So here we go ...

I woke up in the middle of my bed with stressful thoughts on my mind. Today my question is how to deal with caring when you really don't wanna care. This kind of questioning led me down a path that encourages the butt-hole side of my being. There were several things over the past week that were jumbled into this thought process. All of which for whatever reason really don't sit well with me. I really wish I could just say "to {hay} with it all" and proceed to being the biggest butt-hole to those involved. I can't do that though cause I do care about those persons.

Rock meet Hard Place. Mind if I squeeze in here?

Yeah, that's how I feel at the moment. What does one do? Well, I have a project of the week that has been keeping my mind occupied, but it's not enough. I want my mind to be at peace - I function best that way. Removing stressors is kind of a thing for me. I can't move all of my stressors though so what else can I do? There's only so many projects to be done. Maybe I have enough to keep me occupied until I forget about the stressors. It has worked in the past - not proud of that necessarily, but it worked.

Well, today shall not be lost. Let's make it a great one. Shall we?

#19days

Pinewood Derby 2014

Every year, the Ascension to Manhood Ministry at our church hosts a Pinewood Derby for our men (young & old). This year, they included us womenfolk and it has been so much fun. I've been pining to get in it so I'm glad I got the chance to really do it this year instead of "hiding" behind our son. Anyway, I just wanted to share a bit of the fun with you.

Here are our cars. I didn't think to take before pics so yeah ...

No winners this year, but we had a blast!

Smiley360: Sundown Naturals® Adult Multivitamin Gummies

Smiley360 Mission: Sundown Natural Multivitamin Gummies

Sundown Naturals® Adult Multivitamin Gummies: Take the Gummy Match quiz & try #SundownNaturalsGummies! http://bit.ly/1m6XOjH #freesamp

I look forward to receiving my samples in the next 2-3 weeks. Plus my doctor just informed me that I need to get more Vitamin D in my diet so this is Sundown's official tryout for my Vitamin needs. I guess I'd better have some factors in mind then.

When I think of vitamins, I think of medicine, and I generally frown upon medicine. I don't want the stuff. It's usually disgusting and sometimes causing unnecessary side effects. I get enough sleep, why must my allergy pills that are supposedly non-drowsy put me right to sleep. {Seriously, one day was forced into a nap because I couldn't keep my eyes open to save my life after taking one of my pills. I had a terrible dream to boot so yeah I haven't taken that pill sense, but still...} Back to the issue at hand. Vitamins are different than medicine so I must judge them differently.

Vitamins should taste good to me. Why? Because I love food. I love delicious food. I'd rather eat food than take a vitamin. Really, I sometimes decide what I'm eating based on what I haven't had and I think my body needs. For example, I began drinking more milk when my doctor said I needed more Vitamin D. Made plenty sense to me. However, I know that I probably need a supplement as I still don't drink a lot of milk. Milk & congestion don't mix very well. I just don't have the time nor do I want to spend the money on that much Kleenex. I found a multivitamin on sale and had a coupon so I bought it. I do NOT like the taste of it though so glad I didn't get the mega bottle of that stuff. I still take them from time to time, but it's usually a quick chew so I can chase it with something that tastes better. I'm hoping Sundown is better. These are gummies after all so in my book, they are liken unto candy, which should ALWAYS be delicious.

That's all I got so far. What else should these vitamins offer me?

I Just Joined Smiley360

Good Morning Everybody!

This is another one of those real quick posts I discussed earlier this week. I Just Joined Smiley360: I just became a Smiley360 member! Discover and review exciting brands for free, too! Sign-up at http://bit.ly/lTDqVw #smileymember I'm looking forward to beginning this journey with them. I'll be getting freebies to review so get ready y'all. This is my Welcome Mission & I'm already set for my next mission with them.

Golden Anniversary Well Wishes

Hey folks!

Today is a special day in the life of J.A.M.v1. Y'all today marks the 50th Anniversary (Golden, I've heard) of when the original J.A.M. said their I Do's. So today's post is simple. We just want to say: 

Happy 50th Anniversary to Mr. & Mrs. James & Annie Moore!