Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

There's been a lot happening in my little world recently. Not all good, not all bad... so I guess that really makes it about the same as everyone else's world then huh?

Let's see here... As of last Friday, I quit smoking. Like quit quit, hopefully my last time quitting too! But I have to say, this has been the easiest of them. I don't think I was ready to quit before and this time I feel like I am. Shew!

I got an opportunity to take an impromptu trip to Indiana and spent a wonderful weekend with my best friend in the world, Melissa. We even went back to our neighborhood and I got to see my old house, visit with the neighbors, eat my favorite pizza, etc. AMAZING. Plus, to make things even better, I got to meet up with my cousin Jake, his wife Lindsay, Aunt Roz, and Uncle Dave for drinks. We went to this cute place called Amore on the square in Crown Point and had delicious martinis. Never did I think that I would walk the square with a buzz... but now it has happened :p

I'm getting ready (well, July) to hit my one year anniversary at Dow and am hoping that they will decide to make my position permanent. I really like what I do and the people that I work with, so if this could become a permanent thing... huh, I'd be set!

I've been doing a lot of soul searching recently (not new) and seem to be finding my way to the truth (totally new). I think that the next few months might just hold some life changing decisions for me but I am looking forward to it. I want to grow and change and become the person I want to be, the parent I want to be. Change is exciting but certainly scary!

Rupert is officially 4 and a half and is completely obsessed with his next birthday. I've tried to explain to him a thousand times that he has six months to go but he just keeps telling me that he wants a Spongebob birthday with a bounce house and a pool... yeah right, I'll be more inclined to believe him in five months but certainly not now!

My sister, Elizabeth, is as big as a damn house with her third baby right now. Three kids, blargh! This one is a boy and they say they are done after him. I'm super excited for them and can't wait to meet my ONLY nephew! There will be a four year age difference between him and Rupert but they'll bond dammit because they have to, they're the only boys! :)

Otherwise it's just the same work and play, work and play as every other day. I'm just trying my best to mellow out, follow the high road, and do something right for a change... we'll see.

Melissa and me circa 1990

Melissa and me dancing at Celebration Station circa 1988

Melissa and me, Memorial Day weekend 2012

Corn fields look like my childhood

My childhood home looks remarkably the same

The Crown Point Courthouse

Lindsay, Uncle Dave, Aunt Roz, me, and Jake at Amore

Mr. Attitude aka Mini-me

Summer Reading

This summer I am going to catch up on some much needed reading!

I have a PILE of books that I should start with but that's too easy, so I had to get new ones... but I will get to those others soon. Swear.

I'm kind of exhausted on vampires, werewolves and the paranormal in general right now. Not sick of it but exhausted of the same story being washed, rinsed and repeated in every book.

So I started looking for new things and started reading The Hunger Games, oh wow... if you haven't read those books, do it! Seriously fantastic. I am getting ready to start the last one and I can't wait!

Also on my list of books is Guillermo Del Toro's first vampire book (yeah yeah, I know, I just said no vampires). It's a completely different spin on the usual sexy undead lover thing. It's a strain, like a virus, certainly different and really good. It's the first of a series, so once I finish this one, it's on to the rest!

I've also decided I need to be fulfilling my spiritual side as well. So not only will I read about people being terribly ravaged to death by a bloodthirsty government or a vampire but I'm also going to start learning the bible.

There is a massive list of books that I'd like to read and I swear it gets longer every month with new releases in series that I need to catch up on.

So this is just my jumping point aka the books that are going on vacation with me.

If I'm going to sit still, my mind will be busy!



Nightmares

Recently I have been plagued by awful nightmares, not just the usually cracked out ones that I always had. (Chris regularly tells me that I shouldn't smoke crack before bed :P) These have been much worse though. The kind where you wake up in a sweat, on the verge of tears, they loom over me the rest of the day and I lose all sense of security. Ugh.

I've been told that I have an overactive imagination (which plays into my G.A.D.) and it's been mentioned that it might be because of all the "demonic" things I watch. I'm not sure if it's the combination of the two or what but it's been killing me!

Usually my dreams are all crazy and strange and at least half the time involve sex with a crush or celebrity :) Recently they have been scary, like running for your life scary or the world is ending. A friend of mine has been giving me "homework," telling me different things every night to focus on  and it seems to be working. I'm just hoping this mental influence will keep up!

If nothing else, I can always resort to my high school/ college years cure for nightmares... watching The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. As long as I'm asleep before heffalumps and woozles, I would sleep like a baby, but if I saw the heffalumps and woozles I'm done for. Those things are still scary!