random facts about me

I love accents. For real. Jesse gets super annoyed because anytime we talk with someone who has an accent, I will spend the next half hour trying to mimic it. This never seems to pan out though. I normally end up sounding like a Leprechaun or Forrest Gump. And sometimes a mixture of both.

I cannot wink. When I was younger, I would stand in front of the mirror and practice for hours.

I LOVE Dateline. I record it every Friday and Sunday and it's one of my favorite TV shows. For some reason, I'm really drawn to watching True Crime stuff even though it scares the crap out of me. Plus, I usually end up watching it by myself because Jesse kind of hates Dateline because the guy who narrates the Friday night show, Keith Morrison, has a super creepy and annoying voice. Therefore, I usually spend the night triple checking the door locks and sleeping with the nightlight on.

I will not leave my house without putting on mascara. I have blonde eyelashes that I'm not very fond of.

Jesse and I had no plans for Easter and no family dinners to attend, so we spent the day de-cluttering our basement and ate our Easter dinner at Red Lobster. After we got done feeling sorry for ourselves, it ended up being a pretty good day!

I think I'm definitely going to cry during this week's episode of The Office.

I am a horrible backer-upper. And I hate backing into parking spots. My dad, my brother, and Jesse are all backer-uppers and it drives me crazy! Just pull into the parking spot like everyone else does!

I'm really nervous that the show Parenthood is going to get canceled next season, so I signed an online petition to keep it going. I have no idea whether this is legit, but you can click here to sign it too!

Well, I guess that's all for now!  Have a great Wednesday!

Work. Cook. Sleep. Repeat. + puppy love

I am such a horrible blogger!  Sometimes I just think my life is so boring that there is absolutely no chance anyone could possibly want to read about it. 

And I've been stuck in a funk lately.  My life revolves around working, sleeping, cooking and cleaning. 

When I'm not at work, I'm worried about making lunches, or what we're going to have for dinner, or what I'm going to bring to our work pitch-in, or whether we have clean clothes or dishes...and on and on and on...
It's exhausting.  Work is rough enough for me.  I have lot of responsibility and a lot of stress.  And when I come home, I really just want to relax, but that never seems to happen.  There are always meals to cook and dishes to do.


Ugh.  There has to be more to life than this, right?


Anyway, I actually had a great weekend and thought I would share it with you!

Jesse and I spent the weekend back in good 'ole Knox County.  We normally have an okay time when we go down to visit, but we never really get to enjoy ourselves.  There are always about 20 different people who need our attention.  But not this time...

This time, we stayed at my aunt Michelle's house (who also happens to be one of my best friends), and we just got to relax.  We didn't really even tell anyone else we were in town.  It was glorious!

So my cousin Jaden, who is ten years old, said the sweetest thing to me this weekend.  I seriously think it might have been the most flattering thing anyone's ever said to me, and something I will never forget.

She said, "Valerie, I want to show you this journal I have, but I can't find it.  I wrote something about you."
Then she said something like, "Everyday,  it asks a different question. One day, one of the questions was, 'If you could trade places with anyone, who would it be?' Well, I said you because you're in the Air National Guard, you have red hair, you're a good singer, and you're beautiful on the inside and out."

Awww...it makes my heart melt!  I have been battling so many inner struggles lately, but somehow it makes me feel so incredibly good about myself, to know that in the eyes of a ten year old, I'm perfect in every way.

Isn't she adorable?

I just want to throw out there, that we went bowling and I beat Jesse.

We also got to bring our dog with us this time!  This is a huge treat for us because our dog is "the monster" and no one ever lets us bring her over!  But "Abby the Monster" got to hang out with her best friend all weekend and I'm pretty sure she had a great time too.

Here are the two dogs when they were just wee little pups.

And here they are now.

Aww..sweet puppy love!

It's a love / hate relationship

I've had kind of a crummy day.  Nothing bad has happened to me personally, but I've just felt kind of horrible and unfocused and let down.  You see, today turned out to be lay-off day.

 This is round number two.

I made the cut this time, but I don't know if I will always be so lucky.  I have a hard time doing my best and giving 100% for a company that makes it very clear that I am disposable. I mean, I'm very aware of the fact that there is someone in the Phillipines that can do my job for a lot cheaper than I will, but does that mean they should?

One of my co-workers posted something online today about how he felt like we were in some twisted version of a reality TV show.  You just never know who is going to be eliminated from week to week. It's kind of scary... We have absolutely no job security.

So sorry to be such a Debbie Downer!  Let me get on with what I'm loving about today!

1.  I'm loving this new food website that I've stumbled upon.  Like seriously.  I could spend hours and hours on this site!   www.foodgawker.com Click here to check it out! 

 All you have to do is click on one of the mouth-watering pictures and it will take you straight to the recipe.  Not only that, it will take you straight to the cook's blog, which will lead to more awesome recipes!

2.  I heard Eddie Money on my way home from work today.  I have had an incredibly weird thing for Eddie Money ever since I was a child.  I have very vivid memories of begging my mother to play "Walk on Water" just one more time...

Well, a couple of summers ago, Jesse and I went to an Eddie Money concert. To say I was excited would be an understatement. And from what I hear,  I may or may not have had one too many adult beverages.  Anyway, we were pushing and shoving through the crowd so we could get as close as possible. And once we finally made it up to the front, I started screaming, "I love you Eddie!" at the top of my lungs. Apparently, this has not happened at an Eddie Money concert since the 1980s because I was getting some majorly weird looks. 

Jesse swears it was the moment he first knew that I was "the one".  :)

3.  I got to watch the show "Parenthood" tonight.  I swear this show makes me cry every week.  It is my absolute favorite show on TV.  It's so heartfelt and true and real, and every week it leaves me wanting more.  I recently had to wait like 3 whole weeks for a new episode to come on and it was absolute torture.

Well, I think that's all I have for now.  I hope everyone else had a good Wednesday!