Four on the fourth, and latest belly pic

1. OPEN FOURTH FILE OF PHOTOS ON YOUR COMPUTER (hope you have them well organised)

2. CHOOSE FOURTH PHOTO OF THE FILE AND ADD IT IN YOUR BLOG ENTRY

3. TELL THE STORY BEHIND THE PHOTO

4. TAG 4 OTHER BLOGGERS TO THE CHALLENGE

My four on four:

My mom buying Hungarian rice sausage from the Westside Market.

I will tag, MARY and if she has the time Ashley

And now....for the Belly pic, taken this evening before we went out dinner, at 16 weeks!

Swear to God I am not pushingmy stomach out, however about 10 % is probably bloat, but it's hard to tell any moreComin in on the buddah belly

"Your not punk, and I'm telling everyone"......

Now that I've turned 30, here are a few bands that I quit apologizing to people for listening to....

AFI
I have liked AFI for at least 7 years, Girls Not Grey is one of my most favorite songs of all time, the lead singer is hot and Vegan (I am not vegan but have a soft spot for vegan boys) and the album December underground, is still a winter staple in my cars cd player.

The Smiths
My sister got me hooked on them when I was a wee little gal, I have basically grown up with them, they are my solace and commiserating friends in dark times. I have even had the“if you like the smiths you cant like Morrissey “ argument….well I do like both,……and yes it is possible to be Bi-smithual as I call it, they rock so f the naysayers!

Coldplay
Been listening to them since “Parachutes”, there music is therapeutic, my ex friend Taryn used to say that they are the reason that my cat has a bad attitude, because when I first got him I would play with him on the floor while listening to Coldplay for hours.
Chris martin is hot, I love their political views, and there music makes me feel extremely deeply.

Kanye West
“one of these things is not like the others………” KANYE WEST?? You say? “Isn’t he …dare I say it”….hip hop????? Doesn’t that go against my retro-punk-rock n roll persona?? Yes…yes it does but quite honestly I don’t care I LOVE Kanye West, his music makes me bust my arse at the gym, and brightens up an other wise dreary mental attitude, perhaps from listening to the Smiths too much in one day :)

Fall out Boy

Shut up, shut up right now (David , I hear you mocking me) I love Fall out Boy, yes I have to say I am a follower, I cannot help it, I love the beat of their music, I could care less that they are not as legendary as say The Clash (which I also love) the fact is, they are not out to be legends , they just want to make music, and the music that they make moves my arse…so enough said.

Oh SNOW!!!!!!!! NOOO!!!!

It’s days like this, that make me wonder why I still live in Cleveland, OHIO lol. We have at least 3 inches of snow on the ground, driving was horrible, my hair looks like…well….crap…and I went 10 miles an hour all the way here to work today! Makes me really want to be at home with the puppy and the hubby L

Last night I went through my finances and opened up my online bank account tracker to find SURPRISE!!! I was over drawn by 321.00 !!!!!! not 20 not 65 but 321.00!! “How the hell did THIS happen??” I wondered, mainly it was a few over drafts then the stupid overdraft fees on top of it, the husband and I have been short on cash lately, so I have been helping out with bills here and there, but apparently I stretched my crappy income a bit too far, although I thought I was on top of things.

Anyway what’s done is done, so I have to suck it up, but I looked at my account last night, to see just were my money goes, and was shocked to see that I spend a lot on crap I probably don’t need, also kind of funny…I spent 50.00 bucks the last two weeks on pregnancy cravings, my bank sheet looks something like this “Mr. Hero-6.95, McDonalds 3.25, burger king 1.25 ect. Ect.
Yup a lot of crappy junk food and it looks as thought this preggo hit every dang fast food chain in the greater northeast Ohio area!! Well I didn’t seem to hit Kentucky Fried Chicken but …you get the picture……mmmm. KFC………crap now I want that.

So maybe the spending on cravings can be explained, but the spending on magazines, lip gloss, nails polish ect. Ect. Totaling over 40 bucks for this month alone is too much for right now. So from here on out I am trying to go on a, “financial diet” spend less save more…..or lately save what I can…… if anything at all. The only money I am going to spend openly is Saturday when I go with my mother to Old Navy to get some maternity clothes because lets face it I am not getting any smaller……and then maybe a few scarves that are on sale at world market.
But over all I really need to cut back on stuff. It’s funny how once you see your finances in black n white things become so clear.

Well I am off to have my snack……one I brought from home thank you……. Not from the vending machine…..see…off to a great start already!

AWESOME!

Need an AWESOME attitude adjustment to your Friday?
Check out this new site I got of off Galadarling.com

http://1000awesomethings.com/

Enjoy!

Inauguration,desperation and the ugliest side of people

Today will go down in history, not just as the first time a black man will become president,(boy that’s pretty embarrassing that everyone over here still gets in an uproar over a black guy being president, I mean what does that say about our country?)But as the first time in my generation, that hope and excitement will surround the presidential inauguration. When Bush was elected not once but twice, I cried for hours both times (as well I should have, look at this mess were in now) I fought my husband tooth and nail, almost lost my entire marriage (it was that bad) over choosing Barack Obama. And in the end, nothing could shake my stance, and I am proud of that, immensely, for the first time ever I really fought for what I believed. I do not Idolize Obama like some people, and I find it almost disturbing how some people make him out to be a celebrity, but I understand the excitement at the same time. The people have spoken, and change is imminent, and I +plus the rest of the world is now ready for it.

What does disturb me, however, is the evil vengeance some people have over the new president, the terrible racist horrible things that I hear come out of their mouth, the things that they say about him, and they don’t even KNOW him, it really gets me going, but I shouldn’t let it, you know why? Because there isn’t a damn thing that they can do about it. Congrats Obama, may god bless you, and help you turn this crappy country in to one I am proud to say that I am from. Because right now I am really, really ashamed of those who are so close minded. And P.S

BILL O’RIELLY is an ASSHOLE.

Bad Boys and Brooders

Here is something nice eye candy for your Friday:

For some reason Mickey Rourke has been on my mind a lot lately (pre plastic surgery Rourke), and I got to thinking…Throughout my whole life, I have had a thing to for the “bad boys” the “Brooders” and “greasers” especially when they got that whole Pompadour thing going on and side burns, ROWR!!! I am not here to explain this phenomenon of why women dig men “they can never take home to their mothers”. I am just here today to provide a welcome visual solace for a frosty Friday.

Here are my top BAD BOY BROODERS pics. In no particular order.

Mike Ness of Social Distortion

Chris Isaac Mickey Rourke

Johnny Depp in Crybaby Morrissey Joe Strummer(RIP) Christian Slater Brett Michaels

Jeff Buckley(RIP)

Doctors Appt. Update

Many people have asked how the last doctor appointment went, so I thought I would make a quick post about it, everything turned out great,I didn’t get to hear the heartbeat like I thought I would though, that I next time.We just discussed Quad Marker testing (testing the baby for birth defects) and my blood work which came back excellent (yay!) even my thyroid, was ok, which is good because last winter it was on the verge of being out of range. She also informed me that I may not be able to breast feed which may solve some of my issues I have been struggling with, sometimes I want to sometimes I don’t , well she asked if I was on any maintenance meds and I said yes, I am on Protonix for Acid Reflux, she said I wouldn’t be able to take that and breast feed, and as a matter of fact I wouldn’t be able to take any antacids, (Kristal does this sound right?) Well, me NOT taking it isn’t an option, my stomach would get so bad I would likely end up in the ER. So we will see, but it was good to have an excuse to hide behind. Even though I should not have to HAVE an excuse, people are terrorists when it comes to breast feeding, it’s damn near ridiculous to feel that attacked.

The good thing is my doctor is as cool as shit, (shes younger) and tells me to tell them all the bite me, if they don’t like it. Thank god for her!!

And we finally get to find out the sex in march!! WooHOOOOO!!

Mrs. Munster made me do it!( because she is the devil ....:) )

Mrs.Munster tagged me to this little challenge. I'll tag Mary and Ashley

1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them
5. Let each person know they've been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.
( yeah I don't personally KNOW 6 people on here, so do will have to do!)


# I can wiggle my eyeballs back and forth and "vibrate" them.
# I have always had a HUGE facination with morturary arts, and almost became an undetaker.
# I was once nearly choked to death in my car by an ex boyfriends psycho brother
# My favorite singerin the world is Tori Amos, Favorite Band, The Cure
# I sat next to Drew Carrey in a Cracker Barell last year, met Rob Zombie, and passed Woody Allen and Soon Yi in central park.I also played foosball with Weezer.

Old Artsy me

Me, Age 22 the "brooding Art student" lol

Artsy picture I took in my bug infested first apartment. I still love this pic

From 1999- 2003 I was an art student, free happy go lucky and talented (so I thought) with a secret ego the size of Texas. I enjoyed my college years, and it wasn't until recently, when I had to contact the school for some new recruits for a project, that I realized just how much i miss it, and the people who took care of me there. By day I would work at a coffee shop, running around high on caffeine (before my stomach decided to go by the way side and never allow me to drink coffee again without putting me in sheer acid reflux agony) by night i went to art school , happily soaking up art history 1-3 and figure drawing, I spent my weekends either camped out at the Art museum, studying or in my room sitting at my drawing table listening to Moby and Esthero working on my next great "masterpiece" I went to professional Graphic Designer events, and dreamed of the day that I would work for that awesome firm who would pay me lots of cash. or the fashion magazine who loved my work so much they would let me work from home. Music , coffee and Art were the three mainstays in my life, I could "fall" into working on a piece for hours,the "Art Coma" as I liked to call it, was my out for the trouble my heart was going through in those rough times.

After college and before i even graduated, I was pegged by ICI Paints (now Akzo Nobel) for my color aptitude, I was hired to work at their headquarters in a big building in downtown Cleveland as a Color Studio designer int thier Architectural unit, I was thrilled! And felt like such a "big girl" in my dress clothes, taking the train to work, and walking with the big suits each morning, I was sure I was going to get some where in that company. But after 3 years, reality set in and 9/11 had finally taken it's toll on ICI Paints, I got laid off...and that was the end of the honeymoon and the begging of a painful 4 year search for a job that i could stick with, I got laid off three more times, the economy sucked, and companies that i worked for could barley keep the lights on , let alone pay my salary. I was lost.

I finally found the job that I have now, wich isn't exactly in my field, directly, I work for PPG Automotive Refinish, and I work in the color library ,helping people with auto colors, I do still work with color at least and I am striving to move elsewhere with the same "I am going to make it in this company or die trying" work ethic, I had at ICI. Except now I am more realistic, I know the pitfalls, I know the possibility of losing my job in this economy, but I work with great people, and for the most part the job mildly satisfies me, but just recently as I talked to some of my old college mates and a few professors, I realized that I still have that drive in me, I still have the "artist" I don't draw really anymore like I used to. but I still come up with stuff in my head all the time and make a point to be creative, always try to work on something. And I still have the uncanny ability to walk through the Art museum with my hubby and give him a walking tour, telling him everything I know about the paintings, he loves to learn and I love the fact that I remembered enough to teach!

Still nothing can or ever will match those free wheeling, wild girl college days. Back when I swore I would be vegan, never marry a republican and never let a man hold me down.

.....my how things change! And yes....most for the better.......but still art and music are a huge part of me, and they always will be.

Puppy Post!

Since I will be out on tuesday, I wanted to post this Tune in Tuesday video now! Just a cute little ditty of my lovable mutt, Starsky :) Sorry for the sporatic jumpiness of the video, I am still working out the bugs lol.

Week 12- It's "poppin"

It really looks like I just ate 1 too many cheesecakes doesn't it?

Well here I am the last week of the horrid first trimester, and while I wasn't as sick as some people I have known, I sure as hell didn't feel like myself. But here I am, back from a crappy sabbatical, and hey, I even made it through the holidays (I am STILL not sure how that happened)

My nausea is gone pretty much completely, I still have some food aversions, but they come and go. And I got my sweet tooth back, which I was hoping wouldn't come back at all :( but what are ya gonna do right? I am also popping out just a teeny but.

Since I have been feeling better, i have been eating and cleaning, when I am not doing either of those, I am sleeping, and that is pretty much the gamut of my weekends, during the week insert 8 hours of work on top of that.

Everyone at work is so excited, they want to have baby naming contest which I think is cute, and they won't let me do anything physical, like lets say, kneeling for instance, I tired to tell them thanks for the concern but I am pregnant not handicapped LOL, if I want to sit on my knees so that I can file color standards then so be it. I also mentioned to someone I was cleaning the house the other day, and they told me I shouldn't be doing that, that I need to rest, well i DO rest, ALOT dammit if I don't move I going to weight like 860 pounds by the time this all over . I love to be active, and it's been so long since I actually FELT good, that now that I do I am playing catch up. I take the puppy for long walks after dinner in knee deep snow,because he has fun and it really helps my food sit better,I also do prenatal exercise videos each morning for 15 minutes. I started out at 154 pounds before I was pregnant, when I went to see the doctor at 8 weeks I was 163, I have an appointment on Tuesday and will be anxious to see how much more I went up, although i am not overly concerned with my weight while pregnant, I eat all the right foods, so anything that I put on will be healthy pretty much ( never mind the occasional root beer float or nachos binges)

And go figure this crap out.......the more pregnant I get, the more I WANT to breast feed......damn hormones..........

Today I spent the morning stripping the wall paper off of half of the nursery walls, and while it's no nightmare and seems to come off rather easily, it is a COMPLETE mess in there. But soon it will look super awesome, so I keep looking forward to the finished product.

ICK! I HATE Stripping wallpaper!

Well I'm off to nap......

Nursery Ideas

Alot of people have asked what I want to do with the babys room, and because I don't know the sex yet, that's a tough question to answer, but I have been looking through alot of catalogs today (nothing else to do, it's 10 degrees out and we are snowed in for the weekend ) and I found these pictures below, I LOVE this bedding! I think that it would look great with pale yellow and ice blue walls! and I LOVE LOVE this crib. But this is only one idea. I am sure more will follow.

Tommorrow, I plan on stripping the wallpaper backing off of the walls, here is to hoping for easy work!

New Tues Feature?

So I finally got around to figuring out the darn movie maker (i think) and here is what I came up with for today for my sweetie! Love you dear :)

I am going to try to do a different one either every tues, or every other tues.....we'll see

Positivity VS The World At Large

Picture by Shish Kebabness

After a lovely two weeks of holidays and being in a “Holiday Spirit Coma” I finally had to come back to reality yesterday and head back to work; and boy was that hard hit!
During the holidays you don’t really realize how generally positive and hopeful the world seems, until you all head back to work after that long vacation turn on the news when you get home or pick up the paper and BOOM “12 people killed in Gaza, 3 shootings on the east side of town, someone stole an old mans wheelchair and all of his money, A child suffocated while being restrained in a mental care facility……” Ect. Ect. (these we real news stories from yesterday) ….and there goes your cloud of positivity, just like that. Poof up in smoke….

I it’s a damn shame when the only good news on the evening news is ONE story about how two 7 years olds in Germany tried to catch a plane to Africa so that they could “elope” a heartwarming cute story yes, but at the same time, tremendously sparse compared to the stories we heard during Christmas…”Good Samaritan brings toys to family after they were robbed”…ect.

Maybe its just that we are in such a good mood (most of us) during the holidays that we do not HEAR the bad news, or maybe it is a media plot to get everyone jolly, then let them down a few weeks later with stories of crime and recession.

So starting today, I aim to be positive, to try to keep the sunny out look that I came close to losing last night. No CNN no MSNBC, BBC, NPR or any other news outlets for that matter, for at least a week, it’s all too depressing, I even set up a positive list on my iPod this morning of uplifting music, or music that doesn’t make me cry, No Three Doors Down, Sad Counting Crows, Staind or Linkin Park, who recently have gotten extremely depressive with “The Sun Will Set for You” don’t get me wrong I do like these bands, but the other day I found myself listening to a Stained song without realizing it right away, and I said out loud, “good god shut up already you whiney….”Expletive”

I don’t want to think about suicide, death, destruction and turmoil. Don’t get me wrong I am certainly one to blast Kittie or NIN at the top of my speakers on the way home from a bad day at work, but I don’t generally want to hear it on a cold ass cloudy day (which in Cleveland is the norm) when I am on my way to a job that I some times feels is going nowhere.

Phew!!
So in closing, here is what I propose to do to make life a bit more positive:

Quit being a news junkie
Compliment one person at least a day.
Say hello to someone in the hall at work that I have never said hi to before, or to someone who doesn’t seem too friendly.
Spend more time wrestling around with my loving puppy dog, or my husband for that matter WOOOO!!!
Try to find the good, even if it is miniscule in a crappy day.

And that’s all I have.

Well I am off to try to make this the most positive day that I can…..it will be a challenge!

DOUBT

Had a great afternoon with my mother and grandmother, WHO IS 88 TODAY I MIGHT ADD!!!!!! We all went to go see DOUBT, all I have to say is if you love drama, are a fallen catholic, staunch catholic, non catholic whatever, go see it!! I myself being the fallen on, my mom being raised strictly catholic ( and even joined the Notre Dame Convent of nuns at 13 years old!!!) and my grandmother the same, all LOVED it! Phillip Seymour Hoffman is terrific as the priest, I have always liked his acting since I saw him in Magnolia, hell I even liked him in The Big Lebowski. The movie may not be for everyone, but if you are of Catholic decent I think it makes it even deeper. here is a preview below in case you want to check it out.


we then had a nice dinner at Sugar creek for grandmas b-day and all split a piece of Snickers cheesecake which actually didn't taste that great to me in my currently non existent sweet tooth.

Well back to searching around online, I plan on organizing alot of stuff tomorrow and I am looking for different ideas to organize all my cosmetics.

Hope your year has went well so far!!