History Repeating

Yeah, so I haven't posted on this blog in more than three years. Why? A lot of reasons. I did have a different blog for a while, but I haven't updated that one in about two years. Why? Life. In the unlikely event that someone will actually read this, here's an update on what's happened since the previous post from three years ago:

• I finished my second BA in Integrated Language Arts in June 2011 having earned a 4.0 every quarter but the first one.
• I also finished my M.Ed. in ILA with a 4.0 in June 2012.
• Cory and I moved to South Carolina so that I could work for my dream school...for seven weeks. The idea was that it would be the way to get my foot in the door which would lead to a full time job the next school year. Nope. Still jobless for the 2013-2014 school year, but I'm working on it.
• Obviously Cory and I are still married and still very happily so. He's now working as a corrections officer in the county sheriff's department. I'm working as a substitute teacher...when I get work. He likes his job for the most part even though it can be very stressful. I...kind of hate subbing because it definitely isn't teaching, but at least I still get to be in the schools and working with kids. 
• We adopted a fourth kitty named Inara. She came with the house we're currently renting out in the sticks. She's spunky. We love her. 
• I finally got to coach softball this year. I loved it, but it was too short lived.

 I guess those are the big points. I have serious doubts that anybody will ever read this blog again but me, but I just felt a need to find an outlet again. I figured it would just be easier to go back to an existing blog than to start yet another one. I don't plan on giving the link to this to anybody, so it will likely be more of a journal for me.

Anyway, the post is titled history repeating because I went back and read all of my old posts before I started writing, and there seem to be a lot of similarities between three years ago and now. I'm now getting back to the point of not getting to see my husband very much again now that he's back at work. I'm back at trying to lose weight and get healthy again. I'm once again (or still, really) without any close friends to really talk to. I think my adventure to be a teacher took it's toll on a lot of relationships I had. I didn't have time for anyone for such a long time, that everyone kind of just moved on. I guess in some ways it made the decision to leave Ohio a little easier, but the few months before we left still sucked in various ways. Although I have made friends here in South Carolina, I feel like I haven't been able to really open myself up to anybody.

So...now that I'm going on about four years without any really close friends to really open up myself to, I'm starting to feel like I'm drowning in loneliness and maybe even depression. Although I usually feel relatively happy and am still certain that moving here was the right decision, there's just something...wrong. I'm sure a lot of it has to do with my current status of under-employment. To work my rear end off for three years with a specific goal in mind, and to still not be able to attain that goal, it's very frustrating. Even taking that into consideration, I know there's something that just isn't right with me. Our house is an unmitigated disaster area, and yet I still have no motivation to clean. I can go to the gym, run 2 miles, and lift weights, but cleaning the house seems to be beyond my capacity right now. I'm probably not putting my full weight behind my job search either. I guess I'm getting so afraid of rejection, that I don't even want to give people the chance to reject me again.  I'm coming to the point where I'm seriously considering going to a doctor about it. I have seen a doctor about my anxiety issues before and got a prescription to deal with panic attacks, but somehow this feels different. I don't want to admit that I might have a problem. I feel like it's admitting weakness. I feel like it might make me an unfit teacher. I feel like it's a failure on my part to rely on God. But then there's the part of me that knows that mental illness is a real and uncontrollable thing. It runs in my family, I've known for a while that it was likely to be in my future, but I still just can't bring myself to accept it.

So that's what's on my mind. It isn't as funny or as entertaining as my posts three years ago, but that's where I am right now.

The Fever

Check out that hotness right there. That is just sexiness at an epic level. Ignore the fact that the bike still has a price tag and is still indoors on a showroom floor. Totally irrelevant.

So I don't really have much to say. I'm mainly just blogging to get my creative juices flowing so I can write my last paper. Haven't had a whole heck of a lot going on. We went to Competition Accessories in Springfield so I could sit on some bikes and get the feel of what would work for me. The bike pictured above works for me. Cory had to pretty much peel me away from it. Just a few more weeks and it should be mine...or at least one similar to it. It might just end up being the most kickass birthday present ever as it should happen right around my b-day. Sweetness.

I've been writing papers galore for school as it is the end of the quarter. I had one of my professors tell me that I'm ahead of most of the class and the problems with my paper (rough draft) were "advanced" problems. That's always good to hear. I'm gunning for a 4.0 this quarter, and I might actually be able to pull it off. It would be the first time since my very first quarter of college. So long ago.

Work hasn't really been all that bad since Grib is still gone. It's been quiet. I've gotten school work done, and I haven't had much to complain about. I think my biggest complaint about work is that I'm stuck in a windowless room while the weather is GORGEOUS outside.

Yay for Spring creeping its way into Ohio. It's my favorite season of the year. Winter depresses me to no end, so when Spring hits and we finally get released from Old Man Winter's icy death grip, it makes me so excited, I'm like a puppy peeing on the floor when someone new walks in. This Spring is even more exciting than usual as it brings with it the possibility to ride a kickass motorcycle. Can you tell I'm excited about that?

Just a quick mention of my favoritest TV show, Chuck. Last night's episode, Chuck Vs. The Beard was awesome to epic levels. I freakin love that show, but the last few episodes were kinda lacking in awesomeness. This one was a valiant recovery and made up for the lameness of the previous ones. I think season 3 is now starting to hit its stride. Seriously, if you're not watching this show, you need to. It's awesome. And if you do ever watch it, you'll understand why I repeatedly use the word "awesome" to describe it instead of other positive interjections.

So that's about all that's going on in my life. Oh...I'm going on a business trip to Vicksburg, Mississippi in 2 weeks. That's all I have to say about that. And I'm now down 17 pounds. If I manage to knock off another 3 pounds in the next week and a half, I'll have reached my goal for the quarter.

Alrighty, I'm off to write my last paper for the quarter.

Peace out!

The Cox Family Food Network Adventures

So...Cory and I are big fans of the Food Network. If there's not something specific on we want to watch, our TV is on the Food Network. That channel has inspired us to take on two different adventures. The first one was quite passive. The second one was active, but...I'll address that when we get there.


The first FN show we got hooked on was Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives where Guy Fieri goes all over the U.S. finding awesome restaurants and showing us the amazing food that we can't eat because it's certainly not in the Dayton area. So, Cory and I decided to take our own like Triple D show on the road to try to find some good Mom & Pop eateries in the Dayton area. Unfortunately, it was barely successful. We tried out several places. We found one that we really liked and one that was just a decent place for cheap food. Our first stop was Tickets in downtown Fairborn. They kinda have Greek fare there. Cory had the ribs, I had a gyro. The ribs were the WORST either of us had ever had, and the gyro was just ok. Our second stop was Foy's Rock & Roll Diner. This was the decent cheap place. It's quirky, small, and greasy, but it reminds me of my favorite place to eat in my hometown of Portsmouth, Hickies. Next we tried Rudy's Smokehouse. We were expecting some kickass BBQ place, nah. It was pretty much like City BBQ but not as good. So then we tried some other place in downtownish Dayton. They're ribs were decent but the portion was tiny for a pretty high price. So then we checked out Amber Rose for some European fare. Epic Fail. They're prices were WAY high, and the food was crap. I had pierogies that I'm quite certain were filled with instant mashed potatoes. The only place we tried out and thoroughly enjoyed was Mamma DiSalvo's. Talk about delicious. Their alfredo sauce is divine. The meatballs are totally delish, and they have the best cheese sticks I've ever had in my life. We love that place. Several months later and just 4 days ago we discovered Elsa's. We knew it was the home of the Bad Juan, but didn't realize that they had pretty delicious Mexican food as well, so I'm sure we'll be returning.


Our second adventure into the Food Network world was a much higher goal. We kinda decided to dive into gourmet cooking Iron Chef style. Our first attempt was to make Italian Barbecued Chicken with Polenta and Dirty Risotto. So I found out the hard way that Risotto is a royal pain in the ass to make. You have to add 1/2 a cup of chicken stock to the risotto every 2 minutes for about 30-36 minutes, and stir it constantly. Apparently there is a lot of room for failure with this dish. Fortunately, I didn't fail. It came out just as it was supposed to. Unfortunately, it still wasn't all that great. The recipe included Sweet Italian Sausage and that stuff just didn't jive well with this recipe. The Italian BBQ Chicken was just bad. The chicken itself turned out just fine, but the recipe was a little unclear in its directions and we ended up combining the ingredients for the bbq sauce and the polenta together. It looked like vomit and tasted like crap. Fail. Later on I made banana empanadas but it was so easy that it's not wroth mentioning as a challenge. So we've decided to try to do this once a month. Find some uber-complicated recipe and take a stab at it together. Fun times.

As you can tell, we are both big fans of food. Good food to be specific. And we both like to cook which brings up the importance of us finding a new place to live. Our kitchen sucks. We were practically on top of each other (not that that's a bad thing) while trying to cook Saturday. I would love to have a little room to work with and not have to stack things on top of each other constantly. We're considering trying to buy a house...a fixer-upper kinda deal. So we'll see how that goes.

And by the way, Cory's surgery went just fine. The stone is gone, and he's just about back to normal now. :)

Peace out!

Mi Familia

So...since they're my heart and soul, and since some of you haven't been properly introduced to them yet, I thought I'd make a post about my family.

Cory



Cory is my wonderful, loving husband. Getting to spend my life with him is probably the biggest blessing I could possibly have in this world. He has his flaws, but overall, he treats me like royalty, and does everything in his power to take care of us. It doesn't hurt that he is quite a good cook. Case in point: our dinner tonight consisted of beer-battered fish, onion rings, and hush puppies, and then he even did the dishes. Right this moment, he's in the office working on his homework. I'm so proud of him for going to school. He's had his struggles, but he's getting the hang of it. I could go on about him all day, but that will bore you, so I won't.

Jasmine & Lily



I'm putting these two together because they are mirror twins. It's taken me up until very recently to be able to tell the two apart without much effort. That's 9 months of living here and 21 months of knowing them. Anyway...Jasmine is the sweetheart of the family. She's very quiet and just so lovey dovey. She reminds us of Theodore from Alvin & The Chipmunks. She's really become quite attached to me. She cuddles with me every night when I go to bed. She also drools. She is nudging my hands for a petting right now as I type. Lily is daddy's little girl. She's also a bit of attention whore. We clash from time to time because there are occasions when I can garner Cory's attention away from her, and she doesn't like that. But in general, she just wants to cuddle with daddy.

Jack


Jack is our little Power Ranger. He's only 2 years old while the girls are about 8 years old. He's a firecracker. Loves to play...a lot. He likes to play with the girls. The girls are old spinster kitties, so they're not always happy about it, but in general, they all get along moderately well. Jack is kinda like our equivalent to a dog. He's a big kitty at 15 pounds, and he has a lot of dog-like qualities. He begs for food. I've even started getting him to do tricks for food like standing up and "speaking." He hates to cuddle, though...especially with daddy. Therefore, daddy cuddles him anytime he bothers the girls. It's quite the dynamic.



So there's my family. I love them all to death. One of my favorite things to do in life is to lay in bed with all 4 of them. Cory snoring and the kitties purring. It really makes me feel at home. :)

Eat More to Lose Weight

So, the last time I discussed my endeavor to lose weight and eat healthy, I was making some adjustments due to my inability to sleep and subsequent exhaustion. I'm happy to say that problem has been remedied. The main culprit was the B complex vitamin I had been taking. I had taken the same type of vitamin before and never had any problems, so I don't know what was up this time. I took it first thing in the morning, and 18 hours later was still unable to sleep. Forget caffeine. The other problem was my schedule. On Mondays I was getting up at 6:30 to hit the gym/pool while Cory was in class from 8:30-9:30 then I'd go home and try to sleep until I left for work at noonish. I was rarely ever able to sleep, so I'd then be starting off my week on the wrong foot with about 5ish hours of sleep, and it would just go downhill from there. Now I'm going to the gym on my way to work, so I get about 7-8 hours of sleep to start the week. That's working out much better.

For a couple of weeks, my workouts were lacking. I was struggling to do the same stuff I had been doing with ease. A couple of days I literally felt like I was going to pass out or puke after finishing. Not good. It took me a little time to realize what the problem was. A few weeks ago I cited the livestrong.com calorie tracker as awesome. It is awesome, if you're not like me. I am often times an over achiever. When the calorie counter tells me I need to consume a net 1400 calories a day to lose 2 pounds a week, I see that as my absolute maximum number. After a couple of days when my net intake was about 750-1000 calories followed by the pukey-pass outey feelings, I realized I wasn't eating enough. I decided to stop counting calories, since I know generally about what I should be eating by now. Ever since then, my workouts have improved, I haven't felt like I'm going to die, and I'm losing weight at a healthy, steady pace. I am now down 15 pounds over 7.5 weeks. Do the math...it's 2 pounds a week which is my goal. :)

Relating to diet and exercise, while surfing the net I found this fascinating blog:

Fed Up With School Lunch

I know some of you have kids in school, and I will eventually be entering the education profession, so I thought I'd share this with you. Reading through some of these meals and seeing the pictures was fascinating. Everything is pre-packaged. What the hell has happened to schools? Back in my day, our lunches may have been very processed, but it at least came to us freshly heated up and on a plastic reusable tray. And what is up with them giving six tater tots? SIX??? That is unacceptable. If you're going to feed kids crap, at least do it right. I believe that tater tots were created by the hand of God. So you better give me more than six. If I'm going to clog my arteries, I want to enjoy it. So as crappy as I thought our school lunches were, this school's is even worse. And to think I might have to be subjected to eating school lunches on occasion in the near future. It just makes one realize that our government is setting up our kids for failure. Why would they want to eat fresh produce, lean meats, and whole grains when they have the ability to choose their food for themselves when they've been feed uber-processed pizza, "bagel dogs," and cherry icees their whole lives? The term "freshman fifteen" is popular for a reason. I'd rather pay $1.50 for a burrito from Taco Bell than $7 for a salad with wilty iceberg lettuce (note: This is not an exaggeration. This is the reason I got fat after high school). The whole food system in the U.S. needs to be fixed. I know it has to do with government subsidies and that whole mess. I don't really care. It just needs to be fixed. I personally think high fructose corn syrup needs to disappear. There's nothing good about it.

I still think February sucks

So...to continue from last week, we did not get the condo because the douchebag owners decided to sell it instead of rent it out. Major bummer. We had our hearts set on that place. After that big perfidy, we've kinda decided to weigh our options. We're kinda keeping an eye out for houses for rent. We might look into some different apartments. We might try to buy an extremely cheap house. We'll see. On the plus side, the next day we had our taxes done and discovered we're getting a sizable refund. Which means...


I'm finally getting a motorcycle. Kickass. Sorry Mom. I've wanted one since the first time I rode in April 2008. And don't worry, Mom. I'm aiming for the smallest, lightest, least powerful sport bike (See: Crotch Rocket) in existence. Something like what the dude is riding in the picture below:


See...it's tiny. It's really more like a really cool looking moped. It will save mucho bucks on gas since Dexter (My Grand Prix) sucks petroleum like a shop-vac. On average, Dex gets 17-18 miles to the gallon. Since my previous vehicle got an average of 32 MPG, Dex is a slacker in my eyes.

Valentines Day was nice. It was short, since Cory had to work that morning and that night, but he still managed to make me a spectacular steak dinner. It's his signature dish. Delicious. He uses a rosemary, garlic, and olive oil rub before grilling the steak and then makes his own barbecue sauce using Jack Daniels. Effing magnificent.

Fast forward to this week...none of the previous things I just discussed matters anymore. Monday was barely existent. I spent the day on the couch watching the Olympics and shoveling snow a couple times. Tuesday...Cory wakes up around 10:30 with a dull pain in his side. Within about 20 minutes, it's graduated to a deep, stabbing, intense pain. We go to Kettering to go to the ER because the Xenia hospital sucks ass. He has a kidney stone. Unfortunately, this rather stressful ordeal was just the beginning. It's now Friday night. He's hardly been able to eat ANYTHING. He hasn't passed the stone, and the urologist showed us that it's quite large, could get lodged in the ureter, and he might need surgery. Super. So I'm emotionally and physically exhausted. Every time Cory moves, I wake up thinking he might be in pain or getting sick or whatever, so sleep has been quite limited. Everyone pray for him. He's already missed 3 days of work, and likely won't make it back to work until this stone either passes or a surgeon blasts it apart.

Time to be a little more positive. I think I'm just going to start sharing a weekly Top 5 list. Sometimes it might have a theme. Other times, not so much. Today is one of those other times. So here's a few awesome things I've discovered recently:

1. Special K Fruit Crisps


So yeah. These things are YUMMY. I'm a big fan of anything 100-calorie, but these have found a special place in my heart. It's like eating a strawberry Pop-Tart without the super high calorie load. Can be found in the cereal aisle.

2. Mini-Coke Cans


I've gotten myself to a point where I don't really drink pop (yes that's POP and not soda). However, every so often, the craving crops up. Since I found this magnificent 7.5 oz, 90 calorie wonder, I can have just a wee little bit to suppress the craving without wasting 3/4 of a bottle.

3. Curling


This actually is not a new discovery. I've enjoyed watching Curling since the 2002 Winter Olympics. I find it fascinating. It involves a lot of strategy. It's like a chess game with big stones and brooms on ice.

4. Cereal at Night



I adopted this habit from my mother. I don't know why she did it, but she would eat cereal at night quite often. Eventually, I started doing it, and now it's become a source of comfort to me. I mean really...a bowl of cereal, especially something like Raisin Bran or Special K can still give you that sweet tooth satisfaction without the high calorie intake of a pint of Ben & Jerry's.

5. Podcasts



I hate talk radio. I grew up with my dad and/or uncle constantly listening to 700 WLW and I HATED it. Podcasts, however, are different. Why? Because I choose to listen to podcasts on specific subject matters that I enjoy. The three that I consistently listen to are Chuck Vs. The Podcast (Chuck related), Mugglecast (Harry Potter related), and TV Talk Podcast (About current TV Shows, the hosts are also very big fans of Chuck.) They definitely help pass the time when I'm sitting here in my cell...I mean cubicle.

So yeah. That's about it. I know it's not as witty or humorous as previous posts, but I just don't have it in me.

OH, one little tidbit. Grib gets a phone call from her alleged "BF" pretty much everyday. I cannot understand why since they more or less have the same conversation every night. It always starts with how Grib can't hear anything because of static. Then it moves to whatever TV show the alleged BF is watching. Then to whether the alleged bf's son has gone to bed yet. Then Grib's intestinal status: currently constipated. You get the point. I brought this to the attention of a dear friend and co-worker and her response was, "Maybe he's mildly retarded." Good times.

Peace out.

Fluffernutter

So, I'm about to spew an entire post of random crap just because I have a lot on my brain and I need to keep myself occupied so that I don't dwell on certain worries.

Ever notice that when it snows or ices or [insert bad frosty weather here], there are always lots of accidents. Ever notice that the majority of the vehicles involved in said accidents fall into two categories: sports cars and big-ass 4WD SUVs or Trucks. And who drives these vehicles? That's right, douchebags.


I'm not saying that all SUV, Truck, or sports car drivers are douchebags. I'm saying the ones that drive their SUV, truck, or sports car as if the road is not a big slush fest or ice rink and therefore end up in the ditch are douchebags. That's ok though, because this is just another one of those things that reinforces one of my favorite universal truths: karma.

Do I believe that karma is a real cosmic supernatural force? No, not really, but I do believe that people eventually get what's coming to them.

[Break for Grib Gripe: Our liasion is on his way out the door. This is made clear by him saying, "See you guys tomorrow." Grib, in her infinite social wisdom gets up and starts talking to him, following him as he's trying to get out the door. Because obviously, "see you guys tomorrow" is code for "please come talk to me so I can stay at work longer." *sigh* One of these days, I'm going to eat 15 Pixy Stix and then she's finally going to get a taste of her own medicine.]

Karma is cool, both when it works in positive and negative ways. When some idiot has this grand sense of entitlement gets his ass handed to him, for instance, some d-bag who drives a brand new BMW cuts me off because he's rich and doesn't have to obey the laws of the land gets pulled over...it just gives me such a feeling of satisfaction. On the other hand, when a good friend has been through a lot of crap and has had a really hard time for a while finally finds happiness in something, that's freakin awesome too.

In TV news:

Chuck

Chuck pissed me off this week. Not gonna lie. This episode was my least favorite of all 3 seasons. That being said, it was still good. I didn't like it for two reasons: 1) Chuck and Sarah are not together. They should be. It was written in the Dead Sea Scrolls that Chuck and Sarah are to be together. In this episode, they both sorta kinda start relationships with other people. Unacceptable. The gods are not happy with this. 2) Not only are they with other people, but it happened way too fast. Within the frame of one episode that spanned over about 2 days, the two girls involved in the love trapezoid did a complete 180, actually one of them made a 360 as she wanted Chuck, then was weirded out by Chuck and totally not into him, then was into him again. I realize that this was mostly because they originally had to cram a full season of story into just 13 episodes. I'm obviously not giving up on the show, but this still had me pretty miffed.

Lost

If you don't watch Lost, don't bother starting now. I don't say that because the show isn't worth watching. I'm saying that because if you are going to watch, you have to catch up on 5 seasons. You can't just jump into this show. Last night's episode was pretty meh. Usually Lost provokes the avid viewer to scream at the television things such as: "What the hell?" "Who the hell is that?" "Isn't he supposed to be dead?" "When are they now?" or "OMG! John Locke is the Smoke Monster!" Last night's didn't really provoke any screaming at all. But I'm sure it'll improve.

American Idol

I have only ever watched 2 full seasons of American Idol. I decided to watch last night's Idol because I was home so I could and I wanted to see what kind of dynamic Ellen Degeneres would add. I was surprised with her. I thought she would strictly be there to add comic relief and/or take Paula's place as the sugar-coater, unwilling to tell people how much they suck. She wasn't. She had her share of one-liners, but she wasn't afraid to tell someone that they bored her. Another pleasant surprise from watching Idol came in the form of Andrew Garcia. This guy's going far in the competition without a doubt. He can SING, and he's a good musician with his own style. His rendition of Straight Up was kick ass.



There was also the single mom with the blonde dreadlocks at the end who did "Natural Woman." She's going far as well. I like her style and I can't remember her name for the life of me. So I might actually start DVRing the show. Watching it is out of the question as my clusterfoo of a schedule does not allow primetime television viewing or a social life.

Real Life:

The reason why my brain is working 117 mph? We went to look at a condo today to rent. We like it. A LOT! It's gonna cost considerably more than what we're currently paying, but we can still afford it. The problem? It's through Zimmerman Realty. I know I bashed them a few posts ago, but they've kinda redeemed themselves since then. But the real problem is that we still have to wait to make sure we get the place. I don't like this. Waiting is a tool of the devil. In my opinion at least. So if y'all could please pray that we get this place, that would be super. We really hate our current dwelling. The kitchen is crap. But the new place has a kitchen that was made by angels. It would be nice to not feel like I want to shoot something whenever I walk into the kitchen to attempt to cook something. I'll keep y'all updated on what happens with that.

Peace out!