About Me

I found this on my Facebook notes, and I thought I'd share it with those of you who MIGHT be reading my blog and don't know me. Hope you enjoy! Gonna be a BUSY day!

1.What time did you get up this morning? 4am then again at 6:30am


2. How do you like your steak? well done


3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? HARRY POTTER BABY!!!


4. What is your favorite TV show? NCIS


5. If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be? anywhere but Manchester


6. What did you have for breakfast? Grape Nuts with Vanilla Soy Milk and Blueberry Juice


7. What is your favorite cuisine? Mexican


8. What foods do you dislike? milk product foods...make me sick


9. Favorite Place to Eat? Los 3 Amigos (local Mexican joint)


10. Favorite dressing? Italian


11. What kind of vehicle do you drive? Hyundai Elantra


12. What are your favorite clothes? my comfy jeans and a nice top (in this summer heat, a pair of shorts and a spaghetti strap shirt! LOL!)


13. Where would you visit if you had the chance? England, probably


14. Cup 1/2 empty or 1/2 full? empty


15. Where would you want to retire? somewhere peaceful


16. Favorite time of day? quitting time


17. Where were you born? Tullahoma, TN


18. What is your favorite sport to watch? NASCAR


19. Who do you think will not tag you back? don't care, not gonna tag anyone


20. Person you expect to tag you back first? see above


21. Who are you most curious about their responses to this? anyone, really


22. Bird watcher? in the winter, in the snow


23. Are you a morning person or a night person? night


24. Do you have any pets? currently have a cat here at my house, two Shih Tzus at my dad's house


25. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share? really excited about my new camera and getting to play with it


26. What did you want to be when you were little? don't honestly remember, but I used to stand on our front porch and sing songs from The Oak Ridge Boys and pretend I was on stage


27. What is your best childhood memory? going to the beach with my mom and dad


28. Are you a cat or dog person? both


29. Are you married? legally, yes....but he's been gone for WELL over 4 years now


30. Always wear your seat belt? yes


31. Been in a car accident? lol...yeah


32. Any pet peeves? which one you wanna know about?


33. Favorite Pizza Toppings? no pizza, cheese bad


34. Favorite Flower? ROSES


35. Favorite ice cream? Breyers Lactose Free


36. Favorite fast food restaurant? Subway


37. How many times did you fail your driver's test? once


38. From whom did you get your last email? there's no telling, I get like 20 new ones every morning :s


39. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? I don't have credit cards, so I wouldn't


40. Do anything spontaneous lately? not really


41. Like your job? for the most part


42. Broccoli? used to like it, with cheese or ranch dressing, can't eat either now


43. What was your favorite vacation? always the 4th of July on the beach at Gulf Shores


44. Last person you went out to dinner with? Bugz


45. What are you listening to right now? the news on TV, the AC blowing out air, and the cat going nuts jumping all over the chair


46. What is your favorite color? red and lime green


47. How many tattoos do you have? none, want one but too chicken


48. How many are you tagging for this quiz? none, if you wanna do it, do it


49. What time did you finish this quiz? 7:33am


50. Coffee Drinker? not anymore...dang caffeine and panic attacks

New Toys... blog entry #2

So with some of my leftover income tax return money, I got myself an Ipod touch. Every day, I play with it and find more new things to do on it. I came across this great photo program, Photo Brush, and have become addicted to it. Now, I'll admit, they are a little "juvenile", but they are so cute! The only problem is I have to download more pictures into my Ipod so I can play more!



I am so excited that my bf's brother and his fiancee are taking in the two "orphans"....my bf's biological sister's kids that she had taken away from her. The kids need so much attention, and I know they are going to get it with Stan and Jess. And I am so glad that the kids are going to stay in the family.

AND....I can't help taking pictures of Katie....she's such a doll!




I am really looking forward to this weekend, because I'll get to FINALLY play with my new camera. I took a few pictures this evening, but beings I was playing with two little girls, I didn't get to do many pictures. "Aunt Holly, come here! Aunt Holly, go get my apple "ball" out of the grass, I can't find it! Aunt Holly, I got a boo boo, I am bleeding!" Yeah, aren't kids great? HAHA!

Tomorrow I will be hitting yard sales (weather permitting) and thrift stores, looking for some toys and clothes for the kids, beings that they are coming with nothing, and the "new parents" don't have anything, either. I love buying things for others. The older I get, the more I like spending on others and not so much on myself. Now, my camera and crafting stuff....that's a little different. Don't feel so bad buying myself some new yummy yarn. Just found a new pattern for a hat that I want to try soon....was going to do it tomorrow, but last minute word yesterday that they are getting the kids Monday kinda made Saturday "CRUNCH TIME", get what you can for them to make them more comfortable.

I decided that I am going to take a couple of the good pictures of each of them and blow them up (size wise) and add their name (LOVE Photobucket editor) and have them hang over their beds, beings they'll have to share a room. I can't wait to see what it looks like, but I can't get the enlargements till Tuesday. Its all good, though. Aunt Holly can still find them some toys and clothes to make things a little easier for them to make the transition.

And now that its 10pm, and the BF is next door hanging with the neighbor when he SHOULD be at home in bed (alarm for work goes off at 4am), I think that I will crash. It has been a LONG day, and I have been nauseous ever since I ate Mexican earlier this week. Nice, huh? Oh well, its all good, I guess.

P.S. before I leave. If you are reading this, will you please leave a comment? Even if its a negative one. If no one is reading this, then what's the point, right? Well, it makes me feel better, I guess. LOL!

New Toys...blog #1

It finally happened, and I couldn't be more excited! I got my camera!

Sorry its such a bad picture, I took it with my cell phone....LOL! It is a Nikon Coolpix L110. I LOVE it so far! Haven't gotten to take too many pictures with it yet, so I cannot wait till the weekend so I can start playing with it!

In return for the camera, the darling BF (who bought it for me) had to get his own toy.....

A brand new LG TruSlim FRAME 42" Plasma TV. It is great so far. I can't wait to watch a movie on it, which I'll probably do this afternoon, beings I have the rest of the day off from work. (After grocery shopping for Granny, that is).

When I got home from work today, I found a package on my steps. What was it? The first addition to my new collection....cameras! Vintage, to be exact. This collection is going to be expensive, I have a feeling, but it'll be worth it because they are SO cool! This little gem below I got for $15. Sadly, it doesn't work, but it still is really freaking cool to look at. Its so cute! All small and boxy.

Its a Kodak "Holiday Flash" Brownie. Now, I don't know much about old cameras, so I'd like to get a book with the history of cameras, so I can learn a little more about what I am buying. I can't wait to enjoy my new collecting hobby!

In closing for today, beings I still have LOTS to do today, Emma wanted to say hi. She won't sit still long enough to get a real good shot, so for now this one will have to do.

I will have a New Toys....blog #2 later on today...more pictures to share!

July 4th Celebration, Take Two

Ok, so last night was my 4th at my cousin's house, and we had a BLAST....literally. It was so much fun! It was the first time in a while that I actually felt like I had a lot of energy and was active. I ended up most the night playing with David, and I couldn't help taking shots of him and his little brother.....





I had bought some colored smoke, and decided to start playing with them, which turned into some cool color effects.....thanks to the darling BF for taking pictures for me while I played. Gonna have to teach him about light and smoke, though. He was standing in the wrong spot, so the sun was coming through the smoke, washing out a lot of the color. But I still think I got some good ones. I LOVE that blue!



I have also decided after seeing pictures of myself, I am not ever going to eat anything again. I didn't realize just how much weight I'd gained lately! I mean, I have, but you know, until you REALLY see it, your brain doesn't comprehend it. Numbers are one thing, actually seeing it is another.


When darkness fell, I got to play with my camera. This was the first year to use this camera with fireworks, and while I didn't use the function on the 3rd, I tried the Fireworks mode last night as I was shooting some of the big ones. I realized, after quite a few failed pictures, that it is a slow-capture mode. How did I learn this? I shot a firework, then lowered my camera....I got a shot of both the fireworks in the air, and my foot! It almost looks like a double exposure, its so funny! From there, I had a little better time with the pictures, although I was too slow when it came to pushing the button. I got a few good shots of some artillery shells and a few fountains.


The coolest pictures in my opinion, though, were the sparklers. You can really see the slow-motion shutter in them, because obviously there's no way that sparkler tip can be in all those places at once. LOL! I just LOVE them, though! They look really cool.


My cousin Linda took some pictures, too, and I'd love to see what hers look like, because she had never used the Fireworks mode, either. But hey, I got some pretty good video too.



But alas, the $400 worth of fireworks (over the course of two nights) goes too fast, and we must wait till next year to blow them all up again. Granted, you can shoot them whenever you want in the country, but they aren't as easy to find when its not the 4th, except for on New Years, and its just too dang cold for them in Dec/Jan! But, I still love them.

Don't think that I forgot about the real reason for the 4th....my grandpa was in WWII, after all. And when I think of all the troops losing their lives here lately overseas, it really breaks my heart. For them, and for those to come who will have to fight future wars on our behalf, I salute you. Thank you for all you have done and yet to have done. God bless you!

Yes, I said GOD BLESS YOU! I'm not afraid to show my faith. <3

Are you?

Happy 4th !

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!

So last night was the kick-off of the Holiday weekend. My BF's family has a 3rd of July party every year in a big field. Volleyball, football, campfire with hotdogs and marshmallows, and potluck meal, finished off by fireworks (see above...lol) and some of the family camping out overnight. We did NOT camp out...lol...I am not a camping kind of girl.

When we first got there, though, I did find this when I got out of the car :

I usually find them pretty easy, but this one was jumping out at me. And I was really impressed with the close-up flower feature on my crappy little camera. This one turned out pretty good.

The cookout was a blast! We had so much fun. The food was great, the company was fun, and the fireworks were AWESOME!

Here lately, I've been playing with Photobucket and their editing features, and I am addicted. I didn't get any really awesome shots from the cookout, but I got a few that were kinda cool. I thought I'd share them with ya.

I just LOVE little Katie's pictures! She's such a doll, and her smile is so cute. I couldn't resist that pink shirt. I really hope everything works out so that she and her brother can stay part of the family. I'll be praying.

We have another party tonight, and I can't wait! Tonight is the up and close fireworks....Bugz and I are the pyros for this party, and lighting up is so much fun. I'm hoping to take more shots tonight, maybe play with a little more color.

I am REALLY missing my knitting/crocheting/crafting. I'm hoping with my extra day off tomorrow, I can work on a few thing. After I wash clothes and dishes, that is. A woman's work is never done. Yahoo.

Father's Day

So....its Father's Day. A day to help celebrate the man that helped to bring you into this world. For some people, that's all a father will ever be. Some people didn't, and don't, have the joy of having a father in their lives. I was fortunate enough to have one when I was growing up. One that was there and cared about me.

But now that my mom is gone, I am learning more and more about how things were, that I was too young and too blind to see. Now that I am older, I see things. I have heard things. And I look back on things I did see and now understand. For instance: My mother was the one that held the steady job. She was the one that stayed in the same job all those years and paid the bills while Dad played around, jumping from job to job, trying to decide what he wanted to do. Mom was the one that did all the cleaning, all the grocery shopping, all the mowing of the yard, even Grandma's yard she mowed (but she liked it, like I do too). Dad did the hunting, fishing, laying around having mom wait on him hand and foot.


Now granted, he was sick for a while, but in the end, so was she, far worse than he was, and she still kept working until it was just impossible, and even then, she was sitting in the hospital bed, calling work checking in to see if everything was ok. Its sad to think back on it now and realize all that she sacrificed for everyone else. I remember she'd hardly ever buy herself new clothes, she just wore the same few outfits and dresses over and over. I wish now that I could have (would have, should have) done more for her. But we don't think about things like that till tragedy happens. Who would have thought at 24 I would lose my mom?


Then we have Dad. Good ole dad, who lives next door to his own mother, yet will not help her with anything that needs to be done. He won't mow her yard, haul off her garbage. Heck, he only takes her her mail once a week, and that's only because she gets the local newspaper in the mail, and it takes up too much room in their shared mailbox! Yet, when he needs something, he doesn't hesitate to call. Many times I've needed help with something, major or minor, and he's too busy. But he wants me to drop everything for him. His priorities lie in the wrong places. And I'm beginning to think they always have.


So now that I am majorly depressed thinking about all this, I realize that things are never going to change. They are always going to stay the same. What I have to change is myself. I have to make things in MY life better for ME. I have been in a very deep pit of depression lately, and it has been very hard for me to get out of it. From missing my mom, to not being happy at work, to having an apartment (crappy duplex) that is ridden with ants (so much so that I can't keep ANYTHING on the kitchen counter without it being covered in ants), to gaining weight and hating my body. I have got to find a way out of this funk, just don't know how.

I think if I had a better place to stay, a job I was happier in, then everything else would fall into place. I'd be more content, I'd be less dreadful to wake up in the morning, and everything would start flowing more smoothly. But the way things are these days, those two key things are almost impossible to change! For instance, hardly anyone is hiring, and if they are, its not for as much as I get where I am right now...even though that's not much for what I do. And as for places to live, that's even more hard, because you have to have the money, much less the credit. I would LOVE to have my own house. No rent, no landlord, no worries. Plant a garden in the back, flowers in the front. No neighbors a car length away from you on either side, some even closer thanks to a duplex, with walls so paper thin you can hear the neighbor SNORING through the wall on the other side of your bedroom!


What I need is something to take up my time. Something to do. Yeah, I crochet, I knit, I craft. But I am getting in a slump with them. Everything I pick up to work on just bores me. I need to find something that I am good at, something that will be rewarding, that will make me feel like I am worth something when I do it. Something that will uplift me. something that will make me feel like I really have a purpose in this world.

My cousin, whom I have only seen maybe twice, is working on a family tree. Now, while all the things he is learning is VERY interesting, it is also depressing for me as well. Why? Mostly because of a few things: One, it is reminding me that I no longer have a living mother that I can go to when I need her. Two, it is reminding me that yes, everyone eventually dies, and without my grandma, I don't know what I'll do. And three, it reminds me that I am an only child, with a dad that could care less about her, and I am a 31 year old with no children of my own and a BF that probably has no intentions of keeping anything long-term with me. I say that lightly because we have been together 3 1/2 years, but when anything is mentioned about kids or marriage, he laughs. And while he is good to me, I honestly think that he's looking for something more than me, and when he finds it, he will be gone.


I have GOT to find a way to get out of this funk! I read books, I watch movies, and it makes me want to move, to get away from this dead-beat town. The problem with that? A job in the new place, money to be able to move and start over, and the fact that me leaving would mean my 86 year old grandma would have no one to check on her daily. No one to get her groceries every other week. I could not move away from here knowing that she's sitting there alone in her house, not able to leave the confines of her walls, starving because her pride was too big to call anyone and ask them to go to the grocery to get her food. I just couldn't do it.


So.....I'm done with this long, depressing blog. I do want to leave you on a good note, though. I have decided I want a new, better camera. I love taking pictures, and I see things that catch my eye and want to take pictures of them, but my dinky camera just doesn't do what I want it to. Yesterday afternoon, though, it did. This is what it gave me, and I really like it.

Rainy Picnic

Every first weekend in June is a tradition for the BF's family to have a picnic on the side of the road in the middle of the country. This was my....um....third year? This year, it rained. Which cooled it off, then made it hotter. The good thing is that the sun wasn't out that much, so it didn't get too bad. My glasses did get a little foggy, though, when I started playing around with Katie-bug (that's what I call her anyway). She is one of two siblings that one of the BF's sisters lost. The state took them away from her, so now one of his other sisters have taken the two in....Katie and Titus. They are SO sweet! They just have had a hard life and need someone to really love on them and care for them. Katie is two and Titus is three and a half. They are such cuties! I feel so sad for them!

Anyway! The picnic was fun, even though we had to run from the rain, sitting in our cars, having to turn on the engines to run the air because it was so hot. We eventually had to give up and leave. When we first got there, though, it wasn't too bad. I took the opportunity to use that time, before anyone else got there, and took a walk down the "road less traveled" and took some pictures.

Once everyone got there, I started taking more pictures....


Little Titus

Katie-bug
The BF's parents.....they celebrate their anniversary every year at the picnic.
Me holding Katie-bug.
And a closing self-portrait. I look like a tree-hugging hippie! Haha! I guess its fitting though, beings Bonnaroo is this coming weekend. Alas, I am not one of the chosen few who got asked to work or chosen to get a free ticket, so I will not be going. :( This is the year I wanted to go. Tenacious D, Steve Martin, Stevie Wonder, JayZ, even a Christian band, Needtobreathe! (For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, go to www.bonnaroo.com , this is my hometown, born and raised and still live).

That's about all for tonight. I should be in bed by now, but just got done watching Raw (yeah, I watch wrestling....sheesh) and now I am finishing up this blog and passing out! If the BF works tomorrow, the alarm will be going off at 4am. UGH! Ta ta for now!