long time

I have accomplished a lot of goals.

I have taken a break from socializing with friends, stepped back from the blogging world and focused on family time/Mister time. It was needed, wanted and perfect.

I have found a great firm to begin the journey of a career. I love my boss. I love my co-workers. It feels right.

Through it all, I realized what I was “missing,” what just did not “feel” right. I tried too hard to put effort into something I was not completely in sync with. I made a switch that most people do not do. I am going from a blog to a tumblr, as oppposed to going from a tumblr to a blog. Oh well, I have never been “ordinary.” (case in point: described my blackberry’s symptoms to the AT&T guy as “similar to the photo fading away in Back to the Future.” He laughed at me, but completely understood what I meant.)

If you plan to stick around with me…follow me here.

Hawkins leaves us again

About a month ago, my good friend Hawkins left for another tour in Iraq. Hawkins will be gone for over a year which means he will miss a lot of holidays. As you know, Hawkins loves his holidays. His girlfriend wanted to send him off with something special that would help him get through the next rough year. So, she planned a surprise holidays party with all his friends. We had a slip-n-slide, a birthday cake, Christmas decor, Halloween pumpkins, fire works and a shot was had at midnight. I really miss the guy already, but through email, I get to talk to him weekly. I am just praying he comes home safe so we can continue to celebrate holidays together as a family.

where it’s at

I am not a huge fan of Beck. However, I do have a few songs of his that I can listen to often. My favorite song of his has to be “Where it’s at.” I love it. I mean if I had two turntables and a microphone, life could be like a musical every single day. AHHH, that would excite me.

playing catch up

Currently I am sitting on my couch, the house is empty and Teen Mom is playing in the background. I haven’t had alone time in about a month. I am soaking it up as much as I can before it ends. Playing catch up on my blogging is on the top of my to-do list so this is what I am working on right now. As promised, here is my phone photo dump from July. Eek. Over two weeks late…way to go Leigh.

1. long, curly hair  2. elmo works for a pawn shop now  3. new end tables  4. note from my Mister  5. little gamer  6. slug  7. homemade baby wipes  8. new futon  9. four loko  10. NKOTBSB  11. possibly the cutest kid ever

bliss n eso

Blogging has been on the back-burner for about three weeks now. I have been busy/needed some time away. There is a ton to catch up on: Hawkin’s going away party, a book review, phone photo dump, Mega Cavern ziplining and an apartment tour. After work this week I will be helping my dad on a project, but I am hoping I can still squeeze in time to edit photos, write and relax. Until then, I will leave you with my glory moment from this weekend.

I stayed at my parents house for the weekend to get away from Louisville, help my parents continue to clean out Will’s closets at home and have dinner with my parents and the Mister’s parents. It was nice to get away, but I am exhausted. Friday night I was preparing for bed when I realized I did not have my face wash. I further noticed the cleaned out bathroom in the basement. (Drew’s family will be living in the “apartment” in my parent’s basement while they build their house down the road.) Knowing that there was no way I could go to bed with full face make-up, I searched my options. I discovered liquid hand soap. Being the resourceful genius that I am, I used the hand soap. The liquid hand soap was contained in a darling black and chrome soap dispenser I can imagine my mother getting tickled pink about when she came across it in Bed, Bath and Beyond. I figured this was the best I could do. Roughly 30 seconds after drying my face off, I recalled how painful it was to get hand soap in your eye. I continued to rub my eyes and remembered Will left face wash upstairs in his bathroom. Recap: Instead of simply going up a flight of stairs to retrieve face wash, I decided to not only dry my face out but also burn my eyes while doing so.

On a lighter note, the Mister has caused me to become a lover of Bliss n Eso. I hope you can enjoy their music as well.

get it together

I have been nothing but a negative nancy as of late. (Sidenote: I feel so bad for anyone named “Nancy;” they are stuck with such bad rep.) Nothing has made me super excited or happy; all my energy, can-do attitude and positive light has disappeared. I feel drained, defeated and just tired of being tired. Last weekend was spent surrounded by friends. For two nights in a row my house was filled with laughter, love and lots of food. Will and I decided to have a cookout. It did cause us to lay around in bed the next day but well worth it. Around 5am Saturday night/Sunday morning, I felt completely at peace with everything around me. My house was quiet, there was a storm outside and there was a wonderful, yet sometimes difficult man with his warmth blanketing me sharing my bed and everything was fine. My worries regarding my work, family members health issues, feuding with other family members, missing my Gma (she has been in NY for about a month now) and stress from beginning life with my little brother while facing the realization that I have to grow up has torn me down and out for sometime now. In that moment though, it all disappeared.

I needed to let loose, and I did just that this past weekend. Not only was some just good ol’ letting loose required and some stepping away from my computer for a bit, but I also needed some kind of break to take my mind away from everything. The Mister’s family had a Zip Lining day trip planned for a month or so. We went yesterday, and it was the perfect break. I slept in, I had fun and went wild on the lines and then ended the night early with a documentary. Not to mention, my cell phone was off for four hours, no work calls, no family calls, no worry about anything but being under ground and having a blast.

I finally am coming around and feeling like my old self again. It will take some time, but I will get there.

that is my girl

Man, I love Cher Lloyd. She seriously has something special about her.

le sigh

The end of the week is finally here. Friday has never looked so sweet. I am keeping in good spirits and finding encouragement from my friends and loved ones. I am bring back my “can do attitude.” However, when 4 p.m. rolls around and I am headed home for the night, it is going to be a wonderful thing to fall into my bed for an afternoon nap. There’s even chances of thunderstorms. Hold off til 430p.m. rain, please?

sister, sister

If you have been reading this blog recently or even for sometime, or maybe you know me personally, either way, you have learned that my sister and I are different. We do not share anything minus DNA, similar taste in music and a love for sweets. A lot of the time it feels like I do everything I can to be nice to her, yet she still will not talk to me. I can give her a super awesome birthday gift because it is her 21st birthday and something she would really enjoy. I can give her all the nice furniture for her apartment because she has nothing. I can hook her up with a nanny gig during this summer; the parents will continue to use her while their kids grown up. I can cut the grass for her thinking it was going to be helping her out and still get yelled at by her. It truly feels like I am constantly swimming against the current just to have my sister want to have a special relationship with me.

I am jealous of the girls that have this awesome friendship with their sisters. The sisters that do lunches together, take spas days together and end the day with a trip shopping. Sometimes it is even the smallest things I long for from my sister- like a hug. I am not even kidding when I say I get two, TWO hugs a year from my sister…one on my birthday and one on Christmas. There is nothing normal about our relationship. My mother does not understand when I explain to her that my sister cannot be my Maid of Honor. My mother literally looks at me like I am the worse person ever for even thinking that sentence. Tough shit, but it will not be her.

At work, there is a calendar filled with little quotes for each day. We have all seen them and for the most part, they are nice words of encouragement. Today’s quote hit me like a ton of bricks. It was almost as if the universe knew what was going on with me. (To top it off, I got an email from Billie this morning which made me feel so warm and loved by my friends.)

“If you don’t understand how a woman could both love her sister dearly and want to wring her neck at the same time, then you were probably an only child.” -Linda Sunshine

Do not think I hate my sister or that this will not pass. In a few weeks this will all be forgotten. I would have been told by many people, parents included, to be the “bigger” person, to ignore her because I “know how she is,” and I will have moved on. However, it still stings, and right now, it is the most important thing going on. I am bitching about it all the time. It is only because it is my sister. Every single time my sister stops talking to me, keeps her wall up even around her family or says mean and hurtful things to me, I slowly get crushed more and more. Sisters should be supportive of each other at all costs. There should be a stronger bond between my sister and I than my 4 best girlfriends. Yet, they know me better. I wish my sister could know me like they do. At the end of it all, I will love, support, be there and fight for my sister whenever she needs me to…whether she is speaking to me or not.

it is a birthday!

You know what you should do? Head over to Katie’s and wish her a happy birthday. This girl is superfly. She is a wonderful mother (actually wonderful is an understatement), talented photographer and marvelous friend. Happy birthday lovely! You are one in a million and such a perfect addition to my family (good job ClayClay). I love you boo!