1st Rams football game of the season!

We had a pretty fun weekend!  Our nothing weekend turned into random fun.

Thursday I was offered the company tickets to the first Rams home game of the season on Saturday.  Sure its still preseason but with the fate of the Rams leaving STL, we had been wanting to get to a game just in case its our last one, so we jumped at the chance:

We were excited when Colin and his son Aidan said they were interested in going with us.  We met up for dinner at Joanie's Pizzeria in Soulard before heading downtown (yay for a parking pass helping us get a great spot).

The game was pretty crowded for a preseason and the Rams did okay.  There's no big names on the team that I recognize anymore so it was interesting from that point.

Unfortunately they lost to the Colts but it was still a fun time and I hope that we get more tickets to other games this season.  This is now labeled "football week" because this coming Saturday is our yearly Mizzou game.

Yay for football season!

Trainwreck movie

On Tuesday, my seester and I had a date to see the movie Trainwreck:

I loved this movie and you will to!

I enjoyed how they used a regular everyday looking female in the role and allowed her to be who she really is.  It shows how you can fall in love when you least expect it!

There are a lot of sports figures in there that are funny in roles you'd never think you'd see them in - LeBron James and John Cena to name just a few.

See it, you'll like it!

Just another crazy Thursday!

I can't believe its Thursday already!

• I jumped head first into teaching on Friday and all this week.  People were shocked to see me because they thought I'd have my own room this year but then excited that they could still request me.  All told me to hold on and keep trying.  I do have my fingers crossed but after this year, I have to seriously have a talk with myself to see if I can continue on with my dream after the 10 year struggle of both positive and  negative outcomes.  I've been putting the talk off, but it needs to happen at some point.
• This is the first weekend that we haven't had any "have to do" plans and I'm super excited!  We have a ton of options so we'll see what pans out.
• I'm bummed that our pool is only open two more weekends which means summer is coming to an end.  I do like that we've been able to sleep with our windows open for the cooler air.
• Girls Night was past Friday night where the now ex of Jeff was invited (before they broke up).  It wasn't bad but I get the feeling that Kim thinks she'll be invited to each one now.  Unless Kim hosts (which she hasn't offered ever yet) or I host again, I doubt that happens.  It wasn't an awkward night but when you really don't have any ties to us anymore, it makes it weird.
• Jeff has made it clear he's not comfortable hanging out with her yet and as his friend first, I have to accept that.  Kim, however, seems to talk with her on a daily basis and they are hanging out left and right.  I'm not jealous I just think she should respect her friends wishes.  Meagan doesn't have any friends and didn't go out until she met Jeff.  I get that she enjoyed it and doesn't want to lose that but it will take time with everyone to be on the same page.
• Anyone keeping up with Bachelor in Paradise?  I'm not a fan of the after show but I'm going to admit, I'm curious what happens with the Sam & Joe situation and I'm not a fan of hers.
• I finally finished my Puerto Vallarta scrapbook, so now time to concentrate on the yearly one I'm hoping to do.  We'll see, I need to print pictures however I'm thinking of joining Groovebook - where they print 100 pictures a month for a low price for you.  I'm just not sure yet...anyone do it?
• I'm super excited for fall tv - anyone else?

Have a great Thursday!

Weekend wrap up!

Well I had a pretty good weekend - and realized I never took a single picture!

Oh snap!

Friday night was Girls Night at my house.  I threw a BBQ and surprisingly all but one of our lovely ladies was able to make it.  Meagan joined us too, since the invite was sent out before the breakup and she was ok, it wasn't as awkward as I thought it would be.  Will she be invited to others, don't know, I'm going to play it by ear but for now I doubt it.  We did celebrate one's birthday and I didn't have candles in the house so Becky came up with the idea of lighting one of my regular candles, stuck it in the pan of brownies and let her blow it out that way.  Pretty clever idea!

Saturday's plans went wishy washy due to the unforcasted rain that entered the area.  Plan A was to go to Hurricane Harbor waterpark then out to St. Charles for the Festival of the Little Hills.  Plan B that happened was we still went to Six Flags for a few rides, ate a late lunch/early dinner at O'Dells Irish Pub in Eureka (oh yum!) then went home and got warm from the rain and watched movies the rest of the night.

Sunday had me up early and working at the hotel then came home and relaxed until we went to Keith's neice's 5th birthday party.  We gave her a set of earrings because she will be getting her ears pierced - well the earrings were small enough that I could put them inside the card.  My mother in law was not a fan that Kaitlyn loved our gift and it was the only time she shreked because she has never own earrings before.  His 3 nieces are so close in age that they never get their own stuff anymore and my MIL buys them all the Disney/doll stuff so they can share so of course she's going to get excited when she gets something that's all her own.

To wrap up the weekend, I went over to my sisters and sat out on the deck while Keith fixed yet another CPU.  It was great weather on Sunday to do so!

This coming weekend is the first weekend that we have ZERO plans!  You seriously don't know how excited I am about that :)

How was your weekend?

How heavy is your glass of water?

Just a perspective to think about:

A young lady confidently walked around the room while leading and explaining stress management with an audience with a raised glass of water.  Everyone knew she was going to ask the ultimate question, "half empty or half full?"...she fooled them all..."how heavy is this glass of water?" she inquired with a smile.  Answers called out ranged from 8 oz to 20 oz.  She replied, "The absolute weight doesn't matter.  It depends on how long I hold it.  If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem.  If I hold it for an hour, I'd have an ache in my right arm.  If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance.  In each case, its the same weight but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes."  She continued, "and that's the way it is with stress.  If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won't be able to carry on."

"As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for awhile and rest before holding it again.  When we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden - holding stress longer and better each time practiced.  So as early in the evening as you can, put all your burdens down.  Don't carry them through the evening and into the night...pick them up tomorrow!"

1. Accept the fact that some days you're the pigeon and some days you're the statue!
2. Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.
3. Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.
4. Drive carefully...its not only cars that can be recalled by their Maker.
5. If you can't be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.
6. If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.
7. It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others.
8. Never buy a car you can't push.
9. Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, because then you won't have a leg to stand on.
10. Nobody cares if you don't dance well.  Just get up and dance!
11. Since its the early worm that gets eaten by the bird, sleep late.
12. The second mouse gets the cheese!
13. When everything is coming your way, you're in the wrong lane!
14. Birthdays are good for you.  The more you have, the longer you live.
15. Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once.
16. We could learn alot from crayons.  Some are sharp, some are pretty and some are dull.  Some have weird names, and all are different colors but they all have to live in the same box.
17. A truly happy person is one you can enjoy the scenery on a detour
18. Have an awesome day and know that someone has thought about you today

AND MOST IMPORTANTLY...

           Save the earth.........its the only planet with chocolate!!

Have a great Monday!

Thursday Randomness

• Today marks the final sweep of schools starting in the STL area.  Keith's district started today and I'm extremely glad because he's been a pain to be around this week with all the technology he has to have set up for spoiled teachers.  Everyone knows teachers in his district get what they want, when they want it.  As of 430 yesterday, they were still enrolling enough students to hire more people.  I applied, let's see what happens!
• My jobs start tomorrow with requests to be in classrooms.  Hopefully I get asked for sure to do the one long term then rumor has it another teacher in the same building will need a long term after the first one ends.  That would be a blessing - fingers crossed!
• Girls night is tomorrow at my house and Jeff's now ex M is invited and supposed to be coming.  I invited her before he broke it off so I figured I should just leave it be for now.  I normally don't invite people like that until they've been in relationships for a long time but since he pretty much told her I was having one, I felt the obligation to, since he was hanging out with Keith when we have it.
• Found out yesterday that STL is getting a Mellow Mushroom - yay!  For years I've seen bloggers write about this (supposedly) good place and the closest I've been to one is Nashville but we always go to other places.  Its going in the location of the old Growlers Pub so I'm happy they finally found a new owner.
• I still need to go visit the Trops location that opened in Soulard and can't wait to visit the one in CoMo on our upcoming football weekend.  Trops is frozen slushie alcohol, just the best!

Have a great Thursday!!

Dating is hard...and I'm not even the one dating!

Okay so those into the Jeff soap opera story, I have an update.

Last Monday (so a week ago from this past Monday) Jeff called it quits with M.  He told her that he felt there wasn't anything romantic between them.  She told him she actually felt the same way and she was going to talk to him about it but because she had just had knee surgery, she wanted to wait until she had a clear head.

Okay, so all is said and done, right?

dun dun dunnn....Wrong!

What Jeff didn't tell M was one of the other reasons he called it off was because he feels M is interested in his friend Steve.  For as long as I've known Steve, not to be mean, but M doesn't fit ths bill of who he would date in any way, shape or form and if M knew half of what we did about him, she wouldn't touch him with a 10 ft pole!  I've witnessed flirting between M & Steve but it was never nothing more than that.  People can be flirts naturally or its hard as a rock for them to be one.  Jeff is the rock and M seems to be able to flirt if its coming back at her.  There's also a fine line between friendly flirting and "oh I'm interested in you" flirting.  If you're human, you're always flirting.

M has requested that we all remain friends, which I'm on the fence about.  Jeff was my friend first persay but then M didn't do anything to me and I'm honestly in the middle about this whole situation anyway.  Our mutual friend Kim went out to lunch with her after the breakup and Jeff had a heyday about that because he was mad but that's Kim's way of being a friend.

Jeff is obsessed with this situation now.  So bad to the point where I finally had enough of him going on and on about it that I messaged M myself and flat out asked her if there was anything going on with her and Steve.  She told me there was not, she does realize she flirted with him a lot but nothing ever came of it.  I told Jeff what she said and he flat out said he doesn't believe her.  Then he is continuously bashing her, blaming her, etc and not putting any of this blame on Steve.

I've told him he needs to leave M alone and start asking Steve what's going on if he doesn't believe M.  For some reason Jeff cannot stand up to Steve.  Steve's one of those males who walks around with the "I'm better than you" persona and Jeff is one who doesn't ever question anything on him.  So until Jeff does that, he's in his own boat.  For my sanity, I'm tired of hearing about it.  Yes people need to vent but what good is this going to do him?  He did break it off with her, he should be done with it and just move along...but he can't.

I think he fell more for her than he's willing to admit.  So even though he got mad that she wouldn't pay for a lot of the dates, or drive her, even though he was willing to talk about her like that behind her back, I think he really did like her.

As I keep telling him, some people just aren't meant to be.

There are other fish in the sea.

And man, I feel like I'm dating...yet I'm not!

(stay tuned, I'm sure there will be more to this story)

Happy 1st birthday, Mickey style!

Sunday was the perfect day to celebrate my nephew Jaxson's 1st birthday...Mickey Mouse style!

My stepsister rented a pavilion at a park for the day and gathered all the family and friends to celebrate this special little man.  Jaxson loves loves loves Mickey so it was only fit that she themed his 1st bday around it.  Amy loves etsy so she got a lot from there and created many things herself:

 

Amy is famous for always having Pretzel Boy pretzel bites at all her parties so she had that with dips, pizza delivered, drinks for the adults, juice for the kiddos, cupcakes, cookies and lots of kid friendly stuff.  I surely got some ideas for the future.  We gifted him some Mickey things to take to the beach when they go next.

Happy birthday Jaxson, we love you!

Oklahoma!

Friday night was the final show of the season at the Muny and it was Oklahoma:

I believe I had seen it back in 2007 when it made its last appearance here but I couldn't remember.  It was a great show however the weirdest part was the ballet scene that took place in the middle of the corn field.  But beyond that, the weather was great and the show was good.

I had hoped to get there early to walk around and see some other stuff/meet some people but Keith was tired from the work week and was dragging so that didn't happen.  Next year, though, I'd like to go get pictures at each one and he's just going to have to oblige!

Anywho what a great 97th season Muny - can't wait until next summer!

The days go by!

~ School started yesterday for one of my districts then school starts next Thursday for the other.  I've got jobs lined up already for subbing so that's good.
~ Never heard back from the one interview I was nervous about.  I did my part, I tried calling back then never heard anything.  Not my fault, right?
~ For those curious about the Jeff situation - he broke up with her on Monday night.  Its a mutual feeling in the end (saying there is nothing romantic there) but don't let that fool you because he's wondering why she hasn't talked to him since it.  Really?  He's also wondering if she's seeing his friend Steve.  That will be going down tonight at soccer.  We shall see...stay tuned!
~ On that same topic from above, the girl is trying her best to get all of us to continue to hang out with her.  She convinced Kim to eat lunch with her Saturday and she was telling Keith & I that we could still go out Saturday night but its like uhh you and my friend just broke up.  What would you do?
~ We had a funeral visitation for a friend's mom last night.  They are the cousin of Keith's other "friend" Jeff so we knew we'd run into them.  Keep in mind we haven't seen him for quite some time because of all the stuff going, it wasn't best for us.  He's the same old unique person and nothing has changed.  His ex wife, who we have no issues with, was there with our goddaughter and her new boyfriend so it was good to catch up with them.  Cancer sucks (died within a few weeks of finding it) but it does bring people together.
~ There's a balloon glow for a town next to us this weekend.  I've never made it to the big one downtown has every year so I'm going to try to go to this one.  We will see just how game Keith is for it.
~ My PT job at the hotel isn't at the best situation at the moment.  One of the ladies quit so that means there's more hours that need to be filled.  With school starting, I told them I cannot and will not do an extra day.  Its too much with teaching and I need to think of my health, well being and mindset.  So what does the dum dum do??  He scheduled me an extra day this week.  So that means I'm going to have to talk to him about it and I'm sure he won't listen because he walks around like he's the best thing ever.  I've had this schedule for 3 years, its worked for 3 years, not going to change it.  Keith told me to quit if he doesn't get his act together.  I'm not sure if Keith really means that or not but we'll see what happens.
~ I've loved having the summer to get back to the gym full time, eat better, etc.  It dawned on me the other day that when I started the hotel is when I started gaining a bit of weight since I was back to back all the time and I couldn't eat at home.  So maybe quitting the hotel would be a good thing?

Hope you all have a great Thursday!

Weekend wrap-up (a few days late)

We had a pretty fun weekend!

On Friday I drove down with Dad and Frisco-man (aka our golden retriever) to Onondaga State Park and Ozark Outdoors to spend the day on the river and camp that night.  It was perfect weather, not too hot, and the river was empty except for a few stragglers:

After the float, my sister and her boyfriend showed up to camp with us that night.  We got the camper set up, food cooked and enjoyed s'mores around the campfire:

To top the night off, my sister's boyfriend decided to make us pina coladas...by a generator on the back of his truck.  It was priceless:

On Saturday, I dropped everyone off at Huzzah to go floating that day.  I had planned on touring the Onondaga Cave before heading back home but the timing didn't work out right.  I got back in town just in time to shower and get ready for our yearly El Monstero (Pink Floyd tribute band) concert at Riverport:

We had gotten great covered seats for cheap and the view was awesome.  They put on a great show like always and we can't wait until the next one.

Sunday we decided to get brunch at Mimi's Cafe before hitting up the tax free weekend sales at the outlet mall.  I was able to get our nephew & niece's bday presents done as well as a few goodies for us from some places.  I then topped the weekend off by working at the hotel that night.

Life is crazy - so we'll see if it slows down!

Tailgate Tuesday

Are you ready for some football?

Not going to lie, I am!!

Football means fall.  Football means cooler weather.  Football means bonfires.  Football means friends and good times.

I live in St. Louis so my default teams are the St. Louis Rams and the Missouri Tigers.  I like college ball more than pro ball.  A part of that could be be cause our college teams do a lot better than our pro team but who knows.  My alma mater, Southeast Missouri State, has a good football team for their division I-A in the Ohio Valley Conference.  So I'm all over the board where football is concerned.

In college I would go to SEMO games all the time then for a year-ish I was dating a guy who was at Arkansas so I learned to love the bigger college teams by calling the hawgs at games with him.  There was just something about that crowd that was die hard and on a much bigger scale.  That was the first year I went to a college bowl game and it was the Nashville Music City Bowl with the Razorbacks playing the Minnesota Golden Gophers in 2002.  I still have a spot in my heart for the Razorbacks and do my best to catch their games if I can and cheer them on (and yes I still know all the songs and cheers).

The past few years we've made it a tradition to go to Mizzou games once a year:

Mizzou 2012

We skipped a year in 2013 for whatever reason and hit it again in 2014 with a bigger group:

Mizzou vs SDSU 2014

Then I got to go to the Nashville Music City Bowl again this past December to cheer on Notre Dame & LSU for New Years.  It was fun being in the stadium 12 years later that shows tradition continues throughout the years:

Music City Bowl 2014 - Notre Dame & LSU

We have our tickets bought to go to our Mizzou game this year on September 5th then we'll follow it up with a SEMO game on October 17th.  I'm hoping for a Rams game too but its too early to tell which one that will be.

I'm going to ask again, are you ready for some football? :)

Happy birthday Snoopy!

Happy birthday to Snoopy!

Its been a busy weekend and I'll post about it soon.  Until then, watch some Peanuts :)

33 while 33 update

So every year I make this bucket list of the amount of things to do while I'm that same age.  Yeah, I haven't touched an update on it until now.  Let's see how much damage I haven't done yet:

1. Get my own classroom again
2. Visit Hermann, MO aka one of Missouri's wine countries - completed July 2015
3. Get a massage
4. Take a cooking class
5. Go camping
6. Finish our Puerto Vallarta scrapbook
7. Make the beignets from New Orleans that we still need to make
8. Travel to Chicago or Nashville for a Blues game - completed Dec/Jan 2015
9. Plan a vacation for summer 2015 - completed summer 2015
10. Ring in the New Year doing something different - completed in Nashville Dec 2014
11. Log everything into MyFitnessPal
12. Go to the Forest Park Balloon Glow in September
13. Print pictures of our Puerta Vallarta trip to add to our picture wall - completed March 2015
14. Throw a dinner party - completed May 2015
15. Take a bubble bath (don't laugh!)
16. Go to Fright Fest to see my sister ride the zombie train - completed Oct 2014
17. Cheer on SEMO in a football game
18. Visit Kimmswick
19. Go to a new class at the gym - completed summer 2015
20. Eat at 5 new-to-us restaurants - easily completed summer 2015
21. Make a craft for some holiday - completed Nov 2014
22. Go with a group of friends to the Lake - completed July 2015
23. Visit the Art or History Museum in Forest Park
24. Explore the Zoo (we haven't been in 2014, eek!)
25. Splash around at Hurricane Harbor
26. Do something spontaneous! - completed June 2015
27. Make a trip back to the Botanical Gardens
28. Help Dad finish his windmill at our property
29. Get pictures done with Keith
30. Buy a pair of heels...and wear said heels
31. Take a hike outside
32. Continue our Mizzou game tradition
33. Have a bonfire

I've completed 12/33 for a score of 36%.  Not so good but a lot of these are going to be marked off as the fall season progresses.  Hopefully I can get a score of at least 50% by October 7th!

Randomness

~ what a dreary day in Missouri.  Its okay, I'm hoping it cools the weather off a bit (but who am I kidding, ha)

~ I've actually been working on my Puerto Vallarta scrapbook the past few days and who knows, maybe the rainy weather will help me get it done.

~ Keith wanted to go to the gym before work today and asked me to get up early with him.  Well I woke up with a terrible headache and told him that I probably shouldn't go.  So I guess he decided that was his excuse on not going either then left all mad for work.  He's becoming too dependent on me.

~ case in point from above, so he has a hard time getting up for work.  I get it, we all do.  So I get up and help get him going by making him breakfast and his lunch.  If I don't, he won't eat and he won't make his lunch.  Dinner of course is made by me anyway and we use to have an agreement that he did the dishes when I cook but he's not doing that now either.

~ I had two interviews last week for para positions.  Yes boo that they weren't teaching ones.  The 1st one they pretty much told me that they expect them to be certified so they can do 3 hours of duties a day including recess and lunch.  Ooookay then!  I didn't get that one.  The other was for a high school in the district that I long term sub for.  I have zero experience in high school and very little background in SPED and that's what they were hiring for.  If I get offered the position where I'd be in a resource room, that's fine because I have the general studies background - if I get offered the others, I will not take them.  But I haven't been told either way right now so we'll see I guess.

~ I'm going on a float trip with Dad tomorrow then he's camping with my sister and her boyfriend so I'm probably going to stay just tomorrow night.  Hopefully its not too hot or too rainy.

Have a great Thursday!

"Vacation" movie

Who wants to go on vacation?!?

I do - still do, always do - so I thought I'd get my fix from the new Vacation movie with Ed Helms (as a grown up Rusty Griswold) and Christina Applegate.

It was hilarious!  If you are needing a laugh, you must see this movie or at least add it to your Netflix list.  I love National Lampoon and it was a great spin-off.  What makes it even more memorable to me is I have been to a lot of the places they stop at so it was memory city for me.

Have you see it yet - what did you think?

Any movies on your list to see?

Beauty & the Beast at the Muny

This past Friday was the yearly Disney production at the Muny.  My all time favorite, Beauty and the Beast was performed:

My sister usually goes to the Disney ones with me (since she did her internship there and loves Disney just as much) but due to circumstances our of her control, she couldn't go so Keith ended up going.  He likes Disney too so he didn't complain - the weather was perfect, the show didn't drag on, it was all in all a good night!

We get a week off this week as the Disney ones go for 2 weeks then next Friday is the the last show of the season, Oklahoma.  I seriously cannot believe summer is almost over :(

Budweiser Burger Battle

Yelp helped Alive Magazine host a fun event on Sunday in downtown STL called the Budweiser Burger Battle.  10 chefs from restaurants around town came and prepared their signature burgers as sliders (sides optional) and people could purchase tickets to taste them.  The chefs competing were from the following restaurants:

Joe Buck's Downtown

The Dam

Three Monkeys

Sugarfire Smokehouse

Stacked

The Kitchen Sink

Scottish Arms

Matthew's Kitchen

Cafe Osage

Bishop's Post

This event was geared more towards the Yelp Elite as they set up a special area where we could get water and soda for free throughout the event on top of the 5 free tickets you got for being an Elite - score!  While I'm not a big burger fan when eating out (winner winner chicken dinner here) I took it as an opportunity to expand my palate and try some of them.  We were full by burger #4 and decided to stop there.  Our favorite was from Joe Bucks - a brisket & chorizo burger topped with a sauce and fried onions paired with their house made chips:

While it was your typical hot hot hot day in St. Louis, the Yelp Elite Lounge area was a great welcome relief from the heat.  We got to mingle with some friends, and of course can't pass up the Yelp swag.

Cafe Osage won the battle and took home burger honors.  I can't wait to go back to some of the restaurants and try other items on their menus.  What a great summer event in our city!  Thanks Yelp and Alive Magazine!