My First Meal

I have been sick the last two weeks. Extremely sick, especially Monday-Thursday. Finally back to work and finishing out my week felt great, but man did it take a lot out of me. I was on my drive home and boom got hit with a "I want to eat tonight and eat healthy"...now Monday thru Thursday I ate literally nothing besides a few Saltines. My body could not keep ANYTHING down. So it was a bit surprising to have such a rush of wanting food that would involve cooking. Now I never eat healthy so when I get these feelings I tend to go with it full throttle because it doesn't come around often. Stopped by Safeway on my way home and took it from there and this is what I ended up making

Balsamic and Parmesan roasted Cali-flower

Grilled Avocados with Parmesan/Hot Sauce/salt&pepper and Lime

Kale Chips with salt&pepper


I got a little overwhelmed mostly because I was just SOOO hungry and once again chose things I would actually have to cook, but it all worked out in the end and boy o boy was it super yummy.

The Kale chips were beyond easy. I did that blind without looking up any recipes and it went just fine...ok ok ok I burned the first batch. I just didn't expect them to burn so quick!
Kale
Evoo
Salt&Pepper
Parmesan
Pepper flacks
Oven at 320 for literally only 7-10 minutes MAX and perfection



Balsamic roasted Cali-flower
cali-flower
Evoo
salt&pepper
Balsamic Vinegar
Parmesan
I got this original recipe from eatingwell.com



Grilled Avocados are so beyond yummy and have been something I have been eating non-stop recently
Avocado (halved)
Salt&Pepper
Hot Sauce
Parmesan
Lime Juice
I got this original recipe from morselsandmusings.blogspot.com

It was a very good first meal if I do say so myself and has got me pumped up for my eat healthy everyday attitude i'm going for.




O and while I was cooking and eating away THIS is what Zach made and ate...it's hopeless. I did make him try everything though

Idiot and Idiot wife

Today is apparently a multiple post kind of day. I am beyond sick still and at this point probably need to go to the Dr myself and take Jocelyn back because the first person didn't do a darn thing and she has been sick for far too long. The only reason this post is being written is probably due to my sickness and therefore lack of "putting up with idiots" ability. After Jocelyn's nap I decided I just couldn't live without DayQuil and NyQuil any longer so I loaded us up and we ran to Safeway. Well just because I feel horrible (nothing to do with the day or time obviously) Safeway was PACKED. I ended up waiting in a huge line just for my dinky two products and got stuck behind the biggest idiot on the planet. Okay sadly he isn't the biggest idiot on the planet which is a shame. This is the conversation I overheard and inevitably ended up sticking my two cents into.

"I am so tired of always hearing about how the schools want more money. Teachers have such an easy job and then they complain we only pay them so much. They don't even work a full year and they want a full years pay! Its outrageous!" -idiot

"It's because they feel they are more than just teachers" "They need to realize all we want them to do is teach our kids numbers and letters"-idiots wife

"Exactly they want the pay of a psychologist; they aren't doctors, they aren't lawyers, they just don't matter as much as they think they do" -idiot

and....this is when I snapped. Again, any other day I could have probably endured another 5 minutes waiting in line listening to these idiots talk, but not today. I set both my DayQuil and NyQuil on the shelf by all the gums and went off on them.

"Sir do you remember any teachers from your childhood? Can you recall any of their names or anything about them?" -me

"Well of course I do I'm not senile I had Mr BLANK (Can not recall his name to save my life)in 5th grade he was awesome he read us The Hobbit I can still remember sitting around in a circle listening to his voice" -idiot

"O O I had Mrs Carner (sp?) in High School she was amazing the most sweet and caring woman I have ever met; she was so sweet that she would stay late every day after school and help who ever needed it...even if it was in a different subject." -idiot wife

I am not even joking this is what came out of their mouth. At this point they not only answered my question, but fed right into exactly where I was going with my comment. I was almost too shocked to even reply I just couldn't believe they fed into my plan THAT perfectly.

"Now do you remember your childhood Dr? Do you remember the first tax accountant you ever went to? What about any lawyers you may have used during your 20's?" -me

*awkward silence* Now the man finally seems to see where I'm going with this and he motioned for his wife to keep quiet

"No? hmm that's strange because if they were so important to your childhood development you think you would have remembered more about them? It is even more strange that these "number and letter teachers" are so prominent in your memory. BUT those are memories for you...it is super common to completely forget about the important people in your life but remember those damn number and letter people!! Damn minds!" -me

And at that point I turned around and walked away, but I did get the gratitude of witnessing all the bystanders in line and they all had grins from ear to ear.

I never did get my DayQuil though :-(

Phantom Hair

Yesterday I had my hair appointment with the amazing Ashley Sampson. On a side bar her very own Salon opens in April off of Ironwood and will be amazing so everyone keep an eye out for Embellish Salon. All in all we ended chopping off about 15-16 inches and watched my neck snap up after the first cut of 12 inches. I have had my hair super long since middle school. I cut my hair to my shoulders in 6th grade and it look horrible! It scared me for the next 10 years and I have finally gotten up the nerve to cut it short again. We started with a pony tail around 12 inches that I would be able to donate to Locks of Love. When she cut the pony tail my neck literally snapped forward and my neck had a ridiculous spasm. That's about the time I went into a minor shock haha that I don't think has quite worn off hours later. Its been well over 12 hours and I still find myself trying to grab my long hair...I have a feeling that will take some time getting used to. What I am beyond excited for though is to finally be able to style my hair more. Not that I have any idea what I am doing, I don't even own most of the products needed to do any styling. Nor do I own a curling iron. I do own a straightener, but I think I spent about $20 on it and have only ever used it for doing my bangs. It is going to be quite the journey for me to learn how to do my own hair because I can truly admit I know NOTHING It's like I am a 10 yr old girl attempting to learn how to do hair for the first time hahaha.

Man my hair just didn't seem that long!!!

Ashley did an amazing job and even curled my hair slowly so I could try and pay attention to how she was doing it.


The weirdest thing about this entire experience is I swear my neck still thinks I have long hair. It is pulling Phantom hair hahaha

Kaizen Event

So last week I was invited to a 4-day Kaizen event. It involved 17 of us from all different departments and areas. I was beyond excited to be involved in it and was even more amazed that my community manager had requested that I be a part of it when I have only been at this company for a few months. It was an exhausting 4-days and I now completely understand why people say Kaizen events are intense. I got off each day EXHAUSTED mentally. On Friday 30+ leaders of the company, including the COO came down to the conference room and we presented our findings. It was awesome, especially when the most senior person in the Kaizen event nominated me to do most of the talking. I have debated and recited tons of interps in front of all kinds of people and more people, but holy moly I was nervous standing before the COO and telling him all the things we found wrong with how things are run currently. It went great though and this monday my manager received praise for me attending. *air high five to me* I definitely feel like I have a great chance of making my way up the ladder here and that feels awesome. I get to help shape how the entire company will be moving forward in 2013 and 2014...fantastic. It definitely helped that i'm a little outspoken, there were a few people from branches that sat there and agreed with everyone on anything and that sure wasn't the case with me. Guess I've always had a "problem" making my opinion heard.

Work Workie Work

I work a full time job Monday through Friday 8:15-5:15, every week. I wake up at 6:30 and am gone from my home by 7:15...I don't see Jocelyn again until I am off work at 5:30 picking her up and we don't get to the house until almost 6:00. Then after working and going non-stop for almost 12 hours I go home and take care of Jocelyn until she goes to bed. On weekends we spent every second together and never am I telling her to "go play in her room while mommy does this or that". I rarely if ever reach that point where I want to scream and run far away in the opposite direction. Yet when I tell random people that, they look at me with pity. As though I am not as good of a mother because I don't choose to stay home and watch her. It drives me absolutely bonkers. "O i'm sorry I bet you hate missing so much" "Don't ya just wish you could stay home and watch your little one grow??" "O how unfortunate that you have to work" Welp assholes who are just convinced I sit pitying myself feeling like an under achieved mother...I prefer to put food in my daughters mouth, give her medical insurance that comes out my paycheck not tax payers checks, and have a career that my daughter will be proud of. I'm sorry I didn't marry rich or decide to live off of the state's dime, but no I don't sit around wishing I was a stay at home mother on welfare. I am beyond proud that I make more than the average 22 year old. I am beyond proud that I have come farther in the work force than most of my fellow graduates. I am even proud that my income is high enough as a single mother that I don't receive a huge tax return back from the gov't. The only thing you do by making your rude comments is allow me to make a smart ass comment back to you that you don't expect. I work in Idaho and at the age of 22 make more than the median average assholes, so you can kindly suck it.

Sick Baby errr Toddler

Poor Joc is sick...again. It drives me crazy how often she gets sick, but that happens when she is around tons of kids everyday. Her Daycare is notorious for sick kiddos because Rae the owner doesn't have the heart to tell the parents their kids can't stay. So another round we go, she really is a trooper about it. Even when she is sick she still manages to sing her ABC's to me and use the big girl potty, so things could be worse. Thankfully she can stay home with Zach tomorrow so fingers crossed that she will be feeling better after that. I have an amazing job with very understanding people, but Joc has been getting sick A LOT since I started there. She will be starting preschool soon so hopefully the sick days go down, luckily they have a STRICT "no sick at school policy" so she won't be around super sick little ones. I am so excited for her to start preschool, but it makes me so sad to think about sometimes. I just can't believe she is old enough to go to preschool, it boggles my mind. I don't know where my little baby went, but she is a full blown toddler now.

On a side note...and still completely relevant to this post

Putting Vicks Vapor Rub on the little one's feet before putting their socks on before bed...majorly amazing! Joc wasn't very happy about it at first, but once I explained it was medicine and was going to help her feel better she was all for it! Her nose was cleared up in no time

Our Story

Our relationship started and took off like a wild fire. We become inseparable, which really was inseparable because at the time we worked together. I thought for sure it was doomed to end because we just spent too much time together. We worked together every day and then spent the night with each other, but within the first week I knew it didn't matter.

Don't get me wrong we fought and butt heads at every turn. It didn't help that I picked a guy who was used to answering to no one and did what he wanted...when he wanted. Through every fight and every argument we didn't end things and neither one of us ever mentioned it...which was new for me. I am unfortunately the kind of person who when in a fight says everything I know that will hurt them and throws around "the break up" phrase a little too often. Before we knew it the year was flying by and hear we stand at 1 year. Again don't get me wrong...it was a testing year. We are too alike in too many ways.

My Story Part II

At this point my divorce was final and I was getting ready to plan my baby girl's first bday. I was and had been living with my parents and relying on their help, a lot, when it came to Jocelyn. Work was going great and I was quickly on my way to being promoted. I was dominating the sales goals and rocking it to the top of the lists. In the fall I finally started to consider dating. I had been completely avoiding it up until then. It may be the only time since I was 16 that I was single and actually happy about it. There were a few guys that seemed to be interested, but even then I wasn't able to fully commit to the idea of a relationship and would usually find some sort of a fault on their end. The very end of October I was promoted to personal banker and started my fun 6-week training in Spokane. Met some awesome people all of which are now no longer with Wells Fargo (the first two didn't even make it 3 months). When I came back in November I met the most ridiculous, full of himself man they had hired to replace me on the teller line. We clashed and irritated the hell out of each other. He thought I was a man hating bitch and I thought he was the biggest slime ball player I had ever met. Our working relationship kept its distance in the beginning and then slowly worked into a sort of friendship...and by friendship I mean when we made fun of each other we didn't take it to heart anymore. I turned 21 and invited everyone down for my birthday celebration and he was the only one who came down...granted he showed up with two girls and only stayed for 15 minutes, but hey I was wasted. That next week we had our work Christmas party and it took off from there. That entire week a couple of our work friends James and Krista and repeatedly told us that we would end up hooking up, but I was convinced it wouldn't happen. -apparently Zach thought it was going to be a nice little one night stand- Gee thanks honey! The Christmas party was a lot of drinking, that branch can sure put their wine back and before you know it my "man hating" attitude turned into flirtation. Everyone went out after that, but I had a baby to go home to and wasn't able to make it out. I honestly think had I went out that night it very well may have only ended up being a one night stand. We ended up hanging out a couple times after that and finally made it official on new years eve...which by the way was our WORST date ever. Scratch that, it was the worst date I had ever been on Period. Chalk that up to me being a very forgiving person, ha!

My Story

I had Jocelyn when I was 19 yrs old. I was somewhat fresh out of high school, blowing off college like it was non important and learning all about partying. I was in an abusive relationship, but couldn't see it from my view.

When I found out I was pregnant I hit a rough patch...a very very rough patch. I found out and instead of telling one guy had to explain to two guys that I was pregnant. I spent days calculating when I would have ovulated to try and figure out if there was even the chance of it being 2 different peoples. After days and days and even consulting with my dr. we had determined it was roughly a 70/30 chance and her advice was to keep my mouth shut. Unfortunately, it ate away at me and I quickly fumbled that "little" lie. I had a hard time seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and it took 8 months to finally starting seeing it. Jocelyn gave me that light, from the moment she was born it was as if the blind fold had been taken off my eyes. I quickly realized I had made a horrible life choice; I had gotten married. I had walked down to the court house and said I do in front of a judge because...well honestly I don't know. I remember his grandmother telling us that having a child together meant we needed to get married...and that next week boom marriage certificate in hand. I spent the majority of that time lying in bed. Sleeping 20 hrs a day and not eating enough calories for myself let alone a baby inside me. Again...it was a rough dark time. Having Jocelyn gave me something to fight for when I didn't even realize I needed anything. Within days of being released from the hospital I started to remove myself from the situation from "our life". We started to fight for the first time since I had gotten pregnant, I started to finally fight back. My entire pregnancy I was a "yes dear, ok dear, i'm sorry dear" wife...I didn't fight, I didn't give my opinion, I didn't say no. I finally started to see my friends again, friends that I had mostly lost during my pregnancy because "he" didn't like them. Within months of Jocelyn being born we were separated and living apart. My time spent living with him in "our family" was less than our separation and divorce. Finally after a year of complete and utter depression I was out and back on path.