Lickity Split

I have a little tiny bucket list filled with small goals (like get my ears pierced) and one of them is do the splits.  What?!  I know I am 34 years old, which is why meeting this goal will be so amazing.

Here's my starting point - as far as I can go without being in a lot of pain.

I have a ways to go.....

Wicked pissed

 Just disgusted at what happened in Boston, a city I fell in love with, got a law degree in, walked around, worked in, and passionately miss every day.  As I posted on Facebook, I think the thing that upsets me the most is the news of the death of a 8-year old boy.  I spend a significant portion of every day worried that Avery's going to run away in the parking lot and get hit by a car or grab a knife I've left unattended in the kitchen or fall off the back of the couch.  The idea that all of that worrying can't protect him against what is a truly senseless horrific event, that no amount of worrying or protecting by his mom could have prevented his death, is, to put it simply, sad.  Here's hoping that the family, and the city of Boston, finds peace soon.  And that the people that did this find their way into the hands of law enforcement.

Legit Motivation

We all have goals that we probably won't ever achieve.  I want to lose 10 pounds, learn Spanish, and take more voice lessons.  I read something recently that talked about the motivating factor and how you need to create a REAL motivator to get something done.  A false motivator is bland.  What REALLY motivates you to achieve your goal?

Here are mine:

False Motivator:  I want to lose weight so I look good in a bathing suit.
Real Motivator: I want to lose weight because when I went to Belize the lady at the salon made sure to point out to me that they offered pre-natal massages and I don't want anyone else to ever mistake me for being pregnant.

So this sign now sits in my car near the window...the window I order McDonald's out of:

False Motivator: I want to take voice lessons so I can get back into musical theater.
Real Motivator: I want to take voice lessons because I want a fucking actual role in a musical because I hate being in love with something that I'm not awesome at.

So this sign now sits in my car near the radio...so instead of listening to the latest music, I can work on scales:

Make sense?  So what are you goals and what is the real motivation behind them?  And how do you REALLY motivate yourself?  Share :-)

So long, dear friends

My wardrobe is pretty sad.  Jeans that currently don't fit, thanks to this little lady, a few random shirts, and lots of dresses that look cute, but I rarely wear.  I do love certain pieces of my wardrobe though.  I love this grey dress I got from Banana Republic, a brown and gold sequined T-shrit, and these shoes.

I can't tell you where these shoes came from or when I got them, but they've been worn to everything from a general's cocktail party to a German swing dance.  I love the deep color, the 1940s vintage feel, and the little fringed flower on the toe.  But, you can see from the picture, it's time to say goodbye.  I recently wore them at a party and they were uncomfortable, the flower on one shoe kept falling off, and let's not even discuss the multiple layers of shoes that are visible under the heel.  Sadly, it's time to let them go - even if I fixed the problems, they still wouldn't be comfortable anymore.

What piece of clothing have you recently parted with or are dreading the day when it's time to say adios?

Sunday Linky Dinkie!

This is hilarious.  I wonder how long it goes on....

TURN A GIRL FRIEND INTO A GIRLFRIEND!

Tay-Too

 That's Avery's adorable way of saying thank you.  And on this week-o-thanks, here's what I'm most thankful for:

1. Jon, Avery, and Cassidy.  Obviously, have you seen these cuties?
2. My job.  Yeah, I bitch about it a lot, but it's challenging, I bring in some sweet money, and a lot of people don't have jobs so I shouldn't complain so much.  I also never have to choose what to wear or how to do my hair in the morning.  Time saver.
3. Skinny Cow desserts.  So delicious AND low cal.
4. Dreams.  As much as I am thankful for my job, I'm glad I have dreams past that.  One day, I'll have my thrift store, and it'll be so long until I do that I'll have the whole thing drawn out and planned by the time I'm ready.
5. Friends.  I have great ones.  Some willing to go to Belize with me, some I can talk to on G-chat forever, some I can Skype with, some who do what they can to help me and Jon stay together next year, some who will haul furniture for us, some who will babysit, you name the situation, I've got a friend who's there.  That's awesome.
6. Diapers with a green line that appears when your baby is wet.  I mean, genius to be able to just take a peek and see that a change is in order.
7. Family.  My family will fly here if I need them to help us out.  That says a lot for a family who never traveled much when we were younger.  Of course, the magnetic attraction of my adorable kids doesn't hurt!
8. Pinterest.  It's inspired me and filled me with ideas that might turn into something awesome someday.  I'm so glad it's blocked at work because I'd never get anything done.

Have a great holiday weekend!!

I thought Mommy would be a great word to hear...

But now Avery is doing something very very very similar to this, except he SCREAMS "MOMMY!" when I'm sitting 3 inches away, and then says "YAY!" when I look at him.  Or points to the thing he just showed me a half a second ago....

Current Loves

Here's a list of things I'm currently completely obsessed with:

Sherlock, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman.  It's on BBC and has been aired on PBS and you can see the first season on Netflix.  A. Maze. Ing.  Seriously, watch the first episode immediately.

The Joint Base Andrews thrift store.  Well, any thrift store.  My job, when I'm not on maternity leave, is very very stressful, so it's nice to take a Starbucks break and head over to glance through the discarded treasures, like these cute little birds I picked up.  Hmm...keep them white or paint them something bright?

Finding fun things to do with my toddler, like paint the cardboard "castle" his dad made him.  It's messy, and since I can't pick him up for another few weeks, I need help getting him in the tub, but he had a great time doing this!

Once Upon a Time.  First season also on Netflix.  Yeah, yeah, it's another TV show, but what else do I have to do while pumping breastmilk?  I need a distraction from the cow-like feeling I get.  This is a really cute show, involving fairy tale characters.  Good times.  And I have a huge crush on Prince Charming and Pinocchio.

Sweet notebooks from Target

 Finally, I bought three of these awesome customizable notebooks from Target.  One for each kid, so I put an "A" in one, a "C" in one, and the other will be a mystery for baby #3 whenever he/she comes around.  I bought these to put hilarious things that my kids say, so I've just started putting in Avery's recent words and sayings. 

Anything you're digging at the moment to share?

Sunday Linky Dinkie

 Who doesn't love a good laugh?  This guy over at Emails from an Asshole has a great time with people on Craigslist.  This link will take you to my favorite entry: Disguised Weapons, but be sure to check out all of the fun pranks he pulls on people from the list on the right hand side of his page!

Sunday Linky Dinkie

Not a design post this time around, but a read-every-entry site that made me laugh my ass off.  Do you ever get emails from people claiming to need your bank account to give you lots of money they can't get out of their own country?  Yeah, those people are called scammers, and they usually are based out of Nigeria and they prey on people that think they can make an easy few million dollars at no risk to them.  What this guy does is start an extensive email conversation with them, leading them on and on, and it turns out to be pretty funny.  If you're sitting bored at work and would like to check this out, I highly recommend it.

Click here to read Ebola Monkey Man scams the scammers!

Our Forgotten Children

I spend so much time working on the house, working at my job, or working chasing Avery running around, that sometimes I forget that we have three furry kids, too!  Joey, Harley, and Dash have been long-time members of our family, so I thought I'd give them their own day on the blog.

Harley!

Harley is Jon's cat, or at least, that's how she started.  Jon picked her up as a little teeny kitten in Texas (mom was a feral cat on base at Goodfellow Air Force Base) and his girlfriend at the time and Jon stole all the cat's kittens.  Cat burglars, indeed.  The cat family was living in a transformer on base, and Jon, worried that the animal control guys in Texas would capture and kill them, snuck out one night while the kittens were playing, stuffed a towel in the of the transformer that they were staying in so they couldn't escape, and grabbed all the kittens.  Jon and the girlfriend gave them all away except for Harley, who has been with him ever since.  She's moved with him from Texas to South Korea to Germany to Boston and now to DC, so she's quite the world traveler.  When I met Jon in Germany, she wasn't a lap cat, but she at least wanted to be in the same room with you.  Jon used to put a harness on her and tie her to a stake in the yard to let her roam around in the grass (he even tried to walk her once.  Once.)  Now, she is 10 years old, but still plays around like a kitten sometimes.  She likes to sleep with me on my side of the bed and likes to swat at Dash a lot.  As you can see, she's adorable and speckly and has a great two-face.

Joey!

 Joey is my cat, and started off as my friend Lisa's cat.  I had a cat in college that I left behind when I moved to Germany and Lisa was always trying to get me to take Joey off of her hands because he didn't get a long with her other cat, Chili.  I kept saying no again and again until I had recently ended a short relationship.  I wasn't destroyed by the breakup, but I felt a little lonely, and in swooped Lisa with that adorable little snuggly cat, Joey.  So I took him.  He hid under the bed for three days, but when he came out, he was super super snuggly (and still is, but just to me).  His favorite thing to do has always been to bury his nose in my hair and drool (gross, I know) and purr really really loud.  Sadly, he feels displaced by the other animals and by Avery, so he sticks to himself a lot, but every once in a while, he'll beat Harley to the bedroom and snuggle up with me.  He only likes me and no one else.  His favorite thing is to be brushed, and on the rare chance that he's snuck out of the backyard in Germany, walking around the neighborhood running my fingers along the brush bring him out of hiding.  I can't say how old he is because the Army veterinarian in Germany lost his records as I was leaving, and I can't remember when he was born.  He's at least 11, because I know he was at least a year older than Harley.  He used to be a nice lean cat, but when Jon and I both deployed, the girl who was watching the cat overfed him to the extreme, so he's a big fatty now (hard to tell from the photo, but he is).

Dash!

 Dash  is our dog that we love and hate all at the same time.  In Boston, Jon started talking about how much he wanted a dog, and I finally relented for his birthday and told him that he could start looking.  We went to the animal shelter in Salem, Massachusetts and looked all around their puppy and dog rooms.  We had it narrowed down to two: Dash (who was then named Knockwurst) and Tavin, a puppy.  Tavin, it turns out, had mange, so we decided Dash would be easier to take care of in case the mange popped up again and again.  Dash originally came from South Carolina and was trucked up to Boston, so he was pretty afraid of trucks.  In fact, another family picked him before we did, but when they tried to get him in the car, he "dashed" and ran around Salem for a few days before showing back up at the shelter.  The other family passed on him which was our gain.  He's all about riding in the car now, and over the last few years has really stopped being so skittish.  He loves loves loves me, but can be a bit nervous around Jon.  He does love walking and hiking with Jon, but Jon can't roll around and wrestle with him like I can.  He goes crazy whenever anyone says "walk" or "outside" and loves chasing the cats around.  He's gotten pretty used to Avery being around all the time, so that's good.  We try to spend extra time with him so he doesn't feel left out, which is hard to do with a toddler, but we get lots of indoor snuggle time while we watch TV, so I think he's ok.

And that's our furry family!

Loving blogs

I love blogs.  I probably read yours.  At least one person reads mine, and Kristy at The Life and Times awarded me the Liebster Award!  Thank you, Kristy!!

 Was ist das, you ask?  It's German for "dearest" and it's to show love for blogs with under 200 followers (those of us just trying to put thoughts out there to share with others!

As for my blogging history, back in the beginning of college in the late 90s, I taught myself HTML code so I could buy my own personal website, which was alitary.com (name suggested by my friend Adam who suggested a mix of Alison and Military - yes, that's where it came from!)  Before there were blogs, I had a person website with pictures, news, funny quotes, etc.  Now that there's Facebook and blogs, no one really needs a personal site anymore, so I just stick to those, but it's fun to reminisce about the old days.  I had a design-centric blog for a while before I realized I didn't have the time/talent/audience to mess with two blogs, so now stuff about my life, my family, and my projects appear on the Alitary Blog.  I think blogs are awesome, and as little bloggers, I think we should support each other by reposting entries we like on FB to encourage more readers and even more great entries!  Let's take the time to actually comment on each other's blog to start off great conversations! 

As for the Liebster, if you got it from me, like a bad STD, pass that baby on!  Here are the blogs I passed it on to:

• Sunbeam Yellow
• La La Land
• Sandy's Motherhood Blog
• A Military Mommy
• Knit Teach Ride 

And here's what the blog owners of THOSE blogs should do:

1. Thank the person who presented you with the award on your blog.

2. Link back to the blogger who gave you the award on your blog.

3. Copy and paste the award on your blog.

4. Present the Liebster Blog Award to 5 other bloggers with less than 200 followers.

5. Let them know you've chosen them by leaving a comment on their blog

So let's hear it for us little bloggers!!