1.5.14

On this, the third  fifth day, in the first month, in the year two thousand, and fourteen ... I Erin _LastName, come crawling back to my sorely neglected blog, after a six month hiatus. As usual.

Six months on, six months off. That's me yo!

I welcomed in 2014 with the flu! Spent all day Wednesday - Friday in bed, trying to recuperate, so I feel, despite being five days into this, the New Year just began ... Yesterday. Wait, no Today. I feel normal today.

Typically at the beginning of new years, I'm full of ideas, and goals and plans, but not this time. This year has barely begun, and I'm finding myself with a plate crammed full.  After a year long break (was it only a year?) I am officially a college student again, and heading back to school this semester with nine credit hours worth of classes. I'm only taking nine due to financial issues, as usual, but I feel it will be for the best, considering everything else going on in my life.

I've also recently accepted the position of Area Coordinator for the Gui.de D.og Fou.ndat.ion for the Bli.nd, and have on small pup in my group; that will keep me busy; not to mention church activities through the week, and work, and of course raising my current guide dog puppy.

Oh yes, and of course the four other animals I have as pets. Let's not forget them!

So needless to say, I'll be busy!

I thought about setting some goals for this year, but honestly I just need to survive all this!

Until we meet again! :) 

Change is Coming!

Happy Monday Guys! 

Guess what.

There are times when even I, am willing to embrace and except change, especially when the change involves more structure. For a while I’ve struggled with this blog. DO I keep it up; is it really serving a purpose? Is it just something I want to keep up for ranting and ravings, not to mention my readership has dropped significantly since I’ve started this blog.

I was on the brink of shutting it down, when I stumbled across several posts talking about starting blogs, and was re-inspired to keep going.

I originally started blogging because it was the “thing to do”. All my friends were doing it so I did. It quickly morphed into a dog blog and hasn’t turned back. However I quickly I realized I wanted to be known as more than the “girl with the dog” and started this blog.

I didn’t really work, and I suddenly realized that I couldn’t define myself outside of my dogs, and this blog floundered. And has been floundering. Hopefully that is all about to change. Armed with my newfound knowledge this blog is about to get a content makeover! (Design coming as soon as I re-purchase Photoshop)

Before you all panic, yes the random, rantiness will still be alive and well; but it will be balanced by posts about what I’m reading, posts about my photography, what I’m cooking and lots of and lots of lists.

I like lists.

I have a notebook full of them.

Except I lost it in Alabama.

I digress.

Another goal I have for this blog is to set up a more scheduled approach to blogging, completely with calendar reminders. Clean out my drafts section and keep it clear for the remainder of the year! Update my design! The ideas just don’t stop coming!

I’m looking forward to appearing in your news/google/twitter feeds more often!

Christmas & New Years Recap

In a word? Bliss. 
Perfect happiness; great joy


Not a word that I use regularly but its perfect for this occasion. 


I loved finally having a moment to breathe, to sleep, to read a book for pete's sake. Saturday & Sunday were pretty busy, my family had our dinner on Saturday, and I spent at least five hours cooking, something that is quite unusual for me; its not that I don't mind cooking, its just super, boring to cook for yourself. As long as someone else is planning the menu, I don't mind whipping up food for 8+ people....as long as I don't have to bring it home with me.

Sunday we did our gift exchange, between church services. My parents...er.. dad.. isn't big on the whole gift exchange thing, so they purchased the "family" (which doesn't include me as I don't live there. #FAIL!) a Ping Pong table, and we kids exchanged names and bought for one person. Being the youngest Autumn is alllll about opening gifts, and had us all running through some sort of crazy, gift exchange. It was a little ridiculous but we complied in order to get her to settle down. However once she got her present of an (overpriced) Webkins she was all done with the gift exchange. Leaving the at least three of us gift-less.

*rolls eyes*


Ah to be young and ... well.


The next couple of days, were spent doing absolutely nothing of worth, or productive. I didn't realize how badly I need that time, just to relax, I was able to finally complete a jig-saw puzzle I'd been working on forever, and rearrange my house a bit. 


By Wednesday, all my laziness had caught up with me, and I had to scramble to get ready for our annual New Year's Trip to Alabama. Despite getting a late start, getting stopped by the police, and getting lost in the wild hills of Alabama, we made it to the small town of Morgan City just in time for the first service. 


Not only was I challenged spiritually, but I got to meet new friends, talk with old, and realize some things about myself. All in all? A good trip. 

Nooow back to the real world. 

Year in Review

January 2010

The truth of the matter is this: Two Thousand and Ten started off stressful. Just reading some of the post from the first week is bringing back all the feelings of stress.

• ·         Pompei Arrived – Pompei arrived January 6^th as a complete surprise, I wasn’t prepared for him at all but I’d told them I wanted a puppy and who says no to puppy breath? So  on he came.
• ·         Victoria Career Changed – At the same time as Pompeii’s arrival, my co-workers and I decided to take the other dog, living with me at the time, out of the service dog program and place her as a pet. I wanted to keep that dog so.badly. And I spent a lot of time, considering and thinking and trying to figure out if keeping her would work. My father was quick to inform me three dogs was my limit and to tell them “no”. So now I had to find her a new home…..
• ·         Spring 2010 Started –One of my goals for this year, as I’d skipped the previous semester due to work. However getting that done in the week before classes started was difficult. Not that I hadn’t started it earlier, but you know me, I allowed myself to procrastinate and put it off until the last minute. So once I finally got around to doing it I had to spend five hours trying to get things arranged etc..etc.. It was ridiculous and stupidly self inflicted. I signed up for four classes.
• ·         Paying for School – Financial Aid has been my friend and my parents friend since I started school, however since I signed up so late, I had to jump through some hoops to get my information in to them knowing I wouldn’t be able to get my money when everyone else did. However I didn’t expect to have to pay $5,000 to go to a community college. We were able to get it reduced but it I still had to pay $750 out of pocket. Not. Cool.
• ·         Pompei + Work + School –Another fiasco. When the idea of the puppies coming was presented to both places it was baulked at, my school quickly saw the error of there ways, and gave their blessing to Pompei and I. However my job had other ideas and dragged out the issues……
• ·         New House – After living for a year in a small 1 bedroom, 1 bath, house with four dogs…..my petition to move into a bigger place was approved by my landlords and I began the long process of moving down the street. Unfortunately for me, the pipes had frozen and the water was shut off for the time being, so the move wasn’t as imminent as I was hoping. But I began shuffling things nonetheless.
• ·         Celebrated one year as a Tennessean.

February

The Good: I bought another DSLR camera, this time in the form of a Canon Rebel XTI (which I’m willing to sell to the tune of $650)

•  The Good: I finished moving into my new place, and was able to piggy back off of my parent’s internet, eliminating the need to pay for service. $KaChing$
• The Bad: No Refrigerator or Stove in the new place. Had to keep running back and forth between palces
• The Good: My friends Rebekah and Hope decided to move into my old place
•  The Interesting: Rebekah sister Christina asks to move in with me and I decide what the hey, sure!
• The Bad: My supervisor was moved to another division placing me under someone I didn’t know as well. (scary!) At this point I began thinking of looking for another job.
• The Bad: Its official Pompei wasn’t going to be allowed at work with me.

March

Sister bought her first car. Yeah the stupid green eye monster popped his head up but I banged it back down.

• Cleaned up a park for Disney’s Give a day Get a day program. What a waste of time for me. At least my family enjoyed. #noI’mNotBitter
• Photog Teacher was starting to get…shall we say difficult to work with which = stress for me
• Healthcare Bill passed. Woo. NoT!
• Roommate officially moved in.
• Changed my work schedule to give myself three day weekends. Best Idea EVER
• Got my original boss back! YAY!

April

• Was a relatively calm month, filled with school, puppies, finals. Just pleasant in other words.

May

• SUMMER!!!!!!!
• Pompei + My Roommate and I went on an 8 mile hike one weekend.
• Thought about getting an additional job…
• Lost all motivation for planning and organizing my time….still looking for it….

June

• Gained my first ever foster dog. And INSANE experience to say the least
• Vacation Bible School
•   Watched my family go to Florida without me.

July

Family Reunion with all three pups in tow. Worst.Trip.Of.Life.

• Annual Youth Jubilee Trip – A BLAST!! Broke down on the way home, repair the car with the help of a stranger and roommate had to replace her radiator. Note if you see pieces of tire laying the road..AVOID THEM!
• College finally got all my FA paperwork from FEBRUARY done and I was able to put that burden down….
• Only to pick up a $250 burden from the IRS
• Killed my $300 phone with a damp napkin

August

• Roommate Got engaged!!! 
• Signed up for the Fall Semester relatively early….13 credit hours..
• Woman ran into the side of my car on the way to work. I received a citation due to expired registration and no proof of insurance. $kacHiNg! $96.50
• Found out my NC drivers license was to be suspended due to the ONE and ONLY speeding ticket I’d ever gotten
• The day before the drivers licenses was to be suspended I was able to get my TN drivers license and continue driving. Thank.You.God.
• Foster dog Zipper was adopted. 
• Watched friends raft down the Nantahala...

September

• School Starts
• More School
• ...Did lots of School....
• Went off Caffiene
• Annual Campmeeting at my Church
• Did I mention school?

October

• Schoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool

November

• NaBloPoMo

December 

• Finals tried to kill me
• Finals almosted killed me
• A girl in the car behind me tried to kill me
• But I survived.
• Then work tried to kill me
• But I survived then it was break time!!!

Of course that leaves out a looot of struggles and challenging times. I can't say I'm sad to see this year become a page in history at all. I am looking forward to this year and hopeful for good! 

New Years Weekend

My winter break is partially over and I'm attempting to get back to reality. I spent the weekend in Alabama with friends, during our annual New Years Fellowship Meeting we attend with our church. Despite having some misgivings about the money involved in making a trip, I was pleasantly surprised when my father offered to fund the trip, something I really needed and was looking forward to after the year I've had. There is nothing quite like a weekend with a house full of girls....twelve to be exact, ranging from 10 - 26 as you can guess laughter was in abundance over the weekend. We always have a lot of fun at this meeting, perhaps because the scene is more intimate, rather than always going out to eat, at the end of services, there are families who are willing to invite 50-60 young people into their home and feed them in the evenings. That of course means late nights getting home around 1:00am and not crashing into bed until around 2 or 3 am and getting up and getting ready for the services at 8:30am the next morning. Exhausting though that schedule may be its good, clean fun and I wouldn't miss for anything.

All of us girls..minus one :) Funny how we all were wearing at least some black! Weird. :)

Kim!

Kera!

Kristen and Me

Kristen and Maegan 

Air Hockey oh yeah. 

Dutch Blitz

One of the never ending games of Ping Pong

P.S. (Yes that is all MY hair.) 

And Just Like That....

Just when you think life is about to settle down, that you'd be able to get a routine in place...you hit another curve in the track.

So I moved into a bigger place right? Well a dear friend of mine, texts me this afternoon, asking me to call her. My friends and I don't talk to each other on the phone. None of us like talking on the phone, so we either text/email/im etc...

Her sister and I had gone to seen a play for my theater class, and were on our way back from that, when i received this ominous message. So I called her and we played phone tag for a little bit, before finally connecting.
 
She rambled on for bit (i think the sun she was lying in was getting to her) before launching into a long story, about how she would be needing to move out. By this time I guessed what she was asking, and got her to the point of her call. (We are nice to each other. For Real!)


 For now, its a tempory 6-month thing, and since I'm in a three bedroom house...I have room. My computer won't have its own room anymore, but I think it will survive.

So for the next six months we'll find out just how good of friends we are.  Truthfully I don't really care about having another person here. C and I are very much alike in a lot of ways, so this will be interesting...or very interesting. ;)

What's funny is her sister and our other friend (R & H) are moving into the house next door, so we'll probably be seeing a lot more of each other.

 So my quiet blog followers, anyone have stories of what its like to go from "rooming" with your family, to having a roommate?

Did it make you better friends?

Lemme know!

....But I'm running outside every 30 minutes

Read More about him HERE.

Happy New Years

New Years started off with a lot of screaming, fireworks and laughter. Our tradition each year after the first service of the meeting is to crowd as many people as possible into one of the families very large homes. I was a alternating between feeling drop dead tired, and rediculously silly. Regardless I had a great time. I'm sure the neighbors LOVED having 50+ people yelling "HAPPY NEW YEAR". But hey it only happens once a year.

I'm excited to see what God has in store for this year....though I'm already a little overwhelmed by my first week back from vaca. More on that later but for now.....

Welcome 2010!

Goals - 2009

2009 - A brand new year....already I know this will probably be one of the craziest years of my life...besides last year. While I'm not one to set New Years Resolutions, I do have some goals and things I would like to get/ see done this year. Some are little things, while others I know will takes a lot of work. I'll share a few with you. Next year I would like to be able to look back and check of a least a few? Of theses...?

*I thought of some others I wanted to add, and need to see written down somewhere*

Erin's Goals and Things for 2009

• Go to bed earlier on a consistent basis
  
• Get a new Cell phone
  
• Get a new car
  
• Raise another Guide Dog Puppy - #FAIL
  
• Not procrastinate so much
• Make A's and B's in school
  
• Get another Job
• Organize my life more
  
• Move over the Mountain
  
• Be a better sister/friend
• Learn to share
• Eat Breakfast
  
• Start and thing and FINISH IT
• Keep Car and Room Neat
  
• Travel More
  
• Use my camera EVERYDAY
• Blog at least 2-3 times a week
  
• Walk Dogs Daily
  
• Train dogs DAILY
• Spend less time on the computer
  

...................................

Happy New Years Eve!!!

Happy New Years!!

I'm really excited about this new year, its going to be a wild ride, but I am SO ready for it!
It'll be good to be back in school, and to hopefully, have my family all settled in one place.

This morning I was able to do breakfast with my friends Brittany, Kamra, and Nikki; I looove iHop btw. We met at 9:00AM, and I have decided that, 8:30 is my new waking up time.

We all used to be really close, up until a couple of years ago, when we wall went our separate ways; but it was good to be able to come back, a little more mature, and wiser.
We've all changed, some good and some not so good, but we were not there to dwell on that; just to have a good time with each other. It also made me realize how much I miss them. ::sad face::

The day is still young and my To-D0 list is still long, as I type this, I should be looking over my resume' and writing emails to potential employers. As well as looking into heating sources for my house. *boorrinngg* Oh now that I think about it, I need to iron clothes for tonight.... the list just goes on and on...so i'm outta here.

TTYL!

Erin