Happy New Year!

Ahhh, 2012  What will you have in store for us?? I can't wait to see!

I love new years.  I love the inspiration it comes with, not that I need to be inspired to do a zillion things that may never get done;)  Our New Year started out fairly awesome, at Disney World's Hollywood Studios, and then on the 1st we jetted home to cold but no so cold Maryland.  I was instantly sick, but let's be honest, what is a winter without me being sick more the 50% of the time? 

Our trip to Disney was amazing!  We love it so, and can't wait to go back.  It's getting easier to plan the trips, and organize what we are going to do while we are there, etc.  I am becoming quite the Disney expert;)  Here are a few pics from our trip...

Ash & I at our resort with Roger Rabbit:)  This is Pop Century, FYI - highly recommend if you have kids, its awesome for them (which = awesome for you, trust me!)

 Us at Chef Mickeys - our favorite buffet restaurant!  It's in the Contemporary Resort which is SO cool!

 No trip to Orlando is complete without a quick trip to Hogsmeade!  This is Dave & I in HP world located in Islands of Adventure of the Universal Resort.

 Dave & Ash on one of my fave rides at Hollywood Studios, Toy Story Mania.  Of course, I beat them both with my scores.  Wow, I am very humble today;)

 Ash with her cute Mickey Ears, at Magic Kingdom.

The 3 of us outside Big Thunder Mountain Railroad in Magic Kingdom.

We were only in the parks for 4 days, but it was plenty of time and we rode all our fave rides and ate so much yummy food.  So worth the week of sickness I've had to endure since we've been back;)

On to life now!!!  What are your resolutions?  I hesitate to make them, because I never end up keeping them (hence my 120 book goal last year - but hey - I read A LOT of books even though I didn't hit that mark, so I have no regrets!)  I want to call them something else this year - maybe Lifelong Goals instead because I don't want to limit them to just this year.  These should be lifelong goals!  Anyways, here is what I want to get out of 2012 and beyond:

1.  Run more - I started the Couch to 5k in the fall, and have been slipping a bit since the holidays and I've had two major bouts of sickness, but I need to run more!  Running a 5k would be nice;)

2.  Try new recipes

3.  be more organized, however that may be

4.  Layering decor in the house - it's too matchy matchy in here and I want to introduce more color and pizazz to brighten our lives

5.  Kitchen project - Paint the kitchen and the cabinets, lay the new floor down, install cabinet hardware

6.  Read more, always read more!

7.  Get better at couponing

8.  Bring Pinterest to life, by this I mean actually DOING things and experiencing things that I pin

9.  Eat more fruit and veggies - honestly I am so bad at this!

10.  Use my time wisely - this goes for home and work, spending time with people who matter or being smart with free time when I have it!

I think 10 is enough;)  I tend to be an over-achiever, if ya didn't know, so 10 may be too too much.  I may think of a fun way to post these in the house somewhere so that I can see them daily and remember them.  Oh fun fun, another creative project to try!

I hope everyone has a Happy New Year!!  I look forward to blogging with you:)

Feeling inspired....

Do you sometimes ever feel...inspired by certain things you see?  I do!  A really cool book, a beautiful old building, a cooking show, or a picture in a magazine, or a blog post that has meaning.  I am very...."inspirable" lol I KNOW it's not a word, but I'm saying it anyway.  I am a sponge and I soak up ideas in the world around me, take them in and create something of my own.  Right now, in my crazy in-between life, I feel most inspired!  I really could do anything?!  I could write a book, or paint a wall magenta (Don't worry babe, I wont!), or cook up some really crazy swanky recipie.  The only problems is, I have SO much inspiration that turns into SO many ideas, I dont know how to harness it all in and actually DO something about it?  I mean, ok, sometimes I do make really fun, fancy dinners....or randomly decide to paint a little basement room one day to turn into a craft room...but these are just a few of the millions of "ideas" I have in my head that I want to act on!

 Is anyone else like that?  Reading does this to me!!  I'll read a book and become so absorbed in it that I want to experience the life of the book for myself.  Well...not all books, I just got done reading a murder mystery but don't be scared, lol, the only thing that was inspiring in that book was the psychology of it all - which mean me remember how much I really love counseling people.  I read that Disney book the other day and now all I want to do for the rest of my life is read about, write about, and travel to Disney.  It's just a phase (well kinda...I will ALWAYS want to travel to Disney!)  Or I read the blog I love, Young House Love, and I'm inspired so much to do little updates around our home!  Then...I'll think about how fun it would be to do other updates, and remember I need a job for money to do this stuff, and then I'll be inspired to get online and apply to 100's of crazy jobs (believe me, in 2 years of almost complete unemployment, you can get creative!)

Anyways, these are just thoughts going out to the void...it may not make any sense.  I know that I love being this way.  I love thinking that anything is really possible if we put our minds and hearts into something.  I feel that as this blog begins to live and breathe you will see a lot of my ADHD inspiration going around...cooking, decorating, writing, reading, traveling...I know this started as a reading challenge blog and that is still what it is...but with life all around it - I'm not just about reading and therefore am not sure I can confine myself to just writing about that!  The Disney stuff I'll save for my little side job of writing for the Examiner;)  Unless it's something really good!  There may not be rhyme or reason to this little blog I've started, but after almost a month, I really love doing it, even if no one is reading!  It's there for me, to get my thoughts and ideas out into the world - however crazy or unimportant they are;)

Ok well it's off to clean, and come to think of it - to make Ashley stop playing Wii and clean too (sounding a little evil stepmotherish?  I'm not, I promise!!!  She has weekly chores!)

Good night!

I'm still alive!

I haven't blogged in almost a week - GASP!  I had a really random and painful stomach bug or virus and I am just know getting over it:(  It was awful!  I am still reading Along Came a Spider, but it's going slow because I am also reading another book called The Hidden Magic of Disney World by Susan Veness!  I didn't think I'd read this whole thing so fast but I have, so I am using it as one of my 10, and will bump one of the other books.  I'm writing about Disney for an online journal so it helps my research;)  It's really good.  If you want to know all the little secrets and tucked away nooks of Disney World, you will love this book.  It also has a lot of helpful history for understanding how Disney came about.  I'm fairly obsessed with all things Disney!

Along came a Spider seems good so far, it's kinda creepy so I still try to only read it when Dave is home;)  If he isn't then I'll finish the Anne of Avonlea book!  It is a lot different then the movie we all saw about 10 years or so ago with Mr M. Freeman. 

I have two interviews this week, I'm really hoping something good opens up soon!  We are ready to be financially ready for life, buy cars, have lots of extra, and go to Disney every other month (lol, I'm kidding but I wish I wasn't).  I had a few with one company a week ago, and I think those went well but I havent heard from them yet - although they did say they would call me either way. 

I hope everyone had a good weekend and hope you also have a fabulous week!  I'll post my review of the Disney book and hopefully the Alex Cross book tomorrow - if I finish either of them!

Halfway done - with a fun freebie!

Yesterday I finished my 5th book, the Titanic one!  I'm halfway through 1 month of my crazy 10 books a month challenge - woooooooo!!!  I took a few back to the library today, so that I do not forget about them.  I signed up for that Get Steamed reading challenge hosted by the Harford County Library - and today I got my mug!  Here is a picture...

Don't mind my morning mess look, crazy hair and all!  We really do not need another mug here, but oh well, I'm a sucker for free stuff. I'm drinking my coffee (from my fave appliance the house - the keurig!!!) out of it right now!  If you want to do it, it's soooo easy.  Just get a slip from the library and read 5 books by March 5th or something, and then turn the slip back in and you get a mug - fun freebie!
I took out all these research books on Disney, because if you didn't know, I am now a internet writer for Examiner.com!!  I'm the Baltimore Disney Travel writer, and its really fun so far!  I'm getting paid (not much) to write about Disney travel stuff!  Cool, huh?  Here is my link if you want to read it: http://www.examiner.com/disney-travel-in-baltimore/christina-bland its really cute.  So I am reading up on all sorts of Disney stuff to get the creative juices flowing.  I already have about 100 ideas for articles, just from my experiences planning, going, and enjoying all things Disney!

I also took out a bunch of books on party planning!  My bestest friends and I are starting a small event planning business, it's call Sweet Pea Events!!  We also have a blog and Facebook for that, here is that link: http://sweetpeaeventplanning.blogspot.com/2011/01/sweet-pea-events.html .  We love to throw parties and especially help brides with weddings, so we are taking that love and hobby to the next level, we are very excited!

So I have a lot going on right now, but it's all really fun stuff.  Isn't life better when you enjoy every bit of it?  I also went on an interview yesterday for the behavior consultant job (2nd interview) and I think I will probably get it, yay for having a job and money again!!!

Ok well I'm off to clean, read (The Last Battle, Lewis is next on my list), cook, paint our little basement office and watch the Ravens kick the Squeelers butts!!  GO RAVENS!!!

Sleep deprived!!!

For the past week I've been a terrible sleeper.  I haven't been getting in bed until after 1, and I'll wake up every hour after 3am.  What the heck?!  Sometimes I blame my night owl hubby (thanks babe) but sometimes its not always his fault.  He is a nurse who works overnight and sometimes we stay up and sleep in to be on the same schedule, since I'm not working right now.  Other times I just cant fall asleep.  Whatever the reason, its got to stop!!  I cant live like this, I feel all groggy and sick all the time because of the poor sleeping habits!  I didn't let myself have any caffeine today, which is torture, so that I can go to bed early.  Well, it shouldn't be a problem because I slept so crappily (made up word, I know)  I'll be in bed and out cold within an hour (it's 7:45pm!). 

On to the book, Dead until Dark is pretty good!!  It's like Twilight, for grown ups.  Twilight has that teeny bopper feel to it when you read it, not to mention the extreme teeny bopper following in the world.  I'm not sure I don't prefer Twilight over DuD, the jury is still out.  I'm definitely intrigued with it though, and will finish it soon!  If I wasn't so incredibly tired, I'd probably be able to finish it tonight, I'm on page 176 of 252 so I'm moving through it fairly fast.  I didn't sit and read all day either!  I napped from 9 to 11 (since I didn't sleep) and then went to the Good will and over to the school I subbed at in the fall as counselor to help with the Variety Show practice.  I'm determined, in my time off, not to read all day because that is setting up a standard for the year that I will not be able to live up to.  Who sits and reads all day for 365 days?  Man, I think that would be my dream job!  If anyone out there wants to pay me to read everyday all day, please message me and we can talk:)

I got off track.  DuD is more grown up, lots of vampire murder and night time extracurriculars (which I think is why I think I like the old fashioned Twilight more...I'm very conservative with that...stuff!)  But it is such an easy read and it will drag you in at about the 3-4 chapter.  I'm enjoying it!  Who knew I'd like vampire stuff?? So weird...I've been weirded out by that since I fell in love with Edward & Bella.  I am SO SO SO not a vampire girl.  I shop at Gap and Old Navy and love Disney and wii and ..... vampires?!?  Doesn't sit right;)  These vampires are more vicious too - I guess some people like that sort of thing!

Ok, bed time for the Tinester...I'll write my official review tomorrow when I finish, and then I'll be on to book 3!  That is kind of fun to think about, almost on 3 already!!  Yay!

BTW I am getting fairly obsessed with looking at home decor blogs on here, so don't be surprised if I start adding lovely home decor and projects on my blog too - I love our house and am all about fixing it up and sprucing it, but I have so many ideas and not a lot of knowledge of how to execute those ideas....I know...I should read books about it!!!