Master of Avoidance; Jack of No Trades

**first of all, thank you to everyone who gave an opinion or advice yesterday! I plan on having a nice long chat with my coworker very soon. I can't have her dating a serial killer.**

Yesterday to avoid writing another cover letter for another job that I don't really want, I was blog hopping.

This is where I click on a blog and then click on everyone they have on their sidebar. I usually read their about me, read a couple posts, and if they have a "popular" section, read some of those. If I'm interested, I click the little button that says "follow" and I've added another blog to stalk while I'm avoiding writing cover letters.

So during my clicky clickity clack adventures, I stumbled onto Samm at Dysfunctional Ever After. She almost had me by the title of her blog alone. I mean hello, some people just have the best blog titles. Anyway, I digress. She had a one-line About Me:

"I'm Samm. I can't get my shit together so I blog."

Hi Samm, you just read my dang mind. I can't manage to get my shit together either, so I ramble on and on and on and on and on here, with the best of intentions.

Of course then I started thinking about Tami's post yesterday. She's another person who totally read my mind. What do I want to do with my life? I don't know. And that's a scary thing to admit sometimes.

I honestly and truly believe that I won't be happy until I'm working for myself in one capacity or another. Whether that simply just means being my own boss or owning my own business. What kind of business would I like to own, you ask? I don't know. How awful is that?

Regardless, owning my own business or working for myself is not possible at this time. Duh. So I'm stuck settling finding something that I can enjoy for now. Again, easier said than done. To say I'm feeling discouraged, is a bit of an understatement.

Now people say "follow your dreams" or "anything is possible if you just work for it", but honestly, that's bullshit. Following your dreams works for about 20% of the population, everyone else has real bills and real things they have to pay for, so "following their dreams" isn't really feasible. Anything is possible if I just work for it? No. Sometimes you can work and work and work, and still not get what you want. Thems the breaks, kid.

When did I turn into Miss Cynical Cindy? Right about the time reality slapped me in the face. You want to talk about something bringing somebody down? Well let me just tell you, I'm feeling all kinds of brought down. It sucks and I'd really like to be Miss Positive Patty again.

My dad asked me why I've been so "snotty" lately. Well here you go, Daddy. 

Maybe I'll transform again when I finally get a new "for now" job that I hate while following my dreams.

Shalalala Weekend

Lalala, weekend, lalala..

I don't really have anything good to report today. Oops. So here are a few pictures that I did manage to take this weekend.

OH and I did a quick, cheap-o DIY this weekend! I found a cute little cork board marked down super cheap! I had good intentions of painting it white, then when I went to get my white paint, I ended up grabbing the pink. Ya know, why not add some more color to my bedroom? Which is where this is going to go, by my desk. Yay for cheap and quick DIY projects. 

And as usual, every Monday, linking up with Sami!

GLAMLOUDER - Bling It On! with Hpnotiq & Win a Handbag!

This post is sponsored by Hpnotiq

I'm totally about to be a fashion blogger for the day with Hpnotiq because they are giving things away for free and I like free things! Le duh.

They asked me to help promote their fourth (yes, this is the fourth contest they've hosted giving away free things. they rock) phase of their GLAM LOUDER! Bling It On! Contest & Sweepstakes! And well, because I just love you guys so much and want you to win stuff, I couldn't turn them down! This is such an EASY contest to enter and the prize, oh the prize..  you could win a handbag of your choice up to $1000! That means you have the potential to be the owner of a thousand dollar handbag. I'll pause while you scream and freak out.




Okay, we're back. Now you have from NOW until July 28th 2013 (at 11:59:59am, EST) to submit a photo of your GLAMMEST LOOK! The photo(s) you submit can be pictures you take yourself or images you find online! Just make sure it's a glam head to toe look!

I know what you're thinking.. "Does it get any better?" Yes, yes it does. 

This round of the Bling It On! Contest they are choosing 4 (FOUR) winners! And, yes I said AND.. if you're one of the 4 winners, you'll be able to compete in Hpnotiq's GLAM LOUDER final round for a chance to win the grand prize.. A trip for you and 3 friends to go shopping with a celebrity in Los Angeles! (this is the part where i freaked out)

Oh, wait.. it gets better? It does.. The grand prize winner will star in a professional photo shoot for the chance to be in a real Hpnotiq ad! 

SHUT THE FRONT DOOR!

So to make this even easier for you lovelies, here are some examples of glam looks I found using good 'ol Pinterest.

 

Okay, so apparently to me Glam means glitter and old school hair. What does Glam mean to you?

To get the full run down of the rules visit here. Then to enter the contest visit here. Or even easier, visit Hpnotiq's Facebook page. OR easiest of all, follow Hpnotiq on Twitter and tweet a picture of your glam look to Hpnotiq using the hashtag #GLAMLOUDER

You only have until SUNDAY to enter! So hurry up, lovies! Then go ahead and tweet me your glam look too, because I'm nosey like that!

Unplugged

Do you know what's fun? I'll tell you, but we're going to have to go back in time a little bit.

Approx 9 months ago:
My parents go out of town leaving me in charge of my little brother and  the new-ish puppy. After my little brother is tucked away in bed, all adorable and stuff, I Skype my sister. While I'm chatting with her, yes okay, I might have taken my eyes off of the puppy for a few minutes. When I do check to see what she is doing, guess what? She's chewing on my laptop cord. In my defense she hadn't ever chewed on anything before.. and hasn't since. Super, she saved it just for me.
Anyway, I proceed to fix my laptop charger cord with electrical tape. Good as new, right? Wrong.

Cute baby brother, who's growing up way too quickly!

 Wednesday:
I had been having trouble all day getting my laptop to charge. I had to position the charger cord juuuust right to get it to charge and had to re-wrap the electrical tape. I knew it wasn't going to last much longer.

Thursday:
Early morning my laptop cord officially went to the big junkyard in the sky. I proceed to order a new one. Surprise 20% off sale.. but it's still going to be $75. And several days. Insert grumpy annoyed face here.

Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday:
UNPLUGGED.

Tuesday:
Catching up on all of the crap I didn't get done because I didn't have a laptop for 5 days.


So that's where I've been.
Of course I could've used my phone to do almost the same amount of web surfing and such, but I chose not to. It felt good to have an entire weekend of nothing.

My sister got her wisdom teeth out on Friday, so I spent the whole day with her. Still waiting on my "thank you" for that. #illbewaitingforever

Then I spent the rest of the weekend watching Netflix (aka The Vampire Diaries. Obsessed) and watching movies and being alone. Yes, you heard me. I spent the rest of the weekend, totally alone. Pretty sure the only person I even texted was my sister. Sometimes it's refreshing to spend time alone and away from social media. It was refreshing for me at least. I've been in a funk lately, so it felt good.

Ps. I'm #TeamDamon all day, every day. Mmmm, love that man!

I also took all of those days off from running too. Gave my shin splints some time to heal while I iced and stretched them a ton. Today I got up super early to get a run in and.. it sucked. I know you were probably expecting me to say "and it felt great" or "it was just what I needed" or something else awesome. But this is reality.. and in reality, it sucked. But I did it and with very minimal shin pain. So I'm going to put today's run in the win column.

And now that I've read this blog post so far, I realize I basically just rambled a lot. Sigh. Apparently my "funk" isn't quite over. I'll be a better blogger soon. I promise.

Run, Kay, Run

Is everyone ready? Because I'm about to shove a lot of information at you in a short amount of time.
Buckle up, kids.

First of all, a little #60inSixty update.
Number One - Best thing I ever did for myself, ever.
Number Two - Every run gets easier and easier and I start to like them more and more. I'm surprised and confused by this.
Number Three - I need new running shoes. Shin splints are the worst.

My official #60inSixy mile count:

Working my way there one run at a time. I have taken the last few days off, based on everyone's suggestions, to deal with my shin splints. Because well, OW.. but ice and a couple days of not running has helped tremendously.


Also, I highly recommend C25K. Seriously, whoever created it knew what they were doing. It progresses at just the right pace for me and when it doesn't? I just repeat the last run. Works so perfect for me. Really happy with this app.

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

Alright, moving along. Do you know Samantha? Well if you don't get familiar with her real quick.
Done? Alright, she's awesome and she's doing something really special.

In March 2012 her 16 year old sister died in a tragic car accident. Without going into any kind of detail, let's just say I understand that pain. To honor her sister Maggie, a foundation was started in her name. The Maggie Bertram Foundation For The Fine Arts. Samantha has decided to help raise money for the foundation by training for and running a half marathon in September.

As a part of raising the money, she started a Running For Maggie movement. She's also created a FREE virtual 5k for anyone to run or walk between August 5th and August 11th. It's free because this virtual 5k is just to honor a beautiful life.

This is absolutely something I feel very passionate about and so I feel absolutely zero shame in asking MY readers to join me in this virtual 5k. It's a run OR a walk.

If you want to participate, email Samantha at sciaccio3@gmail.com.

And if you would like to donate to The Maggie Bertram Foundation For The Fine Arts, please email myself (kstoll129@gmail.com) or Samantha and ask for details and instructions on how to do so.

#Running4Maggie

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

Last, but not least..

Does anyone remember my July Goal list? Remember when I added "Do Something Spontaneous" to the list? Well, let's go ahead and check that puppy off the list..

I signed up to run a 5k on September 28th.

It's called Hoosiers Outrun Cancer and a few years ago I walked the 5k in honor of a friend's grandfather, so I get the emails every year still. Well I got it again last week. Then I sent a text to 2 of my best friends. About 3 minutes later I signed up. To run it.

So it's officially official.. I'll be running my first 5k in September.

Other than my 2 friends, I haven't told another soul I did this.. Sooo.. SURPRISE!

And on that note, I'm gonna go run.

Cat's Out of The Bag

Well it finally happened.

My IRL friends discovered my separate blog accounts for Twitter and Instagram.

Bloggy friends, you know what that means.. They found my little piece of Blogworld.
Cue anxiety attack.

Whitney has talked about it.
Beth has talked about it.
Erin has talked about it.
Helene very recently talked about it.

And seriously countless others. It's a pretty hot topic.

A lot, A LOT of bloggers create blogs and start writing and don't tell people in their real life. I'd say 90% of the time it's not because they are totally different people attempting to lead a totally different life. Usually everyone says the same things:

They don't want to censor themselves.
They want to be "real".
They don't want to be judged.

All of those apply to me.

I also feel like it's hard to explain blogging to people who don't blog and/or don't read blogs a lot. We say things and do things a certain way for a certain reason. I don't think I'm a different person.

When I'm blogging, I act like a blogger and I talk like a blogger because I'm talking to people who are bloggers.

When I'm working at the CPA office I act like a professional and I talk like a professional because I'm talking to people who are professionals.

When I'm working for athletics I act and talk much more casually than I do at the office. Different situations call for different aspects of my personality.

So even though I had a bit of a panic attack on Monday night and my anxiety is a little high, I'm also a little excited that I can finally share this with my IRL friends. It just might take me a tiny bit longer to get used to it.

So shout out to my dgrm girls! Hi!

Reese's Cup Martini with Reese's Cup Vodka

I love Reese's. I absolutely refuse to deny it.

So as promised, here's the recipe for the Reese's Cup Martinis I made over the weekend for my sister's birthday.

To make the Martinis, you first need to make the Reese's Cup Vodka..

Ingredients:

6 oz. Vodka
1/4 cup Reese's Cups

I obviously wanted to make more than 6oz worth of Reese's Cup infused vodka, so I used 24oz of vodka and 1 cup of Reese's Cups.

Directions:

• Place vodka and Reese's Cups in a jar and close tightly. Store is a cool, dry place for 7 days. Once or twice a day shake the jar, mixing the Reese's Cups and vodka.





• After 7 days, strain the vodka into a clean jar using a mesh sieve. I ended up straining mine a total of 3 times. This probably wasn't totally necessary, but I did it anyway.

Reese's Cup Martini

Ingredients:

1 1/2 ounces of Reese's Vodka
4 ounces Milk
1 tsp Chocolate Syrup (I used quite a bit more, and didn't actually measure it)

Directions:

• Combine vodka, milk, and chocolate syrup in a shaker half filled with ice. Shake for approximately 30 seconds.
• Pour into a martini glass. 
• Garnish with mini Reese's Cups.

Drink it and love it. The original recipe can be found here. I changed it slightly based on the suggestions of everyone else drinking it. It was a big hit with my chocolate and peanut butter loving sisters!

Also, TIP: After straining my vodka through a sieve into a clean jar, I replaced the lid and put it into the refrigerator. I did this because I prefer my vodka cold. This again is personal preference. The ice in the martini shaker should be enough, but I'm an over-achiever.

Another Monday, Another Weekend Post

I'm trying really hard today to be excited that today is Monday.
I'm sure you've probably already guessed it, but that's not working.

I know everyone says the same thing every Monday, but man why are the weekends so short?
UGH.

Well let's get this show on the road.. My weekend in a nutshell..

Sista Sista || Hibachi for Sista's birthday || The 3 youngest siblings, my bro and I missed the "dress up" memo || He loves me, I swear.

*UPDATE* No, my sister and I are not twins. We DO get asked that very, very frequently, so I'm not at all surprised I've been asked that today. ALSO, she's not taller than me. She's wearing heels. I'm taller and older. #thankyouverymuch

Reese's Cup Vodka and Reese's Cup Martinis (On the blog tomorrow) || Running off some steam || My parents back yard looked like a parking lot || My now "famous" Jello Shots, only 150 of them..

Country livin = Garage Parties || Grandma's Homemade sugar free ice cream || My adopted sister || Shin splints

Tomorrow, as promised, I'll be posting the recipe I used for the Reese's Cup Martinis with the Reese's Cup Vodka! You don't wanna miss it!

You also want to link up with Miss Shenanigan. You do.

Tribute to my Baby Sister

Today is a very special day.

Today is my baby sister's birthday.

Now let me tell you about my baby sister..
She steals my clothes without asking.
She asks for advice and then ignores it.
She has a severe attitude on her.
She is the wost morning person I've ever met in my entire life.
She does things purely to tick me off.
And I love her more than any other person on this planet.

Really, in all honesty my sister is the greatest. She's my best friend in every, every meaning of the word.

I may have mentioned that I have a bit of a "blended" family. I have 4 siblings total. 2 are step, 1 is half, and then there's my sister. She's the only one made of the same "stuff" as me. Although none of us ever refer to any of the rest of us as anything other than "my brother" or "my sister". We don't mess with that step and half non-sense.

But since she was born we've always been lumped together. We were "the girls" or "the sisters". We did everything together.

Being a big sister is hard. Unless you're the oldest, you really can't relate or understand how hard it is sometimes. Someone is always watching what you do, what you say, how you say it. But you get used to that. It's what is normal.

But ya see, the thing about little sisters is that they grow up.

And sometimes the big sister isn't ready.

bawling our eyes out at her graduation during the rose ceremony.. we aren't pretty criers.

It's been hard and big sis is still adjusting. Sometimes I miss my little sister as she was. But I wouldn't trade it for the beautiful person she's becoming.

I love you, Sister. To the moon and back!