A few months ago my small hometown started buzzing about how a local girl had just been cast as the role of Anna from Frozen in Once Upon A Time. Elizabeth and I grew up together and would have after school play dates and we were also in Girl Scouts together from elementary school through high school. I thought that was so cool that someone I knew was in such a big role, so I decided to look more into the show and realized it was on netflix. I started watching one Saturday afternoon and was hooked. It isn't your typically Disney Once Upon A Time, some characters stay true to who they are while some are completely different and really throw you off, in a good way. It has funny moments, sad moments and heartfelt moments that keep you watching. Season 4 premiered Sunday night and I was so excited to not only see Elizabeth but to also see how season 4 is going to play out.
For the first year Michael and I lived together we didn't have cable. Gasp. It wasn't a necessity and we honestly didn't mind it, we did have Netflix though. We went through the routine of picking a well talked about series and diving right into it, we went through Psych, Lost, Dexter and some of Breaking Bad. I'm not a binge netflix watcher so we would usually start a show together but only one of us would end up finishing it. Michael just recently picked back up Breaking Bad which I could never really get into. Once we got Dish back in January we didn't watch Netflix as much but every now and then would watch a movie or an episode or two of a show. Not much was on cable around then but I love spring and fall when new shows premiere...but I'm usually late to the game with watching most of them...hence why I started watching Netflix a lot more. My two current obsessions which just premiered for new seasons but are also on netflix are Once Upon A Time and The Blacklist. A few months ago my small hometown started buzzing about how a local girl had just been cast as the role of Anna from Frozen in Once Upon A Time. Elizabeth and I grew up together and would have after school play dates and we were also in Girl Scouts together from elementary school through high school. I thought that was so cool that someone I knew was in such a big role, so I decided to look more into the show and realized it was on netflix. I started watching one Saturday afternoon and was hooked. It isn't your typically Disney Once Upon A Time, some characters stay true to who they are while some are completely different and really throw you off, in a good way. It has funny moments, sad moments and heartfelt moments that keep you watching. Season 4 premiered Sunday night and I was so excited to not only see Elizabeth but to also see how season 4 is going to play out. The other show Michael and I can't stop watching is The Blacklist. Jerrica posted about how she and her husband had started it so after asking her what she thought and hearing a million times on the radio via Ryan Seacrest that it was good, I finally decided to start. I had a feeling Michael would really enjoy it so I asked if he wanted to watch with me and he absolutely loves it. It starts out pretty intensly withouth much background info but you don't feel too confused or overwhelmed. One thing we like about it is that it feels more like a movie rather than a TV show, Every episode is action packed and full of unexpected surprises that keep you on the edge of your seat the entire time. I've started dvr'ing season 2 so that once we're finished we can catch right back up.
0 Comments
We made it! Another week down and another weekend to enjoy. Here are a few things I'm loving lately: 1. Not Your Mother's Clean Freak Dry Shampoo: I'm trying to do better about taking care of my hair so I've gone from washing everyday to washing it every other day. On those days I skip this dry shampoo works great and what's even better it's like $5 at Target. Yep. That's my kind of price tag and it really does the job of keeping my hair looking good.
2. Bolthouse Farms Vanilla Chai Tea: LOVE this drink and even better it's lactose free which is great for me because I'm allergic to dairy. It taste exactly like a chai tea latte too! They have some other flavors I'll definitely be trying soon! 3. Pomegranates: The season of pomegranates is upon us! I love this fruit...like a lot and eat them so much while they're in season. I was actually surprised to see them out in stores because I thought there was still a month or so to go before they would be out so I stocked up at The Fresh Market. 4. Vaseline Lip Therapy: I have never liked vaseline, the texture of it grossed me out but when this came out I wanted to try it and I'm really glad I did. I've been using it for a few months now and can't get enough of it. It adds a subtle hint of pink while keeping your lips really soft and in good condition. And on a side note a not so Friday fave was paying $112 for my car registration renewal this morning, such a pain. Oh and when I got this inspection they charged me $9 to screw in a brake light...not replace it, just tighten it. (sorry Maryann haha) Wasn't very happy about dropping so much money this morning but I'm thankful to have a great car that gets me where I need to go. Remember that scene in It Takes Two when Alyssa Callaway has her first taste of a sloppy joe? Well, these are that good....smash your face into the sandwich get covered in sauce good so of course I had to share the recipe! Oh and just in case you forgot, here's the movie clip. This recipe is fairly simple and really easy to make and always makes enough for leftovers the next day Ingredients: 1lb ground beef 1 cup ketchup 1/4 cup water 2 tablespoons brown sugar 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce 2 teaspoons prepared mustard 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder 1/2 teaspoon onion powder 1/2 teaspoon salt Hamburger buns Step 1: Brown your ground beef and drain the fat off. It's okay if there is still a bit of pink left, once you add everything in it will cook through Step 2: Place your beef back in the original pan and begin to add all your ingredients, I usually have Michael stir as I had things in but you can just throw it all in and mix after. It will look like the above picture
Step 3: Let the sloppy joe mix come to a boil and then simmer for 30-40 minutes They're that easy and SO delicious! We usually pair ours with chips or french fries, but a lot of things would go great with them! thought I would find a fun little mid-week post and I really liked this one!
A- Age: 23 B- Birthday: July 1st C- Color: Teal D- Drink: water, vanilla coke, craft beer, red moscato E- Eyes: Hazel F-Food: banana bread G- Game Farkle or two dots H- Hobby: I really need a hobby... I- Indulgence: reality TV J- Job: administrative assistant in an accounting firm K- Kiddos: no human ones, but Pax is my favorite fur child L- Love: my family, friends, Michael & Pax M- Music: anything but country and that screaming nonsense N- Nation- Good ol' US of A O- Origin: I know I have come Cherokee Indian & maybe Irish? I honestly don't know P- Pets: the cutest Siberian husky, Pax & a beta fish named Boof Q- Quote:"The important thing is not to be bitter over life's disappointments. Learn to let go of the past... and recognize that everyday won't be sunny. And when you find yourself lost in the darkness and despair... remember it's only in the black of night you can see the stars, and those stars will lead you back home. So don't be afraid to make mistakes, to stumble, to fall, cause most of the time the greatest rewards come from doing the things that scare you the most. Maybe you'll get everything you wish for... Maybe you'll get more than you ever could have imagined... Who knows where life will take you. The road is long and in the end... the journey is the destination" R- Residence: Asheville, NC S- Siblings: One older Sister T- Temperature: amazing, I love fall! U- University: I went to East Carolina for a year, does that count? V- Vehicle: Honda Pilot W- Want: a nice tropical vacation X-X: uh? X is a very useless letter sometimes Y- Yuck: cheese Z- Zodiac: Cancer I've been struggling with whether today or yesterday was the first day of fall, but since it started last night we'll go with today being the first full day of fall also known as my favorite time of year! There are so many things to love about this time of year and living in the mountains is so perfect for all things Fall! I wanted to come up with a fall bucket list of things I really want to do before that last leaf falls, so here we go:
1. Go to a corn maze, Asheville is home to western North Carolina's largest corn maze and I really want to go through it this year! 2. Carve pumpkins, because duh! And because I'm obsessed with roasted pumpkin seeds 3. Go on more hikes, especially to see the leaves changing along the parkway 4. Watch Hocus Pocus as much as possible 5. Pick apples, Hendersonville is known as apple country so apple orchards are everywhere and most have the option to pick your own 6. Bake a homemade pie, Michael's mom gave us this beautiful pottery pie dish and I really want to bake something in it 7. Complete a fall DIY project, Pinterest has given me lots of ideas to I hope to actually do one 8. Host Thanksgiving dinner for the second year, I loved having everyone visit last year so I hope to do that again 9. Go to a haunted house...maybe I'm a chicken so we'll see on this one 10. Make my Grandmother's Russian tea and drink the heck out of it! It's so delicious so I will definitely be posting the recipe at some point I really just hope to make the most of this season. I spent too much time sitting around and not doing much over the summer and it took a toll on me emotionally & physically. I'm not going to enjoy life sitting around waiting so I need to get out and enjoy it while I can. Feel free to leave anything you want to do this fall! I would love to add thins to my list! This past weekend Michael was heading to West Virginia to Gauley Fest an annual kayaking festival so it was the perfect weekend for me to head back home and spend the weekend with my mom & sister as well as spend time with two of my best friends before Marissa heads off on her big adventure to Thailand. Check out her blog and she talks more about her trip and what she'll be doing over there! I got in around 9 Friday night and caught up with my mom and then headed out for drinks and fried pickles with the girls. There is a local restaurant/bar in my hometown called The Flying Pig and it's a pretty popular place when people come back to visit. If you go around the holidays you're guaranteed to see about half of the people you went to high school with. We drank blue moons, ate fried pickles and caught up on life and things going on with each of us which is always great with good friends. We didn't stay out too late because my mom sister and I had an early morning planned... Saturday morning my 7:30 alarm was the last thing I wanted to hear but we were heading down to Walstonburg (right outside of Greenville, NC) to meet a couple who were adopting out their 3 year old labradoodle. My mom has been dying for a labradoodle and when I found this lady's ad her dog sounded like the perfect one for my mom so she contacted her and made plans to come meet and get the dog. About 20 minutes outside of their farm she text my mom saying the dog was missing with their lab...cue a major problem. Since we had already driven all that way we just went by to meet them and help look. Since they live on a farm the dogs are used to roaming around but always came back home and for some reason they just didn't come back. We stayed for about an hour but needed to get back home so we asked them to let us know if they came back and we would love to still get her. Mom was definitely disappointed but we held on to the fact that she would eventually come home. Even though she wasn't there I had fun driving down there and back with my mom and sister, it's usually always a hilarious time when it's just the three of us. Once we got back to town we all ended up taking naps and then I got up to get ready for the real girls night. About 7:30 that night my mom text me saying the dog had come home and she was going to pick her up in Raleigh the next morning! After all the excitement of hearing Happy returned home (yep, that's the dogs name that her original owners gave her) Marissa, Maegan and I headed out to dinner at a local restaurant called Something Different and then headed back over to the flying pig where we spent over 3 hours taking pictures, laughing uncontrollably and getting hit on by a man named Oliver who claimed to be a German professor at NC State...so uncomfortable. I had such a good time and was definitely feeling it by Sunday afternoon but it was so worth it and I'm so glad we were able to have a good time before Marissa leaves. Sunday morning mom headed out early to pick up Happy and I couldn't wait to meet her. Once they got home she was in desperate need of a bath which she did great with. She is such a mellow dog and is so calm. you don't have to walk her on a leash and you hardly know she's even beside you because she just follows along. Although they trained her well they didn't do a good job of grooming her....so being totally honest she looks pretty rough right now. Her fur on her back side is very matted and impossible to brush out so mom will have to get her shaved in order for her coat to grow back in a look normal. I hate when people get animals and don't put in the effort to take care of them. I know she will be a great fit for my mom and is finally with someone who will take care of her really well. I actually ended up bringing her back to Asheville with me for a week and then next week mom is coming up to visit and take her back with her. Today I'm thankful for good friends, a great family and weekends to catch up.
I hate messing things up or doing something wrong, but I think everyone does...it's human nature. I take it really hard when I mess up though..which isn't always a good thing because I tend to worry way more than I should. I love my job and I am really thankful for it but I came into this position knowing nothing about taxes...absolutely nothing. Although I am an administrative assistant and not actually working on taxes there is still a lot I needed to learn. The past 9 months working here has been a lot of new situations, new terminology, new computer programs and new expectations...things that I really want to be successful at learning.
I made it through 3/17 corporate deadlines and 4/15 individual deadlines and even the craziness of extensions so I thought getting through the final corporate, estate and partnership deadline would be a breeze. On Monday I definitely was not as overwhelmed as I thought I would be, I came into the office ready to handle everyone that would be coming in. I met with clients and delivered their returns, got all their signatures, stamped their envelopes and sent them off to the mailbox. All of our clients were great about coming in and we only had one left at the end of the afternoon. Late afternoon I was stamping some of the last enveloped when they didn't seem to be weighing right...we use a metered stamp and so I asked my bosses wife, Tonia to take a look at it when she tells me that I had it on the wrong weight. I had been using a letter weight and not a flat rate.....all day long. That meant that every single envelope I had put postage on wasn't the correct amount so all those returns due by 9/15 would most likely be sent back to the client and now be late...which causes penalties. I lost it...I started crying and Tonia called Todd who was pretty mad. I felt absolutely horrible...and yes it was an honest mistake but one that so easily could have not happened. I could not stop crying and Tonia was trying her best to help me understand that we would work it all out. Everything she said didn't affect me, I could not shake how bad I felt about it. Todd later called Tonia and said he had cooled down and that the same situation happened last year to a few returns and they were never sent back due to lack of postage and that even if they did we still had proof of mailing and could most likely avoid any penalties. I tried to shake it off but literally spent all night stressed about it and was still stressed when I came in the office yesterday morning. Todd has learned my personality really well since I've been here and he knew I was still worried about it so he came and talked to me and said everyone makes mistakes...some big and some small but worrying only makes me feel ten times worse. There wasn't anything I could do at this point and he said that we would work through it whatever happened but that dwelling on it all day would affect my work and clients so I took what he said and moved on from it. I still hate that I made the mistake because it so easily could have been avoided but I know it's a mistake that I will never make again as long as I'm working here. My boss was right, worrying never makes it easier or makes it go away you just have to accept what it was and know you did your best and know not to do it again. Last weekend was definitely a good one. I mentioned my friend Maegan & her boyfriend Andrew were coming up for the weekend so it was great to spend some time with them. Friday night started out with Michael knocking down a wasp nest (yep. on purpose) and making a lot of bees REALLY angry. Oh and the nest was right by our front door...and we had people arriving in half an hour. I had no clue what to do, they were flying around everywhere and all we had in the house was bug killer so we grabbed it and went to war. Eventually we defeated all the bees and got away with no stings and only one got in the house thankfully. Maegan and Andrew got to the apartment right as everything calmed down so we spent Friday night just hanging around and catching up. Saturday we didn't really have an set plans other than for Saturday night so we took the time to sleep in since we were in no rush. Maegan and I woke up before the boys so we snuck out to grab breakfast and finally coaxed the boys out of the rooms to start the day. We decided to take them downtown because neither had really seen much of it so we parked and spent the afternoon walking around, shopping and exploring downtown. After downtown we headed to Asheville mall, which is huge, to get some candles from Bath & Body works while they were on sale (Jerrica, great minds think a like!) After dragging the boys through the mall we dropped them back off at the apartment and left them to play Madden 15 while Maegan and I went to an apple orchard. I was so glad the boys got a long so well so Maegan and I had time to catch up. The apple orchard had all their pumpkins out, which makes me SO excited for Fall. Once we got back the boys were still playing so we took the time to lay around and relax and play this game called Two Dots. Y'all, it is so addictive, go download it right now, you'll love it! Around 7 we got ready to head to the Mountain State Fair, they hold it every September in Arden for about 2 weeks so it was the perfect thing to take them to. Michael and I went right after we started dating so it was fun to go back again. We stuffed our faces with fair food, hung out with random farm animals, stood in long lines for rides that made me so dizzy but were so fun and ended the night on the ferris wheel right before it down poured. The boys decided to try a basketball shooting game and Michael won me a stuffed dolphin, and then carried it around the rest of the night....it was hilarious. Once we got home we opened up some wine and put on Hocus Pocus, which is somewhat of a tradition for me and Maegan....we always watch it together and the boys had never seen it so we couldn't resist watching. Sunday they had to head out early to get back home so Maegan and I grabbed PSL's and then said our goodbyes. It was sad for them to leave but I'm glad they were able to come up and visit. After they left I headed over to Lowe's hardware to pick up some mum's to put by the front door because it was looking a little bare and I wanted some touches of fall. Now I just need a cute wreath to put on the front door. I spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning up and working on laundry and made some chili in the crock-pot for when Michael got home from kayaking. Overall it was a great weekend and definitely went by way too fast.
Woowho! We made it! This week feels like it has flown by but the days go by so slow...I know it doesn't make much sense. Whatever, just go with me. We have our final tax extension deadline coming up on Monday for corporations and the office has been crazy this week. And today when I walked in it got even crazier, our tax manager had a family issue to attend (throw some prayers up for her and her family) my boss has out of the office meetings all day and we have people coming in and out every five minutes to pick up returns. I'm not sure if I've mentioned it but I work for a small staffed firm, there are only 6 of us who are full time and 2 are part time but we have almost 1,000 clients so we stay busy throughout the year. We'll definitely get everything done but with the few setbacks we've had we'll definitely be working hard to get it all out.
Today my friend Maegan & her boyfriend are coming up to the spend the weekend which I'm excited about. I love having company and love being able to show people around Asheville and help them see why I love it so much. We're planning on hitting up some local apple orchards and then the Mountain State Fair with some friends. I'm sure we'll get into plenty other things so you'll get a full recap next week. I'm hoping the weather cooperates for us, it's supposed to cool down (yay fall!) but I also noticed some rain chances in the forecast so I hope that stays away. I also can't wait to introduce Maegan & Andrew to my favorite craft beers and breweries! The rest of this month is quite busy as we have plans the last two weekends of the month and then our final tax deadline at work, so I'm looking forward to all the exciting things coming up. We're heading to the first kayaking festival (for me) the last weekend of this month and I cannot wait for it. I want to do a full post on kayaking festivals because they are SO much fun and the people who go are always great to be around. This post was full of random things with no specific place which is pitiful for a Friday but I've got plenty of exciting posts coming up! Happy weekend y'all! Okay okay...so I'm way behind the times. Whatever. I'm that person who won't pay a ridiculous amount to watch a movie in theaters unless I'm dying to see it so I'll usually just be patient and wait for a movie to come out on redbox. I got an email with all the new releases and noticed Divergent was on there and I had heard good things about it so I reserved it for Michael and I to watch. I was worried he wouldn't be interested because our movie taste are SO different, I usually suffer through movies he likes to watch (ex. American Beauty...I really don't like Kevin Spacey he creeps me out.) Anywho, I told him it was similar to the Hunger Games which he did like so he was game to watch. We ended up splitting it between two nights because the first night his friend was coming by so we finished it last night and I loved it! Here are my thoughts/recap on it:
The movie is based around a war-torn world that has only a small population left and in order to avoid another war people are put into one of five "societies" or as they call them, factions. All based on different personality traits from honesty, smarts, strength, and selflessness. At a certain age teenagers are given a test that basically gives them idea of where the really belong and then from there they choose what faction that would like to spend the rest of their life with. Tris the main character learns that her personality doesn't conform...she doesn't portray one specific faction therefore she is labeled as divergent a trait seen as very dangerous in this world. Tris makes the decision to join the faction Dauntless who represent the strong protectors and from there she must prove herself through a series of tasks to show she really belongs. Tris soon learns that divergents are being actively sought out and if they discover who she really is she faces being killed. Tris eventually forms a friendship with a fellow dauntless member who pushes her to not give up despite her setbacks. The two soon uncover a plan that has the ability to destroy many lives if it isn't stopped. End scene. I wanted to be as detailed as I could without giving too much away but it really was a good movie. I love that this movie shows the beauty and strength in not conforming but wishing to be a part of each faction. My favorite line is the movie is said by the character Four which is. "I don't want to be just one thing. I can't be. I want to be brave, and I want to be selfless, intelligent, and honest and kind." It's okay to not conform, but to accept who you are as a person and be happy with that. I've heard the book series is great so I would love to pick those up and read them before the last two movies come out. If you're looking for a good weekend movie I definitely suggest picking this one up. |