Haha.. this is probably crazy

New neighbors part 2... LOL

So they were at it again last night. Stomping around like crazy. Fe-Fi-Fo=Fum
I think someone in the family must be a gymnast, because they are always bouncing around up there. Finally after about 30 minutes of said banging, I decided to start making some noise myself.
Of course the first idea that popped in my head was to grab the broom and start hitting the ceiling while yelling "SHUT UP!" Piping sleeping gas into their unit would probably be illegal, plus, where would I get sleeping gas? How would I pipe it in? That idea went down the drain pretty quickly.
So at 312am, I started practicing my throwing by throwing Jace's tennis ball against the ceiling. Jace got in on the fun too, she started barking because she couldn't get the ball while it was being thrown so high (but she did try). Between the bouncing, Jace barking, and me laughing at her, I think they got the clue because after 5 minutes they got quieter. I guess I need to start looking to see if there's a way to break my lease for having horrible upstairs neighbors?
Here's to hoping that they quiet down after a few days. :/

Hello New Neighbors! You SUCK!

So I didn't really want to move back into a condo living situation, but with a kid going to college, I needed to find some ways to cut expenses. Plus, who needs a 1600+ sq. ft. 3 BR house when it's just me and 2 dogs? ME, that's who! I moved here a couple months back, in order to save some money. I've lived here before, when we were starting out and it wasn't horrible. But I've been living in a house for long enough that having neighbors living above me and boxed in is definitely getting OLD real quick. My previous upstairs neighbor lived there with her older daughter. She worked nights and they were pretty quiet for the most part. My new neighbors have young kids... 3 of them. It sounds like they're going to fall through the ceiling and Jace is going NUTS every time she hears them. It started on Sunday night. When I say night, I mean they didn't start moving their crap in until after 10pm! I understand that it's hot and still over 100 degrees in the day, but moving into a condo upstairs until after 3am is very fricken rude! Especially on a Sunday when most of us work Monday morning. Around 1am I finally went out side to leave and get a drink since I wasn't able to sleep anyhow. I even made an obviously fake apology about being sorry that my dog was barking this late, but she can hear them upstairs making all kinds of noise. Nope.. they obviously didn't get the hint. Someone had to work the next morning, because they were back at stomping around at 6 am Monday morning.. UGGH Last night they were fairly quiet, until around 230 am and I think someone decided they needed to do jumping jacks during the middle of the night. Which of course woke me up out of a dead sleep and Jace woke up barking.. Please dear lord, make these people go to sleep tonight and not wake up until tomorrow morning. I NEED SLEEP! 280 days and counting...

Shark week! Bring on the sweets!

Ever had that need for "comfort food" or just sweets in general. It happens to me about once a month and trying to find the thing that hit's the spot isn't always the easiest thing. This month, my mind was set on cupcakes or cake truffles. So I had to try a few out over the last week. I started with truffles from The Sweet Tooth Fairy. They are $.95 each (not a bad price), but they are pretty small. I'd compare it to the overall size of a Reese's peanut butter cup. I went with original vanilla with sprinkles, cookie dough, lemon and mint Oreo. I'm almost always a fan of lemon, but I was really disappointed. It was pretty flat tasting and didn't have even a hint of that expected lemon zing. The others were just ok. Not horrible, but not really note worthy either. Can't say that I even found a favorite. Next was a drive-by find. Called Piece of Cake Desserts. I saw their sign while driving down the street and made a detour inside. The cupcakes are $3 each and they're on the small size. I went with the suggestion of the waitress and had Vanilla bean with almond cream cheese frosting the lemon and the pumpkin. I loved the vanilla bean with almond (definitely hit the spot and I didn't want to share that one!). The lemon was pretty good; not the best I've had, but pretty good. Had good flavor and a little bit of a zing. The pumpkin spice is a seasonal item and at first bite, it wasn't horrible. But it left a funky after-taste. I am definitely not a fan of their pumpkin spice. The last was my usual go to when I am in the need for cupcake sweets. Caketini! I enjoy their truffles as much as I do their cupcakes. My favorite and general go to is the lemon with raspberry frosting. As always it was very good! The other one I tried this time was the salted caramel. I can't say that I'm a huge fan of salted caramel, it sounds appealing, but I don't have much to judge it by. The frosting seemed like a whipped cream hybrid that I wasn't totally on board with, but the rest was decent. Once you hit the salted caramel filling it was very flavorful. Till next month, I'll let my sweet-tooth take a break.

Doggy Daycare

Yes, you read that correctly. Daycare for your dog. It's a real thing and it's almost as daunting as finding a daycare for your human children too! So I am stuck with this dog that my daughter HAD to have. Let's be honest, I love her to death, but she's still a puppy and wants to play all the time. She has so much energy and needs to have a way to exercise that energy. Before downsizing to a small condo, we had a huge backyard for her to frolic about and now she's stuck inside, unless she's on a leash and taken out for a walk. She's a "runner". Anyhow, I found a local puppy daycare that offers half day play time and it's pretty affordable. They required her to have an "interview" which involved me bringing her in for a few hours to see how she did and if she behaved. They also verified that she was up to date on all of her shots (including kennel cough). When I went in for her interview, the owner gave me a tour of the facility and showed me all of the puppy yards (inside and outside), as well as every other nook and cranny of the place. The dogs were separated into groups (size/temperament) and had humans who spent time in each play yard with the dogs. To say the least, I felt pretty comfortable leaving my dog there. Upon leaving, I was shown that each area has a camera and when you first walk into the facility, there are monitors that show every area. That's pretty cool. Above that, they have an online app where I can log on and watch my dog the entire time she is there. Why don't ALL daycares have this?? This place has more visibility than my daughter's daycare ever had. I'll be honest, I left the app open on my Kindle the whole time she was there and checked in on her often. I have a feeling that if this were available when my daughter was a baby, I would never have gotten any work done, because I would have been watching the monitor ALL day! Jace seemed to have an ok time, but most of the time she seemed to be sitting on or waiting to sit on a human's lap. It's new to her, so I think I'll give it a few more tries before I deem it a failure. The reason I want her to go, is to run out some of the energy. If it was a matter of her just cuddling up to someone, I am home all day, she can lay next to me and it doesn't cost anything extra. Times are a changing and as much as I know people hate having their privacy infringed upon, I think that in the case of daycares, human and animal, the constant video is a huge step in the right direction. You can't be too careful with your children's welfare. **Forgot to publish this during the week. :/ Left it in limbo..

Does it ever end?

So my college teenager is off at school and I think I actually even talk to her more now than I ever did when she lived at home. She calls today and is complaining about 2 of her suitemates being sick. Just this weekend, when she said about her suitemates not feeling good and her throat was hurting, that she needed to go into Urgent care. Did she listen? NO. Her response is “I’m too busy. I don’t have time for that”. Come on child, I know what it’s like to be super busy, but you make time. Either you make the time now and get the antibiotics now, or you wait a few days, it gets worse, you miss a few days of school and when you’re at death’s door, you go get antibiotics. Then let’s see how much TIME you have after that, while you are struggling to catch up on the days that you miss! UGGH… Seriously does it ever end? Every time I tell her about something she needs to do, her response is she doesn’t have time, she’s too busy, I just don’t understand. It’s not just about being sick, it’s about everything. Let’s just hope she makes it through the semester. Me, I’m going to get to bed early tonight, since I no longer have to wait up for my teenager to come home at night and maybe I’ll catch up on some of that TIME I haven’t had the last 18+ years! On a Happy note, the Cardinals won Sunday’s game, so Sonic had half price drinks all day long and Dunkin Donuts had free coffee (if you have the app).

It it cliche to be a single mom and a hopeless romantic?

Tonight, is a night like many others that I've had. I stayed awake until the early morning hours just because I didn't want to put a book down. Being that it is the weekend, I don't even feel guilty about it, or the fact that I'll probably sleep until after noon tomorrow today. Yesterday I stayed awake to finish the second book in the Heart series by Claire Contreras. While I can definitely get into some smut novels, what I truly enjoyed about these books in particular, is it was about second chances in love. The characters were quirky and funny. You fell in love with them almost immediately and the situations were real life situations that could happen anytime to anyone of us. (Spoiler alert, a millionaire/billionaire dominant man doesn’t fall for a down on her luck young virginal woman in her 20’s. [Not that I don’t enjoy those stories too!]) There’s love, hurt, anger, misunderstandings, betrayals and friendships that last forever. No wonder I’m a hopeless romantic, my day consisted of running errands, getting out care packages, paying bills and thinking of all of the things that I want to be doing and need to be doing. I’ve been in crafting mode for a couple of days. I’ve made little girl tutu’s, tutu dresses, adult Susan G Komen pink tutus and looked at costume ideas in the tutu area. I have painted some cute baby onesies and found a new holiday decoration idea. Pinterest is my BFF always! Well now that it’s early morning hours once again, instead of turning to a new book, I think I’ll turn on Catching Fire and have it lull me to sleep. Yes, you read that right. It’s a movie I’ve seen a million times and one in a list of many that I use to help me float off to lala land. Good morning to you!

When does the party start?

Empty Nester: a parent whose children have grown up and left home. I’ve been thinking about these days for almost half of my life. The day when my little baby girl would grow up, go off to college and move out. I still joke to family and close friends that I hoped they saved money for bail, because I’m going to go crazy with all of the freedom! The story is one I’m sure many of you know and have probably even lived through, or know someone in the same situation. Fell for my high school sweetheart. Got engaged, got pregnant, got married… Got divorced. :/ I was a divorced single mother, before I was even legally allowed to buy/drink alcohol! I wouldn’t say my life was horrible or that I had to do everything on my own. I have a very good family and they helped where they could, but ultimately, she was my daughter and I had made choices in life and I had to grow up and take care of the consequences that came from those choices. It is what it is… Well, my kid hasn’t been gone all too long and she even came home for the weekend to celebrate her birthday. So it’s not like she’s been gone for months and I’ve been sitting here doing nothing. But in all honesty, it’s almost exactly like that! I haven’t been to parties, or on dates, or any crazy adventures, but I did sleep in until after 1pm a couple days on the weekends. I did stay awake all night long! Ok, so it was immersed into a book, but it was a good book! So what am I doing here? Well. I need an outlet. A place to put down some thoughts, ideas and make myself get off my lazy butt, and have some adult fun. Oh, and get healthy. Maybe date a little. But for tonight, since it’s already getting late, the plan is to run a nice hot bath in my big garden tub, climb in with a good book (please don’t let me drop my Kindle) and then when the water turns lukewarm, I’ll climb into bed, the 2 dogs will crowd me to the edge (I’ve only actually rolled off the bed once because of this) and I’ll read until I finally pass out. If I finish the book, I may just turn on the TV. Maybe there’s something interesting on Netflix, or Amazon Prime, or Hulu… Boy, am I living the life! Maybe I just need a few weeks of sleep to catch up on all of the sleep I didn’t get for YEARS! 