sometimes life throws you a curveball (or seven)

Disclaimer: I've been trying to write this blog post for something close to a year now. Last time I looked at it, it was maybe... March? So, I'm just going to pick up where I left off I guess.

I have a habit of being really excited about writing for this little blog of mine and then falling right out of the bloggosphere. To be fair, this time, I have a valid medical reason to not be writing. (On the same token, all I did was lay on a couch for two weeks straight, so I probably could have mustered something up in between sleeping ;) but oh well!) So let's get down to the nitty gritty. 

First things first (I'm the realest), the medical reason. I can't remember if I've ever talked about this on here, but well over a year ago in March of 2013, I woke up in the middle of the night with the worst possible pain I've ever felt in my back. As soon as I could, I went to the doctor and asked her specifically (at the recommendation of B's mom, who is a nurse) if the pain I felt had to do with my gallbladder while describing the pain I felt and where I felt it. Doc said "nothing to worry about, probably a pinched nerve," and I put it out of my mind because it didn't happen again for a long time. Then, surprise!, it started happening again, albeit sporadically. For pretty much the whole month of October, there were at least one day every week where this happened, if not more, finally culminating in the "OH MY GOD MY INSIDES ARE LAVA" feeling the propelled me out of sleep at 4am screaming on the 19th. I barely made it through and made it to work but I was one wrong movement way from either being in excruciating pain or barfing. Luckily, the managers took pity on me and let me go home. I fell asleep in my car in the driveway seconds after getting home because I was so exhausted. The next day, I called out of work and had B take me to an urgent care.

Thursday & a {Weekend Recap}

{Thursday}

Thursday night was a fun one indeed. Andrew came over for dinner and fire in the fire pit. Somewhere in the middle of hanging out, Allison came over, too. And since the Heather/Bill household lacks board games, we ended up playing the Newlywed Game {Andrew's test to see how well we know each other: PASSED} and  Charades.

{Friday}

I started Friday morning out with Allison, with a brunch eaten at Red Lobster. She got lobster with seafood tacos, and I had shrimp and lobster alfredo. YUM!

We also went to Sephora and Ulta. It's that time of year again: I got birthday gift at Sephora! A Watt's Up highlighter & Benefit's They're Real mascara. I'm still trying them out, so I can't tell you 100% how I feel about them, but oh my goodness that mascara is heaven and the brush is perf. 

Later that night, after dinner and the dogs being walked, Bill and I took a trip to Berry Creamy, a local frozen yogurt place. I basically always get the same thing when I go here: sea salt and caramel pretzel froyo with little caramel-filled chocolate cups and caramel sauce. Can you tell I like caramel?! So good! My favourite Klondike bar is the caramel Pretzel one, so as you can imagine... Anything salty and sweet is A+ in my book ;)

{Saturday}

This Saturday did not go at all how it was planned. Originally, we were supposed to go up to Bound Brook, NJ for a Revolutionary War reenactment, but the friend we were going to see wasn't able to go, so our plans change.
To start off, I treated Bill to Bob Evans for lunch. I have a lot of memories in this place, let me tell you. But that's a post for a different day. Going in the door, we saw this car parked ON THE SIDEWALK. Bill chuckled and said "I guess the door wasn't close enough for him, huh?"

It was around lunch when we got there, so I had a turkey dinner, complete with biscuits, mashed potatoes, cranberry relish and carrots {which I ate before taking this picture....} Bill had a Sunshine Skillet, which is an open faced omelet with sausage and home fries, topped with country gravy and shredded cheddar cheese. He also had his with biscuits and said about it: "That was faaantastic. I think the ratio of sausage to potato to egg should be greater." But it was still good, right?!

After leaving Bob Evans, our next stop was Red Bank Battlefield Park. I adore this park because it's one, beautiful, and two HISTORIC. I love history so much, it can be a little excessive at times.

So, as you can imagine, I was ecstatic when I found out that tours were given of the house on the grounds (built in 1748). Tours are given April - October (The Battle of Red Bank was in October) and I think their season ends with a reenactment on the day of the battle.

Considering we are in to the second weekend of April, I figure the tours would have started. Right I was! Unfortunately, the tour guide we had was very scatterbrained and somewhat terrible. He was dressed in time-period garb, so both Bill and I figured he would've been a good tour guide. But alas, he was not, and I myself could've given a better tour.

We walked around the park a bit because I wanted to take pictures of Bill, but it was so incredibly windy! So here are a few pictures taken—thanks Bill for the awful photos of me!

The top two left photos are from our trip to Wawa afterward, where we both got tea and pretzels filled with cheese! Some of my favourite Wawa things. After some food, we headed back to the house, where Chrissy and Larren were ready and waiting for us!

The four of us sat around the house talking for a little while, and Larren suggested we go out to Red Robin. This was an unexpected, but welcome, change of events—considering pasta was slated for dinner that night. No offense to pasta, but this was way better! Bill and I both had some variation of a chicken sandwich, which wasn't bad at all! I also had this amazingly delicious drink called Very Berry Raspberry Limeade. Made of Sprite, and some other ingredients (I forget, sorry :X)... Even Bill had a sip and liked it!

We came home after eating while Chrissy and Larren walked around the mall. Bill went to walk the dogs and guess who we saw parked on our street? MISTER SOFTEE! I have an unhealthy adoration for Mister Softee, so of course I had to get a cone. Chocolate with chocolate jimmies, YUM!

When Chrissy and Larren came back over after food, she and Bill picked weeds, and I planted pansies and some blue and white flower I forgot the name of in some flower pots Bill and I picked up together.

Larren made an awesome fire for us, because I just couldn't get it going right! So as a treat for everyone, I brought out my sparklers. :) And of course, what better way to end a perfect day, than with a kiss? :3 It was so nice: as the fire was dying out, Bill put his arm around my shoulder and snuggled in real close to say "I'm so glad today happened this way. It was perfect."

{Sunday}

Bill recently started working weekends, which I have to say is an adjustment for me. I thought it was Friday the whole time! It was nice though, he came home to visit me for lunch, and brought me Wendy's. We were FaceTiming while he was driving to Wendy's {NO WORRIES, the phone was on the dashboard, and when he got there, he ordered for me, exactly what I wanted before even asking. Then he checked to make sure he was right, hahah! I love that he knew exactly what I wanted, from my my plain chicken sandwich to the size, down to the "no ice, please" for my sweet tea. Two quickly eaten lunches later, and Bill left to go back to work :(

Since Sundays are our grocery shopping day (and I don't have a car currently), we went grocery shopping late. And by late, I mean BJs was actually closed when we got there, and for the first time ever, ShopRite wasn't packed, either.


Wow, what a busy few days! How was your weekend?

Titanic: The Unsinkable Ship {at the Franklin Institute}

Howdy lovelies! Have any of you missed me?

On Saturday, Bill and I took and adventure into the city with two of my friends, Allison and Joanna, to go to the Franklin Institute to see the museum and (most importantly) the Titanic Exhibit.

Driving into the city

When we first got to the Franklin Institute, the line to get tickets was so long, so we ended up going to TGIFridays for lunch...which of course I forgot to take pictures of. Instead, I have pictures of us waiting in line to buy our museum tickets and figuring out what we were going to do about our pups, since the tickets we had to the exhibit were for the later time. (Shout out to Christine for feeding and walking our pups on such short notice! You really saved the day ♥) 

[Left] Me and Bill, waiting in line. [Right] Me and Joanna trying to figure out our tickets.

The Franklin Air Show room was actually really cool. It had a lot of air-science related things (of course). In the picture of Bill and Allison, there's a wall of sparkly disks and various things pointing at them for you to play with. Giant drums, fan-like things, and noisemakers. The various sounds let out air and cause the sparkly things to move! It was pretty cool. And in the this picture, Bill is trying to inflate a balloon bigger than I did with a thing that was like an accordion bellow for fires.

[Right] The Original Wright 1911 Model B Flyer 

In the "Sir Isaac's Loft" portion of the museum, there were all sorts of cool things to do with...uh, Sir Isaac Newton. (I'm bad at science.) There was a giant contraption that looked like the game Mouse Trap which Bill, Allison, and Joanna told me the game Mouse Trap was based off of... So how about that! There were also these pulley seats that you see Joanna and I sitting in. We were racing to see who could get to the top first. (I won!) Sorry Joanna ;)

The pièce de résistance... The Titanic Exhibit! Unfortunately the only two pictures that I have of it are the one outside the entrance and a picture of the picture we got to take on the staircase "inside" the Titanic. This time it's not because I forgot! Going in, there's a sign with all the rules and "no photography" was one of them, sadly. 

It was really cool! Upon going in, they give you your "boarding pass" where you go through the exhibit and get to find out if you lived or not at the end. Joanna and Bill both died (Joanna, a second-class woman; Bill, Isador Strauss. Otherwise known as the old guy in the movie who dies with his wife in their bed). Allison and I, though, both lived, woo!

And of course, no trip is complete without pictures of me making ridiculous faces or poses. In the first picture, I have magnetic finger puppets of Albert Einstein and Sir Isaac Newton. I'm not really sure what's going on in the second picture... Bill took that one. ;)

After all was said and done, we dropped Joanna and Allison off at home, came back to our house to take care of and see the pups, and then made a Chipotle run! No better way to end a night that with a burrito, right?

Thanks for reading, and sorry I've been gone. I'll try to get back to posting more regularly. xoxo

{Weekend Recap} + Monday & Tuesday! So Late...

{Friday}
Friday wasn't all that of an eventful day. But I did get a new purse from Target! I love it. I had a panda purse/satchel thing prior to this, and I used that off and on for the past three years. As much as I loved it, though, I definitely will admit that I was a little embarrassed to be bringing that to the bowling league every week, as well as to this one office related function that Bill and I went to for his work. And thus! A new purse was born!

{Saturday}
Saturday was actually the busiest of days for us.

Starting off Saturday...by going bowling! I actually didn't do too bad for myself, either. I pretty much hit something every frame, which was nice, actually. (I'm a really bad bowler.) Here's an action shot of Bill bowling...most likely a strike.

After bowling, we went back to my hometown here in Jersey to pick up mail from my old house. (Mail is surprisingly still being sent there...) Since there was also mail for my mom, we stopped at the Rita's that I used to work at to get some custard before heading over to Philadelphia since they just opened the day prior. It was so great to see my old bosses! I miss them so much every day. Sadly, I didn't get to see their sons, though. Oh well, next time! If I had to pick out of all my jobs who my favourite boss was, it would definitely be my bosses from Rita's.

We didn't stay in Philly very long. Just enough for me to give mom her mail and to get mine, and say hello to the dogs. We wanted to avoid rush hour traffic, as well, but sadly that didn't happen.

By the time we got home, we both decided that neither of us wanted to cook, so we had Arby's for dinner! Oh my goodness, it was so delicious. When I moved to Philly, there wasn't an Arby's anywhere nearby, so I was deprived of it for a while. Even now, I still savour it every time I have it!

Not too long after we got home from that, my friend Allison came over to hang out with us and we made homemade Shamrock shakes. They weren't bad, actually. Maybe next time I should leave out the cookies, though...

{Sunday}
All we really did on Sunday was our usual grocery shopping. A few days prior, my eyeliner pen ran out, so I picked up a new eyeliner or two and a mascara while we were out. Normally, I get the Revlon eyeliner pen, but admittedly, I got Loreal because I had a coupon! Hahah. Thanks, coupons, for getting me to try new things. So far, I actually really like it!

Do you have a specific day you go grocery shopping? A specific budget? Let me know in the comments below. And if you'd like, I'll do a post all about how we made tackle our grocery shopping and week of meals.

{Monday}
Mondays, for the record, are league bowling nights for Bill.

This week was especially exciting/nervewracking because the first game...he kept hitting strikes. Frame one, strike. Frame two, strike. Frame seven, strike. Frame ten, strike.

If you know anything about bowling, you know that the 10th frame has three turns. First turn, Bill strikes. The next two? He does not. And that's how he missed his 300. When you get a 300, the USBC sends you a ring. But that's okay! He can always try again next week.

{Tuesday}
Tuesday, we had my friend Allison over again, and her boyfriend Shane. Allison made Crockpot Cheddar Beer Chicken Tacos from How Sweet It Is found on none other than... Pinterest. :) They were delicious.

Bill and I made chicken fried rice. I made the chicken and the rice before Bill got home, and he put it all together afterward. It was combo Mexican and Chinese night!

Allison also jetted me over to the library so I could return some books and pick up some new ones! (I'm already halfway through Bossypants by Tina Fey and I just started reading it yesterday evening.)

After dinner we played Clue, which I haven't played since I was like ten... It was really confusing for me to figure out at first, but once I did, it wasn't so bad. Sadly, by them time I had figured it out, Allison, the Queen of Clue, won again.

{And that brings us to today...}
Yesterday wasn't too eventful. I cleaned the rest of the house, and pre-cooked dinner for my mister (and so that I could have some to take to my mom's house) before I left for three days. I'm back at mom's house, petsitting until tomorrow night. I have to say, I really miss my mister. (Hi Bill, if you're reading this! <3)

Not too much going on. I'm blazing through Bossypants. Actually... I think I'll get back to doing that right now... :)

Sorry for the massive post dump! It's totally my fault for not just sitting down and making myself do it. I need to get back on the ball!