Tuesday Mornings...

Tuesdays are my Monday's since I have Monday off. So usually Tuesday mornings are not a welcome sight. SOME Tuesdays (like this morning) we had an earlier call to prepare for Macbeth. So once again, another thing to add to the yuck that is Tuesday. So this morning Mike gets up before me and then comes into the bedroom and shakes me while saying BABE! BABE! So I pull myself outta my slumber and he then tells me the screen in the dining room was ripped open. I then start to think, someone stole something, but he continues to tell me that he can't find our kitten, Dakota. Awesome. Happy Tuesday. Oh, and last night Dakota's collar (which is the reasons she was brought back to us the FIRST time she escaped had come off and we didn't but it back on her...coool) So I couldn't stay home because like I said I had to perform in Macbeth. Thankfully Mike stayed home to continue the search. He then went to Target to get more black ink so he could post flyers. So he goes to post the first set of flyers and what does he find? Dakota! Under the steps in the next building over. Cold, wet, but alive.

Seriously! This cat is like Spiderman!!!! She is an escape artist! And she is going to give me gray hair AND ulcers!

ug.

arg.

cats.

I am not looking forward to children.

Home

This last weekend took me home to SD for my Grandpa's funeral. It wasn't totally unexpected but it was still a very hard weekend. The funeral was beautiful and was very Grandpa. So many people were there to share memories or give hugs, it was a very wonderful tribute. Every time I venture home I am amazed at the lifestyle and the people. Just sitting on a porch for 20 minutes drinking coffee on a Friday morning and not seeing another soul, is totally foreign where I now live. I am always taken aback at how many people I know in my hometown and how I can never go anywhere without running into someone I know. It is like a gift. This weekend was very hard but at the same time very renewing. My Grandpa was a "good ole boy" and his lessons will forever live in me.

So, with Grandpa in mind I came home to PA and I had a new sense of family and love, and hard work. Mike and I are still in the middle of the Minneapolis move. We have hit a couple of hurdles, like losing out on a fantastic job, and kind of being out of options for jobs for Mike. So we are committed to moving to MN, but maybe we can't be IN the city just now. Maybe Mike needs to get a great job outside of the city and get some experience and work at a great company. So we are figuring out how to bend. The most important part is that we are together. Growing up is tough. I feel like I am making decisions that will impact not only me, but Mike and our future family. It's tough, and tricky. I know that many people are going to want to give their advice and some people are just going to want to judge. We just have to stay strong and work towards the big picture.

I wish there was a road map for all of this, and I also wish I had a genie in a bottle, OR an easy button. sheeh.

a new leaf

Last week I decided to make a huge change in my life that has been a long time coming. I decided to join weight watchers. This is not something I am totally ok announcing to everyone because I feel as if it is admitting a failure. Up until now I have failed to keep myself healthy I have failed to control food and I have failed to help myself. It took me a LONG time to get to be ok with who I am and how I look. And I believe I am truly ok with myself, and thus I feel like this is the perfect time to do it. I am doin this more me, and no one else. I can't quit this, I can't stop this I can;t give up. I want to get to my goal weight for so many reasons and none of them are to be more liked. I don't want people to think I am doing this because I don't like myself. That is not it, I want to be a healthy version of me. I want to lose about 100 pounds. I know this is not going to come easy and I know this is going to take time, and I am ok with that. I just know that a year from now I want to be a TOTALLY lighter version of myself.

I am lucky because Mike is in it with me and he is totally on the boat of let's eat better.

I guess I am just really scared of failure and I am scared of self control, which I have very little of. I need to think about this as a lifestyle change. I realize that I am not one of those women who can eat anything they like and still look the same, I hate it, but I'm not.

So needless to say I am like to start a lot of journeys at once..... I like to multi task.

Success

I feel like I finally have TIME again. It is an odd feeling, but so wonderful!

Melissa and I are doing workshop with CASA (capitol area school for the arts) students this month and it has been great just sitting back and talking with these high schoolers. They make me think about my career and my path and they make me realize how different all of our paths are. Today I heard one of my favorite quotes again, We all have our own definition of success. I feel like finally I am able to sit back and see how MY definition has changed in the past 2 years. It has changed completely. But I think it has changed into something that I have finally chosen. I realized this morning that this move to MPLS is the first move I have CHOSEN to make. The first move I have decided on. It is a crazy feeling. It is scary as well, going into a new city without a job, but I am so confident that this is the right decision. We all have different paths and it is not up to us to judge, it is up to us to support. Support those who are doing what their heart wants and support those who are following THEIR definition of success.

Saturday night? What is that?

So for the first time in AGES I am home, on the couch, on a Saturday night. It is amazing!

So here are the newest Minni-apple Move updates:

Mike flies out of HBG on May 2nd for a face to face interview on the 3rd. He will be there all day getting a huge tour and meeting people. He had to fill out a HUGE personality/math test... sounds like fun huh? I am just PRAYING this goes through.

Before then I need to buy him a new shirt and tie combo.... he needs help.

AND...

I think we need a POD. Those huge metal boxes that you pack up and they move your stuff for you. But all I know about these PODS are just that, metal boxes and they move them... we need more info.

Also.... who wants to paint our walls?! I sure don't. Yuck.

On The Move

So since the big move to Minneapolis is coming I thought I was try to dedicate the blog to the joys, stumbles, lessons, and hurdles that a big move brings! So here we go.

Never have I made a move like this as a "big kid". All I have done up until now is pack up all of my stuff in my car with the promise of a contract and go.... this time it is different. There is so much to think about. And this time around I have STUFF! Well, WE have stuff. Mike and I have a life together and we are packin er up and movin er out... there is a whole LOT to think about.

We know we can't move until Mike finds a job because no matter HOW much I make it will NEVER be as much as him, so he is the bread winner... I am the bread eater, so it all works out. He has an exciting possibility on his plate right now. A face to face fly out to MPLS is in 2 weeks. So that is SOOOOO exciting!!!! We are not pinning all of our hopes on this one AWESOME job but my GOD, he might have a KILLER job in less than a MONTH! Ahhhh!

Ok so now we are thinking about homes, condos, cardboard boxes etc. We think that we need a real estate agent because we think we want/need/can afford a condo. But I still feel like I am 12 and how can a 12 year old hire a real estate agent?!

And then, do we hire a moving company? Do we rent U Hauls? PA-LEAZE!!!! What the heck! And then... we have 2 cats.... who are both kind of crazy, how do we move them.

SOOOOO, stay tuned blog lovers.... HERE..... WE.....GO!!!!!

Not Yet Dead....

So it had been since November. Wow. My blogging skills are NOT top notch. So here is a breakdown of the top stories in my life since November:

-Richard III was a huge hit and a joy to be in

-I chopped my hair off, it was traumatic and the girl who did it must have picked up scissors for the FIRST time that day.... I found a different stylist at SASS SALON in Mechanicsburg (Lauren, love her) and she has fixed me and I fell in love with her.

-Christmas was great! Mike and I's first Christmas together, it was sweet. Christmas eve Dakota inhaled cat nip and hacked like a 65 year old smoker for DAYS. We learned that some cats can't handle cat nip... good to know our cat is one of them.

-New Years events were insane once again, MAN I am I glad I will never have to do that again.

-Went to SD for my January break. Went to the dentist for a teeth cleaning, did I mention that this dentist was a close friend from HS.... awkward. Anywho not ONLY did I have a cavity but she said I had to get my wisdom teeth taken out ASAP. that meant the next day. So that day I had a cavity filled, and the next day I had three wisdom teeth removed. I only had three, I am an evolved human. Spent the rest of my break on the couch and snowed in my 3 feet of snow. Thank goodness for my mom.

-Came back to HBG to kick off Snow White

-I was not in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare so I could spend time focusing on Snow.

-February-day after yesterday: life consumed with Snow White. Some things happened in between there.... like, Mike and I decided to move to Minneapolis Minnesota in August, Dakota got diagnosed with bladder crystals which makes her pee wherever she darn well pleases, Went to New Hampshire for Easter, Drove in Mid Town NYC and survived, Saw Carolyn for the first time in YEARS, She is getting married, My friend Katie is pregnant, Planned a trip to MPLS for July which will include a stop over in Illinois to see my girls.

so that leads us to today, I am trying to catch up on laundry and sleep while looking for jobs in MPLS online, dreaming of getting a dog and a condo, and feeling truly blessed. As I get older I am finding it easier and easier to recognize the negative in my life and cut it out. I am finding it easier to concentrate on the people who enrich my life and ignore those who don't, and I am finding it critical to surround myself with positive forces.

Hopefully I will update this thing sooner than five months from now..... fingers crossed.