An awesome way to start the weekend

I have had a great Saturday so far. As I was dropping Paulie off this morning, I met up with my friend Jessica(who happens to also be a Blue Horseshoe wife)and we needed to get some breakfast. We have been trying to go to this little family owned restaurant in Hampton called Tommy's, but there is ALWAYS a line out the door (a surefire sign that something good is cooking!). Well, we decided today was THE day. And guess what? The line wasn't too long when we got there. It was fate!

Let me tell you, this place is a diamond in the rough! There is nothing fancy about this diner, but there is definitely a charm about it with it's blue gingham curtains and simple one sheet menu. Jessica ordered oatmeal and pancakes and I ordered eggs, ham, and a waffle. The waitress, Stephanie, was on point with everything. She even brought a little pot of milk and a shaker of cinnamon and sugar for Jessica's oatmeal! We also placed to go orders for the boys since they were hard at work tattooing at the shop.

Here's the kicker:

Tommy's only takes cash. This amazes me! You know the food is "off the chain" if a restaurant stays packed and does not take credit cards. So if you ever happen to be on Mercury in Hampton, VA you NEED to check Tommy's out!

After dropping off Paulie and Nick's food, I introduced Jessica to the glory of Game's Farmers Market. In a cage match with any other grocery store, Game's would win every time. They carry fresh and frozen local/regional produce, a wide variety of spices, and local meat! I really like their bulk-amish style section the best!

After shopping, Jessica and I parted ways and I am now at home with the chihuahuas writing this. It's been a long time since I've enjoyed a Saturday morning. I hope this starts a trend!

The unfairness of it all!

In two seperate cases in the past week two local couples, both of whom were the parents of twins, were charged with child neglect/abuse. The first couple's abuse led to the death of one of their twins. This little girl was FOUR MONTHS OLD! The living children in both cases have been hospitalized.

Here's what I will never understand:

- why it seems like dirtbags always end up with a ton of kids they treat like crap.

- why it seems like nice people who would raise their children in a loving home have the hardest time having a baby.

There are plenty of people on this planet who would raise your children as their own. You didn't have to hurt them. Someone could have loved them.

I could have loved them.

7 hours and counting

Yep. There are only 7 hours left of 2011. So anything you wanted to do, learn, or see this year you'd better get on that. Anyways, as everyone celebrates the end/beginning of another year, I'm sitting here reflecting on 2011 and making new plans to make 2012 awesome.

Here are some highlights from 2011:

- Moved out of the ghetto (you may be steeped in history OV, but I will never call you home again!)

- We learned how to live like no one else so that later we could LIVE like no one else. (We will achieve financial peace!)

- We walked away from a major car crash for the second time. We know God was looking out for us and as a bonus we don't have a car payment anymore!

- I learned how to can preserves. Round 1 with strawberries didn't work so well, but the figs came out awesome!

and finally....

- I went through all of the boxes that have been sitting in our bedroom for months and they are now ready to go to goodwill on Monday!

Some of my plans for 2012 are:

- Learning how to use my sewing machine

- join the CSA at our local farmer's market. Also utilizing the meat and dairy vendors at the market as well.

- try to become preservative free with our food. Or as close as we can.

- Take Paulie on a REAL vacation.

- walk more

- have less clutter!


I'm sure there will be more things in store for 2012. I'm excited. I can't wait to see what happens!

Happy New Years everyone!

I didn't think we'd make it

You have a 1 in 16 chance of getting into a car accident. This can be anything from a fender bender to something fatal. I want to know what the odds are of being involved in two major accidents within one year resulting in a total loss of a vehicle, but all parties involved walking away. Because that would be Paulie and I.

Last year we were sideswiped by a car on 64 and thrown into the jersey wall. At the time I was amazed that we survived. Paulie even went to work the next day! This time was way worse.

We were coming home from the grocery store just joking and laughing in the car. We were coming off the interstate onto Indian River Rd. As we got out of the exit, Paulie passed out(I didn't know this yet), drove straight across three lanes of traffic, across the median, hit a tree in the median, and was finally stopped when we hit a tow truck on the other side of the road. Yes, we were facing oncoming traffic. I didn't realize Paulie had passed out until he slumped against me when we went across the median. I can only imagine how he felt driving one moment then waking up to me screaming and the car being wrecked. Luckily, there was an accident on that side already because if that tow truck hadn't stopped us I don't know what would have happened.

But I'm not concerned with what could have been. I am so THANKFUL my husband and I are alive. We were taken to Sentara Leigh to be checked out. I just had a cut on my neck from the seat belt and a busted lip and nose from the air bag. Paulie was taken somewhere else to have an EKG and other testing to figure out why he passed out. After a few hours the doctors determined he had what's called a vasovagal response. This can occur to anyone at anytime and is more commonly associated with fainting at the sight of blood or being scared. This happened to Paulie because he was laughing too hard. Sounds kind of funny after the fact. And I'd much rather it be something dumb like that than all of the things I was thinking of while in the ER(ie tumor, stroke, etc).

Initial impact with the median.



The firemen had to cut both doors off so we could get out.



The tire almost came up through the floorboard on Paulie's side.



We hit the tow truck on my side.



What my view of the accident was minus the blue tarp.


God definitely has us on his watch list. I am so grateful that we are. I don't know what I would do without my Paulie.

The silver lining in this is that we don't have a car payment anymore. Haha

p.s. If any of you donate to non-profits, maybe this month you can send something to the Kempsville Rescue Squad. They are an ambulance/emt service that is fully staffed by volunteers. They were some of the nicest people we have ever met and should be recognized for what they do for our community.

No cupcakes

Thursday night I was making a batch of chocolate cherry coke cupcakes for my coworkers at Kyoto. I turned on the oven to preheat and went back to mixing the batter. About a minute later I heard this weird buzzing noise like a bug caught in a spiderweb. I turn around and there is a bright light in my oven. My first thought was "hmmm that's odd. The light doesn't work in the oven." Then I opened the door and saw that my oven was on fire! The element on the bottom had fire and sparks on the left hand side that was traveling toward the back of the oven. It looked like the spark leading toward a stick of dynamite. I quickly turned off the oven, but the fire/spark continued to travel so I grabbed my phone. Trying to decide if I should call Mom (I was kind of not thinking clearly) or 911 I chose 911. I told them my oven was on fire and as I was giving my address, the coil popped in half and the fire went out. I told the dispatcher this and that maybe they didn't need to come out. She told me to call back if I had any problems.

Fire is a scary thing. I'm so grateful that this was something very small. I was home alone and my main thought during this was "How am I going to get all the animals out safely?" We will be buying a fire extinguisher soon and I will add making up some sort of fire protocol to my list of things to do.

I hear you now.

As you may or may not know, Paulie and I aren't particularly religious. Neither of us have been to church on a regular basis since we were children. I've always been a believer in religious freedom. I actually believe that most religions are right because they give a person faith in something. There have been plenty of times when I have been jealous of that faith. It was so hard for me to believe in something I could not see, hear, or touch. I think now I just wasn't paying attention. Let me tell you what happenned last week.

Paulie and I have been partaking in Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University for the last few months. It's a once a week class where you learn how to win back your financial independence from debt and build a financially secure future for you and your family. One of the big points Dave makes is tithing. Whether you tithe to your church or to charity it didn't matter. We decided we would donate money once a month to a worthy cause.

The last few weeks I have been trying to think of who we should donate to this month. On Saturday morning I decided I would talk to Paulie on Sunday about what he thought we should do. So I just put it to the back of my mind and went to work. While at work I was talking with one of the hostesses. She was telling me about an old coworker of ours who was going through some rough times dealing with an illness, a mortgage, and a new baby. Instantly I knew where our tithe would be going.

A while later Paulie had texted me a picture of a tattoo he had done that morning. I told him it looked great and that I thought maybe God had spoken to me. He called me almost instantly and was like, "What's going on?". I told him what I had heard and what I felt we should do. He told me that was amazing because he had been thinking about where our tithe should go right before that phone call.

So, yeah, everything happens for a reason. I can now say yes, there is a plan. I can also say this experience has scared the crap out of me. I have some thinking to do.

And now for something completely different!

Happy almost St. Patrick's Day, everyone! I won't be celebrating this year because we will be participating in that chaos we call moving. (Although we did see the Ocean View parade this morning and there are currently about 5 billion wasted individuals within a 5 mile radius around my house)

Yes, you read that correctly. We are finally MOVING! No more nightmare house! No more of my husband having to shower in sewage (I was lucky enough to use my parents shower). No more having to wait 3 weeks for the landlord to send someone to fix the pipes/lights/rodent problems that kept popping up in this 100 year old house. No more parallel parking! No more having to wonder if I'm going to be robbed or shot while walking to my house. All of these things happenned at some point over the year and a half we lived here. Some people have this great pride for living in OV...I say good riddance!

On a more positive note, our new house is awesome! It's a townhouse near Indian River Rd. in Virginia Beach. It has a full bath and master bedroom downstairs and a full bath, one bedroom, and one loft/office area upstairs. It has a cathedral ceiling and a view of the lake from the backyard. Best of all it has a WASHER and DRYER! I hate the laundromat! The ladlord seems cool and I'm hoping he'll let us plant a vegetable garden. I'll definitely post pics as soon as we're settled.

Now I feel like a kid waiting for Christmas. We move on the 20th which is one week from tomorrow. I can't wait!