It was almost spring!

Despite what my calendar says...spring is not what is going on outside right now. Retail shops are stocking up on pool supplies, swim suits, tank tops, shorts, and of course flip flops but there is no need to use any of these items right now, unless one is planning a tropical vacation (and if you are, can I come too?).

This is a pic from our trip to PCB last year!

 Anyways, last week on the first official day of spring my furbaby and I spent some time outside and captured a few pictures. She's not a big fan of being outdoors so I was lucky that she was so cooperative about it. Here's a few pictures:

Flowers on the side of the house

Cloud 

There are a ton of these in our backyard

Rosie (the Furbaby)

Trees beside the house

This is the view from our side yard

She's ready to go back in now

 I don't know how the weather is for you at the moment, but it's been snowing here all week so far. Nothing is sticking here so at least we're not getting stranded at home or anything. My niece and nephew are on spring break this week and have gotten a good bit of snow this week. I'm just ready for spring to start. It's almost time for the Lookouts first game and I would like to not freeze if at all possible!

 Hope you enjoy the pics readers and as always I would love to hear your feedback. Have a great day and try to stay warm!

Words mean things

The statement is simple enough. Words mean things. I'm sure when you were a kid your mother told you to always think before you speak and mean what you say.

Is what Thumper's father told him

 Words can be uplifting, motivational, give hope, or lead to serious depression. This is common sense and I'm sure that I'm not telling you something that you don't already know. (In the event that you didn't know...I'm very sorry and if you like I will explain it all in extreme detail for you. Your poor, poor dear!) Having said that, it amazes me daily how often I hear people saying horrible things about a current love, an ex, baby's daddy, best friend, former friend...the list goes on and on. What baffles me the most is that it seems people just think that as soon as the sentence has escaped that you're going to forget it was ever said. If you don't want me to remember things that you have said about who or whatever you talked about for at least five minutes or more, why am I listening? Most importantly, why are you wasting your time and mine? Here are a few thoughts I've had to help get my point across!

I had a friend once that would talk so badly about one of our mutual friends whenever she wasn't around. (I'm not going into any more detail than that) It always shocked me how much she would hang out with this friend of ours and tell her how great she was when we were all together. I've now tried to distance myself from friends such as these cause let's be honest:

I had to include this for my besties!

If you make a point to tell everyone how terrible your ex was to you and you'll never get back together, don't expect us to forget all those terrible things when you decide to give this horrible person that 27th chance. If you paint the picture of an abusive ex, or someone who can't keep their pants on, who is constantly bumming off you...of course your friends (those people who DO care about you) are going to be anything but thrilled that you are back together. Again...this feels like common sense and yet I could name at least a handful of people that this covers.

But will most likely resume in a matter of days...

When you're mad and/or fighting with someone and you tell them that they're worthless, or a bad friend, or taking advantage of you, ect. and the statement that you made isn't true... Well, you just need to brace yourself for the nice wedge that you just placed between yourself and that person. You can try and justify what you said, claim you didn't mean it, it sounded worse than it actually is, it was spoken out of anger...whatever. I'm telling you now that when you say something to purposely hurt someone, it's going to stay with them. It can be forgiven but it isn't going to ever truly be forgotten. That thought, your tone, the expression you had on your face when you said it, it will creep up from time to time. Words mean things, and like a text message...once its out there, there isn't a way to get it back.

Gotta love HIMYM

Some of the best advice on this I found was from one Craig Ferguson. In his special that he taped in Nashville, (which is available to purchase or watch via Netflix) he posed three questions to ask yourself before you open your mouth to speak:
1.) Does this need to be said?
2.) Does this need to be said right now?
3.) Does this need to be said by me right now?

Always take a moment to think before you speak, and if you can't see a positive side in saying what's on the tip of your tongue...odds are it doesn't need to be said at all. Do you have a friend like this? Have I opened your eyes and you're realizing that you're like this? Tell me about it in the comments section. Have a great day readers!

What made you a gamer?

Finishing a game is such an amazing feeling, until you realize that you don't have a new game to start! There are some games that never truly end...like online games or building games (I love playing Little Big Planet myself) but for the most part the game ends and you're left hoping that there's going to be a next one. I'm still waiting on the next Kingdom Hearts game that has been talked about for years now (and not the side stories or prequels...I'm talking about a true continuation of the series). All this got me thinking, what made you a gamer?

Did you start humming the theme song?

Personally, my love of video games came from my mother. She loved playing the original Super Mario Bros on the NES. I loved watching her play and she would always let me play her guy and after I killed him a few times, she would take back over and work on getting some 1ups. My mom had so many games for the NES. There was Mario (1,2, and 3), The Legend of Zelda, Pac Man, racing games...so many more than I can remember at the moment and I tried to play as many as I could.

 The first game console I owned was the Sega Genesis and of course the game to play was Sonic! I spent hours playing Sonic and as much as I hate to admit it...I never beat the final battle of the game! Truth be told, the first game I beat completely on my own was the first Kingdom Hearts on my ps2. (Don't make fun but I always had people want to show me how to beat bosses) I also played some Disney games on my Sega like the Aladdin game and the game for Beauty and the Beast. I also had a Pac Man game for the Sega but I didn't really play it too much. I also loved to play this game called Toejam and Earl. It was a strange game but it was fun to play and had catchy music in the background. (Kudos if you know what I'm talking about!)

 After the Sega, I went back to Nintendo and played the N64. I love Mario games. The games I played the most were Super Mario 64 and Super Smash Bros. (On a side note, I have the Smash Bros for the Wii and its nowhere near as fun as the one I used to play on the N64!)

Next I found my way to Sony and fell for the playstation 2. My first ps2 game was Final Fantasy X which I spent hours playing. A tip for those who are thinking about playing a Final Fantasy game for the first time...invest in the strategy guide. There are so many steps and level ups that you will need to fight your final boss. These games are a lot of fun, but they take a lot of work and time. Of course I became addicted to Kingdom Hearts from the moment I started to play it (Final Fantasy meets Disney...come on! What's not to love?)

Sora battles Giant Ursula

 I also discovered a fun game called Sing Star which I can't even begin to count how many times my best friend and I have played it...and Dance Dance Revolution! 

Of course I must mention the fighting games that I've played over the years: Street Fighter, Mortal Combat, and Tekken. To be honest I'm not great at these games. I do try to learn the special move combos but when my character is about to die, I just hit every button and hope for the best.

I've also owned a few of the handheld games like Gameboy, Gamegear, DS, and PSP. I think that I've played the Gamegear more than any other. I used to take that thing everywhere!

So whether you're a casual gamer or a hardcore master gamer, I'd like to know what games you're playing now or hope to play as soon! Come on readers...it's time to level up!

Erin Go Bragh (St. Patrick's Day Plans)

I know that it's a bit late but, happy March readers! March has quickly become one of my favorite months of the year, especially now that I'm older! On a bit of a personal note, I will be celebrating my first wedding anniversary this weekend. Most people think that the first year of marriage is the hardest and if the marriage passes this marker there's a good chance it will last. Which is a sad thought (but of course half of all marriages are said to end in divorce)... Back to happy thoughts! March weather is a bit crazy and unpredictable, many of us in my area remember the blizzard of 1993. Then of course on my wedding day last year, my brother got a sunburn from being outside too long...

A picture of my paper flowers

Of course by now you should have your big plans for the weekend with it being St. Patrick's Day. I know there are several bars hosting specials around here. Oh, and I learned last year that Chili's sells green beer (if you happen to like beer)! For those who aren't into beer or the bar scene...don't fret! This can still be a fun holiday for you as well:

1.) Have a movie night! A few movies I recommend are Brave, Darby O' Gill and the Little People, The Boondock Saints (as well as the sequel All Saints Day), Craig Ferguson: Does This Need To Be Said? (filmed in Nashville and available on Netflix as well as a new Stand-up), How To Train Your Dragon (speaking of Craig Ferguson), Braveheart, any Muppets movie (I love Muppets From Space and the newest one and who doesn't love Kermit!), The Wizard of Oz (very green movie) and the new movie Oz The Great and Powerful

2.) Have a green dessert. I personally love the soft sugar cookies at Wal-Mart and they have several right now! Also there's the shamrock shake at McDonald's if you like mint ice cream

3.)  Have a dinner party and serve some lovely Irish food. I took this from wikihow: "In Ireland, the day is usually celebrated by eating food such as pink bacon or savory roast chicken. Corned beef and cabbage is from American tradition"

Of course if you're really wanting to have some fun this St. Patrick's day I can tell you from experience that it it loads of fun to get a group together to walk around and bar hop. Especially if the men are in kilts! Our friend Nick was stopped several times so people could get a picture of the tall guy in the kilt.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend readers! Just remember to wear a little green, unless of course you enjoy getting pinched!

Seriously, make time to see Brave this weekend!

Erin Go Bragh

Let it out!

So if you're anything like me, there are days that you find yourself trying so hard to focus on the simplest of things and despite your best efforts...just can't manage it. Well as I have come to learn the hard way, there is simply too much swimming around in that brain of yours and you need to get some of it out! This seems to happen to everyone and I've happen to come across a few painless ways to help clear your mind and get back to doing whatever it was that you wanted to do in the first place...

1.) Start a junk journal. It can be something as simple as a notepad you keep in your pocket or an online journal (I use LiveJournal). Now it doesn't have to be something that you write in daily. Honestly, it's a great idea if you just pick one day a week (like a day that you happen to be off work) to sit down and get the junk out! Just set a timer for anything from ten to thirty minutes and just start writing the first thing that comes to mind and keep going until the timer goes off. This helps your subconscious run free and get some of the clutter out of your mind...which will free up space to get back to things that matter. One of the best parts to a junk journal is that occasionally, you will write something profound...or perhaps gives you an answer to a situation that seems rather difficult.

2.) People will usually recommend meditation and I see the perks. Usually the easiest thing to do is find a place where you can sit in quite (or some soft music) and try to focus on all the jumbled thoughts going on upstairs. Give yourself a nice stretch and focus. For more info on meditation check out Meditation for beginners

3.) Have a night out. There are times that we get so caught up in the day to day grind that we let things build up and this will usually clutter your mind. One of the easiest (and perhaps the most fun) is to plan a night out with friends. It can be something simple like meeting for dinner, going to the movies, or in the case of my friends a hour or so in the humor section of the book store. If you happen to live in the Chattanooga area, I would highly recommend going to the local comedy club, The Comedy Catch where you can get some great entertainment and the food is very good and reasonably priced!

When all else fails, hopefully you're lucky enough to have a friend or family member that you can sit down and talk nonsense with. Some of my best mind cleansing sessions have been with my dear friends just going to grab a burger and some frozen yogurt. By the way, how great is fro-yo? If you haven't had fro-yo, this has been my favorite shop by far Menchie's. In addition to several yummy flavors, they also offer a reward card...so the more you shop, the more fro-yo you can get! 

My yummy fro-yo

Pictures galore!

It's no big surprise that I love taking pictures. There are some days when I'm sitting at home bored and I will grab my camera and take pictures of completely random things. In the past I just delete them afterwards, but I think from here on out...I'm going to start sharing them instead. Here are a few that I'm sort of proud of. I'm hoping that eventually I will have some great shots that I can use to decorate my home. Hope you enjoy!

Clown fish at the aquarium

You can learn a lot of things from the flowers

Fireworks at AT&T Field

From the tree in our front yard

So there you have it just a few pictures I've taken... Let me know what you think! Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!