Apologies Yet Again

Well well well. Do I have any more than one reader left? I hope so. I feel as though my disappearing and apologizing has become a pattern that has repeated itself way too many times. And yet that is exactly what I find myself doing yet again. As before, I do not have a reason for not posting. I can tell you that this past month was my mother's birthday and unlike her actual death, I took it harder than expected. I have gotten by on the bare minimum for the past few weeks. In fact, I have opened my site multiple times and just stared at it. And every time I started a document that was going to be a post, I couldn't maintain thoughts or interest and simply deleted it. I am working on improving my mind set and have been relatively productive this week. I haven't crawled under the covers upon my arrival home from work and have even accomplished some errands. Thus, I think I am coming out of the deep hole of depression I have been in. It is a long climb, and with my luck there will be little things trying to knock me down again; which happens quite often. But I am trying. And it is a constant struggle but one I am working on. So I ask, for those of you not related to me (because I know my family that reads this isn't going anywhere; a fact which I greatly appreciate), to be patient with me. I am working on my issues and coping as best I can. Hopefully, this means there will be more posts for you to read soon. I have a back log of topics that I just haven't gotten to. I have resumed my theme game with my aunt and have at least 3 weeks worth of themes to tell you about. I also recently got a new computer which is a big change for me (I'll explain why in it's own post). AND I am soon going on vacation to meet my absolutely adorable little brother. So I'm sure I will have pictures to show you as well as vacation stories to impart. I will also, of course, update you on how the little guy is doing! So for now, I will say goodbye and that I will definitely be talking to you soon. I just hope that you will be listening (well, reading, but you know what I mean!)

Baby's Birthday Balloons

  

Today is a very special day. Today is the 1^st birthday of one of the cutest babies ever. Last year (give or take) each of my cousins had a baby. I have always been close to this particular part of my family so it was a big part of my life even though it didn’t involve me directly.

 It has been great watching my cousins (albeit from afar) tackle parenthood. They are both amazing parents and each little girl is absolutely adorable. Today, the younger of the two turns one. She is a tiny little thing, but definitely the cutest peanut ever. She is even cute when, as she was this weekend, she is covered in cake. The cake smash is a 1^st birthday tradition and no highchair stands a chance. So, dressed in her pretty birthday outfit, she became covered in cake with the help of her mom. Every time I have seen her over the past year, she has gotten cuter. Thanks to social media, I have been able to see pictures of her growth and videos of her big moments. I have seen her crawl and stand and make touchdown arms. This little peanut looks just like her mother did as a baby, and is certainly loved by the whole family.

In honor of the peanut’s birthday, this week I sent my aunt pictures of balloons. They were not all birthday balloons though since the birthday was only one day. I have thus far sent mere balloons in the sky, hot air balloons, and even floats (being filled with air makes them balloons) from the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade here in NYC. I have used balloons to show the seasons and have still more to share. They are great gifts and can be used for everything. Stores sell get well soon balloons, graduation balloons, and anniversary balloons. They are great for baby showers, birthday parties, and more. Balloons can be fun (water and animal balloons), or simply decorative. No matter how you use them, however, they are a symbol of a birthday. It is for this reason I picked balloons as my theme this week; in honor of the birthday of the cutest peanut alive. 

                              
                                                          

Happy Birthday

Ryleigh!

Nectar of the Gods

        Let’s take a moment to discuss something delicious. I am talking, of course, about coffee. It is a drink some might even call the nectar of gods. I certainly love it. Why, you may ask, did I randomly decide to talk about coffee? Well, at the moment it is very prominent in my mind. I have recently given up coffee. Normally, I have at least one cup a day. And I might add that it is never a small cup. While I love my coffee, I have realized that it doesn’t always love me. Often times it upset my stomach and gave me extreme heartburn. So I decided to take a break. In order to still get caffeine, I switched to tea. While this sufficed, I found myself wanting coffee after about a week or so. My sense of challenge, however, pushed me to see how long I could go. Thus I went 6 whole weeks without it. I am not ashamed to admit that I caved this past weekend. While visiting my sister, I got a medium black dark chocolate coffee from Dunkin Donuts. It was absolutely delicious!  

When I first began drinking coffee, it was always heavily doctored. I had to have flavor, extra cream, and extra sugar. Coffeemate was my biggest ally. And if I had Starbucks, it was always fancy. As I got older my tastes changed. I learned to appreciate the taster of coffee and began putting less in it. Now, I drink it black with one sugar. I admit I do prefer flavored coffee, though it has syrup I don’t use sugar. And if I go to Starbucks I more than often order my drink skinny (with skim milk), with an extra shot of espresso, or simply as plain black (flavored) coffee. I am a rare coffee drinker that enjoys tea as well, but generally I prefer the coffee.  

Though my picture game with themes has not resumed, I have been exchanging daily pictures with my aunt. Generally, we choose pictures based on our mood that day and it is our way of saying help. Since my recent loss, I have been trying to send at least one funny and one inspirational picture to lift guarantee I smile, and hopefully that my aunt does too. I have recently decided to pick a theme for a picture as well. This started 2 weeks ago. It wasn’t a mutual thing, but each day that week I sent her a picture of a coffee (or another warm beverage). I did it for a few reasons; I did it so I would have something to write about when I was at a loss. I did it to use up the list of theme ideas we never got to use. And I started with coffee because it was on my mind. I am no longer intentionally abstaining from coffee though I have only had 1.5 so far. I say 1.5 because today I had an energy drink containing green coffee extract. I am not sure if that counts, so I gave it a .5. I have, however continued to drink tea. I am sure this trend continued to drink tea. I am sure this trend will not last much longer though because I am still craving coffee. I guess we will just have to wait and see how long my hiatus will last.