Sunday, July 13, 2014

Sunday Social

Another Sunday, Another Social..
 
Happy Sunday Lovelies!! 
 
I'm linking up with Neely and Ashley again for:
 
1. Tell us about the family you grew up in, parents, siblings, grandparents.
This will be super long because I love my family, and because I have literally nothing to say about question 2.
I grew up basically as an only child. I have a sister who is 16 years older than me, but the age difference meant that she moved out when I was two so I have literally no memory of ever actually living with her, but I've been told it happened. My parents had be when they were 38 and 40 so I didn't exactly have the young chipper "Yayyyyy we're parents" experience that she had either. For my sister it was all about Soccer, and Tennis, and being active and doing things, with me it was more let's take her places and have other people do things and be active with her. So she was super sporty and I was super dramatic. I wouldn't change that for anything because that's how I learned to love the stage and all things musical theater. 
 I have a serious love for my grandparents not only because I'm named after them, but because they were absolutely incredible people.
My dad's grandparents were AWESOME. Seriously. They lived in this awesome lake house, and made fancy things for dinner and drank more scotch than Ron Burgundy. They were the kind of people that were spouses first, then parents which is probably frowned on, but it worked for them and their family. He was a sales rep for Pfizer Pharmaceuticals and gave us stock in Viagra one year for Christmas (because that's a normal gift right!?). They were always giving us Stocks, or Savings Bonds, or $2 bills. They were just magical.. to me anyway. Losing my grandpa was the first loss that I remember, and it was absolutely devastating to me. I can still picture his big smile and great hair (it runs in the family), wearing a pair of short shorts, loafers and a gold necklace with an anchor. He's the reason that I joined the Navy. I lost my Grandma about 8 years later and though she had never been particularly warm towards me (because I look a lot like my Mom and she was never my mom's biggest fan) the last time I saw her she told me how beautiful she thought I was and that she hoped I'd never stop singing. I was mostly named for my Paternal grandparents, Joe and Sammy, but it wasn't until my grandmother died that I realized that Sam, Sammy, or Samantha wasnt in her name AT ALL. I was super confused, but thankfully before I launched into a full fledged identity crisis, my dad explained that her maiden name was Sampson, to which my grandfather nicknamed her "Sassy Sampson" and shortened it to "Sammy". So thus, I, Samantha JoeAnne, Samantha Joe, Sammie Joe and SJ came to be.
My maternal grandpa, another Joe, died when I was about 6 months old. I don't know much about him, other than there was something weird about my grandmother possibly dating his brother (SCANDALOUS!!), but marrying him so it all worked out.
When I was 18 I joined the US Navy, but during my delayed entry I got to move down to Alabama for a few months and take care of my maternal grandmother after a fall. I was there to celebrate her 90th birthday (complete with a Princess Party for her and all her friends in the rehab facility... Cause I'm fancy like that). On my 19th birthday I had to put her in a nursing home. It was the hardest thing I'd ever had to do, but it was clear to me, my sister, and all my aunts that she just couldn't live alone any longer. Those few months were incredibly hard, but I wouldn't trade them for the anyting in the world.
Holy Moly Y'all... That was a novel.

2. Tell us about your husband, fiancé, boyfriend, significant other.
N/A

3. Tell us about your children. If you don’t have children, talk about your fur children.
The many faces of Theo
My furbaby is Theodore Roosevelt, but I call him Theo, BooBoo, KittyBoo, Boo, Boosephus, BabyBoo, or some other horribly embarrassing variation of that. I imagine him blushing with embarrassment if I were to ever call him any of those in front of his kitty friends. He is spoiled rotten with only the best cat food and treats, has an outrageous number of toys that he doesn't play with, a monogrammed kitty bed that he doesn't sleep in (he prefers my bed, or my clean laundry). He is the most handsome little boy in the world and I love him to the moon and back. When he was about 11 months old he almost died because he knocked over some cleaner and it spilled and he licked it, then stepped in it and then cleaned his paws like all cats do.. with their tongues. Then he hid from me for about two hours and when he finally came out of hiding he was burning up and his tongue was swollen so big he couldn't close his mouth. My dad and I rushed him to the emergency vet, my now ex-husband complained about paying the $165 for the initial consultation because he hates cats but I cried hysterically about how he was my baby, and four days and thousands of dollars later, he was back and has been by my side almost ever day since. He's still super curious, but he's kept himself out of serious trouble ever since. 
 
This was another novel to make up for having nothing to say about question 2.
 
4. Tell us about your best friends. How long have you known them? How did you meet?
My Bestie is beautiful and lives in Iowa and I love her. I've written a previous blog post gushing about how much I love her, how we met at all that, so here I will just a picture of her beautiful face:

5. Tell us about any other special people in your life.
I work with some amazingly special people for some amazingly special kids. If it were legal to post their pictures I would, but just trust they are TOO CUTE and I love them so stinkin much I can't stand it. Also, I'm at that point in the school year that I'm starting to seriously miss them. A little bit more than a month till I get to see them again!!!!!
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Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Summer Reading 2014

So like any (almost) teacher, I relish the sweet 9 weeks of (somewhat) uninterrupted down time.
While I have a ton of reading to do for my summer glasses, one of my favorite guilty pleasures is sitting down with nothing but a good book in my hands. I don't think I'll ever beat my record of reading 18 books in one summer, I still make an effort to finish at least 5 new books during my vacation. I bought the Emily Giffin and Joshilyn Jackson novels as soon as they were released but they have been sitting patiently on my bookshelf, with the rest of these books, just waiting for me to be able to pick them up and read them.

Here's my top 5 for summer 2014:
 
Me Before You by Jojo Moyes:
 A Love Story for this generation, Me Before You brings to life two people who couldn’t have less in common—a heartbreakingly romantic novel that asks, What do you do when making the person you love happy also means breaking your own heart?
 
Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn:
Fresh from a brief stay at a psych hospital, reporter Camille Preaker faces a troubling assignment: she must return to her tiny hometown to cover the murders of two preteen girls. For years, Camille has hardly spoken to her neurotic, hypochondriac mother or to the half-sister she barely knows: a beautiful thirteen-year-old with an eerie grip on the town. Now, installed in her old bedroom in her family's Victorian mansion, Camille finds herself identifying with the young victims—a bit too strongly. Dogged by her own demons, she must unravel the psychological puzzle of her own past if she wants to get the story—and survive this homecoming. 
 
Thirty-three-year-old Shea Rigsby has spent her entire life in Walker, Texas—a small college town that lives and dies by football, a passion she unabashedly shares. Raised alongside her best friend, Lucy, the daughter of Walker’s legendary head coach, Clive Carr, Shea was too devoted to her hometown team to leave. Instead she stayed in Walker for college, even taking a job in the university athletic department after graduation, where she has remained for more than a decade. But when an unexpected tragedy strikes the tight-knit Walker community, Shea’s comfortable world is upended, and she begins to wonder if the life she’s chosen is really enough for her. As she finally gives up her safety net to set out on an unexpected path, Shea discovers unsettling truths about the people and things she has always trusted most—and is forced to confront her deepest desires, fears, and secrets.
 
I finished this book in about 15 hours. IT IS THAT GOOD!! If you are a college football loving southern belle like me, You will LOVE this book!!
 
Someone Else's Love Story by Joshilyn Jackson: 
Someone Else's Love Story is beloved and highly acclaimed New York Times bestselling author Joshilyn Jackson's funny, charming, and poignant novel about science and miracles, secrets and truths, faith and forgiveness; about falling in love, and learning that things aren't always what they seem—or what we hope they will be.
Shandi Pierce is juggling finishing college, raising her delightful three-year-old genius son Nathan, aka Natty Bumppo, and keeping the peace between her eternally warring, long-divorced parents. She's got enough complications without getting caught in the middle of a stick-up and falling in love with William Ashe, who willingly steps between the robber and her son.
Shandi doesn't know that her blond god Thor has his own complications. When he looked down the barrel of that gun he believed it was destiny: It's been one year to the day since a tragic act of physics shattered his world. But William doesn't define destiny the way others do. A brilliant geneticist who believes in facts and numbers, destiny to him is about choice. Now, he and Shandi are about to meet their so-called destinies head on, making choices that will reveal unexpected truths about love, life, and the world they think they know.

11/22/63 by Stephen King:
Dallas, 11/22/63: Three shots ring out.
President John F. Kennedy is dead.
Life can turn on a dime—or stumble into the extraordinary, as it does for Jake Epping, a high school English teacher in a Maine town. While grading essays by his GED students, Jake reads a gruesome, enthralling piece penned by janitor Harry Dunning: fifty years ago, Harry somehow survived his father’s sledgehammer slaughter of his entire family. Jake is blown away...but an even more bizarre secret comes to light when Jake’s friend Al, owner of the local diner, enlists Jake to take over the mission that has become his obsession—to prevent the Kennedy assassination. How? By stepping through a portal in the diner’s storeroom, and into the era of Ike and Elvis, of big American cars, sock hops, and cigarette smoke... Finding himself in warmhearted Jodie, Texas, Jake begins a new life. But all turns in the road lead to a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald. The course of history is about to be rewritten...and become heart-stoppingly suspenseful.


As of right now I've finished The One and Only, and I'm halfway through Sharp Objects and Someone Else's Love Story because I'm indecisive and like to be in the middle of at least two books at a time. Go figure.

What's on your summer reading list?
I'd love some recommendations from any of my lovely readers!

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Sunday, July 6, 2014

Sunday Social

Happy Sunday Friends!! 
I hope everyone is recovering from the 4th well!! I love almost everything about the 4th of July. I know what you're thinking, "Sammie!! What is there not to like about a day celebrating the independence of our country!?!?" Fireworks. I sort of detest fireworks. A big part of that is from the Navy (Not that I ever saw combat, but I went through a very traumatic experience that to this day stresses me out a little bit), but also.. I just don't like loud noises. Like at all!! The only fireworks I enjoy are at Disney world and those are like a million times quieter than normal fireworks.

Anyway, I'm linking up with Neely and Ashley again for:
1. What is your favorite genre of music?
Country. All Day Long.

2. What is your favorite genre of movies?
I'm actually more partial to older movies. Black and White, or just pre-1970. Aside from that I like romantic comedies and scary movies (when I have someone to watch them with!)

3. Do you watch reality TV? If so what was the first show you remember watching?
I HATE reality tv. With a firey passion that consumes my soul. Okay.. I don't hate it that much, but I choose not to waste my time with that nonsense.
 
4. Who is an actress you’d want to be BFF’s with?
Zooey Deschanel or Lizzy Caplan. They just seem really chill and down to earth.

5. Who is an actor you’d be happy to be stuck on an island with?
Oh my lawd, Ryan Gosling. Duh! Teran Killam cause he seems like he'd just make me laugh and he's super cute.

Happy Sunday everyone!!
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Wednesday, July 2, 2014

ABC's of Me

In an effort to maintain my blogging while working full time, going to school full time, and doing a play this summer when I come across easy blog posts I get all kinds of excited!! I've done some variation of this before but I've changed a lot in the last few months so here we go again!!

A- Age: 25
B- Birthday: September 3rd
C- Color: Pink..Duh!
D- Drink: Water/Sweet Tea/Moscato/Mich Ultra/Alabama Slammers.. Cause I'm indecisive like that.
E- Eyes: Hazel
F- Flashback: My Third year in the Navy with my Daddy

G- Game: CLUE and Uno Attack!! I will drive people crazy playing those games.
H- Hobby: Reading and trying new recipes
I- Indulgence: My Triple Chip Cookies (Milk Chocolate, White Chocolate and Butterscotch chips... OMG.. So Good)
J- Job: EC Assistant teacher (working on my BA to be a Special Education Teacher)
K- Kiddos: None of the human variety yet.. But My sweet kitty BooBoo is my baby boy

 L- Love: My Friends, My Family and My cat. In no particular order.
M- Music: Country, Country, Country.. and a little Musical Theater, and classic rock.
N- Nation--USA
O- Overstock: Shoes.. I mean to someone else it would probably seem like to many shoes.. but I see no problem with it.
P- Pets: Theo aka BooBoo aka KittyBoo aka Boo aka Handsome Prince
Q- Quote:"I will learn to love the skies you're under" along the lines of "Bloom where you're planted". 
The fabulous Lindsay_Reed from IG drew this.. How fab is she?!

R- Residence: North Carolina
S- Siblings: One older Sister
T- Temperature:Hotter than fried hell... Just sayin.
U- University: just transferred to East Carolina University (Go Pirates!)
V- Vehicle: Mercedes SLK 230
W- Want: Currently, I just want to figure out a recipe to make for dinner that wont heat up my whole house and won't take a million years to make..
X- X: X-husband, X-boyfriends? I have a few of the later and one of the first ;)
Y- Yuck: How hot it is.. Just YUCK.
Z- Zodiac: Virgo
 
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