You know that someone loves you.....

When they take care of you when your face first into the toilet sick with food poisoning all night. When they go out at 10:30 at night to get you sprite and gatorade. When they cook you soup and crumble in the saltines and buy you bendy straws at the store that are hot pink.

Last night was the first time I've ever been super sick in front of Andrew and he was a trooper! He stayed up with me pretty much all night and did so many nice things for me. Its good to know that he is so caring and understanding on a whole new level that I never saw.

I'm feeling a little better today, just tired and trying to muster up the energy to shower and do some laundry because I have no clean jeans for work tomorrow! But the sun is out and the Steelers are on at 4:15 so life is good!

Wifey....(well not really)

Andrew and I joke a lot about me being the wifey (yeah, we have a rather immature sense of humor sometimes) but its basically true. As we continue to "live in sin in our love nest" as my mother has so wonderfully put it to my family, I've discovered that I make a darn good housewife even if we are not married yet! My reasons for this revelation are the following:

• I cook dinner every night, except maybe Friday when Andrew gets pizza or we go to Roosters.
• On the weekends, I make amazing breakfast and Andrew looks forward to Saturday and Sunday mornings even more now (and its not just because of his car shows on Speed Channel!)
• I actually like to do laundry - this includes folding and putting away clothes as well.
• I keep a pretty tidy house, all things considered though since the house is still under construction.

But there are a few things I'm still working on....I do cook the same foods a lot. I'm trying to experiment with new recipes and cooking things for Andrew he didn't have at home. Last night I did one of the Campbells soup can recipes - Herb Pan Roasted Chicken with Parsley Rice. Basically it was 4 chicken breasts (I used small ones because I wanted to take it for my lunch at work) that you rub with sage and thyme (I used sage and parsley instead bc I didn't have thyme) and you pan roast them till juices run clear. Then cook up 4 servings of brown rice and when its cooked at 1 Tablespoon of chopped parsley. The sauce was garlic (I also used shallots), 1 can of condensed chicken soup and a little water. Andrew loved it, and it was super easy to make in just 25 minutes with about 5 mins of prep time! Tonight I'm making Kielbasi, which is a staple in my family being that we are Polish and German and something that Andrew never ate much at home!

So maybe its time to start a recipe sharing blog....if anyone else would want to participate! I say we all share our staple dinners (or something classic we make with a twist) and then add recipes that we try along the way!

Who's in?!?

Something in the water.....

Is something going on that I don't know about?!?! 3 couples that I know broke up this week, one being my brother and his girlfriend - the other my good friends sister and lastly a good friend from Otterbein......

Do bad things really always happen in three's?

My brother didn't even see it coming with his girlfriend, she just called him up last Friday and said she hasn't loved him for a year.....um, seriously? She told him to leave her alone yet she keeps calling him and yeah, he's been answering her calls. He's pretty devistated and she's turned into a not very nice person (I'm watching my language bc many mean words are coming to mind here).

The other couple, it was basically the same thing - he decided he wanted space.

And my good friend from college, I'm not quite sure what happened there.

They were all together for about 2 1/2 years too, which makes it even weirder....

Blessed

After a nice visit with Andrew's mom and sister last night, I feel very blessed to have such wonderful "in-laws." Although Andrew and I are not married yet, I really enjoy his family and they have become a big part of my life. In past relationships, I have not been as fortunate to get along with my significant others family, but things are much different now. Andrew's mom has always been so sweet to me and although his dad doesn't always have a whole lot to say, he's been great as well. I don't get to see his sister as much as I'd like since she works nights, but her and her husband are fun to hang out with - along with his brother and wife and their new baby girl. Its nice to be dating someone who is close to their family and who has siblings as well.

And I feel blessed for my family too, after visiting most of my moms side in PA this weekend for my Aunt and Uncles 40th Anniversary Surprise party (they are also my godparents and a very important part of my life)! Its nice to have my cousins who I am so close with and my extended family as well. My mom always made it a point when we were kids to go and visit them and to this day they are all a very important part of my life. Its sad that some of the family I am close to distance wise in Ohio I am not close with, its nothing like my family in PA.

Although its been a rough year for my family with my dad loosing his job, Adam being laid off for a few months last winter and my mom moving to the assistant director of the preschool, we're all blessed to have one another. My dad has an interview next week with a company that specializes in paints, he would be a sales rep visiting stores that sell their product. He also applied at Frito Lay so he could be working with Andrew :)

Here are some photos from the weekend!

The cake, table decor and the head table at the anniversary party (these are a few I did some fun edits with for the scrapbook my cousin is making).

Me and my God-daughter Abigail - she is the light of my life. I really wish that I could see her more often! She didn't leave my side the whole night - its hard to believe I was 18 when she was born and she is in kindergarten now!!!

My mom and dad!

Dancing to their song, "Through the Years" - by Kenny Rodgers - there were a lot of tears that night, I can only hope that someday when Andrew and I get married that we will celebrate 40 years together!

9/11

I'm pretty sure that I posted last year about this....but I feel like its okay to write this post every year.

I remember that I was in commons at school when it happened, they turned the TV's on and there it was....no one believed what was happening.
My boyfriend at the time was not at school that day - just the day before his grandpa had died and he was in Pennsylvania. I called him from the payphone and we were both in shock. I wanted so badly for him to be there with me and I was glad he had not yet joined the military.

I went to American History next - we just watched TV. Choir was the same as was the rest of the day. I went home from school and watched it all night at home. The air was so quiet that night, no planes flew over, it was eerie and strange.

This is our generations Kennedy assassination, this is something we must carry with us for the rest of our lives. I may not live in New York, I may not have known anyone who died there or in the crash in PA or at the Pentagon but it still changes you just the same. You live in the best country in the world and you want to believe that things like this just don't happen, but they can and they do.

another boring Amanda update

I'll try to keep this short and sweet!

• Check out my weight loss blog for my progress on this new diet plan!
• The downstairs room of the house is almost ready for drywall and if you're friends with me on facebook you can check out the house album on there!
• I'll be in PA this weekend for my aunt and uncles 40th wedding anniversary party - they are also my godparents so it should be a good time!
• I've finally found time to start baking again and making slightly more involved meals for myself and Andrew. Digging out all of my cookbooks from boxes probably helped as well!
• My dad still has not found a job and has to re-file for unemployment, I am hoping that something great comes along for him soon....this economy really blows but that is a topic for another post.
• I may have been inspired by Caitlyns blog to write something with a more political standpoint, but its going to take me a while to come up with something.
• Football season for the Steelers starts on Thursday so its time for me to shred off my normal personality and become Steelers crazy once again!

All for now :)

Are you a stalker?

I'm going to admit this now, I am an internet creeper/stalker, whatever you wanna call it. I have a facebook, myspace and now a twitter - 2 blogs and I even find myself looking through the forums on Craigslist when the mood strikes. I read at least 10 blogs a week and most are people that I know personally. I have 280 facebook friends and 99 myspace friends. I don't use AIM anymore, just Myspace IM and its mostly to talk to Andrew and a few friends that live out of state. But I am addicted to facebook; I think many of my friends are too.

I get on there randomly throughout the day, look at peoples status, check to see if people posted photos, update their profile, whatever and the more I think about it the more disturbed I become by what I am doing. I too post my whole life on that site (granted my profile is private and I recently went through and weeded out a majority of my friends). But now all my cousins are on facebook, some of my parents friends and yes, my mother has asked me to make her one as well as my dad.

I'm to the point where I wonder if I should be filtering what I put on there. People try to tell you that employers get on there looking for you, well duh, make your stuff private and if you don't want to be friends with someone then say no, I don't have pictures of myself plastered everywhere half naked and drunk or anything, but I'm 24 if I am holding a beer in a picture I really don't care. I don't know that I believe cops bust kids for underage drinking via facebook either, I mean really, its probably just a scare tactic, but at the same time if you're going to do something stupid and plaster it on the internet (no matter what site its on) you're probably going to get caught eventually.

But the real question here is, why do we really care what other people are doing? Does it matter that they are at work till 4 then going to the gym? We are the same way about people we don't even know, we stalk celebrities through the prying eyes of the paparazzi everyday via E! and US Weekly and its basically the same thing, only these are people we know, some that we call our friends and family and we want to know where they are and what they are doing every minute of everyday!

So are you a stalker too? I know I can't be the only one.....why do you think we are so fascinated by what other people are doing?