Been a little quiet lately...

So I have to admit, I have been a little quiet. I took a look at when I lasted posted and that was back when I started fall semester...back in August..

Well, since August, I celebrsted my 21st birthday with my parents where we went to Amish Country. Amish Country reminds me so much of the atmosphere of North Dakota (wide open fields with the next big town 30 miles away) except in Amish Country, they have cute little shops every direction you look. I also had my first glass of wine and I LOVED it, considering it was strawberry..

Another big accomplishment in my life (and started the week after my 21st birthday
festivities)  is that I got my first paying job at JoAnn Fabrics (it's bad enough that I can't be left alone in a craft store in general let alone work in one ;) ). It originally was supposed to be a seasonal position but since the boss has been hearing awesome things about me, I am officially a part time employee. I could go on and on about how awesome  it is to be working (even though my home base is the cash registers) but I don't want bore you guys.

Now we're into January. I'm still on winter break for another week..Spring semester is slowly making its move into my life. Excited about my classes this semester but really annoyed that I have to take two more math classes before I can say adios to community college life and hello 4 year university.

Question of the day: What is the weather like for you today? Here in Northeast Ohio, it's cold and we're supposed to be up to 19 degrees today (shiver shiver).. then you got to add in the windchill factor! Hope I don't get sick over this extremely cold spell we're going to have..

Heigh ho, Heigh ho, back to the community college I go

So I'm not a hundred percent sure why but the "Heigh ho" song from the movie, Snow White, has been stuck in my head lately. A little silly I know but instead of the mine scene (as seen in the video), it is me walking around the community college; starting tomorrow, I'll be back at the community college (hopefully these will be the last two semesters there). In a one way, I'm excited to be going back because I've been off since early May and I get to see all my friends again but in another way, I sort of want to re-play this summer over again because I did a lot to keep myself occupied.

In other news, I entered my chocolate lab puppy (she may be 5 1/2 years old but she still acts a puppy because all she does all day is eat and sleep)  into a photo contest through the local library. In a nut shell, whoever wins the contest, their dog will be on a special edition library card this fall. This is the photo I entered:

Cute, right?

I will keep you guys updated on this-- Voting starts a week from today then they will determine the winner on September 11th.

I have laundry to do so I will catch up with you all later!!

It has been a long while....

So, I guess I haven't posted in awhile; when I looked at this blog a couple days ago, it was March 22nd since I last posted. Where in the world do I begin? Life since the last posting? Or most recent events? Hmm....

I guess I will start with most recent because even though I have a very sharp memory, my mind is drawing a blank at events since my last posting. Okay, on topic time now...

A couple weeks ago, my cousins from Nebraska and Pennsylvania came to town. Let me tell you, I tend to get along more with my adult cousins (Andi, Aj and Brian--sister and brothers from my Uncle Terry) more-so then my kid cousins (Kayla and Jared; my cousin Andi's kids). Each day we did something different that we consider fun here in Northeast Ohio; Monday was Put-in-Bay (island excursion in Lake Erie), Tuesday was a Cleveland Indians game (Go Tribe!), Wednesday was Cedar Point (roller coaster capital of the United States and not too far from Put-in-Bay), Thursday was just a shopping day at the local outlet mall, dinner then playing games until 1 a.m. ("Anything can Happen Thursday" as what my family calls it) and Friday was a day at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (which I got in free because I showed my student ID for the local college I go to, Yahoo!).

All in all, it was a nice week with my cousins..minus the end of the week where my attention span "left the building" It started started Friday when we (my siblings, me, and cousins Andi, Brian, Aj and Kayla) went to the Rock Hall. I was fine the whole time we were there but when we were heading back, my attention span wasn't 100% there. By the time nighttime fell, I was hoping (in one instance) my cousins could stay another day but (in another instance) I knew that they had to get back to Nebraska and Pennsylvania and return to their normal lives. My cousin Andi knew something was  up because I wasn't very chatty. It took me awhile to be chatty again and when I did, I asked Andi if we can FaceTime (video chat) now and then so I don't go through "cousin withdraws" until next year's vacation; she agreed. I felt a little bit better that night but the next morning, it hit me again because it was "Adios day".  As I said goodbye to each of my cousins, it got harder and harder to keep back the tears. I kept telling myself that I wasn't going to cry but as my cousins piled into their cars, I bursted into tears. Andi and I haven't FaceTime yet but I'll doing it soon.

Speaking of Andi, here's a picture of her and I from Cedar Point.

Hmmm...what else did I do since my last posting? I recently spent a couple days in Chicago...actually, it was last week. Why was I in Chicago? I would say it was a mid-week getaway but more or less, my parents and sister had tourist type passes that they planned to use back on Valentine's day/Presidents day weekend but because of a pesky snowstorm, they couldn't use them (sad face). We arrived Wednesday night, went to get deep dish Pizza (yummy yum) then went to bed. Thursday was an all day tourist day ranging from going to the Shed Aquarium to the Willis (Sears) Tower. Once again, we had deep dish Pizza for dinner. Fun fact I learned that day: Chicago can be loosely translated to "stinky onion". Friday was a day at the Lincoln Park Zoo then heading back home. All in all, a nice mid-week getaway from home.

I guess that's it. I hope to write more before fall semester starts end of next month.  Thank you for reading this novelish post.  :)

Lexey 

 

I met people of my own kind....I met people of my own kind!

Okay, the title might sound a little weird but it's indeed true--the form of art I do (Zentangle®) is like a breed and there is thousands of us who do it. Anyhow, it's story time!

About a month ago, there was discussion on the Facebook page of where everyone is from. I casually entered mine and the next thing I knew that there was a women messaging me saying she lives in a city about 20 minutes from me; relatively speaking, right near the community college I attend. Shortly after, it turned it into a group of three because another women said she lived near the two of us then next thing I knew, a fourth said the same thing. Who would of thought I would find people (within 20 minutes of me) that do the same form of art I do? Here, I thought I was the only one. I'm going off topic--back to the story!

So, the group of ladies and I were talking about how we should all meet up once spring finally makes its presence known here in Northeast Ohio. Well, we couldn't wait for spring to finally show up because we were all sick and tired of the winter we've had so far--literally. Therefore, we decided to make it to for a couple weeks where we were all free at a Panera Bread. The day finally came and even though I was nervous, I was excited to finally to put names to faces and do something that we consider enjoyable. When we all arrived, we just hit it off from the start and had a fun late afternoon into early evening get together. We had so much fun that we decided to get together at least once a month to tangle and chat. In the end, I think we all also got inspired to try new ideas for our Zentangle creations; I, for one, tried shading and now I love it since it makes art stick/pop out more!

I almost forgot---here's a picture of the ladies and I from our first get together!

Top: Eneida and Katie with their tiles

Bottom: Trish and Me with our tiles

I have to go for now but I will try to update more than once a month on this blog--I might post something next weekend with photos of my little getaway trip with my mom and sister. Girls weekend in Baltimore! :-)

What's black, white and red all over?

Give up? It's me in my winter jacket freezing in Ohio weather...okay maybe with a 4 1/2 year Labrador retriever too..

Last week, we got our first big snowstorm of the winter season. It is nice and all but I am usually a klutz during the winter...self explanatory. Any who, I thought it would be nice to get a full day off from classes but I got no morning classes instead. In one instance, it's like "yay, a half day of school" (4 classes again this semester) but at the same time, I would of been more happier with a full day off. Who's the one responsible for college closures anyhow?

Some pictures from the snowstorm..

Top of my development, on the main intersection

How the trees looked during the storm.

A day later, I came down with a major headcold so I was in bed until Friday. When I finally felt "better" (not a full 100%), I played in the snow with my 4 3/4's chocolate lab puppy.

She's a little camera shy in this picture

Woah, Mocha.. back up a little, would ya?

She is giving me the death glare..

Have a wonderful week everyone :-)

In Loving Memory...

This blog post is in loving memory of my grandparents, on my dad's side. I lost my grandfather 3 1/2 years ago in November and recently, I lost my grandmother. Both of them were sick but my grandmother has been wanting to "go home" since she became a widow 3 1/2 years ago. Although that I only got to see them every other summer, they were a lot of fun when I got to see them. My grandparents had five kids and were married for 67 years. They also had 16 grandchildren, 18 (or 22,not quite sure) great-grandchildren and a great-great granddaughter.

I love and miss both of you so much...

Fair warning: lengthly post.

For those who read my last post back in November, I wrote about how I was going to spending New Year's in sunny Florida. Let me tell you, I had a wonderful time and really didn't want to come back (seeing as it was 10 below with wind chill factor in good ol Ohio). This trip was a combination of vacation/ soccer tournament for my sister and her team. We went down a couple days early so we can have some fun before the soccer action. The first stop on our adventure was Charlotte, North Carolina where went on a haunted ghost tour (self explanatory). Although there is not many pictures from this part of the trip, I am happy to show you some of them..

 

View from our hotel in downtown Charlotte

 

                                                    My sister, Madison, and I (sorry for the bad quality)

After spending the night in downtown Charlotte, we packed up and went to sunny Florida where it was 75 degrees the first night we were there (ahhhhh, how much I miss that). We stayed at a wonderful resort that had 7 swimming pools (7 hot tubs included in that), many tennis courts, a put-put course and they had activities for the guests (sort of reminds me of my part-time volunteering job and doing activities with the residents). After getting settled, we got a goodnight's sleep because we were heading to one of Universal Studio's parks the following day. Some pictures include:

                                                   Still missing this view!

SpongeBob Squarepants, this was from a parade we saw right when we got there

Squidward

 

A selfie with SpongeBob!

 

  After a day at Universal, majority of the rest of week was the soccer tournament for my sister and her soccer team. Unfortunately, her team did not do the greatest in the tournament so they couldn't compete for a trophy. However, fortunately, we got to spend the last day in sunny Florida at Wild Florida, which is like a zoo but you can also go gator hunting in Lake Cypress.

 

That's not all the pictures from Wild  Florida. Did I fail to mention that I got the opportunity to hold alligator? Oh yeah....forgot.. here it is. Meet Fluffy. Fluffy the Alligator.

 

 

So that's Florida in a nut shell.

 

-Lexey