A Day in the Life...

It's been awhile since I've blogged! I'm writing this from the beach :) Wrightsville Beach in Wilmington, NC. This is where my Uncle Bill's beach house is and my brothers and sister and I have pretty much come here every summer and other holidays throughout the years for as long as we can remember. It's a BEAUTIFUL place and I would definitely consider moving here one day if it was to work out - you never know!

My parents, Ben and I and Grandmuddy came up to the beach just as a mini vacation for the weekend. Uncle Bill and Brandi are out of town in Charleston so we have the beach house to ourselves. So, why am I playing on my iPad instead of laying out by the ocean? It is colddddddddd! And overcast :( Too bad. At least we're at the beach.. My parents and me and Ben went down to the beach earlier and took a walk and looked for cool shells. I found two shells that are shape of hearts so Ben and I decided that we are going to start collecting things that look like hearts that come from nature. So wherever we are we will always keep an eye for things (whether it be rocks, seashells, wood pieces, whatever). We thought it would be fun :)

It means a lot to me to be able to spend extra time like this with Grandmuddy. She was diagnosed with cancer shortly after this past Christmas. She has been through some Chemo and has responded really well to that so Praise God! She has stayed in good spirits and is clinging to God along the way. On a not as positive note, Grabby also, sadly, has recently been diagnosed with cancer. He is not responding as well to treatment as Grandmuddy is. The doctor has given him 3 months to live. It is hard for me to deal with sometimes, when I think about it for too long. All of this sickness and sadness all at once. But all we can do is hope and pray for the best and spend as much time as we possibly can with family. I am hopefully going to be able to see Grabby this Monday before work - if not I will have to come back the next weekend. Susan is flying in from CO tomorrow night so she can see him and Jonathan is most likely going to fly in next weekend to spend time with him as well. It is a hard time for the Buck family, but I feel a lot of peace and comfort from the fact that both of my wonderful grandparents love the Lord very very much and are making the most of everything. They are focusing on the positives and relying on God to help them through the rest! I love both of them so very much and cannot focus on what could happen right now - just want to savor every moment that I have with them.

We are going to go out to eat at The Oceanic tonight so I have to take a shower and freshen up but I will post more later, as there is a lot to catch up on!

I have kept a journal off and on throughout my life but I never seem to keep up with it for more than a couple of weeks at a time!  So, I figured that if I blog online it will be more fun AND I will be able to look back on and reminisce these times of my life and to share them....my stories and my struggles, my hopes and my dreams, my *Life in my Twenties* (MID-twenties...Ugh. Lol.)  So here it goes, but let me warn you that there is nothing too too exciting going on in my life at the moment, however who really knows what could be coming around the corner...

Another weekend has FLOWN by!  Please tell me why work days drag on and on into eternity, but weekends are over before you know it???  Every time.  It never fails.  I tried to think of ANY way to get out of going to work this morning (well, afternoon), but I knew that I couldn't justify not going.  I have the luxury of not having to work 40 hours a week if I don't want to (more like 20-30 usually), HOWEVER the more and more I take advantage of that little perk, the more my paychecks suffer (imagine that). Soooo, I went to work... but it definitely was not fun.  So not fun that I ended up using two hours of sick time to leave early since they were not giving VTO tonight (Voluntary Time Off - basically we can leave early if we want to when call volume is down).  I'm REALLY bad about that - getting out of work any chance that I get - but I can't help it!  I HATE my job.  Hate it!  It is so stressful to me and the constantly changing metrics and requirements are causing it to be even more so lately.  I pretty much dread going every single day.  Even though I perform well at my job, sales is so NOT ME.  I guess I got sucked in by the easy money and short work weeks, but I have to find something else soon, before I go crazy!  I recently started half-way job hunting on the side, but not as much as I should be if I really want to make a change.... We'll see what happens.

I had a pretty relaxing weekend while it lasted.  I didn't get off work until late on Friday night so I didn't do much at all, just came home, relaxed, and watched TV.  On Saturday morning  Ben and I had to go to his Uncle David's funeral in Greer.  Although his uncle had been pretty much out-of-the-picture in his family because of some issues that he had, it was extremely sad because Ben just lost his grandmother, Nana, from that same side of the family just around two weeks before (the day after Valentine's Day).  So, it definitely has been a very hard time for the family.  It's hard to imagine Ben's mom losing her mom and her brother in a matter of weeks, or Ben's grandfather, Papa, losing his wife and his son!  Very sad.  After the funeral and lunch at Papa's house, I went and ran errands with Shelly.  We went to Marshall's and I spent too much money.  Oops.  But I left with some good buys :)  Shelly and I both bought identical *Little Black Dresses* as our 'inspirational pieces' to wear after we slim down for the summer.  Shelly, Linsey, and I have started a weight-loss challenge among ourselves (BFSSSD '11).  We each have our own individual goals that we want to meet by the beginning of summertime.  We're going about it in a healthy way - basically trying to work out 5 times a week and counting our calories in order to stay within a specific calorie count each day (and we allow ourselves to be a LITTLE more lenient on the weekends).  We're holding each other accountable and encouraging each other along the way,  and even emailing each other throughout the day listing everything that we eat and the calorie count.  It's going really well so far.  It's helping me to think twice before eating certain things, knowing that I will be held accountable by someone other than just myself.   We started the challenge on Tuesday and I have lost 3.5 pounds so far, so I am definitely excited about that, but I still have a ways to go before I am where I want to be....

Anyway, so we went shopping then we met Jessica at Arizona Steakhouse for dinner.  I had never eaten there before - it was all right.  I had the Caesar salad (which wasn't the best) and creamed spinach.  After dinner, Shelly and I went to a small sports pub that we like to go to in Simpsonville/Mauldin.  It was 'Aussie Pub Trivia Night', which was actually just random trivia questions hosted by an Australian guy (hence the "Aussie" part).  I was thinking it was going to be all Australian-themed questions so I was SURE we would do horribly BUT Team Shellizabeth actually WON!!!!! :)  We won a $25 gift certificate to the sports pub, which we definitely used later on that night for our tabs.  Ben and his friend Jack met us up there later but they missed out on all the action of the big win!  It was a fun time.  Sunday Ben and I missed church - he has been running himself ragged and was exhausted :( and we spent a lazy afternoon watching Lifetime Movie Network.  It was hilarious watching him get into the stupid movies.  I love him.  We went with Jessica and Gary to Quaker Steak for dinner - we had to follow Momma-to-be's random cravings there so she could get some fried pickles :) - which I did accidentally have to try, but at least "budgeted" it into my 1,100 daily cals...  We had a good dinner with them ( I had another Caesar salad), then we all stopped by Barnes and Noble.  Jessica bought a Twins book :) :) and  I, for some reason, decided to buy a Baby Name Almanac..?! Lol.  Mostly because I was helping her look up name meanings/girl's names and MAYBE partly because I like to research and get prepared for ONE day a LONG time from now........ :)

Well it is midnight, so that means it's not Monday anymore, which means it would be a good time to end the 'Monday' blog!

-Blog ya later!