She's like my sister...

I was never the teenager that had a lot of friends.  When I was in high school, my "group" consisted of two people who were completely different than I was and that is it.  Actually, I was the girl who got made fun of.  Oh yeah, bullied beyond belief.  That got so bad that I wouldn't want to go to school.  I wanted to stay home in bed all day and sulk about how terrible I was.  Of course, that was not an option and I had to find comfort somewhere, so I did turn to the internet.

The year was 2001 and I had found a message board for the group 'N Sync, who I was a huge fan of, so I decided to join and see what it was all about.  To make a very long story short, I had met someone who introduced me to a friend of hers... Her friend's name was Lauren.  We started talking and hit it off right away.  About a week later we had spoken on the phone and every day and every night we would talk to each other VIA phone or internet. (or even both at the same time!)  Lauren and I quickly became best friends, the kind of friend that I had never had before this.  She was someone that I could vent to, I could go to for guy advice, someone who was just like me in some ways but completely different too.  Finally, I had someone I could lean on and confide in.  

October of 2001 brought Lauren and myself wanting to get together.  I had been figure skating at that time and decided to ask Lauren to meet me at the skating rink.  The problem was, she had to get her mother to drive her. (Since we were 14 and 15, respectively...)  I had not lied to my mom about the situation, I just withheld the information from her that Lauren was coming.  (Of course, that's not how she recounts it, but it's the truth!)  -- But I digress -- Finally, after my skating session, Lauren got to the rink with her mother and we spent a very long time talking to each other and having just as much fun in person as we did online and on the phone.  Our mothers also had a great conversation and got to know each other better.  

After that Lauren and I saw each other twice a year.  She lived two hours from us, so it was impossible for us to get together more often, but we wanted to.  Once I went to college, since I went to college in Philadelphia, Lauren and I became even closer.  At that point, I lived only 15-20 minutes from her house, so I would go there often.  Honestly, I think I was at her house more than I was in my dorm room.  Her mother quickly became more like a mother to me than I realized in the years prior.  

I owe a hell of a lot to Lauren.  She is someone who can drive me crazy but keep me sane at the same time.  She is someone who I look up to, even though she's younger than me.  She's someone who I can call with the stupidest problem, and she will make me laugh.  She is someone that even though we don't talk too much anymore, once we do call each other, it's like we never stopped talking.  She is someone that taught me the real meaning of friendship, and was it means to have someone that knows you better than you know yourself. And she definitely does.  She is more like my sister than my own sister is and we will always be best friends.  

Thank you Laur, for 11 years of EVERYTHING!!

(Inspired by Mama Kat's prompt - That one time you met your online friend in real life (was it everything you thought it would be?)

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A Bachelorette post, better late than never!

If I was going to do a Bachelorette post, I should have done it late Monday night or yesterday, right?  Things went so crazy I didn't get a chance to.  I will post about the Bachelorette in just one second because I want to, but let me explain why the hell I'm posting about it now...pretty much on Thursday morning! (And I know you guys don't care, but I want to explain anyway.)

I slept for a total of 1 hour on Monday night/Tuesday morning.  I had to wake up at Midnight to get ready to go to NYC.  Why do you ask?  Because my friend and I stupidly planned to get to NYC at 2 am to wait in line for standby tickets to "The View" on Tuesday.  Now, usually we wouldn't go that early, we'd get there by 4 and usually it wouldn't be a stupid idea because we'd totally get in.  I say we're stupid because we were going to see Clay Aiken.  We KNEW Bret Michaels was going to be there and didn't think anything of it.  In fact, when we got there at 2 am, we were actually the 7th and 8th people online.  I guess they also didn't realize how absurdly popular Bret Michaels is either...

Needless to say... we didn't get in.   No standbys got in and they actually had to turn away ticket holders. *smack*  How stupid could we be to realize that if Bret Michaels, who has a large fanbase and Clay Aiken, who also has a large fan base, were going to be there -- we wouldn't really have a chance.  And I couldn't even say I had fun waiting... Well, I did until about 9 am.

At 9 am we walked to Starbucks because the peasant standbys can't wait with the royal ticket holders.  We had to come back at 9:45.  I ordered a yummy Caramel Frap and while I was sitting there with my friend, minding my own business, I started to get these terrible pains.  Everything hurt.  My back, my chest, my side.  Now, I've had this before and it was either 1. Appendix pain radiating or 2. Gallbladder pain that happens about twice a year for me.  Wishful thinking for me, it was the latter.  However, I couldn't breathe, I couldn't talk, I was doubled over in pain.  My friend, God bless her, was so nice and so helpful.  I texted her to get me some apple juice and she did.  I sipped that as we walked back to the studio and it did get better at some points, then started painfully starting up again.  Honestly, I was thankful when they told us we didn't get in at that point.  I was back and forth in so much pain, my friend had to drive me home.  I went back to NYC later that day and picked up my car when I felt better.  Honestly, I was in pain from 9 am until about 3 pm.  It was terrible.  When I got home I was doubled over in bed with the pain.  

That's my excuse for not making a Bachelorette post sooner. Ha!

As I'm sure everyone agrees, Kirk had no chance after the hometown date.  The second his creepy-ass father asked Ali to "go to his basement" (which is a pretty creepy statement in general!!) he was doomed to lose this.  I don't care how hot the guy is, if he had a father that sort of reminded me of a serial killer and had dead animals in his basement which he stuffed and hung on the wall,(Or in technical terms - Taxidermy...)  I would never date him.  As the old saying goes, you don't just marry someone, you marry their families too.  I'd be a fucking lunatic if I married into a taxidermy family..and ones that kept dead animals AND Popsicles in the same freezer... ("Just in case they get hungry!" -- Are you FOR REAL, crazy man!?)

Between Roberto and Chris, I would really choose Chris as the favorite for the hometown dates.  Roberto is hot and sexy and looks damn good in a baseball uniform, but I get the feeling his family doesn't think Ali's good enough for him.  I'm not sure if Ali picked up on it because Roberto is just so damn hot (did I mention he's sexy?) but I'm sure it's pretty obvious by the way they were acting.  They seem to put Roberto up on this high pedestal.  Of course, his family is sweet and loving, but I just don't get the feeling that they think she's good enough.

Now, with Chris's family, it's pretty much the perfect storybook fantasy with the happily ever after and cute little house with the picket fence.  From the first moment of their hometown date, you could see that they had an even deeper connection than before.  Hell, if he doesn't win I'LL move to Cape Cod, find him and marry him... lol  (I'm not kidding either. Don't put it past me!!)  I definitely think he has a chance.  

Frank...oh Frank...what to do with you...  How can anyone stand a man who needs constant reassurance?!  That would piss me off and he'd be out of my life faster than he'd know what hit him.  I'm not exactly sure why she keeps him around, but I can only think it's some kind of ABC initiated garbage because of the "twist" in next week's episode. (They've been promoting the "heartbreak" for weeks now, c'mon Frank...just say you're leaving already.  Because you're just an insecure bastard who needs a woman who can reassure you that she loves you every fucking minute!!)  And to think...I actually liked him... (But then again, I liked & believed Justin too....It's never a good thing when I'm attracted to someone! They're usually jerks or liars.)  

What's even worse...is I think Ali is on the same wavelength as Frank and doesn't know what HER feelings are either.  It's scary, especially this far into the episode... Pretty soon there will be two men proposing to her and she's gonna have to pick one... At least we hope she is going to.  She better not flake out!

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Monday Miscellany - Musings galore!

1. Beach Time!

Yesterday myself, my mom, my best friend and the kids went down the Jersey Shore.  (No, not THAT Jersey Shore.) I work with Amusement Advantage and I had free vouchers to go Point Pleasant Beach, so we got to go to the Beach, Boardwalk, Aquarium and Gold Course for absolutely free! It was very fun and exciting to even go in my new car.  We were all excited, actually.  Going in a car that we know won't break down is the greatest part! Ha!  

We had a great time.  My friend and I really wanted to go in the ocean, but the tide was so rough and there were so many rip tides that we couldn't go farther than maybe knee deep water.  It was fun, though.  My kids were afraid of the ocean since the waves were big, so they just put their feet in a little and played with my mom on the sand.  Olivia took a few minutes to get used to the sand.  She was pretty scared of it! lol

Needless to say, we had an awesome time.  The only problem was that we got sunburnt!  I want to post all of the pictures I have -- I'll do that tomorrow. :) I'll post just one right now.

2. Back To School Event

Life of an Artsy Mom will have an official announcement soon.  Starting the end of August beginning of September, (date TBA) we will be having a Back to School event!! We have many companies that are going to be doing Giveaways with us that are perfect for Back To School!!  We're very excited to be doing this and we're even more excited that this is our first event!  We're currently working on a design for the button for you all to put on your page to spread the word about the Back to School event!!  We're also looking for some guest writers who would like to contribute any articles of their own about Back to School.  Any tips? Tricks? Recipes for lunches or after school snacks? If you want to be a guest writer, please e-mail us HERE. 

3. Paycheck to Paycheck

Do you know what sucks? Living paycheck to paycheck.  I absolutely hate the one week where ALL the bills come due at once and we're at that in between before we get a check.  So today was that day for us.  $10 in my wallet, had to scrounge through everything in my house, all my old purses to find some change, found some old lottery tickets that were $1 winners and had some video games we never used.  This happens every time the bills come due.  For some reason, they all come due on the same week! ha.  Our luck!!  We came through, however.  We had $10 in change that I went to Coinstar with, I got $10 for some old video games and a few dollars in lottery tickets. Just enough for dinner and gas in my car for tomorrow.  I'll get my check tomorrow, which is great, so it's grocery shopping day tomorrow! Does anyone else go through this at one time or another?  Sometimes I feel like we're all alone in our scrounging for money.

4. Potty Training 

I'm currently going through potty training with Olivia.  She has wanted to do it for quite a while and she HAS been trying.  I have to give her credit where credit is due.  However she needs to be more consistent.  There are times she forgets and just goes in her underpants, so I really have to get on asking her every half hour if she has to go and getting her trained.  She wants to and tries very hard.  She gets discouraged every time she almost goes but misses the potty.  I know she's ready.  I just have to put my all into it. I will get started on that!  It's just so difficult to do!

5. Bachelorette 

I'm now rooting for Frank, but I have a bad feeling about him right now.  Next in line for my support is Roberto. ha!  I'm watching it right now and hopefully Frank won't let me down! (Though I doubt I'm right.) 

6. Uh Oh - Coach?! 

Yesterday I found out that there is a COACH OUTLET around here!  It's about an hour away but from what I hear, it's VERY worth going.  Purses for just $100 and under?! Oh yeah.  They take coupons? Even better!!  I think I'm going to have to make a special trip there soon! :D

7. Fresh Brewed Tea

I hate fresh brewed tea!!  I cannot stand it...AT ALL!!  My mom made some tonight and I really have to load it with sugar or I can't stomach the taste.  I guess maybe I'm just weird, but I also can't have sweet tea.  It's just disgusting! lol

8. The View

Tomorrow I am going to see The View and I am very excited to just get out for a few hours and be with some friends. :) I'm hoping to find street parking in NYC just like I did the last time I went to The View.

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I feel so old because I am about to say this...

...And you know, it's so funny because when I was a teenager and into *N Sync and BSB and Britney Spears, I was the same exact way.  It's funny how your opinions change as you get older and funny how your vision gets clearer!

Today we celebrated my best friend's 26th birthday.  I love her to death and would do anything for her.  When she invited me to an Honor Society concert, I jumped at the chance to be with her when she celebrates her birthday and does something she absolutely loves.  Honor Society is her favorite band.  I had gotten a CD from her a few months ago, and I have to say that their music is very good!  Though, I wasn't very familiar with them.  

Now, Honor Society is basically a boy band.  I would compare them to Hanson, even though they aren't brothers and even though there are 4 of them.  When I say this, you'll understand further where my rant is coming from...

They had opened up for Jonas Brothers last year...

...Need I say more. (For the record, I do not like Jonas Brothers, but my daughter does. lol)

The concert was general admission, so my friends got there at absurd hour of 6 am and completely understood that I didn't want to couldn't get there until noon, THANK YOU GUYS!!  Thankfully, they ended up being the 8th-11th people online, so we were sure we were guaranteed first row for her birthday -- which would make her so happy.  

Frustration started when the 10-14 year olds started their teenybopper bragging, screaming, etc...  Which, I know they were excited, I was their age at one point in time, but they were just obnoxious...  My youngest friend there was 21 and even she understood that what they were doing was annoying.  I was a little annoyed by their antics, but understood because we were all that age.  I'm sure I was like that too...

We had a great time in the line, my friend got her meet and greet and went to soundcheck, she was very happy because she got a birthday greeting from them and when she came back to the line and it was time to go in...the mess started.

Teens from the back of the line started to sneak in the front, we had 20 year olds arguing with the teens, security guards had to kick people out of the line, the entire line started going awry...  When the doors opened it got worse.  People started pushing others... (Frustration!)  

To make a long story short, once we got in we ended up a lot farther back than we would have liked because of the fact that people pushed, made a run for it and so on...  My friend wasn't upset, just frustrated just as I was... We decided to sit in the seating farther back because we couldn't stand the entire time with the kids/teens screaming and pushing down on the floor.  

We felt old... We opted to sit in the seats with the parents... lol

Despite the teens screaming, and despite the opening acts being way too long (YES...3 opening acts)  We had a good time.  Unfortunately, we did leave before the show was over because we didn't want to get stuck in the line getting out of there.  We went to dinner instead.  

We felt even older!!

It's all a part of growing up.  It's all a part of being an adult and all a part of opening our eyes to what we probably were when we went to concerts at that age.  We had some laughs, we shared our frustrations and had a great time.  I wouldn't change a thing... And she is still one of my best friends anyone can ever have.  Everyone should be as lucky as to have a friend like my friend Gina. :)

OH!  And when I got home, I came home to the Cascade 24 Hour Challenge sitting on my kitchen table!  Any excuse to bake a blueberry cobbler, I'm there! :)  That means we are going to have a giveaway soon for a $25 Walmart Gift Card!!

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Friday Follow & Ultimate Blog Party!!

Today is April 9th, the start of the 5 Minutes For Mom BLOG PARTY!!

Definitely check them out because they're just awesome. :)
Prize Preferences At Bottom

WELCOME! I will be posting another (better) Ultimate Blog Party post later tonight or tomorrow.  I'm so excited to be participating!  I love meeting new bloggy friends and reading new and great blogs, so definitely leave me a comment with your blog (and follow? please? I follow back!)  We will be having some great giveaways for the party until the 16th too!!  I love to celebrate!  We will have something new and great everyday until the end of the party. :)

Everything has been so crazy I completely forgot today was Friday!  Isn't that completely hard to believe? Ha! Well, believe it.  :)  I usually post my link on Friday Follow at 12 am, but today and last night were completely lost to me.  I forgot until about two hours ago.  Hell, I look forward to Friday Follow every week!!  I love meeting new bloggers!

A small introduction to all my new readers/followers >> My name is Krissy and I am a 25 year old single mom of a 4 year old maniac little girl and a 2 year old maniac little girl.  My kids are the cause of my stress my entire life! I am an artist (jewelry designer, fine artist & freelance mural artist) even though currently I just take on freelance projects and do not have a regular job.  (Though that will hopefully change soon!)  I live in New Jersey, although New York City is my life.  I am there more than I am here!  I love Broadway Theater and have seen more shows than I can even count!  Currently, I am on a modified Nutrisystem plan and trying like hell to lose my flub lose some weight.  I have lost 15.5 lbs and counting.  (Click here for my weight loss blog.)  I love meeting new bloggers, so welcome!!

I love my friends like crazy, especially my friend Gina.  She is one of the funniest and most fun people to be around.  I am definitely so glad to have her as my friend!!  We ended up hanging out in the city recently and had so much fun even though things didn't go as planned.  

You see, I actually live a half hour from New York City.  (I have gotten from my house to NYC in as little as 20 minutes, so I am extremely close.)  The problem is, traffic is so hard to predict -- even with listening to the traffic on the radio/tv.  You never know what will happen when you get closer to the bridges or tunnels leading into the city.  Well, we had planned to go see a show and wanted to try for the lottery.  (At this point, since I am saving up for things during the summer, winning the lottery and getting $25 tickets would have been ALL I could do.)  Traffic was insane.  And that was on BOTH of our ends. [We come from separate directions in NJ, but we're both 20 minutes away from the city.] We got there way too late for the lotto.  Even though there were standing room seats available for $21.50, we decided our money would be better spent just hanging out.  So we did.

We had a lot of fun, as we always do.  She talked me into playing Dance Dance Revolution at Dave and Busters, ha! That was a sight to see!  #1.  I can't dance and #2.  I have NO coordination.  We had a lot of fun, though.  We played a bunch of different games there, got absolutely no tickets for prizes...lol  We didn't care!  We were wasting time.

It was fun to pretend we were teeny boppers and take pictures in front of the Next To Normal doors. (Which is our favorite show, and Alice Ripley is my musical hero.)  We just completely wasted time and loved every second of it.  I love having the friends I have, because we don't have to do anything in particular to have fun.  We can just waste time, walk around or be useless and still have time time of our lives. (I treasure the girls days/nights out and am so lucky to have an in house babysitter; my mom. I always appreciate everything she does for me.)

Tomorrow, my mom and I are going to garage sales and we are very exciting.  We have some particular things we're looking for to get for the house, and we also just look for random little interesting things too.  Total excitement.

Sponsored by:

The 5 Minutes for Mom blog party has TONS of prizes to be won! Which are my top 3 preferences?  Well, the top 3 prizes I would ABSOLUTELY LOVE to win are:

1. #1 Grand Prize: Toshiba Satellite Laptop (duh! Everyone probably wants to win this beauty!)
2. USC17 Apple Gift Card (This could be very helpful to us!)
3. #39 Hilton Garden Inn gift certificate

If we do happen to win and those are all claimed, these are our other preferences (in order of preference.)

#USC3, #USC8, #USC39, #USC15, #37, USC32, USC37, #113, #2, #61,#71, #72, #73, #74, #6, #15, #18, #19, #20, #32, #31, #38, #4, #5, #8, #9, #16, #35, #47, #49, #52, #50, #57, #55, #87, #88, #104, #100, #105, #107, #112, USC41

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I love the Cheesecake Factory!

I am on a mini vacation (that's what I call it. LOL) and am enjoying myself very much. 

Call me sheltered and uncultured, but I haven't ever been to the Cheesecake Factory.  Though...I have heard amazing things, really.  Tonight, my friends suggested maybe we go there and when we looked up the menu online, it was incredibly extensive.  We found our way there via GPS.  First off, the place was HUGE and GORGEOUS.  Such a gorgeous building.  Once we got the actual menu, holy good GOD there was so much listed it was a frikkin BOOK, not a menu!  It was awesome, really.  We were so overwhelmed with the menu that we decided just to get a few smaller entrees that they called "snacks" and share those.  We had fried artichokes, mini crabcakes and corn fritters.  A-m-a-z-i-n-g!!  I also had a Shephards Pie as an entree, but completely didn't eat it all.  We still have leftovers that we're keeping in the mini fridge of the hotel.

[I'm backtracking but...] When I first got here I felt so homesick.  I missed my bed, I missed my room, I missed my kids the most.  My little huggy darlings. :(  I miss their whining and crying and "mommy mommy mommy"ing... My friends got me out of that funk.  We got all dressed up for dinner in our pretty leggings and long shirts/dresses, we did our makeup together and did our hair and took pictures in the mirror... Some may consider them "Myspace/Facebook Poses"... lol  I call it pure fun!!  I actually was very pleased with the way I looked...10lbs is a lot when you're dressed in a form fitting shirt.  The homesickness went away pretty quickly.  :)  

Our mini vaca, so far, is just perfect.  I'm having a great time and am sad it's gonna be over so soon...  Though I am glad to go home and see my kids in another two days. :)  I can hug them and kiss them until they get so tired of me.  Until I go home, we can talk on the phone. My mom and I agreed that I needed this time off.  

Tomorrow's post will be password protected.  If you want the password to the post, please e-mail me at artisticmom@ymail.com and ask or leave a comment here with your e-mail address so I can send the password to you.  I promise it will be a very worthwhile post!

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Where's the spring?!

i'm not liking this very cold January weather.  Actually, I'm just not understanding it.  One day it's so nice and almost 55 and the next it's 20 with wind chills of 0.  I wish it would stay in between...  I can't stand the freezing cold.  I also feel like I'm starting to come down with something.  It's from the damn changes in the weather.  I just can't wait for Spring.  The weather is the absolute best then.  (And it's my birthday season too!)  

Today was pretty dull... I had to go to get my taxes done, which I am proud to say went very well.  I'm getting a very good amount back and would like to save most of it.  However, I do need a new digital camera.  So $200 will go towards that.  H&R Block really raised the prices of their tax returns!  They charged me $350, which is thankfully being taken out of my refund.  Last year  I only paid $200.  (And I had more 1099's last year than I did this year!)  I did have more W2's this year though.  Either way,  I'm getting a very significant refund.   

I had a great night with my friend Gina.  We just hung out, got something to eat, she got a personalized hat which she loves... LOL  (I want one too actually.  It reminds me of the pencils with my name on them when I was younger.)  We just had a good time.  My day was pretty shitty, mostly because I miss Olivia so much when she goes to her dad's house. I'm actually very exhausted and have a long day tomorrow.  This post is so back and forth between thoughts, but I am just so tired. lol  Check out our really kinda cute but kinda corny picture.  (I look like crap)

Saturday 6

What’s the one thing that really annoys you?  People who judge a book by their cover.  If you look deeper into someone, they may be a lot different than you think at first glance.  

If it was the end of the world what be the last thing you would try to do?  I don't know.  I guess I would make up with everyone who I wasn't on good terms with.  It's a hard question to answer!

If you had the choice of designing a mobile phone what one feature would you add to it?  Well, of course, it would have to be pink.  Maybe some sparkle on it somewhere. :D  Feature-wise, it would have a TV.  I mean like a cable TV that you can watch anywhere.  I hate missing my favorite shows when I'm out

Diamonds or pearls?  Diamonds

Silver or gold? White gold, rose gold or silver.  No yellow gold. 

Are you at home or work? At home in my bed. :)

I also did the Saturday 9, however I didn't want to clutter this post, so I did it on another page.  Here it is.... SATURDAY 9!

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