4th of July

So, this year I had a great 4th of July. I spent the evening in Charlottesville with some of my most favorite people in the world - some of my sorority sisters :) We were at Jessica & Steve's Wedding @ King Family Vineyard in Crozet. It was a beautiful wedding and we of course had a blast. It's always so fun to get together with those girls. Here is a picture of all of us:



As far as the rest of the weekend just a lot of time spent with my sister an dhelping out with Conner. Hung out with Callie and just layed low :) All in all...a good weekend!!

Sinus and Lymph Node Infections....

Soooo, what a week. I have sinus and lymph node infections and feel pretty crappy :( The entire left side of my head is throbbing...not fun at all.

My sister is on bed rest still and we're just waiting for the doctor to say they're ready to deliver her. So, we're still awaiting little Brayden's arrival.

I got a call and I have an interview scheduled for Nursing School - so I'm both excited and nervous about that. I'm still applying for jobs and not really getting anywhere - surprise surprise!

I guess that's really all that's new with me. Just trying to feel better at this point!!

Never a dull moment...

So, let's see. Of course it's 11:15 on a Friday and instead of being out, I'm at home writing on here...but, oh well. The past couple months have been like that for me. No real desire to go out much...besides, having no money doesn't allow for having frequent evenings out!

Ok, sooooo...this weekend is Jackson's baptism. Which means lots of family time :) Should be fun..get to hang out w/ my sister-in-law's fam and all the kids.

Yesterday, my sister (Aimee) was put on bed rest for high blood pressure so I've been trying to help out with Conner. This afternoon my mom and I moved Conner into his new room and got the nursery ready for Brayden Edward, who will probably make his entrance into the world earlier than expected and within the next 2 weeks. Mama is doing alright and trying to stay as imobile as she can allow herself. But, it's funny how doing nothing stinks when someone tells you that you have to do nothing!

Other than that nothing really crazy with me. I turned in my nursing school application at the beginning of the week so I'm just anxiously awaiting hearing about that - though I have absolutely no idea when I'll hear something! The funds I had saved up are starting to dwindle, so I'm going to have to find some sort of income - though I don't know what yet! Right now I've just been focused on helping out with all the kids - yes, all 5 niece and nephews...soon to be 6 (we're crazy)..

I'm sad to say that I have to miss my friend Jessica's Bridal Shower and Bachelorette Party in nova this weekend :( But I will see all my gals in a couple weeks in C-ville for the big wedding - so excited!!!!! Always look forward to those Chi O reunions!!!

Well, have a fabulous weekend!!!

Long time....

So, I know it has been over a week since I posted anything - I apologize! It has been a crazy week. My aunts are coming into town from PA tomorrow, so I've been helping my sister spruce up her house and also helping out with all the kids - as usual :) I love being Aunt Katy...it's so great! Its been so fun spending so much time w/ the fam and getting to know my new nephew. I definitely think I needed it after everything I've been through - I needed that feeling that I am wanted and needed. And, I've definitely gotten it lately.

So, tonight was our first Kickball game...woohoo! Unfortunately, we lost...BUT, it was still a lot of fun. It was just fun to get outside and do something active w/ my friends. Hopefully next week we'll win :) Fingers crossed....

So, for the rest of this week will be some serious family time w/ the aunts in town and father's day. I'm looking forward to it. I've been finishing up my nursing school application to turn it in...getting nervous about that too. And, still trying to find some sort of employment to provide me with some income. So, we'll see what happens.

All I know is that for the first time in a while I think I am genuinely happy with the way my life is going. Now it's just time to figure out where I go from here....

Sex and the what????

Soooo, I'm still stuck somewhere between Virginia and California in my timing. My body is still out of whack and I tend to be awake when I should be sleeping and sleeping when I should be awake. It has never affected me like this...hopefully it will correct itself soon :)

Ok, so I couldn't be more excited about this weekend. Tomorrow night we're going to see Sex and the City!!!! I can't wait to see this movie. I don't think I've been this excited about a new movie in a long time. I know me and the girls will have a blast..and then it's out to celebrate Sarah's birthday. Also, sure to be a great time. I know it will be a fantastic evening :)

Then Sat night I'm hanging out w/ the girls from my old work and I can't wait! Love the grown up slumber parties - always a blast!

Sunday is Country Fest and since I'm a huge Sugarland fan, I couldn't be more excited about this either. So, all in all it should shape up to be a fantastic weekend. I usually don't say that b/c I ultimately end up disappointed...but I'm sure it will all be great!

Hope that you have a great weekend as well and I'm sure I'll have stories at the end of all this :) Until then...

Heading Home...

Sadly, I'm down to my last 15 hours in Cali. Tomorrow I head back to the East Coast. I've had tons of fun spending time with the Macniders :) The weather has been not so desirable but I'll trade that for good company.

Don't worry, more to come, but for now it's off to bed before my long trip home tomorrow!

CALIFORNIA

So, I finally made it out to Cali...after a cancelled flight and a long day! Apparently, I also brought the rain with me! Though it gives me lots of bonding time with Jen and Colton :)

Have no fear, I'm having a blast and I'll be home next week! Love you, mean it!

Leaving on a Jet Plane..

So, tomorrow morning @ 6:40 my flight leaves for Cali...yay :)

It's time for me to get away for a while! Call if you need me!!

I must be wishing on someone else's star....

10:00 on a friday night and I'm at home...crazy life I'm living here. It has, however, been a crazy day...so I think I deserve a relaxing night in :) I watched my nephew, Conner, this afternoon...we've been bonding a lot lately! We played outside...which he loved. A 1.5 yr old is so easy to please!

I've really enjoyed spending so much time with all the kids lately. It has definitely made me refocus on how lucky I am to have such an amazing family. I also never realized how long you can keep 4 children occupied with an air mattress. All I had to do was jump around on it with them and them pull the plug, let it deflate and blow it back up again...they thought it was a ride. A definite hit :)

This afternoon, my niece fell out of a tree! Luckily she is ok...a few cuts and bruises but nothing broken. She's sore and spending her evening on the couch..but as my mom always said, it will be better before she's married!

I guess that's really all for today. T minus 5 days until I head to Cali and it couldn't be coming at a better time. Besides the fact that I haven't seen my best friend since January (and I can't be more excited about seeing her) I think I just need a break from worrying about everything and wondering what's going to happen next and just get away and have fun.

So, here's to another weekend...hope it's a good one! I'll be spending my Saturday night in a tent ;) Don't be too jealous...

There's no place like home...

So, I'm at home for the first night in 5 days...and I'm so excited to sleep in my bed! There's really not much to update...I mean, how many times can I write about how I still don't have a job!?!?!?!?!

I'm just looking forward to this weekend and spending some time with friends :) Then I get to start packing and I head out to Cali next Wednesday - definitely time to get away for a while! I can't wait to hang out with my Jenny :) And, of course, her new little one and Robert!!!

Well, I guess that's really all for today...still working on the nursing school application. Have to work on my essay next...should be fun! And I'm trying to get that in ASAP! Keep your fingers crossed :)

Until next time....

Snow White? Not so much....

I've been spending the last few nights with my sister-in-law and the kids. I've been sleeping in the guest room surrounded by the seven dwarfs. Yes, 7 gigantic stuffed animals...hence the Snow White reference :) It's kind of frightening to wake up to that...

Not much new on the job front. I've just been playing nanny for the past few weeks. Doing a lot of "soul searching" I guess you'd call it. I have, however, decided to apply to nursing school...that's my big news. So, cross your fingers. I want to do something where I help people...not constantly feel like I'm getting stabbed in the back. So, we'll see...I've been working on my application and essay and i'll definitely keep you updated on what happens.

Not much interesting to report today. The weekend was pretty low key and this week just holds some babysitting and house cleaning. Next week is my big adventure when I head off to Cali...OC here I come, can't wait!!!!

So, I'll leave you with my thought for today...I just keep telling myself this to help me get through everything:

"Life has a lot of surprises in store for you; sometimes it just takes time for the gift wrapping to come off..."

Happy Tuesday!

When the day is done...

So, my new favorite person in the world is Chelsea Handler...from the show, Chelsea Lately. She's hilarious. She has written 2 books, has a show on E! and is a comedian. You should check her out... I'm currently readiing her book "My Horizontal Life; A Collection of One Night Stands" and I've pretty much laughed my whole way through. (I'm sure you're glad to hear that this is how I'm spending my time..I say, whatever works!) Definitely a riot.

So, let's see how my week has been....pretty uneventful actually. The constant emailing of resumes gets old when you're hearing nothing back! However, I have no choice but to keep trying. It definitely is hard though. I have my moments where I wonder how long this is going to take. It's very disheartening when all you want is to go back to work and do something where you feel like you're contributing to the world in some way. But, I just keep on truckin'....

I have, however, spent a lot of time with my niece and nephews and that has been great. I love those kids to death...they are my everything! There is nothing better than walking into a house and having one of them yell "It's Katy" and run at me and give me a big hug. Makes me feel like there actually are people in this world right now who are excited to see me! So, I thought I would share them with you...



Over the past few weeks I've been up, I've been down...I'm like a roller coaster at an amusement park....But, if after I get through all of this I have figured out where I want my life to go - then it all will have been worth it.

So, with that...it's almost the weekend again, can't believe another week has gone by. Hope you're all doing well!

P.S. I Love...

Everything about this day! Gavin Degraw's new album dropped today - yay! AND, the best movie ever...P.S. I Love You...came out today :) Guess I know what me and the roomies will be doing tonight!

In other news, this whole job searching thing is tough. You'd think it would be so easy - not so much. I just send out resume after resume and get no phone calls! Craziness. I have a pretty stacked resume too...so weird. Oh well, guess I just have to wait and it will work out eventually.

I've spent the majority of this morning searching and applying so I think I'll take advantage of the beautiful day and get out of the house this afternoon. Amanda had the day off and was venturing to the river - I was not ready to go back yet! Didn't want anymore near death experiences this week...1 was enough.

Thanks for all the phone calls and texts lately...I have been getting them, sorry I've been slow at responding. But I do appreciate you all thinking of me :)

Happy Tuesday...

And, remember..."You can't steal second with your foot on first"....Hope you make the most out of your day!

I feel lucky...

So, this weekend has been crazy...I don't even know where to begin!

Saturday started off with kickball practice. It was actually quite fun. I did better than I expected. After kickball I spent some time with my girl Jen and then went out for a little bit that night. Soooooo, this is where the fun begins. I come home and go to bed around 1 AM...around 3:50 I start getting phone calls and texts from the roomie, Amanda...saying that she's locked out of the house. I was completely out of it but stumbled downstairs and found the door unlocked and cracked open. A little puzzled, I pulled the door open and saw Marley (the puppy) run towards me...I peek around the corner and there is Amanda, sitting on the front porch of the house next door. She looks at me, a little confused, and says "oh my gosh, I'm at the wrong house." Now, at 4 AM when you're out of it, it wasn't that funny...but we had quite a few laughs about it this morning. Luckily it was one of the models...not someones actual house...since she had been ringing the doorbell and banging on the door....hehe!

Sooooo, after getting some sleep we all decided to venture to the river Sunday afternoon. Sarah, Emily and Pat got there first. Upon hearing that we were going to have to practically swim to get to "our" rock...I was a little skeptical but after a little persuading, decided to go ahead and give it a try. We get down to the rocks and start to "wade" through the water to get to our rock. I step down in the water and it immediately drops down. Now, on a normal person it would have come up to your stomach...but on me, it came up to my chest/shoulders. So, I step down and lose my balance a little, try to get myself up and it was just not happening. So, I get swept away by the current, down a little drop. At this point, I'm thinking I'm a gonner...I was convinced I was going to hit my head on something or get trapped under the water. I could hear everyone screaming and was watching everyone run to try and get to me. I probably went about 25 ft. downstream and this guy who was fishing off the side yelled for me to grab his hand and luckily I was able to get to him and he pulled me out....but not before I, thinking my bathing suit was falling off, yelled..."I think my butt is hanging out"...typical! Luckily it all worked out and we've definitely had some laughs about it this afternoon...but I won't lie, I was quite scared! I handled it with grace, of course :) But...it definitely was frightening! So with a bruised up leg...and a little bit of a bruised ego...I'm happy to say that I'm doing just fine.

So after weekened filled with friends, fun and lots of stories...it's off to bed for me! Back to some serious job searching this week :) Hope your weekend was a little less eventful...but just as fun!

TGIF!

So, it's probably not fair of me to say TGIF considering I don't have a job right now, but it's still Friday! That means there will actually be people around :)

Alright, so this week has been a complete whirlwind...lots and lots of babysitting. Baby Jack has settled in nicely at home and his big brothers and sister are having lots of fun with him! Shayne..the 2 yr old...loves him to death, watches over him constantly..hes definitely taking on the role of big brother very nicely. Keeley and Zach adore him as well and all they want to do is hold the little guy! His cousin, Conner, hasn't quite figured out what to think of him yet...but hopefully he'll get used to the idea since he'll have a little brother of his own in about 2 months.

As for me, its been an emotional week. I've been exhausted and trying to help out wherever I can. I've been nauseated for about 3 days straight...don't know whether its from medicines im on, dehydration, exhaustion...or all of the above! I think its been nice to be preoccupied and not thinking about all of the hurdles that have popped up in my life right now. Guess I'll be back to those soon enough. As for the rest of today, its over to my sister's to watch C then who knows! Just trying to take everything minute by minute...at this point that's all that I can do :)

Hope you have a great weekend!!

A Cinematic Adventure...

Just a thought...

So, Sarah and I watched 27 Dresses last night...great movie, by the way, if you haven't seen it.

Have you ever realized that in movies like that everything always works out?? They always get the guy or girl, the villian boss always gets what is coming to them and life is just perfect. No wonder we are so easily disappointed with things in our lives.

I mean, think about it...in real life, usually the jerky boss wins and you end up quitting your job. There are usually never any huge romantic gestures to win over a guy or girl...at least not in my history book. I mean, don't get me wrong, I know a movie is just a movie and real life is real life...but wouldn't it be nice, if just once something actually worked out like that?

I guess I'm just a huge romantic...a girl's gotta believe in something!!

Happy Thursday...almost the weekend :)

When I grow up....

My last few days have been spent as "Nanny Katy"...though when you're an Aunt, that job comes without question. I've spent the night in a hospital room w/ my sister-in-law, picked kids up from school, driven kids to church school, changed diapers, watched Pokemon...you name it, I've done it. Though it gives me little time to consider where to go from here...it does make me realize that I have an amazing family on my side :)

I think I have a few more nanny days in my future...but hopefully soon I'll move onto the task of figuring out what I'll be when I grow up! As for tomorrow, a little babysitting and a little kickball sound like just the ticket!

As for tonight, my bed sounds fabulous :) G'night!! LYMI!

Celebrate we will, for life is short but sweet for certain....

So, today started off with little expectation of any excitement...maybe a call for an interview, perhaps the acknowledgement of a resume. But, other than that, it looked to be just another day spent with my 2 nephews and the Cartoon Network (I'm becoming quite the expert.) So, imagine my surprise when I received a call around 9:30 saying that my sister-in-law was in labor...2 weeks early. We had toyed with the idea of me being in the room when she delivered a couple months back but after my sister's delivery - which could only be described as hellish, I was pretty hesitant to commit to that. However, when the moment came...I stepped up and decided to take one for the team and be in the room to see the birth of my newest nephew. And, may I say that Tracy is my idol when it comes to birthing children. She went into labor and had delivered within about 3 hours - travel time included. I won't share specific details...but I can only hope that someday when I have children it will be like that. After seeing my sister give birth, I had pretty much sworn off of it - she had scarred me for life...but I now have a renewed faith. We'll see if I make another appearance in my sister's room in a few months....

Thus, my newest nephew...Jackson Edward was born today at 12:55. He is 6lbs 15oz and 20 1/2 inches. He is precious!!!

Unfortunately my brother, Bryan, is stuck in Boston - the life of a pilot - and has not made it home yet to meet his newest son :( Hopefully he will be here soon!

So, I think it's safe to say that I've found what has made me happy for today :)

So, the 5th Lawlor grandchild has made his way into the world. Glad my brother and sister are keeping the numbers growing to keep the pressure off me for a while - I'm perfectly happy to be Aunt Katy a while longer :)

Guess the job searching will have to take a back seat for a day or two so that I can help out. Though, my day spent at the hospital has made me seriously consider going into nursing....

So, considering I'm worn out, this is really all i've got for today....I'll leave you with a picture :) Happy Tuesday! and, Happy Bday Jackson :)

What do I want to do with my life?

So, in Day 1 of my "where do I go from here" quest...I'm babysitting for 2 of my nephews. As you probably know I have 1 9yr old niece, 3 nephews - ages 5, 2 and 1 1/2....and 2 more nephews due in the next 2 1/2 months...yes, we're crazy around here. We're about halfway through the day and though I love them to death - all this makes me realize is that I'm not ready for a career in childcare...or a child of my own. Thank goodness! Thus I'm crossing that off my list of possible things to do with my life (being a nanny, that is). As you may or may not know, I lost my job over a week ago...Friday, April 18th to be exact. I won't go into detail but it has taken quite a toll on me. Pretty much knocked me right on my tail in the realm of emotional stability. I pretty much lost it in every aspect of my life at that point. I've struggled with depression before but this time has been pretty tough to take. I got to know the inside of my bedroom pretty well over the past week and a half and trust me when I say, that's no way to spend your life. If not for my therapist "tossing me a line to pull me out" (as she put it) I would probably still be there. Though I'm definitely nowhere near 100% again....probably still in the 40% range...she made me realize that I have to remember what makes me happy and focus on those things. Thus, I decided I'd start this blog (definitely never done this before) to keep you up to date on my life! Besides, you all know I'm quite the novel writer just when it comes to texts....so this is like my playground :) So, as one of the little ones has started crying (somebody probably stole a fruit snack or something) I should probably finish up. But, I hope that you enjoy reading what I have to say over the coming weeks/months...who knows how long it will last! You all are important to me and I want to keep you up-to-date on where I'm going from here!! I think my first goal is to learn to like myself again....since its been a good 2 years since that has happened. I just realized this is kind of Doogie Howser-esque....I know you can all hear the music playing in the background now :) Well, have a fabulous Monday. And, my words of wisdom for today are.... "If you always do what you've always done, then you'll always get what you've always gotten." LYMI!