Snow Before Halloween

I'm visiting my parents this weekend and am thouroughly annoyed by the pre-Halloween snow storm we got. I'm a weather geek, but I definitely do not like cold weather or snow. It's annoying, a hassle and makes we whiny. Mother Nature and I aren't speaking until she brings back the fall temps and sunshine.

Luckily, I had purchased some snow boots earlier in the week and thought to bring them with me. So, I got to try out my new kicks, which are adorable as far as snow boots go and it was perfectly acceptable to sit around the house watching Triple D and college football all day. Tomorrow the temps will soar to the mid-forties, which should melt off most of the stuff. Not an epic win, but I'll take it.

Top Ten: The Wonderfulness of Mom and Dad

When I asked for suggestions on what my next Top Ten blog should be about my mom said "How wonderful your parents are?" Of course! Why didn't I think of that?

So today, in honor of my dad's "35th" birthday, Top Ten: The Wonderfulness of Mom and Dad.

10. They LOVE tacky Christmas lights. It was a sad day when they had to retire their blow up Nativity scene after many years of being the centerpiece of the yard.

9. My mom is scary as crap. Friends, old and new, know not to mess with "Mama Malone". I learned my very effective "death stare" from her.

8. My dad claims to pick out all of my gifts because my mother has no clue what she's doing.

7. They have more dogs than kids. This seems like a smart idea.

6. They're big fans of Disney World! Mom's favorite ride is The Tower of Terror and Dad's is The Carousel of Progress.

5. My dad is super funny! I steal most of my jokes from him.

4. My mom is my favorite shopping partner. We like to go in all the same stores and usually she buys me lunch when we're out and about.

3. My dad does things that are unintentionally funny and then make for great stories! Like the time he was trying to view the Hope Diamond, but didn't realize the pedestal turned every few seconds so it was visible on all four sides of the display case. He kept walking around the case to see the diamond, but just couldn't seem to find it! :)

2. They treat my hubby like part of the family, meaning he gets teased big time. The day they start being nice to him, he'll know he's in trouble.

1. They encouraged me to choose a major that would make me happy, even if I wasn't guaranteed a humongous paycheck. (I had to do one nice one!)

Happy Birthday, Dad!

NaNoWriMo

I've attempted NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, www.nanowrimo.org) the past two years, but like blogging, it never stuck. The object of the event is to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. The key is quantity, not quality. Don't worry if it sucks! Don't delete anything! Just keep writing until you get to 50K. You can make it not suck later, after you've recovered from writing 1,667 words everyday for 30 days.

It's a tough assignment, especially since it occurs in November. Who's bright idea was that anyway? Let's challenge writers to write a novel on the eve of the holiday season! That being said, I have an awesome writer friend who was a winner 2 years ago (you win if you finish) and she told me that she wrote over Thanksgiving with the whole family in the house. That's not even the best part. The smoke detector went off that weekend and before she evacuated the house she grabbed her laptop because dammit she had 47K words and she wasn't losing them! P.S. It was a false alarm! All is well.

I've learned some things about myself this year. I've raised a lot of money for breast cancer research, education and assistance. I walked 39.3 miles to raise awareness for the disease. I've now maintained my blog for several weeks (a record!). If I can do those things, then I can do this. Life's too short to not give it the ole college try. In conclusion, I'm going to do it!

I probably better figure out what I'm going to write about ...

Top Ten Jessica-isms

My belated Friday Top Ten list! Thank you to my co-workers who came up with the idea and more than half of the entries. Not surprising since I make them listen to me 40 hours a week.

Honorable Mention - "Dammit, Dave, do your time sheet!"
Suggested by Dave himself! I do say this a lot, sometimes even multiple times a day. Since I only say it to one person though, it gets an honorable mention.

10. I know, right?
After Anna Kendrick said this in Twilight, there was no going back. I mainly use this on Facebook.

9.OMG!
I'm probably not known for OMG, but I definitely use it a lot. I've even used it in a writing assignment.

8. Mature ...
I used to say this to my buddy, (who shall remain nameless because he'll get all whiny if I mention him in my blog) when he would bust out the four year old poop jokes. These days, no one is immune to a good "Mature ...", even myself.

7. What up?
A general greeting for all. Even the husband.

6. Delightful
Everything's delightful! "How's your yogurt, J-Train?" "Delightful!; "Here's your pen I borrowed." "Delightful!"

5. Holla!
Another greeting and all around fun word. It demonstrates how urban and edgy I am.

4. OH SNAP!
Anytime someone disses me or someone else, you'll hear me shout this out. Thanks to my boss' daughter we now have a version for the most serious of offenses: HOLY SNAP!

3. Shortening words. Ex. "Fab" or "Hilar"
In regards to this I've been saying "hilar" for years. Lately, I've noticed that it's been getting a lot of use in social media and even on television. Ergo ipso facto, I'm ahead of the cool curve.

2. Holy crap!
How can you not love this? It expresses a great depth of surprise, yet it's not offensive like a true curse word. I love this term like Ross loves Rachel.

1. Dude
The epitome of Jessica-sims. Depending on connotation and context, dude can be used for anything. ANYTHING!!! I have been using this word for so long that my childhood friends (and their parents), call me dude. Even now, people greet me with a hearty "DUUUUUDE!"

Did I miss anything??

Top Ten ... ??

What should this week's Top Ten be about?

Choose Joy

I'm not a church going gal. I have my own ideas about God and religion, which I'm not going to discuss here, but I do want you to know I try to respect people's thoughts and beliefs about the aforementioned. That being said, I wanted to share this sweet and inspiring blog I started reading about a month or so ago. I think whether you are Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Atheist, something else or even unaffiliated, everyone can take something away from this blog. I'll let Sara speak for herself because she does it so well. Choose Joy.

Stacie's Favorite Things

My BFF started a blog (finally). Check her out!

http://staciesfavoritethings.blogspot.com/

Top Ten: Disney

My Favorite Disney or Disney/Pixar Movies of All Time

(Warning: princesses, pirates and cute stuff ahead)

10) The Princess Diaries - Based on the book series of the same name by Meg Cabot, one of my very favorite authors. If that's not reason enough for inclusion on the list, I don't know what would be. However, here are some other reasons: Stars Anne Hathaway and Julie Andrews. Boom.

9) The Muppet Christmas Carol - Made me laugh then. Makes me laugh now. Gonzo and Rizzo the Rat were brilliantly cast as the narrators. "Light the lamp, not the rat!" Classic.

8) Tangled - New to the lineup, Tangled impressed me with it's modern humor (Frying Pans! Who knew, right?) woven into a classic story. Pascal and Max never speak, but steal the show half the time and Zachary Levi can sing!

7) Monsters, Inc. - Our first pug was named Boo. Our second Sulley. I have a soft spot for this one.

6) The Little Mermaid - Part of the Disney Renaissance, The Little Mermaid was beautiful in all aspects: art, music, lyrics. "Kiss the Girl" is one of my favorite scenes because it encompasses all three.

5) WALL-E - Holy crap, Eve and WALL-E are adorable. Their dance scene in space among the stars (with a fire extinguisher) is so lovely and sweet it makes me want to squeeze those little robots in a big hug! And, not a bad moral to the story either.

4) Lion King - Tell me you don't get goosebumps during the opening sequence ... go ahead. This one is EPIC from beginning to end and manages to be funny at the same time. Luau! 

3) Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl - Three words: Captain Jack Sparrow. Nuff said.

2) Finding Nemo - It's all about the surfer turtles for me, dude.

1) Beauty and the Beast - Belle is my favorite princess because 1) The people in town think she's weird and 2) She likes to read. A geeky princess! Love! Plus you get awesome music, a beautiful ballroom scene and the Beast learns to love. Sigh.

Writing Class

I'm taking a six week fiction writing class this fall and last night was our second meeting. I've been out of college for 8ish years (I was a four and a half year student) and its been about two years since I've taken a writing class. Holy brain function, Batman! I'm struggling! I can feel my brain creaking along during the in-class writing assignments and by the time my teacher asks us to wrap it up I have like, three sentences. Okay, maybe more than three sentences, but you catch my drift.

I'm not sure what's weezin' the juice, but it's a wee bit annoying.

Friday

WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Today I am Thankful

Over the past week I've been overwhelmed by the amount of support I, and the team I walk with, have received on our Avon Walk for Breast Cancer adventure. We don't actually walk until May 2012, but people have already opened their hearts in so many ways.

Last week, in exchange for a $10 donation, I promised to write a poem about how awesome the donor was and post it on Facebook for everyone to see. I received two donations in excess of $10 and rave reviews of my poetry, even though I'm obviously no Robert Frost.

This week, my employer pledged to match any donation I receive in the month of October. The WHOLE month! And we're not talking about a huge corporation here ... this is a small family owned business. In addition, they want to outfit us in team t-shirts. Their continuous generousity over the years has been amazing and always encourages me to pay it forward, which I try to do whenever I can.

The match pledge created a domino effect. People have been donating steadily over the past few days, knowing their gift will be doubled. A lot of these people don't know each other or my employers, but they are still coming together, giving what the can, and helping others.

On days when I'm feeling grumpy or the evening news is one sad story after another, I will try to remember this past week and that small things can make a difference.

Training Walk

Today, on the second day of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I participated in a 5K training walk for the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. One of my BFFs and teammates, Michelle, walked as well and we had a blast! Michelle's first Avon Walk will be in 2012 and she was excited to get a taste of what was to come. As always the Avon crew was supportive and movtivating! One of the walkers spoke to the group before we started. I don't remember her name, but she was a 7 year cancer survivor. Her story reminded us all why we were there and took a little bit of the bite out of the cool fall air.

I am proud to be walking with four awesome ladies next year and hope that we make a difference.

Please check out our team website!

Very Important Update

Remember my and Stacie's lists? From this entry? We have an update!

After seeing several of his movies I've decided to make an addition to my list. My number 4 slot will now be home to Chris Pine AND Chris Evans aka The Chris Spot. After discussing with Stacie, we both felt that we shouldn't limit ourselves to one Hot Guy per spot. So, after much reflection, I am happy to welcome Chris E. to the list!

Photo borrowed with love from MTV.com.

Nice, right?

I'm an athlete ... no really, I am.

I recently started walking again for exercise after a minor leg injury (stress reaction/bone bruise/1 week away from a femoral stress fracture) had me on the bench for about a month and a half. When I sustained said leg injury I told people I was now a "real athlete". They laughed at me! Can you believe it?

I'm here to defend my use of the term "athlete". Dictionary.com defines athlete as:

"A person trained or gifted in exercises or contests involving physical agility, stamina, or strength; a participant in a sport, exercise, or game requireing physical skill."

I'll immediately take "gifted" out of the equation. There's no question that I'm not gifted in sports. However, I am trained in exercises involving physical agility, stamina AND strength. In November 2010 I signed up for the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. For those of you unfamiliar with the event it is a two day walk that raises money and awareness for breast cancer - it's a great cause. How long was the walk, you ask? 39.3 miles. We walked 26.2 miles (a marathon) on day one and 13.1 miles (half marathon) on day two. I trained for 6 months to get myself ready for this walk. On event weekend, I walked all 39.3 miles - up and down hills, on make-shift paths, carrying my own supplies and water. Where I come from that's pretty darn athletic.

On top of all that, I started practing yoga in the spring. There are many, many types of yoga - some more physical than others. My Hatha yoga practice is a happy medium. We focus a lot on breathing and strengthening. During my first class, we were holding the plank pose (see a picture here) and my muscles started shaking from exersion. I had to take a break because I couldn't hold myself up the whole time. Each class I went to made me a little stronger and soon I was able to hold the pose without feeling like my muscles were going to jump out of my skin. Yoga has helped me develop flexibilty and strength, which according to the above definition makes an athlete. If you still don't believe me check this out. The goal is to hold this for 5 minutes. I'm no where near this inversion yet, but come on! That's hardcore!

What I'm trying to say is I may not be Becks or Michael Jordan, but at least I get up and move. And I'm stronger and healthier because of it. I am an athlete.