Happy Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day!!! Let me start off by saying a heartfelt thank you to all those men and women who have served or are currently serving our country.  You are my heroes.  Today, we honor your bravery, your strength, your dedication, and your sacrifice.  For those we have lost,  we remember and thank you from the bottom of our hearts for the greatest sacrifice of all.  For those who continue to battle hundreds of miles from home, we send you love and support, and hope that you can come home to your friends and families soon.  I hope everyone has taken the moment today to say thank you. Thank you for the gift of freedom, God bless.

My Memorial Day weekend was the absolute best! After such a long, and tiring last week, I was ready for some R&R, but that turned into more of a Get up and GO...with lots of activities! Here's a recap:

Saturday, I took in the baseball game with my familia! LETS GO BUCS! It wasn't the most exciting game, but WE WON.  In fact, I watched 3 pirates games this weekend, one live and two on t.v. and we just so happened to win them all. And we are now .500!!! At the Pirate game, I managed to snap a pic of my Gram and I, and then sent it to the Pirates #ScoreboardPix and they showed us on the scoreboard during the 6th inning! Unfortunately, I wasn't quick enough to grab a pic of the board, and none of my family saw (including my 91 year young Gram). That was a major bummer. But here is the pic I submitted...

Isn't she the cutest?


Here's the Pirate Parrot at batting practice...

and the beautiful PNC Park via my instagram app!

Isn't PNC Park beautiful!! I need to add to my BL to visit a couple other famous Baseball parks! I love the atmosphere of a baseball game, definitely America's pastime:-)

And here's the end of the night with the AWESOME fireworks display with my favorite city in the background.

On Sunday, we celebrated Pentecost Sunday at church with a beautiful Gospel mass.  Every time we have a Gospel mass, the Gospel choir brings me to tears, they were absolutely amazing yet again.  My Madre, Gram and I all wore RED for the Holy Spirit and brought my neighbor along with her red too!   We were lifted up in both prayer and song!  Later, we went over to my Aunt's house for a cookout complete with delicious food, drinks, bocce, bunko, and old maid! We really know how to have fun.

Representing our Pentecost and Memorial Day red!

Today, I had the opportunity to go downtown again! And I got to watch some of my cousins kayak on the river.  It is definitely something I want to add to the BL, but since I have never kayaked before, I did not want my first lesson to be on the river which was crowded with kayakers and boats.  Knowing me, I would capsize and get taken to the bottom of the Allegheny and that would be it.  Anywayssss...the scenery was gorgeous!

Please try and find a city prettier than this one...You won't.

After we nearly baked in the sun [It was 90 today?!? It's only MAY] we had a delicious lunch at our hometown hero's hot spot: Jerome Bettis Grill 36! Great food but, reallllly bad service today, which was disappointing and surprising.  I have been there so many times and usually have great service! Oh well, I'll be back, the sliders there are DELICIOUS. Get ready for your mouths to water...

On the way home, we attempted to stop in the Strip District, but everything was closed for the day.  On the way home, I was able to snag one last shot...I have an obsession with bridges...we are not talking cupcake obsessed, but relatively close...maybe just bridges in Pittsburgh in general, but here was a cool shot I took crossing one of them on the way home. Look closely and you can see a Heinz sign in the background.

This weekend was perfect.  And while I'm borderline bummed that I didn't get any real work that I needed to do done, I'm also extremely blessed that I was surrounded by family and fun this weekend.  You can't go wrong when your weekend consists of cheeseburgers, hot dogs, baseball, Pittsburgh, and family all weekend now can ya?

How did you enjoy the weekend?

Always love,
Becca

Month in Rewind

Happy Saturday everyone! Boy, am I glad that it is officially a 3 Day Weekend! This past week was long but fast! Yeah...that doesn't make too much sense.  Anyways, my posts have been lagging (again)! But for good reason more or less.  I began a new J-O-B!!!!!!  My first day was the 23rd of April, so this was officially my month anniversary this week:-)  Time to play some catch up with what has happened.

I have worked for the same company going on 7 years in JULY. Crazy how time simply flies by! I worked in a photo lab at my local grocery store.  Some people often said, "WHY did you stick around for so long?!?" My response to everyone: I LOVED IT.  Mostly, because of the people.  7 years is a long time (almost a decade!) and in the seven year period, I became acquainted with the nicest of people.  My coworkers and my customers have all left an impact on me somehow, and I will forever be so grateful!

[This is a little collage of my last day! My coworkers up top in my department, my going away cake from the store, my "last supper" from my chef, flowers from another manager, and my best friend in the store! What a wonderful day:-) Everyone made my day so special! From all of the words of encouragement from my customers and coworkers, all the hugs I received, to my special lunch from my best friend, to my going away cake and flowers, to my angel Mary announcing over the intercom that "BECCA is MOVING ON UP!!!" They sure made me feel special!]

In February, I began the application process for a new position with the same company:-) Can't seem to get away, huh? Anyways, one of my colleagues had recommended a position, and encouraged me to apply.  It seemed like forever until I heard back from them, but in the end everything worked out! Here I am, 1 month past my first official day, and I am officially a full time working girl.  Which is really good actually, because I would have been coming up on 1 year past graduation, and I put a deadline for myself that if I didn't have a full time job by a year, I was going to be veryyyyy upset/disappointed/insert me having a breakdown here.

[ A little blurry, and I look a little sleepy, but this was the beginning on April 23rd!!]


So far the new position is GREAT. Long days and hours, but I enjoy what I am doing, and I love the individuals that I am working with.  Everyone has been so friendly and welcoming, that I couldn't be happier to take this new step in my life! I am on the road everyday, all day, but that has helped me become better with directions (YES!!!) and has given me long trips to think about life and where I stand (WIN-WIN!).  I look forward to the coming months with my new job and hope that it continues to go well.  Thanks to everyone for all of your support, encouragement, and love<3

Hopefully, I can continue to cruise on this journey! Literally, the miles are racking up on my '99 car! Hang in there baby, mama's not ready to give you up!

Always love,
Becca

the PERFECT bucket list

Alright people, bucket lists?!?! Whose got em? I started mine going on two years ago this November. And by started, I mean I began writing things I wanted to do down, on an actual list, in a google doc.  I mean truthfully I think everyone has some type of bucket list stored in their minds...every day I feel like I am saying, "Oh, I'd love to do that sometime." Am I right?

Since I began writing things down, I haven't crossed too many things off my list.  In fact, I've only crossed out 6 items out of 89 (which is also pretty pathetic-only 89 things I want to do?!? come on, this is a lie), and #77 is writing a blog:-)

I think part of the reason my BL (what I call the bucket list) has been lacking inspiration, ideas, LIFE is because I really wanted a good way to organize it.  This is where the OCD of me comes banging on the door.  I mean, it's pretty ridiculous that I can't even be unorganized with a bucket list. Currently my list is simply # followed by the BL item. Original, right? WRONG.

Enter the PERFECT bucket list solution:

I found this tumblr account while pinning (Social Media today-CRAZY!) The Perfect Bucket List_Things to do before I die.

Basically, the author attaches the BL item to a picture that illustrates the item. GENIUS. I mean, I do learn well visually, so why did I not think to organize my BL visually.

Here's an example:

Which just so happens to be #8 on my perfectbucketlist:-)

Isn't this so great?

My newest challenge: Start creating these BL visuals to go along with my BL, while adding more to the BL...and crossing more off the BL. Life's too short, right? I don't want to regret any more than I already do! I am super excited to get working on this.  I was even thinking that when I complete the BL item I could add the date to the visual like a timestamp! Now all I need to do is find the time to sit down and work on this. I guess I should be happy my list is only at 89 now...

Anyone else have a bucket list out there? How do you keep track? I would also LOVE to eventually do something like this:

Another great idea! Oh, if only there were more time in the day, or things like work didn't get in the way!

Always love,
Becca

Send-Off Sunday

Ahh, these past couple weeks have been rough with a capital R.  Hopefully, everyone on the blogosphere has been a little better off than me...

Your Sunday send-off is the only thing I can get out today, hopefully this week frees me up for some new posts, I've got lots to share.

Something I found while pinning! (Who's on pinterest?!? If you're not WARNING: you may lose hours of your time if you sign up!)

Something I definitely need to work on! Don't you ever feel like you have a TON of bricks weighing you down? Here's my new mission: LET IT GO.

And for all the Mothers out there...Happy Mother's Day! I'm fortunate to have the bestest Madre in the whole world (LOVE YOU MADRE!)

Always love,

Becca

Send-off Sunday

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! Mine was full of a whole lot of nothing +  being sick with a cold! At least I caught up on some T.V. right?!? Getting back on track, here's your first Sunday send-off since the 5 month stump!

It's not my own, but I found this while pinning and was inspired, so here ya go! 

I am all for making life a bit richer and maybe this will give us all the little kick in the butt we need to get out, take in the fresh air and LIVE! Make the most of this week--it's almost MAY!?

Always love,

Becca

                                                                

5 month stump!

Well, speak about breaks.  It's been over 5 MONTHS since my last post. My apologies.  But in fact, no one probably even reads this, so #sorryimnotsorry.

I looked up "break" in an online dictionary just a moment ago.  If you scroll down through the definitions, you'll come across this:

17. Make a pause in (a journey)

Looking at all the definitions, this seemed to fit the most for what happened.  When I started this blog, I guess you could say I really wanted to work on #77 on my bucket list (if you're new, see my about me!).  I love writing, and I thoroughly enjoyed blogging.  But then I started getting to a point where I was worried about what I was writing.  Was it stupid? Did it really matter? All of these thoughts crossed my mind and then I went into a funk.  A 5 month funk.  Everyday I would think about things that I could blog about.  I would get all hyped up about a new post, and then the negative Nancy in me would come out.  And then I wouldn't write anything, hence no blog posts since Halloween. 

I often thought, I want to write something that means something to someone. Inspired by Peyton Sawyer from One Tree Hill. See video. "But I cant.  And If I can't be great at it, I don't want to ruin it.  It's too important to me."  So that's what I've been feeling and that is what has created this 5 month stump.

If you've stuck around, thank you:-) If you're new, welcome! I'm back and with a new direction strategy inspiration.

I started following a new blog recently.  The writer of the blog is a personal acquaintance and her story is inspiring.  She began her blog only a few weeks ago on the premise that it would be for herself.  And that it wouldn't be perfect, because let's face it--nothing is!

So that got me motivated, and helped me reflect back to when I was making the bucket list...I put #77 on there, because I love writing.  I like sharing my voice.  And it is something that makes me happy:-) So this blog was an outlet for me to be creative and to do something that I enjoy doing, or that was the original idea at least. And I think when I went on "break" it was because I forgot that, and was worrying too much about what I maybe hoped it would be/do instead of what it was.

So here I am, back with a new inspiration.  And a new challenge.  To remember that each time I post, this is for me.   And if in turn it inspires someone else, wonderful.  But if it doesn't, well then I still enjoyed doing it, right?! 

If you've stuck it out through this post, I thank you--it was a lengthy one.  I'm happy to be back on the blogosphere and I look forward to more posts.  It's time to get that conversation brewing!

Always love,
Becca

Halloween Inspiration

Wishing everyone a spooky, trick-or-treat, black & orange, ghostly day! A Halloween inspired collage with some great ideas [and a few favorites]! Enjoy:-)

Always love,
Becca