Take a long last look

I am inspired by other people's blogs. 

Very inspired.

From recipes for homemade tomato soup, to relay marathons, to homemade wreaths.

I don't know about the rest of you, but one thing that has inspired me is

NieNie's back to school feasts.

I love how she celebrates life.

I don't have any little ones to send back to school, but I decided to celebrate what is important to me...y'all know it..I am celebrating..

the END OF SUMMER, hallelujah!!

Red grapes. I am addicted!  I bought 10 dollars worth the last time I went shopping.

Enjoy Lori's first annual End of Summer celebration dinner!

The infamous pumpkin salt and pepper shakers

A little "bubbly" in the words of Nie Nie

She always lists what she served, and it always sounds so amazing..like "herb roasted salmon and fresh string beans".

 I will list what I served..get ready for some competition, Nie!

Lori's Celebration Dinner included the following:

Fresh walmart frozen chicken, baked

Great value brand corn, from the can, microwaved for 2 minutes

This weird potato casserole I made, with chopped potatoes, cream of mushroom, sour cream, and great value brand mild Cheddar cheese

cucumbers and more of that Cheddar cheese

snack pack chocolate pudding for dessert

Lori An n

Stirring and stirring and stirring our brew

It's August 26th...Fall is so close, I can feel it.
 (Not in the weather or anything..this is the South)

This is the time of year when I create what I like call

"Lori's Cauldron of Fall Magicalness".

It's everything I need to have a great fall season.

If all the right ingredients are in this Cauldron, then it will be an amazing season.

Sometimes, I am tempted to put experiences in the cauldron, like "playing in the leaves with my nieces and nephews" or "drinking apple cider and watching scary movies with my sisters".

Then I remind myself, magical seasons aren't about people and experiences, they are about THINGS.

 Shiny, sparkly things.

 Long after the leaves have died and my nieces and nephews go home,
 I can hug those orange twinkle lights and experience true happiness:)

So, this years cauldron MUST contain the following:

1. 1 big pumpkin

2. 3 small pumpkins

3. 2 sets of orange twinkle lights


4.10 fall themed, amazing smelling candles



5. Fall table runner (maybe homemade)

6. Fall center piece (I want to make this)

7. Fall wreath (I want to make it)

8. pumpkin scented bubble bath

9. several gallons of apple cider

10. cool container for Halloween candle



11. one Halloween advent thing

Not really alot to ask, right?

And my family members call me fussy and demanding. 

I guess this will show them!

Lori Ann

It sounds so good to me

I don't talk enough about my career on this blog.

Dang HIPPA and all its confidentiality rules!

I have been the therapist here at Day Treatment for 5 months.

I still feel like I am swimming along, about to go under.

You would think I would feel prepared..I spent six years in college, and have worked in mental health going on 4 years.

It's just that

being someones therapist

is different from anything I've experienced.

I feel like I have the power to really mess up some of these kids, and I don't like that feeling.

Also, I thought what to say would come easier to me. You can only say

"how do you feel about that?"

so many times.

I think my biggest issue is that I am not an exceptionally insightful person.

I don't automatically think "they are saying one thing, but mean another".

Blah..blah..blah...

Sometimes these posts bore even me.

I need some excitement in my life.

 It's time to work on another life goal!

Should I take the midnight train to Georgia

or try and sleep in a field of blue bonnets?

Lori Ann

It doesn't even matter how hard you try

God is punishing me.

Punishing me for posting possible Mockingjay Spoilers on my blog.

Went to bed at 8pm, set my alarm for 4
 (see, I wasn't even going to be one of those midnight crazies!)

At 4 am, get up, find myself blocked into my parking spot and have to do LITERALLY 30 minutes of inching back and forth, getting out and checking how close I am, backing up until I can slide by this car.
 (I have no idea why they were parked right behind me..jerks!)

Anyway, soo.....its about 4:30 am, I run into my nearest Walmart, grab some grapes, and head for the book section.

You guessed it.

NO MOCKINGJAY.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Am currently eating grapes by the handful and denouncing Sam Walton and all of his descendants!!

Lori Ann

And the sky is gray

I got out my pumpkin salt and pepper shakers today.

I don't care what the calender says, I am celebrating fall starting NOW.

I went back to the laundromat that I loved. I know, I know.. I have got to be fair to the other laundromats, but I wasn't ready to say goodbye to the "we have hot water" laundromat just yet.

I am going to a training for work tomorrow.
Some people go to Europe, others some far flung state.

 I will be traveling 40 miles to Winston Salem.

The short distance hasn't stopped me from contemplating a hotel room for the two day training!

My upstairs neighbors are fighting again.

 I don't know who I am siding with this time, because he gave up his entire *@!&$# family for her, and he doesn't ever #%#&*$ listen to her.

They both make a pretty good case.

In the next couple of weeks, I should be taking my LCSW state exam.

 It's times like this that I wish I were Catholic, because I am so nervous that I wish I had rosary beads to count...that's what you do with rosary beads, right?

Count them?

I am incapable of making a decent grilled cheese.

 Which is extra sad because they are my most favorite of all grilled sandwiches.

I'm baking brownies for my coworkers right now.

 Even though they told me that as the therapist I am "half clinician, half client".
Gosh, just because I keep trying to get them to have a staff slumber party, they act like I'm 14 or something;)

I miss my James.

As soon as he hits 10 or 11, he and I are hitting the road.

We are going to see the world together.

Lori Ann

We never talk of our lack in relationships

Today's topic

Facebook status updates.

I am coming to despise facebook.

I hate the mixture of completely fake status updates - from the fake perfection
"Making cookies with my little angels..its so magical"

to the self righteous "
Happy Vegetarians Day! I'm making tofu..and to all those little cows and chickens being slaughtered right now..I'm crying for you..we're going to change this world so we can all live in peace!"

 to the emo song lyrics
" When I was young, I knew everything, she a punk who never took advice, now I'm guilt stricken, sobbing with my head on the floor"

 to the cries for attention
 "I feel so alone..why doesn't anyone love me?" .

But of all these types of status updates,

I hate the self righteous the most.

Today, when I got home from work, I wanted to post this status update:

"Come on, single mothers (not all single mothers..just most of my client's mothers)..stop having kids with a loser dead beat dad. Or multiple loser dads.You can't cope as a single parent and your kids need a father figure..they are going buck wild and I have to deal with them all day at work"

According to unspoken facebook rules- this would not be an acceptable status update.

However, it was perfectly acceptable for one of my friends to write this status update:

"Nobody shop at Target! They hate gays!"

Why was one acceptable and one not?

Because everyone knows that corporations victimize homosexuals and they need to be called to task about it!!

If you don't agree with that, it's because you are ignorant and hateful.

However, it cannot be true that some women have children for the sole purpose of either trying to keep a man in a relationship or trying to get more assistance from the government and then dump said child off on their overly tired mothers, who, out of sheer exhaustion, let that child run wild.

Only an ignorant and hateful person would think that.

The sad reality is that I get to choose all of my friends on facebook. So, if someone is bothering me, I can always hide them or even defriend them..

But what would I complain about then?

Lori Ann

Post Edit

*I feel uncomfortable even having written this post, it is so ingrained in me that I shouldn't ever say anything that might be mildly offensive and I should always be super apologetic*

the place where I belong...

"It is good to feel lost... because it proves you have a navigational sense of where "Home" is. You know that a place that feels like being found exists. And maybe your current location isn't that place but, Hallelujah, that unsettled, uneasy feeling of lost-ness just brought you closer to it."

~Erika Harris

I miss home.

 It's almost fall and I wish I were in Pennsylvania.

 I will miss the smell of burning leaves, the Mennonite candles in the window, the chilly wind, the old graveyards and stone houses, the feeling of being surrounded by falling leaves and American history.

Lori Ann