Key Lime Pie Ice Cream

have i ever brought up how much i love key lime anything? i have a whole pinterest board dedicated to all that is key lime. today, i took one of those things from there and put it to use:

mutha fuckin key lime pie ice cream. ☺♥☺♥☺

seriously, it tastes like frozen pie. it is pretty spectacular, and it only calls for a few ingredients! easy AND delicious! the perfect summer treat, you can never have too much ice cream.

i got the recipe from like mother like daughter, make sure you check it out! seems to be a pretty universal recipe, only calling for heavy cream, sweetened condensed milk, and whatever add ins you want!

i said i was going to try to get some kind of treat in, and here it is! as much as i love cake, i am kind of hoping to score one for my birthday, cuz i make my own cake every year. either that, or i guess i don't get one. or, i'll make it a few days after and cry in a corner and eat the whole thing because nobody loves me.

on the contrary, there IS someone who loves me, though. she is kind of the best ever, and has been so good to me. kris got me the collection of harry potter books! how cool is that? i mean, it's a perk to have friends at barnes and noble, but totally something i could have gotten at some point myself. BUT...early birthday gift to me! i am so happy and lucky to have friends like this, and despite all the sad feels, i can remind myself that  there are others out there who can make things better. ♥♥♥ so THANK YOU!! you are awesome! ☺

speaking of harry potter, the new(ish) book is coming out on saturday night! barnes and noble is having a midnight sale, and kris (and other employees) are dressing up! we had arts and crafts day today, and made wands out of dowel rods and glue sticks!

aside from ice cream, what better things do i have to do on my day off? nothing, really. i went for a short run, helped a customer get their playstation going (went to their house on my day off), walked and hunted pokemon with kris, and now we are just chilling here after making stir fry (kind of). just waiting for the weekend to get here, now. i wanna go blueberry picking. i want someone else to make up my mind for me, i want a clean house without doing anything, someone surprise me with something. im old. 31 on the 31st. its never gonna happen again. next one will be double (62 on 31? assuming i make it to be that old). okay, maybe i'm whining and being selfish. i don't really remember the last time i asked for something for a birthday though.

in other not so great news, i hit a fox on my way to work. i like foxes, they're cute. but he did a number on my car. over two thousand dollars worth of damage. yep.

my poor fog light. obliterated. somehow, my door got in on the mess, too. it is certainly balls. i have another rental for the week, and have to come up with the deductible by friday. my friend at work told me i should try go-fund-me, saying some girl asked for a trip to turkey, so the internet flew her to turkey, then shit went down so she needed to get home, and the internet flew her home, and she made the point, there are more people who actually need things out there, and things like this are happening. it's a good point, so i have been thinking about it. in the mean time, i have a ford focus hatchback. people assume that i have a standard base corolla, with the 1.8L engine, so they give me cars like this. the focus is nice and all, but driving something with a 2.4L and stick, at that.....aaahhhh i miss my car, and i can't wait to have her back.

it always figures, if it's not one thing, it's another. i am waiting for number three.

(one was rons car on vacation, two: mine....what does life have in store next, as things come in threes?)

sigh.

i have good people in my life. i have my son. doing my best not to worry about things, despite the stress and things lurking in the corners of my mind.

happy week, all. thanks for reading!!

Home Again

well, i have to say i am pretty impressed with the fact that i was able to keep up as many days as i did. i do want to get back onto posting regularly, as well. i am going to try my best! i missed doing this, even if i only have a few readers (or picture viewers).

today i just have some more pictures from the trip. i miss it already, and it seemed like it ended too soon, at least in my book, anyway. i would have stayed longer. or forever.

i made it back to work, on time, even, and the day was pretty uneventful. it was almost like i had never gone away (except for finding weird things out of place and fixing a few things). was feeling pretty bummed out about a lot of things yesterday, as always, my mind is full of things i don't need, but what can i do about that except try to distract myself? i shouldn't be feeling this way after being away for a week. it was a great time, and awesome not to have to worry about every little thing. sadly, it seems i can't run away from everything, and it eventually all comes back to haunt me.

anyway, here are some more pictures from the fancy camera over the last few days. enjoy!

and there you have it. vacation in a nutshell. more pictures from carova 4x4 area, the diner (mostly group picture) and turtles at the aquarium, and my last moments at the beach until next time. sigh. now i am back in my cave-er, apartment, cats staring at me intently waiting for food (which they're not getting because they stole my damn sponge), cosmo digging up my shoulder because it's either loud, or firmly attached to me, whilst drinking a cup of lukewarm tea (because i was uploading these pictures). what to do next? i still need a coconut cream pie in my life. vacation made me want key lime pie. blueberries are in season, so planning on that sometime soon. was thinking of a coconut key lime pie, just to mash the two together. that could be fun. BUT. i guess we will wait and see. it all depends on work and how much crap i have to do here.

hope you enjoyed the pictures, hoping to have some tasty treats next time i post. thanks for reading!

Obx 6: A New Nope

Nice big cup of NOPE to returning home, that is. Okay, i missed yesterday, but i got up early so we could use the jeep some more, and then we went to lunch, the aquarium, and dinner. Vacation involves lots of food. 

We hit up the southern beaches on the hatteras national sea shore, checked out the oceanside for a bit, collected some shells, and dropped off the jeep.

I am realizing now that i didnt post anything from the day before, either. We rented an offroading jeep and trecked the 4x4 beaches of corolla and carova, and ron peed into virginia. I will have to add more pictures later, as i am on my phone right now. We are en route to virginia beach, for lunch and home. 

These posts would be the state line! The area was pretty cool up here. It makes me wish i had access to a jeep more, because that is the only way you can get this far north; there are no roads, no pavement, only sand and dune paths to lead you home away from home. (There are rental homes in this area too. Strictly 4x4 access.) seriously though, the ocean was warmer, calmer, and it was definitely less touristy than the main area of the banks. 

Oceans make me happy. Not sure if ive mentioned that or not, but just throwing it out there.

We hit up roanoke island yesterday after the jeep adventure, and stopped for lunch at al's diner and soda fountan, a little 50's style diner. The island is full of unique little places like this, which makes it a great day trip. 

They were working on some exhibits in the aquarium, but rhey had some sea turtles they were rehabilitating which was new, and we all had to pet the sting rays. Oh, and ron broke his phone. Its supposed ro be waterproof, but it wasnt when he tried to take a picture in the sting ray tank. It has been a nice quiet couple of days, to say the least. But meh. It still sucks. I cant text harass him to hurry up with whatever hes doing. 

Anyway, i have more pictures from both. Theyre just on my camera, and inaccessible from my phone. So take our farewell pictures from the beach, and i will post more later. Thanks for reading!

Outer Banks 5: The Sunburn Strikes Back

another day in paradise, for real though. that phrase is in no way laced with any sarcasm like when it rolls out of my mouth when i'm at work, because fuck that place.

i am in paradise. i am happy. warm, slightly burnt, but happy. i would take all the sunburn to stay here longer. it is not going to stop me from going outside, by any means.

even with all the storms and stuff it's pretty nice. this was the one we watched go past us on tuesday night. it hit maybe about 3-5 miles north of us, so it made for a spectacular display in the early evening. clouds are cool.

it all started because ron saw swirling clouds and thought we were about to get a tornado, but they would probably have sent out warnings and stuff. it was just a crazy thunderstorm in the end.

screen captured some lightning! not nearly as cool as some of the pictures our friend kyle took, but cool none the less!

hmm. what else did we do yesterday? yesterday was pretty quiet. kristen, ryan, ron and i played some mini golf, while the others went to the elizabethan gardens, and we had a proposal! exciting, and congrats to kevin and carleigh! we grabbed some ice cream and some lunch/dinner, and had a beach day. got a little sun, and crashed somewhat early.

just a bunch of bodies floating in the ocean....haha. well, i guess we are going to rent a jeep to do some beach off roading, since we determined ron's car would get stuck, regardless of the 4x4 feature (he got stuck in our sand in the yard). i got in my beach run finally (at 6:30am), but it got pretty warm and humid, even for being on the ocean. forecast is for like 95 today!

should be fun! hoping to see some wild horses today! i'll leave you with my sunrise snapchats of the glorious ocean view. come back soon for more stuff! thanks for reading! ☺