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Awesome, so I finally got to upload my mobile pictures to photobucket to transfer to my blogs.

Anyway, to learn a little about me in pictures, take a look:


This is jellybean and I. He means the world to me. He is ancient, mostly blind/deaf and my baby.
 I <3<3<3 to read. This year I was blessed that Libba Bray's new series emerged.
My godson started a special school this year to help with his development and he is a big boy in a big school :) I love him and I'm proud of how strong he's grown! Big 4 year old Douglas <3
Douglas's wacky sister Kailin that is a joy/handful. I wouldn't trade her for anything.
 She can be sweet and falls asleep on me after long days of lego-ing and dancing.
 My older brother got a buck this year though I didn't get to.
 My little brother was best man for his best friend Mike. He's so dapper.
 Pinterest helped me have a awesome spread of snacks for my Scentsy party :)
 My handsome papa (right) passed away on opening day. I'm happy he is with God.
 Gonella's deli and red pop have saved me many times during lunch breaks. Detroit deli's!

Moved to my mom's and got these two chairs for $100 on craigslist :) score! Reading spots ;)

These are just a few things I feel blessed with lately and I wanted to share.

I have been feeling a bit sick for a couple days and wish the weather would just turn to snow instead of all of this rain making me congested with a headache. I need one or the other!
Southern Michigan has been around 30's-60's and we've had plenty of wind and rain. Time for the snow so that I can go ice fishing! My brother and I go and love the time spent together.

Time to take off for some soup at lunch.

xo amanda

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Good morning,

This week has been full of things to do, I've been non-stop busy at work and moving.

Firstly, I work at an oil company in Detroit as an administrative assistant. I never got my degree, I just worked here as a helper and just sort of fell into the job. I was surely blessed from what my job was at before here. So I usually make my own schedule each day and people give me projects every now and then with a time limit on them. The only problem is end of year planning. Absolutely hate it. I have to print off all of the 2013 Inspection forms and organize them, I have to prepare for meetings this month, I have to print out the 2013 binder information for each area, a project from a coworker to scan in all of the medical reports for this year and email them to the nurse was assigned to me, I have to send out emails for updates on past due projects, and I have the rest of my "daily" work that I typically do. Needless to say, I will not have it all done this week and most of it was asked of me to have finished by Friday.

I don't think that when the boss is asking for something do they really understand the time commitment it takes. Not to mention the fact that I will be tying up the printer for a good 8-10 hours and people get aggravated around me while I'm trying to get it all done. I may just stay here late on Friday when everyone is gone and finish it all then while chugging coffe. This leads me to my other problem...

I am a 24 year old single female that pays her own way through life and I cannot afford to live in a one bedroom apartment. Therefore I've been staying at my dad's house for the past couple of months since my lease was up. He married in October to a woman ten years older than me with young children. She hasn't gotten a job and pretty much just lays about while mayyyybe cleaning one or two things per day. When I get home from work, I love to go to my room, wake up my dog from his nap and just chill around for a bit. I am a reader, so I usually shut myself out and read for hours after work. I prefer it that way. Well I guess his wife left last weekend saying that she's leaving him because we take him for granted and treat him like crap and we hate her (my brothers are both there also). Honestly, I don't care if she wants to hang out and talk after work, I just prefer nice quiet time in my room to relax. Apparently she thinks that means I hate her.

So anyway, my dad said that if we didn't try to call her to bring her back here then we are out of the picture. So I came home from work yesterday, packed up what I could, and drove straight to my mom's house. I am really close with my mom and the only reason I didn't move back in the first place is because she is about 10-15 minutes further from everything. I unpacked what little I had and relaxed there and now I'm back at work...busy and stressed. I can't wait to get everything else moved in. I'm just sick of feeling like I'm not good enough for him. He doesn't deserve it if he puts other people before his children.

There's my reasoning for the long day I'm having.

Amber and Jordan Massey (I follow Amber religiously) are having their twin baby girls this morning and I am soo excited for them. May God bless their beautiful little family and I hope they are all safe and warm ready for the love they are coming into.

xo Amanda

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Here it goes, a new blog for a new age. I am 24 years old, and it just doesn't seem real. I feel like I was 18 only a week ago and here I am...this older and supposedly wiser young woman. My mother had her first child before she was 24 years old and was shortly thereafter pregnant with me. I don't know how she did it. When I was younger I always thought 20-25 was SO old...now I take it back. I still feel very young and nervous about life. I am just not ready for grown-up things or marriage/kids. But perhaps I can fill you all in on my life as it happens along the way and somewhere along this path you can be with me as I experience these things...

My name is Amanda Laren and I am 24 years old. I have two brothers (25 and 20), I am a lefty, I love decorating, I especially love travelling to new places, and I read more than the average person watches television. I have the social anxiety disorder, I love beer, I have seven tattoos, and two years ago adopted an old blind/deaf toy-poodle that owns all rights to my heart.

Now that you understand a little bit more about me, I can begin.

I am currently on break at work. I work in Detroit at an oil refinery doing the administrative end for the Safety department. I work around 40+ hours per week and definitely don't ever get enough sleep or food.
It's Monday and though I usually prefer Monday's to Tuesday's, today I am feeling particularly grouchy.
I had one of those nights where you aren't sleepy, so you lie awake for what feels like hours and end up half sleeping and waking up every half hour throughout the night. When it came time to drag myself out of bed, I simply brushed my teeth, threw my hair in a bun, added some cover-up and mascara (to hide my circles), put on my clothes and walked out the door. Typically I don't do much more in the morning because I am a night-owl and mornings are not my thing, but today was just horrible. My body is sore, I have spider bites on my ankles, have a headache, need to hydrate my body, and I am getting congested.

FYI I tend to complain a lot. I definitely use too many I's as well. It bothers the bloody hell out of me. It's a love-hate relationship, but since this is a blog and it's supposed to be about ME, well....there's no getting around it. I apologize in advance.

This past weekend my brothers and I went to get pictures taken at JCPenny in the portrait studio. My mom let the hint drop that she'd like a portrait of us since we haven't had a sibling photograph professionally taken since I was 4...yes 20 years ago. Oy vey, it was right after Todd cut my hair up to my ears...she was very upset about that. All I can say is that these are MUCH past due. Here is a sneak peak. The photographer wasn't great and only took about 12 pictures and had us do two poses...(is this normal?). She didn't seem that knowledgeable with the process. Nevertheless I am very pleased that we have a few good ones (will post later). We ended up ordering one for each parent, one for our grandma and nanie (our other grandma) and two 5x7 (for me). I can order more for 90 days but I also have printscreen at work and can just copy them that way and print elsewhere. Technically you have to pay for the rights of their photographs and can't copy from the website but that tool comes in handy and I'm not paying 25 bucks for 12 pictures on a cd. I plan to go to JoAnn Fabrics and get some nice frames for them. My mom will be SO excited when she sees them.

I only have the pictures with frames left to wrap for Christmas presents and to get something for my step dad and I will be all set for Christmas! I am an obsessive pre-planner and gift-giver. I have around 30+ gifts waiting on my table in my room. We have no tree yet but I hope we get one soon as they are really taking up a lot of my space. I'll have to take some to my mom's some time soon.

After the presents are out I can start organizing my room/move to a new apartment. Depends on my funding situation... I hate being young and without money. It's the worst feeling that you are going nowhere fast. I pray that God gives me strength and my love for him keeps me strong. Which reminds me, I thought up my New Year's Resolution...will share soon.

Pictures will follow.

xo amanda