Was set free

On this day, my husband and best friend for 8 years, told me he didn't want to be with me anymore. The reason? He was bored and wanted to be with more than one woman and experience more in his life.

Basically he wanted the Tucker Max life.

Nice.

This is kind of how I felt in pictures:

I always thought that we could get through everything. We had some many obstacles that we overcome. Yes, we fought from time to time but we always made up and always were a team. When we got married our team was weak. It became very one sided. I was doing all the hard work to keep the team a team and he doing what he could to make himself stronger. I did dishes, laundry and made hot dinners. He played hockey, went to the gym and took scuba lessons. I was told money was tight so I didn't do things that I wanted. I was all about him. What a dumbass I was!

This is when he told me to basically pack up my life and leave. That's right, I got kicked out. This was the worst day of my life.


So I left my nest that I have known for eight years and headed out to the real world. Thank god for my family or I would have never got by. During the first few months, I cried myself to sleep at night. Painful sobs at least once a day. The kind that hurts your chest.

This was how I was most of the time at work and at home. I was in a serious funk. I looked like crap. I had no friends, I didn't wear makeup, and I just stopped caring. If I was faced with death I would probably have accepted it.

But then I realized something. Johnny was thriving. He was going on in his life. Why can't I? So I either need to spread my wings and fly or fall to the ground and die. I needed to make a decision. So what did I decide to do?That's right, I spread those wings open and begin to live. I was taking back my life. I was going to make it!

Then I got really pissed at what he did and decided that I needed to have what I deserved. I reconnected with some old friends, joined a gym and created a bucket list of everything I ever wanted to do. I wasn't going to let him destroy me. I am a fighter and I am going to live life to the fullest.

Things that helped me through this tough time

My Family

They did everything they could to make me happy and comfortable. Even though they don't have much, they gave me everything I needed. I thought it would be hard to go back home but after 5 minutes I felt like I never left.

Becca

She spent countless hours hanging out with me during this time. She has been my friend for 18 years. She would be the first person who would help me egg his house.

My Close group of Friends

After reconnecting with them after 8 years, they make me feel like I have never left. The are the reason why I am stronger. I used to wear my wedding band everyday until I went to my first party with these guys. It never went back on. They have pushed me to do things I never did and have made me experience life again.

My Co-workers

Even though they didn't find out about the separation for 6 months, once they found out I have received nothing but supportive. They are all on Team Laurie

Grace Chapel

I met some GREAT people there who listened to me vent and got me out of the house

McDonald's

Comfort food knew just how to make me feel better

Red Sox

For keeping my mind busy

My Credit Card

Two words: Retail Therapy

Watched a historic election

I do now want to go on in this post about politics. Mostly this is due to the fact that I know very little about them. I just knew that America was not doing too good. We were in the need for a major change.

Then Barack Obama came. He seemed to bring new ideas and hope for our country. People who never voted before were now inspired to vote. He seemed to inspire me to get more involved with what was going on in my country. Barack seemed to make people actually interested in politics.

Oh yea, did I mention that he was black too.

That’s right. This was the first time in United States History that a black man had the chance to be elected as president. This was HUGE! I never understood why we didn’t have a black president already. It really seemed strange to me.

It was no surprise to me that Barack Obama won as our 44th president. He seemed to be what America was looking for. A change. I watched it live on TV. I have to tell you I was slightly emotional and really felt like this is what we needed. I felt like finally America has reached a new milestone.

Lets just hope that he does everything that he promised us.

Went to Disney....again!!

I got to go to Disney for the second time. I LOVE it there!!! I went for the first time in 2006. I would go every year if I could afford it. Its my goal to go at least three more times in my life. I can't say enough good things about Disney. They go above and beyond to make everything perfect.

Again while I was there I did everything that I could and acted like a big giant kid. Disney was just as perfect the second time as it was the first. I can't wait to go back!!

I found Winnie the Pooh again!!!



Sadly, Dale didn't remember me. So I decided to make him jealous by hooking up with his brother.



We took a movie prop tour (I highly required it-at the MGM studios). Can you guess what movie this is from??? Its the steam roller that squished Judge Doom in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit"

We went to several parades in Disney, but the Disney Lights Parade was my favorite! I loved the huge fish!!



We had breakfast at Chef Mickey's where I saw Goofy again. He looks like he is saying "Who is this crazy woman?"

I also met Donald there too. He had the tightest grasp on me. It actually hurt! I had to make sure I didn't have any bruises on my waist when he left.

We watched Beauty and the Beast live show. It was very cute.

OH MY GOD! Donald found me! This is what nightmares of made of.

In Epcot, we again ate at the Food and Wine Festival. I ate so much I thought I was going to die (you can kind of see that in this picture). We thought it would be cute to take a picture of us with our food in front of the menu. The problem in 90% of my photos the way I wore my jeans and my shirt made me look pregnant. This was the best one. I guess it was the luck of the Irish!

This time around, we did ALL the roller coasters in Disney. This was the Twilight Zone's Tower of Terror. Sooooo scary and sooooo much fun!

This was my second favorite ride at Disney. It was the Aerosmith Rockin Roller Coaster. This ride doesn't wait, it shoots you right in. Usually I have time to know when twists are coming but not with this one. I think we went upside down. All I remember is hearing "Sweet Emotion" and trying to hold my bag down as we were hurled upside down.

My FAVORITE roller coaster at Disney! The Expedition Everest ride was so fast and so scary that at the end my eyes wouldn't stop tearing. It went forward for one half and then backwards the second half. It.Was.Great.

After being on roller coaster all day, nothing better then to having some Chinese food and booze. This place was so good and the guy cooking our food was a riot. He was a Red Sox fan which makes him a great guy in my eyes!

We got to go to the Not so Scary Halloween Party/Parade at the Magic Kingdom! It was great! This picture is during the fireworks. I love how evil it looks.

I was hungry and decided to try the Fried dough with powdered sugar!! Just so you know, this was the hardest thing to take a picture of.

At the animal Kingdom we went to another parade (I told you we did everything). Some jerk there got in my face!

This was from a Bird Show we went to at the Animal Kingdom. The Bald Eagle was beautiful in person.

My favorite part was the the Animal Safari (I will be making a separate post for it because it was THAT great). I got to see animals closer then I will ever see them in my life.

Details

Where we stayed: Caribbean Beach Resort- So nice there! We had our own little beach by our room. I sat on a hammock there and read a book which was so relaxing!

My Favorite Roller Coaster: Expedition Everest- It made my eyes water. It was that good!

Best attraction: The Animal Kingdom Safari- its like going to Africa-minus the disease.

My favorite snack: A chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich -at a bakery in the Magic kingdom. It was HUGE and needs to be shared!

Took a cake decorating class

I love to bake. I think that I should have been a baker. I make great cookies and pies but never tried making cakes. I just was never good at making them look as good as they tasted. You would think that it would be easy to frost a cake, but for me it isn't. I would always pull the cake up with the frosting and at the end my cake would always look liked like a hill covered in dirty snow. So I always bought cakes that where way overpriced instead of making them myself.


I was browsing online and found that Michaels craft store does cake decorating classes. I really wanted to learn something new, so I signed up for it. The class would meet once a week for a month. I was very excited!


The class itself was not pricey. I believe it was only $50 to join. It was all the items that you had to purchase for the class that made it expensive. I had to purchase a starter kit which included all the tips for piping, a cake holder so I could transfer the cake back and forth, pipping bags, a decorating turntable, 4 containers of frosting and 4 cake mixes to bring a cake to every class. My $50 class quickly turned into a $200 class.
The first class I learned the basics; How to frost a cake. This had to be the hardest thing for me to learn. I wanted my cake to have a smooth look to it but as you can see, my cake wasn't that smooth. It requires alot of frosting. I went through an entire container of frosting just doing this. I would need to get more frosting just to decorate the darn cake.

When I got home, I went on youtube.com to see if I could learn anymore about how to frost a cake. I found this video and learned alot. After watching this, I was able to frost a decently smooth cake.
The next class I learned how to do basic decorations. A simple shell border, stars and roses. My cake looks so pathetic. I apparently was afraid to use more gel coloring in my frosting. The pink showed up nicely, but I actually used purple for the top border and the roses.

Here is a closeup of my first attempt to making roses. They look like swirl blobs. These guys were hard to do. My frosting was getting too soft in my hand so my roses would droop. I also decided that the more petals I did the better. This is not the case. The more I did roses, the more I found that doing only 5 or 6 petals was perfect.
The last class I was getting pretty darn good. I was not afraid to use color in my icing. We learned how to make clown bodies. It looked strange but then when you add the little clown head pick, it brought it all together. I was so proud of this cake!
A closeup of my little clown. See I even crossed his little legs! My roses aren't that bad either! I actually got really good at doing borders.
This was my 100% edible Halloween cake that I did a few weeks after the class ended. With my new skills, I was able to create this cake. Everyone raved about it. The black frosting was created chocolate frosting and black food gel. I got fancy and did a basket weave on the side (very easy to do!) The ghost and gravestones where candy molds I bought. I dyed white chocolate with black candy coloring to make it gray. When the candy set, I rubbed the gravestone with black food coloring to make it look like it was stone. I also took a toothpick and painted the ghost eyes and mouths.

Details

Michaels- Where I took the classes and bought all the supplies

Wiltons- The class was designed by them. They also are the ones who made all the supplies for cake decorating.