Birthday Eve

So today is my Birthday eve, and I'm currently at work, ya know.. working.

Tonight i'm celebrating my birthday with a dinner with my parents, sisters, grandparents and niece. We're going to dinner at Appalachian Brewing Co and then maybe back to my parents for cake?? Not sure about that.

I can't wait to sleep in tomorrow, on my birthday! I am taking off tomorrow and thursday, and then have off for the holiday on friday! Long weekend!!

Tomorrow i'll receive some packages, do some laundry, maybe bake myself a birthday cake?? Open my birthday gifts from Alex, go ice skating with him, Nick and Laurel. Then eventually there's a dinner reservation at Cultura's with friends and back to our house for a low key game night. I'm really looking forward to tomorrow! I love me some margarita's, el serrano style!

Yesterday, I searched who else shares my birthday, despite people i know for real (my pop (rip) and my old neighbor allison) i found out that both Lebron James and Tiger Woods were born the same day, and Lebron was same day same year. Interesting! Some other neat stuff happened on that Day in history, but nothing worth noting here.

Now i'm off to design my birthday cake! Happy Tuesday!

Merry Christmas!

Back from a lovely long holiday weekend.. it went a little something like this:

wednesday- i got out of work around noon and headed to run a couple errands. i stopped at the grocery store and then michaels for some supplies for the christmas balls that i made, hopefully i can make a tutorial on those, i need to remember to take a picture of one of them! when i returned home, i had some lunch and then started on the gifts. i made twelve decorative balls and afterward Alex and I headed out to Willow Street diner for dinner with his parents, grandpa and the Denlinger-Moses clan. I had a decent burger and a salad with wayy to much dressing.

thursday- alex headed off to work and i woke up at 8 am to receive the directv guy to install our HD dish. While the directv guy was working outside i cleaned the house and started a cheesecake, alex brought me eggs around noon when he came home so i could then finish the cheesecake! around 1:30 i left to meet my sisters at the york galleria for our annual christmas photo with santa. of course, when i got there at 2, santa was on break until 3! so we waited an hour, were 4th in line, took a nice photo and then headed out. when i got home, i had a nice surprise.. the cheesecake didn't crack! this was a first for me, so yessss! we started our dinner prep, hung out for a little while and then did our presents to each other. He got me an ice cream maker! and Baking Illustrated! and some other stuff.. so exciting! And i got him some thermals, a knife magnet and some other stuff. We then had our meal, strip steak/brussel sprouts/sweet potato which was yummy as always. We hung out some more and then headed up to my parents house. They were at a holiday party so we played some Wii while waiting for them. i couldn't wait to go to bed so that i could wake up to christmas morning!

friday- merry christmas! everyone woke up and got ready and when my grandparents got there we did gifts by the tree. i don't know why this happens every year but my sisters just can't pay attention to when it's their turn to open gifts.. i was the gift coordinator. I got lots of nice stuff from victoria's secret and some other stuff as well, Alex got an awesome coat from AE (who picked that out? ;) ) and a really nice fossil watch, and some other stuff. Then i opened my birthday gift from my parents.. a Wii!! so exciting! then we played my parents wii while waiting for my sisters to get ready, it's addicting!
- we headed to my grama's house for our yummy fresh ham lunch. we ate (omg yum) and then did gifts. then i brought in my new wii and we played for the rest of the afternoon.
- around 5 pm we headed to my other grandparents house, helped get all the food out and ready and when everyone arrived we did gifts in sets. i got a really nice candle, some chocolates, monies, and some wii stuff! then my grama let me open my birthday gift which was some more wii stuff! i now have mariokart and mario brothers, a charging station for the 2 controllers, and the wheels for mariokart. i think that's all alex and i really need, which is nice.
- around 8:30 we left to head back to Lancaster. We stopped at Alex's grandpa's house where his family was and hung out until around 11 pm. Then we needed to go home and feed those kitties!

saturday- woke up and got ready, then headed over to alex's grandparents house where we hung out all day chatting and playing games. we had a really nice roast beef dinner and got some awesome gifts. i got a really nice tray from pier one and alex and i got some chopsticks and a spice set, oh and i got a snuggie and a bra purse! lol. fun times! alex's cousins are all so entertaining! around 8 pm we headed home, hung out for a little.. watched tv, played some mario brothers and then went to bed!

sunday- sleeping in is awesome. we did have some errands to run so we woke up around 10 am and headed to best buy to exchange something for a new mouse and new phones. then we went to the grocery store and marshalls. the line at marshalls was so long though, we decided not to buy what we had in our hands.. too long of a wait. we headed home and cleaned up some more, then started the meal. we made leek and potato soup, alex attempted novelli's bread recipe and before we knew it, alex's family had arrived. we hung out, opened some gifts and then ate dinner. i also tried out my new ice cream machine but we made sorbet and it didn't get frozen enough to serve. I need to find some sturdy quart containers to reuse for ice cream and sorbets. i did some online shopping, got 4 pairs of shoes from aldo, huge sale right now, and then some books and such from amazon. I need to get a new years eve outfit, so i'll probably hit the mall this week for forever21.. so cheap!

it was an awesome holiday, our first married one and we really enjoyed spending time with our families. now onto my birthday wednesday and then new years eve on thursday!!! can't wait!

Traffic

Yesterday it took me an hour to get from my work to Park City where JoAnn Fabric is.. then up to Pier 1.. then back out to the highway and home. I work maybe 5 miles from Park City, so it didn't take long to get there.. but the traffic around that mall is upsurd! I know it's the holiday season but that is exactly why I did most of my shopping online. So happy that I did!

Needless to say, JoAnn did not have the styrofoam balls I needed and I didn't have time to stop at Michael's so i'll be stopping there on the way home today, which is nice bc it's right by Giant and I need some butter and some other ingredients for our Sunday afternoon get together. We're making Chili and Leek/Potato Soup. I should probably make a dessert for that too.. I'll have to think about it.

Then here's my list of to-do's:
*Make the presents with my supplies (hope that Michaels has boxes I can put them in then to wrap)
*Do Laundry
*Clean the House (that christmas tree is dropping needles like it's dead and the kittens have too much fun playing under there, plus we'll be having some guests so it needs to be spic n span)
*Bake a cheesecake for christmas day (this just makes me think that we're going to have a lot of stuff to take up to my parents on christmas eve!)
*Clean out my car (from the tree transport, since the lot didn't have a shaker, I got lots of needles and dirt sitting in the car, I might do this right when I get home so the car is still warm.
*Shower
*Dip a few pretzels for Alex's cousins

Busy Busy!

Holidaze

In a bit of a holi-daze.. it doesn't seem like christmas is in just 3 days, but it is! I'm so excited.. I love the holidays, I especially love christmas because my birthday is 5 days afterward.

Tomorrow i'm getting out of work at 12, i have some shopping to do (maybe) and i have to finish making some gifts. Thursday, I have off.. the Directv guy is coming to install the HD and then i'm headed to York to get a picture with Santa with my sisters.. we do that every year for my mom. She should have enough for a photo book pretty soon. (26 years worth!)

So long weekend, 2 days of work on the 28th and 29th.. then another long weekend as i'm taking off work for my birthday and then new years eve.. so two nice long weekends in a row, can't wait!!

It's really hard to keep focused on days like today. Tomorrow will be easier because I will have things to wrap up before the long weekend.. plus the first half of the day always goes faster.

Tonight after work i'm going to get some supplies to make my gifts and picking up a couple gift cards.. then we're having dinner with Alex's family and another Brubaker family on the Gypsy Hill Farm. Should be fun. Hopefully i'll get to start my project by the eve's end, however I will have lots of time on wednesday when we get out at noon. That will really help! I wanted to work on this on Sunday but with the snow storm and going to the Packers/Steelers game in Pittsburgh, i lost a whole day. Oh i can't wait until Friday!!!!!

T-3!

Here comes a busy weekend

Granted tonight I don't have any plans, it's probably still going to be very busy. I really need to get crackin' on some gifts i'm making people and i need to wrap those gifts.. and the other gifts i have that need a wrapping!! I was supposed to do this on Sunday but a sudden change of plans has me working on it tonight.

So after work i'll stop at Joann Fabric or Michaels (probably Michaels) for some supplies and then head home and start the process. Hopefully making them all won't take too long. Hopefully there I can also find some small boxes to put them in, and I just thought that i'll need to add tissue paper to my list now to cushion them.

Let's see, what else.. oh! I have to make a cake for sunday. I'm again making the Triple Chocolate Mousse cake though I won't be around to have any. I don't know if i'll be able to finish it since it has a lot of steps and takes a couple hours to set in the fridge but if not tonight then i'll finish it off tomorrow. It's pretty messy, so much chocolate melting! but it comes out really rich and light and yummy. I should post the recipe on here then since it's a Cooks Illustrated one.

Saturday, Alex and I are helping some friends move. Are we crazy? Yes. Did we agree to this back when it wasn't 25 degrees outside, yes! But we're going to bundle up and help out. Plus we want them to come to the christmas party later so the sooner they're moved the better chance they can come!

So after the moving, i'll be home again finishing that cake and the gifts if necessary, then making some spinach/artichoke dip and heading to the homebrew club's christmas party. I really hope it's a good turn out. And this spinach dip is to die for!

Sunday i'm waking up bright and early and heading up to my parents house. I'll drop off some of the gifts that Alex and I bought for ourselves to receive from my parents and i'll hop in the car with Jess, Nicole and my Dad to go get Tom and Mr. A and head up to Pittsburgh for the Steelers/Packers game.. yeah, again.. i'm a crazy person. I plan to wear leggings, two pairs of jeans, 3 pairs of socks, a tank, tee, long sleeve tee, sweatshirt and then jacket.. i'm going to look for a hat tonight with the eyes cut out so that i don't even have to breathe the cold air. I'm also going to look for some boots since i'm without them and sneakers or anything else that I own would not be proper footwear.

I'm praying that it doesn't snow tooo much that it would hinder our drive up there. Should be fun despite the fact that i'm going to get back around 1 am on Monday morning and have to go to work the next day. But on the brightside, it's a 3 day week!!!

It's official, i'm getting a Wii

So over the weekend before getting my tree with my parents (and them getting their tree), my mom and i sat down to play some Mario Kart on Wii. It was my first experience on the Wii, obviously i've played Mario Kart before. Needless to say it was a BLAST! The boardwalk is a lot harder though than on N64.. my mom told me that my 4 yr old niece Makayla gets in the top 5 almost everytime she plays.. what a champ.

Therefore, it's official. I need a Wii and what's coming up on the 30th? why my birthday of course! So my mommy went out and got me a Wii yesterday. And hopefully i'll get another controller, a charger kit, and mario kart. I also want Super Mario Brothers, so i'll probably use other birthday money to get that. It's so exciting! I feel like a 5th grader getting Super Nintendo (even though we never had that, just the original and then N64).

Now i'll get to play mario kart across the internet with my mom.. and makayla and whoever else i want that has a wii!

I'm pretty frickin' pumped.. i'm actually hoping to get it on Christmas since I might not see my parents on my actual birthday. Maybe I should plan a lunch with them.. hmmm? :)

What i'm doing this weekend..

Tonight my plans are to..
..make 2 batches of baked corn for sunday
..make some cream biscuits and freeze them for sunday
..go to the grocery store to get the ingredients for those things above and more
..get out my christmas decorations
..possibly get our christmas tree tonight instead of tomorrow
..probably watch a movie and drink some wine or some homebrew with the hub
..dvr ghost whisperer to watch at another point in time
..address all of our christmas cards instead of buying labels to print on

Tomorrow my plans are to..
..sleep in
..watch the dvr'd ghost whisperer
..head up to my parents to help them get their christmas tree
..head back home
..get ready for the evening and have dinner
..head out to quips to celebrate jen's birthday with friends!

Sunday my plans are to..
..work on getting everything together for our holiday feast with our families
..alex is making a turkey and i'm making the potatoes and then heating up the corn and baking the rolls
..spend some good old fashion quality time with our families
..clean up and relax!

I love the holiday season!

Today isn't friday? Whhat!?

All day today i've been thinking that it's friday. Maybe it's because yesterday I went home sick? Which was glorious by the way. Not the feeling sick part but the going back to bed at 9 am and not waking up until 1 pm.. so rested, not to mention feeling much better.

Off topic but important: I love new stuff. I don't hate old stuff but whenever people talk about new things, it makes me want something new. A vendor I work with was talking about her new windows today, and i keep thinking, man we really need new windows.. our windows are terrible, not to mention original to a house built in 1905-ish. I really need to find out how much they would be so i can think, too expensive and move on. I don't know where these ideas come from but i'm constantly looking on realtor.com at houses when Alex and I really can't move for another year due to that tax credit thing. I'm a crazy person.. i think that's the problemo.

Back to the windows.. it would be so green of us to be more energy efficient. We'd save money on our electric bill which is set to rise and it would be good for the return on our house. So many positives. The negetive is the expense, of course. But if I can finagle my way into a discount from a sister company under our corporate umbrella, it might not be so bad. What kind of discount? I have no idea, but anything is better than nothing.

I have acrylic nails on right now and I have to say, typing is a chore, not to mention texting.. good thing i'm not a text-aholic because i can't text with these suckers to save my life.. then throw gloves into the equation. disaster. so off topic but really, i don't have a topic so it's kind of on topic of having no topic!

Yesterday when I woke up for my insanely long sick nap I thought, wouldn't it be fab to work at home, just staring out the window at the sunshine all day and being all relaxed and junk. Or even better, have a day off in the middle of the week. Work Mon, Tues, Thurs, Friday.. I would totally work 10 hour days to make that possible. It was just awesome to take a nap like that..

So today we have official new years eve plans.. we're going to the Marriott (the new one) and they have a party with dinner, cocktail hour, music, casino night, champagne toast and live feed to the rose drop outside. Then you get a room and two tickets to breakfast the next morning.. and after today, this cannot be canceled. Hopefully the rest of our friends book it. Should be a good time though.. new years eve is always fun!

Also today, I booked our trip to Las Vegas. I'm going there at the end of January for a trade show and i'm taking Alex along with me. He's going to do some exploring while I'm at the show then we'll have friday night and all day Saturday and then Saturday night to get our fill of Sin City. The last time I was there I only saw the strip from the air when our plane was landing. This time we're going to get to know each other. We're pretty excited about it!

Also, Christmas is almost here, that's exciting in itself! We're getting our tree on Saturday, i'll have to rearrange some furniture but hopefully it'll look nice! Again, pumped!!

My Weekend in Review

Friday
After work, Alex and I headed to the burg so that I could go with my sister to see Dane Cook and Alex could watch my niece Makayla. Dane Cook was funny of course, a little crude with some 'retard' jokes which I didn't prefer but he ended the show with an encore about his parents passing away within nine months of each other and a jerk sending him an email that said 'your parents got cancer and died because you are not funny" which he said ripped him apart inside for 2 years. 2 years later he got an email from the same person apologizing because they were going through a lot.. and Dane's response back: "your dad got a brain tumor because you're a drunk with no job".. hopefully this was just a joke but we'll probably never know.
After the show we went to Dockside Willie's for some food and drinks. It was dead there for a friday night, kind of sad. But the cheese pizza was good and the appletini needed more apple. Around 12 we headed home. Alex and I were driving back to Lancaster so we wanted to be awake for that. It was a long drive and I was trying really hard to stay awake. We passed out immediately when we got home.

Saturday
Glorious sleeping in.. love when the kittens play in our bed and then fall asleep with us. We eventually got up, watched some TV and I started my cookie bake off. I made Snickerdoodles, Sugar Cookies and Oatmeal Raisin and Craisin dough for the next day. I showered and got pretty and we headed out to dinner with my supervisor and her family. It was supposed to be a holiday coworker dinner but it had been snowing all day so our boss decided the roads were too yucky. We went to Iron Hill and I have to say that I'm very lucky to have such a great supervisor. She is so personable and her son is so cute! We had a very good time!
After dinner Alex and I headed home and decided to watch a movie with some wine. The wine was eh and we watched Slumdog Millionaire which was pretty good. We then had a very long discussion about some unrelated topics. We hit the hay around 2:30 am.

Sunday
More sleeping in.. i was so tired for some reason so I slept til 10:30. After getting ready, Alex scooped out the dough for the oatmeal cookies and i worked on the choc. chip cookie dough. After we completed those tasks, Alex watched the Eagles game while I decorated the sugar cookies. I took a break to download some music.. I really miss my Something Corporate CDs that were stolen when I worked at the Galley at Millersville. Who steals CDs?? Nevermind. We watched some TV and then I cleaned up the kitchen from the cookie baking and Alex started dinner. We had marinated steak and broccoli. It was delicious. We also made a sweet potato that wasn't ready for dinner so that is my lunch today. It worked out well! After dinner I started watching War of the Worlds while Alex did some beer stuff and eventually he joined me. He had never seen it so I caught him up and then we watched it til the end.

It was definitely a fun and relaxing weekend. Looking forward to the next!

Cookies and Decorating and Upcoming Events

I have a list of different types of cookies I want to make for this holiday season.. granted, not my first christmas in our house, but our first christmas being married so i'm trying to be more wifely since i barely do chores as it is :)

Here are the types I plan to bake!

• Snickerdoodles - I always helped my mom roll out the balls for these and it's by far my favorite batter to eat plain! ha!!
• Chocolate Chip - This is a classic that cannot be overlooked. There is a recipe for the perfect choc chip cookie in a cooks illustrated i plan to try out!
• Sugar Cookie with Flood Icing - I have so many cookie cutters that i'm dying to use but I don't want to spend time making each cookie original, so i'm going to flood each of them and probably add crystal sprinkles!
• Peanut Butter - These seem to be popular, so i'm going to give them a try. I don't normally eat them myself, but since i'll be giving most of these cookies out anyway, might as well have a variety!
• Oatmeal Raisin and Oatmeal Craisin - Alex suggested the craisin and I thought it would be a good idea, so half of the batch will be raisin and the other half craisin!
• Sand Tarts - My Aunt Kim makes these and they are to die for.. I'm not sure why as they're so simple but they're just so delicious. So i'm hopefully going to be working on this as well.

So there that is.. it's cookie baking season, people!!

I also need to get decorating.. we don't do outside lights but I should at least step it up a notch inside. Mistletoe is a must!! I hope to get our Christmas tree on Sunday. We decided to get a real one even though that kittens are going to go crazy playing with the needles. This year it should cost a little less since we already have the skirt and the stand and the lights and most of the ornaments. Now all I have to figure out is how we're going to arrange the furniture to fit it in the room.

I created christmas cards and will be placing that order immediately, so basically if you came to the wedding, you'll be getting a christmas card!

I also have a holiday dinner coming up on the 13th that Alex and I are hosting for our immediate families. We got a free turkey from Giant we're going to use and then i'm going to make Mashed Potatoes, Baked Corn, Green Beans, Stuffing, Rolls and a Cheesecake. I plan on making and freezing the corn, beans, rolls and cheesecake prior to the day. That way we can just warm them up and should be good to go.

Later this month, Alex's Beer Club has a Christmas Party we're going to attend. I'm going to make a spinach dip for that and there will be plenty of brew to drink.

The day after that party we're going to a surprise party which i'm making the triple chocolate mousse cake for. They said bring something that contains chocolate since the guest of honor loves it. Well this is super chocolaty so it should be perfect!! Plus the last time I made it, it was well received.. rich but light and decadent.

Let's see, my friend Jen's birthday is coming up so that should be a fun celebration and then my birthday is at the end of the month and Alex and I are planning to go to Atlantic City for the day.

We haven't figured out new years plans yet but there are some ideas in the air right now.

December is such an exciting month.. despite the weather, which is quite mild this year so far.

My Long Holiday Weekend

It started..

Wednesday: I got out of work at 2:45 after a long business lunch. It was probably the best way to spend the wednesday before thanksgiving. I went to the mall and purchased the dress i had found online, with the belt i matched it with in photoshop, and picked up an iridescent purple shrug. I'm kind of stylish now.. lol. It ended up later that the belt fits around my hips but not my waist under my boobs so I couldn't wear it but i still have it for other times i need a hip belt.

Back to wednesday.. after the mall i headed home to start my pie process. It was very labor intensive since i had never made it before, plus the fact that i was making 2 at once.. it was a caramel apple cheesecake pie. The caramel seemed to take forever to make.. or at least cool down to be thick enough. The crust was perfect, the apples were annoying to slice (alex actually did this) and i had to cook them in 2 batches.. the cheesecake part was easy though and they turned out good! After this, I did some ironing while Alex was at his beer meeting, I also watched some ghost whisperer. Our friends came over around 9 and we headed out to Marion Court to spend thanksgiving eve. Apple Martini's are delicious.

Thursday: Woke up around 9 am and watched a little bit of the parades. Showered and got ready for the day. Finished off one of the pies with whipped cream, more caramel and pecans. Drove up to my Da's (grama) house for lunch at noon. I love the food there, whatever holiday, it's always delicious! We ate, we chatted, we laughed, we slept, we watched the packers, i scoured the newspaper ads for black friday. we ate the pie, it was well received. My aunt took most of it home to have in the days ahead. i don't blame her, it was pretty delicious! Around 5, we headed over to my other grandma's for another thanksgiving dinner. I know eventually some things will change but I really love these traditions right now. I played Candyland and Chutes & Ladders with my cousin Mitchell and my niece Makayla and around 8 pm, we headed home. We actually stopped at Alex's grandparents to see everyone there. Hung out until 10 but really had to get home to feed our kittens who we hadn't seen all day.

Friday: I thought about going black friday shopping, but instead i bought our 32" vizio online (sears) thursday night and since they had it in stock, i just had to pick it up friday morning. And that we did. We came home and set it up, got our stuff together and headed over to Alex's grandparents house to spend the day there. We played Risk, I went out with some of the girls and we got our nails done, we played scattegories. We had a great time. Eventually we ate a delicious dinner.. and then dessert. Again, the pie was well received. Alex's cousins came over to our house to spend the night. We watched Star Trek on the new TV then headed to bed.

Saturday: Woke up around 9:15, took a shower.. woke the kids up to get ready to go by 10. Headed over to Martin Dr for breakfast. Hung out for a little then headed home to get ready for Courtney's wedding at 2. Beautiful ceremony in a beautiful church. Alex thanked me for not being Catholic. It was a long ceremony. Stopped home to get nick's id.. headed over to Mazzi's at the Inn in Leola to hang out. Got duped into a 14.95 dollar glass of wine. I asked for their house red...... she gave me the most expensive glass on the menu. Walked down to Casa di Fiori for the cocktail hour and reception. Yummy h'orderves (spelling??) and yummy cocktails. Tokens for free drinks during the reception.... great idea! Great food, lots of dancing, laughing and having so much fun. So happy for Courtney and Derek! Back to Mazzi's.. then home.

Sunday: Slept in.. spent some time with Nick and Laurel then I headed up to my Grama's to help decorate her tree and spend time with my 2nd cousins (children) so adorable! Very happy that I went, I love family get togethers. Left around 5 and spent the rest of the night relaxing with Alex. We watched Yes Man which he didn't overly enjoy, but we finished it. Ended the night watching sometime about how Aliens were involved in all the large scale ancient architecture like the great pyramid, stonehedge and the aztec temple. I agree.. it was definitely extra terrestrials. There's no way that they had all that knowledge and it didn't pass down to us. They had to have help with greater technology.

And here i am, Monday morning... another 3.5 weeks until Christmas!

Giving Thanks

I am thankful for a whole bunch of things, and i thought i would list some of them here:

*I am thankful for my husband. He is my best friend and i can't think of anyone better to share my life with. We talk about how lucky we are all the time and I truly believe we are soul mates. I can't wait to see what life holds for us.

*I am thankful for my parents. They raised me to be who I am today and I will never be able to thank them enough for all the love and support that i've received through my 24.9 years. I know they miss me because I live in Lancaster. But it won't always be like this. Hopefully in the next couple years, we will move a little closer in their direction.

*I am thankful for my sisters. Even though we don't always get along, we grew up together. And I know if I ever needed any of them, they'd be there in an instant, as would i.

*I am thankful for my friends. They fill my life with laughter and fun.

*I am thankful for my future children. They give me hope and excitement for what's to come.

*I am thankful for our kittens, Domino and Kali. They make me laugh out loud every day with their childish antics. Just watching them play together is a joy and getting to cuddle with them is even better.

*I am thankful that I have a job. I know I complain about it a lot which isn't fair to those who are currently jobless.

*I am thankful for my health. I have been very lucky in life so far with being healthy and I will do everything possible to continue being healthy.

*I am thankful for holidays. These are the times that I get to spend with my family and alex's family. It's the best time of the year simply for that reason.

I'm very fortunate in life and can only be thankful. I hope everyone has a fantastic Thanksgiving Holiday, Happy Black Friday Shopping and Christmas decorating! Be well and be safe!

Fortune Cookie

I got chinese for lunch yesterday and just opened my fortune cookie for breakfast.. what does it say??

"The possibility of a career change is near."

Coincidence that I was just talking about my career yesterday?? I'm not sure, but I can hope for a miracle!

What to do with my life..

Lately I've really been thinking about what career path I want to take. Obviously, I already have a bachelors in business marketing but I just don't think I'm satisfied with that. And though i've never been the most driven person, I want something a little more challenging than my current job.

So i've thought about going back to school for Interior Design... but it's expensive. So i've thought of taking classes to earn a certificate at PCAD in Lancaster. Easy enough but doesn't mean I can get licensed or anything.

I'm thinking about trying out Real Estate.. or at least getting licensed so that I have that option. I plan to start this in January.. they have online classes for the 2 required courses and then there's of course a licensing exam. I really had a good time buying our house with our realtor and it seems to be a really rewarding job.

Along those lines, I think property management would also be an interesting career.

I have also been contemplating joining the business my parents part own. But I've recently learned that I'll have to start by working part time as a cashier, move up to assistant mgr, move up to mgr and spend who knows how long in those positions before moving up to a corporate office level and what position I would hold is unknown. There seems to be a lot of unknowns with this and it apparently doesn't matter that I have a bachelor's in business and 2.5 years experience in the field. So i'm also doing some heavy thinking about this.

All I want is to enjoy what I do during the day so that I can come home happy at night. All I want is to be paid fairly and make enough money to support myself and Alex when we decide to have children so that we can afford to have one of us stay home until the babes are school age.

This isn't too much to ask :) Hopefully it will be figured out soon!

Weekend's here

So it's 12:45 on friday and I can't wait for the weekend....... per usual.

Here are my plans:
Today after work and maybe some pilates we'll be headed over to the Ney's to have a beer tasting and I get to catch up with August who's had some fantastic things happening in her life lately that I can't wait to hear about.

I'm definitely sleeping in on Saturday, until at least 9. I'm sure the kittens will be so cute i'll want to wake up earlier but i'm going to do my best. Alex and I will spend the day cleaning the house and I need to make a run to walmart to pick up my boobies, a storage bin and a trash can. What are my boobies you ask?? I'm wearing a plunging dress from Urban Outfitters to my friend Courtney's wedding next saturday and the back drops lower than a bra would.. so I needed to find a solution to this problem because i do not do the bra-less thing. This is a self adhesive silicone bra that just sticks to the ladies and makes your boobs look normal. Score!! Of course i'll probably be wearing a cover and I'll also be wearing my new grey leggings but the dress should still look cute. I love weddings! I just need to figure out how to do my hair!

Anyway, later on Phil and Ashley will be coming up and Matt and Marci are going to be around so I think we're all going to grab some dinner and then head back to Ross to hang out, drink some wine, play some games.. etc. I should stop by the liquor store for some Yellowtail! Should be a good time!!

Sunday, no plans.. Alex says he's brewing but I want to go to the movies to see the Blind Side. It looks really good and we haven't been to the movies in a while. I'm sure there's plenty of time for that though.. it'll be nice relaxing day for us, or just me.. we'll see!

Christmas List: It's getting serious

I know I shared my Christmas list but i've decided to spice it up with some images. Now obviously this isn't all of the stuff I want because it's really an endless list, but here are some serious requests. :)

I currently have 2 wish lists.. Amazon and Victoria's Secret. I'm not going to include all the images of the Wilton Cake decorating materials that I have listed on there.. it's just so much. Also, I have a Wii on there with games which I'm also not going to show images of, but they are on the list! :)

This is a fabulous mixing blade I read about in Cooks Illustrated. It's going to work wonders on my
batches of cookie dough as I won't have to stop and scrape the bowl!

This is something i've wanted for a while.
It's going to be sweet to create my dream home on here and
see it in 3-d!!

Ice cream maker.. everyone needs one of these :)
I read a blog that talks about making ice cream all the time
and now i'll get to make my own!!
Alex and I are thinking about getting a 32" Vizio for Christmas.
It's either that or a MacBook or a Wii or all 3! He doesn't want a Wii tho.. booo!

Onto the clothing.. I want this in Blue and Yellow, here's the yellow:These are awesome!!!! As are the other shoes shown below!!
In Fuschia of course!

So excited about these black skinny jeans, i've been
wanting some forever!This is actually going to be red. (above)

Love Love Love purple!!

This is the correct color and I love the overlap!

Pretty pumped about this because i get cold all the time!

I was in need of a sleep shirt.. problem solved.

Great jacket, I'll actually be getting it in the berry plaid though.. :)

And this concludes my christmas list that I wanted to share. Feel free to browse and purchase for me any of the stuff on my Amazon wishlist. My email is maelsche@gmail.com to look it up! haaaha!

Christmas is the best holiday!

Thought you might like a kitten update

I have to say, we couldn't be happier with the decision to bring home the kittens. They bring joy to each of our days. Simply just watching them play and jump around is a hoot and it makes us laugh out loud which can't be anything but healthy.

They eat wet and dry food, use the litter box exceptionally (although they don't like to step on the track mat, so it's tracked throughout the house, luckily it's pine and easy to sweep up). They enjoy playing with their scratcher toy that has a ball on the outside, only Domino has learned that you can actually scratch it. They also enjoy the ping pong balls and love chasing them around. They also roll around with a sock that I put catnip in and tied in a knot.

They cuddle with us on the couch once per night where they fall fast asleep and look adorable. They can fit under our bedroom door, so we now have to block it with a long space heater and one of my boots. They haven't ruined any of our furniture or carpets and the only time they use their claws is to climb to get on the couch and the dining room chairs which they love to sit under. They also enjoy playing on the stairs which scares me. They chase each other pretty quickly so who knows what could happen on the stairs.

They're still pretty little which is fun.. I know they're going to get bigger which is kind of sad.. I should google how to stunt their growth. Just kidding..

But they're doing great! More people should come and visit them! :)

Weekend Update

I had a very nice weekend that I will now detail for you here:

Friday: Met up with Dan, Steph, Matt and Britt at Iron Hill for dinner. Spicy taco salad but I finished it bc it was tasty. I love hanging out with them.. it's always a good time. After Iron Hill we stopped at Rosa Rosa for another drink.. I'd never been there but it seems nice inside. Very dark though.

Saturday: Minimal sleeping in.. had to wake up at 9 to get ready to catch the train at 10. Train to Philadelphia. Subway to 2nd Street to hit Eulogy Cafe. Great beer (Leffe Brune) and great thick cut fries with dipping sauce. Headed to Vargas. Not so great beer and Alex ate some pickled veggies. Now I wasn't drunk by any means but I'm having trouble remember what we did next. I know we started walking.. we thought about going to Jose something, then decided to walk to Tria.. which just like the spring's train trip.. was a dud. Then we walked to Noddinghead. At this point, Alex and I left to catch the 4:55 train.. we had to walk about 13 blocks so we needed time to do so.

We caught the train to Paoli and rode along talking to Jim on the phone for 25 minutes. That 25 minutes flew by.. just listening to Alex talk to Jim was very entertaining. We got off the train and made the small trek to TJ Everyday's which was maybe 1/4 mile away. We met up with Matt and Marci in the parking lot. Perfect timing! We headed in and picked our beverages, ordered our food and caught up. I really enjoy hanging out with them.. and they make me laugh. I had a taco salad there as well which was also very good. Alex had a good chili and then a small burger and fries. Overall, I give it a 10.. it was a great restaurant and we had great company.

We headed back to Matt and Marci's apartment where Marci and I proceeded to drink 2 bottles of wine and chit chat while Matt and Alex did who knows what. The boys eventually walked to Wawa (I don't know why) but they brought us back a turkey sub to split which worked out perfectly. Very fun evening. I can't wait until they move back to Lancaster.

I slept decently for waking up a bunch of times. I moved from the couch with alex to the other couch to the floor, got up to turn off an alarm, get a drink of water, etc. I wish I could've slept for longer but when don't I feel that way. Eventually we headed back to Lancaster via the Van Wyen whip. So nice of them to taxi us back up to Lancaster.. they had a birthday party to get to.

When we returned home Sunday we fed the kittens and then medicated them. They were hungry! We got our stuff together to go up to my parents and headed out. We stopped at the grocery store and finally arrived. My mom loves to purchase knick knacks when she goes on vacation so there was a lot from Colorado. Plus the trade show garb.. Alex and I came home with a bag full of stuff. We made roast chicken, mashed potatoes and green beans. Jess brought a cake and a pumpkin roll. Nicole was a drag but the rest of the day went well. My mom got the family Wii for christmas so we decided to break that out a little early. She needs to get another remote or two though so that everyone can play without swapping remotes. Also, you need at least 2 remotes to play two person tennis, etc. She loves QVC so that was where she got it. I've wanted a Wii so now I can get my Wii on at my parents house instead of purchasing my own.

I told her she needs to get Mario Kart, Mario Party and another remote. I'm going to get her a wireless thing too so that she can pull the internet onto the TV. And if i do ever get a Wii, we can play games together.

This week is going slow so far, but I'm sure it'll speed up after Wednesday. Sometimes I wish I had every friday off.. or at least one per month. But thanksgiving is next week so we'll get out early on Wednesday then have off thursday and friday. Can't wait!

Sorry, but I'm not into Twilight

I've heard that they're great books, and the movie is fantastic and New Moon is going to be even better.. Edward... Bella.. blah blah blah.

It's not that I don't like reading, because I would love to read the books, and maybe in 10 years, I will. I just can't get into the whole phenomenon. I don't really think Rob Patinson is that hot and maybe that's bc I haven't seen the movie. He looked way better as Cedric in Harry Potter. Also, I'm tired of reading about them on PerezHilton and all other Entertainment News websites I read. They're actors.. and that's great, but I'd probably be just as pissy as Kristen Stewart if I had a billion people following me around and getting into my business. I doubt she knew what she was getting into with the first movie and now she can't get out. They're all making some big bucks but I would think if you're an actor you have to think about the rest of your career, not just the current franchise you're in.

Regardless.. I just wanted to let everyone know, that I haven't read twilight and I don't plan to see the movies, ever. I won't be sucked in! :)

The weekend is calling.. i'll return the call at 5 pm est

This weekend is going to be FUN! It's going to be jam packed full of greatness.

Tonight we're meeting up with some friends at Iron Hill. I'm going to be a good girl. I've lost 5 lbs in the last 2 weeks and I plan to keep them off! (oh and drop 10 more by Dec 4th).. They're always a fun group so i'm really looking foward to it. Ghost Whisperer will have to DVR tonight!

Saturday, we're heading out on a train to Philly to do a bar crawl with Alex's homebrew club. The last time we did this it was very fun. This time will be the same but with me drinking less beer.. we're taking a train at 4:55 to Paoli to meet up with Matt and Marci who live in KOP.. we're planning on walking to TJ Everyday's since it's right across the street basically (hopefully, since i've never been there but google map tells me this). Also should be a great time! I love hanging out with the two of them. Marci and I have a lot in common it seems.. especially when it comes to the real world now after our glorious up-bringings.. I can explain in another blog post but basically, i think i was spoiled and now i don't know how to value things because i always think.. it'll be okay, we can afford it, when in reality, sometimes we can't (ha!) Anyway, I'm really really looking forward to that hang out!

Sunday: Matt & Marci are bringing us back to Lanc and we're getting our shiz together and heading up to my parents house. They've been in CO for 10 days and we're going to make my mom a birthday dinner. Roast chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans and cake. Looking foward to that as well! It's hard to beat a home cooked dinner.

In other news: Kali and Domino went to the vet yesterday.. good news and bad news. The good news is, they don't have feline leukemia!! the bad news is, they have worms. So we're starting some treatment they take once a day and they'll also take a pill in another 10 days. The doctor was super nice and very informative. And the babies were extremely well behaved. They didn't enjoy the ride in a bag but hey, i'm not buying a cat carrier for a couple vet appointments. We go back in 3 weeks to make sure the wormies are gone. The doctor also said that we might be seeing worms in their poo.. nasty!

On that note, have a great weekend!!

Dear Mother Earth

I'd really like Saturday to be the way last Sunday was, weather wise. Last Sunday was unseasonably warm and sunny.. this Saturday we'll be receiving the tale end of tropical storm ida and 60 degree temps. If you could just up those temps about 10 degrees, i'd be forever greatful.

This morning I spent 4 hours in a garage like structure shooting install videos for work.. I was freezing. No one else was, it was weird. I had my winter jacket and gloves on and even thought about putting up my hood. I think this means, I miss warmer weather.. and the sun staying out for longer. The solution to my problem is you, mother earth. Let's move the equator up a few notches so that PA is more like SC or even NC weather.

This may throw a lot of weather patterns into wack but it's worth it.. the climate is changing anyway, let's give it an extra nudge. I don't feel any of the effects of global warming and i'd really like to be warmer most of the year, so do your magic.

Your friend, Michelle

PS Tell the lottery god that it's my turn to win the powerball!

Weekend Update

Friday: After work and grocery shopping, Alex and I went over to his parents house for dinner. It was a good dinner too.. except I had some chocolate cake. I need to work on saying no. Our primary reason for going there was to get the kittens to bring them home, so we did so. We found them while it was still light out (thank goodness) and had them inside with us the whole time. Kali did not enjoy the car ride home because she tried to jump out the closed window more than once, but Domino was quite calm. Their first night was mostly filled with them trying to hide from us, probably because they were scared.

Saturday: Woke up at 7 am! Whhat!! I couldn't go back to sleep and Alex couldn't find the kittens. We knew they had to be around somewhere so we did a search and found them under the desk in the tiniest crevice. We lured them out with kitty treats and then brought them downstairs. I started baking the cake for Courtney's Bachelorette around 9 am and finished around 3 pm.. through all of that I was doing laundry and watching shows like Greys, Private Practice and Ghost Whisperer that I had on my DVR. The kittens were getting more relaxed and really love chasing each other around. They play then they crash then wake up, play, crash. That's their schedule with some litter box play and eating in between.

Eventually I got the call that the girls were getting ready at Courtney's and I gathered my stuff and headed over. She loved the cake, it was hilarious! I'll be sure to post a picture when I put them on the computer. And after a while, we headed out to dinner and then bar hopping. We laughed and danced and had a great time. I have some serious blisters on my feet but they must've been numb that night (other than the long walk we took) but I probably won't be wearing heels this week. That reminds me that I really need to go shoe shopping.

Sunday: We went to bed at 4 am.. it's been years since I stayed up that late and remember, I woke up at 7 am on saturday, soo.. I was pooped. I also had a hang over, which I haven't had in a while. I'm going to blame that on my lack of food Saturday and my dinner consisting of a salad and a wrap. I spent a lot of time trying to recover and after getting some food in my tummy I felt good enough to gather my things and head home. I got home at 3 pm, lol. So I cuddled up on the couch and watched tv while the kittens played. I watched PS I love you which was cute, but definitely not the best movie ever. It filled 2 hours though which was fine with me. Kali fell asleep in my arms at one point and Domino at my feet. They really like my one pair of shoes and sleep in them under the coffee table sometimes too. Eventually they won't be able to fit under there so they might as well enjoy it now.

Alex came home and we went to Saigon for dinner. We came back and watched more TV with more kitties sleeping on us. Kali loves to be held while sleeping and Domino doesn't so much. They're too adorable for words!!

It was a very nice weekend. I'm really looking forward to this coming Saturday though. We're taking a train to Philly with Alex's beer club and doing a bar crawl, then we're taking the train up to Paoli to see Matt and Marci and eventually making our way back to Lancaster on Sunday, then up to Harrisburg to make my mom's birthday meal. It's going to be great!! Only 5 days to go!

We're over the hump that is wednesday

Thursday is really awesome because that means tomorrow is friday. And why doesn't the spell check let me type friday without a capital F? what's so wrong with that?

Anyway, just wanted to share a couple exciting things:

First of all, i've lost 4 lbs since monday, yippee! i've been pretty serious about this diet/exercise challenge thing and i'm really hoping that the weekends don't throw me off too much. i've surprisingly been sticking to my nightly exercise plan and it hasn't been so bad. I've done 3 different dvds.. Pilates Core Challenge, MTV Pilates and Slim in 6- Start it Up!. I have to say, none of them are easy.. and I can't even call a favorite yet because currently they're all pretty different. Even the two pilates dvds. So i'll have to get back to you on that.

Tomorrow night we go and have dinner at the in-laws and pick up the kittens and take them home with us. I'm so excited! I hope they can climb stairs though, that's a serious fear of mine. And our floors are all wood so they might be slipping and sliding all over the place! We're planning on putting the litter box upstairs, so if they cant climb the stairs, we're gonna have a problemo.

Saturday I'm baking a very special cake for that evening. It's going to be hilarious and taste delicious at the same time. I'm going to work with fondant again and see if I can cover a whole cake with it this time around. It's going to be interesting to say the least.

Also, poor phillies fans.. since they lost last night. I watched some of it, but i'm not really into baseball so i don't have a team, but judging from status updates on my facebook, a lot of people i'm friends with on there were really into it. poor kiddos.

That's about it for today!

In other news..

we're going to see the kittens tonight.. it's going to be fun per usual but it's so dark now by 5:30 that i don't know how long we'll stay. Plus, Alex wants to go to the voting booths on the way.. he's a newbie at voting so he must not realize that after 5 pm is the busiest voting time, other than 6 am. He totally should've went this morning since he goes to work at 7.. so i guess i'll be waiting in the car for a while.. niice.

I'm currently eating lunch and drinking out of a defective water bottle filled with Diet Green Tea with Pomegranate and Blueberry.. great beverage but the defect is quite annoying.

It's only tuesday but i'm looking forward to the weekend since we'll get the kittens on friday. Then I have some exciting plans Saturday night and sunday is wide open.

I've also instituted a 4 week challenge for my diet/exercise. I started yesterday and it's going pretty well. Basically i'm going to try to eat no carbs during the weekdays and then relax a little on the weekends and exercise 4 to 5 times per week. I already play volleyball on Mondays and i'll do pilates and aerobics on week nights and then take a long walk one day on the weekend. I thought maybe I could take a walk on weeknights but since we set our clocks back it's too dark, which means it'll be too cold to walk. Oh well, indoor activities! I want to lose 15 lbs by Thanksgiving because that's when serious Christmas shopping takes place and if I buy clothes of a smaller size, i won't be able to gain weight or else i'll have no clothes to wear. Plus, I don't have many clothes currently due to the Donation of 2009. Christmas and my birthday are going to fulfill my clothing need. I have a wish list on Victoria's Secret.com all ready to go! And my Amazon.com wish list for Alex to choose my gifts from. Man, I love Christmas.

November and December might be my favorite months because of how many days off of work we have, plus I usually take off for my birthday and new years eve and then we have new years day off. I wonder what will happen if i change jobs? Will i be allowed to take my birthday off? Will I have vacation immediately or not? Vacation immediately is a necessity.

Resume: Sent

In loo of waiting for my family's business to make a decision on whether to open up the opportunity to me.. i've applied for another job. i keep hearing from the fam that they don't know when it's going to happen, and even if they meet to talk about it, it could be another 6 months until they've reached a decision. I can't waste much more time at this pay grade though, so I sent my resume and a cover letter to a company advertising a marketing job on careerbuilder. I happen to be extremely qualified for this, so hopefully I get a bite on my job fishing line. I might as well get even more experience while waiting and the more I can learn about different industries, the better.

So fingers crossed that I get a call back. I can't live like this making poo for pay and not really enjoying it.

Weekend Update

Friday: Instead of feeding trick or treaters candy, we walked down to a local pub and had a beer and some appetizers. I have to say everytime I eat there, i like the food less.. so no more eating there! The only good thing is they have Magners Cider on tap. When we got home we decided to watch Nights of Rodanthe.. thinking it was going to be all romantic and happy and lovey dovey.. well it was a tad romantic but the ending was horrible. If you've never seen it, don't waste your time.. he dies in the end. The love that lady looked for her whole life dies and she is devastated. Worst ending ever!

Saturday: Slept in until 9 am.. then we were going to participate in the Lancaster County Brewers Club Trash Pickup since they sponsor a road in Adamstown. This is the 2nd time we drove down there, the first time it was raining so it didn't happen. This time, it wasn't raining.. but no one showed up. It's supposed to be a club thing, something good to do for the community but I really think people are just there for the social one wednesday a month and don't think about anything else. So Alex and I left.. it would've defeated the purpose if we had done it alone. When we got home I started working on his halloween costume and altering my own. We took a break to go to the Greek Food Bazaar which was tasty but we wish we would've done Ala Carte. We paid 10 dollars for a meal.. each, which didn't include a drink! obviously we weren't aware of how much it would cost, so we only got a 20 out of the atm. The food was good though.. but they didn't have signs about the price or what that meant and etc. I'm not sure if i'll go next year but at least it was for a good cause, i guess. Afterwards, I went to the grocery store and Alex got something ready for a beer competition. Then I completed our costumes and we watched some TV until dinner time. We met Nick and Laurel at Kegel's and had a nice dinner. Later, we headed with them to a halloween party.

I was a Red Crayon, while Alex was purple. And Nick and Laurel were Adam and Eve!

It was a fun party. We had a good time. I slept like a rock that night.

Sunday: Woke up too early for my liking but oh well. After Nick and Laurel left we got ready and headed to Harrisburg to meet my sister Jess and niece Makayla for lunch at Passage to India. It was way better than I thought it would be. Probably bc that's a good restaurant and we got the buffet. Naan is amazing of course. Then we stopped by my grandparents to say hello and headed to my parents house to spend the rest of the day watching the Packers/Vikings game and eating dinner.

That's basically the weekend. This week i'm looking forward to getting the kittens on friday, should be very exciting. I'm also starting my November get in shape challenge. It starts today. No carbs M-F and I have a work out schedule. Then weekends I can take it a little easier but still have one exercise day. I'm going to do this until Thanksgiving and see how far I can get. I'd like to lose 15 lbs total, so it would be really nice if i could do that in 4 weeks. I need to think of a reward though, it's always easier when I have something to work towards.

Happy November!

Halloween's Eve

Success! I finished my halloween costume last night and baked/iced cupcakes for the party at work. Tonight i'm going to finish Alex's costume and just hang out. I truly cannot wait to sleep in tomorrow.

After work, I went to JoAnn fabric again because I decided that I needed felt to complete this project. It cost 8 dollars for 3 pieces of felt and stitch witchery. Let me explain the stitch witchery.. it's amazing, first of all.. i didn't have to sew a thing! Basically you put the piece of SW between the felt you want to seal and then put a damp cloth over it and iron it on. Brilliant! It worked great. Wish i would've had more but I finished the crayola logo with hot glue, even though i have it turned in the wrong direction :(.. still though, it looks good. And I made a hat this morning at work from a piece of paper, red felt and some black ribbon.. i'll have to take a piece of that paper home for alex's hat. It just went really well.. wayy better than the night before which was a disaster. And though it's very long.. it still looks good. It's not hoochie at all, which is nice for once. And i'm wearing sneakers, yess! I may switch that out to heels for the party on Saturday but we'll see.. sneakers are definitely more comfy!

Tonight we're meeting Alex's parents for a drink at Iron Hill after work and then I'm going to finish Alex's costume (i need more SW) and we just plan to watch a movie and relax.. maybe drink some wine, who knows. I have a ton of ghost whisperers piling up that I need to watch!

Saturday we're going to try to go to the Greek Food Baazar at a local church. They do it every year and it's supposed to be very good. Alex loves greek food, so he should definitely enjoy it. Then we're going to go to a halloween party that night. I love parties so I'm really looking forward to it. Wish i could make a dessert for it, but i should refrain since i seem to be making a lot of desserts recently. And i already have one planned in a couple weeks for a surprise party.

Sunday we're going to go visit my parents, but first stop at lunch at Passage to India in harrisburg. Indian food is not my favorite thing ever, so this will be the first time this year that Alex will have eaten it.. (we've made a deal that he will get to eat it once every quarter, since it is his favorite cuisine). He's very excited because it's supposed to be really good Indian. I'm just going to have Naan. Hopefully my sister and niece can join us, I know Jess loves that place too. Then we're going to spend the day with my parents. We don't get to visit them often and I really do miss them. Can't wait until we can move a little closer in a couple years, then we can have them over to dinner as regularly as we do Alex's parents.

We visited the kittens last night. They're definitely ready to leave the nest, but we're going to wait another week. We want to make sure they'll be able to climb stairs and get into their litter box, so in another week they'll be a little bigger. They were eating solid food though which was good to see. They were very playful and chased each other around like crazy. I bet they'll miss the outdoors. Can't wait to bring them home to live with us.

T-8 days

The kittens will be joining us in 8 days.. Friday the 6th we're going to go get them from the farm and welcome them into their new home. I'm figuring that a weekend is going to be the best time to get them accommodated since they've never stayed indoors for very long and have never used a litter box. We're hoping they can climb into the one we got because it's quite high. We also got them a nice cat scratcher toy and a bed they can both sleep in. The bed was a lot smaller than I thought it would be but since they're still small, they'll fit.

Just need to get a couple more things, liners for the litter box.. soft food to start them on and we'll have to make them a doctors appointment for their first round of shots. I hope they don't get stuck under any furniture or get lost in the house. I don't think we're going to be letting them in the basement for a while, since they could fall through the stairs.. if they can even do stairs, we'll have to practice that as well since we'll be keeping the litter box upstairs. I might have a couple sleepless nights this weekend just worrying about what they're up to. They're so adorable though, I can't wait to spend more time with them!

Harder than i thought..

So last night I started on Alex and my halloween costumes. We're being crayons, Alex wanted purple and i'm going to be red. Seems simple, right? Buy some fabric, glue some ribbon, add some velcro, ta da! Well no, it went nothing like that. First of all.. its hard to measure something for yourself and alex wasn't home.. so i thought, i'll glue the ribbon on first and then when alex gets home, i'll have him help me. Well.. i ended up cutting too much of the fabric, i glued on the ribbon only to have it fall off later. Needless to say, I was frustrated and gave up. I had some oreos and felt a little better.

Here was the main issue. I bought the wrong kind of fabric. It was kind of fleecy and soft.. i should've bought felt. But i had never purchased fabric before, and the fleecy kind was right up front.. i didn't even know about the felt until i got in line to have the fabric measured and cut. Also, no where does it say, take your fabric to be measured and cut. I stood with my fabric for a good couple of minutes until i saw some ladies in JoAnn fabric shirts cutting fabric on a table.. light bulb. But instead of going to grab felt, at this point i just wanted to get it cut and get out. They should make other stores more like grocery stores.. signs everywhere pointing you in the right direction.. it would sure make things a lot easier. Also, felt was waayy less expensive than this other fabric that i purchased, and what i purchased was even on sale!! crazy!

So my new plan is, go back and buy felt. Only measure the the widest part of each of our bodies and make straight costumes. I was originally going to tailor the costume to my boobs, waist and hips.. not anymore. Since i don't have a sewing machine, this is all going to be by hand and hard enough as it is. So felt, here I come.. you better hold onto that hot glue!!

Then I have to go pick up my new glasses.. yippee. Oh and i'm making cupcakes tonight.. it's going to be busy! Wish me luck on the crayons..

Food - What I eat and don't eat..

Here's a list of foods I love and foods I do not eat.. just for fun :)

I love brussel sprouts. cooked a certain way of course, I can't stand when they get bitter. I'm pretty sure most of the US has only ever experienced the bitter and it just isn't the way to go. Never buy frozen!

I don't eat yogurt. I'd really like to though, and i've tried on many occasions only to be disgusted by the texture. It feels like i'm eating pudding with sand in it. Maybe i'll try again in a few years and my taste buds will have changed.

I love berries. Especially freshly picked from the farm berries. I also enjoy berry flavored things such as black raspberry ice cream. And berry wine of course. Summertime staple.

I don't eat meatloaf, or any loaf with meat in it. I've never liked meatloaf.. I think it started because my mother used to put the tomato sauce on top which as a kid i ate plain spaghetti, so.. tomato sauce, no thanks. I just don't get why people enjoy a loaf of meat.. make a steak! And more recently, I've tried ham loaf.. also another why make it into a loaf question. It grosses me out!

I love tacos. Especially hard shell ones, though we rarely eat those. We mostly have taco salads but I think i'll be going back to shelled tacos soon.. it actually helps control portions!

I don't drink coffee. I think it smells good but it ends there. The taste is too bitter for me and I just can't stomach it. Not to mention that I have an adversion to hot foods/drinks where I need to let them come down a great deal in temperature before I can put them in my mouth. My husband drinks coffee straight out of the pot.. how he doesn't burn his tongue, i'm not sure.

I used to not eat chocolate. And still can't eat things such as hershey kisses or hershey bars. I need something else in there. I love mini peanut butter cups and oreos. And chocolate cake.

I don't eat sushi. I've tried it and i'd rather just have a tempura, hibachi or even a spicy tuna roll.. big hunks of raw fish just aren't my thing.

I love canned corn. I don't eat it very often but it tastes so so delicious! Too bad there aren't more nutrients in that stuff.

Pistachios are the bomb.

I don't like shellfish other than shrimp. I really enjoy cracking crab legs but I don't like eating it. I also don't like oysters, mussels or clams as well as scallops. Fish and Shrimp are my thing.

Kale and Collards are not my favorite greens, however Alex really enjoys them and likes to make them from time to time.

I also don't like indian food. Love the naan but can't do such spicy stuff. If Alex could change one thing about me, this would be it.

I love margaritas and could drink them at every meal.. but i'm not an alcoholic, so i don't! :)

I don't eat lamb. Most of the time it's too tough for me. I enjoy tenderness.

I love waffle fries. But don't eat them very often. I guess fries in general are a favorite.

MMM this makes me hungry! :)

Rain, Rain..

Go away, never come back, except at night time when i'm sleeping but you have to stop before I wake up and have to go outside. But you can't be around when i'm driving, morning or evening because driving in the rain is terrible.

It's been raining on and off for a couple days now, we'll get a couple days of sunshine (and though not exactly warm weather, 60 is decent) and then the rain will come back for a couple days. El Nino is very persistent. Rain is not my favorite thing, it ruins a lot of stuff.. outdoor sports.. grocery shopping.. other outdoor activities. I'd rather it be snow.. except that then i'll be freezing and have to shovel, but ughh. I know that people who live where it's sunny all year round and their seasons don't really change much supposedly get tired of it, but i'm pretty sure i wouldn't. i would LOVE it! absolutely love it. And i'd like to look into moving to a different state but I don't want to leave my family behind and I'm kind of waiting on a job prospect to work out, and if it does.. that's going to be my whole life. SO.. i can't move.

Just go away rain, that will make PA a little more tolerable in the fall/winter.

What I did this weekend..

Friday: Got out of work at 3:30 because of working til 6:30 on wednesday. It was quite lovely, though I spent it at the grocery store, coffee house and then baking a cake with a little hoss's in between. Then basically caught up on my DVR all night and eventually hit the hay. Kinda boring but the cake making was fun.

Saturday: Up and atom to shower and get my spinach/artichoke dip ready for Courtney's bridal shower. It turned out wayyy good and everyone seemed to enjoy it. I heavily cheated on my diet but I didn't go back for seconds so I consider that a success! The shower was super fun! She was definitely surprised and I even won a game and got the cutest gift bag ever. Alex picked me up from that shin dig to take us to another one down the road. It was a dinner party with people that I work with. It was also very fun, and the cake I made friday tasted delicious! very rich but definitely a keeper. After we left, Alex wasn't feeling well but he decided we could go meet up with Nick, Laurel, Courtney and Derek at El Serrano. Then we headed over to Tobias Frogg to end the night and Jen and Erik came too. I love quad-dating.. we had a good time. Alex though started to feel even worse and we decided to go home. He ended up having a fever that broke early the next morning. I'm pretty sure he had food poisoning from something.

Sunday: Woke up and hung out with our sibs Nick and Laurel, got stuff ready for the early dinner we had planned for Alex's mom's birthday. Nick and Laurel made jalepeno poppers in wontons which were awesome, pretty spicy but awesome non the less. We also had some wonderful cheese and meat platters, as well as a large bottle of Asti (very yum). Eventually the chicken was finished and we ate a little of that with some brussel sprouts, we were all pretty full from the meat/cheese/olives/poppers/asti.. but all in all it was a great meal. Afterwards we went over to visit the kittens for a bit (Alex didn't go as he was still not feeling very well) and that was basically the end of the evening.

Alex is off work today, sick. Hopefully he starts to feel better soon. I'm glad that it's not the flu though.. I would've had to stay away from him to avoid it.

Great weekend though, and hopefully yours was great too!

Kali & Domino

Despite what this may look like, they are not conjoined :)
This was the only way to get a good picture!

We're counting down the days until we can take the kittens home.. it's going to be so exciting! I'm ordering most of our needs (litter box, bed, scratch toy, etc.) off of Amazon.com since they seem to be cheaper than the pet stores around here, or pet store.. since there's really only one major chain. They should be 8 weeks old on November 8th or so.. and we're going to take them then. They're so dang cute, I can't wait to have them around the house with us.

Discouraging

Well.. Happy South Beach Diet Week 2.. I weighed myself this morning and i lost 2 lbs. This isn't normal. After one week i've normally lost at least 5 or 6.. so i'm a tad discouraged. I don't really know what the problem is but I have a hypothesis.. I haven't been loving the eggs for breakfast thing which i was consistent with the other times I did this. But I haven't been skipping breakfast.. I try to have other things instead, mostly cheese. But my guess is that the egg has so much protein that starts the diet process right in the morning and i've somehow been missing out on that process because i haven't been eating eggs.

Well, what a crock! It makes me mad and of course discouraged. But for some reason it doesn't make me want to quit. I actually want to see what happens when I start having an egg for breakfast every morning to see if that was in fact the cause of this non-weight loss. And maybe if i'm lucky it'll mean that it's going to just speed up and i'll drop 10 lbs in one day ;) just kidding that would be pretty unhealthy. But I do kinda feel like i'm starting all over and that really isn't fun.

It's not going to ruin my day but it is kind of annoying.

These days

Last night i had the best chili ever.. i put a chuck roast in the crock pot in the morning and alex turned it into chili for his mom's birthday dinner. it was like eating roast beef + chili.. and i'm lucky enough to eat some for lunch today.

We spent some time with the kittens yesterday as well. They're getting bigger, furrier and more curious. They can crawl out of their nest and are eating cheese, which makes us think they're eating other solid foods. We are thinking about taking them in 2 weeks. They're just too adorable. One concern is, they're so small they could get stuck under something and not be able to get out!

Today, Alex and I are going shopping.. Adidas outlet, Jockey outlet, Reading China & Glass and maybe Walmart. We just did a little fall cleaning and went through our clothing and put the duds in a bag to donate to Goodwill. I thoroughly enjoy doing that. It not only opens up space in my closet, it gets rid of stuff that I never wear, even if it still has tags on it. Of course, it also means I need to go shopping for some new clothes :)

This good girl will be getting Hoss's on friday. I'm pretty darn excited. We don't have any other plans yet for that night but the rest of the weekend is filled. I need to make cookies and a spice cake for saturday and then another cake for sunday. Luckily I have these already chosen and I might make the sunday cake the same as the saturday cake and just make a double batch. I found it in the newest Cooks Illustrated. It has a layer of chocolate cake, chocolate mousse, and white chocolate whipped cream. It's going to be fab! I'll definitely post a picture of it when it's completed. I might have to cheat just a little on the SB diet for a small slice of this.

Last night i also had a volleyball game. We're not doing the best but i definitely still have fun playing. The other teams just seem to be really good and we've only come across one not so good team. If only we could get our shit together we could win some. We always have the same rotation with the same spots, maybe if we switch that up? but since i'm the newbie, i can't say much.. i'm just happy i'm on the team! :)

South Beach Progress

So I was a very good girl this weekend, other than taking a few sips of wine that I was peer pressured into. And Alex isn't holding it against me for the Hoss's deal, thank goodness. Just wanted to chart my progress so far and outline the future goals.

Basically, it's been going really well.. but I must be moving slowly this time around because the weight seems to be coming off a lot slower. I'm not really sure why that is? But hopefully as I keep going it'll keep going and i'll get lighter and lighter. Due to the slow factor, i'm extending it until November 7th. That's 3 1/2 weeks with no carbs. Will be tricky but worth it, hopefully.

Again, I need to exercise more. Mondays I play volleyball but that's about the extent of my exercising. I found my exercise mat though so I'm hoping to do 2 work outs a week. This weekend coming up is going to be busy and it's going to be hard to stick to it but i think i can manage. I've made it one week with no problem. That commercial for the new Wendy's burger though is killing me :)

Breakfast is still the hardest meal but i'm trying harder with that. I can hopefully drop a total of 15 lbs.. that's my goal. Especially before christmas and new clothes shopping.. I don't want to get any gifts that will end up not fitting.

Update

Well.. the weekend went just as I thought it would. It was pretty relaxing but I think i'd much rather have plans..

Friday night: Watched the boob tube, caught up on some shows, etc.

Saturday: Woke up to go to Adamstown to see if the Trash Pick Up was happening (it was raining and freezing) and no one showed up so we took the long way home. Later we stopped by the Lancaster Homebrew shop for it's grand opening.. had some sips of some really great wine, can't wait for Alex to make the kit he has. Headed over to visit the adorable kittens.. they're definitely more active now. It's adorable! We also went to Amelia's Grocery Outlet to see what they had to offer.. i'd never been there but supposedly they have some pretty cheap food. Then we relaxed for a little while, made dinner and then headed over to Matt's parents house (he was up this weekend) and watched tv, played some wii bowling and enjoyed the company.

Sunday: Literally, did not leave the house and wore my sweatpants all day. I did gather clothes to donate to goodwill though and dust all the rooms/floors. I moved the TV in our room to alex's dresser and put the nightstand it was on out in the hallway. I need to stop and get some fasteners to attach the cable line around the room since the cable outlet is now on the opposite side. I made a pretty big list of things for the house as well as what I want my clothes for christmas to be. This week, Alex and i are going to go to the Adidas outlet to get me some new sneakers and the Jockey outlet and probably Reading China and Glass.

I did some christmas shopping online last week, and i'll probably do some more next week. I have all the gifts that we want to give chosen, and we're going to spread out buying them over the next month and a half. That way it's not like, omg i just spent a lump sum on christmas gifts! My Christmas List is in this post, though i've probably added more by now. Not to mention that my birthday is Dec 30th which means i'll have to make a birthday list as well.

I'm thinking about heading up to New York for new years this year.. I've always wanted to do that and next year is not a possibility because i'll hopefully be with child. I'm contemplating this.. it would be soo awesome to watch the ball drop in Times Square with the thousands of people.. but also, it's hectic because there's no place to go to the bathroom and what do you eat? Can you bring champagne to toast? It seems like there are rules but no rule book. So i have a little while to figure it out.. :)

What's up this weekend..

Well to putting it pretty easily.. not very much. In fact, I have no absolute plans. Of course if i did have plans it would probably include going out to eat or having some beverages, and i can't really do either.

So what will I be doing?

Probably cleaning and organizing.. Possibly getting the 3rd floor it's first coat of paint.. Visiting the kittens.. Watching movies and TV shows i've missed this past week.. Shopping.. Maybe going to the farmers market.. Cooking.. Laundry.. More cleaning and more organizing.. And maybe Longwood Gardens on Sunday to fill the day.

Sound boring? Well it just might be, we'll have to wait and see!

Good Girls Get Hoss's

So Alex and I started the South Beach yesterday. I think I said I was going to in a previous blog a while back but it didn't end up happening. However, I normally go to sleep thinking, I should eat better, I should exercise more.. and then I wake up the next morning and think, nahh.. no need, i'm good the way I am.

Then one morning I woke up and thought, Today is the Day i start my detox. That's basically what the South Beach is.. a detox. First you lose water weight and then you move to actual weight.. and the 2 week phase is a bit of a motivator since you're losing about 2 lbs a day. Though sometimes I only lost one lb a day but still.. that's a whole lb. I did this diet 10 days before my wedding and felt awesome. Then of course we went on our honeymoon... oops!

The point of my title is, Alex told me that if I stay on the diet for a full week without messing up, we can go to Hoss's. I love Hoss's with a passion and even with all the other great food choices in Lancaster, we go there probably once a month. The salad bar is just phenom and I can't find another one like it. Plus, where else do you go and only eat salad for your meal? No where!

So everytime I think about the foods i'm not currently allowed to have, I remind myself that good girls get hoss's. And i'm not sure what the reward for going 2 full weeks will be but i definitely need something to work towards, other then a weight loss goal.

More Crazy Dreams

Last night i had some more crazy dreams.. I know there was more than one and I even told myself to remember it in the morning but it didn't work out. But the one that I remember is..

My family was on a boat, though I really only remember sitting beside my mom. And I guess we were in a marina of some sort with other boats around. The other boats started sinking and we were like, what the heck.. why are those boats sinking? and then all of a sudden, our boat went nose down into the water and i think i yelled "this is it, mom, it's the end of the world.. see you in heaven" and then i closed my eyes and the next thing i knew, i was in heaven with my family but i was trying to find Alex. There were so many people shouting to find people and there were rooms upon rooms and I just kept walking around yelling Alex until I found him. That's about all I remember.. and I know the world isn't actually going to end, but yesterday I read an article from Yahoo News about how the internet is going crazy over the 2012 'end of the world' thing. The article said it was a load of bull.. so i'm going to believe them. Pshh like the world will ever end (i know that it could but probably not in my lifetime).

Anyway, the dream wasn't scary which was good just weird.. I really wish I could remember my other one. Next time I dream something crazy I'll try extra hard to remember it!

Weekend Update

So let me update you on the crazy wild fun weekend i had. Minus the crazy and wild part.

Friday: I left work early for an appointment and then headed home to see Alex who had off. We went and visited the kittens for a bit and then walked around the farm a little too.

We saw this hornet digging into a grape. Glad it was busy

I wouldn't want to get stung by that monster!

Afterwards we went home and got ready to go out to dinner for my older sisters birthday which was on the 5th! Alex and I walked to Iron Hill for our 6:45 reservation, which my family was late for but luckily Alex and I were there to hold the table for 25 minutes. On our walk we saw the new YMCA in the city and it looks awesome. All of the equipment is state of the art and the swimming pool looks great as well! We're going to look into memberships.

Dinner was great, Alex and I got the Tex Mex Spring Rolls while waiting which were super delicious.. except that it ripped apart the roof of my mouth. We had a nice dinner, I got to hang with my niece for a bit and chit chat with everyone. My preference for large parties though is a round table, so you can see everyone. My parents gave us a ride home from the restaurant so my dad could get a 6 pack of homebrew from Alex.

Saturday: We slept in a bit, I slept in longer of course. But we hung out for a little while, and then I cleaned up the kitchen and made a yummy lunch of brussel sprouts and then started my pumpkin cookie adventure. Which I posted about here. Later in the day, Matt came over and eventually we went out on a bar crawl. We started at Quips, traveled to LBC which we didn't stay for a beer even, then walked up to Molly's and had a great dinner.. then walked over to the Alley Kat and then home. A nice circle. We started watching Year One with Michael Cera and Jack Black but it was pretty boring so we turned it off and went to bed.

Sunday: Slept in again.. yessss! And then got up, watched some TV, cleaned the kitchen from my cookie mess and made some nachos. We watched the rest of Year One because I wanted to see if it got better, which it didn't.. but oh well, we had time to waste anyway.

Eventually we got ready to go to the Beer Club Picnic, which went really well. There's always such great food there and good company. The only complaint was the temperature outside. It was too breezy and chilly. I was even wearing multiple layers and gloves all day. The turnout was better than normal though so hopefully we can keep those people coming back. We got home around 8.. watched some TV and went to bed.

I told you it was crazy ;)

I had a baby.. in my dreams

Last night.. or probably more accurately, this morning.. I had a very odd dream about being pregnant, having a baby and then living with the baby.. with a splash of ashlee simpson (weird, I know).

First of all, I am not pregnant, nor will I be pregnant for at least another year.. or 9 months, really because we plan on preheating the oven in July. But regardless, I see pregnant people and babies all the time, so it's safe to say i have babies on the brain.. just not in the oven, yet.

Anyway, i don't remember being pregnant for 9 months in the dream but i went into labor apparently and asked for drugs and felt no pain at all (relieving since i'm pretty scared of that part). I had a baby boy, and i remember him being smaller than normal (which i think stems from me holding the baby kittens a lot which are tiny). I actually remember breast feeding, which is completely odd let me tell you, and not because I don't plan to breastfeed (i do!) but because i saw my own boobs in my dream.

I also remember my stomach looking exactly the same as it does now, it was like my tummy never grew to a stretching size and it didn't have to shrink back down because it didn't get big in the first place. I remember being proud that i didn't have a tummy.. (another thing i'm scared of). That's basically it, though I also remember not being prepared for it, so i had to stay at my parents house and i would breastfeed under my large shirts so no one could see me do it.

That's it.. weird dream. I can completely dissect it though and know where all the parts come from, but i won't do that here out of respect of blog entertainment.

Oh i forgot to mention ashlee simpson. She was in my dream, playing me at one point.. talking to her husband (or boyfriend) about the baby and then kissing him.. that's all i remember but i KNOW it was her. Simply odd!

Pumpkin Shaped Cookies

Close up of the Cookie, I didn't know how to rotate it, or i'm just lazy :)

This was the 2nd time I worked with Fondant, and I have to say, definitely
easier than the first time! So i think i'm getting the hang of it.

Okay, so for Alex's Beer Club picnic today, I wanted to make pumpkin shaped cookies with fondant on top instead of just icing. I wasn't sure how good they would taste since most people peel away the fondant on cakes. But I used a marshmallow fondant and put some faux buttercream under the fondant to make it stick. I had serious problems making a buttercream and I think it was because i used fake egg whites instead of real ones, so it didn't meringue quite the way it should've. So i threw that one away and made another one, but that time (like the first time) my butter wasn't completely softened. So lesson learned!

Anyway, one thing i was surprised with was how much food coloring it took to make it orange enough. it took a lot! anyway, the fondant worked really well this time and i think they turned out great! Also, I tasted them with Alex and our friend Matt who was over and we all thought they tasted great! So yay! Hopefully everyone at the picnic likes them.

Happy Sunday :)