OOhh's and Aahh's

Here they are fooling around in their nest.

Above is Domino.. they weren't very good at looking at the camera,
but there will be more pictures in the future.

And this is Kali.. again, not good at looking at the camera.

So when we visited yesterday, Butterscotch (the mom) was keeping watch outside her nest.. Probably because Alex's Aunt was there and I'm not sure how well Butterscotch knows her. So we pet Butterscotch for a while to distract her and then Alex reached in and grabbed the kittens for us to hold. That's how we got the pictures above.. obvi.

They're so adorable.. 7 weeks is a long time to wait! But as you can see we did name them, Domino and Kali. We're not sure of their gender just yet but Kali has to be a girl since she's calico colored. Their brothers live with Nick and Laurel.. Dilla and Othello.. we can only hope that these kittens will become as fluffy as their bros in DE.

Everything was going really well with holding them, that is until someone put one of them in front of Butterscotch and she got paranoid and tried to take them back to the nest.. here's a picture:

They carry them by their teeth.. Kittens are born with extra
skin on their neck for this exact purpose.

Anyway, right after I took this, Butterscotch dropped her and went over to the nest. Alex but Domino back and then I put Kali back and they fed. I think next time we go (which is Thursday) we'll wait until Butterscotch is out of sight.. that way we won't stress her out. There were a lot of people around this time which i'm sure is not ideal for her.

But they are so adorable, i'll be documenting them everytime we visit so we'll get to see their growth!

Weekend update

Friday: Got out of work late because of a phone call (boo!) and then headed home to pack really quickly, pick up Jen, pick up Matt and headed to Delaware. Laurel, Jen and I headed to Atlantic City for Courtney's Bachelorette party numero uno. Pretty short/easy drive with a nice stop at Taco Bell. We surprised Courtney by our arrival which was fun. That evening and into the wee hours we chatted it up and laughed and had a good ol' time and eventually went to bed.

Saturday: Got ready and headed to the beach to see the ocean.. it was freezing and I was unprepared. But we didn't stay long.. just took some snap shots and then headed to the AC Boardwalk. We walked the mall, stopped and watched the water and lights show.. did some window shopping (some people did real shopping) and then Court and her sister got their palms read.. very appropriate when you're about to get married. Then we headed back to the condo for a late lunch. Afterwards we decided to get ready for the casino/dinner. We did our hairs and got all dressed up and then headed into the City of Atlantic. Had dinner at Trinity Pub (i think) in the pier mall which was delicious.. i had a leek and potato soup which was phenomenal! Then we headed over to Caesars, then Balleys, then the Liquid Bar where we ended the night with dancing and shout outs to Court from the DJ/Karaoke Queen. I fell asleep shortly after we got home.

Sunday: After sleeping in, we awoke and went to get Bagels for breakfast. Packed up our stuff and headed out. It definitely took longer to get home, but we dropped off Jen and headed to the farm. We had some birthday cake for Nick and found the kittens then went to dinner at El Serrano's (always delicious). We then relaxed the rest of the night and had a great nights sleep.

Hope your weekend was just as fun and eventful. Next weekend is sure to be a doozy!

Kittens

These aren't good pictures but you can kind of see them..
One is black and white and the other is cocalico (black, white & orange)

So i'll go into my weekend later but this is exciting..

Today at my in-laws.. I found out that the farm cat, butterscotch just gave birth again (for the 2nd time this year).. this is exciting because last time she gave birth to 4 kittens, Alex's brother and his girlfriend took 2 of them and Alex and I thought about taking the other two but we couldn't catch them.. basically we found them way too late and they were super shy..

Alex's dad saw them being born last week, so we know they're young.. today at their house we went looking, and actually Alex's dad knew where they were and let us know. It started out with 5 and it's now down to two, unfortunately.. but since they're so young and we've found them.. we can definitely familiarize them with humans early so that they aren't shy. And Alex and I have decided to take them! Woooo! They're so adorable and i'm so so excited because I love cats.. especially kittens. Here's a picture that I snapped earlier today, hopefully I can get more this week when I go back to hold them.

I've waited all week for this day..

I swear, Friday is the best day of the work week.. i don't think anyone would disagree. Today i've decided to keep as busy as possible so that the hours fly by. we'll see how that goes.

Anywho, it's also freezing in my office today. I can imagine that it will get warmer outside as the day goes on, but there is NO need for air conditioning. Basically for the last 2 years i've had a blanket on my legs and sometimes one arm if i don't need it while i work. Everyone thinks i'm crazy but I just think it's cold. Like today, i have my heater on and my blanket and i'm still cold.. whhat? I am fully aware that I have temperature issues, so no need to tell me.

Moving on to the weekend.. should be fun, looking forward to it.. won't go into detail about my plans but you'll hear about them on monday, promise.

Happy Friday!

Sore

Monday night was my first volleyball game of the season.. it was awesome. I totally missed playing (for all these years now) and am SO happy that the team called me to play. I was a tad rusty but that'll get better as we go I would think.

When I got home my forearms hurt a little because of them not being used to a ball smacking onto them every minute or more and so that was understandable. I thought it would fade after the night.. I also knew I was going to be sore from all the strenuous muscle activity that hasn't happened in years so again.. I was prepared. Well yesterday must've just been a preview for my muscles because they barely hurt yesterday and today it's pretty awful.. I can barely walk down stairs except for slowly and i can't reach my arm behind my head to scratch my back. Sometimes I can barely turn to look over my shoulder. It's kind of pathetic that I was this out of shape but volleyball is a serious business of exercise.. it makes me excited that I get to play once a week for almost 6 months! My arms are feeling a little better, although alex totally squeezed one this morning when saying farewell.. ouchie!

Also, a tip.. off subject but still important.. never drink a red bull before bed. I don't drink them for energy, I drink them for taste and it was sugar free but the caffeine is the problemo.. i don't think i fell asleep until 1 am or so.. but i must've been half asleep because i don't remember consciously thinking.. then i had to pee at 2:30 and then alex gets up around 6:15 and i don't remember hitting the first alarm.. i was wacked out! so lesson learned! Also, i've decided to lay off the artificial sweeteners for a while.. diet soda is not healthy because of the chemicals, so i'm going to work on not eating that crap :) or drinking.. whatever!

Happy Hump day! I hope my muscles start to feel normal again soon!

Is it too early to carve a pumpkin?

At the grocery store over the weekend, I saw that they had the pumpkins out for Fall and Halloween! I LOVE carving a pumpkin and roasting the seeds.. it's probably my favorite thing about the Fall Season.. and I plan to do it at least 3 times over the next month and a half.. it's just so fun! Anyway, I bought a pumpkin and will be carving it this evening with the hubster and it makes me wish I had some munchkins to carve a pumpkin with.. i loved doing that with my dad and sisters when i was a kid.. so much fun to get messy!

It seems like fall is coming fast.. it basically began at the end of august this year which I thought was pretty unusual and in my lifetime had never had such a cold august month. I'm really hoping that it doesn't prelude to a long and freezing winter season.. because though I like snow (it always seems warmer when there's snow on the ground).. I really don't enjoy being cold. Guess we have to take out the air conditioners soon.. we haven't needed them for at least a month now.

I'm thinking about skipping halloween this year.. we'll probably be visiting my sister at school for family weekend (which hopefully doesn't mess up her halloween) and while we're there hopefully seeing alex's friend August who lives in the area. I wouldn't know what to be for halloween anyway.. I was never good at thinking of a costume. Although one year i just wore this tennis outfit that i have (and never wear) and was a tennis player.. how original, right?

Anyway, happy pumpkin carving and happy fall (unofficially)!

This morning I woke up thinking.. i hate going to work, literally.. i hate it. I hate waking up for something that I don't really enjoy.. which makes me wonder, would it be like this for every job I have or is it just this one? ahem.. time for a career change. I'm working on that actually.. as I have been lightly for at least a year now. This job just doesn't pay enough and won't be doing increases until January due to the economy. But if it's anything like last time we got an increase (i got an extra .25/hour..) i don't want it.. I can find a job elsewhere, hopefully. But to be honest, even if they paid me what I deserved, i probably still wouldn't enjoy it..

One of my solutions to this problem is winning the lottery.. don't hold your breath on that one though.. i'm definitely not, but i still play because you can't win if you don't play.

Onto what I did this weekend..

I didn't actually have any plans but plans popped up into my face, which was nice. Friday I went to dinner with my parents and then babysat my niece at her house until my sister got home. I forgot how lucky kids are to be kids with no worries.. I gave her a bath and she had a blast in the tub.. why can't I have a blast while taking a bath? their little minds are just learning learning learning.. we played memory.. she's 3.9 years old and she almost tied me.. in memory! it was a large set and we played with all the pieces.. it was cute. Everyone thinks their child or in this case niece is the smartest.. and i'm part of that as well, she's just plain smart!

Saturday morning I got to sleep in a little, then Alex and I headed to Orwigsburg to get a water filtration system from our friend Glen. He already had it out when we got there, so all they had to do was plug the hole and we were on our way back home. We stopped at 10,000 villages to spend some wedding gift card money and got 4 nice pieces. Then i cleaned up the kitchen a little.. so that Alex could clean the rest and then him and Dan spent at least 4 hours putting in a ceiling fan in our kitchen. The original lighting was terrible.. it was l.e.d. and there were three small bulbs.. not normal kitchen lighting but now it's 150% better.. brighter and we can turn on a van for ventilation! perfecto! Throughout that I did some grocery shopping and watching all the shows I dvr-d recently.. I watched the season finale of Grey's Anatomy which was crazy! I hadn't watched it all season.. but the finale sure wrapped it up. After hearing through my media obsession that O'Malley and Stevens were leaving.. it's very interested how they're playing it out. I plan on DVRing that now.. because Alex won't watch that and the Office is on thursdays, which he likes. Anyway.. later that evening we had a pseudo dinner and then i drank basically a bottle of wine while watching... iron chef america? i can't really remember much.

Sunday I slept in again.. pretty late and then got up and ready to head back to the burg to hang with my family again while Alex went and hung with his family on the Farm. He works with his dad once a month, and this was the once. I went to see my grama who's getting hip replacement surgery today.. and then went to my parents house with a yummy sub to take on the kayaking float. We floated from 1:30 pm to 6:00 pm on a small stretch of creek.. we fished and chatted and had a nice relaxing time. My mom caught almost 20 fish.. it was crazy! i was using lure, so i didn't catch any.. but I borrowed her rod once and caught one. Fish love the worms, that's for sure. After that I headed home, stopped at the grocery store.. made myself some nachos for dinner and then eventually went to bed. I love going to bed! Might be the best part of my day most of the time.

Tonight is my first volleyball game.. should be fun to get some exercise in a way that I enjoy. I think my team's going to be good, so i'm really looking forward to it. New shows start this week too.. so i'll have some good stuff to watch tuesday when I get home from work!

Cheerio!

Fall TV Shows

So thank goodness the tv seasons are back, i've missed them! There's going to be a lot to watch this season and here's the outline of what's going to be on my TV / DVR..

Monday: CBS Night.. How I Met Your Mother, new show Accidentally on Purpose, I'll have to find something to watch for a half hour while Two & a Half Men are on and then Big Bang Theory at 10.

Tuesday: NCIS followed by the new NCIS: Los Angeles.. i'll be DVR-ing the Hills and the City when it starts up on the 29th.

Wednesday: Probably end up watching mercy and Law and Order: SVU

Thursday: I'll be watching NBC all night while DVR-ing ABC's shows.. that's a serious night for competition since there's great shows on every channel.. it'll be interesting to see who comes out on top!

Friday: No matter what, i'll always be DVR-ing Ghost Whisperer.. hopefully i'll get to watch it sometimes as well.. but friday's are pretty busy!

I think these shows are going to be good this season.. i'm a sucker for television.

Oh.. and Happy Friday!

Back on the Wagon

This past weekend, I fell off the wagon, well technically i had one butt cheek on and one butt cheek off of the wagon.. I hopped back on Monday and then fell off tuesday, tried to get back on yesterday and now i'm fully back on.

Monday was our special dinner celebrating the day we first met, and we went to a place called Checkers Bistro and it was phenom, I had a glass of wine, we split 4 dishes and then I even had dessert! whoops! But it was a special occasion!

Yesterday, someone brought me some Reese's Mini's and I couldn't help myself.. luckily i put the rest out to share and they were gone quickly. Minor slip up.

Now i'm back on.. for reals. I definitely go through phases like, well I don't hate the way I look so why am I doing this? or I don't need to exercise while trying to lose weight, i'll fall off anyway. Two falsehoods. I don't hate the way I look by any means, but I should do myself a favor and tighten up some areas.. and I should exercise because that's how you tighten things up! So i'm going to start that now. If I need a reminder I can always come back and read this post.

My main struggle is what to eat for breakfast and lunch. Dinner is a breeze. For breakfast they suggest you have eggs.. i don't really enjoy eggs that much, no omelets and even just plain egg whites are boring to my taste buds. Personally i'd rather skip breakfast but I know it's an important meal. My favorite breakfast foods are cereal and bagels.. of course i can't have either of these things.. boo! Lunchtime is supposed to be easy but i'm getting tired of eating salad.. and i really want a sandwich. I'm going to get a wrap for lunch today but that's not exactly allowed. And I can't make my own wraps because it's just not the same for some reason. Just like the sandwiches I used to make were never as good as restaurant sandwiches.. i don't understand why! So for breakfast this morning I had a hard boiled egg (white only) and i'll continue that because surprisingly, i like those. And for lunch i'm going to try to create my lunches the night before of steamed veggies or something to that effect to avoid salads.

Ohh this no carb thing is TOUGH! it's not hard to not eat sugar or bread or pasta, so many other foods that you wouldn't think would be that bad for you (carb wise) are. I'm going to keep truckin' til I get to the goal.. and maybe this exercising thing will kick it up a notch? we'll see!

My Christmas List

It probably sounds crazy but i've started my christmas list. It's an easy thing to do considering there's always something out there that I want.. but here's what i have so far:

Chief Architect Home Designer Suite - this is a home design program that lets you build from the floor plan up, create every room and choose every feature. since i love thinking about this kind of thing.. the program will just catapult my creativity and actually form it into real designs.

HDTV - i've been wrestling with the idea of a new tv for a long time.. i can't seem to bring myself to purchase a new tv when we have a perfectly good one in our living room.. and bedroom. No real need for a new one yet.. but a larger flat screen gem is just so appealing.

Wii - i'm wrestling with this as well.. the wii is a blast but alex doesn't think we'll use it enough to get it's money's worth. i think i will but i'm guessing it will be at the expense of him then not being able to watch tv. it's great for guests.. to break out the wii and have a good time, but we probably don't have enough guests to get a return on the investment. hmm.. but it's on the list!

Clothing - this is always on my christmas list, though not as much when i was in high school.. my sisters always got tons of clothes but i would decide to get a digital camera, or a camcorder, or an ipod.. i was a techie i guess? but now, clothes are kind of a necessity. last year, most of what i got was clothes.

Ice Cream Maker - the thought of making ice cream just sounds fabulous.. i read on all these blogs about their homemade ice cream recipes, and i really really really want to make my own ice cream.

That's about all I can think of at this moment.. one unanswered question is how Christmas is going to change now that i'm married. We haven't quite had the discussion yet of how our holidays will play out, though i have my own little plan.. i haven't quite shared it with my hubster.

September 15, 2006

Back in 2006 something very important happened on this date, I will outline it here.

First let me say, I'd been working at the Olive Garden all summer, and when school started up again, it was hard for me to have two jobs and a full school schedule. So I quit. It's the only job i've ever straight up quit with little notice.. but for a good reason. They started using a new computer system which i didn't want to have to learn just to work two more weeks.. makes sense, right? why would i learn something i'd use a couple times in my last two weeks? anyway.. had I not quit this job, I would not have been available on friday the 15th because I would've been working.

Like most friday nights, I was going out on the town (err campus) with Darina. The twins from our job on campus invited us to a party they were headed to and the twins always knew a good party, and we always followed when they invited us. We'd met some of the people at this party before but had never been in this particular apartment. Abby introduced us to two guys playing beer pong. We didn't think much of it other than the fact that they were both pretty good looking and really good at beer pong. We dug into the keg, which we later found out was Natural ICE.. that's right, ICE! Darina and I.. though not really fans of ICE didn't seem to mind and continued acting like school children on the playground.. we had the best time laughing and carrying on. (later did I find out people though we were freshmen due to our antics when in reality, i was a senior and Darina was a junior).

Obviously, since I was partaking in alcohol, some parts of this story will be left out due to my memory. Continuing on.. at some point, Abby was commenting on this guy Alex's (who i'd met earlier at the beer pong table) ass and how rock hard it was, he allowed Darina and I to feel.. and Abby was right, hard as a rock. He then proceeded to 'drop it' which if you don't know what that means, i have no time to explain. regardless, this turned into some mini competition and abby dropped it, then myself (i'm pretty sure i staggered on the way up) but regardless.. i must've made an impression. ha!

fast forward to later in the night, as i don't remember leaving that apartment and moving on to another party.. but we moved to another location which we call 110. What I remember here also has holes in the story but regardless, i'll tell you what I remember. I remember music and lots of dancing.. and then suddenly I'm dancing with Alex from the apartment we were at earlier. He was a very good dancer, and with my drunkenness in full swing, i remember 'trying' to drop it multiple times, where i wouldn't be able to stand back up.. but no worries, Alex pulled me up each and every time.. probably a total of 4 or 5 times. Sounds embarrassing, right? I don't recall being embarrassed... it was the ICE KEG that did it!

We decide to go get some fresh air and spent about 20 minutes outside on the steps talking. Having a normal conversation and getting to know each other.. he even wanted to know my last name. This sobered me up a bit since I don't remember drinking since being at his apartment. We went back downstairs, did some more dancing, there was kissing. And he asked me if i wanted to leave with him.. I told him I wasn't that kind of girl but that he could walk me back to my apartment. I had never EVER met a person at a party before that I liked, so this was new to me.. but I did know that I wasn't a slut and wouldn't give myself up to the first person I met.

He walked me back to my place and came inside. My roommates were awake and we hung out in Nicole's room chit-chatting. Alex bought us a pizza which was very gentlemen like of him.. plus we were both starving. Talk about a good first impression with my roommates, lol. We ate the pizza and then eventually Alex and I eventually ended up talking in the kitchen. He also ended up sleeping over, though trust me.. nothing happened.

We spent the next morning talking for a couple hours in my room.. and he got my phone number and headed back to his apartment. Little did I know at the time that he would end up being my husband and best friend in the whole world. I knew there was something special about him when I met him the night before in his apartment.. I guess it was kind of love at first site. Since then, our relationship has been a breeze.. I think we both learned from past relationships that we just need to be ourselves, say what we feel and if it's meant to work out, it will. It was definitely meant to work out because I cannot imagine what my life would be like without him. He is truly everything i've ever wanted in a life partner.. and though it's not always easy, we never go to bed angry and we make sure to kiss each other and say i love you multiple times a day. I'm really excited to see where our life together is going to take us.. happy 3 years of knowing you babe!

Weekend Update

So since i haven't really been writing anything of substance lately (or ever) i'll just do the regular weekend update.. it was pretty fun though!

Friday: Matt & Marci came over for dinner, which was yummy (or nums, your choice) and then we played some Scattegories (sp?), and sat around chit-chatting. It was so laid back and yet so fun.. after they left Alex and I partaked in a little Behind the Music: Lil Wayne.. which was very interesting, he seems like a genius.. but he'll probably die too young from drinking codeine.

Moving on..
Saturday: We slept in (<3) and then got up, got ready.. I went to Home Depot while Alex ironed his outfit. We left for DE and first stopped at lunch at Conestoga Restaurant (after much though of where we'd like to eat lunch).. it was good, their ranch dressing is phenomenal. I had a couple french fries though.. whoops! Then we were on our way to Rehobeth. We made good time and walked along the beach while the wedding stuff was being set up. I never thought i'd like to have a wedding on a beach but after attending theirs.. it was lovely, and right after the ceremony we saw a huge pod of dolphins.. incredible! the one thing that could have been better was the weather.. it wasn't raining during the ceremony but the clouds were definitely out. Another thing i didn't think i'd like were personalized vows.. however their vows were so romantic and heartwarming.. every wedding now makes me think of my own wedding day.. which is of course, happy! After the ceremony we headed to the reception at DogFish Head.. they bombarded us with delicious appetizers and I had a Blood Orange infused Cosmo.. which was delicious (and though not part of my diet, I had to splurge). We had our dinners and then watched them cut the beautiful cake. Mmm Chocolate with peanut butter icing! There was glass clinking and toasts from other tables. It was very relaxed and very fun.. I love those two! [And congrats!! now make a baby ;) ]

Afterwards, Alex and I drove back to Lancaster and stopped by Matt's house to enjoy the after party of that day's party. We laughed, watched the end of Hellboy 2 and the beginning of Borat and fell asleep on the floor.

I have to say.. it's so nice hanging out with friends and waking up completely sober since you hadn't drank the night before. Heaven without a Hangover. We ate the yummy breakfast made by Mrs. VW and then headed home. Alex watched the Eagles while I showered and got to know Snow Leopard. We then made a trip to the grocery store and Marshall's. We spent the rest of the evening watching Federer, Mallrats and the MTV VMAs.

The vma's were okay.. Russell Brand is a tad outspoken.. and not really all that funny, just shocking. I'm sure that's what MTV was going for when hiring him for last year and this year.. he brings the ratings i'm sure. The MJ tribute was touching and though I wouldn't have voted for Taylor Swift for best video.. (even though I love her) she didn't deserve to be squashed by Kanye West. Just because KW gives up his awards that he thinks other people deserve, doesn't mean other people have to. This isn't Kanye's world.. and he should've placed a vote if he cared. Taylor has a very loyal fan base and that was proven by her win. She deserved respect and credit for her talent. Which Kanye later gave in his apology..

But enough about that non-sense.. here's to another week looking forward to the weekend!

Thank goodness for the end of the week

It's so relieving to be approaching the end of the week.. Thursday is usually such a great day just because you know Friday is tomorrow followed by the weekend.

I'm looking forward to this weekend for a couple reasons.

1. Matt & Marci are coming over for dinner & games tomorrow, i love games.. woo!

2. August and another Matt are getting married Saturday in Rehobeth (sp). That evening we're heading to Matt's (from friday) parents house to hang with some friends.

3. Sunday is a day to relax..

Not to crazy but should be a lot of fun! :) Can't wait just to not be at work for a couple days.. that's why I look forward to the weekend so much. It's probably time for a career change... :)

Easy Peasy

So I think the secret to the South Beach diet is that after a couple days, you're just not hungry anymore. Here's an outline of what I ate today:

Breakfast: One deviled egg and one sugar free jello cup (i didn't have time to make breakfast! because i tried to put hot curlers in my hair which took too long and didn't even curl it! phoey!)

Snack: String Cheese at 10 am and then Pistachios (a handful) at 11:30 am

Lunch: Finch Wrap from Isaac's.. i thought this would have at least lettuce and tomato on it but i must've read the menu wrong. I'm sure you're wondering how i could have the tortilla part of the wrap.. to be honest, it was a cheddar cheese wrap and i'm sure there was a bit of carbs in it, but who's counting anyway? oh right, me.

I haven't had another snack yet, as i'm all out of desk food but i've been sipping water which has been keeping me pretty darn content. I'm not hungry! It's a miracle! I've always believed that appetite suppression is a great way to start a diet.

When I get home I plan to have a sugar free red bull (i can't resist these) and maybe some more pistachios, idk yet.

For dinner we'll have grilled chicken and probably broccoli. We've (or I) have been pretty obsessed with charring it first, mincing some garlic and letting that sit in a couple tablespoons of olive oil to infuse it and then combining with the veggie after it's been steamed. Monday was green beans, yesterday was spinach and tonight is broccoli.. the spinach turned out darn good, i had extra helpings!

I feel like i'm on my way to success! and of course the 15 lbs lighter thing will help as well! Too bad i'm doing this right after swimsuit season! but hey, i'm getting ready for next summer! :)

Progress

I started this diet.... yesterday and i'm already tracking my progress. This is crazy I know but maybe documenting it will help me stay on track.

Basically, i was/am pretty motivated to do this.. that is, until I get hungry. Work is the worst place to get hungry because unless you bring it, there's nothing healthy to eat here. I guess i'll have to come more prepared tomorrow.

So my current mood is: starving for food. I realize it's not a mood but it's kind of affecting it, so why not!?

Hopefully tomorrow's mood will be satisfied. Like I was with my salad earlier and my dessert of a deviled egg earlier today.

Back to square one..

Alex and I had a very very nice labor day weekend.

Friday I spent the day shopping, lunching and baking cupcakes with my youngest sister before joining my family for dinner at Red Lobster.

Saturday Laurel and I spent 4 hours decorating a cake and then headed to our friend Ashley's surprise party, which was a success! she had no idea! it's always so fun to see how people react to surprises! But we had a great time catching up with friends and hanging out. We even learned a new drinking game called Baseball.

Sunday after awaking from a drunken slumber.. 3 couples stopped at El Rodeo before heading home. I really wanted to introduce them to Neato Burrito, but it wasn't opened yet and we were hungry! Hanging out with those 2 other couples is some of the most fun ever. It's kind of like laughing non-stop! After taking a 3 hour nap later, we headed to Alex's grandfather's house and eventually had an amazing dinner.. mmm! as well as a couple bottles of wine!

Monday we slept in and enjoyed the day off. I spent a lot of time on the couch but did manage to go grocery shopping. Alex brewed a beer and later we had a fabulous filet mignon dinner. Very relaxing!

In other news, we're not attempting to purchase Alex's grandfather's house anymore. So because of that we purchased ourselves some goodies including: a Sonicare toothbrush set, a laundry sink for the basement (for alex), the Mac Box Set which will upgrade us to Snow Leopard and Alex wanted a Vacuum Sealer for food. Just the thought that we won't have to live so tightly has been a weight off of the shoulders. In other other news, i'm back on the SB diet now that summer fruit season is over. I'm going pretty hardcore this time and plan to drop about 15 lbs. It should help that i'm now playing Volleyball on monday nights! Woo!

Hope everyone had a good weekend! Enjoy the pseudo monday and your 4 day work week!

two words

IT'S FRIDAY!

technically...... for me anyway, considering i'm taking off tomorrow. 2 weeks of vacation just isn't enough and 2 weeks even makes it sound long, it's more like 10 days. After tomorrow i'll have one left.. and in reality, i need two.. so i'll take an unpaid day on my birthday. Who works on their birthday anyway?? I know, i know.. lots of people do but i can't imagine it. Even if no one else is available to hang that day (usually my mom is at least) then i just have to go it solo, which i'm totally fine with anyway!

This weekend is going to be so fun.. and also, relaxing. Tonight my younger sister Julia is coming, i'm making lasagna for alex's family. Tomorrow Julia and I are going shopping, movies, lunch and i'm making a cake and cupcakes and fondant for the cake which i plan to apply on saturday.

I'm basically pumped to try this fondant thing.. fingers crossed!

Normally i'm a pretty boring person, but i need to start practicing my vball skills because i was just invited to join a team.. ! yesss! they don't know me but, hopefully their nice.. and they don't suck. which i'm thinking they don't because the person on the phone asked me how good i was.... that's always a sign. hopefully.. good enough! i do need to practice my serve though.. i don't want to look like a little girl serving underhand! hopefully i've made a team for life... or at least the next couple years! i'm just sad it's not more than 1 day a week.. maybe someone will want me for their all women team next season... i'll have to do some networking!

Welp, back to work.. gotta figure out a report and do some paperwork and hopefully it will be 5 pm when i'm done! here's to the weekend!

Conclusion..

I've come to the conclusion that i'm not lazy.. I just don't like my job. Not liking my job means I spend most of the day being bored (though productive) so when I get home.. i'm still in 'bore' mode.

Over the next couple weeks I'm going to work on being more productive at home. Now that summer is 'over' i'm going to try to start a healthy food and exercise plan as well as start the first real estate pre-license class online. Let's get in shape and try to start a new career!! I'd really like to be able to walk around close to my house on the sidewalks but to be honest, I don't really feel 100% safe.. I feel like I could get hassled some how so I avoid it. But someday, hopefully sooner than later, we'll live on a street that we can go on walks.

Still in limbo with Martin Drive.. we've backed away from the idea in order to not be disappointed if it doesn't work out. We have a feeling it's not going to, which is fine. It would be nice to know either way though.. so we can fully get past it.

I'm really looking forward to the weekend.. I'm taking friday off which will be really nice, so tomorrow is technically my friday. I'm going to spend some time with my sister before she goes back to school in NJ. We always go to the movies together so we'll probably do that, and go to lunch.. we love hoss's but i'm thinking maybe we should try something else? Either way it should be fun.. then we have a long weekend for labor day which is also going to be really nice.

T-38-ish hours until weekend!

Lazy

I know i've said this before but I have to be missing some sort of gene or brain cell that helps with motivation.. because i literally have slim to none. Maybe the part of my brain that helps with imagining has taken over the space where motivation used to be?? Because I definitely enjoy thinking about doing new things, trying new things, eating healthy, exercising and yet I have no motivators to push me to do so.. I guess you could also file this under lack of discipline?? Anyway, I might as well share my plan even if it never gets put into action..

Currently, I've been thinking about trying to hop into the 'family business' which I won't share the details of. How I would accomplish this, I'm pretty unsure. I'm interested in Real Estate.. as I will be taking the pre-licensing classes to take the licensing exam and then maybe hanging my license part time at a real estate company.. I can get some knowledge that way.. because what I want to do (i think) is property management. I want to go to the library this week to get a book on it so I can start reading up.. and I know they have classes for a certification for that as well. A real estate license could help with that knowledge.. and I could possibly gain clients through networking. With the real estate license I would also try to offer my clients a Virtual Tour.. for a fee. To help market their business even more. I might need to start out with that as a free option to help gain business but eventually I'd put a fee on it. Virtual Tours are the future of real estate listings. Also through this, I would market my wedding invitation business.. I work with a printer here at my current job that printed my wedding invitations for me as well. She let me know that it can be a good part time job if needed, say when I have a child. That shouldn't be too hard to market.. I could go through the vendors I used for my own wedding and promise to plug them in return. As well as attending Bridal Shows to get my name out there. What's harder than customizing and then just placing an order for invitations and getting a 40-50% commission??

This all may seem very time consuming.. and it definitely would be. But my goal is when Alex and I have babes, one of us will stay home with them until they are school age. So if I have to work a little overtime before we make those babies to save some money to be able to establish myself for later.. so be it. :)

So that's the plan anyway.. It starts with getting my Real Estate license and securing a spot in the business. The rest should be pretty easy to flow into those jobs.. And working from home would be a really nice option!