songs that speak something true

Who will love me for me
Not for what I have done
Or what I will become
Who will love me for me
~ JJ Heller

Happy Valentine's Eve - a little ditty about finding someone who will love you for you, which is what everyone deserves. Sending a little love out to all this weekend.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all! Hope you all get some time with your friends and family over this holiday weekend.

warm wishes this holiday season

I wrote out my holiday greetings the week of Thanksgiving, but it took me until mid-December to get these out in the mail. For every bit of preparation I managed, I watched the pile on my counter everyday - I'd say tomorrow I'll mail those, nope, nope, nope.  The sad thing is someone managed to get a Christmas card in my mailbox the day after Thanksgiving - over achiever (that I wanted to be). Anyway, at least I got them sent. Don't you loved the little mittens? - just so cute.

On a funny note did you see what one woman did when she got kicked out of the family picture? Hilarious - I might have some inspiration to step up the cards next year.

ghosts of christmas past

I believe it was fifth grade when Trolls became the rage again, they were so ugly they were cute. As with any fad, you weren't anyone unless you had a couple of Trolls. I don't know how, or where I got an angel Troll, but here he is in all his glory. My angel Troll still lives with Mom and Dad, and gets a prime spot near the top of the tree - he's an angel after all.  Really, look at all that hair- isn't the rule the bigger the hair the closer to God?

Anyone else have some great ornaments from Christmas pasts? 

read, need, wear, want

One of my favorite ways to do Christmas presents is the something to read, something to wear, something you need and something you want. I think that's a great way to think about gifts for the young and old. It also covers one of my fundamental favorite items to gift - books. It's no secret that I love to read - so I almost always give the kids on my gift lists books. Literacy is our friend. Given this favorite approach to a gift wish list I thought I'd share my list with you all.

Something to Read: One More Thing - B.J. Novak. All things Mindy Kaling, it's time for me to read B.J.'s book. I also think I drive by his high school on my way home from spinning most weekends. This is top of my list of books to read in 2015.

Something to Wear: This beautiful cardigan from Banana Republic.I picture myself wearing it at work, curled up on the couch with my book and a coffee, as an extra layer of warmth in the polar vortex. I also love that it comes in my favorite neutral - grey.

Something I need: a new Crock-Pot. Mine is super tiny, and every time I use it, it overflows no matter how hard I try not to get to that point. I'd love a new one that's a bit bigger so I can make meals for the work week.

Something I want: Snowshoe Lessons. Something that's long been on my want to do list, I figure if I got them as a gift I'd have to use it, and stop finding reasons not to go do this.


What's on your list? I'd love if you'd share your read, need, wear and want in the comments.

December…. Remember Me….

 

It’s the last month of 2014, and I am sure everyone is going wait a gosh darn minute, didn’t we just ring in the New Year like maybe 2 months ago? Alas, I decided in November when I was just not getting to the blog to make myself get some posts ready to go before December started and then just start getting into some regular posting. For me, the end of the year is so busy between work, life, the hustle and the bustle of the holidays – I decided to be kind to me.

In salute to the day that is to give thanks, or in layman’s terms – Thanksgiving. I decided to tell you three things I am thankful for to start the last month of 2014.

1.    Getting to take a 5 day weekend last week. Family, Turkey, Shopping, Reading, the Gym. All good things to relax before the year end work crazy begins (looking forward to you January 23^rd - I see you and I am excited.
2.    Game of Thrones –TV. As you probably remember I read all the books starting around this time last year, but never saw the show. I now have HBO and I love seeing my favorite scenes come to life. Joffery is an a-hole and the actor here is fabulous.
3.     Living closer to the family. It’s sort of strange not to need to save up vacation time for the holidays any more. It’s also nice not to feel like I’ve got to spend every minute of a holiday weekend trying to see friends, family and still manage to feel relaxed. Total win for living 30 minutes away.

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween. I live across the street from the cutest grocery store that's had scores of pumpkins all season long - so I've been enjoying the pop of orange when I look at my window every single day. Is it wrong to secretly be looking forward to the Christmas trees that must be coming out soon? I know, I know one holiday at a time.

Anyway, I hope you all have safe and wonderful holidays out there tonight. Please be extra careful, with the Friday night my brain just thinks people are going to be making less then good decisions, so remember - I want to read your weekend recaps.

This weekend should be a good one. I get to see some little ones on Saturday, along with their parents. Sunday, one of my friends from the tri-state is stopping by before heading home.

See you on Monday!

easter weekend in review

I find that I've been enjoying reading everyone's weekend recaps recently. It seems that so many bloggers have such interesting weekends, I feel like a lot of my weekends involve me going to the gym and catching up on the DVR, and you know cleaning my apartment at least a little bit. If I am really lucky, I get a trip to Trader Joe's in there. I do see friends and have meals, but I am totally fine on those weekends where I only see people at spin or walking along the pier.

This past weekend, I made my way up to Massachusetts on Friday, and spent time with family and friends enjoying what I now call European Easter weekend (Friday and Monday off, like a proper Brit). Upon my arrival, my sister and I broke my nephew out of day care and had lunch together at home followed by family nap time. Nap time was amazing, I conked out on the couch for an hour or so to be pleasantly woken up by Norbs tickling my toes - definitely a nice way to be displaced from slumber. Once we all were up, we made our way to my parents house so that Norbs could play with Grammy and Grampy. Which then caused my sister and I to sneak away for a trip to Wegmans and Walmart (I love suburbia). I found a few gluten free goodies at Wegmans including some delightful Belgium beers and cupcakes. I got to head home to a mom made dinner and time catching up with my people.

Saturday, I was handed the keys to the car and got to head up north to visit one of my friends for lunch and a personal baby shower, since I missed her real one a few weeks ago. Whenever I drive it makes me feel like a newborn deer taking her first steps - it's so scary after being car-less for the last seven years. I probably on an average year log between 4-8 driving hours total - which makes me hate trucks and get heart palpitations when I have to merge. I made it, but I think I took a few years off my life while driving. I love getting to walk everywhere, really I do.  I was really excited to catch up, see the babies nursery with the softest rug my toes have felt recently, and get to make a square for a quilt for the boys. Once I returned home, my parents and I watched House Hunters where I made them play the game of which house will the people choose - mom liked it more then dad. We then headed out to the local restaurant, where my parents frequent at least twice a week - I had a salad with chicken that was delightful and dad got us scratch tickets to play before the meal came. I ended dinner with $50 extra in my pocket. When I got home, I took the dog for a long walk around the neighborhood, enjoying the spring temps and walking around my elementary school too.

Sunday, my sister came over early with the baby (big boy), and he did an Easter egg hunt around my parent's house,We went to the playground and had the best time. Grammy did all the catching down the slide while the rest of us ran around the park with the Norbs. My nephew is so much fun to play with - he is more fun every time I get to see him. After play time, the family had a nice dinner and just hung out in the evening.

It was so nice to be home for an extended amount of time. I love going to visit for extra long weekends- two days is never enough.

three cheers for easter weekend

Hello dear readers. My apologies for my sporadic posts lately (every time I use the word sporadic, I think of the movie Clueless) – spring is keeping me busy and away from the blog a bit more than I would like.  Anyway, I am heading into a four day weekend starting tomorrow and I get to head up to Boston and see the family for the weekend. I am very excited to get some play time with Norbs- that boy is getting so grown up, I look forward to the day when he just starts talking to me and never looks back. I also get to have lunch with a friend and see the nursery she’s set up for her little ones – I am ridiculously excited to see the babies (yes, babies as in more than one) room.  I missed her shower, so I’ve got a few little surprises for the wee ones (I’ve also been trying to come up with names – like Julian, Jiles (like Giles), and Jilbert, because well I am weird).  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

40 days?

I am a completely lapsed Catholic – I attend mass only on high holidays with my mother if I am home. For some reason though, I feel the urge every Lenten season to figure out something or somethings to try to absolve from. I think I view this as another chance to take on a resolution from the new year, or something to that affect. Anyway I’ve contemplated a few ideas:

Alcohol:  I actually really want to do this, it’s one of my 15 before 2015, but this is not the year. I have a weekend girls trip to Florida – and I already want a drink while I am in the pool. I also have a coworker from another office coming to town and we want to get drinks and catch up. I clearly have my Irish Catholic priorities in place.

Soda: I love me some coke zero at lunch time, and seltzer should pretty much be a food group as far as I am concerned.  So far today, I skipped my lunch time beverage and stuck to water and tea at my desk. This could be reasonable, but then what do I mix the alcohol I am not giving up with? I mean a nice straight up drink is good for one, wine is not a pool drink…  can we make it week day soda?

Shopping: I love to online shop (who doesn’t?). Nothing makes me feel better than a nice new piece of clothing to wear and enjoy. My fear with this one is that it’s going to go from 20 degrees to 80 degrees and I am going to feel like I need something to refresh . However, I do think I could keep myself on track.

Sweets: Chocolate… oh so good, this would actually be a bit of a challenge as I’d include a trail mix that has chocolate chips in it, which is one of my current vices. I also will just crave something sweet and indulge myself. This is definitely a strong contender.

Right now I am thinking of going with the sweets and shopping and holding myself to it. I’d also like to spend the next 40 days cleaning out the clutter around my apartment and start minimizing again. 

(photo via pinterest via someecards)

welcome to football town

I live about 20 minutes from MetLife Stadium and I am loving all this hype about a cold weather Super Bowl. In all honesty, I am not sure I’d be willing to pay for a ticket to pretty much wear as many layers as I can to see a football game – even the biggest game of the year. I am on the band wagon of a Super Bowl should be played somewhere that actually feels like a vacation. Give me sunny weather, a balmy 70 degrees and I am ready to watch some sports. I’ve lived in cold weather climates for my entire life, freezing your tuckus off is not fun for anyone. I do love though that today at work one of my colleagues told me it’s going to be warm on Sunday – hovering near 30 degrees, now that’s what I am talking about. It actually will feel warm compared to the 15 degree world I’ve been living in, but that still doesn’t make me want sit outside in the evening.

I am looking forward to watching the game from the comfort of my own home, complete with some homemade chili and following along on my Super Bowl grids. It’s not looking like a good grid night for me anyway – I participated in two people’s grids- one where I have 0-5 (Broncos- Seahawks) and in the other I have 5-2, 0-5, and 8-7 (Broncos – Seahawks) – so here’s hoping to some wacky scoring to get to an ending in 5 Seattle. This is my last weekend fully home for a couple of weeks so some Super Bowl and fabulous commercials are a perfect way to end a good weekend. If you haven’t seen this commercial by Budweiser with the cutest puppy ever, I highly suggest you watch. Before game time I am putting a 10-1 bet that this will be one of the best commercials of the night.  Now I want a puppy, and horse, oh an a cute cowboy.

Enjoy your Super Bowl Weekend readers!

(map from pinterest)

christmas week highlights

Christmas week was a rough one for me, I had the flu for two days which knocked me right out. I swear, my body loves letting me get sick as soon as I am at Mom’s house and she can take care of me (I know Mom really loves that too). Anyway, on Christmas I did start to feel like a human again able to eat more than toast. I also looked at this a tiny bit of a jump start to the 2014 eating better routine (nothing says skinny jeans like a few days of the stomach flu).

Anyways, I was lucky enough to get to spend a full week the family, despite my two days in bed. It was so nice to see everyone for a long while and have some time away from work. A quick list of highlights below:

Watching Norbs dance and sway to the Bill Clinton saxophone Santa toy my parents have, it’s ridiculously funny and he’s so happy when he’s grooving.

Seeing two movies at the theater with Mom, we saw The Wolf of Wall Street and American Hustle. Clearly we had some theme requirements when choosing movies: Tri-State area location, movies set in the past, and looking like an Oscar contender. It also didn’t hurt that I had super old passes to the movies that I bought sometime in 2012 (yep, that long kiddos) so it felt like going to the movies for free.

Winning a week in the football pool at work, with 15 out of 16 picks correct- against the spread. I should placed that bet in Vegas and retired or something. That’s 94% correct on an equalized (anyone who wants a lesson in spreads let me know) playing field. Dad was ridiculously proud, this made the flu feel like it was lucky, and I treated myself to something special with the winnings.

Enjoying some much needed rest to gear up for 2014.

Happy New Year to all!

 

(photo from pinterest)