Fill in the blank Friday.

marthastewart.com via let's entertain

 

 Today I'm linking up with "Fill in the Blank Friday" over at the little things we do!

 

1.   New Years is   a time to re-think goals and create new ones. It's a fresh start!

2.   One of my New Year's resolutions will be  get away from the holiday foods & sweets and start eating healthier again for this little one I'm growing .

3.  A New Year's resolution I've made in the past was to  read more books, which I successfully did this past year!

4. The most time consuming resolution I ever made was   Honestly, I don't think I've ever had a time consuming resolution.

5.  This year I will be spending New Year's Eve   hanging out with my husband and a couple of friends at our house. We plan to make dinner and just hang out for the evening!

6.  If I could wish one thing for my new year it would be    to be a great mom!

7.  2012 is going to be   life-altering. We will be welcoming a baby boy in early March! We will also be moving in January to a new apartment and I have to figure out how to take a class before June 30th to renew my teaching license. It will be a busy time!

Friday love.

J. Crew's newest ad. Love it!

 Just a few things that are making me smile this Friday:

• The weekend. Duh. :)
• Planning to go out to eat with Jon for the first time since before New Year's. I can't believe it's been that long myself.
• Listening to this teaser off the Foo Fighters new album. 
• Cheddar flavored rice cakes. Seriously, so good.
• Having a clean house before the weekend really starts. 

What things are making you smile today?

Sometimes I reheat coffee...and go on cleaning sprees.

Random Friday bullets:

• The school where I was supposed to sub today canceled school last night. It was nice to know that I didn't have to wake up early to check the closings list so I got to sleep in until 8:30! The only bad part about it is that now I don't get paid for today. Boo.

•  I got all of my household "chores" completed, including shoveling the driveway and front walk. That extra sleep must have given me a burst of energy. Now I can relax and really enjoy the rest of the weekend. Although I will probably do some usual Sunday laundry while watching football.

• Those of you who may be wondering why I am always the one shoveling and not my husband...it apparently only snows when he works late or is out of town. So, it then becomes my duty. I don't mind though!

• I made pumpkin spice coffee this morning. I usually only drink it in the fall, but it just sounded really good today. I reheated the leftovers after my cleaning spree. I just didn't want it to go to waste. :)

• I just found out that there is a winter farmer's market in my city that opened last weekend. I hope to go tomorrow and plan to read Cooking from the Farmer's Market in preparation. I'm also anxious to read my newest issue of Bon Appetit. Apparently I am all about cooking reading material today.

 What are you up to on this Friday?
 

Red slippers and a front porch view.

It's snowing again and I'm cozied up in my red slippers. I pretty much don't intend to leave the house for the rest of the night. I will eventually need to shovel, but until then I plan to stay under my blanket in front of the fire & catch up on my blog reading while watching Season 3 of Lost. Yes, it's going to be a very productive evening!

Here's the view from my front door:

 At least the snow makes the bare trees look pretty.

My Monday.

Lunch - tuna salad (white tuna, mayo, parsley, olive oil, red onion, red wine vinegar, lemon zest & juice)

Laundry.

A trip to the library.

Coffee with a friend. I <3 peppermint mochas.

Lost on Netflix. The 2nd time around.

I hope you had a fabulous Monday! 

Thursday thoughts.

Yes, more random bullets for your reading pleasure.

• Our Christmas tree is still in our backyard. I fully intended to follow proper city protocol to dispose of it and had it on the curb last week. How was I supposed to know that the back curb where our trash goes is not the same curb where yard waste goes? Apparently that should be placed on the front curb. Seriously, I want to know who makes rules like that. So, our Christmas tree never got picked up. It should have gone out again yesterday, but it's kinda stuck in our backyard since I shoveled snow in front of the gate. And I'm not about to pull a Lou Ferrigno and toss it over the fence at 7am in my work clothes.

Kinda disturbing, actually.

•  I really wanted a snow day this week. Heck, I would have settled for a 2-hour delay. Neither of those things happened. However, I got so excited at the possibility of one of those 2 things happening that I slept terribly the past few nights in anticipation that the school would be listed among the closings in the morning. Yeah, I was like a little kid on Christmas Eve. Except majorly disappointed in the end.

I feel like this has been very true in my experiences!

• I don't want to sound like a huge complainer, because really that's all I've done in this post so far, so I will end on a more positive note. I performed a random act of kindness yesterday that I really enjoyed. I've been wanting to do some volunteer work since the summer so I think this was a push I needed to find something and get involved. Now, I just have to choose where I would like to help out...

What are your random thoughts for the day? Anyone else have their Christmas tree still laying around? Where do you volunteer?

Why I'm a Wimp.

I live in Ohio. It snows here. Frequently. However, I have never managed to learn how to drive in it without completely freaking out. I had so much anxiety driving home from work today that I was literally shaking and felt like my heart was beating outside of my chest. And the roads were not even that terrible, although still slushy and slick. I am ashamed to admit that I am not a snow driver, nor will I ever be. I am actually surprised I made it up the driveway today. Most of the time I don't. I then shoveled so that my husband can get up it when he gets home. Although he never really seems to have a problem with that. Hmm. Shoveling seemed to help relieve some of my anxiety though! I suppose manual labor will do that.

This is me shoveling. We also own a cheap shovel. That's my fault.

Does anyone else freak out if they have to drive in the snow? Please tell me it's not just me!

Random Tidbits

I love bulleted lists. So here are just a few random thoughts:

• I've always loved dance. I even was a dancer myself for a few years, along with many, many years of gymnastics. My favorite dance show has always been So You Think You Can Dance and I've never really wanted to watch any others. However, I randomly decided to tape Live to Dance this week and have cried at least 3 times watching it today. Thank God my husband isn't here because I am sure he would mock me mercilessly for this. But really, how can a little 9 year old break dancing, an elderly couple still enjoying dance as if they were much younger, and an entire love story told in dance form not touch you?
• I got on a reading kick a few months back and read a ton of books. However, that kick ended about 2 months ago and I think I've read 1.5 books since. I want to change that. Hopefully in the next few days I can share my reading list.
• My goal this year is to really love where I live. We moved here in August and it hasn't been the best transition for me, but I would like to change that. More thoughts on this later as well.
• I really need to update my Ipod. My goal is to get that done this month and to put on a few new bands/artists. I need to expand my current listening!
• I've had a few cooking fails this week. My poor husband has had to suffer through some not so appetizing meals. So the new rule in the house is that I am allowed to make 1 new meal a week that features foods we have never tried before. Fortunately I am still allowed to make new recipes with food we know we like!

Currently...

Reading:

 A history of the Puritans. Pretty interesting!

 

I think everyone is familiar with this one by now!

Watching:

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I have been really enjoying freestyle skiing, alpine skiing, snowboarding, short track, and speed skating. My favorite moment so far has been watching this guy:

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Wishing for this space:

 

This would be such a perfect place to read!

From Marthastewart.com

I'm still here.

I know I haven't posted in awhile and I apologize for that. Here's what's been keeping me away!

 My computer got some type of virus and won't even start. The other 2 computers in our house haven't been working for almost a year. Fortunately, my husband got his to work again today. I am hoping that mine will be able to be saved!

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I have been frantically working on assignments for my class that I need to have done by February 11. The computer crashing did not help!

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And when I haven't been working on my online classes, I've been watching Lost. I'm officially obsessed. It's actually quite embarrassing how many episodes I have managed to squeeze in.

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I should be back to blogging on a more consistent basis by the end of the month. I have pictures of our updated bedroom to show you, and need to give an update on my January goals!

A happy message...

Our friends left this snow scribbled message for us on our patio this morning.

It made me smile.

*Ok, last post of the day!*

Happy Twenty-Ten!

I think I'm in the twenty-ten camp. My husband likes two-thousand-ten.

I hope you all had a lovely New Year's. We had a low-key get-together last night with some close friends. But we still had a little...

Singing/air drumming

Dancing

And champagne in wine glasses.

Enjoy your New Year's Day. We'll soon all be back in the real world!

2009 Reflections

I would say this has been a really busy and crazy year so let's take a look back!

Some lowlights:

• Jon got his hours cut at work. 
• Our landlord threatened to evict us because we had my in-laws' dog stay with us overnight in an emergency situation.
• We had an extremely aggravating situation with HH Gregg trying to get our new washer and dryer installed, then had problems getting our new dining set sent to us as well. What luck!
  
• Our fish got some weird fungus and died. We tried to save him too.

 Some highlights:

• We moved to a different apartment 3 doors down from our friends. I felt way more connected this year since we live in town now (as opposed to almost outside of town).
• I completed my student teaching in a 7th grade classroom. It had its challenging days, but I found that I truly love teaching and that is where my heart is.
• I passed both of my Praxis II exams on the first try! (I have to pass those to get my teaching license)
  
• I almost completed school. I have 2 independent studies to finish up and then I can finally start looking for teaching jobs!
• I got a job fairly quickly at my old place of employment after student teaching. After a month, they lost the grant but I got hired by the new agency that took the program over.
• Jon and I attended two Notre Dame games together. Now I am a part of his madness.
• We also took a short trip to Chicago and had a fabulous time on our only vacation together this year!
  
• We attended two weddings together - our friends Ryan & Tessa (also our neighbors!) and my cousin Jason and his new wife Tessa.
• Our friend Joel who is currently living in Japan visited for a couple of weeks. We also got visits from friends in North Carolina!
  

Looking back, there were way more highlights than lowlights so I guess 2009 wasn't that terrible of a year.  Here's to a fabulous 2010!

Stuck In-between

The end of the holidays always depress me. The anticipation gets built up over a few weeks, then it's all over in a second. That is part of the reason my husband proposed to me the day after Christmas because he knows I get in a weird funk and he wanted to lift my spirits (which he most definitely did!). However, this year has been like all the other years when I get sad about the end of the season. I have been extremely lazy and unmotivated and I'm pretty sure it's because Christmas is over. At least we still have New Year's to look forward to! But I am going to try to sneak in one last Christmas movie before January 1. Perhaps this?

On the other hand, I am also yearning for the days of summer. Now, I have never been a girl who absolutely despises winter, but the past year or so I have changed my mind and wanted summer to come more quickly. Maybe I am just getting old and crotchety? Or these feelings may be due to our vacation planning that is in the works with some friends! I just want to go to the beach, drink mojitos, and have cookouts with friends.

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I'll be back soon with winter inspiration & ideas. Just needed to get this "funk" I'm in out of the way!

Weird weather

I am interrupting my 25 days of Christmas to show you this picture:

I just took this with my phone at work so sorry for the quality, but seriously....when is the last time you have seen so many different types of precipitation within 45 miles of each other? ONLY IN OHIO!