it's a great day for hockey to come baaaaaack!

so, there was this silly little lockout
{those are the nicest adjectives i can use to describe it. feel free to replace}

and now it's finally over. so, naturally we are having a gathering tonight to watch the first hockey game the preds have played all season.

until then it's the normal saturday cleaning, laundry, tv, cooking, errands run...

anything spectacular happening in your world?

thursday's ten: the non-suggested 5k edition

times i wouldn't suggest running a 5k

when you've been sick with the flu 3 out of the last 5 days.
when because of your back being injured for 6 weeks followed by the flu, you haven't trained even once in the last 2 months
when it's classified as an off road adventure
when your asthma is acting up
when you stayed up until 3 am with a girlfriend eating junk and watching tv
when you are used to temperatures over the mid 60s (in tennessee) and you are now set to run in 40 degree northwestern kentucky weather
when rain is also predicted
when your tennis shoes are so old they aren't really great for running on any surface anymore, much less non-paved surfaces
when you forget to take your inhaler until halfway up the first hill (thank GOODNESS i had borrowed a spibelt to carry it in and was able to remedy that quickly!)

BUT

if you choose to still do the 5k after ALL that?

it may be awesome
it may be fun
it may be the worst time you've ever had because you ended up HIKING in the woods on a single file trail instead of running a 5k (guess that's what they meant by off road)
there may be gorgeous scenery

you may feel an enormous sense of accomplishment just for surviving
it may be something you want to do again, at least once in awhile :-)

thursday's ten or so: currently (9.6.12)

currently listening to: mostly pandora, bryan and katie torwalt, Jesus culture, etc

currently reading: um, a little behind in that. a book i need to review on here and the hunger games.

currently looking forward to: football, fall clothes and foods, making pumpkin scones with natasha and (crazy!) our first anniversary

currently craving: pumpkin foods, butternut squash soup, and other fall things. unfortunately heat and humidity will keep me from making some of these for awhile!

currently thankful for: amazing husband, wonderful friends, a great job, former nanny families who still call me first for babysitting, and all the other blessings in my life!

currently discovering: all the great new local coffee shops! natasha and i went to the well last night and barista parlor is another new favorite!!

currently organizing: just finished the kitchen (again...really i love doing it so it's ongoing). now working on my closet and getting ready to start guest bedroom 1/office...that will take awhile.

currently watching: america's got talent, switched at birth and jane by design. and more than ready for my main shows to come back.

currently wearing: lots of head scarves, belts, and dresses with leggings. and toms.

currently wishing for: more toms, a great blender, a tv stand for the living room, and bookcases.

what about you? anything currently going on that you want to share? :-)

hey, it's ok (tuesday) 9.4.12

hey, it's ok

...to be a bit disturbed by the fact that a commercial for a drain cleaner feels the need to be sexy. um. what?
...to wish all my iphone apps had a "quiet time" feature like one i found the other day -- it won't notify you between specific hours if you prefer to set it up that way.
...to be kind of obsessed with shows on abc family. i'll leave it at that ;-) (i feel twelve...)
...to spend an entire saturday in loungey clothes and not leave the house
...to not feel bad about doing the right thing, even if it's unpopular.
...to blog, pinterest and tweet while hanging out in a classroom of sleeping children just to stay awake. {yawn}
...to crank up pandora while by yourself at work. mainly because otherwise you find yourself humming the naptime music while driving or in the shower and that is most definitely NOT ok.
...to be itching to decorate the guest rooms. it's about time they started looking a bit more "us".
...to think that it might be a good idea to get a wedding photo or two up in the house. digital is ok, but canvas would be great :-)

please visit amber's blog to link up and read other things you can be ok with!

thursday's ten or so: to make me laugh

i have a quirky sense of humor.
meaning you may not find any of this funny.
but i'm laughing a lot these days thanks to several sources. so the least i can do is share :-)
here's a very few of the things making me laugh.


i can't help but laugh when i see this. until i'm at work, and then it seems like every child in the building is lining up behind this one!

this one cracks.me.up. anthony also laugh-approved it. 

i don't use pinterest just for recipes and home organization tips (but i'm always trying something off my boards!)


it has other uses too. one of my bff's natasha and i constantly send each other gems we find that we would never post publicly...but there are a few exceptions that i'll share here.

 (the next one pretty much sums us up)

(oh and this one too)

the amazing amanda shared this with me when she was at our house for dinner the other night. we laughed our butts off, so i HAVE to share it with you.



all those "hey girl" memes make me giggle a lot. but THIS one is just extra-special.

replace "men" with "everyone"...

natasha sent this one to me too. if you work with children (your own or someone else's) you'll relate to this at least a few times!

this one makes me laugh and cry simultaneously

and finally...

which leads right into this. you HAVE to watch this. and just know that i WILL instagram it.





***photo/video credits...all of these have been found on facebook, twitter, youtube or pinterest. :-)

thursday's ten or so: a week off

we're out for "summer break" this week.
and here's what's been done so far


on the completed or in progress list
re-organized the closet in our room (it.was.insane. and it's not done yet.)
painted my nails in the spirit of the fourth of july

played a super competitive game of spoons with anthony, his two sisters and his sister's boyfriend (blood was drawn. more than once.)

cleaned the kitchen. and again.
finalized the menu for the month of july
baked cookies. was thankful that they tasted good.

attempted to catch up to the laundry monster that has taken over our entire upstairs (see first item and add 1000% to the insanity)
bought a new pair of toms that i LOVE (finally used my birthday money...yeah, from march.)

(they say "let love rule", which is pretty much me to a t) 

taught 3 piano lessons on a holiday
prayed for thunder rumbles to turn into rain. repeatedly.
thought about exercising
reached my first weight loss goal of the summer...and not stopped. (operation get healthier is in full swing around here!)
snuggled with emi

 watched (lots of) tv with the hubster
changed my facebook profile pic to this one 

still to do?
set up the hammock
hang out with one of my bff's tonight (yay!)
host our first night of movie lead-ins to dark knight rises...we're showing batman begins at our house friday night
more time with emi
and a whole lot more cleaning
and hopefully another blog or 5.


i've got to admit that being on an academic calendar (even though it's REALLY modified) is quite nice.  a free week off over the fourth of july? anthony and i are talking about trying to go somewhere for the fourth next year (like dc or boston, maybe san diego, even nyc) since it'll be "free" vacation for me and he gets more vacation days than i do!  and then we can still take an anniversary getaway later in the year.  just speculation for the moment...but how about it? anybody have a recommendation for the PERFECT place to spend the fourth?

it's a great day to put up my saturday post a day late!

so, we celebrated my birthday and anthony's awesome new job at the pub friday night with friends & family

slept in on saturday morning, then went to see one of the youth group kids in a play

and then anthony told me that he wanted to take me shopping for my birthday

he knew what he wanted to buy me, but knew that i would want input.

he wanted to buy me a north face jacket (which i've wanted for YEARS but haven't justified the money spent)

so we went to a couple of stores, and ended up finding a triclimate jacket on *clearance* for a hundred dollars off normal price...and a light hoodie on clearance as well.

i ended up walking out of the store with two jackets -- and a pair of reef flip flops that ALSO happened to be on clearance, all for well under the amount he had budgeted and set aside for the original jacket.  

i'm spoiled, blessed and happy :-)  

today is church, lawn mowing, and once upon a time/gcb with natasha.
i'm kind of not wanting this weekend to end!


happy sunday, all!

hey, it's ok (tuesday) 3.13

hey, it's ok


...to begin this list on monday and publish it on wednesday (but keep the date as tuesday)
...to hope peyton signs with the titans...it would be nice to have him in town for awhile (especially while the colts rebuild which is code for 'suck for a few years')
...to be a slight bit obsessed with swagbucks. if you haven't joined yet, you totally should. (and if you click on that link i get your referral :-)
...to be oh-so-glad that spring has arrived in tennessee.  it was 80 yesterday. anthony and i had cocktail hour on our deck when we both got home from work. this is bliss -- when the temperature rises but the bugs haven't appeared yet!
...to have only just borrowed the first hunger games book.  hey, i still have not read/watched either twilight or harry potter (and won't) so i'm way ahead of my own game on this one!
...to make a recipe that flopped. i'm usually pretty confident in the kitchen and spotting recipes that anthony and i will both like, but the south indian mac and cheese (while it looked and smelled great) was just not our favorite. i'll still eat the leftovers, but i won't be making it again. (i put the link there since i won't be putting it on the blog, just in case anyone wants to try it...)
...to have a standing date with a friend to watch good bad tv 
...to just really be creeped out by some people


please visit amber's blog!

monday's memory: the one with february's 366 photos

another month has gone by already -- CRAZY.  here are the photos that (somewhat) tell the story of my february. 

monday's memory: the one with january's photos

this is pretty much a photo dump post, but i said i was going to post my daily photos here, so i'm following through :-)


i have discovered a couple of things through taking these
1- i take a lot of pictures of food
2 - looking back through my photos makes me hungry.  because of #1.


so.  here ya go.  january 2012 in photos