the daily green

several months ago i stumbled across the website "the daily green." [i believe i was led there through Real Simple, probably an article on easy ways to go green, unless it was from Domino or long enough ago to be from Blueprint]. anyway, i was excited to see that some of Knoll's products were featured in their "green homes" section on "green office furniture." [they are numbers 15 - 19].

cruise post...FAIL.

whoops. i have no idea when i'm going to post ANYTHING about the cruise.

i will post a little about christmas.

our christmas eve services at church seemed to be a success [other than my singing "light and LIME to all he brings" instead of "late in time behold him come". whoops. oh well.

christmas day was mostly a success...though i believe it was quite a shambles. i woke up on time and arrived at my parents an hour later than i'd hoped. my veggie casserole "sauce" was too thick, amount of veggies was too much, carrots undercooked, then everything overcooked. we planned for 14 people in our small room and packed them in two tables, but only ate with 10 people since 4 got stuck in traffic [or something of that nature] and ate 1/2 hour after the first batch did. we had our "christmas crackers" as usual - but they failed to have HATS and JOKES [just had stupid toys]. we did have a great day and though i didn't ask for much specifically when it came to gifts, i still got a BUNCH of awesome things [cause my fam just knows me so well!].

boxing day was also fun, with the annual trip to the Holmes' where we had lots of cold meat and rolls [and desserts]. personally, i could have done with some potatoes or veggies...buuuut all in all, another good day, ended by our annual Neighborhood party at kt's parents house. also, lots of fun.

anyway, here's a few pics of the holiday, courtsey of rach [and some taken by myself as well].

[christmas eve]

[christmas morning]

[i got a few...weird...gifts...]






[christmas with the cousins...and mum]

hope your holidays were great and new years is even better!

back to reality

yeah, it totes sucks going from 80 some degrees and sunny...in the middle of the ocean...to wind chill makes it feel like - something degrees...all within a freakin week. it's hard to believe that last week at this time...we were coming back from snorkeling in cozumel...or we were eating authentic mexican [though i didnt enjoy it as much as el canelo] at Carlos and Charlie's.

anyway, i have 1400 pictures to post...juuuuust kidding. no really, i have that many pics, but just kidding i'm not posting them all. i might try to post events of one day, each day...starting maybe over the holiday. we'll see how that works.

anyway, here's a few to make myself [and maybe yourself] sick when i [you] look out into the snow...

Friday night in New Orleans [day before the boat left]


Saturday morning in New Orleans


Saturday night on the boat before the life boat instructional thing


Sunday morning - still a little chilly - but enough sunshine to make us happy!

countdown ENDS

well, this is it. last day of work before our "SKANK" [Staci, Kristen, Amy, Nikkie, Katie] cruise!!! i can't believe it. we are all soooo excited. i don't see how i'm going to be able to focus today.

ALMOST TIME!

giveaways!

kt requested that i go to this site and check out the fun giveaways and awesome products! there's even more fun stuff at kltworks.com. i love the illustrations/prints.

giveaways are fun! i want to host my own...like i've said before...but i don't know what to giveaway...everything that was suggested last time was out of the question. [motorcycles? or something like that...come on people.]

decorations

kristen and i decorated our tree Monday night. it looks so great! it's so bright, we don't need any other lights on in the house...hahah.

friday we are decorating here at work...so we are planning on decorations, lunchie and hot chocolate for the middle part of the day. i'm excited. it will be funnnn!

tomorrow my sister is coming to the office to get pictures of the staff for the website...yay! photo shoooooot.

we are counting down the days till the cruise. i have so much to do this weekend it's ridiculous. laundry, shopping, singing, decorating, packing...eeeek! i'm so excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

thanksgiving and things

for thanksgiving i made pumpkin cupcakes with browned-butter cream cheese frosting. both of these recipes were thanks to Robin Sue @ big red kitchen. the cupcakes i made with the 2-ingredient pumpkin cake recipe [which, i must say...i botched first because i didn't READ right, and made the actual cake - adding the eggs, oil and water - and then the can of pumpkin. yeah, that was a disaster. i had to go back out to the store and get more pumpkin :( ]. the frosting, however, was amazing and turned out great! well, the cupcakes did too, after i made them the second time...

kristen made lemon squares...

pumpkin cupcakes w/ browned-butter cream cheese frosting. topped w/ cinnamon sugar.


i love thanksgiving dinner!


me and my cousin, rebekah. i can't believe she's almost 18 and graduating this year!!!

yesterday kc and i decorated our christmas tree. you can check her blog out for pictures, but i'll post some tomorrow i'm sure.

mock up!

one of our clients required us to provide a mock-up of our product - to show it's awesome features and things it can do. they requested three other mock-ups and will compare them all.

the exciting part is that when they are done with the mock-up...we get to take it back...and it will become my new workstation!!! and, because we knew this would happen...i was able to pick out all the colors! nothing fancy, but clean...fun!

the one i've been sitting at these past four years is great [however, it is like over 10 years old and was bought used]. this new one isn't much different in layout, but colors it is! anyway, here's some pics...

tmi...

today i called a customer to schedule an appointment, and i had to make the call to their house. the husband answered and i said, "Is Lucy* there?" "No," the husband replied, "well...i mean, she is...she's here...but she's not available." i gave him my name and reason for calling and asked if he would like me to schedule the time with him or wait to talk to her. he replied, "no, i'd rather you schedule the time with her. she'll be out of the bathtub shortly."




*names changed to protect the customer

my flowers

[i didn't get to post any of these until now, due to some bad lighting and getting home late the last few nights...so anyway, these are from my sweetheart :) occasion? him being sweet.]

they go so fast...[and a short twilight review]

the weekend is over. i saw twilight. i loved twilight. i saw twilight again. i'm still obsessed with twilight.

i am, however, trying to pace myself, in that i finished the 2nd book and don't have the 3rd or 4th yet. i don't want to be any more engrossed in this book craze than i already am. the first showing of twilight i saw on Friday with my cousin and her/our friend from church. i definitely geeked out several times and shed some tears. i adored it. sissy and i saw it again today. it was still awesome, but i think the awareness of some of the missing parts came out more with that second showing. even though we were still way too excited for it to start, listening to the soundtrack and watching Paramore song videos all through shared headphones on my iPhone while we waited 45 minutes early in the theater, some of the novelty definitely wore off the 2nd time around. its always fun to analyze a movie after the 2nd viewing, noting all the things you missed in the first, or understood different ways in the 2nd. all in all, i think i've got my fill of the movie for a while.

i'm NOT ready to go back to work tomorrow.

i received a WONDERFUL surprise Saturday night from the bf. a dozen beautiful red, orange and yellow roses and some chocolates [he knows my weaknesses too well]. he is the absolute best.

i'm very much looking forward to this three day [maybe two and a half day] week. i'm excited for the holiday...

can you say "snow"?

yeah. this morning sucked. it was SO bad at our house. i started driving, knowing i couldnt take 79 or go UP cherry street, but then i couldnt see 10 feet in front of me so i got nervous and wanted to wait it out at home for a bit, which made me turn UP cherry, causing me to get stuck, for about 15 minutes. trying to go up, reverse down and then not being able to see...getting stuck again, cars all over trying to go around me...me crying of course cause i didn't know what to do, calling dad and freaking him out, but not letting him come to me because i didn't want him to venture up that horrible way. eventually i reversed into some woman's driveway [she thought shoveling me out would work, but that wasn't going to help, i wasn't stuck IN snow...just ON it...].

anyway, i made it down cherry and by the time i got to 38th and cherry it was like a different world out there. barely snowing, not even 1/2 as much snow every where. my boss said he got a "dusting" last night. there's at LEAST a foot on my car.

i wonder if it is still snowing up there. i wonder how i'm going to get home...

but i AM going to see TWILIGHT tonight!!! who cares about the snow, that's happening. :)

V.v.V

this week has been entirely too crazy. tuesday i was out all night right after work at church. our youth pastor and volunteers hosted a Thanksgiving Dinner for the boarding school students who go to the school where i coach volleyball. i knew several of these students from bus trips back and forth to the volleyball and soccer games this past fall. it was a really great idea, as it didn't seem that the boarding school was doing anything special for the kids for Thanksgiving Day. we helped cook, serve and hung out with the students [playing wii, rockband and volleyball]. i also took some pictures. i think they had a lot of fun, and hope they can come back out for the youth events on Sunday nights.

i was asked this year to be "officially" invovled in the holiday decorating at the church. last year i was pulled in last minute to put ornaments on the massive trees on the stage. i'm enjoying it so far. everyone seems to have the same idea of how we want the church to look - classy, contemporary and in no way cheesey! i'm excited to spend a couple nights & a saturday putting it all together and hanging out with the ladies [and aaron] on the team.

i was planning on a night at home today and tomorrow...but it looks like all that has been jumbled around as well. tomorrow i'm going to see TWILIGHT with my cousin right after work and Saturday kc and i [and maybe kt] are going to Edinboro to visit Stace! i got to see her at GE today, that was fun.

anyway...it's still kinda snowy. rumor is we'll get 2-3 FEET this weekend. YIKES.

happy thursday everyone!

[weekend]

[chocolate cupcakes with marshmallow frosting inside]


[added melted unsweetened chocolate & cocoa powder to marshmallow frosting to for the top]

[used melted white chocolate and blue & green food coloring to add the polka dots]
[the baby's colors are teal & brown]


baby mckenzie




its a boy! well, courtney and dan's baby is a boy!

[last 4 pics thanks to rachers]

and i thought it totes approps to add some snowy pics...

[view from my window]




[outside the office. not. plowed. my little two-door civic wasn't happy about all this this morning. i got stuck in my spot in the parking lot at the apartment. so irritating. and i'm pretty sure my car is stuck where it's parked now.]

• kristen and i watched two movies on tv this weekend. it sucks only because it means you commit over 3 hours of your time because of all the stupid commercials
• i did laundry at the laundromat at our townhouses yesterday. the thing that sucked was all my clothes didnt dry in the dryer and i didn't have enough money to put them round again. plus, i didn't need the whole $1's worth of 45 min...oh well.
• ALMOST went to hibachi on saturday. unfortunately, we didnt call ahead soon enough so we ended up at Damons. it was still a fun time with Josh's brother & sister-in-law.
• the pics above are from a friend's surprise baby shower. yay!