Wednesday, April 30, 2008

things i'm looking forward to...

  • this bid to be done with [check: due at 10am, sent in at 957am]
  • summmmmer! [or more consistent spring/summer weather...]
  • tonight with josh!
  • days/nights at the beach
  • new Death Cab For Cutie CD [MAY 13!!]
  • CHICAGO / NEOCON [June]
  • Nikkie's housewarming party [also June]
  • getting to see my BFF Alicia [again, June]
  • the ushe [don't know when this will be]
  • Friday - meta café & leaving work early to do my cousin & friend's hair for their formal!
  • softball league!
  • moving out with KRISTEN!!!
  • next pittsburgh trip to see kt & mikey! [and koto and weeze...etc etc]
  • your comments on this post!
what are you looking forward to???

Monday, April 28, 2008

weekend update!

this weekend was busy, crazy & awesome.

here we start out friday morning with lots of trucks and construction in front of my neighbor's house. her mum wanted me to get a picture of it i think...



we continue on to after work, when i baked cupcakes for Josh's early birthday present, and put the carrier to use!



saturday Kristen & I went to Pittsburgh to see and paint Nikkie & Matt's new house! no painting took place, however, we did pick out all her colors [except for one]. i'm very excited for her to get the colors on the walls and all the furniture in! housewarming party is scheduled for June.



Saturday night we had dinner at The Church Brewery and met KT & Mike out. it was awesome, but very dark, lending to no food pics [sorry!]. here's some shots of the girls at the brewery [er, ok, it was formerly a church]. we had spinach, feta & smoked gouda dip plus 3 pizzas split between the 6 of us - Pierogie pizza, Four Cheese, and Spinach, Artichoke, Feta and some other yummy things Pizza.


returning home Sunday included wrapping Josh's birthday prezzies...which, um, the paper i bought was absolutely amazing, so of course, here's some pics of that. oh, and if you care as to what i got him, it was some Wii accessories and the Star Wars Trilogy [as in, the first three made - 4, 5, 6]!



Josh & his sister share the same birthday, which we celebrated at his gramma's house with some yummy food and even more yummy desserts.

awe, and here is Josh enjoying himself after taking some non-flattering picture of someone...


the rest of the night was spent hanging out with his family and playing his new wii!

i'd say the weekend was a success.
i hope you had a great birthday Josh!!

Thursday, April 24, 2008

april shines!


spring is here! [i mean, duh, we all knew that, but here's actual PROOF people!]
ps: the pictures don't look HALF as cool until you click on them. i wanted to shrink them [i like how they look doubled up] but that causes some weirdo pixilation...things...so click! click away!






the coolest thing about this picture [above] is that the focus ended up being in the tree branch that is reflecting in the mirror....crazy!









flower's curtosy of kt's mum & dad

dinnnerz part 2

so dinner last night...was mostly a success... something happened in the preparing of the "rice" that caused it to not suck up as much liquid and be as soft as i would have liked, but i think it still turned out well. and then the chicken...we thought was done...but then we were too scared to let anyone eat it [brian ate it anyway] so we threw it back in the pan. we had strawberry shortcake for dessert :)


rach has more [better] pics, but probably won't post them...for a while. we also forgot to take a picture of the finished product. :(

but, i think i ruined my shirt though...cause juices from the chicken decided to attack me and my shirt while cooking....
so i bought two more of them online :) but different colors...cause they didn't have the red one :(. that makes me sad.......

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

dinnnerz

rach & i are making this tonight:



thanks to Rachael Ray.

oh my gosh!!

i forgot the most exciting news of all! looks like my boss, his wife & i are going to NEOCON again! NeoCon is a Trade Show for Designers, Architects, Furniture Enthusiasts, and anyone else in the industries that fall in between. it's located in Chicago on June 9-11. last time, we left Sunday morning from Erie, drove to Cleveland, and flew from there to Chicago and returned Tuesday. We stayed at the University Club in Chicago, which was awesome. I had my own room, in which my bed was so big i almost had to get a running start and jump to get on top of it. i don't know if we are staying there again, but i don't care, i'm SO EXCITED!!!!!!

i'd post pics from the last trip, but i don't know where they are. this year Knoll is celebrating 70 years in the industry. hopefully this means for an amazing showroom, lots of cool new products and unveiling's, and lots of celebrating... last year [we didn't go], Knoll won "Best of Neocon 2007" which is really neat. Knoll is our main furniture line. they sell contract furniture [panel systems, work stations, private offices] as well as seating, conference furniture and some residential furniture.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

a few things

a few weeks ago i re-subscribed to one of my favorite magazines, Real Simple, that had never renewed my subscription for. i looooove that magazine, and seeing that Blueprint is inexistent, Real Simple could take it's place. anyway, to my point! with my Real Simple subscription, i received a small but informative "mini-magazine". in it were 101 different uses for household items [use olive oil for shaving! lemon juice for tough, stuck-on stains!]. another section was about how to "be more awake" in the morning. some of these suggestions include:
  1. limit yourself to one-two cups of coffee. any more than this can cause you to be jittery and unfocused. i ALWAYS have at least two, maybe three cups of coffee in the morning. my new goal is have one or two, then switch immediately to water.
  2. don't leave the house wet - as in, don't come in to work, school, etc. with wet hair. that is a super-obvious sign of being tired. it seems pretty obvious, but i can definitely tell a difference in myself when i come in to work with wet hair instead of dry.
  3. eat your breakfast! again, another obvious one. but what i've heard is to make a point to sit down and eat your breakfast, don't do it on the go. this will help you to feel more full and make it really sink in that you DID eat breakfast. proteins, carbs and a little fat is suggested to really tie you over. i'm starting my day today with a cup of coffee, oatmeal [cinnamon roll flavored of course] and a banana.
i don't have the mini-mag with me, so i can't give anything more than what i remember...which is what i gave.

i have to go up to Target again tonight cause my CUPCAKE CARRIER is cracked! ugh. irritated.

i got these from Old Navy yesterday. LOVE LOVE LOVE them. bought them for the pattern only of course. they even had soap dispensers and candles with said pattern.




also, check out this AWESOMELY AMAZING wrapping paper from Hallmark, for their (PRODUCT) RED collection. anything you buy through the (PRODUCT) RED collection benefits those with AIDS living in Africa.

Monday, April 21, 2008

weekend surprises!

my first weekend surprise came Friday afternoon when i found out that the powerpoint i had done for Saturday night service at our church was the WRONG SONGS. that kind of sucked. luckily, it was easy enough to copy and paste the right songs/lyrics into the slides and use the same formatting and pictures as before.

my second weekend surprise came Friday night at about 11:00pm when one of my best friend's [kt] called me to tell me she got ENGAGED!!! [check out her blog for a few more pics and later on, the full story!]. below is her ring and the happy couple the day after the event.



kristen, kt and i celebrated with dinner/appetizers at Plymouth, then champagne and the third "surprise" [if one can call it a surprise]. iNSPiRAL's practice space [aka, Dustin's garage] was turned into a mini show for us! Couches, coffee tables and a great view of the boys. we got to hear their full set and they sounded awesome!!!



maybe the fourth surprise would be the emergence of this little guy...a nasty millipede! kt somehow caught it under this cup, where we left it, and ran to watch the boys.



i guess that is it for surprises. however, i did go to Target and purchase the cupcake carrier and 13-cupcake holder that i wanted. i also did some shopping for a special someone's birthday coming up.

oh, and i got a few more of the "Greeneco" products: