roomie's birthday!!

today is my awesome roomie's birthday! she's PRETTY much the best roommate ever. i mean, she puts up with me and my craziness and messiness....:)

25 on the 25th!

...and she gets to spend her whole day in airports because her flights from TX to Erie got canceled :( :(

hopefully she'll be back in erie before the day ends...

this is from 4 years ago...i am attacking her

hanging out on the cruise

holding our family portrait, thanks to kt

plane ride home from the cruise, 2008

millcreek mall

on Saturday, Rach & I went to the mall to grab some grub before another viewing of Twilight [it's now at our dollar theater!!]

our mall has undergone some good changes this last year. they added a food court [they put in seating and like, 3 places to eat...], changed all the flooring, added skylights and changed the store fronts on a lot of the shops. it definitely looks nicer and cleaner, however on a Saturday night it is definitely the place to drop off your teens so you don't have to deal with them for 4 hours. i don't know how many groups of kids walking around we saw...

anyway, i convinced rach and my cousin to join me at the mall again last night to actually shop. 1/2 the stores had no power [the stores i wanted to visit] for the first hour we were there, but eventually i was able to get in to NY & Co and use my coupon!!

here's what i got last night:

[this jacket is awesome because it's stretchy and cotton.
i have an issue with stiff jackets when i wear them at work...
not conducive to a comfortable and productive work experience for me]

[also got one in white]

[from American Eagle]

i tried on some really cute pants from NY&Co [light grey] but unfortunately i take a "7" in their pants sizes...annnnd that size doesn't actually exist.

i also bought some brown heels for $12 from burlington! of course they are some random brand, but they're cute :)

redesign

we just got a bunch of overstock carpeting from a vendor in the Erie area to recarpet three areas at our office. the carpeting is...

shaw "without a care". this is going in the entry way


shaw "drops" carpet. this is going in AJ's [the boss] office and conference room


shaw "focus tile" carpet. this is going in the area that bethany and i sit in


zoomed out shoot of the "focus tile" carpet

the "focus tile" carpet matches our office AMAZINGLY. we have green and orange walls plus brick [that is yellow, purple, orange, brown...etc] in the area it is going in. so exciting!

we also are getting new furniture for that area. here's some layouts:

here's what it originally looked like [as of 1 month ago]

here's what it looks like now, with a customer's mock-up used in my area

here's what the final layout will be like...

here's a final layout in 3D view...

excited!!

i have found...

my mum shared this link with me this morning...

birthday gurl

Today is Staci's 25th birthday! She's the first of the SKANK's to turn the big 2-5!!! We celebrated with her on Sunday for lunch @ Max and Erma's and a movie ["He's Just Not That Into You"]. we were missing our last "K" though :(

yay stace :)

breakfast

roomie & i's breakfast - french toast w/ strawberries

where are the people that accused me?
the ones who beat me down and bruised me?
they hide just out of sight
can't face me in the light
they'll return but i'll be stronger

God, i want to dream again
take me where i've never been
i want to go there
this time i'm not scared
now i am unbreakable,
it's unmistakable
no one can touch me
nothing can stop me

sometimes it's hard to just keep going
but faith is moving without knowing
can i trust what i can't see
to reach my destiny
i want to take control, but i know better

God, i want to dream again
take me where i've never been
i want to go there
this time i'm not scared
now i am unbreakable,
it's unmistakable
no one can touch me
nothing can stop me

forget the fear it's just a crutch
that tries to hold you back
and turn your dreams to dust
all you need to do is just trust



unbreakable / fireflight

[thanks to sissy for the new CD!]

holy guacamole!

yes, i used that as my title. so sue me. no, don't sue me. that's the opposite of the point that i'm trying to make...
[5 points to the person who gets the quote reference!]

yesterday kristen and i [mostly kristen] made homemade guacamole. we based our recipe on Rachael Ray's "holy guacamole" recipe, but mostly just did our own thing.

we used [kc can correct me if i'm wrong...she made it, i just took pictures and gave input if asked for it]:

• 3 Avacados
• 3 Small Cloves of Garlic Minced - equivilent of 1 reg. size clove
• 2 tbsp of finely chopped onion
  
• 1 Fresh Jalapeno with seeds and veins removed
• 1 Canned Jalapeno including seeds and veins
• Juice from half a lemon
• 2 tbsp of medium salsa
• Salt and Pepper

**recipe edited thanks to Kristen**


sidenote #1: today is CRAZY windy!!
sidenote #2: i'm getting my hair done tonight! yippee!

the days go by...

i can't believe it's practically mid-February already!! do the years continue to go by quicker and quicker as you get older? i'm not sure i like that...

we [The Dundies] had our first volleyball game yesterday. it was quite an interesting experience - playing with Staci, who i played with only in high school [oh...7 years ago...], with my cousin, who i've mostly coached, with my friend bethany from work, who i really only know in the "work setting" and her 3 friends, who i had never met before. i think everyone's biggest fears were: 1) sucking from lack of play 2) having others think they consistently suck 3) missing a serve 4) taking someone else's ball. i think everyone seems to have a great and easy-going attitude, so we had a lot of fun. well, i did. we won two out of three games. at one point, i thought i saw my previous assitant coach, brenda, so i yelled "is that brenda!?" and bekah just looked at me and shook her head. "brenda" heard me somehow [she was like 40' away], so when she turned towards me i just looked away. then bekah proceeded to point to random people [mostly guys] and ask "is that brenda?" i went through a severe case of the giggles and couldn't focus.

i'm glad it's wednesday. i think kristen and i are making enchiladas and HOMEMADE GUACAMOLE tonight!! tomorrow i'm getting my hair cut & dyed! yay!!!!!!!

the rest of the new furniture for the "Design Department" at work [as we decided to call it] is shipping next Friday. my boss is going to be getting some other furniture for his office. it's going to look really great. it's Knoll [of course], the series being "Autostrada".

pain in the arm.

on Monday, kc and i took a grueling [fairly easy, go at your own pace, didn't break a sweat] weights & abs class. for some reason, one exercise MURDERED my left arm. i'm not sure what happened - if those 3lb weights were ridiculously too much, if i did the exercise wrong or if i just randomly pulled a muscle. it's been on and off hurting since then [more so when i'm at work, and my arm is resting on my desk], but you would know this if you follow me on twitter or facebook :). anyway, hopefully its going to continue to improve [it feels better today] because we plan on going back on Monday and i'm starting a volleyball league with my cousin, Stace and friend from work and her friends.

PS: our volleyball team is made up of friends who LOVE THE OFFICE. we've named ourselves "The Dundies", with awesome shirts [designed by myself and rachers]. this is the best pic i have as of right now:

i'm looking forward to a low-key weekend of Meta Cafe tonight, not much other than some cleaning & hanging out tomorrow and singing at church on Sunday.

also, i enjoyed the office last night. it's great watching it at my sister & brother-in-law's, because every time i look at brian he has his face in his hands from major 3PE, which makes me laugh even more.

souper bowl weekend

for our superbowl celebration [roomie kristen, BF josh and i], kristen made chicken tortilla soup [it was supposed to be like max and erma's...not quite, but it was still very very yummy] and i made s'mores cookie bars.

we didn't have a pot big enough to make this 16-serving recipe, so kc used the crock pot


freshly grated cheese and fried tortilla pieces made this soup freakin awesome. ok, anything fried is awesome...


yum!


s'mores cookie bars. recipe found through Betty Crocker online

oopsie. i probably should have let them cool more...i had a little accident when taking them out...
[and i should have added more marshies...]

upon eating the bars, kristen and i decided that laying out Hershey bars on top [or milk chocolate chips] instead of regular chocolate chips would have been even better and more like a s'more. oh well...next time...

josh said this dessert is now his 2nd favorite, preceeded by his Gram's "Carmalitas". i found a recipe for them at pillsburybaking.com, i'm not sure if that's what she uses but it's similar.

friday i made reservations at Matthew's Trattoria for josh & i on Valentine's day. it was two weeks in advance and i asked them, "is it too early?" and the woman said, "no, it's almost too late!" luckily, we got it. i love it there. the atmosphere is so much fun!! but their website doesn't do it justice...i'm excited!