gifts

my aunt [and uncle] bought me some really fun things for kitty/house sitting for them when they were in Savannah, GA a few weeks ago.


awesome officey things are by Galison:

knowing my love for cupcakes...
(not sure where she found them, but they are by Ganz, image from theweedpatch.com)

and finally, a glass ornament that you hang in a window. don't have a pic right now, i'll try to get one up.

growing pains

i'm a typical girl. i don't like spiders. i don't like bugs. i don't like worms. i'm not a big fan of digging in the dirt on my hands and knees.

this is why i've never attempted gardening.

well, that and the fact that living with my parents proves hard to garden - they don't like to listen to anyone else's ideas about where things should go :)

kristen and i have a small enclosed patio at the back of our townhouse. it is mostly concrete but has some dirt and weeds lining around the fencing.

i was given a lot of plants for my birthday [including an herb garden from roomie] so we decided to put some of them outside. i planted hyacinths from my gramma [they are a littttle wilted] and a few other pretty plants. the herbs were planted in the pot they came with [curly parsley, cilantro, chives, sweet basil, thyme and marjoram] and several pretty flowers in a terracotta pot. Kristen planted some of her favorite flowers - Forget-Me-Not's - in another corner. they are her favorite because they are Penn State's favorite ;). we also planted some of my favorite wild flowers - sweet williams - on either side of the already-blooming ones i planted.

the "experience" wasn't too bad, other than the fact that i was sweaty and dirty when done and saw more worms in that dirt than ever in my life...and i felt awful since i decapitated about 50 worms in the process...

i'm excited to see the plants grow and especially to have fresh herbs! once they get growing, we will probably bring those inside.

now all we need are some fancy [and cheap] adorondack chairs, a table, lights, a hammock, an umbrella, a grill...

birthday boy

today is Josh's birthday!!!

we celebrated yesterday at his gram's house [it is also his sister Alyssa's birthday].

Josh is pretty much the awesomest guy ever, if that's even a word. he is so talented and so sweet! i could not ask for a better guy.

Josh and Gram - April 26, 2009

Happy Birthday, Joshua.
You are my best friend and the man that I love more than anything.
I can't thank you enough for being you and for loving me.

Florida - Beginning to End

well it's pretty obvious i'm not going to really get around to a long Florida post, but really, i'm sure you all don't care to read about the crazy things i did with my BFF.

so...here's a rundown.
"what's a rundown?"

anyway...

my flight got in to Orlando at midnight on Friday "morning". Alicia surprised me with having a CD of our theme song "Show Me the Way" which we laughed and jammed out to on the way to her house. we ended up staying up until 230am, talking with her parents [they moved down to FL from Erie 6 months ago]. i was amazed by the palm trees and the warm weather [it's been so long!].

here's some highlights from each day:
Friday

• iHop for breakfast - Alicia doesn't eat like a normal person so i had to remind her i was hungry
  
• Epcot in the evening
• very late dinner at Planet Hollywood - where Alicia works
  

Saturday

• Animal Kingdom - awesome safari and someone gave us express passes for the "river raft rapids" whatever ride
• Bahama Breeze - one of Alicia's favorite restaurants in the Orlando area
• Magic Kingdown - we saw the fireworks over Cinderella's castle, went on the teacups ride, carousel, snow white's something & had ice cream

Sunday

• UNIVERSAL STUDIOS - The Simpson's Ride replaced the Back to the Future ride. it was the best.
• Islands of Adventure - mostly we walked around and just took it all in - Alicia had never been there before
• christened her new pool - i forced her to jump in with me at 10pm

Monday

• went to Cocoa Beach. total fail. it was so windy the sand was literally being whipped at our bodies. after the 1hr drive [+ 25 minutes cause we kept missing the entrances to the beach], we sat on the beach for a 1/2 hour then drove back to her place.
  
• swam in her pool, in the rain
• Orlando Ikea. HUGE. [Alicia fell in love]
• The Cheesecake Factory for dinner. AWESOME. we sat at the bar, which i thought was a lot of fun [the wait was almost an hour].

Tuesday

• breakfast at Perkin's [our favorite spot!]
• back to the airport

here's some picture highlights as well:

isn't my BFF beautiful??

accomplished.

things i've accomplished today:

• bought new iPhone case [sike, i did that yesterday] [i believe Rach & @krislynch also have this case...]
• "dressed up" for work [KC was shocked]
• waited in a waiting room for a client for 1/2 hour
• had a S'Mores "snowstorm" [blizzard]
• ate a leftover subway sub
  
• purchased faceplate for CD player [FINALLY - this involved ripping out my old CD player to get the model #]
• figure out a fabric ordered for a job isn't approved on the item it's supposed to be going on. great. almost solved the issue...
• charged my iPhone
• thought about Dad on his plane to England...
  

wow. doesn't seem very productive.
volleyball game tonight!!!

old memories

dad gave me some old pictures of our gramma for a powerpoint for her funeral on Friday. i love this one.

(yeah, that's me on the right. rach on the left)

fail.

i have no desire to write a happy post about my awesome trip to Florida. i don't really think i can find happiness inside me right now...

my dad is leaving for England to see his family on Tuesday. my Gramma Mason's funeral will be next Friday.

i'm going over to visit my Gramma on my mum's side tonight. a few weeks ago we were told her cancer is bad and she has 6 months left. yesterday i found out they think it's much less than that.

it is an absolutely beautiful day outside, but inside i feel completely miserable.

sad news

every so often, my sister and i have been posting news about my grandparents in England. the last thing posted was probably that my grandparents were OK, though my grandma has been mentally losing it for the past three years. grandad is doing fairly well, he's mind is still there, though he is in no way as strong as he used to be.

my dad called last night to tell me his mother had died in her sleep. i think she was in her late 80's. her name was Grace.

family trip to England, 2006. last time my sister & i saw them.


most recent picture of the two. these were taken some time in March 2009.

Easter

for Easter we had lasagna, meatballs & salad. for dessert we had cherry pie and cake!

the top of the cake has green-dyed coconut, peeps and Cadbury mini eggs.

apartment happenings

a few weeks ago, roomie's dad came over and helped us finish putting together our living room.

the shelf above the tv and mirror have been sitting in the apartment ready to be put on the wall for over 4 months. finally up and looks awesome!! i love where the mirror is.




finally found four matching frames [big lots sweet deal $6 each!]. the pictures are from our cruise to mexico and our stop in New Orleans. the teal artwork above the lamp was done by kt and given to kristen for Christmas. it fits perfectly and looks great! i love it.

i want to post pictures of my room, but it's pretty much a mess all the time because i can't figure out how to organize my crap well enough. hopefully soon...

it's coming...

i swear i'm going to post about my trip to Florida, but this week is insanely busy [i'm helping with Good Friday / Easter services at church], and seeing as this is my last day at work before a 3-day weekend i should focus on that...


if you're in Erie you should definitely check out Grace Church's Good Friday & Easter Services. you can find all the info on the website - whoisgrace.com.

warning: complaining.

i'm home in Erie and not too happy about it.


i went from sunny skies and 80 degrees to cloudy, snowy and 30s.

i went from waking up, relaxing, taking my time and spending all day at Disney parks w/ my bff to setting the wrong alarm, rushing, doctor's appointment, working and no bff.

the only thing i'm happy about being in Erie for is Josh, my family and my Erie friends.

i'm sick, i'm stressed, and my gramma's test results came back yesterday - there's much more cancer and they're giving her a time frame.

anyway, Florida was awesome and i'm done complaining. i am glad to be back to Erie...it's just going to be really hard to get back into my normal routine with such a busy week [with easter] and then house/kitty sitting all next week.

sissy's bday!

today is my sissy's birthday. she's PRETTY much the most awesome and bestest sister ever. she is an amazing photographer, singer, graphic designer and friend. she is insanely creative, hilarious, sweet, compassionate and the most loving person ever. i can't explain how wonderful she is, supportive and how grateful i am to have her as my sister!!!

growing up with her has been such a blessing. when we were younger, i would always copy her, cause she was SO COOL! she did not like that! now, we share pretty much everything - music, movies, clothes [or just buy the same ones] and passions. i mean, sometimes, we act like the same person.

Rachel - You are amazing.

I LOVE YOU! HAPPY 27th BIRTHDAY!!!!!!

we celebrated Rachel's birthday with dinner at Olive Garden and back to their place for fruity cake.


for Rach's bday, i used a "tart/flan" pan my friend Bethany bought me from TJ Maxx. i didn't have a good recipe to use for the cake, so i used a boxed white cake [accidentally adding 1 egg & 2 whites instead of 3 egg whites] and added a little lemon juice and zest. i topped this with strawberries, blueberries & raspberries and homemade whipped cream. the whipped cream had 2 oz of cream cheese, lemon juice & zest blended together, then 1 1/2 cups [i think] of heavy cream. that was all blended together to a soft consistency. and, i must say, it was awesome.

for her birthday, brian bought them A TRIP TO ITALY!!!!!!!
the first image of bri & rach he was saying "today is ALL ABOUT HER." it was funny. the second she is just realizing what's going on, third is her "freak out" and fourth her thank you!"