Plastic Blow-Up Snow Globes

I want to poke a hole in every one I see.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Celebrate Me Home

I'll be home in one week!!!! 

I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE MY FAMILY!!!!!!!!

Home for the holidays,

I believe I've missed each and every face,

Come on and play my music,

Let's turn on the love light in the place

It's time I found myself,

Totally surrounded in your circles. . .

Oh, my friends

Please, celebrate me home,

Give me a number,

Please, celebrate me home

Play me one more song, 

That I'll always remember,

And I can recall,

Whenever I find myself too all alone,

I can sing me home.

~Kenny Loggins

Business trip

I was in NYC this last weekend for a neuroendoscopy course for work. Sounds pretty cool, huh? :o) I'll be traveling a bit with my new marketing job. This was the first trip. I'd never stayed overnight in the city before. It was pretty cool, but would've been soooo much better if Michael had been there with me.

Here's the view out of the top floor of the hotel:

At dinner in Grand Central Station:

So thankful. . .

Our new church building!!!

Goodbye, Sweet Gingerbread. . .

Happy Anniversary, Michael!

4 years. 

I love you.

And One Year Ago from TODAY. . .

We moved in to our new home in Pennsylvania!

One Year Ago. . .

We packed up to move. . .

Wanting too much

I used to think that the reason I am indecisive - honestly, I can't make a decision to save my life - is because I am a perfectionist. While I am definitely that, I just had an enormous revelation that it's not my perfectionistic tendencies that cripple me. . .it's that I want too much - everything. I want every possible option.

I want both the dutch chocolate and the strawberry cheesecake flavors of ice cream. So I take 15 minutes debating in my head why one might be superior in this particular case. I want this job and that one. I want to live here, but I want to live there. I want to grow my hair out long, but I want a cute, short cut. I want the ribs AND the cheeseburger at the Broadway Pub, and send our waitress away 5 times because I've not yet decided.

I want to write, knit, scrapbook, sleep more, paint, organize, exercise. . .you see my dilemma. Not enough time. Not enough me to take it all in, take every path. I don't want to miss out on any of it. Any of the possibilities.

A friend posted this quote on her facebook page. This clarifies it a bit:

"I can never read all the books I want; I can never be all the people I want and live all the lives I want. I can never train myself in all the skills I want. And why do I want? I want to live and feel all the shades, tones and variations of mental and physical experience possible in life. And I am horribly limited."

-Sylvia Plath

Office Madness 2008

That's right! It's that time again!!!! Season 5 of The Office premieres this Thursday, which means the madness has arrived!

If you are interested in participating, just email me or comment with your email address and I'll send you the entry form. It's way fun. [Yours truly tied for first last season. :o)]

Maine Vacation!

We took a week-long trip to Brooklin, Maine a couple of weeks ago and had a blast! 

Here are some pictures from our vacation. 

Pumpkin Spice Latte

Welcome back, Fall. . .

Way-Back Wednesday

It is now time for me to end my way-back Wednesdays. This is not because I want to, necessarily, but I've run out of old pictures of me! They're all back in Iowa. 

I will leave you with a couple oldies though. They're not of me, but of my Grandma Jean as a baby, and of her and my Grandpa Chris. . .LOVE these pictures!

Stay tuned for another series beginning in a couple weeks!

Promises

I had promised a photo of my long-awaited birthday gift. Here you go!

I LOVE it. I'm very used to using a pc, so it's going to take a while before I'm completely comfortable using the mac. But it's so fun! While I'm at it, here are a couple photos of the craft room (our 2nd bedroom).

Family

The past month has been a wonderful time for us. . .my sister visited a few weeks ago. It was so fun to have her all to myself for the weekend - Michael was camping, so it was like a long slumber party! Some photos of our time in NYC:

And just this last weekend my parents were in town. Michael and Dad golfed on Saturday - it sounds like they had a great time. My mom and I went shopping in the meantime, of course! We took a long drive to show them the area. We played LOTS of cards and celebrated my mom's bday!

Thank you everyone for visiting us!!! We love you so much!!!!!!

Way-Back Wednesday

Way-Back Wednesday

Dad's birthday in 1987 - me on the right.

Way-Back Wednesday -- on Thursday

We've had internet issues for a few days. Just got it back.

Here's my way-back.

Way-Back Wednesday

June, 2004

New 'do

Ah, back to a normal haircut. After my disastrous salon experience in March, it was nice to go to a hairdresser who listened to what I wanted. Like therapy.

Us. . .

. . .a few weeks ago:

Way-Back Wednesday

5th Birthday Party!

Way-Back Wednesday

This week's way-back is dedicated to my sweet cousin Anna who gets married on Saturday! We soooo wish we could be there! Congratulations cousin!!!! We love you! And welcome, Joe, to our crazy fam!

So here's the way-back. My mom and her brother Kerry from quite a few years ago. . .I'm not sure how old she was in this picture.

I've always thought that Anna looks like my mom. Here she is in 2004. (With her mom and our Grandma) Crazy, huh?!

I'm Still Alive!!!

Hello! I'm still here! Man, I really haven't posted in a while, have I? Blogging, or rather, not blogging, has come to be a thing I actually feel guilty about. I'm working through that. . .

There are things to catch up on I know, but I'll need to give abbreviated updates now, as the afternoon has wasted away and I have to be somewhere in 20 minutes.

My birthday was a few weeks ago. It was wonderful. I felt very loved by a lot of people. People back home new people here. . .I'm very blessed. I kept a collection going for a couple weeks of all the cards:

One of my favorites - from my sister:

The very sweet breakfast in bed I got:

And the well-meaning cake Michael made for me - his first two-layer cake ever!

My incredibly highly anticipated birthday gift(s) arrived in shifts over the past couple of weeks. (Photos to come)

A week after my birthday we had our first visitor from Iowa! Jen (previous co-worker turned friend) flew in with her son Danny to spend a few days with us. We had a blast. . . did some serious shopping, went to the City, and hung around our place some. It was SO FUN to have her here.

Michael's birthday was a week after Jen's visit. We went to Bushkill Falls and hiked around all the beautiful waterfalls. 

When we got home he walked in to find his beautiful new golf clubs!

I just booked our plane tickets home for Christmas. Ahhhh. So nice to have that done. I've been so focused lately on scoping out prices and picking the best travel dates, and, consequently, thinking about being home and with family and friends. Now that the flights are booked I have to pull myself back to the present. Five months to go! The countdown has begun!

Oh, and I know I'm pitifully behind on my movie reviews. Suck it up. I'll get to it when I get to it.