the pure interest

My great friend and techy mastermind Sarah (css and tech mastermind of global erie and interactive designer for the washington post) told me about a fun little web program that will really flip you out.

(: ɹǝʇʇıʍʇ uı unɟ s,ʇı ˙uʍop ǝpısdn ʇı sdılɟ ʇı puɐ ƃuıɥʇʎuɐ uı ǝdʎʇ noʎ ʎllɐıʇuǝssǝ

So like I said in my title, things are crazy. I’m trying to juggle a lot and trying to figure out the best way to do it. I know I can though - officially after this weekend my stance is “no” on anything extra, as one of the things I’m trying to do in my life is ‘ruthlessly eliminate hurry’ . . . it is near impossible though when you work so many jobs and are so involved.

And truly, I think that if I improved my time management, the situation would improve all around. So t hat’s on the list too.

Also I started working on a new desktop background, so expect that next week!!

Have a great weekend everyone.

beginning march 16 and carrying on until mid april is one of the most crazy birthday seasons for my family and friends.

march 16 was kristin

march 26 (today) is danielle, biz, and sue ( a woman i work with). Happy Birthday Ladies!!

march 27 (tomorrow) is my beautiful sister

march 28 (friday) is my father-in-law

april 2 is me!

So happy birthday to all… I am so thankful you are in my life!

*****************

warning: girly, shallow content following:

So for my birthday, basically I just told Brian to sort of let me spend some money on something. At first I thought I would want to do it on flowers/plants, but that is still probably a month or so in the future due to how cold it still is. Then I thought maybe a beautiful new ring or piece of jewelry? But I have to really want something and it’s probably going to be too pricey anyway. So at the mall yesterday, I happened into New York & Company, and basically went insane. I ended up gathering over $300 worth of merchandise, putting some things back, and then saving $170.53 with coupons, account opening and a special “birthday discount” the girls gave me when I told them why I was splurging. The truth is, I could have probably spent way more and there were some items I put back, but I was in desperate need of new pants (as you’ll see) for both work and being active, so it was a due-time trip. What’s happened is I have my “very skinny” set of clothes that right now, being about 10-15 lbs heavier then I was at the skinny point, aren’t fitting me great. So I’ve been wearing my medium set of clothes, which I purged a lot of when I lost all the weight, so the pickings are slim. Finally I decided it was time to just accept this size and keep working, but if I need to take in some of these pants a bit in the future, that is ok.

So without further ado, here is the fun I had yesterday.

I bought my first complete suit:

And two more pairs of pants in the wear-to-work “City” line, which are really great. Keep in mind, I have not had a pair of khakis that fit me for about a year:

Two pairs of workout “yoga” pants - so comfy and flattering:

Some cute cardigan sweater/toppers - the basics:

And this shirt which I am totally in love with and wearing today. It is purple and brown with a really pretty print. It looks perfect with the brown city slacks and I am wearing my pearls from Danielle’s wedding, plus the cream cardigan shown above. They also had this shirt in other colors, including a gorgeous coral, but it was just a little too pricey to get more than one.

Anyway - thanks for checking out my clothing purchases. This was a big one for me (cost and necessity wise) but it was also fun to find things that fit me well.

I also stopped into bath & body works to get danielle a little something and found myself a few cute goodies along the way as well:

for danielle– this lucious yummy smoothie-smelling candle, and a lip tint

For me, another lip tint and the lip buffer and a face powder bronzer. Have any of you tried these lip tints? They are by far my favorite. They add a little hint of color and wonderful tasting mint, and they don’t get sticky or gross.

*************************************

That concludes my girly and shallow post. Thanks for reading!

I had a beautiful easter with my in-laws and family who are still here. My grandma wasn’t feeling well enough to make it, but we did get to visit her and my other aunt and uncle later who couldn’t make it either… so we sort of had two visits that day. Other than eating way too much, it was awesome. Here are some pictures for you!  

• setting up my first blog through wordpress through a domain name by myself. Ok Sarah helped me a bit, until I found the right instructions!

• baking Rachael Ray cheesy corn bites for an after-wedding surprise shower in which I ingested way too may pieces of beautiful pink wedding cake.

• playing with my kitties

• joining snapFitness, since I’m really quite sick of the weight gain and I lost my broken elliptical a few months ago. I still love my turbo jam but my body needs more straight-up cardio and some zoning-work-out time (you know the kind where you just move but don’t think)
• cleaning then re-cleaning and then re-cleaning my house. How can two people be SO INCREDIBLY MESSY????

• talking with good friends
• feeling like an insane person at work and at home, procrastinating yet being productive, missing people, struggling with javascripts…
• celebrating kristin’s birthday with her at her house, and hopefully making her day a bit brighter with the surprise of *me* and springy flowers
• watching the piles of snow melt into disgusting dirty wetness and typical-march-erie-ugliness
• washing almost every textile in my entire house so prepare for my in-laws Easter visit (we are excited to see them!) Yes, all the below blankets were washed and Tycho has successful re-cat-allergized them.

• singing at church a lot and preparing to help for a beautiful Good Friday experience
• watching my husband do his first baby dedication, which he did incredible at, and watching him hold beautiful Lydia basically made me want to have a baby right here, right now. (photo courtesy of the parents)

 

 

 

———-

 

 

Is it really almost Easter, and seriously Wednesday already tomorrow?? I feel like my life is flashing before my eyes sometimes. I am excited for this holiday and remembering the point of everything I believe in. 

 

Well… thanks for sticking with this.

 

Love,

me 

Danielle tagged me to do this. It’s been a long while since I’ve done any sort of survey, so here we go!!

4 Jobs You’ve Had

Graphic Designer/Art Director - Obviously this is my current and most important job, as well as longest held. It started with an internship my junior year of college that I got through a photographer I knew who worked with the agency. I stayed on part time until they had to lay me off the winter of 2003, but then I got hired back in May of 2004 right at graduation (which I still count my blessings for everyday). This is a great place to work, and of course every job has it’s non-perks, but some of those (the schedule) have been helped by my drop to part-time and on-the-side freelance designer career. I work in a big old house that is so amazing and I have my own office. There’s not too much I could ask for except maybe a few less last-minute projects

Campus Minister - This was my workstudy in college. Basically, I didn’t do anything but greet people coming into the Campus Ministry office, sort papers and envelopes occasionally, eat pretzels, clean the sink and drink hot chocolate. Oh and sometimes I would design a horrible little alumni newsletter on their tiny old and slow PC with I-don’t-even-remember-the-name-of-the-obscure-program I used. It was a great place and I met many friends there… it was cozy and comfortable and felt like home. I made $5.15 an hour, but hey, I mainly got to do my homework so it worked out ok

Communications Specialist at Erie Insurance - This was a good paying, good company but kill-me-now boring job. I sat at a desk in a cubicle with headphones on listening to depressing dictations of insurance claims, hearing about accidents, floods, robberies, damage and sickness. It was very hard for me, and made me miss the advertising agency a ton (this was the job I had in between internship and full time). The environment was very rigid and I felt like I was always being watched and clocked. I remember whenever I would come into the windowless area, my hands would swell up from the heat and stress and I would have to take all my rings off. The only redeeming factor is that one of my best friend’s Kristin worked there, and when she was there, it was a great place to be - but it was rare because we worked different shifts. Kristin still does this job and she does it amazingly, and I totally give her props for it.

Retail Salesperson at Plato’s Closet- Ever heard of Plato’s closet? Yeah, that place where you bring in gently used clothing and get paid for it? Well… the pros of this job were the people. I met some great girls there and developed pretty close relationships. The second pro was getting first pick of cute clothes. I had more clothes when I worked there then any other time in my life. But a lot of other things about the job sucked. Telling people their clothes didn’t fit the requirements was basically one of the hardest things ever. People would get so offended. sometimes clothes wouldn’t be clean and it was very very difficult to not cause offense in telling those people their clothes had an odor (we were required to). I didn’t like closing the store, but I didn’t mind running the register. I did this for about 2-3 years.

4 Places I’’ve Been

England (from Wales to Manchester to Liverpool) - My father is from Liverpool and he has family and friends scattered in all the above mentioned parts. My sister and I were actually born there so it has been good to go back when we can, but I really have no early childhood memories from it. I do love it there, but I have to say I’m glad my parents moved here, I am definitely more Americanized. Last time we went we met our friends there who flew down for a marriage proposal. That was awesome!

Toronto - I know this isn’t that cool, but when we went it was usually pretty cool. Mainly Niagra falls, and one time a worship conference.

Maryland - there to see Brian’s family a few times a year. I LOVE LOVE LOVE it in Maryland. We are usually around Baltimore to Bel Aire.

NYC and New Jersey - We took a trip there to see our good friends who were there due to Mike playing for the New Jersey Devils. It was a really cool trip and we enjoyed ourselves a lot.

Amy

Michelle

Katie

On Sunday, the city was kind of reeling from the aftermath of the crazy snow falls over the weekend! Brian and I ended up in the house from Friday night until Sunday morning. (Naturally, the winter retreat was canceled due to the weather) On Friday night I made Rachael Ray Sausage Pie, but I made it more like a casserole. It was pretty yummy and fed us the whole weekend!

As Saturday wore on, we had to call a friend to come plow out the snow at the bottom of our driveway because it was so heavy and high, we couldn’t shovel it ourselves. Because of Brian’s back (2 herniated discs at the young age of 26), he can only do a small amount of shoveling, and I do my best but I’m only able to handle so much. It was amazing what a plow can do in 30 seconds that takes us humans hours to do ourselves!

Truthfully Sunday was quite beautiful - most of the main roads were melted, but a lot of the side roads are still struggling as the plows never got to them. And because so many people in the city don’t have off-street parking, a common site was cars barely visible, plowed into their spots with 5 foot high snow drifts around them. But the sky was blue, and we were able to attack some other portions of the snow. I hired a nice young strong guy from church to shovel our sidewalk and he and his dad came and did an AMAZING job! I was so relieved to know that people could freely traverse the sidewalks again. (sort of) Sunday night we had a get together with our music teams from the church, and ended up getting stuck in the driveway of the host’s home which was a steep long hill. We had to get towed out! But the great news is that we found out our insurance will cover it so I’m going to send in the bill.

Another fun thing that happened Sunday is when we got home, the pilot light had gone out on our furnace, and the house temperature had dropped to a whopping 49 degrees! This is Brian, Danielle and Candace dealing with the cold

Alright I need to do some work, asap! Thanks for reading if you did