12.27.2010

Love Language

This is my "Ah-ha" face. Sort of. Close enough. Had to throw a picture in the post and this one was the best I could find.



I thought this was a fun quiz and I felt my scores were right on. According to Dr. Gary Chapman everyone has their own way of expressing and interpreting love.

My scores were:
Quality time 10
Physical Touch 8
Words of Affirmation 6
Receiving Gifts 6
Acts of Service 0
Here is where to find the meaning of the languages. I found it pretty interesting and makes me think the person you are with should understand your love language and vice versa.

100th Post

As I was creating this post I realized it is the 100th post on the blog. It hit me that the 100th post should be significant, like 100 things to do before your 100th birthday, or 100 things I love about my friends, you know, something like that. Since nobody wants to read a post that long and since I'm not feeling that creative today I'm going with my planned post of Christmas recap. But don't worry, I've got a significant post planned for the near future!
Friday I got up, shoveled my driveway (which I felt the effects of Saturday morning as soon as I woke up and my back screamed at me) went to get tires, saw The Fighter, ran into Wal-Mart and Marshall's and was pleasantly surprised they weren't busy on Christmas Eve, then came home to start cooking. I cooked for 5 hours. To say my kitchen was a disaster is an understatement.
I was attempting a pot roast in a crock pot this year. Who knew you had to brown the thing first? I thought the point of a crock pot meal was to throw it all in there and go! No it couldn't be that easy. Most of you know how often I cook meat, as in never, so I had a moment where I was afraid I may start a small fire when the oil start sizzling like mad.
But I successfully got the meat browned and the pot roast turned out great on Saturday! I woke up at 6am to the smell of...pot roast. I had the brief thought that it was wrong to be awakened to the smell of a huge chunk of meat and not bacon and eggs.
I had to make strawberry pretzel salad and found the cutest holiday pretzels. I love cute food.

Made some no bake cookies. They are both mine and my mom's favorite.

They were yummy and they are just about gone!

Also made some peanut butter no bake cookies which also turned out good but we were pretty loyal to the classic no bake....so there is a ton of these sitting on my counter still.

My mom went crazy this year and apparently I should've put her on a spending limit! My mouth hit the floor when I opened up these Ugg boots. Never did I see that coming! Made me glad I spent more than normal on her this year! She was also thoughtful enough to get me hand warmers to use for running outside to get my rear in gear and get me out there running. I went out Sunday, my first attempt at running on the snowy sidewalks. It wasn't cold enough to use the handwarmers and I managed not to fall and break any bones. I had to really watch where I was going though!

Between me and my mom the dogs made out pretty darn good. The gift basket was from my work end of year appreciation day. It was the basket I picked out with the dogs in mind to save for their Christmas gifts. As you can see it didn't keep me from spending my normal amount on them though!

This holiday dinner toy set was super cute I couldn't pass it up. Magnus went straight for the turkey when we opened it. Jazz had to settle for the potato.


She LOVES her new blanket. My mom and I spent the rest of Christmas catching up on dvr'd Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. I mean what says Christmas more than that show right? Saturday night I ordered The Town on demand, it was really good! Ben Affleck can hold me hostage anytime. Sunday night I watched Inception...it was good but when it was over I thought "What just happened?" I also managed to get a lot done around the house including cleaning out my closet and organizing my scrapbook room. In between was a lot of relaxing on the couch with a dog and a pink blanket next to me. The dog is a comfort pup that's for sure. When I was in my scrapbook room she just looked at me and whined until she had the chance to jump on my lap. I've determined I can't scrapbook unless Caylea is home so Jazz can be on Caylea's lap. Caylea is coming home today and we will be doing our Christmas on New Year's Day since she was in Bloomington. Hope everyone had a good holiday!

12.24.2010

Some ramblings....

I am starting off with saying that someone using my credit card to go on a shopping spree on Christmas Eve is not cool people. Not cool. Stressing me out...thankfully they will remove the charges but still gets me worked up! Not 2 months ago someone was using my debit card to make purchases. How easy exactly is it for someone to take credit card info? Makes me want to use all cash, sheesh. Moving on...
I have stuffed my stocking with some lotto tickets. I'll let you know if my luck changes tomorrow morning. :)
Today I went out to get new tires and since the weather wasn't great I ventured into Marshall's. It was surprisingly empty. I've been debating on buying some running leggings to help keep me warm but they are pricey and not cute. I found these capris that are pretty tight fitting that I'd thought I'd give a try under my running pants. I figure they are cheaper, I can wear them alone and hopefully under my regular pants they will double as that extra layer to keep me warm. We'll see.

Get ready for this one....I bought a pair of flat shoes. I know! Who would've thought. I'm not sure how I feel about them yet. I feel very short wearing them. And yesterday when I went to Wal-Mart and needed to get the last bottle of corn syrup on the top shelf in the very back and couldn't reach it, I was missing the heels.

Hung up some more Mexico pictures.

Came home to find my mom went to town with Christmas presents for the dogs. I don't know what is in the box but the note said I better not put it under the tree.

One of my presents to the dogs I found at Target that was so cute...the holiday dinner plate.

It's a stuffed turkey, potato, roll, corn and broccoli all "served" on a frisbee. :) Love it!

Tonight I will be taking all of this and more and turning it into...more. My first attempt at a pot roast.

Saw this movie today, pretty good! Mark flexes a lot....bonus. I've been thinking of my theme for my 2011 goals...more on that later. Hope everyone has a great Christmas!

12.12.2010

Crock pot love

Had a three day weekend this weekend which was nice. I throughly enjoyed staying in for the most part. I did get my hair cut but other than that I really didn't leave the house. Besides my weird cell phone issue it was pretty relaxing. My cell phone all the sudden works everywhere except at my house. The great part is I have full bars but mysteriously it still doesn't work. Not cool.
I watched Eclipse this weekend and I must say this one was my favorite so far. They seem to keep getting better.
Watched this too...it was ok

And watched Valentine's Day, for the fourteenth time, because I love this movie. And Ashton Kutcher.
While I squeezed in a few movies the majority of my time was spent studying for my CPCU test which is tomorrow. Lots of studying and I think it's going to be a hard one.

My mom offered to make a pot roast on Christmas if I bought a crock pot. I used to have one but it broke so I invested a whopping 15 bucks in a new one at Wal-Mart. I thought I would try it out. I think I love it. Threw in some chicken breasts Sunday morning.

And after a day of studying Sunday evening I had some tender chicken ready to pull apart for my genius plan of making....
BBQ chicken sandwiches. This sauce by the way, is amazing.

I was pretty happy with my BBQ chicken sandwich.
I think the crock pot was a great idea. I followed up the chicken with some cookies.


I took this picture in Mexico and discovered I had the perfect frame for it. I was excited to hang it up on the wall. Makes a nice addition in the living room. Now off to take another practice test before the real thing tomorrow!

12.05.2010

6 out of 8 ain't bad

2010 is winding down and I got to thinking about the things I had hoped to accomplish this year. I had outlined them in this post. After reflecting back, I am happy to realize that I met most of my goals!

"Educate myself whenever possible": I started and completed the Associate in Management designation at work and the first part of CPCU. Hoping to pass the 2nd CPCU next week!

"Plan a trip somewhere warm and beachy for later this year or next" -Accomplished this one two-fold! Amazing trip to Mexico with Missy in October and booked a cruise with Jona and Lisa for October, 2011!


"Increase the number of push-ups I can do"-Oh wait, not these type of push ups... :)

Instead of just focusing on push-ups I joined a gym and am officially loving Body Pump. Love the all over strength results. I haven't tested it yet but as a result of Body Pump I would hope I can do more push-ups now. I will have to test myself.

"Make significant strides in running"-Well I have yet to add up my mileage, I'm not sure if I exceeded last year's mileage or maybe not...but I did sign up for...




a half marathon that I mentioned in my goal. Which in turn has me running 6 miles at one time which I never did before. So I would say I met my goal with signficant strides.


"Pay off some major debt, to do this I will need to never step foot in Target"-Check! Don't get me wrong, I'm not sitting in a pile of money like this woman in the nice picture. But overtime was my middle name this summer and it was sheer will to pay off a chunk of change. I've still got some financial goals to meet but this one was major for me. And now, working no overtime, I don't know how I managed to do all those hours. I forgot how much I like my sleep! (Oh and stepping foot in Target did set me back a time or two)
Due to the overtime required to pay off debt, this goal directly conflicted with the goal to "Balance working and finding time for the things I like to do like reading and scrapbooking." So while I managed to read a book in Mexico, more scrapbooking will be on my 2011 goals list.
However completing my goal of paying off debt has led me to success in "consistently get more sleep." Now that I'm not working as much, I invested in nice dark curtains and a new comforter this year.
"Don't cry every single time I watch Grey's Anatomy"-What is it about this show? It gets me every week and I did not meet my goal with this one. Even when I come close, like 54 minutes in, I think it's such a habit now I can't make it the full 60 minutes without crying. Sheesh.

So out of my 8 Resolutions, I achieved all but not crying during Grey's and not balancing "me" time with work to do things like read and scrapbook. I will take 6 out of 8. Nothing like feeling I can actually accomplish what I set my mind to. Now...what to plan for 2011.

11.21.2010

Sexy, not sexy

Oh People magazine, you are so right....Ryan Reynolds is THE sexiest man alive. Possibly ever. Love him. So when I saw this cover staring at me in the store I was one happy gal.
I mean really? Really, is it normal to look this good?
What else is sexy? Rock stars who have been married for 21 years. Oh, like Jon....
In honor of Ryan's new title I had to watch The Proposal today. This movie makes me laugh SO hard.
Sexy-new leopard print shoes
Not sexy-(warning, graphic photo below) my big toenail being so close to falling off. It is not real comfortable to run right now I discovered today. I know, gross right!?
Not sexy-boxes cluttering up my kitchen cabinets
Sexy-getting organized. Courtesy of my Select-a-gift containers.
This weekend got to spend some quality girl time with some friends, got in a 3.5 mile run in this morning, and now need to study! That is if I can concentrate after visions of Ryan Reynolds dance in my head.