busygirl

wahoo, made the top 20!

This makes me feel MUCH better about where I chose to buy my house this past year:

 

We only live a two-minute drive away from the downtown area which is littered with cute shops, cafes and bakeries.  It really is a nice little town area, but the city itself is HUGE.  There's a lot of farmland on the outskirts, a lake, bike trails galore, even three high-schools.

Not that I'm THAT concerned at this stage in my life about the area I live in, since I don't have kids and most certainly don't plan on having them anytime soon (seriously, let's see if we can survive the wedding planning first).  But at least this helps the resale value on our house!

things i'm loving today.

- Trader Joe's English Breakfast Tea.  Warming up my afternoon.

- My newly cut bangs.  A spur of the moment decision.  And I know they'll be on the 'hate' list soon as they start bugging me because they're always in my face, but I don't care.  I'm loving 'em right now.

- New desk location at work.  A change of scenery makes everything exciting.  Moving away from a loud, disgruntled, obnoxious employee makes work bearable.

- Boss is traveling the rest of the week.  I like it when he's here but his inability to be patient causes much more stress than is needed.

- The one living room wall that is painted.  I'm dying to post a photo but I promised Adam I'd wait till everything is complete!

- Oatmeal.  My current breakfasting fav.

- Reading everything I can get my hands on.  TV is out this month.  Books are all the craze.  Unless True Blood is on.

- www.easycolumbus.com.  I was introduced to this fabulous site this morning.  What a resource for young people living in Columbus!

- Less than two weeks until I get to see all my Swiss friends.  I.  cannot. wait.

- A weekend at home.  Not having to pack tonight.  Knowing I can go to happy hour tomorrow.  Knowing the possibilities for the weekend are endless.

- Crossing things off my to-do list.  IS there ANYTHING better than that?

the abc's of me.

Sighhh...tagged...

 

A - Age: 24

B - Bed size: Queen...seriously, I need to upgrade since my 12lbs dog takes up half the bed.

C - Chore you hate: the general picking up of stuff.  I LOVE to clean.  But I hate putting things away.

D - Pet's name: How is that D?  My dog is Ricki.

E - Essential start your day item: Coffee.  Or a shower.  Or coffee.  Definitely coffee.

F - Favorite color: green.  or blue.  or maybe pink. it changes weekly.

G - Gold or Silver: silver definitely.

H - Height: 5'3"...shortyyy

I - Instruments you play(ed): piano (8 years) clarinet (6 years)

J - Job title: goddess of pricing...i'm not kidding, that is how my boss introduces me.  But my business cards would say pricing analyst or pricing champion.

K - Kid(s): no thanks, not yet.

L - Living arrangements: 3 bedroom house with my fiance, my little sister and the dog.  FULL house.

M - Mom's name: Donna.

N - Nicknames: Coley would be the main one.  Adam normally calls me either that or Nicoley Jean.  At work it's Nicoleon.

O - Overnight hospital stay other than birth: I don't believe so.

P - Pet Peeve: People who have 'hansel & gretal syndrome' (drop their stuff EVERYWHERE rather than putting it away).  People who crack their knuckles...gross gross gross.

Q - Quote from a movie: "Make a sound like a dying giraffe...muahhhhhhh"

R - Right or left handed: righty.

S - Siblings: girlymama, living for today and puzzling aloud.

T - Time you wake up: anytime between 5 and 6:30 on the weekdays, around 7am on the weekends.

U- Underwear: Under-roos?  Yes please.

V - Vegetable you dislike: None.  I love veggies.  Current favorite is brussels sprouts or asparagus.

W - Ways you run late: Dwaddling.  I get distracted easily.  I'm usually only on time if I have a short-amount of time to get ready.

X - X-rays you've had: feet many many times.

Y - Yummy food you make: lots I would hope, unless the peanut gallery at home is giving me untrue reviews.

Z - Zone: eastern, pacific, cest, cst...I work in all time zones so no day has normal work hours.

Tag 5 people: I'll go with my siblings listed above, along with exhalingemily and the sunnysideoflife.

wordless wednesday: watching the game.

what you can control.

After waking up at 5am to exercise, play with the dog, clean my room and somehow get to work on time today, I'm feeling a bit frazzled.  My to-do list that was too long to begin with just grew by four emails at 7:30am.  I feel like I'm losing my mind this morning.  So, to gather my thoughts I took a 'smoke break' (aka a google break for those of us who don't partake in that habit).  And caught up on my google reader.

I was reading this article originally posted by girlymama about just taking things one step at a time.  And for some reason really liked this last paragraph, so I thought I'd repost it:

'Have I totally messed up my life? Fine, make a list. Here are the things I cannot do: I cannot turn back the clock, I cannot cork up sinful words once spoken, I cannot take back squandered opportunities in career or love. But here are things I can do: I can start from today—with today's time, today's skills, today's health, today's grace. I can do this trusting, even at this stage of the game, that God is still sovereign and still good. And faith, come to think of it, is the whole enchilada.'

My boss is always telling me to focus on what I can control.  I guess he's right.

try this: buckeye brownies

With OSU vs. USC coming up, I'm definitely in need of some buckeye food!  Here's a recipe for chocolate-peanut-butter-brownies that is always a hit during football season!

Ingredients

Brownie mix

Water, vegetable oil, eggs according to brownie mix

2 cups confectioner's sugar

1/2 cup butter, softened

6 tbsp butter, softened

1 (8oz) jar of smooth peanut butter

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

 

Directions

Prepare and bake brownie mix in a greased 13x9 baking pan according to package directions.  Let cool.

Mix sugar, 1/2 cup butter and peanut butter. Spread over cooled brownies.  Chill for one hour.

Melt chocolate chips and remaining butter together in a saucepan over low heat, stirring occasionally.  Spread over brownies (you can also just drizzle the chocolate mixture over the peanut butter to make a cool design).  Let cool, cut and serve!

how do they know?

Daily Horoscope for Aries
Today's Date: September 04, 2009

Welcome to an emotional day. Things may move along more slowly than you would prefer.

not just an ordinary day.

Today started out like any other day.  Boy, was that misleading.

We found out this morning that one of Adam's friends from home lost her father yesterday in an ATV accident.  I'm struggling with this.  Because to be truthful, her and I haven't really gotten along in the past.  But she's my age and she's lost her dad so quickly, so unexpectedly.  It's hitting too close to home and I feel helpless.  Helpless because I want to reach out to her but I can't and I shouldn't.  Helpless because I know what she's going through, and that nothing anyone says/does can make her feel better right now.  Helpless because I just want to give her a hug.  So I'm struggling.  And I'm praying that her family gets through this.  Because even though her and I don't see eye to eye, I still feel so horrible.

I had to work late. 

I came home to a message from one of my old dance friends.  She had gotten a call from the husband of my dance teacher who I had taught with, learned from and spent hours upon hours talking with.  My dancer teacher of ten years had committed suicide.

I just want to go to bed and wake up to an ordinary day.

you capture - old signs

Well, I didn't get my you capture taken this week, all the time I had planned to go exploring got eaten away by long hours of work, random projects and an adversion to the outdoors due to a serious bout of allergies.

So, here's an photo taken at my grandpa's farm last year, it's one of my favorite photos I've ever taken, even though it was with a not-so-great camera.  My grandparents and their parents and so on all drove schools buses and these are some of the license plates from those that we found nestled in the corner of the barn. 

Click here to see what everyone else has captured!

wordless wednesday: being nosy.