sorry for the blur

this is a really blurry pic of the gym, taken while I was walking in today. Yep, 2 days in a row, and today (get this) I did treadmill (because all the ellipticals were taken, and it's good to change things up, no). 

your input please

This is the outfit I wore to work yesterday...like I mentioned in my FB status, I'm not 100% sure that it matched. Oh well. :)

catching up with...

Oops, so I've fallen a little bit behind here...Let's see - what's been going on here?

- today was super-busy at work, and then we made it to the gym after a week's hiatus

- yesterday we had some of my coworkers over for Guitar Hero night. TONS of fun!!

- Saturday we drove up to Richmond with Eric's parents to see his family up there, and celebrate his grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary and his grandfather's 85th birthday. All the kids, grandkids, and great grandkids were there and it was really nice. Too bad we forgot our camera, and the present. (Just emailed everyone for copies of pix, and will be mailing their present this weekend).

- Friday after work I made a mad dash to the mall to get the anniversary present (the one that was forgotten above!)

- Aside from the new president stuff, the rest of last week was fairly uneventful. 

- Eric lost his wedding ring in the snow but after purchasing a metal detector, he found it (hooray!!). Best $64 ever spent!

25 Random Things about me

Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you.

(To do this in Facebook, go to "notes" under tabs on your profile page, paste these instructions in the body of the note, type your 25 random things, tag 25 people then click post.)

1. I'm an only child

2. My mom is from Japan. She came to the US in 1963 and still speaks fluent Japanese. I do not speak Japanese.

3. My dad is from Ohio

4. I was raised buddhist and although I don't actively practice anymore I still hold the basic life philosophy

5. I LOVE my iPhone and just recently upgraded to unlimited text messaging

6. I'm not much of a phone talked, but love to email and IM!

7. I was married once before (trial run?) and although that marriage ended in divorce (2005), my ex and I still talk every so often (mostly via email)

8. I am now married to the most wonderful guy, and hope we can have kids sometime in the not-too-distant future

9. Definitely want to have more than one child because I am fascinated by the sibling experience

10. I love me some Starbucks!

11. I really hate smoking. If you smoke, I don't hate you, but have a strong dislike for all things smoking. Probably because both my parents smoked growing up and I hated it (still do!).

12. If I could drink one thing for the rest of my life it would be Diet Coke

13. Eric and I recently joined a gym and try and workout every night after work

14. A typical evening at home (after the gym) is figuring out what's for dinner, then Eric plays video games while I surf the net and we both watch TV

15. I hope to buy myself a Mac laptop this spring

16. I used to have a huge thing for collecting all things Mickey Mouse (no Minnie, just Mickey). Although that has calmed some with age. 

17. My first car was a 1985 Isuzu I-Mark that my parents gave me. It was 2 years old at the time, but the back driver's side door wouldn't open.

18. I love to read, but don't read 'heavy' things..I like fluffy reading - just for entertainment, and if I learn something along the way thats a bonus

19. I love Facebook and that it's enabled me to be in touch with friends from years ago, who now live all over the world!

20. I was born on a US Air Base in Germany

21. I am good at Wheel of Fortune

22. I do not like beer. My preferred drink is Jack & Coke 

23. I love the beach. Eric thinks its just 'eh', so we won't be there all the time, but more than I would be if I still lived in TX

24. I love to travel but am also a homebody

25. I am so glad I finally finished this!! :D

Snow in Raleigh

this is a tree in front of our office:

This is the view outside my window at work:
and these were from in the morning out my deck:

Quite a day for us in NC!!

Weekend @ Topsail - what a great time!

This image is courtesy of my friend Tammi - so glad she got pictures of us hard at work at the scrapbooking retreat this weekend!! And a wonderful weekend it was....

The House: was a 4-story beach house right on the beach. From the back patio we could see the ocean (where we saw dolphins playing in the ocean). The first floor was the front door and garage, with an elevator...second floor was 4 bedrooms, 3rd floor was kitchen, living room, a bedroom (and this floor is where most of us spent all of our time), and then the 4th floor was another bedroom with a hot tub outside.  The house had great amenities too - elevator, wireless internet, TV, DVD player, comfy beds, etc.

The people: 13 of the girls from Cary Table Scrapps, a scrapbooking group I met on Meetup.com. These were GREAT people to spend the weekend with - fun, not too serious, great cooks (we had more than enough food for a full week I swear!), diverse, so helpful, social chatty, just a wonderful group of women I am so glad I found!

The plan: Jen thought of all the details - from planning an affordable weekend, to encouraging carpooling so that we had just enough room in the driveway for our cars, to how to make sure we were all fed (snacks and meals), to a fun secret pal event, to a really fun scavenger hunt, and a few other events, the weekend was FABULOUS and I can't WAIT to do it again this fall!!

Yesterday I drove home, and then did next to nothing all day. Sat on the couch and watched TV most of the day. Today I have some errands to run, will meet Jill for lunch, and then need to clean the house. I'll meet Eric @ the gym tonight after he gets out of work, and then it's back to the grind tomorrow, Inauguration day!!

Project 365 - Saturday's photo

Saturday's photo - this is the view from the 3rd floor balcony at the beach house...beautiful!!

Blogging from Topsail

This is all (or most) of the stuff I packed up on Thursday night so that I could hit the road bright and early Friday morning for Topsail. 

...and this is a small section of the table in front of me (my work area) at Topsail. Having a great time, wish you were here! This house is GREAT - 4 stories, with an elevator, and all the ammenities you need (including wireless internet!).  And a great group of women to hang out with too!!

So far I finished the Honeymoon album (ran out of paper and got almost all the pix in there!), and layouts about Christmas. Not sure what I'll work on tomorrow - we'll see!

Project 365 - yesterday and today

This is my girl Hail resting her tired little head on my laptop. The picture is actually from a few days ago, but I'm counting it for yesterday because she does this regularly!! (and, hey, it's Project 365, not Photo a day!)

This is the weather app from my iPhone for this week. Do you see what I see? 17 degrees F?? That's just not right!!

Not much up in my world other than the cold to report. I'm leaving Friday morning to go scrapbooking for the weekend at Topsail Beach with the cool girls from meetup......can't wait! I'm sure there will be fun pictures from that...13 girls, beach house, hot tub, scrapbooking, adult bevvies....

Five Weird Things at the Gym tonight

1. the guy on the elliptical next to me was sweating so much he was dripping all over. Not just the usual dripping occaisionally, but continually dripping. Ewwww.

2. a girl on the front row of cardio was talking on the phone while working out. For like 35 minutes. 

3. a guy on the 2nd row was thrown off his treadmill. Not just trip over one little foot and scoot off, but make a lot of noise where everyone looks at you thrown off. 

4. The girl next to me (too the place of sweaty-guy) hit me w/her jacket sleeve and didn't even realize it.

5. the treadmills were so in-demand that there were people hovering more than once waiting for people to get off. 

today's picture to come... :)

Monday, Monday!

This is the cute make-and-take project we did at Jill's open house yesterday:

And this is what I'm doing tonight:

Have a great week!!!

Weekend Wrap-up (and pic 1 of 2)

This weekend included:

- 3 trips to the gym, including 1 yoga class 

- too much shopping! Cat food, yoga mat, groceries, and scrapbook shopping (see picture!)

- yummy dinner out at CafeCapistrano - California-style Mexican food, chosen by Amanda and Rob. This was the first outing for our new dinner club with 4 other couples. Next month the Kriegers are up!

- CTMH stampin party at Jill's house (I was very restrained and only bought one stamp set!)

- some Guitar Hero, of course :) Eric's parents just left after coming over for dinner and some GH

- and the usual - laundry, dishes, etc

Project 365 - 1/9/09

dorky looking picture of me and my new glasses!!

one day, two pictures!

Today was a not-bad day at work. My glasses came in so I made a run at lunch to pick them up. Got a few things done at work, and scooted out just after 5 to head to the gym. I'd packed my gym bag in the morning, as usual, but I did it in a rush as I was heading out the door this morning (instead of the night before like I should). I get to the gym, get all dressed, and realized I'd forgotten my shoes. Yeah, those ones there on the top? They were still sitting in that position on the living room floor (where I'd left them the night before). So I had to get all my stuff back together and head home. And of course I didn't want to get re-dressed in my workout clothes, so I walked out of the gym with my work shoes and workout socks (a lovely picture on the bottom, no?). Tried to talk Eric into going back with me but we decided to call today our skip day and go tomorrow. 

I'll post a picture of me and my new glasses tomorrow! They are so cute, I feel like I need to do my hair better each day now....

Two days worth!

- Had a Junior League meeting last night so didn't have time to post....

- the photo at the right is Eric's Aero Garden...his Christmas present from me :)

- I've had a annoying cough for almost a week now. Last night I tried Nyquil that didn't help much, so Eric got me some Robitussin and I'm going to give that a whirl tonight. I would like it to go away before it turns into a full-blown cold. And then maybe I could get a full night's sleep too.

- I love Facebook. It's so much fun to see what friends and family are up to!!

- Here's today's photo - taken a tip from Tini, I took a shot of my desk at work. I blocked out the desktop, but please take a moment to admire my giant monitor. :)

- I got an email from Allan (ex-hubby) today - exciting news! He and Jamie (his gf of 2 or 3 years, I can't remember) are engaged! AND, get this, his fiance? Her sister and I went to high school together! I'm hoping he can help get me back in touch with Beth, that would be cool!! 

- also got an email from my friend Cindie, so fun to catch up with her. 

- Ok, i'm off to order wedding photos now, I promise!!

Project 365 - 1/5//09

Super busy at work today - then to the gym - then I talked Eric into getting salads for us for dinner. Chick Fil A salads are so YUMMY! Probably not as good calorie-wise as they sound due to the chicken and dressing, but I'm guessing better than a Chick Fil A sandwich and large waffle fries. 

(PS: No idea why this photo is loading in portrait, rather than landscape, I've tried twice and I'm tired).

Usual Sunday - with a twist!

Today was the usual Sunday for me - Eric went into work, and I did the usual run to the gym, lunch, errands and such. Eric's parents stopped by to pick up some stuff, and I watched the usual Sunday morning chit-chat shows (with a bonus 30 minutes of George S!). 

The twist was I met the girls (pictured below, my pic for the day) - Jen, Amanda, and Jill - to see Marley and Me. It was a really cute movie, total chick flick and total tearjerker if you've ever had a pet! We walked over to the Fox & Hound for appetizers and bevvies afterwards:

And its back to the grind tomorrow!

Project 365 - 1/3/09

Today I made it back to the gym after not going 12/31, 1/1 or 1/2. HOORAY!!! I was worried that it would be totally crowded, and while there were some newbies (listen to me like I've been going to the gym forever!), it wasn't crowded at all. Probably because it was around noon on a Saturday, but anyway, I listened to a few podcasts (my FAVE) and got 45 mins in on the elliptical. And I'm going back later today too.

We had a really good Saturday. Kristen came over and went with us over to the eyeglass place where Eric got his adjusted and I ordered a pair of new glasses. Eric has AMAZING insurance and it covered the vast majority of the cost (HOORAY!) and my new glasses are cool. It was great to have Kristen there as she is good about giving her opinion (LOVE YOU KRISTEN!!). Eric is good about that too but also gets bored. :) Anywho, I got some cute Kate Spade frames and can't wait til they are here next week. [sidenote: to longtime friends, many of you know I had Lasik many years ago. Apparently my eyes have reverted somewhat to their old astigmatism-y ways, although not anywhere near as bad...and these glasses will also help battle the eye fatigue I get from staring at a computer screen all day long. And glasses are cool nowadays, lol!]

From there I had my gym time, then Eric and I went out for Thai for lunch. Well, he had Thai and I had sushi, it was delish. There is this restaurant that is close, slightly overpriced, good food, with horrible service. It's so close and the food is good, otherwise we wouldn't go there...my favorite place is awesome but about 30 mins away. Funny, back in Dallas I wouldn't bat an eye about a 30 minute drive......

Eric and I did some errands - BJs, and a few other places. Then I went on a search for a 2nd Guitar Hero guitar for us since we were having Ed & Kristen over to introduce them to the fun that is Guitar Hero. I found one at Wal Mart in a beat up box, one at Gamestop for $70, and a ton online for up to $80. Then I found one online at CircuitCity.com for $20. Seriously. I snagged that and did in-store pickup and scored the guitar for a GREAT deal!!!

We had SO MUCH fun with Ed & Kristen and Guitar Hero last night. Ed is pretty good, and although Kristen thinks she's bad at it she's better than me. Pictures to come on FB......

Happy Saturday!! :)

Project 365 - 1/2/09

Today was a really long day at the office. Yep, I had to work today. Financial Services folks were apparently the only people in the world that had to work today as even the federal holiday folks were off. Anywho, between all the work stuff, that caused me a few choice words, I got the funniest text message ever. 

For those not familiar with the user interface on the iPhone's SMS app, the phone number is up at the top - this is an unknown number to me. The messages in white are from that person, and my replies are in green.

My favorite line, which I quoted several times later that day, was "who calls u penguin baby?". Penguin - not my first choice for pet name....LOL!

In other news, I talked w/a friend of mine back home and we're talking about doing a girls weekend this spring - whoo hoo!!

Project 365 - 1/1/09

No question about what today's picture should be. I am still no good at this but it's totally fun!

2009 Resolutions!

My 2009 goals/resolutions, draft #1 (might be edited throughout the year..):

1. continue to workout at the gym 5x/week minimum, 6 is optimal

2. eat healthier and drink more water; continue the no-caffeine thing

3. read more! I used to read a ton, and have gotten lazy (and distracted by things like FB...)

4. scrapbook more!!

5. excel at my job

6. keep in touch with friends and family more - using all methods: email, FB, phone

7. continue the progress we've made in spending less $$ and paying down debt

I'm also going to give the Project 365 thing a whirl - taking a photo a day to document my year...should be fun! Hope you're along for the ride! :)

2008 Year in Review

Here's my year in review:
Jan - bought the ring!
Feb - trip to TX where Eric got to meet my family & friends
Mar - Eric officially moved in
Apr - new position at work
May - trip to Biltmore for the Flower Festival
Jun - old and new friends. Old - friends from high school that I
found on Facebook. New - met the girls from Meetup that I scrapbook
with
Jul - iPhone!!
Aug - Bridal showers!
Sep - wedding & honeymoon!!!
Oct - iPhone halloween costumes
Nov - election
Dec - joined the gym