Capital Hill

This past weekend, Derek and I took a short vacation to the Alexandria and DC area. The weather was gorgeous and we had a great time seeing the sites. The National Mall was very relaxing to walk along and people watch and seeing the Hope Diamond at the History Museum was really interesting. (I'd love to borrow that 45.5 carat diamond sometime for a special occasion!)

We also visited Mount Vernon, saw an IMAX 3-D movie, drove around Georgetown, hopped bars and ate on Kings street by the water in Alexandria and of course, did some shopping!

Manager Appreciation Day

My company takes great pride in appreciating one another. We have almost weekly "appreciation days" between departments, client groups, teams, floors, etc!

About 3pm yesterday, the 6 of us Media Managers were called into a quick meeting by one of our Senior Analysts. When we entered the break room, all 36 or so members of our department were clapping away and holding a big sign for us that read "Happy Manager Appreciation Day"! It was very, very sweet, but they even went above and beyond just that. We played a fun game for a while guessing which department member was connected to certain weird facts followed by some YUMMY cake, a cookie cake and soft ice cream!

We do a lot of encouraging and supporting of our team and it's nice to see their support and encouragement of us as well! I definitely lucked out over 5 years ago when I joined this wonderful group and this is just another reason why I feel so lucky to work with such an amazing group of people!

Dutch Blitz

If I could take a poll, I would bet that about 95% of you out there have never heard of this game. That is, unless you're #1 Amish or #2 belong to my family! We are huge "game players" and definitely enjoy some good laughs when our competitive sides come out. Dutch Blitz is by far my favorite.... and that's probably because I always win! It's fast, energetic and super fun and if you need a new game recommendation - this is it!

Here's a little background -
Dutch Blitz was the brainchild of Werner Ernst George Muller, a German immigrant and optometrist who thought the game might help his children more easily learn about colors and numbers. We can’t tell you whether or not Dutch Blitz accomplished that goal. All we know is that, somewhere along the line, Muller’s game captured the imaginations of gamers throughout Eastern and Central Pennsylvania. It’s kind of like solitaire. But with multiple players. And a lot more speed. And color. And fun. Dutch Blitz demands players think fast and act fast. It also demands that they keep an eye on their competition. That’s why we think Dutch Blitz is most perfect party card game ever invented. We’re pretty sure some of our fans would agree.

Last night my brother and I joined my parents at their house for dinner and a good 'ole friendly re-match of one of our favorite games. Well, maybe not so "friendly" as we're extremely competitive, but I sure did take the cake. Winning by a land slide, I'll now get to rub in my score until the next game night!

October Trees

One of the best features of living in Kansas is the beautiful colors of the fall. Anywhere you drive, you can see the bright oranges, yellows, reds and browns blanketing the skyline as well as the ground.

We have a few bright colored trees in our yard, but our baby October Glory Red Maple that we had planted a few years back is definitely my favorite. We picked that tree out for it's rapid growth and bright, vibrant fall colors and it definitely has followed through for us!

With the sun out this weekend, I was able to snap a great pic of it!

Halloween Treats Please!

Guess who deserved a BUNCH of Halloween treats after allowing mom to stuff them into their costumes?

Bailey the Pirate and Lacy the Lizard!

Halloween Costume Contest

I'm very fortunate to work for a company who lets their employees come up with and participate in so many fun events all year round. For Halloween this week we're holding a spirit week, haunted house, food days and much more! I decided to put together a little fun game for the department this year also. It entailed of people bringing in pictures from their youth dressed up in Halloween Costumes and having the rest of the department guess who the individual was.

Not realizing that some of the pictures were hard to tell even what gender it was, it ended up being a humorous time scoring the answer sheets! Luckily - only one co-worker thought that I was a boy in my picture.

See below for my childhood Halloween Costume!

Caught on Tape

This past weekend, Melissa, Michelle and I caught some unusual sightings. Luckily, I had my camera on hand.

The first was spotted when we were pulling up to our pedicure appointment. There's a huge, empty parking lot right next door and there were all these cars with bodies hanging out of them. We saw a camera crew and then the music started. They were re-enacting Thriller! It was so random, but so good that we had to stop and watch for a while.


The second, weird video we caught was of this guy doing some crazy dancing at P&L. I didn't catch some of his sweetest moves, but needless to say, he won't be winning any dancing contests anytime soon. See below for his love of concrete humping!

2009 Girls Weekend

"Friends are the sunshine of life." - John Hay (1871)

This past weekend, I was so lucky to have two of my very best friends fly up and stay for the weekend! On top of that, we were able to eat, drink and laugh with other great friends. The timing couldn't have been more perfect for such a happy, fun-filled weekend with people I love. I feel very luck to have these wonderful friends who make me smile.

The funniest moment? We were enjoying some drinks at JP's Wine Bar and Barry Williams walked in and sat at the booth next to us. After a good hour of figuring out who had to do the "asking" for a picture, somehow I lost and had to do it. Fortunately, he was VERY friendly and didn't mind at all!


Here are just a few pics from the weekend -

Create Your Own
Needless to say, I'm exhausted! 3 trips to the airport, 18 starbucks, several different types of alcohol, 4 hours of sleep, pedicures, ice cream, puffies, pop rocks and one scary movie later... my body is BEAT. Thanks again girls for the amazing weekend!

New camera!

Our old digital camera pooped out so we were in definite need of a new one! We decided to just get something to get us by for a few years as we plan on purchasing a bigger, sweet camera for when we have children.

So, after researching digital cameras under $500, this one came up on almost every report. It's the Canon - PowerShot 12.1-Megapixel Digital ELPH Camera. We've had about three Canon's and loved them all so we were definitely staying with that brand. This was a decent price and tiny so it's perfect for the pictures we take.

Stay tuned as hopefully we'll have something to take pictures of and post soon!

What Half Marathon?

So I decided to pull the trigger on Friday and head to the doctor. I had broken the fever days prior and the chills/body aches were completely gone. Overall, I felt much better, but my cough was sounding worse than ever and my ribs/lungs hurt constantly. The Half Marathon was Saturday morning and I just needed some professional reassurance that I could make it through the race despite some hacking. Or at least some fast-acting, heavy-duty drugs to numb my body for just over 2 hours!

The verdict = Bronchitis. (And actually a bad enough case that they x-rayed me for pneumonia and lung damage!)

When I asked my doc about running the next morning, she definitely gave me the stink eye with a face that said "do I need to check you into a mental hospital?". Needless to say, I was given four prescriptions and approval to pout all weekend. I had trained so hard and was going to knock of TONS of time from my score last year. I know there will be more races, it was just a small setback for something I was counting down the days for.

Caramel Apples

It's that time of year! Time to whip out the blankets, turn on the fire places, but most importantly - eat caramel apples!

Last night Whitney graciously made us all a batch of these awesome treats. Due to my sickness, I went to bed early and couldn't wait out the hour "cooling off" time needed. I'll be taste-testing mine tonight but I'm sure it's going to be REALLY yummy!

Sick as a Dog

Thank GOODNESS that Derek and I had nothing planned this weekend. I was completely overcome with a sickness on Friday night and am still fighting the darn thing. I'm really praying that I get well by Thursday or Friday latest. Saturday morning is the Half Marathon again and I have a new goal! I've been running really strong all year and it's so much easier to jog 6 or 8 miles than it was last year before the race.

Last year, I completed it in 2 hours and 29 minutes.
New goals:
Still sick goal = Under 2 hours 20 minutes
All healed goal = Under 2 hours 15 minutes

Fingers crossed that this sickness gets OUT of my body soon! My friends Nyquil, Sudafed, Mucinex and Naproxen are all helping me fight fight fight!

Oh yeah, sorry for no pictures from this weekend, but since we really didn't do much, we really didn't snap any pictures! Exciting news though - since our old camera died on us, we ordered a new camera that should be arriving this week.

Little Lola

Last night I met my dear friend Kelsey and her little 17 month old, Lola, at Ingredient for some YUMMY salad! Kelsey is a school teacher and has the PERFECT personality for one. She's always upbeat and positive and makes anyone she's around feel good. And little red-headed Lola is just darling. It's nice to see how cute her bright red hair makes her, seeing as how Derek and I could end up with that same red hair on our future children! (Thanks Matt.....errr.... I guess Lesa?!).


Lola wouldn't let me take a picture with her. She obviously thinks that she should just be the star and I'd ruin the shot!

I did snap this funny picture of her to the right. Looks like she's had a few too many "adult beverages"!

Thanks again for dinner Kels!

Sweet Surprise

I absolutely love getting roses from my wonderful husband for "no reason at all" other than he just wants to send me something beautiful. I had an email first thing this morning from our receptionist saying I had a package. 9 times out of 10, it's newspapers that we run in from around the country, but this morning, I walked down to find these!

They are currently adorning my desk here at work and Derek might have to fend off some jealous girls here around the office. It was a perfect surprise for this extremely stressful time!!

One Potato, Two

One of my favorite things about the fall is pulling out my sweet potato vine from my big pot and seeing how big the potatoes have grown throughout the summer. This year, I had two and they were HUGE! Measuring 10 inches long and really fat, I was excited to dig them out. Too bad there's no use for them as they aren't edible but still a fun treasure to hunt for!

Anyone know of anything these suckers can be used for?

Bone Lovers

I had all the bones and toys neatly put up yesterday and only 2 minutes later found this. Apparently our baby likes her bones scattered about instead of in their basket.

Is it basketball season yet?

I saw this video today on Betsy's blog and definitely had to post it on mine too. I LOVE that they put the "Any Given Sunday" words with the video! It's videos like this that just make my day and also make me SUPER pumped for basketball season. ESPECIALLY when we're going to be awesome this year! And yes.... I still get choked up at these videos along with mild goosebumps!



ROCK CHALK!

Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad!

Happy Anniversary to my wonderful parents! 37 years ago they were saying their vows and beginning their lives together. In this day and age where 50% of Americans get divorced, I'm so lucky that mine have chosen to live out their lives together. It's definitely something we hold as a high priority in our family and I'm glad I married someone whose parents taught them the same virtue as well!

Funny Forwards

We all get them. They tend to spring up on Thursdays or Fridays when it starts to slow down, but regardless they make my day upon arrival. Never hesitate to send me any funny forward as I generally always read them!

Here's a recent one I received. Needless to say, I was crying from laughing so hard. (We cut it down as there were tons! These are just our favorites!)

Random Thoughts of The Day

* I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Ghetto" routing option.
* More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can think about is that I can't wait for them to finish so that I can tell my own story that's not only better, but also more directly involves me.
* Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.
* The letters T and G are very close to each other on a keyboard.
This recently became all too apparent to me and consequently I will never be ending a work email with the phrase "Regards" again..
* Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it wouldn't work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically fix the problem. Every kid in America did that, but how did we all know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message boards or FAQ's. We just figured it out. Today's kids are soft.
* How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?
* I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.
* Was learning cursive really necessary?
* Whenever someone says "I'm not book smart, but I'm street smart", all I hear is "I'm not real smart, but I'm imaginary smart".
* While driving yesterday I saw a banana peel in the road and instinctively swerved to avoid it....thanks Mario Kart.
* MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.
* There's no worse feeling than that millisecond you're sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.
* I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.
* I like all of the music in my iTunes, except when it's on shuffle, then I like about one in every fifteen songs in my iTunes.
* Why is a school zone 20 mph? That seems like the optimal cruising speed for pedophiles...
* The other night I ordered takeout, and when I looked in the bag, saw they had included four sets of plastic silverware. In other words, someone at the restaurant packed my order, took a second to think about it, and then estimate d that there must be at least four people eating to require such a large amount of food. Too bad I was eating by myself. There's nothing like being made to feel like a fat bastard before dinner.

Play Date

Our girls definitely like to take advantage of the nice weather that we're having by spending their time outside. Sometimes, they even get to have "play dates" with their cousin Tally (Derek's parents black lab).

Here's the 3 loungers chillaxing in the shade after chasing balls and playing for a while....