2010 goals---March update

So I was trying to do this mid month but I decided to move it more to the end of every month. It just seems to make more sense that way. Click here to see the original post about my goals AND here to see my first update.

1) Lose 20 pounds by the end of the year.
When I posted my first update I had just started Weight Watchers and I'm proud to say I have kept it up and don't plan on stopping! As of Friday, which is my weigh in day, I have lost 8.6 pounds and made my first goal which was 5% of my body weight (that was the first goal they recommended online...I guess if you do the math you will know how fat I am...oh well.) I'm loving Weight Watchers, even though the weight is coming off slowly I feel like I am truly making a lifestyle change. This past weekend I slacked off a bit and I know I will again over Easter, also I haven't been exercising as much as I would like. Hopefully, after Easter I will get back on the fit train and I won't gain weight while I am away for Easter!

2)Take more pictures
I've been a little better about this. Also, I want to get my pictures all organized, my new MacBook will help with that and we are also going to be investing in a large external hard drive. Once I have that I want to consolidate all my pictures on to it.

3) Get accepted to a Masters in Teaching program
Not much has changed since last week (see here for details.) I am still really leaning towards School #3 and have found out more information on it. Yes, it will take longer but I think the pros outweigh the cons. I've been gathering more information from the woman who would be my advisor and she told me if I start this summer I won't graduate until January 2012. I would have loved to be able to finish in a year but an extra 6 months to 1 year (because I might not find a full time teaching job mid year) won't be the worst thing that could.) That being said I don't really want to slam the door on School #1. It's hard...but I want to decide for sure VERY SOON.

ABCs of me

I saw this on Taylor's blog and thought I would play along. You know I love these kind of things! Play along if you want to!

A. AREA CODE : outside Baltimore
B. BED SIZE: Queen...but I would love a King someday!
D. DOG'S NAME: Hanna
E. ESSENTIAL "START THE DAY!" ITEM: Water...I drink a ton of water and I'm always thirsty when I wake up
F. FAVORITE COLOR: Blue normally, but I like a lot of colors.

G. GOLD OR SILVER: Silver

H. HEIGHT: 5'6"

I. INSTRUMENTS YOU PLAY: I used to play the piano a bit.
J. JOB: My job title is "Client Manager" if you want to be official.

K. KIDS: Just a fur baby now but definitely at least 2 someday.
L. LIVING ARRANGEMENTS: Apartment.

M. MOM'S NAME: Starts with a P.

N. NICKNAME: I have a lot...mostly from K!

O. OVERNIGHT HOSPITAL STAY: None...except when I was born.

P. PET PEEVE: the sound of dry markers....just thinking about it gives me goosebumps.

Q. QUOTE FROM A MOVIE: "You'll shoot your eye out kid" or anything else from "A Christmas Story" ha! I actually quote movies constantly.

R. RIGHTY OR LEFTY?: Righty

S. SIBLINGS: younger sister and younger brother

T. TIME YOU WAKE UP: 7ish.
U. UNDERWEAR: I wear underwear if that is the question...

V. VEGGIE YOU DISLIKE: I'm not a huge Veggie fan but I don't really dislike any of them. It all depends on cooking and seasoning!

W. WAYS/REASONS YOU ARE LATE: Usually I am right on time...I hate being too early or being late.

X. XRAYS YOU'VE HAD: teeth (at the dentist), nose (broke it) and once I had a chest x-ray because I had asthma as a kid.

Y. YUMMY FOOD YOU MAKE: Lots! Since it's getting warmer I'm thinking about making my loaded baked potato salad which is super yummy and always a big hit at cookouts!

Z. ZOO ANIMALS YOU LIKE: Monkeys and big cats.

Mac Attack! (and some other random things)

• This is my first ever post coming from my shiny new MacBook Pro. So far I love it! It definitely is going to take some time to get used to but it's not as complicated as I thought it would be. My sister gave me a little lesson last night and helped me get it all set up. Yesterday I went shopping with my mom and my sister, I was planning on just buying the laptop at the Apple store. BUT...my wonderful mother surprised me completely and bought it for me. I was literally so surprised I started crying! I feel so lucky and grateful that my parents did this for me so I can put the money I would have spent towards other grad school expenses. I also ended up getting a cool printer for free!
• Speaking of my mother...today is her birthday! We are going out to eat tonight with our family and some friends. My sister and I are also going to take her out tomorrow to this cool wine bar.
• My brother is also in his last high school musical this weekend, I went to see him on Wednesday and I'm going again tonight with everyone after the birthday dinner.
• No final decision on what school I will be going to yet but I will keep you informed!
• I'll be posting an update on my 2010 goals very soon...mostly about weight watchers.
• This is my 300th post!

I'll leave you with my first experiment with Photo Booth. Stunning right?

crush

I have a crush on Sam and Stephanie from the Biggest Loser.

I always liked both of them separately and in fact, while watching the first episode I totally told K that I thought they would be a really adorable couple (call me Patti Stanger.) And they actually are!

Why I am so obsessed I have no clue. I just think it's so cute that they fell in love on the Biggest Loser. Last night while watching the show I kept wanting them to kiss or something...or hold hands while on the treadmill. But they never did and I was sad. Then I went to sleep and had a dream about them. Not a sexual dream or anything, just a dream about them being on the ranch.

I want to know more details about the relationship. How did they tell the other contestants? What do Jillian and Bob think? Do they ever have dates in the kitchen? Skinny dip in the pool? Was Koli jealous? Were any of the other girls jealous? Is there a Tiger Beat article or something that can give me answers?

PS The above picture (from the article I linked to) is not a good picture of Sam...he is much cuter now. Last night, when they all went home, he even was wearing a tres fab Burberry scarf.

Yes, I realize this probably means I am insane and the fact that I'm posting about it makes me even more insane. But I was hoping sharing my feelings would help get it out of my system.

To Mac?

Or not to Mac?

That is the question.

Thoughts?

decision?

I spent the weekend reflecting. I also spent a lot of time trying to distract myself from completely stressing out. Thank you New Moon dvd and your bonus features, shopping and sleeping in for your assistance with distraction.

Anyways, as many of you know I am planning on going back to school to get my Masters in Teaching, starting this summer. In early February I was accepted to School #3, which I considered my third choice because the program takes a little longer. Due to some application drama and my generally negative feelings on their process I never completed my application with School #2. School #1, as of Friday, I was still waiting to hear.

Since School #1 was taking such a long time to get back to me I began to consider School #3. Weighing the pros and cons it seemed that the only con is that it might mean being in school for longer then a year. A major pro is that it would allow me extra flexibility and the ability to work part time...which would cut down on the amount of money I would need to borrow. That is huge because for one, it would mean not going completely broke and also, with K putting himself through law school, we are already going to have a lot of student loan debt to worry about in the future.

Also, because School #3 is more flexible I would hopefully be able to student teach in the county that I want to work in. While I wouldn't get a full school year of student teaching experience (like School #1) because I could work I would try and substitute as my part time job...and still get my foot in the door that way.

What I am trying to say is that even before this email I got on Friday I was beginning to lean towards School #3. The email was from the director of the program at School #1 and basically said I'm on a waiting list. It's a small program and the size depends on what they can find for internship (student teaching) placements. She said they would love to accept everyone but obviously can't if they don't have placements. Who knows why I wasn't on their first...it could be anything. Honestly, I wish it had been a flat out no because now I just have to wait and see...and time is ticking.

That is why I am considering just going with School #3...I feel like my gut is telling me that's where I should go. But I also don't want to slam the door on School #1. I'm thinking about giving them until the middle of the week, then checking in again.

I need to make plans...and I'm sick of waiting.

Hopefully, this wasn't too rambling. I just needed to get it out. Thank for all of your sweet comments throughout this process...I really appreciate it.

featured!

Today I am a little overwhelmed with the whole grad school situation (I'll fill you in later.) But...on a happier note...I am being featured over at Raindrops and Roses today! Go check it out!

Also, the weather is gorgeous and it's almost the weekend...so I'm trying to stay optimistic.

Happy Weekend!

Happy St. Patricks Day!

Today makes me nostalgic for college. Green beer, decorating T-shirts, random kissing, being drunk. This truly is the perfect college holiday. Maybe not what St. Patrick had in mind, but oh well.

Since I am no longer in college I need a new way to appreciate this fine holiday. I'm thinking a trip to Ireland might do the trick.

(image found here)

Sigh. Maybe someday. For now I'll just wear a green cardigan.

In other exciting news my fabulous real life friend, JM, started her own blog called DC Food Love. It's going to be all about food, wine, and entertaining. Check it out!

signs and the waiting game

Why is it that when you are waiting for something you have to be reminded of it every five seconds? Why does everything thing get read into waaay too much? Or does that just happen to me?

Case in point...I still haven't heard back from School #1 (my first choice for grad school.) They told me during my interview that they were hoping to have made decisions by March 1st. It's now the 16th...halfway into the month. What gives?

Last week I emailed the program director and asked when I might expect to know something. No response. Is that good sign that she didn't respond or a bad one? Or is she just out of the office? No clue.

Yesterday I get a mass email about a grant opportunity from someone at School #1. Why am I even getting mass emails to "School of Education Students." Am I just on the mailing list because I applied? Or is this a good sign? No clue.

Today I got an email from my sorority's national office. They are looking to open a chapter at School #1 and gathering information from local alums who may want to help out the new chapter. Is this a coincidence...or a sign?

Maybe the waiting is just making me insane. Tomorrow I'll probably start seeing pictures of the school's mascot in crop fields.

hanna's birthday party (and the rest of the weekend)

This weekend was a lot of fun. Friday I called out of work (I actually did today too...I'm a slacker I know...but I need to use up my days) and K and I met up with some family friends at our favorite Mexican restaurant. After being lazy most of the morning and running some errands in the afternoon of course. My parents were out of town so we stayed over at their house. The next morning was my Broadway Babies show. The show went well and I am happy it's over for now, I don't think I will be able to do the next session but I may do it again in the fall. Then we met up with our friends B and M to see "Alice in Wonderland" and went out to dinner. The movie was really good, we saw it in IMAX 3-d which was pretty cool.

Sunday we cleaned and cooked all day for Hanna's 1st Birthday party, which was basically just my parents and brother coming over for dinner but I have to say...I got a little into it.

The birthday girl, who is desperate need of a haircut.

I made K stop at Party City on the way home from the grocery store.

The birthday dog cake, dog owners let me know if you want the recipe. Hanna and Gryffin (my parent's dog) both loved it.

Our family.

Hanna enjoying her cake.

We were being a little silly after the party.

happy weekending!

I called out of work today and have been being lazy all morning. Which is amazing. K and I have a pretty busy weekend planned so I'll be sure to give you a full recap on Sunday or Monday.

Unfortunately, I am still waiting to hear something from School #1. The waiting sucks so I am attempting not to think about it. Whenever I do I start to panic about the fact that my whole life is up in the air and will be drastically changing in just a few months.

Have a wonderful weekend!

tag and an award

First of all, I was tagged (back on February 25th...I am a slacker) by Jenny DB at So Say I to play along with a phototag game.

Here are the rules:

1) Open your 1st Photo Folder (I am going to use my photobucket since my pictures are pretty disorganized)
2) Scroll to the 10th photo
3) Post the photo (no cheating) and the story behind it

Here it is:

Last February my mom and I went up to Boston for my sister's 21st birthday. The first day we were there it was so cold and my sister had class, so we just went to the movies. We saw "Taken" which wasn't that good. However, it was a very weird theater. The seats (and the theater itself) was on a very sharp incline...almost straight up. I was bored waiting and no one else was there so I took some pictures. Click here to see my original blog post about the trip...it was back when I didn't get any comments!

For this I tag anyone who wants to play along!

Next on the agenda, Ashley from Kiwis and Cocktails gave me this fab award:

The Rules:

1. List 6 things you are a master in.

2. Pass it on to 6 bloggers you think are masters at friendship, and make blogging so awesome

I am a master in:

1) Being loud. Seriously, I can not talk softly. My whisper is at the volume of most people's normal voices.

2) Mincing garlic. Once I saw Rachel Ray use this technique with coarse salt and I have been doing it ever since. Garlic is my fav. Sorry Vampire Bill.

3) Trivia. As long as it isn't sports trivia.

4) Spoiling my dog. I let her get away with anything.

5) Drunk singing. I love to sing to people when I am drunk, or have them request songs from me. Like a human jukebox.

6) Baking potatoes. This is a new mastery, since I started Weight Watchers a baked potato with salsa is my go to easy dinner. It took some practice but I finally have a technique where they end up perfect!

I tag:

1) a life more exciting

2) Adventures of an Anonymous Prep

3) Everyday Delights

4) Llama Tales

5) Pink Champagne

6) Cape Cod Awesome

to buy or not to buy...that is the question

Jack Rogers Navajo Sandals. What are your thoughts?

I don't consider myself to be very preppy or anything but I feel like I like the "dress them up or down, wear with anything quality" that they have. Specifically the platinum colored ones (seen above.)

I have a $50 amazon gift card left over from Christmas so I could buy them there for essentially half off. But, I'm not sure if even at half off they are worth it. I have been really not shopping recently and I think they last a long time, right? But would it be better to just use my gift card for something practical? And put my $45 towards my new computer? It's a dilemma.

Are they worth spending $45 bucks on? Are they too preppy?

(all this is also hinging on me trying them on somewhere and seeing how they look/fit too)

and the winner is...

It's not an Oscar but it is a super cute summer-y crab tote!

Congrats to...

Ashley from Kiwis and Cocktails!

Ashley, if you haven't already please get me your information so I can have CSN send you the tote!

Thanks everyone who entered!

(I used random.org to select a number (18) to choose the winner)

wake up in the morning feeling like P. Diddy

Is that not a really weird thing to say? What does it even mean? How does P. Diddy feel in the morning...rich? Sleepy? Does he push snooze? Or maybe someone wakes him up becuase...well...he is P. Diddy? The world may never know.

Anyways, this morning I am feeling pretty good and that line is just stuck in my head. As of today I have lost over 5 pounds on Weight Watchers, I have Real Housewives of NY dvr-ed and waiting for me, it's Friday, and I allowed myself to eat a yummy asiago cheese bagel from Panera for breakfast. (Friday and Saturday are the days I use most of my WW flex points for the week.)

Still no new grad school news. Waiting on School #1 but that's ok...I'm still in a good mood.

And here is something else that is exciting: One of you will be winning this tote very soon!

Today is the last day to enter my first giveaway, I'll be picking the winner over the weekend.

Click HERE to enter!

gotta love those sweeping generalizations

There is this guy I work with, we'll call him Bob. Now I would definitely consider Bob one of my "work friends" which may be why these comments really bothered me. If they came from someone I hated I probably wouldn't give them a second thought. I also have no problem with someone being blunt or honest with me...but the context just seemed strange.

The first incident happened over a year ago. We were at a happy hour and another guy I worked with implied that I should be getting engaged soon. I know a lot of people with boyfriends who are my age have to deal with "when are you getting married" question but I really don't. None of my close friends are engaged or married and I don't feel any pressure from my family to get married. So this was really the first time I got asked about it.

I sort of just laughed it off and said something like "not any time soon." Bob however, decided to grill me. He asked how long K and I had been together, how long we had lived together, how old we were etc... Then he said: "well you are not getting married. If he hasn't proposed yet, he isn't going to." Naturally, I got defensive but I didn't want to get into a fight or anything. He is entitled to his opinion. What bothered me is the fact that he needed to say it to me when he knew it would make me feel bad. What's the point in doing that? He doesn't know K or even me all that well so why lump us into his little "theory?"

And it wasn't just that once. He has said the same thing multiple times to me even though every time I just brush it off and say "agree to disagree." But he doesn't stop, it's like he wants me to doubt my relationship or something.

Bob is one of the few people I work with who knows about my plan to quit and go back to school. Yesterday me, him and another guy were talking about it quietly. Out of nowhere Bob asks me if I have ever even taught anything before because I probably won't like it once I get into the classroom. His source was this chick he is dating who was getting her masters in secondary ed. and quit when she had 3 credits left. Apparently she realized she hated teaching. Then he implied that the same thing would happen to me. Once again I had to defend myself and essentially site my entire "experiences with children" resume to him. Why?

Maybe he is just trying to be a friend and warn me of the potential downsides in life. But, I don't understand how you can generalize someone you don't really know. If I want a "tough love" analysis of my life I'll go to someone who can see the whole picture.

Is it weird that Bob's comments bother me?

how do you like me now?

What do you think of my new look? Kelsey from Kreated by Kelsey totally hooked me up! If you are looking for an affordable, fast, and excellent blog makeover you should check her out.

I had no idea what I wanted and she really helped me narrow things down. I am thrilled with how cute it looks!

army brat

A week or so ago (or maybe even longer) Kiera, from Imperfect Daisies, asked me to blog about my experience growing up in a military family. Honestly, I didn't mean to put off talking about it this long, I have been trying to gather up all my thoughts on the subject and figuring out how I could format it in the most clear way. Kiera I hope this answers your question! Sorry if it is a little long winded.

To give you a little background, my parents were both in the Army, in fact they met at the Officer's Club bar while stationed in San Francisco. My mom was only in for 6 years after college but my dad was in for over 20 year and retired when I was in high school (he now works for a non-profit organization.) Naturally we moved around a lot, the school I went to for 6th grade was also my 6th school since kindergarten, but when we moved to Maryland we ended up staying. So I was able to go to middle and high school in the same area. Also, fortunately for our family, because of the time frame and the role that he had during Desert Storm my dad was never went "off to war." What I am trying to point out with all this is that I think my experience was pretty different than army brats today. And I was also very fortunate that I didn't have to change schools during high school or middle school which from what I heard (and can imagine) is a lot more traumatic.

So what was hard about being an army brat?

• Moving around of course. It sucks having to leave friends no matter how old or young you are. Also my sister and I would get involved with an activity like gymnastics or a ballet and have to leave and start over somewhere else.


• Missing out on the experience of having a "hometown." I can't help but feeling a little jealous of people that have friends from elementary school that they still hang out with. Or those people that lived in the same house from the time they came home from the hospital until they went off to college.
  

And what were the good things?

• Getting to see (and live in) lots of different parts of the country. My family never was stationed overseas...unless you want to count Hawaii!


• Forming a close bond with your family, especially siblings. There was a lot of times when I moved to a new area in the summer and only had my sister to play with. It made us very close. In fact when we settled in Maryland and got involved with different things it actually was a little sad. I also feel like my family is close because we spent a lot of time together and had some different adventures. Of course we still do spend a lot of time together so I'm not sure the Army had a lot to do with that!


• Growing up on Army bases also is a really good environment because everyone is in the same situation. To me it didn't seem as competitive about money and people seem to care more about each other/their neighbors.


• The fact that my dad was in the Army also meant we had the means for my mom to stay at home with us which I feel is very important!

So there is my little...or not so little...summery! If anyone has any questions on this subject please let me know!

random thoughts on Monday morning

• Today is the day that School #1 was supposed to have made their admission descions. Not sure how quickly that means I will know something but the waiting is absolutly killing me. I have also been stressing out a lot about student loans...I used to always say if I got into School #1 I would definitly go there and now I have been thinking more about School #3 (which I already got accepted to.) Going to School #3 would mean I could keep up some kind of job while there and thus not have to borrow as much. Blah. It's overwhelming.


• Speaking of going back to school...I am planning on getting a laptop soon. I actually don't have a computer right now I use K's laptop a lot and we also have his desktop set up in our "office" room. My computer from college broke right when we moved in together. I am leaning towards a Mac but I'm not sure. Any advice?


• Has anyone read the Sookie Stackhouse books? I am in desperate need of reading material and since I love True Blood I was thinking about trying them out.


• Finally I am getting my blog makeover! It's being worked on right now so watch out for that soon.


• Don't forget to enter my first ever giveaway by clicking here. You have until Friday at 8:00 pm EST!