Hoppin Good Time

I'm laying low these days.  Work.  Do stuff.  Sleep.  Repeat.  I'm focusing on happy things.  

With that I've been bringing the happy things into work with me.   

My office is festive.  A group of ladies that are always down for a celebration.  This week was no exception.  On Tuesday we celebrated an award that someone received so we brought in some snacks.  I tried out this chocolate covered strawberry (to look like carrots) situation.  The chocolate I used wasn't so good.  But you get the point...

Then Wednesday we celebrated our students for Student Staff Appreciation Day.  I contributed these carrot veggie things.  (Crescent rolls with veggie cream cheese)  I don't like cream cheese so I didn't taste them but they turned out pretty cute.  (MUCH better than the strawberries).

I brought in a guessing game of how many bunny tails were in the jar for the week on my desk.   Today the winner received the jar and a Dunkin Donuts gift card.  The winner guessed EXACTLY how many were in there.   Impressive.

And these are the treats for all my coworkers.  Little ice cream cones filled with candy.  They turned out pretty cute!

 

Whew.  It's been a festive and busy week in the office.  I'm looking forward to going home and relaxing.  No plans tonight and no real Easter plans either.  I'm going to dye eggs and do something fun.  I was thinking of how fun it would be to have an Easter basket again.  Or make one for someone else.  I don't really remember ever getting too many Easter baskets in my life so I'm always a little envious of the families that do fun things like that.  And Easter egg hunts.  I really like those. 

 

IF I got one this year...I'd want this to be in it (a new anchor Alex and Ani bracelet that I currently love)  And my Nike watch.  And maybe some new running socks.  hahaha.    And coffee gift cards.  Okay, Okay, and a chocolate bunny (just because it's rude not to have that)  Now that would be one FUN Easter basket, huh?

 

 

I'm going to try to find an Easter dress now...maybe I'll go to church.  With a big hat....and gloves.  And then get Chinese food.  :)

 

Haha!  Happy Easter weekend to all that celebrate!  Enjoy!  xoxo

Ah, Yes. This.

Have we discussed my fondness for Jimmy Fallon? Well, let's.

 

 

I decided that happiness (these days) is watching the previous nights Tonight Show whilst getting ready for work in the morning.  I laugh.  A LOT.

 

Hilarious.  



 

And then yesterday it hit me.  I want to go see the Tonight Show for my birthday this year.  It's filmed in NYC so...perfect.  I looked up tickets but you can't reserve that far in advance but trust me...I'll be stalking tickets as soon as the calendar rolls around to October.  Who knows where I'll be living then--but I can assure you that I will give my best effort to get there around D9. 

Maybe DMB will be the musical performer that day. 

A girl can dream...

Happy Wednesday!

Unplugged

This weekend was super boring.  Like SUPER boring.  When I wasn't working I was at home.  I cleaned my house on Friday night.  And got stuff that I have wanted to do, done.  Not much to blog about really.  But I got that list from my last post all sorts of crossed out.  With my physical space in order, I spent time relaxing and thinking about life.

 

I had an epiphany. 

 

 

I need to limit my social media.  For real.   I don't need need to feel tense when I open FB or Insta.  Those should be fun, right?   But more often than not I see something that I don't want to see.  I realize how connected we all are.  There are several groups that I'm a part of that use FB as the primary source of contact.  And there are people that I want to connect with on there.  So I don't want to swear it off completely.  I don't want to delete my accounts.  There are good things that I do want to see. (pictures of my friend completing a half marathon, kids that I love, news stories, updates on Syracuse basketball, etc)

But I want to resolve to only use it for specific purposes.  I don't want to open it just because I'm bored.  I don't want to post anything unless it's positive or has a purpose.  By being more purposeful in my usage, I hope to eliminate the chances of seeing things that I don't need to see. 

 

And life will go on without me updating about stupid stuff too.  :) 

 

 

Truth

Do you ever think about the kind of person you want to be?  I don't mean that in terms of character (that's a whole different post).  I'm talking about how you get through the mechanics of your life...how you structure your time and day to be able to be the most functional, efficient human being you can be?

I think about it.  On. The. Daily. 

Here's what I'd like to see:

• gets up in the morning and runs or gets a good work out in
• has time to make myself pretty and have a very pulled together outfit on (complete with good hair, nails and shoes)
• heads to work with a cup of coffee and kills it in the office
• continues to kill it in a part time job or whatever social thing is on my calendar
• come home and make sure everything is set for the next day...dishes done, clothes picked up, things are in order
• have a little time to relax a little (read, do nails, watch Jimmy Fallon, etc)
• get good sleep

Yeah, that sounds great.  And I almost, kind of do these things.  But recently I've felt it's more like this:

• get up and check the weather, see how much more I can sleep before I would miss my window of running and getting to work on time. 
• depending on how much I left myself snooze before my run--do my very best at making it look like I'm not a frazzled mess.  Do I REALLY need to wash my hair?  What outfit makes it look like I tried?
• rush to get a coffee QUICK before I am exactly on time for work and roll in and wish that it was 4:30 because I'm tired and I have a million things to do at home.
• head to the part time job and do my very best at making it look like I'm engaged in helping customers or head to whatever social thing I have and hope that people don't think I'm a raggedy mess.
• come home and immediately put on my jams and get into bed and fall asleep without doing anything remotely productive or relaxing.

And then there are some days that I KILL it and feel like I have my shit together.  Those are few and far between.  I get things done.  To the naked eye I may appear that I'm pulled together.  In reality though...it's an illusion.  I'm constantly thinking about the things I need to be doing and spending the time I have just trying to take care of the bare minimum.  When do I have time to do laundry, or go grocery shopping or finish making a blanket for Tyler?  Let's be serious, I do a lot of really fun things.  I'm lucky in that regard.  But sometimes, like now, I really want order and structure.  I crave organization like some people crave peanut butter.  I want to be the girl that can make it look effortless.  "Oh, it's your birthday...don't worry I got your card in the mail 3 days ago"   I want to be able to be efficient AND productive...while looking fantastic.  Is that too much for a girl to ask? 

This morning I got dressed to run.  I walked outside.  The air was lovely and perfect for the 4 miles I had planned.  But instead of just going I went back inside and got back in my bed and fell asleep until 7:45...woke up and RUSHED to get myself together and get to work by 8:30.  All the while, cursing myself out.  Ugh. 

That got me to thinking...you can't change anything until you change something.  SO fueled by my gas station coffee (haha...puns happen) I sat down at my desk and decided to get back to basics.  I'm spending the morning making a list of ALL the stuff I need to do to make me feel more in control of my days. 

I know that no one has it all together.  We all struggle to make our time count.  However, I need to make some changes in my schedule so that I'm not running on empty all the time.  There aren't going to be new hours magically inserted into my day.  I'm going to have to make a plan and figure out how I can make things more orderly in my life.  The list is entitled:  Get Your Shit Together, Green! 

 

And, that, my friends,  is my truth today. 

Currently...

...obsessing over getting a watch for running.  I've been looking at the different options but I keep coming back to this one.  Nike+ GPS Sportwatch. 

I wish I could run right out and buy it.  sigh.  Can I make a "I want to be a real runner" gift registry"? My life is too expensive.  hee hee. 

 

Happy Thursday! 

Madness

It's my favorite day of the year!  The Madness is here! 

I'm coordinating the office pool so I've been busy getting my co-workers picks entered into our group on line.  I've completed three brackets on ESPN.

Since I can't resist an excuse for a theme, I decorated my desk.

complete with plastic basketball eggs, swags,  a pom pom...

And ORANGES with fun things written on them. 

And what thing in my life would be complete without an outfit to coordinate? 

One of my "secret" dreams is to coordinate game day apparel choices.  I think there is a wide market of women that are looking for ways to show their sporty spirit in a professional manner.  Without the obligatory t-shirt and jeans, that is.  I just have to figure out how I can make this a reality.  I'd love to style people up for their favorite teams on game days.  The possibilities are endless. 

 

Happy March Madness...Let's Go Orange!

The Day O Green

St. Patrick's Day is probably one of my most favorite days of the year.  Green is everywhere and there is a hint of spring in the air.  And and it's an excuse to drink beer in the daylight hours.  I know people think it's silly but I just like it. And let's face it...I love an excuse to be themed for a day. 

Prior the the green festivities, I got to have some good relaxation time.  I ran 4 miles on Saturday morning---I really like this program my Nike app has me doing.  I ran alone.  Outside.  It was wonderful.  I'm actually starting to really enjoy the run as it's happening and not just after it's done. 

On Sunday I went to yoga and had coffee with my friend, Isabel.  It was such a nice way to spend a morning. Yoga was hard but great.  We actually met on St. Patrick's Day two years ago so it was cool to hang out to commemorate that.  We are makeup less in this picture but whatever.  Gotta remember the little moments in life.

I ran errands all afternoon and then met up with some other friends for drinks.  These ladies are just so great  and fun to be around.   A good way to end my lovely Sunday off. 

I went home to get prepared for the green festivities that were happening in my office.  I made these shamrock chips out of spinach wraps. 

I made these pots of gold for my Bath and Body ladies.

And for my office co workers I made these cards with a pocket hand sanitizer that says lucky to work with you. 

My office is really fun so we had a little contest to see who could be the most spirited st. Patrick's outfit.  Of COURSE, I meant business so I busted out the boa and the big green bow. 

Here is some of our office staff showing our spirit. 

We also had a green potluck in the office.  Everyone brought something green in to eat.  It was so fun and so yummy!

And then I won a shamrock plant for being the most spirited green person!  Ha.  My supervisor and I are competitive so I took this picture for her just to rub it in.  We truly have so much fun in our office and I love that we do these theme days. 

After work, I headed out for a drink with a few girls I work with.  It was a fun time.  Sometimes I worry that I lead the most boring life ever.  But I guess I pretty much have fun no matter what I'm doing.  Life is good. Happy Tuesday!

 

Two Nights

I've only had two nights off this week and this is how I've spent them:

Celebrating our only win of the season at volleyball league on Wednesday night.  We have good players but it's taken awhile to get it together to actually win a game. 

Last night the book club got together and hung out.  No book discussion but good food and good company. 

 

I'm not looking forward to working tonight/tomorrow but AM looking forward to having all day Sunday to myself again. 

 

Happy Friday!

Weekend Stuff

This past weekend went quickly and was surprisingly relaxing.    On Saturday I went to my friend, Sara's baby sprinkle.  It was a lovely little celebration. 

She's having a girl so there were lots of cute little clothes to oooh and ahhh over.  And cute pink decorations. 

Angie, Me and Sabrina during the present opening.

After the shower me, Sabrina and Isabel got together at Angie's to do a "craft project".  It was really just time to hang out.  I got to spend some time with Tyler.  He's going to have a surgery on March 18 so it was good to get Isabel out of the house to get her mind off of that.  He sure is cute!  And he's appreciating my Alex and Ani bracelets in this picture. 

He started screaming at some point and Sabrina came to the rescue and got the poor little guy to sleep. 

Sabrina was content to snuggle the baby on the couch while he slept.  This picture is just so sweet.  Three of my favorite people in one picture. 

I had an unexpected day off on Sunday--meaning I thought I was working but wasn't scheduled so I was pretty excited to have the whole day off.  I got up early and met friends at the latte lounge, walked a bit and then had coffee.  I headed to a really great yoga class mid morning and then sought out a place to watch the last regular season cuse game.  Turns out I could only get it on my phone so I just stayed for a beer  and stared at my phone at the bar.  My phone died at half time so I ran home and got into bed to watch the second half.  It was lovely.  After the game I took a 2 hour nap and woke up and decided I needed to get my car washed in honor of daylight savings time.   I cleaned up the kitchen a bit and then headed to bed early.  It was a good way to spend a day off.  Nothing exciting but really relaxing.  I could use another day like that soon. 

Clean It Up!

So I'm doing a new 21 day slim down challenge.  I'm about a week in and it's going really well so far. I lost 3lbs this week.  I am still doing ww but wanted to get myself super motivated again so I thought doing the challenge would help that.  I have been stalled for awhile now because I think it's so easy to get comfortable after you've had success with weight loss and fitness.  It's like my brain is like..."Dude, you've done well.  Let yourself have a breather"  BUT that's exactly the opposite of what I need to do.  I need to push through and keep my eye on the prize.  Which is hitting my goal weight and running a 10k.

So with that said, I have been trying to eat "clean" and track all my food.  That's the key.  I did try some new stuff this week. 

Kefir.  It's so disgusting to deal with but it's supposed to be so good for you.  So I gave it a whirl.  I threw it in my morning shake and it's not bad at all.  It still freaks me out that I have milk sitting out on my counter.  All I see is sour milk.  Blech.  BUT it's pretty easy to do and the kefir seeds are multiplying so much that I'll have several jars very soon and be able to share it with others that may want to try it.

Then there's quinoa.  I had never tried it and I found a recipe in my clean eating guide that sounded good.  I mean, since I never had it I imagined that it would be good.  I made it yesterday and it was DELICIOUS.  A little shredded chicken, some oranges, cilantro and seasonings....YUM.  Can't wait to try new recipes with it. 

And I've never been much of a grapefruit eater but my Dad's rotary group sells fruit every year as a fundraiser so I thought I'd try it out again.  I got my 1/2 case of grapefruit and oranges and let me tell you...I am in love with grapefruit now.  I could eat one with every meal.  YUM!

Dad and I after he delivered my fruit.  Clearly, we love oranges!

 

All in all, after really trying to clean up my act and not eat processed foods, I feel like I have more energy and am not craving the stupid empty calories as much.  I don't know if it's just mental but I feel better and am motivated to get to my goals!  Fingers crossed!