Oops!

So I Might have forgotten to do Might-y Monday. Or I might have been feeling sick when I got home from work…or it might have been a combination of both. To make it up to you I’m posting a few excerpts from a funny email that my SIL (sister-in-law) sent to me yesterday. It was titled “Random Thoughts” and trust me it was random…as was a few of its topics of choice. So I’ll just put up those that I think you might enjoy (or the ones I thought related most applicably to my life) followed by a comments by MUAH!


I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Ghetto" routing option. Enough said.

I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger. Especially on weekends! I would totally pull a George Castanza and nap under my desk if I had my own office!

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 did we know to do this?? By word of mouth from other kids??

There is a great need for sarcasm font. Yes please!


How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet? I accepted that I will never be able to do this a long time ago!


I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in. I am guilty of this every time. I will even kick at the front door with my foot for Mr. L to come open it because I don’t have one spare finger to get the latch.

The only time I look forward to a red light is when I'm trying to finish a text. Guilty. I know it’s bad but sometimes you just can’t help it.

Was learning cursive really necessary? Teachers….?

Lol has gone from meaning, "laugh out loud" to "I have nothing else to
say". Again, guilty.

I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger. It’s the worst right when I get home from work too.

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".

How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and
smile because you still didn't hear what they said? This happens to me at least once daily…maybe I should get my hearing checked!

I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars teams up to
prevent a (I won’t use the word in the mail but you get the gist) from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers! or sisters!

MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood. So true! It creates a real waste of paper sometimes!

Whenever I'm Facebook stalking someone and I find out that their profile is public I feel like a kid on Christmas morning who just got the Red Ryder BB gun that I always wanted. 546 pictures? Don't mind if I do! Ok so maybe not a Red Ryder BB gun. The author of the email must have been a male. However it would be like getting that beautiful new camel leather coach purse I’ve been coveting for months!

Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don't want to have to restart my collection. Makes sense to me however I can’t say I really have a DVD collection. I find purchasing them to be kind of pointless.

I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Darnit!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What'd you do after I didn't answer? Drop the phone and run away? This mostly happens to me when I am trying to call back one certain friend…

I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call. I learned this trick after the guy from Wells Fargo kept calling me and trying to sell me another loan. I have now figured out that you have a local residential number buddy…won’t make that mistake again!

Even if I knew your social security number, I wouldn't know what do to with it. Duh!

It really pisses me off when I want to read a story on CNN.com and the
link takes me to a video instead of text. Like I can watch videos with sound at my desk…I don’t think so!

It's that time again

Here are some things I Might have done! Feel free to play along.

I might have forgotten to post something last week for Mighty Monday…and I might have gotten called out by a friend :-)

I might have gone to 2 concerts in the past 5 days and my throat might be sore from singing along! I might have gotten to spend one of those concerts with a dear friend that I haven’t seen in about a year. It might have been my favorite band Rascal Flatts and we might have had a BLAST!

We might have a showing of our house tomorrow and I might have a lot to do to get it ready and really don't feel like putting forth the effort. I also might NOT be getting my hopes up that we get an offer!

I might love love love our new furniture!

I might have only seen Mr. L for about 20 hours in the past 7 days and the majority of those hours were spent sleeping…it might be another 4 days before I get to see him again :-(

I might have my second golf lesson tomorrow, if it doesn’t rain AGAIN that is

I might be working on two more posts for this week so stay tuned...

Might-y Monday

So I wasn't so good at keeping up with Not Me, Monday so I thought I'd try Might-y Monday courtesy of Abby. To play the game you list things that you "might" have done over the past week. So here goes...

I might have been really horrible at keeping up with my blog lately...this might be my attempt at starting into a routine.

I might have a lot more time on my hands in the evening now since Mr. L is traveling for work again during the week.

I might have finally gotten a memory card reader for Mr. L's digital camera last week so I can begin uploading pictures again. I might have a few months worth of back posts swirling in my head that I might try to cram all into one.

I might have gone looking for new furniture with my Mom last week and Mr. L and I might have purchased said furniture on Saturday. It might be delivered to us in a few weeks :-)

I might have seen two movies in the theaters this weekend. Oh how I love movie theater popcorn. I might have been almost late to both movies...I might HATE being late to movies!

I might have stayed up until 12:30 last night to finish Mr. L's anniversary present...yes our anniversary was over a month ago. I might be annoyed that I didn't think to take a picture of it before he took it to be leathered. This might be what it looks like...

I might have taken Dakota to the dog park today and we might have had to leave when she got upset with the other dogs who didn't want to play with her.

I might have joined Twitter this evening just to keep up MckMama and the status of baby Stellan. I might think it would be silly to say that I might be praying for them...duh

I might think that this Might-y Monday is really fun and might even do it again next week!

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Wow! I can't believe it's already been a year. This time last year Mr. L and I were dancing the night away at our reception. Our first year of marriage has been wonderful. I feel so blessed to have such an amazing friend, confidant, love, all wrapped up into one fabulous husband. Here's a quick year in review-we traveled...A LOT...for work and play, we adopted a doggie, we attended weddings, worked on our house, cheered for our CATS!, spent time with family, dined with friends, and celebrated birthdays, all while learning what it means to be a good spouse to one another. I'd say we're right on track for having a pretty great life together :-)

To celebrate our first anniversary we ate at one of our favorite restaurants, The Melting Pot, and went to the O.A.R. concert at Riverbend. Today we had our anniversary cake and watched our wedding video. It was a great way to spend the weekend together and recount all the fun times we've had this year. Here are a few photos...

I would never do that! Nope, Not Me!

So I got this idea from MckMama over at MyCharmingKids. It's called Not Me, Monday. As she puts it "I thought it was funny to 'fess up' about some embarrassing things I'd done that week...by pretending I totally did not actually do them!"

Although I have no kids, so my confessions might not be as funny, I thought it was a good way for me to remember to post something on here regularly. I know it's not Monday but I'm going to start today because thinking back about the events of this morning made me laugh at myself.

As I mentioned yesterday we put our house on the market about a month ago. It hasn't been so hard to keep physically clean but there is always some random clutter sitting out that doesn't have a specific place and that you have no idea what to do with, but has to be put somewhere before your showing later in the day (run on, I know)....Case in point...This morning as I was running out the door to work I:

Most certainly did not put a dirty cup that was sitting next to the sink into the dishwasher full of CLEAN dishes that I had run a few days ago and had still had not unloaded.

While walking down the hallway and finding a random slipper laying on the floor that Dakota must have taken from my closet I most certainly did not stick it in the kitchen cabinet instead of going all the way back to put it where it belonged. I know this sounds gross because don't think for one second that I haven't before worn my slippers outside but it was a bottom cabinet and all that's in there is dog treats and a few left over liquor bottles that we received at our stock the bar party so I figured it wouldn't hurt.

After one final check of the bathroom and seeing my pajamas strewn about I most certainly did not put them in the dirty clothes hamper where I retrieved them from the night before and fully intend to retrieve them from again tonight.

I also did not put magazines and the book I'm currently reading in my husband's underwear drawer or a basket of dry cleaning and dirty clothes in the trunk of my car.

And that was just in a span of 5 minutes...imagine what I will have to share after a whole week...this could be scary! Feel free to tell something funny you have done recently in the comments or start it on your blog!

I have not fallen off the face of the earth...

...although I have felt close. I can't believe it's been over a month since I posted something last! For those of you who actually read this and have had to put up with seeing the same post for the past 42 days, I apologize. So you ask, what have I been doing? Here's the short list of the events that have taken place in my life since March 25. I have:

1. Celebrated my BFF's 25th birthday- love her!
2. Decided to put our house on the market (I'll dedicate a whole post to this tomorrow)
3. Completed the odds and ends of home improvements to put our house on the market (new toilet installed, trim work completed, bathroom grout and tile steam cleaned, new light fixtures, new medicine cabinet, etc...)
4. Accomplished the major feat of cleaning and organizing my house as well as purging a lot, lot, lot of unused stuff (this was a big deal if you know the type of pack rate/procrastinator that I am!)
5. Spent 3 nights in Lexington serving on a committee for UK.
6. Stayed the weekend in Lexington for Keeneland and Redmons :-) 7. Celebrated Easter with our families
8. Attended a Charity Awards Banquet for the NFP that my dad serves on the board of.
9. Took a weekend trip to New York City to visit my amazing cousin
10. Had 15 house showings and an open house
11. Helped coordinate and participated in a photo shoot for my sorority's international headquarters
11. Completed 4 weeks of level 2 obediance training with Dakota
12. Celebrated my Mom's birthday (we won't reveal how young she is)

13. Went house hunting and met with a builder...just in case ours sells

That's on top of my full time job and all while Mr. L was out of town for work for 3 of those weeks. I am tired! The craziness that summer brings is just beginning though so I better gear up! Only 2 more days until the weekend :-)

2,438 miles from home

I know I've been a blog slacker lately but life happens. I've been meaning to write about my recent super-fun trip to the west coast but kept forgetting or putting it off. SO...today is the day my friends!

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to travel (2,438 miles from home, I googled it) to Seattle...well Lacey, Washington really to visit my dear dear friend Lauren. (I blogged about her move out west back in the late fall for those of you who might happen to follow along. Mr. S- her soon to be hubs, was stationed out there with the Army and she went too) I had such a great time visiting with her, catching up, talking about wedding stuff, meeting her kitty and exploring cities I had never visited before. If you're a person that doesn't mind rain, this is such a beautiful place to live! The trees are amazing! Myself, I think I would have trouble adapting due to my tendency to get upper respiratory issues every time the weather changes, and thus the current cold I have been battling upon my return home.

Despite the rain (I don't know why I would have expected anything else...everyone knows it rains all the time in Seattle) we were able to have many adventures and do the touristy things that I'm sure Lauren is getting tired of doing with each group that comes to visit, and I loved ever minute of it, especially the wine tasting! We were even able to do a little shopping although I was put on strict budget by Mr. L before I left :-) For those of you Bachelor fans or recent non-fans, I did try to stalk down Jason but I think he's gone into hiding...haha

Overall though, the biggest thing I took away from this trip was how proud I was of my friend. It is so interesting to see someone close to you living life in a different place than what you both used to call home (although I hope she still calls NKY home) Finding new places to shop, making new friends, learning your way around or trusting Lady Garmin, getting a new job, all things that I can't imagine having to do and pretty much take for granted all the time. I realized what a stong woman Lauren is and I admire her courage so much! We'll get to see each other again in June when she's "home" for a few weeks and I'll be counting down until then!

Batwoman

…is among one of the new titles added to the long list of nicknames in which we affectionately refer to our dog. It ranks up there with Dakotie, Kota, Dakota-puss (courtesy of the IHOP Nanner-puss commercial), and now Batwoman. Why Batwoman you ask? Well let me give you a short run down of yesterday evening.

I was able to make it home a little early from work so that I could take Dakota to the dog park since it was SOOOO nice outside. (She ABSOLUTELY loves going there to run with the other dogs and Mr. L and I win out also because by the time we leave she is so exhausted that all she wants to do for the rest of the evening is lay around) I ran in the house, made sure to turn off the alarm, which we’ve been setting a lot more diligently lately due to the recent string of home break-ins in our area, and headed to the basement door. Our basement is mostly unfinished so this is where she stays while we are gone to work as an alternative to having to lay in her crate all day. Usually she is sitting at the top of the stairs after she hears me come in, so I just let her out and we go straight outside. On a rare occasion I might go downstairs to check on things but most of the time I try to avoid it like the plague because I think it’s creepy down there and there is really nothing she could get into… or so we thought.

We spent a good hour at the dog park before we came home so I could start dinner for Mr. L. Nothing had seemed out of the ordinary when we walked in, I went in the kitchen and Dakota ran downstairs. This is a pretty typical occurrence for her in the evenings, she might be going down to get her football or her bone to bring up to play with in the family room, but when she came up carrying nothing, I should have been suspicious. A few minutes later Mr. L called to say that he wanted to run over to his parents’ house so that his Dad could check our taxes before we filed them and not to worry about cooking dinner; we’d just pick something up. So Dakota and I sat on the couch and waited for him to come home.

As we were getting ready to leave, I asked Mr. L to run downstairs (because obviously I didn’t want to) to grab Dakota’s bone to take with us to his parents’ so she would have something to keep her occupied for a while. He obliged and not two seconds after I heard his feet hit the basement floor did I also hear his voice yelling for me. “Have you been down here today!?” He screamed. “Uh…no” I politely yelled back…duh I was thinking to myself. What happens next could have been a real turning point in our married relationship. If he is anything like my father he may have chosen to hide what I’m about to tell you and use it as a practical joke or to scare me. However, I think he was just as grossed out as I would have been. After I didn’t hear anything from him, I yelled back down to him again thinking maybe she had chewed the nasty carpet down there again or pulled up some toe strip, all of which I care nothing about. “What is is?” I said. “Dakota got sick down here today…and I think she killed something”. Killed, that’s all it took, the word killed, to run chills up my spine. There was something alive in my house that my dog felt the need to kill. GROSS! “What was it” I said out of fear and disgust, not really wanting to know. “I think it’s a bat,” he yelled back up. For those of you who are puzzled, thinking to yourselves, a bat?...yes a flying bat, not to be confused with a baseball bat which is what the vet’s office receptionist thought I was talking about when I called there this morning. He proceeded to force me to come downstairs to help him clean “it” up and I did just like a good wife, holding the bag with eyes shut, teeth clenched and ants in my pants! Thank goodness the thing was really dead because had it moved when Mr. L went to scoop it up I think I would have had a heart attack.

How a bat got into our house I do not know, and the thought of other bats still hanging around makes me nauseous and wanting to move into a hotel for a few days until we can get an exterminator over to check things out. It does seem odd to me that it was in our basement (don’t bats usually hang out in attics?) especially since the windows are glass block and the door to the outside hasn’t been opened down there in probably six months. For now I guess it will remain a mystery and at least we have batwoman to scare off anymore bats that might think about showing themselves. Let it be a lesson to them…she will find you and then it’s CURTAINS! No more doggie kisses for us for a while, that’s for sure! I’ll keep you updated on the development of any fangs….HA!

PS. I was going to add an image of a real bat...but after I googled photos of bats and hundres of creepy bat photos popped up I got the heeby geebies so bad that I had to close the page. So cartoon photos of batwoman it is!

Fun Gadgets

When I was a kid I loved getting new toys! There was nothing better than ripping open the packaging to reveal the current must-have being talked about in the elementary school cafeteria. Even now as an adult I still get an exhilarating feeling much like I did when I was a child when I buy something new and exciting although I’ve cut back significantly on my Shopaholic ways since getting married…and sharing a bank account. That being said we recently got two new gadgets around our house that I have been slightly obsessed with, a steamer and a webcam!

The steamer was a Christmas gift that I have been wanting for a long time but just never got around to purchasing. Don’t tell my mom but it has been sitting in the box in our office for the past two months and I just got it out and put it together last weekend. It is AMAZING! I’m kind of annoyed with myself that I let it sit there and collect dust as long as I did when I could have been using it to steam everything in sight. There are some things that the iron still works better for but if you just have a few little spots on a work shirt it definitely does the trick and cuts down on my time in the morning!

Since Lauren moved out west I’ve been wanting to get a webcam so we could chat online and I could see her beautiful face rather than just hearing her voice. I nosed around on Amazon.com one day and found the perfect one to meet my needs. I couldn’t wait for it to come in the mail and now that it has arrived, I get so excited when I get to use it! Who knew video chatting could be so much fun and easy! The camera just plugs into my USB port and clips on to the top of my laptop. It amazes me the things we can do with technology these days. If you have friends or family that live far away I highly recommend getting one and the added bonus is that chatting through Skype is FREE (as long as you’re calling another computer that is)!

Things have been pretty boring around our house these days other than that. I can’t wait for Spring to get here! Happy Friday!

Friday the 13th on Thursday the 12th??

I’m not a superstitious person to say the least. I have no problems with black cats, breaking a mirror, opening an umbrella in the house, walking under a ladder, etc. and I don’t really believe that Friday the 13th is supposed to be a horrid day filled with bad luck. However…yesterday after I told you about how I was having “one of those days” it quickly escalated to the level of a “terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day”. Could it be possible that the Universe got confused and I had my Friday the 13th on Thursday the 12th?

I won’t bore you with all the details but here’s a quick run down of how my evening progressed after I left work. I was rushing home to do a quick change and puppy potty break because I was supposed to be somewhere at 6:00. First there was the traffic, which I deal with almost every day, yet it still gets on my stinkin nerves! I chose to get off the expressway one exit early as to try and avoid a major bottleneck area. As I’m waiting patiently at a stop light in the far right lane of the exit ramp, some jerk comes whizzing up the median and proceeds to stop right next to my car and then expects me to let him over. I felt my blood pressure starting to rise! Why can’t people just follow the rules? I inched my car forward as to communicate with him that I was not putting up with such behavior and he would not be getting in front of me. Apparently this was not the reaction he was looking for because not only did he then cut me off but rolled down his window and stuck his head out looking back at me with this psycho stare. Fine…whatever…clearly HE is above the law so I let it go.

I sped home, screeched to a stop in my driveway and ran inside. Got Dakota, chained her outside and went to change. Not 5 minutes later I hear a yelping, semi-distressed sounding bark coming from outside. Dakota is not much of a barker so I knew something had to be wrong. I buttoned my jeans and ran back to the front door to look out only to see my spacy neighbor, 3 children in tow and her HUGE dog that she could barely control in my yard. I couldn’t imagine what she could possibly be doing so I ran outside. She tells me that she thought she would “introduce” our dogs. Seriously? I really wanted to respond that our dogs had already been introduced the MANY times hers had gotten loose and tried to clobber Dakota and if she knew anything about actually introducing dogs she would know that you should never do it while one is chained up without it’s owner and can’t get away!! I kept thinking to myself as I stood in my wet yard with no shoes on and a fake smile on my face, trying my best to get Dakota back in the house as she had tangled the lady and her 3 year old little boy up in her lead, “I do not have time for this!”

Fast forward about 3 hours. It’s about 9:00. I am getting ready to leave to head home from being out for the evening. I get in my car, turn the key…NOTHING. Again I say to myself…Seriously? It’s dark out, I’m about 20 minutes away from my house, my husband is out of town, and I just had this darn battery replaced back in August …Seriously? This hasn’t been the first time that my trusty old car hasn’t started so I head to the trunk to get my jumper cables. A very nice man with a big truck gave me a jump start and 10 minutes later I was on the road. Whew! Not thinking…I pull into my one car driveway, let the engine run for a few more minutes (because in my mind, driving home should have been plenty of time to charge the battery) and then decide to turn the car off. Since I had to drive to work in the morning I thought to myself, I’ll just turn it back on once to make sure it will start…NOTHING. Now I’m really up a creek without a paddle! So, I call my Daddy who is always there to get me out of situations like this. I was able to find the receipt for the battery which was still under warranty, so we call AAA to come replace it. 45 minutes goes by and the guy shows up, tinkers around for 30 minutes (are you doing the math?) and comes to my door to tell me that my battery is bad (clearly) and that it needs to be replaced (clearly) but…he doesn’t have any of the kind I have in my car because it is a really popular battery and neither does anyone else in their entire fleet. FABULOUS! He tells me he will check with their sister company and let me know. 10 more minutes later he comes back to the door with the good news, Road Rangers has a battery and they are north of town so they’ll be to my house within the next 2 hours….WHAT?? Current time check when he tells me this…11:45. What other choice did I have though? So I sit and wait, watch my DVR’d Grey’s and Private Practice and hope the guy arrives sooner rather than later. Finally whole ordeal was over, I was in bed, with a new battery installed about 1:30am. I am SO TIRED today!

I think that was enough to go through in one day that I should be exempt from any bad luck today on the actual Friday the 13th ! Mr. L and I are celebrating our first married Valentine’s Day tonight by going to the Melting Pot for dinner…YUM, so I am optimistic and happy for the weekend to be here! I hope everyone has a day filled with better luck than I’ve had and nice Valentine’s Day!

Tomorrow

Do you ever just have one of those days?? Days where you don't feel like doing anything, getting anything accomplished or putting forth any kind of effort in general?? I'm having one of those days!

If you read my previous post you will know that I am a procrastinator. I'll be the first to admit that I can procrastinate with the best of em'. When I don't feel like doing something I can find at LEAST 5-10 other things to occupy my time. When this trait is mixed with having "one of those days" I find myself saying- Oh, I can do it tomorrow, and putting off the majority of the things I had on my list to do that day and why piles start to form. Piles. Piles. Piles of procrastination. Procrastination would be why I have piles of mail on the counter/my desk/the dining room table, why there are piles of laundry (dirty and clean) in just about every room of my house, piles of Mr. L's shirts that need to go to the dry cleaners, and why there is a pile of work next to me right now. I also used to mutter this phrase to a very wise woman known as my mother a lot growing up, and this was her response, "Tomorrow, tomorrow, creeps it's petty pace from day to day". As I keep getting older I realize how true this is and how little I get accomplished sometimes.

So...this is my pep talk to myself. Stop putting stuff off self! Why put off to tomorrow, what I can get accomplished today! I feel so proud of myself when I can cross things off my list so I'm going to suck it up and get er' done. Maybe tonight I'll get a wild hair and clean my house so my husband can come home to neat surroundings after traveling all week and not to a tornado of STUFF! Happy Thursday...only one more day until the weekend!!

Random Stuff

So for those of you not on FB I'm posting this because it took me forever to come up with and it was easy to copy over. I kept getting "tagged" by others to write one of my own, so here goes.... 25 Random Things about Me.

1. In college, my sorority sisters called my Fricky (or Frick, Frickles, pretty much any derivative that you can come up with of my maiden name)…so much so that I thought it sounded weird when someone actually called me Laura. Even now as I’m married and have a different last name, some of them still call me Fricky out of habit. My husband thinks this is odd but it makes me happy.

2. When I tell people I work at a hospital, they assume I’m a nurse. Hospitals have a business side too!

3. The only bone I have ever broken is my by big toe. It was in gym class in third grade when I was trying to do a round-off (unsuccessfully I might add).

4. I missed two weeks of class during my second semester of college freshman year to accompany my Dad on a business trip to China. It was one of the coolest experiences of my life and one my worst semesters grade wise!

5. I lived in a different place and had different roommates every year of college. I think after 4 years my parents were sick of helping me move!

6. I always thought that when I became an adult I would work in the healthcare profession because I spent so much time in hospitals/doctor’s offices with my sister growing up. I never thought though that it would be in this capacity.

7. My husband calls me “Mama” although we have no children. He recently also started calling our dog this, she has had children (well…puppies), and I still haven’t decided how I feel about it.

8. I have always loved the name Emma, it’s a family name, and I wanted to name my first child that if it was a girl. That is until Rachel from the TV show Friends named her baby girl Emma and it topped the list of most popular baby girl names ever since then. Boo!

9. I became a blogger a few months ago and love it! I also love to blog stalk people but that’s probably because I’m nosey.

10. I hated college my freshman year (mostly first semester) and looked into transferring to a university closer to home. I’m so glad I didn’t! I wouldn’t have met my best friends in the whole world or my husband!

11. I would love to move to a bigger house and I peruse realty websites rather often. The thought of actually moving though, especially the thought of packing and selling our house makes me nauseous. So for now I will just dream.

12. I got a new Blackberry Storm at the beginning of December and it is the biggest piece of crap! Matt tried to tell me that I would not like the touch screen as much I thought I would and I didn’t listen and now it’s too late to take it back. You were right, honey…See this is me admitting I was wrong. Enjoy it because it won’t be happening often!

13. Towards the end of college I convinced myself that I wanted to be an attorney. I took the LSAT, applied to multiple law schools and then moved in with a first year law student. Needless to say I ended up with an MBA instead. WAY too much reading for this chick!

14. I’m in the process of taking the CPA exam. It’s taking me forever because I HATE studying and am a huge procrastinator.

15. The first thing I’m going to do when we’re making enough money to do so is hire a cleaning lady! I know I was clearly spoiled growing up with one and assuming that the house was just always magically clean. I will rejoice in the day my husband also accepts the fact that our house will never be as organized and clean as his mothers!

16. I would love to be a stay at home mom one day!

17. My sister is the bravest person I know and I look up to her in many ways even though she’s younger.

18. I adore our little doggie, Dakota. I am so glad we adopted her (even though she has chewed up multiple articles of clothing and shoes, a book, a few magazines, and my Keeneland hat) and can’t imagine life without her now. I do talk to her a lot when we’re alone and it cracks me up when she tilts her head sideways as I’m doing it.

19. My mom is one of my best friends even though we butt heads every now and again. I love talking to her every day and watching our relationship blossom into an amazing friendship. She was the best wedding planner I could have ever asked for and it scares me to death to think about the day I will have to do life without her.

20. I really enjoy hearing about the successes of my friends. They are all so amazing and I love cheering on their individual accomplishments.

21. I secretly love all things preppy- boat shoes, polos, madras, argyle, stadium pants, seer sucker, bow ties, cable knit, Rainbows, croakies, the list goes on- and wish that “resort wear” was appropriate in all settings!

22. I protested moving back to my hometown after graduating from college. Now I love living here and don’t really have any desire to live anywhere else.

23. My father is the most loving man I know. My mom says I married a man just like him and I think that’s a compliment to Mr. L! I can’t wait to see my Dad as a grandpa one day!!

24. I have a real weakness for McDonald’s chicken nuggets. The sad part is that I’ve eaten at a McDonalds in almost every foreign country I’ve ever visited minus Jamaica (China, Costa Rica, Chile, and France). Sometimes you just need a little taste of home.

25. I think being married is wonderful, especially to someone who is your bffl (best friend for life), which is what I think a husband should be. I don’t really understand why people say the first year of marriage is the hardest, it has gone pretty great so far and we have about 8 months down!

Boring Saturday Night

Since Mr. L started traveling again for work during the week our weekends have become exponentially less exciting. Friday night usually consists of me cooking dinner (since he's almost always sick of eating out after doing so for every meal all week) and either watching tv or maybe getting a movie from On Demand followed by climbing in bed before midnight (most of the time well before). Saturdays he usually works most of the day in the office downtown and then maybe we'll be adventurous and leave the house for dinner or maybe even order pizza (like we did tonight). If things get really crazy the night could lead to meeting up with some friends or Mr. L's brother and sister-in-law for a drink or even hanging out at someone else's house. I often think back to our weekends only a few years ago where 11:00pm would mean the night was young and we'd maybe be leaving our "pre" activities to head out for the night. Oh how hitting your mid-twenties, landing the "big girl" job, getting married, and adopting a dog can change your lifestyle and weekend expectations.

Tonight definitely has not been one of those crazy nights (thus why I am able to blog). After giving Dakota a bath (which is always an ordeal), taking an evening nap, watching some DVR'd tv shows and eating our pizza, we cozied down on the couch and couldn't bring ourselves to go out. Not to mention the fact that neither of us has showered today and don't feel like putting forth the effort to become presentable to the outside world.

As I'm sitting here, Mr. L is reading his new book that came in the mail from Amazon.com this week. If your man is an SEC football fan I would highly recommend it, Mr. L hasn't put it down all night. He's been reading me some excerpts and it seems really funny (besides the fact that he's been laughing out loud about every 15 minutes and one time I think I even caught him laughing so hard he was crying). The book is called Dixieland Delight- A football season on the Road in the SEC. Check it out. It might be a good gift idea.

Dressed for Success??

I never really intended to use this blog for getting things off my chest but every once in a while I feel it necessary. At my place of employment our dress code is technically "business professional". Now I'll be the first to admit that I don't wear a suit to work 5 days a week however in it's place I always make sure that my appearance would be appropriate were the CEO to walk in the door of our suite. For a man this is an easy task...trousers, dress shirt, tie..it's that simple. For women we struggle with coming up with multiple outfits so as not to feel like we look the same everyday, I get that. What irks me is the lack of effort some people (some women) put into their appearance. I get up at the appropriate time every morning to make sure the crease is ironed in my pants or my sweater is appropriately de-lint-i-fied. I'm certainly not declaring myself the fashion police by any means but come on people, don't you want others to think you take your job seriously? I feel like if Stacy and Clinton were to walk into our office sometime they would be horrified! A black v-neck tee shirt and stretch pants is not business professional under any definition of the word.

Today things got pushed to a new extreme. As I was walking to get lunch today from the cafeteria I saw a whole group of people wearing jeans and sweatshirts. Yes...there is a lot of snow on the ground...yes, it is in the 20's outside...yes, ice had to be scraped off cars this morning but what does that have to do with sitting at your desk and working? Today was not Friday, not that I even think that would be appropriate for Friday. The only thing that changed about my day was that I wore my Columbia snow boots in from my car and then put my heels on. Maybe I just hold myself to a higher standard than others but my opinion is that if we're going to have a dress code, shouldn't it be enforced? Can anyone else relate?? I don't know why this gets under my skin so much but it's just frustrating!

What a Winter!

Today I've spent my day on the couch with my puppy. We've had quite the winter storm over the past few days. Making it into work yesterday was a little scary so today I decided to work from home...and I'm glad I did. A few hours into the morning a level 3 snow emergency was declared. I don't think I would have been able to get home had I left. Not to mention, the thought of going outside and trying to clean off my car...ugh! So this afternoon I've enjoyed staying in my pajamas, spending time with Dakota and looking out the window at the beautiful scenery. Now I'm just praying that our trees stay in tact with all the ice that's on them and don't fall on our power lines. Keep your fingers crossed!

Red Carpet Moment

Ok, so we weren't quite on a red carpet. We were actually standing in the middle of the street, but who could tell just by looking at the photo, right? It's fun to feel glamorous every once in a while!

Ski..Ski..Ski

I’m back! ... in one piece… and still sore… This would be the one downfall of skiing all day for multiple days in a row. But I’ll live, and I’ll probably do it again next year! After all, it is great exercise.

Our trip was so fun and I couldn’t have asked for better weather. It’s hard to believe that it was warmer in Park City, UT than it was in Cincinnati, OH this past weekend. Park City is so alive this time of year because of the Film Festival and the slopes are so empty! If you have ever thought about taking a trip out west, I highly recommend Deer Valley. It is definitely a top notch ski resort! And if you can plan far enough in advance to make accommodations during the film festival you won’t have to wait in one lift line. The view from the top of the Deer Valley mountains is so beautiful as well! The scenery takes my breath away every year.

Unfortunately we weren’t able to get tickets to see any films or attend any parties, although we were humorously denied from the premier party of Brooklyn’s Finest (a film that debuted at Sundance) that we attempted to attend, but that’s a whole other post. We did however eat at some great restaurants, drink some fabulous wine, and ski our little hearts out!

I have one celebrity sighting to speak of for this year and it’s a little better than the previous years. We saw Uma Thurman on Day 2 at the Empire Lodge while eating lunch at the top of the mountain. She had stopped to rest as well and of course take a smoke break. Her new film Motherhood was also playing at the festival. Mr. L asked why there was no photographic proof or autograph to speak of, and my answer to that is that we had some serious skiing to do people, and no time to be celebrity crazed fans :-)

I’m pretty sure my Dad has already started to plan the trip for next year, so keep your fingers crossed that Mr. L might actually get to go. That’s all for now, back to hobbling around for a few more days.

Go West Young Man...

I'm leaving on a jet plane...don't know when I'll be back again. Ok, so that second part is not exactly true because unfortunately I'll be back Monday.

I'm headed west for the weekend folks, to Utah to be exact. It's become my family's yearly tradition to make the trip out to Utah on MLK weekend for skiing in Park City and I am so excited! It just so happens that this same weekend each year is also the Sundance Film Festival. It always makes for an interesting time because Park City is hopping with tons of people and sometimes even a few celebs here or there. Last year our celeb sightings included Danny Glover and Dennis Quaid. Not exactly "A Listers" I know but I'm always hopeful for the trip to turn out like a few years ago when my Dad met Paris Hilton. I'm certainly not celebrity crazy like when I was a teen obsessed with JTT but it makes for a interesting story to tell when you get back.

I am a bit sad though because Mr. L won't be joining me on this trip. This will be the first vacation apart since our nuptials and I'll admit I feel guilty about it. Unfortunately his work schedule doesn't allow room for days off during this time of year so he'll be staying home with Dakota. He has been so great about encouraging me to go and have a good time (especially since he knows how much I LOVE to ski!!). I couldn't ask for a better hubs!

I'll try to post some pics while we're out there but if not I'll definitely have a story Monday and maybe even a video (courtesy of the helmet cam we got my Dad for Christmas)! Here's a picture from our adventure last year to give you a little taste of why I'm so excited!

Buzz Word for 2009

Better…That’s my new buzz word. I’m not a huge fan of making resolutions and I realize that we’re already half way through January so I’m going to call them behavior and attitude awareness. In the New Year I’m striving to be better. Nothing fancy, no long list of concrete things I want to accomplish, just better. Better at what you ask? Well…life. Whether it’s get better, try better, be better, act better…better. (I’m sure you’re starting to see a theme.) Everyday we get up and choose how we’re going to live our life that day. We make choices sometimes without even thinking or being aware of how they will affect others around us let alone ourselves. So this year I want to be better at making choices and trying to think more ahead of time about the consequences of my choices. Here are a few areas I want to focus on first (in no particular order)

1. I want to be a better wife and friend to my husband. 2. I want to be better at eating healthy 3. I want to be a better housekeeper 4. I want to be a better steward of our family finances 5. I want to plan better 6. I want to be better at staying organized and on a schedule 7. I want to be a better sister/daughter/friend. 8. I want to be better at trusting God’s plan 9. I want to have a better attitude towards tough situations 10. I want to get in better shape.

I think that’s a pretty good place to start, don’t you? Feel free to check in and hold me accountable! Here’s to 2009 and making life better.

Playing Catch-Up

Here's a quick post to get caught up with what's been happenening in the lives of Mr. and Mrs. L in the past few weeks...

Christmas time brought a nice and much needed break for Mr. L from work. For 2 whole weeks he was able to stay home and enjoy some "rest and relaxation" before the hustle and bustle of busy season began this past Monday. I was able to take some time off of work as well but the days seemed to pass by so quickly that I was back to work in the blink of an eye. A few unexpected things happened but all is well to report now.

We spent Christmas Eve with the L Family which included going to church and a wonderful homecooked meal. We got a call around 10:00pm from my Mom saying that they were at the local hospital with my Grandma who had had an episode at dinner. This was rather unusual because although Gma-J (as we like to call her) is not as young as she used to be, she's in pretty good health. Being the good husband that he is, Mr. L drove me to the hospital to spend the rest of the evening with my family. She was discharged late the same night and everything has been ok since...so praise God for that!

Christmas Day was nice as we were able to see my family in the morning, Mr. L's grandparents in the afternoon and more of my family in the evening. It can definitely be exhausting hopping around from place to place but we do it because we feel fortunate to have all of our loved ones so close to one another.

Surprise #2 (and if you guessed that it might have something to do with our cute little dog that is too smart for her own good, then you'd be right)- The weekend came and went and I had to head back to work. Since Mr. L still had another week off he was looking forward to spending time with Dakota and gearing up for New Year's Eve. I hadn't been at work for more than 2 hours Monday when I get a call from Mr. L. He tells me that he had decided to make a quick run to get some gas for his car and thought...how much damage could Dakota do if I leave her out of the crate (always a bad idea). He claims that he surveyed the room and saw nothing that she could get into while he was gone for 15 minutes. When he comes back...to his surprise...she had somehow jumped up on the dining room table and pulled down his dark chocolate Whitman's Sampler that was still in the plastic wraping. My theory is that she had to have been plotting this well before he left because in that short amount of time she had the box down, plastic wrap open, lid off, and every single piece eaten. Needless to say, a short vet ride later, $125 dollars, and a shot of something to make her vomit, she was not enjoying the rest of her day. She has since recovered and luckily hasn't eaten anything since.

We had a great time New Year's Eve at The Madison. We danced, and drank, and enjoyed being with our friends/family as we said goodbye to 2008 and hello to a new year. One of Mr. L's college friends and his girlfriend came to visit so it made the night that much more special. So...now you're all caught up. I'll leave you with a few pics from our fun night out on NYE.