Our Life Accounts

Tuesday Randoms

2012-01-31T13:44:00.002-05:00

Just a bunch of random thoughts for today...

All this warm weather we keep getting has put me in the best mood! Today it is supposed to hit the 60s! Sunday night, we randomly got a snow storm. One minute there is a wind storm going on and no precipitation, the next minute we look up and the windows are totally covered in snow. Craziness! There was no precipitation called for in the forecast but thankfully that's the first (and hopefully last) of the freak storms this winter.

I am also grateful that most of the snow we've had this winter has been on the weekends so there's been minimal problems with having to be out on the roads and traveling for work. So so happy that I have yet to have to deal with that headache this year. Come on March! :)

After writing in my last post how I had never blogged about our previous trips, particularly Disney, I was going back through old drafts and I have 8 Disney recap posts! I loved reading through them and I think I am going to post them with their backdates so that I'll have them up on the blog. Those of you who follow in google reader will still see them pop up though.

I also found a whole bunch of recipe posts that either didn't get posted because I didn't have a chance to upload or a photo, or I had the photos but need to type the recipe up in the post. :) I will probably let those post with their backdates as well. Some of them were too good not to share!

Hubs and I got our last tax documentations needed for our taxes right before the weekend so we had a fun Sunday night date putting those together. Ironically, Sunday morning we decided on a crazy whim to book our spring vacation. It was rather funny seeing similar amounts of money that will eventually go out the door for vacation and eventually come back from the taxes. Always nice when it works out somewhat close like that.

I am very very very excited for our spring vacation. I am counting down the days already!

I have been obsessed with vanilla tootsie rolls for years and I recently discovered they had a special edition bag where you could buy just vanilla! Brilliant! This is like Starburst releasing a reds and pinks bag! It's nice when the candy manufacturers finally get around to releasing what I've thought they should do for years. Better late than never.

Valentines Day is coming up and I am thinking about asking for a Zoku Popsicle maker. Every time we're at the grocery store we always want to get some fun Popsicle and ice cream treats and even the fruit ones are filled with high fructose corn syrup crap plus they are all either sugar free or fat free. Gross. Just give me the real deal. Apparently, my only option is to make my own. Do you remember back in the day when Fudgsicles came in vanilla pudding, chocolate pudding and a vanilla chocolate swirl? I lived on these in college but no one seems to carry them anymore. I am determined to make them myself!

I also want to get some sort of slim p/s camera that still takes good crisp shots. Something that can be tossed into a purse or a pocket with ease for the times we are traveling or out and about and don't want to take the DSLR with us. Anyone invested in one recently or have any good recommendations?

Some Days

2012-01-27T14:31:00.002-05:00

There are some days where you wake up and you just feel blessed. Boy oh boy is today one of those days. I have a sneaking suspicion that the fact that it is currently 60 and sunny out right now at the end of January is certainly contributing but hey, I'll take it!

Hubs and I stayed up far too late last night reminiscing about college yester-years and favorite vacation memories and man there are a lot of them! I find it ironic that many of our favorites (Disney World, Saint Lucia & Atlantis) are the ones that never made it onto this blog. Maybe I felt like I couldn't do the memories justice?

Anyway, all this talk of vacations has got us both in the mood to travel and go on some crazy fun trips. The toughest part is narrowing down where! It's always so hard to pick between a new location and going back to revisit some of our all time favorite spots.

Of course, to make matters worse, friends of ours posted that they were at Magic Kingdom this morning after we'd stayed up until waaaay past our bedtime talking about just how fantastic and romantic and magical that very vacation was. It's hard to believe we are coming up on two years now!

We had been tossing around the idea of going last November and seeing Disney World all decked out for the Holidays but with work craziness and the Holidays we ended up tabling the discussion. Well, now it's back in full force. Do we want to do a last minute spring vacation there? Book something for the fall? Go next spring?

We have also been tossing around the idea maybe of a Caribbean cruise this spring. And I am dying to go tour the castles in Europe. So many incredible trips, so little time/money. :) Basically we just want to get up and go. Get away and make some memories.

In the meantime, it's date night tonight and Hubs and I plan to only further the Disney hankering by popping in some Disney treasure collections while munching on a big ole pizza with garlic butter dipping sauce. Mmmmm love me some date nights!

Catch-all

2012-01-24T13:39:00.004-05:00

Well this post has been a long time coming. Life has been busy busy busy since I finished our NY recaps.

My uncle passed away recently and we have been quite busy dealing with the funeral preparations etc. It's a long story but the short version is that he came down with a "cold" in November, after it didn't get better in a few days, he was mis-diagnosed with Pneumonia. My aunt (a nurse) disagreed with the assessment and took him for a second opinion. Turns out it was stage 4 melanoma. He received that diagnoses on November 11th. No other symptoms except a cough and feeling under the weather. He had had regular physicals and regular appointments/check-ups with a dermatologist. Clearly they missed something big. I don't think they were ever even able to determine where the cancer came from it was so widespread into every single organ by the time they found it but he fought it for 2 months before passing away.

It has been a sad time here for our families and I hope you will keep his family in your prayers as they struggle to deal with all of this.

In addition to all of this, I have had a horrible flu and hacking cough that I just can't seem to shake and have just been miserable. I don't think I make a very good sick person. In fact, it may be worse then the "man cold." It has been an exciting time around here let me tell yah.

Ya'll, I have been coughing so much that it's been kicking my gag reflex like woah. Try explaining that one to work....fuuuuun times.

Hopefully I'll get caught up at some point but in the meantime, hope you all are well!

Christmas in NY, part 2

2012-01-10T08:08:00.000-05:00

Friday was another full day of touring around the city. The weather was quite the contrast to the day before. Colder and much more windy, it definitely felt like winter had arrived.

We of course had to stop by Wall Street, thankfully all the Occupy Wallstreet crap was cleaned up & didn't spoil our visit.

Perhaps the most memorable stop of the day was the visit the new 9-11 memorial site & St. Paul's church.

Tthis was the only remaining tree or plant left behind in the 9-11 devestation, since 9-11 it was transplanted to a farm in PA to be nurtered back to health & was replanted at the new 9-11 memorial just a few days before Hurricane Irene struck NYC. Thankfully it survived. It is called the Tree of Hope.

This is one of the new WTC buildings being built.

We returned late Friday night for a Christmas party being thrown by some friends of ours and happily collapsed into bed afterwords, exhausted after the many miles we walked over the last few days.

Brent and I have plans to travel back up again in the Spring to enjoy more of the wonderful parks and outdoor activities that NYC has to offer but I have a feeling it will take quite a few more trips to see it all!

Christmas in NY, part 1

2012-01-09T08:22:00.001-05:00

Hubs and I have been talking about visiting NYC during the holiday season for a few years now but the holidays always get so crazy that we end up swamped and pushing back the trip to the following year. We were quite determined to go this year so several months back I purchased Broadway tickets for us to see Radio Christmas music Spectacular featuring the Rockettes.

When my grandmother heard we were going and what show we were going to see, she swooned as she and my grandfather have been all over the world many times but she has never seen the Rockettes. The show has always been canceled from crazy blizzards when they've had tickets. With that piece of news, we invited her to join us. This grew into an invitation to my mom to join us as a chance for her to get away & squeeze in some mother/daughter time with her mom right before eye surgery. Annnnnd when my grandfather heard the news, he was not about to be left out.

So what started as a trip for two, turned into a trip for five. We all had an incredible time together seeing the sights and I would even venture to say that both Brent and I felt that there wasn't a smidgen of romance lost even though it was no longer a trip for two.

We originally planned to stay pretty close to Time's Square but when my grandparents got us all the hookup with free military housing, we were all on board with that!

We left quite early Thursday morning (think it was around 6AM?) to drive up and get in around mid-late morning. We promptly dropped our bags, grabbed the cameras and spent the day touring the city, experiencing the lights and ohhhing and ahhing over the window displays. We had incredibly gorgeous weather the first day, sunny and warm with no wind, practically balmy! It felt like we were heading into Spring, not preparing to hunker down for winter! It was so warm that the ice was all nasty and slushy at Rockefellor center and we opted out of paying a premium for that experience. Perhaps next year if it's colder!

We toured through the fashion district and I just had to snap a shot of the needle and button all decked out for the holidays.

I loved the "believe" decor all over the Macy's building, very beautifully done.

Funny how much bigger the ball looks on TV when it's reaching the final minutes of dropping! :)

A few of our random shots along the way:

5th avenue was gorgeous the full way, such pretty lights and decorations! We really enjoyed shopping at American Girl and FAO Schwartz

Trump tower was heavily decorated inside & out, we had to stop in and take a peak around. :)

Tiffany's was a personal favorite, each window bow had a gorgeous winter scene completely decked out in jewels!

The incredible window displays at Henri Bendel.

Our show was at 5PM and it was absolutely incredible. Radio City Hall was beautifully decorated and show was perfection. I think the Living Nativity Scene may be my favorite part. :)

Afterwards we heading over to the Stardust Diner to enjoy amazing diner food and more singing and entertainment. :)

We finished up the evening touring around a bit more, picked up some NY Christmas ornaments and enjoyed the views of the city at night from the Staten Island Ferry.

Stay tuned for part 2 tomorrow.

12 Days of Christmas

2012-01-07T09:41:00.000-05:00

This year Hubs and I decided to give gifts a little differently. Our holidays are so busy each year with such large immediate and extended families that it can be tough to have time to exchange gifts between the two of us and have it be relaxing while we do it.

Instead, this year we kicked off the gift exchanging on December 12th. Each day we exchanged 1 gift for each of us (the majority of which were supposed to be smaller less expensive gifts but we were each allowed a few passes). The last 12th day of Christmas ended on Christmas Eve where our traditional exchange has always been Christmas PJs for each other, jewelry for me and some yummy food for Hubs (I am well aware I got the better end of the deal on this one). Christmas Day we reserved that for a couple "big gifts" that are generally not surprises and are joint gifts or things we need/want for the house.

I hesitated to post this because I don't want to seem brag-y and if I knew how to password protect a post I would. However, I don't have the time to research how to do that and this is the best place for me to record it to remember it in the years ahead. So instead I'll post it on the weekend when most of you aren't reading anyway. :) Feel free to skip this post if you think recording Christmas-y gifts reads as bragging. I think many view it like facebook stalking & snooping in other people's medicine cabinets, as humans we just love being in other people's business and trash-talking it to others. Since I already know the trash-talking & gossip takes place whether I like it or not, go ahead and snoop away. ;)

Day 1 - Brent got me the coolest crock pot that I have been lusting after. Perfect for parties! And I got him a collection of some of his favorite Christmas movies from his childhood.

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Day 2 - I received a bluetooth to replace my old one that has been dead for months and Brent received a new men's devotional book.

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Day 3 - I received 4.0 Under Amour base shirt (coziest thing ever) and Brent received a set of ceramic coffee mugs (actually he ended up with 4 coffee mugs but that's a story for a different day).

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Day 4 - I received a set of the All Clad standard measuring cups/utensils and Brent received a few pairs of lounge pants.

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Day 5 - I received a calzone press and Brent received several seasons of Seinfeld.

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Day 6 - I received the 4.0 Under Amour base leggings to go with my shirt from Day 3 and Brent received Taboo the bible edition (gotta say the bible version is 10 times more challenging).

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Day 7 - I received a couple sets of the Reindeer plates from Pottery Barn (love these!) and Brent received Apples to Apples Bible edition and a box full of Gotoobs in various sizes for all our upcoming trips.

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Day 8 - I received a tortilla press (I've been told homemade is millions times better than store bought, I'm excited to test this theory out) and Brent received a digital photo frame for his office.

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Day 9 - I received a set of 4 kitchen ornaments for my kitchen Christmas tree (sadly no picture) and Brent received several Under Amour catalyst shirts.

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Day 10 - I received the white North Face Osito Fleece jacket and Brent received the collection of Bones seasons that we did not have.

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Day 11 - I received a set of the mini colanders from Anthro and Brent received Outburst Bible edition.

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And lastly on day 12 - I received some gorgeous Tiffany's jewelry and Jcrew pj pants and Brent received peppermint bark (our favorite) and matching Jcrew pj pants.

It was super fun opening a present each night. Some nights/mornings were rushed but many nights we curled up with hot chocolate and popcorn and watched Christmas movies. It was such a fun way to get in the Christmas mood.

Slowing Down

2012-01-06T10:23:00.004-05:00

Well the holidays ramped up to warp speed after I posted and it's been too long since I've been able to update! Since my last post we traveled to NY for a Broadway show and to enjoy Christmas in the city for a few days, celebrated an early Christmas with my grandparents right after we got back, immediately after celebrated my sisters 18th birthday which led right into the Christmas weekend. Scattered in there was our 12 days of Christmas, a new (and very fun) tradition Hubs and I kicked off this year & a meet-up with blogger AP of ILYMTC.

Immediately after Christmas, Hubs and I hopped a plane for our traditional Christmas week in VT with his family. Snow, Cabot cheese, Lake Champlain chocolates, lots of cold & outdoor activities, get-togethers with friends and family, plenty of hockey and evenings spent watching HGTV, getting stuck on the 1 main interstate in all of VT for several hours after it was shut down due to black ice & blizzard conditions, waking up at 2AM to make it back home to MD and still getting to the airport so late that we did not check in until 25 minutes before the plane took off. Yeah...

Lots of stories for sure!

And now here we are in January and kicking off resolutions and there is so much to share from the last month! It will take me while to catch, up and don't be surprised if you see a lot of backlogged posts pop up, but in the meantime, our 2011 Christmas card:

I hope everyone was able to enjoy a magical and blessed holiday season. Ours was absolutely perfect.

Christmas Baking

2011-12-13T10:36:00.005-05:00

We spent the weekend baking up a storm for our annual Christmas baking marathon. Friday-Sunday we whipped up 20-25 different kinds of cookies in quadrupled batches to give away to friends and families. It was A LOT of goodies. We always run out of containers. :) #firstworldproblem.

This year we also had my sisters senior Christmas Choir performance to attend Saturday evening plus Hubs was in and out reffing all weekend. We were busy!

We finished all the traditional recipes, my family has been making these recipes for generations so it definitely aids our speed. :) Frankly it's impressive everyone isn't 300 pounds and rolling in with pounds and pounds of butter & sugar being used. ;) You can find many of my families Christmas favorites here, plus spicey gumdrop cookies, almond cookies, peppermint truffles, the best chocolate ganache truffles, oreo truffles & cookie-dough truffles.

One of these days I'll get around to posting the delicious extra thick & soft gingerbread cookies and the rest of the family Christmas favorites. I'm still working to wrap up the family cookbook and that's been taking all my recipe typing time. I've got more than 150 in so far but I feel as if I've barely made a dent.

My next projects are breads and bark. My work has decided to have a baking contest and I am still undecided if I want to enter. I'm thinking something eggnog-y if I do. Eggnog frosted sugar cookies? Eggnog poundcake? My absolutely favoritest Eggnog sweet bread?

In case you've never tried it, I'll post it here:

Eggnog Bread
1 C eggnog
2 tsp rum-flavored extract
1 C white sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 C butter, softened
2 1/4 C flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease a large loaf pan (I do 3 mini's if I'm giving away!) Mix together the first 6 ingredients until they are blended well. Combine flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. Add dry ingredients to the eggnog mixture and mix until just moistened. Pour into pan(s). I bake the large pan for 45-50 minutes or smaller loaf pans for 35-40 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes, remove from pan, and then cool completely on a baking rack before wrapping tightly. I store mine in the refridgerator and serve it with cinnamon cream cheese or honey vanilla butter. So yummy!

I'm also trying to decide on what sweet breads I want to deliver to people this year. Sweet? Savory? I have a caprese quick bread that is delicious and looks all christmas-y with the basil, tomatoes & cheese dotted throughout the bread. But I could also do mini gingerbread loaves, Chocolate Cinnamon bread, eggnog bread, chocolate cherry nut bread or snickerdoodle bread. What sounds good to you? Maybe if I pick your selection, I could even send you one! :)

Christmas Traditions

2011-12-08T08:03:00.002-05:00

The holidays are filled with traditions for us. Some have been passed down through family generations & some we've created for our own family. Every year, we refine. Add a few more, maybe cut out some that we aren't feeling anymore. I always enjoy reading what others do so I thought I would share some of our favorites that have stuck over the years.

Every year we go out to a Christmas tree farm & pick out the biggest & fluffiest tree that we can find & haul it home over thanksgiving weekend.

Said tree is decked out with many many strings of lights and covered with a selection of hodge-podge ornaments collected over the years from our travels & our Christmases together. Each year, we gift a new meaningful one to each other in their stocking.

My mom, sisters, grandmother & (sometimes husband & brothers) I get together for a baking extravaganza. We churn out quadruple batches of homemade cookies, candies, bars, breads and other snacks and goodies over the course of a weekend & then give them out to everyone we know. Our UPS, FedEx & mailman always get a big plate from me for all the extra hours I have them working during the Holidays. ;)

We have certain Christmas movies that must be watched every December including: Home Alone, Polar Express, White Christmas, Muppet's Christmas Carol, Grinch Who Stole Christmas (animated!) & several others. ABC Christmas countdown has got nothing on us!

Christmas Eve after the Christmas service we have special gifts we give each other. Brent gets me pajamas & jewelry and he gets pajamas and food from me.

A tradition passed down through my German side is the tradition of hiding a pickle in the tree. There is always a giant candy basket for the winner! (note this works better amongst a larger family, with two its hardly a competition ;)).

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Christmas morning is celebrated with a huge breakfast feast of fresh fruit, breakfast scramble, Swedish tea ring, sticky buns and cinnamon rolls. We roooooll out afterwords.

In the aftermath of the Holiday, we celebrate a second Christmas every year and enjoy a glorious week long Christmas extravaganza in the beautiful winter wonderland of Vermont. Home of our favorite Cabot Cheese & Lake Champlain Chocolates. We are already excitedly looking forward to some hockey, snow-shoeing, cross country skiing and other fabulous activities.

And a new tradition added this year? A weekend trip up to NY to enjoy the lights, decorations & Broadway. I am thinking we might need to add the lighting of the Christmas tree in the capital next year!

Obviously, this list will expand greatly once kiddies are added to the mix. There is a whole other list waiting for that time! What are some of your families favorite Christmas traditions?

Dear Santa...

2011-12-06T07:58:00.001-05:00

Dear Santa...I know I've been rather naughty this year but perhaps you could still see your way to loading up my stocking? ;)

Just in case your elves haven't been doing their due diligence and making notes of my "needs", I've made you a special list.

A kindle for reading on the go.

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An iPod touch cause the shuffle only goes so far.

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Comfy & warm gear for workouts & outdoor fun.

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Some pretty books to adorn the shelves

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Some Sparkly shoes for my feet

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Some playthings for the kitchen

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Or perhaps a little sparkle to add some glam to my every-day...

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Signed,
Yours Truly xxooxx

iRecs

2011-12-05T09:20:00.000-05:00

Part of Hubs and my anniversary gifts included an iPad. Since we were married a mere month before Black Friday we figured it was silly to purchase it around our anniversary date when the chances of scoring it for a good deal a month later was highly probable. So we waited. And we scored big.

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$100+ off plus an upgrade in size and lots of cash back. It was totally worth the wait.

We're now diving into the fun world of apps and all the extra gadgets and covers to go with it just in time for the holiday season. We are enjoying researching the heck out of it but I would love to hear everyone's favorites. I'm sure there are plenty we are missing! So tell me, what are your favorites & must-haves???

Shopping Traditions part 2

2011-12-02T08:40:00.001-05:00

Part 1 here.

Black Friday morning I was in bed before 1:30AM and grabbed a couple hours of sleep before my alarm went off at quarter to six. Anthropologie decided to participate in black Friday for the first time ever with all sale items an additional 50% off. Joyfolie shoes were available for $30 bucks! I had my cart all ready to go, so I just refreshed, clicked check out and hopped back into bed to sleep for another couple of hours.

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I may have also check to see what deals Apple had released before heading back to bed. BAD IDEA. The news that the ipod touch, ipad and imac were all marked down may have made me a bit giddy. And may have resulted in me struggling to fall back asleep due to said excitement.

All hypothetical of course.

I was back up at 9am to discover that Endless had at long last, after 2 long years of watching, put my Marc Jacobs purse on sale. 33% off plus 15% cash back through ebates plus free over-night shipping and no sales tax. I happily added some distressed chocolate Frye Melissa button boots to my cart while I was at it. You just can't mess with near 50% savings.

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Our final stop of the morning was loading up on fresh wreaths and poinsettias at Home Depot. Every year they offer poinsettias for $.98 and we always stock up.

This year they had a gorgeous variegated variety that is a white/gold shimmer in the center and red on the outside. Similar to the jingle bell variety but without the random splashes of white. Absolutely stunning.

Similar to this but in red and gold.

We celebrated all our Black Friday successes over our Chickfila traditional breakfast, this is Brent's favorite part. :)

Shopping Traditions Part 1

2011-12-01T08:24:00.000-05:00

Every year my mom, sisters, husband and I go out on Black Friday and score a bunch of deals. Often we are all looking for wildly different things but we're able to hold each others spot in lines, check out together, take advantage of double promos etc.

This year many stores kicked off their deals Thursday evening and although I feel for employees who were working (though I asked at every single store and lots were making at least time and a half if not double), I still wish stores would do this every year. I love being able to stay up a little bit later and get it all done, rather than sleeping for a few hours and then having to drag myself from my warm bed for several hours and screw up my sleep schedule for a week. But seriously, NO EARLIER. This is the earliest it should go! Hear me on this, DO NOT touch the sacred Thanksgiving meal corporations!

Please do continue to offer all your deals online Thanksgiving day that will be in stores on Friday. That is just magical and will definitely earn my money! We were able to knock out Dick's Sporting Goods, Under Armour & Lands End all by Thursday evening (plus some killer promos on Amazon!). So nice to cut down on the stops.

We arranged our shopping a bit differently this year to accommodate the early openings. Since the Ravens were still playing, Brent stayed home to enjoy the game and keep me updated on what was going on while my mom, sister and I hit up Michaels (open until 10PM), Walmart (deals kicked in at 10PM) and Kohls (opened at midnight).

Target's deals were crap this year and every single remotely good deal they offered was beat by an online retailer that offered free shipping but we were happy to cut a store from the list. I don't really like their return policies anyway, total hassle for the giftee and gifter.

Because we hit Kohls right when they opened and thus didn't join the hundreds who were silly enough to form a line wrapping around Kohls, we walked in with the first 10 people or so when they opened up the doors.

Sidenote: Why do people persist in standing in a non-store sanctioned line while waiting for a store to open? Just because you formed a line, it doesn't mean anything once the doors are opened unless the store has specifically set up a place for a line to form. I will never understand this. Such a waste of time.

Anyway, we were in and out of Kohls so fast. Gathered up our items and were in the line just as the lines started forming. We were in and out in well under forty minutes, a record for Kohls.

At this point some of the deals had included:

MichaelsS
50% of Melissa & Doug
Candy melts for $1
80% off Ribbon
plus addtional 30% off total purchase

Walmart:
DVDs for $1.96
Bluerays for $5 (including Cars 2!)
TV seasons for $9

Kohls:
Barstools for my parents new kitchen at 80% off
20 piece Pyrex set for $15
10 piece CorningWare set for $18
Cable Knit throw for 75% off

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There were several other items from the above stores but I know a certain someone occasionally reads this blog and I can't risk spoiling their surprises! Needless to say, I knocked out a good chunk of shopping.

I will end it here and save the rest for tomorrow, this is long enough as it is! Did anyone else score any great deals during Black Friday? The deals seriously get better and better every year. All the naysayers who say that the deals during Black Friday aren't that great are totally off their rockers.

Grateful

2011-11-30T12:06:00.003-05:00

Thanksgiving was perfect. Absolutely perfect. We have so much to be thankful for and were so blessed to spend time relaxing with family.

My parent's just finished a massive remodel on their kitchen (the remodel actually encompassed four rooms!) and so we kicked off the Thanksgiving festivities with a party Wednesday evening. We had 30+ family members in attendance, many from out of town, and feasted on the most incredible food! Grilled fish, homemade noodles w/chicken, roasted sweet potatoes, homemade pillow rolls and lots of other yummy-ness! Dinner was topped off with 6 different homemade desserts and when the night was over we rolled out the door.

Brent and I were seriously worried we wouldn't have room for food Thanksgiving day we were so full!

One of the many many perks of living near family is waking up to to a text Thanksgiving morning with an announcement of a breakfast feast awaiting us. Bacon, eggs, pancakes, fruit plus being able to walk down in pajamas and slippers...it was practically breakfast in bed. And yes, somehow we managed to eat again. :)

The actual Thanksgiving feast was around 2pm and every year my grandmother outdoes herself. I always describe it as a "Hallmark Thanksgiving" because really, that is what it is. The house is decked out, the tables are groaning with incredible homemade treats, the house smells incredible and it's just picture perfect.

Dinner was followed with our annual walk and football game. Two hours of football always makes room for the second Thanksgiving meal: Dessert! This year there was more than 10 pies plus 11 kinds of cookies to pick from. It was Epic. And there wasn't much left in the way of leftovers.

Christmas shopping kicked off early this year with the deals starting Thanksgiving evening but I'll save that for another post. Needless to say, the combination of the Ravens on TV and fabulous deals online was the perfect way to rest up for late night Black Friday Shopping.

Winners Winners

2011-11-29T11:46:00.002-05:00

I can't believe how long it's been since I last blogged. Lots has been on in our lives lately. We've been making so many memories lately that there hasn't been any time left over to document them. Also, a close relative has quite suddenly been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and in a matter of weeks has gone from seemingly perfectly healthy to quite ill. Any extra free time has been spent soaking in time there. Prayers for them and their family would be appreciated, particularly the little ones and the Holidays.

What have we been doing in the meantime? Lots of eating, shopping, decorating and preparing for the Holidays. Bonfires, family get-togethers, hockey...it's been a whirlwind! I am working to catch up. In the meantime, the winners of the shutterfly giveaway! Meredith, LeAnna and One Crafty Cupcake email me and I will send you your shutterfly codes!

Some Spice for Dinner

2011-11-08T09:31:00.001-05:00

I've been cooking up a storm lately and one of our favorites has been a recipe I came up with on a whim. Taco Stuffed Shells. Mmmmmm. So. Tasty. We both awarded them 5 out of 5 stars. This will definitely be going in the family cookbook.

The picture's not great but it was the only one I managed to snap before the entire pan had been inhaled.

Taco Stuffed Shells

1lb ground turkey
1 package taco seasoning
1 lrg onion, diced
4 oz package cream cheese
14.5 oz can black beans, drained
14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
20 large pasta shells
1 C salsa
1 C taco sauce
1 C cheddar cheese, shredded
1 C Monterey jack cheese, shredded
1 ½ C tortilla chips, crushed
3 green onions, chopped
sour cream, olives & avocado (optional)

In a fry pan brown ground turkey for 2-3 minutes. Add onions to meat and saute until meat is cooked and onions are translucent. Add taco seasoning and prepare according to package directions. Add cream cheese and black beans. Cover and simmer until cheese is melted. Blend well and set aside to fully cool. While the meat is going, cook the pasta shells, drain and toss well with butter or oil to keep from sticking. Pour can of diced tomatoes in the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch baking dish. Stuff each shell with the meat mixture. Place the stuffed shells in the baking dish and cover the tops of the shells with salsa and taco sauce. Cover and bake in the oven at 350° for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, uncover, and sprinkle crushed chips, green onions and shredded cheeses on top. Cook for about 15 more minutes. Serve with sour cream, additional salsa, black olives or any other favorite tacos fillings.

Shoot em up!

2011-11-07T14:12:00.003-05:00

The days just keep flying by. Our last couple weekends have felt jam-packed on the heels of very busy weeks. Thank goodness for organized planners and synced calenders!

I never got the chance to blog this last week but a couple of weekends we went out to a new-to-us shooting range with friends, courtesy of Groupon. It was loads of fun and we even managed to cap the evening off with some yummy cheese and chocolate fondue at melting pot.

Brent and I both had the chance to shoot some new gun being issued to the Navy that hasn't been released on the market yet. It had a couple of really cool features that we both liked and I told Brent that if he got me my own gun, that's the one I wanted. :) Stocking stuffer babe??? ;)

J shot his rounds so fast that I didn't get a chance to take a picture until he was done so I told him to pose instead. This is what I got. :)

While we were there, some guy was shooting off buckshot with a shotgun right next to us. Every time he fired, it was so loud we were all checking to see if our ear protection had slipped off. You felt it vibrating your whole body! I had to wait to shoot until he was between rounds just so I wouldn't jump when I was shooting! Ridiculous.

Also, we went before Halloween but the employees there had decided to dress up early. We were greeted by a few early colonial Americans and hilariously, it wasn't until we say a girl covered in full body make-up that we realized the guys dressed in the early American outfits were actually in costume and it wasn't their day-to-day garb. :)

We had a blast (no pun intended) and are already talking about going back. It was a fun way to spend an afternoon!

Our Own Little Snow-globe

2011-11-01T10:19:00.006-04:00

We got our first glimpse of what kind of winter we are going to have this year. Several inches of snow decided to make it's appearance on the east coast on Saturday. Several inches of heavy snow.

We woke up to the above light swirling flakes & a faint visible dusting around 6:30AM and by mid-morning, when we went out for a hockey game Hubs was reffing and a little jaunt to Hobby Lobby and Michaels for some craft supplies, it had turned to large thick flakes falling at a fairly decent pace.

Thankfully, people actually took the snow seriously and most stayed in and off the roads. For once road maintenance actually believed the weatherman and were ready with the salt so we had very little trouble getting out for a few hours.

By mid-afternoon we were home, snuggled under blankets with the fireplace going and an NCIS marathon on tv. I made hot chocolate, pumpkin caramel cookies and garlic Parmesan monkey bread for us to munch on and I think it was decided that it was pretty much just the perfect day.

The snow continued to fall the rest of the day but by late afternoon it was mostly just large flakes swirling around, it felt like we were in a snow-globe! So pretty!

Seriously got me in the mood for Christmas though, definitely felt like fall was over and Christmas was right around the corner.

I started mapping out my Christmas crafts that I'd like to do and even starting working on the first one while we relaxed & watched TV. I always like having the non-food Christmas crafts near completion by the time December 1st hits so that they can actually be hung up and enjoyed during the Christmas season. It'll be nice to be able to take it slow and have plenty of time to get them done.

Who else has had snow so far in October? Do any of you have any Christmas crafts you are planning? I love hearing other people's ideas & plans!

Free Pizza Hut!

2011-10-31T16:55:00.003-04:00

I always assumed that Pizza Hut's Halloween deal was public knowledge but every time I mention it to someone, they are always shocked. So just in case you all are not aware.

Pizza Hut gives out a free personal pan pizzas to kids dressed in costume on Halloween. Some locations stick to a strict age limit of 12 (not that they ask for ID) but I was still doing it in high school so I think this is a loose restriction.

We've participated for the last 10+ years and its part of our families longstanding Halloween traditions. We always call ahead and order and let them know we'll be bringing in the kids in costume so we don't have to loose precious trunk-or-treat time.

Happy Halloween everyone!

It's That Time of Year plus an Extra treat for you!

2011-10-23T22:28:00.000-04:00

***edited to add, I'm not sure why this didn't post like it was scheduled to at the beginning of the week, I've been offline and unable to login to check until now but I guess it just wanted to wait until it was snowing and really starting to feel like Christmas! :)***

Lots of posts have been popping up about Shutterfly's amazing Christmas cards and I'm about to add another one to the list. It's hard to believe we are getting close to that time of year again. It seems like I was just sending out last year's Christmas card! When Shutterfly sent me an email showcasing their seasonal offerings, I had to stop and check my calender. Time just seems to move faster and faster.

Last year was the first year I had used Shutterfly for holiday cards and people still rave about our cards today. I also still the front photo card on a lot of people's fridges. It was the first year we had a chance to send out cards as a married couple and Shutterfly really set the bar high! I am excited to partner with them again this year and they are definitely on my list of sites to check for Christmas gifts, particularly their photo books and calenders.

With my brother in the military and overseas we've been making a lot of photobooks to exchange back and forth, Shutterfly's product has always been the best quality and I highly recommend them!

But lets cut to the chase, you want to see the designs and what's in it for you. :)

I have so many favorites starred it was hard to narrow it down. And I truly mean that. We're not sure yet exactly what type of Christmas card we will be sending out yet and as a result, haven't narrowed down the photo/photos so until we do, my favorites folder will remain bursting at the seams. Here are a few selections from it:

I adore all their classic simple yet elegant designs. Maybe I should do some of each?? :)

Are you a blogger? Would you like a chance at 25 free cards this holiday season? You can register here: http://goo.gl/DDw7Q

Plus I will also make three random selections from people who comment on this post and they will win 25 free cards of their choosing!

I Am My Beloveds

2011-10-18T15:13:00.004-04:00

It's a busy and hectic time but I would be remiss if I didn't take a second today to dedicate a post to the love of my life and our last several years together.

I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine.
Song of Solomon 6:3

To my Love,

You are my knight in shining armor that rode in on a white horse and swept me off my feet. My Prince Charming. I never knew just how happily married it was possible to be but you continue to surprise me every day. I love being your other half. God has truly blessed us.

Thank you for being my goof, my rock and my man. For putting up with my crazy and doing it with such sexiness and grace! ;-p

Happy Happy Anniversary Love, I pray we will be blessed with many many more. I love you infinity times over.

Much love,
-yours

Out of the Mouths of Husbands

2011-10-11T08:15:00.000-04:00

Hubs had his knee fitted for a brace with the specialist the other day. When he got home, he walked into the kitchen to give me a kiss hello and says "want to see my thing" as he starts unbuckling his belt.

:) I will give you a moment to compose yourselves.

It took him a moment to figure out why I had collapsed on the floor in hysterical giggles but he couldn't keep the smirk off his face once he realized what he'd said. You can be assured that it was all downhill from there.

Monday Misc.

2011-10-10T15:37:00.004-04:00

Life has been busy busy busy. It's been tough to keep up! This is truly a miscellaneous Monday as my thoughts have been all over the place.

I am super grateful that I started early on Fall decorating this year. It's been nice to sit back and enjoy the seasonal decor IN the season rather than finding myself still decorating when its over... :) I think it would be fun to share pictures but it is already so dark when I get home that its been hard to capture the details. I will share soon though! I had lots of fun doing a bunch of seasonal crafts.

Hubs and I did our seasonal wardrobe switch over the weekend. It takes a FULL day whenever we do it so we've been kind of procrastinating on it. It was long over due and I was getting tired of 40 degree days and having all my cashmere sweaters still packed away. We always sort through and get rid of a bunch of stuff while we're swapping the wardrobes, it helps the influx of stuff not explode the closets/dressers. This time around we got rid of a massive box and it felt so good!

We finally got a diagnosis back on Husband's knee. He's got a 3rd degree MCL tear. I've had him on anti-inflamatories & RICEing (rest, ice, compression, elevation) it for the past 3-4 weeks with the addition of heat after the first week. He's gained some range of motion back and is now able to bend it a bit but still has a very noticeable limp. The specialists are putting him in a brace and doing therapy on it for the next 6-8 weeks to try and get it fully healed. He'll continue to ref but it's looking like he'll be taking off a season from playing hockey. I'll just be happy to have my husband back. Everyone knows that husbands make some of the worst patients, not to mention that it makes certain activities rather limiting.

Hub's car that we dug out of the ground just 1 year ago last month (I don't think I have ever blogged that story but I should) has let us know it has a very limited life left so over the weekend we bought a new-to-us Honda Civic. We had been planning to get Husband something a bit nicer but God dropped a fabulous deal in our laps that was rather irresistible. It will make a great commuter car for Hubs and most importantly, we can avoid adding a car payment to the budget.

I keep hearing about pumpkin shortages but our local grocery store is fully stocked and I picked up about 8 cans over the weekend. Am I missing something?

We installed some really nice shelving in our garage courtesy of the shelving sale going on over at Container Store and it just makes me smile every time I walk into the garage now. One step closer to a pretty & organized space!

There has been quite a bit of drama going amongst friends lately and it has gotten quite tiresome. None of it directly involves us (that we know of but really who knows with these sorts of things...) but Hubs and I feel like we are caught in the middle of a reality tv show ala RHOX. Why can't adults just be adults? Sulking and showing off are never attractive qualities, least of all in an adult.

I decided to get an EC planner to help keep track of all life's craziness that we've got going on. It should be arriving any day now and I've got a bunch of colored sharpie pens all ready to go. Here's hoping it helps simplify life!

I made lasagna soup for dinner last Thursday night and it was incredible. We had already had such an exhausting week that we curled up with dinner in bed and watched the first two episodes of PanAm. The show is SO SO good. We both really enjoyed it (I liked it even better than Mad Men!) and I'm looking forward to catching last night's episode tonight after work. Seriously, if you haven't seen it, I recommend checking it out!

Each time I go to hit publish I think of another bullet, so clearly I am not blogging often enough. :) Hope you all are well!

Since Ya'll asked!

2011-09-29T16:35:00.007-04:00

Ok, so I'm only posting this because several of you expressed interest. This is not meant to be a braggy-sort of post in any way so no hate mail or negative comments please!

I was spoiled rotten by my family and friends this year. I think they all know that gifts are my love language! :) All the images are from my pinterest boards.

From husband:

Source: tiffany.com via Jen | Life Accounts on Pinterest

Source: polyvore.com via Jen | Life Accounts on Pinterest

Source: shop.nordstrom.com via Jen | Life Accounts on Pinterest

Source: jildorshoes.com via Jen | Life Accounts on Pinterest

My necklace from Tiffanys, watch, the tory burch selma boots I picked up earlier on sale, a pair of much-coveted-by-me TB revas in patent burgundy & a giftcard to the spa!

Some of the selection from the family:

Source: amazon.com via Jen | Life Accounts on Pinterest

Source: williams-sonoma.com via Jen | Life Accounts on Pinterest

Source: amazon.com via Jen | Life Accounts on Pinterest

Source: oneshetwoshe.com via Jen | Life Accounts on Pinterest

Covers for my kitchen aid mixer bowls, a new glass mixing bowl for the mixer, a beater-scraper blade for the mixer, cookbooks and vintage golden books to add to my stash.

I am debating spending the birthday money on some Apple products or clothes from Jcrew. Tough decision but my plan is to see what I reach for first! :)

What a Party!

2011-09-29T15:05:00.003-04:00

I think the older I get the more fun I have celebrating my birthday. When I was younger, it followed a set routine. Family dinner, cake and presents & party with friends that also included cake & presents. Sleepovers were big once I got a bit older but we never did anything too extravagant. My parent's never rented a place or had party entertainers or "themes" other than matching hats/plates/napkins/silverware in our chosen obsession of the moment. Barbie was quite the popular choice as I recall! :)

This year, I really didn't want one of those crazy run around birthday's that leave you more exhausted. Not to mention, my birthday was on a Monday & I was undecided if I should take the day off. In the end I chose to go into work since I expected a low key day.

Party celebrations kicked off Friday afternoon at work when the office took me out to lunch. They continued all day Saturday when my husband took me apple picking at our local favorite orchard. We also picked up a bunch of mums, more gourds and mini pumpkins for the house and Chick-fil-a for lunch!

Saturday afternoon he was reffing a hockey game so I went along and relaxed at the rink catching up on some magazines until he was done. Afterwords he took me out to Hobby Lobby & Michaels to do some more shopping and so I could grab some supplies for some crafts I was working on.

We met friends for dinner at Bertuccis and then when out bowling late into the night with a whole bunch of friends from our small group. We wrapped up around 11:30pm and then went out for "dessert" which turned into drinks and hot pretzels and sour cream chive potato wedges at Buffalo Wild Wings. We didn't get home until after 1:30! Way too late for this old couple.

Sunday we slept in until close to noon and then drove out with my family to spend time with my grandparents. My grandfather cooked about 8 pounds of spaghetti and his famous home-made meatballs & garlic bread and we brought the salad and our family traditional decadent cherry chocolate cake.

My grandfather and I share a birthday so we always make a point to going out and celebrating together with him. Ravens played that day so the afternoon consisted of gorging on pasta, watching football and working on crafts. It was sort of like nursing a hangover. :)

Sunday night was a birthday celebration at home with my family. Homemade pizza and more cake totally hit the spot. I think I put on like 5 pounds over the weekend from all the eating but it was all so good!

Monday morning Husband woke me up with a little blue box...it was pretty much the best way to wake up on a Monday. And Tiffany & Co retweeted my tweet that morning which made it even more fun as birthday congratulations started pouring in from random strangers! :)

Husband had a hockey game that night but is still recovering from his knee injury so we went out and watched the team play after he surprised me with the rest of my birthday presents. All in all, it was a pretty fabulous way to celebrate a milestone birthday!

Materialistic Frivolousness

2011-09-28T09:37:00.002-04:00

Birthday Recap coming soon! Still recovering from it all. ;)

In the meantime, a post I wrote last week that never posted for some odd reason.

Oh fall, how you slay my budget every year. All the gorgeous deep jewel tones that are out right now are so irresistible. Navy & Burgundy, in particular, my favorite colors are proving to be big this season.

As my closet and collections of clothes have grown, I find myself being more drawn to shoes, purses and accessories. The luxurious leathers, gleaming metals & stones...all so pretty.

Here are just a few of my favorites that I've been eyeing or picked up recently:

Source: endless.com via Jen | Life Accounts on Pinterest

Source: piperlime.gap.com via Jen | Life Accounts on Pinterest

Source: zappos.com via Jen | Life Accounts on Pinterest

Source: toms.com via Jen | Life Accounts on Pinterest

Source: rebeccaminkoff.com via Jen | Life Accounts on Pinterest

The top two shoes are divine. The color is perfection and both were on sale too! I've been trying to pare down my wishlists and I'm curious, if you built your own perfect capsule wardrobe, what would you include?

Happy Birthday to Me!

2011-09-26T17:32:00.002-04:00

You'll have to excuse my lack of a blog post today because today is...

My Birthday!!!

Husband and I have been celebrating all weekend and he has been spoiling me rotten! Birthday recaps coming soon. ;)

It's that time of year...

2011-09-22T11:32:00.005-04:00

*There has been a great deal of sadness and scamming taking place on the internet that has really been weighing me down. You couple this with an overwhelming amount of cattiness and "mean girl" esq behavior and the internet has just been a real jolly place to be. Today's post is not meant to make light of or ignore everything that has been going, I just prefer to process it all internally for now. My prayers and condolences go out to those affected by it all though.*

In some sense it is hard to believe that Fall is officially here. We have been experiencing fall weather for close to a month now but everyone around here has been grumbling anytime they see boots, sweaters and jeans. No longer!

I haven't had time to haul out the boxes of fall clothes yet so I've been trying to keep my shopping limited to items I had already identified as "holes" in my wardrobe last year or retailers with lenient return policies and excellent sales. Plus my birthday is right around the corner so I need to leave room for other people's presents! ;) Still a little retail therapy and window shopping for pretty things always lift my spirits when they're down and fall style tops the list.

I made several polyvores of some of my favorite fall trends. Colored denim, silk blouses, tees in stripes and jewel tones, pencil & maxi skirts, dresses in jewel tones, tunics, leather jackets and BOOTS!

Fall Jackets by ourlifeaccounts featuring motorcycle jackets

Silk Blouses & Button-downs by ourlifeaccounts featuring a sleeveless blouse

Fall Tunics by ourlifeaccounts featuring crew neck tops

Fall Tees by ourlifeaccounts featuring jersey tees

Denim for the Fall by ourlifeaccounts featuring slim jeans

Fall Skirts by ourlifeaccounts featuring long skirts

Fall Dresses by ourlifeaccounts featuring a silk dress

Fall Boots by ourlifeaccounts featuring leather boots

Fall Flats & Pumps by ourlifeaccounts featuring emerald shoes

Fall Accessories by ourlifeaccounts featuring nylon tote bags

The above items are from quite the variety of places...Nordies, Jcrew, Madewell, LEC, Forever21, Victoria Secret, Anthropologie, Joyfolie, Tory Burch, Rebecca Minkoff, Zappos & Endless to name a few. :D

Jcrew has upped the ante this fall with their offerings and sales. So far the discounts include a 20% off coupon for my entire purchase, 30% off sale items and up to 30% off sweaters. Now could they just offer another promo for shoes/boots or knits?

Meanwhile, Anthropologie hasn't been doing it much for me lately, I purchased several of their "late summer" items when they hit first & second cut that I think will carry over nicely into fall but my sale wishlist is smaller than I can ever remember it being.

I have a few packages of fall items that should be arriving today so I will be sure to update you on any standout pieces. What are your go-to stores for fall clothes? Anyone picked up anything fabulous that they can't wait to break out as the temperature dips?

Catch-up

2011-09-21T15:50:00.002-04:00

I can't believe how much time has passed since I last had a chance to blog.

The short of it? My husband sustained a knee injury during his hockey championship game last Monday night and the remainder of the week was spent shuttling him to and from work, myself to and from work and all the other extra running around that seems to come with such injuries.

Add in my mom & sisters birthdays and the need for birthday dinners to be made for the whole fam and it just got busier. I've been going round the clock.

On top of all of that, it was "close" week at work and we have had auditors to deal with, all of which means extra long hours. Combined it just creates the perfect storm.

And is it any surprise I'm sick now and feeling lousy? Realistically I should always just block out the first couple of weeks of school starting back up to being sick because the kids bring home such an influx of germs I always end up with something.

Still, its a disappointment. Between Hub's injury and now being sick, it has been far too long since I've worked out and I'm feeling it. Last night I even dreamt about going running. Who am I?

In other news, we started the produce market back up this week so my Sunday-Wednesday mornings and evenings just got a whole lot busier. So much for sitting back and relaxing right?

The months seem to just continue to fly by and time just picks up its pace. I keep telling myself that soon I'll have a chance to stop and catch my breath but that moment has yet to come. I probably should stop waiting for that moment but still I will try for optimism and hope the moment comes soon. At least so I can have some more time to write here.

More Organization

2011-09-06T16:27:00.005-04:00

Yesterday I mentioned that I have been working on a whole bunch of projects. Nearly all of them are still in progress but before I start posting pics of fall decor projects, I thought I'd post some of the home organization projects I've been working so far.

One of my biggest projects has been going through all the magazines that have accumulated over the last ~~few~~ many years and getting rid of them all. I re-read through them, rip out anything I want to save, file the saved tearouts in binders (recipes, workouts & fav articles) and toss the rest. This is my stack of paper recycling so far:

I would say I am about 1/2-2/3rds of the way through. Still need to tackled the last few real simple and all the good housekeeping, smart money and money magazines.

Another project that I've been working on is better jewelry organization. I'm not quite finished the project yet but I thought I would share what I've done so far.

It's not a very good picture because I snapped a quick shot this morning with my cell phone and the weather is so nasty and dark outside it's screwing with the lighting. But you can at least get an idea, I'll post better photos with the updated home tour. The frame is from hobby lobby and I used wire screen and felt pads we already had. Total cost of the project was $10. I am undecided about whether I will drill hooks into the bottom of the frame or just install them in a row below. For now, it's nice to have some of my earrings out in the open. Studs and heavier earrings will stay in my jewelry boxes for now (as well as more expensive styles I don't want to have to worry about).

So far I really like it! It's nice to see more of my jewelry out in the open!

One Last Summer Hurrah

2011-09-06T15:11:00.006-04:00

Long weekends are the best. It really needs to become the new norm, I could totally get my work week done in less time if it meant having 3-4 day weekends.

Hubs and I ducked out early Friday for a rather impromptu weekend down at the beach house for a few days. The beach was gorgeous! Mid 70s with a slight breeze, we walked for a couple of hours and didn't even realize how long we'd been gone, it was so pretty. Of course we had to indulge in our traditional pizza, french fries, popcorn and ice cream (over the course of the weekend, not all at the same time!). I'm sure the 8-10 miles we walked Saturday alone helped burn some of those calories though! :)

Breakfast out on the deck while enjoying the water views was a glorious way to start each day. So peaceful and relaxing. And really, what better way to end the nights then curled up in blankets and mounds of pillows watching favorite movies. :)

It was a lot of fun and I have a feeling our beach trips will continue throughout the fall and winter seasons. It's always nice to get away.

Before we left for the beach, we kicked off the weekend with a bit of labor day sale shopping. I was delighted to find some lanterns clearanced at Pottery barn for a fraction of their original outrageous price of $39 a lantern. A bit of spray paint and they'll fit in perfect with my fall decor. I'll post pictures once I spray them down with another coat.

Williams-Sonoma had 15% off tabletop items so I was happy to bring this little set home with me.

Source: williams-sonoma.com via Jen | Life Accounts on Pinterest

I love the double handles and the fact they can go in the oven.

Tory Burch and Madewell both had amazing sales on boots so I was happy to indulge and order the selmas and archive boots.

Source: madewell.com via Jen | Life Accounts on Pinterest

Source: toryburch.com via Jen | Life Accounts on Pinterest

Source: shop.nordstrom.com via Jen | Life Accounts on Pinterest

Would you believe, I ordered the boots Thursday and they arrived Friday? I was so impressed! Now I just need to figure out my favorite colors!

Lastly Hubs and I made two trips to the local craft stores stocking up on some items for projects I've been working on and some new fall decor. I am soooo looking forward to Fall. I have been de-cluttering the house like crazy in preparation for holiday decor and getting all cozy for the cooler months.

Anybody else excited to decorate for fall? :)

Dreamt a Dream

2011-09-01T08:48:00.000-04:00

Last night I had one of those dreams...

One of those dreams that shakes you to your core and leaves you emotional and confused when you first wake up.

I dreamt we found out we were pregnant. Of peeing on a stick and having it come back positive.

When the stick went positive, it automatically notified the OBGYN office and sent a letter to our house that was opened by my mother (yeah this was the part that should have triggered it was a dream). We were in absolute disbelief, so sure it was a dream. But then in the dream, we woke up from a dream and it was still true! Someone from the OBGYN's office called and left me a voicemail to schedule an appointment and her voice was so joyful and you could hear how excited and happy she was for us (this DEFINITELY should have been an obvious sign as they are always grumpy).

It was just one of those dreams that has so many layers you start actually believing that just maybe it's possible. Sigh.

Anyway. It was a nice for a little while to believe it was true. Back to reality now.

Blurbs

2011-08-31T08:12:00.000-04:00

Blogging has been tough lately and not just because of all the extreme weather. The hurricane knocked out our power Saturday and has been out since. It started coming back on intermittently last night but unfortunately it was more of a tease and not long enough for hot water for a shower. Fingers crossed it stops flickering and stays on soon. Indoor "camping" does tend to drag after a little while.

We have somewhere around 10-20 massive trees to clean up. We had what looks like a tornado go through one of the hills. The remains were trees splintered off at the trunks, some trees ripped out completely leaving massive holes in the ground from the old root systems and even massive tree tops and branches sticking out of the ground. Cleanup is obviously still in progress but we worked on it all day Sunday and every bit of my body was aching by the end of the day. My hands are also rather shredded from the thorns on the locusts trees that came down.

We also had a tree demolish the barn filled with all the tractor equipment. Very very grateful it wasn't one of the houses but it's still quite the pain to clean up and deal with. All of the pictures are on the DSLR so it may be a few days before I can post them. Really though, its hard to capture it all when you don't have befores and afters. It ends up looking like a mass of brush everywhere.

A number of the main roads are still shut down so it's been quite interesting getting to work each day. Even the emergency evacuation routes are shut down!

Vermont got hit pretty hard as well though we are grateful that Hub's parents are far enough north that they are not stranded by the flooding. Sadly many of the gorgeous old covered bridges were lost in the storm.

We are extremely grateful we made all the food that we did Saturday. It's been such a blessing to have fun snacks and meals to eat without having to worry about the lack of stove or running water. Also for the full tank of propane we made sure to have on hand. It's been perfect grilling weather ever since the hurricane passed through!

How is everyone else faring in the aftermath?

Going Down that Path...

2011-08-30T07:28:00.000-04:00

I've been continuing with the acupuncture on my quest to "better" my health and I've actually really been enjoying it. Surprising huh? I expected it to be something that I would grit my teeth and just deal with because really, who wouldn't rather just be getting a massage?

Anyway, I've started to look forward to the trips. Each week I go in, she asks me how I'm doing, what I'm feeling and I tell her if I'm stressed or tired or tense or emotional or whatever. The placement of the needles is then based on how I'm doing that week. She's also recommended various herbs and supplements to treat various symptoms. While it's too soon to say how effective they are, I've appreciated having someone to discuss it with. I'm not big on antibiotics and drugs and will avoid them if at all possible but it can be majorly overwhelming trying to research and figure it out all on your own.

I find that after I leave there, I am much more levelheaded and at peace with things. I've often wished that my Dr was like this instead of always being incredibly rushed and prescribing drugs at the drop of a hat.

Completely unrelated to the acupuncture visits, Hubs and I have been exploring the world of gluten-free. Inspired by a number of posts by Amy, I decided I wanted to take a look at what all we've been eating and see exactly how much gluten were consuming. Other than the fact that it would appear that gluten appears in small amounts in practically everything, it wasn't that bad. In fact, right now the only switches that we're talking about doing are subbing in rice pasta and corn tortillas for their flour counterparts.

Just doing those 2 things will cut it back a great deal and I'm curious to see if either of us notices feeling any different. While I realize that we may not notice a change at all since we're not cutting it out completely, I figure at the very least, we'll be getting more fiber.

Mostly, neither one of us wants to give up our occasional homemade bread, muffins, pizza crust and other baked goodies. I've heard that there are some great alternatives out there and that you don't have to give those things up completely but for now it's an area I want to take my time exploring and testing out.

I've also decided to cut back on the amount of sweets I consume. I definitely wasn't eating a ton, neither of us do. My norm is maybe a couple of star-bursts/ tootsie rolls/chocolates at the end of the night or an ice cream treat a couple of times a week in the evenings. These last few weeks I've decided to cut it back to sweets on the weekends only and so far it hasn't been too bad.

I'm not making any of these changes to diet. In fact I've been more carefully monitoring my weight lately to make sure I'm not loosing. I've read that both gluten and sugar can cause inflammation in the body and I figured it couldn't hurt to see if I notice a difference.

I also recently read an article that said it's not recommended for woman to consume more than 20 grams of sugar each day, including natural sugars and sweeteners found in items like fruit, honey and pure maple syrup. On average, one serving of low-fat fruit-flavored greek yogurt contains 17-21 grams of sugar, already putting you at the limit. Once you count the sugar put in cereals, breads, condiments, fruit and all the rest of your non-dessert foods, its common to be consuming double-triple the amount of the daily sugar recommendation. And you haven't even had dessert yet! Crazy isn't it?

This Crazy Ride

2011-08-23T15:23:00.003-04:00

Life has been blasting full steam ahead. Millions of things to blog about but just haven't had a moment to do it!

Weekends are a constant whirlwind of fun and the work week just seems to pause for a brief moment only to blast into another fun weekend.

Last Friday night Hubby and I went out for a date night. Saw Harry Potter part 2 in theaters, grabbed mocha & carmel coffee drinks at Panera and had a blast browsing and trying on workout gear at a local sporting goods store. Sadly, they all seem to be bringing out their fall gear and there wasn't as much warm weather gear to be found.

BUT, over the weekend I placed orders from zappos, nike and under armour to kick off the search for some much needed gear and it has been arriving throughout the week with the last few pieces expected to arrive today. I will post pics/reviews once I sort through it all.

Then over the weekend, Hubs took me out for a little shopping date and these gorgeous beauties were finally in stock and available for me to try on:

Source: shop.nordstrom.com via Jen | Life Accounts on Pinterest

Love love love. Pictured are the suede but they are also available in almond and black leather. I was a bit disappointed in the leather quality but I do tend to wear my leather boots a lot more than my suede so it's a tough decision. Plus the suede was GORGEOUS and so buttery soft.

After I got a few returns done, we stopped by Tiffany's. Would you believe that I have never actually been inside a Tiffany store before? Husband did a little recon action and I tried on a couple of things. He even picked out something he'd like for himself! It was quite a fun date and afterwords we peaked in the Louis Vuitton Store so he could see the couple I had my eye on (3rd anniversary is Leather!). I had fun filling a virtual Tiffany's dream shopping cart Monday and emailing it to Husband. You know, just in case he needs ideas for upcoming birthday, anniversary and Christmas. ;)

This week has been all sorts of crazy fun. We had the earthquake on Tuesday where I discovered the awesomeness that is my work building is made with ALUMINUM sheeting for insulation. I will never have to worry about missing an earthquake as the sound of the buildings walls shaking resulted in a dull roar. Ceiling tiles fell, light bulbs shifted, cabinets flew open and the computer screen nearly vibrated right off the desk. Fun times.

Thankfully no damage seems to be done to the house and we can now focus on preparing for Irene. Where frankly, I'd like to take all the arrogant twitter naysayers that have been mocking the whole thing and making fun of others concern and stick them right in the midst of this storm.

Last time a tropical storm hit the area power outages were about a week and a half long for most people. We're not even talking hurricane weather! The power lines are all underground but the weather combo of lots of rain and high winds take out the polls for the main power stations and takes us all down.

Our water supply comes from a well, which is awesome most times because its super clean, we can drink it and we don't have to pay for it. Downside? No power=no water. So whenever we have fun storms like this, tubs have to be filled with water in order for toilets to be flushed. Fun times folks.

Tonight I'll be stocking the house with lots of yummy food in the forms of Parmesan garlic monkey bread, homemade pizza, taco meat, blueberry muffins and peanut butter stuffed brownies. If the power goes out, all the meat and veggies can be grilled and cell phones can be powered by laptops and car charges. There is a nice stock of fruit, sweets and alcohol and I guess if we loose power, we'll just have to clean up all the ice cream before it melts. But I am curious. If you lost power for several days and didn't have to go to work, how would you occupy your time (assuming outside and going places weren't options)?

The following is the list I've come up with so far.

Eat
Drink
Read
Drain Laptop battery watching movies
Drain battery on cell phone playing Words with Friends with Hubs and tweeting endlessly
Get it on. a lot. ;)
Dance party
Board games, cards and puzzles incorporating various ~~strip teases~~ adult rewards and penalties.

What am I missing? Happy Friday Ya'll! Stay safe if you're on the east coast!

Hockey Mom

2011-08-18T15:53:00.003-04:00

Car companies have really been knocking it out of the ballpark lately with their commercials. In my opinion anyway. This is another one of my new favorites. Add in a little princess or two in the third row seat (and change the car to a lexus) and it's my dream!

An Update of Sorts

2011-08-15T19:52:00.005-04:00

Hubs and I took a bit of a last minute trip to the beach house this past weekend and it was just lovely. Tennis in the mornings, relaxing and walks on the beach, dips in the pool, card games at night and lots of yummy snacks, it was wonderful and much enjoyed. We're definitely planning to squeeze a few more in before summer is officially over! :)

Getting away gave me lots of time to relax and clear my head. There's been a lot swirling around lately and I haven't had the chance to really sit down and sort out how I feel about things.

I've been silent on the baby issue for awhile now but sort of feel an update is due. Really there has been nothing to report. We are still waiting on God's timing and in the meantime enjoying life and taking the time to shore up our finances and pursue other dreams! While certain times are harder than others, overall we are happy and content.

Last night I received a text from my mother letting me know she'd found her Lamaze manual. It has been missing in action for years. She'd loaned it to someone but couldn't remember who and didn't recall seeing it since. I know this might seem trivial to some but that manual is filled with her notes and tips from pregnancy and giving birth to eight kids naturally. Some in a hospital, some in a birthing center. Babies in size from 6 lbs 12oz all the way up to 10 lbs 1oz. It contains a lot more than just Lamaze techniques, to say it is a treasure would be an understatement. Really its just the beginning of one of her many books she will write one day on her experiences and knowledge.

Anyway, last night after I got her first text, I responded back saying hopefully we would need it soon. Hubs and I had been heading to bed and were praying before calling it a day. That night, unbeknown to my mom, I had decided to start praying for a sign. A sign just to know whether or not we were on the right track and if I should keep hoping or move on to other options. Literally right after I finished praying, I got a text back from her, saying "maybe its a sign". It just made my heart smile, knowing there was no coincidence in that. It will happen in its own time and when it does, it will be perfect.

In other news, at our current pace we have 4.5 months left before we will be finished with the student loans once and for all. Debt free. It's hard to believe we are in the home stretch. Those dumb things were monstrous from the beginning, it will be incredible to have them all wiped out!

With the loans out of the way, we will be able to move forward with other dreams. Replacing our 30 year old cars; buying our super badd@$$ dark pearl with black interior F250 w/a super cab and extended bed; purchasing a great deal of acreage and building our dream home and homes for our families; extensive traveling and many many upgrades & replacements are in our foreseeable future. We are very excited to have nearly gotten to this point. While we have not followed Dave Ramsey to a T and don't necessarily agree with some of his opinions, we definitely agree with him about the burden of any kind of debt.

I have so many posts I've written in my head about our hopes and dreams, I'm excited to put them down as Hubs and I work to make them a reality together.

It's Nearing That TIme...

2011-08-10T07:25:00.001-04:00

It's starting to get to that time of year again...traffic is picking up a bit in my commute, and back-to-school posts and school shopping lists are starting to creep into my reader.

Dare I say it? My Favorite season of all time is on the horizon? I know that realistically we have another solid month of warm summer weather. Perhaps even a month and a half. And I will surely enjoy what's left of the summer. Cheap electricity bills and not having to heat the house may top my list of summer pleasures at this point but its the little things right? :)

We still have lots of beach trips to get in before the summer is gone. Lots of homemade ice cream to make and fresh veggies to pick from the garden. None of this means I won't be outside doing a little Autumn dance to encourage the weather to hurry up just a bit! ;)

Fall is my absolute favorite time to shop and I kicked off the first of my fall shopping this past weekend. J.Crew has some fabulous new arrivals and Ebates offered 8% cash back just in time for me to spend my fall rewards card.

I had such fun with Hubs trying things on at the store, so many pretties it was hard to narrow down but here are some of my favorites:

J.Crew Fall Pretties by ourlifeaccounts featuring knit tops

I am trying to hold off from doing any crazy fall shopping until at least September but I will definitely be tempted to bite sooner if any great deals cross my path. In the meantime my summer wishlist is dwindling down to those last few must-have items that just refuse to go on sale! Don't these retailers know that it's time to clear out summer stuff to bring in the fall? Anyone else spotted any fun new fall arrivals that they love? Any price point goes, it's always fun to dream!

Summer Weekends

2011-08-09T08:08:00.000-04:00

Another fun and busy summer weekend!

Lots of laying around the house and relaxing but we managed to squeeze in a couple of fun dates out.

Saturday we hit up a couple of Goodwills in search of a few items from my list. Mainly old frames (to all be repainted for the gallery wall), old tupperware (lifetime guarantee even if its cracked!) and vintage toys and books (a necessity).

We had good luck at both places and ended up finding quite the stash of golden books for 50% off! Lots of favorites from our childhood, I think I bought 30-40 of them!

I also added two more frames and two more pieces of tupperware to my stash so all in all it was quite a successful trip!

Saturday night we visited the mall to do some returns and check out J.Crew's new arrivals (post coming soon!). I ended up returning all three of the Nordstrom capes, they were just too billow-y and poofy and not as comfortable as I had hoped. Nowadays I strive to never settle on anything just because it was a good deal but instead only keep the perfect items! Sounds like common sense but I think most of us have experienced that "but it's only $5" or whatever is too cheap of a deal to pass up. :) I have definitely weeded out plenty of those "deals" over the years.

Sunday we started the day out with some local trail running in prep for some 5ks runs we're looking into. The new trails we tried out were so beautiful, we both commented to each other that we can't wait to run there in the fall!

The rest of the day was spent lounging, napping, visiting a free book warehouse and baking for the upcoming week.

All in all a perfect weekend with my Baby! We try and soak up as many of these as we can, we know they will be few and far between once we add kids to the mix!

How was everyone else's weekend?

Scrumptious Sunday

2011-08-08T10:28:00.017-04:00

Meant to post this last night but was too tired to lift my head off the floor and type it in. :)

Breakfast and snacks for the week: Apple Cinnamon muffins, Glazed doughnut muffins and Bacon, Egg & cheese biscuit muffins.

Source: bakingbites.com via Jen | Life Accounts on Pinterest

Source: sweetpeaskitchen.com via Jen | Life Accounts on Pinterest

Source: cookingwithmykid.com via Jen | Life Accounts on Pinterest

Monday: Spaghetti alla Carbonara with Peas and side salads.

Source: closetcooking.com via Jen | Life Accounts on Pinterest

Tuesday: Chessey Chicken Sandwhiches w/homemade dinner rolls and side salads.

Source: joelens.blogspot.com via Jen | Life Accounts on Pinterest

Source: mykitchenaddiction.com via Jen | Life Accounts on Pinterest

Wednesday: Bacon Chicken Alfredo pasta, green beans and side salads.

Source: justgetoffyourbuttandbake.com via Jen | Life Accounts on Pinterest

Thursday: Mozzarella-Stuffed Bruschetta Turkey Burgers with Balsamic Glaze and Oven-baked Garlic Parmesan Fries.

Source: iowagirleats.com via Jen | Life Accounts on Pinterest

Source: blogs.babble.com via Jen | Life Accounts on Pinterest

Friday: Chinese Honey Chicken w/brown rice and stir-fried veggies.

Source: blogchef.net via Jen | Life Accounts on Pinterest

Saturday: Homemade calzones (sorry no pictures! it's my own recipe)

Sunday: Chicken Roasted Garlic Lasagna & Italian Bread with Gorgonzola & side salads.

Source: fortheloveofcooking-recipes.blogspot.com via Jen | Life Accounts on Pinterest

Source: thibeaultstable.com via Jen | Life Accounts on Pinterest

Treats for the week (we have some events to attend): Cookies & Cream Cheesecake Cupcakes & Pretzel M&M blondies.

Source: handletheheat.com via Jen | Life Accounts on Pinterest

Source: bakeat350.blogspot.com via Jen | Life Accounts on Pinterest

Bringing It Back

2011-08-02T13:44:00.004-04:00

I mentioned recently that I've been doing a new fitness routine and it's going really well. For those of you that asked, it's a combination of plyometrics, weights, cardio and core work circuit training-style with A LOT of stretching. Hubby has been doing it with me and he's even mentioned noticing a bit of a difference in his hockey playing. That probably says more to me than anything else because that man is in shape!

My typical workouts in the past have been more basic. Running, biking, traditional weights and a bit of dancing or yoga. Perhaps because its been on and off for the last several years, but it just wasn't cutting it anymore. My body wasn't overly responsive and I was bored so I'd often half-ass it or skip it all together. Our lifestyle is pretty active so my body didn't plummet into flabbiness but I really wanted something that would kick my butt AND that I'd look forward to.

A very tall order.

Anyway, I've been doing it long enough now to see quite a difference and to know that it's not just a passing fad. Hubs and I have tossed around the idea of using it to segue into some races and other fitness pursuits and I'm pretty stoked about the idea for the fall. You know, when its not 120 degrees out and I can actually enjoy a run outside again!

However, the idea of working out around other people only enforced the fact that my fitness wardrobe is sadly in need of an update in some areas. I have a few cooler weather tops from Under Armour that I love and I also picked up a couple of the famed Lululemon-style 'booty' pants and capris during the mega Nordstroms sale and holy-moley they are amazing!

Source: shop.nordstrom.com via Jen | Life Accounts on Pinterest

Warm weather gear is a whole other story.

I've been recycling the same two sports bras these last several weeks and even those don't fit well at all. It can actually be a challenge to take a deep breath when wearing them, which doesn't work too well with working out. The few workout specific warm weather tops I have are also kind of small and its irritating to feel like a squeezed sausage while working out (actually I don't ever enjoy the squeezed sausage feeling). I have a bunch of ribbed tanks that I've tried but those get disgustingly drenched too quickly and then stretch out and take forever to dry. Yech!

I haven't shopped for workout gear for years but I did a couple of quick searches on polyvore and shopstyle and came up with several options:

Fitness Options 3 by ourlifeaccounts featuring under armour t shirts

Fitness Options 2 by ourlifeaccounts featuring nike activewear

Fitness Option 1 by ourlifeaccounts featuring sports bras

Nike Shorts by ourlifeaccounts featuring nike activewear

I had to throw that last one in there just for fun, such awesome bright colors!

These boards are primarily based on looks, though Nike, Under Armour and Lulemon are all stellar brands and it's probably tough to find products that are anything less than awesome.

Where do you all shop for fitness gear? I would love to hear your favorite sites and stores. Also would love to hear any fitness gear recs or favorites you have, I know a lot of athletics swear by certain brands and styles.

Hubs has offered to take me to the local bigbox retailer to shop and I am definitely considering taking him up on his offer just to try stuff on. Ideally though I don't want to have to pay full price...fitness gear is expensive!

Scrumptious Sundays

2011-07-31T23:04:00.006-04:00

I thought it would be fun to start posting our weekly menus again. It can be a struggle sometimes to find inspiration in the summer, the heat just seems to zap it right out of me. Hopefully some of you will find it useful and inspiration as well!

For breakfasts and snacks, I made the following today to last us through the week: Egg Frittatas, To-die-for Blueberry muffins (that's the actual name!) and baked cinnamon bites.

Source: handletheheat.com via Jen | Life Accounts on Pinterest

Source: sugarandspice-celeste.blogspot.com via Jen | Life Accounts on Pinterest

Source: ohmysugarhigh.com via Jen | Life Accounts on Pinterest

Monday: Crockpot Italian Shredded chicken. Sorry no picture from pinterest, this is my own recipe. I'll snap a shot to share though!

Tuesday: Tomato-balsamic meatballs, make ahead garlic bread and Parmesan peas.

Source: crepesofwrath.net via Jen | Life Accounts on Pinterest

Source: melskitchencafe.com via Jen | Life Accounts on Pinterest

Source: ezrapoundcake.com via Jen | Life Accounts on Pinterest

Wednesday: Baked Penne with Chicken, Broccoli and Smoked Mozzarella and side salads.

Source: melskitchencafe.com via Jen | Life Accounts on Pinterest

Thursday: Grilled Island chicken with rice, roasted broccoli and side salads.

Source: melskitchencafe.com via Jen | Life Accounts on Pinterest

Friday: Chicken Lo Mein with side salads

Source: crepesofwrath.net via Jen | Life Accounts on Pinterest

Saturday: Bubble pizza

Source: food.com via Jen | Life Accounts on Pinterest

Any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments!

Enabling Shoppers

2011-07-28T10:02:00.006-04:00

I have two really awesome websites to share with all of you today.

Before I go on though, just in case the title wasn't clear, I should note though that this is definitely an enabling post. :) If you are trying desperately not to shop...you might not want to keep reading.

Now that this is out of the way, let's move on.

There are two things I find very frustrating when shopping (this would be besides not having an unlimited budget but that is neither here nor there). The first is when I buy something and right after I buy it, it goes on sale! Ack! So annoying! Particularly when I'm not religiously tracking it (because seriously, who has time for that?) and by the time I discover it, the measly 7 day price adjustment period is over or my size is already sold out!

Seriously, the only thing worse than everyone else spending half of what you paid is having every size but yours available.

The second frustrating point I find with shopping is an online shopping irritation. Can anyone explain to me the point of websites having product pictures but no option for customers to shop online? I'm looking at you Zara and H&M! I fail to understand why all clothing retailers have not joined the current century's technology. If you have stores through out the US, you should have enough money to join the web. Please and thank you.

Thankfully, there are new tools cropping up to help consumers get around both irritations.

The first website is Sees The Sale.

Fairly new to the playing field, this is a site that lets you track items that you plug into your wish-list and it will alert you when the item goes out of stock/comes back in stock AND goes on sale! A genius website! I have been searching for an option like this for years! Other sites allow you to select brands and input your size to be alerted about sales, but this website lets you get down into the nitty-gritty of your wish-list.

I have been using it for awhile now and I am happy to say that it works and has a pretty fast turn around! The shops available are somewhat limited right now but they are brand new and seem to be adding new sites pretty fast. Anthropologie and Jcrew are already options available (among others). There are no referal credits or any of that nonsense that comes with a lot of the membership sites, so you can be assured that I am recommending this because its just plain awesome. Add the link, select your colors and sizes and you're all set, it's so easy to use, why would you not test it out? :)

The second site is Suddenlee, a site that allows you to shop from over 300 different retailers and pay one shipping fee for next day delivery. So for sites that exorbitant shipping fees **cough**Anthropologie**cough** or for sites that haven't joined the current century Zara**cough cough** there are now options! This is genius folks. Next time Pippa Middleton wears some gorgeous frock that I so desperately need, I don't have to call around to 20 different Zara's trying to track it down...ahem, not that I've done anything like that.

I'm a big fan of sites that exist solely to help the consumer out and save us money. What are some of your favorite money-saving sites?

Wednesday Tidbits

2011-07-27T15:46:00.006-04:00

It has been a very busy couple of weeks and quite honestly I don't even know if I know why, I think it's just been a lot of little things that have kept us occupied.

The whole family was out of town until the weekend so we were looking after two houses instead of one, couple that with a heatwave of temps 110+ and heat indexes 120+ and there was quite a bit of watering and pet monitoring while they were gone.

Even amidst the drought like conditions and stink bug infestation, my tomatoes are flourishing! We've been enjoying lots of yummy bruschetta and fresh tomatoes in just about all our meals. I have a really yummy recipe incorporating the bruschetta that I hope to post soon!

Hubs and I have both had medical stuff to get out of the way and so there have been appointments and follow-ups to coordinate with each other as both of our appointments necessitated the others presence. So glad this is all done now.

I've been doing a new work out routine every day for the past week and a half other than one day where I could tell my body was at the max and working out would have been too much. I've been impressed with how much I look forward to it every day and how I can already feel and see the difference in my body. This pretty much results in me prancing around the house all evening and informing my husband that I am hot. :D

This morning when I walked out the door it felt like Fall. Definite chill in the air, sunny but with a cool breeze, it was quite the tease! It still resulted in me pinning a gloriously fun fall shopping list. There will be lots more to add as we get closet to the season I'm sure!

Speaking of shopping, has anyone indulged in the Nordstrom Anniversary sale? I've held out thus far but I'm in need of a couple of basics and have found a few other items piquing my interest that I may toss in for the free shipping. What is everyone's consensus on capes? Particularly these:

Source: shop.nordstrom.com via Jen | Life Accounts on Pinterest

I waffle back and forth. The top two do look comfy but is it too tent-like? Any thoughts? Would love to hear some opinions...

Marketing Genius

2011-07-25T12:20:00.003-04:00

Today is a Monday. Not just a Monday but a Monday...one of those sort of days.

It probably has something to do with the fact that I tossed and turned the entire night last night, and don't recall ever actually falling asleep. Or it could be that I am so incredibly sore from a new workout that Hubs and I have been doing.

Either way, getting up and going to work was tough this morning. On the off chance that a few of you are experiencing similar Monday drags, I thought I'd share this bit of marketing genius. Hubs and I get a kick out of every time it pops up on the USA network.

I giggle every single time! And sadly? Hubs and I identify quite a bit already with those parents!

Silk Slips

2011-07-22T07:00:00.001-04:00

Earlier this summer, I discovered a magical dress. Comfortable with a bit of stretch, breathes nicely, doesn't wrinkle, doesn't require a bra and it comes in beautiful prints. Sold!

Exhibit A:

Slip Dresses by ourlifeaccounts featuring flower dresses

I love the modified v-neck and flowy-ness around the waist. I featured the one in the middle in my earlier summer stylings post but it is the one on the left that truly has my attention. There is something about the minty green color and flowers that I just can't get enough of.

You can imagine my delight when they released the same pattern in another color, a grayish-tealish-blue. Closely following my gasp of delight was the realization though that now I would have to choose!

Source: anthropologie.com via Jen | Life Accounts on Pinterest

Something about the blue version screams more fallish to me then the minty version but when I tried to figure out how I would style it for the season, I sort of blanked. After a bit of messing around in polyvore, I came up with the following (which I think could worked paired with some lovely sheer tonal tights):

Verdant Slip Styling by ourlifeaccounts featuring slouchy boots

(Yes, every now and then I like to match my accessories...sorry, it came with the orderly type A personality) What do you think? Did I completely miss the mark? How would you style it? And which one would you pick?!

Organizing Your Health

2011-07-21T09:12:00.002-04:00

These days, keeping track of your medical history is no cake walk. Anyone who has dealt with any sort of medical problem or condition probably knows what I'm talking about (fertility anyone?). General physicians, specialists, blood tests, prescriptions, insurance billings...it's a flood of paperwork and often times very little communication between physicians, resulting in redundant tests, incorrect billings and prescriptions clashing.

With several job changes that occurred within close proximity, there were a number of insurance, FSA & HSA changes that threw our "organization" into a tailspin.

So, in keeping with my organization mood as of late, the Health Management Binder was born.

This project has several more tabs than the last one I showed you but had a lot more going into it. No pictures as there wasn't much to see other than a simple binder, tabs and lots of paper. :)

I divided the binder into the following categories:

Hub's general physician
My general physician
OBGYN
Specialty medical tests
Dermatologist
Acupuncture
Insurance
Family history
Immunizations
Medical Waivers

The first six tabs are structured with the most current information in the front. Insurance "these are not a bill" mailings, bills and doctor reports are all clipped together for each visit. In the front of each applicable section I've included a summary sheet that I update periodically. For example, for my general physican summary sheet, I listed the dates of visits, line or two on reason for visit, prescriptions (if any) and any test results.

The immunization category I found a simple template online to track the dates received.

The Insurance tab lists current medical information (account numbers, various contact numbers, plan details) along with the past few proceeding companies (since we've changed so much). This is also where I track FSA purchases, reimbursements, claim forms and keep copies of the receipts.

The family history category I found various documentation online that I customized to contain all the documentation I wanted to be sure we had records of.

For the medical waivers, we used Quicken WillMaker Plus 2011, which contains the health care directive and power of attorney documentation.

I took a weekend to organize the mass amount of documentation we had (since college, even some high-school!) and shred what we didn't need. It is so nice knowing where everything is now and being able to have the information right at my fingertips!

PSA: Making Decisions for your Health

2011-07-20T16:41:00.004-04:00

Medical emergencies are horrific, there's no way around that. But did you know that in many states, if something were to happen to you or your spouse that rendered one of you unable to speak up for oneself, the other spouse and family would be helpless to make any decisions.

Take my neighbor for example. Had she not died, but ended up in a coma or even been rendered mentally handicapped, her husband could not have legally made decisions for her care UNLESS they had jointly written up and signed a "Durable Health Power of Attorney" previously.

We recently encountered a scary situation where family friends did not have this particular set-up in place. The wife had no prior medical or mental instability history but a number of circumstances piled up and she snapped one day out of the blue while her husband was at work and kids were at school.

Her care necessitated that she be medicated, however, in Maryland, when someone is ‘committed’ that does not grant the doctor the right to administer medication against the patient’s will (though in some states they can). In fact, in order to get permission the doctor has to request a medical panel to present the patient’s case. The panel of doctors/social workers does not evaluate the necessity of the medication or it’s probable efficacy given the facts, but rather whether or not the patient represents a ‘danger’ to themselves or to others types of medications.

In this particular situation, the patient was deemed to be lucid enough in front of the panel to make her own decisions. This, even though she was incredibly delusional and every time they can get her to take meds she starts to get better and then refuses all medication and goes off the deep end again. When she goes off the deep end, she refuses food and drink and any other sort of care but there is nothing anyone can do. The whole situation has been been going on for more than a year now and has even gone to court.

Legally, the hospital can only allow the husband to see her during visiting hours and he is not allowed to be privy to any details to her care due to privacy and HIPAA regulations. This is not just in cases of mental illnesses but also in situations of unconsciousness and comatose states.

The last thing you want when going through a medical emergency is having to fight for your right to care for your spouse but many people don't know there are laws like this in place (as evidenced by the fact that the majority of the population does not have Durable Health Power of Attorney established) until something happens and they end up fighting against it. So consider this my PSA. Do yourselves a favor, especially if you have kids. Write up a Durable Health Power of Attorney and file it away safety away with your will (please tell me you have one of those too) and pray you'll never have to use it. It's super super easy to do, if it seems to complicated and over you head, there is software available that can walk you through it in under an hour.

I'm curious, any of you already have one?

Postpartum Recovery Gone Wrong

2011-07-19T11:27:00.004-04:00

It's been a few weeks now since I posted about my neighbor passing away after giving birth. When I originally posted, the autopsy was still in process and there was a lot of uncertainty over what had gone wrong. The natural assumption was a pulmonary embolism or blood clot as the likely culprit (my immediate thought as well).

However, the initial diagnosis by the hospital (and relayed to us by her husband) was that it was caused by an infection that spread rapidly and undetected until it resulted in cardiac arrest.

This was indeed the final determination of the autopsy.

The details of the findings are extremely scary and something I think most of us don't tend to really think is that possible in our modernized society. I think we all acknowledge that there are risks involved in any type of medical procedure but this? This was a silent killer and there wasn't anything that could have been done differently.

My neighbor went into labor and gave birth naturally at a very well known and respected hospital. During the birthing process, bacteria gained access to her uterus. This was not due to lack of sanitary conditions or procedures incorrectly followed at the hospital. The bacteria is apparently an extreme form, relatively new and highly resistant. We were told that the hospital stated that there were no tests that could have been run to detect the bacteria in the beginning stages. Keep in mind, she worked here. Some of these people were co-workers and friends.

After the birth, she recovered nicely and was sent home with the baby within a few days. During this time frame, the bacteria began to multiply rapidly, spreading throughout her whole body, still undetected. The day she died, less than a weeks time from giving birth, she woke up feeling a bit off. While getting up, she passed out on the floor and was immediately rushed to the hospital.

By the time she arrived at the hospital, her kidneys had shut down and other organs were beginning to fail as well. As she was being rushed into emergency surgery to try and save her, she went into cardiac arrest and they were unable to resuscitate her.

It's scary to hear about the various new antibiotic-resistant forms of bacteria that are cropping up. Scarier still to realize that as of now, the medical community has very few weapons in its arsenal to fight back with.

I don't want to post the name of the bacteria here and end up with paranoid people googling and coming across this story on the blog but if you want to know the name, you can feel free to email me for it.

In the meantime, prayers for this young family would be greatly appreciated.

Sweet Peanuts

2011-07-18T09:39:00.006-04:00

Edited to add: You can take an additional 10% off your order with Zulily Promo code "COUPREF3559". Thanks to my friend Kelly for the deets!

For all of you moms and mom-to-be's, the amazing baby sale website Zulily has one of my favorite brands available today: Sweet Peanuts!

They make some of the cutest clothes and it's been my go-to brand lately for baby gifts (along with the requisite baby shoes).

Really, even if you don't have kids yet, I think it's hard not to be suckered in by this brand!

Sweet Peanuts: Girls by LifeAccounts on Polyvore.com

Sweet Peanuts: Boys by LifeAccounts on Polyvore.com

All of the clothing shown here plus many other styles and prints are 50% off and more.

This is the second time I've seen Sweet Peanuts featured since I've been a member of Zulily and I can never resist it or the Trumpette socks! Do check it out if you're looking for baby gifts or to stock up for your own kiddies. I stock up and I don't even have a little munchkin yet. :)
Happy Monday everyone!

Organizing Your Life One Step At A Time

2011-07-14T09:32:00.002-04:00

I've been slowing chipping away at our mass paper & file organization. Old systems that once worked have clearly hung on for far too long and resulted in important documents missing in action and way too much extra stuff that doesn't need to be kept.

This time I tackled a project that has gone through a few transformations: The Home Inventory & Manuals/Warranties project.

When I first started this project, we had a file folder in the filing cabinet where all the random manuals were tossed. Receipts were filed separately in a receipt filer. We also had random manuals scattered around the house where they were more accessible: tv/blue ray manuals kept in the entertainment console, kitchen appliance manuals tucked away in cabinets with the appliances... As a general rule this worked, but there were enough exceptions that I got tired of spending time looking because I couldn't remember which rule I had followed for that particular item!

My first attempt was to gather up all the manuals and corresponding receipts and organize them in a binder. This has been a popular project around the blogosphere already, and perhaps we just have too much stuff, but as you can see, this didn't work too well:

A lot of the manuals were too heavy for the plastic holders. Some of them are so ridiculously thick that they started to rip the plastic down the side. Others weren't a perfect 8.5x11 and stuck out the top of the binder.

My second attempt turned out much better:

Using a file box, each item got its own labeled manila folder. The manila folders were then alphabetized and grouped into the rooms they are currently kept.

I have a summary printout of the home inventory stored in the back of the file box in case I need to look something up real quick and I also keep a copy of this stored electronically. You can read more about the inventory process I have been working on this year here. Its so nice to know that I'll be able to easily find something when I need it and not have to worry about misplacing any important documentation. Its also nice not to have that file folder exploding out of the file cabinet anymore!

When What You See Isn't What You Get

2011-07-13T08:20:00.001-04:00

I fell for this necklace while doing a little online browsing a few weeks ago. Even featured it in a number of my summer style polyvores.

image from here

I saw it again when I was at the mall and noticed a few of the necklaces weren't quite as perfectly round as the image above but mostly it was just due to where the stone was cut and attached to the necklace. The colors and shape were extremely similar to the above pictures.

When the necklace went on sale, I ordered it online and just in case, I ordered a number of them, so that I could pick a favorite if they weren't all round.

Here's what showed up:

Not a single one of them has the same colors as the one online or in the stores. Instead of purples, I got a lot of browns, greens and whites. I'm still deciding on which one to keep but the ones towards the left side are currently topping my list. Which one is your favorite?

A Little Touch of Honey

2011-07-11T21:26:00.004-04:00

Welcome to all the new readers from Blue Eyed Bride! Erin was so kind to feature my meal-planning binder, I hope you all enjoyed it and were inspired to create your own system. I have several more organizational projects that I have been working on to share here so I hope you all will stick around!

Today's post features one of our family's favorite recipes. I have been wanting to share them here for awhile but haven't had the opportunity to make them and grab pictures before they were inhaled. I made these rolls for the first time right after we were married and they have become a staple ever since. I can't believe I've never blogged them! They were requested by my family for a birthday celebration over the weekend and I grabbed a couple of pictures before we headed out the door. It's a good thing too since we didn't have any leftovers!

Honey Glazed Rolls

Roll Ingredients:
1 cup warm water
1 packet yeast (instant works best otherwise you'll have to proof the yeast)
1/4 cup honey
3 T vegetable oil
1 tsp salt
1 egg, beaten
4 cups bread flour give or take a few T (I have used all-purpose in a pinch and the rolls still turned out ok)

Glaze:
1 T honey
1 T butter

Combine warm water, yeast, honey, oil, salt and egg and mix well. Add in 3 cups of flour and mix with an electric mixer until combined. Add the remaining cup or so of flour until the dough pulls away from the side of the bowl in a nice ball and is no longer sticking to the sides. Using a dough hook attachment, knead the dough until elastic and smooth (about 8-10 minutes on low speed).

While dough is kneading, lightly oil a bowl for the bread to rise in. This will help the dough from sticking to the sides while it rises. Once the dough is done kneading, transfer to bowl and turn to lightly coat the dough. Cover tighly with lightly oiled plastic wrap and place in a warm area to double in size. Depending on the warmth where the dough is rising, I've had this take anywhere from 1.5-3 hours.

Once the dough is done rising, place the dough on a floured surface and knead a few times. Cover and allow to rest for 10 minutes.

Shape the rolls into 16 balls and place in a lightly-greased baking dish. I like to use my pampered chef stones for these rolls and I need a 9x13 and an 8x8 in order to get them all to fit and not be too squished. Cover with lightly greased plastic wrap and let rise for another 20 or so minutes while the ove preheats to 400^. Melt the butter and honey together and brush the glaze over the tops of the rolls right before popping them in the oven. Bake for 15 minutes until lightly browned on top.

Friday Feature: Sperry's

2011-07-08T07:35:00.001-04:00

It's been awhile since I've done a Friday Feature but I just couldn't resist today. Are any of you familiar with Sperry's? If not, meet the worlds most comfortable boat shoe.

Or, if you do not have a boat (we don't!), a great walking shoe with arch support that is cute, comfortable and doesn't require any break-in time.

I'm partial to the Angel-fish style myself. I love the feminine twist with the cropped front and different colors.

I started with this classic pair a few years ago and I still wear them all the time. Vacations and trips involving lots of walking, they are one of the first pairs of shoes I reach for.

I absolutely adore this nautical pair and I think they would be fabulous paired with some white cropped jeans and a flowy top ala:

Source: polyvore.com via Jen | Life Accounts on Pinterest

These pink ones are also adorable but I wonder how easy they would be to keep clean? I tend to wear them when I don't want to have to worry about my footwear.

These next two pairs I think would be fantastic for the fall! Leopard is a neutral..right? Right.

I'm also really digging these darker colors, I think they would also be great for the fall-winter months, particularly the black pair! I could see myself reaching for those all the time, too bad they don't come fur-lined! ;)

Source: polyvore.com via Jen | Life Accounts on Pinterest

These definitely rival my Toms in terms of comfort. I actually find these to have better arch support than the Toms, not to mention they are much more durable with the rubber soles. Anybody else own any Sperry's? I know the metallic ones are quite popular!

Menu Organization

2011-07-07T08:35:00.004-04:00

Over the weekend I worked on several organizational projects to help simplify life and eliminate all the wasted time searching for that missing item.

The first project I put together was our menu planning binder. I've been planning our menus monthly since the beginning of the year but each month it was a bit of a chore to put together. One of my goals with meal planning was not to repeat too much of what was done the previous month and also carry over any recipes that we might have skipped. Each month during meal planning this meant I was rummaging around gathering up all the previous menus and marking what we had or had not eaten. The process took way too long and I was worried I'd loose the menus. Plus during the month I occasionally would misplace the very recipe I needed that night! We just have too many papers and recipes floating around in a small space!

Menu binder=problem solved.

Currently I have the binder divided into 4 separate categories:

The first tab contains the monthly menus, ordered with the current menu on top and all the past months behind it for easy reference.

The second tab is our grocery lists. Each month I make up the grocery list while menu planning and then after we shop I fill in where we got each item and what the price was. This gives me a good idea of the general price point we're paying for items and who generally has the best deals for it. If I get it on sale or have a coupon deal, I make a note of it here. During the month, if I get any good coupons, I also stick those in this tab so that I won't forget them the following month while out shopping.

The third tab contains all the planned recipes to be cooked during the month-main courses and any sides, in order of the menu.

The fourth tab contains any "extra" recipes: desserts, muffins, appetizers and any other treats that I'm considering making and want to make sure I have ingredients on hand for.

And there you have it! Project #1 crossed off the list! Anyone else tackled this project?

Edited to add: Here is the link for everyone who has asked where the pretty calender pages are from. She also has a lovely birthday calender that you will see in one of my later projects!

Mary Mary How Does Your Garden Grow

2011-07-06T07:35:00.002-04:00

The only thing better that an weekend is an extended weekend. :) Hubs and I enjoyed a glorious 4.5 days off over the Holidays and it sure made it tough to go back to work! There was lots of lazy lounging about the house, home cooking and grilling in abundance and several projects started from the list!

We also put a chunk of time into helping my dad in part of the mass kitchen remodel underway. New flours (gorgeous hardwood!), cabinets, appliances, everything! Its been a long project since the house had to be jacked up to put in new supports but our fingers are crossed it will be marginally functional when the family makes their return first thing Thursday morning (functional means a sink, stove and fridge, which may well be plugged in/rigged in the middle of the floor-no promises on anything beyond that).

Long ago, I promised pictures of the garden. I actually these pictures a month ago the first time I broke out the new camera, so I actually need to take some updated shots now, but you'll at least get the gist of it!

It makes me smile when I walk out on our porch everyday!

The hanging baskets

A partial shot of the Dahlias in the planters lining the porch railings

Another partial of the Dahlias in one of the planters, we got so many pretty colors!

We also nestled a barrel half with Dahlias and some pretty red foliage in one of the corners. I plan to add at least one more of these possibly even a few next year.

The bottom plant with the orange (Nasturtium) had just started to bloom when I took this shot, it has now morphed into a beautiful curtain of flowers cascading down the side of the pot. The middle plant is double ruffled Petunias, the color variety was called peppermint swirl, how could I resist?!? At the top is a pretty red and white striped specialty Dahlia. I had never seen them striped like this before but it makes for a very cool looking flower, it always draws compliments from visitors!

Part of the Herb garden (basil, purple basil, Italian parsley, curled parsley, marjoram, chives, cilantro and oregano-not show is the cinnamon basil) , next year I plan to combine them in a couple of barrels to allow them deeper roots.

Close-up of the Portulaca flowers in Margarita and Tequila mix! Such pretty delicate flowers and I particularly love that the small little plants offer up a variety of colored blooms, each new bud is a surprise! They were just starting to bloom here and they are now covered in bright beautiful flowers!

Hosta, pink Bleeding Hearts and Impatiens in a variety of colors

Impatiens, double-ruffle Petunias & double-ruffle Begonias

Out of control Zinnias

Watermelon plants

Yummy tomatoes & peppers (my future bruschetta/salsa)

I was worried I would have a black thumb with so many plants, in the past I've managed to keep a small number of plants alive but never quite this large a brood. So far it's been incredibly successful though and Brent and I are already mapping out several above ground gardens for next year so we can go completely organic in the summer!

Food Philosophies

2011-06-27T16:25:00.002-04:00

It was quite a busy & productive weekend for us, the weekend felt like a small little blip!

My brother celebrated his 15th birthday on Saturday, we had the viewing and funeral for our neighbor, menu planning and grocery shopping for the next five weeks, gardening and log splitting chores, plus hockey!

I've started to tackle the mass amounts of projects and lists and the first project to get crossed off was menu planning. I wanted to create a better system for the menu planning since I do such a mass amount at one time. I'm working on creating a new menu-planning binder that will keep all the past month plans and current month recipes etc. all organized together. There were 37 days to plan this go round and boy did it help make wading through that grocery list easier! We hit up four different grocery stores yesterday and I still have two more to go before I'm done!

In the midst of all the planning I've also been trying to define our "food stance" if you will. Organic vs. conventional. Local vs. international. Processed vs. "all natural". It goes on and on. Obviously I want to choose the best for us but what premium am I willing to pay? And is it worth the extra cost? I'm still mulling it all over and trying to figure out what is reasonable to try and achieve. How have you decided?

There Were Pink Ballons & Then There Were None

2011-06-24T07:46:00.001-04:00

Yesterday I received the kind of news that no one ever likes to have to hear. Our next door neighbor had passed away after welcoming her new baby girl into the world not too many days before. It's a horrible horrible thing that I just cannot wrap my mind around and my heart just breaks for the family.

A lot of you had asked for background information on twitter in response to my tweets so here is what I know.

The mother was only 23, actually turning 24 on Sunday. This was their first child. Both were very healthy (in fact she was a runner and in great shape) and given the all clear and released from the hospital a few days ago.

Mom and baby were doing great and had been home getting settled back in for a couple of days. In fact, not too many hours before it happened I drove by the house and waved to the proud, beaming new dad. Everything seemed to be going well and we had plans to drop by with gifts for the new parents and baby a little while later.

Unfortunately, during that period of "a little while later", the mother went into cardiac arrest. They were unable to resuscitate her and she passed away.

A final verdict on cause of death hadn't been released as of last night, they are still waiting for the autopsy to be finished. The initial statement is that the cardiac arrest appears to have been caused by a fast developing infection, cause of the infection unknown at this time.

We stopped by last night and talked to our neighbor and his father for quite awhile. I could tell it hasn't hit yet. When I had driven by the house shortly before, I saw him outside walking. He was slumped over and looked so defeated. I tear up just thinking about, the whole thing is so horrible.

They were high-school sweethearts. Newlyweds. The father is only 24 and runs his own business in addition to another contracting type job-both with sporadic and long hours. Couple that with having to learn to cook and care for a house AND care for a newborn and he's in for a extremely challenging road ahead while at the same time trying to cope with the grief of loosing his soul-mate.

While visiting last night, we offered up my mom, 3 sisters and my assistance with the house, meals and baby and his eyes lit up right away and he looked so relieved. Hopefully he will not be afraid to let us know what they need and that we are able to meet those needs.

Parenting is a tough enough challenge for two, nevermind one. They are going to need so much help and grace to work through this, please please keep them in your prayers.

Lists upon Lists

2011-06-21T13:26:00.003-04:00

I've had so many lists swirling around in my head since getting home. It was wonderful being out of town for so long but coming back I often feel so out of touch and behind. I start to jot down notes for one list and then think of something and start another, and then start another...etc. I'm hoping if I can at least start with a list of the lists that have all been swirling around in my head, maybe I can start to get somewhere.

Source: organizing.yourway.net via Rosie on Pinterest

Monthly meal planning
This has been going super duper since starting it in January. June I only planned a couple of meals because I knew we would be clearing out the fridge and be gone for awhile. I think we'll barely squeak through til the end of this week with food and then I'll just menu-plan for July + the last week of June. Hubs and I are talking about a date to Whole Foods and Trader Joes for some yummy fresh organic gourmet over the weekend but no way we're walking into those stores without a list (past experience has proven to be quite costly).

Shopping/returns
I want to minimize the amount of spending I do over the next couple of months so we can kick the last student loans to the curb once and for all. I also need to gather up all the misc stuff around the house that needs to get returned and just get it out of the house and the money back in our pockets.

Organize
The paper trail has gotten a bit out of hand in the office with receipts and recipes and printouts that need to be saved... I want to set aside some serious chunks of time to set up a new system as we've definitely started to outgrow the old one.

Clutter
I have a whole bunch of stuff I want to post for sale and the rest I want sorted through and cleared out once and for all so I can finish the home inventory.

Summer
I can not believe we are already near the end of June. Time is just FLYING! Last year's summer plan was quite successful so I think I would like to do another one this year to make we can capture the summer and enjoy it before it's gone again.

Local
We have been blessed to enjoy a lot of wonderful vacations and see a lot of the world already but there are still lots of things we'd like to see and do close to home. Brent and I started discussing a list but I'd really like to get it all written down and saved somewhere before we forget.

Projects
I have lots and lots of projects piling up that I have wanted to get done....building out the gardens for next year, a bit more landscaping, cleaning out the garage, putting together several books of pictures. The list is endless. I'm thinking I'll make a list of all the ones I can think of and then select a couple to do each week/month to make it a bit more manageable.

Financial
With new jobs, promotions and internal changes in our companies that have been a lot of new accounts getting added in, zero'd out or moved around and our Mint overview is starting to look a bit untidy. Over the next few months as we get the final student loans paid off, there are a number of restructuring changes I'd like to accomplish in order to get things simplified.

phew I *think* that covers everything. Just putting it all down into categories makes it seem much more manageable. Each category probably deserves a topic of its own and who knows, if I find enough time, I might just do that!

Back on East Coast Time

2011-06-20T15:57:00.004-04:00

We're finally back!

We arrived from our whirlwind west coast tour early this morning and while I'm sure it will take me a number of days to get settled back in and unpacked, (much less sorting through the 2500+ photos sitting on the new camera) this blog has been rather neglected while I was gone.

Side note, the new ~~toy~~ camera is a dream! We have been having so much fun getting acquainted with it. Oh and I think "it" needs a name. Perhaps a contest with a prize for the winner? We'll get to that later...

Back to the trip...every day was filled to the brim with sight seeing and activities. We spent 5ish days in San Fransisco and the surrounding areas. 2ish days in Sonoma and another 2ish days in Northern California/Oregon. Pics and stories from our adventures coming as soon as I get to sorting through. In the meantime, a snippet of photos from my phone, taken at the Redwood National Forest and along the Northern California coast.

We saw so many beautiful things, I honestly am not sure if the camera ever really got put away. It was a truly spectacular trip and it was wonderful to share the experience with Brent and other family members! Rest assured there will be lots of posts coming down the pipeline sharing the fun.

Also big huge congratulations go out to Susannah, Brittany and Jenny on the births of all their new babies! Be warned, they all had serious cuties, prepare for your ovaries to ache!!!

Today's Stream of Consciousness

2011-06-08T11:13:00.006-04:00

Newlywed Next Door had a post earlier today entitled "stream of consciousness" and that title sort of just stuck in my mind and seemed fitting for today's post.

My husband was so sweet, he asked for our camera for his birthday since the purchase has been continually delayed and he hates how long I've been waiting for it. The camera came back in stock on Sunday, $150 bucks less than what it had been before and I snatched it up immediately! It arrived yesterday in all its sexy Canon EOS 7D glory and its beautiful! I can't wait to test it out! (and no, that was not the only thing he got for his birthday, I made sure to get him a few surprises)

I already have a Kelly Moore bag but I'm thinking of also picking this bag up for Hubs.

I ordered some of the Tory Burch Eddies when they went on sale and oh my, it is Love! Move over Revas, there is a new top dog in town! It is like walking on pillows!

Source: toryburch.com via Jen | Life Accounts on Pinterest

Anthropologie kicked off a massive sale yesterday and in addition, has marked down all their sale items an extra 25% for a limited time. I was able to call in and get a few price adjustments and also scored a blazer I'd had my eye on for $30 bucks (originally $100!) and a lovely summer scarf, yay for getting money back!

Source: anthropologie.com via Jen | Life Accounts on Pinterest

I guess yesterday was quite the notable day as I got two phone calls with good news! The first was the bread outlet for 60 loaves of fresh bread plus other assorted treats for mere pennies! Whenever we get bread from the outlets it's decidedly more fresh than the bread they have in stores (since it comes straight from the manufacturer) and filling my car for $20 bucks (quite literally) can't be beat. My car smelled like a fresh bakery all day! :)

The second phone call was a call I have been waiting for now for a few weeks. My purse had arrived at the Atlanta branch from London and the store was shipping it out to me. Here's a sneak peak:

Source: lkbennett.com via Jen | Life Accounts on Pinterest

I'll post more pictures when it arrives!

I have started a bit of cross-training with the shred for the days where its too hot to work out outside. The first day was a doozy and it took a few days to recover (I think I did weights too high for the number of reps) but the second time I didn't dial it down any less but it seemed decidely easier, I was barely even breathing hard! I think maybe I need to try and go up a level and see if that's any more challenging.

One thing I am curious about though, do people really do the shred 30 days in a row? It seems to be advertised that way but that also doesn't seem very smart to do the same exercises and work the same muscles the same way day after day. Tired muscles lead to incorrect form and injury so it seems weird that she promotes doing it every day! Anyone who's done the shred care to weigh in? (pun not intended!) I'm very curious how others have done it!

We are preparing to head to San Fransisco in mere days now. Once we get there, we plan to road trip from SF up to Portland over the course of a week or so. I would love recommendations on things to see/do and places to eat!

Source: google.com via Kate on Pinterest

Lastly, I have finally started sketching out the gallery wall project in our bedroom. It seems like it has taken me MONTHS to sort through the 10,000+ photos we have and narrow it down to a reasonable number. This project has been quite the doozy! I've started a rough map of the beginning configuration (bit of a weird flash-I was taking the picture with my phone to help me remember in case the wind and fans blew all the paper scraps down). The second photo from Finding My Feet, will give you an idea of what the end product will look like.

Source: raechelmyers.com via Jen | Life Accounts on Pinterest

My Man

2011-06-06T19:57:00.005-04:00

Today is a very special day. It's a day that year after year we celebrate my husband Brent, otherwise affectionately known around these parts as Hubs. In honor of his birthday, this post is dedicated to the best man I've ever known and whom I am blessed to be married to. I don't know if I've ever formally introduced Brent on this blog but allow me to remedy that today.

A few years back when I started this blog, Friday's were dedicated to him and every Friday he would tune in anticipation of his Friday love letter. Well, time sort of slipped by and I got off track with his Friday posts, so today Babe, this one's for you.

Several years ago, I walked into the college bar and fell head over heels for the tall muscular sexy bouncer at the front. Although it was your looks that first drew me in, what really captured my attention was your sparkling smile, warm engaging personality and hilarious dry sarcastic sense of humor.

Its hard to put into words just how much you mean to me, but you are the only person I have ever fallen for, you define the term "soulmate". Truly.

You are incredibly patient and oh-so laid-back and easy going, which as we know, helps to balance out my crazy! :)

You are such an amazing servant leader and hard worker, I am grateful everyday for the hard work and effort you pour into my family. It's such an exciting time to be a part of your team!

You are a wonderful coach and mentor, dedicated husband/son/brother and friend and I think everyone feels as I do in that they are blessed to have you be a part of their lives.

A good listener, an excellent gift giver, amazing back/foot rubber and an amazing athlete, you really are the dream husband that every girl fantasizes about. How lucky and blessed am I to have been choose to spend the rest of our lives together!

You could have gone all the way in sports and made a career out of it, instead you made the decision to pursue higher education and academics and make a career in business. A decision that I am oh-so-thankful for, since it allowed me the opportunity to meet you! God had a plan!

My workout buddy, my co-chef, my travel companion, my shopping soundboard, my coach and cheerleader. The Richard to my Laura, the Clinton to my Stacy, the bread for my cheese! :)

You are the man that everyone likes and respects. I have never met a person that wasn't instantly swayed by your natural charm. You provide such a lovely balance and stabilizability for me. After God, you are my rock!

Every time I think of you I thank God for you.
Philippians 1:3

Happy Birthday Baby, I hope your every dream comes true!

Love,
Yours Forever

Snippets

2011-05-31T17:23:00.004-04:00

Just a few things for Tuesday, it's taking me a bit to get back into the swing of things:

4 day work weeks should be mandatory.

My fifth sibling graduated highschool this past weekend! I feel old...

My brother left for Korea 4:30AM Monday morning, Memorial Day seems to have gained even more meaning now.

In the past couple of days we have started hitting 100 degrees with 1000 degree humidity. What has happened to my beloved spring!?!?! This is end of July/August weather!!!

We threw a big old bonfire party Saturday night and people didn't leave until 1AM and later, I think it took half the day Sunday to recover but it was soooo much fun!

Sunday we went out shopping for full length mirror for the bedroom and spent the evening curled up in bed watching old shows and eating mac n'cheese. It was delectable (both the food and the QT).

Yesterday, Hubs and I enjoyed quite a marathon shopping day and wrapped the day up with a stop at the movies and a yummy grilled dinner. I'm looking forward to many more evenings of such delicious food this summer!

I snapped this photo while Hubs was trying on suits, quite a snazzy outfit!

How was everyone's holiday weekend?

Summer Stylin'

2011-05-26T09:43:00.004-04:00

In preparation for a shopping trip to pick up some summer clothes, I decided to mess around in polyvore the other day to get a sense of what I was looking for. I had a lot of fun making some summer inspiration boards and definitely sensed an underlying theme of white, navy, neutrals and stripes!

Source: polyvore.com via Jen | Life Accounts on Pinterest

What are some of your summer style inspirations?

One of those days

2011-05-25T14:49:00.004-04:00

Today has just been one of those days. The kind of day where you'd like to wake up and start over. Or rewind to a few days before so you could remedy it.

I had picked out one of my summer purses...spent several months finding the shape and color that I wanted. The price was just right and I just needed to wait a couple more days to have enough money and bam....sold out completely. No chance at a popback or ebay, no one else sells it....just gone forever. Ugh.

I was finally all set to order my camera and get it before we left for vacation...I have had it waiting in my cart and what do you know...its sold out. On order from the manufacturer with no estimated delivery date on the horizon. Guess I'll be taking crappy cell phone pictures on vacation now....

An item that I ordered went on mega sale and the price adjustment window is only 7 days. The box just barely arrived but the price adjustment window is closed...and my size is sold out. I'm not thrilled about keeping an item that should have cost a lot less so I'm returning the item and hoping that my size pops back. What a pain...

All of it is stupid trivial stuff but for whatever reason, I find it getting me down. I think it's a reality check. It probably has a lot to do with much bigger stuff that is getting me down right now and the little trivial stuff just ends up being the final straw. Know what I mean?

It's funny how the little things just grate and grate on your nerves and yet the big stuff God gives us the grace to get through. I'm guessing that's probably because it shouldn't require grace to get through such silly things...really I shouldn't let it get to me in the first place.

Tomorrow will be another day.

Family Style Reception

2011-05-24T07:23:00.000-04:00

This weekend seemed like one of our busiest yet! My brother's wedding reception was Sunday along with my sister's graduation party, coupled together for a party hosting 250+. We rented out a local park and several pavilions and did the whole thing family style.

Family style = DIY style.

Saturday was an insanely busy day wrapping all the food prep that had been going on all week. I whipped out 24 dozen cookies Saturday morning and 15 pounds of potato salad and 5 massive batches of homemade hummus later that night. This is what 24 dozen cookies looks like:

We also did about 30lbs of shredded chicken (Italian and BBQ), meatballs pasta salad, broccoli salad, fruit salad, tapioca salad, jello salad (Iowa traditions) veggie trays, cheese platters, chips, 7 layer bean dip, shrimp dip and quiches galore.

Dessert was iced and classic sugar cookies, no bake peanut cookies, no-bake chocolate cookies, chocolate chip butterscotch chip cookies, peanut butter kiss cookies, rice krispy bars, mint brownies and wedding/graduation cake.

No one should have gone home hungry!

We also did homemade lemonade and ice tea.

I'll have to look and see if I have any pictures from the event, I spent most of the party restocking food intermixed with chatting with some of the guests.

Amidst the food prep on Saturday, we also managed to get nearly all the upper kitchen cabinets installed (!!!) as well as make the Hockey season opener for Hubs. Pictures coming soon of the new kitchen additions (see here for the before pics)!

It was quite a busy day! I was hurting pretty bad by Saturday night. You can imagine my dismay at 11pm when I heard family that had never seen our house would be stopping by the next morning to get a tour.

Que me scrambling around frantically that night and the next morning before they arrived! Hubs was a big help and thankfully the house wasn't in too much disarray. Really I shouldn't have worried much, once people see the shoe closet...they don't seem to focus on much else! The bright side though was coming home and collapsing into bed in a clean house late that night after clean-up and putting everything away. Now if it can just stay that way until the next party!

How was everyone's weekend?

Buttons?

2011-05-23T07:16:00.002-04:00

I have finally joined the world of bloggers with buttons!

Do you see that lovely button that Marina made for me right over there?

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I'd love it if you'd put it up on your blog! Let me know in the comments if you have a button and I'd love to return the favor!

Goldilocks

2011-05-20T10:19:00.004-04:00

I have a frivolous dilemma for you all today. I was looking for a nice pair of tan wedges for the summer and happened upon a pair that looked sexy. Of course, then I saw the black and those looked nice too…so I ordered them both in hopes that trying them on would help me decide.

I apologize in advance for the graininess in some of the photos, it was late at night and I was using my cell phone...

Black:

Or Tan

I think I have settled on the preferred pair but I am undecided yet on whether it's what I was looking for and "the one". I’d love to know your thoughts. Do you like one more than the other? Both? Neither? Think I can do better? Seen any amazing tan/nude wedges lately? Help an indecisive girl out!

Alternative Health

2011-05-19T14:47:00.003-04:00

With everything that has been going on lately, my health and well-being has taken a beating.

Stress, less sleeping hours coupled with bouts of insomnia from the anxiety, no time to cook leading to eating junk, no time to exercise or get done what I need to get done, hours going by without realizing I haven't had anything to eat or drink has all cumulated in fatigue, exhaustion and my body struggling to keep up. Reading back over what I just wrote it's no wonder!

Forget fertility, I'm just talking general well-being!

I've made a list for myself of the seven pointers I want to get back to:

1. Sleep: getting in the hours & making it consistent.

2. Workout every day. Something. Anything. Just get the heart rate up & the blood flowing.

3. Take my vitamins every day. All of them. The afternoon round is my vice.

4. Consume at least 64 ounces of water a day. Preferably not all when I get home from work.

5. Be mindful of what I eat and write it all down (no "dieting"). Not trying to loose weight, just trying to eat well-rounded.

6. Stretch every night before bed.

7. Make time for me a little more often: showers & quiet times.

If I hit these, everything will fall into place. Or it should. If there are more problems, I'll deal with them once I am acing all of this. :) But I'll feel much better about myself hitting these.

I'm also looking into acupuncture. Anyone out there already do this? Or tried it before? I've read that it can do amazing things in getting your body and organs back to a healthy and energized state but must admit I've never tried it out before nor know anyone else that has. Not a big fan of needles at all but I'm willing to look past that to better my body.

Honestly, as much as acupuncture has been touted to help with fertility, that's not the reason I'm interested in trying it out. Starting our family has taken a bit more of a backseat lately as we try and get things (read: our lives) back on track. And we're both ok with that. At least I think we are...I am! :) It will happen in it's own time and it's no longer something we are trying to rush into happening.

Meanwhile, I'd like to feel energized and full of life before kiddies zap me good! :)

Life Catch-ups!

2011-05-18T13:10:00.011-04:00

Wowee its been awhile! I tried to blog last Thursday/Friday but blogger was down and the weekend was insanely busy and carried right into this week. Some bullets of life since I last posted:

My older brother got married a week and a half ago and the whole family was in attendance!

The wedding was on a Sunday on the Eastern shore and was still going strong at 11PM, add on the 2 hour ride home and it made for a rough start to the next week which was Close week (Financial closing of the books for you non-accountants) for both my husband and I.

My younger brother is continuing to improve, it is far from perfect but we are all imperfect beings. :) I can only praise God for the miracle he has done and thank you all again for your prayers!

It has been a relief to finally be able to start sleeping again at night and not be quite so weighed down in stress, anxiety and adrenaline. Thankfully just in time as the rest of life has picked up the pace and I had fallen woefully behind in just about every other area of my life (I am still catching up).

The last week and a half have been extremely busy for me in my new job. I've been working until 7:30-8:30pm every single night but it still doesn't seem half bad as the stress I felt at my previous job. I really am enjoying the new job and particularly like all my co-workers! Yay!

I've been working on a blog redesign with Marina of Penny Lane Designs and I love what she came up with! We are still tweaking the design a bit but check it out and let me know what you think!

Our Life Accounts also has it's own domain now: www.OurLifeAccounts.com. That's right, we're official! You may or may not have to update readers or blog lists...I'm not sure how that all works yet.

I'd like to have a give-away in celebration of the new blog redesign but just haven't had the time to work out details, be sure to stay tuned!

I owe you all an update on the purse situation and I'll save more detail for another post but I will say I've found several charmers!

Last weekend, the husband and I, along with a bunch of friends, volunteered with Feed My Starving Children and a local church and help to pack over 40,000 meals in a few hours! We were only part of one shift but between all the shifts they planned to hit more than 120,000 meals and had an 18 wheeler ready to fill with all the pallets. It was a truly amazing experience and an honor to work with such an incredible organization.

End of last month I visited a wholesale nursery with my mom and sister and bought tons of deeply discounted flowers and plants. Had I shopped at any of the nearby places (nurseries and home depots/lowes/target/walmart etc) we would have spent over $500 on all the pretties we were able to get and would not have been able to support a local business. We have decided this will be an annual girls trip,they had over 10 greenhouses PACKED to the gills and we were free to wander around and pick out whatever we pleased! I'm still working at planting and potting the last few items but I can't wait to show you how pretty they all are!

I have been in a serious shopping mood for the past couple of weeks. On my summer list? A denim jacket, couple pairs of brown sandals of various heel heights, denim bermudas, maxi dresses and skirts, jersey and silk slip dresses, casual linen and striped knit blazers, breezy drapey tops, light-weight scarves, cotton tunics and sparkley accessories. I plan to shop my closet first (still haven't finished dragging out all my summer clothes) and then hit the stores!

We booked the first of our vacations this year and will be heading out to sunny San Francisco for a 9 days! We'll be driving up the coast to Portland and flying back home from there. You can be sure I'll be begging for recommendations!

There's tons more and this blog post could continue for quite some time but I'll cap it here. This is why I need to blog more often rather than catching up ever two weeks!

Day 3

2011-05-06T13:03:00.004-04:00

God always answers prayer. Sometimes it follows the path we think we want it too and sometimes it's not quite what we envisioned but it's an answer nonetheless.

I still haven't figured out which category we fall into. I'm not sure if I'll know for a long time.

My brother is home. After hours and hours of discussion between my brother, my parents and psychologists at both the hospital and the STF he was transferred to, there was enough "assurance" to bring him home. As much assurance I guess you can have in these circumstances.

We are delighted to have him back home. He is my brother, a part of our family and there is huge gaping hole when he's gone.

That being said, I am having trouble making sense of it all. Praying that God will continue to lead us through this foreign territory. It's not the miracle cure that some may envision. We will most likely never know the depth of the situation and with that consideration it does seem quite miraculous that he is even home. A mere two days ago it looked like he wouldn't be home for the next year at a minimum.

He still has a great deal of anger that has multiplied at an alarming rate since being hospitalized. He still is a young teenager that has just barely started going through the awesomely wonderful adolescent barrage of hormones. And as of today, he is not taking any medication for the depression diagnosis.

It's tough to say whether the depression is being triggered by certain events or if certain events were triggered by the depression. It's a vicious cycle. One that I don't think he even knows the answers for.

He claims we are no longer his family, but I guess we will do until he's old enough to do his own thing or decide to forgive us.

My parents had quite the discussion about the cutting that had quite recently begun to take place and an agreement was reached that this would no longer occur. Apparently, "everyone does it" and "it's not a big deal". I'm not sure if I have ever felt so old than when I heard that. The fact that "everyone" consists of a great deal of sheltered christian kids blows me away. Regardless of how much truth there is to those statements, this generation seems light years away from my own and seems to age and carry a great deal more emotional baggage at a much younger age. Gone are the young and innocent care-free youth.

In the meantime, his room had to be searched for remaining sharp objects that he hadn't already handed over to the cops at their request the weekend before. Some of what was found a parent should never have to see, my only solace is the fact that task had to be completed while my parents were with him. I will surely bear the image of a particular military switchblade to my grave.

I will certainly continue to update the blog on the situation but I think that one day soon there will be other, more fun and frivolous posts occupying my mind. I would ask that you all continue to keep my brother and our family in your prayers. My older brother is getting married this Sunday (surprise, I don't know if I've mentioned that at all) and at this point my younger brother is refusing to attend and we are not sure if we need to get a babysitter or if one of my parents won't be able to attend. Looks like we need another miracle intervention...

Thank you all for your prayers, kind comments and emails! I am slowly getting back to everyone, but we are all quite sure that we wouldn't even be where we are today if it weren't for everyone's prayers! The kindness in the blog world continues to catch me by surprise. Thank you so much!

Day 1

2011-05-04T09:54:00.003-04:00

A lot has transpired since I posted yesterday. Due to the publicness of yesterday, I feel it's appropriate for me to divulge a bit more.

For two years now, my brother has been having a rough time. He hit the teen years early and seemed to be going through the typical adolescence angst. It was up and down and there were plenty of times where we had great hope that he seemed to be pulling through.

Unfortunately, for the last couple weeks it has been going down rapidly. We discovered that he had started cutting and over the weekend we were notified that he was planning on ending his life. He's just a kid, barely even a teenager.

My parent's hand was forced to pursue outside help after receiving the call over the weekend. They have been trying to get him to a therapist for many months now but he has refused to go and the concern has been that forcing him might severe the last remaining ties between all of us and him and push him over the edge. An outside crisis center got involved and they and the police showed up late Saturday night to talk with my brother.

He was furious at us but managed to charm the pants off them enough that they deemed him not an immediate threat and allowed him to stay at home.

He barely spoke a word to us the next two days, practically refused to eat and then Monday night he played the lead role (and had over 100 lines) in the end of the year school drama. He did fabulously during both performances and acted like the brother that we all remembered.

Not an hour after I posted yesterday, we received a call notifying us that he had again decided to end his life and we immediately contacted the crisis center for help.

When they showed up (several cops and a counselor), he was barefoot in his pajamas making a cup of hot chocolate (the first thing he'd had to eat/drink all day). They talked to him for a brief moment and then proceeded to handcuff him and load him in the back of the police car, when my parents weren't even in the room (they had stepped out to allow the counselor to talk to him). To say this all is a shock and we're devastated would be the biggest understatement I've ever made. Words can not even begin to convey the emotions we are all going through right now.

My heart just aches for the agony, fear and betrayal he is feeling right now. He started crying when they handcuffed him. Kicked my dad and told my parents they weren't his parents anymore. Several of the kids were home when they took him away (all of them were upstairs-but they could still hear him crying) and obviously they all took it quite hard. My parents couldn't even ride in the car with him.

At this point now, they have run a whole bunch of tests and diagnosed him as severely depressed. He is being held in the ER until a bed opens up for him at a nearby short term facility.

He is refusing to allow us into the room but a guardian has to stay with him at all times so they are rotating who sits in the chair outside his room until he gets transferred.

Please pray that the right bed will open up and connect him with the counselors that can help him work through this. Also, that he'll even agree to take the medicine and that they will continue to be able to diagnose what is going wrong. Lastly, that money will fall from the sky because treatment is going to cost well over 100k and it is not covered by insurance.

An Urgent Request

2011-05-03T12:12:00.001-04:00

Well since my last post, our world reached that point where you don’t know which way is up and which way is down and it all seems like one big blur. There is so much I’ve wanted to write but a certain area of my life has loomed over all the rest and it feels wrong to post about gardening or the royal wedding or shopping or cooking when there is this thing. This big shadow, touching seemingly every area of our lives.

Last week was my first week at the new job. It was crazy busy, different hours, mentally exhausting…there just wasn’t time to blog, I was fried when I came home every night. A good fried, but fried nonetheless.

Friday, I was up early to watch the royal wedding (it was beautiful) and then spent the evening after work helping my sister prep for prom.

I intended to get caught up over the weekend but all hell seemed to break loose on Saturday and our world has yet to right itself. In order to protect our privacy, I can’t go into detail but the gist of it is, one of my close family members has been going through a tough time up and down for nearly two years now and Saturday it seemed to reach mock 1 crisis level after a number of rough weeks and required intervention.

I think nearly everyone in the family spent Saturday in tears. I believe my eyes were nearly swollen shut by the end of the night (which was really early morning Sunday). It was a weary and broken family that collapsed into bed Saturday night and at this point things have not gotten any better. In fact they seem to have settled at a new extreme. I don’t know if I’ve seen my parents (particularly my dad) feeling this vulnerable. We have been fighting this fight for so long now and there doesn’t seem to be a hopeful ending anywhere in sight.

We are exhausted. Broken. Overwhelmed. Emotionally drained, and at any second the tears threaten to come again.

Every day, from the time I drag my body from bed after far too little hours of sleep until way too late at night when I finally collapse into bed, my head just pounds and pounds.

We don’t know what to do and this feeling of helplessness has reached new levels. I feel so ill-equipped.

I know God’s got a plan in this. I know He’s in control. I plead every night that this person belongs to Him, especially when life is such a delicate balance. Right now we’re just praying for answers and what He wants us to do.

I would beg all of you to keep our family in your prayers as we go through this valley. Pray for this family member’s salvation, their life, their health and that God would be with all of us as we go through this and that He would be clear on what we are supposed to do.

Back to the Professional Grind

2011-04-20T13:25:00.006-04:00

Thank you all for your sweet congratulations! It was so nice to finally be able to write it down and get it all out!

This really is a big step for me. I tremendously enjoy being comfortable in my routine and I like job security (which is certainly enhanced when you know your job and can do it WELL). Don't we all? :)

Not only does the new job come with a much shorter commute but it will also be a promotion as well, new job responsibilities and more perks, really I'm still coming to terms that this is real! I keep expecting to wake up and find the whole thing a joke of some sort. :) I think I must severely underestimate God. Let this be a lesson for me.

The one very slight drawback to the new job is that I will be going back to business casual. My current job allows for basically anything as long as you are somewhat clothed. Pajamas, sweats, ragged teas, jeans...I've seen it all. Not to mention the fact that we have a a number of different cultures represented in the office which certainly brings in additional style versatility.

I have definitely enjoyed getting to wear jeans but have still always kept it classy. I draw the line way before the little matching track suits!

Ironically, I finished a closet clean-out just a few months back, convinced that I didn't need all the button-downs and quite so many dress pants. Whoops!

On the bright side, it necessitates a shopping trip in my near future. Hubs took me for a bit last weekend (the Ann Taylor group had 40% off their entire stores, anyone pick anything up?) and I think I am going to hold off getting anything else until I get in there and get a feel for the environment. But I have decided that I definitely need a new purse or two. :)

I have a ton of vacation days that work will be paying out to me. Most of that money we'll use towards normal sensible things (like student loans!) but Hubs has graciously agreed that I need to retire my current purse that is falling apart and bring one or two new beauties home with me.

I know I need something in black and I'd also like to get something in a nice light neutral like a nude, blush pink, stone or light gray. The black I've narrowed down to this stunner:

The lighter neutral I have yet to settle on anything, though there are several contenders...

Or maybe I should just hold out until we need a diaper bag??? ;)

Anyone have any suggestions for some fun light neutrals for the summer?

The Big Update

2011-04-18T19:43:00.004-04:00

Well I have kept you in suspense long enough. I actually had no intention of keeping quiet for so long but things have spiraled out of control since I last posted.

First an apology of sorts, I realized (after I got several inquiring emails) that my post may have led many of you to believe that I was pregnant. I am not. I'm sorry to have accidentally led you on or hyped it up, that was certainly not my intention! Believe me, when I'm pregnant, ya'll will know! :)

The announcement is in fact that I quit my job!

Turned in my two weeks notice last Monday and Friday will be my last day. There has been quite a bit of "intensity" in the atmosphere since then if you catch my drift and I have just barely been holding on to my sanity this past week-week and a half.

Needless to say, that has a lot to do with why I haven't posted.

I had a few reasons for giving notice, the biggest one being that I was offered a new job MUCH much closer to home. I haven't talked about it much on here but my current commute (it should only be half hourish in mileage) takes about an hour each way. My office is relocating in the Summer to a new location much further away, which would have brought my commute up to about 2 hours each way.

With gas going up to $5-6 a gallon and four hours spent driving in my car, I was having to seriously wonder how much money I'd actually be bringing home. Not to mention the fact that I'd have needed a new car. To say I was dreading it would be a HUGE understatement. It appears that God had other plans in the works!

The back story.
Out of the blue I received a call from my favorite recruiting firm about how they'd heard the office was moving and they knew how much that would suck for me and that they'd found me a better oppurtunity. At the time, I liked where I worked and wasn't exactly at the point of mentally preparing myself for another job change so I sort of hemmed and hawed but eventually agreed to at least allow them to submit my resume and interview.

I got a call back that very day requesting an interview the next morning before work. That apparently went well and they called me back in for 2nd/3rd interview a few days later. I showed up to interview and there was a test! First thing in the morning! It was like being in college all over again, hah!

It was sooooo early and I really felt like my brain wasn't working yet but I must not have bombed the test too badly or the interview because they liked me enough to send over a job offer within just a few hours.

Going into the interview both Hubs and I felt like I was going to stay where I was but were praying that God would make it abundantly clear what we were supposed to do. After walking out of that interview, I called up Hubs and told him that I knew I was going to end up there. I can't explain it. I really liked both the people I talked with but it also felt like a series of events had been put into play and I was going to be carried right along. We both felt God was very clear after the company made their offer. We prayed for a flashing arrow smacking us upside the head and that's what we felt like we got! :)

I am very excited to join this new company. It will be a mix of what I am experienced with now and lots of new opportunities for growth!

These's been ridiculous goings-ons since then...but I guess that jealousy always seems to rear its head at times like these. :/

So that's the big news! Fill me in on all the other stuff I've missed, I've felt incredibly out of touch these last few weeks with all this stuff going on behind the scenes.

A Quick Update

2011-04-11T14:10:00.005-04:00

I'm sorry to have lapsed so long in my blog updates. There have been some BIG changes going on over here in our household. Changes that have been quite time consuming and left zero time for blogging.

I'm hoping I can discuss in much more detail in the next few days....just gotta sit tight for a bit.

In the meantime, I highly highly encourage all of you, if you are not already reading, to check out Lyr's blog. This month, she and her husband are blogging openly about marital infidelity and how they have dealt with and are working to overcome this battle. When Lyr asked me to consider partnering with her on this series, my immediate response was YES!

Everyone needs to read what she has to say. Please go read it and share with your friends and family. This is important stuff.

Spring Shoes

2011-03-31T11:31:00.013-04:00

Hah, I just noticed that I wrote in yesterday's post that my brother would be heading to Korea in a year. It should have read for a year as he leaves in a month.

Today's post was going to be all about flowers! Spring! Warm Sunshine! Gardening! But this was my view outside my bathroom window this morning:

I am NOT happy! Now I know that some of you hardy mid-westerners still have piles of snow but I specifically live in MD to experience ALL FOUR SEASONS.

Memo to the weather, it's spring. There are rules disallowing snow during spring and YOU ARE BREAKING THEM. grrrrr.

{Moving on}

I've done just a bit of shopping for the spring and a few special events this month. Since the weather is too harsh to let me actually wear and enjoy them outside, I have had to amuse myself by trying them all on inside (excuse the grainy-ness of the photos, I used my cellphone).

I picked up these new Kate Spade rain boots for a steal at about 25% of their original purchase price. I've been wanting these (long sold out) boots for about 2 years now. Thanks to ebay I've managed to score quite a few sweet deals on shoes lately.

Mmmmm I love the Kelly Green color and the bumble bee. Adorable preppy goodness.

Next up a simple canvas pair of canvas Toms (for those days when the glitter toms are just a bit much-yes there really are such days) to kick around in this summer, I am undecided between the navy and the black...maybe I'll keep both. These are the black.

Soooo comfortable, they will be perfect for kicking around on the weekends and activities involving lots of walking!

I also picked up these fantastic Toms wedges. Girls, I can't emphasize how cute and comfortable these are! They are the quintessential spring and summer shoe, if you buy one pair of shoes this summer, buy these! You won't regret it.

They are also available in red and white stripes, solid red and a few other colors.

Next up are the shoes for special events, though they are all such sexy shoes that I'm sure I'll be looking for excuses to wear them a lot.

Kate Spade Chase, I loved the gray flannel and sparkly bow. Reminds me a bit of the Tory Burch Revas I posted about awhile back. Another steal of a deal on ebay.

Second, I got this pair of gorgeous black glitter shoes that apparently photographed terribly. I think these will be the perfect all around evening shoe. A nice classy peep toe and lots of sparkles=perfection!

I really wish I could have gotten a better picture of these because they are so pretty! And on sale!

The last pair I just had to have after seeing this image:

While my photo isn't edited to perfection nor was it taken by a professional, they are in fact the same shoe and simply gorgeous!

It's a shame they weren't actually made in a blush pink glitter similar to how the photo was edited because I totally would have snatched those up if they did. But these are a lovely shimmery silver-gold that I have a feeling will end up being quite versatile.

What do you think? Which ones are your favorites?

Tis the Season

2011-03-30T11:45:00.004-04:00

I've been wanting to post some recipes for quite a few days now but I can't seem to get my act together and have both pictures and the recipe on hand at the same time!

I've been a bit preoccupied with family stuff which pretty much sums up my blogging lapse. My brother just received his orders and will be heading to Korea for a year. The news was quite a surprise and wedding plans have all been thrown up into the air and come down crazy.

On top of that his fiance has decided within the span of a few days to quit her job and move over there with him. The military will not be paying to support a spouse so they will have to pay to store all their things and foot the bill to get her stuff over there. So many things to say about whats been going on but so hard to find the words to say.

I am extremely excited (sarcasm font) about moving all that stuff for the fourth time in less than a years time. That girl's got more stuff than Hubs and I combined AFTER we got married and got showered in gifts. It wouldn't bother me one bit if this wasn't the FOURTH TIME we moved it all in the last several months. There should be a rule that limits the amount of stuff frequent movers are allowed to have.

Though tis the season for moving. We just finished moving one set of friends last weekend and will be moving another set in another few weeks. I think people ask us because Hubs has the muscles and I have a weird gift for packing moving trucks. On Saturday they were talking 2-3 trips minimum and I made them unpack/repack the whole truck and we got it all in one load because we were NOT going to waste the whole day making unnecessary multiple trips.

In other non-moving related news. We're also considering the possibility of flying out to San Francisco for a week or so and road tripping up to Seattle this summer. If we go through with it, you can expect a lot of solicitation for advice!

How has everyone's week been so far?