What a Year!

As of last Thursday, I wrapped up my fifth year of teaching...and what a year it was!  If you've been hanging around here long enough (despite the fact that it's sounded like a big cave with crickets chirping for the past couple of months) you may recall that last year I had a very challenging year teaching an intermediate split (4th and 5th graders).  This year, I had the blessing of teaching one straight grade (4th) and I had the advanced students for Math and Reading.  Needless to say, this year my job was much more enjoyable than last year, simply because I had the same grade level all day long.  Along with teaching, Stephen and I made sure we kept our candles burning on both ends and we had quite a busy year...

Our weekly schedule during the school year looked like this:
*Monday nights my sisters and I enjoy dinner at my parents house - spouses are welcome but not always available to join.

*Tuesday nights Stephen and I both attended Bible Study Fellowship (BSF) - he was in the Men's class and I was in the Women's night class.  Tuesday is also the day for faculty and committee meetings at my school so I would stay at school until BSF (6:45) and then come home after BSF.  We suffered through enjoyed 9pm dinners on Tuesday night.

*Wednesday nights were devoted to driving down to the University of Louisville's campus to help lead Young Life's College Fellowship group.  We hung out with college students, led Bible studies and helped try and train new leaders to volunteer in high schools around the city.  Wednesdays were also the day when I would have Quick Recall Practice (that's right: be jealous - I am the Quick Recall Coach at my school) after school.  We met every Wednesday from 4-5:30 so I would stick around school and drive to UofL after practice.  Stephen and I wouldn't return home until 10pm on Wednesday nights.

*Thursday nights were the "catch all" nights.  We didn't have a standing event and we welcomed what normally was an uneventful evening during our week.

*Friday nights we attended the weekly leadership meetings for Young Life.  Both Stephen and I would come straight from work to leadership - the good news is that dinner was served at Leadership so we'd actually get to eat at a normal time!

*Saturday is the day where we would sleep...and then run around the house like a chicken with it's head cut off to do all the things that got put off during the week.

*Sundays are always church days and then we enjoy lunch at Stephen's mom and dad's house with whatever family members can come that day.  Then, the dreaded grading and school work would begin, as I'd put it off all weekend long.

On top of all those things, here are some other fun things that happened throughout the year:

In September I ventured to Ohio to the outlets with my besties and enjoyed Chipotle for the first time in over a year (Louisville hadn't gotten one yet - dumb).  I am not at all embarrassed by my love for Chipotle and their amazing guac.

In September my good friend, Jenna got married so off to Lexington we went.  Here I am with some of my closest, oldest friends. 

In October, we visited Brown County for the weekend with Stephen's family.

In October, one of my best friends, Laura got married.  Here I am getting down and dirty on the dance floor with the groom.

 

In November Stephen and I headed back north to Chicago to celebrate the wedding of our sweet friends Zack and Marcia.  We were also blessed to be able to spend time with other friends.  Here we are with Debbie and Stephen - they're tying the knot this July!!!

In December I turned the dirty-thirty and got to celebrate with 3 of my best friends (Stephen, Donielle and Katie) as well as with a small group of super close friends.  What a blessing it was to be with them!

In January my best friend, Donielle joined me in the dirty-thirties.  Another trip to Lexington was in order!

In March, my Quick Recall team took home 1st place at the annual Mayor's Cup competition.  This was my 4th year coaching a Quick Recall team and it was my first win.  I couldn't have been more proud of them.  On top of taking home first place, the other students in the competition voted them for the Best Sportsmanship award!  My school went home that day with 4 trophies: Quick Recall 1st place, Future Problemsolvers 2nd place, Best Sportsmanship and then Overall 1st place.  What a great way to spend a Saturday!

In April I headed down south with good friends (Jenna, Katie and Julie) to spend Spring Break in Panama City Beach, FL.  The beach picture was taken at beautiful Seaside, which Katie and Julie introduced us to.  

In May I completed my 3rd year of BSF.  I'm looking forward to studying the book on Matthew in the Fall!

Throughout all of this, Stephen has been taking classes at night, after work to become a CFP (Certified Financial Planner).  He's currently in his last {review} class that is every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 5:30-8:30pm.  Needless to say, we're both ready for him to be DONE and are praying that he passes his test when the time comes for him to take it.  

After reading this, maybe you understand why my blog has been so neglected this school year.  Now that it's summer, I'm hoping that I can catch up on ALL the things I've been putting on the back burner all year long.  I have lots of small projects I've worked on (or started and never completed...) that I'm hoping to share with you and I'm hoping to keep up with this blog as a form of accountability to not fall into the temptation to be a slug all summer long.  Expect to see {almost} daily posts up around these parts as I try to have one of the most productive summers possible...lost of furniture restoring, painting, creating, reading, studying, and preparation for another upcoming school year will be going on around here.  I hope you'll stick around and join me for it!

I Live In A Zoo...

...and not the kind of zoo I'd like to live in (although I'm unsure of what kind of zoo that would be!)!
On Friday, after school, Princeton was outside after I had gotten home from work. All of a sudden I started hearing him go nuts. He was barking his head off, a loud and quickly repeating bark. I know you're thinking, "yeah, he's a dog, big whoop." But Princeton's not a barker - it takes a lot to get him to bark, and at this time I started to wonder what in the world was going on. I got up to check things out and as I looked out the back door, I saw Princeton barking furiously AT the back door. What in the world?! I knew then that my dog had officially lost his mind. That's until I opened the door to go out and see what in good gravy was going on. I was still thinking Princeton had lost it until I saw the most horrid thing out of the corner of my eye...
A big ole snake. Uggggggghhhhh! I immediately started freaking out, P-ton style. I called Stephen and insisted he come home as soon as his car could get him there! I then proceeded to watch the snake and follow it until Stephen got there. There's something you should know about me: I live in the camp of snakes came straight from hell. In fact, I'm fairly certain my Bible tells me that.
Stephen came home and got straight to work hunting down my arch nemesis. He spent an hour pretending he was Indiana Jones before he accomplished the inevitable. He then proceeded to bring the dead snake (he did have the decency to bag it up) into the house to prove to me it was indeed dead...SICK! Who does that?!?!
So with all that being said, I've turned into a skiddish freak in my own backyard...here's to hoping I've seen all the snakes I'll ever see in this lifetime!

Randomness In Numbers

It's been waaaaay too long since I came on here and promised you I'd be back...I wasn't lying - although I was very slow at my return.  Apologies.  I know your life has been on hold while you've been checking my blog feverishly on a daily basis (I kid, I kid!).  There's so much swarming around in my head - so many thoughts, projects, feelings, ideas, stories...today just seemed like an appropriate "random" day.  What better way to share with you what's been going on, than through a random post - with numbers?  Here we go!

5 - the number of school days left with students....I am so ready for this summer break.

1 - the number of new students that I got today....5 days left into the year.....that don't speak a word of English.

3 - the number of custom baby bedding orders I'm currently working on - are you pregnant, or know someone who is???  Change that number!

2 - the number of dead birds my dog has brought me over the span of 2 days.  He was incredibly excited and thrilled by his offering.  Too bad my anger and disgust really threw him off.

6 - the hour of the morning that Stephen and I awoke on Saturday to find ourselves still in our Friday clothes, on the couch, with the dog, and the t.v. on...ay yi yi!

4,567,921 - the number of projects I have on my mental list of things to do this summer.  Will they all even be possible???

2 - the number of students who called me a "snitch" on Friday - to my face.  Please refer to my first random number.

4 - the number of nieces and nephews I have that I've been able to see on a weekly basis now that Stephen and I live in Louisville.  There's nothing like seeing your baby nephew so often that he smiles when you come into the room!

582 - the number of recipes I have pinned on my Recipe Pinterest board...someone better get cooking!

4 - the number of recipes I have actually tried from my Recipe Pinterest board - at least I was pleased with every one of them!

1 - the number of baby pools Stephen and I have purchased in our lifetime.  This baby pool was not for our baby (considering we do not have one), but instead for our dog - in a last ditch effort to keep him out of our pool in the backyard.

20 - the day in June that I have to take time out of my summer break to drive to Bowling Green for a Conference for school.  PTL for family in Bowling Green - let's get some good family time out of the random work day during the break!

3 - the number of times that Stephen has converted into a 5 year old little boy while he's explaining to me what Bear Country is in South Dakota and how much he can't wait to visit (a trip we have planned this summer)!

4 - the week of Couch to 5K I'm getting ready to start this week...here's to hoping I'm more consistent with my runs this week than last.

6 - the number of pictures I have to share with you to make this post even more random, but less boring :)

Princeton - or P-ton, as we like to call him, enjoying his new pool!
Here's to hoping this keeps him out of ours!

Cakes I made for a friend's baby's first birthday.  That
homemade fondant is just so good!

P-ton sleeping on the couch...he's hard not to snuggle,
which then leads to waking up next to him at 6 am.

The lilies we have growing in our pond in the backyard -  they are gorgeous!  This was
not our doing, we're just reaping the benefits of the previous owner's plantings.

Exhibit A of why living in Louisville is nice. Randomly celebrating a
handsome man's pre-school graduation is always a good time!

Exhibit B.  This little guy is just too much fun!

I'm still here...promise!

Ah!  It's been over a month!!!  What's wrong with me?!?!  I'm going to whip my butt into shape - I promise!  I'm coming off Spring Break - depressed that I have to set my alarm for tomorrow.  Depressed that I have a bag full of school work that I didn't touch, which equates to a crazy week ahead of me. I got a lot of stuff accomplished over the break (non school related) and was even able to do stuff for fun and relaxation purposes!  Woo-Hoo! I'm going to come back later on this week and fill you in - for those of you who still come around, despite the fact that you've been hearing crickets in these parts.
Six. That's the number of weeks I have left in school.  Forty-Two. That's how many days there are until I start to feel somewhat normal again.  It's been a rough year - one that goes down in the books for symbolizing the old saying: "if it doesn't kill you, it'll only make you stronger"...my mom is reading this and smiling - that's a saying that frequents her lips.  Whelp friends, I'm not dead, so I must be stronger.
I'll share more thoughts, projects, ideas, inspirations, recipes, the whole-nine, soon...cross my heart and hope to die, stick a needle in my eye.  Ouch!  That'd hurt - see, I'm coming back so you don't have to do it!
Peace out.

Where I spend most (let's be real: all) my time...

I figured that I live spend so much time in my classroom that it only seemed appropriate to show you what it looks like.  I have a thing for primary colors...I really like them.  In my very first apartment, I had different primary colored pillows for our couches and we decorated in primary colors.  It only seems appropriate for me to incorporate that color scheme in my elementary classroom!

This is a picture of me standing in back of my desk looking out onto the room...it's definitely lacking in size...we're getting to know each other reeeeaaallly well in the cozy space!

This is a view from me standing in front of the door looking into the room. 

This is a view of the white board.  To the right is our calendar, jobs and mailboxes and to the left is the "Who Is Mrs. Corsi?" board (which will later be turned into the "Star Student of the Week" board).

To the right of the white board

To the left of the white board

Here is our sink area...this is where their lunches hang out (if they brought them from home) until lunch, where they switch out their dull/broken pencil for a sharpened one, and of course, where they wash their hands :)

Here's our "book nook" and the site of all of our morning meetings and number talk discussions...that rug sure does look big but my big 4th and 5th graders definitely don't all fit on it!

Here are our student computers as well as our Mastery Club board...if you're a teacher and you haven't checked out Mrs. Renz's website, you definitely need to give it a look!

And lastly, here is a view of our SMARTboard (I have a chart taped to it for this particular discussion) with our lone window to the right (my desk sits right in front of it).

It's so funny how the room looks so peaceful when it's empty.  It's definitely anything but peaceful during the day, although I feel as though I'm starting to figure out day by day a teeny-tiny bit more on how to survive in a split classroom.  For the longest time I couldn't get them to stop talking.  Like, seriously?  Why won't you stop talking???  I figured out something today that surprisingly worked really well: I started talking very quietly so they had to turn off their voices in order to hear mine.  I was pretty impressed with such a simple solution...I know I sound like such a debbie-downer when I say this, but I only give this solution a short amount of time before they decide they really don't care to hear what I'm saying!  If you're a teacher, do you have a great website resource that you recommend I check out for some great classroom ideas?

In other news...

Stephen and I close on our house tomorrow!  AHHHHH!!!!  We had our walk-through tonight and I snapped a ton of photos.  These will be great for me to look back on after we've worked in the house and made it more of our home.  I'll definitely share the pics here on my bloggity-blog as soon as I get a moment...expect them before next week is over :)

Checking in

Ahhhhhhhh!  What a relief it is to be back here in blogland!  I have missed the relaxation and creativity that blogland has to offer.  It has been quite some time since I've been here and I've missed it greatly!  I know that I let you all know that on Monday, August 1st I accepted a position as a 4th grade teacher here in Louisville.  At the end of my first week, I took on a new challenge that has just about eaten me alive: I no longer teach 4th grade, I now teach a 4/5 split.  Let me tell you, I'm currently living in my classroom and doing nothing but eating dinner and falling asleep on the couch when I come home.  I'm looking forward to {hopefully} getting my mind wrapped around what I need to do and how to do it so that I have more time to do the things that I really want to do (for all you teachers out there laughing while I type that, I realize that this is a seemingly impossible task...).  I have lots of projects just waiting to burst out of me and it's killing me that I can't do any of them at the moment...

Here's a list of the things that I can't wait to do (in fact I have just about everything I need to do them, except for the time):

-Finish up Charles the Chair and start on his twin brother (destination: living room)

-Refinish a chair that I got with Charles and his brother (destination: guest bedroom)

-Refinish my parents dining room suite that they are graciously giving us (destination: duh! dining room :))

-Make baby bedding; my sweet friend Traci is pregnant with twinsies (YAY!) and I have the honor of making her little boy and little girl bedding!  My sister-in-law, Cali is pregnant with a little girl and I have just about all I need to start working on her bedding.

-Make baby items: with babies coming, lots of baby products are in order!

...and it's official!  Stephen and I officially will be closing on our house this upcoming Friday!  WOOOO!!!  It's been a long time coming, especially since we made our first offer on the house on Thursday, June 9.  We've been camped out at my parents house and we can't wait to finally be able to officially unpack and know where all our stuff is!  Needless to say, this is a BIG project that I'm excited to be able to tackle!  

That's all for now - I won't be waiting so long to come back and share my projects and life here so be sure you come back and check often :)!

Wait for it...

Hello dear blog!  I did NOT forget about you!  How could I?!?  I have essentially lost my mind and have been looking for it.  That explains why I wasn't able to attend to you.  How could I attend to you mindless?  But that's beside the point.  The point is that I have such exciting news to share with you, along with some closing feelings about my recent move.  Unfortunately, I'm still a little batty (and probably will be for awhile) but I am making it my personal goal to come back on here later in the day and purge all my thoughts, feelings and news.

Hopefully you can find the strength you need to make it through the day despite all the eager anxiety you feel to hear about my news.  I know that my life makes your life complete (do you sense the heavily laid sarcasm here.  If you don't, shame on you.  It's dripping, and oozing off every word)!

See you back here later on in the day...maybe then I'll feel like I have more wits about me :)

Happy Tuesday!!!! <---you see that?  I genuinely thought it was Tuesday.  And then I had to stop and think about it.  I thought for a few seconds - a few long seconds.  It's not Tuesday, it's Wednesday.
That should explain why I'm not writing my post at this very second.

Top of the morning to 'ya!

I really hope this isn't real...

Have you seen this???

This can't be real.  This poor girl has so many issues if she's crying over thinking about rainbows and cats.  I hope it's not real....what do you think???

Spring?

So last week before Stephen and I split town to go to Pittsburgh the weather here in Chicago was anything but nice.  In fact, on Thursday I had to bust out my winter coat because it got down into the 30s.  Yep.  You just read that correctly.  Stephen had checked the weather for Pittsburgh during that week and told me that it was warmer there - in the 70s.  Cool, exactly what I wanted.  So, while I was packing I was thinking 70s.  I'm the fool that didn't check the weather right before we left to make sure that it was still what I had originally thought.
Fast forward.
We arrive in Pittsburgh.  It wasn't in the 70s.  In fact, it was in the 80s, humid and reached 91 on Monday when we left.  I was sweltering in my jeans.  Stephen, trying to help, suggested that I wear the dress I wore to the wedding in the car for our ride home.  "You'll be more comfortable..." hmmmm...I don't know about that.
Our whole drive back to Chicago, I didn't know what to expect when we arrived.  Would it be cold?  Doubtful, considering it had felt as though we were hanging out in a giant's mouth the whole weekend.  My curiosity was satisfied when we arrived back on Monday night and it was hot.  Stuffy.  Ugh.  Stephen and I don't have a/c - we have window units that are a pain in my tush to put in.  Needless to say, with 30 degree temps, those units hadn't been installed yet.  So we opened windows and took it like a man (who really says that?).  Tuesday was hot also.  Like, walk outside and never receive an ounce of coolness - just H.O.T.
Yesterday was beautiful.  I was LOVING every minute of yesterday's weather.  It was in the high 70s, close to 80s and just sunny and breezy.  Yes, please!  This morning I woke up feeling the chill in the air...checked the temperature and it was 55.  I am so confused.  My body doesn't know whether or not to sweat or goose bump up.  It's really gonna be thrown off its kilter when the temperatures hit the 90 degree neighborhood like they're calling for.  I'm not quite sure what season it is - is it fall?  is it winter? is it summer?  Nope.  It's spring - unpredictable and crazy spring.  With that I'll leave you with some spring-ish pictures I took a couple of weeks ago in the city...it'll make me feel as though it's a steady spring out there (does one of those even exist???).

Some tulips doing their tulip thang outside of Stephen's office

Every year, sometime in April, the Macys on State Street (otherwise known as the old Marshall Fields) has a flower show inside the store.  There are hundreds of gorgeous flowers all over the place!

How's spring springin' in your neck of the woods???

Oh. Em. Gee.

I've been having trouble with my computer charging lately.  I couldn't figure it out, except that I knew it was my charger (I have the exact same MacBook for work and also my own personal one and they were both having the same troubles), but I was thinking it was maybe the outlet it was plugged into.  If any of you out there have a Mac laptop, you know that when you have your charger plugged in, your computer screen gets a bit brighter; when you unplug it, your screen dims a bit.  On Thursday morning, I was getting so frustrated because while my computer was plugged into the charger, my screen was having it's own light show - flash brighter, go dimmer, flash brighter, go dimmer...you get the drift.  Son of a gun!  I tried everything.  Powered my computer down; powered it back up.  Unplugged the charger from the computer; plugged it back it.  Nothing was working.  That's when I was convinced it was the outlet that my charger was plugged into.  I swiftly unplugged it, thinking of another outlet I could try it out in when my attention was caught by this:

Do you see it?  Let me zoom in a bit closer....

Yup.

The inside of my cord had burned right through to the outside...ay yi yi!  I'm so fortunate that whenever this happened, that nothing caught on fire!  I know from the picture it just looks like it was split open, but there are dark burn marks there, my friend, dark burn marks.  YIKES!  Thankfully, like I said earlier, I have the same computer for work and I have a charger for that computer so I'll be able to use that charger for both my work and personal computers.  Thank goodness!  Has this happened to any of you guys???

In other news... last year I gave up Diet Coke for Lent.  Before I gave it up, I was drinking waaaay too much of this stuff.  When I gave it up, I got used to drinking a lot of water and would sometimes supplement with powerade or other drinks with a little flavor.  When Lent ended, I decided that it was much easier to keep myself from drinking Diet Coke than it was for me to try and limit my intake.  It's been over a year, and I haven't touched DC since.  Sometimes I'll let myself enjoy a good Diet Sierra Mist or Sprite and while those are good, I don't love them as much as I loved DC so I don't drink them that often.

One day a couple of weeks ago, Stephen and I were perusing Wal-Mart (sorry, Melissa) when we saw this interesting, no calorie sparkling lemonade.  We grabbed a few 2 liters and as soon as we cracked into one, we knew we were in love!

They have a couple of flavors (Cherry Limeade, Strawberry Lemonade, Peach Lemonade, Lemonade and Pink Lemonade)

Has anyone else tried these bad boys out?  They're only available at Wal-Mart, because I believe they're made by them.  Both Stephen and my small groups love this stuff, and we agree - it's good!  Our personal favorite is the Strawberry Lemonade, with the Peach Lemonade coming in as 2nd best.  If you haven't tried this stuff, we definitely recommend it!

Okay, enough random rambling for the day!  I hope you guys have a fabulous weekend!  I'm working on a project that I can't wait to share with you sometime next week!

The Oil Change

Stephen and I spent the weekend in Kentucky with our friends and family.  We had a wonderful time seeing our family and then I really enjoyed seeing all my dear friends on Saturday for my friends Lauren and Brad's wedding.

Here's a picture of the lovely bride and groom (borrowed from my friend Carly's FB)

Me and my besties enjoying acting utterly ridiculous dancing at the reception - Katie on the left and Doni in the middle

My other bestie, Laura is on the left - Stephen's the lucky man standing in back of me ;)

So anyways, we knew we were going to good 'ol Kentucky and we also knew we needed an oil change.  Despite the fact that I absolutely hate doing anything car related, I told Stephen that I would go on Thursday after my Bible Study (BSF - holla'!) and get the oil changed in the car.  I went into Jiffy Lube ready and rearing to go with my Martha Stewart Living and my Rachel Ray's Everyday to keep me occupied.  You know the routine - they take your car, ask you what you want and then work on your car.  When your car is finished, you go to the counter and pay.  I was so surprised and relieved when my visit took less time than I had originally planned.  The cashier and I had a good, somewhat forced chuckle at the fact that she called me Stephen (because that's the name on file with the license plate) and then I got to work digging out my wallet to make the payment.  After I had dug my way around and through my purse, I immediately started to panic when I realized that my wallet was NOT IN THERE.  My face started to catch fire, I could feel the heat in each cheek running rampant.  All of a sudden I started to feel all sweaty and just enflamed as I realized that I had no way to pay for the service that was performed on my car.  

That's me at that moment.

I told the nice lady the situation and she suggested I go check the car to see if my wallet was there.  I go out to my car and dig around, knowing the whole time that my wallet was not there.  I have 2 thoughts plaguing my mind at this point: 1) how in good gravy am I going to pay for this?! and 2) where the hot tamale is my wallet???  I whipped out my cell phone and immediately dialed Stephen.  No answer.  Called again.  No answer.  My frustration immediately was transitioned to him - doesn't he know he should be at my beck and call at every waking moment?! (please not the heavily laid sarcasm).  After I had no luck with Stephen, I began to think about who I could call that could help me.  I wasn't that far from our apartment (far enough to be out of walking distance and a public commute could take at least an hour), and I knew my friend Jenn lived down the street from us.  Her work is really flexible and I knew she would come and help me...only she didn't answer her phone.  Lucky for Jenn she isn't my husband, so she only received one call from me.  The next friend that came to mind was someone that I really didn't want to call.  Don't get me wrong, Amanda would drive out to anywhere to help me - she's an amazing friend - but her and her husband live about a half hour from our apartment (Chicago traffic will make you wish you lived elsewhere) and I hated to ask her to drive out to help me (and selfishly, I knew that would take longer).  But, I swallowed my pride and dialed her up.  Here's how the conversation went:

Amanda: "Hi friend!  How are you?"

Me: "Well, I've been better {insert story here}.  I hate to ask you this, and please feel free to tell me 'No' if you cannot, but what are the odds that you could come out to this Jiffy Lube and pay for my oil change?????"

Amanda: "Well....where are you?  I'm at a thrift store on Clybourne right now..."

Me: "I'm at Fullerton and Clybourne....are you at the Salvation Army?"

Amanda: "Yes..."

I'll stop there - Chicago's a big city.  Amanda doesn't live near the Salvation Army, nor does she frequent that one and it just so happened that the day I was stuck at Fullerton and Clybourne because I had stupidly lost my wallet, Amanda was only a 5 MINUTE walk from my location.  FIVE MINUTES?!  She was right down the street.  Hello God, thanks for loving me and showing me that you're there to take care of me!

As Amanda was telling me her location, a light came streaming down from Heaven and a Heavenly host of angels began to sing in sweet harmony...not really, but it felt that way!  

Thank God for being God and for giving me wonderful friends!

p.s. my wallet was in the pocket of my jacket from when I had walked to Trader Joes (holy toledo I love Trader Joes!) earlier that week.  I left it in there thinking, "I'll remember it's there..." famous. last. words.

A little late getting to the "new" year...

I’m super behind with sharing my resolutions for this year, sorry!  It took me forever to make myself sit down and type them out and as a result, I’m not actually starting them until more like the end of January instead of the beginning of the year.  My bad.  After I reflected on my past year and looked at the New Year ahead of me, I felt so proud of myself for getting that far.  Unfortunately, the most important step – the implementation of these resolutions have been put off.  I’m finally biting the bullet, sitting down and making these resolutions much more official by posting them on my blog for the world to see.  Here ‘ya go world!

First let’s start by reviewing my resolutions for 2010…we’re going to start backwards and work our way up…

8. Visit at least 3 different states besides Illinois and Kentucky. 

-I succeeded with this resolution by visiting Tennessee, New York, Virginia, Alaska, Washington, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania – shoo!

7. Fix my sewing machine/get a new one.

-I succeeded with this resolution when my wonderful husband supported my purchase of my *new Brother sewing machine.

6. Learn to sew.

-Check.  I took a sewing class at JoAnns and since then, I’ve been a sewing fanatic.  I can’t seem to get it off my mind and I’m constantly looking for and coming up with new projects that I can try my hand at.

5.  Maintain a 3.0 GPA in grad school.

-This resolution was kept, and at the time it seemed like a really ambitious resolution as I hadn’t started school yet and I didn’t know what to expect.  Getting good grades has simply meant that I stay on top of my work and give my best effort.

4. Complete at least 25 hours of grad school.

-In the year 2010 I got 27 hours of grad classes under my belt, soundly securing my 25 goal.

3. Train to run; 5 miles regularly (2-3 times a week)

-Big. Fat. Fail.  If you’ve perused my “Work-out Diaries” page you can see that I started the year out by really making an effort to become a runner.  I was going strong until about March-April and then I fell off the wagon and haven’t seemed to be able to get back on. Ouch.

2. Memorize Scripture on a weekly basis.

-This one hurts even more to admit that I also failed at this.  I don’t even think I made it to April in trying to keep this resolution; I just flat-out failed it from early on and then continued to live life without even thinking about it.  It’s incredibly embarrassing/humbling for me to even type that out.

1. Be in the Word daily.

-I would be lying if I told you that every single day, 365 days in 2010 I was in the Word reflecting on God’s truth.  Again, I fell incredibly short at living out this resolution.

What have I learned by going through these resolutions from 2010?  That I was really good at keeping the unimportant, of this world type of resolutions and I fell flat on my face when it came to keeping the resolutions that actually matter in my life.  As a result, my resolutions for 2011 look a bit different than they did for 2010.  I steered clear of making resolutions around things that would be considered fun for me to do (and that I’d probably do with or without a resolution) and I stuck with making resolutions that were much more relevant to my relationship with Christ and my relationship with my husband.  My small group decided to come up with a word to share with each other that summed up what we wanted to work on in this “new” year.  I came up with a word after looking through my resolutions and realizing that they all had a theme.

If you’ve actually read this far, I’m impressed and am blessed that you care so much J.  I’m also sorry to tell you that I’m going to hold off sharing my resolutions until tomorrow as I realize that this post developed a mind of its own somewhere along the way and it’s way out of control now!

To be continued…

Helping me get through winter...

I was hanging out over at Leigh Ashley's blog earlier today and she inspired me to share with you some of the things that I'm loving right now.  I was sitting here trying to think of what I use the most of and what I'm really enjoying at this moment and I couldn't help but keep the fact that it's wintertime here in the Windy City and tomorrow's high is 10 degrees - yes, 10 degrees!!!  So, keep that in the forefront of your mind when you're checking out a few of my favorite things!

{1} Tim Keller's book: The Reason for God in which he discusses and looks at in depth different ideas and doubts that people have surrounding religion.  It's a great book, although it might make your brain hurt a little bit (maybe I'm showing too much of my ignorance with that statement) :).

{2} White Citrus lotion from Bath and Bodyworks...mmmmmmmmmmmm!!!  I got this lotion unintentionally when I had a coupon that enabled me to get a free signature item of my choice.  If you know me, you might already know that I have somewhat of a lotion collection and I really don't need anymore.  However, I was in BBW purchasing some smell goods for our apartment and I couldn't let this coupon go to waste so I picked a lotion based on the fact that I love the way the room freshener smells like in this scent.  Let me tell you, I've almost used half the bottle already because I love the way it smells - so clean and so fresh!

{3} Can I get a "WOO-WOO" for some menthol action happening on my chapped lips?!  A big shout-out goes to my boys at Blistex for helping keep my lips healthy even though it's so dang cold outside!

{4} Did you forget that it's cold where I live?  How could I survive without the warmth of my North Face?  This is a staple - I wear it daily.  

What about you?  What are some things that you're loving right now???

Strange Addictions

Ummm...have you guys seen this show on TLC?  Stephen left on Tuesday for New York and so I've been home alone since then.  Whenever he's not here I tend to watch more television at night than I would normally, mostly for noise but also because there's no one here to hang out with or eat dinner with (do you feel sorry for me yet?).  I've seen previews for TLC's new show, "Strange Addictions" before but I had never actually seen an episode...not until tonight.  Tonight I watched an episode where a girl was addicted to wearing an animal costume (commonly known as Furry Fandom - apparently it's a real thing and if you google it you'll be able to read all about it) and a woman who is addicted to eating the cushions in her couch.  I was so perplexed by these addictions that I caught myself waiting to watch the following episode on the lady who is addicted to eating a "household cleanser" (looked like Comet to me) and the girl who is addicted to tanning (she goes to 3 different tanning salons a day for 20 minutes each for a grand total of 60 minutes 7 days a week).  I did see the preview for next week's episode on the man who calls his Real Doll (apparently this is a real thing also) his "partner"...I'm just curious as to where TLC finds such strange addictions (hence the name of the show)???

Obviously these people have real issues that have led them to their addictions such as abuse or family deaths, but still, it blows my mind that anyone would ever even think to eat the cushions of their couches or the bathtub cleaner.

After watching this show I was trying to think of some "addictions" that I had and while mine are nothing as intriguing as what TLC is looking for, they are random.  I wouldn't necessarily say that I'm "addicted" to this, but I do have an issue with my shoes and socks.  For some reason, once I've put my socks and shoes on for the day, I do not like taking them off and putting them back on, and I especially dislike walking around in my socked feet and then putting my shoes back on.  There's something about the stretched out fabric all bunching in my shoes that I can't stand.  I like putting on clean, new socks because they form to my feet perfectly without any bunches (WEIRD-O!) Because of this, I tend to keep my shoes on all the time, which is especially annoying in the wintertime when my shoes are constantly wet (making me have to take them off every time I come in the apartment).  When I was in college, I would take naps with my shoes on and my feet hanging off the bed.  I know this is no "I'm addicted to climbing in my fireplace" (I don't know, I was trying to think of something random that TLC might be looking for), but it is somewhat odd.  Now, I know I'm not the only person with some *strange* habit or dislike; what about you?  Anything weird that you can tell me about yourself to help keep me entertained until Stephen returns and I don't have to rely on TLC to see random addictions?

In other news, the low tomorrow is 1 degree.  You just read that right, I said 1 degree and I'm talking Fahrenheit, not celsius!  I'll let Dwight use his eloquent language to tell you what might happen due to the cold temperatures outside (even though in this clip he's referring to hiding in a snowman, but I couldn't resist)...

The cutest thing I've seen in a long time

My friend Shea sent this to me and it is darn cute!!!

Goodbye 2010, Hello 2011!

Sorry for my MIA-ness!  Things have been crazy fun around here, and don't worry, I'll fill you in with all the comings and goings.  But first, I'm going to look at 2010 in review....

January
I discovered my love for my Crock-Pot as well as enjoyed a wonderful first visit to my new apartment by my best friends, Donielle and Laura.

February
I gave up Diet Coke for what I thought would be for the season of Lent, which actually led to me giving it up for what seems like for good!  I realized I had an unhealthy curiosity for ABC's the Bachelor and I started featuring magnificent blogs on Magnificent Mondays.

March
Stephen and I ventured to D.C. to visit good friends during their crazy snowstorm as well as to Louisville to surprise Dad C. on his 60th birthday. I shared my favorite haircut of all time and we also booked our trip to Alaska.  March proved to be a big blogging month for me as I went from posting 7-9 posts a month to 24!

April
My desire to learn to sew increased which led me to purchase my new machine.  We went home for Easter and my sister, Melissa joined us on our return.  I was at my height of running (only to be led to me not running now months later).  Stephen and I contemplated getting a dog (which we ended up not doing just yet) and I learned a lot about candy from him :).

May
I almost wore a dress to a wedding that would've been the exact same dress as the bridesmaids - horrifying!!!  I ventured to D.C. again, this time with my old school and as a chaperone on the 5th grade class trip.  My car got towed and I realized it when I was supposed to be on my way to my sewing class to learn how to use my new machine :).  Stephen's sister and her husband came and visited us on Memorial Day weekend and I finished reading a great Francine Rivers book.

June
I started the summer off right by using our new ice cream maker to make peanut buttercup icecream.  I started my summer grad school classes which consisted of me sitting in class 4 nights a week from 4:30-8:30.

July
Stephen and I made an unexpected trip to Pittsburgh to visit his Nana who was in the hospital and not doing so well.  My pillow fetish began as I made my first fancy pillow.  My summer craftiness was kicked into high gear with the etching of glass, sewing of pillows, and the sewing of kitchen towels.  I finished up summer classes and my mama came to town to visit me!

August
With my mama in town I made my first set of burp cloths, baby blankets and even a reversible apron!  She's handy to have around!  Vacation time!  Stephen and I went on a week long cruise to Alaska with his sister and her husband as well as a week long vacation to our old Kentucky home!

September
We got to spend Labor Day weekend in Johnson City, TN with my wonderful Aunt, Uncle and cousins.  My old roomie and good friend, Traci came and visited for a fun filled weekend! I completed my first entire lamp renovation as well as my first table runner and place mats.

October
Stephen and I celebrated our first year of being married by going on a wonderful trip to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.  I also found out about receiving my research assistantship, and traveled to Rome, GA for my cousin's wedding (no pictures - sorry!) - what a full month!

November
I realized that my husband could, indeed sleep anywhere.  My obsession with pillows continued and my wonderful friends, Anne, Derek and Sarah spent a great weekend with us here in the city.

December
Our apartment received a wonderful Christmas facelift, Stephen's sister and her husband came and visited and we ventured to NYC, Pittsburgh, Columbus, Louisville, Lexington and Bowling Green, KY (no post on these trips yet...you just wait!).

What a full year!  I realized as I was doing this year in review that there are a lot of things I did that somehow didn't end up on my blog.  My resolution for my blog this year is to fill you guys in more on the ins and outs of everyday living here in the big city :)...I hope I don't bore you!

Thanks for letting me have this little corner of the universe to share my thoughts and creations - I am thankful for you and your friendship!

Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!

Oh the weather outside is frightful....

but the fire is so delightful!

And since we've no place to go....

Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!

I hope you're having a wonderful weekend!

My husband can sleep anywhere...

My husband has an amazing gift of being able to fall asleep at any time or in any place.  I've noticed this to be true when we're sitting on the couch, sitting at the kitchen table after dinner, even when he lays on our hardwood floors...

And then when I flashed this picture, it stirred the hibernating bear...

hopefully, one day, we'll have kids that sleep as soundly as he does.  Until then, I'll continue snapping pictures of his random naps.

(did you check out his candy corn t-shirt?...it has "zombie" candy corn on it attacking the "good" candy corn...don't ask 'cause I don't know!)

Happy Weekend!