last day!

Good morning, friends!

Today is my LAST DAY at my current job!

It’s hard to believe this day has come – it seems like just yesterday that I gave notice and made the big step to transition into a new position. The decision was both difficult and easy at the same time – difficult to leave at an admittedly tough time for the department, but easy in the sense that I know it is meant to be.

Last night was great – Tater got the superstar treatment with a re-e-e-eally long walk, nail clippings (ughh!) and a bath!

How cute is this photo? Tater looks so adoring of his dad. I bet my face was pretty similar to Tater’s at this point 🙂

Dinner actually was much better than I expected – baked parmesan encrusted tilapia, angel hair pasta and carrots. Nothing fancy, but definitely did the trick.

I attempted to watch Rumor Has It, but naturally, I fell asleep within seconds. Some nights are just not made for staying awake. Ever feel that way?

I have a very, very good feeling about this weekend – out and about tonight, P’s mom in town Saturday, then prepping for the new job Sunday and a DAY OFF Monday!

What fun things do you have planned this weekend?

xxoo

valentine’s day, our way

Good morning!

I hope all of you had a great Valentine’s Day! I spent the day in Des Moines wrapping up my accounts and assignments at work and then drove back to IC just in time to . . .

Cook a yummy surf n turf dinner with P!

Okay, seriously? How adorable is he? My goodness.

Tater decided he was jealous and needed to be part of the Instagram session 🙂

We made bacon-wrapped filets, baked lobster tail, roasted asparagus and orzo with butter and parmesan – holy yum! We also had a bit too much some champagne and cake.

I couldn’t have asked for a better evening or two more amazing boys to spend it with.

On another note, I’ve entered the home stretch of my current job! I can’t wait to start at my new position and really feel thrilled about all of the good things that are coming my way.

Have a great Wednesday, everyone!

xxoo

big news

Good morning!

I am so excited to share some big news in my life (not that I haven’t been alluding to it every five minutes) . . . buuuuuut:

I GOT A NEW JOB!

I am so excited about it and think it’ll really be a great fit for my skills. It’ll be a combination of internal marketing, external marketing, event planning, employee relations, etc. All things that I am relatively good at – I just can’t wait.

The opportunity fell into my lap a few weeks ago to work for this company – it is about 15 minutes from where I live. A few months back, the company I have worked for did some work for my new company and I ended up getting along great with the company’s CEO while we were working. It’s a long story, but eventually, I interviewed and was offered the job! I really believe this is where I’m meant to be and that the effort I put into doing good work for this company in the past really paid off.

Everything happens for a reason. Whether you believe it or not (and I am just coming around to believing it myself), it’s worth thinking about.

I am extremely excited to start this new chapter of my life and celebrated by buying myself this bracelet to commemorate the new beginning.

(source)

Totally justified, right? 😉

I think so!

Anyway, thanks for your patience with me as I make this transition – the posts might be fewer while I get adjusted, but I promise to stay active with this.

CHEERS to a new beginning!

xxoo

oh, warm weather.

Since I apparently am just going to FREEZE all day, I thought I’d compile a list of things I miss about warm weather, summertime, springtime, etc. Without further ado . . .

– Tailgating

– Cold glasses of white wine on our porch
– long walks with the sun in my face
– Jimmy Buffett and Bob Marley
– Driving with the windows down
– Being tan!
– Lawn games
– Barbecues
– Long, lazy days on boats

– Road trips
– Corona & lime
– Being barefoot
– Sunglasses

A girl can dream, right?

What do you miss most about the warm weather??

xxoo

don’t knock fate

Remember when I said I was starting to believe in fate?

Well, it’s official now. I definitely, definitely do.

I have some very exciting news to share, but it will have to wait just a teeeeeny bit longer until I have a few more things taken care of. BUT I will share, promise.

This weekend was, in a word, amazing. We headed out to dinner on Friday night to Micky’s, which is a hole-in-the-wall pub in IC. The food was meh, but it was a fun time nonetheless. Saturday was errands, a TOUGH workout with Mere, then out to dinner again. This time: Giavanni’s. I must be a tough critic, because I have to say that the best part of the meal was the bread. That doesn’t really say much for the main course, does it?

Anyway, all food things aside, Saturday was a great night and made for a bit of a slow Sunday, ifyouknowwhatimean. Lots of napping, play time with the monster and watching the Super Bowl. Relaxing, just the way I like my Sundays to be.

This week is going to be killer – lots to do, but with a great payoff in the end.

Details soon, pinky swear.

xxoo

whirlwind!

Good morning! So sorry for my absence the last few days! I feel like I have been going at a million miles per hour, but in a great way.

Last week, I went to Des Moines for work. From there, I met up with some friends and headed to CHICAGO! I had forgotten how much I truly love that city – I don’t think I could actually live there, but visiting is so. much. fun. every time!

We went to celebrate my friends’ bachelorette party, and wow did we have a blast! My friend is not your typical bachelorette in that she didn’t want a super crazy, ridiculous and trashy bachelorette party, so we did a bunch of other fun things instead. Don’t get me wrong, we still had a ton of typical things, just nothing blow-up, phallic-shaped or embarrassing. Juuuust the way I like it.

Here are a few shots from the weekend:

View from our hotel balcony at the Radisson Blu

Fun restaurant called Carnivale – great food, awful service.

myself, Tasha and Mere at Meli Cafe – fabulous!!

It was a wonderful weekend! I’m so thankful to have been invited and to spend time with some wonderful, fun, spectacular ladies.

This week is going to be another busy one – back to Des Moines tonight and hopefully some fun news to share!

Have a great day!

xxoo

this is your life

this, my friends, is all I have to say today. It really is true, and it’s important that I begin to follow the advice and listen to this call-to-action.

 

We only get one shot at living the life we want. I’m on a mission to make that happen.

Want to join me?

xxoo

do you believe in fate?

This is a question I’ve been asking myself over the last couple of days – do I really believe in fate? Do I believe that things happen for a reason and that the life I am living is a result of fate working its way into my daily circumstances?

I’m starting to. Believe in fate, that is.

There are a few things that have happened in the last week that have made me wonder if there are times when I should just take a step back and realize that these coincidences could be more than just happenstance. I apologize for being so vague – hopefully I’ll be able to share in more detail in the (near) future.

In the meantime, I’m feeling wedding-y today so here are a few inspirations/sneak peeks of what’s to come:

My Grandpa and my Mom on her wedding day. Isn’t she beautiful?

My bridesmaids/maid of honor request cards 🙂

It’s unbelievable how excited I am getting about wedding things. I can’t also believe it is EIGHT months away – considering our engagement has been over a year long, eight months seems very close!

Have a good day, everyone.

xxoo

two great things about today

#1 It is my childhood best friend, Sarah’s, birthday today! We’ve been friends since kindergarten so . . . about 20 years now?? It is so weird to say that, but I am very thankful for her in my life. She’s going to be my maid of honor in September, too!

High School Graduation, 2004

Mic’s birthday (I want to say 2006?)

Gum wall in Seattle, 2011

Just love her. That is all 🙂

Second important thing about today: it is NATIONAL PEANUT BUTTER DAY! It’s only natural that we should all celebrate with an overdose of the stuff, right?

Have a great Tuesday! It’s going to be a busy one . . .

xxoo

whew.

wow . . . what a day it has already been. It feels like I just barely started working, and there is still so much yet to do. I guess I just need to get my bearings and realize that this week is going to be full of a lot of hard, stressful situations and I just have to buck up and deal with them.

“You know my face makes you happy, mom!”

Thank goodness for that little dude to keep me company and force me to take breaks – otherwise, I’m pretty sure I would work through the day without stopping like some crazy machine person.

This weekend was great – I can’t remember what all we did other than watch football, but we did end up meeting a bunch of our friends out downtown for the tap takeover at Donnely’s and had a blast. We’ve managed to find a great group of people here and I am extremely thankful for that.

How adorable is he? Jeez.

Anyway, not too much to report today other than keeping my head above water and looking forward to the weekend – fun things planned!

xxoo