kindness

i would like to cyber-thank the very kind soul who shoveled my driveway, sidewalk and front porch - all of my front-yard concrete in its entirety! oh my goodness. i could KISS them. i have 3 VERY nice neighbors, so it's hard telling which one it could be; heck, it could be that all 3 of them did it....how cute would that be?

i'm grateful to the core of my heart.

(Un)Kudos of the Week!

The Snow on My Little Fire Pit

i'm going to start the post off by saying on word - WAW. i just made this word up. it is pronounced like "wow" and shares the same meaning, but can also double as an acronym standing for "What a Week".

not only is it a MAJOR crunch time at work while short-staffed, but anything that could have gone wrong this week surely seemed to. it was a graduation week at my school and this massive snow storm (like i've never seen one in my nearly 3 years of living here), left us all scrambling and feeling helpless. luckily everyone was kept safe, to my knowledge, but i caught another glimpse into the Unpreparedness of the South for Harsh Weather Conditions.

anyway, another week continues. i'll drive home for a whirlwind holiday trip which could actually be classified as a change of work scenery. i'll drive home, work work work, visit with people some, work work work, drive back. yes, i work on christmas - college application deadlines do not wait for my eating pumpkin rolls and celebrating my 31st birthday, for the love.

just trying to remain thankful and in the spirit of the season....but i can't say it's been easy lately.

the award

Ms. Quiet Oasis "nominated" me to write about my top 10 things that make me do a happy dance no matter where i am. hmmm...i don't have a "happy dance" per se, but i'll go ahead and give this top 10 a shot...

1). a perfect saturday morning breakfast with no agenda for the rest of the day

2). a solid road trip

3). christmas lights in my house

4). good news at work for my kids getting into college - helping them see that their future is SO bright!

5). a good, revealing, deep conversation with a good friend

6). spooning

7). pictures of my nephew (and holding him)

8). a nap

9). vacation to a new place, to home, to an often-visited place - you name it - vacation

10). MY PUG!!!

Kudos of the Week!

lately, i've been wearing a LOT of cardigans to work. plain colored ones with printed fabrics underneath or a patterned scarf. they have now become this winter's staple in my closet.

but, then the other day, i got to feeling like a librarian....

if you don't have anything nice to blog...

....don't blog anything at all.

just ONE of THOSE weeks.

work is sucking the life out of me.

and i just can't post without saying "Gap: STOP SENDING ME 25% of COUPONS IN THE MAIL!!!"

kudos of the week!

this is a pic taken with my new camera. it took me MONTHS to buy this thing. here is another one:
the time and date stamp seems like a great idea...but i don't like it.

anyway, i purchased the Canon PowerShot SX200 IS (found at amazon here). that means nothing to me. but i did a lot of research (read: a little bit of reading, a LOT of whining about researching and a lot of trusting my gut). i LOVE it thus far. it seems like it will surpass all of my needs AND PC World just listed it as #8 in their top whatever must-have electronics and called it "the budding photographer's best friend".

So....the name of my new camera: The Budding Photographer's Best Friend. You'd be stunned at how many times i've referred to it by it's FULL name.

let's hear it for

the trapper keeper.

raise your hand if you had one. or, i guess i should say, raise your hand if you are old enough to have had one.

it seems as though, in addition to being phonetically pleasing (it DOES roll off the tongue), a trapper divides us into 2 groups: those who used them to their full organizational extent and those who just used them to store a bunch of disorganized crap. in my lunchtime conversations today, it seems as though we all knew one Johnny Turdhead boy who had a terribly disorganized trapper as well as the desk that looked like it had thrown up school supplies and writing assignments stored for the entire school year.

i remember liking my purple trapper, but don't remember being particularly anal with it. however, i typically had a very well organized desk....so i'm torn. my middle-of-the-road status doesn't support my 2 groups of trapper keepers (pun intended).