730 ago

"I don't get many things right the first time

In fact, I am told that a lot

Now I know all the wrong turns, the stumbles and falls

Brought me here

And where was I before the day

That I first saw your lovely face?

Now I see it everyday

And I know

That I am

I am

I am

The luckiest

What if I'd been born fifty years before you

In a house on a street where you lived?

Maybe I'd be outside as you passed on your bike

Would I know?

And in a white sea of eyes

I see one pair that I recognize

And I know

That I am

I am

I am

The luckiest

I love you more than I have ever found a way to say to you

Next door there's an old man who lived to his nineties

And one day passed away in his sleep

And his wife; she stayed for a couple of days

And passed away

I'm sorry, I know that's a strange way to tell you that I know we belong

That I know

That I am

I am

I am

The luckiest"

- Ben Folds

Happy Anniversary, Sweet Husband! Our second year of marriage has been amazing, and I know the years to come will bring even more blessings. love, laughter, and much happiness. I truly am the luckiest.  


XOXO,
Amy

"You get better, Pumpkin."

One of my favorite Fall photos. I took it at a pumpkin patch near Chicago last year.

Ahhh, Fall. Don’t you just love it? The beautiful foliage, hot apple cider, snuggly sweaters and the start of boot season, crunching through the leaves, Halloween and Thanksgiving and those Charlie Brown TV specials about them… I could go on and on. In this part of the country the weather has turned cooler, and I am enjoying every bit of it. Today after a particularly rough morning at Job #1, I was feeling down, frazzled and needed to step away from the desk if you know what I mean. I went to lunch to take a breather and get something warm and yummy to eat. I decided on the old standby- a little place called Zoup! Fresh Soup Company. Do you have these where you live? Each day there are about 12 different kinds of soup on special, and they encourage you to sample as many as you’d like before ordering.  I usually get one of the same 2 or 3 different flavors, but something else caught my eye today. Pumpkin pie bisque. Ate the first spoonful of my sample and I nearly died from pure taste bud bliss. The actual bowl of it even had little sprinklings of pie crust on top! It had me at hello. Bonus that it wasn’t all that bad for me either (it was marked low points for those of you familiar with Weight Watchers). I was a little hesitant to try it because sometimes I think I like the idea of pumpkin more than the actual taste.  Pumpkin cookies- like. Pumpkin pie- maybe a little bite. Pumpkin pecan cheesecake at Cheesecake Factory- yes, please. Pumpkin spice lattes from Starbucks- just “meh” (too sweet and fake pumpkin-tasting for me).  Pumpkin pie bisque though- L-O-V-E, love, I tell you! It was just enough, and I’m not ashamed to say that it made my day. It made me excited for Thanksgiving. We’ll be spending it with the in-laws this year. If anyone has any good pumpkin recipes that I can impress them with, please share!

Bonus points to anyone that knows which movie gave me the quote in this post's title. If you know me at all, you know that I can't help myself from quoting movies!

Happy Fall!

The most money I've ever spent.

See that? It is a nice little slice of land that my husband and I can call our own. Handing over the down payment for this piece of earth and the house to be built upon it was both sickening and exhilarating all at the same time! While I was away these last few months, the daisies have gone away and the beginnings of our first house have popped up in their place. I present to you, the largest purchase I've ever made. Ta da!

We searched real estate listings and toured many, many existing homes for the better part of our first year as newlyweds, and just couldn't find "the one." While we have the interest, we have little time to do any major renovations. When it came down to it, we were able to build a new house with most of the features that we liked for less than it would have cost to purchase an existing home that needed renovations done. Kitchens and bathrooms are expensive, and J isn't much of a handy man (he's had limited opportunities as a renter to be fair). I'd rather spend the money on furniture and other things to make the house more "us" a lot sooner. After years of renting, we are worn out of the hand me downs and mismatched hodge-podge of stuff that we have carried with us from apartment to apartment. In a little under three months, this house will become our home! I'll be posting more as the house gets more fun to look at and will want you all to weigh in on some decor choices and suggestions!

If you have any favorite decor blogs, furniture/decor shopping links, etc. please post them below or shoot me an e-mail. I am soaking up all the inspiration I can handle.

Is it really November?

Why, hello there!

Last post- June 2nd, eh? Safe to say I've essentially lost any readership that I had here on this little ole' blog of mine. I was surprised I even knew my password to login/create a new post! I do have some (lame) excuses as to why I've been away so long. Here they are: started a new job, got my new car hit by a driver named Michael Jackson on my way home on the first day at that job, spent the summer traveling for new job to very non-glamorous locations, got busy with job #2, closed on a lot to build our first house, picked out a lot of stuff for said house (including sexy features like attic fans, outlet covers, and back up sump pumps), worked some more at job #2, got hit in my car AGAIN after a guy ran a red light, ate too much Halloween candy after losing 5 lbs. and here we are. November. Truth told, a new job in a cubicle is not the same as having an old job in a private office. I use to do some blogging at lunchtime, and now find myself with little leisure time for reading blogs much less writing one. And sadly, I found my creative juices a bit zapped. Job #2 and picking out every last detail for our house took a lot out of me. I have missed my little blog, though and popped in to say hello. So, if you're still out there, I'll have some updates for you soon. Have been working my way through some of the 101 in 1001 list and have made some serious efforts to to turn Job #2 into Solo job.

Hope this finds you all well.

The Climb

No, this post is not about that Miley Cyrus song. Don't like her much, although she is far, far more bearable than that other freaky teeny bopper that won't go away. Can't bear to type his name on my blog, so I'll just say his initials are J.B.

I digress.

The climb out of the rut I've been in is what I'm talking about. Times of change are here, my friends. I was FINALLY able to accomplish #31 on my 101 in 1,001 list last Friday, and had my last day at the job I've worked for the last four years. Might seem like something small as people change jobs all the time, but to me it's huge. Some great things happened in the last four years- this big event in my life, for one- but for the most part I have felt like I was in a rut (hence the reason for my lack of creativity and blog posts for the past few months). My biggest problem was that my job really, really bored me. The culture of the company was very unhappy, negative, and discouraging. I encountered a lot of people that were miserable, and wanted others to be as well. There were few people around that I could actually respect as professionals. And all job duties aside, everyone likes to have a friend at work and I didn't feel like I had that either.  When I started at this company, I was new to the city and didn't know many people. I really hoped to make some friends at this place. As an extrovert, I tend to feel my best when I'm interacting with others and am able to talk, joke and have fun while doing my job. When I feel fulfilled socially, I work harder.  People energize me, and that's just how I am. It was an older company with slim pickings in my age group, and while I frequently talked to the people that were my age and could eat lunch with them or vent to them about something, I just didn't *click* with any of them. Since I don't know many people in the city not having grown up here I was counting on meeting some friends here, building my own network of friends apart from my husband's, and unfortunately that wasn't the case. Made the job a lot less bearable without some cool peeps around. Anyway, I was insanely bored and mostly isolated all day and just went through the motions. I got lazy, was tired all the time, my health wasn't as great as before, and I knew that the job wasn't allowing me to be the best "me" possible. (Thank God for Google Reader. Even though my subscription list has grown larger than I can manage to keep up with, I could at least enjoy my lunch hour enjoying blogs!)  I made the decision to seek happiness, and get the heck outta there. I started job searching just after our wedding, and then the economy went south. I kept my eyes out for better opportunities, and networked like crazy to try to find something, anything, else. Finally, the something else came along, and I left that place without looking back.

While my ultimate goal is to start my own business doing something entirely different, I have to be realistic about the financial aspects of owning a business. Since J and I want to buy a home and have children soon (I'm no spring chicken), it is a dream that I'll have to put off a while longer. I'm taking baby steps towards that goal by doing part time work in the field, saving my pennies, and getting things in order. In the meantime, I will start a new position in the same industry as my last position this Monday.  The team I'll be a part of isn't large, but the people seem very excited about what they do and I think it'll be a breath of fresh air. While it's not my dream job, it is more responsibility, different work than I had been doing, and a refreshingly welcome change.  I welcome this change and am using it as an excuse to clear out the mental dust, refresh, rejuvenate and move on. I hope to start some new habits & get rid of the bad ones, make some new friends, climb on outta my rut and just feel ALIVE again!

I have off this entire week. Husband and I might go on a last minute road trip, but for now I am getting things done and enjoying the time off. Week's highlights so far: cleaned the house, caught up to Jersey Shore reruns, Real Housewives, Oprah and other miscellaneous shows on DVR, making some new healthy recipes for lunch, started the Couch to 5K program, cleaned some more, shopping spree at the good mall in town, massage & pedi at the spa and catching up to my Google Reader. Yay!

Thanks for hanging in there through the quiet months. Hoping this summer brings some more excitement 'round here. And if you're using this summer to make some much needed changes in your life, gimme a shout out below. I'm right there with ya!