It's my anniversary!

Today Nathan and I celebrate 3 years of married bliss and we are still doing strong! Thanks everyone for your nice messages!

Need a good breakfast for the day after Thanksgiving?

The Recipe Girl just posted a recipe for Amish Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls with Caramel Icing.

Um, yum.

It's me, Roxie!

Hello blog readers!!! It's me, Roxie! Mom is finally letting me post something. Perhaps she felt guilty that so many requested more about me in this post or she is just to lazy to come up with a post that isn't related to work stress/and or cheese. Either way...I am taking over!

Speaking of mom, she had a few dogs come to visit me this weekend. Even though a lot of them were little guys, I still had a blast. The only one that wasn't little, was this really cute guy....he kept crawling onto my back for some reason. I am not really sure what he was doing, but I kept telling him I already have a boyfriend, because I am pretty sure whatever he was trying to do, my man wouldn't like. Mom didn't do much to stop the whole thing though....she always says that mixed breed is her favorite. Thanks Mom, way to make me feel like a bastard child.

I was so exhausted from all the hanging out with friends, I pretty much spent all of Sunday like this....

And even though I love to get my picture taken, Sunday I just wanted to freaking sleep. I kept turning away, and it only took Dad about 30 seconds to take the hint. It took Mom about 5 minutes and 4 failed pictures before she just gave up. Not to mention the fact that the crappy cell phone camera doesn't do my cuteness much justice.

Well, so long for now. But before I leave you here are some great pics of me!

The PERFECT work day

I guess that is kind of an oxymoron, but I seriously had a nearly perfect work day today. No, I didn't get a raise or even a nice email from a boss telling me I was a great employee.

Today I sat at my desk and did nearly 8 hours of mindless data entry breaking only to check email, GR, and help Boss #1 pick out a GORGEOUS gift for his girlfriend. And it was FABULOUS. After doing so much running around last week, it was so great just plug away at some applications that needed to be updated before the end of the month.

I can only hope that my short day tomorrow will be so sweet, and my long day Wednesday will go smooth as well.

Oh thank god

I spent about an hour yesterday reading the nearly 120 blogs on GR. Some of them I speed read, none of them I commented on (bad Teresa!) but it was drastic measure time....GR was totally out of control.

Other random stuff....

*Work was SO stressful last week. I can't believe I made it through without having a huge breakdown. If I can just get through this big event today I should be able to coast through Tuesday and Wednesday. Thank God for Thanksgiving.

*Nathan put up our new Christmas tree yesterday. We didn't put any ornaments on it yet, but Nathan just couldn't wait to put together the tree. I didn't point it out to him, but he seriously the most giddy I had ever seen him. It was too freaking cute.

*Nathan's parents called him last night to talk about my Christmas gift. Usually they buy Nathan one big gift and a couple smaller ones and a couple medium sized gifts for me. However, apparently this year they are switching things up and giving me the big gift. If I had to guess I would say it is a digital camera. And OMG I would love that. Before blogging I probably wouldn't have cared as much, but I really want to start adding more pics to my blog and my cell phone camera totally doesn't cut it.

I hope everyone has a great Monday! Hopefully for everyone it is a short work week!

Yay, I am a Kreativ Blogger!

Many thanks to Jenn from Living Life for my Kretiv Blogger award! I have never received a blog award, and I feel very blessed to receive this one. Thanks, Jenn, you are awesome and I am not worthy!

According to the rules, I am supposed to put 6 things I am thankful for and 6 blogs that are stalkworthy.

The awesome stuff I am thankful for:
(Please excuse the incomplete sentences, I didn't want to start all 6 out with "I'm thankful for blah, blah, blah.)

1. My family. Not just my husband, but my parents, sisters, and of course, Roxie. I am so lucky to have an incredibly supportive family that would seriously do anything for me.
2. My friends, especially the new ones that I have met via the Internet. I am reminded almost daily what an amazing group of women I have in my life. When I am down, they do everything they possibly can to bring me back up. I know that some of them are just using me for my cooking...but that's ok.
3. My job. That is a REALLY difficult thing to say this week, because I am officially having the worst week since I started with the company. But I am very thankful for having a steady paycheck, a great boss, and dedicated team members that bend over backwards for me daily.
4. The gym. As silly as it sounds, the gym has helped me through some stressful shit lately.
5. Talent. I don't want to sound full of myself, but I am so thankful for my talents because they tend to bring a smile to other's faces.
6. My space heater. If I had it in my office now I wouldn't be so damn cold. But, I am thankful it will keep me warm tonight at home.

The 6 blogs that are stalk worthy:

1. conversations with myself I love this blog. I am pretty sure Kritta and I have the exact same sense of humor. If not, she probably makes fun of me for saying lame stuff on her blog.
2. I paid less than you That a blog that updates frequently, but for those of you that love deals (especially from Target) you need to read this blog.
3. Little Homestead in the City One of my two new favorite sustainability blogs. If you are at all interested in the subject, run, don't walk to this blog.
4. Tiny Farm Blog The second favorite. Again, run, don't walk.
5. Smallnotebook.org I have posted about Rachel's blog before. She really does some amazing stuff with budgets in a realistic way.
6. Write in my Journal I can't even describe the amazing stuff in this blog.

Just to show you how behind I am.....

I have 111 blogs to read on Google Reader. Seriously, 111 and I don't even subscribe to blogs that make more than one or two posts a day.

I am very behind, but I am going to try and do my kreativ blogger awards today or tomrorrow.

Reason #561 that I shouldn't use big words...

...I accidentially type distinguish instead of extinguish.

Grrr....you should be making fun of me right now.

Random Thursday thought

Today I had an epiphany. If Nathan and I got one to two more dogs, could that possibly extinguish his desire to have children?

Hmmmmmm.....

Oh, and I am happy to annouce I received a blogging award. I will post all the good details once I can get a nice, composed blog together.

Ah, what?

I just had a total out of my mind moment. I was at Hancock fabrics looking for cheesecloth. With making the mozzerella I go through a ton...sometimes 5 yards a week. So I go into Hancock looking for a larger amount then just buying the cheap packaged stuff in the baking aisle at the grocery store. I go up to the register to buy the whole box, which is 100 yards. The two cashiers looked at me a little surprised. Because really who in their right mind buys 300 feet of cheesecloth? The convo went a little something like this:

Cashier 1: "Wow this is a lot of cheesecloth, what do you plan on doing with it?"
Me: "Oh, I make cheese."
Cashier 1:(in a little bit of awe) "What!?! You make cheese, I love cheese! What kind?"
Me: "Mozzerella"
Cashier 2: "Really?? I used to make cottage cheese all the time, but that's easy. Do you sell it?"
Me: "Um, I hadn't really thought about it...."
Cashier 2: "Well would you consider it.."
Me: (still completely shocked): "Um, yeah, I guess. Let me give you my business card."
Cashier 1: (still in awe) "I love cheese!"
Cashier 2: "I will be calling you. How much do you charge?"
Me: "Uhhhh, I'll have to think about that. Just let me know when you want some."

The moral of the story...people LOVE cheese. And the are convinced they will love your homemade cheese even if they have never had it.

Crazy.

Power song

I was recently reading a blog where the reader talked about her "power song". My power songs help get me motivated through my workouts (and occasionaly through life).

At the moment, I have three favorite power songs, and as an added bonus here they are via You Tube! They might not be your cup of tea, but open your mind and give them a listen...I doubt you have many better things to do for 15 minutes. I mean, you are reading my blog after all.

1. "Here It Goes Again"



Who doesn't freaking love Ok go!? Really, come on, not only is the song as cool as hell, but the treadmills are awesome. For some reason everytime I flock to this song when I am working out. I can listen to it 20 times in a row and still want to hear it more. It is also an added bonus that I do my fastest mile time when hearing this song.

2. "Crazy on You"



Women with guitars generally know how to rock, and the ladies of Heart are no expception. My entire teenage life and most of my twenties I was obcessed with this song. I mean obcessed. I once convinced my friends that when I died I wanted a parade with a marching band to playing "Crazy on You" and my coffin to be in a float. Crazily enough (see what I did there?)I still think that would be awesome!

Even though that video isn't the best version of the song, it still gets me even time. If I am having a bad day and need to just belt out lyrics, that is the song I choose everytime.

3. "Suffragette City"



My newest power song comes for the lovely David Bowie. It starts out a little slower than some of my typical power song favorites, but it picks up. And come on, doesn't any song that says, "Wham bam thank you, ma'am!" want just to workout a little harder? David Bowie, my ass thanks you.

And for the record, this wasn't my psycho post, although I am sure I had some of your thinking that with the parade/coffin in the float thing.

Wow...

I just wrote a blog that made me sound like a complete psycho.

Thank God I read it again before posting.

That is all.

Stress

Blogging (among other things) seems to be an incredibly difficult task lately. I have a lot on my mind with work and personal stuff, and while it isn't anything major, these things still seem to occupy my mind.

So today I ask you, readers, to tell me about how you handle stress. Because it is obvious to me that I am not a good stress hander. I knew this before and thought I was getting better but it seems like all of my progress has stopped, so feel free to post some suggestions.

Thanks in advance for your responses!

Something insightful for election day

When I get stressed out and tired I tend to say, incredibly...ah....insightful little tidbits. Nathan was off on Friday and he and I were out running errands and talking about some political websites that were focusing so much on taxes and tax breaks. And while tax breaks are great, I honestly don't mind paying taxes. I expressed this to Nathan by saying,

"Really without taxes we would be driving on gravel roads, putting out fires with garden hoses, and we would have to shoot to kill......you know, because there would be no cops."

Direct quote Teresa-ism. I bet you just felt yourself drop a few IQ points.