Commandments

So far so good on the new years resolutions:

-i have been working out often-i looove all the classes at the gym and even got a super good run in at tyler the other day. it felt great to run outside and it wasnt even freezing!
-i may have spent a bit more money than i should have on dinner-from khybar pass-holy deliciousness-fried chicken mac and cheese and sweet potato fries-and franklin fountain for dessert-this is the carmel apple pie milkshake-soooo incredibly delicous-also i believe it was featured on rachael ray :)

-so obviously this means sunday night i was not eating very well-aside from that i had been though, and everyone needs to live a little-right?

-i need to not let the little things bug me less-being less annoyed at things is more difficult than i thought-i am aware of it and trying though

I love calendars-especially the tear away ones. this year i got the happiness project one-which is awesome! if you havent read the book-you definitely should. this calendar gives great advice and interesting little activities along the way.

today was to write commandments. i figured this was a good place for me to do that.

-be kind

-put yourself in another's shoes before you get so irritated

-be healthy-most of the time

-lighten up

-smile as much as possible

-really listen to other people

-slow down and plan less, just overall relax a little

-get it over with and just do it now

-enjoy every moment :)

these seem like a good place to start. im hoping to check back and revise these another time. perhaps in a few months.

until next time..."kiss often, hug more, love always."

happy new year!

Happy New Year! I can hardly believe its 2012--eek. i really need a grown up job.

I had fun celebrating with friends at allison's house. We played partini and had a bonfire-as well as enjoyed many delicious beverages and foods-yum! :)

Onto the subject of resolutions--I think it is important to reflect on the last year and think of things you would like to do better. I am not sure how i feel about the word resolution though. Either way these are some things I am going to work on:

-Eat better: i need to eat smaller meals and not constantly go back for more. I also tend to eat big meals late because my schedule is weird-i should just have a small snack and go to bed instead of eating a giant dinner.
-Keep up with exercise: add more pilates and yoga to work out schedule-at least once a week. I need to work on toning and overall strength
-Budget Finances: I need to work on saving money more, i would really love to move out this year and by working more and saving more I should be able to do that.
-Get a "real" job: Enough is enough, I need to buckle down and force myself to get more serious about this. I can do this by setting time aside a couple times of week where that is all i do. I need to grow up, seriously!
-Complain less, smile more :)i have found myself whining more frequently lately. i need to toughen up and smile more. This should really not be that hard, i just need to change my mindset sometimes :)

i think those are a reasonable amount of things to work on. I hope i check back and evaluate how i am doing. i think i could handle that :)

until next time-this is a super cute quote a friend of mine put online and i looooove it :)

‎"A chance to forgive, to do better, to do more, to give more, to love more, to stop worrying about 'what if' and start embracing what would be. So when that ball drops at midnight, lets remember to be nice to each other, kind to each other. and not just for tonight, but all year long"

A Very Merry Christmas :)

I have no pictures of Christmas this year--too busy having lots of fun with friends and family. :)

Christmas Eve Joe and I went to Peddler's Village and to see It's a Wonderful Life at the local movie theatre. It was wonderful there-everything was light up and decorated for Christmas. I had never seen the movie before either so I had a great time getting into the christmas spirit there.  Then we went to his aunt's house-it was fun but he has a lot of boy cousins, so it was also very loud haha

after that we spent the evening at his parents house decorating the tree- I finally wacthed half of a Christmas Story, maybe I'll catch the next half next year..haha Joe's mom and I exchanged gifts. She made me a great beach blanket-I cant wait to use it!--seriously, is is summer yet? haha
I got his parents a salt/pepper grinder and refills for them-she seemed very excited about it!

Joe and I exhanged in the monring-he got me a Keurig--looooove it! He liked his gifts too-but we are returning all the clothes, I got them wayyyyy too big-oops! Then I went to my dads and it was nice, my dad and robin got me a lot of terrific gift-I am very lucky!
Then I went to my aunt beths-we wacthed many old videos and they were hilarious! It was weird bc my dad is in most of them-that made for some awkwardness but it was still fun to see.

That night i went over hawths and joe came later. We went to green parrot-its the only place open and the annoying people werent there so it was okay haha

overal it was the best christmas i had in a while. It helps to have a boy you love so much to spend it with. It would have been nice to see each other more on christmas day but it was great to spend christmas eve together, I am very blessed and fortuante to have so many people who love me and who I love so much. Joe really helped to make my christmas extra special, i love him very much :)

til next time--
"if you look for it, ive got a sneaking suspicion that love actually is all around."-Love Actually

Random Holiday Knick-Knacks

Since I am still feeling very much in the holiday spirit-subbing in an elementary school is the best way to get psyched for the holidays, especially when you are a learning support teacher so you dont have to worry about the kids behaving ;)-I decided to do another post of random things found in my house. This will be the last of the Christmas edition-but dont worry we have plenty of day to day knick knacks as well! haha

The creepiest Mr.  and Mrs. Clus ever. I didnt realize this until I was taking the picture. They have very scary faces, we've had these as long as  I can remember. I was going to do a close up on the face, but I decided that was too much! 

The dancing Santa, a classic. My mom likes to demonstrate and dance a long with him..haha

Mickey and Minnie wreath, nothing weird about this, unless you dont like mickey and minnie-but thats just crazy! 

Love this sign-I got it for my mom this year :) 

Hope everyone else is in the holiday spirit as well! :)

Til next time-"I just like to smile. Smilings my favorite."-Elf

Holy Moly it's almost Christmas!

As I imagine you could tell by the post title I feel like Christmas snuck up a little on me this year. I am mostly ready for it, I only have one more gift to get, and it is only because I changed my mind last minute.
I feel very in the holiday spirit this week. I am not as anxious as I usually get about Chrismtas this year. I am looking forward to spending time with my family and the boyfriend. Also I think he got me a keurig for chrismtas and I am ridiculously excited to get it! Hopefully I am right!
The boyrfriends family had a christmas celebration on saturday with his moms side of the family. They have about a million little kids running around. It was a lot of fun, the little girls played my hair and climbed me for the majority of the evening haha

Then we went out at night to Franklin Hall in Northern Liberties-its a Steven Starr restaurant-I am not sure how old it is, but I believe it is one of the newer ones. I am not one to usually hang out in the cold weather but it was a blast! They have an inside section but the outside is enclosed and has 2 firepits and heat lamps everywhere.

There are long benches set up along with games like jenga and ping-pong. They also have all the fixings for smores-the regular food is good too! And they give you gigantic beers-mine is the smaller one-the other size looked too heavy to hold! 

However if you do go it still manages to get chilly so wear gloves and a hat-I had my super warm winter coat on and still wished I had remembered the other stuff! i definitely recommend visiting it though, it was a lot of fun-I cant wait to go back in warmer weather! 

Also, I havent been running as much lately. The boyfriend and I did a trial membership to a gym that is super close to me and I think I fell in love. I have been doing spinning pretty reguarly and have found I love it. I also tried a yoga class last night and enjoyed that as well. The pilates looks like it will be great too I just havent gotten aroudn to trying it. It is a little costly to join but I think it will be worth it. I am hoping it will help to keep my spending in check and maybe I will somehow spend less money. That makes perfect sense, right!? haha

Til next time..
"The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear"--Elf

Lifes Little Lessons-Part 1

Life has been crazy lately-working a lot, applying for jobs, having a super painful crown put on my tooth, my finger swelled up and finally is back to a normal size-(whew!).

There has been some fun thrown in there too-i finally made it to see the Muppets-and it was seriously so great! It was super corny and knew it was super corny so it was great! Also I made lots of money at work this weekend which I realllllllly needed! Annnnnd the boyfriend and I finally made it to Green Eggs Cafe in Northern Liberties. It was so ridiculously delicious-we split a very delicious stuffed french toast special and eggs benedict with pancetta and a sundried tomato hollandaise sauce-im drooling just remembering it! :)

So as far as the post title goes I am going to try to start writing a things Ive learned kind of post, maybe weekly maybe not-we'll see how it goes!

Lifes Little Lessons


*if you dont work-you wont make any money-same goes for applying to jobs-just do it!
*if you eat ridiculous portions of food all of the time you will start to feel gross-but it is nothing that some veggies and exercise cant fix
*when your finger is discolored and twice the size as it is on the other hand, go to the doctor-immediatly!
*brush your teeth-i dont know why some people say a root canal isnt so bad, it is awful and you dont want to ever have one-believe me!
*changing the sheets in your bed makes for a better nights sleep
*just start the paper youve been putting off-youll feel way better when you turn it in early!
*always have a book on hand-especially if you have an appointment
*take advantage of sunny days, even if you just sit in that sunny spot on the rug when the window is open, you will be so glad you did that when it is cloudy the next 238293082 days in a row
*changing up your purse now and then is good for the soul

until next time...

“Life is an opportunity, benefit from it. 
Life is beauty, admire it. 
Life is a dream, realize it. 
Life is a challenge, meet it. 
Life is a duty, complete it. 
Life is a game, play it. 
Life is a promise, fulfill it. 
Life is sorrow, overcome it. 
Life is a song, sing it. 
Life is a struggle, accept it. 
Life is a tragedy, confront it. 
Life is an adventure, dare it. 
Life is luck, make it. 
Life is too precious, do not destroy it. 
Life is life, fight for it.” 

--Mother Teresa 

Dont Get Your Tinsel in a Tangle

So far today has started at pretty well-I finally started to have some of my subbing paychecks come in so I will actually be able to pay my credit card bill off woo!
also the doctor was able to get me in for an appointment today so they can check out my finger situation. I am hoping I can talk them into writing me a presecription and getting me out of there. We shall see what happens!

So I noticed when my mom took out the christmas decorations that we have the same odd taste in knick-knacks. (Side note, yes I still live with my mom and no i do not see this ending any time in the near future, as I am pretty broke. thank goodness my mom is the coolest! ;)  Anyways,  I decided to start taking pics and posting them up here  because I find them to be adorable and some pretty hilarious. Also it gives me a fun excuse to play with the camera app on my phone-seriously i love camera+ on my iphone. it makes me feel artsy-(i realize in reality I am not) haha

from the holiday collection:

from the dollar store-and seriously one of my favorite hoiday sayings!

yes that is the Grinch hiding on the top of our ridiculously decorated refridgerator 

we also like to decorate decorations with more decorations-until we have an event where we need to wear the antlers of course!

hmmm nothing too weird about this one-however you can see the antler friend in the corner 

 until next time, I leave you with a wondeful quote from Buddy the Elf, "We elves try to stick to the four main food groups: candy, candy canes, candy corns and syrup." :)