love, tuesday

Still going strong here...much to blog about in the upcoming days. I had an "alcohol free April" so I need to write how that went and I am going to try "make more meals May" ( I love alliteration, can you tell?) but I will write about that tomorrow or Friday. Today I will continue the much loved weekly installment...

• love that I am going to see Legally Blonde the Musical tonight with Erin. I LOVE this movie and hope that the musical will be just as good. love that a perk of my job is getting tickets at group rates!
• love looking ahead to summer and planning weekends away and fun times with friends and family.
• love chicken enchiladas, just had some for dinner last night and lunch today...by far my favorite meal from Let's Dish!


• love my nephews Nick, Jake, Eric, and Henry. I love my nieces too but the nephews get a special shout out today because its Jake's (Jakey as his second mom/aunt calls him) 14th birthday today, and last night I was on the phone trying to help Eric with his math homework. I am not as good at graphing as I used to be but did remember y=mx+b, Mr Vare would be proud:) That's an old photo of nick, eric, and jake.
• love my new bike shorts. I know ridiculous but its the little things. I got ones with padding in the butt, they are awesome!!
• love playing Tennis!!!!!!!! So much fun to go on a great spring day and play a set or two.
• love getting back into knitting and reading, currently knitting Anna's baby blanket and reading Eclipse from the Twighlight series. Hoping to finish both soon!

Have a lovely day everyone!

love tuesday

Hello fans and friends:)

I am BACK! After a long hiatus I have returned to the world of blogging, however this post will have no photos. I was hoping my first post back would have been of my crazy time in Chicago for St Patty's day but I kept putting it off and putting it off, and then received some threats from people to UPDATE YOUR BLOG ALREADY! so here I am at least updating, if not a full recap of the past almost month's activities. So I am getting back on the love, tuesday bandwagon and thought this would be a good way to get back into the swing of things.

• love that people cared enough to say, "hey you need to update your blog, I check it and nothing is new, and i get sad" ok maybe they don't say they get sad but still...
  


• love my parents' new condo...they have not moved in yet...soon though, within the next 2 weeks, but i love it and that they are SOOOO happy to be moving there.



• love my dentist. some of you may be saying, huh this is a weird love because you just got a crown yesterday Ginny, and yes indeed I did and it sucked. However, I love my dentist. He is so great and works so hard to make the "dental experience" a positive one.



• love knitting with my cousin , my other cousin Missy, and my aunt MC outside in the glorious sunshine on saturday morning. I got back on track with my knitting and even got a little sunburn, which i had no idea about until someone commented that I had a pattern from my sunglasses on the side of my face...awesome....



• love the spring weather and taking my bike out for a long bike ride along the greenway. My apt location is PERFECT for access to a ton of different biking paths.



• love a productive weekend filled with cleaning and organizing my apt. love my mom, I think this goes without saying but I was reminded of how amazing she is when she came over to help me reorganize my apt. yes i am 30, and yes my mom came to help me, and yes it was AWESOME.



• love my dad. Again this goes without saying, but last week my dad took a tumble off a ledge in our backyard while holding my niece Greta. They were trying to fill a bird feeder and he slipped, losing his balance and then falling to the cement below. My dad proceeded to be the amazing grampa that he is and broke little Greta's fall with his face. 7 stiches, lots of bruising, and a broken nose later, they are all doing fine. Just gave some of us a little scare, do not love those phone calls that begin "hey gin, dad's fine but..." there have been too many of those in my lifetime. But I love my siblings for keeping me in the loop even when I'm at work.



• love doing different things with friends like going to the omni theater and the macy's flower show. Both were amazing and so fun to do something different. Trying to stick with my new year's resolution of trying something new each month.



• love my "niece" Anna. (Anna is my cousin Emily and Rich's daughter) I went down to St Louis to celebrate Anna's dedication a couple of weeks ago, more photos later. But Anna sent me this hilarious photo of herself trying to drive her dog to the vet...it completely brightens my day!

Alright everyone that's it for now. More to come later and I won't wait a month to update this time:)

Let the Madness Begin!!!

So I have been a bit absent from my blog lately but life has been busy. Went and had an amazingly fun weekend last weekend in Chicago and celebrated St Patty's day Chicago style. Photos and a post to follow for that one (If I can just get myself to turn on my computer at home). Since I have been back, work has been crazy busy, which is a good thing, 1) I have a job and in today's times that is great and B) I have lots of work to do which makes the days and week go by faster. This week has been great too because it is the beginning of one of my favorite times of year. I know you are all thinking, Spring me too!, and although I do love Spring it is actually the first weekend of NCAA March Madness!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! In a perfect world this would be a National Holiday and we would all get the first Thursday and Friday off to sit and watch basketball games all day while eating and drinking some of our favorite gametime food and beverages. However, this is sadly not the case. To make the best of the situation we can still listen to the games while at work and partake in that food and beverage after work but it is still not the same. As you can probably guess I have also taken part in filling out a bracket (or two) and let me just say it was smooth sailing until late last night (damn you Wake Forest and Arizona). To me, winning a bracket challenge would just be icing on the cake. It really is all about filling out those charts and the following along with every game. Its also a great way to start conversations with some guys for a single gal such as myself ("who do you have in this game? oh that sucks, I have ____...they're a way better team"). I have the knowledge to sustain a conversation such as this once it gets started and that bracket can really break the ice. But I digress...this first weekend of the tourney is a great one and it only comes around once a year so it needs to be celebrated! I personally will be pulling for Syracuse and Michigan State so wish me luck! I hope everyone's picks do well, unless of course they are going against mine, in which case...too bad for you when I win;)

love, tuesday

YEAH!!! I am posting this on an actual Tuesday...woo hoo...go me!

• love that I am going to Chicago this weekend and love celebrating my second favorite holiday st patty's day. What's not to love about this holiday, beer, the color green, potatoes, and Ireland?? Why, those are possibly 4 of my favorite things!
• love that Marlys came over and helped me put up my new shelves last weekend and got me going on some much needed home improvements, 6 months after i moved into my apt. (photos of these changes to come later)
• love that the week is going by relatively fast, which makes Friday and Chicago even closer
• love that I get to take this trip with friends who have never really experienced Chicago before. love that I get to be a part of someone else's new experiences.
• love TV on DVD. I have been on a TV on DVD kick and this weekend it was Brothers and Sisters, so great...gotta love the drama.
• love having so many frozen meals in the freezer from going to Let's Dish with Joy the other weekend. And so much amazing tasting food at that!
• love that I am feeling better after a good weekend with lots of sleep
• love getting to spend more time with my nieces and nephews this weekend and that all my nephews won their hockey and basketball games. love that they still get as excited to see me as I get to see them, even though they are getting older.
• love that its MARCH! That much closer to springtime and outside activities. Wouldn't seem like it today with the snow but love that we're one day closer to warmer weather.

Have a lovely Tuesday everyone!

Love twednesday

This might be a shorter than usual love tuesday but it does have the added bonus of....PICTURES!!!

• love my new magenta tights! I wore them to work on Monday and I am now obsessed with them. I wanted to get some bright tights to add something different to a boring grey or black dress and I can't wait to get more. One problem, $4 magenta tights on clearance are $4 for a reason...I already got a hole in them...oopsies, I'll patch that one right up...
• love Law & Order SVU on DVD! This show is so great! I cannot wait to get home and see if Blockbuster Online has delivered another one to my mailbox, sadly though I am on the last disc, sniff sniff...do not love that.
• love the new shelves I got from IKEA last night, actually they are picture ledges but I cannot wait to put them up!
• love that my parents were home last week and I got to see them
• love that while watching my SVU dvd's I have had time to work on this blanket for my cousin's baby, Anna. My cousin Emily started this blanket for her and I said I would finish it...that was like a year ago but I am determined to have it done in time for Anna's dedication in April. Emily and I both have similar blankets that our moms knit for us. Here is where I'm at so far! Wish me luck!

On my iPod

While I am at work, I like to listen to books on my iPod. I got this habit of listening to books from my dad who is notorious for his audiobooks habit. He cannot leave Barnes & Noble without a new audiobook. I found that on iTunes they have many audiobooks for a cheaper price than getting them on CD and it is easier to just put them on your iPod then. I personally prefer to listen to nonfiction books on my iPod because I find them harder to read sometimes and easier to listen to. This is all about personal preference though, I know others who feel the opposite.

Right now I am listening to Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder It is really good. I think I was supposed to read it for my International Social Work class in grad school but never quite got around to it. (Must have been too busy saving the world myself, or just too busy hanging out with my friends) I am glad I am listening to it now. Anyone who is interested in Public Health, Haiti, disease control, or just has a general interest in people who are creating change in the world should definitely check it out.

I just finished listening to Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer.
He also wrote Into Thin Air, among other books but this one is about the Mormon religion and also Mormon fundamentalists. Again, this is a book I have wanted to read but could never get into it but listening to it I was enthralled by all the history. I have kind of a weird interest into the FLDS sect and polygamy (Big Love anyone?). I find it so curious and intriguing. Not in a "oh I want to be a polygamist" way but in a, "hmmm isn't it interesting to learn about how other people do things" kind of way. This book got a little long but definitely satisfied my curiousity about the history aspect of things. Does anyone else have any recommendations for good books to listen to?

love tuesday

I know, I know I'm late but this week has flown by, which has been a love. And the next thing I knew it was Thursday! However I have been brainstorming some good LOVES for this week's post so enjoy. I really need to get back on the blogging more than once a week thing but I am just settling back into a routine again after vacation and then staying with my niece and nephew last week so my sister and bro-in-law could get a much needed vacation.

• love hanging out with my niece Hilary and nephew Eric last week. We had so much fun and laughed a lot. I loved getting to spoil them like my siblings did when my parents went away.
• love that my sister and her hubby (think that's the funniest word ever) got a MUCH deserved and needed vacation and time to relax. love that they came back refreshed!
• love that this week has flown by and has been really nice weather wise, until today but we won't focus on that one:)
• love dogs on treadmills. this is totally random but popped into my head while emailing with Marlys the other day. found this website selling doggie treadmills and laughed for a while watching the clips of dogs on treadmills
• love planning trips. heading to chicago for st patty's day and NYC in June both with awesome friends...just thinking about it gets me excited and happy.
• love brainstorming for the travel book/website my friend Erin and I want to start. long ago we tried to figure out a way to get paid to travel, we haven't figured it all out yet but I think we might be on to something with travel insights for people in their 30's. you don't want to stay in hostels anymore but do you really want to stay at a luxury resort? think about it people...
• love when people use stereotypes...ok just kidding that was a sarcastic love. I am quite irritated with people generalizing that people who use welfare services and single mothers with 8 kids from different daddies. As someone having worked with people using welfare services, this is not what the average "face" of welfare looks like. If you knew about welfare you would know that there are time limits and really you don't get that much assistance so people wouldn't continue to have more kids by choice. This is the exception, not the rule. I know there has been more in the media about welfare since the "octomom" but I think people should get a little more educated before they start speaking. OK I am stepping off my soapbox now...
• love the oscars, ok not really...but i do love dvring them and fastforwarding through all the parts that suck. love seeing what people are wearing and hearing who people thank or what they do with their 45 seconds of time, loved the gay mormon who wrote Milk and his speech, brought a tear to my eye.
• love podcasts! I have been sucked into the world of free podcasts on iTunes...they are so great for work though!! lovethem!!

have a great rest of the week!