Dinner!

I have a very sweet dad. He sent me some chocolate covered strawberries today so it was the majority of my dinner while I waited for the HVAC guy...who never showed up.

Music Monday - Irreplaceable

If you like country music and Beyonce's song Irreplaceable, check out this cover by Sugarland. Which do you like better?

Worst Workout Ever

I had one of the worst workouts ever today. I went out for a jog at around 4pm once I finally decided it didn't look like it was going to rain anymore today. It was very humid and not too warm, but much warmer than the cool 6am air I am used to. I don't know what happened to me, but about 15 minutes in I just couldn't jog anymore so I walked for a minute, then tried to jog again. I kept having to stop and then just gave up and walked the rest of the way. My body just had nothing left in it and I have no idea why. When I got home I was completely exhausted. I just sat on the couch, then took a shower and took a nap because I was too tired to do anything else. Now at 9pm I am finally feeling better, but it was really odd. I hope this doesn't happen again.

Thursday Thirteen - What I've Learned from Blogging

This is my 100th post! Here are 13 things I have learned from this blog.

1. I did not think many people would actually read my blog, but they do! I just starting tracking visitors a few weeks ago and almost 150 people in eight different countries have read it since.

2. Everybody loves a list.

3. Some of the people I am closest to do not read my blog. This surprised me

4. People are nice. I was expecting people to write nasty things in the comments, but nobody has.

5. Writing is therapeutic, especially for the painful stuff like losing my mom.

6. I enjoy writing.

7. I have not done much writing since college so the thought of writing was intimidating and the first entries would take me an hour or two to write. I know I am not a great writer, but I can bang out an entry pretty quickly now.

8. Formatting looks different between my two computers…I still can’t figure out why. I thought it would look the same on all computers.

9. I am reading more blogs which has opened me to up to new people and their thoughts.

10. People actually like pictures of my cats.

11. I used to get nervous about what I wrote…that it would be too personal or someone might think it was stupid or trivial. Now I just write what I’m thinking about and don’t worry about it.

12. What a meme is and how great they are to get more readers.

13. I still have a lot to learn about how to format and make my blog look less like a template.

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Too Bad There is a Hole in the Roof

Looks like it is going to get windy and rainy here in Virginia. Too bad I have a hole in my roof that I just learned may not get fixed until late November! I love this picture though...so many things going on in it.

Emmys Best & Worst Dressed

I don't usually watch award shows, but I do love to see what everyone wore! Here are my votes for best and worst dressed at the Emmys.

BEST DRESSED
Christina Applegate looked flawless! You would never guess she had surgery for breast cancer recently. I love the color of Brooke Shields' dress. These two women prove that you don't need to be twenty years old and 90 pounds to be beautiful in Hollywood.

Christina Applegate

















Brooke Shields


















WORST DRESSED
Lauren really should have done better. She designed this dress herself. Marcia and her dress just all seem to blend together and the fabric from Kathy's dress looks like it came off my grandma's couch.

Lauren Conrad

















Marcia Cross

















Kathy Griffin

New Kitchen!

Well, we did it. We signed a contract yesterday to have our kitchen remodeled. We have the floor plan but still need to pick everything out. Construction doesn't start until late January so sometime in March I will have my new kitchen! It's exciting, but at the same time scary because it is so much money. My husband told me today to not plan any big vacations next year...what? Wait...ummm, could you have brought this up BEFORE we signed the contract? Nothing will happen for a while, but I'll post pictures of the project along the way.

Wordless Wednesday - Always Together

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Boot Camp Under the Stars

Picture this...it's dark, the full moon is shining, the stars are twinkling, the person next to me says, "look, it's Orion". No, I wasn't camping, I was at boot camp this morning. It's pitch black at 6am these days, but boot camp goes on.

The Career I Should Have Had

I think it is a shame that people have to make choices so early in life regarding education and careers paths. When I was a kid I wanted to be a cook in my own restaurant or an astronomer. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life when I was in college. I was good in math and with numbers in general so I started out as a math major. I took calculus in high school so when I got into college my first math class was the third calculus class that only math and engineering majors took. I could do the problems, but didn't really get it. I got a B- which was probably the worst grade I ever received in a math class. After that I knew I wasn't cut out for it and I also didn't know what kind of job I could get with it. Looking back, it probably would have been a good choice of majors. Then I decided I would probably do something in the business world. I had no idea what, but it sounded good at the time. My school had more theoretical majors rather than things like business administration or accounting, so I became a business economics major...which was economics with some accounting thrown in for fun. I still had no idea what I was going to do with it though. When my senior year of college came around and I had to decide what I was going to do with myself, I did the only thing I could think of...keep going to school. So I took the GMAT and applied to business schools to get a MBA. Even after my first year of MBA classes, I still did not know what I was going to do. The summer between the two years I started looking for internships and fell into corporate finance, and here I have been for 12 years. I like the work I do, but it's really the same thing month after month, quarter after quarter, year after year. I often think of what else I could do, but at this point in my life I don't want to take a pay cut to start a new career.

I should have been a meteorologist. I find weather fascinating. I love watching the weather channel and tracking storms. I don't want to be on TV, but would like being the weather expert behind the scenes who runs the models. This time of year is especially exciting (and tragic) since it is hurricane season. Since moving to Virginia I have learned more about weather since not much exciting happens in California. Terms like nor'easters and clippers are regulars around here in the winter. I will never be a meteorologist, but I am the resident weather expert in my house!