Erm

So I'm gonna work on revamping and reusing my blog again (for the bazilliondieth time I know) so stay tuned. I won't be doing a ton of layout work but just little cleaning up and working on posting more of the crafts I've been up to again.

Gifts galore!

Ah I have so many sweet friends! At my last crop with the squirrels they all surprised me by getting me started on a baby album!




Aren't they all adorable layouts?!

I also got a surprise in the mail the other day from one of my Squirrels, Jody! She has a patient who was making these and she thought of me-




The only one not being so nice is baby haha. We went for our Anatomy check up on Tuesday and while I've heard drinking fruit juice gets the baby moving but I thought that might not be nice for the technician trying to take measurements. Well at first the baby kind of looked like it was waving it's arms but then it tucked them close to it's head and wouldn't move them away to be measured. Eventually she got a good angle and took the measurements. Then the knees were locked so the tech couldn't tell us boy or girl so we still don't know the gender. The somewhat good news is that the Dr had an emergency she needed to address so she couldn't go over the measurements with us. The tech said they look good but that we could come back in 2-3 weeks for a new set of measurements and to actually talk to the dr. I'm sure if there had been a problem they wouldn't have let us go.

Here's the latest image.

CHEESE!

So the other day Shae posted this on tumblr which lead to this post from Chickens in the Run.


Basically it's all about cheeses and rinds and waxes. It made me think of the last time I'd had really yummy special cheese. At the big blue and yellow box we have a special training day called Culture Day where we get to learn all about the Swedish people and well culture. It was so fun and I got a fun pin with the US and Swedish flag on it. I look forward to taking more of them or even getting to teach one sometime.

One part of it was about the food Swedes eat. Lots of herring! I tried herring paste from a tube which wasn't horrible but it did make me think of cat food. Since it was November when we were in this class we also got some Julmust which is a soda that's only available during the Christmas holidays. It actually outsells Coke and Pepsi during it's limited time on the shelves! I don't know how to describe it other than a holiday soft drink haha.

So the point is I got to try Swedish Fontina Cheese! It has a nice red wax edge. I don't know much about cheese at all (to spite the name) even though I love it. The blog post from Chickens really makes me want to learn more about cheese. I picked up some more Fontina since we sell it in the Bistro but I also found out we sell lots of other cheeses.

I just cut some of the cheese (teehee, I'm 12 and that's silly) and sat down to learn some. Ah internet, the wonderful information you provide my fingertips. Here's a link to the Wiki Article if you'd like to get a general idea http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fontina

I would describe the flavor as strong but I'm used to more mild cheeses in general. I think this is technically a more milder version because apparently the original Italian type does age with its own rind and therefore becomes bolder in taste. OOH in my research someone had this cheese on pizza and I would LOVE to try that.

I'm excited to buy and try more cheeses and actually I just realized I'm getting a Melting Pot gift card as part of my Coworker of the month prize so I can't wait to try what they've got as fondue! Don't worry though, I am being careful that the cheeses I'm eating are firm pasteurized and pregnancy safe in general. 

So what's your favorite cheese?

Surprise

Well I know that the last time I posted was in October but a lot of really great business has been happening. Incase anyone's here who isn't on my Facebook or is actually still reading I'll recap!

In early November I entered a contest on Facebook for Command Strips. Remember when I made my Christmas Tree last year?  So the week before Thanksgiving I got a phone call while I was at work. It was before we opened so I went to the break room and couldn't quite understand their message so I called them back. Turns out my entry was chosen!! I won a flip cam with some accessories along with about $100 worth of Command products. With the camera I had to shoot a "commercial" within a week. Once they received it they sent me $500!!  I was shocked!

After that I walked back out to the floor where one of the HR reps came up to me. There was a big drive to turn in our old handbooks when they came out with new ones in October. Well I'd really just gotten the old one so I knew where it was and turned it in no problem. Apparently that had entered me in a drawing! I'd won dinner and a movie (well $25 to AMC and $25 to Applebees)! Within 5 minutes and I'd already had a pretty awesome day.

Here's the video I made with the camera.


Thanksgiving came and I had an amazing time at my families with hubby this year.

Shortly before Christmas I got an early present but I'll get back to that.

Christmas came and we celebrated with our parents and family coming to our house for Ham and goodies.

New Years we got to celebrate with our friends Brandy and Justin!

Fast forward to last week where a gross snow/ice storm came rolling in. It had just been blah for a little while in the morning so I went into work. Just a few hours in and  an announcement came on- Coworker of the Month. It was MY NAME!! After just 7 months there I'd been selected as Coworker of the month!! It is such an honor. A little bit after that another announcement came on and we were all sent home because of the weather. Blah.

The next day I had off work anyway to check up on my Christmas present. Everything went great so we were finally able to tell the world. If you haven't guessed or heard by now- there's A LITTLE FISHIE on the way!



 


So right to the details: Due August 9th and we will be finding out the gender and having a fun party to announce it. We told most of our family through fun scratch offs and no one suspected! It was so cute all the surprises. I will accept name suggestions but we're probably keeping 3 for each gender (predictions can be wrong) and waiting til we meet the little person to pick it.

Thanks for reading still and I promise to try to keep you updated but also not turn this into only a mommy blog. I promise to still craft.

What's happened in a month?

I know I go on random dry spells and I always promise to do better but this time wasn't even a dry spell. I have SOOO much to tell you!

At the beginning of September I quit my job. Yeap. It was the job I offered my senior year of college and it was working at the same office as my hubby. It was also somewhat in my field and the pay was amazing to me. A little over 4 years later and I wasn't too far from where I'd started but considering it was a pretty small company it's not like I expected to go anywhere or even really learn amazing things. There were lots of positive things gained and of course it was all a lesson in something. Hubby will still be working for them so it's not like I won't see them anymore.

I'm closer to home now and while I miss my books on tape, I am amazed at how much more I'm getting done spending about 3.5 hours less in the car everyday. My new job is, I think, my new job for life, my career. Its a lot more hands on and there are a lot more opportunities.

I'm watching SNL while writing this because my bestie won tickets and finally made it up. She had plans earlier in the year but then there were terrible storms that canceled her trip. I keep trying to catch glimpse of her in the audience.

One final thing, as you know I joined a gym, I've been doing pretty well I think. I did go on my bi-annual Scraptrip and that usually is when I fall off track. One of our Squirrel's has moved and wasn't able to make this trip but we skyped (yes, i do like that it's become a verb like google) and whoa! I knew she was working on herself but she's lost 60 lbs on medfast in about 6 months!! She's been a great cheerleader to me and since she's done so well I've really been kicked into gear coming back from the trip that I'm determined to meet if not exceed her loss by our next retreat in Feb. (hear that Mel? I am taking on the challenge!) I was amazed to find I'd done a great job at self control this retreat and lost 4 lbs which also finally put me past a bump I'd been stuck on for the past 3 weeks. In total these past 2 weeks I'm down 6 lbs but still 10 from where I was at my last low point.

I've been continuing on my c25k runs and today I pumped it up to week 5. Week 5 is actually 3 different runs. Day 1 is 5 min walk, 5 run 3 walk repeat 3 times. I knew I'd be ok doing it since at my last week 4 run I actually did just keep running and did 7 minutes. I wanted to keep going but I'm trying to train correctly so I don't burn out since that's obviously easy for me to do. I'm actually ready to do Day 2 next which is 2 8 min runs with 5 min walks between. Day 3 is a 20 min straight run.

It's 8 weeks til Thanksgiving. Technically that's about as long as c25k altogether so a beginner could start today and be doing a 5k by then. So what excuse do I have that I've only got 3 more weeks left to do? NONE? Sooooo I'm signing up for a Turkey Trot 5k!! Not sure which one yet but I'm ready (or at least I know I will be.)

Oh there is another thing. I got new glasses today! Actually 2! It was buy one, get one free so I picked out 2 pairs and since my prescription didn't change too much, I'm keeping my old pair too to work out in. If I get a nice pic I'll try to show you.

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