How annoying...

Ok, there are a couple of things I'd like to change about blogger...I know I'm probably going to catch some flack for these, but here goes:

1) If I have ENGLISH selected as my language, I'd like to see only ENGLISH blogs come up when I'm browsing.
2) It would be nice to be able to search for blogs by people's names.

Wishful thinking, I know...but it would be nice nonetheless...

~Peanut


"It's a strange world of language in which skating on thin ice can get you into hot water."
-Franklin P. Jones

Ok, here goes

So, yesterday was Ash Wednesday. I didn't make it to the 9:30 mass in the morning, so I went to the church on my lunch break to get my own ashes. It was nice! I stayed and prayed for a few minutes also, then headed back to work. I had a few people do the whole "hey...you have a little something on your forehead" jokingly, but that's ok. I expected that.

The rest of the day went so slow!!! All I could think about was going to the wings game. Our tickets were in the second row! Anyhoo...here are some shots from the game, enjoy!

Warming up...


The Red Wings Own...Karen Newman!


Injured Shark on the ice...


Cleary...probably one of the better shots of the night...


Just a scuffle :-)


Datsyuk and Lidstrom...


Action in our corner!


Draper & Conklin...


Draper on a face-off...


Conklin...


P.S. Go to the Detroit Red Wings website, and check out the desktop background from February 25...yeah, that's us in that picture!!! The guy in the yellow shirt with the Kinde sign, and the 3 Wings jerseys in front of him! What a riot...I soooooooo want to go again!!! Those seats ROCKED!

I don't want to make this post too awfully long, but here's my Lenten penance. I've decided to fast 3 days a week, not just Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. I'm also eliminating cheese and milk (to the best of my ability). What I'm going to do to replace snacking or most of my lunch hour is this...I'm going to research more about my faith, things that I'm not 100% clear on. This is all in addition to my previous restrictions.

~Peanut


"I didn't know I had a quarrel with him."
-Henry Thoreau in answer to the question, "Have you made your peace with God?"

Yay Birthday!

Yep, today is my birthday. I am officially one year closer to 30!!! But that's ok. That's how life goes! I will hopefully be posting a longer post this afternoon with Ash Wednesday stuff and my Lenten penance when I get home from work, but this will have to do for now!

Michael and I went to the wings game last night!!! Thanks to a good friends dad!!! :-) Of course, the wings won 4-1 against the top ranked team in the conference! We were close enough to see the sweat splatters on the glass...it was AWESOME!!! I got some pretty good pictures, and I'll try to post them this afternoon also. Too bad my battery pretty much died half way through the second period. Oh well, still got some good shots!!!

Anyhoo...gotta get ready for work.

~Peanut


"Ice hockey is a form of disorderly conduct in which the score is kept."
-Doug Larson

Yuck!

Well, this weekend went pretty well! Had my PartyLite show (didn't get much in sales yet though), got to see my big sis, my mom, my cousin, a few good friends of mine, and 4 nieces and nephews! I just hope that when I decide to sell again after the wedding, I can get an awesome turnout, and a fantastic start!!! I've tried it before, but this time will be different. Michael and I are really leaning towards me being a stay at home mom. It hasn't been set in stone yet, and it can still just be additional income if we can't afford for me to stay at home...

Now, on to the yuck part. I started feeling kind of sick yesterday afternoon. I was just all over blah...started getting a stuffy nose, and just wanted to crawl into bed. This morning, when my alarm went off at 5:30...I re-set it for 6. Couldn't hardly breathe cause my nose was so stuffed up. I wanted to stay home, but I was already scheduled off on Thursday for my birthday so I sucked it up and went to work. That lasted all of an hour before I went and told my manager I wanted to take a half day. So, here I am, sitting at home, blogging...with an incredibly stuffy nose, droopy eyes, and a long list of 'to-dos'. Grrr. Time to take a nap I guess...

~Peanut


"No day is so bad it can't be fixed with a nap."
-Carrie Snow

So bummed...

Don't get me wrong, I'm a very happy person! I'm just very bummed out about the outcome of my consult yesterday. Seems that since my teeth are growing so close to the nerve in my jaw, that they have to come out one at a time...for safety reasons. That means two separate appointments, having one wisdom tooth pulled each time. The top two came out in high school, and I was put under for that, but I will be wide awake...maybe a little high off laughing gas and whatever other drugs they give me...but awake nonetheless. I am really not looking forward to it at all! I'm actually quite afraid. I tried to change the appointments to have both pulled at once, but they wouldn't have it. Oh well. Hopefully the first one won't go too bad, and I won't have a reaction to the pain medication they gave me. My oldest sister will be coming over the Friday after my surgeries to stay with me just in case too which is fantastic! The bid downfall...I'm having to use three more personal days to get it done. Again, oh well...everything happens how and when it's supposed to. I just hope I don't have permanent numbness from it...ya know...since the wedding is coming up in May! Pray for me...please...

Oh, and let's add insult to injury now...I just bought CANDY from the stupid vending machine downstairs. Looks like my little plan is pointless. No...I can do it. I know I can. It's just been a rough week...I did work out every morning this week. I haven't had coffee or tea all week, haven't been snacking (the candy technically was part of lunch I guess), and Michael finished off the dark chocolate he got for me, so that's not screaming at me anymore...so all in all, I don't think I'm doing too bad!

~Peanut

"Fear is the father of courage and the mother of safety."
-Henry H. Tweedy

Strange craving...

So, when you think of cravings, you usually think of pregnant women and their psychotic desire to have pickles and ice cream, or a chalupa from Taco Bell at 2 am, right? Well, let me tell you...I am not pregnant, but I have a strange craving. I've been seriously craving some cardio!!! lol I would LOVE to start running again, but it's just too stinking cold lately. My throat and lungs feel like they're frozen after about 10 minutes in the garage, let alone going for a run around the neighborhood. I might just have to bite the bullet and get (or make) a scarf I can wrap around my mouth so I can breathe.

This morning I made due with jumping rope for about 5 minutes. That was a fiasco in itself. My jump rope broke after the first few 'revolutions' if you will. I went back inside and grabbed Michael's jump rope and used it for the rest of the time. After it got stuck on my shoes a few, well, 8 or 10 times, I stopped. I jump rope better in bare feet, and it's too cold for that right now!!! For me anyways. After I finished that, I did some jumping jacks. Don't know how many, but I did it for one full song. By that time I was kinda sucking wing, and my throat/lungs felt like ice cubes. Enough of this crap, I'm going back inside!!! lol But I got a quick fix.

Anyhoo...lunch is almost done...

~Peanut


"People say that losing weight is no walk in the park. When I hear that I think, yeah, that's the problem."
-Chris Adams

First day...

And I'm already cheating! Not really bad...but still. We had lunch catered in because our city did really well last month. There were sandwich wraps offered, and instead of taking a 'meaty' one, I took the veggie one. Well, there was cheese on it. And I didn't even notice it until the first half of the thing was 3/4 gone!!! I only ate the one half of it...so I guess it's not that bad...Michael can eat the rest. lol

We're heading to our reception hall tonight to put the second deposit down! Yay! 89 days to go...I can't wait!! I still need to call our music director at the church to set up an appointment and to make sure we can use the music we want, need to call the limo company and the photographer too to set up payment arrangements with them. Crap...I need to order a photo to put in the frame for the rehearsal dinner!!! Aah!!! The 3 month crunch starts...I so hope we can get the majority of the stuff done well before the wedding. I don't want to be ripping Michael's head off for absolutely no reason...pray for me (well, US!!!).

~Peanut


"When the one man loves the one woman and the one woman loves the one man, the very angels desert heaven and come and sit in that house and sing for joy."
-The Brahma Sutras

I can't wait for spring!!!

Ok...I love winter, love the snow, love the crispness in the air...don't really care for the cold much unless it's accompanied by snow, but still love it!!! I just can't wait for more warm weather so I can start running again. I wouldn't mind doing it in the cold, I just don't want to fall and break a leg or something on the ice!

I had my first dress fitting on Thursday, and I'm so stinking excited about my dress. Can't go into detail though because Michael reads my blogs! :-) Invites have to go out by the end of next month, and we're putting our second deposit down on the hall tomorrow! Yay! Can't wait!!!

Last night, Michael and I boarded the S.S. St. Anastasia St. Valentine Dinner Cruise. It was a lot of fun! It was put on by a group at our church that does a program called 'Marriage: God's Love Made Visible'. We started off at the church, and went all the way to Hawaii!!! lol There was really good food, some fun games, and fantastic desserts! Good thing I'm revamping my eating habits starting this week! I NEED IT!!! The best part of the entertainment was provided by the pastor and associate pastor...see the video here.

We're down to 90 days now! Yay!!! I am so glad that Michael and I were brought together. I'm thankful for all of our happiness, our struggles, and our love for each other. I know that God sent us on the paths we traveled and brought us to each other for great reasons!

~Peanut


"God's will is not an itinerary, but an attitude."
-Andrew Dhuse

What a guy!!!

I love my honey! He gave me my Valentine's Day present today...here it is!



Yes...that's all dark chocolate in that box :-) and the puppy is so stinkin' cute!!!

Anyhoo...Happy Valentine's Day! A little early...

~Peanut

"A hundred hearts would be too few
To carry all my love for you."
-Author Unknown

Making some changes.

This morning, I decided I was going to make some changes in order to maintain myself until the wedding. By that I mean maintain my health and my weight. Back when I was living in my apartment, I was up at the crack of dawn to work out, and had pretty much taken on a 'raw' food...regime...if you would. I was eating mainly only fruits and vegetables, with the occasional eggs and toast in the morning, and pasta or chicken at night. I would snack on tortilla chips or wheat thins also, but a bag of chips or box of crackers would last me a few weeks. I stuck pretty strictly to suggested serving sizes when I would eat anything that wasn't fruits or veggies. Well, I really need to get back to that...so here's what I decided, starting this Sunday:

1) No more coffee - I started drinking it again recently mixing cocoa with it. It was really yummy with raspberry cocoa!!!
2) No more tea - I don't drink it very often, so it won't be too hard.
3) No more chocolate - Again, I don't have it very often, so it won't be hard. Besides, milk chocolate makes me break out, so I usually have dark chocolate (yumm!), or white chocolate which is really candy.
4) No more candy - Help me Lord with this one!!! I LOVE those little candy hearts they have for Valentine's Day...and heath bars, sprees, sweet tarts, fruit slices, spearmint life savers, skittles, twizzlers...anything fruity really. I am still allowing myself gum though.
5) No more snacking - I don't really do it very often (sounding like a broken record now), but snacking at night is my weakness...chips or popcorn at oh, 8 or so, especially when watching American Idol...yeah...gotta stop.

I've already started getting back into the habit of getting up and working out in the morning. Right now, it's 3 times a week but I want to get back to 5 days, Monday through Friday. I felt SO MUCH BETTER when I was eating right and exercising. I also need to start getting to bed earlier. I need to be in bed by 9 every night, and that hasn't been happening. Time to get my butt in gear!!! My motivation...I have a size 6 wedding gown that I have to fit into in 93 days!!! LOL That, and I look at old pics of me even from about 4 or 7 years ago and I don't like what I see. I wasn't huge, but I could have looked a lot better.

Wish me luck!!!

~Peanut


"Happiness lies, first of all, in health."
-George William Curtis, Lotus-Eating

It's...So...CLOSE!!!

3 MORE MONTHS!!!!! It's so stinkin close I can almost FEEL it!!! I have my first dress fitting tomorrow (Yay!), and I'm having all the girls over in March to work on the centerpieces! Yay!!! The shower is right around the corner, and the invites have to go out NEXT MONTH!!! I can't wait!!!

Now to the not-so-fun stuff...kind of. I've decided to start up my PartyLite business a little sooner than originally planned. Like 3 months sooner. It's going to be VERY stressful for the next 3 months with wedding plans, RCIA, occasionally subbing for Catechism, along with PartyLite, but I can do it. I know I can, and I want to. I just hope I can actually qualify in February!!! AAAH!!!

Other not-so-fun stuff...and this is the really not-so-fun. I get to go to an oral surgeon and have my bottom 2 wisdom teeth removed. Yeah, the top 2 came out in high school. The bottom ones were growing in the right direction but were kind of growing around the nerve so they didn't want to touch them. Oh well...from what I hear, it's much worse the older you get. When my top 2 came out, I missed one day of school (I think...cause I had the surgery on Thursday), and found out the hard way that I'm allergic to Codeine. Now, I'm afraid that I'm going to have to miss work...that's gonna suck especially with all of the changes that are going on here!

This will all work out though. I have Faith!!! I may be getting in over my head right now with the whole PartyLite thing, but I know God will guide me through it. Michael will be there to help too :-)

Anyhoo...lunch is almost over...

~Peanut


"Make your optimism come true."
-Author Unknown

Another good song

There's a song that I've heard on the radio a few times that just strikes me. It's called "In Color" by Jamey Johnson. And let me tell you...the guy looks NOTHING like I pictured!!! lol

The part that gets me the most goes like this:
A pictures worth a thousand words
But you can't see what those shades of gray keep covered
You should've seen it in color.

The reason I think that kind of gets to me is because I absolutely LOVE black & white photography. It seems to have such a pure image, conveys so much, but leaves so much to the imagination!!! I love it.

A couple photos for "comparison":

The bar at Bru Bar & Hostel in County Cork, Ireland.




Kinsale City, Ireland.




Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, Ireland.




The veggie plate at moms 2008 Christmas Party.





Might not work as well with buildings, landscapes, or even vegetables...but you get the idea! lol

I have some better pics in black & white, but they aren't digital...oh well.

~Peanut


"When you photograph people in colour you photograph their clothes. But when you photograph people in B&W, you photograph their souls!"
-Ted Grant

It's official...

I am officially a peon. Not that I care...but there are 6 people in my department at work, and 4 have offices, while me and my counterpart are in the cubicle farm all alone! Oh well, like I said, I don't care. Today is way too quiet though. I'm the only one in the cubicle farm!!! My counterpart has the day off. I can jam the music though, so that's ok! hahaa My brain feels like mush from the last few weeks here, and it's hard to concentrate on anything really.

This weekend, Cletus and I are going to Kinde. We haven't been there in what seems like forever, but I think it's only been a couple of months. There's a wild game dinner tomorrow night and I'm really looking forward to it!

On the wedding front...I have my first dress fitting (YAY!!!!) on February 12th, and I'm excited but dreading it at the same time. I put on about 10 pounds over the holidays and haven't managed to shed more than 3 or 4 pounds of that off...grr... Time to get back to my fruits and veggies like I was doing before, and back to exercising on a daily basis. I was doing really good with that when I was living in my apartment, but as soon as I moved into the house, it all went out the window. Living with someone that has such different eating habits, and such a high metabolism is really a test of your will power...time to get mine in check!!! Back on track now...I'm planning on having all of my girls and the moms over to work on getting the ribbons on the candles, and creating the floral rings for the centerpieces. I absolutely love how the first one turned out, and can't wait to see how the other color combinations go!!! Oh yeah...and trying to put together a candle ring with individual flower stems...disaster. It's not going to happen. Cletus and I went back to the store (yes, Cletus went to a craft store with me, what a guy!!!), and I got 16 more vines so I will have enough to make them all out of those instead of those pesky individual flowers!

Anyhoo...I get a long lunch today, and I'm going to screw around for the rest of it!

~Peanut


"The finest emotion of which we are capable is the mystic emotion."
-Albert Einstein

Another sad day...

So today I found out that another co-worker of mine is leaving the company. Granted, I don't see her every day because she works in our Chicago office, but still!!! I will miss her a LOT, and hopefully we will be able to keep in touch...

That makes three people in the last...what...six months that have left, four in the last eight months or so that I was pretty close with. IT SUCKS!!! My sanity is leaving, and so are my "buffers"...time to tough it out on my own I guess...

~Peanut


"Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go."
-William Feather

I knew it!!!

~~LOVE THE CENTERPIECES~~

Ok, so my mom and I went shopping yesterday to figure out stuff for the centerpieces. I had a good feeling before we left, but I had no idea it would go as well as it did!!! I got so many ideas, and so much to work with now...gonna be fun! Now, I just need to get all of the girls together so we can get the candles wrapped, and the rings made...check out the pics!

This is a pic of the complete "purchase" yesterday...minus the guest book and garter **giggle**.


We're using standard 12" square mirror tiles in the center of the table. A plain white doily will be placed under the candle to help prevent wax from getting on the mirror.


Now, I bought some regular bunches of flowers:


And some vines in white, dark purple, light purple and gray-blue:



Along with this fun star garland!!!


Here's the first round (yes...I put aluminum foil on top of our dvd spinner, he already called me a nerd lol)...




And a shot with one strand of the star garland:


I can't wait to see how the rest of them turn out...especially the ones that are made out of the individual flowers! Lots of crafty days for me ahead!!!

~Peanut


"Time is a dressmaker specializing in alterations."
-Faith Baldwin