Friday, March 28th, 2014

High Five for Friday!!!

Oh my goodness!!! I thought the week was never going to end!!! No joke!!! It was one of those "the-hits-just-keep-on-coming" weeks. We were given some "not-so-great" news at work early on in the week. On Tuesday night, I lost my keys. I found them after a frantic 20 minute long "I-know-I-brought-them-into-the-house" search. Wednesday, it turned winter-ish again with temps hovering in the low- to mid-60's. For a Florida girl, that's Polar Vortex weather. And, the week just seems to move at a snail's pace when you have something really big that you are looking forward to on the weekend.

Regardless of all the ickyness, I want to take a moment and do my weekly High Five for Friday link up.

 

-1-

Successfully baked a zillion chocolate chip cookies (Princess Cookies) and sugar cookies (Pirate Hardtack) this week for our Pirates and Princesses Story Time (more on that in a new Wednesday post). Okay, it was more like 144, but with my culinary skills (or lack thereof), it felt like a zillion. And, they were Place & Bake. Even so, it takes culinary talent to monitor the oven and get those babies out before they burn. :-) 

-2-

FINALLY found some Vanilla Cupcake Goldfish Grahams. They were BOGO this week at my fav grocery store. Went to four different store locations on my work route, but all four were...wait for it...wait for it...sold out! Ay dios mio! Finally found some on Tuesday evening at my trusty dusty local store. Got my two packages and still have my rainchecks. Woo hoo!

-3-

My supervisor just got back from vacationing in Africa and brought us each back a "something good" as I like to call it. She brought me back this adorable and beautifully made penguin bead keychain.

-4-

Went home Wednesday night and baked some pumpkin corn muffins for my dance team's surprise Pumpkin Appreciation Day Party on Thursday evening. Last fall, we were talking about how we felt that pumpkins didn't get enough love throughout the year as they are only really brought up in the fall for obvious reasons. We felt that we should have a pumpkin appreciation day in March and so we did. Happy Pumpkin Appreciation Day Pumpkins!!!

-5-

And last, but certainly not least, came out of Zumba retirement Thursday night after a LLLOOOOONNNNGGGG break for Upward and various other not-so-important-but-they-seemed-so-at-the-time things. Zumba party people, I'm "back in black" and will be a regular fixture of the class until the fall when Upward starts again.

Now, off to The GA for QT with the family. Buenos weekend!!!

Monday, March 24th, 2014

Weekend Recap and Mission #12

Happy Monday!!! Well, as happy as a Monday can get, I suppose. Decided to check in and recap the weekend and share about last week's kindness mission.

First, the weekend (or what I had of a weekend because this week was an off Friday/work Saturday weekend). I spent all day Friday at home. Yes, that's right, I didn't even start the car. Friday morning I went for a nice 3 mile jog/walk around the neighborhood. That's 9 times around the neighborhood and about an hour and a half after stopping and talking to some of my new neighbors.

Friday afternoon was spent helping the g-pizzles get ready for a dinner party and entertaining my crazy niece while my sister visited with our g-pizzles. Yay Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots (my favorite game ever), Jenga, Go Fish, and Crayola.

Just as soon as the sister and niece left, the dinner party guests got here and stayed until almost 10:30 pm playing cards. Man, them 80+-year-olds can party harder than I can (or care to).

Saturday was all work and little play. Not much to report really, just work, work, work. 

Sunday morning, I got up and got my walk/job in, got my worship on, and then headed to my bestie's little boy's first birthday party at a local park. It was Dr. Seuss-themed. I was in heaven. Happy Birthday Baby M!

After the party, I had to rush home as I was on dinner duty and had to prepare our sides for that night (roasted seasoned potato wedges, and pasta salad) and bake some pirate hardtack (sugar cookies) and enchanted princess cookies (chocolate chip cookies) for this week's pirates and princesses story times. C-R-A-Z-Y, but N-A-I-L-E-D I-T!!!

Hope the week's a little slower, but not too slow. I'm heading to The GA to spend the weekend with the family.

And now on to the kindness mission...
 

Our kindness mission last week was to use a reusable shopping bag (or reusable shopping bags). Easy task right? And, the feel good is quadruple-fold. 

1. When you use reusable, there is less need for plastic bags, which leads to less production of plastic bags which means less pollution and oil consumption that goes along with producing those bags. Yay environment!!!
2. Reusable bags are way stronger and can carry twice as much as a plastic bag.
3. Some stores offer discounts on total purchases if you use reusable bags.
4. And, some reusable bags are attached to other charities, meaning that a portion of the proceeds from the initial sale of the reusable bags will go to a charity.

That ALL being said, this week, I used reusable bags during purchases as often as I possible could. Hopefully everyone will jump on the reusable bags bandwagon and help our environment (and us) reap the benefits. :-)

Mission #11: Complete.

Mission #12: Compliment a friend.

Friday, March 21st, 2014

High Five for Friday!!!

It's Friday! It's Friday! (sung in a singsong voice) Funny how the week goes so fast when you're having fun. To revisit the week's fav events, I am doing my usual link up with Lauren Elizabeth for High Five for Friday...

1. Saturday, I went canoeing for the very first time in the beautiful waters of
    De Leon Springs!!! So awesome that I can't wait to go again!!!

2. Received two packages via snail mail of blog giveaway prizes that I've
    won the past couple of weeks. (Definite perk of blog hopping - supporting
    the blogs and the sponsoring businesses. :-))

3. Found a Tuesday night women's bible study at a church within walking
    distance of my house. Went to my first meeting this past Tuesday night 
    and had an absolute blast. The ladies were so nice and welcoming. The 
    leader and the lessons were so easy to understand. Definitely going to 
    make the meeting a Tuesday night fixture. Which reminds me, I have to 
    order the study book...

4. Finished my March book, I AM NUMBER FOUR by Pittacus Lore, this week.
    Woo hoo! Been meaning to get around to reading it since before the movie
    came out, but I guess it's better late than never, right? It's a good book, 
    but different from the movie. Even so, I'm thinking about making my April 
    book THE POWER OF SIX, I AM NUMBER FOUR's sequel.

5. And lastly, went for dinner and a movie with my movie buddy Thursday night.
    We saw...wait for it...wait for it...Divergent!!! That's right!!! I
    remember getting into the series and predicting that they were going to
    make it into a movie with said movie buddy way back when we worked at our
    old library. Now, we finally got to see it. It. Was. So. Good. We are totally
    making plans to see it at least 4 million more times.

Best wishes for an amazing weekend!!!

Weekend Recap and Mission #11

Weekend Recap & Mission #11

Happy Monday!!! Okay, so, last night (Sunday), I had one of those amazing "eureka" ideas to start recapping my weekends on Monday's post considering this IS a blog to chronicle my adventures (and misadventures) in 2014.

So, here goes... Friday evening was pretty uneventful with the exception of a brief visit from my sister (it was her birthday) and my crazy awesome niece. I did make a movie in the park and ice cream date night with my niece in April. I can't wait!

(Sorry for the blurred faces. Have to protect my girls.)

Saturday was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! The day started with coaching my last game of the 2014 Upward basketball cheer season. Sooo sad to finish the season because my girls were absolutely amazing, but excited to get back to my "normal" Thursday night schedule and looking forward to the 2014 Upward football cheer season in the fall. I'm leaning strongly towards coaching and commissioning. ;-) 

After the game, a friend and I headed to De Leon Springs State Park to see what we could get into. If you've never been to De Leon Springs State Park in De Leon Springs, FL, I strongly suggest you make a trip there. You are guaranteed to have a blast!

So, it was a must for friend to eat pancakes at the park's Old Spanish Sugar Mill Restaurant (1 & 2), so the first thing we did was head to the restaurant to put our name on the waiting list. Because the park was having an event, the wait was about 2 1/2 hours. To kill time, friend and I decided to go exploring. We hiked and walked and walked and hiked and visited the interpretive center and all of the displays on the grounds (3). So cool! And, eventually we got around to having lunch. Self-made all you can eat pancakes made on the griddle in the center of our table. So! Much! Fun!

After lunch (to work off lunch), we rented a canoe and explored the waterways near the park (4). It was my very first time canoeing and I am hooked. I LITERALLY CANNOT WAIT TO GO AGAIN!!! It was such a nice and relaxing and beautiful and fun day in the Florida sunshine.

Sunday was extremely low-key after such an amazing Saturday. Walked to church (it's .4 of a mile from where I live), got my worship on, and walked back home to get some things done around the house to prep for the week. Later, I went out to dinner with the grandparentals.

And that brings us to today, St. Patrick's Day. Happy St. Patrick's Day and hope the luck of the Irish is with everyone today and throughout the week. Speaking of the start of the week, I guess I should recap last week's mission too, huh?

Last week's mission was to treat your co-workers. Since I coach cheer and we have snacks on Thursday nights and most of the snacks that I get come in 10's AND I only have 8 girls, I kept the remaining snacks in a reusable bag and brought them in to share with my colleagues. This one was super easy, but my co-workers really appreciated it. :-)

Mission #11: Complete.

Mission #12: Use a reusable shopping bag.

H54F!!!

H54F!!!

Wonderful, glorious Friday... Good to see you again!!! Thank you for being Friday AND thank you for giving me the opportunity to reflect on my five fav moments of the past week. :-)

1. Got invited to a Despicable Me double-feature on the small screen at a friend
    of mine's this past weekend. We both absolutely adore those movies. Totally
    enjoyed spending QT with my buddy and Kyle and Edith (my two fav
    characters).

2. Hosted my very first library field trip as a professional librarian on Monday for
    a group of Pre-K 4 students. Had a blast!!! The kids were so well behaved.
    But, they could have cared less about the library tour; they just wanted to
    get to the fun stuff (i.e. story time).  

3. Scored two new bottles of nail polish for $0.25. Now my toesies will be all
    festive for St. Paddy's Day.

4. Awesome co-worker and I found this little gem in a real estate magazine
    that we were looking at during GAG and had a huge laugh. A house "BUILT
    by a BUILDER?" Nah, really? That's like having a book read by a reader. It's
    the little things. ;-)

5. Oh, and updated my Dr. Seuss collection and started my own "Vault." My
    supervisor has this amazing collection of classics in a storage area (which I
    like to affectionately call "The Vault") in her office and I am forever telling her
    how awesome it is, so she sent me over a cart filled with Dr. Seuss books
    and a note wishing me luck in starting my own "Vault." I can only hope
    to attain her caliber of selection and have her luck in obtaining stellar titles
    for my collection.

Buenos weekend!!!

Mission #10

Mission #10

 

 

Kindness Mission #9 was to drop previously purchased food item(s) by a local food donation drop site (i.e. food pantry, church, donation box, etc.). I dropped mine in the courier at work to go to HQ to be distributed to needy families.

 

Mission #9: Completed.

Mission #10: Treat your co-workers.

 

 



High Five For Friday!!!

High Five For Friday!!!

Happy Friday!!! It's been such an awesome week!!! Seriously, such an awesome week!!! Super heavy on The Seuss as we were celebrating his birthday (March 2nd) ALL WEEK LONG at work!!! Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!!!

In that regard, here are my top five from the past week:

1. My co-worker, the awesome one, and I created this backdrop for decoration
    in our story room for the event week. Those truffula trees were so much fun
    to make. 

2. Speaking of trufulla trees, we ended up making these for each of the kids out
    of pencils and pom poms. They L-O-V-E-D them. (Thank you Pinterest!!!)

3. Since it WAS Dr. Seuss's birthday week, we can't forget one of his most
    famous characters...drum roll please...The Cat in the Hat!!! That's me as The
    Cat in the Hat in a homemade costume. I got to dress up Tuesday and
    Thursday for the story times and IT WAS A BLAST!!!

4. Of course, we simply HAD to make Cat in the Hat hats. The kids and the
    parents loved it too!!! Bonus: They were super easy to make. :-)

5. And, the fifth of my top five moments of the week (not that "partying" ALL
   week wasn't A-M-A-Z-I-N-G) was coming home on Wednesday night to find
   two pairs of practically new AE jeans on my bed. Thanks Bubs!!!  

Like I said, awesome week!!! Have a pretty busy weekend ahead of me too!!!Loves it!!!  

Mission #9

Mission #9

 

Mission #8 was to purchase a food item (or food items) to donate to a food pantry. This past week, a local grocery store had an awesome sale on Maruchan Yakisoba Home-Style Japanese Noodles. Man, they have tons of varieties now, they even make mac & cheese flavored!!! So, I picked up a few packages (8 to be exact as they were BOGO) to complete Mission #8.

 

 

Mission #8: Complete.

 

Mission #9: Drop purchased food item(s) by a local food donation drop site (i.e. food pantry, church, donation box, etc.).