Blessed!!

Had to pop in and let the world know how blessed I am!!!

My birthday is this weekend (Sunday to be exact) and since I took a vacation day on Friday, my co-workers surprised me with a decorated cubicle today! How cute is this!?!?! LOVE IT!!

I was sooo excited when I walked into the office today - they made my whole week!!!

 And this is my awesome cake!! I may, or may not have, had a ginormous piece of this fudgy goodness for breakfast along with my spinach and beet shake!! LOL!!

 They even left me some amazingly awesome gifts!!!! Jenna got me the Buxom collection - she knows it my favorite lip glass on the planet! 

The Popcorn is from Sheila whom I have known and worked with forever (she worked with my father years ago too)!!! It is chocolate covered popcorn!!!!!!! YUM!!!!!!!!

And on a final adorable note:  My baby bluebirds at work are ready to fledge which means they will leaving the nest within the next few days!! :-(   

WOW!  Off to a good start - successfully fledged 5 baby birdies this year so far!! When they leave, I will go clean out the old nest and hopefully mom and dad will be ready to make 5 more!!!!!!!! I LOVE nature!!!

Thank you to all the vets that gave ALL for our freedom and country!!!

I hope yinz have an amazing holiday weekend!!! 

My First Blog Selfie

You know I must truly LOVE my new friend Sherri at GodLifeHappyWife when I take a selfie!

We recently participated in a Color Swap hosted by the Amazing Chaotic Goddess!!!

I sent her things of her favorite color (Purple) and she sent me things of mine (Yellow).

Everything she sent was awesome and you can read about it HERE.

I promised a selfie when I used the purse and necklace - well, here it is - it only took me a day!  I definitely think work will see these items at least twice a week! I LOVE a pop of color in a neutral outfit!!

And now it is really clear why I do not write a fashion blog! The pics of my style is horrible! You guys find these great locations with beautiful backdrops and even better poses to show off your outfit and pairing choices and I have a mirror in the bathroom!!!! HEE  Oh well, we do what we can!!

Thanks again Sherri!! I love everything you sent and feel very blessed to have made a new friend in the process!!!

Happy Thursday yinz!

Color Swap

Time to recap the fun!!!

I am sooo excited to say that I participated in the Favorite Color Swap hosted by Beth and in the process met a truly amazing woman, Sherri, that I can now call my new friend and bloggy friend!

My new friend Sherri can be found HERE at her adorable blog space where she blogs about her family, faith, fashion and other miscellaneous things!! He favorite color is purple!! Make sure you check out her blog! She is an amazing woman that has overcome some obstacles in her life and still has an amazing outlook on life and faith - not to mention AWESOME fashion style - which I admit I lack - hee!!

She wrapped everything in this beautiful tissue paper with ribbons and sunflowers and I thought I had taken a picture but sadly I cannot find it!?!?

Here is my note from my new buddy!!!

And now, onto the awesomeness that was inside!!!!  She sent me this adorable purse!!! This has already in two days become my FAVORITE summer purse!!! I LOVE the yellow and it is the perfect size for any summer outing!!! LOVE LOVE LOVE!!

She also sent this adorable necklace!! How awesome is this?! It will be perfect with so many outfits I have now and I love the brown beads mixed in - seriously so pretty!!! I am wearing it at work already today - yippee!~~

Sherri also sent me this adorable kite to do my own pedicures...awesomeness!!!

And some beautiful polish!!! (Brilliant minds must think alike as I sent her polish as well) :-)

 

Loving this Livestrong bracelet...I see a lot of people in my races wearing these so I am now the happy owner of one!!!

And last but definitely not least...I am so sure that Sherri got to know me by this last item! I was confused when I saw the white pillow case but once I opened it up it was clear! She really really got to know me! I LOVE Kidrock more than any other musician EVER and she hooked me up with my very own Kidrock pillowcase! Yes, you heard correctly, I am now sleeping with Kidrock!!!! THANK YOU SHERRI!!!! HEE!!! 

 

I love it and also love everything else you sent! I was thrilled that you read my blog and got to know me and sent everything that I would have selected for myself!! I am so happy to now have made a new friend in the process! THANK YOU AGAIN SHERRI!

Did you guess my favorite color?!?!?

And thank you, Beth, for hosting this awesome swap!! I cannot wait for the next one!

Jacksons Mill Spring 2014

I cannot believe that I forgot to post about my amazing conference weekend!!!! I recently went to the Jackson's Mill 4H Camping location for a conference! It was amazing as always!!! I roomed with Laura (AKA Nancy) and we had such a great time!!! We roomed in Jackson's Lodge. This is the view from our balcony looking out onto the camp!!

This is a painting at the Jane Lew truck stop! It is a local painter and I SWEAR that is Jesus in the middle of the war! See him, in the white clothes and sandals?!?!? No-one believes me! My favorite painting ever though!!

These are the lovely women I was blessed to spend the weekend with~~~ Laura in in the back and then Carm on the left and Donna on the right. These are three of the most amazing, strong, beautiful and loving women I have EVER KNOW!!!! I am so blessed that they are in my life!!!

Me and my roomie!!!!!!!

This is all of us waiting for one of the speakers to start!!!!! XOXO  I did not get any pictures of it but I had the honor this Spring to actually chair one of the meetings! It was great and such an honor!

This is an awesome stop we found just by driving around the town and killing time. They blow glass here and have everything you can think of for gifts...PLUS a stuffed bear to pose with! HA After the bear ate me - I made everyone get a photo!

 Here is Donna and Laura trying to be serious and look scared of the bear!!

Carm did not exactly get what I was talking about...as you can see below...

 She decided to scare the bear instead!!! HA HA Love that woman!!!

I am off for an early lunch at work to go an mail out my package for the Color Swap!!! I am so excited!!!! I was paired with Sherri and cannot wait to see how she likes all the PURPLE stuff I have chosen for her!!

I hope yinz all have an amazing weekend!!!!!!!

5 on Friday

YEA!! Time for Five On Friday with the four lovely co-hostesses Liz, Christina, Darci, and Natasha.

:-)

 My favorite day of the week both due to Five on Friday and the fact that I do not have to work for two days!!!

HEE :-)

Here we go!!!!!!!

ONE: This is my quote from the "Why Do You Run" board at the Marathon Expo in Pittsburgh. Thinking on the fly...HA HA!

TWO:  This is my bib and medal and also car sticker! You know I stuck that on the car within 1 hour of crossing that finish line for the Marathon last weekend!!!

THREE: I was amazing last week at work! I usually do not ever see the lobby as I use the side steps to get to my floor of the office. This week I used the elevator (sore legs from the race) and realized that we have a Foosball Table in our Lobby!!! I foresee a lot of lunches down there!!!!!

FOUR:  Speaking of work...I have these little cuties in my bluebird box at work!!! Five babies about 3-4 days old!!! Sooo adorable!!!

FIVE:  Below is a shot of my patio from the parking lot! I love Spring/Summer/Fall and flowers and more flowers and more flowers!!! Can you tell??!

Thanks for letting me join in! I have yinz have an amazing weekend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Meat and Potatoes Night Out

Last night me and two of my friends from work went to try out a new restaurant (new to us at least) in Pittsburgh called Meat and Potatoes.  We mad reservations long ago - apparently there is a long list for booking reservations so better safe than sorry. This is Jenna on the elevator - this picture was taken so we knew what floor we parked on in the garage - ha!!!

Here is the menu for Meat and Potatoes.  They kind of have a little of everything!

And the lovely atmosphere..we scheduled our dinner early around 5:30 but the place filled up entirely within the hour!

The waiter brought us our water in these cute little glass jars...

My appetizer is pictured below...fried pickles! YUMMO!!! Seriously amazing! This is my new favorite thing on the PLANET!!! I get them everywhere now!! They were awesome!

This is Jenna's appetizer...it was delish also! She had devils on horseback (sorry she got three but I forgot the pic before she started eating).  If I remember correctly it was a fig, bacon, jalepeno and something else! Fantastic flavors together and not hot at all!!!

Below is Jenna dinner. She choose two appetizers for her meal...the ahi tuna taquitos and the mac and cheese! YUMMO!

This is my other friends dinner choice...she choose the fried skate. Which we found out after is a Manta Ray....wow, really!?!??! She liked it - I think. HEE!

And my BORING selection was pot roast. It was delish! I shoudl start branching out and trying new things but I am scared! They are known for their bone marrow but I could not even stomach the thought of scooping out bone marrow and eating it :-(

Just out of curiosity...have you ever gone out with friends/date when the person or people spent the ENTIRE time texting under the table? I mean the entire time - I do not think that this person said more than ten words the whole dinner.  I HATE this! I find it sooo rude that I will actually decline another lunch or dinner with that person as I think it is so ignorant. An I being too sensitive or who agrees or disagrees...dying to hear you input and opinions on this!?!?! I said something (in a joking manner) during the dinner and they insisted it was IMPORTANT personal business that they had to attend to?!?!  Please give me your comments on this...

These are some eye balls in downtown Pittsburgh. They are actually kinda neat - they are benches in a little park area in the Cultural District. Interesting if nothing else!.

And finally,  I will leave you with my favorite thing to post about - my bluebirds at work!!!!!!! I have 5 babies in my next box! Well, technically, the momma bluebird has five babies but I pretend!! HEE ~ so stinkin' cute!!!

I was going to go back to exercise classes tonight (after completing the marathon on Sunday) however, my heals are giving me some pain and grief so to be safe I am going to wait until Monday.  

Hope yinz have an amazing Thursday!!!

I AM A MARATHONER

Happy Wednesday yinz!! This is going to be a SERIOUS random post!

Below is my "cleaned-up" Marathoner picture!!  I got my co-worker to take my photo wearing my 2014 Pittsburgh Marathon Finishers medal!!! Whot!  I think I am going to milk the finishers thing for a long time!!! :-)

And this is a close-up of the bling!!!! Soooooooooo  worth it!! Yea!!!

 This is the field at work where my bluebird boxes are located! We participate in Wildlife Sustainability where I work and I have the pleasure of monitoring four bluebird nesting boxes!

I am happy to report - I had five eggs last week...this week I have five baby chicks!!!! YEA!!!!

The little bit of grossness pictured below was in my expensive salad from Panera yesterday!!! YUCK!! I NORMALLY love the fuji apple salad and got one for lunch. Apparently my Panera was out of RIPE tomatoes so they had these all throughout my salad - I think I picked out at least ten! They were hard and sour!! YUCK!!! Just leave them out next time for goodness sake Panera!!! Total grossness!!

Tonight I am going out to dinner downtown with two friends from work. We made reservations a month ago at Meat and Potatoes. It is supposed to be amazing! I am definitely getting the fried pickles and then not sure what else yet. The menu looks amazing! I promise to have photos!!!

Also, I am finally able to walk normal (still a little soreness but not much) after completing the marathon on Sunday so I am planning to go to HipHip tomorrow night (Thursday) for the first time in months literally!! I am sooooo excited!!! I will have pics from that too!

Hope yinz all have a great HUMP day!!!!