friends | fun | Uncategorized

Athens!

By on February 3, 2011

Last Friday, we drove up to Athens to visit with some friends. I LOVE going back to Athens…even if I do feel a little old compared to all the college kids. 🙂

We ate at a yummy sushi place called Shokitini and then did some bar hopping. I made the mistake of ordering a drink other than my usual rum and diet. We basically told the bartender to make us something and since there was blueberry vodka on the shelf, we said make us something with that. Not the smartest idea… He made a “blueberry muffin” which wasn’t terrible…but not very tasty. And it was super strong!

But we had a great time!

Yummy!

Silly Aubree! 🙂
Those are fried oreos – yum!

Blueberry muffins – not recommended.


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kitchen | kitchen renovation | Uncategorized

Kitchen Renovation Weekend #8

By on January 28, 2011

Geez! When are we going to finish this kitchen?!?! It feels like it’s taking forever!

The weekend before last (Jan15th) we we finished up most of the flooring. Just one row left! Too bad it’s the hardest row since you have to cut every piece of laminate lengthwise…which is why we still haven’t finished. Boo.

Last weekend we hit up Ikea and bought the EXPEDIT bookcase in white. We decided to use this for shelving in our pantry instead of building shelving or buying cheap looking wire shelving. And I have to tell you, it looks AWESOME! I painted the wall behind the bookcase a butter cream color (so pretty!) and then loaded it up with food, paper towels, dishes, bake wear, and all the other crap I haven’t been able to unpack since we’ve moved because I have a ridiculous amount of that kind of stuff and not enough storage! 🙂

Anyway, here’s some pics!

 Pantry 
Stocked up! 

Pretty yellow! 
6 foot tall by 6 foot wide.  
The redneck way we’re venting our dryer. ðŸ™‚ Gotta call the heating and air specialist soon! 
New tablecloth! 
Kitchen with the pretty new flooring. 
Other view…man we’ve got to get the ceiling painted. It’s ugly!  
Still needs lots of work!

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Uncategorized

Busy Busy Busy!

By on January 26, 2011

My long lost blog! I’ve been so busy at work – I haven’t had time to breath, let alone blog! So sad…

But here’s what’s been happening in my world:

First, Atlanta got almost 6 inches of snow that lasted almost a week. I’m officially over snow. Brrrr!

While we were “snowed in” I baked a chocolate cake from scratch. And it was amazing. Yum!

I stayed home for 3 days, but had to go to work on Thursday. Josh had to shovel ice out of the driveway for me to get to work. It took me 2.5 hours to get home that night…and I live less than 10 miles from the office. Lame.

We had a date night and saw Beauty and the Beast at the Fox Theatre. We LOVE Disney!

We worked on the pantry a little bit. Still needs paint and a vent for the dryer. But the shelving looks AWESOME! (And yes, I was SUPER excited to organize all the food. Call me a loser, but it was so much FUN!)

My niece turned 6!!! I can’t believe she’s 6! She was just a baby!

My nephew had way too much sugar at the birthday party. 🙂

Still trying to decide on a backsplash for the kitchen. I’m leaning towards something like this:

Bought some accessories for the kitchen and dinning room. Including this CUTE rug!

Bought an XL wine glass that holds an entire bottle of wine. (Like on Cougar Town) I’ve named him Big Ed. 🙂

We booked our flights for Las Vegas in April – so I’m counting down the days!!

-Holly

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home | renovation | Uncategorized | vacation

My Week off from Work in Pictures

By on January 8, 2011

My 11 days off were fabulous!!!

I snuggled with my pups.

I went out with friends and drank yummy tiramisu martinis.

Josh and I made an extremely unhealthy but incredibly yummy Christmas morning breakfast.
I watched Jack tear into some presents from Santa.

I spent time with my family, including my adorable niece and nephew.

I opened my Christmas present from my sister, only to realize we had gotten each other the exact same thing!  
I played Life with my husband…and I had twin girls. 🙂 
I went out for New Years and had yummy drinks and even got to dance. 

I helped Josh start installing the laminate flooring in the den. (Can’t wait to have my house put back together!)

It was awesome! Can’t wait until my next long stretch of vacation time!

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happiness | Uncategorized | work | work life balance

New Years Resolution

By on January 3, 2011

Usually I don’t take New Years resolutions very seriously. I mean, I’m ALWAYS dieting and trying to loose weight – so I don’t join the billion other people out there who make a New Years resolution to “get healthy” or “loose some poundage.” But this year, I really have something that I need to work on.

Today is my last vacation day. Yep – I have had an 11 day break from my job. And it was AWESOME! I didn’t miss work one bit. Today I felt a little guilty not going in since I think everyone else went back today. (Sucks for them! 🙂 They should have saved their vacation days!)

But as for missing work? NOPE! Not at all. Not. At. All!

In fact, I’ve been dreading this day. I knew the vacation would have to end. And I knew I was going to be upset. I actually started getting really upset yesterday about going back to work. Josh could tell I was in a funk and made me get out of bed and go for a walk. We talked about work and my attitude…my bad attitude.

I hate that I complain about work so much. My job isn’t what I thought I’d be doing at this point in my life, but it’s a good job. I’m lucky to have a job. And I need to remember that.

Soooooo….my new years resolution is to be more positive about my job. Here’s a few things I’m going to try:

*Multiple Personalities – During my week off, I really felt like I became a different person – the person I used to be before I started getting bitter about life (because of work). The biggest example is New Years – I drank, laughed, danced, acted crazy – and didn’t worry a bit about acting too immature, feeling too old to do certain things…basically I didn’t feel shame for doing stuff people my age do. I don’t want to be the uptight person I have to be at work all the time. So I’m going to try to have “multiple personalities.” I’ll be one person at work (boring, calm, obedient, smiling Holly) and another person when I’m not working (fun, happy, carefree, energetic, somewhat-party-girl Holly). Now, that doesn’t mean that I’m going to go out every night and get drunk and dance. But that does mean that I can’t be a loser and NOT go out if something cool’s going on because “I’m too tired from work” or because “I have to get up early and go to work tomorrow.” Lame-O. I need to remember that even though most everyone I work with is older and cares way more about their job than I ever will  that doesn’t mean I can’t act like a young, carefree adult. Just like Carrie says, “While we’re young and beautiful, we’ll party down on main street!” That’ll be my theme song. 🙂

*Leaving work at work – I’m such a worry wart. And I really started worrying about work WAY to much last year. My week off reminded me that life’s not all about this darn job. And it’s just not worth it to worry so much. So once I leave the building, my brain is done with work. And on my drive home, every time my thoughts stray to work related issues, I’ll give myself a mental SLAP! “No! Don’t think about work!” And when I’m home watching Glee and a commercial comes on and I start thinking about work…SLAP! “No! Don’t do it!” And when I’m laying in bed trying to sleep, and I start worrying about the stuff I have to deal with tomorrow….SLAP! “Nope! Think of something else – anything else but work!”

*Be positive – there are some times when I NEED to complain about work. Maybe I need to get something off my chest or get reassurance that I was right, etc. But most of the time, I only complain about work because that’s what I’m thinking about at the moment. And not only is it mean of me to whine and complain to others all the time, it’s detrimental to my attitude about work. I need to stay positive – and that means when I do talk about work to other people, I need to not complain and only speak about happy positive things.

And lastly…

*Lay off the caffeine – I really think drinking too much caffeine makes me even more worrisome and anxious that I already am. 1 cup of coffee a day – that’s it – no more.

I’m really going to try – try hard – to follow this plan. And hopefully, I’ll keep this New Years resolution!

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