Introducing Mug Monday!

I inspired myself as I wrote my post on Saturday.  I've known for a while that I have a small collection of coffee mugs, but what I realized Saturday is that there is a reason I have each mug.  But reason isn't quite the right word...there's more of a story behind each mug.  Something inspired me to buy it, or someone special gave it to me.  And since I love telling stories, Mug Monday was born.  The goal is that each Monday from now until I run out of coffee mugs, I will feature a different one and the story behind it.

Today's mug is a Vera Bradley mug and it was a Christmas gift this year from my sister, Amanda. She said that when she saw it, it reminded her of me and she just had to get it.  I am so glad that she did, because I do love it!  It's purple and it has paisleys on it, two more things that I love.  What's funny though, is that my mom bought me a Vera Bradley backpack for Christmas, and she get it in the exact same print (Very Berry Paisley), and neither of them knew what the other had bought me!  I guess this proves that I'm predictable, easy to please, and that Amanda and Mom are good gift buyers!

I love the tall, slender shape of this mug.  Very sophisticated.

Detail shot.  So pretty and happy.

And I haven't forgotten my feet picture.  I spent the first part of my evening baking cupcakes, then I had my Class '14 small group.  After small group I went to the gym, and then came back and got busy in the kitchen again!  I had to finish baking the cupcakes, and as I type I'm also in the process of making homemade frosting!  I'll let you know how it turns out tomorrow!

Getting ready to wash some dishes.  Don't you just love my early 90's floor?

Sunshine On My Shoulders Makes Me Happy

There was a heat wave in Johnson City today, seriously, it got up to 65 degrees!  Barnes and Noble is only about two minutes away from church and it has a nice patio behind it with tables and chairs, so that is exactly where I headed when church was over.  My first stop was at the magazine rack, and from there the cafe.  At the cafe I grabbed my favorite Pomegranate Cherry juice from Nantucket Nectars.  I absolutely love this juice!  Normally when it comes to food (or drink in this case), I'm indecisive and I like to change things up.  But when I'm at B&N and I don't want this coffee, this juice is what I always choose.  I'd been craving quiche all weekend, and so I ordered some of that too.  As I headed outside to the patio I was afraid it would be full already.  On a nice sunny day in a college town, places like this usually fill up fast.  I was surprised to find it empty, and that meant I had my choice of tables!  Always a nice thing.  I spent the next hour flipping through magazines and enjoying brunch.  From time to time I would just stop and sit, and enjoy feeling the sun on my back.  I'm so thankful that I had the afternoon free and was able to enjoy being outside.

I don't know what it is, but there's something I like about drinking with a straw from a glass bottle.

Those are my mom's old cowboy boots!  They're a little too big for me, but I wear them anyways.

A Strawberry Mug, a Green Teapot, and Other Happy Thoughts

This morning was one of those mornings that made me happy to be alive - to have the ability to think and feel and express myself.  I came downstairs to do my quiet time and decided I wanted to make some tea, and that I would use the new teapot that my friend Heather gave me for Christmas.  So as the water was boiling, I got out a mug to use.  I felt like I should be using a tea cup, ya know, to drink tea, but for one thing, I don't own tea cups, and secondly, mugs have more personality.  The one that I grabbed to use is a new addition to my mug collection.  Over the Christmas break my mom, sister and I went to an estate sales place, and I found this mug and had to have it!  It's old and cute and just perfectly happy.  As I was pouring my tea from my cute, quaint, little teapot I felt like I should be wearing pearls and a calico apron.  I definitely wasn't doing it justice in my sweats, t-shirt, and hair still wet from the shower.  I carried my tea mug into the living room and curled up on the couch.  As I sat there holding my steaming mug, all I could do was literally just sit there and be happy.  Everything was just perfect, and a certain verse came to my mind, Isaiah 60:5, where part of it says "...your heart will throb and swell with joy..."  That's exactly how I felt!  I was just overflowing with happiness!  

The teapot matches my new tablecloth and place mats perfectly!

Getting a little artsy...

LOOK! I captured the perfect steam swirl!!!

My happy feet poking out from my Patriots blankets as I read, journaled, and drank my tea!

Let's Get Crafty

I love weekends where I don't have plans, so then I can go along with whatever comes up, and that is exactly what happened last night!  Jillian, Ashley, and I were going to spend the evening together, and that's about all we knew, other than the fact that we wanted to do something crafty.  Crafty as in glue and glitter, not being sneaky and conniving.  So I picked them up and we headed out!  We stopped to eat at Which Wich, a fun sandwich shop.  You order your sandwich on brown paper bag, then they make it, toast it, and give it back to you in the bag.  They also have a wall of bags that people have decorated and displayed, so we made one to add to it.  From there it was on to Michaels for the girls to find something to Modpodge.  Modpodge is a crafters best friend.  I love it!  It looks like glue and smells like glue, but it is not glue, it is better!  You use it to paste things on to just about any surface, glass, wood, plastic etc.  You can take something plain and boring and turn it into a personalized masterpiece!  Anyways, after we walked around Michaels a few times, they finally decided on large wooden letters.  I already had a plain piggy bank that I wanted to cover with pictures of shoes and then cut out letters to spell Shoe Fund.  After we got back to their dorm we got out the scissors and magazines and put in a movie.  It took us all of The Blind Side to cut things out and decide how we wanted to decorate, and then all of She's The Man to get it done.  By the time we were done we had quoted lots of movie lines, shared a lot of laughs, Ashley and I read lots of recipes we wanted to try, Jillian had torn out a few Suduko puzzles to work on later, and the floor was covered with snippets of paper.  Quite the successful crafty girls night!

Our Which Wich bag

My fun Aimee Jane tote, it carried all my craft supplies.

The finished products!

I Am Weird...

Out of all of the posts I've made, the shoes that have made the most appearances are the gray potato boots.  I do love them, because they are super comfortable, but there is something that I don't like about them.  When I put them on, my jeans get bunched up around the ankles and it makes it look like I have cankles.  I do not have cankles, and so this makes me very annoyed.  I came up with a genius plan this morning though.  If I tucked my jeans into my socks, they can't get bunched up!  So that's what I did.  It did keep them from bunching, around my ankles; but now they were bunched under my feet.  All day it felt like my socks had slipped down and it was very awkward feeling.  So the next time I decide to wear them, I'll be in a dilemma: bunched around the ankles or bunched under the feet... 

Happy Apples

  It's a Wednesday evening and I am at home.  This is a very strange thing.  Johnson City was hit by a flash blizzard this afternoon and we ended up having to cancel The Well.  As much of a bummer as that was, I was looking forward to having a night at home to get some stuff done.  One of the things that's been on my To Do list for a while was to mat, frame, and hang up a certain picture.  I've had this picture in a small frame in my room for a while, but I wanted to display it better.  So, what's the big deal about this picture?  This is the picture that helped me realize that I had a knack for photography and that it was something I wanted to pursue.  I titled the picture Happy Apples and finally got it hung up tonight!

Happy Apples!

A closer view

I love this little part of my wall, it's between my dresser and bookshelf.  The big collage on the left is from Jessica.  The peacock feathers are from my friend Scottie's wedding this summer, and the dried roses are from my Papa's funeral.

I bought this shelf at The Well's yard sale two summers ago.  It was light blue, but obviously I painted it to match my room.

That is my name; and it means beloved.  Amanda made me this, I think it was for my birthday last year, and she did it in the colors of my room, brown, purple, and green, such a good sister!

I Am So Very, Very Blessed

I realized yesterday evening that I hadn't taken a picture of my feet yet, but I wasn't too concerned about it because it had been a pretty uneventful day.  I just decided there would be no post on, or about Tuesday, January 25th 2011.  But as I have been thinking, I've had some thoughts (I suppose that's redundant), and so I will share them...

My first thought (and I think this a lot) was, that I am so tremendously blessed to have the job that I do!  The first main thing on my agenda yesterday was to get together with Jillian, Hannah, and Chelsea.  They were all in my freshman small group last year, I met one-on-one with them in the fall, and now we're getting together as a group of four each week.  Anyways,  We met up in The Cave, which is the food court/kill time between classes/area with lots of tables in the student center at ETSU.  We caught up on school and ministry team stuff and then got into the Word; we're going through Mark, studying the different miracles of Jesus.  After we were done I didn't have another meeting until 2:45, but I had decided to bring some work and just stay in The Cave for the afternoon, instead of walking back across campus to the office and back once more.  While I was there my friend Ryan happened by, he ended up staying and eating his lunch and we had a really good time catching up with each other.  After he left I was able to plan a last-minute lunch with Laura.  Laura is one of the upperclassmen who helps lead the freshman Bible studies.  We talked about the new study that we had just started the night before, about school, and spring break plans.  After Laura left I wrote Thank You notes to some of our supporters and prepared for my next meeting, with Stacie.  Stacie was also a part of my freshman small group from last year and we continue to meet one-on-one.  I love my time with her.  We laugh a lot, we're open and vulnerable, we cry sometimes, we search the Scriptures, we pray.  It's wonderful.  After I left The Cave yesterday I had been there for over four hours and I was reluctant to get back to some of the not-so-fun but necessary, administrative aspects of my job. 

And I tell you all of that not to make much myself or what I am doing, but to give you a taste of what I get to do so you'll understand why I consider myself so blessed!  I am blessed to live in a country that allows me to do what I do - on the campus of a public university!  I am blessed to have a job that requires that I spend time with students.  Just being with them, doing life together.  I am blessed to have family and friends who support me financially, so that I can do this kind of work.  And even more than that, family and friends who know that ultimately it is all for the Lord and His eternal Kingdom!

Ok, that was just my first thought about yesterday!  I have one more.  At Passion, I was in the community group for leaders and we were privileged to have John Piper come speak again just to us on the last morning.  He talked about the importance of memorizing Scripture, and not just random verses, but whole passages and even books!  Some of us from The Well were really challenged by this and picked out some passages to try to memorize.  I'm working on 2 Corinthians 4:1-12, a passage that has been very meaningful to me for a few years now.  I write each verse on an index card and try to have them with me all the time.  I look at them while I straighten my hair in the morning, at the gym, and other random times, and I have the first six verses down!  I studied them some yesterday in The Cave and had an "ah-ha" moment.  2 Corinthians 4:4 says, "The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God."  I am so thankful for the students I know and get to work with that love the Lord and are seeking to live their college years for Him, but the harsh reality is that they are a VERY SMALL minority.  Most of the students sitting around me in The Cave, on the treadmills next to me at the gym, and walking down the sidewalk in front of me have minds that are blind.  Whether they realize it or not, they are all seeking for something to fulfill them, and they don't know that Jesus Christ is the only one that ever will.  Unfortunately, I don't think about this reality very often, but it should be on the forefront of my mind every day and one of, if not the, reason I am in ministry. 

Class '14 Feet

When I contacted my small group to remind them about tonight, I also reminded some of them to wear cute shoes for our feet picture!  I was determined not to forget it, and I didn't!  Starting with my gray boots on the bottom, and going clockwise around the coffee table you have: Emily, Catey Laura, Corey, Logan, Kathryn, Chip, Krista, and Logan.  The Logan to my right was very proud of his shoes, they have Lebron James in the name of them, that's all I know.  But anyways, his whole entire outfit tonight was black and purple, or gray and purple, so he would match, I was quite impressed!  From the remnants on the table, you can see that we quite a fun night together too!  Especially with the pop corn in the old school containers!

Caffeine and Exercise

When I was in school, I used to say that you could tell how busy and stressful my week was based on the number of coffee cups stacked under the sink waiting to be washed.  These days I drink a cup of coffee almost every morning, not because one cup of coffee gives me the caffeine I need, but because if I don't, I get a headache later in the morning!  So now, you can tell I need an extra boost by how many coffee cups are piling up in my car, signaling an extra two or three cups taken with me to the office, or church.  That was the case this morning.  Thank goodness for Starbucks gift cards!  And as far as the feet picture goes...I'm really excited that now I'm done with Bible study at 7:00 on Sunday nights, as opposed to 10:00 or 10:30 like it's been for the past three semesters.  Since I'm already on campus for Bible study, it works out perfectly for me to go to the gym when we're done!  With all these weddings coming up, I'm thankful for another opportunity to work out each week!

A Happiness Sort of Day

 Yesterday was one of those days that just epitomizes a perfect Saturday.  I slept in a little bit, got up and made breakfast, spent some time with Jesus, cleaned my room, showered and got ready to head out for the afternoon.  And who did I get to spend the afternoon with?  Jessica and Will!  My friends that got engaged at Passion.  I randomly ran into them at Target Friday evening and we decided to go antiquing Saturday, something Jessica and I have been wanting to do again for a while now.  So we met up at my place Saturday afternoon and headed to downtown Elizabethton.  Walking down Elk Avenue really is like a step back in time; I love it!  We visited three antique stores: Picket Fence Antiques, Antiques on Elk, and Duck Crossing Antiques.  Don't they just sound adorable?!?  Jessica and Will are going with a vintage theme for their wedding this summer, and were looking for things to use as decorations.  They found some neat items at great prices and I can't wait to see how it all comes together!  By the time we were done shopping we were starving and headed to Amigo's (how appropriate) for some dinner.  The rest of the night I did some laundry and finished a few art projects.  Like I said, my idea of a perfect Saturday!

Just Another Day at the Office

One of the many things I love about my job is that things are never dull.  There are always interesting things at the office and people to have fun with.  A few years ago The Well did a series which featured a character named Johnny Zero.  They bought a mannequin to portray Johnny and brought him out on stage each week.  Since then, Johnny has been disassembled and living in a Rubbermaid tub in the basement at The Well house.   This year we decided to use his torso and head to put a t-shirt on for when we sell them on Wednesday nights, so now just his legs and feet have been at the office.  Currently we have a student who stops by to change into his uniform on his way to work, and he's been bad about leaving his change of clothes at the office.  I've been wanting to put his pants on Johnny and finally decided to do it on Friday.  Once I got the legs (which were naked) out of the basement I discovered that they were attached in such a way that would prevent me from putting pants on them, which makes me wonder how they put pants on him when they used them at The Well.  Even though my original plan for Johnny's legs didn't work out, I still wanted to do something with them, so I quietly crept upstairs and left him standing in the hallway, so that he'd be mooning Drew when he came out of his office.  And for the rest of the day Johnny's naked lower half ended up in interesting places all over the office.  When I finally took him back to the basement at the end of the day, it only seemed appropriate for me to take my blog picture with him.

Making a Mark

 

I don't have prickly legs in this picture, but there is something about my legs in this picture that really bothers me.  You can see the marks on my ankles from where I had my socks pulled up during the day.  This annoys me so much!  In the spring and summer, this is never an issue.  Mainly because I don't wear socks often in the summer, but if I do, it's with tennis shoes so they're already the right length.  In the fall and winter however, I'll usually wear taller socks.  So at the end of the day when I change to head to the gym, I have these wonderfully attractive, embarrassing marks on my ankles.  I'm sure no one else notices them, but to me it's really obvious.  Also,  when I left my house to go to the CPA tonight, marked-up ankles and all, it was just beginning to rain a little bit.  When I walked out of the CPA almost an hour later, it was snowing!

Ricoh

This is the copy closet.

Some of you may have noticed that on Wednesdays my facebook status mentions a bully named Ricoh.  Ricoh is the model of our copy machine/printer.  It works fine for everything, except for printing the bulletins we use on Wednesday night at The Well.  It really is a big problem.  Yesterday it took four and a half hours to do a job that should only take one and half.  And since it jams up constantly, I usually just end up staying in the "copy closet" the whole time, otherwise I just go up and down the stairs all day.  We don't really have the money to fix the problem right now, so I'm just having to deal with it.  I consider Ricoh my weekly lesson in patience, and it's time you get acquainted...

  

               When the red buttons light

      up, it's not good.

  

This is where I ate lunch yesterday. 

The jaws of death!  There is where I have to reach in to grab pages that get stuck.  It can be dangerous.  See the scratch on my hand below.

Outdated vs Updated

 

1-18-11   Here I am at the post office waiting to apply for my passport.  If you'll notice the floor and the chair you might have an idea of how the rest of the building looks.  Very outdated.  Wood paneling everywhere, brown and burnt orange color scheme, posters where the people had big hair and shoulder pads, you get the idea...Even though there is a new, shiny, white and blue post office not far away, I still like to come to this one.  It makes me feel like I've stepped back in time, and I love to imagine what it would be like to live in a different decade.  I also like to visit this post office because it's a good reminder that not everything in life has to be new and updated.

Telephone Pictionary

 1-17-11...Sorry it's taken me a few days to update this!  So, for the past three years I have had the amazing experience of leading freshmen Bible studies, and I absolutely love it.  Every aspect of.  I love the teaching part of it, the being a mentor/big sister part of it, and the playing hostess and having the group at my house part of it, which is what this post is about.  This past Monday night was our first get together of the spring semester and it was a just a welcome back, fun, game night.  I decided I would take a picture of all of our feet together for my blog, but after they had all left I realized that I had forgotten to.  I figured these pictures

would be a good alternative though.  Telephone Pictionary is one of our favorite games to play and we had just finished up a hilarious round!  The name of it really does sum up the game.  Telephone, from the game where you pass a secret down a line and it changes every time, and Pictionary as in Pictionary!  The whole game involves drawing, interpreting, drawing, interpreting etc.  

So here are just a few samples 
from the game. 
The one above started as lions, tigers, and bears, oh my! and ended up as evolution and the one to the right started as pedal to the metal and ended as would you like fries with that.    This is a great game because all you need is paper and pens, and it never fails to deliver lots of laughs!

Ring the Bell!

While we were at Passion a couple weeks ago, I got to help out with another surprise proposal!  This one was for my friend Jessica.  Jessica and I first met at The Well's ministry team retreat in the fall of 2007.  We served together on ministry teams for the next two years and had mutual friends, but were not super close.  Last year when I joined staff with The Well, Jessica was one of the team leaders for one of ministry teams that I helped lead.  We met in a small group on Sundays, worked together to pull off Wednesday nights at The Well, and met one-on-one every Thursday night at Barnes & Noble.  We discussed ministry team stuff, our personal walk with the Lord, relationships, fears, desires, struggles, dreams, and secrets.  And all of this was done with lots of laughter, occasional tears, lattes, and spinach and feta stuffed pretzels.  Needless to say, by the end of last school year Jessica and I were very close.  So, fast forward to late November or early December when her then-boyfriend, Will, called and told me of his plan to propose at Passion (where they met last year) and that he would need a little bit of help.  I was totally in!  The proposal was so much fun and totally surprised Jessica!  You can watch it here on YouTube.  And all of that leads up to the picture above!  Jessica's mom, grandmother, Will's mom, and 6 of her bridesmaids (including myself) headed to David's Bridal on Sunday to do some dress shopping.  Jessica is beautiful, so everything she tried on looked amazing, but we all all had a pretty good idea the whole time which dress she would choose; one that she had seen a year ago and had loved ever since.  She saved it for last and when she came out with it on, we knew it was the one.  They had a tradition at the store that when a bride-to-be found the dress, she would ring a bell.  When Jessica rang her bell we all clapped and cheered, in fact, we all clapped and cheered when anybody in the store rang a bell.  There was a girl next to Jessica trying on dresses the whole time we were there too and we all made comments on hers as well.  She started crying when she found her dress, and then that made a few of us cry!  We were a loud, giggly, teary-eyed group of girls!  At this point, Jessica's will be the third wedding I'm in in 2011 and I am so excited!  It is going to be a blast!   And I have a feeling August 6th will be here before we know it!

A Few Proposal Pictures

This is the spot where Jonathan asked Amanda to be his girlfriend, and then his wife!  It overlooks a little pond, which was all frozen over.

He planned the proposal for her favorite time of the day.

A detail shot...The candles wouldn't stay lit, but the red holders still made it look nice.

Here he is asking the question!  This is also the picture I printed off and framed for Amanda.

Her BEAUTIFUL ring!

Operation Garden Proposal

1-15-11   Warning, this is going to be a LONG post, and it's even the condensed version!  About a week ago my sister's boyfriend called and asked if I was doing anything on the 15th.  Right away I knew where the conversation was headed, and was so glad that the day was free.  He went on to explain his plan for proposing to Amanda, and wanted me to come hide somewhere and take pictures without Amanda knowing!  There is a garden on campus at Virginia Tech  (where they are both seniors this year) where he asked Amanda to be his girlfriend, and he wanted to do the proposal there.  My first thought was, "a garden, in the winter, means no where to hide," but I just went along with the plan.  So yesterday I drove to Blacksburg and met Jonathan at the garden.  We went to the exact spot, and as I was looking around I saw a tree maybe 30 feet away that had big branches hanging down to the ground.  I went over and realized I could climb through the branches and be hidden inside; it was perfect!  So, we set up Christmas lights, candles, and a few other decorations and then he left to go pick Amanda up.  As soon as he left I started freaking out!  I was so excited, but nervous that I wouldn't get good pictures or that Amanda would see me.  He texted me when they left her house, and I made a final check of everything and then got in position inside the tree.  That's what the picture above is from!  Eventually, I heard them walking through the garden.  Thankfully, Jonathan had Amanda close her eyes as they walked to the spot, otherwise she probably would have seen me.  They walked right by the tree and Jonathan looked in and gave me a thumbs up.  Almost as soon as they got to the spot Jonathan got down on one knee, I couldn't hear anything he was saying, but I knew he had asked her when I heard her say "Yes!...I love you so much!"  At the point I started crying and the lens on my camera started fogging up.  I was trying to wipe off the lens and hide my sniffles without making too much commotion, so she wouldn't notice me.  After they left to head to dinner, I made a dash to clean things up.  If someone had missed the proposal, but then started looking at that area of the garden, I can only imagine what they were thinking.  All of a sudden a girl comes flying out from a tree with a bag and runs around putting candles in it.  Then back into the tree and out again with another bag.  I'm sure I looked crazy.  After everything was cleaned up I went to CVS to print some of the pictures, and thankfully there were some really good ones! I printed the best one as a 5x7 and put it in a frame and wrapped it.   Then I went to Amanda's apartment.  I didn't want her roommates to hear from me that Amanda was engaged, so I had to act like I didn't know anything.  I just told them that Jonathan had told me I might want to be in town that night, which isn't a total lie.  We hung out for about an hour or so before Amanda called to tell me the news.  Even though I already knew, I had no problem being excited on the phone!  When they finally got back to the apartment she walked in and squealed "I'm engaged!"  We all started squealing and jumping and it took her a few seconds to notice that I was there.  She gave me a huge hug and yelled "Oh my gosh, you're here! You're so sneaky!"  A little while later I told her I had an engagement gift for her and gave her the frame.  As she looked at a picture of Jonathan down on one knee proposing to her, it took a few minutes for it all to register.  I don't remember all that she said about it, but she loved that she had a picture from the proposal, and was so shocked that I had been there most of the day and she had no idea.  The rest of the night consisted of Jonathan, Amanda, and I all telling our versions of the story, driving around to different apartment complexes visiting with friends, looking at the ring (which is GORGEOUS) over and over again, and looking at bridal magazines that her roommates her given her.  The whole entire thing happened better than I could have hoped for and I am so glad that I got to be a part of it!  Once I get to edit them, I'll add a few of the proposal pictures, and unfortunately in the midst of it all, Amanda and I never even took a picture together :(  But we'll make up for it by taking lots at their wedding!

Heatin' Things Up

 Ok, I'll be honest, I was getting kind of desperate for a good picture and story for this day, so I figured I would give you a glimpse of something I see almost everyday day - underneath my desk.  Thrilling, I know.  The most important thing under there, my heater, of course!  Our office is really cold in the winter, so space heaters are necessary!  It took a while for me to perfect my space heater set up.  First of all, I have it on top of a crate.  This is so it's a little higher up and gets my legs warm too, not just my feet.  Second, it's setting on top of a towel.  It used to make this really obnoxious buzzing noise, so I would kick it and it would stop for a while, but then start again later.  Eventually I realized the heater was vibrating against the crate and that's what was making the noise, so I had the brilliant idea of putting it on a towel to absorb the noise.  And that right there my friends, is some high quality engineering!  There are also a bunch of boxes and things under my desk.  Storage is limited, so we often resort to putting stuff under my desk.  I don't really mind though, it's not like I need that much room.

Don't Sweat It

1-13-11   Today was my first day at the gym in about a month, hence the running shoes.  In case you couldn't tell, I took this picture in the mirror, and I did that for two reasons. 1) I wanted to change it up a bit, one of my fears with this blog is that the pictures are going to get boring, and 2) This is the more important reason...I had taken a close up pictures of my feet, and then I realized you could see how stubbly my legs were. Gross!  Since it was my first day back on the treadmill in a while, and since I know I ate way too many sweets during the holidays, I was dreading going, but it ended up not being bad at all so I decided to go back a second time that night, which ended up giving me a pretty good story...I packed work-out clothes to take with me to work, so I could go when I got off.  Later I remembered that the gym is always pretty busy between 5 and 7, so I planned to go home and then go back to the gym later that night.  When I was getting all my bags and stuff out of my car,  my sweatpants and zip-up hoodie kept falling all over the place (because I had just laid them over the top of my bag, they weren't actually in it).  When I got all my stuff up to my room, I noticed my sweatpants weren't there and I figured they had just fallen out in the car.  Well a couple hours later when I left to go to the gym, I was walking to my car and noticed something laying in the middle of our parking lot.  Sure enough, it was my sweatpants, they had fallen in the parking lot!  They were cold, wet, and had tire imprints on them because someone had driven over them!

Ugly but Cozy

Once I downloaded this picture, I realized that it looks strange.  My legs look very short or something.   But anyways, I decided to go with the snow boots today, and I am glad I did.  Not only was traction not an issue, but they were so much warmer!  If I wear my rain boots, by the time I'm down scraping all the ice of my car my feet are freezing and it takes forever for them to warm up again.  The whole way to work today my feet were warm and cozy, it was wonderful!  I did bring flats to change into at the office, but I kept taking them off and putting my feet up on the desk :)

Wiping Out

So, there was still a ton of snow still outside today, but I had to get out of my house!  I hate for the bottoms of my jeans to get wet, so I wore my rainboots so I could tuck my jeans down inside.  I packed normal shoes in my bag so I could put those on once I got to the office.  My rainboots are right there inside the door on a towel for two reasons: 1) We cleaned the office really well before we left for the break, and we want to keep it in that condition for as long as possible.  Tracking in snow and slush would kind of prevent that, and 2) Rainboots are not really designed for snow.  All of the snow and ice gets stuck to the bottom and makes them very slippery and unstable.  How do I know this?  A few weeks ago I wore my snow-covered rainboots into my kitchen.  My feet went out from under me and I landed on the floor...with my face!  I had a blood blister under my lips for a few days.  Rather unpleasant.  Needless to say I did not want to repeat that situation, so I took the boots off as soon as I got in the door.  I do have snow boots, and I could have worn them, but...they aren't nearly as cute and it wasn't like I was going to be in the snow all day.

Warmthness

Today was supposed to be our first day back at the office, but at the moment it is completely white outside the wonderful stuff is still falling from the sky, so we're going in a little late.  I'll still work on stuff from home, but it means I get to stay in my comfy clothes longer :)  Normally I'm freezing in the morning but it was nice and toasty downstairs, and I had on fuzzy socks, fleece pants, and a big, fluffy bathrobe, so needless to say I was very warm.  And while I was standing there listening to and smelling my coffee brewing, basking in my warmthness (I think I just made up a word) I realized, "This is a happiness moment! This should be my blog picture today!"  So it is; and whoever is reading this and wherever you are, I hope you have fuzzy socks to make you warm on the outside and coffee (or hot chocolate or hot tea) to make you warm on the inside!