Day 185 ~ rest in pieces....

My grandmother gave us girls these at our "girls sleepover" for our hair after the shower many many years ago!  I think I may be the only one who got one who still uses it to this day.  Well I did use it religiously until STEVE broke it!  It was my fault though because I locked him in the bathroom tonight because he was being bad and I guess he got bored!  :(  Sad.... but I immediately went on ebay and found a new one for only 6 bucks and it's PURPLE!!!  Newest addition to my "Ravens purple collection" :)  It should be here by next week!

Day 184 ~ We cook good :)

This is our refined Chicken casserole :)  The first time I tried to make it, I messed it up... but nate helped me this time and he made the chicken while I made the rest of the casserole and it turned out to be fabulous!  I like cooking with Nate.... makes making dinner more appealing to make it together!

Oh and I found these Cheez-its while we were grocery shopping today.... I've been addicted to pepper jack for a while now so these made my day!

Day 183 ~ A day on Broadway....

Nate took me to New York today to see Madame Tussaud's wax museaum, whos newest addition just happens to be the one and only Taylor Swift!  And then to see Phantom of the Opera!  Before the show we also went to Hard Rock  for lunch and after the show to kill time we went to the huge Disney Store and M&M store!  It was a wonderful day, not even too cold!  At the end of thenight it started to snow too which was awesome!  Phantom of the Opera was breath taking and I literally had chills all over the instant they started playing the theme!  These are some pictures from the day!

PERRY THE PLATYPUS!!!!

Day 182 ~ Half way There

Today is half way through my 365 days of this photo blog.  I have redefined my standards for doing it since I started... at first I was bent on posting on the day no matter what!  But now I dont mind catching up a few days at a time with the pictures as long as the pictures are actually from that day and I at least came on and "labeled" a post so that the day was accurate!  Sometimes I run out of ideas, but over all I am really really happy with my dedication to this blog and I'm not sure even after the 365 days are up that I will be able to just abandon it :)

This afternoon, I went through a Think Geek magazing that was sitting around at Brad and Veronica's house ^_^  I've seen things online, and every once in a while I see something I want and Nate orders it for me... but today of my own will, I went through an entire magazine and actually found stuff on at least every other page I would want *gasp*  Many brownie points for the wife :)

And the other achievement of the day.... is that I finished building my duck pond in Farmville.... I thought it went well with the whole geek thing so I took a picture of it lol  Now I get to hatch and grow ducklings :)

Day 181 ~ Turning Twenty Four!

Today was my birthday :)  Nothing too terribly exciting happened, but it was a good day.  I got the day off due to snow, so I think me and the snow have called a truce since it was clearly looking out for me on my birthday!  Nate and I went to Outback Steakhouse and then stopped by my parents.  They hadnt expected to see me because of the snow, but I was excited because my grandfather was there after his hospital visit and so it was great to see my grandparents.

Presents from my family!  And the most epic awesome and all the other words you can think of to describe the best ice cream cake in the entire world!

Day 180 ~ Thundersnow...

Today's snow was totally awesome.... there was thunder and lighting and everything! The power went out all over and branches fell from trees!  It was crazy to drive in on my way home from work!  But in any case, because they figured they wouldnt see me, Nate's parents brought over my early birthday presents!  So these are pictures of the snow and my birthday presents :)

Steve loved to watch the birds in the trees with the snow this morning!

Flowers my dad picked out for me <3

Early birthday presents from Nate's family!  Oh but the Phantom of the Opera tickets are for NEW YORK on BROADWAY on Saturday from Nate!  He's such a keeper! 

Day 179 (Tuesday January 25th) ~ Our first plumbing problem...

After the lady below us came up twice to tell us water was coming through her air vent, we finally found out we had a leak in a pipe in our bathroom.  At first, it was manageable with a small pot and we put in a ticket to have it fixed.  One of the benefits to apartment living is that when something breaks they fix it for free.  But sometime over night last night, the leak got worse and flooded the pot!  Finally, after she called the leaisng office again and so did we, they came out and fixed it!

The leak was so bad that within two hours it was over half way full!

Day 178 ~ My new specialty...

So.... ages ago I took a picture of a griddle box that belonged to someone else, but I got my own for Christmas and, not that I'm bragging, but if I must say so myself, we make the BEST burgers on the face of the planet on it!  This beats out the double cheeseburger by far :)

Day 177 ~ from computer to paper...

I've decided that I am going to make this photo blog into a scrap book as well!  I'm almost half way through the 365 days now and I am going to start getting prints of my pictures and making them into scrap book pages so that  it won't just sit here for nothing on the internet and I can have something material to document my year that anyone can see and that can live on long after I'm done with the project!  This is my starter collection of paper... lots of solid colors, and a few patterned ones, to go with specific days!  I'll add more as I work on the project of course :)  Should be fun, but a lot of work too... here we go!

Day 176 ~ Ramona's safe haven!

Ramona in her "hidey hole" as we call it.  Nate's mom got this for her and she used to sleep in it at the end of Nate's bed beofre we got married... she hasn'tcared for itmuch since, but lately Steve has been a pain in her backside at night so she has taken to getting back in it!  I love to see her in it though, it's the one thing that's hers :)

Day 175 ~ Icy!

The ice on my windshield from inside my car this morning!  I didn't want to scrape it off cause it was cold and I couldn't find my gloves, so I just let it melt.... believe it or not, this was when I first got in and turned the car on, but it looks like it should be no big deal to just wipe it off cause its all watery..... NOT! The wipers just went right over it! Besides, I thought it looked cool with the tree and the sunlight behind it!

Day 174 ~ After the longest time...

I finally put words on our wedding book with the stickers I had bought when I bought the album!  It took me a year and a half to do it, but I was finally inspired... probably because it was the day we'd been married a year and a half :)  I just never knew exactly what to put on there and I don't have any earthly clue as to why it took the ligh bulb so long to go off!  I wassitting there staring at the stickers, staring at the book... trying to think of songs or phrases or sayings.  And even the ones that seemed like they would fit us, I didn't have enough letters for or I just wasn't quite content with it.  Then it dawned on me.... it was like everything was just waiting for me to figure it out.  For the Longest Time, by Billy Joel, is "our song" if you will!  I swore I wouldn't have enough letters for it, but I spelled it all out and I DID!!!! It was so fitting, right down to the fact that it took me the longest time to finish it :)

I think you ought to know that I intend to hold you for the longest time!

I like being married :)

Day 173 ~ To ponder the skies....

This was on my way home from work.... Ilove it when the moon is big and bright so it makes the clouds extra bright and it's really crisp air.... it always puts me in a thinking kind of mood!

Day 172 ~ How Kateri spent the better part of the afternoon!

She started to wail every time I tried to take those foam puzzle things off her! And you don't want to be you if you try to take her baby away! :)

Day 171 ~ Crazy show!

So I started watching this, because historically, the time surrounding Henry VIII has been my all time favorite time period in history!  I figured, why not watch something with some sort of historical value!  This show is insane... and not for the faint of heart when it comes to those kinds of scenes where you would cover your not yet adult children to cover their eyes and ears!  There are some parts of it that I'm not sure are 100 % accurate, but it's interesting to see the parts dramatized that The Other Boleyn Girl leaves out ;)

Day 170 (Sunday January 16th) ~ These = awesome!

Finally a food that has plus in it that means something to me... why, I have no idea.... but I like these way better than the regular Fiber One bars!

Day 169 ~ Sad day in purple land...

After a great effort.... followed by a few dumb mistakes.... I hang up my Raven's attire for the season!  Next year is our year though, I can feel it!

Oh and I will personally make whoever can mush the team from Pittsburg into the ground next week my new best friend :)

Day 168 (Friday, January 14th) ~ Just dance!

Another teen dance tonight hosted by my brother's girlfriend's Venture Crew!  This time, Ashley came with us, her family are long time friends of ours so it was exciting since I hadnt seen her in a while!  Dancing is one of my all time favorite things to do! I live for it really!

Me, Ashley, Oliva, Suzanne

Suzanne and her friend, Meg, being *tall* :)

Suzanne's reaction to finding a lollipop she didn't know she had in her pocket... yeah, she's my sister!

Suzanne's friends Anna and Brenna!

Day 167 ~ Amish book relapse!

I tried.... I really did!  I even picked a book about country type stuff, but the instant I opened a new Amish book that my mom got from the library, it waslike breathing a sigh of relief and I finished thebook in two days!  In two days of trying to read the other one, I only got to 57 pages and I honestly thought the book was good! It just didn't have that certain something I'm after in my life, simplicity!  I think that's saying something!

Day 166 (Wednesday January 12th) ~ The camera loves me...

So I do cute things to get it to look at me!

Day 165 ~ Save the last dance...

Fate was looking out for us today!  It was Lyndsay's last day before boot camp and we had mentioned going to Chuch E. Cheese for one last dance on Exceed before she goes away until who knows when!  We didn't know if it was going to beable to happen since I had to work and it was my grandmother's birthday.  Well as it happened my grandmother hadno plans for a family get together and I surprisingly got the day off since my family I work for was sick.  We have gotten a "picture" (one of those things you put a token in and Chucky draws your picture on the screen and it gives you a print out!) almost every time we've gone... and today was no exception since it would be our last time there for quite some time.  As it turned out, Lyndsay got a call from her recruiter saying that because of the possible snow in, she needed to report at 1 and stay the night at a hotel before shipping out.  So we wouldn't have beenable to do it any other time if life hadn't aligned this morning in our favor!

Also note the date at the bottom... it says 1/11/11 :) I was excited to see that. The "theme" for today on the 365 challenge (not that I've usedit in a while since I started this on my own and typically don't need the theme they provide) was to document 1/1/11 and make it meaningful!  I'll say this was pretty meaningful! <3

Lucky enough to catch this one without trying :)

Day 164 ~ Turning a new page...

One of my new goals is to read a new book every week, so every Monday I have to be on a new book!   I know I need to pass up my remote and my controller for the exbox that holds many of my shows, for something more productive now and then and forcing my way through new books is how I'm going to start!  So the point of today's picture is that I'm putting my book first instead of the tv as you can see the remote and controller behind it!  This is the first book probably in over a year that I've read that isn't an Amish fiction book :)  It's a bit to adjust to since I am used to the simple lilt of the Amish ways.... i.e. there is cursing in this book, could do without that... but all in all it's a good challenge!

Day 162 (Saturday January 8th) ~ The Red Carpet!

Tonight was Nate's company holiday party!  The theme was "red carpet" and when you got there you checked your coats in and then walked down a red carpet at the end of which you stopped and got your picture taken!  We were the only ones at our table for a long time, but then Nate's coworkers from his team started showing up!  Chrissy is my age and she was a lot of fun to meet.  This year was so cool because they actually had dancing :)  I wore a pretty black dress!  They put our pictures in frames for us to take and this is the table and our pictures :)  Chrissy and I danced the night away and it was such a great time, even the founders and president of the company were dancing!  Only negative of the night is when we got out, it was absolutely freezing outside while we waited for the valet to bring our car up! Otherwise, fabulous night :)

Day 163 ~ Anchors Away

Today was Lyndsay's going away party as she leaves on Wednesday for Navy bootcamp!
I confess I did not take these pictures.... Lyndsay's dad did.  He is the far superior picture taker number one, and number two with all the craziness in there I didn't want to add to it by asking to get one on my camera!  But this is an important event in our lives and thus it must be documented :)

Lyndsay with her friends who were still at the party at the time this was taken.  Her rommate from college, Lauren, was also there but had left a while before.  I really love how we're all placed in this picture, I don't think that was planned either, just turned out awesome looking like that!

      The anchor that, according to her younger sister Melodie, has now replaced Lyndsay in the family ;)

Lyndsay's family!

Day 161 ~ Hermit Crab now has play toy :)

Day 160 (Thursday January 6th) ~ This girl knows me....

Christmas presents from Erika!

The address book was a complete surprise.... I literally needed a new one and was just randomly making that my facebook status!  She must have seen it and bought me one and how perfect are the colors!  I <3 her!

Day 159 ~ Meet ZhuZhu!

I think I was more fascinated by Kateri's Christmas presents than my own :)  Kateri loves this thing, and when she tips over, she gets all sad and hugs her!  Last I checked, hamsters don't bark like a dog, honk like a car horn, or ride in boats.... but Zuzu does! And she's awesome.  Kateri will hold her up to me and say "is ZhuZhu!" practically all day long.  Such entertainment... ZhuZhu gets stuck under the couch a lot because she's not to bright about the whole moving forwards thing when needed!

Day 158 ~ We match Part II :)

Kateri also got a Bumble bee pillow pet for Christmas :)  She calls it Bumbee and when she dances, she now goes and finds her bumbee and dances with it!  She's such a goof! I am easily amused by the fact that a 2 and a 24 year old both have the same things, knitted items AND a pillow pet!

Day 157 ~ We match!

Today was my first day back with Kateri after the holidays.  I decided to wear the gloves that Lyndsay knit me for a present since it was cold obviously!  I walk in and ask how all the holidays were, hear some exciting news Brad and Veronica had and then I look over at Kateri and....

Tada!!! These knit baby pants were hand me downs from Brad's family... home made out of the very same yarn that Lyndsay used for my gloves!  I was so excited about this!