Truly Inspiring

A friend recently loaned me a book called "Artful Blogging", which has a bunch of blogs by these super-crafty-super-inspirational women. I've been checking them out a lot lately. One in particular struck a chord with me. There's a woman in Utah named Stephanie Nielson, whose blog is called The NieNie Dialogues. She's a wife and a mom who also just happens to be recovering from a near fatal plane crash. Her post yesterday was a recap of the weekend. She called it "perfect", yet her family did everyday, "normal" things (like a bike ride, etc...). Anyways, it really puts things into perspective about what's important. I know we all understand that, but sometimes we lose sight of it.

I highly encourage you to check out her blog. You can click on the little typewriter on the right of my blog page to get to her blog.

Now, I don't think my blog is inspiring in the slightest. I started this blog to keep my friends and family who live far far away current on what's new in my life. But, I do feel compelled to recap my weekend.....

* I didn't work for three whole days straight!
* I slept until 11am on Friday and then took a nap at 3pm. And, best yet, I didn't feel guilty at all about it!
* Got one of the cutest messages on my celly from my BFF's oldest child, Emma. Apparently she announced to her mother, "I'm going to call Auntie" and she did! I know she's seven and that's probably not so amazing that she figured out how to call me from her mom's cell phone, but her message was adorable. And she is one of the smartest children I know.
* Went to the parentals for Easter dinner. Yes, I know that Easter was weeks ago. But my sister was in Florida and I worked on Easter. But, seriously, how cool is it that my mom made an entire Easter dinner for us because we missed Easter?? My mom rocks.
* Totally rocked out to "Just Dance" on the wii. I had to groove by myself, though, because my family sucks and wouldn't participate. Personally, I think it's that they were too afraid of my mad skillz on the dance floor.
* The Penguins won! And with that win moved on to the next round in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
* My sister brought me a kick-butt Easter basket. Except for the mug from the Miami Ohio School of Business (which she got free) and the empty plastic eggs (wtf???), the basket was awesome.

Probably one of the best weekends I've had in a looooonnnng time. And, yes, a lot of it has to do with the fact that I didn't work for three days! Yeah, definitely not as inspiring as some blogs that I've read.... But, hey - it's always good to think of the good things you have going on in your life, right? Have a good week!

Monday Musings

I had a grand day today. I started the morning with phone calls from not one but both of my BFFs (Katie & Lori). Then I met my mama and we went to The North Market. I've been dying to go there since I've been back in Columbus. Some of the shops were closed, but we still managed to have an awesome lunch followed by Jeni's ice cream. I had fig & goat cheese and Cheryl had peanut butter Thai chili. Sounds gross, but my ice cream was FABULOUS! Then we did a little more shopping before I came home to do some boring stuff around the house. It all got me thinking about how lucky I am to have such wonderful friends and a nearly perfect family.

Here's another revelation. I love the Giant Eagle by my house. Most of my friends know that I hate Giant Eagle. I worked for them and I really hate them. (Please note - some of the best people I know work for that company....but I hate the company.) When I moved back to Columbus, I swore that I would NEVER set foot in a Giant Eagle again. As luck would have it, there is a Giant Eagle literally 2 minutes from my house. I really don't even have to leave my development to reach it. My dad told me, "The time to stop being stubborn is when it starts hurting you". So, I grudgingly shopped there. And here's the kicker - it's seriously the best Giant Eagle ever. Ever. The people are so so nice. And today, the guy at the deli spotted me perusing the rotisserie chickens and said, "I have a fresh one here for you if you'd like it". And who doesn't love a cute young man with fresh chicken? And, in case you didn't already know this, Giant Eagle truly has the best rotisserie chickens around. I know this to be true because when I worked for them, I had my team taste testing rotisserie chickens from Wal Mart, etc.... My point is this: Maybe it's not so good to hold a grudge.

So Trashy

I spent my morning off yesterday cleaning out the area behind my store. Apparently the local homeless have been using the woods beside my building as a summer home. It was not what I wanted to do on a day off, but it needed done. And here's the cool part: My parents came over to help. There were some tense moments, like the argument between me and my dad about correct placement of trash in the dumpster. But I was soooo thankful for their help. I would have been out there all day instead of 3 hours if it weren't for them. Just one more reason why I have the best parents in the world! Here's a partial list of what we cleaned up:

1) One mattress (full size)
2) One sofa
3) 39 bottles of beer (40 oz, mostly Busch Light)
4) 9 bags of leaves that someone dumped.
5) 8 tires
6) 13 other bags of random trash. Mostly empty drink bottles.
7) 1 headboard (queen size)
8) 1 large (3' at least) wooden spoon....I guess proabably used for wall decoration somewhere.
9) 2 drinking glasses - probably lifted from Bob Evans.
10) 1 large garbage can filled with roof shingles.
11) 2 buckets
12) 1 cooler

I tried to think of what we could make out of the beer bottles (vases, anyone?), but Cheryl nixed that idea. There are still quite a few beer bottles that we didn't get, so I still have the chance to come up with some additional thoughts before Christmas!