New Job and New Office!

This is the face of someone who is happy going to work in the morning. It's a new feeling, so I'm still getting used to it. This morning I took this photo with my computer on my way out the door, wearing my fancy new IU polo shirt for Welcome Week festivities. This job? Is so much fun. There's a lot to learn, but nothing that I can't handle. The people? Are fantastic. Everyone in my school is incredibly friendly, open and welcoming - something I really craved at my last job but never encountered. After three years in an extremely hostile work environment where nobody really seemed to like each other, this is such a breath of fresh air.

My first day was Tuesday, and I jumped right in and tried to start learning stuff. My boss took me out to lunch (thai food ... delish!), which was fun, and this morning they had a welcome breakfast for me. So nice! I actually got to meet some students this afternoon at the open house we hosted for freshmen. We had a great turnout, and it was lots of fun.

Working on a college campus is the best part of this job - I absolutely love taking the bus to work. Strange, I know, but there's something so enjoyable about sitting down, opening a book, and zoning out for the ten whole minutes it takes me to get there. I love spending some time walking outside, and yesterday - despite the crazy heat and the fact that it was dorm move-in day - I walked across campus to downtown to go to the library. Just the fact that I could walk there, and then walk to a different bus stop and take the bus home, totally made my day. Sometimes, it's just the little things, you know?

Anyway ... so yeah. All in all, the new job is fab. Still have a ton of stuff to learn, but that's okay. School starts next week, so I better learn quickly!

Another awesome part about my new job? My new office. For those of you who may not remember, here is a photo of the entirety of my office at the high school:

Yes, that really is all of it. Not pictured: the electrical box for the school, another smaller electrical box, and a small fried-looking box plugged into the wall I was told never to remove because it was linked to the school's alarm system.

Behold: my new, grown-up office, full of all sorts of excitement:

It definitely needs a little bit of decoration ... hopefully will have some stuff hung on the walls by next week.

I have my own thermostat! How awesome is that?!

Trust me ... after spending my summer sweltering at the high school (you know, not too many people there, so they weren't worried about keeping it cool), having an office with my own personal thermostat is muy exciting.

To be honest ... once I got used to my tiny office at North, I really grew to love it. It stopped seeming tiny to me (until I had more than one other person in it, of course). But, um, now? Just looking at that photo makes me feel claustrophobic. It doesn't take long to feel spoiled, eh?

Anyway, just wanted to give you an update on the new gig. In a word: lovely. :)

Last Day!

Well, this is it - today is my last day of work at the high school. Lots of feelings and emotions, most of them very very joyful. Although I still have a couple of nagging icky feelings, mostly about making sure someone is taking care of my kids when I leave. And that's hard. But I need to let go. I need to concentrate on my own life and what's ahead of me, which is all good stuff!

I am beyond excited about my new job. The staff there is already more welcoming and more interested in what I have to bring to the table than my coworkers at my current (soon to be old) job ever were. I will have a real office, not a closet without ventilation. I will have real coworkers who are ... nice to me. I will be part of a team. It's definitely time.

What will I miss? A couple of coworkers, but only a couple. A lot of students. Saying goodbye to them has proven to be extremely difficult. The thought of never seeing them again is really hard - I mean, okay, I'll probably run into them at the mall or Walmart or something, but it won't be the same. And that's okay, it's just an adjustment.

But you know what I will miss the most? The students who drop by just to say hi, the ones who came in before school started this week to see how my summer was, the kids who smile from ear to ear when they get a passing grade. Those couple of coworkers - now friends - who helped keep me sane over giggling lunches and eye rolling sessions.

Sigh.

But enough of that. It seems only fitting that today, on my last day of work, I leave you with one final "Overheard from my Office - High School Edition."

Girl walking into counseling department: "Hi, I need to change my lunch from A lunch to B lunch."

Me: "Why?"

Girl: "Ummm because, um, there's this girl, I think she's a lesbian, and she won't stop staring at my boobs."

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand scene.

Birthday birthday birthday!

In just shy of a month, on February 9, I will be turning 29. 29! The last year in my 20s. How fun! I have never dreaded birthdays or aging - I say, bring it on. I hope there is never a time in my life that involves me dreading a birthday.

You know what's REALLY fun about birthdays? Making a fun birthday list! This year, I have two main things on my birthday list. First and foremost, I am DYING for a Clarisonic Mia. I switched up my birth control a few months ago, and ever since, my hormones have been out of whack. As in ... my skin has been an absolute nightmare.

I went for a facial last night (pure bliss!) at Aveda, and I was so excited when she used a Clarisonic on my face! I have been obsessing over the Mia for a couple of months now, and it MUST be mine. I have even gone so far as to read every single review on the Sephora website. What ... you don't do that? Hmmm. I am convinced this thing is a miracle worker, and will cure all of my skin ailments.

I probably won't receive this as an actual gift, but I am working on a small collection of Sephora gift cards. I will probably be asking for MORE Sephora gift cards so that I can purchase this bad boy. I really, really, really, really, really want one.

The other gift on my list? A pair of these super awesome Hunter wellies in violet. Aren't they just so fabulous and happy?

My old wellies split up the back (thanks, J. Crew) and I have been wellie-less for quite awhile now. Here's to hoping that they might someday soon be mine!

Snow day, handy husband, and Christmas decorations!

1. Snow Day - I have a snow day tomorrow! We are having all sorts of winter storm warnings, and they preemptively closed school for tomorrow. No complaints here! So now I'm staying up too late, having fun, and tomorrow I will sleep in, clean, do laundry, and pack for vacation. Woot!

2. Can I just say how awesome it is to have such a handy husband? Not only am I married to someone who can fix almost anything, but he can also build stuff! He has been hard at work the last few weeks, building this beautiful chest/coffee table. What do you think?

Isn't it amazing? I am so happy to have a nice, strong, solid piece of furniture that Matt built - it will literally last forever, and it's something that can stay in our family for, well, a long time!

3. Christmas decorations! Yes, I did decorate a bit for Christmas despite not getting a tree. And for those of you who are concerned we don't have a tree ... well, I'm pretty sad about it. But since we were just on vacation, and we leave again on Friday, there just wasn't a point. I did a few little things to make me feel more festive.

Like put these cute little dishes out ... for no reason, because we are not entertaining. It's strictly because I never use them and I think they are so cute.

This is actually a Christmas ornament of the place Matt and I had our wedding reception. It's massive, so I put it out on the counter instead of on our nonexistent tree.

I filled my fave kate spade rose bowl with a ton of glittery ornaments, and that vase o'glitter makes me very, very happy.

Oh, and we can't forget Oscar's stocking!

I tied this super cute mistletoe to ... the uber romantic ceiling fan that is on top of the dining room table, thus ensuring Matt and I will never, ever be directly under it. Seriously, where do people hang mistletoe? The only other viable option in our apartment was Matt's pull-up bar. Talk about romantic.

I just threw out some more cute Christmas dishes on the table, along with my other fave kate spade vase with some sparkly Christmas tree-y branch dealies.

Aren't those cute?

Wellllllll that's it. Like I said, I didn't do much, but the tiny bit I DID do makes me feel warmer and fuzzy-er inside. That's all for tonight ... if you live somewhere in the midwest and you're also getting this snow storm, stay safe out there! xxoo

Vacation!

Matt and I got back last night from our North Carolina vacation - so much fun! It was hard coming back to reality today (i.e. going to work), but somehow I managed. Plus - in two weeks, it will be Christmas break! Yay!

We left last Tuesday and drove to Asheville. The weather was AWFUL. I drove through the mountains, at night, in the pouring rain. Awful awful awful awful. I think Matt and I went about two hours without talking, and I was clenching the steering wheel so hard that my entire upper body was sore afterwards. True story. But. BUT. We made it there in one piece, checked into our hotel, and then headed back into the deluge for the most amaaaaazing dinner at Tupelo Honey. I had shrimp and (goat cheese) grits with andouille sausage, spinach, roasted red peppers, and mushrooms. And a very large glass of wine.

Matt had something else ... and I don't remember what it was. But I'm pretty sure he loved it!

I convinced Matt to pose for a photo with me. It was tough, but eventually I convinced him it was worth it. Okay, I didn't, but I DID force him.
The next day, we went to a most amazing place - the French Broad Chocolate Lounge. This place is the real deal. CHOCOLATE CHOCOLATE CHOCOLATE as far as the eye can see. Or ... in these display cases. The place had the most extensive hot chocolate (ahem, drinking chocolate) menu I had ever seen.

Oh, and we bought a bar of Mast Brothers chocolate. These dudes are serious about chocolate. We haven't had this yet - because it was kind of expensive for chocolate and we feel like we should save it for a special occasion. Like ... Christmas maybe. I absolutely LOVE the packaging and design on these chocolate bars - they are so beautiful. I had to take a photo because it looked so amazing!

Mmmmm! My drinking chocolate. It was seriously amazing. I had to take photos. This was called something like ... a liquid truffle, in "pure dark." Drool.

See how cute?
Can you tell how thick this stuff is? Kind of amazing. No, make that ... really super duper amazing.

After walking around Asheville for awhile, we got back in the car and drove to Charlotte to spend time with our friends Anna, Tim and their beautiful daughter Mae, who is 10 months old now. I am totally and completely in love with her. Here she is, hanging out with the boys:

Matt and Mae, having some play time.

All bundled up and looking OH so adorable for a walk in the cold!

So adorable in her santa jammies!!!

Matt and I are posing as surrogate parents here. Ha! We had so much fun with her. Matt was amazing with her - she LOVED hearing his voice and looking at him. She would always stick her tongue out at Matt, and it was the cutest.

Ahhh. So cute.
Matt and Mae, hanging out again. Just chillin.

Anna and Mae! Such a happy, happy baby.

Le sigh. Perfect, perfect baby.

And that was our trip! We hung out and played with Mae and it was fabulous. Thankfully, we had an uneventful drive home yesterday and now ... back to the grind.

At least until next weekend, when we're off to Chicago to spend the weekend with Lisa and Randy, and then off to Michigan to spend Christmas with my fam. Can you believe it's almost Christmas???!

Thanksgiving Recipe Swap

Okay, I realize that it's probably a little late for a Thanksgiving recipe swap, but I am late in reading my blogs (per usual) and just came across b.e.g.'s recipe swap post. I usually make my grandma's chocolate chip pecan pie for Thanksgiving, but this year I made Pioneer Woman's chocolate bourbon pecan pie to try something new.

Instead, I will post the recipe for one of my family's Thanksgiving traditions - noodle kugel!!!!!! Now, I realize a lot of you probably aren't familiar with kugel. What can I say? It's a Jew thing. :) My parents always make kugel for Thanksgiving, and this year I thought I would make it to take over to my in-laws for dinner tomorrow. Kugel is basically a baked noodle pudding type deal. I know it might sound weird, but the main ingredients are egg noodles, eggs, cream cheese, butter, and sugar. CLEARLY you can't go wrong.

Ingredients:

1 pound medium egg noodles (I always use the No-Yolks)

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened (I always use Neufchatel cheese)

1 1/4 cups sugar

8 eggs, well beaten

4 cups milk

2 tsp vanilla

1 tsp lemon juice

dash salt

Topping:

2/3 cups graham cracker crumbs

1 1/4 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cook noodles according to package directions. Drain and set aside.

Cream together the butter and cream cheese. Add sugar and mix well. Blend in eggs. Add milk, vanilla, lemon juice and salt. Add noodles and mix thoroughly. Pour into a 9x13 inch baking dish. Mix graham cracker crumbs and cinnamon and sprinkle on top of noodles. Bake for 1 1/4 hours or until nicely browned and crusty on top. Let cool at least 30 minutes before serving. Cut into squares.

Just give this a shot - trust me, you will love it. Even though it is kinda sweet, I serve it as a Thanksgiving side. Enjoy!

Friday Cuteness

This is your Friday cuteness.

You're welcome.

CSA Week 1

On Friday afternoon, I picked up my very first CSA box! A couple of months ago, I signed up for a 25 week share of veggies from a local organic farm - and I have been (impatiently) waiting for the spring season to begin. I thought this would be a fun (?) weekly blog feature, so here goes! In this week's box was:

Spinach...

Pea shoots...
Shiitake mushrooms...
Green onions...
...and salad greens.
Doesn't everything look beautiful? There is nothing like fresh veggies straight from the farm. So far, I have made pea shoots sauteed with olive oil, garlic and vinegar, wilted spinach with mushrooms, a big beautiful green salad with caramelized mushrooms, and sauteed spinach with garlic and golden raisins.

I will be picking up my veggie box every Friday afternoon - cannot wait to see what I get next!

Florida!

Okay, so I didn't get around to blogging last night. Mostly because my friend Kyle and I went out for the most amazing dinner. And then I came home and just ... didn't feel like it. I have been a little down since I got home from seeing Matt - happy and down, all at the same time. Does that make sense?

SO. Florida!!! I didn't take many photos, so here's what I've got. We stayed in a hotel in Mississippi after I picked him up, and then Thursday morning we grabbed some breakfast and drove to Destin. It took about 3.5 hours - a really easy drive through some really crappy parts of Mississippi and Alabama. We grabbed lunch at a place on the beach, which was fantastic! Then for dinner, we went for amazing sushi at Osaka. We got the "Sushi Love Boat for 2" which was a lot of fun - we didn't have to order anything, the chefs just make what they want and throw it on a boat! Yummy! LOOK at all of that beautiful sushi:

Holy crap. It was absolutely amazing. The sushi was SO fresh and delicious - really, really incredible. And yeah. It didn't take us very long to finish it off. YUM.
On Friday, we went to the beach in the morning - it was SO beautiful. The water was just gorgeous and crystal clear. And I didn't bring my camera, so I have no photos of that perfect water. On Saturday, it was kinda stormy and the rest of the time, the water was really murky. Bummer! We decided to take a small 1/2-day trip to Seaside, Florida. Seaside is ... really really creepy. It's this little town someone created with a bunch of houses that basically look the same, clustered around this weird town square with little shops and restaurants. I wanted to check it out because it seemed cute, in theory ... but once we were there, it was a little weird. We had some great grilled shrimp burritos, grabbed coffee, and then went off the beaten path to wander around the "neighborhood." It was totally empty ... like, NO ONE was around. Just us. We started joking that it was a great backdrop for a horror movie. Last night, I was talking to my friend Catherine about it, and she told me that Seaside is where The Truman Show was filmed! which makes OH so much sense. Anyway, we checked out the beach on this very stormy, cloudy, windy day:

Matt was SO happy to get some good coffee after months of Army crap!
It was real, real windy. I like this photo but it really looks like I have a combover. Which is awkward.
On Sunday, it was nice and sunny and beautiful again - after brunch at Another Broken Egg Cafe (bananas foster french toast!), we headed back down to the beach.
Also another unfortunate windy photo of the two of us.
Sunday night: dinner at the Old Bay Steamer. MMMMMMMMM. We had a big platter with shrimp, crab legs, and lobster tails. OH MY GOSH IT WAS AMAZING!!! Seriously, the seafood down there was so incredible.
I caught this pretty funny photo of Matt - I had given up several crab legs ago, but he soldiered on and finished everything by himself!
Ew, this is so gross. It's our ... waste pail. EW.
On Monday, before saying goodbye to Destin and heading back to Mississippi, we went BACK to the beach. So beautiful - look at that white sand! I couldn't pull myself away.
So, we drove to a different part of the beach and I got some blood orange and lemon sorbet. Absolutely perfect and refreshing.
And, finally, saying goodbye to the beach. Sad face.
We drove back to Mississippi, went out to dinner, and hung out at the hotel until around 10:30pm, when we left and I drove him back to Shelby. Saying goodbye was tough - I definitely had a little breakdown. But it was a lot easier than saying goodbye the first time - especially knowing that we should be able to see each other in another 3-4 months when Matt (hopefully) gets R & R. We had to drive all around Shelby because they moved into a new building while Matt was on pass (of course), so we had to find the new building. And then move all of Matt's stuff from the old building to the new building. You know, classic Army. I got about 3.5 hours of sleep, woke up at 4am Tuesday to catch a flight out of one of the weirdest, smallest airport I have ever been to (that is going to be a separate blog post!) and eventually I made it back to Indianapolis. The Indianapolis airport is relatively new (I think it's only been open about a year?) and this was the first time I have flown out of it. I think it is the nicest airport I have ever been to! Plus, there was a Sephora vending machine!
Have y'all ever seen this anywhere else? This is the first time I have seen something this amazing. The airport also had a Vera Bradley store, and a bunch of other really neat stuff.

Anyway! So, that was my trip. It feels good to be home, but I'm back to sleepless nights. I got so used to falling asleep with Matt again, that I'm all thrown off. I haven't had a good night of sleep since Sunday ... and I'm really hoping that I'm back to normal by this weekend. I could really use it!