No Signs of Slowing Down

 Hi all!

Life feels so crazy lately. Everything going on with school, working and trying to find a job, I'm feeling extremely burned out. Although this week wasn't all craziness, I did have time to find/follow some amazing blogs that make me excited to be married, have babies, cook, create, and travel someday. Probably not in that order though. ;)

Cleveland, Ohio 2011 - The 2nd wettest year in the history of Cleveland. This week was so dreary, I legitimately considered buying a pair of rain boots. And those that know me personally, know that I would never be caught dead in a pair of rain boots. (No offense to all you rain boot lovers out there!) These are some of the things that got me by this rainy week:

Rainy McRainerson.

I adore coffee, but we have an excess of coffee mugs. There's two more shelves that look like this. 

Pumpkin Spice Creamer.

Best Sweetest Day Gift Ever. 

Luckily for us all, it's the weekend. Time to relax, enjoy fall pleasures, and design a flippin' awesome Halloween costume for a contest! Let's start with the fall pleasures: 

We tackled the time-consuming task of Pumpkin Whoopie Pies!

He's such a trooper when it comes to baking endeavors with me. Although it usually results in him putting peanut butter into everything...

My sister decided to play photographer. I look a tad crazy.

Teamwork. 

Now I'm off to a night of relaxation with Dan. But first, we have to construct a costume to help us win Season 7 of The Office signed by the cast! 

Can you guess who Dan has to dress up as?

Check Rainn Wilson's Facebook for a picture posted by Dan Lahr later today and make sure to like it! We'd appreciate it!

Have a great weekend, all! 

The Cost of Moving

Howdy peeps!

So instead of studying for my open-book Staffing and Development midterm I've decided to write to you guys. You're just that darn special to me. I did a lot of thinking this weekend about the whole moving situation. Of course, in any choice we make sometimes there are people that don't necessary agree with us, or want us to alter our plans in some way to please them. Unfortunately for those people, I am undoubtedly stubborn - I'm set in all my quirky ways.

I've never been one to weigh my decisions based on the counsel of others, except for my parents really. Throughout my life I've tried to make all the right choices about my future that would make them full of pride and joy that they raised such a brilliant young lady. That's them below. Good 'ole m&d. 

My Parents on Their Honeymoon in Florida

Whenever I discuss the topic of moving my parents are basically instant cheerleaders. I couldn't be happier about that. My parents' dream when my sister and I were just little nuggets was to move to Florida. Sadly, it was hard for my dad to effectively job search there with 2 little ones and a career back in Cleveland. They really can't stress enough how important it is to not set down roots here if I want to move, which makes perfect sense to me. Unfortunately, not everyone is nearly as supportive of our dream. This is something I knew from the very beginning and I try not to stress over it, especially when Dan tells me he wants this just as bad as I do. That's all it really takes for me to let my worries subside and refocus - it's a lot easier knowing that we have to face this kind of crud together. 


So ultimately, there's quite a few costs that go into moving from one state to another. 

We're talking the moving truck, gas, food, furniture, and all that good stuff that should make me concerned about all the financials involved. But I'm not. To me it just feels like the greatest cost of moving to Raleigh is risking relationships. And because I'm undoubtedly stubborn, all I'd have to say on the matter would be, "c'est la vie" (or "such is life")! I know where I'm going, I know where I want to be, and I know that there's not a single person that can stop me. 


And that's the way it is.

Fall in Ohio... Rainfall in Ohio, that is.

Hello out there!

So as some of you may know, we've been getting absolutely soaked here in Cleveland. Apparently, the weather seems to be crappy for most of us up north. We've had rain for the past few days, but it feels like a flippin' lifetime. I'd really like to enjoy the fall weather, but this is monsoon weather. We're at a brisk 47 degrees with no sight of drought. While my destination of choice is at a comfortable 58 degrees and mostly cloudy. Darn you, Raleighians!

Normally, I tend to enjoy the fall for a number of awesome reasons. 

Baked Pumpkin Spice Donutholes Recipe

Most importantly, the food. I can see a number of you shaking your head, not surprised at this! But seriously, you get to use all these amazing flavors, like pumpkin, cinnamon, more pumpkin, and even more pumpkin! Did I mention pumpkin? Boy, do I love it! Especially when the pumpkin spice latte rolls out at Starbucks. Best $4.55 a girl/boy could spend. Although, typing out the $4.55 makes it seem like quite the rip-off. Oh well! The best place to find pumpkin/fall recipes right now is Pinterest. If you don't know what this is, you're pretty much failing at surfing the web. This site has EVERYTHING from EVERYWHERE! Basically, you join the site, type in a phrase, and BOOM! Countless photos from lots of different sources. Getting back to my original point, one reason I love fall is pumpkin flavored food. Fall is practically the only appropriate time to eat pumpkin. 

How beautiful is this? A photo of North Carolina in the fall..

Secondly, I love fall because of the colors. I feel like that's almost everyone's reason to love fall - the colors of the trees. I feel like it happened really fast this year. Probably because our weather was out of whack. We had maybe 2 weeks in the beginning of October where we hit close to 80 degree weather. That's Cleveland, for ya. Anyways, I can only imagine how lovely it must be in Raleigh this time of year. According to WRAL, I'm guessing their News Channel 5, it's supposed to be in the mid 70's all next week. All I have to say is, UGH. That is awesome. Perfect weather for a stroll in the park to take in all the beautiful colors. 

Another reason I love the fall is for the photo opportunities. Some of you may know that I dabble in photography, I'm definitely a beginner. There's a ton of buttons/features that I really don't know a thing about on my Canon EOS Rebel XS, but I try. I'm definitely excited to visit all the parks in Raleigh and bust out my camera. I love nothing more than some awesome nature shots. My favorite time to shoot being fall, of course.

Here are some of the beauties I've taken so far this fall: 

Lastly, I love the fall because of Halloween. What could possibly be more fun than dressing up like someone or something else, ringing someone's doorbell, and demanding that they drop some sweet treats into a bag? Sounds like the perfect heist. Over my 21 years of life, my mother has dressed me up like some pretty embarrassing things. For instance, one awful Halloween day when I was younger, she dressed me up as Little Bo Peep and my sister was dressed as a sheep. (And no, I will not upload a picture.) I've had a variety of some pretty ridiculous Halloween costumes. My first Halloween ever, my parents dad decided to dress me up as a Cleveland Browns dog. Thanks a lot, dad. Hopefully they didn't play as horribly as they do now. 

But anyways, as you get older, you get to choose your costumes, which means way cooler costumes than mom could ever think up. So this year, I'm almost positive that Dan and I are going to hand out candy at my house dressed as Jim and Pam from The Office. Dan and I are completely and utterly obsessed with The Office. Okay, I am completely and utterly obsessed with The Office.  Who can forget 3-Hole Punch Jim? Needless to say, Dan and I will be headed over to the thrift shop after church on Sunday! Whoop whoop!

Anyways, I hope you all have a lovely fall full of pumpkin everything...

Expectations vs. Reality

500 Days of Summer

Hello friends!


So this idea of doing my expectations vs. reality of moving to Raleigh sparked into my head because of one of my favorite movies. 500 Days of Summer. If you haven't seen it, I highly suggest it. Basically in the picture you can see what he expects to happen when he sees his ex-fling again on the left... and what ultimately unfolds on the right... Kind of depressing in this case, whereas I prefer to put a silly little twist on my Raleigh version! 




Dan and I have dabbled a bit in 
looking at places to live. Mostly 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartments that are less than 1,000 a month. This seems to be the most likely outcome of moving to Raleigh, however, I'm a dreamer! I like to look at big fancy houses ranging from 150k to 200k. Something we probably could never afford in the next 2 years of living in Ohio. Ugh. Look at the one of the left... a porch that wraps around one side... isn't it dreamy? It also has a huge yard... perfect for an energetic puppy... Now look on the right, not awful, not great. Just a 2bd2bth apartment. There is a pool though, so that's a plus, so long as the kids in the apartment complex don't pee in it. Another plus, no lawn for Dan to cut. Yes Dan, you heard me, I will not being cutting lawn, ever. Glad that's settled!

Moving on, we have our Dan's issue of pets. It's definitely his issue. You see, Dan was raised with a bunch of cats. I'm pretty sure he even had bunnies, too. And a dog, once. It was like an animal farm. However, he doesn't remember the dog, or he wasn't born when they had it - I can't remember. So, Dan REALLY REALLY REALLY wants a dog, preferably a Shiba-Inu. I digress... so now Dan has his cat, Socks, the one that I can't say no and leave behind when we move. He's 7 or 8 years old, kind of a crank, sometimes cute. He's the alpha male in Dan's house - so he can be aggressive to the other cats from time to time. Basically, the only reason why I don't think it'd be good idea to bring a puppy around him. We've talked about getting a dog after Socks goes to Heaven, but he has probably about 10+ more years in him! Therefore, Dan insists that we should get one and Socks would be fine with it. Yeah, right! Needless to say, this one is definitely Dan's Expectations VS. Dan's Reality. 


On a more serious note, we also looked into some churches in the Raleigh area. So far, the 2 I really like are: Hope Community Church and Raleigh Christian Community. I'd love to hear from anyone who has heard of these churches or has a good suggestion! 


Until next time...

Jobs, jobs, jobs, blah.

Howdy friends,


So I've started my fun little job search. Keyword, "started". I'm not entirely serious about it just yet because I still have 60-some days of school left, but I figured it'd be a good idea to see what's out there. 

RAHHHH YEAHHH! 

I haven't had much luck so far. Last week I had a phone screening, which to me seemed pretty pointless. They were looking for someone who already had their bachelor's degree but still wanted to consider me if they couldn't find "the right fit". Needless to say, it was pretty frustrating when I'm so close to graduation. I'm definitely finding it hard to juggle being a student, working, and trying to find a job. 

Beep beep! Move it or lose it, sister!

I've never been entirely optimistic about job prospects in Cleveland, but now I'm even less hopeful. It's not all bad though. There is quite a few jobs around here in Human Resources... if you feel like driving to Downtown Cleveland. And I, my friend, do NOT. Mostly because I would dread the trip every morning. Traffic is backed up as far as the eyes can see unless you leave super early. I'm not a morning person... I miss my 8 a.m. class on most days. 


My philosophy has always been to just do it, get through it, it'll pay off in the end (Probably why I worked at Marc's for almost a year, uck).  So if I had to work in Cleveland I would, especially for a good company that paid good money. However, I may end up looking like Miss Crazy Eyes over there on the right. And let's be honest, nobody wants that. I really wish that I could just move to Raleigh and start my career and life there instead of waiting, but there's really no other way to work it out where I get there any faster. 


Moving ahead I just have to have patience. Ha, that's funny! Well, until next time...