as of right now...

a fitting ending

so...today was 30 days of blogging. It's been a real change for me considering that usually I blog 2-3 times a month. I really didn't think I could do it but I did. And i feel great about it. I found some new blogs to read and a few new people are reading mine. You may see me continuing to blog for the next few days just because it is such a habit now. It will be nice not to have the pressure to do it every day though:)

I'm having a glass of Prosecco and Trader Joe's Italian Blood Orange Sparkling Soda to celebrate.

I'm off to watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Yes, it's just more of my David Boreanaz obsession right now:)

If you guys like Butternut squash make this lasagna...it's freaking delicious!

thanks for hanging with me for 30 days!

jen

day 29

Day 29 and there's really nothing to say...

today was definitely a different experience than yesterday. I got a good portion of the cleaning done today and am still working on the office area as I type this. In fact I did a deep cleaning of the kitchen and I am really happy with how clean and organized its looking right now. I'm trying to have the house organized for the holidays so that I can just take the Christmas decorations out of their boxes and put them up. We're getting our tree next weekend so I have this week to finish up a couple of rooms.

I am feeling both relieved and a little sad that the end of NaBloPoMo is tomorrow. On one hand it's kind of revived my interest in keeping up with this blog but on the other hand I don't live an exciting enough life to post everyday. I am doing the daily December mini book though so I may have unintentially signed myself up for another 30 days of blogging:) We'll see...

jen

the day after

Months ago I requested today off because we were planning on going out of town for the weekend to the family cabin near Bear Valley. These plans fell through but I went ahead and decided not to work today. I'm always complaining I never have enough time off to get the stuff I want need to get done (cleaning, laundry, yardwork) and still have the weekend that I want (scrapbooking, sleeping, reading) . So I was excited by the extra two days this week. I'm sitting here now though feeling frustrated because

I
got
NOTHING
done
today...

It was like I was still in a Thanksgiving coma (plus my monthly visitor came today which completely wipes me out anyway). We went out and bought 5 movies. Those were our Black Friday purchases. And they were all for ourselves. Then I came home and really...couldn't tell you what I did. I watched the episode of Bones I missed Wednesday night (YES...I am a little obsessed...I have a thing for Agent Booth...) and then, didn't really do anything. I went to get cat food. My husband did the dishes. We're dropping Alex and her friend off to Twilight in a few minutes...

I just really hate that I did nothing with this day. I should have just worked. It's really annoying me right now.

I think I'll go make a list of what I want to accomplish tomorrow. That will make me feel better. I think.

Did anyone go out for Black Friday to get some awesome deals?? Leave a comment if you did to tell me about the cool stuff you got:)

jen

giving thanks

today consisted of :
 lots of cooking
 dinner with Nate's family

Bones DVD
really tasty beer
talking until 10:00pm with Dixie and Greg and Meg
perusing the "black Friday" ads

talking about all the things that we want but don't need
sleeping in
mashed potatoes
my new cooking buddy (see pic),
a really yummy veggie loaf

sparkling apple cider
wedding talk (Nate's sister got engaged two weeks ago)
video game playing
hot chocolates
freshly made bread

going to bed early for a very early wake up

being thankful for food on our table and jobs to pay for the roof over our heads and our health.

I hope everyone's Thanksgiving was just as lovely as ours.

fail blog

We spend the evening with some friends at the Ol Factory. We don't have to work tomorrow so it works out well:)

Got home and showed this site to Alex.

I'm off to watch the most recent Chuck since I missed it Monday night.

I just barely made this one in under the time limit:)

jen

late

it's 10:56pm and we just finally finished all of the homework that Alex was missing. This same teacher gave them a three page paper to write on top of  the 4 assignments she still  had to make up. It has been a rough night. Only made better by my husband's homemade Kalamata Olive Bread...and the small glass of wine I am going to have right now before heading to bed.

More interesting post tomorrow. I promise. Maybe...

my four day weekend is looking good at this point:)

jen

not my best

 Tonight was exhausting.

We have a little issue with this one. A missing assignments issue.  One that is causing her to be in the "F"  area in English.

Always her best subject.

And so tonight we worked on assignments...or I should say she worked and I nagged and nagged and then nagged some more at her until she got a good portion of them done.  And it really was me nagging and watching over her while I tried to get dinner done at the same time. This is the reason she didn't see Twilight on Friday. And the reason she won't be seeing Twilight this weekend if she can't get all these assignments done by Wednesday.

So this isn't going to be a good post. In fact, this is the post. To say I am tired. So wish me luck because I have another evening of this to get through tomorrow night too.

And then I have a four day weekend.That, right now, is the only thing keeping me going...

blah blah blah

yeah, so this is going to be a quick one.

baked pumpkin bread with a sweet cream cheese swirl

made Yellow Split Pea Soup (Nate's favorite)

read half of The Book Thief

watched two episodes of Beverly Hills 90210 (the original!)

and watched the first disk of Season 1 of Pushing Daisies

anyway...I'm off to hang with my daughter (Nate is sick) so see you tomorrow...

jen

100 things I love (in no particular order)

inspired by this blog who was inspired by this blog which was inspired by this blog (ironically one of my favorites)

1. thunderstorms
2. sweet potatoes
3. thrifting
4. goat cheese
5. Portland, Oregon
6. Jon Stewart
7. cooking
8. taking photos
9. the french language
10. a good book
11. flea markets
12. antiques
13. avocados
14. reading
15. dinner parties
16. dark chocolate
17. bagels with cream cheese and avocado
18.  my daughter’s laugh
19. flannel sheets
20. typewriters
21. knee high socks
22. boots
23. fiestaware china
24. the color turquoise
25. mixed CD's
26. San Francisco
27. beer
28. nights out with friends
29. that first sip of coffee
30  etsy
31. Frightened Rabbit
32. dahlias
33. the color green
34. walks along the beach
35.  sunsets
36.  garage sales
37. old VW bugs
38. honey crisp apples
39. strawberries
40. runuculas
41. feta cheese
42. freshly fallen snow
43. crisp fall weather
44. old quilts
45. kalamata olives
46. freshly baked bread
47. this Cyndi Lauper song
48. scrapbooking
49. Belgian beer
50. Big Sur
51. lemon drops
52. empty notebooks just waiting to be written in
53. facebook
54. Clive Owen
55. new pens
56. white wine
57. red wine
58. sleeping in
59. The Office
60. owls and birds
61. Christmas morning
62  old houses with wrap around porches
63. New Year’s Eve
64. bridges
65. IKEA
66. her photography
67. brightly colored tights
68. old movies starring Cary Grant
69. Jeremy Piven on Entourage
70. paper lanterns
71. Converse tennis shoes
72. flip flops
73. slumber parties
74. my IPod
75. 80’s music
76. picnics
77. letterpress
78. flickr
79. emails from my friend Jay
80. homemade ice cream
81. fingerless gloves
82. Greek food
83. asparagus
89. going out for breakfast
90. waterfalls
91. making lists
92. farmers markets
93. butternut squash
94. tamales
95. starfish
96. polaroid cameras
97. babies
98. the color yellow
99. bowls
100. chips and salsa

day 21

don't they say it takes 21 days to make something a habit. i wonder if I'll now feel the unexplainable need to post every day. I signed up for this because I wanted to finally make a decision about whether i was going to keep this blog going or not and I've been pleasantly surprised I like blogging. Even if it is random stuff that makes me seem a little attention deficit:) it's been a great way for me to remember things though...imagine that!

Just to add more to my already full plate I will soon be having a separate recipe/food blog. It's been in the works for a while but with the holidays and this posting daily thing it's kind of taken a back seat for now.We cook almost every night and I thought by having a food blog I could keep track of what recipes are favorites of ours and which didn't work out so well. Plus then I can post on other food blogs without worrying about boring those people with the other aspects of my life:)

Like what foul mouthed song I'm listening to at the moment.

I'm also hoping to use the food blog as a tool so that my husband can have easy access to his favorite recipes and when I ask "What do you want for dinner" he can link me to something we had that he liked. Plus it will give me a chance to work on my food photos...so in theory...everyone involved wins. We'll see how it works out.

Are any of you going to see Twilight this weekend?? My teenage vampire obsessed daughter just got herself put on restriction 3 hours ago thereby ruining all chances of her being part of the frenzy that will be happening at the theater tonight.  I haven't made my decision about it yet. I like the first book  best but I've yet to see a movie based on a book that I like as much as the book so...I'm waiting for the reviews to come in.

have a good weekend!! We have a home brew party tomorrow at our friends Dave and Kelly's. And have nothing planned for Sunday (my favorite kind of plans;)

jen