5 hours 37 minutes

till i HIT THE ROAD for thanksgiving!
can't stand it!!!!

thankful for thanksgiving

after yet another great weekend (the highlight being tonight, where i convinced 3 whole people to sign up for the mini marathon during the colts game.), i find myself needing to gear up for another few days of work. i'm practically beside myself with excitement at the prospect of being home for 4 whole days, seeing friends, and spending quality time with my family. i am so blessed!

in other news, our computer system at work is completely shut down tomorrow...we're going old school. which means no phones, no computer, no checking kids' grades online, processing transcript requests, helping kids sign up for ACT/SATs, changing kids' schedules or even having a way to look up their schedules to call them down to my office. i also think this means that we get to wear jeans. yay, i don't have to iron anything in the morning! (hey, it's the little things in life!). we're also supposed to just embrace this headache of a day and "go old school." i will be paying homage to my old high school by wearing my most favorite sweatshirt ever--lakeshore track 2001. i will do my best to not look like a total slob. i might also break out the flare leg jeans that just scream "late nineties."

i just want these next 3 days to fly by so we can get on with thanksgiving weekend!!! never fear, i am sure i will be armed with many jeff-isms to pass along to you all in the coming days. i just give and give and give.


love to all!


ps! with every passing year, i become more and more opposed to everything that is black friday. don't even get me started.

favorite things

i came home from a good week of work yesterday and turned on the tv, only to find oprah giving away her favorite things. this is the ONE and ONLY reason i would ever be a guest on oprah (hm, my wording there makes it sound like i'd be doing oprah a favor by seeing her show live. which we all know is true, but i'm not sure the most influential woman in america would agree.) anyway, i could only watch it for about 4 minutes because a.) oprah kind of drives me nuts and b.) the sheer amount of screaming from the audience. my ears are still ringing. they were one happy bunch.

so in honor of ms winfrey, here's the list of favorite things i'd give to my studio audience (or, as it were, my 52 followers.) that is, if i could.

1.) rainy fall saturday mornings.
LIKE TODAY! yay!

2.) Tickets to a Patty Griffin concert. Especially if you've got good friends to go with

3.) Good friends.

4.) Panera gingerbread bagels
They're ba-ack! and I have a sneaking suspicion that my efforts to lose 8# over the holiday season may be sabotaged by these pieces of round, warm, spicy heaven. i'm indulging at this very moment

5.)Blistex silk & shine lip gloss/chap stick.
My sister in law gave me this stuff a few years ago for Christmas, and I've replenished every time CVS has them in buy-one-get-one packaging. or every 2-3 months, whichever comes first. I have about 4 of these stashed in various corners of my life--work, car, home, purse, etc. Never go without. Always be prepared.

6.) Pandora Celine Dion--Holiday station. Hey! This is free. check it out.

7.) Smart wool socks. Love for the toesies.

8.) A Sunday morning at my church. yourchurch.com this place has quite literally changed my life.

9.) being home for the holidays. 4 more days! 5, counting today. fills me up just thinking about it. (even if jeff did back out of the 5k!!!!!) <--not bitter at all. :)

10.) gap jeans in long& lean. my new go-to. (i'd also give you the ability to NEVER have to go jeans shopping again, as that is quite possibly the most humbliing shopping experience you will ever have to endure.

well, that pretty much covers it! :) jkjkjk

i do wish you all a wonderful & warm thanksgiving with those you love, spending intentional time in gratitude for the blessings not only of this past year, but also for the wonderful gifts God, in his grace & mercy, has given us that we do not deserve.

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved.

Eph. 2:4-5

so...you're just dying to hear what i've been cooking and baking these days. i know!
and what better time to tell you than right now, as i sit watching the biggest loser.

.paradox.

so, lately:
omelettes galore
white chicken chili
bbq chicken
more chili!
corn casserole (yum!)
all things pumpkin
brussel sprouts with apples and rosemary (i do not recommend this one)
next up: baked acorn squash. love love love.

i'm getting up tomorrow at 4:30 am so i can hop on the treadmill for an hour before my crazy day of the week, wednesday. 8am-3pm training on our new--and rather un-user friendly--student management system. hot diggity! oh, and we have no heat in our offices. so yay.

so i have 3 piano lessons after work. but then...then!
thanksgiving dinner round 2 of 3 (or, dare i hope...more?) with my lovely small group girls. i made pumpkin bars tonight for this very occasion. mmm.

your daily dose of libspiration (circa 1999)

"you know what your boss is trying to tell you when he's paying you minimum wage? it's like 'hey, if i could pay you less i would. but it's against the law.'"

this gem (c) chris rock was, andi kid you not, listed on my high school comp journal page entitled "inspirational quotes."
ah yes...high school libby. so mature. this was about the time i was also referring to a certain fellow flute player as aunt jemima. which i apparently found completely acceptable.

lovely day :)

some of you know that my biggest struggle at work has been connecting with other staff members. they're slightly clannish and don't take too kindly to whomever they perceive as outsiders. i have a couple strikes against me in that i live inside 465, in the big city, and i'm from michigan no less. they don't quite know what to do with me, since so many are born-and-raised hoosiers.
anyway, i was forcing myself to eat in the teachers' lounge because i felt like thats the only way this is going to get any better. i'd hoped and expected to be included, but apparently that's not going to happen on its own. which i don't get because i'm nice and fun and accepting of others and rather good natured. i mean come on, i'm libby. what's not to love, right?
well, plenty, apparently.

HOWEVER. breakthrough today.
i had my first fellow-staff visitor today to drop by just to say hi. such an encouragement.
and then i had good conversation in the lunchroom, even though it was about marching band. those 4 years in the lakeshore lancer marching band paid off today at 12:48pm. so did my extensive knowledge of drum corps, thanks to joe, john, and matt. i know i've made fun of you in the past (and i will continue to do so), but today i thank you. because it helped me make a friend :)

it was also 70 degrees and sunny. and i worked out right after school, and i had a most delicious cupcake. and i raked leaves with my roommate kim. lovely day indeed,

in other news, i have a counselor breakfast at the local career center and then an educator luncheon at some upscale place in fishers tomorrow. aaaand i don't have to report back to school. so i will be wined, dined, and permissed to go home early tomorrow. happy tuesday to you and yours!

i also made some yummy (and relatively low-cal) pumpkin custard tonight, which i am eating. once i wrap this up, i'm unplugging for the evening, and delving into one of the 4 books i'm currently reading. it's 8:17pm, but it feels like much later, even since we "fell back."
this is how i know i'm getting older: with each passing year, i am more and more affected by the time change. i also find myself saying," kids these days...." on an ever-more-increasing basis. things are not as they were in the 90s. and that, my friends, is a shame. just as unfortunate as my bangs in 8th grade.

mmmmmm coffee shops on brisk fall saturday mornings. can life get more divine? i think not.

i completely forgot to record a conversation i had with my bro JT last weekend. we were doing a puzzle (puzzle-doing brings out the deep things in our hearts) at my parents' house and jeff was like, "lib, i think i want to [wait for it...you know this is going to be good...].....make a quilt."

and i of course immediately responded, "you know i'm going to put this on the blog, right?"

he smiled kind of sheepishly and said, "seriously! i have a design in mind."

i laughed a little at that, but then it got better because apparently this has been on his heart and mind for some time now, and he admitted to staying up late into the night to design this quilt.

so naturally, i had to remind him of the time in the late 90s that he made his own bellbottoms out of some tapered khaki pants he had on hand, some plaid scraps of fabric from the basement, and embroidery floss.
"embroidery floss?" you ask? well, of course.
what else would he use to stitch into the newly created flared ankled region, but his own rendition of pink floyd's iconic cover of the dark side of the moon LP? i can't believe you even had to ask.

see, this is why i love the internets and computers. i now have an evolving, and permanent, collection of jeffthoughts and jeffmemories. and you do to!! merry christmas.

i was supposed to go to a conference up in wabash for the day, but my friend who was to meet me there had to back out, i didn't want to go alone, and so i now find myself with a whole, free, saturday in front of me. and i can hardly stand how great it feels. however, because i thought i would be going to the conference, i didn't sign up for the indy monumental 1/2 marathon, and as i passed the runners on meridian, i must admit a tinge of jealousy. part of what i love about running is the "i've just conquered the world" feeling after a long race. and of course the "and i shall thus conquer this german pancake." proclamation at the post-race trip to the pancake house. mmmm pancakes.
reminds me of this...

tryptophan.

my favorite amino acid (which, as you know, are the building blocks of PROTEIN!). and main ingredient in turkey. and turkey is the main dish of thanksgiving dinner. and thanksgiving is one of the best holidays that occurs on the 4th thursday of my favorite month.

so in honor of november, i am embarking on a little something i like to call my gratitude project.

gratitude. /n/ ...a little something my friend and trusty research tool, wikipedia, defines as thankfulness, or appreciation, a positive emotion or attitude in acknowledgment of a benefit that one has received or will receive.

if i die tonight (hey, it could happen. and if it does, i hereby will my short shorts to becca triemstra), i want to be remembered as a grateful person. oh how i fail to be thankful on a daily basis! and i have so so much to be thankful for.

like...
a job
my church
my toothbrush
mums
moms (mine, in particular)
oh my goodness, and so much more.

i want to be intentional in naming the things in life for which i am thankful. i couldn't even scratch the surface of the ways in which i've been blessed but each morning, i assure you that i will rise each morning this month (and hopefully, this will start a habit) specifically thanking the lord for the many things he's given that i do not deserve.

and on that note.
i do not want to go to the gym, but i deserve to have to go because of the insane amounts of apple crisp i've consumed in the past 2 hours.

gluttony. such a drag.