Pizza, P-I-Z-Z-A. Gimme pizza.

One of the perks of my job that I've mentioned before is that I have the opportunity to take baking classes. I honestly don't think I take advantage of this enough! I took another one this past week and not only was it fun, and I learned a lot, but I left with so much food - we had to give over half away because the two of us just couldn't eat it all!

This time, I took a class on making pizza!

In class, we made two different kinds of pizza: New York style, with a thin crust and light toppings, and Chicago style, deep-dish, with lots of cheese, sauce and sausage.

(I totally blanked on taking pictures of the Chicago style-but it was just as pretty as it was delicious, I promise!)

We were able to make both doughs from scratch and made pizza with those, so we left with two full, ready to eat pizzas. We also had enough dough left over to make two more NY and one more Chicago! Told you it was a ton of food!

One of my favorite parts of the class was being able to bake our NY pizza in our wood fired oven.

It was amazing how fast the pizza cooked in there and it smelled so good! I even got to load my own - which I did successfully without ruining it ( it's harder to use a pizza peel than I thought it would be haha)

I'm trying to convince Jimmy to take a class with me - I think it would be so fun to do it as a couple!

Have any of ya'll ever taken a baking or cooking class?

Anyone make homemade pizza on the regular?

You got to work hard, you got to work hard If you want any at all

I started working in a new position a few hours a week at work-I've been working with the marketing department and will be doing some updating of websites and such while our marketing director goes on sabbatical.

To celebrate my new position, we decided to have spirit week (keep in mind, the marketing department doubled in size when I joined... to two people haha)

 Tigers day and hat day (which was, of course, a Tigers hat lol)

She also created a task list for me, complete with a picture of me and my future husband... if you can, read the list... so effing funny.

We're only two weeks in, but I'm excited to be learning some new things!

I'm scared shitless of what's coming next.

I've seen this on a few blogs a few times and it always looked like fun, so I thought I'd give it a try...

If you were coming over to my house for coffee, I'd tell you about....

All of the changes going on at work and the giant ball of anxiety it has turned me into. Multiple people have reminded me that the outcome of these changes will more than likely benefit me, but that doesn't ease my fears completely.

That even though all the change has me in knots, I've gotten some ego boosts along the way and my adrenaline is kicking into a high gear, which is making me super productive. I guess there is an upside.

About all the big plans I have for this summer. I cannot wait for the nice weather, and cool nights, and pretty dresses, and grilling dinner. And baseball-lots and lots of baseball.

How happy that boy is making me. Honestly, he's just so kind to me and funny and cute and sweet and....I could go on but I'll stop. Just know that it's good-he's making the work drama bearable.

That despite all the uncertainty at work, my life is really, really good. I can't think of one thing I would change. What a blessing.

If you came over for coffee,
what would you tell me?

It's the most wonderful time of the year.

So Christmas seems to have calmed down a bit and I finally feel like I can breathe. I thought I'd give ya'll a peek into what a bakery looks like around the holidaze, i.e. what my life has looked like for the past two weeks.

In the past two weeks I haven't:

• done laundry
• cleaned my apartment
• adhered to my GF diet (and man, am I feeling it!)
• been to the gym
• cooked a meal at my apartment

But I have:

• watched a lot of movies (no energy to do much else when I wasn't working lol)
• worked 16 days straight
• ....and that's about it haha

And now, for some pictures!

Lots of coffeecakes and brownies (most of the stacks are about 2 feet taller than me)

Cakes, fondant decorations (see the mushrooms for buche de noel?), some moon pies and more brownies

We fill two full size semi freezer trucks with our pastries, here's one of them

We also use two full size portable storage containers to store racks...and usually run out and have to run around town collecting from our customers haha




We make breads as well, but I wasn't able to get any pictures in the department-they were too busy and I didn't want to interrupt.

I hope you guys had a good holiday!
Have ya'll recovered from the holidays yet?

Heaven is whenever we can get together.

As soon as the holidays arr8ive, my life seems to get super boring. It happens every year-I mean, it makes sense considering in a few weeks I'll be too exhausted to do anything but work and sleep so I think I kind of psych myself up for a few weeks of nothing...but doing nothing early haha

But this week, I tried to get in some last minute fun before the Holidaze completely take over.

During the High Holidays, our temple always rolls out the new exciting things happening in the coming year, and this year there was one that caught my eye, so I joined a book club!

This past week was the first meeting, and even though I was by far the youngest one there, I really enjoyed it! We read a book about Heaven that was pretty interesting and even though I didn't speak much, I enjoyed just listening.

I'm really excited to read the next book and looking forward to going back!

After book club was done, I met up with a few friends to get some drinks-normally, not something I'd do, but I'm trying to cram some last minute fun in while I still have the energy!

We went to a few bars downtown and played pool. Before we started, I was talking about how when I used to be good, I was able to hustle pool, but as soon as we started I couldn't make any shot! Seriously, every. single.one. missed! But, of course, as soon as we decide we're done, and I start messing around, I hit everything perfectly! Guess karma was telling me I shouldn't brag lol

Wednesday, I attended a lecture at the local community college. I felt like a total nerd, but it was really interesting! A professor I'd had a few years ago was speaking about her sabbatical that she just returned from-she traveled to Egypt, Israel and Palestine. She was even in Tahrir Square during the uprising! She is an amazing woman and shared some really touching stories and photographs-I was really glad to be able to go! If you want to see some of her photos and stories, check out her blog-I just think it's fascinating!

Unfortunately, I didn't really get a day off this week, because my one day off was full of meetings and my second day off, I spent doing my new internship! I'm seriously enjoying it so much! The environment is so great and the people are too-I'm just loving it and feel so blessed that everything worked out so I'm able to do it!

Hey, baby, it's the fourth of July.

I know I'm like a week (plus) late, and my holiday wasn't even all that exciting but I figured I'd give a little update anyway :-)

Work has been redonk. Like, $50K-over-plan-every-week redonk. And considering we still &30 coffeecakes and those aren't exactly a necessity, it's been really nice that business is picking back up. Although, now that we've all seen how this summer has gone (which is usually our slow season) we're all a little worried about the holidays. We don't call them the "Holidaze" around here for nothing.

So, back to the Fourth. Like I said, nothing too exciting. My uncle was in town helping my mom and dad redo one of the bathrooms at their house, so while they were busy with that, my brother and I hit up the Tigers game on the 2nd.


They were playing the Giants, and I bought the tickets hoping to get to see Tim Lincecum. Unfortunately, the Tigers missed Lincecum (or, fortunately, considering he's thier ace), but they ended up losing the game anyway. It was definitely exciting though-they loaded the bases in the bottom of the 9th, but Boesch lined out to short :-(

View from our (original) seats. We ended up moving because the people around us were obnoxious.

After the game we stayed to see the fireworks and they were, as per usual, awesome!

I know it's no NYC or anything, but I do love the skyline of the D.

I had to work on the fourth, so after work I went over to my parents for a bbq and to see my uncle before he left. Nothing too exciting, but I had to work all weekend, including Monday so it kinda put the squash on any big plans.


A few days later, it was my grandmother's birthday, so the whole family got together for dinner. It was delicious! We went to a restaurant we used to go to a few times a month, but none of us had been there in a while. I had some time to kill before dinner, so I stopped by Target to pick up some face wash and walked out with these...

Oops haha

New shoes+Tiger baseball? A pretty perfect holiday week :-)

Ooh yes, you will always be my endless love.

It's a beautiful Wednesday here, so let's see what I'm loving today! Check out this kind of love to link up!


I'm loving my Tigers! I got to go to a game on Memorial Day and always have a blast at the ball park, and it's even better when they win :-)



I'm loving getting in touch with old friends. My best friend from elementary school got in touch with me this weekend and we figured out he's only living about an hour away! I can't wait to get together with him and catch up!

I'm loving that my work was featured on The Food Network! Unfortnately, it won't let me embed the video but go check out Kid in a Candy Store on Youtube!

(Link- http://youtu.be/1m0zL_inKg8)

I'm loving that I picked up Essie Sand Tropez for 50% off at CVS this week! Woo hoo!
I'm loving the weather today-finally not scorching hot and not torrential rain. Still too warm to be considered spring but since it's June, I should probably get used to summer now haha

What are ya'll loving today?

When I fall in love, it will be forever.

It's Wednesday again, and there's lots to love (as always!)


I'm loving the sun being up when I get to the gym in the mornings. It's so much easier to get my butt outta bed when the sun is shining and the birds are singing!

I'm loving that when I get out of work today, I'll be taking a nice, relaxing three day "weekend" and taking in some baseball games!

I'm loving this sauce! It says goes with everything, and so far, I have to agree-I've been putting it on veggies and I'm in love! Perfectly sweet and spicy :-)

I'm loving the health tune-up going on at work-everyone is super psyched about eating right and working out...makes it much easier to keep in shape!

I'm loving doing this list right now-we just had a stressful work meeting and thinking about all the things I'm loving always helps put things in perspective :-)

Pop on over to this kind of love and see what everyone is loving today ♥

Now I'm just gettin to know you, what you got for me?Tell me about your parents 'cause the fruit don't fall far from the tree.

Rebecca at rebecca likes nails was nominated for the...


and it is so appropriate and perfect for her! Her blog was one of the first nail blogs I started reading, and I love her blog and all her designs! They are all so cute and fun and I'm so jealous of how creative and talented she is!

At the end, she tagged anyone who was wearing glitter on their nails, and thanks to my new mani from last night-I am!

Proof!
(I don't know if you can tell but the blue is blue glitter-I swear!)

So I'm going to play along and post 10 random facts about myself-I'm not every good at this so bare with me!

1. I used to work in the pastry department at the bakery I'm at now. It's actually where I got my start at the business and I considered going to culinary school, but along the way realized I'm much more a people person than a food person-luckily for me, the job I have is a perfect mix of both!

2. I'm short. Like really, really short. I'm barely 5' even. My dad calls me a hobit and my brother (who is over 6' tall) likes to pick on me about it haha

3. Going along with that, since I'm so short, I LOVE HIGH HEELS! And to be honest, the higher the better. I have an exorbitant amount and no where very few places to wear them ha!

I would die for the Louboutins.

For realz.

4. Nail polish is my newest obsession. I bought 10 new polishes last week! I started to count my collection the other day and gave up when I got to 50 because I was a little ashamed lol

5. I'm not a huge fan of the beach. I'd rather go somewhere urban, like New York or Boston. I also fell in love with Vermont when I went there a few years ago. But if I had to go somewhere exotic for a vacation it would definitely be one of three places (Or all three if I'm lucky lol)...

Oh, hey. What's up Santorini, Greece?

I see you there, Italy.

You too, France!

Aren't they all so pretty? *sigh*

6. My "List of Things To Do Before I Die" include seeing a European soccer match (preferably in one of the above), visiting Israel, visiting every Major League Baseball park, and attend every major sport championship (Superbowl, World Series, NBA Championship, NHL Stanley Cup, etc), among other things.

7. My favorite animals are pandas, as I mentioned in here, but I have a soft spot in my heart for squirrels. If I could keep one as a pet, I totally would!

They are just so cute!

8. Five things I couldn't live with out are: cellphone, Ipod, gum, water bottle and a hair tie.

9. I'm a sucker for reality TV. It's bad. My co-workers call me "Snooki" and request I come in rocking the poof. And to be honest...

I always usually oblige.

and 10. I try to live by the philosophy that life is really to short to be anything but happy. I spent quite a bit of time being pessimistic and I'm trying hard to turn all that around and be a smiling, happy optimist! And so far, it's much easier (and way more enjoyable) to be happy :-)

So I think the rules are that you're supposed to tag people, but I'm not sure if anyone even read this, so if you do-go for it and let me know so I can read it :-)

When I go deaf, I won't even mind. Yeah, I'll be all right, I'll be just fine.

First, back story...About a year ago, I lost hearing in my right ear for about two weeks. Just woke up one day and couldn't hear. I went to a few doctors and finally saw a ENT specialist, and got it all worked out. I had some stuff in there and an ear infection, but with some antibiotics it all turned out ok.

But my co-workers, to this day, still think it's one of the funniest things that's ever happened. As soon as they found out I was going to be ok, they started using "sign langauge" and cracked jokes about it all.the.time.

And they still do.

Fast foward to last week. I had to run an errand for work to drop something off with one of our customers who happens to be a fish monger. On my way out, my boss asked me to pick up some wine herring and bring it back for him. I had never heard of it, but took his $20 and went on my way. I brought it back and he insisted we all taste it-luckily it wasn't nearly as bad as it looked haha

The next day, we were having our weekly meeting and he thanked me for getting his fish. He even said (jokingly) they would name a sandwich after me (having a sandwich, or any product, named after you here is a *huge* honor). When I asked what it would be he said...

"It'll be called...


Amanda's Hard of Herring!"

Everyone about died they were laughing so hard.

(PS My dad suggested the call it Amanda's Herring Aid-haha)

'Cause I know what this is, this is what we talk about when we talk about love

Today is Wednesday so let's see what I'm loving with this kind of love!



I'm loving my job! Yesterday, I had to run some bread to a customer and they gave me some delicious clam chowder as a thank you...it was seriously yummy.

I'm loving my co-workers as well! My sweet friend Sider brought me two new nail polishes and Randy brought me a bunch of hoodies...They spoil me!

I'm loving the new Essie French Affair collection. Unfortunately, stores around here don't have it yet so I'll be ordering it online soon :-)

via

I'm loving being back in my own bed-even though I had a great time house sitting, it's nice to be back home :-)

I'm loving all the lovely green grass we have since it's been raining for 2 weeks straight haha

Hope ya'll are having a lovely Wednesday!

You can get tangled up in a ball of rubber bands and twine, the cowhide and pine tar, snuff, spit and chalk dust lines.

It's been a pretty crazy week here-usually we don't get too busy for Easter, but between that and Passover the phones at work have been off the hook! Add that to the end of the semester (which is actually relatively easy this time around!) and I've been a little crazy but it keeps me busy so I can't really complain :-)

A few weeks ago I asked my boss is I could have the 13th off (this past Wednesday) to go to the Tigers game if I found someone to go with me. He told me I could but I couldn't find anyone who had the day off and/or wanted to go with me! My heart was a little broken, to be honest :-(

At the gym Wednesday morning, I was talking to my mom and asked how she would feel if I went to Detroit by myself. I've been to the city more times than I can count, but always with someone. She said she didn't really see a problem with it, so at 8 am I called my boss and asked if I could work a half day-because he's the best boss ever he said yes and I bought my ticket!

I went in to work for a few hours and then headed to Detroit. It was seriously probably one of the best things I've ever done. I got my peanuts, headed into the ball park, got my scorecard and found my seat about 15 mins before first pitch. It was perfect.

The weather was pretty great too-58 degrees and sunny. It got a little hot but the breeze picked up in the second half of the game so that was great. The best part though was that they won! Come from behind-down 2-0 in the 7th, tied it at 2 all and then Brandon Inge hit a walk-off homer in the 9th :-)

The only bad thing was I walked away with a sunburn :-( Most of it has started to turn into a tan, but my nose is still red and I have a pretty bad burn on my chest-it's all red and angry looking lol It's been hurting all week but today it feels better so hopefully I won't have to go to the doctor or anything

On Thursday, I had my first Safety Committee meeting, where I got nominated to write the Safety Article for our monthly newsletter! I'm really looking forward to working on the committee-it seems like it's going to be fun!

After that I grabbed some ice cream with a friend (because I'm obsessed with dirt sundaes from Ice Cream Time right now...oops!) and then met up with some other friends to watch Survivor. I just started watching this season, so I'm super behind but can I just say Boston Rob is a d-bag? Also, Matt is super cute (even if he got voted off!)

I didn't really do much with my day off on Thursday so on Friday, I headed into Canton to go shopping. I didn't really find much (still searching for a new purse-ugh!) but I did find these at Target...And for all five it cost me $5! Love it!

I really wanted the green-ish one on the far left (the picture doesn't do it justice-on my fingers its a really gorgeous light mint green-I'm in love!) and the one in the middle, which looks nothing like it does in the picture. In the picture it's pink but in real life, it's a coral/orange/cream-sicle kind of color. I love them!

The rest of Friday involved watching All Worked Up with Dan, which is like Lizard Lick Towing but with other people too! I seriously can't get enough of it-it's replaced the hole Jersey Shore and Teen Mom have left haha

But there ain't nothin' wrong with the way she moves, all scarlet begonias and a touch of the blues.

In all reality, it's been a pretty mundane week for me. But for some reason, I felt really really really good this week. Like "I woke up happy and smiling" good.

I think a lot of it has to do with my acceptance about moving on from certain people and situations. Seriously, it felt like a huge weight had been lifted from me. I'm not going to dwell and just try to move on and be happy with where ever I end up and who ever is there with me :-)

In an effort to put all that into action, I hung out with some new people this week. I've known a lot of them for a while, and some I've hung out with before, but not in a while. We all sat around and watched Survivor, which I haven't watched in like 5 years and I am now of course hooked! haha I'm looking forward to spending some more time with them and watching Survivor this week-yay for ladies nights!

The work week was pretty blah, but my two days off were full of errands and lots of running around. Thursday I got up and di my grocery shopping-which involved going to the produce market, then Meijer's, Kroger's and Target! But I only spent like $60 total so I was pretty happy about that!

Friday, I had to come to a meeting at work and after my meeting I had to meet with a HR rep because I'm joining the safety committee! Basically, the safety committee just tracks what accidents happen, files accident reports and tries to keep everyone safe. Nothing too exciting but I'm looking forward to it! I have to get certified to teach a safety class, and I'm also getting certified to teach a service class so this summer will be filled with lots of not quite work work stuff. But I get paid for all of it, so I can't really complain!

I also had to drop some stuff off to my aunt and stopped by TJMaxx which is out by her house. I'm really looking for a new purse and just can't seem to find anything I love! I already have a yellow Steve Madden, so I'd like something orange or green, maybe even pink or red. But everything just looked kind of cheap and nothing really stood out to me. Oh well-guess I'll just keep looking lol

Friday night, I picked my mom up from work and we got some delicious korean food from a place called Kosmo's downtown. It was so good and even though we split everything, we were both so stuffed! I worked out extra hard on Friday and got up Saturday before work so the splurge was worth it lol

It was the anniversary of my grandpa's death so we met my dad at temple for services. It was such a great service-really small since it's summer, but really beautiful. I'm such a sap, but sometimes the songs bring tears to my eyes haha The sermon was perfect too-all about a part of Leviticus and the rabbi (who is newto our congregation-I love her!) talked about mourning and how the people surrounding the person who's mourning have a responsibility to help the mourners get adjusted to a new normal and how important community is in times like that. She was much more eloquent then I, but it really spoke to me and my mom. Just so perfect for everything that ahs been going on lately.

I worked out five times this week and am thinking about jumping on the 30 Day Shred wagon. A lot of people have had such good results so it's seriously tempting me. I'm going on vacation the first weekend in May and even though it's not some exotic location that requires bikinis and short shorts, I'd like to go shopping before hand and buy some new things to wear, but I'd like to look good while doing it so I'm really pushing myself this month to workout, eat right, sleep well, and my new thing-drink lots of water! I'm trying for 32+ ozs a day, which means I'm in the bathroom often but I'm hoping my skin and my energy levels will thank me!

And just like James, I'll be drinking Irish tonight and the memory of his last work week will be gone forever!

I'm finally feeling better-Thank god! That cold really kicked my butt! All week, I pretty much only left the house to go to work and my parents house. Other that that, I was in bed asleep. I have my voice back and am not sneezing or coughing, so I'm gonna get back to my work out routine tomorrow. I'm pretty excited-I couldn't work out all week and now that the weather is getting nice, I'm stoked to start some two-a-days, outdoor workouts and hopefully playing some tennis!

Since I was so sick, my St. Patty's Day involved laying on my couch, watching and painting my nails. Luckily, I got a little into the spirit and enjoyed some corned beef and cabbage courtesy of my wonderful mother-yummy!

On Friday, I started to feel a little better and decided to do some spring cleaning. I did a ton of laundry, washed all my linens and my comforter, rotated my mattress, cleaned my kitchen and bathroom. I probably could have kept going all night, but I got distracted by a Jersey Shore marathon and ended up seeing some of my friends later on that night.

This weekend, we had a TV show filming at work from the Food Network:

The crew took over the shop, the kitchen and half of the office for most of the weekend. I got to see a little of them filming (in between doing actual work haha) and I'm excited to see the show when it airs!

'Cause I got your picture, I'm coming with you. Dear Maria, count me in.

I can't believe I lasted through *every single one* of my co-workers catching the cold/flu and didn't get it until now! Ugh!

It started on Friday with a sore throat that I didn't really pay attention to, since my mom and I were going to a Bat Mitzvah that night that we were looking forward to. But then I woke up on Saturday and my throat was on fire, my nose was running and just all over icky.

I got some cold medicine and went to bed sleep at 8:30 last night so I'm feeling a little better, although I'm losing my voice which is tres unattractive, especially when my job is 95% on the phone haha Hopefully this is all gone soon!

In other news, I did some running around on Friday...literally. I went to get my tire (finally!) and grabbed some coffee while I was waiting, which doesn't sound that bad, but I haven't had coffee in about a year so I was totally wired all morning! I went to Target and got these cuties:

They were a little bulky, no no wearing them to work-but I think they are super adorable otherwise! Yay for pay day! haha

In the fine print they tell me what's wrong and what's right.

This past weekend was the Ann Arbor Folk Festival. Each year, the festival is put on by a local concert venue to raise money. This was the second time I've gone. My work is a sponsor, so two years ago, I was able to snag a few free tickets and my and my dad went togther. It was really great! The seats were super close and we saw a lot of great bands that year (Old Crow Medicine Show, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Joe Pug, The Ragbirds, Ryan Montbleau Band, Katie Herzig, and Jeff Tweedy with Jim Lauderdale acting as MC).

I didn't get to go last year, but this year, a volunteer opportunity was offered and I was able to see the show for free. I had to help set up for the intermission, which wasn't too hard at all, and in return I got to hang out backstage and watch the show! Lucky me!

I had to be there around 6:15, so I left my house super early so I could get gas and some cash but the line at the ATM was hella long, so I skipped it. Big mistake! Of course, every parking structure downtown was "Cash Only" and it's next to impossible to find street parking on a good night in downtown Ann Arbor, let alone a Friday night. Long story short, I pulled into my parking space by the library, which is on the other side of downtown, at 6:09. I booked it to the auditorium and made it on time (which was nothing short of a miracle) but then went in the wrong door and got lost *inside* the auditorium! Only me, I swear haha I was supposed to be back stage and could not for the life of me figure out how to get back there! Luckily, a security guard helped me out and I made it back there only a few minutes late...phew!

We didn't have anything to do right away, so I was able to stand by the stage doors and watch the first half of the show, which included Theo Katzman and his band The Love Massive, Anais Mitchell, The Paper Raincoat, The Spring Standards, and Vienna Teng with Alex Wong. I use the word "watch" loosley, since, because of all the people and my lack of height, I wasn't able to see much. But I was able to hear everything and it was really great. I was definitely standing at the back of everyone, dancing by myself haha

After setting up and cleaning up intermission, we were able to stay and watch the rest of the bands. By then the back stage area had cleared out a bit so I had a little better view of everything :-)

I was amazed that out of the 7 or 8 people who were volunteering only 1 or 2 of us stayed till the end. I mean, how could you pass up free music to begin with, but great music that also happened to be free!?!?! Just plain craziness...

After intermission, Citizen Cope came out and did a solo set. I really, really like him. He has more of a hip hop vibe to him when he has his band, which I love and I was really stoked to see him do the acoustic set. A lot of people I talked to didn't like it as much, but I think maybe he was geared toward the younger people at the show. But for what it's worth, I was totally backstage singing (and dancing, of course hehe) along :-)

After that, the headlines came out. My dad had wanted to come and see them but didn't end up buying tickets in time. The Avett Brothers were *amazing*! They rocked the entire time-had so much energy, looked like they were having so much fun up there and played damn good music while doing so. If they come back to town, I would love to see them do a whole set.

I also had a few obersvations I made while there...

Folk Fest 34 observations

• Sweating profusely is never a good luck (see my sprint across downtown A2)
• Boys with guitars are cute.
• Boys with drumsticks are cute.
• Boys who wear hats are cute. (seeing a trend? hehe)
• If you are opening a Tunisian resturant, don't wear a harissa shirt.
• You and your friend can't wear the same dress, even if it's in two different colors. People can still tell, and it looks weird.
• I'm probably too judgemental for my own good.

After they finished up, I headed back home and it was back to the grind up Saturday morning. I was a little bummed I could only go to Friday night-Mavis Staples was headlining the next night. I saw her a few years back at a local music fest and I still remember it, probably 10 years later-it was just that good.

As far an my normal life, it's been a pretty average week at work and with school so that's good.

Everyone is gearing up for "Snow-pocolypse 2011" tonight. I've heard predictions with anywhere from 10-24 inches between now and tomorrow, but considering it's almost 6 and I'm nto seeing any snow, I'm starting to doubt the likelyhood of that. Also, the winds are supposed to be 20-30mph and the term "blizzard conditions" has been thrown around a lot today. Apparently, it's supposed to start around 7, pick up around 10pm and do the bulk of the snowing between 10pm tonight and 10am tomorrow morning. I'm staying at my parents so I can use my jeep to bulldoze through everything tomorrow morning, so it would be really helpful if the county/city would stay on top of the salting/plowing tonight, althought I seriously doubt that will happen.

But hey, I can hope, can't I? :-)

Play my little part in something big.

It's been an eventful January. Even though work has been pretty slow, school starting back definitely had an impact. Both classes I'm taking are online, so I don't actually have to *go* to school, but they are both a lot of work! So far, I'm doing pretty well and for now, I'm just praying the semester flies by!

A few weeks ago, I woke up in the middle of the night because my thumb was killing me. I tried to ignore it and go back to bed, as it was 3:30am and I had little motivation to actually do anything to remedy the situation but I did end up finding my metal water bottle (which was freezing because my house is always freezing! ugh!) and positioned it against my thumb to cool it down.

I got up the next morning to meet my parents at the gym and noticed that it was really swollen and red. I showed my parents and my mother suggested that it was from texting (har har har...) while my dad guess that I had an infection. I started popping some ibueprofen and went to work, where my parents showed up a few hours later with icthamol to try and draw out the infection.

I was being stubborn (suprise, suprise) and didn't really want to go to the doctor, but by Monday, it hadn't gotten any better-so swollen I couldn't move it, really warm and red-so I ended up going to the doctors.

I know they are pretty gross-sorry!

The doctor decided to try and puncture it to see if it would drain, but first wanted to inject some lidocaine to numb it. She stuck the needle in, and I swear to god, it was one of the worst pain I've ever felt. I have a really high pain tolerance and that really threw me for a loop! I almost fainted-saw stars, felt nauseas, clammy, the whole nine yards. She ended up not trying again (Thanks God!) but instead sent me home with antibiotics.

It took a few days, but the swelling finally went down (as Hannah told everyone "Let's just say, there was puss involved") but finally it seems back to normal. Although the skin in peeling, but it doens't really hurt anymore so I'm not too worried. It was kind of scary though-I mean, just wake up and my thumb is 3x its normal size. So weird.

Also, a few friends of mine got married this past weekend (Congrats Eileen and Gino!). Well actually, they had a vow renewal as they got married last year, but didn't get to have an actual ceremony. They are the absolute sweetest couple, and I was there when they fell in love canoeing down the river hehe

The day was pretty eventful in and of itself! It started with me driving all the way to the gym before realzing I wasn't wearing a bra, having to go get one and then drive all the way back to actually start my work out! After that, my mother and I ran some errands, which included finding something for me to wear since what I had wasn't "classy" enough (...grr).

Although, I probably shouldn't complain too much, because she did buy me this...

(Michael Kors Sequin Tunic in Dark Camel)

And I'm in love with it.

It was a little short, but I totally rocked it as a dress with black tights and Steve Madden black patent leather pumps. I've been racking my brain to try and find another event I can wear it to soon, but so far, no luck :-( haha

The night before, I had packed all my stuff-hair products, make up, jewlery options, tights, etc-because I figured I'd end up getting ready at my parents. So I get out of shower, do my hair make up and go to put on my tights and suddenly realized I had grabbed not one, but THREE pairs of brown and not a single pair of black! All I could do was laugh, especially considering the bra incident earlier in the day! I rushed home and luckily, was able to find some black ones quickly. But in the process, I forgot my earring and my cute clutch-oh well. I'm sure my dress brought me all the attention I needed :-)

Working at the bakery, I was able to provide a cake for them as a wedding gift. The cake ladies did such a fantastic job-I gave them the invitation and they just went at it! Everyone raved about how great they looked and tasted-It was great! The sheet cake was cut up for the guests and the couple took home the smaller cake to enjoy themselves.

My mom and I have decided that we are going to try and see all the films nominated for Best Picture this year. We were able to cross another off the list when we saw:

It was pretty good. I *adore* Helena Bonham Carter and Colin Firth was really excellent as well. It kept my attention, which isn't always an easy thing to do. All in all, I really liked it! Can't say whether or not it's the best picture of the year, as I still have a few more to see :-)

The List

1. Black Swan
2. The Fighter
3. Inception
4. The Kids Are Alright
5. The Kings Speech
6. 127 Hours
7. The Social Network
8. Toy Story 3
9. True Grit
10. Winter's Bone

Well, I think I've wasted enough time at work hehe I'm going to go listen to Something Corporate Radio on Pandora and *try* to be productive :-)

I woke up in a car, traced away the fog so I could see the Mississippi on her knees.

That's literally what I feel like. It's as though I went I went to sleep on October 31st and woke up on December 23rd. A lot has happened in between then and now (obvs...) but here are the highlights:

My parents spoiled me for Channukah and got me three (yes 3!) new purses, fleece lined leggings (amazing), clothes, books and a lovely, comfy new Tigers hoodie. Basically, a bunch of awesome stuff.

Helped Hannah put up her Christmas Tree, which was taken down approximately one week later because her kitties terrorized it.

The Metrodome in Minnesota collapsed, leading to the Giants v. Vikings Monday Night Football game being played at Ford Field. They gave out free tickets at 9am the morning of the game, but I didn't get a chance to get down there because of work.

Luckily, my boss, Jaison, is amazing and let me use his stub from the Sunday Lions v. Packers game (which they won!) so I was able to go.

I tried to find someone to go with me and after calling/texting/begging about 15 people, I finally found someone. Clark and I ended up sat 12 rows behind the Vikings end zone.

The game was pretty routine, except that it broke Brett Favre's streak of games started at 321. By the end of the game we moved down to row 4.

It was pretty fun-made for a long night, but definitely worth it.

Spent the night helping my mom in Jackson at one of her trainings and ended up driving through the Holiday Light Show at the Jackson County Fairgrounds.

Recieved quite possibly the best cookbook ever from Kim, my friend at work. With the inscription "Now that you're all adult and shit, get cookin'!" Love it.

Made a "Pimp Cup" for Randy, our sales guy at work.

Attempted to make a fondant covered, two tiered cake with my mother...

"Attempt" being the key word.

Also, even though this happened before Thanksgiving, it's definitely worth mentioning. I met up with John and Scott, who are friends from high school (which was the first time I'd seen anyone since graduation) and headed down to Detroit to eat at Slow's BBQ. Oh. My. Lord. So good! I had a pulled pork sandwich and mac & cheese. It was delicious and I was so stuffed by the time I left! And now, they are one of my customers at work, so hopefully I'll be able to eat there more often hehe

After we went there, we drove around the city for a bit, before ending up at this really cool art deco, jazz bar called Cliff Bells. It was so cool-a really great vibe, beautiful architecture and art, and when we were on our way out the jazz band started playing. It was a pretty perfect end to the night actually :-)

All in all, it's been a pretty busy month, on top of finishing the semester and taking my finals (I ended up with an A and a B-whoo hoo!) and spending $900 on my car for new tires (planned) and a new catalytic converter (unplanned). We also had a record year at work and were pretty much way over our planned sales every week, which is great but tiring! But everything worked out and Holidaze 2010 are officially over! I'm basking in the post-Christmas lull, before we get busy again for Valentine's Day. There's no rest for in the bakery world.

We also had our first major snow/ice storm which put the entire state of Michigan out of commission for about 5 days. The roads were so slippery, my Jeep kept sliding around on the *surface streets*! I was too scared to even attempt to get on the high way. It looked really pretty though, but unfortunately, as soon as I have to shovel/scrape my car and thought of it being the tiniest bit pretty flies right out the window!

Christmas involved my uncle coming in from Chicago (to find a place because he's moving back!) dinner at my aunts with my grandmother Christmas eve (where I scored a few more vintage purses, including another Louis Vitton yippee!) brunch with at my grandfathers and then my mom's twin brother and his family coming in tonight. A lot of family stuff for sure, but on the up side I did find my Hanson Christmas cd, so all is well :-)

It's a wonderful life that I find myself living.

I have a few things to mention but first things first...

T-day.

Thanksgiving this year was pretty darn good actually. My Grandfather and his wife were in San Francisco visting her children and my grandmother decided she didn't want to celebrate, so we just did our own things at the house. My parents, little brother and I, along with my friend Rebecca who is going to school in Ann Arbor. She is from California and couldn't go home for the holiday and my mom was more than happy to have her over. Our neighbors ended up coming over for desert so, all in all, a low key, drama free holiday.

My mom made a *ton* of food. She brine-d a turkey, made green bean casserole (not the regular mushroom soup kind either, which I'm not a fan of. This one was actually really good!), Meme's sweet potatoes (my grandmothers recipe-actually more like desert than a side dish. So effing good), mashed potatoes and sausage stuffing. For dessert, we had pumpkin pie mousse with homemade whip cream and ginger snap cookies. We got most of the recipes from pioneerwoman.com. I wish I would have taken a picture of the spread-there was so much and it all looked so good! My mom is such a great cook-I can only hope to one day be able to cook food like her :-)

After eating all that food, I could *literally* barely move. Luckily, most some of my stuff is still at their place hehe Me and my mom got up at the leisurely hour of 8 am and were out the door by 9 to do some Black Friday shopping. My mom usually hates shopping, so I was super surprised when she suggested we venture out, but I am rarely one to turn down shopping, especially on someone else's dime! I ended up getting a new pair of black "boots with the fur" and we picked up the rest of Channukah presents, which are unfortunately still in her possession.

We went to a few shops, and were back by noon to eat some left overs, watch a movie and take a nap. Pretty much an excellent day after Thanksgiving.

Work slowed down a little bit this week, but it will be picking up again sooner rather than later. Luckily it makes the time go by quickly (as if it didn't to begin with lol) I'm finishing up my last 2.5 weeks of the semester, as well. Have to finish up planning and preparing for the next one...ugh.

Today was also our first snow fall, which is amazing considering I can't remember a winter where we didn't have any snow in November. But luckily, December 1st brought some.

This was the view from my office window at 9 o'clock when I got to work this morning.

And then 10 o'clock. By this time, I'm already dreading the drive home, and lamenting the fact that I need new tires and bitching about how much said tires are going to cost me.

But luckily, I live in Michigan and by 11:30, almost everything was gone. Meaning I can put off getting my new tires for at least a few more days :-)









And finally, a belated Happy Blog-iversary to myself!

I can't believe it's been a year already! I started this as a place to write poetry, because I am occasionally a 13 year old emo girl stuck in a 22 year old's body, and after me and my ex started having issues I stopped writing for a while. But I'm really trying to make an effort to blog more often, and I've been really enjoying it.

So here's to another good year of blogging!