welcome to the ominous house!

Welcome to the Ominous House!! This is the best picture of the front of our house that I currently have, we decorated the outside for MojoKid's first birthday. Would you like to come in for the tour?
As you come in our itty bitty entryway, you can hang your coat on P's awful old coat rack that I hide behind the door. Hopefully, you'll just notice the pictures of our honeymoon that we have hanging on the wall beside the door.


After you finish looking at those pictures, you can see my favorite thing in the whole main level....our wedding photo frame. I got the frame at Target when we first moved in and put a bunch of the proofs from our wedding in it. I love it and lay on the couch and stare at it frequently.

If you'd like to have a seat you can sit on the worst decision I ever made...The white couch from Sofa Express. A) the stain protector they said they put on doesn't work AT ALL B) we have a dog we can't keep off the couch. C) sofa express in columbus went out of business D) the back rest cushions are only filled with that cotton batting type stuff and not real pillows or foam. They suck. If anyone has ANY suggestions, I would love you forever. I can't even really put a slip cover over it because the cushions are ridiculous. The pink blanket isn't usually there....it's just cold.

Our little fireplace and our map of places we've been. On it you can see my 2nd favorite thing in the living room...the little horses that P got me for Valentines day one year.

Our Kitchen adjoins the living room...it's a small house. This is our kitchen table which was our 1 yr anniversary present to eachother...we got it on a trip to North Carolina at a British Antique store and had it shipped back to the OH-IO.

Table top...and P's Squirt salt shakers that he loves.

This is my little art project that I stole from Imperfect. I framed a bunch of my grandmothers old handwritten recipes. I don't really like how the 2 are haning on the wall, but I don't have enough room to put them all on a shelf. Suggestions?

This is the part I actually really like, and a little closer look at the recipes.

My bakers rack that I'll eventually replace with something that matches the table...for now though, it's what you gotta kinda watch your hip on as you walk into the kitchen. I get more bruises by not paying attention to it! You can also see the coupon book that I made after Imperfect inspired me yet once again! I don't know how to be cool and link to her entries :-(

Last thing I want to show you before we head upstairs tomorrow are my cool antique candy jars. If you're like me, most of the time you can't find canisters for flour,sugar,coffee AND Brown sugar and powdered sugar and self rising flour. Staples of the cooking world....anyway, I think that antique candy jars make GREAT substitutes! They are airtight and DEFINITELY hold a 5 pound bag with plenty of room for a scoop! Plus, the labels are just super cute.


So...got any suggestions for my couch or for my collage??? I got nothin.

the great ice storm of 2009 and how I spent the day

So, today was awesome. Yes we were pretty much Iced into the house despite one short trip to the Gym, but it was so much fun to be home with the Husband and the dog.

Let's begin with the beginning shall we? I got up at 530 a.m. to check the email, found that campus was closed and broke the news to the hubster that we were going to be off all day. I then went back to sleep until 930!! SO AWESOME. We got up, I ate nutella on toast as a special treat for the day, drank a coffee and hung out for a bit. We then went to the gym, it was EMPTY except for a couple die hard lifters. Post workout, I showered and began my favorite tradition of the snow days. I cooked. I cooked alllll day. I made Southwest cornbread from a mix (you just add beer). Then, I made homeade Chicken Black Bean Chili
Clearly I'm not showing all the steps...but here are my chicken chunks and shallots and onions and garlic sauteed and simmering in chili powder.

Here's the secret ingredient.


And here is the DELICIOUS end result.



I made a chocolate cake with buttercream frosting too...I wont post pictures of that, it's too fattening and gross :-)

Whilst I was cooking my little heart out, my super wonderful P chipped off the driveway. Yes, I do mean chipped off...not shoveled. He said it was like 3 inches of snow, 2 inches of ice and then another 3 inches of snow all packed down under a crust of ice.



After cooking, we ate, and now P is waiting impatiently for me to take the dog on a walk. Tomorrow, I plan on posting some pictures of the house. I always get intimidated when I do this because while I absolutely adore and am really proud of our first house...there are SOOOO many more people out there in blogland who are amazingly talented and coordinated!!!

Here are just a couple more pics of the ice storm til tomorrow!

ice ice everywhere

so buckeyetown is covered in a giant sheet of ice that is rapidly being covered by a giant sheet of fat snow flakes. i was SUPER worried about driving to work, my supervisor told us all to come in late rather than wait 2 hours on the highway. we've all been praying for campus to close because driving to campus in bad weather is a nightmare. everyone panics and it's less of a "snow" problem and more of a "people" problem. SO, i set my alarm for 530 a.m. so I could get up and check my email to see if there was ANY chance that OSU would close. I looked outside first and saw that everything was shiny!!! SHINY! from the roof to the street everything was glowing in the lamplight. It was odd and beautiful. I logged on to the old email and found to my delight TWO notifications that campus was closed for the day!!!! WHOOOHOOO!!!!!

So far today, I have gone back to bed. Taken some pictures of the snow outside. Toasted some Great Harvest Cinnamon Chip bread and slathered it liberally with warm gooey Nutella and sipped my coffee. I think I will spend the day cooking and taking pictures of the home.

I am SO thankful that neither P or I had to drive to work....my drive is normally 25 minutes tops, but with the weather it would turn into 2.5 hours. P drives all these hilly backroads to work and I have nightmares of him sliding into a ditch and being out of cell phone service.

How're you all spending the snowy weather? Or, for those of you in the south, could you send a little sun our way?

3 things:
Nutella. It is the food of the Heavens. MMMMMMMMMMMM
My dog who spent all last night curled up into my side.
That I did NOT have to go to work today :-)

too lazy to finish typing the word Lazzzzzzzzz.....

I haven't posted in ages and I feel guilty. So, I am copying a note that I posted on the good old Facebook acct. I got tagged to do it the other day, and thought it would make an interesting Blog Post as well....so without further ado, 26 random facts about myself.

[Instructions: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 26 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 26 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you.]
1. This is my first real facebook note ever...I just watched the first episode of this season's LOST and I'm too in awe to go to bed.
2. I used to wish that I would get swept up into a mystery like getting stranded on an island, or being part of some secret espionage or having to save the world. Now, I don't wish that those things would happen to me...I just obsessively watch them on tv.
3. I have 2 facebook accounts because I didn't realize that you could change networks when I moved to Athens. Now I have different friends on both accounts and am afraid that if I ask one set to move to the other acct, they wont.
4. I used to cry when my parents sold our van or our washing machine died. I felt sorry for them.
5. I genuinely love British food and really like heinz baked beans on toast.
6. If I could have any job in the world i would be either a wedding photographer or a home decorator. I wouldn't want to go to school to do these things though. I just want to be talented enough to have people come ask me to do it.
7. I also used to cry when it was my birthday because I was afraid of getting to double digits. I turned 10 in England and sobbed for hours.
8. Once when I was little, I went through a phase where I pretended I was a cat. I got into a really bad habit of saying "meow" after every sentence.
9. My family has a history of anxiety, I didn't know this until I started having anxiety attacks after moving from Athens and buying a house.
10. I discovered that a lot of my anxiety was a result of wanting to control everything in my life. and hating my job. I have since quit that job, gotten one I love and stopped trying to control everything that happens. I've also stopped worrying about being able to control things. anxiety is gone. (most of the time)
11. My 5th anniversary with my husband will be 11-11-11. 12. I re-read books to the point where I can "play them" in my head like a movie. I can often tell you what side of the page a paragraph is on.
13. My first name is Leigh. My parents didn't like how Danielle Leigh sounded (Danielley) and couldn't decide whether to call me Leigh or Danielle so they left the decision up to the color of my hair when I was born. Had I been born a blonde, I would have been called Leigh. I was born in the 70s....you make your own decision about whether my parents did any drugs.
14. I had been to Australia, New Zealand, Scotland, Wales and Mexico as well as 14 trips to England before I turned 22. However, I hadn't seen a real mountain until my honeymoon when I was 28.
15. My sister is 10 years younger than me, but is my absolute best friend and sometimes my role model.
16. I am usually nervous around other women because I'm afraid they will judge me and find me not as good as they are.
17. I used to really want to be sophisticated and elitest. I wanted a job where I would work in designer suits every day and then go to the theatre in the evenings. In grad school I did a 180 because I finally realized that I was truly happiest working with students and drinking beer in pubs or sports bars. I still like the theatre though :-)
18. I don't believe in love at first sight, but I believe that Fate/God arranged for me and my husband to meet
19. My dog is practically a person.
20. I went to 1 school dance in junior high and high school. I did not go to any prom. I thought the boy who asked me was joking.
21.One of the Columbine gunmen went to my elementary school and was a year behind me. I truly believe that if his family had stayed in Beavercreek, it would have been my high school on tv. It makes me regret how judgemental I was back then.
22. I have very vivid and very realisitic dreams that often are so real I can smell in n them.
23. I am Christian and have very deep feelings about my religion, but I get very frustrated by people who try to 'convert' others or make you feel like you're not good enough. I also believe in prayer, but believe that God is very hands off because he gave us free will. I don't believe that he will tell you which decision is the right one, but I believe that if you make the wrong choice, I believe that one of the greatest gifts he gave us was that he will be with us while we struggle with the decision. This is why faith and hope are two of the things that I will always hang on to. 24. I think that my husband is the best thing to happen to me in the world. He's the only person that can calm me down when I'm anxious, make me laugh when I'm sad, and be my strength when I allow myself to be vulnerable.
25.I hope to one day go to Iceland, Greenland and the Galapagos Islands.
26. I often feel like I'm not particularly good at anything. I tend to think that I'm just kind of the average girl. BUT, even on my worst, lowest self esteem day, I am completely confident that my one great strength is to help others find their own strengths and talents. I will tell you exactly how great I think you are, and I can convince you that I am right.

num num num num

mmmmmmmmm potroast.

So it's a beautiful long weekend in Columbus. We have had a lot of fun actually being social for a change. We went out with P's friend from high school and his wife. I'll call them The Hasselhoffs. G. Hasselhoff and H. Hasselhoff just bought a house so we met them at a restaurant up near their home and then went over to see the new digs. Ladies, H.Hasselhoff has in her bedroom a walk in closet that is probably the size of most people's guest bedrooms. It's not a huge house...but they have this amazing walk in closet of which I am completely envious.
The restaurant we went to was allright...it was kind of chilly and it was a microbrewery which although I know they are trendy, I just can't get into. I don't really like microbrewery beers. I prefer my generic Killians, Bass and Guiness and Coors Light. Micro brew beers always taste sour to me. I dont know why...might just be in my head.

Saturday we slept in and then went to the gym. I rode the bike for an hour and felt quite happy with myself. We also drove out to Millersport where Buckeye Lake is to see the high school. P has decided that he's going to volunteer coach with the football team out there because it's "kind of" on the way home from work and they have so few people that they were really excited to have some free help. I have mixed feelings about this endeavor. I will be sad to have him occupied in the evenings after work and have to devote 10 of my friday nights to football...BUT, he is SOOOO excited and I really do like football and it will be really fun to see my cute husband coaching highschoolers and being a mentor. I just wonder how many people I can sucker into going and watching with me. We did a little grocery shopping and stopped at the bread company and got a loaf of Cinnamon Chip and a loaf of Honey Wheat. MMMM freshbaked bread!
After all that we came home and sat around for a little bit, but then we kind of decided that it was high time that we get some of our pictures into frames and hang them. I mean, we've lived here for a year and haven't hung anything other than stuff we've gotten as gifts. No personal pics, except our wedding collage. We decided to go to Hobby Lobby to see if they had any good deals on frames. OH MY GOSH DID THEY EVER!!!! I am now in love with the Hobby Lobby. We got two great frames that go with our bedroom decor for two pictures that we bought when we were living in Athens. They were taken by a local artist of a couple of the places that we used to go. We got a set of coasters that go with our living room. We got a little side table to go by our accent chair. We got 2 jersey frames for P's autographed Jerseys. We got ALL OF THAT for $250!!!!!! I know that seems like a TON but if you think that to get the 2 jerseys professionally framed would have cost me nearly that amount by themselves, that is awesome! When we got home I cooked up some dinner, potatoes and tuna steak with steamed veggies and then we framed the two Athens pictures, put the jersies in frames and then P watched some UFO documentary (he's obsessed) and I dug out some of my grandmother's old hand written recipes and framed them in some matching black frames that I got for Christmas from my mom and dad.
Post decorating, I chopped up veggies and threw them in the crock pot with a roast on top to cook overnight for tonight's dinner with the Mojos. Please don't judge me....but I'm going to confess something terrible right now. The recipe said to cut the fat off the meat. So I did...and the dog was eyeing me the whole time, licking his chops. So I asked P, what would it hurt to give him some of the fat with the meat on it?? We decided it wouldn't hurt anything at all....and gave him a few chunks. BIG. BIG. BIG MISTAKE!!! The dog woke us up whining 2xs last night and has had the squirts all day. I DIDN'T KNOWW!!!!!!! I HAD NO IDEA!!!! I feel like a terrible dog mother. His poor little arse has to be raw. And it's so cold outside!!! :-( I feel so bad!!!

Today we went to the gym again and lifted, P made me do the bench press which is a testament to how much I love him because really, there isn't anyone else in the world that I would trust not to let a metal bar fall on my face when my muscles give out. After the gym we came home and cleaned up. I dusted a little and P swept the floors, we watched the Cardinals beat the Eagles and then the Mojos came over for dinner. P and Mojodad watched more football while Mojomom and I played with Mojokid. I mashed the taters and then we had Potroast, taters, honey wheat bread and cookies and cream ice cream for dessert. MMMM. YUM. I feel fat and lethargic now, but mmmm was it delicious. The Mojos have left and P and I are curled up on the couch, my head on his lap (danger zone given the potroast and potatoes have made him gassy) and are watching the Steelers/Ravens game. Tomorrow, on our day off we are going to go hike for a bit and then I have to get a cavity filled. Yuck.

We don't often go out and socialize a lot. It's not that we're antisocial or anything. It's just that all of our friends have very busy schedules and we dont seem to ever coordinate our calendars very well. So, this weekend has been nice. We've had quite a bit of alone time too which I particularly enjoy. I think that all weekends should be three day weekends.

Next time I post, I think I'm going to put up pictures of our house...I've made quite a few decorating updates since the last time I put any up.

3 things:
Hobby Lobby and its plethora of decorating goodness
Pictures that bring back memories of happy times and happy places
Good friends and good food

one hour and forty five minutes

is how long it took me to get home from work last night.

i work 21 miles away from my house.



i.hate.snow.



correction. i love snow. I.hate.driving.in.snow.on.the.highway.



not much to report tonight other than i'm hoping that everyone is staying safe and warm in this weather. i get to go help P run a cornhole tournament at OSU-Newark (pronounced Nurk) tonight since he's short staffed. Last time they had about 80 people show up...hopefully they'll have about as many again tonight.



I didn't really answer my own questions the other day...so here are my answers.


1) what is the one thing in the world that is most guaranteed to make you laugh even when you're having a really really crappy day? P and my dog. and the Simpsons. I'm lame.
2) if you could bring one t.v. show back from the archives, which one would it be and why? MASH, my first crush (as a 4 year old) was on Alan Alda's Hawkeye Pierce.
3) if I could help make one thing in your life easier, what would you want me to do...assume that I'm multi-talented, and possibly have super powers.Hmmm....If I could do anything...it would be being more organized and organizing my house...if YOU were doing something for me it would be magically zapping 20 pounds off me or being my own personal trainer :-)
4) do you say you are going to the Grocery or that you are going to the Grocery Store?GET IT RIGHT PEOPLE...IT IS THE GROCERY. GROCERY STORE IS REDUNDANT! You don't say you're going to the Mall Store do you?????lol
5) What three things are you the most thankful for today?that the snow stopped, that P and I both got home safe last night, that my doggy is donating blood today and I saw a dog that had it's leg amputated while I was dropping him off and the amputee was walking around just fine....animals are amazing and it makese me happy to know that Sonneigh might have helped him.

all the pretty horsies...

So, now that P and I have a functioning computer, I can put more posts with pictures up. Given that opportunity, the very first real picture laden post should be about my horses. Well, my horse and my sister's.

This is Cinnamon. Cinammon is the only horse that has ever thrown me. He used to be my sister's and I still think of him as one of mine even though we're not really paying for him anymore. He has hated me since day one...always was fine for my sister, but would walk up behind me and take a bite just for kicks. He's a non-gaited Tennessee Walker.

This is the barn at my parents house where the horses live. The parents dont live there anymore, but the people that moved in are friends of the family. They bought Cinnamon and let me board Colors there for a minimal price.

This is my big dopey sweetheart Colors. He's an American Saddlebred and he's the best horse ever. I got him when I was 14. The day we went out to see him, I rode him for a while and then stood and brushed him while my parents talked to the owner. Colors laid his head down on my shoulder and fell asleep. It was a done deal. He always greets me by blowing down his nostrils at me. :-) It's horse speak for Hey there friend.

Colors' friend is Mackie. We got him when my sister was too young to ride, and Colors needed a friend. I couldn't get a really good picture of him because he doesn't like the camera. He's super furry right now and he's a recovering laminitis patient (from before we got him). He's got all kinds of problems, he has allergies, curved hooves and he's fat. However...he's a dollface and a sweet old man.





SOOO those are my babies... I wish that they could be in Columbus with me. I think I found a place to pasture board Colors that's not TERRIBLE....but, we'll see. I'm going to see how things go this winter and see about maybe moving him in the fall. *fingers crossed*

picture tagged!? oh no!!!

Wolf has TERRIBLE timing.... P and I just got a new computer and I have not transferred all of my pictures over to it, so I'm doing this picture tag from work. Thus, I have a really poor selection of pictures on my computer....the 4th picture from the 4th album of my photo stash is....

drum roll....


more drums......




This picture was taken at Lake Codorous in Pennsylvania. We went there this past summer on a mini-vacation after we'd started our new jobs. It was the very first time that I have ever been camping, and the first time that we used the beautiful tent that the East Green staff from OU got us for our wedding.

Have I told you that story? It's pretty funny... you have to keep in mind that I worked for Residence Life at one of the historically liberal institutions in the state. That means, in short, that I was part of, and enjoyed working with some of the most diverse, open and accepting people in the world. We had all kinds of different people on staff. Gay, Lesbian, Transgender...Tatooed and bizarre, overweight, underweight,whatever, didn't matter, there was pretty much universal acceptance in our little cohort of staff members. Anyway, my best friend in Athens, the Cornelia Marie, and I were both on the same "Green" (how the department divided up the residence halls on campus.) There was West Green, South Green and then where we were, East Green. The Cornelia Marie had gotten engaged October 2005 in and I had gotten engaged in March of 2006. Through some weird coincidence, either our fiances have similar taste or Cornelia and I have similar taste and our respective fiances know us very well. Anyway, despite the time difference between when we got engaged, both our fiances picked out THE EXACT SAME ENGAGEMENT RING. Neither of us had any part in picking out the ring, we were both totally surprised (at seperate times) when we got the most beautiful ring in the world.

Anyway, Cornelia and I started being friends sometime after she got engaged and before I got engaged. Once I got engaged, she kicked up her wedding planning and we did alot of our planning together...shopped for dresses together, bitched and moaned and compared mothers together etc. We also decided on wedding dates very close together. Mine was November 11 and hers was Dec. 2 of 2006.

Long story short, apparently a lot of the student staff were aware that we were both getting married, and since our respective fiances were not part of the Residence Life department and were both very busy, hardly anyone had ever SEEN P or Cornelia's fiance D.

The East Green senior staff (the other hall directors and graduate students) threw us a surprise double wedding shower one morning when we were having a staff meeting. Cornelia and I walked into a room with fun party favors, streamers and all kinds of gag gifts. My amazing staff members had chipped in to get me the great tent that you see above in the picture, and they had gotten Cornelia a mountain bike so that she and D could go be sporty together.

The absolute BEST part of the wedding shower however, was the sign that one of the student workers had made...In giant block letters it said

" CORNELIA AND ANN CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR WEDDING!!!!!!!!!!!!!WE LOVE YOU! THE EAST GREEN STAFF"

Perhaps that was a sign that Cornelia and I were spending too much time together...or that maybe our fiances were anti-social and we needed to start introducing them to the world...or perhaps it was a sign that there are some really great students at Ohio University who believe that love can be between anyone, not just a man and a women....whatever it was,it is definitely a memory that will live forever.

****************** edit***********************

it's true, wolf does NOT have terrible timing. retelling that story made my day and made me smile :-) thanks wolf!

3 THINGS:
the cornelia marie and the time bandit...friends through stormy weather and leaky plumbing
that i've been priveleged to meet people who are so warm and accepting
that the roads werent bad on my drive to work.

yuck.

remember the plague that wouldn't go away? then it finally went away? well it came back. i was up all night coughing and finally went to the dr. for antibiotic. yaaaaaay bronchitis. he gave me the dreaded z-pac, the one that kills every germ in a 2000 mile radius but also makes my stomach feel like something is trying to stab it's way out with a dull knife. or a spork. bah.

my husband is sweet and wonderful and amazing and he took me to the doctor at 750 this morning and then decided since i was so sad and pathetic curled in the fetal position going "oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow" that he stayed home from work and cuddled me. he just left to go to the gym and I noticed this note on the desktop "I love you Mus, you are beautiful even when you're sick." *grin* He loves me. He really loves me.

I'm planning on watching the national championship game tonight, taking my knock out cough medicine that the Dr. gave me and sleep like the dead tonight. I think that we're going to eat leftover homeade chicken soup. Mmmmm.....soup.

So, since I'm sick and bored and really really really really bored, let's play "pop quiz." that's right, i'm sick, you guys need to entertain me!

1) what is the one thing in the world that is most guaranteed to make you laugh even when you're having a really really crappy day?
2) if you could bring one t.v. show back from the archives, which one would it be and why?
3) if I could help make one thing in your life easier, what would you want me to do...assume that I'm multi-talented, and possibly have super powers.
4) do you say you are going to the Grocery or that you are going to the Grocery Store?
5) What three things are you the most thankful for today?

3 things:
that my dr. is awesome
that even though i was home sick today it let me get some things done, like take the christmas tree down.
that my duvet is warm and soft and makes the same crinkly sound that comforters in nice hotels make...if i close my eyes, i can pretend i'm on vacation

well....we lost.

but at least we showed up to play! unlike the last 2 years when i spent most of the game with my head down going "oh man...they're not even MOVING! I COULD RUN FASTER THAN THAT!"

This year...they played. Still lost, but oh well. At least it wasn't completely embarassing.

Today is a typical Ohio January day. It was crapping...what I call the wintery mix of snow/rain/sleet. People don't know whether to use umbrellas or just stay in bed. I had some real doozies in my office yesterday and today starting at noon, I have back to back appointments until time to go home. SIGH...should not have stayed up so late to watch us lose! lol!

We picked up our new laptop and printer last night, I'm soooo excited. I can put my camera's memory card directly into the printer and print my pictures! I might actually hang some things in the living room now. I just kept avoiding taking them to Cord. It's so expensive for the amt. of frames that I have. Blah!

This is my living room...




3 things:

the space heater that is warming my toes
the cool people in the blog world whose lives i get to peer at through my little internet window
how fun it is to cheer on people that you hardly know and how awesome it is to get little snippets of cheer for you in your comment box

it's the half

and we're winning!!!!!!!!!!!

new look on the blog

A couple of you have said that my blog background is pretty and I wanted to say "thanks!" I got it from the Little Window Shoppe whose link is on the right underneath SITS. They have a couple freebies.

The picture is from Buckeye Lake which is just east of where P and I live. There's a little bar called Papa Boos where the boats pull up and you can chill and drink crappy beer and eat wings while the sun sets. It's our summer go-to spot for when we just want to relax and don't want to get dressed up. It's fun, we play 'count the mullets' while we're there. Millersport, OH is a funny little town :-)

Buckeye Lake is really cool though, it's got a lot of history. Back in the day it was an amusement park of sorts and you could take a train in to the lake and go to hotels and the amusement park and restaurants. On the sad side of history the KKK would have summer conferences there! The amusement park, and hopefully the KKK are no longer there but the lake is and so is Cranberry Bog which is the only one of its kind in Ohio. It's a floating bog and it's the home to some carniverous plants and very rare orchids. It used to be much bigger but the alkalinity of the water is kind of eroding it. You can take tours of the bog a couple times a year if you sign up through the nature preserve's website. It's really interesting if you like nature :-)

Other cool things at the lake are the Wolfe Family Island...the Wolfes pretty much own all of Columbus, and then you can also see where Dave Thomas, the founder of Wendy's used to spend his summers. He had an island house as well :-) It's gorgeous and someday when I'm a multi-millionare (ahhahahaha) i might buy it :-).

Anyway...just wanted to post a quick note about where I got the background. Have a beautiful week!

3 things:
the fiesta bowl is on tonight EVEN THOUGH my buckeyes probably will lose.
the weather outside is fairly beautiful for the first week in january
my little sister who i got to spend all weekend with.

sometimes it's nice

When you feel like you really helped someone.

I had a student come in today in tears because she'd been dismissed from the program that she was trying to go for because her gpa dropped below what they require. She was stressed and unhappy and crying. I told her that we'd be able to make things better and listened to her describe why she wanted that program to begin with. While she was describing what she was passionate about, I was able to see that the program she was in wasn't actually the best one for the direction she wants to go. I talked to her a lot about grad schools and what she needed to do to get to the career she wants and by the time she left 40 minutes later, she was laughing and excited about the classes she would be taking this quarter.

Sometimes I have a hard time explaining what exactly I do to other people. I have a hard time articulating why I want to work what is essentially a desk job...Sometimes, like yesterday, I would rather be absolutely anywhere else but stuck in my office when I'd rather be outside or at home...but then there are days like today when I can say that I helped 'rescue' 'counsel' 'fix' 'heal' and 'give hope to' someone who really needed it.

3 Things:

college football even though none of my teams other than Oregon are winning
homeade turkey soup and pulled pork sandwiches that make my house smell like home
having the opportunity to help others every day