What I do when I have too much time on my hands...

Pat was working really late last night so I had a ridiculously long amount of time to prepare dinner. Because I made it one of my anti-shlumpadinka goals to make good dinners i thought i would document this momentous occaision....

I had a few of my favorite ingredients so i decided to make stuffed chicken and lemon garlic asparagus.

You might be surprised but "lemon garlic asparagus" has both lemon juice and garlic on it :)...there is also a little bit of olive oil, salt and pepper

and P.S. this grill pan is the best thing i have in my kitchen. We aren't allowed to have grills here so when i want delicious grilled vegetables this is a total life saver.

It is hard to make raw chicken look appetizing, but I thought I would show the "before." All i did to this chicken was slice it thin, pound it out with a meat tenderizer, add salt and pepper and then spread my little mixture on the top side. I stuffed the chicken with diced roasted red peppers and goat cheese that had a little bit of Italian seasoning in it. I rolled it up and kept things together with a toothpick or two.

Not sure if this picture does the dinner justice, but take my word for it - it was soooo good. Even Pat loved it and he says he hates goat cheese. It didn't taste anything like i thought it would but in a really good way - try it some time if you are bored. It ws super easy.

Office Excercise Advice...compliments of facebook :)

Soooo like a month ago I posted a status update on facebook that got an overwhelming response - all of the comments and suggestions were seriously hilarious. I was thinking about it today (while i was doing one of the workouts in my office chair and thought that i should totally post this for everyone else to see too!

Okay here was my status ( I never thought anyone would write back):

"Katie is trying to figure out how she can work out from her desk at work...any suggestions?"

• Chris Raub: at 10:11am December 11
  Run in place in your chair?
• Evan and Heidi Chandler: at 10:15am December 11
  Do Straight leg lifts sitting in your chair...should get your core and legs...hehe...
• Annette Bravo:at 12:37pm December 11
  Or you could try this http://ellen.warnerbros.com/2008/08/hawaii_chair.php
• Katie O'Brien: at 12:58pm December 11
  okay the "Hawaii chair" is #1 on my christmas list!!!!
• Stacy Greene Francis: at 5:08pm December 11
  squeeeeze your butt cheeks. there is a little machine at sharper image( before they went bankrupt) that was a stationary bike but just the pedals you put under your desk and ride all day.... google it!
• Stacy Greene Francis: at 5:09pm December 11
  OR, you can do what i do at work.... which is pop peanut m&m's in my mouth and chew... GREAT for the jaw.... really defines the jaw line.
• Edward Chang: at 7:18pm December 11
  Do reverse-crunches in your chair. Sit in a correct posture, lift your knees vertically towards your chest. Reps: 25x4......say bye bye to lower ab pooch!
• Marty O'Connor: at 1:05pm December 18-type jibberish uncontrollably fast. forearms-knees up to your chest, spin left to right, right to left, triceps and abs-randomly jump as high as you can out of your chair (make a dolphin sound for best result) legs and vocal chords-drop your jaw and move vigorously left to right- no more gobbler
• Eron Umberg: at 7:26pm December 20
  um, i'm laughing outloud picturing marty propelling himself up out of a desk chair while making dolphin noises.and to add to your list of exercises....KEGELS, BABY....it's all about the kegel flex! (not only does it strengthen pelvic muscles, it greatly reduces urinary incontinence....SUPER BONUS!! ) =)
• Marty O'Connor: at 9:30pm December 20
  ...maybe suspend yourself with bungee chords and engage in full raange of motion "spilts-like" strides as seen with Tony on the Gazelle.

Who knew you could be so productive and active at work!?!?!?!?!?

P.S. - you totally have to click on the Hawaii Chair link..I cannot believe this thing is real - but i totally want one!

Feeling Philosophical...

This mug + This Tea = Happy Katie :)

I am loving my little inspirational mug this morning. It is filled with Island Mango & Peach flavored White Tea and it is making me very happy. Ever since I filled my mug I swear, good things have started to happen.... the meeting (scheduled for tomorrow) that I was dreading (which required a 6 hour roundtrip drive) got rescheduled to monday - Yay!....the media rep that has been dragging her feet for a week has finally sent me the rates I requested - Yay!...I got invited to a fun girls night - YAy....my boobs got bigger....and I got a raise!!!

The combo below is going to be my inspiration for the afternoon :)

+

Tuesday Shlumpadinka

Though this word isn't in Webster's Dictionary—yet—Oprah says she knows a shlumpadinka when she sees one. "I made this word up a long time ago," she says. "It represents, for me, a woman who dresses like she has completely given up…and it shows."

I left my house this morning wearing pants that I know are too short for the boots I chose to wear and i would like to think that it isn't bothering me...but it is. We are getting more snow this morning and the temperature may get into the single digits so I felt like I had no choice. Days like this are (at least in my mind) forcing me to give up on any kind of cuteness/comfort and resign myself to being a winter shlumpadinka, short pants and all. Yes I will be warm(er), and when I walk outside my feet wont get wet, but shouldn't I have a cuter pair of boots and a longer pair of pants picked out so that i don't have to exchange warmth for looking like a hillbilly?....Yes i should - and i have no good excuse for this! I don't want to be a shlumpadinka and I am going to do something about it.Other people have managed to figure out the "cool winter happy person persona" ...and it is time that I do too!

In earlier years, I sort of liked to think of myself as a low maintenece diva - maybe even a little bit cool. I have sort of morphed into just low maintenece - kinda nerdy, and the divaness has totally been put on hold....Maybe getting older,working, and the cold are partially to blame for that sad transformation but I am committed to change!

A few things that I am thinking I will do to up the ante on Divadom are as follows:

1. Get rid of any and all clothes and shoes that I don't wear or that I bought prior to the age of 21. This will keep me from making bad decisions on blah days like today.
2. Shop a little bit more. I am actually one of the few people I know that really doesn't like to shop. It usually serves as a painful reminder of how darn tall I am and how not "normal" my size is - but i need to move past that and find some new stuff.
3. Plan really good dinners. For some reason, it does make me feel really good about myself when I make a fabulous dinner after a long day at work. It makes me feel more like "me" - I never wanted to be a big time career lady - I have always wanted be Suzy homemaker, so when I can do both I feel really important :)
4. To feel "cooler" i need to stop doing dumb stuff. Like falling off of curbs in front of large groups of people - yeah that will be another post once i get the pictures loaded (yes there are pictures).
5. I should plan a party. I have used our small-ish apartment as an excuse for a long time, but I realized the other day that it really isn't "that" small and i don't think that anyone else can really offer that much more seating...so I need to play hostess and return the favor to all the other people who have so kindly hosted us in their homes. Maybe I will volunteer for the Super Bowl?
6. Stop talking about the weather. I am the only person who is surprised when it snows every single day. People from Ohio don't get my fascination with the crappiness of the weather and quite frankly, I have started to realize that they are bored with it.
7. Go tanning. No it isn't good for my skin, but a lot of people (even 1 doctor) have told me that there are Vitamin D rays emitted that make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
8. DO something charitable....
9. Take up tennis! It is good excersise, I have a good place to play nearby, and saying " i play tennis" sound skind diva-y don't you think?
10. Write all of the thank you notes I have been meaning to write for Christmas. It will be one less thing hanging over my head and that always seems to be a good thing.
11. and Last but not least - stop complaining on this blog. I need at least 5 more happy posts before I can rant like this again.

i need a new hobby...

It is snowing like crazy today and I am not sure what I am going to do with my time. Last night was the first time in the whole year that we have lived here that i realized that my car cannot hang in the big time snow. I was in a slightly sloped parking lot and my car could only go in reverse downhill. I was totally stuck, and becasue the weather is way worse today I think I am pretty much homebound. With many many hours of downtime inside ahead of me - i realized that i need a new hobby. I used to spend more hours than i should admit looking in wedding magazines, picking out flower arrangements, and all kinds of other good stuff. Thinking about it today made me miss all of the d.i.y-projects that wedding planning brought into my life:) Since I didn't have a nerdy blog back in those glory days of wedding planning I thought I would revisit a few highlights this morning:

the #1 highlight - my new hubby :) ( ha ha so cheesy)

The invitations were sort of my pet project. I used a really cute design studio in Jacksonville (madameTproductions.com) to create them and i was really happy with how they turned out.

The save-the-dates are the little rectangular pockets with our picture, and we did longer pockets for the weddding ceremony program. I kept them neutral becasue i wasn't sure what the rest of the stuff was going looklike at the point when I was sending save-the-dates

Here's a weird looking face on me - but i liked this picture of my dress. I was slighlty obsessed with it when i first found it.

I loved this picture of my bouquet. It was seriously like 30 pounds orchids, poppies, roses, tulips, and calla lillies.

our delicious cake!!! Funny little fact about this cake - we ordered it from a grocery store. It was the one thing that neither one o us really cared that much about but we knew we wanted chocolate. The florist dressed it up with fresh flowers and Pat's mom bought a gorgeous silver cake stand. Everyone told us that it was the best wedding cake they ever had - it looked like a million bucks, and only cost us $300!

Our favors were these boxes of Godiva Chocolates. The little silver charms on the ribbon had our new monogram imprinted on them.

For the placecards - we layered capiz and cocquina shells. This was cool because my mom and dad had cocquina shells on their placecards 30 years before. A few weeks before the wedding my mom and i spent hours combing the beach looking for 200+ cocquinas that were still connected.

Here is one of the smaller table arrangements. We had the wedding at Sawgrass Country Club in Florida - the beach club (where we were) was right on the ocean so i thought it would be cool to use water arrangements inside on the tables. Most of them had floating or submerged orchids, calla lillies, and proteas....wish i had a pic of one of the big cool ones. Stupid photographer!!!

And this one is sort of out of order, but i loved the bouquets so much that i had to throw it in.

Annnnnd that is it... a few highlights from my the wedding. 2 years later and it still kept me busy for a few hours. ha ha - pretty sure I need to get over it and find something new :)

People love animal stories right?

Well here he is. This is my brother's dog "Newps Righteous. " I think one of Marty's friends took this picture while the dog is sneezing - i just thought it was funny, and i have nothing better to post today so here it is. But seriously, this is sort of the coolest dog ever. He used to totally freak me out becasue he looks like a total junkyard dog - but i love him now. Here is why:

• Newps was a pound puppy
• He has one "clear blueish" eye and one dark eye - scary but typical of huskies (he is part huskey)
• My brother loves him like a brother
• Despite the tough exterior he is so sweet. Every time he comes up to you when you are sitting down he puts his little chin on your knee and just stares. SO cute!
• He is seriously like a Houdini. He will break out of any backyard...come to the front door of the house...and literally knock on the front door until you let him in. NO joke. This has happened at least 30 times.
• On a flight from Florida to Colorado Newps broke out of his cage (which was latched and cable tied) so that he could roam around the bottom of the airplane while it was in the air. No one has any clue how he did this but we do know now that Newps is claustrophobic.
• This one time, we left him in the house (at my parents) with all of the doors closed when we went out for a boat ride.When we got back he was inexplicably waiting at the end of the canal for us - we could see that all of the doors to the house were still closed. Anyways...then he made his way through the neighborhood and ran onto my parents dock so that he could greet us when we were done. Turns out he didn't want to be away from Marty so he broke through a screen on the 2nd floor of the house and jumped all the way to the ground!!! 2 stories down and he was totally fine! WOW.
• He got hit by a minivan this year. The driver ran over him completely and hit him so hard that his collar broke off of his neck. Somehow Newps escaped the whole thing with a doggy- black eye (according to Marty) and he was just a little woozy for a few days. The stupid driver didn't even stop, but somehow I think Newps will get him back one of these days :)

Newps is awesome. The end.

This week in history....

One year ago from Sunday was the one year anniversary of Pat and I moving to Ohio. I can't believe it has been 12 months since we cleared out our house in Jacksonville and made our way to AK-rowdy!

Gotta love the huuuuge Uhaul and my little car behind it. My job for the day was to switch lanes, then flash my brights when it was okay for Pat to get over. We did that for 15.5 hours straight (starting at 3:30am) and believe me, it was fabulously entertaining.

Yeah to our 1 year ohioversary!!