hockey games and new technology

It has been a busy couple weeks at work since February marked the end of the fiscal year. This weekend I was in Winchester since Cam was taking me to a hockey game for my birthday! He bought me center ice seats for the Caps vs. Flyers game on Sunday. I loved the seats and recommended that everyone experience it at least once in their life. 



View from Sunday's game

I finally got my tax return back and spent it on myself for my birthday... and don't feel bad about it at all! I bought myself a new tablet that will double as a work machine while I travel and commute. The Surface Pro 2 has tons of awesome features for just about everyone and their preferences. I am an adamant Apple user (iPhone, Mac, etc.) but I have fallen in love with the Microsoft tablet.

Another hockey game this weekend so stay tuned! 



the national zoo

The highlight of the week was my trip to the Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington D.C. They are big on species conservation and animal education. There is quite a lot of activity happening at the zoo right now. From Bao Bao the baby panda, and the new lion cubs that were born a few weeks ago. You can find the link to the zoo here National Zoo. Below are some photos I took from the zoo, and the quality isn't the best since I used my iPhone. 

This was an anaconda from the reptile house

One of my favorite photos form the zoo trip

Hermit crab in the invertebrate exhibit

Mama panda

The main point of the trip was to see Bao Bao, the new panda cub. We waited in line for about 30 minutes and while in line we could watch the 24/7 live panda cam. The entire time we waited she was active and playing around in the den. I checked back to the cam about 5 minutes before we walked through the door and she was still active....how lucky right?!? Right as we walked through the door to the enclosure she waddled to her closed door den and fell asleep immediately. SO FRUSTRATING!

Even though I didn't get to see Bao Bao, the trip was still a great success. I also found my absolute favorite animal while I was there....the oriental small-clawed otter! So adorable 

snow day

This is the first day of the massive snow storm that hit the entire East Coast this week. As you can see from the map I reside in one the "heavy snow" areas....joy. I don't mind the snow when it comes with a SNOW DAY from work! 

Earlier this week I stocked up on the essentials to survive being snowed in for a few days. Essentials include bread, milk, spaghetti o's, pop tarts, and cheese crackers. Now, I know that they predicted 8"-12" but I never thought in a millions years that we would actually get all of that snow. I am taking this snow day opportunity to get some cleaning and cross stitching done before Valentine's Day weekend, but not before I went outside to shovel a little and assess the damage. Here are some of the photos from my apartment complex. 

Taken at about 6:30 on 02.12.2014

just for some perspective

24hr stomach bug

Just a quick post about my eventful weekend. The 24 hour GI bug decided to hit me like a freight train at about 4:00am on Saturday. It woke me up from a dead sleep and just kept coming. I spent most of the day on Saturday posted up on the couch. I finally started to feel better late Saturday, and was able to sleep through the night. 

By Sunday I was feeling 100% and Cam and I decided to go to an early movie, totally recommend seeing the LEGO movie. It was great! By dinner time on Sunday Cam started to not feel very great, and then BAM, the bug hit him as well. He spent the entire night in the recliner and was up about every hour, which means I was up about every hour as well. Needless to say, couches are not the most comfortable place to sleep for most of the weekend.

We have officially survived the disgustingness of the GI bug together, which I think is a milestone in any relationship. If you can survive a weekend listening to each other throw up, buying ginger ale, and all while sharing a bathroom it's safe to say it's a real relationship.

Now back to sleeping in a bed, and getting into a routine of things.....oh an wiping EVERYTHING down with Clorox wipes and bleach.

so behind...

Apparently I am really bad at blogging because I haven't been on here in a long time. So here are some highlights since the last post. 

First of all my wonderful father turned 50! I had a blast looking through old photos of him and the entire family. As you can see from the photo below he hasn't changed too much, just lacking some hair. We may not have a very affectionate relationship, but we make it work. I know that if I were to call him for something, he would immediately figure out a way to make things better. Happy Birthday to my favorite old man.

The past weekend was by far very busy! Saturday the boyfriend and I went to a superhero/villain/princess birthday party and we had a blast. Both of our costumes were homemade by yours truly, which I must say is pretty impressive. Here are some photos from the party.

The birthday girl and I

Princess Tiger Lily and Captain Hook. We are so freaking adorable, and yes I am biased.

To end my crazy weekend I woke up to this on Monday morning!

I had to commute about 65 miles to get to work and decided not to risk it in this weather. I later found out that where I work only got rain, no snow. Luckily I had my work computer with me and I was able to get some work done from the house. Most of the snow had melted by the evening so I headed back to work on Tuesday. 

I think I have covered most of the major stuff that has happened over the last few weeks. I will try and get better about posting on a more regular basis. 

catching up

So this post is just a catch up since I haven't been on here in a while. I spent the entire weekend seeing family and doing puzzles. My boyfriend came to town this weekend and we stayed in each night putting together puzzles, which is totally my style. Then saturday my wonderful mother came to town and treated us both to dinner. Sunday was also just as awesome because my little brother was in town, so I treated him to dinner. With all the family time, chores were put on the back burner...and I can totally tell now (four days later).  Here are the puzzles that we have done over the last two weekends, and yes I know we're a tad addicted to them. 

This is by far my favorite :)

This was by far the hardest one of the four puzzles. So many colors and small details

I LOVED this one, considering it's lime green 

This puzzle was a BLAST to do. I loved putting together all the famous faces and magazine covers. 

After my very fun and relaxing weekend, it was back to work and back to reality. Good thing that work consisted of some fun stuff this week! Our third party IT company that we work with is great, and we think of them as co-workers. The lead IT guy that works with our company is expecting his first child this weekend, which is very exciting for him and his wife. Our management team decided to put together a "baby basket" for his employees to deliver to him on Friday. I had a ton of fun organizing and setting up this adorable basket for him, but it also made me realize how much stuff you need for babies and how much all this stuff costs. Don't get me wrong....kids are so cute, but not my cup of tea at this moment in my life. 

I am getting over the "hump" of this week with a JMU basketball game. My grandpa and I get season tickets for the boys team and I try to go to as many home games as I can each season. Last year the team was pretty decent. We won our conference championship and made it to the big dance...but lost in the first round. This year is quite a different story. We are a young team during a rebuilding year, and had some suspensions early in the season. Needless to say we lost tonight's game to the worst team in the conference. 

That has been my week so far, and I'll be back on the road this weekend, which means chores have to get done tomorrow....or they get left till Monday.

time to get organized

One of my many New Year's resolutions is to get more organized...and stay that way. I had to venture out to Wal-mart today in FREEZING temperatures here in VA, but as I was walking to pick up my pictures I saw that 2014 planners were already on sale. I found this quite odd considering we are only six days into the new year, but I took advantage of the good deal and snagged myself a cute planner that fits in my purse. 

The goal is simple: stay on track. Keep track of appointments, bills, meetings, phone calls, etc. While being spontaneous is wonderful and carefree, I can't be spontaneous and miss something crucial or an important deadline. This year it's about balancing both the fun, and not so fun, events in the calendar. 

To continue with my organizational kick I actually started to use some of the Christmas gifts I received this year. I spent the weekend doing two new puzzles on my brand new puzzle/tailgate table with my wonderful boyfriend. I also picked up a picture to fill this awesome frame from my momma. 

Here's to a year of organization, mixed with a little spontaneity.