Great Day at Work!

Haha, don't blink! You most likely won't see that title again for a loooooooooong time, but in the last 24 hours, things have been pretty great!

Wednesday afternoon we had a video shoot with our new music director. I was involved, my ideas were welcomed, and it turned out well.

Lani came over in the evening to help make brownies. We are on the Committee for Recognition and Morale and it was our task to bake brownies for the February birthday celebration scheduled for the next day. It was fun hanging out! It was not as fun being able to smell the brownies, without being able to eat them...

The February birthday party was a big success.

But the best part.... I have been working on a proposal to over-turn the fee for our Tiny Tots concerts that was implemented three years ago. I presented it at a meeting that our CEO was at, and he approved it on the spot! I really made a change!!! It's so exciting!!!

Not much else is going on - I've mostly just been working. I'm sad to say I have not done an exercise video in over a week and I miss doing them. :-( However, I have kept up with my Lent push-up challenge. Today I have to do 10 push-ups. Yikes!

Alright that's enough for now. Hope you are all doing well!

Weekend Getaway

Bonjour! Andy and I took a trip to Montreal this weekend and had the BEST time. Here's what happened... list style.

- Drove to Montreal. It was my first time in Quebec!

- Checked into our hotel, Auberge Bonapart. It was great and I would definitely stay there again.

- Toured the Notre Dame Basilica. It was gorgeous!

- Walked around Old Montreal for a bit, and saw where they do ice fishing. Brrrrr.

- Ate lunch at Vieux-Port Steakhouse. I had a delicious roast beef sandwich. Andy had the lamb.

- Lunch was followed with a trip across the street for a dish of maple Nutella gelato. Heaven!!!

- Magically stumbled upon "Montreal en Lumiere," a winter festival that was SO. MUCH. FUN. (even if it was freezing cold).

- Ate dinner at Holder, an awesome french restaurant. I had steak. Andy Pepin had duck confit.

- Called it a night. Sleeping in a king size bed is HEAVEN.

- Ate our complimentary breakfast at the hotel, which was 3 courses... not your ordinary complimentary breakfast!

- And to get back home... I took a train! My first train trip ever! (unless you count the Santa Clause Express)

It was a great trip - I am still smiling thinking about it!

Lent + Luna

It is Ash Wednesday, so Lent begins today! Lisa, thank you for the suggestion of doing burpees, but there is NO way that is going to happen, lol. It was fun to talk to people at Midtown last night about their plans for Lent.

- Kristin is giving up unnecessary shopping.
- Marcia is also giving up unnecessary shopping.
- Ted is giving up online shopping, pizza, and eating after 9pm.

And I believe I will stick with my original plan - let the push-up challenge begin! Both Anna and Lani are going to play the push-up game with me. :-) We will be so buff in 40 days, lol. Here is my first push-up! (I hope my form gets better!!)

I am also dog sitting for Will and Rose. Meet Luna!

Luna is a sweetheart, but I do think she was nervous last night to be in a new place. She barked every time she heard something, and her hearing is amazing, so there was a lot of barking.

Speaking of sounds, last night Ted and I talked about what sounds were soothing to us. Here are some sounds that make me feel calm and happy...

- rain
- dishwasher
- washing machine/dryer
- the sound of a train at night

I guess they are all sounds that remind me of home. I'm sure the last one seems strange to most, but a train would go through the valley every night and I could hear it in my bedroom growing up... and even now we live close enough to train tracks that I can hear the train each night too. So I associate nighttime train noises with being safe and sound at home.

What sounds do you like? I wish I could find out some soothing sounds for Luna, but I'm sure she will adjust soon. :-)

Valentine's Day XOXO

Hello! This last weekend was a Valentine's/President's Day combo. Here's what went down...

Friday
Andy and I went out to dinner to celebrate Valentine's Day together since we had other plans on Saturday.

http://www.rochesterdowntown.com/wp_rddc/investment-projects/384-east-avenue-inn-suites/ 

City Grill opened a few months ago but we had yet to go. It's been on my list of places to try for two reasons: 1) I think it's cool that there's a tree inside the restaurant, and 2) Kristin told me they had "grown up tater tots" on their menu. Yum.

Our dinner was excellent! I ordered cauliflower eggplant soup and a beet salad. Andy had a mushroom and lobster pizza, and we shared an order of truffle fries. Then for dessert we split the stuffed french toast, which was AMAZING. I would definitely recommend City Grill to anyone!

Once we were home we curled up on the couch and watched the last two episodes of The Killing. I am so sad we are finished with that show - I liked it so much! I will definitely be adding a write-up under my "books + shows" tab soon.

Saturday

Happy Valentine's Day! My Saturday started per usual at Job #2. Our original plan for Valentine's night was to drive to Buffalo to celebrate Andy's mom's birthday, but it started snowing really hard during the day, so we decided it would be best for all parties to stay off the roads. Instead we spent the evening at home. Andy made a delicious pasta bolognese for us and we shared a piece of cheesecake. We also face-timed with Andy's family, including my favorite furry member of the family - Bailey!

Then "we" watched Virunga - a documentary about the Congo and it's mountain gorilla population. I say "we" because Andy fell asleep after the first ten minutes. Ugh. I said it was too late to start a movie, but he insisted it was ok. Wife was right!!! I can't be too mad though, as he got me a very nice Valentine's present.

Kate Spade ink pens and four chocolates!!! If you know me you know I love all things paper/pens, so it was perfect. And I also really appreciate the four chocolates... enough for a little treat, but not so much that I was stressed about all the calories. Good job Andy man!

Sunday

Sunday was COLD.

Do you see where it says Feels Like: -20?!?!?! What the heck!!! And it's supposed to stay super cold pretty much all week long. Noooooooo.

Andy's family braved the cold and traveled out to Rochester to have breakfast with us. We went to Simply Crepes, a place we had not been to in years. The best part about breakfast was getting to see Ali - she left for the Army in the fall and we had not seen her since. Yay for Ali!!

Now I realize this is not the most flattering picture, but it is the only one I took. And so just to be fair, I will post an unflattering picture of Andy and I at dinner (this picture was taken a few years ago the night before we ran a 77.7 mile relay race around Seneca lake with 5 other people).

Hahahahaha. This is my favorite picture of Andy and I of all time. I cannot keep a straight face when I look at this picture - I laugh every single time!!!!

Anyway, back to Sunday. :-) I didn't feel so hot during the day, so I laid on the couch quite a bit, but in the evening I felt better and went to Anna's for dinner. She made a really good pumpkin chili - thanks for dinner Anna! And we also watched the SNL 40 year reunion. It was a fun night. 

Monday

Guess who didn't have to work??? Woohoo! I cleaned, did laundry, washed dishes, did some excellent YouTube exercise videos, went to the grocery store, caught up on Downton Abbey... all in all a pretty solid day. 

Tuesday

It's today! Fat Tuesday! Which means Lent begins tomorrow. I'm not Catholic, and I know it's probably offensive to say, but I like to play "the Lent game." Here's what I've tried in the past...

- no elevators, only stairs... that lasted until I realized hauling laundry up and down 4 flight of stairs was no bueno.

- no work food. I actually did this one! I only ate food I brought to the office, never any treats that people had brought into work.

- exercise challenge. My friend Katie made up a list of exercises to do each day. I did them until my knee really started hurting... then I had knee surgery. :-(

So what shall I do this year??? My idea is to do a push-up challenge! I'll do one push-up on the first day of Lent, two push-ups on the second day, etc. However! I am still very open to other ideas. And so I ask...

What do you think I should do for Lent this year?

Freezing Friday

Hello from the North Pole! Well, not really the North Pole, but it might as well be. It is FREEZING cold here. This morning it was 1 degree, and we've warmed up throughout the day to a balmy 10 degrees. There's also a lot of wind, so with the wind chill taken into account, we have yet to feel like we've made it into positive digits. Brrr!!!

This week was one of my busier weeks as far as work is concerned. Our Primary Concerts were on Wednesday and Thursday, which basically equals 48 hours of craziness/stress/freezing. Why freezing? Because one of my duties is to be on bus duty - I guess that's what happens when you are the youngest person working.

The Preservation Hall Jazz Band was also in town, and they were able to give a special concert for the ROCmusic kids (a group of city kids that receive free string instruction). I actually really enjoyed listening to them play - I miss jazz a lot.

Additionally, our Committee for Recognition and Morale decided to provide a small Valentine treat each day of the week for our coworkers. It was actually a lot of fun to do - I wish that's all my job entailed sometimes!

And now it's Friday night! Andy and I are going out to dinner to celebrate Valentine's Day a day early as we have other plans Saturday night. I feel so lucky to have Andy and can't wait for our first Valentine's celebration as husband and wife!

All Sorts of Random

I'm not sure whether or not I've mentioned this yet, but Job #1 is in the middle of a wellness challenge. Last week's challenge was to do 30 minutes of cardio each day. I managed to complete the task 6 out of 7 days (go me!) all thanks to YouTube. I just searched for "30 minute cardio" and picked a different one each time. They all turned out to be pretty good, but yesterday's video was by far the best...

Spoiler alert. The reason why I loved the video was because this kept happening...

Her dog Peanut would not stop licking her!!!

And somehow she was able to finish the workout without laughing once!

It feels really good to workout again (I definitely took a LOT of time off after my wedding). I am very grateful to the wellness challenge for motivating me to get back into exercise. :-)

What else has been going on?

Andy Pepin made us egg souffles for breakfast on Sunday. They tasted like egg clouds.

And we've also gotten even MORE snow. Which means more shoveling. Bah.

This post is pretty random, between a dog licking sweat, egg clouds, and shoveling snow. Why not finish it off with a random list! I found a random question generator online... here's what I got.

When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? Here are my answers:

- Children's book author/illustrator
- Paleontologist
- Pilot for Delta Airlines (I know... very specific)
- Astronaut
- Saxophone Performer/Community Music School Owner

Running an education department for an orchestra is not too far off I suppose, although I will say I still have a lot of interest in the sciences. If I were to go back to school I would probably do something in the wellness field or nutrition studies. How's that for random!