monday @ home

i should be lesson planning for GED. but i'm not.

i went to bodyflow @ the Y this morning & it was awesome. then i took a hot shower & it was awesome. after that i made a delicious salad for lunch & guess what... it was awesome.

my hair is currently in 3 funny little buns around my head. i hope if i blow dry them they will turn out nice waves. i'm not holding my breath, but it would be nice.

for the last 2 hours i've been looking at millions of blogs online. the best of today is this one. SO darling!

when i went to NYC last year, i bought this book as a souvenir. i'm seriously in love with it and read it every couple months:
[edit: the hair experiment turned out to be a flop. darn!]

*sorpresa*

happy surprise birthday, boyfriend!

j's roommate and i threw him a wicked surprise party on saturday night. he had absolutely no clue! i asked him to go see the movie "crazy heart" [which i only kind of wanted to see, but the timing of it was perfect...] and stopped by the grocery store to get dessert [aka: TO STALL] afterwards.

we walked in the door and it was totally dark. everyone yelled SURPRISE and j. was wicked confused! he told me later he thought he had forgotten something for me/an anniversary or something. haha. THEN he realized his b-day is on wednesday so it must be for him.

there was a really good crowd. everyone talked and got along. i made delicious ice cream cake. the food was amazing!
what a success*

stolen!

can't really explain who i stole this idea from. i guess my friend lyndsay, via her cousin rachel. [apparently this has become a public confession that i'm a blog stalker.]
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Reading: nothing. i've attempted 3 books in the last two weeks. i can't concentrate on anything/none of them caught my interest.

Listening: to the furnace warming our frigid house.

Watching: some olympics. some bad movies [from paris with love]. a couple good movies [good will hunting!]

Cooking: it's been quite a lull since those sweet potato quesadillas, but tonight i'm making pizza. did you know you can buy ready-made dough at trader joe's for a dollar? awesome!

Wishing: that my upcoming elementary job search will be quick and painless. [hey, i didnt say it was realistic wishing...]

Thinking: what the HAY am i gonna do with my 5th snow day of the month today?!

Craving: chicken and rice. just my luck that ML made it for dinner last night so i can eat the leftovers today. YUM

Excited About: the weekend starting tonight, seeing my parents at Easter, going to DC for sakura!!

Laughing At: myself for getting up and out of bed at 7am on a snow day!

Annoyed With: someone who always asks me before making even the simplest decision. i'm being vague on purpose.

Feeling Bad: That I have yet another snow day and meliss is working her butt off

Grading: one of my students gave me an essay to check three weeks ago. i haven't touched it.

Loving: this conversation from yesterday-- me [wanna go for a walk?] J [... sure] me [well, i guess the better question is, will you go for a walk with me even if you don't want to?] J [yes]

Reminiscing About: the good old days of winter in himi. i never got a single snow day there!

best valentine ever!

when j. and i talked about valentines day a month ago we decided not to do anything wild/crazy/extravagant. i'm really glad about that b/c i spent many years being single on valentines day & i realize it's greatly overrated.

all that said, i have the best valentine ever. he is seriously awesome!! let me prove it by listing the things he gave me for valentines day:
1. lunch at a new restaurant on our snow day the week before [i LOVE going out to eat at new places!]
2. breakfast at the hotel restaurant on sunday
3. he played with my little cousins
4. he asked my cousins lots of questions & showed interest in their lives
5. he let me talk & talk about my memories of yorktown as a child.
6. lunch on the drive home on monday
7. the chance to cry over my grandmom's death
8. attention & kindness to my granddad
9. coming to the funeral of someone he never even met!

it turned out to be an extravagant v-day after all. i can't dream of anything else i would have wanted. my boyfriend is the best.valentine.ever.

bittersweet weekend: day 2

on sunday we ate breakfast at the hotel and i took j. to explore the house/neighborhood a little more. we wandered around the backyard & swung on the swingset. then we walked down the streets and i told him stories about visiting there as a kid. we semi-joked about living in VA.

after lunch all together, we headed to the church for grandmom's service. it was a sweet time to remember her and to love on each other. the reception afterwards lasted a long time, but i treasured the chance to hang out with my family and greet old friends of my grandmom.

we relaxed at the hotel after dinner & the four oldest cousins went to the next-door pub to reminisce and catch up. all in all it was a bittersweet valentines day.

bittersweet weekend: day 1

we left philly at the crack of dawn [ok, 7am] on saturday to drive to yorktown. i missed a turn, we got stuck in DC traffic for 45 minutes, and we arrived around 2:40 pm. but the drive was totally worth it once we arrived and were surrounded by my awesome family~

granddad's house was in the middle of being cleared out so the second i walked in the door i had to answer questions like: "do you want this??" "which one would you like better?" "can you go choose a christmas ornament from that big box?" "want to play outside and throw ice balls at each other?!" j. brought his football and took the little guys out to toss it around. we chose treasures from the house. i caught up with the girls a little bit. g-dad showed us his new apartment. j. got a million tools from g-dad's workshop.


that night we had a HUGE fam dinner at the hotel restaurant. i got to sit next to granddad and it was an incredibly special time. i loved watching j. interact with my family. it was fabulous to spend time being wild/crazy with my cousins. we all watched the olympics & chatted.

less than 24 hours...

... till i'm with this fella:
and these kids:
and these guys, too: i love all these people and i'm SO glad i'll be with them tomorrow! i'm making myself promise to take a lot of pics so i can remember every detail of the weekend.