I love fall! Fally fally fall!

Even though my birthday is in the summer, my favorite season is fall. Mostly because I love being cozied up in cute scarves and sweaters. And of course, because it's a new year, I feel the need to buy new sweaters! Here's what I'm loving right now.

From Target:
I love the boyfriend cardigans everyone has this season! I would call them Mr. Rogers cardigans, but that's just me. And I'm pretty sure I'd wear something under this one.




This is a simple one, but I like the button detail on the bottom.


I like (what looks like) the extra fabric on this one. You could probably make it more of a wrap style with a belt.


On to Forever 21:
I absolutely love and must have this one!! It is very much my style and I would wear it all the time. I might actually go out and buy this one, hopefully it looks good on!

From Gap:
This one just looks so warm and cozy--I love it!


More love!


I'm usually not much of a cowl-neck person, but I do like this one.

From NY&Co.

And Old Navy:

Looking around all the web sites I notice that cardigans and wide stripes are very popular. And short sleeves too. Hello! Designers? Most of us needing sweaters live in cold places. We like our sleeves. Not all sweaters look good with a long sleeve tee underneath. Other than that, I would very much like to do some shopping. Now to convince Bryan. Although, the nice thing about sweaters is that they've been in a storage bin for about 6 months. There's no way he'd remember what I did or didn't have last winter. Hmmmm.

PS. Spell check doesn't like the word 'cozied'. Why not? Is it not really a word? Well, I say it is. So there.

Books, books and more books

I love reading. I've always loved reading. I always will love reading. My kids and grandkids will love reading too. They'll be reading at a 5th grade level when they're 2, just so you know.

I was in the accelerated reader group in elementary school and I remember doing a book report in 5th grade on Jurassic Park. Yep, I was the 10 year old reading a 400-page book with really long and confusing dinosaur names. And this was before the movie came out, so I had no idea if I was even pronouncing those names correctly! When I finally did see the movie, I realized I had been saying Velociraptor wrong. (Why do I remember things like this?)

Not long after Jurassic Park, I read The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. What can I say? My mom is a big reader too, and kept lots of books in the house. Plus, I was going to the library non-stop. Seriously, twice a week at least. The library was a 10 minute bike ride away, and would put on my little backpack and come home with at least 5 books. I'd read those in just as many days, and then be back on my way to the library to start the cycle all over.

And don't even get me started on school book fairs and the Scholastic Reader order form. Pure Heaven!! My allowance always went toward books, and I definitely owned the entire Babysitter's Club series, and a ton of Nancy Drew books!

Nowadays, my reading habits have slowed a little bit. I just don't always have the time to curl up with a good book for a couple of hours. Usually, it's just a few pages before bed. But even then, it only takes me about a week to finish a book. I read at an insane speed, and with complete and total concentration.

I'm currently reading Pillars of the Earth and liking it a lot. It's about 970 pages, so it was a little intimidating at first. I started it while camping this weekend (post on that to follow shortly), and have been reading it for a cumulative total of about 2 hours. Right now I'm on page 250ish. That's fast, at least I think it is. If you can blow that number out of the water, that's cool. I just won't like you as much!

Anyway, there really is no point to this post, except to let you all know how much I love reading and how awesome I am at it :) Next up is Atonement, which has been sitting next to my bed for months. That will be followed by Water for Elephants which I just bought last week. I can't believe I'm about to say this, but I can't wait for cold, snowy winter days when all there is to do is curl up with a good book!

Yummy!

I've been meaning to talk about this for about a month now, and now it's on jsonline.com, which doesn't make me seem all that special anymore :(

But Sonic is coming!!! Aren't you so excited?? I am! (Can't you tell from the copius punctuation?)

And you know what? I've never even eaten there. Crazy, I know. But those commercials always make me so damn hungry and or thirsty! And since the closest one is in, like, Iowa or something, I've always had to settle for something else.

And the even better thing? The first one is opening just couple of blocks away from my work. Woot!

The List

So I said I’d show you all our fall/winter to-do list, so here it is! And yes, I’m using bullet points, in a blog post, get over it. In no particular order:

• Clean out/organize all closets
  
• Clean all windows
  
• Clean all blinds (I hate blinds, but window treatments are so expensive! Guess I’ll have to just wait it out.)
  
• Buy ceiling fans for our bedroom and guest room
  
• Buy Roman shade for living room (But I will buy one!)
  
• Figure out what to put on TV wall (So empty! Suggestions welcome!)
  
  


• Switch clothing seasons (Bring out winter, put away summer)
  
• Put out fall decorations (Done! A little early, I know. But I love fall, I can’t help it!)
  
  




• Put out winter/Christmas decorations (Never done before December 1st. Christmas-specific stuff definitely does not go out before December 15th.)
  
• Paint living room, guest room, hallway….wait, let’s just make this paint the whole house (with the exception of the kitchen and bathroom)
  
• Buy new bed & bedding for guest room (The bed in there now is the tiny twin bed I had growing up. The mattress is very old and very uncomfortable. I’d definitely like to get a full in there – or at least try, seeing as how the room is tiny)
  
• Remove square of carpeting by front door (I don’t like how the front door is just a part of the living room. I want something that separates the entryway from the rest of the room)
  
  


• Re-carpet house (A big one, and it probably won’t happen, but I can dream!)
  
• Transfer all pictures to web (I’m in the process of uploading ALL our pictures from our cameras, new and old, and our computer. This will be a good project for all of those snowed-in winter nights!)
  
• Frequent Goodwill/Craigslist for decent bedroom and kitchen furniture (I’m very embarrassed to show you what our kitchen table and chairs look like, but I will anyway. Libby and the table and chairs used to hate on each other yo. Libby won. The bedroom furniture is in regard to dressers and bedside tables. Still on the matching/non-college furniture thing! Always will be.)
  
  


• Buy end tables (Done!)
  
• Buy coffee table
  
• Clean out garage
  
• Put away outdoor furniture and decorations (Halfway there!)
  
• Winterize garden
  
• Clean out “Where old furniture goes to die” room in the basement. (Exactly what it sounds like!)

That should keep us pretty busy, don’t you think? I’ll be very interested to see how much of this actually gets done. The things that require money are the only things I’m worried about. I think this list was made with a financial best case scenario in mind. We’ll see how it goes! What do you have planned while you’re cozied up at home this winter?

Sorry!

Sorry the layout of my "List" post is so craptacular. Blogger is being a gigantic snatch right now, so I'll try fixing it tomorrow. This will only make sense if you use Google Reader, because I think it already showed up there.

Furniture

So I have this thing about furniture. This thing is that in each room, it has to match—or at least look nice together. Bryan and I still have a ton of hand-me-down furniture and furniture from our college days, and of course, nothing matches anything. And to be honest, we probably still will for quite a while.

And it has nothing to do with trying to show off, or keeping up with the Joneses (or whoever it is we’re supposed to be keeping up with these days – I have a feeling the Joneses are pretty old by now and have a home full of plastic-covered furniture), it’s just me and some of my OCD impulses clawing their way out.

When we got our new TV we also got a new TV stand. Hello pretty piece of furniture! Goodbye ugly, sagging in the middle, piece of WalMart junk!

So while I was happy about that, the rest of the furniture still didn’t look good together. They were completely different colors, and more importantly, different styles. Fast forward about a month and a half. Target had the matching end tables on sale!! Plus, I had a small gift card burning a hole in my pocket. So I bought them Monday night! Now we’re getting much closer to a more cohesive living room. Now I just have to work on the rest of the house – and on convincing Bryan that this kind of thing matters.

Miscellaneous Monday

Hope everyone had a good weekend! Mine was very nice. Nothing really blog-worthy, but a nice weekend regardless.

I do have to come clean about something though. I've been lying to all of you for quite some time. You see, my bathroom, you know--the one we just remodeled? Well, I've always told you it's 100% completed. But the truth is, it's kind of not.

Ok, ok, I'm being just a tad dramatic. The only thing we had left to do was some electrical work, and we had to work around the schedule of the guy doing the work. But after this weekend, we got a new (desperately needed) outlet and a (even more desperately needed) bathfan. Now, my dear friends, we are 110% finished!

We went to the Bay View Bash on Saturday night and I had the most amazing Chocolate-Hazelnut-Banana Crepe from Nate's Crepe. I was in heaven. I could have eaten 5 of those things! But thank God I didn't, because I don't have the money for new pants.

I put together a list of fall/winter cleaning/house projects over the weekend. It's pretty extensive. And a little daunting. But we're going to need something to do over the winter! I don't have it with me right now, but I'll share it in the near future.

Ok, back to work for me!

Bye-licious!

Warning! Project Runway spoiler below!



















Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

I can't tell you how happy I am that Blayne is gone from Project Runway. If I had to hear him add "licious" to the end of every other word one more time, I was going to throw something at the TV. That would not make for a happy Bryan. When he first started doing the -licious thing it was obvious that he was just trying to be this season's Christian. Fierce and hot mess are much better than just adding extra letters on to a word!

Oh, and I can't say I'm too sad to see Terri go either. She was nasty for no reason, other than the fact that it was her "thing."

The End!!

76. I am a crier.
77. Anger, frustration, sadness, happiness, you name it--I've cried from all of them.
78. I am an optimist.
79. I know that if things are going badly, they will always work out in the end.
80. But, in some sort of strange paradoxical way, I am an intense worrier.
81. I am not a morning person.
82. But I hate sleeping past 9am on the weekends. Any later and I feel the day is a waste.
83. When I get home from work I need to take a break from life for at least an hour (maybe 2).
84. I get a surge of energy around 9pm, which is when things usually get done around the house.
85. That whole thing will not work very well once kids are in the picture.
86. I'm quite sure I'll manage.
87. I wish I could buy all organic food, build a green house, live a much more green life.
88. Do you know how expensive that crap is!?
89. I wish I didn't covet money so much.
90. I have close relatives who have it, lots of it.
91. It definitely does not "make" you happy.
92. I am absolutely content with my life right now.
93. I am told by my dentist that I have soft teeth.
94. I almost always have a cavity, no matter what I do to prevent it. (ie. little soda, sweets, good brushing, etc)
95. I hate hate hate going to the dentist.
96. I would really like to be a stay-at-home mom.
97. At least until my kids are in all day school.
98. Bryan wants this for me too (because he knows it will make me happy, not because of some sexist/chauvinistic ideal).
99. I am very very very times infinity in love with my husband.
100. I made it!! Here's to a hundred more posts!

51-75

51. I believe in soul mates.

52. I don't believe that people only have one soul mate.

53. I've definitely found one of mine--the best one, of course!

54. I wish I could say that I don't care about labels and fancy things.

55. But I do.

56. I've come a long way in not caring about those things.

57. If I had to describe myself in 4 words, they would be: Middle of the Road.

58. I'm one of the most easy-going people you will ever meet.

59. I also have a very hard time making decisions.

60. I wish I had a keener eye for design.

61. Since I don't, my house is a mish-mash of styles.

62. I have zero patience.

63. Well, I guess I should say I have about three patience, puppy-dom helped fix that.

64. I criticize other people too much.

65. I can be a down right bitch sometimes.

66. I am not a fan of most organized religion.

67. I went to Catholic school for 14 years.

68. I'm pretty sure one has very much to do with the other.

69. I absolutely do believe in God and am a very faithful person.

70. I wish the separation between church and state hadn't become so muddled.

71. That's all I'll say about religion (and politics, for that matter).

72. I don't know if I'll ever feel "ready" for a baby.

73. I'm pretty sure I won't feel "ready" even after we have a baby.

74. Bryan is super into the baby train right now. He is the conductor of the baby train.

75. Me? Still just a casual passenger.

Next 25 Things

26. I hate looking at pictures of my myself from the age of about 13 til about ooohhh, let's say 18.

27. Those are what I call my awkward years.


28. Self esteem was not a strength of mine during those years and it shows.


29. I have always suffered from body image issues.


30. I started to accept myself for who I am and my body for what it is in just the last few
years.


31. Subject change! I have 1 sister who is 15 months younger than I am.


32. We were absolute worst enemies growing up.


33. We got into many a knock-out-drag-down fight when we were younger.


34. She is one of my closest friends now and was my maid of honor.


35. I have a younger brother who is 4 years younger than I am.


36. I apparently used to introduce him as my baby.


37. I still play the role of overprotective mom to him even though he is 22.


38. I got my driver's license in February of my senior year of high school.


39. I was 17 (and a 1/2).


40. I never really felt the need to get it the second I turned 16.


41. I lived 2 blocks from my high school.


42. And most of my friends lived in my neighborhood.


43. My first job was a paper route in 7th grade.

44. I delivered Milwaukee's afternoon newspaper.

45. I didn't make very much money.

46. That ended about a year later because the Milwaukee Journal and the Milwaukee Sentinel
merged and was delivered in the early morning.

47. Some of my favorite memories are from the Sunday early early mornings delivering the
paper with my dad.

48. He would take me to my (future) high school's parking lot and let me drive around!

49. Even though I'm 26, I don't feel like an adult.

50. I don't know when that will happen or even if it will happen.

100 Things--Pt. 1

I'm coming up on my 100th post! I honestly didn't think I'd make it this long. With this kind of thing I'm usually all gung ho about it in the beginning, but then the novelty wears off and I start to forget about it. But I really like this whole blogging thing, so I plan to keep it up for the long haul.

I've always liked people's 100 things about me lists, and I've always looked forward to doing my own. But, instead of doing one post with a hundred things that would take a long time to read through, I decided to break it up into 4 posts. Nothing is in any particular order or categorized, I'm just going to type things as I think of them.

Part 1

1. I was born on July 28, 1982

2. I started dating Bryan on March 11, 2001

3. I became the first person in my family to graduate from college on December 18, 2004

4. I got married on October 15, 2005

5. Those are the most important dates in my life up until now.

6. My ethnicity is 100% Polish.

7. My best friend is exactly 1 month older than me.

8. She is also very Polish!

9. We have a pact to visit Poland during the summer of our 40th birthdays.

10. That seems like a very long time from now.

11. When it actually happens, I'm sure I'll be wondering where all the time has gone.

12. I hope it flew by from having so much fun in life!

13. The first half of 2007 really sucked for me.

14. My mom's dad died on January 17th.

15. My dad's mom died on January 18th.

16. My credit union branch was robbed in February. Luckily, no one was hurt. (It was just a note passing.)

17. My dad's dad died on July 28th. Yep, that'd be my birthday.

18. Thankfully, things got better from then on. (Should this even count as one? Sure, why not!)

19. I am a fiercely loyal and protective friend.

20. In high schoool I always had more guy friends than girl friends.

21. That changed a bit in college after I joined a sorority.

22. Sororities in smaller school are nothing like the stereotypes.

23. Well, I shouldn't say "nothing like." It's what you'd expect when a group of 40-50 girls gets
together--the good and the bad.

24. I have known a good deal of my friends since kindergarten and early grade school.

25. This includes fellow blogger Andrea (we've known each other since first grade!)

So there are the first 25 random things about me! Sorry it was such a downer in the middle there, but that's life sometimes.

Queen of Morals

If you remember, back in June, our AC went on the fritz. We were going to pay cash for it, but then decided to take advantage of their credit card with 1 year no interest. Bryan and I were talking last week, and we realized we haven't received a bill yet. Well I finally got around to calling the number on the back of the credit card, and the automated voice on the other end told me I had a zero balance! Well, yay I thought, the AC gods have paid our debt for us! Wait--no such thing as AC gods you say? Darn it, I knew it was too good to be true.

My next phone call was to the HVAC company to see if there was an error on their end. And, of course, there was. There wasn't even any evidence in the computer that work had even been done! Only the estimate/service call showed up in our account. But of course, because I was being a good person, they found the error and charged our new credit card accordingly.

Now, I'm sure there are people out there who would never have said a thing. And that is just the most appalling thing in the world. I am a firm believer that what goes around comes around. I know that something else would have happened as a result of my being a big fat liar. Bryan jokingly (I think) said, c'mon! That could've paid for the Caymans (next year's vacation). Ass. But luckily for him, he was just kidding. He's honest like that too.

So now I am eagerly awaiting positive payback for my good deed! (I don't think you're actually supposed to expect something--puts the karma fairies in a tizzie)

Weekend

I'm not going to do an entire recap. Because, really? Who cares? But I will say that the Foo Fighters show on the lakefront on Friday night was an absolute blast. Dave Grohl is high-larious! We went down early and walked through all the HD vendor tents and looked at a million way cool bikes. So all in all the whole thing was a lot of fun!

We also watched the parade Saturday morning. Eh-it was 8,000 motorcycles. If you've seen one, you've seen 'em all. But there were a few people/bikes here and there that caught my attention.

The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing up north at the place my family has owned for 20+ years. We didn't do an.y.thing. And it was glorious!

Hope everyone enjoyed your holiday weekend!

Geeez!

I have a love/hate relationship with extended weekends (as I'm sure most of us do). Love them because they mean I have no responsibilities. Hate them because I come back to a very large pile of shite. 66 emails at work, 5 voicemails, 55 items in Google Reader, and a very thirsty garden. I'm going to the Brewers game tonight, so a weekend update will probably have to wait until Wednesday!