Sickly Saturday.....

Saturday started off so well for me! I was able to sleep in a little bit and then enjoy my coffee before being productive. We stopped by the bank (deposit checks) and Good Will (got rid of the 7-8 BAGS of stuff/junk/clutter behind the bar) on the way to the dog park. Bailey got to play for a good 45 minutes with Tom while I ran a couple of errands.

On the way home my throat started hurting. I thought I would feel better after I had some lunch, but I ended up feeling worse. (It may have had something to do with one of my baby patients sneezing in my face Friday afternoon???)

Soon, Emergen-C, Cold Eeze zinc lozenges, Black tea, and tissues became my best friends. I was still able to be slightly productive (opening a Roth IRA - YES! I finally took the plunge - and finishing an online class for work). And of course, watching the Gold Medal game (or match?) of men's Curling. What a weird sport.

Luckily, by Sunday morning I felt back to normal. Other than the disappointing end to the hockey game, Sunday was a pretty good day! I thought of a few more goals for the month of March and started working toward them. I'm still deciding if I want to share them publicly and reveal how truly neurotic I can be :)

March Goals

I don't know if you've noticed but I kind of stopped doing monthly goals sometime at the end of last year. I have a few things I'd like to get accomplished in March so I decided to set a few goals for the month. Here they are:

1) Open a Roth IRA (FOR REAL THIS TIME)
2) Increase our savings by 9.25%
3) Get back into the habit of doing my back exercises 3-4x/week. I was doing really good until Januaryish.
4) Get halfway to level 3 (which will earn me $125...sweeeeeeet) of the Health Miles program at work.
5) Complete another course for this Harvard online leadership class I'm doing at work.
6) Book our Destin trip for May

Tune in at the end of the month to see how I did!

Pillows and Hockey

Here is a pic of my new throw pillows and mirror that I talked about here. I heart them.

Tom and I have been watching the Olympics, and I would have to say that hockey has been my favorite so far. The USA v. Canada game Sunday night was intense!! This is one time of the year (4 years?) that I wouldn't mind watching hockey with Penguins fans ;) Go USA!!

Hello my name is Anne....

...and I'm addicted to Publix. Seriously. I've been there 3 times in the past 5 days. They're having a really good sale right now...and I keep finding coupons...I've saved 67%.

This weekend was fun but busy. Saturday I went to a bridal shower for a friend from work who is getting married in April. Then I went over to another friend's house to help her learn how to use coupons and pair them with sales. We then went to Publix (trip #2 for me) and tried to work our magic. She was seriously overspending on some groceries so we had to have an Intervention. Hopefully she'll stick with it! I'm actually going to have a few people over from work in the next month or so to teach them how to use coupons and save money. That should be fun!

Sunday was a great day. I forgot to mention that the temperature BOTH days this weekend was in the mid 60's!! Bailey and I went for a loooooong walk with another friend from work and today I'm so sore. Going to the gym after work today probably wasn't the best idea. How on earth I ran a marathon a few years ago I have no idea. Seriously.

This week is going to be another ridiculously busy week at work. I'm looking forward to this weekend though. Mom and Dad are possibly coming to visit! If not I'm going to enjoy a quiet, relaxing weekend! Either way I'll be happy because this week will be over :)

Where will we end up?

So it's no secret that our time here in Alabama is coming to an end. We still don't know exactly when Tom is going to finish but we should have a better idea in the next several months. It's been so challenging for me not knowing where we will be living a year from now. I'm such a planner and I need to plan EVERYTHING, especially a big move with new jobs for both of us! Also, I'm failing miserably at my New Year's Resolution of not obsessing over where we'll be. Every time Tom mentions a lab that he may be interested in this is what I do:

1) Log onto Craig's List in that city and find us a place to live (1-2 bedroom, 2 bath, and a fenced in yard for Bailey)
2) Search the internet to find what jobs are available for pediatric physical therapy
3) Mapquest the distance from my parents and his parents
4) Count the number of people we already know living in the area


It's a vicious cycle. I've wasted countless hours planning our new lives only to hear about a new lab in a new city several weeks/months later. Since last April (Tom's AACR Conference), here is a list of the cities (in chronological order) that have been mentioned:

1) Memphis, TN
2) Washington DC
3) New York
4) Boston
5) Chicago
6) Frederick, MD

And yes, I found housing and jobs in all of them :) So I guess my obsessive-compulsive behavior may pay off when we actually do decide on where we'll be moving. Until then....I'll try to stay off of Craig's List.

Random List of Updates

Because, I love to make lists

• The Saints won the Superbowl! Old news, I know, but I haven't had time to really sit down and blog since before last Sunday! We watched the game at the house of one of the post-doc's in Tom's lab. Him and his wife are about 10 years older than us, have 2 kids, a dog, and drink a lot of beer. Tom and I always joke that they are us in 10 years. It's funny because when Doug told his wife that we were coming, she was like "I love Tom and Anne, they're so fun! Remember when we were that fun??" I hope we're still fun in 10 years :)

• Avocados were on sale last week, so I bought a bunch and figured I'd make some homemade guacamole. I had never made it before. Don't ever put extra virgin olive oil in your guacamole. Ever. Bad recipe!

• We finally got some SNOW!!! Almost 2 inches!!! I forgot how pretty it looks right after it snows and it's all undisturbed on the trees and the bushes. Bailey had fun sniffing the snow and trying to eat it. (This was the next morning, so it was already melting away)


• Happy Valentine's Day!! Tom and I celebrated with Pizza Hut, Verdi, and Fatso draft from Dee's. It was perfect. And he sent me pretty flowers at work on Friday. Awwwwwwwww ;)

• My friend Penny ran the Mercedes Marathon today. My other friend and I went to cheer her on! We even made signs!!


• Even though we are moving sometime in the next 6-12 months AND despite the fact that we're trying to save money like mad by June, I've had the strongest urge to redecorate. So today I went to Tuesday Morning and bought a mirror to hang above the couch and 2 super cute new throw pillows for the couch. The damage wasn't too bad (you know I got a good deal) and I think my urge is satisfied....for a little while at least. I'll post a pic after Tom hangs the mirror. Although I may get impatient and try to do it myself. The last time that happened our clock ended up being a teeny bit uncentered. Ooops :)

• I made gnocchi tonight. It was an easy recipe I got online. It made me reminiscent of the last time I had gnocchi....at gnocchi night with our friends. Sad.

Busy busy!!

The past week and a half has consisted of:

Work

Work

Work

Work

John Mayer Concert with the girls!!

Work

Work

Work

So back to the fun part......my awesome friend Paige (who ALWAYS wins things) won 2 sets of tickets to see John Mayer Tuesday night! So four of us girls went out to dinner and then enjoyed the concert :) It was a fabulous break to the monotony of my week!

My search for THE little black dress....

The little black STRAPLESS dress, to be exact. The little black, strapless, KNEE-LENGTH dress, to be more exact.

So, my kick-a** cousin Sarah is getting married this June. And she asked me to be in the wedding (SO EXCITED!) And her only request for bridesmaid dresses? Black and strapless. Easy, right? You would think, you'd also be wrong. It's only January and I've been to countless stores in search of the perfect strapless, knee-length black dress. I've found some strapless black dresses, but they come about 2 inches below my butt and are entirely inappropriate to be worn in public period, let alone to be worn in a wedding.

Last weekend alone I went to 4 different stores in search of the dress (TJ Maxx, Macy's, J. Crew, and Express). Instead, I came home with this dress, in a deep turquoise color (for only $20 including tax!!!) I actually have had my eye on it for a little over a year. But I digress......

Anyways, I actually do already own a black strapless, knee length dress. (Don't yell at me!) But it is just plain cotton and I was hoping I could find something a little nicer for Sarah's wedding. The search continues...........

Freezer Cooking Day Success!!

I now have 6 meals in our freezer and plenty of leftovers in the fridge! We were able to make all 5 meals in a little under 3 1/2 hours!! It was more prep work than I had bargained for, but well worth it. And the cooking goes soooooooo much faster when there are 2 people!! Especially when you're adding/mixing ingredients. We are going to try to make this a once a month occurrence. Except next time we decided we would have the husbands clean up in between each recipe while we take a wine break on the couch!

Prep work

Busy bees

The freezer...stuffed!

Enjoying wine after a busy afternoon of cooking!