Coupons for everyone!

My family all love one another a lot.  If you ever saw us interacting though, you might wonder how we actually feel about one another.  We're loud, we talk with our hands (and sometimes our entire body), there are a LOT of us, and did I mention we're loud?  Blame it on the Italian blood.

My oldest-younger sister and I still interact like we're 10 years old, though I think we inflict less bodily harm than we did back then, or at least we try. 

The boys show how much they love one another by sitting on one another.  Smallest child always on the bottom of the pile of course...

But the girls will usually come in to show them who is really boss...

And when someone makes a bad life decision, we're always right there to give them the big thumbs down...

The hubs fits in well, and certainly does his fair share of instigating, but sometimes he hides.  I think his ears are still adjusting to our volume...

And just for comedy's sake.  This little cousin opened his gift card and exclaimed "Look mom!  I got a 10% off coupon!!!", with the most excitement the kid could muster.  If gifting were only that easy; coupons for everyone!

Early celebrations

I received a wonderful (not much of a surprise) early present from the hubs before Christmas.

It was a trip to a beautiful place.

With wonderful views of the city... views which I failed to capture with much semblance of beauty.

I'll admit I have no idea which year this is from, but here's a picture of me dressed as preggo snowperson, posing with a Super Bowl trophy.

Did I mention it was freezing last Thursday night?  Because it was actually much colder than that.  I think we topped out around 25 that day, and kick-off was 8pm.  Brrrr.

Oh, and the hubs was there too.

Along with some other good looking guys... whom all happen to look alike when they wear matching sweats.  I prefer a kicker/punter myself anyways.

We had a blast and my boys kicked a lot of Carolina butt..... but I think I'll be back to visit again in slightly warmer weather.  Shall we try August or September next time, Heinz Field?

The aftermath

I woke up this morning. Scratch that: I woke up this afternoon. Then I had to face the aftermath of Christmas. My family, all of them, are amazing. And their amazingness was strewn all over my living room.

 The downside, it took me hours to unwrap, put away, and clean everything.

The upside, I had my favorite new toy to help me along the way.....
......
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Hope everyone had a fabulous holiday as well, and I'll share more pictures as soon as I find my way out of this pile of ribbons and tissue paper!

Ho-Ho-Hilarious

Official research that I made up five minutes ago says that everyone should have at least one really good belly laugh every day.  I've already hit my minimum and it's only 10am, thanks to this oversized bunch of carolers.



Awkward forced PR at it's very finest, and funniest.

And when James Harrison tells you to watch out- you should probably listen.

Running

I've been running non stop for the last two days, but not on the street, the treadmill, or a trail.  I've been running in circles shopping.

Monday... left at 9am and rolled back in the driveway sometime after 8pm.  The loot:

Tuesday: As soon as I had my workout and breakfast behind me this am, I was back out again.  I probably wouldn't have been so motivated but I wanted to be back through the city and back on "my" side of the tunnels before rush hour... and I had to get my brother's present before I go to his house tonight!  So this was today:

Then came my favorite part... wrapping.  I actually do love wrapping, all the paper and tape, bags and bows.  Unfortunately, the size of our living room doesn't leave a ton of extra space, so we've been stacking presents in the corner instead of "under" the tree, though now we've spilled over to under the tree as well.

Looks like we know a lot of very lucky people!

I also just blew my nose and found confetti in my tissue- sounds like Christmas spirit to me!

Non Confrontational

I was cozy on my couch yesterday afternoon when, on a whim, I decided to take a peek in my planner.  Cute, isn't it?  I may have an itty bitty minor Vera Bradley obssession:  (hint hint: Christmas is near!)

It was then I realized I had an appointment that afternoon which I had completely forgotten about.  An appointment to plead my case and work my charm to get out of this lovely little piece of paper.

 I really didn't want to go, really really didn't want to.  I had my fleece on, cuddled up in my blankets, ready for a little post-finals nap..... and it was cold outside.  Not just cold, but 20 below freezing!  I pretty much try to not pass my threshold under 20 degrees

But I lugged my butt downtown, sat in a crowded waiting room with 30 other people contesting tickets, and waited for my name to be called.  Not a fun place by the way.  The judge, she was really really mean.  She went along with half my story, but only decreased it, claiming that I had to have arrived earlier than 9:55 for a 10:00 class.  Clearly she doesn't know me; I'm pretty much the queen of showing up to class with zero seconds to spare!  Apparently I should have brought my friends as witnesses.

Even though I saved $19 by "fighting" the ticket, but I couldn't stop thinking about it the whole drive home.  I'm really not a confrontational person.  I'll stand up for myself and those I care about when it matters, but I'll avoid confrontation when I can.  Like sitting in that court room.  I could have continued to argue my case but instead I just said ok and walked out and paid my fee to the cashier.

The situation got me thinking.  I've always considered myself "non-confrontational", and the hubs is just as much so.  I've always considered this a positive trait to posses.  Yesterday's experience had me considering otherwise though.  Is it actually a downfall to avoid confrontation?  Do you get more out of life if you're always willing to fight for it?  Is it possible for it to be both?

Then I began to think about how confrontation affects us a little deeper.  I like having an inner sense of calm.  Do confrontational individuals ever have that calm or are they constantly hyped up in inside, ready to fight as soon as a reason strikes?

So maybe I don't get everything I want because I don't fight for it.  Maybe someone else puts up a fight and takes what I wanted instead.  Everything that truly matters to me though, I already have.  I don't think any amount of debating or argument winning can ever beat that.

We're lovers, not fighters.  How 'bout you?

My nervous face

I had my last final exam of the semester at 8am, and that wasn't the biggest the thing that happened this morning, not even close.  Today is a big, huge, monumental, will significantly impact my entire career kind of day!  We interviewed for our final clinical placements in early November.  I've been left twiddling my thumbs and majorly stressing since then.  Not that it takes much to stress me out, but this one really took the cake in that department.

A little birdy told me that we'd receive the big news by email no later than this Thursday (today).  So I've been pretending to forget about it.  Until this morning, in the middle of my exam, when I heard our clinical coordinator say in the hallway, "I just hit the button!"

What!?!  You hit the button?!  I think I almost vomited right there.  I still had more questions to answer; you can't push the button now!  I mad dashed to my car as soon as I finished and almost hyperventilated before I got home.

This lovely little piece of technology was waiting for me when I got there, holding my fate:

 Yes, I could have actually used THIS to check my email on my way home, that why I have it, right?  But I've heard having hysterical breakdowns while driving can be detrimental to my safety:

 

This is my nervous face; what I looked like before opening my email.  Coincidentally, this is also my "rolled out of bed at 7, went to class half asleep because it's an open book exam and it's only 12 degrees outside" face:

  

 But then my face went like this:

 

 And I think my eyes have jaundice, lovely.  The results were very good!  Not very very very good or even very very good, but I can settle for only one "very" when my other options are crappiest or crappierest.

That's me, Abigail, even though no one has called me that since approximately when I was in diapers:

The only important part of the whole shebang?  That my name is followed by the letters C-H-I-L-D-R-E-N.  Everything after that just tells me a location, but I would have pretty much had a rocking one woman pity party here without those letters.

Only downside of the whole deal?  I still have to push myself through one more semester of classes before I even get to start my rotation in April!  But then... it's a 12 month countdown to graduation, again.  I should find something creative to do with that growing collection of tassels...

Streaking

I got my butt on the elliptical after dinner tonight.  You would think that with this monster of a thing about 5 feet from my bed I might be a little more motivated on a daily basis:

But I'm really not.  In fact, the hubs like to use it as a really fancy shmancy clothes hanger, and I find it incredibly useful for lying out my jeans to dry.  That's right, we're "those people" sometimes.  I'm currently on a massive streak though, if massive equate to 3 days.  3 days worth of very, very short workouts.  I wouldn't have guessed that after 5 semesters of just not "having time" to work out, I may actual mange to get myself moving again... during finals weeks.  Who am I to complain though.  As a bonus, tomorrow is a guaranteed workout with a rec soccer game in the plans.

So we'll just call it 4 days and go to bed knowing I'm on the longest exercise streak I've been on in approximately 1234567890 years... or at least since undergrad.

Maybe I can go back to being as classy and mature as I was back then to...:

Mud and Cupcakes

Well I suppose I've now arrived!  My writing and journaling has evolved a long way from a little pink locked diary under my mattress to my new leap into the blogosphere.  I'm up for exploring a new outlet, and hopefully this is it.

I make no promises for what I'll end up writing about here, and I'll make no claims of being predictable.  I like working out as much as I love eating cupcakes, which is a spectacular combination in my opinion.  I love my coffee to keep me awake (especially that White Mint Condition Mocha from Caribou today, yum...) as much as I love to curl up on my couch to nap under a pile of blankets.  I know how to bake and crochet, but I can give a man a run for his money with a hand tool.  I like my frilly dresses as much as I love my old ratty sweats, and the color pink as much as I love mud, dancing as much as a night in, and love my husband more than everything else in the world combined.  And don't be surprised if I talk about all of that on any given day.

Off to hit the elliptical... because eating ice cream on the couch during the Biggest Loser finale just seems wrong.