July 15, 2010

Work-tastic

I heart the quirks of people in the office.

For instance, I was in the bathroom at work yesterday and before I went to flush, I hear a woman talking. I'm pretty sure she's not talking to me because there's about 10 stalls and she was on the other end of the bathroom. Perhaps she was talking to someone in the next stall? Still awkward, but hey, I've done it before. I proceed to flush, go to walk out and wash my hands and notice she's still talking. Yep, you guessed it, she was on her cell phone. And I'm pretty sure you can hear the flushing over the phone!

One of the other things that happen at work on a weekly basis is someone in the row behind me cuts their nails at their desk. It's pretty much my kryptonite. I cringe every time I hear the sound!!!

We have some empty cubicles along the perimeter of the office. They're always vacant, mostly because of the high traffic and it would be pretty annoying to have your desk located there. I was walking in from lunch and noticed a guy lying down on the ground in one of the empty cubes. I didn't know if he was sleeping, ill, passed out or just hanging out. I grabbed my other co-worker to go and assess the situation. Turns out he was just doing some physical therapy moves in the middle of this high traffic area. What?!

Ok, time for the good stuff. My former co-worker John had just started working here. He brought his lunch and kept it in the breakroom fridge until lunchtime. Come noon, he heads to the breakroom to heat up his pizza. He takes the pizza out of the fridge, heats it up in the microwave and sets it down on the table so he can grab a pop from the vending machine. As he's turning back from the vending machine, he sees a woman, helping herself to his food! He looks around (as if to say, 'Am I on candid camera??') and there's no one else in the breakroom to witness this debauchery.

He proceeds to say hello to the woman, as she's carefully placing the pizza in her mouth (because it's hot and straight out of the microwave!!!). She might have muttered hello back to him and motioned for him to help himself to his own pizza. Traumatized, John refused the piece and told her it was all hers.

Now, in her defense, we often put leftovers in the breakroom after office parties, or lunches. But usually it's accompanied with a sign that says 'Please help yourself' and typically its after the lunch hour. Did this woman really think the piping hot pizza at noon was free for all? Who knows. All I know is that you can't make this stuff up. And apparently they have signs similar to this one on all of our fridges for a reason...


(photo credit)

Happy Friday-eve :)

July 12, 2010

List-tastic


(photo credit)

I love making lists. I have a ton of them. Lists for tasks, groceries, movies to watch, books to read, you name it, I have a list for it. And for some reason, the act of crossing out an item on my list is quite satisfying.

I was doing my devotional yesterday and came across a list of 'Ways to Live a Happier Life'. I know there are many versions of this type of list, but a couple things on this list stood out to me (including #4, because I feel so lazy during these hazy summer days!!) so I thought I'd share. And I imagine crossing out some of these daily would be quite satisfying as well...

Ways to Live a Happier Life

1.) Give something away
2.) Do a kindness
3.) Give thanks always
4.) Work with vim and vigor
5.) Visit the elderly and learn from their experiences
6.) Look intensely into the face of a baby and marvel
7.) Laugh often--it's life's lubricant
8.) Pray to know God's way
9.) Plan as though you will live forever--you will
10.) Live as though today is your last day on Earth

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

P.S. Happy belated birthday, Sarah!

July 9, 2010

Introducing...Tey!

I finally had the pleasure of meeting Trish's niece, Tey!! Trish's sister and bro-in-law live in Australia, so I've only seen her through pictures. Trish was around when Kieran and Tanith were born and took on the role of 'aunt/tita' quite nicely, so its uber exciting to see Tita Trish around Tey! I know she hearts Kieran and Tanith with the likes of them, but I knew when her sis Maria had a child, she'd be a goner ;) Welcome to the obsessed club.

Tey & Co. were in Michigan for about a month and now they're headed back to Australia. In the time they've been here, she learned how to crawl! So we have that on Australia at least :/ So sad to see them go, but I guess I'll just have to visit Sydney and see what all the hoopla is about...

Safe travels! xoxo



July 7, 2010

4th of July Weekend

This past weekend, me and the fam went to the Birmingham city fireworks. It's starting to be a nice little tradition! Granted, we haven't quite figured out how to avoid the aftermath of all the crowds, but it's still a good time.

Tanith was 'painting' the views while we waited for the show to start :)



Liv's in-laws were also in town for the weekend, so Bolivia (the collective whole of Bart + Olivia) hosted a bbq. In addition to the good eats being passed around, the newest member of the clan, William (or Billy to Sarah and only to Sarah) was also being passed around. Kieran and Tanith were quite amused by him and by the looks of it, William seemed pretty amused himself :)







We ended the night with some morning glories, sparklers and snaps. Turns out my niece is a bit of pyro, along with her mother and Tim (sadly I did not get a snapshot of him :)). Hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July Weekend...

Bake-tastic

Grab some milk folks, because I was on a baking frenzy this weekend. On the menu: pillow cookies (cookie with a brownie inside!), pie on a stick (apple and strawberry) and Hawaiian delight (my sister Debbie's specialty). Perhaps it's the bigger kitchen in my new diggs that makes me want to bake. But it was a lot of fun making these goodies and I think peeps thoroughly enjoyed them! I got all the recipes from bakerella!! I pretty much want to try all the recipes on her site!

Here are the pillow cookies in raw form.


Brownie center, surrounded by cookie, mmmm


They're pretty much a meal in itself...



Pie on a stick...




Moral of the story, I like to bake. Cooking not so much. I like precise instructions, directions and temperatures to follow. The best part about baking is that stuff taste THE BEST right out of the oven. Perhaps you're more of a cook, than a baker? Have me over and we can work something out!!!

July 1, 2010

Sponge-Tastic



I LOVE I LOVE LOVE this product. And not just because it says 'sponge-tastic' right on the box, but because it works. My sister Debbie bought the Mr.Clean magic eraser and used it on her walls when my niece and nephew decided to go crazy with the crayons. The magic eraser took it right off!! So she let me take one and I've been sold ever since. I went to go buy more the other day and saw the Target brand, Up & Up. It was love at first sight when a.) I saw it was cheaper and 2.) Realized they borrowed my name ;)

Happy Birthday Sta!

Happy Happy birthday to Krista!!

Krista is one of the strongest chicks I know, no joke. But besides that, she's a loving mother to Luke, caring wife to Jimmy and a wonderful friend to all. It's been so awesome getting to know her in and out of small group over the past three (!!!) years. I'm so blessed to have her and the rest of the Jahnke clan in my life. Cheers to you sta on this day, I hope it's awesometastic! May all your wishes come true :)