BOOTS!

I am going to try to participate in some of the Friday "Show us Your Life" carnivals over at Kelly's Korner.  It's a good way to get some new topics for my blog and I like reading some of the others as it's a great resource for all kinds of ideas!  This week, we're blogging about where we like to shop.  Since I'm totally into my boots right now, I thought I'd blog about some recent boot related purchases.

I love boots in the winter and since moving to New York, I've gone a bit overboard.  But, it's all I wear all winter long and I love them and need them for work and play!  I recently got a new pair of black leather boots (my old ones desperately needed replacing).  I bought news ones online at Endless.com .  Have you been there yet??  It's an amazing website with shoes and accessories.  They often have specials and coupons.  My boots were on sale and I had a coupon, so I saved about $100 or half the cost of the boots!  My favorite thing about Endless is that they ship overnight for FREE!!  It's amazing.  I can place an order at 4:00pm and it will be at my desk when I arrive to work the next day.  I love that!

Also, this week I bought some Boot Bandits.  Have you seen these?  I got the Fleur de Lis ones and can't wait to try them out with my boots over jeans or with a skirt!

2Bandits makes all kinds of these cute pieces for your boots.  I went with a more neutral color so that I can wear it with all kinds of things and both my brown and black boots!  Plus, they were on the cheaper end of the line :)

Latest Celeb Sighting

I passed by this former actor on the street while out to lunch today....

Love This! Empire State of Mind

From the kids of PS22!

Stalker

So, I'm pretty sure John Stossel is going to begin thinking I'm stalking him.  Remember when I saw him on the subway back in December?  I'm pretty sure he noticed me staring at him that day.  I really wasn't staring because it was John Stossel, but more because I was just trying to figure out if it really was John Stossel.  I'm sure he's great on whatever Fox show he's on now, but I promise, I'm really not that enamored with John Stossel.  I'm pretty sure he noticed me staring.

Well since that first sighting in December, I've shared a subway car with him three more times.  He seems to live one subway stop south of me and works in the Fox building which is right next door to the NHL building.  I always situate myself on the south end of the train when going to work and the north end of the train when going home as this puts me right by the station exits nearest to where I'm heading.  Apparently, he does this, too.  And it seems we must commute around the same time.  Every time, I fear that he remembers me from that first time when I stared at him a bit too much and a bit too long.

Well, it gets worse.  I have tickets to The View on Monday morning (watch in case I'm on!) and I just checked their calendar to see who will be on that day.  Any guesses?  Yep, John Stossel.  Boy, is he going to be freaked out when he sees me sitting in the audience. 

It's actually rather depressing, I mean of all people I could be stalking, John Stossel would not be near the top of my list.

Vermont Cuteness!

This is the Public Library I grew up going to in

Columbia.  It didn't actually look like this back then,

as it's been remodeled, but it was just as ugly then.

This is the library I used during my college years at Baylor

This is the library at SMU where I spent

MANY hours studying for the CPA exam.

This is the library I just became a member of in NYC

And this is a library in Vermont!

Do you see how cute that is?!?  Oh, my. 

And here?  A Town Hall in Vermont

This one is a School District building

And here we have "Little Barn" situated

right next to a similar bigger barn

I love New England cuteness and Vermont isn't nearly the cutest state up there (I'd have to rank Connecticut as #1).  However, given the opportunity to spend a weekend in "second-rate" Vermont, I'll take it!  Lucy and her co-worker, Angela, were going for a weekend of skiing, Kim and I decided to go along.  I was the loner who didn't want to ski or snowboard.  I just don't think it's fun in my old years.  It's so scary!!  Not to mention painful and frightfully cold.  No thank you.  I enjoyed exploring Vermont...spent many hours in Kim's car just driving and looking at the beautiful scenery and all the cuteness.  I welcomed hours spent alone with my thoughts, hot cocoa, and Lucy's Avett Bros CD that I listened to over and over and over.  And, when the girls weren't on the slopes, I had a blast hanging out with them, too.

The weekend included:

- A late night drive Friday after work.  We took Kim's car and it took us about 5 hours (only 4 to get back on Sunday).

- We stayed in a loft apartment over a garage next to a couple's home.  It was SO nice.  They just built it 2 years ago so everything was new and clean and it was the perfect size for the four of us.  We loved it and I seriously think I'll be back there some day.

This is the main part of the home

And this is the loft where we stayed next to the home

The view out our front windows...wish it had

been sunny this day..the pic would have

turned out much better. It was gorgeous!

- STUCK in the Snow!!
I was driving when we pulled into our home away from home about midnight on Friday/Saturday.  There was a slight incline and I just didn't give enough gas to get up over the snowy/icy hill.  Then, we slid back into a snow bank and were officially stuck.  The owners of the home came out to help, but we just couldn't get it out.  We left it where it was for the night and a neighbor came over the next morning with a truck to pull it out.  Angela then tried again to park closer to the home and got stuck AGAIN...literally 10 minutes after the neighbor had left.  Our lovely hosts called their neighbor to come back and pull the Jeep out again.  At that point, I was a little glad that I wasn't the only one who'd managed to get the car stuck!  We decided it was the tires.  Although we had 4-wheel-drive, the tires weren't all-weather radials and didn't have the traction needed for snow and ice.  We parked at the end of the very driveway for the duration of the trip and just walked down the long, snowy driveway to our home.

- Shopping!  I didn't hit up too many great stores, but didn't conquer everything on my list.  I know of a couple of other towns I'd like to scope out next time I go back.  I did find some antique stores I enjoyed, one was particularly good and the owner of our loft told me that New York designers go there to find treasures!  They had some really great furniture.  I love looking at that kind of stuff and dreaming about what I could do with it...if only I had the space and an unlimited source of income.  We stayed just 15 minutes from Weston, VT which gets a big spot on maps because the Vermont Country Store is there.  It's a VERY famous store and I was so excited to go.  Unfortunately, I wasn't all that impressed.  It was HUGE and had a little bit of everything.  Almost like a department store, but on a smaller scale.  And a little bit more random and lower quality.  I found it to be a little odd and hillbilly-ish.  I would go back there again if in the area, but mainly for the free food samples they had which became my light lunch on Saturday :)

- A lot of my time was spent driving around the countryside taking pictures of cute things, which I found to be all the more quaint in the snow.

This was a little Inn I ran across.  The icicles on many

of the buildings made everything so charming!

I took a detour to visit this farm where they make

maple syrup and cheeses.  It was a cute place,

but stank to high heaven there, so I left pretty quickly!

So many pretty churches in the snow!

Even the old boarded up churches

in Vermont are cute!

I believe this is a child's playhouse.

It was so cute!

I ran across this Bake Shop on Saturday and made

a mental note to go back Sunday, but it was closed.

Next time.  I wanted to try their Whoopie Pies!

Instead, I went to this bakery which was

literally a room in the back of someone's

house.  I saw A LOT of those types of

businesses while driving across Vermont.

I found two covered bridges of Vermont!

This one was down a pretty large hill and I was

too scared that if I drove down I would get stuck!

So, I hiked down and it was worth it!  Such a

pretty, quiet place in the middle of no where.

The water and ice below the bridges was

pretty magnificent as well.

- Home cooked meals!  I cooked dinner on Saturday for the girls after their day on the slopes.  We had chili  with fritos and cheese, corn bread, and wine.  It was yummy!  Our hosts had left us Vermont cheese and crackers and homemade brownies.  We used the cheese as an appetizer and shredded some to go on our chili and had the brownies for dessert!  On Sunday morning, Angela made us scrambled eggs and potatoes.  I don't usually like breakfast potatoes, but these were soooo good.  I might start trying that at home some weekends.  We spent a little over $10 each for the food for dinner and breakfast (including wine!).  We NEVER eat that cheap in the city. 

- While the girls skiied Okemo on Saturday and Stratton on Sunday, I checked out the lodges a little.  Okemo was a little small-town and the lodge was a bit run-down.  I didn't spend much time there at all.  Stratton was much nicer, but I ran out of time to spend there.  Next time, I will take a book to read and go in the shops there.

My skier and snowboarding friends!

Kim, Lucy, Angela

On the way out of the mountains, we were treated

to a beautiful sunset.  Perfect way to end a perfect

weekend.

I really think this is a weekend trip that we will re-do at least once in the future!

Proclaim the Year of the Lord's Favor!

Happy New Year!!! 2010-- can you believe it? I'd been calling it "Two-Thousand-Ten", but now that I've heard people saying "Twenty-Ten", that sounds way cooler and easier to say. My New Year's Eve was verrrryyyy low-key this year. I wasn't feeling well that day or most of the weekend following. But, I rallied a bit to ring in Twenty-Ten. I didn't go out until after 8pm and picked up my friend Kim at her place. We went out for sushi and it was sooo yummy and fun. Afterwards, we headed to Lucy's for a little gathering. It was only a handful of people. We had snacks and treats and watched the ball drop and the atrocious performances happening across the USA. What is up with little Selena Gomez dressing so provocatively?? And I thought Robin Thicke was supposed to be good...he was awful and looked awful to boot. We had fun laughing at them and getting Lucy up-to-speed on a little pop culture! I spent most of New Year's Day at home. Got out for a bit for a little run/walk in the park and some errands. That night, I met Lucy & Kim to see "Precious" and then we went to a coffee shop for a while. I don't know what to say about that movie. It is such a sad story, and unfortunately, probably very accurate to some real life situations.

I only set one New Year's Resolution this year. I wanted to keep it simple. If I set several, I'll probably not reach any of them, but if I concentrate on one, well, maybe I can experience a life change. So, this year, I'm trying to get in bed by about 10pm, lights out at 11pm. Of course, there will always be exceptions, but on the nights I get home late, the idea is to be in bed as soon as possible. This is going to be VERY hard for me and will take a while to adjust to and create new habits. I am a TOTAL night-owl. The only reason I'm not a morning person is because I've stayed up too late the night before. If I could just get to bed at a decent hour, I'll wake up feeling more refreshed and hopefully have some time to either work-out and/or have my quiet time in the mornings. That is my hope. I have not done great this week, but better than normal and will continue to work towards some consistency in getting to bed on time! I am not resolving to be in bed by 10pm every night starting Jan 1 going forward, I am resolving to make the changes that are needed to get to that point and to continue to try to make it work until I'm consistent. It's a habit change for me and I recognize that changing a habit can take months. So, I'm resolving to change this during 2010.

I sent out some New Years cards this year since it gave me an extra couple of weeks to get it done and I also had a theme I wanted to carry-out. I had read the verses in Isaiah this past fall and immediately decided it was time to act and "Proclaim the Year of the Lord's Favor". And, I wanted to do a 4-seasons of the year theme. I had already picked out 4 photos to use when I went online to find a card that would work. I was super excited when Tiny Prints had a picture card for 4-seasons...couldn't have been more perfect for the theme I was already going for. My pictures are kind of silly....and not really accurate. I used a pic from Tonya's wedding for my spring picture. It was actually in August, but the weather in Maine was more spring-like and it was the best spring "looking" picture I could find from 2009. Besides, the card doesn't actually say that the picture was taken in the spring, it's just the picture I chose to celebrate that season.

As I started putting my cards together, I began to ask myself what that little verse from Isaiah meant to me. It had been a while since I'd actually read it and came up with the whole idea for my card. What is the Lord's Favor, exactly? I looked up the word Favor in the dictionary and found the following definitions:

-- the state of being approved or held in regard
-- preferential treatment
-- a gift bestowed as a token of goodwill, kind regard, love

The first word that comes to my mind is "blessing". So, who wouldn't want that? To have the King of this World granting His upmost blessings to you? Receiving His preferential treatment? Having confidence that you are living a life He approves of?

So, then, you have to ask how you can Proclaim. What does it mean to Proclaim something? I looked that one up in the dictionary, too:

-- to praise or glorify openly or publicly

Okay, so if you're compelled to praise something openly, you must be personally experiencing it on a very deep level. I keep looking at the second half of that word "claim". The dictionary says that claim means:

-- to take as the rightful owner.

So, I know that I want the Lord's Favor and I know He has made it available to me, but I have to TAKE it as my own. How do I go about doing that? I believe that anyone who has accepted Jesus as their Lord & Savior is going to experience the Lord's Favor on some level. But, I believe there are things we can do in our personal lives to experience that Favor on a deeper level. To receive more and more of His blessing. Walking in His will and Abiding in Him are the 2 phrases that come to my mind when I think about how one can experience more of His Favor. And to me that means being obedient to His plans and experiencing a deep, rich relationship with Him. But, to know His plan and to experience a life with Him requires us to seek Him diligently. This is best done through spending time in the scripture and in prayer.

So, let's wrap this up. This year, I seek to:

1) Spend more time in the scripture and in prayer.
2) As a result, I should experience a deeper relationship with God and His will should be more clear to me. I should see my will more closely aligning with His.
3) A close relationship with God and obedience to His plans will result in His blessing, goodwill, kind regard, love, His preferential treatment (i.e. His FAVOR!)
4) I will choose to make His favor in my life known to those around me. To PROCLAIM it for all to see. With the hopes that He would be glorified and others would want to experience that Favor in their own life.

Not that these things aren't already happening in my life to some extent. I just want to experience it more and I want to be better about sharing How God is working in my life. I pray and hope for YOU to experience the Lord's Favor this year as well - and to proclaim it as your own!

I am VERY excited for twenty-ten. I think it's going to be a great year!

Celebrate Good Times!

Okay, like I said previously, I have LOTS to catch-up on and camera issues, so we're going to be out of order and behind on here for a while. While we wait for my Christmas photos to come in, let's look back at a fun day in November!

This is me with my friend, Brooke from Dallas (love her dearly!!) and her FIANCE(!!!), Michael.

The picture was taken the Monday before Thanksgiving and just about 24 hours after they got engaged. I received a text from Brooke the Friday before stating that she was in New York and Michael had surprised her with a trip up. I immediately texted 3 of our other Dallas girlfriends to tell them she was in town and to ask "are they getting engaged this weekend"? All three girls responded back that yes, that was most likely the case!

It was fun to see Brooke & Michael and to get to be the first friend they could tell the news to in person. We had a great lunch at an Indonesian restaurant, which is quite fitting since Brooke lived there for 2 years and she and Michael plan to make a move there together in a couple years after he finishes Seminary. I plan to visit them :)

I am very excited for our Brookie and that she is finally making this big step. I'm also very excited that she is getting married on June 6th since I'd already been contemplating a trip home the week before that, so I should be able to go...yea!