this week

Sunday – I never made it to church because we had a freak snowstorm hit less than an hour before I was supposed to leave.  We only wound up with a couple of inches, but the busses where I was headed shut down, so I was glad I didn’t even attempt it!

Monday – I spent the majority of the day sitting at my desk working on a bunch of odds and ends of paperwork.  I got quite a bit accomplished and was glad to be able to knock out so many projects at once.

Tuesday – I ventured out on the Skytrain for the first time and checked out several properties.

Wednesday – We all met up for a team meeting, which wound up lasting well over 3 hours.  There is just so much to do between now and April 8!  I know we will get it all done, but it’s going to be a BUSY few weeks!

Thursday – After spending most of the day at home working on school stuff and looking for more properties, I ventured out to pick up some more furniture, this time for one of our families.  We have quite a few babies and preschoolers coming, so we need quite a few cribs!

Friday – I met up with a lady who does university ministry for lunch, then checked out the shopping center nearest my house.  I also hit up Walmart and Michaels and picked up some picture frames.  I got home fairly early and spent the evening working on this project: frames for my earrings!  I saw this idea online about a year ago and have wanted to make one for myself ever since.  I LOVE the final product!  I’m still looking for a full length mirror to hang between the frames.

Saturday – I spent today putting up picture frames, cleaning and finishing up putting this chair together.  It may not be perfect, but it’s functional enough and I’m just glad to have it together and out of the middle of my living room floor!  I also moved some boxes, my trunks/suitcases and other random things down into my storage locker in the parking garage.  It’s nice to have it all out of the way.  I’m starting to feel almost completely organized, though I’m not sure that will ever actually happen!

tonight…

…i’m missing this little girl:

i bought some picture frames today and have been sorting through a bunch of pictures.  if you followed my blog while i lived in mexico, you’re probably familiar with this sweet girl.  her name is karina and she is one of my favorite kids in all of mexico.

this week…

Sunday – In the morning I went to a chinese baptist church (we went to the english service), then did a little bit of moving furniture Sunday afternoon.  I met up with Marsha in the evening and we hit up what is quickly becoming our favorite restaurant, Red Robin.  They have great chicken burgers and I just love their fries!

Monday – I did my first solo craigslist pickups.  I got a couple of great deals and saw new parts of the city – always a good thing!

Tuesday – I hit up craigslist appointments hardcore.  I think I had  6 or 7 appointments, but cancelled one.  I got the majority of my furniture that day and, once again, got some pretty amazing deals.  (don’t worry, I’ll post pics soon).  The biggest bummer of the day though, was that the GPS was NOT working all day long.  So I REALLY got to know the city! 

Wednesday – I spent some time at my apartment going through the boxes of things that had been given to me.  It was mostly kitchen items and I greatly appreciated the fact that I now have a dishwasher!  It sure made washing all of that stuff a lot easier!

Thursday – I finally made it to IKEA!  Anyone who knows me well at all knows how much I love all things IKEA, so to get to go pick out all kinds of things for my new place was like a dream come true for me!  Honestly, it was a little overwhelming because I had so much to get, but I’m still so glad I got to do it.  I am so thankful to work for an organization that provides a furnished home for me, and even more thankful when I get to do the furnishing.  Thank you cooperative program!

This was also the first night I spent in my new apartment.  After 4 months of transition, I’m thrilled about finally getting settled!!

Friday – I did my big stock-the-pantry-buy-everything-try-not-to-forget-anything grocery shopping.  I know this doesn’t look like a whole lot, but trust me, my cart was FULL!

Saturday – Today I’ve spent the majority of the day here in my apartment, unpacking and trying to get organized.   I’m really enjoying the view, too!  Just look at what I can see from just about anywhere in my kitchen/dining room/living room:

the picture really doesn’t do it justice.  I just love being able to see the water and all the fun boats that go by.  Also, you can’t really tell, but there are train tracks and the rail for the skytrain down there.  So much life right outside my window!

Tomorrow I’ll be hanging out here most of the morning/afternoon once again.  The cable guy is supposed to be here sometime between 12 and 4, so I’ll *hopefully* finally have cable/internet (and my vonage phone!).  I’ve been able to pick up a decent wireless signal from somewhere in my building this weekend, but I’m looking forward to having my own.

Tomorrow evening I’m headed to church with some university workers here in the city.  It’s a service targeting 18-25 year olds and I’m excited to check it out.  It’ll also be my first public transit experience here.  I got my monthly pass today and can’t wait to get to use it!

Hope you’re all having a great weekend!

checking in

it’s been a busy few days and the coming week looks to be more of the same.   i picked up the keys to my new apartment tonight and even had a few pieces of furniture to put in it!  i’ll be hunting/shopping for more tomorrow and tuesday hopefully and plan to be all moved in sometime this week.  it’s all happening quickly and i’m very excited.  i figured i’d better go ahead and upload a few more pictures, so as not to be so behind when the dust settles!  i don’t have anything for today yet, but we still have a couple of hours to go here on the west coast.    i visited a chinese baptist church this morning (we went to the english service) and wish i’d taken a picture there.  everyone was so friendly.  i’m not sure if i’ll get to go back or not, but i really enjoyed it.  we also stopped and had some great [authentic] chinese food for lunch at a place called “Hon’s House Of Noodles.”  it was my second visit there and every bit as wonderful today as it was last time.  hope everyone is doing well!

2/25 – i signed the lease on my new apartment!  yay!  i’m on the 4th floor on the back.

2/26 – i spent all day working on tracking down places for our families to live when they get here in april.

2/27 – after looking at some of the properties i tracked down yesterday, the sorrell’s and i headed to IKEA.  anyone who knows me well knows that i LOVE me some IKEA, even if i didn’t buy much. 

2/28 – the sorrell’s have both been sick and i’m feeling the beginnings of something.  i’ve been taking zicam (or the target version anyway!) and my allergy medicines in hopes of not getting sick…we’ll see how it works!

the longest post EVER

i’m back!  it has been a chaotic week to say the least, but great nonetheless.  i was finally able to get wordpress to cooperate and upload all of my pics.  so, here is (almost) a month’s worth of photos.  yikes!  i didn’t realize it had been quite that long!  sorry for the marathon. 

jan. 24 – we received a box of my aunt’s famous peanut butter cups.  they’re about the size of a hockey puck and SO GOOD!  we devoured the entire box in less than a week.

jan. 25 – my mom, sisters and i hanging out in the kitchen after lunch

jan. 26 – i took up running…sort of.  it only lasted a couple of weeks and then i got tired of the freezing cold and snow.  then i started packing.  then i moved.  then i went to mexico.  i’m hoping to get back to it soon…

jan. 27 – my computer crashed.  it wouldn’t go past the desktop (with no icons).  not cool.

jan. 28 – mal spent quite a few days painting several canvases for emily and i.  i can’t wait to get them up on the walls in my new place (once i get a new place!)

jan. 29 – we went to olive garden on our last night all together.  we had a great time and, of course, wonderful food.

jan. 30 – since dad flew out to OK with Mal (he went to help clear out Em’s apartment and bring back some of her things), mom, em and i took advantage of a girls night and went to see “New in Town.”  it was super cute and we’re still quoting it.

jan. 31 – we tried a new recipe for a mexican casserole.  it turned out pretty good and we enjoyed the leftovers for a couple of days.

feb. 1 – edy’s ice cream was on sale and we went through severl cartons of it.  have any of you tried the loaded cookie dough or loaded mint brownie?  OH MY GOODNESS.  i really missed cookie dough and mint chocolate chip ice cream while i lived in mexico and i think i made up for 2 years in that one week that it was on sale.  and i don’t regret one bite!

feb. 2 – we decided we were just going to have to reformat the hard drive of my computer, so i started searching for the disks that came with my computer….

feb. 3 – after two moves, my disks were nowhere to be found.  dad recommended that i search through all of the boxes in the attic to see if i could find them.  i couldn’t.  but i did look through all of my boxes finally!  thankfully, dad also talked to a guy from church who has a computer business and was able to fix my computer.  yay!!

feb. 4 – chick-fil-a was offering free breakfast items all week, so i stopped  by after taking mom to school a couple of days.  YUM!

feb. 5 – after months and months of waiting, i received my medical clearance.  that meant i could finally book my travel to vancouver.  excited didn’t even begin to describe me.

feb. 6 – for the first time since i’d arrived in ohio, we ate at this mexican restaurant near my parents’ house.  turns out, the owners are from guadalajara and our waiter was from mexico city.  the food was pretty good, but my favorite part was the horchata (a sweet rice drink).  i just wish i’d gone sooner!

feb. 7 – we had some semi-”warm” weather and convinced dad to go outside and grill some steaks and ribs for dinner.  i’m starting to notice a theme in my pictures…interesting, i hadn’t noticed how many pics i took of food related things!  guess we know where my priorities are!

feb. 8 – the snow started to melt!  it had only been on the ground for a month!  we even had sunshine!

feb. 9 – em, dad and i went to the shooting range for awhile.  i hadn’t been since right after i got back to the states and really enjoyed it.  i just wish it was something i could do more often!

feb. 10 – i’m not sure why, but we watched part of the westminster dog show.  izzy went nuts when she saw the dogs!  she kept barking and running up to the tv with her tail wagging.  i think she really wanted to play with them all!

feb. 11 – happy birthday mom!  isn’t she beautiful?  i have an amazing mother (and father for that matter).

feb. 12 – along with the warm weather, we got a severe thunderstorm that wound up taking down quite a few power lines.  one of which happened to be in our front yard!  we were without power from a little before 7 am until 11 pm.  it was a long day of sitting at home in a cold, dark house while everyone else was at work/school.  we were VERY glad when it came back on!

feb. 13 – we went to carino’s for dinner and happened to run into mom and dad’s chiropracter who decided to jump into a pic with us.

feb. 14 – izzy had quite a cute valentine’s getup if i do say so myself.  you can’t see it here, but she had a pink collar to go with her bow and tshirt. 

feb. 15 – i really hate packing!  i spent the majority of the day working on getting things organized and into 4 suitcases.  yuck.

feb. 16 – the packing is done.  yay!  i’m off to houston, then to vancouver.  mom, dad and em were all able to ride with me to the airport.  we got there plenty early and then hung out for awhile.

feb. 17 – my first day in vancouver.  i did some driving around with my teammate, marsha and went to a team meeting.  it’s a beautiful city and i always enjoy driving around and seeing different parts.

feb. 18 – while we were out, we came across a park with some beach.  i love getting to see water AND mountains!

feb. 19 – after being in vancouver only 2 days, i headed off to mexico city with the other ladies from all around canada, mexico and the carribean islands.

feb. 20 – i was thrilled to be back in mexico!!  my first meal was chilaquiles…my favorite breakfast food!

feb. 21 – several of us bought new silver rings at the market, so we took pictures of all of them together. 

feb. 22 – it was great to get to see so many friends.  these are some of the guadalajara ladies

feb. 23 – back to vancouver it is.  i moved in with ken and patti when i got back so that i would be closer to where i’ll be apartment hunting.

feb. 24 – my first trip to the grocery store.  i was amazed at how many things you could buy in bulk.  they even had cookie mix!

wordpress is not my friend

i have been trying for several days to post some new pictures, but for some reason, wordpress is not working with me.  i’ve got them uploaded and can see them in the “media library,” but every time i try to insert them into the post it stops.  it loads a blank page and says “done” when clearly it’s NOT done.  oh well.  i will try it from my computer when i get it back later tonight (did you catch that?  my computer is finally fixed and i’m getting it back tonight!  woooooo!).

in other exciting news, i finally got my medical clearance at the end of last week!  it’s been a long time coming, but i am so glad to finally be deemed healthy.    i also got my travel booked this morning.  i am leaving monday evening, flying through HOUSTON (not exactly the most direct route!) and arriving in Vancouver at midnight (3 am Eastern).  i have truly enjoyed my time with my family but am most thrilled to finally be going to Oh-Canada!  THEN, on Thursday (a mere 60 hours) after i arrive in Vancouver,  i will be leaving to fly to Mexico City for a region-wide ladies retreat.  not only will i get to be back in my beloved country of me-he-co, i will get to see several friends from Guadalajara and many from around the country.  on top of that, i also get to see a friend from Guatemala whom i have not seen since training.   add to that some great food, fun and shopping and it is sure to be a fabulous weekend!

hope everyone is doing well and having a great week.  i’ll do my best to get those pics up soon!

i gots me some serious catching up to do!

i’m not sure what made me think that doing this whole “project 365″ thing would actually make me post more frequently, but it’s definitely not!  i’m more than a week behind on posting pics.  oops!  i have, however, been taking my photo-a-day rather faithfully.  so, without further ado, here you are – a week (or more!) in my life…

thursday (jan. 15) – after taking my grandmother (i do have some pics somewhere to prove that she was actually here!) to the airport in Akron, we stopped at Best Buy to buy more memory for my computer.  yay!  it no longer runs at the speed of snail and i can have more than one application running without crashing.  woohoo!!

friday (jan 16) – yup, we still have 10 or 12 inches of snow and the lows have been around -8 at night.  it’s FREEZING!!  but we FINALLY saw the sun today!

saturday (jan 17) – my mom, sister (emily) and i went to clinique for free mini-facials and makeovers.  this was the first time i’d ever done anything like this and it was great!  and we all looked rather fabulous if i do say so myself. 

sunday (jan 18) – church was cancelled due to flooding caused by a water line break.  our family enjoyed being home together most of the day.  dad drove my sisters and i to the grocery store (the roads were seriously icy) and we did our own version of “supermarket sweep.”  (anyone actually remember that show?  we LOVED it at our house!)  we started shopping like this when we had to do the grocery shopping for christmas dinner on dec. 23.  basically, the team leader (myself) divides the master list into 3 smaller lists based on general category (produce, dairy, canned goods, etc), each of us takes a list and we shop as fast as we can.  we may be dorks, but we have fun!  and we get the grocery shopping done for my mom in record time.  haha!

monday (jan 19) – there was a jon and kate plus 8 marathon on tlc and my sisters and i watched several hours worth.  good times.  and really, who doesn’t enjoy watching 8 smiling, happy children? 

tuesday (jan 20) – i decided it was time to start the sorting/packing process.  i don’t know that i really made much progress, but at least i started.  that counts, right?  i HATE packing and trying to figure out what to pack in 4 suitcases for 2-3 years seriously stresses me out.  i hyperventilate just typing about it!  i will get it done though….at least that’s what i keep telling myself!

(btw – it looks as if i’ll be leaving feb. 3)

wednesday (jan 21) – caught a glimpse of this gorgeous sunset out the front door of our house.  amazing, isn’t it?

(i actually have another pic for this day of some super cute baby clothes i bought for my “niece,” lindsey, but won’t post them until she actually gets them!  you can see her beautiful face at: http://duhdunks.blogspot.com)

thursday (jan 22) – my sisters and i went and saw “bride wars.”  it was so good!  hilarious and adorable.  a perfect romantic comedy.  and we all know i love me some romantic comedy. 

friday (jan 23) – mallory wanted to get some photos of izzy playing in the snow, so we went to the park this afternoon.  she didn’t pose quite as well as we would have liked, but we got a few fun ones.  this one especially makes me laugh.  izzy can pull ridiculously hard and has come close to pulling me over more than once!

if you’ve made it all the way to the end of this marathon of photos i’m amazed.  congratulations!  you must really care about what i’m doing every day.  or you’re really bored.  either way, thanks for reading.    for any of you who are interested, you can see what i’m doing with these photos at:  http://sassysimpsonsisters.wordpress.com

i feel like i’m always posting these days…

…maybe that’s because my posts this fall were so few and far between!  project 365 is going to be great for my blogging habits!  i’m about a week behind, so i’ll be playing catch up tonight.  here we go:

friday (jan 9) – em and i went to youngstown state university to get her books and parking permit.  she recently decided to spend this semester here in ohio taking some classes that OBU didn’t offer this semester.  since she changed her major, her degree plan was a little off, so this should help get her back on track.  the biggest drawback though seems to be the COLD weather and SNOW!

saturday (jan 10) – we got a foot of snow and spent a good part of the day just trying to clear the driveway.  i can’t remember the last time i saw this much snow!  dad even busted out the snowblower!

sunday (jan 11) – i celebrated my birthday with my family (including my grandmother, who arrived the night before).  i got chicken and dumplins and really yummy turtle cake!  (not to mention some rockin candles!)

monday (jan 12) – emily’s birthday!  we all went out to an amazing japanese steakhouse, then came home for our favorite chocolate devils food cake (made with a secret ingredient – miracle whip!)  we both would have had this cake (it’s an old family recipe), but decided two of the same exact cake in the house at once might be a little much.  so i had to settle for turtle cake…darn!  so rough! 

tuesday (jan 13) – we spent the day out and about with our grandmother, then came home for em’s birthday dinner (a day late)…chicken cheese enchiladas.  after dinner, mal and dad spent awhile “talking” with izzy.  she loves talking these days!

wednesday (jan 14) – we got even more snow!  i’d guess we’re up to about 15 inches.  and the icicles around here are unbelievable.  here i am with a couple i pulled off the back doorway:

i haven’t gotten my photo for today just yet, so i’ll have to post it tomorrow.  that’s all for now.  g’night!

more project 365

january 7:  switched my license from VA to OH, mere days before my VA license expired (on my 25th bday).  crazy.  i remember getting it when i turned 21 and thinking how long it would be before i needed a new one.  and now, here i am!

january 8:  em, mal and i spent the day taking down the tree and putting away all of the christmas decorations.  that is my LEAST favorite part of the season, but my mom was so glad we did and she didn’t have to!  and it’s been snowing for a couple of days now, so that makes everything a little better! 

project 365 – second installment

sunday: em and i headed to target after lunch.  and it’s not a trip to target for us without a diet coke!

monday:  izzy got a little tired at her post by the window and took a bit of a nap

tuesday: my sisters and i (and izzy) went to the park and did a lil photo shoot.  this is one of my favorites!