Ugly Sweater Christmas Party

So Kedron and Patrick threw an Ugly Sweater Christmas Party last Saturday. It also included a white elephant gift exchange (the gift we brought was the dog mugs, the gift we took home was Kedron and Patrick's old coffee maker and an odd painting). I stole these pictures from our friend Nick's facebook album because I forgot my camera, of course. It was a good time.


( 2nd picture: Thomas and Justine, 3rd picture: Nick and Alyssa, 4th picture: Cassi and Landon, not pictured: Kedron and Patrick.)

Snow Day Part 2...

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These pictures are after all is said and done. About 3 feet of snow in 32 hours. So Adam and I both had a snow day today. I can't wait to go sledding!

So this is what resulted in a snow day...

Snow Day!

So I started my job this week and while it's been an adjustment (just like I expected) there is a benefit to working/living in the NW that I didnt even think of: Snow Days!
Well... I didnt have off completely today, but I got to leave at 3 30! What a nice break! It gave me a couple hours to clean some things and wash some things--and it was much needed. :)

A tribute to Andy Bernard

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfJ4SDRNvy8&feature=related

Our First Christmas

Last night Adam and I picked out and decorated our first Christmas tree! I've always looked forward to having my own tree, and decorating it with my family "when I grew up". Well I guess last night was it. It was so fun, but it was also accompanied with the familiar frustrations with lights and ornaments and pricks from the tree...all of which only made me smile even bigger. There's something comforting in knowing that even as we embark on our new married adventure together, there's some memories and traditions that we don't have to give up:)

Kate's Visit

So we got the pics from Kate's visit. But there's a lot. So I tagged a bunch on facebook, or if you're friends with her, you should just look at her whole album.

it was so much fun. I now after looking at them, I really miss her:(

Rainier/Portland

These are our pictures from our Thanksgiving weekend away. (I still haven't quite figured out the knack of uploading them backwards so they'd be in the order that they happened.) But anyway... here's some of them. I'll probably post the rest on facebook.
We had a great time. We learned how to play Pinochle, we went to 2 micro breweries, 1 sports bar, shopping!, watched cable tv, bought a couple fun ornaments, walked a TON, and saw the Gorge.

We had so much fun, which I guess we had to. If we couldnt spend Thanksgiving with our families (and friends) we had to come up with something super sweet to even try to compare. I think we did pretty well.

Now back to studying. The test is friday.


Also... Happy Birthday Kirstin! :)

Blessed...

I can't believe Thanksgiving is in 2 days. It completely snuck up on me this year!

I got pretty upset last night thinking of how much I missed my family and the traditions that I'm used to on Thanksgiving. And hearing about all my friends coming home and when they're getting together... it just felt like I'm so far away from all of that.

But at the risk of sounding like I'm writing the end of my own a Berenstain Bears book, I understood that of course I'm going to miss those things this year, but that doesnt make Thanksgiving a thanksgiving. This year I just need to take time to grasp how blessed I really am. Oddly enough, it turns out it's A LOT.

I thought I'd never have to take a final again...

Sorry it's been so long since I last blogged...a lot has happened:

-kate was here for a whole week! It was so great to see her. Pictures to come.
-I GOT A JOB!!!
-and because of getting this job I have to get my license in Property and Casualty Insurance for the state of Idaho.

I want to be clear... I'm NOT complaining and really still consider this job as such a blessing. But I confess that studying for this exam has really been a lot of work. Everyone talked about how easy this will be, no problem at all. I've come to realize that those people and I have different definitions of easy. Perhaps this is due to the fact that almost every day for the last 3 months I've been sitting around watching three hours of talk shows with a little bit of working out, errands, phone conversations, cleaning and reading thrown in the mix somewhere.
Nevertheless, I find all this information about insurance detailed and somewhat confusing. Thankfully I have a husband who has recently been licensed in the same type of insurance in Pennsylvania.

So anyway, that's the news. And probably will be the news for another week or two.

off to study, study, study.

Sunday, lazy Sunday...

just a glimpse into our Sunday evening of football and apple cider.

Tricia's Dos and Don'ts of Recruiting

After several more days of the same old in the way of job searching I've compiled a little list: "Tricia's Dos and Dont's of Recruting". My intention is not to beat a dead horse about my difficult time trying to find a job, rather it is to pass along little tidbits or "take aways" from my experience thus far.

Tricia's Dos and Donts of Recruiting:

1. DO post ads when your company is hiring that include contact info and/or your company's name
DONT post the ads when your company is on a hiring freeze

2. DO answer all inquiries to the ad
DONT start the conversation by asking "how soon are you looking to start working" unless you intend to have them start working soon.

3. DO interview candidates for open positions
DONT continue to interview once the position is filled.

people pleaser

due to one complaint made by a certain Liz Wright, I've decided to blog in public, completely against my wishes. Our computer is out of commission right now and hopefully we'll be getting a new one soon, but until then this might be it for a while.

lets see...

in our lives, that you might not hear from me already on the phone:
-the phillies won the world series yesterday, a life altering event considering i've NEVER seen Philadelphis win a championship in my lifetime.
-saw HSM3 with Keje on Sunday for $4. Not life-altering but still magical.
-i finally found a wall flower from bath and body works that even Adam likes--a big accomplishment after my 5th trip to BBW. So i bought 3.
-the weather has been in the 60s all week and i'm loving it. I've been riding my bike a lot.
-I've applied for a job with the city in the category of "Waste water and Human Resources". I'm not sure how much waste water i'll be dealing with exactly, but somedays i feel desperate.

guess that's all the random news you miss out on hearing when you dont live nearby.

vote on tuesday. and vote mccain/palin.

the rest of the pictures from the fam visit.

So I got the rest of the pictures from my parents visit. Here are just some. But the first one is us at dinner at the resort the last day they were here, just before we went to the movies... it was delicious and had a great view!, then there's cath and me getting the best pedicures of our lives! Mimosas included. We went while adam and my dad went fishing (we were spoiled). And then the last two were pictures of our townhouse taken right before we went to breakfast at Michael D's. It was such a fun visit and every time i pass the hotel where they stayed it makes me miss them:(

Tacoma/Sea View

So this last weekend Adam and I spontaneously decided to go to Tacoma, WA to visit some friends and go to the beach. It was definitely a weekend of firsts. First weekend trip as a married couple. First time driving through the mountains of western Washington, which are just beautiful by the way. Those are the first two pictures. And the first time seeing Tacoma. The first time seeing the Pacific ocean. The first time going clam digging, which was so much more fun than I thought it would be. And the first time going to Oregon-which Adam was more excited about than me.

Ryan and Laura were so fun, and their kids were adorable. Kylie and Adam are in the last picture, she loved him. I posted all the pictures on my facebook page cause they take a while on here, but we just really had a great time!

new plan

ok I know i've built up this whole change in web address for this blog. Well... I've decided that's not happening. Why the heck do they have to make those words that you have to retype so dag on hard to read?? After about 10 tries, and even listening to the handicap one, i've decided to just stick to the same one. Hope no one is offended by it.

could someone please tell me the purpose of those visual verifications though? And are they hard for everyone or just me?

anyway... at the top is a picture my parents took during their visit out here. It's Adam and me at Bonsai for dinner on my birthday. I'll post more pictures later as I get them.

Embracing 23

This is a blog reflecting on turning 23.

But first, to keep my promise: the pot roast was ok. adam liked it, but i'm beginning to think more and more that perhaps it's not so much that i'm a great cook as it is that he just eats anything. bummer.
also important pot roasting tip: add your veggies in at least 2 hours before serving, otherwise they'll be crunchy still, and that's kind of gross.

also,

http://fineasafrogshair.blogspot.com/ should soon be changing to http://ludwiglife.blogspot.com/ so you might want to adjust accordingly:).

and now..thoughts on being 23:

I generally have a hard time with getting older. It's not really a new thing for me. i remember the night before i started kindergarden, that i cried for what seemed like hours all because I liked being in pre-school so much and didnt want to be a kindergardener. So this whole anti-aging issue isn't really a surprise to me. Now I understand that in retrospect 23 isn't really all that old. But when I realized the other day that I was now 5 years older than the oldest High schooler in our youth group I felt a bit out of sorts. Not only am I 5 years older than high school seniors, I'm about 9 years older than middle schoolers! But my time in MS and HS really doesnt seem that long ago!

After I realized how pitiful i sounded, i thought harder and came to a more realistic and encouraging conclusion:
i think my problem isn't that i feel old, it's that i'm still in shock that i'm at this time in my life already. I'm at the age where i'm married, and can buy whatever i want, watch whatever i want, and go wherever i want (all with adam's approval, of course). Yes, those MS, HS, and college years are done in my life, but they were everything i'd hoped they'd be! And i've graduated college, and i'm now married, we're living on our own, in a new town, (hopefully i'll get a job) and all by the age of 23! So I'm doing okay for myself-- i've accomplished a lot already. Not only that, but there's still kids, and jobs, and traveling...

..so see, I don't need to be such a debbie downer, I still have a lot of exciting things in my life to still look forward to, and i shouldnt miss out on them because i lose perspective.


(Besides, i hate it when women call themselves "cougars" and complain about getting old. And if i stay on that track, I'll be one of them. *shutter*)

Trish vs. pot roast

Well, I've been really intimidated by red meat in my cooking life. This means that right now our freezer is full of red meat collected over the last few weeks. So after Cath was here and told me exactly what to do, I'm attempting to conquer this fear and take on the pot roast.

So far, so good. It looks kind of gross though, but apparently it gets better?.

I'll post the winner of this challenge later.

Name Change

Since Adam seems to find this web address and title of the blog rather off-putting, I figured i'd change it.

So here's your heads up:

"Fine as a Frog's Hair" is now going to be "Ludwig Life".

This will mean the web address will change--but only the titles will be different.

visitors!

My dad and Cathy come tomorrow and I'm super excited!!

rockstar...

I dont really care what people say, i thought her winking and catch-phrases were charming.

Classifieds...

This is an ad in the classifieds that adam and i recently stumbled upon. I thought i'd share:

"Lost. I've know of you for a while. I have been in denial for some time, hoping you, the other person, didn't exist. You know he's a player and will do unto you what he did to me. The stress of him coming home only when he wants to is too much to bear. It's time we lay our cards on the table and finally confront each other. So will the other adopted family of my cat, caramel, please call and let me know how he's doing? "

my beat

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sei-eEjy4g

click here...

it's my new favorite song, and also what i spent yesterday dancing around our townhouse to while i made zucchini bread and did other "stay-at-home wife" things.

..figured i'd create a mental picture so you can have a glimpse into my weekdays.
...also thought i'd help make it possible for you to join in on the fun.

Philly Pride

The Phils clinched the playoff spot! Just thought i should remind everyone i'm still cheering my little heart out all the way from Idaho. Hopefully now they'll show more games on TV!

two important notes:

1. i discovered in my time home without adam that on saturday mornings at 11 30 the christian channel here, which happens to be one we get, plays "McGee and Me". Last week was the episode where he snuck out to see revenge of the blood sucking zombies at the theater after his parents said no. this week was about sticking up for yourself against bullies and for nick that meant being in a skateboarding race.

i'm just hoping for a "buttercream gang" sighting, or maybe even "on our own" sometime soon.

2. i just thought as a reaction to the last post i left that i should mention a good and encouraging point my husband made: honestly, i dont have it too bad considering all that's going on in our country right now. And while he made this point at a time where i would have preferred sympathy, he did have a great point. I should keep some perspective sometimes.

The Life of Waiting...

My life lately has seemed to consist more or less of just waiting.
-waiting to hear back about jobs
-waiting for good ones to be posted somewhere
-even waiting to get a reply about volunteering
-waiting for adam to come home from work everyday
-waiting for laundry to be done
-waiting for my dad to come visit
-waiting waiting waiting...

but quite frankly, i dont like waiting. in fact, it's probably what i dislike the most. I can be a very impatient person, just ask my husband.

BUT there's hope. There's finally been movement in the whole waiting for everything situation. Yesterday Adam and i went to the high school youth group to check it out and see if we wanted to be small group leaders. We havent decided yet, but we met some people who we seemed to have a lot in common with (leaders, not students) and hopefully that will lead us somewhere.

So i know i havent' posted in a while, but that's because this news is really the only thing that's changed in our lives since last wednesday. Hooray for changes.

"You'll always miss a best friend"

i miss her.

Coeur d'Alene, Idaho

i didn't have much to write about today, so i figured i'd post some old pictures of my new home. These were taken last november, but everything still looks pretty much the same.

So... not tons of corn fields and open space--at least not in coeur d'alene.

hopefully this inspires you to come visit us:)