There's always time for a little fun at Church!

So, Ashley wins...she posted this video first.  I have been keeping an eye out for at least one of the recordings to end up online...and I missed it....You win again, Ashley...you always do!  (said with a Ron Burgondy accent)

So just in case you don't understand what is going on in this...it was improv.  The songs are not pre-written or rehearsed, which is why it was a different skit at each service.  Most of the lines where scripted, but I changed up a few things for each service cause Adam made me.....that Adam.....

This is a recording of the 9am service from You Tube.  Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TK_vAQuKo68&feature=player_embedded

Included was Josh Rhodes (our new college minister) and Adam and myself.

Everybody needs the Post Office...and cupcakes

So I've made a few trips recently to the Post Office in downtown Morgantown.  Needless to say, with the holiday season being upon us, the lines have been quite long.  I do have to give props to this branch, though.  Each time I have gone, the line has been all the way to the entrance/exit, and each time it has moved very quickly.  There must have been 30 people in front of me this last time, with 4 workers, and I got out of there in less than 20 minutes.  If you would've seen the things that these people were being asked to accomplish--fit this into that, make this bill correct, my box key doesn't work--you would completely appreciate this feat.  I was quite intrigued with the skill that the workers moved through the line of complecated cases with calmness and one, even a smile.  Merry Christmas to you, Morgantown Post Office workers!

Yesterday afternoon I spent making cupcakes for a get together we're going to tonight.  I must say...they are so cute!  My cupcake book had around 6-7 different choices for Christmas cupcakes and I asked Adam to choose because I just couldn't decide!  He settled on cupcakes that look like Santa!  As I saw his choice, I felt a little overwhelmed, as there were lots of steps to completing the items that make up Santa's face and body parts.  I prepared and was good to go for my decorating marathon.  I also wanted to try getting away from the boxed cupcake batters and my good friend, Ashley Griffith, was nice enough to give me pretty much every dessert recipe she had in her collection.  Included was a Vanilla cupcake recipe that seemed simple enough....except for Cake Flour...whatever that is!  Ashley did answer my question about the whereabouts of "Cake Flour"...which probably would've been easier to take care....but I managed ok.  I actually asked an older woman that was wondering around in the breakfast sausage area of the supermarket what Cake Flour was.  She said that you could use all-purpose and add something to it...cornstarch she thought.  Good enough for me!  That meant that there was a logical explaination online somewhere, which was exactly the next step I took.  So--I had all of the ingredients at home already-what a great recipe!  I made a couple of extra cupcakes to taste-as I always do.  Adam said it was my best cupcake yet!  Yay, Ashley!  Success!  Hopefully they keep well for the get together this evening.  I put them in a Cake travel caddy, as they are too tall for my cupcake caddy.  I'm hoping I don't go to pull them our of the fridge tonight and find Santa heads rolling around...that would be tramatic...  I have been torn as whether to put a picture onto this blog, seeing as though they haven't technically been "revealed" yet....so I will wait until tomorrow to do so.  But--I figure that a blog always needs a little flare....so here's a picture of "Garth and Kat" from yesterday's skit at CRC (including Adam, Josh Rhodes, and myself).  I'm sure a video will pop up somewhere that will eventually be on here....who knows.

Ugly sweater contest

Winner!  Yes...I won the Ugly/Cheesy sweater contest at work.  I must say that not a lot of people participated, and some of the sweaters were straight out of Bill Cosby's personal closet, which made it a little awkward because people didn't know which people were wearing something for the contest, and which people just had poor taste....awkward :-)  As my prize, I got a lovely little snack box snowman which included a variety of goodies, which Adam is probably enjoying as we speak!  Here's a picture....and the socks...I just happened to have them and they matched the color perfectly!  Good times...

On a side note, Adam was tourturing Lexi last night.  He thought it would be funny to put his hat on her.  She didn't mind it until about 30 seconds after he put it on.  As Adam's punishment, I am posting this picture of him with a severe double chin...of course, he doesn't have it usually :-)



Christmas Parties!

So as I'm sure most people can relate, it's the season to go to parties!  I love Christmas.  I was trying to think about what it is that makes me like this holiday more than the rest...and I think I've come up with my answer.  Food.  Yes, food.  Why not Thanksgiving, you ask?  Well, yes, there is lots of food on Thanksgiving, but it's just one day, and if you're lucky, two-three different places/meals.  When December hits, people plan parties like they're going out of style!  And with each party, comes different food!  Whether it be little appetizers bites, buffets, or full family meals--I love food!  Sometimes it's dried out food (for instance, work parties with buffets) but I still like it! 

This past Friday was the Chestnut Ridge Church Staff Christmas Party.  It was at Nemicolin Resort in Pennsylvania.  Let me say--best "buffet" food EVER!  The room was set with little stations along the wall, each with their own magical meal.  First was the Caesar Salad with a lovely homemade dressing, then the sushi bar-Yum!, then I was off to the Ravioli bar with seared gnocchi that was simply to die for! Then they had a carving station with ham and rolls, and a lovely Piaya station.  The dessert was ice cream with a homemade hot fudge with our choice of Pound Cake or Angel food...and lots of whipped cream and fruits in syrup to top it off.  Needless to say...I ate it all....

Then, Saturday arrived with a fun filled day of scoring.  Yes, scoring....and stripping....wallpaper that is :-)  Ashley and Chad Griffith called for "all hands on deck" to get their nursery ready for baby Eli on the way.  After that, Adam and I headed to the Mylan Christmas party.  There were general finger foods and a buffet of prime rib, pasta, green beans, and lobster tail.  I'm pretty sure it was in the largest banquet room known to mankind.  Some of you know that I was a banquet server in college for a few years, so I've definitely seen my fair share of banquet halls.  I'm pretty sure that I could fit 3 of the largest Adam's Mark Hotel banquet rooms inside of the one we were in Saturday.  Just amazingly huge!  They had a boring band playing older cheesy music in this room, and opened up a smaller banquet room later in the night to become the "night club" with more current music playing to dance to.  Needless to say, the crowd preferred the tiny dark room as the night rolled on.  All in all, it was a fun night!  My grandmother was nice enough to by me a little party dress to wear, since I didn't already have one.  Here's what we picked out while shopping over the Thanksgiving break. 

My hair became somewhat of a project, since I've never really been good at fixing it.  After a disastrous attempt at hot rollers, I just did a simple pull back with little loops in the back...and lots of hairspray...which might be becoming a favorite scent of mine....who knows.

Monday evening my work location (just the Greenbag Road location) had a small party at Lakeview with a buffet of wings, meatballs, veggies and cheese, and brownies.  I'm going to make a declaration...prepare yourself.  "Lakeview (or Legends inside of Lakeview) has the best BUFFULO wings in Morgantown".  That's right folks....Lakeview golf resort.  Go figure.  And for you Morgantown friends, they have 50 cent wings on Sundays...so go there.  If you want a different wing flavor, Kegler's has the best--Southwestern...grilled wings.  Oh, and if you're traveling and happen upon a Logan's....they have the best wings of all time.  Just thought I would let you know.

Today at work we had our free Mylan meal (the company feeds everybody for the major holidays) with a really wonderful ham, green beans, and scalloped potatoes.  Tomorrow we are having a Pot Luck in the break room with Pulled Pork sandwiches, whatever other goodies people bring, and a Tacky Christmas Sweater contest.  I intend on winning....Maybe I'll take a picture of that tomorrow...if you're lucky :-)

Next week will continue with several group get-togethers with all the more food to feed my face.  It's a wonder I fit in that dress to begin with!  I can't wait to see what food adventures await me in the future...Yum!

Soup-it's what's for dinner!

So, most of you might know that I like soup.  (And I type "most of you", realizing that only about 4-5 people actually read this blog..)  I like all kinds of soups.  I seem to go through little phases where I'll like a particular type of soup more than the other, but for the most part-I haven't met a soup I don't like...except for this one time someone made "chili" that was more like a soup and he had OBVIOUSLY burnt it....gleh!  Oh--which reminds me, I like Chili too :-)

Probably for the past year or so, I've preferred the broth made soups over the creamy.  I think it all began with the French Onion soup that I had at Disney World - In "France" at the Epcot Center where they have all of the different countries and people from those countries working there.  I wasn't really wanting to get it, but the menu at fancy resteraunts like that only have a couple of different options for each "course" so I was forced to get it.  OO-Lah Lah, I say!  It was amazing.  Ever since then, I definitely like to try French Onion soup whenever I see it on a menu. 

A couple of months ago, Mylan decided to open up a little Cafe' inside the Greenbag Road location.  Over at the main plant, there is an amazing cafeteria with tons of awesome food.  They decided that since hundreds of people were going to be working at this location, that they would bring easy items over and sell them to us since we don't have many food options around here.  They have salads, sandwiches, chips, pepperoni rolls, fruit, and SOUP!  They have a different soup every day!  And it's only a couple of bucks for what looks like to me a good 16 ounces.  They actually have a really good chili here as well.

So it's part of my daily ritual to go on Mylan's internal website, check the menu for the soup of the day, and then wander down the hall to collect my lunch :-)  Today's lovely selection was Turkey & Wild Rice. 

It is the perfect amount of broth with the turkey torn into the perfect bite size pieces, and also including what I'm sure is whatever vegetables they had lying around the kitchen.  I think I detect a little twinge of Cilantro....YUM!  I like to get 2 packets of crackers each time I get some soup from the Cafe'.  Not to use in the soup, but to stash in my drawer.  I'm like a little gerbal in the afternoons just searching for something to nibble on.  2-4 crackers makes a nice afternoon snack for those of us that are fighting off some unwanted holiday pounds :-)    I wonder what soup will move me onto my next obsession...perhaps a lovely creamy potato soup...who knows...

Thanksgiving

I was lucky enough to be able to travel to Memphis for Thanksgiving to see my family this year.  Adam and I were intrigued with the trip because my grandmother sent us a GPS device and we wanted to see if it worked accurately.  We were very pleased and found lots of fun uses for it along the way.  It was also neat to see if my way was the fastest :-)  On our way home, we got stuck on I-65 north in Kentucky.  The traffic was at a stand still and we were bummed that our trip home would take even longer.  I saw that an exit was just 200 or so yards away, so I started pressing buttons on the GPS and saw the "Detour" button.  We thought, "why not?", pressed it, and followed it off of the nearest exit.  It took us through Kentucky on the scenic route...all the I-64 headed towards West Virginia.  We only lost about 15 minutes time (probably from sitting still before we becamse adventurous)!  Adam saw a post online from a friend of ours that had gotten stuck in the same place-but with no GPS.  She said she only moved 3 miles in 1 hour, and that the jam lasted over 4 miles on the northbound side.  Thank the Lord for Memaw giving us that GPS!  It saved our trip!

While we were in Memphis, I got to see a couple of my friends, go bowling, go shopping, and see family.  We had Thanksgiving Lunch with my Father's family at my cousin's house and had a chance to talk with her new husband about the church that they have become a part of in town.  It's a very contemporary service that intertwines the arts with the service-sounds like something Adam and I would enjoy :-)  After that, it was off to my Grandmother's house for Thanksgiving dinner with my Mother's side of the family.  Needless to say...we ate alot!  I had the chance to make some "cake balls" that I took to both familys' houses.  They turned out pretty good and gave us something to nibble on throughout the week.  We also got to spend alot of time with my niece, Ruth.  She is 20 months old and has the most wonderful personality :-)  We were trying to teach her our names while we were there so she'll remember us when we skype with Lawson, Alison, and her.  My name is "ni ni" and Adam's name came out sounding like "dum-dum"!  Hilarious.  Spending time with her made us realize how great having kids can be.  We're very much looking forward to our friends having their babies so we can play with them and teach them strange things :-)

Having so much fun with Ruth, we couldn't help but snap videos and pictures all the time we were around her.  I noticed that that's pretty much all we have pictures of, so here are a few of my favorites:

1. Ruth is playing with an App my brother has installed on his iPad (is that what it's called??).  It has lots of different children's songs that have interactive pictures on the screen for her to push buttons and see reactions on.  This one happened to be a hot air balloon with animal shaped balloons floating around, that you could touch and they would pop.  Adam had alot of fun with it too :-)

2. This one was us playing in the game room at Lawson's house.  Ruth thinks Adam is funny too...

3. Here's a picture of my Memaw and Grand'dad with Ruth.  Evidentally Ruth was playing dead....they were trying to pick her up and she went limp!

4. Here's Ruth squatting...she would walkaround the room and then turn around and do this squatting thing.  We thought she was pooping...turned out to just be gas :-)

5. Here's Ruth saying "All Gone" that Adam taught her from the App.

6. And last but not least, here's the picture that is above my parent's fireplace...wow...

So all in all, it was a good trip home, and now it's nice to be back and get back into the rhythm of regular life.  Bring on the snow, baby!

Hallelujah! Moist Turkey!

Praise the Lord for a successful Thanksgiving Community Group meal and fellowship!  We had a blast last night hanging out and eating each other's food!  I am happy to report that my Turkey and dressing turned out wonderfully :-)  I was very pleased with the flavor and moistness of the Herb Buttered Turkey and I think that the dressing that I made from my grandmother's recipe turned out wonderfully!

So, as promised, here is the recipe that I concocted for the turkey.  I combined several recipes, and I'm sure that some of these things can probably be omitted to simplify the recipe, but it worked this way-so I'll probably take this one as gospel!  It's pretty long, but here is step by step what I did.

Herb Buttered and Brined Turkey

(Leave 2 ½ hours for prep and cooking time on day of roasting)

Brine Ingredients:

2 ¼ cups Chicken Broth

3 cups Water

1 bottle Soy Sauce (15 oz)

1 cup Lemon Juice

4 Garlic Cloves minced and mashed (to get the juices)

2 tsp Ginger (powdered)

1 ½ tsp Pepper

Herb Butter Ingredients:

¾ cup Butter, softened (or put refrigerated butter in microwave for 8 seconds and mash)

1 ½ tsp Poultry Seasoning

2 Tbsp Garlic Herb Dressing Mix (Good Seasons-found with the salad dressing dry mixes)

            This will be around 1 ½ packets

1 ½ tsp Garlic – minced and mashed

Herb Rub Ingredients:  (I only used about ½ of this recipe)

1 Tbsp Sage (powdered)

½ tsp Salt

1 tsp Garlic Powder

1 tsp Celery Seed

1 tsp dried Parsley Flakes

1 tsp Pepper

½ tsp Paprika

¼ tsp Ground Mustard powder

1/8 tsp ground Allspice

Misc. Ingredients:

10lb Turkey (10 servings)

Extra stick of butter-maybe ¼ a stick to use for added color on outside of bird

6-8 Celery Stalks for veggie rack underneath turkey

3-4 Carrots peeled for veggie rack underneath turkey

2 Onions - 1 very roughly chopped for underneath turkey, 1 quarted for cavities

2 Packs of Poultry Herb Bouquets (in the refrigerated herbs department in plastic containers-includes fresh Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme) – one for each cavity

1 Lemon – thickly sliced for inside turkey cavities

2 cans Chicken Broth for inside oven bag (28 oz total)

1 Reynolds Oven bag (turkey size)

1 Oven proof thermometer

1 Roasting pan that is at least 2 ½-3 inches deep

Instructions in order of preparation:

Thaw turkey for 3 days in refrigerator.

(These next steps can be done up to a day in advance)

Mix all ingredients for Herb Rub and store in a baggie.  Mix all ingredients for Herb Butter and refrigerate if making the day before.  10 seconds in the microwave can soften it up right before you use it.  Clean and cut ends off of celery stalks and store in large baggie.  Peel carrots and store with celery.

Clean, rinse, and pat dry Turkey, making sure to remove all packets in both cavities of the bird.  Combine all Brine ingredients in a pot large enough to put the turkey in and cover.  Reserve 1 cup of brine to be added right before cooking-Refrigerate until needed.  Put turkey into pot breast down (liquid should cover at least half, if not ¾ of the turkey), cover, and refrigerate overnight. Turn several times if possible-but at least once.  Mine stayed in the brine for a total of 18 hours.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Drain and discard brine.  Rinse turkey and pat dry (don’t worry, you won’t wash away the flavor!).  Prep all ingredients to put into and on the turkey: Roughly chop 1 onion. Quarter 1 onion. Remove herb bouquets from package and dice a little bit of one for fresh herbs (1/4 tsp looks good under the skin).  Thickly slice lemon. 

Place turkey in a shallow pan to work with before putting in roasting pan.  Place hand under skin of turkey and move around to make room for herb butter.  (I used powder free latex gloves...cause it’s yucky).  After softening Herb Butter, rub all over turkey, in every crease and as far under the skin as you can get your hand.  I did the bottom first and finished with the top.  The butter doesn’t seem to stick very well, but do the best you can and use all of it.  Sprinkle with a salt and pepper mix to taste.  Sprinkle Herb Rub mixture on top side of bird and slightly rub into the skin.  Put some in the large cavity.  Push the fresh herbs that you chopped underneath the skin over the breast.  Stuff the large cavity with 3 pieces of the quartered onion, 1 herb bouquet, 3 lemon slices.  Put remaining lemon slices, onion, and herb bouquet into the smaller cavity. 

Prepare oven bag as directed in the included directions.  (1 Tbsp flour into bag and shake).  Put into roasting pan, making sure all of the bag is inside the pan.  Place celery stalks, carrots and roughly chopped onions into the bottom of the bag to create a rack underneath the turkey.  This will keep the turkey from sitting directly in too much of the juice.  Pour the cup of brine that was set aside the day before into the bag.  Add 2 cans  of chicken stock to bag.  Lightly salt and pepper veggie rack to taste.  Place Turkey into the bag and close bag with included bag tie, trying not to let too much of the bag touch the turkey skin.  Cut 6 half inch slits in the top of the bag to release steam while cooking.  Insert the oven proof thermometer through one of the bag slits and into the thickest part of the breast just above the thigh.  Make sure that you position the bird in the oven so that you can read the thermometer through the oven window instead of opening the door to check.  There is no need to open the oven until cooking it completed-no basting needed! 

Cook for 1 hour and 35 minutes – making sure to watch the thermometer towards the end of time.  The temperature goal is between 170 and 180 degrees.  When the turkey reaches appropriate temperature, remove and let sit in the bag for 15 minutes.  During this time, you can remove enough juice from the bottom of the pan with a turkey baster through the slits for the gravy.  This way you can go ahead and make your gravy for the turkey.  (Butterball includes gravy packet in a cavity—use 1 ¾ cups drippings and gravy packet-boil in pot, then cook and stir for 5-10 minutes.)  Turn oven up to 500 degrees.  Cut the top of the oven bag off rub the extra ¼ stick of butter into the top of the turkey. Put turkey back into oven for browning for around 10 minutes.  (This is what I did, but you might try 450 degrees for 15 minutes to get a darker color??).  Remove turkey from oven and put cover over it to keep it warm while resting for at least 20-30 minutes before carving.

Yummy!

 

Turkey and Dressing!

So sorry for the delay in posting!  I just forget to, and then when I remember, I can't think of anything interesting to write about :-)

So Thanksgiving is next week, in case you've been living in a cave for the last month and have lost track of time.  I'll be going to Memphis from Tuesday to Sunday.  I have determined that one trip to see family a year is just not enough.  Unfortuntely, because of the high costs of flying, long distance of driving, and lack of weekend availability due to Adam's and my involvement at the church--it just isn't easy to make it there many other times.  Hopefully we'll figure something out for this next year though because my neice will probably soon be driving (she's 1 1/2  years old now) and I'm afraid she won't even know who I am.  I hate that!  She's so cute and I want to be her fun Aunt Nicki!  Anyway, at least we'll get to see her and the rest of my family next week.

Since Thanksgiving is coming up, we decided to do a Thanksgiving Home Group Sunday night (oh wait--i'm sorry--Community Group!  I loose track of what they call it all the time).  We're all going to bring some dishes and play games and stuff ourselves full of food!  I'll gain weight just in time to see my family that I never get to see...exciting :-)  So I decided I wanted to go ahead and give making a turkey a try. I've been compiling recipes and tips over the last week or so and I think I finally have settled on what I'm doing.  I'll be brining the turkey over night and then roasting it in an oven bag with and Herb Butter rub on the skin.  Yum!  If it's good, I'll post the details for anyone else's use.  If it's not...you'll have to settle for a picture!  I am also going to be attempting a stuffing/dressing recipe from one of my grandmothers.  This recipe involves me making cornbread...which I have also never made before.  I don't like cornbread, but for some reason, this stuffing is delicious!  So, my Mom decided she wanted to buy me a real Cast Iron Skillet to make my cornbread in.  It's really nice!  It's pre-seasoned (from Cracker Barrell) and has a lid and everything.  I'm very excited to use it.  It's super heavy duty and I expect it will last me the rest of my life.  Here it is:

It is bigger in person!

So, tonight I will be making my herb butter, tomorrow I'll be making my cornbread and then stuffing and starting the brining process for the turkey, and Sunday I'll be roastin that bird!  I of course want it to be flavorful, moist, and all around spectacular...but I guess I'll settle for edible.  I mean, let's be honest, everyone is expecting it to be dry anyway, right?  Turkey = dry meat. Isn't that why we make gravy?  So, if it's not dry-I'll be ahead of the game!  My next food project will be roasting little peasants....or is it pheasants? because one of those probably wouldn't be very humane...hmm...  Anyway-I have had a roasting cookbook for a while now that I've been waiting to try out for just Adam and myself.  Maybe this whole turkey thing will give the go ahead to try to cook some other things that way.  We'll just have to see. 

I am a little disappointed that I didn't get to make some Turkey cupcakes that I've been wanting to do.  No...they're not made of turkey...you're gross!  They LOOK like whole turkeys sitting on top of the cupcake on a bed of lettuce (that is colored corn flakes).  Unfortunately, I just won't have the time to do three things this time.  Maybe next year :-)

On that note, I'll leave you with a quote:

"Never drink water - if it can rust iron, imagine what it can do to your stomach."

Fans...who knew....

So turns out I have a few fans scattered around Morgantown.  One in particular posted a video on our church's facebook page. 

Oh brother....

The service a few weekends ago consisted of some Box related things - a game show, a box monster, a wonderful sermon about being "in the box" (which you can listen to online if you're curious about the topic!).  It also included me singing the special, Adam singing 2 worship songs and myself singing a worship song.  Well-if you notice the title of the you-tube video...it's called "Nicki and the box".  Evidentally I was a major part of the service and didn't realize it :-)  I mean, should I be signing autographs after these things?? hmmm...
The video content is about 90% a close up of my face...and 10% the rest of the service...The staff seems to think this is hilarious that this good samaritan posted a video of mainly me on the church's facebook page....  silliness... 

So--all this to say...."Thank you" to my fans...and for all of you other people; why haven't you posted a video about me?  My hair and cheek bones film wonderfully :-)  Who knew?!

You can view this video by typing "Nicki and the box" in the search bar for You Tube.  And just so you know..I had nothing to do with "Nicki on a box"  which is featured a few videos underneath mine...

Happy hunting!   Oh ok...here's a link...I figured out how to put it in the blog:  Nicki and the Box

Disclaimer :: I do not approve of the quality of my voice for the special that I sing at the beginning of this video.  So-sorry for the poor singing...I'll do better next time!

So last weekend was tons of fun!  Friday night, I got to ake Ashley to Pittsburgh to spend the birthday fabric money that I gave her for her birthday (which is why I called it "birthday fabric money"...duh).  With so many fun things to do in Pittsburgh, we could hardly deny our husbands the chance to come along and do something.  So--the four of us forged on to Pittsburgh, unfortunately beginning with a very frustrating phone call with Sprint's customer service team by myself.  Why is it that you have to speak strongly to people to get them to do the bare minimum of their job??  It really bothers me because I hate being rude to people (purposfully...cause I'm sure I am unknowingly rude to many people :-).  Boo on people doing the bare minimum...booooo.

Anyway-after I got that out of the way, we had some AMAZING deer jerky that Chad killed and Ashley cooked....yummy sodium!  That, along with multiple cheese pepperoni rolls made for a delightful snack for our journey.  We wandered around Joann's Fabrics to find all sorts of different things.  I ended up with fabric to make curtains for my kitchen.  It's about time after 2-3 years of having what I like to call my "faded Saved By the Bell" curtains that were left in our home when we purchased it...man am I lazy!  So, I will be starting that project as soon as things settle down in life.  Wait a minute...I don't think that they will settle down...so...I'll just make a goal now--I'll finish them before the end of November :-)  There!  Now you all have to keep me accountable.  I'm sure I'll be making a few emergency phone calls to my friends that are much more crafty than I.  These girls can whip up some amazing things...I'm just hoping to sew a straight line using my Mom's old sewing machine :-)

After Joann's, we had to stop by IKEA to browse around and pick up a few nick-nacks...taste some swedish meatballs, and pick up some more fabric to make curtains in my laundry room...(really...no idea when I'll have the time!).  We then headed down to the Melting Pot where I had forgotten that people were already celebrating Halloween...so we saw a lot of very interesting costumes!  I think I saw the largest rainbow afro wig I have ever seen in my life!  Amazing the thing stayed on her/his head. (No idea what gender this person was :-)  I must say...Melting Pot = Yumminess...  What's better than melted cheese and melted chocolate?  (the answer is-Nothing). 

Saturday, Adam and I got to kind of take it easy--sleep in, I made cupcakes, and we just had lazy time around the house.  Very nice.  Sunday, we went to the 11:00 service (which we hardly ever attend-since we go to the Saturday night service when we're not singing for the weekend).  Lots of energy-very nice!  After that--Community Group Leader meeting with some lovely chicken cordon blue (no idea how to really spell it and am too lazy to look it up!).  The evening brought our Community Group Halloween party-which was a BLAST!  We had a pumpkin carving contest, which Adam and I seriously understimated our friends' competitiveness!  We saw some amazing things!  You can view the video that was posted on my Facebook page.  Top prize went to E.T. by Brittani Swearingen...those Swearingen's know their pumpkins...We finished the night off with a rousing game of Quelf and ate deer jerky and toasted pumpkin seeds until we were all stuffed!  Oh--and I made the cupcake haunted scene.  Here's  few pics:

My lovely head gear was purchased in the clearance bin at Joann's...worked really hard on that one.  We can't all be Joey and dress up in a full leatard as a Green man....now that's dedication!

We definitely had our fill of fun and fellowship for the weekend...now here we go for the next one!

Dead or Alive....

I can't help but share my latest fun moments from work. 

There are a group of individuals that gather at work with a common interest.  It's singing and playing guitar.  Now, I know what you're thinking--am I involved in this??  The answer would be NO!   I admire people that get together with common interests and support each other (home group plug : that's why i'm in a home group!).  But the problem is that they are meeting to "Jam" in the middle of our office building. 

I started this story with "fun moments" from work...well, it makes me laugh so hard to hear the reactions of the other people in the office while this is going on.  Evidentally they have been asked to move from the last place in the office where they were meeting, and they have transplanted themselves into the conference room that boarders my cube area.  The funniest part of it all to me is that they happened to pick the one conference room that shares a wall (and air duct might I add) with a guy on my team-Christian.  Christian is a great guy who is completely the opposite of his name-to his own addmission by the way.  He is hilariously witty and sarcastic, always adding a clever cut at the exact precise time.  Not only is he a wiz kid computer guy and all around genius in all areas, he happens to be a musician as well.  His style is more the screaming type of music that's really loud (I think it must work for his anger issues :-).  Anyway-Christian entered my boss's office last week (while I was present) and said that he had to leave early because he has now entered his most horrific dream....He hears old men singing and playing country style music in his head...and he has now idea where it's coming from! 

This of course was the newly transplanted musical group.  Today, I have witnessed several groups clumping together in this area complaining about the noise and making funny comments about the lyrics of whatever song they happened to be singing at the moment  (the latest was "Dead or alive"....they we hoping for dead!).  Once of the girls that was complaining happened to have a meeting with a very important man in our company and mention what was going on.  Evidentally, he called my boss, Rod, and told him to make them stop. So--Rod get's the glod star for the week.  He stopped the distraction in our office that was effecting around 100 people...Good job, Rod! 

I do feel sorry for these people, though.  They of course mean no harm and were doing this during their lunch hour to relax...unfortunately, they'll have to move yet again.  I'm thinking that the mall has picked up quite a bit lately with the addition of a few food places.  Maybe they could set out a hat a make a little side $$ during their lunch hour??  Who knows!

Now-to begin my fun weekend!  Pittsburgh tonight for some shopping and Melting Pot with the Griffith's...Tomorrow, making cupcakes for halloween (a haunted house to be exact!), and it's a Halloween Home Group on Sunday night--including a pumpkin carving contest!  Fun times!  I'm sure I'll have interesting pictures to post next week from this!

It's been a while

So yes, I apologize for my long hiatus from by blog.  I have been busy, with all great things might I add, so sitting down at the computer for long enough to write about my time has been all but a distant thought!

Let's see...what's been going on....

I have been reorganizing a lot of things in my life to fit into my new role at Mylan.  Of course, my job description has hardly changed, but there has been lots of paperwork and red tape getting switched over from a consultant to an employee.  It's the little things that get me excited though-filling out forms, going to training meetings, getting colorful company manuals to read through.  Yes...I am a nerd...I know.  With all of this, I am really thankful for being able to be a real part of this company.  Mylan does a lot of "giving" that most people are unaware of.  They really are trying to make a difference by providing generic medications all over the world.  It's a great company that I will enjoy supporting for as long as they'll have me. 

My friend, Ashley, had a birthday a little over a week ago.  We got to have a sort of scavenger hunt/surprise party for her on her lot of land that a house will one day be built on.  Chad, her husband, took her on a trip down memory lane around Morgantown with the final destination being the party.  It was lots of bonfire fun with a wonderful ice cream cake and fun games to round out the evening!  I'm thinking we're going to have to have a lot more outdoor parties on that lot before they move in so that the loud noises that we make when we all get together will scare away the coyotes that live in the surrounding wilderness....we wouldn't want precious Zoie or Ziggy (their dogs) to disappear in the middle of the night...let alone their new baby..which won't be new anymore when they get around to building this place!  Fun was had by all!

I am trying out a new budgeting tool for the remainder of year.  It's based on the idea of a zero budget.  The idea is that I allocate every single penny that we make (using a spreadsheet) so that at the end of the pay period, my "account" has a zero balance.  This way, we know what we are spending our money on instead of just random costs that eat up your bank balance.  Now, all of this money is not spent, it's just allocated.  For example, savings groups (vacation, Christmas, new car, new house...you get the idea).  All of the money that is actually spent on things is put into categories (much like a regular budget) to make sure that we're not spending more than what we want in each category.  It's all alot of fun for me to play with-so I'm hoping that I can keep it up and we can really use the money that God provides us with in the wisest manner.  After all--"Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much" Luke 16:10.  So...hoping to get this right :-)

This weekend will be filled with Home Group tonight with some game playing (of course...cause that's just what we do).  Adam and I are singing this weekend at church, so that will take up a lot of the rest of the weekend.  I get to sing a Francesca Batistelli song (Unpredictable) that I really enjoy-so that will be fun.  She has an amazing voice and a great album of songs to match.  I highly recommend it!  We are also considering painting our office (like we've been planning on doing for around 2 years now).  We did take the next step and bought the paint, so now we're stuck and have to do it...finally.  Maybe this weekend will be the lucky one...who knows :-)

Soo--lots of random thoughts, but I must leave you with one more. 

"About a month ago I got a cactus.  A week later, it died.  Unfortunately, that means I'm less nurturing than a desert."

Pictures for the other blog

Here's Lexi where I found her....

And then here are a couple pictures of the cupcakes I made for Ashley's birthday  (which is tomorrow, now! Happy Birthday Ashley!)

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, read my last blog.
Have a lovely day :-)

New things

New thing number one : I officially started my position at Mylan as a Full Time employee with benefits today!  Yay for awesome benefits and thank the Lord that I don't have to deal with estimated taxes and private insurance anymore!

New thing number two : We started a new home group and are having a blast getting know the couples involved.  Very exciting!

New thing number three : Lexi has started jumping onto our bathroom counter...shame on her.  While I was getting ready for work one morning, I found her lounging in the sink.  I will add a picture as soon as I swipe it off of Adam's iPod.


New thing number four : my good friend, Ashley Griffith, has a birthday this week and I found this neat cupcake idea to mimick a fabric pattern.  Ashley is a big fan of cool fabrics and makes incredible things with them (you should see the diaper bag she made for herself, ADORABLE with tons of very useful pockets-my favorite part).  So I tried out new cupcake designs. This I will also post when I get ahold of Adam's toy :-)


New thing number five through three thousand : Recipes

   So most of you know that I like to try new recipes.  I have a small obsession with cookbooks and can even get Adam on board if it has pictures....he can't judge the recipe just from looking at the ingredients.  Not only do I like to get cookbooks, I also get recipes from magazines and online newsletters that I subscribe to.  If you're looking for some that have quality recipes - my top two emails would be Taste of Home (because you can look at the ratings and see how many people would make each recipe a second time--very insightful:-) and then Better Homes and Garden also has a weekly email that is very good.
    I've had to create an entire organization system around keeping these recipes in good order.  By the way, today's blog will be about recipes and organization, so if this interests you in no way, you can just go on about your day without finishing this blog-I'll never know!
    Now-with my cookbooks, I like to go completely through them when I first get it and mark the recipes that are actually do-able.  You know-with ingredients that aren't weird and that don't take some ridiculous amount of time to concoct.  I either dog-ear the pages, or use sticky page markers to do this (which can be made from cutting small post-it notes into small tabs.  Luckily-I used to work at a medical office and have absorbed thousands of sticky notes for my personal collection.  You'd be surprised at the shear quantity of junk that medical offices receive from pharmaceutical companies.  We were constantly throwing out stuff to keep our office stash to a reasonable amount.  So of course, I had to find some use for some of those items--thus my cookbook marking system.
    Anyway-I mark them so that I can quickly flip through whichever book I want, and then pick a few meals from each to try and add to my grocery list.  My magazine and printed out recipes of course have to have an entirely different approach to make the useful!  I have 4 notebooks that I manage for this purpose : 2 notebooks contain recipes that I have tried and are keeping for future use, and 2 are for organizing the recipes that I have saved that I haven't gotten to try yet.  The two are split into "Chicken" and "Other"....turns out there are way more chicken recipes than anything else...don't judge me...chicken is cheap and easy :-)  Oh-and did I mention I also have two other file folders-One for recipes that need filing, and the other for the recipes that I definitely want to try next.  (There's another one that I keep with my meal calendar with the recipes that I have bought ingredients for and will be making soon.......again...don't judge).
   The notebooks are divided into different categories (such as ground beef, other beef, pork, desserts, pasta...etc.) with pages to divide that I designed with whatever Microsoft Word clip art happened to look appealing to me that day.  I love just flipping through and imagining having the time to make all of these wonderful sounding meals.  That being the key factor - TIME. 
   So all of this organizational information about me to say, "I like new things".  I really do.  Although, I tried a new chocolate cupcake recipe this past weekend and it was not good :-)  Oh well--you win some, you loose some.

Yay God!

Yes--we made it back from our cruise and what a wonderful time we had!  I'm sure you've all seen the groups of hurricanes and tropical storms brewing in the Caribbean.  Well-we missed them all!  We had awesome weather and a wonderful cruise.  I'll try to share as concisely as possible because there is no way I could write about everything we did.

Friday and Saturday we spent driving, arriving promptly at Port Canaveral and loaded right onto the boat.  We were able to tour around the boat, get some sun, and go to a show that night--lots to do, lots of fun! 

Sunday was a Day at Sea so we filled it with as many activities as we could participate in throughout the day.  It started with us flipping on the television to see that there was a morning show with the cruise director and his assistant.  They are Hilarious!  I ended up calling in to answer a trivia question and won a diamond and saphire necklace!  Yay!  Without getting into too much detail, I left that call with the nick-name "Naked Nicki".....don't worry about how that happened :-)  So throughout the cruise, Butch (the cruise director) and whatever cruisers were watching the show knew me by my new-found nick-name.  I believe we did some karaoke that night after all of our other activities.



Monday we went to Cozumel, Mexico and got to do "The Amazing Cozumel Race" as our excursion.  We ran around that town so fast, going to a museum to answer puzzle questions, getting a henna tattoo for our next clue--yes...I had to do it...they would have had to shave Adam's leg for him to get it.  The guy says "it will only last seven days, no worries..."  Big fat liar!  It looks as dark today as it did then...which is exactly seven days ago!  No big deal though-I just won't wear any skirts at work.  Nobody wants to see a tattoo of a snake with wings and four dots on it with heels and a skirt!  After that, we ran to the pier and took a boat ride where Adam did some reluctant snorkeling to find out the name on the back of a sunken ship.  What beautiful water they had in Cozumel!  Crystal clear and the prettiest teal color on top!  From there we deciferred a few more clues, running around town from interest point to interest point, and came blazing into the finish line 4 minutes ahead of the next team--in First place!  Yay!  Good to know that we worked well as a team just in case we have to do that for real one day.....that would be AWESOME!  So, we got some "gold" metals, a snack and some Fantas and were on our way back to boat for usual evening festivities.

Tuesday we went to Belize for our Canopy Tour.  This is where you ride zip lines through a rain forest (basically tree top to tree top) and have a couple of rappelling opportunities as well.  We had a great time doing that!  We had to go on a bus ride that lasted over an hour each way to do this and Adam says he didn't think it was worth it, but I liked it.  The bus ride was INSANELY bumpy :-)  I just pretended that I was in one of those vibrating chairs...with the occasional earthquake during it!  It was neat getting to see different parts of Belize, but we were very thankful for the things that God has blessed us with, as the people of Belize have very little and seem to be very satisfied with that. Needless to say--all of this activity, combined with the "massage-like" travel left us very sore for a few days.  The weather was beautiful in Belize as well, so we loved it.

Oh yeah--we saw this crazy rain cloud while we were there.  Like I said, we didn't get any rain--but we saw it!  Somebody wasn't praying...

Wednesday we went to Isla Roatan, Honduras.  This is a little island that sits just off the coast of Honduras.  AMAZING!!  I can't say enough about the beach that we went to--it was a little paradise!  We had originally booked a beach day on this island for a place right next to where our boat docked.  After speaking with our cruise director, Butch, he recommended that we change the excursion to this other beach on the opposite side of the island.  We took his advice and we SO grateful!  The water was calm--no real waves, crystal clear (even when we were out too deep to touch, you could still clearly see the bottom!), it wasn't as populated as the other beach area, and it had the most relaxing atmosphere.  Now, the down side to all of this is that it was so beautiful, we soaked in all of the sun the we could...which left us as two bright pink lobsters!  And yes, we both put sunscreen on!  I re-applied every two hours and still ended up bright red on the skin that wasn't used to getting sun :-)  Adam says he doesn't believe in sunscreen anymore...because it didn't seem to work at all.  I might have to agree with him after this experience.  We might just be better off staying in the shade for the rest of our lives!

That night, when we got back on the boat, I auditioned for "Legends", which is a show at the end of the week where the winning cruisers perform with the dancers on the main stage.  The idea is that each person is imitating a Legendary singer...such as James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Elvis, Madonna, plus many more.  I ended up getting the Aretha Franklin role and began practicing to sing RESPECT at the end of the week.  It was fun!

Thursday, because we were so burnt from Wednesday, we found the most shade we could in Costa Maya.  The water wasn't as pretty here because it was more of a jungle beach-with plants in the water, but the scenery was still lovely.  I stayed clothed the whole time I was there to prevent any further damage :-) 

Friday was another Day at Sea starting off with the Morning Show again--this time with Adam calling in to tell his Diarrhea joke....if you don't know what I'm talking about, you can ask him yourself.  I'm pretty sure he's told that joke to everyone we know, but maybe you've missed it somehow.  We spent the day moving around the boat to participate in the fun activities that were available.  That night was the "Legends" show where all of the singers had to wear ridiculous costumes and sing/dance for our fellow cruisers.  I had a fun time.  Here's a picture of me after with Adam...I look even LESS like Aretha with this get-up on!

Saturday we packed up and headed to our friends' house in North Carolina for the evening.  Jonathan and Rachel let us stay with them and we watched the WVU game with them and Jonathan's parents that were staying as well. 

Sunday, we got to go to the McClung's HUGE church and had a great lunch with Jonathan and his parents (because Rachel was saving lives at the hospital...what a great gal ;-).  We drove home and were greeted by a lonely kitty that was very loving when we got home:-)  Out little Lexi missed us and she spent the whole night next to me in bed, letting me pet her every chance I get...what a cutie pie!

Anyway--I'm not sure how much I consolidated, but there it is none the less!  You can check out my facebook page for the entire album.  We had a great time and can't wait to go on our next cruise!  Carnival Fun ships really are a great way to vacation and we're so thankful that the weather cooperated with us as well!  It is great to be back and continue our lives here in Morgantown, where God has blessed us so richly with amazing friends, a wonderful place to live, and an awesome church family to grow with and be a part of!

Western Carribbean, here I come!

I'm leaving work early today.  Not because I'm lazy.  Because I'm going to a better place....Not that place....but a pretty good place.  Actually...a few pretty good places :-)  And the best part is who I get to go with. 

Yes, I am referring to Adam!  Isn't one of the best perks of marraige getting to go on vacation with your best friend?!  We get to relax, get sun burned, gain weight, and travel all at the same time :-)  We love road trips, so even the traveling down to Cape Canaveral will be a great time.  Although, I think it's time for us to get come more stand-up routines to listen to on our iPods.  Demetri Martin and Seinfeld are really funny...but we pretty much have them memorized at this point :-)  I do know one thing though..we'll probably start our journey with Tik Toc...because that party don't stop, no.   (just pretend that I said that really cool)

All right!  Off we go into work - were they are taking me and my team out for lunch in honor of me getting my PMP certification :-)  I think we'll do Olive Garden...yummy....Might as well start my vacation out right with a great meal!

YAY!

Build a Burrito

I would like to consider myself a pretty good burrito builder. Now-of course-I'm not doing the actual building...that I will leave up to the experts at Black Bear Burrito here in Morgantown. I just mean that I am good at combining the flavors that I like to make something magestic. Something that tastes so good that I have to take huge bites and eat it faster than I can breathe. Adam and I went to Black Bear for lunch today. I just cannot get enough of this magical burrito--so simple, yet so wonderful! All that the burrito consists of is a Garlic Herb tortilla, rice, mild salsa (homemade of course), Steak, and queso dip on the inside.....yummy! The steak is beautifully cooked and mixed in with the rice and queso....mmmmmm....so good! I have a hard time cutting the giant thing in half and saving one half for another meal, but I do...so that I can experience this goodness twice per visit to Black Bear.

When you add the burrito to all of the other wonderful food that I had this weekend...well...let's just say I ate alot. I walked up to some friends last night at the CRC Volunteer Rally and one guy said, "You know Nicki, everytime I've seen you this weekend, you've had food in your hands!"....yep....that's a pretty good description of my weekend :-) I love food :-)

Over-planners Anonymous

Yes..they need to create one of those.  I am guilty of over-planning....alot! 

We are leaving for our cruise next weekend and I have broken down tasks, budgets, useful facts, directions, outfits, packing lists/instructions...you name it-I probably made a spreadsheet for it!  Of course, I do blame this on my use of Microsoft Excel at work.  It is such a useful tool that organizes and formulates pretty much anything you want it to!  Yes, I do use Word as well....and it's a wonder I haven't formed a Power Point presentation to explain the journey we will take with animation and clip art.  Wait a minute...that's a good idea....oh well-we'll just have to see what I have time for :-)

I do regret to inform you all that my muscles are indeed mad at me for taking up P90x again.  They have rejected all abilities to move in a normal way.  Adam is worried that my muscle soreness will effect my game playing abilities on our first cruise excursion  - The Amazing Cozumel Race.  I assured him that I will not let it slow me down or effect my performance in any way :-)  I can't wait to show those other families who's boss!

Adam and I are celebrating our 5 year wedding anniversary today.  It has been a great 5 years!  I have been able to be a part of wonderful ministries at a wonderful church, learned alot about cooking and how to organize a home, and have made some outstanding friends along the way.  Yes, marraige is hard and always takes some work, but I really have enjoyed getting to know Adam and the many quirks that makes him who he is. 

We went out to dinner last night in celebration.  Stefano's was the place of choice.  It was a little pricey, but very yummy.  The service was wonderful and we'll definitely go back.  There are cheaper options on the menu as well, but we felt like a little splurge for our aniversary.  After all--we're both the same size, if not skinnier then we were when we got married--so who can blame us for indulging in some lucious creamed pastas and succulent desserts!  We're glad we went somewhere new for us and were well pleased with the outcome!

Tonight we will be joining some friends for the WVU vs. Marshall game!  Hopefully Eric Meadows will be able to focus on the game with all of us nuts running around him at his house!  Of course, since he is the oldest of the people that will be there (as far as I know), we might have to borrow a "listening device" from church to make sure he can make out the calls during all the noise.  They say the hearing is the first to go...or is it the hips?  Who knows...I'm still too young and niave to know (wink wink)!  So here we go on our next weekend of fun!

What a weekend!

I had a great Labor Day weekend!  How about you? 

Friday night, Adam sang the National Anthem at the WVU men's soccer game and we stayed for the game.  I've got to say that I much prefer a live WVU Soccer game to a live WVU Football game.  Although the energy at a football game is unreplacable, the calmness at the soccer game allows me to actually focus on the game--which I very much enjoyed.  The crowd was packed on the blechers of the very nice soccer field and we had a great time.  We were expecting to be sitting alone for the game, but we actually saw alot of people that we knew there-so it was a great time!

Saturday morning, we set off to the hottest Morgantown shopping spots-The University Town Center (which I am pleased to say is spelled correctly....none of that fancy stuff like "Towne" and "Centre"....just spell it right people...) and then off to the Morgantown Mall (not the deserted one that I work at...the actual normal mall with hundreds of stores).  I am very thankful to have such a thrifty husband when it comes to shopping for clothes.  He is great at finding deals!  My stamina is a little lacking when it comes to how long I can stand shopping, but Adam is always there pulling me along, trying to get me to find things for myself. 

After that, I dropped Adam off at the church for weekend practice and service while I hit the grocery store and got some things accomplished at the house that afternoon.  Church after that-where I am really enjoying the series-and then dinner with our friends that enjoy eating out with us on Saturday nights-the Griffiths!

Sunday-I made cupcakes for the Meadow's/Griffith's Labor Day bash that resembled hamburgers...I think I have learned my lesson with this whole "cupcakes from scratch" stuff.  They're just never as good as Duncan Hines or Betty Crocker....Duncan and Betty definitely nailed it when it comes to cake batter....so why mess with perfection?  The cupcakes I made had a "brownie cupcake" middle as the patty with all vanilla icing-dyed to look like lettuce, mustard, and ketchup (is that how you spell it?  I get confused...is it Cats-up, or Kat-chup, or catshup...no...that's not right...).  I wasn't pleased with the density of the brownie cupcake, but everyone said it tasted good-so I guess that's ok.  Here's some pictures:

We spent the afternoon eating, chatting, and taking part in the largest corn-hole tournament of all time!  Adam and I did ok....I think we were 4th or 5th place...something like that.  I am glad to say that I focused on the game at hand-regardless of the many distractions like community and fellowship around me.  Adam--you're welcome!  Just kidding....I had a great time and afterwards we lit up a giant fire, made some 'smores and then ended the evening with a lovely game of Telestrations....one of the best games ever!

Monday, Adam and I head out to the Tanger Outlets in Washington, PA where we continued to find good deals and load up on "vacation" clothes.  Of course, I couldn't help but buy some work clothes, because I'm always in need of those.  We both stayed within our budget even with a little left over--so we'll just see what that gets spent on :-)

We finished up the evening catching up some tv--Big Brother to be exact.  Why is it that we love to watch this drama??  I'm not usually a big fan of drama--definitely the screaming kind, but the cast that is left on Big Brother this season is all alot of fun people, so they get along, and they're still playing the game.  Great show! 

I'm starting my workouts again this week to get in a little better shape before I blow up like a balloon on our cruise in a couple weeks...can't wait for that cruise food!  Yum!  But my muscles are definitely hating me right now.  Shame on me for waiting until the last minute to work out....oh well.  Can't help it!  There's just been too much fun to be had lately!  Bring it on P90X!  Let's see what you got!

Relaxation

I have seriously enjoyed my week of evenings at home with nothing important to do!  I haven't had anything that HAD to be done and I didn't have to be anywhere.  It is such a relief after 4 months of studying every evening concerned that my time was not being well spent.  Glad that's over! 

Tonight, Adam will be singing the National Anthem at the WVU Men's Soccer game.  After the game, we're going to go support Under Shelter at their Morgantown gig.  Tomorrow, Adam and I get to start spending money on vacation clothes!  Yay!  We're going to go to the Tanger Outlets on Monday to get some "no-tax" deals!  Sunday, we will be attending what promises to be the cook-out of the year!  The Griffiths and Meadows are doubling up for a fun filled Labor Day Cornhole tournement with tons of food and fun.  I'm thinking about making cupcakes that look like hamburgers...we'll see if that happens!

I don't really have much to talk about since I've been taking it easy this week.  I have really enjoyed it and now I will enjoy a busy, fun-filled 3 day weekend!  We'll just have to see what happens :-)






Oh-and Adam ordered his iPod touch for his birthday, finally!  It was cute because he is having it engraved on the back to say "I love Nicki Etris and my iPod touch"....what a cutie pie!  Glad I came first :-)

MyMart

So, most of you know that I’ve recently changed locations for my job. All of Mylan’s Morgantown IT and Legal departments consolidated into one location, rather than spread out over 4 locations around town. Our new building is what everyone around town refers to as “the OLD Wal-Mart” which is attached to the “old mall” which is a ghost town at best.

Mylan likes to cleverly add “My” to the beginning of many departments/ applications/ happenings that go on around here. For example, the application that my team developed is called “MyPortfolio”. We see and hear things like “MyOpportunity, MyRewards, MyUniversity”....you get the point. So it was only natural that when we found out we would be moving into the old Wal-Mart, that it became lovingly called “MyMart”. (only in certain circles, of course!). Now, of course, they renovated the old Wal-Mart, turning it into a sleek office building on the inside. You would never know that it was a Wal-Mart at one time...if it weren’t for the outside. That’s a pretty distinctive thing to have to change. So yes, the outside, greenhouse and all, still looks like a Wal-Mart without the sign (plus some windows...), but the inside is incredible. It was a great move for me because it’s around an 8 minute drive from my house!! This means that I don’t have to get caught in the middle of Morgantown during 5 o’clock traffic! It cuts down my evening commute about 40 minutes. Needless to say, I appreciate the move.

I mentioned that this Wal-Mart was attached to the “old mall”-the Mountaineer Mall. When it was a Wal-Mart, you could enter in, pass the food area on the left and hook a left into the mall (passing tons of WVU and Steelers gear, of course). They amended the entrance to the mall, making it “Mylan secure” with an incredibly complicated turnstile. To move from our office to the mall, you must swipe your badge over the sensor, step into the weight sensored circle and wait for the door to smoothly advance one space to drop you out on the other side. It sounds like a suction cup on the inside. If you mess up the timing, you’ll look silly just standing in the turnstile waiting for it to move. (I have passed that area several times only to see someone standing in this exact position wondering how this process actually works....and in case you were wondering...yes, I did help them:-)

If you master this process, you have won the right to enter into the Mall. Now, right around the time that the Wal-Mart moved out of this building (2005 I think), all of the stores began to leave this mall. The only remaining stores are Goodwill, another local Thrift store, a home store of some sorts, the social security office, a salon, a Subway, and a hot dog place. There are a few other random things like a senior center, but it’s hard to tell what they really are because there are no signs or advertisement giving away their locations. The main idea is that it’s old, and deserted. This also means that the mall has a certain “smell”....it’s like....hmm...moth balls....or what I like to refer to as “the old people smell”. (no offense to those of you that think you’re old....you’re not...so this doesn’t apply to you!) The “old people smell” is like a wave that smacks you in the face when you enter into the mall. It’s very strong and in every nook and cranny of the mall. Luckily, our office does not smell like this...yet! The only connection to the mall is this air tight turnstile. There is also a door that remains unlocked between the turnstile and the actual mall, but this does little to keep out the smell.

I was walking past this area last week and found a group of around 5 people standing there looking perplexed in front of the door. I immediately prepared myself to go into “tutorial mode” to explain the door function...but then realized that’s not why they were standing there. They were all sniffing...and asking what that smell was in this part of the building...in this portion of the hallway. So, being the nice, informative person that I am, leaned into their group (of whom I didn’t know any of them) and whispered...”it’s the old people smell from the mall”. They gasped! Our worst fear had come true....the smell was seeping in! Now we all fear that one day we will leave our office and our families will utter...”what’s that smell?” as we enter the door. That’s a bummer....

Before I depart from my description of MyMart, I must share my most recent discovery in the mall. A hurricane simulator. Yep, you read it right....a Hurricane Simulator! I was walking back from Subway or the hot dog place one day and noticed that this machine had just appeared in the middle of the hallway between thrift stores. At most malls, you would expect strange things like this...but who drops something like this into a deserted mall?? I was expecting to open the door and walk into the magical land of Narnia or something...very mystical. We got a coworker to try it out-Gus. Thanks to Gus, we now know that’s it’s difficult to breathe in 90 mph winds....Thanks Gus! 

All in all—it was a good move. I’m very thankful for MyMart and the opportunities that it holds within. Not to mention that MySubway has awesome cookies for only 49 cents a piece! MyScore!

God is good!

So isn't it amazing how God answers our prayers?  I mean, yes, we all know that verse, "ask you shall receive", but do we really believe it?  If we did, I'm sure that we'd be alot less stressed out about the things of life. 

My test yesterday was a success.  I really believe that God calmed my nerves for me.  The exam consists of 200 questions in 4 hours.  I spent the first three hours doing my first pass through the questions.  For these, I was calm, cool, and collected-very comfortable about my studies, focused on the task at hand, and not concerned with the outcome.  The computer allows you to mark any questions that you would like to return to later for review. So I spent the next 45 minutes reviewing those answers.  I did begin to get nervous and shakey when I had about 30 minutes left.  Not because I was nervous about the time, or about answering the questions correctly - but because I knew that as soon as I walked out of that room away from the computer, I would be given the results.  That scared me to death!  Forgot to pray about that :-)  All sorts of things were going through my mind at that point from, how am I going to react if I don't pass, to how the guy handing me the print out with the results would react if I didn't pass.  That would be a hard job.  I didn't want to make him uncomfortable.  Luckily--I didn't have to worry about that because I did pass, but my stomach was all in knots over it regardless!  And Adam, the guy who handed me my results (what are the chances that God gave him my husband's name??), gave them to me with a smile, proud that the person who had been in that testing room the longest had come out successful.  You see, the testing center had people there for all reasons--Clepping out of college courses, tests for jobs, and certification exams.  Not many of those last 4 hours, so I saw many people come and go during my time there.  I am thankful for my experience, and even more thankful, that I don't have to study anymore :-)  Praise the Lord!

Now, I can focus on my next journey in life...where will it take me? You'll just have to wait and find out :-)

Hopefully, this certification will bring better opportunity into Adam's and my lives.  Even if it doesn't, it is a huge confidence booster that I do have at least the knowledge to apply to Project Management.

Thank you all for your prayers--God did answer them--and the answer was YES :-)