Blog Party 2010

I was so excited when I found out about a Blog Party. It seems like it's just what the doctor ordered to give me a break from my normal craziness of life right now. So here is my Blog Party Post!

My name is Katy. I'm a lover of all things colorful, pretty, tasty, crafty, and fun. I love spending time with my family and friends (even though they all live at least an hour away). I am first and foremost a follower of Jesus Christ and in January of 2003 I dedicated my life to my Lord and Savior.

 I started a blog after I lost my job. It seemed like a great way to fill time. It started as a way to just express myself through a different outlet. I mean really..how much does a husband want to hear about his wife's quite boring day...right? So then I met other bloggy friends who have introduced me to sewing and increased my love for baking and I'm so excited about it.

More about me you say?

I'm 24 and you can usually find me with my camera

wife to my high school sweetheart. Married for 2 years & 11 months, together for 8 years.

puppy-momma to 2 furry labradoodles

Yasha (4 years old)

and Nittany (1 1/2 years)

Our life was turned upside in the past year. I lost my job, my husband found out he will probably lose his job in June so we moved into the 2-room attic of my in-laws house.

My blog follows my adventures as we try to fill in the missing puzzle pieces. We hope to someday very soon have a house of our own and a family (we thought we would already be doing all of this by now...but God had different plans for us). So that's enough about me. If you are visiting, I would love for you to leave me a comment or become a follower so that I can come visit you! For my current bloggy friends, you should give the Blog Party 2010 a little check out and join the fun! I mean really...who would turn down more chances to win something for free!?!? You might, but definitely not this girl. There are TONS of prizes. It was hard to pick just a top 3 but here goes:

1. a 3 day 2 night stay from Holiday Inn Main Gate East in Kissimmee, FL (less than 2 miles from Disney World) a value of $250.
   Provided by: Holiday Inn Main Gate
2. Be My Guest certificate ($250 value) for one lucky winner, (2 night stay for a family of four) at any Hilton Garden Inn.
   Provided by: Hilton Garden Inn
3. Tupperware Prize Pack – the winner will receive a box filled with fun Tupperware goodies.
   Provided by: Heather @ Marine Corps Nomads

I'd really love one of those top 3 (a trip would be AWESOME!), but if I can't have those, I'll take any of the following :)

[continental] 40, 39, 7, 48, 11, 20, 31, 32, 36, 38, 52, 55, 73, 75, 87, 88, 91, 95

[us and canada] 3, 8, 13, 15, 17, 25, 27, 32, 33, 35, 36, 37, 39, 40, 44

Seriously..click below and join in!

Today I need to...

• pick up projector & screen
• copy kid pages for Sunday
• head to work
• count drawers
• change signs
• pump bucket and bucket and buckets of ice every 30 minutes
• not make a mess of the place like I did yesterday while serving customers
• make the next 2 or 3 weeks of a schedule only to have the girls all switch their days around making my job semi-pointless
• finish writing lessons for Sunday
• finish my photography presentation for the Women's Retreat
• Make sure I know what I'm saying on Saturday
• Pack for the weekend

all so that on Friday I can

• head to work
• count drawers
• change signs
• pump bucket and bucket and buckets of ice every 30 minutes
• not make a mess of the place like I seem to do when I'm busy
• Leave my hubby for the weekend :( for the women's retreat :)
• Hopefully successful give a presentation on photography. (praying I won't be nervous-I'm sensing nerves starting already...yikes)

Weekend Update...it's kinda long & picture heavy

This was one jam packed weekend. It feels so long, probably because mentally it started on Thursday. Thursday morning, Greg had to make ice for Rita's and I had to close the registers from Wednesday & prep for a really busy Thursday. Then we had a meeting with one of the owners about how things were going. So far it seems as though we are doing a good job. phew! We worked basically up until 4:00pm between the meeting and lots of customers. Then we came home and 15 minutes after arriving home, we got a phone call from the girls who were working saying that they were running out of ice. Sssssooo back down to Rita's we went. It's about a 20 minute drive for us, so it's not really that long but when you are on a time crunch and are driving back and forth multiple times it gets to be a little much. Finally by 6:15 we were leaving Rita's stocked full of ice for a busy night. We had to buy dog food and pack for New York. Thankfully we were not called again to make anymore ice for that day. 

Friday morning, we had to close the registers and make LOTS of ice for another beautiful Spring, hopefully busy Rita's day. We made close to 13 buckets/flavors of ice!! But by 12:30 we were off to New York. I was ecstatic...seriously excited to go to New York. We really thought that we would be able to see some things in New York. But sadly we didn't. We were too cheap to pay $21.00 to park our car for a few hours. Plus the whole point of being in Manhattan in the first place was to pick up the race packet--not sightseeing. Maybe another time..like when we hit the lottery, or have jobs. So these are the only pictures I was able to snap on the way & in the city.

I snapped this picture in the car. Greg told me not to take a picture of the projects...
I didn't notice until just now that the Empire State Building is right in the middle of the picture. I thought
I was just taking a picture of a skyline. HA!

As we realized we were driving through Queens towards the hotel, we realized traffic wasn't really moving much at all. Obviously we hit traffic, but this was different traffic. After half an hour to go a mile or something like that, we realized that a block party had broken out in the middle of the street we wanted to go down. So we said hello to a detour that turned out to be soo much faster! Praise the Lord. I will admit it seemed weird to be staying in a neighborhood where I couldn't read or pronounce most of the signs and stores I was seeing. But the hotel was fabulous--nothing special, but so much nicer than I expected. We stayed at a Holiday Inn. First of all--hello KING bed with luxurious sheets. It even had a restaurant downstairs so we ordered take out after a walk in Flushing Meadows park. Here's a picture of the room. Sadly we were only on the 2nd floor so there was no view other than the air conditioning unit and such, but it was dark most of the time we were there anyway.

We had to check out before the race, but they were kind enough to let us keep our car in the parking lot for a few extra hours--which was super helpful. The race didn't start until 9:15 which was late compared to the races in Philly that were starting at 7ish. We walked the 3/4 mile to the race and it was a beautiful day! Here are some pictures of Flushing Meadows & my hubby running :)

Flushing Meadows Park

Flushing Meadows Park

Flushing Meadows Park

Mile 2

Mile 4

Mile 5.5

Tickets @ Arthur Ashe Stadium

Mile 10.5

Finisher Medal

Finisher w/ Arthur Ashe Stadium

Finisher w/ CitiField

Flushing Meadows Park

Overall, he finished at 1:32:12, which is a great time! 41st finisher overall, 39th male, 9th in age group. Such a proud wife am I.

ohh..and Happy Easter of course. I will leave you with just this song that is in my head.

"There in the ground His body lay, Light of the world by darkness slain. Then bursting forth in glorious Day up from the grave He rose again! And as He stands in victory sin’s curse has lost its grip on me. For I am His and He is mine; Bought with the precious blood of Christ."

So thankful to know that I have been saved by grace and that Jesus Christ died for ME and for YOU.

Weekend/Vacation/Excitement

Tomorrow we leave for New York. Greg has a half marathon in Flushing Meadows, New York. What we just found out today is that he has to pick up his race packet (and goodies) tomorrow between 12 and 6 and it is pretty much in New York City. I can't believe it! I have never been to NYC and I've always wanted to go. Granted I'm not going to really be visiting...more like driving through. But STILL! I am super excited about this trip. Not to mention the course route includes lots of laps which means Katy doesn't need to run around to different spots for hours trying to catch a glimpse of her husband! hooray! PLUS, it is going to be B.E.A.U.T.I.F.U.L weather.

Let's see, what else?!? I don't have to work or really even think about Rita's until Monday--except for a teensy bit tomorrow morning, and the schedule that I need to fix as soon as I'm done with this post. AND I got my first paycheck...wowsers. I haven't gotten a paycheck like that in a very.long.time. 1.5 months shy of a year.

I'm just about all ready to give my presentation next week on photography. I'm really excited to share with people that they can do it too! and I created this super cute brochure [aka cheat sheet] for everyone to take home with them. 

Now I must finish the schedule, clear off my memory card, charge batteries, and ahh pack! Maybe you'll get lucky and get some updates throughout the trip?!? who knows!