Week 21: Girl's Weekend!

I'll be out of town starting Thursday afternoon for a girl's weekend with my co-workers (friends). We had a BLAST last year and I'm sure it'll only be better this year. Most of my week thus far has been spent preparing for the trip and the rest will be spent enjoying it!

I love that I've gotten to know my coworkers so well since our trip last year. We bonded so much during the trip and it makes my job, which I already loved, even more enjoyable. I'm really lucky to be surrounded by such fun, caring and funny women.

Here's to a fantastic weekend ahead!

Week 20: A New/Old Recipe

This week I made Fruit Cocktail Cake. While this is the first time I've ever made it, I grew up with this special dessert at my second home- my friend Katie's house. Katie has a great family that loves traditions and I've always appreciated that. Her mom gave me this recipe when I got married and I am really honored that she shared it with me- it's been in their family for years and years and years. She wrote on the back of the recipe card that she spent a lot of time at her grandmother's home and she liked to spoil her. This cake would do just that.

The cake itself is super easy. If I can make it successfully, it's really, really easy. I won't post it here but if any of you would like it, I'll provide it to you on a cute little recipe card. I think that's where recipes belong. Lemme know.

Week 19: Or Just, Connect

This week I went out of my way to be more social. I am very much a creature of habit, and my habit is usually coming home after work, exhausted and spending the night on the couch. My weekend habit is to do something fun with Scott and try to see friends or family maybe one of the weekend days. That's pretty much my life. I'm an introvert so much so that being with people makes me nervous and that nervousness sometimes overtakes me. But I kept it under control this week.

Anyway, I really like how my life is despite the boringness that it sounds like above. But, I do sometimes crave social-ness and know that making effort feels that void and is just really fun. So when I got invitations this week, I accepted. I had a lot of fun and it was good to connect with new people, people I don't know so well and people I've known for a while.

I have a lot of fun social times coming up in the next few weeks and am way looking forward to them. I should probably scale back and try to be at home a bit more than I was this week- our house is pretty much a nightmare and I haven't exercised all week. I probably shouldn't sacrifice those things during my social mission.

Week 18: Reconnecting

Before I moved to Cincinnati, I worked as a part-time dance instructor at a WONDERFUL studio in Richmond, IN - my hometown. Along with leaving my friends and family, leaving this studio was one of the hardest parts of my move.

This week, I went back for their recital. I hadn't been back since I stopped teaching in 2006. It was so fun to see how much the girls had grown up. One of the girls I taught individual tap lessons to was dancing at a level with girls 5 years older than her. Proud moment. All of the dancers had grown so much in their ability since I had them- so cool to watch.

It was so refreshing to see this group of people that I haven't seen in just about 5 years. Teaching at that studio has had a huge impact on me and will always be one of my favorite times in life. The patrons and studio staff welcomed me back wonderfully for the evening, and it felt like I had come to one of my "homes" in life.