...Twas The Night Before Christmas.....

Christmas Eve is finally here. My house is spotless and the cats are stowed safely away in the guest bedroom with enough chicken to keep them quiet for the evening. I began baking/cooking last night after finding the user manual to the oven.

I gave up halfway through, and instead, contacted a restaurant to cater the whole thing :)

On that note I'm off to primp before my guests get here.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone!

Say What? Resolution #3

"Um like you know cuz it's a whole nother thing."

Huh??

The final grade for my class included a 20 minute powerpoint presentation that outlined our final projects. This is when I realized that more than half of the class can't speak properly. And by properly, I mean not at all. I was APPALLED by the over usage of the words "like," and "um" and actually started to keep track of how many times each speaker would repeat those words. I lost count once the speaker rounded 40.

"Ummmmmmm, you know."

No, I don't know. Explain it to me. I know what? What are you trying to say? Is it necessary speak this phrase at the end of every sentence, because I DON'T understand the words that are coming from your mouth.

"It's a whole nother thing."

Nother?

I'm no public speaking phenom by any means, but I do make a conscience effort to slow down, eliminate as many "ums," and "you knows" as possible. I do incorporate "cuz" and "um" at times, and I've even caught myself exclaiming, "that's a whole nother thing."

Ick. Ick. Ick.

Don't even get me started on the word "like." Once again, not claiming perfection here, I throw slang around like it's my job. It becomes a problem when the lines between speaking with slang and speaking properly are blurred. I've not only noticed this with myself, but with other professionals that I encounter on a daily basis.

Resolution #3 is to speak better, especially on a professional level. Chit chatting with girlfriends is one thing, but when a client asks me a question such as, "What are the benefits of sending my patients to your facility," and I start my reply with, "Ummmmm, you know," my insides twist, and I cringe because I know I've already blown it.

Stop.
Think.
Respond.

I want to start my declarative sentence off as a declarative sentence.

"The benefits of sending your patients to our facility are.........blah, blah, blippity, blah."

I want to dramatically reduce the usage of the words like, um, cuz, nother, and you know.

We're all educated - time to start acting educated.

Like, you know?

Where Have I Been?

Christmas time is in full swing, and I'm so, so, SO far behind.

I had planned to put off everything Christmas until I finished my last class on the 11th. Last Thursday rolled around and I presented my final presentation and passed in my final project. My professor emailed my grade on Monday. Drummmmmmmmmmmm roll please......

A-

I was concerned about what grade I was getting when my Professor gave a speech during our final class. "I hardly award A's. Mostly B's. I reserve A's for the students that passed in exceptional work."

I was confident about the work I passed in this semester, but I wouldn't exactly deem myself exceptional.

But if my Professor does, who am I to argue?

Now that class is over, and I'm officially graduating this month with my Masters (finally), I can now focus on Christmas. I volunteered to host Christmas Eve at my house, which means not only do I have to plan and execute a menu, I have to decorate and prepare my home for family members that have not been over to see the house yet.

Seems easy enough right? Except a) I've never hosted ANYTHING before, and b) I've yet to introduce myself to our oven. I'm very acquainted with the other appliances (microwave, toaster oven, washing machine) just not the oven.

On Sunday I decided to skip the menu planning part and dive right into the decorate and prepare the house part. Brian scurried off to the Pats game, and I began painting the upstairs guest bedroom.

Before:


I'm STILL working on the bathroom, and plan to finish it tomorrow. Still, no menu.

But the bathroom will look pretty :)

Quit Picking On Me....Resolution #2

I have a confession to make.

I'm a picker. A bad picker.

I manage to pick a teeny-tiny zit turning it from non-existent into a gaping Grand Canyon sized crater.

Scabs, hair, zits, ANYTHING that I can pick at....I pick at.

Pick, pick, pick.......

After I'm done picking, I think to myself, "why did I just do that?"

Chances are, I'm not alone.

So resolution #2 is to stop. Stop picking.

This one is going to be hard.

Happy Monday.

10 in 2010 Challenge - Resulution #1

I am officially launching my "10 In 2010 Challenge!"

For those of you who remember this post, I'm big on the resolutions, and have challenged all of you to join in.

Throughout the month of December I will be posting all ten of my resolutions - I haven't thought of them all, but I WILL have ten by the time 2010 rolls around.

Without further ado....

Resolution #1:

I am somewhat cheating on resolution #1 because it's a resolution that I've had in the past. I enjoyed it so much that I'm bringing it back for 2010. I will read 1 book each month for a total of 12 books for the year 2010. My first book:



Yup, that's right - I'm jumping on the bandwagon.

So who wants to join my "10 in 2010 Challenge?"

Post your Resolution #1 in my comments section - that way we can share ideas in case anyone gets stuck coming up with 10.

Remember to challenge yourself to make your resolutions action oriented, and specific....it's more fun that way!

Let the games begin!!!

Bring On The Christmas

No denying it now.

Christmas is right around the corner. 25 days around the corner.

I was trying to ignore all of the Christmas decorations that had exploded everywhere before Thanksgiving because COME ON can we just enjoy Thanksgiving and THEN deal with Christmas??? Geesh.

And the carols? Already? Seriously? I was standing in line to get a coffee last week trying very hard to ignore:

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh the weather outside is frightful....."

Nope, no frightful weather. Crisp. Fall. Colored leaves. Thanksgiving.

"But the fiiiiiiiiire is soooooooooo delightful!"

Ahhhh nope. No fire. Pilgrims. Apple Pie. Turkey. Stuffing......

"And since we've no where to goooooooooooooo...."

Hmmm. I have somewhere to go. And if this putz in front of me didn't order enough coffee to caffeinate a small South American village, I'D BE THERE BY NOW!!!

"LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOWWWWWWWW!"

No, no, no. No snow. Please, no f-ing snow. Not yet. Just Thanksgiving. Please. For the love of God.

On a positive note, I once again completed a road race on Thanksgiving morning. Not only did I complete 5 miles without stopping, I beat my time from last year. I managed to shave a whole 12 seconds off my time.

What? 12 seconds is good right?

Battling On.....

I so rock.

Yup, patting my own back here....pat, pat, pat.

I've been really watching what enters my mouth (get your minds out of the gutter)- and have been hitting the gym pretty hard.

In two weeks I've lost a total of 4.2 lbs. I am almost and I stress almost, out of the 150s.

Bring on Thanksgiving because I'm still going to lose this week!!!