2010 New Years Resolution

As the new year approaches, it's time to decide on my new year's resolution. I did a decent job with last years, but didn't make 2, so I'll bring them into this year's list.

Here's what I have so far:

1) Actually keep up with this blog!
2) Read all the Harry Potter books, to find out what the fuss is about.
3) Send out birthday & anniversary cards this year (I believe this is year 3 for this resolution... 3rd time is the charm, right???)
4) Train & run a 1/2 marathon.

I'll keep thinking if there are any other resolutions that I can come up with.

3rd week of March

The 3rd week of March.... during the week, not that much happened, though the proposal I had kept revising over & over again finally closed... $150K in margin, so it made all the headaches worth while!


This weekend brough more visitors to the Raleigh area... this time Mindy, David, & Schnapps came to see us. They had a whirlwind trip as their vaca & I was the 2nd to last stop on the route. They arrived Friday (3/21) evening and stayed until Sunday (3/23) morning.


On Friday evening, we took it easy as they were tired from their travels. We went & had BBQ at Dickey's, which was better than I had guessed. David managed to confuse the cashier when he made her come around the counter to ID the food items in the picture. We even got to take a souviner cup home with us.


On Saturday, we went to Durham to have lunch with David's aunt, cousin, & cousin-in-law. After lunch, they took us on a tour of downtown Durham (including the Durham Bull statue) & the Duke campus (beautiful!) and treated us to LocoPops, these homemade Mexican popsicles that are delicious... I had the cookies & cream flavor... I guess there are 3 locations of LocoPops in the triangle area (which is where the ladies that founded LocoPops are from), so this will be a stop on all visitor tours from now on!


After the Durham/Duke tour, we continued the travels, ending in Chapel Hill to see the UNC campus. We then went to the Top of the Hill brewery, so David could try some of the local beer and we could watch the UNC game. Afterwards, we went home to walk the dogs and have some more drinks before heading to bed.


It was a good visit! Pics are of the Durham Bull statue, the Duke church, the Duke gardens, and David & Mindy at the Top of the Hill Brewery.

2nd week of March

The 2nd week of March was again busy. Work has been busy, which makes my week days crazy & hetic. I also attended my 1st general meeting of the Raleigh Junior League; it went well and I was introduced to everyone so I had to stand up & be embarrassed and all that good stuff.

I took a 1/2 day off that Thursday & all day off on Friday and headed home to Indiana to the weekend, to meet up with my Alabama sister, Jennifer. The plan was to arrive home late Thursday night, but a Kentucky snow storm forced me to get a hotel room, in London, KY. So I can say that I went to London for the weekend :-)

While at home, I got to visit with Melissa for a while (& she brought over pizza from my favorite pizza place (Bobe's Pizza)!) Jennifer and I also enjoyed some long visits with Grandma & Grandpa Sullivan and Mammaw Brenton. Other than that, we just hung out with Mom & Dad before heading back to the South on Sunday.

It was disappointing to be in Indiana during the weekend of Ashlyn Sanford's 2nd b'day party & not being able to go, but the thought of a 3 hour drive after driving 11 was too much for me.

I have no pics to post for this week. I should have taken some while at home but didn't think about it.

1st week of March

March has been a very, very busy month so I've decided to update it on a weekly basis instead of the entire month.

Week 1 first brought a huge milestone... I am an official North Carolina resident, with a licence & license plate to prove it! & I like my licence pic (a rarity for me), which is good because it doesn't expire for 8 years!

The 1st week also brought a visitor... Anne came out from Omaha! She got here Friday, 3/6, during the afternoon and stayed until Monday (3/9) morning. On that Friday, we went shopping at Crab Tree Valley Mall & went to a very yummy dinner at the Melting Pot.

On Saturday, we started our day in downtown Raleigh with breakfast at Big Ed's Diner and then walked around the downtown area. We were going to take a Segway tour of the city, but didn't have much luck getting hold of the Segway people. After we toured downtown (& I got us lost), we headed to the State Fairgrounds for the flea market. We then went back home for a while, for a few drinks, before heading out to Chapel Hill where we shopped in all the cute little stores and walked around the UNC campus before finding a great restaurant, The Top of the Hill Brewery.... good food, good beer, and a wonderful view of the city with the mountains in the background.

On Sunday, we went back to Chapel Hill to pick up some purchases that we (OK, I) regretted not buying the day before & then stopped in the bar with couches for some drinks while the UNC vs Duke game was on. We then went back to my apartment for some cheap Chinese delivery & drinks. It was a great visit and I hope that she comes back soon... & hope even more that she moves from cold NE to warm NC!

Another highlight of the week, to me at least, was that after 3 years of owning my patio table, I finally found chairs that I not only liked, but could afford! I can now actually sit at the table without having to bring out the uncomfy folding chairs!

Pics are of Anne's visit (I could post one of my chairs, but figured I was the only one interested in them!)

February update

February was another quick month for us. The biggest highlight of the month was my parent's visit over Valentine's day.... we visited the Raleigh flea market that occurs every weekend, the annual car show at the state fair grounds & went and ate at the Red Hot & Blue and 42nd Street Oyster Bar. It was nice to get to spend time with them & to show them my new home here in Raleigh.

I probably should have updated this earlier, because I do not remember much more that occured in Feb. I know that we had a nice warm front come thru & Ansley and I spent a lot of time at the dog park. But that is all I really remember! Sorry everyone!

The pics are of Mom & Dad's visit.

January recap

January came & went quickly for Ansley & I. One of the highlights of the month included the Forsythe annual kick-off meeting in snowy/freezing Itasca, IL. Before the kick-off meeting, I worked with my 2 sales reps (1 of which is the singer in the picture of the Forsythe band (ya, we're a dorky company)) to create a movie for the Forsythe Film festavil (like I said, dorky company)... the movie was the 3 of us & Marvin the Martien with a lot of not-so-HR-friendly humor... needless to say, our film was the only one NOT to air during the film festavil! We did manage to "borrow" one of the Oscar awards, which we display proudly at the Raleigh office.

Though my film career was short-lived, I was able to catch up with old friends during the kick-off meeting, including my Skokie & Nebraska co-workers and finally meet some of my newer co-workers... it's strange to talk to people on a daily basis via phone/email but never seeing them, so it was nice to finally be able to put a face to the names! Another memorable moment was my icy drive from the corporate office to the hotel (about 20 or 30 miles away) in a rental car (full of co-workers) that was rear-wheel drive.... I decided at that moment that I would never, ever again be the car-pool driver for the regional folks... it's someone else's turn! I've attached some of the group pics of me & co-workers from all over the nation.

January also brought around a freak Raleigh snow storm... since I never watch the news/weather, I had no idea it was coming. I woke up one morning to find about 5 inches of snow on the ground! I thought I was dreaming! Being the mid-western girl I am, I not only drove to work, but even got there early.... only to find out that the office was closed! I stayed until noon & then worked the rest of the day from home... the roads were not bad to me (all that practice I got during my 5 Chicago winters paid off!), but no one can drive around here in snow! It's hilarious, yet a little scary, to be on the road with them! I had honestly thought I had left the snow & cold weather behind me this time, but I guess not! Of course, Ms. Ansley was completely thrilled by the snow and could not get enough of it.... to her great sadness (and to my great excitement) the snow was completely gone within 3 days & we had a warm front of 70 come thru! You can see Ansley enjoying the snow in the pics.

January, of course, brings around New Year's Resolutions. This year, I decided that I would do 2 resolutions:

• My first is actually a re-attempt at last year's... to send out b'day cards to all my family & friends. January was successful, so we'll see how the next 11 months go.

• My 2nd resolution has already given me not 1, but 2, new addictions... I decided that I would finally give all those things that I thought everyone was giving too much hype to a try. This included watching Lost, reading the Twilight & Harry Potter books, watching all the Batman movies that were ever on the big screen (so that I could then watch the Dark Knight), & watching the Harry Potter movies (after I read the books of course). I drew the line at American Idol & Survior (and all reality shows actually).
  

As I've already mentioned, this resolution has given me addictions....

• I first became addicted to the TV series Lost... of course I'm way behind everyone else in the world, since I was so late in discovering the show (thank you Kat, for showing me what I was missing!!!!), but still, I love it & had season 1 done in no time at all.
  

• My 2nd addiction, which is actually even stronger than my Lost addiction, is the Twilight book series. I can not get enough of it!!! I read all four books (plus the spoiler of the 5th book - Edward's side of Twilight - can not wait for it to come out!) in less than 2 weeks! I've also purchased the entire audio book collection of the series, which is what I am going to listen to on my trips to IN & AL. I'm very obsessed & can't help it!
  

I also attended a Jaycees meeting during January & think I'm going to join. I went with a client from Lulu (Bill, my fave client)'s wife, Kris (who is now my fave client's wife... course I don't know any other client spouses, but even if I did, I'm sure Kris would still top the list). Bill & Kris give me tips/ideas of where to take visitors and things to do in the Raleigh area. I still need to get myself transferred from the Indy Junior League to the Raleigh league.

During January, I continued to write to my adopted soldier (Mark)... I also got involved in the Ladies of Liberty (I'm on team 8!) and the letter writing team to support our troops even more. I've thought about fostering a soldier's dog while they are away, but too nervous that I'd get one that didn't get along with Ansley Jane.

Well, I believe that is January in a nutshell. It was a whirlwind, but it went well.

My 1st Blog!

Since this is my very first blog, I thought I'd start out by introducing myself... If you have my blog address, I'm guessing you already know the basics about me, but just in case you stumbled onto here by accident, my name is Stephanie... I mainly go by Steph and also go by stepherz (yes, stepherz is not capitalized... gives it a little something extra). A couple of people are allowed to call me Stephie - you know who you are & if it's not you, don't try because I won't answer. I will only answer to Step-On-Me if you'll answer to Candy Cane. I do answer to the names Sara, Michelle, & Jennifer because those seem to be the most common wrong names I'm called.

I'm originally from Willisville, IN, a small dot on the map in SW Indiana. After finishing school at Indiana State in Terre Haute in 2002, I moved out to Chicago, where I lived from July 2002 - March 2007. While I loved the summers of Chicago, the winters & the cost of living finally wore me down and I relocated to Indianapolis. I was right that the cost of living is better in Indy but I was wrong about the winters being more mild. After a year and 1/2, I decided to do something crazy & out of character for me and, over Thanksgiving 2008, I relocated to Raleigh, NC which is ~700 miles from home. I know no one here (yet), but am excited to build a new life and make Raleigh home.

I've had a companion during all my relocating adventures, my lovable fur-baby, Ansley Jane. Like me, she goes by various names, including Annie, Annabelle, Furbacca, Tinkle Bell, Baby Girl, & Princess, among many others. Ansley is a 5 year old Siberian Husky and I'm very lucky to have her in my life. I say I rescued her, but I think it's really the other way around. I've included some pics of her checking out our townhouse in Raleigh during move in day.

This blog is a way for me to keep my friends and loved ones updated on Ansley & I's NC adventures. I hope I'm decent at keeping it updated and I hope some of you are at least 1/2 way decent at maybe glancing at it occasionally! My audience is wide spread, as some of you are still in Indiana & Chicago. Some of you are Southerners in Alabama and SoCal. 1 of you is a crazy girl out in Nebraska. And I'm sure I'll pick up some people along the way all over the place.

So, I'll end my first blog with this... Enjoy & keep in touch!