story of my life

These days begin early and end after the office with study for an upcoming CMA (Certified Management Accountant) exam.

Heart-y Dinner

We celebrated Valentine's Day with a special multi-course meal including pepperoni croissant (rosebud) appetizers, and Shraon's delectable brownies (optionally served with Turkey Hill Vanilla Bean ice cream).

Valentine Surprise

Last Tuesday this lovely flower arrangement was delivered to my office-- 

from my forever Valentine sister, Betsy.

1,000

Recently at the office, one of my coworkers won a prize for conserving the one-thousandth water bottle at our new water-bottle-filling station!

The water station was installed a couple months ago, and makes the office feel all the more "official," 

or at least more like an airport (since airports are usually the only places I use water fountains).

snow morning

Last week we had a little snow delay one morning,

(first proper snow of the season here in Pennsylvania!)

So I made pumpkin waffles.

Yummy!

If you'd like to make your own pumpkin waffles,

here's the recipe I used (adapted from Savory Nothings):

Pumpkin Waffles

2 cups flour (I used half white and half white-whole-wheat)

1 Tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ginger

Nutmeg and cloves to taste

1 cup pumpkin purée (from Michigan pumpkins, of course)

3 Tablespoons butter melted

1/4 cup brown sugar

3 eggs, wisked

1 and 1/2 cups milk

Optional and yummy: 1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts

Combine wet and dry ingredients, add nuts (optional), and cook on a hot waffle iron. 

Enjoy!

just because

I bought myself a bouquet of flowers the other day.

Just because

It's February,

and

I love fresh flowers.

Happy Birthday!

We celebrated Phethia's 20th birthday Thursday evening--

complete with funfetti birthday cake, ice cream, and tea :)

Happy Birthday, Phethia!

flashback/when we were little...

When I was in Claire's with my nieces the other day, 

I saw what would have been a

Dream. Come. True.

for Betsy and me when we were little...

a generous selection of affordable eyeglasses.

All sorts of colors, sizes, and styles.

No prescription lenses.

Wow!

How we would have saved our nickles, dimes, and dollar bills (we were paid in increments of nickles and dimes) if we would have been able to one day purchase a chic pair of eyeglasses. Who knows, we might have been better pretend moms driving mini vans, better grown-up ladies being friends, better international business travelers, better prairie homemakers out in our fence row forts... better everything-make-believe with a couple of pairs of glasses...

:)

And after aforementioned hypothetical purchase, we probably would have worn said glasses everywhere (which would have in turn been documented in every photo-- though Mom probably would have made us take them off before portraits for the living room wall)... 

...until we were teenagers.

(and even then we probably would have sneaked them on when it was just us and no one was watching)

I guess you could say we had a "glasses infatuation."