change isn't always for the better

I know it's not breaking news and that it's not something that anyone really cares too much about, but seriously, sometimes change isn't always good. LIKE ... the new GA license plates.

They are just not right. The old plates were bland and simple. The new plates are too busy and the color scheme doesn't even match. Seriously, peach, green and blue?!?! Now, yes, in the pictures it looks all pretty and fancy, but next time you're out on the road, look at the plate in front of you. It looks nothing like this in person or from the respectable distance away from the car in front of you.

BIG DIFFERENCE .......

siutations are irrelevant now

Where to start and where to end. The past few weeks/months/this year has been quite ridiculous.

In the past few months I've managed to write more initial evaluations for a job that I love, pick up some PRN work, teach OT classes and volunteer training at Gigi's Playhouse, co-plan an awesome continuing education conference, hang out with a friend or family member here or there, and pretty much neglect my home cleaning/DIY/sanity.

The good news is that the bulk of chaos is over -- ie the conference has come and gone. It was great. Amazing, really. To sum it up: high-heels, mediating a breakout session, cadaver arms in the bathtub, unknowingly put on the spot for a panel discussion for surgeons and therapists in front of 80 of my peers ... with about 98% of them having more experience than myself ... BUT, it was awesome and I've gotten some pretty good feedback, which is always nice to hear.

So, coming up on the agenda:
1 week left in the Marietta office (which means my caseload is about to get a whole lot lighter).
spending 5 days in Jackson Hole, WY with the boyfriend
Tri the Mountains Race in Blue Ridge -- to which my training has really suffered because of all of those other excuses
 Sir Lexicon turns 3 years old

Who knows what else?!

one man show

The main kitchen counter demolished and rebuild in less than a weekend time. Now it just has to let the sealant curate and voila! (Yes, I still need to paint behind the fridge and take care of the mini counter that the microwave sits on.. but baby steps here. A girl can only get so much done in a weekend).

So ... Here 'tis.

And of course, the best part of any project is the weird things that we do to get them done ... Managed to out do myself this time around.

Ripping down the counter and backing ... aka putting holes in the wall

patching all the holes from prying nails out and the adhesive glue that ripped off the drywall

Didn't have a 2nd set of hands so I used 2 stools, 2 paint cans, and 2 glasses to match the right height and level the counter.

A new counter!

kitchen progress

Getting serious about finishing the other side of the kitchen...

DIYhavent you done this already

This is what I want my entry way to look like ... except I have 1/2 the space and STILL have to finish my kitchen project!

... TRItorunfaster

..Training update..

3 days in. 2 runs, a row, a stationary spin & a killer leg lift later I'm feeling pretty good about this. Or feeling pretty good that I have 11.5 more weeks to train still.

Running never gets easier. Some of us -- esp those of us who like to have body parts operated on every 5 yrs due to wear & tear-- just aren't meant to be one of you crazies that laces up your sneakers to let off steam or unwind. You people are nuts! Okay, that being said, I'm exhausted from trying to be one of you.

::training song of the day::

Watch "The Wombats - Our Perfect Disease (FULL SONG)" on YouTube

the beauty got a hold on me

Done. Registered. Training ... Well, not yet .. but in like an hour.

 ((Helps that my pool opens in a week and I can swim laps there at night and not have to fight for the 3 lanes at the gym!))

Tri the Mountains

12 weeks, ready go!

cinde::relly

What would you do if you could split yourself into to....

Would you be twice as productive? 

Would one of you sleep while the other went non-stop and hopefully you'd split the difference?

Would you eat fast food and be on a treadmill at the same time? 

Live in two different climates? Time zones?  

Personally, I'd be doing some random combination of all the above. I am not quite sure where the last few weeks of my life have really gone. I know that somewhere in the month of April I have spent time with my family in the mountains, spent a few hours at Gigi's Playhouse, had 10 days with the boyfriend at various establishments around Atlanta -- including time with good friends and yummy mexican food. Oh right, and I've been working ... a lot. 

My plate isn't really all that full (okay, well it is ..), but it seems to be that it's encompassing way too much of immediate life. 

Solutions? 

:::crickets crickets:::: 

Yeah .... 

Okay, serious. Things I would like to do: train and complete another sprint triathlon. Spend a weekend in some random quaint town doing nothing but drinking coffee and reading a book. Picnic. Anywhere. 

Ready, go. 

... i think ...  

a little piece of life

These are a few of my favorite things. (or people rather).

Fridge decor complete.

Tactful delights

...Sorry for the delay in the rest of the Italy trip ... My laptop charger died and I'm still waiting on its replacement....

In the meantime while I can't sleep.... Let's talk about tact. Life pretty much requires it. It's a politeness that keeps us from apologizing our way through life. Those who have it are capable of connecting with people in a genuine way --- while the tactless are either completely blind to their lack of sensitivity or their selfishness outweighs everything else.

People aren't simple. Complex thoughts, emotions, decisions, impulses.

"We are masters of the unsaid words, but slaves of those we let slip out."  Churchhill

Tuscany and Florence

Tuscany & Florence


.... the adventure continues ... Super sweet Panda. Check. Mediocre GPS. Check. Awesome company. Check. Okay, so we're headed from Venice to our place in Tuscany area. It's the boyfriends birthday and he really wants to stop and check out Bologna. So we do. Well, we basically drove around the outside of the city center pretending that we (and the GPS) knew where we were going. We totally missed the major monuments of the city and the rain that we left on the autostrada (highway) was heading our way -- and I was hungry -- so we headed onward.

We drive through a gazillion roundabout, which boyfriend finally got the hang of, then we showed up at our villa, Villa il Poggiale. It should have been pretty simple to find because there are signs everywhere with the name of the place, but the GPS swore that the address was really like .8 miles south of where it actually was. Anyhow -- we arrive, we hand over our passports for check-in, the receptionist gives us a dinner recommendation and a tour of the villa.

The villa was huge -- the main floor there was a drawing room with an honor bar, the upstairs was our room and a few others with 3 or 4 studies in between them, the downstairs was the breakfast room and what I'm assuming are more rooms, and the basement was the spa. The spa offered massage services, but the jacuzzi and the sauna were open to all guests.

So we decide to drive into San Casciano to grab a snack. We ended up finding this little deli/pizza place called Pizzera Rosticceria "da Cesare". We split a large pizza for 7 euro and it was amazing. The best pizza of the trip, hands down.

Made it back to the Villa and the receptionist stops us to inform us that since it's the boyfriends birthday he called the restaurant that we have reservations at for dinner and they have a special surprise for us. Fast forward to dinner --- HOLY GEEZ IT WAS GREAT --- We dined at Cinque di Vino also in the small town of San Casciano. We arrive and it is a 8 table restaurant. We were greeted by the owner and he immediately seats us and pops open a bottle of nice champagne for boyfriends birthday. We start perusing the menu and the owner started suggesting things left and right. We basically said yes to everything and ended up eating the most amazing meal. I would recommend this place to anyone ... it's worth the drive from just about anywhere in Italy.

The next day we got up, headed to breakfast --which we then realized we were the only people staying at the villa -- then we ventured into Florence and Chianti wine country. Florence was beautiful. It had some pretty grand structures and famous works of art. We spent the morning walking around the rather busy city and then grabbed lunch then drove into wine country.
















Because we went in the off season, the wineries were not yet open, but we did stop and buy a bottle of local wine to head back to the villa to drink while we watched the sun set. The sunset was great -- and boyfriend even helped me fashion a sun dial out of rocks! For dinner we headed to La Cantinetta Del Nonno. Who knew that pork and potatoes could be so simple and yummy!!

Next up: Cinque Terre

Venice

I survived Italy! And by survived I mean loved every second of it. It was a great way to turn 26, celebrate the boyfriends 26^th, and experience another new country!

I swear that I’m going to try to update you all (the like 2 of you) on the trip details … but maybe a day at a time or city by city … So here goes!

Venice

Worked Friday from 7:30 – 12:30 then hopped a flight to Paris for a layover. Upside I upgrade to comfort ecomony and had like 15 empty seats surrounding me. Downside, I found out that the boyfriends flight was delayed and that he’d be meeting me in Venice 6 hrs later unless I wanted to pay 250 bucks to change flights. It was a close call, but I decided to save the money and hang out in the really small and awful Venice airport solo waiting.  So I sat at Venice airport from 8:50-:240 pretending that I sleep while I travel … at this point I hadn’t slept in over 30 hrs. 

When Josh got to Venice we caught a waterbus into the city center. Or so we thought since we got off on the wrong island (Lido). Wandered around on the wrong island for like 10 minutes then re-caught the waterbus to find our bed and breakfast, the C’Due Leoni. The B&B was nice. It was a little off the beaten path in a part of the Cannaregio section of Venice, but it was quiet and not overpriced. The room itself was nice. It was 2 stories. The bottom floor with the entry, bathroom, and small sitting area for breakfast and then the upstairs was just a desk, nightstands & a bed – or two smaller than twin beds pushed together to make a queen.

Put down our stuff and went to dinner. Josh ordered something that looked like it came from the oilfield (Codfish & Tar?) and I ordered pasta.  We split a bottle of wine – the first of many on this trip – and wandered around the streets of the ‘Jewish Ghetto’ according to the map in our pocket that we never could have survived without. ((At least not with any real sanity left)). Went back to our hotel and finally got some sleep.

In the morning we called downstairs and they sent breakfast up to our room. It was pretty delicious, but then again, I could eat nutella and croissants every morning for breakfast!

Got cleaned up then headed out to check out some of Venice. Took some great shots on top of the Rialto Bridge, the first bridge to ever connect to the two sides of Venice, then it started raining pretty good so we headed out to pack up and go pick up our rental car (which is a Panda … literally).

Next up …. Tuscany & Florence!

february adventures

February has always been a pretty great month for me. It's still close enough from the new year holiday that I don't feel like I'm yet losing track of time and ends with birthday week. Well, since I was living in CA for a few Febs, I was trying to do something to challenge myself.

Birthday 24 was a reverse triathlon,   birthday 25 was my first 10k. -- so birthday 26? Well, this years birthday adventure is a bit different. Mainly because I'll be hiking up the Cinque Terre coast line on the big day with my stellar boyfriend.

That's right, as a combination of Valentine's, his birthday (the 26th) and my birthday (the 28th) we are packing a bag and heading to Italy for a week! So excited, I love traveling! One night in Venice, 2 nights in Tuscany, 1 night in Cinque Terre, and 3 nights in Rome. Happpppppyyyyy February!

where in the world

the cabinets after i removed the inner panels

BUSY! It's nice to not have down time to sit around and be bored, but this month has flown by and I don't quite know where it has gone. My weeks consist of work and getting work things done -- which I'm doing pretty good adjusting to the snails pace of the other office mainly because I have 2 million other things that I'm working on for work. Weekends have been filled with watching Jax & Davis for my sister, teaching handwriting classes at Gigi's Playhouse, and attempting to finish the kitchen project that I started like 6 weeks ago. I'm not one to procrastinate a DIY project, but I just haven't found time for the tedious trim work and the 2nd coats and polyurathane. Here's a couple of 'in progress photos':

The right side of the kitchen is done (except the trim) .. you don't even want to know what the right side looks like ... And of course, here is the obligatory little boy mohawk picture of my nephew. I love him to pieces.

 

three palms

Unwind. Decompress. Count to 10.

Me time. Detox. Destress. Relax. 

Calm oneself. Take a breather. Time out. 

There are a lot of ways to help ourselves unwind ...

This week I have found myself counting to 10 one too many times. Perhaps it was having to break up with all my patients -- which was miserable --this week and pack all my therapy stuff up to move to our other office (yes, i volunteered in a moment of selflessness)  or perhaps it was working one too many long days this week, or perhaps it is just because I need to stop taking deep breathes and for once be the selfish one in my life -- and I'll start with this glass of wine.

Goal 1: Drink a glass of wine.
Goal 2: Take a bath. 
Goal 3: Go to the thrift store. 
Goal 4: Try a new coffehouse in my area. 
Goal 5: Get a hair cut. 
Goal 6: Plant some new flowers on the balcony. 
Goal 7: Attend a yoga class.

get by with a little help from my friends

"Friendship is what you make it. The best of friends can survive long pauses and millions of miles, while the daily acquaintance can rarely withstand the day to day turmoil that exists in between our own ears" -- Me. 

Another week and now weekend down. This weekend I managed to do nothing. (By nothing I of course mean that accomplished every little task that required no great deal of exhaustion -- filed my taxes, online shopping for some stuff to teach handwriting at Gigi's Playhouse, made a mock itinerary for the boyfriend and I for Italy, and watched a few netflix movies in there on my computer too). Okay, okay, I made it to the gym as well, but still ... I did nothing. It was refreshingly awesome. 

So as I lay here (yeah, I'm not even sitting upright) with 7 different tabs on my browser of everything from Venice hotels to Georgia triathlons, I can't help but wonder how I can make this next week count. Not in a save the small african children kind of way, but in a shake up my daily lifestyle routine kind of way. So, goals. I'm going to set some goals for myself this week. Seven goals for seven days.

Alright well, let's see .... Mon-Thursday I've got a regular work schedule. Friday a work strategic planning meeting ALL day. Tuesday and Friday mornings I've got spin classes at 5:45am. And Thursday night I've got a study sess. And Saturday teaching at Gigi's. So hmm ... Goal 1: Drink a glass of wine. Goal 2: Take a bath. Goal 3: Go to the thrift store. Goal 4: Try a new coffehouse in my area. Goal 5: Get a hair cut.  Goal 6: Plant some new flowers on the balcony. Goal 7: Attend a yoga class.

As for now ... sleep! 

swet sour

 Well, another weekend down: Finally ended an epic game of phone tag with 1 of my 2 'opponents'. The boyfriend is still in the middle of nowhere and with such spottie cell/internet service I haven't really talked to him in a week. (Which kind of makes Birthday Week Vaca planning a little difficult...)

I did manage to get the house clean, rearrange the dining room (don't look so shocked), filed my taxes (BANK!!!, and even got to play with Robbie -- my camera, I named it that after my last one was stolen 2 years ago --

Happy weekend every body, I'm going to start planning my gym attack plan for tomorrow! 5:30 spin class comes very early!

he's a willing test subject

all we care about is talkin'

"The more people I meet, the more thankful I am for the few close one's in my life".

The count of people close to me in this life is a small, single digit number. 

And this fact makes me very happy.

Things I have done today:

• Breakfast with my favorite family of 3. 
• Drink way too many cups of coffee -- as I sit here sipping on another. 
• Reaffirm my belief that I'm happier as an introvert. 
• Drive in the monsoon/hail storm. 
• Attend and give to a great local foundation, The Cindy Donald Dreams of Recovery
• Catch up on emails and my blog (clearly...)

Things I really want to do today:

• Fiddle with my camera and perfect some photo shooting tricks
• Start the bathroom his/her mirror project
• Begin the mudroom/foyer renovation
• Start making washer necklaces for Etsy to keep raising $$ for my OT Gigi's classes

Things that I'm going to do instead of what I want:

• Clean my house --- holy moly this place is gross. Starting with the kitchen, then dining room, then living room, then my bathroom/bedroom. I'm talking like bleach and scrub brushes here people. It needs it bad... 
• Organize my tax info from 2011
• Perhaps paint another set of kitchen cabinets... the kitchen's only like 1/4 of the way completed and I already want to move on to a new project. I blame Pintrest.
• Laundry. Sort it, fold it, start a new load. Repeat, repeat, repeat. 

Okay, Saturday. Let's do this huh? 

gigi's playhouse of atlanta

Most of you have read, glimpsed, scanned my multiple posts about raising money to make a donation in my nephews name to Gigi's Playhouse of Atlanta. A lot of you have even supported the cause to promote Down Syndrome by purchasing the washer bracelets with the 'heart strength djk' message or one of your own. ((my favorite being the one that says 'miracles happen')). Lately I've been spending a lot of my weekends at Gigi's teaching parents the in's and out's of proximal stability, tying shoes, and even using forks and spoons while bonding with some pretty incredible kids.

Now, what you may not know ... These kids are amazing. Best part is, now Davis is one of 'em! This weekend he and my sister made it for their first class, a physical therapy 'Learning to Roll' class. And I was so touched to be there to share it with them both. Davis is what brought me to volunteer my time and resources at Gigi's and now he's getting a chance to let Gigi's share their resources with him. Gigi's Playhouse is an amazing facility. They provide FREE therapy sessions, FREE social time for parents and kids who live the life of an extra chromosome every day, and FREE infinite amounts of love, caring & good karma to those who walk in the doors.

So, the big news .... 

We met our goal of 1,200 dollars to donate in Davis' name ... 

AND my mom's company is going to match it! 

So Gigi's Playhouse can be expecting a donation of $2,400 from Davis James Kohl.

So to all of you who helped support the cause, whether monetarily or through assisting me with keeping my sanity.. THANK YOU. You have helped provide double the money and double the love to an amazing cause for some pretty incredible families in Atlanta!

PS. I will continue to sell the bracelets and coming soon necklaces to raise money for supplies for the classes at Gigi's, so keep spreading the love and awareness! 

pinterest

 Lately I've been Pinterest stalking for new fun ways to entertain my pallet. So .. here's what I've done for dinners lately. Personal lasagnas in a muffin tin & zucchini pizzas!

 

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