Thursday Thoughts

• My work has been doing a month long fundraiser for the United Way. Yesterday was a mini garage sale and I purchased this little beauty.

• This is a picture of my work wardrobe hanging in the hotel during my Utah trip.

I think I may need to spice things up. haha!

• I finished Sarah's Key earlier this week. A-mazing.

I have been interested in the Holocaust since reading The Diary of Anne Frank as a young girl. I had the opportunity to visit the Holocaust museum in DC a couple of years ago and it was so interesting and heartbreaking. When I learned this was an option for the book club, I knew I had to read it.

De Rosnay's U.S. debut fictionalizes the 1942 Paris roundups and deportations, in which thousands of Jewish families were arrested, held at the Vélodrome d'Hiver outside the city, then transported to Auschwitz. Forty-five-year-old Julia Jarmond, American by birth, moved to Paris when she was 20 and is married to the arrogant, unfaithful Bertrand Tézac, with whom she has an 11-year-old daughter. Julia writes for an American magazine and her editor assigns her to cover the 60th anniversary of the Vél' d'Hiv' roundups. Julia soon learns that the apartment she and Bertrand plan to move into was acquired by Bertrand's family when its Jewish occupants were dispossessed and deported 60 years before. She resolves to find out what happened to the former occupants: Wladyslaw and Rywka Starzynski, parents of 10-year-old Sarah and four-year-old Michel. The more Julia discovers—especially about Sarah, the only member of the Starzynski family to survive—the more she uncovers about Bertrand's family, about France and, finally, herself.

• Speaking of the book club, Book Beginnings and Bookends, did I tell you all I designed this button for them?

• Remember my post about these gorgeous books?

My copy of Little Women came in the mail yesterday from Amazon. It is really nice looking and I love it! (I ordered it months ago, but it wasn't available until the end of September.) I'm hoping to add more to my collection.

Utah

As I mentioned in my last post, I spent 8 days in Utah for a work trip. I had been once before a couple of years ago and it was gorgeous. The beautiful state did not disappoint.

My boss and I traveled all over the state, but our main bases were Salt Lake City and Provo, where BYU is located.

Dinner at Pizzeria 712. Some of the best food I have ever had. Oh so yummy!

The Chocolate--A Dessert Bakery

My hotel and the pathway directly behind it.

Train ride!

The train ride was 3 hours and incredibly long and you went about 10 mph, but the views were gorgeous!

A trip to Ikea was a great way to stretch my legs after the train ride! I love that place!

Ignore the horrible picture from Ikea. I love when restaurants leave water on your table. I drink a lot and love being able to refill my own glass. I decided we needed one at the house.

Thank you google for a better picture!

A beautiful drive on the Alpine Loop on the way to Ikea.

An eventful trip to the Great Salt Lake in a pencil skirt, a silk blouse and a cardigan. It was on the way back to the hotel from a career fair. I wish I would have been in a bathing suit. The water was amazing!

The water was so smooth.

The water was extremely clear. I was standing in the water looking down at the sand. I think the water was about mid-calf. I loved the pattern in the sand.

My legs looked like I had a bad case of dry skin after they had dried off from the water. They were covered in dry salt. So weird!

Yummy mexican food at the Red Iguana.

I love the iPhone app, Hipstamatic!

I was told to go to Hatch Family Chocolates for the best hot chocolate. It was AMAZING! Hands down the best hot chocolate ever. What my sweet blog friend forgot to mention was it was owned by The Little Chocolatiers! I was so shocked when I walked in to see them standing in the store!

picture via

My favorite chocolate was a peanut butter truffle with sea salt. Oh so good.

Big thanks to Emma for all the great restaurant recommendations!

I didn't edit a single picture for a couple of reasons.

1. I'm lazy.

2. The landscape is so beautiful. It really doesn't need anything extra.

If you are interested in more Utah posts you can read about my trip two years ago here, here, and here.

weekend recap

I returned late Friday night from an eight day work trip in Utah. I took waaaay too many pictures and have yet to decide which are the best. I took Nuts to stay with my parents while I was gone.

My mom watches Mason while my sister is at work, so I got to spend time with him when I dropped Nuts off. I promise he was happy to see me. haha.

I was actually comforting him. He loves to face out and be bounced. He always gives my arms a workout.

I dropped Nuts off on Tuesday the 14th, left for Utah on Thursday the 16th and returned late Friday the 24th. I woke up Saturday morning and headed to my hometown to pick up my puppy. My parents had gone out of town for the weekend and my MIL was kind enough to keep Nuts Friday night. Beverly spoiled Nuts and even let him ride her on her lap while she mowed the lawn.

I got to see Ty's brother, SIL and the boys.
Baby Wade


My MIL and Nathan


I had such a good time hanging out with my sister and of course, Mason!


He loves bath time!


LeAnn and Justin live in such a pretty area and have great views.




I spent most of today catching up on laundry. I'm so exciting.

my blonde moment

I have a fear of asking stupid questions, so I normally think before I ask something out loud. Not so this time! My boss and I had been in our rental car for about 40 minutes. As I'm driving, I ask: What does this "D" mean?

Oh goodness.

Really?!

Let me set the scene for this story.
I'm in Ulta. It's a pretty big store.
I'm browsing through the nail polishes which are located at the VERY back of the store.
They don't have what I'm looking for, the fall Essie color cube.
I walk to the front of the store to see if they have any in the back.

The story:
On my walk to the front of the store I encounter a little girl.
LG: Do you love Jesus?
Me: Yes, do you love Jesus.
LG: Yes.

I continue my walk to the registers. There is a line, so I wait to ask my question*.
Little girl follows me.
LG: Have you ever dyed your hair?
Me: Yes.
LG: I want to dye my hair. The girls at school tell me I have ugly hair.
Me: You don't have ugly hair. It is very pretty and so many people would love to have your pretty blonde hair.
What grade are you in?
LG: Kindergarten.
Me: Well, your hair is very pretty and I don't think you should dye it.

Finally, a free sales associate and I proceed to ask my question. They don't have the cube, so I walk to the VERY back of the store to look over my selections. Little girl follows me.

I don't turn around, because I don't want to encourage her. We get to the nail polish and she talks and talks.

Me: Where is your mom?
LG: checking out.
Me: Don't you think she will be worried? You should probably go back up there. I will walk you to the front.

She doesn't think so and continues chatting. Eventually, her mom walks to the VERY back of the store and asks me if her daughter has been talking my ear off. She is very calm. I laugh, a har dee har har, yes she has been talking my ear off and why aren't you more concerned type laugh, and they leave.

UM, does anyone else see the problem with this??? Since when is it okay to let your kindergartner wander around a store by themselves? The mom wasn't able to see her daughter until she got to the VERY back of the store, not only because she is, well a kindergartner and short, but because of the store set up. She also didn't seem the least bit concerned. I think I would have been freaking out!


I felt weird posting her picture, but couldn't resist documenting this weird encounter, so you get the mustache.
*Why can I never find sales people when I actually need them?

parties, parties, and more parties

My weekend was packed full of events.

I attended a Stella and Dot party Friday night where I bought this gorgeous necklace.


Saturday morning Jane picked me up and we went to Megan's Scentsy open house.
I bought some great fall scents.

Megan's nephew was so cute and wanted to be in all of the pictures.

After that I headed to my Big Brothers/Big Sisters little's soccer game. She did such a great job, and I forgot to snap a picture. Then, it was time for a trip to Sam's and Target with a friend for church to prepare for a baby shower.

I had just enough time to get home and change for a surprise party. Jessica's husband, Kyle, threw her a surprise party and Megan and Brent hosted it at their house. Everything was perfect and Jessica was truly surprised.

The cup I was holding said I heart Jessica. Megan ordered them and they were so cute!
Jessica and her husband are so cute together. He is so sweet to her and you can tell he just adores her. I love it when I see couples like that.

You can see my sunburned arms from the soccer game in this picture. It doesn't take much. :)


Sunday was filled with church and a baby shower.

Sam's makes delicious cupcakes!

Our church group had a get together Sunday night, but I was worn out from the weekend and skipped so I could work on blog designs. Now it is Monday and back to the grind. I have a busy week a head of me!

random thoughts

I spent my weekend snuggling with this guy:




This little beauty came in the mail yesterday. I can't wait to travel with it.


I am obsessed with Netflix instant disk for the Wii. I watch this while I work on blog designs


It is officially my busy season at work and I have turned into an incredibly boring person and blogger. Good thing I am doing a great giveaway this week. :)
Have you entered my giveaway?

visit my giveaway blog

You do not want to miss this giveaway! It involves a $100 giftcard to a great department store. It may or may not be to Nordstrom. Visit here to find out...

designer apparel

Have y'all ever heard of Designer Apparel? I sure wish I would have know about it when I was searching for my Mom's Mother of the Bride dress. We had the hardest time finding something that looked like my mom, fit and was in our budget. This site would have made all the searching easier.

The site is set up really well and lets you search by price, store, and different sales. I love sites that give me several categories to choose from. Designer Apparel has brought together some great stores all in one place: Neiman Marcus, Shopbop, Bloomingdales, Bluefly, Zappos, Net-A-Porter, and Nordstrom. They also have tools like price comparison, sale notification, and free shipping notice! I am all about online stores with free shipping codes. :)

One of the problems with finding my Mom's dress was she is petite, so sizing was difficult. I found several petite options on Designer Apparel.

{Adrianna Papell}

They also have plus sizes.

{Adrianna Papell}

Another problem we had was everything looked too old for my mom. We didn't want her to look frumpy and it seemed that most Mother of the Bride dresses we found just weren't her style. I was expecting to see a lot of frumpy dresses when I searched through this site. It was not the case. They do have the more traditional dress, but several that would have been great options for my mom. And the more I think about it Ty's mom as well. I know she struggled with finding a dress that fit her style when she was searching for a dress for her youngest daughter's wedding.

{Donna Ricco}

Something to note is when you click on a thumbnail image of a dress, the site takes you directly to the retailer. Designer Apparel isn't a middle man. They also offer links to help you search for kids clothes, handbags and maternity--just to name a few.

Road Trip--East Coast Edition

Ty is applying to several residency programs on the East coast, so we wanted to get out of the city and drive around a little. Our destination was not a residency location, but we did get to stop by a town with a residency program on the way.

We walked to the rental car location at 6:45 a.m.

We got in our tiny rental car and drove an hour to...

Ocean City, New Jersey

We originally wanted to go to Atlantic City, but the reviews I had read online were not that great. Ocean City received great reviews and I'm so happy that is where we ended up. Ocean City boasts a 2.5 mile boardwalk. Beach, state fair type food, ferris wheel, bicycles--I was sold!

The first thing we did was rent bikes at Ove's.
I am in love with this bike and would love for Santa to bring me one just like it!

I wonder if I could get Nuts to ride in the basket. Wouldn't that be adorable?!

We were walking along the beach around 8:30. I love early mornings at the ocean.

Did I mention how much I loved this bike??

Mid-morning snack: fresh squeezed lemonade and a pretzel.
My mouth is watering just thinking about that pretzel.

I was SO excited to ride the ferris wheel, but it turns out the thing doesn't open until 1 pm. We had to be back on the road to the airport at that time. Bummer!

We rode our bikes several times up and down the boardwalk, browsed shops, ate food and enjoyed each other's company. My biggest regret is not being extremely hungry. There were so many things I would have liked to eaten. I guess I will just have to wait for the fair to come to town to get my fill of funnel cakes and all things fried.

Ocean City and Atlantic City aren't very far apart, so on our way back to Philadelphia we stopped by. I'm so glad we spent the majority of our time in OCNJ. Atlantic City was too commercialized for my taste.

We spent a little bit of time in a casino.

Yummy mini corn dogs.

If we ever live in the PA or NJ area, we will definitely be spending a weekend in Ocean City.
I'm so happy we made a mini vacation out of Ty's test. He is extremely busy this fall and I barely see him. It was nice to spend quality time together and explore new places.