Monday, October 25, 2010

Wedding Pics

Jess' wedding pictures were FINALLY put up online for me to see. Here are some of my favorites. 

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Cami jumped in front of me EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. I think we jumped four times before I gave up.


Oh, but you wanted a picture of my sister and her husband? Fine.
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Ok, here's a lovely one of her dress, and Michael looking dapper in his suit. Very different from this picture. Right?



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all pictures by Camilla Combs

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Impulse buy

Before I even started working this morning I bought a plane ticket for Halloween weekend. I'll be spending it here:


And I'm SO excited!

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Lifetime to do (Post 8)

I haven't posted one of these for a while. This next one is personal, maybe too personal for my blog. But, it's going on the list anyway. And I don't really want to explain it. So, I'm just going to post it.

Number 8: Be comfortable in my body, in my own skin.

I'm slowly making my way there.

Monday, October 18, 2010

Cooking

Last Sunday I went to a Fall potluck at the house of some friends. I have been really into cooking and more importantly, baking lately so I decided to make a butternut squash soup. I found a recipe for Butternut Squash and Apple soup and took it to the potluck. I think it turned out really good. (Probably because I added some left over heavy cream...) But it was an easy recipe so I decided to make it again last night so that Lisa and I have soup to take to work this week. (Yep! Lisa is back from India/Philippines!) But unfortunately I wasn't thinking late Saturday night at the grocery store about what I needed. I forgot to buy onions. And, that soup needs something to cut the sweetness in the squash and apples. So, unfortunately we aren't eating the soup today for lunch but will tomorrow after I cook up those onions tonight.

Yesterday I also made the most delicious, chewy cookies. They're almost like candy. (Not kidding.) Brown Sugar Cookies with Maple Icing. Mmmm!

And, thanks to Miss Lisa, I have been watching Veronica Mars on Netflix. I'm really late to this band wagon, but it's good. And addicting. (I'm thanking Lisa because it's her netflix account.)

Friday, October 15, 2010

Employment change

As of yesterday, I gave my employer my 3-ish week notice to say I was leaving. But I'm not leaving my position. I am just moving over to be an employee of the government instead of an employee of a government contracted company. I will have better pay, better benifits and some pretty solid job security. Yesterday as I walked to the metro to go home, I realized making the decision to take the direct hire--that's what it's called when you are a direct employee of the government, not a contractor or fellow etc-- was a career choice. Not just a new job that would teach me more skills that would some day help with a future career, but a real career.  And I chose to make a career working for the government, and it was a strange feeling. It's not that I couldn't change career paths later if I change my mind, but it will always say on my resume (though it's not like a school transcript, so I guess I could take it off if I wanted...) but it will always say on my resume, USAID employee. It was kind of humbling to think how everything came together simply and easily. Yes it's true that I don't love my job, but then again, I don't know if I could find a job that allows me to bake, blog, read good books, watch British Period Films, get back into bookbinding, all while make money at the same time. So, I went out and bought myself a new jacket to celebrate.

P.S. I have taken over my sister Emma's blog while she's on her mission. If you are interested in reading her letters you can right HERE. She leaves the Preston MTC on Monday. But keep in mind, that we write long letters, so these are long posts (even though they've gone through two edits to make them less personal and more open internet appropriate).

P.S.S. I got a new book in the mail yesterday. It's called Drawing with the Right Side of Your Brain. I'm going to learn how to draw, and I'm going to be good at it. When I start, updates will be forthcoming.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Boyfriend

As of 8:09 am today, I have a boyfriend.

Not because some cute guy realized he "loves" me, but because my friend at the bus stop was super smiley this morning. When I got to the bus stop, he gave me a flirty smile saying, "Where did you come from?" I pointed towards my street and said, "From down there." He turned back around to face the street again for a minute, thinking, before facing me again and asking, "Do you have a boyfriend?"

Me: open mouth ready for the handful of Cheerios halfway to my mouth; eyes wide in surprise; slowly I nod my head yes.

My friend says, "Oh", disheartened.

But I laughed to myself and catch the eye of the other guy waiting at the bus stop with us, he's trying really hard not to laugh out loud.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Onions and Roses

Growing up we would share our onions (bad things) and roses (good things).

Onion: I spilled tomato soup all over my white cardigan (inside and out--I know, I'm talented), and all over my light gray plaid skirt.

Rose: There was no way I was going to walk around all afternoon with an orange splattered cardigan and a giant orange splotch on my skirt. So, I bought a new skirt and cozy cardigan on the way back to the office.

Heebee geebees

"Good night! 
Sleep tight! 
Don't let the bed bugs bite!"

Did you know that there is an increase of bed bugs incidents all over the country in the last several months/year? Well, last week it made national news when it turns out there were bed bugs found downtown DC at the Ronald Reagan Building.

Yeah, the building I work in.

And to make it all a whole lot more disgusting, they are on my floor, in my office, at the desks that are next to the door I walk in everyday, every time I leave the bureau, every time I come back in from lunch, the bathroom, or an errand.

It grosses me out bad, makes me shiver, makes my skin crawl and itch. They brought in the K9 squad last week, and treated the infected cubicles yesterday, the women who work there have been absent for the last few days. The worst part about this whole thing is that I had my speculations about who it was, and I was wrong. I thought it was the guy who kept open jars of peanut butter at his desk, half empty Starbucks ice coffees, open cans of Coke, old hamburger and fry wrappers, and papers all over the place. Or the lady whose desk space looks exactly like one of those houses on Hoarders and I always wonder how she functions at work with all that stuff. Instead, it was two ladies who are clean, manicured, fashionably dressed, their desk space is clean, there are cute frames with their kids on the desk, art work their child did at school on the walls etc.

I've been reading up on bed bugs. They are disgusting. I would feel so gross if there had been found in my desk space, but luckily they weren't, and I'm doing all I can to keep from getting them (including walking half way down the hall to avoid walking in and out of the door that sits right next to their desks).

Picture from Wikipedia

Monday, October 4, 2010

Thoughts and updates for the morning

  1. I have Pad Thai for lunch today. I'm really excited about it.
  2. I started re-reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and I forgot how much I liked it.
  3. In anticipation for HP 7 coming out in seven weeks, we will be watching one movie a week. How fantastic is that? I'm trying to figure out if I want to dress up for the movie theater. I think I have great hair to be Professor Trelawney or Luna Lovegood. 
  4. I found some glasses frames at the office on Thursday and thought, those would be great nerd glasses. I didn't take them but left them where they were in case someone claimed them. Well, they were still there today. I'm taking them if they're still there tomorrow.
  5. If it had ever been my goal to be on the front of the BYU home page, my goal has semi been accomplished. (Thank you to everyone who forwarded me the story!) And it's really weird to see your name, or hear someone use your name, especially in conjunction with my alma mater but it's not me! When I worked on campus my senior year (that would be my second senior year) I realized there was another Lauren Richey because she would pop up on our student employees list for the College of Life Sciences. (Different middle names.) Actually, there are 61 Lauren Richeys on Facebook, and I'm sure even more not on Facebook. And, I will definitely take pride in the fact that I nabbed my gmail address first and everyone else will have to figure out something "creative"! 
  6. And lastly, I loved General Conference this weekend; it also gave me an excuse to sit around and be lazy, just what I have been needing.