Hambungler

Chip has been helping out a lot lately by planning our meals throughout the week, many of which have been cooked on his fabulous new 6-burner grill that Mommy got him for Christmas. :D  Anyway, he grilled us up some delicious burgers on Monday and we ended up having four burgers left...plenty for leftovers for the next night's dinner!  YUM! 

By the time work ended on Tuesday, I was starving and so thankful we had the hamburgers already prepared.  Chip had a late lunch so he wasn't hungry when I got home, but I couldn't wait on him and dove right into preparing my burger feast.  I laid out my hamburger bun, put on a slice of cheese, laid on my slice of tomato, topped that with some lettuce and, while my burger was warming up in the microwave, I fried up an egg to top off my burger fixings in awesome Red Robin style.  I closed my bun up and sat down with Chip to watch our recorded shows and eat my yummy dinner. 

Later in the evening, Chip went to warm his hamburger and opened the microwave and found a plate in there covered with a paper towel.  He looked at me and said, "Hey baby...what's this?"  I lifted up the paper towel to find.....my hamburger.  I immediately started laughing so hard that I couldn't get any words out.  When I finally got air and answered him with "....(gasp)...my...burger!" and continued laughing until I thought I was going to pass out from lack of oxygen.  Somehow - and I don't have any idea how - I never noticed that my yummy burger had no hamburger on it!  I basically ate a glorified egg sandwich for dinner rather than a hamburger.  Too funny!  This is just another one of those special Leesie moments for the remembrance book. 

Yes, my husband is a lucky man.  Very lucky indeed.  LOL!

Black Tie Event - Greystone's 25th Anniversary

On January 17, 2013, Chip and I flew to Atlanta, Georgia, to attend a black tie dinner at the Ritz Carlton-Buckhead hosted by Greystone in celebration of its 25-year anniversary.  All the travel arrangements, food (lunch/dinner/breakfast), and hotel accommodations were provided for by Greystone.  Totally awesome, right?!!  I KNOW!!!

Anyway, Chip and I had a great time celebrating with my Greystone peeps!  Below are some pictures from that night.

Entering the black tie event with my sweetie

Chip and me at the party

Greystone Gals

Jennifer, Jodi, Penny, Lisa and Donna

Braxton and his wife, Shannon

The cool table - ours!

Ginger, Tammy, Candy, Tray, and Reggy

Chip, Jennifer and Chanel

LET'S DANCE!

Chip and Penny enjoying the chocolate fountain....before we were allowed to eat from it!  LOL!  Chip was sliding the stands to the edge so Penny could reach them.  Such a sweetie.....

My handsome fella and....

his beeeautiful (and humble) wife.  :P

And, last, but certainly not least, the AWESOME 25th anniversary video from our host and the owner of Greystone, Steve Rosenberg, which stars many others from the company.

And yes, my Duff divas.....I also noticed how much Steve resembles David!  LOL!

PS:   I typed this blog in Georgia font because, after all, we were in GEORGIA!  :P

Tootles!

Balancing Act

Well, it's been a little over a month since I started my new job and I'm loving it.  While I was scared to change jobs, I'm very thankful that I made that jump.  I especially love all the extra time and energy that I have.  It is slowly allowing me to get back to normal (well, as normal as I ever was!) and restore some balance to my life.  During the first week of my new job, I came home one evening, cooked dinner, Chip and I ate, and then we started watching one of our favorite shows.  As I sat on the couch watching t.v., I looked over and saw Chip just staring at me kind of wide-eyed and amazed, and he grinned at me.  I said, "What? What are you looking at?"  He replied, "It's just....weeeeird."  I said "What's weird?!?" and started looking around trying to figure out what he was talking about.  He said, "It's 6 o'clock.  You're home AND we've eaten dinner.  Before, you wouldn't be getting home for another half hour or more."  It dawned on me that he was right, and I had to giggle and do my little happy clap. 

 

Getting home at 5:15 or 5:20 pm every day certainly has made a difference!  So has being able to get up merely an hour or so before work, and not having to factor in a two-hour commute anymore!  I also get an hour lunch, so I can run errands on my lunch hour and get out of the office for a bit each day.  A little bit of sunshine (or even cloudy daylight) really makes all the difference!!  I have even decided to bring my tennis shoes and enjoy a lunchtime walk on pretty days, and have convinced my new friend and cubie neighbor Shenelle to tag along! 

 

It's funny because even before I even started the job at Greystone, I had already cooked up big plans for how I was going to spend my extra time:  getting house cleaning done through the week, finishing up unfinished projects, starting a workout schedule at the gym, getting back to school, etc.  But, you know, I really haven't put those into effect yet.....and I'm fine with that.  I was suffering from a severe case of burnout - even more than I originally realized - and I needed to have some down time to rejuvenate and restore myself to the old Leesie.  I needed time to get settled into my new job, figure out my new life's schedule, and learn how to enjoy it without overwhelming myself with unrealistic to do lists and expectations of how to fill up my extra time. 

 

This month has really been a time of rest, reflection and rejuvenation, and I feel so happy!  I feel ready to tackle the gym, school, those unfinished home improvement projects, those chores and to do lists, and I have the energy and gumption to do it.  But, while I have all of these numerous things I want to accomplish, I'm not stressing myself out about them.  I'm slowly learning not to pile up my to do list and set unrealistic deadlines for myself.  The house didn't get dirty in one day, and it's certainly not going to get clean in one!  I'm just living day-by-day and enjoying each moment as it comes, and realizing that the restoration of balance will just come naturally.  So, while I have been more like the grasshopper than the ant, it's okay because even the ant needs a vacation now and then.  :D

 

Chip said the other day that he never realized that me changing jobs would make him feel so much better.  That made my heart smile, and I realized that's all the justification for this change that I'll ever need.   

Dedication To My Duff Family

My song to you:

Love you guys!
See you when I see you . . .

Last Duff Day - Part I

My last day at The Duff Law Firm was on Friday.  It was a sad day for me to be closing one chapter of my life and starting a new one. But, when I arrived, I came in to find a dozen beautiful red roses from David and Nancy and happy little gifts from my Duff divas that made me giggle and smile, as well as cards that were very touching and made me cry.

Each of the girls gave me framed pictures of us.  Dani's frame was fun & creative like she is, and had all of our sayings and reminders of good times written on it; Sandra's was sparkly and very fashionista like she is; and, Cami's was happy & cute like her.  All special reminders of my divas!

Cami also got me a cool coffee cup, along with a notepad and pen that sings to me for my new desk! I'm sure I'll annoy my new co-workers playing with it.  :P

So, while I won't get to see my Duffers and my divas every day, I have little reminders of them all around me, but - most of all - I hold all my special memories of them in my heart.   

Duff Family:  I love you guys and I miss you already!!

Happy Halloween!

On October 29, we had our office Halloween party, which was really a surprise baby shower for Peter and Jen.  Chip and I decided to go as pirates, which was a great choice because he made a very awesome (and natural) looking pirate!

While I can't post a lot of the photos due to our office social networking policy, here are a few from our spooktacular night that I can post:

Although Chip drew the line at me giving him Johnny Depp-like black eyeliner, he did let me paint his nails black!  He didn't even complain the next day when I realized I had no fingernail polish remover!  LOL!!  He's such a good sport!  I, on the other hand (badumpbump), was rocking skull nails.

On our way . . . Who needs GPS when you have a pirate compass??!

Much to my surprise, I won best costume!!
It must have been all that channeling of my inner pirate! :D

See what I mean!  He looks great!

Arrrrrghhhh!

Me and Christine

Sandra as (foxy) Cleopatra!
Eat your heart out Elizabeth Taylor!

Cleopatra and Mark Antony
(a/k/a Santiago and Sandra)

Christine is a Starbucks addict and proved that you are what you, urrr, drink.  :D
She won the award for most creative costume!  She drew the design freehand all by herself.
So talented!
Way to go Christine!!

Me and my Flower with Lola

The house was decorated fabulously and the food was awesome!

Chocolate fountain was yummy deliciousness!
My favorite dunker was the punkin' bread! 

These give new meaning to "gag me with a spoon!"

Knowing how much we girls love going to Uncle Julio's for our girls'
nights, Nancy got us guacamole from there - SO YUM!!

It was a great night, everyone looked fabulous, and we had lots of fun!  Thanks to my hubby for taking such ghoulously great pictures!  I can't wait to dress up next year!!

Tricks and Treats

Chip and I were so excited when the fall weather hit that we immediately ran out and bought three pumpkins: one for him, one for me, and one for Mamba & Tessa.  We sat them on the front porch until we could get to carving them.  Well, much to our surprise, the carving didn't exactly go as planned or turn out like we were expecting.  One of our neighbors decided to take it upon himself to whittle away at our pumpkins and make his own "feast" de resistance for Halloween:

This is what I came home to the day after we bought the pumpkins

After a few days of diligent carving.
After another few days, the little one was all gone.

Hard at work on Chip's pumpkin making it into something special
 and still fat from his feast.

Grunt.  Streeeetch....Gotta get the inside all clean!

All ready for Halloween guests!

Oh boy!  His first trick or treater. . . 

The treater gets tricked!

So, while our Halloween carvings did not turn out as planned, we took it in stride and enjoyed watching our diligent little neighbor hard at work.  Mamba watched too from the front door, dying to get out to seek her revenge!  Next time you dastardly squirrel, next time!