January Recap and on to February Goals

Before opening the image I created for my January goals, I was feeling pretty good about things.

Then I reread them

1.  I have made a LOT of progress on one of the baby blankets.  Unfortunately it's taking longer than I anticipated given it's size, and had to rip out almost the top 1/3 because I needed to go down a hook size to get closer to a square.  This is before I started my "ruffly" border.  Have any of you ever crocheted a ruffle border?  It looks adorable, but good golly it's taking me forever!!! 

2.  Basically haven't touched by craft room since my original post about January Goals.  Started out giving myself an F on this, because it felt like I deserved one, but I did get [almost] all of my yarn put away early in January, and I have been able to get in there to access yarn when needed, so I'm not calling it a complete failure!

3.  Eh.  Early January I put away our Christmas decorations and got out my Valentine's Day stuff - which was amazing because I hadn't seen any of it since 2013, possibly 2012 (I can no longer remember which holiday I decided to make my last with decorations pre-move to WNY).  We also got our coffee pot set up with the fridge, but has been more hassle that it's worth when we don't have any water access on our side of the house just yet.  But the fridge is nice to keep beverages cold from when we're watching TV!  My in-laws left to go south for the next 3 months last Wednesday, so we primarily spend our evenings watching home downstairs in their living room since our pups are down there, and they have cable, which we do not on our side of the house!

4. The pattern continues - I haven't opened my gift-giving spreadsheet 1/8/15 (according to the last time it was saved).  I've had gift ideas running through my head for Valentine's, and Jon's birthday which is in March, but I haven't taken (or HAD) the time to go in and add things in as I think about them.

5.  TOTAL SUCCESS!  On January 11th Jon and I went skiing for our first time together as a couple, and my first time in almost FOURTEEN years!  The lift tickets that were removed from an old ski coat that still fits me were from March 2001.  Craziness.  My equipment is pretty old.  No joke, my skiis were likely purchased around 1997 and are JUNIORS skis.  Jon wanted to buy me new gear this year, but I told him it made more sense for me to ski with what I had (once it was graced by the local Ski Shop) this year to make sure I was still going to ENJOY skiing - after all, 13+ years is a very long time.  Well, I loved it!  After making Jon go down the Bunny Hill with me twice I was off and skied every run at Peek'n Peak that Sunday night.  It was as much fun as I remember skiing, if not more!  And I was skiing better than I ever remember skiing in high school.  I couldn't wait to go back.  We went back on the 18th with another couple, and I did not have the best of times.  It was super icy which I've always hated, and it made my knees very sore.  I ended up having to call it quits before anyone else was really ready to, but I was skiing terribly and didn't want to get hurt.  Our third trip skiing didn't happen until this past Saturday.  We went with the same couple as before, but this time we did a day trip up to to Holiday Valley.  It was AMAZING.  Just enough fresh snow to have an amazing time!  The next time we go, I want to rent equipment so I can try out a pair of parabolic skis.  Don't know when it's going to exactly be, but I.CAN'T.WAIT.

Hard to believe it's already February, isn't it?  I'd originally planned to do my January recap and February Goals as separate posts as to not make either too long, but it's already the 3rd of February so bare with me, cause I'm plugging along!

1.  I wasn't 100% successful in January, but I can't give up now!  Realistically I doubt I'll finish all 3 with such a short month, but hey, a girl can dream [crazy dreams] right?  right.

2.  I feel as though I've talked about this before, but last November after our whirlwind trip to NYC I felt amazingly rejuvenated.  On the drive back to Panama we were discussing this weightless feeling that I had, and we talked about saying that one day over every weekend would just be about us.  Maybe a little laundry if need be, and it could be with another couple but no remodeling with my dad, no major overhauls of rooms, etc.  Just Jonathan and Holly time.  We're not always the best and keeping true to this every weekend, so I'm hopeful that 4 consistant weekend's this month could make it a habit!

3.  I'm tired of feeling like I live in a mess.  Overall it's not going anywhere anytime soon, but I'd just like to feel like there aren't piles of clothes waiting to be put away in the bedroom and piles of yarn stacked on the caught and a mess lining the walkway in the hall and projects that are way overdo that I still don't have done.  Just want to feel more on top of things come March 1st!

4.  I've definitely caught the bug, and want to keep skiing while the weather is good.  Yesterday I totally wanted to play hooky and go skiing in all that amazing snow we got over night, but I was a good girl and went to work.  I definitely foresee  Jonathan/Holly time in February also being skiing time.  And I'm okay with that!

5.  This one probably got a big WHY out of many of you.  Well, the next show that I'm going to be in is "Boeing Boeing" this March at the Lucille Ball Little Theatre of Jamestown.  I'll be playing Gretchen, the German flight attendant.  We've just started blocking this week, but I'm very excited about the challenge of this part, and being apart of this hilarious production.

Here's a peak at the Broadway revival in which Mary McCommack portrayed Gretchen and recived a Tony nomination:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7AE07B1C90&feature=youtu.be

^This 2nd video is better, but Blogger won't let me embed this, but please, take the 4 minutes to go in and watch it, you will not be disappointed!

So there you have it.  I'm going to try my best to work on all of these goals during the next couple of weeks, but it's not surprise that rehearsals are going to take up a lot of my time, especially in the evenings.  Add to it that I'm also working to choreograph not 1 but 2 different high school musicals ("Damn Yankees" and "Anything Goes") which both open in March.  Throw pesky little work in there, and the fact that I actually need to sleep and my schedule is F-U-L-L

SuperbOwl

I really prefer owls over football. 

I especially find crocheted owls to be suburb!  This little guy is part of my 2014 Mood Blanket (that still hasn't been touched since February 2014).  Free pattern can be found HERE.

We don't really watch sports, unless it's the Super Bowl, or the Olympics.  I know we are in the minority, but I gotta say, as a non-sports watcher, I'm often SO HAPPY that Jonathan is also not into watching sports on TV all weekend.  We are able to get so many other things done!

We do always watch the Super Bowl.  Mostly because I say we need to watch it, and that's because I wanna make Super Bowl food and use that time to crochet (and watch out the commercials) <----did anyone have a favorite commercial?  I found many companies using millions of dollars in ad time to come up with the "oddest" thing they could as their way of being remembered by the end of the night.  I always enjoy what Budweiser does, the Snickers one with The Brady Bunch was funny, and the #withdad Nissan one and #girlpower ones just made me all weepy!  I've always enjoyed Katy Perry and found the Halftime Show to be very entertaining.  Plus all the special effects and quick costume changes always make this theatre nerd giddy!  And as a theatre nerd - hello amazing Idina Menzel singing the National Anthem!  Seriously, she can do NO WRONG as far as I'm concerned.  End of story.  Don't try and tell me otherwise, because you will not convince me, or win!

It was just the two of us (and the dogs) so we didn't make a ton of food.  We had these INCREDIBLE Chicken Nachos that I thought were going to end up being a snack, but were definitely enough food for just the 2 of us as dinner (we did have a late lunch too).  They looked so amazing as soon as Jonathan brought them in, I didn't even think to photograph them!  I was too busy cramming them in my face and keeping the dogs away from said face.  Seriously, they're amazing.  I just love Ree and her blog!

And for dessert were had these little beauties:

I've always been a big fan of No Bake Cookies, so when I saw this recipe on Maybe Matilda last week, I knew they were a MUST for the Super Bowl!

  

Next time I make them, yes! these will definitely be made again, I'm going to try just using 1/2 cup of chocolate chips with maybe a little less than 1/2 cup of peanut butter.  It was almost too over-powering for the yummy Oat mixture to have such a thick band of chocolate on top.  Jonathan agreed, and I feel like that's saying something because I didn't think it was possible for him to have TOO much chocolate!  It was probably also a combination of the fact that we used dark chocolate chips vs. semi-sweet and the only pan I had to use was like 11" x 6" instead of 9" x 9"..... SOMEDAY I'll have my own kitchen again (and equipment for cooking and baking!)

By the 3rd quarter I was ready for a snack:

Living in Western NY Bison Chip Dip and STBC are pretty much a way of life - and both are always so yummy!!  Helles (Where the Helles Summer?) is their new Spring Lager.  Tastes an awful lot like Bud Light, which I'm okay with.  I'm just not sure how frequently I'd pay craft beer prices for something I could get for much cheaper by purchasing Bud Light.  We'll see, this was only #2 out of my six-pack so I have 4x left for Helles to convince me it's worth it!

Speaking of Western New York, we got hit with snow last night and this morning.  We live about 70 southwest of Buffalo, NY so we missed the CRAZY November storm.  We're also 400+ miles west of New York City, so we weren't close to being hit by Juno last week.  In all honestly, this winter has not been that terrible "snow-wise" - not compared to what I remember growing up.  Jon and I constantly talk about how badly we want a big snow storm or blizzard - the kind that keeps you stuck in doors in your jammies all day!  Didn't quite get this, but this morning was a bit closer to what I remember from my childhood!

Here's the view out the kitchen window as of 7:50ish this morning!  Probably close to 15" of snow came down starting at 5 p.m. through the overnight.  Our driveway is approximately 1/4 mile long and it took Jonathan over an hour to slow-blow the bare minimum width for me to get to work this morning!  Only about 6 school districts in the county closed today, so many were digging out and on their way to work & school (as is life in these parts 6 months out of the year).  Roads were decently plowed (for the most part) - all came down to what Mom and I often refer to as "winter roads".  Always thankful for how WELL my Jeep drives in the winter!

Out the backdoor, you could also see how much snow had accumulated up on the top of the garden gate.

Our metal roof collects a LOT of snow and ice in the winter.  This shot is looking out one of the living room windows.  I was sitting near this window during the Super Bowl last night, and a lot of snow and ice from the roof right above here came sliding down at one point and crashed to the ground scaring the bejezus out of me and the pups!

And, speaking of the pups - here's what Copper and Osa thought about watching football

such sweet dups :-)

Jonathan and I also both passed out before the game was over.  Woke up having missed the Patriots final Touch Down but did get to see what I'm certain will be remembered as one of the worst plays made in a Super Bowl and the "end-zone brawl".  As soon as it was all over, we switched back to Netflix for some of our favorite documentaries on castles in England.  Like I said, we don't care too much one way or the other!

I did do some crocheting.  Not a lot, so there really wasn't much to photograph and share.  I didn't even start crocheting until the 2nd half of the game because I was SO COLD!! Couldn't figure out why having a fire wasn't warming up the room, and me in return.  By the time we went to bed around 11 p.m. our bedroom was an ice box.  Turns out our gas was out and Lord only knows how long we'd been sitting around without heat.  I'm guessing mid afternoon cause it had been cold upstairs around 2, but we had a window open knocking down some ice so I didn't think much of it.  I didn't do any laundry that required warm or hot water so I didn't notice it then.  Even when I was washing my face at 11, I must have been too sleepy to realize that there wasn't really any hot water (probably just the little bit that was left in the hot water tank that was luke warm at best).  Jonathan trudged out into the snow to reset....whatever it is that has to be reset when that happens, and we warmed up quickly once the furnace kicked back on!  #superhusbandtotherescue!

Happy Whistlepig Day to you all!  We will be watching "Groundhog's Day" just as soon as I get home from my Board Meeting tonight.  and hopefully it'll be warm enough to crochet!  Today is one of Jonathan's favorite holidays, and this is definitely one of his favorite movies :-)

Up tomorrow - successes and pitfalls of January Goals and my February Goals!