I have a bit of a confession to make. There’s no photo this week because I didn’t write a thing on my weekly pages.

So what did I do with my week?

It was a week full of catch-up meetings. Apparently my department really like’s that word, because I had 3 “catch-ups” scheduled. Out of those three, one turned into a phone call that was less than 5 minutes and one got cancelled. In addition to that, Wednesday-Friday I met with each of the students that work in our office individually, and got pay raises approved for them. I hate to brag, but I’m kind of excited to say that this is the first time they’ve gotten raises in like 2 years. It feels good to know I could be a part of that.

I finished Pretty by Jillian Lauren. I can’t say I’m a fan of the book. It just wasn’t really my style, and I found it really hard to read. I’m still trying to get through Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits book and Drive by Daniel Pink, but I’m quickly moving through Organized Simplicity by Tsh Oxenreider and The Summer I Learned to Fly by Dana Reinhardt. I also spent some time catching up on YouTube videos (one of these days I’ll get caught up.) and watched Silver Linings Playbook. I’m a huge Bradley Cooper fan, but I have to say, Jennifer Lawrence is winning me over. I’m not sure I can continue to lump her into the terrible-acting crew (think Twilight – sorry, that cast ruined the books for me).

I was really freaking out about all the work stuff I had to do this week. Needless to say, my guilty pleasure this week was working out. I went full out, and basically lived in workout clothes outside of work. I even walked during my lunch break (in 5″ heels, but hey, it worked). I picked up some more workout DVDs (some old-school Katrina and Karena stuff.) Protein drinks and healthy foods also found their way into my life, and I’m happy to report a lifestyle change is under way at my house. I may not be able to get everyone on board with working out (Tone It Up doesn’t work for someone with bad knees and shoulders as my mom found out), but I can convince them to eat a bit healthier. I’m not going full out healthy lifestyle, but I can do better than microwaved burritos and candy bars.

Amidst all that, I forgot to do my school work AGAIN. In my defense the ones I forgot were due Friday NOT Sunday like usual, but I did get some of it submitted. Lesson to be learned here… use a planner!

Since I had no picture of my weekly pages, here’s some photos from last week.

Walking to work, I decided to snap a picture of the pond and the other buildings on campus.

I had the pleasure of driving behind this guy for nearly 10 minutes which was lovely….

During one of my lunch breaks, I happened to find this little guy.

Saturday could be summed up by this set up right here.

The animals all joined me as well. Remi played. The cats wandered in and out, but Zoey chilled right under the table.

I’m a wee bit late on this post today, but here it is nonetheless.

Here’s my week:

Last week was pretty bare. I went full-blown OCD and put my weekly pages over top of a lined sheet of paper to make sure everything was lined up. That’s really as far as it went with my Filofax though.

I caught up on Youtube videos and Pocket articles. The total stands at 19 articles in Pocket and 150 videos on YouTube. I actually hit the 200 video limit a week or so ago, so I’ve been watching them little by little, the shortest to longest, to get the number down quickly.

I’ve officially decided the Photo-A-Day challenges are not for me. I can’t do it. I always forget, and it ends up being 20 photos on one day instead.

The Tone It Up Bikini Series kicked off on Tuesday and I’ve been somewhat trying to eat healthier and stay on track with my workouts. A treadmill is in the near future though so I can start running.

Over the weekend was where the real fun started and I got the house all to myself for the first time in years! I was honestly shocked at how large the house seemed which was a big unexpected. I’ve lived here for 13 years and I’ve never had that feeling before. I’m excited to finally have my bed to myself again for a bit though.

One of my favorite parts of the week isn’t even on here. I may be a few months late since I had planned February to be my month to focus on friendships and relationships, but I’m thrilled to say that I was able to reconnect with someone I figured was gone for good. A unexpected text turned into plans for a quick bite to eat but that turned into almost 6 hours just talking and catching up. It was pretty great, and I feel incredibly lucky to have another chance.

And last but not least, the pink is going away. Little by little, I’m working on getting parts of my room painted. It’s a bit sad, but I cannot wait until I can show off the finished product. (But first I need to get on that blog post for the before pictures…)

Anyway, on to another week… hopefully equally as good as the last.

Hi readers! I’m sure many of you have been wondering where I’ve disappeared to. I had been meaning to post a few things over the past week but got distracted with other things. I’m going to try to get back into the swing of things, but things on here may have to get put on hold for a bit. I promise it will be worth it though.

Here’s my week:

It’s a bit blurry, and you’ll see not much was checked off. I did get things done though, just not that stuff!

My air purifier and Allegra have been working miracles on my allergies.

I finished reading the Hunger Games trilogy which I have to admit was pretty enjoyable.  I also finished a silly book, Nadia Knows Best, that I checked out from the library’s ebook site. I guess it would have been better had I lived in Europe as I had to pay attention to every day cultural references. I did understand a few though one of which was the mention of a Filofax!

My school assignments were pushed back a week, so I got another week to relax!

We had some meetings at work. Nothing too interesting.

Saturday morning, I went to my wonderful friend’s new house. It’s just gorgeous and I’m so happy for her! The plan was to help her paint. While her mom painted the kitchen AND dining room, we managed to paint one tiny hallway only to decide the color (or lack of color) wasn’t working. The white was just overpowering and made you feel really uncomfortable. At least now it’s a good color to paint over… I spent the majority of the day at her house, but when I got home, I was still in painting mode so I broke out the ceiling paint and an edger and painted the edges of my ceiling. Mr. Chase also tried helping by learning to climb a ladder with the help of some cat treats. He spent the rest of the night climbing up and down just for the heck of it.

Sunday turned out to be an exhausting one. I woke up with the intention of just painting a second coat on the edges of my ceiling since bits of pink from the walls had been coming through. That took about 10 minutes thanks to my handy dandy edge tool. Then I decided to paint around my ceiling fan and light fixtures… My hallway light fell off in my hands and wouldn’t go back up. I couldn’t let it go because it was hanging from the wires but I was also the only one in the house… so I stood there stupidly holding it, hoping that my mother or someone else would have heard me calling for help over the stereo. Eventually someone came, but we couldn’t get the light back up, so I ran down, switched off the breaker (which cut power to my whole room), shoved the cat tower under the light, painted around it, and waited for the paint to dry. I was stuck in my room (the cat tower blocking my door) with no power, so I asked for a paint tray and roller and started working on painting my ceiling. I’d say I got around 2/3 of the way done my bedroom before I realized the floor was incredibly comfortable and didn’t want to move anymore.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my week. Stay tuned for the very late March Ipsy/Birchbox review and the proper introduction to my bedroom project complete with sort of before pictures.

I really enjoyed the weather this past week. Overall it was a great week, and I’m happy to say I can feel the chaos subsiding a bit.

Here’s my week:

Monday started off a bit rocky. My alarm went off. I hopped in the shower as usual, immediately realized I didn’t submit my discussion post the night before, and had to accept that I actually forgot to submit an assignment for the first time in YEARS. I continued getting ready as usual, checked my email quickly from my phone and glanced at the time – 6:20 a.m. – I was up an hour early because my clock set itself forward for the old Daylight Savings Time. I momentarily had an “Are you kidding me?!” moment, but decided to not let it get me down. I hadn’t written my “My Week” post for the previous week so I had a chance to do that. I also, ironically, forgot to set my alarm early the night before to give me time to stop at our Parking Services office at the far end of campus to pick up my new GATED parking pass. It’s utterly fantastic to be able to park in a garage right behind my building. Getting to work early meant I also had time to stop at the Starbucks on campus – my treat for seeing the positives in being woken up early rather than being frustrated. Over all it was an incredibly great day. Even my training demo went well. {I still don’t like doing them, and I still get tongue-tied out of nervousness, but they aren’t nearly as bad as they used to be.}

Tuesday through Wednesday were fairly quiet days. More gorgeous weather that meant dressing like it’s 30 degrees out wouldn’t work. I quickly realized that my closet is seriously lacking in clothes for warm weather, but I made do with what I had. I even figured I’d swap my usual boots out for a cute pair of flats to give my feet a break. Sadly my feet didn’t enjoy that too much and after two days of acquiring blisters, I swapped my flats out for some wedges. Apparently my feet prefer heels. I also managed to have a wonderful dinner with a really good friend on Wednesday.

Thursday I felt absolutely scatterbrained. So much so, I actually locked my keys in my office on my way to lunch. Thankfully there was a spare key upstairs, but I felt pretty silly. Since then, I’ve been mindful about where my keys are, at one point even clipping them to my belt loop. My coworker joked that his mother does the same thing to keep from losing things.

Friday was a bit rainy, but I actually enjoyed it. I wore my polka-dot rain boots into work and brought shoes to change into because it was raining so hard. I don’t know what it is about rain boots but they make my day. I feel like a little kid wanting to stomp in all the puddles around campus, but as a “professional” employee, I refrain.

I’ve been trying to stick to my “routine” as closely as possible this week. Making sure to work out each evening, spend time catching up on chores, etc. It’s a work in progress but I notice myself thinking “Okay, what should I be doing now?” more often rather than just doing nothing, and working out puts me in such a better mood.

I didn’t do so well in terms of not shopping this week. I purchased a new alarm clock so I’m not caught waking up an hour late when it decides to fall back an hour. Chase got some new Cat Dancer toys which are his favorite. I ordered some more Coletos from Jet Pens, makeup odds and ends from Drugstore.com (I had coupons and cash back offers). I ordered a Leatherman Style CS (a pink limited edition one that’s no longer available) so that I could leave my other one at work. I also revamped my wardrobe with a bunch of clothes from Forever21, Alloy, and Charlotte Russe. Overall I spent entirely way too much, but not too much, that I can’t pay off the balance on my credit card entirely by next week, and I did need new clothes.

Here’s to another week! Thanks for reading!

So funny story this morning… I use one of those “smart “clocks that automatically adjusts for Daylight Savings Time, except mine’s old so it’s programmed to the old day light savings time. Turns out today would have been the day that clocks went forward according to the old. My alarm went off. I got ready as usual, picked up my phone midway through getting ready to check my email, and noticed it was like 6:20… Thankfully it sprung forward rather than me being an hour late. I guess it’s finally time to order that new alarm clock. Anyway, here I am up WAY too early, but it worked out well because I can write this post which I did not write yesterday as planned and also head to get my new parking pass for the gated garage right behind the building I work in! No more 10 minute walks in heels! YAY! I also managed to stop by the Starbucks on campus too.

Here’s my week:

So first off, if you’ve been following along with my weekly posts, you’ll notice a change – Cotton Cream inserts. I’m liking them so far but I may be the only one who wishes these were on white paper. I like everything being the same color and daily and monthly pages don’t come in Cotton Cream. The super observant might also spy some new Coleto pens which I will dish all the details on in Friday’s post.

If there was ever a week that I just failed miserably at everything, this would be it. I just wasn’t with it. I was distracted and falling apart.

Monday I woke up not feeling well at all. I emailed everyone at work and said I wouldn’t be in. In a way, it worked out well, because apparently I had a meeting mis-scheduled on my calendar that I’d have never known about until I walked all the way across campus and realized no one was there.

Tuesday and Wednesday went fairly smoothly. No surprises really.

Thursday I woke up and my eyes were insanely puffy, but I convinced myself to make the best of it and go to work, because I had a meeting with my boss. I have never been able to drive with glasses, so I put my contacts in and hoped for the best. Puffy eyes and contacts don’t mix. All day, my eyes were wrinkling my contacts as I blinked. Adding stress to the day, I had to lead another Box demo on campus. This time it was without the guys who normally lead the whole process so it was sort of up to me to make sure it went smoothly.

Friday was pretty much unbearable. When I woke up, my eyes were even worse than the day before. They weren’t only puffy, but they had started peeling and they stung. Nothing worse than dry, scaly, stinging eyes, so in an effort to not put my contacts in, I decided to see if I could work from home because I . Thankfully my boss agreed. It’s really amazing how much work you can get done when you are cut off from distractions. I have my own office at work, but the “walls” are glass above desk height. They also don’t go up to the ceiling so even if I shut my door, people can still easily ask me things through the glass. There is really no privacy whatsoever so working from home let me work fairly uninterrupted on cleaning up some of our online support documentation.

The weather over the weekend was absolutely gorgeous. I spent the majority of it outside or out and about. My car enjoyed a nice, well-deserved bath too. Unfortunately good weather is distracting to me, and I woke up this morning realizing I forgot to turn in my assignment Sunday night. The class doesn’t accept late work, so I just have to move on and take the missing grade. Hopefully I have better luck this week.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my week.

Happy Monday readers! I absolutely love these My Week posts. They are starting to take on a mind of their own and serve as a weekly review for me which is incredibly helpful. Lined paper means we are at the end of another month. How time flies! Also, Happy April Fool’s Day! I wish I had a bit of a prank here, but I’m not one for April Fool’s Day pranks mainly because I’m usually the one falling for them.

Here’s my week:

A quick confession, my mind has been a bit frazzled lately. I wish that my week were more interesting, but I honestly haven’t used my Filofax much. That of course is probably why I was losing my mind though. In any event, I’m scrapping the usual bulleted synopsis format for this week because I can’t seem to boil down my week that way for this past week.

My life has been in a bit of limbo lately. On one hand, I feel like I’m in a really cool situation where I literally get to start my life over the right way and pick out who I really want to be in it, but all of that is utterly overwhelming too. I have so many cool ideas, and I really need to start using my planner to get everything straight rather than just building up in my head, but stupidly, when I get overwhelmed, I tend to avoid my planner.

This week was a meeting week. I had a meeting to discuss a solution to a problem we’ve been having with some forms provided by another department on Tuesday. Sadly the one person we really needed at the meeting didn’t show up. On the bright side, I got to have a nice walk across campus, and we did explain the situation to at least some people that found it informative. My meeting on Wednesday had been rescheduled about 3 times before it actually turned into a phone call. That phone call sparked the sharing of some research I’d accumulated to hopefully revamp our department’s website into a useful support hub for our campus which I’m pretty excited to have actually helped with even though it wasn’t. Thursday I had a meeting with another student supervisor in our department to discuss how they are recruiting and training students. It was incredibly helpful. I used to be one of the students I now manage so in some ways it helps me relate and be a voice for them, but I’m also fairly new to this whole supervising thing, so I’m always welcome to insightful information on how to manage them as well.

My graduate work is going so-so. I managed to get all the reading and housekeeping tasks done, but the big project we are working on is a 4-week project. I know I shouldn’t procrastinate. I should be doing a little at a time, but a 4 week project is a procrastinator’s nightmare.

The arrival of my Kindle of course didn’t help with my procrastination. I guess there are worse things I could have done than read, but I wish I hadn’t used it as an excuse to put off everything I should have done, making me feel worse. I actually upped my 2013 reading goal because I finished three books this week and am now incredibly ahead of schedule:

• Pretty Neat: The Buttoned-Up Way to Get Organized and Let Go of Perfection by Alicia Rockmore and Sarah Welch –  I didn’t care for this book. Pretty Neat was actually a misnomer because it really was more about how “organized” people tend to find ways to cut corners rather than having everything nicely organized.
• Twilight by Stephenie Meyer – I really wish I hadn’t seen the Twilight movies before reading this. I had heard the books were better than the movies and I wanted to give the books a chance. I just felt like my distaste for the cast of the movies really spoiled this book. I won’t be reading the others.
• Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn – I really enjoyed this book. It kept me on my toes. Like a lot of people, I have to say I HATED the ending. When I finished it, I sat there for a minute thinking, “That’s it? Really?!” After thinking about it though, I really do think it was a fitting ending. The more I read the book, the more I realized how absurdly messed up both of them were, so the ending was only fitting. My Kindle has now been borrowed by my mom while she reads it before I return the copy to the library.

One thing I did do that has somewhat lessened my stress level was putting together some sort of routine for my life. I added yet another calendar to my Google Calendar called Routine. I’ve tried this before, and it drove me crazy, but this time I’ve accepted it not as a formal schedule with deadlines, but sort of an ideal guideline to keep me on track and get things done. In that routine, I’ve blocked out some time each night to workout and do daily chore-type things. I’ve also blocked out about 4 hours on the weekends for this blog. I’m hoping that I can knock out my weekly posts during that time rather than haphazardly writing them during the week. One of these days I’ll do a “day in the life” post to show you what my boring days are like.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my week. Until next week…