La Petite Chic

Highlights from 2007

What better way to round up the year than by revisiting some of the good, bad and ugly events of 2007?

January:  I kicked off the new year in bed, alone, with the stomach flu, thereby causing me to miss one of my dearest friend's wedding.  ARGH.  Subsequently, I lost five pounds in two days by throwing up anything that I even looked at. 

February:  Jonathan and I went on a seven day cruise to the Bahamas, St. Thomas, Puerto Rico and Haiti with my parents and in-laws.  My parents caught the Norwalk virus and thus spent the last few days of the cruise quarantined in their room.  Lovely.

March:  I left my job of three years to accept an offer at the fancy Big Four firm that I thought was going to be great.  Oh, if only I knew then...

April:  I started this blog after being inspired to write about the loss of my beloved dog, Holly.  I had been talking about starting a blog for months, but it was the need of writing down the sorrow I was feeling that finally kickstarted me into action.

May:  I wrote the post that would throw our personal lives into turmoil but which ultimately led to the revelation of ugly truths in certain friendships.  This was the first true test in our marriage and it actually made us stronger and more united. 

June:  We went to our first Jimmy Buffett concert and had a blast, despite the thunderstorms that left us soaked. This ties with Michael Bublé as the best concert I've ever been to.

July: We traveled to Ocean City, MD for a few relaxing days at the beach with my in-laws and I finished up the month at the Jersey Shore with some of my best friends from college. 

August:  Finally left my hell-hole job and started my new job where I'm still currently working (happily!).  Also attended a wedding where the events of May followed us. The true nature of people left me mortified (for them), but grateful for true friends and true family.  There's nothing like a wedding to bring out the drama queens, right?

September:  Jonathan and I celebrated our one year anniversary at a candle-light dinner on a Jamaican beach.  Jonathan kept the destination a surprise up until the day we left and I couldn't be happier that he chose Jamaica.  I cried when we cut into our cake top and thanked God for sending me a man like Jonathan to share my life with.  I also turned 26 and celebrated my birthday with our honeymoon friends at the Melting Pot, one of my favorite restaurants!

October:  My cradle robbing husband turned 27 and I took him to a Penn State game with friends for his birthday.  This was also the month of my favorite holiday and Lola dressed accordingly.

November:  In the last hour, I signed up for NaBloPoMo and cursed that decision every day of the month.  I ended up with a lot of terrible posts but some pretty great pictures.

December:  Fell more in love with my husband and was spoiled rotten for Christmas.

Despite some downfalls, 2007 was a fabulous year and I wouldn't change a thing.  But hopefully the first five months of 2008 will be kinder to me than 2007 was!  Tune in tomorrow for my New Year's resolutions...Happy New Year to you all!!!

Cutting for a Cause

I've been contemplating donating my hair to charity for a couple of months now.  Except for trims, I haven't had a serious cut since Jonathan and I got engaged (December 2005) thus my hair has grown quite long.  I have avoided mentioning on here that I was even considering doing a hair donation because you know that once you blog about something, you've gotta do it, right? 

But now I'm making the official announcement that I'm growing out my hair for charity.  I can't back out now!  I've been doing a lot of research on which charity and/or organization to donate to and I've finally settled on one that I really feel comfortable with.  According to their website, Pantene Pro-V Beautiful Lengths is a campaign that encourages people to grow, cut and donate their hair to create free, real-hair wigs for women who've lost their hair due to cancer.  If you want to donate, your hair must be a minimum of 8 inches long to donate and cannot be bleached, permanently colored or chemically treated.  I lost my cousin to cancer at a very young age so any cause that will benefit people fighting cancer is a cause I can get behind.

I went to the hair salon on my lunch break today for a much needed trim of my ends and bangs.  While there, I had my stylist measure my hair just to see how far along I am and I actually had 10 inches of hair starting at the base of my head.  She only trimmed about a half inch off leaving me with more than enough to donate if I would like to end up with really short hair.  As I would like to have at least a little bit of length left, I'm going to grow 2 more inches and then go for the cut. 

I'm leaning towards a Katie Holmes-esque haircut because I just adore her hair.  Maybe something like this:

Here's a picture of me the last time my hair was cut short.  Not knowing that I was about to be proposed to, I got it all chopped off two months before Jonathan popped the question.  Luckily my hair grows pretty fast so I was able to have enough for the wedding hair-do!

 

And here's a picture of my long hair from this past August:

I'm so excited for the upcoming haircut and just really happy that my hair will be put to good use for women who need it the most.  I'll, of course, post pictures of the whole shebang once I get those extra 2 inches grown.  Until then, feel free to send me any suggestions for a new short hair-do!

Christmas Unwrapped

Jon and I were officially spoiled for Christmas.  My parents and in-laws never fail to amaze me with their generosity when it comes to gift giving, but this year they really outdid themselves. 

I put the Canon EOS 30D on my list as a whim, never expecting to really receive it.  But receive it I did!  After finding out that the camera was out of stock two days before Christmas, my parents scrambled to order another one but it was too late to get here in time for Christmas.  It should be here soon enough though and I'm ecstatic to start using it!  I've never had a SLR so I'm really going to have to study up on all of it's functions.  This is where all of you photographers come in...please share any tips you might have so that I can actually get the most out of my camera!

I was also thrilled to receive the Target Ladder Desk from my list.  Now my laptop can actually have a home other than the dining room table!  It's all "petit chic" as it's stylish and space efficient...one of my favorite combos of course!  Speaking of homes for the laptop, I can now travel safely with her too.  My father-in-law picked out the cutest laptop bag all by himself.  BlogHer '08, get ready, because here I come with pink laptop bag in tow! 

And anyone who reads my blog with some regularity will know that Jonathan and I love to travel.  We put away money every month for our travel fund and like to go on several trips a year.  To aid us in that effort, my in-laws gave us a Hilton timeshare!  Now, instead of worrying about which hotel to stay at and finding the best deal, we can focus on more important things like which country to visit and what sites to see!  We're already planning our next anniversarymoon with Hawaii on our radar.

My big sister is always über-creative when it comes to gift giving.  She has never ever given us a gift card, but always manages to give Jonathan and I gifts that we just adore.  She really shocked us with her gift to us this year: the Cuisinart 6 Bottle Wine Cellar!  As avid wine drinkers (read: wino and winette) living with a smallish refrigerator, this is really going to be useful to keep all of our whites and champagnes chilled!  Our Christmas tree is currently occupying the spot where we would like to keep the wine cellar (and our new desk), but as soon as we get that tree out of our condo, that thing is getting plugged right in!

I received many other beautiful things including a gorgeous Banana Republic dress, monogrammed bathrobe and beach towel, adorable chihuahua paraphernalia (ornaments, throw blanket, socks), Ann Taylor slacks, and a Crate & Barrel gift card to name a few.  And all the gifts we gave were well received too and I think everyone was truly happy--woo hoo!  I was so excited about all of the gifts we picked out this year so I'm thrilled that they were happy!  Of course, it was most wonderful to be able to spend two days with each of our families as we don't get to see them often enough.  However, both of our parents are actually coming down to do dinner together on Saturday so I can't wait for that.  It's always nice to see our parents interacting because they get along great, but don't get to see each other more than once or twice a year.  I really am a lucky girl.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, Lola got some lovely things for Christmas as well.  Here she is enjoying a sunbeam on Christmas morning in her new party dress. 

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!  I'm stuck at work with nothing to do, but I'm really enjoying catching up on what all of you did for the holiday!

Secret Ornament Swap - It has arrived!!

Guess what was in my mailbox when we got home last night?

My Secret Ornament Swap ornament!!  And it came all the way from Ireland, sent by Beccy of Peppermint Tea! 

I know that all of us who participated in the swap have been amazed by the connections between the ornament receiver and sender.  And it seems that Beccy and I are no exception.  I have Irish roots on my father's side of the family, thus my maiden name of Sloan.  I've always felt a lot of Irish pride growing up and I conveniently blame my red-hot temper on those Irish roots.  So there's that little Ireland connection.  Not to mention that I LOVE peppermint tea (in fact, I'm sipping on some right now) so I thought it was kind of neato that her blog name is Peppermint Tea. 

Now, onto the pictures!

My ornament came packaged in a cute little bag with a beautiful card handmade by Beccy herself!

What a sweet note!

I have a terrible time taking pictures of shiny things, but isn't it beautiful?  It's a silver Christmas tree photo holder!

I took a lot of pictures on Christmas so as soon as I print them out I'll put one in the frame. 

Thank you, Beccy, for such a lovely ornament!  It makes a beautiful addition to our tree.  And a big thanks to Julie for putting all of this together!  It was great fun and I hope to participate again next year!

Christmas in Bethlehem

I'm coming to you live from the Christmas City itself, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania!  How cool is that?  Actually, it's where Jonathan and his family are from.  We drove up here yesterday morning and will be here until tomorrow morning, where we will then drive down to Maryland to see my parents.  We usually do Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with one family and then drive to the other family's house for Christmas day and dinner, but as you can imagine, that's a lot of driving.  Since we had the whole weekend free before Christmas, we decided that it would be a better idea to drive up to Pennsylvania to spend time with Jon's family.  That way we actually get two days with them, rather than seeing them for six hours on Christmas and then having to drive all the way back down to Virginia the same night seeing as we both have to work on Wednesday.

Jonathan and I have spent our Christmases together ever since we began dating.  We like to do our own private gift exchange just between the two of us because it's a sweet way to recognize our own little special family bond.  With all of the driving we do, we always do our gift exchange a few days before Christmas, or even in the car while we drive, as was the case last year!  We tried to wait but we just couldn't so there I was, pulling packages from the backseat and ripping them apart!  That was our first Christmas as husband and wife and will definitely be one that we never forget.

This year, Jonathan and I opened our gifts on Friday night.  I must have been a very, very good girl because he got me some really beautiful things!  Remember that lovely Tiffany bracelet that was on my wish list?  Check!  He also bought me a set of pearl earrings, something that I had casually mentioned to him but forgot all about!  They are so classically elegant.  One of my favorite things that he got me was a beautiful sweetheart neckline black lace dress from White House/Black Market.  It is stunning and fits me perfectly!  I can't wait to wear it.  And to wrap things up, he bought me those fun PINK sweatpants (in gray!) from Victoria's Secret, a pretty pink VS bra with matching thong and the cutest little pink Santa skirt, also from VS.  You know, the one they wear in all the commercials?  That's it!  I think those items are all more for him than me, but that's okay...they are beautiful and oh so cute!

We opened a few stocking stuffers with my in-laws last night, but today we'll be doing our actual gift exchange with them.  I can't wait!  We got them some really neat things so I'm crossing my fingers that they like them as much as we do!  I feel like we're having four days of Christmas, but who's going to complain about that?!  I hope everyone is having as much fun and happiness as I am with my family.  Merry Christmas from the Christmas City!

Proof That I'm the Luckiest Girl in the World

Question:

How can you be mad at your husband for leaving a mess like this in the kitchen

after you find this in the fridge

with this note on top

and these on the counter?

Answer:

You can't!  Especially when you know he did all that before leaving for his last MBA final exam this semester.  Jonathan is definitely a keeper!

All I Want for Christmas...

Even though we are married and out on our own, both of our parents still ask us for a Christmas list every year.  Jonathan loves making his and puts a lot of time and effort into making sure there is a wide variety of items and prices represented.  He also always puts me in charge of disseminating The List.  This is a major responsibility.  I have to e-mail it out and make sure that no duplicate items are given to him by keeping everyone updated on what has been purchased and what is yet to be bought. 

Well, I already failed in that regard because one item on his list was purchased by both parents within 24 hours of each other.  I was too slow!  To me, it's no big deal because I figure he can just exchange or return the item after Christmas.  When I told him the situation, my 27 year old husband pouted and told me that I didn't do a very good job of keeping the list updated!  He is truly a piece of work. 

When it comes to making my list, I have a much harder time than Jonathan.  Sure, there are things I adore and would love to own, but I tend to be fickle.  I could love a handbag one day and by the next week I've found a new object of desire.  I hate to put down in writing what I want because I know myself and know that my tastes are subject to change.  I'm also a very picky girl which makes it very hard on the gift giver.  That's why I usually end up getting gift cards or cash for Christmas.  I don't mind that at all.  I get to shop for my own gifts!

But this year, when I finally got around to making my requested list, I decided to go mostly practical.  Here are some of the things I asked for:

Books to learn the German and French languages and culture

We are going to Germany, France and Monacco for two weeks in the spring for one of Jon's MBA classes and I would like to know a little bit of the language.  And yes, I lived in Germany for 4 years and all I remember how to say are the basics: hi, bye, yes, no, please, thank you, and shit.

The Hudson Ladder Desk from Target

Since we replaced our kitchen countertops and extended the bar, our old desk barely fits.  This desk matches our bookcase and will fit perfectly in the new space.

Serving Pieces from the Celadon line from C&B

I want the serving bowl and platter to match our dishes below.

Victoria's Secret PINK Lounger Sweatpants

In pink, please.  I heart sweatpants!

And now for my splurge (read: if I'm a really good girl) items:

Return to Tiffany Heart Tag Charm Bracelet

Always wanted one of these; never got one.

Canon EOS 30D with Starter Package

Many of my favorite photographing bloggers have this one and extoll it's many virtues.  I've always had a secret dream of being a photographer, so why not start now?

 

What was on your Christmas list this year?  What did you buy for others? 

I'm so excited about the gifts I bought for Jon and our families, but can't reveal them yet as they're all occasional readers of my blog and I want them to be surprised!

And Baby Makes Three

Just a quick note to say congratulations to Frema and Luke on the birth of their beautiful baby girl!  She's been one of my favorite reads since reading about her pregnancy on Amalah's Club Mom blog and I'm just so happy for the both of them. You can read all about the birth here.  Congrats again!

I've turned into one of "those people"

When I worked on the Hill, I answered a lot of phone calls from concerned citizens on various issues.  Many were rude and obnoxious, others were polite and courteous, and then there were the ones that were just plain crazy.  I preferred the polite and courteous, of course.  It was fairly obvious when an organization sent a mailing out regarding some issue of concern because we would get a flood of phone calls all on the very same topic and many callers would recite the exact same thing.  They would read from a script that they received along with a request to call their Congressman to let their voices be heard. 

On those days, I cursed myself for taking a job with that much phone interaction.  We were trained to listen politely, never interrupt and after they finished, let them know that the Congressman cared about their opinion and that it was dulely noted.  I took down their name, contact information and whether they were pro or con.  That was it.  Since I was but a mere minion in my office, I honestly don't know if those phone calls ever mattered.  My gut tells me no.  That didn't stop people from calling though.

Tonight, I was one of those people. 

If you were to look at my e-mail inbox or even my snail mailbox on any given day, you would see that the only mail I receive on a regular basis is from the assorted animal rescue and humane societies out there.  Though my inbox is always full with them, I'm glad for the mail I receive because it keeps me up-to-date on all animal related news.  A particular e-mail that I received today horrified me.  The e-mail referenced a recent Newsweek article that spoke about Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee's handling of his son's alleged torture and killing of a stray dog at Boy Scout camp.  This horrifies me on two counts.  The first is that Mike Huckabee raised a son that could so callously and viciously kill a defenseless and helpless animal.  For a man whose politics are so strongly seeped in values, that doesn't say a whole lot about the values, or lack thereof, that he taught his son.  Not to mention the absense of kindness and compassion in his son.

The second count that horrifies me is that he tried to cover this incident up. He used his Chief of Staff and lawyer to bully the director of the Arkansas State Police to try to get them to drop the investigation of the incident.  The State Police honorably refused, but the director was called into Huckabee's office seven months later and personally fired by Gov. Huckabee himself.  Now that really scares me.  Abuse of power by an elected official happens all the time, of course, but that doesn't make it right.

So tonight, armed with my e-mail and the phone number of Huckabee's campaign office, I called.  This particular e-mail didn't come with a script so I practiced in my head exactly what I wanted to say.  Phone calls with strangers always make me nervous, and I wanted to be sure I got my point across.  A young-ish sounding woman answered the phone "Huckabee for President" and I began.  I was exactly the kind of caller that I would have wanted to speak when it was my turn to answer phones.  I was polite and told her what concerned me and what I hoped would change and let her know that I would share this story with everyone I could to ensure that we wouldn't elect a man for President who acts with disregard to the law and whose family acts with disregard to innocent animals.  She, in turn, was very pleasant and thanked me for my call and let me know that they have received numerous calls already on the subject.  She said that at this point they don't have a response, but that they would contact once they do.  I declined and thanked her for her time. 

And I feel much better now.  I hope it made a difference.  If anyone else would like to voice your concerns, the number for Huckabee's campaign office is 515-288-3708.   

Working It

My supervisor approached me on Wednesday afternoon to see if I would be interested in taking on a new responsibility at work.  This new position will involve more of the reporting and information systems side of Human Resources, moving away from the sourcing and recruiting side that I'm currently in.  And it just so happens that the person who will train me is none other than Mr. Offensive Co-worker himself, as these responsibilities currently belong to him. 

And guess what?  I am thrilled!  I've been doing a little of professional soul-searching lately, trying to figure out exactly what it is I would like to do with my career.  While working in Human Resources isn't my dream job, it is a good job and one that will always be around.  I've decided that I can satisfy my craving to write about fashion and travel and pets and all that other good stuff through this outlet, my blog, while still making a decent living in HR, allowing me to afford and enjoy all of that good stuff.  However, I decided that if I'm going to stay in HR, I want to move out of recruiting and more into an HR Generalist or HRIS (Human Resource Information Systems) role because those roles usually involve less travel and less external relations.  All of this is with babies in mind, of course!  I don't mind traveling to job fairs now, but I'm sure that will be hard to do once we start a family.

This new role will give me a step in the right direction towards that goal, which is why I'm thrilled.  And since this new position is taking me in a different direction, I get to let go of a lot of the responsibilities that came with my last promotion.  When she approached me, my supervisor said a lot of really nice things about me and thanked me for all of my hard work thus far and was very happy that I accepted.  I don't even mind having to work with Mr. Offensive Co-worker because we're "okay" now.  He hasn't said one rude thing to me since I called him out on it.  And actually, at our work happy hour last night*, I even joked to him about it and we, and the rest of our co-workers, got a good laugh over how embarrased he was and what a lovely shade of red his face can turn.  So the work life is good and I'm happy. 

And on a side note, can I just say how wonderful it is to be able to go out after work and get a drink with your co-workers and really enjoy yourself?  This is my first job where that has actually been a reality.  All of my prior jobs have been in small offices and not with the happy hour kind of people.  It's awesome to have genuine friendships at work!

*I actually had planned to write this post after the happy hour last night, but they were making those drinks strong and when I got home after my one whiskey sour and my one glass of pinot grigio, I promptly passed TFO (at 9:00 PM).  And don't worry, I was not driving :)

P.S.  I am dutifully trying to catch up on my blog reading and commenting since I fell behind this week.  Sorry if I'm late!