A Cohen Brothers-Type Update

...Meaning it is in bullet form, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

• Last week, I turned in my 2 weeks notice (while simultaneously offering to teach an addition two weeks, making it veritably 1 month's notice). Instead of wishing me well, my boss gave me a typical Chinese guilt trip. This made me sad.
• I am now doing freelance work full time -- part of my time going to editing with McGraw-Hill (where I get $45/hr), the rest spread between:
• editing and contributing to the upcoming book The Process Report 2011 about the Rays,
• maintaining the Cubs Stats blog while working on our upcoming and yet-titled book (we hope to release it by the All-Star Break),
• completing the first draft of my labor of love, Scone the Rat, the novel I have put ~3 full years of labor into,
• continue writing on Homebody Abroad and submitting short stories and poems to contests,
• and completing a graphic novel script I am preparing to pitch to dad. I don't feel like he liked my idea when I initially mentioned it to him, so I building a base of research before I give him my second pitch.
• Things are going well with our church, Cornerstone. I sat in on a bylaws committee yesterday, which was kind of a bummer because everyone but me wants a traditional western church structure: the whole membership, voting, an-elder-trumps-a-deacon format. Oh well, not everyone can be Eastgate. :(
• Because my (technically second) Christmas grift to Jamie fell through (a Groupon for yoga), we used a gift certificate (and some hard-earned cashed) to purchase an XBOX Kinect and the game Dance Central. Both are amazing.
• In some pretty sad news, it sounds like about ~75% of our friends are allergic to cats. My dreams of becoming an old cat lady, well I guess "man," will have to wait until our (hopeful and eventual) return to Florida.
• It's starting to feel like: Us returning to Florida = Paul's intentions to visit Rome (i.e. talked about often, yet only accomplished post-incarceration).

That's all of which I can think.

I love you guys!

Sitting

I like sitting.  I realized that all the times that I'm not sitting I am counting down to when I can sit again.  I used to think my focus was always on food, but now I'm thinking that my focus is on sitting as often as possible and in the absolute most comfortable place I can find.

Here are some of my recent thoughts:

I really like stuff.  I like furniture stuff the best I think.  When I go to sleep I create a wishlist in my head of all the stuff I want- A bed frame, a square soft foot rest to go in the living room that has storage inside, storage organizers (not for anything in particular just to have in case I can find something to organize at home), tupperware, and chalk board paint.  I have to watch myself because I am constantly swaying over into materialism.

So right now in my life: Work is going really well and there is a good chance (but I don't have my hopes up) that I could get a promotion at work.  This promotion would mean a lot of extra work but would give me a raise, benefits, full time employment, and bossy privileges.   They keep putting off when they will open up the position, but that's good because I haven't polished my resume yet.

Matt is doing well at work.  He just texted me saying someone gave him a 10$ tip- I wonder where I can spend that...  He is in talks with Scott McCuchen about a job opportunity so if you want to be praying about that.  We don't know when that would start but he would quit the Marriott to work with him on a new business Scott's going to get going on (but I'll let Matt tell that story)

... I just painted a Kidsgate sign with colorful hand prints around it at Eastgate and that was fun and now I'm looking for other places I can add spice to.

Matt and I have a lot of fun trips coming up.  In March we're going to Islands of Adventure with Zach, Dayle, Leah and Thomas and  in April we're going to GA for Matt's Grandpa's 80th birthday.  We're also going to Gainesville in April for Ben Wallis' wedding and in May we're going to Maine for a week with the Greene's.

Okay, love you guys!! Thanks for keeping this thing alive

-Janelleeeeeee

Bored to death

I have too much time off. I don't do well with it.

In other news the planning for Italy is going along well. We're going to be gone for 12 days and two of them will be travel days. Here's a screen shot of my spreadsheet of our trip.





We've only got where we're going to stay in Florence figured out. Here's the link to the hostel in case you're interested.
http://www.florence-youth-hostel.com

I think I'm most excited about our time in Cinque Terre (Cheenk-kway tehr-ray.) It's a group of five coastal towns that have a hiking trail between all of them. They're small and cute and I can't wait! Apparently if you were to just hike straight it would be 5 hours, but we're going to take all day and stop in each town and explore. It just sounds cute and quaint and I can't wait.
If you're curious: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinque_Terre

Work has been slow. Here's a logo and letterhead I designed for my boss's hotel. (Yes, he just bought a hotel - they're super rich.) He's also planning a trip around the world with his family this summer. But he's nice and down to earth so I can't hate him. ;)



















Well, that's the latest. Hope you all are doing well. Love you lots!

BRRRizzard!

It makes me sad that we don't post more often!

Here is a quick update:

Currently, it is blizzarding outside, which outside of the constant sirens and our apartment shaking a little, is pretty awesome!

[Living Room View]

Blizzard = two Snow Days! Thankfully, we are stocked up on all the best things, like puzzles, hot chocolate, Netflix, Sims,...

[Hardest Puzzle Ever!]

Chinese New Year is just around the corner! Thursday, we have friends coming over to make dumplings. Brad and I are hoping that we can coax them into making some chocolate ones too.

[Preparations Begin]

Meanwhile, Brad is keeping busy with baseball posts, teaching, and making videos. He also got me interested in reading a book about baseball: The Bullpen Gospels. It's funny!

I'm doing my usual school and work stuff. I've also been hanging out with a new friend. A month or two ago, I started praying for a friend - someone to watch chick flicks with or go shopping, and someone who is a Christian, so we can encourage/challenge eachother. (Not to say that I'm not super thankful for Brad, who is an amazing and loving husband. He just doesn't always share my enthusiasm for girly stuff.) Anyway, I'm pretty sure that my prayer was answered! God is good to us :)

Well, that's pretty much all the excitement here. We miss you guys a ton!

Hurry, someone else make a post!