Weekend Update...

It was one of those perfect weekends where we were busy hanging with family and friends yet everything we did was totally relaxed and fun so the weekend didn't feel as though it had been overtaken with plans. Today I felt refreshed and renewed in all of the quality time spent with those that we love. Even among our busy plans we managed to squeeze in a mini date and a lovely brunch for some "us" time as well.

Friday night dinner and movie date with the Halls and the Grinde's!

Saturday was spent lounging, cleaning the house and doing a little bit of shopping ;) Mr. Jones and I had a big night out on the town that evening..seriously.. it was kind of a big deal..I realized the last time I had "gone out" for drinks with friends was in January. We got dolled up and he took me to the new swanky spot in the neighborhood for cocktails and apps before meeting up for a friends birthday party.

How swanky is this spot..in luv.
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I totally failed at taking my own photos while here, I think I was just so excited to be on a date with Mr. Jones and I was too busy flirting with him devouring my food and enjoying my cocktails to even think about taking photos ha! Next stop dancing and drinks with friends!

Watch out...

This guy has mad moves.

While our men were getting their groove on we just laughed and took incriminating photos of them from the sidelines while catching up.

Never a dull moment with this guy and his lady ;)

Sunday morning we woke up to beautiful blue skies and took advantage of the nice weather to head out to the super cute Hayes Valley neighborhood for coffees and brunch where we laughed about the previous nights adventures.

Blue Skies..

Hot coffee in hand...

And this cutie.. makes for a perfect Sunday morning.

Later in the afternoon we headed to the Joneses for family dinner, wine by the fire and a family Oscar night where we cheered on The Kings Speech! A perfect ending to a lovely weekend.

Leaving the city behind us and relaxing at the Joneses one of my favorite things to do...how could you not when this is there to greet you ???

That's a wrap my dears..hope yours was just as lovely!

XOXO- Miss V

Oh The Places You'll Go...

Oh The Places You'll Go...

I'm thinking of starting a regular, maybe weekly installment called "Oh The Places You'll Go" ... mainly because I love taking pictures when I'm out and about and it's another nice reason to reflect either with my own words, or through poetry or maybe just the pictures themselves. So here we are with my second installment, these are photos I took 2 weeks ago on my walk home from one of my sub assignments, when the weather was warm and glorious, quite contrary to the gloom that is hanging around the city today. The theme I suppose of today's "Oh The Places You'll Go" is well..my reflection on teaching for this week ;)

Many times during this adventure of becoming a teacher I have felt like a little fish in a great big ocean...but I have to say that since finishing my program and working as a sub I have been treated like such an equal by everyone I have worked with. It's a wonderful feeling to be acknowledged for what I do and to be treated as if my opinion matters. At the end of the day anyone who teaches does so because they want to make sure that the voices of their students are heard and understood. My hope is that I can be of some positive influence to the students I work with giving them the encouragement needed to confidently swim out into that great big ocean that awaits them.


The school that I have been working at this week has a club dedicated to spreading Peace. These are children at a very ordinary public school doing such an extraordinary thing! They meet each week to discuss ways they can spread peace in their neighborhood. I was struck at what a basic yet beautiful concept that is for students to share. I was also in awe of this giant peace wreath hanging on the front of this Victorian house, such a beautiful statement in more ways than one.


2011 has already proven itself to be one full of challenge and hope in so many ways. Blogging has helped me to become a much more reflective person and for this I am grateful. I find it to be a great way to sit down and type past or through my current obstacles and a place where I can not only visualize the greater goal but also see any situation for the beauty it possesses.


Each day has brought a new set of kiddos into my life, and I am so happy that I get to spend my days around so many unique and bright individuals. There is certainly no monotony in what I do and I'm happy to come home every day with a new story to share.



Tomorrow will be my last day with this bunch and as always I'm sad to leave this assignment but looking forward to where I'll be headed next week.


Hope you are all having a busy and productive week and taking the time to stop and smell the roses!

Or Cherry blossoms ;)

XOXO- Miss V

What I'm Loving Wednesday....It's the little things.

It's that time again! Link up with Jamie or check out her blog to see what everyone is loving this Wednesday!

I am LOVING that I was able to secure a week long sub assignment! It's so nice waking up in the mornings knowing where I am headed and not nervously waiting for my phone to ring at any second and having to dash out the door!

I am LOVING that my mini meatloaf turned out so delicious and wonderful last night! They were an instant hit with Mr. Jones, and while this is not the meatloaf that I grew up loving it was pretty tasty for a much much healthier version.

Dinner is served ;)

I used a very lean ground turkey, seasonings/spices, red pepper flakes, Italian panko crumbs, onions, garlic, mushrooms and only 2tbsps olive oil to make this. It called for tomato sauce but I used ketchup because some things had to remain the same ;)

I am LOVING that Mr. Jones and I pulled out the planners/calendars last night and started the very early stages of our NC/SC trip last night! It means so much to me that he enjoys visiting these places and my family there as much as I do.

I was born in North Carolina but moved when I was only 8. Going back each summer has become one of the major events of each year for me and I love spending time in the south. It truly is a beautiful place.

Mr. Jones in Granny & Paw Paws garden last summer.

I also love that Mr. Jones and I started our own little trip last year with taking a long weekend to visit Charleston. Hands down one of the most beautiful cities I've ever seen. We've talked a lot about trying another Southern spot for our mini vaca this year but time and time again we just couldn't resist going back. I'm really happy about this as I think it will be nice to have our own little getaway spot that we can look forward to every year.

The bridge heading from the beaches into downtown Charleston..I love the modern streamlined look of the bridge against the backdrop of the historic buildings. The contrast is actually quite lovely.



King St.

Nighttime stroll after our first dinner out in Charleston last summer.

I am LOVING that I was able to capture this beautiful shot of the sun over the water from my balcony this morning.

The promise of another beautiful day.

I am LOVING that my teaching assignment this week has me close to the best Goodwill in the Bay Area ;) I scored two cute tops for $10 and change today. I've been making a habit of popping in here on my way home whenever I've had an assignment that takes me near there and have been coming home with some amazing finds. Good for my teacher budget ;) A few weeks ago I left with 2 dresses and a Cashmere/ Silk Blend black cardigan from Banana Republic in mint condition all under $15. LOVING it.

My new threads.

I want to pair the one on the right with a necklace similar to this one, and while I've seen similar style necklaces in every magazine lately I went with one that I've had my eye on for like seriously 2 years now...need to find the F21 version though ha!

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Mmmmk per usual this post was neither short nor very sweet, I completely get the irony in my blog title.. it was just my Wednesday ramblings about things I love, hope you enjoyed and are having a lovely Wednesday yourselves!

XOXO- Miss V

Photo Diary...

It was a quiet rainy weekend spent cuddled up inside with books, blogs, movies, dinner and wine with friends, a little bit of spring cleaning and a lot of relaxing.

I didn't end up getting called in to sub on Friday so I took full advantage of my day off by letting Jillian Michaels kick my butt for half an hour and treated myself to a few girly indulgences since I had the place to myself with Mr. Jones being out of town.

Old Doris Day movies a good book and tea out of my favorite tea cup, equals a lovely afternoon.

Friday night three of us got together for dinner and girl talk at my friend Gina's house, she was an exceptional hostess and not only made sure we were wined and dined all night long but also woke up Saturday morning to whip together a delicious brunch. I love slumber parties at her house ;)


Saturday afternoon proved to be another rainy afternoon which was spent doing a little spring cleaning, I put away all of my red and pink Valentines decor did some laundry and made sure the house was sparkling clean and cozy for Mr. Jones return the next day.

Cold and rainy days call for buttery grilled cheese and chicken noodle soup and a little blog reading.

The house sparkling clean

As much as I love decorating for holidays I also don't mind putting it all away either the house feels clean, fresh and simple.


I woke up Sunday morning to a beautiful blue sky and some gorgeous blooming flowers. The sunshine made for a beautiful drive through the hills to the Joneses where they treated me to a full English breakfast and a movie. Then I was off to the airport to pick up Mr. Jones!

Puts a smile on my face, every time.

A nice quiet weekend and enjoying an extra day off today! Hope you all enjoyed your weekends and feel relaxed and refreshed for the week ahead!

XOXO- Miss V

Sissy Love.

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February 18th is one of the most important dates to me. Today was the day that my sissy was born.

Now if you had asked me if it was an important date when I was say hmmm 8-18 my answer would have probably been something ...well..we're not here to discuss those awkward years of total jealousy and constant cat fights between my sister and I ;)

Sister, Sister

Today we are celebrating all things Stefana (Steph-uh-na) for those of you that are confused by her unique and totally Italian name.

If there was a dictionary definition for Stefana it would read as:

Stefana n. (Steph-uh-na) , Stefana is a wild child at heart full of non stop energy and enthusiasm for life. She is a social butterfly who lives for the spotlight and surrounds herself with friends from coast to coast. She has sass and impeccable style, she is fearless when it comes to fashion and she is hands down the most entertaining person you will ever be around. She is half Southern California Valley girl half Jersey Shore a rare combination that will leave you confused and speechless as to what she says? You may need to ask her to slow her speech frequently as the combined accents, and sayings such as "that town is Cutty" or "You're the cutest lil cutie everrrrr" might leave you confused as to what she is trying to say. She has been nicknamed the "Sloth" by her family members for her rare sleeping patterns and ability to take over entire living rooms with her "lounging". She is rarely photographed and in most family photo albums can only be seen "giving the hand" or covering her face while cursing you out for taking her photo. She has the worlds largest shoe collection, which also happens to be in about a size or two too large for her sister...how convenient. (crap). She is adored by many, loved by family, friends and her Brit. Her drive and determination inspires her sister (that would be me.) every. single.day. Today on February 18th 2011 she turns 23.

Sissy her Brit and her nyc bestie.

I love my sister so much. I truly am regretful that I didn't appreciate her for the amazingness that she is when she was younger, but what I will say is that I am forever thankful for the parting of our sisterly seas or whatever turning point we crossed about 10 years ago when I went away to college. I can say with complete confidence that my sister is not only a friend, but a best.friend at that. I know I am biased but I totally think I have the best sister in the world and I love showing her off to people. Of course being sisters there is some natural jealousy and to be honest what I am most jealous of is her sense of humor and her natural "coolness" Omg I am totally the lame boring awkwardly funny older sister in this relationship. She makes me laugh until I cry and her and I can find anything hysterical when we are together, especially if it involves harassing our brothers, our favorite sisterly thing to do together. I miss her ALL THE TIME. Luckily we talk a lot and I will see her soon, and then after 24 hours in the same room we'll be ready to get rid of each other again. Ahhh sisterly love.

Two of my favorite people.

I LOVE YOU Sissy!! Today is your day and I will be forever happy for it.

Love- Your Big / little Sissy.

(sidenote: I am beyond annoyed that FB will no longer allow me to "steal" photos these were the only ones I had on my comp, that I knew she would approve errr)

XOXO- Miss V

tgif...is it too early to already be thankful?

As soon as 3:05 hit I was already looking forward to the fact that tomorrow is Friday. Today was a trying day to say the least. It started out with terrible weather around these parts, hail and wind and looking at that BIG bridge outside my window this morning and all of that congestion I hoped that my duties wouldn't lead me over it but they did and I accepted and away into the storm I went. Upon finding my exit to where I was teaching today I ended up somehow going the wrong way while four lanes worth of cars were headed right at me. Visibility was terrible and luckily I realized quickly enough and whipped myself around before anything catastrophic happened. Not exactly the best way to start a morning. It kind of was a roller coaster of a day from there and that's all I will say. While I hope that I get a call tomorrow from a financial standpoint I also wouldn't be all that disappointed if I didn't. I hate to complain about the weather because trust me listening to all of you who live basically anywhere outside of CA I know that I have nothing to complain about but stormy weather just calls for baking and snuggling on the couch.


Mr. Jones is away for the next few days off to Vegas for a guys weekend with some of his best buds and his brother, it's kind of in honor of or a "last" kid free Vegas trip for his friend Sean. Who with his adorable wife will be expecting their baby girl Makena into the world early this summer ;)

Mr. Jones and the "Daddy" to be Sean

I miss him terribly when he is not home...and this includes like any amount of time that he is gone for longer than 5 minutes...yes after all this time together I still have a totally unhealthy co-dependence on the poor guy and literally am just a total sad pup without him..he is so sweet though and made the comment while he was at the airport that he would skype me whilst in Vegas...seriously..who.is.cuter. Of course I would never allow it considering it's just for one weekend and I mean I can't let the poor guy "skype" me while he is on a GUYS weekend in Vegas I can only imagine the harassment...omg but seriously the thought was too cute not to share.

love. him.

I am soo looking forward though to some good girlfriend/family time this weekend. Making dinner, watching girly movies and sleeping over with some of my besties tomorrow night and on Sunday I am headed to hang with Mr. Jones' parents, we are seeing the Kings Speech (2nd time for me) and having lunch or dinner haven't decided yet. Love them and love that I still get to have some "family" time even if my own family is so far away ;(

Oh and since we're on the subject of girls nights and movies I am soo ecstatic that I was able to finally find a trailer and movie poster for this!

eeeeekkkkkkkkkkk!! love love love

If you have not read the book you MUST do this NOW. Not kidding. Not one little bit. I can't even begin to describe the endlessssssss amounts of hours spent over g-chat that my girlfriends and I agonized over who we would cast in these roles if they ever made a movie about this book. Two years later..they have done it! I must say I'm pretty much in love with their decisions. Looks wise Darcy is way off but I watched a trailer and I think Kate Hudson is going to nail it. Cannot wait.

On those final joyful notes, I hope all of you lovelies had a much smoother Thursday than I did and an early Happy Friday to all of you!! Can't wait to read about how you will be enjoying your weekends!

XOXO- Miss V

What I'm Loving Wednesday...Love my friends.

Linking up with the adorable Jamie for What I'm Loving Wednesday! Check her out and catch up on everyone who is participating this week!

So much to love this Wednesday! It's been another very busy week so far of subbing and I am totally exhausted which is a great thing! I would rather be exhausted from a full day of working than exhausted from the stress of being unemployed. Now if only I could get my tired bee-hind off to the gym ... hmm.. maybe after this blog post. and a snack.. oh and Oprah.. and then the grocery store.. you know how this story ends ;(

Anyhow I am SO excited to present to all of you two new blogs that I am LOVING this Wednesday!

Two of my very dear friends Kristin and Dana have ventured into the wonderful world of blogging! I totally think you should check out their blogs, and support them in their new endeavor.

You might remember Krisitn was one of the ladies who entertained me for 4.5 hours while we diligently waited to meet the Pioneer Woman , well the very next day she was inspired to start her own blog. You can find her over at Going The Distance where she blogs about love for her dear Canadian, living and loving SF as a Midwest transplant, the exciting world of being a copywriter and the ins and outs of her daily life. I really haven't given her the justice she deserves so just head over to her blog and you can see for yourself how darling she really is. She is hands down one of the funniest friends I have and I love her dearly, I know you will too!

Kristin and her Canadian at: http://goingthedistancekw.blogspot.com/

Dana is a forever friend...meaning we've known each other for forever it seems (for over 14 years) and I love this lady to death. She's an amazing teacher, cook, lover of life, music, art and reading as well as bad reality tv hahah. She makes me laugh all the time and she always has insightful advice and a huge heart. I am so excited that she has started blogging and already she has some great ideas of what she wants to do on her blog, Many Moments. You will adore this lady as do I.

Ms. Graham at: http://msgrahamsblog.blogspot.com/

And she'll probably kill me for this close up shot from our friends wedding but I just think she is soo purty here.

I am also LOVING that this little mama will be bringing baby Ryland into our world in just a short time!

Kylie

I am LOVING that last weekend we were able to celebrate the impending arrival of baby Ryland at Kylie's baby shower! There were games and gifts galore and Ryland is already one spoiled baby boy with so many people excited to meet him!


The theme of the shower was CandyLand and my table won one of the games so I was lucky enough to bring home this sweet (pun intended) centerpiece!


Kylie's Aunt outdid herself with the gumdrop cake and all of the decorations. We had a great time now we're just ready for the little guy to get here!

Kylie, Ryland, cake and me. Ha!

Some of Rylands Aunties.

I am LOVING that I have such wonderful and amazing friends that I get to share with you here on my blog and now you can get to know some of them through their blogs as well.

I am also LOVING all of my followers, you make blogging so much fun and I LOVE hearing from you all!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Wednesday... until next time...

XOXO- Miss V

L.O.V.E

WARNING: if reading about my mushy lovely wonderful valentines day is going to make you sick or roll your eyes or scream GOT IT then you should just stop here. I'm documenting for me and if you're at all a romantic and interested in how Mr. Jones and I celebrated feel free to keep reading ;)

So last year I made the BOLD statement that Valentine's wasn't "that big of a deal" and "lets not really do anything or make a big fuss over it".

I'm not entirely sure why someone as overly sentimental and girly and lover of anything having to do with hearts and hugs and kisses xoxoxo galore would say such a thing..but I suspect it had something to do with the fact that I was back in school with a $0 budget for things such as Valentines day and really just kind of felt bad that I really couldn't afford a gift or meal out in honor of the occasion. Not that Mr. Jones and I have ever really gone over the top but in the past there have been the occasional small gifts and the fancy dinner out. Well.. as wonderful and caring and supportive and selfless as Mr. Jones is he is not what I would call "Romantic" in the traditional sense of the word..and having told you that, making such BOLD statements were actually taken literally and lets just say the big day O' Love last year pretty much started and ended with Mr. Jones frantically trying to sneak across the street to buy a last ditch effort V-day card all whilst I was using the ladies room during brunch. BECAUSE REGARDLESS OF WHAT I MAY HAVE SAID at least a card was in order?? rigghtttt?? Anyhow looking back on it now it makes me laugh out loud and only proves the point that wayyyy too much emphasis is put on one single day when really the poor guy shows me his love in endless and countless ways every single day.

This year was slightly different to say the least ha! Rather than focusing my energy on the day itself I wanted Mr. Jones to know that the every day things he does were the real reasons why I loved him and I wanted to celebrate this fact all week leading up to Valentines..

I left love notes like this one hiding and waiting for him every day.

Surprise treats from my sweet.

He too started the love fest early with a surprise goodie bag that I found hiding behind my pillow on Friday night. He wanted to ensure that I had a few of my favorite things to entertain me while he was out for his "guys night" Gossip mags check! Chocolate Hearts Check! Cinderella card covered in glitter ... check and check. (all of this for the girl that claimed a year earlier that "valentines was no big deal") hmmm. ha. Oh and yes I am 4 and still love anything related to Disney and princesses soooo yeaaaaa cats outta the bag.


Saturday night Mr. Jones made dinner reservations at one of our favorite restaurants and I got to wear this cute outfit...

I've had this Betsey Johnson 40's inspired dress for about 8 years and literally find one good excuse to wear it every year. Love and love.

The best part of Saturday night though was this cute man, a bottle of amazing wine... good food and great conversation...we laughed and talked all night long.

matching pose.. aww are you getting nauseous yet from all the love??

Well the love doesn't stop there because when I came home from working all day on Monday I found these lovelies waiting for me along with the funniest card ever.

He makes me laugh all day long. I apologize but we get a good laugh at these overly sappy cards in the drug store and Mr. Jones took it upon himself to "edit" the card to fit us. If you click on the photo you might get a better shot of his editing skills..while mostly inside jokes and "loving jabs" it might elicit a good giggle or two.

I let Mr. Jones sit back and relax (which is rare) while I whipped up Chicken Enchiladas and from scratch white chocolate chip cookies (his favorite) for our valentines meal at home. We ended the night by watching "Life as We Know It" which was perfect parts sappy, sad, touching and hilarious just the right combination for the both of us and we would definitely recommend it if you haven't already seen it!



So there it is folks this was my very much better way more lovey dovey totally romantical wonderful beaming with affection Valentines day 2011.

Lots of love to all of you and yours!

XOXO- Miss V