Rags to Riches

How was everyone's Thanksgiving? Mine was great overall, some highlights:

+ I made most of the Thanksgiving side dishes (including caramelized-shallot mashed potatoes, green beans, stuffing & caprese salad)
+ Ryan's sister bought a new car! An Acura TSX...after going to the dealership with her, I'M convinced I want an Acura too.
+ My sister flew into town from Ohio & I spent all weekend with her!
+ Lots of Rock Band & Kinect playing
+ Ice skating in Santa Monica

Some pictures!group photo - left to right: christine (my sister), me, jenny (rye's sister), rye's mom, rye, rye's dad, jason (yvette's fiance), yvette (rye's sister)

"future in-laws"

both the dress & tights are SO old, i can't even remember where i bought either! lol

hark! tis over there!

nommies

playing kinect. do you spy all of the rockband equipment?

my sister's celebrity doppleganger. SERIOUSLY. this has become a running joke. look at how eerily similar they look. LUPUS! Could be worse...could be for Vagisil or an STD, lol.

ice skating in santa monica

just landed my triple lutz...with a handle bar.

mocha at french market cafe

my open breakfast sandwich

And if you follow me on Twitter, you know the biggest news is that I recently adopted a stray puppy!! PUPPY!!!! BEST THANKSGIVING EVAR! He was found wandering the wilderness in Desert Hot Springs and after holding him for a few seconds I knew I just couldn't let him go. And so did my sister & Ryan's entire family. You should have seen the "uh oh, what did we just do" look they gave each other. *teehee*

when we found him on 11/26

"from rags...

Ezio, named after the Assassin's Creed character (can you guess who named him between Rye Bread & me?) is a Lab-mix & was 10-weeks when we found him (he's now 11-weeks). My sister & I then spent a majority of our weekend preparing the house & buying supplies & taking him to the vet to get his first round of shots.

ezio, 11/28 ...to riches!"

Since he's a puppy, he's incredibly time-consuming & instilling A LOT of patience in me...which, if you know me personally, I have very little of. Potty-training, timing, feedings, & a lot of attention. If you have an tips / advice, I'd be indebted.

excuse the uggs, they're the easiest things to slip on when trying to beat "accidents"

And don't worry - we didn't want "the real OG's" to feel left out...so Rye purchased these presents for them!

poncho with his monstrous raw hide...he had no idea what to do with it.

sydney's is much more reasonable...she immediately hid it.

On a side note, how hee-larry-us is it that because I'm documenting my GMAT progress that I'm getting GMAT comments?! Speaking of which, we only have 2 more classes left. I'm still working on implementing the strategies Kaplan is teaching before I start timing myself. It's a lot of stuff in a short amount of time. A majority of what I'm learning has nothing to do with the actual "work" or "how-to" of the problems, but figuring out "what" the GMAT is asking & how to score points. A word to the wise: You are expected to guess on a few questions...the GMAT is not about whether you know how to do the problems, but about knowing what to do with the information it gives you in the time it gives you. So good luck to everyone!

questions? ask here! / twitter tracker