Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Unsolved Mystery


February 11th, 2009. 4:30 pm. No flowers. 5:30 pm. Flowers on the doorstep. No note.
I live in a house with 4 other girls, all beautiful and eligible. So tell me who thinks it's a good idea to leave a gorgeous orchid on the door step with no mention who they are for and even who they are from. Does this make sense?!
My roommates concluded they had to be for me since it was my birthday and yet I have absolutely NO clue who they are from! We sat down and brainstormed all options and I do mean all options, even straight out asking possible conspirators... to no avail. A bunch of people came over that night for cake and no one asked or claimed them! AHHHH!!!
This has been driving me crazy and I am desperate to know who they are from. We have decided that they are local as there was no delivery information or even advertisement for where they could have originated. Plus we heard no knock on the door when they were left, I just happened to check for the mail when I came home and found this sitting on the door step instead.
It truly is an unsolved mystery and I cannot live with that. Any and all suggestions/ideas are wanted, we can do this together! HELP! :)
Isn't it gorgeous though? I mean this wasn't cheap...someone deserves some credit!

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Another Year Older...and Wiser too?

I turned 27 today. Most of you texted, called and facebooked me (ya I'm pretty sure that is now a word- "Facebooked" ). Birthdays are such a great time to just step back and realize how blessed we truly are. I'm so grateful for the love and support I have in my life. It truly is a gift.

With that all said, getting older is not easy. Yes I know I'm not "old", but hey I ain't gettin any younger, that's for sure. My knees are cracking and my back is aching. Not good signs. Or maybe I just need to take better care of myself.. that is possible.

It's funny though because I do honestly feel a year older. I'm not quite sure I'm all the wiser though. This year has definitely been one of growth. As a 26 year old, I backpacked Europe, moved to D.C., quit teaching, endured uenmployment for 3 months, and started a whole new career in accreditation. Those are pretty big things for me.

All in all, I won't soon forget 26, but I'm sure 27 got's some big moments for me too, and I'm pretty positive they'll involve many of you who are reading this.

Thank you for the love and thank you for the birthday wishes. I am who I am because of most of you. Here's to each day and making it count!

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Soaking it up



I live in Washington D.C. Well alright, not completely true, I live in Northern Virginia. And this is what I get to do on Saturday night with friends, roam around the Jefferson Memorial and take in the skyline. How gorgeous is this?!

We've had some unusually warm weather and so I am enjoying it, since I despise being cold-which is what I've been since about October. Last night was beautiful though and so we ventured out and enjoyed our proximity to the nation's capital. I'm not sure I'll ever get use to living this close to it all, but I'll definitely do my best to make the most of it. And to be honest, I did not take these pictures, but they were taken with MY camera. My friend Jay has a magic touch and set these shots up and I am forever grateful. They are amazing.

(This is my roommate Kim and I in front of the Jefferson Memorial. I adore her.)


Besides roaming around presidents' memorials, I've been busy with work and attempting to stay on top of all the new material I am learning every day. Really though, it has been great so far. I love the people I work with and am slowly figuring out the accreditation process. And I have to share a proud moment with you all, if I may take a moment and brag on myself... on my own blog. Haha.

Today, we had a big Commission Meeting, where all the Commissioners for the Agency (there are 13 of them) are in town and make all the final decisions regarding our schools and visits. So yes I unfortunately had to work on Sunday, but luckily I did have a shining moment.

We were sitting there in the General Session and they are going through the Agenda rather quickly and I'm seated behind another Specialist I've been observing and she is next to a Commissioner. Well, they made a decision about a school and voted and moved on and as I was looking at my copy of the Agenda and notes, I saw a discrespency and really just had a question about it. Well I lean over to my colleague and point it out and she agrees with my point and then leans over to the Commissioner. He checks it and then brings it to the attention of the entire Commission. By this point, I'm just sitting back in my corner observing. Well the Commission acknowledges the error and thanks Jim (that's the Commissioner who brought it up) for pointing it out and he goes "Oh no, that wasn't me, Miranda caught it".

The entire room turns to me and is startled-in a nice way, I mean I am the new girl-and everyone starts to congratulate me and then they all begin to applaud! My cheeks began to burn and I'm pretty sure I was a deep shade of crimson, and so I just smiled and laughed it off! Even later, during lunch, my boss and a few Commissioners came up and praised me on my catch. Hahaha.

It really was just a lucky catch, but hey I'll take it! Except now they may think I'm some kind of Wiz Kid, when really I'm still trying to sort it all out. But hey, I'll take the praise when it comes... I mean as a teacher, those moments were rare, so I'm a tad bit proud of myself, if I do say so :).