Wedding plans...

I don't know how to actually link the blogs, so this will have to suffice for now. I've started a wedding blog since I've decided not to use my facebook status as a running commentary on the planning process. Click on the image above if you'd like to visit my new site.

RINGing in the New Year...

December 26, 2009...

I don't know why my camera takes mirror image pictures, but that is actually my left hand.

He proposed... and I gave him a hug.

Then he reminded me to answer the question... and I said yes!!

:-)

My ABCs

A

- Available: I try to be available to everything - therefore, I am a very busy person!

- Age: 25

- Annoyance: open drawers

- Animal: the furry pink muppet who plays the drums?

B

- Birthday: June 8

-Body Part on opposite sex: eyes, heart

- Best feeling in the world: a big Hug, crawling into my bed

- Been in Love: aren't we supposed to love everyone - now, no one said I have to like everyone ;-)

- Been on stage?: Absolutely! (You should come to my concert on March 15 - beware the ides of march!)

- Believe in Magic: wasn't that by The Lovin' Spoonful?

- Believe in Miracles: they're all around us

- Believe in Santa: absolutely! How could you deny the spirit of Christmas?!

C

- Candy: mmmmmm

- Color: oh no! I can't answer this question - I don't know the answer - I get all nervous when I get asked this question - can I answer with a 96 box of Crayola Crayons?

- Chocolate/Vanilla: chocolate or vanilla what? it totally matters!

- Chinese/Mexican: what about Thai/Indian? any/all of the above sound good

- Cake or pie: yes, please!

- Continent/Country to visit: Europe/all of them

- Cheese: as long as no mice are involved

D

- Day or Night: hmmmm... I like sunny days and starry nights

- Dance in the rain: absolutely!

E

- Eggs: pysanky

- Eyes: in the back of my head... better watch out!

- Ever failed a class?: Not yet, that would mean I didn't work hard enough.

F

- Full name: Johanna Mikitka - that's it, that's all there is to it!

- First thoughts waking up: I'm supposed to have thoughts when I wake up?!

- Food: I'm ready whenever you are!

G

- Greatest Fear: uh, roaches? idk

- Goals: be the best person I can be. Live a full life so that people can't say I have potential - my physics teacher once said that potential is a bad thing because a person who has potential isn't everything they can be.

- Get along with your parents? sure... Dad is always right (except when Mom is).

- Good luck charm: uh, not that I can think of

H

- Hair Color: Brown

- Height: 5'something

- Happy: If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands

- Holiday: a jolly holiday - like in Mary Poppins?

- How do you want to die: why ponder things so clearly out of our control?

I

- Ice Cream: hmmm, perhaps some springer chip, or some moose tracks, or maybe a banana split?

- Instrument: piano, voice, English handbells... maybe one day I'll learn to play the accordion!

J

- Jewelry: always my Order of the Engineer ring; other times class ring or one of a few other rings, necklaces, bracelets, earings, ankle bracelets - depends on the situation

- Job: "staff professional" - in many other states I could say engineer - but in PA you have to have your P.E. to say that.

K

- Kids: I like kids!

- Kickboxing or karate: um, I'd probably hurt myself doing either

- Keep a journal?: sometimes - mostly I just tell my mom

L

- Longest Car Ride: continuous: Philadelphia, PA to Clemson, SC; over three days: Philadelphia, PA to Oklahoma - both rides involved a 30ft. trailer, a 15 passenger van, and a concrete canoe!

- Love: <3

- Letter: I like to get them in the mail!

- Laughed so hard you cried?: totally!

M

- Milk flavor: chocolate

- Movies: depends on my mood

-Motion Sickness?: not that I know of - unless it involves the Paratrooper at Knobels

- McD’s or BK: BK

N

- Number of Siblings: 1 real sister; 1 "nocturnal twin"

- Number of Piercings: one in each ear

- Number: 3.14159...

O

- One wish: life without conflict

P

- Perfect Pizza: homemade or Papa John's with pineapple & jalepeno (if I'm ordering out)

- Pepsi/Coke: Pepsi

Q

- Quail: How am I supposed to respond to this?

R

- Reason to cry: it's my party and I'll cry if I want to :-D (I think somebody put my brain-radio on shuffle tonight)

- Reality T.V.: ugh - too much reality

- Radio Station: any one that is not playing commercials - internet radio favs include WALN, WMID, OmegaRock

- Roll your tongue in a circle?: yes - particularly to annoy my friends who can't ;-)

- Ring size?: I think all my fingers are different

S

- Song: I couldn't pick just one!

- Shoe size: Women's 10, Men's 8.5

- Salad Dressing: depends on my mood - usually some type of vinegar based dressing

- Sushi?: oh man, this alphabet is making me hungry!

- Skipped school: I skipped one class in college so I could finish the homework that was due at the end of class... showed up at the end to turn it in - other than that, I can't cuz I feel super guilty!

- Slept outside: in a tent

- Sing well?: I try

- In the shower?: If my roomie isn't around

- Swear?: I work with drillers and construction workers - my brain has a full working vocabulary of words - I try not to use "drillers mouth" at the office or around children - some of the guys try to provoke my use of words... some I just won't use!

- Strawberries/Blueberries: mmmmm fresh fruit!

T

-Time for bed: I've heard that normal people keep schedules - I confess, I am not a normal person ;-)

-Thunderstorms: awesome - especially at the beach!

U

- Unpredictable: can this be predicted?

V

- Vacation spot: anywhere as long as it doesn't invovled homework!

W

- Which one of your friends acts the most like you: hmmm - I'll have to ponder that more

- Who makes you laugh the most: Fritz ;-)

- Worst feeling: getting out of my glorious bed

- Wanted to be a model?: not if it involves wearing makeup - yuck!

- Worst weather?: Hurricanes and tornadoes

X

- X-Rays: been there


Y

- Year it is now: 2009!

- Yellow: brick road? ... submarine?

Z

- Zoo animals: I want to go to the zoo... I've lived blocks from it for 8 years now!


LAST PERSON WHO…

1. Slept in your bed besides you: Elle - that Elephant sleeps all day!

2. You went to the mall with: do strip malls count? - in that case, my Dad - who can pass up a trip to Sears Essentials and the Dollar store?!

3. You went to dinner with: a lot of canoe people

4. You talked to on the phone: JB

5. Made you laugh: myself - I laugh at myself frequently

6. Hugged you: JB

7. Said they loved you: mom sent me an IM kiss

8. You spoke with: Theresa (my roomie)

9. You cried over: the guy at church who called me close-minded

10. Made you mad: the guy at church

I'm going to tag Aimee and T if they want to do it... and anyone else who might feel like participating.

This alphabet has been brought to you by the Letter J and the number 8.

Happy Birthday JB!

Well, I had hoped to post a cute pic of us from the Maize Quest... but alas, I have yet to unearth the download cable for the camera. Basically I just haven't unpacked from my week of traveling.

HAPPY 26th BIRTHDAY JB!

A flurry of commotion...

Well, it's been a long time since I posted an update! Work has been keeping me busy... VERY busy! One of my projects is on a very tight fast paced time table. At any rate, it keeps me out of trouble.

Since my last post, my cousin Ted also celebrated his 25th birthday, and my cousin Maria celebrated her 23rd Birthday... Happy Birthday wishes!

In other news, JB moved out of the city. He is temporarily living out of boxes at his parents' house until he moves into his own place (which he hasn't purchased yet). Today is going to be a house hunting day with his older sis... hooray for female input! :-D Geegee is going to have a great time with her grand-babies while JB and Aimee go house hunting with the realtor. JB has discovered that his commute to the office takes nearly 2 hours... good thing he doesn't have to go in every day! So, now everyone/everything is about an hour away... my apt. to my office (~1 hr), my apt. to JB's parents' (~1 hr), my apt. to my parents' (~ 1 hr), my office to JB's parents' (~ 1 hr), my office to my parents' (a little more than an hour), my parents' to JB's parents' (~1 hr). Seriously, everyone is an hour away... except for my cousin... he moved closer. He's only 10 minutes away... merely a hop, skip, and a jump relative to everyone else!

Went to an oldies dance this weekend... that was a blast! It was nice to take a break from life for a few hours! ZZZzzz... OK, I'm out for the night...

The Last Thing you Want to See While Gracing the Throne...

Although I have been unsure if this is a blog-appropriate story, it is certainly an amusing story to look back on... now anyway ;-)

While my roommate and I strive to keep a relatively orderly, well, clean if not orderly apartment, our building mates in addition to Drexel's apparent obsession with construction projects chase the occasional uninvited guest into our place. I returned from my lovely week at the beach for a few brief moments to drop off some stuff that didn't need to go to my parents house and pick up one or two things (i.e. the dirty laundry basket... it's so much cheaper, not to mention easier (a post for another time) to do the laundry at mom-n-dad's). At any rate, since we had stopped off there, I took the opportunity to use the facilities. While gracing the throne, I heard something... enough of something to make me turn my head -














just in time to see a roach making a b-line for my unprotected bottom wandering across the floor. Yelling and screaming commenced. As if the bugger could sense my fear, it came straight for the throne. After falling off as it attempted to scale the clean porcelain bowl it decided to check out the rest of the bathroom. Meanwhile, I continued yelling about roach spray in the kitchen. Luckily, my cousin, T.E. had come to the apt. with me so I was not left alone to fend off the invader. Unfortunately, here I was closed in the bathroom with the invader and an exposed dupa... and T.E. was on the other side of the door with the can of death. He threw in a bucket for me to attempt to catch the intruder, but the darned thing moved too quickly out of my reach.

J.B. to the rescue...
Lucky for me, J.B. came in just as the roach made a move for the door. By this time, I had managed to snag my bath towel from the rack to use as a curtain so as not to expose my poor dupa to my roach killing heroes. J.B. threw open the door and drowned Mr. Roach in a pool of spray! Phew! With the door closed again, I was able to resume finishing my business in peace... or so I thought...

the roach had wiggled it's way over to the wall and was in the process of using the wall to regain its running stance when it caught my eye. *yelling resumes* So, I don my towel curtain again and J.B. attacks with the spray. Mr. Roach ran out of the bathroom, across the hallway, straight into my bedroom... with J.B. in hot pursuit. He was finally able to catch the bugger, or perhaps give him a heart attack. What happened after that was somewhat of a blur, but I decided to place dead invader in a zip-top bag as proof for the exterminator that I do not exaggerate about the size of my roaches. Hopefully we won't see any more of his kind... EVER!

oh, by the way, I think we may now have a mouse... oh, the joys of living in the city, near construction, in a building built in the 1800s... ahhhh