We Want to Know

This week's questions are about cell phones and OMG I am ADDICTED to mine! So link up with Mamarazzi and Alicia aka Queso for your own cell phone Q&A!

{1}Do you prefer to text or call?

This is totally dependant on the situation! If I am preoccupied with other things like cooking dinner, having a conversation with the hubs, and by the end of September watching my shows (kidding, but not really because I think ABC monopolizes my free time in the fall), I prefer a text because it is better for multitasking. However, if the conversation is surrounding serious topics, a phone call is more appropriate.  A text is good when we are meeting for lunch and you're in a crowded restaurant so you send me a text "Where are you?" A text is not appropriate for something like "OMG I am pregnant!" or "I just got in a car wreck." Call me for this these things so I can properly express my excitement or concern!

{2}What is the last text message in your phone and who is it from?
The last message in my phone is from the hubs and it says "Nope."  He is a man of many words! ;-)

{3}What are your favorite phone apps?
I don't really use any apps because I am a black berry user.  Technically, facebook is an app so it is totally my favorite. I also use bejeweled for those boring minutes you sit in the doctor's office waiting for your turn to be examined. OH! AND I bought Oregon Trail for 99 cents. Best. Purchase. Ever.

{4}At what age do you think kids are ready for a cell phone?
This is a tough one because I do think the increased technology our children will have access to just creates a bigger opportunity for them to lie and hide things.  I am thinking I am going to be that awful mean Mom who won't let their kids have a cell phone until they can have a job to pay for it. Which means they will be at least 16.

{5}Share a current pic or video taken with your phone.
This was taken as we were leaving Wal Mart the other night. I thought it was karma's way of giving me a peace offering after the horrendous hour spent inside of the store.

I know this wasn't part of the questions this week but I just need to take a minute and rant about the awful grammar habits that texting is producing for many people. PLEASE, for the love of all things holy, do NOT sent me a text with abbreviated words, "u" for "you" and "r" for "are" and so on and so forth. Type the dang word out! You're offending my respect for words and the awesomeness of flowing them together with proper spelling.

Some Days We Just Need Reminding...

I have been having the kind of summer that flew by so fast I felt like I hardly got to do anything fun just for myself or just with my husband. Usually, I welcome summer time (where the living is supposed to be easy) with open arms, but this summer was so full of traveling and crises and school and work and stress that I don't feel like we got any sort of real break.  That being said, I have had to kick myself in the tushy about being an Eeyore about life lately.  I mean the occasional Eeyore day is acceptable but not an entire Eeyore season! I need to be more like Tigger and start seeing things positively. For instance...

• There is always a cold side to the pillow, which is nothing to frown about!
• BBQ and wedding food makes you gain weight, but at the cost of fabulous times with family and friends and the creation of wonderful memories - I'd say that pays off.
• Weekends full of traveling and minimal sleep makes for one long work week but trading that off with time well spent building relationships with family makes it worth it. Remember that.
• The Rockies aren't going anywhere, so maybe we didn't escape to see a baseball game this summer but our grandparents won't be around forever - The Rockies can wait.
• The hubs only golfed once this season. Read it again, I said once! This is unheard of, but he got many opportunities instead to be a good friend, husband, brother, son...he'll golf next year.
• We didn't get to go on one hike or mountain drive this year in the lazy fashion of no deadlines, no worries, no worldly factors, but what we DID get to do was travel freely, day or night, without the worries of I-80 being closed or covered in black ice.
• I found time to make homemade ice cream.  A few times.  De-li-cious.
• Playing catch in the front yard during the cool evening is no sad thing.
• I adore the way the lawn looks on the day it is freshly cut.  It's so neat and tidy!
• I love to sleep with all the windows hanging open and the doors only with screens so my home gets a freshening before winter comes and it must be closed up again.
• Grocery shopping and saving close to 50% is the best day ever.
• Yay for fruit being in season!
• I discovered SO MANY new recipes this summer that I am positive will live on to be family favorites.
• We purchased our Honeymoon vacation - woot woot!
• The hubs got a grill for his birthday and he has put it to good use, even on the weekdays, all summer long.
• The weather was nice enough I could walk home from work.
• Flowers bloomed.
• Grass grew.
• Birds sang.
• Babies were born.
• Life moved on.

So you see, I just needed a little reminder that summer wasn't all that bad, and even in our busy, chaotic, stressful, every-day lives - there is sunshine.

It's Okay Friday

It's Okay...

*To eat dessert occasionally.

*To be so sore from a week of yoga and turbo kick I feel like I am going to die.

*To be straight up angry that after a week of said exercise I have not lost an ounce. Not only have I not lost but I have gained. LAME.

*To be sad that no one really ever comments on my blog but to also know I do it more for myself anyway.

*To love the way my husband's warm hand feels on my tummy when he spoons me.

*To be sad that the leaves are falling of the trees already.

* To think that Hurricane Irene better not mess up my cruise plans or I will find her eye and poke it.

Happy Friday!!

Cha Cha Changes

How does that old adage go? The more things change, the more they stay the same? I say that is crap…as we embark on the beginning of a new semester I swear I already feel the stress and lack of sleep that will come with the newness we are going to encounter this time around.  I can feel the changes sneaking up on me and pouring into my veins. While there was a time in my life I dreaded the word change, I have changed my attitude and this go around, I am stoked.

Change 1:

The hubs is in his upper level classes.  While he is breathing a sigh of relief to finally be taking classes relevant to his major and fully prepared to enjoy the heck right out of them…I am breathing a sigh of dread knowing that his life – for the next 14 weeks – will consist of nothing but school and work.  Every ounce of “free” time he would normally have will be consumed with reading chapters out of his 300 dollar text book, taking notes on said reading, studying, cramming, writing, evaluating. While I welcome the end of his education on the horizon in the far off distance, I know what lies ahead and I pray daily that his brain doesn’t overload and completely explode.

Change 2:

My body. I am sick of being stuck where I am at with my weight.  I am not the “f” word (f-*-t) but I am also not thin. I have lost 20 pounds on portion control and smarter eating habits alone but it is time to take it a step further and add exercise into my life. So every Monday and Wednesday night I have a yoga class and every Tuesday and Thursday morning I have a Turbo Kick class. I am determined to stick with my schedule and make this a successful part of my life.  I will wear a bikini in 108 days on my cruise. You just watch me.

Change 3:

The hubs needs to work less to accommodate his rigorous academic schedule. Less money, less fun, more stress.

Change 4:

I am back in school.  To do what I should have done all those years ago –work towards teaching English at a secondary level.  Hello College of Education…nice to meet you. While I am confident this will provide happiness in the long run, I am nervous about remaining a full-time employee while working towards this goal and the extra stress it will bring to my life.

Change 5:

The weather: with school comes fall and with fall comes winter and with winter comes harsh times in L-Town.

There are many more but I don’t want to get crazily long winded here. All this brings me back to the point I want to make, which is that with the right attitude, change is just that…change.  It doesn’t have to be dramatic. It doesn’t have to be overwhelming, nor stressful, nor all-encompassing. We don’t have to drown in the sorrow of change. We can welcome it. We can have the right attitude about it, and this time around, as a married couple we have a united front to do so. These are good changes, you know the kind that come when watermelon is ripe, flowers bloom and new friends are made.

Attitude can make or break a situation and right now my attitude is that all these changes are going to be awesome. The hubs will start enjoying school because he likes the content of the class. I will look better in a bathing suit. Less work means less stressful hours of the hubs’ day filled with “delightful” customers and more hours of the day I get to be around him (even if he is studying his brains out). Classes for me mean pursuing something I love, something I am good at, and something that gives me great joy. Do I want to be a working mother? No. Do I want to be prepared to contribute if I need to or something ever happened to my hubs? Yes, yes I do. With the harshness of winter comes the beauty of snowfall, days curled under afghans with hot cider and literature, mornings spent sleeping in and cuddling under the warm covers.

See? Change isn’t all bad…in fact, it isn’t bad at all.

We Want to Know

I missed a week but I am back to link up with Mamarazzi & Alicia AKA Queso for We Want to Know Wednesdays! 

 

 

1. What is the best advice someone has ever given you?
Be honest and fair in all your dealings with your fellow man. Seriously, this is such an all encompassing statement! It could be to be honest with your family, your friends, your spouse...you name it, be honest.  I have discovered that honesty is becoming a rare trait and it makes me sad because I think that lying is one of the most evil things ever. Ever.

2. What is your greatest accomplishment?
Not to lay on the cheese - but my husband is my greatest accomplishment to date.  I can't take the credit for finding him because he chased me, but choosing him, loving him, marrying him for time and all eternity - those things are my greatest accomplishment. I am not the best wife in the world (although I am pretty darn close!) but seriously, my marriage is my greatest accomplishment this far in my life. Someday I hope to combine that with being a freaking awesome Mom.

3. Who do you admire?
Man these questions this week are bringing out some deep answers! I would have to say I admire, more than anyone or anything, Jesus Christ. I figure that even if you aren't super religious, the way this man lived his life is a shining example.  I strive to be the person who can accept ANYONE, help ANYONE, LOVE ANYONE and do it all without judgement.  I think he is a beautiful example of pure and unconditional love and kindness.

4. If you could change one thing about yourself what would it be?
I am trying not to over analyze this one because I don't know that I would change much of anything. We are all imperfect people striving to do better but it is the history on our shoulders and the lessons that came from that history that help us become better people. I guess I would say I would change my procrastination.  I swear, every time I procrastinate and end up in a bind I go through a few months where I do everything right on time and then forget the consequences of procrastinating and start all over again! I would change my forgetfulness of how stressful procrastinating can be so that I would never do it again!

5. How do you want to be remembered?

With a smile, having been someone who filled the lives of others up with sunshine, happiness, kindness and love.

It's Okay Friday

It's Okay...

*To have bawled my eyes out at the conclusion of the above book. I read this horrendous review on it so it took me over a year to actually break down and read the book my Mom gave me. I should have trusted my Mom.  It was phenomenal and I can only assume that the person who reviewed it so terribly doesn't understand the bonds of horses and humans, or how deeply they run, or how healing these beautiful creatures can be, or how powerful relationships forged in a home surrounded by these majestic creatures can be. Either way, it was a phenomenal book.  It's okay that I loved it despite the reviews on it. Who says what I should read anyway?!

*To make the occasional bad meal. Like last night for instance, my husband got home an hour and half later than he was supposed to and the dinner dried out in the oven. It wasn't the most offensive thing I have ever eaten, but it tasted a lot better at 7:00 than it did at 8:30. Sad day.

*To intend to cook some delicious chicken version of taco ring tonight to make up for said bad dinner.  13 points a serving? Yes please, it will be worth it.

*To have gotten multiple phone calls from my favorite little people this week because they figured out how to speed dial on their Dad's phone.  I think it is the best thing they have learned since their ABC's.

*To eat six pounds of watermelon in one sitting. Yeah, I said it, SIX POUNDS.

*To be fashionably offended every time I see the lady at work who wears socks and sneakers with her skirts.

Happy Friday!!

It's Okay Friday

It's Okay...

*To hate dieting. I mean I was totally in the swing of things and then July happened (and if you don't know how I feel about July, see here). So I got totally OUT of the swing of things and ate green chili and cheeseburgers and salads at BBQ's and cake and homemade ice cream and needless to say, the first week of August has been murderous getting back into the swing of things.

*To only be on my 3rd day of no caffeine and no carbonation and already miss Diet Coke terribly. And I mean terribly.

*To think that I like the Duchess Kate even more for recycling her clothing. I wear a variation of the same 10 outfits every day of my life.  You Go Kate!...for keeping it real.

*To be freakin thrilled that Ashley chose JP. I mean I was totally rooting for him the whole time, but then I actually felt bad because Ben was, like, legitimately heartbroken. Which was sad, but I was still stoked for Ashley and JP.I am quite hoping they are the couple the proves everyone wrong.

*To have let my laundry go for two weeks. Yeah, it's bad, but I've been having some issues in my life lately. Mostly I am too damn hot to want to do anything.

*To wake up every morning cursing my allergies. Seriously, allergies are lame!

*To be counting down to my cruise, to have searched out restaurants in New Orleans on line, to be jacked to find out Cafe Du Monde is open 24 hours a day, to be freaking jacked to swim with dolphins, to be looking forward to a real vacation, to, well, you know, be counting down to my cruise.

Happy Friday!!

We Want to Know

Link up with Mamarazzi and Alicia aka Queso for We Want To Know Wednesday! It's so much fun =) Here we go!!

 1.If you  could spend a day with a blogger, who you haven't met in real life, who would you choose?
I love that this question is going to being out the creeper in all of us! I love so many blogs but I especially love Amber's blog...I have no idea who she is, I linked to her blog by clicking on my friend's (Nomz, she's also a genius writer you should totally check her out) blog when she listed blogs she loves and I find her to be utterly hilarious. I think a lunch with her at the Cheesecake factory would probably be pretty epic.

2.What website do you check first when you go online?
Facebook. I know, I know, totally lame right?! It's just that the goings on of that website are so good!!! It used to be this twitter page for Justin's Dad but he grew up and moved out of his Dad's house and got married and stuff so he doesn't update it as often. Also, totally hilarious.

3.What is something you are saving money for right now?
Our cruise!!!!!!!!! The hubby and I never got to take a honeymoon and we are going to go in December on a cruise. I'm just so......ohmygoshsoexcited I can't even stand it!

4.What is your go to silly face when a silly face is needed?
I know I am lame but I don't really have a go to silly face...but when I married a man who makes one in every picture I figured that evened out all the years of not having one.

5.How do you relieve stress?
The answer to this quesiton USED to be by eating.  I was a serious stress eater. Then I joined Weight Watchers on a journey to look good in a bikini so I don't get to stress eat anymore. Not unless I want to look like a beached whale on the cruise. So honestly, usually just get zits and pull out my hair.  I hate stress zits and so I do my best not to be stressed! My husband always tells me the Lord knows what he is doing and it will work out....and it always does. So why stress the small stuff? It's all small stuff.