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T-SWIFT

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...SO Pumped

That is all.

Cold Tangerines

"It's rebellious, in a way, to choose joy, to choose to dance, to choose to love your life. It's much easier and much more common to be miserable. ...I know that death knocks at our doors and comes far too early for far too many of us, but when he comes for me, I want to be full-tilt, wide-open, caught in the very act of life."

"I want a life that sizzles and pops and makes me laugh out loud. And I don't want to get to the end, or tomorrow, even, and realize that my life is a collection of meetings and pop cans and errands and receipts and dirty dishes. I want to eat cold tangerines and sing loud in the car with the windows open and wear pink shoes and stay up all night laughing and paint my walls the exact color of the sky right now. I want to sleep hard on clean white sheets and throw parties and eat ripe tomatoes and read books so good they make me jump up and down and I want my everyday to make God belly laugh, glad that he gave life to someone who loves the gift, who will use it up and wring it out and drag it around like a favorite sweater."

-Shauna Niequist

Cold Tangerines

The Play by Play

So I have this funny thing that I do with my dad that I was really never consciously aware of until tonight when I was watching the ASU game (which was a total bust, by the way). We always seem to text one another whenever there's a game on, and continue to offer color commentary between the two of us for the duration of the games...commentary, or smiley's-my dad likes to reply in smiley's. It usually starts when something good happens for the hometown team and one of us will text the other something resembling this:

"OWWWWWW!!"

(Usually means touchdown, homerun...anything totally awesome) 

Tonight while we were texting during the ASU game, my phone accidentally skipped to earlier conversations and I started to scroll through and read them and thought they were both funny and illustrative of this habit we have. So I thought I'd share:

Participants:

-------------

Rissa, Gary King

Messages:

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Rissa: I think its clear that these announcers can't mention osweiller without also mentioning 6ft 8...we get it! He's 6ft 8!

Gary King: :)

Rissa: If we were alcoholics we cud take a shot of something every time they say 6ft 8

Gary King: Rotfl !!! Yes they just said it again

Rissa: OWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!

Gary King: Yeah baby!!!

Rissa: Too bad there's not a smiley for that...

Gary King: :)

Gary King: Zang

Gary King: Boy this is a fast footbal game

Rissa: Its cause were watching baseball...just seems fast :)

Gary King: Owwwwwwww

Rissa: WOWOWOWOOOOOOOWWW!!!

Rissa: Pretty sneaky!!

Gary King: What is sneaky?

Rissa: That trick play!

Gary King: Yeah baby!  They were sleeping

Rissa: Zzzzzzz (=|

Rissa: R u watching the game? This is a painful inning...ouchie

Gary King: No golfing

Rissa: I forgot! Hope you're having fun! Dbacks just got pummeled in the 3rd inning 4-0 bad guys

(I just want to preface this one and say it was the game when Ryan Roberts hit a walk off grand slam in the 10th inning after going down 6 runs in the 9th)

Rissa: Are you watching this game???

Gary King: Yesh but going to bed now...wait you are talking about Dbacks

(couple hours later)

Rissa: OMG I wish you were awake right now!! Dbacks just won!!!!! Walk off GRAND SLAM!! Woop woop!!

(...next morning)

Gary King: I quit in the tenth when LA went up by one due to a passed ball.  Unbeleivable comeback

(Can you tell when our defense started to go down the tubes tonight?)

Gary King: Hey hey 7-0 to start !!! Better then the other way

Rissa: Hahaha! This is true!!

Rissa: ...And now tied is better than behind I suppose too! Haha

Gary King: Oops 14-14 now but still the same point

Rissa: +3...yipee!...I wanna win this one :s

Gary King: :)

Rissa: EEW

Gary King: Eeeeeewwww !!!

Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®

TGIF?

Here's how I spend my Friday nights these days

Are you jealous?

I mean, I realize hanging out with friends... or maybe even your spouse, going out to eat, seeing a movie...it's all very fun and exciting. But really, it can't compare to writing about, say, administrative procedures and the political control of bureaucracy, or even corporate political expenditures and the signals its sends the American public bureaucracy.

...any takers??

I'm starting to keep track of time by assignment due dates. 

"Is today the 14th?" someone asks at the office today.

"Why yes it is," I think to myself. "Cause today is the day my lit review is due...that I haven't started yet."

"What's the date next Monday?" I"m asked.

"The 17th." I reply without pause. "...Cause that's the day my video analysis is due," I think to myself.

At least I can say the homework timeline I made, hung up at my desk, on my mirror, and on the front of my binder, so I don't forget about anything is serving it's purpose.

Is it December yet?

Alderwood Creek

This weekend Nate and I went camping with my family at Alderwood Creek.

...Oh and our next door neighbor Roscoe

He was the Golden Retriever camping next door to us that wandered on over frequently. Since Hammick doesn't know how to play with other dogs, and Maycee is kind of a batch, Gunny and Roscoe were BFF's for the weekend.

 This was no ordinary camping trip though. It marks the first time in 20 years that my mother actually went camping!

That's right, she slept in a tent, used a port-a-potty, froze her tush off, and ate s'mores. And the best part is...she totally survived!

Everyone else arrived ahead of Nate and I since we both couldn't get off work; which might've turned out to be a good thing since it rained Friday and, as I'm told, was

fuh-reeeee-ziing. 

Exhibit A

(Notice Hammick bottom left under the blanket too)

...And since I wasn't there to have to endure the cold front I can totally make fun of them for these pictures and tell them they're just weenies and it couldn't have been that cold. 

Once Nate and I finally got there we all headed out for a hike leisurely nature walk. Naturally, the dogs took off like bats outa hell and immediately found the water...well, the labs anyway. 

We came to point where we had to cross the water so Nate found us the best route and helped us all over...including my mom. She camps, she crawls over logs, I mean, seriously, what can't this woman do??

On the other side was a hanging rope with a foot loop and when Nate decided to swing from it the dogs went into pinata mode...

Daddy in his element...

We also found some raspberry bushes; Nate ate them right off the vine...I wasn't that brave

After our hike leisurely nature walk we headed back to camp and a very serious game of corn hole ensued...

Can you tell the level of seriousness?

After the cut-throat bean bag toss, a slight afternoon drizzle, and ASU beat Utah (Go Devils!) it was time for dinner. And lemme tell ya, Adam is camping chef extrodinaire. We had carne asada burritos cooked over the camp fire...DELISH

While dinner was cooking we got a little 2nd Amendment 101; some 'Guns for Beginners,' if you will. We weren't in a area to shoot in, but Nate started showing some of his firearms to my parents, who've, until now, probably never even seen one in real life. And he's always happy to talk about guns. 

After some s'mores, some cool stuff you can throw in the fire to make it turn fun colors, and a bunch of laughs, we retired to our tents...ours of course with the Mr. Heater Buddy (neener neener neener!)

The next morning, after some more tasty food cooked by none other than Adam himself, we cleaned up our stuff and headed back home. It was fun to actually be chilled and wear a sweatshirt for once. That and my mom is now officially a camper! Nate says until she sleeps outside on a cot with no tent and no port-a-potty, she's still a novice.

...and a novice she shall stay...cause that ain't neva gonna happen!

You go mama!

   

Fall...or lack thereof

So everyone's been posting about fall and how much we loooove fall and we're so pumped to do all these fall-y things, and I've been pretty excited for the changing of the seasons myself. But quite frankly, I 'm starting to feel kind of gypped (is that a real word?).

It's hard not to feel gypped out of fall when your 10 day forecast looks like this:

Stupid right?

There were a couple days last week, and when I say a couple, I do mean a mere 2 days, where it was overcast and rained a bit and I got really excited thinking the summer heat was finally over. We even...dare I say...Opened the screen doors! But Phoenix weather is teasing me and I really don't appreciate it, cause here we are again looking at 90+ degree weather. 

I've had a couple of these...

...but they've been iced.

Can't wear any of these lovely fall clothes...

...cause it's too hot and I'll get armpit rings

Our air conditioner is still running, the towels on my leather car seats are still on, and no matter how many times I try and study outside on the patio I am always forced back inside by the heat of the sun.

C'mon Phoenix, I knoooow you want to cool down... just let it out already!

Reunited

...And it feels so good!

That means that sheriff's back in town, so you dogs better be on your best behavior!