Things That Never got Blogged: The Entire Months of November through February

Hi, hello, is this thing on?! It's me again, Carissa - the one who used to put words and pictures and stuff here and always says she's gonna blog more but never does. Hi, yes, that's me. It's February now, and the last time I blogged was November...oops. See the thing is, early November came so fast and then the end of November was busy with the holiday and stuff, and then December came and I was stuck on the couch watching Hallmark movies all month long (so def couldn't blog right), and then early January came and I was like, trying to clean up Christmas and mourning the loss of Hallmark Christmas movies, and then the rest of January took so damn long I got really busy just wondering why January was taking so long to be over with. Makes sense right?

So I'm here to do a highlight reel of sorts, because 1.) my inner OCD doesn't let me casually start blogging again without catching it up first, and 2.) The end of 2017 was actually full of really fun stuff.

November
*Taylor Swift's new Album Reputation finally came out and my friend and fellow closet Swiftie ("closet" because we're 30 and I don't think anyone over the age of 13 can publicly refer to themselves by the name of a particular fandom) made a morning out of it. Target, brunch, then sat in my car to listen to the album because we both realized we don't own CD players. 2017 probs.

*We took the side-by-side out and buzzed around the Tonto National Forest back to Sheep's Bridge with my in-laws. The family that eats dirt together, stays together. Although next time I'm calling dibs on lead because I don't actually like eating that much dirt.

 Sheep's Bridge

*My friend Kailey hosted a Friendsgiving and it was lovely and impressive and delicious. One day your bff's are strangers you met on the internet, the next day you're drinking sangria at Friendsgiving together. Life comes at you fast.

*We made our annual Christmas photo trip with my dear friend Jennica of Amaes Photography, which might actually seem like it belongs in December but we were ahead of the game this year and got our Christmas photos done in November. And as per the usual, Jennica did an amazing job, and every year I'm like, how can we top this next year?? And every year we do.

December

*We set out looking for a small Christmas tree this year and ended up getting the biggest one we've ever had because it was actually the cheapest one we found (love you, Costco). I put it in a new spot in my living room and it was my absolute favorite thing this holiday season.

*I discovered I had the Hallmark Channel this Christmas and so naturally, proceeded to watch so many Hallmark Christmas movies that Nate turned it into a verb ("Uh oh, she's Hallmarking again").

*My family took our annual weekend trip, this year to Prescott and we had the best time. We saw so many Christmas light displays, went hiking at Lynx Lake, and saw the most impressive gingerbread house exhibit. 

*By some stroke of luck, Nate was offered Christmas Eve off which made the actual holidays so much better. Since he works the graveyard shift, that meant we had Christmas Eve night together and most of Christmas day before he went to work Christmas night. 

*This holiday season was a really really good one. A culmination of small things just really added up to make my Christmas feel so full. Usually after the holidays I'm ready for a fresh start in the new year but I was really sad to see this Christmas go. 

Christmas 2017 from Carissa on Vimeo.

January
*Rang in the new year by myself but it's fine because I had a whole bottle of champagne to myself and re-decorated my pallet.

*My family had a ribs and corhole day complete with crock-pot Mac and cheese and a surprise guest appearance by T-rex.
January 2018 Ribs and Cornhole Short from Carissa on Vimeo.

*My mom and I rode bikes to Postinos on a Saturday morning, drank a bunch of mimosas, and then got rained on the whole way home. We were drunk-ish so it's like we didn't even notice. Jk we totally noticed and we were totally wet. But also totally had fun.

*Nate received the 2017 Veteran's of Foreign Wars (VFW) Police Officer of the Year award in a lovely ceremony that he didn't want to go to because he hates this kind of thing, but we love it and are so proud and made him take lots of pictures.

Source

Source

February
*Out with the old pallet, in with the new. I got this letter board for Christmas and now it's my new favorite staple on my wood pallet and I spent an embarrassing amount of time googling "Harry Potter Valentine's puns" to find this one. Totally worth it.

If you've made it this far and are still reading this post - thanks for making it this far and reading my post. If you haven't - I totally get it.

Now, let's get this blog on a roll shall we?!

Happy 2018!

He Won't but I Will

Today we celebrate Veteran's Day. My husband is a veteran. A combat veteran.
He probably won't tell you that but I will because like most veteran's, he never did it for the glory, but I think he deserves some.

He probably won't tell you about his 15 months in Iraq, where he lived the wars that are now in our history books, but I will. Missions all day, missions all night - heavy on the fire fights, light on the phone calls to home. Talk towards his good ear because gun fire blew out hearing in his other. I spent a lot of time at the post office mailing flat-rate boxes full of his favorite candy, and he spent a lot of time in an up-armored Humvee manning the 240 Bravo. I carried my cell phone with me wherever I went in case he called, and he carried his M4 in case duty called.

He won't tell you about all the doors he kicked down, houses he cleared, or terrorists he chased but I will. Because that seems like a scary job but "afraid" was never a word I heard him utter.

He won't tell you about all the "hearts and minds" they earned, or how they built up an entire Iraqi police force but I will; because that's borderline bragging and while Nate doesn't brag about his life of service, I do.

Nate probably won't tell you what it's like to roll outside the wire every day and never know if a buried IED somewhere is about to blow you away at any minute - and neither will I. Because I don't know what that's like, but Nate does. I don't know what death smells like but Nate does. I've never had people actually trying to kill me but Nate has. He won't tell you about all that stuff though. He barely tells me.

Sometimes when we go to baseball games and the PA announcer comes on and tells military service men and women to stand and be recognized for their service - Nate doesn't stand. He doesn't want to be recognized but I want him to. Because I heard the monotone in his voice on the phone and I saw the tired in his eyes when he mailed me photos and while I don't know much, I know that war changes a person and they deserve credit for that sacrifice. Nate won't call it a sacrifice but I will.

He won't take the credit but we'll give it anyway.

Happy Veteran's Day and thank you to all those who have served our great nation.

There was a St. Bernard in the Drive Through and other Fall Things

It is November, people. NOVEMBER. I hate to be the person that's like "omg it's already November time is flying waaaaa!" but like, omg it's already November and time is flying.

I haven't been doing a whole lot since the summer time because as I told you all, summer is my favorite and so I often feel a pressure all season long to like, do all the things. And so we usually end up doing all the things, which means camp trips, day trips, vacation, pool days, birthdays, and generally just sweating your ass off for four months straight. That wears a girl out you know what I mean? So when fall and cool weather start to roll around I feel like I finally have permission to not do things. Like, it's ok to not have any plans all weekend and sleep in and drink coffee until noon and watch college football and never brush your hair all day long. Not every weekend has to be a grand adventure and I finally start to accept that in the fall and winter.

So while the Townsends haven't been up to much, here's what has been going' down these days:

Hunting season has been in full swing - this is good for both Maycee and Nathan because both dream about hunting animals in their sleep. Maycee cashed in during dove season in September and Nate harvested a deer in October.

I put up Halloween decorations...

...dressed the dogs up in costumes, per the usual. Halloween 2017 brought to you by Gunther the tuxedo-wearing "dapper dog" and Maycee the angry, side-eye-serving pineapple.

Then I swapped Halloween for fall and Thanksgiving decorations because that's the order in which the holidays go - Halloween, Thanksgiving, THEN Christmas. So all you Christmas-happy people with their Christmas trees up bopping around to Christmas music need to pump the brakes. It's not time for that yet. 

I took a road trip a few weeks back with two of my girlfraaans Kailey and Brianna down to Benson, Arizona to explore some underground caves and they did not disappoint. Although, what was disappointing is that you can't take pictures or video in the caves because then how are you supposed to blog about a road trip to underground caves in Benson, Arizona but have no pictures to include in your post? Life is really unfair sometimes.

The other night Nate and I went to go get Chinese food and as we were waiting in the drive through, the car in front of us had a big 'ol St. Bernard in the backseat and it was the highlight of my day.

I have a thing for big dogs and I always wanted a St Bernard as a kid (especially after Beethoven circa 1992, let's all be honest with ourselves) but my mom told me no because they drool too much. As an adult, I can now understand this. But I mean, LOOK AT THAT FACE. IT'S HUGE. AND SO CUTE. But anyway, this is nothing of significant importance but since I'm all about the little things in life I thought I'd include the time I saw a really cute dog with its big head sticking out the window in the Chinese food drive through. 

This weekend we had out of town guests stay at our house for a wedding which was fun because we don't usually have house guests because our house is so tiny but yolo we made it happen and we had fun. We all went shooting in the morning, then wedding-ed in the evening and a good time was had by all. 

 Targets gotta match your gun you know what I mean?

And that about brings things up to speed around here - to November. Which comes after September and October. Man, it's already November and time is flying!

Confess Your Unpopular Opinion

So every now and then there's some fun hashtags that get to trending on Twitter and "confess your unpopular opinion" is one of them. I'm always tempted to join in the fun but on Twitter, I feel a little silly when I tweet things out because I feel like I'm just talking to nobody. I'm on Twitter probably more than any other social media platform but it's mostly just to read things, get news, and laugh at college football memes. I don't necessarily do the tweeting, I just read all the tweets. I'm like a Twitter creeper, I guess. But anyway, as soon as I feel like it's too weird to join in on the Twitter fun I remember hey, that's what you have a blog for!  So, in today's edition of T is for Townsend I'm about to confess my unpopular opinions. Get ready.

1.) Beyonce is not that cool.
I probably shouldn't have started out with this one because it sounds so harsh (and might bring me death threats) but I'm just not impressed with Beyonce.

2.) Avocados aren't that good.
I've actually never said this one out loud before so it feels good to finally get this one off my chest. I will eat guacamole until the cows come home but a plain jane avocado just doesn't do it for me.

3.) Avatar was stupid.
Like, the movie.

4.) I think it's weird when famous people die and regular people are like, really emotionally affected by it as if they really knew that person.

5.) A hotdog is not a sandwich.
I actually thought this was the general consensus but my coworkers and I got in a fight about it recently and I was the only one who said no, a hotdog is not in fact a sandwich.

6.) Speaking of hotdogs, they're better when they're burned.

7.) I don't like Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Lattes.

8.) Women's bathing suits get smaller and smaller every year and I'm not about that life. I just want full coverage bottoms is that too much to ask?

9.) Golf is not a sport.
It's a skill. But not a sport.

10.) The Prisoner of Azkaban was the best Harry Potter book.

11.) I don't understand why everyone hates Nickleback.
I didn't think they were that bad.

12.) Hard copy books > ebooks

What are your unpopular opinions?!

I Like Summer the Best

I feel like as a 30 year old, white female...and a blogger nonetheless, fall is what I should be looking forward to the most right now. Mornings and evenings are cooling off (hallelujah), Bath & Body Works has their fall candles out in full force, and Halloween is a mere few weeks away. But the honest truth is I love summer and I'm really sad to see it go.

The thing is, I don't love the summer heat, but I love summer activities. I love to swim in any body of water I can find and you just can't do that in the fall and winter.

I love to fish, but the fish don't bite in cold weather like they do in the summer.
I love northern Arizona, and camping, and exploring, but the forest roads close up north come November.
I love being able to just throw on some shorts, a tank top, and flip flops, but dressing myself is way more complicated and involves way more pieces in the fall.
I love baseball and baseball is summer (Fall if you're lucky).
I love that berries are always on sale at the grocery store, 2 for $5. You can't find berries on sale 2 for $5 dollars in the fall and winter.
Summer hosts the 4th of July.

The 4th of October, or the 4th of November aren't as fun as the 4th of July, be honest with yourself.

This summer was a really good one for me and like I said, I'm really sad to see it go. There's no more bathing suits draped over the side of my bathtub every weekend. My truck doesn't smell like wet dog anymore. I love the smell of cinnamon and pumpkin spice, but I already miss the smell of sunscreen and chlorine in my hair. I love the sound of Al McCoy calling another Suns game, but for now, Greg Schulte is still on the radio calling Diamondbacks games in October.

Weekend road trips, fishing in the dark, one great big vacation, lots of pool time and Route 44 Diet Coke's with cherry flavor and easy ice, monsoons, haboobs, and all the other summer things - I'm sad to see them go. So, while we all usher in fall and cooler weather with open arms, I bid summer the fondest adieu.

It was a good one.

Summer 2017 from Carissa on Vimeo.