H54F

My general rule of thumb is to not have the same weekly link up back to back on my blog. Cause that usually means I haven't blogged in an entire week AND it looks I'm boring and can't think of anything else to write about.

Here's the thing though...this week totally kicked my @$$.

So really, it's not that I haven't thought of anything to blog about, but I just barely made it out of this week alive.

I wasn't even gonna do H54F this week cause it's been such a sucky week that I'm not in the mood to think about the good things.

BUT...then I was reading Amanda's blog over at My Love for Lyla; she had a tough week too and inspired me to focus on the good anyway...Thanks Amanda! 

So I'm gonna take a moment and remove my cranky pants and get on with it already...

1.) After TWO 15-20 page papers in one week...I am finally done with my first round of summer classes.

I'm pretty sure that last paper was quite possibly the worst I've ever written in my entire academic career. Then again, that class is one of the worst classes so far in my entire Grad program. BUT I already took off my cranky pants so I'm not gonna get into it...

2 classes down...2 to go

...pray for me folks!

2.) I, along with the other two interns at work moved into our very own cubicles!

I feel kinda silly cause I've been totally looking forward to my own cubicle. I've never had an office job before, so it makes me feel like a big girl to have my own workspace!...Totes can't wait to decorate it on Monday!

I thought about hanging a curtain across the entry way and anyone who wanted to come in had to say the secret password.

Unfortunately, I don't think my boss would be too jiggy with that.

3.) USA Women's Gymnastics Olympic Trials!

I was a gymnast for 10 years when I was younger. I had posters of Shannon Miller all over my room and wore out my VHS of the Magnificent 7. I totally rocked the velvet leotards and scrunchies.

I can't wait to see who makes this years Olympic team and I love being able to watch gymnastics on TV!

4.) Another week gone by means another week closer to Disneyland!!

5.) Aaron Hill hit for the cycle...again...within 11 days of the first time he did it

Zaaaang!

TGIF!!

High Five for Friday

It's Friday.

Thank the Good Lord!

I'm linking up with Lauren today for my top 5 things from this week!

1.) It was Husband's birthday on Thursday.

And I'm pretty sure I found the funniest card for him in our history of card giving. Even funnier than the one I got him with the three-hole puncher in the shape of a heart that says "I love you a hole punch."...although that one is definitely a classic.

I found this card with a picture of a guy holding up a fish and the front says

"When asked what his secret is to catching the big ones, Hank's reply is always the same - 'Good bait!'" 

And then you open it and the inside says 

"Happy Birthday to a real master baiter."

...BAZINGA!!

2.) Pontoon

I've been trying to perfect my summer play list for a little while now, and this song might just take the cake. I'm pretty sure it might just be THE song of the summer.

3.) This week I was awarded both the Liebster award by the lovely Amanda over at It's a Powell Life, and the Versatile Blogger award by the ever-so-charming Melissa over at Eleven Sixty. 

That's two blogger awards in one week.

A two-fer.

And I feel so special! 

I will most certainly have to do the posts that go with them this weekend!

4.) Cookies for breakfast this morning.

Heck, it's Friday; cookies for breakfast on a Friday I feel like is totally appropriate.  

5.) Cupcakes for lunch today.

Heck, it's Friday; cookies for breakfast and cupcakes for lunch on a Friday I feel like is totally appropriate =)

The two other interns at work had their birthdays this week also, so our boss bought cupcakes to celebrate. It was my first time eating Sprinkles cupcakes and I will say, they were pretty delish!

Have a fabulous weekend!

It's OK Thursday

It's been a little while, so I'm linking up with Neely for another (long overdue) round of It's OK Thursday!

It's Ok...

If you still have to climb on the counters to reach some of your cupboards

To pretend you're being beamed up into the Ministry of Magic every morning when you ride the elevators from the underground parking garage up to your office

If you have a combined 20-25 pages worth of paper writing to do before Wednesday because you got your due dates mixed up.

Whoops.

To be an OKC bandwagon fan cause Kevin Durant is awesome and classy, and James Harden went to ASU....which also makes him pretty dang awesome

If rush hour traffic makes you curse.

Out loud.

If seeing everyone in the blogosphere talk about the bachelorette each week makes you want to start watching it just so you can join in the discussion

If "Call Me Maybe" has been on your last 3 mix CD's

...song just doesn't get old I tell ya

The weekend is almost here!

Birthday Gifts

Today is Nate's birthday.

It's no secret that buying gifts for my husband is a long a painful process. It's for this reason, I kind of dread it. I enjoy the act of giving and making him happy, but the actual process of picking out a gift for him is a doozy. 

I dread buying him gifts for a number of reasons:

1.) He's so freakin' picky

2.) He always gets me the most awesome gifts (although, I'm easy to buy for so I'm not sure how much credit I should give there), and I feel like I have to keep up with the awesome gift-giving or try and top what he gets me.

3.) I never know what the heck he wants. And by don't know I mean, I don't know what he wants, and I don't know what the heck it is once he tells me.

4.) Everything he wants always costs like, a million dollars.

So, since today is his birthday and the only suggestions he's given me for birthday gifts cost more than what's in the bank, I've come up with an alternative, less expensive, list of gifts that I am willing and ready to offer.

1.) A store bought cheesecake

2.) Extra space in the drive way for your mondo truck

3.) I will refrain from wearing your socks when I run out of mine. That is, unless they've been sitting in your drawer longer than three days, at which time, they again become fair game.

4.) One full night in which I will not shove, smack, or roll you over should you begin to snore. I assure you, however, that this gift will surely expire after one night.

5.) Your fair share of the bed sheets for one week. After that one week, mind you, it's back to 60/40.

6.) Three full days without me correcting your grammar.

7.) Three full days without me correcting your spelling.

8.) I will make Gunther and/or Maycee get off the bed in the mornings when you get in the shower so they don't get your side of the bed all harry.

9.) Sausage instead of pepperoni on your pizza

10.) Two full nights without me turning off your fan in the middle of the night...unless it just gets way too breezy and then I may just turn it off anyway.

And there you have it. You snooze you lose. If you don't give me a birthday list in advance you may just have to settle for any number of the aforementioned gifts...although I would hardly call it settling (or losing), those are some smokin' gifts if you ask me.

Happy birthday to Nathan!!

Planting Party

 Last weekend - not the weekend that just past, but the weekend before that (why yes, I'm behind on my blogging again) my mom and my sister and I had a planting party. 

A P-Party, if you will.

Pee Party.

Pee Pee.

Pee Pee Party.

Heheh =)

But I digress...

Remember my Garden Party? 

Well, instead of "dinner in the garden," last Saturday we created the garden. 

The creators of the garden, if you will.

We said "let there be garden" ...and then there was.

And it was fun. And pretty. And now my patio looks fun and pretty. And now Gunther has that many more containers on the patio to choose from to lift his leg on.

Every upside and a down, I suppose.

We made our rounds to Whitfield Nursery, Summer Winds, and the Casa Depot (that's Home Depot for all you non spanish speakers) and before we knew it the back of the car looked like this:

Holy crap on a cracker.

We got back home, had Jimmy John's deliver us lunch, made some freakin' delish frozen bananas that turned out much too ugly (and a little inappropriate-looking) for the blog, poured ourselves a new recipe for a summer wine spritzer, set up shop and got to planting!

My dad came to hang out with us since he was also working in the backyard; we told him that it was a "no boys allowed" kind of a party but since Gunther had already been loitering we thought it's only fair to let my dad do the same.

Good thing they have their cootie shots.

The little guy on the bottom right corner is called a Pony Tail Palm.

I might've picked it out simply cause of it's name.

It makes me wish my ponytails had that much volume.

After our long day of planting we finished the day off with a BYOB: build your own burger bar!

It was good.

Really really good.

And that's all I have to say about that.

Now, say a prayer (or two a few) that all these new additions to my patio survive the brutal AZ summer...that and Gunther's bathroom habits.

And Then There Were Three

Remember last fall when my husband killed his deer?

...actually, silly question; I can't hardly keep straight when he's hunting, where he's hunting, or what he's hunting, I shouldn't expect you too either.

That being said, check it out HERE

Memorial day weekend Wide Erp (yes, that's his name) finally made his homecoming debut.

Nate told me I needed to re-take his picture because it's not showing his "fourth point," and that if I was gonna put a picture of Mr. Erp on the internet I needed to "do him justice."

I don't really know what that means, and quite frankly Nate is sleeping right now so I can't ask him what the preferred camera angle is for Mr. Erp, so this will have to suffice for now.

Geez, Wide Erp just got here and he's already demanding photos be taken from his "good side?"

Diva much Mr. Erp?

A few things you need to know about my house, now that Mr. Erp has joined us:

1.) The number of deer heads on the wall now equal the number of humans that reside in this house

Read about Bucky HERE 

2.) The total number of animal heads hanging on the wall now outnumber the total number of humans residing in this household

Read about Fang HERE

3.) The total number of dead animal heads hanging on the wall now outnumber the total number of living animals residing in this household

If taxidermic animal heads came to life the same way toys do a la Toy Story...we may have some problems.

Just sayin'. 

All these animals adorning our living room walls and Nate still won't let me decorate them for holidays, seasonal occasions, or just for the heck of it.

I think it's clear he's being unreasonable.

Nate looks at both his deer and says he can't decide which one is his favorite, and I have to keep reminding him that in order to maintain a healthy, functional family dynamic we can't pick favorites here. 

Deer might get their feelings hurt. 

...That's right, I'm lookin' out for you Mr. Erp...just remember that next time we leave the house and you suddenly feel like coming to life.

M.I.A.

I'm pretty sure this has been the longest I've ever gone without blogging.

And lemme tell ya...real life things just aren't as fun as blog life things sometimes.

And lemme tell ya another thing...remind me never again to start summer classes and a new job at the same time. Better yet, remind me never again to take summer classes period.

Period.

Am I having regrets about taking FOUR of them this summer?

Why yes, yes I am.

Is it worth it in order to graduate by next Spring?

Yes is the technical answer to that, but complaining about it always feels much better, I feel like.

I also feel like I've been doing a lot of thinking lately. Like, a lot of thinking.

I'm an analyst at my new job...so I've been analyzing a lot of things. And thinking a lot about them.

And then I come home and do homework which requires me to think some more.

And then I go to bed and think about all the more thinking I have to do tomorrow.

Too bad thinking doesn't burn more calories. 

If thinking burned calories I might think about more things to think about.

Nonetheless, I s'pose it could be worse right? And plus, I think that's all the whining I can take for one blog post. So let's move on shall we?

I've been trying to do some fun things in between all the thinking and homeworking to try and keep from going absolutely crazy. Some of which include the following:

New house plants.

I can feel the added oxygen already.

Took the dogs swimming and hung out pool side for Memorial Day.

Drained the water garden, trimmed off dead leaves, put in fresh water, a filter, and some super cool new fairy dust moss.

Made another water garden.

Housewarming party for one of Nate's coworkers and good friends the Mawolo's.

All the guys in the warehouse pitched in and got Irving a ping pong table as a housewarming gift cause he loves it so much. 

Serious ping pong was played.

Including a few games of round robin ping pong. ...if you've never played it, Google it...and you'll want to!!

That, for the most part brings you up to speed...with the exception of a research paper on the political impacts in program evaluation, another research paper on creative management in the public sector using the New Public Service versus the old public administration and how it affects public assistance program fraud detection and prevention, a case study, a mid-term, and a few hundred (that might be an exaggeration) discussion board postings. ...But none of those are as fun as the aforementioned activities so we'll leave them out.

The plan is to not go another 2 weeks before posting again, cause truth be told...blogging is much more fun that homeworking =)