Sweet Treat Swap!

This Halloween season I decided to participate in the Sweet Treat Swap hosted by the lovely ladies Sarah over at Gracefully Made and Amy at Taking Steps Home

...cause who doesn't love sweet treats?!

I was paired with the lovely Amy from Taking Steps Home and I won't even lie...I felt a little special that my partner was the co-host of the swap!

Right off the bat I felt a little bad, cause she left a note apologizing for packing the box with grocery bags cause she ran out of tissue paper...cause when I mailed her package I forgot all about packing the box when it came time to fill it up; so hers didn't even have tissue paper in it, let alone grocery bags...so sorry Amy! Hopefully all your treats arrived in one piece! 

The goods!

Amy sent me some granola from her favorite coffee shop, a couple cookie cutters, some Halloween tattoos (which I totally plan on donning tonight while I hand out candy to the trick-or-treaters), some coffee, and some pumpkin candles and decor. 

So cute and so festive!

Thanks for my sweet treats Amy!!...I might've already made a bit of a dent in that coffee =)

If you haven't already, go check out her oh-so-fabulous blog, and her oh-so-fabulous Halloween decorations she posted about...you'll totally be impressed.

I am officially in love with blog swaps and I loved being able to partake in this one!!...cause in case I haven't mentioned it already...

Who doesn't love sweet treats?!!

Happy Halloween!

Woman-hood

It's no secret that I'm a nail-biter. 

Always have been, probably always will be no matter how many times my husband calls me "gross" for it.

Whatevs.

So the other night Nate and I were sitting around watching TV and I started biting my nails. He quickly noticed, and sharply quipped, 

"Why don't you just go get nail clippers?"

My answer was, 

"I don't have nail clippers."

To which Nate replied, 

"You don't have nail clippers? What kind of woman are you??"

One that doesn't own nail clippers? I wondered silently.

So since then, I got to thinking: really though, what kind of woman am I? Because when I really think about it, I feel like a have a lot of things working against me that threaten to take away my W card. Things that include, but are not limited to:

First and foremost, I hate cooking.

Last week we had Little Caesars twice in the time between Monday and Wednesday.

Curse you, Little Caesars, for your $5 Hot and Ready Pizzas.

Which, by the way...I have a bone to pick with Little Caesars. How come it never looks like this when I go pick up my pizza??? 

Nobody sings to me, dances for me, I can't find anyone dressed up like a Circus character, and most importantly, nobody lets me walk away with my pizza without paying.

Maybe I should re-think this whole cooking thing.

I don't find Robert Pattinson attractive...in the least bit

I feel like that's sort of blasphemous to say if you're a woman...but whatever. 

My husband's way hotter.

I like to watch jail shows

Is that weird??

A few of my favorites include Lockup: Raw, Hard Time, or any of the ones where they try and "flip" the gang prisoners who are already locked up, in order to get them to work with law enforcement.

It's fascinating, I tell ya.

Not very lady-like, but fascinating.

I can't wear pumps

True story: pumps never stay on my feet; they always flip off my heel. I feel like if I can't wear pumps...what kind of woman am I??

Kids freak me out

If I told you that I do not have baby fever...that would be the understatement of the year. 

I think I want kids...I think...eventually...I think. But there's nothing about babies or pregnancy or...pregnancy that appeals to me. 

No offense, of course, to those of you expecting...cause I do feel like all of you are 

expecting right now.

I think there's something in the water.

Now, puppy fever, on the other hand...

I don't blog about cooking, running, or post pictures 

of my outfits on a daily basis

Since I hate cooking (see #1), hate running (does that make me less of a woman too?), and don't have very cute outfits...none of these make it onto my blog. But if you take a look around the blogosphere...just about every other woman does. 

Whatevs. 

It ain't happening. 

That's a whole-lotta work just to make my blog more womanly.

And last but not least (per Nathan), I don't own nail clippers

I wonder if I mention that I like pedicures, Dancing with the Stars, the color pink, and One Direction, if that puts points back on my W card?

...actually scratch that last one; One Direction fan-hood might make me more of a girl than a woman...Let's go with Backstreet Boys instead. They're older, and more mature. And way better than One Direction anyway.

Or maybe I should just go buy some nail clippers and put this whole thing to bed all together.

Red

My life was finally complete this week.

This day finally came:

And I finally had this in my possession:

...and so did Kayla

And we were happy campers whose lives were now complete.

Kayla texted me last Sunday night and expressed her temptation to buy the new T-Swift CD on itunes. I told her to resist temptation, and that we would buy it together on Monday.

Friends don't let friends buy new T-Swift CD's on itunes.

And then I made her wait all day for me to get off work so we could go buy it together and have ourselves a little Red party.

Friends don't let friends go to Target and buy new T-Swift CD's without the other friend.

That Kayla, I tell ya.

She's a good friend.

So finally after 8 hours of work, 1 hour of rush hour traffic, 20 minutes of waiting for the husband to get home so we could go to Kayla's house... 20 minutes of driving to Kayla's house, and 10 minutes to Target...

we finally bought the new T-Swift CD.

Even Kenzie, Kayla's little girl felt an inkling of completeness when we got home

Gotta start 'em young.

So to celebrate we ate red meat for dinner off of red plates; put red tomatoes on our hamburgers, and ate  chips from a red bag.

Oh and mac n' cheese. 

Which really doesn't go with the red theme...Kayla just knows me too well and knows my idea of what makes a good dinner.

I'm pretty sure this CD won't be leaving my CD player for at least like, 6 months.

And to put a little icing on the T-Swift cake, 

I woke up to this text message from Kayla Saturday morning

Where one Red countdown ends, another begins...

Productive-ness

It's kind of amazing how much you can get done in one day when you wake up early enough.

1.) Go to breakfast with your family that's in from out of town

2.) Go to church

3.) Go to Pook's house to meet her new puppy Henry and drop off a kennel for him

4.) Write a paper

5.) Put together a Power Point presentation for said paper

6.) Do laundry

...Too bad that was last Sunday.

Today I slept til 10:30, ate some cinnamon rolls, watched TV...aaaand that about covers it.

Oh wait, and I went to Sonic for happy hour, for my Route 44 Diet Coke with cherry and easy ice.

I was hoping the Cardinals played today, cause when there's a football game on to watch I feel like that kind of justifies a lazy, oober unproductive day. 

You know, how people post on their Facebook or Instagram or whatever, and they're all like "lazy day...perfection" or "football Sunday and naps" or something like that with a picture of their boyfriend/husband/dog sleeping and a cup of coffee or something? 

It makes a lazy oober unproductive day look totally OK and justified, right?

The Cardinals weren't on though. 

They play tomorrow.

And ASU already played yesterday.

But I don't wanna talk about that.

So I watched Meet the Press, Fox News Sunday, a car get towed across the street, and some trashy reality TV I'd rather not admit to watching.

So even though I can't really make it look like a good thing via Facebook or Instagram...my level (or lack thereof) of productivity today was totally justified in my head.

Speaking of productivity...

This just in:

Nate killed a buck on Friday, the day after he left for his hunt, and his buddy Dan-o killed a buck on Saturday:

 That's pretty productive if you ask me.   

I Like Funny Things

I love politics.

I know, stupid right?!

BUT...

I hate to open that can of worms via Facebook or the blogosphere, cause quite frankly...

it scares me. 

And mean people scare me. 

And conflict scares me.

 And whenever I get into one, I always freeze and never know what to say. 

So needless to say, any time I'm tempted to get all political I think to myself, "Rissa, you're a chicken...you better not." 

So I don't.

BUT...

I don't care who y'are,

THIS is funny:

Friday's Letters

I'm excited to try a new link-up today with Ashley over at Adventures of Newlyweds! 

Friday's Letters

Dear Sun Devils, you let me down. 

You let me down bad.

Dear traffic, I have had it up to here (raises hand above head) with you this week. I feel like I spend more time idling down the freeway during rush hour than I spend at work or at home. I feel like I can't get anywhere around here faster than 25 mph.

Fix it.

Dear blog, I'm feeling a bit of a disconnect between you and I these days. I feel like I wanna spend time with you, but I just can't get my bloggy juices flowing. I'm feeling a bit lame and boring and I'm gonna need you to help me spice things up. So take some time, think about some things for me to write about, and get back to me. 

Dear Friday, I'm gonna need you to help me be productive after work today. I have a lot to do before the big shindig on Saturday and little time to do it all in. So when I head towards the fridge to open that bottle of wine...I'm gonna need you to stop me.

Can't guarantee I'll listen, but... you know...

Dear Gunther, I loved this video, starring your furry self, so much that I'm posting it twice in one week. I think it's really funny when you lick dad right in the mouth.

Keep it up dude.

Dear midterm-paper-that-I haven't-started-yet, 

go easy on me.

That is all.

Happy Friday everybody! 

It's OK Thursday

If it's Thursday...it's OK!

It's Ok...

To have been praying all week that ASU beats Oregon today

Give 'em Devils!

Fork 'em!

To be counting down until T-Swift's Red comes out

4 days

To secretly wish you had a crazy uncle like Si

To be a little obsessed with Duck Dynasty

To be a mouth-breather when your allergies kick into high gear

To be annoyed when people help themselves to your food without asking

To try and eat your afternoon snack before anyone notices you have it, so that your coworkers can't help themselves to your food without asking

...I know, I'm 5, but whatever.

It's rude.

To argue with Siri cause she never understands you and always cuts you off mid sentence

Batch.

To drive even slower when people tail-gate you

It's Friday eve!!!

What's OK with you?!

Funny Stuff

This video leaves me with a few questions:

Why is this so funny to me?

How come I've watched it 5 times in a row?

Why does this make me laugh uncontrollably?

I wonder if anyone else thinks it's as funny as me?

Hmm...

Pumpkins!

Joining in a new link up with Kathy over at Mama Kat's Losin' it, and her Pretty Much World Famous Writer's Workshop!
This week's writing prompt I chose is:

Pumpkins! Anything with Pumpkins!

Last weekend the husband and I headed up north to Prescott to check out Freeman Farms and their pumpkin patch!

Besides the pumpkins, Foster Farms has hay rides, corn mazes, shows, food, and a bunch of other stuff for kids...and since we don't have kids, well, we skipped that other stuff.

BUT we did enjoy a hay ride, a journey through the corn maze, some shows, and of course, the pumpkin patch. 

While we were there for pumpkins, I got a little distracted by all the sunflowers that were there.

Cause sunflowers are mah thang.

I followed the clearly marked instructions and took their pictures...

Back to pumpkins...

What's neat about their pumpkin patch is that the pumpkins are actually growing on the vines! you meander through the patch, find one you like, and they come and cut it off the vine!

Since it's still pretty early in October, the pumpkins we got are serving as decoration for now; once it gets closer to Halloween we'll have to get new ones to actually carve. Which just means we'll have to make another trip to a pumpkin patch.

Dang. =)

That One Time I Opened My Husband's Mail

Question:

Does it make me a bad wife that I opened my husband's mail?

...Lemme back up..

Last week there were two packages that came in the mail addressed to my husband. Since he was out of town and wasn't gonna be home for a few days, and because I'm nosy and curious and selfish, and didn't want to wait until he got home to find out what was in it and why he was getting packages and not me...I decided to open them.

In it I found a bunch of snacks and goodies for Nate...and a couple cards thanking him for his service to our country and for being a U.S. Soldier.

Well shoot.

Now I look pretty bad. 

It's nice to know people are thinking about our troops on just a regular day. Not Veteran's day, not Memorial day, not the 4th of July...just a regular day.

And it's nice to know there are wives out there that intercept these packages and open them before their veteran husband, whom they're addressed to, can get to them. 

I'm thinking I might lose some votes in my campaign for Military Spouse of the year on this one.