Pig Hunt 2013

It's been a busy weekend + a few days.

Both my house, and the back of Nate's truck has looked like Bass Pro and Cabela's threw up all over it. It's like, a mixture of firearms, camo, and...a whole bunch of other crap.

Not to worry though, it was all put to good use...starting with my pig hunt!

The hubs and I left last Friday to go hunting for javelina, or as I like to call it, "javelining," and the verdict is in:
I didn't kill one.
I know, waa waa waaaaa.
But it was still fun and we got to see lots and lots of deer...too bad I didn't have a deer tag. But alas, that's the way the cookie crumbles right?

So since I don't have cool pics to post of me with a dead pig, I figured I'd talk about
something else...my outfit.
Cause my dear bloggy friend Kalyn over at Love, Laughter, Happily Ever After pointed out to me that "OOTD" means "Outfit of the Day." So all those fabulous bloggers posting selfies of their adorable outfits and to-die-for accessories with the hashtag #OOTD...it means it's their outfit of the day.
You're welcome.

So let's get right to it shall we?
OOTD for pig hunting: Camo.
And since camo is fairly straight forward (i.e. camo top, camo bottoms) let's talk accessories shall we?
Firstly, when it's really cold outside (and believe me, it was freakin' cold outside) you're gonna want a beanie. I realize these may not be "in" right now, but they'll definitely keep your body heat...in.
See what I did there?

Secondly, forget about your adorable chevron-printed scarf, and opt instead for a neck gator. ...don't ask me why it's called a neck gator... I'd never heard of one until last Friday. But disregard the weird name, cause I'm pretty sure these things have to be right up there with the best inventions ever, like sliced bread and stuff.
It's like a beanie, but for your neck. Slip it over your head and onto your neck, and you can tuck it into your jacket so the wind and cold won't seem so...windy and cold-y (cold-y?). Plus, you can put it as high up on your face as you want. Personally, I kept it all the way over my nose so my breath kept my face warm (is that gross?) and only my eyes were exposed to the elements.
I don't mess around when I'm cold.

Next, you'll see in the photo below, an additional set of accessories you'll want for your
outfit of the day.

 Trade in those fabulous sunglasses for a good pair of binoculars. Without 'em, you'll never find any pigs hangin' out in the AZ mountains.
You'll also want to forgo your lovely purse and go with a good, solid, hunting pack instead...not to worry, everything you keep in your purse you can throw into your pack if you so desire. And instead of schlepping your purse around on your shoulder, you'll be schlepping around your rifle. ...Cause your rifle is the ultimate OOTD accessory.
Lastly, you might also consider a good pair of shooting sticks. If you're wimpy like me and your rifle gets heavy when you have to hold it up and in the ready position for a while, the shooting sticks allow you to rest your rifle on them, taking away the weight and adding stability. Plus, it totally doubles as a tri-pod, which allows you to take some selfies when there's no one else around to take one for you.
Like so:

So there you have it, my Outfit of the Day; a little less cute and trendy, but a little more
functional and practical.

I feel like this is a really good start to my career as a fashion blogger.


  

Weather

Which of these does not belong?

How about this one?

This one?

I'll give you a hint...it's the white stuff.

Cause that white stuff is snow.

And this picture was taken in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Today.

And I'm gonna go out on a limb here when I say it doesn't usually snow in the Phoenix Metro area.

Like, ever.

So while this was happening in Scottsdale and other parts of the Phoenix Metro area today, these things also must have been happening:

It's whatevs though. I'm not even mad. If Winter wants to hang for a little bit longer, I'm totally down for that. I was convinced our "winter" was over 3 weeks ago when I had to turn my AC on in the car and ran my errands in flip flops. So if I get to turn my heater back on and wear a scarf to work, I'm totally OK with that. You can't complain about cold weather in Arizona when six months of 120 degree weather is right around the corner.

I feel kinda bad cause a few of my bloggy friends on the other side of the country are like, 

"Winter needs to leave already. It's cold, it's dreary, it's depressing, and it's cold." 

And I'm like, "Noooooo Winter, don't leave me!!!"    

It's OK though, we'll be even come August when I'm like, 

"Summer needs to leave already. It's freakin' hot, I can't touch my steering wheel, the pool is 

too hot... and it's freakin hot!"

Ahh humans, we're never satisfied are we?

Happy snow day!!

Baseball Tunes

Now that Spring Training has officially ensued, I've got baseball on the brain.

Baseball, and Paul Goldschmidt.

Cause who wouldn't have this face on the brain?

Anyway, I was browsing the Twitter last week and the Arizona Diamondbacks had a contest of sorts going on where if you did A, B, and C (I don't remember what they were), you could chose the 

walk-up song for one of the players for the home opener. 

 For those of you unfamiliar, when a player is up to bat and his name is announced, a brief snippet of a song plays while they approach the plate.

This is their walk-up song.

The player chooses their song and it can be anything from a personal favorite, something to pump them up, or maybe even something to send a message.

So I got to thinking:

If I were a major league baseball player, what would my walk-up song be?

My initial thought is maybe something Kelly Clarkson-esque. 

You know, like something very girl power, maybe a little 

"Miss Independent"  

All the opposing pitchers would see me coming and be like, "Mmm hmm there she be. Miss on her own, miss almost grown..."

Secondly, I was thinking (for obvious reasons) a little George Thorogood

"Bad to the Bone"

Cause lez be honest, I'm pretty bad to the bone.

I also entertained the idea of a little Trace Adkins

"Swing"

Cause the song sounds pretty sweet and would probably get fans pumped up for
my .657 batting average. 

Plus it has baseball metaphors and stuff. 

But then I thought, nah, baseball metaphors are too obvious at a baseball game.

I thought maybe a little Miley Cyrus

"Party in the USA"

might be appropriate since after all, baseball is America's past time right?
"I'm noddin' mah head like yeaahh, swingin' my bat like yeaahh"

RIP Miley Cyrus's hair. 

A little Spice Girls

"Wannabe"

also crossed my mind for the simple fact that it's a pure classic.

And plus, after every time I hit a home run I would love to be able to look at the pitcher and be like,

"Zig-a-zig ahhhh" as I round the bases.

Lastly, I was thinking about a little Will Smith

"Getin' Jiggy Wit it"

...cause I like gettin' jiggy wit it.

Na na na na nananaaaa

It's a good thing you can change your walk-up song throughout the duration of baseball season. Cause I feel like there would be too many good ones to pick from, i.e. all the ones listed above. 

Plus more. 

Like maybe, Lincoln Park or something. Paul Goldschmidt walked on to Lincoln Park last year.

Just sayin. 

This Weekend I...

Linking up with Syndal and Sarah for another edition of:

This Weekend I...

...Paid a visit to the farmer's market and scored some serious goods

Now if only I could figure out how to prepare it all...

...Took the dogs swimming at my parents house for the first time this season

Actually, it's not like it's even swimming season yet.
It's February.
But they're labs...so you know, it's always 

swimming season.

And plus they've really been needing a bath and I've just been too lazy to do it.

So that's what I like to call a two-fer.

...Went to the archery range to shoot my bow

The hubs and I are leaving this weekend for my javelina hunt and I'm really hoping to be able to use my bow. Cause you know, the family that shoots pigs with bows-and-arrows together, stays together?

You know what the best part of this entire post is? 

Technically, my weekend isn't even over yet!! 

(insert harps and angels singing)

So that's super cool and everything even though it will probably just be spent doing all the things I refused to do during the regular weekend. Like homework, and housework, and all
that really lame stuff. 

But whatever. It's fine. Cause at least I won't be sitting in a cube for 8 hours.

Woop woop!

By the way, 9 days until Duck Dynasty Season 3...in case anyone's counting.

And I realize the countdown number on the following clip is no longer accurate, but it's my favorite promo so far so I picked it anyway.

Cause Si is my favorite. 

Happy Monday!

H54F

I think I can speak for everyone when I say, 

Finnnnnallllyyyy It's Friiiiiday!!!

So I'm thrilled for another edition of High Five for Friday with the lovely Lauren from From My Grey Desk, and my top five things from this week!

1.) First and foremost, this totally happened this week:

That's right. I applied for graduation!! 

The countdown until May has officially begun!! 

2.) Happy V-day to me

In case you missed it, check out my Valentine's Day post here

3.) Happy B-day to her:

...the human, not the Chihuahua

My sister's birthday was this week and she turned a whopping 28! I've been taunting her that she's closer to 30 than ever! That's the beauty of being the younger child I suppose, she'll always be closer to every monumental age than me.

Neener neener. 

4.) Happy B-day to Arizona

Thursday, my favorite state turned 101 years old! They lit up the Capital Dome and set off fire works

 to celebrate!

Dang, 101...and I thought my sister was gettin' up there.

5.) FPU

The hubs and I are going through Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University class, and this week's class was absolutely unbelievable. If you haven't heard of Dave Ramsey or gone through his program...do! It will be the best 10 weeks you ever invested in.

We talked this week about dumping debt and his strategy for paying it all off, including 

"gazelle intensity."

Dave talks about Proverbs 6:5 

"Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the snare of the fowler." 

...The hand of the hunter being debt, and credit cards, and loan companies.

He had a video up in the background of a cheetah chasing a gazelle, and it was clear how fast and hard the gazelle had to work to get away from the cheetah. He likened the cheetah to debt, and us to the gazelle, and that in order to get out of debt we must use a "gazelle intensity." 

Dave describes, you can wander into debt, but you cannot wander out! 

We must use gazelle intensity to get out of debt! 

So there you have it. 

This week's top five.

Lots of birthdays and animals. 

Just the way I like it.

Happy Friday folks!!

Vee Day

Today is the day folks. 

It's V-day, and people are either totally pissed and whining about how much this day sucks, or people are over-the-top cheese-ball and won't stop talking about how totally awesome and

 perfect and wonderful their partner is.

Which means really, V-day is kinda like D-day...in the sense that it has potential to be very volatile.

See what I did there?

I myself, don't need a whole blog post to tell you about how I love my husband.

I married him.

Usually that implies that you love a person. ...unless of course you're Kim Kardashian. 

In fact, I probably couldn't even devote a whole blog post to tell you about all the V-day's we've spent together. Truth be told, I can't really remember them. And plus V-day has never really been one of those monumental holidays for us anyway. 

Case in point:

One year Nate got me a stuffed animal and a six-pack of bottled water.

"...cause you know, I know you like bottled water and stuff."

I give him a break on that one cause A.) we were in high school, and B.) I always drank tap water until he convinced me it was nasty, and I believed him and started buying bottled water instead.

It was his teenage, high school version of being thoughtful I suppose. 

Anyway, we've certainly been together a lot of years, which means we've been together for a lot of V-days too. And while I don't necessarily remember all the V-days, I do remember all the things that have changed over time...or not.

Nate and I used to fight a lot. 

Like, a lot.

I'm just glad we got it out of our systems when we were teenagers, cause now that we're older, we just don't have the energy for it even if we wanted to.

Nate used to always break up with me on Thursdays...during Youth Group.

So now, if there's ever a disagreement I always give him fair warning that I'm gonna break up with him on Thursday, so he better get ready. 

Cause Thursday is break-up day.

Does it count as your "first date" if your parents are driving you to Freshman homecoming?

Either way, we totes drive ourselves around now when we go out...cause we're big kids.

Nate used to wear articles of clothing professing his love for me.

...I haven't seen that happen in a while.

Just sayin'.

We used to do the Cha Cha Slide at Homecoming dances...

and I made sure to do the same at our wedding

Mandy Moore, Jessica Simpson, and Britney Spears used to adorn the wall of teenage 

Nathan's bedroom.

They don't anymore.

Cause now we share the same bedroom.

And I just won't have that.

(Do you recognize the lovely lady in the background?! It's Tyah! From Humble Haro Abode!)

Nate still doesn't like the overalls look.

I rocked the crap outta those overalls throughout my entire jr. high and high school career... 

and I didn't even care.

My parent's weren't huge Nate fans when we were young.

After all, he broke up with me every Thursday.

But now they totally love him, and my mom doesn't like to go hiking without him and my dad calls him for recommendations on what kind of boots to buy.

So you know, the things that need to change, do (e.g. my overalls), and the things that don't, don't.

Like me and you.

Happy V-day man.





Boredom

Anyone else around here feel bored? 

Restless maybe?

I can't really put my finger on it, but really...I feel kinda bored these days. 

Football is over...not that I really care about football, but I can hear the collective sigh of everyone else's disappointment that football is over.

The NBA might as well be over cause the Suns can't win a game even if it was handed to them.

There's no major political campaigns in swing, and mid-term elections won't heat up for another eight months or so.

Talk radio has gotten really boring, and redundant, and infuriating, so I started listening to sports talk radio instead. But all they talk about everyday is how Kobe Bryant and Dwight Howard can't ever get along, and argue like women. ...I'm like, hellooooo this is Phoenix! I don't care about the Lakers!

I listened the crap outta my One Direction CD, so now my tunes don't even make me b-bop along along in the car anymore.

Senior-itis finally set in, so every time I sit down to do homework I'm like, "I'm still doing homework? I've been doing homework for 20 years now. I'm over this."

I've been eating Cliff bars for breakfast and soup for lunch every day since December. 

It's getting kind of boring.

It's all kind of boring.

What the fluff??

I go through these phases every now and then, when you're head is down and you're grinding away getting everything done you need to get done until you finally look up and you're like, "why do I feel like I'm doing the same thing everyday?"

Totes going through one of these phases. 

Too bad I don't have money, or else I could like, renovate the kitchen or a bathroom or something and I'd be cured.

I have some really fun things on the horizon that I'm pretty pumped for, but until those get here...my kitchen will probably stay the same, and my bathroom won't change either,

and I'll probably just twiddle my thumbs and keep listening to One Direction anyway. 

On the bright side...three day weekend this weekend! Maybe I'll find something interesting to do to shake this boredom. Like, watching Nate spell. 

It's always interesting watching Nate spell words.

Happies and Crappies

I'm pretty pumped to be trying a new link-up today with Stephanie and Sarah for the 

Happies and Crappies of this week!...although since I'm really behind on my Friday link-ups, don't hate me if I include things that happened way beyond a week ago.

Mmm K?!

Let's get the crappies out of the way first shall we?!

1.) Work is stupid.

We sit at a conference table for 8 hours a day all week long for "brainstorming sessions," but really we just keep having the same discussions over and over...and over again and talk ourselves in circles.

It's awesome.

2.) The dogs were in their cages ALL day yesterday.

I'm sure they think I'm pretty crappy for that.

As a consolation prize, they got to sleep on the bed last night without Dad kicking them off.

I think they forgave us after that.

3.) Did I mention work is stupid??

4.) Pouring a handful of trail-mix and all that comes out are raisins.
Boo on raisins.

Moving on...

The happies!

1.) The sky looked like this on my way home from work this week:

I do feel kind of bad, cause while I keep reading about other bloggers desperately awaiting the end of winter and still scraping snow of their car every morning...I drove home with my sun roof open today. And it was in the mid 70s

And it felt pretty good.

I won't even lie.

2.) My new work pants came in the mail this week

I love seeing the fruits of my online shopping labor

3.) New screen saver

Chevron, pink, and Valentines...what's not to love?

4.) Puppy Bowl 2013

I heard there was something along the lines of like, a Superbowl kinda thing happening last Sunday, but all I was really concerned about was the Puppy Bowl.

Cause if we're being honest here, puppies are way cuter than football players.

Just sayin'.

Maycee was like, "I could totally kick all their butts, put me in coach!"

and I had to be like, "Maycee, you're almost 4. You're not a puppy. That wouldn't be fair." And I had to tell her to quit growling at the TV and go lay down.

...she gave me the stink-eye, but whatevs.

5.) I finally figured out how to make a blog button!

Feel free to snag it if you feel so inclined =)

6.) New Tim Mcgraw CD is officially out!

So far, I'm LOVING this song:

T-Swift and Mr. Mcgraw himself...perf!

I don't have any big plans for the weekend, which is fine with me, cause as long as it doesn't involve work...it's definitely happy!

Happy Friday folks!

When You Don't Have Anything to Blog About...

I've not been in much of a mood for blogging this week. 

1.) This week has been stupid and I've been really cranky, and

2.) I have nothing good to blog about

So, I enlisted the help of my husband to help me brainstorm things to blog about.

And just as I suspected...he has no future in blogging.

I said,

"Nate, I need you to help me brainstorm things to blog about"

...and he replied with,

"Guns."

So then I said,

"Besides that"

...and he said

"The 2nd Amendment"

So then I said,

"Seriously, no guns"

...to which he replied

"Ok, freedom"

...and I replied with,

"Freedom from what?"

...and he answered,

"Freedom from tyranny"

...and then I was like,

"That's pretty deep, Nate. I don't get very deep on my blog"

...and then he was like,

"Sometimes you gotta get deep"

...to which I replied,

"That's what she said"

...just kidding. I didn't say that. 

But that's definitely what I was thinking.

So anyway, the husband isn't really good for coming up with things to blog about...but at least I could blog about asking him to brainstorm things to blog about.

Thank goodness it's almost Friday.

Blogger Complex

Guys, I'm having a blogging complex.

Confession: I lost two blog followers last week

Confession: I was kinda sad about it

So here's the thing, I didn't start my blog to have a bunch of people follow me (but for those 52 of you who do, I freakin' love ya's!) and be this big time blogger. And every time I start to get concerned about the quantity of followers I have compared to everyone else's, I have to be like, 

"Rissa, stop. Followers are not what blogging is about."

And then I try to forget about it and keep it moving.

Confession: I kinda want a lot of followers, though

Confession: I'm too lazy to do it

I feel like in order to have a butt-load of followers I have to post something everyday, participate in every link-up I find, comment on everyone else's posts that participated in that link-up, pay to "advertise" on someone else's page, and...phew! That's a lot of freakin' work just to have a blog where I write about nothing really important. 

Beyond that, I look at blogs hosting all these link-ups and they're like, 

"Here are the rules:"...there's rules for linky parties?

"Follow me and the other 10,5876 hosts; comment on my post; grab the button, link back to mine and the other 10,5876 hosts' blogs...oh and by the way, I DO read through them all and if you didn't do any of the above, I'll delete your post and you'll be forbidden to participate in this link up for the rest of its existence"

Geez.

I don't wanna have a linky party on those terms.

That's no fun.

I just feel a little like it's all in vain.

We write about a buncha things to impress a buncha other people, in order to get followers who don't even read our blogs. 

We follow a buncha people just so they might follow us back...but don't even really care to be friends...and then in the end, I see those posts where people are like, "I feel like I'm missing out on life and I'm gonna be blogging less frequently now, soooo..."

Is that what you'd call the circle of blogging?

So you see my complex here? 

Dang.

That was one helluva soap box.

I blame it on Monday.

Mondays make me cranky.

B-B-Button

I dare say...I think I figured out how to make a button for my blog!
It's been a long time comin' cause every time I google
"how to make a button for your blog,"
 all the directions are really lengthy and start talking about html and stuff I don't understand, and
blah blah blah and my eyes glaze over and I'm like,
"that's it. This will never happen for me."
But I found some relatively simple instructions tonight and
BAM!
...my button has been created!
What do you think?!

I feel kinda bad that Maycee was left out, but seriously...how funny is this picture?!
SO, since other cool bloggers have a plethora of button options I think I might make another...including Maycee...or maybe myself for that matter.
Although, Maycee and Gunther are way cuter than me...so we'll see.

So, if you feel so inclined, feel free to grab a button! Cause I'm pretty proud of myself for
gettin' er done.
OR
if you feel so inclined...also feel free to let me know if you tried to grab a button and it didn't work.
Cause there's certainly a possibility I screwed it up.
More often than not, I usually screw things up.

But for now, I'm gonna act like I did it right and do a bit of a happy dance!