Sunday, March 31, 2013

The Death of YOLO

YOLO means "you only live once."
And today, we can thank Jesus for the death of YOLO.

...Just watch the video below.

Happy Easter.


"...Instantly satan felt his power break, because the Son of God was dead, but now the Son of God was awake."


Saturday, March 30, 2013

Cara Box Reveal

Cara Box

This month I participated in the Cara Box exchange with Kaitlyn over at Wifessionals...and I'm so glad I did! Check out the idea behind the exchange here.

It was my first time taking part in all the fun and I was paired up with Carlisa from Something Infinitely Interesting, who sent me my package, and Candis from Candis-Bo-Bandis, whom I sent a package to.

The theme of this months box was "My Name is..."
So we were tasked with picking out items that began with the first letter of our partners' first name.

Carlisa did a fantastic job of putting my box together and I love everything about it!

A cinnamon flavored candle...which has been burning since the day it came in the mail! So good!
Cinnamon Apple Spice tea
Hot Chocolate...cause I loooove me some chocolate
Cherry flavored chapstick
A craft punch for my next crafting sesh
Some chili mix for my crock pot
and some coconut flavored coffee...which is so delish by the way!

I've met two awesome bloggers through this exchange and I can't wait for next month!
Thanks for everything Carlisa! =)


Thursday, March 28, 2013

H54F

Tea Gee Eye Eff.

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I love me some Friday's!
Linking up with Lauren today for five of my favorites from this week!

1.) Badminton
My mom bought a backyard badminton set for us to play with this summer, so we decided last weekend we needed to start breaking it in. Namely, just the rackets and the birdies; we didn't mess with the net, or the rules for that matter either. Which is a good thing since we were all over that backyard. 
Case in point:
Things got cuh-ray-zee when shuttlecocks started landing in the tree. And on the roof.
And because I'm a mature 26 year old I used the word 'shuttlecock' at every chance I
 got all afternoon.

2.) Gallery wall.
I finally finished it.
Boom.
I think it turned out OK, no?

3.) Fooshaw
What's fooshaw? Per Doug and Wolf, a local sports talk radio show, it's the thing you say when you don't know what to say. And I totally won a fooshaw t-shirt this week. And I'm pretty dang pumped about it!! I never win anything! 
Yay me!

4.) Financial Peace University
Nate and I officially graduated from Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University this week!
If you've never taken this class or never heard of Dave Ramsey, you should totally look him up, look up the class, look up his books, and his website.
Like, now.
It's one of the best things my husband and I have gone through together; we absolutely enjoyed every week!

5.) Downtown
As I have mentioned before, I work in downtown Phoenix, right across the street from the capital building (pictured above), the Senate and House of Representatives, and some other neat things within the Government Mall. Since the weather's been so nice lately, and in an effort to avoid the office chair for literally eight hours a day, my friend and coworker Quan and I have started taking walks. A couple a day, and I'm totally diggin' them. 
We take a different route every time...and every time I hope to run in to Jan. You know, Governor Brewer..we're totes on a first name basis...but so far I haven't run into her loitering in the middle of the Government Mall anywhere. And why would I? She's probably got her hands full, pissing off someone new at the legislature anyway.
That's just Jan being Jan I suppose.

Quan and I walked over to Wesley Bowlin Memorial Plaza this week and there's a new monument that just opened on the Bill of Rights, and it's easily one of my new favorites!
There's a pillar for each of the first 10 Amendments of the Constitution, and the writing is inscribed in the stone.  
Love.
Love.
Love.

Honorable mention this week goes out to my bro-in-law, as it was his birthday!
If he gets mad at me for this pic, I don't even care. I told him to smile and this is the smile he gave me.
Sorry Dan.
Anyway, Dan was so thrilled about turning another year older that we couldn't even make it through the birthday song before he crashed.
Poor guy didn't even get to blow out his candles.

Just kidding.
He totally did.
A birthday without candles would be a tragedy. 
Happy Birthday Dan!!!

And happy Friday bloggy friends!! 

Inside Combat Rescue

Let’s get serious today.
I don’t really like serious things…they make me uncomfortable.
But I’m gonna do it anyway.

Has anyone seen this show?
The hubs and I watched it last night; it was the last episode in a mini-series of six.
The show follows an elite team of pararescuers and their efforts to save lives of inured American soldiers during combat.
I’ve watched a lot of specials, and TV shows, and documentaries about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but this one hit me differently. …and I’ve been thinking about it ever since.

I’ve been thinking about it because all those soldiers and pararescuers, they looked like my husband.
Buzzed haircut, no facial hair, the black sport watch on the left wrist, a tan shirt with digital ACU pants, and a camouflage hat with a dark green Velcro patch of the American flag on the front, with a pair of Oakley sunglasses resting on the brim.
My husband looks like that.
They talked over the radio with specific instruction, no questions, no inflection in their voice except for an assurance that’s evident they were always in control.
Never a hint of panic.
My husband sounds like that.

See, Nate spent over a year in Iraq with the U.S. Army. I’ve known my husband since the 4th grade, and he’s never been far. We lived a few blocks down from each other, went to church together, and went to school together. I’ve always had an idea of what his life looked like, and sounded like, and what his daily routines were…except for those 15 months he was in Iraq.
I know everything about my husband, except for what his life was like for 15 months while he was overseas.
I never asked what it was like while he was in country, cause I didn’t want to know, and he never said much cause he didn’t want me to worry.

But this show, there was something about this show that was very real; there were no special effects, no dramatic music, nor was it edited in a way that cut from scene to scene – instead, it followed the pararescuers from the time they got a call, flew the helicopter to the scene, loaded the injured and worked on them while in transit, and delivered them to the hospital all within the “Golden Hour”. We even watched as a triple amputee who’d just been blown up by an IED moments before, passed away on the operating table, and the doctor checked the clock for his time of death.
We watched an injured medic be loaded onto the helicopter and his buddies kissed him on the forehead in case they never saw him again.
It was as if I was there, watching in real time.

…and I kept picturing Nate there.
I kept wondering if that’s what his life looked like while he was there.

I wondered how many times he’d waited in the dirt, next to a blown up Humvee for help to arrive for an injured friend, just like what we watched on the TV.
I wondered how many times he flew in a helicopter. Or when he did, if he ever sat right near the edge with his leg dangling out, like the pararescuers did.
I wondered how much sleep he got, or what time he woke up and went to bed, or if he ever had bags under his eyes like some of those soldiers did.
I wondered if it would’ve been easier if we had Skype when Nate was deployed.

I wonder about all these things, and then I look over and he’s sitting next to me on the
couch…and it’s weird.
It’s weird cause he’s the same Nate.
But I know he was a different Nate when he was gone from me.
But I don’t know how he was different. I never saw it.

It probably doesn’t make sense, written out like this. But in my head, it does.

Nate hates when I talk about his service, and if he reads this post he’ll probably give me the stink-eye.
But whatevs. I’m proud of him and I think he deserves credit.
And I think all service members deserve credit.
A lot of credit.

And I think if you ever have the chance, you should try and watch this show, Inside Combat Rescue. You may have a new perspective, it might be more real for you too.

Alright.
That was heavy.
Enough seriousness for today.

.........................................

“Honor the fallen, thank the living.”



Friday, March 22, 2013

H54F

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Oh High Five for Friday, how I've missed you!
Linking up with Lauren today over at From My Grey Desk, for my top five things from this week!

1.) Thursday was my dear friend Abel's birthday...who's wife just happens to be one of my bff's. In fact, you can check her out over at Humble Haro Abode
See, my hubs and her hubs (Abel, that is) became man-friends when they were just knee-high to a grasshopper.
Then I met Abel
Then in High School, Abel met Tyah.
Then I met Tyah.
Then we became bff's.
Then we were all in each other's weddings.
How presh.
Happy Birthday Abel!

2.) I found this Twitter account this week
...and it has quickly become one of my favs.
If you like funny things, you'll love having these one-liners in your Twitter feed.
Hilair.
Although, I probably shouldn't be telling you all about it, that way I can crack funny jokes and puns and you all would think I'm the really funny one.
Just kidding.
That'd be plagiarism...and I've read enough syllabi on academic integrity in my day to know that that's a no-no.

3.) Suns beat Lakers...in blow-out fashion
I know, bummer, right Kobe?
#sorryimnotsorry

4.) New season of Dancing with the Stars started this week too
Team Aly all the way...

5.) This meme:
ahh political humor. I just can't get enough.

Happy Friday folks!

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Counting Down

Guess what?!

So in honor of there only being 49 days left of my entire academic career, I thought I'd make a list. A list of:

You know you’re a grad student 49 days away from your degree when...

-You turn things in late cause you just weren’t in the mood to do it on time

-It’s no longer imperative to read and respond to emails from professors and group members in
a timely manner. Eh, you’ll look at it later.

-Straight A’s are no longer your goal. A B sounds pretty dang acceptable

-Your motto becomes, “Who cares. Let’s just get through the class and graduate.”

-You no longer care to look up the correct form of an APA citation if you’re unsure…who cares.
Let’s just get through the class and graduate.

-You practice signing your name with three extra letters behind it (i.e. Carissa Townsend, BSW,
MPA)

-You blog about being 49 days away from graduating

-You dream about never having to do homework again for the rest of your life

-You have nightmares about having to start paying your student loans

-You don’t even have a binder anymore. You’re school crap is all over the place.

-You don’t double check the guidelines before writing a paper...cause your school crap is all over
the place and you can’t find your syllabus

49 days and counting folks!


Monday, March 18, 2013

Weekend Wrap-up

I think I've come up with a legitimate excuse as to why I never have my weekend wrap-ups written and posted promptly on Monday morning.  
It's because I don't want to write my weekend-wrap up on Sunday night just in case something fun happens last minute which, if I had prepared my weekend wrap-up ahead of time, would not have been included in the post.
See?
Legit right?
I mean, nothing exciting happened last minute on Sunday night...truth be told, I folded laundry.
But that doesn't mean something fun, and spontaneous, and last minute couldn't pop up in the future. 
I like to leave my options open.

So now that I've spent a good few paragraphs trying to convince myself you I have good reasons for my blogging irregularity...let's get on with it, shall we?

Saturday was a super day.
I went a little Instagram crazy.
Insta-crazy, if you will.
Four pics in one day. That's a record for me.
But I guess it just means I actually did things worth taking pictures of?
I dunno. But you can totes follow me at MissRiss0409

So anyway, Saturday I slept in...until Gun-dog came and woke me up
It's ok though, I'm not even mad.
Who could be mad at a face like that?...his, not mine 
...Although people tell me it's hard to be mad at a face like mine too. And by people I mean Gunther.
See, me and Gunny, we're totally on the same wave length.

Then I decided I wanted to enjoy the warm weather before 'warm' means 115 degrees.
So I went over to my parents house eager to hang out by the pool, only to find my 
soon-to-be-brother-in-law (that was a heck of a lot of hyphens) working on the pool area. I forgot he and my dad were doing some renovation. 
BUT since I'm a grad student and I almost have a Master's degree I figured out that if the sun is shining on the pool side, surely it will be shining on the lawn too. 
So the lawn it was.

And while I was gettin' mah tan on, I took the recommendation of my dear bloggy friend Mosby over at Simplicity is Key, and I began The Happiness Project.
Love. It.
Get it.
Read it.

Saturday night we had a birthday party.
For my dog.
Cause Maycee turned four years old.
And who doesn't throw their dogs birthday parties anyway?
She hated the hat, but loved the bone with peanut butter...so I think she forgave me for the hat thing.
And don't worry, Gunther helped celebrate too...like the good brother he is.
And then he stole her new chew toy we got for her...like the good brother he is.
And then she stole it back and they proceeded to tug-of-war and beat each other up...like the good siblings they are. 

Then on Sunday I got to go see my brand new niece again! 
She's finally home from the hospital and just as cute as she was last week
Exhibit A:
She slept the whole time I held her, which is fine cause I probably wouldn't know what to do if she started moving...or heaven forbid crying.
But that's ok. Cause we totally bonded as I was holding her and we agreed that she would never cry (or poop) when I held her...she just doesn't know it yet. I'll have to remind her next time we hang out.

So you know, it was a pretty good weekend. 
Can't complain.


Thursday, March 14, 2013

Blog Lovin'

Word on the street is Google Reader is going away. If we're being honest here, I don't really understand  the whole Google Reader/Blog Lovin' thing, but it looks like I'm gonna have to now. 

So, that being said...you should totes follow my blog on Blog Lovin by clicking this link:
  

...at least that's what Blog Lovin' told me to do. 
If not, (I think) I put the follow button on my sidebar and you can grab it there. 

If you're a Blog Lovin' user, comment or email me with your favorite things/features about using it so I can learn to love it...like so many of you already do!

Love ya, mean it, ciao! 

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Filibuster Part Deux


If there’s one thing I’m learning about blogging, it’s that I need to be on time.
That is to say, if I have something I want to write about regarding the days’ top headlines, I can’t really do it a week later when no one’s talking about it anymore.

An example that comes to mind is when I had this really fun idea in my head to write about the Puppybowl. Remember? Superbowl, Puppybowl…see I can’t really post about that now if I have to remind everyone about it.

I ran into the same problem last week when I wanted to post about Rand Paul and his 13 hour filibuster on the Senate floor.
Was anyone else following that?
Anyone else watch it live-stream on C-Span?
...it's ok, I wasn’t really expecting a ‘yes’ on that one.
Surely I didn’t spend 2 hours watching the live-stream on C-Span. I totally have better things to do with my time anyway. And who really watches C-Span?
Definitely not me.

Anyway, Rand Paul talked for 13 hours in an effort to block the confirmation of the Presidents’ pick for CIA Director.
That’s essentially what a good ol’ fashion filibuster is – you talk and you talk and you talk to prevent or delay a vote on something.
So that’s what Senator Paul did.
Except he mostly talked about drones and their potential use on American citizens.

But the point is, he stood and talked for 13 hours.
13 hours.
I freak out when I have to give a 20 minute presentation in class. I’m like, “what the heck am I gonna talk about for a whole twenty minutes?”
But Rand Paul man, he hung around for 13 hours. And the only reason he stopped was 
cause he had to go potty.
True story.

So I got to thinking, really though, what could I possibly talk about for 13 hours?
I might start out with the mere fact that the word ‘filibuster’ reminds me of Dairy Queen.
Wanna know why?
Cause Dairy Queen has Dilly Bars, and they have Buster Bars. And when you put a Dilly Bar and a Buster Bar together, you might call it a ‘Dillybuster’…which is kinda like ‘filibuster.’
See how I got there on that one?

I might also talk about the Sequester. Cause it seems like that’s a hot topic lately.
The verb form of ‘Sequester’ is ‘Sequestration’…which kinda reminds me of castration.
But I feel like talking about castration on the Senate floor might be inappropriate.
So on second thought, maybe I wouldn’t talk about the Sequester.

But I might take my opportunity in the spotlight to discuss the awkwardness of people on cell phones in the restroom, and spread awareness that talking on your cell phone while you’re on the pot creates strong feelings of awkwardness and high levels of discomfort to your stall-mates.
Please. Stop the pot talk.
And then I would have other Senators come to the floor to give testimony on their awkward encounters of people on their cell phones while in the restroom - you know, just to bring some validity to the argument.

After that, I might touch on the drone issue, and how it could actually be a good thing to use drones on the American people. Think about it, if I’m layin’ outside in the summer, in the 100+ degree heat gettin’ my tan on, I just dial up a drone – but instead of being filled with bombs, they’re filled with water. So then they just do a quick fly-over and dump water on me to cool me off. This could be beneficial if you’re laying outside with no access to a pool – or in my case, when you’re laying outside at your parent’s house with a pool, but your dad gets mad when you go in it with your tanning oil on cause it creates a weird oil film thing at the surface of the water.
See? Drones – easy fix.
I’m happy, Dad’s happy.

Lastly, I might read aloud all or a few of the Harry Potter novels. Cause that would take up some serious time, and plus, I think everyone in Congress might be in a better mood if they had more Harry Potter in their life.
Expecto Patronum!

See what I did there? I totally just blogged about what I wanted to blog about last week, even though it’s not really in the news anymore…and you didn’t even realize it.
Go me.

     

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Weekend-ish Update

I would just like to start this post off by saying...
Black smoke, no Pope. 
Does this have anything to do with what I'm going to write about?
No. 
Do I care about electing a new Pope?
Not really.
Does the word "Pope" need to be capitalized? 
I don't really know. 

Truth be told I just really like the sound of it.
Black smoke, no Pope.

Moving on.

This weekend I became a first-time aunt to Miss Miley Marie, and I'm thrilled about it!
I asked my sister-in-law, Jessica if it would be mean if I didn't want to hold her...you know, cause I'm afraid I might break it her. 
After some convincing, and after I saw her adorable little face, I just couldn't resist...
Granted, I didn't let Jessica go anywhere...I don't dare hold a baby unsupervised.
Good news is I didn't do any damage and Miley is still in one piece. 
...I think I'm off to a good start with the auntie thing.

We celebrated another birthday last weekend too; one of my best friends, Kayla from The Lindholm Life, her daughter turned two with an adorable Minnie Mouse themed birthday party.
 
We got little Kenzie a Minnie Mouse stuffed animal as a gift, and I'm thinking it was a hit after I got this text from Kayla:
I think I may be better at this kid thing that I thought I was. 
I didn't drop my brand new niece, and we hit the nail on the head when picking out a gift for 
a two year old. 
Bonus points for me.

In other news, I've spent the last few months trying to track down a (free) wood pallet, so I could make a cool wall shelf out of it. You wanna know what I stumbled on last week, in my own garage?? 
You guessed it.
A wood pallet.
What's the saying..if it were a snake it would've bit me? 
At any rate, I totally got myself a cool wall shelf now.
Can't wait to get it all nice and decorated!

Lastly, I found a couple tweets this week that gave me a good lol.


Ah Professor Snape, you're funnier on Twitter than I remember you being in the books...
I like it.



Saturday, March 9, 2013

That One Time Google Deleted My Blog

Last week I logged onto Blogger and my dashboard told me I was not the author of any blogs. 
Say what?

So then I typed in my URL to try and pull it up without the use of Blogger, only to find the words, "blog has been removed" in front of me.
Say WHAT?

At first, I was afraid. I was petrified. 
Kept thinkin' I could never live without my blog by my side... 
Just kidding...
But I did feel as if I saw my whole (blog) life flash before my eyes.
What do you mean my blog has been removed? Who the heck would remove my blog?

Google. 
That's who.

I guess technically they 'locked' my account, not really deleted it...I'm just being dramatic. But I feel like Google yanking your blog out from under you is grounds for being dramatic. It's obvious I have really important things to say on this blog, and I'm totally making a difference in this world with my words, and everyday without it a child somewhere is missing out. 

That's a lie.

But I DO make my living on this blog and without it, I almost couldn't pay my mortgage.

That's a lie too.

I just really like to write things, that's all.

But it's ok, cause now I'm back.
From outer space.
I just walked in to find you here with that sad look upon your face...

Kidding.
I mean I am back, I wasn't kidding about that, I was kidding about going all Gloria Gaynor on you again. 

So you know, my blog is back and I feel like a happy camper again. Google might've fooled me once, but it's ok...cause I will survive.
As long as I know how to blog I know I'll stay alive...

I really hope people catch the I Will Survive song innuendoes - or else this post might not be as funny to everyone else as it is to me...


Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Cowboys, Birthdays, Mnemonic Devices, and Other Fun Things

Sooooo...it's been a little while hasn't it?

Mah bad.

I could go on and tell you all about how awesome I am at managing my time (which is clearly why my last blog post was over a week ago)...but you've totally heard that before. 
So let's talk about what's been goin' on shall we?!

Last weekend was Cowboy Weekend 2013. 
Read about Cowboy Weekend 2012 here.
What do you do during cowboy weekend?
Shoot things.
(Using your choice of: BB gun, real gun, bow and arrow, or slingshot)

Throw things (e.g. knives)

Ride quads. 

Hunt for coyotes. 

See how many dogs and humans can fit in the front cab of your truck
It's kinda like "Chubby Bunny," but instead of seeing how many marshmallows can fit in your mouth, you see how many dogs can fit in your truck. 
I feel like maybe that's a weird example, but you know what I mean...
Maybe next year we'll try for "how many dogs and humans can fit on a quad"
Ooo that'd be good.


In other news, my birthday was last week. My golden birthday, might I add.
I turned 26 on the 26th
...and I already feel older. 
I was filling out a survey today at work when it asked me my age; the first bracket was 18-25 and the second bracket was 26-34.
That puts me in the second bracket!! Next to the 30s!! 
Holy crap on a cracker.

Speaking of work, when I came back after my day off my coworkers decorated my cube for my birthday:
Totally kept it up all week.
Totally ate the left over ice cream cake all week too.

Ooh, another piece of good news includes the fact that I'm down to my very. last. class. ever. in my Master's program.
One of my classes this semester was a condensed 8 week course and ended  at the end of February. Which means one class down, one to go, and then I'll be homework free for the rest. of. my. life.
That has a good ring to it doesn't it?

Lastly, I was pretty proud of myself after I finally figured out how to tell apart the Morris twins that now play together in Phoenix after Marcus Morris was traded from Houston...
...so I texted my dad:
...only to find out today that MarkEEf spells his name MarkIEff.

Damn.

I almost had it.

Whatever, his Twitter handle is 'Keef Morris' so I'm just gonna stick with my original idea.

And that's what's been goin' on.
And since I can't think of a clever way to end this post I'm just gonna go with:

Later.