April Cara Box Reveal

This is the second month I've participated in the Cara Box Exchange hosted by 

Kaitlyn from Wifessionals, and I'm loving it! 

Read more about the exchange HERE.

In honor of earth day, this month's theme was "Go Green."
And since I never really hopped on the "going green" bandwagon, this box was definitely a challenge for me. But nonetheless, just as fun!

This month I was paired with Sarah from To Be Mrs. Collier, whom I sent a package to. Go check out her blog now to see what she received! She is fabulous and I've loved getting to know her this month! She's going to go camping this summer for the first time, so stop by her blog and offer her your  little nuggets of camping wisdom =)

I was also paired up with the lovely Kendra from Adventures of Brad and Kendra, who sent a package to me.
And boy did she deliver.

-A handwritten card...in pink Chevron (love!)

-A reusable cup...perfect for my morning iced coffee during summer time

-A really neat glow-stick that doubles (triples?) as a glow-stick, a flashlight, and a whistle...I'll totally be using this during camping trips this summer!

-A cute headband

-A really cool wristlet that (I think) can be soaked, and then worn to keep you cool in hot weather...love the fabric!

-And last but not least......drum roll please.....

A diploma from Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizadry!

Holy freakin' smokes, I won't even lie...I totally geeked out a little when I saw this.

In fact, it kinda made me wanna do one of these:

"Ooooooh it's a diploma!!! It's a diploma from Hogwarts!!"
And then Penny would be like, "You look beautiful" and I'd be like, "Of course I do I'm a wizard!!"

Kendra certainly did her homework, and discovered I included on my 30 Before 30 list (check it out HERE) that I intended to graduate from Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry by the time I turned 30. And just when I thought that would never happen (considering it's a fictional school and everything)...BAM. I get this in the mail!

This means I will have TWO Master's degrees by the time next week is over...but that doesn't even really matter now, cause Master of Wizardry sounds way cooler and way more magical than anything Arizona State University can offer.

Kendra...you da bomb.com.

Thank you oh so very much for my box and my diploma! I loved all of it!

  

I Can't Think of a Good Title for This One

I had one heck of a weekend.

I had tons-o-fun and took tons-o-pictures.

And it's for that reason that I'm leaving you with this random post just to let you know, that I'll let you know about my weekend when I get my shiz together and sort through all my pics and think of something good to say.

Kapeesh?

So, remember last month when I posted that really cool video on Easter Sunday? 

If not, you can check it out HERE.

I kept going back and forth on which video to choose, because I really really liked another one of Jefferson's videos, but ultimately decided on posting the other. 

So since today is a random blog day, I figured it was the perfect time to share the other with you.

You might've already seen it considering it went "viral" quite a while ago. 

But I don't even care.

Cause it's still just as awesome.
And I'm still just as convicted. 

Why I hate religion, but love Jesus...

"...If grace is water, then the church should be an ocean, cause it's not a museum for good people, it's a hospital for the broken."

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

Enjoy your Monday folks!

Anniversary Vacay Part II

Remember that one time I started telling you about our anniversary vacation and never finished?

Let's finish, shall we?

Check out part I HERE

So after Carlsbad we drove a few hours to Las Cruces where the concert was. But before we went to the show Saturday night, we first visited the White Sands National Monument.

What is the White Sands National Monument you might ask?...

...I took that from their website so I didn't have to try and explain it.

When I told Nate about it at first he's like, "wait, what is it?"

and I was like,

"I dunno, white gypsies used to live there or something."

So you know, I'm really good at describing things.

Anyway, you can either drive through the park, walk through the park, or for those of us that are indecisive you can do a little bit of both and follow the signs that say "park your car here and walk around a little bit." ...or something like that. 

So we did.

Kinda looks like the beach right?!

It was pretty cool, and pretty vast. 

There were picnic tables where you could sit and eat lunch, and some families were even sliding down the dunes in those disc thingy's you usually see in the snow. 

BUT, since we had places to go and people to see (namely George Strait), 

we didn't make a day out of it.

Instead, we headed back to the hotel, freshened up a bit, had dinner, and headed out to New Mexico State University to see the king of country music!

Martina McBride opened up for George, which honestly, I was pretty indifferent about. I really liked her older stuff, but haven't really been into her for the past few years. 

BUT...I think I changed my mind.

She. Is. Amazeballs.

Her voice is amazing live...girlfriend's got some serious pipes.

When George Strait finally came on...it was even more amazeballs.

He walked out onto his stage with nothing but a spotlight. 

No fancy entrance, no pyrotechnics...just George.

And everybody went nuts!

I will say, it was different than any other concert I've been to. Being in the same place, and watching this person that has had so much success over such a long period of time - there's this respect in the air, if you will, that I've not sensed at any other show I've been to.
Everyone knows we're watching a legend.
And every time he came to your corner of the stage, you stood on your feet.
Kinda like in a courtroom, when the judge walks into the room and the bailiff  says, "all rise."
When George walks in...you rise.

He didn't play my favorite song, "Run," but I suppose I can't really blame him.
When you have 12308547303885763 hit songs and you've been playing for 30 years, I guess there comes a point when you can't fit them all into your shows anymore.
However, he did play Nate's favorite, "Amarillo by Morning"...

He definitely put on an awesome show and it was totally worth the drive out to New Mexico.
There were no crazy props, no costume changes, no smoke, no lasers, no distractions.
Just George and his guitar.
Just the way I like it. 

An Incomplete List

An incomplete list of things I love and things I hate
...cause sometimes you can't think of anything better to write about.

Things I love:

I love it when people say "do do" (e.g. we do do that)
I love it when someone makes a "that's what she said" reference
I love the smell of new text books
I love this commercial:
I love it when I'm right
I love it when my high heels click on the hard floors when I walk 
I love it when I pour a handful of trail mix and all that comes out are M&Ms

Things I hate:

I hate it when I pour a handful of trail mix and all that comes out are raisins.
I hate it when I peel an orange and all the orange residue gets embedded in my cuticles
I hate when I'm blow-drying my hair and accidently bonk myself in the head with the hair dryer
I hate it when people say "libary" ...I'm pretty sure it's libRary
I hate making left turns
I hate it when women my age call me sweetie
I hate it when my dogs are really annoying and won't go away cause they're begging for their dinner, and then once I feed them they're nowhere to be found. ...thanks a lot guys, make me feel so used.  

The end.

Weekend Wrap-up

Do I get bonus points for my weekend wrap-up being on time and posted on Monday?

Cause this one is totally on time and I'm feeling pretty good about it.

Although, right now I'm blogging instead of homeworking. 

So while my blog might be on time, my homework may not be. 

And the bad part is, I don't even really care.

You can read about that HERE.

...oh, and for the record...18 days 'til graduation.

Moving on.

I had a really fun Saturday that included hanging out with my friend and coworker, Quan. 

She's leaving me soon to go back home to China and I'm really upset about it. ...but I told her I won't give her a guilt trip about it until her last day.

Anyway, she took me to have dim sum at a local Chinese restaurant, and it was delish! I don't really know exactly what I ate, considering I've never done dim sum before and told her to order all the food.

And she did.

In Mandarin.

And since I don't really speak Mandarin, I don't really know what she ordered.

Hopefully something with shrimp, cause I told her I like shrimp. 

After we got our first pot of food I was excited to dig in...only then did I notice there was no silverware on the table.

Just chopsticks.

"Umm Quan? I'm pretty sure I don't know how to use these things."

She directed me to the counter where I could find a fork and a knife.

After I sat back down she goes, "there's lots of white people that come here too."

Translation: you're not the only one that can't use chopsticks.

Thanks Quan. I appreciate that. 

Saturday night I hung out on the patio to enjoy some nice weather, some solitude, and some quality blog time. 

You can read my post from this weekend HERE.

I wasn't sure I wanted to post it..cause it's kind of serious. And emotional, and all touchy-feely.

And serious, emotional, touchy-feely things make me uncomfortable. 

But oh well. I already hit the "publish" button on that one.

Sunday included:

1.) Breakfast at The Good Egg...if you don't have a Good Egg in your neck of the woods, 

I feel bad for you.

2.) Target

3.) Home Depot

...cause it's not really the weekend without a trip to Home Depot, right?

and 

4.) Pool time

...for the dogs.

Technically they went swimming earlier this year, but it was mostly because they needed a bath and Nate and I were too lazy to give them one. So we said, hey, go jump in the pool.

So Sunday they were excited to actually swim around and play ball for the first time this season!

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

So you know, it was a good weekend.

Happy Monday!

America Strong

It's been one helluva week.

I felt like I wanted to write about everything that happened this week, so I started trying to brainstorm in my head, what I would say and what I would write. 

And that's all I could think of.

It's been one helluva week. 

Cause it has. 

This week proved that yes, Boston is "Boston Strong," and that most of us will "#prayforboston" and all that good stuff (cause it is, good stuff). But I got another thing out of this weeks events, that I haven't really observed since I was a freshman in high school and 9/11 hit.

Unity.

It turns out, us Americans, we do actually care for our neighbors. 

We've been glued to our TVs, and our radios, and Twitter since Monday's explosions, looking for news updates...cause we care. 

We care about the three people who were killed, we care about people who were injured, we care about Boston, we care about our country.

And we're pissed when bad people try and hurt our neighbors, our cities, our country. 

Yeah, it takes a tragedy to see this kind of unity, but you know what?

I don't even care.

Cause it's good to know that when there is tragedy, we're all able to stop bickering and help 

out our neighbors. 

Help out strangers. 

I feel like that's kind of the beauty of this place we live in. 

We have the freedoms, and the rights, and the abilities to disagree, and peaceably protest, and argue, and vote. And a lot of times it's frustrating, and irritating, and we start to think we dislike our neighbors, our country. But when bad things happen and people need help, we help them. 

And we defend them.  

Personally, I love it here.

And I think this week proved that deep down, everyone else does too. 

After an entire city was on lockdown for an entire day while law enforcement hunted down the people who hurt and killed our neighbors, we rejoiced together when he was captured. 

Strangers came out of their homes and stood next to other strangers, and celebrated and waved American flags and cheered on each other, and cheered on our Homeland, and cheered on the fact that we won.

That good always wins. 

And America...we're pretty good.
      

What My Loved One Says About Me

So I saw this link-up floating around from both by dear bloggy (and real life) friend Tyah, over at Humble Haro Abode, and Heather over at From Here to There, and I decided I wanted to join in.

So I gave my husband a homework assignment. 

And seeing as how he's not really the homework type, I was afraid this post might not actually come to fruition.

But, pleasant surprise!

What My Loved One Says About Me

Per Nathan...except for grammatical and spelling errors.

I fixed those.
At least most of them.

10 things people may not know about Carissa,

1.) Carissa Loves Gunther more than me.

They make out... kinda gross, just sayin'! 

False. We don't make out...per say.

2.) Carissa gets mad at me if I go to bed before her, even though she's going to stay up and blog until 12-1AM, never mind the fact that I get up at 5AM - makes perfect sense right?

All I'm hearing is whining...

3.) Carissa actually thinks Maycee enjoys snuggling with her, WRONG Again!
Maycee is like me, we don't like to be snuggled!

True: You're not a snuggler.

Jerk.

False: Maycee freakin' loves when I snuggle her

Can't you tell?

4.) Carissa Is actually pretty funny, I wouldn't ever admit that to her though, it might go to her head...

I totally called this one. Remember THIS POST?

5.) Carissa leaves 50-80 empty/half-empty water bottles on her side of the bed.
Gunther sees this as his personal stash of chew toys.

I mean, I'm hydrated.
And Gunther's entertained.
It's a win-win if you ask me.

6.)  Carissa drives me APE CHIT(censored) with all the pictures she makes me take.
Nate drives me APE CHIT when he never cooperates with picture taking.

7.) I believe Carissa is an excellent writer. But horrible at mathematics.
True. Me and numbers don't get along. ...thanks for calling me out on it.

8.) Carissa and Gunther have hair shedding contests. Gunther makes a mess all over the house and my bed, Carissa clogs the shower drain.
I mean...I dunno. It's not like it's on purpose.

9.) Carissa has little sausages for toes...

Haters gonna hate.

10.) Carissa cannot, I mean cannot park her vehicle straight to save her life!! And she hits the columns in the parking garage at her work!
Guilty as charged.

And that was all she he wrote folks.

It's been real.

Happy Monday

You wanna know something funny?

I couldn't decide if I felt like blogging tonight, and just as I had made up my mind like, "yeah, I'm gonna get bloggy tonight," I accidently stepped on the really pointy heel of one of my shoes and it freakin hurt so bad that I was like, "this is stupid. I don't wanna blog tonight. Cause now I'm pissed. And in pain."

...But then my adult self told my 5 year old self to quit pouting and being a brat just cause you

 got a boo-boo on your foot. 

So alas, here I am. Blogging after all. 

There's an intro if I ever heard one.

So, happy Monday everyone? I realize the general consensus is usually that Monday's are not really happy. But today was totally happy for me...besides the boo-boo on my foot 

we already went over. And that didn't even happen 'til right now, so really it had no effect 

on my Monday.

But I digress.

This Monday was happy for me because it was my first official day on the state payroll.

That's right. 

My first big-girl job is officially official!

...and if you follow me on Instagram (ahem, MissRiss0409) you know this by the fact that I totally have my own name plate outside my cube now:

For those of you that don't know, I've been interning for the State for about the last year - meaning technically I've been employed by a temp agency. So last week the state positions finally opened up...and I got the job!

So I'm pretty pumped I won't be one of those statistics that either:

A.) Is a college grad that can't find a job

or

B.) Is an adult that never actually works in the field they went to school for.

...And plus, now that my big-girl job is finally secured, hopefully Nate won't be as mad when it comes time to pay those student loans. 

So since my offer letter was a great way to start the weekend, I told Nate a celebratory dinner was in order...and I got to choose the menu.

So we had:

And:

Shrimp and mac n' cheese. 

Oh and wine. You can't really celebrate something without wine.

What can I say...I'm not hard to please.

The rest of the weekend consisted of:

Archery range,

Pooches,

And we had an early bday celebration for my mom, whose birthday is this week. And it looked a little like this:

...So you know, the usual.

Mom got a popcorn maker.

Like, a legit, movie theatre machine popcorn maker. 

Movie nights at her house from now on.

Nate and I also did yard work...but I didn't take pictures of that, nor do you want to see pictures of that, cause I promise you...it wasn't pretty.

It's not all the way done yet, but at least the yard is now livable again. 

Thank the Lord.

I realize I haven't finished posting about our New Mexico anniversary trip.

I'll get there. 

Have you ever taken a whole-freakin-bunch of pictures of the same thing, so each one is basically the same, but some of the quality might be slightly better in some than in others, so it takes a really long time to sort through them and figure out which ones you're gonna use on your blog?

That's where I'm at right now. 

George Strait practically filled my memory card and I've been too lazy to sort through all of them.

...no offense George.

Maybe later this week? Meet you back here? 

Same time, same place.

Anniversary Vacay Part I

In case you didn't catch the last post, the hubs and I just celebrated our 4 year wedding anniversary.

In fact, we were talking about how long we've been together and when we started dating (2000), and after he did the math in his head he goes,

"Congratulations. You've officially taken up half of my life. Thanks a lot."

And to that I affectionately said,

"You're welcome."

Anyway, to celebrate our anniversary we took a little trip out to New Mexico.

I know what you're thinking, 

"What the heck is in New Mexico worth vacationing there for?"

And to that I say George freakin' Strait.

That's what's there.

George Strait is my husband's faaaaav artist and has never had the chance to see him live. So last year when the King of country music announced this would be his farewell tour I figured concert tickets would make the perfect Christmas gift for Nate.

The only thing is he wasn't stopping in Phoenix. 

...I won't even go into how I feel about artists skipping over the 6th largest city in the country. But whatever.

So, ergo de facto...a road trip was in order.

And since Nate hates California I figured I'd rule California out.

And since I can't picture Nate in Las Vegas I ruled that one out too.

And since his stops in Texas were in January, it wouldn't give us enough time to save up the 

money for the trip.

So...ergo de facto...we went to New Mexico.

...That was a really long intro considering I'm not even gonna get to George Strait in this post.

Anyway, New Mexico actually wasn't a terrible choice, cause you know what else is in New Mexico?

The Carlsbad Caverns.

Which leads me to my next question:

What is one of the most amazing things you can do in your lifetime, while simultaneously being one of the worst things ever to blog about??

Answer:

The Carlsbad Caverns

Wanna know why?

Cause it's freakin' dark in there. 

And your pictures don't turn out. 

And if they do, they do these amazing caverns absolutely no justice.

So, just trust me when I say the Carlsbad Caverns are truly amazing, and incredible, and like nothing I've ever seen before. The pictures just don't even come close capturing the magnitude of it all.

Nate and I entered the caverns on foot via the "Natural Entrance" and descended over 800 feet under ground. There's an elevator you can ride down since the walk is long and steep, but if you do, you miss a bunch of stuff on the way down.

I tried to take pictures of most of the signage so that way I wouldn't have to try and explain it all and get all Bill-Nye-The-Science-Guy on you. ...cause really, I couldn't be all science-y even if I tried.

Phew.

That was a lot of pictures.

But, pretty freakin' neat right?!

If you ever have the chance to go to this place...go! I promise, it's way cooler in real life than in pictures.

I'll leave you with one last photo...and then I'll get to George in the next post...cause it's late, and I'm tired, and I wanna go to bed.

Happy Anniversary to us!