You Were Good to me, March

3:41pm on a Sunday is a socially acceptable time to drink wine right? I spent the last little while pulling and editing photos (and by editing I mean pushing the button that says "enhance" one time because that is the extent of my photo editing capabilities) for this post and I had hoped by the time I was done it would be cool to have some wine. Although Nate is napping which means he's not awake to judge how early I start drinking, so I think wine it is. Sometimes when I can't think of a good way to start out a blog post, I just put down the first thing that comes to my head and roll with it, so that's what happened there. Apologies.

But anyway, I'm here to talk about the month of March because it's over and done and in the history books and I'm not quite sure how that happened, really. March went by fast is that just me? But nonetheless, it was a good time. I'm not mad at March. Other than the fact that I had to finally cave and turn on my AC cause it's been warmmmm and I was really  hoping to make it to at least April but alas, the Arizona spring said nope! Not today! Turn on that air conditioner guuurl! We're starting early! That, I'm mad at.

So my birthday is at the end of February which means early March meant I got to take out my new toy Nate got for me for my birthday and give it a test run. He got me the Weatherby Camilla - a hunting rifle designed by, and made for women. Which means it's smaller, fits my frame better, and I can finally stop buying hunting rifles in youth models (short people probs, know what I mean?).

I had a meeting for work near downtown Phoenix one day last month that coincidentally happened to be down the street from where my dad works; so I got to go bug him for like, an hour in the middle of the work day. When I got to his floor there was no one at the reception desk so I walked straight back into his office and hid behind his book case. I think I scared him when he walked in but he won't admit it. He was incredulous when he asked me "how'd you get in here?" I was like listen bro, your reception desk was left unattended and I spent too many take-your-daughter-to-work-days here as a kid to forget where your office was. I'm kidding of course, I don't call my dad "bro." That'd be weird.

One of my goals for the month of March was to close all my activity rings on my Apple Watch every day. Apple's Activity tracker app has your day broken down into three categories: Move (calories burned), Exercise (minutes spent exercising), and Stand (have to stand at least once every hour). Closing all three rings is hard for me because 1.) I work an office job and often times sit in meetings all day long (missing out on stand hours), and 2.) I'm a lazy POS on the weekends (missing out on calories burned, exercise, and def stand hours). I am happy to report that I was a good girl and worked hard and sometimes had to pace my living room before bed in order to get the last of those calories burned but, I closed all my rings every day and look at this work of art:

We spent a lot of time out on the cat this month (remember side-by-side = Arctic Cat = "the cat") because as mentioned earlier, it's getting hot fast out here in AZ and in the summer time, a ride out on the cat can really start to feel like a hair dryer just being blown right in your face on high heat. So we made the most of the cool weather and ventured to a couple new parts of Arizona we'd never been before, Savannah Point (Savannah oh-na-na) and the Sierra Ancha Wilderness. Both equally vast, and awesome, and beautiful.

And it wouldn't be a day out in the back country without Nate finding, and playing with (and pretending to throw at me) an insect of some sort, so here's a scorpion Nate found that he just casually decided to pick up with his pliers:

Cool.

Arizona is just so bad ass, you guys.

In March I planted new house plants which, are already growing so fast I had to prop one up with a DIY wooden skewer and basically I feel like a full blown, professional horticulturist now.

I also started learning how to water color paint because my dear friend Jennica is so thoughtful and kind and knew this was on my to-do list for 2018 and she got me a beginner's kit for my birthday. I'm not good at it or anything and I'm just out here, following along with my instructional guide like a kindergartener, but it's fun, and relaxing, and makes me feel super artsy.

March was cool (like, temperature cool), fun, active, and full. 2018 is in full swing and I am ready for April!

Missed a post this month? Check them out here:
I'm a Hufflepuff and I think I'm OK With it
Thanks for the Memories
Things Winter Taught Me
An Opening Day Poem

An Opening Day Poem

Roses are red, baseball is back

Opening day is upon us, how do you feel about that?! (hint: it should be excited)
We waited all winter for America's pasttime to return,
And now my body is ready - I can already feel the burn!

Goldy, Peralta, Jake Lamb, and Zack Greinke,
AJ, and Archie, and Owings, and Robbie.
The Skipper is back, the reigning Manager of the Year,
Torey Lovullo, this Dbacks ship he will steer.

I can't wait to see baseball back on my TV,
and listen to Steve, Greg Schulte, Candiotti, and BB.

In 2018 we'll celebrate Generation Dbacks,
And count 20 years of home runs, splash downs, and comebacks.

Last year was Our Season and a fun one it was,

but as Opening Day gets closer, we can all feel the 2018 buzz.
The anticipation and excitement has mounted,
So get ready boys, 'cause the next one is counted.

Things Winter Taught Me

They say tomorrow is the first day of spring. We live in Arizona so we don't really go by seasons but nonetheless, I'm excited to see spring arrive. The sun is warm on my skin but there's also a nice cool breeze. The Acacia trees are in full blossom and smelling like something I'd bottle up and wear all year long if I could. There's baseball happening. What a time to be alive, spring time, know what I mean?!

So with spring here, that means winter has come and gone and it gives us a chance to look back and reflect on the season passed.

Winter reminded me that truly, the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Hallmark Christmas movies do in fact come to an end - they don't air them all year. I was holding out a little bit of hope that I could come upon Christmas in Evergreen sometime in February. You can't. I didn't.

I learned to layer, this winter. It's freezing cold in the mornings and it's hard to picture your life ever warming up in the foreseeable future (dramatic, but accurate be honest) but you know what? You're probably not gonna need that scarf come 1pm. In fact, you're probably gonna turn on your AC when you get in your car after work. But dammit, it's so cold in the morning. Layer your clothes, people. This is particularly true if you're gonna spend time outside. Perhaps in an off-road vehicle. Possibly traveling at high rates of speed. It feels nice and chilly and dandy when you're standing still and your hooded sweatshirt is like, I got this. And then you take off and suddenly your hooded sweatshirt is like, gimme the windbreaker! Gimmie the heavy coat you stuffed in the hood of the machine! SOS!
This is me wearing a long sleeve shirt, a hooded sweatshirt, a jacket, and a neck gaiter that doubles as a scarf (life hack).

Bees don't hibernate in the winter. I don't know why I thought maybe they did, or that like, they just didn't really like the cold and wouldn't come buzzing around chasing you but they do.
This is me cautiously approaching my camera because there was a bee flying around it, and everyone laughing at me.

I don't even care I don't play with bees.

I was reminded over the winter, that my wardrobe is still not winter appropriate - I wear the same gray cardigan and black flats to everything because I'm too cheap to buy boots and never think the cold will last long enough to warrant spending more money on cardigans. We celebrated my friend Sarah's birthday in January and we basically all showed up in the same thing. We made a deal that we have to take each other shopping next winter for appropriate footwear and cardigan diversity. At 31 perhaps it's time to invest in a(n) (Arizona) winter wardrobe (or not, jury's still out).

It's been a good time, winter but I'm ready for daylight past 5pm, pastel's, and for baseball games to start counting.

Let's do this, spring.

Thanks for the Memories

You know that saying that's like, "nothing in life lasts forever?" While I've always known this to be true, this is really starting to hit me hard lately. I think maybe I've gotten a little too comfortable in life you know, just kind of cruising along and then all of a sudden the things you love most in life get taken from you at a moments notice.

For example, the baked brie at The Keg. You know, the baked brie on the happy hour menu, served with the little crostini's and the pesto? It's gone. You can keep looking through the whole menu (believe me, I did), but you won't be able to find it. It was a bit of a traumatic experience, to wander into the Keg on a Friday for happy hour, all happy and unsuspecting, ready to devour some delicious baked brie and pesto, only to sit down and see the menu just lying there - baked brie-less. Baked Brie was the reason I went to The Keg for happy hour. It's what gave me purpose between the hours of 4 and 7pm, posted up at a patio table; and now I'm just here, picking up the pieces of my happy hours that have been torn apart by the removal of baked brie. RIP to happier times at The Keg.

RIP to Wild Mushroom Bisque too. My favorite soup served in the cafeteria at work. One day as my coworkers and I were bemoaning the prolonged absence of Wild Mushroom Bisque from the weekly soup rotation, Bernadette decided to email the cafeteria manager - "ay yo - where da bisque at??!," she inquired. She didn't put it like that per say, but that was the gist. And with his response my worst nightmare came true - the vendor discontinued it. This is not okay. I am not okay. Wild Mushroom Bisque was the only soup that would bring me into the office on a work from home day. Wild Mushroom Bisque gave me something to look forward to in a weekly soup line up full of vegetable beef barley, broccoli cheese, and vegetarian chili. The soup future at work looks bleak, guys. Keep me in your thoughts and prayers mmmk?

To kick me while I'm down, Victoria's Secret stopped making Warm and Cozy in a lotion, and Scentsy discontinued my favorite Satin Sheets scent bar. Satin Sheets made my bedroom smell so luxurious as if there were actual satin sheets on my bed and not cheap Ikea ones covered in dog hair. Satin Sheets made me forget about the dog hair, guys.

I've never had so many of my favorite things disappear so quickly in such a short amount of time before. I haven't felt this lost since Chili's got rid of the Chicken Caesar Pita circa 2007. You can't even tell me I'm being dramatic on that one, that was a damn good pita.

But you know as they say, nothing in life lasts forever. Hopefully that includes these withdrawals of not being able to eat a baked block of cheese every week.

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

What discontinued products do you miss?!

I'm a Hufflepuff and I think I'm OK With it

I have a coworker who believe it or not, had never read the Harry Potter books, nor seen any of the movies. People like that are out there, guys. They exist. But thankfully, over the holidays we convinced her to watch all the movies and learn the story and that, she did. So, as she was experiencing Harry Potter for the first time we (obviously) had a lot of HP discussion at work and it got me to remembering how much I love Harry Potter. I began reading HP as a kid as each book came out and I have to admit....I have never once re-read them since (it's fine if you judge me, I'm judging me too on this one). Which also got me to thinking, as we had all these discussions, how much I've forgotten about the story. Feeling ashamed and embarrassed like, what kind of HP fan am I (no seriously), I decided to re-read all seven HP books.

So, at this moment not only am I about 3/4 of the way through Chamber of Secrets, but I'm deep in the Harry Potter fandom, guys. Like, deep. I'm talking, listening to Harry Potter Podcasts (if you want a good one my favorite is MuggleCast), buying all the anniversary collector's editions that came out when I wasn't a dedicated enough fan to be aware of such a thing, and of course re-visiting Pottermore.com.

The best part about Pottermore is that once you create an account, you can take the Sorting Hat quiz (written by J.K. Rowling herself so you know it's 2legit2quit) and be sorted into a House. I did this exercise years ago in 2012 when Pottermore first became a thing and I was sorted into Ravenclaw. Since then, I've always identified as a Ravenclaw and even bought Luna Lovegood's wand when I went to Harry Potter World in Orlando. So, once my coworkers and I got to talking about what houses we had all been sorted into, I felt compelled to go back and visit Pottermore. However upon my first visit, it prompted me to create a new account because apparently, unbeknownst to me, Pottermore got a facelift in 2015 and they totally re-did/re-designed the whole thing. So, new account = new sorting quiz.

I took the quiz and was sorted into Hufflepuff. So naturally, I deleted my account, created a new one and re-took the sorting quiz FOUR more times and three out of those four times, was sorted into Hufflepuff.

I was not okay with this because here's the thing: nobody wants to be a Hufflepuff. The internet tells you so, Draco Malfoy tells you so (although his opinion doesn't really count for too much because he's kind of an ass), and even Hagrid was talking some shit about Hufflepuff in book 1. Quite frankly, if there's a house nobody should want to be in I would think it'd be Slytherin for obvious reasons, but what do I know. So, unhappy with my Sorting Hat Ceremony results and very aware of the reputation of Hufflepuff's, I spent an entire Friday night Googling Hufflepuff House to try and convince myself that being a Hufflepuff isn't a bad thing and you know what, I'm convinced. In fact, I'm kind of obsessed with it now and I am full-on embracing my inner 'puff.

Loyalty, patience, hard work, and fair play might not be the sexy qualities of the bravery of Gryffindor, or the ambition of Slytherin but guess what? We're ride or die ok?       

The Sorting Hat says, 

"You might belong in Hufflepuff,
Where they are just and loyal,
Those patient Hufflepuffs are true,
And unafraid of toil."

Unafraid of toil. Our house symbol is a badger. Do I need to remind you that honey badger don't give a shit?

It doesn't And neither do we. We don't care that you think we're boring, or generic (jk I totally did at first hence, this blog post), we know what's up and we always hold true to it. We're underestimated and we're ok with that. I'm underestimated everyday in my real life; a few months ago an Omaha Steaks salesman knocked on my door and when I answered he asked if my mom was home. I said, I'M THE HOMEOWNER, BETCH. I didn't say that, actually, I was thinking it though. The point is, Hufflepuff's are bad ass in a strong and silent, subtle and unassuming kind of way.

During the Battle of Hogwarts,

"The Hufflepuffs, virtually to a person, stay – as do the Gryffindors. Now, the Gryffindors comprise a lot of foolhardy and show-offy people… You know, there’s bravery and there’s also showboating, and sometimes the two go together. The Hufflepuffs stayed for a different reason. They weren’t trying to show off, they weren’t being reckless. That’s the essence of Hufflepuff House." - J.K. Rowling.

Even the queen herself said, "In many many ways, Hufflepuff is my favorite house."

Match point: Hufflepuff

So, from the yellow and black, earthy goodness, to Cedric Diggory and Nymphadora Tonks, Newt Scamander and his fantastic beasts, and all the Herbology in between - Hufflepuff is where it's at and I'm here for it.

And if you too are a Hufflepuff, I say let your 'Puff flag fly because as J.K. Rowling herself said, it's the dawn of the age of Hufflepuff.

We're just out here living our best life and, as they say, everyday we're Hufflin'.

Have you taken the Pottermore quiz? What House do you belong to?!

Things That Never got Blogged: The Entire Months of November through February

Hi, hello, is this thing on?! It's me again, Carissa - the one who used to put words and pictures and stuff here and always says she's gonna blog more but never does. Hi, yes, that's me. It's February now, and the last time I blogged was November...oops. See the thing is, early November came so fast and then the end of November was busy with the holiday and stuff, and then December came and I was stuck on the couch watching Hallmark movies all month long (so def couldn't blog right), and then early January came and I was like, trying to clean up Christmas and mourning the loss of Hallmark Christmas movies, and then the rest of January took so damn long I got really busy just wondering why January was taking so long to be over with. Makes sense right?

So I'm here to do a highlight reel of sorts, because 1.) my inner OCD doesn't let me casually start blogging again without catching it up first, and 2.) The end of 2017 was actually full of really fun stuff.

November
*Taylor Swift's new Album Reputation finally came out and my friend and fellow closet Swiftie ("closet" because we're 30 and I don't think anyone over the age of 13 can publicly refer to themselves by the name of a particular fandom) made a morning out of it. Target, brunch, then sat in my car to listen to the album because we both realized we don't own CD players. 2017 probs.

*We took the side-by-side out and buzzed around the Tonto National Forest back to Sheep's Bridge with my in-laws. The family that eats dirt together, stays together. Although next time I'm calling dibs on lead because I don't actually like eating that much dirt.

 Sheep's Bridge

*My friend Kailey hosted a Friendsgiving and it was lovely and impressive and delicious. One day your bff's are strangers you met on the internet, the next day you're drinking sangria at Friendsgiving together. Life comes at you fast.

*We made our annual Christmas photo trip with my dear friend Jennica of Amaes Photography, which might actually seem like it belongs in December but we were ahead of the game this year and got our Christmas photos done in November. And as per the usual, Jennica did an amazing job, and every year I'm like, how can we top this next year?? And every year we do.

December

*We set out looking for a small Christmas tree this year and ended up getting the biggest one we've ever had because it was actually the cheapest one we found (love you, Costco). I put it in a new spot in my living room and it was my absolute favorite thing this holiday season.

*I discovered I had the Hallmark Channel this Christmas and so naturally, proceeded to watch so many Hallmark Christmas movies that Nate turned it into a verb ("Uh oh, she's Hallmarking again").

*My family took our annual weekend trip, this year to Prescott and we had the best time. We saw so many Christmas light displays, went hiking at Lynx Lake, and saw the most impressive gingerbread house exhibit. 

*By some stroke of luck, Nate was offered Christmas Eve off which made the actual holidays so much better. Since he works the graveyard shift, that meant we had Christmas Eve night together and most of Christmas day before he went to work Christmas night. 

*This holiday season was a really really good one. A culmination of small things just really added up to make my Christmas feel so full. Usually after the holidays I'm ready for a fresh start in the new year but I was really sad to see this Christmas go. 

Christmas 2017 from Carissa on Vimeo.

January
*Rang in the new year by myself but it's fine because I had a whole bottle of champagne to myself and re-decorated my pallet.

*My family had a ribs and corhole day complete with crock-pot Mac and cheese and a surprise guest appearance by T-rex.
January 2018 Ribs and Cornhole Short from Carissa on Vimeo.

*My mom and I rode bikes to Postinos on a Saturday morning, drank a bunch of mimosas, and then got rained on the whole way home. We were drunk-ish so it's like we didn't even notice. Jk we totally noticed and we were totally wet. But also totally had fun.

*Nate received the 2017 Veteran's of Foreign Wars (VFW) Police Officer of the Year award in a lovely ceremony that he didn't want to go to because he hates this kind of thing, but we love it and are so proud and made him take lots of pictures.

Source

Source

February
*Out with the old pallet, in with the new. I got this letter board for Christmas and now it's my new favorite staple on my wood pallet and I spent an embarrassing amount of time googling "Harry Potter Valentine's puns" to find this one. Totally worth it.

If you've made it this far and are still reading this post - thanks for making it this far and reading my post. If you haven't - I totally get it.

Now, let's get this blog on a roll shall we?!

Happy 2018!