on notice

I'm easily amused. I can pretty much have fun anywhere, anytime, with anybody. (Although there are those occasional people that you run into that have a personality of a rock. I try to visit with them and get nothing. I suppose it *is* possible that I just annoy them and they don't feel like answering my trifle questions about what their favorite flavor of ice cream is, but whatever.)

Since I am easily amused, I really enjoy changing the "wallpaper" of my work computer every month. I get to look at something brand new approximately every 30 days, which is fun. I usually find my wallpapers at Smashing magazine. I like theirs because I can include a calendar on screen. This month I chose this one:

(Says: February - because sometimes months are just too long)

I think that March is the month with the best name. For me, March is the turning point of the year. We get to march away from cold, dreary days into days where the bright bursts of green appear. The trees start to bloom and the sun stays out a little longer. The wind still blows and there is still a slight chill to the evening, but we get to march towards long, lazy summer days. There is motivation to get outside and move and take the kind of deep breaths that fill up your entire lungs. There isn't the temptation to sit inside and eat too much or go shopping and spend too much. There is a promise of a little more sunshine every single day. There is Spring Break and Lent and chirping birds and crossing names of a bracket I filled out just so that I could stay engaged in the marathon of basketball watching. March means that the semester is about halfway through. It is proof to the little orphan Annie inside of us all that the sun will indeed come out tomorrow. I don't know about y'all, but I'm so ready to March forward.

February, here is your notice.

the answer is D

Reasons I could never be Gil Grissom:

A.) I don't like bugs.
B.) I don't have my own wikipedia page.
C.) I am not a fictional character.
D.) All of the above.

(photo)

I miss Gil Grissom. Lawrence Fishburn (sp?) just isn't fit to handle the crimes that happen in Las Vegas.

(But I do love Nick Stokes. Did you know he is from Belton, just a mere 45 minutes from Austin? His sister went through our teacher certification program.)

That's all for now.

not a worry in the world

I'm going to pretend I'm still in high school as I answer these questions....

1. I am doing everything possible to pad my resume. I'm president of as many clubs as I can be, I'm in Youth Group, I make straight As.... and I'm a cheerleader. So, like - duh! Why wouldn't I get scholarships?

2. The bravest thing I've ever done was try out for cheerleading. Oh, and stand on my tippy-toes to hang those giant posters in the gym before pep rallies.

3. I feel prettiest when ugh. If only I weren't so fat. I'm like, so giant. My cheerleading skirt barely even fits. Although that mini-skirt and crop top that I got at Wet Seal does look pretty cute on me.

4. Something that keeps me awake at night is wondering what those dreamy boys are doing. Where is the next party going to be? What dress will I wear to the next dance? Should I try to make sure it is one that I will cringe at when I'm in my 30's and look back at pictures? Will I win the title of FHA Sweetheart?
5. My favorite meal in the entire world is a Mrs. Baird's fried cherry pie - what I eat every day for lunch.

6. The way to my heart is oh, high school boys, you don't stand a chance. I prefer college men. Although MD 20/20 does make you a little cuter.*

7. I would like to hurry up and graduate so that I can go to college. I'm so over high school.


*If I am ever blessed with a child of my own, it is quite likely that he/she will never be allowed to leave the house. Like, ever.

U R Sweet

I am not ashamed of the fact that I love conversation hearts. I have eaten two bags in 12 days. Whats it to ya?

The last bag was a giant resealable bag of "sparkly" conversation hearts from Target. These are a little more "tart" than the regular hearts and quite tasty. As I eat them, I like to see what they say. This year, I was caught off guard by this one:

And then I kept eating and figured it out:

Do you know how many hipsters it takes to change a light bulb?

Oh. (insert the "you poor thing" smirk.)

You don't know? I've known about that for several years.

Let me just go all hipster on you and remind you that I read each of the Twilight books as soon as it came out. I was in a teacher book club and the librarian held them for me as soon as they arrived. One night I stayed up until 4am to finish one of the books and then I was pretty much worthless the next day at school. I probably made my kids watch a video or something. (But at least I knew what happened between Bella and Edward and Jacob.)

Anyway, I love Edward Cullen just as much as the next thirty-something lady, but keep your vampire messages off my conversation hearts. Please and thanks.

at ease

At first glance, you'll think I love him because his green eyes sparkle in the sunlight and his eyelashes have the perfect hint of curl. You may think it is his strong jawline and broad shoulders, or even that I like his height. You may wonder if I'm just smitten with his skin that stays tan year-round and never wrinkles. Or perhaps the fact that his playing baseball in college and competing in triathlons as an adult contributed to pretty much the best set of legs you've ever seen on a man. But those are the obvious things. And while I certainly don't mind any of the above, those aren't the reasons I love him.

I love that he is 100% comfortable in his own skin.

He exudes confidence and with-it-ness and makes me feel at ease. He feels like home.

He is exactly who he says he is - and doesn't apologize for it.

I am amazed that he compromises his "holiday hesitations" to celebrate with me and my family - just because he knows how important it is to me.

I love that "you can take a boy out of the streets but you can't take the street out of the boy." What once would embarrass me now reminds me that sometimes I need to just get over myself.

I love that even though he is a germophobe, he still sits next to me when I have a runny nose.

I love that he reads the Love Dare devotional with me every night.

I love that after I threw a fit about the fact that he wouldn't dance with me at the wedding, he ignored my pouting, asked me to dance and continued to wear a hole in the dancefloor. (to my credit, I quit pouting and said yes.)

(photo courtesy of Sarah)

He knows the drycleaner. And the post office lady. And the mailman helped him plant the vegetable garden. He doesn't treat them like "the help," he makes an effort to know them and to talk to them. And of course he is on a first name basis with every bartender in a 5 mile radius. (In fact, one of our favorites had to *ahem* spend a few days "away" due to some legal trouble... he wrote Larry a note stating that having him as a friend since he has been in Austin has contributed to the best 10 months OF HIS LIFE.)

I love feeling confident that no matter what I do or what I say, he is going to support me. And even if he WAS the type of knucklehead that went out for "guys nights," I wouldn't worry about his faithfulness.

I love knowing that we make each other better people by being together.

I've kissed my share of frogs.

And I never, ever imagined that I would someday find my prince. But I did. Nothing says it better than Phil 1:3 - "I thank my God whenever I think of you."

Happy (early) St. Valentine's Day to the Magical White Guy. You sure did work a spell over on me.

left ovary spaghetti

You've probably seen these. But if I don't post this as a blog, then I've got nuthin'. (Unless you want to hear about grad school. And you don't. So read these auto corrected messages and laugh.)

not a lot going on today

1. If I could only read one magazine publication for the rest of eternity, I would choose Real Simple. Everyone should already know how I feel about new uses for old things.

2. If I were to run my own magazine it would be ummmm… I probably would not run a magazine. Too many inserts. But if somebody told me, “I will give you one miiiilllllion dollars to run a magazine,” I would probably run something that involves recipes, pictures of cakes, baby dachshunds and fashion on a budget.

3. I buy my magazines (at the grocery check stand or via subscription) via both. Real Simple, Glamour and Austin Monthly come via subscription. (I don’t even subscribe to Glamour anymore but it just keeps coming.) Rachael Ray, Oprah, In Touch and Martha Stewart are occasional purchases at the check-out. I realized I was old when I started preferring Redbook to Cosmo. Does anyone else realize that Cosmo runs the same articles over and over that basically boil down to “being a better lover in 10 easy positions” and “look hot in your jeans?”

4. I prefer my magazines (in print or online) in print. No question. There is nothing better than a lazy day and a magazine. I like to dog-ear the pages that I want to go back to. I hardly ever go back to them. Except for the page that I just recently dog-eared in Health that had a blow-dryer that I want. (for only $25!!!)

5. The number of magazines I buy each month is varied. Some months (like November and December), it is probably like 5. Most months is more like 0 or 1. (If you’re asking how many I buy from the check-out.)

6. My favorite magazine genre is (lifestyle, gossip, home, etc...) an assortment of everything. Kind of like Real Simple. It is pretty much the best magazine ever.

7. The magazines I read regularly are alrighty… this is getting a bit repetitive. Instead of answering this question, I will tell you that I had a “snow day” today. Everything was closed – schools, businesses, everything. I got a text from my job at 5:20am that told me we were closed. (sweeeeeeeet!) We barely got any snow, but it isn’t the snow that shuts things down, it is the ice. (And no. I really don’t care how much colder it gets up north and how wussy we all are. If we wanted to live somewhere that stayed cold 6 months a year, we would, thankyouverymuch.) Here are a couple of the backyard:

Here is Stanford E. Moore’s beautiful picture of snow in Austin:

And last but not least, since it hasn’t been over freezing in 72 hours, here is weenie in her sweater (she actually really likes it, I swear!):

And here is weenie in her sweater after she decided that the couch was too cold for her bare belly and she needed to hop onto the throw pillows: