Family Ties

Quotes from my little sister:

"I want to go to Australia so bad."
"I think I'm nocturnal."
"I want a white car."
"I try not be 'one of those girls'."
"I love giraffes."
"I wish I were older."
"I love [to talk, to act, people, God, etc]."

And that was only within the last three days. When did she become me?

Well, if she is turning into me, at least I know she's having fun.

Scratch that, she also said "I'm playing lacrosse this year," which is close enough to working out that I can rest easy knowing we are not exactly the same.



Speaking of siblings...

BNIB and Who-leeee got ENGAGED!

Man my family just keeps getting prettier and prettier every day. 

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Happy Turkey Day!

I am thankful for the best dog- ever.

And Bob Evans, whose microwavable side dishes made for one yummy Thanksgiving Dinner.

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I Am Not On Strike

So this is the story all about how my life got flipped, turned upside down and I'd like to take a minute just sit right there and I'll tell you how our jeep went into disrepair.

This is my story:

Twas one o'clock in the morning, when all through the house,

not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

I was out, hanging with friends,

while Husband at home laid down for bed,

When out on the road, there rose such a clatter,

He sprung from his bed to see what was the matter.

Away to the windows he flew like a flash,

tore open the door to see a great crash!
(too early for Christmas?)

Our Jeep did not fair well. Now, I'm not sure exactly what happened- but this is my Van Gogh rendering of what went down:

Now, you would think since they were on the other side of the road and just suddenly turned to hit our car that they were drunk- but they weren't. I have many other theories as to what was going on when this happened, but they would be inappropriate to mention on this blog. Wink. Wink. (wow, I have not said that since middle school- shout out to St.Eds!)

They even left behind this pretty souvenir for us...

Of course, after seeing the damage, I needed a rental car and while I was PROMISED a mid-size SUV, I got stuck with an actual car.

Ahhhhhhhh..... me in an actual car? It was almost unbearable to think of. But I trudged on and took advantage of the power windows like they were going out of style. Sure, it's October (now November), but I only had a limited amount of time to soak up my chance at blasting loud music while the wind blew through my hair. That is, until we received some news..... our Jeep was unfixable.

UNFIXABLE!

But more on that later, as many more things were going down during the two weeks I was cruisin' in the borrowed bumper car. 

The time had finally come for the First-Ever Field Ops Potluck Lunch. It was intense as my department had been ragging on me for a month now about my seemingly non-existent cooking skills (self proclaimed of course, but constantly reminded of by my coworkers). Needless to say, I knew I would have to bring out the big guns- which means only one thing to me- Sausage Wontons.

Because my fellow field ops people were convinced I was actually going to show up with a bag of pizza rolls (which they would of probably scarfed down anyway), I was forced to document my entire cooking process should they question if I actually cooked them myself or not.

Now I don't want to say that I completely broke my reputation for being undomesticated.... Ma would be so proud. But I definitely made some strong strides in the right direction. Let's just say, if you want to impress someone, cook these bad boys.

Sausage Wontons

1 pkg dry Ranch dressing
8 oz. sour cream
8 oz. cream cheese @ room temperature
8 oz. sharp shredded cheddar cheese
1 lb. Hot sausage, cooked and drained (like cooking ground hamburger)
1 pkg of Nasoya Wonton wrappers (found in the produce department)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Mix the Ranch dressing, sour cream & cream cheese with a mixer. Fold in the cheddar cheese and sausage.

Put a wonton wrapper in mini muffin tin. Fill with the mixture above. Bake for about 10-12 minutes until heated and the wonton wrappers are golden brown at the tips.

Make approximately 55 wontons.

Note: I think there are only about 48 wrappers in the package

Cutest picture ever of Melissakurrs Bettsie at the Potluck!

Dang.... this blogging thing is hard- I am worn out.

MUST.
KEEP.
GOING.
OR PEOPLE WILL WRITE ME MEAN EMAILS.

Okay, what is next?

Work has been busy:

Picture to deceive you in thinking I have been really busy
at work and thus not blogging, but really I just like this picture. 

Which I have been balancing out with my mad Trivia obsession, Veronica Mars, and Reading:

TRIVIA!

  

Linchpin for work pleasure, Dashwood Sisters for my sister (finally!),
and God's Debris to bring me back to High School (Dusty Smith)

Veronica Mars- only 3 seasons but I loved every minute of it.
And I won't rest until I find an emerald green leather jacket of my own.

I am so tired. But if I don't finish this blog post soon, I may never finish it. 

Oooooo I almost forgot. Betts' mother hosted a bunch of us work people over at her house one day for the Betts' Bestt Korean Lunch! 

It was soooooooo tasty. I mean, REALLY tasty. This is her second time doing it- and to quote Melissakurrs from the last time we did it "My Mom cooked everything white people like." And she was right because I am white and I liked it. A lot. If you can't tell- I am sucking up so that maybe she will one day host another one.

One of the most monumental things we did recently was host four people from the Clarksville Crew in our tiny apartment so we could all make our way into the big D.C. to experience the once-in-a-lifetime Colbert/Stewart Rally on the Mall!

Jon Michael, Ashton, Charles, and Will all made the trip up. And while we were expecting HUGE numbers- we weren't exactly prepared for the entire metro system being so backed up that we would have to wait in line for hours if we ever wanted a spot. Luckily! though we ran into one of our friends (and later a lot more- I don't know that many people and I think I saw everyone I knew outside of work that day) and she was taking the bus. We were one of the lucky few who caught on to this public transportation thing called buses and were able to get in line before it became the crazy popular thing to do.

So how did we pass the time while we waited? Starbucks and Will teaching me the history of Starbucks. Videotaping the wait on JM's camera, and generally watching Charles make funny faces anytime a camera came within snapping distance. 

The crowds were HUGE... so crowd weaving was a must. I consider myself quit the crowd weaver (Dancing in the District days were good practice) but Charles was the only one who made it behind enemy lines with me. There was one point when everyone around us stopped to watch a guy trying to climb a tree- people were climbing trees, sitting on top of porter potties and stop lights just to get a better view- and we took it as our chance to do some mad-dashes through the crowd.

Needless to say, it ended up being me, Charles, and two cell phones with no service. 

I had fun either way. Charles' height advantage allowed him to read every sign in the crowd- and boy did people have signs. Some people (who obviously didn't get the point of the rally) had serious signs, and other people (who obviously did get the point of the rally) had some of the funniest and most outrageous stuff. That, paired with it being Halloween weekend (costumes encouraged) made for a very interesting outing. 

Thanks for getting us out of the house Clarksville Crew!!

To round out this blog post- I went out with friends last weekend and wake up on the last day I have our rental car and Kara says the following fatal words:

"What happened to your car?" - Kara

"Ha. Ha. That's not funny Kara. Don't even joke about that." -Me

"No- I'm not kidding, right there in your grille." - Kara

Only me. Only me.

Of course, on the way to drop Husband off at the airport so he could drive back our new vehicle from Tennessee, a concrete construction rod or whatever it is, flew into my car. I, of course, just assumed I had run over something on the road at the time it happened and had no idea that really another vehicle had kicked up what could of been a potentially horrible situation had it been an inch higher and into my windshield. 

Kudos to the Rental Car guy at Enterprise- who was possibly the nicest guy ever about it. Then again, we shall see just how nice I think they are after I receive the bill. 

But in better news, Husband went and picked up my gangsta! new vehicle in Tennessee and drove it allllllll the way back up here. Dr. PaPa and Husband's dad FIL (or Sam) got us a great deal on the vehicle and really took care of us... so happy!

I would of taken some better pictures, but it gets so dark so early now, I haven't had a good chance to yet. And so begins the fall back daylight-savings depression I go through every year. 

I intended for that to be my last tid-bit of information, but I've been missing Witty so much lately I decided I really need some Mexican food (!!) and a funny movie to help me out. Husband and I got to the theater a little early after grabbing some grub, and our Margarita-induced confidence led us to believe we could be triumphant at one of the biggest money-making scams known to kids everywhere: The Claw Machine. 

But it was no match for ANIBSHO and Husband! Because we dominated:

Count them- not one, but two! wierdly shaped dinosaur things... It was all about the journey, not the prize. 

The best part was that as we were walking out of the theater after the movie, the cutest little seven year old  girl was all googly-eyed over the stuffed animals in the machine and mumbling under her breath as she pointed at them through the glass, "look how cute they are... they're so cute."

And in come Husband and I handing one out to her as she turns around to look at her mother- "You want one?"

Now, I love kids. And I have seen some pretty cute kid moments in my lifetime (after all, my little sister Jessie was basically the cutest little kid ever)- but the bug-eyed look this girl gave us made me feel like a guardian angel or like I was in a scene from a movie like Miracle on 34th Street. She just stood there staring at us in silence with the most adorable wide-eyed look of disbelief ever. 

We repeated our offer- "Would you like one? I have two."

"Really?"

"MmmHmmm. Really."

Shakes head yes. 

"It's all yours." We hand it off to her and start to walk away. 

"THANK YOU!" She jumps up and down waving it in the air as we smile and walk out the theater doors. "THANK YOU SO SO MUCH!"

Life is good.

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The Cozy Classifieds

Got the blog itch but don't have anything to blog about, so I show you pre-apartment switch stuff.

When we were trying to sell our couches and Husband's desk (one week out from moving day), I made these for the NRA Bulletin Board (a giant shard email inbox that works as a company classifieds section). I got a lot of nice emails from people around the building, mostly from people I know but thought it was really cool when people I didn't know wrote me too. Unfortunately (and not unfortunately), I got more compliments on my humorous posting than actual offers. It was worth it though!

But I hope I don't need to post on there again because I'm not sure I can live up to the standard I've set for my bulletin posts, ha ha. 

Love people who comment. Love people who don't. Just love people. 

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Flour Power

My friend mbetts brings delicioso fruit everyday in her lunch. She CLAIMS they taste so much better because her over-achiever of a madre rolls all the fruit in flour and then washes it off and this process gets rid of a lot of the pesticide residue and dirty nastiness of the grocery store.  I bought some grapes tonight and they were looking extra yucky, so I decided to test out Madre Betts' technique, and it got messy.

I am obviously not an experienced fruit flour-er, and it didn't help when Husband threw flour in my face.

 

         

It was really gooey. Way to kick me while I am down Husband.

I look happy, but I was actually saying, "I'm going to kill you."

Like my new Florida gear too? It was only right that I was wearing it while testing out mbett's technique, seeing as she is the future wife of Tim Tebow. 

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Fake Rings and Fake Husbands

Rumors are surfacing again. The buzz is recirculating. The slanderous news is rampant... Husband doesn't actually exist.

I have tried to deny this rumor for sometime, but this calls for drastic measures. Thankfully, Husband just happened to be trying on some new garb tonight and I caught some pictures of him in action. 

And yes, I suppose you could always just claim that I'm not really married and I just hire this guy to pose as "Husband"- or that he is actually Matlock's babysitter- or that I have photoshop-ed him into my pictures. But then you would just be running the rumor mill again- tis tis. But seriously, this Husband gig is really starting to clean out my pocket book. 

 

Speaking of Husband, remember when I blogged about one of the diamonds falling out of my engagement ring? Well, I had just been wearing my wedding ring lately- which is I actually prefer because I'm not a big jewelery person (or I am fake-married), but on Sunday I looked down and shockingly! a diamond had fallen out of the wedding band as well.

What the heck?! I exclaimed, in a less than PG tone. (Or would it actually be a more-than PG tone? Please comment so my head can stop reeling through these mind-boggling (or bloggling, ha ha) questions).

Today, a friend of mine (who just started a blog of her own, and I love love her for it!), informed me that I am supposed to get the throngs, or tongs, or thongs, on the diamonds tightened frequently to avoid that from happening. Ooops, my bad.

Anywho- since the jeweler that the aforementioned "Husband" got my rings from doesn't have a location up here, we are pondering our options as to when we can finally get it fixed. In the meantime, the girls from work and I set out on a fake-bling purchasecapade during our lunch today to cover that precious little ring finger of mine. You know, because naturally without one I have people knocking down my door and approaching me everywhere I go- right?

Nobody ever believes me when I say that for some reason. Regardless, my finger felt naked and I hate answering questions about not wearing my wedding ring all the time- so the girls and I picked out some new frosting to hold me over.

It came in a pack of two- so in case I lose one, or a fake diamond falls out of this one- I've got a backup!

I was proposed to twice today. Kara proposed to me in the mall- us being secret lovers and all, it was nice to finally get our relationship out in the open. Really open- since there were a few kiosk and passerby peeps who took it a little more serious than we thought they would. Our new engagement made it really awkward later when Husband also re-proposed to me. Been there, done that. Love it every time it happens. People should get engaged all the time- it's fun.

Husband is real. Really made-up. Mwhahahaha.

Got to go now, I have bills to pay, fake Husband photo shoots to mortgage, you know- normal Tuesday night activities.

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Using Google Maps to Find Google

Some days, you have nothing to blog about. Other days, you visit Google in DC for the kick-off seminar to Advertising Week D.C.!

Okay, the picture doesn't show it but we were at the Google offices in D.C. yesterday. Pretty cool place. Unfortunately, the seminar (not technically given by Google) wasn't so spectacular. For an advertising seminar I was expecting the information to be a little more... interesting. I mean, aren't advertisers essentially communicators? Fun communicators?

Not the best seminar ever- the powerpoint could of used some AdPower, I definitely didn't learn 10 things I didn't know about online marketing, and the speakers didn't really get a chance to speak on the cooler marketing endeavors. I know Facebook and Twitter are rapidly-growing social networking sites (who doesn't?), but what sites are growing that I don't know about? I know online advertising is constantly evolving, but where is it going? I know you can use online advertising to better track the effectiveness of reaching your audience, what are innovative ways companies are using it to attract brand new audiences?

Tell me Ad Week D.C.! Tell me!

It seemed like the panel had all the tools up their sleeves to show us, but they seemed more business-minded rather than ad-focused. Anywho, I went home yesterday and read my favorite marketing blogs and felt renewed.

I have to go now. Glee is on. And we basically cancelled Trivia Nights at work because of it.

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Movin' On Up!

Oh, hello blog? I completely forgot you were here.

Here's what's uP: I had a LONG blog post ready to go for you, but it appears that (a) I don't have a video editor on my computer that I can cut down the video on the new trick we taught Matlock and (b) I was super lazy about downloading my pictures from my phone to my computer, so now the entire post seems kind of outdated. But here's is the jist of what's gone down so far:

Husband is Home! [But really though] Matlock is home!!

School has started back for Husband, and I have been lazy with blogging because work has been busy and... we moved!

To a basement apartment right down the street in the same neighborhood we (and by we I mean Husband) walk Matlock in! It's cheaper, has a fenced in yard for Matlock, a patio area for us, and there is always a parking spot close to our door.

I just finally got the place presentable enough to take pictures of it, and I am super in love with living here. It feels so much more like a home than our old apartment did.

Would you like to see some pics of our new digs?

I tried to get pictures from every which way so you could actually get a feel for the apartment. This is why I haven't called you back yet Mom, because I know you are only calling me to hound me about not blogging about the apartment yet- ha ha.

Bedroom

Our new King Size bed from Walmart. It's a tempurpedic-type material,
and it doesn't require box springs. It is fabulous... (and I got to get new bedding).

From the side. 

The Bedroom door, storing our sweaters behind it.

From the other side! Like my closet? I love it!

The $20 desk from IKEA that I made into a dressing table.

Closet again. Extra full.

The view from the bed. Dressers are also filled. Does anyone know how to fix a sagging drawer? All of ours are, and I know how to do it, it is just my fear of screwing them up completely that keeps me at bay.

And last, but not least, the random poll at the entrance of the bedroom.
It's a support beam people!

Kitchen

Isn't it pretty? We started running out of places to put our books...

Love it!

View from the Living Room.

View from the kitchen sink.

Mom will love this. There is no pantry, so to save on a whole shelf of space, I bought these magnet spice containers at World Market that I saw with my mother when I was in high school (that was 10 years ago, I know, I feel like it was just yesterday too). They go on your fridge typically. I love the way they look, and they saved me primo space.

The dining room, which sadly plays host to Husband's golf bag. Drives me nuts.

Laundry Nook & Bathroom

Laundry nook off the kitchen. 

Turn left off the Laundry Nook and you come to the bathroom. Exciting, isn't it?
The tub is super deep for those long luxurious baths I take. Except for the long and luxurious part.

Bathroom Part II. 

Living Room

New couch! It folds down into a twin size bed and the backs work like
beach chairs so you can recline them as far back as you want them. 

View from the front door. See all that junk in the corner,
can't decide what to do with it... I love the brick though. 

View from the other corner. Front door to the right.

Matlock loves his nooks. Two currently in the living room, so spoiled. 

And last, but not least. One of our favorite parts is the personal patio outside...

The only thing really missing from this apartment was a random closet to put stuff in. We had to get really creative with storing things, and 90% of our stuff is under the bed right now.

Moving has also reminded me how much books are overrunning our apartment... that's why when I made a recent trip to the bookstore to pick up a few books, I decided to buy... a nook! So it isn't as cheap as going to the library, but I started adding up how much I was going to end up spending on books and noticed for a lower price I could buy a nook and buy the books I wanted. Plus, they only really had them in hardback- and I hate hardback so I am always waiting for the paperback versions to come out before I start reading them. The nook nips that in the butt.

I also notice I read faster and keep up with my reading more- I think it's because I am focused on WHAT I am reading and not how long it is going to take me to finish the dang thing. Maybe I am just intimidated by large stacks of paper...

Oh and our friend at work quit to go travel around the world or something. We bought lotto tickets to celebrate and he started a blog to keep everyone update on his travels.

Clearly, we were not lucky lotto winners that day.

And, my friend Kara (Car-uh) who I mention frequently on this blog also started her own blog. All these new blogs are making me extremely happy. 

Okay, there is a lot more to blog about, but I think I have done my part for the day. Back to work!

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