lunchtime shopping

i went shopping today during lunch with two of my favorite work buddies. gossip was discussed. new shoes were purchased. fun was had by all!

surprise dates, or, they followed us!

alan and i take each other on surprise dates once a month.

the rules are as follows: when it is my turn to take my hubby on a date, i have to plan it all by myself with no help from alan. i can spend up to $40 (and no more!) on my date. all i can tell him is when the date will be and what kind of clothes to wear, and he finds out the rest when we get there. it makes for some creative dates, and a nice change from our normal routine of sitting on the couch (which i love! don't get me wrong).

yesterday it was my turn to take alan on a date, and i took him to the arboretum for dallas blooms. he had never been there before (!), which i think is both ridiculous and wrong. and so of course i had to remedy that particular situation.

the weather was nice - a little chilly and not very sunny, but perfect for all of the walking around that we did. the flowers were beautiful, of course. we saw butterflies and squirrels and like four brides and one quinceanera having portraits done. the best part? the US DUCKS FOLLOWED US THERE!!! ha!

i don't know what they're called...

but i want to kiss the man (woman?) who invented those rubber thingies you use to open jars when they stick. those things are great.

it's friday

...and i couldn't be happier! it's been a long and crazy week for me and i don't even really know why, but i am just glad that today is friday and i get to hang out with my honey tonight! tomorrow will be a busy day filled with people i love, and sunday will hopefully be spent relaxing and getting a few chores done. thirty-two minutes left in the work week!

i hope you have a fabulous weekend!

germany

good things from germany:

wind turbines and solar power (germany is the world's leading producer)

pretty people (heidi klum, claudia schiffer)

cars (bmw, mercedes benz, vw, audi, porsche)

activewear (adidas)

geniuses (albert einstein, johannes gutenberg, hans geiger)

musical geniuses (beethoven, brahms, bach, wagner)

art and architecture (albrecht durer, max ernst, mies van der rohe)

fairy tales (the brothers grimm)

beer (hello, oktoberfest!)

pretty places (alps, castles, roman ruins)

two of my very favorite friends (tina, tanja)

also: german chocolate cake and german shepherds (not actually german)

happy birthday tina!

art toys

i am so very excited because i finally finally finally got adobe illustrator and photoshop on my computer at home! now i can do all my dorky art things from home too! all i need is that stupid wacom tablet...

mommy music

i remember rolling my eyes almost every second of every minute that i was in the car with my mom, who never ever (insert dramatic teenage attitude here) let me listen to the radio station i liked. instead, she forced me to listen to oldies and classic rock.

...which is now pretty much all i listen to on the radio.

carolyn music

carolyn has been my best friend and music guru since i was twelve years old. it was carolyn who introduced me to the musical greatness of barenaked ladies, jack johnson, and joni mitchell, and while she has no doubt moved on to other [more hip and less mainstream] musicians, i cannot. every time i listen to a barenaked ladies song i am reminded of the crazy adolescent awesomeness that defined our friendship - the slumber parties, concerts, shopping trips, chopstix, uncontrollable laughter, snick and bluebell ice cream, church trips, crushes, nail polish, x-files obsession, dancing, beads, drama tournaments, football games, hours and hours at starbucks, movies, birthday parties, smoothie king, all kinds of random phases, and everything else. of course i love all kinds of music, but there will always be a very special place in my heart for carolyn music.

happy birthday, carolyn!

wedding crazies

i have this crazy picture in my office of me and alan hugging amanda (one of my very best friends ever) at her wedding. alan is kissing amanda's forehead and holding my shoes (which were both insanely cute and ridiculously uncomfortable), and amanda and i are smiling our ginormous happy smiles...

that whole day was so amazing, and the picture just reminds me so much of how crazy that time in our lives really was, only about a year ago. amanda and george got married three weeks before alan and i did. she was my matron of honor, and i was her maid of honor, and so we went through this absolutely obsessive-compulsive period of nonstop wedding planning hysteria together, which i'm sure made us look like complete lunatics to anyone and everyone else we knew or met along the way. not to mention i made our invitations and our dresses!

it was pure madness, and i don't think either of us realized how exhausting the whole process really was, but i loved it, and i would not change one moment or trade the experience for anything else in the world. what an amazing life this has been - when the girl i met in third grade girl scouts and who stole my best friend in fifth grade (yes i still give her a hard time about that!) grew up to be my matron of honor, and i got to be such a huge part of her wedding too.

happy anniversary, amanda and george!

God's house

"the best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy,

amidst the simple beauty of nature."

- anne frank

i hope that you find God wherever and whenever you need Him.

happy easter!

the new tv

so, as i have mentioned before, my husband is not capable of making a purchase over the amount of, say, five dollars without "sleeping on it" for roughly 6 months. and this is why, until just a couple of weeks ago, we had been "shopping" for a tv since september. we knew exactly what we wanted. we just couldn't take the plunge and buy the stupid thing. and by "we" i mean alan, of course.

oh, the sleepless nights. the back-and-forth. the endless checking of websites.

well, ladies and gentlemen, i am happy to report that the television has been purchased. it is in our apartment. it looks quite lovely on our tv stand. it is one of the greenest televisions out there. and the hd-ness is amazing, i must say, especially during lost (or anything on the discovery channel!). although the best part may be that we can stop thinking about the stupid tv!!!

goooood friday

today is a day to...

not go to work!

eat lots of yummy fruit

clean my apartment

do my makeup by natural light, for no one in particular

play with my kitty

get bitten to pieces by my kitty!

see a pretty cardinal perched on a branch right outside my window

enjoy the sunshine and the perfect weather

shop shop shop (with no boys around to distract me!)

catch up on my "me" time

catch up on shows i missed

blog blog blog

drink a second cup of coffee

savor the moment

count my blessings

celebrate the first day of spring!

happy good friday!

"us" ducks

we have ducks.

they live in the lake behind our apartment...or i guess they live around the lake. they swim. they quack. sometimes they bask in the sun. most of them are small black ducks with white-ish yellow beaks who dive down deep into the water (which is quite entertaining to watch), but there are two mallards, a male and a female, whom we have named alan and olivia.

they are the "us" ducks.

five years

today marks the fifth anniversary of the war in iraq.

everyone has their own opinion about it, including me, but i am always thinking of the men and women who are over there fighting, the men and women who have not come home, the men and women who never will come home, and the men and women who, thankfully, have.

friends' friends

one of my friends had a party this weekend and i got to meet all kinds of new and fabulous people! i love meeting my friends' friends... it's not like meeting a stranger and having to figure out if they are fun and nice or crazy and mean -- they've already been pre-approved and are therefore fantastic human beings (and really only half-strangers).

kitchen toys

most people who love kitchen toys as much me most likely cook more often than i do. oh well. i'll learn one of these days.

anyway, a few months ago we [finally] spent all of the rest of our wedding-gift-related-gift-cards to buy the most beautiful kitchenaid stand mixer ever. it really is pretty. and somehow owning it makes me feel like a real grownup... even if i have yet to mix anything with it. alan has used it a couple of times so i think that counts maybe.

happy st. patrick's day!

spreadsheets

i'm sure it's just the ridiculous organizational junkie in me, and probably a little bit of the closet math nerd too, but man i love a good spreadsheet.

i make spreadsheets for everything i possibly can. excel spreadsheets helped me plan and pay for my wedding, not to mention organize our guest list and addresses. i used a spreadsheet to create a budget that allowed us to pay off our credit card debt and start saving for the future. i use one every year to keep track of our christmas gift list and budget - i start christmas shopping in august and we're usually mostly done by the end of november. i have a spreadsheet that i use to record how much we've saved at costco since we joined a couple months ago. i don't know why.

spreadsheets are just the best thing ever.

air freshener

yuck!!! canned meat is the grossest smell ever invented! alan made chicken salad and the smell has taken over the entire apartment and it has also taken up permanent residence in my nostrils! get it out! blech!!!
ahem. it's times like these when i am thankful for my spray air freshener. (p.s. please use all-natural plant-based air fresheners if you can -- many studies have linked household cleaners and sprays with increased exposure to toxic chemicals! bad for you, your family, and your pets!)

eleven months

eleven months of...

bear hugs

best kisses

tickling

thumb wars

laughter

learning

mario kart

yoga

sushi

chocolate

being obsessed with the cat

recycling

playing with brand new kitchen toys

dancing to the "las vegas" theme song

budgeting

saving

cooking

teamwork

cuddling

dreaming

food phases

emails at work

fast-forwarding through commercials

cleaning

real smiles

netflix

sunday morning walks

thrice-weekly trips to target

talking in our crazy language

making coffee and lunches

being dorks

looking at photographs

not planning a wedding

remembering to say "wife" and "husband"

wearing rings

holding hands

tolerance, acceptance, and appreciation

"why not let people differ about their answers to the great mysteries of the universe? let each seek one's own way to the highest, to one's own sense of supreme loyalty in life, one's ideal of life. let each philosophy, each world-view bring forth its truth and beauty to a larger perspective, that people may grow in vision, stature and dedication."

- algernon black

clean feet

this weekend i went with my friend to get an ion cleanse foot bath at a local health food store... basically you go and sit with your feet in a tub of water and they pump ions into the water, and all kinds of nasty toxins that used to be hanging out in your body are drawn out through your skin by osmosis. the water turns yucky colors based on your body's issues, whether you have joint problems or liver problems or a bunch of heavy metals inside you. it's a little bit traumatizing to see all of the grossness that comes out of your body, and it's scary to think about how many horrible toxins we are all exposed to on a daily basis, too. but at least it's comforting to know that some of those toxins are out of my body now!

smell memory #3652: pitkin

when i opened the coffee canister this morning, the smell made me think of pitkin, a tiny town in the mountains of colorado where alan's family has spent their summers since alan was a little boy. i have been lucky enough to go there with him the past two summers. the days there get hot, but the mountain mornings are always cold, and we spend them on the porch in our pjs with warm mugs of coffee. the dogs play in the yard and bark at people walking by. neighbors and friends walk in without knocking and help themselves to a mug of their own (you don't need to tell them where they're kept -- they already know). life there is simple and easy, and it's set against the most beautiful backdrop you could ever imagine.

homecoming

my honey is coming home today!!! he left friday morning to go skiing in taos with his dad and his brother, and i have missed him terribly. i could not be more excited about the fact that he is on his way home right now! it is pathetic, i know, but i am no good at being apart from him for anything more than an eight hour work day. it will be so nice to have him home...

slumber parties

last night i went to a slumber party. it was fabulous -- just me, a few of my best friends, and a few of their best friends. also included were wine, mojitos, pizza, candy, cupcakes... and sexy scrabble.

that's right. we made scrabble sexy.

signs of spring

i took a walk today (because i think you have to when the day is this beautiful). the snow has melted, the sun is shining, and it's just cold enough that you probably need a sweatshirt. little birdies are chirping, and i saw a tiny turtle on a log in the lake. the sun came up early this morning, and daylight savings happens tonight, which means it's officially spring. hooray!

boy handwriting

i just looked at my grocery list and it made me giggle. is there anything sillier or cuter than boy handwriting? how is it that now matter how old a boy may be, no matter his level of depth or maturity, his handwriting never develops beyond the style which he achieved in sixth grade? love it.

snow days

saturday, march 1, 2008: sunny and 70 degrees.

monday, march 3, 2008: evening snow.

thursday, march 6, 2008: morning snow. lots of snow! so much snow that schools and universities are closed and i got to come home early from work!!! what is happening?!?

i hope you are safe and warm wherever you are... as for me, i'm going to get back on the couch with my library book and a cup of hot cocoa!

the countdown continues

36 days until alan and i go on our anniversary-moon cruise!!! i'm so excited! we're going on a four-night cruise (a short one, because it's alan's first cruise!) to celebrate our first wedding anniversary and it can't come soon enough! we haven't had a vacation since july -- and we haven't gone on a just-us vacation since our honeymoon -- and i'm starting to get a little restless! it's so hard to believe that we've been married for almost a year. it seems like it was just last week! anyway, i'm definitely looking forward to celebrating the end of our newlywed-ness with the bestest hubby ever invented on a romantical cruise...

tan in a can

about 5 months ago, i made the decision that i was going to stop doing things that are bad for me. this meant, among other things, that i was going to end my long-term love affair with the tanning bed.

in case you live under a rock, here are some facts from wikipedia:
-ultraviolet (uv) radiation is the most prominent and universal cancer-causing agent in our environment.
-the us department of health and human services, public health service, national toxicology program report on carcinogens states that uv solar radiation, and use of sun lamps and sun beds are "known to be a human carcinogen."
-women who visit a tanning parlor at least once a month are 55% more likely to later develop melanoma than women who don't artificially suntan.
-exposure to uv radiation has a detrimental effect on the immune system.
-excessive exposure to uva radiation will cause premature aging, including wrinkles, sunspots, and loss of skin elasticity.

oooh, sign me up.

most people know all of these scary tanning bed facts, and yet they are still willing to risk cancer and leather-facedness in order to be orange. i should know, i was one of them for a very long time.

let me tell you how terrified i was of giving up my tanning membership. the thought of being pale was unbearable, and i had never tried self-tanning lotions before, because i just knew that they would be streaky and fake. but i found one i like, and it's not as flawless as a uv tan but it will definitely do. i am happy and proud to say that i am no longer paying someone to give me wrinkles and cancer. and i just left a head-to-toe checkup at the dermatologist with a clean bill of dermatological health.

for more information on skin cancer and tanning, go to http://www.skincancer.org/tanning/

moving day

alan and i spent saturday helping some of our good friends move into their very first home! alan and the mister have been friends since high school, and i have known the mrs. since my freshman year of college (she is the one who introduced me to my hubby!).

right after they got married, they moved to army-land in the-middle-of-nowhere new york, and he was deployed to iraq... he got to come home for two weeks over the next valentine's day and they made a beautiful baby girl who was born in the winter of 2006. thankfully he came home safe and sound from iraq and finished out his time on the base. the whole family just moved back to texas a few months ago and up until this saturday had been living with her parents.

i'm just so proud and happy for them to be taking this step in their life together. and it's amazing to think that one day that could be alan and me -- moving into a home and starting a family... when did we become grown-ups??? did i sign off on that?

p.s. i had the honor of kicking off the abc's of being a twenty-something on genpink.com!

when we are happy we both get fat

i think we could all take a lesson from my little baby kitty (who is not really very little or a baby either but oh well)... it's the little things that bring pure joy.

yes we can

last night alan and i went to vote in the primary election... we stood in line for an hour and a half on the last day of early voting so that our voices could be heard in this year's history-making election. it is an honor and a privilege to be an american and to vote for someone and something you truly believe in. i know that a lot of people don't take the time to learn about the candidates and the issues and many of them don't even take the time to vote... if you're one of them, i hope you'll change that. this is an incredible time in our nation's history.

if you haven't seen this yet, you're missing out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjXyqcx-mYY