spring is springing...

The weather is in the 70's and the sun is shining.

There are fresh flowers in our apartment. 

My nails and toes are bright pink.

Spring clothes are ALL over the stores begging for me to buy them.

My allergies are suffering.

Saturday night even our time will spring forward.

I can hear the pool calling my name.

It is officially Spring, my people and I could not be more excited!

monday musings...

1. At some point on Saturday my voice left me.  Thank you allergies.  As soon as I walked into work today, the fantastic boss asked how I was and when she heard (the lack of) voice, she immediately asked how she could help me get things done quickly so I could go home.  Blessed.  (And the fantastic reason why I'm able to be sitting here on my sectional at this moment blogging to you... because usually my Mondays are RIDICULOUS.)

2. I'm pretty much in love with the new phone (just in case you've been dying to know).  Granted I still only know about half of what the thing can do... or let's be honest, about a third... but it's pretty much A-MA-ZING.  No buyer's remorse here, ladies and gents.

3. So the sissy talked me into coming down for Houston Rodeo Cookoff and Mardi Gras Barn Bash.  These are two HUGE events that her and her crazy friends go to every year that just happened to fall on the same weekend this year.  After looking at the calendar, I made the mistake of commenting I didn't have anything going on.  BOOM... she told everyone involved I was coming.  It actually worked out fantastically because I've never been able to make Barn Bash before which is the Dad and Mary's big event of the year.. and he just celebrated a pretty big birthday.  Done and done.  From Thursday through Saturday, my life was full of... crazy friends, barbeque, fried oreos, wearing everyone else's clothes even though I had brought my own entire closet, a fancy hotel, eating lunch on the beach in the most fantastic weather ever (SHRIMP poboy at that!), the purple blonde train, my first Mardi Gras King cake, staying in the girls' Mardi Gras decorated apt, being in the Mardi Gras parade, and TONS of laughter and fun.  LOVED it.

4. It's getting pretty close to the end of the Bachelor season.  And I really have no idea who I want to win.  But I definitely have a prediction of who I think WILL win.  Chantal.  Let's get real here... she just screams future bar owner's wife.  And those other 2 don't.  This has been a weird season and I'm just not really sure how I feel about it.  DUH.. I'm super into it.  Monday is our girls night... the roommate and I get Chick-fil-a and head over to our friend's house to watch the drama go down.  And by watch, I mean scream at the TV like they can hear us.  And when we get real stressed, we eat cookies.

(By the way... this picture's outfits equals HOT STINKIN MESS.)

5. Friday the roommate is having surgery.  At 6:30 AM.  Didn't realize it was this early when she asked me to take her.  Hmmm... I predict much coffee will happen that day (courtesy of the person making me arise at that ridiculous hour of course).

6. On my drive this past weekend, I saw with my own eyes that they are now widening Highway 287.  If you're not aware, this is where my car accident occurred almost exactly 2 years ago.  I gave much praise to Jesus when I saw that construction.

7. To tweet or not to tweet?  Now that my excuse of not having internet on my phone is null and void, I can't decide.

8. Shopping for a wedding dress with a friend this weekend.  SO EXCITED.  Talk about an ultimate girls day. 



Now I must go prepare for my evening of Bachelor Brad and highly emotional girls trying to pretend to decide whether or not they should forgo their own rooms for a fantasy suite.  Hot darn... it's going to be a good night!

i love you valentine's day...

It's no secret that I'm a single girl.  And obviously this past Monday was Valentine's Day.  Which could result in a recipe for being a distraught mess.  But luckily I am an absolute sucker for all holidays period so no bitterness here.  (And it definitely helps that my favorite color is pink and I'm pretty much obsessed with chocolate... how in the world could I hate this day?)  So as I noticed that some people would try to gracefully skip over asking me what I was doing to celebrate this day full of love, I decided that I would share what exactly that looks like...

First of all... DUH we had to have a party.  We invited some of our favorite girls over and threw ourselves a night of a ridiculous amount of delicious sweet treats, punch, wine, and girl talk galore!  Much laughter was had all night long... especially with random conversations provoked by a love themed truth or dare deck of cards.  It was an absolutely hilarious girls night in full of friends that I truly treasure all of their friendships.  Even though we may all be in different stages of life, I know that the Lord has placed them in my life to challenge and encourage me in this season.  And also, what better way than to see them do those future seasons well before I get there?!  Seriously love them.  And complete picture fail on that night which is about the saddest story ever.

Sunday morning was so sweet to find some delicious treats from some of my fantastic people that work with me and some of my super fantastic families.  I can honestly tell you that receiving homemade cards from precious little kiddos NEVER gets old.  Pretty much love being able to put up the new ones in place of the old ones for that season in my cube.  Adorable.

On the actual Valentine's Day, the roommate and I decided that it was only fitting that we skirt out a little early.  I headed on home and found a sweet little giftbag from her waiting on the table with this in it...

Could she be a better Valentine?  I think not.  We then headed to AT&T because I had decided to buy myself my very own Valentine's gift.  That's right... I've converted to the cult. 

Not only that, but I've committed to a new metroplex number.  I feel like a new person.  It made me a little anxious but also felt a little freeing. 

After that, we headed to Chuy's and met with a girl that works with the roomie for a Valentine's dinner.  We were running late due to my Valentine's gift to myself so poor girl had been waiting on us alone.  The whole Chuy's staff had corralled around her and become her instant friend... thus, giving us the hardest time when we showed up for leaving her waiting on Valentine's day (OF ALL DAYS).  We laughed and talked and ate and had good times.  After a couple of hours, we headed our separate ways.

The roommate and I then changed into comfy clothes and headed to another friend's to watch one of our all-time favorite shows... The Bachelor.  What better show to watch on the day of love than the one where they are pursuing it to the ends of the earth?  In the most dramatic way ever?  LOVE IT.  We eat it up like flippin candy. 

So that my friends, is what my Valentine's Day looks like.  I showed up the next morning to work to also find out I had won the Valentine's Day contest at work to be granted another box of candy of my choice.  I've had so many sweet treats that they are coming out of my ears.  I feel like this holiday was more ridiculous for me than Christmas this year.  Desserts are my downfall so I'm glad to see them go as much as I love them.

Farewell Valentine's Day... until next year.

the best icepocalypse super week ever...

So it all started on a Tuesday morning around 5:30 am when the roommate screamed from her room, "NO WORK!!!!!!"  We had all heard on Monday about the 'winter storm' that was coming our way ready to break records and we were severely warned to take it seriously by every single weatherman on all of the channels.  But let's be honest here... weather 'people' (for PC sake) are a BIT dramatic and we happen to follow a school district policy that seems to thrive on being the only open school district when all others are closed.  So obviously we didn't have much hope on schools being closed... thus, work being cancelled. 
Usually I prefer to not be awakened at that ridiculous hour, but for this particular event... I didn't seem to mind.  Because you see, Tuesday mornings are a big event at church so I knew a lot of people were anxiously awaiting to hear confirmation from me that we were indeed CLOSED.  Even though we had all heard the scary sleet and snow storm threatening to break all of our windows at 2 in the morning and our ISD had indeed announced the fantastic news, it's always good to hear straight from the horse's mouth.  And in this instance, I was that horse (as much as I never thought I would refer to myself as a horse... ever).  So I slid out of my bed and somehow wrote as much of a coherent e-mail as I possibly could at 5:30 am without any kind of prescriptive eyewear and then stumbled right back into bed.  Completely oblivious to what was about to occur in all our lives for the next 4 days.  

Thankfully the news told us all about it.  24 hours a day.  Sometimes they did not even show regularly scheduled programming because they thought it was more important to broadcast on the ice that insisted on never melting and some other event that was going on in the metroplex.  Oh yes... the SUPERBOWL was in town.  Have I not mentioned that yet?  Straight disaster.  Because what happened next, my friends is straight craziness.  The whole metroplex was ICED up like it never had been before.  (Well maybe it had... I forget all of the weather reports now.. my memory is awful.)  But school became cancelled for Wednesday... and then Thursday... and then Friday.  Seriously?!?!  It became straight crazy ridiculous.  Cabin fever broke out all over the metroplex.  Facebook status updates went out of control.  People were excited about not having to go to work but so not excited about being stuck in their house.  And I agreed.  I mean seriously... have I mentioned lately that we don't have cable?  So what did we do?  Funny you should ask...

TUESDAY...
We obviously thought this was going to be our only day off.  So naive.  We decided to take full advantage like any 25 year old girls would without any children or 'real' responsibility looming over their heads... and lay around ALL DAY LONG.  Besides cooking dinner, we never left the sectional.  We discovered stupid day-time TV that comes on regular network channels.  We of course still flipped between that and the news... it was like a must of the ice storm.  By 5, we were a little over the shows so we decided to put in a movie.  We got about 15 minutes into it and realized that the official news were on and heard that they were starting school closings for the next day... and boom... we were back to watching TV.  And officially finding out that we were out for the next day.  SCREAMS ALL AROUND!  Pretty sure there was even a decision to stay up later and watch late-night TV because we didn't have to wake up early.  I'm telling ya... we're wild!

WEDNESDAY...
Slept in.  Duh.  But today felt different.  Besides us waking up to a rolling blackout, there also just felt a need to be a little bit more productive.  You can only lay around like a bump on a log for SO long.  So I instantly jumped in the shower.. began some laundry.. cleaned up the room a bit.. picked up the kitchen and living room... and realized I was out of things to do.  The roommate was also feeling the need to be productive because while I was doing all of that, she had decided to brave the bitter cold and ice by heading out to our apartment complex's gym.  After slipping and skating down there and trying not to die, she discovered no electricity because of rolling blackouts so she had to carefully maneuver her way back to our apartment.  When I realized that we were headed back to the sectional and the timeframe of day-time TV that was on at that point, I insisted that we PLAY Family Feud rather than watch it.  So we did.  And then eventually turned on the TV later on... and then we cooked breakfast for dinner... and our friend James came over.  (Yay for seeing someone else for the first time in 48 hours!)  The news told us that school was officially closed for another day.  What?!?!  We could feel the cabin fever starting to grasp us.  We knew that things needed to occur the next day such as my sister heading our way from Dallas... our friend's birthday needing to be celebrated with a cake... needing to pick up things from the office since work had not happened in a few days... JUST NEEDING TO LEAVE THE APARTMENT.  Yup... cabin fever had hit.

THURSDAY...
Cancelling of the dentist appointment.  (Sorry Dr... I may have cabin fever but I don't trust the ice enough to head your way.)  I knew I only had a few hours to stop by our closed office to pick up some things so I began to bundle up in as many layers as I possibly could and started my con of the rommmate to go with me.  I didn't know how to drive in ice and certainly didn't know how to de-ice my car.  I tried to make it sound enticing that we would be LEAVING the apartment and could go other places too.  It wasn't as difficult as I thought and she started layering up too.  We began our trek out into the icy wonderland and thanks to google, I was prepared for my drive on the ice.  Still terrified, but ready.  We stopped by the office and chatted it up with EVERYBODY.  (We hadn't seen people in days!)  Then we headed to Target and tried to remember how to behave appropriately in public.  Afterwards, we awaited for the sissy to arrive and as soon as she did, we waited (not so patiently) as she sat on the couch for the requested 15 minutes before we braved the bitter ice cold again to head to our favorite mexican restaurant ever... Pasado's.  We then headed over to the boys' apartment because we refused to let some silly ice storm hinder us from celebrating Ryan's birthday.  So cake and ice cream (nevermind that it was FREEZING outside!) was served all around.  School was again cancelled for the next day and it began to snow... VICTORY!

FRIDAY...
We woke up to beautiful REAL powdery snow.  (I'm sorry but I'm pretty sure that the weatherpeople used the word powdery even though everyone insisted on making fun of me for joining in on the use of that word to describe the snow.)  We grabbed ourselves a laundry basket and played in the snow!  And since this post is getting ridiculously long, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves...

And then we went to downtown Fort Worth for ESPN craziness.  Where my toes froze (like for real).  Apparently taking a break in Starbucks doesn't constitute what we went out there for according to the boys so we had to stand in the cold and try our hardest to get on TV.  So I stood in the midst of the crowds and yelled for multiple reasons... fame AND warmth.

That night the sissy, roommate, and I headed off to our first Superbowl party thanks to the sister's not-real life (courtesy of her job) at Billy Bob's.  We knew that it would be cold without our million of layers, but we had friends to meet... Blake Shelton and Uncle Kracker just to mention a few.  And word on the street was that Blake was bringing his lady Miranda along.  (Sure enough... the street did not disappoint.)

 

Needless to say, Friday was a FULL day.

SATURDAY...
Warmth and rest.

SUNDAY...
Remember that certain event that was in town?  Yeah... the Superbowl.  After church, the sissy, rommmate and I headed to the huge spaceship of a stadium because my sister's not-real-life had granted us tickets to tailgating AND the party plaza.  Oh yeah.  Should we have gotten wise and sold those ridiculously priced tickets to all those people scrounging around the stadium with massive amounts of cash in their pockets?  Probably.  But then we wouldn't have gotten to experience that PRICELESS event. 

WHEW!  Can I just say that you are probably as TIRED as I felt at the end of this particular week just by reading this SUPER long post.  Major props to you if you even read this entire thing!  Thank goodness it officially seems like the weather is back to normal and starting to warm up... although I am not complaining at all about the days off.  I just miss having not to wear fifteen layers everytime I go outside...

my mom rocks more than yours...

So today is the first day of February.  And this is a very special day indeed.  And not just because north Texas decided to have a bitter cold winter storm and we were blessed with a snow day... AKA no work and school for the entire metroplex.  Which equals tons of relaxation on the sectional and snow on the ground.  ALWAYS fun.  But no, no, no.  That is NOT the only reason this is a special day.  It's actually super special because the most important lady in my life was born on this very day... the mom. 

My sister just happens to be in town this week for work and as we were laying in bed the other night chatting, we somehow started to talk about our fantastic mom.  Growing up we lived in the oldest house in our town so we didn't have central air or heat.  During the winter, we used deerborn heaters to keep warm.  Don't know what that is?  Oh that's probably because we don't use them in this century anymore.  Here's a quick peek of what one looks like...

Well we weren't allowed to keep these on throughout the night because the dad is a firefighter and that is SO obviously a fire hazard.  (Enter old school electric blankets.)  So every morning my mom would wake up at the buttcrack at dawn and turn on the heaters in the freezing house.  By turn on, I definitely mean light fire to it.  But let me just say, my mother is the most cold-natured person I know.  (And apparently I have inherited this wonderful trait from her... thanks mom.)  So that way when the rest of our family would wake up, the entire house would be warm and ready for us.  She did this EVERY day.  When I think about it now, I don't know how she did it.  Except I kind of do.  Because she's awesome.

Another thing my sister and I chatted about is the fact that when we got a little older, my mom got a job that was about an hour and a half commute away... one way.  So obviously it took her that same length of time to get home too... and sometimes a little longer when factoring in traffic.  However, that never seemed to effect our family dinner time.  She put a lot of importance on all four of us always having dinner together every single night... and that's with her cooking the dinner.  So she would drive to work, have a full day of work, drive home, and then cook dinner for our family.  EVERY day.  Sure there was the occasional night that we would go out to dinner.  But that was very rare.  We were the house that had home-cooked meals every night that friends were constantly asking if they could come over and eat.  And you know why?  Because my mom is fantastic.

So obviously these are just TWO things that make up about a million of the reasons of why my mom rocks.  But they give you a pretty good idea of who she is and why I love her.  And not because she does awesome things for me, but because she really does encourage me to hopefully one day be half as awesome of a mom she is for me and my sister.

We love you Mom... Hope your birthday is as fantastic as you!!!!!!      

the weekend recap is back...

I'm bringing back the weekend recap.  It is time, my friends.  Especially after the fun weekend that I had. 

It all started with Thursday (even though it's not TECHNICALLY the weekend) but we had a conference for work so the fantastic girls that I work with that make up the children's ministry team all piled up in an SUV and headed out for a fun-filled day.  Can I just say that I absolutely love these girls and feel absolutely blessed by them every single day?  I do realize that it is a rare thing to be able to work with people that truly care about you and pray hard for you in not just your ministry, but also personally.  Love you Jen, Tiff, Nita, and Emily!

Friday night the roommate and I got to have dinner with a great friend from seminary that we have not seen in FOREVER.  You would have thought she moved to Canada, but nope... just Dallas.  It's always a good time with friends on a Friday night at Chuy's.  It's pretty much our favorite.  Loved catching up with her and hearing all the fun things going on in her life!  Major fail on not getting a picture with her.  We'll just have to have dinner before another year passes again.. for more reason than just that of course!

On Saturday was a wedding of 2 dear friends of mine.  To say I was excited for this wedding was definitely an understatement.  It's been so much fun to see this love story happen from the very beginning since Jason was a friend that I met at seminary and I met Stephanie as soon as I started working at the church.  I immediately told Jason that I thought he should ask out the cute, sweet girl in the office and am so glad that finally 6 months later, he did!  Granted I don't think I can take credit because I really don't think he was listening to me... I'm pretty sure it had more to do with the fact that she's absolutely precious.  Now they are officially the Nolen's and I could not be more thrilled for them to start this journey together as they follow where the Lord leads them as husband and wife!

Sunday definitely ended with a HUGE nap.  And now here it is already Wednesday... and I'm fighting a bit of a cold.  Pretty lame.  I'm trying to knock it out pretty quick though because this weekend, the sissy is coming to town and that always means good times ahead!  She's going to be in the metroplex for a WEEK which bubbles me over with enthusiasm... even though it is for 'work.'  So get out of here cold... I have fun plans in my future!

it's a cubed life after all...

The other night at dinner, a hilarious conversation occurred between myself, the roommate, and another friend about working within the "walls" of a cubicle.  There are just particular things that occur in a cube that you may not even really understand unless you've worked in one yourself... although it may still be pretty entertaining to hear about.  Here are a few favorite (or not-so-favorite) things that come along with a cubed life that we came up with that are beyond ridiculous, embarrasing, and amusing to say the least...

1. The lack of privacy.  Can we just state the obvious that although there is the 'illusion' of privacy... that you indeed have NONE?  Instead you are in one giant room with mini padded walls that make you feel like you have your own space, while you still can hear absolutely every conversation around you.  That doctor's appointment you have on Friday?  You better believe Susie down the row knows about it.  The humiliating phone conversation you just had where you definitely teared up in the middle of it?  Sweet Debbie next to you is now e-mailing you to ask you if you're alright.  Let's just be honest... sometimes it's best to just walk far far away from the cubicle and make your phone calls there.  Your car with the doors locked is always a good option.  It'll definitely save you some dignity (and maybe even some explanations).
2. Speaking through the walls.  We've all done it.  How can you not?  It seems silly to pick up the phone and call the person in the cube next to you when they can hear you just as well talking regularly out loud.  The best though is when you talk to someone in a cube near you and don't know that they're not there.  Enter the awkward no response zone.  Just because they're not there doesn't mean that all the rest of the people around you aren't there.  They're just pretending not to be at this point for your sake.
3. Annoying sounds.  It's pretty much inevitable that you're going to hear this at one point or another when you can hear the entire office happening all around you.  Noisy feedback from an office phone because of someone's cell phone ringing (or vibrating for office ettiquette).. someone deciding to listen to music or maybe even their voicemails on speakerphone outloud.. a random tap-tap here or clicking of sorts.. all great examples.  It's even more unsettling when you realize it's coming from yourself.  You become a little more hyperaware of the noises you make when you realize that absolutely everyone around you can hear you (and may be annoyed by you) so when I started realizing a noise I made after finishing a project or transitioning to something different... you can imagine my surprise.  And when I say surprise, I mean more like I was horrified.  I was definitely less than pleased with myself.  Who wants to be the girl that makes the annoying sound everyday?  No worries.. I'm getting that in check quick, fast, and in a hurry!  Please forgive me, cubemates.
4. Lack of real walls.  So I definitely am not complaining about the fact that I have built-in bulletin boards all around me which is pretty fun, but I did receive a pretty cross for Christmas that I thought would be super cute to hang in my humble abode of a cube.  But alas, no tack is strong or sturdy enough to hold that cross.  Epic cube wall fail. 
5. With no real walls, there is no door.  So you certainly don't bip in and out of your cubicle through your DOORway, but instead we'll call it what it is... an ENTRYway.  And with this entryway, there is no real way to shut people out.  Don't get me wrong... I love people and I LOVE visitors in my cube.  Why in the world do you think that I insist on there never being anything in my visitor chair?  (Well I don't like clutter, but that's besides the point...)  But when your back is to the precious little entryway MOST of the time, it can create an easy way for people to scare the ever living daylights out of you when you don't know that they are dropping by.  But then again, that's usually only when they're TRYING to scare you.  But I guess that's a whole different story though...

So I'm pretty sure that I probably missed a gazillion hysterical things that occur on a daily basis working in a cubed life... but as crazy, hilarious, and distracting as it may be at times, I so enjoy that crazy little invention called a cublicle... and am proud to call it my own!  It also pretty much rocks that I'm surrounded by an awesome group of girls to call my cubemates.  Seriously could not have picked more fun peeps to share fake walls with to talk through everyday! 

a new year of faith...

Wow.  I haven't even posted THIS YEAR so let me first just say what is only appropriate... Happy 2011! 

I cannot tell you how many posts I started and deleted that last week of 2010.  I felt like it was such a week of reflection for me because obviously it is such a time where you feel like since you're about to begin a new year, you kind of need to reassess and figure out what that new year really needs to look like in your own life.  Well at least that's what I did.  And by all means, I definitely still don't know what that looks like obviously.  And obviously I didn't feel like I could articulate it well enough to actually publish one of those posts.

What I DO know that is I'm believing God for this year.  My complete faith is in HIM.  Whatever that may look like. 

I trust in you, O Lord... My times are in Your hand.  Psalm 31: 14:15