Hooray for a Good Monday!

Mondays suck as a general rule.  You are just so darn far from the weekend!  Today has been a very good productive day.

-Josh worked on my car so it will (hopefully) run for a long time now.
-I made a B+ on my Quant test.
-I did the LAST experiment in lab!!!  Woo hoo!  I work in a lab, but doing lab for a class makes me so anxious.  I have no idea why.  Anyway, I was way glad to be done.
-I washed the sheets.  I love clean sheets!  You just sleep so much better.
-I made Reese cookies.  Josh really liked them.  I think he's had four so far.
-Josh and I went to the grocery so now we can eat!  Today I had to pull a Granny Clark.  She was my great-grandmother and Mom and Bubba say she could make a huge meal out of beans and a scrap of pork.  (Hi Bubba!)  Supper was light, but now we have food.
-Now I get to sit and watch tv and see my husband.  We actually saw each in the daylight!  I haven't seen him in natural light in, wow, a long time.

These are the Reese cookies.  They are softer and better than they look.  The dough is really crumbly so it cracks at the corner.

I know you all have been very concerned about the state of my toenails.  I am happy to say they have been painted.  You can rest easier now.

An Appeal for Easy Recipes

I like to cook, I really do.  Martha Stewart is a GENIUS!!  I mean if I am hosting a gathering she is the first person I go to.  I just don't have tons of time right now for hostessing or cooking for even the two of us.  I need some simple recipes that I can whip up really quickly when I get home from a long day.  So I looked at some crock pot recipes but some of these have some wild ingredients!  What in the heck is agave by the way??  I've seen it as juice, but is it from a fruit, stems from plants, something synthetic?  And what do you do with it??  And finally, WHY is it in so many different recipes I wanna make?  And where do you find fennel?  Fennel and tarragon are in everything.  I Cannot find them in a store!  The recipes usually have fifty ingredients too, even crock pot ones.  So give me some of your best quick/easy/not requiring a trip to three different stores recipes.  I will appreciate your recipes and tips forever and ever and ever amen!

Hallmark Holidays and Life Lessons from My Dad

Hallmark makes up holidays.  I really believe this.  Mother's Day, Father's Day and Valentine's Day are the big three.  These aren't real holidays.  Mother's day could just as easily be the second Sunday of October instead of May.  It is totally arbitrary.  Hallmark has concocted these holidays as an excuse to induce consumers into buying cards and flowers.  Sears has colluded with Hallmark in the invention of Father's Day.  I love my mom, my dad, and my husband but I don't think that me telling them that I love them on a predetermined day marked on the calendar and celebrated all around the nation is a good indication of how I feel.  I think these holidays put undue pressure on a realtionship (especially V-day).  Suddenly how much you care is measured in what you get the other person and whether you brave the Red Lobster crowd to take that loved one out to eat.

That being said, here are life lessons my Daddy taught me all through game metaphors.

1.  Softball-Keep your eye on the ball.  If you want to hit the ball you have to watch it all the way til it hits the bat.  Same thing with anything you want, you can't get cocky or certain you have it til you hear that connection of bat to ball.
2.  Boxing-Don't tuck your thumb under your fist.  I'm little.  There are bullies in life.  Consequently, Daddy taught me to fight.  You will break your thumb if it is under your fist.  That pretty much makes a victory hollow.  Don't take any crap from people and be ready to fight if you Must, but don't get hurt in the process.
3.  Basketball-Even short people can win at basketball.  You have to play to your strengths.  Even if you are little, find a way to use it to your advantage.  Play harder, duck and weave, simply want it (whatever "it" happens to be) more than anyone else on the court or in life.
4. Football-Don't be afraid to punt.  "It's time to step back and punt" is pretty much the saying that describes my life.  If your first plan doesn't work, just try to score (accomplish something).  Punting may not be glamorous like scoring a touchdown but it can still win the game.
5. Soccer-Don't play in the house.  This isn't a life lesson so much as a funny story.  Dad and I were playing soccer in the house, Mom went to take the trash out.  Before she left she said "don't break anything" by the time she got back Dad had kicked my foot and broken his toe.  I was rolling with laughter and he was hopping around the living room.  Listen to your mom and don't kick your kids!
6. Checkers-Gotta take your jumps.  You may have set yourself up to get your kings taken but that is a consequence of your actions.  Think ahead and be willing to accept the hand, er checker, you dealt yourself.
7. Pretty Pretty Princess-Daddy loves you.

Things I Want to Do Starting July 8th

I am through having fun with this silly summer class.  Through I tell you!  Actually, since it's a chemistry class, I never started having fun.  I keep coming up with things I want to do but I can't cause I should study or something else equally exciting.

1.  Paint my toenails.  They are all chipped and desperately need new polish but that is way low on my priority list.
2.  Bake bread.  I want good hearty bread like I make not this store bought stuff. 
3.  Make homemade cookies and/or pie.  There are soooooo many fruits in season they are calling to me to be baked and yet...no time.
4.  Date with my hubby.  I would like to leave the house.  Put on makeup.  Wear heels. 
5.  Go shopping with my mom.  Retail therapy is so essential. On the plus side we are saving money right now.
6.  Hang out with my little brother (who got his wisdom teeth out today, poor guy).
7.  Read fun books.  The second Liz Curtis Higgs book is waiting at Mom's house.  I'm halfway through Tina Fey's book and I had to return a perfectly good book to the library because I didn't have time.  Oh the injustice!
8.  Go swimming.  Right now that sounds like such fun, but in reality I don't like for that much of my skin to be exposed to other's eyes so maybe I'll just be glad I'm busy lol.

Shew I Was Glad to See the Weekend End

This was my weekend:

1.  Made homemade peach cobbler.  Josh was a fan.
2.  24 hour stomach flu.  Not fun. 
3.  Tried to work but I was sick.
4.  Slept.  Like a lot.  Dreamed all kinds of crazy stuff cause I had a fever.
5.  Toilet backed or overflowed or something and water started more than dripping less than pouring in THREE different parts of my ceiling.  Got my computer wet.  Got the Wii wet.  Not fun.
6.  Studied for test.  Not fun.

Now I'm just waiting to try out another weekend lol.  Anyway, that's why I don't have anything fun to post.

This Is What My Brain Is Doing...

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....Bleeep bleep......Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...Honk....Whistle...Toot!  Seriously.  It really is.  I am physically exhausted but my brain is on hyper drive.  I swear I think I am can feel it vibrating in my skull.  I am taking Quantitative Analysis in addition to my forty hour work week.  Yeah my life is a blast.  I live on the edge...of my rapidly fraying nerves.  I desperately want to sleep but the vibrating brain won't let me.  I don't want to disturb Josh and I can't get up the energy to peel peaches (one of the many things I'm thinking about right now) so I am writing to all you lovelies. 

I went to Knoxville last weekend.  It was oh so much fun!  I got to see two old friends.  One was a totally random meeting on the street, what are the odds of that?  Hmm, I may have to look up the population and tell you the odds.  Oh wait, you don't care.  The other friend siting was planned. Josh and I met up with my friend Bev (hi Bev!) and her roommate at The Melting Pot.  Oh.  My.  Gosh.  The Melting Pot is soooooo good.  If no one was around I could eat an entire pot of that chocolate and not come up for air.  It was also extraordinarily expensive, but we can't date for weeks on end because of our hectic schedules so we made an exception.  It was great and we want to go back.  We love Knox.  We are this ____ much considering moving.  One of the many things we are tossing around at this point.

I saw this at Williams and Sonoma.  It was the only thing in the store I didn't want (A cherry pitter?  Um, yeah!  I'm sure I would totally use that!).  Wait, the lobster isn't a cherry pitter, that was just one other thing I saw that was cool.  The lobster has no function.  It's just a Huge silver lobster.  Why?  I don't know why.  I'm not sure who spends $50 on a lobster that you can't even eat but if you do know who spends that kind of cash, send them my way, I'm sure I can find something to sell them!

Hmm...what other wonderful things have I not had time to tell you about?  I have a neurologist appt!  Woo hoo!  After four months of headaches there may be light at the end of this tunnel!  I'm hooked on the show my Big Fat Gypsy Wedding.  Super strange lifestyle, in my humble opinion.  The little girls dress like prostitutes but have super conservative values.  Check it out on youtube.  I'm spending so much time inside that I literally got a sunburn while driving this week.  Yeah, maybe time to study out of doors.  That's all the random rambling I'll subject you to at the moment.  Have an awesome weekend!

Pity Party...No Really, a Party

So Josh has been a little down lately.  Life is stressful, what can ya do, you know?  Waving hand wildly.  I know, I KNOW!!!  Throw a pity party!  My mom did this for me at one point when I was going through a lot stress.  It made light of the situation but at the same time acknowledged that it was a rough patch.  So, since I wanna grow up to be just like my mom (and the Pioneer Woman), I threw Josh a pity party.  Complete with cake, foam-ish airplane favors, and a present.

Here is the party.  I didn't have any wrapping paper so his Weeds dvd was in the Victoria's Secret bag.  Hmm, maybe the dvds were a let down.  Just kidding.  A little too much information, sorry.  The cake has Oreo creme icing.  It was great!

This is Josh checking out the foam planes.  We put them together and flew them in the apartment.  They are on the mantle now, in case we want to play air force.

I made him put the party hat on and let me take a picture, but I couldn't convince him to let me put the pic online.  Trust me, you guys are missing out!  So, since I spent an entire dollar on it (the dollar store is awesome for some stuff), I put it on.  Forgive the Horrible picture.

Vacations

Where should Josh and I go on vacation?  Josh doesn't care and I can't decide.  We have talked about this on several occasions and last night I ask him "So have you thought more about where we want to go for vacation?" and he said "Oh, was I supposed to?  I hadn't thought about it at all."  Sigh.  Apparently I'm making the decision.  We had planned on going on a European cruise and had even made reservations but then because of pharmacy school we had to cancel.  We could try to reschedule that for some other time.  We could go to Disney because everyone knows my true calling in life is to be a Disney Princess and I'm sure as soon as I walk through the gates, the ghost of Walt himself will recognize this and a cartoon of me will be made and I'll get a beautiful dress and hang out with all my fellow Disney Princesses all day.  Course if that didn't happen, there are always Tons of rides, lots of food, and fun to be had.  I have only been when I was 3 and Josh has never been.  We could go to Charleston.  Definitely the tamest of the options but also the cheapest.  We love Charleston.  It's pretty.  That's about all I have to say about that, there is no magically turning into anyone great.  OH wait!  We could become Civil War soldier, but I would hope not!  Anyway, what I need from all of you is for you to vote in the poll and help me decide.  A)  Because I can't decide.  B)  Because you want to help fellow womankind C) Because if the trip sucks I can always tell Josh that my blog fans made me do it :) just kidding.  Keep in mind this will be not only our vaca but also our belated honeymoon.  Happy voting!

The Strange Things Men Do

Why do men do this??  I don't care it's just funny!  The toilet paper is literally within arm's reach.  Josh got it out.  So why not put it on the empty roll?  It's not just Josh; my dad does this, my brother does this, any other man whose bathroom I've been in before his wife/girlfriend got there does this.  Josh is so smart, he can fix anything on a car, my dad is an engineer, my brother can weld anything metal, and yet none of them change the toilet paper roll!  HILARIOUS!!!  All three of these men also leave empty boxes on the counter.  As in, they finish the pop-tarts and leave the box on the counter or in the cabinet!  Why??  Is it to show they finished something so it will go on the grocery list?  Is it to prove an accomplishment?  I don't know but I laugh every time.  Hope you laughed too!