In need of a vacation

It's been one of those weeks at work--

crazy

hectic

overly busy

I need a vacation!

(I know I just took a long weekend mid-April, but I need a week long one!)

So, in spite of not being able to get outta town for another couple weekends, I am going to post some fun pics of past vacations :) They make me happy.

2003 Beach Vacation with Mike and Charley

cute little frog on my fingers

2003 Beach vacation (me and Mike)

2004 Family Cruise...Mike did some photos of me when I wasn't paying attention, but I love black and white and how he caught me just relaxing and enjoying the moment...I was so relaxed here

2008 Beach Vacation, Mike and I soaking in the sun

2008 Corbin (my nephew) being cute!

2008 Beach, Lillie (my niece) being one happy baby!

2008 The gang on one of our beach camping trips

2008, the boyz being silly!

2009 time at Summersville Lake Marina (Channing loves his daddy!!)

2009 Family Beach Vacation-Corbin getting thrown in the pool

2009, Lillie being a water baby

2009 Beach, Mike flippin out

2009 Beach, me being silly happy

2010 Baltimore trip (pretty architecture)

2010 Honeymoon in Mexico

2010 Honeymoon (a cenote, amazing, visit one!)

2010 Boating trip, Lillie enjoying being on a boat

2010 Beach Vacation, Corbin loving the amusement park ride

2010 Beach, Lillie decked out in her swimming gear-toooo cute

Enough cuteness...I still need a vacation...

Any vacation plans for you?

I want!

I really miss sewing things.

I did some sewing of some patchwork purses back in college, but lost the know how and really wish I could remember!

In the meantime (aka while I work up the courage to try my hand at sewing again), I have been reading a bunch of different blogs about sewing...

and I wanna sew REAL bad!

Just check some of these cool things out!

This cool purse from over at Made by Rae

http://www.made-by-rae.com/2009/02/free-buttercup-bag-sewing-pattern.html

Or this one here...from Sew4Home

http://sew4home.com/projects/kitchen-linens/578-retro-fun-vintage-style-apron

Not sewing, but crafty is this scarf...from How About Orange

http://howaboutorange.blogspot.com/search/label/tutorials

Or this cute lil baby hat (and no, there is no baby, but it's ADORABLE) suggested by Sew Mama, Sew (from Tye Dye Diva Patterns)

http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/2011/04/free-tie-top-beanie-pattern-jen-from-tie-dye-diva/

Or this awesome bag (I would totally make one bigger for me, but also make one for my nephew Corbin) from over at Punkin Patterns

http://punkinpattern.blogspot.com/2011/02/connors-messenger-bag.html

And one last one (also not really sewing...) from over at The Borrowed Abode

http://theborrowedabode.com/2010/09/how-to-diy-a-thrifty-decorative-storage-box/

I could go on for days about what I wanna sew (inspired by these blogs)...but I don't wanna bore you get you all amped up about sewing projects too...for all I know, you will beat me to the punch and where's the fun in it for me?!?

If you have any great sewing/crafty ideas, please post a comment so I can be further inspired!

Out of this funk

I tried my best yesterday to get rid of my bad karma...

I took 1/2 day at work so my husband didn't have to in order to let the HVAC guys fix our AC...thank goodness that works now!

I also took the rest of the afternoon off to mow our lawn (for the hubby) and then the neighbors yard (which my husband does for them since they asked us to) as well as the neighbor's yard across the cul-de-sac (since the hubby usually does this one too and the family there is super busy with a cute baby and the daddy is doing lots of extra work).

After an hour of mowing lawns (with a PUSH mower and up and down the hill) I was drenched in sweat and grass cuttings and felt much better about things.

Now my car is fixed, the AC is back to cooling and I slept in my comfy bed and got many hours of much needed make up sleep.

Today since the hubby will be mountain biking, I plan to clean the house and get laundry done after working out...we'll see how much I get done...but I figure the more I get done during the work week, the less to do over the weekend = more time to relax and enjoy what I want to do!

Happy Wednesday = half way through the work week...almost there!

Karma is a ...

Well, you know the rest...fill in your favorite expletive!

So I am pretty sure that my "bad behavior" yesterday morning caused everyone to have a bad Monday...so if my bad karma spread to you too, I apologize!

I guess I will start from the beginning...

So, on my way to work (naturally driving in my car) I am getting ready to get onto the interstate and this old gentleman in his pickup truck keeps eyeing me (like 50 times in his mirrors)...ok, maybe more like 10, but it was weird to me...

I naturally take this as - why don't you stop staring at me and drive down the road you rude old man...

Which then causes me to do the "bad behavior" and starts my bad karma for the day...

ok, I flipped him the bird (oopsie)

I finish the rest of my 20 minute commute to work, park and head up the hill (which feels like a 1/2 mile hike). I get my busy schedule rolling and everything seems ok so far. That afternoon I get slammed with tons more work (bad karma onslaught #1)...and am frantically running around the lab for a good 2 hours (basically up until I needed to leave).

I also received a text message that my womens volleyball team would have to forfeit our first match but we could still play the 7:00 match (bad karma onslaught #2).

Anyways, I finish up at work and head home, driving in my car (no I didn't flip anyone else the bird)...but of course I ran over something in the exit ramp and heard POP (bad karma onslaught #3)...yes, that would be something massacring my passenger side tire(s)...awesome. I freak out a bit hoping that I haven't popped my tire and that I am going to loose control of my car, but know I have about another 5 minutes til home...so I take it easy and proceed with caution.

I reach home (luckily) to find my back tire almost out of air and the front one also a little lower than normal...sweet...I get to change a tire (on a side note I can do this feat in about 10 minutes...BY MYSELF!) But, alas, I only have one spare tire (bad karma onslaught #4).

I head inside to tell my husband who grimaces a bit, only to find out that our upstairs air conditioning (which was set to cool) had been blowing HOT air all day...our upstairs was a sauna that we didn't really want...(bad karma onslaught #5)

As I ventured upstairs (since I needed to change in order to fix my tire), the heat wave smacked me in the face as I got to the top of the stairs...whoa nelly...it was literally reading 97 degrees INSIDE!

Mike asked me to find the manual for the thermostat and he was trying to see what the issue may be, in the meantime, I ventured out to fix my car...

He happened to come out and say that we should take the car to a place and just get 4 new tires (which my car has been needing...so maybe this was a sign)...luckily, we got a place to get my car fixed...but this meant Mike had to drive/stay with me at volleyball.

We headed back to the house so I could fix dinner-which was yummy pasta, sausage and pesto. And as I was pouring the pasta to drain, some of that great hot steam caught my finger (bad karma onslaught #6).

We ate dinner and I changed and Mike drove me to volleyball...where I played like crap (bad karma onslaught #7). It was like I could do nothing right...bad passing, setting, hitting, you name it...it was a disgrace!

We got back and I was about to get in the shower in the hot upstairs sauna place (we only have showers upstairs), we received a call that the car was ready...woohoo! only problem was that we were trying to print a coupon to save some $ and the printer WOULD NOT work...(bad karma onslaught #8).

We arrived and got our bill and we were fortunate that they accepted the SKU# off my cell phone (which was working nicely for me for once). Of course the bill was over $500 (sweet!) But I had my car back with 4 new squeaky tires. I felt bad for the people that worked there since they were also having some of my bad karma-the managers son was hit by a tree branch, their system had crashed and someone got called in unexpectedly...Sorry! It's my fault!

Getting back to the house, I showered and gathered my things for the next day so I wouldn't have to go upstairs (we have dual zone AC which means the upstairs and downstairs are controlled by 2 different units...the downstairs was fine). We set up camp to sleep on the sofa and made the best of the situation...I plopped on the couch to settle down and watch tv with soda in hand and cadbury mini eggs in mouth (they are so good!)

I tried to get comfy on the couch but was not really having it...and I am pretty sure I didn't fall asleep until after midnight (bad karma onslaught #9) and then since we have lots of windows I knew I would be up when the sun started to peak out (bad karma onslaught #10)...yes, I was up at 6 am...no alarm...sweetness.

I think Mike and I both realized we were having bad days and that we couldn't do much about it...

life lesson learned-
don't flip anyone the bird, especially if it's early in the morning-
the rest of your day is gonna be crap!

Goose Sitting

No, not an actual goose...

not any Honk Honk noises or anything...

We are dog sitting our friends' dog who is called Goose.

She is super cute and such a puppy (all she wants to do is play...ALL the time).

Let me share some of the pics I took (and most of which I texted to her parents cuz they missed her so)

HI, I'm Goose, and I am also super cute...

Channing (our dog) and Goose playing outside

Goose and I chillin on the couch

She really likes the couch

Possibly asking permission to come up?!?

I think she found a new toy she liked

Cute face!

BFF's under the table
Mike and Goose, relaxin

Hot dogs

Protecting the yard

On the prowl

Tuckered out Goose!

These two pups also LOVED running around in the back yard...see below (and don't worry, the growling noises are them playing around and they didn't harm each other)

Too cute!

So, I have to share this video, it's adorable...

I hope someday when I have a kid they will also wake up and have a jam session when their favorite song comes on the radio.

<a href="http://www.bing.com/videos/browse?mkt=en-us&vid=5fb859e0-0142-49c2-af95-5e45ffa08ff0&from=en-us&fg=dest" target="_new" title="Baby Wakes Up to Hip Hop">Video: Baby Wakes Up to Hip Hop</a>

Language Barrier

As I may have mentioned before, I work in a laboratory...so we have a compilation of different nationalities and sometimes what one person means can be lost in the lingo of language barriers...

Well, this happened today..at lunch...as usual

Our lunch conversations make my days

for real

We had a guy who left for Med school come back to visit and he was asked by one of the women in our lab the following...(and keep in mind that this guy was a bit of a mind in the trash type...)

"Have you had any deep interactions with any females on your campus?"

Now, to most people this may be taken as
-do you have a girlfriend?
-did you make and friends that are females?
etc...

But naturally this guy takes it one step further and exploits this fact to the rest of the lunch room (mind you, he was nice enough to wait until the question asker was gone from the room)...

So naturally it has now turned into the new way to talk about sex...

Had any deep interactions lately?

Oi!

Did I mention I love the people in my lab and the fact that we have such a barrier and they can hardly understand Americans and we can hardly understand any of them (they are from all over every other continent...) makes for a really fun work place sometimes!

And don't worry, it's doesn't always get "in the gutter"...

The Princess and the Pea

Have you ever read that story?

Well, if not, that's ok...this blog is about sleeping (I just think the cartoon is funny!)

So I had never really thought about the way I sleep affecting so much stuff until I read this news posting by CNN yesterday...

and boy, do I sleep in the WORST position of them all...

Yes, that's me...the stomach sleeper.

If you don't have time to read that news report, basically it says that sleeping on your back is best, followed by sleeping on your side, then fetal position and finally (and worst of all) the stomach (yep-me!)

The worst part of all is that apparently the position you sleep in affects not only your spine/adjustment but also wrinkle formation and also (if you happen to be a lady) your "breast perkiness"...really?

I mean, I guess it makes sense that gravity is working on those bad boys while you sleep at night...and you tend to go to sleep every night...so over time they will sag more?!? Oi!

But I guess I thought more about it yesterday after I woke up, got into work and had the WORST whole body feeling. My whole spine (from tailbone to neck) was killing me...no matter what I did (stretch, massage, etc.) the pain wouldn't diminish...even with good old advil (which I usually hate to resort to meds to fix something...I will wallow in pain for all that I can)

So, since I am a tummy sleeper....this news cast also told me that my tummy sleeping will also cause numbness/tingling due to incorrect or lack of spinal alignment at night....go figure!

So, last night I tried out back sleeping (best position)...I usually have a hard time falling asleep this way, but for some reason after reading my book a bit, I passed out...woke up feeling super refreshed (with fewer wrinkles and perky breasts) and ready to start this day with a bang!

How do you sleep??

Green things are a coming!

So, luckily I think I may have a bit of a green thumb!

Today marks 6 weeks since I planted my seeds for tomatoes and peppers...

I think it also marks about 4 weeks since I planted seeds for:
basil, cilantro, carrots, lettuce and cucumbers

I also have onions growing too!

I am pretty excited that soon I can let them be outside during nice days to "harden" for a week and then I can plant them in my garden space/give away plants to friends and family!

I will admit that I didn't think almost everything would grow...but boy I am sure glad they did!

There is still a ways to go before any "goods" come off these little guys, but I am proud of my accomplishments...

Just check out the before and afters below!

Tomatoes and Peppers Day 1

Thought prep for the carrots, basil, cilantro, lettuce and cucumbers

The onions are planted...promise...

Tomatoes sprouted...maybe 3 weeks along

And finally the 6 weeks of tomatoes and peppers/4 weeks for everything else...

Tomatoes at top/peppers on bottom

tall tomatoes!

my poor lettuce (left) and blooming cucumbers (right)

cilantro (top) and basil (bottom)

carrots....

crazy onions!

I can't wait to reap the benefits of this (hoping that they will continue to grow once they are transplanted outside!)...

So my green thumb works...who knew!