Rant

Ok, I have 3 things:

1. Mom, I love you. Happy Mother's Day. Thank you for all that you do.

2. Neighbors with the crappiest music and neighbors with the loudest music are invariably the same neighbors.

3. People who blast music at 4:30am in an apartment complex on a Monday morning (or any other morning) are bad people. They have no decency, respect or courtesy for those around them.

That's all.

Top 20 Bottom 10

My sister Stacey does a Top 20 Bottom 10 list every week, which I love and you can find it here. I love that the top 20 list is longer than the bottom 10, but that you at least have a bottom 10 to complain a little. My other sister Sarah does a top 10 list every month, and I also love that, and you can find it here. Well, we all know that I love to fill things out and make lists, so I decided to copy them both and make my own Top 20 Bottom 10 list today.

These are the best 20 things about today/this week/this month and the worst 10 things, in no particular order.

Top 20:

1. Looking forward to eating candy next Monday! Less than a week left! I've missed you dear friend!

2. Also looking forward to my sisters come into town for Easter next weekend!
 

3. My job. It really is a great job and I work with awesome people that make the day more fun.

4. The Passover activity we had at church last week. It was such a great lesson and so uplifting!

5. Blonde highlights. I got my hair done yesterday and I love it!

6. French pedicures. Got one last week, still love it!

7. Spending time with Evan. We've had so much fun the past few weeks. We laugh a lot. He's funny.

8. Phone calls with my sisters. One of us is always at Target when these calls occur.

9. Good (free) doctors at Sandia.

10. Free stuff in general.

11. Traveling on Sandia's dime! I get to go to LA for a training next month and I get 2 whole free weekends in CA!

12. Great weather.

13. Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred. This workout is pretty awesome. It's tough, but it's only 20 minutes and my abs are back! I knew they were hiding under there somewhere!

14. Helping people out when they need it and can't ask for it.

15. Really good food. We had El Sarape a few weeks ago and it was SO good!


16. Pictures that turn out really well. We got some really great pictures at the zoo a few weeks ago.

17. Emails from my brother in law Casey. He always has funny things to say.

18. Instant messenger at work. It makes the boring days so much more entertaining.

19. Finding my (discontinued) perfume at one of those weird perfume stores in the mall.

20. Laughing out loud at texts or emails or blogs.


Bottom 10
1. My sister has to give her dog away. That's just the saddest thing I've ever heard.

2. Mean coworkers who invite everyone but me to lunch.

3. Burned cookies. I always forget that darn last batch.

4. The way TV shows will just stop playing new episodes for months at a time and a new episode becomes a once a month thing. Seriously, what the heck is up with that? Why do they do that?

5. Missing old friends who I don't talk to anymore.

6. Piles of papers to file.

7. Lack of time.

8. Friends moving.

9. Not living in the same town as my sisters.

10. Arguing and fighting over important and not so important things.

Well, doing the bottom 10 last sure is a downer. Guess I should have ended on a positive note. Oh well. Life is good. I can't complain.

Happy Late St. Patrick's Day!

I know this is a little late because St. Patrick's Day was last week, but my friend Katharine (who makes awesome jewelry by the way, check it out) shared this video and it made me laugh.

Happy late St. Patrick's Day!

Lent Progress

It's been a week since I gave up soda and candy.

I'm gonna let you all in on a bit of information I learned at the movie theater this weekend:

+

=

Gross

Nothing beats soda and popcorn, especially not water and popcorn.

Also, people have been bringing me candy to put on my desk for everyone to take some. Except for me. Thanks a lot guys.

On a positive note, the Diet Dr. Pepper withdrawal headaches have finally gone away, I'm drinking tons of water and I was still able to bake some Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies last night. I had to do them blindly, without tasting them, and the texture was weird, but everyone at work seemed to like them, so I guess it isn't so bad.

I think this might inspire me to try my hand at bread again. Last time I made bread I could've beaten someone with it pretty badly and it wouldn't have shown at all on the loaf of bread.

Maybe I'll start small and try some biscuits.

With Bisquick? The kind you only have to add milk to.

Yeah, I'll make biscuits, then maybe real bread someday.



Sur La Table

Ok, if you haven't been to this store, you're seriously missing out because it is awesome. We got to go while we visited my new niece and family in California. This store has the coolest kitchen stuff! I love it!

While we were there, I got a nifty pasta strainer scoop that's just a huge strainer spoon, and some super cute muffin cups and an egg separator. I really wish we had a Sur la Table in Albuquerque, but I guess that's just one more incentive to visit California.

If you have a chance to visit one, do. It's fantastic! Or just visit surlatable.com and check it out.

Lent

So, growing up Mormon and not knowing much about the Catholic church, my knowledge of Lent is limited to what little talk I've heard about it, whatever I was able to skim on Wikipedia without losing interest (which, sadly, wasn't much, I have a very small attention span when it comes to reading informational context), and that movie 40 Days and 40 Nights. So, probably not the best sources of information, but so it goes. Anyway, I really like the idea of Lent. I like the idea of sacrificing something you really love to show your love of God and his son Jesus Christ, and also overcoming the natural man through self denial. It sounds a little masochistic when you you say self-denial, doesn't it? It's really not masochistic though. It's a great way to break away from vices that might be stopping you from doing great things, or stopping you from having a healthy lifestyle that promotes doing great things.

I've decided to participate in Lent this year. I know I'm not Catholic, and I probably don't understand what it's really about, and I'm not going to give up meat (I've heard that's part of it), but I am going to give up two things that I really really love.

Soda. The IV drip bag is not too far from reality the way I've been downing Diet Dr. Peppers the past few weeks. It's just so good! So, I'm giving it up for 40 days. I'll drink my tasteless water and hopefully, every time I want a soda instead of water, I'll remember why I'm doing this and it will be a little more worth it.

And....

Sweets. I LOVE candy and cookies and donuts and baked goods. It's all just so good. But, as with soda, I hope that after dinner, when I'm really wanting to have a dessert, or like a Tuesday when I really just want some candy, I'll remember what's really important and remember that I'm sacrificing for something bigger.

Wish me luck! I'm gonna need it!

Happy March!

I'm so excited for March to start! In like a lion, out like a lamb! I'm hoping March brings warm weather and great memories. I'm actually really hoping the whole "in like a lion, out like a lamb" thing isn't true either, because I'm really not into having bad weather this week. It just won't work for my inner temperature.

March is full of great things! St. Patrick's Day is always so fun with all of the green, and the shamrocks, and everything dyed green, and the candy. Somehow everything always reverts back to candy in my head. Geez, I love candy. Anyway, we also have the beginning of spring in March. I love the beginning of spring. This means winter is OVER! I can start to dream about putting away my Snuggie and pulling out my shorts and flip flops. It's also my dad's birthday, and let's face it, my dad is awesome!

In high school my photography teacher told me that on the first of every month, the first thing that should come out of your mouth when you wake up should be "rabbits" and you'll have a whole month of good luck. Unfortunately, I did not say rabbits. I think my first words this morning were, "where did you park the car?". Think that will bring me good luck? I think so too.

Happy March everyone!