2013 In Review

January

• New Year's Party at the Alexander's
• Began first full-time job after my internship ended
• Went wedding-dress shopping with my mom
• and privately teared up in the dressing room
• Ran around scanning things for wedding registry at Bed Bath and Beyond

February

• Managed to survive the month without loosing my phone
• Hopefully broke the curse of "lost phone February"
• Had fun at a Valentine's day party in Los Fresnos Ward
• Broken fridge = midnight bacon frenzy with Loni

March 

• Went to San Antonio for Elizabeth's baby blessing
• Took engagement photos
• Wasted about 40 hours of my life looking at wedding dresses online

April

• Philip and I got our first apartment together
• Said goodbye to rooming with Loni :(
• Time for a new iphone

May

• Last Gentlemang's evening with Bubba here (held at Cici's)
• Drove Phil to ER because of a chemical burn
• Remembered about picking up my college diploma
• Broke frame for diploma 15 minutes after purchasing it (accidentally)

June

• Took braces off (disapproving orthodontist face)
• Awesome bridal shower thrown by mom
• Fun trip to San Antonio with Loni, Kathy, Mark, and Courtney

July

• Married my best friend
• Survived 3 wedding events
• Purchased Claire
• Thought blogging might be fun
• FAILED the cinnamon challenge and thought I was going to die
• Had a meltdown about being a grown up

August

• Got sealed to my brother and parents
• Started figuring out married life
• Almost killed Steve due to an improper oil change
• Perfected extreme couponing at CVS

September

• Broke our washing machine
• Purchased a new washing machine
• Nikki's puppies were born
• Fun weekend getaway at Hill Country Resort
• Philip began commuting to work in Three Rivers

October

• Venom  joined our family
• General Conference Sunday with YSA friends
• Chris got his mission call to Cape Verde
• Finally got to visit my parents and Chris
• Got called as Nursery Workers in 3rd Ward

November

• Registered Venom as a service dog
• Rented a car for the first time
• Rodeo night with Philip, Loni, and Mark
• Best month of the year for movies
• San Antonio trip with hubby

December

• Visited my parents for Dad's 50th birthday 
• Plus celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary on the same day
• Philip started working for GE in San Antonio
• I attempted to quit my current job and was  not very successful
• Starting in January I will be working from home
• Philip came home for Christmas
• Fireworks at my parent's house Christmas Eve
• Spent a weekend in San Antonio with the Wyeth family

2014 Resolutions

New Years is my favorite holiday because there's nothing I like more than a fresh start. I haven't actually made a "resolutions" list for a long time, but I thought it would be a neat idea to do so this time just because I know that 2014 will be a year with many changes and new experiences, and I want to make sure I'm doing a good job keeping up with everything. These are my goals for this next year... some are a more challenging than others, but all are doable. Good luck to me! 

1. Cook or bake 1 thing a week from my "Little Delights" Pinterest board
2. Write to Elder Zuniga every week and send care packages once a month. 
3. Go to the temple at least once a month
4. Pay off all credit cards
5. Complete a legit scrapbook
6. See my parents every month 
7. Read 30 books
8. Go on an out of state trip
9. Complete the 52 Week Money Challenge 
10. Further my education
11. Cross one thing off my Bucket List

Puppy Chow for Christmas

A while ago Loni introduced me to the yumminess that is Puppy Chow (otherwise known as Muddy Buddies) and told me about gifting them in mason jars or cello bags. Of course, I had to give it a try, so after fighting my way through Hobby Lobby crowds, I came home with the following:

• Mason Jars
• Cello Bags
• Cupcake liners
• "Homemade" Stickers
• Christmas ribbon

I used the cupcake liners in order to add some color to the jars. They fit very nicely. 

I centered this sticker on top of the jars just to give it a little extra color. And because I thought they were pretty. 

Placed it inside the cello bag. Hobby Lobby had a pack of these for about .50 cents. 

Last was my least favorite part.... tying the ribbon. My mom once told me that if I tied them upside-down they came out rightside-up. That makes no sense to me, but it worked. 

This was the result, I'm quite proud of them. It took me longer to tie the last bow than it did to tie the first one... Ribbon is NOT my thing. I hope people like these :) 

2013 12 18 Target Haul!

I LOVE COUPONS! I had a few choice items I needed to purchase at Target yesterday, so I took advantage of the trip and planned a "coupon crazy" purchase. These were the results:

Target is awesome because it allows you to use multiple kinds of coupons per item; Target Coupons, Cartwheel Coupons, and Manufacturer Coupons. This coupon "stacking" strategy is what allowed me to get such a great deal. This is what I did: 

• Two Purina One Beyond 3.5lbs dog food, Regular Price $6.89 each
• Used Two $5.15/1 Manufacturer Coupons
• Used One $1.00/1 Target Coupon
• Paid $2.48
• Four Purina Beggin Strips 6oz, Sale Price $2.50 each
• Used Four $3.00/1 Manufacturer Coupons
• Used One $1/2 Target Coupon
• Used 5% off Cartwheel Offer
• Received $3.74 overage
• Two CHEX Cereals, Sale Price $2.00 each
• No coupons, but paid $4.00 total instead of $6.78 regular price
• One package of Chicken Breasts, Regular price $6.99
• Used $3.00/1 Target coupon on package
• Paid $3.99
• One package of Chicken Drums, Regular Price $3.19
• Used $1.00/1 Target coupon on package
• Paid $2.19
• Two Campbells Condensed Soup, Regular Price $1.27 each
• Sale price of $0.65 each
• Used Cartwheel Offer 5% off each
• Paid $0.61 each
• One Nestle Toll House Baking Chocolate Chips, Sale Price $2.79
• Used one $0.50/1 Manufacturer Coupon
• Used Cartwheel Offer 10% Off
• Paid $2.06
• One Market Pantry Peanut Butter, Sale Price $2.29
• Used Cartwheel Offer 5% off
• Paid $2.17
• One Market Pantry Confectioners Sugar, Sale Price $1.69
• Used Cartwheel Offer 5% off
• Paid $1.60
• One Market Pantry dozen eggs (not seen behind chicken), $1.50 sale price
• Used Cartwheel Offer 5% off
• Paid $1.42
• One package of Oscar Mayer Bacon, Regular Price $5.89
• On Sale for $4.99
• Used $0.50/1 Manufacturer Coupon (found on package) 
• Used Cartwheel Offer 25% Off
• Paid $3.36
• One Market Pantry Half Gallon Milk; Sale Price $2.29
• Used Cartwheel Offer 5% off
• Paid $2.17

All together I paid $24.14 for $59.73 worth of items! Thats a 60% Savings! These kinds of shopping trips just make my day =)

He's got Personality

Today Dale asked me if that was my dog on a picture I'd posted on Facebook last Friday. It's this one:

Venom was sleeping on the carpet next to me while I watched a Disney favorite, UP. He woke up as soon as the dogs in it started barking and just sat there barking back at the TV until the scenes were over. It was pretty cute and funny... Dale thought so too. 

After a few stories about his Chihuahua, Dale quoted the following:

"Nobody will ever be able to convince me that animals don't have personalities. They just don't have vocal cords that work like ours."

I was heartfelt, because I couldn't agree more.

 

Therapeutical Baking

Philip has been in San Antonio for 7 days now, and without my other half present, I have been doing a lot of nothing at home. Nothing involves maniac housekeeping (since thing actually stay clean now), watching too many TV show reruns, re-reading old novels, and lots and lots of sleeping. I decided that today should be different than all other days, so I dug around my pantry and made some cupcakes.
I noticed a quick improvement in my mood and in the amount of energy I suddenly had, and the reason was apparent; baking is therapeutic... at least for me. These are the reasons I could think of as to why:

1. Offers Direction and Purpose. Even the simplest "out of a box" cupcakes require careful attention to the steps written on the back of the box. Unless you are an accomplished baker, you can't just "make it up as you go along" and end with a delicious dessert. (It differs from cooking, I think). The simple instructions calm me because they map out exactly what should happen with each step, and tell me what the ending result will be. This offers a break from the many daily tasks of problem-solving and figuring things out as they come at me, so it's a nice way to forget about the worries of the world. 
2. Requires all 5 Senses. In the middle of making a batch of cupcakes, all senses are required. I see the dry and wet ingredients combining into a gooey mush of splattered batter, I feel the firm vibrations of the blender as I mix everything together, I smell the sweet scents of warming sugar and vanilla, I hear my inside voice thinking of the next step, and best of all I taste the cool, soft remains on the spoon as I watch the cupcakes rise in the oven. I can think of no other task which offers simultaneous stimulation of all 5 senses and is also enjoyable. With sight, touch, scent, hearing, and tasting all going on at the same time, it's obvious that I won't think about any other issues but the ones at hand. 
3. Sharing and Enjoying. Such few tasks these days offer a tangible product once finished, so it is nice to be able to eat the darn thing and know I did a good job. Personally, I never bake with the intent of eating the end result. The most enjoyable part of making anything yummy is when I get to share it with others, so this entire batch will most likely go to friends or coworkers. This is one of the primary ways I use to show I care, so even if the process of baking wasn't rewarding enough, I also feel the gratitude of others as we all enjoy a soft, fluffy, semi-messy cupcake together. 

P.S. I suppose point number 4 can be "and then I get to blog all about it in extreme detail!" I suppose this information is best tucked away in a blog rather than posted on facebook for the annoyance of all. I'm finding blogging quite therapeutic as well... mostly because I enjoy the clicks of this particular keyboard, so I use more words than normal. Ok, now I'm just rambling. Over and out! 

San Antonio Bound!

Two mornings ago Philip's phone rang at 6:44am and I was about to grab it and throw it across the room (yes, I hate mornings that much) because I thought it was one of his dozen alarms he used to wake up to go to work.... only he's been unemployed for 3 weeks now. As it turns out, it was a phone call from GE Oil and Gas in San Antonio offering him the job he went to test/interview for last week! I'm very proud of him, 30 others had taken that exam before he did and he was the first to pass it, so that had to be good news from day 1.
He will be driving up to San Antonio tomorrow morning to do paperwork and take a drug test, and is set to start working this coming Monday. We haven't quite figured out when or how we are going to move yet... particularly because our apartment complex is kind of a jerk about breaking our lease. I was shooting to move out there before Christmas, but that is definitely not going to happen. Chances are we will welcome 2014 by traveling to and from from Brownsville to Corpus to San Antonio. (Brownsville is involved because I really want to celebrate New Years with my family).
No matter what happens, I'm super stoked about moving up there... and I'm also super nervous, especially since Wiki told me today that it's the 7th biggest city in the U.S., which I took to mean that I'll be living at the mercy of my GPS. Yay for big changes!

That little red dot is where Philip will be working... somewhere between San An and New Braunfels. Now we need to find an apartment close to that, and then I need to find a nearby job so that commuting won't give me a daily heart attack. 

Sleep Talking... again

Maybe "Sleep Talking" should be a regular blogging subject... This one happened on the night of December 3, 2013. I woke up at 2:30am and realized Phil had fallen asleep in the living room playing Xbox, so I woke him up on my way to get a drink of water and he stumbled into bed somehow.
About half an hour later I was still awake in complete silence and I heard the following:

Phil: Whatever!
Me: Uhm. What?
Phil: Whatever works.
Me: Hey what are you dreaming of?
Phil: Turn off the light
Me: .... do you want me to turn off the light?
Phil: If you want
Me: But the light is already off
Phil: Ok. *continues sleeping* 

So apparently he was dreaming I'd asked if he wanted the lights on or off...  I wanted to keep talking to him and make him say silly things, but decided to let him sleep.

I'm Lovin It

I am currently sitting at a McDonalds in San Antonio eating chicken nuggets and passing the time until Philip calls me to pick him up from a huge building down the road. He was unexpectedly laid off one week and one day ago, and today he is interviewing and taking a test for GE Oil and Gas. If all goes well, we will both be moving to northeast San Antonio in a matter of weeks... most likely before Christmas! The original plan was for him to come by himself, but we decided it would be prudent for me to come along in case he DOES get hired today so that we can look for an apartment (or house) and get to know this part of town better. I have no idea how long this interview and test will take, which is why I came prepared with a fully charged laptop, cellphone, and pocket Sudoku book.
I can't really say how I feel about suddenly moving out of Corpus Christi. I have been excited for January to come so that I can start on my GIS certificate at TAMUCC, but I have also been wanting more for us than just existing... and that's pretty much all there is to do in Corpus. We had always imagined settling down in San Antonio for good, but I just didn't imagine it would come so quickly.
Philip is extremely excited about this job. For starters, it means he actually has a chance at a career with an international company, instead of the usual hit and miss contracts with his previous company who hired and laid off people in a matter of minutes. Although I have been worried about money since he was laid off, I must admit I have loved this past week. The side of Phil that I fell in love with finally came back out after two days of getting enough sleep and not being away from home for 16 hours of the day. (Last night he walked the dog, swept the living room, made dinner, and did the dishes! Plus, today he has promised to fight the crowds at HEB and go grocery shopping with me! Who IS this man? hahaha)
Well, I have now finished eating my 10 chicken nuggets and now it's time to "help" Philip out with his English homework. He's decided his last paper of the semester is going to be about Wonder Woman and I am going to help him find sources to cite. Should take about 20 minutes, I'm good at this stuff.

Tithing Miracles

Each blessing comes through obedience to a certain law, and although I have no doubt in this, there is one particular blessing which has been tried and tested time and time again throughout my life more than any other. It has been easy to see the results because they have always been so immediate, and there is absolutely no way they could have happened without divine intervention. I am talking about the law of tithing. Give the Lord 10% of your earnings, and he will return so many blessings that there will be no room to receive them.
I have chosen to record the many divine wonders in the following list. My only regret is not having done so sooner.

1. November 22, 2013. Philip was unexpectedly laid off 3 days ago and has been searching for a new job ever since. We expected him to keep this job at least for another month and then go right into a different one, so it caught us extremely off guard. Since we are in some debt, all of his high earnings have gone to pay it off what we could, so we hardly added anything to our savings. As of today we are still wondering how we will get through the most expensive months of the year and hoarding as much money as possible. Today, I came back from my lunch break to find a note on my desk from my boss. He has managed this company for over 5 years and never given any sort of bonuses to his employees. This year, however, I found a handwritten Thank-You note and $250 cash. I just want to go over and hug him... but apart from being inappropriate it would be the most awkward moment of my life. There is no doubt in my mind that this was an answer to our prayers. 

Excluders

Its quiet and peaceful in the office today, but probably not for long. Dale's quote of the day is as follows:

"You know what a turtle excluder is? For shrimping, when a turtle gets in the net it's thrown back out and we just keep the shrimp. We need a Miglini Excluder. When Michael comes in and sits at his desk, he get's kicked out of his desk and we don't see him for the rest of the day."

Things About Dam

Remember when "about me" lists were super popular on myspace and facebook just because people love talking about themselves? I loved those. I have just completed a 1-hour project at work which was supposed to take 8 hours, so that's the main reason for this list. It's super fun and relaxing to type away.

1. Daydreaming while driving is probably my favorite pastime 
2. I love making lists, itineraries, plans, brainstorming, etc for any occasion so much that almost 90% of these are hypothetical or fictional. 
3. I can't stand the sound of pencils or colored pencils scratching away on paper. 
4. Organizing things, especially books, is as therapeutic and relaxing for me as neck massage can be for other people. 
5. I firmly believe that creativity spawns from a blank slate, and by blank slate I mean a clean kitchen for cooking, a cleared desk for writing, an organized bedroom for decorating, etc. I apply this to nearly every aspect of my life. 
6. I am a book hoarder, and I am especially drawn to mass-market paperbacks because I can fit more of them on shelves. It frustrates me that when a new book comes out, it is almost always only available in hard-back copies. 
7. Watered-down dish or hand soap is disgusting. 
8. I've secretly always wanted a tattoo. Or several. 
9. I never really learned how to do anything to my hair besides a ponytail or bun. 
10. I have zero tolerance for pain. 
11. I would suck at drinking alcohol... I can't even take NyQuil without acting like a retard. 
12. I can't stand shows like NCIS because the reality of it makes me either depressed or have nightmares or both. Same goes for scary movies. 
13. Whenever I'm having a hard day I go read a Harry Potter book. 
14. I can't fall asleep if my feet are cold. 
15. Fake fingernails are gross. 
16. When books or movies don't have a happily ever after ending, I make my own up and convince myself that that's how it really ended. 
17. I'm a super light sleeper; the softest touch or sound will wake me. 
18. I despise alarm clocks. 
19. I'm not a fan of milk. I think it's strange that humans are the only mammal which still drinks milk after achieving physical maturity. 
20. I'm fluent in Spanish, yet I suck at translating anything. 
21. I love to bake desserts for other people, but if it goes unnoticed I lose all confidence and take it extremely personally and won't make that same thing for a long time. 
22. Cooking is like art to me. Just like a real painting isn't done with a "color by numbers" then a real dish shouldn't be made with a recipe, or else you're just copying someone else's work. 
23. Cicadas and rain are my favorite sounds. 
24. As soon as it starts raining my mood improves, no matter what. 
25. I am not a fan of windy days. 
26. I am annoyingly frugal with some things. Like if I can re-use that piece of aluminum foil 5 times, I will. And I always cut my paper towels in half and use only one piece. 
27. Record-keeping is another therapeutic pastime. I have at least 10 journals and multiple notepads full of seemingly meaningless information. 
28. I despise clutter and hoarding. 
29. I believe that every object in the house should have a permanent "home" of where it should go and not be floating around from surface to surface, like that annoying nail clipper which never stays in the same spot. 
30. I have a hard time writing the letter W and the number 8. I always pause for a second before I write and tell myself "ok, ok, I can do this". 
31. I have ASMR. A dog chewing on a bone will trigger it. I discovered it when I was 5 but didn't realize there was a name for it until two months ago. 
32. I am extremely comfortable with silence. Sometimes I uncontrollably wince when someone starts talking too loudly.  
33. I've already grown bored of this list, but the fact that this is number 33 makes it impossible for me to just stop listing things. 
34. I never thought I looked like either of my parents until sometime this year when random photos were taken of me and I somehow saw my mom in them. Point of interest, it also creeps me out how I open my mouth and my mom comes out sometimes. 
35. For about 5 years I haven't gone a day without applying Burts Bees Lip Balm right after brushing my teeth. 

Sleep Working?

Did ya'll know that Philip talks in his sleep? I'm thinking of sleeping with a notepad next to our bed so that I can write down our conversations. I find it funny that he ALWAYS thinks he's at work. Here's our conversation last night:

Me: I love you boo
Phil: It's what, two-eighths or three-eighths?
Me: uh.... its three-eighths
Phil: ok thanks
Me: what are we talking about?
Phil: the stud against the pipes
Me: Oh ok
Phil: *rolls over and continues sleeping*

Sometimes when he's awake I have trouble understanding what he says, but when he sleep talks he speaks in a very clear voice, and even says thank you! Haha, I love my hubby. Can you believe we've been married for almost 4 months already?! Seems like no time has gone by.

Dystopia

Dale's quote of the day is as follows: 

 "It's funny how we always start talking about Michael and then wind up talking about the apocalypse." 

Reason why this is hilarious: its super accurate

None Ya

I finally got to visit my parents this past weekend after 3ish months of not seeing them. It was great! I played with puppies, ate mom's homemade food, hung out with friends, and basically just relaxed and felt like I was 16 again (hubby had to work and stayed behind).
 The only bad part (and reason for this venting) was the dozen or so ladies in church asking over and over if I was preggers yet. Really? I've been married less than FOUR MONTHS and that's all you can ask? Nothing about "how's married life" or a good old "how are you?" Some went as far as following the preggers question with "oh, well have you gained weight then?" (jerk. I haven't. I've been the same for the past two years.) and others said "oh that's good, but how long do you plan to wait?". That's such a personal question, and quite honestly, none of your business. If it's socially acceptable for you to ask about babies then it should also be socially acceptable for me to ask how much credit card debt you have. None of my damn business, right? Exactly.
By far the worst one was this lady whose name I don't even know lecturing me about contraception. She said things like "why havent you seen a gynecologist yet? I don't understand how girls can even use contraception without even knowing if they're fertile or not." and "if you use condoms you're always going to be stressed out, you're never going to enjoy your relationship." What the hell? what's it to you? I don't even know your name and you're lecturing me and telling me I should get pregnant as soon as possible? As much as I'd like kids some day, this is between my husband and I. Nobody else is going to be raising my children, so nobody needs to be lecturing me about condom usage.
Ugh, makes me so mad. Not even my parents or in-laws ask me about babies, why the hell should I answer to you? So what if I want to wait a little longer? Last I checked age 23 isn't considered old and decrepit yet. It's not like it's a now or never kind of thing. Excuse me for wanting to have a house, career, and education before a baby. Good things take time, and if my children are going to be the best thing that ever happened to me, then you can be damned sure I'm going to plan for them accordingly.

Video making

Packages come and go everyday in our office. Most of the time we just set them in our boss' office because its hunting equipment or some other random toy he found during his impulse Amazon shopping. Today though, I was accompanied up the elevator by a FedEx man with a dolly full of boxes meant for Great Sage (yeah, that's us). He dropped them off on our conference table (pictured) and I happily ignored them and went back to reducing PDF files.

A few minutes later our boss arrived and started tearing them open, and like anything else I ignored it and kept on staring blankly at my monitor. After some fiddling with the equipment he walked up to me, handed me a white umbrella, and said "Hey can you put this together for me? I'm not even going to tell you what it is, other than this white umbrella, you'll figure it out." 

Well... as it turns out... he purchased a green screen. Remember a few "Deal with Dale" posts ago where he sarcastically made a YouTube video advertising a Vessel Monitoring System? Well, it turns out that a real video needs to happen. Dale loves making videos using a green screen, so we think this was purchased simply for his benefit and amusement. 

Job Security

Today as I was casually perusing Pinterest and reducing PDF file sizes (both mind numbing exercises) Dale walked into the office and said "do whatever you gotta do to become a Notary Public by today." 

My reflexive response to any of these kinds of things is an "ok sure" and then frantically Google "how tos" to see how challenging the task actually is. In this case... not so much. 

So I should get my "notary stuff" in 10 to 14 business days, if all goes well. Steve said it's a feeling of empowerment having a stamp that has your name on it. I ordered mine with purple ink, I hope they don't mind. Hmm... does this give me the potential to get paid for signing stuff? 

Office Talk

Today Steve and Dale were talking about how they finish a whole tub of ice cream in one sitting, and then asked if my husband did anything like that. I responded with "I think he's smart enough not to do that when I'm in the house." After thinking about it a few more seconds I said "well, he'll do this thing where he'll finish an entire box of Cheez-Its in one sitting and won't leave any for me."
Both Steve and Dale chuckled with familiarity, and then they went off on how great Cheez-Its are. Here are a few quotes:

• "Walmart has the two pound package, that's where I buy em. HEB only has the one pound."
• "I used to end up with a pile of crumbs on my chest from eating a whole box during a movie. Just took the vacuum hose and sucked them all off before standing up."
• "And Cheez-Its are great, you get all your basic food groups! You get the cheese, you get the "its"..."
• "... you get the red, you get the yellow, you get the crunchy.... that's all you really need."

Oh men. I was warned that in 30 years I'd come home to my husband eating out of the tub of ice cream sitting in his underwear watching TV. Is it bad that I can already picture this? 

Double the Fun

Today's little delight: a basket of chocolates was being passed around during church today. Although I wanted to take two, I knew I should only have one. I reached for a Snickers and was pleasantly surprised to see the packaging was glued to a second snickers bar. It was fate. I was meant to have two chocolate bars today. Nom nom nom. 

100 Awesome Things

So to counteract my "100 Annoying Things" and because I have yet another day of nothing important to do at work (curse this government) here are 100 things that kinda just make your day sometimes. Maybe it's the optimist in me, but this list was much easier than the other one.

1. Thinking of a good movie you want to see and finding it's playing on TV when you get home
2. Waking up to rain
3. Holding a purring cat
4. Opening a new box of crayons
5. The most perfect nacho off the pile
6. Listening to cicadas at night
7. Hugging towels that just came out of the drier
8. Chewing crushed ice on a hot day
9. Finding leftover chinese in the fridge in the morning 
10. Standing on the seashore and letting your feet slowly sink into gooey, wet sand
11. Giving someone a perfect High 5
12. An upbeat song playing on the radio while you're driving fast
13. Pop Rocks
14. Playing "don't let the balloon touch the floor" 
15. When "turning it off and then turning it on again" actually works
16. Finding memes and ecards made just for you
17. Living with someone who doesn't mind killing bugs for you
18. Finding tupperware with tops that go with it
19. Putting your feet up at the movie theatre
20. Strategic trick-o-treating 
21. Getting your hair brushed
22. The other side of the pillow
23. Being friends with someone who's great at telling stories
24. Spur of the moment road trips
25. Contagious smiles
26. Singing, baking, and dancing at the same time
27. Turning on the christmas lights
28. Huge, fun families
29. Cutting stuff with very good scissors
30. Changing from skinny jeans into sweatpants
31. Hitting all the green lights in a row
32. Using a new tube of toothpaste
33. Being super good at a new game
34. Being the first person to use the shower
35. Getting quarters back in change
36. Looking for your birthday on next year's calendar
37. Writing in a brand new notebook 
38. Sneaking really good candy into the theatre
39. Reuniting with old friends like if time hadn't passed by
40. Getting the highest grade on a difficult exam
41. Sharing an enormous roll of bubble wrap with someone
42. Singing show tunes
43. Writing with a super good pen
44. Skinny days
45. A free drink or meal because the manager recognizes you as a regular
46. Visiting the house you grew up in
47. Stories about your parent's childhoods
48. The feeling of airplanes lifting off
49. The day you turn in your last assignment for class
50. Having your mom compliment something good you baked
51. Being so happy you've smiled for hours
52. Dimples
53. Water balloon fights
54. Driving next to a car with cute dogs in the passenger seat
55. Signing things out of boredom
56. Inside jokes
57. Blowing out candles
58. When you text someone out of the blue and they text you at the same time
59. Writing with a perfectly sharpened pencil
60. Completing awesome dreams without waking up and remembering them afterwards
61. Finding money in your winter clothing
62. Finding quarters at the bottom of the washer
63. Humming the Tetris song as you rearrange your pantry or dishwasher
64. Watching cats do dumb, ungraceful things
65. Coming up with the perfect name for a pet
66. Smells that remind you of home
67. Picking up 10 things around the house before the commercials finish
68. Sandwich platters
69. Thunderstorms
70. Playing in the rain
71. Having a full battery when the lights go out
72. Peeling grapefruits
73. Walking into a building behind someone and not having to hold the door open
74. Petting a furry dog with your feet
75. Going through the carwash
76. Clean, cool, crisp air
77. The smell of cookies baking
78. When you laugh in your sleep and wake yourself up
79. The quiet, peaceful atmosphere of a library or bookstore
80. Wearing super big t-shirts around the house
81. When someone brings you back a souvenir
82. Remembering all the words to an old song
83. The Parking Lot Pull Through so you don't need to back out
84. Peeling the plastic off of new, expensive things 
85. Talking your way out of a ticket and bragging about it afterwards
86. Licking the cheeto dust off your fingers
87. Listening to really good piano music
88. Lazy Sundays
89. A fireworks show
90. Matching your underwear with your clothes, but nobody knows
91. Finding a cool new thing that you didn't know your cellphone could do
92. Mom's cooking
93. "Accidentally" spraying people with the hose as you wash your car
94. Dogs that really really like water
95. Spending 2 hours looking for the perfect birthday card
96. Getting something you ordered in the mail
97. Giving yourself a shampoo mohawk 
98. Super fast water slides
99. Theres always room for dessert
100. Spinning around in your office chair

100 Annoying Things

This post makes me sound like I'm angry at the world, but really I just feel like typing away while thinking creatively and listening to Pandora. The boss is gone, my office is empty, and all my work is finished. Let me happily click away at my keyboard until 5-o'clock comes around.

A bunch of bad things that happen to good people... 

1. Getting your back scratched, but the person doing it never finds the itchy spot 
2. Biting into nothing but lettuce in your Subway
3. When you're about to get out of the car and your favorite song finally comes on
4. Being asked "how was work?" for the millionth time and having to give a boring, bland response
5. Your paper towel not tearing off all the way on the perforated line
6. People asking you questions over dinner when all you want to do is chew and chew and chew
7. Forgetting to bring your new bottle of shampoo and conditioner into the shower with you
8. Realizing you didn't lock the front door after getting into bed
9. Waiting for that one extremely slow driver to pass before you can pull out into traffic
10. Having 3 socks loose their sole-mates after doing laundry
11. Getting hiccups right as you're about to fall asleep
12. Reading something in which the oxford comma is not used
13. The TV volume not being on an even number
14. Leaving the McDonalds drink in your cup holder overnight and coming back to a puddle of watered down Dr.Pepper when you try to throw it out. 
15. Perfectly quoting a movie at the right time and then nobody gets it
16. Finding shelves cleared of an item I had a coupon for
17. Food not heating evenly in the microwave
18. Drying my hands with damp towels
19. Getting licked by a dog who just drank out of the toilet
20. Mispronouncing a word because I was thinking of it in Spanish and now I sound stupid
21. Items falling into the black hole between the seat and center console in the car
22. The pain in your hands as you carry all your grocery bags up the stairs
23. Washing out old food in greasy tupperware containers
24. Finding a bird pooped on the car you washed 3 hours ago
25. Or worse: having a bird poop on the door handle of the car you washed 3 hours ago
26. Driving behind a person that can't decide where they're going
27. Your pen running out of ink during an intense note-taking session
28. Pouring a bowl of cereal and finding out there's no milk
29. The vending machine eating your last dollar
30. Forgetting to turn off the alarm for a Saturday morning
31. Having to talk on the phone after running up the stairs
32. Never finding your name on personalized key chains
33. Coming home and realizing you forgot to take out the smelly trash in the kitchen
34. Having "Lion King" hair days
35. Dumb cashiers that smash your bread while bagging the groceries
36. Someone biting into a Kit Kat without sharing
37. Getting asked "do you work here" when I try to fix things on shelves at Walmart, even when I'm wearing basketball shorts and a hoodie
38. Finding out that part of the outfit you planned to wear today is in the laundry
39. Being woken up during the best part of your dream
40. Finishing a good book and feeling empty inside
41. Not getting a compliment on the dinner you just spent 3 hours and half your grocery budget on
42. Having to reset the password because of 3 failed attempts
43. People talking on the phones in libraries
44. Paper cuts on my fingertips
45. Fighting with a new toy's packaging for 3 hours because I can't find a pair of scissors
46. Someone altering the seat and mirrors in my car
47. Finding toast crumbs in your butter
48. People who ask about every single item on the menu before ordering a #1 with a Coke
49. Having to explain the same thing 4 times because your husband won't pause the game. 
50. Sitting on a damp bench 
51. Someone talking an unattractive photo of you and posting it on Facebook 
52. The price tag leaving behind an ugly, sticky residue on a gift
53. Taking forever to find the perfect temperature in the shower
54. Burning my tongue at the beginning of a meal and not being able to taste anything afterwards. 
55. Hitting every red light because of that one car that cut in front of you
56. Stepping on something wet while wearing socks
57. Having to fill up on gas right after the price went up
58. Finding an awesome shirt on sale and not finding your size... like why you gotta play me like that? 
59. When you try to watch your favorite movie but none of your friends find it interesting
60. When you wake up in the middle of the night and one of your arms is asleep for no apparent reason. 
61. Finding nasty stuff under your fingernails
62. Discovering your t-shirt is inside out halfway throughout the day
63. Being the driver on a long road trip and having everybody in the car fall asleep
64. Driving into the sun and having no sunglasses 
65. Having a human giraffe sitting in front of you at the movie theatre
66. Getting a sunburn that leaves marks of what you wore
67. Receiving multiple responses from unknown phone numbers after being the recipient of a mass text
68. Having to get up out of an extremely comfortable couch
69. Stepping into an ant pile
70. Finding a hole in your favorite shirt
71. The day when your shoelaces don't want to stay in a knot
72. Sounds at the dentists office
73. Things getting in your eyes during a very windy day
74. Seeing someone take a sip of your drink thinking it's theirs
75. Finishing a puzzle only to find there are missing pieces
76. Forgetting there's stuff in the oven until it starts to smoke
77. Being really hungry and the food you're trying to eat is super hot and you burn your tongue with every bite
78. Waiting an entire week for the next episode to come out
79. Spammers on Craigslist
80. Picking the slowest line at the grocery store and watching all the other lines move faster
81. People who complain about being fat but are obviously the skinniest person in the group
82. Parents who swear at their children
83. Finding thirteen half-finished water bottles in your kitchen
84. Dealing with people that think they're above the rules
85. Getting asked when you plan to have kids
86. Tiny dogs that bark excessively
87. People whose emotions are all based on how well their team is doing
88. Having to reset all the clocks in the house
89. When an idiot says "literally" but they're supposed to use "figuratively" instead
90. Hearing the word "like" 5 times per sentence
91. Plucking my eyebrows. It's so painful. 
92. Always messing up the first pancake  
93. Wanting to sneeze but not being able to
94. Getting slapped because someone was trying to kill a mosquito on you and missed
95. Mistakenly using the conditioner before the shampoo
96. Hitting your shin on the ball mount hitch of a truck
97. Stubbing your toe in the dark
98. Chapped lips and no chapstick
99. Game requests on Facebook. Seriously, nobody cares about you Farm. 
100. Missing a step going down the staircase

President Pickles

I work at an Innovation Center where people with new and innovative businesses ideas can join and get help with pretty much anything they need to get their companies started. We partner with the University and pretty much use grad students to do all the leg-work (this is how I found my job). Our company has officially "Graduated" from this program and now we have to move out of the building before the end of the year, so we've been frantically trying to find a new location.
Today while Johnette and I were focused on our jobs trying to get things done, Dale walked in with a very important announcement. He said "I have some news that will benefit You and You (pointing at each of us). As of September 1, 2013 it is officially legal to sell up to $50,000 worth of pickles (this is the part where we stopped taking him seriously and looked back at our computer screens) out of a house or garage and not have to pay taxes on them. This is a "new and innovative" idea that can help us stay another 3 years in this building if we want to."
This proclamation was followed with general laughter and then a quick dismissal. This is the most common reaction we all have to the Dale's news of the day. I have to say... if he was serious about selling his homemade pickles I'd totally be down for it, they're awesome. But as for now, I must focus on finding this company a new place to live before we're evicted :(

Venom Joins Our Family

 

So everyone knows I've been wanting a dog for years now, right? And apartment living makes things a little trickier. I had sort of put the "I want a puppy" thing on the back burner until we got a house, but this huge little guy joined our family last night. Family friends (Bolsters) had a litter of black labs and he was the last one to find a new home. I first held him when he was about a month old, but since I also held all his siblings I have no idea which of them he was, and I had no idea I would be bringing him home so much later.
He's at Phil's parents for the moment... while we puppy proof our place. He is only 15 weeks old here and already much larger than Bandit and Ice Dog.
 Last night I was subject to the Wyeth Tradition of Pet Naming, which is an official 30-minute meeting where family members get to suggest and elect the right name. Here is a list of all the ones we came up with, the highlighted ones are my suggestions:

Duke

Diesel

Tzar

Vader

Galaxy

Trojan

Loki

Thor

Smash

Taber

Oakley

Ray Ban

Bane

Venom

Carnage

Black Jack

Bullet

Texas

Shadow

Thunder

Mosby

Black Pearl

Goofy

Wait-for-it

After two rounds of voting and eliminating our least favorites, we ended with the top contenders of Diesel, Vader, Loki, Oakley, Venom, and Mosby. I think I'm awesome at names, and as you can tell... the top 6 were all my suggestions. After another round of votes the top two were Vader and Venom. I didn't know which one to go with, but Venom won hands down in the end (5 out of 5 votes). 

He is just the cutest dog! He walks perfectly on the leash, naturally knows how to retrieve things I throw, is potty trained, and got the hang of the "Sit" command within 2 minutes. I plan to register him as a Comfort Dog, which gives him the same privileges as working dogs and can therefore be taken anywhere (stores, airplanes, etc.). Let's see what new adventures this huge puppy brings to our lives. 

Not Just A Quote

I came across this during my Pinterest browsing. It's so great. I needed to hear it.

Morning Commute

My hubby was transferred to work in a refinery a looong ways away, and today is Day One of him commuting almost 3 hours every day. He woke up at 4am and got ready to head out (work starts at 7am) and I couldn't help feeling sorry for him. I'm very grateful for his sacrifice to drive out there and back every day in order to support us and feel blessed to have married such a dedicated, hard-working guy. I plan to take this opportunity to double the efforts on my side and improve my "wifey-homemaking" skills, starting with making a better effort at cooking dinner. Philip will probably arrive home around 7:30pm, work on homework for an hour-ish, and then be in bed by 9pm every day for the next 4 months.

Sigh.... it's gonna be a long fall. 

1.5 hours there, and 1.5 hours back home.
Maybe we should just move to San Antonio. 

Vessel Monitoring System

For no good reason our boss asked Dale to make a YouTube video promoting a new VMS (vessel monitoring system) that we don't have yet, but will probably purchase at a discount rate from the company and then resell at a higher price. Dale's getting pretty annoyed with our boss' weird antics (this is a useless project) and made this video to send to him. Hopefully he gets the point... this isn't happening.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7q5FTmZz0gk&feature=youtu.be

At 1:05 in the video you can see me laughing hysterically over Dale's right shoulder.
Today was a good day.

Cheez-Its Chicken

So I think I've almost perfected my Cheez-Its Chicken recipe. I saw an idea of it on Pinterest long ago but I only browsed through the pictures and didn't really read the ingredients list. That's nothing new, this is the same method I use for everything I cook. It's like art. To me, following a step-by-step recipe is much like a color-by-numbers activity... someone else's creation and not your own. Making dinner last week I finally decided to record what I do since I was sure it would turn out delicious. I was not disappointed.

Ingredients: 5 boneless chicken breasts, 1 egg, cayenne pepper, 2 cups of Cheez-Its, 1 package of cream cheese, 1 bag of shredded cheese (any kind you'd like).

Does this chicken look a little strange? That's because I had it marinating in a lime juice and cayenne pepper mixture for an entire day beforehand. Yum. I highly recommend it. 

Step Fun. I mean, Step One: Take your two cups of cheez-its, put them in a zip-lock bag, and crush them to a powder. Finer = better. 

Step Two: Beat egg and add Cayenne pepper to the mix if desired. I like my spices :)

Step Three: Microwave the cream cheese to soften it. Do it in increments of 30 seconds. 

Step Four: Once cream cheese is soft and malleable, add in the shredded cheese and mix it up. It will turn into a thick, doughy ball of stickiness. If this is too challenging, add a small quantity of melted butter or olive oil to soften, or microwave for another 30 seconds. 

Step Five: Take chicken breasts and split open about 3/4 of the way. It helps to press down with flat hand and come down to eye level with the chicken, that way you make sure to cut it correctly. 

It should look something like this. Like open wings. 

Ready for the messy part? 

Step Six: Dip chicken into egg mixture. Make sure its completely coated all around. 

Step Seven: Coat thoroughly with Cheez-It crumbs on both sides. You will get it all over your fingers, its inevitable. 

This is a messy job. 

Step Eight: Be Prepared. Take a baking sheet, cover with aluminum foil, and spray with cooking spray. 

Step Nine: Spoon cream cheese mixture into chicken. I was a little too generous with mine and it oozed out while baking, so maybe use about a good sized spoon-full. Fold it well into the chicken. 

Step Ten: I use two toothpicks per chicken breast to keep the folds in place and the insides from spilling out during the baking time. It's easy to pull them out afterwards. Arrange (hopefully neater than I did) onto baking sheet. Cook in oven at 350 deg F for about 45 minutes. 

I should have mentioned... this makes for twice the amount of cream cheese stuff than what you need. I always spoon my leftovers into a zip lock and use them next time... this is a weekly meal at our house so it never lasts longer than that.

Regretfully, we were too excited/famished by the time I finished this meal to stop and photograph our food before we ate it. I can attest that it is delicious, simple to make, and goes with pretty much any side you can think of. Hope you like it!
Hubby's Quote: Why are you giving recipe secrets to everyone out there? We are going to open a restaurant with this! (he says that every time... its that good)

Washing 'Chine

I think I broke our old washing machine the other day...? I had a small blanket and 4 pillowcases in there (not even half full) and halfway through the rinse cycle it started making very loud banging noises. I Googled and YouTubed possible problems and fixes and never came up with anything. Philip tried taking it apart and checking for broken springs or couplings and there wasn't anything wrong with those either.
We ended up at Best Buy on Saturday and picked out this one here. It's a high efficiency washer so it doesn't have that rotator thing in the middle.
So far I love it. It adjusts the water level according to how much stuff is in there, and yesterday I easily fit a fluffy king-size comforter in there without a problem. It also plays a rather melodic tune to let us know it's done washing stuff. Only negative aspect so far: it locks the lid as soon as you hit Start, so I have to make sure to hunt down those socks under the bed before I start a cycle.
Also, off to the side you can kind of see my growing stockpile of laundry detergent. (I'm addicted to buying laundry detergent. Don't ask) The shelves they're sitting on I purchased from Walmart ($13!) out of necessity because their old shelf (seen above the WD) couldn't take the strain any longer.

Closet Clear-Out

I somehow ended up with some extra money this week (never happens) and had a particularly boring day at work. I've been in a shopping mood lately so I headed over to Ross looking for anything which might steer me away from the usual "jeans and a T-shirt" attire. This is what I found:

Not a very impressive photograph, but that's because it wasn't meant to illustrate anything special. Total price was $45 (I shop clearance) and now I have dress slacks, a yellow blouse (I didn't own anything yellow previously), some cute cutoff jeans, summery-looking wedges (its still hot around here) and a gorgeous lace maxi dress that I purchased without even trying on, it was so pretty.

I had previously committed to a rule of "one thing in, two things out" and followed it. The following is a picture of the stuff I dug out of my closet and put into a "For Goodwill" box. For every new item that went in, two old items came out.

What came back out were 3 jeans, 1 white capris, 4 shirts, 2 skirts (one of them NEVER worn), 1 pair of black pumps that I never mastered walking around in (worn ONCE), and 1 pair of black suede mid-thigh boots that I couldn't ever figure out how to wear gracefully. I doubled the amount of the shirts coming out since I have too many. 12 pieces of clothing later.... my closet looks exactly the same. 

Maybe I just need to keep on buying clothes.... ;)

Peanut Butter Oreo Cookies

Today Dale came back from a shopping trip to HEB with nothing but coffee and a package of Peanut Butter Oreo Cookies. His direct quote was

Don't you dare try those, they're dangerous!

Nobody heeded his advice.

New to Scripture Marking

Two weeks ago the YSA started a new institute course on The Book of Mormon. Institute has become so ingrained in my weekly routine over the past 4 years that I didn't even realize I'm no longer required to attend since I graduated two semesters ago. Our current missionary couple, the Petersens, didn't seem to mind the attendance of a married couple, so we showed up anyway.
I looked at this fresh start as an opportunity to find a good method for marking my scriptures since I've been wanting to purchase a new set but don't want to randomly start coloring all over it. I spent some time reading other peoples' own methods and didn't quite agree with any. Many used as many as 10 or 15 colors to mark very detailed subjects, and it almost felt like I would be doing a word search across an entire book.
The last thing I wanted was something like "how many times can you find a mention of Jesus Christ" because then my attention would be just on that and not on properly reading the scriptures. After some thought I started to make my own little chart and this is what I came up with:

• Patriarchal Blessing: Blue. Anything that relates to promises given in my patriarchal blessing or that remind me of something mentioned in there would be outlined in blue. 
• Personal Revelation: Green. Many times I receive thoughts that have absolutely nothing to do with the lesson at hand, but on how to deal with current issues or problems that need solving. When this happens, I mark the scripture in green and write my "message" on a green post it and leave it on the page. It's a great method for me because I never remember anything unless I write it down. 
• One-Verse Wonders: Orange. There seemed to be a need for this particular reference because some scriptures just hit home right away, and they don't always fall into any other category besides snapping me to attention. 
• Scripture Mastery: Red. This choice was made for me about 8 years ago when I started seminary. The bright red color on a page always meant there was a scripture mastery on there, and it was so ingrained into me that Red = To Memorize that it's now impossible to change it. This is a good opportunity to go back and re-learned whatever I might have forgotten. 
• Golden Promises: Yellow. Nothing motivates me more into action than the promise of a prize... this applies to life in general. I thought it would be a good idea to point out these scriptures and actually get me going. 
• Did You Know?: Purple. This one is not actually listed in my chart because I didn't know I'd be using a 6th color until about 15 minutes into my first institute lesson. It quickly became apparent that it had to be put to good use and mark facts that I had previously been ignorant to. 
• Questions: Pencil. My thought process: once the question has been answered I can go back and erase. 
• Cross References - Pen. My thought process: Cross-references will remain the same forever, so might as well mark the ones I find and make life easier. 

So far I am quite pleased with my method because it makes scripture marking a lot more personal. If several people would apply it, everyone's scriptures would look completely different. I'm working hard to finish the entire Book of Mormon with this system, and when I do I'll treat myself to a new scripture set and start all over again! 

CVS shopping trip 9/8

Today I did a CVS shopping trip and was so pleased with the results that I tacked the receipt up on the wall for a few hours.  My total was supposed to be $54.38 and all I paid out of pocket was $1.66 after coupons and Extra Bucks. I was amazed that I somehow ended paying less than the price of the newspaper ($2) I was there to buy. All in all, one of my best purchases, plus I walked away with $14 in Extra Bucks (store credits) for next time! 

I now have: 3 bottles of Purex laundry detergent, 2 Bengay tubes, 3 Carmex lip balms, 3 packets of mini Hershey's, 2 Colgate Total toothpastes, and 1 Softsoap hand soap. Yay for stockpiling! 

lucky craigslist find

Yesterday I was doing my daily perusing of craigslist furniture. I don't even know why I look for stuff in there so often... maybe it's because it feels like a city-wide garage sale that I don't actually have to walk around in. Towards the end of my 'craigslist time' for the day, I came across an ad for a bookshelf for $40 and opened it up. I didn't expect much since nice bookshelves go for much more than that, but I was pleasantly surprised to find this one! The previous owner had purchased it for $140 two months ago for her son's bedroom, but was disappointed when it was not the "barn red" color she'd expected. This might be a boring story, but it just made my day.

 I was texting with Philip, who apparently had a slow day at work, and advised him to come searching for me in case I didn't show up again. He was nice enough to ask what kind of sandwich I wanted him to bring along after rescuing me, but thankfully neither one of those things was necessary. 

  I received A TON of pretty picture frames as wedding gifts, and my issue so far has been not having any flat surfaces to put them on, so they've been sitting in a drawer for over a month. So yay! I finally get to display them! I took extreme pleasure in filling up this bookshelf, organizing things, and making room for more books on my other one. Another great thing about this story.... we have a visit to Half-Priced Books coming up this afternoon to look for some of Philip's textbooks. Yay!