Goodbye (for 2 weeks)

The craziness that is my life continues...

I just cannot catch up in the blogworld and it stresses me out. Blogging isn't supposed to be stressful, right?!

The next few days will be a rush to get about a million things done and then I'm heading to a place where stress is not allowed...the beach!

Hopefully I will come back tan, refreshed, and ready to catch up on my favorite blogs that I love so much.

One more thing....



Happy Birthday Lydia!


Can't wait to officially celebrate with you!

Amazing.

I just saw these two performances live.





I can die happy now.

No Time to Think

I have been busy busy busy lately. And it will never end!

Is there ever a moment when you have absolutely nothing to do? Even if you have nothing scheduled in on your planner there are always things like getting an oil change, going through your mail, depositing paychecks at the bank, blogging, and so on.

Life is stressful, but I love it...

So, instead of doing my usual weekend recap, I decided to steal an idea from this wonderful blogger and reflect on the good and bad from this past week.

The Good:

• Pajama Day with a bunch of two year olds
• Successful IKEA trip (every trip to IKEA is successful because it is the happiest place on earth).
• Taking photographs of Nick's band while they were recording in a professional recording studio.
• Five Guys Burgers and Fries
• Totally renovating my classroom with my co-teacher who also happens to be my sister, Jackie. I am so proud of how the room looks.
• Celebrating my Grandma's 79th birthday.
• Watching this video with my momma.
  
  

When my mom was younger she had a yellow notebook where she would write lyrics of all of her favorite songs. On the cover of the notebook it says, "Words and words are all I have to take your heart away." It also says, "Bee Gees are baad!" Haha.

Well, a few years ago I found the notebook and it become my favorite thing ever because I also had a yellow folder thing where I would put copies of my favorite song lyrics without even knowing my mom's notebook existed. My mom gave me her notebook (or maybe I just took possession of it). This song by the Bee Gees is one of my favorites now for so many reasons. And its still my Momma's favorite.

(Back to "the Good" list)

• Spending IKEA time with my sisters and nephews.
• Going out to a couple low-key bars with Jackie and her Nick. And playing the photo hunt game.
• Spending Saturday with my Nick. Walmart included, even though Walmart stresses me out.
• Laughing insane amounts with Jackie about me sounding like an elephant when she dropped a ladder on my leg, me thinking the word "swamp" was "muppy," and her saying "Who is chicken?!" at Taco Bell.
• Finishing another Nick Photography project. This week the theme was Roads.

Exhibit A: Exhibit B:

The Bad:

• Not getting enough sleep.
• Running out of time in my days.
• Driving through the worst thunderstorm I have ever experienced. The lightening was literally striking right in front of me.
• Stressing out way too much.
• Not eating as healthy as I should have.
• The chain broke on my beautiful necklace that Jackie and Lydia gave me for my birthday.

There you have it.

One quick embarrassing story before I go.

Jackie, her Nick, and I were in the car and he was singing Alanis Morissette's, "Ironic." When we got out of the car in front of his house I just started belting it out. I wasn't even trying to sing it well...I was just singing loud and obnoxious.

He lives in a duplex kind of thing with pretty steep stairs leading up to his porch, so you can't see if anyone is up there....for example, a neighbor sitting in a chair listening to a girl sitting Ironic at the top of her lungs.

Ha, it was pretty funny. And Nick knew he was up there the whole time listening. What a punk.

Have a grrreat week!

"Darling, I don't know how to tell you this, but there is a Chinese family in our bathroom."

The primary motivation for me keeping up with this blog is to document my life, so I can look back in a year or two or fifty and remember all the details. So, please bear with me while I recap the past week of my life.

Friday (as in, a week ago): Nick's best friend, Austin, was in town for the week. He's from Ohio like us but has been living in Florida for the past few years because of school. He brought along his good friend, DMac.

We all just stayed at Nick's for the night and played about a million games of beer pong. I know I am officially an adult with a full time job, but pong is always gonna be my game. And I am competitive.

Nick and I used to get in fights all the time over it. It got so bad that Austin made the rule that Nick and I could never play each other, or be on the same team. I like to think that we've matured a little bit and could handle it now, but we all still say that the only reason Nick and I would ever break up is because of beer pong. Ha!

DMac and I are rivals in pong. In fact, he calls me his arch-nemesis, which is saying something because he is known as "The Shotmaker." Before he flew up here he challenged me to a game. I seriously haven't played since the last time he was here in the winter, and I know they play all the time in Florida. This game of pong was a big deal. We had pump up music, including "The Eye of the Tiger." Haha. It's pretty intense stuff.

We played the best out of three and long story short, I lost. And I'm bitter about it. But, it was an amazing game. I was 1-2 and we went cup for cup the entire time.

The rivals

Saturday: I got my hair done which is pretty much my favorite thing ever. I love bangs.


That night Nick and his band had a gig. It went amazing, as always. Afterwards we all went back to Nick's and stayed up until 6am playing pong (of course) and Apples to Apples. Ah, to be young.

Sunday: Nick, Deece, and I went out on the boat all day. My favorite part was when we anchored the boat and Nick and I had a jumping competition. Deece would tell us what kind of jump to do, then we would jump off the boat and he would score us both and decide who did better. Nick won the can opener, and the flip. But I won the flying squirrel, which, lets face it, is the best one anyway.

Monday: Nothing exciting. Just work and lots of errands afterwards.

Tuesday: This was a great day. After work we all loaded up in Austin's car and headed to the Tractor Pull. The tractor pull is basically the highlight of my summer. This is the third year that I have gone with Nick and Austin and everyone else, and I just love it. Yes, I might be part hillbilly. I accept that.

Wednesday: Jackie, Lydia, and I went to Baja Sol for a drink and appetizers after work. Then, we saw (500) Days of Summer.

What can I say about this movie? Amazing, artistic, original, refreshing, realistic. I am in love.

When I first saw the preview for this movie I got..."The Feeling." The feeling is...when I just know that a movie can potentially be my favorite. Part of the reason I got "the feeling" for this movie is because Regina Spektor's song is in the preview and she is uh-maz-ing.

I have only gotten "the feeling" for one other movie and that was "Across the Universe." I'd have to say ATU is still my number one favorite movie, but (500) Days of Summer is now my number two.

Another great thing about the movie? We bought Gushers before and ate them during. Gushers make everything a million times better.

Thursday: Nick called me after work and wanted to grab some dinner. In the midst of our pizza I convinced him to go see 500DoS with me. So, yes....I saw that movie twice in two days.

We asked the movie people if I could have the poster when they're done with it, but they said no. Laame.

Friday: Tonight I am just laying low and relaxing. I love these nights.

Ok, there it is. Enjoy your weekend!

Fake Accents

"Dating in the Dark" is quickly becoming my favorite show, probably because there is nothing else on that I usually watch. But, its entertaining and I enjoy it.

A couple weeks ago there was a girl on the show who had a really thick Boston accent.

Ever since then I have been thinking in my head with this accent. It mostly comes out with the words "hot dog" and "car."

If you're thinking I'm crazy right now, you might be right.

But, I have this thing with accents.

Most of the time I just have a little Southern accent. When I used to work at the restaurant people would always ask me where I'm from and wouldn't believe me when I said Ohio.

When I drink, I become really Southern. The "y'alls" start flowing like nobodies business. The accent is actually how people know I've been drinking.

I don't know where it comes from...it just happens.

Actually, I blame part of it on my oldest sister. When she was in her early teens she made up some crazy fake accent because she wanted to be different from everyone else. I love it. Way to be an individual Stephie!


But back to thinking with accents....

My high school Spanish teacher was very very fluent in the language. We used to ask her if her thoughts would be in Spanish or English. She said it was about 50/50. Same with her dreams. Since I'm not bilingual, I just find this fascinating.



In other very captivating news, I have been doing Level TWO of The Shred.

I believe Jillian says something along the lines of, "I want you to feel like you're going to die!" and "I want you gurgling your heart by the time we're finished with this cardio!"

Mission accomplished Jill...Mission accomplished.


And because a photo makes every blog post better....

These photos are almost a year old but still make me laugh. My family was apple picking and we stopped to take a photo of the Grandparents/Grandchildren.

FYI: this was a very windy day as you'll see in the second picture. I think my mom and baby Nate have the best expressions...

Firetrucks, Smore's, and Josh Hartnett

I'm just going to throw this out there....

I live at home. Like, my parent's home.

I know, I know...I am in my 20's and it might be seen as a tad bit pathetic, but it works for me right now. Money is tight and my former roommate and I basically wanted to tear each other apart limb from limb, so moving back home just made sense. (Side note: we are friends again). And the whole no rent thing is nice.


So...on to the good stuff.

On Saturday evening I was driving home from Nick's when I saw a firetruck up a distance in the road. My first thought was, "Oh my gosh, that cannot be at my house." But then I drove up and saw another one on the side of the house. I started to panic just a bit and prayed everyone was ok, especially because my two nephews were there for the weekend.

I jumped out of my car and hustled over to to my parents who were holding my nephs and asked what was going on. They said my mom was baking two pans of brownies when the stove burst into flames. Those poor brownies.

Everything turned out just fine. The house was really smokey for a couple of days and a new stove needs to be purchased, but all in all no biggie.

And Shane loved the firetrucks and firemen.

Wanna see the brownies?





When one of the firemen saw them he said, "Hey, that's what my wife's brownies always look like!"

Shane was still totally interested in eating them. He is a sugar addict. Seriously.

Papa entices Shane...Does he take the bait?!



Of course!


Don't worry....we didn't really let him eat that.


On Sunday we went to my Gma's for a little cookout. Nothing tastes better than fire-roasted hot dogs, Gma's homemade salsa, and Smore's. Mmmm...it was heaven.



How cute is this little man?!


I love them more than words can say!

I have one more random story...

Jackie and I finally saw the new Harry Potter movie yesterday. We have a tradition that before every HP movie we go to Wendy's and eat a #1 with cheese, a Sprite, and honey mustard. It was delicious as always.

On the way home we were reminiscing about all of our sisterly feuds back in our younger days, and trust me there were a lot. I love my two older sisters but we used to battle it out, mostly verbally but quite a few physical fights as well. They were never over anything important, but petty little stuff. My mom always used to tell us we would be best friends when we were older and we never believed her...but she was right like always.

Well, I have to share a fight story with you because it cracks me up....

We were both teenagers and Jackie was really into Josh Hartnett. The movie, Pearl Harbor, had just come out and I had already seen it, but she hadn't. She really wanted to see it and I'm sure she had plans to go.

So, there we were yelling at each other for who know what. That's when it happened. Jackie said something that really must have made me mad because I screamed at the top of my lungs, "JOSH HARTNETT DIES AT THE END OF PEARL HARBOR!"

I just remember her bursting into tears immediately. I also remember I felt terrible as soon as the words left my mouth. I tried to play it off like a joke by saying, "Or maybe not. I just said that to throw you off." Or something like that.

Nick has two brothers and he seriously has the best childhood fight stories. The best ones involve a brick and a giant rubber band. That would be awesome if he could guest blog for me and tell the stories, because they are hysterical!

I'll work on it.