Oh hi...I'm on the west coast now :)

Whoa, blogger is ALL different! This is going to take some time to get used to.

So I've been living on the west coast for exactly one month now. Wait, that's a lie. One month and two days. Crazy.

I'm short on time, so this is a lame post.

Since I last posted...

• I moved to Washington! woooo!!!
• I finally live with my husband! (what a concept!)
• We have Patrick with us all day, every day!
• I work full time from home.
• Working from home has its pros and cons. I really miss my work friends and I hardly ever leave the house. I really really really really really miss my work friends. 
• I am pretty desperate for friends, sooooo I volunteered to lead a book club in the FRG. wtf. I'm not really one to lead things, and here I go emailing the FRG leader saying if she didn't have a leader for it already, I would gladly do so! Desperation at it's finest. Now I have to organize a book club and all that stuff. Yes, I googled it and got Oprah's advice. 
• We went to Seattle last weekend and redeemed a groupon my sister got us as a wedding gift! It was a gondola ride up Mt. Rainier! It was pretty cloudy up at the top of the mountain and rainy, so it wasn't that great of a view. But we decided we'd go back in the spring time when it's nicer weather. We were on a tour bus with a bunch of other people and had a fun time. We got back to Seattle early enough that we were able to check out Pikes Place! I got a beautiful bouquet of dahlia's and can't wait to go back!! 
• We have sooooo much exploring to do in this area. I can see Mt. Rainier from my home office on a clear day. We ride our bikes a lot and I'm trying to learn how to hop curbs on it. Last time I tried though, I got hurt and I've been scared to try it ever since. (don't get too excited, I didn't completely fall off my bike - as awesome as that would have been - I just pulled an arm muscle and dug my pedal into my calf.  

Now I must go walk Patrick in the drizzly rain and then go crawl into our brand new king size bed (delivered today!) without Seth because he is working late.

I hope to be back reading/posting regularly soon!!!

Embarassing

Today I went to to the mall on a hunt for a gray suit to match Seth's for the wedding. I saw this guy who appeared to be rearranging ties on a display rack like a store employee. I go up to him and start talking to him, telling him my story and what I'm looking for. "I'm getting married in July and I'm looking for a light gray suit and I'm not having any luck..." The guy was getting a small smile on his face as I kept talking and I was thinking in my head he must have had the prefect suit in mind and was getting excited to show it to me.

Nope.

When I finally paused for a second, he said, "I'd love to help you find a nice gray suit, but I don't even work here!"

Luckily he found it hilarious, while I felt like a major nerd. I told him he threw me off because he was rearranging ties on the display rack and he said he was just putting one back. I couldn't get out of that department fast enough.

Oh humility, you got me today.

P.S. I'm back in Michigan and home and all that good crap. It sucks being home, not gonna lie.

Sheer

I have a slight obsession with perfumes. Specifically designer perfumes: Kenneth Cole, Burberry, Dior, Armani, Calvin Klein. We're all BFFs. (My mom is the same way; we have a 2 person perfume club, and we share back and forth. So this is not all that I we have).


My favorite scent has changed many times over the years but I don't know if I've ever had a "scent." You know, the one that if people smell, they will likely think of you. I just love so many that mine changes all the time.

Insert Burberry's Sheer into my life. I think I got this last spring. It's one perfume I can't seem to share and let my mom take for a few weeks. It is the perfect scent and I'm obsessed with it. It's a very girly smell, clean and fruity and floral and can go with any outfit, in my opinion. Plus, the bottle is pretty: light pink signature Burberry plaid. It puts a smile on my face when I get a whiff of it. The other day, I was talking a walk to a building with some coworkers and I found myself smelling my gloves like a weirdo. The gloves smelled like this perfume and it made me happy.

I'll definitely be wearing this on our wedding day!!

Do you have a favorite perfume? What kind do you wear?

Happy Snow-Day!! :)

Today is a snow day at work/school. I still have to come to work, but it’s much quieter and I’m able to get caught up on a lot of things. Such as blogging about what my cubicle looks like.

It’s very pretty – we have carpet from the 60’s…hell, maybe earlier than that. It’s orange and brown and really nasty. It’s never vacuumed, it’s never dusted in here, and it’s never cleaned by our “custodians.” I have my own Lysol bleach wipes that I regularly sanitize my desk with, but I surely don’t haul my vacuum into work each week and clean it up.

The last few weeks, since it’s started getting colder out and our heat has been turned on….our heat has been full force. I think we have radiator type heat and water runs through the pipes. There is, I’m sure, a minimum of 4.2459 inches of dust built up on these heaters and when the heaters are heated, it heats up the dust and spreads it like… magical fairy dust. I’m sure my lungs are black, like a lifelong smoker’s, yet I’ve never smoked a cigarette in my life, all because of the air “quality” (I use that term very loosely) in here. So the heaters are on full blast and it’s been hotter than hell in here (mind you, I’m always very cold…I’ve always got my own personal heater AND a blanket). I’ve not turned on my personal heater and I’ve not used my blanket….because it’s been TOO warm in here. My coworker opens the windows in the morning because it’s so stuffy in here. But rest assured, because it’s so warm in here, the stupid air conditioning has been on regularly too. Yep, we have a too warm heater going during the work day, and the a/c comes on about every 10-15 minutes and cools it down. The heat is REALLY drying too. My hair has been a static-y mess the last few weeks. My coworker is getting shocked constantly while working on computers. My throat is dry and most days, I’ve chugged my whole Nalgene bottle….32 oz by the end of the work day!! Over the weekend, I purchased a “filter free warm mist humidifier.” It’s supposed to “help bring relief from sinus irritation and other effects of dry air.” I hope it makes me breathe a little easier, my hair a little less static, and my coworker get shocked less. I also hope I don’t get in trouble for having it. Actually, I don’t really care about that part.

(Part of my lovely cubicle. Sorry for the poor image, it's taken with my phone. That's my new fancy humidifier, with the lovely radiator heaters in the background. I'm storing it on a stolen filing cabinet. Notice the warped blinds on the right side of the picture? That's apparently because they were melting because they were resting on the radiator heaters. My coworker informed me of this, and raised them for me, so I wasn't responsible for catching this shithole on fire).

Don’t ask me how many times it’s leaked or flooded in here and the carpet has been pulled up, dried out, and then laid back nicely, like nothing happened. I wonder how much mold is growing underneath our floors. Actually, I don’t want to know.


We’re a public school system. We’ve been cutting our budget for the last 5 years, minimum. We’ve been eliminating positions because of budget cuts. The state has reneged money that we were supposed to have. We’ve take up fund raisers to help pay for necessities for our students. Is it really cost effective to have our heat running full force (hotter than what anyone would prefer) while simultaneously running the air conditioner?? I.THINK.NOT. Do we not have students and staff members who are making extreme sacrifices? We have WAY better ways to spend this money.

I will NOT miss the physical appearance and the ridiculously extreme heating and cooling that takes place year round. Is it July 2011 yet??

This turned into a rant that even I wasn’t expecting. Sorry about that!

I wonder...

Sometimes I wonder how I’ll get everything done (and then some) when I’m married and we have kids. I work full time now and I go to the gym most days of the week, and I don’t get home sometimes until 7 PM. And that’s just me…my schedule. I try to be in bed by 10 PM because I definitely need my sleep. I don’t have to be accountable for anyone else, or spend time with someone in the evening. I don’t have to cook dinner for a family and often times, I eat a Lean Cuisine because it’s much faster and easier than cooking a whole meal for one. Don’t get me wrong, I would love to be able to have Seth home so I could spend the evenings hanging out with him, and cooking dinner with him. I wonder how in the world I’d get this all done if kids were in the picture too. I don’t want to give up my gym time…I really like it and I need it. I have to be to work at 7:30 AM, so working out in the morning is not an option (plus, my gym opens at 8 AM). Really, after work is the only time for me to work out.

I’ve been so tired the last few weeks. I think it has to do with my increased gym time. Molli and I are doing a Boot Camp class for 5 weeks. It ends on December 18th. She normally uses the gym at her apartment complex, but she joined my gym for this Boot Camp program. I usually work until 4:30, but she works until 5, so I’ve been staying until then and then we car pool to the gym together. I usually go to the gym right after work (4:30), and then I’m home much earlier in the evening. With this new boot camp schedule though, I’ve been going to the gym later, doing more hardcore workouts, and then getting home later, making my whole evenings seem so much shorter. I’m not complaining, I’m just wondering out loud. I love the new classes I’ve been trying and I like that I’ve upped my gym time…I’m just wondering how different it’ll be when I’m a married woman. Whoadang.

I got a new couch at the beginning of November and I’ve barely had time to enjoy it. I’ve been go-go-go, with running errands, Christmas shopping for Seth, going to all these new work out classes, etc . It’s making the time go by really fast, which I’m thankful for, but I still wonder how I’ll get all this done when we’re married. I guess I’ll find a way, right? Or I’ll learn to live on less sleep.

Thanksgiving and Other Random Updates

Happy way belated Thanksgiving! I had a pretty good Thanksgiving. I went to my parents house and we had quite a few people over. I talked to Seth too. He said he had some good food for dinner and it was an a-ok day. Just another day closer to being home, I guess. He said that there was a turkey outside the chow hall, just chilling in a wire mesh cage thing. They never killed the turkey to eat it; Seth said that the turkey was literally standing there in on one foot and pooping. He wasn't sure of the point of the turkey being there if they weren't going to kill it. haha I asked if they imported the turkey from the US or if it was a local turkey and he didn't know. (Side note: I learned on Thanksgiving eve that Israel consumes the most turkeys per year). Also, we purchased a new TV on Thanksgiving day!! I found a Black Friday ad the week before, with Best Buy advertisements and we found a new TV that we really liked. Ok, he liked it much more than I did...I really don't think we need a 55 inch TV, but that's me. In all fairness, we compromised he agreed on the smaller couch (instead of the home theater sized couch he wanted) a few weeks ago so he wasn't budging on this item. I was going to get up on Black Friday and drag my dad to Best Buy to get the TV, but Seth sent me a text on Thanksgiving morning saying that Best Buy had the TV we wanted for the sale price that we wanted. It's free delivery, too!! So I purchased it online and it'll be delivered this week. Part of the agreement was that Seth gets to set up the TV when he's home on leave. So I have to go for about a month with a big brand new flat screen TV behind my couch, waiting for Daddy (that's Seth...this new TV is going to be our child apparently) to come home. We also have to purchase a new TV stand, because my current one won't hold this new TV. (Another side note: my current TV in my living room is 20 whopping inches!! Or 27 inches if you count the speakers on the side of the TV. But the actual screen is 20 inches. Geez louise, 55 inches is going to be just a tad bigger than what I'm used to!!) All the more reason for leave to hurry up and get here....

And now for some random updates:

• Speaking of R&R, beginning December 1, I can officially say, "he'll be home NEXT MONTH!!!!" Ahhhhhhh!!!!
• I've got quite a bit of my Christmas shopping done. I am seriously addicted to shopping. I love hate that every time I go into a store to do Christmas shopping, I cannot help but to buy myself something too. I am definitely a giver in the gift department, and I just can't help treating myself too.
  
• I'm all done shopping for Seth and that's the important one. I'm going to mail it all out this weekend and I'm sure he'll get it in time.
• I decorated my apartment balcony today. Each year, the apartment complex has a Christmas decoration contest and I've entered for 3 years now...this might be my 4th, I can't remember...and I HAVE NEVER WON. I'm not typically a competitive person, but I am so hellbent on winning this contest!! Everyone else has lights that are all flashing and they give me seizures each time I look at them and I have cute and classy white lights and it's just so pretty. If I don't win this year, I'm seriously moving out to move to wherever Seth is after we get married.
• I'm listening to Delilah. I actually LOVE listening to her. All year round. I've always wanted to call in and share a sob story (real or made up) and give her a fake name. She is so lame and cheesy and ridiculous, I can't help but listen to her. Seth hates her.
• Our wedding Save The Dates are officially in the mail!! I've gotten a few messages from people saying they've received them and I've gotten a few compliments on them. It seems so official now :) 230 days!!!
  
• I was going to do our Christmas cards today (it's still early, I've got plenty of time!!), but my mom called and asked if wanted to meet her at Kohl's for some Christmas shopping. I couldn't say no. She bought me a few Christmas gifts and I'm superduper excited for them. I found some of those cute wall quote things and was browsing through the different ones with my dad, and I found one that said, "all because two people fell in love." I actually put this quote on our save the date card and I got all excited. Then he took the little canister from me and walked off. I went to find him and he was showing it to my mom and then it was dropped into the cart! Haha, so secretive, Dad! It's this one right HERE. We got to the register and saw that it was $29.99, which seemed a litttttle on the expensive side for just one of them, so I said it wasn't worth it. But then the sales lady said that it was buy one get one free, so my dad and I Super Market Sweeped it through Kohls, back to where they were and found another one. We were running through the store like crazy banchees, pushing each other out of the way back to go find another one. So then I found this one, and I grabbed the canister. Then my dad grabbed it out of my hand and took off running, back to the cashier! Haha oh man, I'm sure we looked totally ridiculous. At the end, when the cash register was in sight, my dad started running really fast and took off from me. Did you ever watch Supermarket Sweep?!?! I used to love that show!! My sister and I would watch it and we were sooo good at it!! I always wanted to be a contestant on it, but I was in late middle/early high school when it was on.
• I shaved my legs today. Like, full shaving, with real shaving cream and my whole leg. I'll usually do just from my knees down, but today I did the fulllll leg. No more reverse leg hair mohawk for me. I need to get back into the habit of shaving because SETH WILL BE HOME IN JUST A FEW WEEKS!!
• I've had an extremely productive weekend. I had a very long to-do list and I'm glad I got it all done (well, except the Christmas cards, but I still have plenty of time). I even managed to watch a few lameashell Lifetime movies yesterday. I'll never get the time I wasted back, but that is just fine with me.
  

I'll leave you with this. On my way to Khol's this evening, I was listening to a country station and started listening to this song, not knowing what it was exactly, but it sounded familiar. Then I heard the chorus and remembered it from last year and I started to cry and I couldn't stop. I don't think it had hit me yet that Seth won't be home for Christmas this year, but this song definitely did.



Sorry for such a long post!

New Followers and Awards times TWO!

It seems like just yesterday that I started this blog (ok, so it really hasn't been too long ago...end of June, but whatever) that I started this blog and I had no followers for a long time. Last Monday, I had 13 followers. Now, as of today, I have 20 followers! Seven new followers in less than 7 days!! Sweet, huh?!? I think so! So HELLO new followers!! It is nice to "meet" you!! Please introduce yourself and feel free to ask me any questions. :)

I also got my first two "blogger awards" in the same week, within a day of each other!! The rules of the game are:

That I list seven facts about myself and then pass it on to 5 friends.

And, since the award is titled "Stylish Blogger Award," I need to give credit where credit is due: Brea at Utterly Chaotic recently redid my design, so she gets the credit for it being so stylish!!!

Without further ado...(and I'm combining these two awards)...so here are 14 facts about me!!

1. I really hate open cupboards and drawers.


2. I love drawing in paint, like the paint program on the computer. One day I'll feature my artwork masterpieces...yes, they are truly amazing and you'll be blown away. Just be patient for this! It'll be worth it!!
   


3. I really hate windshield wipers and the annoying sounds they make on a dry windshield. AHHHHHHH.


4. I'm a sucker for proper grammar, punctuation and spelling. I try to be really good about it, but I'm part dinosaur human and sometimes make a mistake, but I always try to correct myself where I notice it.
   


5. I'm always freezing cold. It's 76 in my apartment right now...because I've been baking...but I'm still fairly cold. Ironically, Seth thinks I'm a "human heater" and doesn't like to snuggle in bed because because I'm so hot. I don't get it.
   


6. I have a pretty bad potty mouth, but I'm working on cleaning it up. I'm not trying too hard though. Well, just around certain people.


7. I have an ongoing love affair with high heels.
   


8. At this moment, I currently have 4 different kinds of shampoos and conditioners in my shower. Yes, I use them all regularly too.
   


9. I don't spell my name StacEy. It's just Y. No EY. No IE. No I. Just STACY. I hate when people I've known for 1032983029 years spell it EY.
   


10. How The Grinch Stole Christmas (the one with Jim Carey) and Serendipity are my favorite Christmas movies.


11. I love cleaning, especially toilets. I just love a sparkling white toilet! So beautiful. I actually love all cleaning in general, and doing laundry too. Oh, and I hate dirty mirrors and windows. And I HATE when toothbrush spray stuff gets on the mirror.
    


12. Which leads me to...when I'm brushing my teeth, I cannot stand still. I always walk around my apartment, doing this or that while brushing my teeth.


13. When I was younger and my little sister and I shared a room, and we had to clean it, I always told her she could sit on the bed and just watch me. I never asked/made her help. I just liked my cleaning style better than hers so this way I got it done exactly how I wanted.


14. I'm really very girly, but I'm very tomboyish at the same time. I love manicures/pedicures, shopping, shoes, gossiping and watching trashy reality shows, but just as much, I love camping, playing in the mud (side note: when I was little and just started walking, my older brother would make us a mud pit in the backyard and walk me out there and we'd play in the mud until our mom came to find us!!! oh God how I love mud), cars, computers, shooting guns, swearing, fishing...you know, boy things.
    

Thanks to Erin at Amateur Hour in NC and Sebs at Newlywed and Deployed for the awards!!!

A/S/L??

I changed my picture on my gmail chat this morning…and my friend sent me an IM shortly after and this is how the conversation went:

Bekah: what up
Bekah: i like your profile pic a/s/l?
Stacy: AHAHAHAHaha
Bekah: remember that? hahah
Stacy: hahaah YES!!!!
Bekah: 25/f/michigan/big boobs

hahAHAhahah oh man, that was a great way to start the day!!

(For the record, this particular friend doesn't have big boobs, which made this even funnier to me!!!)

Oh, flat iron. How I miss you so

This is a delayed post, but I couldn’t not say it.

Last Friday, I had a huge presentation at work (60 people!!!). I hate presentations and I hate public speaking, for the record. I still did it though, like a good employee. I spent Thursday trying on different outfits for this occasion and nothing was fitting like I wanted it to. However, I knew I’d straighten my hair in the morning and all would be well. I blow dried my hair like normal. I have fairly frizzy hair and I can’t just blow dry it and be done. I have to straighten it or curl it afterward. (Or I can let it dry naturally with curl enhancing shampoo/conditioner/gel, but that’s neither here nor there for this post). So I blow dried my hair and it was a frizzy mess. Typical. I plugged in my flat iron, waited for it to heat up, and then started on my hair. On the second little batch of hair, (this happened all so fast), a fireball flew into my sink, stuff was shot out (copper from the inside of the cord, I later realized after further inspection), landing on my forearm and my mirror and the electricity was killed in the back portion of my apartment (hall, bathroom, bedroom, closet). I started freaking out, thinking 1) my apartment was going to catch on fire and 2) how the hell am I supposed to do a presentation with a head full of fuzzed out hair??? I waited and watched the socket that the flat iron was plugged into and waited to see smoke start pouring out. That didn’t happen after about 2 minutes so I called my dad. He told me to flip the switch circuit breaker to off for this part of the apartment, unplug the flat iron and all would be well, but I was to no longer use my flat iron. Yeah, right, nothing would be well without my flat iron!!! My life was ruined. I did as I was told, so as not to cause more harm. I contemplated calling my coworker and begging her to bring her flat iron to work and I’d do my hair there. Then I had an epiphany. I suddenly remembered my smaller flat iron that I actually use to give me massive, fun, curly ringlet curls!!! My dad said it was OK to use the socket again, and he was sure it was the flat iron that broke and caused this mess, so using my little back up one was a-ok. I plugged it in and finished my hair but oh man, what a rough morning.

So without further ado, RIP ConAir Infiniti Flat Iron. You were a best friend to me. You are greatly missed already.

(notice the crack in the cord and the exposed copper? That's the part that broke, shot the fire ball, exploded stuff on my arm, etc. I was not burned in the unfortunate making of this event).

RIP.

(Yes, I realize I probably sound incredibly vain right now. Sorry in advance if that offends anyone).

Random updates

I've been a busy bee the last few weeks. Here's what I've been up to:

• Christmas shopping...this is by far the earliest I've started. Today I even wrapped presents. It's not even Thanksgiving yet!!
• I work with Molli and she is amazing. We are so much a like and have been getting together every Thursday night for the last few weeks. We go out for dinner and drinks. I live for Thursdays right now. She's also going to be joining the Boot Camp thing at my gym, so she'll be my work out buddy for November 15 through December 18th.
• Speaking of working out...I've lost 7 lbs in the last 7 weeks, doing the Biggest Loser thing at my gym. I've lost quite a few inches overall and I'm keeping this up. I can't wait for the Boot Camp classes...they have a class called "butts and guts"! I'm super excited for it! I have 7 more lbs to go to meet my goal for when Seth is home, and 3 lbs left to reach the weight I was when he deployed. Totally doable if I stay focused.
• My sister is coming home for Christmas!! And my brother is probably too!!! I CANNOT WAIT!!! I haven't seen my brother in......shit, I don't know. I think the last time he was here was when he came out for Christmas 2008 and stayed through April 2009. Holy crap that was forever ago. I haven't seen my sister since February 2010, which is forever too. My sister and I are very close and she's thinking of staying the winter here (she currently lives in Oregon). I told her she can stay with me if she'd like, except when Seth is home. haha Having my siblings home will definitely help me get through Christmas with Seth deployed.
• Speaking of Seth, he's been in a different location, and we actually talked quite a bit over the weekend. Just a lot of little random phone calls and some text messages here and there. I think he's paying for internet access and it's consistent, so we're able to have a full conversation.
• We've g-cammed (yeah, I just made that up...it's webcamming on gmail chat...whatever you want to call it) only twice this deployment. TWICE. It's very frustrating. Hopefully this weekend we'll get a chance to do it again.
• I really want (need?) a new couch. We've been looking at them online and sending links back and forth. I finally found one that I really like, and I've even tested it out in person. It's superduper comfortable and Seth likes it too. He said I have his approval to purchase it for us, and we'll have it in time for our little belated holiday dinner in January. I can't wait to have everyone over and show off our new couch!! I did want to wait until he was home so we could go to the furniture store and try them all out together and get in dumb arguments about which one to get (hey, it's true. We've never done that before because we've always been apart, and I would love to have a dumb, stupid argument over what couch to get), but he said that we can purchase a new TV when he's home. I'm not one to complain in this department.
• I have to get my wisdom teeth out. It's going to be friggin expensive. I hate insurance. (If anyone has any advice or knowledge in the TriCare dept and dental insurance, please feel free to let me know). I'm going to have to do it twice, because I refuse to pay $1,118 out of my pocket to get sedated once, and get all 4 teeth taken out. I'll save about $500-600 by doing it twice. So I have one appt in December to get two teeth taken out, and then I'll make another appointment for February to get the other two taken out. My dental insurance resets in January, so this is why I'm doing it again after the new year. The money I'll be saving with this will go towards my couch.
• After I get my wisdom teeth out in February (I'll spend time recovering on my new couch!!!) we'll be in the very home stretch of this deployment and I'll be heading to Germany for the welcome home ceremony :)
• My deployment donut says 60% done and 40% to go. Still a great deal to go, but it's going by fast, to be honest.
• So Seth sorta annoyed me today. Not really, but yes really. He wants new boots for Christmas, and since he'll be in the 'Stan on Christmas day, I wanted to get him something he'd use over there, and not just a bunch of junk. He told me he needs new boots, and he sent me the link to the ones he'd like. I waited a week or two before purchasing them, and ordered them last night. He emailed me this morning and sent me a different link to a different pair of boots that he wants more. Ugh, figures that I just ordered them last night, and now he wants different ones. I swear that he knows exactly what's going on in my head and knows when I purchase a gift for him. Somehow any surprise for him gets ruined. So I had to cancel the boots (at the new place he's at temporarily, he was able to try on the first pair of boots that he sent me, and he didn't like them, so I'd rather not waste $150 on boots that don't fit comfortably, but still). Now I'll purchase the new pair of boots. He KNOWS every single present I buy him, even if I don't give him any hints. It makes me so mad. On my bucket list goes this: purchase Seth a gift and actually have it be a surprise.

I suppose that's all the updates for now. I guess I'll go clean up my Christmas wrapping mess in the living room and fantasize about cuddling with Seth on our new couch in 2 months. A girl can dream, right?

A Deployment + Cold Fall Weather =

I don't know when I last shaved my legs. Honestly. It's been a few weeks, probably. Gross, I know. It's not like Seth is here to even complain about them, so what does it matter how hairy they are? But before you stop reading this, rest assured, I am not including any pictures. (You're welcome). Anyways, I was washing my feets the other night before bed for two reasons: 1) I wear high heels all day at work and they make my feet stink. Gross, but it's true. 2) My feet were really cold and I just wanted to warm my toes up. That's when I noticed my leg hairs were getting outta control. I guess maybe for a brief moment, I wanted to feel the smoothness of a freshly shaven leg, but since it was right before my bedtime, I wasn't going to bother shaving both legs. My pink razor caught my eye in that brief moment. So what does any sane girl do in this situation? That's right. I shaved a reverse mohawk in my leg hair. Just one strip of hair was shaved off from my ankle to my knee. It was totally cool looking, and feeling. I felt the smoothness of it and it felt good. But not good enough to shave both legs. Yep, a reverse mohawk in my leg hair satisfied me just fine.

A little bit of this, a little bit of that

I feel like I've been slacking on my blogging lately. I've had a pretty busy last 2 weeks, and it's not going to slow down for another 12 weeks at least. With that said, here's a lameass re-cap of the last 2 weeks, in bullet form, so as not to get too wordy.

• I'm done house-sitting and I made $100. Not too shabby (especially considering my dad let the dogs out half the time!!!) and that's $100 towards my wedding shoes, that I'll be buying in the next few weeks!!! I might consider it again, I don't know. And I only do it for families that I babysit for...no one else.
  
• My vanilla extract is coming along nicely! It's been brewin' since August 2nd, and I'd say it's ready! But I'm not going to use it just yet, I'm letting it sit for a few more weeks. I'll post the starting and middle and end pictures one of these days. Here's the recipe I'm following if anyone is interested.
  
• The other day when I went to the wedding location, D and Nana were asking me what kind of wedding gift I wanted. Honestly, the only gift I really really really really wanted was a Kitchen Aid mixer. It's $299 (or more, depending on the size) and I wanted someone to buy me one instead of spending that money myself. That sounds extremely greedy, I know. So I registered for one and decided I could wait a little bit longer for one. I told D and Nana that this was what I wanted and they said right then and there that they would buy it for me!! D texted me earlier this week and asked what color we wanted, so after I emailed Seth, we settled on "Bayleaf" or "Caviar." D had a 40% off coupon at Kohl's and she was going to buy it on Thursday!! She said she'd probably have to special order it because of the color, but I am 99.9% sure she won't keep it for 10.5 months until our actual wedding. I told her I would bake lots of stuff for her and Nana as soon as I got it!! I CANNOT wait to get it!
• I think Seth and I are going to try Skyping tomorrow. I have not seen his face (in person or on webcam) since we said bye at the airport in Germany on March 9. That's over 5 months in case you're wondering. I cannot wait to see him!! I am also excited to get a little glimpse of his tent. I'm sure he thinks I'm lame for wanting to see it, but I really am curious.
  
• I ordered a tote bag from Land's End earlier this week and after consulting with Seth on the color, size, zipper or no zipper, monogram or no monogram, I finally got it in the mail on Friday! It's "seaport" blue and I got it embroidered with a B, which is the letter my new last name will start with in a few months! Until I become a B____, the B is for Bitch. haha
• Last night my mom and I canned some blueberries! I can't wait to try them. We made 11 jars, and I'm taking 3 of them. I'm sending one to Seth (he loveeeeees blueberries), I'll bake a pie for the girls at work and my parents, and I'll save a jar for when Seth is home so he can bake a pie. My mom also canned some of her tomatoes earlier this week and she gave me a jar of that, which I'll also save for when Seth is home so we can make some chili....he will totally be into this.
  
• I went shopping today and got a lot of new stuff. I got Seth some new socks, and a t-shirt, and for me, I got some new tennis shoes, 3 pairs of jeans, some bras and panties, a really cute sweater/cardigan with ruffles for work, another comfy sweater for weekends, and some more sweaters for work. One of the pairs of jeans has little fancy things on them...I keep thinking rhinestones, but they aren't. They aren't shiny, and I can't think of the name of them, but when I put the jeans on, I felt I really needed a pair of cowgirl boots. Soooo, I got me some cowgirl boots too!!! I haven't had cowgirl boots since I was about 6 years old when my grandpa bought me a pink pair with sparkles and pink fringe from Mervyns. Oh man those were cute boots. These are just brown boots, but they are super cute and I can't wait to wear them!! I'm ready for fall!!!
  

I guess that's it for right now. Happy Saturday night -- I'm going to clean out my closet a little bit so I can make room for my new stuff!! :)