Duh

I know I've written a couple of times about how I feel old. But last night, I got "the look." You know...the look you get from a person who is younger than you when they are in utter disbelief that you are unaware of some sort of pop culture occurrence.

Last night we went to the Gibson Amphitheater at Universal City Walk for a concert. As we were walking around we noticed a huge crowd, mostly consisting of girls around the age of 12, surrounding a stage upon which was what appeared to be a Justin Bieber wannabe. The crowd and passersby seemed to be abuzz with excitement over this child who was singing and playing the piano for them and we soon got the feeling that maybe he was actually someone famous. Maybe a Disney channel star? Nickelodeon? I did a triple take to make sure it wasn't J Bieb. It wasn't.

Eventually we couldn't handle not knowing who it was so James asked a young man who the kid star was. He said, "Oh, that's Greyson Chance." We must have given him a blank stare or something because that's when we got the look. The look, plus the 'tude. "Greyson Chance...??" His eyes were skeptical. Like we were alien life forms. Finally after we kept staring at him for a while and repeated the name Greyson Chance to the young man's satisfaction, he informed us that Ellen had discovered him on YouTube and now he is super duper famous and we are very uncool for not knowing who he is. Well, he told us the part about Ellen, but his look said the rest.

Here's a link to one of Greyson's early Youtube videos. Imagine him a little older...wearing leather and skinny jeans.

Wuv.

Wuv. Twu Wuv.

This morning as I left my apartment I was immediately pounced on by my next door neighbor. She had a question about rent because earlier we had been discussing our impending rent increase come January :(

Anyway, after the rent discussion she threw in an observation about me and James. She said our love for each other is so apparent, even in just the short times she sees us taking out the trash or walking to our car. Yes, we take out the trash together from time to time, and we hold hands while doing it. That's how we roll. She said it was a beautiful thing and to keep it up.



It made me tear up a bit to hear her say that. Maybe it's just because James is in Indonesia and I miss him a lot. Whatever the reason, it was nice to hear that and made me feel all warm and tingly inside. So I just wanted to share.

You can all go vomit now.

Big Lo

I hate to admit that I've been influenced by reality TV, but the truth is that I was inspired last night. Inspired by...the Biggest Loser. Last night I watched the episode where all the contestant ran a marathon. It was amazing!! Even though I disliked the majority of the contestants this season, I found myself feeling so proud of everyone who crossed the finish line. And they were all so proud of themselves. I felt motivated.

And so, with this new inspiration fresh in my mind, I declare that 2012 will be the year that I run in a race. Likely not a marathon. Probably a 5k. But still. I've always wanted to but I've been scared and intimidated. This is the year I'm going to do it.

Thank you, Bob Harper! You're my hero!! *sob, sob* (That is me being Jen, for anyone who watched this season. Girl's got issues)

The Great Target Mystery

A week or two ago I made a list of items that I need to get at Target. I still haven't gone yet. In preparation for a Target trip tomorrow, I decided to take a look at the list and remove/add any necessary items. This is what my list said:

-Face wash
-Boxes
-wine gift bag
-b-day cards
-ornament
-spanx
-hamster/cat thingies

Eh?? Hamster/cat thingies??? I have absolutely no idea what I could have possibly meant by this. Not only do I not know anyone who owns a hamster or a cat, but I don't particularly like either animal. I am at a complete loss for what this was supposed to trigger me to buy at Target. I would think it was a trick of some sort, but it's in my handwriting. Anyone have any ideas?!?

Time Flies...

Well, as of yesterday James and I have been married for a year! We're not quite sure where the year went, but we know it was awesome!! To celebrate we decided to take a quick weekend trip to Catalina Island.

The trip started off rocky...it was taking longer to get to the ferry than we had anticipated so James went into race car driver mode and...well...we got pulled over. By that point we knew the evening was a bust and there was no way we could make it to the ferry on time. We were so frustrated!!! After being grumpy for a few minutes we managed to salvage the night by going to Cheesecake Factory for dinner and taking home dessert to enjoy while watching Love Actually, the first movie we ever watched together and our favorite Christmas movie. Despite our urge to mope around all night, the evening turned out to be pretty amazing and very "us"!

The next morning we had to be up at 4:15 to catch the ferry...which was a bummer...but we ended up getting to Catalina at the same time that we probably would have woken up if we had stayed there the night before, so it worked out quite nicely. James fell in love with Catalina (I liked it too, but I'd been there before and it was his first time) and we just enjoyed our time exploring the cute town, all the shops, looking at the views, wine tasting, getting massages, watching football (haha), and eating a delicious steak dinner. Good times, man :)













When we came home on Sunday evening we decorated our Christmas tree and James put lights up on our patio. The apartment feels so Christmassy now! James also surprised me with an anniversary gift...



A Keurig! Woo!!!!! I am so spoiled :)

Then we ate the top of our wedding cake as is tradition.





On to year two!

You Big Baby!

I'm sure there were times growing up when I was called a big baby for crying over something trivial. And I'm the baby of my family so it only makes sense that I would act like a baby. But I've taken big baby to a whole new level. I've just diagnosed myself with a medical condition that is prevalent in infants. And, oddly enough, this is my second baby issue of the year.

I apologize for grossing you out by discussing my illnesses, but I'm getting a little concerned. First I had a clogged tear duct, which basically meant that just one eye was constantly watering. All. Day. Long. It was a lot more of a nuisance than you might imagine. Also, my initial thought would be that if my tear duct was clogged, I would have a dry eye, not a watery eye...but whatever. It happened. And thanks to the excellent advice from my doctor, a warm, wet towel and tear duct massage twice a day cleared it up in a little over a week.

My new condition is simply little white bumps around my eyes, apparently called milia. Essentially they are just clogged hair follicles. One website described them as looking like "pearly acne." Gross, man. But I promise, they aren't red, or oozing, or contagious...so...I'm not disgusting and you can still hang out with me. Anyway, all the websites I read said that in babies, they go away on their own, but if you are an adult with them, you MUST SEE YOUR DERMATOLOGIST IMMEDIATELY. What's up with that?? I guess I will have to do something about them if they really don't go away soon, but for now I will just suffer and try not to look in the mirror.

Waaaah!

A Scarf a Day...

I've caught a glimpse of what my life would be like without James...frozen pizza each night, a glass of wine to calm my nerves before trying to sleep, feeding my rat a treat a couple of times a day, and crocheting. Lots and lots of crocheting.

I finished this scarf last night:



Here's me in the scarf:



That's my, "Me like red wine," smile.

Anyway, I got the pattern here. However, after being in the mall for less than five minutes last night I realized that infinity scarves are now very "in" so I altered the pattern a bit and made it an infinity scarf. It's supposed to be a gift but I kind of love it. I might have to make myself one now :)

Luna Lovegood

Ever have a dream where someone you love dies, then the next day you can't get in touch with them? It's horrible.

On a lighter note, I made a scarf last weekend. I found the the pattern online and thought it was cute. The fact that it is based on a scarf that a character in Harry Potter wore only makes it better in my opinion. Here's the scarf:



Here's Luna Lovegood in the scarf:



Here's me in the scarf:



Cue "I'm Sexy and I Know It."

Strange Things Are Happening to Me.

Every Saturday morning during the Fall months James sets his alarm for 6:55, rolls out of bed, and sleepily stumbles (I'm assuming this part since there's no way I'm ever up at that hour on a Saturday to actually see him stumble) to the couch just in time for the college football pregame show. The pregame show lasts for two hours after which James searches on the TV for all the games he wants to watch, sets up reminders on the DVR, and proceeds to watch an almost continual stream of football all day long. After a looong day of college football, James winds down his Saturday by watching the highlights of all the games he just watched. He LOVES college football.

I usually get up around 9:00 or 10:00 on Saturdays and settle into my position on the couch to keep James company. However, I can only handle so much football so for the most part I read or crochet to keep from wanting to keel over.

However, there has been an unexpected side effect to sitting near the TV while college football is constantly on. I'm starting to subconsciously absorb information. I know who the top teams in the BCS ranking are. I know what the BCS is. I know what a play action pass is. I know what league random teams are in. I know who various announcers are. I know that there's a college called Miami that's actually located in Ohio. The list goes on. I even caught myself reading an article the other day about the changes in the BCS rankings after a few unexpected losses last weekend. I caught myself halfway through and stopped reading it immediately because--why should I care that Oklahoma moved up three spots? I don't care at all. Or do I?

This weekend James will be gone. Sadly, this is the weekend that the number 1 and 2 ranked teams, LSU and Alabama, are playing each other. It's sure to be a good game. And I hate to say this...but I think I'm going to watch even though he's not going to be here to force me. And I'm pretty excited about it. Help! My mind has been taken over by aliens!

Paranoia

I'm getting paranoid.

Well, I guess in some ways I have been for quite a while.

It all started with a dream I had when I was a kid. The two bad guys from 101 Dalmatians were under my bed and I knew they were there so I had to make a dash for the door, but when I jumped off the bed one of them grabbed my ankle and they pulled me back into the room and they were going to kill me.

Ever since that dream I have slept with my door closed and locked so that I could hear if someone was coming in to kill me. I also went through a phase were I had to sleep with covers on no matter how hot I was because I felt safer under the protection of a blanket. Since then I've wanted a giant alarm system to give me some peace of mind.

I never thought I would live alone because I figured I would be too terrified. But it turns out that living on the second floor made me feel incredibly safe. I don't know if I actually was or not, but it looked pretty difficult and hopefully not worth the effort for someone to climb up onto my balcony. I even discussed it with my neighbor to see if she could think of any way someone could attack us on the second floor. We determined it would be next to impossible since the trees were so flimsy. And so I felt safe and even slept with my window open. I still locked my bedroom door though, just in case.

Now, however, James and I live on the first floor, and even though I have a bat next to my bed for protection, it is not uncommon for me to wake up in the middle of the night to some strange sound out in our living room and to wake James up to go check it out. Usually he just rolls over and says he'll protect me and then goes back to snoring. Not that I don't appreciate his manly toughness, but having his arm across me while he's in a deep sleep doesn't quite give me the same sense of security as if he were to...I don't know...stand watch? Am I asking too much?

I've stopped watching true crime shows in order to hopefully make me less scared, but when James is gone for the night, I still bring a chair into my bedroom and prop it up against the door for some extra security. The last time that he was gone for a few nights it hit me that if someone were to knock out my power (or if we were to have a normal kind of power outage) I would be pretty helpless and terrified. That time I lit lots of candles to make myself feel a little better. The next time he's gone I'm going to buy a Maglight. A flashlight and weapon in one.

Am I the only one who is terrified to come home to a dark house? The only one who calls either my parents or James when I get home so that I will have someone to hear my screams and call 911 should I get attacked while doing my nightly apartment check (you know, looking in closets, under beds, and behind shower curtains)? Am I the only one who watched Conspiracy Theory and then seriously considered some of Mel Gibson's methods for keeping out the bad guys? Maybe the real question is do I need an alarm system or just some mental help?

Tidbits

I've been too busy/lazy to put any effort into blogging lately, but I've had a few things on my mind.

-I baked some delicious pumpkin Oreo cheesecakes a couple of weeks ago. I even took pictures so I could blog about it. But...I'm too lazy to deal with uploading pictures so if you're interested you can find the recipe here.

-Last weekend James made butternut squash ravioli from scratch. I think I picked a good one.

-Blair is arriving tonight for a weekend of major vegging out, football, hopefully some trashy reality tv, and pumpkin cheesecake muffins. (I'm really into pumpkin. And cheesecake.)

-A Panera Bread just opened up a block away from our apartment. Score!

-Last night we made the mistake of going to Panera before they had worked out all the kinks of their new location. They were out of bread bowls. Panera BREAD was out of bread. Arrrg.

-While waiting 30 minutes for our food to come out, I observed an interesting family. Their dynamic was unusual. It looked to be a mother, a father, a son, and a daughter around the ages of 10 or 11. The entire time that they were waiting for their food all four of them were playing/texting/reading/listening to music/who knows what on their phones. They didn't say a word to each other. Then their food came. Everyone put their phones away except for mom who didn't remove her headphones and continued to listen to whatever was playing while they all ate. I was trying really hard not to judge them...but it was difficult. I don't want my family to ever be like that!

-On my flight to Las Vegas for work on Monday I sat next to two women. I had my Coach purse. The woman to my left had the matching Coach shoes. The woman to her left had the matching Coach wallet. I felt so...uninteresting.

-I elbowed James in the nose while we were sleeping last night. Payback.

-James is going to the Philippines and Guam for two weeks in November. Depressing.

-Someone stole one of our flower pots off of our patio. A couple of days later James found it in some bushes behind our apartment complex. Not sure what the point of that theft could have been. The flowers were still in the pot and alive.

-James has gotten the O.K. from his doc to work out, and he has been a machine. I really need to follow suit. I need something to counteract all the candy corn I've been inhaling lately.

-It's Friday. Hallelujah!

Cheers

It's the weekend! It's the weekend! It's the weekend!!

I haven't been this ready for a weekend in a while. Maybe it's because I only worked two days last week and I'm still adjusting. Maybe it's because I didn't have Facebook to make my work days go by as quickly as they usually do. Maybe it's because James has the day off today and I'm jealous and ready to join him at home. Whatever the reason, I'm grateful that the weekend is here.

This weekend our only plans consist of making a huge breakfast, watching college football (OU vs. Texas tomorrow...apparently this is important), and baking pumpkin cheesecake muffins. With the slight chill that's been in the air these last few days and the millions of pumpkin scented candles I've purchased recently, I'd say a weekend of coziness and snuggling is in our future. And I'm ready for it.

Side note: James spent his day off setting up the new surround sound system that he bought himself for his birthday. We will probably never leave the apartment again.

Crafting Genius

When I was in fifth grade I sewed two pillows. By hand. One was for school and one was at camp. I felt like a craft stud-ette.

But for some reason when I look at cute craft ideas now I get overwhelmed when the necessary materials include more than just tape. It's kind of the same way I feel about cooking. I take one look at a list of ingredients, feel overwhelmed, and start preparing a Boboli pizza instead.

Anyway, I have recently started dabbling in the latest internet craze: Pinterest. There I found the inspiration for my latest holiday decorating craft.



Not even tape required for this one!

Okay, okay. I admit that this probably doesn't even qualify as a craft, but since it's on Pinterest I'm hoping everyone will just let it slide this time...

If you too want to complete this extremely difficult project you will need the following items:

1) Clear candle holder
2) Candle
3) Candy corn

Mix it all together and there you have it. Good luck everyone. And may you one day learn to be as crafty as I am.

I Could Get Used to This

James and I returned last night after a week on the Hawaiian island of O'ahu. Our second tropical vacation in less than a year...how lucky/blessed/spoiled are we? I could certainly get used to this life of luxury :)

We both have a lot to say about our trip but I'll try to keep it simple by mostly telling our story through photos.

We went paddle boarding one afternoon. It was really fun but a lot harder than we thought it would be!









Most of our time was spent like this:



We went to a huge outdoor market and bought touristy things.





We went to Northshore where we ate shaved ice, admired the views, wandered through art galleries, and took pictures of ourselves.







We visited the Dole Pineapple Plantation. Delicious pineapple ice cream!!











Sidenote: At the Dole Plantation they were selling small surfboards with names on them. "Joni" and "Lucas" were among the 20 or so names on display. What are the odds?? Lol.



We hiked Diamondhead and saw some gorgeous views at the top!









We went to Pearl Harbor and saw the Arizona Memorial. I think we were both very moved by our time there.







70 years later oil is still coming up from the sunken ship. Survivors say it's the tears of the men still trapped below.



We went to a luau at our hotel.



That is a pig.







Here's a picture of the view from our balcony.



This is us in front of the Margaritaville sign. Apparently the person taking the photo didn't understand that we were standing in front of a huge sign because we actually wanted the huge sign in the photo. *sigh*



Hope you enjoyed our photos!! We sure enjoyed experiencing everything in them!!

In other news:
I deactivated my Facebook account today. When I told James what I had done his first response was, "But what are you going to do at work?" I think that question in itself should explain my reasoning. Time for a break!

James' B-day

James turns 26 today. His special request for his birthday was that I make red velvet cupcakes. Last night I happily went to the grocery store and scurried around the kitchen preparing his delicious birthday treat.

The recipe I have makes a lot of batter so I decided to only make half. I soon learned that when you are halving an entire recipe, that means you should half every single ingredient. Including salt.

So, happy birthday, Husband.



I promise I'll make it up to you somehow.

Friends

These are my besties.



We all met in college and have since dispersed, yet thankfully managed to keep in touch and get together from time to time. One lives about an hour away from us, one two hours, one three hours, and one about a million kajillion miles away in Texas. Needless to say getting together isn't a once a week occurrence these days, so I cherish the times that I do get to see them that much more. Over the last month or so I've been lucky enough to see all of them :)

About a month ago Julie and I met sort of in the middle and spent the weekend in Vegas. We mostly just laid out by the pool and enjoyed some girl time!! It was the second year in a row we've met up there and I'm already looking forward to next year :)



Then last weekend James and I got bombarded with friends from all directions. Bombarded in a good way. It was so awesome to see Blair, Jess, and Erica all in one weekend!! They all just happened to be in Ventura County this weekend so I had a great time getting to catch up with everyone. Blair and her husband Justin stayed with us and we celebrated Blair's graduation from Physician Assistant school with a barbeque, champagne, lots of wine, and Dance Central on the Kinect. As you can see we kept it classy with plastic cups.







Waaaah, I didn't get any pics with Jess or Erica :( So good to see them and their hubbies (and little G) though!!!

James specifically requested that I share his creative genius in my blog post today. Here is how he has decorated our kitchen:




These are all wine bottles that we've collected over the last couple of years from special occasions...our engagement night, our wedding, our honeymoon, special dinners etc. James wanted me to point out the two newest additions to the collection, Eos and Tobin James. These are two wineries that we visited back in May with Blair and Justin and James got the same wine for us to celebrate with last weekend. He's so sentimental, I just love it!!





And while I'm being random, I just wanted to celebrate the fact that it has been cloudy and rainy all weekend which has made me feel that it is appropriate to light my pumpkin pie candle. In addition we purchased our first fall decorations yesterday:



Yay Fall!! We're ready for you!! Also, yay Kohl's!! Love that place :)