Weekend

On Saturday we went to our friend Lauren's housewarming party. If you read Natalie's blog too then you know that she also went to Lauren's housewarming party on Saturday. It was an open house so you could come and go whenever you pleased. Unfortunately Natalie and I missed each other. That would have been cool to get our foto taken together for posting on each of our blogs.

This is the only one I took. I forgot to take out my camera while we were there. Here's a lovely picture from the interior of our car...




Saturday night and a lot of Sunday was taken up with homework (the story of my life these days). So John and I decided to spend the remainder of Sunday afternoon here...



We stayed in here until our toes looked like Cheetos. This is what the pool looked like...



After Cheeto toes we decided to barbecue. Here's John with a, "Come get your hotdog already" look...



Hotdogs for everyone...



This is Kita about five seconds later. I think she inhaled it...



Aside from doing a bunch of homework our weekend was pretty lovely. I'm looking forward to nine weeks of feeling like it's Saturday. Ahhhhhh!!!!!!!!

So done....

Hi Party People. Don't tell anyone but I'm at work blogging right now. So it's going to be a long post. Just kidding. I'm going to keep it short and sweet. Today is my last day of work for nine glorious weeks so starting on Tuesday you'll see me a lot more on here.

This week has been a CRAZY week but the madness is about to end. Thank goodness.

I have a new blog on my blog roll. It's my friend Joni's. She and her husband are going through the adoption process. They are awesome people and are going to make fantastic parents. Be sure to check them out. You can go to the right and click on their blog or you can check them out here.






P.S.
I've missed you guys and will be catching up on your lives this weekend.

Maybe just a little bit country...

I do not like country music. At all. I like to use the phrase, "It makes my ears bleed" whenever I have to talk about it. However, I find myself LOVING two songs by Lady Antebellum. The two songs are Need You Now and When You Got a Good Thing. I listened to both songs over and over this weekend...with head phones. John doesn't like country either but even Lady Antebellum makes his ears bleed.

A very mini family reunion...

My cousin T came into town on Wednesday for work and his wife C came into town yesterday to join him. He's our youngest cousin so it's very strange to see him all grown up with a grown up job.




We hung out with them last night and had a lot of fun. We laughed a lot. We ate dinner at a brewery. John and I walked right in without the bouncer saying a word. He immediately carded T and C. I was slightly sad. I know I don't look under 21 but if their policy is that they card anyone under 40 then that really frosts my cookies because 40 is still several years away for me.

T popped over to our side of the table...



Then I popped over to theirs...



After dinner our original plan was to go bowling so we stopped at CVS to buy C some socks. John and C looked for the socks but T and I were too distracted by this free for all aisle. They had the most random things including egg genies, sham wows and this vibrating pen. Weird.




It's kind of hard to see in this picture but John is about three aisles over holding up socks. Score.



We ended up not bowling but we hung out for a little while more chit chatting at their hotel bar. It was quiet there so it was nice not having to yell at each other any more. Before we left T and John tried their luck at one of those toy grabbing machines. John usually has a lot of luck at these machines but last night he gave his luck to T. That was nice of him.






We had a lot of fun with T and C last night. One of my other cousins and I have discussed coordinating a cousin family reunion for all of us. We should do it for sure. It would be crazy fun.

You got me...

Tonight in class we had to read a short paragraph about the Nacirema tribe and talk about how we viewed it and where we thought they were from. Have you heard of this tribe? They are crazy. They do painful things to their bodies, put holes in their teeth, paint their faces and many other really crazy things.

This tribe is weird don't you think? I think so too.

Now do me a favor and spell Nacirema backwards....

I guess this is okay?

My Thesis course this semester is all about understanding culture. Our first paper was about the ethnography of our school and how we view each race/ethnicity. We were supposed to think about how we view each of these groups and to give our own cultural viewpoints, not textbook answers.

Here's the ethnography of my school:



This sounds like an easy task but I struggled. I felt very stereotypical with my descriptions. I know that was the point of this paper but it still felt weird.

Pretty Good....

That's what I'd say about this last weekend...pretty good. We got some working in, some socializing with friends, some relaxing and some couple fun in.

This picture is part of the working I got in. The new semester is definitely in full swing. I am actually not working on school work in this picture but I'm messing with the wonderful world of financial aid. Financial aid can provide hours of fun for all.




On Saturday night we decided to have some friends come over for some swimming and some food. Nothing but the best for our friends. We picked up Little Caesar's pizzas and crazy bread. Don't be jealous, if you come over we'll treat you to Little Caesar's too.





On Sunday John made my day by being completely open to going to the ultimate woman store with me...Sephora. He even tried to find the perfect eye serum for me. The one he found was $175 for a little bitty bottle. Ouch. We decided that the $40 itty bitty container might be okay.




I'm extremely excited because there's two weeks left until summer vacation. Oh sweet summer, you're almost here. I'll be of course really busy with summer courses but at least I can work around my own schedule.

Here's two quotes I came across this weekend that I really like. I liked them so much I wanted to share them with you.

A part of kindness consists in loving people more than they deserve.
- Joseph Joubert, French philosopher

It is never too late to be what we might have been.
- George Eliot

The Last Waltz

You should put The Last Waltz on your Netflix queue for sure if you haven't already seen it. It's a documentary directed by Martin Scorsese about the last concert of The Band. So many of the greats performed.

John and I watched it tonight. It was awesome.

I included the lyrics to Forever Young. I had never heard the original version before tonight. It gave me a new appreciation for the song because until tonight listening to Bob Dylan singing these lyrics, I never really heard it. I actually cried listening to it.

May God bless and keep you always
May your wishes all come true
May you always do for others
And let others do for you
May you build a ladder to the stars
And climb on every rung
May you stay forever young
Forever young, forever young
May you stay forever young.

May you grow up to be righteous
May you grow up to be true
May you always know the truth
And see the lights surrounding you
May you always be courageous
Stand upright and be strong
May you stay forever young
Forever young, forever young
May you stay forever young.

May your hands always be busy
May your feet always be swift
May you have a strong foundation
When the winds of changes shift
May your heart always be joyful
And may your song always be sung
May you stay forever young
Forever young, forever young
May you stay forever young.

John found it on youtube...with Spanish subtitles...

Splash...

You are looking at the first splash of the summer season in our pool. This one is the contemplation of really jumping in...Should I do it? Should I not do this because it's going to be really cold?




I did it...



And it was cold. Very, very cold.

Wordle

One of my assignments for my Inclusion class was to make a Wordle of 20 words that describe me. For the first Wordle I did I just put the URL of my blog. The program made the Wordle out of words on my posts. I didn't use it because it put words like "slap" and "momma" on it. I wasn't sure how my professor would take some of those words. Momma is all right but I'm not one so it's pretty mis-representative.

That's when I decided to just add my own. Here's what I came up with...Well, what John and I came up with. I had a hard time coming up with words that weren't rude about myself. I'm not suffering from low self esteem but I feel weird making a list of awesomeness for myself. I have no problem making a list of my flaws...bad skin, magazine reader, bad at math...




You can probably pick out which words I chose and which words John chose. My words were all of the facts...wife, short, student, educator...

Short Breather

Hey, guess what? My first semester as a Masters student is complete. Woo hoo...let's celebrate...for one second because guess what? The second semester has already started. Yep, that's right. I finished on Tuesday and it started up again yesterday. It keeps me from getting into trouble, right?

Floating around in cyber space forever?

A couple years ago I was in a very silly mood and made Kita a myspace page. I had one too but got rid of it. Well, I had made up a new email address for her page with a pretty random password. I thought I'd remember the address and password but I was wrong.

I guess she'll be gracing the internet with her presence until the internet dies. You can check out Kita Bear's myspace page here.

From Not so Happy to Happy in 2.2 seconds...

One day at work this week I had gotten myself all worked up over a misunderstanding. I was really pretty upset. Then I checked my email to find a message from John. He wanted to know if I knew what this was a picture of...




I wrote back and said,"Only the happiest place on earth!" And just like that I was happy again. Perfect timing John.

We'll be going to the happiest place on earth in July. I'm ready.

Kelly's Recipes

Have you ever made any of the recipes of Kelly's from Kelly's Recipes? I have.

I've made Double Chocolate Gooey Butter Cake which I renamed "Slap Your Momma" brownies. I call them brownies because they seem like brownies and I added "Slap Your Momma" because I like to slap my momma. Just kidding. Kelly wrote that they're so good you'll want to slap your momma.

I've also made cake balls...a few times. The first time this recipe was made at our house John made them. He made HUGE ones. Let's see if I can find the pictures from his baking extravaganza...




I'm not sure if you can tell from the picture but they really were some extra large cake balls.

I also have recently made Kelly's cookie surprise cupcakes. My co-workers loved them. The cupcakes actually have cookie dough in them. Soooooo yummy. Last weekend I made her Mexican Chicken. I love Kelly's recipes because they're yummy and easy. Two things I'm a big fan of.

I'm now wanting to make the new dessert she has up...Coconut Cake. I must make it and eat it. Do you know of any other recipe blogs/sites that meet my criteria of yummy and easy? Also, I love recipes that require cream of mushroom soup.

P.S.

I think my signature died.

Maryellen

So much for that...

I'm on the computer a whole lot lately because I'm finishing up this semester. I thought I'd waste a little time during a brain break and take a picture with my webcam. I wanted to upload it to blogger to show you because it's a real gem.

As you can see, this post has no picture. It's got to be possible right?

Pizza Pizza

We celebrated a friend's birthday on Saturday night at Cibo's in Phoenix. It's another pizza place. The food was great, there wasn't a four hour wait like at Pizzeria Bianco and the atmosphere was even a little cooler.

Doesn't it look like we're at someone's house?



John ordered the world's largest calzone ever...



I had a whole pizza to myself...



During dinner we all discussed how we should start going to all the great pizza places in the Phoenix area. I gave my suggestion but it was quickly dismissed. I'm not sure what everyone has against Peter Piper Pizza but I guess I'll have to go there on my own.