Maryellen Behaving Badly

The last two days have ended badly. The kind of endings where I just want to get in bed and go to sleep just so I can put an end to the day. I hope tomorrow is better. I plan to be on my best behavior.

Chair and a Half

We've been on the hunt for a chair and a half and we finally found one we love. We've found others we've loved but either we didn't think fast enough and missed the super duper sale or the chair of our desires was over a thousand dollars. Ouch.

On Sunday we decided to eat lunch at Chipotle and then a last minute change of plans led us to Island Burgers. Island Burgers led us to a Room Store clearance center (It's in the same parking lot).




I'm not sure if you knew this or not but big, fluffy chairs = perfect place to sleep in. We've had it a little more than 24 hours and I've already fallen asleep on it twice. I have plans for more falling asleep in it.

Did you notice the ottoman? I put it together yesterday while John was doing nothing. Not really, he was putting together our new dresser from IKEA. We both did a lovely job.

Inside My Brain

My blog is called Mare's Mind but I don't really talk too much about what goes on in my mind. Not really anyway. Especially lately. So if you have a little bit of time I'll let you know what really goes on in my mind. It's spectacular. Just kidding. Are you ready?

Here we go.

I do a lot of pep talks for myself, especially during the week. I tell myself things like, "I'm a champion" (no laughing please) and "My day starts right now". I got that second one from yoga a few years ago. The instructor kept saying, "Your yoga practice starts right now." I liked it. It made me forget about being tired and hot (I was in Hot Yoga). It's pretty useful for my days too. It keeps my stamina up.

I think about how awesome I am. I'm totally kidding about that one. I don't think I'm awesome. I don't think I suck as a person either though. I think I'm a pretty normal person who is trying to make life happy.

I think about food. A lot. John and I were taking a "How well do you know your spouse?" quiz today. One of the questions was, "What is your spouse's favorite food?" We both got this answer right. I was right when I said that pizza was John's favorite and he was right when he said that all food was my favorite.

I think about the past. I don't live in the past but I do enjoy reminiscing about good memories. My favorite memories are the ones where there was a lot of laughing and ones with great food. Some even combine the two like when my sister and I had a fudge fight. I think I won. I definitely got more on her face than she did on my mine.

I really try to not let my mind wander during whatever situation I'm in. That's difficult sometimes but I'm really working on trying to stay in the moment.

I think about how old I am. Thirty three isn't a spring chicken. It doesn't mean I have one foot in the grave either though. It just means that now more than ever I realize that I don't have unlimited time. I have also realized that the people in my life are more important than anything else.

I think about how I'm pretty lucky. My life has been a great one so far. The only not so great moments I've had are moments all people have to go through at some point.

So there's my brain, for the most part. I also have random, silly things that go through my mind but I thought I'd just share some of the biggies for this post.

I'm so excited

My NBC shows premiere tonight. Yay, I love it. I'm ready to laugh.

We're Looking for a Chair and a Half

I really liked this one. I suggested that John look around while I continue to test this one out. I don't really have a problem napping in public.



We're still looking. If you come across a chair and a half that doesn't cost millions please let me know.

Special Plate and More

Yesterday was yogurt day for me and a bunch of fun people. Some of these fun people were there the day we had ceramic painting day. My friend Brenda had picked up all of our projects and held on to them until yesterday so we could look at our finished products together.

Here they all are...



We were all really happy with the results. I love our monthly get togethers. Next month...pumpkin carving. It will be fun, fun, fun.

Too much

Sometimes I think about getting rid of my facebook. I really think I may just do it. I don't even spend all that much time on it but even still I feel like it's a big time waster. I'm connected to a lot of people on there but really, if I disconnected today I would still be able to be in contact with the people I really care about.

I don't know. A lot of times I say that I miss the simplicity of the 80's. If I wanted to talk to a friend I would have to call them and talk to them. If they weren't home I would have to call them back later because nobody had an answering machine.

I somewhat enjoy looking at my friend's pictures online but even this gives me a little bit of an empty feeling. I'd rather be in person with someone flipping through an actual album and listening to them tell me about the pictures.

I think facebook is a little bit of a fake. It seems like a great way to keep in contact with a lot of people but you're not really in contact. I never get the same feeling after being on facebook that I do after being in contact with actual people.

So if you're one of my facebook friends and that's how you get to my blog, then now might be a good time to bookmark it. I may be pulling the plug pretty soon.

Fantastic Day

I think that even if most of my day had been terrible I would answer, "Great" if you asked me how my day was today. It's how it ended at work. One of my instructional assistants brought in a bunch of kid cd's today so we played a couple. Oh my goodness. That's when you couldn't wipe the smiles off any of our faces.

We danced and sang along to songs for about twenty minutes. We'll call it social skills. They were so happy. They danced together, they danced with us, they cheered each other on and made each other laugh. It was a fantastic time, truly.

One of my students isn't as big on the music as the other kids. He hid under the table. So he got to play Monopoly Jr. (social skills and math skills) with one of my other instructional assistants.

The kids were so happy with the time we had that they asked to do it again tomorrow. I just love their sweet personalities.

The Old Gray Mare

I bought a sing along CD about animals today at my favorite dollar store. You know, for John and me to sing along to while we're brushing each others hair.

The last track is called, The Old Gray Mare. I was like my students and said, "Mare? That's my name." I was very excited until I read the lyrics. Apparently, the old gray mare ain't what she used to be.

How rude.

Spencer's Party

Yesterday John and I got to celebrate Spencer's 3rd birthday. There was amazing food, great company and an adorable birthday boy.





I think I was picture happy because when I loaded the party pictures yesterday, there were 61. I'll just post the awesome ones. Later this week...I promise. For this post I decided to post the cutest/sweetest one and the one with Natalie and me looking sexy. Well, Natalie is looking sexy. I'm in need of more mascara.

Anniversary Dinner

We had our real anniversary dinner last Thursday, instead of our practice one in July while we were in Florida. Let's make some comparisons. What do you think? Here's the practice one from July...




Here we are on the 9th...



I think even if I didn't know which picture was which I would know that the first one was from when we were on vacation and the second one was from after working all day. The second picture just screams, "Working woman and man". That's it, we're going to start planning our next vacation.

I also think these pictures say, "Mare, there's other colors besides black."

We Put up Crown Molding

Are you so impressed? Ah, it was nothing.




Our bedroom is a little more finished than this. Our bed is in there and our tv is hanging on the wall. It's not a flat screen so it's a little bulky and awkward. Not really. It's a flat screen.

Pictures to follow...at some point. We're taking our time with this one. We want her to look just right.

Something to Make You Laugh...Probably

So this is what I look like while hula-hooping...I've always wondered about that.

Ten Big Ones

Well friends and family, John and I have hit the double digits. That's right, ten years ago today we got married. It was the easiest decision I've ever made. Seriously.



(To the right of me: My mom, my Uncle Bob, my grandma and my granddad. To the left of John: Mama T., my brother AJ and my sister Jennifer).

Last year I quoted my grandmother, Mama T. on our nine year anniversary and I'm going to do it again this year. When she found out we were getting married she was really excited for us but I remember she said something that at the time I thought, "Uh, no."

She said that it was so wonderful we were getting married so that John and I could finish raising each other. I politely agreed but thought that was definitely not the case. I thought that at 23 I was done "being raised". Well, a lot of people are done at 23. I wasn't. John wasn't either (at 24).

We absolutely finished raising each other. Mama T was right. I hope she'd be proud of the job we did.

The first ten years have been really, really happy. I'm so excited for the next ten.

Good Moments

Some people have good days and bad days. I'm more of a good moments and bad moments person. Most of my moments are extremely optimistic. Then I have moments like my current one when I'd like to beep slap my optimistic ones.

I blame my awesome mood on the fact that it's after ten and I'm not off in dreamy lala land yet. I'm about to fix that.

I Want To...But I have To...

I want to be helping John paint our ceiling but I have to be finishing up my literature review. I'm half way through. Please send me efficiency juju so I can get to painting with my husband a little faster.

Thank you for the juju.

It's Begun

John is half way through the popcorn ceiling removal. He says it's hard to do and I believe him.




I think I'm going to play my girl card once again and opt out of assisting with the popcorn removal. Instead I've decided to do the documentation of it.

Tonight we'll officially pick our wall color. We're still thinking chocolatey but we'll see.

Oh No He Didn't

I was showing John this chick's blog that I follow because she had a really cool picture on there. She's a really pretty person and often wears dresses and skirts. This is where the "Oh no he didn't" comes in.

He looks at the picture and says, "You should wear dresses because that's what girls do." I reacted quite normally for me. I bit him.

It's Been Awhile...

Since I've shared some music with you. I love this song. It's fun.




I'm really excited for this weekend. We're re-doing our room. So far I can tell you that the popcorn ceiling in there is going to be saying "Adios", chocolate walls will be saying, "Buenos Dias" and our carpet will be saying, "Clean Me".