Baltimore or bust

Last Saturday after we officially bought the new van, we couldn't wait to take her out for a real spin. We had debated a Smithsonian trip but since we got a later start than expected, we switched our plan to Baltimore.

It was an unseasonably warm day, sunny and beautiful and the Inner Harbor was filled with folks who were out enjoying the sunshine and scenery.

We squeezed in a quick trip to the aquarium.

And followed it up with dinner at the Hard Rock. It was a fun day trip and got our new van all broke in for our upcoming road trip to Disney. Woot woot!

8 quick things.

1. Relationship/business trip - Things with Ryan are still going great.  I am still in love.  I'm still happy. And, even sweeter for me, Isaac is in love too.  We have been having so much fun as a threesome. He would comver over every day, play with Isaac, have dinner with us, help with the dishes and then watch TV or take a walk together.  It's like he was the missing piece for us.   Unfortuneatley, Ryan is away to North Carolina on a business trip until the middle of July.  He flew out Sunday and it's been really hard.  Ever since our first date (when we actually met in person) we have seen each other every single day, even if it was just for a few minutes.  I am very lonely and overwhelmed without him, even though we have facetime, texting, etc.  It's frustrating because we had made a lot of *cough**cough* important plans for the spring/summer and now everything is up in the air. 

2. Phone - So Saturday I couldn't find my iPhone all morning.  Then I found it.  In the dryer.  The rice trick really works and despite being submerged in water for a complete wash cycle and then blasted in the dryer, my phone is working great with no water damage.  I have posted before about how much I loathe the iPhone, but I have to grudgingly admit my respect for it has gone up.

3. Vacation plans - I leave next Saturday for five lovely days in Myrtle Beach with my parents, Isaac and my brother Joe.  I. Can't. Wait. I think a vacation is just what the doctor ordered.  Also, Ryan has some time off while I will be down there and has arranged to come and visit for two days (!!!!!!!!!!). 

4. Job - is stressful.  Lots of unknowns about next year, which is frustrating since there are only a few weeks of school left.  They gave us an inservice day to "pitch and purge" and I ended up packing a ton of my stuff and bringing it home.  My morale relating to my job is at an all time low, which, if you know me well, is saying something. 

5. Health - Allergy season is in full swing combined with a possible sinus infection.  Wahoo!

6.  Cieling fan - before Ryan left, he did help me tackle a few projects around the house.  Joe came over and they put a fan up in above my bed.  It turned out to be a bit more of an ordeal than we initially anticipated (there are no beams in my attic to walk on, for example.  Also, at one point the light switch that has always controlled one plug in my room controlled every outlet in the room-- oops.  Also, I may or may not have electrocuted my brother... The jury is still out).  It's so lovely and keeps the room nice and cool!

7. Grad School - is on hiatus for now.  I got my grades for the two classes I took in the spring semester and my 4.0 is still going strong.  They start up again after I come back from Myrtle Beach. 

8. Soccer - Isaac did not make the travel soccer team, which was a bit of a surprise (despite the fact that he is really too young for the team anyways, and would have been "playing up").  Now I am convinced it's because I opted to not have him do the Spring Academy (it conflicted with my grad class schedule) and I feel horribly guilty.  He is signed up for various camps all summer, so he will still have lots of opportunities for practice. 



So that's the scoop.  Hope things are well for all of my bloggy friends.

yesterday

Yesterday, Isaac slept till after 9 o'clock for the first time in AGES.  We went with Ryan and his girls to Hershey Park the day before and didn't get home till very late at night.  A good time was had by all.  Isaac even rode on his first real rollercoasters: the Comet and the Wild Mouse.   He and Allison did a great job reading the map and keeping themselves busy with a rock, paper, scissors challenge. 

Yesterday, Isaac wore cords, a plaid button up shirt, appropriate colored socks and church shoes without one word of arguing.  Since getting dressed every day has been a battle, this has been a major accomplishment.

Yesterday, I remembered again how much I love Sarah McLachan.  I listened to her for about two hours while doing homework and screwing around on the computer.  Hold On will always be one of my favorite songs by her. 

Yesterday, I started this book that my friend Evelyne loaned to me.  It is the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants girls at age 30.  I am only 60 pages in and I can already tell I may have to devote every spare minute in the next few days reading it.  I know they are cheesey, but I love those books.

Yesterday, I made cookies that turned out... eh.  I got confused and thought I was supposed to bring dessert for Easter dinner.  I brought them to my parents house and (as expected) my brother's declared them to be "dry and crunchy".  Good thing my mom had still made our traditional bunny cake.   I never claimed to be domestic people.  But I do try.


Yesterday, I finally got a jump on some of my grad school homework that I have need to get accomplished on spring break.  There is more to go, but at least I did something.

Yesterday, when we were driving out to my mom's house we heard "Baby One More Time" on the radio.  I made a comment to Ryan that I would much rather hear her song "Stronger".  He whipped out his phone and had Stronger playing on the stereo within a minute.  It sounds silly but it put a goofy grin on my face.  

Yesterday, Isaac was happy with his Easter presents (we don't do Santa or the Easter Bunny here), but he did pass the comment that there wasn't as much candy as he was expecting.

Yesterday, I lived and loved life with my family.  I sang my favorite hymns at church.  I contemplated the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Savior. We spent time together as a family and with loved ones.  Isaac had a blast playing with Ryan, my brothers and my dad.   Happy Easter!

I'm addicted want to jump inside your love

I think I need to do something to shake up my own life.

It's spring BREAK for crying out loud and I can barely come up with anything interesting to blog about.
But... I can't stop listening to this song: And I'm not usually a big fan of those guys.

So let's see... that's music. I've been on a big documentary kick lately. Netflix has so many great ones available instantly. I think Netflix is the best 10 dollars a month I spend. At least, if I am going to continue to be as anti-social as I have been lately. Neflix has informed me that I like "cerebral" documentaries. Here's what I've seen lately:

* Very Young Girls - which is about human trafficking in the United States. Not super uplifting as you can imagine, but pretty crazy to think about. When you think of girls being forced into prostitution, you think about young girls in Thailand but it happens in the US all the time. In the US, the average age a girl is caught up in that life is 13. Very disturbing, but informative.

* Exit Through the Gift Shop - all about street art. Really good. Highly recommend.

* Confessions of a Superhero - this one was just okay. It's about 4 people who dress up as characters on Hollywood Blvd. (I've never been to Hollywood Blvd, but they do the same thing in NYC, basically panhandling in exchange for a picture). It was a little too long and the camera work kind of made me sick to my stomach in some scenes.

* Easy A - that one wasn't a documentary, but I really liked it. The writing was very clever. It was sort of a modern take on The Scarlet Letter, a book I am actually pretty familiar with. I had it as a summer reading book the summer before my senior year. I bought the Cliff's Notes and had absolutely no intention of reading it. My mom was not having that though and she would corner me daily and make me lay on the couch while she read me a chapter of it. It's not like, one of my top favorite books or anything, but I am happy that we did read it.

* In the spirit of full disclosure, I have also watching at 22 episodes of Glee that are available. This is very hypocritical after all of the smack I have talked on Glee. I still maintain it is an overrated show with pretty bad acting and ridiculous plot lines. Honestly, I fast forward a lot of the musical scenes because they are just so dumb. Anyways, I have been suckered into a few of the plot lines, so last Saturday after Isaac went to his dad's I sat on the couch and finished off all of the episodes.

Still in my queue: Freakonomics, The Business of Being Born and Tupac and Biggie. Also, I have had Waiting for Superman on my counter for more than a month, but I can't make myself watch it just yet. I'm at about my limit for criticisms of teachers for the time being.

That's all for now. Happy Easter!

cats and dogs

Even though Saturday was ridiculously rainy....

which left parts of the trail looking like this:

I still forged on with my first bike ride of the spring. =)

weekend update

I forgot to take out our (very few) St. Patrick's decorations thisyear. I did get out our (very few) spring decorations up this weekend. There were a few nods to our Irish side around though. Isaac made this cute little leprauchan at school. And we made these cookies from a recipe I found in a magazine my mom left here. They turned out cute I thought (not bad for a first attempt,) but the recipe was a little dry. Or I overcooked them. Could definitely be that too. A few seconds in the microwave before helped a lot. I had a lovely weekend. Friday I did a little shopping at the outlets. GAP/Banana frequently sends the teachers in my school 40% off coupons, so I couldn't resist. I didn't go crazy but I did pick up a few things including a 6 dollar pencil skirt from Banana that was originally 60 bucks. I love high quality clothes that are 90% off!

I also got this cute cardigan. It is such a pretty spring color. Saturday was a leisurely day spent with friends that I don't see too often. Sunday I went to my old singles ward in the city and then went to my brother's house for dinner. His girlfriend Kami was there and my parents came out too. It was a really fun time. We played Monopoly Junior (actually not too tedious for a kid's game) and The Game of Things which was quite fun. We took the dog out to play for a bit before we headed home.

It was a lovely weekend, and probably my last totally free one for a while because spring soccer starts up shortly. That keeps us busy for a while.

In other news, my computer apparently has some kind of virus that is causing my old Hotmail account to spam my contacts repeatedly. I'm sorry about that-- please don't click on any links in the e-mails. I've tried a few different things but hopefully tomorrow I can get the tech guys at my work to get it back in working order. I am using my work computer exclusively while I am waiting for a new power cord for my home laptop to arrive, so I don't want this one out of commission too. At any rate, feel free to add that e-mail to your block list. I will just use my g-mail one from here on out.

Anyways, I need to keep working on a few odds and ends for work and then get to bed. Hope your weekend was lovely and THINK SPRING!

I'm back

I haven't posted lately because I've been busy doing this:

and this:

and a little bit of this:

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It could not have been more lovely, relaxing and fun.

• The weather was fabulous.
• We had the perfect mix of going out (Disney and Epcot) and staying at the resort lounging around the many pools under the palm trees. Everything was at our own pace. No over-scheduling.
• I purposely didn't bring my laptop. The school e-mail went untouched and the cell was used only for communicating with family while in the parks.
• My parents (of course) were the perfect hosts and it was so good to spend time with my sister.
• Isaac is the most fabulous traveling companion under the age of six there ever was.

But....

Now I'm home and reality has hit me like a ton of bricks.

There are lots of thoughts churning through my head so hopefully I will be posting more soon.

Spring is Here~

Spring is here to stay! And it's so lovely!

Isaac and I planted a whole bunch of seeds. There are actually two tiny sprouts in there but they didn't photograph. We've had fun watering our seeds and checking for progress each day.

The beautiful Easter wreath I ordered from Amazon. The only thing is it came with no way to hang it up. Next year, I will have to figure out something a little more attractive.

Homemade Easter Card from the boy.

Picked this up for a few bucks. It's been sitting on the windowsill. Cute jar (bad lighting/photo). I think I have more spring/Easter decorations up tha I did for Christmas.

I've been leaving the "porch" door open and Cody has enjoyed tempting fate by dangling off the drop off of death. Sometimes I find him with more than half of his body dangling outside.

My neighbors (who actually have a small porch and not a sheer cliff outside of their sliding door) have put up a bird feeder. Of course there were no birds there when I went to take the picture, but Isaac and I have really enjoyed watching them. We have a clear view of their feeder from our kitchen table. Shorts, and new sandals! (Now I just need some time to work on the tan...)

Spring soccer starts next weekend, so I should be blogging about that soon. In the meantime,I am officially on spring break. I've been cleaning and cooking and baking and organizing. It's wonderful. What things are you doing to usher in spring?