OCD

My in-laws are visiting this weekend, so we've been working on the house and getting things cleaned up every evening after work. Mark has been painting the guest bathroom, replacing the hardware, mowing the lawn and even doing the laundry (I got Husband of the Year on my hands, friends.) Me on the other hand, I'm doing this, which is obviously a very important activity:

Before:

After:
Color coordinating my book shelf of course! A top priority. But I am pretty proud of our guest room, which is ready and waiting for ANY guests that come our way (hint, hint). I snagged a new coverlet at TJ Max this weekend and I feel like it really completed the room.

And a great big Hello to everyone who is still reading, since I've been missing for quite some time now :)

Got 18 minutes to spare?

We played this (amazing) slideshow at our Rehearsal Dinner on the night before the wedding. Like so many of our awesome wedding details, this one is credited to Mary Beth. If you find yourself wanting to skip ahead, I show up at about the 4:30 minute mark, and me and Mark come in together around 9:40.

Rehearsal Dinner Slideshow from Amanda on Vimeo.

This could really be a good life.

Boo!

We're headed up to Stillwater for the UT-OSU game tomorrow! This will be our third time to go to our rival game, and I'm felling pretty good that it will also be the third time Texas wins while we're there! It's turned into a mini tradition for us to go to the game each year, and it always seems to fall right around my birthday, which makes it extra-fun!


us at the game last year, in Austin

Mark's brother/Best Man is home for the week (all the way from China!!) to come to the game with us. So it's me and two Cowboys headed up to OSU. I think I may be cheering alone this year!

Perfect Proposal, Part 2

When I last left off, Mark had asked me to dinner and told me to wear something nice. I convinced myself not to get my hopes up, and assumed he just wanted to go out to dinner somewhere nice, nothing more. That Friday at work, I wouldn't even let myself think about our plans, because I was always hyping our dates up and expecting anything and everything to be THE NIGHT when he proposed.

He told me to leave work right when I got off and go change, because he wanted to go eat dinner early (clue # 1 that this was something unusual!), so I raced out of the office at 4:00 on the dot. When I got up to my apartment and unlocked the door, I jumped because he was already in my living room, dressed nice and waiting (clue #2! Why did he leave work early?). At this point, I am still ignoring all the signs that something is up, and proceeding as if all of this is totally normal.

"Oh hi! You scared me. I didn't expcet you to be here already.. is that what you're wearing?"

Now to prove to myself that I wasn't expceting anything at all to happen, I hadn't even thought about what I was going to wear. When I saw Mark in his Sunday best (so out of character for him!) and could tell he was anxiously waiting to leave for dinner (Ummm why? It's only 4:15!), I scrambled into my closet and tried to quickly pick something out. I grabbed a dress that I had always liked and put on a pair of dressier than usual shoes. In my head I briefly thought "hmm is this the dress I am going to get engaged in!?", but then quickly pushed the thought out.

I barely had time to run a brush through my hair before we were out the door and on the road. I didn't ask any of the normal questions while we were driving ("So, where are we going to go eat?") and just pretended like this was all perfectly normal. Then there was clue #3. Mark's cell phone rings and I hear the following (one-sided) conversation:

Hello?.... Oh yeah, we're just on our way.... ok... ok... ok... ok... ok... ok.... Great, see you soon.. Bye.

He honestly must have said OK about 8 times! I turned and looked at him after he hung up and asked who had called. His response, "oh, just someone."

I didn't ask any further questions. Something was clearly up. At this point, I started to get freakishly nervous and my stomach started hurting. What this really IT?!!

The Perfect Proposal... Part 1

In college, my roommate and I used to spend a lot of time watching our favorite channel, TLC (hello, Trading Spaces was THE best show ever!). One of our favorite shows was Perfect Proposal - please tell me someone else out there used to watch this every afternoon? - where perky host Nikki Boyer would help scheme with guys who were wanting to propose to their girlfriends in a very extravagant way. They would plan out these whole plots where they would trick their girlfriends into thinking they had been selected to participate in a television show about something or other (because how else would they explain the camera crew following them around everywhere?) and would lead them along until bam! They dropped down on one knee, pulled out the ring box and asked the big question. The girl’s entire family was usually hiding behind some bushes, watching and waiting to celebrate with them afterwards.

Here's a clip for all those who didn't watch this show every day before lunch, like we did:



Roomie and I loved this show. At the time, she was hoping for a proposal from her then boyfriend so that she could have a candle lighting ceremony at our sorority meeting. We used to joke that Nikki Boyer was always just around the corner, disguised as a waitress at the restaurant or the sales clerk at the Gap, waiting to pull a fast one on her and start the grand proposal into motion. I remember thinking that I wanted to be surprised whenever my engagement came around (at the time, I didn’t even have a boyfriend), but wasn’t exactly keen on being on television for the big moment! (side note: my high school boyfriend asked me to prom on a Jumbotron at the Dallas Mavs game and I was slightly mortified. Public stunts? Not my cup of tea!)

Fast forward to last Spring, Mark and I have been happily dating for almost three years, I’ve started dropping the we-should-get-married hints for at least six months and I’m secretly hoping that every time he’s running late or claiming to be “busy” after work that he is actually plotting his grand proposal plot, with or without Nikki Boyer. Needless to say, my heart sinks after every dinner date, or trip to the mall, or evening at home on the couch when there isn’t a proposal and I continually tell myself to stop expecting it. I didn’t even know if he had bought the ring at this point, so I set myself up to wait it out for at least a few more months.

So when Mark called me one Thursday evening and asked if I wanted to go get dinner on Friday, my heart skipped a tiny beat before I mentally told myself, “No, this isn’t it. You and Mark get dinner all the time. This is nothing new.” And then when he told me to “wear something nice” my heart leaped again, a little bigger this time, but I still shoved any proposal thoughts into the back of my mind. I wasn’t going to get let down again! But just the play it safe, I didn’t ask any questions and just pretended like him planning a nice dinner for us that required any kind of dressing up for no reason whatsoever was totally normal (which, it was not!).

To be continued….

Umm.. this seems to be a reoccurring theme around here.

Hi. It's me.. again. Being a bad blogger.. again. It's not that I've been busy (although I have) or that I don't have things to write about (because I do) or that I'm not spending much time on the Internet (because oh lord, I am). I have no excuse. So once again, straight from my laptop, here's what's been going on over here for the past, oh fourteen days.

Well, most recently, Michael Jackson died. Whoa. So strange. I am enjoying the Tribute To Michael that every radio station in DFW has been playing this afternoon and omg MTV is playing all his old music videos. It almost made me jump on Itunes and buy his greatest hits album. But then I remembered that I AM TRYING TO SAVE MONEY for this (kind of) big deal that I have coming up... you know, the wedding.

So since I officially brought it up, the wedding. It has and hasn't been consuming me. I go through waves where all I want to do it sit online and read wedding blogs and look at wedding photos and agonize over colors and dresses and flowers and decor and DJ's and more more more. Then I have days that go by where I don't want to look at a single bride magazine or even talk about it. We did set a date though, which I'm hoping will be the most difficult decision I have to make because lordy, it was a tough one. Spring? Summer? May? June? July? April? Soon? Far? Middle? Ahh. We have officially booked the church, the reception and the photographer. July 10, 2010. I want it to be less than a year away. I think then I will be able to really feel like its okay to start hard core planning. Because right now, I feel like every vendor who asks me "so when is your wedding date?" is rolling their eyes internally as i try to casually say "oh next summer."

I am so excited for our photographer. So. Excited. Check out his work at www.brooksblog.com. Mark and I are chipping in to cover the costs of the photos because its something we are so excited about and we want to have great photos, naturally. What I didn't want, was for my photographer to take up a substantial part of the budget, so we're taking on a large portion of the photo costs, which doesn't bother me in the least.

I took two days off this week and went to look at dresses with my mom and sisters. I wasn't too jazzed for it, because of the whole my-wedding-is-over-a-year-away thing. But once I started putting those dresses on and once they'd pin the veil in my hair, it got really fun, really fast. I have a good idea of what I'm looking for now. I even found a potential THE dress. But, I've got so much time on my side still, it's just going to sit in the back of my mind, burning a hole until I start looking again. I am taking off more time in mid-July and Mark's mom is going to come up to look with us too.

I also found some FABULOUS bridesmaid dresses that are exactly what I had in my mind. My sisters got to try them on and they looked adorable. The designer is offering a great deal for Summer 2010 brides, so I will likely jump on these pretty soon. But, that requires me PICKING A COLOR. This is all my mom talks about. Colors, colors, colors. We cannot do ANYTHING until we have our colors, according to her. I am really torn on the colors. I have some great options - but I'm afraid of committing to one and ordering dresses and then not being able to go back! One thing I know I want is naturals, greens and whites in my flowers. Green hydrangeas. White peonies. Bright green leaves. So I need colors that will match that. My two front runners are deep royal blues and rich plums/raisin colors. The cute bmaid dresses that I found come in both shades, so I'm weighing my options and trying to sell myself on either one.

Over the weekend, I started working on creating a wedding website. It was quite addictive. More to come, once it gets some more beef to it.

Mark found out this week that HE PASSED HIS PE TEST!!!!!!!! Huge news over here. Finally, he can relax and stop stressing about this stinking test. We went out last night to celebrate with dinner at Texas de Brazil. This was my first time at this place. Let's just say that by the time we left, I wouldn't even let Mark say the word "meat." I was beyond full. But it was Fabulous.

How on earth is the fourth next weekend?! We are heading up to the lake and I cannot wait. We haven't gotten up there even once yet this summer and Mark's brother will be home from Beijing and coming along with us. It's the first time we've seen him since we got engaged (or any of Mark's friends for that matter) so we get to celebrate.. yet again! My favorite part of the summer is going to the lake.. I'm glad it's finally time!

We went to my parents' house last weekend to meet with the priest at the church where we'll be getting married, and to take one last look at the reception site. While we were there, my mom and I did crafts while the boys branded the cattle. Yeah. Branded cattle. No one knew what they were doing. It was horrible and hilarious all at the same time. Mark was covered in mud and cow poop and he has an awesome farmer's tan to show for it too.

Work has been going really great and we've got some fun events coming up this fall. Plus the summer hours are completely spoiling me. When school starts again in August, it's going to be a rude awakening.

It's hot in Dallas. Like really hot. Argh. I am enjoying some quality time at the pool though. This summer is flying by, like always.

Lengthy

About a month ago, Mark and I went up to his parents' house to spend the weekend with them. The purpose of our trip was an early Mother's Day celebration with his mom and a chance to hang out with them outside the hospital (since the last time we had seen them was when Mark's mom was in the ICU). Little did I know at the time, but another reason for the trip was for Mark to pick up my engagement ring from his parents, where he had it shipped.

I remember during our stay Mark and I were on the couch watching the Kentucky Derby and Danica Patrick was a guest commentator (beats me why?). Mark commented that he liked her hair and told me (for the umpteenth time) that I should grow my hair out long. I rolled my eyes. Boys don't get it. Long hair is such a pain. Takes forever to blow dry. Gets heavy and just hangs there. Makes you that much more hot in the summer. Takes up a lot of shampoo and conditioner. Sure Danica looked cute with her long dark locks hanging out from under her huge Derby hat, but I knew that wasn't a practical do for an everyday gal like me. So I gave him the answer I was so keen to using whenever I could - "I'll grow my hair out for my wedding. It's not currently on the calendar, so it's a no go for now."

Fast forward one week later and I had the ring on my finger. I am officially growing my hair out. With one year, one week and one day until the wedding (but who's counting?), I'm expecting some serious inches to be added on by the time I walk down the aisle. My hair has always grown pretty fast. Let's just see if I can put up with it for a year.

28.

We did manage to have some fun this weekend. And this guy did turn 28.

Dos Anos

Two years ago me and this guy had the DTR talk. I had been waiting and waiting for it to come up, but was much too embarrassed to bring up the topic myself (so very typically me). After about three months of dating, we went out one Saturday night and one of my friends pointedly asked Mark if I was his girlfriend. I pretended not to hear, but he mentioned it to me later that night. I just kind of blew it off, still way too embarrassed to have the conversation. The next day, we were about to go out and get lunch when he casually said, "So about what Laura asked me last night..." My heart stopped in my chest and I decided to play dumb. "Oh what was that? I don't remember?" So he had to spell it out for me and we danced around the "so are you my boyfriend" line and mutually agreed that we did really like each other and that this was a real relationship. Then we went out to get our McDonald's.

Two years later and we still get Mickey D's for special occasions and laugh at how we became "official" while sitting side by side on my old futon. We celebrated our Dos Anos with sushi at Kona Grill, the very place and meal where we had our first date, back in 2006. It doesn't feel like that long ago. But it also feels like we've known each other forever. Cheesy? Yes.

Late Night Blogging

10:15. This is late night for me. I am usually half asleep, trying to stay awake for the weather report by this time. I don't know why I'm not tired today. I just watched the 18th hour of the Bachelor for the week. I'm over it. And also a little bummed that Jillian is the next Bachelorette. She didn't really impress me that much. Plus, I think they need to cut this thread of rejects and start fresh. It's gone from Brad to Deanna to Jason to Jillian. I might have to officially give up on this show. I say that, but I probably won't for real. It's a fun thing to watch with friends. We've started g-chatting during the episodes, since we don't all live in the same town and can't watch it all together like we did in college. Plus, if I didn't watch it, what would I talk about at lunch every Tuesday? Sigh.

Tomorrow is Mark and I's two year anniversary. This is also my first time to ever celebrate a two year anniversary. It seems like such a long time. But then again, it does feel like I've known Mark forever. We're getting lunch together to celebrate, which is exciting because it makes the work day a little exciting and gives me a reason to get a little more dressed up than usual. So that will be fun :) He doesn't read this blog (or even know it exists) so I can reveal the amazing gift I got him for the occasion. Ready? A lamp. His first lamp for his house (that he has lived in for four years). He says he doesn't believe in lamps. Thinks they are stupid. I am here to change his mind and show him the true gloriousness of the soft dim glow of a lamp. I LOVE lamps. 99% of the time, I use lamps instead of the overhead lights. I have (mentally counting...) six lamps in my one bedroom/700 square foot apartment. One in the kitchen, one on my desk, two in the living room and two in my bedroom. I would have one in the bathroom as well, but it only has one plug outlet and it would be too annoying to plug and unplug it every morning for the hair dryer/straightener routine. I even have two lamps at my desk at work. Is this a little crazy? Perhaps.

In the spirit of keeping this post completely random, today at work I helped with a pizza party for 45 PreK kiddos, three cars got broken into in our school's parking lot, our phones were down all afternoon and are expected to stay dead until end of the day tomorrow, and the three legged cat bit me (another story for another day). But the good news is that my boss handed me and my two coworkers her school credit card at 12:30 and told us to go get lunch on her. So we had a nice (long) break at corner bakery, My only regret? We didn't get dessert.

Jay Leno's on now. I should so be asleep.

I Love You, Presidents

Happy President's Day! In honor of George and Abe, this post is coming at you straight from home, on the couch, in front of the TV. Nice. I feel like I have a lot to celebrate today, besides the day off from work.

In honor of Valentine's Day and me having two days off from work this weekend, I decided to throw eating healthy right out the window. I didn't take one day off like I did for the Super Bowl, of just the weekend off like I did for my sister's birthday. I took the whole week off. Mark and I basically celebrated V-Day from Thursday night until this morning, so I went ahead and started early this week, eating bad from the get go. We had our fancy dinner on Thursday and had (the very best ever) guacamole as an appetizer, and then I ordered a GREAT BIG burger with fries AND potato cakes. I had a beer. Yum. We got Paciugo for dessert and ordered the large size cup with four different flavors. For breakfast I had TWO grands biscuits, bacon, sausage and eggs. I think I must have eaten no less than 20 Hershey's miniatures this weekend. And that's a low guess. On Valentine's Day, we had our traditional romantic dinner at the McDonald's drive-thru and got (more) ice cream. Last night, we ordered pizza and i had FOUR slices. It was a fantastic weekend, food wise. I never let myself feel guilty about any of it.

This morning I knew I had to weigh myself to log my weekly weight. I debated skipping it altogether, but the online program I am using kept reminding me that today is my weight day. So I stepped on the scale this morning and cringed, more than usual.

Something is completely backwards. I lost two pounds. How?? I have no idea. Apparently burgers and pizza and chocolate, with bare minimal exercise works for me. Hmm. This also makes 5 pounds lost so far in '09. Woo! Slow and steady. Summer, here I come. Bring on the bathing suits.

One of my favorite blogs, yourwishcake, often posts about working out and and being healthy and staying motivated. plus, she's as cute as can be and makes all kinds of fun crafts. Following the lead from her blog, I am setting a goal for myself this week (just one, not a whole list! I gotta make it somewhat attainable) to run 5 miles. In 5 days. So that's a mere one mile a day for 5 days. The only catch is I have to run these miles, not walk them, like I tend to do these days. I figure if Sara can run 2.25 EVERY DAY, I can manage 5 short spurts this week.

Oh and in case you were wondering, Mark was pretty adorable with his Valentine's plans. He mailed me a home made card inviting me to dinner with him and since I never check my mail, it sat in my box for almost a week, while he sweated it out. I finally got it the day before the invite's date, much to his relief. He was brainstorming ways to get me to check my mail without giving it away. This is our third V-Day together and our third time to celebrate our own "Fake Valentine's Day," which basically means we don't go out on the 14th, but skip the crowds and preset menus and opt for a happy meal and ice cream cone on the real day and a nice dinner out sometime else that week. It means two days to celebrate and twice the fun.

Well, I'm off to the outlet malls. Let's hope for some good sales. Big plans this weekend as well - an out of town wedding and a trip to Austin early next week for a work conference. I'm looking forward to seeing friends and celebrating some pretty big news with them :) I'm also looking forward to wearing my new black dress to the wedding. I got it at Zara on the clearance rack for 14.99, marked down from $129.99. Dear lord. You can't pass up something like that!

Where'd she go?

I’m back. My brief hiatus is solely because I have been so busy lately. I met some friends for happy hour yesterday and we had this very conversation. One is a student in her last year of law school. One just started her own PR business. One is a PT and recently bought her first house with her husband way up north. We pondered over how we manage to always be so busy that even getting a date on the calendar for us to all get together is nearly impossible. Two other girls couldn’t make it at all and we’ve been planning this date since Christmas! I don’t work dreadful long hours, yet there are never enough hours in the day, week, or month. But, I’d always rather be busy than bored.

Anyways. One of the main things I was doing all last week was prepping for the Super Bowl Party at Mark’s. I always knew it would take actually inviting people over to really get the ball moving on decorating the house. We painted, cleaned, shopped, changed out his ancient framed photos, hung something over the mantle, rearranged, laid some stones in the backyard, bathed the dogs, bathed the cat (!), baked galore, grilled burgers, made dips with chips and dips with veggies, scrubbed the bathrooms and washed the windows (inside AND out). Just before people started arriving for the game, we stood back and admired out work. The house looked great.

The party was also a lot of fun. We had a good group of people come over and two of them even brought their dogs. I watched more of the four dogs chasing each other around the house and yard than I did most of the first half of the game! They all got along so well and it was hilarious to watch them play together. Everyone brought delicious food and we ate and ate and ate. In fact, we’re still eating the leftovers. Leftover burgers, leftover cookies, leftover cupcakes, leftover veggies, leftover chips and dip, leftover beer. No complaints, other than the extreme unhealthiness of most all of it. I ordered Mark to eat all the cookies before I returned to his house later this week. I think he’s taking my command pretty seriously, since he told me he had seven cookies with lunch yesterday!

In the middle of all the prepping for our gathering, I of course went to buy the iPhone. I won’t dwell on it. I know it is extremely annoying when people talk about their phones all the time. Play on their phones all the time. Email on their phones all the time. Text on their phones all the time. Use the facebook application to check photo updates on their phones all the time. Respond to every ring or ding or beep on their phones when you are trying to have dinner or drinks or a conversation. And I am not becoming one of those people. But I am AMAZED with this phone. It’s been about four days and, as my friend at happy hour so eloquently put it last evening, the iPhone will change your life. And it is. Another friend told me that it’s as addictive as crack, which I am also finding to be true.

So yeah, we took a quick break Sunday morning to dash over to the mall and buy the phone. Then I tucked it away for the rest of the day and didn’t really bring it out until mid-football game, and then everyone got theirs out and we downloaded applications for a full hour. At least. Ahh. OK. That is the end of iPhone talk on this blog.

This week is slow at work and I'm finding it hard to start and stick to one project long enough to actually complete anything. My apartment is a mess and I need to do laundry, as well as hit up the treadmill. Super Bowl Sunday took a toll on the trip to the scale this week, so I'm hoping for a better try next Monday. I am looking forward to going to the cycling class tonight because it's been two weeks since I've had the time to go! I'll end with some photos from this weekend and a promise to be better on keeping things updated. Happy Hump Day to all.

Well, the photo went in on the top and I don't feel like taking the time to move itdown. You can see our nice new green wall in the picture, which was during the 3D commercial at the Super Bowl.

Biggest Loser: Solo Edition

Well today was my first weekly weigh in. I stepped on the scale right after I got out of bed (well, I went to the bathroom first. Every little bit helps!) and shut my eyes, afraid to look. I just knew it was going to be the same. Or worse, go up. I feel like I did good this week, eating carefully and thinking about portions, but I just didn't think it was actually going to work. I squinted open one eye and looked at the number. I lost one pound!

I am elated. Seeing this tiny bit of results has boost my motivation back up. So i poured my one cup of cereal into a bowl and cut up an apple to start week two. Then I got back in bed because hey, it's MLK Day and I'm off work!

Two hours later, I'm back up and getting ready to start some laundry. I need to run some errands today as well. Nothing exciting. I need some Drain-o because my shower isn't draining well and I want to get a workout in before this evening. It's just nice to have the extra day to do the things I never got to this weekend. What I really want to do is go to the Galleria and shop. But no. I am holding out. Besides, I'm down to just under two weeks before I get to buy the iPhone. So I really need to save my pennies for the big day.

This weekend my friends Stephanie and Mark were in town from California. We got together with them Friday and Saturday night, and even hit up the Loon. I can't remember the last time I was there, but it didn't take me long to remember how strong its drinks are and how very smokey the air is. While we were sipping on straight rum and coughing through all the second hand smoke, we all decided that Mark will have a Super Bowl party for the game in two weeks. I sent the Evite out last night, before he could change his mind! I'm really excited. We've been dating for over two years and NO ONE has been to his house yet. Plus, Super Bowl Sunday is also iPhone Day! The countdown is on.

Whew

During the past 6 weeks at work, my office put on 15 events. I worked every weekend in September and a handful of Tuesday and Thursday nights as well. This week I am celebrating surviving with a 3 day work week. Hello long weekend!

How bout them Longhorns! I love beating OU! Just as soon as the game was over, this guy quickly stripped off his burnt orange to show his true colors. I can't complain. This is only the second time ever that I've gotten him to wear a Texas shirt. We're excited to head to Austin in two weeks when our schools play each other. We should both still be undefeated, which always makes for a fun match-up!

OMG

Mark's parents called this weekend with some big news for us. They wanted to discuss Christmas.. more specefically their Christmas gift to him and me. They want to give us.... plane tickets to China! They are planning a trip to visit his brother in Beijing next year.

So, to all my international friends out there - how does one go about getting a passport?

This, That and the Other

Summer is here!  We spent just over three hours at the pool today with Stephanie, Mark, Virginia and Roth.  We spent the time talking about everyone's plans for the near future and I'm so excited for my friends and all the exciting changes they have ahead of them.  The only bad part of the day is that I now look like a lobster.  Bright red and sunburned.  I've already mentally tried to plan what I can wear to work tomorrow that will make me look less than ridiculous.  I'm not coming up with much.

Speaking of work, we have a new Marketing Coordinator starting on Wednesday.  I am so excited to have a new face in the office!  On Friday, my coworker and I spent the entire workday rearranging our office furniture, cleaning out our desks and weeding through the files on our old Marketing girl's computer.  Today I went to Ikea and bought cute new lamps for our newly cleaned desks.  I hope it will really 'brighten' the place up.

Saturday Mark and I were in Muenster, helping my parents prepare for the graduation party next weekend.  Well, Mark really did the bulk of the help.  He and my dad spent eleven hours outside, creating a garden and leveling out the yard behind the house.  I watched a lot and brought them cold beers when they looked like they might die.  I also planned menus and decorations with my mom and made a few trips to Home Depot to buy flowers and supplies.  I think its going to be a great time next weekend!

Gus and I are watching HGTV, our usual pre-bed activity.  The weekend feels like it went by too fast, so I'm glad we have a long weekend ahead of us!  Best wishes to everyone for a speedy work week and a great Memorial Day!

Things That Go Bump in the Night

Last week, I house-sitted for my aunt and uncle who live a great house in Plano. They have a huge comfy couch that's perfect for TV watching and a great big kitchen that they stocked with food just for me. All I had to do was let their cat Red in and out whenever he wanted and make sure his food bowl was never empty. For seven days, I was living the high life.

Tuesday night was my last night in the Plano house and I had everything packed up so that I could just leave for work in the morning and then head back home to my apartment that afternoon. I went to sleep at about 9:30 and was out cold in no time. Just before midnight, my cell phone rang and in my state of complete sleep, I thought it was my alarm going off and quickly silenced it. Not even two minutes later, it rang again and this time I was awake enough to realize that was my ring tone, not the alarm, and checked to see who was calling. It was a Dallas number I didn't recognize, so I didn't answer. A few moments later I got the voicemail ding, so I checked the message. It was about 10 seconds of silence. Not like someone called the wrong number and hung up when they heard my voice or even a few seconds after the beep, they sat there and breathed into the phone for a. really. long. time. So I start to FREAK OUT. Someone out there is calling me, trying to get me through the cell phone. I check my call log and the call that came in a mere minute and a half before this one was from a completely different number. So I received two unknown calls, in the middle of the night, within ninety seconds of each other, from two complete strangers.

I sat up in bed, my heart racing, trying to determine what to do. There was no way I was going to walk downstairs and wander through this HUGE house tyring to find the would be attacker. I debated calling Mark, but didn't want to wake him up. Then I realized that the whole point of having a boyfriend is so you can call them when you are terrified, right? So I called him and told him my situation. He assured me they were wrong numbers, but I just didn't buy it. Two totally different wrong numbers calling me so close together? I hung up with him when he was no help in calming my fears and sat in the bed, dead silent and not moving a muscle. Now of course, the house starts making all kinds of scary house noises. Creaks and snaps and dings and all kinds of scary stuff. So I call my Dad. I know he lives no where near me and can do nothing for me, but I just need his assurance that I am not going to die in this bed on this night. My mom answer the phone and immediately goes into panic mode. Why am I calling so late? What is wrong? Where am I? What time is it?? She is no help. Then, just as I am explaining the voicemail of breathing, my phone goes dead. I check and I have lost all my service bars. Someone has messed with my phone! Some cell phone lines somewhere have been cut! I can't even call the police now! I panic even more and call Mark back two more times before my phone finally puts me though.

I am near tears now, even though Mark swears no one can interfere with cellular signals. There are no lines to cut with wireless phones. I'm not buying it though. My Dad beeps in and I click over. He says he will call the two numbers, pretend that he got the missed calls from them and then find out who these mystery stalkers really are. So I hang up and wait. I can't stand the waiting, so I call Mark back again. Take note that every time I call him, I am completely waking him up again. He is not up losing sleep over my sheer terror. Every time I call, he answers in that voice that so obviously is trying to tear itself away from sleeping. I tell him he has to talk to me until my Dad calls back, has to distract me while I wait. So we chit chat. He mostly sleeps on the other line while I blurt out "say something!" Finally, Dad beeps in. I click over.

My Dad has called both numbers and the first one is a lady who says her kids were using her phone but "they are gone now." The second one goes to a voicemail. This does not assure me. I have now convinced myself that these "kids" that were using the phone are really hoodlum gang members out on a killing spree. They are after me. My Dad swears that no one even knows where I am, since I'm not even at my apartment. I tell him fine, I will survive and he tells me I can always just call 911. We hang up. I sit in bed for a few more minutes, listening to the house make all its freaky sounds. It doesn't take long before I call Mark back. He answers and immediately says he is coming over. Yes it is 1:00 AM and yes he is a good 25 minutes away, but he will come over so that we can both get some sleep. I fell bad, but readily agree.

As he drives to Plano, I make him stay on the phone with me. During this time, my entire right leg falls asleep but I am too scared to even shift positions, in case it alerts someone as to my whereabouts. Finally, Mark arrives. I run downstairs to let him in and don't see any predators in the living room. At 1:30 we get in bed and he is asleep and snoring in about seven seconds. Three hours later his alarm goes off and he gets up to head back home to get ready for work. Needless to say, we were both pretty tired the next day and I felt pretty silly at the whole ordeal. But really, you would have done the same thing, right?

Holidays = Exemption from Lent

Lent started last week and this year I decided to take sacrafice to the ultimate extreme and give up desserts and cokes, and pledge to run 40 miles during the 40 days of the season. Really, this is a very selfish lenten promise. Yes it is hard to not eat the yummy treats at work all day and no I don't want to go home and run 3 miles in the afternoon, but I'm trying my darndest. However, I am not doing it so much as a way to suffer with JC during Lent, but to get into shape before the summer rolls around!

Forgive me, Lord.

So for the last seven days, I haven't had my usual Diet Dr. Pepper first thing when I get into work and I haven't once eaten a mini Mr. Goodbar or a Starburst 2 pack. I haven eaten some mints though, becase I decided they don't count as candy. They freshen my breath!

However, I have also decided that holidays don't count as Lent Days of Obligation. So I did eat a piece of cake on my boss's birthday (it would have been rude not to!) and I did eat one little lemmon bar at my friend's engagement party this weekend. Oh and Movie Club Night, totally a holiday, so it was okay that I ate THREE heart cookies. And today, well it's Valentine's Day. You better believe I will be eating every cupcake, cookie and candy heart that comes into my office all day. And I'm making a cake for Mark and me to eat tonight. Right after our romantic dinner from McDonald's! You might think that I am getting jipped with a happy meal for Valentine's Day dinner. No way. It was totally my idea to get fast food tonight. We'll miss the crowded restaurants and overpriced dinners and instead enjoy a hamburger and fries from the comfort of home while watching all the episodes of John and Kate Plus Eight that we have recorded. I can't wait! Besides, we both love us some McD's and need a special occasion to eat it, other than our usual reason, which is when we are hungover.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Bruised, Yet Festive

Last night I went over to Mark's to finally start watching this season's episodes of Friday Night Lights. It is my absolute favorite show on TV and really the only one I still watch religiously. Mark and I started watching it together last year when we first started dating, so last night as we sat huddled in his living room, me freezing under a huge blanket, it really reminded me of one year ago when we barely even knew each other. So much has happened since then, but.. I am getting off topic.

The only difference with last night's viewing of FNL was that it was in front of Mark's computer screen. Somewhere in the depths of his DVR, we missed the first episode of the season and didn't get it recorded. The following weeks nine are safely sitting in his DVR list, but we could not watch them without seeing the season premiere! Which would have been a lot easier if Mark's computer hadn't been broken for the past four months! I was quite excited Tuesday night when he told me he had actually called Dell and his PC was up and running again. So alas, last night we finally got the season started off.

After watching the first episode courtesy of Amazon.com, we settled down to watch the rest. My cell phone happened to be across the room from me and Mark happened to be walking right past it, so I asked him if he would check to see if I had any missed calls. He looked and said I had a message. I asked him who it was from, since it displays it right on the screen. Instead of telling me, he opts to "toss" the phone over to me to check. Only it wasn't a toss, it was a throw. An MLB pitcher, bottom of the ninth, two strikes down throw. Right. At. My. Face. I wasn't expecting this and had zero time to react, so it smacked me right above my left eye.

Ouch.

The tears streamed down my face and I was reminded of being a kid and getting hurt and just wanting to CRY really loud. My face was throbbing. Mark runs over, pleading his sorries, swearing he didn't mean to, trying to look at my face that I now have shoved down on the pillow. I know it was an accident. Surely he did not intend to smack me in the face with a hard chunk of plastic. Five minutes later I have a bump on my head the size of an egg and I am imagining waking up the next morning with a black eye and having to explain to everyone at work that my boyfriend? Yeah, he throws things at me. However today, there's nothing more to show other than a small red dot and a great big knot. Sadly, it actually looks more like a pimple than a domestic abuse wound. I have the headache to prove its still there though. And my boyfriend just might be feeling guilty enough to stick another present under the tree this Christmas...

Speaking of, I totally have the Christmas itch! I cannot wait for it to get here. I've got exactly one week left of work and only a few more gifts to buy. I haven't sent out any cards yet and I really still want to, especially after checking my mail yesterday and getting a stack of cards from friends, including the cutest card(s) ever from Sadie! (I am wearing my new kitty bracelet today!! Thank you!!). So those might still go out, if I have the time to get creative enough and send out something cute and festive. Watch the mail, but don't hold your breath yet!

Boo!

So I am a little behind on my postings, so the Halloween post is a good six days late. Mark and I carved our pumpkins on Halloween afternoon, out on his driveway. We passed out candy while we carved, since the trick-or-treaters on his street start pretty early! We did manage to turn these guys:

Into these spooky creations:

The cat on the moon is mine and the grinning lion-ish face is Mark's. We got all kinds of compliments on them and one guy even offered to bring us his pumpkin next year to carve for him! The best part was that Mark did all the dirty work and scraped out the gross pumpkin guts while I watched. Happy (way late) Halloween!