Thursday, November 8, 2012

There's no "I" in "WE"

I know that all couples use the “We” word a lot:
“How are you?”
“Oh, we’re fine.”
“What are you doing this weekend?”
We’re catching up on all of the episodes of Keeping Up With the Kardashians we've missed.”
“You look great!”
“Thanks!  We went on a diet and lost 15 pounds! We didn't even have to try very hard!”
And so on and so forth.  It seems to be a normal evolution of coupledom and I get that.  But lately husband has started to use “We” in a particularly annoying way.
Did we pick up the dry cleaning?
Did we call the cable company and beg them to extend our DVR package?
Did we pay the rent yet?
Did we go to the grocery store and buy enough yogurt and granola for a small army?
Did we buy wedding/birthday/Christmas presents for every single person in the entire family? 
Basically every time he asks if we did something, he’s really asking if did it.  I usually don’t let it get to me but at times it just makes me crazy.  And As the Christmas frenzy gets even closer and my to-do list grows ever longer, whenever my husband asks me if we did something, I feel like tossing that to-do list at him and seeing how much of it gets done.  My prediction if I do that?  We will both be home from work next week with black eyes and food poisoning.

Friday, May 25, 2012

I've been a deadbeat. Let me make it up to you.

My grad school professors have spent the past year telling us that our lives would feel overwhelming when we began our practicums in May. Obviously I didn't listen.

I've become a deadbeat at updating this blog but here are some updates from the last, very overwhelming, months:

The 5th Annual White Family Jell-O Competition (more to come on this...I promise!)
I got to stand up next to my beautiful friend, Erika, while she married her love. 
Things at work have been filled with lots of late nights, boxes and grant writing. I'm missing the days when I had a summer vacation! 

And, per usual, I've been eating lots of yummy food at restaurants I'd been meaning to try in Kansas City and trying to maintain my sanity. My husband is finally home from a 34598475932742034823 day business trip and we're planning to go camping over this holiday weekend. Camping is not usually my "thing" but I've gotten adventurous in my old age. 

One last thing- we have booked a scuba diving trip to the Caribbean in late August. We bought scuba diving lessons in the silent auction at the recent Leukemia Society Ball  and have now booked our first reef dive! See, I'm adventurous!

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Jell-O Brain Freeze

Since I am the family's reigning Jell-o Champion Extraordinaire, I am really feeling the pressure leading up to this year's event. The family jell-o competition is only 3 weeks away and I have still not settled on a idea or a costume. Help! 

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

After today it is clear that I would not stand a chance in a duel

Over the weekend I coordinated/hosted a leadership retreat for 60 middle school girls that involved camping out in the woods. It was an exhausting, frustrating, motivating, joyful experience. We spent a great deal of time talking about toxic friends, stereotypes and female bullying. I am all to familiar with the fact that these things do not go away just because you graduate from college and wear on big girl panties.

Then my husband FINALLY came home. He traveled for most of the month of March and I'm sure that people in my life where beginning to wonder if he was an imaginary husband. We've been making up for lost time by having random date nights. Last night I beat him at scrabble because of my 37 point word: MILF. We are clearly not mature enough to have children.

Tonight we did a little of this....
I am hopeful that my hearing will come back eventually. Right now all I hear is a faint ringing.

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Monday, March 26, 2012

I want comission for this show

HBO may or may not have secret cameras in my apartment because it appears that their new show Girls is based off of my life. Here is the trailer....

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Liar Liar, Apartment on Fire

My apartment building has fire emergency alarms every few days. Every few days a siren goes off in each room of my apartment and a strobe light flashes off of a box fastened above each door. It is always a false alarm.

On Monday the fire alarm went off so Courtney and I drove to sonic to get an "my apartment is burning down ice cream" at Sonic, but tonight is different. I am not going anywhere! The fire alarms are going off again and I fully intend to stay wrapped up in a blanket on my couch watching Parenthood.

Take that, people who burn their food every freaking day.

It feels like Friday will never come...

How can it possibly be only Thursday? The last two weeks have been enormously busy between my full-time job, my full-time graduate school and the emotional exhaustion of not seeing my husband for three weeks due to work related travel.

BUT, I got to take a sweet little break last weekend to fly to Colorado Springs for the wedding of one of my first friends at Mizzou. She looked truly stunning, however I don't seem to have any pictures of her in her dress on my personal camera.
 And the adorable couple, Sarah and John

The whole weekend was a dream because:
1. Sarah never stopped smiling
2. I got to take a mini vacation to the mountains
3. I caught up with long-time friends

And most importantly:
I wore my spanx for an entire day without any "emergencies." Whoooo!

Sunday, March 11, 2012

As of last week, husband and I have been married for 1.5 years. It's a fact that is pretty hard to believe! JJ has been traveling constantly {since that is what they make accountants do during tax season} and I've been spending every weekend at wedding showers, bachelorette parties and wedding ceremonies of very dear friends. Watching people I care so much about celebrate their love keeps me from feeling bitter that my own love is so far away. I feel pretty lucky. 

Most recently I got to "bachelorette-party-it-up" Kentucky Derby style...
 With help from a witty instructor, we all switched back and forth between bourbon punch and painting these pictures of ladies wearing Kentucky Derby hats.
 Husband is still trying to figure out where to hang this "lovely" painting I made....
 The bridal party
The special cookies I made for the bride :) 


Saturday, March 3, 2012

Crushing

I can't help crushing over Lullie Wallace's beautiful artwork. If husband would let me, I'd hang them in every room of the house!

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Resolutions for 2012- One Quarter Late

I became totally bored in January with new years resolutions so I made a resolution not to make any resolutions. But, per usual, I've failed by the end of quarter one.

So, two months late, I vow to make small strides to:

1. Be more generous with forgiveness

2. Take better care of my mental and physical health {include "me" time!}

3. Share my passions with others so we can be passionate together

And perhaps this cutie would help me keep these?

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Chef Ramsay has ruined me

Since we are too frugal {aka: poor} to have cable, our television viewing options are limited to:

1. Only what hulu decides to grace us with
2. When we can invite ourselves over to friends' houses to watch t.v.

Because of option #1, I've been watching lots of Chef Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares. Since we are too frugal {aka: poor} we don't go out to dinner very often, but when we do, I've become the most obnoxious restaurant companion. In case you haven't seen the show, Ramsay goes into dying restaurants, flaunts their flaws and then makes everything wonderful again with a new menu and a fresh coat of paint. I have now become suspicious that all restaurants are microwaving leftovers and hoarding dead mice in their kitchens.

If you want to never enjoy eating out again, you should totally watch this show. Otherwise, invite me over to watch your tv so I can be cured of this terrible new problem.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

W.T.

A few weeks ago we had the most W.T. {white trash} weekend we've had since our float trip circa 2009. In honor of our annual Valentine's Day tradition, we went to the monster truck show at the Sprint Center. We think it is a nice way to express our love without going too lovey-dovey over the top!
Then the following night we went to a fundraising event involving betting on mouse races and mouse roulette...with lots of kegs. Yes, you read that right.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Happy Valentine's Day!

This is the first time in years that JJ and I have been in the same city for Valentine's Day. My beautiful sister has been a wonderful dinner companion during those years, but this year I was excited for husband and I to go to dinner to celebrate this hallmark holiday. I got on opentable and made a reservation at our favorite italian restaurant- and was very proud of myself!

Then 20 minutes later I got an email informing me that this particular restaurant was offering a $99 four-course special for Valentine's Day. This would be our only option for dinner. Ummm, I do not love Valentine's Day THAT much! So it's back to plan B of making dinner in our own kitchen.

Plan B was probably not the best choice of words on this romantic holiday. Let's change it to plan home-bound.

I'm sure you have already mailed all of your Valentine's Day cards, but if not here is a cute {and free!} printable card just for you.

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Love List: Hint Hint

I can't get these beauties out of my mind. JJ and I decided not to do gifts for Valentine's Day since dough is a little tight around here right now but I certainly would not mind if he surprised me with these.

I blame Pinterest.

Friday, February 3, 2012

Perspective

I've been interviewing for practicum placement sites over the past few weeks. It has been really anxiety provoking for me on a variety of different accounts. The clients I'll be seeing will ultimately be the demographic of people that I will be most experienced in when I graduate. The supervisor at my practicum site will be mentoring me in their style- how do I know what style I want to be mentored in?

And most importantly: how in the world am I going to balance my full time job while taking classes and carrying a full caseload of therapy clients. Oy. I am feeling really overwhelmed today at the life decisions I'm having to make in the coming weeks.

Last night when I was day-dreaming about a simpler time in my life I came across this video on my computer and it put many things in perspective for me.
Sometimes we don't have to be trained to make a difference in someone's life. This stress is probably not warranted!

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Bling and the Elderly

Some of my dearest friends came to visit last weekend. It is not often that I get to host people at my house who are not related to me so I spent the entire night before and morning of their arrival cleaning. The minute they arrive we broke out snacks and wine and everything was a mess again. But I wouldn't have it any other way!

There was lots of laughter, wine, bling and iphone apps that show you what you will look like in 2060.
I don't know how it could possibly be the last day of January. Time flies when you're having fun. Or, time flies when you work full time, go to graduate school full time and try to maintain a glimmer of a social life.

Monday, January 16, 2012

Lately

I took down all of our holiday decorations last week. I wish I could say it was a simple process, but I'd be lying. Putting my ordainments in a box brought on an intense hormonal meltdown. 

The one thing I couldn't bare to put away were all of the sweet cards and pictures sent by our family and friends. 
These are a wonderful reminder that even though we live so far from many of these people, we are so blessed.

And, to cheer me up post holiday anxiety attack, we've been playing lots and lots of duck hunter on the wii. We're making sure Missouri keeps it's hoosier name!

Monday, January 2, 2012

Tomato Tomatoe

Tomorrow it's back to work- which means I have to actually brush my hair and take off my sweatpants. I've been looking a little rough around the edges the past few days.

But until then I'm enjoying my last day of lazily perusing blogs and eating leftover Christmas candy.

Here are a few pictures from our Christmas 2.0 {not to be confused with Christmas 1.0}
I took the week between Christmas and New Years off from work so JJ and I could go skiing- but his dark passenger {that is my Dexter speak for his job} got in the way so I went to Mexico instead. He stayed at home and worked and I laid in the sun and sipped on drinks with little umbrellas in them.
And in case you think I'm the worst wife ever, let me remind you that husband travels all the time to fun places like Chicago and New Orleans without me. He is, however, working during those trips. Tomato Tomatoe.

Sunday, January 1, 2012