I was cruising etsy last night and was about to buy 3 of these pictures to frame:

But as I looked closer, it wasn't a drawing like I thought it was. It is a print that was put onto a page of a dictionary. I was close to dropping $30 for 3 of them, which is a good deal, don't get me wrong, but I think if I really want them, I should try to do it myself first. Surely, I can find an old dictionary at Salvation Army or someplace like that. And if I really want to be honest, I have several pieces of framed artwork in our 3rd bedroom that are just sitting on the floor, so I probably don't have much business buying any more.

Today is my day at our northern campus, which I love! Everyone is so nice and friendly. I even had a dream the other night about being surrounded my alligators and chow chow dogs...which I think has to do with me being around mean people the other 4 days of the week. You know, since I'm a dream interpreter and everything.

I also had one about Patton being 107 pounds. But that is a little too close to reality. :(

Mr. Duck wants a ride on the boat!

We have a lot of birds around the canal and Patton, obviously, hates them. At one point, we even had a diving duck in the pool!

I'm Still Here

This week has been so busy! One of my coworkers had to leave the country to care for her ill mother and no one has heard from her or has any idea when she will be back, so my workload has easily doubled. No more time for gchat or FB at work right now. I'm earning my paycheck this week, to be sure! But it was also a great week because it was my birthday! I didn't tell anyone I work with, but when I got home I had flowers from my inlaws and gift from my parents and Billy to open. I was being a brat with Billy because I didn't see any birthday cake, but when we were Skyping with my parents, he brought it out from the back room. He knows I LOVE cake! My parents were generous as usual, and Billy got me a pretty turqouise/pearl earring/bracelet set, my brother got me a Massage Envy gift certificate, which I used this morning, and I got a handful of giftcards, which I also put a dent in today. The best find, by far was a Talbots linen shirt dress at TJMaxx for only $20!

I have had a pounding headache all day because our neighbors got a Heineken mini keg last night and I was up late trying to corral Billy in from the backyard into the wee hours of the morning. Last night was the first night all four of us have hung out and it was pretty fun. Mike is 50 and his live in girlfriend is 26. Yeah. She was asking me how I handle Billy's job situation being so unstable because last year she moved out when Mike lost his job. Mind you, he's an electrical engineer, so it's not like he can't get another job. She said a man without a job is like a man without his manhood. I told her I'm married and I couldn't or wouldn't leave Billy. Duhh. It's called committment. We've almost been married for 3 years now and we haven't had the smoothest road, but we always know it can be so much worse and we're in it to win it! No quitters allowed.

Tomorrow Billy is going shark fishing (why?) and I have got some massive reading and writing to do for class. Just 4 more class meetings! I may be reconsidering this 18 hours of graduae english courses because it is freaking hard! I am much better at reading facts and discussing...not interpreting the meaning of some 17th century dude's thoughts on inspiration.
That is all for now...

save money with me!

I had to work this morning at our Jupiter campus for a Transfer Expo, so on the way home I thought I would stop at a farmer's market that I heard about through our secretary. IT WAS AWESOME. I couldn't believe how fresh the produce was and how much CHEAPER! Usually, I pay between $1.60-$1.90 for a pound of apples and this place had them for $.99/lb! I got fresh green beans for cheaper than canned beans, peppers for under a dollar, potatoes, $2 stawberries, rye bread, hoagie rolls, onion, asparagus and oranges all for $16! I called Billy to report how awesome and frugal his wife is...as if he didn't already know!

Then I got home, gave Patton his heartworm medicine - and realized I had to order more. If you have a dog or cat, here is a coupon code for $10 off http://www.petcarerx.com/ and free shipping: CLIP717 Billy is always amazed that I remeber to give Patton his medications. Makes me wonder how he would succeed on his own...hmm.

Is your birthday coming up? Mine is and I already received a coupon for a free coffee from Dunkin Donuts, a free entree at Moe's Southwestern Grill and a free sandwich from Jersey's Mikes. All you have to do is sign up for their e-newsletter. Last year, I also got one from Coldstone, but so sign of that in the email box yet. This is going to be a great week for food at our house!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! I knew it was today, because today is also my parents’ 32 year anniversary! But it did not even occur to me to wear green! Where is my head? What I did do this morning was tell Billy that I wanted turquoise earrings and a bracelet for my birthday – because I was focused on wearing blue, NOT green. Judging from facebook this morning, it looks like a lot of people are getting into the spirit! I can’t say that we’re doing anything different…and I work until 7 today! What I was reminded of, though, was my trip in 2007 to Chicago with some of the girls I worked for Alpha Phi with. It was so fun, but by the end of 2 days, I was ready to go home and not even look at beer…much less green beer! It was awesome – the party literally started as soon as we got off the “el” . We dropped our bags off and walked down the street where everyone had already clearly been boozing since early morning. There is no way in Helsinki that I could do that now. Heck, after 2 mimosas last Saturday, I was basically down for the count. Here are some pictures to commemorate that glorious green river!

Was it not so hard to get out of bed this morning because it was so dark? First of all, it was really 5:40am, NOT 6:40am and there was no sun to coax me up. No bueno. For the next couple weeks, I won't be able to go on my morning walk with Patton because it is too dark. I just don't trust the citizens on Boynton Beach to not be lurking behind trees trying to kidnap me in the twilight of the early morning. Once it gets light out a little earlier, I'll be back and Patton will be happy that he doesn't have to wait until Billy drags himself out of bed to take him for a walk.

It was such a great weekend though. Candice came around dinner time on Friday and Billy cooked some flank steak and we ate outside. It was gorgeous weather! On Saturday, we took a long walk in the park, enjoyed some mimosas by the pool, walked around downtown Delray, the beach, made milkshakes, dinner and then saw a movie with the 2/$9 fandango deal I got on Living Social last week. We saw Take Me Home Tonight with Topher Grace. I don't recommend paying to see this movie. It was sorta cute and entertaining, but also sort of dumb and a story we've already seen countless times in those coming of age movies. I do generally like Topher and That 70s Show re-runs on MTV though.

It was so nice to see her and catch up on girl talk! I don't get much of that anymore except on the phone with my friends far far away! Candace left for her grandparents condo in Naples on Sunday afternoon and I spent the rest of the day catching up on laundry and lounging. Tonight, our next visitor, my bff's husband Ricky Bobby comes to stay while he is down here for work in Miami!

Another astonishing rationalization in my place of work:

Me: Gahh...can you believe that scathing email Ricardo wrote to me? How inappropriate!
Ted: Yeah, well, he's Latino, so you should know your neighborhood and expect that.

Oh, so now we're making racial generalizations and lowering our standards? Great. Sign me up.

Today I was reminded of my Bachelorette party because it is Fat Tuesday, which is the last celebration of Mardi Gras before Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent. The party was in New Orleans, almost 3 years ago to the day. To say that the weekend was the most awesome thing my friends have ever pulled off would be an understatement! They told me to pack my bags for the weekend and meet one of my bridesmaids in DC. I was at UVA at the time, so I just had to drive 2 hours. When I got there, she went through my bag to make sure that I wasn't carrying on any liquid items, which is when I found out we were flying somewhere!

The next morning, she gave me a ticket to Memphis at the airport...so I thought that is where we were going. Until we switched planes to Biloxi/Gulfport! I was still very confused...thinking maybe we were going to get on one of those casino boats for the weekend. Still no! She rented the car and started driving while I was looking for clues. Then I saw the sign for New Orleans and she confirmed that is where we were going!

Many people may think that New Orleans is a dirty, gross city. Well, downtown near Borboun Street mostly is. It smells a little like urine, but once you get over that, it is really fun! We didn't have a plan...once everyone was there, we wandered through the streets and in and out of bars. The next day, we rode the trolley around and did a little sightseeing and food tasting and then just ended up back downtown. It was truly the most fun weekend I have ever had and I am still so thankful that they planned that special weekend for me! New Orleans has so much character, and I saw more of it when I went back the next year wedding dress/bridesmaid dress shopping with Candace. I doubt I'll ever get Billy to go there with me, but I don't think I would turn down another girls weekend down there!

Winning

OMG Charlie Sheen makes me Laugh. Out. Loud. Watching him, I keep thinking, Is he serious? I think he is. But how can someone that is so smart be so dillusional? I'm guessing it's the drugs. That he is not on. Right. So in the spirit of winning, like Charlie, I will list the things below that made me feel like a winner.

1-Finished half of my take home mid-term yesterday. It was not as bad as I expected, because my notes in my book look like I was paying attention in class. Who knew? The other half that I will do today may be another story. It's due 7am tomorrow morning.
2-The in-laws took us out to dinner last night for Mexican and Billy did not get sick. He has a very delicate stomach. :) Seriously though, he gets sick a lot from eating out.
3-We got a great deal on a new air conditioner. We always try to go with small businesses instead of large corporate chains and it paid off! He found us a discontinued model out in California and is having it shipped here. No one wants to buy a new a/c, but ours was 12 years old. We really had no choice.
4-Our electric bill was $65! This may seem like something normal to you, but it can get near $300 in the summer so we loooove winter months down here.
5-I made the BEST spaghetti alfredo with crab meat bc the hard working people at Winn-Dixie mislabeled the crab as shrimp and instead of $14.99/lb, we paid $5.99/lb. Suckers.

Hopefully this week I will continue to feel like a winner! It is spring break for students and faculty. Not for me though. Good news is that my good friend, CandICE is coming to visit from UGA where she is a grad student. Not to be confused with CandACE. Yes, I have 2 close friends with the same name. So half my wedding party Cand(A/I)ce.

I did Kelly's Korner last week, and I'm going to do it again today. I like it because it gives me something to write, and I want to keep this going as sort of a journal. I've being doing pretty well since November-ish at writing at least once a week. So today's SUYL (Show Us Your Life) is about family. My family is pretty small, so this shouldn't be too bad. I just have one brother, a mom, dad, dog, husband and no kids yet. Pretty managable.

First there is Mom & Dad. They both gew up in the Dirty Jerz and met in college. They were married in 1979 and 4 years later, I came along. My dad was a career Marine Corps officer and my mom was an elementary school teacher. They were wonderful parents, and I see more of that now than I did as a teenager. Obviously, I hated my 9pm cerfew at 17. We moved back and forth between NC & VA my whole life as my dad's duty stations changed, but they now live on the intracoastal in NC. We love visiting in the summers, and I think it will only get more fun as they have grandkids to play all day on the dock with like my brother and I did at my grandparents' house as kids. This picture was taken in Sonoma, CA last year. They travel a lot more now that I'm off the gravy train.

Next up is the broski. He got back from a 4 month tour in Kuwait yesterday. He is a C-17 pilot in the Air Force and just 15 months younger than I am. He graduated from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in 2006 and lives in Charleston, SC now. He is engaged and will be married in November. We're pretty close, but the thing I find most annoying is his new found love of the University of Alabama football team. So for that, I will post this picture of a monkey on his head in Spain.

Last, but certainly not least are the 2 guys I get to come home to every day. My husband and my favorite pup. Billy and I have been together almost 5 years, and married for almost 3. He was born in California, where his mom was stationed in the Navy, but grew up mostly in Virginia. We met at work in 2006 and had a long-distance relationship really until we were married. We worked on a cruise ship and after that, worked for a company that fixed things on ships, so he would be gone for months at a time. Even after we were married, he traveled a ton. Now, he is a stay-at-home dog dad....haha, sort of. While we don't always agree on things, it's a good thing he's around because when I start seeing doom and gloom, he sees rainbows and butterflies! Another bonus about Billy is that he has 3 younger sisters, so in terms of mood swings, I'm a cake walk! That cute guy next to him is Patton, our 1 1/2 year old silver lab. We had never heard of silver labradors until we found him, and everyone thinks he's a weimerarner.