Uninvited guests....

So, our pantry is located directly off our back door. Our house is old and therefore not insulated that well.. Anyway, some of theeeeese little buggers got inside and decided to take over anything they could find in the cabinet in a bag or box last week. Ugh.

Google led me to a solution: black pepper. I lined the doorway with it and no more ants! YAY!

Right?

Wrong.

B/c the other night, I woke up, hearing something that sounded like someone was trying to get in the house. I FREAKED OUT. I grabbed my cell phone and my keys, prepared to run for the hills. I dialed 9-1-1...and held my finger over the "call" button.

Yes, I was that freaked out.

The noise continued intermittently.

I finally got up, went into the kitchen and decided to sit in the dark, listening.

If I heard someone trying to get in, I was OUT....but I just wasn't sure what the noise was...

...and my alarm/motion detectors were fine...

Sooo.. I sat there... index finger hovering shakily over that little green key on my phone, 9-1-1 already entered in...

and I heard the noise...

INSIDE THE KITCHEN.

Which made me realize it was....

...or rather something more like this...
Yes, friends, mother nature is trying to re-claim our kitchen or something.

And damnit we're CLEAN people. Ugh. So annoying. (But so glad it was just a mouse!!!)

I sighed heavily and went back to bed.

When the ant parade occurred last week, I'd put everything I could inside plastic baggies to keep it safe. For example, my granola bars, while individually wrapped, were in a box...that ants got in to.

*gross*

So I put the wrapped bars in a baggie and threw out the box while cursing at the ants who didn't understand me and thoroughly confusing the dogs

I woke up the next morning after I realized a mouse had been in the house...

and it had EATEN THROUGH THE PLASTIC BAGGIE and gotten all my granola bars.

That's it.

Between ants and mouse, I've lost like $30 in food this week!

This is war. Little sqeaky furball is going down. Trap is set. And now, peeps, we wait....

(admittedly, I dont really WANT to find a dead mouse. I kinda want him to just run out from wherever he came and never return).

So, yeah. There's that rant for ya...

And um... I was shopping today and fell in love.

Like not just in love..

In love. In lust. In wildly passionate I have to have this....

over....this....

IWANTTHISBAG. SO BADLY. I've been looking for a gorgeous camel bag for like ...3 years now. Every winter, I look and look and never find what I want. I want one that's big, but not with tons of crap all over it. I want it to be tasteful. I want it to have those kinds of handles.

I saw it in the store window and was pulled as if by some other force into the store....

...until I saw the price tag and wanted to shed a tear. Things Jax doesn't need to spend hundreds of dollars on=handbag.

So, I will wait. They'll have coupons...er...right.. And there's always ebay. *le sigh* But I wanted to share my newest leather love with all of you. Maybe it'll be my 30th birthday to myself! (Yes, my birthday is almost a year away....and yes, I'm also going to Hawaii as a present to myself in some regards...but just let me justify it.) Maybe it'll be my "I caught the mouse" present? Eh? Fine. Whatever. Hmph.

Hope you had a great weekend! I'll recap tomorrow. XOXO!

B/c I'm way behind in photos...

So, I know I SAID I went to a baby shower last weekend, but uh...my life ate the ability to upload photos this week...Soooo here are last weekend's pics!

The adorable cake!

Watch out, world, I have cooking utensils and an apron....
The girlies with the hot mamma to be!
Awwww!
Hostesses with the mostesses (ha!) and glowing, gorgeous mother to be Jennifer in the middle. :)

That night, we had a couples shower for some friends! (yes, lots of showers! And actually I had another one yesterday and have ANOTHER one next weekend). The tables were decorated with huge fake diamonds. I tried to be funny. Eric didn't get the memo.

But, he did the second time around... hahaha!
Played a funny game (no, really.. it was funny.. I know the word "game" and a shower makes everyone cringe like it does me). We had to all write a question involving "who" like "who wears the pants in the relationship..." and they had to sit back to back and answer the questions by pointing at the person they feel does the action asked in the relationship... Some of the questions were...ahem... not rated for blogger...which made it all the funnier! ha!
Sunday, we headed to watch Eric's friend race at a local speedway! Judging from some of the insane sports cars at the track, it seemed like a rather expensive hobby to me.. ha! Ah, boys and their toys... ;)

B/c my dog's adorable...and other randomness...

*these were all taken today* :)

I keep my bag with my gym clothes by the door so I don't forget em on the way to work... Looks like someone didn't want me to leave...Awww... :)

"Herrow, I'm the best doggie in the world!" :)
"Please stop taking my photo and get ready for bed, you hussy."
And they say dogs don't smile... pshaw I say! :) (ignore the random wet spot where she'd been licking before she smiled. Whatever).

If you haven't heard about this weekend's sale coming up for all the G@p brands, you're living under a rock. Or maybe you aren't...b/c I hadn't heard about it til recently either. In the event you haven't heard, I wanted to share! :) Click here.

So, um.. guess what...wait for it.. wait for it... ERIC PASSED THE CPA HE TOOK IN JULY! YAY! He just found out today!!! He's still waiting on the score from last week's exam, but that means he officially is 3/4 of the way DONE with the CPA! YEEEHAW! You guessed it; there was definitely Mexican food tonight. :)

1/2 Weekend Recap...

Haven't uploaded photos from the awesome baby shower we had this weekend for our friend, Jennifer...or from some friends' wedding shower....or from my first experience at some car races today...

...so they're coming soon!

So in the meantime....

Things that are weird that I plan to do: take a copy of Maxim mag to my stylist.

b/c um.. I love this chick's hair. (Yes, I realize I'm kinda obsessing about the hair thing. It's my blog. I can.). So, maybe this, but with quite a few blonde highlights? Eh? *shrugs* I like it. We'll see...

* photo from Maxim mag

I also kinda want her stomach. So um.. if my stylist can do that too, that' d be awesome. ;)

Moving on... Saturday, after our friends' couple shower, we opted to be awesomely lame head home and watch a movie. What'd we see? Despite my repeated attempts to get Eric to watch Girl with the Dr@gon Tattoo (the Swedish version), and debate about 4 or 5 other movies, we settled on Date Night. (He alleges he's going to read the actual book, hence not seeing the movie first. We have a bet going..b/c he has like 5 books ahead of it that he wants to read. So, I'll let you know who wins.). ;)

Vote: cute, funny, predictable but in a good way. :)

Hope you had a great weekend! I'll leave you with a pic someone tagged of Eric and me from the couple shower at a local restaurant. Please note Eric and my face. Without knowing each other was doing it. Yeah. :)

If You Really Knew Me...

Thank you for all the good luck wishes for Eric yesterday! :) I guess he'll know in a month... *sigh* :)

Leslie at A Blonde Ambition did this fun blog today and I'm hopping on board to keep it going! I haven't seen the MTV show yet, but judging how addictive Teen Mom and all those others have become for me, I'm confident I'll like the show. Anyhoo.. as for the blog post...

If you really knew me, you'd know that...

- I totally hate garden gnomes. They frighten me actually. The travelocity commercials make my heart beat a little faster in terror like the gnome is going to run into my house and laugh at me maniacally or something.

- I'm a research FREAK. I LOVE research...on pretty much anything. Example: Travel- I know what times are best to book flights, what blogs are best to read, how much things should cost in various countries, typical gratuity, etc etc etc...

-I like to understand everything and I like to be understood. I don't even need to agree with the idea, concept, opinion, etc, but I want to understand it. I've noticed that in arguments, I get EXTREMELY frustrated if the other party doesn't try to understand me/my feelings/my idea, etc. Even if they just say "I understand where you're coming from, but..." it makes me feel better-LOL!

- I guarantee I can beat you at hoola hooping. I was the champion in my middle school geography class (when DARE came) at something like 25 minutes...and they stopped me b/c no one else was still hooping.

- I used to be incredibly shy and only talked to my immediate friends. Teachers even wrote in my middle school yearbook that I should speak up more. Somewhere around 8th grade, I discovered my voice...and I think many would say I've more than made up for lost time...haha!

- I was a dancer in high school...and when college came around, I wasn't sure if I wanted to do it. My bff, Blaze, and I went to the week-long clinic, learned the dances/cheers (she was trying out for cheer), etc. The morning of try-outs, I got ready, put a pretty bow in my hair, drove to the university....and kept driving. I just didn't want to do it. But, I drove around for 2 hours...then went home and told my mom I didn't make it. I kept that lie up for um.... at least 6 months. I eventually told her and she was like "I didn't care! I just didn't want you to regret something!" She thought I was hilarious. Jax=doesnt like disappointing people.

- I haven't seen a TON of movies it seems like EVERYONE has seen. Top Gun? Nope. Breakfast Club? Nope. Goonies? Nuh uh. *le sigh* The life of an only child without siblings to influence my tv-watching... :)

- It almost physically PAINS me to see an abused or neglected animal...especially dogs. I get a feeling in my gut that's somewhere between tears and being punched. If I hear a news story, etc about abuse, I am tortured by it for DAYS.

- I don't sleep on the pillow. I start on the pillow and end up with my head below it. *shrugs*

- I'm hate failing at anything. I often equate losing something with failing at it. Even coming in nearly LAST place at laser tag a bit ago makes me want to go back on my own and figure out how to win. Seriously.

- I sometimes type way too fast and write "nad" instead of "and" and actually laugh out loud. every.single.time. I'm 12 years old. It is what it is.

- I check my alarm like 4 or 5 times before I go to sleep. OCD? Maybe. ;)

Yeah, okay that's a lot more than I thought I'd say. My overload of iced tea makes me talkative apparently. Or blogative. Whatever. Anyway, join in the fun! If I really knew you, I'd know that.... ????

Dragon Tattoos and CPA exams...

(I dunno; it's the best subject I could come up with to attempt to tie this post together)

So, last night, I thought "I'm going to bed early! Look at me!" I felt like I deserved a cookie...or at least some praise as I climbed into bed at 9:30. (I have a tendency to stay up on weekdays til at LEAST midnight. Night owl=me). I grabbed my book and, halfway through it, thought "well, I can just read one chapter."

Let me tell you... This book...
...sucks.you.in. I looked at the clock and it was 11:45 and I was pretty much done with the book. I have like 15 pages left. I kept reading...and reading... and reading. Mind you, I've been trying to go slowly b/c I want to save books two and three for my (EIGHT HOUR) flight to Maui. :) But it was just soooo good! Couple that with the fact that my roomie wasn't home and I kept reading the scary parts thinking, "okay, I'll stop the moment something happens in the book that gets my mind away from the scary stuff it's talking about..."

Haha.. Anyway, I love it. And I want book two. Now. (Saving book three for the plane isn't so bad, right? *Shrugs*) Are you reading/have you read the series? I know they just cast Lisbeth for the US movie. I think I like their choice; I hope she can be bad @ss enough. Just sayin. I definietly like their choice for Blomkv!st (Dan!el Craig!) Concerned that they want the movie to be in Swedish accents b/c I just dont know if they can pull that off without being cheesy.

Really quickly... I want to wish this guy....

GOOD LUCK!!

...as he slaves away on his (could-be LAST) CPA exam this afternoon!!!!!!

I'm looking very forward to cheersing him with one...(or two)... of these over some chips and salsa and Mexican food (the only way to celebrate.. duh) lata!

Happy Tuesday!

(I also may have put a vacation countdown thing on my blog. See it? There.. to the right? Yeah, it's not as fulfilling to see over 50 days. Arg. But, it will be when it gets closer!)

Colorado 2010 (Post one!)

First, thanks for the comments about the hair! :) Yeah, I want to go darker, but thanks to a ton of ya'lls' (the plural of ya'll is funny. but I'm keeping it.) comments and sleeping on it, I've kinda gotten the mentality "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"... especially before I vacation. I tend to get my hair exactly where I want it and then promptly change it. Soooo maybe some lowlights and then go for the full effects after Maui, when I won't care if it takes 6 mos to get back to blonde again. :) Ah, girls and their hair...

Anyway, soooo yeah so it's been a week since I posted the 2nd half of our trip... My photo uploading is kinda ridiculously behind... *cringe* Do you have a macbook? If so, does it take forever to upload photos to blogger? Mine does. It's annoying. Anyhoo....

COLORADO WEEKEND STARTS HERE!

We landed at the Denver airport and I wanted to find the paintings I read about in the conspiracy theory (I dig conspiracy theory in case ya'll didn't know...It's weird. I love it.) Eric and I were walking back from getting our bags and...WE SAW THEM! <--seriously all-caps-excited! So yeah, pictures happened. Whatever. They're creepy. I mean...right?!

sword-wielding-gas mask-wearing-army-man-killing-dove?! AGH!

Or...the cultural painting of said gas-mask-wearing-man appearing dead?! What.the.heck.
Okay okay...enough of that...

We got our car, headed to the hotel, and then set out on a walk to lunch! Our hotel was in the heart of downtown so well within walking distance of 16th Street Mall, etc. On our walk, we immediately ran into a guy I was friends with in law school! BANANAS! Such a small world, right?

Had a fabulous lunch on a patio (the weather was SO much better there), had a random photographer ask take our photo for "her business." (I haven't looked it up, but our faces are prolly on some triple x site now. Awesome.) After all that, we headed to SHOP.SHOP. SHOP. I teased my boyfriend for being high maintenance finding a ton more things than I did, but it is what it is. Dont you hate it when everything on sale is nowhere near your size? Arg. Whatever. But, still a great time nonetheless.

Went back and got ready for dinner! Made a quick, last minute reservation at a local steak place and set off to walk there...

....til it started raining. Rain + white pants = not good.. haha.. Thank gawd for building awnings. :) 16th street mall view! :)
We got to the restaurant....er....wait...We ordered drinks at what we THOUGHT was the restaurant, but upon seeing no steak on the menu, realized we were in the wrong place.

**Oops**

Exchanged a few "what do we dos?", laughed, drank our beverages, and headed on to the real place... hilarious! Apparently Pr!me Bar and Pr!me Steakhouse are a block apart (who does that?!)...
Ah...at last...Pr!me Steakhouse. Or at least somewhere else named Pr!me that had steaks. Who knows how any more Pr!me places they have in a block radius? ;) *laughter*
Dinner was followed by a walk back to the hotel wrapped in fabulous weather. :)

Our hotel had a cookie buffet with milk and tea every.single.night. Every hotel should adopt this awesome policy/activity. Immediately.
Goooooood morning and rise and shine for some rafting!

I'd never been white water rafting and was absolutely psyched! This was the creek we rafted and that video pretty much had me terrified of every level except beginning....b/c I guess you flip on every other level...and beginner is freaking class 3 rapids for crying out loud! Despite the adrenaline rush of the intermediate level weighing on my brain, we opted for beginner. Something about getting cold/hurt/drowning seemed to make for a bad mental image. ;) Anyway, glad we went for the beginner route b/c it was absolutely perfect! Just enough rapids and plenty of space in between them to take a few pics and relax... Good times. :) And our guide was awesomesauce.

Ready.to.raft. (or rob somewhere, but whatever...the all black wasn't intentional).

Rafts going in the water! (ignore the poor quality of the disposable waterproof camera)
Awesome shot of oblivious me while the guide checks out the raft coming over the rapid we'd just finished...b/c a dude was falling in YIKES!
our guide to the rescue!
This is my sexxy, I-just-rafted pose. (or the "we're waiting on the bus" pose, but whatever)
Same goes for Eric. I make a kissy face. He mocks weaponry with his paddle. Awesome.
We rafted. We have helmets on and life jackets to prove it. :)
Post rafting lunch on the patio (loved eating on the patio.. it's WAY too hot here to do that now).
boiled peanuts. A specialty. They tasted as good as they look. *cringe*
Some exploring and driving around through the little towns.....


scary hole in the creek where rafters get stuck.. Ignore the hot mess hair and please be scared of this rafting hole. It's scary. Dangit. ;)
Our hotel!! :)
All the pics after this are in last week's post! :)

Hope everyone had a fantastic weekend!

Do blondes really have more fun?! *nervous*

That's right.. it's the time of year I want to change my hair. As usual. haha.

Every year, I want to go darker.

And every year, my stylist, who I LOVE, talks me out of it. Admittedly, it doesnt take much talking to get me to say "yeah, nevermind." She knows me pretty well...and I've never stayed dark for very long.

I know she's scared I wont like it. And it's SO hard to get back to blonde after that...er...hard on my hair that is.

And I'm getting ready to go to Maui. I know I know. I dont want to HATE my hair in Maui.

But, I'm kinda over being this blonde.

And a little change never really satisfies me. My natural hair color is mousy. or dishwater. or lots of other things I don't like as adjectives for my hair. And that's how I feel a "little" darker looks on me...mousy. So I say go big or go home. Blonde or brown. All or nothing.

I've been playing on Marie Cla!re tonight. And yeah, the image is horrible b/c I kept adjusting my face and ended up looking like I'd been playing in photo booth on my macbook. But, this was the best I could get it.

Ah, the great debate... Will I or won't I? *le sigh* I have some weeks to decide....I'm really getting close to just going for it! I mean...it's only hair!!!!!!!!!! (*nervous*) hahah!

Thursday Random.

You know those days when you wake up and think "it CANT already be morning" after a series of semi-messed up, I-might-be-in-Inception-the-movie dreams, and/or being awakened like a bazillion times by neighbor/dog/whatever?

Yeah, today was one of those mornings.

I think I'm just tired this week, though. (I also think my dog has an obsession with licking the comforter in some plan to keep me awake, but whatever). I worked our United W*y Campaign employee block party on Tuesday night and it messed up my whole concept of what day of the week it is... b/c my brain is telling me a block party should have happened on a Thursday or something.. Anyway, it was a fun event! Buuuuuut, I was the "dunk tank operator" for 3 hours in 100 degree weather on asphalt! haha! And I didn't realize I'd be also CHASING after the balls people threw! That said, it was quite comical. They got really into it and would say "I NEED ANOTHER BALL" in the most determined"I'm gonna dunk him/her this time" voice and I'd think "really? REALLY?" as I chased after the little round object in a sundress trying to bend in a ladylike way and not show my ladyparts to the people who pay my salary... hahahaha..

Admittedly, I'm glad to be involved b/c I kinda miss events and stuff and being on a committee for things (at my former job). But, it kinda wore me out and messed up my weekdays... I'm officially old. *le sigh* ;)

I always laugh at myself over stuff like this b/c I remember being *cough... younger..cough cough* and being out til gawd knows when every single night. (What was I thinking?!)

And do you remember the days of not even going OUT until 11:00 p.m.?! I remember getting in the shower at like 9:30 to get READY for the night. Mind you, I'm still social.. but if I'm not already out and about by like 8:30, it ain't happenin'... ;)

I laugh at myself getting tired from a block party on a Tuesday....(mind you, I also had a dinner party that went late last night, too, though. So I'm prolly not giving myself enough credit. But whatever).

Anyway....

Some randomness..

I've recently started cyber stalking http://www.lulus.com/. LOVE their little dresses and want to buy some! Have you ever? Reviews? Run big? Run small? Some look a little short, but whatever. Curious!

Along those lines of "some look a little short," I'm not only getting tired from block parties in my old age (hahaha), I've also become SUPER aware of dressing for your age.

Why?

Well.. there's someone in my life..one of my friends...who CONSISTENTLY dresses like a college girl going to a frat party from clothes to jewelry to shoes. (no, she doesn't read this. I'm not THAT rude. Goodness). ;) She's super sweet and adorable.. but...is almost 30 with a professional job. I see her sometimes and think "Oh no.. no no no!" So, now I'm probably worrying too much. (not probably; I am worrying too much). I don't want to ever be perceived like that! AGH! I see her and think "wow.. she's trying really hard..." Unattractive, right?! Do you know anyone like that?

I'm not saying I'm signing up for turtlenecks with ankle-brushing skirts. I mean.. hello.. We've met. I like little dresses. But, I've just gotten this weird heightened awareness lately that I'm likely over-obsessing about...

So this whole post is basically making me sound like an oldie and I dont know how that happened. I might as well complain about the youngsters blasting that loud music or something. Good grief. Anyway, hope you're having a fantastic Thursday, lovelies!

Colorado 2010! (Post Two)

Okay, so we crammed UH.LOT. into one weekend in Colorado, sooooo I have a lot of photos. (I know you're all so shocked by the amount of photos I probably have... hah.. right.) Anyway, I don't want to bore you to tears any more than I need to in a single post, so I'm going to upload pics into two posts. :)

So, last weekend, Eric and I headed up to Colorado! Why? Well, it all started with getting tix to see Michael Fr@nti! Who's that? He's Eric's fav reggae type singer (you might know him from this song)...and was supposed to come to Tulsa last year. I'd gotten tickets (felt very proud of my little surprise) and then the guy had a freaking appendicitis. Lame. (Glad he was okay). Anyhoo, concert was canceled. :( So, when Eric found tickets to see Michael... at RED ROCKS aka somewhere we'd both really wanted to go...and on a WEEKEND, we couldnt pass it up. We found a good deal on SouthBest (hehe) and started to make a little weekend out of it! The rest, my friends, is in photos! :)

These pics start with the concert. I'll upload everything that came before the concert tomorrow.

We'd heard you need to get to Red Rocks super early to get good parking. We followed orders and arrived to find a pretty rocking little tailgate going on. Being out of towners and not knowing about said tailgate, we had our little to-go sandwiches we rocked in the back of our rental car whilst people set up grills, coolers, etc... :)

Gorgeous...
We were in row 29 aka quite close! I opted to stairmaster my way up to the top for some photos... :)

I officially love (1) Colorado and (2) reggae concerts b/c everyone is so.freaking.chill. Lots of hemp, hippies, and happiness. (And more mary jane than I've ever seen! haha!)

Below: my favorite concert-goers..who I called Dancing Hairy Man and Shirtless Hairy Man.

Love the below pic. I loved it before I played with the settings in my new-found photo editing obsession, Picn!k, but love it more now. :)
PACKED!
Love our friend behind us. He was kinda awesome. Just sayin. He was definitely more awesome than the underage girl who'd had too much of something and passed out cold, hitting her head on the cement, causing paramedics to come over. Her friends kept saying "She's sober! This is so weird." Note: Teenagers are really bad liars. hah.. (She was fine btw..and ended up leaving our area)

Came up and sang on the rocks and in the crowd right by us! I took like 45 shots trying to get a good one as he moved around and people swarmed him...

He invited kids up to sing his last song (the one I linked at the top of the post), Say Hey. :)

Absolutely, hands down one of my favorite concerts I've ever been to in the most gorgeous setting... We danced, I took a ridiculous amount of photos and videos, the weather was perfect... *happy sigh*

Here's actually some footage from Fr@nti's site from our concert! And an interview with him! (See video)

The next day and after tons of activities, we were still pretty wiped out. We opted to check out the city and the museum a little...

But first, a photo of Eric on the orange sofa in our hotel room. Why? Do you remember this post when Eric bought his orangeish leather sofas?(link here) (They're admittedly awesome despite my teasing him). He was like "LOOK! This place has orange sofas, too. They must have great taste. Obviously." Photo ensued. We're easily entertained. It is what it is.

I'm pretty sure I wanted a photo with this bear ever since we passed it driving in. And Sunday morning, I think Eric thought he'd pressed the repeat button on something b/c I kept saying "I want a bear photo. Can we go to the bear?"

He humored me and we got to see it. Denver has lots of fun, random art stuff all over the city. The bear is peering into the convention center. :) (I'm pretending to try to touch it's rear. Whatever. I thought it was funny).

After a couple other stops, headed to the DAM (Denver @rt Museum, but I like saying DAM. They had cool shirts that said "The best DAM art" or something. Anyway, fun). Saw the King Tut exhibit that's there til January and um.. if it comes to your area, see it b/c it's awesome.

They don't allow photos, so you should stop by the gift shop afterwards and take a creepy one like I did. *nervous*
The museum was pretty cool and I kept my photo taking to a min since they really aren't allowed most places, I dont think. But, no one stopped me in the contemporary area...*excited face*

This is probably the scariest thing I've seen in um.. a very long time. It makes me have a facial reaction of nervousness.
Upset baby doll in crib needed a friend to mock her. I had to oblige.
Despite some randomness, there were some cool contemporary pieces. Eric's standing in one, meant to be a representation of the country's actual highways intersecting... Cool.
Hello, random ladies, will you take our photo? Thanks, you did a great job. :)
Headed to the airport to fly, fly away back to T-town after a fantabulous weekend getaway! :) Thanks for sticking with me this long, peeps...