Friday

Friday Sunshines and Dark Clouds!

Dark Clouds:

• Fiance has been working 10-13 hours a day so I rarely even see him anymore! I miss him!
• I can't bring myself to cook if I'm just cooking for myself, so I just keep eating leftovers or eating cereal. Then I'm not satisfied.
• Need to get better about working out. I've worked out Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, but I want to keep it going by working out every day but Sunday.
• I need to get my new driver's license! TODAY.

Sunshines:

• Fiance got top rate for a few hours this week, which means that each hour is like working three hours. NICE.
• I got a raise at work! 6%, which is phenomenal in this economy.
• Two stupid cats were fighting in my backyard yesterday and they riled my dogs up. Hence the poem.
• I'm off today! WEEKEND!
• I got to see my good friend (and bridesmaid) Dani this week! I miss that girl!
• Local boxing star Austin Trout is fighting Miguel Cotto tomorrow! Fiance's cousin is dating Trout's best friend/fellow local boxing star, and he's in New York helping him get ready. GO TROUT! LC is proud of you!

Have a great weekend!

Twas the Night Before Friday...

Twas the night before Friday and all through the place,
All the creatures were sleeping, even little Mix-face.
The dishes were left in the sink without care
In hopes that a maid/fairy soon would be there.

The puppies were nestled all snug in their beds
With visions of bacon treats dancing in their heads.
While watching Teen Mom and trying to nap,
I settled back to enjoy some reality TV crap.

Then from outside I heard such a clatter
I sprang from the couch to see what was the matter
Away to the back door I flew in a flash,
Tripping over Mixy and Shadow as they crashed,

Through the back door, howling and crying
To see if another creature was spying.
When what to my wondering eyes was on the floor,
But two silly, fighting cats that live next door!

Those snarling old tabbies, so angry and quick,
My dogs sprinted after them, trying not to get hit.
More rapid than eagles, the cats sprinted away
They knew if they got caught, they would pay.

I cried after my dogs as they started to fly,
I knew if they could, they would chase them to the sky.
So up the fence the cats flew like a flash,
And my dogs tumbled into it with a crash.

I sighed and I puckered my lips in a whistle,
And they came back like the down of a thistle.
As they ran inside, I turned to the cats (now out of sight),
"STAY OUT OF MY YARD IF YOU WANT TO FIGHT!"

Happy Thursday!

Holiday Time!

Now that Thanksgiving is over, we are in my favorite time of the season... holiday time! After Thanksgiving, Fiance lets me put up the Christmas tree and add lights and start listening to Christmas music, which I LOVE. Like I've said before, I REALLY hate the cold so this is the only good thing about the season.



We spent Thanksgiving day with my grandparents. It was a relaxing, fun, food-filled day and we had a great time.

Then the next day, we put up the TREE!


It makes our house look so festive.

It has been a super fun weekend filled with family and friends. My sister came into town, so we spent time with her baking and hanging out. I also watched Magic Mike with a good friend Vanessa. And then yesterday, Fiance and I hung out with one of my best friends (And a bridesmaid in our wedding) Blairre, plus her husband John and their two kids Carson and Kennedy, my favorite kids in the world.

Mixed in there was plenty of wine, eggnog lattes, and pie. Mmmm. And some Christmas shopping! :o)

Next up, CHRISTMAS!

25 Before 25... the final count

1. Buy a nice piece of jewelry for myself

2. Submit my columns to a syndication press system

3. Watch 10 of Boyfriend's Academy Award winners 
4. Lose 30 lbs BOOM

5. Become financially independent

6. Make homemade tortillas

7. Run a 5k I didn't... but I ran a sub-10 minute mile! An equally big goal.

8. Volunteer for something

9. Make THIS chicken :o)

10. Do something different with my hair (dye it, cut it, etc.)

11. Go camping

12. See my grandparents once a month

13. Keep my spider plant alive

14. Donate money to charity

15. Read 10 classic books on the BBC Top 100 Books 
16. Learn how to make great mashed potatoes
17. Find a dress that makes me feel like a princess
18. Ride in a helicopter
19. Try a food I can't pronounce
20. See another Cirque Du Soleil show
21. Improve my individual relationships with Boyfriend's family
22. Stay in touch with my sister more often
23. Start an herb garden
24. Write another 25,000 words on my book I got another 10,000... not bad.
25. Be truly surprised :o) 

So I didn't get everything done, but I'm pretty proud of what I did accomplish. I plan on helping my grandmother make tortillas next time I go over for dinner, so that is still something I want to accomplish. Some of the other things ended up not being that important to me, such as camping or making that particular chicken. I did make my first alfredo sauce, which I'm proud of, so even though I didn't get to cross off that item, I did improve my cooking skills.

The most important thing is to keep working on my writing skills. That will be a goal for my whole life, I think. It should be a continuous goal for all writers.

I'm happy with my progress! And I'm happy to be 25! :o)

THANKSGIVING!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

While you read this, I will be eating this:

And this:

While watching this:

Before going to see this:

And this:

And I'll finish it all off with this:

A slice of my homemade sweet potato pie!

Remember to think about the meaning of this holiday... being thankful for the people we have around us, and the wonderful country we live in. Try to keep the shopping plans at a minimum for the day... it should be about the loved ones around you. For a while, at least. ;o)

Movies

It won't come as a surprise to anyone that we LOVE movies. I mean, we LOVE them.

It basically started with Fiance. He LOVES movies. He knows about more movies/directors/producers/visual artists than anyone else I know. And in our little New Mexico town, there isn't a whole lot else to do besides going to the movies.

So, of course, we have seen a ton of movies this year. Let me see if I can recap. Since January, we have seen...

• My Week with Marilyn
• The Artist
• We Bought a Zoo (all three of these first ones were actually released in late 2011, but we didn't see them until early this year)
• The Grey
• Beauty and the Beast (3D)
• Big Miracle
• 21 Jump Street (twice)
• The Hunger Games (three times?)
• Titanic (3D)
• The Five Year Engagement
• Men in Black 3
• Prometheus
• Brave
• The Amazing Spiderman
• Savages
• The Dark Knight Rises (three times)
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower
• Looper (twice)
• Pitch Perfect
• Argo
• Seven Psychopaths
• Skyfall
• Wreck It Ralph
• Twilight 5 (they will all be Twilight to me)

THAT I CAN REMEMBER. In addition, I challenged myself to watch 10 of Fiance's "good" movies (critically acclaimed), which I accomplished! BOOM. Those included:

• Godfathers I and II
• Pulp Fiction
• Donny Brasco
• Goodfellas
• Fargo
• Gladiator
• And three others I can't remember.

That means that we have seen two or three movies a month in the theater. Plus, we don't have evenings off together, which means all of those movies were on the weekend or an off Friday. We see a LOT of movies.

And the year isn't even over. We both have movies we are super excited to see. In fact, we like to do double features, where we see back to back movies. We did it in the summer, recently to see Argo and Seven Psychopaths, recently to see Skyfall and Twilight, and we will do it on Thanksgiving and Christmas.

The final movies I think we will see include:

• Lincoln
• Life of Pi
• Silver Linings Playbook
• Hitchcock
• The Hobbit
• Django Unchained

Whew.

 

Uh....

So...

THANKSGIVING IS THIS WEEK.

Does that blow anyone else's mind? How is November almost over? That means the year is almost over. And that cannot be true, because we cannot have gone through almost 11 months of 2012!

2012 has been one of my favorite years to date... maybe even my favorite year. Whew.

But for now... let's just freak out over the fact that it is almost THANKSGIVING.

Whew.

Thankful Friday

This Friday, I'm going to do a Thankful Friday post instead of Sunshines/Dark Clouds. In the spirit of the season, of course.

I am THANKFUL for....

• All the wonderful friends who called, text, visited, and hung out with me for my birthday. I am so blessed to have such wonderful people in my life.
• All of the Veterans and active duty service members. Gay, straight, black, white, old, young, you are the pride of our country. Thank you.
• Sprinkles cupcakes. Because, duh.
• My Fiance. I hit a dark place last week (frustrations) and he made everything better by doing exactly what I needed... offering me options, which felt like lifeboats in a vast sea. The fact that he was willing to join the military to get us where we want to be makes me so proud to be his fiance.
• My parents and my sister. We are such a tight family and I wouldn't change anything.
• My new coat that is lined and wonderful and was 60% off.
• Fiance's family. I wasn't raised around a lot of family (grandparents nearby, but no cousins, really, and no uncles/aunts), but they have welcomed me into their life without hesitation. I always feel like part of the family and I do not take that for granted.
• The Government's compressed work schedule, which gives me today off! :o)

Happy Friday!

My Birthday

Here's a quick recap on my birthday!

It was a wonderful day. It started early, with my coworkers presenting me with a chocolate cherry cake that I wanted to dive headfirst into.


I have my "I want to eat all of this cake right now" face on.

You can see it at the bottom... it was SO good. We went to lunch at Los Compas for some delicious Mexican and I spent the rest of the day driving around Range, running errands. It was a busy, busy day.



I also found a ladybug in my hair. Dani says it is good luck. Maybe a little birthday present from my grandfather (who passed away in 2008)? It seems like something he would do. :o)

That night, my parents took me out to dinner at Red Lobster.



Where I ate a ton of crab legs. My favorite!

Fiance got me the tickets to see Kev Hart for my birthday, but he also got me my favorite cookies (the thick, sugar cookie kind that they sell at the grocery store for like, $2) and some beautiful flowers.



That Saturday, we made plans to hang out with our friends for my birthday. This is the only picture I have of that night:



But it was an amazing night. We started with dinner at The Game and so many people came to celebrate with us! Val, Thomas, Asher, Josh, Aaron, Vanessa, Adriana, Chris, Jeremy, Fiance (of course), Adam, Jess, Kylie, Louie, and Liz all came. We laughed and laughed and it was one of the best nights I've ever had.

We were going to go see a movie right after, but the waiter took forever getting our checks to us, so by the time we were all cashed out, it was too late :o(

So we went to the bowling alley and hung out some more there, before coming over to our place and playing Liar's Dice and Taboo. It was one of my favorite nights ever and I feel so blessed to have these people in my life.

Whew. That's pretty much it for my recaps. Just try to picture me working 60 hours a week in the middle of all this and you have my life all figured out!

Until next time!

Phoenix!

I'm going to start recaps of my past two weeks. You'll have to use your imagination regarding work. As in... imagine that every time I wasn't doing anything, I was working. Yes, it has been a long few weeks.

SO that weekend actually started with me giving a speech to an advanced public relations class for my mentor, Dr. Mac. He told me, and I quote, that I am "the most accomplished journalism graduate from the past five years" due to my column writing. What a compliment, right? But the students seemed interested in what I was saying and even though Dr. Mac didn't make them ask me any questions (I used an hour and a half of the hour and forty-five minute class for my presentation!), they all stayed AFTER class to ask me questions! :o)

Then Fiance took me to lunch and then... it was work work work for the rest of the night.

I worked again that Friday. Allllll day. It was technically my off Friday, but there was work to be done, so by gosh, it was going to get done. That night, after Fiance got out of work around 10 that night, he showered and we loaded the car and we headed out!

It was a long night, but, thanks to some sing-a-long with Nelly at the end, we made it safe and sound around 3:30 in the morning. 

We slept in and then headed out to Oregano's for some delicious pizza. We went shopping after that and we found a TON of stuff. Fiance's mom loves to buy stuff for him, so she spent a small fortune on new jeans, tops, shoes, and belts for him. Mostly against his will. He picked out two shirts and one pair of jeans, and the rest was her. :o)

That night, we went to the Kevin Hart show.

It was SO FUNNY! Kev never disappoints. We really had a good time. After that, we went to Five Guys for some dinner. :o)

We were previously die-hard In N Out fans, but I might be a convert. It was SO GOOD. Yum!

On Sunday, we spent the day eating Sprinkles cupcakes and going to an arts festival in Litchfield Park. It was so much fun. Fiance and I bought some fresh hand rolled pasta (lemon pepper garlic, and spinach mushroom garlic flavors!), plus I found a scarf for my grandma for Christmas. It was so nice to be walking around outside.

We went shopping a little more (and we found Fiance's wedding ring!), and then ate dinner at Modern Steak, which was delicious. Then we headed home and watched Sunday Night Football. :o)

The next day, we made the long drive home. But it was such a fun trip and I'm so glad we got to see Fiance's mom again. It's weird living in a different state, but it makes our visits that much sweeter. :o)

It was SUCH a fun weekend and I can't wait to go back in February!

Back

So.

So I'm back.

I know, I know. I've been gone for a while. Let me catch you up.

Phoenix. Arts festival. Kevin Hart (hilarious). Five Guys. Buying Fiance's wedding ring. Shopping. Driving. Work, work, work. More work. Birthday. Mexican food. Work, work, work. Shopping. Birthday dinner with friends. Amazing. A little drunk. Mainly just high on the night, on being out with my friends (minus Kaitlyn and Dani who are out of state now). Football.

But mainly, it was work. I got put on a new timesheet project and it is taking up my entire life. I don't like it, but I kind of have to do it. Anyway, it has kind of sucked the creativity out of me. I don't want to talk about it, so I don't blog. Hopefully I'll get better at avoiding discussing work while blogging.

Next time, I'll update on the 25 before 25 list. Didn't get it all, but had a lot of fun trying!

Until next time.

Jenna

YIKES!

In 15 minutes, I will give a presentation to a class of impressionable young journalistic minds.

Wish me luck!