Yesterday was Kat’s 25th Birthday. She’s a quarter of a century old now! Wow! Haha. She’ll always be older than me, and that’s what counts.
Rob and I drove to Jackson for her birthday, ate Manicotti, birthday cake, icecream, and rolled out the door and back into the car. I have plenty of pictures up on my flickr, so check it out!

Fall technically began a few weeks ago, but it didn’t start feeling like it until two days ago. Rob and I just walked two miles along the Long Leaf Trace with cups of coffee to keep warm. Yay. I really want to go out and buy some new fall/winter clothes. I just may do that.
April and Thomas made the best apple cider last night…with spiced rum. I’ve been drinking plenty of hot tea and russian tea lately. If I don’t keep warm, I’ll freeze! True story.

I swear, every time I turn around I have another mosquito bite either on my legs or arms. Am I just sweet? Maybe. Most likely not, though, so go away!
Tonight Rob and I got some new-to-us mirrors from April and Thomas, thanks guys! They should make a nice addition to our apartment. I’m pretty sure mirrors are supposed to add to the depth of a small apartment. so we’ll see? I’m going to paint maybe little flowers all around the frame. I hope it looks nice, I’ve got a tube of black acrylic paint in my tackle box.

My in-laws are expected to be in town this weekend. I’m pretty excited! I have no idea what we’re all going to do, but it shall be fun, nonetheless. The apartment got cleaned today on my day off. I work 8-5:30 Thursday and Friday. I love it, but I hate it.

Mia is here sleeping in my lap, while Alicia sits next to me, looking like she could sleep in my lap as well. Apparently, listening to Elliott Smith whilst tired doesn’t exactly keep anyone energetic. I just made a cup of broth and threw in some chow mein noodles. It’s not complete without crunchy!
I straightened Bonita’s hair with my new flat iron today. It came out looking so pretty!
Ok, I don’t have a whole lot to say here, so there ya go folks.

Sorry I haven’t posted in so long, guys. But here I am!
I’ve recently cut off four inches of my hair. I don’t miss it at all, and I’ve gotten the best reactions to the new ‘do! My hair was also dyed copper with golden blonde highlights, loves it. All the guys and gals are complimenting it so yay.

New Hair

I’ve been doing the P90X workout. I stopped the last two weeks, but got back into it today. Before that, I did it for almost a month straight and lost a pant size! Only 4 lbs lost, but who cares! It’s such a hard workout with great results. I bought a pretty cute costume for Halloween, and while it fits, I want my legs to look smaller for it.
My in-laws are coming to town this weekend! Not sure what time, but I’m excited. I need to clean up the place some, but that won’t take more than a few hours. I’m hoping I can recruit certain FRIENDS to help, you know who you are.
Oh, this Friday, October 2nd, Whip It comes out in theatres. I’m wondering if I can sneak away long enough to watch it, or if I need to wait til Monday. I can’t wait to watch it! The idea of a Roller Derby movie seems cute. I’d love to join a derby team, but I’m not willing to without insurance. I see the bruises and sprains and broken bones that happen! Those girls and crazy! And to think it’s nothing like it was thirty years ago…
I’ve begun drawing portraits lately. I’m bartering/charging $25 per hour and another $25 for the frame. At the rate I do them, each portrait with a matted frame costs $130. But I think they’re coming out ok??

Kayla and Caden

So come on…you know you want a portrait done

Sorry I haven’t been updating! I’ve just been busy. I would do a better update, but I need to shower and head to work! So yall should hear more from me tonight…adios!

This seems pretty neat.

This is more of less Karen’s Veggie Soup. haha.
Ingredients..

Big pot of water
bag of lentils
couple veggie bouillon cubes
5 full sized carrots, chopped
full bundle of celery, thickly chopped
couple handfuls of cherry tomatoes
salt
pepper
french tarragon
french thyme
basil
marjoram

Fill a 6 quart pot about 2/3 full of water. Chunk in a couple veggie bouillon cubes and a bag of dry lentils. Heat at medium high (electric stove) until boiling.
In the meantime, cut up a bundle of celery, 5 full sized carrots, 2 squash (mine were almost old, needed to rid the kitchen of them!), and 2 handfuls of cherry tomatoes. Seriously, don’t skip the tomatoes, they came out REALLY good.
Throw all this in the pot when you’re done chopping. Once it boils, turn down to a simmer and cook for 20-30ish minutes, whatever sounds good to you really. I added these spices…salt, pepper, chopped, basil, marjoram, french thyme, and french tarragon. Just dump in however much you need. I stirred every 5 minutes with a full celery stalk…it looked cute! I would follow the recipe as far as spices go. It made it smell almost sweet and summery. Don’t oversalt…since, you know, bouillon cubes are salty and all.

Now let me tell you about my celery experience! I went to the local Wally World and purchased a bag of celery, which was $1.49. Why do I know that price? Anyways, I go home, and immediately get to chopping. Since I’m using the whole thing and not a stalk or two, I cut the whole base off and open it. Inside was a caterpillar just munching along, and out crawled two spiders. I just stared at it, and considering thumping the caterpillar off and chunking the eaten part. But no, I just paid for this, I want a refund! So I quickly throw it in a bag (I don’t want those buggies crawling on me!), get in the car, and tootle-loot on back to walmart.

I stop at the front door to let the “People Greeter” know I’m returning a product, and tell her what happened. She just smirked at me and gave me a bitch like grin (or so it seemed), saying, “They’re just bugs! You must not be a gardener.” And I tell her, “Well, actually, I do garden, but if I’m going to purchase something from this store, it needs to be rid of bugs.” She just looked at me, and sent me to Customer Service. Ok, so who cares if I haven’t gardened in lord knows how long, that’s not the point. But it’s one thing if I picked my veggies out of the garden/off the tree and buggies are enjoying it, it’s another if I purchase it at the store and it comes in poor condition. So I get the refund, $1.49, then head to Corner Market for another bundle of celery.

I’m pleased to say, the celery was in pristine condition, free of bugs AND holes. Now this was a pain in the ass. I drove around town for some effing celery, and it was 100 degrees F outside, with a 105 heat index. Eeeee. Needless to say, my heart was set on this soup, nothing was going to stop me!
I made this Monday, now it’s Wednesday evening, and I have about a pot left of it. I might swap out the squash for dry green beans next time, but really just use whatever is in the kitchen.

Ok Kristin, this post is for you!

Celery

It’s Tuesday morning and I feel like crap. I haven’t had a bad headache/migraine in years, and I feel like I’m getting one. It’s not too bad just yet, but I can tell it’ll most likely get worse. I feel super fatigued, the idea of food is sickening, and it hurts my head to blink. I just ate eggs because I know I’m hungry anyhow. I’m not going to call into work though, because tomorrow is my day off, and I feel as if I’ve been calling in or asking off early almost every week lately, and that’s no good.

In better news, I may be booking my ticket to Albuquerque (Albu-qwirky?) this Friday, on payday. I took off of work for July 19-August 5 so I can go see the parents and grandparents. That’ll be so much fun! I can already envision mom and I making tamale’s together and going shopping. Yay. Also, I get to see the dog’s and birds. Fun stuff.

Did you know that my twinny twin was close to Hattiesburg, and wouldn’t/couldn’t convince the driver to splash on over to see me? Yeah, I just put that out there. Dang Johnny, dang.

On July 3rd, after work, Rob, Bonita, Ryan, and I are all driving to Lake Charles, LA for the 4th of July weekend. We got a hotel in town, which, coincidentally, is the same hotel Johnny and Kat booked! I think it’ll be a fun weekend. Food, tanning, family, and dogs.

Alright. Done typing.

Yesterday Rob and I celebrated our one year wedding Anniversary by going to the coast! We drove down at about 9 am, going directly to the beach. We laid out towels, put on tanning lotion, and properly baked. After about 45 minutes, we decide to check out the water. I saw a black fin not too far off in the water…and realized there were about 5 dolphins playing in the water! How effing cool is that?? Rob noticed little stingrays in the water, too, so I turned around and sat in the wet sand. Yeah, adventurous I know! We tanned a little longer, then decided to get out of the sun before we burned too much.

After that, we went to the mall for some Diet coke and to change clothes. We browsed the stores, but left after about 20 minutes. If I couldn’t buy anything, I didn’t want to be there! We went to the Grand Casino buffet, which was surprisingly cheap. After consuming way too much food, Rob and I played nickel slots, coming out slightly ahead.

When we left the casino, we went by his childhood house on Long Beach. That was cool! The house was still there, and an old sticker was still on his bedroom window. Neat. We tried finding his Elementary School, but rodes were blocked off. That was pretty much the last of what we did.

We got home between four and five, and took a two hour nap. Yay naps. I had a good time.

oh boy oh boy!