Packing Woes

It's almost midnight. I leave in the morning for Del Rio and I have an empty suitcase sitting on my floor.

I HATE packing. It's not so much the pulling out my clothes and organizing them. It's THE DECIDING WHAT TO WEAR part.

I am the worst when it comes to minuscule decisions. Like what movie to watch or which song I want to listen to on my iPhone. And also what outfits to pack in my suitcase.

I usually play out all kinds of "what if" scenarios while looking through my closet. Actually, forget the closet. When I'm packing, I've usually just finished the laundry so I pick what goes into my suitcase and then maybe put everything else away. Sometimes I just leave it in a basket until I wear it. Go ahead, judge away.

Oh ok, back to my what ifs.

"What if we go on a date? I'll definitely need a dress."
"What if the weather cools down? I should bring a longsleeve dress too."
"What if I decide I want to work out? I guess I need socks and tennis shoes too now."
"If the weather cools down, I'll definitely need my cardigans. But which ones? Oh well, I'll bring them all."

Ok, I'm sure you get my point. I either end up with way too many clothes that I never need or I go polar opposite and try to minimize and end up with nothing to wear.

I always have way too many socks. I throw some in my suitcase and then forget and throw some more in until I have 4 pairs. Then I forget my tennis shoes.

My problems continue on to my other bags too. Yes, I said bags with an s. I have my suitcase with all my clothes, my computer bag with all my electronics (I sound like Taylor), and my other bag that holds my shoes and my toiletries. I like to bring options.

Which brings me to my next what if question: "What if I change my mind?" I know it will happen. I'm pretty fickle. When I'm packing, that sundress sounds like a fantastic idea. But when it actually comes to wearing the sundress, I suddenly decide that I don't like how it fits.

I also forget something every time I go somewhere. Usually it's important things like my toothbrush or deodorant. I hope I manage to always forget one or the other of those items. Both would be a bad situation.

So I guess what I'm basically saying is....I'm a mess.

I think you should know that since dating Taylor, my packing has become much less whimsical. I don't ask myself nearly as many what if questions. Plus, the constant traveling to and from Colorado with just carry-ons made me way efficient. There was no way on this planet that I was going to pay $25 EACH WAY just to have extra pairs of shoes. And I also had to learn how to accept that I wouldn't always have the perfect outfit for the situation. It was a hard lesson.

Now that I'm within driving distance though, I may have gone back to my old habits of overpacking. If it fits in my trunk, you better believe it's coming with me!

I'm only complaining because I know this packing business will soon end. Know why?

Because I'm moving!

Finally, Taylor and I are going to be in the same town. After 3.5 years of dating. It's going to be glorious. We may even celebrate with some Mexican food.

Here's one of my favorite pictures from Hawaii. I'm posting it because tonight's Cougar Town was filmed there and it made me want to go back! 

Monday? Tuesday? Wednesday?

Today was one of those days that felt like a hundred Mondays piled into one. And to make it even better, I thought all day long that it was a Wednesday.

I have been stressing all day to get all of my work done and thinking about the gigantic pile of laundry I needed to wash and pack so I could leave for Del Rio. (Is anyone really surprised that none of my laundry is done?) You shouldn't be. It comes out of a suitcase and goes into a basket until I am completely out of jeans. I actually thought I had lost some of the clothes that happened to just be in the deepest darkest corner of the laundry basket.

Life is rough when you have to share the washer/dryer with 3 other people. When Mom does laundry, my underwear usually ends up in Jesse's stuff and I get his t-shirts. Very unfortunate switch. So I do my own. And that's why it takes me 4 weeks to do it!

ANYWHO.

Today was long. Both of the copiers went down at work. I left my computer charger at home. I dropped the office phone and lost the battery for a good 10 minutes. I accidentally called someone Pedro instead of Paul. (If only his handwriting had been better!)

I guess the good news is that I am now ahead of schedule at work and because the copiers weren't working for a while I didn't get as many bruises. Although Paul didn't think being called Pedro was as funny as I did.

Even better news though is that I have extra time to do laundry!

Oh, guess what else happened today?

Taylor soloed the T-6 airplane! I'm super proud of him! So proud, that I stole some pictures from his facebook! It's ok though, he loves me.

Here is Taylor. All by himself in a plane.

Yay Taylor!

After their solo, they are thrown in a dunk tank. I don't really know the details or anything. I just like this picture of Taylor. What a face!

And now I must go tend to the rest of my laundry. Which I love a lot less than Taylor. 

Randoms

The past week or so of my life has been random, so I thought my post should be random as well. Pretty clever, huh?

1. A couple of weeks ago, I posted on Facebook about how I was getting beat up by the copy machine at work. Well, we got into another fight and I lost again. I bent down to fix a paper jam and didn't see the "foot" of the machine and banged my knee on it. I have a bruise the size of golf ball now! It's really attractive when I wear shorts.

2. The charger for my iPhone broke on Friday night. At like 1:30 in the morning when it was completely out of juice. And no, Taylor, it isn't because I mistreat my electronics. These things just happen! To me! I finally broke down today and bought a new one. My choices were a 3 ft cord (like what I had...way too short) and a 10 ft cord. I just unwrapped it and I have to say...it's a little excessive. I wanted a longer cord though and I guess that's what I got.

3. I got into some poison ivy last weekend. I think. I don't really know when or where I found it, but somehow I ended up with poison ivy. I have been keeping benadryl on it and NOT scratching it so I thought it should be healing somewhat. Wrong. It was spreading. Big time. So I went back to the doctor today and he said that I still have poison ivy. With "skin fungus" on top. Skin fungus sounds a lot like "flesh eating disease" but whatever. I wasn't going to put this on my blog because it's really gross, but then I realized that something like this could only happen to me so...here it is. Ha!

4. I found some reallysupercute notecards in the dollar aisle at Target. I love writing people notes, but it's really hard to part with my cute cards. So if you receive one from me, I love you a lot.

5. Does anyone else watch the Real Housewives of New Jersey? My mom and I are obsessed with it. Why is it so much fun to watch crazy people crash and burn? This probably says something about me...

6. During the really bad storms we had a few weeks ago, my mom's dog ran away. She was gone for like 4 days and those were some of the best nights of sleep I've had in a long time. Long story short, mom found her and now we all have to wake up multiple times a night to let outside. Now, every time there's a change in the weather, Lily loses what little sense she has and goes nuts. The other day it was raining and she was running from room to room whining. Then the thunder started and she jumped into Dad's lap (he wasn't a fan of this) so then she tried to jump into my lap. While very sad, it was also really really funny. Also, any time she happens to walk by our back door and sees the rain, she goes batshit crazy and we have to console her. Have I mentioned she's a dog? I never thought I would have to console a dog. This situation is growing increasingly disturbing.

7. Mom and I saw Bridesmaids this weekend. I already watched it with Katie, but since it was so good I decided to see it again with Mom. Very raunchy but hilarious.

I guess that's all for my random stories. I'm going to Del Rio this weekend so I'm sure I'll be back soon with some more stories about our adventures. If I come back without pictures this time though, I want someone to slap me.

Here's a random picture I found on my phone today. I was attempting to look like I was flying my dad's airplane when really I was sitting in the backseat trying not to throw up.

Snakes in a bucket

My Monday started out pretty normal. It wasn't even one of those Mondays that you wish would magically fast forward. Just a regular day full of boring errands.

Then, it got all Murphy's Law Monday on me.

When I got home from all my running around, I was fully prepared to take a glorious nap. The dogs had decided the night before that it was my job to let them in and out of every room in the house so I didn't get a ton of the quality sleep I usually like to have. We should really teach them how to open doors. Or you know, SLEEP OUTSIDE like normal dogs.

Just as I was laying down on the couch I noticed the cat playing with something on the floor.

Turns out it was a SNAKE. Thankfully it wasn't a very big one, but holy cow a snake is still a snake. I called Dad who was out of town and his only suggestion was to hit it with something.

Did I mention that the snake was in the living room on our hardwood floor? I'm sure Mom would have loved me swinging wildly with a shovel at the floor.

So I did the next logical thing I could think of:

I slapped a cookie dough bucket over him and found a coffee table book to put on top just to make sure he didn't try to get out. 

And then I sat and waited for Jesse to get home so he could take care of it. I skipped the nap, because I mean really...could you have napped knowing there was a snake alive in your house? 

When Jesse finally got home, we attempted to come up with a plan. We failed miserably, but the snake didn't survive so I guess that's all that matters.

Just for laughs, here's our plan:

1. We found a cardboard box in the garage and opened both ends so we could put it around the bucket to create a jail so the snake couldn't get away once we lifted the bucket.

2. I put on Dad's boots just in case step 1 failed. 

3. Step 1 failed and my reaction was to step on the snakes head. Jesse put the bucket back over him.

4. Jesse slipped a flap of the box under the bucket and scooted the whole thing to the door.

5. We tried to figure out how to scoot the box over the threshold.

6. Somehow step 5 happened. 

7. Jesse threw the box and bucket out the door.

8. We guillotined the snake's head with a shovel. 

Stupid snakes.

*Edit* I changed the last picture. Somehow I managed to upload the same picture twice and not realize it.

Baby snuggles.

LBMM met Little Bitty Mini Atticus this weekend. He was just as sweet and precious as I could have ever imagined. Before Atticus, the only babies I've ever held have been older, more squirmy ones. I had no idea how teensy tiny newborns are. If he ever grows into his fingers and toes though, he won't be so Little Bitty Mini anymore.

I instantly fell in love with the little guy. He is such a pretty baby! (I guess I should say handsome since Taylor says boys can't be called pretty.)

'Scuse the closeup of my ladies. Every time I shifted the baby, my shirt came down a little bit and I was apparently unaware. My bad y'all.

This is my new favorite way to hold sleeping babies. Mmmm snuggles. 

Thank you so much Vic and Sarah for letting me hang out at your house and hold your baby. I loved every minute of it! I can't wait to see you guys again soon. 

Happy Mother's Day

Dear Mom,

Thanks for not killing loving me even though I was a turd my entire life.

Love,
Mary

A weekend to remember

Oh hello world. I'm back.

Can I just say that I hate that all of my posts start with the same thing? This time I've decided to just skim over the reasons I haven't blogged in a while as well as the catch-up. Bottom line: I was busy and didn't have squat to write about.

It's the Monday after an incredible news-worthy weekend.

No news of mine of course, I'm still boring as ever.

I'm talking about the Royal Wedding and the fact that the USA drop kicked Osama Bin Laden. But of course there is already an endless supply of reading material on both of these events to last us all a lifetime so I will just leave you with my opinion of both stories.

Royal Wedding: pretty dress. weird british hats. I'm sure it will be cool to tell my daughter one day that I was around for the RW but I'll probably be pretty useless for things like commemorative copies of People Magazine. Sorry kid.

OBL: I'm thankful Justice has been served. I'm also glad they dropped his body in the water. Can you imagine what the crazies (from both sides) would do to his grave? God Bless America. My heart goes out to those who lost loved ones on 9/11.

I'm in the Rio this weekend and it's been a fun one. We have done a lot of eating as usual. I mean, I know we have to eat to survive and all, but when you're visiting somewhere it's like mealtime becomes more prevalent. I guess it's because it's a group thing and there are times and meeting places and carpools and all that fun. I enjoy it though. One of my favorite things ever is hanging out with friends. After orange juice of course.

I was also able to talk Taylor into taking me to see Water for Elephants. I read the book this week and really wanted to see the movie. Taylor is the only person I ever go see movies with so I knew this was my chance! He's the best bf ever so he agreed and we even got our friends, Craig and Angela to go as well. I liked the book better, but the movie was good too. Taylor even went as far as saying it was alright which is more than I expected from him.

After our movie, we headed to a Del Rio special called the Veranda. It's a wine bar type place with a patio outside and if you're lucky some live music. I fell in instant love with their Sangria. The music was pretty good too, minus the weird Lady Gaga covers.

I am terrible about transitioning into different topics so here's another one:

Yesterday I decided that I needed to clean Taylor's bathroom because, duh, boys are gross and I couldn't set my toothbrush down on the sink without second thoughts. It wasn't hard because there's only three surfaces in the whole bathroom but I must say it looks spectacular. Then I decided the toilet should get some attention as well. Big mistake. Do you know how old toilets in government housing are? Me neither. But apparently they are old enough to fall apart when you use a toilet scrubber on them. After it started disintegrating before my eyes, I remembered that two boys live in this house and probably don't really care that much so I called it good.

 Today I have already fixed the internet and chased some majah dust bunnies away. I am on a roll people.

Oh...would you like to know the biggest news (in my opinion) of the weekend?



Welcome to the world sweet Baby Seidel. Who, since we now know is a BOY, is going by Atticus Vic Seidel. He is such a sweet surprise and I can't wait to meet him soon. As Vic pointed out, LBMM gets to meet LBMA.

Congratulations Vic and Sarah! I love you guys so much.