Things I've done since my last post on May 9th

Well...

I went to Florida.  Again.  I am a lucky gal to have a best pal in such a great place!

I saw one of my favorite bands in concert (for the 2nd time) and...

I caught a pick (for the first time)!

K and I celebrated our one year anniversary!  Morton's is the ish.  Look at that cute menu!  Look at my improving Photoshop skills!

I sprained my ankle playing this game on the 4th of July.  Yes, It's KanJam.  I am very outdoorsy, coordinated, and athletic -  didn't you know?

I went to Myrtle Beach for the first time!  While there...

I climbed a rock wall.  All the way to the top!  (That's me to the right).  I was very proud of myself.

I drank a little bit of wine with some friends.

I visited NYC for the first time in 2 years.  2 years?!  How does time go by so quickly?  2 years is way too long for me to be away from my favorite city.  My friends and I did a lot of shopping...

and we may have visited the 230 Fifth rooftop bar and taken advantage of their complementary snuggies.

I also went to Vegas for the first time ever.  In fact, it was my first time being west of Texas.  LOVE it out there.  Mountains, desert, warmth... now I just need to get to California!

May have also been on a rooftop in Vegas, too.  What can I say, I like roofs!  Not roofies though.  Staying away from the roofies.

So now what?  No more trips for this year, which is disappointing.  I'm extremely lucky to have been to all of the places that I've gone, so no complaints here!

I'm glad I did this silly little picture post, because it's made me realize that this year hasn't been ALL bad.  I've had several health issues that have dampened my spirits a bit, but I'm still living and loving life!  That's all we can do, right?  Right.

The Fear

We all have fears.  Secret fears, well known fears… at some level, we’re all scared of something.

When I was a senior in undergrad, I had to read a book called The Portable Therapist by Susanna McMahon.  Though I tend to shy away from any kind of self-help type book, I actually took a few key thoughts from it.  Most notably, on fear. 

“Courage is not defined as a lack of fear.  Rather, courage means doing something in spite of your fear.  It is not courageous to do something that we are not afraid of doing.  If we are afraid and still do it, we are doing the hero’s task.  Paradoxically, the more we do when we are afraid, the less fear we have.  And the less we do with our fear, the more power the fear assumes over us.” – Dr. Susanna McMahon

One of my biggest fears used to be flying.  Just thinking about flying would send me into a panic.  A lot of this has to do with ignorance.  I had never even been on a plane, but I was still afraid. I avoided traveling.  I drove anywhere I needed to go.  It wasn’t until I was 18 that I flew for the first time.  I actually found myself kind of enjoying the experience and feeling somewhat excited, but that was all squashed by my overwhelming fear of the plane just “dropping” out of the sky.

I didn’t fly again until I was 23.  Prior to getting on that plane, I did a TON of research.  I ended up here: http://www.fearofflyinghelp.com/

Yes, I went through this little online “program” to help with my fear of flying.  My friends are a-holes (oh hai guys, I kid!) and they made fun of me for this FOREVER, but seriously, it helped!  It helped just knowing how a plane works, what turbulence is, what clouds cause turbulence, how infrequent and rare airline accidents are, and so forth.  Seriously, and I kid you not when I say this, my fear was gone.  Not because that little “course” was some intensive experience, I just realized I was afraid because I didn’t understand.

I now LOVE to fly.  Love it!  I’ve flown about 5 round trips in the past year.  Traveling is one of my favorite pastimes, and getting there is part of the fun for me now.  When the plane drops and shakes, I don’t feel fear, because I understand why it happens.   I always request a window seat, because I spend most of my time looking out at the ground.  I’m excited to take off and land, and I take a million pictures along the way.   

Honestly though, planes are awesome.  They take me from this:

To this:

 In 2.5 hours.  

What fears do you have (or used to have)?

How I wasted my evening

Our dog has really long hair.  She sheds like nobody's business, and she HATES getting baths.  For these reasons, I always take her to the grooming salon at Petsmart.  It's worth the $40 to have them take care of her. Plus, they use this "furminator" thing that really thins out her coat.

I really wanted to get her bath and nail trimming out of the way today, and my regular Petsmart was booked, so I scheduled her at one that I don't normally frequent.  Big mistake.  Her appointment was at 6, and they didn't have her finished until after 8.  I drove out of my way to get to this store, so I literally paced around the plaza for 2 hours and spent $45 at Target on who knows what. On top of that, they didn't finish drying her, and they didn't put bows behind her ears! THAT'S MY FAVORITE PART!  After a little sweet talking, they put the bows in and we were finally on our way.  I ignored the other stuff; 'cause as long as the bows are there, I = happy.

See, look how cute!  My husband thinks they're ridic.

Head out the window on the way home is a must.

Now, it's time to rest and plot how to get these bows off, so the cats don't mock her behind her back.

Dividing of the Chores

I'm not a fan of cleaning.  It really doesn't do anything for me. Sure, I clean because I like being in a clean house, but if I could hire a maid, I would.  Up until a few months ago, I was in school full time, while working full time.  K works odd hours, so that didn't leave much time for meticulous vacuuming and dusting every day.  I'm no longer planning a wedding, and grad school isn't taking up a ton of time, so I now constantly feel guilted into cleaning.  What else am I going to do, other than sit on my butt, eat, and watch Teen Mom?  (I'm so glad it's back on this week!).

There are certain things I do around the house, and there are certain things I refuse to do, and leave up to K.  We share certain things, like laundry, cat care and vacuuming.  Here's how we divide and conquer the rest of the chores.

Nice and clean.

I cook.  I am the only cook in our kitchen.  K has no interest in learning, and I have little interest in teaching.  I never ask, or expect him to cook.  However, he cleans up the dishes after dinner. 

I do all of the bills.  Not cleaning related, but a chore.  I'm in charge of our budget, and I manage our money and pay everything.  K hates worrying about the bills, and I'm fairly obsessive about handling the finances, so it works.

I clean the bathrooms.  Scrubbing the toilets, washing out the sinks, wiping down the floors and shower... you get the picture.

K takes out the garbage (although, I'll do it ONCE in awhile).

He is also in charge of mowing/maintaining the lawn.  I have no idea how to even begin doing this, so that's all on him.

My husband is the official bug killer.  HATE.  Don't even get me started on bugs.  If you follow me on Twitter, you'll see 90% of the time I'm complaining  about bugs, cleaning or school.  Yeah, I wouldn't follow me, either.  If anything, GOD FORBID, is moldy in our fridge, he handles that too.  I just can't.  Mold scares me.


So, that's how we get things done in our household.  How do you guys handle chores?

Goodbye, Saturdays.

If you couldn't guess, today was my first day of grad school.  Somehow, I made it through. I told you guys that I was going back to school to get my MBA.  Unfortunately for me, I thought it would be a breeze to take two 4 hour classes on Saturdays for 7 weeks.  UGH such a long day.   I'm not familiar with this campus, so I wasn't able to find anywhere to eat.  FAIL.  I get miserable when I'm hungry, and 8 hours of not eating made me pretty fun to be around.

I did, however, have a fun new toy to bring to class with me today!  Meet our brand new 'puter!  We had a laptop several years ago, but it was old and bit it.  This new HP laptop is pretty nice.  I really like it!  K would say he likes it too, but he hasn't had much of a chance to get his hands on it.

Getting a laptop solves a problem for us.   I'm pretty much always on the computer.  The issue is, our desktop PC is in our spare bedroom.  So, while I waste away hours of my free time on the computer, K sits downstairs and watches HGTV obsessively.  Now, with the laptop, we can hang out in the living room together while I use Facebook/Twitter do homework!  What a marriage win.

Source

So, goodbye lazy, uneventful, relaxing Saturdays.  I'll see you in 6 weeks!

Everyone, Meet Bad Kitty.

Oh, you think he looks like a little angel, don't you?  This is Chewy, our first cat together as a couple, and I will refer to him as Bad Kitty in this blog, from now on.  Why, you ask?  Because he's bad.  He is also K's little precious baby, so please don't think he's unloved.  I love him too, but that doesn't change the fact that he has trouble running through his little cat veins.

Bad Kitty loves to piss off mommy.  Bad Kitty likes to open every cabinet in the house.  He also likes to open doors that are shut for a REASON, and get on top of our cabinets and taunt me with his glares.

Bad Kitty loves to chew on everything, but only when I'm there to notice him doing so.  Bad Kitty thinks I am not allowed to rest, so if he finds me napping or sleeping, he claws my legs and bites my toes.  You can yell at Bad Kitty and tell him to stop all you want; he always comes back for more.

Bad Kitty gets his kicks from making me mad.  He spills his water dish on purpose, and any plant I bring into the house, he destroys.  There is not enough cayenne pepper in the world that could go on a plant to deter him from eating it.  Bad Kitty is immune to cayenne pepper and he laughs at your attempts to keep a plant living.

Did I mention he is the apple of my husband's eye?  Bad Kitty gets a greeting before I do (although BK sits at the door and waits for K, while I prefer to cook dinner or watch TV). Bad Kitty is my husband's baby, and he treats him like his child.  Bad Kitty is never bad for K.   EVER.  Anyone who even knows us a little bit, IRL, knows this is true.  By the way, all of these pictures are from my husband's phone.  I used to be the background on his phone.  Now Bad Kitty is.  Bad Kitty has been the background on his phone for about 3 years.

So, everyone, meet Bad Kitty.  He is one of our three pets.  We have two cats and a dog.  Bad Kitty is definitely the most poorly behaved one, but he is also the most entertaining.  Last year, he discovered snow.  I was trying to entice Sadie to plunge into the snow on our deck (she had a blast in our backyard 10 minutes prior).  If it wasn't for my quick grab, he would have sunk to the bottom of our deck.  I haven't received a thank you, yet.

I've been everywhere....(at least on the East Coast. Except for Maine).

I LOVE to travel.  Not only do I love to see new places, try new foods and experience new things; I am a plan-a-holic.  Type A all the way.  Planning trips really satiates my inner control freak planner. I never went anywhere really adventurous for awhile, because I used to be completely terrified of flying (more on that later).  I'm over my fears, and now I actually really like to fly!  Road trips, however, still hold a special lil place in my heart.

There's not much better than packing up the car, making an awesome road trip mix, and setting out (with snacks, of course) to go somewhere fun and exciting.  Once K and I drove from Pittsburgh to Florida.  I wouldn't recommend trying to do that in one night like we did.  Fail.  It was worth the pictures though.

We were actually thoroughly annoyed with each other in this picture.  That's what happens when you drive all night to south Florida from Pittsburgh.   But look how pretty!

One of the most excellent road trips I ever went on involved Florida, though.  My friends from Florida and I once took a road trip from South Florida to Pittsburgh.  I flew one way to Florida, and we left from there.  We mapped out a really fun route, staying overnight in Jacksonville, having lunch on River Street in Savannah, Georgia, and staying overnight in Charlotte, NC.  Anyone from Charlotte out there?  I just love your city. 

Savannah, Georgia.

 The most recent road trip I went on was actually this past weekend.  My friend M and I went to Raleigh, NC to visit her sister. K was supposed to come, but couldn't get off work. M's boyfriend was supposed to come too, but he was stuck at work as well.  Boo weekend jobs.  I got to meet my movie crush, which helped ease my disappointment.

Edward Cullen and I.  Very excited.

I went to NC with the blessing of my husband under ONE condition:  I bring back some North Carolina BBQ.  Ummm... not a problem.

Little Richard's is so amazing. SO AMAZING.  Real Carolina barbecue with the "Lexington" sauce? (It's this  vinegar based sauce... I have no idea what's in it, but please serve me everything coated in this.  K thx). Yes, please.

All in all, this road trip was pretty successful.  I even saw a man walking down the street with a GIANT inflatable monkey.  I have a thing for inflatable monkeys, if you couldn't tell.

Win.

My next trip is going to be to Belgium this fall.  I obviously won't be driving there.  It's my first independent business trip, and I'm pretty excited.  This trip is one of my main reasons for starting this blog, and I can't wait to share my first European adventure with everyone!  Stay tuned...