Happy Birthday Bro

Today my little brother turns 30!

Welcome to the club :)

Blonde Moment of the Week

So today I’m driving to work and I notice I’m sitting on something but when I feel the seat, I realize there is actually something in my pant leg. I get out of my car and feel the wad and wonder how in the heck I didn’t notice this during the hour I had the pants on before getting in my car. I have to proceed into the building because whatever this happens to be is in an unreachable place. I hurry onto the elevator so I can get in the back where the bulge on the back of my leg will go unnoticed. Lucky for me I work on the top floor of the building so I’m always the last one off. Once off the elevator I head to the bathroom where I strip down my jeans and pull out a pair of underwear. What the heck? I’m thankful that they were in an unreachable place because I would have died had they slipped out while I was walking into the building, but if they had I was glad they were a) clean and b) not granny panties. Although I’m pretty sure if they had slipped out I would have treated them like an illegal substance – Underwear? What underwear? I don’t own any underwear.

Pretend

Today my brother-in-law sent out some pics of the girls. There was one in particular that really made me laugh and I thought it was too funny not to share.

Our 3-1/2 year old niece Lilly is quite a character. This is her pretend bike wreck. She cracks me up!!

Saturday Night

S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y NIGHT! It’s “the night” of the week, the night of fun and excitement! In recent years my Saturday nights consist of being in bed by 10:00pm but I can still remember the days when 10:00pm was the time I was just leaving my home for a night out. Oh how times have changed! Although all those nights out were fun, I would not trade them for the Saturday night we had last night, a night of spending time with these two lovely ladies:

Our sweet and smiley niece Elliot

And our fun and fabulous niece Lilly

Here's a little sneak peak of our evening

We also had lots fun watching Lilly's many performances which included somersaults, lots of spinning and our favorite “the jazz walk” complete with bows at the end. What a fun night :)

August Birthdays

My dad, my brother and our nephew all have birthdays in August so AB and I headed up to Kansas last weekend to do some celebrating. The main attraction was Jude’s birthday because let’s face it, birthdays are much more fun when you’re one!

Andrew and Erin had the family over for a nice lunch then we watched the birthday boy open his gifts. This is a fun age because they are much more in to the box the gift came in than the actual gift. I think the Tickle Monster book was his favorite - he just loved the Tickle Monster gloves!

After the gifts we got to eat cupcakes! Aren’t these monkey cupcakes adorable? Erin is so talented!

I think it's safe to say Jude really enjoyed his :)

Our trip was fast and furious but it was nice to spend time with family and celebrate all the birthdays!

Conversation Starters

Oh my goodness I have six followers! This means I can start posting questions and there are at least six people who might answer!

So I recently earned a free ticket from Southwest Airlines. I just love the feeling of getting a free ticket! Of course, this means I’ve spent enough on my Southwest Visa to earn it so it’s not actually free but whose keeping track besides my husband? One of the things I love about the free tickets are the free drink coupons I receive in the mail. I don’t necessarily love them for the drink because I’m usually taking an early morning flight and I am past the age where alcohol sounds good before noon (ok I could spring for a mimosa before noon) but I really love the coupons for the conversation starters Southwest prints on them. They also have conversation stoppers which always make me chuckle. These are the conversation starters on my current coupons:

Q1: When was the first time you flew Southwest Airlines? Where did you go?
A1: I have no idea. I remember flying it to Chicago in college to visit Meghan and Lindsey at Knox but I’m not sure if that was my first time.

Q2: Are you a dog person? Cat person? Fish person? Something else entirely?
A2: That’s easy :-) How could you look at this cute face each day and not be a cat person?

Q3: If you were stranded on a deserted island, which actor or actress would you least like to be stuck with?
A3: Easy - Gilbert Gottfried.

That voice would grate on my every last nerve, especially if it was the only voice I would be listening to for the rest of my life!

Q4: What’s the most unusual thing you know how to do?
A4: I can’t really think of anything unusual I can do. I can do a mean Pivot Table and VLookup in Excel but I’m not sure how unusual that is, more like nerdy!

Out of all of the conversation starters I like Q3 and Q4 best. What about you guys (all six of my followers)? Who would you least like to be stranded with and can you do anything unusual? I just love learning new things about people…can’t wait to see your answers!

A Little Hesitant

So this is my maiden voyage into the blogging world. I’m very addicted to reading blogs so I thought why not enter the blog world myself? I think it will be a fun way to stay connected to my family and friends who live near and far. I’ve actually had my little page here set-up for quite some time but I’ve had some reservation in entering into this not so private world at this particular time in my life. Mainly because of a little secret I’ve been keeping. I don’t even know if I should call it a secret because my immediate family and most of my close friends know, it’s one of those things that is hard to keep a secret because it consumes my entire life. Maybe some of you have noticed my absence at the weekly Bachelor watch parties, my hiatus from book club, the times I’ve missed Bunko and other fun events I’ve had to decline to come to? Well friends, I’m letting the cat out of the bag – I’m studying to become a CPA! Doesn’t that sound exciting? I wish I had something cooler to reveal but there it is my little secret which is not so secret anymore.

The main reason I haven’t been shouting it from the rooftops is because of the pressure that comes along with people knowing. When do you take your next part? Have you received your scores? Did you pass? Just so you know there are four parts to the exam and you can take one at a time. I have already taken one part and in two weeks will take a second part. My goal is to have the other two taken by Thanksgiving. It’s a grind and it’s that last question sited above that’s a killer because what if I don’t pass? It’s a reality people, this test is HARD! It’s that question that creates the most pressure because I don’t want the answer to be no - it’s awkward for me, it’s awkward for them. It’s kind of like someone asking about your pet hamster and you have to tell them it died. Awkward! Nobody knows how to respond to that. I’ll just do my best to eliminate that moment and make the answer a yes!

I will try my best to keep up with my little blog here and I promise not all my posts will be about the CPA exam. It is does happen to be the central theme of my life right now but I don’t really want my blog to be known as a cure for insomnia! Also try to bear with me while I get all the kinks worked out on the layout of my page…I am obviously new to this ;-)