time flies when you're having fun

Although work was stressful (my counterpart is on vacation for a week), I have been keeping up with the workload and actually learning a lot! Here are a few other (fun) highlights!

Tuesday night was book club meeting where we discussed Water for Elephants and Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons. We had about 18 ladies show up this time. While I love the meetings, that many ladies together in one small room is sooo loud!! I loved when we actually went around the room taking turns commenting on both the reads, but besides that it was utter chaos. Here's to hoping there are some ground rules going forward!

Our books for April are The Red Tent (which I've already started-thanks for the lend Kelly!), and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (which I've already read). We're also going to have a meet and greet with an author in May, so I'll be starting Already Home soon.

Janna and I went out for sushi after bookclub. Best $30 I didn't mean to spend!

My dear friend Kelly celebrated her 27th bday this week and decided throw a birthday bash on Friday night! Shawn and I brought Bailey to come play in the yard with all the other dogs. We had a wonderful time! (photos shamelessly stolen from Kelly)

Birthday girl Kelly with her little boy Henry!

Kelly's family lives on some acreage up north, and they put together a scavenger hunt. Janna, Shawn and I came in 2nd and won cool Sesame Street mugs :)

Bailey and Reese (Janna's dog) were the shy dogs together. Here's Bailey deciding if he's thirsty enough to go share some water with Miss Reese.

Shawn and I had plenty of errands planned for Saturday but Aunt Flow decided to tag along and make me feel miserable most of the day. At least we bought a gift for his coworker's wedding and had his/her eye appointments. Shawn got new contacts and spare glasses and I picked up some glasses for myself too. I've used reading glasses before but have found it irritating to take them on/off. The ones I got today I can wear all the time. I can really tell a difference!

Don't mind my frumpy-ness, I can see when I READ now!

Breaking the Ice

My friend Jenn at Perfectly Imperfect is having a fun link-up survey today. Such a fun way to ring in the new week! Stop on by if you want to participate, I'd love to see your responses :)

Q: What is your middle name?
A: Technically my parents didn't give me one, but I was lovingly called "amysue" when I was a lil' girl. After my split with my ex, I had it changed as part of my divorce decree. So now according to all things official I am Amy "Sue" Blackham. Kinda fun huh??

Q: When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A: I wanted to be a librarian (so I could use the bar code scanner) or a teacher (so I could write on chalkboards) and a wife/mother. Though I'm neither a librarian nor a teacher, I still have high hopes for the wife/mother bit :)

Q: If you could have 3 wishes granted, what would they be?
A: 1}Lose all the weight I've put on, 2} Maintain said weight-loss and 3}World Peace. Now my definition of world peace is rather encompassing and may cause the wish granter to regret offering :)

Q: If your house was on fire and you could grab only 3 things before leaving, what would they be?
A: My dog, my favorite bra, and my pictures

Q: You wouldn’t be caught dead, where?
A: Alone at the movies :p

Q: If you could be any cartoon character, who would you be?
A: Belle from Beauty and the Beast or Ariel from The Little Mermaid

Q: Who was the last person you hugged?
A: My dog Bailey

Q: What do you think of when you hear the word "yellow"?
A: Lemonaide

Friday Confessional and Plea for Help!

I have this weird game I like to play at work. There are five stalls in the ladies restroom, and I coordinate the days of the week with the one I use. It kinda bums me out if someone's in the day-appropriate stall, or in the one next to it (because I have a rule to "leave a space"). Friday is the best day though, because I get to use the big handicapped stall :)

It also means it's time for another edition of Friday Confessional with Mamarazzi!

I confess that reading Diana's Friday Confessional last week made me realize I have a pretty serious confession of mine to admit...

I talk to this little guy and, well he talks back. Not really...but I make him talk back. I ask him questions and then answer for him in my weirdest, most embarrassing cartoony voice. For example:

Me: "Does Bailey want a treat?"
Bailey: "Oh YES MOMMEEEY!"

It's approximately that enthusiastic, with a slight elongated pause on the YES and an extra long EEEY at the end. He mostly answers with "yes, no, or right mommy." Super cute and endearing isn't it, so what's the big deal? Lots of people, including Diana talk to their pets. They're a part of the family after all!

Well...

Apparently I've started doing it in public as well. Shawn and I took Bailey to a Wee Rescue meet & greet at Petco. Shawn caught me having these "conversations" with Bailey TWICE! And loudly enough that people around us were giving me a funny look. I didn't even realize I was doing it!

So please...how do I stop my adorable quirky habit before it gets me sent to the looney bin?

Happy Hair!

This magical box of wonderment has changed my life!! Thanks to my friend Stacie for suggesting I wash my hair with baking soda to help strip away excess build up. I think I'll still look into getting some dry shampoo, but this really worked!

I've still sport the ponytail, but only because I'm stylish and sassy :) Many thanks again!

Confession is good for the soul!

I confess...I don't seem to find much time for blogging. I ninja-check my feed for 17 minutes while my coworker is at lunch. Even though I don't have time to comment, I swear I'm making the rounds!!

I confess that I probably look weird to the other park-ees at 7:08am. I pull into the parking lot, and park all the way at the end when there are plenty of spots close to the building. Why you might ask? Just my little efforts to be more active every day :)

I confess there is still a pile of dirty clothes by the washing machine from 2 weeks ago. I hate doing laundry

I confess that I don't know what's up with my hair lately. I wash it just as often (every other day), but now it suddenly looks really oily and dirty on the second day. I've noticed this for the last week or so. I'm on the hunt for good shampoo conditioner, meanwhile wearing my hair in a ponytail every other day. I can't even imagine how much of my life I'd lose if I had to start washing my hair every day.

I confess that I'm a bad shoe buyer. This doesn't mean that I own 1,718 pairs of shoes, just that the shoes I do buy usually end up hurting my feet so badly that I never wear them again. The only types of shoes that don't hurt?? flip flops, my tennis shoes, and naturalizer brands.

I confess that I've been avoiding going bra shopping for entirely too long. Now every bra I own has some type of malfunction/break. Booo!

Lastly I confess loving the fact that I'm not the only one with something to confess. Stop by Mamarazzi's blog to see everyone's responses. There must be something in the stars--lots of bloggers today!

A quick rundown for the last week!

Work is going well, though I still feel like I'm learning so slowly. I've enjoyed meeting a few coworkers in the lunch room, and have even been invited into the honorary "Stair Club". A few of the office ladies take a quick 15 minute break twice a day to get some exercise. We're on the 5th floor, so we will all ride down together and then take the stairs back up. I'm excited to find friends and to add some activity to my workday. My goal is to take the stairs every time, not just for our little club :)

I met the folks from my previous office on Thursday Night for a few hours. Freda's has some great Happy Hour specials....Yum!! Then on Friday Night a few of the ladies from our bookclub met up for Sushi in Cedar Park. We had a few cancellations at last minute, so it ended up just being myself, Janna, Kelly, Carol, and Jill. Even though it was ladies night out, none of us minding cute Henry tagging along.

Picture of Kelly's little boy Henry is courtesy of Janna

Penguin greeting cards at Half Price Books?? Don't mind if I do! I also found a kindred spirit--the cashier loves penguins too, and was born on National Penguin Awareness Day.

I finished reading one of our Bookclub selections this week and L-O-V-E-D it. I was so sad when it was over :(

I'm also really excited to go see the movie with the girls next month. I hope it's one of those movies that does justice to a great book.

Happy Mail!

In such a techy age, getting something "fun" in the mail is rare. Look at the fun goodies I got this week :)

My blogger friend JennyKate sent me some of her favorite things in the mail. Loved (past tense since they are gone) the Granola thins, Loving the chapstick (seriously awesome stuff!)

Loving this recycled tote. It's so much bigger than my other grocery bags and has come in handy all week

The whole stash! Thanks JennyKate!

A little birdie told me I should check my mail (I'm so horrible about that) and look what I found! Thanks Janna!