Thesis...

I don't wanna...

Uggghhhhhhhhhhhh.

Kevin goes shopping

I went to step class with my mom this morning and I made it through the whole class and my knee felt fine! It was the first time I haven't had to worry about it in two weeks. It feels good to be back to normal!

After class I got some coffee with the mother and we had a nice, relaxing time. I asked her if she wanted to help me find a costume for Kevin and the pooch parade I want to do next weekend at Howl-O-Ween but she couldn't because her and my dad have to run some errands today. Then I made the mistake of telling her that I made that preliminary thesis appointment. Oh boy. I got the lecture of the century.

"How can you even think about entering your dog in a parade when you need to be writing. You shouldn't be doing anything else for the next two weeks until you get that thesis done. This isn't some high school paper that you can write in one night..."

And so on.
Whoops. I assured her that I will get it done, and that I don't need to be working on it 24/7. Luckily she dropped it, but I don't think that's the last I'll hear.

Anyway, when I got home, I decided Kevin and I should go find him something, so off we went. This dog loves riding in the car. It's actually when he's the most well-behaved.

Into Pet Co we went. Aside from a pooping incident, the shopping excursion went well!

The goods:

Some raw hide bones, balls of all shapes and sizes, a little meat stick that the checker threw in for him (there are perks to being cute, I guess), and a rain coat.
Now, we don't need the rain coat yet- it's cloudless and about 80* today:

But we've talked about it before and as we head into fall, I know this is going to come in handy. Kevin loves being outside and he loves water. Rainy days are not fun for the humans in this house...
Anyway, we practiced playing fetch and Kevin was very pleased with his toys.

And now he looks like this:

That is what success looks like!

Did you notice we didn't get a costume? They didn't have a very big selection. There was a devil costume that would fit him, so I decided to keep it in mind. But then when I came home I started watching Problem Child on Netflix (my brother and I used to watch that movie all the time when we were little) and I was reminded about this little guy:

Devil costume, out. I thought with the new rain coat, he could be the man in the yellow hat and I could be Curious George

See the resemblance?

But how am I going to make a yellow hat? Better yet, would he even were a yellow hat? Probably not.

I have another idea up my sleeve... Let you know if it works!
To be continued...

And the award goes to...

ME!!!

What award, you ask?

Why, it's for something that I am better at than anyone else. I can confidently say that I am extremely proficient in this matter. I truly believe no one else is better than I am at this particular skill.

I can, wait for it...

Procrastinate better. Than anyone. In the world universe.

It's a skill that I've honed over many years filled with long nights, early mornings, cramped typing fingers, and puffy bags under my eyes. 

I've always gotten good grades- mostly A's with a couple of B's sprinkled in here and there- but I've never been a particularly good student. Things have always come easy for me. I can take a test and ace it without studying. I can write a solid book report without ever having read the book. I'm pretty sure I don't remember anything I learned in high school.

I got a little bit better in college. Just a little. But once I entered graduate school, all bets were off. I'll give myself this- I've been working full time and coaching year round the entire time I've been in graduate school. My free time was precious, so I reached the peak of my talent in grad school.

I thought I had peaked when I had to write a paper for my Sport Psych class that I didn't even start until 9:00 pm the night before it was due. (America's Next Top Model was on, so sue me!) Now I'm pretty sure my record is when I didn't even start a take home final for my Sport Nutrition until 4:00 am the morning it was due. That one was Brian's fault- it was when we first met and we were talking on the phone until like 2:00 or something... and I needed to get a couple hours of sleep. I may be breaking this record soon. And on a whole new level.

I put off my last semester (the thesis writing semester) because I had things that I felt were higher on my priority list. Like getting married. But in the meantime, tuition is going up (like, more than doubled since I started my degree) and I want this off my mind to move up on the pay scale. It's now or never.

So a year since I last picked up any of my research and I'm finally in my last semester of this dang program, totally lost on where I left off. I've been trying to get organized so I can in turn get to writing. But as we're heading closer to the end of October and I've done close to nothing towards completion, I felt today was the day I needed to light a fire under my own butt.

I tried emailing my advisers to get some kind of direction, but that of course didn't help anything. So I looked at the website to find that I need to make an appointment for something called a Thesis Preliminary Formatting. WTF is this and why has nobody mentioned it to me before??? I have until November 18th to complete this. Freakin' fabulous.

So I call the number they give and reach a very nice and helpful lady who helped me make an appointment and gave me clear guidelines on what I would need to have ready for that date. A stranger, with nothing invested in me or my education, helped me in less than 5 minutes. The people who are supposed to be helping me are vague and anti-helpful. 

Anyway, when the nice lady asked what date I had in mind, I decided to do it on November 7th. That's like, 2 weeks away. 17 days, to be exact. I picked that date because I have some pretty exciting things going on in November and I want to just enjoy them stress-free.

Oh, and by the time I go to this appointment, I'm supposed to have my thesis written. Like, finished and ready for final corrections. Hmmmphghsahjvcalasoichoivco.

So my dining room table currently looks like this:

  The carrots are for Kevin. I prefer chocolate.

Coffee might be my savior for the next couple of weeks. Basically, I'm combining 3 years of research and classes and articles and literature reviews and power points into the longest paper of my life in two weeks. And obviously, I've currently pushed all of that to the side while I write this. (Procrastination at it's finest! Because Facebook is so 2010.)

The anxiety makes my skin crawl. I apologize in advance to anyone I come across in the next 2 weeks because my bitchiness may go off the scale.

********************************************

On a lighter note, BFF/Maid of Honor Alexis got me a pretty rad birthday gift.

Isn't that the cutest?? I was so excited when I opened it. I wanted to hang it in the perfect spot. I was thinking here:

because it's the first thing you see when you walk through the front door. Unfortunately, it was too tall to fit there, so it settled into a spot over the front door.

I love it. It makes me smile every time I see it! Thank you Alexis!

Off to go write while the husband watches Thor cuddle with Brian and Kevin while we watch Thor together!

Meatballs with a Side of Catch Up

Sooooooooo....

It's been exactly a month since my last post. Bad, bad blogger. But there has been good reason for my absence. Full time work, softball tryouts, thesis writing er, planning, camping, MY BIRTHDAY, and some laundry sprinkled in here and there has made my days plenty full. I'm making a come back today though... Here's what's been going on:

I'm trying to cook more often and eat healthier. It doesn't seem like it should be so difficult, but I'm away from the house from 5:45 am to 5:30ish pm right now and by the time I get home, I just want to sit down and relax. But one of my goals is to be the best wife and healthiest person I can be. So I attempted to make spaghetti and homemade turkey meatballs. This is what my meatballs looked like pre-oven:

 See the sogginess? Yeah. I didn't know what to expect. They looked ridiculous, but they ended up being pretty good.

I've still been going to the gym every morning with my mom. She's doing a great job! Actually, last week I had to take a little break because my left knee was killing me. It was so bad I thought I had torn a ligament or something serious. But I iced it every night (11 minutes on, 11 minutes off x2) and took a 5 day break and it feels great now! And even on the days I didn't go, my mom still went. I'm so proud of her!

As far as other everyday things go, I'm getting kind of annoyed at work. For reasons I shouldn't just throw out on the internet. The only thing keeping me sane is my own insanity. Like when I saw this:

I wanted to get all Dwight Shrute on my coworker's desk. 

 And then I just start laughing at my ridiculousness and I feel good again.

***********************

In the spirit of catching up, one highlight of the last month was my birthday. Brian took me out to a very nice dinner at Gladstones in Malibu. Right on the beach during sunset. Perfection!

 I love this guy!

Also that weekend, we went camping with a group of our besties. The camping wasn't for my birthday, it just happened to be the same weekend. A weekend that was filled with carne asada, camp fires, s'mores, and bocce ball... sounds like a good time to me!

 See how close we were to the water?? For the last several years, I have had a recurring dream that a wave crashes over me. Sometimes it's been a rushing wave, like what we've seen tsunamis looking like in more recent times. Sometimes it's a tidal wave. Sometimes I'm in the water and I just float through it and sometimes I'll be driving along side of it. It's different every time. But the fact that I have had dreams like this more than once gave me pause once I realized how close our campsite was to the water.

 But we were obviously safe and it was really nice to fall asleep to the sound of waves crashing on the shore.

I took this picture of Brian and my brother because they were both wearing blue shirts, gray shorts, and hats. So cute of them to dress alike. I'm jealous. :)

 On the way home, we went to Ventura for some fish and chips in what has become a tradition to conclude our camping trips. And we had to reenact one of my favorite pictures from last year:

Be still, my heart!

The whole last month hasn't been all fun and games though- the day before my birthday, we actually had a break from all the So Cal heat and there was actually rain. Unfortunately, since it only rains like, twice a year here, any weather that isn't sunny tends to bring out the crazy in drivers. Brian got into an accident on his way to work. He was fine, but his car didn't fare as well.

 The bad news- his Ford Explorer was totaled. But some good did come out of it. We bought a new car. It's our first major purchase together, it was a great find, and although this wasn't how we wanted to go about it, we had been talking about getting a newer car.

Brian loves it and I'm happy that he's safe.

*************************** 

On a creative front, I've been doing some projects around the house. I finally finished decorating the eat-in area of the kitchen.

I went from my usual beach theme to a more world traveler theme. On one wall, I put up pictures that I had taken in Europe two years ago and on the other wall, I just put up some art and decor that I had been collecting. I also took a note from Young House Love and put up a map with pins that signify all of the places that Brian and I have traveled together.

Hard to see, I know. But they're there! And we're planning on adding more!

With the "new" kitchen, I felt inspired to try some stuff in the kitchen. I made some cake pops!

Long story short, they're delicious! Recipe coming soon!

In other creative news, I've made these:

To help keep us organize. I'll let you know if they help.

And this:

It looks better when it's not in cell phone picture form. I'm actually pretty excited about it!

FINALLY, I really want to do this but Kevin needs a costume... what should Kevin be for Howl-o-ween???