Friday Mishmash

So, first of all ... wow.  Just checked out the new Blogger and it's kinda rocking my world a little bit!  As in, I am really confused and stuff.  But I like it, I think!  I think.  Hmm.

Anyway, I am finishing up my second week at work and I still love it.  It's seriously fabulous.  I love being on campus, and have figured out the bus situation a little bit better - now I take the bus from our apartment, and I don't have to drive at all!  Very exciting stuff.  Really.  :)  My office still looks as sad as it did last week, but I think Matt and I will be heading on campus this weekend to change all of that.  Stay tuned for photos of my new decorated office sometime next week!

In other news, I haven't been sewing as much as I would like (and must remedy that) but I did work on a little craft fun for Oscar recently.  I don't remember why exactly, but I was talking with Lisa online about something related to dogs, and I was on Etsy so I searched for "husky" to see what kind of fun handmade husky gear I could find.  Well, amazingly enough, one crazy thing popped up.  It turned out to be a digital image I could buy for $1 and then use for ... well, whatever.  It was so incredibly that I snatched it right up, swung by Hobby Lobby, and grabbed a canvas tote bag and some iron on transfer paper.  And the result?  Is kind of amazing.

Hmmm.  Let's take a closer look, shall we?

Seriously.  I don't know who thinks something like this up (oh wait, yes I do - I picked this bad boy up from Graphique), but it is spec-tac-u-lar.  It's a husky.  With a crown.  And wings.

No, I don't understand.  Yes, it looks almost exactly like Oscar.  No, Oscar doesn't really need his own tote bag.  Although yes, he does pack a bag when he goes to stay with Mamaw and Papaw.

So yes.  Clearly it was necessary.  I find it absolutely hilarious and often look at it hanging in the closet and giggle.

Anyway - I can't believe we're already at Labor Day weekend!  And I can't believe it's September.  We don't have any plans this weekend, besides watching college football and babysitting sweet baby Madeline.  What about you?

New Job and New Office!

This is the face of someone who is happy going to work in the morning. It's a new feeling, so I'm still getting used to it. This morning I took this photo with my computer on my way out the door, wearing my fancy new IU polo shirt for Welcome Week festivities. This job? Is so much fun. There's a lot to learn, but nothing that I can't handle. The people? Are fantastic. Everyone in my school is incredibly friendly, open and welcoming - something I really craved at my last job but never encountered. After three years in an extremely hostile work environment where nobody really seemed to like each other, this is such a breath of fresh air.

My first day was Tuesday, and I jumped right in and tried to start learning stuff. My boss took me out to lunch (thai food ... delish!), which was fun, and this morning they had a welcome breakfast for me. So nice! I actually got to meet some students this afternoon at the open house we hosted for freshmen. We had a great turnout, and it was lots of fun.

Working on a college campus is the best part of this job - I absolutely love taking the bus to work. Strange, I know, but there's something so enjoyable about sitting down, opening a book, and zoning out for the ten whole minutes it takes me to get there. I love spending some time walking outside, and yesterday - despite the crazy heat and the fact that it was dorm move-in day - I walked across campus to downtown to go to the library. Just the fact that I could walk there, and then walk to a different bus stop and take the bus home, totally made my day. Sometimes, it's just the little things, you know?

Anyway ... so yeah. All in all, the new job is fab. Still have a ton of stuff to learn, but that's okay. School starts next week, so I better learn quickly!

Another awesome part about my new job? My new office. For those of you who may not remember, here is a photo of the entirety of my office at the high school:

Yes, that really is all of it. Not pictured: the electrical box for the school, another smaller electrical box, and a small fried-looking box plugged into the wall I was told never to remove because it was linked to the school's alarm system.

Behold: my new, grown-up office, full of all sorts of excitement:

It definitely needs a little bit of decoration ... hopefully will have some stuff hung on the walls by next week.

I have my own thermostat! How awesome is that?!

Trust me ... after spending my summer sweltering at the high school (you know, not too many people there, so they weren't worried about keeping it cool), having an office with my own personal thermostat is muy exciting.

To be honest ... once I got used to my tiny office at North, I really grew to love it. It stopped seeming tiny to me (until I had more than one other person in it, of course). But, um, now? Just looking at that photo makes me feel claustrophobic. It doesn't take long to feel spoiled, eh?

Anyway, just wanted to give you an update on the new gig. In a word: lovely. :)

All Done

Well, it's all over. All done. Yesterday was so much harder than I thought it was - it was very busy, and I kept thinking at the last minute of more kids I didn't get the chance to see and say goodbye to. There are a couple of kids - two girls, two boys - I feel extremely close with, and saying goodbye to them was torture. After giving one of them a hug, I teared up and then was in tears on and off the rest of the afternoon, culminating in some awkward sobs while saying goodbye to coworkers. Awkward. It was about infinity times harder than I thought to leave a job I have been so desperately trying to get away from for so many months.

BUT! But. Enough about that. It's over and done and now I am enjoying a three day weekend before starting my new job on Tuesday. Special long weekend activities involve: reading, laundry, cleaning, blogging, having breakfast on Monday with my friend Kyle, and possibly taking myself to see the last Harry Potter movie in the theater. I am currently rereading all of the Harry Potter books - gosh, they are just so good! I just read the first one last week and I got the second one from the library yesterday. I'm sure I will have that one done by the end of the weekend. What are you reading right now?

In other news ... I'm on Pinterest and it's so fabulous. Click here to follow my Pinboards. I also run the Pinterest page for Fantabulously Frugal Weddings, so if you want to see a bunch of beautiful wedding inspiration, click here and follow us too!

That's all for now ... must get back to my Saturday tasks of making roasted tomato soup (recipe to follow if it's tasty) and watching Party Down on Netflix. :)

Last Day!

Well, this is it - today is my last day of work at the high school. Lots of feelings and emotions, most of them very very joyful. Although I still have a couple of nagging icky feelings, mostly about making sure someone is taking care of my kids when I leave. And that's hard. But I need to let go. I need to concentrate on my own life and what's ahead of me, which is all good stuff!

I am beyond excited about my new job. The staff there is already more welcoming and more interested in what I have to bring to the table than my coworkers at my current (soon to be old) job ever were. I will have a real office, not a closet without ventilation. I will have real coworkers who are ... nice to me. I will be part of a team. It's definitely time.

What will I miss? A couple of coworkers, but only a couple. A lot of students. Saying goodbye to them has proven to be extremely difficult. The thought of never seeing them again is really hard - I mean, okay, I'll probably run into them at the mall or Walmart or something, but it won't be the same. And that's okay, it's just an adjustment.

But you know what I will miss the most? The students who drop by just to say hi, the ones who came in before school started this week to see how my summer was, the kids who smile from ear to ear when they get a passing grade. Those couple of coworkers - now friends - who helped keep me sane over giggling lunches and eye rolling sessions.

Sigh.

But enough of that. It seems only fitting that today, on my last day of work, I leave you with one final "Overheard from my Office - High School Edition."

Girl walking into counseling department: "Hi, I need to change my lunch from A lunch to B lunch."

Me: "Why?"

Girl: "Ummm because, um, there's this girl, I think she's a lesbian, and she won't stop staring at my boobs."

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand scene.

Saying Goodbye Sucks.

Even when you're excited about saying it.

I was planning on telling y'all that I was taking a blogging break ... well, an OFFICIAL blogging break, at any rate. I have clearly been taking quite the break over the past several months. Like I say every time I come back ... I just haven't felt like it. But, suddenly I have a bit of inspiration. So, here I am again, trying again. If it doesn't work, I'll take an official break until life seems blogworthy again.

So, who am I saying goodbye to? My kiddos at school. I just got an absolutely amazing new job at Indiana University as an academic advisor. I am THRILLED. So thrilled I am counting down the seconds until my first day of work. More excited than I have ever been for a new job before! The hard part, of course, is saying goodbye to everyone at the high school. School starts on Tuesday the 16th, and my last day will be Friday the 19th. I will have four days to say my goodbyes.

I have started telling some people - I called a parent I am incredibly close with and told her my news today. She cried and I felt awful. :( Then one of my fave students came in to handle some schedule changes and to fill me in on her summer, and I had to tell her, too. And she was way more bummed out than I thought a teenager would be. I am really struggling with feeling like I'm letting these kids down by leaving them ... but at the same time knowing that I'm doing what's right for me, for my career.

But still. So hard.

Ever leave a job you cannot wait to say goodbye to, but have a hard time with it anyway?

I don't know ...

... why I can't stick with consistent blogging anymore. The urge just hasn't been there. It's not enough for me to want to quit the ole blog, but it's enough for me to only come by here once every few weeks. And man, that last post was depressing! My bad. I will put pictures in this post so you have something to look at. :)

So to catch up from the last few eons or so ... Matt and I went up to Michigan back in June to celebrate the wedding of a college friend of mine. It was basically like a college reunion, and we had such a great time! Here are a few fun pictures. And no, I don't have any photos of the bride and groom. :)

There was surprisingly little drinking involved in (most) of these photos ... but we still had a great time! We are scattered all over the place, from NYC to Chicago to LA, so it's rare that we all get to be in one place!

I have some other stuff to blog about, but every time I say that, I disappear never to be seen again. So we'll just leave it with ... I miss you guys. I have about 5729385729385 blog posts starred to comment on in my Reader. None of that will probably happen, but the intentions are there. So, if you are reading, please pick one of the following comments - whatever applies to you.

1. Congratulations on your pregnancy! This is so exciting! ---> applies to about 70% of the bloggers I follow right now

2. Congratulations on your beautiful new baby! This is so exciting! ---> applies to about 10% of you

3. Mmm, this recipe looks amazing. I can't wait to try it! ---> applies to the remaining 20%

There. That's settled.

Happy weekend! I will {hopefully} be back soon for some real blogging. But in the meantime, don't forget to check out Fantabulously Frugal and Fantabulously Frugal Weddings!

We want to make you famous!

I've talked a little bit on here about our brand-new wedding site, Fantabulously Frugal Weddings and how blogging over there and at Fantabulously Frugal is keeping me muy busy. But now I'm back over here on my poor, neglected blog to ask you for some help! Every Wednesday, we feature a real wedding on FF Weddings, and we'd like to feature YOUR wedding. We are still growing our site and want to be able to post some beautiful weddings - they need not be frugal. :) If you are married and want to gain internet fame and notoriety, click here and fill out our real weddings submission form!

I KNOW there has to be someone out there still reading my little blog, and I know a lot of y'all are happily married ladies. Do me - and our readers - a favor, and submit your beautiful wedding to be featured as part of our Real Wedding Wednesday series!

Is Bloomington Dangerous?

So, lots of bad things have been happening around here lately. Stuff that's got me down, and stuff that has Lisa telling me I need to move to Chicago to make sure I'm in a safe city. Ha!

First, I'm sure most of you by now have heard about IU student Lauren Spierer's disappearance. It's very scary and unfortunately I fear the worst, but I hope that no matter what the outcome, they find her quickly. Back in 2000, an IU student disappeared when she was on a bike ride and her body wasn't discovered for four years. Thinking about what her parents went through, just not knowing, for years - I wouldn't wish that on anyone. Lauren has been gone almost a week now and I know that the chances she's okay are slim - especially when you add in her heart condition. Bloomington has been swarming with news crews, volunteer search parties, and posters with her information. It's all very heartbreaking.

And then ... I found out yesterday that the mother of one of my students was stabbed to death. Ahhh. Her ex-boyfriend got out of jail on Monday and stabbed her to death on Tuesday. Neighbors witnessed him trying to break in through a window with a butter knife. While he was still working on the window, she came home and they had an argument. He forced his way into her home and neighbors heard several thumps and a "loud commotion." He then came outside and drove away in her car. Nobody - nobody - called the police. Instead, her 16 year old daughter came home from school with her grandma and found the door locked and her mom's car gone. They had maintenance unlock the door for them, and ... yeah. She found her mom's body. According to the newspaper, mom was stabbed nine times in the neck and upper chest with ... the butter knife.

This man is still at large, and that freaks me the hell out. Can I just add that there were two other stabbings in Bloomington that day? Can we all just ... put the knives down? Please?

The whole situation is just awful, but I think what bothers me the most is that nobody called the police. According to the newspaper, several neighbors witnessed all of this (minus the stabbing of course, which occurred inside the apartment) and nobody reacted. Nobody did anything. I wonder if someone would have called 911 the second they saw him trying to break in through the window, would she still be alive?

And then ... our neighbor's apartment got broken into! As in ... our immediate neighbor. He lives upstairs from us, and just happens to be a cop. A bunch of kids were hanging around the other day and got into his apartment and stole his duty gun. Thankfully the gun was recovered only a few hours later. The girl who stole it? One of my former students. Well, that is kind of a stretch - she was referred to me but I don't think I was ever able to see her because she skipped so frequently. She dropped out last year, and that was the end of that.

I reeeeally don't like something like ... a robbery involving a stolen gun happening at my home. Despite it not being my apartment, it sure hits close to home. Literally. No more leaving the apartment (ever) without locking the door. A few cars at our complex were broken into recently, as well ... leading me to wonder what on earth is going on around here.

ANOTHER student of mine (a current student) is in juvenile detention because he was involved in an armed robbery. And ANOTHER current student of mine is also in juvenile detention for threatening her mom and sisters and running away to stay with a drug dealer when she has two pending criminal charges (unrelated) and a failure to appear in court.

The last day of school was yesterday, but I'm having a hard time de-stressing. It doesn't help that, unlike 99.9% of everyone else that works in the school, I don't have my summer off. Nope! I'll be right back on Monday morning to check in on my kids who are doing summer school.

Someone ... anyone ... pass the wine.

Overheard in my Office: NSFW Edition

This story is rated R. Consider yourself warned.

A dear student of mine whom I am very fond of had to have ... a procedure done last week at Planned Parenthood. That's all I'll say about that. I checked in on her today to see how she was feeling, both physically and mentally, and she talked about how painful the whole experience had been. We talked about it for awhile, and then she said:

You know how sometimes, when you're having sex with someone, they go too deep and hit your cervix, and it really hurts? You know, has that ever happened to you?

I was caught a little off guard, and replied something along the lines of "Ummm. I don't know." Then she continued on to tell me that it was "like a million" times more painful than that.

Sigh. I am so, so very thankful that so many of my students feel comfortable enough around me to say pretty much anything, but at the same time, I think ... wow! I would have never ever ever ever asked an adult anything like that when I was in high school. Are students different these days? Or has it always been like this? I know I have some teachers and some people who work with teens out there reading ... what are your thoughts?

CSA Week 5. I think?

Happy Friday! What is everyone doing for Memorial Day weekend? Matt and I are hopping in the car tomorrow morning and driving to South Haven, MI, where we will spend a long weekend with my parents to celebrate my mom's 60th birthday. We are really looking forward to getting away for a few days (even though it sucks making yet another long drive with gas prices as high as they are) (can you believe how expensive it is to fill your tank? holy moly!).

Anyway! My dad had to work tonight, and I had to work today, so our long weekend is running from Saturday-Tuesday. I took Tuesday off of work and I am realllllly looking forward to the three day work week. School is almost out (THANK GOD) and I'm trying to stay calm and not focused on the 6 (S-I-X) students I had in court yesterday morning. OY.

Since we aren't leaving until tomorrow, we had time to go pick up our veggies this afternoon! Here's what we ended up with:

Salad greens (no close-up because by now, you know what lettuce looks like) ...
... some adorable little radishes ...

... garlic scapes (ever heard of them?) ...

... and glorious, glorious shiitake mushrooms. MY FAVORITE. Yessssss!!!

I was in the mood for a light little evening snack, so I chopped up the radishes and made a little radish salad. For those of you who are wondering, radish salad = radishes + olive oil + sea salt. The end.
It was good, I guess, if you're into radishes. To be honest, I'm really not. But the mushrooms? Oh yeah, baby. I love them so much.

Have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend, friends! xxoo

History of a Blog Friend

I started blogging back in 2008, before I realized that blogging - and the friends I would make through blogging - would be such a huge part of my life. The next year, on a roadtrip down south with Lisa, I managed to be in Nashville at the same time as Jenny from Lucky in Love.

July 2009

We had a great time eating pancakes and hanging out, and I thought ... wow, it's pretty fun to meet a blog friend!

So I did it a few more times. In February 2010, to help celebrate my 28th birthday while Matt was deployed, we had a little blog weekend in Chicago.

... then, in July 2010, I went up to Canada to visit Lucy, and Jenny came too. Here we are, very shiny, at a Brazilian barbeque place. Delish. Jenny was relatively newly pregnant at that time while Lindsay was nearing the end of her pregnancy, and we had a lot of fun thinking about the blog babies that would be born soon.
Fast forward to two weekends ago. The place? My apartment in Bloomington. Jenny, her husband, and their beautiful baby girl Natalie came to visit for an afternoon and we had SUCH a fabulous time. It seems like blog friends get to a point where they're not blog friends anymore.

They're just friends.

Sigh

Well, I disappeared again, although this time there was a reason. Right after my last post, my grandma passed away at the beautiful old age of 90. It was both sudden and expected - as once you get to 90, things happen. She had a heart attack over the weekend and was stable for awhile - I was able to talk to her, and she told me that it was all "very exciting" and that she got to ride in a helicopter for the first time (she had been airlifted to another hospital). A few hours later, she was gone. It has been hard, but I know that Grandma lived a long, wonderful life so it makes me feel a lot better about her not being around. Lots of mixed feelings and emotions.

So. That's that. We missed a week of veggies, and got a double share this past Friday, which of course I forgot to photograph - but we got two big bags of beautiful lettuce, giant bunches of beets, green onions, and some mint. I never know what to do with mint - thoughts? Ideas?

Matt is done with school now for the summer, and just got a job working at a research center on campus so he is staying busy. I am, of course, counting down the seconds until school lets out for the summer. I believe we only have 14-15 days left! Then I get to work part time over the summer. RELIEF!

In other news, Jenny came to visit this weekend and I got to meet beautiful Natalie! I have some photos but that will be a separate post, hopefully tomorrow. :)

Also, here's a shameless plug: we just launched Fantabulously Frugal Weddings on Monday, and we're dying for you to check it out! And if you hop on over there today, you'll catch a glimpse of my wedding as this week's featured Real Wedding. Check it out!

CSA Week 2

Okay, I tried to do a little better with this week's CSA photography. A LITTLE bit.

This week: more beautiful (and slightly blurry) salad greens,

shiitake mushrooms (yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!),
green onions,
and arugula! Yes! I LOVE arugula!!!
On the menu this week: not totally sure yet, but I will probably make some arugula pesto and lots of salads with sauteed shiitakes. Deliciousness!

How has everyone's weekend been? My mom came for a very quick visit to see my orchestra concert last night, which went very well. Her car battery died on the way here, north of Indy, and she had to wait for AAA to come with a new battery, which delayed her trip a bit. So all in all, she was here less than 24 hours. But we had a fun time, and a good concert, and a tasty brunch this morning, and that's about it!

Now, it's raining again (surprise, surprise) and Matt and I are relaxing. I have to work out at some point today, but I'm going to put it off a bit longer until brunch has more time to settle in my tummy. :)

How are YOU?

More CSA Cooking!

Things I need to work on:

1. Cleaning

2. Laundry

3. Working out

4. My food photography skillz ... or lack thereof.

I am seriously almost embarrassed to post these photos. Food bloggers seem to have the most amazing food photographs ... so perhaps my new goal will be to work on that! I think the first stop towards achieving beautiful food photographs is to use natural light.

Whoops.

Well, here is tonight's dinner, somewhat courtesy of my CSA:

It consisted of eggs, Laughing Cow light swiss cheese wedges, caramelized onions and mushrooms, and wilted beet greens. On the side: a piece of that soggy sesame bread we got (don't worry, it's not soggy anymore) toasted with some Maranatha almond butter.

It looks incredibly ... brown and boring and stuff. But in reality, it was delicious!!!! Pinky swear.

I also roasted the beets and now they are marinating overnight with some onions in olive oil, apple cider vinegar, sea salt, and a drizzle of honey.

Here is the worst photo ever of my bowl of beets. It's so dark!

I picked up some organic strawberries today and they looked so perfect that we had to eat some right away. So, for dessert: vanilla bean ice cream with strawberries, drizzled with this chocolate balsamic vinegar. Which was absolutely incredibly amazing.

Mmmmm.

Tomorrow for lunch: greens with the marinated beets and some feta. CSAs RULE!

CSA Week 1: Kale. And Kale. And some other stuff.

I seem to have lost some of my food photography skillz since last summer ... I will try to work on making my veggies prettier. :)

Matt and I drove to pick up our very first CSA share of the season on Friday, and I was so very excited! Except that it was pouring rain. And our (cardboard) box of food sits outside in someone's driveway for pickup. And when I got there, I saw that there was a loaf of bread inside. In a paper bag. A very, very wet loaf of bread. But hey, there it is! You can almost see it. This week, we received:

-Kale! Some really curly small-leaf kale. I forgot to take a photo of it before I made it into kale chips (recipe below) - which are in that plastic bag in the last photo.

-More kale! A different kind of kale. I forgot to get it out of the fridge for the photo, so just imagine MORE KALE.

-A half loaf of soggy sesame seed bread. Okay, it didn't end up being very soggy, and tasted very good heated up with some almond butter. Yums.

-BEETS!!!! Yes, I really am that excited about the darn beets. I used to think I hated beets ... then I got some in last year's CSA, learned how to roast them, and realized that they are one of my new favorite things. These beets are pretty weeny, but I am looking forward to roasting them tomorrow and having them with some salad. Yums.

-Greens - beautiful, beautiful salad greens. Seriously - don't they look fresh and delicious? I cannot wait to make myself a good salad Monday for dinner while Matt is at a decades-long group meeting for grad school.

Last year, the CSA share started kind of weak, with only salad stuff and other greens, and gained momentum as the growing season progressed. I am really looking forward to all of this deliciousness!

I got lots of kale last year, and never really knew what to do with it. Unfortunately, a lot of it went bad before I figured out what to do. But not this year! I am determined to not let ANY of this produce go bad. I had heard about kale chips last summer, but just never got around to making them. But since I had not one, but TWO giant bunches of kale, I decided to give it a shot yesterday. I went with a recipe from Smitten Kitchen:

Kale Chips

Ingredients:

kale (duh)

extra virgin olive oil (I used spray evoo because that's all I had on hand - worked great)

sea salt

aaaand of course I added a little garlic as well

Preheat oven to 300.

Wash and dry kale in a salad spinner to get out all the moisture (I had done this the night before, so the kale was nice and dry already). Cut or rip into bite-size pieces, removing the thick stems. Toss in olive oil, sea salt and whatever other herbs/spices you would like, and lay on a baking sheet covered in parchment paper. Or not. I am out of parchment paper so I didn't use any, but I guess that would have been easier for clean-up.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until crispy. Mine were perfect at 15 minutes - and wow, I was really surprised about how fantastic they are. They really satisfy the salty chip craving - only it's kale! Which is amazingly good for you, and has a ton of health benefits. I am hooked, and I'll definitely be using the pounds and pounds of kale we get this spring to make kale chips!

Day 2!

Hey, look! I'm here again! For the second night in a row! Weird, right?

To be honest, I've got nothing. I just finished writing two posts for FF and now it's bedtime. But I am really trying to get back in the habit of blogging - I remember when I used to just LOVE sitting down to blog and I want to get that feeling back! - so I am going to leave you with a photo of my two main men:

Oscar LOVES to be picked up. Duh.

Guess what happens tomorrow? Week One of our 2011 CSA share! This season, I hope to actually blog about our CSA every week ... you know, like I did last year. Ha. Ha ha. Okay, so that didn't really happen. But I'm certainly going to try. Wish me luck!

Tap tap tap

...is this thing on?

I seriously don't know why I never want to blog on here anymore. Well, actually, I do. It's because I blog six days a week over at Fantabulously Frugal, and then I don't feel like blogging over here.

But, stuff is happening. Matt's been home almost 6 months! Which is insanity.

Oh, and I got a second job! Yes, job #2. Because one just isn't enough, right? I am working for a home health company as their social worker, doing in-home assessments and stuff. I got hired a few weeks ago but still haven't had a visit to do, so I can't say much about that, I guess.

In other news ... I am just trying to make it to SUMMER! When my schedule goes back to working part-time. And sleeping in. I have been so exhausted lately ... and this is that tough stretch of school between spring break and summer when there doesn't seem to be an end in sight. My kiddos at school have been acting up ... I've had 6 students in court in the last 8 days. Ridiculous.

And ... I just remembered another reason why I haven't blogged over here for awhile - I don't have anything to say! I need to try to get back in the habit of blogging ... how does one do that, exactly? Any suggestions?

Wrong Number Text, and Police Beat

I have a lot of stuff I want to blog about (shocking, I know, considering the fact that I seem to average two posts a month or so), but that will all take a back seat to the wrong number text message conversation I just had with who I can only assume is a junior high student, somewhere in Virginia, with a 540 area code.

It all started with this text, last night:

Wrong number text: I THINK I JUST MADE THE CEDAR HILL MIDDLE SCHOOL TEAM!

Me: No response

This evening:

Wrong number text: Oook so I found out today tht I made the team im so excited 8-D

Me: I think you have the wrong number, but congratulations!

Wrong number text: Wat

Me: I don't know who you are. Wrong number.

Wrong number text: Whos this

At this point, I gave up. I didn't feel like texting back and forth with someone who doesn't know how to spell the word "what."

Sigh.

Also, I've been reading the Police Beat of our local paper, and I've copied and pasted some of my favorites for you:

1100 block South Clarizz Boulevard, midnight Thursday, someone vandalized a car with pancake batter. No suspects.

Burchell Villa, 56, of 620 S. Walnut St., arrested Wednesday by Bloomington police on preliminary charges of battery, battery by bodily waste and public intoxication; booked into Monroe County Jail at 1:30 a.m. Bond set at $5,000 surety, $500 cash.

Complete Nutrition, 2894 E. Third Street, 5:39 p.m. Sunday, four juveniles shoplifted bottles of hormone supplements that employees warn should be sold in a set of three and could cause serious health issues for juveniles. Officers plan to review surveillance video and take inventory of the stolen items to find the suspects.

1000 block South Walnut Street, 3:27 a.m. Friday, officers responded to a complaint of nude people in the area and found a 21-year-old man and 20-year-old woman who were "engaged in inappropriate behavior." They were both arrested. Alcohol was involved.

700 block West Country Club Drive, 1:52 a.m. Monday, after feeling ill effects from snorting bath salts, a 22-year-old woman was taking to Bloomington Hospital for evaluation.

320 block East Second Street, 3:07 a.m. Thursday, a woman reported that someone threw a rock through the window of her car. The car door was left open, but nothing was missing. She also reported finding feces on the steps near her apartment door.

2100 block North Walnut Street, 2:18 a.m. Saturday, officers stopped a man pushing a stolen vehicle down the road. The man, 56, was arrested, but said his own car had been stolen as well.

Oh my gosh. I get the biggest kick out of this stuff!!! Who vandalizes with pancake batter? Who steals a car after his own car was stolen? What the crap? Does this weird stuff occur in regular cities too, or just small towns?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Dog Party. I mean, Surprise Party.

A few weeks ago ... okay, I think it was a month already, Matt and I headed up to Grand Rapids, MI for a surprise 30th birthday party for Randy. Randy is my BFF Lisa's boyfriend, and he's also a good friend of mine from college. Lisa put together a great surprise party for him, and we had such a great time hanging out with college buddies.

Here is a photo of Lisa and Randy, post-surprise:

Aaand that's pretty much the only photo of just humans that I have. Because the hosts of the party, Joe and Laura (more college friends) have the cutest French Bulldogs, and Lisa and Randy have their adorable little Bacon pup, and it was a total dog fest. They were cute. Like, really cute.
The Frenchies look like little yodas. Or something. This is Vinny, I believe.
Dog party!
Mmmmmm Jimmy Johns ....
Partiers

Matt isn't really this pissed ... I think.

Birthday monster!
Dog face-off
Just chillin ...
This is Lou. Lou likes to be held and cuddled when he's sleepy, like a baby.
Such cuties!!! All in all, we had a great time at the party - it was so good to see everyone, and even though it was a brief trip (we drove 6 hours there on a Saturday and 6 back in a blizzard on Sunday), it was absolutely worth it. Yay!