Happy Halloween!

Each year, my work has a creative Halloween costume contest. I didn't dress up last year and I regretted it. I didn't come to work this year dressed either. However, thirty minutes before the competition, I came up with a brilliant plan. SARAH PALIN. Problem was, my hair was down, I was wearing jeans and I wasn't wearing glasses. I hurried and called my friend and met up and got all of the needed supplies. The result:


The costume was pretty good for thinking, gathering and dressing in a half hour. It could have been a lot better if I had more time, but hey, beggars can't be choosers. My costume was complete with a REAL rifel and an NRA hat. However, I tied for third place. I guess I should have known when everyone else got the "joke" except the two judges. I seriously had to tell them who I was. Apparently these "judges" have been living on Mars for the past THREE MONTHS while she has been in the spotlight. The other two winners are in the picture below.

The winner? The kid in the blonde wig. Second place? The guy in the lab coat thingy. I tied with the "RedX Red-Headed Step-Child" aka the kid who has a paper pinned to his shirt (also keep in mind that we tied because the judges just couldn't pick which one they liked more). The reason why the other two won above me was because (direct quote from the bosses who chose the winners) "they were the most out of their comfort zone". Oh, yes, I forgot. This was a "who can be the most out of their comfort zone" competition. Not a most creative Halloween costume competition.

My mistake.

Now don't get the wrong impression. I am not like really mad about not winning. Had they just flat out said, we thought that your costume was the funniest or most creative, I would have been fine with that. I can handle having someone be more creative or funny than me. But don't tell me that they won because "they were more out of their comfort zone"--because both of them seemed perfectly comfortable with the zone they were in. In fact, they were LOVING it.

I guess next year I will have to really rethink my costume. Got it. I will just come without showering or doing my makeup because for me, that is out of my comfort zone. Or maybe I will just rummage through my attic and find the weirdest combination of clothes and throw them together (which is what the winner did).

For the record, I am not bitter at all.

Oh and did I mention that the winner won $100? Because they did. I walked away with $25 which is more than I came to work with... but still, that's $75 people.

I Want a House

We have been so fed up with our apartment lately. Our neighbors upstairs are SOOOO loud that I can hardly stand it. They sound like they are constantly stomping around up there and are up at all hours of the night (I have heard that at 2 am, I have heard them at 6am, get the picture?). Our house is teensy weensy itsy bitsy and we barely have room to live... seriously. I know this is just part of being a "newlywed" or whatever and I know there are "tough times" at the beginning of your marriage. But I am ready for those to be done and over with! Truth is, we aren't really struggling financially (knock on wood!), but we live in a little tiny place. And I am SICK of not having a washer and dryer. Do you know how disgusting those coin op places are? Sometimes thinking about them makes me want to gag. And sometimes I do.

One day we were just driving around and all of the sudden, we just started looking around at different condos and stuff and started playing the "what if" game. Could this work? What do you think? Is this stupid? And our minds began racing! For the past week or so, all I have been doing is looking on craigslist for the latest homes/condos on the market. Everytime I look at them, I can't help but think, I want that. BAD. I know it is a buyer's market right now. But who the heck just has $20,000 lying around for a down payment. Not me, I can tell you that much. For now, we are just skimping and saving our pennies and putting all of Jordan's reffing money and all of my cleaning money into our "home savings" account. (A few weeks ago, I discovered that I had about a thousand bucks in one of my accounts that I had forgotten about so we deemed this our home savings account). I just see all of these awesome condos on there and think MAN, THAT'S CHEAP! But we know that we are students and buying a home probably isn't the best idea right now.

Any advice on how I can get over being home-hungry?

Tagged..

Since my life is so boring right now and I have nothing to blog about, I figured I would give into the tagging. So here it goes...

Rules:
1.Link who tagged you: Cydney
2. List your quirks
3. Tag 6 other bloggers
4. Post the rules on your blog.

1. I HATE to be tickled. Hate. I know that this is probably a quirk for most people because I don't really know anyone that likes to be tickled, but I absolutely hate it. However, I LOVE to tickle/poke/annoy. Ask Jordan.

2. I hate being late and when other people are late... but mostly likely, I am always late. When I lived in CA for the summer a few years ago, I was not on time for work ONCE. I usually rolled in at about 7:11 or so... and that is a.m. so can you really blame me? I also currently work at 8 and the earliest I have been in since we moved back from Chicago has been like 8:06... I just can't get out of bed.

3. For the first few weeks we lived in our apartment, I found spiders in our shower ALL of the time. I get so scared now that I usually stand on our toilet, open the shower curtain and peek in and then SHAKE the heck out of the curtain to make sure that there are none hiding. I haven't found one for months, but I still do it all of the time. I think word must have spread back to the other spiders that the crazy lady will kill you if she sees you in the shower.

4. I will not walk on grass in the summertime because I am scared I will run into a snake. I take the sidewalk or some cement whenever possible. And if I HAVE to step on the grass, I run or am constantly alert about where I am stepping.

5. I brush my teeth in the shower. And wash my face. If I can't do them all in the shower, it messes me all up. Like this morning I had to take a quick shower because 1. I was late (see #2) and 2. I couldn't steal all of the hot water from Jordi SO I couldn't brush my teeth. I started brushing as I was getting out and it really messed me up. I basically was standing there trying to dry my hair/body while brushing my teeth. Let's just say it didn't work out so well.

6. I love robes. I would wear one everywhere if I could. I put it on right as I wake up in the morning and as soon as I get home from school/work. Last night one of our neighbors came over and I had just put my robe on over my clothes and bundled it up nice and tight. As soon as she left, Jordan said, "She probably thought you were naked under there." Whoops... note to self, make sure clothes are visible when you wear the robe where other people can see you or don't wear a robe where anyone will see you.

7. I never wear my hair in a pony tail unless I haven't washed my hair in a day or two. Since I have a little bit of useless curl/wave in my hair, there is no way I can just dry my hair, put it up and go. I have to do my hair completely THEN put it up. Seems like a waste of time if you ask me. I would rather wear my hair down if I am actually going to spend the time doing it. And naturally, I am extremely jealous of people who can make it look good. Oh how I envy you.

8. I still wear a retainer. No, not every day, but once every other week or so. I DO NOT want my teeth to grow back to the way they were before braces. (Enter scary 6th grade picture here. Yikes).

9. I always do my make up when I am sitting in my bed. Since Jordi never wakes up before me, he is usually still sleeping. I turn on the Today show, turn down the volume to a "9" and do my makeup while I relax under the covers. Since it is pretty dark outside when I am up, I seriously do my makeup by the light of the TV. Some of you are thinking "How rude! You turn on the TV and interupt Jordan while he is sleeping!" 1. He usually stays up with the TV on at night while I try to fall asleep (always unsuccessfully) so think of it as payback 2. He is quite the sleeper and can still sleep JUST fine with the glow of the TV on. Trust me.

10. I hate it when Jordan eats an "appetizer" before dinner. Like when I am in the process of cooking dinner and it is 5 minutes away from being done, and he whips out a bag of chips and parks it on the couch. I want him to fill up on the dinner I just slaved over! Not some chips that we picked up for $2.50 at the store. When we go out though, appetizers are just fine. In fact, the more you eat, the better cause then you will have more leftovers which mean less cooking for me.

There are probably loads more and my family will probably comment saying "You forgot this one controlling thing that you always do!" but these are all I could think of. Feel free to comment if you can think of anymore.

I tag: Katie, Nicole (since she NEVER writes on her blog anymore), both Natalie's, Tara (since she also never writes on her blog anymore), sis-in-law Megan and anyone else who wants to join in on the fun. It is kinda funny to see all of the weird things that people do and to document your own.

Good Idea / Bad Idea

Here are a few things that we have been up to lately...

Good idea: Driving to your office to clean in between session of conference. Since it is a little dim outside, you should probably turn your headlights on.
Bad idea: Forgetting about your headlights and leaving them on resulting in a dead battery.

Good idea: Getting your car jumped by AAA and driving it around for at least 30 mintues to let the battery charge.
Bad idea: Come home from driving/charging, shut the door and not realize that the seatbelt prevented it from closing all the way... resulting in yet another dead battery.

Good idea: Cooking dinner. Since you are kinda lazy and hate frying bacon, you should try cooking it in the oven because you have heard that works.
Bad idea: Being even more lazy and using a cookie sheet (that doesn't have sides) that you used the night before for fries.. this means you will have to do less dishes.

Good idea: Playing solitaire and watching TV while you are waiting for your husband to get home and for the bacon to fry.
Bad idea: Not realizing that the smell you are smelling is your bacon grease burning on the bottom of your oven and that your house is filling with smoke.

Good idea: Removing the bacon from the oven so it will stop filling up with smoke.
Bad idea: Thinking that all will be well if you just replace the cookie sheet for one that has sides resulting in A LOT more smoke and smell.

Good idea: Going to class, taking notes and studying for your test.
Bad idea: Reading too much into the test questions and getting tricked by every question... or that is what your score reflects anyway.

Good idea: Helping your husband with his math homework and encouraging him to study for his math test.
Good idea: Having your husband get 100% on that math test. GO JORDI!

You win some. You lose some.