As we go galavanting

I don't think I have ever made an actual list of goals at the turn of the year.

I want to be accountable. I want to be reminded. I want to accomplish the crap out of some stuff, so

10 things I most hope to accomplish in 2014:

1. Learn at least one new moderately difficult piano piece. Fingers remember thy practice!

2. Make more fresh veggies. Twice a week would be WAY more than currently.

3. Sing somewhere other than in my shower, or over my dirty dishes. In front of some people.

4. Go into New York for a day trip by myself at least once (we will be living close for a few months. I should tell you guys about this soon).

5. Try macaroons

6. Eliminate fat talk from my conversation, and my thoughts...no matter how thin my mother gets.

7. Love my husband better.

8. Read a new book every month. I shall post a list soon.

9. Keep to a budget, which includes ONLY buying things at the grocery store that are on the LIST.

10. Have more creative play for M, otherwise, I shall never remember to teach him his colors or his body parts.

                              

How I apply comic books to real life.

Kryptonite. It is not a real thing. But it's totally a real thing.

I differ in many ways from Kryptonite's original victim. Wearing my underwear under my clothes and understanding that glasses are not an effective disguise are just the beginning of that list. 

This list is just about Kryptonite. The fact that the man of steel only has one weakness is totally proof of his superness.

This is a list of my brands of Kryptonite. They are many. Here are five of them.

                                   

Cookies: you guys are aware if this. I talk about food often, and cookies are in my mind and in my belly particularly often. I have a problem. Seeking cookie counseling. I could really eat an entire dozen cookies without even pausing to consider the fact that it isn't good for me, and sometimes I get curious about how many I could eat before I get sick.

Head massage: That thing the wicked witch does when they throw water on her at the end of Wizard of Oz? I do that, except with happy ooooh's and aaaaaah's, slobber coming forth from the corner of my mouth, and crossed eyes. I puddlefy on the spot. A guy that was once interested in me discovered this, and used it as a party trick a couple of times. As in, hey guys, watch this... I become an instantaneous puddle. I didn't think it was very funny. Just very awkward. We didn't date.

Shoes: a typical womanly weakness. Here's the thing, the right shoes can make a bland outfit feel unique or spunky. This is important to me. I hate feeling meh, bleh, blah, or pleh. Shoes are an easy way to avoid that. And it is hard to be too chubby for shoes....unless we are talking about knee length boots. I can never zip those up over my (not even that big) legs. A topic for not right now. In short, shoes can be a quick way to just feel a little better about the world.

Soft Serve Swirl Cones: Yes, another food item makes my top five list of weaknesses. This particular weakness brings on the side of me that C refers to as "baby Karlie". I will mow right over old people on the sidewalk if there is a soft serve place in sight. My voice suddenly jumps up an octave  and my vocabulary shrinks to mostly squeals and laughs. I'm not kidding. Something just...comes over me. The ice cream bliss. Swirl cones in Cars Land and Charlie's in Logan are tied for the win.

HGTV: I argue that this is useful. I have learned SO much about what I want in a home as far as design and aesthetics than I ever would have figured out watching The Walking Dead (ugh) or Community, or trying to figure it out without television or pinterest (can you IMAGINE?). It doesn't hurt that the Income Property guy is the real life Flynn Rider, Property brothers are so cute, and Kitchen Cousins....well who doesn't visually enjoy them. 

Kryptonite. It's a real thing.

A heaven of sorts

Because who wouldn't be I heaven surrounded by delicious raspberries.

Only evil people.

                                

  

                             

Things Learned...

...after having our first visitors in Minnesota

1. Visitors RULE. Family seemed especially special because it felt like they brought home with them. 

2. When grandparents spoil your children it feels as though you are getting spoiled because you reap the benefits by default. I also learned that this does not mean that you are welcome to eat all of the animal crackers...

3. Sharing a Port-a-potty size bathroom with four grown people takes some juggling. It also takes a level of restraint in order to not ask who left that smell in there. Courtesy is also required when you already know who left that smell in there.

4. Duck Dynasty is truly a marvelous way to pass empty hours. That joy is expounded upon when your father-in-law laughs loudly and gleefully every minute or so. 

5. Plan a menu, (I thought I planned one, but when they got here I realized I hadn't...don't ask me how that happened.) otherwise you will have to take multiple unplanned trips to the insanely priced grocery store down the street. But, it may also mean that you accidentally make your mother-in-law's favorite dish.

6. When you dish ice cream for yourself, make sure you ask if anyone else wants some even if it is at naughty eating hours, or you may appear to be the most gluttonous and ungracious host.

7. Having amazing in-laws may not make or break who you choose to marry, but having them feel like your own family is rather nice. I sure hit the jack pot. Mine didn't even care that I walked around in leggings after church instead of being decent and putting on pants. Seriously. The greatest.

8. Old Navy has put out some stellar V-neck T-shirts this year. (Thanks Lisa!) I am probably going to have to go back and get one of each color and pattern. Then I don't have to ever wear anything else.

9. When you move across the country from your family and they come to visit, you get pretty homesick when they leave.

10. Cuddling with your husband while you both play with a cute child is a pretty okay way to curb the home sickness. You'll feel better after you go finish the guacamole from the fridge.

fist pumps and face palms

This is an idea I got from a marvelous blog I follow, The Day Book. She calls it awkward and awesome. In order to not be and EXACT copy cat, I am calling it something different. Really I just love the word facepalm. It can convey the perfect emotion and train of thought for ridiculous things.

Fist Pumps:

I have watched BBC's Emma two and a half times in the last week. I lost count of the times I re-watched the scene when Mr. Knightly finally expresses his feelings for Emma. It is the most vulnerable romantic moment I have ever seen. (yes. I am a hopeless sap) I could have it on repeat for days and never stop getting those butterflies. If you think the Hollywood version is good (which it is), you need to watch this one!

I got to sleep in until 7:37 a couple of mornings ago. It was heaven.

I made Chesley a super sweet bleach shirt from one of his own photographs. It is one of the helicopters they fly with all of the spray gear on it. I was quite proud of the outcome. Skills. I have some.

Face Palms:

I have a cold sore that I thought was a pimple for two days before I realized it was not. Now it will be on my face like a beacon of shame for even longer.

You guys. I cant. find. my camera. I am dying inside. I haven't seen it since we moved, and I don't even know where to look.

Also, I ate about 10 cookies again yesterday, and finished off a carton of ice cream....out of the carton. My excessive sweet tooth is, I know, old news, but I keep thinking if I keep confessing it, someone will stop me!

My Sugar Free Day

Oh, those tootie fruties are so small that it doesn't even count as sugar

...even after I've eaten 43 of them.

Its my BIRTHDAY cake. I HAVE to finish it. It really doesn't count against my sugar points because it was for my birthday. You can't gain pounds or inches from something that came from your birthday. It would be immoral.

That last nectarine really needed to be slathered in whipped cream while I ate it. It was a little mushy, plus the positive fruit-ness of the nectarine TOTALLY canceled out the sweet in the whipped cream. It's practically all air anyway. All the substance came from the fruit.

I clearly needed the fruit to counteract the cheese that was in my quesadilla , and I really couldn't have eaten the fruit alone because it was mushy, so really.... the whipped cream was completely necessary.

....maybe I'll do better tomorrow

Sometimes

Sometimes wife actually tries to cook dinner for husband, and sometimes it happens to be that she has enough ground beef to cook both sloppy joe AND taco meat. Sometimes she decides that they will eat the sloppy joes tonight, and save the taco meat for tomorrow. Sometimes wife sends husband to the store to get potatoes so they can have homemade fries with the aforementioned sloppy joe sandwiches of joy, and he is quick and compliant. Sometimes when wife does this she bites into her carefully and lovingly prepared sloppy joe, only to find that the meat is freezer burned and tastes of yak buttock. So sometimes wife doesn't finish her sandwich, and eats a half a bag of frozen corn instead. Usually husband doesn't even notice the icky taste, so he eats all of his sandwiches anyway. Sometimes wife wonders if he eats this ground yak posterior only to make her feel better. Wife throws away the meat. Wife does the dishes. Wife is very glad husband also bought ice cream at the grocery store, so they can have butterfinger shakes after he is done at helicopter school.

Yeah. Try to make THAT sound appetizing.
Its impossible.

Availability is a beast

My co-worker Lacy (who is pictured below. I labeled the picture for reader/viewer convenience. I was not pictured in the picture) and I were talking today about the woe of being hungry while you are on campus. This situation is woeful in our estimation for two reasons. (One reason being much more substantial than the other)

Reason #1: I didn't have enough forsight to pack a lunch....even though I was abominably hungry at this exact same time yesterday and had no food then either. The only option we have to amend the lack of food is to purchase something from one of the outrageously overpriced food markets in the Taggart Student Center (They charge $2.50 for a slice of bread with a tomato on it! Bollucks!). Often our most hungry hour is within an hour of when we will be returning to our humble college student abodes. We shall wait to raid our cupboards.

Reason #2: Upon the thought of these, our very own cupboards of storage that we have, we realize that there is nothing to eat. We are hungry at school, we are hungry walking home from school, we are hungry while we stare at the corner of the cheese packet that came from our last box of mac-n-cheese that we made yesterday and carelessly tore and threw back in the cupboard instead of the garbage. Sigh. We. Are. Endlessly. Hungered. Woe is us.