you're going to be exhausted just reading this

so, christmas with michael's family was like a being the child of a helicopter parent (haha, chris, that reference was just for you). we were busy every. single. moment. as i told michael as we drove away, "i think that was successful. we saw nearly every family member, friend, & acquaintance in the state of california; ate more food than should be allowed [seriously, i've gained like 6 pounds]; and drank every night." by comparison, my parents house is like a secluded spa (we slept until 10 this morning!)

a brief itinerary (and no, none of this is made up)
Mon: drive to ca, unpack slightly, hang with mom louann, take a walk, hang with father mike
Tues: spend all day at the getty museum, visit sister amy, have dinner with michael's friends
Wed: mentally prepare for maximum capacity of 6 siblings-in-law, go to oma's to bake cookies, [here i spent 2-3 hours planning. damn you work!], grocery shop, have big dinner at mike&ana's, visit more of michael's friends/shop with him at target/help wrap his presents/watch bruno
Thurs: wake up EARLY, drive to the mountains to spend the day with mom l's boyfriend's family, eat/drink, follow around an adorable baby, feed some horses, meet a donkey, take a nap underneath a desk, eat/drink some more, play taboo, drive home, go out with michael's friends, finally sleep
Fri: have yummy christmas breakfast, open presents at mom l's house, go to mike&ana's, open more presents, prepare food, eat/drink, talk with 30-ish family members, eat/drink, play left.right.center (aka 'oh shit!') multiple times, eat/drink, try to find a position in which my stomach doesn't feel like it's going to explode, head back to momma l's, play games/read for my own sanity, sleep
Sat: oh, did you think because christmas was over the fun would end? because no: wake, try to fix l's computer, go to oma's for closet-raiding (yay cardigan!!), grocery shop, back to l's to prepare food for POST-christmas party, really fix l's computer, eat/drink more, power nap, talk to 20-ish family members, put on temporary tattoos, go see synchronized-to-music christmas lights, collapse
Sun: say goodbye, pack up, go to father mike's to fix his computer, eat a ridiculous lunch [see below], drive to my parents, play wii, sleep

so, uh, i'll have something witty to speak about when i recover.

yes, this is seriously what we ate:

is it wierd that, when i get to the end of eating my meals, i divide the remain food into equal portions? for instance, i make sure to have about the same amount of sandwich to chip ratio or equal parts of tomato, carrots, & lettuce for each bite of salad. michael says, yes definitely (with no hint of sarcasm)

thoughts?


also, i've missed you all

hold up, wait a minute

so, when I said "oh yeah. i'm back." i meant it more like, "oh yeah, i will be back...sometime...in the future.... when i'm damn good and ready!"

now that i'm a little old married lady, i'm spending less time thinking about color-coded schedules & flower arraignments and more time just staring into space. so it's about that time to get back in the blogging mood. but if i do this (and by this, i mean force you to read mundane things about my life) i expect some comments dangit! you all know by now that my biggest joy in life is hearing about how amazing people think i am (why do you think i teach young children? oh you think my earrings are pretty?! thank you!!)

we'll reverse it back to august when my mind went beserk and i had to put you lovely readers on hold. it was about that time that the following things happened (obviously told in picture form - i gotta throw you guys a bone!)

we got our marriage license & choose our ceremony site

there was also my 2nd shower, thrown by my amazing sister. it included:
babies, amazing decorations, yummy sandwiches, 1/2 naked men, lots of laughter, beautiful flowers, my ladies, & eventually tuckered everyone out

speaking of laughter & games...one in particular highlighted just how little i know of michael. some examples: how many times a day do you fart (10-20); name & type of animal of your preferred pet (a squirrel named snuggles); what did you want to be when you grew up (stunt man or fluffer [look it up])
i had to eat a piece of gum for each wrong answer - though i haggled for 1/2 pieces. as you can see, i didn't do too great. & i love the picture where caton looks totally disgusted!

that night we went out for a night on the town. as we're walking -> neeners says "come on!" i say "woo!" christa says "john, wtf?" krissy says "uh?!" ashley says...i don't know what she's doing?


but no matter where we went it got Way. Too. Frickin. Loud.

so we danced like crazy, because - really - those people don't know us & will never ever see us again.

and then we found a bar with reasonable noise levels and everything went well. maybe too well :)

and that's part one of my pre-wedding extravagnzas. stay tuned for more including Flagstaff Bachelorette, the Wang Wedding, and Thursday Night Frickin AWESOME Night in Flagstaff. Plus some other notes here and there.

i won't say i'm back, but it's possible

okay, here's the dealio:

i'm busy. and i'm sorry. but 10:17 pm on a tuesday night is the first free-time i've had in weeks. don't you think that's sad? don't you feel sorry for me? hmmmmm???? no? okay.
anyway, i will try to be better. also, chris told me to post something - and as i duly noted today - i don't want to piss chris off. so here we go!

1. i last left you with a cliff hanger about a secret errand. there were no chipmunks, sorry, but there is a new addition to our family. I wanted to do this with pictures, but...... we got a new car! oooooh, you squeal. oh yes, oooh. we got cash for our beloved clunker Rose (whom I cried over when we left her at the dealership. it still makes me sad), for a pretty new baby. Her name is Stella, which we hope is fresh & hip, while simultaniously sounding like a cute old lady. pictures will come if you're good.

2. last weekend i had a b-i-t-c-h-ing bridal shower with my arizona ladies. it was the shit. the english language can't express the fun i had. maybe french? spanish? farsi? i'll learn another language and let you know. this upcoming weekend is a bachelorette extravaganza (or so i've heard), so stay tuned for an epic picture post.

3. today a very wise parent reinforced what i've been told time & time again: write down all that funny crap that happens at school! so in my effort to re-invigorate blogging i'm going to try and write something that happened everyday. i promise to be as entertaining as possible AND you'll get something to read on a regular basis. let's proceed to today's anecdote (code names are italized):

children and men don't use them
in a discussion on what our bodies are made of, we started labeling all the parts of the body we know (yeah, there are a LOT). we got all the standard bits and even ventured into the inside of the body. Jaws asks about the "things" that come off the heart. Seamore, the forgetful porpoise (heretofore known as Seamore) busts out with: "The are VENTRICALS! Two for blood to go in and two for blood to go out! See my chest!" and lifts his shirt up to reveal a scar from heart surgery. After a lengthy discussion, Ginger shoots up his hand. I'm expecting something about blood or hearts, but he enthusiastically says: "HEY! We forgot about NIPPLES!" as he pinches himself.
the. end.

oh yeah. i'm back.

it's called "pulling a john"

last night, my darling friend christa convinced me to go out to a little something called "ladies 80s night", which consists mainly of 25 cent drinks for 2 hours & lots of dancing. It. Was. Bad. well, actually, it was very very good at the time. we met up with my cousins and a couple other girls - it was really splendid. who doesn't enjoy dancing like a nut with her fiance's co-worker who didn't even know it was her? (hehe, i'm still giggling about it) or getting a little snarky with some dude who, upon hearing of her betrothment (or broppin status), says "i still think you should dump him" (seriously, does that work? really?) or talking about someone's asshole ex-boyfriend only to have him walk up two seconds later! (it was like a movie) michael graciously picked up christa & i and brought us home, but by morning's light it was all a different story. i felt terrible, took some asprin, threw it up, and then stuffed my face full of carbs until i felt good enough to put on pants.

but it's a blessing in disguise because feeling totally useless is a great reason to BE totally useless. i decided to not go into work and enjoy one more glorious day of summer. so i cruised the nets, popped out to the goodwill (toy cash register & a christmas story boardgame SCORE) and got a cheeseburger/orange fanta lunch. and now i munch away happily (the tomato inside my burger is soooo goooood), watching a spongebob marathon which has morphed into law & order back-to-back, which will THEN be followed by bones back-to-back.

i have one other errand to run today, which i'll let everyone in on soon, but for now i'm going to just enjoy being hungover