Anna Paige

This past weekend, one of my very best friends, Miss Paige Schmidt came to visit me!!! I don't think any of you understand just how much I was looking forward to this.

I met Paige a long, long time ago when we were both picked to be in the same fish camp, Camp Donnell (although Paige would swear it began with an "S").

The very first night we met, Camp Revelation:

(Although we figured out we were in the same camp before Revelation night- we had lots of the same friends.. oopsies)

We became fast friends and did absolutely everything together! I had a really hard time picking out some of my favorite pictures to put on here. I am not nearly a good enough writer to convey how special of a friend Paige is to me, so I'm going to let the pictures tell the story :)

partner revelation- this night brought Paige and I so much closer- I will forever be grateful for her friendship this night.

A night out at The Hall!

Fish Camp flashback dance (now THIS is an 80's outfit- are all girls in TX this rude??)

Galveston roadtrip!!! We found this in the sand- how perfect!

Fighting Texas Aggie FOOTBALL game!!

Boston Tea Party :)

My ring weekend!

Paige's ring day: We snuck onto Kyle Field to take pictures (Our other fish camp friend, Ashley, is in the middle!)

St. Patrick's Day

The night we got to play paparazzi to a bunch of rich A&M donors.

A fish camp event: we were ghostbusters!!! The Detonator and The Extinguisher. I wish I had a picture of the back of these, they were amazing costumes.

A random night at Whataburger

Wine tasting :)

WE MET BRAD WOMACK!!!! Ahhhhh (Sidenote: this was before his second season began... at which point I am not longer a fan)

THIS PAST WEEKEND IN HOUSTON!!!!!!

Love you so much, Pagina!

An Ah'May'zing month!

Today, I introduce you to Pancho.

Although Shawn came up with his name in the spur of the moment, I have always considered it a perfect Mexican name… Pancho nooooooo!!! (toilet paper cat commercial, anyone? Tina if you’re reading, I know you understand).

Cathy's Cinco de Mayo birthday bar crawl

In other news: We spent Mother’s Day at my sister’s new house.

Isn’t the back yard beautiful??

We had a friendly game of volleyball in her pool…

My Dad and I against Dale and Shawn. The only problem was, we couldn’t find the net. So we played without one. If you know me at all.. or better yet, if you know my Dad at all, you know that a fair game pretty much went out the window at this point. Either one of us alone is prone to a litttttle bit of extending the truth (we would never cheat J), but together, poor Dale and Shawn didn’t stand a chance. If the ball was even remotely arguable, we argued it until we won. In all fairness, it would take some nerve to argue against your father-in-law/girlfriend’s dad. I’d like to think we didn’t take advantage of that… but let’s be honest. Therefore, Gary and I are officially the champions of the first Pumphrey’s pool game of water volleyball. Once they get a new net, our chances will go down considerably.

I know this is incredibly not like me, but I didn’t take a single picture on Mother’s Day… so here is a picture from last year’s mother’s day (or 2 ago?)!

Back row: My mom and Kara, Front row: Marcia, me and Leigh

Last night, in a spur of shameless blog self-promotion, I told these 2 crazies that I would put them in my blog- such an honor, I know:

This is my ‘big brother’ Brian who I haven’t seen in 2 years? 3? It’s been awhile…

and a flashback pic to Big Brother night:

This is my old roommate Allison Leigh Fisseler (You can call her Alf).

and another flashback pic to college:

We had drinks at an *arguably* Aladin-themed bar last night and had an Ah-mazing time! Anyone else think this looks like a genie in a bottle?

I’m 0-2 so far on that poll…. Only ‘yes’ answers need respond :)

Until next time: which is hopefully quicker than my current posting rate.. Have a great day!

Concerts and Pub Crawls

I absolutely love this time of year- the weather is gorgeous... sunny and not 10,000 degrees. With that, comes lots of fun outdoor activities!!!

A few weeks ago, I went to Austin for the LoneStar Jam! I had never been to this event before, but all you have to do is mention Eli Young Band, Roger Creager, Kevin Fowler, Kyle Park and more... and I'm there! The weather was absolutely perfect AND I got my first tan of the year (finally!). It was my friend Tracie's 30th birthday-

although I'm convinced those glasses could double as a creative Harry Potter costume (anyone else see that??)

We were sitting in the middle of a very small hill and this hot mess (I shall call her "pink")

toppled ON TOP of Shawn on her way up the hill. When I say on top, I mean that extremely literally. The poor guy didn't stand a chance. This alone was a good enough laugh to last me quite awhile.... but then, "pink" decided to come back our way (ballsy) and toppled down the hill with 2 drinks in hand, thus face planting it in the dirt. So wherever you are, "pink", thank you for the entertainment! About 5 minutes later... and after many, many fun pokes at Shawn, I got pooped on by a bird.

As my friend Cathy later said "A bird pooping on you is good luck. A fat girl falling on top of you... definitely bad luck" I can't help but think that it was maaaaybe a little bit of karma.

A few pictures from the weekend:

The girls out on Friday night!

Shawn and I at LoneStar Jam

Ashley and me

We stayed with Ashley and I am absolutely in love with where she lives! Her apartment is in the middle of the most beautiful little road full of unique restaurants and bars- all in walking distance. I wish Houston had an area like that. And, of course, it was so fun to get to see Ashley again- just a few short weeks after she came to visit me in Houston. Love you, Ash :)

In the theme of fun outdoor events, yesterday I participated in my first Crawl for Cancer! SUCH a fun day! Our team name was Grenade Free Zone- as an avid Jersey Shore fan (judge away) I was thrilled by this name.

I introduce to you, part of our team:

In the words of Miss Katie Dunn "Alright ladies, 12 hours until bars close"

We went to five different bars around Midtown (Union Bar, Pub Fiction, Little Woodrow's, Maple Leaf Pub and Hefley's). The after party was in the most sketch 18 and up bar in the middle of ghetto-Houston. There were cages on the stage for people to dance in..... needless to say, we didn't last long there. All in all, it was a fun day with friends (old and new), full of flip cup, dancing and lots of drinking games... all in the name of finding a cure for cancer! Definitely an event I plan to participate in many, many more times.

Since I've been gone...

My computer is FINALLY back! Seriously… 2 weeks without it felt like years. We have lots to catch up on.

Since I’ve been gone:

I saw a window washer! It’s the little things in life. I work about 40 floors up in a sky-scraper in downtown Houston- we don’t see these often, well, ever.. This was a very big deal for me.

I don’t think most people take pictures- the guys were hamming it up for us.

I went to the Sam Houston race track… and won! Clarification: I won 2 small bets and Shawn won 1 big one. Since I won first and shared, Shawn got to share with me (and by that I mean, he gave me the ones and he kept the big bills. Meh). There are 50 cent beer nights on Fridays- feel free to thank me later.

My parent’s neighbors got puppies! Yes, plural. Blogworld meet Spot:

adorable.

… and Emily:

I might also add that shortly after this, my sister adopted this little cutie (all siblings):

(although she won’t get her until June)

I discovered the Federal Reserve Bank (of Dallas- Houston branch) during a run along a new track… and it’s only 1 mile from my apartment! I obviously stopped to take a picture. I realize this is exciting to probably nobody else.

That's about it for now.... more to come in a bit!

#WINNING all week!

Yes, this blog's title is embarrassing... but fitting.

Considering I grew up playing about every sport imaginable, I don't quite understand why I never have and likely never will appreciate, much less enjoy, watching sports on TV. I love going to games- mostly because I love the atmosphere and I love playing sports, but I can think of few to no reasons that I will ever voluntarily choose a sporting event on TV vs. my favorite trashy TV shows (a blog for a later day).

Just about the only reasons I will watch:

1. Poor Shawn has watched 234982734987 episodes of The Kardashians, Teen Mom, The Bachelor… etc, etc. and I feel guilty that his favorite team is playing and we aren’t watching. (Let me clarify this a bit: this is only while we’re at my place.. and if you know Shawn, you know he has about 20 “favorite teams”. I can only handle so much).

2. The Aggies have a really, really big game. Despite my obvious lack of TV sports enthusiasm, my Aggie enthusiasm will at least get the TV turned on to that channel. (Whether I actually watch or not is a different story). This is limited to the A&M vs. UT game.. mostly because I’m normally at my parent’s house and it will be on TV anyways OR National Championship games. WHOOP! In case you missed your facebook feed over the last few days (or the news or whatever you do to stay in touch) the lady Aggies are National Champs in basketball!!!

3. The Superbowl. Let’s be honest here.. I would WAY rather be watching the puppy bowl, but for the sake of being social, I never miss a Superbowl game.

4. I’m dominating my March Madness pool. Yep, that’s right. I have an uncanny ability to choose March Madness brackets. Now, before I go and jinx myself for the next few years, I will admit it is pure luck. This year, I had A&M and UT in the championship game. I figure I might as well choose teams I want to win and therefore the odds I’ll be interested in watching the games will go up…. However, after about every single person I talked to told me this was about the worst final 2 guess, I changed my bracket to pick other less-likely, but more possible picks. Turns out I had the right idea. I won 1^st place in my bracket vs. Shawn (I am very proud of this) and 2^nd place in my work bracket. *pats self on back*

Considering all of this, I was surprisingly content watching 2 basketball games this week (unheard of around here). I guess I just love the Aggies and love winning that much.

Meet little Miss Annabelle

I felt this would be a good time to introduce my first baby to the blog world. About a year and a half ago, I got this little girl:

Annabelle

(Also answers to Munchkin, Annamunch, Munch, Munchers, Chunkers… you get the point).

I got her when she was a little less than a year old.

My mom and I were going through a beta fish phase where at one point, we each owned about 4. No joke.

(Going on a tangent now, feel free to skip: I don’t know why more people don’t have beta fish. They cost all of about a dollar, require little to no attention, are super pretty and playful and live in about a cup of water at a pet store were you not to adopt them. If not for just the last reason alone, you should get one right now! Go! Don’t be heartless.)

OK I’m back. So my mom and I were going to buy yet another beta fish and we saw that there were pet adoptions at Petsmart. We obviously went to go see who was there. This isn’t that abnormal for us. I don’t think there has ever been a pet adoption that I haven’t gone to check out. Somehow on the walk over, I had talked myself in to the fact that I wanted a white kitten. Well Annabelle or Gizmo as she was at the time, ick (no offense), was the closest they had. I picked her up and she looked me right in the eyes and hissed. Love. I wanted a sassy friend and she seemed perfect! However, if you know my Dad, you know that just ‘picking up a pet on a whim’ is not really his favorite idea. So, my mom and I left her at the store and went home to discuss it with him first (and my roommates- yes, roommates. I was not living at home). After a looooooong lunch full of ‘responsibility talk', my mom and I decided we had heard enough (and clearly took it all to heart J haha) and headed straight back to adopt her. I was SO excited to have my first pet.

Actually, I guess Penny (my black and white little puppy) was my first pet.

Seriously. Cutest dog ever, am I right??

But, seeing as she lives at my parents house and probably will never leave, I’m not going to completely count her.

After all the paperwork was done and we had purchased about 1 of everything Petsmart had to sell…

I just love her little pink bed :)

We brought her home to a shocked Dad (well maybe not that shocked). Look at this picture-

this is from the first night- he clearly softened up quickly J He’s a big animal lover.

Okay, now for some reasons that I love Annabelle, and you should too:

She loves shoving herself into tiny, tiny places. On a weekly basis, I’ll find her hanging out inside my purse. She weighs all of about 4 pounds and fits in everything. Also on that note, you can often find her under the bottom cabinets in my kitchen, trying to dig her way up into them?? (She has no claws… not that that’s the weird part).

She kisses a LOT. If you stick your nose in front of her face, she’ll give you a kiss. She’s a big cuddler too. She’s always laying in my lap, licking me. I might also note that being licked by a cat is about equivalent to being rubbed by sandpaper. Super fun.

To steal a Jersey Shore term (yes, I went there), Annabelle is the REAL ‘sweetest bitch you’ll ever meet’. See #2 for the ‘sweet’ part. But don’t let that cute little face fool you… if you try to brush her, cut her nails, or really do anything that isn’t her idea, she will bite you so hard and make the strangest noise. Sidenote: If you’re ever in the need for a good laugh, ask me to see her pedicure video.

She LOVES chicken, jelly and crackers. This isn’t even a joke. If I open a jelly jar, she’ll come sprinting!! I tried to feed her salmon, tuna, shrimp, you know… typical cat favorites and she was not at all interested. Now if there’s some chicken on my plate, she will try to nab it.

She is a little, miniature silk ball.

She has the MOST adorable little behind. See? No tail… well I guess technically, she has a nub… and she wags it as hard as she can, all the time

This might not be that unique- but when she gets herself all excited, she RUNS and RUNS as fast as she can and slides across the ground, then sprints back and does that back and forth until the energy burns off.

Last but not least, she has the most beautiful blue eyes.

If you couldn’t tell- getting Annabelle was about the BEST idea I’ve had. I love my little munchkin.