Car Kitty

 Stray kitty appeared out of nowhere while I was out in the backyard putting out water, and she walked around to the front yard and hopped on top of our car to hang out for a bit. It was too cute. I'm not sure if she is pregnant or not. Thoughts?

- Mrs. M

Thursday Thoughts (14)

{one} Stray kitty has been spotted around more. She is really friendly. She followed me right to the front door and sat there waiting to come in. Huxley discovered her, and tried to get out to hang with this new friend. It was pretty cute. 

{two} Kyle's birthday is Sunday! Hooray!

{three} Kyle and I tried this new (ish) place Smash Burger for lunch. It seems like a nice place and we both enjoyed the food. They put way too much ketchup and mustard on mine and it kind of fell apart and was a big mess, but it tasted good!

{four} First day of class went well. I somehow escaped never having to do an annotated bibliography in undergrad, but I have one due Tuesday. It doesn't look that bad, but I remember everyone hating doing them. Anyway, I'm still super excited for everything, so that's good. 

{five} I think my re-organizing and redecorating of my office area is pretty much complete. Here's a preview. I love my new gold skull.

{six}I'm so excited for new Arrested Development episodes. So excited.

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- Mrs. M

Orientation Days

Tuesday was my not-actual-but-kind-of first day of school! We had an orientation to the program day, today was internship orientation, tomorrow starts a week-long Intro to the Profession course, then all classes/internships begin on the 20th. I am a mega dork so I've been super excited and planning and getting ready. Both days went well! When the first day began with a prayer and the associate dean telling us about how the faculty had prayed for us, I was thinking "well crap." But another professor assured me it's really OK and my lack of religion wouldn't be a problem for me/anyone else (even though Sar has told me this a couple times, I still get nervous). We got a bunch of information in different sessions, and had a nice lunch (soup, salad, baked potato bar!). There are a handful of students from Fort Hood that I am aware of, and another military wife is also placed at my internship. I also recognized (and was recognized in return!) by a couple girls I met during preview day in February. Maybe there is hope for me afterall. :)

Both days I received nice comments on my attire and my snazzy bag, so that was cool! I'm sure jeans and a t-shirt are a-ok for class, but I've decided to take a bit more professional, though still fun, approach to dressing for grad school and work. I found that in working (social work) with kids it's good to have balance between some fun and colorful pieces that they themselves like and will comment on- opening up communication and some fun discussion about light things, and staying professional to maintain the boundary. Aside from that, it feels good to dress up during the week days. I was never one to don an all-around sweatsuit to class, but I feel my style has really developed since graduating last April, and it's fun to put together a nice, comfortable outfit. and maybe snap a picture of it before heading out :)

how about these crazy chair pods, eh? Every part of them moves. 

 morning in downtown Waco

I'm also excited to explore Waco some more. Aside from it being the home of Dr. Pepper, I'm told 90% of all Snickers and Skittles are made in Waco, and it has the second largest metropolitan park in the US (after central park in NY). I've really only seen Waco through Baylor, and I'll mostly be at the Social Work building which is in downtown Waco and less on main campus (which is still less than 5 minutes away), but I'm hoping to get to know the town a bit, possibly with some future friends and/or husband! The drive only takes about half an hour or 35 minutes, and traffic hasn't been bad these two days. There are a ton of trucks on 35 which can get annoying, but the drive has been easy and pleasant so far. It also helps that I like mornings, so getting up at 5 to work out and then get ready to leave around 7 is kind of nice for me.

-Mrs. M

Monday Movies: Moonrise Kingdom, The Dark Knight Rises, The Amazing Spider-Man

I thought I'd do a little post on the movies I've seen in theaters lately! Because they were all good and I like them and you should see them too!

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Moonrise Kingdom

I saw this with Claire and Nathalie while they were visiting for a few days around the fourth of July. Another quirky, smart, stylistic Wes Anderson movie. It was pretty cute. A little bit dark. Bruce Willis is old. Everyone is getting old. 

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The Dark Knight Rises
TDKR. Kyle and I went to see this on my birthday a couple weeks ago. We were pretty excited and even more excited after seeing the movie. It was really good. It was long, but needed the time to tell the story and develop the new characters and I'm glad it didn't rush things. It was fun seeing Pittsburgh and Heinz Field- Kyle and I have been to several games there; it would have been awesome to have been there for the open extras casting call when they shot the football scenes. I really want to see the movie again (IMAX would be amazing), but it may not happen until it comes out on dvd. Also: Tom Hardy is a beast and I may have a deep-seeded thing for Joseph Gordon Levitt. 3rd Rock From the Sun, anyone?

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The Amazing Spider-Man

We saw this this past weekend. Kyle and I both really liked this as well! I think it was cast well, and looking back, everyone was way less annoying than the Tobey Maguire trilogy actors/characters. It was definitely updated, made more sense, and I love Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone together. I'm looking forward to the sequel they set up for.

What have you seen and liked/disliked lately?

-Mrs. M

Weekly Photos

Kyle building and the finished shelves, did you know you can get a drivers license without a photo? tasty margarita at Dead Fish Grill

Olympics, finally hung up our guest stump, stuffed peppers, Huxley

all Hux. I set this hammer down on the futon and he slept all over it.

cork collecting, new pjs, D took to chewing my bags, cross-paw Hux

 apparently the more well-educated I get the larger my glasses get. rolling Army shirts, Hux

dark chocolate almond silk, cucumber water, the most delicious burrito, pinatas

 kitty was hanging out again, I always get one school logo notebook a semester, car wash, margarita #2 (made by Kyle)

BBQ, cold treats after seeing Spiderman, reorganizing desk, Hux in a small box on my lap. 

-Mrs. M

A Lunch Date

On Thursday Kyle and I had a little lunch date. I went to pick him up from the motorcycle shop as he dropped his bike off for some repairs after work, and he drove us to this Mexican place in Killeen he had been to a couple times before (it is also a little shop, butcher, bakery, all around Mexican convenience store), called Mercado Azteca. As we were driving there I asked him if it was a shady place, and he asked why I thought it might be, and I replied because we were heading towards a shady part of town (I don't know much about Killeen, but we were in the area where Kyle lived at a motel after we got married- suspected center of a prostitute/drug ring and definite roach motel. I killed several bugs on my visits. And I challenge those Febreeze commercial folks try to make those rooms smell like anything other than a chain smoker's den. I could not do it.). Aside from the bars in the windows and the gentleman with the swastika tattoo in line behind us, the place was quite fun and festive, and the food was great. I get stressed ordering food at new places where right when you enter someone is ready to take your order, so I just had what Kyle had (steak burrito), but it was really tasty. Kyle also ordered us horchata, which I had never had before and Kyle wouldn't tell me what it was ahead of time. I thought it tasted like liquid cake mix at first, but it was quite good.  I'm glad husband took me there, and that our car was still outside when we were ready to leave.

On the way home we randomly stopped at this thrift/antique shop. We didn't buy anything, and the prices seemed kind of high, but there is a lot of stuff there. Including old coke bottles with the beverage still in them. Is that a thing people in the world want? If so let me know and I'll go back and get those two six packs for you...

That burrito was really, truly delicious (and I do not usually like tortilla). I am dreaming of when I can have another.

Happy Weekend!

-Mrs. M

Olympians Are People Too, I Suspect

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I woke up this morning and hopped on to my usual social media sites- you know, getting the news of the day in the most reliable way. I'm not sure what it was about this morning's round of tweets, but something hit me that I didn't like. It wasn't my cat sling-shotting at me from across the room.

It seems like our first reaction to these world-class Olympic athletes, after excitement and genuine pride in their talent and success at representing our country, is to completely tear them apart and bring them down. I noticed since the opening ceremonies I'd really just seen two kind of tweets and comments. Those that say "Yayy, hooray! AMERICA! Phelps! Fab Five!" and those that say "Why is she always crying? Why is his face like that? What's with her hair clips? Ugh, that outfit!" 

The ones that had me baffled and frustrated the most are comments on displays of emotion. Why is that gymnast who just lost her opportunity at a gold medal, because she herself and alone messed up her routine, crying? Do you really wonder that? It seems pretty obvious to me why one might cry in that situation. And those are just the obvious, top layer reasons. Being watched by millions of people. Stress. Feeling like she let down others aside from herself- her trainers, family and her country. She's proud of how far she came. Happy she made it to the podium. An opportunity for the gold lost. She's tired. She didn't win and I'd venture to guess that she really really wanted to. Any one of these is reason enough to shed some tears at any point in this process.

And yet we criticize and critique this young girl (who is, let me remind you, AN OLYMPIC ATHLETE) for showing emotion. For crying too much. For looking like she's going to cry. For not smiling. For looking stressed. For being too stern. For not crying. For smiling. For being human and reacting like one.

We watch as we sit on the couch and critique away their humanity. Why do we do it? I guess for the same reason we obsess over and are so mean towards other celebrities. People put themselves out there for doing what they love and being really good at it (the Kardashians and Kristen Stewart excluded) and we judge them, good and bad, fair or unfair. I do it too (see above), so chill out if you were just thinking well wait a minute here missy! We critique because it's something to do. We feel- hey they're on TV they have it coming. We like to find faults in presented perfection. We just don't like them or that hairstyle or that outfit that makes them look like a futuristic hobo. We try to make ourselves feel better about our own lives (I do believe that's what "Teen Mom" is for. That and birth control.). We do it because it's funny. Maybe we do it simply to make them seem more human and less like untouchable gods and goddesses of their craft. Knock 'em down a peg and forget that we would love to leave our lives and be them for even just a day.

I guess we do it because we too are humans, and it is just one of the things humans do. It's not something new and not something that will ever come to a stop; certainly not something anyone would run a campaign around (just leave those poor, talented, rich people alone already!). It's good to hold people to high standards, as long as we remember they're still people. We all are judged, probably any time we leave our house, we just don't usually become a major trending topic on twitter. Doesn't mean we can't all try to be a little nicer, more understanding, and more forgiving of the minor faults we see in ourselves and others.

-Mrs. M