busy cleaning.

james and i cleaning right now. yes. as you can tell, i am hard at work sitting on the couch typing away while james is cleaning/straightening up/throwing out. that a boy. :]

"we" are working downstairs right now... getting the family room/mini kitchen area [i think it's called a wet bar, right?] all cleared out for his use. but "we" are almost done down here at which point, he will make me go upstairs and actually work.

oh! when we were in carson on saturday, we found the table i've been wanting to check out. they have a new pier one out there, and it's pretty big and nice. i found a lot of cool stuff in there, but i only bought the project table. i was thinking i wanted black, but then again... white seemed like a good option as well. lucky for indecisive amy, they were sold out of black, and since it was on clearance [!!!] i went with the white. and it wasn't like a target clearance [i love target, but come on... $14.99 marked down to $14.09 hardly counts as a "clearance".] it was nearly 50% off. such a lucky find. :]

that night, james' parents came back to reno with us, and we all went to dinner with my parents. it was the first time they had all met. it was fun, and now that the ice has been broken, maybe we can do more dinners and things. i'm thinking maybe james and i will have a joint graduation party here at the house, since it will be nice and clean and tidy by then. ha. :]

i have to say... james is seriously so good at moving and actually unpacking things. he only has one more box of stuff that's not unpacked. he started moving in on saturday afternoon and finished yesterday, and he's basically settled in. meanwhile, i still have boxes upstairs from when i moved out of my apartment almost 3 years ago. bad. bad. bad.

so yeah. so far, so good. the only problem is that helix is having a hard time realizing this is his new home. he feels out of his element i think, and he's been barking quite a bit at my parents and anyone else who comes in the house. i'm really hoping that it will improve within a few days.

ok. i just got the "ames... i little help please?" comment, so i guess i better go get to work. :]

a good day.

yep. it was a nice day. i actually woke up around 10am and felt ready to get out of bed. that never happens... it's always a struggle to get up, especially since it's spring break. i wish i could be more a morning person, but i have a feeling i'll always be a night owl.

since i was able to start my day at a decent hour, james and i went to lunch and a movie. we need to go to matinees more often... it's *so* much cheaper than night time movies. anyway, 21 was a great movie. i have this thing about movies that are based on true stories... i just think it makes the movies so much better. [well in most cases anyway.] i know i wouldn't have liked the bank job so much if it hadn't been based on a true story. but yeah. 21 did not disappoint me by any means. plus it had great music throughout, which is always a plus. i mean really, any movie that opens with mgmt is bound to be good, right? [i love their website... when you move the mouse it kind of draws a picture... how cool. ha.] i'll probably watch it again if some friends want to go see it. :] here's a little clip...


tonight, james and i got dressed up to have dinner with my family at montreux. i'm sad that i didn't manage to get a photo of the two of us dressed up, but that just means we'll have to do it again. i finally wore the dress that he bought me for my birthday last year. :] it's always a nice dinner up there, and tonight was no different.

when we got back home, i held a small fiskars training session. i have five more to train, and i got three done tonight. now i just have two more ladies to train on sunday night after work, and i'll have my 20. :]

tomorrow night i have to remember to do this. i recently started recycling, and i'm going to jump on the canvas shopping bag bandwagon too. it just seems like a simple way to do a good thing, right?

nail biter.

yes. i have recently become a nail biter again, which is a sign that i am anxious. i guess i have a few big things going on right now that i am indeed anxious about... numero uno probably being james moving in this weekend. :]

here's a little conversation from last night after i got home from las vegas:
me: "babe. i gained weight while i was gone."
james: "it's ok."
me: "no. seriously. like 5 pounds."
james: "well. i doubt you can even tell."
me: "well. i bet you can actually."
james: "it's ok. when i move in, i will make you go running with me."

i later realized that the only problem with that plan is that i am ridiculously out of shape. i think we're going to have to start off with a few walks and definitely some hikes. since the day we moved into this house, i've been wanting to go explore all the trails around here that go up into the mountains behind my house. i just didn't so much want to go alone [and what i mean by that is that i didn't so much *have the motivation* to go alone. ha.]

i need to go clean. i set a small goal of cleaning off the couch [again.] by tonight. so while james and his friends are moving boxes, i will hopefully make some progress. then i think i'll try going to carson with him this weekend so that i can finally visit pier one and see if they have the desk i want, which should provide more motivation for operation clean up.

oh yeah! i am so super excited for the movie 21 to come out. james and i already planned a date night to go see it. :]

p.s. it really is cold enough here to the point where i am wearing my hood. i feel like i was spoiled by the warm vegas weather the past few days. ack!

live from las vegas.

i have to say... this city is not as much fun without james or another friend.
i love my parents and i love hanging out with victoria... but now that it's night time, i've found myself using the wireless internet in the vip lounge. thank goodness my dad has this little perk, huh? but yeah. there's really no fun vegas nightlife when you don't have anyone to go out with.

i don't have much to update about. it's been a super low key trip. on monday, my mom and i spent the day over at paul's, and i became an aunt. ha. yes. i was a bit overwhelmed. victoria gets the hiccups pretty bad, and the first time i held her, she had them. i wasn't quite sure what in the world to do. i felt so bad for her... i just wanted them to go away. that night, we went out to eat at mimi's, and victoria slept the whole time. :] then my mom and i met up with my dad [who drove down here] at the hotel and had some yummy crepes.

monday, my mom and i did a little bit of shopping, but nothing too much. mostly, we just had fun finding cute girlie stuff for victoria. like this cute little dress. gotta love giraffes. we had lunch by the pool here with my dad, and it was so nice outside. i know in another few weeks it will be too hot here, but right now the weather seems so nice. we went to dinner with paul and amanda and the baby at lucille's. probably one of my most favorite places to eat. i make it a requirement every time we come to vegas. mmm. :] once again, victoria slept through the whole meal. such a doll. i'm glad she was able to enjoy lucille's as much as i did. :]

today, we went over to paul's again. since victoria has her days and nights mixed up and is quite the little sleeper during the day, my mom and i took a little trip to a scrapbook store that is about 2 miles from where my brother lives. they had all of the new heidi grace, could nine, and kimberly poloson stuff. i mean all of it. it was so cool to see. the stores in reno pick and choose what they bring in, so it's rare to see *all* of the papers and *all* of the embellishments together.
i couldn't resist getting some of the chipboards and stickers to go with the papers that i found in reno. :] i probably would have picked up more paper, but i was worried about that surviving the trip home. i just might have to break down and place an order online.

tonight, we all went to eat at this place called sweet tomatoes. it's like a big soup & salad bar... my dad loves places like that. once again, victoria was a doll during dinner. she was stirring a little bit, but never woke up entirely. she's just so stinking cute. i can stare at her forever. makes it kind of hard to want to eat my dinner. ha. :]

yep. so that's about it so far.
my room has a nice view of the fountains [i took this photo before i came down to the lounge], so i think i'll head back up there and watch the last couple shows of the night. plus, there are these guys sitting in here talking really loudly about politics. ha. i've had about all i can handle. i like a good discussion about politics, but these guys are a little out of control and acting way too know-it-all and macho. it was funny for a while, but i'm over it now.

i hope everyone is having a good week. :]

sewing, scrapbooking, and science.

well. my sewing venture didn't work out so well today. the teacher got sick about 15 minutes into the class, but i was able to figure a few things out on my own... like winding the bobbin and threading the machine, etc. it's really not that hard, i just needed something [like a class] to make me get started. now i just need to practice. :]

when i got done way way early at the sewing store, i decided to check out the scrapbook cottage to see if they had anything new. i was just about to leave when i found a rack that had somehow been hiding from me with lots of new heidi grace papers. i was so excited to see them. they are still sitting in the bag, but i think when i'm finished writing this i'm going to try my luck again tonight with my creativity. i have the new love, elsie stuff and some sassafrass lass stuff just waiting to be played with as well. so hopefully i will find some good photos to play with tonight. i'm super tired, so i'm not sure that anything will come of my efforts, but we'll see. :]

[eta: here's what i came up with. when i saw this paper i knew that i wanted to cut it like this... of course, it didn't turn out quite like it looked in my mind, which was more clustered towards the center instead of all the way to the edges. i think that's because i randomly decided to go 8.5x11 instead of 12x12. i also couldn't decide on a good alphabet for the title, but i think this one works. yes. my most overused alphabet, but i can't help it. ha. for now, i'm calling this one done, but you never really know... it could get a little more work once i get back. i also have to add that while i was writing this journaling, i realized this is a bad time to not be scrapbooking. i am missing out on documenting a lot of my feelings about graduation and all the other crazy big changes that are going on right now. i guess that's why it's a good thing i have this blog, huh?]

i told my professor that i could finish up my big gene expression study before spring break because he was hoping to use my data in his presentation at a conference that he is attending. my work was hopefully going to give some clues into how bark beetle pheromone production arose. [we hypothesize that it was the result of the need to detoxify all the nasty stuff the beetles ingest living in trees.] well. our -80 freezer quit working this week, so everything in there had to be randomly placed into other labs' freezers if they had room. needless to say, it was a real adventure going to various labs and various freezers in the "freezer farm" trying to find all my stuff. but i got it done! i was seriously so stressed out and then instantly so happy when i took my real time pcr plates to be run. unfortunately, we didn't really find what we were looking for, so it put a little damper on the excitement of getting it finished. we were hoping that environmental myrcene would upregulate expression of one of the P450s in the pathway we study, but there was no difference in expression levels between the myrcene and control environments. that's research for you though. things are never as simple as they seem... i know all about the principle of parsimony, but it just never seems to be all that simple.


anyway. thursday night i judged the science fair again. i can't believe it's been 5 years. seriously... it's just crazy to me. this year, my professor from lab, liz, and deepa all joined in a judged too. i think they all had fun. we had a couple of fairly decent projects this year for the high school division, so that was exciting to see. one of the teams that i really rooted for two years ago that ended up going to ISEF came back this year with a pretty cool project about nitrogen fixation in snap beans. they ended up being the top team again, so they are heading to isef in atlanta. pretty awesome.

well. less than 10 hours now until i get to meet baby victoria! eek. i have a feeling i'm not going to want to leave vegas once i see her. but when i get back from vegas, my sister will be here visiting... so that will be nice too. it's not really the spring break that i imagined, but it's going to be a great week.

happy easter everyone!

finally.

yes. if you can read backwards, it does indeed say "sew fun" on the cover of that 3 inch notebook.


tomorrow i'm going to learn how to use my sewing machine. :]
i had to print out the 198 page "guide book" and prepare a notebook for it.
and really... some printed out cover page just didn't seem right.
so at 2:30 in the morning i snipped the corner off two of the fabrics i couldn't pass by several months ago [but are still sitting on the floor by my scrap desk], cut out a little hambly, grabbed some ribbon... and... i finally made something creative for the first time in way way way too long.

i realize it's not the most advanced scrappy project on the planet, but i had fun creating it & it makes me happy. that's bascially all that matters. :]

i should be back tomorrow with a better update. when i got home tonight, someone had egged my mom's car in the driveway, so somehow in my half asleep state of mind, i went out and scrubbed it off. grr. plus i had an insane week of lab work. all in all, i'm just too tired to type much more, but i wanted to share this because i'm pretty excited that i finally made something just for fun.

goodnight. :]

hello.

my name is amy, and i do believe that i am addicted to checking my email.
yes.
sometimes i motivate myself to get out of bed by thinking "if you just get up already then you can go check your email".
it is also probably one of my favorite procrastination techniques. because even if there aren't any new messages, there are always messages in the inbox that need to be sorted into various folders.

obviously, i am well aware that the iPhone would be mean big trouble for me. i don't own one & it's probably a good thing because i've already found myself wasting time on mike's iPhone. yes! it's that bad. at breakfast the other day... "hey mike, i need to check my email, can i use your iPhone?" ha. i don't know what i'll do when the second generation comes out because i've been using that as my excuse not to go ahead and get one.

but email really isn't something that you can limit, is it? i mean... it just wouldn't be right to set some type of rule like "you can only check your email 3x a day." seriously... it just wouldn't be right.

bottom line: i need my email. i don't really know what to do about it. ha. maybe i should leave my computer at home when i go to vegas. [which, by the way, i am so super excited about.]

ok. i'm going to eat a mochi and get to work on all my homework. eek.

p.s. happy birthday to james today! we didn't do anything to celebrate, but i think maybe this weekend after our crazy busy week of school is over. :]

p.s.s. i know every one has heard this song, but it's too pretty not to post. plus. the way she paints on the photos is pretty amazing. inspiring, no?

a big move.

well. after some debate, it's been approved that james and helix will be moving into my sister's room at the end of the month. his lease is up at his apartment and we graduate in less than 2 months at that point, so he was stressing about having to sign another lease since he doesn't know how long he'll be in reno after graduation. in addition, i've been complaining almost daily about how i hate living alone in this big house. i get so scared when i am here alone. and my fears have really been on the rise lately since they haven't caught the murder of brianna. i get scared to walk downstairs every single night. i have to walk past some windows, and i can feel my heart racing every time. i literally run into my room and lock the door. [as if the door locks are so hard to pop open, but still.] so i'm pretty excited to have a roomie. ha.

james came over for dinner tonight and when we went to scope out my sister's room, he was talking about cleaning up the downstairs living room... he actually asked me if it would be ok to clean things up. ha. i told him that's one of the advantages to having him around more... he needs to keep me on track with my cleaning and just make me keep things straightened up. i'm also hoping he will help me complete the upstairs living room to craft area renovation. seriously. i really admire his ability to keep things neat. i'm such a messy person [although i love organizational items] and i hate it.

the other bonus... his cooking! seriously. that needs to rub off on me too. i was so happy about getting two cookbooks for christmas, but neither one of them has been opened. now that there will generally be at least two people for dinner every night, the cooking at home should be on the rise. :] i'm excited for my mom to get to try his cooking too. ha.

when we asked my dad, we sort of neglected to bring up the helix factor. my parents are so NOT into having a pet [other than a fish] in the house. finally today, i think my dad must have been talking to my mom when they realized that helix would be coming along too because i got a call from my dad saying "so. what about helix?" ha. but he stays in his kennel when we are not around to keep an eye on him, so really it won't be that bad. plus, i'm excited that helix will have a yard to run around in again. i don't think he's a fan of apartment living because he has to be on his leash outside. and. he will definitely let me know if anyone is going to bust through those windows that i am so afraid to walk past because he's a pretty good watchdog.

so basically, i'm pretty excited about all the changes that will happen at the end of march. not only do i get to meet my niece, but i don't have to live alone anymore! i'm a happy girl. :]

i'll close with a conversation from tonight...
me: hey. do you like the sweater that i'm wearing?
james: yeah. is it new?
me: no. but do you really like it?
james: yeah. it looks like you.
me: really? my grandma gave it to me for christmas.
james: yeah. i bet your grandma would wear that sweater too.
me: well. yeah. i think she did a good job.

[he likes to point out that i dress like a grandma. ha. gotta love it. i set him up perfectly for that one.]

sushi, scrapbooking, volunteer work, vegas, & victoria grace.

let's see. my exams on thursday were horrid. after organic spectroscopy, liz and i went up to the lab & i actually started crying because i was so mad at my professor. there's really nothing worse than a professor calling his students stupid, is there? i talked to dr. tittiger and sharon in my lab about the whole ordeal and the exam, and they really helped me put things in perspective and feel a bit better.
plus that evening, james, deepa, eleni, ryan, and i went and volunteered at the local food bank. it was actually a lot of fun, and it just felt nice. the perfect way to fix a bad day, really. we are definitely going to do that again soon. they also have a mobile food pantry program, where you go out to the low income communities and pass out the food. i think that would be a lot of fun too.


last night, some of the biochemers when to sushi. now. we all know that i don't eat sushi, but i do love mochi, cucumber salad, & rice. so i don't mind the sushi nights. it's always fun to have these dinners, but they are kind of sad too. pretty soon everyone will disperse across the country and the sushi nights, breakfasts at peg's, and lunches at newman's won't really be possible anymore. i guess we have to fit in as many as we can right now, huh.
we ended up watching the unr game at the sushi place. unfortunately, it didn't turn out in unr's favor, but for a while it was a pretty exciting game to watch.


tonight, angela and i headed out to carson city to the scrapbook store there and held a fiskars training event. we had 8 ladies, which turned out to be a nice group. two of them were ladies i know from reno who teach scrapbooking classes. i was so glad that they were able to make it down to carson. :] the only problem was that on the drive back to reno, we ended up in a total white out blizzard through washoe valley. angela kept telling me that she was so glad that i was driving. ha. i usually don't get too bothered by conditions like that since one of my first trips to san francisco included driving home in fog so thick that i couldn't see more than about a foot in front of me. i learned quickly that you just have to keep track of that yellow line on the inside of the road and you can tell when the road is curving, etc. tonight the yellow line got covered from the snow after a bit, but i still managed. when i got home though, i noticed that my back is quite tense. i guess i just don't realize how tense i get.




oh. and i've booked my flight for vegas, so i finally get to meet baby victoria. i'm going with my parents for the first part of spring break. james isn't going with us this time. i think he wants to stay home and snowboard. haha. i don't really know what i'll do with no one to hang out with in the evening, but i'm sure i can make do. maybe a little more shopping time or something. ha. :] so here are a few more photos. the one with my brother is from the hospital, and the others are from when my parents visited last weekend. :]

alright. i'm still not quite over being sick, so it's time to get some sleep. i hope everyone is having a great weekend! :]

haha.

i'm not really sure what it is, but i totally love this song.
it's *definitely* not my usual style, but i can't help it. it's catchy.


ok. i'm exhausted. off to bed. hopefully i can catch 4 hours of sleep before it's time to wake up and finish studying. ack.

no more stress. [at least from school.]

photo
=
me
+
my
unofficial
transcript
+
thumbs up. :]

i think i've mentioned that i have two exams tomorrow. evolution and organic spectroscopy. one hour apart, by the way.
well, my procrastination technique of the day was calculating my potential cumulative gpa based on different grade scenarios for this semester.
AND.
I AM SO EXCITED.
[apologies for the caps. but i'm seriously ecstatic.]
i've been stressing out big time this semester because organic spectroscopy was fun for a while, but now it's just ridiculously, impossibly hard. AND i have to keep above a 3.5 cumulative gpa in order to get my latin honors distinction at graduation. this wouldn't be such a big deal to me, except that i am the *only* one in my graduating class in biochem that will fulfill the requirements for latin distinction. plus, i'm still a bit of an overachiever, so it's just important to me... not that it will ever really matter because i don't want to go to med school or anything like that. it's just something i want for myself.
anyway.
i have been seriously seriously stressing about falling below the 3.5 mark because of organic spectroscopy. i'm at 3.6 right now, and upon looking into my potential gpa outcomes, i feel silly for even worrying. i have so many credits by now that it's not possible for one class to do *that* much damage. in the worst case scenario, which is a C in organic spectroscopy, a B in molecular biophys, and a B in evolution, i will still have a 3.54. so i'm doing the happy dance. i'm fairly certain that i'll get an A in evolution and hopefully a B in organic spectroscopy, but knowing that the pressure is truly off really helps. :] maybe now i can get a little more sleep, stress a little less, and not be sick so much! [and scrapbook a little more too!]

the funny thing is that with the pressure released, i'm feeling really motivated now. i'm not sure how that happened, but it's just refreshing to not have so much pressure anymore. and who knows... maybe i can even get an A in molecular biophys.

more on the small things.

totally loving the small things lately. here is the latest...

today, james sent me an email with a paper attached for me to proofread.

first of all, my mom used to proofread all my papers for me. now i have "graduated" to proofreader. it's a funny feeling of growing up.

but anyway.
the message accompanying the attachment was:
it's crap. make it good.
thanks babe.
i love you.

and that marks one of the first emails that he's written to me. seriously. we are not into emailing really. normally there is no message with the attachment, so i didn't even notice it when i opened the email to download the paper. but i was just going through my inbox, and it caught my eye, and now i am happy and smiling.

so.
even though i am sick and still not sleeping well, perhaps tonight will be better. :]

baby victoria.

i may have mentioned that i haven't signed in to myspace since 12/31/07. i forgot about it for a while after we got home from our new years trip, and once i remembered... it just became fun to not sign in and take a nice break from the myspace world.
well.
i talked to paul and amanda today and found out there were some photos of the baby on paul's profile. so i decided it would be well worth signing in to see them.


she's pretty cute, huh?

i can't wait to meet her in a few weeks.

i still need to finalize my plans for spring break, but i know that i will go to vegas at least for a few days. my sister is coming home for a few days as well, so i'm excited to see her. i just hope i am healthy by then!

anyway. i am going to try to get some sleep now. i'm getting more and more sick, which is not good. i haven't slept very well for the past two nights because my ears and throat hurt so bad, even with motrin. i don't expect tonight to be much better because i think i only got worse today... but i am pretty exhausted, so hopefully i can get a few hours.

i hope everyone is enjoying the weekend. :]

p.s. james and i watched the darjeeling limited today while we ate lunch, and i am really wanting to make an orange and teal quilt now. along with a fun quilt for the baby. but first... i need to make some progress on operation clean up.

keep your head up.

a reminder to myself.
i feel like i was kicked while i was down today.
i went to the health center this morning, and i may be getting strep throat along with my ear infections. i'm taking some antibiotics now, so hopefully it won't get too bad. i really just don't want to be sick anymore!

funny thing... i once sent a text message to garrett telling him that i was sick and didn't want to be. he wrote back saying something along the lines of "no one does, dork." ha. right to the point i suppose.

anyhow. from being sick to getting a bit of unexpected news, it was not a good day.
so i decided to change it. :]
liz, erin, and i went to see my friend josh play a show tonight. i'm sitting here with even more pain in my ears now from the hours of live music tonight, but i really had fun and even forgot i was sick for a short time. i'm so glad that i decided to go. it really did make a good end to a not so good day.

off to bed now. it's going to be a long weekend of studying.

p.s. i've been trying to update my daily photos, but the photo uploader just will not work with me. i'll have to keep trying, but i'll let you know when i am able to get the uploaded.

progress.

i started a clean up mission, and i'm proud to say that yesterday i cleaned out my car.
today when i opened the back door to put my bag inside, i was so happy by the clean floors and clear seats. seriously. i was a bit caught off guard and it so made me smile. no more messy papers, water bottles, or random jackets cluttering things up. and i have a whole bag of plastic bottles to take to the recycling center... yeah. it was bad. but it only took about 45 minutes to clear things up.

the thing is... i when i was talking to james on my way home from school, i said i had planned to clean out my car that day. well. i got home and started checking email... getting a snack... and generally wasting time. james came over for dinner and we went to get a coffee afterwards and when we got back to my house and he was leaving he said, "go clean your car." i was busted. ha. but it actually made me get to work on cleaning. so it's true. being held accountable really helps you stick to your goals. i think i need to fill him in on my cleaning plans more often. :]

so now... my next project is to clear off the couch. and i want to start doing at least one load of laundry a week.

aside from being held accountable, i also want to make a little reward system for myself. i stopped into the coach store today, and i have my eye on a little [ok perhaps big.] something. so. when i complete my goal of [finally] getting the front room cleaned out and made into my craft room, i think i'll treat myself. and maybe a few smaller rewards [movie nights, perhaps?] as i accomplish the smaller steps, like cleaning off the couch or clearing out my closet.

ok. that's about all. time to study now. my parents are in vegas, and my mom called to day that baby victoria is adorable. i am highly jealous. i can't wait to meet her. :]

goodnight all.

welcome baby victoria.

yes. it's a girl.
i believe she was born just after noon, weighing 8 pounds and 5 ounces, & measuring 20 inches.
i'll try to post a photo when i get one.

my parents are going down on thursday to meet her, and i'm super jealous. i really wish i could go along with them.

ok. well it was a ridiculously long day, and i am super tired. off to bed i go with a smile on my face. :]

the little one is coming.

i just got the news!
my sister-in-law has been having contractions since 12:30 last night & things are progressing fairly well.
so so so excited... i don't even know what to say. :]

the small things.

well. today started off a little rough. i got my exam back. i came out with a B, but i'm not really happy with my grade. ah well. hopefully the next exam will go a little more smoothly.

the day soon got much better though. i hung out all day with may and angela doing store visits for the fiskateers. it was so fun. i love talking with those girls. it was just so refreshing to spend a day realizing that there is more to life than school.

i got a copy of may's book today. it's really pretty inspiring. i guess my blog banner is the first real digital work that i've managed to figure out, and i did that with powerpoint. but this book has pretty straightforward instructions about how to do different things to add digital elements to your layouts. i don't plan to ever go totally digital with my scrapbooking, but it would be fun to maybe add a few elements and do a little hybrid scrapbooking. :]


so one of the stores we visited was the scrapbook store in carson city. i had never been there, but everyone always says fabulous things about it, so i was excited. the owner was super friendly, and i love her style. she does a lot of altered books and little projects like that. i think i might have to try taking a class from her one day soon. anyway. she had the best stamps ever in her store. this company has the cutest little penguin stamps i've ever seen. seriously so so so cute. may and i went crazy. we decided that we definitely need to have a penguin party sometime soon so we can share our new penguin stamps. [i came home with the pirate penguin. no plans to actually use the little guy, but he will be so cute on my desk... making me happy every time i'm sitting there.]

anyway. today turned out to be such a good day. finding joy in the small things from a stop at the good old chocolate nugget on the way back from carson, to a cute little stamp, to great conversations with friends. it's hard to want to go to sleep because i really don't want this day to be over.

is anyone else scared of infinity?

like the ocean. oh my goodness. if you know me, you know i love the ocean... but it's infinite appearance is pretty scary to my mind.

so the other day, my dad mentioned that he watched the show about the end of the world on the history channel. i had seen it advertised, but knew it was bound to freak me out, so i didn't watch it.

until tonight. and now there is no way i can fall asleep. seriously.
i was doing some research so i could post for my evolution discussion, and i came across the video here. i knew what it was and thought i could handle it after hearing my dad talk about it. so i watched. it's really very interesting, but i hate the unsettling feeling that the closer leaves in my stomach. basically there is no hope. one day the universe will just be gone. ack.

still. i'm glad i watched it. lots of cool science talk going on. and it actually made me not loathe physics quite so much. ha. i just wish i wouldn't have watched it before i need to go to bed. ah well.

i think i'm going to go browse etsy for cute things to help ease my mind.
like this.
and this.
or this.
off i go.
goodnight.

it's cool to love your family.

so i thought maybe this would be a good video for this post.


this month brings the new baby. eek. super excited. i really don't have a strong feeling about boy or girl. i used to think it was one or the other, but i have no idea right now. i'm just excited for the next chance i'll have to go to vegas, so i can meet my little niece or nephew. :]

i'm also excited to find out if it's a boy or a girl so i can make it a little baby blanket or quilt and start thinking about scrapbook pages. heidi grace has a new baby line coming out sometime in the next few months. i can't find a peak online, but i think it is super cute. i also love the ki baby collections. i nearly bought them last night when i was at the scrapbook cottage, but i made myself wait until i can specifically buy boy or girl. elsie needs to come out with a baby collection. can you even imagine how stinking cute it would be!

yeah. i stopped by my other favorite scrapbook store last night to catch up with everyone there. such sweet ladies. and the owner's daughter is just a few years younger than me, so she convinces her mom to get all of the elsie stuff and cool products that most other stores don't get... i definitely had some fun there. :]

james and i started march off with a movie. i convinced him that we should see penelope. it was cute, and even james said it wasn't too bad. :] the overall message was really nice too. i especially loved james mcavoy's apartment in the movie. it was like a really old building and all the walls were stone. it was so cool. i whispered to james during one scene that i loved the apartment, and he said he liked it too. ha. i guess i have this silly dream of us living in an apartment like that in new york. probably never going to happen, but that's why they are called dreams, right?

anyway. i guess i better get to some homework. we had all kinds of special deals at the store today, and it was non-stop customers. i didn't get a break, so i finally had to call my mom around 3:00 and ask her to bring me lunch. to top it off, the last customer was complaining that a special that starts on monday didn't start today. ok. the papers were 50% off! and she wanted another discount! ridic. so i am really glad that work is over today. i just want to turn on the tv and watch a movie or something, but i know i should do homework. i have an exam on thursday and i really want to do well on it. off i go.

i hope everyone was able to enjoy the weekend!

p.s. it's national craft month this month. hopefully, i will have time to make some crafty goodness. :]