New Look

It's been a crazy week so far for me! My spring classes just ended (as in, I just turned in my take-home final about 2 minutes ago) and Adam bought be a new lens for my camera as a present for finishing. The lens is pretty amazing, and takes some great close-up shots, some of which are displayed below. Hopefully this summer I will have the opportunity to take a photography class at a camera shop right around the corner. I wish I could say things are slowing down for the next few months, but my online course already started and I have some big things going on at work.

The blog also got a new look, thanks to Adam. He is my personal web-designer, even if he doesn't always take my opinion on how things should look.

The Graduate

This weekend Adam and I went up to Penn State for his sister, Cara's graduation. It was fun to see everyone and celebrate such an important event in her life! The whole day was really nice, and we ended up going out with her downtown after all of the festivities.

I can't believe that when Adam and I first met, Cara was just venturing off to Penn State and now she is done!

Mother's Day

My family has many things to celebrate this Mother's Day. I invited everyone over to our place for a yummy Mother's Day brunch including my creation from yesterday, orange cupcakes with orange butter cream frosting and candied orange slices:


I also added a bit of color to our porch yesterday. Hopefully I can keep these flowers alive!


Sadly, my sister Sally and brother-in-law Andrew couldn't make it over for lunch, but I suppose they have a pretty good excuse:
Happy Mother's Day!

Jacob Andrew Birmingham

I just returned from visiting my sister Sally and new nephew Jacob in the hospital. I know I am a bit bias, but he is the sweetest, most adorable baby ever! I got to hold him for about an hour while he slept (I figured I would get my time in now before people are fighting over him). Sally was doing pretty well, but was very tired. It is so nice to know that this amazing little person will be in our family forever, I love him so much already.

La Cucaracha

How fitting that I have this to post on Cinco de Mayo! Today, I walked into the bathroom at work and this is what I saw (I know the picture is REALLY grainy, but I imagine you can still see the largest cock roach ever):

Now, I am extremely afraid to go to the bathroom in this building.

The whole situation reminded me of the time my family lived in this little rental house in Arkansas while our other house was being built. The place was full of roaches and when you opened the silverware drawer in the morning, they would all scatter away. Once, one ended up in my sister's shoe and she screamed bloody murder until we got rid of it. Just one of many hilarious childhood moments.

Bathing in Champagne

Today I was browsing Facebook when I saw an ad for a resort in the Poconos. The ad looked so crazy that I had to go to the website to see for myself. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw a picture of an 8-foot-tall champagne class that doubles as a whirlpool bathtub.

At first I thought it was kinda cool, but then once I saw all of the pictures that looked like the people in there were in for quite the romantic night (*wink, wink*) it made me consider that all I would be thinking about as I slept on the big, round, king sized bed is all of the people who had slept there before me and what they had done (and if I would come home with any mysterious diseases).

I don't think I would get much sleep.

Four Years Ago

Four years ago today, I walked into a disgusting frat house with my best friend in a blue shiny toga made from fabric bought at Wal-Mart to celebrate the end of Greek Week. Over in the corner of the basement was the fraternity president, wearing a gold toga and playing beer pong. He was the same guy who had played the guitar and sung one of my favorite songs at the Greek God competition the night before (I am a sucker for guys who can sing and play the guitar). We started talking and discovered we grew up only a few miles away from each other and had some similar friends. Even though he was the cool and cocky Phi Sigma Kappa president, I could also see a sweet side.

We hung out for the rest of the night and he even convinced me to do my first beer bong (oh so romantic). At the end of the evening, he was my knight in shining armor when he rescued my North Face fleece from where it was wedged under two extremely intoxicated people who were in quite the compromising position on the nasty basement couch (one of these people eventually sold Adam and I our wedding bands).

Since then, we have talked everyday and he has become my boyfriend, my best friend, my fiancé and now my husband.

Thank goodness for Greek Week toga parties!

Early Morning Surprise

This morning I woke up, got ready, drove to metro, caught the 6:05 train and headed into Baltimore for work just like every other weekday. When I got off the train, I met up with one of my coworkers and we began the walk from the metro station to the federal building.

As we were walking, I noticed a huge rat peeking his head out from underneath a trash can in the plaza in front of the building. Even though rats are all over in the landscaping that surrounds the plaza, it still churns my stomach when I see one early in the morning (or any time of day).

We started walking up the steps when all of the sudden my coworker lets out the most blood-curdling scream I have ever heard. Seriously, I thought she had been shot or something (which could happen in Baltimore). All of the still-half-asleep federal workers turned around to stare at us.

The rat had literally followed us across the plaza and was following us up the steps! The scream, however, must have scared the poop out of the thing…it even made him drop his coveted day-old MacDonald’s french fry and run for cover.

What a way to start the day!

Accepted

A few months ago, after I found out that I would not be able to finish my master's degree as planned at UMBC because of class scheduling conflicts, I started looking into other schools that might fit the bill. After looking for a while, I learned that Penn State was offering an online MPA program. Adam and I have been thinking about whether or not we want to settle down in Baltimore, and we decided that it might be nice to have the flexibility to go somewhere else if the opportunity arose. Going to school full-time in Baltimore would hold us here for another 2 years, not necessarily something that we are interested in at this point in time, especially considering that his job offers the flexibility to work from home.

So, I applied to Penn State and I got in! I can start taking classes this summer toward my MPA. I haven't fully decided whether it's the right thing for me to do or not (there are still some kinks to work out), but it's nice to have the option!

A weekend at the bay makes sickness go away

Last week was a rough one for me, I was sick for most of it with infections in both ears, a high fever and a sinus infection. I also called in sick to work for 2 days, which rarely happens because I HATE calling in sick and feeling like a slacker.

I was starting to feel better by Thursday, so we decided to head down to the Cianfichi bay house in Rehoboth Beach, DE. We got there Friday night and had some Grottos pizza followed by a good night's sleep. Even though it was too cold to go to the pool or to the beach, it's amazing how nice it feels to be in a place with no cable, no Internet and bad cell phone reception. I was able to lounge around and read my new book (I actually got to read for fun) and take walks in the sunshine.

We just got back an hour ago and now I have to get geared up for another work week and a crazy 5 final weeks of classes. Sometimes I wish I could just live at the beach permanently (and I think Tobey does too)!