Bangable Blog Babe....

So I'm minding my own business getting ready to post to my blog when I notice that in the live feed I see that people are arriving to my blog via: bangableblogbabes.blogspot.com

"Hmm..." I say to myself and decide to check it out. I'm scrolling through the page when I SEE MY FACE on June's Top 5 Bangable Blog Babes! I'm not sure if I should be stoked that I'm #2 or if I should be disgusted (leaning more toward the stoked if you care to know).

Here's what the post said:

Char-Marie : She's graduating with her degree in teaching this year, but I'd like to hire her as my personal sex education tutor.

The most hilarious thing of all is that I am in no way Smooth or Sexy. Anyone who knows me knows that I am the most uncoordinated, ungraceful girl, but you can bet that the next time I'm out and some random girl is hitting on my husband I'm going to lean over and say, "Move over bitch, I'm June's #2!"

Here comes the sun....

Spring break has officially come to an end. Tomorrow I have to go back to work, and it's bittersweet. I know that going back to work means we're closer to warm weather, but I also know that I'll be there all summer long when I could be out in the nice weather. BLAH. I'm looking forward to interview time again when I can maybe find an elementary job. I would be SO SO happy working with older kids again. I love my preschool kids, but I like to actually teach. I like talking about history, science....even math is fun. I miss all that so much. I miss having my own room to do my own thing in, and not having to wait to see what the other lead teacher will do. I'm in a funk.

I'm ready for the sun.

Fashion Accessories

The other night I had a dream that I was pregnant, and this isn't so weird except that when you had your baby it came with a designer hand bag. Immediately I began thinking that I hope my bag doesn't end up with lots of zippers and buckles...Ouch.

I've been trying to figure out what would prompt me to have such an odd dream. Colby and I have thought about starting a family lately, does this mean I'm still too selfish to take on such a responsibility? Either way this is the bag that I envisioned...

A Marc Jacobs "Woman's Classic Angela Hobo"
I love this bag, too bad it didn't also come with a nice pair of Christian Louboutin Heels....

Spring Break 2009

Dear Readers,

This week is spring break for Washington State University and for the preschool I work at, so Colby and I went on a much needed vacation to the Oregon Coast. Amazing. Let's break this down. We drove from Pullman, WA - long drive, but beautiful.

We arrived in Newport, OR around 5:30 p.m and the view from our room was SO gorgeous, we had a 180 degree view of the ocean from our room. We went to sleep to the sound of the ocean and woke up to the sound of the seagulls. When we woke up we went to Yaquina lighthouse and went all the way to the top to look out over the ocean. Then we made our way down to the beach to visit the tide pools and it was amazing! We were able to touch starfish and sea anemones and stood about 50 feet from sea lions. Then we made our way down to the Oregon State Aquarium where I got to pet sharks and sting rays- A huge deal for me because if you weren't aware, I'm extremely afraid of fish...fish with teeth to be more exact.

We had a fantastic time! If you haven't been to the Oregon coast definitely GO!

A Lovely Meme...

What are your middle names?
My middle name is non-existent, as in I have no middle name. Colby's middle name is Colby... He goes by his middle name.

How long have you been together?
We've been married almost 2 years and before that we were together 6 years.

How long did you know each other before you started dating?
We met via a friend... We talked to each other for about 5 months before we started dating.

Who asked whom out?
I guess I asked him... or maybe it was a mutual thing?

How old are each of you?
I am 25 and Colby is 24.. but not for much longer. We have a small window when we're the same age. :) As of now he's sleeping with an older woman.

Whose siblings do you see the most?
We don't see either of them at the moment with us living all the way out in Washington and our families back in the Midwest. Colby's brother Jacob lives in Missouri and my sister Stori lives in Kentucky with her husband and two babies. When we lived back home we saw Colby's brother more often because he was closer.

Which situation is the hardest on you as a couple?
I think being away from home has been a hard thing to deal with as a couple. I'm not in a job that I find fantastic right now, so I'm missing home more than I thought and I miss the things we were able to do at home. It gets lonely out here in Washington when we each have a busy load. I also tend to keep things bottled in, and Colby always seems to have to drag things out of me. I am working on that. I'll always be working on that.

Did you go to the same school?
We didn't go to high school together, but we did go to Missouri State University together. We graduated in 2007.

Are you from the same home town?
No. Colby is from a small town south of Kansas City - Butler, Mo and I'm from a small town in Southwest Missouri called, Aurora. Apparently people from Southwest Missouri have an accent, or so my mother-in-law says.. :)

Who is smarter?
Colby is far smarter than I am. He is able to retain all this information- anything he reads, watches on T.V. or hears he is able to regurgitate when the time's right. I have my moments, but I tend to work twice as hard at it.

Who is the most sensitive?
Ahem. Next question.

Where do you eat out most as a couple?
There aren't a lot of places here in Pullman, WA to pick from, but we have a little restaurant in Moscow, ID that we enjoy called, The Red Door. It's fantastic and always a great date night.

Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple?
Barbados

Who has the craziest exes?
Wow. We've both had the exes....I don't know that I would call any of mine crazy, "different" maybe, but not crazy. Colby has had some winners too though....and he wins this one. Drama QUEENS!

Who has the worst temper?

I think we both are pretty level headed when it comes to this one, but.... I'm going to go ahead and raise my hand on this one. It depends on the day, but if it's not going particularly well I have a short fuse. It doesn't last very long, but they're not pleasant. You want to be on my good side, we'll leave it at that. Especially if you're the guy that just cut me off in traffic.

Who does the cooking?
Colby is the cook in this relationship, although I have my very small pool of recipes that I pull from. He's always trying new things and adding in secret ingredients. I love love love that I have a husband who likes to get his hands dirty in the kitchen!

Who is the neat-freak?
Neither one of us are neat-freaks. This is not a good thing. We will do things like leave the vacuum in the middle of the staircase and walk around it for like a week before we really notice we're struggling to get past the damn thing. Then we'll put it away ..... the next week. We are, however, a great cleaning team when we put our minds to it. I think we're just so busy and we've moved so many times that it's not a big deal anymore if the spatula is in the drawer where it belongs, or sitting on the staircase with the vacuum.

Who is more stubborn?
Colby. Enough said.

Who hogs the bed?
Me, but not on purpose. I still maintain that I'm just warming up his side of the bed. I'm a flailer.

Who wakes up earlier?
It depends on the day. If Colby is going to the gym then he's up at 5:30. If he isn't then at 8:00 I'm at the bottom of the stairs yelling, "I'll see you at 6! Are you still in bed?! GET UP! Ok, I'm leaving.....coooooooooooolbbbby wake up.... Ok bye... See you tonight? I love you? Hello?" until he comes downstairs and tells me to have a good day.

Where was your first date?
The James River Grill in Springfield.

Who is more jealous?
This information is protected by the therapist-client privilege.

How long did it take to get serious?

It was always serious, I knew I would be with him forever.

Who eats more?
I think I eat more often, but Colby is always finishing the things on my plate. Does that make us even?

Who does the laundry?
We both do when we think of it. Again with the neat-freak thing.

Who's better with the computer?
Hands down that would be Colby. He can build a computer blindfolded with one hand tied behind his back... It makes me so hot.

Who drives when you are together?
Colby when he has his glasses on. I drive everyday to work and he walks, so when we're together I let him have a turn. I like to put my feet on the dashboard. Dangerous I know, but I like to live on the wild side.

Feel free to answer some or all of the same questions about your significant other in the comments, or leave a link to your website if you prefer answering there.

In need of inspiration.

I've been thinking a lot lately about downgrading the apartment and moving to a smaller place. Mainly to save some cash, but I really am in need of purging myself of some of the things I've been carrying around with me from place to place. Colby and I have accumulated so much stuff. Mainly things that people wanted to get rid of themselves so they "gave" to us to help us out, but now we are so cluttered.

It seems like we every time we move I start going through things and get rid of A LOT of junk, but we always end up dragging with us things that we haven't unpacked from two moves ago.
I'm really going to do some major overhauling in the next few weeks. I'm tired of being weighed down by stuff.

Here We Come A Wassailing...

Friday morning, in the bitter cold, we took the kids Christmas caroling around town. We were a little short staffed so believe me when I say that at the end of this day I had lost 15 years off my life. We began walking toward main street which is not too far from where the school is and already we had kids crying. We went to a few places and the kids did a great job with their songs (Rudolph and Two Front Teeth).

We were winding down our day when we decided to stop one last time at one of the banks. This particular bank had escalators you had to go up in order to be inside the actual bank. A lot of these children had never ridden, let alone seen an escalator before. So the first teacher takes a couple of kids up the escalator, the second teacher puts one on the escalator and she started to fall back so she jumped on with her leaving me alone at the bottom of the escalator with the rest of the kids.

I was still herding kids inside off the sidewalk when I look up to see a mass of kids just run at the escalator. This is where the traumatic experiences begin. I see just a mass of arms and legs all going the wrong way. Feet are moving up the escalator before heads were and children were screaming as they reached for me. This made the children at the bottom of the escalator very scared so they burst out into tears. I felt like turning around and running out the door.

Now as I look back my sick sense of humor makes me laugh hysterically at the situation. At the time, however, I felt like pulling out my hair.

Maybe I should have been born a frat boy?

Tonight I'm skipping the gym! That's right Internet, I said it. It's too cold, I'm tired, I'm hungry, I'm making excuses. Currently I'm watching an old Christmas cartoon on t.v., I love those shows.
I just made myself dinner- well... it wasn't that difficult, I made a cheese quesadilla and opened a bottle (glass bottle-that's right, I'm swanky) of coke. Colby is having a late night at the studio, so I'm thinking it might be a video game night.

In other news: 17 more days until I get to go home!!! YAY!

This cartoon is creepy...

Happy Turkey Day!

Once again I've made it to another Thanksgiving. Each year it seems to show up so soon and just like that, it's gone. Although I won't be spending this Thanksgiving with my parents, siblings, or in-laws I am going to be spending Thanksgiving with my Husband. What more could a girl ask for?

This Thanksgiving we will be spending with our friends Ben and Nichole. They're in the same boat we're in- no family and in grad school. Ben works with Colby in the art department. Nichole is going to grad school for Psychology. I want to go back to school...

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!

Obama/ Biden 08

Is proud of America and everyone who made it out to vote. I'm ready for change.

Jeepers Creepers-Where'd you get those peepers?

Today was the Halloween party at school. I dressed up as a rag doll. It was a crazy day, complete with puking, peeing, crying, and eating. Yes, all the things that really make a true party. I realized that adult parties, and children parties are a lot alike in many ways.

There's the drink that everyone is interested in and eventually that leads to some form of bodily fluids strewn about.

The fighting over someones properties such as: a spouse, keys to your car, or a paper plate mask that you worked so hard on until it was ruined by the kid who thinks he's a dinosaur and your mask ended up being in the "destruction zone."

The clothing that always ends up missing at the end of the party. Like the shirt you lose because "It's too effing hot to breathe"- plus you like the way the wind hits you, or the spiderman belt that keeps your pants up... That could go either way.

Yes all in all it was an interesting day.

My name would be socz...

I was watching a show tonight on television that was about "gangsters" (I love those kind of shows), and they were listing all the names of the "gangsters". A funny image popped into my head of all the guys sitting around in their makeshift forts discussing what they wanted to be called.

I.E:

" So I was thinking maybe I should be called wicked, but not wicked with one k, Wickked with 2 k's. Cause I'm not effin' around homes."

"Nice, I really like that idea Wickked with 2 k's. I was thinking since my name is Tommy, I should just tack on Gun to the end. I mean it's pretty simple, everyone would remember it, it looks good in ink, and I can spell it."

It's really a funny vision in my head. I just felt the need to share it.

The Potty Pants Brigade.

I feel like that's what the ladies I work with, and myself should be called. We walk around with our rubber gloves like doctors preparing for the most intricate of surgeries. Days when there aren't potty pants are like days when you find washed money in the pocket of your favorite jeans.

Good times...

Hello.

Dear Readers,

I'm sitting in on a Friday night listening to pandora radio online *love it* when I should be doing a bit of cleaning. I'm trying to keep everyone up to date on events here in Washington and back home. My dad has made it out of the hospital and back home. Doctors are working on his test results, but it looks pretty good. He has to go to get medication fixed next week. Thanks for all the prayers.

I had a pretty exciting day! We took the preschool on a field trip to the County Fair. :) It's a lot like the fairs back home, except one little thing. No funnel cakes. NO FUNNEL CAKES! I realize they're terrible for you, but it's soul food. Anything that is bad for the body, but you absolutely love can be considered soul food in my opinion. Oreos are in that category too, by the way. Instead they have something North Westerners like to call "Elephant Ears". I happen to think funnel cakes sound so much more humane.

I spent my day chasing fly away balloons, and consoling those who's balloons could not be saved. It's such a harsh world.

Love,
-C

Happy Birthday Mimsy!

Yesterday was my Mimsy's birthday. I won't tell how old you are. I wish I could have been home and spent it with you!

There was a little drama that came with the big day. My dad was doing a routine check up at the doctor's where he ended up having a couple of seizures. They put him into ICU because of complications and are now running tests to see what may have caused this. I talked to him this morning though and he seems to be feeling much better. Prayers are always appreciated.

Sweet Dreams,

-C

Normally it's the other way around...

Normally my husband is the one who's up late. Lately I haven't been able to kick this crazy sleep pattern that I'm in. It's 1:15 a.m and I am WIDE AWAKE. I'm thinking about cleaning the downstairs while Colby is asleep.

There is something about being awake when everyone else in the house is asleep that I just don't like. I tend to be the one who's asleep fairly early, but on occasion have been known to stay up late. It's a lonely feeling for me. I do perfectly fine during the day when Colby is out to school, but at night it's so quiet and in my mind everyone I know is sleeping. Sometimes nights are the hardest. I miss my family very much, but haven't broke down. I'm looking forward to being able to see them very soon.

I start my job at the preschool on Monday. I thought for sure tonight I would go to bed around 10 p.m., and here it is going on 1:30 a.m. and I'm contemplating putting the DVDs in alphabetical order. If I continue writing this will be a bigger ramble session then it's turned out to be.

Good Night.

These are a few of my favorite things.

I must say that this is probably my favorite time of the year. It has been raining for a few days here in Washington and this morning when I woke up there was a big rainbow outside my bedroom window. This time of the year is so exciting because all the things I love are rapidly approaching.

September it starts getting cool again and I can wear long sleeve shirts and jeans. October is fantastic because I LOVE decorating and all the festivals that go on and the smells that go along with it: Caramel Apples, Cinnamon, Apple Cider, and Hazelnut. I LOVE fall. Colby informs me that we'll not have a "fall" here in Washington. I'm going to attempt to make it as 'fall' like as possible.

November- MY 25th birthday is coming up and I'm feeling like there might be a 'quarter life' crisis to go along with that. :) I told Colby that might include needing to buy a Mini Cooper. It's also Thanksgiving time- which will be a little sad this year considering we won't get our home cooked family meals. I think we have something planned for Thanksgiving though, we might go to Seattle. It will be our first Thanksgiving alone together and as nice as it would be to be with our families we are a family now so that will be nice.

December- What can I say?! I'm so excited for December because that means we'll be going back home. I'm so excited to see everyone again. I miss everyone SO much! And in January I'm going to Puerto Rico for 10 days! Amazing.

Char-Marie-1. Insurance Company- 0.

Since I was hospitalized in February I have been fighting with the insurance company to pay my medical bills to no avail. I had been calling every day and talking with "Jim" the insurance guy and really feeling like I was losing this major battle. Yesterday I awoke just like every morning and went down stairs to start the round of calls I would have to make that day to see if anything was being done. *Keep in mind this is more than 5 months later and the hospitals wanted their money...

I called my mom and discussed my options, my grandma called and I had another 'vent session', I talked to Colby in tears because I felt like I was at the end of my rope. We had just received another 500.00 bill to be paid upon receipt. One of those. I didn't know what we were going to do. Here I am looking for a new job in a new place, away from family and "Jose" from St. Joseph hospital wants his money, BUT "JIM" from insurance is giving him the finger and I'm trying to run intercept.

Well, I had just sat down to start filling out the complaint form against the insurance company, fully intent on running them into the ground... when Jim called,

JIM: "Hiiiii this is Jim (in a nasal-y voice) and I wanted to let you know that I did receive your fax and wanted to let you know that the claims department decided to pay 100%."

Just like that. Very nonchalant, like this life changing event didn't just take place in his little mind.

ME: "WHAT?! SHUT UP! Are you serious JIM!"

JIM: "Yeah. It should be going through sometime next week."

ME: "I LOVE YOU JIM! MY HUSBAND LOVES YOU JIM!"

JIM: "That's quite alright Ma'am"


That insurance company doesn't know how close that really was....Good job Jim, you saved your company.

Yeeessssssssssssssssssssssss!

I miss my girl!

As most of you know Maggie is my little lovebug. I love Macee an equal amount, but Maggie has grown to be very attached to her Auntie Bub. When I went down to Aurora to see the family everything would stop and she didn't pay attention to anyone else. Her second birthday is coming up and soon after she'll be moving back to Tennessee. I won't get to see the girls again until Christmas.

This is so HARD! Every time I call to talk to the family she finds out I'm on the phone and starts bawling. She tries to talk to me on the phone, but often it ends in tears.

Wa-Wa-Wa-Washington!!!

Colby and I are officially moved into our townhouse here on Washington State University Campus. I just have to say that I was a little nervous about being away from family, but I think we'll do just fine. It's so pretty here and the air is sweet. I definitely miss everyone, but right now there are so many things to do that I'm trying to keep my mind off of it.

I'm currently searching for a job. It looks like I might be a substitute teacher for the first year here in Washington, but maybe that's for the better. I'll have an opportunity to look into all the schools and see which school I'd like to be a part of next year.

Colby and I set up his studio here on campus tonight. He's got a pretty sweet little space. I'm extremely proud of him.

*I'll be posting pictures periodically.