In case you were wondering...

I am alive.  School is is full swing and has been for a month, which is why I've been gone.  This post might seem a little whiny, but the truth is I'm frustrated.  I'm pooped. I am really enjoying my classes and teaching my chemistry labs, but I think I might have just signed on for too much this semester.  See, our day starts out at 0400.  B has PT, and I just get up with him rather than making him sneak around and me trying to stay asleep. Also, I am a morning person.  After about 8pm, my brain is gone. So I HAVE to do all my work in the morning, otherwise it ends up being of poor quality, takes forever, or just doesn't get done. Oh yeah, and the morning classes at the gym are the only ones I can make now, so if I don't make one of those, I'm SOL for the day.

This all sounds great, except for the fact that I have class until 7:45pm Mon-Thurs....meaning I don't actually get home until 8:30-45. Good bye 8 hours of sleep. Oh, side note, I'm one of those people that think a good nights rest can fix just about anything. I treasure my sleep, and I do think it's important to get at least 7 hours a night. Unfortunately, that's not happening - I'm getting somewhere between 5 - 6 hours.  Getting home at 8:30/45, trying to scrounge something to eat because I've been in class straight for the last 6 hours and preparing for the next day/finishing some last minute work puts me in bed about 10:30-11. 

I've heard of many people who say almost proudly that they can get by on 5 hours of sleep a night. Not me. I need more. But it's just starting to seem impossible at this point. But I guess its good that I enjoy my classes, right?

Positive note: it's feeling a bit like Fall outside! I am still super pumped about pumpkins and leaves and apple spiced candles! Another thing that comes with Fall is the ability to take Klaus-man out for play time any time we want without him dying almost instantly! Hooray! 

Anyways, sorry for whining. I think I'm going to go take a nap (like I said - sleep fixes EVERYTHING). Happy Friday!

An explanation...

I was sure that quitting my job and going back to school full time was going to be a seamless transition...what I didn't realize was how busy I was going to be taking 13 hours and teaching two general chemistry labs (btw I'm teaching for the first time EVER). 13 hours is not a lot to most people, but the thing is, I'm a science/math person. I enjoy don't mind writing scientific papers and doing problems and labs. However, 3 of my classes (9 hours worth) are education classes (which is mostly psychology). And as interesting as they are, there is A LOT of reading and writing papers about feelings and self reflections.... So most of my time is spent trying to keep up with the reading/self reflection assignments. I actually get excited when it's time to study for my Organic Chem 2 stuff! Sad, I know. Anyways, so that's an explanation of where I've been. I do have other stuff to post about, but that will have to wait until this weekend.  Hope y'all are having a good week! One week till Ga Tech kickoff!! Woohoo!

Who ya gonna call

Do you ever watch scary tv shows? Growing up, my mom always liked to watch shows like "Top 10 Most Haunted Places in America" or "Unsolved Mysteries" and of course "X-files". I still sometimes watch some scary shows, namely "A Haunting" on the Discovery Channel. Let me just say one word: terrifying!! Ok, maybe not so much for most people, but I definitely have an overactive imagination. I have to watch it with lights on and when B is home. Ghosts freak me out. If you like ghost stories and want a creepy sort of thrill, you should watch an episode. 

On to something more light-hearted.... B shared some funny icanhascheezburger pictures with me....good chemistry humor! I'm sharing them with you because they make me giggle.

Also, notice something new on the right? Yup. I joined Twitter... To be honest I feel like a grandma learning to use a computer for the first time. All these tricks of how to tweet "like the cool people" will take some getting used to! But I'm gonna try to be a good tweeter.  Hope you have a happy Tuesday! Oh yeah, btw, 1 1/2 weeks left of my 45 minute commute straight through downtown Atlanta! Who's excited??? THIS girl!

Updates galore!

My apologies for blog-failing! It's been quite a busy week! I'm putting in my two week notice tomorrow at my job so that I can go back to school full time! I got a scholarship and was notified on Thursday that I am being offered a "GRA" (Graduate Research Assistant) position, although I won't be doing research...I'll be teaching General Chemistry labs!! I'm pumped! I really hope I'm a good TA. I had some TA's that I respected so much because they were so helpful. I can only hope to be half as helpful as they were! If I can make one student understand and appreciate chemistry, I'll be a happy camper! 

Speaking of camping, we did some this weekend! Just a quick one-night backpacking trip, but it was fun! Also, I got bit by the "camping bug" so I've talked my mom into planning a family campout over Labor Day weekend! Sooo excited!

 Other things we've been up to include....going to the Brave's game last weekend! That was my first Brave's game I've gone to since I was 7....I guess I'm not a very good native Atlantan...

 

 I think we've decided to run another half-marathon (my fourth, B's first). So, to try to improve my running form and to help out with my CrossFit workouts, I invested in some New Balance Minimums! They're basically like running barefoot, just with a little protection from the elements/trail/road/etc.  I am not sure if I will be using these for the half marathon, though, because I have a lot of training to do to get my muscles up to speed with the way these make you run. Normal running shoes allow you to land on your heel, these make you land on the ball of your foot....so it's basically like doing calf raises with every step!

 And as usual, it's nearing the change of season, so I'm freakishly excited and readying myself for Fall! Football, pumpkins, Oktoberfest beers, brats, and beautiful fall sunshine....bring it on!!!  (in case you can't read those candle labels, they say "Pumpkin Buttercream" and "Cranberry Chutney" mmmmmm!)

 and yes, Buzz is missing his antennae...Klaus decided he didn't need them anymore.

Hope y'all are doing well!

New title?

I've decided that I no longer like my blog title...Call me immature, but everytime I read the word 'blow', my brain relates it to things that simply are not relevant to my blog... Suggestions for a new title? This could take a while - I'm not very creative... Input appreciated! Thanks!

Here fishy fishy...

Alright, it's official: I'm a bad blogger. But to be honest, I've been kinda busy...even at work! I finished up my summer semester, a whopping 1 hour lab...yay. At work, we've had to go down to Columbus, GA twice in the past few days to fix a wind sensor. Our site is at the Columbus Crime Lab, and in case you didn't know, I have a fear of dead bodies.... So when the morgue mobile is there, it basically freaks me out. I'm back to doing laundry and dishes for two, which is much more time consuming. So all in all, I've been a busy lady! But I like it like that!

This past weekend B and I decided to try out our fishing skills...and when I say try, I mean try. I wasn't really raised by the fishing-type, so I only really fished at girlscout/boyscout camps.  B knows more about fishing than me, but still, he's not a pro. So we went to Walmart and got some cheapo fishing rods and some worms and went to my dad's house boat on Lake Lanier and fished. Our fishing goals were as follows: Goal #1 Catch a fish, Goal #2 Hope that it's not a carp. In the end I think we would have accepted a carp...we didn't do too well. But we did catch two bluegill! We even got up super early to try to get them at feeding time...

Here is the beautiful sunrise at Lake Lanier

Here I am with one of our victims.....muahahah!

 And this was sort of after the fact, but here is the line of houseboats where my dad's is. If you look closely enough, you'll see that almost every house boat has one or two American flags flying - which is just an awesome sight to see!

I actually kind of hope we try fishing again this weekend. I got some tips from my boss (who, btw, grew up with Alan Jackson!) that I think would help a little bit! It was fun anyways, with or without the fish! And I definitely need to work on my casting skills..... For now, please give me a 20ft radius.


Hope your week is going well! Happy hump day, y'all!

My world is complete again

Look at this handsome LTC grad!

To paleo or not to paleo?

For a little over a year, I've been working out at CrossFit East Cobb.  Check out the website, or go to the corporate website for more information about what CrossFit is. Anyways, recently I've been noticing that I have a severe lack of endurance during the workouts (a.k.a. WOD - workout of the day). In fact Monday, I honestly thought I was either not going to finish the workout or die. In the end, I pushed through, and even though I was the last to finish, I got it done! It was the weirdest thing...my muscles weren't tired, but my lungs felt as though I hadn't worked out in three years. I couldn't catch my breath, yet I wanted to work harder than I was because I was simply not tired, just out of breath.  This was a first, but for the past few weeks, my whole body has just felt tired and sluggish during the workouts. I am the strongest I have ever been in my life, but my endurance is just not where it should be after a year of intense workouts.

So after ruling out air quality (which might have had a slight effect) and humidity (lived in Georgia all my life, doubt that's the problem) I've circled back around to my diet. People at the gym are really big into this "Paleo" way of eating.  It's basically anything a caveman would eat - so no sugar, no grains, no dairy, nothing processed, lots of lean meat, veggies, fruits, and healthy fats. I happen to love milk, cheese, bread, and pizza...and I am not overweight and am not concerned about my weight, so I've always scoffed at the idea of this "Paleo" lifestyle.  But now I'm wondering....could my diet be affecting my performance? Do these so called "toxins" that Paleo-crazies claim are in all the food I'm eating really impact my physical endurance?

It has gotten to the point where I dread workouts that I used to love simply because I can't keep up with what my brain knows I can do. I just don't know what else to do... It would take a lot of discipline to get on the paleo-bandwagon.... and I know that if I could just get in the habit of eating like that, I'd feel so much better. But it is a pretty big life change... no more eating anything I want whenever I want...

Just something to ponder over I guess...

Mischief managed

My sophomore year in high school, we were supposed to read a certain number of pages each semester from any book of our choosing.  Since I hadn't seen the movies, and every one was obsessed with the books, I chose to read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (after swearing on my life to my teacher that I had, in fact, not seen the movies).  I fell in love right there! They are wonderful books and allow you to escape in to a world so different than your own.  I was so enthralled in them that I couldn't put them down and even had dreams about Harry Potter's world. One morning we had an earthquake (a very very small one, but enough to rattle the stuff I had on my bookshelves), and I distinctly remember waking up and thinking "Harry Potter's here!!".....nerdy I know, sorry. 

Anyways....a decade later, the era of Harry Potter is finally coming to a close.  So, in honor of Harry Potter and the magical wizarding world, and to prepare for the final movie, my brother and sister-in-law hosted a Harry Potter movie marathon day on Saturday! Well, it didn't quite turn out to be a marathon - we only ended up watching two movies. But, it was fun nonetheless! And to celebrate, I made.....

PUMPKIN PASTIES!!!

Really they were just pumpkin pie filling in crescent-shaped pie crusts, but pretty yummy! Next time I'm going to brush them with eggs so they get that nice coloring to them. We also had butter beer, which was DELICIOUS! There are other Harry Potter recipes that I'm going to try one day, too!

Following our failure of a marathon, I participated in a wine tasting. My brother and his friends apparently do this often. Someone is in charge of purchasing the wine for that week, and they have a book that describes everything you need to know.  For this particular one, we did red wines from..Italy....I think... Definitely had fun and learned a lot in a short amount of time! Here's a picture I snagged near the end...

On Thursday I leave to go to Fort Knox to watch B graduate from his training and to finally bring him home! So excited!!! Poor Klaus has torn up and de-stuffed basically every toy that he owns....which I guess is better than the furniture....so I went to the store and got him some new ones..like this one:

his new dinosaur

Alright, this was kind of a long post, but I'm making up for lost time. Oh yeah, btw, TLC's new show "Surprise Homecomings" made me cry. A lot. Despite the fact that Billy Ray Cyrus is sort of a dweeb, the families that get their soldiers home when they are least expecting it are just so happy and it makes me so happy to watch that! Highly recommend it! Ok. That is all for now. Hope your week is going well!

Ahh...family

I've been meaning to post about my good ole fam but, frankly, hadn't gotten around to collecting pictures from Facebook and such.. Welp, my job just got a lot easier because on Monday we had an impromptu sushi dinner! So I used my brother's phone camera (he's got an iPhone 4 which is waaaaay better than my lame iPhone 3) to take pictures of my various loved ones! So here they are, along with descriptions!

Here is my mom and me. She's basically the best mom anybody could ask for. She's back in school to become a high school biology teacher, specifically in "urban education".

 

....and my dad, he wasn't at dinner. But he's pretty awesome!

 Here are my two baby sisters..... well not really baby anymore. On the left is Lizzie, 15, and on the right, Caroline, 17. Caroline is leaving today to go to France for three weeks....JEALOUS

 

And here is Caroline with her boyfriend, James. I approve.

This is my big brother, Tyler, and his lovely wife Katie. Yes, there are two Katy(ie)'s in my family now...It gets entertaining!

...and their dog, Layla...my niece.

and finally, my "adopted" brother, Adam! He's not really adopted, we love him so much that he's part of the family! 

 

That is all for now! Hope you enjoyed it!

A stick a day while you're away...

Dear Dad,
I sure do miss you. You went away one time and haven't come back yet. Mom tried to explain where you went, but I couldn't understand her. All I could do was listen and turn my head.  When will you come back? I miss you. Mom plays with me a lot, but its not the same rough play you do with me. She tries to wrestle with me, but she just doesn't have the manly wrestle that I'm used to. We go for lots of walks, and we go play fetch, but she doesn't let me loose very often. She's afraid I'll get into poison ivy and get it on her....but you let me loose, you don't care. I spend a lot of my energy guarding Mom, since I know she's uneasy about you not being here. I listen for any strange noises, inside or outside. I lay at the bathroom door while she's taking shower, so she feels safe.  I even sleep in the bed with her, and pant a lot so the whole bed shakes and she gets rocked to sleep.

For you, I started collecting sticks when Mom and I go out. Here, I got her to take a picture...

They're all for you, Dad. We can play with them when you come home. Until then, I guess I'll keep wagging my tail and protecting Mom. I hope you come home soon.

Love,
Klaus