Mobile Monday and Blog Challenge Update

Hope everyone had a great weekend! I FINALLY got the last of the boxes unpacked at my apartment. Yes, I know, I've been there two months. For the most part it was pretty much done, I just had been lazy about unpacking the crap junk stuff in my bedroom. I also spent a good part of the weekend cleaning my apartment. This might be the time to have people over while it's actually clean! Let's be honest, it won't last long. :)

Thursday night I went to the Mucky Duck in Addison to see my favorite radio duo Ben and Skin. They are hoping to get back on the air next month and I cannot wait. My days are not the same not being able to listen to them!! I hadn't seen them in a long time, so it was good to catch up. It was kinda late when I finally left and I got an escort back to my car so I didn't have to walk by myself (aren't they sweet?) :)

Me and my friend Emily with Ben and Skin

Was able to see my Twitter buddy Austin!

Jessica, Emily, and I after our team won the trivia contest!

Met my Twitter friend Bryan. We discovered that he actually went to high school with one of my cousins. Small world!

Friday evening my friend Art had an extra (free) ticket to the musical Wicked, so I met up with him and his girlfriend to go to Fair Park. I've seen Wicked twice before, but this performance was probably the best one I've ever seen. The whole cast was PHENOMENAL!

Getting ready last minute...

Our view...shh, don't tell anyone I took a picture

Saturday I woke up early (hey- 7am is early for a day where I could have slept in). I finally talked myself into getting out of bed. I may or may not have gone to Whataburger in my PJs. Don't judge. 

I'm terrible about checking my mail, so I went by the box Saturday afternoon and found this gem.

Yes, I own seasons 1-3 as well. I know, I'm a nerd.

I didn't get pictures of my whole apartment, but here are some...

I like that my new kitchen actually has counter space. My old apartment had none.

I like that I can actually see the floor!! :)

I had to wish Steve Avery a happy birthday yesterday. I mean, he is the Avery behind my Twitter and Instagram handle. :)

Blog Challenge Update

Day 12: Something you don't leave your house without

My cell phone. I know, that's sad. But it's true, I always have it.

Day 13: Talk about your piercings/tattoos (if you have any)

My ears are pierced, I have two holes in each ear. I got the first set when I was 16 and the second set when I was 20.

Here's a picture of my tattoo that I got in college.

Okay, so it was a henna tattoo that washed off after a few days...needles freak me out! :)

Day 14: Something you miss from your childhood

I think I just miss being a kid. I miss not having to worry about responsibilities, or a job, or paying bills. I miss being able to go over to my best friend's house and hang out there all afternoon (only to go home and then spend 2 hours on the phone with her). I also miss the innocence. I miss not having to know or worry about all the evil and bad stuff going on in the world. I miss when my only heartache was when Kelly broke up with Zack on Saved by the Bell (don't laugh- that was a very upsetting episode!) 

Day 15: A confession/secret of yours

I have nightlights all around my apartment- kitchen, bathroom, living room, hallway, and study. I hate the dark. I also have to fall asleep with the TV on (I have a timer set so it goes off after an hour or so). Don't laugh.

XOXO!

Winner!

I wanted to thank my friend Jodi for nominating me for this blog award last week!! :) I've been following Jodi for a while now (two years maybe?) She's one of my favorites, go check out her page here. :)

The Meaning: Liebster is German and means sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, enduring, and welcome. One of the rules of winning this award was to answer 11 questions from Jodi, so here I go! (I modified the rules just a little because I don't have a lot of time to post today). :)

1. How many cell phones have you had in your lifetime?

Oh wow...I'm on my second iPhone. Before that I think I had 4. The last two before my iPhone were flip phones.

My first cell phone looked like this, except the antenna lit up red whenever my phone rang.

2. How many states have you visited? Ever been out of the country?

Unless you count the time I was a baby and my family went to Mexico, I've never been out of the country. I have visited the following states: Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, New York, Oklahoma (well, I took my picture at the state line, not sure if that counts), New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Nevada, 

3. Around what age did you switch from taking baths to taking showers? 

I still take baths. I love soaking in a hot bubble bath after a long day at work. :)

4. Japanese, Mexican, or Italian food?
Italian food. I LOVE pasta. Probably a little too much.
5. French toast or pancakes?
Pancakes. With peanut butter and syrup (it's really good!)

6. Your all-time favorite restaurant?

You mean like sit down restaurant? It's so hard to choose just one. I guess either Saltgrass or Macaroni Grill. I'm always in the mood for either steak or Italian food! :)

7. How many times a day do you brush your teeth?
Two times for sure, sometimes three.

8. Do you play an instrument?
I played the clarinet from 6th-9th grade. I also took piano lessons (I wasn't that good). 

9. What were the colors and mascot of your high school?

Blue and gray. We were the Knights.

10. What's your ideal outside temperature/weather?
I like anywhere from 70-75. Although the other night at the Rangers game it was 89 degrees and surprisingly that felt nice. There was a light breeze. I will confess in the winter I do like it to be cold for a little while (just because I only like eating chili when it's cold outside). Remember, cold to me is anything under 50 degrees. :)

11. Favorite all-time song to jam out to?

It depends on my mood. :)

We are almost to the weekend!!

XOXO!

Phone Photo Fun Monday..

I saw this on Amber's blog and thought I would try it out today!! :) Check out What Makes Savannah Smile for other great Phone Photo Fun posts!

I like to take pictures of...

Me and my friends waiting in line at the movie theater

 

 

Complete series of Smallville on DVD WITH a Tom Welling action figure (I had to send this to the BFF- she loved that show). I just love Tom Welling! :)

Buses that drive past me on my way home from work (especially when they have a Rangers player on them!)

The "before" picture of a pizza my friend Monica and I ordered on Friday...

...The "after" picture of the same pizza (don't judge, we were hungry!) :)

Oak Ridge Boys LP record that I saw at Half Price Books-if only I still had a record player!

The awesome DVD I got for only $1 at Half Price Books ("You're killing me Smalls!")

The kid in the waiting area at Studio Movie Grill- let's hope she dressed herself and her mother didn't do that to her.

Photo Challenge Day 21: Reflection

A reflection of my bathroom mirror. Yes, I have a lot of necklaces. And yes, I have a Bible verse on my mirror. :)

Photo Challenge Day 22: Your shoes-today I'm sporting my black boots! Yes, I realize the heels make me taller than I already am. I can't help it, they were cute! : )

Photo Challenge Day 23: Something old (thought about posting a picture of myself, but I refrained!) ;)

Stonehenge- I so want to visit it one day!

Hope you are having a great Monday my lovely friends!
XOXO!

Cell Phones

I've been thinking a lot lately about cell phones and how we have come to depend on them. More so since Sunday when my $200 iPhone decided to take a swim (we won't go into details where it decided to take a swim at, just know it was clean water). By the grace of God, and with the help of my friend Jub, aka the electronic/technical GURU, my iPhone is working again. FYI, if you have an iPhone, Apple warranty DOES NOT cover water damage. If you come across iPhone water damage, turn it off and put it in a bag of rice. Yay, it sounds weird, but the rice absorbs the moisture. Hopefully you will luck out (like me), and your phone will keep working.

Granted, I go days without my phone ringing (or even receiving a text message), but not having it almost drove me crazy. No texts, no phone calls, no updating Facebook to let my peeps know what I was doing at that exact moment. My family likes to joke that my cell phone is surgically attached to my hand. They might be right. Since my phone is also my watch, I couldn't even tell what time it was (I was at the State Fair of Texas).

I can remember back in junior high/high school when only the "rich" kids had cell phones, and those actually belonged to their parents (they just wanted to look "cool", so they brought them to school). And even then, those phones were huge, like a cordless phone. I remember Zack Morris, played by the still gorgeous Mark-Paul Gosselaar, on Saved By The Bell having the big cell phone he would always be talking on.

Hard to believe that cell phones really looked like that. Now they can fit in the palm of your hand. You can check email, get weather and sports score updates, even watch TV from phones now.

I can remember growing up always having a quarter in case I needed to use a pay phone (those aren't even a quarter anymore, whatever few are left). My dad would drop me and a friend off at a mall in Austin and give strict instructions to be back at the entrance at whatever time he was picking us up at. No leaving. No going outside. If the mall caught fire we had to wait by a security guard until the fire department got there (oh yes, these were his exact words). We also had to wait inside the mall until we saw his car pull up at the front entrance. There was no "call when you are ready to be picked up" or "I'll call you when I'm outside." And if he was running late, we had no way of knowing. We just knew we had to wait there until he arrived.

I think about how many times I make plans with friends now and it's always "I'll call you when I get there" or "call when you are on your way." Hard to believe it was just 10 years ago (before I got my first cell phone), when people had to actually make plans in advance. You had to have a location and time you were meeting. And if you were running late, you prayed your friends would wait on you.

Although I'll admit a cell phone is usually just a convenience for me, it has also come in handy during emergencies. Driving home about 11pm one night a few months ago my timing belt broke about five blocks from my apartment. I was able to call a friend who drove out to help me tow my truck home. Before cell phones I either would have had to wait for a safe looking stranger to offer me a ride or walked to a nearby gas station (and in my neighborhood, neither one of those are really an option). Also, if I get lost (which is not uncommon), I can either call a friend, or now, pull up a map on my phone to find out where I need to go. Sometime I'm still amazed how far technology has come, even in my lifetime.