Day 2 - A photo of something you ate today.

So I totally spaced and didn't take a photo of the lovely food July and I had at lunch yesterday. We went to Orchid Thai Cuisine (an awesome place good pick July!) near the UNM campus before dropping her off for class. Fun times and great lunch. I had the pinapple shrimp while she had the pinapple chicken. Both looked fantastic and I was glad we said medium spice because it was just enough kick (made up for the Martha Stewart Greek Salad the night before lol)!

Afterwards I continued on the apartment hunt...the ones we really want have a wait till July at the earliest so it's a no go for them. Found some other options and decided I needed an afternoon snack. In keeping with my tropical theme I got this:

It is a Tropical Tango smooth from Dairy Queen's Orange Julius. I'd never heard of this off branch of Dairy Queen till coming here so it was a welcome surprise to have Dairy Queen type treats here in New Mexico.

Tomorrow our couch gets delivered!!! I'll post pictures for sure when it is received! ;-)

Day 1 - A photo of yourself and a description of how your day was.

So since yesterday wasn't entirely finished I decided to post Day 1 today. I'll also do Day 2 since I'm going out to eat with July today. :-)

 At Geeks Who Drink from Right to Left counter clockwise: George, Jessica, Mark, Paul, and me.

Yesterday was the first day I've had off (other than being sick which doesn't count) since October so it was very nice. Paul was a tad loud getting ready so I didn't really sleep in as planned, but instead watched part of the Today Show before getting bored. I then started reviving my long dead blog and decided this challenge would be a good idea.

I read some more of a wonderful book I'm reading by Pope Benedict called Jesus of Nazareth where he is examining parts of the Gospels breaking them down bit by bit. Crazy thing is he says this is his first volume and hopes to live long enough to complete the rest! I'm thinking after only reading 100 pages excitedly there's more?! He's a wonderful author and I'd recommend the read for any Christian as a meaty dig into the life of Jesus especially during Lent as we prepare for Easter. One part he goes into is the temptation of Jesus in the desert for 40 days and how Satan at the second temptation says:

"For he will be given his angels charge of you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone" (from Psalms 91:11)

Jesus replied to this by saying:

"You shall not put the Lord your God to the test." (From Deuteronomy 6:16.)

Benedict goes on to explain our modern day lesson from this exchange to be the following:

"The issue, then, is the one we have already encountered: God has to submit to experiment. He is "tested," just as products are tested. He must submit to the conditions that we say are necessary if we are to reach certainty....We are dealing here with the vast question as to how we can and cannot know God, how we are related to God and how we can lose him. The arrogance that would make God and object and impose our laboratory conditions upon him is incapable of finding him. For it already implies that we deny God as God by placing ourselves above him, by discarding the whole dimension of love, of interior listening: by no longer acknowledging as real anything but what we can experimentally test and grasp. To think like that is to make oneself God and to do that is to abase not only God, but the world and oneself, too."

The beauty of how Benedict breaks down the Gospels makes you pause at moments otherwise cast aside. I don't believe in the above statement Benedict is saying doubt is wrong but rather he is challenging us that not everything can be grasped and tested.

I also cleaned a good deal of our house as it was in desperate need of it. We kind of got lazy this past week and didn't do much as far as cooking or cleaning so I planned out a menu. On tap for dinner was a Greek Salad with chicken and chickpeas. Sounded good in theory as I saw it on my new favorite magazine Martha Stewart: Everyday Food (who knew I'd get into Martha Stewart right? lol) but the chickpeas weren't all that good in the salad and it kind of lacked pizazz.

After dinner it was off to our weekly meeting with our two friends Jessica and Mark for Geeks Who Drink, a trivia game at a local pub. We split our favorite desert there a chocolate fudge brown with ice cream and walnuts while savoring Merlot for Paul and Strawberry beer for myself. The trivia night is composed of 8 rounds of 8 questions each where you work in groups of up to 6 to answer the obscure questions. Round One for example was all about Germany. Did you know Munich is not the second largest city in Germany? Bonus points to whoever can tell me the correct answer! lol ;-)

Our team ended up coming in 1st place which hasn't happened in the past 3 weeks (we've been missing our teammates due to work and writing papers). It was nice to have the Fab Five as we called ourselves together!


Now it's off to exchange pants we bought Saturday with a hole in them already, rent a good movie, eat lunch with July, play at the Apple Store, and get my toe nails done! :-)

Getting back into blogging

So it's been a while...more like over 6 months but who is counting lol! I could probably think of a lot of excuses as to why I haven't been blogging but truth be told life is crazy at times and I was too busy to compose a worthy blog.

Paul and I have been good in that time though. Not as much spontaneous traveling around as we'd like, but hopefully summer will change that. We're hoping to go to Colorado Springs some time this summer...although we currently only have 3 free weekends to do it in! It's only March and already our summer is booked!

I have a new job I start April 4th which will be nice for a lot of reasons. It was a good change to make. Paul commented to me last night he hasn't seen me this happy since before I took my now previous job (my last day was Friday March 25th). I guess I hadn't realize how much a toll some of the stresses of that job were taking. I'm excited for this new opportunity as it will be closer to home and with a more structured work environment. I'll be working as a dental receptionist...not what I went to school for but I enjoy working with children and I'm very comfortable with dental terminology.

I've kind of almost given up on finding the perfect teaching job. They just aren't out there and the ones that are have been taken by people making teaching a second career. Our life is about more than finding the perfect job and I've decided if I had stuck it out at my previous job waiting for that perfect teaching job it would have never happened.

I have a week's vacation thankfully. This morning I'm still in PJs (something I haven't done in months!) and taking it easy. So with this new job I hope to get better about several things including blogging. Sometimes it's the only way I can keep track of some of y'all. I'm starting a 30 day blog challenge which I think will help me with this goal.

Day 1 - A photo of yourself and a description of how your day was.
Day 2 - A photo of something you ate today.
Day 3 - Your idea of the perfect date.
Day 4 - Your favorite photograph of your best friend.
Day 5 - A photo of yourself two years ago.
Day 6 - A photo of an animal you'd love to keep as a pet.
Day 7 - Your dream wedding.
Day 9 - A photo of the item you last purchased.
Day 10- A photo of our favorite place to eat.
Day 11 - Your favorite book.

Day 12 – A photograph of the town you live in.

Day 13 – Your favorite musician and why?

Day 14 – A TV show you’re currently addicted to.

Day 15 – Something you don’t leave the house without.

Day 16 – Your celebrity crush.

Day 17 – A photo of you and your family.

Day 18 – Something you crave a lot.

Day 19 – Random Day!

Day 20 – The meaning behind your blog name.

Day 21 – A photo of something that makes you happy.

Day 22 – A letter to someone who has hurt you recently.

Day 23 – 15 facts about you.

Day 24 – A photo of something that means a lot to you.

Day 25 – What’s in your purse?

Day 26 – A photo of somewhere you’ve been to and somewhere you want to go.

Day 27 – A picture of you last year and now and how have you changed since then?

Day 28 – Your favorite movie.

Day 29 – Something you could never get tired of doing.

Day 30 – A photograph of yourself today + three good things that have happened in the past 30 days