Nothing could be better than a three-day weekend after the chaos of the beginning of the spring semester. While at my favorite munchkins house babysitting on Wednesday night, I was reminded that it was time for our monthly pajama party. So tonight’s plan will be mac-n-cheese, pajamas, kiddie movies, and some fun with photo booth.  Yeah, I’m that lucky.

Yeah, I’m talking to you, Office haters. I don’t know why exactly you’re still hesitant to give into the peer pressure of one of the funniest shows on tv, but I’m thinking that if I put it out there in blog form you might just take a peek… and it just takes one peek to get hooked. So indulge yourself in humor. You’re worth it.

M: Hey, Laurel, did you see the purse we made you for Christmas?
L: I did. I love it… it’s so pretty.  Did you help choose it?
M: Yeah, I boughts it for you.
L: Thank you very much, M.
M: Did you look to see what’s inside of it?
L: No I haven’t yet. (as I reach for it to look she snatches it out of my hands)
M: (With an exasperated sigh) I’ll just tell you. It’s gloves.

Wow, it’s really tough being such an emotional burden for a four-year old. I have a feeling one day I’ll be forced to pay her therapy bills.

I need to stop listening to this song on repeat for hours at a time.  For the first time in a long time, I find myself reaching out to ‘happier’ music and this is definitely one of my new favorites.  It’s a bit Mrazish, not that I mind, and if you don’t watch it, you’ll be singing along in no time.

Spring semester at the university begins tomorrow which means my co-workers, student staff and I are at work on this fine Sunday.  Because we ask our student staff to be back early before classes begin and most of the dining options aren’t available, I try to feed all thirty of them during the move-in weekend.  This time around I made a huge 24 lb. roaster oven full of chili for them with Mexican cornbread and a coconut cream and chocolate-peppermint bundt cakes.  What I didn’t account for was the fact that these are starving college kids who had polished up two cakes and all of the chili in one day.  So with help from Cory we threw together another oven full of chili this morning and are keeping our fingers crossed that it lasts til the end of the day.  If not, I may have to pick up a second job so that I can afford to feed them. 

Have you ever laid down to take a thirty-minute ‘power nap’ and found yourself sleeping for three or more hours? Even if you had not originally planned to find such solace in a long slumber, some part of you (mind, body or soul) knew you needed to sleep, to put aside the world as you knew it and reboot. Well, call me the ‘Rip Van Winkle’ of blogging because my minor trip to the parentals and time away from the intarwebz has grown into a 2+ week hiatus from talking to the internet each day. Funny thing is… I don’t mind this time we’ve spent apart.  Don’t get me wrong.  I’ve missed you and have so much to tell you now, but I was doing other things… better things than blogging.  I was living, so that I can fill your ear and screen with new tales and ponderings. So I’ll leave it up to you to check back often as I post the stories and musings of our time apart.  Just don’t forget to scroll down and check out all the belated posts I’ll be finally sharing over the next few days… It’s nice to be back with you, Internet.  Really nice.

Zac sent me this pic message today. It truly sums up one of the greatest struggles in my life… to be warm or to be understood. Most of the time, I just send gibberish texts. What can I say, my digits are important to me.

This is my Winter Song, too.  Even when I haven’t been blogging, I have been collecting lil tidbits from the internet of things that I knew I had to share with you.  Take this gorgeous song from two of my leading musical girl-crushes.  I caught them performing this seasonal ballad on Leno a few weeks back and have kept my fingers crossed for a true music video.  This is better than I could have hoped.  It makes me want to join their cartoon world and wear cute scarves and mittens and have rosy-pink cheeks. Here’s to the silent wish we’ll see more Sara-Ingrid ballads in 2009.

This made me LOLIRL as my student workers would say.

Where were Zac and my dad last night?  Not in Willcox.  Not in San Simon.  Nope, they were in the University of Phoenix Stadium watching the Fiesta Bowl.  I’m trying hard to not be jealous that they got to witness live the phenomenal matchup of the Buckeyes vs the Hookem Horns… but I’m failing miserably.  It doesn’t help that Zac sent me a few snapshots from his phone.  You can tell how awesome their seats were by the quality of the phone pics he took with his 1.3 megapixel camera.  Hopefully, after seeing this pictures you’ll be just as jealous as I was… and then I won’t feel so guilty.  Kinda like when you try to get rid of that song stuck in your head by singing it to someone else. Kinda.

The game.

The band.

My cousin Lahrs, Zac, Dad, Uncle Jeff.

Sadly enough, she doesn’t come in pink.  But she will look amazing in my new purse I just bought to carry her in.

You cannot tell me this isn’t absolutely, completely adorable.

There truly is nothing like filling your living room with good friends who are just as excited as you to watch the big game.  With ‘Zactoria’ in town for the weekend, the gang showed up for a home-cooked meal, time to fellowship (it’s so obvious we’re Baptists), and the chance to watch the Cardinals pull of the unlikely Playoff win.  Except with Fitzy, Warner, the Edge, and a surprisingly strong defense, they did more than put up a good fight… they beat the Atlanta Falcons and earned themselves a chance at Carolina.  For those of you who missed the game, you need to check out Fitzy’s endzone catch… it’s a thing of pure beauty.  Go Cards, Go!

You know you’ve lived in Flagstaff too long when these sights no longer seem out of the ordinary.

Snowblowing off the roof of Target.

Parking at Wal-Mart.

Snow piled up at least 12 feet high in a cul-de-sac.