it's an alien! it's a slug! it's my niece/nephew!

my brother and his wife are expecting a baby. he sent me the first sonogram yesterday!!! nick's sister had her second girl last wednesday, making him an uncle twice over. nick is hoping to have a nephew at some point in time. my brother wants boys for now. so here's hoping this little one comes with the right set of parts. :)

Mailed Out

i mailed out these items this past week along with some heart inchies and my art banner. the birds are for a chunky bird swap. turns out i didn't resize my birds well and they came out about 1/2" short from top to bottom and side to side. jeebus. so mine will just have to be the runts in the flocks people receive. i forgot to scan them or photograph them before mailing. fortunately for me, roc, the hostess, scanned them. i love it when people help other people! i also worked on my monochromatic blue inchies last night. i'm a fan of my bunny. :) i think i might have also gotten the settings right on the scanner so it picks the colors up well and doesn't fade them.





tonight is critical mass! although, one of it's main ringleaders, travis, won't be there because his roller derby girlfriend went into labor today.

tomorrow is nick and i's one year anniversary. he's making plans for it. the only plans i've made is i need to pack up my house in preparation for the move to zachary. ugh. but softball on sunday, soccer on sunday, and kickball on sunday. work and then play.

love and boxing

so nick and i's one year anniversary is on saturday. we've been going over gift ideas for each other. nick asked me if i'd like a new boxing stand for my heavy bag. i know: aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwww!!! i've got one now under my house that is just too big and tall to put anywhere. so it's been sitting under my house unused and unloved since i moved in last september. nick knows that i miss boxing and i miss having it around. plus,i've got a horrible pavlov's dog reaction to hearing anything by rage against the machine and not having something near me that is punchable. so his gift idea was getting me something more compact that i can leave on his back porch. so today we started looking at options and whatnot. i found the dreamiest boxing set up ever! of course it was $1000. he said that that would just have to be my engagement ring. all i could think of was trying to explain to my girlfriends that my engagement ring is actually the tools i need to get back into the ring.

all of the research got me back into the boxing world of sweat enhancers, jump ropes, bloody noses, and exhaustion. but it's not just these things that i think of, but also the smells of the gym and the bags. the sense of pride and confidence, sizing up other people that are checking you out always wondering "what if ___ were to fight ___?" i miss the stupid signs about the size of the fight in the dog and "more sweat means less blood". to think i left that behind in a chapter of my life long since closed and stored away. playing roller derby had it's similarities to boxing: the smells, the egos, the physical pain. but, it was a team support and you learn to rely on the strengths of not only yourself but the other people on your team. in boxing, it's just you versus them. if you don't win, it's because you didn't win not because your jammer was having a bad night. if you won, then it's because you were the better person in the fight. period.

soooooooooo... hopefully, this weekend i'll get my bag back up!!! i'll play some rage ("with the sure shot, sure to make the body drop")!!! and get me a nice work out/tension evaporator!!!

i might hate mondays, but i love monday nights. nick and i don't have activities planned for monday nights and we generally use it to cook and hang out. so tonight i'm going to make rice pilaf and he's going to grill some seafood. i'm hoping for shrimp, but we're going to see what's good at whole foods today. so, since i've never made a rice pilaf, i did some internetting and found one that fits nick and i's taste buds. basically, anything with cumin and garlic will keep us happy.

Almond Rice Pilaf, Nick and Lauren style

2/3 c. Blue Diamond sliced almonds
3 tbsp. butter, divided
1 c. chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, chopped finely
1 sm. green bell pepper, diced
1 c. long grain rice
1 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. salt
1 3/4 c. chicken broth

Saute almonds in 1 tablespoon butter until golden; reserve. Saute onion and garlic in remaining 2 tablespoons butter until translucent. Add green pepper, rice, raisins, cumin and salt; saute 2 minutes. Add chicken broth. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, cook 20 minutes or until all liquid is absorbed. Remove from heat and let stand covered, 5 minutes. Stir in almonds. Makes 4 to 6 servings.

weekend recap:





friday night - the baton rouge alley cat bricklayer race went off without a hitch. dennis and i hung out at north gate because that was our post. when the racers showed up, i made them come up with a haiku before giving them their brick and telling them the next spot. nick won dead fucking last and got the placecard which he was happy about because it was our most favorite out of all the ones i made. we went to chelsea's for some food and beers.



saturday - went canoeing with the third row tailgaters, angie, scott, and bobbi. angie and i were fortunate enough to ride with scott and bobbi because they were sober at 9am. we drove out past franklinton, la and just inside mississippi to canoe along the tangipahoa river, i think. angie and i paired up and it was pretty rocky from the start, but we got the hang of it my the time the 6hour journey was over. we capsized twice on our own and once when travis jumped into our boat and flipped us over. the first time was bad because we hit a tree sideways and it threw us out and i went under the boat. i was under for what felt like a lifetime, but i kept telling myself to remain calm and that i'd find the surface. scott and boo saw us flip and paddled then swam to our aid. we lost some stuff, but my rugby shirt was found and angie's vikings coozie were saved. we got home around 9 and i was pooped out.

sunday - we got to sleep in before heading to nick's parent's house for a mother's day crawfish boil and swim. we finally got molly to jump in the pool and swim, she seemed to really enjoy herself. i think a few more tries and she'll figure out she can jump from the side of the pool and not from the steps. we had coffee and lemon raspberry cheesecake and then headed home. we went out to kickball pick-up/practice and ended up playing an hour of 4on4 soccer for an hour. then we played 4on4 kickball for another hour before heading to sammy's for "family dinner".

it was a nice, fun-filled weekend that has left me sore and sunburnt. i didn't get to work on any art projects though. :(

oh, other stuff

on wednesday i received my acceptance letter into the Transition to Teaching program offered by Advance Baton Rouge. i am currently accepted, but everything is still riding on the results of my PII test scores. i still have another 2 weeks before those come in. grrrrrrrrrr.... in the meantime, i have school orientation next tuesday. which means i have to miss our game against the Sloppy Joses and let emily take my place as captain. we've lost three games so far and i really hope we can win this one.

tonight, is the BR Alley Cat Bricklayer race! i'm manning the checkpoint at North Gate Tavern. i figure i'll just hide out inside the bar and wait for the little bikers to show. i've got to give them some sort of challenge before just handing them over a brick or two. i made the spoke cards last night for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and Dead Fucking Last. angie took them to have copies made and get them laminated. i really hope that the copy turned out well because i wanted to scan them and save them. i hate that she took 'em while i was in the shower because i didn't get to sign them earlier because they were still wet. oh well. she didn't know any better.

this weekend holds the bike race, canoeing tomorrow, swimming/crawfish boil with nick's family for mother's day, and some kickball practice for the upcoming little rock tourney. after work today i'm going to find me a new swimsuit because mine are boring and only for lap swimming. so whooohoooo!!!

today is cinco de mayo

Projects:
i have recently joined the site amusingmuses. i was invited by a member of the AFA website and i'm so excited! the new forum is full of really talented people and new and exciting projects. they do a lot of postcards (4x6) and shapes (birds, mermaids, bunnies). my latest project is the May Contest for creating a cyclops bunny rabbit. i just got the template today and can't wait to start on it! i've also been working on an alphabet postcard series. i'll attach my A and B cards. what happens is we create one every week and are assigned someone at random to send it to like you would a postcard. so my goal is to get one of each letter and create a book at the end. i think it'll be awesome!

Musings:
today is cinco de mayo and we've got a lot of plans for tonight's kickball games. the drunk skunks will be playing against the drunk drunks! it will be me versus my boyfriend. my sister versus her boyfriend. two equally matched teams! i'm so excited! but, since it's a mexican holiday and all, emily is extremely excited about tonight's festivities and not so much the game. we're thinking of bringing out her hot dog cooker thingy (this is close to it: http://www.ginnys.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=33908&referrer=XJ1997&code=XJ1997&source=k200165&link=j27608492&sid=gc_58259585) and seeing if we can't use it for tamales. why not? i also made a trial batch of churros last night. they were pretty good. i follwed the recipe on foodnetwork's website. i'll probably try something different for tonight's game.

this passed weekend was Michael's wedding. it was really nice and i think good times were had by all. the church was beautiful! it was in the Irish Channel of New Orleans. it's actually on a street corner with two other Catholic churches: one was French, one German, and one Irish. their wedding was in the German church, St. Mary's Assumption. http://www.flickr.com/photos/60196620@N00/2451767946/ i couldn't have found a church more suited for them and their love of the Catholic faith. everything was well done and ran smoothly. i was nervous with my mom being there and all the other families, but everything seemed to move along with little turbulence.

on sunday, nick and i headed home and spent the day being lazy. i was really tired and felt sick all day, so i tried to nap here and there. then i couldn't sleep at night. oh well. we were supposed to go to the zoo, but i suggested just going home instead.

i sent out an email yesterday wondering what the status was on me and the LRCE's alternative certification program. i was told that letters were being sent out yesterday, so hopefully i'll get the letter in today. i'm nervous because i feel that i will be accepted, but it all comes down to how well i did on the praxis 2. i feel deep down that i failed it. but i've still got another 3 weeks or so until i get my results back.