We've Got Roses!

My new favorite place in the world is my own lawn outside. Who would have thought? After all this trouble with it this year including the fact that it flooded everyday and that it was dead at one point. Housing Holly (the landlord) gets the lawn mowed every week or so and I love it. I just recently walked outside and was amazed because it seems like overnight we got two wonderful rose bushes. A beautiful pink one and a gorgeous yellow one. Yesterday I laid outside and read and stared at them for about two hours all by myself. When I finally got up I felt so relaxed and so content there was nothing I would rather be doing. Maybe I am thinking about it too much but they are a constant reminder to me that I should be more aware of the little things and that I should always take the time out to enjoy the things that can easily slip by unnoticed. How many times had I walked by my own lawn and never noticed the growing bulbs? I plan on spending as much time reading next to them as I can.

P.S. Yes I did take the cute pink rose picture. Move over Shanna. There is a new photog in town.

We Love Crabs

Alisha and I took it upon ourselves to have a crab night because we love crabs. She bought a huge one and cooked it up for us and then we ate it but when we were done we realized we wanted more. I quickly revved up the scooter and flew to Smiths and when I say flew I mean not going faster than 25 mph because there is something wrong with the scoot and the lights keep going on and off so it was slightly dangerous. Good times though. We ended up buying tons of shrimp cz Smith's only had ONE package of crab legs. We cooked them in garlic and then seasoned the meat with lime juice and old bay mixed together.


I know some of you are looking at this picture like... it seems like they are cracking crab claws with a can opener. No need to wonder. We were/did. We didn't have a clab craw cracker thing. We improvised. It worked wonderfully.


After all that crab we decided we still had enough room to at least try and eat some of the Marie Callender turtle pie we bought.I don't know what got into us but we were eating machines!!

Needless to say we now have a crabbing day planned when I get back to New Jersey. I'm super excited. I can't wait. I miss JERSEY.

A Weekend in Vegas

So there was a YSA conference in Vegas and my roommate Shanna and I went down just to relax and hang out. I love going to Vegas with Shanna. The weather was great and I really just took the time to chill back and relax. This conference could not have come at a better time for me. Getting away is always the best remedy for everything no matter what it is. Anyway, the best day had to be Friday. Shanna, Heather (Shanna's twin sister), and I drove out to lake Mead in search of a beach area to swim in. Couldn't find it. We went to try and rent wave runners. Sold out. So we improvised. Naturally the next step would be to rent a powerboat. SO WE DID!! It was amazing!! We drove it around lake Mead as fast as we could ( turns out 4500 rpm is the fastest) and found a cove and then parked it and swam around for a couple hours.It was just what I needed. Sadly I do not have any pictures from Friday but I took others to make up for it. We did tons. We ate at two of my most favorite places, In-n-out and Cheesecake Factory. I tried a new cheesecake this time. The banana cream one. It was worth it. We swam in some person's . pool with the waterfall. I was slightly disappointed we didn't sneak into the Marriott but his waterfall made it almost ok. There was a fireworks show on Saturday night that enjoyed tons. I love fireworks. What else?? Oh, well I finished my book I was reading called A Life Backwards. It took me a while to get into it the first time I tried but over the weekend I read and read and when I got to the end I cried my eyes out. I am convinced that had Shanna not been sitting next to me when I finished I would have reread the ending and cried longer but.... I was embarassed.





P.S. Since I am a geology expert now (I got an A-) I included a picture of the scenery on the ride home. I have a new found love for earth . I never really believed when teachers said that earth was a living breathing thing until geology 1010. You might not think it's beautiful. But I do.