Call Me Little Miss Sunshine

At school I am the Co-Chair of the Sunshine Committee. The Sunshine Committee is the "teacher morale" committee. Basically, I plans events that involve food. Although this year we stepped out of our comfort zones and organized a March Madness bracket for everyone. I know,  crazy.

This is sort of what it looks like. But not as fancy. And we are cooler.

Anyway, today I organized lunch for the teachers. We had pizza delivered and each lunch coordinated sides to bring and share.


I sent TWO different emails that specified two important things:


1) Each teacher may have (2) slices of pizza

We had CiCi's

2) If you want to eat a side dish, then bring a side dish to share


I didn't think these were ridiculous requests. If you didn't want to make a side dish, then take your pizza and leave or eat it and don't touch the other food. 


It isn't fair for everyone to spend time and money on their side dishes and then have the rift raft come in, eat their food, and contribute nothing. 


Now, before you say, "Geez Kristen, ever heard of sharing?" This is a recurring problem. It is always the same people that do everything for everyone else and people just suck suck suck like leeches on a sick child in 1712 Paris, France.

I think most of the staff understood and agreed with my rationale.


Most of it.


I must admit, I grew a little annoyed at my lunch when people came in, grabbed their pizza, and then looked at the table where the usual suspects sit (i.e. those of us who organized bringing side dishes and desserts to share) and exclaimed "oooooh! Cookies!" then grabbed three and walked out.


The type 'A,' bossy, slightly rude older child in me got a little heated when they not only partook in our feast, but also sat down, and kept going back for seconds. 


At one point I even found myself saying "Okay, the sides are for people that brought sides. We are sharing. If you didn't bring a side, I'm so sorry, but there is still pizza for you!" This slightly passive aggressive slightly confrontational comment did not deter many (the looks from my lunch friends let me know they caught on and were just as annoyed as I was. I think.)


In spite of this, I was able to get over that, enjoy my lunch and co-worker conversation about the important things in life, like Teen Mom 2. And hey! It's Friday!

But I find myself really irked right now to find out that certain pests secretly went to each lunch to get extra pizza. Meaning they took 6 slices of pizza- thinking no one would notice. 


In the words of Stephanie Tanner: HOW RUDE.

GIFSoup

In the words of Kristen Nelson:  STEALER! YOU'RE STEALING FROM YOUR COWORKERS AND YOU THINK NO ONE NOTICES BUT THEY DO AND THEY TALK ABOUT IT AND HAVE EVEN TRIED DIFFERENT STRATEGIES TO CURTAIL YOU FROM DOING IT BUT YOU ARE TRICKY AND SNEAKY LIKE A RAT. And it is unacceptable.


And I will avenge you.


Happy Friday!

Happy Friday!

I need a hint about what to give up for Lent

And I'm a terrible poet, I know it.


Anyway, I have had some interesting experiences with churches. I was baptized Catholic and religiously attended Mass each Sunday until I was 10, no pun attended.


My parents left the Catholic church and subsequently so did I, but I still find myself drawn to the sacred rites and rituals of the church. 


That said, Lent starts tomorrow. Lent is the tradition of giving something up (typically a vice that you would have a difficult time without) for about 40 days. This year, because Easter is SO late, it will be 46 days. This practice honors what Jesus sacrificed in the desert while he was taunted by the devil for 40 days. As it is one of the traditions that I appreciate in the Catholic church, I've been thinking about what to give up.


There are certain things that I probably should give up because they'd be a true sacrifice. However, Kristen + no carbs = cranky wife, friend, teacher and coworker.


Then there are things that would be a challenge: Kristen giving up naps, the occasional curse word, pizza, diet cokes (oh God, diet cokes??? Could I really do that?)


And finally, I've heard about people celebrating lent a little differently through giving of their time and money. Donating money to a new charity each week. Volunteering for a few hours at the soup kitchen each week. As I do volunteer quite a bit through Junior League, I don't know how exactly this would be a true test for myself. But, then again, it is always great to do things for other people rather than yourself, so there'd be the added bonus in that.


So, what should I do? What do you think about Lent? Will you be sacrificing anything this year? If so, what?

One of those days

Do you ever have days where you can relate to this:

Or, okay, maybe even  this:

Okay, okay last one I swear:

I'm just not into this week. My husband is home (finally,) I have a four day work week, Spring is here, and I'm ready to be free and on Spring Break and enjoying time with Mike, sleeping in, and doing what I want.

Yea, yea, yea, I know its annoying when teachers complain about needing time off. However, part of me wants me to ask you if you had an eleven year old burp eggs in your face recently? Or click their pen incessantly to get under your skin and then when you tell them to stop they have a small Damien smile on their face and then they begin to make fart noises with their mouths? Or refuse to take notes and then cry when they fail your test?

I love my kids and I love teaching them about history and world cultures.

But with this weather and my cute husband and cat waiting at home for me, its been a little hard to not dream of the weekend.

Happy Tuesday!

Kristen

I am sorry Bruno Mars for...

I am notorious for singing the wrong lyrics to songs. 


Unfortunately, I am not one of those people who sings quietly to themselves or in the privacy of their own car. I do all that, but I also sing in the house, in the shower, in Mike's car, in a room with my family i.e. wherever my heart desires.

This is not me, obvi. But this is what I probably look like when I am in my car.

I also sing loudly. In fact, Mike has to remind me from time to time that he would like to hear the artist's voice over mine occasionally. I have no idea why he would want to do that, but whatever, jerk.


Anyway, it has become a running joke in the Nelson household to see what lyrics I get wrong to pretty much every song we listen to. So it came as no surprise to me the other day when I was singing in my car that I discovered I had the lyrics to Bruno Mars "Just the Way You Are" VERY wrong.


Somehow, this lyric: But every time she asks me do I look okay, I say...

Got translated into this lyric: But every time she asks me do I love cocaine, I say...

And to be honest, this made me pretty horrified that the radio was playing such trash. I know my little 11 and 12 year old hormonal kiddos LOVE Bruno Mars, and while he may struggle with a personal addiction in real life, I certainly did not feel that it was appropriate to sing about it in a love song, of all things. A song that my kids would listen to and want their boyfriends to dedicate to them on 97.9 The Beat.

So, I kind of boycotted Bruno Mars. And talked bad about him in my head when I saw him at the Grammys (not because I'm weird, okay, well maybe because I'm weird, but because Mike hasn't been home for me to talk to for the past 2 months.)

Anyway, it wasn't until the other day that I realized what he was actually saying. And then I was kind of embarrassed and felt bad for judging him out of ignorance. But only for a second, because then I realized that I didn't really care, that there are more songs for me to mix up, and most definitely more stories like this in my future.

Happy Friday Y'all!!! YAY!!!!!!!!

Soapbox alert

I think many of us were rocked by tragic, shocking events this past week. While I always half-heartedly buy into clichés you can say about life, today I found myself needing to pause, take a breath, and soak in the reminder that life is so precious.


That the small stuff doesn't matter. 


That most of the big stuff doesn't matter either. 


That its not all about me, and what I'm going to wear to the Slipper Club Gala.


And that while we might never understand why terrible things happen, even shocking, tragic things that don't seem fair, God is big enough.


Love, peace and comfort to all who are hurting now.

Trend Alert? Not in my book.

A few weeks ago my sister mentioned that I should check out the new OPI shatter Nail Polish. I looked it up online and the first thing that came to my mind was "Ew."


Now, I am all about nail polish trends, but this just looks gross--- like Lindsay Lohan 4 AM paparazzi shot of the chipped nail polish gross. Grungy. Nasty. Dirty. Barf. I really really dislike, okay hate, chipped nail polish. This is basically the epitome of that.

I don't know about y'all, but seeing as Mike HATES the dark nail polish winter trend, I can imagine this sentence would come out of his mouth: "What the %&#@ is wrong with your nail polish?"

Today when I got on Twitter, Glamour had a tweet about going "wild" for this stuff.  You can read the full article about it here. In the meantime, here are some pictures of this crap I mean polish:

It looks like her nail polish is cracking to reveal a serious case of jaundice

Okay, first of all this nail is WAY too long. Second of all, has anyone seen this movie (other than M and I?:)

Ugh, no thanks. I'll let the youngin's and Miley wear this stuff. And I guess my sister.

So, what about you? Would you be allowed to wear this to work? Would you wear it to play? Am I a stick in the mud?

Day 1 of the Bar is over! Mike seemed upbeat and positive when I talked with him earlier. YAY!


I had a dream last night that I watched him take the Bar (I know, so creepy.) In my dream, he was taking the Bar in the Government building at Texas (Burdine??) and there was stadium seating for me to sit behind him and watch. I kept talking and making comments to someone next to me about his progress at which point he turned around and told me to be quiet.


I'm so weird.


But I'm so happy beyond belief for him, especially because now he is 1/3 of the way finished!


For those of you that know Mike, you will agree with me when I say that he was born to be a lawyer. Many people find vocations in life that work for them, however they could just as easily have another job and be as good and happy doing that. As for Mike, this is what he SHOULD be doing. I've refrained from asking my mother-in-law this question, but sometimes I think that he probably came into the world analyzing and arguing for what he knows or at least believes to be right.


Mike will argue his points (not in a nasty way, in a lawyer-ish way) for longer than anyone I know. Don't get him started on cold fusion.


He can almost always find some sort of hole, or at least make you think that he has found a hole, in your argument. 


While your eyes might glaze over and your head might start to spin from him justifying and arguing and proving his points, he could probably convince you that the sky was green if he wanted to.


My love likes to think through things and prove his points, and more power to him. Especially when he nails that $800 million case. Here's to the power of thinking positively!


Anyway, all of this to say, Congratulations Mike! So, so very proud of you.

Mommy Dearest

I'm not a parent, but this horrifies me:

And you wonder why they will grow up to resent you?

"NO MORE WIRE HANGERS!!!!!!!!"

You could do this in a much more effective way, such as "We don't play with those types of toys in the tub" or even, if you just have to get rid of them, "I am so sorry that we are having to GIVE AWAY THESE TOYS TO NEEDY CHILDREN" rather than humiliating and demeaning your poor boys. Bleh. Shoddy parenting.

On another note, it is FRIDAY!!!!!!!!!  Because The Bar Monster controls my husband right now, I have a weekend planned full of NOTHING. I'm getting my hair did, watching movies and catching up on my shows, sleeping in and cleaning my house! I'm so excited. Sometimes you just need weekends like this one!

YAY for Friday!

Kristen

Dreaming of the Beach... Again

Freshome is a website that I frequent which blogs about cool architecture and neat architectural spaces. Today they decided to blog about "23 Amazing Bedrooms with Panoramic Views of the Ocean."

Oh, okay. Just what I need for my hump day in the middle of February. Le sigh.

Here are some of my favorites:

Notice the hot tub out in front, which also overlooks the ocean. Also, that bed looks really comfortable.

Alternate View= Tiki Hut Mansion

Look at the beautiful color of the water! Not to mention the private deck with your own personal comfy designer lounge chairs. All I need now is a butler preparing me a Mai Tai.

Anthro decoration, check. Beautiful hard wood floors, check. Deck that I could cannonball I mean swan dive off of into the ocean, check.

Love the spicy colors and Latin American influence in this room. I especially love how you can see the entire beach, town and ocean in this room.

Now THIS is what I call a panoramic view. I love the infinity pool complete with a waterfall in front. You people, as if the ocean isn't enough, you have to go and put a pool in front of the ocean. Drooling...

Okay Mikey, when we win the lottery, which beach are you going to take me to first? I'm not picky...


Happy Wednesday Y'all.