Well, hiiiiii.

Ok, am I a freak for feeling like I haven't posted in forever, when it has only been a few days? Quite possibly. 

This weekend was anything but boring, as we had Ben's mom Ann in town. Cue trips to the zoo, dinners out (sorry WW), visiting family, etc. It was lovely- I just wish that she (and the weekend) were able to stay longer. 

The weekend started off with a bang when I decided to try out a new class at the gym- Les Mills Body Pump aka torture. Hardest class ever. Would have definitely quit about 30 minutes in if there wasn't a girl from my ward at the class. I didn't want word getting around that I suck at working out and even walked out of a class early. Unfortunately there is no getting around the fact that I am not, I repeat not, an attractive exerciser. Serious ugly faces are made when I'm running, lifting, etc. Benjamin does not need to worry about me ever getting hit on at the gym... yes, the faces are just that bad. Ugly faces aside, I am still sore from Saturday's class. Does that mean that the class was ridiculously hard or am I just that out of shape?

Here are a few pictures from the weekend...

 We took Dylan to the zoo for the first time! He enjoyed himself but didn't get too into it. He started making monkey noises in the monkey house, which was sooo cute. We at least 5 attempts at getting a good picture of the three of us... yep, this was the best one. 

Sweet boy.

Even though I'm depressed that the long weekend is gone, I'm encouraged by this being a 3 day work week for me- hooray! More time off work = a happy me.

Dylan says hello.

Thinking happy thoughts.

At the recommendation of my dear friend Allison, I have been reading the book "The Happiness Project" for the past few weeks. 

I have loved this book and would highly recommend it. It is a "I'm not happy with my life so maybe a book will tell me what to do" read. No, it's a "I'm a pretty happy person and I want to think about ways that I can make my happy life even better." The Happiness Project has helped me identify the little things that cause me ridiculous, unnecessary stress (such as the worry I feel when it's 11pm Thursday night and I realize that our trash is not on the curb... what if we miss the trash truck? Do I really want to get out of bed and put the trash on the curb? Oh no! What to do? Let's fret about it for 15 minutes, shall we?) and get myself to eliminate it. Also, it has helped me create mini goals for myself to make my life and home a happier place. Bottom line: read it. Do it. Love it.

Last Sunday's church talks and lessons were all about gratitude, which was perfect for me at this moment in my life. I've found myself getting bogged down by life and feeling a little "poor me" at times. Poor me that my job is giving me gray hair, poor me that Dylan throws 500 tantrums each day, poor me that I don't have a closet filled with Anthropologie clothes. Nope, this gratitude overload has made me realize lucky me that I have a job, lucky me that I have my sweet Dylan, lucky me that I have a closet full of clothes. Seriously, I don't have to have a fancy, glitzy, perfect life to be happy. 

Here's something that has cracked me up for the past few days... I dare you not to smile at my boy shoving mac and cheese into his mouth with such ferocity. Love. him. 

Ben's new assistant.

Dylan sat on the motorcycle for about a half hour, happy as a clam. He calls the motorcycle a "Sickle" and asks about it at least 20 times each day. Often times the first thing that Dylan says to me in the morning when I come into his room is "Sickle? Sickle?" 

Adorbs.

Obsessed.

The end.

I die. (again)

I discovered The Hunger Games series a year or so ago and I absolutely love it. Yes, when you think about the plot (which includes kids being forced into an arena to kill each other) it sounds horrific, but the books are soooo good. 

As is the current trend with popular book series, The Hunger Games is being made into a movie. Yay! Please tell me that you already knew that. If you didn't, get out from under your rock please. Anyway, I've been following the casting choices and I must say, I loooove who was cast. Here are the main characters:

Here are the main three- Peeta, Katniss, and Gale. 

Woody Harrelson as Haymitch. Love it! I had always pictured Jeff Bridges as Haymitch, but I think that Woody will do a great job as a drunk, sarcastic mentor. 

Stanley Tucci as Caesar Flickerman. This makes me happy, as I love Stanley in everything that he does. Every movie that I've seen him in he absolutely nails it. He's hilarious and I kind of wish that he was my uncle or something. Uncle Stan. I like it.

There have been about 30 other people cast, but I'm no where near motivated enough to discuss even half of that. If you're curious check out imdb. 

____________________________________________________________

My friend Melissa is an amazing artist and graphic designer. She recently opened an Etsy shop called Kathryn Divine. She has prints that look great in a child's room, as well as canvases and decor that would look beautiful in any home.Take a look!

Something old and something new.

This is how I feel about taking pictures of myself with the webcam. 

I realized how very few pictures of myself I have... I'm always the one behind the camera and if I ask Benjamin to take a picture of me he has no patience and always ends up snapping when my eyes are half closed or when the angle is reaaaaally unfortunate. So, self portraits it is. 

And that had nothing to do with what I really wanted to post about: Exercise tv (something old) and Skinny Cow's latest deliciousness (something new.)

Alright, I may be ridiculously late jumping on this bandwagon, but I have just discovered Exercise TV on Comcast On Demand. The word to describe this would be amazing. It has been proven that I am unable to wake up at 6 am for the gym which means that I have been in desperate need of an in-home workout. Yes, I have the Jillian Michaels 30 day shred, but I need some variety in my basement exercising. I can only take so much of Jillian before I want to punch the tv. Yesterday I was randomly clicking around my On Demand options and I found Exercise tv. So many options! In. love. I did a 10 minute thigh and butt workout  after my run this morning and phew! it was hard!

On my latest grocery run I found the Holy Grail of Skinny Cow snacks. Yes, more yammering about Skinny Cows. I love them, ok? Anyway, I came across these:

'

Sorry for the janky picture- google images has not caught on to these babies yet. I tried the Dreamy Clusters yesterday and they were ahhhhhhmazing. They're in these little, tiny individual packages right now, but hopefully they'll come out with 6 pack boxes sometime soon. Run to your grocery store and get some of these. 

PS- This is hilarious to me: I googled Skinny Cow Dreamy Clusters, hit images and I am not lying my picture shows up! Just my little profile picture, but it's like picture number 28 (as of this morning).... I guess that means that I'm a little obsessed. 

Aaaaaand there we go. Happy Tuesday!

Whatever gets you through the day, right?

Although I'm currently in denial that the weekend is already over, I have a few things that I'm choosing to occupy my thoughts rather than the fact that my next four days will consist of the daily grind that is work. Honestly, it's the little things in life that make a big difference to me, as you can see here:

Oh, words with friends, how I love you. 95% of my iPad use is for Words with Friends. It's scrabble at its best and I looove it. Please let me know if you play- I'm tired of the dang random opponents and they always have the lamest usernames. True dat.

Skinny cows are a major part of my life. Truly. I have one every single day and I don't want to think of a night that doesn't get capped off with some Skinny Cow. I'm regularly irked that I am not one of the lucky few who can eat anything and everything without gaining a pound. Nope, never have been one of those people and I'm guessing that I never will be. Thank goodness there are Skinny Cows... they allow me to indulge without feeling like an unSkinny Cow. I usually eat the sandwiches, but I recently discovered the truffle bars. They're absolutely scrumptious, although I may still prefer the sandwiches. 

Those who know me well may have caught on to my mild nail polish obsession. I always have to have my toenails painted and my nails are also painted the majority of the time. I have dozens of polishes, and my new favorite brand is Essie. It's a little more pricey than Revlon and the like, but the colors are so great. My newest find is Enuff is Enuff it's the perfect coral- not too orange or too red. 

Is it just me...

Or are CeeLo Green's hands reaaaaaally small? I swear, it is the only thing that I can think about when I see him clapping on "The Voice."

When my mind goes on a break from being fixated on his small hands, I immediately start thinking of the way that he claps, as it reminds me of this:

Yes, that would be the mom from "The Nutty Professor" saying, "Hercules, Hercules, Hercules!" Please tell me that you remember this. 

And on to weekend news.....

Ummm there really isn't anything major going on with me, which I love. I have nothing that I have to do and I really could stay in my pajamas all weekend. Not that I'm going for 72 hours of pajamadness, but I just like having that option, you know?

PS-

I am in desperate need of some decent pajamas. 99% of the time pajamas means a ratty old t-shirt from 1997 (yes, 1997... that's 14 years old. Vom.) and my disgusting, stretched out, hole in the knee and crotch yoga pants. I like to call then my elephantes (el-uh-fahn-tays) but they really need to be called garbage. Any suggestions as to where I can find some fabulous pajamas?

Poor planning wins again!

Today Ben decided to surprise me with a fabulous Mother's Day gift- a sectional for the basement! I've wanted a basement sectional for awhile now, so I was one excited girl. We went to the furniture store and found a lovely brown sectional for a great price. Hooray! 30 minutes later, Ben went back to the store in his truck, picked up our new acquisition, and brought it home. 

A few hours later Ben had his friend Nathan over, so they did the manly thing of loading the furniture into the house. It took them about 2 minutes to realize that short of knocking down a wall, there was no way that the sectional would fit through the basement door. 

FAIL. 

FAIL. FAIL. FAIL.

Now our living room has a couch, love seat, and an enormous sectional, making Dylan's toy area nonexistent. 

Current score:

The Harris family- 0

Poor planning- 1

On the upside, we now have a lot of seating in our living room. 

 Pretty, right?

Dylan's displaced toys. 

Before I forget...

*disclaimer: I am not pregnant. I don't plan on being pregnant for at least 365 days.... probably more.

I need to figure out how to plant an idea in Ben's head...kind of exactly like Inception. Ben has to think it's his idea, or he will never go for it. 

Ben needs to decide that if we ever have a baby girl, we will name her Pippa. 

After all the to-do about the royal wedding, I have discovered how much I looooove the name. 

Does anyone have the technology to initiate inception? Lemme know.

I suppose I should be flattered?

So yesterday when I was driving to my office I realized that my superfab boss had just called me. I called her right back to see what was up. She wanted to be sure that I was planning on being in the office that afternoon because "She had to talk to me about a few things."

That is not something that you want to hear from your boss. It's like your significant other sitting you down and saying, "We need to have a talk" followed by some undoubtedly awful information. 

My response to my boss was something along the lines of "Ohmygosh am I in trouble for something?"

(it's so nice that I'm friends with my boss and therefore can be myself and say what I'm thinking, rather than worrying about being polite and always professional 100% of the time)

Anyway, a little while later I was able to speak to my boss... and she dropped two bombs on me. 

1. We're getting a new worker in a week and a half and I'm being assigned as her mentor. Whaaaaa? I suppose that I know how to do my job, but I wouldn't pick me as the one to mold her newbie mind. Let's hope I don't send her running. Whenever we have interns I find myself telling them, "I don't hate my job, I promise." OR  "I wasn't always this cynical." on a near-daily basis. Not too promising, eh?

2. I have been picked to be part of a pilot group for some new way of doing some things at work. Why, why, whyyyyy? Don't make me change the way that I do things! I am extremely resistant to any type of change/training/new policies at my job for some reason. Like, I go into all trainings with a scowl on my face because how dare you make me take time out of my busy day to make me learn something new. I'm rarely oppositional about things, but any changes in my work makes me grit my teeth for some odd reason. 

Bosslady and husband both say that I should see the bombs as positive things, as I wouldn't be asked either of these things if I was terrible at my job. True. I'm just being a spaz who can't handle change and resists extra responsibility at the workplace. Whop, whoppp.

Don't bother me, I'm busy.

I walked into the laundry room and found Dylan like this:

Little boy pulled himself up to Ben's work bench and was busy with his tools. 

"Leave me alone Mommy, I'm busy making stuff."

"Wait, before you go can you hand me that screwdriver? Thanks."

Good things happening.

Hello friends! I feel like I haven't posted in awhile (5 days- a long time for me) so I thought that a little update on my life and thoughts was necessary.

I would feel unpatriotic and ungrateful if I didn't voice some of my thoughts about Osama Bin Laden finally getting tracked down and killed and is most likely roasting it up with Hitler and Jeffrey Dahmer. I'm very thankful for all of the men and women serving our country and working so hard to make the world a better and safer place. While I never felt that I was unpatriotic, I surprised myself the other day when I was driving by Del Taco. Yes, Del Taco. The swanky restaurant had a new message on its marquee saying "Never forget 9-11, God bless America." The emotions welled up inside me and I burst into tears. I am proud to be an American, and it's things like the darn Del Taco signs that remind me of it and make me cry.

Last weekend I saw Water For Elephants with some of my best girls. Oh my goodness, it is your duty as a human being to go see this movie. I loooooved it. It was visually stunning with amazing sets. Robert Pattinson proved that yes, he can act. Christoph Waltz played an excellent crazy man. Yep, the movie gets an A+ in my book.

I think that I'm starting to sound like my life revolves around movies, but I assure you that is doesn't. Except for this last one- Something Borrowed. The book is one of my absolute favorites and I've been excited about the movie for months. It finally comes out on Friday, which means that I must see it this weekend. Must. Anyone want to accompany me?