Middle of the Night/Monday Morning Bullets - Catch Up Edition

• OMG. I can't believe that it's been 2 months since my last post. I haven't even been that busy.


• I've really missed everyone, though. I finally logged onto my Google Reader, and I'm desperately trying to catch up on everything.


• In the last 2 months, I have managed to master like every Facebook game possible. Y'all would seriously be impressed with my Farmville skills. Or maybe not because staring at a fake farm waiting to harvest crops all day is kind of lame.


• I'm really loving my new town. It's super friendly, and way less crowded than Houston. I've made a new friend. She's all young and cool and just bought condo downtown. I felt so old because all I could think about when I saw it was that I could never fit all of Kaeli's crap into it. But the apartment has this awesome balcony where you can watch drunk people stumbling out of restaurants and trendy clubs.


• There has been a lot of adjusting going on since the move and engagement. Living with a boy when it has just been me and Kaeli for so long is really weird. The increase in laundry by adding just one person is seriously unbelievable. It never stops. And do you realize that guys can't eat just one of ANYTHING? In fact, they must eat 3 of your favorite yogurts in 1 sitting, therefore, leaving you with none!! And guys also don't appreciate your love of Gossip Girl, but can be coerced into watching Project Runway and even the new Models of the Runway. I figure that is a win.


• Kaeli started 2nd grade and is totally loving her new school. At the parent/teacher conference last week, her teacher said she fit right in and made friends in about 2 seconds. I wasn't really worried about it because Kaeli is a social butterfly, but it was really nice to hear.


• We have seemed to reach the stage where a certain 2nd grade boy teases Kaeli relentlessly, Kaeli then cries and says that he is so mean, but she NEVER STOPS TALKING ABOUT HIM. I like to torture her by asking if she "likes" said boy because she gets so annoyed, rolls her eyes, and says that they "are just friends". 2nd grade, people. 2nd freaking grade!!!


• I haven't gone back to work just yet. I did start really looking last week or so. It's been so nice to be home! I've loved how much time I've gotten to spend with Kaeli, but now it's getting kind of boring. She is at school all day, and there are only so many One Tree Hill reruns a girl can handle. Again, I stress the mastery of all things Facebook. Plus, the Working Girl inside of me is screaming to be let out. She needs to stare at Excel and play with spreadsheets and make office small talk while getting coffee!!!


• I've done a little wedding planning, but not near as much as I need to. We found the venue that we both love, but haven't signed the contract yet. Rob is being all boring and practical and thinks I should actually have a job before we dive into wedding expenses. Whatevs. Money grows on trees, doesn't it??


• So. remember my ridiculous Twilight/Edward Cullen obsession? It's turned into a serious sickness. I don't know if y'all realize how many teen vampire novels are out there. I'm addicted to at least 2 more series. I can't stop. It's kind of sad that when I go into a bookstore I head straight for the young adult section.

And for your dose of cuteness...here is Kaeli on the first Cold Enough for a Hat Day of the season last week!!

p.s. the whole messenger style tote bag is the IN thing, apparently. Kaeli HAD to have it since all the kids in her class do too. 2nd grade has definitely become the grade where EVERYTHING MATTERS.

Let's just pretend it hasn't been a month since we last spoke

We have a lot to discuss my blog friends!

I really don't even know where to start.

I'll just start with the biggest most exciting fun news EVER.

I'M ENGAGED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He proposed on the Bow Bridge in Central Park on our fun trip to NYC. I'm normally the girl who loves to tell a good story, but I'm seriously at a loss for words when I try to talk about it. I was hoping it would happen. I was even kind of expecting it, but I was still totally shocked when he got down on one knee!! It was all very cheesy and sweet and perfect!

This explains my absense from the blog world. I'm spending all of my time reading wedding magazines and playing on The Knot!

I'm getting married! YAY!!!!

I Officially Hate Moving

What was I thinking when I decided to pack my own boxes?

Worst. Idea. Ever.

Procrastinators should never be put in charge of packing.

I have too much stuff.

So tired.

This sucks.

The End.

7?!! How is she already 7?

**So this post has been sitting UNFINISHED for weeks. I'm a slacker mom**

Today is Kaeli's 7th birthday! (by today I mean 2 weeks ago...)

I seriously can't believe how fast 7 years has gone by.

I have to say that this past year has been one of my favorites. She really has grown up so much.

Case in point - She used "Touche" in a conversation we had the other day. And she used it CORRECTLY.

I love the person she is growing into.

Let's travel down memory lane, shall we.

Baby Kaeli!! Oh how I miss that squishy tummy.

2 year old Kaeli! One of my most favorite pictures EVER.

3 year old rockstar Kaeli

4 year old Princess Kaeli...I LOVED HER HAIR...I was obsessed with her little curls...I miss them everyday.

More 4 year old Kaeli...she carried a book EVERYWHERE

5 year old Kaeli...such a sweet little face!

6 year old Kaeli...Seriously fun age!!

And now...7 year old Kaeli...attitude and all

The powers that be blocked blogger at work!! Do they really think they can stop me?I will not be silenced!!!!

I think a discussion over proper use of a toilet seat is in my future

Remember how I casually mentioned that there was a reason I haven't been blogging much?

Well, I am ready to share it with the blogosphere.

Y'all are waiting with bated breath, aren't you?

Okay. Here it goes.

I'M MOVING!

Wow. How is that for anticlimactic?

Rob and I have reached the threshold on the length of a long distance relationship , and we decided it was time that Kaeli and I moved to his city. I pretend like we spent so much time debating who's city we would move too, but really there was never that much doubt. I like Houston, but I don't LOVE Houston so it won't be too hard to say goodbye. (Peace out, hurricane season. I am so not scared of you anymore.) Plus, quite frankly, his job is just better than mine. We found a house (to rent, of course...i am so not ready for the responsibility of my own home), and I am officially moving in 2 1/2 weeks. We've talked about it for a while, and it feels so weird that the time is already here.

I didn't want to put it down on the blog until things were final, and all important people had been notified. (i.e. - My boss because even though no one at work really knows about my blog, it would be just my luck that someone would stumble upon it before I had the chance to say anything. Not that anyone I work with really even knows what a blog is.)

I found it impossible to pull together a coherent post when all I really wanted to do was announce the move. I tried a bunch of times, but always left the post unfinished. I guess now y'all get to be inundated with all of the mundane stuff that happened in the last month. Lucky!!

Well, I am so glad that is out of the bag.

In a couple of weeks, I will be living with a boy. So weird.

The Emotional Minefield that is Raising an (Almost) 7 Year Old

OMG, y'all.

This whole raising a girl thing is IN-Freaking-SANE.

Kaeli has always been on the creative side. She's crafty and artsy. She talks about becoming a fashion designer when she grows up because she (and I quote) "just loves clothes so much and it is so fun to make styles." Since the day she could hold a crayon, she has been obsessed with notebooks and journals. She has them all over her room with drawings and short written passages.

Her creative flair has always been one of my favorite things about her. Kaeli and I are A LOT alike, but this is a quality she most definitely did not inherit from me. I love seeing all the ways she is growing into her own little person.

She also tends to be sensitive and dramatic (ok so the dramatic thing might be straight from my genes to hers but whatever).

Now on to my point. Kaeli has always shared her creative genius with me. She's always brought the journals and drawings to me so that we can look through them together. She never seemed to think of them as private or anything.

Until last weekend.

My friend gave Kaeli a little Hannah Montana notebook with cool colored pens. When Kaeli was in the other room playing with my friend's son, I, absentmindedly, picked up the notebook and started flipping through it.

Kaeli walked into the room to find me looking through the book, and had a complete and utter MELTDOWN. OMG. The crying. And the yelling about privacy and secret journals. And the crying. And she was so embarrassed. (In case you're curious, all she had written down was that she was in love with my friend's son, M. I think she caught me chuckling about it.) I sat there in shock because I have never seen her react this way before.

I apparently committed the absolute worse offense ever in her young life (Good thing she doesn't remember the baby years. She would be so mad if she knew all the first time mom dumb things that happened.) I have truly never seen her so angry and upset with me. I felt awful. I even bribed her with $2 and a pinky swear that I will never go through her journals again.

It amazes me that we can go from sharing everything, and, out of nowhere, she needs space and privacy. Her 7th birthday is in a couple of weeks, and she always gets a little "feisty" right before she turns a year older. I'm wondering if it's just a short term thing because she realizes she is almost 7 (and therefore totally grown up in her own eyes), or if we really are heading into a new stage of the growing up process. I mean, dudes, she's not even 7 yet. Isn't this all supposed to happen when she is older? I remember getting mad at my mom and sister when they would go through my journals. Their constant perusal of my inner thoughts is the reason I stopped writing them down. But, y'all, I was 11 when all of this crap started becoming important to me!


I guess it's time to brush up on my spy skills because I'm going to have to get a hell of a lot sneakier if we are to survive this phase!!

I Hope You Have Some Time and a Full Beverage because It's a Long One

I feel like I have been seriously neglecting my poor little blog. It feels like I have so much to write about, but then I sit down to do it and nothing comes to mind! There kind of is a reason, but that's a different post for a different day.

(I'm so mysterious and intriguing, aren't I?)

So I guess y'all get a rambling, no clear point to it, catch up post.

Rambling #1
A couple weeks ago, Rob and I took Kaeli to Sea World for a little End of 1st Grade and Congrats on Being a Totally Awesome Kid Celebration. I hadn't actually been before, so I might have been just as excited as Kaeli. I planned on having 87 million pictures to show everyone, but I'm a genius and forgot to charge my camera. We ended up buying Ridiculously Overpriced Disposable Cameras at the gift shop. (Which I had totally forgotten how to use. Winding up and holding the flash and not being able to tell if I have a weird look on my face after taking a picture is so 1998!) The problem with Ridiculously Overpriced Disposable Cameras is that you have to actually take them somewhere and get them developed. Which means that the Ridiculously Overpriced Disposable Cameras will probably sit on my counter until the end of summer.

The problem with Sea World is that now I sit in my cubicle thinking that I missed my calling in life. I SO should have become a dolphin trainer. There was this dolphin feeding area where we bought trays of fish and got to STAND RIGHT NEXT TO DOLPHINS AND FEED THEM. It was my favorite part of the day. They're so friendly and cute. I felt like an excited little kid. I forgot how much I loved dolphins when I was younger until I was literally inches from one. I might have gone through 6 trays of fish and had to be reminded (more than once) to share by my 6 year old daughter.

The Sea World trip wasn't all sunshine and happy dolphins. I also realized, more than ever, that guys are seriously ridiculous. No really. They can't help it. And by guys I mean Rob and the Minivan Driver at the Sea World Entrance. Stay with me here because it's going to get super run-on sentence like. The park opened at 10am, so you can imagine that at 10:22am the entrance was beyond crowded. First, there was an area to pay for parking, and then the 3 lanes merged to 2 lanes. Rob and I were in the far lane and needed to merge. Everyone was following proper crowded park merging etiquette. You know, the whole each car lets one car in thing. It was our turn to merge. Rob was driving, and I notice that the Minivan driver was not going to let us in, and it would be better to wait for the next car. I tell this to Rob, but Macho Man Syndrome sets in and he becomes DETERMINED to merge at this EXACT moment. Rob and Minivan Driver do the whole keep scooting up until someone gives in thing, and my voice is increasing in volume because we're in my new car and seriously what is the point of acting like an idiot. Then, the Minivan driver starts honking and calling Rob a motherf*cker, which I thought was really classy seeing as how all of us have kids in the car and his minivan had a Christian Fish Symbol on it. Finally, Rob backs down and lets the Minivan driver win, but I was totally pissed. It was completely ridiculous behaviour, right? Does it really matter if we are behind or in front of the minivan. There are HUNDREDS of cars in line. We are all going to the same place. It's going to take some time and patience!!! Plus was the little display of macho-ness really worth pissing me off and ruining what was a very nice and peaceful morning? Guys + Cars + Long Lines = Unbelievably Childish Behaviour.

Ok. Rant over. Thanks to those of y'all who made it through that story!

Rambling #2
One of my very favorite people in the whole wide world is moving very far away, and I'm super sad about it. My BFF's (I call her P-squared) hubby is in the Air Force and got orders to go to Germany for the next 4 years. I'm super excited for her because traveling Europe = Awesome, but I am so bummed that I won't be able to see her whenever I want. We've lived with in weekend visiting distance forever. Of course there will be visiting, but how realistic is it to think that we will see each other even once a year? And how the hell does international text messaging work? Is there even a plan for that because OMG what am I going to do if I can't text her 50 times a day? P^2 has a son, M, that is a few weeks younger than Kaeli. Kaeli and M have been super close since they were in the womb! It's so weird that for the next four years I won't be able to see him growing up. Not to mention that her and the hubby have been trying to have another baby, and the thought that they could come back to the states with a little P^2 who I don't know is heartbreaking.

Rambling #3
This conversation took place between the sons of P^2 and another friend. Both boys are 6.

J: Hey, M do you know Kaeli?
M: Yeah. She's kind of my cousin*.
J: She's really pretty.

* M calls Rob uncle, even though Rob isn't his actual uncle. M is convinced that if Rob and I ever get married, he and Kaeli will be cousins.

How effing cute is all of that? This age is fun.

Rambling #4
If you follow me on Twitter (kristi_kp...but why would you because I'm awfully boring) then you know I revealed a shameful secret. I have this strange desire to read Lauren Conrad's book LA Candy. I can't even explain why. You can stop wanting to be my friends now. I understand.

I could keep rambling. It's one of my specialties, but I think y'all have been through enough torture. I totally get it if you just skimmed.

On a side note, I feel so much better getting all of this out there. I really shouldn't take accidental blogging breaks anymore!!

Thank You, Jimmy Fallon For Making A Girl's Dream Come True

Jimmy Fallon is on a noble crusade to reunite the cast of Saved by the Bell.

Y'all can't even begin to imagine how much I want to see this happen.

Check out my first love, Zack Morris, on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon!

(it's kind of long, but worth every second)

Let This Be One of those Things She Forgets When She Gets Older

I think I just took the award for the most ridiculous and pointless thing ever said to a 6 year old.

Kaeli has been having some listening issues lately, and it's grinding on my last nerve. My usually sweet, well-behaved, and compliant daughter literally hears nothing that comes out of my mouth. I have to say something 5 times before she acknowledges me, and even then she barely carries out any of the tasks I ask her to do.

I'm pretty positive that this phase is brought on by the end of the school year. It's the last week of school, and I think both of us are just tired of the routine. We're both irritable and exhausted.

Last night, after battling with her for what felt like an eternity (but was probably only 20 minutes) I took away TV privileges for the rest of the school year. (school ends Thursday, but I thought it sounded more drastic worded the other way!!) She did not take this well and mumbled under her breath all the way to her bedroom. This morning, she was complaining about how mean and unfair I was for taking away the TV (the kid needs her Disney channel), and I said something that I'm still shaking my head about.

Kaeli: But it's not fair that you get to watch TV and I don't.
Me: (are y'all ready for this piece of brilliance that I am about to share?) Well, I listen to me so I get to watch TV. You don't listen to me so you don't get to watch TV.

Seriously? I LISTEN TO ME. It doesn't even make sense. As soon as it came out of my mouth I knew it was stupid. At the same time, I realized it was totally something my own mother would say which freaks me out on so many levels. When did I turn into my mother? I didn't see that happen at all.

If I expect to be able to battle with her when she is a teenager, I am going to have to have better comebacks. Dear God that one was shameful!

Because I Haven't Mentioned Edward Cullen in Forever

Y'all know I had no choice but to jump on the leaked New Moon movie poster bandwagon, right. I just have no control over my Edward Cullen impulses.

I just have to say that I LOVE THIS MOVIE POSTER. The only way it would be better is if *I* had any acting talent whatsoever, was cast as Bella Swan, and got to make-out with Edward Cullen all day long.

Would y'all think I was super ridiculous if I already had the movie release date set in my iPhone? That's totally normal, right? RIGHT?

Monday Scorecard

• My bed was so comfortable this morning that I hit the snooze 3 times. Monday -1
• I had 2 cups of coffee before 7am, seriously increasing my perkiness level. Monday +1
• I am having a super cute hair day. Monday +1
• Kaeli was unbelievable sweet and cooperative this morning. Monday +1
• The card reader on the bus wasn't working. Free ride to work. Monday +1
• The guy sitting next to me smelled like stale leftovers. Monday -1
• Traffic seriously sucked. Took forever to get to work. Monday -1
• Dancing with the Stars finale and The Bachelorette with Jillian starts tonight. Monday +1

Looks like I'm up 5 to 3. Suck it, Monday!

Kaeli Sound Bites

The Set-up:
When Kaeli was at the park with her grandma today, she fell while running around the track. The track is made of gravel, and her hands and knees were covered in scrapes. No lie, she looked like she had been dragged through rocks.

Me: Oh My Goodness, Kaeli! You look awful.
Kaeli: Just what every girl loves to hear. Thanks.

I have no idea where she picked up that kind of sarcasm.

More Car Talk

Last Friday, I had an appointment with my insurance adjuster to get an estimate for the damage to my flooded car. After all of my Google searching and unsolicited advice from coworkers, I was a little nervous about the outcome of this meeting.

(Turns out that there are so many flood claims in good old H-town right now that, they had to fly the guy I met with in from Maryland just to handle the demand!)

The guy was really nice. He determined that since my car was still running and drivable that the damage wasn't too bad. He worked up an estimate, and I left my precious car in the very capable hands of the men at the "flood specialist" repair shop with the assurance that it would be done in a few days.

As I was driving home in my rental car, I had mixed feelings about the outcome. On one hand I was happy that I would get my car back, but on the other, I was worried about the future value and safety of my car.

Turns out that all the worrying was pointless because, the next day (Saturday), my insurance guy called to tell me that after further inspection, they realized water got into a lot of my electrical stuff. He decided to total my car.

My cute little car is gone. I had already taken everything out, so I'll never see it again.

Upon hearing this news, Rob immediately went into "guy problem solving mode". He immediately got on the Internet, and two hours after hearing about my car I found myself being dragged around a car dealership.

I really was only going to look, but then I saw the exact car I wanted. The car that had been in the back of my mind ever since someone mentioned that my flooded car was most likely totalled. The car that I didn't let myself think too much about because (1) I didn't want to get my hopes up and (2) I felt like I was betraying my flooded car.

Kaeli was really excited to go car shopping. She suggested that I buy a limo and just hire a butler to drive us around. I really love the way that girl thinks!

So, barely a week after the super stressful flooding, I'm driving around in my new car! It's wonderful and pretty and I got a good deal and I LOVE IT. It's so much bigger than my old car (it was a Mazda 3). It is a little sad to think that my days of a small cute car are over for a while. We were growing out of the old car anyway, so, while the timing wasn't exactly what I had planned, everything worked out for the best.

I guess all of my hopes and prayers from the last post were answered because the whole process could not have been easier.

After driving my old Mazda for 4 years, I couldn't imagine not having another one so:

Check out my Mazda CX-7. YAY!!

Isn't Kaeli so cute in her gymnastics leotard?

Oh, There's More...

Just having a flooded car wasn't enough to make yesterday go down in history as one of the Top 5 crappiest days I've ever had.

After dealing with all of the car stress, Kaeli and I went inside to clean up and try to relax a little bit. Up until this point, our dog, Maverick had been seriously neglected because so much was going on. We put his leash on, and took him for a nice walk.

Things were going just fine. The sun had come out, and all of roads had dried up. Quite frankly, unless you had spent your morning trying to salvage your car, it was a pretty day.

I noticed a couple of kids petting a dog that wasn't on a leash. I thought nothing of it until the rather large dog started CHARGING my 11lb. poodle mix. I told Kaeli to get away, and I tried to pick up Maverick before the dog could get to him, but the mean dog was too fast. He's barking and trying to bite Maverick, Mav is trying to get out of the way, and I'm trying, in vain, to get my little dog off of the ground to safety. The next thing I know, mean dog has a hold of Mav's tail and Kaeli is watching and FREAKING OUT. I'm trying to scare the dog away, but it's not working. Maverick manages to wiggle out of his collar (since I still have the leash) and take off running towards home. In hindsight, I guess I could have let go of the leash and let Maverick go running right away, but I kept picturing mean dog chasing him down and hurting him since I wouldn't have been there to protect Maverick. Finally, the mean dog runs the other way. I get Kaeli and Maverick into the apartment, and go looking for mean dog's owners.

The mean dog is chilling in the grass, and the kids are petting him. They don't know who's dog it is. In fact, no one in the whole complex knows who owns this dog. The kids totally ignored me when I said that they probably should be more careful around it. He seemed okay around people, but they had just watched what he tried to do to my dog. It didn't seem to phase the kids at all.

He had a collar, but I wasn't going to get close enough to look. I'm assuming that he got out of someone's yard. I was going to call animal control or something, so that they could handle the issue, but then the dog disappeared.

Thankfully, Maverick seems ok. As soon as we got into the apartment he was wagging is tail. I checked him for puncture wounds, but I don't think the mean dog ever got a good grip on him. Maverick is little, but he's scrappy.

I walked away from it the most injured. I have a huge burn from when the retractable leash wrapped around my arm during the dog rescuing efforts. Not to mention that now I'm totally terrified to take Maverick out for a walk. I'm also rethinking the retractable leash idea.

Maverick has always driven me a little crazy. He has destroyed my shoe collection, chewed up Kaeli's toys, and, when he gets really mad at me, he urinates in his crate and rolls in it so that he's completely soaked in dog piss. Then, as I was petting him and showering him with extra attention last night, I realized that I would be devastated if something ever happened to him. As annoying as he can be, he has firmly implanted himself as part of this family. I don't want to wish bad things on an animal, but I seriously hate that other dog for even coming near Mav.

The whole incident probably lasted a minute, but it was a seriously long minute. Like a slow motion minute that was just icing on the cake of one of the longest days ever.

I Will Never Look at Water the Same Way Again

Yesterday was one of those days that just sucks ass. There is no eloquent way to describe the shittiness of my Tuesday.

3am - Early Morning Storms

Kaeli came into my room, and asked to sleep in my bed because she was scared by the thunderstorm. Until she came in, I didn't even know there was a storm. It turned out to be a really bad one. The thunder was so loud, and the lightening was so bright that I couldn't fall back asleep. There was hail hitting my windows so hard that I was sure they were going to break. It was insane. I just sat there watching the ridiculous amount of rain. I have never seen so much rain in my life.

6am - Happy Ignorance of the Day Ahead

It was still raining so hard. I turned on the TV to check out the morning news. OMG. There was flooding EVERYWHERE. And, of course, my side of town was hit really badly. Kaeli's school was delayed 2 hours, the park and ride wasn't running routes, the power went out briefly, and the weatherman was very adamant that if you didn't absolutely have to be anywhere then stay home. I watched the pandemonium for a while, then emailed my boss to let him know that I was going to wait out the storm, and I would be into work after I dropped Kaeli off at school. Then I smiled because I was going to get to sleep in on a weekday. I blissfully climbed back into bed.

8am - The Shit Storm Begins

I get a text from my friend saying that the powers that be decided to cancel school all together. I realize that I'm going to have to call work and tell them I'm not coming in, but I quickly find out that staying home with Kaeli is the least of my worries. My alarm goes off, my phone rings, and someone is knocking on my door all at the same time. I rise from my slumber to my friend calling and my neighbor knocking to tell me the same news.

My car is full of water.

As it turns out, pretty much every car on my street is full of water. Neighbors are informing other neighbors, and in a matter of minutes the parking lot is full of people trying desperately to dry out their cars. The water has receded, so the street isn't flooded anymore, but the damage has been done.

My friends and I spent about two hours trying to soak up as much water as possible, but it really didn't help. I gave up, dirty and exhausted.

Since Rob is truly the best boyfriend on the planet, he left work and drove all the way down here to help me. He spent hours shop-vacing (is that even a word) my car. It didn't really do a lot of good though. There is SO MUCH water. I know he knew that his efforts were futile. He just did it to make me feel better, and try to help me out.

My car still runs. I'm not sure it's such a great thing to be driving it around, but at this point I just don't care. It was still wet this morning. Don't even get me started on the smell. So seriously disgusting.

I called my insurance to make a claim yesterday, but so did everyone in Houston. I have an appointment on Friday with the insurance adjuster. I've never done anything like this before. The only accident I've ever been in was a fender bender when I was 16, and my mom handled everything. In all honesty, I have no clue what the heck is going on.

At first, I just figured they would take a look at it, and decide to take out the carpets and re-upholster everything. Then, I got to work. According to my coworkers, water is a car's kryptonite. They are all telling me to hope it gets totalled because there is no coming back from that kind of water damage. I'm still making payments on my poor little car. I only have about a year left. It scares the crap out of me that it will get totalled, but the insurance company won't value it for enough to pay off the car and have a little left over for a down payment on another one. I'm also scared that the car won't get totalled, but it will never be worth anything ever again because of all the water damage. Apparently, no one wants a car that has ever been in a flood.

I've realized that I do not handle stress well. I have this tendency to just shut down and avoid everything at all costs when things get to be too much.

I'm also annoyed with myself because I've always thought of myself as an independent chick, but the first thing I did was call my boyfriend and freak out!

I know it could be so much worse (one story in the news is particularly awful), but right now, it feels like a lot. I just hope and pray that this all goes smoothly and quickly.

And now for your viewing pleasure, a few hastily taken pictures:

This picture doesn't really show anything. I just think my poor car looks sad and pathetic.

This is inside the trunk. We pulled up all of the mats, and this is my spare tire. Please notice the POOL of dirty brown water surrounding the tire. The tire was submerged in gross rain water and floating trunk trash.

Also notice the dirty water line. It might be tough to see, but, apparently, this is how high the water came up to my car.

I can say, with a large amount of confidence, that I will never be able to enjoy a thunderstorm ever again. No longer will I find snuggling under the blankets while sleeping or reading comforting and cozy.

Because My Google Reader Can Never Be Too Full

New Fun Blog Alert!

New Fun Blog Alert!

I just finished reading through Love Story, and it is such a cute idea for a blog.

I'm a sucker for other people's tales of romance!

Now I Know What Barbara Walters and Perez Hilton are Doing at Every Moment

I did it.

I jumped on the Twitter bandwagon.

So, what do I do now?

I haven't actually left a Tweet, yet, because my first time should be something awesome, right? I mean "I'm secretly blogging at work" isn't really a Twitter worthy event. Instead, I'm checking the Twitterific app on my phone every 20 minutes to find out what else Perez Hilton has to say about Miss California.

Anyone else out there on Twitter? I can't possibly follow only celebrities. That makes me seem lame awesome.

Check baby check baby 123

Email blogger from my phone too? Could this day get anymore exciting?!
Technology rocks.

Kristi

Sent from my iPhone

OMG. Look what I learned how 2 do 2day. Txt 2 blogger. Best day EVER.