slacker

hey kids-
sorry for the lack of blogging lately. there have been a couple of entries that i have started,but lost the drive to finish...maybe i'll finish them sometime soon :)

last week was...weird,to say the least. it started off fine,but then a series of random,unexpected,not necessarily good events all seemed to happen one right after another. they all hit me like bam!bam!bam! and now i'm left just feeling odd and trying to mentally recover from it all. on top of that,partially because of last week, i just feel i have no energy and have not been motivated to do much-which is taking a toll on my school work. i am now 2-3 weeks behind on my homework and it's stressing me OUT. i think tonight though i'm just gonna suck it all up, drink a diet mountain dew(or 2) and knock it all out at once,that way at least that weight is off my shoulders.

i also wanted to take a minute and thank my co-teacher,schimere, for being amazing this week and helping me out when i need it the most!

i leave you now with a video of a sweet,sweet boy. my sister is a great mother and has taught connor some sign language!whenever someone has food and he wants some he signs "more" and "please"...which my sister caught on video! his baby kisses at the end are pretty adorable too :)




i'll blog more soon,i swear!

Hiatus in Houston: The Finale

whoa,3 blogs from me in 4 days??? that's almost unheard of!

well, we didn't end up making it to the magic exhibit at the museum of houston, but it's ok...because as you can see,our days were PLENTY filled!

the other day,when we were on our way to the beach, someone mentioned ordering a crawfish boil for dinner(we are in the south,after all). we ended up getting mexican instead,but my sister had crawfish on her mind evvvvery day after. neither of us had tried it before but she was DETERMINED to make some so we could both try it together.

soooooo,off to the grocery store we went for the necessary supplies...

some corn to keep the bebe happy(he picked it out,i dunno,ha):




we ended up at some asian grocery store to buy the crawfish. these buggers are GROSS looking. they look like baby lobsters,but they're mini so it's creepy. samantha and i hand picked out every single crawfish that we took home,all 15 lbs!!

the bin FULL of crawfish:


my sister picking some out:


the crawfish at home,waiting to be cooked...that's 3 5 lb bags! some even escaped! sooo glad my sister is way more brave than me and could recover them,otherwise i'm sure they'd be crawling on me in my sleep.


in the boiling pot full of special seasonings.i heard a rumor that lobsters scream when you put them alive in a boiling pot of water. since these are similar to lobsters i wondered if they would scream. for the record,they didn't.:


as an appitizer, my sister make the PERFECT potstickers(prob one of my top 5 foods of all time,when made properly. yuuuum yum.):


all done!


my sister and i then stood in the kitchen for a good hour or so tearing apart these bad boys and consuming them. what you do is rip the head from the tail(sounds gruesome.took me a little bit to get used to doing this,but once i did it was a piece of cake). you then tear apart the tail and eat the meat inside. i guess in louisiana the "true" crawfish eaters suck whatevertheeff is in the head and eat that. i am not a true crawfish eater.

oh p.s. the crawfish meat was good! tasted like a cross between lobster and shrimp. we even dipped it in buttuh which made it THAT much better.

we finished off the night by watching inglorious basterds,since we didn't do it the night before. there were a few scenes where i had to cover my eyes(i have NO desire to watch someone get shot,scalped,branded,or stabbed),but all in all,a good movie! brad pitt's accent made me laugh sooooo hard in the scene in the movie theatre where he speaks I-talian.

it's a beaaauuuutiful day in texas,i do NOT want to go home to the coolness of washington,but i gotta. my flight gets in at midnight so i'm going to be tiiiiiired tomorrow at work. consider this your warning,coworkers. if you wanna guarantee to be on my good side, i suggest mentioning the words "free" and "starbucks" in the same sentence.

alright,2 last shots of my nephew,then it's adios to you from me...

connor obviously loves me a LOT. i am,after all, a super awesome aunt. whenever i would go upstairs to do something he would whine and then sit by the stairs,waiting for me to come back down. what a loyal nephew i have.


my sister and brother in law purchased this ball pit they call "camp connor". it's basically the coolest thing ever invented in the universe. i'm super jealous i didn't get a personal ball pit when i was little and am wondering if they come in adult size??





see you in the north!!

Hiatus in Houston:Days 2&3

well,my trip to houston is about half over and i've gotta say,this has been one of the most fun trips i've ever taken to houston.

yesterday,like i said before, was just a day of relaxation. the only thing worth mentioning that i can remember is that we watched slumdog millionare. i had never seen it before, and i really liked it! i can see why it won all sorts of awards and honors.

today we all slept in(including connor!). justin had to work so me and my sister watched connor and moulin rouge,one of our favorite movies. i remember when we were younger we would drive around in my car singing along to the songs, sam singing one harmony while i sang the other. it was fun to do that again(minus the driving around in my car part),definitely something i missed that we don't get to do too often anymore.

my sister likes to put flowers on her porch during the spring time,so we drove to lowes to pick out some really pretty ones. i got to help her plant them!

yep,that's how hot it was!i LOVED it!


sunny+clear skies=my favorite:


our flower planting supplies:


my sister working hard,putting the flowers in the pots(i helped by holding the flowers in the middle while she put the soil around it):


the front porch,before:


the front porch,after:


the balcony planters before:


the balcony planters after:


this was actually an unexpectedly kind of fun project. i definitely could see myself doing this kind of thing if/when i own a house of my own. it didn't cost too much and didn't take too much time. after they're planted,you just gotta water them to maintain them...sounds good to me! who knew the ottoson girls were so domesticated???

we then left for dinner to red robin(YUMMMMMMM!),and it was deeeelish,as per usual.

after dinner we felt it was only right to reward ourselves for our hard work today by making a special dessert. you are looking at chocolate thin mint ice cream with chocolate cone dip on top, and chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream with a fresh baked chocolate chip cookie on top.



i was still sooooooo full from dinner so i could only eat about half,but the half that i did eat made my mouth sooooo happy.

have i ever mentioned that my nephew connor is a funny guy? he really is such a goofball. today my favorite goofball moment of his was when he went into the hallway,grabbed his dads shoes,brought them back to the living room and put them on! he then walked around,fell down,stood up,and went right back to walking,repeatedly.



i think we're about to watch inglorious bastards then call it a night(i've never seen it,but isn't that movie like 17 hrs long?)

only a day and a half left! i'm sure it will go by toooooo fast.

Hiatus in Houston:Day 1

well,i made it safe and sound to houston!!

my day started bright and early at 4 am to make my 615 flight.

my blurry almost not viewable proof that 4 am actually DOES exist(this is on the way to the airport at 439 am,special thinks to heidiho for waking up early to take moi!):


the skies were clear and my flight took off and landed right on time! that's ALWAYS welcome since it seems so rare that happens anymore!

my in-flight "breakfast":


(sidenote: that muffin was labeled as "banana". it was,in fact, not a banana muffin...it was a banana FLAVORED muffin. for us banana muffin fans,this is a HUGE difference. banana flavored muffins are gross. end sidenote)

OH! i forgot to mention, i had a total spaz moment and packed full sized bottles of shampoo,conditioner,body wash,lotions,etc in my carry on. needless to say,i no longer had them once i got past security. way to go,me.

my sister picked me up from the airport and promptly informed me that we were going to the BEACH that day!! houston is about an hour and a half from galveston,where the beach is. so we stopped by the house to pick up connnor,my bro in law and his family who is also visiting,and we were on our way!

it was the PERFECT day for the beach. it wasn't too hot and the beach wasn't too crowded. the only thing that was a tiny bit of a bother was it was crazy windy,but i didn't really care...i was at the beach! this was actually conmans first beach trip EVER,so i was especially excited to get to experience that with him.

yea! we're on our way to the beach!!


connor experiencing beach sand for the first time. it was so cute he would take a step,then curl his toes,feeling the texture of the sand(can you tell i'm a child development geek?ha):


our beach spot set up:


shots of the beach,it was GORGEOUS:








there wasn't really anyone in the water,it was COLD.

there was plenty of entertainment for the children(connor and his cousin acee):


acee in her cute little swim outfit:




i taught connor how to use a pail and shovel!


baby sand castle:


grandma and cman taking a walk in the sand:


beer coozy:


all in all it was an amaazing day at the beach. after about 3 hrs in the beautiful sun we headed back to houston because it was time to go out to dinner.

soooooo tired from playing so hard!


we went to El Tiempo Cantina,this nice texmex restaurant. now,i'm not generally a fan of mexican food. now i know why. i live in the WRONG part of the country. if you want good mexican food,you gotta get closer to mexico! this place was SO amazingly delicious i will never ever say i don't like mexican food ever again. i didn't understand what half the menu was so i went with the dish that i had no idea what it was,that sounded the most delicious. it was the pechuga domenico and this was the description: chicken breast, spinach, cilantro cream,sausage and mozzarella. sounds bombdotcom,right??? well,it WAS and am so glad i decided to take a chance and order it. it was life changing,i swear.(i think this may be a specialty of the restaurant cause i tried to google for a picture and nothing came up!)

after el tiempo we all went home and went to BED. it was such a long,exciting day and we were exhausted!

once i told my sister that the ONLY reason i come visit is so i can eat her cooking.this morning she made my grandma ottoson's "sunday brunch casserole". top that off with a little sour cream...YUM! needless to say, not much was left after all us grown ups tackled it:




today is basically a stay at home and play with connor day. justin's family just left and i'm pretty sure we're all still trying to recover from (and digest!) our adventure yesterday. we DO have to go to target so i can replace all my bathroom essentials that security threw away. good thing i LOVE target.

to be continued...

my bags are (almost) packed,i'm ready to go...

i have SUCH a great week coming up i can hardly contain all my excitement. i'll be spending the better part of it in houston,texas,home of the most adorable one and a half year old boy ever and his parents(aka my nephew,sister and brother in law). i'm stoked to be going since i haven't seen them since christmas time. my flight leaves at 615 tomorrow morning and i come home on wed at midnight. an extra special treat during my trip is that some of my brother in laws family will be there for part of the time! i've met them before and they are fun people,so i'm excited to see them again. my sister also mentioned going to the houston museum to check out a magic exhibit they have going on there.magic tricks and illusions fascinate me...maybe i'll learn some tricks of my own ;)

after i get home i only work two days,then i have a great weekend planned,spending time with friends that i don't get the chance to see too often. it's going to be awwweeesoommme!

i'm sorry this post is kind of half-assed. i gotta finish packing,but wanted to say bye to everyone and i'll see you all when i get back!! have a great week!!