a jolt to the bladder.

you're familiar with the newest beverage size at starbucks, right?  no?  you're not? 

well, i am.

meet the trenta, 31 ounces of iced coffee goodness:

{a horribly fantastic cell phone pic of my trenta iced
hazelnut breve coffee}

i meet up with this gal & this gal about once a week for coffee.  about a month ago, during one of our friday morning coffee dates, i decided to take the plunge and "trenta size" my beverage.  whoa.

yes, whoa.

caffeine doesn't really do much for me {since i consume so much of it}, but let me tell you i got one heck of a work out that day because all i did was walk back & forth to the bathroom!  caffeine is a diuretic.  diuretics make you pee.  a lot. 

the drink was good, don't get me wrong. 

oh, and not only did i pee all day long, but i also didn't have much of an appetite either.  why?  well, the average human stomach has a capacity of about 900 ml.  the trenta?  um, it's about 916 ml of caffeinated liquid goodness.*

i'm not knocking the trenta.  in fact, if you're an iced coffee fan like i am, then i say try it.  if you don't like iced coffee, you can try iced tea in it.  you only live once, so why not, right?

*click here if you want a diagram of the sizes in comparison to a human stomach.

blah blah blah.

my neck is sunburned.

my allergies have gone haywire.  it probably didn't help that i did a bunch of yard work yesterday including wrestling with trimming our three loropetalum shrubs.

we're already enjoying cilantro from the garden. 

the temporary job i started a few weeks ago?  my feelings keep going back & forth about it.  it's great for my resume, but a girl can only fill in so many scantron bubbles eight hours a day, forty hours a week.  but, like i said, it's great for my resume {since it is education related}.

the semester ends next week.  i also go on vacay next week.  i also get my life back next week...until the summer semester starts.

speaking of school, i'm talking to the advising chair of the psychology department on thursday afternoon.  twenty-nine credits stands between me and a 2nd bachelors degree in psychology.

my kids are gone for the week.  thank you, mom & dad.

buxton still isn't housebroken.  damn dog.  but, we love him to bits {stinky gas & all}.

i'm really hoping our raspberry plant takes off.  our dogs have all but destroyed our fig tree.  i'm NOT happy about that.

temps seem to be holding in the 70 degree range and that makes me happy. 

my car is day-glo yellow from all of the pollen caked on it.  i even saw a few bees buzzing around it the other day.  poor confused bees.

i almost hurt someone at target on friday - they didn't have any cadbury mini eggs!  zip, zilch, nada...none!  thank goodness wally world had them.

i have a mysterious bruise above my left elbow.  i have NO clue what i did.  it hurts, though.

i found hazelnut syrup for my iced coffee at walmart.  it was $3.98 and that makes me happy.

adam eating all of my cadbury mini eggs {that i had to go to two stores to find} does NOT make me happy.

one day, you'll get a real blog post out of me...promise. 

i can't believe he turned this in.

this afternoon i was going through a small stack of papers that aidan brought home from school.  most of it was stuff done in class and old homework.  nothing too exciting.  but, then i saw it.  aidan had to conduct a travel interview & write a paragraph.  apparently, he interviewed himself.   

{written as aidan wrote it: grammar, punctuation & spelling errors included}

The longest trip I took is to Northern Virginia.  It was 4 hours my family saw a fawn and I farted.  We travled 240 mi.  We took this trip to get are 3 month old bosten tarier Buxton.  Buxton jumped on me and farted.

i am mortified. 

not only did he write about farting, but he also lied about how far he's traveled! apparently, his trip to mississippi wasn't memorable and i guess he already forgot about the time we spent in new hampshire last december.

i really hope he didn't have to share this with the class.

sunday night brain dump.

i'm thinking i should do this on the regular.  i did it last sunday & it helped clear my head.

okay, here we go...

i start working tomorrow.  i haven't worked since i quit my previous job in august of last year.  i'm excited, but i'm also nervous.  it's only temporary, but the timing couldn't be better {or worse}.  i'll be working full-time for the entire month of april and the first week of may.  the semester ends this month.  finals are the first week of may.  ugh.

while this new job will be nice, what i'm going to miss most is all of the free time i had.  free time that i should have used a bit more wisely on school-related things instead of watching 90210 reruns, stalking crowdtap, coffee-ing with these gals & writing this blog post.  but, i'm not going to complain.  i'm certainly jumping at the chance to earn a decent, steady income for one month and this opportunity could open the door for more {albeit temporary} opportunities in the future.

my mom is coming to live with us for the rest of the month - kinda, sorta.  she's going to give us a hand with the kids so we don't have to scramble for temporary childcare.  seriously, she is a lifesaver!

spring break - for the kids - is in just a couple of weeks and they will be spending that time with my parents at their house.  i'm looking forward to the break.  i'm sure they are, too.  trust me, at ages 7 & 10, they do nothing but bicker and fight all.the.time.  and, quite personally, i'm tired of listening to my son whine.  i could also do without seeing my daughter's eyes roll for a few days, too.

i'm kicking off the first saturday of the kids' spring break by attending sertoma's spring fever with adam & a bunch of our friends.  six hours of drinking...ooh, lawdy!

i had my first etsy shop inquiry.  no sale yet, but still...this is exciting!

i'm still pining away for a new laptop...what else is new?!

did i mention that mondays & tuesdays are going to be my hell days?  well, tuesdays won't be as bad as mondays.  i will go from work to class on both afternoons.  in fact, i'll be late for class for the rest of the semester thanks to this job.  on monday nights, i don't get out of my second class until 9:50pm.  someone find me a coffee i.v. drip now, please.

in a little more than three weeks i'll be jetting off for california.  my cousin is getting married.  the reception is at a vineyard.  i die.  but, my trip could be cut short if i have to come back for training.  what?  training?  yes, training.  i had a telephone interview on friday for a summer job.  i'll know in two weeks if i've been awarded the position.  if i get the job, there is a mandatory training sesh on may 1st in d.c., so my cali vacay could potentially be cut short...drastically short.  keep your fingers crossed,  y'all: either for me landing this job or for me being able to go to disneyland with my kids.

there's more, but i have a presentation to work on.  it's due tuesday, but since my days will be committed to something else now, i have to get crackin'...tonight.  ugh.

a pupdate: buxton.

i'm warning you now:  be prepared to overdose on cuteness. 

from his squished in nose, his "blew" eyes {one eye blew this way, the other blew that way...thanks, dad} & his sweet lil' paws...

yep, buxton will stop you dead in your tracks with his crazy, latte colored eyes.  even worse? when he shakes his whole rear end {because he can't wag his tail}.  watching him shake his boom boom because he's happy to see me?  i die.  i'll share video of that, promise, but for now enjoy some photos of the little stinker.

ridiculously cute, right?

yeah, i think so, too.