That Time I (Spent the Weekend with Dustin)

I know what you must be thinking..."Who the heck is this Dustin that is not Dillon?!?"

Don't worry guys...Dustin is Dillon's brother!

Phew, now that we got that worry out of the way, let me tell you about the fun weekend we had!

His mom was going to be gone for the weekend up north for a scrapbooking weekend, so she asked me to come hang out with Dustin for the weekend!

Friday I didn't get there until late since I still had work that day. I think we ended up going to Target and then to Chick Fil A for dinner. We watched some TV and then it was ready for bed.

Now, After 3+ years of dating Dillon I have gotten to know Dustin pretty well. So well that I would consider him my younger brother...and like all younger brothers, they like to make fun of/play jokes on/scare their "older sisters." Sooooo I'm in Dillon's room getting ready for sleep and I'm getting into bed and I move one of the pillows, and this lovely thing is under it:

I seriously jumped. But I shouldn't have been surprised. He finds a new way to scare me with this thing every time I come over. And what's that in it's mouth, you may ask?

A turtle...it's supposed to be Tuck. Rude!

We went and saw Pacific Rim on Saturday, which was actually a much better movie than I was expecting! And Charlie Day is in it, and anything with him is just amazing.

And then the rest of the weekend consisted of shooting paintball guns! Dustin got really creative and we had a few different targets...including that dang lizard!!

Mine is the right...I may have lost every single round...

And then the most amazing dog, Brutus. :)

Now don't forget to check out Alex over at Let Life Be Like Music where she talks about winning tickets to go see O-Town!

The Day My Dream Almost Came True...

...But then it didn't.

So I almost got a tattoo yesterday. I have wanted one since I don't know when, and I was this close to my dream becoming a reality. But that's the thing with dreams, huh? They are never quite how you imagine them, and never live up to your expectations.

Before my now roommate even became my roommate, we made a pact that by the end of the summer we would both get tattoos together. Yesterday as we were driving around I was thinking about said tattoo and how much I would be willing to pay and all that, and then as I was thinking all this Brittany says "Emily I really want to get our tattoos." And that was that, we took it as fate and decided that we would get them that night. (Okay it took a little convincing on my part due to financial issues and the fact that I have to swim for work...but they are really good at convincing me to do things.)

So we stopped by the first tattoo parlor we could find and asked the guy there what the minimum was for the kind of tattoo we wanted (we didn't want the same thing, but both wanted script on our foot). He told us $60...alright, not bad. We left, decided that we really wanted to do it, called back, and they said they had a guy who could do both of ours that night! So we rushed right back. We both told him what we wanted and he started drawing it up for us. Brittany's came out and it was perfect! Mine came out and...bam...disappointment. It was not at all his design, that I loved. But my quote was too big to fit on my foot the way I wanted it, and he said that he couldn't go much smaller. The solution would be to wrap around my foot, to start on the side but then wrap around onto the top. But it was just not how I was expecting it and dreaming of it, so I had to say no. I didn't want to make a rash decision when it just wasn't something that I was in love with. And for tattoos, as much as it was spontaneous, I don't think that it's smart to just jump completely into it without knowing that you're going to love it.

So here are my options, and I would love your input!

1.// Still get it on my foot but have it wrap around onto the top. Something like this:

Except for it would start back towards my heel a little bit and probably wrap around all the way to my big toe.

2.// Different location, the shoulder:

3.// Find a different place that can make the text smaller and fit on my foot the way I want it. I'm all for this, but I just really liked the guy who did my roommate's and I know that he'll do a good job with it. And when it comes to tattoos, I think it's smart to go to someone you have seen work before and know will do a good job.

Decisions, decisions.

But here is my roommate's finished product! I kinda love it. :)

Things I Am Really Good At

Just admit it, you love to brag about the things that you are good at. Yes, we should all try to be humble, and no, we should not proclaim our amazing-ness every chance we get. But come one. Sometimes your talents won't get noticed unless you show 'em off a bit.

So here are five things that I am really good at.

1. Getting crumbs in my bed...especially the day after I wash the sheets. Do I really have to eat the last of the chip bag (which is all crumbs by now) in my bed with the sheets down? No. But I am really good at it.

2. Biting my lip...and then re-biting it. Seriously? I feel like there is nothing worse, but hey, I'm really good at it.

3. Procrastinating...at everything. I know I have talked about how ridiculously good I am at this before. And there is just something about summer that makes me want to do absolutely nothing except for lie in bed, eat, and watch tv. It even took me a few days just to write and finish this post. I'm tellin' ya, I'm really good at procrastinating.

4. Cleaning my room...and then making a mess of it right away. I sometimes don't even understand why I try. I'll clean it one day and it may stay clean for at least the rest of the day. But then things start accumulating and sooner than later it looks just like it did before, and it usually stays that way until the next time I attempt to clean it, which is usually months apart.

5. Spending money when I go to the mall...even though I told myself I would not buy anything. Last night for example, me and my roommate went to the mall with her little brother because she needed to buy him a watch for his birthday, and I told myself "You're just along for the ride, you don't need anything, and you won't buy anything." I came home with a new pair of sunglasses and "belated half-birthday" presents for my roommate. At least most of it was for a friend?? Darn, I'm just so good at spending money when I shouldn't!

So there you have it! Five things that I am really good at. Go ahead, tell me some of the things you are really good at! You know you want to. 

That Time I (Rode in a Jeep and Almost Died)

Before I say anything else, I must tell you a little about my day today.

It has been a week and a half since I last posted (I'm as ashamed as you are) but I had some inspiration today so I told myself that as soon as I got home from work, I would sit down and write. Well wouldn't you know that today is the day that the internet wasn't working. (Okay, this happens a lot, but we'll just pretend that it was today of all days.)

After unplugging and plugging every single wire, still nothing. So I said, "That's okay! I can do lots of stuff without internet!" So I read a chapter out of my book...and then tried to restart the internet. No dice (what does this saying even mean?? It is a saying, right?). Then I decided, "well now would be a perfect time to try and sell my books from last semester on Amazon!" But wait...I need the internet for that.

Then I got super productive and transferred all the pictures on my phone to my computer, started organizing all of them into folders, deleted them all from my iPhone, and then tried to restart the internet.

Finally I sat down, looked some stuff up, figured out I reset our router to its factory settings so I needed to do a bunch of crap to get it to work again, and after 30+ minutes of that, our internet finally works!

And after all this, do you know what I'm most proud of? Our new Wifi name.

I wish I could say I thought of it all on my awesome-own, but I did not. I looked up "funny wifi names" and this was the best one!

Part Four of That Time I (Went on a Cruise)!

You can also check out part two and three!

The last island we would visit on the cruise was Aruba. Our excursion was a jeep ride...

...and I swear I almost died.

Honestly it was a lot of fun. I actually enjoyed it more than Dillon did. He didn't trust the jeep/seatbelts/doors...which was fully warranted. I'm pretty sure the jeep almost tipped over at least a hundred times, almost all the seatbelts were either broken or broke during our trip, and the back door swung open at least a million times during our speedy windy insane death-defying jeep ride.

Okay...I may be exaggerating just a little....but it really was scary!

We started out by driving to some mountain or hill thing (I have a terrible memory) and when you climbed the stairs to the top it had a gorgeous view of pretty much the entire island. (See "Aruba" picture.)

We then climbed back in the jeeps, almost died a couple more times, and then headed to this gorgeous natural pool. It was right by the ocean, but was naturally surrounded by rocks. It was actually quite deep and a lot of people went snorkeling (I tried for about a minute and then opted out...I really dislike fish). D was also a daredevil and climbed some rocks until he got yelled at. Whoops!

I have no idea what's going on with my hair...

We were also able to walk through some caves of the ancient Arubian people (I probably made that up) and it was pretty neat, but of course I don't have any pictures of that. Our last stop on our jeep ride was at a beach where we could actually go play in the water! It was a little scary because apparently there was a really strong undertow and of course Dillon and his uncles were as far as they could go, but I had fun just hanging out with his cousins in the shallower area! That was until I lost my beautiful pink sunglasses. I'm seriously still upset about that one.

And then back to the cruise ship we went! Overall it was a really fun excursion! I honestly really enjoyed the scariness of the ride until the end when I started to feel a little queasy. Luckily we all made it off the jeep without any fun bodily fluids arising. ;)

Even though it has been seven months since the cruise, I am still waiting on other pictures. So even though this post wraps up my That Time I (Went on a Cruise) series for now, don't be surprised to see it resurface in the future, just so I can share some of the random pictures that I either didn't have yet, or weren't from any specific excursion! 

Luckily I don't feel too bad about skipping last week's That Time I post, because Alex did, too! Although she is a much better blogger than me and still posted that day...and on all of the days in between. Whoops! But don't forget to check out her blog, because she's the best! :)

That Time I (Spent the Weekend in Denver)

I now interrupt the That Time I: Cruise Edition for a weekend update!

I know, I know. I already did this to you once before and you hated me for it, but this is the first time I've had the chance to sit down and write about my weekend, and I'm way too excited to share!

This past weekend I was able to fly up to Colorado to spend the weekend with Dillon! I can't even start to explain how happy I am that we finally had a weekend to ourselves. The last time we saw each other was around the end of May but we really haven't gotten any quality alone time together in a few months. Since we last saw each other I started my summer job, turned 21, and Dillon spent three weeks in Germany; a lot has happened so this weekend was much needed!

I flew into Denver late Saturday morning, which was really nice because we pretty much still had the whole day together. Since my cousins were camping this weekend we ended up just getting a hotel in Denver since that's where I was flying in and out of. Plus we hadn't spent too much time in Denver (which is about an hour from Colorado Springs) so we thought it would be fun to explore! We were pretty lazy to begin with, just hanging out at the hotel and enjoying finally being together! That evening we went to California Pizza Kitchen and had a double date! Dillon went to Germany with a guy named Taylor and me and his girlfriend Lily had met when I drove through Albuquerque on my way to bring Dillon his truck. We really hit it off, and texted pretty much every day when they were in Germany, mainly just complaining that we missed our boyfriends, haha.

Me and Lily! We went out for FroYo in Albuquerque together! And you gotta love the awesome photobomb. :)

Dinner was great! Dillon was a little hesitant at first, he hates small talk, but I told him it would be fun, and it really was! After dinner we went to the theater and saw This Is The End. Yes, I had already seen it before, and yes I think it's good enough to see twice! D hadn't seen it before and he loved it!

On Sunday we went to the Cherry Creek Arts Festival! You can check them out here. They have an amazing non-profit mission in which they aim to "provide access to art experiences and support art education." Artists from all over the country came for the weekend to show off their artwork, there was even a guy from Tucson!

Okay this guy...amazing! We happened to stumble across his show right as his last one was starting. He is a performance speed painter who paints portraits of celebrity faces in a matter of 4-7 minutes. His first painting, on the right, was of Frank Sinatra and it blew my mind. He started painting and I was like, okay yeah that can be the top of his head/ear...then all the sudden it was the eyes/nose! You should definitely watch this video so you can see what I mean! And neither Dillon or I could figure out the left was Einstein until he drew the hair/mustache!

We walked through the booths for a good hour or so and we would point out pieces of art we would like to have in our future home together. Awh. ;) <3

Monday was a great day! Even though it was the day I was leaving, my flight didn't leave until 9pm, so it was really nice that we still had the entire day to hang out! There was an IKEA only a few miles down the road from our hotel, and call me crazy but I was begging D to take me there since the first day! I had never been in an IKEA and it just always seemed like so much fun. I actually had a a really good time, walking through the show floor, and again imagining the furniture we would have in our future home. It sounds super cheesy, but it's a really nice thing to talk about with this crazy long distance we have had to go through for the past three years, and the next two ahead of us.

After IKEA we ate lunch, stopped by GNC, and then went to the theater to see another movie! This time we saw Monsters University! I know a lot of people don't want to see it/don't like it because it doesn't have Boo in it, but I thought it was a super adorable and funny movie!

We still had a few hours to kill before I had to go to the airport, so we ended up going to the Denver Downtown Aquarium!

  Can you tell I like turtles?? That's pretty much the only thing I took pictures of...

 Even this picture...it's my "Let's take a picture with the turtles behind us!" picture. Can't see the turtles? Me either. But you know, we're cute too, even with the weird shadows across our faces.

What?!? You mean to tell me tigers don't belong in an aquarium?

I thought it was weird, too. But the Denver Aquarium doesn't give a f what we think! They had tigers and snakes and parrots and other weird non-aquarium things.

Squishies!

 This is the last picture we took "together." I thought it was rather cute because we were sitting at the aiport after finishing dinner, right before I had to head to the security line, and he says "Wait, take a picture of our bracelets for your blog!" Such a cutie pie. ;)

I won't lie, there were quite a few tears during our goodbye. We have 52 days to go until we see each other again for USAFA's Parent's weekend. And although we had to say goodbye yet again, I am so happy we had this weekend together. I can't say enough how much we needed it as a couple. It was a much needed refresher for our relationship, and I really do feel so much better now that the weekend has past, even if we are apart. I feel so lucky to have such an amazing best friend and boyfriend. <3

Rhonna Designs

As always, don't forget to check out Alex's That Time I post over at Let Life Be Like Music!

Linking Up: Random Wednesday, Weekly Wednesday