Falling.

That is the video that Z texted to me this morning. Is that not adorable? Gah! I LOVE that boy! It won't take long before I'm like, officially head-over-heels IN LOVE with that boy! I give it 5 more weeks, TOPS.

I know I've gone off on one of these kicks before, but I have to do it again!

I love that that boy calls me "baby girl". I love that he knows exactly what to say and when to say it. I love that he talks about our future. I love that he's so sure we have one together. I love that he's completely sure he wants me to be a part of his. It's refreshing to be with someone who is so open about how he thinks and feels, but still can manage to be totally masculine and wear the pants in the relationship. He's . . . perfect, really.

Whenever we have a serious talk about ending up together, we discuss how it'll be a few years in the future. That gives us time to really be sure and it gives me time to get some more schooling under my belt. I like to joke around with him and say we should get married this year. It used to make him nervous, but it doesn't anymore. Haha. He's used to it. Can you keep a secret, though? I would actually consider marrying him this year if it were a situation that really unfolded. It would freak me out--sure--but I'd consider it.

(I made him promise he won't read this particular post. He had BETTER keep that promise. Haha.)

I'd love to share some texts with you guys, but out of context, they would just sound cheesy and/or shallow. I don't want to take away from them in any way, so Ill keep them to myself for now. Just know that they are the super-cutest things EVER!

I'm falling.

Just Wanted To Share . . .

Here are just a few random things I feel like sharing that made me smile today.

	The Divine Comedy - To Die A Virgin .mp3
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

That song is now my ringtone for Zach. Haha. Not sure why. It doesn't exactly "fit" either of us. It just reminds me of him for some reason. Maybe because it talks about his birthday??? Who knows.

:)

Queen Dot Kong.

	The Dø - queen dot kong .mp3
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

It's been kind of a weird day. I took Aubrey and a couple of friends to IF to go to I Jump. It's a trampoline place. I had never even heard of it. I would have joined them, but I had errands to run, so I left them to it while I ran around town.

There's also now a man in Ohio who texts me named Matt. It's a long story, but he's cool enough.

I'm thinking I'll make the drive to see my boy for his birthday. He's an April's Fools baby. I like it.

I really hope I can get my sleep schedule back in order before next week or else opening is going to be complete balls. As it is I'm tired, but can't fall asleep. My brain is complete mush. Is it obvious? Haha.

I'm starting to think I need to create a private blog where I can "vent" about things without having to worry about regretting it later. I'm not actually upset about anything right now. Just . . . in a weird place. It's hard to explain. I really hope that this kind of thing doesn't continue to happen to me for my whole life. Gah! That would be unfortunate. (I'm sorry that you aren't following this thought process. It's super annoying when people do this exact thing. They say all this stuff that means nothing to anyone but themselves. And here I am doing it. I need the therapy of it right now. Haha.)

Have you guys started listening to that song yet? You need to grab some earphones and listen to it that way. It completely suits my mood. I'm diggin' it.

Can you tell I was tired all day today? Look at that sexy pic! Bwuahahaha!

!!!!!

I'm just going to let Rihanna do all the talking for me. <3

	Rihanna - Drunk On Love - www.SongsLover .mp3
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

And We Danced!

	Macklemore - And WE danced .mp3
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

As you can see, I started you off with a song that tends to make me grin. I figure you can listen while you read. :)

Remember how I said I was going to kick this cold to the curb by today? Yeah . . . I was only mildly successful. I still got stuff done, but I still feel a little icky. Back to work tomorrow, though. I'm excited to get back to work, actually. It'll be good to get back to my normal schedule. Although, I hope I'm not working the same amount of hours as I was before my trip. 56 hours of overtime on average per pay-period. It's brutal. And I don't actually see a dime of overtime pay. In fact, I haven't (yet) seen a dime of any kind of payment for 56 hours of overtime from my last pay period.

I didn't get to talk to my boy today. I mean, we texted, but I encouraged him to go to bed early tonight since he's only been getting 3-4 hours of sleep per night lately because he stays up on the phone with me. For the record: I always try giving him "outs" earlier in the conversation so that he can get adequate sleep, but he chooses to stay on the phone. He says it's because I'm like "heroin" (because that's "classier than crack" -- haha) and he never wants to get off the phone. How cute is that?? I can't lie -- I've been known to carry on conversations with people (boys included) that last hours and hours . . . but Z isn't much of one for talking on the phone, so the fact that he and I spend -- (on average) -- 3 hours per day on the phone means a lot. I can honestly say this, though -- I've NEVER had this much fun with a person on the phone before. Ever. In all my history of any boy/girl that I've talked to on the phone ever. He's my very most favorite. :)  I never want to get off the phone either.

I <3 that boy.

I'm starting a 6 week countdown. 6 weeks is when I'll get to hang out with Z. It's gonna be pretty epic. We've already got our entire week planned out (for the most part) and I'm pretty excited.

You know what my most FAVORITE thing about this boy is? (Well . . . okay . . . "favorite" is a strong word. I have lots of favorite things about him, but this one is way up there.) The fact that he's so respectful. He never says anything dirty or asks for inappropriate pictures. Though -- he'll beg me for hours for one of me smiling or for one of me "raw" (without any makeup). I actually sent one of each. Ugh. I still can't believe I let him talk me into it. Anyway -- he never wants to "talk dirty" or anything like that. I LOVE it! It makes it so that I never have to awkwardly shoot him down. :) One day I finally asked him why he never does any of that stuff and his answer was awesome. He said it's because he's in this for the long-haul and he doesn't want to screw anything up. (I really hope he doesn' t mind me repeating this on here.) Anyway, I thought that was the most adorable answer, ever! And I feel the exact same way.

I'll probably marry this boy. And he knows it. We've talked about it.

Have any of you ever played Wii Play? It's seriously fun! My mom, sister and I played it for a couple of hours tonight, and we had a blast. I recorded a couple of videos that were humorous (to us). I'll post them for fun. You guys may not find them as funny as we did, though. Haha.

So -- I shampooed my carpets TWO DAYS ago, and they still aren't dry??? Ummm . . . annoying. My carpet cleaner is on its last leg, though. I need to get a new one. I think if you're going to have indoor pets, a carpet cleaner becomes a necessity.

I have just a couple of pictures from my Florida trip that I never got to upload. I'm going to do it now. :)

As you can see . . . Most of those are just of lizards I caught. (Man, those things are fun!) One is of the pool area, one is of the park right before the beach, one is of the Gulf just approaching sunset and another is of me hanging out in the water.

. . . I'm so homesick. Haha.


Oh! One other thing I did today that I haven't gotten to do in a while -- Eat at Teton Thai! <3

:)

It's official . . .

Well, Z (I guess I could call him Zach, but I'll probably just stick with "Z" cause I like it) and I have officially gone public. Everyone knows now, so there's no going back. ;) Not that I would be the one that wants to go back. I mean, I'm a complete freak when it come to relationships, but I'm in this one. And, if what Z says is true, I guess I'm in it for a very, very long time. And I'm okay with that. :) As long as he treats me better than the last boy to tell me that did.

Okay . . . I have had the worst cold for the past two days. Z was a sweety and tried to tell me that it'd be with me for a while, but I'm telling him that it's leaving me by today. And it is. I fully intend to sweat this sucker out today. I started to yesterday, and I'm feeling MUCH better today. Today is the day I finally kick its butt and move on.

Oh, good news (not). I woke up this morning to the sound of my dogs freaking out and Remi whimpering/panting a little bit. Yeah. She and Levi were breeding. DAMN IT! She just had a litter! I was gone to Florida for so long and completely lost track of her cycles. My bad. I feel really, really awful about it. I didn't even realize she was in heat because I missed the obvious stage of it. Ugh. Balls.

Well . . . I have quite a few things I need to get done today since I've been way too lazy the past two days to do any of it. In my defense, I have felt like my head was going to absolutely explode. Anyway, I guess I need to go tackle my to-do list.

Ohhhh SingSnap!

Well, I made it home safely. My friend, Daniel, picked me up from the airport and drove me all the way to Victor. Which I appreciate. It was much better than taking a bus. AND . . . he had dark chocolate waiting for me when he picked me up! He's a smart boy.

I didn't realize exactly how tan I was until I got home with all of these "whities". Seriously. It's awesome.

Can you guess which leg is mine and which leg is Aubrey's??? And she's not overly white. You should see my leg compared to my mom's. That's incredibly hilarious.

I did another recording. I wasn't going to publish it, but Z talked me into it because he wants to hear it, too. So . . . I guess I'll just post it here. I won't make excuses for it -- there's no point. But just be prepared for how badly I trashed the ending. First I'm going to post a couple of other people singing the same song. I think these ladies did a pretty good job. It's friggen hard to sing karaoke perfectly, man. I know I can't even come close!

(I tried to warn you that it was bad, Z.)
Anyway -- I went to the midnight premier of Hunger Games last night. I shouldn't have done that. I couldn't stay awake and it's really annoying to take an $8, uncomfortable nap. Plus, I only got 5 hours of sleep last night and now I think I'm getting sick. I'm hoping that a little rest, yoga and tea and honey throughout the day can ward it off, but we'll see.

I'm actually going to try to get some rest right now. I gotta be well rested for my chat with Z tonight. I've negleted the poor boy for 2 or 3 days now. But . . . HE'S COMING TO SEE ME IN A FEW WEEKS! I'm super excited! I like that boy. I need to get permission to share a couple of his text messages on here. They are adorable. He's too good to me. And, someone recently made a good point -- He DOES put up with my crazy. He IS a keeper.

Alright -- I'm seriously going to hit my pillow again.

Sitting on top of the world!

It's true. I AM sitting on top of the world. If someone had told me three years ago that I could and would be this happy today, I'd have punched them in the face for attempting to feed me false hope. I compare where I was then to where I am now and they aren't even in the same universe.

My grandpa and I just had a very touching heart-to-heart and I have to admit that I had to fight back the tears. I am not a crier, but this had me pretty choked up. He talked about how just a couple of years ago it was so hard to deal with me that he couldn't WAIT for me to "get out of here", but how he feels completely different now and how he sees all my potential. (Which he pointed out that my grandma never stopped seeing. And I'm very grateful to her for that.)

You have to understand . . . three years ago, I was miserable. With everything about myself. I was sick and in a horrible marriage. I hated the way I looked, felt, and acted. Honestly -- I was mean. Like . . . really mean. Which isn't my personality at. all. I think it's fair to say that I was completely "lost". No traces of my actual self. And it was a frightening world I was living in. And because of all of that, my personality was completely consumed and the only thing left was a scared and angry little girl with no light at the end of a really dark tunnel. I don't remember singing one single time in those 3 years. Not once! Not even in the shower! Now I don't even go an hour without at least humming a tune. It's probably a little annoying. Haha.

The only thing I did do (though, not much) was draw during that period of time. I did do about 5 or 6 drawings during those years. And I did my leopard painting, too. Other than that, I pretty much slept and threw tantrums. Haha.

Now I have the best boy. I'll be heading to school in a few short months. I've got a good head on my shoulders and I am smart. (That took a long time for me to admit to myself.) I'm drawing more. I'm singing again. I'm tan, I'm healthy, and I'm happy.

Oh yeah!

Z and Me.

Ugh. My last day is swiftly dwindling away. It's horribly depressing. By this time tomorrow, I'll be on an airplane headed back to the land of snow and misery. The only reason I'm looking forward to getting home is to see my dogs. I miss them.

Today I was referred to as "the celebrity of the Ocean Harbor condos." True story. Apparently, I'm the focus of much discussion between elderly members of the community and their guests. I was curious to know why that is, and this is what I found out:

It all started with something I did on one of my first days here. My grandma and I were down at the Clubhouse for art day and she realized she had forgotten something (I can't remember exactly what it was) so I told her I'd go and get it for her. And apparently that simple act really made an impression on the ladies who witnessed it. That's what got the talk about me started. Whaa??? That was easy! Haha.

Then, a few days later, I offered to do an errand for another lady of the community, and again that simple act made quite an impression. And little sweet old ladies talk.

By the time my original date to leave had arrived, a lot of people knew my name and would stop to tell my grandparents what a "nice grand daughter" they have. My grandpa came up to the condo one day and said, "Do you now who Phil and Louise are?" To which I replied, "No, why?". He told me that they had stopped him to ask about me (by name) and he had no idea who they were. He says he'd never even seen them before. Haha.

That sort of thing has happened twice that I know of.

The final thing I did to score major brownie points happened last week. There was a little lady walking home from Publix (a grocery store) at the same time as I was. It was hot and she was hobbling along with her bag of groceries. Since we were walking the same way, I asked if I could carry them for her. She was a little reluctant at first, but after hearing my name and who my grandparents are, she graciously agreed to let me assist her. And that sealed my fate here.

Why am I bragging about something so completely ridiculous? Because it makes me happy to know that my absence here won't go unnoticed. I already have a walking buddy for when I come back. And this was my GRANDPA who told me that. Any of you who know my grandpa know why that's impressive. We haven't always seen eye-to-eye. So it's good to hear that he's looking forward to me coming back to visit at some point in the future. I'm so glad that some things were resolved with us during this trip. I have some amazing grandparents.

On a completely different note: It's recently been brought to my attention that there are (apparently) those who doubt my Mr. Z is real. Normally this wouldn't be a problem for me, but I figure . . . if you guys are devoted enough to take the time to read my blog posts, you deserve to know the truth. Mr. Z IS real. And I have the pictures to prove it. See for yourself!

This is a picture of the day that Z and I first met. As you can see . . . we met fishing. That was a good day.



This is Z and I hanging out at my house. Look how cute we are together!



And this is a very accurate picture of our nightly routine.

Speaking of bad drawings . . . I did another drawing that turned out horrendous! And since I share my failures along with my successes on this blog, I'll share this one with you.

Here's how it progressed.

By the third picture there, the whole drawing had gone to Hell. I was trying a completely new technique, though. (By the way, babe . . . while I'm thinking about it . . .  I figured out it's called "stippling"). Anyway . . .  They can't all be wins, eh?

Alright. I'm off to feed my squirrel.

I like . . .

Do you think it's possible to be addicted to another human being?

I wonder if I'll ever be able to listen to Lady Gaga and not remember the summer of 2011 and the boy that came with it.

Damn . . . I accumulated a lot of stuff for having just been here one month. I hope I can cram it all in these two carry-on bags.

Are blueberries bad for dogs??

I have the sweetest boyfriend in the world.

Those are some of the thoughts that have gone through my mind in the past hour. I just got done packing to go home. Which is bitter-sweet. The good news is, I love packing! It's a form of organizing, and I LOVE being organized. Getting organized is like therapy for me. The bad news is, I'm heading back to Idaho where the weather is complete balls. But the good news is, I'll be closer to my Z. But the bad news is, I won't get to see him for another month. But the good news is, summer is right around the corner and summer makes me happy!

Ugh.

If I could stay here . . . I would. I saw a few "now hiring" signs today while I was out shopping. I kept thinking that I should just get a job and live here for the rest of the winter. Haha. Maybe I can even sell my art to support myself! Oh, I did another drawing. The turtle was my favorite for like . . . a day. Because now this little guy is my favorite.

Isn't he cute??

I have to tell you all how lucky I am. Last night I was on the phone with Z (always, always assume I'm on the phone with Z at night) when he just busts out on a "what I like about you" kick. He randomly started naming all the things about me that he really likes. And that's not the first time he's done it. And the list is looooooong. Surprisingly long.

Every girl needs a boy as sweet as mine. I hope he stays this sweet forever. If in 50 years he still takes the time to tell me what he likes about me, then I'll die one happy, happy girl.

I feel a little bad, though . . . because I didn't get to tell him the things I like about him. So I'm going to do that now.

I  love your laugh.

I love that you make ME laugh.

I love that we talk . . . (correction: LAUGH) for at LEAST 3 hours per night, and you aren't sick of me yet!

I love your sexy little "stoner" accent. ;)

I LOVE that you can sing! (Marry me??) Haha.

I love that when I actually told you I would marry you if you could sing your response was: "Do you like white gold or yellow? . . . I can sing."

I love the way you call me "baby girl".

I love your brown eyes and dark hair.

I love that you are so great at communicating.

I love the way you talked me out of a total freak-out-melt-down recently, and you were so good at it, I didn't even think about bailing.

I love that you make sure I know just how much you like me.

I love your smile. Gah! I love your smile!

. . . and I love that you make me happy.

You know what else you do, Z? You turn me (the girl who makes farting noises during chick-flick romance scenes at movies) into a complete cheese-ball.

. . . . And I love that.





Sea Turtle!

Remember how I said I was doing a sea turtle drawing? He's done! :) And he's my favorite.

Drawing is great, but I really wish I could paint. The reason I can't is because I'm not patient enough. I like quick results. Like . . . with everything. Haha. That's why drawing suits me so well. I can literally pop out a huge drawing in less than 2 hours. On average it takes me 45 minutes from start to finish. I think that turtle took me about an hour, but I kept stopping to text people/screw around.

Today it hit me that I'm down to just a few days before I go home, and the thought is horribly depressing. That's because of the icky snow/slush that awaits me at home. I hate springtime in the valley. It's really a hideous season. It can't decide whether it should snow or rain or what, so the result is some nasty combination of it all. I can't wait for July when it's warm and we are boating/hiking/tanning/camping/running/enjoying the SUN!

Sorry, Z. I know you want me to love winter as much as you, but I think I'm a summer girl! Of course, I won't hate winter once I have some ski gear. I promise I'll pick some up this year so we can go next year. :)

I hate the thoughts of wasting another second here on this computer when I could be outside enjoying Florida, so I'm going to bounce. I have a really fantastic story to tell, but I want to wait until I can tell Z and Becky first. :)

For Z.

I am so screwed. Gah, I am so screwed.

I woke up this morning feeling the happiest I've been in . . . well . . . as long as I can remember. Ever. So I sat down to analyze the situation and I came to some pretty stunning (for me, anyway) conclusions.

A big part of why I'm so happy is of course because of this vacation. It's pretty difficult to not feel happy while vacationing in a place like this. But that isn't all of why I'm so happy. And this is the part where I realized I'm screwed.

I spent 7 hours on the phone with Z last night. Seven. HOURS.

I am so in like with this boy, people. I can't even begin to tell you how in like I am with him and our whole situation. And these past few nights have been what's doing it. We have the most amazing conversations, and each one convinces me that much stronger that he and I are pretty damn compatible. It's frightening, really. Shouldn't I be freaking out? Shouldn't I be worried about getting crushed? It's funny -- I'm having this internal struggle with the fact that I'm NOT having my normal internal struggle by now. I've never been so content to just hang out and see where things go as I am right now.

My mom is probably going to freak out when she realizes how serious about this boy I am.

I can't wait until the day that he and I go public and I can refer to him by his name and not just "Z". (We aren't going public yet for good reason.) That will be a great day, for sure. I'm totally wanting to share him with the world.

I was listening to random songs on Spotify the other day when a certain song came on that I love. I hadn't heard it in forever, and I had almost forgotten how much I love it. And now it will forever remind me of this boy because of a few lines in it. I'm going to post the song with the lyrics. And . . . Z . . . I want you to know that I think of you every time I hear this song. And I probably always will . . . even if we don't end up together. (Which we of course will!) ;) Haha.

We are young, Peter Pan. And this Wendy will totally come to your world so we can set it on fire!

Okay, now that I've been mushy enough to make even myself sick, I'm going to go work on my latest drawing. It's a sea turtle. And he's cute. :)

Para Sailing!!

So . . . para sailing was AWESOME! It's pretty much exactly how I imagined it would be. I'm not sure I could find the adequate words to describe it. For those of you who have never been, I'll try my best to explain the experience. I'll start from the very beginning.

I woke up at 6 this morning, got in a workout, and then got ready for the day. I stopped to take a few silly pics . . . here's my favorite.

Then I headed to the stand on the beach and paid my money.

Then I sat around and waited for a shuttle boat to come to carry me out to the main boat. I took a few random pictures to kill some time.

As you can see . . . the weather conditions were perfect for para sailing today. :) And some lucky ducks were renting those Wave Runners, hence the reason they are being set up out there.

Finally, my shuttle boat shows up to take me to the main boat so I wade out into the water (about waist deep) and climb on board.

Okay . . . the shuttle boat driver was effing. sexy. And FLIRTY. Gah, he was flirty. I'm sure he was just being friendly, but it got to the point where I was thinking, should I tell this guy I have a bf? He was seriously hot, though. Ripped, tan, and gorgeous. If I didn't have the BEST boy EVER, then I very well may have gotten my flirt on too.

ANYwaaaay . . . He takes me out to the main boat where two more equally flirtatious gentleman greet me, strap me into a harness and life vest, and have me sit on the back of the boat were they strap me to my parachute.

I was surprised a little bit at how this all works. They first set the parachute into the wind before strapping you to it. Then they let the wind do all the work. I mean . . . I knew that was how it worked, but I didn't know what to expect exactly. As it turns out, you just sit on your butt and as the boat pulls forward you are lifted into the sky. It's an incredible feeling. You raise up into the air so gradually that it hardly feels like you are moving at all. In fact . . .  by the time I had reached the top it didn't feel like I was that high up, so I was really surprised when I saw the pictures!

Speaking of pictures . . . here are a few. :)

Those harnesses aren't particularly flattering, but I'm still pleased with those pics. Who's bad?!! Haha!

This last picture was taken while they are performing a dip. It's where they slow the boat way down so you dip into the water like that, then they hurry and gun it -- shooting you back into the sky. It's awesome. At first it doesn't feel like you are moving very fast, but as you get about 20 yards or so from the water, you realize it's approaching pretty quickly. Like I said . . . It's AWESOME! :)

From the top I could see EVERYTHING. I could see the whole island, which was cool, but the coolest view was the dolphins that were cruising around just below the surface of the water. I wish I had my camera with me. Not that it could have captured the view. It was incredible.

The best part is . . . now that I've been once, I can return anytime and go for half price! Hell yessss! :)

Z wants to go sky diving together next. Ummm . . .  haha. I'm determined to get there, but I think I'll convince him to start with bungee jumping. You know . . . work my way up to it. Mark my words, though . . . someday I WILL sky dive. And it will most likely be with that boy. I hope.

You guys should hear his sky diving story. It's crazy! Maybe I can get him to give me permission to tell it to you. It's pretty interesting.

Anyway, that was my experience with para sailiing. After that we went out to eat and I stuffed myself to the point of being sick. Ugh.

Oh, I did another drawing. I'm going to post pictures of the way it progressed. (I like doing that.) This was my first attempt at drawing dolphins. I actually really had a good time doing them. :)

It started with this guy . . .

But he needed friends, so I sketch those in . . .

Then I start filling in his friends. :)

Then it's time to put them under water . . .

And this is the final outcome. :)

So these are the three drawings I've done while here . . .

I'm pretty sure I consumed more calories today that I have in the past two weeks. I feel the need to practice a little yoga and then take a nap before it's time to talk to my sweet boy.