fayetteville schmeatville

this morning i wasn't supposed to go to Fayetteville. Now I am going. For a meetin.g. Of the US GREEN BUILDING COUNCIL - NWA Branch. Bye. Love you all. My boss is driving. Pray for me. Yikes. I am bringing my lap top for the three hour drive - heres to hoping i can get stuff accomplished!

The weekend was great - Sarah should post some pictures from it on her blog.

Karl ran 18 miles on Sunday - his longest run yet! HORRAY! Send him lurve by visiting his website: www.84boxes.com! He is still deciding b/w that and his blog. I vote the website. and it is essentially a weblog b/c it is dated. so it qualifies. It is way prettier. And he got his BONUS from work and for the first time EVER we don't already have it assigned to pay something back or off! Isn't that terribly exciting? I just don't know what to do! I think I might purchase tickets to Puerta Vierta (sp?) and go see Mere in Vero Beach. And Karl is going skiing with Matt Dill and Ryan Sheehan. How fun is all this news?

Life is good! And one of us might be on the search for a new job. e mail me if you want more details!

is this how the barrow/munsell wedding is going to be?

i'm freaking out man.

this video is kind of long and crazy. if i did this...well.. i really don't have a lot to say about it. i'm not sure if it is real or staged (if it is staged they did a damn good job). take a look.

weekend updates shortly.

crazee's cool cafe

attendees: me. jennifer lenore. sarah jane gray. melissa P haney. and you. if you would like to attend.

dinner and drinks. 7?

extra extra read all about it

my news is not THAT news - crazy heads & faces. But thank you for the many ?'s from baby-obsessed friends & fam! ;) i'll let you know. and most of you who asked i am pretty sure i wouldn't tell you in a blog. I love you more than that. Maybe.

Anyway, MY NEWS was that i landed my first OUT OF STATE website all on my own! In ... NEW JERSEY! I had a conference call a couple days ago and sold them a site! (And even though i was being completely serious on the call, i did snicker a little at the NJ accent. Not seeing them face to face made me kind of feel like they were little cartoon people with funny voices. Which is good. I wasn't nervous.) The site is for the U.S. Green Building Council of New Jersey - some of you know that i do a lot of work here for the Arkansas USGBC Chapter and did that site - www.usgbcar.org - and NJ wants their site to model that. So that is exciting! I am thinking of - (not really thinking; more doing) launching a campaign to do more chapters - there are over 75 and they have some specifications from the National Board in D.C. to follow. (and since i have already done two and they are really pretty and model the national site and meet all requirements why wouldn't chapters want me to do their sites for them!?!) So that is a project in the works. They are pretty simple sites. I'm doing it man.

Other news:

• First of all, HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY TO Elizabeth, Kristen, and Melissa. And to JR! There are a lot of bday's at the end of January! Sorry I missed wishing you all bloggy wishes on the day.
  

• With the cash $$ I make from this site I will be hiring someone to deep clean my house. I don't care what you think. I hate cleaning (that isn't completely true - i don't hate it i just don't want to do it after working allllllllll day and night...and we work all the TIME.) At the office and at home. So we're doing it. I feel somewhat guilty about it. Oh well. If anyone has any suggestions in the LR area let me know. I'm doing some research.
  
• My teeth holes are infected and nasty (ok just one but it is still gross). So I'm not a complete whiner in the waaambulance. i have to go back tomorrow. I need to eat. A juicy, chewy steak!
  
• Jennifer Lenore and Sarah Jane are coming this weekend. (Friday night anyhow.)
  
• Kristen & I are going to a thing at the Clinton School about The Impact of the Female Vote in the South Throughout History - I love voting.
  
• I am watching B&Geek and this girl can not make a walkie talkie work. Hilarious. (that is news, right?)
  
• What else? Who else has news???
  
• I would also like some semi-expensive shampoo. thoughts?
  

Avoidance of the mushy gushy (like my tooth holes)

not to get to mushy gushy but i do have to say that karl wins the best person ever award for his five (yes, five) trips to kroger in one day (1. prescriptions 2. Pink Lemonade - i don't know but i wanted it. 3. Thermometer (fever check). 4. Tylenol (for fever). 5. Naked Juice (for sustinence) and for his multiple trips to KFC (NO GRAVY!)

lord help me if i ever have a child.

i am trying to stop obsessing - the pain is gone pretty much but the gaping holes remain and it feels nasty. for those of you who have been thru this whole removal process, when does it go AWAY? i can feel stitches hanging....ew. and no one told me how much my other teeth would hurt. i promise to stop being self-obsessed if you tell me. TEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEL me WHEN.

i actually have been at work the past two days (made it here Monday just a little late!) and have been retarda-busy. I will update with news asap. i have some.

t.e.e.t.h.

this is what i look like - nice, huh?

i woke up from the surgery first thinking they hadn't even done anything yet and then telling everyone i was just fine and it didn't hurt at all and something about being supergirl. i tried to get up immediately because I had to pee - they gave me a lot of liquid in that IV. (dizziness, vomiting ensued). i wanted to go in kroger and help karl get my prescription filled but he wouldn't let me (thank god - bloody gauze and drool coming out of my mouth). I kept insisting "I'm FINE" and then falling asleep immediately. I have tried to lay off the pain pills - have only taken about 4 or 5 . they knock me out too much and then i can't wake up and i feel even worse. i ran a fever on and off all day today but am now feeling better. I am attempting work in the morning - we shall see.

i think i may have lost a few pounds - the new diet of milk shakes and mashed taters is working out for me. thanks to everyone who has called and sorry if i haven't returned your call - talking on the phone is not the most pleasant (still swollen).

pitcher's getting nervous, very, very nervous

ok so i am leaving now for my surgery. i am a little more nervous now that i was this morning. aparantly i blog when i am nervous. hmm. i want you all to share in my apprehension and be happy that it is not you going UNDER THE KNIFE.

honestly i am more nervous about the anesthetics (am i spelling that right?) than the surgery. what if i start yammering on about otters or sea lions or some such nonsense - how embarrassing. Or what if i start gagging while i am passed out - you guys know my gagging problem. sometimes i brush my teeth and vomit. And i have a small mouth - how are they gonna even get back there!? what if they hurt/break my jaw?

Additionally, I don't think i have filled a medical prescription in my adult life - ever - and definately not since i have lived in Arkansas (three years!) Do you think that is going to be a problem if i have to pick up some prescription? Do you think my Mommy can pick it up for me? Oh.. wait....

If I die, I love you all (insert tragic fainting scene HERE!). ;)

laugh all you want; it's my surgery and i will be a drama queen if i want to.

teach me oh wise one(s)

this morning i am spending some quality time with my teeth. absorbing their wise ways. listening to their wisdom. before they are ripped out of my skull.

i haven't had a bite to eat or drink all day (not even water!). i am about to pass out. wish me luck.

you've got to comb your afro baby, because it's flat on one side

three nuggets of blogging goodness:

1. okay so the coworker story turned out to be not so funny - it involved one highly negative, always somebodys elses fault, i'm always right co-worker getting in a car accident - MINI accident in which no one was hurt and no other cars were hit by sliding on the ice...she is fine - the accident is not funny - the funny part of it being that everyone i know is snowed or iced in all around the country and we didn't get a drop of snow/ice and yet she managed to find the ONE SINGLE SOLITARY LONELY patch of ice in the city of LR. anyway, it is not funny anymore because aparantly some business was watering their lawn (not sure why after 8 inches of rain but regardless their sprinkler was on) and it caused the street to get wet and so now she is hunting them down so she can yell at them and to try and make them pay her deductible blah blah blah blah blah blah and no one can just take responsibility for anything blah blah blah blah and eight million other people made it thru the intersection without crashing blah blah blah blah now i have to hear about it every day blah blah blah... so there you have it: me: no longer chuckling. sorry for the runoneyness. RUN-ON. (sentence) ey. ness.

2. Did you know that Arkansas has an annual COON supper? COON. as in RAC. And they actually serve raccoon. real raccoon. well real dead and real fried. and important people come to the coon supper - like the governor & other AR politicians. It was a few weekends ago (maybe last?) and I meant to blog about it but forgot. They even have an out of date website. www.coonsupper.com. Can you imagine someone requesting that URL? What an event to plan. I wonder how many pounds of raccoon they polished off - how do you even begin at estimating how many raccoons you need?

3. you often hear me speak/write of joe, my cousin Bridget and Brian's little boy. (cutest. child. ever. featured above in the 2006 Costa Family Christmas picture) He came home from school last week (Martin Luther King Day/Week) and they (he and his parents) were talking about the things he learned about MLK. And Joe was talking about how black kids and white kids should play together and how MLK was inspired because the parents of one of MLK's white friends would not let MLK come over to their house. and then he said something like "but i'm okay because daddy's black and mommy's white and they play together all the time." WHA? please see the above picture of brian. not a black man. then look at the picture of Joe. Somehow I don't think he came from a mix of black and white parents. again - cutest child ever. hilarious and beautiful.

4. (sorry four things!) DID ANYONE SEE UGLY BETTY? Alexandra MEADE ... WHA??? what a great twist to an already great show.

plethora of blogging today - stay tuned

ok i have a real live request: does anyone know a professional auctioneer? preferrably in the Little Rock or Central Arkansas area (but doesn't have to be). I am hitting dead ends trying to find one for an event. don't ask. just answer.

i have a really funny story about my coworker - but i need time to plan out how i am going to express to you the hilarity of the situation and time i don't have this A.M. stay tuned.

i also have a fun story involving a certain child (joseph costa) and MLK day but I definately need a picture to include with that post. so stay tuned for that also.

College Football Gone WILD!

Gus Malzhan. Mitch Mustain. The world of Arkansas Razorback College football has erupted. I love this drama! Yesterday Gus Malzhan, after a mere 365 days (give or take - one season) of coaching as the Razorback Offensive Coordinator has LEFT for THE UNIVERSITY OF TULSA. Lots of rumors swirling around his decision - he didn't have enough control over the offensive game, he didn't coach well with Houston Nutt, Frank Broyles has too much control, his Springdale players didn't get enough play. Gus came to U of A from Springdale High School in AR with four or five players - one left for USC a couple of weeks ago, and one freshman quarterback (Mitch Mustain) who is expected to be awesome has asked to be released from the team. Mitch hasn't officially announced what school he is going to (and he will have to sit out a year regardless) but it seems most likely he will follow Gus to the UNIVERSITY OF TULSA. yea. my alma mater thank you very much. This is exciting to me for many reasons and it means i will actually attend the homecoming game this year as opposed to just tailgating the whole day! TU is getting a crazy amount of press for this! TU also announced another addition to the coaching staff - a coach named Blankenship who was a former coach of Union HS in Tulsa. (Union HS games used to be played at the University of Tulsa and THEY SOLD OUT FAST and were usually way more crowded than our college games). So maybe Malzhan and Blankenship knew each other in some secret high school football (in high schools where football is life) coach secret society. say it with me: SECRET SOCIETY. I like to think it is something like that movie - THE SKULLS. and now they are going on to help new TU head coach Todd Graham (their secret society BROTHER and former TU defensive coach and Rice head coach for 06 season) CONQUER THE WORLD - maybe win the National Championship. HAHAHAH. wouldn't that be INSANE - small little TU! (small little??? apologies.) Probably not going to happen but a girl can dream.

Gus Malzhan: YOU're WILD (say it like baby said it to johnny in dirty dancing when he bashed his locked car's window out to get her to the best place to practice lifts (in the water) beause she was not sure of lifts, not sure of turns, she was doing it all to save his ass but what she really wanted to do was drop him on it)

Other than that drama, I helped Coach (after they all snickered about "Coach" being married, my name briefly became MRS. COACH) with some St. James Basketball this evening. They are 7th and 8th grade - i forgot what a great age that is. So cute. Though they are kind of the bad news bears of basketball. (I hate to say it but there are 14 (14!!!) of them and, well, they aren't the most coordinated children in the world!) Karl ran one half of the court, I ran the other. My half just ran passing drills and played knockout - i forgot how fun knockout is!

Oh and Jenny set up a KNOT webpage for herself and Jeffrey: Go leave them a guestbook comment: www.theknot.com/ourwedding/JenniferBarrow&JeffMunsell

i'm singing in the rain...

and there will be umbrellas damnit.

it's been raining all (literally) weekend. so there were tropical mango-ey beach-ey drinks with umbrellas to make it through. we stayed in and survived! more updating soon - i have WORK to do! And football to watch (the patriots are GOING DOWN RIGHT NOW. yea, that's right, Tom Brady, throw another interception....i am probably inserting foot in mouth as the patriots are second and one right now.)

I have a meeting SUNDAY. THE DAY OF REST!

nataliedee.com


you can all stop looking at my booty in the owl shorts now! ;) I used to have a pair of shorts with elephants on them that i was equally obsessed with. hmm. wonder what that says about me?

that last post was fun, eh? we will have to hit some more hot topics soon - i like hearing ya'lls (that is plural - you all S - yea, i learned it in the great state of Arkansas) opinions and arguements.

i am at lunch - briefly - work is crazy this week. i can't believe it is friday. i am glad it is friday. i get paid. paid. paid. and the john and the leslie robus are headed to the rock this weekend so that is a pleasant surprise!

my head is too filled with work and events and planning to blog anything terribly important. please leave a message if you have a terribly important topic you need me to consider blogging. i will get back to you as soon as possible. BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEp.

oh and P.S. It is 63 degrees right now in LR. 6 - 3. January 12 ladies and gentlemen. happy sigh.

little hootie with a bootie - she's got skillz

one item happy, one item sad

happy first: 1. my new owl booty shorts. given to me by BAK. owls rule. i forced karl to take my picture in said shorts last night and then complained about how fat i looked in every single picture until it got annoying and he made me stop. (must stop doing that; it really is annoying)

sad second: 2. we got a TU alum letter in the mail yesterday asking for a donation. On the envelope it said "Mr. and Mrs. Karl E. Hills." First I felt really old (especially since the letter inside started "Dear Mr. & Mrs. Hills: I am a junior at TU....." and then i felt a little (lot) angry. WHERE IS MY NAME? How did my name get reduced to "MRS?!?!" I graduated from the same college, took the same classes and so on and so forth. I know it was some stupid form/merge letter, but it still made me feel weird. Does that mean I don't have my own identity in the alum database - i am just attached as 'spouse' to his??!!? Me no likey that thought. I didn't really enjoy changing my name when we married; i moved my maiden to my middle and even that was a little hard to swallow for me. But now, to be a "MRS" at age 25. THE HORROR!!! (a bit of sarcasm but i was truly a little freaked out by the envelope; you can now carry on with saying i am crazy if you like).

and, well folks, if these completely self-absorbed items are the ones that concern me (outside of more political issues like our environment, poverty, the increasing crime rate in my city, electing a new president, having a good job/insurance, feeding and clothing myself, ect. ect.) i guess i would have to say i am one lucky lady.

pic from the weekend...

insanely gorgeous don't you think? (and not conceited at all!)

Hey, guys, heeeeeeeeeeeeey

When I make coooooool tshirts for a living this is going to be my first one (or a variation of this - maybe different pants but this is the first image i found and i don't have time to play) because I would totally wear it today. I think when you have a great weekend you are destined to have an exhausted, crappy, don’t-want-to-do-anything kind of Monday back in the office.

On a whim (on Friday afternoon at about 2) I decided to go to Tulsa for the weekend to celebrate Jennifer Lenore Barrow’s engagement and see Ms. Sarah Jane who was also in T-town. I haven’t driven that far (not too far really – 4ish hours) alone in a long time. Just served as a reminder about how crappy a driver I am! Especially in the darkness. I hate hate hate driving – I used to do it ALL the time: Tulsa to STL to LR and all through college and when Karl and I were dating b/w STL and LR. I really think I used to be a much better driver than I am now. I don’t get in accidents; I just don’t like it and I think everyone is going to hit me so I swerve around quite a bit.. it’s fun. But now I am taking a stand. Just say no to driving. So we will try to go back to letting Karl do all the driving and me do all the navigating - oh WAIT A MINUTE I suck at that too. All the cities and streets get confused in my head… and don’t tell me to think about what direction some damn river is because I have NO FREAKING CLUE. Some people are just directionally challenged. I think bad driving and directionally challenged people run on both sides of my family and the culmination of the worst of the worst all got passed to me. Oh, well, my talents lie elsewhere. The important thing was I made it there and back and managed to have a fabulous time in between.

I hope you all enjoyed your weekend like I did and maybe you aren’t as crabby pants as me on this chilly Monday! We wrapped it up and tied it in a bow last night with a delicious dinner with Susan and Seth last night at their place – Su’s belly is just starting to pop a little bit. We looked at a fun, hippy 70’s book on birthing and pregnancy – it was a tiny bit frightening. Though I am sure the 70s were awesome, I am glad we have things like bras and eyebrow waxing.

isabel kathleen - tres annos

exhasted... too much to do at work and at play.

would like to say a quick happy bday to isabel kathleen. (in the middle) i can't believe she is three. i feel like she was just BORN yesterday. literally. those babies are getting so big - call me an old lady for saying so but it is freaking true! maybe if my cousin bridget would START A BLOG we could see more pictures of these beautiful kids. i think so.

i hope everyone is having a good first week of 07. i made a list of things to blog about but it is in my planner and that is in the kitchen and right now that seems oceans away and i just can't do it (don't have the power!) i am trying to recreate the list in my head but aparantly there is little to no activity going on up there this evening.

one of my sister's fraternity brothers (her twin!) from marquette is on beauty and the geek (season premier aired on the cw network last night). his name is drew and he is "the star trek nerd". she went to his "watch party" last night for the premier but he is sworn under oath to not tell the show results. that show makes me laugh. a. lot. it is so wrong in so many ways. somehow i find time to fit it in THE MASTER SCHEDULE. try it out; good times had by all.

happy birthday calendar!

we have made it to 2007. double O seven. the end of 2006 was not so fun as my last days were spent in bed battling some weird cold-like sickness (literally i slept from 7 p.m. Thursday night to about 1:30 Friday afternoon...straight through. un. fun.) i hate being sickly but i am all better now - just in time to enjoy a lovely dinner at J. Carino's w/ some friends on NYE and play some darts at our house and watch the razorbacks looooooooooooose the capitol one bowl game to wisconsin (i wore my wisconsin shirt to my razorback party and my sister wore her razorback to her wisconisn party). the ortegas hosted the razorback PaR-tay and we finally got a chance to meet their son Tripp... A-dorable. i believe USC and michigan are getting ready to start here in a minute so i am going to do some last minute dozing before reality rears its ugly head in the form of our alarm clock in the early AM. i think i may have been asleep for more time than i was awake this "NYE break" which isn't really IDEAL but what are you going to do?

Oh AND CONGRATULATIONS to jennifer lenore barrow and her loveRly jeff! ENGAGED for the new year: LINK HERE. Let the wedding planning officially BEGIN for this girl! I am so glad to have a 2007 or 2008 wedding to look forward to. so happy for these two. what a great way to start a new year.

Oh AND #2: let's see... resolutions - karl and my only "resolution" this year is to de-clutter our lives... specifically the STUFF in our lives anyway. so far we have thrown away/given away boxes and bags of clothing and other unnecessary clutter (i really don't NEED that backless sparkly pink party shirt i wore in college or those eight pairs of capri pants that are high in the waist, tight in the legs, and WON't EVER FIT AGAIN. don't worry - i kept a select few items in a box in the attic to be taken down when in need of a good laugh) AND we are down to one television in the whole house (yet three computers...hmmmm) and much of our college and hand me down furniture is going in the storage shed until we can get rid of it or sell it i suppose. LESS STUFF ES GOOD. letting go is good.

welcome to the new year in the blogosphere. stay tuned for new adventures in our semi-exciting lives - you know you want to!