pretty new stamps.

i love these. i love olivia the pig. the birds are adorable. i want to send lots and lots of letters. give me your address!

perfection.

i was at lunch today, eating my veg-out sandwich from einstein's bros. and i was reading the comics inside healthy living from the dmn. look what i found! i cut it out. i think i'll frame it. it's perfect. made my day. and...my butt looks just like that.

a slice of sarah.

here's a conversation i had today: (i'm A)

A: you're here and ignoring me.
B: what. i just got on
A: ok.. just kidding. i'm sorry. just teasing.
B: you're in a weird mood
A: i've said 12 words to you and you've expertly surmised that i'm in a weird mood. amazing.

then i said this to someone else:

"i know i'm a dork. because well constructed sentences that just flow out of my brain make me so happy."

....do you even have a response?

miraculous morning.

it's open! just over night it opened. i could really get into this gardening thing. ha...no, this is not gardening. but i could get into gardening if it makes me so happy to watch flowers bloom under my care. look at how lovely...

an orchid update.

good news and bad news. my orchid had a totally opened flower (beautiful) and two buds. when i came in this morning one of the buds had fallen off (damn nature), but the other one is opening! i'm gonna have two flowers! check it out. i feel strangely like a proud mama orchid... yeah. no resemblance. crap.

the goal...18 pounds.

there are 18 weeks between now and june 1 and i'm going to lose a pound a week between now and then. that'll drop me from 152 to 134. then i'll be able to wear a bikini, maybe like this one, this summer and that will be good times.

if you catch me eating bad stuff - just say 'the goal.'

i hope i can do it.

by the way...i'm sure she does not weight 134. don't expect me to look this good...

i have an orchid.

i decided to dress my cube up a litle and i got an orchid. it's fabulous. i really don't want it to die. i'm going to try hard to keep it alive. here's what it looks like. sooo... pretty. i think they're so romantic.

more than you really wanted to know.

friday: left work early with that lovely feeling of driving home while it's still light outside. didn't have a chance to have that feeling most of last week. looks like more of the same this week. my beau (TOTALLY reading gone with the wind and the lingo is rubbing off on me) was super tired, but i managed to drag him to california pizza kitchen with me and mom. he then went to see "new world" while mom and i wandered the mall and went to pick up travis from the prosper bball games. i got a text from landon saying "the minutes are going so... slowly... now..." advice: don't see "new world." i tried to warn him.

saturday: made porkchops, broccoli and mashed potatoes for lunch. everything was lovely except my steamed broccoli was steamed a tad too long and was basically mush. but put a little lemon pepper on those babies and they're totally edible. then landon left for work and i skipped church. i fell asleep. read much gone with the wind. and cleaned. i'm currently developing a system to try to maintain our shoebox-sized living space. i'll let you know how it's going. oh...and saturday...i quit drinking soda. it's now monday and i'm still going strong. hopefully i'll drop a few.

sunday: went to church. had lunch at brewskies and watched a little bit of the spurs-nuggets there. spurs lost and we beat the blazers (watched this later in the night) so now we're tied for first in the west. nice... napped on the couch, lulled by the drizzle. watched afc and nfc championships. sad the broncos lost. impressed by the steelers. rooting for them in detroit. went to a tupperware party. bought little tiny cups with lids and containers that collapse into flatness. went to jessie and kayci's for football, basketball and a grill out. we tried to make guacamole, but the avacadoes were ROCK hard. very bad. this day is all out of order...

now it's monday and i'm proud that i ate breakfast. i'm meeting mom in a few. she has a break between classes. and i'm going to a stars game tonight with mickey, rob and erin. should be good times.

the disd meeting.

remember my complaining about how i had to go to one yesterday afternoon? yeah... and i said it wouldn't be kept to a considerate hour? yeah... it was FIVE HOURS long. five. i mean... crap. disd is screwed up and i don't know if hinajosa is the man to fix it, but he's sure trying. i don't even know where to begin to write.

hoping for a miracle.

check this out...

i just got off the phone with my mom and last night on her way home from class - a man asked her for her number!! of course, being super demure and hard to catch, she politely declined.

but dang... that is crazy stuff.

here's mom with my handsome brothers. she's hot.

on days like today...

...i wish i was a stay at home mom. even though i don't have any kids. i want to be wearing sweats and organizing my closet right now. i don't want to be trying to figure out what the hell is going on with the dallas independent school district. it's a near impossible task. i'm not trying to down play stay at home moms. their jobs are super hard. no doubt. that's why i want to be one without kids. just for today. i wish there were such things as personal days in journalism.

today i feel obese.

i'm not sure if it's because i'm fixin to start my period or the fact that i'm wearing these jeans i really should throw away that are too low for my particular "body type" or because i just ate bubba's fried chicken for lunch. but it's something. and it's annoying me. it could also be the simple fact that i am.

also annoying: i woke up at 6 a.m. (alarm at 5 a.m.) to make it to a meeting in highland park at 7:30 a.m. i mean seriously people, who has meetings at 7:30?! that's a ridiculous time of day. but that's not the really annoying part. that meeting was helpful and kept to a considerate hour. it's the fact that i can't go home early because i have another meeting at 5 this evening. this time...it's a DISD meeting. and it's likely there'll be nothing helpful or considerate about it.

if i lived in dallas i could take a nap right now and that would make all things better. but i don't. i live in plano. and i can't justify driving home 25 miles for a nap and then driving 25 miles back in a couple hours.

or can i....

my RIDICULOUSLY talented friend natalie.

ok folks... get ready to be impressed. my friend natalie is an amazing writer and she's going to be a famous novelist someday. no joke. she's amazing. following is a submission of hers to a creative writing contest. the assignment was to write a "proposal" - not necessarily a marriage proposal - as it would appear in a romance novel. or something like that. the assignment isn't really important because the writing rocks regardless of why she wrote it. read and enjoy. but remember: this writing is copyright natalie hankins brown and any stealing of it will get you killed by me or someone equally scary!!!! oh and the picture is nat and her husband at their sept. 17 wedding. isn't she lovely?

***

"Bloody, hell. Bloody, bloody hell!"

Jacki shook the thin white stick violently, her eyes squeezed shut tightly
praying to the gods of the irresponsible that that little pink line would
disappear.

She placed the stick at the edge of the sink and sank, eyes closed to her knees
her elbows resting just to the edge of that life-altering piece of plastic.
Opening her eyes she stared at the tiny screen that told her future as clearly
as a mediums crystal ball.

"Bloody hell," she sighed. She scrambled to her feet as the restroom door
smacked her smartly on the back of the head.

"Oh! Sorry, didn't know anyone was in here*" The woman trailed off as Jacki
snatched the pregnancy test off the edge of the sink, but not before the quick
eyes of the stranger spotted it.

"Oh! It's pink! That's good right? You're gonna have a baby! Oh that's so sweet!
And you just found out! How exciting!"

The woman rambled on as Jacki stuffed the stick deep inside her purse, her face
twice as pink as that damning line. And as the strangers' thoughts processed
along she took a quick glance at Jacki's ring less left hand and her look of
grandmotherly elation changed to concern.

Her humiliation complete, Jacki mumbled her way out of the door and back into
pharmacy aisles scrambling for escape. In her hurry she tripped over a toddler
playing in the aisle, propelling herself forward a few wobbly feet to the left.
Jacki found herself nose to nose with a six foot condom display covered in rows
of neon colored boxes "made for her pleasure."

"A little late for that kind of sign," she muttered, rolling her eyes to the
heavens, and taking one last glance at that toddler gumming away on a sticky
sucker. "And the kid was a bit much, don't you think?"

Usually not much for conversations with God, Jacki nonetheless continued her
conversation with the big man along the three block walk back to her office.

"Okay so I should've been more careful. You've made that clear," she mumbled
making her way across the cracked sidewalk. "But he's so beautiful and sweet
it's hard to tell him no. Okay, okay, no one was saying no that night. And yes I
wore that dress on purpose and it worked. Okay, fine! Just blame it all on me!"

Pushing her dark hair out of her face in frustration, Jacki found herself in
front of the offices of Jackson, Hewitt and Marks.
"What's done is done," she said ignoring the confused look from the Mack, the
security guard at the front desk. She marched to the elevator and punched four,
tapping her three inch heel in anticipation.

Gliding silently to the fourth floor she tried to form the words in her mind.
"I'm knocked up. I'm with child." But the words that came tumbling out of her
mouth when the elevator doors opened to reveal her coworker and partner in crime
were a little less weighty and a little more inane.

"Trey. Hi! Whatcha doing? Busy day?" She bubbled incoherently in a high pitched
tremor as Trey stepped onto the elevator.

"It's been fine* are you okay?" He asked the normally cool and collected Jacki.

"Oh I'm fine, I'm fine, great actually. Oh Trey, I'm pregnant." She said, the
words tumbling out before she could stop herself.

"You're what?!" Trey said his easy smile shifting into shock. The doors to the
elevator opened on the third floor and Jacki made a move towards escape. "Oh, no
you don't," Trey said corralling her back into the elevator. Shooing away the
would-be passengers and pinning her against the wall of the elevator with his
long body, he waited until the doors closed before smashing the emergency stop
button. "Now one more time, slowly," Trey said, his body still pressed against
hers and his face inches from her own.

"I'm pregnant."

Trey's left hand slid slowly from the wall, into the small space between their
bodies to rest on Jacki's still taut lower abdomen. "Mine." He whispered without
question but with authority and reverence, knowing that in the past year she had
not been with another.

"Yes," she whispered. "Oh, bloody hell," the realization of the moment finally
sinking in.

"Well*" Trey said softly and they stood for a long moment, locked in their
half-embrace as their world changed. Finally breaking the silence Trey spoke up.
"Hon. I know you're having a moment here and so am I but there's something I've
been waiting to do*" Unwilling to move his hand from between their bodies, Trey
shifted to allow Jacki access to his side pocket. "Reach in there and tell me
what you find."

Confused, her mind still racing from her revelation, Jacki had her left hand
deep inside Trey's pocket before it occurred to her to crack a joke. "If you're
looking for a little action in the elevator Mister*" Suddenly something cold
slid itself on to Jacki's finger and her heart stuttered. Twisting her hand out
of Trey's pocket, the dim fluorescent light of the elevator revealed what her
heart had already guessed. Sitting there above the knuckle on her left hand, a
diamond solitaire had already found its home.

Shifting just slightly away from Jacki, Trey kneeled at her feet leaving his
hand on her abdomen and on their future.

"Baby," he spoke softly into the folds of her skirt's waistline and then into
her eyes, "Jacki, will you marry me?"

"Oh bloody hell* yes."

home, james.

this is craziness. i've been here for six hours and besides a one-hour editorial meeting, i haven't done a dang thing. maybe a little bit of editing here and there. but nothing that pressing.

so now...i will be leaving.

a nap is sounding super good. and i'm wearing a dress i want to take off.

i'll lounge until time for the game.

peace out.

weekend update.

most of my weekend centered around eating. and a little shopping thrown in.

friday: tried to go to maggiano's with landon but the wait was an hour and a half. uhh... no. so after much back-and-forth. we decided on terilli's and we ended up having to wait for 45 minutes anyway. but...we had crab claws and they were FANTASTIC. for dinner i had penne with light tomato cream sauce and landon had chicken terilli (i think that's what it's called) - basically grilled chicken on angel hair pasta topped with alfredo sauce. he loved it. we went to mom's afterwards to hopefully meet zo, but that never happened. we just hung out and watched a little bball, talked about weddings and talked about buying houses. then we passed out fat and happy.

saturday: lots of laziness. and then a lot more eating. we met cherie on saturday at bob's steak and chop house. everyone was running terribly late, but we got there. oh man... fabulous bread. pickles. an incredible chopped salad. a 9 oz., medium, simply perfect filet along with a baked potato and glazed carrot (yes, one carrot. it was big). then i had capuccino. then wine was flowing. the conversation was flowing. i was painfully stuffed after this one.

sunday: church, of course. then lunch and ikea with tiffany! ikea really takes some concentration because otherwise you think you need everything. we had several moments where we had to stop and regroup. but after three bathroom breaks, one drink break and nearly killing ourselves trying to load the stuff on the cart and into the car - we made it home. i got three barstools ($14.99 ea.), an entertainment center/TV stand ($99), a colander (didn't get one for the weddding...believe it or not) ($8.99), a green flower pot ($.99), a vanilla candle ($2.99), markers that have a stamp at one end ($.99), two wire DVD racks ($4.99 ea.), two down throw pillows ($5.99 ea.), two green striped dupioni silk covers for those pillows $7.99) and....i think that may be it. it was a very successful trip. tiffany got two dressers and two bookshelves. it all weighed a TON. i love ikea. cheap, cheap, cheap. after that i had coffee with my mama. good convo there. then i came home and was cleaning the apartment and landon and matthew played star wars video games for six hours. let me say that again: SIX HOURS!! it was out of control. i was fixin to kill them. after a weekend of gluttony i had ramen for dinner. that and peppermint tea. i love my christmas tea kettle. then landon and i went to see tristan and isolde. loved it. love the name isolde. very much.

monday: i'm at work. nothing to do. can't you tell? and i just finished some chicken and rice soup from whole foods. the only problem with going to whole foods at 1:30 though is that the soup is way more broth than it is chicken and rice. tonight we're going to the mavs game. one of landon's christmas presents. super exiting! we also have mavs tickets in march that are courtside. landon is the envy of all his friends. guess who got them? yours truly...

more wasting time now.

to hades with nap weather on monday morning.

gray... drizzle... hate it when i'm supposed to be ready for the work week. guess i'm glad it's helping quench a tiny bit of our drought-stricken state. i sure would like to be celebrating the thirst relief under my comforter with my husband who is asleep at home...

happy monday.

baby names.

now no one get excited because i'm not having a baby for several years. but i was going to throw out the ones i like and see if anyone responds. i think names are very important. i like them to have very appropriate meanings. my girl names are so romantic and ethereal and my boy names sound like cowboys. i love it. here they are:

olivia (peace)

isolde (beautiful)

elizabeth (consecrated to God)

claire (clear and bright)

eva (life)

ruth (compassionate friend)

ty (inspired by the greek name tymon which means honoring God)

scott (from scotland...ha...it's a family name)

matthew (God's gift)

cade (pure)

noah (wandering king)

likely combinations: olivia isolde, elizabeth claire (call her claire), ty scott, matthew cade (call him cade) and that's all i know right now...

**note: i do want five kids. quite a few of these will be used. =)

FINALLY!!!

here is an update. more people than i was aware of check this blog and they want some updates. here are a few...pictures are upcoming.

christmas...i had five of them. or was it six? it might've been six. i got fabulous stuff though. from landon i got a massaging bath pillow (i'd been wanting a pillow FOREVER), a fabulous white robe, this super cool tray that sits across the bathtub so you can set your book and a drink on it (sensing a theme here?) and i got a beautiful poppy picture. one to add to my collection. someday i will have a poppy room. it'll be lovely. i also got cute shoes in my stocking and TONS of chocolate...especially love the godiva chocolates. from my dad i got citrine earrings (it's my birthstone) and a gift certificate to the movies. the earrings are very pretty and we love movies. from my mom i got a super cute shirt from gap and landon and i got a down comforter...sooo nice. from kelly landon and i got egg nog waffle mix from williams sonoma and a waffle cookbook and syrup. so yum. also kelly got me super cute earrings. from laura i got VERSACE sunglasses!! they are super hot. from scott we got the SMU sweatshirt blanket i've been longing for forever. from travis we got a perfect pottery barn green photo album for our wedding photos. then from landon's family my list is so long. i got olivia and eloise (kylah) and lemony snicket books. i got a new red bible that says Sarah Henry on it.. super special. we got a first christmas ornament that is a really pretty wedding cake. i got the cinderella dvd, a pretty white teapot, pjs, a silver wedding picture frame and....i feel like there's more, but i can't remember it. there was so much. i was spoiled. oh...from landon's brother i got a gray express sweater and from his best friend we got another gift certificate for the movies. then....we got a new stereo from the gump III family because they were our exchange family. it was really an increidble christmas present-wise. it was weird that it was the first one away from my family, but it was neat to have my new family (landon) to wake up with on christmas morning.

so that's that... maybe i should stop there. you're probably wishing you hadn't asked...