Grace Potter and the Nocturnals "Paris"

Home Stretch..

Hello all,

It's Thursday. We are in the home stretch, people. I have some time over my lunch break so I thought I'd do a littl bloggin'. The sand volleyball was pretty short-lived since the team I was on sucked but overall I had a good time. My bod was so sore the next day from working all those muscles that have been in hibernation for so long. After that I headed up to Quitman to Ryan's where we were then off to his friend's birthday/coming home party. His friend, Tee, lives in Iraq and comes back to the states periodically and was having a big BBQ get-together. Everyone loves to BBQ down here with those big black smokers. The food was amazing, the beer was cold and the company was fun so I had a great time. The night ended with Ryan playing the guitar and me eventually sneaking off to fall asleep on his boat under the stars.I'm quite the socialite.


We headed back to his grandparents who live in a lake house in Pittsburg, Texas.I love his grandparents. Ryan compares them to the folks in Everybody Loves Raymond and its pretty accurate. That Sunday we spent Father's Day out on the boat, swimming and just cruisin around. Hes gotthis gigantic motor and he boats goes around 70mph. I have a feeling tubing behind that thing may get a little more intense. I was pretty bummed I couldn't be with my own Dad on Father's Day but I guess that's another sacrifice of being away. Love you Daddio!



So tomorrow for I am going to this big Press Conference and I get to get my picture take receiving one of those big checks for the grant I wrote. I was soooo excited about the big check thing. Who hasn't wanted to do that?!



This weekend Ryan has a big important fishing tournament with one of the high-ups on the company that sponsors him, El Grande Lures. While he is off smoochin' booty I'm going to play in a slow-pitch tourny, get alot of studying done and start getting everything ready to move on the 7th. I'll namedrop Ryan's sponsor incase any of you are fishermen or women out there ;)

www.elgrandelures.com



Oh, and as part of my job skills training program I'm goin to start doing video clips with helpful tips about resme building, interviewing, etc. that will be put up on our website weekly. I recorded one last night as just a trial run and felt like such an idiot. No judgement but this is generally what they will be like with some obvious improvemets before they hit the website.



Finally,I am in love with this new band, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. They are this wonderful blues, Indie, alt rock band from Vermont. Here is a video from youtube posted below. She is so cute and totally makes me want to get bangs and sing in a band of hippies. Wonderful weekend wishes to you all!

Grant-a-fo-fanta

Hi all,


...get it, Ulysses Grant....

I have wonderful news!Do you all remember me wanting to blow my brains out writing that really big grant for work? It was a capacity building grant intended for smaller non-profits to receive funds for computers, software, training, office chairs, etc. The maximum amount you could request was $40,000 and I am proud to say that The Almond Tree will be receiving all $39,995 dollars that it asked for!!! I am so excited. I began to call my family members as soon as I heard. This is the first grant I have ever written and it is the largest grant our organization has ever received. This grant is really going to do some incredible things for our organization, allowing us to build the capacity we need to start running programs, working more efficently, etc. This is also going to be something that will be great as a resume builder. Not bad for a Friday at work, eh? I've actually been really busying lately, continuing to organize the Outfitted for Success Program and all it entails. Things like this grant make me feel like I really am accomplishing things and making a difference for this organization. Now, onto the fun stuff.

We started our run at the co-ed middle loop title last night winning 15-3 or something like that. After that, I played on another team that was lacking a few players and they won blank-teen to 2 something too. I don't exactly remember the score. After that, we headed to celebrate at The Parking Lot for a couple beers. Tonight a bunch of people from our team are going to play adult dodgeball. How fun does that shit sound? I haven't played since I was in college and our softball team participated in some fundraiser, beating a bunch of sorority teams 7 seconds at a time. I love that the people I play with are into doing fun, silly things too.




I'm also going to play some sand volleyball tomorrow after I heard a few guys from the men's team talking about it. They asked me if I wanted to play and I thought it would be a fun time. I may go tonight where they will be playing to shake some of the rust off since I haven't played in awhile. I remember when Casey and I used to play in this 2 person sand volleyball tourny at Volleys in Cedar Rapids. That stuff is exhausting, especially if you sucked like we did, forcing each other to run all over the place. Hopefully I'll have some fun and won't get too much sand in my buttcrack ;)



Have a great weekend everyone!

So I took a month off...

Hello loyal blog followers!

After taking about a month off the blog scene I am back! For some reason, I just felt no motivation to take the time to share what was really going on in my life. I'm sure you were all missing my awesome website tips more than the daily occurances of my life but I'll take it either way. Well, here is what you missed...

~Our co-ed softball team, that I missed the 4 finals games when I was home, ended up losing our final game. The team we played was undefeated too and they brought in a bunch of really good people and sat their own players I guess. What losers. Give it a break, it's slow pitch softball and you're sitting your own players for a competitive edge. Even my psycho competitive ass wouldn't do that..Oh well, the new summer season starts tomorrow and we've moved up to middle loop. We were playing in low loop before because you have to if its your first year as a team. Our new team name is "I'd Hit That" Get it....like we hit softballs...but it sounds sexual....get it. A girl on our softball team named Elaine is all about graphic design and made these awesome logos for it. Pretty sweet set-up.



~I've decided to move from my current house. They have all the crazy rules that I don't really feel like continuing to abide by as a 23 year old woman. Plus, a single mom with 2 kids has moved in and taken over the house. Luckily, I've found a place on craigslist with this woman in her 40s whose kids have moved out and has available rooms. Its cheaper and shes cool with me having a dog. She has no rules and she seems like a real laid back lady. I'm waiting to move until after the 4th of July weekend when STEPH KELLY COMES!!!! The house I have now has more room and an extra bed and all of that so I figured I'd be better just to wait. I'm so excited she's coming to visit. Now I just need to find some cool shit for us to do. I think that Ryan is making plans to head to the lake by where he lives and I'm thinking we could tag along with that for some great times.



And here are a couple websites for your pleasure. I bought a T-shirt from the second one. For those of you who have moved out of the midwest aand have people constantly interchange Iowa, Idaho, and Ohio.

www.creepyanimals.com

www.raygunsite.com



"Iowa is home to teachers, farmers, lawyers, factory workers, and many others who work hard every day to provide the best for their families and their future."
~ Leonard Boswell