Pumpkin Carving

I grew up in this small country-ish town in northern San Diego that is pretty much known for its Indian casino and Nate’s Butt Farm…during October. No lie, in the 15 years that I lived in Valley Center, I probably visited the butt farm a total of maybe 3 times. To everyone who isn’t familiar…it’s not really a butt farm, the place is called Bates Nut Farm. Nate’s Butt Farm is funnier though. Pumpkin picking is something I mentioned I wanted to get done back in that "Ahh Fall" post...and now, here we are :]

Anyways…I took my cousin to pick some pumpkins at Bates. That in itself could have been a mission. The pumpkin patch opens up for business late September and is pretty much a nightmare for all the locals who live in the area. Why? Because there is one way in and one way out. When ALL of San Diego county makes a trip to this small town, traffic piles up and it takes about 2-ish hours to get through at peak hours. I made sure to avoid this and showed up right as they opened, wandered a little, tried to find a huge pumpkin but failed, so settled for the small guys. Check it.

I made the princess do some hard labor.
Sorry for the back problems you'll have later in life.

The patch of big pumpkins. All were either lopsided or ugly. Whomp.

So we settled for some small guys from the piles of pumpkins.

"HAY RIDES!"

We got out of there before it got too busy, hit up the grocery store for some tools and stencils, and then headed home to carve! Umm…carving with a stencil was muchhhh harder than expected. I gave up after like 10 minutes and decided to freehand it. Whatev.

My finished product :]

No lie…pumpkin carving was hard. I struggled for like 15 minutes before I got the hang of it. I think I was over it the second I started because I was tired from hitting up the patch in the morning. But I liked the way it turned out. Definitely worth all the work.

I got myself an extra pumpkin because I was attending a pumpkin carving party with the girls a few days later. We got together, ate some chili, drank some wine, and watched pitch perfect. Ashley had never ever seen Pitch Perfect so we were scrambling finding somebody to go get it for us. We called Marcus but he wouldn’t because he was being lame. Chelsea should have grabbed it because she lost at “nose goes” but Ashley hubs ended up doing us the favor. Poor guy was probably in hell the whole night with Chelsea and I screaming at him while he was hiding. Here’s some pictures of that memorable night!

My pumpkin! Which was another free hand because
I didn't even want to pretend like I could use the stencils.

Top Left: Marty. Top Right: Ashley.
Bottom Left: Caroline. Bottom Right: Chelsea.

It turned out to be a fun little evening, definitely good to get a break and hang out with the girls instead of doing lame-o homework. What do you think of our pumpkins?  Are you pro stencil or anti stencil?

That’s all folks :] Have a great Wednesday!

Little Big Town & Keith Urban

HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY FRIDAY! [Yes, I am watching Duck Dynasty as I type this]

Today is a good day. After a few hours of work, I'll be headed to the Jason Aldean Concert. I'm super excited about it because if his show is anything like it was last year...it will be nothing short of amazing. Unfortunately, this is the last show of country concert season for us San Diegans...or at least for those of us that aren't going to Zac Brown Band in a couple of weeks.

Anyways...tonight's concert is setting the mood for today's post. Let's talk about the last country concert I was at: Keith Urban.

Keith is one of the HUGE reasons I bought the mega ticket earlier this year. It guaranteed me tickets to Jason, Luke, and Keith. I'm not too in love with Keith Urban's looks, as most of his fans are...but I do love his music. His opening acts were Dustin Lynch and Little Big Town.  

Of course...we started off with some tailgating. 

Some of my favorite people <3

What's a post without a selfie?!!

After a few hours of that, it was time to go in...that in itself was a huge mess that's too lengthy to explain.

After running around like crazies, we all met up inside the amphitheater. We ended up missing Dustin Lynch...I assume, since we didn't see him. 

We caught some of LBT singing Tornado.

Also saw them sing Boondocks! If you listen to this video, you'll hear how much of a mess I was between saying bondukes instead of boondocks which had me highly amused, the spaceship launch sound boop boop boop-ing is totally me, and that chaaaaahooo, me too. Sorry. Ha!

Once it was time for Keith, I took off from my friends to get a better less obstructed seat...check out some vids:

You Gonna Fly-

Sweet Thing-

I wandered back hung out with the group, and then saw Emily take off...so I totally followed. Keith was leaving the main stage and making his way to the lawn!!!!! There was a small stage towards the back and he performed for us. I got 1 song recorded before my phone died...check it.

It was an amaziiiiing concert, and a great time despite the couple of hiccups we had. So far it's been my favorite show of the season. Way to go LBT & Keith Urban. 

This post was brought to you by Jason, Keith and Sarah over at Venus Trapped In Mars. Rules changed a while ago and posts weren't limited to sports, but now you could write about anything you're a fan of...country music and Keith! Boom.

Make it a good day folks! I know I will :]  

Life Lately...Part 2

Whoop. Part 2! No lame-o intro like yesterday, let the good times roll!  

Del Mar Races-

Horse races happen every summer out here and this was my first chance to go in a long time thanks to a work event that was being held there! Bet on random horses mostly because their name related to something in my life. Ended up picking a lot right, but somehow bet wrong and left the track being down $20. Oh well. It was super fun!

Baconfest-

My friends and I had been looking forward to baconfest for months. We are lovers of bacon. Even bought some super sweet day of the pig shirts from Butcher & Baker for this event! Unfortunately, it was kind of a letdown. Extremely hot day, too many people, not enough vendors which led them to run out of food an hour and a half into the event, lots of beeeeer (which sucked for someone like me who doesn’t drink beer) and ran out of water. Our group of 6 probably got about 7 samples out of the 40 advertised food vendors and that was because we split up a couple of times and were in different lines and got samples for everyone. Lots of people were upset, complained on their facebook and twitter. I wrote an e-mail to the organizer and threw a fit because it wasn’t worth the $60 they charged us. They’re working on righting the wrong and offered unsatisfied people VIP tickets for next year…I’ll keep you posted on how that works out :] We went to a friend’s beach BBQ right after and that was cool, but the best thing about that was we all got to see a random couple get engaged! How sweet is that?!!

Our awesome shirts!

The sweet proposal we got to see!

Birthday-

I turned 25 last week. Had some drinks with my friends the night before the big day! Couldn’t hang for a midnight drink because I’m a grandma and was in bed by 11:00 pm. Went to 6 flags with a few people on the day of my birthday. That was tons of fun, but very exhausting. And the drive was kind of veryyy long! Might need to get a hotel in the area next time. Not many pictures of that since I left my phone in the car all day…didn’t want to risk losing or dropping it! Also, one of my biggest goals for myself was to have my degree by the time I turned 25. I graduated in May and got my diploma in the mail the day before my 25^th! Just in time :] Birthday gift to myself was a new watch...I’ve been on the hunt for one for months. Loved this one, pulled the trigger and got it :] 

OFFICIALLY OFFICIAL!

Rascal Flatts-

Wasn’t too excited about this show, would have been the 3^rd time I’ve seen them and the other 2 times were very unimpressive. The only exciting thing about it was The Band Perry was the opener and I’ve loved them and the energy they put into a show for a while now! The Band Perry was great, and Rascal was better than the 2 other times that I’ve seen them, but still…nothing special. Whomp.

Fireball Jello Shots!

Most of us! Including Jessica's crew!

Okay, I think that’s it…or what’s noteworthy at least. There’s a couple of concerts and last few baseball games in the schedule before life settles down a bit. As fun as everything has been, I’m cool with some down time!  

Life Lately...Part 1

It’s been 20 longggg days since my last blog post. Oops. Life’s been a little crazy and school started…so blogging took a back seat. But, I’m sure you’re all having Marty withdrawls. Riiiiight. Ha. Anyways…I’ve done lots of cool blog worthy things, just never had the time to write about it. Gonna split it into a couple of posts though, because it's sort of a lot.

Luke Bryan-

I had been looking forward to this concert for months! Luke has a comfortable spot in the rotating top 3 favorite country music artists alongside Dierks Bentley and Lady Antebellum. A buddy of ours hosted a tailgate that started 7 hours before the concert! Got there around 1:00 pm and partied until 7:00 pm when the concert started! Florida Georgia line was the the 1st opening act and they totally won me over as a fan! I was kind of meh about them before this show, but they lit up the stage, and they had the lawn area filled up like I’d never seen it before…for an opening act! Thomspon Square came on stage after them and rocked some, but not as hard as FGL. Luke Bryan was the main event and I think my super duper high expectations of this guy blew it for me. It was a good show, he preformed all my favorites and shook his booty…but I was left a little underwhelmed. Oh well. Not a lot of pictures from this night because they were mostly on my camera instead of my phone.

SELFIEEEEE.

LIFE SIZE INFLATABLE BALL!

The crew :] Jessica and her peeps chilled with us too!

Padres v. Mets-

The season tickets crew (minus Ashley because her job is lame) caught a Thursday night game against the Mets. I got a call from our ticket rep while I was at work asking if we wanted to do “Friar Feud” and I said I’m sure one of the five of us would be down. I ended up being the one that did it…was asked to name two brothers that have both played for the Padres. I ended up losing and won this random consolation prize. You’ll hear more about this injustice on Friday…

ON TV/THE BIG SCREEN!

Random consolation prize for losing. Haha.

Stone17 Beerfest-

Stone is a local craft brewery in San Diego that tons of people love. I don’t drink beer, so I’m kind of meh about it…but their restaurant is pretty beautiful. They do an annual beerfest fundraiser for the local Boys & Girls Club, YMCA, Surfrider, (and a 4^th organization I don’t remember) as their anniversary party. I had a friend who volunteered to be a beer pourer but couldn’t do it. It sounded like a cool event so I said I’d be down to do it! I learned that beer people are super serious about their beer. Haha. It was a lot of fun, hopefully I get to do it again next year! And I totally recommend any beer drinker friends to buy a ticket for next year…super fun and super cool event!

Padres v. Mets-

A friend from NY was in town for the week and we arranged to catch a Padres game together. We had brunch on the field and all the players and coaches were out to sign autographs for everyone. We got to meet Padres manager Bud Black a second time, 1^st baseman Yonder Alonso again, and our favorite bullpen catchers Justin Hatcher and Griffin Benedict! The NY-ers in town got lucky because the players rarely come out to say hey. Haha. It was a good game, Padres won with a walkoff!

Brent & I

Lime & I with Bud Black!

With Yonder Alonso!

Lime & I with Hatch & Benny

Oh! And met this super hot Mets catcher!

Mmmmkay. That's enough. Good stuff, right? Check back tomorrow for part 2!

Norwegia At The Ballpark

First and foremost...I need to pimp out my blog. I guess google reader is going to be donezo July 1st and bloglovin' is the hot new thing sooOoOOo follow me on bloglovin'!

My friend Linda is a Norwegian native who I met her 8 years ago when she was an exchange student at my high school senior year! She's been in town for like 2 weeks but Tuesday night was the first (and only, whomp) chance we'd have to get together. The original plans were to go out to dinner but they changed to a Padres game with Caroline at the last minute! 

My first beautiful crazy life (or whatever it's called) edit on IG!

I took her to a game back in 2006 when she was an exchange student and sat in the nosebleeds...pretty much the worst seats the stadium had to offer. Thanks "high school senior without a job" budget!

This time around we sat in my regular season seats and one of the first things she said was  that "we're pretty much on the field!" Movin' on up :] She was surprised that we were so close to the players in the bullpen too! 

We skipped the traditional hot dog & beer because she made it clear that she does not want a hot dog or like beer! I wanted pizza, so we walked half way around the stadium to grab my food hoping she'd see something that she'd want but instead followed suit with a slice as well! She works at a pizza place back in Norwegia and although it wasn't as great as hers...it was good. I'm gonna have to head over to Norway eventually because Filippi's is the best we've got to offer and I love a good pizza!

Once we had food and drinks, we sat down and enjoyed the game. Linda snapped tons of pictures, Caroline got her a ball, and the Padres were kind of playing suckball. We headed to bar in the Western Metal Supply Building in the 6th, ran into Poppa V., had a Cactus Cooler shooter, learned about the kind of drinks she orders in Norway (I don't know what it was called officially but it sounded like alkaseltzerfuckshit) and grabbed her a Kamikaze for the rest of the game.

Total baseball taboo...we missed the 7th inning stretch because we were chatting it up at the bar. Whoops. We made it back end of the game, the Padres almost made a comeback in the bottom of the 9th but no dice on a win, so the stupid Phillies took the series.

As always, there was traffic after the game so we cruised to Bub's to have a drink...

Caroline and I asked her questions about Norway, what the bar scene was like, did she go out dancing a lot, etc. She asked how many bars we've been to downtown and Caroline and I tried to count...but couldn't nail down a number. We guessed 15-20. Then it was time to head back home. Whomp.

Linda's IG recap of the game!

Linda is actually headed back to the land of vikings today so I'm glad I got to hang out with her for a few hours while she was here and got to share my love of baseball with her again <3 Hopefully she enjoyed herself :]  

As always [every Friday at least]...this post was brought to you by Sarah over at Venus Trapped in Mars with her Fan friday link up!

All of my link-ups for fan Friday have been the same lame thing about me attending ball games (not that lame though because baseball rocks!) so I'm gonna try and change it up next week!

Aaaaand again...follow me on bloglovin'!

Class Of 2013!

Let’s talk about my first day of college ever. I went to the local community college, Palomar College (UCP!) The year was 2006 on a nice summer/fall Monday morning of September…or was it August? Anyways, my first class was softball practice at 10:00 am. I probably left at 8:45, thinking 1 hour and 15 minutes should plenty time to drive the 25 mile distance, and it was. I remember arriving with 30 minutes to spare but ran into trouble when I pulled into the parking lot…and couldn't find an open spot to save my life. After spending an hour going through all of the lots, I finally found an open space! But now I was at least 30 minutes late to class. I struggled to decide if I should go to class or not and after crying to 2 of my best friends over the phone and talking to my dad, I decided not to go. Yep, I did not go to my first class of my college career. Instead I went to the retired softball coach’s office to talk to him about missing class since I knew him personally and was the reason I had decided to go to Palomar and play ball. He told me the new coach was chill and to just talk to her about what happened and she’ll understand. At that very moment, the new coach had stepped into retired coaches office to talk about her first day and there I was, the chick that didn't go to practice. I had to explain myself and she understood…but I had to pay for it and run sprints the following day.

Fast forward 7 years, I graduated from California State University, San Marcos with a Bachelors of Arts in Liberal Studies with a depth of study in Arts & Education on May 18,2013! 

Check out the grad pics:

Jumbo-tron action!

WOOOOOO!

martywiththeparty

with the parentals <3

grandma (mom's mom) and grandpa (dad's dad)

my family.

some besties!

school loves!

life long friends...and a photo bomber

with moniqueqee!

I seriously couldn't have done this without the support of my parents, family, friends, and work. It’s been a long time coming, but I finally did it!

I've still got a few classes, tests, and credential program to get through until I’m fully legit to become a teacher so here’s to the next 3 years!