so precious

Waking up to Madeline, originally uploaded by hch3.

hank and madeline, this morning. and yes, hank has his own special star wars pillow that totally clashes with our bedroom. you win some, you lose some... ;)

back to work I go

Today was my first day back at work after spring break, which should be a pretty loathsome day but surprisingly I had a great time. I started my day off on the right foot and woke up at 4:45am and got to the gym by 5am when it opened. I did my cardio and came home to a great homemade protein shake. It's seriously the best, and so, so good for you. Here's the recipe:

1 cup almond milk
1 scoop protein powder (I use whey protein)
1 teaspoon bee pollen (I'll go into this in a minute)
1 teaspoon finely ground flax
frozen organic mixed berries
frozen organic peaches
fresh org strawberries!

Add it all in a blender and there you go! It's the most delicious, nutritious start way to your day. Combining the complex carbs and protein is the best thing you can do, and it's great for after a workout. You can vary the fruit and even do a banana/almond butter smoothie, just peaches, etc. The aforementioned fruit is just what I had in the house today so that's what I used.

Bee pollen is a super amazing supplement that has a lot of health benefits. It's toted as a "super food" because it has all of the complete nutrition you'd need for one day. It is a veritable alphabet of vitamins, tons of trace minerals, it's a natural appetite suppressant, it contains "more protein by weight than beef," and it smells and tastes yummy. It also is a great topper on your oatmeal in the morning or even dissolved in hot water if you're not wanting to eat. I really recommend it!



In other news, I am looking forward to heading down to Phoenix again this weekend to attend Run With the Hunted CD release show, and to see Sarah's new band, Ready Resist! Then the following week I get tattooed...awesome. I have a million things planned and I'm excited to get to work on them. The high school's prom is in a week too and Hank and I are chaperoning! Haha! It should be adorable.

Soo, tonight is a totally relaxing night, I cooked dinner and now Hank is watching the Suns game in the living room and I am about to watch "Let the Right One In." I hope it's good!

almost over

What a spring break! I am heading to sleep early, even though this is kind of my last night of vacation. I am so exhausted! This weekend has been wonderful. Last night we celebrated Zoe's (and Nick's) birthday with a vegan pizza party and then went to see "I Love You Man," which was so delightful! I laughed almost the whole way through and I am usually not a huge fan of comedy movies. Afterwards we all went back to the O'Hagans and hung out, it was such a fun night. Annnd, today was such a lovely day too! Since I didn't get to sleep until very late Friday night I ended up sleeping in until 10am or so (yuck) this morning and then went out to Tempe to hang out with Sarah. Our original plan was to eat lunch at Green, but with Rural's closing we chose Pita Jungle instead. I got my usual Macro Platter and it was delicious and it was so so nice to spend time with one of my closest friends. She warms my heart and I am still basking in the little afterglow of seeing her, funny as it sounds! Afterwards I headed over to Erin's and we had a little bbq for her parents, so I got to spend time with more great friends. We hung out and of course ended up playing Catch Phrase. I was going to hang out with Shirley tonight after the bbq but she had to push our plans until tomorrow so that's one more thing to look forward to! I am just feeling so thankful for my friends and all of their wonderfulness... it's been an amazing weekend thanks to them!

I am really happy right now because I feel like I am actually following through with the changes I wanted to make about myself. It's really just the beginning of that journey to bettering myself in a positive way, but I have made a lot of headway and I feel really satisfied with my progress. It's a good feeling to recognize an area of improvement and then actually feel yourself moving forward.

Tomorrow is one of my favorite days when I am in Mesa because I do an early gym with my parents and sis, then go to coffee (I drink water, I can't stand coffee or caffiene in general) and we go food shopping at Whole Foods, Sprouts, and Trader Joe's. Yes, my parents insist on going to all three places because there are things they need at each place. My Mom is THE healthiest eater I have ever known and she makes all kinds of natural concoctions so she buys a lot of specialty items at each place. She is a huge reason/inspiration why I eat the way I do, and I really enjoy going with them and getting new ideas for meals and what not.

So, back to work I go on Monday. I am actually looking forward to it, which is a weird feeling. I miss my work girls a lot and I am looking forward to catching up with them, and seeing my kids! It's funny, but I do miss them.

And for now, sweet dreaming time...

our silhouettes from disneyland

our silhouettes from disneyland, originally uploaded by daniellehampton.

REBLOG!

...reblogged from a blog that was recommended to me last week by Tea, that I have already been reading for awhile!

Click HERE to visit Galadarling's blog, she is amazing and so entertaining to read. I wanted to share this long entry of hers (again, I did not write this, I am simply reblogging her post because I want to share it), because I think a lot of it can hit home with a lot of people I know. It's a great, inspiring read, and it makes me feel so happy that I have wonderful girlfriends. Maybe you have struggled with this kind of thing in the past, or maybe you currently are, but it's always good to read some positive words and this blog especially reminds us why we (as females) should all get past our hang ups and support each other! In the past I have dealt with both sides of the fence, when I was younger I'm sure I dealt with feelings of jealousy towards people and in the past I have definitely dealt with girls disliking me for whatever reasons they made up in their heads about my life, without even knowing me. I am just very lucky to have always been surrounded by girlfriends, and that's never changed. Female friendship is a super interesting topic for me, and I wish more girls could experience really having great girls to be around. From dance and sports growing up, to my sorority, I have always gravitated more towards girls for friends than guys. But I know many are not the same way and look to females as being the enemy. That makes me so sad. Jealousy is such a waste of time, and it's all just so silly. This blog really touches on some awesome points and I know every girl could get something out of it! I truly enjoyed this read, and I hope you do too. And be sure to add Galadarling to your blog reading list.

“Being a sexy & powerful female is one of the most subversive projects of all. (We are the priestesses of a new kind of power oh yeah.) We know we are not like this due to any weird gene formation or luck or trick. We are how we are from working together with our eyes open & having experiences & getting help from our moms & friends. We vow to struggle against the “j” word (jealousy) the killer of GIRL LOVE. We are not special, anyone can do it. ENCOURAGEMENT IN THE FACE OF INSECURITY is a slogan of the revolution.” (Introduction from Bikini Kill: A Color + Activity Book // source)

Why do girls dislike other girls — or find it almost impossible to make a female friend that they can stick to for a while? Well, let’s test something out. Raise your hand if you have ever thought any of the following things.

She’s so much prettier than me. I wish I had thighs like that. Why is her complexion so flawless? Man, she’s so outgoing. She seems really popular. I bet she never feels lonely like I do. I never know what to say & she always has the perfect comeback. So many guys like her. Why doesn’t anyone look at me like that? How come I never get any attention the way she does? How come she doesn’t have to work as hard as I do? Why does everything seem to happen so easily for her? She is so beautiful. I wonder if she’s had surgery. I bet she has an eating disorder. What’s her flaw? Why does he like her & not me? Why does she always get invited out & not me? She’s so talented. I can’t do anything as well as she can. How can she live a lifestyle like that? I bet some dude pays for everything. How come I don’t have that arrangement? I hate her. I hate myself. Why do I suck so much?

...Yeah, me too. So what do the sentences above have in common?

1. They all involve competition or us comparing ourselves to someone else
2. They always assume that we come up short, or as the “loser”
3. They all invalidate us
4. They assume that we know the full story
5. They all have jealousy as a root cause

As the old cliché goes, the grass is always greener, & it’s easy to look at someone else’s life & feel like you don’t measure up — or to assume that their life is perfect, flawless, a field of daisies at all times. No one’s life is perfect, which is not to say that we shouldn’t do our best to improve ourselves, but it’s worth remembering. Everyone has their own pain, no matter how beautiful, wealthy, famous or talented they are — & everyone gets jealous sometimes! You are not a weird freak. I promise.

So many of us are raised to believe that other women are competition, that we are locked into a constant game of who-is-prettier, who-can-get-the-dude, who-has-a-better-job, who-can-lose-their-baby-weight-fastest, etc., & IT IS ALL NONSENSE. WHO CARES. IT IS NOT IMPORTANT. Trust me on that one. Sure, you can indulge in that if you want, but there is always going to be someone hotter, faster, smarter, more cunning than you. Those victories — the Prettiest Girl Cup, the Billionaire-Boning Medal, the Well-Paid Wonderwoman Triathlon — if you ever have them, are short-lived & empty, because then you actually have to get on with living your life, & truthfully, no one is really watching you anyway. They are too concerned with their own thing. Stop living your life for an imaginary audience & make yourself happy!

One thing I’ve noticed over the last few years is that if you’re really happy with yourself & your life, or if you become that way after years of self-loathing or misery, the way that you interact with other people & the world around you completely changes. For example, a few years ago I disliked humanity so much that I would practically go around daring people to prove my assumptions right. I think I probably had a laundry list of people I hated. I would meet up with my friends & we would gossip & talk shit about the people we had met who had managed to evoke our ire (not a difficult task at the time, I was really looking for any excuse to be pissed off). I loathed my job(s). All my friends hated their jobs too. I felt stuck, I had very low self-esteem, & my only friends were really people I drank with on the weekends. It never ran any deeper than that, which I resented, too. I would read the blogs of people I disliked & leave scathing anonymous comments. I complained about everything. Long story short, I was an epic drag to be around.

So how did I manage to flip my perspective on girl friendships? I don’t have a step-by-step for you, unfortunately, but even if I did, we all have our own processes. It seemed like it just happened, but really it didn’t. It was an unexpected bonus of having done so much work on myself. If you think of your beliefs & values, all that stuff that makes you you, & envision it as a big rug, well, I had been hanging that rug outside for two years, beating it mercilessly to make room for new stuff in my life. I had been using EFT & healing techniques & combing over all my beliefs, deciding to change all the things which didn’t serve me any more. It probably had something to do with the fact that now I felt like I was worthy of having real friends, too. So one day, I woke up & realised I had a bunch of really incredible female friends. Bonus.

Similar to the way in which if you’re happy with yourself & your life, you don’t trawl the internet being nasty, if you’re happy & have good self-esteem, you don’t view other girls as competition any more either. As with anything, when you notice a problematic pattern which keeps repeating itself, it’s time to look at what you’re doing to contribute to it. After all, the only constant is you…

One thing that can be useful is to grab a pen & paper & write down the exact reasons why you’re jealous of this girl or that one. Be really honest. Even if the reason is something totally shallow like, “Her thighs don’t touch & mine do”. Put it down. THEN, & here’s the key, look at that thing & work out why you place so much value on it. Think about your life & where this belief that that particular thing is important came from. If you don’t like Meredith because she gets attention from guys wherever she goes, work out why you feel like you need that. Did you always want love you never got from your father or some other male role model? Consider these things & process them. Often when you dissect it down to the bare bones, you’ll realise that it’s actually kind of a nothing reason, just something you have an emotional attachment to or involvement with. Knowing yourself is important — it’s powerful. You can then take that information & let go of it however you want: meditation, EFT, rituals, or just deciding that it doesn’t serve you any more & letting it go.

When you’re happy with who you are & you feel a lot of love in your everyday life, which, by the way — if it isn’t a reality for you already — is totally possible & achievable, it’s much easier to turn those little snarls of jealousy into something positive. For example, I used to feel really threatened by beautiful girls, & sometimes I still am. I have a teeny tiny freak-out in my head, like, “Man, if I’m standing around with them, I am totally going to be the ugly friend...”, but then I take a deep breath, & I let it go. I spin it around, & remember how much I love them as people, how much fun it is to look at them across a table, & what great additions they make to photos!

I suppose if my super-pretty friends acted like super-turds, it would he harder to flip my view, so maybe that’s something to keep in mind! Hunt out people who are fun, pleasant & act with integrity! They’re much more likeable by default & you won’t be constantly trying to dig up their positive attributes to balance out your jealousy about the shape of their eyes, size of their hips, number of active suitors, etc.

One of the keys to this whole thing is learning to appreciate other people for who they are. Van Gogh was probably a better painter than you are, but are you jealous of him? I doubt it. It’s much more likely that you think he’s brilliant, & if you ever got to hang out with him, you’d tell him how much you liked his work, & maybe you’d try to learn something from him. I think we need to approach friendships the same way. Be incredulous & impressed & unattached. Other people feel like that about you too, you know.

Another thing to bear in mind is that you can build really true, strong friendships if you shift your focus to the positive when you’re together. Instead of meeting up & plotting ways to destroy other people’s relationships — or whatever it is you do — talk about your goals for the future, describe who you’re in love with, speak about beautiful things. No truly happy girl is going to want to be friends with someone who talks badly about everyone they know. (I have met plenty of people in the last couple of years, which has been amazing, but even when it comes to good, well-intentioned people, if I notice that they gossip a lot or talk about other people all the time, I just don’t get that close to them…)

As for actually making friends, I strongly believe that once you have your attitude & beliefs about friendships lined up, it will just happen. But if you want some clues, here are mine: Make yourself available to people (but don’t harass anyone). Be friendly. Smile. Ask questions. Make yourself useful. Help out. Laugh. Do adventurous things together — it bonds you more than just getting coffee, & gives you something to talk about later. Trust that it will all work out — the best friendships don’t require constant maintenance or fretting! & if something amazing happens to your friend, don’t be afraid to say to them, “I’M SO JEALOUS!”. Being open about it & actually expressing that to them takes a lot of the weight off.

Don’t be intimidated by other women — we are here to help one another. We all want more friends, we all want cute phone-calls, we all want hugs & kisses & ridiculously fun photo opportunities. None of us are perfect, & that’s cool, & our preoccupations with our own flaws don’t have to control us.

Have you had to deal with jealousy in a friendship? What did you do about it?

Hyper-love & bunny kisses,
Miss Gala Darling

goodnight!

What a week! Tomorrow morning we are finally heading home to Prescott, and I am so, so sad to leave my best friend. It's hard to have Autumn and her family live all the way out here but within a year she will be back in Arizona, thank goodness. I am way too tired to go into all the details of our trip right now but here are some random photos from the rest of the week:

Chloe and me this morning


entering Disneyland yesterday


leaving the Disney Railroad!


Hank and his ice cream


Hank looks amazing here!


cute



Autumn and J at Bill's accordion concert!


downtown


cupcakes from Frosted on 2nd Street


Chloe already loving Marc ;)


Long Beach, in front of Autumn's house


at the beach on Monday


beach


Uncle Hank teaching Chloe all about Apples.


at Yogurtland!

castle photo

castle photo, originally uploaded by daniellehampton.

the first two days of our Spring Break

Hello! It's super early on Sunday morning and I figured I would blog a bit about our trip before the rest of the week had passed and I forgot to or just didn't feel like it. Right now Grammy Libby is downstairs feeding Chloe her breakfast and everyone else is still asleep. It would be so nice if I could sleep in past 7 on vacations, but my body is so wired to be an early morning girl. I do love waking up with the sun though, and especially here. They live in a beautiful home, right on the beach- it's the cutest area of Long Beach, I think. I am so relaxed right now but when Autumn wakes up in a bit we'll be going to a 90 minute bootcamp class downtown, I can't wait! Haha.

So, we woke up around 7am on Friday and got into the car. Oddly enough I had volunteered to drive (I never, ever drive if I don't have to, especially long distances), but I ended up driving almost the whole way! I was so proud of myself. We got to Autumn's later in the day and we were absolutely pooped from our drive so it was a quiet night just hanging out with everyone, playing Wii, etc. Autumn's family is an extended part of my family- she is basically my sister, her Mom my second mom, so it makes me so happy to be around everyone. Jeremee (Autumn's sister) was in town Fri night too. It was my first Wii experience after holding out for so long, and I have to say that it was a blast. I was pleasantly surprised. I am not a video game person at all but this was really fun.

We woke up Saturday morning and Jason had to work (he's an orthodontist) and Autumn, Libby and Jeremee had to go visit their Grandpa. Hank and I decided to head down to LA for the day to do some shopping and visit an exhibit he wanted to check out. We went down to Pink's to have the veggie dogs but of course the line was insane so we skipped it and went to Jet Rag instead. I found a couple adorable vintage dresses and a few other things. After that, we headed over to California Vegan for lunch. Hank got the orange chicken lunch special and I got the Lentil burger. I'm not Vegan or even vegetarian, but I usually eat like I am because I cook for Hank and I really prefer to eat that way, with the exception of sushi and the occasional sandwich. Our meals were so, so good and I am glad Pink's was too insane because I got a much more balanced meal. After lunch we met up with the lovely Adie and her friend Ned at Pinkberry and hung out and talked for awhile. They left, and we headed over to the KAWS exhibit at Honor Fraser downtown. His stuff doesn't really do it for me, but Hank has loved him for ages and it made me so ecstatic to see him so happy. He was like a kid in a candy store. We were going to head back back to Long Beach but Autumn wasn't home yet so we headed over to Melrose to do a bit of shopping. I got a couple of great things at Marc, and Autumn still wasn't back so we headed to the AA warehouse...but it was a total bust. Last time I was in LA Adie and I went and it was a lot different and I got tons of things, but this time there wasn't anything worth getting, and nothing was really discounted. Hank still thought it was neat to see the huge buildings though so I guess we didn't really waste our time. So after our long day we came home and rested for a bit and then Jason, Autumn, Hank and I went down to Seal Beach, ate dinner at the only place that was open, then spent a little time at Morry's Wine Bar in Naples, which was an adorable place! I loved the ambiance and it was so fun to just sit and talk with my best friends.

We headed to bed semi-early due to our class this morning. Whenever I visit I always do her kickboxing classes with her and they are insanely hard. Full bags and gloves, boot camp style for 90 minutes. I am always dripping in sweat when we're done which is great.

So after our workout, today will be a beach day. I love it here.

us!


Chloe and me


the first of our many, many Pinkberries for the week


at California Vegan


at the KAWS exhibit


Autumn and Jason

cupcake cuteness!

How cute is this...
(reblogged from hotelchatter)

The sudden and inexplicable wild popularity of cupcakes (well, somewhat inexplicable to those of us who refuse to attribute the dessert's lovability to Sex and the City) has made its way into the luxury hotel world: the Ritz-Carlton Central Park is up on the cupcake bandwagon, mixin' up tradition by inviting the teensy dessert to tea.

Well, they're actually inviting you to tea — and ditching the traditional scones and finger sandwiches in favor of cupcakes. On Saturdays and Sundays starting April 1st, the hotel will celebrate Spring by rolling out a Cupcake Tea menu at the hotel's famous Star Lounge. Each guest will get a pre-set selection of five petite, freshly-baked cupcakes and a choice of Ritz-Carlton blend teas (or one non-alcoholic beverage if tea isn't your thang).

Flavors of cupcakes to expect: red velvet with traditional cream cheese frosting, orange "creamsicle" with Tahitian vanilla filling and buttercream frosting, lemon chiffon with vanilla bean buttercream frosting, Valrhona chocolate with whipped Valrhona chocolate ganache frosting, and Tahitian vanilla with vanilla bean buttercream frosting. Yes. Yum.

The Cupcakes and Tea menu runs $25 per person and will be served on weekends from 11:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., April 1st through May 17th.

Just a small post to say...

happy spring break to me! This has been one of the busiest weeks ever, I have no idea how I even found moments to get online and blog. Besides getting ready to leave town for a week, I had a lot to wrap up for 3rd quarter at work, papers to grade, etc. But as of 3:10pm today I am done...and so happy. Oh, and by the way, thank you to all of my sweeties who left me comments about Disneyland, we are going to try and do every suggestion in the two days we're there! As for right now I am going finish packing and getting everything ready for our early morning departure. As soon as I feel organized I am going to take it easy for a couple of hours, watch more of Season Two of Big Love (so good), and then workout for a couple of hours. Hank and Dustin are running the last of our stuff out to storage and then I hope bringing me home some tofu and veggies from Thaifoon. Yum.

Do any of you watch Big Love? I just got into recently and I adore it. What are some other television series you enjoy?


*this is just a cute random photo that gets me excited about Disneyland; I have no idea what the credits are, but let me know if you know so I can give credit immediately! :)

Hank's so sad that the Suns lost...

Hello Tuesday night! Today was a pretty great day. I worked all morning and afternoon and spent part of my morning on Blackberry Messenger laughing soo hard at Amber Joy and her funniness. I swear, that girl can make me laugh like no one else. I was able to text on there for awhile because my seniors were watching a film in Jenn's room. Overall great day. So after work I came home and took a long, wonderful nap with Madeline on the couch. Hank woke me up around 5:30 and we headed to dinner with his family at Bin 239. I got the a salad with spring greens, blackberries, apples, oranges, and tomatoes. It sounds weird but it was truly delicious. I came home and talked to my sweet Elisa on the phone for awhile, was headed to the gym, but decided to stay home and do my PlyoX video, which is a million times harder than any cardio machine. I am pleasantly sore and excited for these last two days of work to fly by. I am trying to figure out what I want to bring on our trip, I am a total overpacker because I like to have a million options at my disposal but at the same time I hate that I do that. Luckily we will be at Autumn's so I can wear her stuff too. I am unsure about the weather but the forecast says highs in the upper 70s and lows in the 50s. One great thing though, is that it was supposed to rain next week which totally would have put a damper (literally, haha...) on our Disneyland days. And speaking of Disney, I cannot wait to get some Minnie Mouse ears and ride all the little kid rides. I hate rides like the Tea Cups, that spin around, but I love all sorts of other rides, incuding roller coasters! Yeah! We haven't been in a very long time so it's going to feel brand new again. I managed to dig up these photos from last time we went, via my old Photobucket account! We look so young, it's precious. I think this was in 2004 or 2005.



And this was from the first time I ever went to Disneyland! I went with the OHagans and Chris in 2003 or 2004 I think, the years are all mixed up to me. I grew up in NJ, so I had only known Disneyworld. This was my first CA Disney experience. All I could find was this polaroid that Elisa took but please note my awesome Alexisonfire hoodie. Ew! Hahaha.


So, what is your favorite ride at Disneyland? What are some "must-dos" that you'd recommend?

HOTW in AP

HOTW in AP, originally uploaded by daniellehampton.

My hubby Hank's band, Hour of the Wolf, on the first page of 100 bands to know in 2009, in AP (Alternative Press Magazine). Yay for them!

Monday, Monday

What a day! It's always hard to come back to work after a relaxing weekend. Anyhow, I have two and a half more days until ten paid days off. Hank is so cute and literally counting down the minutes with me until we start our vacation. He is taking a full load of classes this semester so he needs the break more than I do.

Lately I have really been thinking about my friendships with people. I have had the same best friends for a long, long time. I have a really bad habit of being really great at staying in touch, and then I drift away, come back, drift away. Whenever things get busy I tend to be very bad at prioritizing my friends and family into my life. I am finally accepting this flaw about myself and working really hard to change it. Most people don't see it because I'm typically so happy, but I do struggle with depression. When I start to feel sad, the first thing I do is push everyone away, which makes everything ten times worse. One of my closest friends, actually she's more like a sister, helped me come to this realization recently. It's so hard to accept negative things about yourself but it's time I move forward with becoming a better person. It's exciting to be making these positive changes and I am so happy to be at this place. And okay, that's kind of heavy for this blog but for the sake of honesty I'll leave it.

On that note, I am really happy with myself because I have been running outside a lot more than usual this past week. I workout about six days a week, but most of it is in the gym. Over the past three weeks or so I have been working out outside more often than not and I feel so much happier. I need the sunshine to keep my positivity up, and besides doing the same cardio machines is not productive whatsoever. The only thing I wish I had was another person who was crazy like me and wanted to work out at 5am. I miss living with Autumn and Shirley for so many years because they loved to workout just as much as I do and I always had someone to go with. I definitely don't like talking while I workout but it is nice to arrive/leave with a friend so you can motivate each other.

Tonight has been a really quiet night at home. Hank and I hung out and watched Dancing With the Stars and bascially just relaxed. It's gettting late now and I am going to head to bed in just a moment. Tomorrow my kids are working on vocabulary and taking a quiz, and then we have our Tea Club meeting right after school. Here's to a positive Tuesday!

tweet tweet

do any of my readers have twitter? the site is getting more popular by the day...finally!

www.twitter.com/danihampton

saturday

today was a great day, and i am about to head to sleep so i can wake up early for a workout and brunch with hank (if i can drag him out of bed!). today was good, i got my hair colored back to dark. i was trying to go lighter for awhile but i just don't like it once it's there. i absolutely love blonde hair but it just isn't for me. i'm going to just stick with my dark hair and continue to let it grow. it's getting so long and i am excited for it to grow these next couple of inches. when i met hank my hair was so short so it's a trip to actually have long hair. i love it. tonight was a really quiet night. we went dinner at hugos and came home to watch our wedding dvd. it was amazing to see all of the things we didn't notice or didn't even have time to notice on the big day. it was so wonderful to be able to watch the ceremony and every other little detail. so we watched that and then lance came over to work on stuff with hank and i decided to figure out what i wanted to bring to california. we leave thursday for a week! i can't wait. i've been talking about it a lot on this blog so my lovely readers, i'm sure you'll be glad when thursday comes so you don't have to read it again and again. i absolutely love the beach and love just lounging around in my bathing suit, so i hope the weather is warm. autumn says it's been up and down, so i hope it's up next week. i really just want it to be warm enough to lay in the sun for a few hours every day. i will be slathered in 80 spf, but it's still so nice just to enjoy the wonderful sunny beach. we spent a good amount of time in hawaii last year again and i can't get over how much i just love that lifestyle. hank and i have already decided that's where we are retiring. bikinis and swim trunks all day long. i'm sure when we retire at age 50 something i won't be so eager to wear a bikini, but you never know! :) i ordered a few cheap bikinis the other day including a ridiculous banana print one that makes hank laugh. but anyway, this weekend has been good. except for the fact that the jimmy eat world show is tonight...the clarity tour. the sold out tour. i couldn't get tickets but erin somehow finagled her way in tonight and i am so happy for her but i wish wish wish i could have gone. jimmy eat world is so special to me, and especially the clarity album. there are so many experiences and memories tied to that album it's insane. i hope they release a dvd or i can find some youtubes of the shows they've put on- i think they did 10 total. so anyway, this was a little run down of my night.

i am going to start asking questions at the end of my blogs that i would love to know your opinion on so please respond if you have time. i think it'll make blogging and interaction more fun. i got the tip from the blogger home site. hahaha.

so...do you feel more comfortable in a bikini or one-piece? have you always felt this way?

today's march4schools rally downtown

wednesday

wednesday, originally uploaded by daniellehampton.

i am feeling really under the weather today! it may have to do with the fact that it's really cold today, or it may have to do with the fact that i stayed up way too late last night watching big love. probably the latter. i was just talking about how i needed to go to bed earlier, and then i stay up watching dvds. silly.

this weekend should be good, i will be heading down to phoenix again (i think). my auntie ellen from vermont is in town and if she doesn't go to tucson for saturday and sunday i'm planning on spending the weekend there, which means i'll get to see some of my girlfriends too! at the very least, erika is doing my hair on saturday morning which i am really looking forward to. she's the best. i originally was going to stay at least on friday because hank plays a show up here in prescott. but because he isn't able to do this small tour with them in a couple of weeks due to school jordan is filling in for this show to get some practice for when he goes out with them.

so tomorrow is thursday and i will be in the computer lab with my sophomores all day long. it's going to pretty boring, but i'm glad they will be sure to get their short stories in. both my sophomores and seniors have projects due friday, and then we just have next week before spring break! one of the best perks about being a teacher is the schedule. seven more work days and hello california! autumn and jason live in long beach, in a beautiful house right on the beach and i can't wait to just relax with my best friend and enjoy the beautiful weather. hank really needs a break too, so it's great our spring breaks coincide.

tuesday

i had a good time with my classes today but i am just exhausted! there is a lot of flurry at work because tomorrow there is a huge event being organized in arizona and namely, up here in prescott- march4schools. educators, administrators, students, parents, supporters of education, etc are gathering at 4pm around the state to "march" and show support for our state's education. many of you know what we are dealing with (teacher/budget cuts) and it's a horrible thing. tomorrow at 4pm we will be at the square showing our support.

other than that, today's a slow day. i am currently waiting for hank to get home and feeling really, really tired. i need to sleep more. i get anywhere from six to eight hours of sleep per night and i really need at least eight, always. i need to be better about that.

tonight's plans are gym later, then just relaxing alllll night.

i also wanted to take a minute to say hi to some of the new people who have added me on here. some of you are friends, some of you are strangers but either way thanks for stopping by my little blog. it's nice to meet you! the internet is such a neat thing in the way that it connects people. i have had a livejournal since the nineties, but it's private so i don't typically add people into my world. this is public and as odd as that is, it's neat to meet all sorts of different people too.

weekend

, originally uploaded by daniellehampton.

hank and i had such a wonderful weekend. i took friday off to help him and dustin finish up moving out of our old house, and we ended up spending the entire day going back and forth. it was tiring, to say the least. later friday evening i went out with some of my girl friends to dinner and a movie. we ended up seeing "he's just not that into you," and i liked it. i definitely didn't love it, but it was pretty good. when i got home hank drove us down to phoenix and we got in around 1am. saturday was spent shopping, laying by the pool, running in the gorgeous phoenix weather, and celebrating my dad's birthday! after my dad's celebration we headed over to erin's for her birthday bbq. it was so good to see some of my best friends and spend time with everyone. i miss phoenix so much, and being able to see all my darlings whenever i want. but, prescott is where i call home now and i do love it here too. i guess i just wish everyone/thing was in the same place!

we spent sunday with my parents, doing brunch and shopping. now it's monday, and here i am so tired. sometimes i need a weekend from my weekend! this week should go by fairly quickly at work, and then i will be back in phoenix again because my aunt ellen is in town from vermont and my mom is having another surgery- this one on her colon. i swear, these past two years have been a nightmare health-wise for my family, but somehow everyone always stays positive.

i'm currently finishing up planning our trip to california, and i am really happy it's so soon! we really need a vacation. we are heading to the east coast in may (celebrating our birthdays and first wedding anniversary) for three weeks but we needed a vacation sooner so we decided to just go. hank will be touring a LOT in 2009 so i feel really lucky he can take a full three weeks and travel with me like this before things get crazy in the late summer/early fall.

speaking of touring and music, hour of the wolf was on the first page of alternative press' 100 bands to watch in 2009. once we get a copy i will scan it in but that's a pretty neat and unexpected surprise. i am so happy for hank and the guys.

so overall life is going really well. there's a lot to look forward to!

some photos from the weekend

getting ready


sweethearts!


jonathan!


an intense game of catchphrase