It's Hump Day!

I love Wednesdays... it means we're getting close to the weekend :)

It's still warm here in Houston, but I broke out the scarf! I love how it easily dresses up a plain, green v-neck t-shirt essentially.  Tuck that into a black skirt, throw on flats, and voila!  I wore my usual accessories: white watch, moon/star ring, and pearl earrings... typical me.  

 

Have a great Thursday! 

Being happy is productive...

I needed a day to just catch up on life... I tell myself that I will take time off for myself one night a week and just do things like dishes and balancing my checkbook and keeping up with my email. But then sports and Sherlock's (the local bar every goes to for happy hour after work) and baking and training for my half marathon and more sports get in my way.  I realized that that is a-o-k.  I saw a post on Pinterest that read, "Being happy is productive..."  What a good reminder that it is fine to just roll with life... I guess we can sleep when we're dead!  

I love getting to dress up for work.  I rocked the jeggings with a denim button-up for Casual Friday, and last Friday I wore a dress with cowboy boots.  Speaking of cowboy boots, I think I'm going dancing tonight.  I can't wait.  I miss line dancing, waltzing, and two-stepping.  Fun times ahead :)

The following pics are from Endeavour's stop at Ellington Field.  I love the first picture.  Not too many of us are looking at the right place, but that is the beauty of it.  I love how happy we look. Sometimes it hits me like a ton of bricks that why I love my job, the thing I really love about my co-op is the people.  NASA gets an A+ for hiring amazing people!  Everyone brings interesting talents and senses of humor.  <3

Mah frands :)

Me with the shuttle (taken by a media photographer)

Last night Kirstyn and I made souffle!  Seriously!  It was delicious.  Definitely the trickiest thing I've ever made. It tasted like a light, fluffy brownie.  I don't think Matt and Brian liked it though... haha. To each his own. 

Also, I've been hooked on this song ever since Kirstyn played it for me. Love music, love Glee.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xskvngG-5zk

Happy Saturday y'all.  Work on being happy. 

Birthday Blessings

Hey y'all.  My birthday was this past Friday, and all day I could not stop thinking about how BLESSED I was.  My inbox was flooded with birthday wishes from the other co-ops and people in the Bible Study I attend.  My NASA bestie put a Birthday balloon on my chair, so people popped into my cube all day to wish me happy birthday. My friend who moved to Stanford on my birthday sent me a package with gifts from China and the Philippines (a beautiful scroll with a painting from China and pearl earrings from the Philippines). My roommate from college sent me a card. My guy friend created a PowerPoint entitled "Krista's Birthday Briefing" and filled it with pictures for my wedding Pinterest (inside joke).  I'm not sure if I was crying because I was laughing so hard or because I felt so lucky to have amazing people in my life.  Maybe now that I'm 22 I'm just getting sentimental, but when I reflect on where I am right now, at this very moment, I can't help but feel overwhelmed by the amazing family, great friends, and fantastic opportunities God has blessed me with. Seriously.  I feel so content right now.  I don't feel lonely, even when I'm by myself. I feel happy and complete.  I know my family loves me, and I have friends all over the nation.  I have people that went out of their way to make my birthday special.  Who could ask for more?!?!

Okay, I'm done being sappy! :)  Here are some pictures from my special day!

The ladies!

On Saturday, I ran a 5K with three Penn State buddies.  I ended up getting third for my age group, so I won a medal!  Gary and Brian beat me, and I ran at about a 7:40 mile.  But it was fun, and I ran into a Purdue alumni who I met at Purdue Alumni Band last fall... he remembered me!  It is a crazy small world!

Heroes Run 5K

Balloon from Kirstyn

I got awesome gifts!  I love everything so much!  I already wore my purse, and I'm going to wear my yoga pants with the green band tomorrow to Dance Jam.  I can't wait to watch Moulin Rouge (one of my favorite movies) and go shopping with my NASA bestie!

My gifts!

Yesterday was a sports day... I ran a 5K, watched Kirstyn's soccer game, played soccer, and played football.  It was fun!  

Hope you all had a good weekend!

I heart pink...

Two pics of me in my absolute favorite color, pink. :)  I just can't deny that I love the color.  In fact, as I write this, I'm typing on my pink laptop. I'm wearing pink running shorts and my pink running shoes.  My wireless mouse is pink, and the Swiss Army knife I just used (confession: to cut open a bag of brownie mix) is... you guessed it, pink.

Anyway, I wore this first outfit to Dance Jam on Monday.  The exercise class is difficult and so much fun.  I take cues from one of the other young ladies in the class: she was a dancer for the Houston Texans.  So copying her moves sometimes makes me look boss.  I sweat so much, feel absolutely great, and learn dance moves to a popular song. Win, win, and win. Also, this tank is a win. Boiler up!

For work the next day, I continued my streak in a top my twinsie lent to me.  It was light-weight... perfect for the summer heat! I wore my key necklace, my white watch, and pearl earrings.  I must emphasize (again) that I love my watch.  It gets worn pretty much every day.  

Keep things in perspective... it's almost Friday!  Cheers :)

Make someone else happy...

I was thinking about some of the people I could not live without, and I realized that they all have one thing in common: they routinely do things to make me happy (or to help me help myself be happy... if that makes sense).  I realized that there are people in this world who expend a lot of effort trying to build others up.  I want to be one of those people.  So I'm trying to be even more vocal in giving compliments and thanking people for what they've done for me.  I'm trying to send thoughtful notes to some friends and text messages to others to stay in touch and remind my Purdue buds that I love them!  I'm trying to post on peoples' Facebook walls to make them smile.  Seriously, what is Facebook for?!?!  We might as well use it to brighten our friends' days.

End monologue about happiness...

Now this is something I know will make my sister happy: fashion.  I wore this outfit on Wednesday, and I felt very polished and professional.  Yet I felt like the lace and the soft pink nail polish made it sweet and not too stiff.  Wednesday was a fun day: I got to OJT and go to a plaque hanging (an ADCO got to hang the plaque for the Soyuz mission... holla).   I was going into MCC with two of the MCG (Motion Control Group) Group Leads and feeling a little socially awkward when Estrella (a girl I know from B-Stud) met us on the stairway.  She looked so happy to see me and gave me a great big hug. I could not stop smiling after that encounter.  One awesome thing about NASA is simply how many people on-site know each other... sometimes it seems like a big family!

Anyways, I'm about to go to Tookie's (a restaurant in Seabrook) with some of the co-ops who are already here.  It's supposed to be a great place for hamburgers.  Om nom nom!  Have a happy, relaxing, productive weekend! <3

Confessions of a Non-Shopaholic

So I'm watching the movie "Confessions of a Shopaholic", and it makes me glad that I don't have too much debt.  Students loans, and that's it.  In a way, this movie frustrates me, because I can't understand how you could do that to yourself.  If you're going to shop like crazy, at least hit the sales (and don't buy designer).  As much as this movie wants me to go shopping, the calling to stay in my pajamas and write this blog is greater.

Today was Day 2 of my second co-op tour at NASA.  I'm working in the Missions Operation Directorate, so I am required to dress up much more than last tour. No jeans and hardware any more... it's black pants and ballet flats and videos about the ISS. And I love it. Seriously, I hope that I have 'the personality' of a Flight Controller.  How cool would it be to sit in the Mission Control Center and fly the International Space Station? 

Anyways, on my first day, I wore my nicest black pants... they're Calvin Klein.  They're also a little long, so I wore them with my pointy-toed black high heels.  I also wore a black-and-tan striped tank under a green, three-quarter length sleeve jacket, my KKY lavalier, and gold hoop earrings.   I'm a little sunburnt from spending Sunday at the pool at Kirstyn's apartment complex, but I snapped a picture of my first day outfit. 

Today I wore black pants, my purple top, and zebra print ballet flats with my pearl earrings, white watch, and moon/star ring.  I try to be dressy but stylish.  Some of the young, female Flight Controllers dress so fabulously.  Some wear wearing dresses with sweaters and high-heeled sandals, but I'm not brave enough to try that out yet... I'm only the co-op. But I love being the co-op! :)

LB and K take Houston by storm...

Happy Tuesday!  For right now, I'm relishing the fact that I am still wearing my pajamas at 10 a.m.  I have some errands I want to run later today, and I'd love to go to Zumba at 4:30 p.m., but for the moment I am enjoying that there is NOTHING I HAVE to do.  Just things I want to :)  Woot!  

Speaking of things I want(ed) to do... yesterday I went to Dance Jam.  The dance was a little bit harder than the last one, but it is such a good workout.  I sweated so much... can't wait for next week!  I'm hoping that Dance Jam plus Zumba will be good cross-training for my half marathon. I do need to start running though... hmmm. 

At Wild West

Anyways, I wanted to blog about my little sister's Texas experience!  I know that I had a great time, and I think she did too.  We went to Space Center Houston first, which was pretty cool.  I kept telling her how big the Saturn V rocket was, but when we walked into the building in which it is housed, she just said, "Whoa."  

That same night we went country dancing with some of my friends from Bible Study!  It was a blast... Laura and I rocked the dresses with boots. :)  We stopped at a coffee shop on the way home and didn't get back to my apartment until after 3 a.m.  You know it's a good night when... haha

Saturday was just a relaxing day. We drove down to Galveston Beach, which is only about forty minutes from my apartment. What a remarkable change from when I first saw Galveston in January... the beaches were packed with families and lots and lots of swimmers.

Laura and I sitting on the beach

 That night we went to Rudy's (a BBQ place) for dinner before hitting the mall.  Laura didn't buy anything, but I splurged (kind of) on a full-price lace top from Charlotte Russe. Okay, it was only $15, and I can wear it a lot...

Go Astros! On Sunday, Laura and I drove into downtown Houston for the Astros game in Minute Maid Park.  Sadly, they lost to the Brewers, but it was an exciting game.  I thought I was going to have to force Laura to try Blue Bell Ice Cream, but she willingly tried Cookies and Cream in a waffle cone.  I had Red Velvet Cake ice cream... om nom nom.

Laura and I at the game.  Her outfit was so cute and summery!

 After the game, we went back to Seabrook and rented Act of Valor.  It was a good movie, but it made me cry.  Then we hit the Kemah Boardwalk.  We went to the candy shop, and I bought Laura some rock candy... her favorite!  We rode one ride, the swinging ship, and had a blast!

I was definitely sad to see her go.  I miss her already!  But she is starting college soon, so she has that to look forward to, and more and more of my friends are arriving in Houston.  I am so happy that my family is so close!  So very blessed...

Have a great Tuesday!