SUP, y'all?!?!

We had another fun week in the Pringle household.  Unfortunately, it started out with a supposed-to-be-fun-but-not-so-fun activity on Monday: stand-up paddleboarding.

I first tried this sport on the cruise with my fam last Thanksgiving.  The scenery there was gorgeous, so that added to it, but I had a really good time just cruising around, atop the waves.  So, when a Groupon/LivingSocial (I call all such things "Groupons") deal popped up for some stand-up paddleboarding, I excitedly got James to agree to it.  

Well, James forgot that he doesn't love dirty open water.  Anything attached to the Chesapeake Bay pretty much fits this description.  He's more of a pool person (I'm the opposite - ew chlorine. And wakeboarding is difficult in pools), whereas I go for lakes.  We're going to have to work out a compromise somewhere, I suppose...anyway, I digress.

So, we got outfitted and headed out for the water.  James fell pretty soon after standing up.  After that, he wasn't the biggest fan of the 2 feet deep murky water.  Paddling through a marsh with seaweed swaying through the mud below us didn't help that much.

This is how James felt more steady.  He did "kneel-down paddleboarding" for most of the trip."

At the end he was brave and stood up for a bit.

I happily stood up the whole time and only fell once, and only onto the board (didn't fall off).  I have another bruise for my collection as a result.

Besides Monday, we had our usual work schedule this week.  James also has been helping with parallel parking tutoring for his last roommate, Lu, and played some bball with him during the week.  I joined both of them for some pickup bball yesterday, and every muscle in my body is sore as a result (and yes, I got more bruises yet again for my collection).  This was another lesson to me that it's time for me to work out in earnest, or I pay!

On my mornings/full days off, I spent my time doing questions from my step 3 boards question bank (736 of 1360 done in the past 10 days; now 624 to go), sending tons of documents to our lender to get our stuff ready for closing (I feel like they have more info about me than the NSA does at this point. We need a Snowden in Suntrust. JUST KIDDING), and keeping track of family birthdays.  In our immediate families: happy birthday recently or very soon to: Abby, Mom, Dad, Ian, and Jacob! Whew! Plus, more in our extended family...yikes.

On Friday, James planned a fun date for us.  We made some watermelon juice, which was nice and refreshing, and went to play some catch/do some batting practice with our softball gear.  We were going to go to stake softball on Saturday (er, I was going to crash men's softball on Saturday with James. I would have been happy to go to women's softball but it doesn't exist).  Unfortunately the Storm Clouds of the Century did a major water dump on the fields on Friday...canceled.  So we had fun practicing on Friday, and then had fun at our friend Monica's birthday party.  James and our friend Geoff had an awesome dance off with some Xbox Kinect game.  They drew quite a crowd of admirers and were videoed and all.  Good times.

Saturday was also fun - got to go to a barbecue at our new house's community and meet a bunch of neighbors.  They're super fun.  Weekly activities are happenin', outdoor viewings of Ravens/Orioles games are being organized, and we were even invited to "boot camp on the quad."  We're pretty stoked, but more so excited about our house!  We also walked through again on Saturday and already so much progress has happened in a week - brick facade almost done, tub and shower installed, all plumbing and electric done, and now drywall this coming week!  Less than two months to go!

Today I spoke in church and survived the experience.  My arm wasn't quite as lucky.  You see, curling my hair is not my forte (and neither is getting things I've baked out of the oven...burned myself on Monday doing that).  I got a new curling wand for Christmas last year and I think I've burned myself almost as many times as I've used it.  This one was a nasty blister on top of a sizeable burn just as we were getting ready to leave for church.   Luckily we were on time to church and my ice pack kept me calm enough.  Whoops!  James has volunteered to take over the job of curling my hair from now on; my epidermis is grateful.

This week we're soooo excited: vacation time!!! We're heading up to Acadia National Park for 4 days, then Boston for 2 days and flying back to Baltimore for real life again.  So excited for camping, kayaking, climbing, gorgeous scenery, history, yummy food, and introducing James to the beautiful New England!  Possibly won't get to do a blog post next Sunday, but we'll try!