Wedding book and severe emotional distress...

Howdy one and all. Or more like one and one. Anyway, FINALLY I am getting some pics on this blog, though they will be few. The reason being if I keep trying to post pics on here, I fear that our next 20 tax rebates will not cover the therapy I will need. I love our new computer, really I do, but you know, when you're just used to how something works and have a system down, and then everything changes, ouch! It has been SO frustrating at times - one thing after another going wrong or not working right - downloading different programs and then they are different than they used to be. And then today I figured out something I could use to resize pictures and then I was having all sorts of problems with the files on the computer and on and on. Anyway, I'll spare you the gory details - I was highly frustrated, but did manage to finally eek these out, after much distress and trauma. I also have some more pics from the last few months that I'd like to get on here eventually. Last weekend we went to a really pretty little town more in the country. I was aching to get out of the city and it was really nice there. That was the excitement of the last few weeks. Other than that, things have been pretty even keeled around here. Last night we went walking around a really neat part of town that we hardly ever go to and I think it will now become a favorite hangout. It was so nice after dark, just a little cook, and there's little shops, a water fountain, and there's a honkin huge movie theater there and outside they have these 3 screens that are sort of like giant screen savers. So we can sit there and be mesmerized by such cheap thrills. We also went to Barnes and Noble which is right there to spend some of a gift card. So he's reading a book about how the state's borders were formed and is very intrigued by that. I'm hoping to read "Same Kind of Different as Me" but I might wait to start till Monday morning when I really need something to do. Anyway, without further ado, here's a little peek at most of the pics I've done so far. I think I'd like to scrapbook this weekend maybe. I need to get a move on with that thing.

Okay, I GIVE UP!!! I just deleted that top picture about 4 times, and then lost the entire post and had to do it over. (I had that writing saved). And struggled with blue underlined font... Technology and I are NOT getting along today in the least. The top picture is REFUSING to let anything be written above it, so there you go, the top picture is the cover picture. There will be some stuff between that page and this one: I had done the last page 3 pictures down first and then decided to just put all our vows in since they were short and to the point anyway. So they are in the next few pages, don't know if you can read it with the small pics.

My personal favorite: The pics don't show up well but in the first 2, Dave is blurry and the last one I'm blurry. They look pretty neat in my humble opinion, and I liked the way the page turned out.

My not so favorites, although I love the brown stickers I found. I also really got into the black rub on stuff, as you may have noticed. Hopefully it's not overkill. I'm not sure about the word "joy" right here - I was getting tired of putting love everywhere... but anyway, I did it and then thought it might be dorky.
The dots are stick - tac holding the velum down until I find something that doesn't show through. I got something from CM but this stuff is thinner paper and it sorta shows through. Might just use it anyway.

Okay, that's all for now. I think I shall go back to a simpler time now by reading a whatcha call book or gluing stuff on paper. At least then it's pretty straightforward. I can be in control and don't have to worry about clicking my way right to the looney nut house.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEOOOOEEEECCCHHH (excited girl scream)

So, what is there to be so excited about? Well, Thursday of a long weekend is right up there. But also the fact that we now own a new, sleek, and shiny computer, something I have never done in my life, is also pretty far up on the list. Let's see, where shall I begin in order to properly bore you with the computer saga. I've been meaning to write for awhile but I've been swamped with ummm..... surfing the net and stuff like that. Anyway, our computer has been most uncooperative lately. It's actually Dave's computer. Mine is so far gone. It sounds like a mixer when you turn it on. But anyway... So Dave had a friend and computer guy at school who graciously offered to work on the computer. Basically he was going to back everything up and then totally delete everything and reinstall windows and whatever other programs. So last weekend he was working on it. Thankfully, he had just backed everything, and the motherboard fried. sizzle. gone. I was drenched in sorrow. Just kidding. I was THRILLED! See, we were planning on getting a new computer anyway within the next year probably. We were just going to shop around and take our time. With his computer being dead, there was no way we were going to put more money into that thing, since we were planning on getting a new one anyway. So his friend felt so bad (not like it was his fault) and said he would loan us a computer until we got one. He also worked on mine enough that we could supposedly use that. So we tried mine, and could get no Internet on it. So he brought one over for us to borrow (that he had put a lot of work into fixing up for us) and the monitor wouldn't work for that computer! Hello! Everything would work until it was brought into our house. The guy said he has never seen so many computer problems like this on the same people's computers ever. So anyway, by this time, we had been looking around and shopping and basically knew which computer we wanted so we figured why prolong the agony of trying to make all this junk work? (I think all our data in on the computer that the guy was going to loan to us, so hopefully we'll get that at some point.) I have never known so much about processors, RAM, capacity, etc. - it's rather fun. Okay, not that I know much, but much for me. We got it set up the other night and it's so amazing. We have never had anything that works so fast and is so stinkin pretty. The screen is so brilliant I feel like I almost have to squint sometimes. I have a picture on it of the stained glass window from our wedding church and it's so amazing. I could just stare at it all day - all the colors and such. So anyway, I was all excited about finally posting pics to my bloggy, when yet another glitch was thrown into the system. I couldn't download my printer software onto the new computer because it's Windows Vista, not XP. very pooie! So I don't know - I think Dave might download XP or something because he can get it free from school. So at some point I should be able to get pics on here. Oh, I could also download some photo editing software and use that, I'm just used to using the stuff that came with the printer. If anyone has any suggestions for free photo editing stuff that will resize pics, let me know, K? I was looking online last night and found one I think I might try. I'd be interested to know what you all use.

So anyway, I feel as though that was all very boring and I apologize, in case you're still reading. I'm trying to come up with some other interesting news and I'm having a hard time. I'm SO glad a 3 day weekend is upon us! Did I mention that already? We have talked about possibly getting out of the city. I'm so ready for a change of scenery. But we're not sure. I should also scrapbook my brains out and work on getting lots done on the wedding book since I've been slacking in that department lately.

Oh, it's our 8 monthiversary today. I should mention that because I think I have the last 7 months so why stop now?

Dave has spring break this last week. I shall just mention that the scenario of him leaving for work with me still sleeping worked out MUCH MUCH better for me. ugh. I'm not a good person, that's all there is to it.

Do you all know what On the Border is? I'm not sure how far reaching the chain is, but anyway... okay, now I know because I looked online and it looks like it's lots of places. Anyway, last Sunday night, Dave and I discovered some of the best food I've had since I got here. Oh my word it was so tasty!! And we could split which makes it even better. Basically, it was their build your own fajitas. We could get chicken for me and shrimp for him, and then these amazing fresh vegetables - zucchini and squash and onions, with this amazing honey chipotle sauce. Okay, so anyway, if you live close to one, you should really try it out. It was SO SO SO good and plenty for the both of us. Always like it when that works out. And I had the thought that as much as I have to adjust to living in a city and all the annoyances that go along with it, we are sure blessed with OPTIONS around here and that's also really nice at times. So I'm now trying to focus more "On the Border" and less on the traffic (but I have to deal with traffic every day and can't, unfortunately, deal with on the border every day...hmmmm...). And I shall now cease and desist boring you to death. Happy Easter weekend!

In the absence of anything exciting going on...

... I shall ramble about boring things for a bit. First, a few of life's simpler pleasures:

* a new hairdryer. My current one was either 5 or 10 years old. I can't remember because I got it either before Israel or before Indiana. At any rate, the thing was totally obnoxious! It would blow at full strength for a little bit, then there would be pretty flashes of color and it would flip to very low speed for awhile, then randomly back to high. This would go on and on. It would take me forever to dry my hair. Plus, the air was way too hot so I was always burning my tender little scalp and fingers. Well, now that I'm a working (to use the term in its broadest sense) woman and actually have places to go in the morning, I thought I could justify a new hairdryer. Can I just say that they've upped the voltage on those things in the last decade! And not to mention that my shiny new one, oh, it's so beautiful, it never decreases in power, the high speed is higher than the high speed of my last one, the air temp is a comfortable warm and it's FAST. It's been such a joy in my life this past week.

* new tires! My car has had serious alignment issues since last summer. The people Dave took it to in Warsaw said that the alignment was so bad (and I drove with it like that for too long) that the only way to fix it was by getting new tires. They said I'd probably want to do it in the next 6 months or so. Well, before I had a job, I mostly just drove around town and when we were on the interstate, we took Dave's car. Since I started working and had the sheer terror of driving my car on the interstate, I knew it was high time to get them fixed. Not only did the car pull very extremely and stubbornly to the right, but when you got on the interstate, it felt like it was going to tip over. I kid you not! And it is NOT a fun feeling at all, lemme tell ya. Actually, I drove it 2 days, and then Dave and I switched cars for 3 weeks until we got the tires changed (not that I wanted the car to tip over with him in it! He doesn't take the interstate to school...). Anyway, we finally got 2 new tires and VOILA! It drives like a charm, once again! No pull to the right anymore and thank God, no tipping over. Can you imagine if you were roaring down the interstate and your car just suddenly decided to tip? ARG! I hate the interstate to begin with. Let alone sliding down it sideways. Moving along...

* Speaking of the interstate, it hit me the other day that when Bethany came to visit last November, I literally had a stomach ache the day she left just dreading driving home from the airport. Now I drive that exact route nearly every day, mostly with considerable ease. I still hate merging, esp. on Fridays. And I don't have to take it during rush hour which I would really hate. But anyway, progress.

* IT'S FRIDAY!!

* We are getting a major overhaul done on our computer TODAY! I'm so excited. Hopefully it works. Anyway, then I shall post pictures.

* The homestead is mostly clean and in order. We usually end up doing that Friday night or Saturday but this week we're one step ahead. Which makes me very happy to think that this evening we can just relax and not have that hanging over our heads.

Moving out of life's pleasures and to random boring news...

* I came to work this morning with mascara on only my right eyelashes. DUH! I feel like somewhat of a freak and I'm trying not to stand too close to anyone.

* Yesterday I drove to work and it was a gorgeous, sunny day. Within an hour or 2 it was looking very cloudy and nasty. Around 11 a.m. it looked like it was 9:30 at night. It was SO dark. All of a sudden the wind was blowing like crazy, sirens were going off and I was looking out the (6th story) window, trying not to freak out. I normally don't mind storms, but hearing the sirens and being 6 stories up was just a disconcerting feeling to me. Add to that that a co-worker when running out to move her truck and there were 4 vehicles who's windows had shattered due to the strong winds. There was (is) glass all over the parking lot which I'm trying very hard to avoid with my new tires. Anyway, there were tornado warnings, but it all blew over pretty quick. I don't think I've ever seen it that dark in the middle of the day. So eerie!

* Also yesterday when I was driving home, the traffic was terrible. It's usually really bad, but this day was even worse than normal. Like being stopped for LONG periods of time at green lights. ARG! The traffic was totally backed up bumper to bumper and was barely moving at all. Finally figured out why - there was a stop light out because of the storm at a very busy intersection, making it a 4 way stop. that'll do it. Finally got out of there and was enjoying flying at 40 miles an hour, when we were stopped by a train. I love the city.

* Well, I think that's about all the news my little head can drum up. Maybe I'll run to the store and grab some mascara. Happy Friday to everyone.

Song of Solomon new and improved

overheard and printed with permission:

(Side note: Ladies, do you ever notice that goatee's tend to trap odd smells? Or maybe it's just the south... or maybe my overactive sense of smell... anyway)

R: (sniff, sniff) "Your goatee smells like dog food."
D: "Ahhhhh, straight out of Song of Solomon... My love arrives. He stands at the door. His is covered in nard and his goatee smells like dog food."


I hope it's still funny. I nearly died laughing. Literally cause I started choking. But maybe you had to be there.

Five Years

I'm sure the current rate of blogging won't continue very long, but here I am again. What I'd really like right now is to have this thoughtful and beautifully written tribute to my mom to share. But I don't feel like I have that at all. All I have is some random thoughts and emotions that have been buzzing around for awhile in my head. More like a messed up hodge podge of stuff. I can't believe it's been 5 years today since she went "home." I remember the details of that day better than if it was yesterday, but at the same time, in some ways it feels like 50 years since I've been able to sit and talk with Mom. Time does make some things feel better, but at the same time, it makes some things more difficult. The feeling that she's just getting farther and father away and at times that makes me miss her more and more. I think I've thought about her and missed her more in the past year because I've wanted her to be able to meet Dave and know who he is. I'd love to talk to her about marriage stuff and how the first year is going. So anyway, I feel sort of at a loss for eloquent words this time around. I feel like I should say something super spiritual about all the peace I have and how I'm glad she's in a better place. But that's not what feels sincere right now either. Today I just really miss her and wish she was here. I'm happy for all the great memories and sad for the ones I wish I could change. I treasure her prayers for me and how often she prayed with and for me growing up. Dave mentioned Mom's prayers for him on his blog and he's right. I know she prayed all the time for the person I would marry eventually. I truly was blessed to have her as my mom and daily I feel blessed that God answered her prayers and gave me Dave - the most caring and kind hubby around!

quick update....

Well, the weekend was .... interesting. Friday night I was wondering what I got myself into, but Saturday turned out to be profitable. And I definitely expanded my social circle. While I do want to get my wedding pics done by this summer, I have to keep telling myself not to worry about not setting any speed records. They are wedding pictures, after all! The main thing is to get organized and get the ball rolling. I also have to constantly tell myself that even though they are wedding pics, not every page has to be a frameable work of art for pete's sake! And not to stress about all the details like not all the reds matching right and bla bla bla. Anyway, with that all said, I think I did about 10 pages total in the wedding book. I'm not really worrying at this point about doing them in order either - the head cheese was helpful about that. She said to just start wherever and you can always rearrange them the way you want. The worst thing that would happen is you have one page to fill up if you get done one section before running into the next one that you already started. Filling one page can be done in a million ways. So that was freeing and I started with the most fun ones -the outside ones we took at the park. = ) Anyway, the ladies (and Dave) all gushed over them. I'm happy with some of them, and not as happy with others. ah well, my standards are just too high when it comes to certain things I guess. I'm maybe post some pics when the computer's healed.

Poor Dave just got over a nasty cold and last night was attacked by some odd stomach bug. He's been lying around and sleeping a lot and is quite warmish today.

Oh my, on Friday something happened that hit me so funny. I'm sure it's not nearly so funny anymore reading it and all, but I'll just tell you about it. I usually spend the last hour or 2 of the day as the only one in the office. Such was the case on Friday. You know that feeling (happens to me a lot) when you just know for sure that ever one else in the world just KNOWS this piece of info and somehow, flewf, it went flying right over your head? So I'm sitting in peace and quiet in the office when this bouncy bubbly lady popped her head in and asked, "GOT ANY IDEA IF THERE'S A FLAT DOLLY AROUND HERE I COULD BORROW?" um.. er... well... um.... check ... ummm... On the one hand I feel dumb because I have NO idea what on God's green earth a flat dolly is, but on the other hand it just struck me very very funny, because what sort of a name is that and um, bring me a dolly and I could think of several ways to flatten it for you. So I'm sorta staring at her and and trying to say that I have no idea what she's talking about and trying not to die laughing at the same time, and then she goes, AH HA! There it is!! Viola! A flat dolly! I had no idea! Sorta like a dumb waiter, only bigger, flatter, and on wheels.

having nothing to do at work has a few perks...

Hello all. I've been meaning to blog for quite some time, but it never seems to get done in the evening. So, where to start? Life is looking pretty good right now. Maybe that's because it's Friday. My job continues to me a little, um... low key, shall we say? I made my first contact with a client this morning, after working for 3 weeks. Anyway, I could go on and on, but I won't bore you. They are paying me, so it could be much worse. AND... drum roll please... I HAVE BUSINESS CARDS! I don't have anyone to give them to, but I have business cards! WHOOO HOOOO!!! That was really the only reason I went to college - the dream of someday working at a job where I would have business cards. Come to think of it, it would have been a lot cheaper and a lot less work to just print some off the Internet. ah well, hindsight's 20/20, so they say. Last week I went to Wendy's for lunch. As I was walking away from the counter with my tray, my large water and small frosty lept off the tray and went crashing to the floor. Thankfully, the frosty was fine, but the water and ice made a big mess all over the floor. I walked on and felt bad. Then I was eating my salad and the fork broke. That's right. That's never happened to me before. As I sat eating my salad with a very mini pitchfork (it probably looked to others like I was using my hands - the thing was so small) and watching the workers clean up my mess, I sighed inwardly... at least I have business cards.

A week ago tonight Dave and I had a little date night. You might think people without no kids have no use for those, but it's not true. He was so busy all that week with homework that it seemed as though we had no time to talk at all. So it was lovely - Fridays are the best thing ever. We went to an Indian restaurant with money sent to us from Neilsons TV ratings. haha. They sent us this survey awhile ago with 2 bucks and asked us to fill it out and send it in. Easy enough. So eventually I got the thing sent in, and THEN, they sent us a diary to keep track of our TV viewing for a week, AND 30 bucks! Dave was all over that one, writing each thing down very meticulously - we're hoping $100 falls out of the next envelope. But anyway, so we went to this Indian restaurant which was SO good, but spicy and I'm a big chicken when it comes to spicy. But the best naan ever. If I was as amazing as Robyn, I'd make my own. Anyhoo... I was again amused by some of our differences. I cannot filter out external stimuli. I just cannot do it. It drives me nuts at times and other times, it just makes me feel very informed, because I always know what's going on around me, or nearly always anyway. As much as I am like that, Dave is extreme at the other end of the spectrum. If he is focusing on something, like school work for instance, there are times I'm pretty sure I could burst into flames and he wouldn't notice. So we're trying to have a nice dinner together and all I'm hearing is this loud (slightly obnoxious) girl at the next table! I told Dave that she has her masters degree in English and lost 3 pounds last week without even exercising, and he wasn't even aware that a loud girl existed. There was also talk about thesis topics and something I believe having to do with religious freedom in 19th century Chile. I'm pretty sure that's what it was, but then you'd never know if I was wrong anyway. So that was Friday night. It was fun.

This week we have been somewhat successful at keeping the house clean as we go along, rather than letting everything pile up and having to spend hours cleaning on the weekend, which is what happened the last 2 weeks. Today, I'm happy to report that the house looks lived in, but not trashed. Which makes me excited because.... another drum roll please... I'm going scrapbooking this weekend!!! I'm so excited! It's sort of a boring story how it all came about. I've never met anyone that I'll be scrapbooking with, which is a tad unnerving for me, but I'm so ready to get going on our wedding pictures and really need a jump start. I have been getting e-mails from a Creative Memories consultant (from several of them actually) since I wrote and asked her about a book. Wednesday I got this e-mail about is fun filled scrapbooking weekend she was having this weekend at a hotel near by. I had skimmed it and thought wow, looks like fun, but it'd never work. But then yesterday I read it in more detail and was practically drooling. But I still thought, no, it's not a practical thing to do right now and my buttercup wouldn't want me to leave him and we shouldn't spend money on that... bla bla bla. I just casually mentioned it to Dave last night and he really thought I should go!? huh? He's ready for me to start on the wedding pics. And maybe he wants some video game time too? But seriously, how sweet is that? He's happy for me to have some time to hang out with females (unless it's a male scrapbooking club, but I would be a bit suspicious of such a thing). So anyway, I printed off some pictures (which took an hour longer than it should have at CVS - very annoying!) and started getting my stuff together just in case it worked out to go. I sent the lady an e-mail and she didn't answer till this morning. So I talked to her on the phone this morning and she said that they moved it to her place since there weren't many people, so that makes it even better! Less people, still all the "free" stuff and being fed and such. And it's cheaper! whoooo hoooo!! She sounded super nice on the phone. Hopefully it's not a dark and freaky cult waiting to lure me into their web of deceit and wickedness upon my arrival. probably not. So I'm going right after work and then spending all day tomorrow there as well. yeay!

I've been wanting to post pics as well, but our computer has been having so many issues that my flash drive even got a virus. So for now I don't want to be putting picture containing devices in the computer. It is going to be worked on shortly I believe. I guess that's all for now. Hope you all are well and have a fabulous weekend!

Salutations and ramblings

There are 3 kinds of people in the world, those cut out for kitchen work, and those who aren't. Oh, and those who tend to bleed excessively in the kitchen. Saturday in the course of making muffins I managed to:
cut my thumb
cut my finger
cut my thumb again (you try grating baby carrots! I ran out of the big ones, a sad fate indeed)
burned my knee (one should wear knee pads when baking with our oven. The door doesn't stay open so you have to hold it open with a knee while getting stuff out, which often proves to be quite painful)
spilled applesauce down the front of me, the bottom of me, and the floor
spilled black pepper all over the inside of the cupboard (it's still there. I hope it doesn't attract mice or anything)

I often feel domestically impaired and this weekend was no exception. I was feeling quite domestic though and made molasses cookies after the muffin fiasco. Both turned out fabulously despite all the annoyances.

In case you were wondering, we did get the house cleaned, by around 9 or so on Friday night.

I'm glad Monday is over. I try to just enjoy work before it picks up too much and is stressful, but oh my - I just have NOTHING to do. I'm going in later this week which is really nice. Today I surfed the Internet, went to Dollar General to browse thinking I didn't really need anything, but came out with paper plates and toilet bowl cleaner, so turns out I did need something. I think I'm saving the Catholic art and gift store for another fun outing another day.

Today is our 7 monthiversary. We had a nice evening - ate pizza and then went to the levee. It was the first time I was there since before Christmas and I just love it there. It was a beautiful night, the sky was gorgeous, there was a huge barge thingy to watch... it was fun to be there again. I didn't have my camera, but you can refer back to the other 900 levee pictures if you want. = P Then Dave worked on Math and I chatted on the phone with a friend which ended up being a long conversation and now I'm very sleepy. And that last sentence was very boring. I need to go to bed. Gotta rest up for the big day of mentally challenging employment coming up.

The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak...

Thank God it's Friday! I haven't had that feeling in a long time. I got home from work early this afternoon - no better way to kick off a weekend! I left the conference to go to the doctor, and then the conf. was over by the time I was done and my nice supervisor didn't make me contend with the Friday afternoon traffic, just to drive in to the office for a little while. So I came home. So nice. So I know that the smart thing to do would be to clean the house right now. It really needs it and I love having everything all clean going into the weekend. And not having to do it on Saturday. But I'm so tired and can't make myself do it. I just want it be magically be done. sigh. Maybe we should be foster parents to a 10 year old who could do all the cooking and cleaning for us. haha. I'm totally kidding. I would never be a foster parents for such selfish reasons! But I hear my sister tell her kids - go mop! go vacuum! And I think, wow, wouldn't that be nice. So I say it - GO MOP! But nothing happens. sigh. Anyhoo... It's also an absolutely gorgeous day here and supposed to be all weekend. Dave and I sort of want to go sit at a park and soak up the rays and enjoy the sunshine till the sun goes down. But sitting in the sun would be so much nicer if I knew the homestead was all clean. For me anyway. I shall not comment on Dave's thoughts on the matter. So as you probably noticed, I don't have a lot to say. I could tell you about the conference I've been at, but that would either be really boring or really depressing. I could tell you that I won a million bucks, but that would be a lie. I could tell you I pierced my naval, amputated my arm, shaved my head, which might be interesting, but again, not entirely true. But telling you that I need to clean my house and the weather is gorgeous just seems really boring. I'm sorry! Truly sorry!

sleepy...

I've had a few posts rolling around in my head and now I don't much remember them. So, let's see. I did in fact start a new job. I guess I didn't really go into detail about it in the last post. The job is for a program called Parents as Teachers and it's similar to what I was doing in Indiana. This job is home visiting plus spending a lot of time in the high schools (I'm assigned to one HS) and talking to the girls. I had some of the training I needed because we used the Parents as Teachers information when I worked for Healthy Families. I started yesterday and had been dreading getting up early and also the crazy interstate driving to the HS. Pretty pathetic, I know. So to compound the problem of having to get up early, I've also resorted to my tried and true method of dealing with any type of life changes at all - insomnia. The combination is not good. I've also been having wicked headaches and feeling in general like I was hit by a mack truck. But, back to happy things - the job. It's only been 2 days and so far, quite boring. I have no case load yet and I'm not really doing formal training. Today my supervisor was gone all day - so I helped the receptionist cut out number cards for some conference, wrote in my journal, did stuff online, went for a long lunch break with Dave - there's literally nothing for me to do! So that part is sort of obnoxious because the time goes rather slowly. I'm sure things will pick up soon. Tomorrow I'm going to a conference with them all day and I'm THRILLED that I don't have to be there till 9:30. And I'm taking drugs tonight. Because this is ridiculous. And can I just say... I don't know why people like cities. I really don't. City traffic has got to be one of the MOST OBNOXIOUS things known to mankind! Seriously! It took me a solid half hour to get to the school this morning. (about 12 miles) But coming home from work today was the real joy. As I left, I noticed, thanks to Lucy, that I had gone .3 miles in about 11 minutes. It took me almost 50 minutes to get home and I came straight home, other than stopping for a quick re-fuel. SERIOUSLY!!! It's so annoying. But I'll stop ranting and raving about it now. It's just that if I would have wanted to spend half my day in the car, I would have become a taxi driver! Oh, and it's 5.3 miles to work. That's right. I could bike faster if there were places to do so. Or I could have 3 years ago. Anyway... um... let's see.... Rhonda asked about my foot - I'm going to the doc on Friday and hopefully that will be it. I've been driving (sorry Debbie!) and everything and it's fine. Driving is really not a big deal, it just gets sore pretty easy when I'm on it a lot, but that seems logical to me. I think the doctor would like me to sit on the couch until there's no twinge of discomfort, but that's just not reality. I gotta make me some money to pay me doctor bills! I'm trying to think if there's anything else interesting going on here and I can't come up with anything. So, I guess I'll sign off for now. I want to post pictures, but we need to watch supper and make American Idol and I've got my priorities straight! Oh, I forgot to mention the best thing about this job - the office is closed for one week over Thanksgiving and TWO WEEKS over Christmas! You do have to use some of your own vacation for some of it, but they give you I think it's 7 paid days over Christmas, in addition to your normal paid holidays. So I'm pretty happy about that. I was dreading Dave having a month off and me getting one day. This way we can maybe even go somewhere or something.

Spice Girls

Last night was irritating indeed. I try to have a good mood, but they seem so fleeting these days. Anyway, here's the story. We were registered at Bed, Bath, and Beyond for our wedding. I really liked them - they were always so easy to work with and told us something about the fact that if we get anything that we're not happy with, we can always exchange it or get a refund - the registry acts as a receipt. Well, I should have taken care of this awhile ago, and I know it's been over 6 months since we got married, but I thought I'd just call and check. We received several things things that we registered for and really like, but the writing tends to come off, which is sad, because it's very nice stuff. One of the things was a spice rack. It's the cutest spice rack you'll ever meet and I've been in love with it since we brought it home. But the with just normal use (unless my Canadian hands sweat an excessive amount down here in the south or something), the letters on the jars wear off - some were gone to the point that you couldn't read it at all. So I had been meaning to call them and see if they'll back up their products. So that's what I finally got around to doing last night. The lady on the phone was very pleasant and said yes, they have a no-hassle return policy - we could either exchange it for something else there or get our money back. Sounded too good to be true. Yep, it was. ARG! Sometimes people can be SO obnoxious and annoying. I mean, I was just doing what she told me I could do. So we went to take the spice rack to the store along with a couple other things. There were 3 workers looking at them and one was the lady I talked to. Hmmm... maybe the policy changed in the amount of time it took to drive to the store? Anyway, they weren't really clear on what we could do - the guy went and got another spice rack exactly like the one we brought in and our impression was that we could just exchange it for that one. We asked if it would be possible to look at their others since if we get the same one, the letters will probably just come off again. They didn't know if that would be possible. I'm thinking to myself.... DUH! You said on the phone we could get our money back so what's the different? You hand me the money and I'll get a different one. Or I guess I could take the money and drive to the BB and B in town. Hello Hello Hello. It sounded like they were saying that we could only exchange the spice rack for the same one and then the cheaper stuff we had, we could exchange for something different. So after looking around for awhile, we decided to just change everything even up. The guy thought we could put clear nail polish over the letters to seal them on the spice rack, so we thought we would just do that. Okay, so it was supposed to be easy, right? Wrong, because the cranky little people who work there could not just give us a new spice rack since we had been using the one we brought in for 6 months, apparently - again, different from what they said on the phone. (sorry, this is getting long and it's such a boring story) So the crankiest girl proceeds to open the new spice rack, has ours sitting there, and starts looking through all the ones with the letters that are either gone or faded, and taking the caps off of ours and putting the bad caps on the new spice rack. Now why in the world would you do that? What are they going to do with a new spice rack with half bad lids on all the jars? If we would utter a word, she would glare, hiss, or make it known in some other way that we were to be seen and not heard. Preferably not seen as well would be most optimal. She was some sort of rude. The real drama hit when crank girl discovered that the 2 spice racks did not have the same spices! So she has mixed up all the lids and is left with all these mis-matched jars and now what do you do? So (with the line growing behind us) the other girl decided to just give us the new spice rack. However, now half of our faded letters are on the new spice rack! And the spices were different and I wanted some of my old spices that I use all the time. So we basically made sure we could at least read all the names and had the ones I use all the time and came home with a new spice rack, some brand new lids, some faded lids, some new spices that I didn't have before, and some old ones as well. And feeling demoralized by the mean girl spewing her venom in our direction. It just made be mad - they have always been so nice and we brought in a lot of revenue for those cranky people! All was not lost though, as I can now at least read all the spices in the rack.

In other news - this falls under the "what would you do?" category. Dave and I had an appointment with H & R Block to get our taxes done. We would just do them ourselves but thought that this year with all the moving and different incomes and states and such, it would be easier to have them done for us and we thought it would be a reasonable price. Well, we sat through the whole consultation thing and she entered our info and at the end, the bill for their services is 240! I think it's highway robbery and we could figure out a different way. It costs more because they charge you for each state they do and all that. I dunno. We can pay them 29 bucks for the consultation and then try to do them ourselves. If we can't get the same amount, we can always go back and get our 29 back and pay the full price. We had no clue it would be that much. We do have a $25 off card so that brings it down to 215. But still, seems like a huge rip off to me.

Still around....

Life has felt either very boring lately or if there was excitement, I didn't feel like blogging about it. Ah well, I shall give you some random tid bits of what is going on around here in no particular order of importance:

* In our little luxury condo, the florescent lights in the laundry room have been burned out for quite awhile. Dave has been the one to carry the laundry over there and get it going and switch then I would fold and such. Invariably, it's been evening till we get around to doing it, which means it's pitch black in there. So he always unplugs a lamp from our apartment, throws it on top of the clothes, and goes to stick the laundry in. Then he unplugs one of the washing machines and plugs in the lamp so he can see to do the laundry. Maybe that's a very boring tid bit, but I find it so funny and annoying at the same time. HELLLLOOOO!! (He probably finds it more annoying than I do. haha)

* Dave had a crazy busy week last week with school. Now he has 3 days off for Mardi Gras. So we are looking at a 5 day weekend! WHOOO HOOO!!!! I got the house all spic and span yesterday so we wouldn't have to worry about that this weekend and could just enjoy it.

* Speaking of Mardi Gras, we went to a parade here in town last night. It was fun - we met some really chatty folks. It was way too much standing and walking for my liking, but it was good to be out and about. There were 4 girls who looked to be about 11 - 12 standing in front of us. Oh my! Girls that age are just scary, that's all I have to say about that. And since screaming, jumping up and down, and trying to get things thrown at me isn't really my style, I got hit on the head multiple times with flying beads and plastic cups. It was fun, but plenty of Mardi Gras celebrations for the 2 of us.

* The weather is so absolutely gorgeous here right now. We are both very sad that we can't go biking together right now. Even walking isn't that pleasant, so it's hard to be out and enjoying it (I can walk fine, but the dumb shoe they want me to wear is like walking on a cement shoe). I'm bracing myself and trying not to think about June and July when it will be way too hot to ride bike. = (

* I have a job offer on the table that I'm about 98% sure I'm going to take. I'll tell you about it when I actually have the job. = )

* Dave and I watched "The Great Debaters" last Friday night. We both really liked it and would recommend it for grown ups out there who are looking for a good movie. It's clean and all, but I wouldn't show it to your kids unless you want them disturbed and want to answer questions about lynchings and things like that. It's a true story though and we thought it was worth watching.

* Do you want to hear about our Valentines Day? So many have been writing about the fun fabulous days they had. I'll try to give you the very short version so as not to bore you to tears and such. I had such high expectations for this day. I was going to make a fabulous dinner for my babycakes. This is, after all, the first v.day that we've actually been in the same state. So, I would get lots of work done ahead of time, then I would do some work in the afternoon, we would watch some sweet, sappy movie, I would decorate the table in an absolutely beautiful way, we would have a nice leisurely lateish dinner, the day would be laid back and fun and relaxing... Ahhhh, it's nice to dream. Here's reality. We slept in, had an um... "discussion" which required some time, but we were able to salvage the day at that point and move on. I was feeling pretty gross on this day - SO tired, just had no energy and felt bla. And I hadn't started enough ahead of time, so there was all this work to do. Dave was feeling bad that he hadn't put enough thought into the day, so in order to appease his aching conscience (I'm always thinkin of him you know) I graciously suggested that he could help me with supper, if it would help him feel better. So away we chopped and mixed and stirred and what not. It was taking FOREVER! My feet were killing me, both the broken and non-broken ones, I was so tired, had no energy, and had the emotional fortitude of a 3 year old. All day things kept going wrong and I would just about loose it. Dumb little things, like I would spill and drop things and make a mess and it would feel like the end of the world as we know it. I was trying to get everything prepared so we would still have time to watch our sweet romantic movie before supper. Well, like I said, it was taking forever, Dave eventually petered out and fell asleep, and then, the last straw - I was trying to make this desert and it, what I would call flopped, although Dave insisted it tasted wonderfully. But it was the consistency of sludge. That did it. I'll spare you the details, but the mother of all meltdowns ensued. I mean, what in the world is my problem? It's not like I have a lot on my plate right now, and I can't even pull together a nice supper? Dave woke up and wondered what to do with me and rest of the evening. Well, once I could summon the strength, we managed to finish supper and the table was somewhat pretty, just not as pretty as I had hoped. So we ate supper and weren't done until after 9. About the sweet romantic movie, Dave was stuck on this old Cary Grant movie we had gotten from the library. I asked if it was sweet and romantic and he said, "Well, they get married at the end!" (BAD BAD SIGN!!) So we proceeded to watched a movie of deranged family members with sweet little old ladies murdering people and storing them in the basement. But it didn't matter because I was SOUND asleep by 9:30 and didn't really wake up till after midnight when Dave was doing dishes like a nice husband. I had slept so long and hard that I couldn't sleep when I went to bed, so I got up and watched Pinky and the Brain and old game shows till around 3. Thus concludes our wonderful, perfect, sweet valentines day. Next year, we're going OUT!

* The above bullet point was going to be short. oops.

* Here's some random quotes for you.

D: (smelling the OLD jar of jam, always concerned about pinching pennies) It doesn't smell TOOOO bad, I guess I could have some....
R: (Who quit eating the jam months ago) We can BUY more JAM! It's not THAT expensive! It's way cheaper than food poisoning! (okay, so it hit us funny at the time)


In reference to the less than desirable desert that made one of us cry a lot, (said very cheerfully) "A surprise is something you got and didn't know you wanted!"

"Yeah, sometimes, unless it's brain cancer or something like that!" (Just trying to keep it real)

* I have a bad habit of taking showers that are way too hot and then feeling like I'm going to pass out afterwards. But it's so nice in the moment that I find it hard to make the water cooler. Anyone else? no?

* In reference to the aforementioned job, I'm finding it so ironic right now, how we have to get jobs to pay off this education we got in order to get a job that would pay off the education that would allow us to get a job that would pay off the education that we needed to get a job that would ... well anyway... you get the idea. It seems like such a funny cycle to me right now. I am glad I went to school, but it's just odd. Then once you get the job you need/want, you are excited to have money, but are too busy working all the time to have time to actually do anything fun with the money, other than paying off the .... I won't start.

* This might be the end of this bulleted message.

* I'll try to post some pictures soon.

* I hope you're all having a fabulous weekend.

* This weekend is MUCH better than the last one for me, so far anyway.

* good bye and God bless

25 things....

So, there's this thing that's all the rage right now on facebook - writing down 25 random facts about yourself and tagging others to do the same. I was tagged apparently, but got mad at facebook because it was being really obnoxious, so I thought I'd do it here instead for you my most faithful and true friends. Or something. So I've been meaning to do it forever, but for some reason, blogging has just seemed like more of a chore than a delight lately. But oh well, I shall persevere and get it done and then I can cross it off my list which will be delightful, even if the actual blogging is not. I shall pepper this with current events around here, since 25 is a crazy high number. Okay, it's late, I'll try....

1) I love lists. I love crossing things off lists.

2) I HATE mice and bugs.

3) Following that theme, today one of my worse fears was nearly realized. I'm embarrassed to admit that I often fear that some dangerous creature is lurking in the toilet and well, yeah.... so anyway, today I went into the bathroom with the intention of using the facilities. All of a sudden I heard something SWIMMING. I looked in the toilet and nearly collapsed in a heap right on the spot. The THING resembled THIS but was way way way bigger than any of these pictures. I ran for the bug killer and sprayed nearly a half gallon in the water and flushed him away. He had very demon like qualities about him. I then sprayed the other toilet and then the entire infected bathroom just for good measure. Then I sat on the couch and waited for Dave to get home. I know all day tomorrow I will be tortured with the images in my mind.

4) I have been married a half year as of yesterday.

5) Last Friday I went back to the doctor and he said I could walk on my foot. (Good thing since I already had been) but he also told me I shouldn't drive for another month. I don't think I'm going to listen, but we'll see.

6) Open bottles in showers drive me crazy. Even when I'm a guest in some one's home, I close them. I have to because they ask me to. Actually, they demand that I do.

7) I tend to always revert to blog colors that are some combination of blue and red. I was determined to find something different this time, so these might be here for awhile. What do you think?

8) One time myself and some friends laid down in the middle of the street, right outside the waterfront restaurant. good old Red Lake!

9) A week ago today I gave my husband a haircut in a hurry right before he left for school. We HIGHLY discourage this practice. = ( Thankfully, hair grows!!

10) One day last week, Dave and I ate grilled PB and honey for supper. It was yummy. I had never had that, only grilled PB and jelly because Rhonda told me to.

11) I enjoy vacuuming and folding laundry. The rest, not so much.

12) At a young age, I had a fairly over-developed conscience. I would feel very guilty about things, large and small.

13) Once when I was at a friend's house, we were goofing around and I very meanly sprayed her older sister with the sprinkler I was holding and got her all wet. Her mom came out and thought my friend had done it and told her to apologize. She said she didn't do it. I felt guilty about this for YEARS. I think I might be over it now. I wonder if any of them remember that story....

14) When I was young, I got a big kick out of telling adults who didn't know our family well, that I have brothers that are 5 months apart. When they would tell me that's not possible, I would emphatically state.... UH HUH!! UH HUH!!!!

15) There is a chance I was slightly obnoxious as a child.

16) I also got a big kick out of telling people that there was a guy at my church who was my "step-dad, step-mom's, first husband's, brother's adopted son." (Refer to # 15.) But I learned it from my brother.

17) While we're on the topic, also when I was young, I was plagued with questions such as, "How in the world do the stop lights just know when the cars are going to start going and then change?" and "Why can't you just write checks to yourself to keep doubling your money until you're a millionaire?"

18) I have terrible reading comprehension and often read the same thing several times before I absorb it. Conversely, I have always enjoyed writing. This got to be a very odd combination in college when I would write things and then read them and not be able to figure out the deep concepts I had just written. This really did happen once. I'm not sure if it was a sign of superior writing ability though.

19) There is a trend in my family of the women marring younger guys. Of my 6 sibs, this is the case with all but one of them. I kept the trend alive by finding someone one day younger than myself.

20) Tonight I watched a lady win a million bucks on Millionaire and all her life lines were gone by the 16,000 question. It was FUN! It was a run-run though, so not quite as cool.

21) Social injustice and injustice in general really bothers me. There are so many different opinions about what actually constitutes these things though... hmmmmm......

22) I've been to Canada, the US, Russia, Madagascar, Israel, the Netherlands, Belgium, and some random airports. I want to go somewhere else now - like maybe tour Europe and visit Israel again, then swing down to Madagascar again, then go to Australia and New Zealand. If I would save 5 bucks a week, I could maybe go in 3089.

23) I get situational insomnia in the worst sort of way. Thankfully, I think I've been able to make up for most of the sleep I lost while I was engaged.

24) I have been under the surgeons knife 3 times.

25) We pause for great excitement for making it to the end. I hope I have not bored you to tears. And finally, here's my last fun fact: I have CDO. It's sort of like OCD, but with the letters in alphabetical order, AS THEY SHOULD BE! (okay, that's not even remotely original with me. I found it very amusing though and wanted to share.)

26) Oh, I have one more. I have this odd loyalty to the "first" of something. It's hard to explain. Like in Warsaw, we lived really close to a Walgreens and we used to hang out there a lot and knew most of the workers (not by name, but ya know). Now, it's hard for me to go to CVS. I can do it, I just don't prefer it. I feel like I'm being disloyal. And it's like that with the first of anything I see, use, read, watch, whatever - I get stuck on that one thing just because it came first and have a hard time switching. I don't know how odd this is for sure.

We can all do our part!

PLEASE watch this video! It's only about a minute and a half. Such a great idea and something so easy to do!!

Home Sweet Home

Here's a few pictures of the homestead. Here's the pretty, much smaller desk with a few more things on the walls. And this is what the guest room looks like now. It's much more spacious and homey. And it's looking for some more guests. And I was randomly looking for some more pics to post and found this one of my ouchie - not too exciting. It used to get pretty black and blue up to the toezies, but it doesn't do that anymore.
We had a great time visiting with Don and Marilyn last night and this morning. Now the house is all clean and in order and we're not getting ready for company. What do we do with ourselves? Ah well, that's all for now I guess.

food art and other random ramblings

Hi all - I've been meaning to post for awhile and haven't gotten around to it. Now it's midnight on Saturday night. I should be sleeping. Dave is working on math and has to strike while the brain is hot (or something like that), so I thought now would be a perfect time to blog. Tomorrow morning I'll probably think differently, but oh well. First, a small photo display... Last Saturday I guess it was - Dave had bought lots of bananas and knowing that some would probably go bad, I got in the mood for this. And then I had all sorts of fun being decorative. So we took pictures. Dave thought the pattern was very mathematical and totally tubular. (side note - best to eat most of it the day of. even though I soaked the bananas in lemon juice, by day 3 or so - GROSS! Dave of course didn't mind the slimy nasty stuff, so I'd eat around the bananas and save those for him - I just want to be a blessing ya know)

Here we have a pizza. How thrilling that I posted a picture of our pizza for all to see and drool over. Actually, at the time, we were SO hungry and this looked so good, that we had to take a couple pictures. Hooray for papa murphy's. Probably most of my Canadian readers are unfamiliar with this place. They make everything fresh right there and then you go home and bake it. They are very very good. And we have coupons - 7.99 for one of these - no way I could make it for that. And where else can you get zucchini on your pizza? It was very very tasty. Oh, and we make it last for 2 meals meaning 2 bucks each for supper. Am I just trying to justify buying a pizza? I dunno... anyway, there you have it. Um, what can I say? He does odd things and I entertain myself by taking pictures of them when possible.

Okay, enough pictures. I'll try to gab a bit. Today we received a roll top desk from some friends of ours who were wanting to get rid of it. It's really nice and we like it a lot. The only thing is that the (big, huge, um.... not entirely attractive) computer monitor won't come close to fitting on it. Upon further inspection, it does not appear to be designed for a computer so much. Anyway, we're making it work, but things look a little um... full, shall we say. But I like it a lot better than having part of a huge desk out in the living space. I'll post some pics later when I get some stuff on the walls. But it was fun to organize it and all that. The big huge desk that was in the guest room is gone, to make room for the big huge dresser that was in our room, which was moved to make way for the big huge dresser that Mike brought from Red Lake. So now the computer and such is in the living room (actually, the space between the living room and "dining room" I guess would be more accurate, and the guest room is looking more bedroomy. Anyway, I just realized that I'm blathering on and on about things that are probably very boring to the average reader. Let me know when you move your furniture, okay!!?? We're getting things ready for company again this coming week. Don and Marilyn (for you red lakers) are coming through on Tuesday and I'm looking forward to visiting with them. We've been trying to get everything in order and made a lot of progress today, but things are still in somewhat disarray. Dave is much looking forward to the superbowl tomorrow. Hopefully we'll get some work done before that (the most restful, Sabbathy kind of work). A really really really odd thing is that I'm almost in some very small way looking forward to the superbowl as well. ACK! I don't know what's happening. When I fear I've become too American, I remind myself how much I would rather be watching the Stanley Cup than the Superbowl. ummmmmm...... oh, here's something overheard lately:

me showing dave an old gratuation picture: "This picture was actually entered in a photo contest."

Dave: "Really? How come?"

Much back peddling and sputtering commenced - it was quite fun.

Okay, I think I'll leave you now. It's getting later and later. funny how that happens.