Oh yeah, a title...

Okay, blogger is officially driving me nuts! It will NOT let me write over the first picture, so I added an extra picture at the top and will hopefully be able to delete it after typing. How dumb is that? Anyway, just wanted to say hi and share some pics from the last week or so. This has been a long, crazy, and difficult week, but thankfully it's over and life is looking up I think. Ahhh, Saturdays... this is the first day in weeks that I don't have to leave the house. I'm not sure if I will or not. Dave just went to get groceries which means I'm also alone in the house which never happens these days either. Last Saturday we spent a long time sorting through our room, getting rid of stuff, and getting it organized. Today I hope to attack our guest room. Last Saturday Dave also drug me out to see Star Trek. He was beside himself with excitement about it. I didn't hate it as much as I thought I would. = P Actually, I didn't mind it at all, which is about as much as we can hope for when it comes to movies with the 2 of us. Okay, here's some pics...
Me thinks strawberries are in season - $1.50 for these!



This is from last Saturday - happy 9 monthiversary to us. = ) This is one of our current favorite places to hang out.

And these are from last Sunday. We had the privilege of going out on the boat with some friends and their terribly cute kids. It was so much fun.
Really! it WAS fun! gracious.
I only post this unflattering picture of me (above) to point out that I think if I grabbed him and ran for the hills, no one would ever question if he was really mine or not. (which I am tempted to do every time I'm around them, but resist, since I had a solid upbringing that taught me right from wrong and such)




Aw, such handsome guys... shucks...

Absent minded professor...

You know how people who are really smart and like to stare off into space thinking about numbers and things like that, how they tend to not have the brain space for menial, every day boring stuff.... I just have to share a couple cute little stories. The other night we were doing piles of laundry. We moved everything from the washers to 2 dryers and brought the rest in to hang up. Well, I went to bed while Dave finished since I had to be up early in the morning and he's officially done school. In the morning I went to get something and one basket (the one that he had but in the dryer) was completely soaking wet. Often our stuff doesn't dry all the way which is annoying, but this seemed like it hadn't been dried at all. Before I left for work I mentioned it and said he probably forgot to push the button to start to dryer. So he went out to check and came back and said, "Not only did I not push the button to start it, but all 5 of the quarters were just sitting in the slots not even pushed in. Oh I laughed. Okay, it's not that funny, but just the thought of taking all the clothes from the washer and putting them in the dryer, putting all the coins in the dryer, leaving, and then coming back in a couple hours and taking all the wet clothes out... it just hit me funny.

I try not to tease Dave too much about his tendency to park, um, shall we say, not straight. The other day he said, "You'd think with all the geometry I've had, I'd be able to park a car!" I just laughed. This morning as I walked out to my car to go to work, I stared at both of our cars parked right beside each other and thought, gracious day in the mornin, I never park that crooked! I'm even parked worse than Dave who is parked slightly crooked. Then I remembered a story from last night and had to laugh. Dave was going to be nice and fill up my car with gas (because I have to get up early and bla bla bla). So he comes home after filling it up and says that he took the car to get gas and it only cost 10 bucks and he thought, that's odd, her car was on empty, so he looks and realizes he's driving his car and not mine. So he comes home and gets mine and fils that one up as well - thus both cars are now full and parked very crookedly. But dang he's good at math! His students liked him so much this semester they baked him cookies! How sweet is that?

Okay, I'm back again. More boring ramblings - I just made the most disgusting supper ever. Yes, I'm on a health kick again and never do anything half way. So I bought this new flour at the health food store - buckwheat and millet. And I wanted to make a pizza. I've never used buckwheat before and had no idea it tasted like horse dung. No wonder the average person doesn't have it in their house. I made up my dough using those 2 things and it's dry, crumby, sawdust like and tastes gross. arg. Just wanted you all to know. If any of you have suggested for using the stuff, I'd be open to that.

Pictures! (how original)

All the way back to Valentines Day! I guess it was only 2.5 months ago, but it seems like forever ago. If you remember my post way back then... well, here's one thing that worked - I was happy with my glass decoration that I came up with all in my head. And below is our little chimichanga feast.
Mardi Gras weekend, the end of February. We went to a parade in Baton Rouge, one of the tame, family ones. = P
What do they kneaux about sneaux, anyway?


The above was Friday night. Then we decided spur of the moment to go to Madisonville on Sunday afternoon for the boat parade. It was pretty funny. Not really worth the drive, but we had fun anyway.




Back at our little condo - you thought YOU had misquotes! These things are so obnoxious! They aren't nearly as bad now that it's hot here. They were terrible in the spring. I guess most of you are still having spring.
Our little romantic getaway... Easter long weekend we spent one night in a little town and the next day we took the ferry across the river to to St. Francisville, which is a really pretty town. The reason we didn't stay there is because it's more expensive. We found a really cheap place in a close by town, which was sorta a scary little town, but the ferry ride was fun and it all worked out. This is where we stayed - the outside of our luxury suite.
... and the INSIDE of our luxury suite. The room was SO small. This pic shows most of the space between the bathroom door and the shower curtain.

But it was a pretty place on the outside.
This is the outside of the restaurant we ate at, right by our room. Looks pretty scary, eh? It was actually really nice on the inside. From the outside it looked like it might float away any moment.
The next day we took the ferry to St. Francisville. We thought it was funny that Lucy knew exactly what to do. Even though she called the ferry a fry.

Mississippi River from the ferry.
We went to a plantation that was so pretty. I could not stop taking pictures here.
Inside of the mansion.


Original columns.



This concludes our show. Hopefully I'll post pictures more regularly now that we have a non-infected computer. Congratulations if you're still reading this!

tidbits

Hello all. I've been meaning to blog for so long. Life just feels so busy and crazy, even though I can't really say with what. I guess working full time and trying to hold things together around here. I haven't been doing such a great job at the latter, but did make some progress this week. I'm finding that Dave and I are both pack rats (duh, I've known that for a long time) but I also hate clutter and it stresses me out. I've been very stressed lately over how fast things can be clean, at least on the surface, and then disintegrate into complete chaos in no time flat. So I've been pondering the book that Sabrina gave us as a wedding gift and that she posted about awhile back - "Simplify Your Life: Get organized and stay that way!" I read the chapter on cleaning and clutter this week and it was just what I needed. Consider this quote (with somewhat flaky modifiers), "A good 50% of housework is not just cleany-clean, scrubby-scrubbing, but shuffling clutter, litter, and junk from place to place. Getting rid of junk is the easiest way to free yourself from household imprisonment." HOW TRUE! I think I'm finding that a part of the reason I can never really get a handle on things is because there's just too much stuff and clutter around and lack of organization beneath the surface mess. So this week I tackled the kitchen. The fridge is cleaned out and spotless, the food cupboard (yep, that's singular, I've only really got one, to speak of) is finally organized and user friendly, and all the unnecessary clutter from the very limited counter tops is gone. Beautiful feeling! And now I'm finding it's much easier to just maintain it like that. Plus it's a great motivation for wanting to keep it that way. Next project is our room, including our bathroom. I want to thoroughly go through the closet, drawers, cupboards, piles of junk, and just get everything de-cluttered. Anyway, this is probably boring all of you to tears. It's just so hard for me to let my junk go and hard to know what to keep for sentimental reasons. Our guest room has a rather ample dresser FULL of all my junk. The sad thing is, probably 99% of the stuff in there, I will never have out, never use, or never read through. I'll just continue to move it from place to place unless I work up the nerve to get rid of a bunch of it. Do I really need my sticker collection from when I was 7, my eraser collection from when I was 10, some pretty rocks, an old antique lunch pail... ahhhh... I could go on and on.

Our living room has been pretty good in the clutter department, but now some things need to go because.... drum roll please... we just got a "new" love seat from someone on Craigslist. So now things are looking a bit crowded. I'm started to really like Craigslist. Last week I got a bunch of Mary Kay for half price because someone was going out of business. Then we found the couch about 15 minutes after it was posted and happened to be the first one to respond. The guy got so many requests for it but he held it for us. It's leather and reclining and so insanely comfortable. It does have a few holes and issues that we're hoping to repair with a leather repair kit. I'll let you know how it works out. For the price, I think it was worth it. It's like disappearing into clouds of leathery softness when you sit on it.

My job continues to provide many opportunities to grow in upright character. I'm not sure I succeed at many of them... sigh... anyhoo... today I was at a "Grandparents Raising Grandchildren" conference all day. I'm not really a grandparent, nor do I work with any who are raising children, so I'm not really sure why I was there, but oh well. The thing was SO SO SO long and boring. None of it was really helpful information for this stage in life. And in regards to all the above rambling on clutter, I go to so many conferences for work and every time I come home with a bag full of junk. Every time. arg! If anyone is in need of cheap tote bags, just let me know and I can fix you up. Anyhoo... the day had some interesting moments including a woman in the crowd who, um, well something was not right there. But it was sorta nice to have a distraction. She was very loud, strange, and very socially inappropriate. And then there were people there doing this big survey of grandparents raising grandchildren. So lots of people in blue t-shirts doing surveys with grandparents all over the place. Wouldn't you know, a lady in a blue t-shirt came up to me and said, "Have you taken your survey yet?" EX ca USE ME???!!!!??? I just started at her and blurted out, "Lady, that's a really quick way to get a black eye!" Okay, so I didn't say that, but I felt like it. I politely snarled something about NOT being a grandparent, not even being a parent, and how the hairy old to I look????? She felt sort of bad, but in her defense, she was a grandmother at 36. And if I would have had a baby at the age of the girls I work with, I suppose I easily could be a grandma right now. oh my! moving right along....

Well, I guess I don't have a lot of interesting news. I have to work part of the day tomorrow which I'm thrilled about. I guess we're putting on a brunch-like doo hickie. so long for now. Enjoy the pics of the last few months.

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.