Pictures

Here are the photos I took in the last week. This is Joe using Gordo as an ergonomic game controller wrist rest.

Here is Gordo, the Jumbo Shrimp.


These are most of the feral cats we feed:


Joe power-washed "I heart U" into the basketball court. Very disgusting and romantic at the same time. I love how you can see his reflection in it!



Joe and his new toy.




Our newly moss-free back patio!


And finally, the results of this morning's cat-trapping efforts. This is not a cat.




Hope you girls had a wonderful weekend. Love you!

Amber

It's been a busy last couple of days.

I'm a little behind in the blogging world right now, but I have been keeping up with reading your girls posts! These last few days have been crazy busy, even though I haven't worked, weird how that works.

• On friday I got up at 7 with the hubby.
• When he left at 7:30 I also left for the pool to swim a mile! (it felt soooo gooooood)
• I came home grabbed two packages of car parts, one that had to be shipped USPS and one Fed Ex. We were out of packing tape so I ran to the store, went to the post office and then headed to Fed Ex.
  
• On the way to Fed Ex I got in a feder bender, I thought my back bumper was destroyed, but there was really only a little scratch in the plastic. The poor girl that hit me was in her low 20's and had an infant in the back seat, she was so sorry, appologetic, and freaked out. I didn't even get her insurance info because I wouldn't have done anything with it anyway.
  
• Finally I got home from errands and had to start the laundry. While the laundry was going I filed, wrote thank you cards and birthday cards, packed up some presents, and cleaned mold off the window sill for the for the 2nd time in 3 days. Do you see that mold! That is after I cleaned the window sill, it has stained the paint, it is nasty.
  
• Then friday evening Paul and I watched Raising Arizona and then my friend Kayla came over (she is in the picture below) and we hung out for a few hours, I have missed her so much!
  

Saturday!

• Saturday at 9:30am we met with our realtor (who we had never met before) to look at 4 houses! First off the realtor is amazing, he is so nice, not pushy, and very informative. I found my dream home, and Paul loves it too! It is a bank owned home, it is in dire need of new inside pain and carpet, and there is one spot where the pain is cracking off and one spot where there is a little mold. This house just got put on the market 3 days ago so we are going to keep our eyes on it for 45 days and see of the price drops, and then see what we are going to do about it. I need to pray lots about it, because it would be a big step for us, but I am not going to lie, I love this house! It has an open kitchen, a living and family room that are both good size, 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths and is 2100 square feet. It also has an awesome backyard, and my favorite part is the kitchen window looks out over the backyard, this is what I have always wanted so when I have kids I can let them play outside by themselves and I can just peek on them! Paul and I have to get the paperwork together so we can see how much money the bank wants to loan us now.
• At 2 I went and got a hair cut! I love it, it's shorter than I have ever had it since 2nd grade, It is short in the pumpkin picture but I will take a better one when I do it and put on make-up. :)
  
• Then Kayla came over again in the evening, we took her out to our favorite restaurant, Pho Thai and out favorite asian grocery store: H-mart. Then we came home, carved the pumpkin and were going to make caramel apples...but we were wayyyyy too full!

Today- Sunday

• I went to church.
  
• I vacumed, even though it had only been a couple days, because with this fall weather we have been dragging in so many leaves and pine needles. Our apt is like 600 sq feet so a little dirt make the whole place look messy.
  
• I picked up clothes and dishes and random stuff from all around the house. I don't know how it gets so messy in less than a 24 hr period.
  
• I baked pumpkin seeds and am going to make caramel apples.
  
• I dusted.
  
• I did dishes.
  

And in an hour and a half my friend Gabe comes over!

Wow, that was a long post, thanks for reading! :)

a rainy saturday

We must all be in the "lists" mood.  Here's the one that I made the other day...I think Thursday, but now I can't remember!  Anyway, I was so proud every time I got to check something off!  There's something about a completed check list that I love.

It was a good thing I accomplished it all too, because later that day it ended up that 2 high schoolers came over for dinner.  It was a really nice evening - we just had dinner and then sat around drinking hot cocoa in front of a fire.  Working with high schoolers is so much easier than middle schoolers...they know how to just hang out.  It was a little hard at first for me to think about having them over 3 times this week already, but I really love that our place is open to them.  God is definitely making me grow a lot right now.

This was just sort of funny:  Jeremy went outside with them to take them home (I think after they had a smoke), and I was so hot from the fire and tea, that I went to change into some work-out shorts and a tank top.  I thought they had left, but the guy came back in to use the bathroom.  I felt a little skimpy (okay, so the shorts were Jeremy's and went down to my knees, but it was a spaghetti strap tank and I always feel a little bare in those).  I guess he told Jeremy that he better take them home and get back quick because his "wife looked like she wanted to uh...spend time with him".  haha that was cute.  Yep, old work out shorts and the tank top I had been wearing all day is definitely hot.

Anyway, yesterday was a fun day with my husband and son!  We went up to Silverdale and went to Costco and Old Navy.  They were having an additional 50% off clearance, so I got a few things for me and two pairs of the cutest swim trunks for Shea for only 73 cents each!  I love deals.  We also went grocery shopping, checked out the thrift store, got dinner, walked a lot, and watched the finale of Project Runway once we got home.

And today we have a church thing that Jeremy is at and then we have to go help his brother move.   I'm not really excited about that because of the weather, but oh well!  I think I might go clean the kitchen and make some pumpkin cookies to take with.

Hope you girls have a great weekend!

Behind

Sorry I haven't been commenting on anyone's posts! I've been admiring and enjoying them, believe me!

For the first half of today, I was getting Joe's help on my stupid biology class. He thinks it's especially stupid because it's actually anatomy and physiology...anyway, he was helping me and he got so mad at the "stupid class" that he told me to drop it. So I did, and replaced it with New Testament. Yay! I ordered my textbook and they told me I should have access to the class by Monday. Hopefully that is true since I'll be coming into it a week late.

Angela inspired me to make a to-do list. I did two items on it, which were:

• Take Joe's priority mail boxes back to the post office (he used to sell a lot of things on ebay and just had them laying around)
• Mow lawn (I didn't have to do this but I wanted to for Joe. I probably did a horrible job and I have blisters now, but it still looks better than it did!)

I was taking a short break when I got a call saying that Pat (the guy helping us trap the alley cats) was on his way over here. I didn't expect him till early tomorrow, so that was a nice surprise. We caught about half of them:

• Tabby
• "Sleepy" (or "Stoney" as Joe says because he looks like he's stoned)
• Ballsy (that's the daddy cat. After he is fixed we can't call him that anymore.)
• Mama and her three new kittens

Hopefully we'll get the rest of them tomorrow.

Also, nice! They're going to take the mama and the kittens. They'll wait till the kittens are weaned and then find homes for them - yay! And they'll return the mama cat back to us (fixed, of course). It's much easier to find homes for kittens than adult cats, so good luck to them!

Funny moment: There's a black cat that I don't see too often, and she just happened to come out tonight. She heard me shaking cat food near the traps (which had wet food in them) and came over to eat. I walked away and she sniffed at the traps, then kept following me back to where we were watching the traps. I don't know if she was dumb and she couldn't figure out how to get in the traps, or smart because she knew traps are bad news!

Quick

Joe's coming home soon so here is the quick news:

I'm alternating Richard Simmons "Sweat and Shout" exercise video with weights every day for four days now!

We have new kittens - groan. Saturday is the day we take all the grown cats in to be fixed. At least three new babies, maybe more. They're super cute though.

I hate biology. It's my last gen ed class. Joe says it's stupid because it's actually Anatomy and Physiology but he thinks why would I need to study that if I'm an English major.

Drank far too much tea today.

Love to all, Joe's home now,

Amber

My weekend starts tomorrow!

Yesterday was a busy day!

• I woke up at 7 to get my husbands breakfast, lunch, and work clothes ready, then went back to bed till 8:30 to try and catch up on the sleep missed the day before.
  
• At 8:30 I had breakfast and did computer stuff.
  
• At 9 I went to the pool and swam a mile. It felt so good!!
• At 10 I rushed home to pick up a bit and grab two packages I had to mail before I went to work. My husband is selling his old car parts so we have been making many trips to the post office everytime someone buys something! I am ok with that though. :)
• At 11 I got to work, and played with my little one. at 12 we went on a walk and she was asleep within minutes of the walk beginning.
• I got off at 3, ran to Office Depot to get a black printer cartridge, then went home to package up more car parts.
  
• At 4 I went back to the post office and Safeway. Goldfish are on sale at Safeway this week for 1.00 so I bought like 10 of them. No joke. Oh and I bought cotton candy they are selling for breast cancer. I am addicted!
• At 5 I got dinner ready. Rice with vegetables and chicken stock. (so yummy!) with tilipia, asparagus, and an egg. (Paul had requested we use the eggs up the day before.
  

• After getting dinner started I cleaned the house up and vacuumed.
• Then the hubby came home!
• We ate dinner and watched Casino Royale (which btw is a 2.5 hr movie, we had no idea when we started. )
• When we finished the movie it was 10:30pm but we had to figure out our health insurance for next year! So we did that, took a few healthy quizzes online to lower the insurance and then went to bed!
  
• We fell asleep about 12, so therefore I am tired again today, but not like yesterday!

Today I haven't done anything besides play with my little girl, and I am ok with that. :)

(I'm copying Angela with a random picture again)  Someday, when we have a more substantial home, I am going to make a lot of prints like this one and frame them.

Anyway, I had a long day and am exhausted, but feeling good!  (I think this may have to do with the latte I had at 3PM on my way to a staff meeting).

Tuesdays are my long day because I have both a morning and an afternoon class, and today was extra long, because our monthly 2+ hour staff meeting was after my classes today.  School was fun though, the kids were super cute as always.  The line of today was a three year old saying to another kid, "You are pure genius!" while they were playing with trains.  Then all of the other kids starting saying it.  We could not stop laughing.  I DO have the best job ever.

And I actually love our staff meetings, because we're doing the Esther bible study by Beth Moore, and tonight it was SO good.  I really am learning so much, and I am so happy to finally be involved in a group bible study with women I can relate with.  

So I left at about 7:40AM and got home a little after 6PM.  Just in time to feed Shea and put him to bed.  yay...and I just finished working out for the first time in like a week and a half.  Boy, it felt GOOD!  I need to keep going with it this week.

Yesterday was a really fun day though.  It was Shea's first day in Daycare - he did great, except that he didn't get a nap because of their schedule and my schedule.  And I had no idea it would be SO much more work getting him ready in the morning.  He only goes every other day, so tomorrow I need to make sure I get up a little bit earlier so I can get us out the door on time without being so frazzled.  Since I was pretty much at work all day yesterday, here is what I accomplished the yesterday:

• Bought Diapers at Costco (enjoy the days before you have to do this!  Next baby is wearing cloth, I think...)
• Picked up some other necessities at Target
• Came home to a smoky smelling house (Jeremy picked up some High Schoolers from the park, because it was raining and they had no where to go, and they basically just reak of smoke all the time.  God's telling me to get over it though.).  I was kind of irritated because Shea was really fussy and I didn't know what to do.  After some time back in my bedroom with Shea, God helped me change my attitude.  I really need to work on this.  I am so happy that we can open our house to these kids, it was just that it was two days in a row and I didn't expect them to be there.  But we both really desire to figure out a place for these kids to hang out so they don't smoke pot all day, so I guess if its going to be our home, so be it!
• Did two loads of laundry, cleaned the kitchen, cleaned the bedroom, changed/washed all the sheets.

Then Jeremy's parents invited us to go to Chuck E. Cheeses for Shea's birthday (oh boy).  We just went for a little bit and Shea had fun on a few rides and playing with his birthday balloon.

and!!  Shea took his first real steps when I came home tonight!!!  But he was laughing too hard to keep going.    I got my camera out to record him, but by then he wouldn't do it anymore.  He's going to be walking any day now!

Anyway, I'm hoping to get more done tomorrow, because I only have to work until 2ish.  And I really need to go to bed so I can get up early.  bye girls!

It's been a lazy sort of day.

I definitely did not get enough sleep last night (maybe 6 hours) and I am definitely paying for it now. As I write this the baby is sitting in the kitchen playing with her sisters 16th birthday balloon. This little on is not liking the bad weather, she is more grumpy. Here has been our day so far.

• We played until 8:30 when momma left.
• Baby and I both ate breakfast. Let me rephrase. I tried to feed baby breakfast as she pursed her lips and when I did get food in her mouth spit it everywhere.
• We gave up on breakfast, played a little bit and she began getting fussy (its only 9am at this point) I was like what the heck, its naptime even though you have only been away for an hour and a half.
• She wouldn't take a bottle, she just cried. So like a bad babysitter I let her watch tv. Teach your baby to read. Two and a half times. Oops. Then she took an ounce of bottle and fell asleep for 2 hours praise the Lord.
• During that time I watched Teen Mom and was lazy. I am so so so tired I should have slept. I don't know what my problem is i used to always function on 6 hours of sleep while going to 40-50 hours of school and nannying part time. And now I nanny part time and ....um loook for jobs and I am exhausted. Ok, at doon the baby and I ate lunch. Again let me rephrase. She spit her baby food everywhere and I gave her a baby rice cracker to munch on.
• Now we are playing, she is on the verge of laughing then fussing then laughing. We are about to go down for another nap.
• I get off at 3 and then get to hang out with Amber!
• I got exciting (kinda) news from the hubby today at 10. He was supposed to work 3-11 (and I worked 8-3) but got a call to go in early because the store mananger had to take her hubby to the Dr. (because he got in a car wreck yesterday. He has already had a ct and his blood pressure is really high right now so keep him in your prayers. ) That is the bad news, the good news, now the hubby will get off at 7 ish instead of 11! I am so so so happy about that!

Happy Tuesday girls!

Ps this is what happens when you try and blog with a baby around...

"First" day of school

My second set of eight-week classes starts today. I am going to try to "take care of myself" until 9 this morning (and hopefully every morning) including breakfast, medicine, tea, shower, getting dressed, Bible, and prayer.

Then I'll try to work on school stuff till lunchtime (i.e. whenever I get hungry) and drink some coffee since that is when I usually get really tired. Then I want to clean and organize for an hour, then sit down to more school. We'll see how the plan goes!

What I've done so far:

• Made Joe lunch (just PB&J...oh well, at least I tried)
• Ate breakfast
• Took medicine
• Am drinking tea

Update, 12:05 PM

• Did weights and wrist exercises
• Showered
• Read a Psalm
• Did school assignments through Wednesday (don't be so amazed - there was only one Wednesday assignment!)
• Am eating lunch (PB&J) and making coffee

Update, 3:15 PM

• Did a homepage for one of my classes
• Fed alley cats
• Cleaned kitchen
• Worked on laundry
• Planned dinner (alfredo mozzeralla chicken with edamame on the side...or maybe green beans. Hmm...should I free up space in my freezer or use up green beans that will go bad in a few days? Probably the green beans...)
  

That's probably all I'll get done today since Joe will be home in an hour and I want to focus on house cleaning till then (basically laundry and tidying). Taking a short break now because I'm very warm after the house cleaning I've been doing!

Thanks for being with me on today's journey. Love you girls! Candice - I haven't heard from you in a while. How are your classes going?

Busy Sunday!

I got up, went to church (without showering because the hubby took all the hot water again), came home, took a bath (which there was hardly hot water for...), and then went Christmas Shopping! I know, I know, seems like it is a little early, but at church today they were handing out pamphlets on Operation Christmas Child. I don't know if all of you girls have heard of it before but basically you pack a shoebox full of gifts and it gets sent to another country as a christmas gift for a child. After getting the pamphlet I decided I wanted to go shopping today. It was so fun! I went to Target and got a bunch of little things to fill the box like toothpaste, toothbrush, jump rope, cute bobby pins, pens, soap, gum, candy and so forth. Then I decided I wanted to do shopping for the family. So I got my mom, dad, amber, and mother-in-law's christmas presents today. Oh how I love gift giving! I even wrapped some of them today, haha.

Now I am getting ready to cook dinner and pick up the house a tiny bit before the hubby gets home. I am hoping we are going to be able to make it to night church, and if so, that is the plan for tonight. If we don't make it we will eat pizza, listen to a sermon online, and cuddle!

Here is the most amazing pizza dough recipe because it takes no time at all. I have only ever made regular pizza with it but I am going to try the BBQ one because oddly enough Paul and I picked up that very meat at Safeway last night because it was on sale for 2.69 (normal price is over 6!). Oh the things I get excited about these days.

Here is the recipe: http://littlebirdiesecrets.blogspot.com/2009/06/15-minute-pizza-dough-and-gourmet-pizza.html

Hope everybody is having a fabulous Sunday!

church day

hi girls!

I'm home for an hour or so from church, so Shea can take a nap.  We meet in a rinky-dink one room building (well, plus a kitchen), so there's not really anywhere for Shea to play or rest (the ground is hard cement and dirty too, so he can't even crawl around).  I went and helped set up, and now I get an hour relaxing and drinking a homemade latte before I have to go back.  Ahh.  I like relaxing sundays.

I wish I had taken a picture of what church looked like this morning though!  The community center was completely decked out for halloween...I should snap a picture when I go back.  I wanted to stay so I could see the old ladies reactions (I know, terrible...). It looks like a haunted church service now.

Anyway!  My day yesterday was great!  I decided to copy Angela and make a collage, because I snapped a bunch of pics throughout the day (its a little blurry...oh well):

Jeremy had to go help his brother move and then took a friend out to lunch for his birthday, so me and Shea had a mommy and me day.  We decided that we didn't want to have a big 1st birthday party - our place is way too small, and I feel really weird having people give us a bunch of gifts that Shea won't even appreciate, and we don't really need.  Plus, there are already SO many birthdays with all the cousins, we just didn't wnat to make people feel like they had to come.

So, I decided to make some cupcakes for him and my friend Susan was planning on stopping by in the afternoon to visit and celebrate with us.  Low key = awesome.  We'll be celebrating again at Grandma's in a couple of weeks anyway.

SO here's what we did:

• went to walmart for some cupcake liners and frosting (I know, I didn't make it myself...)  I bought Shea two dinosaurs for his birthday.
• We came home and played.  He LOVED the dinosaurs!  I don't know how he knew how to make them roar and attack each other, but he did!  You can see in the pic him trying to feed them his snack, haha, and he was trying to smush them in my messy hair no make-up face.
• Shea took a nap and I made cupcakes!  They were fun to decorate.
• We both got dressed (proof in lower right corner of collage :) )
• He got to sit in his NEW carseat facing forward!  He loves seeing mommy and being able to look outside.  He cracked up every time I tilted the mirror down to look at him.
• Daddy came home and we played until Susan came over.  It was so fun to just relax, drink some coffee together and chat.
• Shea was very serious about eating his cupcake. I'll have to share the video I took with you girls!

Then we went up to the mall in Silverdale and I got a free pair of undies from Victoria's secret with a promotion they sent me, and some amazing lotion.  We also went to Target, because Susan gave us a 25 dollar gift card for Shea's b-day.  We picked out a little remote control dog that walks and barks.  He loves dogs so much and gives his new little puppy lots of hugs and kisses.  And laughs hysterically at it every time it makes a noise.

Sorry for such a long post!  We had such a fun day though, and I wanted to share!  Plus I have nothing else to do right now.  We have some High Schoolers coming over after church today - all unchurched.  If you think of us, please pray for them!  Some of these kids are really lost and struggling, and we're blessed to be able to open our house up to them.  Its weird to think it wasn't that long ago that I was that age.

I hope you all have a wonderful, relaxing Sunday!  Enjoy the rain and snuggle up with your hubby's if you get a chance!

The Adventure

Here is the story of Esther. This happened yesterday.

My mom and I went out to Panera for lunch. On the way back, just before we were about to turn onto my street, we passed a lady carrying two suitcases.

Mom: "Oh, that poor girl, carrying two suitcases."

Me, who hadn't even noticed: "Yeah."

We pulled in front of my house.

Mom: "I bet you would have stopped and offered her a ride."

Me: "Maybe...I dunno...Joe doesn't like me doing stuff like that because it's not safe..."

Mom: "I think we should go offer her a ride."

Me: "Okay."

Esther accepted the ride and told us her story. She was on her way to a clean/sober house where she had been kicked out three days before for having beer and wine in her room. She had only been in this house for 2-3 weeks before being kicked out, and she had spent the last three days at a friend's house but she had to leave because "there was too much drinking". She claimed she didn't drink in the last three days, though. She was on her way to see if her belongings were "on the street" like the clean/sober house owners had threatened.

We drove her up the hill. Her belongings were still in the house. She used my mom's cell phone to try to call the owners to see if they would let her move back in, but couldn't reach them. Another resident of the house gave her a number for someone who owns other clean/sober houses, and she was on the phone with this guy for about ten minutes when I interrupted and told her my mom had to leave, but we'd take her back to my house and take care of business from there.

At my house she asked for coffee and candy. She talked to the new clean/sober house guy, Mark, and asked if I would drive her up to Lakeland Hills to see if she liked the new place. So I took her back to her old place to pack up all her stuff, and then home to pick up Angela and we drove to Lakeland Hills.

She was interviewed and accepted! I was SO relieved because I knew there was no way Joe would let her stay at our house, and alcoholics can be so manipulative (I had already seen this with Esther). We unloaded her stuff and drove home thankful that it was dinnertime. Then, ironically, Angela and I went out for drinks at a martini bar!

The owner of the clean/sober house runs an organization that has three houses total. I jokingly asked if he wanted to lease a house four blocks from Kent Station (since usually the residents don't own cars or have driver's licenses) and he was like "yes". This could be a possibility for the house. We'd be helping these people, and they do pay rent so that would cover the mortgage and utilities.

The organization is "Alcoholics and Addicts Helping Alcoholics and Addicts". They have two men's houses and one women's house (I like this because the place Esther came from was mostly men, plus Esther). They provide food for the residents! They provide Bible studies for them. They use donations to provide clothes for residents that don't have them, or other necessities.

Anyway, that was the main event yesterday. Angela and I were blessed to see it unfold. We were both blown away by the quality of our lives - that we each have cars to drive, and we have drivers' licenses. We don't struggle with substance addiction. We have husbands to take care of us and are surrounded by Christian friends and family who support us.

Baby, donuts, and a halfway house.

Yesterday was a fantastic, full, fun day and this is what I did.

• I worked from 8-3:3o playing with my drooly-slobbery little one
• I drank two cups of tea.
• I ate chinese food, grapes, and cake for lunch. I am so healthy...haha.
• Went to the bank to cash my check
• Came home to pick up the apt and start making chicken enchiladas because Joe and Amber were coming over for dinner!
• Paul came home at 6, we laid around for half an hour till Amber and Joe came over.
• The four of us ate dinner and played Nertz.
• Paul and I watched a couple episodes of Dog the Bounty Hunter and then went to bed at 9:30pm (so early for us!)

I woke up at 8:30 ready for the day, but stayed laying in bed, playing on the computer and cuddling with the sleepy hubby till about 10am. Then I asked him, are you hungry for breakfast? He said yeah, let's go to Krispy Kreme. I had told him a week ago I really wanted to go there for coffee and donuts sometime for breakfast and he remembered. I was so excited!

As you can see by the time on the clock, only ten minutes after I asked Paul if he was hungry, we were on the road. This means we were in pajamas and unshowered. Classy I know. It was so fun though. And it felt like a Saturday morning ( and I continued to think it was Saturday all day long).

My husband puts up with pictures very well, they are definitely not his favorite thing but he humors me. :) I think secretly he likes that I take them so we can remember everything, even the mundane, because sometimes it is the mundane that makes life so special. We sat at Krispy Kreme for like an hour eating, drinking coffee, watching donuts being made, and playing on their free wifi. It was an overall amazing morning.

We came home, dinked around the house, watched tv and relaxed till it was time for the hubby to get ready for work and me to get ready to go to Ambers. At 3:30 while I was making lunches Amber calls and asks if I can get there by 4 (which is the time I was supposed to come over but was going to be late...) so we can take a homeless lady she picked up to her new halfway house. I rushed out of the house with packed dinners for me and Amber. We took the girl to the halfway house (Amber will have to tell the story of the whole adventure) and then we went home, ate dinner and went out to the martini bar (so yummy)! Then we watched the office and waited for her hubby to get home.

Now I am home waiting for my hubby.

It was an all in all amazing day. I got lots of quality time with my man, lots of fun time with Amber, and I got the house picked up.

Have a happy weekend girls!

Note: These photos are from three days ago.

Now that becca received her surprise package, I can post this picture of Angela helping me put it together!
I made stroganoff and sent it home with Angela, who ate some out of the large pyrex bowl I lent her to take it home in:



Silly girl!

Today I will:

• Have lunch out with my mom! yay!!!
• Pay Melody to clean (she wants to make money, I want help cleaning!)
• Maybe iron that shirt that's been waiting for ironing for weeks. I hate ironing.
• If I do that, I can take pictures of the piano room clean, because I already took pictures of it dirty and then I can post them on this blog.
• Angela's coming over at 4!
• Shower and make myself feel pretty
  

I haven't felt pretty in a while. I guess I just haven't been putting the effort in. I'd like to do that today.

(Edit: 12:06 - I have now showered, dressed, put on earrings and a necklace, and put on MAKEUP! I feel pretty! Oh so pretty!)

Mmm! I'm on my second cup of tea this morning. This has been a glorious week off. I have to admit, I'm not looking forward to school again. But I'll do it!

We've been meeting with a realtor to discuss selling our house and buying something that doesn't require this much work and headache. Originally we were going to keep this house and buy another one. Joe asked me last night for my thoughts on all this, like how much of a loss we should be willing to take selling this house, etc. Here's where I am, even though it's technically "my" house with my name on the title.

• Were I single, I would rent out rooms to cover my mortgage, work to pay bills and pay down principal on the house, and pay off the house and save up for a down payment on a new house. At that point I'd move and rent out the railroad house. This would take time but it would keep me from having to sell the house at a loss, and allow me to keep getting income from it.
• I'm not single. My interests have changed. I hate seeing my poor husband come home after working on his feet for 12 hours and driving for 2 hours to a house he can't stand, because he doesn't have the time to fix it. He isn't relaxed here. This isn't home for him. The house came with me - he didn't choose it.
• So my single greatest concern right now is getting us to a place where he can relax. If we didn't have money, we could make this work. But we have a way to get out of here now. Sure, it might make better sense financially in the long run to do what I was originally intending. But it's about what's best for our family, not necessarily our finances.
  

After I told him this he jokingly said "thanks for nothing" because I hadn't given him any of the financial feedback he wanted. But it's true - I am not working right now. I think in terms of relationships, not numbers. I love him so much that I willingly and excitedly do whatever he thinks is best for us. Yes, I should be using my head and thinking about this logically. But I already told you what I would do "logically"!

Anyway, that's what's going on right now. Probably the only reason I don't want to sell the house is because I don't want to have to get it ready to sell. I am really dreading that!

Love you girls!

Amber

long day great ending

Yesterday was a long day!  I'm onto the coughing and no voice stage of my cold, which doesn't make for an easy day at preschool!  We had only one class day this week too (due to a fieldtrip), so the teacher I assist had to fit two days worth of class work into one day - yikes!  I was happy to get home yesterday, and I am SO happy it is Friday today.  


Some things I got done yesterday:

• Called Martha to get the hymns for Sunday so I can do the Power Points
• Cuddled with Shea a lot (boy was he grumpy yesterday!)
• Made a big pot of potato/chicken/whateverelseIfeltlikethrowingin soup
• baked pumpkin cookies
• did part of my Bible Study for work (I really need to catch up, because it needs to be done by Tuesday!)
• Read my Library book (also due today, but I really want to finish it...)

So kind of relaxing stuff that I guess aren't incredibly important.  Then I had a great evening at home last night!


Jeremy brought home some free firewood and after Shea was in bed, he made our first fire of the year!  Actually, our last two places didn't have a fireplace, so it's the first one we've had in over 2 years.  It was so toasty and cozy.  We sat in around in our PJs drinking tea and eating some pumpkin cookies (which I had made earlier that day).

And there was also a surprise!  Jeremy went to take out the trash and get the mail, and came back with a package!  From who? AMBER!  You are so sweet! haha.  Jeremy was like "why did she send this?  For your birthday?  For when you sent stuff in college?"  And I was like, "Amber doesn't need a reason to brighten up my day!" ha.  I totally wasn't expecting it though!

Look at all the stuff in the box:

I am most thankful for the tea!  and the gloves - I was trying to find mine last week, and I think I don't have them anymore.  Thank you for the wonderful care package!  I don't think I've bought new Vaseline in like 2 years haha.  It has a cool top now, huh?  Fancy.

And I am now drinking some Peach Black Tea (which Amber sent me) and enjoying a pumpkin cookie with it for breakfast (they're sort of healthy....ok maybe not).  Shea isn't up yet, so I am enjoying a quiet morning to myself.

Happy Friday, girls!!

Oh and did I mention that Shea is going to be 1 year old on Monday??? It's gone way too fast! It seems like you (amber) were just over at our last apartment holding him as a little infant and making me taco soup!

Dinner at Angela's!

Thanks Angela for having Joe and me over for dinner! You made yummy enchiladas and it was so fun to get to see your place! Nertz was awesome even though Joe mopped the floor with us. It was fun hanging out with you and Paul.

I did inside cleaning stuff today (mostly laundry), we met with our real estate agent (now we're talking about selling this house...) and had dinner at Angela's and just got home. Pretty good day! Not sure why I feel so tired though!

I haven't heard from...becca or candice...in a few days. How are you girls doing?

Love,
Amber

Full tummy. Tired Eyes. Bed time is fast approaching.

Today I...

• Woke up, packed the hubby's and my lunch, did the dishes, showered, and headed out the door to Amber's.
• Amber and I had a little misscommunication so she wasn't home when I got there, but that was totally ok! Cause I got all the things done on the internet that I needed to do. Like email the Dell guy about my wiggly laptop screen. (They are sending someone to fix it within the next two days!!)
• Then Amber got home, we hung out, ate english muffins, drank tea, and chatted!
• Then I had to go to work and babysit my little munckin. Her momma had put her to sleep right before I got there and let me tell you she was not too happy to see my face when she woke up instead of her momma's. So we had to watch a little Teach your baby to read to make her forget about Momma. Then we ate lunch, went for a walk, and she took another nap. Oh and today we found out she loves the beanbag chair. And she loves that "cd player" she is holding. It sings songs like Jack and Jill, Twinkle Twinkle little star, and other nursery rhymes that get stuck in my head all day!
• While I was away Amber did my laundry! She is amazing.
• Then I went back to Ambers, we made dinner (Beef Stroganoff!) and hung out with the cat guy. Amber was so sweet to send the food home with me to feed my hubby and I for dinner. :)
• I came home, watched a few tv shows with the hubby, then we went out to our second dinner with Paul's best friend Joel. ( I ate like two bites, boys can eat a crazy amount of food!)
• Now the boys are out playing bingo down the street at Dave's Restraunt and probably having a couple of beers while I sit at home and type on this blog! Haha. I will watch Netflix soon and call it a night.
• Oh before this blog I made myself look for jobs, tidy up, and um, yeah that's all I accomplished. I may go pack our lunches for tomorrow seeing as 6:45 is going to come all too early for me.

Oh and one more thing, Amber and I were discussing today how doing nothing makes you so tired. I am so exhausted today and all I did was a couple chores, hang out with Amber, and work for three hours. Did I have fun? Oh yes! Should I be this tired? Oh no.

• 
  

short

No, this post is not about my husband...

It will just be short.  

This is not the best picture, but I woke up this morning with this on my arm:

No, I do not own a cat.  No, I do not sleep in a bed of razor blades.  But I will be wearing long sleeves for a while (good thing its cold out).

All I remember is that I drank nyquil, knocked out, and vaguely recall my arm being itchy in the middle of the night.  I guess it was REALLY itchy.

I have never done anything quite like this.  weird.

Anyway!  Hope you're having a good day!  I got home from work a little bit ago and Jeremy is gone until 7:30 tonight at meetings.  So, Shea and I have the following things to do:

• Put Shea in some clothes (I guess the boys had a pajama party today)
• Take Shea to his WIC appointment and get our next months of checks
• Use up our baby food checks from last month (they expire today, oops!)
• Tidy the rest of the house
• Work out and 
• maybe do some more sewing after the baby goes to sleep.

Post

Since all you ladies are posting, I want to!

Yesterday was the laziest day Joe and I have ever had since we've been married. We slept in, then he played Fallout 3 and I played computer games until lunch time. We got stuff done for like an hour, then BACK TO THE GAMES! Then...uh...we went to the $3 theater for a movie (Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World) and out to dinner, which happened to be the most expensive dinner out we've had since our honeymoon! Joe suggested Duke's before he remembered that they are expensive. After running errands, we came home and watched The Office on Netflix. Then we went to bed.

So yeah, probably the laziest day we have ever had. It was WONDERFUL.

Today, I WILL:

• Clean upstairs bathroom
• Clean downstairs bathroom
• Buy veggies
• See Angela
• Meet with a new cat-person to help us trap the alley cats (the last person didn't work out)

I know this isn't a huge list, but it's my week off so THERE!

Update, 11:49 AM

I went to the store and bought my veggies. When I came home, poor Angela was waiting outside in her car for me! At least she had her laptop and access to our internet! For some reason I thought we were meeting up this afternoon...bah. Anyway, we hung out and we're hanging out again around 3 or so - YAY!

Now that I'm done with my "out of the house" things, I have to clean the bathrooms. I'm thinking I'll combine a bathtub scrubbing with a shower. Naked cleaning! I also bought some tea lights and holders so I'm going to try to pretty up the bathrooms a little. YAY!

Update, 1:19 PM

I scrubbed the shower and the tub. I still feel gross because I took a bath instead of a shower so I didn't wash my hair but now the tub is clean and I don't want it to get dirty again right away.

Plus I don't have any clean jeans because I'm behind on laundry. Blah!

Update: 6:30 PM

I did everything! Cleaned both bathrooms, hung out with Angela, met with the cat guy! Angela and I made dinner together so I could bribe her into staying longer since I'm alone this evening! That girl is awesome! She put away my clean dishes and put the dirty ones in the dishwasher and cleaned out the sink!!!

Now I'm doing laundry which is totally not a big deal, and waiting for The Office to come on! Good day!

Love,
Amber

Done a little of nothing.

So I really wanted to post, but when I looked back on my last two days I haven't accomplished a whole heck of a lot.

I have done the usual which consists of:

• packing my and the hubby's lunches
• making the bed
• doing the dishes
• tidying up the living room every morning after Paul and I left snack wrappers and bowls everywhere

Tomorrow I have a ton of phone calls I need to make, a ton meaning like 3 but they are ones I am dreading so it seems like 20.

• The insurance because they screwed up the billing on my bloodwork.
• The doctor to check on the hubby's bloodwork, which we had done to lower our insurance
• and the car insurance to see if they have finally changed my last name so we can pay our bill.

Oh, and the saying at the top of my post, well here is a little thing not all you girls may know about me. I just graduated nursing school in May and have been looking for a job since then (more actively after the wedding in July) and have not been able to find openings anywhere. Well there are openings, just they want people with experience. I am about to start applying to nursing homes, but am dreading it. I know God has a plan, and I just keep my trust in him. Me not having a full time job right after the wedding has allowed for Paul and I to go on some awesome mini vacations, and spend more time together than would have ever been possible if I had a job (since mine will probably be night shift and I will never get to see him). So there is my story, I spent 4 years in school and this economy is making it so I can't get a job. But there are so many positives coming out of the experience as well ( I have drawn closer to God, I get my hubby way more, I have energy to do housework and cook meals every night, and so on. )

God has a plan.

a burst of energy

I am sick.  iiiick.  sore throat, stuffy nose, feel like a train hit me.  yep. one of those. I ALMOST called in, but just couldn't do it - anyone else feel insanely guilty calling in sick to work?


When I got home, I did not want to do anything.  Shea woke up from his nap, and I didn't even really feel like feeding him or watching him.  I really wanted a nap.  But God is so gracious and gave me an adorably cute baby (just like all moms!) so he won me over from grumpiness in the end.  And then when he was laughing hysterically trying to walk, he fell and hit the rocking chair and now has a fat lip.  Maybe you can see it in this picture:

So after that, he went down for a nap.  My chance to take a nap too!! right?? wrong!  I decided to get some sewing done.  The entire time I was telling myself I should be taking a nap, but sewing is therapeutic for me, so I think it was ok.  Here's a sneak-peek of what I made (I'm saving the full reveal for a post on my blog):

  

After that, I got a random burst of energy and got the following things done (mostly motivated by taking a bath at the end of the day):

• went to WAL*MART and got cleaning supplies to scour the bathroom (Angela, you inspired me), and Tupperware/lunch bag for Shea to use when he starts Daycare next week (yikes!)
• Came home and fed Shea
• finished 2 1/2 loads of laundry (second load is in the dryer right now)
• Drank some tea
• Cleaned the Master Bathroom
• took a bath (this only happened because you girls were all talking about taking baths, and it sounded so GOOD! And it was!)
• Drank some more tea
• Cuddled with my husband (while drinking MORE tea)

so in regards to cleaning bathrooms...Do any of you girls have advice for getting mildew/mold stains off your tub?  I used KA-BOOM, Magic Eraser, Bleach, Oxy-Clean Baking Soda NO SCRUB spray, and some shower cleaner stuff I had.  NOTHING WILL GET RID OF IT!  Its just these dark little spots on one part of the tub.  I doubt theres any living mold on it after I put all that on it, but really.  What else is there that I can use?  Driving me nuts!  And just to show you how incredibly bad and embarrassed I should be about my bathroom....

BEFORE:

you can't see all the make-up powder and little beard hairs all over...

OK GROSS....now after (hear me breathe a deep sigh of relief):

And now, I am waiting for my Nyquil to kick in so I can sleep soundly through the night...goodnight, girls!  Thanks for your almost daily dose of domestic inspiration :)

Vicisitudes (ups and downs)

I am rejoicing at his moment because I just finished a reading for my Latin American Literature class!
My reward to myself was writing on this blog. :)
I'm proud of myself because this time I didn't look for an English version on line.  I think it was easier to understand because it was a story and not a poem.

Sadly I had a major failing the other day.  Last fall I tried making a pumpkin pie.  I made two.  They BOTH were disasters because they were burned on the outside, and pretty much raw in the middle.  I told Justin I really could make pies, this was the oven's fault.  So this year I decided to try an apple pie.  This was last night.  It looked beautiful, but tasted disgusting!  I'm blaming the recipe.  It had a weird egg mixture on top that separated from the apples, so it was like a egg cake layer and then apples.  So out of the oven into the garbage it went. :(   I don't get it, when I was 19 I baked 6 pies one Thanksgiving and they were wonderful!

Oh well, I guess I can't always be successful.  

Oh oh oh, I almost forgot to mention that I went to the gym yesterday and ran two miles!  My goal is to go at least 3 times a week.  

Well I must get back to studying...this was a great study break.  

Here is a photo of how I study with Beatrix cuddling behind me.  She's falling asleep in this picture.

Sunday.

I miss the Sundays from when I was a kid. The ones where my family woke up at 8, had oatmeal or pancakes for breakfast, went to Sunday School at 9:30 and church at 11. Then after the service we would head over to Godfathers Pizza with a bunch of other church families. There were usually about 20 people there. We would hang out there for a couple hours, then go home. My brother and I would play together while my dad worked outside and my mom took a nap. Then we would have family time in the evenings before bed.

This Sunday was pretty good too, but not filled with quite as much relaxation, despite the fact Sunday is a day of rest.

What I did today:

• I got up at 7 to make the hubby's lunch and get myself ready for church which started at 8.
• When I got home I organized my clothes drawers, and folded everything pretty (and got rid of quite a bit)
• I watered the 4 plants we have in the house
• I figured out what insurance plan Paul and I need for next year.
• I made Ambers Taco Soup for dinner.

The fun things I did:

• I took a half hour bath to get warm. I never take baths, I don't really like them because I usually get too hot about 30 seconds after getting in. But today I needed the warmth. As I lay there I watched an episode of cake boss and it was wonderful.
• I listened to music all day long!
• I talked to a friend for 2 hours on the phone.

I hope your girls Sunday's were wonderful.