The Skinners' Adventures

I haven't posted in forever.

2011-06-06T08:52:00.000-04:00

We're talking nearly 3 months here.

My life is really stressful right now, and blogging just isn't happening.

BUT.

I just had to brag about this.

You know that awesome show called Glee?

Well I'm kind of in love with it. ~~Kind of in love actually doesn't even begin to cover it. More like borderline-unhealthy obsession.~~

And!

There's this little thing called Glee Live that they do while on summer hiatus. They go around to different places (big cities, NOT in the South) and sing their songs and do wonderful things.

I looked at tickets when the shows first opened, and there was NO WAY that we were going to be able to go. The closest place was DC, and that's just not really reasonable. We can't pay for plane tickets just to see a concert so I can fangirl. Too far. Too expensive. Not worth the trouble.

OR SO I THOUGHT.

But I just so happen to have the most amazing husband to ever walk the earth.

And last night...

...wait for it...

he SURPRISED ME WITH TICKETS, AND WE ARE GOING TO SEE GLEE LIVE, IN WASHINGTON, D.C. ON OUR FOURTH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY!!!!!!

I am freaking out.

Reasons why this is INSANE:

-We are totally roadtripping it. Plane tickets are still too expensive. It's 12 hours to DC one way. We're leaving Thursday morning early early early (Mark is still calling it Wednesday night.) We're driving straight to DC, checking into our hotel, and taking a nap. We're eating dinner somewhere. Seeing the concert. Spending the night, getting up at the buttcrack of dawn AGAIN, driving 12 hours BACK to Birmingham, and WE ARE BOTH WORKING ON SATURDAY MORNING.

-We're not spontaneous people. THIS IS THE MOST SPONTANEOUS THING WE'VE DONE, MAYBE EVER.

-The tickets were EXPENSIVE. I mean, we got them for a good deal in comparison, but still. EXPENSIVE.

-The concert is on Thursday. THURSDAY. As in THREE DAYS FROM NOW.

-I am in the middle of a cold. Like, I have no voice. I will probably still sound like a man on Thursday.

Do I care about any of this?

Um, no.

NO.

Conclusions we can draw from this:

-I'm officially crazy.
-I might be slightly unhealthily obsessed with Darren Criss. ~~Because it excites me to no end that in three days, I will be breathing the same air as him. OMG.~~
-My husband is the best. husband. ever.
-He loves me a whole freaking lot.
-We're not THAT old. Because old people don't do crazy crap like this.

I WILL BE FREAKING OUT OVER THIS FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE, PERHAPS.

Life, or Being a Grown-Up Really Sucks

2011-03-17T09:04:00.000-04:00

*a note before I post: some of Kelly's shower pictures will be making an appearance soon ... I just haven't gotten them onto my computer yet. It's on my to-do list.*

Can I be really honest with you, few blog-readers of mine?

Life sucks sometimes.

Some days I wish I was still in college.

Some days I just want to scream about how life just isn't fair.

Some days I don't want to be a grown-up anymore.

Don't get me wrong - I am aware that we are blessed, and in the grand scheme of things, we are so very, very rich. But it feels like we can't catch a break right now.

Emotions have been running high in this heart and head of mine. My sister is moving far, far away to Los Angeles this summer after she and Colton get married. Work has had its ups and downs lately. My mom has been sick, and I am worried about her. We still honestly have no idea where we'll be or what Mark is doing in 3 months. (We will hopefully still be here, but who knows?) And to put the icing on the cake, Mark went back to the dentist two days ago, and my poor hubby had to have some MORE seriously extensive work done on his mouth. Dentists are becoming a major bummer for us...

It's just hard. That's really the only way to put it. It is what it is, and we're dealing with it, and it's fine. But it's hard.

And honestly, I'm bummed about turning 26 next week. This is the first year that I haven't been partying it up, celebrating my birthday month. Instead, I'm budgeting and price-checking and organizing and planning baby showers for people. Turning 26 means that I'm closer to 30 than I am to 20. I had a lot of expectations of what life would be like at 26, and they haven't exactly happened. I feel like that's a normal thought process of most mid-20's these days ... life isn't what we thought it would be. But it's a hard thing to wrap your head around. And compounding those feelings is watching friends and acquaintances who are my age doing those things that I thought I'd be doing by now.

Buying a house.

Having a baby.

I think I've mentioned this before, but the pregnancy count is now up to 14. 14 of my friends and former classmates are pregnant, or have just had their babies. Now, I don't want a baby right now. We are not trying (in fact, we're actively trying NOT to), but it's still something that I thought I would want by this point in my life. I feel like there's something wrong with me, like I'm not maternal or something. Like I should want one.

I do want a house though. Soooo badly. We're waiting because it's the wisest thing to do financially, but it is so hard for both Mark and I. We have been patient for a long time, and we're going to have to be patient still. But it is a little bittersweet to watch good friends purchase and move into their new homes. I'm really happy for them, but it makes me a bit jealous, too. That's kind of my life right now. Happy but a bit jealous. And stressed. And worried.

I wish life would just settle down for a little bit.

(My apologies ... I didn't mean for this post to get all serious and unhappy, but that's life sometimes...)

i'm still here.

2011-03-09T17:23:00.000-05:00

There I go, taking breaks again.

Life is just so busy. Sometime it's hard to find time to blog. And then there are days like today - when I have a to-do list a mile long, but it's sleepy weather, rainy and cloudy and yucky and cold-ish, and I don't feel like doing anything but siting on the couch. What a spoiled life I lead...

Things that are happening in my life lately:

-Kelly's shower was so fun!! She's in LA right now with Colton, apartment-hunting during spring break. Crazy. I still can't believe she's moving so far away.

-I'm doing another shower, this time a baby shower! Our good friends Andy and Suzie are expecting their first little one in a little over a month (crazy! So much crazy lately!), and we're throwing them and the bambino a party to celebrate. I'm in charge of invitations and cupcakes. I'll have to post a picture when they're done...

-On that note ... everybody I know is pregnant. Like, seriously, I know at least 10 people who are either pregnant right now or have just had babies. At least. Who I know personally. CRAZY!!

-I am on my 9th book of 2011. Reading more has been my favorite part of the new year. I love it!

And now ... back to the invites. I have at least 15 to make!

I'm a nerd.

2011-02-24T13:49:00.000-05:00

This warm spring-y weather has been SO good for my soul the last two weeks. It's such a nice, welcome departure from all the snowy nastiness and bitter cold (and yes, when I say bitter cold, I do mean like 30-40 degrees Fahrenheit. Sometimes I think I'm cold-blooded, like a lizard.)

So far today, we have taken Luna to the dog park and I made a yummy lunch of cheeseburgers, oven fries made with Yukon gold potatoes, and red cabbage and carrot slaw. The CSA cooking is back in full swing :) I'm so thankful for those yummy veggies that come in my box each week!

I have a great big long to-do list to accomplish today, but I'm taking a break before getting into it full-throttle. To-do lists always work so well for me. If I don't make one, I tend to sit around and do nothing (ie watch Glee reruns on Hulu, Google Darren Criss to my heart's content and have Say Yes To the Dress marathons on Netflix...) But if I know that little checklist is sitting on my table, just waiting for things to be crossed through, it motivates me to get my butt in gear and get things done.

(An aside: I may or may not have developed a ridiculous schoolgirl celebrity crush on Darren Criss. ~~Who is actually younger than I am. But not by a lot.~~ I'm actually sad to say that I first saw him on Glee, and THEN made the shocking and amazing and exhilirating discovery that he co-owns a theater company who has done not one but TWO Harry Potter musicals. And he played Harry Potter. In both of them. BE. STILL. MY. HEART.)

(Also, if you're interested, said musicals are called A Very Potter Musical and A Very Potter Musical: The Sequel, and can be found in their entirety on YouTube. Just, you know, in case any of you are facing a similar Darren Criss predicament. Or love Harry Potter to embarrassing proportions. Either one.)

Ahem.

Now I need to go do actual grown-up things, like vacuum my house. The to-do list beckons :)

(But seriously, you should watch that musical.)

New layout...

2011-02-22T16:27:00.000-05:00

So I just wasted WAY too much time doing a new blog layout ... one of my favorite ways to procrastinate :)

I like this new layout. It's simple and understated and not busy and I love the fonts!

Now I'm actually going to try to get some stuff marked off of my to-do list. Hope everybody's having a great afternoon!

PhotoBooth Fun with Luna :)

2011-02-21T10:03:00.000-05:00

Gosh, I love this puppy :)

Apologies for my greasy hair and messy bangs ... I need a shower :)

So, I couldn't stay gone for too long...

2011-02-18T14:59:00.000-05:00

Too many exciting things are happening lately, and I want to share them with you guys! So I guess I'm back, but in a very non-pressure way for myself ... Hopefully that's ok with everybody else :)

Things that are happening:

1) Luna is getting huge! Here are some current pics:

She loves her walks :)

I love this - she's all beagle :)

Wearing the cone of shame - she was spayed about 3 weeks ago, and we're going this afternoon for (hopefully) her final checkup ... she was allergic to her stitches, and liked to lick at her incision.

2) I got my hair cut - bangs!! I love it :)

3) I've been reading a ton - I think I'm on book 7 or 8 so far this year, and right now I'm reading Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I made a bucket list of books that's got about 95 books on it (and counting...) so I'm working on that.

4) This week in particular, I've been crafting crafting crafting ... I'm helping out with Kelly's lingerie shower in a couple of weeks, doing the decorations and such, and I've got all sorts of cute ideas up my sleeve. Pictures hopefully to come after the shower ... I want the decorations to be a surprise, and if I put them on here, Kelly will probably see them :)

5) We got a new dining room table! It's so pretty :) (The picture doesn't nearly do it justice...)

6) Mark bought me a new camera for Valentine's Day! It was supposed to be my birthday present, but because of all the happenings as of late, he wanted me to have it early so I could document all my fun times. It's a Nikon Coolpix S8100, and it's pretty awesome :) I love it! (I would post some pictures from it, but I seem to have misplaced the USB cables ... awesome...)

Anyway, there's a brief synopsis of what's happening in my world lately. Life is good!

On resolutions and other new things, and a farewell.

2011-01-06T14:56:00.001-05:00

I can't believe it's 2011.

We had a good holiday, even if it was a little weird this year. Mark couldn't come to my family's celebratory events because of work, and we didn't go to Disney after all.

But my sister got engaged. We're all pretty thrilled about that :)

And I got a cast iron skillet that I have yet to season.

And we got to go to the Davies' New Years Eve party.

And I worked a lot.

I don't have too many resolutions this year - I feel like the fewer you choose, the more you can acutally commit to.

I want to take a yoga class.

I want to pay off debt. (We're in the process of doing that now - it's so exciting!)

I want to be a better wife to Mark, less snippy, more patient.

I want to cook more and eat out less. (This is actually more of a get-back-to-what-I-was-already-doing-before-the-holidays resolution, and not something new.)

And I want to read more for pleasure. I'm doing a lot of that now - I read The Help by Kathryn Stockett in a 24-hour time period, and loved it, and I'm close to being done with Eat, Pray, Love, and now that Mark's working at the library, he can bring books home for me.

So that's it. There are also things that I'd like to continue doing that aren't really resolutions, but are good as a general practice - walk Luna (who is so BIG, and doing so well, and is sitting on top of me right now) every day, try to keep my house clean, etc. etc. And Kelly's getting married, and I'll have all sorts of fun matron-of-honor duties (that sounds so old to me!), so I'll be busy with that. And I want to start scrapbooking again - I haven't had time since we got Luna, but she's starting to calm down some and be better left by herself, so that might be a possibility soon.

The thing is - that doesn't leave much time for blogging. I'm sure you've noticed my lack of posting. I've just been so busy lately that I've not had time to write about all the things I'm doing. And to be very very honest, it's felt nice. Somewhat of a relief.

So I'm taking an official break.

It may or may not be permanent, I don't know.

Essentially, I want to live my life to live it, not to blog about it.

I have enjoyed reading all of your blogs so, so much, and I'll probably still read them from time to time. I will miss getting to hear about your lives and your children and your animals, but I want to enjoy my life and my puppy-child and everything else involved in that, and to do so means saying farewell, at least for now.

This is something I'm doing for me. And sometimes, it's really good to do that.

So goodbye, for now.

Thank you all for being so great :)

(If you're interested, you can continue to follow me on Twitter at thewife85!)

I hope and pray that 2011 brings you all only good things!

No mistakes, only happy accidents!

2010-12-14T09:45:00.000-05:00

I can't believe this is my 300th post! I was going to do something celebratory, but, like most things, it's just sort of snuck up on me, and I clearly haven't thought of anything at all.

The bad thing about pre-scheduled posts is that they leave little room for changes. (Especially when we're so busy with those changes that I can't post to my blog and update!)

I worked all weekend, like always. But you know how we were going to IKEA yesterday and getting a new bookshelf? Yeah. That didn't happen.

Mark had some stuff in a collection to finish up at his internship, and he asked if we could reschedule. I was disappointed, but said that was fine. And then Sunday night, Elissa texted me and said that her flight had been cancelled (she was flying from Seattle to Nashville, and there was snow!), and could she come and crash on my couch in Birmingham?

Little did she know that I'd been planning to surprise her and come to her birthday party in Nashville today! So after several phone calls to a couple different people, we got things worked out - she'd fly from Kansas City to Dallas Sunday night, spend the night in the airport, then fly to Birmingham early Monday morning. And then, depending on the weather, I'd drive her back to Nashville at some point and spend a few days.

She was tickled pink :) I love making her day!

So here I am - I picked her up at the airport yesterday morning, she crashed on my couch and took a long nap, and then we left yesterday afternoon for Nashville. Spent the evening with Price and Mel (her brother and sister-in-law), and now she's at work. I'm planning to knock out the Christmas shopping today (since I've done exactly NONE thus far, and our family Christmas is less than a week away!), then Lissa's birthday party is tonight, and I'll spend the rest of my time here reading and relaxing and trying to stay warm. Oh, and just as an aside ... it is 11 degrees right now. ELEVEN. I am not made for weather like this...

Wish me luck with all my shopping!

2010-12-13T08:00:00.001-05:00

It doesn't really feel like Christmas to me until the decorations are put up, and I wanted to get right on that after we got back from Thanksgiving. Easier said than done when I'm working one to two extra days a week, and trying to look after a puppy at the same time!

But I did manage to get them up, and I like the way everything looks despite the fact that we're lacking a tree this year. (We decided a certain furry someone would eat it, and all the ornaments, for an afternoon snack...)

Here's what I have gotten to do this year:

The dining room area:

My sweet Mark, even though he pretends to hate Christmas decorations, helped me put up my little greenery on our banister :)

He is a good husband :)

Mark with the baby :)

I think that would be even prettier if it was framing a Christmas tree ... oh well, maybe if we're still here next year...

My pretty table - the color is terrible, but that tablecloth is a pretty bright Christmas red, not ugly burnt orange...

The kitchen:

My sweet little wreath (made by my mom) hanging on my fridge :)

Also made by my mom (I inherited a box full of Christmas goodies this year), these cute little cabinet hangers make my kitchen look so festive!

My collection of snow babies sitting in my kitchen window. Mark thinks they're creepy :)

My favorite part of Christmas, lately - my late grandmother's Christmas china! My sweet aunt was kind enough to let me have it - I may have to share it with Kelly and/or Brooke someday, but for now, I'm the only married female, and I get it all! It's BEAUTIFUL.

I've always loved this china :) It makes it the season feel like Christmas to me!

The living room:
My only decorations, because this is where Luna hangs out the most, and is the most likely to try to eat things!

The downstairs bathroom:
I kept this pretty plain and understated, but I like the way it looks :)

The upstairs bathroom:

Our bedroom:

Pretty (but fake) candles in our windows)

And last, but certainly not least... my pretty wreath that I made for the door! I think it looks pretty good, if I do say so myself :)

Hooray, it's nearly Christmas! I love this season :) I'm even okay with the cold, for now...

Exciting news - today, while this post automatically is blogging (LOVE this feature), we're traveling to Atlanta for a short day-trip. We're going to IKEA for the first time, and I'm sure I'll be totally flipping out in a couple hours. We're searching for a new bookcase for our dining room to replace the ugly old winecart that we've had since we got married, and before that Mark and Andy had it, and before them somebody else - it's one of those thrice-removed hand-me-downs that needs to go away, plus we need the extra storage space that the wine cart just can't accommodate like a bookcase can. So excited!!

Happy Holidays to everybody!!

Our Thanksgiving Festivities, Part 2

2010-12-12T08:00:00.000-05:00

Wednesday was the day that we were going to be actually celebrating Thanksgiving at my parents' house. Mark and I and Kelly and Colton all had to leave that evening, so we decided to do lunch, but there were scheduling conflicts that left Kelly and me to cook about half of Thanksgiving dinner. I've made a few dishes here and there for Thanksgiving, and have watched my mom for years now, but this was the first time that I was in charge of the turkey, plus several side dishes! Luckily it all went without a hitch, and dinner was fantastic!

The turkey going in the oven - my mom chose to do 2 breasts rather than a whole turkey this year (which was just fine with me), and I rubbed them all over with sage butter. So yummy!

Kelly loves her some Sister Schubert's rolls!

Before getting pretty...

And after! We figured we had a few minutes to get ready while the turkey started cooking :)

Kelly making our grandma's vegetable casserole

Dumping it in the dish...

Making sweet potato casserole from my CSA sweet potatoes :)

The spread. And what a spread it was! Turkey, dressing, green beans with lemon and red peppers, sweet potato casserole, vegetable casserole - it was all SO yummy! (And amaretto pie for dessert, too - yum yum!)

Mommy with the table, decorated all pretty :)

The gang, minus me (taking the picture)

Colton was nice enough to offer to take a picture of our whole family for us :)

Still sickly, but enjoying the food!

Mark and "Momma Shannon"

Daddy was excited about some sweet potatoes!

Kelly and Ninny ready to eat

That afternoon, we played a rousing game of Trivial Pursuit, and then Mark and I left that evening for Griffin. The puppies were introduced and did really well (aside from Luna picking the dining room as her chosen place to poop, and Cocoa acting completely out of character and peeing ALL OVER the living room rug...), and we were off to bed.

Thanksgiving morning dawned brisk and clear and beautiful and warm. We let the dogs play that morning, put Thanksgiving dinner on to cook, and then decided to go to "the farm," basically a 114 acre piece of land that Mark's family owns. It's beautiful out there, so quiet, and made for the perfect way to spend Thanksgiving.

The puppies playing - Cocoa's not such a puppy anymore...

They like each other!

Out at the farm - Mark's dad and Cocoa :)

Luna really hates the water - we kept trying to get her to go in, but she wasn't having any of it. She went in once (potentially not so voluntarily), swam around a bit, and came right back out.

Cocoa, on the other hand, would LIVE in the water if she could. I think in another life she could be a fish :)

Mark's mom with the dogs

I love going to the farm on fall days like that - it's absolutely gorgeous :)

With my love on Thanksgiving :)

The last picture I got before my camera died ... Mark's carrying Luna to a big old log where some bunnies live to see if she'll go "wabbit hunting." She caught the scent, but there were too many other smells distracting her for her to really follow it well.

Mark's dad and brother brought their guns, and we walked around and looked for deer - I'm sure all the noise we were making totally scared them off, but it was a great, leisurely way to get some exercise before stuffing ourselves silly again :) We went back to the house, ate another fantastic Thanksgiving dinner and vegged on the couch the rest of the day. Mark and I had to leave the next day so I could get back to work, but it was honestly the nicest Thanksgiving I've had since we've been married. I think because it was so low-key, totally not stressful at all, it was a really, really nice time for everybody :)

Can't wait till I see Mark's family again - we'll be Orlando-bound!

Our Thanksgiving Festivities, Part 1 (also known as Pre-Thanksgiving)

2010-12-11T08:00:00.000-05:00

Finally, I'm updating about Thanksgiving! (Only about 3 weeks late ... sorry...)

An aside - check Luna out right now. She is SO cuddly :)

Ahem. Anyway. Thanksgiving. It was a really fun week filled with loads of yummy food and good family time. We started the week at my parents' house, on Monday. We did quite a bit of nothing that day - Kelly came that afternoon, Colton came that night, and then Tuesday started our fun times :)

We always decorate the tree when all of us are home for Thanksgiving, and this year was no exception. Colton was very vocal about how it's THANKSGIVING and not CHRISTMAS, but we Shannon women typically get what we want :)

Kelly trims herself :)

Everybody joins in to help - even the Scrooges :)

Daddy and Colton

I love this guy. He's pretty great :)

My pretty Mommy, in the Christmas spirit

This was Mark's contribution to the Christmas tree: a corn cob from the Thanksgiving table decorations :)

They are way too cute.

Love my sister!

Mark then decided it would be fun to hang ornaments from my belt.

Pretty Christmas tree!

That evening, Kelly and I had our annual Thanksgiving funny photo-op. We convinced Colton to play along for a couple of pictures. This one is "pretend like you're sick," inspired by Colton, who had a cold.

I think in this one, we were supposed to be Voldemort casting the Avada Kedavra spell, and the look of rage that would typically accompany it

Hm. Not quite sure what this one was. Make your lips really big? Or something?

Blowfish face! (This one's really hard to do without laughing.)

The token "pretty picture" of the bunch.

I don't remember what this one was, but I'm loving Kelly's face :)

Okay, this one has a backstory. We're trying to replicate the pig-face, which is fairly irreplicatable. (I don't think that's a word.) It was this fantastic face that Kelly made back 3 or 4 years ago, the first time we made these pictures. Here is our attempt at re-creating, and below is the original pig-face picture. It is not possible for me to look at that picture and not laugh.

Moving on - I think this one was "act like you're in labor." I love Kelly's face - she looks mournful :)

Attempting to look like Dolores Umbridge. (Did I mention we'd gone to see HP7 that day? Ohmigosh, what an amazing movie!)

And because of the excess of pictures, Thanksgiving is going to be continued in the next scheduled post, tomorrow....

Luna update!

2010-12-10T08:00:00.001-05:00

Today I'm posting about our sweet girl :) She is growing by leaps and bounds - when we got her, she weighed about 3 1/2 pounds, and now she's nearly 10! I can't believe we've had her over 2 months now ... where has the time gone?

Things are pretty wonderful with her lately. We've gotten past the "Oh my gosh I want to kill you every day" stage, and while I get frustrated with her occasionally, things are SO much better. I think it's a combination of her behaving herself better, and me being used to her. She's better at playing by herself when I need to do stuff (like blog - she's attacking a toy with energy I only dream of having), and she's started walking on her leash MUCH better.

And now, I'm sure you guys have all been waiting for some pictures!

This is one of Luna's cutest little tricks - she'll stand up for several minutes, licking peanut butter off a spoon! She loves the stuff, and it's the cutest thing ever!

Luna LOVES taking naps with Mark - it's their favorite thing to do together :)

Sweet little paw prints on my coffee table - I haven't been able to bring myself to clean them off!

One of Luna's favorite things to do is drag her blanket out of her crate, and then lay on top of it. In fact, anything she can drag across the room is her favorite thing. Lately, she's started jumping and grabbing my kitchen towels off the rack on my oven, and running away with them.

You can tell my dog is spoiled by the fact that I spend way more money on her than I do on myself. Case in point: we went to PetSmart the other day and bought her a sweater and a coat for our walks this winter. She's stylin' in both of them here because it was SO COLD this morning.

And Mommy had to get all bundled up too. This walking in 30 degree weather is maybe not my favorite thing in the world...

Cuddling with my little snow bunny before our walk - I sent this picture to Mark this morning :)

Luna's other favorite thing to do is dig. I don't know if you can tell from this photo, but it looks like she's trying to dig to China. Just like her Aunt Cocoa!

My big girl - she's grown so much from when we first got her! She LOVES to sit in the sun, just like her Mommy :)

So sorry it's been forever since I've posted pictures of her on here! She is such a mess, but we love her to death. She's totally become a member of our little family :)

Seriously, how could you not love this sweet little face??

My fabulous idea!!

2010-12-09T15:00:00.000-05:00

Since I have been such a terrible blogger lately, I'm going to try to do better. I have a lot to update you guys on - almost a whole month's worth of stuff! I'm sure you don't want a post that long. Enter: scheduled blog posts! Love this idea :)

You're gonna get a blog post from me every day all the way through my work weekend - I know you can't wait for that!

So, here's the first one:

Life in general update!

I know I gave a brief overview of this yesterday, but I'll expound on some stuff in a bit greater detail.

We're really optimistic about things right now :) With Mark starting his new job, and me getting to work quite a few extra days here lately, our financial worries have decreased significantly. Mark's new job could also potentially give us a chance to stay in Birmingham, as it gives him an "official" in. This is a really great thing, which we are very excited about.
Sadly, he does have to work every single day of the entire time we were planning to celebrate Christmas with both our families. He's off, of course, on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and New Year's as well, but I work on Christmas Day and also New Year's Day, so I at least have to be in Birmingham then, and we do want to see each other at least on Christmas. So, with his blessing, I'm going without him. First to Chattanooga, then we'll be at home together for Christmas, and then I'm going with his family to Disney World. I feel incredibly guilty about leaving him here, but he wanted me to go. It's going to be a hard Christmas, different from anything we've ever done before, but it's just for a year, and it's a means to an end. (Although ... now that I'm thinking about it, next year, if I'm still here and still working weekends, I'll be working Christmas eve and Christmas Day both...)

Life with Luna has been just fabulous, but so busy that she gets a whole post to herself :)

And that's pretty much it for us. Mark is done with classes for this semester - I can't believe he's only got one more semester before he graduates! I'm so proud of him. And between us both working, taking care of Luna, and traveling for holidays (plus a few Christmas parties here and there), we're not doing much else.

Hope everyone's holiday season is very merry so far! I desperately need to start my Christmas shopping (and clean my house, and go to the grocery store ... what's a girl to do?)

Stay tuned for tomorrow's post!

I'm a bad blogger.

2010-12-08T08:39:00.000-05:00

Hm.

Once again...

4 days, no blogging. I'm working lots of extra days lately. This is good, but it makes me tired. It also makes me fall behind on all my important things. Blogging isn't up there on the list. Nor is taking picture of Christmas decorations.

Maybe one of these days I'll catch a break...

But, a quick update:

-Mark has started his new job. He likes it!
-Mark's job is keeping him in Birmingham for the duration of December. No Chattanooga. No Disney. So sad :(
-The puppy is doing great :)

And that's really all I have time for - gotta get moving today!

I'm Still here...

2010-12-03T15:38:00.000-05:00

So, I've taken sort of an unintentional break from blogging and the internet in general - between working overtime like crazy for two weeks, then Thanksgiving week we were out of town, trying to take care of Luna and her busy little self, and trying to get things squared away for Christmas, I just honestly haven't had time to log into anything at all.

A post will be coming soon about our Thanksgiving festivities, and after that, one about our Christmas decorations (which I'm slightly disappointed in - we have no tree this year because a certain furry someone will eat/destroy it...).

I hope everyone's Thanksgiving holidays were fabulous, and hope everyone's Christmas season is festive and happy and bright :) I'll try not to be gone for so long next time...

Why I'm Thankful This Year

2010-11-18T16:57:00.000-05:00

With Thanksgiving right around the corner, I think it's appropriate to do a "what I'm thankful for" type post.

This year, with my CSA, Thanksgiving sort of takes on a new meaning for me. I know as well as anybody that Thanksgiving didn't exactly start with Pilgrims and Indians being all buddy-buddy with their turkeys and stuffing and pumpkin pies (although the "first Thanksgiving" technically cited in America was a feast that the colonists and Native Americans shared after a particularly harsh winter the year before - coincidentally, said Native Americans helped the colonists survive it...) But Thanksgiving does fall at the end of harvest time, and before winter sets in, when farmers and people (well, before there were grocery stores who shipped in food from places like Brazil and China and probably Antarctica, if food really grew there much) store up food for the sparser winter months.

Regarding all of that ... I am truly thankful for local, organically grown food which I pick up in a little box each week. There's something about the shortened amount of miles between farm to table that makes me appreciate the food. Each time I cook with my CSA box, my heart is filled with thanks and gratitude, and I wonder about the farmers who grew the veggies I cook with and raised the chickens from which I get my eggs every week, how they live, what their families are like, how they learned about organic farming.

I am thankful to them for stretching my palate, for making me look and research and find ways to cook things that I thought I'd never like. I'm thankful for the superior nutritional value of locally-grown produce, particularly of the heirloom variety, and for how good it feels to know that I am feeding myself and my husband the best food we can get here.

As I'm typing this, I have a pumpkin steaming on the stove for a pie I'm making this afternoon. I have sweet potatoes stashed in a bowl, for making casserole this Thanksgiving for my family. There are 6 baby turnips, a parsnip, and two carrots that I'm planning to cook tonight (I'm a bit nervous about the turnips, I'll admit...) These farmers feed my family. The longer I've participated in GrowAlabama, the more I'm realizing that's the way it should be. Communities feeding themselves.

And while we're on the subject of gratitude, here are some more things I'm thankful for:

-My husband. He is truly my helpmate, and I love him so, so much.

-My parents, who raised me, who help me out when I need it, give me a place to stay when Mark is out of town and I need help with the puppy, and remind me of so many happy memories... I love you guys :)

-My not-so-little sister, who is a constant source of laughter when I am with her. She makes me want to be a better person, and I am so glad that we are friends.

-My in-laws, who have so warmly accepted me into their family. I'm proud to be a Skinner :)

-My puppy, who is continually teaching me about patience and love and trust, and who is a nice, warm source of cuddles at the end of a long day.

-My job. I am so grateful to get to care for my little ones at work - the NICU is a wonderful place to be.

-My co-workers. We get on each others nerves at times, but they're like my family away from home - I count myself lucky to work with such a great group of ladies :)

-Mark's new job! He'll probably start in a couple of weeks - I can't tell you how much both of us are thankful for that :)

There are so many things that God has blessed us with. Even when things seem hard, we've really got it pretty good :)

I'm gonna go make that pie now! Hope everybody has a great night!

A little of everything...

2010-11-17T15:48:00.000-05:00

It's a cold Wednesday (which is class day for Mark), and I'm sitting on the couch being a total lamesauce burning cds. Flashback to 9th grade, what?

But I do have an explanation. My stupid iPod car converter thing went kaput a few months ago, and I've not been able to find an adequate replacement, so it's just easier to burn cds to listen to in the car. (Disclaimer: I'm not stealing music. I bought all of it on iTunes, and I'm just transferring it to a listenable format for my car.)

In other news, holy cow, Thanksgiving is in 8 days!! Provisionally, I am totally ready with my 10 sweet potatoes (Yep. TEN. Thanks, CSA!) and have signed up to make sweet potato casserole plus some sort of dessert (possibly amaretto pie?) for my family's shin-dig. I've worked so, so much that the holidays have just totally snuck up on me, and I'm not quite ready other than having a bowl full of sweet potatoes (and a really, really beautiful pie pumpkin that hopefully I will be utilizing either today or tomorrow!)

Are you guys ready?

I sort of skipped the Thanksgiving decorations and am going to move straight to Christmas. My sweet mother gave me a box full of decorating goodies this year, and they will be put to good use in our apartment. I was planning to decorate today, but clearly that's not happening (since it's like 2:45 in the afternoon ... oh, where did the time go??) Anyway, Mark forbids anything Christmas-related before Thanksgiving. Lucky for me, I get to listen to the new Glee Christmas album in my car solo anytime I want to :)

Switching gears again ... (I'm sort of all over the place today, huh?) I have to figure out how to like turnips this week. And parsnips. I'm a bit nervous about the prospect of it all to tell you the truth, but I got a big 'ol bag of turnips, 2 carrots, and a mammoth parsnip in the CSA, and by golly, none of those veggies are going to waste. I've found a caramelized turnip recipe that I think will work with all the veggies together, and I think that if I maybe pair it with cous cous, it can stand on its own as a main dish? Maybe? (If that doesn't work out, there are always those sweet potatoes we can eat as backup...)

Okay. Time to run errands while Luna's still sleepy.

Sorry this was so choppy and scattered!!

Rainy days and Mondays always get me down...

2010-11-15T10:09:00.000-05:00

...and what do you know, today is a rainy Monday. Sure to be fantastic.

I know I've been a terrible blogger lately, but I'm one woman and can only stretch so far. Between working extra, being a mommy to Luna when I'm not working, and trying to cook and clean and read and squeeze in every little thing when I'm not working as well, blogging has just not happened.

But, it's been a good week despite all the working.

Today however, I'm very cold and very tired and it's raining, which means that it will be a struggle every. single. time. Luna has to go out, because I do believe she hates the rain more than I do. At least it makes her all sleepy too - she's curled up in my lap right now, which is nice, because she doubles as a really great space heater. She's so warm.

In about half an hour, I'm going to be putting together some taco soup in the crock pot to have for dinner tonight, which will make me fairly elated considering the nasty weather today. I want to eat soup on days like this. (Also, rainy days make me want to eat donuts, which have become my ultimate comfort food. What a bad comfort food to want!)

I have so much that I need to do today, but I just can't get motivated. Particularly with cuteness of this caliber sitting in my lap...

What do you guys like to do on rainy nasty days?

Bliss.

2010-11-12T19:52:00.001-05:00

Sweet potato pie, fresh out of the oven, and curry simmering on the stove.

Life is good tonight.

Ch- ch- ch- changes...

2010-11-10T18:46:00.000-05:00

I'm starting this post with a cute picture of my darling husband and darling puppy just because it makes my heart melt, and I'm betting it makes yours melt too. Seriously, can you get any cuter than that?

Okay, so it's been a while since I've posted. 5 days to be exact. A lot can happen in 5 days apparently. God can teach you lots and lots of lessons. I sort of put all those lessons together this morning in a marathon session of bathroom scrubbing this morning. I've not scrubbed so hard or cleaned so thoroughly or had quite such a *hello!* experience in all my life. Nothing like some good manual labor to make the lightbulb come on.

So, cut to the chase already, I'm sure you're all thinking.

Well. Here we go.

A little back story: we've been rather financially strained lately. I've been stressed about money. Things were NOT working out well. I was getting pretty scared about stuff - we were going the opposite way from what I wanted to be going. I didn't understand why this was happening to us. And I was angry at myself, and at us as a marital unit, for not taking care of our money from the beginning. For being irresponsible. For being ignorant.

So on Friday, I called to see what day I'd be cancelled, since that's become a recurring theme around our unit lately. Lo and behold, I got to work all my days! And an extra! Our census has picked up, and we've got some people out due to some unfortunate circumstances that are sort-of ongoing - long story short, I'm getting some extra days here and there. I am very, very thankful for that.

So I worked my weekend, and on Monday as well. And then yesterday, while I was home with Luna, I got a phone call from Mark.

It kind of rocked my world. Our world.

Because, get this friends, Mark got a JOB.

Yes, that's what I said. A real, live job, that pays money! It's part-time, but it's in a library, and it has good potential for advancement.We are hopeful. I can see a light at the end of the tunnel. And I can breathe easily for the first time in a while.

God is so good. We are so dumb. See, God tried to teach us to manage our money early on. We both had jobs for a total of a year and several months before we moved to Birmingham. Did we pay stuff off? Nope. We accrued more debt. About a year and a half ago, my parents gave us the book Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover. Did we read it? Nope. Not until about a month and a half ago. So God took it upon Himself to teach us a lesson, definitely for our own good. It was hard because we made it hard on ourselves. But I am thankful that we're learning now, despite what I felt two weeks ago when a quarter of my paycheck was docked because of cancellations at work.

God had to make us scared. He needed us to wake up and see what we were doing and where we were headed if we'd kept it up. We never had huge irresponsible moments, and we weren't terrible at managing money. We were just irresponsible with small things, and not stellar at managing money. Little by little, that adds up. God is so faithful though - He promises us that He will take care of us, and that He did. As tight as it got, and as scared as I was, we never missed a bill or were late on a payment or anything like that, thanks in part to the benevolence and love of our families. We did get a good look at what it could be like, though - a two-by-four to the forehead does the trick every time.

And now I'm getting the extra days that I'm used to having back. Mark now has a job that pays more than he's ever been paid before. God is faithful, and He is blessing us so much. He just wanted us to learn how to handle the money we have before He gave us anymore. He wanted us to trust Him to provide for our needs. And I am so thankful for that.

There are other lessons that have been learned, lessons about patience and love and kindness and worry, but the bottom line is that God will provide for our every need even when we can't see how. That's the greatest thing. I'm glad that He can see the future, even when we can't.

What has God been teaching you lately?

Adventures with Luna, et. al.

2010-11-05T20:25:00.000-04:00

It's been a couple of days since my last frantic post. Things are better. I apologize for using this space to blow off so much steam, but there were no real people available :) Thanks for being understanding and sympathetic, guys.

Things are better. I'm think I'm starting to figure Luna out. And I'm not being such a spaz (most of the time.)

I am a spaz sometimes. There. I said it.

Also, I miss my husband like CRAZY. I cannot wait for him to come home. This week, I gained SO MUCH respect for single moms. I can't even imagine, if one puppy wears me out this much....

Also, hello holidays!! It feels like winter today. I broke out the yellow cable knit today - it makes me happy. See?

Sorry for the horrid lighting... and for some reason I look all squished.

Anyway - holidays! They're just around the corner ... and that makes me excited! I wasn't ready AT. ALL. mainly because of the puppy. But after visiting my family, and talking about Thanksgiving, and my mom giving me a giant box of Christmas decorations... I think I can get in the mood :)

Oh. And on a more serious note...

You know how I said a couple posts back that Nanny was having a biopsy done?

Well ... it's cancer. Breast cancer, to be exact. She's having surgery and some radiation, and we don't know anymore than that at this point. So pray for her. She's in super-good spirits - they're all going out to dinner tonight, so she's handling things well. She's a pretty tough lady. But it's gonna be hard, and hard on Mark's family too.

Happy Friday, everybody - hope everyone has a great weekend!

I'm also kind of a bad mom...

2010-11-02T18:23:00.000-04:00

This is a rant that should not necessarily be taken seriously or read into too far. This puppy momma has about had it today, and since there are no people at my house, I'm having to resort to using the Interwebs....

Yes, this is my second post of the day.

Yes, I am totally at my wits' end.

It hasn't even been 12 hours.

My blood sugar is low, I'm shaky, I'm frustrated and mad, and I feel guilty.

Luna is hard. I guess all puppies are hard. But she is especially hard when you're by yourself. She is EXHAUSTING. Mark gets totally worn out on the weekends I work - and I think he has way more patience than I do. I'm finding out how very little patience I have. Bless my poor future children's souls...

There are days that I absolutely adore my puppy. I always love her, I always take care of her as best I can - but I don't always like her that much. Some days I do, honestly. But some days, I'm thinking, what on EARTH possessed us to get a puppy? What were we thinking? Today is one of those days.

It started out badly - we've blockaded the stairs using our kitchen chairs and a cookie sheet and a box of kitty litter, but Luna was still totally getting past it. After Houdini-ing her way up the stairs 3 times and eating most of the cat's food this morning, I decided to do something about it. So, in her crate she went for all of 5 minutes while Mommy worked her magic. My new blockade of books, somewhat resembling the Great Wall of China, works fantastically. The ENTIRE TIME that I was making said wall, though, Luna was wailing at the top of her lungs. She HATES being in her crate when we're in the room, the lights are on, and she's ready to play. It was maybe 10 minutes at most, and I was over it completely. So that was this morning.

For the remainder of the morning, she whined and cried and looked around for Mark, who left at 9 to go to his archival conference. Great reminder that Mark is very much not here, and very much somewhere else. I desperately wanted to be somewhere else WITH him, without her. And then I felt guilty, because it's not her fault, she's just acting like a puppy...

So then she took a little nap, I got a few things done, we ate lunch, and I took her over to Andy and Suzie's house to play with Emma. Which would have been fantastic but that plan totally backfired and Emma did NOT want to play. She was having none of it. So I sat in their house for a while, Emma on the back of the couch, avoiding Luna at all costs, and Luna playing with Emma's toys by herself. After a while of that, I was once again over it, cause Luna peed on the floor approximately 700 times and was into everything, and we went home. We played, she took another short nap while I washed the dishes, and then we tried to go for a walk. That's stressful too, as Luna hasn't quite gotten the concept of "walk beside me while I'm walking" and instead just wants to eat everything and walk wherever she pleases. Back inside, more playing, more peeing on the floor, then I had to go get the CSA. More crying in the crate. (She usually calms down within a couple of minutes when we're either gone or totally out of sight range.)

And then, to put the icing on the cake, my manager calls asking if I can work extra on Thursday. Well, let's backtrack - I am leaving with Luna early in the morning to go to my dear parents' house to stay through Friday, because I cannot take another 3 days of this. I will lose my mind, and Luna will probably hate me. So, I could technically work on Thursday, but it would also include repeating today twice more, and leaving Luna in her crate for 12 hours by herself, which is not feasible nor kind or responsible pet-owner behavior. So I say no, even though I desperately need the money, having just spazzed out about how we're going to pay our bills earlier.

And then I cleaned my car while having a meltdown.

And then I came back inside, and Luna wants to cuddle but she also wants to eat me at the same time, and I find myself yelling at her to PLEASE just sit DOWN and chew on her TOYS and not my FINGERS and she looks at me with her sad little puppy eyes and I totally break down because I'm being so mean to my little puppy who has no idea what she's doing wrong, because her gums hurt and she just wants to chew on something. And then, making me feel even worse, she licks my face, trying to make me feel better because I'm crying.

So now, thank God, she's curled up beside me, asleep, and I feel like a piece of crap.

I don't even know why it stresses me out so much, or makes me so frustrated? She's just a little puppy...

Please tell me that at least one of you have had similar experiences with little puppies... You'd think I could manage. I can take care of a 24-week baby who's 1 pound on a ventilator all day long, and they run you ragged, but you manage. But this is a whole new thing to behold...

Am I alone in this?

I'm kind of a bad wife

2010-11-02T08:32:00.000-04:00

Because this post is 2 days late :(

Sunday was my dear hubby's birthday!! He turned 26 years old :)

I feel bad, because his birthday was pretty low-key. (who am I kidding - it was nearly non-existent!) We went to my parents' house last week to celebrate, but that's about it - I didn't have a party for him, and I didn't even bake him a cake :( I had to work on Sunday, so he was by himself with our silly little puppy (who gets exhausting in 12 hours.) For his birthday dinner, we went to Zaxby's with our best friends. (I have a ban on fast food at our house, so that was kind of huge for me - but, he loves it, and it's pretty cheap, and since we're on a strict budget that includes no eating out, that was the best option.)

I feel like kind of a crappy wife. I'm SUCH a birthday person too - this fall in general has just been a little hard and a little tedious, what with our budget and trying to pay off debt and then lots of dental work and all... But, we did just get a puppy, which I'm calling his birthday present, and he got an iPhone4 with birthday money from family. So all was not lost.

I also have a request - Mark's grandmother, Nanny, who is basically the matriarch and caretaker of most of his family, is having a biopsy done today, and needs your prayers. We're praying for a clean, good diagnosis, and I ask that you will as well.

And while we're on the subject of praying - Mark is leaving today to go to an archival conference up at Princeton University. He's headed to stay with his parents, and they'll drive him to the airport. He'll fly out tomorrow, and fly back on Saturday. I will miss him so, but it's a great opportunity for him to learn more about the academic side of archivists, and it'll look great on his resume. But I want him safely returned to me on Saturday, so pray for that too.

Lots of praying in general going on - things are still rough at work with everybody. One of our co-workers' grandmother died on Sunday, and several other people are struggling with some really, really tough issues. We're all struggling with money, some even more than others. It's a hard time, but God is good and faithful and is clearly trying to teach us something. (Trusting in Him, perhaps?) I'm trying to do that.

Love to everybody :) Hope you all have a lovely Tuesday!

Heavy Hearts

2010-10-30T10:34:00.000-04:00

Life at work has been difficult lately. Not the actual work, or caring for patients, but Satan has been attacking my friends and co-workers left and right. Their stories are not for me to share here, but our unit as a whole needs prayer. It has been a very hard time for everyone lately, some more than others, and makes my issues/problems feel not-quite-so-big. We're all trying to remember that God's plans are bigger than ours, and He can see down the road when we can't. I'm trusting that He's going to take care of us as a whole, and Mark and me as a family as well.

I've realized - sometimes I am a negative person. I'm not an unhappy person, and I don't stir up drama, but sometimes I don't try very hard to find the joy in things, even bad things. I want to start trying harder.

So, even though I'm stressed and things are bad and I'm worried about my friends, here is what I'm taking comfort in today:

I get to work an extra half-shift this week. I hate the reason why, but I am thankful for the money.

Work is terribly slow, but that is allowing the people who need to take off work to be off without causing the unit too much stress. Once again - God sees down the road where we can't.

While things are tight financially right now, we are being able to stick to our budget and still pay our bills. Things could be much, much worse.

A sweet, sweet puppy is sleeping in my lap right now. She is healthy, and growing, and she keeps me busy enough to keep my mind off of other things.

We are learning to manage our finances later than I wish we had, but still early in our lives. We're learning BEFORE Mark gets a job and our income increases, so we'll be better prepared to manage the extra money properly rather than wasting it. I'm very thankful for that.

We have families who help and support us when times are hard.

God has promised that He will never give us circumstances that we aren't able to stand up under. I'm trusting that His promise is true, and with His help, we will all come out of this time stronger, closer, and better for it.

What comforts you today?

Oh, today ... can you leave, and can tomorrow replace you soon?

2010-10-27T17:31:00.000-04:00

It has been a rather long day.

We left Chattanooga early this morning instead of late last night because of some nasty weather in the tornado-form. (We are fine, my parents are fine, and their house etc. is fine. A dam in the area isn't quite as fine. It caused some major traffic problems....)

Anyway ... so today started with a three-hour car ride with a 9-week-old puppy. She did really well, but still it was tiring.

When we got back, she of course wanted to go insane, after being cooped up in the car. I had to go get the CSA and get something to eat, and Mark ended up being late for class. *sigh.*

Then I had to take Luna to the vet at what I thought was supposed to be 2. I get there, and actually my appointment is at 2:30. Load back up in the car, come home, it starts pouring. Have to leave again 15 minutes later. Of course.

So Luna goes to the vet, gets heartwormed, dewormed, and shot up, and we came home.

And now I'm trying to figure out what to make for dinner. And this whole week. And for the first time, my CSA isn't terribly helpful. And it's still raining. And I'm broke, and about to be broke-r. (Yeah, I know. Not technically a word. At least not in that context. I don't care.) And I still have to go back out to the grocery store AGAIN in the rain, and cook dinner before Mark comes home. I really just want to order pizza... but we're too broke to do that. So. Here's what I've got in the box:

-carrots
-lettuce
-cucumbers
-turnip greens
-green tomatoes
-oranges

I know the first three would make a salad, but that will only feed us for like one meal, and then we've got not much else. I figure I'll do a salad with the lettuce and the cucumbers, use the carrots for some other dish-something, possibly fry the tomatoes, and eat the oranges as snacks. But ... what the HECK do I do with turnip greens? I will not boil them. I refuse. There's got to be a better way to cook them than that...

But I don't know. I'm hot, tired, broke, about to turn INTO humidity myself because it keeps wafting through our windows and making a sticky glaze over all our possessions and ourselves, and grocery planning is the last thing on my mind. (Incidentally, it needs to be the first.)

Ideas, suggestions? Any and all would be gladly taken at this point.

Hilarious.

2010-10-26T16:31:00.000-04:00

I know I haven't posted in forever, and I need to give a proper update, but I just thought this was funny and wanted to share it with you:

We are currently trying (only sometimes successfully) to teach Luna bite inhibition. We're yelping every time she bites (she's still teething - it's never a vicious or mean bite), and the harder she bites, the louder and higher-pitched Mark's yelps get. At one particularly hard bite, he yelped REALLY loudly, and scared her so bad that she ran away and hid under the chair. I wish I'd caught it on video...

She's such a funny little puppy. Stubborn at times, and crazy at times, but so funny and cute and dear to my heart.

Coming up: Mark's birthday festivities with my family (tonight!), a trip to the vet (tomorrow), and pumpkin carving and a baby shower! Busy week ahead...

Fill-in-the-Blank Friday!

2010-10-22T10:16:00.000-04:00

It's been about ten gazillion years since I've done a Fill-in-the-Blank Friday - I think it's high time I resumed that little weekly tradition. As always, from the lovely Lauren...

1. I am so in love with my puppy, and her sweet little beagle ears. I LOVE her ears!!! .

2. I wish that people would get along. Why can't people just love each other? I want everybody to be happy, and be friends, or at least civil... .

3. I like being with Mark, autumn, my family, sweet things, baking, corduroys, flats, my iPhone, traveling, vegetables, and Mary Kay Satin Hands, just to name a few things :) .

4. I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me .

5. I hope my butternut squash and caramelized onion galette that I'm making for dinner turns out as wonderfully delicious as it sounds... .

6. I think too much, sometimes .

7. I was SO excited to find a Starbucks giftcard in the letter my mom sent the other day - my mom is awesome :) .

And now, my to-do list for today:

-Play with Luna.

-Do laundry while Luna naps.

-Play with Luna.

-Pack for next week's travels while Luna naps.

-Play with Luna.

-Make galette dough while Luna naps.

-Pawn Luna off on Mark when he gets home, and go run some errands.

-Play with Luna.

-Make galette for dinner.

This is pretty much what most of my days look like. That baby girl takes up lots of time.

But oh, I love her so.

Oh, what a beautiful morning :)

2010-10-21T11:21:00.000-04:00

I'm posting from outside this morning - laptops and wireless internet are so wonderful!

I feel like we've been up forever already - I got up at 5:45 with Luna, then had to get back up at like 6:30 to get ready to go to the dentist for a follow-up appointment for Mark, and to try and figure out why one of my teeth is hurting so badly when I chew (it's one where a cavity was filled - they think it's a bite issue.)

Now, I'm sitting out here in the backyard while Luna digs holes in the ground. It's her favorite game, and she's pretty darn good at it. Keeps her occupied, which keeps me happy :)

Always got something in her mouth...

Whenever she digs like this, it always makes me think of the Seven Dwarfs from Snow White singing the "Heigh Ho" song ... you know the one...

"We dig dig, dig, dig, dig, dig, dig in a mine the whole day through...

To dig, dig, dig, dig, dig, dig, dig is what we like to do..."

She's so sweet.

In other, non-Luna-related news ... I had my first total cooking FAIL in quite a long time last night. I was trying a new recipe, which I usually enjoy doing and usually goes really well. I thought this one would be the same. Savory Broccoli Bread Pudding - sounds pretty tasty, right? I love bread pudding.

Unfortunately, I think I only love dessert bread pudding, because the "Savory" part mainly just tasted like soggy bread. It was more wet than normal bread pudding too, for some reason ... Anyway, we sort of picked the veggies out of it, and the whole dish just went straight in the garbage. So sad :( So now I've got to come up with something else to make this week, since we were planning on eating leftovers for a couple days. Oh well ... I guess you can't win 'em all :) I'm just thankful that I have way more hits than misses in my little world of cooking.

Speaking of those hits ... I'm about to post a recipe for Curried Butternut Squash Soup on my food blog in just a few minutes. It is delicious, nutritious, and you should definitely check it out and try it :)

I can't believe it's Thursday already - this month has flown by so quickly! October is almost over... I'm totally not ready for the holidays yet. I'm not even remotely in that mindset... Hopefully I'll get there soon though :) Maybe the giant box of Christmas decorations that my mom has waiting for me at her house will help!

Happy Thursday to everybody - the weekend is almost here!

I had a really great blog post last night...

2010-10-20T17:53:00.000-04:00

...But it was interrupted by the puppy. And dinner getting ready. And then my computer died.

And needless to say, it isn't here.

So I'm posting another one instead!

Luna is making me so tired. I've got her all day today by myself (every Wednesday - Mark has class), and it's fairly exhausting. It shouldn't be, because she sleeps most of the day (she's asleep on my feet right now. I'm praying she stays asleep until I hit "Publish Post," at least...) I think the main thing is she's so little, we really can't take her anywhere. No walking (she doesn't walk on a leash yet anyway), clearly she's too small for the dog parks, and she's really not vaccinated enough to be around anyplace with other dogs. Which just about rules out everywhere except for inside, and the (tiny tiny) backyard. So I'm going a little stir-crazy.

I love the puppy stage, don't get me wrong. She naps a lot, so I can get some stuff done while she's doing that, and she's absolutely frickin' adorable, but I really, really wish we could at least go for walks during the day. I never really know what to do with her. She's fine when she's sleepy and cuddly, but when she's playful, I'm sort of at a loss. She doesn't fetch (beagles don't really retrieve intuitively), she's already mastered sit, and she comes when called most of the time, and her attention span is only so long ... So we usually just go outside and I let her dig around in the dirt.

*Sigh* anyway, enough about my puppy.

Chloe, over at My New Life as a Housewife gave me a blog award!

So sweet of her. Here are the rules:

1) Post who gave you this award.
2) State 10 things you like.
3) Give this award to 10 other bloggers.
4) Notify them with a comment.

So, ten things I like...

1) Puppy nap time.
2) The brownies calling to me from the cookie jar.
3) The $15 Starbucks giftcard that my mom sent me today!!!
4) Sweet potato ravioli. Oh, yum. I need a good occasion to make it again...
5) Puppy kisses.
6) Trips to see family (We're going next week to Chattanooga for Mark's birthday.)
7) The Avett Brothers
8) Cooking.
9) My zebra-print flats.
10) Books about food.

(I am so food-centric. It's kind of sad.)

And now, ten bloggers to tag...

1) Tamara
2) Emmy
3) Lilly
4) Jessica Renae
5) Becca
6) Kelly
7) Amy
8) Suzy
9) Kelly
10) Stephanie

Hope you lovely ladies play along!

And now, if you'll excuse me ... I have a puppy to attend to :)

Sunday :)

2010-10-17T15:14:00.000-04:00

What a lazy Sunday afternoon we're having! Mark, Luna, Mrs. Norris, and I all took naps - and the animals are still sleeping now :) I've never napped so much in my life, I don't think... I guess that's what having a busy busy puppy will do to you.

Mark is catching up on some reading, since he was sort of out of commission for a while. His mouth is healing well, and all looks good. He never hurt very badly, but is still taking his good pain meds every now and then, so I'm sure that's helping. I'm just glad the worst stuff is over with - there are more appointments that he has to go to, but all the extremely major stuff is over with.

I'm trying really hard to keep my mind off of the cake that's sitting on the table... I know this more belongs on the food blog, but I'm just so proud of myself. Last night, we were craving something baked, and I had a box of cake mix in the cabinet that will expire next month, so it needed to be used anyway. (Normally I don't use cake mix, but I bought it back a while ago when they were on sale, and never did use it.) Anyway, it was just a normal yellow cake, and I wanted to make chocolate buttercream. I couldn't ever find a recipe I liked much, and so I decided I would just make one up myself.

I did, and it's FANTASTIC. Sooo yummy. I was just SO pleased with myself... it's silly, but it made me happy :)

I mean, really, YUM.

Kelly spent the night with us last night, and this morning we went to Oak Mtn. State Park where her car was left with the keys locked inside :) We called a locksmith, and took cute pictures while we waited. I'll post them if I can ever get my film developed...

Hope everyone has a nice, peaceful, restful remainder of your weekend!

Today is better

2010-10-16T14:19:00.000-04:00

After a yummy dinner and long, fun time of refreshing fellowship with my sister and Colton last night, and after a really nice morning with Luna, I'm feeling better today. Still stressed about some things, but I'm trying to put it out of my mind.

Plus, how can you be terribly stressed when you look over, and this is what you see?

I mean, let's be honest, that's about the cutest thing ever. Mark loves that puppy :)

I'm having an unusually long time off from work cause of census reasons (and I can't say really any more than that because of hospital policy), so I'm at home with my loves today. Good and bad. I'm trying to make the best of it.

Check the food blog for some new recipes!

No good, very bad day :(

2010-10-15T15:00:00.000-04:00

I know that my last post was all uplifting and all, about how we should be thankful and how I am so blessed and how I love my life and how I shouldn't worry, etc. etc. etc.

But. I'm going to be real with you guys.

It's been a bad week. Like, really bad. Like, I've had two meltdowns in the past 2 days. That hasn't happened in a while. I am stressed and I am tired and I am poor and I feel like a really awful puppy mommy.

(And I just smiled, thank God, because my amazing, funny husband with his poor swollen jowls is cutting the grass with scissors. Oh, I love him.)

I think the kicker this morning (before the REAL kicker than I'm not even going to go into) was when I was on the phone with work, discussing my schedule, while driving to my consignment appointment that I was already running late to. I got so involved and sort-of upset and a little confused that I drove right past my exit. And then drove for another SIX MILES before I realized what I'd done. And promptly started to cry.

But I am feeling better now, albeit still stressed, and tonight should be fun because Kelly and Colton are coming over, and we are eating Sweet Potato Ravioli, and I will take pictures and post them on my food blog because it is delicious and you should make it, too.

And so instead of dwelling on my stressors and issues, I'm going to play along with a quick survey that Suzy over at itwalkedonmypillow posted, and invited everyone to do. And then I'm going to go make homemade vanilla pudding for my darling swollen one.

Questions!
1. if you could take complete credit for having written any book, which book would you pick?
I think I would pick Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, except for I wish I had actually written it, because that means that I would have gotten to live a year of food life on a farm in Appalachia which honestly sounds like one of the most delightful things a person could ever do.

2. what was the last lie you told?
"I'm doing good." My answer to a Publix lady's question of "How are you today?" Because I'm not really fine.

3. if you could be someone else for a day, who would you pick to be?

This is actually a difficult question. But I think I would be Oprah - think of all the good you could do in a day, all the money you could give to worthy causes, and still go on a shopping spree wherever you wanted!

4. do you think my ears are too big?
I honestly don't know if I've seen a picture of your ears, but I'm sure they're perfectly sized :)

5. do you think your ears are too big?

I'm fine with my ears. I do sort of wish my nose looked more like my sister's, but oh well. Can't have everything. Totally not worth plastic surgery, either.

6. favorite coffee shop drink.
Oooh, another tough question! Right now, I'm craving a pumpkin spice latte in a BAD way, but just because I haven't been able to have one (we've almost completely given up eating out in any shape form or fashion - this includes coffee. So sad.) But not in the fall, I'd say an iced latte of some sort.

7. if you had the power to be invisible, would you keep it a secret? i mean, i think i would. i think people wouldn't like to be friends with a person who had the power to be invisible.
I don't know ... because then I'd feel like I was totally eavesdropping, and no one would even KNOW, and it would seem weird. I would probably tell my husband, and my best friend, and probably my family, at least.

8. do you like discussing controversial topics, or do you like to stick to the safe ones?
It depends on who I'm having the discussion with - Elissa and I discuss controversial things all the time (and we often have differing viewpoints.) Mark and I discuss controversial things, but most of the time have the same viewpoint. Unless I know the person really well and trust them, I find it best to keep my mouth shut most of the time.

Now, off to make pudding!

Exhausted at 8 AM

2010-10-14T09:30:00.000-04:00

Mark is at the dentist. Got there at 7. Will be worked on literally until noon. My poor hubby.
Luna is being extra, extra whiny today, but she finally fell asleep beside me, and heaven knows I'm not moving right now.
I am so, so tired. I'm going to need a nap today, in a bad way.

(On a positive note: how cute are they??)

All that aside, I promised I'd do a for-real post. Here we go.

I'm a worrier. I come from a long line of worriers. I worry about money. (I worry a LOT about money.) I worry about the puppy. I worry that the cat will hate us BECAUSE of the puppy. I worry about whether Mark will find a job come his May graduation. I worry about where we will live. I worry about what to fix for dinner, what to wear. I worry about whether people will like me, accept me, love me.

I worry about a lot of things.

And sometimes I'm not very good at seeing the world through rose-colored glasses. Sometimes I'm pessimistic. Sometimes I feel like life will never be how I want it to be. I get frustrated with our situation, and sad because I don't know if it will change or not. I want too many things.

And then I watch the coverage of the Chilean mine workers being rescued from that horrible 10-week nightmare, and I feel silly. And utterly hopeful. Because sometimes, things do work out for the best when it feels like all hope is lost. And sometimes, people are good. And I am reminded how blessed I am.

I have a husband who loves me and takes care of me. We're a really, really good team. I have a family who I adore. I have friends in lots and lots of places who might as well be family. I am sitting beside a seriously adorable puppy who loves to cuddle with me. There is food in my pantry and fridge, and there is money in my bank account (even though I sometimes freak out about how little there is...) I've never been unsure of where my rent is coming from, or my next meal. We are healthy. (Mark's teeth are getting healthy as we speak.) We are young, and we have ample time to make our situation and ourselves better.

I am tired. I am imperfect. (So, so imperfect.) I get impatient. But life is good, and I am thankful for it.

7 weeks!

2010-10-13T10:14:00.000-04:00

My sweet baby is 7 weeks old today! How fast (and yet how slowly) this week has flown by! It's really amazing how much they grow and mature in just a week (just like a human baby, especially preemies). I'm so proud of her - she's gone three nights straight without crying in her crate, we're decreasing on the amount of accidents in the house, and she's typically going to the door when she has to poop. (We're still working on peeing outside rather than on the floor...)

Oh, how I love this puppy!

I do need to get some things done though today, which means that I'm going to have to leave her :( She did well yesterday when we went to lunch though, and I was SO proud of her! She wasn't even crying when Mark got home :)

I promise that soon, I'll do a real post and not be so obsessed with my puppy - I love her, but I don't know that you all want to hear about everything she does every single day :)

Lazy afternoon

2010-10-12T18:18:00.000-04:00

This is what my afternoon is shaping up to be:

Mark is reading in his chair for his classes on Wednesday.

My Luna baby is sleeping beside me on the couch

And we're all listening to the rain come down outside.

I love fall.

Other things I'm loving:
Mark's mom made an impromptu trip to visit and meet the puppy yesterday evening, and it was really fun, and great to see her :)
My sister is coming to visit on Wednesday, and I'm making sweet potato ravioli (aka best food EVER) for dinner. I promise, I'll do a food blog about it, because you. want. that. recipe.
My puppy might just be the cutest puppy in the world. I am totally in love with her.
I had some really really yummy pumpkin pecan cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory for lunch today. Oh, delicious.
Also, Whitney over at Glamorous Life of a Housewife is having a giveaway!! You should go check it out here :)

Things I'm not loving quite so much:
We had to take Luna to the vet today, and found that she has coccidosis (a common intestinal parasite that is common in small puppies) and roundworms (also common in puppies.) She got some medicine and also another vaccine for parvo and distemper. My poor puppy's tummy!
I'm taking Mark on Thursday morning for the first of five very intensive dental appointments - this is the most intense of them all. He gets his wisdom teeth removed, and some other pretty major (and expensive) work done. It's not going to be very fun. And I'll be making a lot of soup later this week.

Also, can I just say that I love my little puppy more than I ever thought I would? I was really excited about getting her, but I didn't realize that she would become like my child so quickly. I guess I just like having something to take care of... but the attachment came faster than I expected. I'm trying my hardest to be a good puppy mommy, but it's also harder than I expected ... there's so much that I don't know about puppies, and so much to watch out for, and so much that she still has to learn. I hardly even know where to begin with training her... But I'm quite sure that as she grows, she'll become a completely vital part of our little family :)

And speaking of our little darling ... she's begging to play right now, and I think if I don't play with her, she might chew up the entire house.

Hope everybody has a great week :)

Life with a Puppy

2010-10-11T09:16:00.000-04:00

We are officially exhausted. I had no idea how similar 6-week-old puppies and babies are... We've been getting up every two hours at night to take Luna out. She's not quite used to her crate yet ... but it's getting better. Last night was the best night yet, actually.

Poor Mark had a rather long weekend, as I was at work both Saturday and Sunday all day long. He's not much of a morning person ... but Luna is the ultimate morning puppy, so that was a little bit hard. Naps are good.

What IS going well, though, is potty training ... the last couple days, she's gone to the door when she needs to go out. Not consistently, but I think she's learning what to do, and it's a really encouraging start.

Right now, she's napping beside me, and what am I doing? I'm blogging. I should be running around, cleaning like mad before she wakes up. You know that chore list that was going so well, and our house was staying so clean? HA. That kind of got thrown out the window ... we're working on it, and the house isn't a total disaster by any means, but it's hard to vacuum, and it's really just hard to get a few minutes to clean much of anything. Oh well ... work in progress, I guess.

But despite all of that, and all the crying and the waking up at night and the exhaustion ... we love her. She's become our baby, and she's adorable, so how can we really get mad at her?

Here's some new pictures for you all to enjoy :)

Mommy is tired today :(

2010-10-08T13:18:00.000-04:00

After Life with Luna, Night 2, this puppy mommy is pretty exhausted.

I feel like I'm starting to understand how new moms feel, just a little bit... And, to all the moms in blogland, by no means am I saying "oh my gosh, this is as hard as a new baby!" No way. I wouldn't even begin to imagine how exhausted mommy-hood is... (well, I might be able to imagine, but I'm sort of glad I'm not there yet.)

Luna did fairly well in her crate last night... she actually got in it and went to sleep without a lot of fuss (aside from the fact that the first time I tried to put her to bed, she was instantly ready to PLAY!), but then she woke up really often, and accidentally peed in her crate on my t-shirt that was in there, and she cried for a while after I took her out at 3:30 this morning. She was ready to play then, too, but Mommy was having none of it.

Today, we've had a couple of accidents, and we're having a bit of trouble adjusting to the crate still. I'm trying my hardest to make it comfy and happy and den-like - she has chew toys and a soft blanket or t-shirt at all times that I either wear or sleep with so it smells like me. We have a blanket over the crate, too, so it stays dark, or at least a little dim. But she's just not used to being by herself, and she definitely doesn't like being enclosed when she's awake. I guess it's a work in progress.

Making matters worse, yesterday morning, when I was taking her out to use the bathroom, I tripped and scraped about half the skin off by big toe. It's still a bit red, a bit swollen, draining like crazy, and hurting really really badly. The more I walk, the more it oozes and hurts (and you can imagine how much time I'm spending with my foot propped up - this, in fact, is the first time today.)

Graphic picture warning ... if you get squeamish when you see hurt places or nasty cuts, don't scroll down. (It really doesn't look that bad in the picture, honestly, I just like to warn people because I'm not normal, and don't have any type of gross-filter at all.)

Owwie :( it hurts a lot worse than it looks ... I sound like a big baby, but it really is more red than the picture looks like.

No pictures of the baby yet today ... I've been too busy avoiding accidents and trying to get clothes and dishes washed, and soup in the crockpot to take any thus far. I'm sure there will be some new ones this afternoon after Daddy gets home!

Patience, Pies, and Puppies

2010-10-07T21:51:00.000-04:00

My good friend Melanie did a blog post a few weeks ago about the merits of patience, and how it relates to cooking. Prime example: pie crust. You can read her take on things here: Harvest of Grace. (I really love her blog, by the way. And her in general.)

Anyway, I'd been wanting to learn to make homemade pie crust for some time now. I'm a pretty decent cook and baker if I do say so myself, but I hadn't ever ventured into this difficult and time-consuming territory before, partly because I'd never been able to find a pie crust recipe without shortening, which I do not believe in. Then I read her blog. And then I got a whole bunch of apples in my CSA. And ... I gave in.

I had a moment of sheer panic a few minutes ago, because when I tried to roll out the dough (which you have to keep putting back in the fridge/freezer like ALL DAY while you make the stuff), I could clearly see little pieces of butter floating around in the dough, and I hadn't used enough flour for the counter, and it was sticking, and sticky, and a general mess. So I called Mel. And she reassured me that yes, indeed, you are supposed to be able to see the butter, and just use more flour and put it BACK in the fridge longer, and it would be okay. Thanks, Mel :)

All this to say... I still don't know how the pie will turn out. But I think that God is trying to teach me some patience.

I'm not a very patient person by nature. When I want something done, I want it done NOW. (Or, in some cases, yesterday.) And done my way. I'm spoiled, I guess. But here lately, during the "lets be adults" movement going on at our house, there have been countless situations where either God has been saying "Be patient, not yet" or Satan has thrown roadblocks into my adult-plan-making and made things happen that try my patience. Sometimes it's hard to discern which. And then we got Luna, who requires a lot of patience in general. (I mean, really, you can't just MAKE a dog pee, even if you take it outside. There's sometimes some standing around and waiting involved.) But it's good, and I can feel myself growing through all of it. I'll be the first to admit ... Luna is a tiny bit of a financial burden on us. But we talked and talked and talked it through before coming to a decision, and decided that she would bring lots of joy to our lives, and help us to become better. So far, even with a crying puppy that I PRAY didn't keep the neighbors up, that's proven to be correct.

So here's hoping that my pie ends up being flaky and delicious, and that I learn to practice the patience that God is trying to give me.

And, because I just can't help myself ... more pictures of Luna :)

And, if you've made it this far ... a video for your troubles! (Sorry about that last part - it's hard to video and play and watch the puppy all at the same time...)

Blogworld, meet Luna :) (Picture-heavy!)

2010-10-06T14:17:00.000-04:00

Our sweet puppy is home!!

She's napping right now, which is why I'm able to update ... puppies are busy little balls of fur!! Luna has been home now for a little over 2 hours, and so far that 2 hours has included eating, peeing on the floor once, pooping in the crate once, a wardrobe change and some laundry for Mommy, 3 naps, playtime outside x2, and right now she must be dreaming, cause she keeps making these sweet little noises in her sleep.

We take a lot of pictures of our pets....

Giving Daddy kisses when we got home

Asplorin' Daddy's lap :)

After the failed crate introduction, we had a bit of a mess on our hands. Mommy had to go do laundry, but Luna wasn't done napping...

Eatin' my lunch

Hi, Mom!

I got tired, and fell asleep on Mom's boot

And then on mom's lap

Sweet thing

Adorable puppy paw!

Cutest face ever :)

We are in love :)

D-Day!

2010-10-06T07:44:00.000-04:00

Stands for Doggie Day! We'll go pick up our little Luna in a couple of hours ... we're so excited! Mark even woke up for a second, looked at me, and said "Arooo!" like a little beagle puppy howl :) Check back for pictures later.

And, if you want the recipe I made last night for the Sweet Potato and Sausage Soup, click on my Basil and Buttercream link on my sidebar. It's delicious!

A Day at the Dentist

2010-10-05T20:33:00.000-04:00

"Ouch," says my mouth.

"OUCH!" says my wallet.

It was a long, hard, painful joint dentist appointment today for Mark and me.

Luckily, the sweet potato and sausage soup that's currently cooking in the kitchen and making my mouth water seems to be just the thing to heal, if not both wounds, at least one of them :)

(And, I'm finally taking pictures of food again, so it's sure to be a blog post!)

Long Weekend

2010-10-05T07:17:00.000-04:00

When most people think "long weekend" it is a happy thing - an extra day off.

When I say long weekend, I mean just that. It was a long weekend.

But it's Tuesday now, one of my very happy days :) I get my CSA today. Hooray! (Note: Grow Alabama is even MORE awesome now because they expanded their bronze plan - ours - to include 6 different fruits and veggies instead of just 4. Win!)

Unfortunately, I also have to go to the dentist to get my cavities filled. And we have to see what Mark's teeth need to have done to them too... Boo :(

On a more positive note: Happy things!

-My aforementioned CSA! Some things on the menu this week: sausage and sweet potato soup (sounds weird, but Epicurious has rave reviews posted, AND Deb at SmittenKitchen made it and liked it, so it can't be bad...), curry, and apple pie. Oh, fall. I love you.
-Fall has finally come to Birmingham, AL (for a little while, at least.) I think I'm going to debut the boots today. Maybe it will make my dentist appointment less depressing, knowing I'm wearing something cute... (yep. that's a stretch.)
-Tomorrow morning, at 9:30 am, we pick up our sweet puppy. I have SO MUCH TO DO before she comes home still... Anticipate pictures. I'm breaking out the old digital camera for the occasion so you can at least see some of the adorable-ness immediately :)
-I know I've said it before, but my husband is awesome. He is so patient. So, so patient. Thank you for being patient with me, my darling.

It's early early, but I need to get moving moving. Lots of things on the to-do list today!

Ugghhh

2010-10-02T06:39:00.000-04:00

It's a little after 5:30, and I'm supposed to be just now getting up for work.

Instead, I've been awake for about 3 hours now...

Awesome.

There.

2010-10-01T15:18:00.000-04:00

I think I've finally gotten it right :)

New Blog Layout...

2010-10-01T11:38:00.001-04:00

I can't decide if I like it or not.

Opinions? Suggestions?

Please Pardon My Progress

2010-10-01T07:14:00.000-04:00

We're making some changes in our life as of late.
We're trying to be more like grown-ups.

I feel like this blog might need a bit of a change as well.

Please bear with me.

Long day, take 2

2010-09-30T21:59:00.000-04:00

Soooo tireddddd...

I really wish my kitchen counters/sink were about 4 or 5 inches higher. Maybe then my back wouldn't hurt so badly when I do the dishes....

Anyway, it was a pretty long day today. I'm coming away from it feeling much better and more productive than yesterday, though, which is good. The time for the puppy is drawing nearer and nearer, and I'm getting more stressed about ... well, everything right now. Money, the floor not being spotless, you name it...

Let's talk about things that I DID get done.
1) I made a big 'ol thrift store/Hannah Home donation today. It's needed to happen for quite some time now, and finally I just got fed up and did it. Two bags of clothes, a bag of random house-ish things (like a clock, and a big plastic bowl), a sewing basket, 2 big rolls of fabric that I shouldn't have ever bought in the first place, and a shower caddy are now gone from my house. Less clutter, hooray!
2) Mark and I both finished sorting through ALL our clothes and got rid of quite a few - some went to the donation bags, some are going to be consigned. Our closet is WAY more accessible now.
3) That storage closet I cleaned out yesterday is now pretty spotless. It makes me happy.
4) My kitchen sink is now fixed, and I cleaned out and organized the cabinet underneath it.
5) I got Mark to take quite a few other things to our storage unit - even LESS clutter!
6) I cleaned up the living room floor, and got pretty much everything chewable off of the floor, save electrical cords. I'm not sure what we're going to do with those...

So, I still have to go buy outlet protectors and cabinet locks (I swear, it's like we're adopting a toddler...), and we need to finish cleaning out the office. I forgot a few things to donate, so I need to take those tomorrow.

I know you're all tired of hearing me talk about clean this, organize that, but I PROMISE some cuteness when Luna comes home. You don't have long to wait ... just 5 more days!

Now, happy things:
I made that sweet potato ravioli tonight. Oh. My. Gosh. It was the best thing I've ever cooked, I think. And I've cooked some pretty rockin' stuff.
I get to go get in my bed soon. That makes me REALLY happy.
And final happy thing: Mark is building us a bookshelf this weekend! It'll replace the old, not-so-pretty, seldom-used wine cart that we currently have, and will be filled with my cookbooks and some of Mark's books, which tend to overflow into all parts of the house. I'll post pictures soon!

long day

2010-09-29T20:15:00.000-04:00

I am T.I.R.E.D. tonight. And I still have to make dinner!

Why am I so tired? Well... I grocery-shopped and organized all day today. My house was clean this morning, and now it's a wreck, but I guess that's the way with organizing - the mess gets worse before it gets better.

ALSO, I don't get to make my exciting sweet potato ravioli tonight because there's a big HOLE in one of the pipes under my sink. My cabinet under there had been smelling sort of rank for a while now, and I chalked it up to the garbage disposal for a bit ... then it got worse, so I called maintenance. And, lo and behold - we have no idea how long it's been leaking, but it'll be a sort of major deal to fix. So that kind of sucks. Therefore, we will be eating salad for dinner tonight rather than my super-labor-intensive original plans. Hard to make stuff without a sink that's usable...

So, essentially, my bedroom is a semi-mess, the office is a bigger mess, and the dining room looks like the storage closet AND the kitchen cabinet exploded at the same time. (Which, they sort of did.) But I have a HUGE stack of stuff to take to Goodwill/The Salvation Army/something-or-other this week. This makes me excited, because I love getting rid of stuff. (Is that weird?)

Ugh. I have to go fix dinner. I just want to check out of life for the rest of the evening...

Coming events which I am excited about:

2010-09-29T08:58:00.000-04:00

Uno: Our sweet Luna puppy comes home in a week!
Reposting the cuteness ... I can't wait till we can take pictures of her!

Deux: Tonight, I'm making sweet potato ravioli with browned butter served over a bed of mixed greens. Thanks, Grow Alabama :)

3: Our house has been clean now for two weeks straight. This is a personal record for both of us. WIN!

Four: Fall has come to Alabama!!! For the next 10 days, the weather.com forecast says that it's not going to get over 81. Praise be to God :)

V: Lissa is coming to visit us (and Luna) in two weeks! Hooray!

Sechs: We might possibly be bringing the puppy to Griffin to visit Mark's parents and go to the Fair. Apparently this is an Event, for which people crawl out from under rocks to attend. And apparently their corndogs are to die for. I told Mark I wasn't sure about the corndog (I HATE corndogs) but I'd be happy to share a nice big funnel cake with him :)

Sept: Can I just reiterate that our HOUSE is CLEAN? It's kind of a big deal.

Updates

2010-09-28T06:50:00.000-04:00

Project: We've Been Adults for Three Years, and It's Time We Acted Like It is now well underway. The house is still ~~miraculously~~ clean. The Chore List is being consistently followed. The Evil Budget Book has been established. Things are going well. I surprisingly like acting like an adult :)

Also, Project: Puppy is Coming Home in 8 Days So We'd Better Be Ready is coming along. We went to PetSmart yesterday and dropped some cash on her crate, her food (and her new food - we're transitioning here at first...), some food bowls, some treats, a leash, some toys ... this doggy is gonna be spoiled, I'm afraid. We got that cute little leash with the pink polka-dotted ribbon, and we ended up with some gray ceramic bowls with doggy bones on them. I wish they made more feminine dog stuff that wasn't all PINK. Because I feel like our little Beagle girl just won't be that into hot-pink-everything... We still need to get her collar, but we're waiting to see how big her little neck is before we do that, and I'm sure we'll get quite a few more toys along the way. I also need to go vet-shopping (Do people do that? Like you do with pediatricians? Is that socially acceptable, to want to meet the vet before you get your dog?), and at least call and find out services and prices and stuff. Because, you know, we ARE on a budget.

In other news, I have the pleasure of going to the dentist for a teeth-cleaning appt this morning. Joy! I hope I have no cavities ... it's been a wee bit longer than 6 months since I've been. I've never had a cavity before (except for a tiny one in a baby tooth, and since I don't have those teeth anymore, I think that shouldn't count), and I'm hoping to keep that record going.

And on that note, I guess I'll get up and get moving...

Hope everybody has a happy Tuesday!

Fill-in-the-Blank Friday!

2010-09-24T07:33:00.000-04:00

I haven't done one of these in a while, so here we go...

1. In the story of my life the actor who would play me would be Amy Adams. She's redheaded, I love her, and I feel like she could channel me... And Mark likes her, too.

2. If I could change one thing about the world it would be Oh there are so many things!! What a hard question... But I think that I would have every person in the world have access to clean drinking water and healthy food. (Can I also totally eradicate fast food restaurants from existence? Please?) .

3. Yesterday I got my cholesterol checked, and it was really good even after eating like 6 or 7 cupcakes the day before! .

4. My favorite comfort food is carb-y things... Homemade mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, any kind of pasta really... also, donuts. So bad!! .

5. My new favorite blog find is Smitten Kitchen. Where have you been all my life, Deb? .

6. If I could meet any blog friend (who I haven't met yet) in real life, I'd choose to meet ooh, this is hard too! I love Kelly at The Start-up Wife - she was one of my first followers and commenters! And I think it would be great fun to have lunch with Whitney and her precious Weebie from The Glamorous Life of a Housewife. .

7. My favorite breakfast food is pancakes with maple syrup, oh yum. But I don't eat it often, cause it makes my blood sugar drop to have that much sugar in the mornings, so my go-to breakfast is Nature's Harvest Organic Multibran Flax Plus cereal! Call me a hippie if you want, but it's so yummy! .

Now, just a quick update about my goings-on...

Not much, haha. I had coffee with a couple friends last night, which was very fun, and that's pretty much it. I am so boring. I'll have more to blog about in about 12 days now...

But for now, I'll leave you with some sweet pictures of my kitty cat!

Her latest new favorite thing to do is climb up in my lap and be brushed and petted. It's so cute, I just can't keep myself from documenting it...

Hope everyone has a happy Friday!

Random thoughts of today (and our puppy's name!)

2010-09-23T08:08:00.000-04:00

Lots of little random thoughts this morning...

Yesterday, I was a total slacker.

I also ate about 6 or 7 cupcakes total yesterday. Maybe not the best idea...

Because today, I go to get my cholesterol checked at work for a insurance discount health check thingy. Luckily, if it's high, it won't affect the discount. I'll just have to explain that I did indeed eat like 6 or 7 cupcakes in one day. Which is a little embarrassing...

...Maybe it won't be high.

In other news, I've been hearing "Love the Way You Lie" a lot lately. Now, don't get me wrong, it's kind of catchy, it does get stuck in your head. BUT. Does it bother anybody besides me that Rihanna is singing this particular song with those particular lyrics when she HERSELF got beat up/was abused by Chris Brown just a year and a half ago? Because it bothers me. I mean, that song may be her way of venting her confused feelings regarding Chris Brown at the time, but it's sending a message of "Oh, hey, I was beat up, my boyfriend punched me in the face a few times, but oh that's okay, because I like the way it hurts.." Does anyone else see something WRONG with that?
(Also, speaking of Rihanna and that song, I just recently saw the video. 1) My first thought, honestly, was OMG, it's Charlie!!! 2) I do not and never will understand these popular "clothes" that really look like an ugly bathing suit. I don't get it. And a big old coat on top! Ugh.)

...I am getting old, I think.

And on a happier, more pertinent note...

A lot of you have asked what our little fur baby's name will be. We are about 95% sure that we're going to name her Luna :) We're so excited ... Mark has ordered some books on raising/training beagles that should be here shortly, and next week we'll begin the shopping-for-puppy-stuff process ... just 13 days now until we bring our baby home! I can't wait to get her here and get to know her. So excited!!

Oh, it is love :)

2010-09-22T07:51:00.000-04:00

I am in love with our puppy. We haven't even gotten her yet, we've only met her once, briefly, when she was so, so sleepy, but I just keep looking at her picture and my heart melts every time. How precious she is! Just two more weeks, and she'll be home with us :)

(And then, blogworld, be prepared for a barrage of puppy pictures the likes of which you've never seen!)

Our Baby Girl (puppy)!!!

2010-09-21T20:23:00.000-04:00

I'm in the middle of cooking dinner right now, but Mark just found this and I can't not post it right now....

Our sweet baby puppy!!!!

You can go to this link and zoom in closer to see her better. She's SO CUTE OMG.

Cleaning: A Theory

2010-09-19T13:53:00.000-04:00

There's an ice cream truck driving through our apartment complex, playing its happy little song. I'm not going to get any, but it's just been that kind of day all day - that kind of week, really :)

This whole "we need to act like adults" thing is really working for me. As much as I grump grump grumped about making a chore list and slaved over a budget book and cleaned the oven, etc., it makes me feel better all over. Mark has been out of town this weekend, but I haven't moped around like I typically do when he's gone. It's like once the cleaning/organizing switch has turned over, there's no stopping me. Case in point: the night before last, after Mark left, I finished vacuuming, did laundry, worked on the budget book, baked a quiche, washed all the quiche-baking dishes, took out all the trash, cleaned the actual trash can, and then moved on to cleaning the inside of the microwave! Admittedly, all those things needed to happen - and badly. But I'm not one to just do that... in fact, the microwave looked so bad before that I can't wait for Mark to come home and ask me why I bought a new one. It is that much better now.

Here's the issue that I always run into, and am going to try extremely hard to avoid this time though: I can't keep it up. There's a cartoon that Elissa posted on my facebook wall, and when I read it, I thought to myself "How the HECK do they know me that well???"

See Exhibit A:
Hyperbole and a Half: This is Why I'll Never Be an Adult

So, right. This is me, exactly. And it's a problem. But THIS time, I'm absolutely determined to be better, and not lay down and die. I don't know why I do this. I have proven to myself over and over and over again that I am literally a better, happier person when my crap is together and my house is clean and I'm on my game. I am a significantly MORE mopey, unhappy person when I lay around and do nothing but surf the lovely interwebs all the livelong day. This fact ALONE should be enough motivation to continue to do what I'm doing. So what's the problem?

I'm going to have to change my mentality about cleaning.

See, I feel like there are two kinds of people in this world. (Or maybe three.)

1) People who clean when things are dirty.
2) People who clean to keep things from GETTING dirty.
3) People who never clean at all.

Now, I do not fall into that third category (even though some of my family members/friends might argue differently ... I really don't, I promise.) That first category? That's me. I go about my merry way, la de dah, I'll clean later, I'll clean tomorrow, I'll clean in a week, I'll clean next month when Aunt Mildred comes to visit. Etc, etc. So the mess piles and piles and piles until I'm tripping and hippity hopping through my mess of a bedroom trying to get out the door. Until my heart sinks to even think of where to BEGIN with the washing of the dishes. Until I have to scrape soap scum off the floor of my shower with a spatula. And then I go insane, go on a mad cleaning frenzy for like 3 days in a row, do nothing else, and totally wear myself "slap out" as they say down here in the South. And then it's clean, and I repeat the cycle.

I want to be person #2. The person who does PREVENTATIVE cleaning.

I thought of this the other night, while I was scrubbing at the microwave for a good, solid 15 minutes. (I almost took a before picture to post for you guys, and then thought better of it. Cause that crap is embarrassing.) I don't know why this has just occurred to me .... it is not an original idea. In fact, I do believe my mother has probably been trying to teach me this for all of my days.

So, knowing this, how does one learn the art of preventative cleaning?? I have my little loathsome chore list that is turning out to be not quite so loathsome after all, considering I'm so much happier in my clean little house. But on my chore list, it says "Clean bathrooms." The bathrooms don't look dirty!! Why should I clean them if they don't look dirty?? This is my dilemma. It's like the Scrubbing Bubbles version of the classic "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" mentality. But significantly less true, I think...

Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions on how to go about changing this mindset? How does one learn preventative cleaning??

Impatience

2010-09-17T08:43:00.000-04:00

Well, phase 1 of puppy-proofing is nearly complete. I've been going through the house, deep-cleaning each room, and then the plan is just to continue our chore list, and that should keep our house looking tidy and clean and neat. (Which will be a challenge for this clutter-bug, but I want to make it happen...) On today's agenda is more laundry (it never ends!), deep-cleaning the shower, vacuuming downstairs, and mopping the floors. I want to get everything accomplished before this weekend, because Mark will be gone on a mystery retreat with his little brother's youth group. I wish I could go!!

In other news, I went to PetSmart yesterday, mainly to get Mrs. Norris some new, healthier kitty food. This is what I ended up getting:

Have any of you used this kind of food before (cat or dog?) I read so many reviews yesterday that I had nightmares about cat and dog food last night. Pretty much, I think it just depends on the animal as far as the reaction to this food. I do believe that it has good, quality ingredients, and it's more affordable than the comparable Wellness food, so we'll see. I may have to try some different kinds before finding one that will work, so I guess we'll just have to see... but feedback, if anybody has any on Blue Buffalo brand, would be greatly appreciated! I feel like such a bad kitty momma for feeding her such junk all these years :( No wonder she's fat ... I just hope she hasn't developed diabetes or something like that...

And speaking of pets ... we're getting rather impatient to find out which baby puppy we'll be taking home! The litter was made up of 3 chocolate females, 2 tri-color females, and 1 tri-color little boy. When we visited, there was 1 chocolate female and the little boy left, and we chose the baby girl. However, people had just picked out which coloring and gender they wanted, not the puppy specifically. Because we were the third person in line for a chocolate female, we'll get the one that the other two puppy parents don't pick ... so it's just a waiting game. The breeders are supposed to post individual pictures on their website, but they haven't done it yet, and Mark and I have been checking about every hour or two when we're awake. We're just so excited! And, we think we've decided on a name, but I'm not going to reveal that until we get the puppy (or at least find out which one we're getting.)

While I was at Petsmart, I checked out all the cute puppy stuff. Here are some things I want for our sweet baby girl...

I think we're going to transition her to this food once we bring her home ... we'll see how it goes. Once again, if anybody has used Buffalo Blue products, I'd really appreciate a review!

I'm loving one of these two bowls ... we want probably stainless steel/metal so our puppy won't chew through her food bowl, and there aren't that many girly-looking ceramic ones that I've found.

I'm loving these collars and leashes - I like the polka-dot patterned one best. Mark begrudgingly agreed to it, mainly because it wasn't completely pink and way bright, I think. Pretty adorable.

Mark is pretty opposed to puppy clothes all the way around, but I can't help thinking these are adorable ... there was also a bright green cable-knit sweater that I'm probably going to HAVE to have :)

We're going to crate-train our puppy so it will have a place of its own, and a safe place to sleep, but the crate will be upstairs, so I want a little dog bed to go downstairs. I like this one - it matches our brown and cream/beige decor, and the cover is removable for easy washing.

So many cute things for our sweet puppy! I can't wait to get her :) (All images found at Petsmart.com)

Deep cleaning, and some pictures (finally)!

2010-09-16T08:02:00.000-04:00

This is the third morning in a row that I've woken up before 6. At least today I made it till 5:30 rather than 5... And two out of those three mornings, I've been woken up not of my own volition, but by this little dear climbing on my side table:

I don't know what I'm going to do with her... Actually, I do know one thing. I'm going to put her on a diet. Because she is getting very very very fat... I've been doing research about pet foods, and I was horrified to realize what she's been eating. Basically the equivalent of McDonald's ... no wonder she's fat. So we're switching to better (more expensive, boo) pet food. Anyway, the kitty and I had a little iPhone photo shoot the other day...

Her favorite place to sit is on my knees. She's not the biggest fan of being held like a baby ... right after I took that picture, she wiggled out of my arms. She really is a pretty kitty, she just needs to lose, oh, about 3 pounds...

Also, because I've been such a bad blogger lately and haven't posted any pictures of my exciting things lately, I decided to give you all a sneak peek before I get my pictures printed...

Here's our fence that we built last Monday (which I actually had a dream about last night - the maintenance people weren't very happy with us for building it, and I'm not quite sure why...)

It looks pretty darn good, I think...

And here is my dresser!! Let me see if I can find you a picture of what we started with...

It's a pretty bad picture, but this is in our first apartment. The dresser is that white ugliness with the crooked handles... It was a handed-down hand-me-down, as is a lot of the furniture in our house...

And here is the finished product, which I LOVE, am SO proud of, and looks FANTASTIC in our room and with our bedding and other furniture...

TADA!!!

I love it :)

We still don't have a puppy picture yet, but I do promise that you guys will see it when I get one :) Currently, I am deep cleaning/puppy-proofing my house, otherwise known as being-a-grown-up... Yesterday, I cleaned the kitchen (INCLUDING the inside of the oven, but that's a whole different story...) and then headed upstairs to start my systematic Go-Through-The-House-and-Deep-Clean-Everything Project. My thought process here: we're bringing a little six-week-old puppy home in three weeks, and I want everything to be spotless and the floor to be as clean and tidy as it can get, so there are less things for sweet puppy to get into. Case in point: I vacuumed underneath our bed for the first time in, oh, I don't know, ever. So far, the bedroom is complete, and the bathroom is half done (I still have to scrub the shower tomorrow), and the office is about half done. This is also the beginning of the Chore List Initiative, which I caved and did the other day. As much as I hate them, I am thrilled with the prospect of always having a clean house. (I've also been inspired by Hoarders on A&E which I've been watching on Netflix ... I never ever ever ever want my house to look like that. Ugh. *shudder*)

Now, the story of the oven ... so, I said the other day that it was smoking and I didn't get to make lasagna, right? Well yesterday I deep cleaned it pretty well. We don't have a clean setting on our oven, so you have to just use elbow grease, and my favorite cleaning product, Bar Keeper's Friend. I cleaned everything but the very back, which I couldn't reach because of the oven door, and part of the top. Turned it on, left it on for about 10 or 15 minutes, and it started smoking. Again. So there's definitely something wrong with it. I called about 10 am yesterday, and the maintenance people were tied up with other issues. Apparently they were tied up all day, because they never came (even after I called again...) So we cooked lasagna at Andy and Suzie's house last night... Hopefully they will come today, because I can't survive for very long without an oven.

I'm sorry this has gotten so lengthy (AND it's probably boring, so that's two strikes, but oh well...) If you've made it to the end, I salute you :) Happy Thursday!

I haz a happy :)

2010-09-14T23:49:00.000-04:00

Lots of happy-s.

(And one sad. But we'll get to that later.)

First! Project: Dresser is complete, and looks fantastic! Unfortunately my film is used up and I need more, my digital camera is dead, and my iPhone just isn't doing it justice. Pictures later. Just take my word for it... it looks really awesome!

Dos! My Chore List is complete, and fairly do-able I think. Also, a budget has been made! (This was another topic in our epic "We need to be adults" discussion...) I feel more adult-like already. And Mark was quite thrilled with me this morning when he woke up to find the Chore List already made... now if only I could get caught up!

Thirdly! We went to see the puppies tonight - and both those sweet babies were still unavailable!! Sooo ... we put down a deposit for the remaining chocolate female. We'll know exactly which of the three chocolate females we'll be getting within a week or so, and they're supposed to post new photos of the puppies sometime in the next day or two. (Mark and I were so excited about the puppies and their insanely abounding cuteness that we didn't even THINK about taking a picture of them!) We're pretty thrilled about this new addition to our household, and it might be puppy city up in here pretty soon. We get our sweet baby girl in just 3 weeks, when she'll be six weeks old. I am SO excited :)

(I almost forgot about the sad - I had grand plans to follow our budget, and cook after we got home from seeing the puppies tonight. It was already late (8:30 when we got home), so I threw the lasagna together pretty fast and turned on the oven ... which then started smoking everywhere. So we called Andy and Suzy, and asked them if we could use their kitchen. They said yes, we drove over there, and then couldn't find the key. We were both hungry and grumpy and said not-nice things, and came home and ordered pizza. I'm hoping my lasagna will keep in the fridge okay until tomorrow, when hopefully they'll fix the oven...)

And on that note, I'm going to go read my Bible and go to bed.

Sweet dreams, blogland!

5:30, I'm awake!

2010-09-14T06:48:00.000-04:00

I don't know why I woke up so early with no alarm this morning.

Oh wait, yes I do - it was my crazy cat. She likes to get on my bedside table and knock everything off of it when she thinks it's time for me to wake up. How sweet of her...

Anyway, I need to get up and get moving anyway... lots to do.

Mark and I had a talk last night about how we need to be more like grown-ups. You know, more responsible and everything. Which includes a clean house.

Now, I don't want you to think that I never clean, because I do. But both Mark and I are pretty cluttered, messy people, and the mess sort of stays. So he said that we both need a daily chore list. Which I immediately bristled at, because I. HATE. CHORE. LISTS. I don't know why I detest them so - maybe because of some issues I had with some roommates in the past, maybe because I'm stubborn and don't like to be told what to do every day (even by a list), I don't know. But I loathe the very thought of them. (Which is so silly, I know...) So Mark decided that I should make said list, using some strange adoption analogy that I never did understand. So today, among other things, I have to make us a chore list... great.

And now, more fun things to talk about:

Dresser: We're nearly finished! We ended up painting it, which was TOTALLY the right decision, and now it's a solid, not shabby, lovely smooth brown color, kind of the color of chocolate cake batter or melted milk chocolate. With my sweet hardware, it's going to look amazing - just one more coat of paint today, and we're done!

Puppy: I got an email from the breeders last night saying that there were only 2 puppies left, and there had been interest in those two. We're going to visit them tonight before we make a decision - Mark really wants to meet the parents of this litter and play with them before we decide for sure. I think that's a good idea - we want to be informed puppy shoppers. But I am seriously hoping that no one puts deposits down on BOTH of them today before we go - I would be so sad :(

And that's pretty much it around here lately. I promise that there will be some pictures of stuff soon - I know this old blog has gotten sort of boring as of late. Sorry for that!

Painting and puppies

2010-09-13T09:05:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the long-ish hiatus ... I worked extra, and on Thursday had a generally mope-y day full of lounging in my bed, eating hummus, and watching movies on Netflix.

But today, I'm going to be productive! (Which means that I should probably get up at some point...)

I have instructions from my dear hubby to go buy a quart of paint today so we can hopefully fix our poor dresser. It's looking more shabby than chic, and shabby chic is not the look I was going for in the first place. So we're going to try re-sanding, and just painting over the thing in a dark chocolate brown. I hope and pray this works, because I am SO. OVER. THIS. PROJECT. Building a fence was way easier...

Also today, I have to clean my pigsty of a room. It's ridiculous, honestly...

And tomorrow, I am so excited - we're going to go see those sweet puppies we're looking at! Hopefully we'll be able to put down a deposit, and secure one of the little dears. It looks like we're getting a tri-color little girl beagle ... I'll post pictures when I get them! I talked to one of the breeders (who is actually the distant cousin of one of my co-workers ... small world, right?!), and she said the puppies are getting all fat and roly-poly and adorable, so I'm SO excited to see them :) Can't wait!!

Also tomorrow: another CSA box :) This time it will have peaches, snap beans, sweet potatoes, and some more lettuce. I'm so glad there are still peaches available ... those were honestly the best peaches I've ever had in my entire life. Yum!

Hope everyone has a lovely Monday!

2010-09-09T10:48:00.001-04:00

So much for being done with the dresser.

I hate humidity.

DONE

2010-09-08T20:16:00.000-04:00

It is finished!

Well ... as finished as it's going to get tonight. After a day filled with stripping (paint, not clothes - get your minds out of the gutter, people), sanding like crazy, and then staining ~~and also an incident where i got locked out of my own apartment BY my apartment~~, I am tired, but done. The stain still has to completely dry, and we'll see how it looks tomorrow and see if it needs another coat of wood stain.

All that being said, I'm pretty darn proud of myself. Mark was gone all day to class and meetings and thus did not help at all (which is totally fine with me), and I did it all solo. Including sanding. For THREE HOURS. THREE. And that was WITH the help of a belt sander... It was a little ridiculous.

Also ridiculous? That little incident.You know, about my apartment? Apparently, when you close the sliding door to our little porch/yard area really hard, it locks by itself. Did I know that? Well, now I do. I was DYING in the heat (Hello, it's supposed to be fall, right? So what's up with the continuing 90-something-degree weather we're having??) and wanted some more water, but when I went to open the door - Locked! With me on the outside! And so I went around to the front - also Locked! With me on the outside! So I had to march my very very dirty and stinky self up the hill to the office and explain how I needed a maintenance man to come open my door for me because my apartment locked me out of itself. Embarrassing? Oh yes.

Also! Please note: when a can of something caustic says "Wear protective clothing" and "If contact with skin occurs, may cause irritation," 1) they aren't kidding, and 2) said "irritation" is actually the beginning of a frickin' chemical burn!! (I'm fine - I got everything washed off in time to cause no permanent damage...) But seriously. Be careful with paint stripper. Those strippers will get you every time... (Sorry, I couldn't resist.)

So, after all that hard work, I took a really long really hot shower and am now feeling semi-normal (but sort of like my arm will never be the same again from ALL THAT SANDING OMG.) I'm desperately hoping that tomorrow we will wake up and my dresser will look beautiful and not need a second coat, but I'm kind of doubting it...

Ugh. I need to go make dinner. Curry tonight!

Feeling better

2010-09-08T08:35:00.001-04:00

Good morning, and Happy Hump Day! I'm awake and feeling much better than yesterday. I always have issues with allergies vs. allergy meds, especially in the fall. Here's my dilemma: I have year-round and seasonal allergies. I hate taking drugs, so I typically just deal, but in the fall, it gets pretty bad. I wait until I just can't stand the scratchiness in my throat ANY longer, and pop a pill. And then come the side effects. I feel ... funny. It doesn't matter what I take, all allergy meds make me feel weird. (The absolute WORST is Claritin-D though - I can't take that stuff. It makes my head feel like it's a balloon floating about a foot above my body...)

So anyway, the meds are out of my system this morning, and I'm feeling better. (For now, until the allergies kick back in.)

This morning, I need to finish stripping the dresser, clean it off and sand it down, and then stain it. I'm doing it in this ebony color (which I hope turns out like I want it - we couldn't remember what stain we used for our other dresser, so they may end up different colors.) And yesterday, I got hardware from Anthropologie to use - it's going to look so good, I think! (And speaking of Anthro - are their boots not to DIE for this fall? I've tried to tell Mark that he got a deal, buying mine at Clark's, because Anthro's are more expensive, but he's just not hearing it...)

Also, I emailed the people about our potential beagle puppy, and hopefully we'll go visit next Tuesday or Thursday. (And unless we just hate the parents, that'll probably be it, because my heart will melt at all the 3-week-old cuteness...)

And now, up and att'em for April this morning - I hope Home Depot opens early so I can go get some more paint stripper!

Home Improvement-ing is wearing me out!

2010-09-07T18:51:00.001-04:00

My sweet husband is outside right now scraping away at what's left of the paint on my dresser. It all looks like a hot mess right now, and I really hope it comes out alright in the end, but tonight I'm just too tired to do anything about it myself.

I'm not entirely sure why, but today has absolutely worn me out. I went to Anthro to buy hardware for the dresser this morning, hit Whole Foods and then Publix, and headed home. While I was shopping in Publix, I started feeling really bad, like I needed an Albuterol treatment or something. I'm feeling better this evening, but I'm just sort of drained.

We didn't actually get started with the dresser until after 3, and we hit a couple snags before actually getting anything done. I really, really hope it turns out okay, or this will have turned out to be a REALLY expensive project...

So right now, I'm trying to get up enough gumption and motivation to make dinner. I planned on having beef and veggie curry tonight, but I just have no desire to cook it right now. Ugh ... what's a girl to do?

Our Labor Day Laboring...

2010-09-07T08:33:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, Mark and I built a fence. Or ... a section of a fence. I documented the process with the good old Minolta (my film camera), so the pictures won't be back for a bit, but it was quite the adventure. It looks really good though :)

Also, Mark got a fun boy toy out of the deal - we bought him a circular saw. It's our first official power tool... and, like he said yesterday, he'd have to buy one at some point, and we might as well just buy it now.

Today, we're sanding all the paint off my dresser, and staining it. That should be an interesting process... Hopefully it turns out well.

Welcome to home improvement week with the Skinners!

Happy Labor Day!

2010-09-06T09:36:00.000-04:00

I hope all you work-during-the-week people are getting a day off today - nothing beats a long weekend!

After a small hiatus for my work weekend, I'm back with an update...

1) Today is Day 6 of the No Sugar Challenge. Yesterday, I ate a little bit of grape salad that one of my co-workers brought - it had sugar in it. But, the point of this week of no sugar was to curb my intense pastry/donut/cake/cookie cravings, and I am typically not a grape-salad kind of girl, so I felt like a little was okay. Plus, I was being polite and trying it. It was good, but I definitely ate a little and then stopped. So, I still consider my challenge a success, even if other people might not.

2) I have stayed on track with my Bible reading. Unfortunately, my friend who suggested it is having generally a crazy week/month/life, and hasn't gotten around to starting it yet. I think I'll just forge ahead and continue it... and maybe Mark will join me.

3) We are looking at some Beagle puppies not this week but the next. They're just 2 weeks old right now, and the breeders only like to let people come when they're 3 weeks or older (totally understandable - I didn't even realize that they were that young.) Mark and I have talked extensively about getting this puppy, and I think we're both leaning (pretty far) toward yes. We are at a really good place in our life to get a puppy right now - it won't be left alone unless Mark and I have both gone out (like to dinner or something), or when I go to the grocery store during the week. There will be one person home every day of the week, and both of us will be home in the afternoons during the weekdays, so there will be ample time for training and walks. Plus, they're so stinking cute:

And that's pretty much what's happening with us...

Happy Labor Day!

No sugar, what?

2010-09-02T23:28:00.000-04:00

First off: my darling hubby wants to know if any of you have ever had a beagle puppy before. He has puppy fever really badly, and I've pretty much laid down the law about a big dog (just for right now - I don't think it's always the best thing to keep a big dog in an apartment.) So his next best choice is a beagle.

So, who's had one? Did you like it? Pros/cons of that particular breed?

Now for an update on my crazy idea...

I've given up sugar for a week. This might not be crazy to other people, but it certainly is to me. So, for 7 days, no refined sugar. I can have sweet things like fruit and honey, but they have to be able to be found in nature. I eat WAY too much sugar, and will end up with diabetes later in life if I don't curb the habit now.
And let me tell you, my willpower was put to the test today. I worked extra, and we had a really busy morning. Someone had brought in DOUGHNUTS. It was torture - here I was, crazy busy, crazy hungry, no time to fix my food, and the box of doughnuts was just absolutely calling out to me. And can I just say, I did not eat a single. little. bite. of any of them?? I was quite proud of myself. (I still wanted one, though...) Instead, I filled my afternoon with healthy snacks, like Kashi crackers with almond butter, a peach from our CSA, and some grapes. Not too shabby. This was Day 2, and so far so good... hopefully I can continue with that through the weekend and into next week!

Also, my other goal - do my daily Bible reading as laid out by my little year-long outline. So far so good ... I think I'm on something like Day 4? So nothing too impressive there, but it's a daily thing, and my problem is if I stop, or skip a day or something, I'll really never get back into it.

So now I'm tired. It's past my bedtime. 'Night, blog world :)

Oh, Happy Day!!

2010-08-31T17:01:00.000-04:00

Indeed, it is :)

Mark flip-flopped his normal schedule, and hung out with me and got suit-fitted this morning, and went into his internship this afternoon. A nice change from the norm :)

Why this day is so happy:

Exhibit A: laying in my uber-amazing-comfy bed forever this morning :)

Exhibit B: leftover Thai food for lunch!! This is Chicken Panang, also known as heaven:

Exhibit C: My CSA box!!!!!!

I do think we might be upgrading to the bigger box next month, but we'll make do with this for now I guess..... :) This makes me so, so, so, so happy for so many reasons. I am more thankful for this food than other food - I guess I shouldn't be, but I just feel a stronger connection. I've read about the farmers that grew this food. I trust the company. I believe in their methods. This food is organic, and it's local, and beautiful. This will become our food for this week: bruschetta for lunch tomorrow, eggplant parmesan (maybe a small eggplant parm) for Thursday's dinner with a green salad, and peaches for our snacks. Oh, how happy this box makes me!!

And finally, Exhibit D: Wonderful shopping trip to Jo-Anne Fabric and Crafts!

I got quite the spread of scrapbooking supplies, and Lord knows I sorely needed them (and oh, they are pretty! Paper! Prismacolors! Metallic gold pen! Oh my!), but this little gem was my favorite buy of today :) I desperately want a house to decorate. It's hard to decorate for holidays and such 1) when you've never really done it and don't really know how, and 2) when your place of residence is not permanent. But I've decided to try and turn over a new leaf this year, and this is a great place to start! (And it looks so pretty on my red door!) Come Christmas, I hope to have garland running along our little banister between the dining room and living room, but this is a lovely start for fall. Once October comes, I'll add a few real pumpkins, and our entrance will be lovely :)

I think I'm gonna go break into some of that new scrapbooking stuff now ... hope everyone has an equally lovely day as I did!!

Lots of little things

2010-08-31T09:41:00.000-04:00

I have lots of little random things to talk about this morning, so I feel that a list is in order..

1) I finally joined the Twitter bandwagon, due to encouragement from my Nashville friends. I'm not sure how I feel about all of this - I have a facebook, a blog, and now a Twitter. What does this say about me as a person?

2) Mark and I had a really awesome date night last night. We went to Surin 280 to eat - the Surin restaurants are these amazing Thai restaurants in Birmingham. Probably my favorite places to eat in the city. (And, coincidentally, all owned by the uncle of one of my college suitemates...) I ate some fantastic sushi, and had some yummy yummy curry that I get to reprise for lunch again today! Then we went to Target and walked around wishing for things we shouldn't buy. And then we came home and watched The Informant, which was a really good movie. I love Netflix. And my husband :)

3) Today I get my first CSA box, and I am so excited!! This month, we're doing the smallest share that Grow Alabama has, but I anticipate needing more veggies than we're going to get, so we might have to upgrade to the middle share. If we do that - lots of veggies!! We'll see. It's going to be quite the culinary adventure, but I am so, so excited about it :)

4) I'm trying again with the read through the Bible plan - but this time, Elissa and I are doing it together, and I'm hoping that it will last. It'll help to have an accountability partner. Pray for me in this endeavor...

5) Mark's suit came in! So we're going to Jos. A Bank to get him fitted this afternoon - can't wait to see my sweetie looking all grown-up and professional. :)

That's all for now ... but I may be back this afternoon with pictures of our lovely veggies!

This week's happenings

2010-08-26T09:50:00.000-04:00

My week so far in pictures!

Bismarck, the sweet German Shepherd mix of Dave's. He likes to show his puppy off - Bismarck is like his child :) It's cute.

Yesterday, while Elissa was at work, I did a little bit of scrapbooking. Kelly at The Startup Wife (who scrapbooked professionally for a while) wanted to see pictures, so I took some.

Here's my invasion of Elissa and Tab's kitchen table:

I look like I've moved in with them :) (Actually, I think Lissa would be okay with that.)

The work in progress:

Finished first page (which I am so incredibly thrilled with!)

First spread - I'm not sure why it turned sideways like that.

Unfortunately, that's all I got to do, because I'm out of some of my supplies. Depending on what's happening today (I may hang out with some of Elissa's friends) I might make a Hobby Lobby run and stock up.

Several of you have also asked about the cat. He is so special. His name is Crumb, and he is a sphinx cat. (The hairless kind, like Mr. Bigglesworth in Austin Powers, but not nearly as evil.) Elissa got him maybe a year ago or so from a sphinx rescue group - his foster mom got him from his original owners, who didn't like him so much apparently. (Interesting and sort-of depressing fact: his original name was Legion. Poor kitty!) Elissa loves interesting and unusual pets (she has a hedgehog as well as Crumb), and she wanted a pet who would love her and be a bit more relational than the hedgehog is, so she got Crumb. Sphinx cats are very curious, and more like toddlers than cats. He talks to you with inflection, he hugs Lissa and knows that she is his Mommy, he gives kisses (both by licking, and by bumping your finger with his nose when you hold it out - it's so cute!) He is very sweet, despite his frightening appearance (and I actually think he's really cute now that I'm used to him.) He also isn't very photogenic. Some photos of him cuddled up with Lissa's uber-soft blanket this morning:

Hello from Nashville!

2010-08-25T09:59:00.000-04:00

I am sitting on Lissa's bed with her crazy cat nestled under the covers. He likes to burrow.

Silly Crumb...

Activities so far: met Bismarck the German Shepherd. Hung out with the group last night. Made pancakes this morning and ate them with Lissa.

Three more days with my best friend! More fun activities to come! Yay!

Hello, my pretties...

2010-08-24T14:08:00.000-04:00

I've been fighting a headache all the livelong day. I hope it goes away soon ... headaches make my motivation go away. (And you know what's ridiculous? I think that my headache might have started because of my HAIR. It's getting long, and on days when I just don't care, I like to put it in a bun straight from the shower. I think that it's getting so long and thick that it's just too heavy (esp. when wet) to have all in one spot on my head. INSANITY.)

Now that my rant is over...

Exciting things!
I signed up for my CSA yesterday!!! I got the little share, and I figure I can always upgrade as need be. Wahoo for local produce!! I pick my first box up next Tuesday, and oh man, am I excited.

Also exciting: quiche for lunch today! (Well, if my head stops hurting long enough for me to make it. I should probably get on that soon, actually...)

And! I like to give the people what they want to see, and several people have asked to see my new boots. :)

We'll start with a cute new outfit that my Mommy bought me when she was here.

I love the leggings, and I love the tunic, but I'm not sure about the tunic WITH the leggings. What do you guys think?

The tunic again, with jeans and my lovely lovely boots! (I am making a very weird face in this picture. Don't ask me why...) I can't wait for it to be fall so I can wear these things!

I really, really, really love these boots. I love them a lot. I plan to wear them with probably everything I own.

And a close-up of the boots themselves! I love the strap details on the back of them, and they zip, so it's super easy to get in and out of them.

Oh fall, please come quickly.

Confused...

2010-08-23T10:46:00.000-04:00

I am confused, can anyone help?

I know that there is a way to reply to comments through email. I myself have set up this option with my blog. But I can't figure out how to reply to other people's comments on my blog - anybody know?

Monday Monday

2010-08-23T07:43:00.000-04:00

Oh Monday, how I missed you.

Since working my weekend schedule, I LOVE Mondays! (I know, that's weird when the rest of the population hates them, but whatev.) The week is new, I have five days to do whatever, and I always wake up super-early and get to see the sunrise coming through our bedroom windows. (Cause I always blog in bed. Where do you guys blog?)

Happy thing:
A really FANTASTIC giveaway is being held at mucho mucho bueno bueno!! You should check it out, because it's really really great, and it introduced me to a really cool website with lots of pretty dresses :)

Other happy thing:
I got my boots!! Mark and I had a date day on Friday because he wasn't working, and we went to see Iron Man 2 at the Dollar Theater (am I the only one who wasn't all that impressed? The first one was way better...), and out to eat for a late lunch. Then he was like "Hey, let's go to the Clarks store!" So we did, and I am SO IN LOVE with these boots, and they said people were already buying them like crazy, so I'm glad I bought them when I did or they might have run out! And then we bought him some new jeans (for $30 at Banana! What a steal!) And we were both happy :) And now we can't buy anything else for quite a while...

And now, what I hope to accomplish this week:
-Scrapbook my cruise! (Or at least start on it)
-Sign up for a CSA! (OMG I'm SO EXCITED. See this website for the awesome organization I'm going through...)
-clean my house. no exclamation point there.
-Go to Nashville and visit Elissa! She's having a rough time right now, and she needs me. And I miss her. So that's that.

Hope all you gals (and guys? are there any guys besides Mark who read this?) have a great week!!

Lazy Day

2010-08-20T10:37:00.000-04:00

Today, we are being lazy. I'm still hangin' out in the bed (aren't laptops the best? You can tote them anywhere!), and Mark is still fast asleep beside me. It's rainy this morning, so all the more reason to lounge and not be in a hurry.

He's off from his internship today, and we have a whole day off together - something that never happens anymore unless we're traveling. We're planning on tidying up the apartment, and maybe seeing a movie at the dollar theater, depending on what's playing.

Exciting news: I got my pictures developed from when my mom came to visit! We didn't make a ton while we were out (or in) doing things, but we made a point to go make some cute ones right before she left. I'm so thankful for a mom who will come and just hang out with me :) I always have the best time with her, and I think it was a nice break from reality for her as well. My grandma lives with my parents, and while she can take care of herself fairly well, it's still a bit taxing on my mom. She handles things better than I ever could, but she needs a break once in a while :)

There are also some pictures from back when we went to Chattanooga to visit - we went to our favorite local BBQ place to eat. Yum yum!

Kelly and Mark, pre-haircut. Oh, it was long.

Me and Ninny

Me and Daddy

My parents back at home, playing a card game

Me and Mommy in Birmingham. We're shopping, and squinty-eyed in the morning sun!

The next day, at lunch. I really love this picture - my mom is so pretty!

In my backyard

Acting like a kid on the playground behind our apartment

Mommy releases her inner child

I love her.

So there they are! We had a great time, and I was very sorry she couldn't stay all week. She's an excellent houseguest - so easy to please :)

Also, update on the boots: Mark said I could get them as an early Christmas present! I said okay by me :) I went and tried on several different (cheaper) pairs at DSW the other day, and none of them compared to MY boots at Clarks. So, I figure I'm destined to have them :) The only ones that I've seen that I like as much are at Anthro, and those cost even more $$, so I think I'll get the ones I love so much. YAY! (Now fall needs to get here, along with some fall weather, so I can actually buy them and wear them.)

My Fall Must-Have

2010-08-18T08:18:00.000-04:00

My Mommy has to leave this afternoon :( It makes me sad.

We have had a grand old time though :)

On Monday, we did some grocery shopping, and Mark gave us the tour of the Special Collection at Samford. Then Andy and Suzie came over, and we all had dinner together.

Yesterday was our shopping day. We spent a small fortune on some clothes for Mark, which he needed badly. He got 2 pairs of jeans, and we had this really great coupon for Jos. A. Bank. We bought him a suit (and got 70 PERCENT OFF ... it was around $700 or so, and we got it for $250. AMAZING.) We also got him a couple polo shirts and two ties. He racked up pretty well :)
And my mom got some shoes from Clarks.

While we were in Clarks, I fell in love. This is my fall must-have. They are expensive. But I am SO in love.

Oh my gracious, it is beautiful. But expensive. I've wanted a pair of riding-type boots for, oh, about 2 years now. And I feel like I would wear them All. The. Time. The only thing is that they have a heel, and I was thinking more of a flat boot, but I love the way these look. I need opinions.

What do you guys think?

If you wore flats most of the time, but loved the (low) heeled boots ... would you buy them? Even though they're a lot of money, and you just blew through quite a bit on your sweet hubby?

Hooray!

2010-08-16T08:31:00.000-04:00

After a rather long and lonely weekend, Mark is back, and my Mommy is coming to visit me!!

Hooray!!

We are planning to do all sorts of fun things, like eat at snobby French cafes and potentially make cheese. (I'm still a little iffy about that... we'll see.) It will be nice to show her our life in Birmingham :)

Pictures will come soon!

You're So Vain

2010-08-13T17:47:00.000-04:00

(Disclaimer: I am bored, and by myself. This post is worthless garbage, but it might make you laugh. You've been warned.)

When I'm by myself, I like to look at pictures.

A lot of my pictures are housed on my computer.

I found these gems in the Photobooth section of my computer. They were from when Kelly was left by herself in my apartment. Apparently she got a little bored.

I laughed until I cried...

(This one has got to by my favorite.)

And so, I was inspired. Put me in an empty house, alone, missing my husband and my sister, with nothing to do, and add a willing audience (Thanks, interwebs!), and this is what you get.

It started out innocently enough...

This one is even pretty

I also like this one.

And then we get to page 2 of the Effects, and things just get weird.

But amusing?

I'm hoping that Mark will check my blog, and laugh, and miss my hilarity, and come home to me.

Maybe this wasn't the best way to do that, though...

Hum.

Now that I've made myself look like a total freak...

What do I do now?

Fill-in-the-Blank Friday!

2010-08-13T09:12:00.000-04:00

This week's topic: Birthdays!! (Which I love!)

As always, if you want to play along, go visit Lauren at the little things we do.

1. Birthdays are: not often enough! I love love love birthdays.

2. My favorite birthday memory was honestly, I think this year's. They're getting better as I get older. I got to see my family, I watched my sister play in a really awesome concert, I got a new set of china, and Elissa came to visit me after we came home from my parents' house. I'm not sure how a birthday can get much better than that :) .

3. A birthday tradition I (or my family) has is well, I've sort of declared a birthday month, which is sort of vain and selfish, I guess... My mom always always bakes and decorates a cake for everybody's birthday. I've never in my life had a store-bought cake for my birthday, and I'd like to keep it that way (unless said cake was from Pastry Art Bake Shoppe. I'd take one of those.) I'm keeping with that tradition in my own family as well .

4. If I had to choose one birthday meal to eat for the rest of my birthdays hence forward, I would choose Mmmm... that's a tough decision. I'm going to say one of the Surin restaurants around here - they're Thai, and AMAZING .

5. My birthday is on March 23rd. I'm a spring baby :) .

6. If I could take a birthday trip I would go to Italy! And stay for my entire birthday month :) .

7. The best gift I've ever received for my birthday was this is also tough, as I've received quite a few nice gifts. My china this last year was pretty amazing. I got a trip one year, when I was in high school. It was a school trip, but it was a pretty amazing school trip, so I still count it as a good present :) And Mark gave me a Tiffany necklace a couple years ago - that was pretty nice :) .

And now an update on me ... this week has been crazy. I can't believe it's already Friday! My car should be fixed this morning. I miss it so. I love that little Jetta...

Also, I was going to go to Nashville on an impromptu visit with Lissa, but since my car wasn't fixed, that plan changed. Back and forth and back and forth my week has been, it seems like.

I do get to see Kelly today - we're going to lunch somewhere before she goes home to Chattanooga.

And Mark, after he gets back from the library, is going to Griffin today to visit poor Thomas. I'll be by myself this weekend - wish I had some company :(

And then on Monday, my momma's coming to visit! I'm so excited - we will have such fun :)

And that's about it.

Happy Friday!

Stolen from Chelsea:

2010-08-11T14:32:00.000-04:00

I was going to do a bullet point post about all the random things I've done today. But instead, I'm going to copy one of sweet Chelsea's old posts and do... Reverse Letters!! (If you click on the link, it'll take you back to her original reverse letter post.) Hope you're okay with me being a total copy-cat, Chelsea!

Dear April,

Thanks for taking me to get fixed today.

It took you long enough.

However, I will dearly miss you while we're separated.

Your love on wheels,

The Jetta

Dear April,

I know you want to come and get me.

I am so full of sugary goodness.

But I am terrible for you.

It's a good thing The Jetta's in the shop, and you're without a car.

Saving your blood sugar fifty points at a time,

the Doughnuts at Publix

Dear April,

WHY THE HECK DID IT TAKE YOU THREE DAYS

TO CLEAN ME?!?!

But hey, thanks for doing it anyway :)

Love,

The Shower

Dear April,

This obsession has got to stop.

Any more, and I'll ask CTU to prepare an interrogation room for you.

Seriously, stop it.

-Jack Bauer

Dear April,

WASH US!!

Signed,

Your Laundry

Dear April,

Kindly send us back those Gettysburg DVDs.

You've had them for a month,

And you didn't even watch them!

Sincerely,

Netflix

Dear April,

You make a terrible plant mother.

Better luck next time,

the dead basil in the backyard

Dear April,

It's high time we had a better relationship.

And by that, I mean it's time that we HAVE a relationship.

Love,

Your ~~nonexistent~~ workout routine

Hope everybody's having a great Hump Day!

Surprise!

2010-08-10T08:30:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, I got a phone call from Kelly, and Surprise! I'm getting a visit from her today! She and her friend Kait are going with their boyfriends to the Arcade Fire concert in Georgia, but Colton and Bryce (the boyfriends) will be at the lake today. So Kelly and Kait are coming here to hang with me while they wait for the boys to get back. Yay!!

That also means that I really need to get out of my bed and clean my house. Because it's a disaster, and I've never met Kait before, and while Kelly can handle my messiness, I'm not sure if that's the kind of first impression I want to put out there to Kelly's friends. Motivation? I've got some.

Time to get a move on!

2010-08-09T08:17:00.000-04:00

It is nice to remember (and see) that sometimes, miracles do indeed happen. Sometimes they are small and sometimes they are very very huge and sometimes they are short-lived and sometimes not, but the most important thing is that they happen.

Now, and update on me. And us:

The summer is winding to a close. It's been a great summer, and I can't believe how fast time has flown. How is it the 9th of August already?!?
I'll have a full week this week - I'm working a bit extra this afternoon, and then lots of cleaning of the house, and I'm meeting some friends for lunch on Thursday and possibly doing lunch with another friend another day this week. Then next week, my mom is coming to visit!! I'm so excited - it'll be the first time that she's come to Birmingham for more than a day trip. I'm planning to take her to Chez LuLu, and we'll probably cook some, and do all sorts of fun stuff :) I love being friends with my mom!

What I also can't believe is that Mark starts school next week as well. It's crazy to think that we have less than a year before another major life change. I love it here in Birmingham, but I am ready to settle. I'd love to stay here, or go somewhere else, or whatever we need to do, but wherever we end up, I want to plan on being there for a while.

Kelly also starts back to school very soon, and I'm excited, because it'll be easier (I think) for me to come and visit her! She and the girls are moving into these apartment-style dorms that are new on her campus, so she'll get to be in sort of a suite-type-room for her senior year! (Oh my gosh, my sister is a senior. When did I get so old??) So I'm planning to visit, and cook for the girls, and all of that fun stuff.

I'm excited about the potential for fall, but I feel like we won't be having any fall weather anytime soon. Hopefully it'll cool off enough so that Mark and I can go camping, at least. We've never even used our tent!

I need to get up and get moving, but I hope everybody has a lovely day. It's sunny where I am :)

Life on the Farm

2010-08-06T07:52:00.001-04:00

We're at home in Birmingham again - we got back on Wednesday night. Yesterday I basically did nothing - just a quick run to the grocery store.

First of all ... we just found out that Mark's 15-year-old brother, Thomas, has mono. He's been sick for like 2 weeks, and they've gone through a frustrating amount of possible diagnoses - mastoiditis, viral meningitis, Rocky Mtn. Spotted Fever (along with all those other awful tick-related coinfections...) We're thankful that he has a diagnosis, and that it isn't as serious as any of those other diagnoses, but it will unfortunately knock him off his feet for at least a month, probably more. This is the first year that he's talked about getting serious about school too - I'm praying he doesn't get behind. Pray for him, will you guys? He's miserable, he sounds awful, he's lost 9 pounds (and he's not got a whole lot more to lose ... in his words, "I worked HARD for those 9 pounds!"), he won't eat, and he's just generally pitiful. Pray that he gets better as fast as possible. And pray for Mark's parents too, that they can be empathetic and handle things well and help him with school while he's at home.

Anyway, while we were in Chattanooga, I did get pictures developed from my time at Hannah's farm. And cause you're all so great, I'll share them with you! (All shot on film.)

looking out over the Gordon farm (or part of it...)

They had 2 gorgeous zinnia gardens - the butterflies absolutely loved those flowers.

According to my sister, this is an Eastern swallowtail. (not an African swallowtail like I called it, in error, before.)

Zinnias! I went home and asked Mark if we could plant some RIGHT NOW. They also look really beautiful in a vase - Hannah let me cut some and take them home for my kitchen table. We had fresh flowers for 4 days!

The lone eggplant. They weren't doing so well this summer.

Concord grapes. They tasted WONDERFUL. And because Hannah's parents farm organically, you can literally pick everything right off the plant and eat it. No pesticides to worry about - only a little dirt sometimes :)

The best raspberries I've ever eaten. They're called Caroline raspberries, and they're an heirloom variety, and they are so, so sweet. And not too many seeds, either!

Apples in Mr. Gordon's orchard

I really love this shot of the barn. My photog skills are getting better!

Swing

Some of the animals - sheep and chickens. The cows were already out in the field - their animals are all quite friendly :)

The friendly-looking tree with a face :)

This is my favorite picture of the bunch - I call it "These boots are made for workin'" I'm so witty, har har :)

Back inside, we wash the fruits of the Gordons' labor. These are Hannah's mom's squash tomatoes.

Beets, beans, and onions - I helped pick all of these!

Squash and some more of Hannah's mom's tomatoes

Beautiful heirloom tomatoes (which I also helped pick) - some of them are sitting in my freezer right now, waiting to be put into tomato sauce and soup!

The view from the kitchen window.

Visiting that farm and seeing all those pretty veggies and happy animals made me so, so delighted :) Hopefully I can have a vegetable garden one day - maybe not quite of those epic proportions, and I'm not sure I want cows, but it was so fun to visit!

P.S. Remember to keep poor Thomas in your prayers! He's pretty pitiful at the moment.

Update from Ooltewah

2010-08-03T12:27:00.000-04:00

I'm at my parents' house, about to go take pictures with Kelly after she showers, and I thought I'd post a quick update.

It's been a fun trip so far - after dinner last night, we watched some old home movies (and I never cease to be embarrassed ... I had about a 10-year awkward stage. Thank God that's over.) I've cooked a bit, and tonight we're going to Big River Grill with Sarah and Thomas. Hopefully afterward, we're going to reprise Kelly's performance in You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown (she was a senior in high school at the time), and we'll probably play a round or two of Baulderdash. Tomorrow, per Mark's request, we're eating lunch at our favorite BBQ joint :)

Good times.

I love coming home. You can't beat my family :)

Going home

2010-08-02T07:49:00.000-04:00

We're going to Chattanooga today to visit my family!

AND we get to see our couple-friends who we haven't seen in like a year, and not since Thomas came back from Iraq. We're pretty excited to see them :)

On their wedding day :)

me and Sarah last summer when we were double-dating!

I worked with Sarah in Chattanooga, and she was my best friend at work. They were really great when I was commuting, and let me sleep at their apartment one day when I wasn't going to be able to sleep at home. They're great people all around, and I really can't wait to see them tomorrow evening!

Hooray!

Fill-in-the-Blank Friday!

2010-07-30T09:56:00.000-04:00

As always, if you want to play along, check out Lauren's blog! Here we go...

1. The last thing I do before going to sleep is kiss Mark goodnight .

2. When I can't sleep I rub my feet on the fitted sheet - for some reason, I've always done this, even when I was little, and it helps me relax. Weird, I know. .

3. The first thing I do when I wake up is pee. And check blogs. .

4. When I'm tired I am not a happy person. Depending on how tired I am, sometimes I'll curl up wherever I am and just fall asleep, and then not want to move. .

5. My dream bedroom would be huge, with our current bedframe (I love it!), only king-size and a blue/white/brown theme. The palest of blue walls, almost white. Lots of big windows. Dark brown dressers with fun knobs. Hardwood floors with a big white rug. Two walk-in closets (so Mark can have his own) with special shelves for my shoes and a little sitting area. A reading nook with a big comfy chair against its own window. A big bathroom with a claw-foot tub and a separate shower. Oh, if only... .

6. If I could wake up anywhere tomorrow morning it would be on a farmstay in Italy, in a stucco bedroom looking out over vineyards and tomato plants. Please? .

7. The longest sleep I've ever had was I honestly don't remember - it was either the time I had my wisdom teeth removed, or possibly when I had a really severe case of TMJ and they prescribed me a muscle relaxer. Either way, I was sedated. I'm not a big sleeper - 7 or 8 hours a night, and I'm good to go. .

8. I sleep on my tummy. It's going to be bad when I get pregnant - I will NEVER be able to sleep .

9. When I sleep, I like to wear t-shirts, and depending on how hot or cold I am, just underwear, shorts, capris, or flannel pjs. And in the winter, I've been known to sleep in a hoodie and sweatpants. I like to be warm when I sleep .

10. My bedtime is usually around 10. When I work, it's more like 9. Mark calls me a grandma .

Also, a quick update..

Yesterday was a fun-filled day. I had a day-long battle with soap scum. I hate cleaning the bathtub more than anything in the whole world, because for some reason, it builds up soap scum like nobody's business. I don't know if it's the natural soap I use, or if it's whatever cheap material that the tub is made of, but I was literally scraping it off with a spatula yesterday. RIDICULOUS. And it really hasn't been that long since I cleaned it the last time. So today, I think I'm going to go and buy either some vinegar or some lemons (or lemon juice) and coat the bathtub in it and let it sit for a while, and then get a toothbrush or something and scrub scrub scrub. What sucks is that in a week or two, it'll be just as bad all over again.

Anybody have any really good soap-scum prevention ideas?

Amid my intense fight with the soap scum, I also went to Samford and met Mark for lunch. It's always a little odd going back there ... every time I go, I feel older, and it feels like some imprint of a home that I've nearly forgotten. It's a very strange feeling. But it's not uncomfortable ... I still love that campus. I forget how hilly it is though - my calves always hurt after I go visit! (Maybe I should walk around campus all the time - and then my calves would look good instead of hurting!)

We finished Season 4 of 24 ... and Mark wouldn't let me start watching season 5 last night, because he said he didn't want to watch another 4 hours :) Oops ... I get a little intense sometimes. :) I can't help it though - the cliffhangers are as bad as the ones on LOST, but you aren't quite as confused about WHAT THE HECK is happening.

Happy Friday! It's almost the weekend!

A Tale of Four Seasons

2010-07-29T16:28:00.000-04:00

First off, I have a confession to make. I am addicted to 24. You know, with Jack Bauer? Which is now off the air? Thank God for Netflix - they have the first 7 seasons on instant play mode. Mark and I have been watching it obsessively. It's so bad...

Now that I've gotten that off my chest...

It's official. I'm ready for fall. I've been trying so very hard to be patient with summer. But today, as I was getting in my car to meet Mark and Samford for lunch, my patience ran out. Momentarily, at least. Because it is so. fricking. hot.

The high temp has been BELOW 90 for THREE DAYS out of the last 51!!!!! And out of those 49 above 90 days, 22 of those days have been 94 degrees or higher. It's getting ridiculous. We've had a couple reach 100. I know that there are parts of the US that are indeed hotter than Alabama - but not many. And combine the high temps with the high humidity levels and serious lack of breeze, and man, it gets scorching.

Don't get me wrong. I love summer. It's probably my favorite season, second to spring. But I'm dying over here. Luckily, I think God gave us different seasons to make us appreciate variety. I'm funny with seasons - my mood changes throughout the year based on the season and weather. If you graphed it, it would look something like this:

Actually ... that's not entirely true. Here's a more detailed, accurate graph:

So. There are my seasonal moods. I'll break it down for you:

January-beginning of March:
A fairly dreary time for me. I am OVER WINTER at this point. This is always the time, especially February, that I am the saddest/most depressed, because I feel that spring is NEVER GOING TO GET HERE. I get a little bit dramatic. This past February, I remember having a mini-nervous-breakdown, and when Mark asked me what was wrong, amid really dramatic sobs, I said something to the effect of "I feel like *sob* it's never going to *sob* be spring. I *sob* think it's going to *sob* be cold FOREVER *sob*." It is also very, very dark in January and February. Light has a lot to do with my moods, which is why I love summer. Winter is dark. And not very happy.

Mid March thru beginning of May:
The light at the end of the long, cold, dark tunnel is in sight! My graph should actually be sort of schizophrenic during this time, because the temperatures are always so up and down, but it starts getting warm and sunny, and I start getting happier. The end of March is also my birthday, so that makes things considerably better. I equate looking forward to my birthday with looking forward to spring. My heart gets lighter, and I get out of the extreme funk of January and February.

May-June:
BLISS. It is spring and warm and getting hotter by the day and happy and I love, love, love it. When the temps reach the mid-70's and the sun comes out for good, I just want to pull on a sundress and go frolic in a field somewhere with posies in my hair. My heart literally feels like it is going to burst out of my chest from sheer joy. I grin, and smile, and laugh, and want to go on all-day-dates with Mark and play and never ever go to work. I am SO HAPPY during spring.

July-mid-September:
By July, I'm pretty used to summer, and am over the OH MY GOSH IT'S WARM AGAIN elation-al period. But I still love it a lot. Summer veggies are my favorite, and even though it's fairly sweltering in Alabama, everything is green and lush and wonderful (even if I do sweat a bit.) I can handle heat a lot better than I can handle cold, as long as I don't have to do any intense outdoor activity. (Picking tomatoes or going for a walk doesn't count as intense unless the heat index is about 100 degrees.) I'm still definitely happy, and I still marvel at how gorgeous a blue sky with white puffy clouds can look against the mountains' silhouette. This is why I love the South so much. It's just too pretty for words.

Mid-September-mid-November:
Harvest time :) I used to not be much of a fall person. I didn't appreciate it like I do now. I calm down a lot in the fall. There's something about the stillness of it, the slow beginning stages of plant-death, the turning of the leaves. I slow down. I think. I get extremely nostalgic in the fall - I don't know if it's because I miss school so much, because I feel like I should be starting classes again but am not (I know it's been three years. I still miss it.) I don't know if it's because of all the time spent with family or the cooling down of the temperatures or what, but fall, for me, is a feeling unlike any other. It isn't a bad feeling, and it's not sad. It's just ... poignant. I feel poignant for like 3 months.

And then it gets cold.
Mid-November - December:
I start to freeze. I start to get grumpy because of that, and because I hate wool and it makes me itch, but it's hard to find warm sweaters that AREN'T wool, so I'm either cold or itchy all the time. However, there are two FANTASTIC holidays during this period - I vascilate between which is my favorite, Thanksgiving or Christmas, every year. I love the time I spend with family. I love that the holidays keep me go-go-going so I don't have time yet to get sad about the cold weather. I love the sights and the smells and the Christmas lights. Around Thanksgiving, especially recently, I really do stop and think and thank God for all the blessings that I have - my family, my privilege, my country, for everything. And even more recently, I've come to realize that Thanksgiving is around harvest time for a reason, that people used to harvest their crops and give thanks for haivng something to see them through the winter. I understand that now more than I ever did before. And I believe wholeheartedly in the Christmas story of the Gospels, that Jesus came to Earth as a baby born to a virgin, the Christmas miracle. And that, above all, is my favorite part of Christmas. But I also love the gifts, the family time, the lights and decorations and the movies and stories and the magic of Christmas. It's a wonderful time of year, and while I'm still feeling quite nostalgic and poignant (and cold), there's an excitement in the air that only comes that one time per year.

And then it's January again, and I get sad.

I am so thankful that God gave us variety during our year, though, because no matter when it was, I'd get tired of the same-old-same-old I think. (Although, a constant 75 degrees might be acceptable. I might could find a way to live with that.) I know this has turned into a ridiculously long post, but it's nice to sit and think about what I have to look forward to while I'm melting away on this hot, hot day. (By the way - it's 94 degrees in Birmingham right now, and feels like 100. Yeesh.)

Update, and a blog award!

2010-07-28T09:30:00.000-04:00

Good morning, and happy Hump Day to everybody!

I'm caught up on my blog-reading, and I've got 15 minutes before Mark's alarm goes off and I need to go downstairs and make breakfast. Plenty of time for a morning post :)

Update on yesterday's goals:
They were lofty. What I did get done was good - the kitchen is pretty spotless, our dining room area is much cleaner, I've transcribed recipes to index cards that will actually fit in my (once-again-bulging) recipe box. I did about 20 loads of laundry. (Okay, maybe more like 6.) I washed the sheets and made the bed. And put away all my shoes. (A big deal, if you've ever seen my house - they just wander out of my closet and place themselves all over the floor!)

Also some sad news - yesterday morning, I found a hole in our fitted sheet. We've had these sheets for the three years we've been married, and Mark loved them so much that we didn't switch them out much - I just washed them and put them back on the bed. (How do all of you do your sheets? Do you rotate, or wash and re-use?) The hole is where Mark's knees are, I think - we're both stomach sleepers - and it was one of those holes that was obviously just worn through. The fabric around the hole is also threadbare. We've worn our favorite sheets out!! Sadly, a replacement set would be $90 - and we aren't willing and also can't afford to do that. So, it's back to the good old (super soft) beech sheets for now.

OH, and I almost forgot - I got a blog award!

It's from Chloe at My New Life as a Housewife - she's super sweet, and she lives in Spain! Go check her out :)

The Rules:

Thank and link back to the person who gave you this award.
Share 7 things about yourself.
Pass the award along to 15 bloggers who you have recently discovered and who you think are fantastic for whatever reason!
Contact the bloggers you've picked and let them know about the award! I’m sure they’ll be thankful.

And the 7 things about myself:

I am developing a love for different vegetables that I never thought I would. We're trying to incorporate a lot of vegetarian meals into our diet (cheaper AND healthier), and I'm loving it so far!
I've also developed a really intense love for eggs and egg-based dishes in a very short amount of time. (Thanks, in part, to my BFF Elissa!)
I am learning patience in this particular season of my life. I love where we're at, and I love Mark and my job and I'm so, so thankful for my schedule... but I want to settle so bad it hurts. I want a house, and I want for Mark to find a job, and I want to stop moving all the time. But I'm trying to remember that it will come in time.
I love to listen to my husband laugh.
I haven't been shopping (for anything but food) in months. And I'm okay with that.
I am trying to decrease the amount of sugar in my diet. It is hard. You have no idea. But I've gone two days now without desserts! Yes, I am addicted to sugar.
I am, by nature, a whole bunch of contradictions. (Really lazy, but still type-A in some instances. Extremely passionate, but passive-aggressive. Passive-aggressive in and of itself. Messy, but calmer and happier when things are neat. The list goes on.) It causes me a fair amount of inner-turmoil. At 25, I'm still trying to learn how to deal with that.

And the 15 lovely bloggers I choose:

Alison @ A Pair of Aviators
Alfie @ Coffee and Stilettos
Ashley @ have heart
Lilly @ A Pre-Life Crisis
Becca @ Adorable Optimism
Emmy @ Emmy, In Progress
Kelly @ Kelly S.
Lacey @ mille baisers
Mrs. Hesson @ Meet the Hessons
Stephanie @ Marriage Tales
Caroline @ Simply Smithwick
Erica @ so very errie
Chelsea Rebecca @ TRIUMPHS and blunders of a KOOKY gal
Amy @ Just Add Walter
Sarah @ EatWell.LoveMuch.LaughOften.

So there you have it! Hope everybody has a fantastic rest of the week!

Tuesday!

2010-07-27T10:23:00.000-04:00

Goals for today (before Mark gets home around 4:30):

-clean my house. the whole thing. i'm over the mess.
-choose pictures of the cruise to scrapbook. yes, i'm miserably behind.
-get an enormous amount of laundry done.
-finish my current roll of film, and take two rolls to be developed.

It's 9:30 now. And I still need to shower. I think these goals might be a tad bit lofty. We'll see.

Oh, the joys of ~~part-time~~ homemaking. But honestly - if we were rich, and I could just do this all the time, I would love it.