A Few More Updates!

It's just me and the cat tonight, as Ben is on a camp-out with his 14-15 year old boys from church. I'm a little nervous about him being gone, but he's only about 30 minutes away, and with 3 weeks left until my due date, I'm not very likely to go into labor tonight. However, I still have a sink full of dishes and I'm exhausted from walking all over Walmart today.

One thing I'm really grateful for, is that I'm done working. I had my last day of work on Wednesday the 17th. It probably would have been a more emotional day except that it just happened to be an extremely stressful day with teachers calling in sick and spraining their ankles and having to go home early ... yikes! All in all, I haven't missed working yet, and I probably won't until I miss that first paycheck I suppose. I do miss some of my co-workers and the children, but it's good to have time and energy to accomplish some of the tasks around my house that have been piling up for the last couple of months. I do have to be very careful about how much I do though, because if I overdo it, I really end up paying for it!

We finally got furniture in the baby's room! We've had the crib for a couple of weeks of course, but initially we weren't sure what we were going to do about dressers, etc. However, one of our friends was participating in a yard sale to benefit a young man with some medical issues, and one of the things they collected to sell was a complete white wicker bedroom set, 2 dressers, a trunk, a nightstand and a rocking chair. Since the rocking chair was wrapped in cellophane and we couldn't tell whether it was comfortable or not, we opted not to get rocking chair. We did, however, get everything else for $80, which I'm quite proud of! The color and style match the room perfectly and now we have STORAGE! I finally got to wash the baby's clothes and have somewhere to put them! It was so fun folding all the baby's clothes. I kept thinking to myself, "oh my gosh that is so cute!" and "oh my gosh, THAT is so cute!" She is going to be one well-dressed little girl.

I went to the OB on Wednesday and they discovered that I am dilated 1 cm. Isn't that exciting? It doesn't give any indication of when the baby is coming, of course, but it's progress! I had contractions all night that night, probably due to that internal exam. Last night however, everything was pretty calm so I'm not worried about going into premature labor. Well, not yet anyway! I'll be happy to give it one more week just to make it to 38 weeks and then she can come any old time she's ready, or perhaps she can be convinced ... I'm getting pretty uncomfortable and my clothes are getting too tight so I'm ready!

Baby's Room Update!

The baby's room is finally done ... sorta. We finished painting the day of my baby shower and got the crib in there a couple of weeks later. It looks really good. Now I just need to finish painting a shelf, hang it back up on the wall, and get the baby's furniture in there. But you can see the dramatic before and after shots. I think the stripes turned out beautifully. I'm SO happy with them. I also had my hubby change out all the cream/black electrical outlets for bright white ones and spray-painted the heating vent cover white as well. I wish we had painted the woodwork white because it looks very shabby next to the crisp, freshly painted walls, but I guess that's a project for another time!

BEFORE:


AFTER:

Getting down to wires

We're getting down to the wire here, only about 6 more weeks to go! We are so excited and of course, nowhere near ready! The goal is to finish painting the nursery this week and get the crib moved in. My baby shower is on Saturday and I keep telling Ben I need somewhere to put all the baby's stuff! Maybe tonight I can convince him to finish painting?

Speaking of wires, I made a trip to the cardiologist last week after a slight scare on Monday morning. I went to visit a friend from church with another friend, and we were sitting in her living room talking when all of a sudden I started to feel like my heart was beating out of my chest and I was feeling slightly nauseous. I leaned over to my friend who had been a nurse and she put her hand on my wrist and we timed my pulse--120 beats per minute, just sitting there! Of course, our friend had the space heater on in her house and I was feeling pretty warm. With having a baby on board, I called my OB just to make sure everything was ok, and they told me to go ahead and visit the cardiologist as the OB's office doesn't have any sort of cardiac diagnostic equipment! Eek! So off I went to the cardiologist who told me not to worry, that everything was probably just pregnancy-related, but who still ordered an echocardiogram and a 24-hour heart monitor. I had the echocardiogram the same day and it came back normal. I went Monday for the heart monitor hook-up and spent a very uncomfortable 24 hours with 7 electrodes taped to my body, recording a constant EKG. I can't even describe how silly I felt with a bunch of cords running under my shirt, but I dealt with it. I still haven't gotten any results back, but it can take a week or so. I just hope I don't have to go back to the cardiologist for many, many years to come!

In other news, I only have about a week left of work. We found my replacement and she's starting next Monday. I suppose I should be grateful, but truly it feels a little weird. As stressful as it can be sometimes, I've been working for so long that I'm very used to it. I enjoy my job, and I enjoy my contribution to the family budget. We'll survive without my income, but we won't be able to save as much as we have been able to while I've been working. That said, I know how important my role as a mother will be in the life of my child, especially having worked in child care for the past couple of years. I truly feel that nothing can replace a mother's influence in her child's life. I know it will be a challenge for independent-minded me, but I'm looking forward to this new phase in my life.

Eight more weeks!

I can't believe it's only 8 more weeks before the baby's due date. I'm having a baby shower in 2 weeks, and we're going to be scrambling to try to get everything together before she comes! We primed the nursery for painting last Saturday, and so hopefully tomorrow we'll be able to get the actual paint on the walls. I think I've decided on the stripes, at least on one wall, so I'd better go and draw my lines for that today!

I'm feeling totally huge and I can't imagine my belly getting any bigger. Ha!! If only I could be that lucky! I ended up buying one of those maternity support belts and it has made a world of difference. I can actually walk now, even after a full afternoon of work. I used to look like a complete cripple in the evening, moving so slowly across the house and gripping the handrail to go up the stairs, but now, as long as I'm wearing that belt, I can boogie! I'm not completely without pain, but it's not so debilitating.

The Olympics have been a real treat. I've been staying up way too late to watch all the coverage in the evening. The baby really likes the Olympics too. She moves nonstop while I'm sitting on the couch watching for 4 hours a night. Either she's going to be an athlete, or she really likes the music from the figure skating!

Wrapping up January

I can't believe January has already come and almost gone! I feel pretty good, although some days are better than others. Whenever I'm not working, I'm sleeping or couch potato-ing due to my hip and sciatic pain, the overwhelming exhaustion, and the fact that I am constantly sick with some bug or another. It's interesting that I'm not experiencing a lot of the things about pregnancy that I was expecting to. None of the books I read on pregnancy really helped me very much, because my issues seem to be just weird and specific to me! Oh well. We're not too far from the goal-line now; just over 10 weeks to go!

With the baby coming so soon, I'm finally getting to work on the nursery! I was going to paint the walls a limey green, (free can of paint, what can I say), but after my sister-in-law gave me a red flowered crib set and an extra set of red-checked crib sheets, I've actually changed my design plan a little bit so that the room doesn't look like Christmas when it's all done. My plan is to paint the walls white with a lime green accent wall, or perhaps white and lime green stripes ... haven't exactly decided yet. I'm probably going to have to paint a strip of lime green just to see how it looks on the wall before I make my decision. Then we'll just have red and lime accents. I started prepping the room today by taking down the curtain rod, removing the shelf on the wall, taking out all the nails, and filling in the holes with joint compound and a putty knife. Then I was having so much fun with the putty knife that I decided to fill in the scrapes in the stairway from moving the couches downstairs. Eventually those walls will get painted too, but I'll have to wait until it's a bit warmer I think. The basement does not have HVAC. Now I have to wait for the joint compound to dry (24 hours) and then I can finally get to work priming the room for paint. Hooray! So, stay tuned for updates on my progress!

Happy New Year 2010!

It's hard to believe that it's been 10 years since Y2K. Do you remember where you were when 1999 became 2000? I was in my parents' house in New York, and my dad decided that after all the Y2K scare, it would be really hilarious to go and pull the breaker at midnight. He's a funny man, my dad!

Well, what would New Year's be without a football game? As Ben is an avid Auburn fan, we watched the Auburn/Northwestern game on January 1st. I don't think I've ever seen such an interesting ending to a game. If you saw the game, you know what I'm talking about. If not, well, you just missed out then! It's certainly destined to become a classic.

Sunday night I went to bed feeling a little sick to my stomach, but I thought, no biggie, I just ate too much candy. (My house is FULL of candy leftover from Christmas. *sigh*) Monday I got up, ate a little breakfast, drank some orange juice (bad idea), swept and mopped my kitchen floor, and got ready for work. I ate lunch in a hurry as I was driving to work and by the time I got there I really was not feeling well. I couldn't go home until my boss went and picked her daughter up, so she went and did that and in the meanwhile I did my best to put on a happy face as parent after parent came in to register their child. Oh there is nothing worse than a busy day at work when you feel like you're about to hurl. And then right after my boss got back from picking up her daughter, I lost it, literally. So I came home right away and after that I'm sure I lost everything I had eaten for the last month. For 5 straight hours I was completely miserable, lying in bed unable to move except to roll over or get up and run to the restroom. Thank heavens it only lasted for 5 hours. Today I'm at home recovering from this stomach bug and trying to reacclimate my body to solid foods. The good thing about stomach bugs is that they are so short lived. And thank goodness that babies in utero and women's bodies are hardy enough to withstand such a beating!

Christmas 2009

This year was our first Christmas in our new home. You would think that I would have gone all out with the Christmas decorations in celebration, but alas, being pregnant and returning from Utah just a few days before Christmas ... well ... my Christmas tree made it up on Christmas Eve, just hours before my parents and little brothers arrived from New York.

As we had purchased ourselves a brand-new king-sized bed for "Christmas" this year, we simply did stockings on Christmas morning. My parents gave us a cordless drill which we were VERY grateful for, and used immediately to install our over-the-stove microwave. Here's to years and years of home fix-it projects! We spent Christmas day at my brother's house with our whole family. It was really nice to just hang out and be with the fam. That night however, my eyes started getting really really itchy and when I woke up on Saturday morning, much to my chagrin, I realized that I had brought more back than just luggage from Utah. Pink eye! The first pink eye of my life. And let me tell you, pink eye is NO FUN. Ben got it too, but he seemed to get it worse than I did. Although my eyes hurt and were red and itchy, Ben's eyes actually swelled to the point where I wasn't sure if I was married to Ben or Quasimoto! The worst part of the whole thing was that Sunday was supposed to be our Christmas choir program at church, and I'm the choir director! After receiving a priesthood blessing and after much prayer, I felt it would be okay to go and lead the choir program. I have to say, it turned out pretty well, considering 1/5 of my men's section (Ben) was not there. Monday we both went to the doctor and got medicine for our poor eyes. We're both recovered from the pink eye now, although not before managing to pass it along to my niece. I just pray that's as far as it goes, although the thing is horribly contagious! With parenthood just around the corner, I doubt I'll be able to avoid it permanently.

My parents stayed through January 2nd, and despite being sick for part of the time they were here, it was such a blessing to have them. I know it's a long drive for them (16 hours), but I'm so grateful that my brother and I live in the same area so we get to see my parents more often. I was so spoiled being able to take so much time off work leading up to and over the holidays!

Our trip to Utah!

The week before Christmas, we had the opportunity to fly to Utah for 6 days. Ben's grandmother turned 100 on December 20th, and the family had planned a big party in her honor on the 19th. As 6 of Ben's 7 siblings were going to be there for the event, we decided that not only would it be a great opportunity to celebrate grandma becoming a centenarian, but also for me to meet some of Ben's family that I had never met! We flew out very early on Wednesday the 16th from Atlanta, but with a connecting flight in Phoenix, it felt like the longest airplane ride of my life. (Pregnancy and airplanes don't mix very well, I've decided.) Plus we were flying with Ben's sister and her 4 children, ages 8, 5, 3 and 2 months. (Children and airplanes don't mix very well either.) Nevertheless, despite a few spilled drinks and trying to get the 3-year-old not to kick the seat in front of her more than once every 20 seconds or so, we finally made it to Salt Lake where it was ... not as chilly as I was expecting! Or maybe that's because I am expecting ... hmmm ... Very luckily, although I was 5 months pregnant, my big winter coat still fit me! I don't get a chance to wear that coat very often, so it was nice to be able to use it.

While in Utah, we stayed with Ben's brother Nathan and his family in Highland. Their oldest daughter gave up her queen-sized bed and bedroom for us, which we were very grateful for. We had a very good time getting to know Nathan's family, and playing Ticket to Ride with them, which we immediately purchased with some Christmas money upon our return to Georgia! We also saw Avatar with Nathan, and made waffles for everyone for breakfast. They were so impressed with the waffles that they sent us back home with a Belgian waffle maker. We were also able to catch up with some old friends (although we didn't have time for everyone), and we were able to go to the temple which was a HUGE blessing. With the Atlanta temple being closed for extensive renovations, we are now 4 hours from a temple which is difficult for this pregnant lady. Being able to attend the temple was a wonderful, wonderful experience. Aside from the birthday party, it was definitely the highlight of our trip.

The birthday party on Saturday was really neat. I got to meet some of my mother-in-law's siblings, and distant cousins and such. Ben's sister Michelle put together about a 16-foot timeline of grandma's life, complete with pictures and world events for comparison. Ben couldn't imagine what women did before the invention of the bra in 1913. The timeline was really amazing to look at. It took several hours of preparation, and then a couple of more hours to assemble before the party.



There were quite a few people at the party, which was held at grandma's ward building. It was pretty informal, mostly just eating and a small program where people were able to tell stories about grandma. We were able to get our picture taken with grandma, which if I can find it ... aha!



Our flight back on Monday was MUCH faster than the flight out. We flew via Denver, but our flight from Salt Lake was delayed so we had to run (or try to) once we got to Denver in order to make our connecting flight. When we got to our gate, who should we see but Ben's uncle and cousin waiting for the same flight! They had left on an earlier flight but still were scheduled to be on our flight, and on top of that, they had been assigned seats in the same row. What a coincidence! I had a good time chatting with Ben's cousin, who lives with her husband and 3 boys about an hour away from us.

All in all, we feel very blessed that we were able to make this trip. With a baby on the way, I'm not sure when we'll be able to make a trip like this again, much less be able to get together with so many of Ben's siblings and nieces and nephews. It really is true that the most important things in life are the members of your family. I'm so glad that we were able to spend some time forging lasting relationships with Ben's family.

All kinds of fun!

Getting a new house is such a crazy busy time! By now you would think that I'd be all settled in, but the truth of it is, we had a little more storage available to us at our apartment, and we had to leave it when we left. In my kitchen for example, which at first glance looks pretty well put together, if you look closer you'll see boxes lined up on floor along the wall behind the kitchen table. I still have nowhere to put that stuff, so I'm waiting until I can get some sort of buffet or storage implement to put in the kitchen.

I also have no working oven. When we bought the house, it came with a built-in range. We were essentially given a free-standing range when we bought our used refrigerator from a friend, so we cut out the built in range which had a very small oven, and replaced it with this freestanding range. Unfortunately we didn't realize that after sitting for so long in my friend's basement, the oven no longer worked. The burners on top work just fine, but no oven. It's only the best baking time of the year and I can't bake a thing! I guess I'm sorry out of luck for now because I can't afford to replace or even fix it right at the moment.

We bought a brand new washer a dryer! The washer is actually hooked up, but we can't hook the dryer up yet because we need an electrician to change out the receptacle that we have in the luandry room. We're also changing the location of the dryer vent because right now it extends about 20 feet to go out the side wall of the house. We think that's a fire hazard, so we're going to put it out of the wall that's directly behind the dryer. Having no dryer is really hard but for now, I'm surviving.

Another little problem that we did not anticipate when we moved into our house is that the previous owner left us with a flea infestation! Ben kept getting little bites all over his ankles at night, and when I bought a flea comb ... well you REALLY don't want to know how many fleas I got off the cat. Luckily for us, our good friend sells professional pest control products, so we were able to purchase some flea killer spray from him. We sprayed the house about 2 weeks ago and I think the population has diminished, but we're supposed to do it 2 more times to ensure that we really killed them all. Yuck. Well, we live in the south--if it's not fleas it's cockroaches or termites ...

We're going to Utah next week! Ben's grandma is turning 100 and her birthday party is on the 19th, so we're heading out there on the 16th, and we'll be back on the 21st. We're excited for the trip, but I would be more excited if I could do my laundry before we go ...

All settled in

We've been all moved in for 2 weeks now, and I must say, it is nice to have our own house! Frankly, I LOVE our house. It may have some strange paint colors as well as some amazing flowery wallpaper in the master bath, but I think it's just perfect! It's a split level house, and while I wasn't sure how I would like it, I really like having only to go up or down half a flight of stairs to get what I need. The kitchen is small, but it's workable for now. (It just needs a coat of paint that's not gold or royal blue.) The 2 best parts about the house, in my opinion, are the basement, and the back yard. The basement has 2 rooms, a family room and a storage/laundry room. The storage room works really well for our food storage and doubles as a pantry, since we don't have a pantry off the kitchen. My other favorite part of the house is the back yard. The house sits on .56 acres, so the back yard is pretty big, and it's completely fenced in. Most of the houses that we looked at were in newer subdivisions, and didn't have much in the way of yards. Having grown up in rural New York State, being surrounded by green space has always been very important to me. It's an old house (built in 1986), and it needs some updating, but we're very happy with it.

Pictures of our new house!

Sorry this has taken so long. We still don't have internet at our house, so I had to plan a trip to my inlaws' house and then manage not to forget my camera. More stories to come. Enjoy the pictures!

Getting ready for the big move

I'm home alone tonight! Ben is off learning lessons on home repair and renovation from our landlord. We closed on our house last Wednesday, and aside from a little bit of stress with a late document on Tuesday, everything went off without a hitch. There were none of the surprises everyone warned us about, for which I am grateful! We bought a used fridge and a gas stove from my boss which we dropped off on Saturday evening. We needed the fridge, and although we didn't need the stove as the home came with a gas stove, it was a very old stove, the oven was small, AND it was built in to the cabinets which I wasn't thrilled about. The "new" stove is a freestanding stove, and Ben and my landlord are working hard tonight to get the old stove out, cut out the cabinets and get the "new" stove in. Fun fun!

The big move is on Saturday, and I've had lots of help packing. I'm very grateful for good friends who are so willing to help! Today my sister-in-law and my mother and father-in-law came over and we got all my books and all my food storage packed. Now all that's left is the kitchen, clothes, and the stuff in the TV room. It's amazing how many boxes it takes once you get started. Hopefully I'll be able to go over soon and take some pictures to post online.

No time, no time!

Lately I don't know where all of my time goes. I have to much to do and I can never get it all done! I'm so tired by the time I get done with work at the end of the day, then by the time I get dinner on the table the evening is gone and it's bedtime. Somehow I've got to get my house cleaned and packed in the next two weeks ... Help!

The week before last I spent in New York visiting my family. I had such a great time! My sister and her baby daughter were there visiting too. It was so fun just to spend time with my family, visiting my grandma, oohing and aahing over the beautiful leaves, making apple crisp and half-moon cookies, and enjoying the crisp, cold, fall air! The only way my vacation could have been more perfect is if my hubby had been able to go. Here are a few pictures:

Me with my sister

Beautiful fall colors

My dad, sister, and neice

The biggest pumpkin I have ever seen!!!

Me and my 88 year old grandma :)

Moving Forward

Everything is moving forward with purchasing our home! We had the home inspection on Tuesday and aside from a few drainage issues that will need to be addressed once we move in, everything looks pretty good. The inspector was very thorough, so we feel pretty confident the house is in pretty good shape. We did see a Black Widow spider during the inspection. Scary!!! The spider will definitely have to move out. We're signing all our loan paperwork which is kind-of intimidating, but we feel like we're getting a good house. More than that, we feel like we're getting the right house, which is the most important thing.

My pregnancy is moving along as well. I am now 12 weeks! I'm starting to feel much better. After suffering from a bad cold last week (of which I still have some residual coughing), I'm actually starting to feel much better. I never threw up (thankfully), and the nausea that I did have is now gone. I have a little bit of my energy back, although I'm afraid to overdo it in the morning because my job has been a lot more physically demanding lately. If I overdo it before I go to work, by the time I get home I'm just ready to fall over into bed. Then of course I have to make dinner ... Ahhh, a woman's work is never done.

Next week I'm going to New York for a whole week! I leave on Tuesday the 6th and come back on Monday the 12th. I'm SO excited. I wish that Ben could come with me, but he can't really take the time off work right now. We're hoping to go to Utah right before Christmas to celebrate his grandmother's 100th birthday, so he needs to save his vacation. So, I'll be going alone, but I won't be alone! My sister is also coming with her daughter so we'll be having so much fun with the girls!

More good news!

We are under contract to buy a house! We are so excited. After looking for months and putting in 2 other offers, we found it last week and I just loved it from the moment we walked in. It's a 3-bedroom, 2 1/2 bath, split level home in Lawrenceville. We get to stay in the same ward we are in now, and we'll be in the Grayson school district, so that's good. There is a living room, kitchen, and 1 1/2 car garage on the main floor, 3 bedrooms, 2 full baths upstairs, and a large family room, 1/2 bath, and good sized storage/laundry room on the lower level. Also, it sits on half an acre, so there is a beautiful, level, completely fenced-in backyard. I can't wait to plant my garden next year ;-)

By way of announcement ...

We're expecting! We've known for a few weeks now, of course, but we finally had our first ultrasound today, and since everything looks normal, we're going to go ahead and make the announcement. We are SOOO excited! The baby is due April 16th and obviously we're not sure yet whether it's a boy or a girl. I don't think we really care. Right now it looks like a gummy bear, but we're pretty sure it will turn into a baby ;)

In case you can't tell what everything is, that's the head in the lower left, the body in the middle, and the yolk sac on the top right. Of course the other things are arms and legs :)

Sick as a ...

Now where did "they" ever come up with the phrase "Sick as a dog". I mean, are dogs really that unhealthy? I don't remember my dog getting sick very often.

I've been sick with a nasty cold for the last week. It started out as a sore throat, then went into my head and plugged everything up in there, then moved down into my chest and made me cough a lot. I was laid up Saturday through Monday basically. I didn't even go to church and if I don't go to church, you know I MUST be sick! On Saturday, Ben's uncle Larry came over and they gave me a blessing. While we were chatting, Larry suggested that we try NetiPot. "What in the world is a NetiPot", I asked? Well, turns out that a NetiPot is a nasal rinse system, which utilizes salt-water to clean out the mucus in your nose. It's basically a teapot that you put your salt-water mixture in, then tilt your head and pour into one nostril, and the water goes up into your nose, and comes out the other nostril. We went right out and bought one and I must say, it's pretty effective! Ben is sick now too, and he even uses it, which surprises me because he has such an active gag reflex. Thankfully I'm getting over this cold now--just some residual chest congestion and coughing. Just need to get Ben healthy now!

I've made it through "Back to School"

The last couple of weeks have been really busy at work because everyone's been signing their kids up for afterschool programs. When I was growing up, we used to scorn the kids who went to afterschool programs, and there was only one that I remember, "Greene Cares", which was held in the gym at the Elementary School in the town where I went to school. Nowadays, things have changed just a little bit, and with both parents working in most families, kids need afterschool care. Our daycare/preschool services about 7 elementary schools in the area, and we actually lowered the price of our afterschool programs this year so we had TONS of new families sign up. Of course, it doesn't hurt that we have cool stuff like an air hockey table and a foosball table! Because of the wave of new families, my job became "paperwork mass processor" for several days prior to the beginning of school on the 10th. I went in early, stayed late, and worked right up until the last second to get everything together. Luckily the first several says of school went relatively smoothly and things are slowing back down again. Phew!

A Temple Trip

Some of you may well know that on July 1st of this year, the Atlanta Temple closed for a year and a half of renovations. This makes the temple a little less accessible for us--the nearest one being Birmingham, AL--three and a quarter hours drive from here. Our area has been asked to attend the next closest temple--Columbia, SC--a three and a half hour drive away. After a pretty stressful week at work for the both of us, I felt like we needed to make the drive and attend the temple today. Since we didn't have anything else going on, it worked out perfectly. It was so nice to be in the temple again. I LOVE the small temples. They are so efficient, yet cozy and beautiful all at the same time. I love all the windows, and how each small temple has its own unique theme with the patterns on the stained glass. But aside from the experience of being in the temple, I think the most marvellous part of the day was the drive to the temple. When we go to the Atlanta temple, it takes us about 50 minutes to get there, and we are usually hurrying to make a particular session. We were hurrying today too, but you can only feel so much of a sense of urgency on a 3 1/2 hour drive, especially when you don't recognize the landmarks. It was neat to have a large amount of time to sit and ponder about the temple, to listen to quiet music, and prepare myself spiritually for the experience. I also enjoyed simply being with my husband, playing the alphabet game and laughing and joking with each other. Although it was a long day which involved a LOT of driving, it was completely worth it. I am really looking forward to our next temple trip!!

Trip to Chattanooga

Very last minute I decided we ought to go somewhere and do something for our anniversary. I had visions of sitting a home being bored all weekend (the usual for us), and I just thought we ought to do something memorable. So, Friday morning I booked us a hotel in Chattanooga (only 2 1/2 hours away), and we drove up there after I got off work. The hotel we stayed at was really nice. It was a 3-star hotel that we only stayed in because I got an incredibly good deal on Priceline. The next morning I dragged my husband out of bed and we went to Ruby Falls: a pricy attraction that features an underground waterfall. It was pretty cool though--we enjoyed ourselves. We drove around for a bit after that, ending up at Point Park on the top of Lookout Mountain, the site of the Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park. We wandered around there for a while, watched a red ant drag a dead black ant up a 90 degree rock face, walked up and down some stairs and got tired out. After the park we headed back into town for some Sticky Fingers BBQ, which I thought was pretty good. Ben thought it was ok. After a late lunch we headed back to Atlanta, stopping at some outlet stores and buying Ben some much needed new pairs of jeans. We took a small detour through downtown Atlanta, stopping at my favorite ice cream place, Zesto, which is the only place I've found decent soft-serve here. We NEVER get to go there except when we are downtown and only if we get there before it closes. So--it had been a while. By the time we got back, it was nearly 9pm and we were exhausted! But, we had a great time and I'm so glad that we decided to go somewhere for our anniversary. We definitely made some memories what we'll have forever!

Our lovely 3-star hotel room plus a bonus husband!

Us inside the cave at Ruby Falls

The beautiful Ruby Falls

Poor dead black ant. I wonder what the red ant is going to do with him?

Ooooohhh this makes me want more Zesto's soft-serve!!!

First Anniversary

Ben and I are celebrating our first anniversary today! I can't believe it's been a year already. I made the best decision of my life one year ago today and I couldn't be happier!

I'll Do It Later

That's what I think every time I think about blogging lately. I've just not had the blogging bug! Time to get over it, I guess. Or rather, time to get it, again.

Things around here have been hot hot hot. No really--the weather is hot! I finally went out this morning and bought myself a pair of capris so I wouldn't die of heat outside in my jeans.

My family is here in town this week. Well, my parents and my brother Matthew. I worked Monday and Tuesday and now I'm off the rest of the week. Hallelujah!!! My brother is off work today so we're going with them up to Canton, GA to have lunch with some cousins. My landlords are so nice--they let us use the rest of the basement so my parents can stay there while they are here visiting. It works out perfectly. The only thing is, I can't seem to keep my kitchen from getting cluttered up with everyone's stuff and it's driving me nuts!

I can't believe it's almost the 4th of July. Ben and I will be celebrating our 1-year anniversary in about 11 days. It's hard to believe we've been married for a year already. It's flown by, but it's been a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to many more fun, happy years, and a family too, hopefully!

A couple of weeks ago we had a "Southern Family Reunion" for our ward. Lawrenceville Ward was formed 20 years ago, so we had a lovely activity which featured myself, my husband, and our friend Shellie singing "Man of Constant Sorrow" from O\O Brother, Where Art Thou. We were really crazy and weird and so everyone loved it. I wish I'd had someone take pictures. Yeah--we were THAT good ;)

In other news, I bought some basil plants that I repotted and put outside. They are growing beautifully, but I have to water them just about every other day. It's so nice to have fresh basil any time I want it. I can't wait until we have our own place and I can have a real garden!

The grass is green, here and there, and sometimes blue

What a week this has been, and it's only Thursday! It's one of those weeks where I've been thinking a day ahead all week so I woke up this morning thinking it was Friday. How disappointed I was to discover that no, there is still one more day to go before the weekend! We have had one piece of good news in the last couple of weeks--Ben landed a couple of jobs for his company to work on so he still has a job and so does everyone else; for a few more months anyway. Jobs are good--we like when we can pay the bills! My job has been going strong. Our summer camp (of all things) is growing so that means we can afford to stay in business for a little while longer. This week I went to management training, which means I can officially open and close the building. I'll probably be doing more closing than opening and since I'm usually there until close, I pretty much know the drill anyway. Management training was good--it was better than I expected. I expected to be bored, but Corporate's resident Ph. D. was pretty interesting to listen to, and I actually learned a lot. I definitely feel more inspired to do my job and to help make our pre-school a better place. I didn't like the 40 minute drive to and from, however. I'll be glad to ditch that tomorrow and go back to work at the school. A piece of sad news this week--the owners of our center lost their baby--she was 30 weeks pregnant. I can't imagine how devastated I would feel losing a baby, especially that late in pregnancy. Obviously that made things a little crazy at the center, but luckily the other assistant director was able to handle everything so I could finish my management training which I've been waiting so long to be able to go to! I'm looking forward to this weekend. Ben and I are going to the temple and then we'll have to be practicing together with another gal for a performance at a ward activity next week where we'll be doing some bluegrass numbers, including "Man Of Constant Sorrow", "I'll Fly Away", and "You Are My Sunshine". Stay tuned for a full report ...

Mother's Day 2009

This Mother's Day, our Primary children sang during sacrament meeting. The Music Leader had chosen "An Angel To Watch Over Me" by Sally DeFord and we had been practicing it for over 2 months. I have never considered myself an extremely accomplished piano player and so I was very nervous about accompanying the Primary children. But what I lacked in ability, I almost made up for in determination. I knew that I would never play the piece perfectly, but I hoped that I would be able to play it with minimal mistakes--I wanted so badly to do it. I practiced that song more than I have practiced any other song. I played through nearly every day at least once. At the beginning, it didn't sound so great. One month into it, it was sounding okay, but I was doing a lot of skipping over notes. I kept practicing and although I didn't improve much in the last month, my knowledge of the piece improved to the point where I felt confident that my fingers would move on their own for most of it, and that if I messed up very badly, I would be able to pick up again quickly. During our last practice in Primary, 2 hours before we were supposed to sing, I was so nervous! I messed up in places that I had never messed up in before! But I had prayed and I knew that I had done all I could do. When it was time to sing, I walked up and sat down at the grand piano. I am very unaccustomed to playing a grand piano, and it is tricky because the music is higher so it is more difficult to cheat and look at your fingers when you need to. But I just took a deep breath and when everyone was ready, I began the introduction. As the children started singing and I continued playing, I could feel the Spirit's peace fill me. I listened to the words that those little angels were singing and tears filled my eyes at the sweetness of the song. Through the course of it all, I missed a couple of notes and I played a couple of wrong ones. But I think I played that song better than I had played it previously and better than I had hoped to! I know the Lord blessed me and that He had been watching over me as I played for this Primary choir. As I returned to my seat, brushing away tears, I looked at my husband whose eyes were also wet. He knew how much I had been worried about playing the song, and I knew he was rejoicing with me. I saw many other people in the congregation who were also very obviously touched by this sweet song. I share this song with you, sweet mothers and children of sweet mothers, and hope you will be touched by the message.

An Angel To Watch Over Me
(You will have to disable popups as a window will pop up asking if you want to save it or open the file.)

It's Ready

After weeks of hemming and hawing over a name for my new cooking/homemaking blog, the moment has finally arrived. Today I am officially launching Adventures in Homemaking. I'm sure you'll all be thrilled that I'm no longer posting such boring things like recipes and cleaning tips on my personal blog. I hope you will enjoy reading the new blog as much as I will enjoy updating it!

To be or not to be ...

This week my hubby took me to Shakepeare's Tavern for a special treat. We went there on our first official date, just over a year ago, and saw A Midsummernight's Dream. We laughed our heads off during that one. We were so impressed by the artistic and comical ability of the actors! This week was the last showing of Hamlet, so we went on Thursday (half-price tickets) and despite being a tragedy still laughed our heads off at parts of it. I would highly recommend Shakespeare's Theatre to anyone living in this area. We also ate dinner there; I got a Cornish Pasty and Ben got the Shepherd's Pie. The play was fantastic, the food was awesome, and it was very special to reminisce about where we were one year ago.

Suggestions Please!

I've decided to start a new cooking/home blog with recipes and ideas for making life easier. I can't decide what to call it though! Any ideas for a name?

A Day of Service

Yesterday my church sponsored a "Day of Service" during which hundreds of thousands of volunteers across 11 southern states got together with members of other faiths to do service in our communities. Our local ward was assigned to help clean Bethesda Park, a huge county park not far from my home. Ben and I arrived at the park at 8am, signed in, and were given our assignment. Together with about 12 other people, we had the responsibility of cleaning a cluster of 3 ball fields: picking up litter on and around the fields, cleaning out the dugouts, cleaning the restrooms, and painting the inside of the concession stand. Our team leader asked Ben and I to clean up one of the ball fields, after which we assisted the painters in cleaning up the area they had been painting. It took us about 3 hours to shovel out the sand from both dugouts, sweep them clean, and pick up the trash that littered the entire field. We must have picked up over 200 cigarette butts from around just one baseball field. It was disgusting. By the end of the 3 hours we were hot, sweaty, and sore from the effort of bending and straightening to pick up litter. To be honest, I was surprised I had that much energy. Sometimes I think I'm a really big wimp. I'm sore today though! But I'm grateful that we were able to do this service and give back to the community we live in. Service feels great!

A date

I used to be a creative person, really, I was! There was a time in my life when I could actually write stories, and then there was a time when I could blog and make things sound interesting. I fear that my creativity has taken a sabbatical. I want to be blogging right now about as much as I want to go clean my bathroom ... oh wait ... I did that already yesterday.

This past Saturday Ben and I went on an actual date! We don't get very many dates, with me not getting home until 7pm on Fridays. Ben usually goes to the gym after work so we usually sit down to eat dinner around 8pm. Up until a couple of weeks ago, our Friday routine was to eat dinner, wash the dishes, watch the latest episode of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, read for a little bit, and go to bed. Terribly exciting, I know! So, it was way past time to get out and do something. Last Saturday I had a CPR class in the morning, and when I was done, Ben and I got ready and went to the temple! The temple was great, but I have to say, the highlight of the day was going to IKEA for the first time ever. I had heard so much about IKEA that I had high expectations. That store is so huge--I could hardly take it all in. We walked around for an hour and a half, that is to say, we started at the very beginning and dutifully followed the arrows to the checkout and it took us an hour and a half to do it. That's only because we didn't stop and look at very many things. We spent about $30 on odds and ends, but I could have spent a fortune, I'm sure. One of the advantages of having a small apartment is that you can only have so much stuff before your apartment is full. But I got a good idea of what is there so that in the future ... if I am needing thing ... I know where to go!

After IKEA we had planned on going to this Mexican cantina to eat, but after being informed that the wait was an hour (no thank you) we turned around and went back to this pizza place that we had driven by on our way to the Mexican restaurant. It was the first time in a couple of months that we'd actually gone to a sit-down restaurant to eat. Man, it is so nice not having to cook! But more than that--it's so nice not to have dishes to do! On the way home we went to Wal-Mart to pick up a couple of grocery items for the week, so by the time we got home it was after 9pm! Busy day, but it was a good day. Hooray for dates!

The beauty of Borax

When I was growing up, 20-mule team Borax served 2 purposes in my house: as a laundry booster, and an ant killer. A couple of months ago we had a soap-making class at church, and they gave us a recipe for homemade laundry detergent. 2 parts 20-Mule Team Borax, 2 parts Arm and Hammer Washing Soda (not baking soda--this stuff you will find in the laundry detergent aisle), to 1 part Fels Naptha or other commercial bar soap. I finally bought all of the "ingredients" last week, and after hearing that Borax is a fantastic household cleaner, I decided to tackle my stovetop with it. One cup of Borax and one half-hour later, I must say, I was quite pleased with the results. 409 does NOWHERE near the job that the Borax did. My stove positively sparkles!

BEFORE

AFTER

My husband is wonderful

Occasionally I will wake up to things like this:

Enough said!

Songs and chefs

I have kids songs playing in my head. Working at a pre-school (daycare), I hear music all of the time. We have a big CD player that holds about a billion CDs and it plays on the audio system throughout the building ALL DAY LONG. Of course, the classrooms can turn their speakers off, but in the lobby, we leave it running. So, if I'm humming a song, you can pretty much be guaranteed that it's a kids song. I don't even know the name of the one that's stuck in my head right now, nor can I really remember the words, but by golly, I remember that tune and I'm singing it over and over and over and over ... I do have a few favorites among the ones that I hear all the time, especially "Waltzing Matilda". That song makes no sense--that's probably why I like it. If someone can explain to me what Waltzing Matilda is all about, I'd greatly appreciate it. I finally looked up what a "billabong" is--it means "small lake". So there you go.

I get home from work every day at about 7, which makes cooking dinner really difficult. Although I love to cook, at 7pm the last thing I want to do is cook dinner! I just want to stuff something in my face because I'm typically starving by that point! On Wednesday night Ben had Young Men's and so I was cooking dinner while he was there, and waiting for him to get home. I was getting so frustrated because he should have been home by that point and I was really hungry and you just don't mess with a hungry woman! So I texted him and asked him if he was coming home soon, and the answer I got back was "Y". Getting more frustrated I texted him back to tell him that I was really really really hungry! About a minute later he walks in the door with a bunch of lilies that he had stopped and bought for me. So of COURSE I couldn't be frustrated at him anymore. Last night I called and told him that he was in charge of cooking dinner. He enjoys cooking, but he's not done a lot of it in his life. He survived college by eating fast food. Typically he is my "sous chef", so I didn't know what to expect when I got home last night, but he had found a recipe for "Shepherd's Pie" in one of our cookbooks and was busily engaged in making it! I helped with a few finishing touches, and it was just delicious! He doesn't realize what he's gotten himself into. He's definitely going to be cooking a lot more now ...

I wish I lived in a fantasy world

Lately I just haven't felt like there's been anything exciting to write about. We are just going on with our same boring lives. In reality, maybe that's a little sad. We should do something exciting so I have something exciting to blog about! Ben's been working, I've been working ... that's pretty much what I do. I have been doing a lot more reading lately. When I was subbing, I would always have a book with me to read during those down times (few as they were). And, I managed to get through several 1,000 page fantasy novels in a relatively short amount of time. Ben got me hooked on the "Wheel of Time" series. It's by far the best fantasy series that I have ever read. I think fantasy has really become my favorite genre. I've always enjoyed fiction, and while have enjoyed a murder mystery or two in the past, fantasy has really become the bulk of my reading. I guess that's partly because of who I married! But mainly I think for me the appeal of fantasy is this: in a world where the dividing line between good and evil has become so marred, in the land of fantasy it is much more clear cut. In the end, the good guys usually win because they are right and good, and not because they have more money or more connections. Frankly I'm disturbed by the direction our country and our society are headed. Well, for that matter, the way is HAS been heading for a very long time. Only now things appear to be escalating because the government is taking unprecedented control in this country. The thing that saddens me the most is the destruction of agency. People seem to forget that there are two parts to agency: the ability to choose, AND, the application of consequences. There was once another person who wanted to destroy agency. His name was Satan, and he got kicked out of heaven for it. I'm beginning to see how his argument could convince so many people. I'm still holding out hope that we can somehow reverse these unfortunate trends. Well, I'm holding out a very little hope ...

Beyond behind ....

It has been so long since I have posted that I am beyond behind! Usually I get up in the morning and putter around the house, then go swimming at they gym, come home, shower, get ready for work, eat lunch and leave. By the time I get home at night it's about 7pm, and sometimes I'll check my email. When I'm done with that, I really have very little energy to sit and type anything that's even remotely well-thought out. Tonight, however, is the series finale of Battlestar Gallactica, which I don't watch, but Ben does--religiously. I was going to read a book but instead I decided to finally update my blog! I know you are all so thrilled. Actually, you've probably given up even checking my blog since the last ice age, but that's okay. The post is here when you get around to it.

This month has been so crazy. I've been working at my job for about 6 weeks now and while I really enjoy it, I miss my housewifing days. There is something so much more fulfilling and relaxing about managing a household instead of managing a business. Not that I'm managing a business, but I have been given the responsibility managing employees for the first time in my life which is very challanging, to say the least. Sometimes I think I'd rather just be a peon! It's helping me to grow in so many ways though. I used to get quite nervous when I had to get serious with someone about their behavior or talk to an unhappy customer. Well, when I say "used to", what I mean is that I still do. I'm just learning more how to deal with people. I always thought I was a people person but ... anyways ...

Earlier in the month Ben and I went with his parents and his sister up to Tennessee for his niece's wedding. We left on a Friday afternoon and arrived early Saturday morning. We stayed at a really dumpy Day's Inn which had a "hot breakfast" consisting of biscuits and gravy that you had to warm up in the microwave, and Eggo waffles. Yum! It had been a long time since I'd eaten Eggo waffles. I forgot how tasty they were! The wedding was beautiful and altogether we had such a fun time just getting away for the weekend. It was the first time we'd gone away since we got married.

The hightlight of the month has been getting my ring back! After a lot of consideration and talking with Scott Kay (the ring designer) the jeweler opted to simply cut off the prongs and install a completely new head with 6 single prongs made of white gold. (My ring is palladium). I am SOOOOO happy with the result. To be honest, I like this ring better than the first one! AND ... there is NO way that diamond is going to fall out of that setting! Even so, we have purchased renter's insurance and added a jewelry rider to the policy so we are all set. When we got the ring back, the jeweler gave us an appraisal and we were shocked to see that the diamond is apparently worth about 25% more than we actually paid for it, from that same jeweler. We were obviously very pleased with that!

I'm looking forward to the summer, although I've had the worst time adjusting to Daylight Savings this year. I'm still not adjusted, and I had a pretty good schedule before! Oh well. Working until 7 every night, I'm glad there will be a little light so that I can do outside things, even after work.

Well, I guess that just about covers it. Ya'll have a great weekend!

Milton Friedman on Greed and Capitalism vs. Socialism

Snowshoes in Georgia

It's snowing here in Georgia. We're supposed to have 1-3 inches by nightfall. It's just one more reason why you can never trust the weather from one day to the next. It's been so warm this last week and a half that the daffodils have bloomed and the fruit trees have also started. We've actually had a pretty wet weekend. It started raining on Friday and it was still raining when we left for church this morning! It stopped several time in between, but I haven't seen this much rain since I moved to Georgia. It's great because we really need it!

Loose diamond ... Lose diamond

Life has been so crazy since I started my job! This is the first time in a while that I've been able to sit down and put together a blog post. I'm working from 1-6:45, so I don't get home until around 7pm. By the time I get home, it's cook dinner, do dishes, and hang out with my hubby until bedtime, if there's not something else going on! And while it seems like I'd have a lot of time in the morning, it just disappears so fast! Between doing laundry, cleaning my house, constant decluttering, and going to the gym, life is flying by. However, I have to say, I LOVE my job. I also feel so lucky to have a job in this time when so many people are out of work. I feel so blessed!

Last week was a crazy week. It was our 7-month anniversary on Thursday, and of course Valentine's Day on Saturday. I decided that I would do my Valentine's surprise for Ben on Thursday since I wanted to do something while he was at work. I blew up a whole bunch of balloons (as many as I could fit in my tiny car), wrapped Ben's Valentine's present and drove over to his work. I was grateful that his car was parked a few spaces away from the front door, but it was well within the view of the front of the office. So, of course, while I was busy stuffing his car full of balloons, he came up to check the fax machine and caught me! I waved him off but it was too late! He'd seen the balloons. Oh well. I came home and did some cleaning, washed the dishes, took out the recyclables, sat down at my computer to check my email and noticed the diamond from my engagement ring was MISSING! I don't know if that's ever happened to anyone but I freaked out! The worst part was, I couldn't remember when I had last seen it! I went to the curb and picked through the recycling bin ... not there ... I took the traps out from under both sinks ... not there ... I looked through the trash ... not there ... I scoured the ground outside ... didn't find anything. By this point Ben had come home to try and console me (I was very upset). How do you find such a small thing?? We looked together inside and outside, then we drove back to his work and looked in the parking lot there. I was so sad. It had been one of my biggest fears to lose my diamond. Of course, I hadn't gotten around to getting insurance on it! I took the ring to the jeweler and told them what happened. They took the ring and said they would look at the setting and see if they could do something. I came home with every intention of continuing to look for my diamond, but I had a horrible headache from crying and the stress, so instead I feel asleep on my bed. When Ben came home from work we spend some more time outside with flashlights looking for sparkles in the grass. It's amazing how many things actually sparkle on the ground! But, we didn't find it. I was devastated, but by this point I has kind-of come to terms with the fact that it might have washed down the drain or otherwise might never be found, and I was ok with that. I simply felt grateful that I had lost a diamond instead of something that was irreplaceable, like my husband. We continued to pray and look for it over the course of the next few days, but didn't have anything to show for it. Yesterday I had some laundry to do, so I gathered it all together, shaking each article as I placed it in the laundry basket. Still no diamond. When I opened the lid of the washing machine, I felt impressed to run my fingers around under the agitator in the center of the drum. I had gotten nearly all the way around, when I felt and heard something small and hard slide out from under the agitator. I looked down in the drum and saw something white-looking nestled in one of the holes in the drum. I held my breath as reached in to pluck it out. Was that my diamond? Was it stuck in the hole? Would it come out? As my nimble fingers closed securely around the object, I exhaled, pulled the object out, and put it in my hand. Then I stared at my diamond in my palm and I was overcome with gratitude and relief. I had found it! With all the credit going to God, of course. I believe it was one of His tender mercies. Certainly I did not need that diamond, but it was meaningful to me for more reasons than one, and I'm grateful that God let me have it back. As for the ring, neither I nor the jeweler feel comfortable with putting the diamond back in that ring so we're going to see if the ringmaker will re-do the ring in a different metal or something of that nature. I'll have to keep ya'll posted. I'm just so grateful to have my diamond back, and of course, I'm shopping for renter's insurance.

Life, jobs, cars ...

I started my new job on Tuesday, hooray! It's kind-of a new job, kind-of old job, which is nice because I already mostly know what I'm doing. I'm working at Legacy Academy, the same company I worked for over the summer, but at a different location. I'm really enjoying it so far-- admittedly much more than I enjoyed substitute teaching. Plus, I'm working part-time, from 1:00-6:45 every day, so I can still have time in the morning to run errands and take care of my house. Since we've been working out every day, the laundry has begun multiplying exponentially and I feel like I just barely stay on top of it as it is!

In other news, Ben's car decided it didn't want to start on Wednesday morning. He jumped it with my car so he could get to work, but then in the afternoon it didn't want to start either. There was one guy left at work but after trying and failing to jump it, Ben called me to come pick him up! Now, a few years back while I was still living in Provo, I took a community education class in Auto Mechanics. I will forever be grateful for some of the basics that I learned in that class. Those skills have proved invaluable. (It helps that I have mechanical brain.) SO I knew that it would be helpful to diagnose the problem in case we couldn't get the car started. I left work a few minutes early, ran home to get my volt-meter (thanks, Dad!) and drove over to Ben's work. After attempting and failing to get a read from the battery on the voltmeter, I discovered that the battery terminals must have a cap on top or something. At any rate, they don't conduct electricity on the very top. I couldn't even get a good reading on the rings. I had to use the screws on the side to get any sort of voltage reading. When I finally got a reading it was around 11 volts. A good car battery should read around 12.5, or at least 12.0. So we got the jumper cables hooked up to the battery making sure to catch those screws on the side, and we got his car started in no time. Once the car was started, the voltage on the battery was over 14 volts, which was a pretty good indication that the alternator was working. So--we'll replace the battery and hopefully that'll do the trick! But we don't have the time or the light to do it together until Saturday so Ben's been driving one of his parents' cars while they are out of town. Hopefully it is just the battery. I can't think what else it would be. I guess it's my car's turn next. So far we've done the brakes and now the battery in Ben's car ... knock on wood ...

My new favorite book

I found this book at the library last week and since then have decided I need to get a copy for myself! Now, I love cooking and sometimes I like getting creative and exotic. But on our budget, we can't afford to buy fancy food most of the time. Not to mention, I'm always looking for cheap, healthy recipes that use ingredients I already have in my pantry and freezer. I've already made two recipes from this cookbook and I'm impressed with how simple and yummy they turned out to be! I highly recommend at least checking this cookbook out from the library.

Wrapping up January

It's nearly February! Ben has decided that he wants to celebrate Valentine's Day on February 12th (our 7-month anniversary) instead of February 14th. I'm not so convinced. Stay tuned.

I went to the doctor on Monday and he gave me a steroid pack to try and help my feet. I must say, so far it's helping! Staying off my feet has also been helping. I haven't really been working since before Christmas and that's helped a lot. I'm currently on the hunt for a new DESK job and I have a few leads so maybe I'll have some good news soon.

I'm also pleased to announce that my clothes are feeling looser! Hooray for working out! Even Ben is enjoying working out. Last week he said to me, "if I'd known working out was so easy, I would have done it a lot sooner!" He's losing weight too. We're thrilled to have made exercise a habit in our lives. We're working on eating more healthily--one itty bitty baby step at a time!

Happy Inauseation Day!

It's all going down in Washington today. I'm just waiting for Congress to change our national motto to: "In Government We Trust". The libs have done a great job of eradicating personal responsibility (unless you're rich), and destroying our faith in God. Oh what a great nation we've become ...

Boring boring boring ... did I mention that I'm bored?

My life is very boring lately. My plantar fascitis has gotten the better of me for the time being and so I have not been able to substitute teach. I'm actually in the process of searching for a new job, but I gotta say, there's not a whole lot out there right now. This I'm actually subbing for the school nurse. The pay is less, but it's a sit-down job and it will keep me busy.

Last night we went over to another couple's house for dinner and some games. They have a little 3-month old baby, so it was fun to play with him and chat with them. She called me around lunchtime to say they had decided to fire up the grill so we could bring whatever we wanted for that. Initially I was going to try and do spiedes (the grand Triple-cities tradition), but I didn't have any thawed chicken and they were out of chicken breasts at Sam's Club (go figure!) so I did shish-kabobs instead. I bought some low-fat kielbasa and skewered that with green peppers, tomato chunks, onions and fresh pineapple. If it's been a while since you've barbecued then you have probably forgotten how much better everything tastes when it's barbecued. Maybe our cave-men ancestors knew what they were doing when they cooked everything outside on the fire. Man those kabobs were tasty!! And pretty inexpensive too. I'm going to be using our landlord's grill a lot more--I can tell you. After dinner we played "Pirate's Cove" which I had never won in my life. I actually won last night, but it was purely because my husband chose me as the winner. When it came down to the final play, it was going to be me or the other gal, and my husband, smart man that he is, picked me. I don't know if I would have forgiven him otherwise!

New haircut!

I got my hair cut today and it looks fantastic! I'm so happy with the way it turned out. I have had so many bad haircuts in the last two years. I actually did a little research before making this appointment. It's so hard to find someone to cut hair that you can trust, so I went online and found this girl who had been given a really good review. I called and she had an appointment available for today so I said, "sign me up!" Here's a pic of my hot new do. You can see how layered the back of it is. I LOVE that because my hair is naturally so thick and layering took off a lot of that bulk. Now I will actually be able to style it.

Happy 6 Months!

Ben and I celebrated our 6-month anniversary yesterday. I can hardly believe it's been six months! I'm so grateful that I married the man that I did. He is so wonderful! AND, yesterday for dinner he made me chicken cordon bleu. I told him he's allowed to cook any time he likes!

How NOT to make a chimichanga

Step 1: Make your own special blend of meat and spices to go inside the chimichanga

Step 2: Warm a tortilla in the microwave for 20 seconds

Step 3: Place a generous portion of seasoned meat in tortilla and wrap securely

Step 4: Ignore husband's idea to secure chimichanga with toothpicks (as per Emeril, he says). Tell him, definitively, that you do not like to mess with toothpicks.

Step 5: Gently and lovingly place chimichanga on basket in deep fryer, seam-side down

Step 6: Carefully lower basket into 375 degree oil

Step 7: Watch in horror as the chimichanga floats to the surface of the boiling hot oil, flips over, and unravels with a flourish, exposing your once protected and very tasty meat blend to a fryer full of hot oil.

Step 8: Lift basket from oil

Step 9: Sadly discard the very greasy remains of a once-promising chimichanga


(And the moral of the story is ... listen to your husband when he's making sense!!)

Who needs a personal trainer?

I've come to the conclusion that personal trainers are overrated. Last Friday night at the gym we got cornered by the sales manager for the personal training program at LA Fitness and he signed us up for a free "consultation" on Saturday morning. After going through all the questions, "what is your fitness goal," "what is your biggest obstacle," he ran us through a couple of straining arm exercises. Ouch!! Then we sat down again and got the sales pitch. My favorite part of the conversation was:

Manager: (drawing two numbers on a piece of paper, 149 and 160) So, which price would you choose? (referring to the initial fee for getting started with a personal trainer)

Tabitha: Well, really neither. It doesn't fit into our budget.

Manager: Are you telling me that there's a price on your fitness?

Ben: I majored in economics in college. EVERYTHING has a price.

Manager: (Dumfounded) Okay, don't think about budget right now. Let's say you're going to buy clothes ...

Tabitha: (laughing) Yeah, clothes aren't in the budget right now.

Manger: Okay okay, so let's say you're going to buy gas. Which price would you choose, the lower one, right? You don't have a budget for gas, right? You need it!

Tabitha: Actually, we do have a limit for gas in our budget.

Manager: Ok food. You gotta buy food.

Ben: We have a budget for that too.

The guy just could not get over the fact that we couldn't pay $150 initiation fee and THEN $40 per session on top of that. Go figure!! Who DOES pay that is what I want to know. If you go 3 times a week, that's nearly $500 a month! However, we decided that we definitely needed to hit the weight machines, me to tone muscle and Ben to build muscle, so we started doing research on training and muscle groups. Then we figured, hey, we can do this ourselves! Both of us have come up with a schedule for training that we thing is going to work pretty well for us. So, who needs a personal trainer when I can do it myself?

More info on food storage

So just a couple of hours after blogging about food storage, I realized that my best friend out in Washington had been spending a lot of time recently researching food storage. She has found a brand new website that launched today, which is a collaboration between several food storage gurus. They are having some really neat givaways this week, and in general it looks to be a fantastic resource no matter what stage you are at with your food storage. At the very least, you should enter the drawing for the cool prizes!

Food Storage For Thought

Lately I've been thinking a lot about food storage and making sure our house is in order. Getting started with food storage is very intimidating, especially when you have next to no space to keep anything. When I first moved in, about 2 weeks before we got married, I managed to keep all the food in the kitchen, along with all of my pots, pans, bowls and other kitchen gadgets. If you know me, you know that's no small feat considering I used to sell Pampered Chef and I just LOVE to cook. So, I have a lot of kitchen "stuff".



Then when we got married we got more kitchen stuff of course, and I had to struggle to find places to put the new kitchen stuff and still have room for the food. At this point I decided to start keeping some of the extra cans of food in the 3x4 closet in our second bedroom/TV room. There were a few very small shelves in there, but with the other regular storage stuff it soon got too crowded in there. Finally we found a black steel shelving unit at Aldi for $60. Woohoo!! We got that set up in our kitchen/main room and BAM! Food storage became so much easier.



A couple of weeks later we noticed the same shelving unit at Aldi had gone on clearance for $30 so we bought another one and with permission, put it in our landlord's food storage room which happens to be just off our apartment.



I have 2 food storage goals for this new year:
1. Get our 3-month supply of everyday food in order
2. Implement a plan for water storage

In order to accomplish the 3-month supply, I've been compiling recipes with only a few "problematic" ingredients. Normally I like to cook with a lot of fresh ingredients, but in an emergency situation, there is the possibility of no fresh food available, so I've decided that I'll build the pantry ingredients into my pantry supply, and then find freeze-dried versions of the "problematic" ingredients. I've found that my most common problematic ingredients tend to be: celery, onions, eggs, and butter. All of those can be purchased freeze-dried. My mother-in-law gave us a bunch of wheat and other food storage for Christmas. Now it's just a matter of testing these recipes I've compiled to make sure that we can palate them once a week for 3 months.

Water storage is not proving as difficult as I thought it might. I'm planning on purchasing six to eight 5-gallon stackable containers for a start. These cost $8-$12 a piece, depending on the kind you get. I think 30 gallons of water would last the two of us 15-20 days, with minimal water for washing. A 55-gallon drum would be ideal, but we have nowhere to put one so we're sticking with the stackable 5-gallon.

I'd love to hear what your ideas are about food storage and any recipes you have found or creative ways to implement both short and long-term food storage!