Aww and Oww

Look at this adorable picture of our niece Nikaia:

In other news, I think I have swimmers ear. Don't ask me how it's not like I've been swimming and I try to get all the water out of my ears when I shower, but my ears hurt, and feel hot, and super pressurized, and just popping them isn't working to solve the problem, and the pain gets worse if I tug gently on my earlobes. (Why, you ask, is she tugging on her earlobes? Well usually it feels nice and helps me go to sleep, but not at the moment.) Ok, so does anyone know anything I can do to help this? Being a modern girl I did some research online, but everything says to go to the doctor and my $300 deductible says otherwise. Home remedies anyone??

Wow

Looking at old emails...Four years ago today is the first time I told Justin that I was falling in love with him. It's amazing remembering how far we've come since then...everything we've been through and where we are now. I could not be happier.

This is the most recent picture of us together. I think it was about a month ago.

Found!

Justin found his wallet. It was on top of the lockers at work. We think someone there found it and instead of turning it into a supervisor they stuck it up there thinking it would be safe and that he was one of the few people tall enough to see up there. Which he did. Everything is untouched which is great, but even greater, the bank issued us a new debit card no questions asked. Rah!

In weight loss news, I haven't been on the scale during a well...during an accurate time of the month so I'm not sure if I've lost any more (it says 1 pound so maybe), however I have these new big dents in the tops of my thighs which make my legs look skinny but my hips look bigger by comparison. I don't like this random spot weight loss....Oh well at least something is happening.

Lost

Ok so the blog isn't going to go incognito. I'm just too lazy.

Justin seems to have lost his wallet. The last place he remembers putting it was on the visor of the car, but it's not there or anywhere else in the car, or the house as far as we can tell. Our best bet now is that he left it at work, but no one there has turned it in yet. What a giant pain.

We've already canceled the bank card, which is a huge huge pain, as we don't usually carry much cash, and the bank is in Lubbock, so we'll have to go all the way over there to pick up some cash. Also, we don't think they'll give us a new card. The thing is, when we opened the account, we got a savings account, and we thought it was really snazzy because our bank is the only one I've ever been to that gives a visa debit card for savings accounts. Usually you have to have a checking account for that sort of magic. Then in January they decided that they didn't like the policy of giving out cards to savings account holders, and they wanted everyone to either open a checking account or turn in their cards. However, they can't legally just take the cards away from savings account customers. So they wait until you screw up the account somehow or have to cancel the card and then haha! You don't have a card anymore. Ugh.

We don't want a checking account. They always get overdrawn even when we try really hard and then we have to pay a bunch of money and get a new account. Blah. Oh well it'll work out. We're pretty sure the wallet isn't stolen, so I'm sure it will turn up somewhere stupid. If (and this is unlikely) any of you see it lying around please mail it to the address on the drivers license.

Disregard the bad picture of me.

Are You on the List?

Justin would like for me to make my blog private so that not just anyone can read it. This sounds like a whole bunch of trouble to me, but I'm thinking of trying it out. If you read my blog, and you want to continue to read my blog if it goes under the radar please email me your email address, and I will send you an invite so that you have to work for admittance.


It'll be like Studio54, without the drugs.

Again, I might not actually go this route because I like hearing from strangers. Thanks to Teronni for the comment by the way. I see you have an under the radar blog. (I assume, because I couldn't see it.) How's that workin' for ya?

Any thoughts are, as always, appreciated

Crisis Averted

OK, so as it turns out we aren't going to have to move by the end of April, unless we want to. Les (my ex-brother-in-law, as you remember) said that he didn't intend to cause trouble by letting me know about the house being switched over, and that D'Liesa had told him that we were planning to move, so April was just an arbitrary date. We can stay as long as we want to, and we will re-sign a new lease with him at some point to pay $176 for rent. (That will save us $130/month which is quite exciting.) He also told me exactly how this came to pass, which is really really interesting but I'm not going to go into it now. It's just too much to type.

It's spring break now, and Justin got his XBox back from the Microsoft repair center just in time, so he's happy. It came back really quickly, and initially we thought that it was still broken because the drawer was stuck the first time, but it seems to be working fine now, so yay for Justin!

Maybe got fixed last week and I took her yesterday to get her stitches out. Her belly is all floppy from where she was swollen and it's funny, but we're trying not to make fun of her. I'd hate for her to develop a complex or point out all of my floppy places...

Speaking of floppy places, I seem to be losing and gaining the same 3 pounds over and over. Since mid-January I've managed to lose, and keep off 6 pounds, but my birth control seems to make that pesky 3 come and go every week so I can't add it to the total yet. I've boosted my exercise though so maybe in a couple of weeks I can say "Yes! 9!" We'll see. I'm hoping to have lost enough by the end of May that we can go see my mom sometime around our anniversary. I don't want to go if I'm just going to get called fat again.

I started tanning on Thursday so I feel really happy. The extra melanin that it produces in me makes me feel soooo good. And even though I know that tanning is really NOT GOOD for my skin, it is really quite good for my depression, and I figure that if I only tan for a couple of months a year that the trade off is worth it. I don't spend any time in the actual sun anyway so I'm probably only getting the amount of exposure that a normal person gets in a day anyway.

I guess that's all for now. I feel excellent. Maybe I'll go for a walk...

Well La Di Da

I know, I know it's been like a freakin' month since I posted last. I promise promise I'll try to do better. So we got some exciting news yesterday...we're moving! How could this be news, you ask, don't people normally plan for a move weeks or months in advance, you ask. Well, we've never been much for tradition I suppose...BAH!

I'll get to that. First here's an update on something else: As you know, Justin's sister, Ashlie, got married a little while before us and now has a lovely little girl, Nikaia. His mom called us a couple of weeks ago and told us that her husband, (Ashlies, not Justin's mom's husband anyway) we'll call him Jerkface, was being emotionally abusive and controlling and that she (Ash) didn't know what to do. Some time after that Justin talked to Ashlie and she confirmed this, but told him that she had decided to leave him and just didn't know how or when. Something like a week after that HE LEFT HER! I cannot believe that he thinks he's the one that's been wronged here. I guess though, that he saved her the trouble. But it still sucks. She is now living with her parents (and Nikaia), and seems to be pretty happy about the whole thing, but I know that it's hard and I'm sure that she's scared and hurting, even though she's putting on a totally brave face. Anyway Ashlie is a strong, smart, hot girl and I know that she's gonna make it through this. Besides she's about to be finished with dental hygiene school, which totally blows whatever Jerkface's stupid job was out of the water anyway.
So here's the real deal about our surprise move: Yesterday I checked my myspace email...I don't know why I bother, I rarely have messages there, but I digress. I had an email from my ex-brother-in-law (Les) telling me that my stepsister (D'Liesa), who we rent this house from, signed over the deed and all rights to the property to him on FEBRUARY 6, and he hopes she told us that we need to be out by the end of April!!!

Ok so here are the facts:

* It's been a full month since this dirty deal was made and until yesterday we hadn't heard a whisper about it.

*During that time we saw D'Liesa, in person at least once and I talked to her on the phone twice.

*Since Les is now in charge, our rent has gone from $300 to $176 (the cost of the actual mortgage for him, this is the one positive fact in the case).

*The rent change was effective on February 6, however we didn't know this, so we paid D'Liesa the full $300 on February 14.

*I think that means she owes us $124, but she's not even acknowledging that. She also isn't acknowledging that she might be a little bit in the wrong here. All she keeps saying is that she called multiple times and left messages for me to call her so she could tell me and I never called her back. Ok people, I have a cell phone. It tells me every call that comes in and it's not in the habit of hiding messages from me. She did not call. Not once. Which is beside the point, as I mentioned We saw her in person 2 weeks after the change!! She also could have sent an email, a comment on myspace, a letter or a freakin' carrier pigeon!! There is no excuse for this.

Did I mention that we saw her in person?

I know that we have almost two full months to get it together and find a place and move, and I also suspect that if we ask nicely, Les would let us stay 'til May when school is out and there will be more available living space, but that is not even the point. The point is that we could have had a whole extra month to plan and save look at options. It's really hard to find somewhere decent (and affordable) to live in this college town. Plus, we've been working and working to save money so that we have some cash in savings and maybe some to take a little vacation for our anniversary, and now, I'm sure we're going to have to spend a whole big bunch of it on deposits and transfers and general moving crap and then we'll be back to doing the paycheck to paycheck thing. Plus, I'm quite sure that we'll never see the cash that D'Liesa swindled from us for last months rent again. (And I KNOW that's why she didn't tell us about the change, she wanted that cash. Cow.)

Anyway, we're not opposed to moving to the Canyon area so y'all in that region keep an eye out for us....

I cannot believe I got through this whole post without cursing.

Apologies All Around

I'd like to take this moment to say I'm sorry for the lack of posts of late. I just have been very very unmotivated to blog for the last couple of weeks. There just isn't anything happening right now that I want to post about... but here's an update anyway.

I'm working on losing weight. Again. It's an endless and uphill battle. I would trade places with Sisyphus in an instant. That said, I have lost about 4 pounds in slightly less than a month. I know it's not much, but as you'll remember, this is twice as much as my 2 pound loss resolution. And even though 4 pounds sounds paltry, check out how big 4 pounds of hamburger meat is. So there. I've lost slightly under 2 inches off my waist, but mostly it seems to be coming out of my face. No more double chins for this chica. We're taking front and side pictures once a week to document my progress, but as they are in my underwear, and I'm a fat girl, they won't be displayed here. Count your lucky stars.

We are also still waiting for an insurance reimbursement check for our glasses. (Did I mention that I got new glasses? I can't remember. Well I did. So did Justin) We've been waiting for this check since it was cut on the 8th of January. For some reason they didn't choose to mail the check until the 23rd of January... and it's not here yet. I'm pretty sure they sent it to the wrong address...Here's the thing, if we just had enough money to pay for the glasses with no hope of reimbursement why would we have the insurance?? This is ludicrous.

In other news, my family seems to be coming to pieces one at a time. My aunt fell last week and broke her (right) arm. I drove her to the Dr. yesterday to check out how well he did in surgery on Wednesday. He seems pretty pleased with his work. Don't they always?

My little niece, Hannah, who is almost 3 has been in the hospital for 3 days, (no one told me until yesterday by the way) with some sort of a bacterial infection which they can't seem to identify. All she wants is to watch Cinderella. We're buying it for her today. They know for sure that it's not StrepThroat or Appendicitis, but that's about it.

And, the icing on the cake, my younger brother, Steven, keeps passing out. It happened 3 weeks ago at church (they told me that today, clearly I'm out of the loop) and then again last night at WalMart. They took him to the emergency room last night and they couldn't find anything wrong besides the fact that his blood sugar was very low, and he was wearing about 5 layers of clothes. We're thinking maybe hypoglycemia, which is good because we were afraid initially that it might be a problem with is shunt. (He has hydrocephalus.) Hypoglycemia will be considerably easier to treat.

So that's the update. Maybe I had something to say after all...

Art or Psychotherapy?

The results of this analysis say:

You tend to pursue many different activities simultaneously. When misfortune does happen, it doesn't actually dishearten you all that much.
You are a thoughtful and cautious person. You like to think about your method, seeking to pursue your goal in the most effective way.
You are creative, mentally active and industrious.
You have a sunny, cheerful disposition.

What does your drawing say about YOU?

Snow Day!

So Friday afternoon it started snowing, and it just kept on snowing until Saturday afternoon. I love it when I can stay home and just watch it snow without having to worry about getting out and going anywhere. They closed the center where we work last night so we were off and we just got to hang out and stay cozy. It was really nice. Of course we have to drive to work tonight...I'm hoping that during the afternoon it melts off some. Cross your fingers. Here's some pics from this morning. I really wanted to get some before the snow was all walked around in but for some reason I didn't think about it until after I had driven through the yard. Oh well, perhaps the deepness of the footprints/tire marks will show you how deep the snow is.

This is the view from the front porch.

These are the giant icicles growing off our house. I think they are very very cool.

This is Maybe. She thinks snow is for eating. She thinks everything is for eating.

And here is Maybe looking all tragic after I made her sit down in the snow. Please don't call PETA, she's fine I promise.

Ice

This is what it looks like outside:



The police, the news, and the National Weather Service are telling people not to drive unless there is an extreme emergency. My father, the fireman, has gone out on 12 wrecks in the last 6 hours. Two involving fatalities. There is an inch of ice on the on my porch. At least that much on the road. They tell us we are expected to be at work (30 miles away), because our corporate office is in South Dakota, and our weather can't possibly be as bad as theirs. That is bullshit.
We are not driving over a treacherous road in the middle of the night so that we can assist college students in their prank phone calls all night long.

We are staying home.

Fat Like Me

Well we're back from our trip. It was generally a good time, the flights were uneventful as usual and there were no major fights the entire trip. We did some fun shopping with our Christmas money and got to eat at some good places and see the George Bush Library, which if you haven't been to, is a really fun place to go.

The only downside to the trip is that the entire time my mom harassed me about my weight. Hello, fat people know we're fat. It's not a secret that you have to whisper to us in the car on the way to the pizza place. It's not something that we have to be reminded of every hour or so by concerned citizens. Clearly my mom doesn't understand this. At one point while I was in the bathroom she even said to Justin "I'm really sorry Susan has gained so much weight since the wedding." (I've gained maybe 8 or 10 pounds geez.) He immediately told her that it was inappropriate behavior for her to say things like that to him {Justins Note: I don't actually know if she heard me or not. I was scared} , so instead she got me alone every chance she could and told me how much I need to watch what I eat, and that 2 mini bagles (240 calories) is way to much for anyone to eat for breakfast. Needless to say my struggling self esteem has taken a nose dive. Again.

Yeah, I'm fully aware that I need to lose weight. I actually have been walking what I think amounts to 1 and a half miles at work every night on my lunch hour and break. I've been eating healthier. I've lost 4 pounds in about a month. Yes I know that's not record breaking, but at least it's something. At least I'm trying. I shouldn't have had to cry every day of my vacation. Justin's mom is giving us a treadmill. Apparently they're closing ranks. I wish I had the willpower to get an eating disorder.

Out of the Office

We are leaving for our trip in 10 hours. 6 of those will be spent at work and one of them driving to work so they don't count. 3 hours til our vacation!!!

Be back Monday.

Happy New Year!

The only resolution I usually make is that I hope the new year is better than the old one. This year (2006) was much better than 2005 that is for sure, so things are looking bright and beautiful for 2007. Justin and I are working tonight so there will be no partying to ring in the new year, however we will get paid at 2 1/2 times our normal rate, which is pretty dandy.

As for a resolution just for myself... I'm going to try to lose 2 pounds. That's all I'm gonna hope for now and if it's more then that's great and if it doesn't happen by next December 31, well I'm sure I can do something just before stepping on the scale that will push me that 2 pounds. Heck, my jeans probably weigh that much right?? Here's to feeling good about yourself!

And, even though this picture was taken just before Christmas, I'm calling it our New Years Portrait because it's cute and I want to share. Sue me.

An Update.

Yay, the holidays (except New Year's, which involves way less pressure) are over and with them my pre-post holiday depression seems to have gone. I got lots of good stuff this year and my parents even pulled through this time with nothing random or weird and the inevitable craft from Sussan is actually a set of cool candle holders so all is well.

Justin got me a beautiful ring that looks like a flower and has some tiny little diamonds in it to make it shiny and a bookshelf which is the only thing that I really really wanted. We put it together yesterday and got all the stuff on it and it looks really really great. When I come into the room and see it I automatically smile which is great. My brother and sister got me a Magic Bullet blender which I've wanted for like 5 years. I need to cook something using it soon but I haven't been to the grocery store yet. I got Justin clothes and he bought an X-box but I'm counting it as a Christmas present since it was quite expensive and the money is "our" money anyway. Yes, I know, this is cheating.

Here's my ring:

On the way home from work on Tuesday morning we saw a little basset hound on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. She was wandering around sort of lost looking and I was terrified that she was going to get hit by a car so we turned around and she came to me and we brought her home. She was very soft and sweet and good in the car. She was wearing a collar with a tag, (Her name is Ellie) and I really wanted to just keep her because I kind of think that if you lose your dog on the highway you aren't taking great care of her to begin with. But Justin said that I should do the right thing so after we got home and I gave her a bath and got some food and water into her and let her play with Maybe for awhile, I called the number on her tag. They guy didn't seem all that thrilled that he was getting his dog back safe and sound so now I feel really cheated that we didn't just keep her. Even when he came to the house to get her he didn't ask where we found her or if she seemed like she was ok...he didn't even say thank you. I am not happy...but I guess you can't always choose the outcome when you do the "right thing." I just know how freaked out we would be if we lost Maybe and how happy we would be if someone brought her back to us...so I totally don't understand that guy's ambivilance.

We are leaving next Thursday to see my mom in Bryan. I'm excited about this trip because it will be the first time in a year that we have been anywhere besides our usual haunts of Levelland/Lubbock/Amarillo. I'm not sure exactly what we will do when we get there. My mom keeps asking what we want to do, it's important to her to have a plan apparently. I'll have to check online for some ideas. Really though, I just want to get away from here for awhile.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas Eve

I've already de-frocked the tree. How depressing.

Oh well, here's a picture from before the (pre) post Holiday depression set in:

What Do You Know?

Create your own friendquiz here

Angry Mutterings

I have been having trouble sleeping. Add to that the fact that every time I actually do manage to fall asleep, the phone rings, the dog barks, the dog runs into my room when she's supposed to be in her crate, the cats start fighting, the car alarm goes off, someone comes into or goes out of the house or the dog barks some more. My sleeping pills aren't working. I have to go to work now, and I desperately want to go back to bed, but it wouldn't matter. It's not like I'm getting any sleeping done there. Auggh.

Ho Ho Ho

Last night my dad was Santa at Levelland's Festival of Trees. It was a pretty big deal and he even got to be on the news. Because I've got special connections, Santa also came to visit my house a little early!!

Here's my dad with the news guy and camera

And here with a child I don't know...I hope she doesn't mind

Then Santa came to my house. Maybe greeted him like an old friend.

Apparently my star wasn't up to par...

Me and Justin, a little Christmas Cheer!

Jingle

There is nothing that does not have a Christmas Ornament. Justin and I went and walked around Holland Gardens yesterday. During the regular year they just sell plants and gardening supplies, completely what you'd expect from a place named "Holland Gardens," but during the holidays they turn it into a huge Christmas tree showplace. There are TONS of trees, all with different themes, and I dare you to go in there looking for a specific kind of ornament and not find it. The also do custom Christmas lights, where you pick the color and shape of the bulb and how many you want and they string them up for you right there. It's really really amazing. Justin and I want to get an ornament together every year to commemorate what happened that year, and we're starting this year, since it's the first time we've both a) had the money for a special ornament and b) put up a tree together. Last year I had a tree, but only for 2 weeks as I got a late start and we were super broke. My dad gave us a little dog ornament that says "New Home 2005," because it was the first year we'd lived in a house instead of an apartment.

This year however, I went to Holland Gardens to break out the fancy stuff. I got a really beautiful sterling silver wedding cake ornament, which we will have engraved with 2006 on the bottom to celebrate our wedding this year, and I also got a little pewter bone ornament that says "woof," to honor the first year we had Maybe. And, not to commemorate anything, I got two bumble bee ornaments, one blue and yellow and one traditional gold and black because I like them, and Justin calls me "bumblebee." I'm going to keep those out all year and hang them from my dresser or something after the tree comes down.

Surprisingly, I'm practically done with my Christmas shopping. I have to grab one thing for my parents, one thing for Nikaia, and one more thing for Justin and that is *it* people. I'm so proud.
I thought my tail-bone was feeling better yesterday, but apparently the drugs were just working their magic, because I got overly excited last night and didn't take my pain pills before I went to bed, and now I feel once again like I'm going to die every time I sit down and stand up. As long as I can stay in one position for as long as possible I think I can make it...The chair I'm sitting in now kind of makes me sit really far forward off my butt, and is less painful than the couch, so I guess I'll camp out at the computer desk as much as I can...

Today is Justin's last day of school this semester. He's taking his final now. He has to make an 8 to have a 'B' or a 68 to have an 'A.' Impressive.

Let it Snow.

The scene:

So it started snowing Wednesday night, and just kept right on going into early Thursday afternoon. We couldn't see to drive to work on Wednesday, so we've had an extra long weekend, which would normally be quite nice, and it was, except that on Thursday morning when I took Maybe out, I decided that instead of staying on the porch like an intelligent human being, that I should try to get into the car for a box of Kleenex. I made it down the front steps with minimal drama, and all the way to the car. Just when I thought I was home free, both of my legs flew out in front of me and I crashed to the ground. I don't remember the actual fall, just the landing, (directly on my tail-bone, without benefit of even trying to catch myself). There was a terrible cracking sound, and my whole body was just...I don't even know the word...I felt like someone had dropped me off a roof. Because I couldn't move anything at first, I was terrified that my back was broken, it was 7am, dark, snowing, and really, really cold. I did not think I would be able to get into the house, and I was quite convinced that I would just have to freeze to death, and so be it.

I'm not sure how long I stayed on the ground, I'm sure it was only about 5 minutes or so, but it felt like hours. Justin was in the house sleeping, so in spite of the fact that I screamed for him, there was no way he could have heard me. I tried to dial 911 on my camera, surprisingly, it didn't work. Maybe, sensing that there was trouble and channeling Lassie, broke out of her terrified huddle in the snow (she'd never seen it before, and was quite scared), and managed, through nose prodding and whining, to convince me to get up off the ground. I didn't want to traumatize her any more than necessary, so I managed to stagger into the house. I think that if Maybe hadn't harassed me, I probably would have just stayed there, and happily became a pop-susan. She was a very brave dog and was rewarded with a wasabi-peanut.

I made it to Justin's room and got warmed up. I told him the story and since Justin is a fan of authority, he made me go to the emergency room for my broken tail-bone. However, the nurse there was like, "well, we can do an X-ray for you, but even if it's broken there's not a thing we can do about it." So after a short discussion we left. I don't need to pay for an emergency room visit if they're not even gonna fix me. (My HMO should send me a Christmas card.) Sooo, my tail-bone is probably broken, and it's very-very difficult to sit down, and to get back up again (getting up is worse). It's also hard to roll over in bed and riding in cars is just torture (although, probably not as bad as maybe riding on a train...or a horse. I haven't tried that yet). They tell me it will be like this for about 6 weeks. It's nice to have something to look forward to.

On the cheerful side, I did get a pretty good picture of Maybe in the snow:

Thanksgiving Pics

Thanksgiving was fun and now it's time to get ready for Christmas. We went to Panhandle on Thursday and drove back Thursday night. It was very scary because we were both quite tired as we worked all night Wednesday night and didn't really sleep in between work and going up North. We got home about 10 and I slept better than I ever have in my life without the benefit of medication. My Aunt Tommye, my brother and I went shopping on Friday like the maniacs we are, and she did manage to get some good deals on electronic gifts at Circuit City and I found some green apple licorice at Sutherlands (whoda thought?) I was super excited because I haven't had it since moving away from Canyon (home of the Mountain Man, oh how I miss him...) On Saturday we had Thanksgiving lunch at my dad's house which was also fun and I got to meet D'Liesa's boyfriend for the first time. He seems very nice. Anyway, nothing particularly new or exciting to report, except that I did get my Christmas tree up!! Most of my shopping is done too, and I'll start wrapping this weekend during arts and crafts time at my aunts. Yay! Here are some Turkey Day pics and one of my beauuuutiful tree

This is our official Thanksgiving picture. It was actually taken on Thanksgiving Day when we went for a walk in Panhandle

This is Ashlie with Nikaia. Isn't she getting big? (The baby, not Ashlie, who is quite slender)

Here's my Dad and Hunter waiting to eat.

And Hannah practicing her famous Whipped Cream Swallowing ActThis is D'Liesa with James. Cute huh?

And finally....my lovely tree!

Happy Thanksgiving

Yesterday was our 6 month anniversary. To celebrate I worked overtime, and today we went out for Indian food at our favorite restaurant. At lunch they have a buffet. Brilliant!! Justin just came back from a dog walk, and Maybe made a friend today. He lives down the street. I think he's a young pit-bull. She took him a rubber bone from her extensive collection of chew toys. I'm glad I have a dog with good manners.

I'm almost done with my Christmas shopping and in 3 days I get to PUT UP THE TREE!! We're still figuring out how we're going to keep Maybe from chewing on it, but I'm sure it will all work out.

I'm slightly morally opposed to Thanksgiving, as it was started by a bunch of Puritans who thought it was ok to hang people for their religious beliefs (whether they actually believed them or not), however I do enjoy the food. With that in mind, we're heading to Amarillo for Thanksgiving (actually, Panhandle by way of Amarillo). We get off work at 5:30 Thursday morning and we'll head towards Amarillo around 9 or so. I'm shopping with my aunt on Friday and then my family is doing the turkey thing on Saturday, so the rest of the week will be quite busy. Anyway, Everyone have a nice Thanksgiving and eat lots of dressing, that's my favorite!


{Editors Note: No actual turkeys were harmed in the making of this blog}

Whisper

I don't really have much to say, which is good as I have laryngitis. I figured I'd better post something even though my readership is steadily declining. Yesterday Justin and I got our flu shots. I had had a cold for the past few weeks as I mentioned in a previous post, but I thought that I was just about over it. They told us (not verbally, on their handy questionaire) that if we were sick we shouldn't take the shot. First off I tend to believe that's hooey, everyone knows that you don't get the flu from the shot these days...and Secondly I didn't think that I was still sick...

Apparently, you don't get the flu, but it bangs around your immune system enough preparing all those flu antibodies that you're susceptible to all sorts of other lovely diseases. And if you already have one of those lovely diseases (as in my case) the shot gives it room to just take on over. Gross.
I'm supposed to go to my aunt's house today and clean and perhaps go to Lubbock for some shopping...I'm still going to go but it's gonna be way less fun if I have to whisper and cough the whole time.

Socks

I'm a newly converted shoe wearer. That's right folks, the flip flop queen has made a turn around. I now have 3 pairs of new really cute tennis shoes. It was shocking to walk around target without my feet starting to hurt. I think I see a trend starting.

HOWEVER

I do not have any socks....so on my mission to find some I stumbled across this website, which, even non-sock wearers will confirm is pretty darn cool.

Also, anyone know a good gift for a 5 year old boy? I've got to buy for two in that age range this year, and having never been a five year old boy I'm just not sure...I don't think socks will cut it though.

Disgusting

I have a cold. It is making me cough and sneeze and gag and vomit (because of the drainage to my stomach, isn't that a lovely picture?) I've had this disgusting infection for almost a full week. It doesn't seem to be getting any better, but it doesn't seem to be getting worse either.

I wonder if I can file this under my accident insurance? I certainly didn't get it on purpose.

More True than Not

How to make a Susan

Ingredients: 5 parts competetiveness 5 parts silliness 3 parts beauty

Method: Layer ingredients in a shot glass. Top it off with a sprinkle of sadness and enjoy!

Username:

Personality cocktail
From Go-Quiz.com

AhhChoo

Does anyone else feel like their arms are coming unglued when they sneeze? It's a wildly uncomfortable feeling, and usually, shortly afterwards, I have to lie down from the pain and exhaustion of that sneeze. It's not every sneeze, just the really big ones.

I cooked all weekend. I tried several times to make monster cookies but every time they ran all over the cookie sheet and into the oven and set the fire alarm off...and then they wouldn't come off the pan. They taste really good...but they aren't the way they are supposed to be. My aunt is going to try to make some tomorrow from the same recipe and see if she has the same problem. I also made star shaped tea-cakes, and salmon patties. I have done dishes 6 times. This may very well be a personal record.

Justin and I are now the proud owners of a table and four chairs. We don't really know where to put them as we don't have a dining room, for now the table and two chairs are in the kitchen and the other two chairs are in the living room. I like them though. They are purple.

We also got a full length mirror. I'm going to have to move it as I'm terrified of mirrors when I sleep. Perhaps this is somehow related to the sneezing...

Smile

This picture is Justin's desktop background. It makes me smile every time I see it.

Tasty!

I've decided to fill my time (and my belly) with baking to keep myself entertained, at least through the holiday season. I'm also going to do gift baskets for my family for Christmas filled with, among other things, baked goods. So, anybody that has a good cookie, candy, bread or general treat recipe I would appreciate it if you would send it to me. Anything that can be cut into pieces (or is made in pieces like cookies) would be great. If you email me a recipe and your mailing address, I will send you some treats sometime between now and Christmas...


P.S. Jonathan, I can't read your blog!! How do I become an "invited reader?"

Hello?

Is anybody out there??

Crafty.

Justin says I have to find a hobby. Something I like to do. Any suggestions? I can't crochet, as I proved last year, everything just is a circle, and I don't really want to learn how to knit because yarn apparently has it out for me. I used to like to shop, but a I no longer have that kind of disposable income, it can't really be my hobby. As it is now, when I fill out one of those "what do you like to do" profiles for MySpace or whatever I put that I like to read, but I'm doing that for 8 hours a night at work. I can't take it anymore. Anyway I have no idea, so suggestions are appreciated.

P.S. I don't want anything that will leave me with a bunch of extra stuff so nobody say "oh I know, you can make [potholders, birdhouses, decopage, friendship bracelets...insert craft of choice here]

Ew Fashion.

I've been watching the Style Network for over an hour because it's too cold to take my hands out of my shirt and change the channel. This girl just bought enough clothes so that she could have eight different outfits for the weekend. How stupid. I've been wearing basically the same velour pants/hoodie combination (with different tank tops) for 3 days...I'm going to have to rethink it though since Justin said something like "mmm look at that big velvet bottom." When he saw the apalled look on my face he assured me that he meant that said bottom was sexy... so then I had to tell him that the words "big" and "sexy" do not go together unless you're talking about lips, boobs or eyes.

I may be applying for a new job. There is an opening for unit secretary in the birthing center where my aunt works. It would be Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays from 6pm to 6am. This sounds amazing to me. It would be great to be off for 4 days a week....

Now StyleTV is talking about the importance of eyeliner...dear god.

Where My Mind Wanders

I've been having some trouble sleeping... well, actually I was having some trouble sleeping, but I've started taking a sleeping pill before bed on work days...However, yesterday was not a work day so I went to bed without it. The problem is that my mind just races. It doesn't think of anything real, like bills or work or any of the important stuff usually...just random crap. Sometimes it doesn't linger on a single thought long enough for me to even fully realize what it is before moving on, and I don't usually remember what those passing ideas were...but here are the "big ones" I remember from the past week or so...

The first thing, and the one that for some reason got me worked into a tizzy that particular night was the idea that my cat, Nic, was desperate to be an actor. {I told you these weren't normal thoughts.} It seemed very important that I find an agent for him and look for work in commercials or whatever cat actors do. Very stressful in a very weird way. Anyway, just in case this was Nic trying to channel his deepest desire, I'm posting his "headshot" here, just in case any animal agents are looking.

Last night Las Vegas was in my head. I decided that they should change their name...The thought pattern went something like this:

Los Angeles means "the angels." This is a fitting name for this city because it's beautiful, warm, and all the people look heavenly, {please excuse that pun} thanks to great plastic surgeons, anorexia and the zone diet. If you took away all the sin, Los Angeles would definatley look like the sort of place where angels vacation.

Along those same lines, Las Vegas means "the fertile valley." This is a very poor name for the city because well, it's in the middle of a desert. The thought was that if Los Angeles is the city of "angels", then Las Vegas should be called "Los Menos Dios" : "the lesser gods", which would translate to "demons." It's sin city after all right? So then we could have "the city of angels" and "the city of demons."

I do realize that this might cut down on tourism from the church ladies going to see Blue Man Group and Celine Dion, so it might not be a brilliant marketing strategy, but at least it would make more sense.

Yeah...it makes even less sense now than it did as I was falling asleep. Oh well. Hope it was entertaining at least.

The Lighter Side

Ok, this made me laugh, so to make up for my depressing previous post:

I think it's really funny when Maybe tries to catch bugs on the other side of the glass door, because she bonks her nose and then acts offended.

Damn Damn Damn.

So, after a week without our regularly scheduled programming, the DishNetwork guy came yesterday and fixed our TV...and today when I got home from work it had stopped working again. Lovely. Also, the b**** at the water department told me that the adjustment on our bill from when we had the leak, (which they have delayed making for a month) is only $43, in spite of the fact that our regular water bill would probably have only been $40. So now we have to pay a $100 water bill today. *sigh* I just cried and cried for an hour, because there's so much more that we need to do with that money, but at least it's less than it could be. Finally I just decided to suck it up...but now I have to tell Justin when he gets home from school. He's going to be pissed...about both the TV and the water, and he's been very sensitive for the past few days. This is not going to be fun.

In other news, my dad thinks our drug dealer neighbors are stealing water from us. He knows that their water has been disconnected, (the fire station turns into the water department after hours) and he knows that they have already been charged with theft of public service for stealing water from someone else last month. (I don't know where he came by that information, but I guess it's public record. I don't even know their names) I dont know either way, but he thinks they're coming over at night while we work or during the day while we sleep and taking water from the outside faucets. I have no idea whether this is true or not because with the water bill being unadjusted I can't tell what it "really" is. It wouldn't surprise me though. I'm pretty sure that they're stealing electricity though. Our bill is more than it seems like it should be with only one window unit air conditioner and usually only one small lamp and the TV on consistently during the hours that we are awake. My estimate is that it should be around $75, but it is consistently over $150. Oh well...Can't think about it now. I'm already too stressed out.

Now for the fun news...assuming that we can afford it, (after the monster water bill) we are going to go to the corn maze tomorrow. He is very very excited about it...like a little kid going trick-o-treating or something. I think it will be way fun too, {must remember to take allergy pills}. I just love Halloween and fall things. I'm hoping to take Hunter and Hannah to a pumpkin patch and take some pictures in the next week or two. We'll see if I can round up the energy to cope with the toddlers. Oh... I think Justin's home...more as and when.

Domestic Violence

It is Domestic Violence Awareness month. My dad's extra job is working at a funeral home, and part of that involves going all over the place to pick up bodies. Last week he went to get a man who had chased his wife to the Dallas area, then killed her and himself because she left him. I don't know what can be done in an official context to stop this sort of thing...but something should be.www.ncadv.org

7 am Griping.

Can someone tell me why UPS insists on dropping my packages off at the post office instead of my house? It makes it take an extra day for them to get here and that is really dang frustrating. I want my new jeans!!

In other postal complaints, I was walking Maybe yesterday at about the time that the mailman came by. Maybe and I were standing on the porch waiting (Please note, she was on a leash, and could not get off the porch, also note that she is a 15 inch beagle who weighs less than 20 pounds, it's relevant, I promise). I watched him go to all the other houses on the block, and then turn and walk back to his truck. So I said "Hello? Do we not have any mail??" and he said "Yes you do, but I'm not bringing it with that dog up there." What the hell is that all about?? So I shoved Maybe into the house and said "So do you want to bring it now?" (all meanly, it was fun). And he did, but acted like it was a huge inconvenience.

Hello Mr. Mailman, its YOUR JOB to deliver the mail. It's not like my dog is big and scary...or even like she was off the leash and could possibly attack. Whatever. We've only been getting our mail every other day for the past couple of weeks anyway, and it's really starting to make me mad, because I know that the postman is just too dang lazy to bring it up here. AND almost every day we get mail for the people one block over. I wonder how much of our mail they are getting?? So anyway, we filed a complaint. If I don't have my jeans today by noon, someone's head's gonna roll.

I also discovered that the man I married is lazy beyond belief. I went to wash the dishes when we got home from work yesterday morning, and before I could start I had to take tons of trash off the counter from where he left it when he made his... I guess, dinner the night before. When I confronted him about it he said: "I don't like to throw stuff away because I have to open the trash can." Is this just a guy thing?? He made up for it by letting me cut out his incredibly painful ingrown toenail last night. Anyone who knows me, knows that I thrive on being able to pick at stuff like that. It's been suggested that I should go to dental hygenist school...perhaps, but I'm very offended by [really] bad teeth, and Ashlie told some horror stories.

Nothing's changing much around here...It's our weekend now and I hope we can have dinner at my parents house at least once because we don't have anything good to eat and I'm starving.

Ok well..sorry for the boring update, I guess thats....OH MY GOD, I just discovered the empty dish where Justin ate all the rest of the mango dessert he made last night!! I only got one little bit, and it was the last good thing we had!! ugh.

Clean Teeth and a Baby

Justin and I took a quick trip to Amarillo over the weekend. His sister is in Dental Hygenist school and she wanted to clean our teeth (for free!) and she made me a whitening tray, which would have cost $500 at the regular dentist...but was free from her. This is a great gift, since I spend a lot of time obsessing over the whitness of my teeth. We also had not seen baby Nikaia yet so we had to do that...AND I wanted to run by the flea market to get some new fake hair, since I'm a lazy hair-do-er but the place with the hair was closed. Anyway, here are the pics from our trip:


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