Insomnia

During certain times...of my life...I suffer from severe insomnia. It's not in any pattern and comes sporadically. Thankfully it's usually before my days off or on a day where I can get some extra sleep if I ever do fall asleep. I was tired all day today, so you would think I would have crashed hours ago. It's nearly 5 now. Getting pretty tired of this, no pun intended (or maybe it is...I can't think straight).

I am taking this time to work on my new photo album. I suggest looking over to the left of your screen and checking it out. 2009 was a good picture year. We had some pretty fun adventures and I even helped delivery my friend's baby. How many times will I get to do that in my life? I'm going to finish this up and then HOPEFULLY get to bed!

sprucing things up

We have had a very busy few weeks, getting things cleaned up and fixed up around here. I have a list of plans a mile long and I have no idea where to start. Forest keeps telling me "one at a time..." but I don't have any clue of which one to do first!

We have made great progress with our landscaping. We built a pathway from our gate to our deck, planted two square foot gardens and have a lovely flower bed along the house with great lighting for when we entertain outside. Our front yard needs a bit of work, we're going to lay out a new flower bed in the front. My pansies are still looking great from the winter, at least the ones that have survived the torrential downpours and hail storms. I think it's finally time to install gutters. I think we will end up doing them ourselves, unless anyone in DFW knows of a great company that can do them for us!

In other news, we celebrated our 5th anniversary last Friday. It's hard to believe that it's been 5 years already! We have had good times and sad, thankfully more good times than not. Forest surprised me with a gorgeous ring. My wedding ring is wonderful and I love it, but it's not practical for work. It also has an interlocking band, so I wasn't able to just wear the band either. I let him know what I wanted and we found one together. It's just perfect, like my dear husband :)

march madness

I'm not a basketball fan, I will admit, but I do hear a lot about March Madness while working at the Dendy's (Dallas is a huge sports fan). The March Madness I am referring to is the crazy weather we are having again. It was gorgeous for almost the entire month and I was longing for when the pool would open. We packed away the winter clothes and blankets. Yesterday the temperature dropped dramatically, back into the 30's. Warm weather, come back to us!

If you can believe it, my toe is still recovering from my plate drop. I'm convinced I put a crack in the bone and it's just taking it's time to heal. It doesn't bother me much, but if I put any pressure on the top of my toe, it hurts like the day I injured it. I have two new injuries at the moment. My arm started to ache last week and it feels like I pulled a muscle in my elbow. This causes some issues with carrying Grace, but since she can walk with assistance I usually make her walk everywhere and I'm sure she doesn't mind! Yesterday Forest and I were walking out of Wal-Mart and my neck just started to ache like I had slept on it weird. It's still feeling really sore, but I'm not sure what I could have done that would have made it feel so bad so fast. It comes and goes too, but if I stay pretty still it doesn't hurt at all. I think it's weather related, the drop in temperature does weird things to me.

Forest and I planning a trip up north this summer. We're planning on driving through St. Louis to see the Arch and then of course up to Michigan. On the way home we are going to see Nauvoo again. We were there 4 years ago but we didn't have our Temple Recommends so I am so excited to be able to go do a session at the Temple. We'll also be able to go see the Pageant, as we'll be going sometime in July. We haven't been to Michigan in a while and it's also been a long while since we've seen some of my friends and family, so it'll be a nice visit.

Not much is going on with us for now. We're re-landscaping our backyard and I will post pictures when we get it all done. It should look really nice. Hope everyone is doing well!

I'm Getting Bad At This...

I need to post more often. I have been entirely too busy lately. Right now I am getting a bit irritated with the weather around here. It was gorgeous on Thursday at 87 degrees. Right now it's in the 30's. The dramatic drop in temperature has reeked havoc on my body, I feel stiff as a board right now. I did something stupid yesterday, I dropped a plate on my toes. You wouldn't think that would hurt all too bad but it hit me in exactly the right spot and it is seriously painful. It didn't bruise, which was strange, but it hurts if I touch it. Thankfully I was able to move it this afternoon. It seemed like every time I walked passed Grace she would throw a book at me and it would land right on my foot. She has some sort of pain radar and hurls things toward it.

I still cannot believe it, but I was recently called as our Ward's Activities Chair. This is the biggest calling I've had and I'm pretty excited about it. We both have been on the committee for a little while but after our Chair was released they apparently thought it was a great idea to have me replace her (I know, what are they thinking, right?). Our first activity is next Saturday, so for all of those in the TC Ward, please come and remember to bring your favorite soup, a pretty good prize is on the line here!

Right now I'm sitting in my dining room which seems to be the most freezing room in the entire house. We finally got a new dining room table after not having one for the last 9 months. We moved some things around in here and it looks good. I will have to post some pictures in the next few days once I get my decor all straightened out finally. I'm having a book club meeting at my house in 9 or so days, I hope everything is done by then! Wish me luck!

I'm going to go cuddle with my husband and get warm. I know it's February, it should be cold, but I wish the weather would make up it's mind! Maybe March will be better...

20 days in...

So far I am liking 2009. Today I got to see our new President sworn in, that was neat. Regardless of everything good or bad, I am glad to see change in our nation. Hopefully the changes will continue and be for the best!

Right now I have some weird illness. I thought I had strep but I don't believe that I do. My throat was killing me but this morning I was showering and coughed...I will skip the icky details...and now it's fine. Strep doesn't clear up THAT fast. Yesterday I was SO cold I was shivering violently. I couldn't get warm even with 4 blankets over me. I slept like that all night and when I woke up I was so unbelievably hot! Now I'm cold again, but at least I don't feel like I want to die. I missed work today and I miss Gracie already! I am going back tomorrow afternoon, I hope...

I was going to post this long thing about our Sealing, but I haven't gotten around to it. It needs my full attention and emotion. It was such an emotional day! We are on such a spiritual high right now, we've been going to the Temple every month on Ward Temple night. I went with the youth to do baptisms two weeks ago, we went last Saturday to do a session and we are going on Friday to do Sealings. I am so thankful we have a Temple so close and the means to get there. As much as I want children, part of me is loving being able to do things like this without worrying about them. I know when the time comes, we'll be blessed with a little one in one way or another!

I was just called as our Ward's Activities Chairperson. I look forward to serving our Ward, I had a really great experience planning our Christmas Party. I've already started planning next years. Imagine how great it'll be then ;)

I need to go eat dinner, at almost 10pm. I need to change my eating habits...but I'm sick, cut me some slack!

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

and also the busiest....

The last two months have flown by in a whirl. It's hard to believe that in just a few hours we will be saying goodbye to 2008 already. 2008, despite it's flaws, was a very good year for Forest and I. Here are a few of the reasons I haven't updated this blog in a while:

Ward Christmas Party: Our Ward's Christmas Party was Dec 12th. I was asked to plan for it about 4 weeks before that. Even though I had a short time to do everything, it turned out pretty amazing in the end. It was quite the experience and I would do it again. I might even have to, next year.

Family, Family, Everywhere: On Dec 21st my parents came into town safe and sound. The day before they came, it was in the 70's and very nice. The day after they landed we took them to a drive-in movie theater (my Dad worked at one when he was in college so we thought it would be nostalgic for him to go). It was in the 30's! Even though we were kind of cold, we did have fun eating to keep warm and the movies were pretty good. We had a great Christmas Eve with the Wrights and the Myerhoffs. The day after Christmas we gained 5 more family members when Forest's sister Heidi, her husband and three kids came to stay. We had a very full house!

Sealing: On Dec 27th, Forest and I were finally sealed in the Dallas Temple! It was a really amazing day. I will post about that later, it really does deserve it's own entry!

New Years: Our family is all gone (*sniff*) and we are gearing up for a big party at the Dendy's tonight! I am working a whopping 11 hours today and hopefully not more than that because Gracie needs to sleep before midnight. I can just imagine how cranky she will be if she stays up until then.

I am sad to see this year go (because it means I'm really starting to get older) but I am excited to see what is in store for next year. Happy New Year!

first post from our new house

Hello everyone, sorry I have been quiet. There have been a lot of things going on around here. Grace is in summer school so for the first part of summer I was working a bit later than usual and Forest was on a different schedule which caused him to work earlier so we were on very different schedules. Grace had two weeks off for the holidays and I had been working up to 50 hours a week! Forest is back on his normal schedule (thank goodness) and Grace starts school back up tomorrow so things should settle down just a bit...we hope.

We are almost moved out of our apartment, we just have two pieces of furniture left and we will be out for good. Things are shaping up here as well, we are slowly replacing things and trying to make things our own. I have a list a mile long of things I want to re-do or re-model but I have to take one thing at a time. Our master bathroom is currently in pieces due to a leak underneath our toilet. The warranty we have for the house paid for the least expensive part of the whole ordeal, but at least it paid for something. We have to have our entire floor replaced and our toilet is not usable until that happens. We want to replace almost the entire bathroom when we do the floor, so we may wait to do that for a little while. I had been feeling very overwhelmed with some of the issues we've found in the house but after spending several weeks here I am feeling much better. At first I kept thinking about the problems instead of the things that were going well. I am 25 years old and I just purchased my first home! I didn't stop to realize how incredibly lucky I am to say that at my age. So, taking one step at a time, we are fixing things and making things better.

I am so thankful to live across the street from the Wrights, without them I would have fallen into a heap of tears and depression 4 weeks ago. They have helped us in so many ways, I don't know if we will ever be able to repay them for their kindness. I may have to feed them for the next month to feel remotely even (and I'm sure they would appreciate that!)

I hope everyone is having a nice summer. Being married without children (especially in Texas), we don't always pay attention to what season it actually is. However, summer does mean more work for me, but my job requirements include swimming, trips to the mall and introducing the girls to the Star Wars Saga. I even have my own garage space. I live a charmed life, indeed.

binding my time...

It feels like the last two weeks have CRAWLED by. We closed on our house on April 30th so we are officially home owners. The only problem is that we still have 4 1/2 weeks until we can move in. I have been going crazy with spending, buying all sorts of things. As pointed out in my previous post, my couches are nested in my living room, but now they are covered with all sorts of new things. I bought a new mattress, which is also sitting in my living room in a box. It's a memory foam mattress so it's pretty tightly wrapped up and "small" but is still taking up room. Our spare bedroom looks like a storage unit and it's actually very organized, for once. We have our washer and dryer ordered and they are being delivered and installed on June 16th. I'm ready to go, so I'll sit here and wait until June 15th...

I have my schedule figured out for this entire year (through May 2009!). It's going to be a busy one too. Grace is going to school full time next year so I had to figure out how to pack in these extra 6 hours a week. I am going to be working insane hours in the summer (in one 15-day span I am working 118 hours!) and then 31 hours a week during the school year. Forest's schedule is changing for 6 weeks in June and July so he'll be back to working Mondays. He's not all that happy about it because he'll be forced to sit in traffic everyday and with these wicked insane gas prices we don't want him wasting any of that precious gas! Thankfully it's only for 6 weeks (or so they say, we'll see). Once school starts in August, I'll come over to the Dendy's at 6:45 am, help Grace get ready and then take the girls to school. I'll pick them up afterwards and work until 8. It's almost the schedule I have now, but slightly earlier. Not a problem though, I need an excuse to get out of bed in the morning or I never will.

For some reason I'm losing weight. I'm not complaining, it's good news for me, but I'd love to know what I'm doing that is causing this. I bought a book about PCOS and a meal plan that I should be eating. I have been reading through the book and am going to jump into this when we move. I'm going to stop eating certain things now and hopefully by the middle of June I'll be prepared to take this step. I am overall pretty healthy for being the size I am, but it's time to deal with this before problems start appearing. It's going to be a really tough road, but I think with the support of Forest and my friends I'll make it through the other end. I had noticed my pants were starting to look huge on me so I weighed myself the other night. I've lost 25 pounds since I looked at the scale which was probably 2 months ago. I was carrying Grace around yesterday and I had my pants nearly fall off! I have jeans that usually feel very tight when you first put them on but then stretch out in a few minutes to the right fit. I put them on today and they were too big. Then they stretched out a bit as well. I had to wear a belt to even keep them on. I am sad because I love these jeans (I have three pairs that are identical) but feel great that I'm actually losing weight! Hopefully I'll be buying new jeans soon!

a little of this a little of that

The past few days have been good. We can pretty much start breathing normally until we sign our lives away next week. Our appraisal came in at just what we needed it to and everything is good to go, so far. We are going to close on Tuesday. I am excited to get this over with but even more excited to move in! Too bad that won't be for a little while.

Speaking of houses, Jennie and Dal's house is done and they are going to close on Monday! It's such a fantastic house, I hope Gracie enjoys it and it can be a safe place for her. Both Jennie and I are so done with this apartment nonsense, we want to move in as soon as possible!

Grace's MDCP (Medically Dependent Children's Program, the program that pays for me to care for her) contract was renewed and was approved to receive 1993 hours of respite care this year over last year's 1560. That works out to about 36 hours a week. When Grace goes to school next year full time, I can only work about 30 hours a week so during the summer and vacations I am going to be glued to the Dendy family. At least I'll have a nice second home to go to! I got a raise a few weeks ago so I am overall going to be making more money this summer. Also, at the end of May I get my yearly bonus which we found out is going to be at least $400 more than they had thought. That is a very happy surprise for us!

Last night we bought a couch and a love seat from Christi Taylor, who is a newer sister in our ward. They are very nice couches, I think we will enjoy them very much. I was planning on buying brand-new couches but these are so much nicer than anything we were looking at and at the fraction of the price. She kept them in immaculate condition considering she has 4 young girls! Right now they are in our front room, looking kind of out of place! The love seat is nestled into the sofa. It's only for a few more weeks and then we can actually enjoy them!

What else is going on? I guess that covers it. We are really thankful for everything that we have been given so far this last year. It has been such an eye-opening fantastic year. About 11 months ago Jennie asked me to be Grace's caregiver and I had no idea that by doing this for her Forest and I would be able to buy our own house in less than a year! We're so blessed.

untitled too

I had a very silly emotional moment yesterday. I was cleaning up in our spare bedroom (which is full of Dell boxes right now!) and I went to feed my two hamsters. I looked at Baby, the oldest, and she just looked really weird. She was laying funny and I thought "oh, please don't be dead!". She wasn't, she got right up when I tapped on her cage and looked at me with great annoyance. I fed her and moved down to Claire, who was also asleep. She was laying even more oddly and her eyes were partially open. I tapped on the cage and she didn't move. Our poor little Claire was gone. I kind of broke down a little bit and started crying! I know it's just a hamster, but they are like our little babies! When we got Claire, she was a blaze of gray fur. She was the fastest hamster I've ever seen, when she ran on her wheel we probably could have powered something off of it. Baby is also almost a year older than Claire is. They are two different types of hamsters, so perhaps Claire wasn't meant to live any longer than she did.

In other news, we had the inspection on the house and things are still going good. There were some cracked bricks on the west end of the house, but the inspector doesn't think they are from any foundation problems. No one will ever see the west end of the house, but just to be sure we are having a foundation expert come to look at it tomorrow. Also tomorrow, we are going to see Karmen to get the loan offically underway. I'm still a little nervous about this, but we're just giving them the information to verify what we've already told them. I'm didn't lie, so I can't imagine why we would have any issues!

I finally got my raise! It was supposed to take effect in September so on this next paycheck I am getting there will be all of the back-pay from then. It worked out for me because now that I know we're buying a house, it was like a little unintentional savings plan. I just love my job and getting paid more to do it is great. Every once in a while when things are "bad" (things most of you do for nothing, like very dirty diapers) I laugh and say that I'm really earning my money. There has not been a single day where Grace hasn't made me laugh from my very core. Next year when Grace goes to school full time, I'm going to have someway to occupy my day because I won't be working until 3! I'm thinking about going back to school and getting some sort of degree. I may never use it, but having one is something I've always wanted. We'll see! We've got a big few months ahead of us!

more stress...

I was in tears today over this whole house thing. We had some miscommunication (I won't go into the entire story) and it made me feel terrible. There is a chance we might lose the house because of it, but hopefully it won't come down to that.

To make matters worse, Forest called me earlier tonight and he was stuck with a flat tire. He put on the spare and it was low on air. He drove to a gas station and of course has no money on him so he had to pay a fee to use the ATM just to get a few quarters for air. Sheesh! Yesterday I locked my keys in the car outside of Jennie's apartment. I had just gotten back from speech therapy and Jennie was in Keller at the church. I thankfully didn't lock Grace in the car. It was pouring down rain and we had to sit in the breezeway while Allstate's motor club took an hour to come rescue me. Grace was being so cute and good when she could have easily been really grouchy, especially as that cut into her lunch time. I can't believe I am such a dummy.

So, it's been a long two days. I've worked 20.75 hours in the last two days I'm glad Grace is easy to take care of and makes me laugh or I would have had an even longer two days!

am I the only one?

I completely forgot that it's Spring Break! I woke up this morning at 6:45 to get ready as I usually do and then remembered that I'm taking Grace to speech therapy today. Then I remembered the reason WHY I'm taking her, because Jennie will be taking the girls to the Primary Activity today! This also means I don't have to work until 9. I got up an hour earlier than I needed to. Oh well, at least I'm ready to go now and can have a little bit of relaxation time before I go to work today. I'm just glad I realized that now or I probably would have woken everyone up!

Another minor hiccup in forgetting it's Spring Break is that I'm meeting a Realtor today about a that house on Reed. Our financing is pretty much sound (and way way within our budget, thank goodness) and if we love the house we're going to put a bid on it soon. We still have 3 months and a few weeks until we want to move in, which may cause some issues, but we have a few different options for dealing with that. The earliest we can close is in May, depending on what kind of financing we are able to get. I'm so excited, this has all just fallen into place. Even if that isn't the house we end up getting, knowing that we'll be owning our very own house in just a few short months is a feeling that I thought we wouldn't feel for a very long time. I need to be careful with my feelings though, I find myself wanting to pre-decorate this place and I shouldn't do that just in case we lose it or we end up not liking it! I imagine it will only get worse when I actually see it...

Since I don't have to leave for another hour, I'm going to either try to get my husband up (he's so lazy in the morning) or snuggle and chat.

i'm sick and tired...

Of being sick and tired! I somehow caught the flu that is going around. I guess I was due, I sailed through most of the flu season without so much as a cough. When you get slobbery whacks to the face several times a day, I think your immune system starts building up. I didn't go to work yesterday or today. In the past I've just had allergy problems and not really the flu so I could function decently and not pass the flu germs around, but I feel absolutely terrible. I couldn't even stand up for 5 minutes and help with dinner, I got so pooped. There is no way I could take care of Grace properly and I don't want her getting sick either.

So, I spent the day yesterday sitting and organizing my scrapbook stuff, finally. On Monday I found this fantastic tower that turned out to be a life saver. Everything fit into it except my letter sized paper and stickers. I bought three portable file folders for that and they stack, so everything is pretty and organized into a workable system. I'm happy. Now everything is pretty much being boxed up because Forest is taking over my desk until we move and buy him a new one (or me a new one...hehe). We're still kind of freaking out slightly about moving. Do we buy? Do we rent? Do we have enough money saved up? I don't think we're ready to buy yet and as my parents are probably going to move down here, we would rather wait until they are settled here before we decide where we are going to be permanently. We're, of course, wanting to stay in Roanoke forever! As long as we're not in an apartment anymore...I'll be happy.

what, do you think we're made of money?

Today was a very very full day!

I was scheduled to be picked up by Jennie at 9:45 this morning (and it would be the last day she'd ever have to pick me up!) but was greeted by Dal and McKay instead. So, we got over to their apartment and we all piled into the car to take a fire truck ride around Roanoke. McKay won a poster contest at school for fire safety so we were all rewarded. Unfortunately they weren't able to do it just then due to some malfunctions in their 2nd truck and we didn't want to be out joyriding in case they needed to leave quickly. They rescheduled at 4, so we headed back to the apartment.

Both the Dendy's and the Grabert's bought a "new" car today. Dal picked up his Honda Accord today while I took his Saturn off of his hands for him. So, while his is actually new, mine is just new to me. Forest had never even been in it until today, so it was really new to him! It's a nice little car, it'll do it's job in getting me around. The best part is, our insurance policy dropped a few hundred dollars due to having multiple policies and caused less than a $25 a month increase. Not bad!

After we were all done spending our wads of cash for the day (or so I thought), we headed back over to the fire station to take our ride. The trucks only seat 6 people, including the driver, and we were 7. We decided Grace was the expendable one and she sat on my lap. Grace was on cloud 9 almost the entire time, she was laughing and squealing away as we hit all sorts of bumps. Alexa was feeling car sick (I don't blame her) but managed to take pictures of random things, something she is very good at. I think it's time to get her a cheap digital camera so she can take all of the pictures she wants without wasting film. It was very fun for me, I am glad I had this after the disappointing day we had yesterday!

Grace woke up yesterday morning with pink eye, so neither of us got to go to her Christmas party! I know Jennie and I were far more bummed than Grace was, of course. I feel so bad the poor thing has to deal with pink eye. She has been so happy the past few days though, so it doesn't seem to be getting her down much.

Anyway, so, after our trip Forest called to tell me he was headed to Fry's to pick up something for Jennie's new phone (new car, new phone, new house, we're all made of money!) and found a headset I wanted. I told Jennie about it and she wanted one too! It's a Bluetooth (for you non-computer nerds out there, that means wireless) hands-free headset that converts into stereo earphones. It is very awesome and I can't wait until they are done charging tomorrow and I can mess with them. I took my new little car to pick up a present for Forest. It goes with his brand-new monster computer. This thing is a beast!! Oh yes, that also took a decent chunk out of our bank account as well, but was mostly paid for by the 3 days of pure overtime he had to work in October. So, while we're certainly not made of money, during the holidays it sure seems like we are.

I start my 4 day weekend today...and I know by Wednesday I'll be missing the laughter!

slacker's update

Wow, I can't believe it's been over two weeks since my last real post. Here is a little bit of what's been going on.

Forest's Birthday: Forest turned 26 years old on the 15th. As we both worked on his birthday, we didn't have a ton of time to do anything really fancy, but did have a very good dinner at Saltgrass Steakhouse. We planned a trip over Thanksgiving weekend a few months ago and got to really celebrate his birthday while on our little getaway.

Thanksgiving: We spent Thanksgiving with Forest's sister Laura and her boyfriend Adam. Adam really wanted to make the turkey this year, which was great because it was one less thing I had to deal with! I made an array of side dishes and once our turkey finally got done (after 7 hours) we had a nice dinner. We watched quite a few movies and played an epic game of Phase Ten, in which I horribly lost. My favorite part was when we ate dessert before dinner and then more dessert after. It's fun being an adult when you can decide things like that!

Our Mini-Vacation: In October I decided it would be a great idea to get out of DFW and explore the rest of Texas a little bit. Forest had driven to Corsicana last year to fix something at a Wal-Mart when he was doing field work prior to his move to the Library. On his way he passed a drive-in movie theater and wanted to go. So, we stayed in a city called Waxahachie, which itself is a very fun little place to visit. It's called the "Gingerbread City" because a lot of the architecture resembles Gingerbread Houses. Corsicana is a little more south of Waxahachie and again, has all sorts of fun things to do. We went to the Russel Stover's outlet, right next to one of their factories. It might be dangerous for some people to wander into that place. I got a few Christmas gifts but the only thing I got for Forest and I was ribbon candy and we somehow haven't eaten it all. Corsicana is also known for the Collin's Street Bakery, which has delicious fruitcake. I tried a sample, liked it and I usually cannot stand fruitcake. We didn't buy any but did get a few treats. Trying to watch the sugar intake while standing in a bakery full of donuts and cookies is hard, but I actually did a good job considering the damage I could have caused. After seeing some of the other sights in Corsicana, we went to Ennis where the drive-in theater is located. Ennis has a Czech restaurant/bakery and also a smaller sister bakery. Unfortunately the restaurant was closed by the time we got there, but the small bakery was open. I got to try my first Kolache! It was really good, I'm going to look forward to that treat every time we are there. The drive-in theater was such a fun treat for us! The food from the stand was actually quite delicious, we completely pigged out! We saw Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium and Fred Claus, both very good holiday movies. It was nice to get away for a little bit, even if it was just a little ways down south. We plan on doing this trip every once in a while, when we feel the need to be by ourselves for the weekend. I'll post pictures soon!

25 Days of Christmas: The celebration of Christmas started today! I was with Grace all day while Jennie helped with the Stake Nativity display (which I can't wait to see tomorrow!). Roanoke has a parade downtown every year along with strolling carolers, story time in the newly restored historic Rock Hotel and treats at some of the local shops. Grace had a good day, she was being very good with me, but was being a little bit grouchy once Jennie got home just before we left for the parade. She was rather good for the rest of the night although she was being very squirmy just before the parade started. I put her on my shoulders and she was happy as can be. We were worried the sirens from the fire trucks would bother her, but for the most part she was very happy. She was being cute as a button, squealing and bouncing away. Jennie and Dallas have Dish Network and a DVR, so the girls and I were searching for all of the fun Christmas movies. Apparently Harry Potter is a Christmas movie, because ABC Family is playing the first three as part of their 25 Days of Christmas Celebration. Go figure.

Sunday and Monday we are going to spend most of the day cleaning up and decorating our house. I'm not feeling very good about decorating our house because we aren't going to have anyone to spend it with. Jennie isn't decorating her apartment as all of her things are in storage and she doesn't have a formal living room. Grace would have a tree knocked over in seconds flat. So, I am thinking about having them over to enjoy the tree I am going to spend a few hours decorating! When I get it done I'll take a picture. Now that the leaves are off the trees next to our window you'll be able to see our tree from the road! It'll be nice!

Hope you're all having fun getting ready for the holidays and to Meredith, I hope you start to feel better soon!

what does a pound of popcorn look like?

Forest is loading the dishwasher for me and I'm sitting here pondering facts about popcorn. Oh, yes, he's also making dinner. I have the best husband on earth. I sometimes feel bad that he does anything around here, he works really hard and he hasn't had a "day off" in two weeks. I know Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest, but anyone in our ward knows we don't get to rest all day ;) But that is alright, we get lots of blessings taking care of the little ones. Now that I am working I don't feel too bad about jumping on his willingness to help out. He has just told me he's giving up on dinner...

I'm making chili skillet, my favorite comfort food. I love it so much, I make it at least three times a month. It makes a ton and I get to eat leftovers for two days. It's basically a thicker version of my chili with rice, corn and smothered in cheese. So fantastic. I should start a recipe blog...I have so many great recipes to share and I'm always looking for new things. I have my staples, the foods I love to make and love even more to eat, but I like to branch out. In the last three weeks I've been feeling so crummy at night, which includes not really wanting to eat, that I don't feel like making anything and poor Forest ends up fending for himself. I have the most understanding husband and I hope I let him know that enough! I think next week I'm going to start making dinner when I'm at home during my break or hope that I start adjusting to this weather change...almost 5 years here and I still can't handle the Texas weather!

So, the whole point of this post was because we were discussing the actual amount of a full pound of popcorn, by weight and not volume. I imagine it's a huge amount of popcorn, considering how light it is! I'm actually surprised that Forest doesn't know, because he seems to know everything. Today he and his colleague were discussing the escape velocity from the Earth's atmosphere. I asked him why he knows that and he shrugged it off saying "It's just basic astro physics". Yes, I love my nerd.

popcorn worth it's weight in gold

Forest's sister Laura got a $20 gift card for Dale and Thomas Popcorn in a movie she bought a few weeks ago and gave it to us. I am pretty much addicted to popcorn and I have always heard their popcorn is really good, so we figured we would try it out. After shipping and the gift card, we still ended up spending 10 dollars, not a big deal. We got 6 bags of popcorn at 3.75 ounces each. For 10 dollars, that was a really good deal and this popcorn really is fantastic. But, without the gift card? And I thought movie theater popcorn was overpriced! Right now they have a special where you can get two free bags if you pay the shipping (I think it's about $6). To me, 3 dollars a bag is still a good deal, it is VERY good popcorn...I just have to try to share!

Some good news about Courtney, she got to come home on Monday! I'm so glad for her. Thinking back on my Dad's stay in the hospital, I know all he wanted to do was to come home and be in his own bed. He was only there for a week too, I couldn't imagine being away in a hospital for an entire month. It does sound like Courtney had very good care and I'm sure that made all of the difference in the world. So it sounds like Courtney is on the road to normalcy, now that she is in remission we just have to pray hard that she stays there. The love and support everyone has shown makes me never want to leave this city. I know that if Forest and I ever had something like this happen to us, we would be well taken care of. I'm glad I have such a great friend to support as well, she really deserves it.

It's calmed down the past few days, not much has been going on with Forest and I, other than work and grocery shopping. Forest is working 6 days a week for a little while, so we're trying to squeeze the things we do on Mondays into the little chunks of time we have after he gets home from work. It's been interesting but thankfully it's not forever! The fact that he gets paid overtime for 8 hours a week makes it all worth it.

I have another hour before I need to head back over to Jennie's, so I'm going to go enjoy my popcorn...and try not to eat the entire bag!

two posts in two days, i'm doing good!

I'm on my 4 hour lunch break! Grace is at school right now, so between 11 and 3 I get to come home. It's amazing how much more motivated I am during this break than I used to be. I suppose it's because my time is limited now and I don't really feel like living in a cluttered apartment. It's small enough as it is without things everywhere. The only thing I have left to do is install my new shower head. I don't think I can do it alone...maybe I should ask my Dad to help! Ok, time for a funny story...

My Dad finally had back surgery in August. I went to Michigan a week prior to go on a mini-vacation beforehand and to help get things ready for when he came home, etc. My Dad had thought of mostly everything, they painted the garage and winterized it, got the trailer ready for the winter, did all of those things he can't do once it's actually winter, etc. One thing that slipped his mind was the shower! He can't stand up without his brace and he can't wear his brace in the shower. Conundrum! We got him a shower chair, but that still didn't solve the issue of the shower head. He needed one that detached but he could turn off while sitting down. Easy enough to find, we found one that attached to it's own pole and slides up and down, it was quite neat. So, 8 days after his surgery, he and I installed this shower system into their bathroom. It involved masonry drill bits, anchors, the whole 9 yards. We really should have taken pictures because it was very silly.

My stomach tells me it's time to grab some lunch...it's days like today I wish I had a car, I have a hankering for a gyro! I think that is one of the only things I like better in Michigan than here...we have a serious lack of Greek restaurants. I only know of one and it's in DT Dallas. Great for Forest, but I am sick of being hit on by convicts (a story for another day), so I won't be going there anytime soon.

happy peanut butter lover's day

I found out today is an obscure holday, Peanut Butter Lover's Day. Why not celebrate peanut butter? It is oh-so-delicious, especially when paired with chocolate. It is not so much when you pair it with peanut allergies or salmonella, though.

Yesterday was my Dad's final day of work. It is hard to believe he's retired! When I go home now he and I can hang out while my Mom is at work. We'll get online and play Fear for hours on end! I remember years ago when we used to game online together. The game speed was incredibly slow, I don't imagine I would have much patience for that speed now, living in the fast world that we do. We had an ISDN connection back then (which was better than dial-up, but not by much) and the lag was so horrible, but we didn't know how much better it would get!

I also had my own website back then, although much different than the one you see today. It was full of flashy gif's and backgrounds that you couldn't read anything on. I didn't know how to use tables so everything was in one big chunk. While the domains are still there, the HTML files were deleted years ago. It would be interesting to see the code I wrote back then and compare it to now. Once you get the knack of HTML, it's not really too hard, but I can tell you that I've been tempted to yank out my already thinning hair on more than one occasion when learning it all. It's been worth it though, not many people have the patience for this and I'm glad I achieved something!

Speaking of achieving things, I'm having a long debate with myself over what I want to do next in my life. I've been married nearly 3 years now, so far I think Forest and I have got that figured out. We haven't been able to have kids yet, although I'm sure it'll happen sometime, so we have that to look forward to. But what until then? I've become a chronic cleaner of my apartment and I take a lot of walks. Having one car is causing a problem with me finding another job because Forest never knows where he is going to be on nearly a daily basis. Our lease is also up very soon and we want to get out of this apartment. We're thinking of renting a house because I don't think we could afford to buy one at the moment. It'll be an interesting next few months! So, I'm hoping, praying and wishing that something falls into my lap or I have a epiphany as to what to do next for the time being. Suggestions from my wiser relatives are appreciated!

happy new year!

Happy New Year everyone! I am excited for 2007 to start and I figured it was time for an update. If any of you are here because I directed you from my Christmas letter, let me first say welcome! I spent a little bit of time today making this new layout, I was feeling festive and I never got around to making one for Christmas! Also, my apologies if you received your Christmas card late. I was sick with the flu for the week and a half before Christmas and did my best to get them in the mail in a timely manner!