One Year.

One whole year.  Where to even begin?  I don’t even know where the time went.  You are still my tiny little baby every time I look at you, yet, when I look back on pictures, you are not the same baby you were a year ago.  I am not the same person I was a year ago.  Sure, I’m sleep deprived, I don’t really have time for hobbies, or myself most of the time, and everything is messy, but I couldn't  and wouldn't trade it for the world, my world, you.

It seems like so much has happened, it’s hard to reflect on the last year.  Two weeks ago I quit my job.  Everyone was sick so often that it literally made no sense for me to work anymore because daycare was getting more money than I was being paid.  I can’t really say that it hurt me at all.  I get to spend my days with you now, and I don’t have to feel like I am letting daycare see all your firsts.  I also don’t have to sit and wonder who is taking care of you, and are they really doing the best job possible?  Not that I had any reason to doubt them, it’s just a thing a mother wonders… constantly, with everyone.  I only worked 6 ½ months, but it seemed like an eternity not being with you all the time.  I am so glad that we get these last few months together before the new baby comes, and life will be shared. 

I really don’t think you will mind the new baby.  You seem to love everyone (for the most part).  I can undoubtedly say that you love all children and babies.  Even when one is crying on TV, you try to hand them a pacifier to comfort them.  You are such a sweet girl.  Your last day at daycare was hard on everyone.  The daycare staff cried, they all said you were one of their favorites.  I’m sure they tell all parents that, but I somehow believe that it’s actually true.  You rarely cry, you are a joy to be around, you are so easy to please, and the only things you make remotely difficult are changing you, because you want to wiggle all around, and putting you in your car seat.  It was hard on me because they made you a goodbye card, and I’m emotional enough as it is being pregnant, so I just started bawling.  I worry that this is the wrong decision for only one reason: your friends.  You truly did have friends at daycare, and I worry, especially since you love children of all ages, that you will be lonely, and get bored with just me being around.  I have looked, and have yet to find any sort of mothers group around here, so I may need to expand my horizons to further away to see if there are any groups out there, so that we can still keep your social calendar full.  We left our phone number with your best friend’s, Lily, mother, since she had been out sick all week, so hopefully we can still keep in contact with her, and you two can remain friends.

Since daycare was closed on Good Friday, we took the opportunity to take you back to the Zoo, since Momma and Dada were off too!  Dada really wanted to take you back since you slept through your first trip, and half the exhibits were closed.  You really enjoyed it this time.  You stayed awake the entire time we were there, and we thought you may pass out on us around 2, but I think you just needed a little break from seeing so many things, because once we rested you were rearing to go again.  That was almost a full seven straight hours of action for you, and you didn't cry or get fussy once.  Maybe we were finally on top of our game with feeding and changing you, but I doubt it.  You were super good,  I was very proud.  I barely lasted that long, and I’m pretty sure I insisted on more breaks than anyone combined.  You loved seeing all the animals, but they were all pretty much just “dogs” to you.  Every time we’d see a new one, you’d point and say, “DOG!” very excitedly.  Once we got to the birds, some of them were ducks, but some were dogs too.  You will learn.  Some of the animals were crazy for you.  I think you liked the painted dogs, and the monkeys the best.  The monkeys always seem to put on a show for us when we are there, and they held true to that this time as well.  Afterwards we were all pretty beat.  We headed to Wal-Mart to find the perfect outfit for your birthday (Dada went a little crazy on this, and found what he wanted, but not in the right size, and we were on the hunt until we found it) ate some dinner (which you slept through) and headed home to crash.

Then we had Saturday, the 30^th.  Your first birthday.  Wow.  You came into this world at 10:34 am, screaming, and full of attitude, at 6 pounds, 9 ounces and 21 ½ inches long.  At your 1-year checkup, you weighed in at 20 pounds, 1 ounce, and 29 inches long.  My, how you've grown.  We had a lot to do that morning, since we had a few things to pick up for your birthday party, so it was a pretty crazy start to the day.  We were a little worried all morning because your birthday party was supposed to be outside, and at 6am, it started hailing.  At about 7am it was back to raining, and by 11am it was a cloudless sky.  The weather is bizarre.  I was also concerned because we had reserved a Ramada at the park from 11am to 4pm, and a week later the fire department had reserved the park for the same day from 9am to 11am for an Easter Egg hunt.  I was scared, especially with the weather, that they would not be out of our area on time, and we wouldn't have the time to decorate for your party.  We got to the park around 11:30am, and the place was cleared out, so I don’t know if they cancelled their event, or they really had their stuff together, and got out of there on time.  We started decorating, and before we knew it, we were almost out of time!  Eep!  Overall, we had a great time with family and a few friends.  We even invited your favorite teacher from daycare, who came, and loved getting to spend time with you.  Since they had moved you from her classroom 4 months ago, she has really missed you.  You didn't really care for the BBQ part of your party, probably because you didn't eat anything, but you loved playing with balloons and looking at all the decorations hanging around.  You had fun smashing your birthday cake, but you needed a little coaching, and you loved it when everyone would clap and cheer for you, and of course, you loved opening your presents.  (Who doesn't?)  Another tiring day on the books, but well worth it to see the look of happiness on your face.  

I feel like this is shorter than it needs to be.  I feel like I am missing so much, but at the same time it’s hard to write down every detail without going into the “boring” everyday things, like how many diapers you had that day, and what you ate.  You are a lovable child; I have yet to meet someone who doesn't want to be around you, I actually have people ask me to babysit you, instead of me having to go look for a babysitter, but I don’t take many people up on the offer.  You love to do so many things.  You love being outside in general, you love baths (and even showers), you love bubbles, you are starting to enjoy different foods, but yogurt hands down is your all-time favorite food, which is surprising since you haven’t been eating it that long, but If you even see a yogurt cup (meant for you or not) you go bonkers.  You are finally starting to eat some solids, but you are a little iffy on things that you have to chew, and don’t just eventually melt in your mouth.  It’s been challenging to say the least, but for the most part, you are a trooper.

Not that you are old enough to remember it, but I really hope that you have enjoyed your first year of life, as much as we've enjoyed having you as a huge part of ours.  Neither one of us knew we would be able to be so utterly and completely in love with someone so amazing.

Love you more than you will ever know.

Love,

Momma

Meet Pearl

We bought this car as a second vehicle almost a week ago. We've been a single vehicle family for a little over a year now, and it worked well with carpooling, and work schedules. Now that neither of those two are an option, and I need to find a job, a second car was a must. We know the car needs a little work, and we are taking her in Wednesday to get the look over from Honda. Hopefully, we wont need too much done, and she will last just like every other Honda out there.

Long time no blog.

It has been a long time, I know.  I stopped blogging shortly (we’re talking about 2 weeks) after I got pregnant, and now my daughter is almost 2 months old.  My, how time flies.

I really want to blog more, and since I am currently not “working” I hope that I will be able to find time.  Being a parent is more than a full time job, and until you experience it, you will never know how much work it is to be a parent or a stay at home mom.  It’s one of the most strenuous, stressful, yet rewarding jobs I have ever had.  It is far from a piece of cake, yet many people think being a stay at home mom makes their life easy, or makes them lazy, trust me when I say they are wrong.  So wrong.

Jason’s schedule also makes it even more challenging.  Currently, he works from midnight to 9 am.  So not only do I have to keep the baby occupied when he gets home and sleeps (until about 5 pm) but I have to keep her quiet.  Sure infants sleep a lot… but they are far from quiet when they wake up.  Trying to keep her on a normal (and I say it this way incase his shift ever changes, and hopefully it does) sleeping schedule has been especially challenging.  Currently, she goes to sleep around 1 or 2 am, and then wakes up at 6 to 7 am, and is awake for most of the day taking an hour nap here and there.  Doesn’t sound too bad, until you realize how many things you can’t get done during the day because someone is sleeping.  Therefore, I don’t usually get more than 3 or 4 hours of sleep solid at a time, because even when she’s asleep at night, I am trying to get things done that I can’t do while Jason is sleeping.  It’s super exhausting.  Sometimes I have to sneak in a nap or four during the day, and I usually have to be holding her to do so just so that I can function, but the bonus is that she normally will always nap with me, so I get an hour or two here and there for the most part.

Tonight we built her crib, finally.  We’ve had it since before she was born, but we knew that we would be keeping her in her bassinet for the first month at least, and then we didn’t have a mattress, etc. etc.  I don’t know if I will be able to let her sleep in a room alone.  She probably won’t notice, or care, but I have a feeling I will be a nervous wreck.  We have a baby monitor, but what if I don’t hear her, I also can’t peek in on her every now and then either, without making it a trip to her room.  Who knows if I will make it happen tonight or not, but it needs to happen soon, the little string bean is quickly outgrowing her bassinet.  She is so tall.

That’s it for now, she’s asleep for the moment, so I am going to take advantage of the free time!

Why the move?

Well, a few different reasons. First of all, not being able to host a website from the comfort of your own server can get costly. You also have to pay for domain names, etc. So, since I have been a bad blogger, I figure it can't hurt to host it on a free site, especially one as super as Google. Another nice feature that this new blog will provide is that off to the right, there is a spot where you can put in your email, and when this is updated (which I hope will be more) you will be notified instead of having to check back on a regular basis to see if we have magically lost "the lazy."

On to the move! We made it, well I made it, and Jason went back to Arizona. It's been about a month now since we've seen each other. I still don't have a job, and honestly only one true prospect, which I am kind of losing hope on. Being that Bartlesville isn't the biggest place in the world, there aren't that many jobs out there. I had an interview on Monday that lasted almost 2 hours. Yikes! They told me that they would call me for a second interview, but they still had another person to interview, but they should know by the end of the week. Being that the other interview was Tuesday, and Wednesday went by without a word, I'm not holding my breath. I think I have to bite the bullet, and start to look at retail jobs. It's not that I think retail is below me, but #1 I am just not a big fan of it, and #2 I've been having more and more problems with my foot. I'm not on it much as it is (because I pretty much sit on my ass all day, and do nothing) but when I am on it, even for only an hour or two, it kills me. Being that most retail jobs keep you on your feet the entire time, I'm worried about making it worse, and also, being in pain all day, which would be miserable.

The dogs have adjusted well. They love their backyard, and run in it constantly. They are slowly adapting to all the people that are around, and the fact that they don't want to hurt them. I'm slowly getting them to stop barking at every little thing, which believe me, has been a chore in itself. Landon has always liked Lawrence, but Lucy who is pretty much scared of everyone has really warmed up to him, she even dances when he comes over, so that is a massive improvement for her. The cats are aloof, and Damien is being more of a pain in the ass than he has ever been. I don't know if he's just more noticeable, or he misses Jason or something, but he is driving me crazy! Every time I turn around, he's on the table or the counter, and knocking something off. Every morning I walk into the living room / dinning room and there is a whole new pile of whatever he's knocked off high places from the night before.

In my spare time, I've been knitting, and watching a lot of Netflix. So far I've watched the first 2 seasons of Damages, and 60 episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and a slew of bad horror movies. I'm getting really bored, but I am still a home-body. Somethings will never change. :) As for the knitting, I knit a little Android for Jason, and I am currently working on an octopus for a friend's little girl. Knitting the same thing 8 times (the legs) gets pretty tedious.

That's all I have the energy for, for now.

Day Two. Tootin' Your Own Horn.

Jason and I both get to toot our horns.  (Although, I am actually doing it for him without his permission.)

Jason first:  He’s been working in the department that he wants to work at, but can’t get a job in because they aren't hiring anyone to replace the guy who quit.  They started working him yesterday; he has come home happy, and excited about the opportunity he has been given.  He will be working with them again when we get back from our vacation, and they have told him, that this will look good for him down the road.  When I called him earlier, he seemed to be getting along with everyone down there as if he was a regular.  So let’s cross our fingers that the department gets whatever they need to get to be able to hire someone, and that it’s him.  He’s smitten.  They even gave him a laptop, which he totes around with pride, like it’s a badge of honor.

Me:  I got a letter in the mail yesterday telling me that because of my academic standing, I was invited to be a commencement speaker at my graduation this May.  I’m not really sure how to take it because I was a student a long time, and I am not sure how that is supposed to make them look good—I have also had endless problems with them, so I feel like it’s kind of a joke.  I guess a handful of students got the letter, and we need to submit an essay about something or another, I really didn't pay attention much, because I am 99% sure that I won’t be doing it anyway.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s an honor, but I am not a fan of the school, or of speaking in front of that many people.

 

Anyway, I need to get back to washing clothes and trying to get everything ready for when we head out tomorrow after work.

 

An epic of epic proportions (but not.)

So I started to write a post, but then I went back to the website to see where I had left off last time, and then I got distracted trying to add a date to all post (which I have done, success!) but now, it is 9:45, and I don’t have enough time to write out everything I had to say.  So, in regular TV fashion:

Coming up on the next episode of Jason and Amanda’s epic saga:

• Anniversary


• Blizzcon 2010 / California


• Sleep Study Results


• Phone


• Landon’s Surgery


• Brewfest 2010


• Work Drama (for both of us)

Until next time (which is hopefully soon, since I have a crappy memory…)

P.S.  Enjoy the date which is now at the bottom of every post, it took me about 13 minutes to learn how to code that correctly and not break the page.  :D

The 7 Year Itch... Only Shorter

And no, I am not talking about Jason.  :)

It seems that as of my last few jobs, I get right to the 3 year mark, and I bail.  I just get so fed up with / sick of them.  I am nearing that at my current job... and I honestly don't know if I will be able to make it much longer.  Without going into great detail... I feel worthless most of the time.  I am made to be more versatile than I want to be.  I can cover many people's jobs, and no one seems to care if mine is done or not, until they need something, and then it is "WHY ISN'T THIS DONE!?"  There are a few specific people that really get to me, but no matter how much I complain, no matter how wrong they are, when it comes time for punishment, or time to fix the problem, nothing happens.  Ever.  I just hate it.  I am told constantly how "valuable" I am, and how I am irreplaceable, but when co-workers make my life harder, no one seems to care when I get upset or frustrated or have a problem, ever.  It’s like there isn't even a point in complaining anymore, because nothing ever gets done.  It's really shown in my attitude lately, because I simply just don't care, and I don't want to help.  I have been making minimal talk with the majority of my co-workers, but again, none of them seem to care unless they need help someone.  I feel like I am drowning.

In other news nothing is happening.  When we're not dealing with the daily grind of work, we're dealing with the nightly grind of homework.  I just want to be free, and not have to work, or have to go to school, just have the ability to do what I want, when I want.  I'll keep dreaming though...

For our first Valentine's Day as husband and wife, nothing really happened.  We ran our errands, as Sunday is pretty much the only day that we have available to do so, and that was about it.  We exchanged gifts in the morning, Jason got Heath bars, and a big fat book, and I got a stuffed frog, and real frogs!  We actually bought the tank a week ago, and I have been adding to it slowly.  I've always wanted a fish tank (beyond a glass jar) and we found a really nice 2 ½  gallon one with a filtration system, light and the works.  Currently, I have two African Dwarf Frogs, an Otocinclus (which looks like a mini shark, but he sucks all the algae out), and 3 Glass Shrimp.  Sadly, I think the shrimp are the most exciting.  They are so active, and so comical.  I fed the frogs today, which is basically little pellets of food, and the shrimp all grabbed a pellet and looked like they were playing with them.  The frogs are active every now and then... and the Otoconclus just sucks... haha, but he looks pretty cool, and I am happy with the entire set up.  So cute!

That's it for now.

We need a vacation.

Let's get this show on the road people!

It is currently 2:40 am (when I started this) and I cannot sleep.  Why?  Probably because I have a million and one things racing through my head.  Jason and I spent the majority of Sunday cleaning.  I must say, since the wedding has gotten closer, we have been super lazy with the upkeep of our house.  I also must say, I can’t understand how two people can createso much trash.  I went through some parts (read: not even the entire house) and filled up our almost empty trash bin.  Granted I super cleaned out our fridge but that was only two bags.  I am also amazed at how much stuff expires and you wouldn’t even know it.  Yuck.

I have started to flip out about our caterer.  She seems vaguely crazy, and controlling.  I just figured out tonight, that when she wouldn’t let me round up when I asked, she actually rounded down, and I don’t know if we are going to have enough place settings for everyone.  I spent most of yesterday flipping out about how I had 18 spots of bridal party and family to seat in 16 seats, and totally missed this one.  This also messed up our table decorations as we got enough for 6 tables of 10, and she has given us 7 tables of 8.  I also forgot to decorate the sweetheart table for Jason and me.  These are the kind of things I hate because you can’t really know until the very last minute exactly how much you need.  I’m super frustrated because we have some “definite maybe” people that we still don’t know if they are coming or not, and I hate to say this, but I hope they don’t because we will be screwed if they do.  I’m sorry, but don’t wait until we track you down almost 2 months after the RSVP date, and then tell me you may be coming, and that you’re still not sure.  I am pretty sure bridezilla will come out on October 3^rd, and she will not be pretty, and heads will fly if I see someone who is not expected to be there.  Just sayin’.

I finally got my test results back from my MRI, and that was also not good.  It wasn’t “bad” just not good.  I have a 4mm tumor on my pituitary gland.  Sure, 4mm isn’t big, but when my pituitary gland is only 9mm, it is pretty large in comparison.  Jason and I have seen my regular doctor, who couldn’t (or wouldn’t, I’m not sure) tell us much; but she referred me to a neurosurgeon to discuss options—the appointment isn’t until the 14^th of October, but it just adds to my list of worries.  She also stated that there is a likelihood of having to be rescanned and several more tests.  Not what I am looking forward to.  I do not want another MRI.  If you have never had one, they are horrible.  I felt like I was in a lighted coffin with jackhammers on top of me.  It was so close, and so noisy, I seriously felt like this device was meant to drive people to insanity.  Mine took 45 minutes, and it felt like hours or pure hell.  I left with one of the worst headaches that I have ever had.  There are a few things that bother me about this entire situation.  My insurance denied this claim.  Why?  They went through my records, and found out that I was on a specific drug that can elevate levels of prolactin.  Fine.  They did not go through my records enough to see that I hadn’t actually used this prescription in over a year.  Not fine.  They did not notify me (and my doctor) until a month later, at which point, I had already had the MRI done, and paid out of pocket for it.  Also not fine.  The original denial was just that I was on a specific drug, not which drug, so I didn’t know to stop it, for how long, anything.  Neither did my doctor, or the facility that I was going to get the MRI at.  I called them last week to see if I could get reimbursed, and they basically told me to screw myself.  I am glad this is not life threatening, because they honestly expected me to wait a month, and wait for them to tell me the drug, then schedule with my doctor, then wait for my doctor to write a note that I wasn’t on this drug (or that I had stopped it for a week) and to resubmit the referral, then wait for them to approve or deny it again, and then wait for my actual MRI to take place.  Thanks for being a quality insurance company.  No thanks.  Another scary thing was that the list of drugs was long.  Some of it included anti-depressants, anti-psychotics, stuff for bi-polar people, stuff for people with ADHD, etc.  I’m sorry, you’re an insurance company and you want people to stop taking drugs that they (sometimes) need to survive their life, and function in society as normal people for a WEEK?!  Are you kidding me?  Seriously, I’m not one for naming names, but Aetna is a JOKE.  Now, here’s the kicker.  I finally found a doctor who examines every possible angle in every situation, and I really like her.  She may have found the solution to many of my health problems, including the massive weight gain over the last 4 years… and if I drop my insurance to go to Jason’s insurance (which is beyond awesome) I will lose her.  If I take Jason’s insurance, most of my medical procedures are covered with a small fee; surgery would literally be like $75; if I stick with mine I have something like a $3,500 deductible before my insurance kicks in.  I’m sure with all of my doctors visits, blood draws, and tests I have at least half that covered, but it is still so frustrating.

I have three days of work this week, and then a week and a half of freedom from it.  I wouldn’t say freedom from work though.  Freedom from the 8-5.  This week is still going to be a ton of work I am sure.  I am going to try and see if I can maybe get Wednesday off as well to tie up some loose ends here and there.  We have people coming in starting Wednesday.  I am so excited, and so nervous because there are so many things still up in the air.  Eeek!

Lastly, on a note not about Jason and I:

If you like to eat, and you like to feel good about doing good in your community, I would like to offer you this:

Monday, September 28^th, 2009, is St. Jude’s Day at Chili’s.  One HUNDRED percent of your food and drink bill goes to St. Jude’s on this day.  Please eat, not only to fill your bellies, but to help childhood cancer research at this wonderful facility.  Just think about it.  For two people you could be making a $30-$50 donation, and you’re getting a meal out of it!  Please eat out at Chili’s today, Monday, September 28^th, 2009.  There is seriously, no easier way to donate, and you have nothing to lose, but your empty stomach!  You can read more here:  St. Jude's.

*Last year, Jason and I unknowingly went, and sadly the restaurant was empty.  We ended up racking up close to a $70 bill, all of which went to St. Jude’s.

A three part series.

Since I can't seem to get my act together, I guess I will just post bits and pieces as they come along:

Blah blah blah, I know neither one of us hasn’t written in forever, but we have been super busy, and / or super lazy depending on what day it is.  (*cough* and Jason never feels the need to update anyone on anything *cough*)

Anyway, Saturday, we had tons to do, guess what? None of it got done.  We were planning on building a step for Landon so that we could let the dogs use the doggie doors again.  Well the screws we bought work for one part, but not the other.  Super.  Jason is currently out buying longer screws for support.  We also bought a shelf-stand-organizer-storage-thing for our beverage fridge.  Now we can store more crap!  Too bad its ½ inch too short to fit our fridge, so we have to build an “extension” as we’re calling it.    Yay!  We also bough stuff to put more shelves in our laundry room, so that my habit of buying in bulk when I can save money, will no longer continue to clutter our house.  However, the shelves were too short, so we will use them on another project, and have to buy more tomorrow.  Ho-hum.

In Amanda news:
I’m dying.  No really, I feel like it.  I got a second run of blood tests to check out some wacky results, and the results were still wacky.  My doctor is guessing there is a growth on my pituitary gland, and she ordered an MRI of my brain.  Well, since my insurance is so super duper, they denied it and I don’t know when or if it will ever happen.  However, since mid-July, I have also been having massive headaches, which I never used to have.  Don’t really know if it’s related or not, because they are generally in the front/facial area of my head, and I’m pretty sure that the pituitary gland is towards the back, just kind of scary (and annoying.)  She also found that I have severe inflammation “somewhere” in my body.  The test she ran I guess, from what I understood runs on a specific scale, if your levels are between 2-3 you are at risk for coronary problems, mine was between 8 and 9 which means there is severe inflammation somewhere, they just don’t know where.  She’s told me to go to a rheumatoid specialist for that, which I haven’t done yet.  I also went to see her because my foot had been hurting.  It really started killing me on Memorial Day.  I worked that day, but was on my feet a ton more than normal, so I let it go for a few days, and told her at a normal appointment I had.  I had it x-rayed that following Friday to check for heel spurs with no luck.  Well, now it’s been two months, and she referred me to a podiatrist.  Well, he said the x-rays they took weren’t showing everything they should because they had me sit down.  He redid the x-rays with me bearing weight on them, and poked and prodded a bit.  Well turns out, just like everything else in my life, my foot issues were a domino effect.  Started out I have plantar fascia, when that got to me, I walked different and caused a contusion on my heel, which later developed into a hairline fracture, and when that got to me, I started walking different and messed up the tendon that goes from my ankle to my foot, because its rubbing up against bone that fused, and got irritated, and voila!  I am now in a boot that goes up to my knee for at least two weeks to hopefully correct the heel and ankle problem, and if all goes well with that, then we will start attacking the plantar fascia.  Super.  Well like that wasn’t bad enough, on Thursday, the day after I got the boot, some “wonderful” person decided to use the shredder that is across from my desk, while I was on the phone, and since we got a talk about how we have to be nice to everyone, because “someone” (who happens to be this particular person) felt that they were treated worse than everyone else, I just decided to move to a new phone rather than deal with drama.  Turns out, that was a bad idea.  I walked to the vault, and WHAM, the boot slid out from under me, and I went into the splits on the tile floor, with my other leg folding behind me.  One person saw it, and I thought they were going to have a heart attack, and I just started bawling, not because I hurt anything, but because I was just so frustrated.  He called someone else in, which just made me feel more stupid, and they were both asking if I was ok, but I just tried to focus on not crying, and getting back to my phone call.  Turns out, when the guy who made this all possible left, he called me a gimp, and I had just snapped.  I spent the next two hours in and out of meetings with supervisors and managers, because I was so pissed.  It didn’t really do much, as all I got was an apology and an “I heard someone else say it, so I thought it was ok” out of it.  Meh.

To wrap up my exciting week, I got jalapeño juice in my eye (even though I’ve washed my hands twice after cutting them, and it huuuuurts, they were red, and now so is my eye.)

More, coming up!

Tra la la

Jason is working until 2 am, so I am trying my hardest to stay up until he gets home.  It is currently 42 minutes after my absolute bedtime (10.)  Generally, if Amanda doesn't get to be in bed by 10 she is a TERROR.  I can only imagine what the children will be like.  :P  I need my sleep, and I value it completely.  I did take a nap this afternoon as I have NOT been sleeping well at all... however, I slept through the timer, and woke up at 6:05.  I flipped out, thinking it was a work day, and why hadn't the alarm gone off, and OMG, where is Jason, why is he not in bed with me, where did he go... a few minutes later... I realized: oh, it's Friday, work is over, and it is 6 pm not 6 am-- we are all good.  Phew.  That is how much sleep I have been getting.  I don't even know what day it is.

So as a few of you may know, Jason caved into my crazy last weekend, and he allowed me (I didn't give him a choice really) to take our pups to a Dog Whisperer.  Not The Dog Whisperer, but a really good one, that not only helped us communicate, but gave us a lot of help with other things in training aspects.  Her name was Krista Cantrell, she has actually written several books, and been on TV and blah blah blah... and totally not a hoax, as I am sure know some of you thought she was... She had some AMAZING insight and knowledge.  Jason was skeptical until she got to Lucy, and then he was sold.  I recorded the session, that we went to with two of my co-workers (as one had been to her before, so we set up a "group" like session) but unfortunately, we had to stop recording during Lucy's session, and when I went to save it, having not used the program, screwed something up, and the last hour (which was ALL Lucy) was not saved.  There are some interesting tidbits in there from Maggie (co-workers dog who went first), Landon, who is a ham, and Sadie (other co-workers dog), plus about 5 minutes of Lucy before we had to stop.  The file is about 2 hours long, but interesting.  You can find a zip version, and the straight MP3 version, here. 

A few weeks ago, I built a garden.  I think I mentioned it.  I put up pictures of it in the gallery.  Well, our sweet devil of a dog, Lucy, decided to jump into it, and have a hay-day in the dirt yesterday, demolishing everything in there.  I was so upset, I didn't know what to do.  All the onions were shredded, and there was no saving them, and I got to save five out of the 6 jalapeno plants.  Luckily, we have a separated yard, and we moved the garden into the back yard, where they cannot get into (now anyway.)  Sadly though, I don't think the jalapenos are going to make it.  I replanted them yesterday, and when I went to water them today... they were all shriveled and... almost dead.  So sad.  :(  Luckily she only got into one bin, and not both.  The tomatoes, cucumbers, and artichokes still have a chance.

As for the gallery, I added a few new pictures / categories:

• Camping


• The Garden


• And the kids and Jason sleeping on a Sunday  (really important, I know.) 

Enjoy!

The Happs

Ok, so I will be writing this in between homework assignments and random flitting around. (Because that is what I do... I flit.)

So I shall start off with an amazing story: Jason constantly teases me about how creepy I am because I "stalk" people online.  I don't see it as stalking as most people have their information on there, put there by themselves for other people to read... I mean there are some specific cases where I may be seen as creepy... but meh, we're not talking about that right now. Anyway, when I was a wee one, I had this best friend named Sharifah, we hung out, and did little kid things like play with Barbies, play on the swings, run around like maniacs, you know, that kind of stuff. Well, she moved away when I was in first or second grade, back to Kuwait. I was heartbroken. She wrote me letters, well letters as far as little kids can be concerned, and we kept in contact for what was probably a short while and then the letters stopped. I didn't really know what happened to her after that point. I never heard from her again. To this day, a good nineteen to twenty years later, I wondered about her.   I looked for her online, on MySpace, on Facebook, and just google-ing her name to no avail. Disappointing to a pro like me.  Anyway... SHE FOUND ME!  After such a long time, I was so amazed that she even remembered who I was, especially since she is still living in a country so far away from her life back then.  It was great to know that she was not only still alive, but that she missed me as much as I missed her.  I love hearing from her, and although her English isn't perfect, it’s pretty good, so I can understand all of what she says to me.  She got married, and has a 3 year old daughter, and she looks completely different, but I think this has been the one friend reunion that I have been looking forward to all my life! (Almost literally!)  Ah, I love the powers that the internet has to bring people together, who have been lost from each other no matter how long.  

Next up:  Tax Money!
Tax money is quite a confusing and exciting topic.  First off, we got a lot of it!  So much, that we have spent most of it!  We love it!  Money, money, money!  What sucked for me was that when we bought the house, they told us to lower the percentages taken out of our paychecks because of the interest write off.  So we did, well, they forgot to tell us, that only ONE of us should do that since we can't file jointly.  Since Jason had more deductions, it was more beneficial for him to take the home credit, which left me owing the government (state) $57.  Not bad really... except I haven't paid it yet.  Today I get a notice from the Arizona Department of Revenue.  Thinking they are mad because I was supposed to have mailed them money by some unknown deadline, I started flipping out, only to find a nice $420 check saying I had overpaid.  Overpaid what, I am not sure, since I haven't paid anything, but a nice little reward nonetheless.  I'm not going to do anything with it until Monday when I can call them, and find out what the heck is going on, because while the extra money may be lovely now, when I don't have it, and have to pay it back, it will not be so lovely.  As for the rest of the money, we paid off ALL our high-interest loans / credit cards, and our "big" debt is now the house, and car.  The only outstanding credit card we have is my David's Bridal card, which is soon to be paid off anyway.  It is so nice to be free.  We also got caught up on our house payments since we had fallen a smidge behind with Jason pretty much being jobless for two months.  The remainder of the money went towards some down payments for wedding stuff, invitations, doggie doors, and hopefully replacing our fence.  Unfortunately, we didn't really think enough when we first got the money, and didn't allot the practically half we would need for a block fence, so we are getting some estimates on new wooden fencing instead.  Disappointing, but new wood fencing will hold up better than what we have now.  

Wedding Stuff
I still don't have my dress, and although David's Bridal is an "on the rack" store allowing you  to walk out of there with the dress you want that day, I have had to order mine.  And then another one... and then ANOTHER one.  I am sure glad I did this early.  My third order will hopefully be the last and that is just because my hips and chest don't match classic measurements.  (Heh, imagine that.)  Luckily, the order time they have given me so far has been about 2 months too long, and the dress comes in about two to three weeks after it is ordered.

A few weeks ago, we met with a photographer, and liked her from the moment we met.  She is an odd-one, oddly similar to Jason, so of course they hit it off right away.  She also seems very meticulous, and anal about her work, which I think is a good... even a great thing.  She also does PhotoShop (Hurrah!)  And uses a Canon (super hurrah!)  You can check out her work at JenniferWeems.com

We ordered our invitations, and letting a very limited number of people see them (2) they were proofed, and perfected, and should be in my little hands on Monday.  Our RSVP date isn’t until August, but I want to send them now, I don't want to wait for June!  I'm sure we will have to assemble them though, which will put a halt to my over-zealousness.  We are also waiting on a few more addresses from people.

As for the rest of our life:
Jason is back to normal.  Being his annoying (yet loveable) self again.  He has been told to stay off the salt, soda, and red meat for 6 weeks, and then he gets to pee in a bucket for 24 hours, and then they will see where his kidney stones are coming from.  He has been a trooper so far, but I will admit, I am taking pleasure in all the steak and burgers that I get to eat in front of him while he gets stuck with chicken or fish.  He has eaten the greasiest, unhealthy, delicious foods in front of me when I have been on diets, and now, I finally get my bittersweet revenge.  When I asked him if he would change the next time, now that he is on the receiving end of it, he still said, “no.”  Can’t win them all.

Speaking of chicken, Monday I made some chicken wraps, Tuesday (like right when Tuesday hit at midnight) I woke up sick as a dog.  I am pretty sure that I got salmonella (again) which is odd because the other two times I’ve had it have been right around this time of year.  So I ended up staying home Tuesday.  I went back to work Wednesday, and felt miserable most of the day, and was mediocre by Thursday and ok by Friday.  I have been having some trouble with my hearing though, and I have been super sensitive to smells lately (which sucks working at a mortuary.)  I hate being sick so much.  It was really cute though, I got up because I knew something wasn’t right, and was sitting in the computer room so that I didn’t wake Jason up.  Well, Lucy heard me puking into the trashcan and tried to wake Jason up.  When nudging and licking him didn’t work, she actually bit him to wake him up.  She didn’t leave my side the entire day Tuesday, and she was a bit protective on Wednesday.  My puppy loves me. ♥ 

As for school a few weeks ago Jason and I both knocked out a few of our classes with finals, so the schedule got cut in half, which is nice school wise, but life wise, I swear our schedule just got worse.  I am so looking forward to being done before mid-April.  Unfortunately Jason started the majority of his classes after I did, so he ends closer to (and maybe even in) May.  Sometime in April we hope to take a much needed camping trip.  We have tons of new gear from Christmas, and we got some cooking stuff as well as a portable toilet, and some water canisters to take with us so that we can camp in more remote areas shall we ever run into a holiday weekend again.  Jason says that he is pretty sure we got everything on our camping “needs” list, but I am sure we will find something once we are out there.

This weekend we got our doggie doors installed.  We had to get two, one through the laundry room to the garage, and one from the garage to outside, or we’d have to go through a wall.  We figured their new-found freedom to come, go, and bark as they please would be an incentive for the dogs, but they just don’t get it.  Well, Landon kind of does, but Lucy, the wimp is scared of the flaps, and basically has to be shoved out, or have the door opened for her.  I hope they get it soon.  We got these so there would be less work involved… not more.

I hope to keep on top of the updates once again… but you know how it gets you get behind, and then you mean to catch up and then when you try to more stuff gets piled on… but I think I have really caught up to where we are at at this very moment… so hopefully you will be hearing from me soon!  : )

Chaos Circle

Things have been go go go since we got back.

Sunday we drove to Tucson to get the kids, who were less than thrilled to see us.  That took up a big chunk of the day and we got a whopping two loads of laundry done and were completely exhausted.

Monday was back to work, which was just wretched trying to figure out who did what and what went where etc.  After work we went to Sprint to look at new phones because I am sick of constantly exchanging mine, and it not working.  Then we headed to IKEA because Jason bought a desk with the money his dad gave him for Christmas / Birthday and I bought some lamps for my desk because I can't stand dim light; however, the lights we bought didn't fit my desk, they only fit one side of desk (they were clamp lights) and so we had to return them.  We get to IKEA, and Jason grabbed the wrong receipt.  We toss the lights back in the car, and go get different lights and head home, crash pretty much as soon as we get there.

Tuesday night we head out to IKEA again, because light set number two also didn't work because my desk is very thick, and the clamps opened up about 1/4 inch too little, so now we have 4 lights to return.  Go us.  We head upstairs, measure the desk that I have, and went on a mission to find lights that could clamp on.  No luck.  Ended up setting on a swing arm lamp with a 12 lb base to it.  :P  The light is amazing with such a tiny bulb.  It's literally about half of my thumb and lights up my desk perfectly.  Once again IKEA, you impress me.  Our house is slowly becoming IKEAized... one day all of our furniture will probably be from there.

Wednesday we had an appointment with the stationer.  Sad to say we will not have the invitations we want, and will probably end up doing them ourselves.  Wow, it is crazy how expensive things are.  CRAZY.  Unfortunately, it took us 50 minutes to get to the stationer, 15 minute appointment, and 50 minutes back.  Again, there was not much time left to do anything once we got home, and we pretty much went straight to bed.

Thursday morning, both doing our own thing at work and Jason gets a call to remind us of our appointment tonight, and if we can change places where we were going to meet.  Uh, appointment?  What appointment?  Heh.  It was with one of the DJs that we met at the bridal show, and let me say that I am so glad he called to change, because we were really impressed with this guy and the services that he offers / provides--but we totally forgot we even made an appointment.  (Hell, we haven't even had a chance to look at briday show information yet.)  Once we get paid next week, we will be placing the down payment with him.  We really need to buckle down and get back to the wedding business though because we still haven't purchased my dress (which I have been told can take 4-6 MONTHS to get in) and we still haven't picked a photographer.

I created a gallery, since I don't have a paid Flickr account anymore, and therefore am limited, and I have uploaded all the pictures from our trip to  Oklahoma.  Still working on some of the descriptions, so bear with me a bit.  But you can check it out here: fendiandemo.com/gallery

Alsoooooooo, a co-worker of mine has planted a little seed that is slowly growing.  She told me that I should seriously think about opening up my own business selling dog treats since her dog goes nutso over them.  If everyone else hasn't been lying to me, than I know that other dogs besides mine also love them, and sometimes even prefer them over their regular treats, and I have been talking about it with Jason.  I think the inittial start up would be kind of rocky, but I think it would be a fun and beneficial hobby.  I've brainstormed a ton of ideas with Jason and he's being very supportive of the entire idea, and even offered to help, but I am wondering about other opinions out there... anyone?  Anyone!?

Whoops.

I put a contact form up, and it didn't really work.  So luckily, only one person sent us a message, and we were able to deduct from the information that they sent us who it was, but other than that... I got a contact form up now that actually tells us who sent the message.  :P  Also, I created us an email account that sends it to both of us, and it's easy to remember because... well, it matches the site.   fendiandemo@gmail.com (Sorry it's not linkified, but I wanted to protect us from spam.)

In other news, we sent out the first batch of save the date cards.  Most of the people on my side that we're inviting got them (or should have) but a lot of Jason's side, we either don't have the address for, or we sent it, and have the wrong address.  :P  Be sure to update us if anything is wrong as well.  We did the list with one person reading information, and one person typing it out... we've had two mistakes so far, one on a person's name, and one on a street name, so feel free to tell us, so we don't feel like a jack-ass later on.  :P  Also, welcome to the site, and thanks for taking a peek into our little journey!

As for a little update:

Tuesday was our lucky day, not only did we win $21 on scratcher tickets (that we shouldn't have purchased but it looks like that was a $5 well spent) but Jason got his job back at Desert Schools.  This is good and bad, because he hates this job, but he's making almost twice the money (which means he got a raise), and he will have twice the hours, and he's really not digging the mortuary scene.  I think one of my friends has totally destroyed his dreams from Friday on.  We're pretty twisted there, but you kind of have to be.  :P

This coming Monday we have a meeting with our potential Pastor.  He is actually my runner (for work) and used to be in radio, and has been a pastor for years.  He does church services every Sunday (threw that in there to make the parents happy ;) haha) and does funeral services as well.  He is so calm and gentle, I just love him!  He said he's done 2-3 hundred wedding ceremonies and they have all been different, so we are having coffee to discuss all of our options Monday after work.

Today, Jason and I fought moron after moron at the Bridal Fashion Debut but we got a ton of information.  We spent 5 hours there, but got there 2 hours after it started and were basically kicked out at 3 when it ended, and we definitely could have used it.  :(  Anyway, we got toooooon of flyers and cards for photographers, and DJ's a few for floral and a few for cakes, pretty much the only things that we need now.  We also picked up some invitation stuff, as we haven't yet decided whether we want to do our own or not.  We got a few free samples, but man there are some crazy people out there.  Jason literally got hit 3 times by the same dumb girl with the stroller she was pushing, and every time he glared at her, yet she never even apologized.  I swear.  I realize it is a crowded place, but if you injure someone then at least have the courtesy to say sorry.  And I know it's a bridal fair, and you should bring someone with you, but omg, you do not need to bring your whole family and children along with you.  There were so many wretched misbehaving children around, and some people brought like mothers for both sides, and their entire bridal party plus some more friends, which totally blocked some exhibits, which was super annoying.  I even saw someone with a stroller that said 'Please DO NOT touch the baby."  Well lady, if you don't want strange people touching your baby, don't take it to a place with over 4,000 people crammed into it, hello common sense, obviously that was checked at the door.  Sadly, we missed the 3 bridal fashion shows, didn't win any of the gown give-aways, and the huge sale on bridal gowns (seriously 20-80% off!) because we found it as we were being shoved out the door.  They seriously need to make that thing longer as half of the 5 hours we spent there was waiting for large masses to pass by or shoving people out of the way.  Oh well.

 

And that is it for now.  I need to work on my bridal party invitations...

A day like any other...

… except much, much worse.

The one, and generally only thing I like about my birthday being where it is, is that while everyone is worrying about their New Year’s resolutions for the first week of the year, I am sitting back, calm, and cool, because I know I can slack off, and start my «year« 9 days later than everyone because… it’s my birthday! :P The day wasn’t as bad as some I’ve had in the past, but it was pretty stressful. Usually my birthday is overlooked due to the fact of two major holidays back to back, and the hustle and bustle are not gone… Amanda’s birthday? Amanda who? That’s usually how it goes.

This morning didn’t actually start out bad. Jason is such a doll. He let me sleep in a few extra minutes, and when I woke up, he gave me my birthday stash, two new pajama pants (which, may seem like a mediocre gift, however, I loveeeeee pajamas and would live in them and go everywhere in them if I could, so I was beyond thrilled.) I also got a glowing light bulb (which is hard to explain, but it looks cool) along with my Froggie Fudgies, and an I Love My Geek shirt (because I do, and now I can tell the world!) The second we closed the front door to our safe little domain… everything just exploded into a bad day of doom.

My boss was being a (fill in mean word here, because I honestly can’t think of one that wouldn’t offend someone) and had already upset me the day before.  Jason and I gave him the courtesy of calling him to tell him we would be like 10 minutes late, and instead of just letting us be late, he insisted that we go buy donuts for everyone to «make up for it.«  That irritated me because he knows we’re short on money, and then I had room to think about it more, and not only did that make us even more late, both losing 30 minutes a piece, but the donuts, cost more than what we actually make combined for the time that we lost, so it was a bum deal.  When we walked in, of course we got, «the look« which pretty much just put tears in my eyes, and then my mom called to tell me happy birthday, which then set me off, and I had to go sit and cry in the bathroom to regain control, then everyone is asking what’s wrong, and I just wanted to crawl under my desk and go back home.  Then once everyone was thanking us for the donuts, I just got more upset, and wanted to shove them up their noses!  One of my sweet co-workers however, took it upon herself to get me a card that everyone signed, and got me a burrito from Sonic, so that lightened the mood.  I trudged through the morning grudgingly, having to do favors left and right for people I really didn’t want to do favors for, and then my boss announced he was going to take me, Jason, and the office manager out to lunch.

We ended up going to California Pizza Kitchen because one person would suggest something and someone would turn it down, and I didn’t care where we went… and that’s where we ended up.  The rest of the work day just drug on and on; I finally go to do my job at about 2:45 when I was finally allowed to get back to doing my own thing instead of everyone else’s.

Once we got home, we snuggled with the puppies for a bit, which can’t help but make anyone feel better.  We then headed to Walgreen’s to get a prescription filled, where we found 100 white lights for 99¢ so we bought 12 boxes of them because quite frankly, I’ve searched high and low on Craigslist for used items like this for our wedding, and they just don’t have much in that line, or we have to drive super far, so I’d say $12 for 1,200 lights wasn’t too bad, and if we can’t use them, it wasn’t a huge waste of money anyway.  I also figure we probably only need 10 strands, but wanted to get a few extra in case there were issues and we needed more.  We also got 2 bags of 25 bows each for 10¢ and 4 rolls of ribbon (in wedding colors of course) also for 10¢ so we really didn’t do too bad.  I stinkin’ love clearance!

Once 7:00 rolled around, we headed for Buca, where Jason had made reservations for the kitchen table.  When we got there, he begged and pleaded with them to not sing, and they didn’t (thank god, I don’t know if I could handle that on a normal day, much less today.)  This time, was so much more active than any other time we had been there.  We got a glimpse of every meal that left the kitchen, and the head chef that was there was so friendly and nice, and chatted with us for a bit, and had his staff whip up a free plate of fried mozzarella, which was soooo good.  We also tried one of their salads as an appetizer instead of our normal pizza, and that was also so good.  Seriously, Olive Garden has NOTHING on Buca di Beppo.  Nothing.  This place is so good, that if anyone ever comes to visit us, I insist that we go there and eat.  Everything is so darned delicious, and the portion sizes are humongous, I am not even kidding.  For example, we have not had them, but their meatballs are the size of a softball, not a small baseball, but like one of those huge softballs.  We usually have enough for a meal and a snack or two more meals the next day, that’s how much food you get for your buck.  After dinner, (well we were pretty much full by the time we had the salad) I got my free birthday desert of Apple Crustata, (which is like fried apples with almonds, and caramel layered on a flaky crust) which was to die for.  TO DIE FOR.  Jason was going to let me have that while he took the ice cream, but he took one bite and insisted that I share :P  Needless to say, Jason left there after loosening his belt three notches, and he made it clear that his pants were not falling off when we left.  Now we are home and absolutely miserable.

I have soooo much more to update, and it’s really important too, but we have to get up early tomorrow for the bridal fair!

Setting things in motion.

1. We are canceling our home phone.  According to the phone company, we only use it 100 minutes a month (which, even that much is shocking) and they are raising their rates... so if you have the 602.441.2472 phone number, go ahead and delete it.  We have the number until mid-January, but the phones aren't even hooked up, and it goes to my cell phone anyway.


2. Jason had a job interview on Wednesday.  According to him, it went well (due to the fact that a friend, and former co-worker apparently wrote all the interview questions specifically so that only Jason would know the answers) but they told him they had 47 more applicants to go through, and he wouldn't hear anything for at least two weeks, which sucks for two reasons:
   
   
   
   1. Our vacation starts in two weeks.
   
   
   2. Should he get the job, this shoves him back to not working for two months, and I am not sure if we can actually (financially) survive that.  :(  * But at least he will have a job... right? * : /
   
   
   
   


3. We finally got to meet with the caterer, and despite the original flub, we love her!  Her prices for everything (being tables, chairs, linens, tableware, food, servers and bartender, no drinks though, we have decided to provide those per her recommendations, as it will save us money) was under $4,000.  However, that does not include the DJ, cake, flowers, or photographer; she can contract those, but does not specifically "provide" those services, and such, cannot give us price quotes, pictures, descriptions, anything.


4. We booked the caterer for the 3rd of October 2009.  It was only $100 and we can change everything up until something like 10 days before the event.  Didn't seem so bad, since the people before us had the 3rd weekend in October, and they were the last slot.  However, we don't know if the venue is still available, and if it is, we still don't have the $1,000 deposit for it.  Anyone want to loan / give us a grand and a little piece of mind?  Heh.


5. We went and blew some of the gift cards we got for Christmas.  I got some much needed pants, and we got the doggies some treats.  We also got Lucy the cutest little hoodie but it didn't fit and she bit Jason so we had to return it.  :(

[caption id="attachment_284" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Lucy loves her bone... so much that in 24 hours its already 2/3 gone."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_285" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Landon also loves his bone, however, his is still whole, and he likes to carry it around and thump it against things."][/caption]

Hope everyone had a safe and happy new year!
: )

Carrying on…

Ok, so where did I leave off?

So last night, I spent the majority of the night experimenting with peppermint bark. I made a double chocolate batch, and cinnamon bark, which came out… just not really as I had planned. We could not find cinnamon candy canes anywhere, so Jason suggested I try cinnamon imperials and break them up by blending them. That worked great until the blending part, which turned them into cinnamon powder, and I went ahead with it anyway. It was an “interesting” batch to say the least, and I don’t think I will be sending any of it out. I think next time I will keep them whole, they are about the size that the candy canes should be when you put them in, but then again, the candy canes, which are easy to break when you don’t want to, I had to end up wrapping in a double Ziploc bag, and then a towel, and smashing them with a hammer. The cooking life is not easy, let me tell you.

This brings me to my next item on the agenda, the cooking site. I’ve already posted a few recipes that I had from way back when, and some of the new things I’ve tried. It’s been very active as of late, but once the holidays are over, it will probably slow down a ton. But you should check some of them out. I think they are pretty tasty. :) (And they all come with a picture that isn’t all fancy-schmancy-cookbook-beautified!)  There is also a list of the most recent posted recipes off to the right.

Tonight, Jason and I went to Souper Salad, because they are cheap, give unlimited food, and provided us with a nice non-distracting environment to do Jason’s midterm (that he finally got the access code to.) We were there for about an hour, and I helped him with notes and picking out the parts he had to include in his project. It brought back bad memories, because I only took that horrible midterm two months ago. Good riddance!

We were also slightly celebrating. Because my boss is so awesome, and we are getting short-handed soon, and super busy (like really busy, like I actually want people to stop dying, we’re getting in 3-6 cases in a DAY, and have 20+ concurrent, which means super busy workload) and he said that he would hire Jason for odd jobs, but basically wanted him in the system so that he is ready to go when we need him. Jason just has to take the drug test tomorrow, and I think he’s set. He will be doing a lot of work for me, because I am currently doing two and a half jobs because no one else has time to do them (and I’m not sure why they think I do) so my paperwork has been so behind. I probably have about 50 files sitting on my desk, and the pile grows larger daily, of files that need to be finalized and filed away. We also had a HUGE project a few weeks ago which included pulling files from a specific insurance policies and a specific casket company to get rebates on caskets, which was a huge profit (well maybe not in their eyes, but it was over twenty-thousand dollars worth, so I’ve heard) so all those files (probably 100+) need to be filed away in various storage locations as well. And then there’s running. I will lose my runner, Fred, at the end of December because he is taking two weeks off, and while the job has already been asked upon someone else, she is probably going to be put on services (as we are losing a Funeral Director for surgery) and then Jason could be my runner. I don’t really know how it’s all going to work out, but at least it will be something for him to do, he’s already going stir crazy at home. Plus, haha I just can’t stop, my boss wants him to be on the payroll for future computer issues that may arise. So hopefully he will be kept busy, and I will have a load off.

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="189" caption="Preeeettttty (LG Lotus)"][/caption]

The other day, I met my dream phone on TV. Tonight, before dinner, we went in to the Sprint Store, and looked at it. It is so beautiful, I could cry. It is a purple PDA flip. Since I’ve had my MotoQ for almost a year, I can’t imagine going back to a normal phone. The one thing I don’t like about my phone (well the main thing) is that I have to lock it every time I put it down, or I end up calling Guatemala! Pain in the ass, but that’s where the flippy awesomeness comes in. Santa, if you want to drop one of those beauties in my stocking, I won’t mind. ;) Did I mention it’s purple? Yeah, its purple, metallic purple, even the keys illuminate purple. I love it!

I don’t know why, because our Christmas shopping is pretty much complete, but I have been looking at home-made gifts a lot, and I’ve found a few that I thought we’re just too good to keep to myself. The first one, is more kid oriented, and is a Pocket Advent Calendar. It’s simple, it’s cheap, and it’s so adorable. I wish I had someone to make it for… although it’s a little late now. Another thing I came across was Homemade Gifts in a Jar, things like brownie or muffin mixes prepared in a jar so all you have to do is mix and bake. I’ve always thought these were cute, and very simple ideas, but again, it’s kind of late for me to do it for Christmas, especially this year, but some of them could be year-round type gifts. I am definitely bookmarking these for next year.

And lastly, something I haven’t posted about in a while: The Wedding! This Friday (well, hopefully) we are starting to look at locations. The one I am trying to set up an appointment for is the Waterfront. I found a list of wedding vendors online. The list had everything from reception sites to wedding cakes, and this one was ranked as $ versus the rest of Phoenix which was $$-$$$$ and Jason and I both really liked it. There were a few other places, but I wasn’t so big on their pictures, so we are checking this place out first. Also, I’m kind of bum on the whole wedding deal not only because of the financial situation but because of my “wedding court”. My Maid of Honor, whom I still haven’t asked, has been kind of giving me the brush off and unless I plan on asking her through MySpace, I don’t know when I’d get the “chance” to ask her in real-life time. One of the other people that I was going to ask has decided that she hates me, and until I have my Maid of Honor set, I don’t want to go any further in the asking process anyway. Ugh, I just hate this. This is supposed to be one of the most exciting times in my life, and so far, it’s been nothing but trouble. Even according to The Knot, I am behind. This is their to-do list:

• Begin envisioning your wedding --- formal hotel or friend's loft? Backyard barbecue or exotic beach? (Eh, sort of)


• Decide on a budget and hash out who's contributing.


• Knot Hint: For a quick and easy way to determine a budget, use The Knot Budgeter.


• Make sure to insure your engagement ring.


• Pick your preferences for a wedding date and time, and finalize after okaying with important guests, location, or officiant.


• Begin interviewing wedding consultants (if you'll have one) AND / OR start asking family AND friends for local wedding vendor recommendations.


• Brides: It's never too early to begin thinking about your gown. Start by figuring out what style will look best on you.


• Start interviewing caterers.


• Scout out reception sites. (Starting)


• Start looking for an officiant who suits your style and spirit.


• Book your reception site as soon as you see something you love that’s available on your date.


• If you're having an engagement party, set a date, draft a guest list, and purchase your invitations.


• Get organized! Start a notebook/file folder to house all your wedding-planning paperwork in one place.


• Begin working on a preliminary wedding guest list and decide on your wedding's approximate size. Request lists from both sets of parents and create your own wish list.


• Choose your bridesmaids/groomsmen and ask them to be in the wedding party. (Hahahaha right now...)


• Find a ceremony site if one hasn't been determined by your choice of officiant or reception site.


• Hire a consultant (if you're having one) and sign a contract.


• Contact newspapers to announce your engagement (you may need to have an engagement photo taken as well).


• Choose a color scheme, if you so desire, taking into account the decor of the rooms/areas you have reserved for your ceremony and reception.


• Decide on a caterer. Hash out a rough price per head and begin working on a menu.


• Brides: Begin looking at pictures of wedding dresses online and in magazines.  (Being doing that since I was old enough to know what a wedding was :P)


• Brides: When you've found some gowns you like, head out to the stores to try them on.


• Start investigating any ethnic customs or cultural traditions you might want to incorporate into your ceremony or reception.


• Finalize the guest list.  (Knot hint: When you’re done, make your life easy by entering everything into the Guest List Manager.)


• Sign your caterer contract and send in a deposit.


• Start auditioning reception bands or DJs.


• If you've chosen an outdoor ceremony or reception site, look into tent and lighting rentals.


• Set up appointments with various florists to discuss options.


• Decide on and meet with your officiant to discuss ceremony structure and any religious requirements (such as counseling).


• Interview and get price lists from several wedding photographers and videographers.


• Book reception band or DJ, sign the contract, and send a deposit.


• Brides: Narrow down your gown choices and make a final decision.


• If you plan to use frequent flyer miles to travel to your honeymoon destination, book your flight now.  (Honeymoon?  Yeah, I don't think so... not even close ;/  )

The crossed out, is N/A and the bold is what we have done. Pretty sad. : ( Also, should I actually have bridesmaids, although the outlook is currently grim, this is the dress I liked for them.

Anyway, I think this is quite long enough for now, its bed time.

I am so exhausted right now it's not even funny. Jason is diligently working on his homework so he can get the validation code to do his mid-term and finish it by tomorrow. He's basically told me that he is going to stay up until it's done. Trying to be dedicated, I tried to stay up with him, but I think that after I am done typing this, I am giving up because it will be well past midnight, and that is well past my bed time. I have a good excuse though, I have a super busy day tomorrow! (That's a good one, right?)

Anyway, tomorrow I have to go to work to burn a CD, because I tried to burn it at home, and I can't get any computer here to do it. It's pretty ridiculous, but I was going to have to go to work tomorrow morning anyway to drop it off before 10 am. Such is life. Then, I am going to run back home and pick up the dogs, take them to get their nails clipped (for free, YAY coupons!) and then to see Santa (check your mail soon :D) and bring them back home. Then I will be going into work to actually work this time because I am soooo behind because we have been SLAMMED these past few weeks. I haven't had time to slack off and sit up front and chat for a LONG time, and I used to get 2-3 sessions (30-60 minutes long each) in a day. I don't think I've even taken a full lunch this entire week because I've been interrupted every step of the way. That part really sucks because I am working on something during my lunch, so I take the time to scarf my food down first, and spend the rest working on my "project" which has now been cut short, and I have 3ish weeks to finish it because it's a Christmas present. :/ After I work for about half a day, I will be helping to set up our yearly Christmas party for all those who have lost someone that past year. It's a really nice celebration, and afterward, my cool boss man is taking those who helped out for pizza and beer. I can't think of a better way to reward your employees. :P Pending the homework situation, Jason will be coming to my work around 5 to help out, and then he will also get the above mentioned reward. I really hope he does finish because, you can never complain about a free meal, and at this point in our life, we REALLY can't complain, especially when it is something as delicious as pizza!

As for Jason, today was his last day at work. I guess his old job has all but confirmed that he can have his old job back as of January 1st, but he's not looking forward to it, and neither am I, but at least its a paycheck if he doesn't get one before then. He also finally is getting rid of his car! Yay! Good bye Big Brown Boat. It took forevvvvvver, but we found a place to donate it to, and they are picking it up Monday.  That will also (hopefully) be a nice tax deduction for next year, and one some of their paperwork, they even talked about a hotel or vacation voucher if it was "worth" enough.  I doub't it will be, but wouldn't those be nice?

I have soooo much more to say, but I am so beat, so here are my reminders for tomorrow today later:

• Peppermint


• School


• Blind/Deaf


• Buca

(it will all make sense later, I promise!)

The Trickster

I feel like such a sneaky devil. Twice on Saturday I got Jason to eat something disgustingly healthy and before he knew what it was, he said “its ok” or “this is really good.” Buwhahaha. The first thing was in the morning: Breakfast Cookies that are loaded with fiber and good stuff for you. I had never had / made them before then, so it was new to me too. They were a bit odd because the outside was crispy like a cookie (kind of) but the inside was very cakey/bread like but they were delish! Then for lunch I made a “meatless” tamale pie. I used soy beef crumbles, and some healthy alternatives for other ingredients, and Jason really seemed to like it, he even went back for seconds. I wouldn’t tell him what the “secret ingredient” was until he told me if he like it. When he said he did, I told him there was no meat in it, and he just looked confused… he was positive the meat was turkey until I showed him the packaging. I will get us both healthy yet! I really need to work on the recipe page so I can post some of these recipes to share.

As for the rest of today, it was spent doing homework and finals. I am officially done with school for the year! Wahoo, I hope December goes by super slow so that I can enjoy my time off… although I know it won’t, we’re busy most weekends with work (for me) and school stuff (for Jason.)

Friday, since I took the day off, my mom came up and we went shopping for a sewing machine, because a couple months back Jason had talked about splitting the cost for a Christmas / Birthday present. Obviously, that can’t happen now; but what mother doesn’t want a totally domesticated daughter? :P We ended up getting the Emerald 183 from Husqvarna Viking. I can’t even pronounce the name, but that’s ok. My mom decided that one with a computer would probably be better for me because I’d end up getting frustrated having to change all the manual dials. I did grow up with a computer attached to my fingers ya’ know. All this manual stuff kills me. (I kid, I kid, I still use a typewriter on a daily basis at work, and I’m not that old-school-technology impaired.) Anyway, it’s still sitting on the living room floor. I’m scared to open it because we have no real place to put it for now, but I’m also afraid I’m going to be addicted to it. Jason says that I’m getting all crazy with all the cooking and being domestic, but I just can’t stop! This time of year is sooo great to do pretty much anything. We’ve had our doors and windows open for the last few days now. It never gets hot in the kitchen, so I just can’t stop baking… I have more to do tomorrow! Bake, bake, bake.

Also on Friday, we decorated our hour with an obnoxious amount of decorations. Last weekend I took down all the Halloween stuff, and hung up the outside Christmas lights, but ole grinchy wouldn’t let me turn them on until after Thanksgiving. So when we got home Thursday night, guess what got plugged in. :P We put up our “new” (new to us, we bought it last year after Christmas on super discounted sale prices) tree, and decorated it. Then we decorated our small tree and put up the gajillion snowman items I have. Our living room is so bright with lighted items; we almost don’t need a lamp in there anymore! I should have pictures soon. :)

Ugh.

So I don’t know what to title this because quite honestly this is going to suck.

On December 6th, Jason is losing his job. This comes as quite a shock as the night before we got the news (Thursday) we were talking about how they were hiring another contractor to make up for the contractor they were basically letting go, and joking about how I should apply for a job, and how much extra money we could have. Friday night, we go out to dinner, and he was supposed to hear from his recruiter about the new hire (or something I don’t remember, but he was supposed to hear from her) and we see we missed a call. He calls her back, leaves a message. We miss another call. He calls again, and gets in touch with her. It was like a “Hi, you have no job.” It was a good length conversation, and Jason would say bits and pieces which frustrated me because I had NO idea what was going on… but pretty much the gist of it is: Charles Schwab is having a hard time with the economy issue that they are pretty much cutting all excess expenses. On our drive home from work, only hours earlier, Jason made it sound like his job wasn’t just some added expense, and that he was really needed (along with the other person he works with.) It’s all just such a shock. What a crappy time of year for it to happen. However, there is some sort of maybe good news. They do have a position opening up directly through the company, but it starts in January. This sucks for two reasons. We’re gone for a good week and a half in January and there’s a month between when he is released from duties until he has the potential to get this job. So, it’s not even a guaranteed thing, but he’s been told that he’s a shoe in due to some recommendations from “permanent employees.” While that is encouraging, I don’t know how much I actually believe it, since this has all kind of been like a horrible car accident you don’t see coming. While I am sure we could technically scrape by the month of December with Jason having no job, we definitely do not want to risk it if he happens to not get that permanent job; so we are both really on edge right now.

My school ends just after Thanksgiving, so I have the entire month of December with nothing to do, I was really looking forward to doing absolutely nothing for an entire month, but I think, instead I will be searching for another job. It definitely can’t hurt, especially if Jason can’t find one. This whole thing is just so depressing, at such a happy time in our lives, for something so wrong to happen just plain sucks. My mom sent up some wedding magazines and brochures for weddings in Arizona, and it’s just plain depressing to look at them, I just want to cry, and I know that this will seem selfish, but I don’t think we’re going to get married any time soon. We couldn’t afford it when Jason had a very good paying job, and now... well, look at us. : (

Blah.

In more bad news, but much more mild… we had our dishwasher installed today. While underneath it was absolutely disgusting, the installer guy said that the dishwasher was leaking (super) so that should be fixed now. However, when he went to shut the water supply off, he broke the nicely rotted valve (problem one) and when he was done, he gave us more bad news: we have this hole thing and its letting out our hot and cold air from under the sink (problem two) which should be easily fixed with some spray foam stuff, and our pipes are old and crappy and the seal doesn’t hold and it’s just being held together by some sealant stuff (problem three) which, again, he said was an easy fix. I am starting to get more and more pissed off because obviously, our home inspection guy is a fraudulent piece of ca-ca, and should not be telling people their houses are “fine” when they buy them, because obviously, our house and most things in it were/are far from fine. >: [  (And don't get me wrong, I am sooooo grateful that our installer guy was nice enough to point this stuff out, and he totally didn't trash our house like the last guy!)

The dishwasher does work great. It’s so quiet, we can put like two loads of dishes in, and it has so many buttons. We love buttons!

News for you, all smooshified.

Currently, Jason is outside grilling our dinner: turkey burgers with avocado, Swiss, and Pico; one of our new favorites.  I know, it sounds like we're a bunch of hippies.  I swear we're not!  Last week, Jason went to the doctor to have some blood test results, and they basically told him a lot of bad news.  First, he's allergic to everything... and by everything... I mean, I am actually shocked he's not allergic to me.  He's allergic to pumpkin, corn husks, pecans, grass, and sadly both our dogs and cats.  The last two were killer.  I know he says he could easily get rid of Damien, but personally, I don't know if I could get rid of Jack, I've had him far too long, and I know we both couldn't get rid of our bratty pups.  He was pretty mopey most of the day, but eventually got out of the funk, and went on living his life as though he never talked to his doctor.  Haha.  Anyway, his doctor also told him that his cholesterol was high.  I know, I was amazed too.  Even though he's packed on a few pounds since we met, he's still a bean stalk and eats like a horse... which was probably the issue.  Now he's trying to eat healthier, which is weird, because he's attempting to do it cold turkey.  I've been trying to eat healthier for months, but it really sucks when you don't have someone suffering with you.  Yeah, he was supportive through the whole thing, but support only gets you so far when you're eating fruits and veggies, and the guy next to you has a nice juicy burger, and some scrumptious French fries, drenched in fatty ranch.  (Makes me drool just thinking about it.)  Anyway, his diagnosis will be better for both of us, I am convinced!

Today was an interesting day at work.  For those who don't know, I work at a mortuary.  Don't worry it's not even HALF as cool as it sounds.  I push papers all day long, as well as a multitude of other various tasks, but pretty much I push papers.  (However, I push all the papers; I do the permits, the death certificates, and service print work.)  At any rate, last week during a service our coach (i.e. the nice way of saying hearse) was literally stolen.  That's right; some random guy got in a hearse and drove off, got out a few blocks away and just walked off.  It was pretty funny, even though I was pretty much the only one laughing.  Don't worry no one was in it, they found it, and the family never even knew because we snagged a coach from another home before they actually needed it.  So a week later, the cops show up, and start questioning it.  It actually is just like the movies.  The detective had all these off the wall theories about what could have driven the guy to do what he did.  He seemed most stuck on that it was revenge of some sort.  C'mon the guy was 80, and had Alzheimer's, what kind of revenge could someone want?  I guess he not only walked off with the keys, after driving it literally a few short blocks, but also walked off with a burial permit.  The whole thing is just weird to me.  But whatever.

While I was at work, I started looking up wedding "things".  I really want to get married in October because the weather is so nice at that time, and well, October is when all the magic started to happen.  ;)  That would almost give us a full year to plan as well.  I've signed up for a few websites to help us plan, but mainly I'm looking to The Knot for the expertise.   Today, I started looking at photographers.  It all made me just want to cry.  First, I can't believe that I am even looking at wedding photographers, for my wedding, (exciiiiting!) and second, holy crap, everything is so expensive!  We are trying to tough this one out ourselves, because we are too old to be relying on our parents, especially for such a large sum of money, but I don't know how we could afford one photographer, much less an entire wedding.  I know personally, I want to do a lot of things myself; things that seem crazy, like make all the food.  It could be a momentary lapse of insanity; I'll let you know on that later.  We really need to start budgeting better.  Currently, we pretty much live paycheck to paycheck, and every now and then we get a few extra bucks, and get so excited we blow it on something ridiculous.  :P  That's how we are I guess.  I've got a few ideas in mind of how to save money.  None of them are that great, but I was considering since I am a coupon junkie, taking all the money we "save" on things and putting it into a high interest savings account (which I just so happen to have) but it will be a tedious process and I have a feeling it won't last very long.  It probably won't add up to much, but I'm sure taking the $60 we save on groceries will get us a little bit closer.  I wish we could start like some sort of business of just being awesome, where the money just rolls in, but that seems too good to be true.  ;)  We do save a lot of money on carpooling however, because instead of filling up one car every week and both cars every other week, we are filling up one car every week and a half.  It also helps a TON that gas has dropped so drastically.

So, I think I've babbled on and on long enough.  Obviously this site is under severe construction, and there is a ton of stuff missing, but we are adding it as we can.  I hope everyone enjoys this nice little peek into our voyage.  :)