P.S.

We finally registered!  Go us.

• Target (If you go into the store, make sure you choose Club Wed, we had a registry with them when we first moved into the townhouse, which was a looooong time ago, and it won't let me delete it.  It will automatically default to that list if you don't choose Club Wed.  :( Boo)


• Bed, Bath & Beyond

I guess I could give these their own tab, eh?  Also, I think it's funny that someone bought us shower curtain rings... and we haven't even given this list out yet... I wonder if it is a mistake?  :P

And, I think I'll type up a breif trasncript of the dog whisperer thing, for Lucy and Landon too, I remember a lot of Lucy's and some of it is kinda hard to hear.   I know you're as excited as I am.  :)

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!

I am so bad at this...

But at least I update... unlike someone... who is half of this site.  ; )

Things have been crazy busy... still... I don't think it is ever going to calm down...  Ugh.

Things that have happened since the last time I updated, ages ago:

We went camping for Easter.  Super excited to use our new stuff, packed it all, left early Friday morning, got a great camping spot, got to fish for about 45 minutes... and woke up to SNOW the next morning (at about 2 am.)  Prime camping spot, actually camping spot from hell because it was the furthest one away, and we had to haul ALL of our crap back, soaking wet, in the snow.  I eventually wore down and put on a trash bag because I was freezing and my clothes were sopping.  Ugh.  Needless to say, we didn't get to use much of the new stuff except the portable toilet, and our water jugs.  Don't worry, there are pictures... which brings me to the next thing:

Someone reported my Windows key as stolen (which I guess, technically, it is) so my computer has basically been crapping out on me for the last 3 weeks.  :(  I have reformatted and tried and tried to find a legitimate copy of windows, with no avail.  I may have to... buy it. Disgusting.  I really wish that I could use something more basic... like... anything, but unfortunately, there are so many programs out there that wont run on *nix based systems, that I really... just can't switch to anything free or Open Source.

School is done for me!  (And will be done for Jason in a week, I think.)  I got an A in all my classes but one, where I got a B (which was lame, because it was an 89% and they wouldn't just bump it)  8 out of 9 isn't bad though, right?  I'll never be THAT crazy about school again.  I do have my Certificate of Completion in Computer Applications and Usage (i.e. I know how to use a computer, go me, and whooopie!) which I should receive in the mail in a few weeks,  and I have to have one more class to get another Certificate of Completion in Web Design.  What do those all mean?  Nothing really, except that I am done with two chunks of my education on my way to an... associates degree.  Ugh.  The school system is so ridiculous sometimes.  All these classes, all this work, and I can't even get a degree that will get me anywhere.  I suppose that is partially my fault for dragging my feet for so long and changing my mind every semester.  :P

Last week, after I was done with all my finals and homework, I built a garden!  I will eventually post pictures of that too... but I am still working on that computer issue, so I may end up using Jason's computer to do so.  I have planted tomatoes, jalapeños, yellow onions, white green onions, purple green onions, cucumbers, and artichokes.  The tomatoes, cucumbers, and jalapeños were already grown to a small size, and they are doing fine, everything else was planted by me, so far the onions are kicking ass though.  The white green onions have already sprouted, and I have seen little sprouts (that literally look like alphalpha sprouts) coming up where the yellow onions should be.  I will have my own salsa factory soon!  The jalepeños, even though I don't know how old they are since I didn't sprout them, already have a few buds for peppers.  Who knows if the first batch will be good, so I guess we just wait.

Lastly, from last Monday, until yesterday (Monday, so a week) this is what has happend:

• Jason got a kidney stone.  - Monday


• Amanda got a sty. -  Tuesday


• Jason passed said kidney stone.  -  Friday


• Amanda gets rid of sty (for the most / painful part anyway.)  - Friday


• Jason gets another kidney stone.  -  Monday

I swear, he is really pushing the limit on "in sickness and in health".  NO MORE KIDNEY STONES.  I swear, he is trying to start our family early in his kidneys.  :|

 

And... I swear, once I get all this computer hubub straightened out... I will update more... promiiiise.  :D

Frugalista

I heard this word the other day, and fell in love with it.  I am probably not classified as one, but I sure am striving to be one!  I am currently in the kitchen whipping up another batch of dog bones.  I’ve given out a TON of free samples, and people just seem to love them!  Pretty soon I think I will need to start charging for them.  I finally got my butt to the grocery store and priced all the ingredients so that I can have John (from Omega-3) help me figure out the pricing structure.

Another thing I’ve done this week is I’ve made my own laundry detergent.  I was pretty skeptical at first, but I did it, and it works GREAT, and it is SUPER CHEAP!  Two of my favorite things, something that works and isn’t costly.  I don’t know if it is just because I have sensitive skin and have to be careful with what we use, but laundry detergent is SO expensive.  The ingredients for this cost about half the price, (about $9 for everything) and will make at least 3 batches of enough detergent to do approximately 64 loads of laundry.  Can’t beat that, now can ya?  I think our box of fragrance free Arm & Hammer does about 72 loads and costs about $17.  You can see the difference.  I made the first batch up on Thursday night, and used it Friday night with some hesitation.  While the detergent has a very strong smell, it doesn’t transfer in the washer, and it doesn’t bother my skin at all!  Jason even said that his socks felt softer.  If you want the recipe, please feel free to contact me for it. 

Two other household tips we discovered were:

• Wadding up a ball of aluminum foil about the size of your fist, and sticking it in the dryer helps eliminate static!  (Another cheapie!)


• For those tough to get off baked on pains, putting an Alka-Seltzer tablet in hot water and letting it soak works wonders.  I’ve also heard that it helps get rid of the ring around the toilet, but I have yet to try it… because amazingly… our toilets stay pretty clean (and I don’t think we’ve cleaned them since we moved in… which was almost a year ago!)

School is almost over for me… and I think for Jason too… but he is a few weeks behind me.  We have a super busy week ahead of us next week.  Monday we need to inventory our camping stuff because we got a whole bunch of new stuff, so some of the old stuff can go (like our fancy schmancy toilet paper, because now we have biodegradable… eeesh) and we also need to menu plan for our trip and not just throw a whole bunch of random crap in a cooler like we did last time.  Tuesday, we are going to order Jason’s wedding ring that we picked out last week, but there was no SKU on it, and Tuesday was the earliest when a manager’s schedule worked with ours to get it taken care of.  Wednesday, we will buy the planned food for camping, Thursday we have taste testing with our caterer and Friday thru Sunday is camping!  It will be so nice to get away from phones, computer, TV, and video games and just get back to reality.  We’ve invited a friend to go with us, but I’m still not sure if he is going to come or not.  Regardless, it will be nice to get 2 ½ days of relaxation… minus the dog barking at everything that moves… including the trees.  ; )

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!  : )