Lots of stuff going on!

Well, it’s been awhile since I updated so I do have some news to report!

Most of the footings are done! Last Friday, they were able to complete the footings for three sides of the house, leaving just the last short side and the retaining walls. And the basement walls and the porches, but that will all come. We went out to see everything that night, and Yoshi branded the footings while the concrete was still wet – so now we have footings that look like Hollywood Blvd with the footprints! It was pretty funny.

We also had some more gravel hauled in, and I believe more concrete is being worked on today! Yay!

We ALSO are very very close to getting the electric poles set and hooked up. I believe that will happen in the next few days after all the paperwork is processed correctly. Let me tell you, it’s a little more involved to decide where you want to place the last big pole…you have to think of things like where the stabilizing wire will end up and still at the same time get it as close to the house as possible to avoid spending more on the wire to actually hook it up to the house. It was a process, that’s for sure. Hopefully we will be happy with the results of our choice – it’s a little late now to change our minds!

Last weekend, we planted 60 flowers! (They were little.) I wanted my flowerbed to be beautiful and full so it will look nice if someone wants to look at our house. Unfortunately, we haven’t had too much interest lately, but I’m due to relist on a couple websites, so once I get that done, hopefully things will pick up. This weekend we are going to a fish fry at A’s parents to thank everyone who helped with his grandparents’ sale. There are quite a few people invited so it should be a pretty happening place! 

Patience is STILL a virtue, right?

Argh! At this rate, it sure feels like we won’t ever get to start on our house! It is gorgeous outside today, but Wednesday through Saturday at least promises more rain. So that means we most likely won’t be able to start the basement, because it will be more like digging a pond than a basement, and we already have a pond. So I must keep my patience in good working order, I guess.

This past Saturday we went to the auction A’s grandparents were having since they moved off their farm into town, and it went as well as could be expected. A didn’t buy anything and he was a little disappointed about that, but he FINALLY was able to sell his Mustang, which he has been trying to sell off and on for the past few years. (And bonus, with the money from the car, we will be able to pay off our truck! Which is a fantastic feeling.)

I ended up with an older rocking chair and a super rickety little table that in its current condition probably isn’t worth the $2 we paid for it. But I have big plans for it (thank you, HGTV!) to be taken apart and put back together sturdily, then painting it turquoise to match my new front door (when I manage to GET a new front door) and putting plants on it. It will be fantastic. My rocking chair will be getting a new cushion and new fabric on the back and seat and it will be a lovely addition to the new house as well I believe.

Apparently, I’m not the most observant individual, though (I know, shocker, right?), and this was brought home to me once again this weekend. My mom and I perused the items left to be auctioned on Saturday just to have something to do, and there were quite a few old kitchen cabinets and a counter and sink that had been pulled from the basement. I remember distinctly thinking as we walked by that they looked just like the cabinets we took out of our house when we redid the kitchen.

Well…they looked like those cabinets…because they WERE those cabinets. A and I had a pretty good laugh over that one – I had no idea that was where the cabinets had ended up. I felt a little silly not recognizing them, as they were the bane of my existence for a while.

Hopefully I will have more interesting news to post soon, because HOPEFULLY the rain will pause long enough for us to proceed soon!

...so...

I guess we've all figured out by now that I am an inconsistent blogger. That is mainly because I no longer have access to the Internet at work for things like that, and by the time I get home I have no desire to spend MORE time on the computer since I have been on it all day.

But every once in awhile I get the urge to write again.

Like today.

The snow is falling in huge fat flakes, and I can only be grateful that today was a work holiday and I got to stay home. Snow is so much more fun at home, don't you think?

A and I spent a fun forty minutes running around with Yoshi in the snow...I think he should have been an Alaska dog or something. He definitely loves the snow and all the mess he can make with it. All in all, we have had a lovely snow day so far.

We went to the local "Touch of Dutch" store in town and bought some delicious cheese (we made nachos) and some whole wheat flour and local honey. Recently, we also got one of their produce boxes. Which are fabulous. It is making it so much easier to include vegetables in our meals because we don't want to waste the beautiful box ingredients! Now, if only I knew what to do with cauliflower...

A and I have also been having fun lately looking through a little book of house plans. Not that we have any intention of building or moving soon - it's just fun to dream. And argue over those dreams a little! Pinterest doesn't help with that either...I keep seeing all these beautiful, bright spacious dream rooms on there and I can't help but search them out. *sigh*

Pinterest is great, by the way, if you haven't seen it. Go there, now. pinterest.com. You'll love it.

Until next time!

Here I come St. Louis!

This is one weekend that I am completely looking forward to (not that I don't look forward to any of the others)! A and I are going with my parents to a Cardinals game! I have never been to the new stadium and A has never been to a major league baseball game at all, so we are both getting pretty excited.

Not to mention the fact that my parents nabbed us some excellent seats.

I cannot wait to see A's reaction when we go in - if it's anything like his reaction to the prison building, it should be something to see!

Now, to choose which Cardinal shirt to wear...

Bargain shopping!

Lately, it seems like all my clothes are wearing out at the same time! Which is not good, because new ones that are work-wearable are not cheap.

But I had a 30% coupon to Kohl's that was getting ready to expire, so I decided I had better take advantage of it.

And I actually had good luck! I bought 6 shirts for me that I can wear casually or to work (they aren't anyting fancy, but they are definitely better than what I already own), and two pairs of shorts for A...

...everything was on sale, so with my coupon I managed to pull off saving $109! I only spent about $60.

I am just feeling pretty fantastic about the whole thing.

Some Tidbits for You

I know I have been gone a LONG while (that seems to be what happens constantly, right?) and I have no promises to be back consistently yet. But I will try.

We have been up to quite a bit actually. Why don't I just give you a rundown?

*We have a garden started! You knew that was coming, didn't you? We managed to get everything planted right before the super-long-raining-forever streak started. So the plants are growing pretty good. We have tomatoes, bell peppers, zucchini, squash, cucumbers and (my favorite) sugar snap peas! Hopefully my peas don't get burned up in the crazy hot weather.

*A and I went with my parents, sister, aunts and cousin to tour the Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City. It was fantastic and I so want to go again! I was absolutely flabbergasted (there really is no other word for it - just ask my mom) at the violence and horrible conditions that were endured there - by guards and prisoners alike. It was unbelievable. If you would like more information and don't think I'm totally crazy, you can go to their website and see all kinds of cool stories and information...and book your own tour! (Come on, you know you want to!) Go to www.missouripentours.com.

*Both my sisters have graduated - one from high school and one from college. I feel so old.

*We put in beautiful landscape blocks around my brand-spanking new patio. Colored and stamped concrete - it looks fabulous! And now I have flowerbeds. With no dirt right now, but flowerbeds nonetheless! I cannot wait to fill them up.

And finally:
*I have determined we need a spare key for our front door. I have determined this because...last Friday I locked myself out of my house and had to borrow my neighbor's phone (I had locked my phone in the house, too) to call my mom to come and let me in my house.

So.

We need a spare key!

Oh my has it been busy around here!

This weekend is my first ever rummage sale. I'm rather excited about it. That's probably because I've never had a rummage sale before...

Anyway, that means my little bitty house is full to bursting with stuff to sell! My mom hosted The Great Purge of 2011 at her house, so she had a lot of stuff, plus my Grandma and mother-in-law are contributing to the little box of stuff I would have had on my own. You know. If you don't count the books. I have plenty of them for sale.

This weekend we mowed our jungle...ahem. I mean we mowed our yard. And then A let me use the tiller for the garden by myself - we both laughed at that. I'm not the fastest study on that we'll just say. (It ran away with me a little bit...literally.) But now my sugar snap peas and green onions are planted, so hopefully they will grow! I have been wanting peas ever since last year's garden, but we didn't get them planted in time.

My two sisters are both graduating the next two weekends - one from high school, one from college. I feel old. And then there will be a graduation party. I'm kind of excited about this, because I won't be the center of attention and can just sit and visit unobtrusively. I hope there's cake.

I think A and I are going to watch a movie tonight. We were loaned 3 of them, so we'd better get started!

And maybe I can convince him that it's really a good idea to get rid of stuff...maybe we can find some more rummage before Friday.

I feel so much better!

My clothesline is full of clean clothes, my entire house is clean, and my husband is gone to the store to get ice cream so we can sit and be lazy and watch a movie tonight. Does it get much better?

The clothesline bit was quite a struggle today. We had hung the lines with a tensioner to hold the line tight on all three - only to find out when I hung sheets out that the tensioners we bought were not going to work. At. All. They stripped the plastic coating off the clothesline wires. After about an hour of fighting with the stupid things, we ended up using a mixture of the wire we had bought and the cloth line we had bought for temporary use right after we got married. It seems to be working now, thank goodness! I love line-dried clothes. My house smells wonderfully fresh now.

In future events, I'm going to be having my first rummage sale. Well, I guess it's not just my rummage sale - I'm participating in the annual city-wide sale. Which is good, because then it won't be such a big deal that I don't have a TON of stuff to sell. A lot of books, and a few odds and ends and that's about it. Good thing my mom, grandma, and mother-in-law are going to donate some items to my sale! It won't look so bare then. I'm rather excited about the whole thing. I bought 3 packs of 315 pricing stickers. (I wanted to be sure not to run out...)

Yoshi is enjoying the warm weather...and the fact that that means we can take him on nice long walks through town. He LOVES walking and sniffing everything in sight. The other dogs that bark at him have no effect on his confidence, whether they are the same size as he is or not. He just wants to play with everyone. (He thinks he is a chihuahua-sized pup, I think.)

That's about it! I managed to save a couple bananas that have gone over a little, so I think I'll go mix up some banana bread really quick.

Well, well, well, the snow has finally melted...

...at least for now anyway. And that means we are starting to plan out our garden again. I sincerely hope we manage to proportion our plants better this time (and have an eatable number of cherry tomatoes!).

It also means spring cleaning. Well, kind of. I cleaned out my books - and I am getting rid of a LOT of them. (But I'm keeping more!) I've decided to try and sell at least a few of them, along with some other things, at the annual city rummage sale. Should be interesting, if nothing else!

Tonight the weather is so nice, I sat out on our porch for awhile and read my book while I waited for A to get off work. Or I should say, I TRIED to read my book. Yoshi was preventing this quite easily by dropping his slobbery squeaky toy in my lap to play fetch with. You just can't ignore something that slobbery when it is dropped in your lap with the obvious design of getting you to throw it. SOOO...I threw the toy. And threw it again. And again. And again. And so on. Until the dog was so exhausted he could barely stand. And he was still fetching the darn thing! (And following all his commands very well - I couldn't NOT throw it.) At least he got his exercise tonight!

Catching Up...Again

I'm not very consistent anymore...sorry about that. Seems like the same old stuff going on around here all the time, so I guess I'll have to work to get a little more interesting!

*Yoshi, the once very sick dog, is now very NOT sick. Which is good. If you don't mind getting mud on your clothes every single time you get around him. (We're still working on the whole jumping/staying down thing - he IS getting better!) He's still being given quite a cocktail of 3 different medicines, one of them twice a day. The free dog is now a very expensive dog. Good thing we love him so much.

*We are starting to wonder when we should start getting our garden ready. We're not very good at this sort of thing yet, seeing as how it's only our second go-around. All I know is I want some sugar snap peas! (But I don't know how to grow them yet!)

*My sister-in-law just had her gall bladder out on Tuesday, which if you know her (and I'm sure many of you reading this do)was a slight bit worrisome because of all the POSSIBLE things that could go wrong. Everything went super smooth though, and she is on the road to feeling much better. (Those pain pills she's on don't hurt anything either...she's just a bit looped!)

*This weekend I will be going (with all the family) to see my sister compete in her first (and last, because she's a senior) flags competition. I'm excited to see it, and I'm sure they will do excellently.

*We've been getting rather creative in the kitchen - a product, I'm sure, of being a little more confident. Which leads to more disasters or misses (as in, not very tasty) than we've had before. (I made cream cheese corn as a side the other night, and about died from too much cream cheese and not enough corn. Yuck. I think I may stick to the crock-pot and large gatherings for that one.) Tonight we made pizza with pork sausage and red onion. And lots of cheese. It was pretty good, but I think I prefer other meats.

*A coworker is due to go on maternity leave any day (and I do mean ANY day), so that should liven up what has been a very slooowww time. I will have plenty of work to do to help keep up with her stuff, that is for sure!

*A's birthday (26!) is this weekend. I'm having a terrible time getting any presents for him. Everything is not coming on time (internet order) and I can't find anything in the stores to be a smaller present so he at least has something to open! Ugh. Stupid Walmart and there cutting back on CD stocking. Bummer. (Plus, they didn't have any brown dress socks. I need some in the worst way.)

There. That should give you something to ponder for a bit.

Organization Central!

Since I have tomorrow off (Yahoo!) I have plans to get some deep cleaning done around here. Hopefully...

...the last pile of papers has fallen off the top of the desk.
...today is the last day I will see the stack of leftover college notebooks sitting on the floor next to the desk.
...all the shredding will get done, and all the filing, too. Too many piles of paper!

And hopefully I don't get halfway through any project and get tired of it! That tends to happen to me a lot...

Anyway, yesterday A and I finally (2 weeks later!) hauled off the old couch and chair to Grandma's house for storing. Our office is ours again! Before, we were walking around the couch and chair to get into the pantry, to the computer, or whatever. Basically anything you wanted to do in the office required some preplanning of the best route to get there. Come to think of it, maybe that accounts for some of the many paper piles...

I also took Yoshi for a walk (a short one). I figured he needed it as much as I did, since he hasn't really been able to get out of his pen except to have another horrible (in his eyes) bath. We moved a lot slower than we usually do because his feet still bother him a little (hence him staying in his pen and out of the wet snow - we are trying to avoid wet dog outside at all costs so he can get better), but he seemed to really enjoy seeing some different scenery. Lots of sniffing going on for sure.

Happy Sunday everyone!

It's cold in here!

But it will soon be warm I think! The furnace dude is here and they are putting in the new furnace. Yay!

I am really excited about this. My fingers are rather cold.

Next Bidder!

Won't be me. But I am going to an auction tomorrow. Apparently, A doesn't think I can hold still or something (he's probably right) so he is NOT letting me hold the paper to bid with. Hopefully, though, I can get a clock or something cool like that. It should be cold - so I'm going to wear every type of warm clothing I can get my hands on!

The cookbook is being printed! Finally! I managed to get all the materials and they broke down to be about $0.89 apiece. A bargain, if you ask me. (My mama taught me right!) I'm ready for the project to be done - I feel like it has been going on forever, even though it has just been since October. Late October, at that.

So lots of fun stuff going on!

Catching up

Sorry I left you all hanging for awhile...my changes did not come about, sadly. I had applied for a new job, which would have been a wonderful change. I got an interview that went extremely well, but I was not chosen for the position.

So I'm still where I was before, career-wise...

I have a big-time project that I have been working on for about a month now though, and that has broken up the monotony very well. My office is putting together a cookbook! And I happen to be the editor. *takes a bow* Thank you, thank you.

I took it upon myself when it was suggested that a compilation of all the wonderful recipes we make there would be awesome to start the whole project and my boss is totally supportive of the idea. I should have it done be Christmas so I can start cooking wonderful things! And I don't think the whole thing will look too shabby on my resume either...

A and I have been having a blast with Yoshi. He is almost one (the best we can figure, his birthday is in January), and he is hilarious. All. The. Time. He likes to chase his tail, and to pretend that his feet are attacking him. Which means that he has to roll around on the ground like a crazy thing and try to catch his feet, which are very slippery, apparently. He is VERY good at playing tug-o-war now, too. He's stronger than me, that's for sure. (You try tugging against a 100 pound dog who is NOT a fat 100 pound dog and see how you do!) We love him dearly.

We saw a test in a magazine that would let us test his DNA...which would mean that we could figure out what kind of dog he really is! Awesome! Downside - it costs $60. So we are still thinking long and hard about that one.

A and I planted more bulbs this afternoon before he headed back to his parents to do more deer-hunting. Springtime will be lovely around here if they come up!

Tata!

Tidbits!

-Tonight we went to Mom and Dad's to celebrate H's birthday. Went to the park to play tennis. I'm already sore. But it was fun.

-Hopefully, if everything goes well this coming week, there will be some big changes! (how's that for a teaser?)

-Yoshi is hilarious. He is happiest with an empty gatorade bottle. Or a bucket. Just use your imagination.

-I learned how to can applesauce this weekend. And did 3 jars by myself!

-Did a major fridge clean-out today. Eww. That's all I have to say about that.

-I love fall and cool weather! Wonderful stuff.

-Went to a craft show today and bought a lovely wooden snowman with a cutesy outfit.

-Had a fantastic anniversary weekend in Branson last weekend. We did the Showboat Branson Belle, Dixie Stampede, Titanic museum, putt-putt golf, go-karts, and found several questionable craft shops to shop in, plus 2 days of Silver Dollar City! It was lots of fun! But I don't like Thunderation anymore. Too much spinning.

-I have now been married one year and one week. I can't believe it has been a year. It was the best year of my life and I'm already enjoying the next one!

Well here we go...

...it's family reunion day! My salad is in the works (even though I think I boiled the eggs a little too long...I kind of forgot about them. Whoops.) and I'm cleaning house like crazy this morning so it will be done and I can not worry about it when we get home.

Now if only I had a bowl big enough for my salad.....

Looks like I'm heading over to Mom's house to borrow hers!

Have a good weekend everyone!

Yes, I am here...sort of.

Whew! It HAS been awhile, hasn't it?

Well, they have really cracked down on internet at work...I can't even get on during lunch hour now, so that's why I've been a bit MIA.

So what's up with me? Well, I'm so very glad you asked.

*We survived another World's Fair (which is not really the WORLD'S fair - just the local county one...but you already knew that). We got through with no injuries or fights or anything horrible happening. Which is always a good thing.

*We've been to the zoo! I just love the zoo. We petted stingrays, and saw penguins that splashed like crazy. I got drenched. Which was not cool. But overall, a very good trip. The animals were very active because it was the morning (we got there early!) and because it's getting to be cooler weather. Which I LOVE. Just about as much as I love the zoo.

*A Biggest Loser competition has started at work. I don't know how I always end up involved in these things. But I do. I'm hoping it will be extra motivation for me, since if I gain weight I will sabotage everyone else's chances of winning. Not cool, I know.

*Yoshi has a big-time vet appointment next Monday. He's getting fixed. I'm a nervous wreck, even though I know everything will be fine. I'm already making plans on how to make sure he has enough to eat on Sunday (no food after 6 pm). I'll be glad when it's over, that's for sure.

*This weekend is a family reunion for A's side of the family. It should be fun. I'm making seven-layer salad as my requisite covered dish. It's super easy, and seemed to go over well last time I made it for everyone. (And we all know I'm all about easy cooking!)

*I got an.....iPhone! I love it. I have a limited data package though, which is why I can't really even update my blog on it. I'm very closing monitoring my internet usage! I just like touchscreens I think...

*Yoshi is getting so big, I have a hard time holding on to him when he decides to go somewhere I don't want him to on our walks (like the weeds on the side of the road...he thinks he's a big-time hunting dog). But he is so much fun! He makes us bust out laughing at least once a day with something silly he's up to. The other day we heard barking outside so we went to check on him...and he was laying on his back twisted to the side, barking at his foot. Yes. That's what I said. His foot. Hilarious.

Anyway, I'll try to do a better job staying up to date, but if there is a big time-lapse, you'll at least now know why!

Random Items of Interest

**My Pampered Chef items arrived on Tuesday, so last night we delivered packages (as many as we could) before we had band practice at 8:30. Hopefully we will finish delivering tonight!

**I am really looking forward to having the fair (which is next weekend) over with. I think we may have a bit more free time and I can definitely use some of that.

**Along with the fair next weekend, A’s family from Iowa is coming for a visit and is planning on arriving Thursday next week. It should be a pretty hectic weekend! His cousin (about 14 years old or so) may stay with us Friday night, so I am frantically (at least when I’m not delivering Pampered Chef) trying to get the spare room to look more like a spare room than a storage closet. This has not been successful so far, but I’m hoping to make progress this weekend.

**Also on the agenda this weekend is brownies! I’m dying to try out my new bar pan and I think brownies will have a good fat amount in them to help season the pan. (A also said that he would not mind coming home from working on the fairgrounds Saturday to a house smelling like brownies. He doesn’t ask for things like that very often, so I’ll probably oblige.) I need to make some banana bread, too. But not in my bar pan.

**Yoshi is loving this cooler weather (I am, too!) and is being pretty energetic in the evenings! He likes to jump. I’m hoping to get some time to take him on a very long walk one of these evenings so we can all get out and enjoy the nice weather.

**I just finished a book called “Before Green Gables”, which was a prequel to “Anne of Green Gables” and now I’m rereading my Anne books. I forgot how much I like them. They just make me laugh out loud at some of the antics the kids get up to.

**When picking up my Pampered Chef items from Mom’s house, I found out that I had accidentally left a box of books behind! Needless to say, I was very happy to find that box. It had several books I’ve been looking for in it, and I was worried I had lost them in the move somehow. (Which I guess is partly true, since I just found them.)

Pampered Chef galore!

Well, my Pampered Chef party officially “closed” yesterday. It was fantastic! Far surpassed my expectations – my party sold over $500 worth of products! This means that as the hostess I won 2 half price items, and $90 worth of free product. But wait! That’s not all. The August hostess special was an extra $50 of free product if you sell more than $500. So I get 2 half price items and $140 of free product! And that’s not even all. The other hostess special is 60% off one of 3 different items. So that’s a 60% off item, 2 half price items and $140 of free product. You could just have knocked me over with a feather when I found out my party had done so well. I am very thankful that so many people support me so much.

Anyway, last night was the phone call with my consultant to finalize all the orders and pick out my “prizes”. I really wanted an 11 inch grill pan, but no matter which way you sliced it, it really took a chunk of money, or almost all of my free stuff (it’s regularly priced at $135). So I won’t be getting the skillet. Which is really ok with me, since I don’t HAVE to have a Pampered Chef one – any old grill pan is hunky dory! And I wanted to get as much out of my awards as I could. Make it stretch kind of, you know? So here is what I chose (you can go to www.pamperedchef.com to see pictures of all the different products or you can click on the links below):
Free Products:

1. Quik Stir pitcher (2 quart size): very cool things – they stir your drink without a spoon!
2. Large Bar Pan: this is stoneware and one of the things I’m most excited to get
3. Food Chopper: you’ve all seen these – chop veggies nice and small with no knife
4. Egg Slicer plus: also good for fruits (kiwi, strawberries) and small softer veggies
5. Serrated Peeler: I don’t really know how to describe this one. Rest assured, it is cool.
6. Classic Batter Bowl: oven safe, microwave safe, dishwasher safe, comes with a lid, is really big. Come on, what’s not to like here?
7. Measure-All cup, 2 cup size: measures dry and wet ingredients, just flip it over! Yay!
8. Citrus Peelers: got 2 of these. I can’t peel oranges (or any citrus, really) to save my life, so I’m excited for these little dudes!
9. I-slice: this is one of A’s choices. It slices plastic wrap envelopes, papers, whatever you want. And it’s a lovely shade of cranberry.
10. Mini serving spatula: because how else do you get food out of a pan?
11. Large serving spatula: for those really BIG jobs….

My two half price item choices are a large bamboo serving bowl and a rectangle stone (it seems very multi-purpose to me). For my 60% off item I chose the stainless mesh colanders (it’s a set of three) and I’m very excited about them, too.

After adding up all the full-price totals, I’m getting a little over $230 worth of stuff for about $50. Can you beat that? Seriously?

I mailed off the check to the consultant today so hopefully all this stuff will come in soon. I’m kind of excited for everyone to get their items. I want to see how much they like them!

Peeves

So does it really irritate anyone else when you are the only person in a typical public restroom and someone else comes in and goes into the stall directly next to you?! Hello! Can we please exhibit some respect for personal space even if there is a wall between us? Please go at least one door over.

Maybe I'm weird. But that is right up there on the annoying list with people who switch lanes and turn off without using there blinkers...