Re-committed. And tired.

Today my friends, will by day 8 of 8 straight days of work.

all of the shifts were 6-10 hours long. 

For 8. straight. days.

Needless to say, I'm ready for a break, and that is a large part of my lack of non-simple blogging.

I've been at the new store now for 3 weeks, and it has gone a lot better than I expected. I actually really enjoy it. Just not 8 straight days of it. =)

I have re-committed to being a flexitarian.  It will be super difficult when school starts, but for now it's not been bad.  I just make 2-3 vegetarian meals a week, and eat them and their leftovers at work and at home, keeping me meat free, and then allow myself fish or chicken once or twice on the weekends. 

The vegetarian section of the "Healthy College Cookbook" has become my best friend. 

I love that cookbook.

Last week I had brocolli-tofu stir fry, garlic and tofu green beans, and pasta salad.

This week I've had Sesame noodles, a different pasta salad, and today I made ginger-soy tofu over rice.

It's delicious. 

Other than massive amounts of work, things have been pretty good in this household. Recycling is taking off, which I am so excited about. It's a real eye opener to see how much we've been throwing away that we could have been recycling. 

We re-potted the mandarin tree, so there is more dirt under it now.

And we have peppers from the garden, but everything else is kind of stalled due to this ridiculous heat.

Jamie and I have been getting to spend a lot of time together lately, and it's been so nice. We've finally gotten into that summer swing. Unfortunately, school starts in less than a month. But, I don't want to talk about that yet. 

Tomorrow we are hanging out with our friends Amanda and Joe.  Joe and Jamie are going golfing, and Amanda and I are going to get pedicures. Neither of us have ever had one, so we thought we would go together to try it. I'm really excited, I love seeing those two. It's nice to have friends we can get together with, and I always feel good when I'm with them.

And I got to talk to Misty yesterday, which was so great. 

Oh yeah, and Minnie's in heat again, so you can imagine what she's been like to deal with. If you can't imagine, here is a picture from the last time.

And I will leave you with a thought from the other day.  When I was a kid, I read the book "Harriet the Spy" by Louise Fitzhugh about 50 times. I loved it.  There is a simple passage in there, in the 3rd chapter, where Harriet is talking to her best friend, that says:

"She never minded admitting she didn't know something. 'So what?' she thought; 'I could always learn.'"

I realized the other day, when the grocery store clerk looked at me like an idiot because I didn't know that scallions and green onions were the same things, that this one tiny passage has helped shaped my life. As I started to feel really stupid, and stopped and thought, "So what? how was I supposed to know if no one ever told me?" And then I didn't feel bad. It's amazing the kind of power books can give us. That one small passage has helped shape me into the person I am. I feel confident even in not knowing things, because I can just learn them later. 

And I love that.

♥ 

I simply can't get enough of these kids.

Cracks me up.

I've seriously watched it like 50 times.

♥

Husband and I
are officially...

Recyclers.

It feels good.
I'm really glad we live in an area that offers curbside recycling.

♥

First Garden Harvest!

I officially have my fist harvest!

Awesome!

I did my research, and my lettuce is leaf lettuce, so it grows back repeatedly when you cut it about an inch above the root, so we should have lettuce for the rest of the summer!

Here is the before...

And the after...

And all of my lettuce!

I also picked a couple of green beans that were ready off of my lone green bean plant.

Hopefully next year, I will have lots of green beans, because I plan on planting twice as many.

I'm also excited, because my tomato plant has 14 green tomatoes! 

I'm going to have a lot.

My corn is starting ears...

And my peppers are sprouting (with a goofy dog in the background).

And I made another friend, a baby Praying Mantis.

Cool.

I feel really good about my garden and harvest, and this is really becoming a passion of mine.

I have already started making my plans for next year. 

Oh boy.

♥

Bookworm.

I've become an avid reader again. 

From age 4 to high school, I read 1-2 books a week.  When I got into college, I stopped reading for pleasure very often, because of lack of time, and ample amounts of reading for class.

Last month, I went to the library, and not knowing really where to start because I haven't read anything new in so long, I just went to the new releases and picked up 4 books, 3 fiction and 1 nonfiction.

And I have since then been reading constantly.

My two favorites from those selections are "Please look after mom" by Kyung-Sook Shin, and "Growing a Farmer" by Kurt Timmermeister.

"Please look after mom" is a fabulous look at the roll of a mother from the views of her 2 children, husband, and herself, and what they realize once she's gone.  It is translated beautifully from Korean, and is a great read.

"Growing a Farmer" is a true account of one man journey from a city-dwelling restaurant owner in Seattle,  to a completely self sufficient farmer on only 8 acres. I think it is so interesting, and I am loving it.

I already picked these up for when I'm done with "Growing a Farmer."

I'm addicted.

I bet you can't guess my favorite place to read. =)

Yep. It's wonderful.

I'm a little worried about my reading when school starts up again, but we will deal with that when the time comes. 

♥

It's official...I'm a sell out.

So, these particular shoes...

Have been popular for years.

And I have never understood why.

Sure, they may be comfortable.

However, I have a little too much self-confidence to sacrifice style for comfort to that degree.

I have always spoken out against ever buying anything from the Croc brand for myself, because I don't like them.

That being said, I have had foot pain every single shift since I started working at Family Video two years ago.  Sometimes, after an especially long shift, the pain radiates up into my legs and back.

When I work several days in a row, there are mornings when I wake up, and I literally can hardly walk, because I'm sore and stiff.

I've always just thought it was part of having a job where you were on your feet.

But lately, I've been pretty fed up with it, and decided to do something about the pain.

We were walking by the crocs in Dick's sporting goods today, and I saw some crocs that didn't look like the normal crocs.

They looked like this.

And I thought "Hey, those aren't bad at all!" 

And then I put them on.

And oh. my. gosh.

They are so unbelievably, fantastically, wonderfully, amazingly comfortable.

So I bought them.

And I am so excited to get to wear them to work, because they are going to make my feet so much happier.

So do I feel like a bit of a sell out? 

After years of talking about how worthless Crocs are?

Yes. 

Yes I do.

But I don't care too much, because my feet are so happy.

And on a completely, random, seperate topic,

My mom had an excess of raspberries this year, so she made jam and canned it.

She's awesome.

And she gave me one of her jars of jam.

And I have had a bagel with cream cheese and raspberry jam practically every day since.

delicious.

It's been a great week so far.

Ready for more.

♥

New friend...

I made a new friend today.

His name turned out to be Hank.

He surprised us by showing up in our backyard.

He had no ID tag, but had a vet tag, so we called them, and they called his owners, who live on a street near us.

They came and got him within the hour.

He was such a sweet boy.

When you walk, he runs in front of you and flops over on his back, so you will rub his belly.

I got this picture off the internet, but it seriously looks exactly like Hank, red collar and all.

Glad he could visit us for an hour.

His owners are really nice too.

I love dogs.

♥

Finally...

I feel like I'm back to my old self. 

It got pretty rough there for a while.

But I'm seeing life in a positive light again, and feeling pretty good.

Due to this whole thing with school (my final, official appeal is the end of July, for those who are wondering) I've pretty much been feeling like a failure.

Yeah, that sums it up pretty well, just a failure at life. It wasn't just in school, it felt like it seeped into all the other aspects of my life. I felt like a failure as an employee, a friend, and a wife.

But I think it's over now. I think I'm finally realizing that one woman's opinion of me may derail my plans, but it doesn't define me. 

I have a job that doesn't make me miserable, and I think I'm pretty good at it. 

I have a loving family, especially my mother, who told me from day one of this whole fiasco that she was proud of me no matter what. 

I have all of my needs provided for, a nice house, plenty of food, and anything else that comes along.

I have good friends who listened to me cry and be miserable for 2 months, and still love me.

I have a wonderful husband, who loves me even when I'm silly, irrational, emotional, and just plain needy, as well as happy and carefree. 

And I have God's unconditional love.

So, with all of these things in mind, no more feeling sorry for myself, and feeling like a failure.

Life's to short to waist so much energy on one woman's opinion.

So I'm done.

I'm looking forward to the rest of my summer, and good food, fun with friends, impromptu dates with husband, and many hammock naps. 

Life is good.

And I finally realize that again.

♥

happy 4th of July (garden update)

Happy 4th of July to everyone who's having fun today.

My day has consisted of working alone in my garden, because Jamie works 9-9, before I go in for a 4-midnight shift.

For the 3rd year in a row.

But, I did enjoy a couple of hours in the garden this morning, and then of course some time on the hammock.

I've been working really hard in the garden these last few days.

It feels good to put a lot of work into something and then be rewarded with results. I think that's a large part of why I have found gardening to be so enjoyable.

Anyway, the entire right side of my garden now looks like this.

Umm, heck yeah!

Now if only I can get the left side looking that good.

Crab Grass is quickly becoming my greatest enemy. 

It is really difficult to pull up by the root, and it multiplies and grows crazy fast.

But I am determined to win.  

While weeding today, I made friends with the cutest little inchworm.

He's pretty nifty. 

I bought this neat little seat to use when I pull weeds.  It's made it loads easier on my back and legs, and I can get a lot more done at one time.

Jamie calls it "the potty seat." hahaha

Everything is growing pretty well, except my strawberries, which never came up, and all but one of my green bean plants.

My mandarin tree has grown like crazy.

Considering how little it was when we first got it, it's doing awesome. 

Also, one of the palm tree sprouts from Florida (the ones I expected to die instantly upon coming to Indiana) is taking off. I am shocked, but pleased. 

Jamie is super excited about it. 

As for the rest of my veggie plants, here is a rundown...

Basil is growing really well, and smells really good.

One of my asparagus plants is starting to flower, which I think is cool. I can't wait until we can actually eat them in a couple of years.

My tomato plant has tiny baby tomatoes on them! 

My one lonely green bean plant is flowering. I'm not sure if I'll get beans off of it or not this year, we will have to see!

The corn is waist high and thriving (minus the one the bunnies ate).

The tops of my onions are growing like crazy. I'm hoping this means the onions under the ground are getting big too.

And my lettuce can be cut and eaten any day now, which is way cool.

So that's where we are at today, folks.

I'm off to get ready for work, and I just have to keep reminding myself that I'm getting holiday pay, it's worth it. 

I sort of believe that.

oh, and I definitely need to start using my camera more than my iphone. The pictures from today are so much better.

♥

This...

is...

Heaven.

Love it.

♥

What a day...

It's been insane. 

Today started off great, though.

Jamie and I went shopping for yard supplies.

I am so beyond excited, because we got a hammock stand on sale!!!!

I have been wanting a hammock for over a year, and I am so pumped for this!

Here is the one I ordered for us, it should be here within two weeks.

Awesome!

My other wonderful (and nerdy) find was this!

It is so informative, and is going to be super helpful.

We spent the morning working in the yard, and we are reenforcing our fence.

Take that rabbits!

Then, right as I was getting started at pulling weeds, looking forward to a night to relax in my garden, I got a text from work that said "Where are you?"

Yep. I was definitely scheduled to work 5-midnight.

So, with nasty, dirty hair, and having worked outside for hours, I had to go into work.

Yeah. Eww.

As I was pulling out of my drive, I noticed that my car was making a really strange noise.

Then, as I was going, all of my gauges went to zero. I had no idea how fast I was going, how many RPMs, nothing.  My odometer wasn't even rolling. Then, as I went to turn, I realized I had no acceleration power.  Then my power steering went out. I just kept thinking "Please just get me to work!" And then, right as I pulled into the lot at work, it died. Completely died. 

Yeah...It's not good.

We're pretty sure it's the alternator, which means we will have to buy a new one and a new battery. Ouch.

Jamie can't try and fix it until Saturday, so we are a one car family until then.

Ouch, again.

But, I did get to talk to the lovely Misty tonight, so it was a positive ending. =)

Here's hoping Jamie can get my car running before my work transfer on Sunday!

Oh, life. You are interesting. 

♥