These past two weeks...

Sorry friends, it's been a while.  

These past few weeks, I've started re-taking E341. 

That's right, folks, I lost my appeal. 

It's been incredibly stressful.

I feel like everything that should be easy comes with some massive complication that causes it to be 10x harder. 

I would just like to go one day without being super stressed and having a meltdown.

Just. One. Day.

But I'm not going to focus on the negatives, It's my night off, I want to enjoy it.

The few positives in my life lately:

I have been completely vegetarian for almost a month.

I'm pretty proud of myself, It's not been easy.  

Indiana isn't very accommodating to people with different eating needs.

I don't know yet if this is a lifelong transformation, but I just wanted to try it for a while.

I've been trying many different tofu recipes. 

Today's recipe:

Fried tofu. 

Pretty good, it could add some texture to steamed veggies, and would be good dipped in some sauce.

Also, my cousin got married this past weekend, so I got to get all dressed up and see a lot of my family, which was very nice, 

and spend the evening afterwards with the lovely Amanda and Joe. 

She has been a huge support to me, and even drove her book 40 minutes one way from her house to mine, because I couldn't find mine and was freaking out.

So thankful to have her as a friend.

And my last bit of good news, I love, love, love the painting class I'm taking to have enough credit hours to keep my financial aid.

Here is my first official still life, done in monochromatic form.

I'm not quite done, but I'm pretty happy with it. 

So that's life lately.

One giant ball of stressed out mess, with a little happy here and there.

I just have to get through 4 more weeks, and then it's painting for the rest of the semester.

Pray for me.

♥

Fall garden...

I waited on these seeds for my fall garden for 2 weeks,

and have been patiently and carefully getting them started in pots in my kitchen windowsill.

Yesterday, they looked like this.

See all the little sprouts with the little leaves on them? I was very excited.

Emma got on the window sill today.

10 minutes later, they looked like this.

The ones that aren't ripped completely out of the dirt are missing their leaves.

There are even little kitty teeth marks in some of the leaves!!

Anyone want a stinking cat??

This is her "what are you going to do about it, mom?" face.

Grrr.

(Okay, I don't really want to get rid of her, but the thought did cross my mind for about 10 minutes after I found them.)

I. was. furious.

So, I guess it's back to square one for a fall garden.

Dang it. 

♥

This weekend...

What a weekend it has been.

It started Saturday morning, with the arrival of our awesome new fridge...

That definitely didn't fit into our fridge space...

So Jamie had to scoot the counter over 1/4 of an inch.

He's so great. =)

It's basically the best. fridge. ever.

Then, as Jamie sat down to work on his new computer (that I waited for all day Tuesday) It died. 

Completely.

So, while he was completely freaking, I made an emergency appointment at the apple store.

Which looked like this.

And husband looked like this.

They told us his computer was DOA. Dead on arrival.

They said it only happens in 1 out of every million sales.

So, Jamie is waiting on a new one. 

He's adjusting to the idea, although he's not thrilled. 

I didn't mind the trip too much, because I got in a long overdue trip to Teavana. 

I now own a large jar of rock sugar, 2 oz. of "Spice of Life" White and 2 oz. of "Anjou Pear-adise" Oolong.

So very yummy.

Then I only had 1/2 an hour to get ready for work.

While at work, this happened.

Crazy.

The power went out, so I spent most of the evening re-booting the computers, and running around like a crazy person.

What a day.

Then today was the Mossman family picnic, 

which was fun.

We went hiking, and had a good time.

Husband then put the wine cooler under the counter on brackets, clearing some counter space,

While I started some seeds for a fall harvest (hoping it works!), 

And made a pretty flower arrangement.

And we are pretty much exhausted.

But, it's been a good weekend, and I'm hoping this week will be equally as good.

♥

Working on my grade appeal argument. 

All I want to do is quit. 

And give up.

And just be done.

It's hard, having to put one of the worst times of my life down in writing. I have to describe everything in detail, and it just makes me frustrated and upset. 

This is what's getting me through:

My husband, family, and friends, who love me no matter what, and these two scriptures:

Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.  For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. 

Hebrews 10:35-36

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

Romans 8:31

Even if I lose, I will know that I went into it strong, confident, and giving my best. 

For the first time, I think I can do this.

♥

Sitting, waiting, wishing...

I had plans to maybe go hang with my friend Amanda today. 

But, instead, I am sitting at my house, waiting for Jamie's computer to come from Fed-ex. 

It didn't come while he was here, so he's panicked that it won't come. 

So, here I am.

Waiting for his macbook.

Oh well, at least I've gotten stuff done around the house and yard!

Gotta look on the bright side, right?

♥

World War III and Fridge art.

I've been waging war.

In my own home.

Fleas.

They are the ultimate enemy.

What started this was that Emma laid at the foot of my side of the bed on Sunday.

Sunday night, I went to sleep about 1AM, and kept dreaming that my feet were being eaten.

Finally, at 5AM, I got up, and went and looked at them in the bathroom under the light, and my feet and ankles looked like this:

 I had 12 of these bites. Ridiculous. And this was taken about 36 hours later, after most of the swelling had gone down.

I spent the rest of the night on the couch, and since then I've washed everything fabric in my whole house, and they've both had flea meds.

I will win.

Take that, fleas.

In more happy news, I got a new kitchen compost container!

 It holds 2.4 gallons, fits perfectly under my sink freeing up counter space,

 and has a great carbon filter to keep odor down, and came with 3 replacement filters!

I'm really excited about it, and the fact that I got it for about 60% off! It's also not clear, so you can't see all the yuckiness, which is kind of nice.

We had a cookout at our house this past weekend, for all of the people who play or sing in our church worship band with us, and their families.  We had a really good time, and I was left with some lovely refrigerator art.

The left side was done by Wyatt, and the right side was Jacqueline.
I love them, they make me smile.

I will leave you with a video of my crazy, funny dog.
She has been extraordinarily needy lately! She just wants attention all the time.
Turn your volume all the way up, and listen to how stinking needy she's been!

She did this for 30 minutes.
She's actually doing it right now.
 As I type this.
Crazy, crazy dog.
♥

Adventures in drying Basil!

I have two decent sized plants of Basil.  There's no way I will be able to use it all in my cooking before it goes bad.  So, I decided to dry a portion of it, to save for this winter! I picked the plant that isn't flowering yet, as it is supposed to have the best taste when dried.

First I cut a majority of the stalks off.

I then made sure to rinse all of the dirt and bugs and grossness off of the leaves by soaking them in the sink for a few minutes.

Then I got them out, checked each leaf for any brown spots, or bad leaves, and then laid the stalks in a bundle.

Using some pink yarn, I got from my lovely student teaching mentor, I tied the bundles together very tightly, because the basil tends to shrink, and you don't want them to fall.

Then I attached them to paperclips, and hung them in the storage closet in our office.

And voila!

In about 4 weeks I should have dried basil to use for the entire winter!

♥

Garden update

This drought has not been kind to my garden.

Despite that, There has been growth, and I will soon have a fairly decent harvest!

Basil is growing wonderfully,

 Lettuce coming back up, should be ready to cut in a week or two.

 Unfortunately, something has been squishing my onions.

I'm suspecting a little dog named Minnie Mouse. 

 Peppers are coming in a flurry,

 And the tomatoes will be ready any day now!

 Within the next few weeks, I will have corn,

including this weird one with purple silk.

Today I got another pepper and my first tomato!

My plants and I are ready for some rain and weather below 95 degrees.

Soon.

♥