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.

♥

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.

♥