Hello, world.

It's been a while.

With a full-time job and full-time school, it's hard to find time for the things I enjoy.

I will be making time, however.

I love and need my "me" time.

Listening to Ray Lamontagne.

I love him.

My sister and her boyfriend just left.

They are in town, so they came over for lunch with me.

Jamie was supposed to be here, but he ended up having to work last minute.

Long story short, he was the only guy who could cover his old position, because the guy's grandma died.

Which I completely understood, and my sis did too.

So, it was just the three of us, and the furry children.

We had Crispy Cracker Chicken, Rice, and Fresh Cooked Carrots.

It was delicious.

We followed it up with some tea.

Yum.

Speaking of furry children, one has been indiferent to Jamie and I starting back to school:

I kind of think she enjoys it, she gets to lounge on the bed more, which doesn't happen when we are home.

This furry child, however:

Has been a holy terror.

She is doing things she never used to do, and doing things that she has been broken of for months.

Like pottying in the house. She peed multiple times on the blanket Jamie's mom made us for our wedding. She hadn't peed in the house in 8 months. She has also been pooping in the house, which we had her completely broken of.

We had been able to leave her out of her crate almost all of the time, and now we have to crate her even if we leave for just a few hours.

She digs in the trash, and gets it everywhere, which she has NEVER done before, and steals my underwear, even the clean ones, and tries to hide them in her cage.

She also nipped at my sister today, which is another completely new thing.

I am at wits end with her.

We still love her, and I feel guilty that she doesn't like us being gone, but there is nothing we can do about it, and she can't keep behaving like this.

Uggh. Children.

It has been a weird week altogether.

These randomly appeared:

Along with a bruise on my neck.

I know I am clumsy, and run into things, but this is ridiculous. And I don't remember where I got any of them.

Weird.

Jamie says I am like a bull in a china shop. He laughs at me when I run into stuff.

But I know he thinks it's cute.

I just wish I didn't bruise so easily.

I recently discovered that I really needed new work/school clothes. We have to dress up when we do field work, and I am quickly running out of clothes. So, my awesome husband took me shopping.

I got all of this:

Plus some Grey dress pants that I forgot to take a picture of.

I love him.

He got a shirt, pair of shoes, and some work pants.

It was a good day.

Jamie and I are singing in his cousin's wedding in two weeks.

Exciting.

We just got the song three days ago.

Not so exciting.

It's "From this moment" by Shania Twain. I am NOT a Shania fan.

But, it's what they want, so I hope we do it well.

We have to learn it first, though.

Well, I work in about an hour, and I have homework to do (that's all i ever do now.)

My life is busy, but great.

♥

happy feelings

Feeling good this morning.

Had a really good night's sleep.

My house is spotless.

I cleaned from 2 to 8 yesterday, without stopping.

Scrubbed the bathrooms top to bottom, picked up, dusted, and swept every room, and cleaned the kitchen like there was no tomorrow.

I was exhausted afterwards, but felt really accomplished.

Oh, and I also got all of the dishes, and all of the laundry in the whole house done.

Turns out it was a really good thing I did. Jamie's brother and sister-in-law called this morning and said that they are staying here tonight so they don't have to drive home between the visitation and funeral for Nan.

I feel that he is very critical of me as a wife, and was just making comments the other day about how he "hoped that I was keeping the house fixed up."

Well, ha.

It's clean.

On a funny note, it stormed during my cleaning. Minnie is super afraid of storms, and typically stays right under my feet the whole time. While i was hanging clothes up, I realized she wasn't with me anymore. I started looking for her, and this is where I found her.

hahaha, i guess she missed her dad.

I Love her.

We have a busy week ahead of us.

Taking Jamie's other brother to the SS office to become his registered payee.

Don't ask.

It's a long and complicated story.

I am also going to be Natalie's official payee.

That I am happy about, because we both really want to start spending more time with her, and helping her out.

She needs all of the positive role models she can get.

I am getting my hair cut too.

Excited and a little nervous.

It's going to be a big change, but I am feeling the need to do something different.

I will probably just grow it back out over winter, though.

=)

I changed my mind on the cookbook.

I am getting this one instead.

It looks like the recipe's are much simpler, and will take less time, which is what I need.

Can't wait until it gets here!

For real this time.

=)

Excited.

Still haven't done any homework.

Not good.

♥

Bristol the Devil Dog

We are babysitting Holly's Dog Bristol today and tomorrow.

It's a good thing she's cute.

Because she's rotten.

I tried to go back to sleep after she got here this morning.

Ha.

She and Minnie love each other.

This is a 30 second excerpt of what happened the entire first 2 hours she was here.

By the way, this is where i was trying to sleep.

15 minutes after this video, she ran out the front door when I opened it, and ran around the front yard barking at the neighbor kids. I chased her in my pajamas for 10 minutes before I caught her.

Awesome.

Things have been crazy around here.

We were called yesterday after we got home from the hospital. I had dinner halfway made on the stove.

They took Jamie's Nan off her IV, because it was essentially a life-support device, and they are just trying to ease her pain before she goes.

We literally turned the stove off and ran out the door, to go back to the hospital to be with his family.

By the time we got home, it was 10:00. Jamie was supposed to work, but he had gotten to sleep late the day before, and got up early yesterday, and has been super sick. The combination of being sick and no sleep made him so weak last night, that he could hardly stand. I was freaking out, and just told him to go to bed. He collapsed into bed, and slept for 13 hours. And now he is napping. I am so sick of him working nights. This transfer had better happen soon. I don't know how much longer either of us can do this.

That on top of the knowledge that his grandma is going anytime has made this a really rough couple of days.

We just want her to stop suffering.

But, I need to end this with something positive.

I finished making chicken enchiladas after we got home at 10 last night.

They turned out awesome, even if they were a little too spicy.

I am just going to have to keep looking forward.

I am excited for Jamie to be off nights.

I am happy that when she goes, Jamie's Nan is going to be meeting Jesus.

I think she's ready.

My parents are getting their dog this weekend. A Schnoodle named Dexter.

I am so excited to meet him!

I am ready for some good things to happen again.

It's been rough.

♥

Happy!

I have had a beautiful week!

Wednesday I had a great time with Misty, we went for a walk in the park and drank iced tea.

It was wonderful.

I meant to take a picture, but forgot.

Then I worked hard on a surprise fondue dessert for Jamie! Fondue is kind of our special date thing, so it was great! And I was really proud of myself for the way it turned out!

Thursday, I had a lovely day, despite having class (which got out an hour early)!

Then Jamie and I went to Rehearsal, ended up having a long, nice chat with Bill and Jacob, and then I had to go to a midnight meeting at work.

Crazy, crazy changes are going on at work.

I don't really know what to expect. I guess I will just stick it out and wait.

It could get wild.

And then I had to open this morning after our midnight meeting. Sweet.

I am so, so, so excited to get to go to the Indian's Game with my family tonight!! Andy and Carie won't get to be there (sad) but my sister and parents will, and I am pumped to get to spend the evening with them. Pictures to come later!

♥

Veggie burgers and bedtime

Had the most delicious veggie burger ever yesterday. It's an "Amy's Kitchen" brand, and called "All American Burger." It was Awesome. I think I almost like them better than regular hamburgers. (Okay, maybe that is an exaggeration, but whatever.)

I have had two really, really, REALLY long days. Both of them basically consisted of 8 hours of work, and then coming home to an empty house. And then Jamie came home in the morning, and went to sleep because he is on nights, and that was the only time I got to see him. Boo.

I hate this empty bed. I am so ready for him to be transfered so that he doesn't work nights, and i don't have to sleep alone. It really sucks.

On another sucky note, I have to take a summer class that I wasn't expecting to have to take, so I start class again on Tuesday. Ugggh. I am so sick of school.

Luckily, I have two days off, and Jamie has both of those days off, so I am going to get to spend time with him. And, we have another date night scheduled for this Thursday.

So excited!

And, on another positive note, I got to have lunch with my momma today!!! I have missed her. We didn't used to get along all that well, but we have because so much closer in the past year. I love her so much.

By the way, I kicked major butt on my grocery shopping, and got everything on the list and then some within the budget. Go me.

Ready for Jamie to come home.

♥

mediocre day

well, my day has been very up and down today.

See that red, swollen mark above my eye? Yeah, definitely bashed my head on our new pub mirror today. Didn't exactly feel good. But, I still had to get ready for my PARENTS to come over, which I was super Excited about.

I even convinced Jamie to help me with the dishes, lol. He looks pleased, no? =)

We also took a quick trip to starbucks, and got Minnie a pup cup, which as you can see, she was quite happy about. =)

My parents came over for a few hours, which was Super nice, because I missed them. We talked, and looked at pictures, and exchanged vacation stories and gifts, and it was Awesome.

Then Jamie and I took a bike ride, which was all well and good, but then we came back to the house, and apparently I was irritating him by wanting to be in the same room as him.

Every time he would say something, I would ask about it, and his answer was finally "Why do you always have to know everything about what I'm doing?"

Well, as his wife, my feelings were pretty hurt. I know he is someone who really treasures his space and personal time, and i guess I wasn't giving him that, but there are much better ways of saying that, like:

"I really need some personal time right now, if you don't mind."

That probably would have been better. Especially considering that he knows that the time he spends with me means the most to me. I could be with him in the same room for days at a time, and not be bothered a bit. I just wish he could understand that. We haven't talked since, and that was about 2 hours ago. Dang it.

I guess the best thing I can take from this is that I know that no matter how upset with him I am, (and i was pretty upset) that i love him. I know we will talk it out, and get a better understanding of each others feelings, and the next time a situation arises like this, we will be better prepared for it.

I still can't see my life without him, which is why I know we are perfect for each other.

But, I'm still mad.

♥