Miscellany Monday

one. My husband and I made the second biggest purchase of our lives...we bought a car! (we bought our house in January) Mine was about 13 years old and we were tired of putting money into it. It wasn't by any means a junker or anything - just an old car. So...we sold it and then bought the car of my dreams...a Jeep Grand Cherokee. I have been swooning over them since the new body style came out (the not so boxy one). The one we got had EVERYTHING we wanted and still came it only $11 over the monthly price we had budgeted. I couldn't be happier especially because we plan to keep this through a couple kids and pay it off way before the amount of time we have.

two. I'm making a blanket. For my nephew. He requested it. I've made one blanket as a test run and I think after I make this one for nephew #3 I will have to make one of the other 4 and my niece.

three. Speaking of my nephews and niece....March 13th is when #7 is due! Lucky number 7! I am beyond excited! I can't wait! I kinda hope it's a girl but would be okay with either (with 5 nephews already, what's another?)

four. After all my excitement about being able to finally quit my job, I am now second guessing it. Last week our best writer broke the news that her husband was getting a job with the FBI and they would be moving to VA and she was offered a full-time job...So my boss was very disappointed and it doesn't feel right to break the news so soon or at all. Why do I have to be such a nice girl. Even though I want to quit - so bad - I feel guilty. Why? Not really sure, but I do. And I feel like when the time would be more appropriate, I might as well just stay anyways. There's also not a lot of work to be done - because we've finished everything with our current clients - so if she doesn't get any new clients I can't see me being there much longer anyways (I can hope right?)

five. I start my last semester of my Masters! I can't believe how fast it has gone by! This one is on Math and Science and then in January I will be student teaching! I'm kinda nervous to Student teach but I think it's because I haven't been in the classroom much and just feel out of shape in that area.

Well, that's it for today! Hope everyone is doing well and has had a great start to the week!

Miscellany Monday

{one} We went to a family reunion in West Virgina this past weekend. Actually, my husband left on Thursday but because of the job situation I decided it would be best to wait and come up Saturday. Well, it wasn't my choice to come up Saturday, that was made by my brother-in-law and his wife. It was a great reunion but there weren't very many people there - usually there's over 50 and this year, there were about 30 of us. My favorite part of the trip was riding there and back with my BIL and SIL (brother-in-law & sister-in-law) and the cutting board I got from my Uncle Jim =] He owns a construction company just like my father-in-law (his brother) and when they put in new counter tops they have to cut the hole out for the sink...well instead of throwing that piece away, they use it to make cutting boards! He's awesome and I love him!

 Uncle Jim

My BIL A-Dub (he's goofy like my husband & no his hair isn't normally like this!)

Chad and I

{two} You all may know that Cait from theblessedlife is my real life best friend...yeah I know her! Well her and her husband are running a 5k in October and now it's got me itching to do one. My husband has run several in the 5 years we've been together but me...nope, never. I just watch on the sidelines. I've always had the desire to run one with him and I know he wants me to...so I guess now is my chance. I started training today and it was the first day I've ran in like 6 months. I.am.tired. But I feel good! My husband probably won't train unless I beg him to run with me but he doesn't really need to unless he wants to improve his time. A few weeks ago he ran in a 5k that started at our church and well, without any training he got 10th or 11th place overall and 1st in his age group. Seriously! I wish I could do that! We might try and drag our oldest nephew out there with us, he seemed interested. I'll let you know how it goes!

That's all for me! I've got some homework to do before my final summer class on Thursday! Yay! Catch ya later!

Miscellany Monday

[one] I had a great time Saturday at my friends lingerie shower and bachelorette party. Granted, I was really stressed out before hand (I hosted both) I think everything turned out well and my friend had a great time.We had the shower at my house - it was a good idea on my part because it forced me to clean our house. And then went out to Fuji Japanese Steakhouse, Artist in You (a pottery painting place) and Starbucks for the bachelorette party - yeah we're really low-key. Then, we stayed up until midnight chatting and catching up. It was a great night!

[two] While at work today, around 9am (I remember because I was thinking...ugh, I still have 6 more hours of work...) I seriously thought I was going to fall asleep right then and there. I was doing a lot of data entry to prepare our e-mail newsletters for distribution to clients...so boring...and it was making me so tired! It probably doesn't help that I went to bed late on Saturday, got up early on Sunday and couldn't sleep last night. I usually chew gum to keep me awake but I didn't have any so I had a mint. It helped a little but there were moments where I thought my eyes would not stay open! I think if I were allowed to listen to music, that would help me stay awake, but nope, can't do that! Anywhoo, looking back on it, it's kinda funny. Does that happen to anyone else or am I the only one? It's okay if I am.

[three] You may have noticed I watermarked all of my images...it's because of two posts I read: one warning people not to take her photos because she didn't watermark them and the other venting about the fact that someone took their photos and passed them off as their own...these were pregnancy, birth and baby photos - that person is messed up! All the photos on my site - unless credited - are my own personal photos - ones that I, as an amateur photographer, have taken. I totally don't mind if you use them for backgrounds on your computer or whatever - it would be creepy if you used one of me though...- but PLEASE don't try to pass them off as your own. I only have 5 followers as of today and I'm not worried about you all, just those that I might not know that have seen this blog.

[four] Have I mentioned how awesome my husband is? Well, he's just great! I've been pretty stressed out the last couple weeks with school and work. I'm always stressed at work...I was seriously considering cutting down to 30 hours a week for this coming semester [my last] because everyone says it's the hardest! Let's just say Chad did not like that idea so he mentioned something about a massage - I have been complaining that my upper back has been hurting - well I took him up on it. I am scheduled for a 60 minute massage today at 3:30pm. I can't wait! I've only had one other massage and it was nice. I'm hoping they can get all the tension out of my back. (Kristin, I guess that's my treat for finishing that stinky paper!)

[five] I just discovered Pandora Radio...it's awesome. If you haven't checked it out you should.

[six] I've started a little surprise project for my husband while he is gone. It consists of painting all the trim and door frames in our house. I will definitely post before and after pictures. I can't wait to be rid of all our ugly BROWN trim - yes ladies, brown. Oh and there's glitter on the ceiling in our living room and bedroom...I have no idea what the previous owners were thinking!

Well that's all for today. I'm off to massage land, later!

Miscellany Monday

{uno} Does anyone else feel like everyone you know is pregnant? I know like 10+ people that are pregnant - no joke. We just found out my cousin is pregnant with her second child, hoping it's a boy this time. And our good friends are expecting as well! They just went on a second honeymoon and my best friend and I were hoping it was a "babymoon" - you know, the last hoorah before you have children. I guess we were right! I'm definitely excited for them! (I know that's not 10 people but those are the two I just found out about). Oh and every time I see my husband's brother and his wife - I am expecting a big announcement from them! I get myself psyched up just to be let down...haha if they only knew! And us? Well WE are planning for a few years from now, but we also understand that God's plans could be different! We just pray that HIS plans are somewhat aligned with ours on this one!

{two} I tried a Bison burger the other day and LOVED it. Seriously, it was the best burger I have ever had! I actually bought some ground Bison meat today from the butcher's shop close to where I work and can't wait to make some for dinner. I did a little research on it and what I saw was that Bison meat has the best flavor and that it is healthier than beef. That's all the research I did before deciding to try one. It is a little more expensive, at the butcher shop the ground beef was $4.99/lb and the Bison was $7.99/lb.

{3} I'm not going to lie, I'm going to be pretty busy this week with school work and getting my house ready for a shower and bachelorette party I'm throwing for a girl I've known since middle school. So, I'm not going to promise a post every day like I did last week (maybe I shouldn't have started off so strong) Oh well, just be forewarned and don't get mad at me =]

Well that's it for me today! I could probably go on and on but I gotta go make me a burger before I dehydrate from drooling!

Miscellany Monday

a. My husband surprised me this weekend with a getaway to a cabin the mountains for our anniversary. The beauty of the landscape is spectacular! God never ceases to amaze me! It was a much-needed get away and was very relaxing.

b. Our puppy/ies chewed up some wire on our air conditioning unit...bad dogs! My husband and I like to be cool when we sleep so finding out about this at 9:30pm after we get home from our busy weekend was not fun. Luckily, Chad was able to fix it - thank-you God for giving me such a handy husband! I'm not sure if this is a permanent fix or if we'll need new wires or what, but I'm praying that it will survive the torture our puppies gave it and keep on keeping on.

c. Work is really taking a toll on me. I feel stressed all the time and I'm always anxious at work. Let me tell you, that does not make a great work environment. My student teaching semester is coming up and even though my husband originally wanted me to at least work some, I convinced him that that would not be good for me. So we have really buckled down on our budget and know how much we need to save for each month I will be off. Thankfully it's not much at all. I feel pretty confident that we will survive! The plan is for me to student teach for 3 months and then substitute teach and/or work in the after school program at one of our schools. We feel pretty comfortable with this plan and not that I'm keeping track or anything but there's 125 more work days - that's 172 days - 25 weeks - 6 months.

d. I saw a full rainbow - like the whole arch - this morning on my way to work. If I wasn't driving I would have taken a picture, bummer. When I saw it I thought of two things: I wonder if there's really a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow and I thought about God's promises to us. It was nice to have that little reminder and to be thankful.