Bookend post

I just thought it was funny that I wrote on Monday this week and now I am writing on Friday. So it's a bookend kind of week I guess!

Honestly I haven't written much this week simply because I really have nothing all that stimulating to share. It's not necessarily a bad thing!

So, for lack of anything better - here's just a rundown of what we've been up to this week and what's coming up.

Tuesday I was off from work so the plumber could come. It was rather expensive for what he did and he wasn't there terribly long. So I mostly just enjoyed a relaxing day at home. I told Nate I could almost get used to the "Stay at home wife" gig. In the evening I went to the wake for Gina's grandmother and then to a jewerly/purse party at a co-worker's house. I enjoyed the party so much I booked one for myself because I'm either a sucker or a glutton for punishment. That'll be happening in another week or so.

Wednesday was a nice relaxing evening at home. Thursday ended up that way too. I was going to play tennis with my sister in law, but the weather was acting too iffy.

And now today is Friday. We did squeeze in a run in between rain showers this morning. This weekend we hope to maybe car shop a bit more for Nate and I'm super excited to be going to Hell's Kitchen for brunch on Sunday with my in-laws. Super size pancakes and mimosas, here I come!

So that's it. We're boring sometimes!

It is just SO a Monday...

So my problems are minimal compared to what some people in my life are dealing with right now, but let me tell you, I feel like things are piling up on me just a little bit at the moment.

Nate is going to need a new (used) car very soon. We started the process of looking for one this weekend but sadly the one we found we liked had just a couple of things that didn't make it worth the money. So we're just hoping to find something soon in the price range we want before his other car completely dies on us!

To add to that, last night we figured out that we have a water problem in our utility closet. We're pretty sure that the pipe that leads to the toilet in the upstairs bathroom and also to the sink in the downstairs bathroom is leaking. To the point that the carpet outside said closet was damp last night. Not good.

So, guess who gets an impromptu day off tomorrow to wait for the plumber? This girl! But guess who still gets to get up just as early because of a nurse coming to do a quick exam for our life insurance applications? This girl! Guess who really does not want to waste a day off stuck at home all day waiting for the plumbers to show up? This girl!

I'm sure I can just fiddle faddle around the house tomorrow since I'll be there, I've got a chick flick in my Netflix On Demand queue that I know Nate doesn't want to watch so I 'm sure I could watch that and I bet if I really thought about it I could even come up with some house chores that I could be doing that don't involve water (assuming they'll be shutting the water off). But I wish that I could be out doing something fun with my day off. Shopping, getting my long overdue massage that I have a gift card for, stuff like that! I guess those things will have to wait for another time.

My fear is that this will be costly to fix and I really don't want us to be delayed in getting Nate a new car or to have it affect our upcoming trip to Itasca. But so it goes when you own a house! But it's things like this that make me wish sometimes I was just a kid playing house instead!

A number of other things are weighing on my mind at the moment as well, but I am not going into details here. It just feels like a Monday. Yep, I've got me a case of the Mondays. No good cure at the moment either. Just gotta press on!

Dishwasher Day

At long last we will have a new dishwasher installed tonight. I am beyond excited about this! I had to look through some old blogs to figure out just when the old one broke down, because I do remember writing about it. I thought it hasn't been as long as it turns out it has. I wrote about it here. It was September, not October like I originally thought!

Now, it's a luxury to have a dishwasher, I will be totally and completely honest about that. We do not need it. We've pretty much gotten by ok for the last seven months without one. But, with our busy lifestyle and the fact that we have the hookups to do it, it will be nice to have one again that works. Especially when we have Nate's family over for dinner and go through all of the dishes we own in one night.

The model we got is "Energy Star" rated which is very nice. It has some other bells and whistles that our other one didn't have as well, including a feature that works well for holding stemware in place. I used to be so nervous washing my cheapo charlie wine glasses (even though they are cheapo charlie ones!) in the old dishwasher, I'll be less worried about it now!

So, I should really thank the State of MN, because with our state tax refund we had the ability to do this. So thanks MN!

Ladies and gentlemen...

I stand before you all today and proudly announce that as of today, I am "one year clean" from picking the skin around my fingers.

I will admit, this date snuck up on me. I had said a long time ago when I made it to a year I'd buy a new right hand ring, but I actually did that at the six month marker. I haven't yet decided if I will treat myself to something yet or not. We are going to Itasca next month, that might have to be treat enough for now!

At any rate, I never dreamed I could ever make it this far. I had tried so many times in the past and almost always failed after a few weeks. I don't know what made it stick this time, I think a big part of it was how VERY public I made my battle, chronicling the entire thing here and on Facebook. Pretty much everyone I know knew I was doing this so I knew I wouldn't just be letting myself down, but would have to face the embarrassment of all those people knowing I failed. I couldn't have that!

So here I am one year later. I still get stressed out, I still internalize alot of it and have the same amount of nervous energy I've always had. I have just learned to deal with it in other ways. Ways that are much less destructive to my body.

I am more than confident that I will never pick up this bad habit again. I don't miss it, I don't even really think about it anymore. But because I am a bit of a "Rain Man" when it comes to dates, I'm pretty sure in the back of my head I'll always remember this day.

And on we go.

Weekend adventures

So I had a rather adventurous weekend. Well, ok maybe not SUPER adventurous, but interesting to say the least.

Friday night was date night and it was Nate's turn to pick. He really wanted good barbeque. I should emphasize the word good. We usually go to Famous Dave's which is good enough, but he wanted something different. There is amazing deal in the Happenings book for Rudolph's BBQ in Minneapolis - buy one dinner entree, get one free. So, we chose to go down there and boy am I glad we did! It was an outstanding meal, some of the best BBQ I've had in awhile. I used to go to Rudolph's when I was younger, but it's been a very, very long time so this was a nice treat! After dinner we headed home and settled in with our new Netflix on Demand disc for our Wii - if you are a Wii owner, you should really consider this disc, it's awesome!

Saturday is where things get a little more in the "adventure" genre. I got up and met up with my parents on what has now become our weekly quest to try different bakeries in the Metro area. We got coffee and stopped at Sarah Jane's in Minneapolis. Then I took my mom to Rosedale because she's been jonsing for a mall fix. We got some good deals on some things. Took her home and then headed home to clean the house and such.

Now I knew that going home my normal route would be a bit interesting as they were demolishing a foot bridge that crosses a busy highway in our city, but I purposely still went that way so I could see the progress they were making. But as I approached the intersection I discovered that you could not actually drive through because there were police cars and other emergency vehicles and police tape. So I took a detour through some neighborhoods. I drove past a house that had police tape as well and a guy with a video camera, but I didn't think much of it. I assumed the other scene I had passed was maybe in relation to the construction, like there had been an accident.

I get home finally and come to find out, there was a murder/suicide in the parking lot of a restaurant at that corner and the house I drove by was where the couple actually lived! AND apparently my car was in the shot of the house on the news - hence the video camera I passed! Wow, crazy. Tragic and sad yes, but man, to be in the thick of it!

Saturday night we were out for a bit and came home to a message on our answering machine. The message was short - it was just a person saying "Guess Who?" in a sing songy kind of voice. But we must have played it over and over again to the point that we just started laughing so hard tears were rolling down our face! Nate thought it sounded kind of like his grandma Dolly, but asking her later it was not her! So if you called us - well played, we have no idea who it was!

Sunday morning we were awaken at 5:45 by a phone call - poor Nate had to get out of bed and take his mom and grandma to the airport. His dad was going to do it, but got sick at the last minute so they needed someone to step in. Let me tell you, nothing wakes you up more than the phone ringing at an odd hour of the day. I don't know how I fell back asleep for a bit, but when I got up at 7:00 (early morning church gig on top of everything else) Nate was back and had even stopped to get me coffee - what a wonderful man!

Sunday evening brought us to a fundraising dinner for the Sister City committee of which Nate's grandma is a member. Grandma paid for our tickets so it was pretty much free food. It was a little awkward - I saw people from my old church that I have not seen in over a year at this point, but it was good to see some of them. It could have been worse, though I was kind of glad to get out of there when we were finished eating.

So after all of that, we just crashed last night and watched some four hours of TV, not even kidding. That's not really like us, but we were so wiped out! We managed to finish Arrested Development Season Two (this is why Netflix for the Wii is awesome) so that was a good thing!

I can only hope my week is a little less crazy than this weekend just was!

Date Night

We have a busy, jammed packed, crazy lifestyle. I love every single minute of it, but one thing we've always agreed on is that we will never make the other person feel like they are unimportant or taking a back seat to everything else. The biggest thing that we've always done is tried to make sure we have one night a week set aside as "date night." We do get into slumps where it just doesn't happen, but for the most part, we're pretty good about it.

Lately we've kind of re-invented date night a bit. We've felt like we've gotten into a boring pattern of going to the same restaurants over and over again and when it comes time to say "so where do you want to go this week?" it becomes more of a battle or challenge and somehow ends up not seeming as fun. So we've fixed this in one simple way - because we're on opposite weeks of payday schedules, the person who's week it is to get paid treats to dinner (yes we have shared accounts, but I think you get the idea here) and the person "treating" has to choose where we go.
I tell you since we've started that -date nights are becoming more fun and exciting again. We're challenging ourselves to pick new and different places and I kind of like the element of surprise in not knowing where Nate might pick when it's his turn. And I can be kind of indecisive sometimes but this is forcing me to have no choice but to pick something when it is my turn. So it's been a very good thing for me so far!

When we got married we had a wedding shower where people were encouraged to write down little words of advice on recipe cards that were given to us (along with actual food recipes too) and there was more than one card that said "date your spouse" or something along those lines as advice. I like dating my husband! It's one of the many ways we keep our marriage fresh and vibrant. I highly recommend it.

To those who are married and read the blog - do you have date nights? How do you keep the spark in your marriage?

Getting my Gleek On

No I didn't mispell anything in the subject line. The day I've been waiting four long months for is finally here. My favorite show, my nerdy obsession, my reason for existance is back. Ok, maybe I'm over exaggerating a bit...but I'm pretty excited to be able to finally watch Glee again! And the timing is pretty awesome, it's coming back just as some of my other favorite shows are winding their seasons down.

So while four months ago I wrote this letter in anger to Fox TV, today I'm coming back and telling Fox I am reconsidering our relationship. As long as they don't do anything stupid like cancel the show all together (which I know won't happen - it's already been renewed for season two) then I think we'll get along just fine again!

Made it through the whole winter and now....

Spring colds = a bummer

Running with a cold = no fun

Trying to get spring cleaning done with a cold = not much getting done

See where this is going? I have been gifted with a spring cold. Nate had it first and then was kind enough to pass it along to me. Actually, I've been exposed to a few different colds. I keep blaming poor Nate, but my dad had this, my in-laws had this, various people at work have had this. I could've picked it up anywhere.

No matter where I got it, it is no fun. Especially when the weather is awesome and it's a weekend and you had plans to do spring cleaning. Fortunately I did manage to get some things done this weekend even with my head in a fog!

We bought a new dishwasher, that's probably the thing I am most excited about right now. It's been a long six months without one! Because the Tax Gods were kind to us this year, we decided we could finally afford to replace our current one, whose motor went out back in early October. The best part is, we're getting free delivery and installation and they will haul away the old one! Definitely worth it in my book!

Besides that we only accomplished a couple of other things over the weekend. So next weekend will be that much more full of work I guess!

I just want to shake this darn cold, my poor nose is so dry from being blown so many times! Nate said I was even attempting to sneeze in my sleep. I can only imagine what that must have looked like!

Running update

So the walk to run program is going pretty well for us so far! We are up to stretches where we go up to three minutes at one time - and it actually feels pretty good!

I am starting to enjoy a bit and I'll even admit to missing it if we don't do it. Nate had a bad cold earlier this week so we didn't get up to go and I just stayed home and did the elliptical machine, which had been my chosen form of exercise for quite awhile.

It didn't wake me up or make me feel nearly as good as my walking and running does!

So who knows, I may become a full fledged runner yet! We'll keep plugging away!

Spring

Spring is here!

We're lucky enough to be having an early and wonderful spring. I've been enjoying this weather quite a bit.

So have our cats:

I love catching them together whenever I have a chance. They are loving the warmer weather and days we have the windows open so they can get some fresh outside smells!

I have also completed another decopage project that is fun and springy!

I love ducks, not as much as penguins of course, but I do like ducks. I thought this was fun for spring. I even did the backside as well.

I used pastel paper and ducky themed wrapping paper on a simple circle ornament picked up at the dollar store! It now hangs in my bathroom as I thought it was a nice appropriate place to put it!

My current work in progress is an actual penguin - he is almost done and I'll post pics of him soon.

This upcoming weekend we're planning to get a start on some of those fun outdoor chores including cleaning out the garage and starting our spring yardwork.

I even don't mind the spring rain that we're going to have today and tomorrow! Can't have fresh green grass and flowers without it.

Welcome spring, welcome. We hope you are here to stay!

Who rocks the most?

So Nate and I are avid music fans and we have a pretty eclectic selection at home. Over a year ago we bought Apple's Airport Express so we could simply stream our music directly from our main "music server" computer.

We love our variety, but of course, as all music fans know, you always want more! It doesn't help that our radio station of choice introduces us to all sorts of new and interesting artists and gets us hooked on their material.

The problem in the past has been by the time we get a gift card for iTunes, or save up a little money to go visit a music shop, we can't remember what we want. Nate came up with a solution to that problem. He owns the website www.rocksthemost.com He has yet to decide what to do with this website (and for the longest time it just had the words "Who rocks the most, I rocks the most" on it as placeholder) and had simply purchased it for the name (what can I say, it's a nerd thing I think). But now, if one were to visit that website, you would see our music wishlist.

Yes I know we could just create a Word document or even handwritten list, but this is more fun. And it sort of fits the "rocks the most" name. I give him points for creativity if nothing else!