Gone...

Good grief where has the time gone? This summer has passed faster than I can believe. So much has happened this summer that is doesnt seem possible that school is back in session next week. My nephew was born in May. He is too cute and almost 4 months old! My sister is back in Kentucky and happy for once in a long time. Jim has found yet another job, and he likes this one, hopefully this one will stick. It better! We looked into refinancing the house, but as it turns out it really wont save us enough money to start over. I have been working longer hours, and just found out this week that our management at work is being restructured. This means that I know oversee 12 offices from Williamsburg to Kitty Hawk! WOW! Jim and I havent done anything fun this summer, as we have been so busy at work and just enjoy our rest when we can. We are planning (or trying to) a small weekend getaway in late October. But it is hard because he is city mouse and I am country mouse. We havent been away together in 5 years, since our honeymoon. We got a new dog, Juno. It really isnt anymore work with two. Bella has shown Juno the ropes (which isnt always a good thing) but Juno is just too sweet. I think she may have been abused by her previous owners, and that just breaks my heart. When I discipline Juno she goes and cowers and it just tears at my heart. Luckly she is a really good dog and I dont have to do that often at all! She likes to jump up on the counters and "surf." After she got a hold of two italian sausages that Jim had on the counter, we learned to make sure everything is pushed back. I am glad fall is just around the corner. I cant wait for the weather to get cooler, I cant wait for the smells of Autumn, the colors and the decorations! I have big plans for this fall and winter. We have put off doing stuff to the house and now I am ready to start. I want more flower beds, and I want something done with our driveway and I want a real garden area! So many plans I will have to see what I actually accomplish given all my new duties at work.

I hear farm animals!

For about a year now, my neighbor has owned a chicken/rooster. Now I may have been born in the country, but I am a city girl. I know it looks like a chicken, but it crows. I thought only roosters crowed. Anyway, this chickens name is Nancy. Nancy roams the neighborhood. I have seen her on my front porch, in my driveway, and even in a backyard of another neighbor. I don't mind Nancy, but she does drive my cats crazy. It has been nice, weather wise, here for the last few days so we have had the windows open. I woke up Saturday morning to the noise of this animal. It was crowing nonstop. Saturday is my only day to sleep in and that really annoyed me. Sunday morning came with the noise of the chicken again. As I am writing this, Nancy is squawking. I cant help but think if the inner country girl can come out in me and see if Nancy tastes good breaded and fried. But then I would have to pluck it and the thought of that turns my stomach. I cant handle getting the bag of gizzards out of a Purdue chicken, I know I couldn't handle cleaning a chicken.

Baby Shower

Today I helped throw a baby shower for my brother in laws' wife, Lori. She is due on May 21, 2009. It is going to be a little boy and I am so excited. It was a nice shower. She is doing a jungle/safari theme for the nursery. My mother in law has zillions of Beany Babies. We borrowed a palm tree that lights up and hung the beanie babies from there. It was really cute. I cant wait to have my little nephew here.

Life altering decision?!

My husband and I have been trying for a baby for about 2 1/2 years. I have tried to not concentrate too much on the fact that it hasn't happened yet. Everyone has a story about someone they know who has tried or been trying for that long or longer. The story's are great, but that doesn't help me. I have always put this in God's hands. I have always been a believer in the belief that if it is God's will, he will make it happen. But man the wait is frustrating, agonizing, heartbreaking, and so many other emotions. For the last few months I have been praying for answers. Over the last few days the thought of adoption has come into my mind. I have always said that I would never do IVF or other in-depth fertility treatments. There are many factors as to why, maybe that will be another blog. I don't look down at those people that have them done, that was the right decision for them and I don't feel it is the right decision for me. But I also have reservations about adoption. I know most of those would be answered with a good support group or being able to talk to other people who have been thru the process. One reason adoption has come into my mind lately is because with adoption I am guaranteed to end up with a child. If I undergo some fertility treatment, a child is not always the end result and then we would have to spend more money to adopt. I guess what I am saying is with fertility options, there is no guarantee, with adoption there is. Also, is it possible to love an adopted child as if it were your own? Maybe that sounds silly, I dont know. I decided tonite that I would start to look into the process of adoption on the Internet. So right now I am on information overload. I was talking to someone at work today. He told me that one of his daughters just gave birth to a little boy. His daughter was adopted by him and his wife when she was 5 months old. They actually adopted two girls. Well, his daughter gave birth today and this child was actually conceived by IVF. This was her 5th attempt at IVF. Each IVF costs, roughly, $20,000. OK, you do the math...I definitely still have ALOT to think about.

Day not as planned

Today was supposed to be a great day, weather wise. I had been looking forward to this day since the snow storm on Monday. I had it all planned out...I would arise from my slumber early (as to get a good start on the day) make a wonderful breakfast of pancakes so the aroma would fill the house. After that I would shower then we would take the dog to the park for a nice leisurely walk to soak up the wonderful sunshine and take in the fresh air. Afterward, we would return home to a small lunch and I would spend the rest of the day outside on my deck with a glass of sweet tea (yes, sweet tea) and catch up on well overdue reading. As the sun was setting we would grill burgers for dinner. There is nothing like the smell of a grill! It is as much the first sign of spring as daffodils are. Isn't it great to have plans? Of course the day didn't GO that way. I woke up close to 9am (I justified sleeping in as a way to "bank" sleep for the time change tonite) Jim popped open a can of cinnamon rolls as I sat down so frustrated with my hair I finally made an appointment to get it cut. It has only been 8 months since my last cut. After an all too fattening breakfast, I hop in the shower because now I have to be at the salon in an hour. As usual, my stylist is about 30 minutes behind. I didn't leave there until almost 1pm. I get home and my "small lunch" (I always picture that we different food than we really do) was macaroni and cheese. Staring at me while I am eating is the mound of dirty clothes in my laundry room. So, change of plans. I pick up the house just to make it presentable should anyone stop by on this beautiful day, then while the laundry is going, I catch up on reading. I should mention that I have cleaning ADHD, I cant just clean what I set out to do, I have to straighten this drawer, or cabinet, I have to vacuum the rugs, sweep off the porch. I am always getting sidetracked while cleaning. So, here it is 7:46pm, the sun is long gone, the grill never got uncovered, I never cracked open my book, and I never made sweet tea. And to top it all off, all that housework has messed up my new hairstyle. We all know it will never look this good again! So much for plans!

Me and my kitchen gadgets

I am the proud new owner of a foodsaver. What a great invention! I am addicted to foodsaving. Why didnt I get one of these sooner?! You can "save" anything. I made a salad the other night for dinner and had leftover lettuce so I decided to food-saver it. It is two days later and the lettuce is still green. I had alot of chili leftovers, so I said why not, food-saver it! I almost vacuum packed the one leftover porkchop but my wonderfully thrift husband said, why waste a bag? HHmmmm. Because I can... I was packing my lunch and came very very close to doing the same to my lunch, but then I thought finding scissors to open my sandwich might be a little much. So far everything I have packaged it still airtight. Now I can justify the 15 pounds of ground beef I buy at the warehouse club. I highly recommend one, you would be surprised how much you can food-saver. Plus you can make your own custom size bag and the bags are reusable. Lets see how long it takes this kitchen gadget to join the other dust collectors on my pantry shelf.

How is that fair?

My husband and I came to an agreement a few weeks ago. We both work full time jobs and somehow the household has become my responsibility. I am not sure if that is because of the natural progression of things or what. My job has been more demanding lately and I come home and just don't want to clean, do laundry, grocery shop or pay bills. I especially don't want to cook dinner. By the time you cook, eat and clean (I don't have a dishwasher) the evening is over. This was made worse by the fact that my wonderful husband says he has a belly timer that goes off every night at 6pm. I would get constantly pestered if dinner wasn't ready by six. ARGH! So, that is why we came to an agreement. He would cook dinner, as he gets home earlier than me, and I would clean. GREAT! I thought this was a wonderful idea and why did we wait so long to come to this. Well, the first night he cooked spaghetti. That was fine with me, I like spaghetti and there are few dishes to wash with spaghetti. The second night we had leftovers. By this time I was making the Nexium I take for heartburn work overtime. The third night he was going to make dinner. The menu was beef with a red sauce and elbow pasta. Well he acted shocked when I told him this was spaghetti all over again. Then we talked for half an hour over how this was or was not different from spaghetti. I am not sure who won that one because no dinner was cooked that night...So at this point I had eaten spaghetti for dinner and the next two days for lunch. The following night I came home to dinner waiting on me. WOO HOO. It was goulash....Beef, red sauce, and noodles. He called it goulash because it was thicker than spaghetti. I ate it because I didn't want to hurt his feelings and I was starving. By this time all I taste day and night is red sauce. Now I regret going to the warehouse club and buying spaghetti sauce in bulk. Lesson learned. I look in the pantry for sure we are out of sauce by now, nope 2 more jars. So, we are now at Friday night. He calls me on the way home and says lets beat the Valentines day crowd and go to dinner a day early. I say fine with me. He gets in the car and says lets go to Olive Garden. ARGH!!! At least they have Alfredo sauce. So here we are Sunday night and dinner time is upon us once again. He had planned to make hamburgers last night, but neither one of us was hungry so that is what we had tonite. I cook the hamburgers and as I am cleaning us it dawns on me that I got stuck with the cooking AND the cleaning. I am pondering how this happens and he comes into the kitchen and told me I missed a spot. I ask him how I got myself in this position and he tells me it is because I am so much better at washing dishes than he is. He grabs dessert and walks out...What else can I do but be thankful he is a wonderful loving husband.