coming home

I have been thinking about this for a while and after much encouragement from Chad and a trip to the animal adoption place, this is our newest family member.

Meet Wooby.

I did not name her. She came that way.

Please notice a very angry Gwendolen in the background. This is the first moment since we walked in the door that she has not been freaking out...let's hope it works out!

Hello friends!

3 days

I am about to experience three days of lovliness.
No Hobby Lobby. Check.
My best friend is here. Check.
The air conditioner is fixed. Check.
We have already been to the gym this morning. Check.
We are going to shower and go up the mountain for some lunch...
I will take pictures.

p.s. My niece had her baby! Her third and another wonderful girl to add to the family.
Congrats and praise God for a healthy baby!

oh yeah!

When I got home from work last night about 9pm, it was so cold in our downstairs that you could have hung meat in here (atleast, that is what my mom would call it.). The air conditioner is fixed! Apparently it was a pretty easy fix and he charged more for time and labor than anything else. I think Chad said something about the fan was stuck? The repairman basically took it all apart, cleaned everything, lubricated all the moving parts, and ta da....it was fixed! Woohoo...wonderful coolness.
I am super excited about this weekend for a number of reasons.
1. Today is the last day I have to work at the HobLob for the rest of the week
2. And this should be numero uno...Jess is coming to see me! She should be here sometime after I get off work tonight at 5:30 and we are going to eat at Chattanooga's version of Hibachi Express, called Tokyo Express or something like that. It is fabuloso.
3. I am going to have some time to clean up some of my projects and start on some new ones. I am going to see if I can make a simple dress without help from my mom. But I will probably end up calling her six times to figure it out. Speaking of my mom, say a little prayer for her when you think about it. She is working at the Girl Scout camp near Columbus for the next four weeks; this is the same camp that I spent the past two summers sweltering at and loved every minute of it. I tried to figure out some way that I could take 5 weeks off of work to go back and work again but it just wasn't possible (or a reasonable adult decision!). She is the crafts director but she is also going to be the bus chaperone for the day campers. This means a couple of good things for her...she gets to go home every night, sleep in her own bed, check on dad, and do things at home before she has to be back to ride the bus back to camp the next morning. I hope she loves it! It is exhausting but a ton of fun!

My Lucky Charms are getting soggy (I know...healthy right?) so I gotta go and get ready for work.
Later folks!

toast

I am at home toasting...
Literally.
Our air conditioner is broken and we didn't know that until last night when we tried to turn it on for the first time this year.
It is 83 degrees in our downstairs.
Our upstairs has a separate unit so it is not terribly uncomfortable up there but we are worried about that one having to work double time to cool the whole house so we turned it down and now it is just sweating hot everywhere in our house.
So I am toasting - a long day at work in the fabric department...hilarious and dangerous for me. I bought a $1.99 pattern and some fabric to make a dress. We will see if I can do it by myself.
I made home made pizza and just drank a glass of wine.
Toasting myself I guess.

the grind

Happy Memorial Day! (is that what you say?) Either way, keep your thoughts centered around sacrifice today...the sacrifice of our military, their families, and all the people who give fully of themselves to make our lives easier every day.

It is back to work today after a fun day off.

Chad and I had a chance to just hang out for a while downtown while his friend met up with some other people she wanted to see while she was in town.

Here is what we did yesterday:

We met this guy.

And saw this store.

I got caught making this face...ugh.

We went to the market and bought a gallon of these.

I'm making strawberry shortcake tonight!

And then we saw these guys playing some music.

Which made these ladies wanna do a jig...

so they did.

Then we saw these folks taking an art class...

wait...is there no roof on that building?

So that was our Sunday.

I would have shown you more but I got tired of the pictures loading on to blogger.

Oh right, and I have to go to work.

Blech.

Its ok...we close at 5:30 today so I should be off by 6:30 and can go hang out with Chad and his family.

Megan got back into town yesterday with all her earthly belongings so I think she will be moving in this week sometime when she gets her stuff organized a bit better.

Fun days in the Nooga.

sunday not-so-secret

Do you read Post Secret on Sundays? That is the day they come out with the new postcards for the weeks.
Oh boy do I look forward to Sundays.
For so many reasons.
Post Secret.
A day off from HL.
A day to spend with my sweetie.
Sleeping in (as late as the dog will allow).
Doing whatever we want all day.

Chad's friend AR came in yesterday afternoon and they brought me lunch/dinner at about 4:30 at HL. I got off at a decent time last night, probably the earliest I have ever gotten out of that place after all of the cleaning up and stocking we have to do every night to make sure the store is ready for the next day.
Our plans for today are sleeping in ('till 8, check!), going to eat some lunch at Ichiban (Japanese steakhouse syle) and I could not be more excited. I am saving up and not eating breakfast so I can truly enjoy! I love hibachi style food more than anything other food. Seriously. Then to the Sunday market downtown...the theme for the week is something like BBQ Beast so we could eat lunch there but that wouldn't be nearly as wonderful! We are going to stroll through, hang out, and buy some local strawberries. Enough to make ourselves sick...that is the plan. Literally. And then I think we are going to try to catch the X-Men movie...did I mention that Hugh Jackman is possibly the most amazing man on the planet (after my sweet husband of course!).
Ah, stirrings upstairs mean our houseguest is up...
Have fun!
More later!

oh my big plans

Remember that post about having a three day weekend next weekend and wanting to do something fun and different that just hanging out at home? It was great. I came home, researched some stuff for us to do, called Dad B and Mom S and asked if they could dog-sit our dear Gwendolen and did everything except make reservations where we were gonna go. I knew Chad had to work Friday so I was just planning a Saturday/Sunday gig but I wanted to make sure that he was up for it...so when I saw him Thursday night and ate dinner with his lifeguard kids I just causally asked what he wanted to do next weekend. His answer? I am taking that WSI (an advanced lifeguarding thing basically) class all day Saturday and Sunday.
Crap.
Bummer.
Suckity-McSuckSuck.
So seriously? Who is coming to entertain me for three days?
I was a little vague about it - I know- because I think I will just save it for another weekend. It is an easy Saturday/Sunday drive and recreation so I can do it another weekend that I am off Saturday, but that planning day Friday would have been perfect to get stuff ready and pack the car.
My dream? To have unending money and time to do what we really WANT to do, not have to do.
Seriously? No.
I like to work for my money.
Makes me feel like what I do is valuable.
I wouldn't trade that.
But, having a little more money and a little more free time would be nice.

As for today, I have to close at the HobLob so we are gonna go run some errands this morning -Lowe's, recycling place, etc - and then I have to go to work. Chad's friend, AR, from Knoxville, is coming in this afternoon some time and spending the night with us to hang out. SHE will be staying in the end bedroom that is still quite trashed from Mom S' clean-out session so I told Chad he needed to just warn her and deal with it.

I shaved off the tip of my right pointer finger in the shower yesterday morning so typing is a little hard...it is pretty sore. I was a little tempted to leave all the mistakes in this blog so you could see how much trouble my poor little finger is having but you would have laughed at my typing skills. So no.

and then

Long day at work today but it wasn't so bad. I opened so I got up and went to the gym with A before and then went to work.

Chad's mom came over today while we were both at work and started cleaning out the closets in the bedroom that Megan is gonna live in this summer (did I mention that my sister-in-law will be living with us all summer?). Thank you, thank you, thank you for starting that project. Again, I would love to do it and git rid (intentional!) of a ton of stuff in this fabulous space that we live in but it isn't my place to do so...I just gotta wait for her to have time. Admittedly, she did leave the piles of stuff all over but Chad called and said she told him which piles go where (donation/trash/storage) so we can deal with that ASAP. Woohoo! I love to have space and I am thankful she is cleaning out...what a blessing.

Wanna know blessing number 2? My boss usually posts the following week's schedule on Thursdays so I looked at the schedule when I got to work at 1 today and completely freaked out. I was cut down to four days next week. I was super confused and a little nervous that it was serious cut back but I asked around and made a discovery...since I am full time now, I get paid holidays and Memorial Day is one of those! Now I still have to work on Monday so since I work on Monday, I get another paid day off that week. Seriously? Way too cool.

I am a real adult. I get paid holidays. Oh My Gosh.

So I get a three day weekend next weekend...I'm off Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Who's coming to visit?

I am headed off tonight to meet Chad after his lifeguarding class to eat dinner WITH his lifeguarding class...whatever. Who knows...

This is what is going on in my backyard right now.

This is what is happening on my couch right now.

And I smashed my finger getting the memory card out of the camera to post those pictures so I am done for tonight.

finale (read with an accent!)

and then I finally finished these:

and FYI I stole the hooks off another pair of earrings from a while ago that were broken that I could not fix. They are these great gold circular hooks and where can I find more??...help!

backyard

So I worked all day and then ran to Walmart and bought somethings for the backyard because I want it to be a place we WANT to hang out then I went to the grocery store and then came home to unpack and put away groceries.

Then I made this:

A list of possible meal ideas - all of which we have the ingredients for in our humble little kitchen. I won't be home the same nights as Chad again this week because of work and him finishing up the lifeguarding class he is teaching across town and he never knows what I was thinking or planning when I went grocery shopping so I made a list!

Then I plan on filling these:

Up with this:

and putting these all around the patio:

Part of me really loves cheap-o Walmart.

The patio renavation (?sp) is going to be a bit of a surprise to Chad. He has worked really hard planting things back there so I wanted to add a little something too. We already had the tiki torches so we just needed the juice to fill them up!

Oh, and Adrian, I added up all the materials I have in the earrings and it is about $22 bucks. I won't charge you any more than that if you are still interested in having them, since it is my first imperfect go-round. Let me know - email or facebook or something!

Gotta go plant garden torches!

driving

I don't mind driving...I like it really, even driving alone. The scenery, the loud music (I mean, I don't listen to my music too loud or drive with the windows down and sing at the top of my lungs. No Chad, that's not me you saw doing that!), the time to just think. I have gotten really spoiled since getting married about always having someone in the car with me on roads trips but they past two times I have been to Columbus, I have come by myself. The first was for my hiking trip and this weekend has just been a hang out weekend with my family and best friends. I got to see Danielle yesterday which was a surprise and she picked up her wedding dress which I also got to see.... Gorgeous! I can not wait to see it on her...she is going to be such a wonderful, happy, beautiful bride! So far she has been great...calm, not-stressed (much to her mother's concern who would like her to be a little more stressed!) and really easy-going. It should be a fun and beautiful wedding (especially because my mom is helping with her flowers...go mom!!).

Right...driving...so I left the Nooga early Saturday morning, stopped in Atl to see my sister, made a pit stop at Urban Outfitters and bought a Christmas present for Chad (yep...I am gonna Christmas shop all year this year so it doesn't seem like so much money and do a mix of handmade and bought...though trying to do "bought handmade" again and working so far!). I've bought a gift for my sister too but now that she knows I have it I am not sure she will be able to hold out till Christmas (she hates surprises!).
Got to Columbus about lunch time, did lunch with Mom at Ok Sun's (a tradition...I must eat there while I am in town!)...went to Hobby Lobby (no lie.) and saw Emily, yes, my friend who lives in Chattanooga and shops at my HobLob. We both laughed alot because it was sorta funny to be back in Columbus and see each other there. She is getting ready to go on a cruise with her family for a graduation celebration and I am so jealous...
Went to church this morning and Pastor K talked about marriage and it was fabulous. I told mom to get me the CD next week and mail it to me so Chad and I could listen to it together. Such a sweet reminder that marriage is not designed by God to solve human lonliness or to "make me happy". It is to give us an earthly picture of the relationship between God and his Church/children. It is to teach us to love another person how God loves us, which takes a lifetime.
Driving home this afternoon after a little pause at home to pack stuff up, eat lunch with the fam, and for a little surprise before hitting the road.
More later.

travelling again

Today is my last day at HL for the week and I am headed to Cols tomorrow.

I am pretty excited about hanging out with some folks I haven't been able to hang out with in a while...namely my parents and best friend!

Funny how you can't wait to be an adult and then you miss your parents so very badly!

I haven't posted pictures in a while so I thought I would try to give you a little glimpse...just of life for a bit.

oooo...the one I love.

A friend Chad met in the street...

tried to help him along but he did NOT want to be helped.

App State's beautiful campus...
plopped right in the middle of the mountains


An oh-so-cute new college grad...

Some earrings I am working on at the moment...

I only have one finished and now I have to make the other one to match.

I might add a few little tiny champagne colored pearls...

anyone interested?

A rather awesome picture that Chad took and then edited himself in photoshop (just to enhance the green colors...).

I am thinking of enlarging it and framing it for him....

this makes me dream of getting a macro lens.

That's my next big request.

I am halfway packed to leave town in the morning when Chad gets up to go teach his lifeguarding class. It's not like I have to take that much stuff with me...I'll only be gone about 36 hours but still...I like to keep my options open. I plan on stopping in the ATL to see my Sis. She promised to feed me okra for breakfast. I know, sounds gross but it is sorta a tradition. When I stop in at Eddie's, she always makes me okra and since I am stopping in the morning, breakfast it is!

Gotta go shower and go to work.

We have big plans to eat dinner and watch last night's Bones episode tonight when we both get off work late.

Wonderful evening...something to look forward to!

healthier

I am trying to be healthier and in doing so, lose a little weight, just as an added bonus. I want to be able to keep up in any activity I choose - go hiking when I want, bike a little, maybe even build some upper body strength and do a little rock climbing that I haven't done in a while. On that note, dinner tonight will be turkey burgers (less fat, same flavor...woohoo!) and corn on the cob (can I get a cheer for fiber that passes right through?). Both foods I love but are a still pretty decent to the waistline.

I cleaned the kitchen up last night and scrubbed our bathroom....oh do I mean it! Got nearly un-clothed and on my knees in the shower. The white tiles take some scrubbing to keep clean and I am trying to do the natural route and just used baking soda and salt for the scrubbing/cleansing. It actually worked really well. I made a paste and just scrubbed and scrubbed...cleaned the tiles and the shower glass really well. It probably hasn't been that clean since we moved into this house! I also made some jewelry last night...my foray (?sp) into rings. I bought some sterling wire and made a couple of rings after going all over the house putting my known-size-7 ring on every round thing I could find until I matched the size. A highlighter became my dowel for making a ring that I knew would fit my finger! I also bought some stuff today to make earrings and a couple more rings...on a search for a cool center bead for the rings...something fairly good sized and with facets? Any suggestions?

I have been thinking about making some stuff and selling it on Etsy.com...purses and jewelry mostly and really just enough to pay for my materials to keep up the habit. It gets expensive even with my discount at the HobLob (just ask my husband!). Would you buy my stuff? I might could get into some custom orders but would probably just stick to pre-made stuff. Taking orders that have to get made and mailed by a certain day makes me a little nervous. I never know how much time I am going to have and this way I can just sit down and make stuff when I have a chance/few minutes. I will post pictures of the jewelry so you tell me what you think!

week long

We got home from Boone this morning about 1AM. Chad's sister graduated at 4 yesterday and we hung out a bit before hitting the road and coming home. I was no fun in the car as usual and managed to sleep pretty much the entire way between Knoxville and the Nooga. Meg can proudly say she is an App State Alumni and now she has to find a job...ha! That is the sad part! I think she is actually moving in with us this summer...moving back to Chattanooga to just work a bit before making life plans. It should be interesting having her live with us...we have plenty of space but our plenty of space might seem a bit smaller with a full time room mate. I really like her...and I am thankful that we get along so swimmingly well (I've heard horror stories of in-laws/sister-in-laws that didn't get along as well!). Chad might hate it that we will probably do a bit more shopping than I do now! I guess it will all work out because we will all be working so much that we probably won't get to hang out as much as we would like.

I am plan-less this week. Chad has to teach a lifeguard class pretty much every night and on into this weekend so I will have to entertain myself at night. It shouldn't be too hard considering the fact that I only open at HL today and tomorrow so I will be working Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday night.

My best friend's great-grandmother died this morning and while I desperately want to go down for the funeral, I am not going to be able to go. It is by choice, as weird as that sounds. I am going to be off work this weekend and sorta planned on heading down to Columbus anyway so I talked to her about it and decided that I should just come down when I planned on coming so we can actually hang out. She will be surrounded by people who love her so she will be taken care of and then we can spend some quality time doing nothing (and eating at Ok Sun's!) this weekend! Please keep her and her family in your prayers...her grandmother's death wasn't exactly sudden but it was fairly quick....Not that you are ever prepared or ready for someone you love to be gone...pray that they will be comforted by their memories and laughter and good times and stories and knowing that she is in Heaven - dancing, singing, laughing, and sitting in the beauty of our Creator.

My plan for tonight is to clean off the kitchen counter....pay a couple of bills (I love to write checks....not to much on the giving out money part but love writing checks!) and get some dinner ready for when Chad comes home. Suggestions? Help!

quiet on the home front

Sorry its been a few days since we last spoke...I've been really busy. Working, finishing my mom's mothers day present that will probably get in the mail after mother's day (sorry mom!!), getting ready to leave town (which we are doing tonight as soon as I get off work!). I switched shifts with one of the other supervisors so I open and we will be able to leave town as soon as I get off work at 5:30 or 6. We are headed up to Boone, NC. to watch Chad's sister graduate college from App State. Congrats Meg! She has worked hard and is happy to be finished, as I was when that day came! J is driving up with us, he showed up last night and I picked up pizza on the way home, which I am currently eating cold for breakfast. Yummy!
I will be taking the camera and hopefully lots of pictures so I will update you when we get back home. We will be driving back tomorrow...too quick trip in my opnion...so wish us luck and pray for safe travels!
Gotta go finish packing and make my lunch for work.
Be back in a couple of days!

mid day

I am home in the middle of the day today for a random reason.
The other supervisor is sick and has called in the past few days...when I got to work this morning, the store manager asked me if she called in sick if I would be willing to work a split shift and close tonight. I told him that I wouldn't mind doing that...so I left work at 1:30 and I have to be back at 5 to close the store. I figure that if I am flexible when they need something then they will be flexible when I need to leave to handle things/doctors appointments/etc in the future. I am at home, hanging out with the dog...might clean up it the kitchen a bit.
Might finish my mom's mothers day gift too.
Maybe.
Hopefully.

end of the day

End of the day recap...
All I did today was:
-Went to the gym
-Make my super special craft project (it took me like 5 hours...one part nearly made me lose my religion I was so frustrated!)
-Ran a few errands (including mailing the special project and getting my sister a little surprise)
-Ate dinner with Chad's parents, sister and nephew
-Sat on the back patio and enjoyed the evening

Found out some fabulous news...hope it is ok to share...
one of my best friends applied for a transfer to a new department...got an interview...and got the job. I just heard the news, via e-mail.
Congrats dearest!
(I left the details out in case you wanted to tell people first!)

Watching Fringe with my sweetie and the stinky dog the night it comes on for the first time in weeks!(only not so stinky cause she got a bath last night)
Have a fabulous night!

big plans

Happy Cinco de Mayo!
I promised Chad nachos and Corona tonight.
I will skip out on the Corona (nasty!) and have a homebrew instead thank you very much...
Chad tasted one of the latest homebrews while I was down in Columbus last week and he said about three sips into it "wow....where can I get another one of these?!" because it was just that good. We must be doing something right!
I'm off work today. Got up early and met A at the YMCA...still really enjoying getting up and going. It makes me feel so much more energized all day and I am quite convinced that it makes me sleep better at night (much needed!) so it has only been positive. I also spend a lot less time just hanging out doing nothing in the mornings. I get up and go, even on my days off, so then I can come home and spend more time doing stuff around here or hanging out with Chad. I tried to convince him to take a "sick day" today and stay home with me but his "big boss" was gonna be in today and he didn't think it would be a wise choice. Too responsible, that one is. It is really ok though because if he stayed home I wouldn't get all the stuff done that I wanted to get done. Namely, my numbero uno project. I have a special request for a little something for my best friend. I made her a purse a couple of weeks ago but forgot to take it with me to Columbus when I went so I am going to mail it to her with another something that I have to make today. (I am being really benign because she is giving it as a gift so I don't want to spoil the surprise!). But, I also have a little surprise included for her too (yea!!) so expect goodies Jess!

I have to clean off the dining room table to work on my project (one of the pieces of furniture Jay took from our bedroom was the big desk I was using as a sewing table...which is really ok because it also gathered a lot of other mess along the way.) My mom brought me the little table/cabinet that my Papa built to house her sewing machine, which I already had, so now I have a place to work. I am going to put it at one end of the dining room table and hopefully be able to keep my stuff pretty neat. Onward to my project!

Oh yeah...I am pretty sure that my computer is possessed. Every once in a while, when I open someone else's blog to read/catch up on my news, it starts to open a thousand of the same blog in a seperate window at the bottom of my screen. Seriously. I have to just shut down the computer to stop it. Is this a virus or something?

lovely days

It has been such a lovely weekend (even with the days of drenching rain we have been experiencing but you all know how I feel about rain when it keeps my sweetie home...ah...yes...rain. Beautiful rain!). I was off Saturday and Sunday (which should happen every other weekend, depending on how it falls. (who wants to come visit?!?) and Chad and I got to spend some fabulous quality time together. He had some stuff he had to do yesterday morning so I stayed home, slept in (I didn't tell him about that part...he would have been too jealous!), and then did some work in our bedroom. Jay came up Wednesday night and left yesterday morning with a U-Haul full off furniture, two rather large pieces from our bedroom. I was a little bummed to see it go...mostly because I had gotten used to it looking the way it does and I am not a huge fan of change! But, we will move some stuff around and we are getting this really cool chaise (?sp) lounge chair recovered in a neutral color (maybe linen?!?) to put in our room, creating a little reading nook. I am excited about that part. I will show you some pictures of our now empty room and them some afters when we get more work done on it. I am a firm believer in your bedroom being a sanctuary, a calm, comfortable place to just hang out so that is what we are going for.

Chad and I watched all three X-Men movies today. Yes, all three...with plans to see the new one this weekend. I am pretty excited. Mostly because of Hugh Jackman. Need I say more?

I also moved a huge mirror off the dining room wall (this place has more mirrors than a hair salon) and put a cool big painting that my mom did in its place. It is currently just sitting on a table, leaning against the wall and I actually thing I am going to leave it that way. Keeps me from having to put new hangers/holes in the wall (it's a heavy canvas piece) and I sorta like the funky way it is just leaning.

That's all for now folks...just finished dinner and gonna spend the rest of my evening just enjoying time with my sweetie.

a guilty update

I felt so bad about complaining about S' use of my salad goodies that I went ahead and gave up her Mother's Day present. It is too cute anyway....calling cards from the ladies at the Galleria in Columbus and a cute leather case to carry them in. I've been hanging out with them twice when she has given someone the torn off corner of a deposit slip to share information (address, phone number, etc.). So now she has a cute way to pass along vitals. I feel better. Somehow more justified.

Chad says to fix this....
apparently gypsy moths are not endangered.
They are eating up everything in sight.
And endangering trees or something.
I stand corrected.

fancy that...an update

She's using my pecans too.
The ones my mom gave me for Christmas.
I know.
Its weird.
But am I still allowed to be upset?

facts

Chad's parentals are coming over for dinner with Jay and Chad and I.
They were supposed to be here and we were going to eat at 7.
It is 7:45 and they just showed up.
Chad's mom still has to cook her asparagus.
And make her salad.
This is where is gets interesting.
She is making the "love of my life" salad.
Fabulous.
What is not so fabulous?
She didn't bring her own blue cheese or oil/vinegar.
Thought using mine wouldn't be a big deal.
Its really not a big deal.
I mean, I only paid a fortune for it and eat it every day.
Using what I have left is no....big....deal.
Oh Lord help me.