Groceries... oh no

I'm sorry to announce that I will not be posting a grocery list for this week. My husband and I found out a week ago that we will be moving and just last Wednesday found a new home. A wonderful home! We're very excited to be moving into a townhouse not too far from where we lived this past year. Because of this we are not keeping track of our eating and goodness we are not being very healthy. I can tell you that under the piles of frozen pizzas are frozen veggies in those steam-able baggies, apples, bananas, Fiber One knock off bars etc. But there are still frozen pizzas.. and we will eat them.
We started moving on Thursday and everything organization wise has just gone down the drain so I'm not keeping up with food, just bare minimum on money and cooking time. Plus almost all of our stuff is at the new place so I can't toast anything or bake anything or use anything that would need flour or sugar.. you know the drill. We're hoping to move our mattress over on Wednesday if we can so we can 'stay' at the new place. The mammoth headboard to our bed will have to come later. So maybe by Wednesday we can have some peace and some normal eating.

Good news is that I think I might have some tomatoes. Yes, I'm done with the potatoes. We did have a 'crop' but I wasn't brave enough to eat them. Tomatoes form from blossoms on the tomato plant and I'm proud to say that I have two full blossoms and several others budding.

We have also taken on the project of painting an 'accent wall' in the new place, a deep chocolate brown, and then hanging curtains over the sliding glass doors on that wall. I'm very impressed and love the way it turned out. Now if we could just get a few pieces of furniture in there!

How are the dogs doing in the midst of all these boxes and packing supplies? They have both taken to pooing on the floor lately. I think it's their way of rebelling just a little bit. I mean.. wouldn't you? Surrounded by cardboard boxes, familiar things suddenly disappear, it's a crazy mess. I can clean up the poo, no problem, I'm just thankful that they aren't eating things or throwing up, that would be an entirely different ordeal. When they come to the new townhouse they have a blast. They run up and down the stairs and round and round in the living room. I think they are happy to have carpet and a little more traction than the hardwood they are used to. Jaime and I are simply thankful that we have no upstairs or downstairs neighbors that they can disturb.
Which reminds me! The other day while unpacking our cars our new neighbor, Cindy or Cheryl or something, came out with her little dog and he was barking up a storm. She apologized over and over and said, I'm so sorry, my dog just barks a lot. I smiled and said, that's ok, I've got two that bark like that :) We'll be the best of friends by this time next week I'm sure.

So that is what has been going on in our lives lately, and why I'm not posting a detailed list of our groceries, even though I'm sure that you are VERY interested in that. I did spend less than $45.00 which is good, we'll make up for that with ordering pizza I'm sure.. did I say pizza again? We love the stuff. Love it love it love it.

You can't judge a book by it's cover

I had this bright idea for a journal post yesterday after someone bought a Richard Clayderman book at work. We had this single sheet 'Ballade pour Adeline' that we kept selling so our music buyer decided to order a "Best Of" book. This book has the most gosh awful cover ever. It's old, outdated, tacky, and we make fun of it all the time. The weirdest part about this is that the music inside of it is AMAZING! Richard Clayderman was the shiz! I mean, he still is... his picture is just a little bit too 1970's for my taste. We have pondered why he doesn't change the cover to a more updated picture? Which makes me wonder why the publisher doesn't update the cover. I really think that more people would buy this book if it had a different cover. Another question would be this, is this book only popular in our part of the country? I just can't believe it. I mean, I've played through it, I loved it, and everyone is just like me right?

Point is, buy this book, it's awesome, but maybe paste some other picture over the cover after you do. ;)


Now I don't want to be seen as the chick that picks on only one person, so I have found another horibble cover but in this case I do not know first hand if the music is any good. So you're just going to have to listen to me talk about how bad the covers are. Richard Clayderman is a pretty good looking guy, even in his old age, that's right, I looked him up on the internet. THERE ARE BETTER PICTURES, MORE RECENT PICTURES I swear. But this other dude just doesn't look very attractive to me. This may just be my personal opinion, and I'm entitled to that, but all these book covers scare me just a tiny bit.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I introduce you to.... David Lanz.

He looks very thoughtful and honestly he sort of reminds me of John Malkovich which is a good thing, I like John Malkovich. But there is this tiny tiny part of me that says... don't open this book up Carrie, go look at the Enya stuff instead, she's safe and inviting.

You can't judge a book by it's cover especially if it's Richard Clayderman, and I've heard that David Lanz has great music, Dancing on the Berlin Wall is supposed to be amazing... I'm just wishing that the cover matched the book. But hey, I was a pretty funky looking girl in my teenage years and look how wonderful I turned out :) You just never know!

Groceries!!! 8/23

Here it is again! My grocery list only this time I'm not only in a hurry, but I also have no clue what our week is going to look like so we just... bought stuff... (insert stressed but happy face here)

Sandwich Bags
Orange Juice
Gallon 1% Milk
4 Totinos Pizzas... I know I know
Colby Cheese
Instant Potatoes
Skillet Chicken Meal
Large Container Strawberry/Banana Yogurt Yoplait
Peanut Butter
1 Macaroni and Cheese
Fiber Bars Chocolate and Oats
Egg Noodles
Kettle Corn Popcorn Redenbachers
Tomato Soup
Large Natural Applesauce
Pickles
Alfredo Sauce
Green Beans
Granny Smith Apples
Bananas
Green Grapes
Loaf of Nature's Own 100% Whole Wheat Bread
Honey Nut Cheerios

All for $56.59

And for this week's list of meals? I have no freaking idea.

The one item I'm super proud of is the Fiber Bars. I really wanted to try the Fiber One bars since I've been trying to get more fiber in my diet. I found a coupon online for 40 cents off so I thought.. bingo! BUT the wal mart brand was even cheaper than that and when I compared the nutrition facts it was exactly the same. No joke. That makes me very proud.

Carrie and the Cheesecake

So believe it or not I have never had cheesecake before and I've never made it. Something about how when I was little I tried to imagine a cake made out of cheese and those things didn't really go together for me... so it grossed me out. Who wants to eat a cake that tastes like cheese?

I'm so proud of myself that I have to put it in the blog... :).

I am also proud of the fact that I know how to make my own double boiler. I would much rather do it this way than put something in the microwave even though that is less work and faster. Something about this makes me feel old fashioned.

One other thing that caught my eye was the sour cream that I used to make the icing. I know right, sour cream and dark chocolate? Who knew? (It was the stuff dreams are made of). You know how people lick the tops of containers, like yogurt? I lick the top of my yogurt container sure, but sour cream? People do that? People are different from me? How the heck do they expect me find out the secret message written on the top of this container? Am I going to wash it off? All that work for words? Nope.

No one will ever know what was on there I guess. It must not have been that important. Why would you write something like that on something that is going to be covered with food? Are there that many people that are going to clean it off? Really?

So I want to show you know how much Huxley has grown :) Ready?This is the big boy Churchill, posing like the best. He's three so that's as big as he's going to get. Huxley is going into his 4th month... four months ya'll.


Just for a comparison of how much he's grown since we got him, here he is hiding under the furniture. Can't do that now :)



We had dinner last night at a friends house and if it weren't for the amazing polenta I might actually have not had anything healthy yesterday :) Sorry Lauren, I know you're a nutritionist and all.. but yesterday was just one of those days. Want to know what I actually had for breakfast... and lunch?

I promise that I'll eat some green leafy veggies today. I promise. After I finish the runts. I don't know why the picture is sideways, it wasn't like that when I uploaded it. Maybe blogspot has issues today.

If you know anyone who needs some organ shoes point them my way, I've got a pair for sale on ebay.

Holy Moses it's Groceries!! 8/15

I thought it would be a good idea for me to post my grocery list, what I bought, how much I spent, and the meals I plan to make since I'm trying to be very good about saving money.

My husband and I have given ourselves no eating out money this month and if I can save enough money in groceries then we can use that. I mentioned this to some of my friends and they seemed surprised that I could make meals for an entire week in under $60 so I thought.. to keep myself accountable and to give ideas about how to save money and make things stretch... I'll put it up here, for everyone to see :) Thanks to all my Calorie Count girls, you've inspired me.

We shopped at the Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market. (yes I used the self checkout)

What we bought:
1 Dozen Eggs
1 Gallon of Orange Juice
1 lb Lean Ground Beef
2 Cube Steak patties
8oz Cream Cheese
1 Box generic Ritz Crackers
1 Loaf French Bread
1 Quaker Rice Cakes (caramel)
1 Two Liter of diet Ginger Ale
1.5 Quart Vegetable Oil
16 oz Mozzarella Cheese
1 Light Sausage Vienna Sausages... Jaime...
3 packets of Active Yeast
2 packets of Sugar Free Low Calorie Chocolate Pudding
2 Totino 3 Cheese Pizzas
1 Jar of Strawberry Jam
3 lbs Green Grapes
1.5 lbs Red Potatoes
1/5 lbs Green Beans
1 Bag of White Onions
2 Green Bell Pepers
Ol' Roy Dog Food

All of this goodness for just $56.53

Now for the amazing week's worth of meals... are you ready?

Ok so we should start with the Cinnamon Rolls... that is my treat for the weekend (and if I'm careful the rest of the week). That's what I needed the yeast and cream cheese for. The rest of the stuff I have already, I mean.. how hard is it to come by flour, sugar, butter, milk, cinnamon? Not very.
Jaime's treats are the Vienna Sausages and the Ginger Ale

Sunday: Meatloaf and some French Bread toasted or not with some EVOO or something fun

Monday: Ziti Pasta and Pasta Sauce with Stuffed Bell Peppers

My plan with this is to use some left over Meatloaf to stuff the peppers and to only use one Bell Pepper, I got two big ones, cut it in half and stuff the halves that way I have one left over.

Tuesday: Pizza! We love pizza night and since we both work late this is the ideal night for no fuss cooking. This one is self explanatory.

Wednesday: Cubed Steak on French Bread with Potatoes on the side.

I will cook the cubed steak with onions and green bell peppers, butter up the French Bread and lay it on the pan for a little while for some 'rustic' feel. I'd like to do The Pioneer Woman's basic breakfast potatoes with this one but might just throw it all together. I won't lie, this one is all the Pioneer Woman's meal 100%. Here's the link to the sandwich... yum!

Thursday: Frittata. This one I'm just making with left overs. Any Bell Pepper or onion, any cheese, tons of egg and milk, potatoes, whatever we have lying around here.

Friday: This one is still a bit up in the air but I'm sure we'll think of something. Left overs if there are any.

Lunches we always do our own thing but usually consists of a sandwich and some fruit or something, or any left overs we have lying around. This past week it was gumbo and for those of you who don't know me, I get hung up on gumbo like a fool, a complete train wreck. When I eat gumbo it's like I can't imagine eating anything else.

Snacks! Everyone needs snacks. These are for when we are just hungry for a bite or something to perk up our lunches.
Grapes
Chocolate Pudding
Ritz Crackers
Ritz Crackers with this kickin natural peanut butter flavored *naturally.. but I don't know how* to taste like chocolate chip cookie dough. Need I say more?
Plus I'm making Cinnamon Rolls... that's right, as we speak.

I also have lots of these in the cabinet just in case:
Rice
Noodles, Ziti, Spaghetti, Lasagna (you just never know)
Prego
Beans :) beans..
Oatmeal

All of that is pretty cheap to buy in bulk so when my grocery bill is not approaching $60 I'll stock up on it.

My one buy that I'm super excited about this week is the dog food. Huxley has been finishing off Churchill's food for quite some time now and since he's approaching the 4 month mark we figured we could feed him regular dog food as long as it was small enough. The Ol' Roy brand saved us as much as it cost us. $8.50. We were buying Purina and that stuff gets really expensive. Plus I think it's a scam that the animal food companies tell you that you need to feed them certain things at certain 'developemental' points in their puppy lives. If my 3 1/2 month old puppy is scarfing down the other dog's food and hasn't died yet or had a bad vet report then I think we're quite ready for grown up stuff. Besides, he has already started losing baby teeth. What a little man :)

I'll leave you with some visual cheese!

I swear I'm still an extrovert

In the last post I pet peeved about people that drive me crazy and ended by saying that I felt I was self sufficient.

In every single Myers/Briggs test I've ever taken I have always come out with E for Extrovert. I've also always ranged between ENFP and ESFP... but that is beside the point. I'm sure that there are a range of extroverts out there with different levels of loving-to-be-around-people-all-the-time. After posting about how I love to check myself out at the grocery store, at the cashier-not my reflection in the frozen food doors, I realized that there are lots of things I like to do by myself. Somehow that just doesn't seem synonymous with extrovert. I like to be left alone while shopping. If someone asks me if they can help me find something in a store I just say 'No'. Leave me alone. If they keep talking or offer me their daily special I turn around and walk away. I want to focus on the task at hand, something that I think I'm very good at. Grocery shopping for instance, I do not need your help to find my groceries, I'm already very good at it. Once in Victoria's Secret I was approched by three different people asking if they could help me find something. Three people? To help me find underwear? I know what I'm looking for for goodness sake! It's underwear. I went to a music store to find a sonata book years ago and someone asked if they could help me and I said "I'm just looking for a book of sonatas by different composers". The woman said to me, "oh we don't have anything like that". All I could think was... I should not have talked to you, and then walked to the section and got the book I was looking for. I knew that store better than the person being paid to be there.

I swear I'm still an extrovert but sometimes, just sometimes I really revel in being alone. Lately I've found that to be true more and more. Maybe it's the whole, having a husband effect on me. Last Wednesday I went to Barnes and Noble to read through a book. It was so nice to just sit in a chair for an hour, free to read what I wanted. I felt so put together after that. I have to be honest and say that in this case I did ask for help finding the book I was looking for, BUT no one approached me. There's a difference. I have no problem seeking out help or advice... but freely given? No thanks.

I realized yesterday after having run by myself at the gym how much I enjoyed it. It was almost like by running by myself, without my husband or dog, that I was in charge and in control of my run. Doesn't make sense when you really think about it, I mean, I'm still in control if Jaime is running beside me, or Churchill. I think part of it was because yesterday was such a gosh darn good run. I did four miles which for me is becoming my new base. I had been struggling for run after run of not having enough energy, or feeling like I'm out of breath. I thought.. maybe I'm not a runner, maybe it's my crazy thyroid acting up, maybe I ate the wrong thing? Yesterday I pulled the speed way way down and ran like I've never run before. I was just going too fast. It was like I could keep going forever. I had been having a hard time before with taking breaks during my run. I would have to walk for a few minutes during every run, and usually several times. Last night was not like that, I had to stretch at one point because my legs got tight and then I walked it out but after about two minutes I started right back up. It was so easy for me. After I left the gym all I could think about was how nice it was to do that by myself. I've read about so many people that are in running groups or have friends that they run with. All I can think is what trouble! I don't want someone waiting for my slow legs to finish, I don't want to hold someone back, or be held back myself. I don't want someone to watch me agonize over six miles this weekend. I want to be by myself and focus only on me and my game.

You know, being a musician is very similar now that I think about it. I used to spend hours a day practicing by myself. I think I really miss that alone time that I had. No one to bother me, no one to remind me of deadlines or stress me out, just me and my work. I do my best work like that. It's the idea that no one is watching you. No one. How opposite is that from a performance when all eyes are on you, or a race where you are literally surrounded by people. That raises an entirely different question, how to make the switch from alone to surrounded... I don't even know how to answer that myself.

Point is, I liked being alone yesterday and I look forward to my next run :)

Jaime and The Theif

Title totally stolen from Rennai. Thanks a bunch for the genius idea!

These are some pictures of my handsome, wonderful, hunk of a man, Jaime. I love you, I'm so glad that you picked me.

The younger days before we were really introduced. No, saying that my comment in Music Literature was so good you wanted to make out with me was not a proper introduction. Sorry. But it did plant a seed, like you said.

You're so funny!!



So here you are getting your crowning glory "Delta Omicron Sweetheart". There I am behind you in the black shirt... Just think! A few months later your car would break down, your girlfriend would dump you, and I would ask you on our first date :)




Remember that time we went to a Halloween party and I was Duck Tape and you were God's Gift to Women? Would have been a different story if you didn't have that extra duct tape handy... you were and always will be my hero, even if being a hero means duct taping your girlfriend/wife back together.



Scotchy, scotch, scotch, here it goes down, down into my belly



I know you don't like cats and that you are very very very allergic... but they love you Jaime. They flock to you.



lmao Baby Ruth!!

More pet peeves?

I just feel compelled to talk about an issue that has been bothering me for a little while now. You know how people are different than you? There is this one type of person that really bugs me and while working in a music store I run into them often. If any of you have had experience in customer service or cashier-type jobs then you've probably run into this person too. One of them came into my work today.
They are the type of person that seems oblivious to everything. I ask if they are ready to check out and they mumble 'uh huh' while not making eye contact. I actually had one woman look the other way and shove her books at my face. Needless to say I waited politely for her to place them on the counter. This type of person is almost always a woman, except in one case where it was a man. He bought religious books and was accompanied by a girl and a dog in a stroller. That's what I said. A stroller. He slammed his books down, faced away from me and started picking something out of his finger nails. I instantly think... who died and left you king.. or queen? I just don't understand this type of person, why is it hard to make eye contact? Why is it hard to form complete sentences when being asked "did you find everything ok"? These types of people will wander the store looking for the 'check out' and upon finding it will exclaim, well I just wasn't sure where I was going! (Hard to believe since I greeted them, helped them find their books, and then told them I'll be in the back when they are ready to check out). This type of person revels in their stupidity. This type of person always acts like the amount they are paying for their music could hardly make a dent on their credit card, and yes, it's almost always credit.

I don't really like going through check out lines myself and will usually ignore all the familiar banter, but I make eye contact. I don't tap my nails on the counter, I don't sigh when it takes just a minute too long and I don't pretend like I have no clue what is going on when someone says "your total is....". I do have to admit that when I'm in the Walmart Neighborhood Market I chose the line where you can check yourself out just so I don't have to deal with people. You see, I chose to not deal with people because I'm self sufficient. That's how I like to look at things.

Doom and a Schnauzer's never ending quest to have alone time.

I'm sitting on the couch with my husband while he plays Doom. He says that since he beat this game years ago without a walk through that he deserves to use a walk through this time. So in between writing this blog and reading the other blogs I read daily, I 'Ctrl-Tab' over to You Tube so he can watch exactly what someone else did on their X-Box (except someone else wasn't playing doom in Ultra Violent Mode), Jaime states that the person on You Tube is in I'm-too-young-to-die-mode, I'm not sure that's an actual mode but it works for me. Plus Jaime finished the game, all the achievements and everything.

While sitting here and reading updates from Ingrid and This Dude (who I've become more and more interested in lately, mostly because he lives in Florida and that sounds like a lot of fun! Plus his pictures are amazing.) I was watching my puppies playing. Churchill would wait on the couch, very calmly, until little Huxley walked into the room and then leap off the couch on top of Huxley. I smile whenever I see this because it's a well thought out plan. Churchill sits as calmly as possible, I might even be petting him, when all of the sudden he attacks. The poor puppy can't jump up on the couch yet, he's still too small, so until he can he will have to put up with these masterminded attacks.

When it became apparent that Hux was tired of being jumped on and really did only want some cuddle time on the couch we picked him up and brought him up here. It's so funny watching our dogs think. We're trying to teach the puppy all the commands that Churchill knows. For instance, 'Up!' means... come up wherever we are, the couch, a chair, the bed, anything higher than him. Churchill is adept at this move. We stared at the puppy who was sitting about two feet from the couch and said 'Up!' several times and he just sat there, intent, focused on these words he did not understand. About 45 seconds into our command the wheels started turning and he got super excited and tried to jump up, still too small. It's cute that he tries so hard, we're hoping that he's not a stupid dog and that this is just a puppy phase where he's learning new words. It wouldn't be horrible to have a dumb dog, it's just that Churchill is so smart, it would be kinda sad, funny, but sad.

Our Schnauzer's quest to have alone time is never ending. I don't know if this is a regular animal occurrence or if it's especially true with Schnauzers. There are certain things that you're going to deal with depending on what pet you own. For instance if you have a Border Collie you're going to have a dog that will constantly herd things, balls, cats, you. When you own a Schnauzer (or two!) you'll have to deal with their vocalization. Schnauzers are unlimited in their ability to talk. Often times it sounds like an actual person in the other room, but it's just our puppies playing. Imagine your dog being able to vocalize everything they experience through the day. We have a different vocal sound for 'I have to pee, pick me up and take me out, I'm too small to get off the bed on my own', when they play together there is a fun one like 'I'm vicious, I'm vicious' but it really just sounds like an old woman grunting. There is an impatient sound when we have a treat and they are trying their hardest to obey our commands but what they really want is that Old Roy! It's a pained sound that leaks from their vocal chords without a break, a stream of 'uhhhhhhhhhhhhehhhhhhhhhhhh' and sometimes if you're lucky they will stick their head out to emphasize their longing. A special most annoying sound is saved for when we are on a car trip and Jaime or I get out of the car at a gas station. All their worried agitation is summed up in this strained horrible cry, it really does sound like the world is falling apart. The best thing though is that Huxley doesn't seem to need to make most of these noises, especially the last one, I don't know if he doesn't miss us as much or if he just doesn't care yet :)
If you know me in person then you are very aware of most of these noises, but the one noise that passes up the totally normal 'woof' that they sometimes make out of surprise, the noise that obliterates all the whines, and all the audible yawns, is the noise that they make when they meet someone that they recognize. This is a BFD. It's huge when the dogs recognize someone. They go into frantic mode, jumping, running around, all the while crying in the most high pitched voice I've ever heard, and trying to be as close as possible to the person they 'know'. Part of me gets really frustrated over this because we have to go through a ritual of greeting in order for the dogs to calm down, and part of me thinks it's adorable that the dogs get that excited over 'knowing' someone. My parents get this often, they play along. Lindsey gets it all the time, especially since she is the surrogate mother who babysits from time to time and she always gives them their greeting time. Poor Willie, he gets it even though he doesn't like dogs. You know those people? They really don't like animals but the animals are drawn to him. He could tell my dog to jump and Churchill would just say how high. Bless their hearts. Austin gets it too since he helped raise Churchill, and it's just slightly different for him since Churchill really respects Austin.
*Now that I've taken up a whole blog about noises I'll post what I was supposed to post*
Alone time!
While watching Jaime play Doom the dogs went through periods of playing and periods of trying to achieve alone time. This usually works pretty well since the puppy can't get up on the couch on his own yet. But on the other end, the puppy has his crate and the big dog can't get in there when Huxley is already there. Churchill was getting situated on the right side of the couch, calming down and ready to nap. Huxley finally figures out what 'Up!' means and immediately crawls over to Churchill to cuddle. That's not going to work out since Church desperately needs alone time. Churchill promptly gets up, off the couch, and onto the ottoman. Hux looks a little defeated. Somehow Churchill gets back to the couch since he obviously didn't want to be that alone. We had one dog on the right side and one on the left side, quite zen and balanced if you ask me. Then they switch again, too much alone time? Huxley came over and cuddled up with Churchill in a very rare moment of puppy love. They lay right next to each other, paws wrapped up in the others, heads resting against each other. Huxley is just a smaller darker twin of Churchill. That lasted all of five minutes and it was time for the quest to being for alone time once again. Hux moves over to the left side of me, against a pillow and Churchill nonchalantly rolls over until he is upside down against my right side. Alone time is good as long as it includes a side of me, plus he's always preferred sleeping upside down. To not be out done Huxley scoots against my left side. It's like he knew he should be there.

Something feels so good, so right when you have your two dogs, sleepy and happy right up next to you. Well.. there isn't anything much better than a sleepy puppy.. even better when there are two of them.
Huxley has since ventured on this never ending quest and is now several feet from me. I wonder, is this just a dog thing?
Little do they know that I'm planning on a long long walk later this afternoon.

Pet Peeves

I was recently reading through one of those 'notes' a friend was tagged in on Facebook. It said Pet Peeve and the person wrote - leaving the shower curtain open. I read that and thought, me too! I remember closing the shower curtain after a shower was of utmost importance in my family growing up and thanks to mom and dad I now own that pet peeve. My husband, however, does not. So I was standing in the kitchen just a moment ago and thought, that would be a really good journal entry, pet peeves. I was stirring my night cap of hot chocolate and promptly opened the running dishwasher to put my dirty spoon in. It was just a smidge of chocolate and the washer had just started. I realized two things.
1. My husband hates it when I open the dishwasher after it has begun running it's course. He somehow thinks that the washer looses it's magic if opened after starting.
2. My husband while loading the washer crammed as much silverware into that little silverware holder as possible. I hate that. If you stack up five spoons and wash them the ones in the middle rarely get clean!
So on to the pet peeves. I'm trying to think of what my pet peeves are, I'm sure I have some.

-I hate it when Jaime plays devil's advocate without telling me and I actually think he disagrees with everything I say. I'm pretty gullible.
-When Jaime does the dishes he leaves things behind to 'soak' instead of scrubbing them. This just means that I get to clean them later.
-When cars pull up at red lights and inch forward as if it helps the light turn green.
-When people don't use their blinker.
-When Churchill thinks that just because we have Huxley he can get away with anything... what are we blind now that we have two dogs?

I'm sure I can think of more but there are better things to talk about.

Today while making my night cap I was thinking about how wonderful life is. Jaime and I had just worked out, I ran two miles without stopping after having a very bad morning of running... like couldn't make it through a mile bad. I bench pressed 65 pounds which is pretty cool. I had taken a shower while my husband did the dishes *see above* and put on one of his old PMA shirts, stood in the kitchen and was making some hot chocolate. I was thinking how wonderful today has turned out to be and I couldn't quite put my finger on why that was. I like being in an over sized T-shirt, especially my husbands. I like not having to blow dry my hair. I really like the hot chocolate. I thought maybe it was because Jaime didn't get home until 6pm and I already had dinner made, ready and waiting on him. I practiced crate training with Huxley and he was doing much better... and it just now occurred to me that I had just finished working out. I'm always on a high after working out, even if it's just two miles and some weights. I so quickly forget that I feel so good after running. Maybe I should run late at night more often.

Pet Peeve - When Jaime tries to hang out with me EVERY TIME I am writing a journal entry. It's like he knows without really knowing that I'm already focused on something. I can't keep a good train of thought on writing when he's talking to me. Not that this journal is stellar as far as journaling goes but still. Right now he's gotten out every pick that Dunlop sells and has spread them out on the table I'm sitting at, every now and then he actually gets up and walks over to put a pick in my face and says something about polycarbonate or grippies or something else. As annoying as it is I think it's gosh darn cute too. It's just a pet peeve, I don't really want or expect it to stop.

Round Two

Yesterday when I was at work Jaime sent me a text message that said "Ha ha I cleaned the dog, you get to clean the cage". Round Two for poopy crate. So as duty called I cleaned that cage. Is this going to be something that we have to go through every day? I'm about to line it with a garbage bag.

Onto better things like weight lifting and running miles upon miles.

Vacation Recap!

Last week Jaime and I took a vacation with my father and mother, brother and sister in law. We all met up in South Carolina and then drove to Clemson/Seneca and went boating on the Keowee :) It was beautiful and I forgot how hard it is to swim for very long!
Here I am discussing something with Lacy.

When we were on the boat it started to rain and we all ran to the back to keep from getting wet. Not that we weren't already wet to begin with. Well that caused the front end of the boat to raise up since it was lighter and it slowed us down. My parents bravely decided to sit in the front of the boat to increase our speed. What good parents!
My brother, Taylor, decided that he couldn't see to drive the boat sitting down, so he stood up. He's always doing things a little differently. Good thing the lake patrol wasn't out and about.


Over all it was a great trip on the lake. My mother even wanted to go tubing with me which was very very fun (as long as my bathing suit stayed in place).

After this we picked the dogs up from the kennel (no dogs on the boat!) and made our way up to Andrews, NC to this little cottage that we rented. My dad was using this GPS unit to find our way up there while my mother was using the typed directions that the owner of the cottage emailed to her. This email included phrases like "go by pass a gas station" etc. We ended up on a road that brought us past way too many red-necks and then a sign that said 'pavement ends' which it promptly did. This road then turned into a very windy mountain road which included piles of tree stumps on fire, you know, the usual for Andrews. The road turned into a one lane mountain gravel road. My parents were like this is so beautiful! I was like.. those are the last words you're ever going to say. We're going to be murdered out here. Then my mom said... what if this guy doesn't even have a cabin out here? What if he just took our money? We took this one lane (And by one lane I mean... no three point turns allowed) road and finally found a cottage, it was really pretty. Then we passed several trailers that hadn't been inhabited for a while and we got scared again. Finally we found our cottage and when we got out of the car the view was absolutely beautiful. We were all thrilled! What a diamond in the rough!


Even the puppies thought it was fun! Too bad they found some poo on the ground they thought was tasty, we had a hard time keeping them from it.


Here we are playing Trivial Pursuit inside the tiny tiny cabin. It was very cozy and Taylor and Jaime did not do well. Every one was cheating except them. I guess in this case cheaters do win.


The water was beautiful and cold. We even taught Huxley how to swim. We let Churchill swim but he was a little more nervous about it than Huxley. Churchill did not like the fact that while I was swimming he could not get to me. Poor dear. Here he is exploring! There was no beach just a dock you jumped off which can be pretty intimidating to a schnauzer but he made the best of it.


I think the dogs really liked the great outdoors. We got some awesome hiking in which wiped them out for the rest of the day. We also went white water rafting. Left the dogs at home with Mom while she read and we headed out to Nantahala! Dad was really great to get some pictures of us coming down the last rapid. Although the water was absolutely freezing we all had a great time.



After all this I surprised Jaime by taking him to the Biltmore House for a late anniversary gift. It's just the kind of thing that he loves! We had a wonderful time and even ate a very fancy lunch followed by Creme Brule and Wine Tasting! We don't like wine but it was fun :) We also tried to take a picture with my camera set on automatic... didn't work that well but I think we look adorable.


A very good week if I must say so myself. I'll leave you with this little tidbit of cuteness. After the long hike in the Joyce Kilner forest those babies were tuckered out :)