Things Are A Little Boogered Up Around Here

As you have probably noticed, things are just a little boogered up around here. First of all, my blog background has disappeared without even a civil word of farewell. I had one day with a little box that said to click to visit The Cutest Blog On The Block for details regarding my background & the warning that it would disappear on July 23rd. Delinquent blogger that I am, I didn't take the time to click that little box & voila! the background ran off & got married. Or something. All I know is that it is gone. I tried to download another one but the computer at my work doesn't have a current version of Internet Explorer & I just don't know if I'm allowed to update it. Is that silly of me to worry about? Who knows, I just may do it here in a few minutes & straighten out this booger-y mess!

Also, does it totally crack you up that I copied & pasted a sample graphic so that I could have a nose-picking graphic for this post? Is that illegal? I sure hope not.

In addition to the blog getting all boogered up, my schedule is all boogered up this week, too. Yesterday I went in to work at 7 a.m. (the normal time). Today I came in at 6:30. Tomorrow, Thursday, & Friday I will be reporting for duty at 3:30 a.m. I'm a little nauseous typing that out. I can't believe that anyone can expect me to handle radioactive material at that time of the night/morning...which is it? I have worked the 3:30 shift before, but I have never worked it three days in a row. Oh my heart, it's gonna be painful. Please pray that I don't oversleep. And that poor Mike doesn't oversleep because I will not be there to pinch him, pull his hair, spray water on his face - you know, all the usual it's-time-to-get-up-and-go-to-work-honey stuff.

But there is good news. There is always good news. Since I'll be going in so early, I'll be getting off early, too. I will be able to go swimming with Beth & the kids one afternoon. That will be a lot of fun. I will feel like I have a jump start on the weekend, too. That is ALWAYS a good thing.

And there are plenty of lovely things happening this week. We have flowers blooming. We have had yummy fresh garden produce to eat. I got to help Mike put some paint on our new kitchen shelf so we have made some progress there. I got to meet up with an old friend from junior high last night & go for a long walk. Can you believe that, junior high! All made possible by our little friend facebook. And the super wonderful refreshing thing about it is that she is exactly the same person now as she was then. I love people like that. Definitely a good way to wrap up a Monday night, catching up with an old friend.

Sometimes I definitely feel overwhelmed by the boogery-ness - so much to do! so many places to go! so many miles to get in for my training! so much cleaning/laundry/folding/putting away! weird computer things happening that I have no control over! the endless list of projects that I really want to get done!

And we don't even have kids yet! That is a wonderful adventure that I may never survive, if we get to go down that road. I'm sure some of you mommies that read my blog (I thank you so much for taking time out of your busy days for me! You're swell!), probably think that I need to get a grip & realize how easy I have it...I know, I know...

So in the midst of my swirling sea of overwhelmed-ness, the Lord gently reminds me of all that I have to be grateful for. Surely His timing with those little nudges is absolutely perfect. For example, Sunday night Mike & I were both dreading Monday morning & the inevitable return to work. As we were flipping through the channels we saw part of a news show where they were interviewing people who had been unemployed long term. We were both convicted & convinced that God should be thanked for our regular employment. Every time I feel frustrated or bugged by the messy house or the laundry or the dishes or the grocery shopping that must be done I feel that little nudge - thank God I have such a cute little house! and so many clothes! & we must have had a nourishing meal to produce all those dirty dishes! & we have money to spend at the grocery & a selection of groceries to go to that are fully stocked!

My cup overflows. Every day. Lord, help me never to take Your provision & care for granted.

How have you been counting your blessings lately? Please share & we can encourage one another!

Hi There

Just popping in this afternoon to say hi. I went to find a clip art pic of a girl waving & there were some really cute ones out there. I picked this little girl because she looks like me. I have big feet. But I would never wear a skirt that short. Just saying.

Anyway, I've been thinking that I needed to get on here & just blog, blog, blog. I've got some pics at home that I need to load up. I tried to email a couple of pics to a friend on Sunday night & the whole situation melted down into a terrible failure. For some reason, my ancient dinosaur of a laptop can't seem to upload images from my camera. And our desktop doesn't have some of the pics that I wanted to send. I was trying to send some from the laptop & some from the desktop & my head was spinning like a top & nothing was working so I finally got so mad I went to bed without brushing my teeth. It's true.

Therefore, I haven't tried to upload any pics since then. I'm afraid of what it might cost me in emotional strength.

And I kinda feel like I don't have much to say.

I know some of you are shaking your heads in disbelief because MaryAnn's ALWAYS got a little bit of something to say.

And it's true because I just thought of two things I'd like to say:

1. Mike's work shift changed this week. He used to work 7 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. This is almost the exact same schedule I have. It was nice. Now he works 5:30 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. This is a little rough. Neither of us are morning people. We are stay up foolishly late people. So we are trying to be in bed by 10:00 p.m. & we get up at 4:55 a.m. *ouch* I could stay in bed & let him get himself off to work, but I don't like to do that. Before you decide that I'm stupidly sappy about my man I will have to admit that I'm very afraid of oversleeping. I have to be at work at 7:00 a.m. & it's too super easy for me to snooze my alarm for hours. So I get up with Mike. And I have found that extra morning time to be super productive. I eat breakfast. I read my Bible. I get to take a normal shower instead of a major multitasking 4 minute deal. I can work out. I can make the bed. One morning I even had time to wash dishes. But I'm a little tired. I keep telling myself I'm just getting adjusted to a new schedule. Next week ask me how I'm doing *grin*

2. When I looked at my blog before I started this post there was a box in the corner saying that my blog design will disappear this Friday & to go to The Cutest Blog on the Block for more details. What is THAT all about? I feel the same way about my blog as I do my cell phone ring tone - once I find one I like I keep it. Forever. It's almost the same level of commitment as marriage. I am not kidding.

That's all I have to report. If you made it this far through this post, you are a champ & I love ya!

Anniversary Vacation Day Four

We slept in Monday morning. I think we were both kind of sad realizing that our vacation was almost over. It just flew by so fast!

We finally got up & got moving. I called the plumber & desperately begged their answering machine to consider our situation an emergency & then we headed out to another antique shop in town that we had not visited before. It was huge & packed full of treasures. We spent a big chunk of time in there wandering around. Then we headed to an old favorite antique place. Mike's mom had found some plates there she thought we might be looking for. When we got to the store we called her & it was a hilarious game of treasure hunt trying to find them by her directions. We never did find them so we assumed they had been sold. Wrong. She went there the next day & got them for us. Either she gives bad directions or Mike can't follow directions. I'm not going to make the final decision on that one!

We went home & Mike got busy planning some of his woodworking projects & I made some zucchini bread & marinated some pork chops. We had decided to stay in for dinner & grill. It was a nice relaxing afternoon of cooking, cleaning up a bit & getting ready for the next day's work. Really, I have a nice job & I have nothing to complain about but Mike has kind of a miserable situation. I spent some energy Monday night trying to keep his spirits up. I don't like to see my man down, you know?

We grilled our pork chops (a new grilling food for us), homemade mac 'n cheese, & cauliflower. Followed by some zucchini bread, we weren't hungry anymore. We went for a drive that night & I had to make a quick trip to Walgreens & then we closed the curtains on our Anniversary Vacation.

I used to take such big trips - Hawaii, Europe, the Carolinas, out west...these days I don't really care where I'm going as long as I can head home quick & be with Mike the whole time. I think I've grown up.

FINALLY!

Anniversary Vacation Day Three

Day Three of our Anniversary Vacation was our For Real Anniversary!

I can't hardly believe we have been married for a whole year already...sometime I should sit back & ponder that. Reflect on what I've learned, what I'm grateful for, what the Lord has blessed us with...yep, I should do that.

Hopefully I will...sometime.

This picture is actually from Day Two. We spent so much time driving I thought I should catch a picture in the car. No matter how many shots I took I couldn't get rid of my double chin. Maybe it's there all the time & I just don't know about it. If it is there all the time, please don't tell me. I want to live in ignorance.

We got up early Sunday morning & headed down to Nashville, Indiana. We rented a cabin near there last year for our honeymoon & so we decided it was where we wanted to be on our first anniversary. Maybe some year we will see if we can rent the same cabin that weekend. That would be fun & gushily sentimental, wouldn't it?

On our way out of town we stopped at a gas station so I could get some coffee. I know, I know, it's an addiction. I'm ashamed. Anyway, the gas station we stopped at was giving away free coffee & fountain drinks all day! Yeehaw! I got a very large coffee & some donuts (bad idea, I know) & we hit the road.

The drive to Nashville is all two lane highway. We were behind a Sunday driver, for sure. At one point I counted 18 cars in front of us & behind us, all waiting on the same guy. I had to pull out all the stops to soothe Mike's road rage. Really, it can be quite embarrassing to sing & dance in the car while you are driving down the road. But a girl has got to do what a girl has got to do to keep her husband out of jail :-) It really wasn't that bad, but poor Mike was getting really frustrated.

We got to Nashville & hit the shops. We have been there enough times now to know which ones we really love. We always stop at the pottery place. We picked a bowl that will match & 'nest' with another bowl that we bought last year. I bought a pair of Teva sandals that were sweetly on sale & we just browsed & browsed.

When we had our fill of shopping around, we hit the road for Columbus. On our honeymoon we went there several times of an evening. They have a Taco Bell so we had to stop there (we are such food snobs, aren't we?). On our way back we hit a huge antique store & wandered around in there for probably an hour. I love trying to find things that my mom or my grandma have. And we both love looking at the furniture. If we had a bigger house we would have bought some major furniture on this vacation!

Thank God we have a small house or we'd have some massive furniture buying debt! :-)

We headed home after that. Neither of us really wanted to be home so we stopped at a Dairy Queen *yum* & then made our stops by the parents & went to Lowe's. With the anniversary gift my parents gave us we bought some wood for Mike to make a cabinet & wall shelf for the kitchen. I can't wait for him to get those projects whipped out! Don't worry, I'll be sure to share some pics *grin*

And that was Day Three. A great day. I love being married. I have so much more to celebrate, somehow. AND we marked two more activities off of our list. We know how to get stuff done!

Only one day left, *sniff, sniff*

Anniversary Vacation Day Two

Here's the exciting scoop on Anniversary Vacation Day Two!

Thank you very much for pretending to be interested.

I love you all very much :-)

First of all, we did what we do best - we slept in. Once that important work was done for the day, we got up, threw some water bottles into a cooler & headed out!

Saturday was our official Hiking At Turkey Run Day.

I *heart* Turkey Run.

Can I just say that it was HOT.

I'm not sure what all trails we did. We just wandered around for a couple of hours.

It was great. I was able to enjoy two of my most favorite things:

Michael's company & the great outdoors.

And there was another covered bridge!




My pictures totally don't do the wonderful scenery any justice.
The more I blog, the more I want a better camera & the
more I want to take better pictures.

This could get expensive.



After we exhausted ourselves hiking & after a post hike dirt/mud check, we decided it was time to head to Crawfordsville to check out the Home Depot.
I'm sure you are wondering why?
Because we are nerds. Nerds who are up to their necks in wood working projects & DIY home improvement projects. And we don't have a Home Depot in our town.
We had to see what we were missing.
Apparently not much because we didn't buy anything :-)

After swinging through a Taco Bell drive thru, we headed home. I was dying to get cleaned up. When we got home I went straight for the shower. After a few blissful moments of hot water & sudsy soap I heard The Dreadful Gurgle.
The Dreadful Gurgle occurs when our sewer begins to get blocked by tree roots. Ugh. We have this problem repeatedly. Sure enough, by the end of my shower the water wasn't draining. Thus began our daily trips to the parent's houses to use their functional plumbing. It was a little sad to blow the we are not really here aspect of our staycation but it was nice to see the parents. We have some great parents.
They have some great plumbing.

We consoled ourselves with some stuffed crust pizza & another movie.

Two more items checked off of our list!

Now on to day three...

Anniversary Vacation Day One

I believe that sometime before I left for our Anniversary Vacation I mentioned that I had compiled a huge list of things we could do. Here is that list:

1. Hike at Turkey Run
2. Have lunch at George's Cafe
3. Go antiquing somewhere new
4. Go to Clay City Pottery
5. Go to Cataract Falls
6. Go to Shakamak State Park
7. Go to Bloomfield
8. Go to a minor league baseball game
9. Watch a movie
10. Ride our bikes
11. House project
12. Yard project
13. Go to Brown County State Park
14. Go to McCormick's Creek State Park
15. Go to Ikea (wherever the closest one is)
16. Go to Nashville, IN
17. Go to Home Depot in Crawfordsville
18. Go to dinner at Bobe's in Sullivan
19. Go to the Mall of America
20. Cook/grill something new
21. Try the new BBQ place in town
22. Go to Vincennes
23. Complete all my training workouts

I think it might be obvious that I like lists & that I don't like sitting still for too long!

So...what all did we get done? A whole lot more than I thought we would!

DAY ONE

We started out the day at a leisurely pace; our first stop was a gas station so I could get a cup of coffee. Right across the street we noticed an antique shop we had never been in before. We headed right over. It was a gem of a find. This particular shop had an abundance of furniture & it was all labeled as to what style it was. And the shop owner had a love of opera. We browsed while listening to Puccini. It was interesting & educational :-)

Then we went to George's Cafe for lunch. It's a wonderful Lebanese restaurant that I will have to blog about in more detail later. We ran into Mike's mom, sister, aunt & cousin who were also there for lunch. It's a family favorite. I tried falafel for the first time & it was delish!

After lunch we set out to find a couple of antique stores in a nearby town. We were just driving along & not paying too much attention so we didn't actually find them - lol! So we just took a turn south & headed to Bloomfield by way of Clay City Pottery.

Mike & I have a terrible weakness for pottery. Especially pottery that is made locally. On our way home from our honeymoon we stopped at Clay City Pottery so we decided to make it a bit of an anniversary tradition. We found a couple new pieces to add to our collection & I found an excellent birthday present for my dad. Very profitable shopping!

Then on to Bloomfield...Mike's dad is a lay pastor in a Wesleyan church. When Mike was growing up his dad was assigned to a church in Bloomfield. That's where they lived every weekend for many years. Mike has a lot of fond memories of the place so a couple of times we have driven down there so that he can show me some of his old haunts. On this particular day we drove out in the country to find the nearby covered bridge.

When Mike was a kid they had closed it & wouldn't allow any car traffic. Evidently it has been restored & is now open.

It might come from being raised in this part of Indiana, but I love covered bridges. They seem so full of history...

We probably looked like total nerds taking our pic by the bridge, but I had to have at least one shot!

After our Bloomfield tour we headed home. We stopped & rented a couple of movies. We decided that it would be a great idea to pop in a movie & eat BBQ from the new restaurant while relaxing on the couch. Turned out to be an excellent idea! We watched "When In Rome," had a couple of laughs & some great food.

Much later that night we weren't really sleepy so we headed out for a drive in the country. We took some crazy winding roads & it got really foggy but it was fun. That's what I love about being on vacation - if you get a crazy idea late at night you can run with it & not worry about getting up in the morning - ahhh...true relaxation!

Yeehaw! In the first day we knocked SIX items off of our list! And it was so much fun!

Stay tuned for Day Two...

I'm Back!

Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden...The consciousness of loving & being loved brings a warmth & richness to life that nothing else can bring.

~ Oscar Wilde

We had such a lovely, relaxing anniversary weekend (with a bit of hilarity & what next?) thrown in! Hopefully I can upload some pics tonight & get a post up very soon to let you know what all we were able to mark off on our list.

It's back to the real world today & I thank God for a soft slide into reality.

He's good to us like that.

More to come soon...