Busy Month

Well this is going to be a busy month. With my sibling moved back in I expect we will be spending quite a bit of time there. The 2nd week of the month we are putting a new roof on the house and Chris's brother Andy will be coming down from Wisc with his family to help - so I will have a house full for a week.

Right now it looks like Chris will start his new job at the end of August and he will be gone for 4 weeks. So the last 2 weeks of the month will be spent getting him ready to go - the list of things we need to get done seems never ending.

I have a new Boyfriend

Yep - that's right. I have a new man I'm talking to on the phone almost on a daily basis.

His name is Aiden and he loves to hear my voice and tell me about Gordon's coal car and what ducks say and what color a bus is.

Its funny when I call up and in the back ground you can hear Aiden in the background going - Aunt Beth? and when my sister gives him the phone and I say Hi Aiden he just screeches with joy and then tells me about what he is watching or the new words he knows. These words now include purple nemo fruit snacks and bless you (when you sneeze) - but most of the time he doesn't say bless you, he just laughs at you.

If Aiden calls me and Chris answers the phone there is always a voice in the background saying "put Beth on the phone". And then I get shrieks of joy.

I've gotten a couple really good voice mail messages from the little man.

I Found it!!

Well I finally found my Jiffy Cake mix.

I actually went to Meijers today because I'm out of Guacamole mix and I only like the McCormick brand and Krogers doesn't carry that brand of Guac mix - they have all the other packages McCormicks makes but not the Guac. So while I was buying like 20 packets I checked to see if they had cake mix and what do you know - they had it!!

So now I know where to get it when I run out next. I only bought about 10 boxes (and they were on sale) so I should be good for a couple batches of peach dump cake this summer.

Is it just me and the location of this Meijers - but are they turning into the new Walmart? I saw some really really interesting people while there after work today. I would expect that at Walmart but not Meijer.

April 2nd - lawn was cut for the first time of the season

Yup - I said that right. Chris just had to mow the lawn this evening because "its getting crazy out of control". Really only the portion down by the willow was getting long because of all the water that collects down there. So you can tell he cut that. As for the rest of the lawn - I see no difference. Plus according to the weather is supposed to rain for a couple days and we have a chance of snow again this weekend - crazy weather.

Men - I really don't know what is going thru his mind sometimes.

Funny Farm Game

Don't start this game unless you have some time on your hands - it is a bit addictive.

There really are no instructions but from what I can figure out you need to identify what you can "Find on a Farm". As you find things they will start showing up and then you need to figure out things about those items. Things are interlinked so trying to figure out those links will help. I think the number of dots in the box represent the number of letters in that word but I'm not sure exactly about that.

http://shygypsy.com/farm/p.cgi

If anyone starts this game let me know. I'm stuck and could use some help.

Art History lesson for the day

http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/24109#more-24109

The Mental Floss (one of my favorite magazines) is featuring M.C Escher today. They have some good information and links to other sites with even more information.

Check it out.

Contractors - ugh

We bought new gutters for the house in January from Sho Pro of Indiana. In addition to the gutters we got fascia, soffit and gutter guards as well. Our gutters were actually falling off the front of the house from years of neglect and they no longer looked white.

Boy what a nightmare this is turning out to be.

They installed everything in mid February.

And it looks like crap. Even the guy from the company that came out to see the installation agrees it pretty much all needs to be re-done. Right now the front gutter looks like its going to fall off and it has a huge dent in it. The fascia in a couple places is not tacked on right and with the wind we are having its getting worse and worse.

I finally think I have a confirmed repair date of this Thursday - better than a month since they put it up but this is the 2nd time they have given me a date so I'll believe it when I see it.

Oh and they have already started billing me for the installation. The guy who is my contact states all the work they are doing now is under my warranty and as they have already completed the installation they can start billing me for it. If they do not fix the issues on Thursday I'm sending in my dispute letter to the credit company and to the BBB and will not be paying until its all fixed. I may even send a note to Angie's list and have them look into it as well.

I am so pissed about this I'm seeing red. Thanks for reading my rant.

This is why we do most everything ourselves.

My ever changing husband

So here is what Chris looked like just a couple days ago

On Wednesday he went Amish

On Friday he temporarly looked like Wolverine

And then got rid of the rest of the beard.

Today the hair went away.

So in a matter of less than a week my husband has change 4 times.

Signs of Spring

Well I was going to post this a couple weeks ago but don't know where the time has gone.

I'm going to say that it is officially spring here. It looks like spring, my flowers are coming up like crazy. It smells like spring, that earthy smell of mud and grass. The birds are singing like crazy, I heard the sand hill cranes a couple weeks ago and saw a flock of them circling over head like they were lost, I'm also seeing birds at my feeder that I've not seen since the fall.

But the best sign of spring.... The local Dairy Queen opened.

My husband - the roadie

Well its was concert week again (have i mentioned how much I hate concert week?). This one was particularly bad as on top of the normal 2 concerts on friday and sunday, as a condition of the grant we got from the town of Avon we also performed 2 concerts for the middle school kids today (just the 5th and 6th graders). So that's 4 concerts in 6 days. I'm so sick of that song now.

Any way, at Friday's concert I wasn't sure if I had anyone to work the sound and light board for the concert - I couldn't find Rick - the head of the music program at the school we perform at. So since Rick taught me a couple concerts back (for a coral concert he couldn't stay for) I taught Chris. Which came in very handy as Rick had to leave right at the beginning due to being sick (ended up with bronchitis).

So now Chris is an official roadie for the orchestra. On top of helping set up and tear down, he also knows how to work the lights and sound. I asked him how he liked it up in the booth and he said the sound and view is much better. Plus he can play. He kept changing the color of the lights we had shining on the back wall - it went from purple at the beginning of the concert to a weird green.

So I don't feel like I'm using him, I only ask him help at 1 of the many concerts (and he can pick which one) so he either helps set up or tear down. Well I take that back - because he dropped me off on Thursday for rehearsal he also helped set up and tear down that one as well. But I try not to ask any more of that from him, and I make sure he gets all the cookies he wants (from the refreshment table).

Hello?

So what is going on with everyone these days? Haven't heard from many of you in awhile...

Any one have a WII?

I'm think I'm going to get one here really soon.

I've got a couple friends here in Indy that have them and we always seem to play with it when we visit. I've tried my hand at WII fit and so far am on the top of the board doing hulla hoop at one friends house. And boy did I feel it the next day.

I want to get it because of the WII fit and that it really makes you get up and use muscles and you are not sitting on the couch. I don't want to get the traditional type games were you just use the controller to move the person on the screen - I want the ones that make you get up and do something. If I'm going to get a typical video game I'll get it for the PS2.

So if you have a WII what other games would you suggest that make you move? I really want to use it to loose weight since I refuse to go to the gym and I can't make it to the barn nearlly as much as I should to count that as my excersie.

Trip to Phoenix

Well my trip went well but it sure does make for a long day.

I take the 6am flight out of Indy as it gets me there about 8am so I have the whole day to be in the office. But that means waking up at 4am to get to the airport.

So I set the alarm Wed night - but never turned it on. I normally don't sleep well on nights before I fly and I'm glad of that as I looked at the clock and it was 4:30am. Well that got the heart going and got us out of bed. We were out the door just before 5 and because there was no traffic got there about 5:15 (on normal days it can take us a 1/2 hr to get to the airport). Good thing I printed my boarding pass the day before - I was able to make it thru security and to the gate just as they started loading. That gave me a chance to get a muffin and something to drink (US Airways is now charging $2 for a CAN of soda and $5 for a snack box filled with something).

We make it to Phoenix (about 45 minutes late because Indy doesn't know how to de-ice planes quickly which caused a bunch of people to miss their connections) and I get the rental car and off I go. I slept maybe an hour and a 1/2 of the 2 -3 hour flight so I was a bit groggy getting off.

I get to the supplier, get settled in and promptley spill part of my bottle of sprite into my work bag. So everything is now sticky - I'm going to need to really wipe the thing out to get rid of the rest of the stickyness. Good thing I didn't get any soda on my laptop or on my paperwork. It mostly got all over the cords in the bottom of the bag.

Everything else was pretty much un-eventful - didn't sleep much last night at the hotel and got to the airport about 3 hours early since I knew I would find a good spot to spread out and do some work. Landed about 4:30 and got home a little after 5pm. Now to make dinner and relax for the weekend.

My router has crapped out

Well I think the power outage we had last week has finally caused my wireless router to crap out. It keeps blinking and blinking and won't reset. I can connect the computer to the modem itself and get online but not thru the router. And because it is from cira 2001 its not longer supported. Oh well - I guess I got my money's worth out of it.

So I guess I no longer have a wireless house any more. I need to do some research and find a new one to use. Any one have any suggestions?

Jiffy Cake Mix

I was going to post this before this weekend but I'm having network problems.

Anyway... Does Jiffy still make cake mix? you know those little yellow boxes that work the best for dump cake.

I can't find them anywhere down here. They stock Jiffy but the corn mix, blue berry and apple muffins and a pie crust but no cake mix.

Is it just the land of Hoosiers that is weird?

My Husband....

Last night I had orchestra rehersal so Chris headed down to his friend Dave's house to do some wood working projects (Dave helped build my kitchen cabinets). Dave's house is about 45 minutes SE of our house and there is no direct way to go so you end up taking lots of county roads.

Well Chris took a different way home last night to see if it was shorter. Most of the county roads are flat and straight with few intersections so you can build up some speed. So he was going about 65mph down a 55mph stretch.

Next thing he knows is there is a set of headlights coming up behind him very fast.

Yup - it was a cop.

The cop pulled Chris over and told him he had been clocked doing 65mph in a 55mph. Then he asked him if he had anything to drink. Well Chris had a couple beers at Dave's while working with his last one maybe 1 1/2 hours ago and he told the cop that.

Yup - that lead to the cop having Chris do stupid human tricks. And because he wasn't reacting the way the cop expected him to, Chris ended up taking a breathalizer. Chris blew a .07 so no DUI - but the cop wouldn't let him drive himself home.

I get a call about 10pm to get dressed and come pick him up. So the neighbor and I went to pick him up about 20 minutes from here (down at Cop's nursery).

And did he get a ticket for speeding?

NO!!! he gets a warning. So now he has been pulled over 3 times in the last 2 or so years and all 3 have been warnings!

Butt head!

What is setting me off?

Well had a small asthma attack last night - don't know what time it was as I was sleeping when it started and never looked at the clock. I woke up with a tight chest and could hear myself breathing very bad (lots of weezing). It didn't last long and I was back to normal with out using the inhaler and then went back to sleep.

So far today I haven't had another flare up but I'm trying to take a puff every 4-5 hours as a preventative. I did get into a good coughing fit (which is not normal) and a couple sneezing fits (which are normal) while at work.

So now to try to figure out what is setting me off.

Oh and I love the inhaler - just can't take it right before I drive as for about an hour its like I've had a mega dose of caffine and I'm bouncing off the walls and really can't concentrate. Lots of fun to take at work thou.

And I have....

An Asthma flare up...

Went to the doctor today as I'm still weezing and have a hard cough - its better than it was on Friday but its still there. Well since I'm not running a feever, don't have a sore throat and no nose issues he's pretty sure its an asthma attack. Last time I had an issue with asthma I also had a sinus infection. Before that I was in high school.

So I have a new inhaler (mine was about 4 years old) that is really helping clear me out. My cough is now more productive - getting some phlem up - and has really decreased the wheezing. I'm taking it every 4 hours for the next day or so then down to 3 times a day then down to 2 and I should be better.

If I get worse I have a script for prednazone I can fill and if i spike a fever i go onto antibiotics. I'm glad its not bronchitis.

Why can't I sleep

So the sage begins last night. Chris is in bed by 8:30 and already asleep. I come in about 9pm and work on the cross word puzzle till about 9:30 - I'm finally tired enough and I fall asleep. About 11:30pm my cell phone rings - I have the ringer on loud as I had it set that way earlier in the day and never turned it down. Well it wakes both of us up. For some reason I think its like 5 in the morning and am wide awake and ready to start the day - but once I look at the clock I'm like cool I can get more sleep.

But that doesn't happen. I lay in bed for an hour counting and thinking sleepy thoughts but nope, still awake. So I find my flash light and start doing Soduko which always puts me to sleep in about 1/2 an hour - nope not working. I switch to the cross word puzzle I was doing earlier - nope doesn't work either. And Chris is such a light sleeper I don't want to wake him up with my tossing and turning - as it is the cat was glaring at me.

So I get out of bed with out waking Chris and head out to the couch. I watched TV till 3:30am when I finally got tired and fell asleep. But it was not a great sleep - really really weird dreams - I was in an earthquake, Chris and i were living in the house I grew up in, I was in a road rally, I was shopping for a wedding dress at Kleinfelds in New York (that one came from watching Say Yes to the Dress earlier). I wake up right about 6am to find Chris standing and looking at me - it was time to get up.

I was a little groggy but after my shower was wide awake. And have been that way all day.

I don't feel 100% - slight sore throat, low level headache, rosy cheeks but otherwise still going strong. I think if i were to lay down right now I wouldn't fall asleep.

So I'll push it the rest of the night and may go for a walk and see if I can wear myself out.

And with my luck and it being Saturday tomorrow I'll be up at 5am like I have most of this week.

Weight loss wk 5

Well its been a 2 steps forward, 3 steps back type of week.

My weight is back up but I'm attributing that to PMS and the water weight I always gain so if I loose a bunch of weight this week I'll still be on track.

I've paid attention to what I'm eating but not really. I'm still choosing healthy options and working on portion control but the chocolate has been calling my name (a nasty side effect of PMS). I know once the evilness is over I'll be able to get back on track but it sucks when nature deters your good plans.

So how does everyone else get thru that time of the month when hormones make you not yourself especially when it comes to food?

Deconstrucation AGAIN

Well once again my kitchen is completely torn apart. This time it is because we are installing 2 more cabinets.

Oh and 1 of the cabinets goes inbetween the existing cabinets and the big corner lazy susan. And because of the counter top and some trim you can't just slide it in. You have to move the big corner lazy susan.

That's right - the thing that took about 2 hours to get in place had to come out. Which ment I had to take ALL THE FOOD OUT OF IT!!! That in of itself was a chore and don't get me started on putting everything back in. That will probably take me 2 days to get it back to the way I had it.

So the corner lazy susan got take out, and the new one put in place. Well then it took alot of pushing, shoving and some strategic hammer blows to get the big lazy susan back in place because the walls are not straight. The other cabinet that got installed went between the big lazy susan and the fridge - I'll move the fidge any day.

The 2 cabinets that went in Chris made. 1 is a about 9 inches wide and pulls out like a large drawer and will hold all the cookie sheets. The other is to hide the garbage cans in so those will no longer be an eye sore in the kitchen.

So now I need to get a couple more pieces of counter top to finish this project off. Right now I'm looking at buying just 2 more cabinets to finish out the kitchen. One to go on the wall between the fridge and big lazy susan the one to go over the fridge. With those last 2 cabinets I will have a complete kitch all the way around and more storage than I will know what to do with.

Now to just finish doors and trim and we will have a complete house. But then we will find something else to work on.... it never ends.

We are Cantering

Well I'm not but Emily is for me. Oh Rendi knows how to canter and can pick up it when I'm lunging her, but in the 2 years that I've had her I've not been on her back during the cantere - we have been focusing on walk, trot and lateral work plus getting her fit enough to canter with someone on her back.

So Emily who is a great rider has cantered her under saddle the last 2 weekends. Last weekend was not the best effort because I think Rendi was a little confused at what we wanted but she eventually did pick it up.

This week I put Rendi and Emily on the lunge line which Rendi understands and away they went.

And boy did they look good (damn I forgot my camera to video tape it). Rendi didn't try to run away (like she did last week) and after a couple times around the circle, she was started to find her balance. We didn't push her too hard - all we wanted really was for her to learn the aids we use to ask for the canter under the saddle so once we take her off the lunge line we can ask her for it. So there was alot of starting and stopping going on and Rendi was soaking wet when we were done but she got it.

So next Saturday Emily will work at it some more and I may even try it myself since now I know that Rendi can pick it up without alot of fuss (I was afraid she was going to buck or kick out and I'd get thrown).

Weight Loss Wk 4

Well I'm another pound down so that is good but this is going to be a tough week. I'm traveling for buisness so its going to be really hard to stick to my diet.

When the company is paying for your food you just don't pass up the steak house and the loaded potatoes - I have a very very hard time keeping portions in control or even choosing something that is healthy for me. And then there is all the drinks..... And working out just does not happen. By the time we get done with work we are heading out for dinner which will last 2 - 3 hours and then your back at the hotel and then the people you are with want to go great drinks since they never get to go out. And normally I'm so tired because you just don't sleep well in a hotel I just want to get some sleep. I do walk quite a bit more (thru airports and such) but still....

I'm pretty good for breakfast and since lunch is normally brought in and is just sandwiches I'm good there - but dinner is where I loose it all the time.

The scale will tell next week how bad this week is going to be for me. At least its really only going to be 2 days I'll have to worry about.

Weight loss Wk 3

So its the start of Wk3 and so far I've lost a good 3 lbs and thats with being off the diet last week while traveling. For those that have travled for work in the past - you do not pass up a steak dinner paid for by the company for anything.

Since I'm doing WW and counting points I have noticed that except for occasions like today where it took almost a full bag of popcorn to fill me up I'm not necessarly using all my points. I've pretty much had enough left at the end of the day for a glass of wine. I've also noticed that when I limit myself to a cup of pasta and 3 oz of chicken and some veggies I'm full - and if I try to eat any more than that I feel icky and stuffed.

And now since I had a bag of popcorn at 3pm I'm not hungry for dinner - I'll probably get hungry a bit later but that is alot better than normal when I'm starved at 5pm and want to eat now.

Any ideas for other things I can do for an afternoon snack to hold me over till we get home and I make dinner?

Inaguration

So who watched the Inaguration today? I've never watched one before so it was interesting. It was really interesting to see all those people - having been on the mall before and knowing how big it is I can't wait till they come back with some numbers.

I watched it in the break room at work. We have a TV that gets iffy reception as it just has rabbit ears so we missed parts of the speeches but by the time the Obama spoke there were probably a good 40 people standing around watching it.

Joining the band wagon

Okay - I admit... I'm trying to loose weight as well.

So today is day 2 back on weight watchers and so far I'm doing pretty good. From my last stint actually going to meetings I've got alot of good tips and tricks to play with - now to get them to stick. Following the WW rules I typically eat core foods but count points because my main problem is portion control - I need to eat less. The goal is to loose about 20 lbs - once I get there I'll set my next goal.

It seems like half the office is on weight watchers again and they are trying to get an at work group going again so we can go to meetings there. Lots of motivation here. Plus Chris wants to loose weight so anything I buy and cook he will eat. Last night I made chicken and pasta for dinner and I weighed out (thanks for the scale sib) and measured everything and it was just enough food. And it gave me a great lunch for today since I cooked too much. I had enough points extra I even got a glass of wine with dinner.

So how is everyone else doing with the first days back on a life style modification exercise?

Made it home

Well I'm finally back at home. After being gone about a week and a half, it feels good to come home to my own nest. I'm really glad I cleaned before I left because as we emptied the car out it looked like christmas threw up in the living room.

Let me tell you I don't know how we will do this when we have kids. The Jetta barley held all our crap in it (2 large duffle bags, boots, cold weather gear, a couple boxes of presents, a large cooler, 4 cases of beer and a partridge in a pear tree). I think we need a bigger car for long duration trips like this. We ended up coming home with alot more stuff than we left with.

So tonight I unpack and start playing with all the cool stuff I got that I haven't opened before now because I would just need to figure out how to put it back in the box to take it home. That also means I need to get rid of stuff in order to find homes for the new stuff - so its in with the new and out with the old.

Oh and I also have to deal with a cat that was left home alone for the past week and a half (the neighbor checked on her periodically). Currently she is purring as loud as she can in my lap and I suspect she will be sharing my pillow tonight to make sure I don't leave her again. She will be like this for a couple weeks until she gets bored with us and starts ignoring us again.