Welcome to the World!!

I received a phone call last night that my niece was in labor. It was a bit of a shocker since she's a couple of weeks early, but everything was going well and FAST!! I was hoping to make it there for this one, but she never accommodates me. Last time, she popped right before a final and this year, it was late at night and she dilated from one to five in just two hours. So, today, we welcome Macy Ryan, a six pound, 7 ounce little bundle of fire into the world! Mom and baby are doing great, so couldn't ask for a better start to the weekend!

Love,
B

4th of July

I should be getting in the shower right now as I'm going to be late for work, but oh well. After working 13 hours on Friday, I think I can afford to be 15 minutes late to update. (OHHHH, that rhymed). So, here's the 4th for ya'll. Actually, we'll start with the 3rd. That night, my hubby called and said that he was going to the bar with someone from work and would be home after a couple of beers. Well, the phone rings at 1:30 in the morning, which I immediately pick up and say, "You must be drunk." He was. Made the wise decision to not drive home and stayed at his buddy's house. So at about 8 am the morning of the 4th, I feel a hand on my arm and about come out of the bed as no one was supposed to be in bed with me. It was the boy who crawled into bed after driving home that morning. He made the comment that when he walked in the house, no dogs barked and I didn't move, so anybody could've gotten into bed with me. I grunted, rolled over and went back to sleep (you can see how concerned I was)! We officially woke up around 11 am which was WONDERFUL to sleep that late! Then called some friends to find out what we were to bring to the BBQ. Paul was feeling okay until he took a shower, then the hangover hit him. It was pretty damn funny and I mocked him while faking sympathy. He wasn't fooled for a second. Usually, I'm the one with the hangover, but mine consist of profuse vomiting for hours and hours. His was just a tummy ache. The world is an unfair place. This is why I rarely over-indulge anymore. Don't know why, but just don't like puking. Anyway, I went into Wal-Mart and collected the yummies and a scale to start our big bet. We haven't yet figured out who gets what when they win. I suggested the winner gets to pick a vacation spot, which made us both roll with laughter as he gets no vacation this year (according to the boss, no one is getting vacation until they get more help...which was supposed to be in Aug., but now is maybe Oct.).

After hitting Wal-Mart, we went to R and M's place and hung out on the porch watching their puppies run around. The puppies were a consequence of bad timing on their part in not separating out their male/female dogs in time. They've just gotten the male fixed since this is the 2nd round of "ooopps" puppies they've had to deal with. They're so adorable and of course, I wanted to take one home with me...Paul is such a party-pooper. So, the day passed by while we just sat on the porch and relaxed and bullshitted for several hours. R's son was visiting and was so excited about shooting off fireworks, so we managed to rein him in until about 8:30 pm. Then for the next couple of hours, we shot off fireworks and a safe, but good time was had by all. Headed home and had a helluva light show, complete with spooky fog-like effects from the massive amounts of smoke.

Last night, we headed to Lowe's to pick up some more kitchen cabinets. For all who may not know, we're remodeling the kitchen and right now it's pretty torn up. Paul is doing the top first, then the bottom. I even get a new sink and garbage disposal!! Yay! We picked that out last night along with faucets, but won't actually purchase until we're ready to do the bottom. Paul is keeping a photo record of his progress, so I'll post them on Shutterfly and share with everyone once it's all done. I'm excited about it! Thank goodness that my parents are coming in Oct. for their 40th anniversary party, because this forces a deadline for him.

I spent a day on the weekend getting some things together for the party. We decided to not serve a full meal as the number of people actually invited has grown to approximately 160+. We will have an open bar for a while, but will go to a cash bar later on. We'll have snacks and stuff, but nothing major. Of course, we'll have a cake. I'd love to get my parents cake reproduced, but it would be very expensive, so we're going to check into that. I'll blog more on the party later.

Well, I should get to stepping to get to work as I'm going to be supremely late now.
Love, B

A Story About a GIMP (Brody Dog)

Well, Friday night I watched a quirky little movie called "Employee of the Month." It was pretty good, with several twists at the end. A couple I was expecting and a couple I wasn't, so made for a great ending. Paul caught the end of it, and got to see the twists which makes him want to see it now. I also have "Phantom of the Opera" and "De-Lovely" still to watch. I've given up getting movies that Paul wants to see as his work schedule is so nutty that we get nothing watched.

We planned on cleaning the front deck yesterday, but morphed into remarkably lazy people and got nothing accomplished, except Paul got some laundry done and we went to Wal-Mart. Also, in the morning picked up poor Brody dog. She blew out her CCL and had to have it "fixed." We decided to try a new vet since our last one was a horrible lady who overcharged us. So, we randomly picked a vet that was close to the house. Our old vet always had to muzzle Brody because the dog hated her guts and felt she would be happier with less fingers. Which for those who know this dog, would be shocked at. She's the most loving and wonderful dog who loves nearly everyone. Made me wonder what this "great" vet did to her. So the new vet, Dr. Mark (er...something, names have been changed to protect the innocent, or just cause my memory has completely failed me), met us the day after Brody blew out her ligament. She immediately walked (well, hobbled) right up to him, tail wagging like mad. She never growled once. He then explained our options to help her out and we made an appointment for the surgery on Friday. By that time, she was again tentatively starting to put a little more weight on the offending leg, but we still wanted to do the surgery after reading on the internet info about this particular injury. So, we picked her up yesterday and she's shaved and has some massive stitches around the knee area. She's now the three-legged wonderdog. The leg just hangs there as dead-weight. She takes nearly a full minute when deciding how to lay down because normally she just flops down, but can't now. When the vet tech brought her out, she saw Paul and I, and then noticed the vet in a hallway near where she was. She immediately made a detour to the vet, hopping up to him, to ostensibly say goodbye. I was like, "what'd you do to my dog man?" He obviously bewitched her. But made Paul and I laugh and feel soooo much better about him. He's obviously a wonderful man, any friend of Brody's is a friend of ours.

Another interesting thing about this clinic. A woman and her daughter had brought a very sick puppy in, and they could do nothing for the tiny guy, so had to put him down. When the woman came up to the counter to pay, where we were waiting, the tech said, "Oh, honey, there's no charge." Fell in love with everyone of these people immediately. Also, the surgery ended up costing less than what he originally quoted us, still crazy expensive, but less is more as they say.

Today should be fun. We're meeting up with some friends at their mom's house who has an inground pool and having a little BBQ and some time in the sun. My entire goal today is to lose my flip-flop tan on my feet. I'm about to go get the dishes done right now since we're again out of glasses. This is generally my motivation to do dishes...we're out of something.

After this nutty week at work is over (grants, grants, grants) I'm going to start fund-raising for my friend Tracy. She's running a 26-mile marathon in October to benefit the Lymphoma Society and needs to raise $4000. The majority of it is going to a little 4-yr-old girl who has leukemia that cannot be cured. I'm going to do a mail email to all I know and include the website where you can make donations...it's 100% tax-deductible and every little bit helps. My cousin Chris got the okay to get some money at work, and we're hoping that she can help out a lot! (Thanks, Chris-you're a rock star!!) All she had to do was show her boss the picture of Allie (the little girl) and her boss, of course, melted. So all, be prepared, and remember $5 from a lot of people can go a long way...so watch for my email and get those credit cards out! It's a very worthy cause and I'm incredibly proud of Tracy for finding the fortitude to accomplish it!

Well, I guess I'd better stop stalling and get those $&*%&#$* dishes done!
Love, B

What I did this summer...well, maybe this week

Here's an update on my long week. Last week was spent doing a lot of boring work stuff so I won't mention that for fear of inducing a coma-like state. Big skip to Friday. After work on Fri., I drove to Nebraska and met up with Tracy at her house. We then went to my brother and his girlfriend's place and caught up and had some laughs. Then Sat. morning Tracy was nice enough to take me to a coffee shop and I got a massive mocha (yummy!!). Then we went to the bridal shop and she tried on her bridesmaid dress for her sister's wedding. They are so pretty! But the dimrod at the shop ordered it a size too big even after Tracy told her she was running a 26-mile marathon in Oct and would probably be losing some weight. I guess they maybe hear "I'm going to lose weight" from a lot of people who don't follow through so just ignored it. BTW, she looks fantastic! And I'm so proud of her for what she's doing! Then we went back to the apartment and I hopped in the shower because now I'm about to be really, really late. I picked up Nicole and we headed to the baby shower. Tasha looks so cute pregnant. She's one of those women who gain weight only in her belly and she looks great! Because of my crazy week, I didn't have time or energy to buy a gift, so I just stuck a little money in there and then told her we'd go shopping and get her something she needed, but didn't get. We went to Tasha's apartment to unload and then talked for a while. Then back to Tracy's where we relaxed for a bit and then got ready to go out. We walked over to Brewsky's for dinner and a beer, then over to Chris' house, where we BS'd for a little while longer. Chris is going to try to raise some money for Tracy and hopefully will get some cash out of her work. On to the Point After where the band wasn't too loud or obnoxious and where I enjoyed three beers to Tracy's one rum and diet coke. I know, usually it's the other way around with Tracy being ahead of me by a couple, but she's so dedicated to this marathon and drinking isn't in the training plan. We shot some pool and then headed home.

I crashed out around 1:30 am and was rudely awakened by a monstrous German Shepard (Bear) at 5:30 am. After some explanation about the merits of sleeping in, he left but thought 7:30 was also good. Then back at 9:30 when I finally got up after contemplating how mad Chris and Cole would be if I killed their dog (I decided not to find out). I showered and headed over to Tom and Sherry's where they've put up an above-ground pool. We had some fun and I didn't want to leave although I finally did at 6:30 that night. Got home and crashed out a while later.

Yesterday was our 7th anniversary and so after work I stopped by and got a copper fire pit for Paul (and me!) and picked up a giant chocolate chip cookie. I stopped by his work and dropped off the cookie and talked to him for a little while. Found out he has this weekend off so we're going to start destroying our kitchen and getting the new cabinets installed. He got home around 9:30 or so and we went outside to admire the pretty fire pit (many oohhhs and ahhhhs were said by all!) Then inside to watch TV. Whew, the romance of our anniversary stuns me. Damn his work anyway.

Good things that happened though. I got my financial aid award letter for school and am now about to go into debt by another $18K. Yay! Loving the debt thing. Hope this program pays off! And got my books for the first year (at a serious bargain of only $250-guess graduate school doesn't nail you on books too bad). Paul noticed them when he got home and asked if I'd flipped through them yet. I told him no, I put together the fire pit. So he picked up the one that's called Forensic Pathology and sees some really nasty stuff and is like, "ewwwww." Dork, shouldn't gone for the nasty one. So, I flipped through it too and it's really interesting stuff. All my other books look great too and I can't wait to read them and start learning!!

Anyway, that's where I'm at as of this moment. So, blog at ya later.
Love,
B

Weekend Update

Well, here's my update to my list...what I actually got accomplished. Didn't do too bad considering I'm a lazy bugger. On Sat. I watched two movies. Mean Girls and Wilmbeldon. Two icky girlie movies that I knew Paul would want nothing to do with. They were okay...nothing to write home about, ya know? Then I went to the tattoo parlor and they were closed! Whoever heard of a tat place closed on a Sat. at 2 pm. Sheesh. Then went to another one, and THEY were closed. I'm taking this as a sign that I shouldn't get my last tattoo just yet, so I'm going to let the idea sit for awhile and then see how I feel about it.

Then I got home and did dishes. Fun times. Have I ever mentioned that I despise doing dishes? Ugh. I've now been married 7 years and only for one year in our entire married life have we had a dishwasher. This is my fondest wish. To someday have a dishwasher again. I'm such a simple woman.

That's pretty much Saturday. Sunday, I went to Wal-Mart and only wanted to ram my cart into three people, so successful shopping day. And managed to only buy that which I went in for. HA! Take that Wal-Mart!! You didn't lull me into needless buying! So anyway, came home and transplanted the tomatoes. The roots were so tungled up I had to tear into them a bit. They were all droopy and sad after and I was convinced I'd committed 1st-degree murder, but they've perked up since then and I think they may survive!

Anyway, got completely distracted there. It's now two hours later than when I started this blog and I have no idea what my train of thought was. Getting old I guess. So, it may be better to post this and I'll finish up whenever my brain starts functioning again.

Love,
B

Weekend of fun and sun...er, maybe not

Big plans for the weekend...er, maybe not. Sorry, for a second there I thought I had a life. Sheesh. Anyway, here's my plans. Maybe if I write them on here, I'll be forced to do them all (could work, right? Give me hope, please). Here's my "accomplishments" list:

1) Do the laundry (this is supposed to be Paul's job, but we'll cut him some slack since he's working so hard. Doesn't mean I can't mock him about it...but it'll be our secret that I don't mind too much.
2) Wash dishes. Dish situation is now at "Level Orange." We are nearly out of plastic cups and will have to start using the glass ones. This is hazardous because Paul likes to break things (unintentionally of course, at least I think so).
3) Organize my closet. People who have been forced to live with me know that I'm sloppy. My morning ritual consists of trying on clothes, discarding them because they "make" me look fat and said clothes not making it back on the hanger. Then they pile up during the week on a rack in my closet. And my shoes are everywhere although my hubby kindly gathered them up and threw them in a big pile on my closet floor. I guess we've been married long enough that he knows how to "hint" at me to do things.
4) Read journal articles for work and get my prensentation started. I have to give a long (20-25 min) talk at work on Fri., so must start getting that together. I don't want to be stressing about it Thurs. night and so am trying to not procrastinate. Whether this will actually be done remains to be seen.
5) Clean the entire house. HAHAHA...sorry, had to throw in that much needed humor.
6) Repot my out-of-control tomato plants. They're starting to get frisky and crowding each other out. This may require having to make an impromtu trip to the local Lowe's for supplies. Sigh. I hate having to leave the house.
7) See if tattoo I want is do-able. I think I've finally decided on my final tattoo design. But it's pretty intricate and I fear will be very large and complex (this equals pricey). So, luckily, there's a tattoo shop less than 5 min from the house so I plan on stopping by tomorrow because we are on the same schedule during the week so I can't ever get in there.
8) Take a 3-hour nap at least once this weekend.

Wow. That's a lot of stuff. I'm guessing only half will get done. I'll try to post something about what I actually got accomplished. So, anyway, time to hit the hay!! Niters.

Love,
B

ACK! Attack of the poison ivy!

I think I've now been officially indoctrinated into the world of "grown-ups." I have my first case of poison ivy. Fortunately, it's just a few spots on one of my inner arms and isn't too bad at all. Me and my rash met when I was attempting to channel the spirit of Martha Stewart. It was fate some might say...but I say it was nothing but bad luck. I recognized the ivy and tried to be careful when snipping it out, but obviously, I suck at careful. But the little flower garden I made around our big tree in the front yard looks great! No pain, no gain. (And, yes, I feel the burn...er, rather, the itching.)

That was one of my weekend projects to get the area cleaned up. Hubby planted some flower seeds in the spring but barely any took and we got overrun with weeds, grass and (who'd a guessed it) poison ivy. So, I went to Lowe's and bought a bunch of perennials and annuals to mix it up a bit. My theme was "Riot of Color" basically because I'm entirely too lazy to plan out some big plan thing. So, I weeded out the riff-raff and got the flowers planted and so far, none have died! This is a huge accomplishment for me! (Golf-clapping for myself.) Then I hopped into the shower and was off for a BBQ at my boss' house. I got there and had a Corona in hand within two minutes of arrival, so success. We all sat around and bullshitted for about (wow) 8 hours. You'd think we saw enough of each other at work, but we rarely have the time to just chat. I see more of my co-workers than I do of the hubby...wait a minute. Maybe THAT's the key to a successful marriage. Haha. My other weekend project was to make my ghetto tomato cages for my going-crazy tomato plants and to rig up some sort of support for the sugar snap peas. Got those done early Sat. morning too. Gosh, I was productive! In case you're thinking I've morphed into someone else, don't worry, I was lazy most of Sunday, so it balanced out.

Last night there was some excitement in the ghetto. I actually made it to bed at around 11 pm (early night for me) and at 2 am hubby shoots up out of bed (he heard a scream)...then we both hear a woman yelling. He gets up and goes to investigate (cause don't you know, he only sells car by day...by night...he's CARMAN, superhero to the ghetto tribe). I attempt to ignore and go back to sleep...no shakes, jake. So get up and look out the window. He comes back in and then shortly thereafter, we see a woman in pjs and no shoes jogging down the middle of the street. She doesn't come back. He thinks, drug deal gone bad. I think, hmmm, domestic dispute. Then we see a shirtless man coming from a different way...he goes the opposite way of the woman. Then a car coming from the woman's direction going in the man's direction. (If you follow that, whew...you're a champ). Then nothing. After nearly 40 min. I finally convince him that no one was killed. Obviously I was right and he was wrong. When will he learn?

Anyway, I'm going to hit the sack and I'll fill you in on my exciting weekend coming up. Who knows...maybe I'll get hives! Fun times.

Love,
B