My Niece

Mitchel is doing really well, he's being embarrassingly ornery and rude, he's one of the worst patients ever lol, but the surgery went well and he's recovering well and actually should be home by Tuesday or Wednesday.

Yesterday we watched my cute little niece Becca all day.  I was actually kind of nervous about it, because we have never watched her that long and it's been forever since I've watched any kid that long, but I was still excited about it.  Stacie and Kenton had free tickets to Lagoon from Kenton's work and were excited to have a day together.  They dropped her off about 11:00 am  and didn't get back until around 10:00 or so that night.  Andy left to see Mitch just before 2:00 or so and didn't get back until almost 6:00 so I had her a good portion of the day myself.  We watched some cute videos on youtube and I tried some movies, but she's just not into sitting still for anything much yet.  She played with her toys and the dogs and I showed her how to get this little dragon toy I have to roll across the kitchen floor.  She loved it and that kept her entertained for a while.  We have this huge yellow stuffed cow that's as big as she is that she just adored.  She took to jumping off the ottoman onto it for a while, silly girl.  She drug out an office chair we have with no back on it at one point and sat on it, I was on the phone with Stacie and looked away for just a sec and looked back just in time to see her standing on it and attempted to jump from it to the couch.  Of course it spun out from under her and she landed hard, but didn't get hurt thank goodness.  I told her not to do that and she pouted.  She went to try it again, and I told her no, she dropped her head, cussed something at me and ran down the hall to "her" room, (we told her our spare room was hers and she claimed it entirely as her own) I had the hardest time not laughing.  I was on the phone with Stacie still and it took me a minute to be able to tell her what happened.  LOL  Later, she sat on it and I spun her for a bit, she loved it! At some point, she stepped on one of the doggy toys and it squeaked.  She stepped on it again but it didn't squeak.  she picked it up and squeezed it all over then threw it on the floor and stomped all over it trying to get it to squeak again.  It was so funny, she kept missing the squeaker!

At one point in the day, Bill stopped by to fix our back faucet so we can use the hose back there again and, silly me, I had completely forgotten he was coming by.  He looked it over and went and got some parts, came back and he fixed it right up!  Thank you Bill!  You're the best!  Sure enough, my stupidity at not removing the hose off the back faucet for the winter made it freeze and burst. 

We took Becca to Mcdonald's for dinner and got her a happy meal.  We had told her she had to eat before she could play and that she couldn't have her toy until it was time to leave.  It worked great.  A bribe to eat, and a bribe to leave.  hehe.  We got her in her jammies about 8:30 and had her try to settle down on the couch for a while and then Andy took her into "her" room and sang her to sleep.  She was such a good little girl all day, it was great.  We only had to deal with one accident, otherwise she did really well all day with that. She was so cute when she woke up to go home, she didn't want to leave.  That made us both feel really good.

We didn't do much, but man was I beat.  It's hard keeping up with a two year old.  LOL  I slept till after 11:00 today, but I'm pretty sure I also have a sinus infection and I always sleep a lot with those.

Good and not-so-good news

So living without TV is actually starting to be nice.  I love not having to pay for it.  But it's not like we are completely devoid of TV, we still watch from hulu.com and the network sites themselves and then clips on youtube, but it's nice not feeling obligated to watch because of how much we were paying.  I am also starting to be more motivated to clean, which is something I haven't been motivated for for a while.  I entered to win $100 gift cert for a cleaning service.  Hope I win so I can have someone else do the deep cleaning stuff. LOL

And Guess what?  Andy got a raise! Best news we've had in quite some time!  His boss also had a good long talk with him and his job future is looking pretty good.  We're both pretty excited about it.  It's nice to finally have good news come our way.

On a sad note tho, my brother-in-law for sure has cancer and will be having surgery tomorrow morning to remove it.  He doesn't have to go thru chemo thank goodness, but he does have to have part of his skull removed.  He is at the hospital today going thru some more tests making sure that that is the only spot he has it and, I'm sure, going over what's going to be done tomorrow.  Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers.

What a day

I'm finally feeling more like myself and then I have a day like today.  Andy finally heard on the news he has been waiting for, but it wasn't at all what was expected or hoped for.  After a couple of minor breakdowns, we gathered ourselves and went on with the day, only for me to find out bad news from a close friend at work.  Neither situation I can do anything about but wish I could fix both.  Still waiting for changes to happen that I have been being told about since November, but it will come too late for some now no matter what.  And now Andy and I have to wait at least six months for another set of changes to happen.  I hate waiting.

In my effort to help us have a little more wiggle room so we can get some stuff done that we really shouldn't wait on, like brakes for the car, I'm going to apply to put my student loans on hold.  Can anyone tell me the difference between deferment and forbearance?  I have the option of one or the other and am not sure which to pick.  Maybe I'll apply for both and see if either gets approved.   Hopefully we won't be this tight for too much longer.  I think my tv withdrawals are getting a little better too.  It's not too bad without it so far.

So anyone have any good ideas to do for a date that is either free or very cheap, but fun?

Oh and I forgot to mention something about our reunion, I took a very large parachute thing like what you used to play with in PE?  It was so much fun and all the kids had a blast with it, so did the adults that joined in.  I didn't get my camera out so don't have many pics, but here are some my cousin took

At one point we had put some balls on it and let the kids just shake them all around

We then lifted it up and jumped under it

everyone had a blast

A/C

When I finally woke up today, Andy told me he had called an a/c guy and he would be out later in the day.  He told me that he had found a guy willing to come out on a Sunday and check it out for free.  Okay.  The house was so hot, even the basement wasn't any kind of relief.

I have been really out of sorts today and outright depressed.  I don't know what to do about anything we need done and don't know how to better the situation quickly.  I fell asleep sometime downstairs.  When I woke up the a/c guy was there, but I didn't want to go out and see what was going on so I stayed in the basement.  Andy came in in a little while just totally mad and he proceeded to tell me that the unit had flipped a breaker and now it was back on and working.  Well that's good.  But then he told me that he offered the guy some money for coming out and thanked him for helping.  I guess the guy got really offended and started getting rude and going on and on about how much he would have charged had this or that been wrong and then asked for double what Andy offered him all the while being very rude even tho he said he'd come out for free.  Andy paid him what he offered and that was that.  I know he needs to earn a living and what not, but if you say you'll come and check it for free, don't get pissy when there isn't any real work to be done and charge as if there was and don't stick your nose up at an honest offer for your time.  Also, if you say you'll be there between 1:00 and 2:00 don't show up at 3:30 without notice.  I wasn't out there, so I'm not sure what all was said or what have you, but I'm really happy its working again.

A really neat storm blew thru late in the afternoon.  It was blowing rain so hard against the front window I almost wondered if it was gonna break it.  It also shoved our deck chairs around.  It cooled things off tho, so that's nice. I also got  My computer tower running finally and hooked it up to the tv so we can watch netflix and hulu on it and cancel xbox live.

se la vie(sp?)

Reunion

Neither one of us have been feeling great and we stayed up a bit late Friday night so we slept til almost noon Saturday.  When we finally did getup we just sat on the couch and played games.  While we were sitting there, we realized the house was getting hotter and hotter.  I could hear the blower going so thought maybe we had waited too long to change the filter and the cooler had frozen up.  I went outside and saw no ice, but saw something else.  The a/c unit wasn't on, the fan on top wasn't going.  I checked the thermostat and it was on cool.  Great.  I went out to the unit and is was making an electrical buzz.  Its dead. Nothing can be done about it right now.

Mom called and asked if we could go pick up Aunt Mary so we left, stopped at the store for a few things, went and picked her up and headed for the reunion.  We had a great time.  I love visiting with everyone and participating in the auction.  We didn't come away with much this year tho.I really wanted a wood carving Uncle Wayne had made, but it got up too high for us.  There is a bowling pin that my cousin Mindy put in the auction a few years ago with a pair of eyes drawn on it.  We wan it, took it home and added a tie and a few other things and took it back the next year.  It now circulates and whoever wins it has to add something and bring it back the next year.  We have missed out on getting it two years in a row now.  Next year tho, we'll get you Mr Pin, next year...

We had a nice visit again with Mary on the way home.  She lives not too far from Andy's mom, and even tho it was late, we decided to call and see if she was up.  She was and so we stopped in at 10:00 and visited until almost 2:00 it was really nice.  We sat on her patio and visited for a bit and then went in.  She  made us her yummy chicken cabbage salad for a midnight meal.  Love that salad.

It really sucked coming home that late to a house that was 84 degrees tho.

Cookies

Found several articles today about West Valley and guess what?  No chickens.  Stupid rules.  I want my country house!

I've had a desire for a very long time, probably since I was 17 or 18, to find an old cottage or victorian house and fully restore it, updating all the amenities and keeping all the charm, wood, and style.

Back to real life, I still have no energy, no motivation, and I want cookies!



Edit: My wonderfully awesome, super sweet, best ever husband raided the change jar and brought me back cookies!  Have I told you how much I love him?!

Actually that's not all

Okay so I got musing over the good laughs I got from reading the blog I discovered today, www.sleeptalkinman.blogspot.com, and decided to tell a few of my own.

Keep in mind, I don't remember any of this.  It's all recalled from what Andy has told me.

I apparently sit up wide eyed and wake Andy up a lot in my sleep and I am one of those people that you can talk to me and I will answer you while asleep.  So's my sister.  Runs in the family I guess.  Andy is not.  If I try to talk to him, he wakes up. Anyway, here's a few that I remember him telling me about.

This is one of his favorites to razz me about:
Me:  Look over there!
Andy:  What is it?
Me, very matter of factly: A bug.
Andy: Do you want me to kill it?
Me: No.
Andy: Is it a good bug or a bad bug?
Me: A good bug

Another time I guess I shook Andy up out of a dead sleep and said "It's okay, it's just a stall." and was gone again.

He tells me I was rummaging around under the bed from on top once saying something about needing to turn the water off cause I had left it on.

Andy was talking a nap once and I walked into the bedroom just as he sat up on his elbow and held up all the blankets with his other hand and started yelling, "This has got to be held up, someone needs to come over here and hold this up!"  I asked what needed to be held up and he just yelled that it needed to be held up again and then snorted and plopped back down out cold.  haha

Another time, Andy rolled over and whispered very sexily in my ear, " The wires all yours, baby." That's my favorite of his, LOL.

I know my sister talks in her sleep, and I know her husband does to, but at one point in their marriage they were working separate shifts and Kenton was going to school and they really were not seeing enough of each other at all and obviously they were feeling the strain.  I stayed the night one night over a weekend, and I kid you not, they started talking to each other, sound asleep, in the middle of the night.  It wasn't very coherent from either of them, but they were obviously understanding each other.  I was lucky enough to still be up when this happened.  I had a hard time not bursting out laughing!  I remember Stacie saying they had woken each other up doing it a couple of other times. LOL

Oh and it used to be that when we stayed at my dad's, someone would stay in the room next to his.  Well, he banned Stacie from getting to sleep in that room cause she would talk too much in her sleep and wake him up!  hahaha.

TV

is gone....tomorrow...

but I found a new favorite blog, sleeptalkinman.blogspot.com.  Love it!

that is all.

Okay

Alrighty, panic session over.  I can relax and be okay with the sitiation today.  (yes, I said sitiation)  Bills are paid, nothing was skipped, bills can be paid in the future, this has never been the problem.  TV has to go for now, it's the most expensive not needed item we have that we could agree upon and we can really watch all the tv we want on the Internet anyway.  Other things may go as needed.  The biggest problem is kind of selfish and self satisfying, entertainment.  Well, and a few items that are needed but not immediately.  Bills are paid and food is bought, but then all the money is spent.  No movies.  No eating out.  No going out with friends unless we do something that's free.  No spontaneous purchases.  Nothing extra for the next 3-4 weeks, and even then it will have to be kept to a minimum.

We are trying a new experiment that may or may not work, but may help us eat healthier and save some money.  For the next eleven days we will be going to the grocery store more often but buying things just for the meals we will be making for the next day or two.  The challenge is to make a meal for four people with $13 that is tasty and fairly easy to make.  We spent $40 at the store tonight and bought enough items for two dinners with left overs, a lunch or two, and two or three breakfasts along with a gallon of milk, a pound of butter, a case of water, and a few sodas.  It can be done if you really put your mind to the task and think reasonably about your purchases and take serious stock of what you already have on hand.  We usually don't.

One problem we have right now is clothes.  It's not an immediate need, but it is a constantly apparent need.  Neither one of us have enough pants to get us through the week, I don't have enough bras and what I have are worn and old, and neither of us have enough shirts that we truly like or are truly comfortable.  We were going to buy clothes on our free check last month, but were stupid and over spent.  We were going to do a lot of things on that check that were needed, but we did what we wanted and regret it but can't change it.

We had a really good, long talk about things last night after I calmed down and have a new plan for things and our future.  It will take time and be stressful, but I think we can pull it off.  I really wish we had stayed in an apartment or been smarter about our house purchase (we purchased at the edge of our budget limit) but again, it can't be changed and we just have to look forward and figure things out from here.

Just thinking out loud again.

Sigh

Been a bad week and the weekend wasn't any better really.  I hurt from fibro all week, I have had a cold all week, and I skipped my period for the camp out.  Now, this is a privilege both of being on birth control and getting a 90 day supply at a time and it may sound nice, but it really isn't.  At least not for me.  Skipping eliminates most of the pms and the actual gross stuf, but I still get to go thru all the other stuff, Yay me.  I get body aches, on top of what is already there, I have no energy, I want to eat everything in sight and I still get bloated.  I regret it every time, but it's been a long while so I guess I forgot.  Anyway, so you put all those three things together add, in some depression, and boom you get a shitty week.  I can work from home thank goodness, so I did the last three days of the week just to keep my misery to myself.  I was actually going to go in on Friday but ended up with a nasty bloody nose as we were getting ready that lasted forever and so I stayed home again in order to not clock in late, but later was glad I did cause I ended up being emotional later in the day.

Andy and I had a nice date on Friday, went to see a movie and out to dinner.  But yesterday was a "I'm depressed and still feel like crap from this stupid cold and I'm not doing anything or going anywhere" day.  I pretty much just watched movies on netflix all day.  Today I am half-assing the laundry again and decided to finally do the budget.  Big mistake.  Now I'm really depressed.

Andy and I had a small argument over finances and how to possibly improve the situation, but now I just want to go crawl in a hole somewhere and bawl myself to sleep.  We both make decent money and we have no "bad" debt, but we just can't get ahead, only behind.  More and more behind.

Sorry to go on a rant, and I'm sure ya'll didn't need to know all that, but....well...whatever.

A Glutton for Punishment

I paid for my efforts over the weekend by not being able to walk very well and getting asked lots of questions at work today.  Andy had to stay home, but I couldn't stay home to take care of him or myself.  My back and legs hurt really bad and my hands feel swollen and achy and they are hard to use, but I made it through the day and even made dinner again tonight, a yummy goulash.  I guess I am a glutton for punishment though.  My front lawn has been in dire need of mowing for a few weeks now and has grown well above ankle height.  Most of it is morning glory which makes it look even worse.  I have been putting it off because of the heat and I can't afford to pay anyone else to do it and Andy can't.  Well, tonight it was finally cool enough so I bucked up and went out and mowed it.  It is currently being watered and I am waiting for another dose of Ibuprofen to kick in so I can relax and go to bed.  What must be done, must be done.  I did the budget too and now I get to start worrying about money again. Such is life. Sigh.

As I sit here typing, Lily is out cold against me and barking in her sleep.  Probably dreaming of chasing pot guts or bicycles, silly girl. She was so worn out from the camp out that when we got home, she parked herself on the couch and didn't hardly move for several hours yesterday which is really not like her at all LOL

Carpenter Camp Out

Yay, another camp out!  We got all packed up Thursday night, dropped Chewy off at the sitters (sorry guys), did some last minute cleaning, and tried to sleep.  We got up early did some last minute packing, got the cooler loaded, and headed out for Payson Lakes a little after 10:00 am.  Woohoo!  I called my sister, Stacie about 20 minutes later to see if they had headed out yet.  They were almost to my mom's to pick up some of their stuff for them.  Wow, we might actually be the first ones to camp!  that's never happened!  Awesome.  Sure enough, we got there first and for once, had our pick of tent spots.  We got a really cool little spot under a bunch of trees kind of under it's own little canopy. It was great.

Andy and I got all set up and parked ourselves next to our tent, under the trees, and ate lunch expecting Stacie and Kenton and our parents any minute.  They were taking forever.  We were just starting to think they had stopped in Payson for lunch when my parents pulled up.  Wait a minute, they drive slow, how did they get here first?  Then Andy saw that they had Becca, why would they have Becca?  And then as they were pulling in I heard my dad say something about an accident.  Oh crap!  What happened?  They got pulled in and we found out that they had lost a wheel coming up the canyon!  A wheel!?!?  Holy crap!  They had been towed back down to town and they were all okay.  We completely emptied our vehicle and headed back down to get their stuff.  We got down there and found out that they had actually sustained minimal damage and their truck would be back on the road in a few hours.  The axle, rotor, everything came out fine.  The bolt on the ball joint took all the damage and was worn down to almost nothing but had enough left to hold.  It wasn't even bent!  They needed new rims due to the one that came off rounding out, but they got a great deal on them and ultimately Pepboys reimbursed them for everything including the rims and the alignment that started it all.  Don't go  to Pepboys, especially not the one in Sandy, they left the cotter pins off on a break job they did for us a few years ago too.  Freaked me out when the holding pins came out and caught in the wheel!  Anyway, here is a picture after the tow truck came up.  They had to fit the front tire back on to get it on the tow truck, but if you look behind their truck you can see part of the two inch wide and probably two inch deep 30 foot long gouge the ball joint bolt left in the road.  Note that the passenger side is only a few feet from a huge drop off.  This could have been so much worse in so many ways.  Oh so glad they came out no worse for wear.

We followed them back to camp once it was all put back together and they got settled and set up and we had a very yummy taco salad dinner.  And of course, it started raining just as they started setting up and kept up until we were almost done eating.  Despite the rain, it was a fairly warm night, I din't even keep the bag zipped most of the night.  Lily didn't think so though and she got out of bed and crawled in with us some time in the night just shivering.

Lee made us a really good french toast, ham, bacon, and sausage breakfast the next morning.

Once we all ate and got dressed, we headed down to take a short hike to the lake and then walk around it.  It was enjoyable but hard for Andy and I.  We are really out of shape.

We had to rest a couple of times and struggled to keep up with everyone else, so I stole pictures from my sis.  :)  Jazz and the rest of the kids just loved mom and dad's dog, Bo they wore him out!  Becca had to pick up all kinds of little treasures and stuff them all in her pockets.  I'm sure Stacie ended up with some surprises when she did laundry.

We went back to camp for some lunch and some of us were going to go back to the lake after and go swimming, but it rained again at lunch and kept it up off and on the rest of the after noon.  I was actually okay with the rain hitting though, I came back from the hike just absolutely hurting from head to toe.  I really hate my fibro at times like this.  I had been hurting all week anyway with the weather going from sunny to rainy and back again so the hike just set it all off even worse.  We all had a really funny moment while we were eating lunch.  Dad started coughing really bad and just as I was going to ask if he was okay, I started coughing really bad, and then Stacie did, and then Mom did, then Andy did and soon all of us were and we were all coughing and laughing at the same time.  It was the weirdest thing ever.  We found out later that Tayson and his friend and lit the sole of a shoe on fire next door and that had set us all off.  LOL.  

Andy and I headed back to town for a bit after lunch to pick some things we forgot to bring and grab some more ice.  When we got back I had to go lay down.  I slept for a good portion of the afternoon.  When we woke up (Andy had joined me for a nap) we got dinner going.  While we waited we played What Were you Thinking together which was really fun.  We made swiss chicken for everyone (see prior camp out post for recipe). While we were getting dinner ready Andy's mom made a surprise visit along with Danny and her daughter and they had dinner with us.  Everyone loved it.  Lewetta was so wonderful, she decided to clean the dutches for us since she didn't bring anything to add to the meal, Love you Mama Lew!  We all had a good visit after dinner.

Lily did pretty well, other than her normal barking.  she even let the kids play with her a bit, although she really isn't sure what to do when one of them has the leash LOL.  Bo did really well for what we think is his first camp out.  My parents have only had him for a few weeks, but he has already claimed them as his and he is really well behaved.

Andy tweeked his back a little before bedtime and was really uncomfortable all through the night.  Despite the rain the night was warm again though, that was nice.  But the next morning he reached into the car for something and his low back spasmed really bad on him he could hardly move.  I felt so bad for him and there was nothing we could do for him.  Kevin made a really yummy breakfast for us all and everyone started packing up.  It was really hard for Andy to sit still and not be able to help.  I got everything loaded with some help from Kenton and we followed them out of the canyon just to make sure everything was still okay with their truck.  We stopped for lunch and then parted ways and headed home.  We stopped in to pick up Chewy and visit with Dan and Denise for a bit and thank them for watching our poor old mutt for us and then headed home for good.  I had to unload everything alone, but I didn't mind as long as it kept Andy from getting hurt worse.  Lewetta made another surprise visit and showed up at the house just as I was finishing up.  She helped me get the carrier off the roof of the car and get it to the shed and then came in for a few minutes.  I crashed hard after she left and woke up just long enough to get a load of laundry done, dinner made, and the sheets changed.  Man was I hurting.

Life As Usual

Well, getting ready for the camp out this weekend is going slow.  We drove down to PG Monday in order to pick up a bakers rack from a lady who put it on ksl for a really great deal.  It's really nice and has hooks for pans, now we can get them off the counter, yay! Last night we got home from work, I picked up a few things around the house and tidied up a bit then sat down and crashed, and crashed hard.  I was out cold asleep on the couch before I even knew it and even slept thru a reminder alarm on my phone.  When I did finally did wake up, Andy was asleep in his chair and it was late. Tonight we have got to get some stuff done.  We must go to the store and I must get our big dutch scrubbed out and the big cooler wiped out.  The litter box must be cleaned and the sheets must be changed.  Oh and the bathroom must be cleaned and the lawn must be mowed and watered.  Sigh, makes me tired thinking about it.  And yes they are all musts!

July is done and over with and now finances are back to normal as well.  Good thing our contract is done with dish, cause tv is the first "not needed" item we will be letting go.  Not fun, but gotta do what we gotta do.  Wonder how much those stupid digital receivers are....

This Week

Oh man, I feel like I way over did it and did a double session of aerobics!  I couldn't hardly do a thing yesterday LOL.  I want to go back and swim some more so bad!  I can't wait to go again!

I did finally go see my uncle Wayne yesterday and it was so nice to visit with him.  He's looking so much better than I expected.  It was really nice and I'm glad we went.  Once we got home Andy got dinner going and let me tell you he made the most delicious chicken and rice dinner I think I've ever had.  The chicken was so tender and juicy and he made the most wonderful lemon pepper sauce reduction to go on top of it, mmm it makes my mouth water just thinking about it.  Oh man, he's such a good cook!

This week we have a lot to do.  I want the house cleaned and the dishes done and everything put away before we go on our camp out this weekend.  It's so nice to come home from camping to a nice clean house.  I've got to get to the store and get what I need to make swiss chicken for everyone Saturday night as well as get the big dutch cleaned and ready to go.  I also need to clean out the cooler and wipe out the cartop carrier.  I don't think I'll get around to using our new carpet cleaner before we go, but that's okay it can wait.  Lots of other little things to do to, but I won't bore you with those.  I can't wait for the weekend!  Going camping again! Yay!