100 Degree Camping and It's a Dog's Life

My life if never free of an occasional surprise. Andrew walked down to my office this morning and wanted to see if I would go camping with him this weekend and some of our friends. I have only "officially" been camping once and I enjoyed the experience, except for being dirty. However, that was camping in Colorado. We have had several days recently that have been in the 100's. Yikes! Fortunately we will be out camping by a lake and therefore we can at least get in the water to get cooled off. We will be bringing Dewey and I'm sure he will have a GREAT time. He always does.

I was thinking of this the other day when talking a walk with Dewey. He doesn't care WHO he meets, he wants to be their friend. Yesterday while walking Dewey met another little dog who barked, snarled, and growled at him. It didn't faze my puppy one bit. He just kept on trying to be friendly to the other dog. (He gets that from Andrew, constant optimism). He also thinks that every one we pass on the sidewalk should just love to pet him. What would life be like if we had that kind of optimism? If we thought that everyone we met would love us and that we could be extremely friendly even in the face (snarling, growling face) of someone who is mean and unkind. I know my life would be so much better!

Hum Drum Life - Back to Health Focus

Well, life is slowly getting back to normal. First we had a week off in Ohio with a flurry of activity there, then I was sick for a while (always makes things seem weird) and then this whole job thing came up. I am now starting to notice that even though I had a several people call me to inquire about voice lessons, no one has called to actually set a time for lessons. Hmm, I hope they do.

Well, I have started a new "diet." It isn't a diet per se, as American culture views diets. It isn't depriving myself of anything really. It is called the Baby Wise diet. Ok, let me explain. I heard from some friends here at Sterling of their cousin who went on this pre-pregnancy plan. I mean she took like two years to prepare her body and I have read of other people taking four years, so don't think we are planning anything soon. So anyway, my mom helped me find some good books and this diet plan was in one of them. It is very easy to follow.

So the diet is really a checklist. I need to eat so many of certain foods in a day and then when I am done I can have what I want. The secret to the success of this is that there are so many servings on there a day of things that need to be eaten that there isn't much room for extras. It is things like five servings of vegetables, three servings of fruit, two servings of low fat calcium foods, two servings of lean meat, etc. It is working well so far. I have been so busy trying to pack in enough fruits and vegetables in my diet that I haven't had time to eat much else!

Anyway, so hopefully this will help me become healthier. I want to lose weight but I want to lose weight so that I will be healthier. It is sort of a circle effect really. I am also really trying to eat as natural as possible (least amount of processing the better). I am starting to notice a shift in my grocery shopping habits. I definitly linger in the fresh foods section much longer now. So that is what I am up too.

Decisions

Well, it has been somewhat of a stressful day and 1/2. Andrew and I have decided not to look into the job in Virginia any further. The main reason for this is that the only thing we would really be changing is location. The job isn't necessarily a step up for me, it is in a church but the job isn't necessarily what I want to pursue. Also, we would be rather stretched just living on one small income. Also, Andrew is planning on going for his master's degree but most of it will be online so therefore he can start working on it here and continue from wherever we may be. We also talked about the fact that we think we just got overly excited about this because it was our first job offer. There will be others . . . and hopefully others in the area of the country we want to live. I didn't have a good feeling about the job or the church even though it was an enticing thought to think of living near Washington D.C./Beaches/Historic Towns/Etc.

I was also very disappointed thinking that I would have to leave my voice students after they just started. Andrew said that I could get voice students anywhere, but probably easier to get them in Lyons and Sterling rather than Fredericksburg, Virginia. Also, I would like to get some experience here with teaching voice rather than in a metropolitan area.

So that is what we have decided for now. Oh, the trials of our lives. :)

Wow! Moving to Virginia?

Wow, some amazing things have happened to us this weekend. On Friday, I went with two of my friends to McPherson for lunch. While at lunch, my phone rang. The deli was a bit noisy so I decided not to answer it. The caller left a voice message, which I checked. A few weeks before that I had applied to a church in Virginia. The job sounded perfect for me. Church Administrator. Anyway, I sort of did it for fun and never thought I would hear anything from them. Well, the pastor of the church gave me a call back and asked me to return his call. All weekend, Andrew and I pondered what life would be like if we moved to Stafford County Virginia.

So, I decided I would just call him back this morning to find out what the job was all about. I just talked to the pastor of the church for about 1/2 hour. My only concern with the church is that they are a non-denominational charismatic church. There isn't anything wrong with that but it just isn't a church that I am familiar with. You can check out their website at www.horizonschurch.com. Anyway, I enjoyed my conversation with the pastor and they seem interested in me. I wasn't offered the job per se but it sounds promising.

I am very excited and scared about this all at the same time. I would be the primary supporter while Andrew goes back to school. I have never lived out of the state of Kansas (one reason that I want to and don't want to move), I have never lived more than an hour from my parents, etc. Anyway, this blog is mainly to implore you all to please pray for us in the coming week. The pastor asked me to call him back if I was interested so the ball is now in my court! I suppose I can always continue the process and backout if anything seems amiss. I would prefer to at least attend a worship service there before agreeing to work there. Anyway, we will be doing lots of thinking and praying this week and we would appreciate your prayers as well!!

It's Friday!

Last night wasn't very exciting. After I made supper I decided to read a while. . . that got annoying, so I played on the computer. Everything was just driving me crazy. Anyway, it was about 8:00 p.m. and I just felt tired so I decided to just lay down on the couch. Amazingly enough, I fell asleep. Slept until 10:30 p.m. Got up, brushed my teeth and washed my face, and went to bed. I slept straight until 6:30 a.m. I guess the fact I was annoyed at everything meant that I was tired!! I haven't slept like that for a long while. I even still feel a bit tired this morning but better than previous days. Not very exciting but that is what I did yesterday evening.

Yeah, it's Friday! Andrew and I have started a little tradition on Friday's that we go to Haldon's here in Sterling (yes a gas station but a glorified one) and rent a movie and get some supper to go. It has become a nice tradition that we both really look forward to. Once again, I am looking forward to it tonight! :) Also probably not very exciting compared to other things we could do but life is all about finding happiness in the small things, right?

Wow, a blog about lots of things!

Thanks for the comments on the last blog. I am still a bit under the weather. Actually feeling a bit worse than yesterday. I am going to really take it easy tonight even though I am chomping at the bit to get things done. I am in the mood to rearrange my "music" room so that lessons can be given a bit easier. I will get it done sometime. I got another call this morning from someone who has two granddaughters who want to take lessons. They are 9 and 12 so the lessons would be very relaxed and easy going since they are so young. Just a lot of singing and breathing!! :) So now I have a total of six students with two of them not starting until the Fall. Andrew has indicated that he would be more than willing to do more of the housework if I get more students, so we'll see. I think I will be fine so long as I keep several evenings free to do things that I need to do.

So . . . two of our friends are having babies. My junior-year roommate just had a baby last Saturday, two months premature after having lots of complications with her pregnancy, and another couple we are friends with just went into the hospital today to have their baby. They are about three weeks early. Makes me realize that I am NOT ready for this yet! Yeah for birth control! Whoops, did I say that?

Anyway, I think I may go home for the day and sleep some. Hopefully tomorrow I will feel better.

Slowing Down

Well, I'm at work again today. I made it at work until about 3:15 p.m. yesterday. I just felt terrible. Dizzy, exhausted, congested, etc. I felt better last night after sleeping some and having supper. I am feeling a bit better today but not back to normal. Still have a painful cough. I even called my voice lesson students who come on Tuesday's and moved our lesson. They haven't called me back yet to set a time, so I hope they do that soon. I definitely can't sing with this cold and I doubt I will feel much like teaching either. I have had another call for voice lessons. This girl is going to start in a week or so. I now have three current voice students and two more that want to start in the Fall. Originally I was going to try to keep the limit at five but after talking to Andrew, I think I will take on a few more. He promised he would do more of the house work, such as take over the laundry completely.

Anyway, once I get over this cold, I just want to never get another one again. How do I do that? Jennie, any advice . . . an apple a day? Anyway, I'd better get to work.

Well, I'm at work!

Well, I made it to work this morning. I am doing ok. I feel a bit dizzy and hot but other than that I think I will make it all day. I may run home and get a fan, that would help. I have never heard that cold symptoms could really mean pregnancy so . . . I am not pregnant. Thank goodness. I'm not ready for that yet (all that is in reference to a comment on the last post). Anyway, I'd better get to work.

Still down and out

Well, it's Sunday morning and I am still under the weather. I was planning on going to my parents church this morning for Father's Day but that fell through, obviously. I am grateful, however, that I was able to go to church somewhere. . . online church, at my in-law's church in Ohio! :) I really liked the men's choir this morning. Very nice! Anyway, so my boring day will continue to consist of just laying on the couch and puttering around the house.

This is really beginning to get to me. I'm not the kind of person that can just not do anything for very long. I like my relaxation time but I also like to get some things accomplished and so it is driving me a little crazy not to be getting things done that I want to. Please please pray that I will be well enough to go to work tomorrow. I am still behind from the week I was gone and then I missed Friday as well. Sorry, not much exciting is going on. I must now go and take more Colloidal Silver and some Airborne!

If you write, I'll write

I just want to let all my faithful readers know that I am a lot more likely to blog often, perhaps daily, if there are comments to spur me on. Feel free to comment at anytime. Anyway, thanks to those who have commented so far.

I haven't written lately because not much as gone on, but I will give an update anyway. I have one of the worst things in the world (in my opinion) . . . a cold in the summer. Andrew had this last week and now I am stuck with the sore throat, cough, stuffy nose, etc. I even missed my first day of work for illness on Friday. I knew I didn't have a fever but my throat was so sore I could hardly concentrate, so I came home from work after braving it for an hour!

My precious puppy has been such a good companion for me. I'm sure he likes being out of his crate as well. He mostly has just snuggled with me the whole time. It is 9:00 p.m. here and I am starting to feel a bit stir crazy. I can think of all these things I want to get done but I just don't feel like doing much. I made the bed, unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher today and that was about it besides laying on the couch. Well, I'd better return to my spot on the couch with my Kleenex and cough drops close by.

I'm Shrinking, Cable TV, and the Dentist!!

Wow! I had my first weigh-in since April 22nd this morning. I didn't wait that long on purpose but I just kept forgetting to weigh myself. I now weigh . . . . wait a minute, I'm not ready to be THAT open and honest. I did, however, lose three pounds from my last weigh-in. That may not seem like a lot but they were three GOOD pounds. Meaning, I didn't step on the scale and lean to get to a certain weight or bounce at all. I simply walked upstairs, closed my eyes and stepped on the scale (then, yes I did look down to see the number). I also know that I didn't do really well at eatting in Ohio so I probably gained a little of it back, so I may have been down from what I am now and didn't even know it!

We finally decided to get cable TV. We decided that we would get it for our anniversary gift to each other but I was having second thoughts. It is just so much expense for the time we actually will be watching. We finally broke down and purchased it yesterday. Should be hooked up today. I rationalized with myself that the shows we would probably watch would be primarily educational in nature (history channel, HGTV, TLC, etc), so we'll see about that. So, now if you ever visit us you will be in the lap of luxury even more than you were before! (just kidding) :) I'm sure that my brother will be very happy as well (he can watch MORE sports when he comes over to do his laundry)! :)

Well, I FINALLY made an appointment at the dentist for Andrew. I'm not sure how many years it has been since he has seen the dentist, but it has been a while, I'm sure. His appointment is in about 15 minutes. I sure hope there aren't any cavities. That would be a miracle, wouldn't it?!

Discovery

Things I have recently discovered about myself or am now admitting to the world (please be nice, I am really putting myself out on a limb here):

~ I have always thought I had a good sense of humor but it is something I still need to work on!
~ I still love rollercoasters and thrill rides at my age. (That is good, isn't it?)!
~ I am very blessed in all aspects of my life.
~ I still struggle with things but that is ok, every one does.
~ I can cook, if I want to.
~ I love reading and I am not ashamed to admit (at least I'm not now) that I like The Chronicles of Narnia!
~ I get annoyed easily and that is a trait that I dislike in myself.
~ One of my favorite things in life is to organize things. (I can't believe I just admitted that . . . how boring!) :)
~ I like salty things and sugar things! Oh my!
~ I don't really believe in myself anymore. This causes an infinte about of problems in my life. I am definitely going to work on that. The thing I realized is that Jesus believes in me, otherwise I wouldn't be here, so why don't I?

Back to the Ole Grind

Wow! First day back to work after our week off in Ohio. I had HUGE piles of stuff awaiting me when I walked in this morning. Luckily I got here several minutes early so I could sort throught things. It was nice to be missed but it is also difficult coming back. Probably because I can see in my peripheral vision a huge stack of transcripts that needs to be entered . . . oh about 75 to 100 of them. I normally do about 30 or less in the average week. I guess I was being punished for going away so long. Andrew and I are planning to take two weeks off in September and my co-worker said to me this morning, "are you sure you want to be gone that long." :) Now, I am not sure! I learned at lot about myself this past week. I'm not sure I am going to blog about it, we'll see.

Anyway, just wanted to write one a blog for the day. I am feeling fairly overwhelmed with stuff here at work and that makes me just put it off. I am going to set a goal for myself so that I can be motivated. That works every time! Anyway, I have more to blog about but perhaps I will leave it to do tonight in the midst of unpacking and other household chores. So, look for more later. I will try to get Andrew to set up a link on our website so I can post Ohio pictures. We'll see what I get accomplished tonight. I am also on a huge reading kick.

Ok, someone just brought in about six more transcripts so I'd better get to work.

Saturday, June 11th Blog

We are still in Ohio on our graduation vacation. We are leaving for Kansas tomorrow. I hope our puppy is as good going home as he was coming here. While I am not looking forward to going back to work (just because the days are long, not because I dislike my job), I do feel the need to get back just so I can accomplish something. I have a problem with that. I can't be idle for too long! I've got to organize something!!! Anyway, I have some plans to continue to improve our house. Now, only if we can get more money to afford them! Paint is fairly cheap however and painting several rooms is going to be my summer plan. Maybe I will try my hand at refinishing the bathtub. Anyway, after I looked through several people's blogs I realized a lot of people just give daily updates. I think I am trying to be too philosophical, so some future blogs will probably just be life updates. Please feel free to leave a comment. I love it when people comment! :)

Choices

Why do we even have a choice in life? It is so hard to chose and decide on things in life. Making sure you choose the right choice is becoming apparently more difficult. I desire to make an impact on others, to better my community, to make the fact that I care about others more apparent, and to be the person that Jesus wants me to be. The hard part is finding out who that is. Should we stay, should we move, should we look for jobs, when should we have kids, why, where, what, and how, etc. The questions are endless. I drive myself crazy worrying about all of those big decisions. I also worry about how my decisions will affect other people, my boss, my husband, our families, etc. So recently I decided that I had to stop the worrying (it isn't that easy but I feel I'm on the right path). I decided that if God wants to tell me to move or do something different he will just have to be fairly direct with me. I decided just to try and be a blessing where I am at. I have also found that doing this isn't easy and I really can't do it perfectly. That fact really drives me crazy sometimes.

As I look back on my life and I ponder things, I think back to when choices were easier for me. Believe it or not, it was when I was skinnier. I chose a college, a husband, a job, a major in college, etc. But the thing is . . . it wasn't because I was skinnier at all, it was because I had more self-confidence. I knew that God would direct my path and let me know the right choices to make. Where has that confidence in my life gone? This makes me sad. I want to live life to the fullest and if my weight is hindering me then why can't I just stop eating so much and then be happy. If anyone has figured out the meaning to life or what the solution to all this is, let me know. Sorry, very random blog.

Computer Games vs Movies

I was thinking today as my husband spent most of the afternoon playing a video game and I went to see a movie, which of us was more productive. In society's eyes, I think, that my husband would be scorned. It is because playing computer games requires you to stay indoors and movie watching requires going out? I'm not sure. But as I thought long and hard about it, I think he may have been more productive.

Here is my reasoning: 1) Video games require some movement (at least your hand is moving) and you are using some hand/eye coordination. In a movie or watching TV you just simply sit there. The only time you would possibly move is if you are watching a funny movie and you laugh. 2) Video games (at least the one played today) require some interaction. My husband was playing a network game with one of his cousins so they sat next to eat other and talked about it all day. That is better than what I did at the movie. I conversed with no one . . . I just sat there and watched. 3) Video games (after the initial cost, and probably will cost less in the long run than a year of movies) don't cost anything. Now, my movie was paid for today by my very very generous in-laws (yes, I know they are reading this so I thought I would score a few brownie points!! :) ) so it didn't cost me anything but normally it would!

Now, really I have no idea why I am writing this. I would rather see a movie anyday rather than play a video game. I am also slighly annoyed when the video games keep my husband up to all hours of the night and keep him on our computer for hours when I want to get on for something. So, don't ask my why I am defending them. I don't know!! It is just a thought I had today. Why is it acceptable for thirty-year-olds to come home in the evening and plop down in front of the TV for their favorite show or at a movie but they would be looked upon as "nerds," "losers" or "geeks" when they said they played a computer game for hours. If anyone has the answer, please let me know!

Printers and Overweight Repair Men!!

Argh! Since nothing is going right this morning, I decided to blog about it.

It all started about a month ago when my boss saw a smudge on one of our letters we send out to students. It wasn't a very big smudge but he thought we ought to have the printer repair guy out to fix it. We called the repair man, which I dislike to do. He makes me uncomfortable. His personality is very somber and feels that each breakdown is a tragedy. I am also uncomfortable around him because he is so large I have no idea how close to get to him without bumping into his belly! So the repair man came. . . his belly proceded him through our door and he fixed the problem. Alas, a week later huge, thick, black lines began to appear on the letters . . . the repair man was called again. Fixed (for the time being)! Alas, another week later my letters began to have double images . . . the letter was shadowed or printed twice on the sheet of paper! Argh!! Here comes the repair man again. After about three trips to fix that problem (finally fixed), I get a serious error code one day . . . after my printer smells like a pile of burning tar. This printer is very important, just so you know, for our students to get their mail from us (acceptance letters, and the like), so it MUST work. He came out and fixed the error by resetting the entire machine and I lost a five hundred piece mailing. I reset the mailing in the correct spot and went about my business. As I began to print again, last Friday, the printer began to jam. Not just a regular paper jam but a serious jam. Must have jammed about twenty pieces of paper. The repair man was called again.

After about three hours of work (4:30 pm by this time) the repair guy said it needed a new part. (great) but it was too late to order it today (why didn't you figure that out sooner) so it may not be in until next week (still . . . just wonderful news). "I have plans to be gone next week and I would like to get these printed this week so my student worker has something to do while I am gone," I said to the repair man. He continued to elaborate (and I do mean elaborate) how the whole shipping process could take a while if the part had to come from China vs California (why can't we Americans just make our own parts! Argh!) and how he didn't want to be the one to blame if the part didn't come in, etc, etc. I assured him that I knew it wasn't his fault (although I was fuming inside, not necessarily at him) and that I knew he would get it here asap. Why not just get me a new printer! Argh!

Anyway, my day finally improved yesterday when the repair man told me how much he loved coming to work on the printers at Sterling College vs other businesses (he certainly has spent a considerable amount of time in my office lately) because we are all so nice and kind and we don't cuss, etc. He went on and on in his usual way! That made me very glad that my frustration at the machine and at his "slowness" had not shown through (I think it didn't anyway, Andrew always says I am fairly apparent when it comes to those things). :) Anyway, in the end we had a nice discussion about Christianity and how he believed it was the end times. Very strange conversation but in the end it was very enlightinging to talk about deep matters with the overweight printer repair man!! :)