Our little garden

Let the season begin!! I have been doing so much yard work lately, and I really do like it. I pulled about about 75% of our raspberry bushes, established the garden area in the back again, cut the rose bush WAY back, pulled dead canes out of the left over raspberries, planted squash and zucchini (they look sort of sad right now), planted strawberries and put together the baskets for the front of the house. We'll see how everything turns out...our soil is so sandy and I added topsoil, but it still looks pretty dry. It's worked in the past so I'm hoping for the best.

The dogs are officially mad at me. I blocked off their "special" little space where they go to roll around in the dirt and used it to plant some wild flowers and some strawberries. Pike was so upset about it yesterday morning that he went outside and looked at the little gate thing and walked right back inside. It's has been hard to keep the grass nice...we have pactches of really thick nice grass and patches of brown. The dogs make it hard to keep seed down and wet because they walk on it and pee on it, etc. and I think I'm just too lazy to walk them every time they have to go. Pike has this really bad habit of going out to the yard, rolling in the dirt...and I mean full body roll... and laying in the sun. He looks really cute covered in dirt and soaking up the rays, but then he comes in and shakes it all off!!! WHAT?!

Vacation - Florida Style

i just typed a freakin long blog about our vacation and then got the note that it can't be published. Am I annoyed...yeah a little bit. Also - you can't copy what you're typing and save it...oops...now I see the save button down there.



we had a great vacation - it was our anniversary (five years!) so we went to Orlando and shared the magic with Universal Studios. It was hot and it was crowded but we had a good time. We even saw a live episode of fear factor. People eat gross things.

I took us to the wrong airport on the way back using the GPS...oops. J was so good about it - just laughed and said it's okay, just get out the map and let's figure this out. Love that man!!

We took ONE pictures...that's right - ONE. What kind of Creative Memories consultant am I? I wanted to take pictures of the interesting people I saw but I don't think that would have gone over very well. I saw SO much cleavage - seriously girls...save it for your husband. We don't all have to see your goodies...no seriously, we don't.

We came home (after a long flight and long story thanks so much for nothing Alaska Airlines) to boxes of Pampered Chef stuff from a party I had ! YES! It was like Christmas in May! And then we woke up to yard work on Monday morning. It was nice to get things sort of together in the yard, or at least start thinking about what we'd like to do out there. We also went for a hike with our friends to a new spot I'd never been to - it was fun to check out a new place.

That's all my exciting news for now!

Another Weekend Gone

I think I have a weird thing going on. I used to be all about hanging out and being with people and now I'm becoming more and more miserly about my time at home.

This weekend was one of those weekends when I was feeling really protective of my time at home. Friday night we went out to a friend's house for a bonfire and hanging out. We had a good time and got home pretty late. Saturday morning we were up to go to this 5K race that J ran and I walked. It started at 8:30 and after that we met the youth from church and went to Prince Caspian. I really liked that movie! And then we went home for a few minutes and turned around and left again to meet one of J's friends for an hour or so.

So - Saturday night we didn't get home until 7:30 or so and I can only do laundry on weekends (we share with our tenants and I've found a schedule works really well) - so I busted out the laundry.

Sunday was church, potluck, out to Wasilla to visit friends and on the way home from Wasilla we got a call from another friend wanting to hang out. WOW - I couldn't believe myself when I said - I just want to go home and clean house...what? But it was true, I did. I just wanted to start out the work week with a clean house. So that's what we did - we went home and I cleaned house and wrapped up the laundry. And I feel really good about it.

We're blessed to have friends that we love spending time with, and I need to work on not getting my hackles up when things aren't going as I expected...more work to do on me!

Friday

So So SOOOO glad it's Friday. It's been a long week - and finally the sun is out!

I had a board meeting at work last night and for some reason it was a really intense one - I have to take the minutes so I have to listen...bummer! I'm just glad we're done with those until September...yay!

We're doing a 5K tomorrow - John's running, I'm walking. I'm looking forward to it, I've never done aynthing like that before. Then we're going to Prince Caspian with the kids from church. SO excited to see that movie.

What else - not much. We're mostly boring...

Stupid Curling Iron

J recently remodeled our bathroom - I LOVE IT! We got a new vanity in the remodel, and we didn't have one before, so I'd always rest my curling iron on the side of the sink or in the sink when I was getting ready in the mornings.

I did the same thing in the new bathroom, but my curling iron doesn't have a rest prop thing so I was burning a beautiful brown spot into our fab new vanity. I was so bummed...so then I had a brilliant idea to hang my curling iron off of this metal thing on the toilet that holds the mags for when you're going to be a while.

BRILLIANT.

Until this morning when I grabbed the curling iron by the hot part and burnt the stink out of my hand. It's only hurting when I hold my coffee now...but MAN this morning it really hurt...wyah... I have 0 pain tolerance.

Platinum Rewards

we do not have caller id.

i don't want to get caller id.


we don't use our land line phone much - most people call us on our cell phones. We've been getting these weird messages on our answering machine at home that is this weird man's voice saying "default message" really mumling it so much that we had to listen to it several tiems the first time we heard it.

So the phone rang this morning at 5:00 AM - yep 5 in the freakin' morning, I thought to myself...wow this must be an emergency. I get out of bed and answer the phone and it's an Indian woman telling me about the rewards I can get beacuse of my platinum visa ending in ****. she knows the numbers my card ends in, and this is not the first time they've called.

They call at least twice a week - and I suspect that's who the messages are from. I yell at them, tell them to take me off their list, threaten them, and still they call. Here's this morning's conversation:

"hello?"

"yes - is Stephanie Long there?"

"yes, this is her"

"Yes, Mrs. Long, I'm calling today to offer you a gift certificate because you are such a valued customer with your platinum visa ending in ****"

"do you know what time it is here? It's 5:00 in the morning, you are calling me at 5:00 in the morning to offer me something I've told you 100 times not to call and offer me??"

"yes, I have a great offier for you" (notice she totally ignored my 5:00 in the morning comment)

"yes - and I have an offer for you. I have asked you repeatedly to stop calling me. Why don't you put a little note by my name in the notes section, eh? It can say, this lady's mean and she yells at us, why don't we stop calling?"

"do you have proof that we have callled you?"

"what is the name of your company" (i've gotten several different answers)

"Platinum rewards"

"yes, and where are you located?"

"Clearwater FL"

"may I speak with your supervisor?"

"you are speaking to her."

"May I speak with your manager?"

"Unfortunately they are not available."

"huh...9:00 on a Monday morning and they're not available interesting."

then i hang up...J and i have a great idea for the next time they call - i'm going to give them a funny address...something like "1234 yomama lane" maybe I can have some fun if they don't stop calling.

I googled it and it appears I'm not the only one with this problem, whatever. It's obnoxious. Like I'd give them my SS# and home address...whatever.

The weekend

I had a pampered chef party this weekend - it was pretty fun. The woman who did the party was great, and a few of my favorite friends attended, so it was well worth it! We got one 1/2 price item so it was worth it!

We got a ton of yardwork done this weekend - I know that's extremely exciting for you all to know. I mulched a bunch of the leaves we had raked, and really thinned out or raspberry bushes. J swept the street in front of our house and used the gravel to fill in some low spots on our driveway. Then he cut down a couple of branches that were hanging over our yard from the neighbors huge tree - what a difference it's already made in the sunlight that comes in our house.

We also went to see "Fools Gold" this weekend with J'm mom for Mother's Day. It was a fun movie - it got bad reviews, but I thought it was worth the $3 it cost to see it. We went to the Bear tooth - my thought on that...movies are cheap, food is not! :)

I'm just saying

I'm just saying...I'm over panicking if something isn't working out just like I suspected it should/wanted it to/hoped it would. That's how life is. It doesn't work out all neat and orderly like I would like it to.

And as I preach to myself, I would like to pass this peace on to others.

1. It's okay if you don't know the whole plan, flow with it

2. Just because you aren't in the "know" doesn't mean it's not going to work out

3. Don't panic. The world keeps moving whether or not things seem like they're screeching to a halt. Tomorrow comes, and things are better. Besides, how long do those every day panic moments really last?

4. You are replaceable. God has a plan, if He is moving you to move on from something, He has a plan. (this is to me...I am replaceable not as a child of God, and not as my husband's wife, but in my work, in my ministry, in my relationships...life will keep moving without my involvement)

My little points may sound harsh, and maybe they are, but it is true that I spend too much time worrying about how things will work if I don't have a clear routine. I get way to stiffnecked about my routines and really get stuck if they don't work out.

maybe someone else struggles with this! Maybe I'm the only weird one! (it's certainly possible!)

Back from CO

We went on a very quick trip to Colorado and Portland over the weekend. We flew into Denver Friday morning and spent the day hanging out with my parents. I feel bad because we're always flying in for a quick trip and with gas prices like they are, I'm sure it's an expensive weekend for them.

We were in town for a wedding of a friend of mine. we have been friends for years, and I was just so excited that one of these brothers was getting married that I talked J into attending. He is always up for a trip that gets him more miles!! The wedding was great - it was so good to see old friends - our friendships never seem to change, I think because they're Christ centered and that never changes.

Then Saturday night, my sister came over and we had fun hanging out with her. We ate dinner and played a few games of rummicub, and then JJ and I checked out her "options." I'll leave it at that, but it was pretty fun!

Sunday we flew to Portland and spent the day with J's family - it's only fair after all! We had fun being with J's family and there were more there than we expected which is also fun! I looked at a scrapbook that was made online and it inspired me to do 2008 all digitally. I'm so good! I was so exhausted and maybe had breathed too much airplane air and stayed home sick today...I was just too tired, sick, moody to go it...so here I am at home, chilling and sleeping. The boys are very delighted I"m home - right now they're not doing much, but I can tell by the way they're laying in the sun that they're glad I'm home!!

Anyway...more excitement as it happens!

Fleas

Yep - we may have gotten them. I took the girls (Bella and Izzy) over to a friend's house to play for a while on Tuesday night. They had had a dog there for a couple of days who had been dipped for fleas, but they hadn't seen any in quite some time so we thought it was safe. I'm not sure it was.

My friend called and said she had just found one little flea on her doggie, so I went into full panic mode. I googled everything there was to know about fleas and learned way more than I ever wanted to know. So then I called my father-in-law and we made a plan of attack to get the girls flea free. My friend called later and said that after she bathed her dog, she didn't find anymore, so maybe it was just a fluke, but we weren't taking any chances.

J, my FIL and I got to work on the girls. We gave them hair cuts (brace yourself Barb) and then bathed them in flea shampoo, washed all of their bedding, toys, blankets, etc. and cleaned up the kitchen floor hoping that we got anything that might have been attached.

We didn't find any fleas on the girls, and they are quarentined in the kitchen until further notice. You don't even want to know about the discusting things fleas can do - including where they hide all their nasty little eggs.

Here's to being flea free....I pray its true!