Give a Little

I’m not the world’s most religious person, but we celebrate Christmas and Easter, I occasionally attend church, and I participate in Lent every year. No matter what religion you are, I think it’s good to challenge yourself now and then. This year, inspired by many cleaning and de-cluttering blogs, I am going to get rid of stuff every day for 40 days. I’ve read some various extremes of this idea ranging from letting go of one item a day to one trash bag a day. I will fall somewhere in the middle, with a goal of “At least one item per day.”

Today, I cleaned out our front closet and got rid of quite a few things! Shoes that have been at the bottom and anything that was generally garbage got thrown out. I think there were two pairs of his shoes, and three pairs of mine that went out the door! Things at the bottom of our closet were pretty dusty and hairy, and when you look at a pair of shoes and think about how much your feet hurt when you wear them, it’s pretty easy to see them out of your life forever (admittedly, this wasn't always so – there are still plenty of “cute” shoes lurking around here that kill my feet).

The other part of this Lenten challenge is to actually get the items out of my house. I can’t tell you how many times I've filled up bags to donate and then they just sit somewhere in my house still taking up space. So as items get eliminated, they are going straight to my car and then dropped off. The bag from the closet today is already gone! I hope you’ll follow along and share your own success at downsizing <3

Welcome Back?

Hello Friends!
You might have noticed I took an extended hiatus from blogging after posting incredibly infrequently in the first place. The thing is, I felt like every post was one big pity party, and bad things kept happening so I just gave up. 2014 was one big suckfest. I’ll probably post a couple of quick recaps just to catch people up on major changes in our lives, but for now I’d rather just skip right over it.

2015 isn’t shaping up to be much better, but I’m at least determined to have a better attitude about it. I have a few goals to accomplish to make that happen. Goal 1 is to write more, so you will definitely be seeing more blog entries. Goal 2 is to spend more time doing things I enjoy. Too often I get stuck in the cycle of sitting on the couch and watching TV all day, and nothing gets accomplished when I do that. I have projects that have been sitting around waiting for me to finish them, things I want to learn, and a house that isn’t going to clean itself. Plus a pack of dogs that don’t want to watch me nap all day. Goal 3 is the big depressing one: to get our finances in order. We do ok, but we could definitely do better. Basically after experiencing an emergency, I’ve realized the importance of creating an emergency fund. Goal 4 is of course to get more exercise. I’ve noticed how much better I feel, how much better I sleep, when I exercise even just 30 minutes a day. Hard to remind myself of that when it’s 5 degrees outside.

Otherwise, things are pretty good. We both currently have good health, we have a roof over our heads and a car to drive. We have happy and healthy pets that provide us with companionship and entertainment (and eggs!). And we have friends and family nearby willing and able to help whenever they can. Overall, things are pretty luxurious in the grand scheme of things. Fostering an attitude of gratitude is a somewhat grueling process, but I seem to be managing so far. My negativity center freaks out for a second (you know how I love me a worst case scenario), but generally once I’m given a little time to get things into perspective, it all seems a little better. So that's pretty much it, trying to dig out from the multiple feet of snow we have and keep things together and unfrozen.

See you all soon!

Outfoxed

A few weeks ago I was on my way home in the early afternoon, when I got a phone call from Mr. Fabulous telling me that we were missing a chicken. All winter we have been letting them free range during the day, being careful to have them back in the coop well before sundown. The previous week we lost a duck, and now this chicken.

The next day Mr. Fabulous took my car to run a few errands, and I decided to take a nap. When I woke up, I looked at the clock and it was about 2:30, so I thought I would go and make sure the chickens were safe before 3:00, when suddenly I heard a commotion outside - it was definitely the call of a chicken in distress. I looked out the window, and in the middle of our shoveled path in the snow was a FOX!! My big chicken was valiantly fighting for her life, and I ran down the stairs and outside, all the while the fox 100% focused on the hunt and 0% aware of my presence. I, of course, had neglected to put shoes on, so I stood on the front porch and shouted, "HEY!! LET  GO OF MY CHICKEN!!" The fox looked at me, and reluctantly obliged. The chicken seized her opportunity for freedom and ran towards me, then past me and hid in a old tarp. The fox looked at me as if to say, "Ok, you can have her this time." And then sauntered away.

I went back inside to put shoes on, then assessed that the rest of our birds were still alive and well, then found my poor injured bird. She was missing all of her tail feathers, and bleeding a little on her back from where they had been violently ripped out, but other than that she seemed in good shape. We cleaned her up and sprayed some chicken first aid spray we had on her cut, and then put her in her own coop with a heat lamp, figuring without feathers she'd have a hard time staying warm, and also not wanting the other chickens to attack her.

The fox, however, was also free and healthy. And thought she knew where her next meal was coming from. That night, with all birds safe and sound, the fox returned to find her injured prey, but came up empty handed. The next day we left all the birds locked in their coop, and I pulled in the driveway to see the fox sitting patiently next to our shed, waiting to see if any birds were going to walk down the shoveled path today. Again, when she saw me, she trotted away, but not with any real sense of urgency.

In the following weeks, we have kept our birds locked up (they are not happy about this) and we have managed to keep all of them alive. The poor bald chicken is growing her feathers back and still laying eggs. And the fox is definitely still patrolling outside - not quite as often, but she's there.

Since then whenever I tell this story, I have been given all kinds of suggestions for getting rid of this fox (it should be noted at this point that I always refer to the fox as "she" but I have no real proof of gender). This is obviously a large and well-fed fox, so the ideas have ranged from shooting it, to feeding it, and everything in between. It was suggested that I play music in the coop, also to hang cd's from branches, and potentially that the fox is my spirit animal and maybe that's why I can't get rid of it. Turns out my spirit animal is a raven, according to a quiz I took online, so clearly that's not the answer.

As it warms up outside, I'm sure my birds are going to be harder to contain, so hopefully we will have good means for protecting them, or maybe the fox will find another yard full of delicious treats.

Bubbles

I have spent a lot of time in the past few months living in my own little bubble, navigating between home and work and not doing much else. This is the slow time of year for us, and my charming husband and I always say we are going to get all these projects done, and then, well, we don't. 

We have spent the past two weeks overcoming one of the worst colds we have ever had, and now that we are finally starting to feel human again, I am starting to get the itch to be productive. Add to that the fact that the sun is finally shining today (even though we have nine new inches of snow), and things are really starting to look up! 

I hope all of you are doing well, I wish I had more information to update you with, but the truth is I have not accomplished much in the past few months. I have managed to watch a lot of tv and movies, so I would be happy to talk about that, and I am open to suggestions for anything you might have seen recently (and not so recently) as it is starting to look like I have exhausted all methods of streaming shows. 

See you again soon! 

Happy Birthday to Me!!

 

Ok, so I’m belated in wishing myself a happy birthday. I am so lucky I am surrounded by people who make my birthday a big deal. My bestest friend took me out for a great night of dinner and ghost hunting, and when I got home my Charming husband had a mini-surprise party ready for me! Ok, it was just him, a happy birthday banner, a present, and a bottle of champagne. But since he doesn’t like celebrating his own birthday, I was thrilled he made such a big deal out of mine. And since his birthday is coming up, I didn’t bother taking down the banner (ha!).

Birthday season is upon us (the majority of our families have fall birthdays, with a few sprinkled in the spring and summer), and by the time we get through it, Christmas will be here. Even with all the other celebrations, I have the best friends and family who make me feel like mine is the most important one of the bunch! (until the next one happens, and then they make that person feel the same way.) And they stretch my birthday into a weeklong celebration of how awesome I am. Also, there’s cake. I’m a big fan of cake.

Fall is Here!

In addition to pumpkin spice everything, fall is here! Which means lower temps and less tourists - yay!

Fall makes me happy. Maybe it is because it was always the start of a new school year, but Fall to me feels like new beginnings and super fun times. Lower temps mean I can do more things outside without sweating profusely, we have some wonderful nights outside with the fire pit, and there is way less traffic in our little one road town.

Summer seems to come with a lot of pressure to have a great time all the time, yet everyone I know works constantly, and the days I'm available for beach fun times, it is always super crappy out. The things I used to love about summer, shorts and tank tops, hold much less appeal now that I'm older and a little softer. I do love swimming, but as I said, I'm never free on nice days.

Yesterday was the first day that really felt like fall, and I LOVED it! We didn't have to run the AC's, I got some stuff done, and I sat on the deck and drank a hard cider at the end of the day. It was delicious.

Soon the leaves will change and it will time to wear brightly colored sweaters. Yay! Soups and fresh bread will be eaten, and down comforters will be added to bedrooms. I know not everyone loves fall as much as I do, it does lead into winter and all, but I am so excited! Stay tuned for hundreds of pictures of my dogs playing in leaves :D

A Year Later

It is hard to believe it has been a year since my dad passed away. Little by little it has sunk in that he is not around anymore. I remember thinking to call him to ask him a question a few weeks after he was gone and being dumbstruck that he was not going to be there to answer. Instead, now I wish I had paid a little more attention to all the knowledge that he had. Asked more questions. Been more patient. I think even though we knew he had cancer, and we knew the inevitable ending, we all lived a little in denial. I always thought I would have a little more time, another chance to learn what he knew. But I was wrong, and there were only so many chances.

Last June we knew my father would not make it another year, and my sister and I had the same struggle to buy our father a father's day card. What should his last father's day card say? Mary called one of her friends who had also lost a parent and asked, "Why didn't you tell me all the lasts will be so hard?" And the response she got was, "All the lasts are really hard. And then once he's gone, all the firsts are going to be really hard too." (The card I gave was blank inside and I just wrote, "I love you, Dad.")

So it was true. My first birthday without my dad. Our first Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's. And the hardest of all, his birthday without him. Leo is always there with us. We still make sure we have the foods he loved, and tell stories about our favorite holidays with him. And we pick on my mom to try and make her as flustered as he did ;)

The days go on, we keep living. We survived all the lasts, and now we have been through most of the firsts without my dad. It makes it easier to think of him with the rest of our family, all together and having a big party. I know that he suffered, and that he did not like how weak he had become, how forgetful he was, and how confused he could get. The chemo took its toll on him, and how he was in those last months is not how he would want to be remembered. Instead I remember the big guy who came to all my soccer and hockey games, who drove 4 hours to watch my first crew regatta and after the race was over (a full 45 seconds of rowing) said, "That was it??" (We lost, btw). The man who could throw back a few drinks, and had a few great dance moves. The man who drove big trucks, who could operate a backhoe like no one's business, and who remembered every septic tank he installed. The man who loved each of his kids and was proud of everything they had done. That was my dad.

Chicks!

My inlaws ordered us some Jersey Giant chicks from our local feed store as a Christmas gift. While it was a lovely idea, the whole experience was a little overwhelming.

Hubs received a phone call on the day the chicks arrived from his mother saying the chicks were in, he had an hour to get there, and he needed to bring a box to put them in. He was still on the water, had to drive 20 minutes to sell his catch, and did not have a box with him. I received a somewhat frantic phone call from him, which I will spare you most of the details but the general theme was "who sells a product and doesn't have a way for you to bring it home??" Understood. When he pulled in to the feed store, EVERYONE was there to pick up their chicks and he just didn't have the time to deal with it, so he asked me to go and pick them up.

I arrive at the feed store and go to the counter and say, "I'm here to pick up my chicks." deadpan response from lady at the counter: "You need to check in in the office over there." Ok.

I check in at the office, give them my husband's name, and the lady with the book says, "Oh. You're here to pick up Jersey Giants." Yes. The woman next to her says, "We're out of those." No emotion, no explanation, matter of fact they are out of Jersey Giant chicks. Except we ordered them. My inlaws paid for them. It's not like I showed up on a whim hoping there might be a couple left. So I said the first thing that came to mind: "No, you're not. We ordered them." That woman walked out of the office, and the woman with book apologized and explained that they did not know what happened, whether someone handing out chicks made mistakes or if the hatchery shorted them, but they should have had 2 extra chicks and instead they did not have enough. While I was standing there, another customer called expecting a Rhode Island Red rooster that they also did not have.

I was not quite sure what to do. No resolution was offered, other people were coming in with boxes of all sorts to pick up their new chicks, and I was left standing there with nothing. Finally I spoke up and said, "So what is going to happen?" The large man in the corner of the office, who seemed to be somewhat in charge (as much as anyone was in charge there) said, "I will give the hatchery a call tomorrow, there are other chicks we're supposed to have that we don't, I just don't know what happened. I'm not sure if they'll send an order that small, but that's all we can really do." Great, finally, someone willing to do something.

I leave the feed store and call my mother in law and give her the news, which surprised her as much as it surprised me. She even offered to call her son for me and give him the bad news since he seemed a little upset over the whole box issue. And she assured me that one way or another we'd get our chicks.

A week goes by and finally our chicks are in! I get a box, put some shavings in it (that's how we brought home our previous chicks), and head to the feed store. I get there and go straight to the office, where I'm told I need to check in at the counter. Ok. I do so, and I'm told I need to wait for the lady with the book to get back. She comes back, never makes eye contact with me, takes my box and goes to get my chicks (after handing a man his chicks in a poptarts box). Halfway to the back room she looks in my box, looks disgusted, and tells me I have too many shavings in my box. I say, "Ok, we can take some out." And she says, "No. Just do it when you get home." totally exasperated with me. Maybe she remembers me from the week before.

She comes back, gives me my chicks, and then tells the lady at the counter to make a note about my box. And you know, I get it know, the chicks I brought home before were older, and knew the difference between food and shavings, but I didn't know that then. I can't be the only first-time chick getter at their store, you would think they would have a teensy bit of patience for folks like me, and would want to educate so we don't make mistakes like that right off. I had prepared in many other ways, read books about brooding and hatching and all the other things I needed, but I missed that part.

If it was so important to make a note about, you would think they would supply boxes.

So that is the adventure of bringing our chicks home. We have had them for about a month now, mostly drama free. I have a few more stories to update you with soon! Here are some pics of them on day one, and a few days after that. Day one is the bottom picture.

Vacation Part 2

When we woke up on day 3 the weather was cold & dreary and we decided to get the heck outta there. We stopped at a few places on our way off the Outer Banks, hung around Roanoke Island for a little while. It was a good time, but hard to walk around outside because it was COLD. It's hard to remember anything else we did besides be cold. 

When we headed out, the bridge was closed, so we decided to take the scenic route down 264 and see what we found. The answer was nothing. Miles and miles and miles of NOTHING. But it was pretty, that's for sure. We saw a lot of abandoned houses, and every town we came to seemed to all have the same stores. There was something both sad and comforting about that. We talked of someday having a retreat down there, driving distance of the beach, plenty of beautiful scenery around. 

Driving by an Antiques store with lots of stuff on the porch, we decided to stop in! The older lady holding down the shop was super nice. Apparently the store has been in the family for 110 years, though it wasn't always an antique store, it just naturally evolved as their personal collection grew. Back in the day it was the "Walmarts" of the area where you could get anything from a new house to a coffin. They had a wonderfully broad collection, though a fair amount of the store wasn't for sale. It was still fun to look at, and had we had more money we would have bought a bunch of stuff. If we're ever in the area, we'll definitely stop in again! 

We made our way through and ended up staying in Rocky Mount with some hotel gift cards we received as gifts a long time ago. There wasn't much in that town for use, but we had a very comfortable bed to sleep in and some quality time in a hot tub!! We even hit up a Dollar Tree for some more road trip supplies. If you haven't noticed so far, a large part of this vacation was spent sitting in the car. Frankly, we don't always get along in the car, but there was something about not having a destination that made driving fun. 

The next morning I had breakfast at my very first Waffle House, and we set off for Virginia! At some point there was a huge back up on the highway, so we again decided to take the scenic route. We headed over towards Shenandoah National Park. On our way there, we stopped and grilled some fish at a rest area and looked over maps and pamphlets of the area. I loved our fish picnic! It was freezing cold out, and we had a gourmet meal that didn't cost us a thing. 

As we reached our evening destination, we frantically tried to find a campground. We stopped at one, and the people there seemed a little... off. We called around and finally found a KOA that had a cabin! Which was awesome, because it was snowing! We stopped off at a thrift store because I didn't manage to pack a hooded sweatshirt, and when we arrived at our cabin someone had turned on a space heater for us! Hooray! We again grilled a delicious dinner (honestly can't remember what we ate that night, but I remember it was GOOOOD, or I was starving). By night time it was almost too hot in our cabin, but I was thrilled we weren't in a tent. 

When we got up the next morning, the sun was shining and the snow was slowly disappearing. We took our time, made a nice breakfast of scrambled eggs, and headed out for an Antique Mall! Which was super fun. It took us a few hours to walk through the whole thing, and frankly their definition of "antique" was stretched a little bit. I found a map of Maine from 1865 that I just had to have, but other than that everything stayed right there. 

From there, we drive up to Baltimore (hit some crazy traffic in Maryland), bought some blue crabs, and then started the drive home. I had to work Saturday at 4, so we had a little crunch on the way home. 

We tried to stop in CT to spend the night, but the hotel we chose was booked up and it was closing in on Midnight. We decided to say eff it and just head for home! Around 3:30 in the morning we pulled in our driveway, woke up my poor mother who was watching all our animals, and settled in for a little nap. 

It was definitely a whirlwind week, but we had so much fun! Most of our time was spent in the car, and I think it's a testament to our marriage that we still love each other, and still spent the next two days together. It was really nice being away from all the stress of home, not having to worry about anything except our next destination (which was often the next public restroom). It definitely inspired me to simplify things at home so I can rediscover the peace we found on the road. 

Vacation, Part I

A month later and I'm finally remembering to update about our whirlwind road trip! I think it has just taken me that long to recover. This trip was not spur of the moment, we had an inkling about what we were going to do. The transition from notion to action occurred a little faster than we anticipated.

We never went on a honeymoon. I lost my job four months before our wedding, and started a new job four days after. When we had the time, we didn't have the money and taking care of our home and creatures always took priority. John got it in his head that when he was done fishing for the winter we should just jump in the car and go, for like a month. However, finding someone to care for our animals for that long is just impossible. Not to mention, he brought home six little ducklings before his last fishing trip that were growing insanely fast! So he got done fishing on a Wednesday, and we were heading out the next Monday. I managed to get Monday through Friday off from work, but just couldn't get anyone to cover my shifts on Saturday and Sunday.

Day 1 of our trip was off to a rocky start. For one, we needed money, so we had to wait until we could get to the bank and cash his check. Then there were a number of other little things that needed to get done, and it took up half the day! It was early afternoon before we were finally on the road. We stopped that night for a nice dinner in Massachusetts, and since we didn't want to just use our hotel passes for 5 or 6 hours of sleep, we decided to drive through the night to the Outer Banks, North Carolina!

Around 10pm I really had to pee, so we pulled off the highway into a town where apparently everything closes at 10pm. The gas station didn't have a public restroom, McDonald's dining room was closed (but drive thru was still open), Lowe's was closed, and WalMart had just closed. FINALLY we found a Taco Bell that was still open and had a usable restroom. I really wish I could remember the name of this town so I could never ever go there again, but alas, I will probably end up there on our very next road trip.

Around 2am I dozed off. We saw so many signs for things that looked interesting, and so many thrift shops I wanted to see! But nothing was open, and we had to take mental notes for "next time". John was a trooper, he kept on driving. Finally, around 6am, we were near Chesapeake, VA, he got tired and asked if I could drive for awhile. I was thinking, "Sure! I'll just drive us to the next Rest Area, and we'll take a snooze in the car." There were no Rest Areas. I kept on driving and we made to the Outer Banks around 9am. Trouble is, the campground we were staying at didn't have check-in until noon.

This is where Day 1 runs into Day 2. We drove to the end, checked out the ferry to Ocracoke, and decided that would be a fun idea for the next day. We walked through the "Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum", and then I got to sit in the sun with my toes in the sand for about 20 minutes. This was easily the best 20 minutes of the trip for me. Right as I was about to fall asleep on the beach, we decided it was a good idea to find our campground and take a nap. Unfortunately, when we arrived at our campground, no one else was there either. No one answered the phone when we called. Tired and cranky, and definitely hungry, we set off to find lunch and decided if we saw another campground, we'd just stop at that one.

By the time we made it to lunch, we called the campground again, they would put up a map to our tent site on the door, and we could just setting up in the morning. Finally we had definitely plans to sleep at some point!

After a very late lunch (we might as well call it earlybird special dinner), we got our tent set up, and went for a walk to check out our surroundings. Our basic plan was to use the campground as our "base camp" and go exploring a lot more the next day. We drove all over the Outer Banks on the first day, and stopped and saw a lot of things, but our sleep deprived brains didn't fully enjoy everything. I managed to choose the one campground without beach access, but we did manage to find a marshy area we could sit and watch the sunset. We stayed up grilling, having a few drinks, and managing to stay warm as the night temps were in the 40's. Turns out the campground had just opened, and the hot water wasn't on yet.

Within a few minutes of putting food on the table, we had a kitty friend coming to visit! She was quite pretty, VERY friendly, and a completely unapologetic beggar. After an appetizer from us, she went in search of larger prey, and we watched her gracefully climb a tree next to a bunch of birdhouses. And then later she came scratching at the sand next to our tent, and we hoped and prayed we weren't sleeping in a giant litter box.

Whirlwind Adventure

We had so much fun on our little getaway! I'll sit down and fill you in more fully soon, but the highlights include:

Cold Camping Nights
Gaining what feels like 10 pounds (at least)
Lots of sitting in the car
A lighthouse
An Antiques Mall
And the Waffle House.

We arrived home in the wee hours of Saturday morning, and then I had to work Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. We are just starting to get back in the groove of being at home and with a little sunshine outside we have lots of plans for the coming days!

On The Road...

Since we have yet to have a honeymoon, and we both happen to be free this week, the Hubs and I are hittin' the road! On this cold and drizzly Maine morning we're packing up and heading south!!

We don't have a plan, we don't know where we'll be tonight, but we have a tent and love on our side. I'm hoping to find a beach and weather warm enough to sit on it. And that's about it.

See you Saturday!! (we hope)

Spring Fever?

I know I should be excited the days are getting longer, the temperatures are getting warmer, and there's a hint of summer just around the corner. The truth is, there's something about the onset of Spring that makes me very sad. Or maybe it makes me have SAD, just in a different month than everyone else. I get super tired all the time and I just don't want to really do anything. I start thinking I have chronic fatigue, or some other deadly affliction, and then I remember that I get extra tired every year at this time.

I think the possibility of being able to do things outside reminds me of all the inside projects I never got around to doing over the winter. And then I start down this spiral thinking about everything in my life I didn't finish, or didn't finish well, and then I start thinking that I'm never going to be successful, and everyone hates me and I'm going to end up homeless and alone.

I know it's not rational, but sometimes I'm not rational. Instead, I lay in bed a little longer, I wear my sweatpants a little more often, and I drink a little more coffee. This year I'm trying to be somewhat proactive. I'm working on projects more often, I'm cleaning and getting rid of a LOT of things. I'm making the area around me a little happier in hopes that it will be a reflection of myself. And you know what? I think it's working.

For starters, I'm watching less TV. It is so easy for me to get sucked into sitting on the couch all day, and then the laundry doesn't get folded, the dishes don't get washed, and nothing gets finished. By limiting my TV time, I am able to get a lot more accomplished, and I start feeling like there are more hours in a day, and maybe I'm not quite the failure I thought I was.

I will keep you guys updated, but this is shaping up to be the best Spring ever! Or, at least I'm trying to make it the best Spring ever.

Storm Warning

We have soooo much snow! And without Hubs around, I have a lot of shoveling to do. A few weeks ago when we had a big storm, I did a small amount of shoveling and later had a back spasm that I haven't fully gotten over. Last night I spent an hour clearing off our deck, and now the pile nearly reaches the deck! This snow is heavy, branches of trees are leaning down, and under the snow is a lovely layer of ice.  Even though I'm all plowed and shoveled, my car isn't going anywhere today.

My inlaws were kind enough to schedule a delivery of wood the other day, and the only place for the guy to deliver was right in front of the garage. When I heard snow was coming, I had to get that pile of wood stacked under the deck so I could park my car out of the way, and so the wood would not get covered in snow. I did what any self-respecting woman would do, and I called my Mommy and asked for help! She is such a trooper.

It has been quite the weekend of physical labor, but I kind of love it. All my muscles are sore, all my clothes are wet, my dogs are tired from chasing me around, and there's a beautiful layer of white over everything. Soon it will all melt away, and all my hard work will seem like it was for nothing.

Today the wind stopped blowing, the fire is going in the woodstove, and a nice pot of soup is simmering on the stove.

Happy Birthday Daddio!

Last Monday was my dad's birthday. My dad LOVED his birthday. His excitement every year rivaled that of a ten year old, and while at times it was annoying, it was also wonderful and contagious. We celebrate every birthday in our family with the same exuberance, getting the whole fam together for dinner and cake, and a few presents. Having his birthday in January was an added bonus because, frankly, January sucks. It's cold, we're usually low on money, and it's easy to get depressed. But his birthday was a chance to celebrate, laugh, and forget about the middle of winter for a little bit.

We still all got together and had a great meal and a great time, but it just wasn't the same. I knew all the firsts without him were going to be hard. We made it through a lot of other birthdays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, but his birthday was just impossible for me. It caught me by surprise. Sometimes it's good to be caught by surprise, let out a few tears, and get it all out there.

In the last few years our family has grown, and winter isn't as bleak as it used to be. We now have another birthday in January, one in February, and then things warm up a little in March. There are many causes for celebration, and my dad loved every second of it. I'm so happy that I live in close proximity with the majority of my family, that we're able to get together on all these occasions, and sometimes just because it's Tuesday.

Resolutions Are For Suckers

I don't like New Year's Resolution, and I do my best not to make any. The times I've tried, I've ended up failing and feeling bad about myself. Which is why I'm writing this post on January 12th, and not January 1st. This year I'm giving up from the start, and I mean that in the best possible way. My goal this year is to feel better about myself, and do whatever it takes to make that happen. 2012 was crap for the most part, and I'm ready to start a better life in 2013.

For starters, I'm going to get outside more. Tough to do in the winter, but that is why it is the best time to start. With three dogs, getting outside with them will solve so many problems. Tired dogs are well behaved dogs, and maybe they won't eat all my stuff.

I want to cook more. I love trying new recipes, and spending time in the kitchen.

I want a new job. Something I can feel good about myself doing and makes me able to pay the bills.

And if none of these things happen, that's ok too. Because I have a wonderful husband, a roof over our heads, three crazy dogs, and a cat that will likely take over the world.

Happy 2013 everyone.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Though really I suppose it's Happy Black Friday! I work in retail, so for me it's not all that happy. And I work for a store that got to be open on Thanksgiving, so super fun time there. While it was definitely not the best Thanksgiving I've ever had, I still have much to be thankful for.

Our three dogs drive me crazy at times, but our house would be empty without them. I have a lot of laundry to do, but it's wonderful we are able to afford clothes for ourselves, a washing machine and dryer to clean them, and this house to keep us warm. I'm grateful I have a dependable vehicle that gets me safely to and from my job, that will hopefully last for years to come.

I got to spend time with my mom and my "other" mom (my best friend's parents invited us over), and while I did not see my husband as much as I would have liked, I'm very thankful that we were able to get married while my dad was still alive and able to enjoy himself. It's been a rough year, and I'm so very grateful my husband has been so supportive through all of this.

And now it's on to Christmas! I did not venture out for any Black Friday deals this year, but I've decided Cyber Monday really appeals to me much, much more. Picking something out while in my pj's and having it shipped to my door is definitely the way to go. Although, I hope the hubs isn't home when it gets delivered!

Born Again TV Stand

Today my productivity is falling a little short of what I need to accomplish. Which is why it feels good to have this project done and put in place. It's like making a to do list, and putting something on it you've already done, just so you can cross it off. But it still feels pretty good.

Anyway, in my grand tradition, this project has been about a year in its completion. Major hangups include procrastination, and choosing a color for the inside. Don't worry about the mess in the background - it's still on my to-do list ;)

I love the way it came out! And my little helper in the corner. Hubs helped me pick the color for the inside, and I think it's pretty fabulous. Here's the before picture:

As you can see, I chose to keep the original hardware. I actually really liked it, and it's one of the reasons I liked this piece of furniture in the first place. The challenging part came with the veneer - painting veneer is HARD. Especially with all the little crevices in the doors and drawers. There are some paint chipping problems, but I think it helps it to look "antique" with the peeling paint. If it gets too bad, I'll touch it up at some point.

Here you can see the spot where the paint isn't sticking very well.

Since I don't notice it from a distance, I'm not going to worry about it right off. I also had my handyman cut a hole in the back so I can keep the base to the surround sound and our dvd player on the inside. It has definitely cleaned up this little TV corner from what it used to be, and is another step towards us living like grown ups.

Here's a before picture of the inside of the drawers:

I really liked the look of the old newspaper, but in the end I decided to paint it green because it just all went together better that way.

And another picture, because I just like it so much!!

Our First Anniversary

Hard to believe a year has gone by since our wedding!! Then again, so much has happened in the past year that it feels like forever ago. Our anniversary was yesterday, Mr. Fabulous had to work and I stayed home and looked through all of our pictures and listened to music as I made an effort to clean the house. That effort mostly failed as I spent a long time putting together his paper gift.

We attempted to go out to dinner at the restaurant where we had our first date (they also catered our rehearsal dinner), but we forgot that since it was Sunday, they were closed. Instead of going to a different restaurant, we decided to get some chicken wings at the grocery store and go home and eat them in our pj's. My mom made us a replica of our cake top, and we ate that with some champagne. All in all, it was a pretty good night!

This is us at the grocery store. He's looking at me because he thinks I'm crazy for taking our picture, yet he's the one who ends up looking crazy ;) 

Our cake! And champagne! My mom did a great job recreating her masterpiece from last year.

And finally, his gift. 52 pieces of paper with ideas for us to do in the coming year until our next anniversary! I had originally seen a similar idea as a wedding gift suggestion, and then I searched the internet for 52 date ideas and saw that some other wives had done this (or something similar) for their first anniversary. Let me tell you, 52 things is harder than it sounds. I ran out of ideas after 12, which is why I was eagerly searching the internet for 40 more. I had them all written down, but when I copied them onto the colorful paper for the jar, I threw the list away. Oops! But I'll let you know each week what he chooses! 

Of course when John opened it, he had to take a few out and see what was in there, but I wouldn't let him read all of them. I tried to keep it to things that cost little or no money, a lot of them are things we always say we're going to do, and then never do them. A few are season specific, so I hope we choose them in the right season! It's hard to built a snowman or go ice skating in the summer, but I guess part of the challenge will be making it happen no matter what. And the general idea is to get us out of our habit of having dinner and watching tv each evening. 

Here's to a year of fun and adventure! 

Our Pack

Sometimes, very rarely, all three of them are near each other long enough to take a picture.