Traditions on both ends.

I know, I know. I have a TON to catch up on. But instead of doing it all in one sitting, I'm sort of planning to catch up as I go - lots of fun stuff, a few funny stories, but no earth-shattering news. :)
First - more on traditions. We all have traditions when it comes to setting up for Christmas, participating in Christmas and all that but as I walk around our tree, putting ornaments away, I think that I have almost as many traditions when it comes to after Christmas. I insist that Cody and I have a whole production of putting the ornaments on the tree at the beginning of "Christmas Season" (not Wal-Mart's "Christmas Season" which starts at Labor Day, but the more realistic "Christmas Season") but I usually end up taking them off by myself. For instance, we got back from Florida late last night so he is still sleeping but I always like to have the tree down by New Year's so I'm working on getting everything packed up, ornament by ornament. Ornaments are one of my most favorite Christmas traditions - I could do without presents, cookies, Christmas dinners, Christmas carols, and certainly the shopping - but not without the ornaments. We finally have enough meaningful ornaments (ones we've collected over the years) that we didn't even put up our generic balls this years - that was neat to me. So as I take apart the tree one by one, it's cool to remember where they all came from and look at this years new ornaments one more time before they go in a box until next year. There is a sense of accomplishment I get when the tree is up and looking all nice and Christmas-y, but a similar, though distinctly different, sense of accomplishment I get from getting it all put away, the furniture back where it "belongs" and life returning to "normal." Working on that now.

SNOW!

As you may (or may not) have seen on the news - we had a WINTER WEATHER EMERGENCY this past weekend. Basically that means nothing, only the weather's attempt to make you watch longer and watch more of their retarded commercials. BUT - we did get snow. Here's a photo from Friday afternoon - nothing too bad, a few inches on the ground. Nothing completely horrible.

This is a photo from Saturday night when all hell broke lose. We, being stupid Southerner's like we are, and thinking a little snow never hurt anyone thought it was a great idea to drive 30 miles WEST (east is always better when it's snowing) to see friends. LOVE the friends - wouldn't have missed seeing them for the world - some of the best friends we've ever had -but HATE the snow! Going out wasn't too too too terrible - it took twice as long with the snow/ice on the road and the "thundersnow" blowing on my windshield, but we got out there okay. On the way back I thought I was going to die. Again, I love these friends more then anything and wouldn't have traded seeing them for the world, but next time I sure hope God can give me a better night to drive in at least. It took us forever to get home - I drove an average of 20 miles per hour on the way home, all while watching cars run off the road right and left. I made it all the way to our exit and then when I went to put on the brakes (very very very lightly) the car decided it was NOT ready to exit yet and kept going into a snow bank. Luckily it wasn't bad and we got out relatively easily. Usually when it is snowing this bad I make Cody drive, not because I'm a feable female who can't do anything but because I hate to be that stressed. But we had my car and I drive standard while he has automatic - so while he is a better snow driver, I'm still a better driver of my car - and he of his - I would never drive his rear wheel driver car in the snow and I wouldn't let him drive my front wheel drive car in the snow. It was an adventure, but totally worth it to see our friends. They rock - and she makes totally wonderful food!!

This is a picture of the house on Sunday morning. While it doesn't look much worse then on Friday we probably had four or five more inches of snow here. At this point since I park on the street (Cody and the motorcycle get the garage) I basically park on an ice rink. :) While it may be cute and pretty, snow is a pain in the ass!!! It's nice on the weekend when you can go ice skating and sledding (I'll post pictures of these fun events from yesterday later) but a pain when you HAVE to go out in it. Hopefully it will warm up past 30 and melt it soon. I'm just looking forward to Florida and temperatures above freezing. If it gets cold while we're there I'm going to scream. Here that? I put up with the cold here! I'd BETTER get warm weather for Christmas!!

More Christmas

Okay, I'm an idiot. Here is a picture of our Christmas tree (sans presents since we haven't wrapped even one - well, I wrapped one for Cody today but he opened it today too), but I can't figure out how to make it rotate so it stands up straight. So that's good enough for now. :) As you can see it totally ROCKS! This is seriously one of my favorite trees, if not my favorite ever. Don't worry - it looks much better in person. It's a very "soft" tree - not like the prickly ones we always had in Florida. Love Florida -it's prettier (in every season but fall) and warmer - but we have better Christmas trees. :)

This is another side-ways picture. It's a wreath my aunt - who also ROCKS - sent us. If you could see it the right way up, it would have "Gators" at the top and then a football in the middle - and then little orange and blue bows around it. VERY cute! You could see it better if the blinds on our front door weren't up but Cody had them up so we could let the 30 seconds worth of light we get each day into the house. :) It's quite a wonderful addition to our Christmas collection!

p.s. Thanks Mesa for telling me how to move photos around in a blog - now how do I flip them around so everyone isn't craning their neck to see them right way up? :)

Stockings, Part II

Here's what the stockings might look like should I sew the jingle bells on them. Still debating this. Anyway, this is one of our "traditions" that we've insituted this year. :) I need to take a picture of our Christmas tree sections/ornaments too. They're pretty nifty too. I'm really digging this married Christmas thing. It's "our first Christmas" or our 11th - either way it's special, right?

Stockings

Stockings! Here's a quick picture of the stockings as they are now. I'm still debating putting little silver jingle bells on each one around the cuff. Mine is the cream one and Cody's is the black one. Cody totally designed them all himself! He even picked the fabric - all by himself! I even tried to steer him towards something easier to sew with but he liked this material - it was soft and shiny and fancy so he liked it - but I found a way to make it easier to sew with (I backed it with regular cotton and put batting in the middle) and I loved the finished product. The pictures really don't do them justice, if I do say so myself. :) Cody wants a black "pocket" on the back of his so he can "hide" things in it. It's a German tradition to hide a pickle (long story - look it up on wikipedia) on the Christmas tree and Cody figures that he wants to be able to "trick" people so if he has a pocket on the back of his stocking he can hide things, like the pickle, there. Too bad I KNOW IT'S THERE! Anyway, a quick stocking picture for the bloggers out there. :)

Pure Happy.

I seriously have about a dozen blogs that I have floating around in my head, yet to actually write - one about the Cody and my sweater story, another about my funny name changing fiasco with the library, Wicked (the most awesomestt musical EVER), another about the SNOW, another catch up on events (busy busy busy - Christmas parties galore, ice skating, snow sleding, Christmas cards, etc.) and then a few more that I have written down but can't remember off hand. Today, however, was a blog post in itself.
Today was, all in all, a pretty nifty day. This morning I had my old people scan - that's a bone density scan for everyone else. I was the youngest person in there - by a good 60 years. My doctor thinks the reason I keep getting stress fractures (last year in my shins and now my knees/fibulas) is because I have osteoporosis - no I did not turn 65 years old and menopausal overnight. He thinks I just didn't get enough calcium growing up and I don't get enough now - I'm allergic to milk and since it is liquid and has calories I don't drink the stuff (the only liquid calories I do are the wine variety). He did not think it was funny when I said I thought cherrios and macaronni and cheese was enough calcium growing up. So I went in and had my bones scanned - not a bad test overall - I find out the results on Thursday. Then today at work was pretty laid back. Of course if anyone from work is reading this, I worked my tail off today. For everyone else, I worked on some work, but also a lot of Cody's Christmas present all day. You see, buying each other stuff just doesn't work that well - if we really want something that we can afford, we buy it. If we can't afford it, then even Christmas won't make it happen. So we're left with really creative and "home made" gifts for each other. So I worked on his throughout the day today. Then I came home, slipping on the ice a total of three times between my car (parked on the street) and my house (about 10 feet from the street). Then, thinking that three times was not enough times to fall on my butt, I decided to go to the grocery store to get cookie/Christmas goodie shopping done. That was fun - until I came home, slipped AGAIN on the ice, and then crushed the eggs. I was able to salvage most of them but just putting them in separate bowls in the fridge. :) Then Cody got home and it was Susy Homemaker Time! We baked away! We made Cody's mom'swith this computer, it's Cody['s amazing pecan cookie things. One thing I thank Cody's mom for more then most other things (other then Cody, of course, and then her general wonderfulness) is her pecan cookie reciepe. It is awesome - though takes a million years to make - but it's worth it. So we made cookies together - and I even let Cody do his part "his way." You see, I'm getting better at letting others do things their way even if it's not my way/the right way. :) We had a blast. Then we made my pretzel, kisses, m&m things - super easy as long as you dont' "burn" the kisses. Bet you didn't think you could burn Hershey's kisses, did you? Well, you can. They get all flaky and gross. I always ruin, at a minimum, one batch. Anyway, we had a blast and had a great time just hanging out together, laughing, throwing burnt Hershey's kisses (chocolate is okay for cats if it's burnt, right?) and just talking. This is really what Christmas is about - if you want to bake and are going to have fun with it, knock yourself out - otherwise, like last year, just forget it and wait until when you can enjoy it. All in all this Christmas season ROCKS compared to last year. (Yes I am fully aware of my blatant overuse/abuse of the work ROCKS.) :)

p.s. If my typing sucks on this post, it's Cody's keyboard. He's on my laptop (because it's tons better then his computer -though he won't admit it) ordering his parent's Christmas present. Seriously - we didn't just leave this to the last minute - we have been racking our brains for months to think of something cool for them since they do so much for us but we've been coming up blank. I almost even made him call his sister for ideas, when, low and behold, he came up with a great idea. Now if only we can order it in time and it works. We, of course, have them a super wonderful creative gift, that unless a miracle happens, won't be done in time. But I guess that's what Mother's and Father's Days are for - unfinished Christmas presents. :)

SUN

There is SUN outside! I totally forgot what the sun looked/felt like! Seriously - since last Thursday (the 6th) it has rained/hailed/sleeted/snowed/iced/freezing rained/freezing fogged (I didn't even know there was such a thing as freezing fog) pretty much non stop. The periods where the precipitation did stop it was just gray and cloudy. It has looked like night for over a week now. Every day at work I usually see the sun - but I honestly have not even seen the sun peak out since early last week. But now I see SUN!!! I want to go run outside and play - but it's 32 degrees out. :)

Traditions.

I don't know if it's the time of year or the being married thing, but I'm really into traditions lately. From the time we moved in together, we've always tried to do things "our" way. We try to figure out the best we can the best way to handle ourselves, together, in our life. We've tried really hard to figure out what does and doesn't work for us and really pay attention to those things. Like the way we figure out household chores - while our "system" might not work for everyone - it took a few years, but we finally figured out what works for both of us. Same with the way we figure out when is together time, when is us with friends time, when is our guy/girl time with friends and when it's time to just be alone. And the way we argue - God knows we didn't have that one right the first time we dated - but we've figured out a way now that really works well for us now - a way to argue that doesn't leave us angry or pissed off - a way that we can really feel like we both got our points across, not meanly, awewend both find a resolution - or more often then not, find a way to be okay with the fact that for most things there is no resolution (we DID NOT have that figured out the first time - we would argue until we found a resolution - problem is a solution is rare). So the longer we are together the more we find "our way."
This "Holiday Season" though I think has been particularly specweial with traditions because it's our first "married" Christmas. Everyone used to tell me that things change when you get married and I thought they were crazy because we'd been together for so long, but it really does change the way you look at the other person. So this year, we've been experiementing with different traditions. A few:
1. The Christmas Tree. This one is a no-brainer. This is our third year with a "live" tree (the first year we lived together we had a fake tree), and our second year getting the tree from Ted Drewes (the famous custard place). Last year we went out in the "Ice Storm of the Century" and got the tree because we figured we'd be stuck inside, might as well decorate the tree -problem was the tree was literally frozen with ice and by the time we got it de-thawed our power was out - so you can't put up Christmas lights with no power (can't checkwe the strands of lights). But it ended up being a great tree - when we got our power back days later. This year we went Thanksgiving weekend (our first Thanksgiving here) and got our tree - not being biased or anything, but I think it's the prettiest tree I've ever had (in Florida there are just the prickly pine trees - here we got a really soft type tree - no clue what it's called).
2. The Christmas Tree Ornament. Some of the best traditions are "borrowed" (read: stollen). Cody's sister and her family take a cut from the bottom of each of their trees, put the year on it and hang it as an ornament - great idea, right? So we've been doing that the past few years but the ornaments have only sat in plastic bags with the years on them, so this year I got the drill out, drilled holes in each one, wrote the year and any significant events on it and then painted it (three times) with polyurithane (yes, I know that's spelled wrong). LOVELY! So I finally got around to finishing that "tradition."
3. Christmas ornaments. We always make a big deal out of decorating the tree. I even "let" Cody help with the lights this year - usually I'm so picky about lights I "have" to do them but this year we did it together so that was fun. :) Then I unwrap the ornaments and he puts them up while we go through them. One of our coolest ones is an ornament I got engraved at Wal-Mart that says "Missy and Cody 1997" - that was our second Christmas. :)
4. CHRISTMAS STOCKINGS. So, we both have Christmas stockings at our parents' houses - I even have one at Cody's and he has one at mine - but we really didn't have any stockings here. So we looked around and couldn't find any that "spoke" to us - plus the ones at both families' houses were hand made. So we designed our own. Cody actually designed them and picked the colours, then I took him to the fabric store (read: dragged him kicking and screaming). He looked through all the fabric (he really did) and picked a type he really liked - seriously, I didn't say one thing about his choice - I totally let him pick. I loved the fabric he picked - a very soft and stretchy suede type material, but I was really worried that I wouldn't be able to sew with it. While I can sew some, I'm not a master seamstress (my aunt TOTALLY is), so I was worried but he really liked it. So then I used the same pattern (from the late 70s) that my mom used when she made mine and then my brother's stockings. So it has a little bit of history there too. And I finally finished them tonight! I'm going to try to post pictures if Cody ever gets done with his final and gets off my laptop. :)

When I was thinking about this post, I swear I had a good dozen traditions we've started as our "own" but now I can't think of them. But we're really finding our way in creating our own little thing up here in Cold Corn Country - like we now get a pomegranate a week, cut it up and munch on the seeds all week (yeah, they get yucky at some point so we usually eat it fast). And hummus (there's a whole post to come about this) - Cody's decided that he loves it so we have a "tradition" of coming home and snacking on hummus and pita bread. All sorts of fun little things. :) Can't wait to see family though in a few weeks - no matter how many traditions you have, you can't forget where you came from! :)

Three wins. One loss.

Win #1: We got the toilet fixed! Yea for us!! In our vicious fight we finally beat the toilet! Yesterday I bought a new floaty thing, took out the new/broken one (not the old/broken one that we already took out - we replaced it with the new/broken one) and put in the new/working one. Of course, after hours and hours spent hovering behind the toilet, this one went in super easy, less then five minutes and all is great. That was how hard it was supposed to be the FIRST time! But at least we have super cool new flexi piping now instead of pain in the %^$!#$% regular metal piping - so that's a win in and of itself, right? So we got the toilet fixed - no leaks - no water running - all is good again - Win One.

Win #2: Furnace. As most of you know Cody is insane about the heating bill - so he keeps it insanely cold and I wear a hat and fluffy socks around the house from November until May. But lately it's been cold even for him. The other morning we woke up and it was 56 degrees downstairs and 62 degrees upstairs. No matter how cheap you are that is just too darn cold to get out of bed! So we started messing with the heater and paying attention and even when we would set it at 84 it would cut off at around 65. So we knew something was wrong. So we called the Furnace Man (Florida folks - we have gas heat here, not electric) and prayed very hard we wouldn't have to buy a new one or we would have to sell one of Mr. Pickles' kidneys. So Furnace Man came and sure enough he asked us if we kept it pretty cool in the house. Cody, of course, asks "what would you consider 'pretty cool'?" Sure enough the problem was that we had the house at 55-57 during the day (we have a programable thermostat) and then warmed it up at night, so condensation was building up making the furnace cut off before it should have. So he drained the condensation and told us to keep the heat above 62-65 at all times!!! YIPPEEEE FOR ME!!! I was thrilled to hear that! No more Cody turning the heat down really cold so when I get home I can see my breath!!! So thrilled! So now we have a working furnace again that heats our house and we didn't have to pay too terribly much!!

Win #3: We got our Christmas Tree up finally! Well, it was technically "up" on Sunday when we put it in the stand, we hadn't decorated it yet. So last night we moved one of the bookcases out of the way, moved the tree into place and put all the ornaments on! It was great! We went through all the ornaments, put them all on and had a great time going through memories. One of them says "Cody and Missy 1997" - that was our second Christmas together. 10 darn years ago!!! Wow! That's pretty crazy. So the tree is up, ornaments and lights are on and life is good. Now just to find presents (for someone that is not myself) to go under the tree. :)

Loss: Green Bay. They lost to Dallas tonight. Since we don't have cable (or the NFL network) we went out to watch the game with friends, but the bar didn't have it on either so we got to watch a rousing game of Rutgers v. Louisville and get Green Bay updates on the cell phone. Oh well. Farvre got hurt in the 2nd so as long as he's okay life is good. Speaking of hurt quarterbacks, did you hear Tebow/Superman broke his hand during the FSU game and still played? How tough/nut job of him!

Hope everyone has a lot of wins tomorrow! At least it will be Friday!

Back to Life. Back to Reality.

Sigh. Back to reality today. Alarm clock ringing. Leaving for work in the cold rain - at least over the weekend we got to pick and choose if and when we left the house - not so on work days. Sit at work. Blah. Come home - go "out to eat" (Subway) - spend literally an hour at Home Depot searching for a new flexi hose thing to replace the metal one we had, a washer for the cut off valve (which they didn't have so we had to buy a whole new cut off valve), teflon tape and teflon tube tape. Came home - fixed all the leaks - fixed the cut off valve so we can now stop water to the toilet without having to turn off water to the entire house - and then . . . . the new floaty thing wouldn't work!!! AGGG!!! So I messed with it enough and I think we have it working now. If our brand spanking new floaty thing doesn't work consistently we have to take it all apart again, return it for a new one and put the new one in again - after we just finally got all the leaks to stop!!! Oh well - if anyone ever needs any information on the guts of a toilet, the piping that goes into the toilet, the water supply or shut off mechanisms for the toilet - I'm your girl - I'm a pro by now!
Other then that Cody wasn't in the mood to decorate the Christmas tree which is, of course, insanely irritating to me since I LOVE the holidays and I love getting the tree, decorating the tree, putting up lights, mailing Christmas cards, singing carols (I was evening singing 'Frosty the Snowman' in Home Depot tonight - yup, I'm THAT annoying person that you hate at the store humming the obnoxious carols - sorry) and all that jazz. I can't see how anyone can ever NOT be in the mood to decorate a tree - but I guess we did just waste another evening in the bathroom messing with pipes and toilets and I guess that's not very holiday spirt-ish. Tomorrow he has school until 9:30 so it will be at least Wednesday before my lovely Christmas tree gets any adornments. :( Until then it is just sitting in the middle of my living room blocking all access from the living room to the dining room.
In other news, I'm hot on the trail of making a Christmas list of what we are going to get everyone this year. Every year we wait until the week before Christmas and we're running around like chickens with no heads trying to find gifts at the last minute all while getting ready go to Florida and finishing up our work work and house work - this year I am determined not to let that happen - however every time I bring it up to Cody to sit down and brainstorm I get "Can we do this tomorrow?" My response, of course, is "The 'we can do it tomorrow' is what gets us into the running around at the last minute every year!!! Can't you see this?" To which he responds, "Okay, tomorrow then." I'm not kidding. If anyone can find a magic pill to cure boy procrastination, please let me know. Beer doesn't work - I already tried that. :)
That's about all the news here. Oh yeah, I drafted my Illinois Bar Study Plan/Calendar today. It sucks big time. Basically for 2-3 hours every day from December 1 until the end of February I have to study for the bar exam. At least I have a plan as to what 2-3 hours of misery I study each night - torts, family law, criminal procedure, constitutional law, civil procedure, suretyship (I have NO clue what this even is - it wasn't on the Missouri or Florida bars), wills and estates, trusts, etc. Fun, huh? I'm actually looking forward to the refresher on a lot of the stuff I totally forgot - but not looking forward to the insane detail you have to memorize to pass the bar. And I REALLY want to pass!
That's it - hope everyone enjoyed back to reality today. Only four weeks and one day to Christmas.

The Four Days of Thanksgiving.

We never do get to celebrate a whole 12 days of Christmas, but at least we got 4 days of Thanksgiving - and man was it fabulous! This Thanksgiving things we did not do: Drive to Florida, arriving at 3am to wake up at 8am, go to three Thanksgivings, get hardly any sleep, hardly get to see anyone, arrive back home at 1am to go to work the next day at 8am - only to turn around in three weeks and do it again. So this year we decided to stay home, catch up on sleep, projects, housework, and just plain relaxing. Mission accomplished! So the four days of Thankgsgiving:

Day One-Half: Thanksgiving officially starts Wednesday night. We had a friend visiting from Boston so we all got a big group together at Blueberry Hill (big hang out in STL) to catch up with her and hang out. Fantastic time and we had a great time seeing everyone. We miss this gathering every year because we're always driving, so it was nice to participate for once.

Day One: THANKSGIVING! We had a very "non-traditional" Thanksgiving. We were going to go to friends but neither of us was feeling great - general malise/winter cold and didn't want to get anyone else sick. It was also insanely cold outside - it even snowed a bit (the first snow of the season), though not enough to stick on the ground - "flurries."So we stayed home and started our big project - going through our crap. We took everything off the shelves, out of drawers and off of counters in the Boy Room and went through it all -unless we had a regular use for it or we loved it, it was tossed, donated, or put in a pile to sell (Ebay, etc.). It might sound boring, stupid or a complete waste of Thanksgiving but it was great for both of us and we both felt "lighter" afterwards. We also got to watch the Green Bay game - another win (Cody's a big Green Bay fan, being born in Wisconsin and all).Then we baked ourselves a ham, heated up some canned green beans and corn and had ourselves a nice Thanksgiving dinner. :) I even brought out the good glasses and the tablecloth for the occassion.

Day Two: Friday. We actually had planned on possibly doing a bit of shopping for some very targeted items - mainly Cody a good winter coat - but then we didn't get up until noon and it was still insanely cold so we decided against that. We actually went to Target to get some regular shopping done and then went to Goodwill. Cody loves his Goodwill. Then we came home and - drum roll please - painted our bathroom. This project has been on my "to do" list for over two years now. It's a small bathroom so it didn't take too long and we used some left-over paint that I thought was going to be too dark, but I LOVE it. More then anything I love that it's done (mostly - I still have to paint the door and the trim). Then we went up to Lowe's, bought a new light and sat on the floor and smiled at our wonderful work. It was so great to get a major project done!

Day Three: Saturday. I wanted to get our Christmas tree but Cody said that we had to get the house cleaned before we brought that big project in. So he worked on his homework and I cleaned, cleaned, cleaned - again more wonderful. Then of course it was football, football, football. We went to Ozzie's as usual to watch the Gator game but because the Tennessee v. Kentucky game went into three overtimes, we missed most of the first half. Boo!! But the game was good - Tebow was a god as usual. He made his case quite clearly for the Heisman - if he doesn't get it the whole reason will be that he's a sophmore. I think everyone agrees he's the greatest player in college football right now. Then we watch the first half of the Missouri v. Kansas game before moving on to a friend's Christmas party to watch the second half. We honestly thought this was going to be a good game - it sucked. Kansas was supposed to be this great team - I think Notre Dame could have beat them. They have NO offense and even less defense. Their offence missed two relatively short field goals and then threw an interception in the endzone - they seriously suck. But it's good for this state because now Missouri is #1 - but they still have to get past Oklahoma who already beat them this year. If Missouri and West Virigina both lose it could be Ohio State v. Georiga in the Championship Game so we'd have a SEC team in the game that didn't even win the SEC - strange. Enough football babble.

Day Four: Today. Today started out great - slept until noon, worked around the house and then ran some errands and got our Christmas tree - yippee! What a fun day. And then all hell broke lose. Our toilet has been running lately and we couldn't get it to stop so we bought a new floaty thing to fix it. I've replaced floaty things a number of times so I thought "no problem!" Wrong - big problem. Getting the old one out was a beast - water everyone (in my newly painted bathroom). Then we got the new one in and it leaked - so we messed with it and finally stopped that leak - but now another nut/screw leaked. Seven hours later, the damn thing still won't leak. Oh yeah, and the cut off valve won't work so we have to cut the water to the entire house - all because we wanted to replace a very easy floaty thingy. So tomorrow we take it all apart, go to Home Depot get all new tubing and a new nut/screw thing (we think it's stripped) and go at it again. This should have seriously been a 10 minute project at most, now there is water everyone, we wasted seven hours (we breaked for dinner in there), the thing still doesn't work and we have no water to the entire house (we turned it on for showers and then off again). What a crummy ending to a fabulous weekend!

So now it's bed time and back to work tomorrow. I SO want to call in sick but you know that no one would believe you if you called in sick on the Monday after Thanksgiving - they would assume you're still on vacation. Plus I try really hard to not ever call in sick - except if I have an insane migrane and am throwing up like crazy - wonderful, huh? But since they're insane about missing more then 10 minutes from work, I go in even sick most of the time (which is the total wrong thing to do) - but that's a whole 'nother post. :)

Hope everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving!

Boy Quote of the Day

While at the grocery store the other day Cody picked up a frozen pumpkin pie because he knows I love the stuff. I told him that we don't need to get a frozen one because the regular ones are really really easy to bake. His response: "Where are you going to get the pumpkin?" I had to explain that the pumpkin for pumpkin pie came out of a can. To which he replied, what was the difference if it was frozen or out of the can if you're not going to use a "real" pumpkin. Point taken.

Fall

Fall has officially arrived and is already on its way out the door here. Today was a fabulous fall day - too bad it only lasts 24 hours. Tonight we'll be getting in the storms, then the temperature drops and for our lovely Thanksgiving I think our high is something like 40 and our low is in the low 20s. There's even a chance of snow. Good-bye fall, hello winter. So before I get totally depressed about the impending doom (read: snow) and that winter is here I thought I'd get in a few fall photos.

This is our house - complete with fall colours. Note that most of those colours are on the ground because (1) the leaves all die and fall off the trees here and (2) we haven't raked in weeks. Some might wonder why we don't rake - for heaven's sake you can't even tell where the sidewalk is and you can't tell the walkway apart from the grass. Ahhh.. but let's pretend we did rake this evening and it looked all nice and dandy - for five minutes - because in five more minutes it would look like this again. So we don't rake until all the leaves are gone (or when it's going to rain/snow because then the leaves get mushy and icy and you slip and break body parts on them). Sort of the same logic explains why we never ever make our bed or barely put clothes up when they sit around in laundry baskets for weeks. :)
Anyway, not that you can tell it, but the porch and deck are newly painted. Cody and I literally had to climb a ridiculously large ladder to get to the top white part around the deck (not the siding on top - we don't touch that - except when Cody's dad is here and I'm at work and they talk each other into fixing the siding way up there and then I only here about it later, too late to yell that they could have killed themselves and should have hired someone to do that). The mailbox (the black thing to the right of our door) is also new, as are the house numbers (to the left of the door). Yeah for us for finally finishing a project. You can't really see all the plants I have hanging/sitting on the porch but today was the last day they'll be outside - inside they come lest they freeze and die.
Oh, and yes, I do know our house looks like a barn. It's part of its 108 year old charm. :)

Another vestige of fall - sunset - while I'm still at work. This is the view if you look out one of my windows at work. It would be a fabulous sunset, but for the civil courthouse (the dome top building) in the way. :) Anyway, every day I watch this incredible sunset from my desk - at about 4-4:30pm. Pretty, yet depressing. So today I thought I would bring a camera and capture it. Not the best of sunsets today but still not bad. I would enjoy them better - except they come at 4:30 and I'm still at work. Did I mention yet that I'm still at work when the sun sets? Because I am and it's not cool. Not cool at all. When will Daylight Savings Time return??? (rhetorical question - I know the exact date and minute we get it back). Hope everyone is enjoying their fall!!!

Two Years.

Two years ago our lives changed forever. Two years ago it was a cool, but not cold, Saturday and Cody and I decided to go paddle boating at a nearby lake in Forest Park. We rode our little bikes over there (Cody no longer has his because thug criminals stole it out of our garage a while ago) and had a grand time hanging out and paddling around. On the way back to the dock thing Cody pulls a ring out of his pocket, tried to say something but I don't know what because I was screaming so much. Then we were forever stuck to each other - but in a good way. Two years ago today we got engaged. Now, two years later, we made it through wedding planning (which I swear has to be harder then having kids) and are happily ever after married.

We figured it out!

One of the downfalls to living in a city without family is that when things go wrong you have to figure it out yourself. Like when my car broke - except for almost a year we didn't figure it out ourselves (not for lack of trying though) and it didn't get fixed until Cody's dad rescued us and fixed it. But other things we've managed to figure out - like when we lost power last year and when other random things break. Friday was one of those days.
When we got home, dead tired and exhausted, we turned the thermostat up to heat the house up (it goes down automatically during the day). Except there was no air coming out of the vents. We wandered to the basement and heard the big boxy thing making noise (which I am told is our furnace - for reference and those that live down south - we have gas furnaces here, not electric). "Oh freck" we thought - "please, oh please, God, PLEASE don't let our furnace be broken." So Cody takes off the cover thing and starts looking around for something to light thinking the pilot light went out. I, on the other hand, search Big Boxy Thing for some sort of instructions. Finally I find them and sure enough number 1 on the list is "Don't try to light this thing - it has an electric pilot light." Sure enough there were step by step instructions on what to do when the thing won't work correctly. Basically it's akin to turning your computer off and then on again hoping that this simple manueveur will fix the problem (which, strangely, it usually does). So I insist, since there is gas involved and I am insanely scared of gas, that we do every step exactly as it is listed in the exact order it is listed. So we turn down the thermostat, off the boxy thing, turn off the power to the house (well, we only had to turn it off to the boxy thing but since we weren't 100% positive which fuse was the furnace I insisted the entire house be turned off), wait five minutes, smell for smoke, then power back on and furnace back on and turn the thermostat back up - MAGIC - it worked. I cannot even tell you how happy I was that this stupid little procedure worked. Because it was COLD and it was Friday and I don't even know where to begin if something were to happen to our heating system.
So yes, score one more point for us in house lessons learned. Because I'm telling you, had we lived within 50 miles of family, I would have packed myself up, driven to their house, and waited for someone else to fix it. :)

NPR, cont.

Did I mention that NPR has Democracy Now? Because they do. The most fabulous news radio show ever. If you're into that sort of thing.

On Marriage - Part II.

Cody and I are not very religious people, for better or worse, so we didn't have any Bible passages read at the wedding. The one passage that I really felt strongly enough about to read at the wedding was actually the inspiration for the title of the last blog, so I thought I would post the passage here. Plus I was trying to remember it the other day and couldn't find it easily - now if I know it's here I can always find it. It's from Kahlil Gibran's "The Prophet." (If you're into this sort of thing and need a good read, this is one.)

Then Almitra spoke again and said, And
what of Marriage, master?
And he answered saying:
You were born together, and together you
shall be forevermore.
You shall be together when the white
wings of death scatter your days.
Ay, you shall be togheter even in the
silent memory of God.
But let there be spaces in your togetherness,
And let the winds of the heavens dance
between you.

Love one another, but make not a bond
of love;
Let it rather be a moving sea between
the shores of your souls.
Fill each other's cup but drink not from
one cup.
Give on another of your bread but eat
not from the same loaf.
Sing and dance together and be joyous,
but let each one of you be alone,
Even as the strings of a lute are alone
thought they quiver with the same music.

Give you hearts, but not into each
other's keeping.
For only the hand of Life can contain
your hearts.
And stand together yet not too near
together:
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow
not in each other's shadow.

I love the passage because it's not insanely lovey-dovey and it's really how I feel about our lives and our marriage (disclaimer: obviously each marriage/relationship is different and one person's take on things might not be good/right/fit another). Maybe it's because we got married "later" (though I don't consider myself terribly old - yet) and we both had developed an adult life separate from each other before we got married. Who knows. All I know is that I'm not a "two become one" person - I'm more of a "two, separate, but together, are stronger." So, yeah, I like it so I thought I would post it - plus I've got a stack of paperwork that I was determined to go through before Cody gets home from school and I REALLY don't want to deal with paperwork right now so I'd do anything - including posting random book passages - to spend my time. :)

Married Life.

Two little notes on married life.
First, reason #764 I love Husband (way back in the dark ages when dinosaurs still wandered the earth and Cody and I first started dating, I was so tickled the first time he called me his girlfriend that I started calling him Boyfriend - like "Hi Boyfriend, how was your day?" - now that we're married I joke and just call him Husband, like a proper name - it's funnier in real life then when I write about it): When I took his car to get the oil changed yesterday (because I am THAT nice of a wife - he has been insanely busy with school yet insanely antsy about getting his darn oil changed so I traded cars with him yesterday while he went to a school group meeting so I could get the oil changed for him - major Bonus Wife Points!), I turned on the radio and it was on NPR! Yet another reason I married him! I think I used to like radio - back when they played good music - but I can't remember what that was really like so I listen to NPR. I LOVE NPR! So one day Cody and I were talking and I said something like "I heard XYZ on NPR" and he said "Yeah, I heard that one too - add interesting tid bit here." I was more then impressed but wasn't 100% convinced he was a convert - until I got in his car and it was on the radio. Now that's compatibility. :) So now we regularly talk about what's on the news and can talk intelligently rather then about some retarded morning radio moron story about that guy who married a pig or something (yes, I really really hate morning radio).

Second, not very interesting but still a "moment" moment. I went to pick up my dry cleaning today and didn't have my ticket (for those of you who use dry cleaners, you know this the mortal sin of dry cleaning - if you don't have your ticket they will take all other 20 people in line before you - good thing I was the only one in there - but they still huffed and puffed) so they asked for my name - I said "Flynn." So they looked and looked. "Are you sure you brought it in on Saturday?" they asked. I thought "Yup, I brought it in while my passed out husband slept because he played poker until 7:30 am the night/morning before." Finally it hit me - "Can you look under Raffensperger?" Sure enough it was right there. I'm slowly but surely changing things - credit cards, bank statements, Zoo memberships, magazine subscriptions, pharmacies, doctor's offices, the grocery store wine club, newsletters, etc. (never knew your name was on SO much stuff until you get married) - but I'm still getting used to it. I had just assumed I used the shorter one to turn in my dry cleaning, but I'm really making an effort to make the change - even if I have to spell it literally 30 times before they can get it right. Speaking of that - if you ever get your oil changed at Wal-Mart just tell them your last name is "M" - anything longer then that, especially 13 letters, and you'll likely be there for 20 minutes while they try to get your name in the computer - NOT KIDDING.

It's the fun little things that make marriage fun.

Sadness.

Some things are just sad sometimes. Either that or I'm just a sad packrat (but hey, if I'm a packrat then Cody is too so we're in it together). So I'm on a mission - I am seriously going through every bit of our house (doing a quickish first run now so that we can do a second cull when we have some good time - i.e. Thanksgiving break) and every bit of our life and routine to make it more efficient. As you can probably tell, I finished my book "Find More Time - How to get things done at home, organize your life and feel great about it." So yeah, it's lame, but it was a good book and it got me motivated so I guess it served its purpose. Anyway I'm trying to get our life into a well-oiled machine. I really feel like we're like that with our relationship - we've known each other so long and can read each other so well we really do exist very well and very peacefully - like a well-oiled machine. Our life, not so much. We're hectic, busy, can't ever find anything (we determined that I probably waste over 48 hours a year just looking for my keys) and generally feel behind and discombobulated. So I'm working to get us organized and pare down the extranious.
The first part of that is to get rid stuff we don't need and organize what we do need. The problem is Cody and I think we "need" everything we own. Seriously, we can find an excuse to save anything - anything.
Anyway, so tonight part of my mission was to go through linens that we've moved from one place to another. We had 9 comforters/bedspreads. That's a bit excessive. Granted, these date back to at least when I was in the 4th grade - I have probably never gotten rid of one bedspread I've ever owned - but that's still insane for a house with TWO people. So in that pile of comforters that we were forced to viciously and cold-heartedly go through was one I got when I first moved to Fort Walton Beach in the 4th grade - it was a beach/sea shell print and a really warm, though light blanket. Then there was the two-sided flower pattern bedspread my dad and stepmom got me when I was probably in the 5th grade (one side was white flowers and the other side blue). There was the comforter my grandma bought me at Target when I moved to Gainesville (the first time) to live in the dorms - I'd always had a double bed and the dorms had singles so she bought me a cute single comforter - I'd saved it because it reminds me of her even though the stitching was coming out of the sides. There was one I bought in Law School - the first complete bed set I ever bought myself - comforter, sheets, pillow cases, shams, etc. - but it too had seen better days in terms of stiching - obviously if I bought it in law school I was poor and bought a cheap set - but it was still one I bought all by myself - thanks to Feceral Student Loans, of course - that I'm still paying on - I'm still paying interest on a comforter that I threw away - that's sad - kids, think before you buy anything with loans or credit! Then there was Cody's bedspread - it didn't fit on any bed we currently used but I couldn't get rid of it because he had that when we first met.
Anyway, in the end we managed to get rid of a few of them, save one for the "Kitty Condo" that we will one day build (we have a grand "Kitty Condo" building plan that we will get to one day) and save one for a light summer blanket if our down comforter gets too hot. Yeah, when we got married I finally splurged and got a down comforter - I'd wanted one my whole life and never had one so that was my treat to myself for making it through wedding planning. :)
So, yeah, it was sad to go through that stuff and get rid of some but I guess saving a comforter that has stiching coming undone to remind me of my grandma isn't the best way to think of her anyway - a picture in a frame would be more efficient and take up less space. We'd also decided to get rid of anythign that doesn't make us happy to own it - anything that has any negative memories (like the fuzzy blanket Cody got me for Valentine's Day 1998 or 1999 after he went to Daytona Beach for Valentine's weekend without telling me - fine blanket, bad memories) or just plain doesn't enrich our lives to own it.

Well, enough babbling - back to purging of old stuff before I lose my nerve and decide to keep everything. :)

Pure Good Times.

I had a bunch of things to post about tonight - I even wrote them all down so I wouldn't forget - and then I realized that Cody took my laptop to his group meeting for school. So no luck tonight. Hopefully tomorrow - though I'm on a house cleaning, task finishing, project progress spree lately. :) Anyway, yesterday a bunch of us got together and went to some of the Missouri wineries (you may laugh, but Missouri actually has some really good - and fun- wineries). It was PERFECT! Everyone was happy and had a good time, the trees were all turning colors so it was gorgeous and the weather was more then one could ever hope for in Missouri - about as perfect a day you could have. I'd kind of been grumpy lately and this totally cured me of that! Here's a few quick photos.

Everyone hanging out, drinking wine at Montelle. Cody wouldn't fit in the picture so he had to lie down on the bench.

More Montelle pictures.

Fabulous scenery at Montelle. You can't even get the full bredth of the colours just from a picture.

Everyone at Mount Pleasant Winery.

The fantabulous sunset. Still can't capture it in photos.

Photo Update.

In reverse chronological order (because I still can't figure out how to move photos around once they are uploaded onto Blogger and I don't see why they show up in the order you upload them from the bottom up):
This is tonight's vegetable harvest. We're getting a "hard freeze" tonight (apparently unlike the other times we've already been getting down past 32 degrees at night) so we went ahead and picked all the decent sized veggies in our garden just in case the freeze kills them all. Looks like we'll be eating a lot of green peppers for a while - the tomatoes will turn red by leaving them on the counter.

Last weekend we rode the motorcycle up to Ozzie's to watch the Gator game - one so we could ride the bike and it was nice and two because it's a great deterrent to drinking too many beers while watching the game (because when we do we don't get anything done for the rest of the day).

Pretty self explanatory - I hope. This is us all dressed up in our Halloween costumes. Since we were only going to a friend's party I just put on jeans with my pumpkin suit - usually I have black pants with black boots - it looks more official. Cody is a crazy Leprachan. Don't ask.

This is Wiggles all dressed up for Halloween. I'm sure you can see the pleasure on her face. This is Cody's favorite cat - or at least Cody is Wiggles' favorite person - we call her "Codependent Kitty" because she has this unnatural attachment to him - seriously she is obsessed with him. He thought it was degrading and might ruin her self-esteem if I posted this photo. I guess Wiggles should watch what she wears with all these people around with cameras these days.

And this is one of Wiggles looking stupid rolling around in the "sunshine." They lay upstairs and wait for the sun to come through these windows and then they fight each other for the sunshine space. Go figure. Who needs kids when you have cats this entertaining? :)

Boo.

Boo for the end of Daylight Savings Time. I LOVE DST!!! I can't find one good, credible reason why we can't be on DST all year long. I hate being back to normal time!!! It's now going to start getting dark around 4:30 !!! That's insane. You sit there at work just watching the sun go down and you can't even leave yet! We're all going to be Vitamin D deficient and insanely depressed!

Front Porch. Check.

We finally got (most of) the front porch painted!!!! Our goal was to finish this in June, then August, then before Cody's parents came to visit, then Halloween, but today we put everything else aside and painted painted painted until we got at least all the parts that face the neighbors and the street painted! The rest I guess I can work on as the time comes but it makes the house not look so bad. :) We got a ton done and I really just have ot paint the door, around the window and a bit here and there (some spots on the ceiling, etc.) - I'm quite excited that we actually got a project almost done!!!

Motorcycle.

One more thing we can thank my Bonus Parents for - Cody's motorcycle is working again. While at first I sort of had mixed emotions about this - while I like that he likes the bike, it scares the daylights out of me - I'm loving it again. Last weekend we took the bike up to Ozzie's to watch the UF game with all our Gator friends (like we do every Saturday - if it's Saturday and you're looking for us -that's where we'll be). It was amazing. At first I was scared like normal but Cody's mom told me to just sit still during turns/corners and to just look over the shoulder that we're turning towards - so I did that and it really made things better -for me and for Cody. It's so nice to ride along and look at all the trees and the scenery - when you're in the car you tend to ignore all that stuff. I'm still not a huge fan of going 85 on the interstate with zillions of cars merging in and out everywhere but I guess I trust Cody to watch out for what's going on. So I'm actually enjoying the fall in that it's great motorcycle weather.

More on Football.

A bit of football commentary here. This season is just WEIRD!! Seriously the strangest season ever. All sorts of crazy games - and crazy rankings. You have what should be top 10 teams unranked and teams that are never ranked in the top 10 (Quack Attack, anyone???). LSU loses to Kentucky who is the quintessential whipping boy of the SEC. FSU who can't seem to beat anyone beats #2 Boston College. USF was at some point ranked #2 (what where they thinking!!!). Colorado beats Oklahoma but can't win another game. Notre Dame is now 1-7 and lost to NAVY - who would have ever seen that coming (yeah, I bet on Notre Dame this week - one of my 8 losses). And it goes on and on and on. Strange strange season. The way it looks right now for the Gators, if Georgia and Tennessee lose another game we'll have a three loss team in the SEC Championship Game - everyone keeps beating up everyone else. Strange strange football year.

The bets are in.

Cody's a gamling man. I am not. I think casinos and gambling in general is dumb. I don't want to put my money on anything that I don't know for a fact will get me something - and a slot machine doesn't fulfill that requirement. Not that they're not fun once in a while - blow $20 on the penny slots, get some cheap drinks, hang out with friends - but it's just not my scene normally. For the Florida folks - casinos are legal here as long as they're on a body of water - since we're sandwiched between the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers that means lots of casinos for our gambling enjoyment (with that comes all the annoying casino commercials and the "gamble smart" commercials - not sure which is worse). Anyway, Cody likes to play poker - but since we've been so busy he doesn't ever get to go out there. Such is life.
Then there's football. We watch A LOT of football - only college - we sort of gave up on NFL - not really our thing much anymore. Maybe that's where all our time goes - football. Anyway, so each week we always talk about the games and who thought who was going to win and all that. So three weeks ago we decided to combine the gambling and the football. Cody figured it out that if we won 53% of our bets we could quit our jobs and move to Vegas (yeah, right) - the 53% is because the house takes a rake from every bet. So each Tuesday we print out the lines on all the college football games and we each pick 10 to "bet" on (we don't put any money on these -only bragging rights).
Anyway, the first week I was 8-2 (pretty good for girl, huh?) and Cody was 5-5. The next week I was 7-3 and Cody went 5-4-1 (he "pushed" on one because he bet the line and the team won by the line exactly). So as of last Friday I was 15-5 and Cody was 10-9-1. We were doing pretty good. Until this week. This week I bombed - totally. I went 1-8-1 and Cody went 4-5-1. We would be eating Ramen Noodles in Vegas this week if we had money on these games. I won only ONE game (thanks U Conn for making the spread against Rutgers) and lost (or pushed) on the rest! What a rough week for our betting. Oh well. At least we don't have money on them. :)

Ketchup.

So, it's been a while since the last blog. It's one of those times when it seems there is so much going on - we're crazy busy and barely getting enough sleep. But then you go to write about what is going on and you're at a loss. What is it that we're doing to take up all of our time?

So this led me to check out a book from the library (I've started using the correct terminology with the library book process - "checking out: books instead of "renting" them) - it's "Find More Time - How to get things done at home, organize your life and feel great about it." Because I really feel like we have the time - if we could just find it and use it wisely. Not that we have a lot of time - we're not ozzing time here but we have a little and I think the little we have can be better managed to make us more productive and less harried. For instance, every morning I rush around for 30 minutes doing what I should be able to do in five minutes, but for my lack of planning and disorganization it takes me way too long - find the keys, make breakfast, find the shoes, find keys since I put them down after I found them the first time when I went to make breakfast, find socks, then find shoes again since I put them down while looking for socks, find my purse - opps, wrong purse, change purses, find cell phone - where is that darn cell phone - "Cody can you call my phone I can't find it? Never mind, I found it," put phone in purse, what did I do with those keys, make it to the car - opps forgot the breakfast in the microwave - you see where I'm coming from. That's every day. So I'm on a mission to get things more organized and RELAXED. Yeah, I'm always on some mission. At least I'm focused?!?
Anyway, that's really the big update - but I've got some other random thoughts that I've been throwing around so I'll see how many of them I get through.

Missing the Florida

Sometimes I miss Florida. While we no longer refer to Florida as "home" (Missouri has taken over that role since we've bought a house and lived here over three years), it's still "home" in a different way. Today an old friend, her husband, their adorable kid (who calls Cody and I "MisthyCody" like we're one word) and her parents (who I've known since I was two years old) stopped by to say hi. It was a short visit but it was still wonderful to see them. And it made me miss all the other people we're missing in Florida. Even though they left a while ago and were only here a week, there is still a feeling of emptiness since my Bonus Parents left - I keep thinking of things to go downstairs and tell them and they're not there anymore. One of our nieces turned six on Friday (which because I am a horrible horrible aunt I STILL haven't mailed her birthday card) and all I could think about all day was the party I'm sure she was having and us missing it. It's the same way when her sister was born - her sister is almost six months old and we've yet to meet her - she was just a little bitty thing back then and I'm sure she's already sitting up, crawling and eating real food by now. We've got two more nieces and a nephew that we miss birthdays, holidays (Halloween I especially miss their adorable costumes) and other random family gatherings. I guess it's actually the kids growing up that I miss the most. I was really really close with my extended family growing up and I hate that we're not there for them the way my aunts and uncle where there for me. Maybe one of these days we'll be closer and can drive over for the birthday parties and events. I can't wait until they can all read and write and we can send postcards and letters back and forth. When I was little I had an aunt in California and I will always remember writing back and forth with her so when she did visit it seemed like there was no time lost. I hope to at least have that with them - assuming they're willing of course (and if they're not I'll just chase them around until they are). :)
Hopefully we'll figure out this whole holiday thing here soon and we can start looking forward to seeing everyone.
p.s. I miss the grown-ups too but their just not half as cute as those kids. :)

Brrrrrr....

Where in God's Green Earth did summer go? Just yesterday I swear it was here and then I wake up this morning and it's forty-something outside and the high is 60! What is going on here? I guess winter has finally reared its ugly head and we are now going to just go steadly down until we hit two weeks of the highs in the 20s. We're quickly running out of time to wrap up all of those half finished outdoor projects - finishing the backyard fence, finishing painting the front porch, harvesting the last of the vegetables and putting in the fall ones (garlic, green onion), and mulching everything until spring. Unfortunately the one good thing about the cold weather skipped us this year - the leaves changing. Usually we get a spectacular display of reds, yellows, oranges and purples this time of year but apparently there was a late freeze, not enough summer rain, and too many late warm nights so the leaves are expected to just turn brown and fall off. Shucks.
The first snow is always fun - its come on November 30th three years in a row now - we'll see how that holds up this year. Every snow after the first sucks.
I'm lovin' the late change from Daylight Savings Time. I'm still not really sure why we ever go OFF Daylight Savings Time. It's a fantastic institution and I hate to see it go (though loving the few extra weeks we get from now on). Right now our sun is setting around 6pm - that means as of Nov. 4th it will be setting around 5pm - that's just sad. It's depressing to watch the sun set while you're still at work. I want to walk home in the sunshine and have a little bit left to run in (assuming I could run which I still can't - have ANOTHER doctor appointment for this on Friday) when I get home. But I walk to the garage in the dark, only to be sad and depressed when I'm home in the dark with no light to speak of. I guess I still have spring to look forward to. :) And Christmas - I love Christmas. :)

405 posts

Opps, I missed the 400 post mark, so I'll commemorate the 405 mark. :) I really can't believe I've ever had 405 posts worth of stuff to say. Most of it is babble and tantrums and thoughts and events, but it's good for me I think. I enjoy the time to focus - my life consists of constantly focusing on 100 things at once, so it's nice to sit down and type and focus on only one thing for a little while. I think this is an important exercise for me as I continually strive to slow down, focus and be a little less "keyed-up." Even when I'm on the internet, I can do 100 things at once with the whole "tabs" on IE and having the ability to have 100 applications open at once (back in the olden days if you had too many applications open at once it would slow the computer down too much). I do 100 things at once at work and at home - so this gives me a chance to focus, and think. Too often I go through a day doing this and that and taking no time to actually pause and think. Plus sometimes I guess people actually read this stuff - and that's sort of nifty too.

Too Old For This.

I used to think that life was boring if we didn't go out at least twice every weekend. What good was life if not for being fun? The word "bored" never crossed our lips. To be insanely and sickenly cliche, we worked hard and played harder. We used to think that anyone who sat at home for the weekend was just boring and old.
I guess I'm getting boring and old then. This weekend was a typical weekend for us for so many years - Friday night it was work happy hours, then party at a bar for friends moving to Chicago (the longer we live here the more friends move away). I drank a lot of wheat beer, which I absolutely love but it makes my sinuses hurt like crazy the next day. We somehow drank $89 worth of beer on Friday night and the only food on that tab was some $3 pretzels - either we drank too much or the beers were too expensive. So we drank probably too much, got home late and had to wake up decently early on Saturday (decently early means before noon). Saturday we stumbled out of bed, found some food and had to hit up Target for laundry sundries - I was all out of soap - regular soap, dark clothes soap and my favorite, Clorox 2 (I can thank my aunt for turning me onto Clorox 2). Then it was time to jump back on the wagon and head to Ozzie's for the Gator game - and more drinkin'. The Gators finally won a game, though at times it looked like they were trying to lose. The worse the Gators play the more we drink.
Then it was back home to put together some costumes for a Halloween party. I was . . . . drum roll please. . . . a pumpkin (the same costume I've used for 10 years). Cody was a _____ Leprachan. Fill in the blank - drunk, green, funny, silly, unlucky - pick any descriptor for "Leprachan" and that's what he was. So we went to the party, stayed out too late (though there used to never be a "too late"), probably drank more then we should and found our way home. Then we got out of bed at 4:30 p.m. this afternoon - not kidding. We woke up around noon, ate something for a few minutes and then went back to bed.
So, what did we really accomplish this weekend? The answer - not much of anything except a lot of beers and some wicked hang-overs. So as we went on our walk this evening, we really discovered that we're getting too old for this. I can't "hang" like I used to - I do not do well with no sleep and lots of beers for days in a row. For the first time (and this is probably the hang-over talking) I almost thought that having kids and hanging out at home this weekend would have been nice. I used to dread the thought of kids because they would inhibit weekends like this - now I think that might not be such a bad idea sometimes. I can see how people eventually grow out of the all-weekend parties. I don't think we'll ever grow out of it completly - we're both pretty social people - but I can see why the all night Friday, and all day and night Saturday stuff can begin to wear on you. We used to bounce back so much easier. Now it seems that I need more and more sleep and rest to bounce back. God, this getting older thing is really really complicated. On one hand you resist it like crazy because you don't want to get "old" and "uncool" and on the other you just get too damn tired to resist it anymore. So now we've had a day of sleep, the grocery store and laundry. You would think this incredibly boring, but it's been actually nice. :)

Took Long Enough.

Names are so weird. Some people love theirs. Others hate theirs. I've pretty much always been indifferent on mine. Melissa was the number 1 or 2 name in the year I was born, so I was never the only one - good if there are rumors or you're in trouble (no one knows which Melissa it is) or bad if you just get lots in the crowd of them. Speaking of "Melissa confusion," one of the funniest stories ever was in high school. Cody was sort of "hanging out" with another girl named Melissa. They weren't officially dating but they hung out. He took her to Homecoming, etc. - I was, of course, insanely jealous but it wasn't really my thing to butt it at that time. Well, I guess she wanted to date but he told her he was too busy with work and school and soccer and didn't want a girlfriend. Of course about a month later we started dating but it was pretty hush-hush. Turns out another Melissa (that makes three in this twisted tale) found out that him and I were dating and told everyone in school that "Cody was dating Melissa." Since the vast majority of the people I knew called me Missy and everyone had known Cody had been hanging out with the other Melissa, everyone assumed that Cody was dating the first Melissa. She heard that rumor and really thought they were dating (here's where I find her insanely dumb - who hears a rumor that they're dating someone and believes it without talking to that person!!!) so it turned into this whole drama thing because I, of course, heard that she thought she was dating my boyfriend. It eventually got worked out obviously because I have his last name and she doesn't. :)
So, back to the point of this blog - my last name. Before we got married I was all about changing my name. I couldn't wait. Before we got married I was Melissa Elizabeth-Ann - the Elizabeth got added in high school - a long story. Anyway, after the wedding I went through some serious name changing identity crisis. I had always been - my entire schooling and career - all my "connections" and friends - everyone knew me by that name. If I had been married at 19 it would have been different - but I'd had this name for a long time. To add to that, no matter what job I have my email will always have my last name in it- right now it's mflynn. My clients, co-workers and other people I encounter for work can all deal with that. They could not handle mraffensperger. I'm not discounting their intelligence, but I know when I have to email people with long last names, I always have to look up their addresses so they will be spelled right (it took me months to be able to email my friend Melanie from home because her email didn't pop up automatically on my home computer and her last name is 11 letters long). So I bounced back and forth. Hypenation? Keep my maiden name (which it's strange that all of a sudden the name I have had for years is now referred to as my "maiden name")? Drop the last name? Luckily I have smart friends and I talked with my friend Meghan and she said that she just added her new last name when she got married. No two middle names or two last names - just four names. GENIUS!
So, Friday I went and finally got myself a Missouri drivers license (I tried to get the social security card first but they required I get my license first). I am now legal to drive in Missouri - 3.5 years after moving here. :) And my new name is . I dropped the Elizabeth, not out of choice per se, but because it wouldn't fit in the space they have. :) I'm still not sure if I'm going to keep it on my social security card or not. But I like the way this looks - I'm getting used to it. Now I can legally keep my maiden name for work - my kids won't be saddled with whatever I do with my career and my clients won't have to learn to spell Raffensperger. And Raffensperger will go on everything else - credit cards, bank accounts, etc. I really like the solution as it works for me. It's not for everyone - as already people are saying I'm insane - but it works for me. I do now, however, have more letters in my name then the entire alphabet. :)
So now I'm officially a Raffensperger - though I've considered myself one for quite a while. Now I can officially call Cody and I the "Raffensperger Part of Two" (this is an inside joke with me and Cody's sister). :)

Makin' Deals with the Devil

One of the joys of owning animals (or kids if you have those) are the annual visits to the vet. Since I adopted the cats from a shelter in Florida and I'm generally relatively lazy about finding new places, I've been taking the cats to the vet for the annual shots every time we visit for Christmas. But I didn't get around to it last year because we just got plain too busy. So I decided I needed to find them a vet here - I made that decision in December. I just now got around to calling them, making an appointment and actually taking them in. A friend adopted a dog from the Humane Society here, they are right up the street from our house and I generally prefer to support those types of places when I can so I made an appointment with them. I made it for Thursday at 5pm because I figured Cody could go with me before school. But it turns out he "forgot" some school meeting he had to go to at 5:15. So it was me and three cats to the vet. He later admitted he didn't want to go because he thought the cats would hate him if he took them to get shots and he would rather them hate me and let me be the "bad guy." So he made a deal with the Devil - I'll take the cats to the vet to get their shots and they can hate me and he won't have to worry about them clawing his eyes out while he sleeps, but in return when we have kids he promised that he would take them to the doctor for shots and let me be the good guy. :) Yeah, I think I got the better end of this deal. :)

Anyway, the visit was relatively uneventful, other then the sheer acrobatics involved with me trying to carry three cat carriers into the vet, in the rain, by myself. When I checked in all the ladies commented that "Oh, you're the one with the girl cat named Mr. Pickles" (when I made the appointment I gave them the cats' information) Yes, yes. That is me. Then when I saw the vet tech - she asked if the front desk people messed up because they put that Mr. Pickles was a girl. No, no. Not a mistake. Mr. Pickles is a girl. Then the vet came in - again, more comments on poor Mr. Pickles. The moral of this story - never, ever let your husband name your cats.

They were all healthy. Wiggles and Mr. Pickles were about 8.5 pounds and Bumpis/Tubby/Fatty weighed in at an astounding 11.5 - they asked if she lets the others eat. Yes she does - there are three food bowls, she can't eat out of them all at one time. Wiggles, the "lap kitty," otherwise known in our house as "co-dependent kitty" tends to "over-groom" her belly so she is missing a lot of hair there but that is nothing to worry about - she just gets nervous when Cody isn't around and does it out of nervous habit (she hates me and could care less if I left - she'd probably like it since then she could have Cody to herself).

So that was all for Kitty Vet Adventure Thursday. :)

Been a while.

Yeah, I know. It's been a while. At least I can say I've been having fun (for the most part). Plenty of more details to come (dead tired and cranky right now), but to briefly summarize, the Bonus Parents were in town last week. It was absolutely fabulous to have them here. It's so cool to get to spend time with just the two of them and have them come and see our home and show them around STL (yes, that was three "and"s in that last sentence). I really love having them here - I feel like I can really relax and be myself around them which is fantastic because that's a tough thing to do around family that you weren't raised with sometimes. They are absolutely wonderful people and I still cry like a baby when they leave. I'm getting slightly better, but not much. When we leave Tally I used to cry practically until we got out of Florida, but at least until we got to I-10, now I really only bawl until we hit Thomasville Road and then again when we exit Florida. When they leave here I bawl for a while but then Cody usually occupies me with sometime (this weekend it was we had to get ready for a party)- but then when I go to clean the house I miss them - like when I go to put up two of the placemats on the dining room table because now we're back down to two people. I miss them like crazy but am happy that the holidays are coming and we can see them again.
A brief rundown of the events since the last post. Thursday I worked on cleaning the house - since it was my one day after wasting a day working on Cody's car. Friday was my friend Melanie's Going Away Happy Hour because she got a new (and much better) job so that was a long night. Saturday we cleaned as fast as we could and then before we knew it the 'rents were here! We all went to Ozzie's to watch the Gator game - though they lost - again. Boo on the Gators- though yeah for being the highest ranked 2 loss team (plus I won $20 on the game because I bet the spread). Sunday we hung out and went for a tour/walk of the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge. Monday Cody made us a great dinner of pork chops after his dad figured out how to fix our grill. Tuesday Cody had class so his mom made Cody's favorite meal while me and his dad carved my fake pumpkin (it was really hard to carve because it wasn't as hard as a real pumpkin so his dad was a great help!) - I'll have to post photos of the pumpkin. Wednesday we took them to the Season Opener for the St. Louis Blues (hockey team) and they actually WON (this is huge here). Thursday we took them to my favorite - the ZOO! Unfortunately the baby elephant wasn't out while we were there but they all humored me while I excitedly gave them the grand tour of the greatest Zoo ever! Friday we hung out (mostly dealing with my car) and went to the Science Center. And Saturday we hung out while I tried to keep myself from crying all day.
The greatest thing (besides just spending time with them) is that they come and FIX things!!! Things they fixed: piece of siding on the roof that was letting water into the roof (to do this they had to put a ladder on our porch roof - good thing I wasn't here to see it or I would have died), Cody's motorcyle (they had to rebuild the brakes and some other random stuff - but it works now!), my car - yes, my car was finally diagnosed by Cody's dad - all he had to do was mess with it for 20 minutes and he figured it out - next time the car breaks, forget taking it to the dealer, I'm going to just pay to fly his dad up here and look at it, the leaky toilet, the salt and pepper shaker (apparently Cody and I didn't even know the salt and pepper shaker had a salt part and we had the pepper grinder part upside down - we just thought it was cheap and the whole time we had it on wrong!), and . . . . the sewer. Yes, in the worst timing ever, our sewer backed up into our basement (love/hate basements!) on Saturday as they were getting ready to leave. I went down to get a movie to loan them and yelled "CODY!" about as loud as I could - everyone came running and I put him and his dad to work. His mom was in charge of keeping me semi-calm and keeping me from freaking out. Having them there for this "crisis" really made me miss them even more - they kept me calm - gave me a sense of being able to control the situation and basically just provided much needed support. So we called the plumber, he drilled out the pipes that run to the house (while our 100 year old house has been rehabbed and has all plastic pipes inside, the pipes going to the sewer are all clay tile - clay tile likes to grow roots) and got all the roots out and now things are perfect. So they were nice enough to stay for that ordeal.
Then they left and I was a basket case until I realized we had to get ready NOW to make it to a party on time.
We had a great time with them and can't wait to have them back again. Maybe if we hurry up and have kids we can talk them into visiting more often (and then we can con them into babysitting). :)

Why God Doesn't Hate Me

Weekends - though I could do with a few more of them.

Why I Think God Hates Me

Aside from the obvious - curly hair, living where it snows, ridiculous allergies (including to cats, of which I have 3), an inability to decide what I want to do when I "grow up," etc. - I have new reasons to belive God hates me - today is one of those reasons.
I had great plans today. Of course, with me, as always, the greatest plans never turn out - never. For instance when I was younger I thought I would be engaged at 23, married at 25 and have kids by 28, later I thought I would be living in LA or NY, I thought we'd only live in STL for 2-5 years, etc.- obviously my life has not gone according to "plan" but it turned out good nonetheless. Cody and I joke that we're not planning to have kids until he's done with school but that as soon as we make that our official "plan" then sure enough the next week I'd turn up pregnant - not cool.
Anyway, today I had plans. Wake up at 6:30, get Cody to work by 7:30 (we only have one car since mine wasn't starting yesterday), me to work by 8:00, in court by 8:30 for a settlement, leave work by 9:00, make it to Columbia around 11:00, leave work Columbia around 2:00, go to the chiropractor around 3:45-4:00, get Cody's oil changed, get home and clean clean clean before my Bonus Parents get here this weekend, then pick up Cody from work and while he's working on his final (due tomorrow), I'd do some more cleaning and working on crocheting him golf club covers (yes, I'm a total dork and my husband is cheap - so rather then buy $45 Gator golf club covers from UF, he asked me to knit/chrochet him some - so they are orange and blue stripes, look hideous (there are no patterns out there for crocheting golf club covers), but I suppose the clubs won't get banged up). Naturally, not one of those things happened the way I "planned."
Here's how today really turned out: Wake up at 8:00, yell "Holy Shit get up NOW" to Cody. Rush to get ready. Take him to work with me by 8:30, pick up my files, run to court by 8:40 to have the settlement approved, rush out of downtown, get him to work and get to Columbia on time. While this was hectic and we slept in, I still got the settlement approved and made it to Columbia - not so bad. Then I managed to leave on time, get to the chiropractor where he mashed the hell out of my poor knee for 30 minutes, all in the name of "medicine." Then on to take Cody's car to get the oil changed. See, he didn't even know I was going to do this - it was going to be a surprise from his super nice wife because I know he's been complaining that he needs to get it done but he's been so busy. So the first place I go was packed and wasn't taking more customers. So then I drive to Wal-Mart (this is my downfall here - as I have sworn never to return to Wal-Mart - especially the Maplewood one). I park the car in the oil change line and go sign up for an oil change. I go back to move the car and nothing - the thing won't start. So we think it might be the battery so we try to jump it - still no go. Then the car starts smoking - never a good sign. So I call Cody, freaking out, and he informs me that the starter has been going bad for a while and that must be it. WHAT!?!?!? Now we have ZERO working cars and I'm stuck at Wal-Mart and he's stuck at work! This is why it (sometimes) sucks to not live near family - if only this had happened in three day we could have called Cody's folks and had them come pick us up - but no - we gotta figure this crap out. Thankfully we live in a city with mass transit. So I walk from Wal-Mart to the Metro station about a mile (after my chiropractor said to go home, ice and elevate the knee and stay off it for 24 hours), ride the metro to the stop close to home and then walk home. THANKFULLY after crazy manipulation with my fuse box, I got my car started after about 10 tries (obviously this means my starter will be bad next) and then picked Cody up. Of course as soon as I pick him up, my insanely compassionate and caring husband, immediatly tries to find a way to blame the starter dying on ME (apparently he was convinced I tried to start it too many times - it was already DYING when I got the car - it's just my dumb luck I was driving when it happened!). Anyway, we went to Wal-Mart and putzed with the car long enough that we finally removed the starter. Then we took it to Autozone to get a new one - all this time every time we go to start my car it takes more tries to crank. So we went from 2 cars, to 1.5 cars (when mine was 50/50) to 1 1/3 cars (when mine barely worked) to 1/3 car (with his broken and mine barely working). Thankfully we got the new starter and eventually got it in - in the dark - in the Wal-Mart parking lot. It sucked a lot worse then it sounds on paper. I was not a happy camper. Needless to say, we came home totally greasy, hungry and having not gotten anything on the to-do list done - including his final. It's a good thing we are used to little sleep. :)
So, yeah, for today at least, I'm convinced God hates me.

I'm a dumb geek.

I was in math club in high school. And Latin club. And if I thought hard enough I could probably think of some other embarrassingly geeky thing. But with all that geek, I could at least claim I was somewhat not-so-stupid. Not so anymore.
As a family of relative geeks, we get a catalog from Think Geek. If you've never checked out their website and you're remotely smart/geeky, then it's worth a few minutes - pretty funny/cool stuff. Anyway, as I was flipping through the catalog there were quite a few of the things I didn't "get." Again, boy has technology passed me by. I was one of the first people in Tallahassee to have an email address - mflynn@tfn.net. But don't try to email me there because I don't remember the password and I believe tfn (Tallahassee Free-Net) has since gone under and no longer exists. Back then I was all on top of this emerging World Wide Web thing - I thought it was great. And then it just passed me by - along with anything past Windows 3.1 (once we got Windows my brother ceased allowing me anywhere near the computer anymore as he was on it 24/7 - if only I was bigger then him and could beat him up and make him let me use it then I would have learned more and I would be the computer genius and he would be the disenfranchised corporate sell-out).
Anyway, I'm not even a good geek anymore. For instance I had to ask Cody, who apparently was bigger then his sister and didn't let her play on it while he sat learning crazy computer things all day, what the t-shirt that says "There's no place like 127.0.0.1" means - apparently the number thingy is the "home" thingy for your computer - he explained it but I already forgot. There are several others I didn't "get" but I won't embarass myself anymore by going into those.
For the record: I was NOT in the chess club (I suck at chess - Cody has beat me in less then 10 moves every time we have played when he was not drunk) or the band. :)

What I'm Lovin' Now

I love yogurt. It's a yummy food. And because I'm a self-proclaimed health nut, I try to substitute yogurt for an ice cream craving as much as I can possibly stand. But it's about 140-180 calories per little cup, so naturally I eat "light" yogurt. But "light" yogurt is runny and sort of mushy and not all that appealing or tasty. So I buy "light" yogurt, eat it because you're "supposed to" and go with life. Until now. Yoplait (who while they pat themselves on the back for donating 5 cents for each pink lid you mail them doesn't realize that it costs me 41 cents to mail the lids, so even if I mail them 8 of them at a time, there is net loss of one cent - why can't I just enter some lid code online and they'll donate money and then I won't have to give the USPS 41 cents only to have 40 cents donated) has now come out with "Thick and Creamy" yogurt - FABULOUS! It's about 100 calories, so slightly more then "regular" light yogurt at 60-90 calories, but delicious. It's totally, well, thick and creamy (go figure). I have no idea, nor do I want to know, what it is they finally found to make light yogurt thick, but it's wonderful and yummy. I'm sure I'm going to die 10 years earlier from eating whatever substance it is that makes it thick, but it will be worth it. At least I'm getting some calcium to go with my funky odd chemicals. :)

Places I Have Found Cody's Socks.

Cody and I are not neat-freaks - very far from it. We don't pick up after ourselves at all - not to say we don't try - we always are thinking of new ways to "try" to be neater - so far none of them have worked. Good thing neither of us really mind - it's just embarrasing when others see your house. :) His worst habbit is leaving clothes lying around everywhere and mine is leaving food/dishes around everywhere. So he always jokes about the "Guess where I found a plate today?" game - this morning he found a plate on his dresser upstairs (no where near the kitchen or dining room - typical places to have plates) - but it was because I was eating my egg and broccoli omlett thing and I was eating it while getting dressed and I finished it while I was near his dresser so I put the plate there - makes sense, right?
So now I'm playing the "Guess where I found your socks?" game. Recent sock finds: dining room table (makes sense right? who doesn't take their socks off and throw them on the table?), living room couch, boy bathroom, upstairs bathroom (I can understand the bathrooms though), the kitchen counter (why not the floor? why the counter?), boy room futon, boy room coffee table, and staircase. Not that I'm complaining, because I've likely left food containers in all of those places. :) So my "job" is to gather laundry from the hidden crevices of the house and his is to gather dishes - since both of us obviously loath the other chore (I hate cleaning up dishes - hate dishes - hate dishes - hate dishes - and trash).
Ahhh the joys of marriage . . . .