I can't believe the end of November is upon me and I haven't posted hardly anything this month! We had a wonderful Thanksgiving, celebrating with both Anthony's family and mine. I've been feeling the onset of a cold for a couple days and yesterday I just lounged around and slept or watched TV. I'm feeling a tad bit better today but I'm still waiting for it to become a full-blown cold. (Hopefully it won't...)

We had planned to get our Christmas stuff from my parents' yesterday but since both of us weren't feeling great, we decided to wait til today. Now I just hope we still feel up to it. We might try to do some Christmas shopping too. Again, all depends how I/we feel (he was feeling a little sick yesterday too).

mood: thirsty

I definitely wouldn't put this week up there on my top weeks ever. Nothing really BAD happened, it was just well, eh. So I'll share the highlights. :-)

Last Friday we took Juliet on a LONG walk: 2 miles to my parents' house. It was a beautiful night so we said "Why not?" She got a chance to really get out and run because they have a fenced yard. We hadn't ever seen her run full-tilt before and it was cool to see. We ate a quick dinner of Wendy's with my family and the took the 2 mile walk home in the dark.

Saturday we did have Domino and Juliet meet. That did not go well (which I kinda feared would happen because Domino doesn't really get along with other dogs) but we still went to Anthony's parents'. However Domino spent most of the evening in his cage. We had a nice time though visiting with his family (which for the first half was only his parents and Matthew because the older 3 were at a youth group hike). When everyone was back home, we played 2 rounds of canasta: girls won the first, guys won the second. So much for taking advantage of the time change and getting extra sleep. :-) But it was so much fun!

Monday I had an awesome night at TR! (They needed me to switch to Monday's for this session. I have no clue if I'll be staying on that day or not after Dec.7, when the session ends.) This fall is much more "fun" than last year because I was new at it and didn't really know what I was doing. Now I understand how to help the rider more and what I should/shouldn't be doing to help them progress. The girl I'm working with right now is 13 years old and after only a couple lessons is about ready to ride independently. That means she goes off lead and rides all by herself. I'll stay right by the horse to make sure nothing goes "wrong" but she will be the one in charge. It's so exciting to see this happen!

Wednesday night brought forth another good night at Awana. Nothing really spectacular, except that the one boy who doesn't really care for me actually focused and worked hard on his verses and didn't whine or pout or complain at me the whole night! I guess that in itself is pretty spectacular since I usually end up yelling at him most of the night (probably why he doesn't like me very much).

So I should just leave my week there because everything else is eh. Now I'm just hoping for a better weekend, which it should be. Laurelyn is coming over tomorrow afternoon! 

mood: indescribable

Tonight we carved out pumpkin! Last year I did an intricate design that had to be traced and then took hours to cut out. This year I wanted us both to carve the pumpkin (which meant not making it tedious and a one-person job) and I think he turned out fabulous! Before we carved the nose, he totally looked like the abomidable snowman from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Haha, totally not planned. :-) But then we did the nose and even though we tried to make it look like his nose, it didn't quite work. I'm still really happy about how he turned out. :-)

Tomorrow night we're going to watch Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. (We've been watching the movie after I have finished reading it's respective book.) Saturday afternoon we're going to see how Juliet and my in-laws' dog Domino get along. NOT quite sure how that will go because he's a tiny dog (Boston terrier) and Juliet, well, ISN'T tiny. If all goes well, we'll be spending the evening at their house with Juliet so I'm really hoping the get along at least as well as Jet and Juliet (hopefully better!).

mood: creative

Last night I stayed up reading until about 1am but I finished Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I'm starting to develop opinions now, but I still want to wait and see how it all ends before they are conclusive. Of course, then I have to re-read Lord of the Rings to fully develop my comparison between the two works so I still have a long way to go! Oye.

I'm trying to think of something to update other than more stuff about Juliet but I can't think of anything. She's the most "interesting" thing happening in my life right now but I'm sure it's not that interesting to anyone else...

Uh, well, I have stupidly agreed to play more songs for the church stuff. I'm working on four accompaniment pieces right now and I NEED to start working on a solo piece for offertory (that I'm assigned to play in 3 weeks).

We got our pumpkin on Saturday and now we just have to find time to carve it. I don't think I'm going to do anything fancy this year.

Yeah, that's about it. Today I'm just working on laundry, making dinner, will take Juliet for a walk, and have TR later in the afternoon. (They needed someone else on Monday's and my class on Thursday had a boy drop it for this session so they were over-staffed.) 

We have now had Juliet for over a week and she's already feeling like a part of our (little) family. It's so nice to come home to Juliet as opposed to an empty house. Well, I guess technically it wasn't empty because Pippin was here, but I think you get my point. :-)
I've been trying to work more with her this week on training. She's doing much better on the leash. For example, her and I went on a 20 minute walk yesterday and she only almost tripped me twice. That's progress! We've also been working on "Sit" "Down" and "Stay". She has sit pretty well (she knew that one when we got her) but down is a little more tricky. I have no idea why. She's also getting the hang of stay...er, at least when I have a treat. Hehe. Her major "vice" that we are trying to train out of her is mouthing. She likes to take your hand and put it in her mouth. I don't know why. She's not "biting"...more like "playing" with your fingers, hand, wrist, whatever she can get ahold of. Anyone have any tips for how to stop a dog from doing this other than saying "No bite"? I never had to deal with this with Jet, but we had him since he was 6 weeks old so we knew all the training that he got. I'm guessing this was an encouraged behavior at her previous home because she does it frequently, especially when she gets excited. It's very annoying. (Like I said, it doesn't hurt because she's not biting, but it's not a behavior we want in our dog.)
Oh, and it went, er, ok with Jet. Juliet loved him, which was the main problem. She wanted to play constantly and poor Jet is very old and just wants to sleep. She would run up behind and chase him around the living room and then try to jump on top of him. I saw Jet today and the poor old guy is still limping. We tried to keep her from bothering him, but it was hard. Hopefully if we just take her to my parents for an afternoon/evening or something, they will be ok. I'd hate to have to leave her if we're going to spend the day there, but if we have to, we have to. I don't want to stress Jet out. Poor old guy. He'll be 12 in November.

mood: thankful

My parents are out of town this weekend, so we are dog-sitting Jet. It's been...interesting. We took Jet and Juliet to a park to meet for the first time and it all went really well: tails wagging, lots of sniffing, no growling. Awesome. So we stayed there for about 20 minutes and then headed to our house to REALLY see how they'll get along. Thus commences the interesting part. Juliet is thoroughly enjoying chasing Jet around the house and wanting to "play". Jet is NOT enjoying it at all. He basically just runs from her. I told him that he better start standing up to her or she's gonna keep pushing him around. I don't know if he got that or not. ;-) Hehe. But luckily, by around 9pm Juliet had settled down and was content to be like Jet and lie on her rug for the rest of the night. Ah peace!
We'll just have to see how today goes...

mood: amused

Tuesday afternoon Anthony picked up the newest member of our family: Juliet! They told us she's a collie mix, but we've had several people tell us they think there's some German Shepherd in her too. Since we got her from a shelter, we don't know much about her. They estimated her age at 2.5 years. We do know that she had a family before because she has some training.

This is what she knows (that we have discovered so far anyway):
-sit
-come
-housebroken (TOTALLY AWESOME!)
-crate-trained (also totally awesome!)
-leave it (like when you are playing with her, she'll just drop the toy)

However, she has VERY bad leash manners so we'll definitely have to work on that. She also has kennel cough right now from being in the shelter so she's on antibiotics for 10 days (well, I guess it's only 8 now). She kept us up the first night coughing...poor thing. :-( I hope she gets better soon. We go to see "our" veterinarian tomorrow evening for a complete physical and to get any other shots/treatments she might need (hopefully it's not much!) 

Now we're just all hoping Jet will get along with her because I'd like to be able to take her over to my parents at times. Plus when my parents go out of town, we'll need to watch Jet and it would be much easier if we could just bring him to our house. We'll just have to wait and see.

mood: excited

Today we are moving my piano home!!!!! I can't wait! By 2 pm, my neighbors should be hearing music coming from our house. :-) I've totally missed having a piano and I'm just so excited. :-D

mood: ecstatic

(I wrote this at 1:30 this morning, but my internet went down and wouldn't let me post it. So I saved it.)

Instead of going to bed, I've been reading some of my past journal entries on here. It was all quite amusing until I started reading about my Grandma H. Two years ago this past week (Sept 15, maybe?), she went home to be with her Savior. I knew it was in September, but I'm really bad at remembering dates. I can't believe it's been that long, yet so much has happened in my life that it feels like forever. I know it's not important in this life, but I would have loved for her to be for my college graduation, to see me walk down the aisle and marry my wonderful husband, to show her around our first home. She would have loved to see it all. My grandma was always so interested in all her grandchildren's lives.
As a Christian, and knowing that my grandma was a Christian too, I rest in the hope that I will see her in heaven, but I wonder things. I know she doesn't "miss" me (it's heaven...why would you want to be here???), but I wonder if people in heaven think about people still on earth. Like, did she know I was getting married? I'm guessing that the saints in heaven have one focus: the LORD and Savior Jesus Christ and God the Father. But the human part of me wonders these things...
I really feel like I'm just rambling. I guess I am but I can't really think too clearly right now. I still think about my grandma everytime I play RummyQ, work on a craft project, see a yucha plant (haha, I hate those things, but she loved them). I miss her when I realize I forgot how to start a crochet project and have to look it up in a book instead of just walking to her living room to ask. I'm jealous that 2 of my brother's children got to meet her and my children will never get to meet her or any of my grandparents (not the "I'm mad" jealous...just sad that my kids won't know any of my grandparents).
I guess I'll end this post with a poem I must attribute to my brother Scott. It was written while we were thinking of our memories for my grandma's memorial service. For those who truly knew my grandma, I hope it makes you smile. It made me crack a smile through my tears tonight.

There once was a woman named Grandma

Who went to dinner and lowered the hamma’

On some poor young server

Who didn’t deserve her

‘Cause the hash browns were as crispy as manna

mood: contemplative

It's a beautiful day and I have it off. Too bad I need to get stuff done around the house and can't really enjoy it. Since we were at his parents' house almost every day because Angela was in town, we never really got settled from our trip. We unpacked the night we got back but I've only done a little laundry and we're starting to run out of clean clothes. Scary! We don't really have any food either. Time to meal plan and make a grocery list too.
I guess I decided to challenge myself this week because I agreed to play for our choir that's singing next Sunday. Our director gave me the music yesterday afternoon and we had one practice that evening (it's a song we've sung before but I've never played it). Why I agree to do stuff like this I'll never know, especially since my piano isn't at the house yet. That means I'm going to be spending a lot of time at my parents' this week practicing. While I don't mind going over there at all, it's just more convenient if I can just sit down to play without having to make a trip out of it. I think we're going to try and move it this weekend! I can't wait. :-D

mood: hungry

The weather has been so much cooler  here lately (upper 60's, low 70's) and I'm so excited for fall. I'm ready for cute sweaters and comfy blankets to curl up in. The leaves are already starting to change and I think it will be really beautiful this year. Aren't the colors based on rainfall? If so, I pretty sure we got a lot this summer. At least it's felt like it to me. :-)

I'm sad to announce that all the things I was looking forward to in my last post are almost over:
~I had a great time at a Mexican restaurant with my cousin's a couple weeks ago. Then they came over and saw our house and we talked for a few hours. Sidenote: I got to watch Laurelyn's ferret for the weekend and it was really fun! He's so cute but I must admit, he does smell.
~My best friend's wedding was last weekend and it was so amazing. I'm so exited for Dan and Rachel!!!
~Angela's last full day of visiting is tomorrow and then she heads home Sunday afternoon. Bummer. :-( 

So right now, I'm looking forward to fall I guess. I don't have any big leads on jobs, no more trips are planned, no more company coming until Christmas. Ah well, what can ya do? Right now I guess I'll head to be cause I'm tired and it's late and I have to get up early. 

location: study mood: calm music: Pippin rolling around in her ball

Well, I HAD a job interview scheduled for this Monday. However yesterday I got a call from them saying they needed cancel my appointment as they are putting the position on hold for a couple months. Awesome. :-P I'm so bummed cause this was my first interview since I started looking over a year ago. I guess they could still call me back on it in a couple months, but it's still disappointing. Plus, I rushed my pants suit to my seamstress and now I don't even need it (right now). I didn't have the heart to tell her when I picked it up yesterday afternoon that she really didn't need to rush it for me. She said good luck and I said thank you.

Today we're having my parents over to celebrate my mom's birthday! I'm excited that we can have people over now and aren't living in a constant state of construction. The house is looking really good if I do say so myself. We even hung the picture above the couch! Hopefully the curtains that came in on Wednesday will make it up over the windows today. They are red-striped panels with the grommets on the top. I love them! They were pretty cheap, but ah well. We don't have a lot of money right now to get high-quality curtains.

Anthony starts classes on Monday morning. I wonder when I'll stop feeling left out by all the people that get to go back to school in the fall. Maybe once I get a job? Who knows, but right now I feel kinda "dumb" because I don't think I've used my brain much since graduating. I DEFINATELY feel like my degree is a waste at this point. Hopefully someday it will be worth all the money and time I put into it...

I do have some stuff to look forward to in the next couple weeks though! Friday the girl cousins in the the state are getting together for dinner, Saturday I'm getting together with a friend to hang out, and then two weeks from today my best friend is getting married!!! And Anthony's sister Angela is coming in the week we get back from the wedding! Yeah for family and friends.

I'll have to write another time about my new classes I'm in at the therapeutic riding place. It's much different than any other one I've worked. However, right now I need to go do more laundry and start baking Mom's cake!

mood: okay

The only thing on my list that we have left is to take the painters tape off the ceiling! We spent over 6 hours Saturday working on the floors but they look so much better. I just need to go over them with lemon oil and get some area rugs and we'll be good to go! I can finally walk in my entire house (sans basement) without shoes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ah, it's the little joys in life that make me happy. :-) 

I have already finished Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and am 80 pages into the Chamber of Secrets.

Oh, and it's officially summer here. Up until this point, having no A/C didn't really matter. Now, it's really hot in our house. And when I'm sweating just sitting on the couch, I'm really cranky.

mood: lethargic

Exactly. That has been our life for two months and it seems as though it will continue. However, I am starting to see the dim light at the end of the tunnel.
~Living room/dining room are painted!
~Carpet is gone!!!!
~Kitchen is organized
~New door going from the house to the garage is in place (They just had a hollow bedroom door. Yeah, that's makes me feel REAL safe.)

Things that need to be finished up:
~Take down the tape around the ceiling from painting the cove molding. This will be more complicated than all the other tape I peeled off. I'm going to have to go around with a razor blade and score it because the paint that we just painted onto the cove is starting to peel off when I peel off the tape. Arg! Didn't have this problem with ANY of the other tape. which is why I haven't done it yet.
~Touch up the walls where the tape messed UP the paint
~Take up tack strips
~Scrub, scrub, and scrub some more to get the padding residue off the wood floor.

So yeah, it's getting there, slowly, but eventually we'll have a pretty house. :-) AND I can bring over my piano and the side table Dan made for us once the floor is all done. I can't wait! 

mood: toasty-warm

I started reading the first Harry Potter this weekend and so far I really like it. No, I haven't read them before. They just didn't interest me, but I figured since I want to work in the children's dept of the library someday I should read them. :-)

We are painting our arms off tonight! Seriously, I don't know if I'll make it, but I guess ya just keep pushing through. I really hope we only need one coat of paint on the cove.

mood: sore

I went out this evening to get ingredients to make a dessert and the local drug store was closest (and I really didn't feel like going to Walmart even though it was only about 3 minutes further). After I grabbed a cart, I walked to the back of the store because that is where the Oreos are kept. As I scanned the shelves for the price, my eyes settled on the tag: $4.19. $4.19???!?!?! Are you kidding me??? For Oreos.
I ended up at Walmart. "How much" you ask? $2.78 for the exact same package. Glad I drove the extra 3 minutes.

mood: amused

Last Monday was quite productive: unpacked about 10 boxes, wiped out the built-in cupboard in the dining room, straightened up, took my dress to get altered, got the paint for the living room, painted 3/4 of the living room.
Tuesday however, I woke up with a sore throat. :-P After Tony got out of work, we headed over to his grandparents to cut their grass. Correction: Tony cut their grass. I sat inside and visited (trying to not act sick).
Wednesday I was still not feeling well, so I came home from work early and slept for almost 3 hours. Then my mom called. They were taking my dad to the ER because he was having heart problems again (chest pains, shortness of breath). I waited for about an hour because my mom told me not to come up right away since she'd have to answer a bunch of questions and stuff about my dad. She called around 5 and he was more stable than when he came in. I headed up there and Anthony met us there after work. We stayed at the hospital until about 8pm. By this time my dad had gotten settled into a room for the night and visiting hours would be over shortly, so we made our way home.
My dad came home Thursday morning and is doing much better. They changed some of his meds and he goes back to the cardiologist in a month. Anthony and I spent the evening at Maria and Charles' having dinner. It was yummy. :-) And the kids are so cute.
I don't remember Friday, which leads me to believe we didn't really do anything. If I come up with something important, I'll let ya know. :-)
Saturday I was NOT feeling good, which really sucked because we hadn't done anything to the house since Monday and I really wanted to be productive. I guess it wasn't meant to be since I just sat around all morning and afternoon. Well, technically I straightened up the house a little cause my parents were stopping by to see how the paint looked so far. And Anthony did work on priming the hall and entryway. Then we spent the evening watching my friend's toddler (they were at a wedding). He was so cute and such a good boy! (and no, they didn't care that I had a cold.)
Typical Sunday.

Today I am off of course because it is Monday again. And again, the list is endless. I think we want to get some more painting done but we are going to his grandparents again to cut grass this afternoon so I'm not sure how much will actually get accomplished. :-) We'll see. I won't bore you any longer. Off I go!

mood: awake

Today is my day off (for better or worse) and I have a list a mile long of things I want to get done. I almost don't know where to begin. Should I wash out the rest of the kitchen cupboards? Organize the study? Take my dress for Rachel's wedding to get altered? So many options, so little time!
The one bummer is that normally Tony has Mondays off, but because his co-worker is on vacation this week, he has to cover for her. However, I think we're hoping to get some painting done tonight. Don't quote me on that.
Oh, and it was crazy because last night I was up until after 3am. I should really stop taking 3 hours naps on Sunday afternoon and then having Starbucks at 9pm. At least I was able to sleep in.

mood: groggy

Family:
Dan, Jes, and Annabelle left this afternoon to head home after spending the past 9 days visiting. I already miss them and it sucks, but we had so much fun. We spent just about every spare moment with them and it was so great because Tony and I hadn't seen them since last Christmas (and we won't see them again until this Christmas). Twice a year is seriously not often enough. If only I were rich and could fly where ever I wanted, whenever I wanted. Sigh. (I could write a whole entry of all the stuff we did and good times we had...maybe later...) 

House:
It's coming. Dan and Jes wanted to help us with something, so Wednesday night we work on getting a coat of primer on the living room/dining room. It already looks better! They also helped us decide on a main wall color so now all we have to do it go buy it! Horray!
Now that we are done traveling for a little while and no planned company is coming in, we can get some projects knocked out...hopefully. :-)

Work:
All I will say is this is the WORST work week I think I have ever had in my entire life. Terrible. If we didn't need the money, I would have quit on Wednesday...and Thursday...oh, and Friday! Yeah, It was really that bad.

Pets:
Jet (my dog who lives with my parents) was limping around for about 4-5 days because (I think) he had gotten something on his paw and licked it raw. It was really sad to watch and I just wanted to make him lie down the whole day. He seems to be doing better now, so at least we don't have to take him to the vet.
Pippin had been very neglected since we have moved and I wouldn't be surprised if she starts a protest. I try to get her out in her ball every once and awhile and she always has food and water, but I feel bad. Poor Pippin.
So after saying that about my little hamster, I'll add that we really REALLY want a dog but as you can see we don't have time with all the house projects going on right now. Maybe by fall? I hope so!

Husband: 
I love him so much! We celebrated one year of marriage on June 21st! I seriously can't believe it. Time really does go by so fast. We were able to get away overnight at a really nice hotel about 1.5 hours from home and just relax and forget about life for 48 hours.

mood: nostalgic

I HAVE A KITCHEN FLOOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ok, that's all i wanted to say