little ones

Well, spring break is flying by so fast. I have cleaned my house a little, made delicious whole wheat cinnamon swirl bread,

and now I am at my mom and dad's house and much to my delight there is talk of fishing this afternoon! :) I love coming home. Don't get me wrong, I have much enjoyed building a little love nest in Perkins, but it is not the same feeling you get when you come home to the house you grew up in. I love watching my husband and my parents talk and laugh, I love playing games (we love Pit, Apples to Apples and Bunco!), and I have the extra special delight of watching my oldest nephew have his 11th birthday party (though his birthday is not until the 26th)! Now, I do not normally play favorites, but Jace is the best kid in the world. My sister and her husband are truly blessed and lucky to have such a fantastic kid. We will also get to attend the 5th birthday of my husband's nephew this weekend! He is a great kiddo as well! I love my nieces and nephews! Jace, Journie, Dannie, Maizzie, Alex, and new baby Anistyn...I am so proud to be your aunt!!! :)

On the knitting front, I have finally conquered my fear of dpn's thanks to the encouragement of biomaj5 (my bestie). I am actually making progress on my fair isle endpaper mitts too! It is tricky and it requires a lot of paying attention, but I am really proud and will be so excited to wear them! I am also working on an ipod cozy just to practice my dpn technique.

ipod cozy

my fair isle progress! I'm so proud :)

Well, have a fantastic day, and if I happen to catch a fish I will post a pic! Light and Love :)

Finally some peace!

Well, it has been an incredibly long time since my last little visit here. Since then I have had many things going on! School is keeping me very busy, I found the root of my anxiety problem and my husband and I just might be moving! I am dangerously close to completing my first year in RadTech program and I can't wait to be done so I can actually make some money instead of spending it! I really love the work and the hospital I am at. I get to help people feel better and use all the anatomical knowledge I amassed during my undergrad degree. It can be stressful but I am quite happy with it. Now, the next item is very important: Zyrtec was causing my horrible anxiety I am quite certain. I was doing research for a school project and found a site (I will post a link later) that ordinary people can list side effects of otc drugs they are taking. Hundreds of people wrote that zyrtec (and it's generic counterparts) was causing them moderate to sever anxiety and depression, especially in children and young adults! Not to mention that many listed weight gain and failure to shed pounds as a side effect also! Not that I'm trying to blame all my problems on my allergy meds, but DANG! So I have kicked the zyrtec habit and now I feel much better! I don't constantly feel like I am on the verge of a panic attack. It is great! I have yet to see much of a difference in the weight department but that is probably due to my diet as of late. Sadly I have not been a good girl all the time! LOL Well, moving on, my husband is thinking about applying for a new job in ADA! YEA! So if all goes well, we could be living an hour from my parents! Only thing is, we would have to deal with being a commuter couple for a while and I'm a little scared about that. Well, I must go study for yet another test! Alas! It seems like it never ends! Have a fantastic day! :)

Let the painting begin!!!!

So, I finally started back up on painting the house. We live in a lil trailer. It was made around...1976? As you can probably guess it needs a facelift to say the least. My in-laws actually own it and graciously let us stay there rent free, however, it does not meet my style requirements...not yet! I already revamped the master bathroom and it looks WORLDS BETTER! When I moved in with DH the bath tub/shower didn't even work and neither did the toilet. Now? New floor, new toilet, new shower head, paint, and a shower curtain later we have a cute fully functioning bathroom. Not to mention we stopped the leak in the wall between the master bath and master bed rooms (and replaced the wall and floor and carpet) so we no longer have an indoor mushroom patch. Yes, you read correctly, we had mushrooms growing IN OUR HOUSE. I was so mortified I cried. Leave it to DH to fix everything. :) Now I'm just doing cosmetic work and can't quite decide what color to paint our master bedroom. I kind of want a Mediterranean/Italiano vibe so I was thinking a tan/gold shade? I will be picking out colors this weekend. On my day off yesterday I managed to paint the little laundry area an off white and WOW what a difference it made!!!! The space looks cleaner and brighter and surprisingly much bigger. I can't wait to do the living room and kitchen...uggg the kitchen. My mother in law chose to put up wall paper. Now, I know wall paper can be cute, but it is NOT my taste or style. She chose off white wall paper with little apples all over it. I hate the wall paper. I can not wait to paint over it. Since my kitchen is done in lemons and limes, I was thinking a soft to springy yellow. Did I mention that in the 1970's it was super popular to put up that tacky wood paneling in trailer houses? I vomit every time I look at my own walls. LOL I will post a before and after pic of the laundry area soon. Hopefully master bed or kitchen follow SOON. LOL See ya later and may The Lord Bless you this day! :)

Snow! Snow! Snow! Let there be snow! It has snowed and flurried at my house! It looks all pretty outside! I'm sure you all know what snow means: everyone is driving like idiots, hurring to the stores, and buying up all the milk and bread. LOL Since it is ever so cold out, be sure to check on your pets!!! My lil buttheads are snug inside...I may go home to a destroyed house! LOL This brings me to my blog point of the day: people who don't care for their dogs make me want to punch them in the nuts.

I have long been an avid dog (and all other creatures) lover. Dogs are much better people than people. They are eternally forgiving, superbly resoursful, and fiercly loyal. I can not identify with people who just see dogs as basically decor or accessories. I know serveral of these alleged "dog lovers" who basically collect the breeds they like and then get bored and discard them to the back yard or simply give it away like it is last year's fasion or even worse: dump them in the country on a deserted road leaving them waiting, hoping that the master they loved so much will come back for them. Dogs usually don't survive the latter choice. They get hit by cars, starve, or worse fall vitim to even crueler intentions of passers by.

I have two dogs. I didn't necessarily choose either one. They chose me, or rather fate chose us to be a family. I could not love my dogs more, even if I had hand picked them from pure bred litters and paid a fortune for them. Hank is a (suspected) border collie. He is the love of my life (sorry DH LOL) and my constant companion. He was dumped in my hometown near my parents' house and was starving to death and had a horrific case of worms so what little he did eat was useless. He had no collar, his feet were bleeding because of all the walking on black top he was doing. I'm prettty sure he is pure bred. Someone paid a lot of money for him, then I suspect got frustrated with his extreme energy and just turned him loose. He is smart. Really smart, but EXTREMELY...I will use the word "enthusiastic". Border collies are not for the faint at heart. They are high energy dogs that need a strong leader: and by strong I DO NOT mean hitting, I mean strong like a good mom (the "child" listens bc they trust you and like to get praise!). Hankie's only fault is herding cats. He LOVES cats. Every other "bad habit" was broken in a few weeks by redirection and lots of exercise...BONUS: HE CAME HOUSE TRAINED!!!!

The point of my rambling? Research. Research. Research before you get a dog. Don't buy a yorkie if you want a "jogging partner". Don't buy a Great Dane if you live in a one bedroom apartment. And don't buy a high energy breed if you are the world's biggest couch potato. In fact, don't buy a dog at all!!!! Yep you read correctly. Don't buy a dog. Rescue one!! Thousands of dogs (and cats!!) are in your area needing a good home! The best parts about adopting? Most are house trained, nearly all of them are vet checked and "fixed" (they get shots, wormed, heartworm checked and spay/neutered!!! which saves you a lot of $$$$) and...an adopted dog knows when they have been rescued by a good mom/dad! A rescued dog will bond to you and love and appreciate you more than you could imagine! :)

ready for commitment

Ok, so I decided that since we are going on our honeymoon in December this year, (yes I know that is more than a year after our wedding but time and money were a luxury at the time and work/school schedules won't allow us one until then...sigh) I have finally decided to take getting back in shape a lot more seriously. I have been doing really good on the food part: eating lots of veg, no soda, just a few sweet snacks (and those I made homemade so I know exactly what is in them!) even my Hubby has been doing ok! Even though I have made strides in the nutrition department, I still do not workout consistently. So, I'm gonna go check out the Wii fit games and the workout dvd's this afternoon. I love workout dvd's. They used to keep me in such great shape. I just got lazy. Well, no more! I am ready for a commitment, to myself. Bring it on oversized tush! I'm ready to kick you! ;) have a great day!