Reconnection Weekend

Okay, it seems like this weekend was a weekend of reconnections for me. It was pretty nice, actually. Being home alone, it was nice to get out of the house and see people I haven't seen in years. I already told you about my dinner on Friday. Well then on Saturday I had another reconnection which was pretty random, actually, but I'm so glad it happened!

I was trying to work around the house on Saturday, but really I just kept getting sidetracked and ended up spending a lot of time on the computer. I was browsing Facebook and saw one of my "friends" on there mentioned she was hosting her first bunco night that night. I knew this girl in highschool. She was a freshman when I was a senior so we weren't super close or anything, but we were both in band and hung out. She went to the same college as me, but again, I was on my way out as she was on her way in so I only saw her a few times. Anywho, she mentions something about the fact she's an old married lady since she's playing bunco. Well. I've been playing bunco for years now, so I had to comment and let her know she was not alone! A couple hours later, I get a phone call from her! (my phone number is on my Facebook page...) She says she saw my comment and they actually still needed another player and wondered if I wanted to come play since she had seen that my husband was out of the country. Aww...how sweet! Bunco lover that I am, I of course said yes!

I get over there that night and turns out there were two other girls from her class in highschool that were there as well! It had been even longer since I had seen them. We had a really fun time playing bunco. Most of the people there had never played before or had only played once or twice (besides me, the master...) so it was quite entertaining. :o) And I might even play with them again if they're still short a player. And I will definitely be calling her up for our bunco night since we almost always need extra players.

Anyone else care to join us?

Catching up

The other night I mentioned that I was going to meet up with an old friend last night. Since John had to jet off to Brazil last minute, it ended up just being me, her, her husband, and their 9mo. old son. But let me tell you, it was fantabulous time!

H and I grew up together. We lived just down the street from one another. We played softball together, had classes together, practically lived at one another's houses when we were young. We stayed close for many, many years. Then our sophomore year of high school, I believe it was, her family moved from Texas to Minnesota where her dad was originally from. It was sad to see her go, but I knew it wouldn't be forever. We'd been too close over the years!

We corresponded here and there. Saw each other once or twice. But it was hard being across the country from each other, trying to live our own lives. A few years later we got a wedding invitation in the mail for her. I was so happy she had found a great guy and fell in love, but I knew after that it would be even harder to try to keep in touch.

Well, thank the heavens for internet, right?? She recently got a Facebook page and it just so happened that she was one of my "suggested friends" since we both had the same hometown. I was overjoyed to find her again! I thought about her a lot over the years and was so happy we could finally talk again! It was like 8 years hadn't passed at all.

She still has some family in the area so she sent me a message saying there were coming down for a visit this weekend and would I like to get together. Of course I would! That would be awesome! So we met up for dinner last night and spent a good two and a half hours catching up. I got to meet her husband, who is really a wonderful guy. I got to meet their son, who is just too cute for words! It was a great time and while I wish John would have been there to share it, it didn't make it any less special.

I gave her my blog address so she can keep up with me, so H, if you're reading, I'm soooooooooooooooo glad I got to see you!! And we will most definitely keep in touch!!

Sweet Corn Festival

Both of my parents are from Iowa. They moved to Texas in 1976 when my dad got a job down here so my entire life has been filled with trips back to Iowa. I believe my first trip up there I was 2 weeks old!

Anywho...in the town where my parents lived and my grandma still does, they have a Sweet Corn Festival every August. When we (my sister and I) were young, I think we came up to the Sweet Corn Fest every single year. It was awesome! Now, the town is like population 1000. It's tiny. We can walk from my grandma's house to town square (where they hold the festivities) in about 10 minutes, if that. It's a gorgeous, peaceful, sleepy little town and I love it!

But since the festival is held about mid-August, once my sister started high school (and therefore summer band about August 1st) we could no longer make it to the Sweet Corn Fest. I was about 11 years old the last time we were there.

For years now, I've been talking about wanting to go back for the Sweet Corn Festival. I mean, heck, John and I have been together for 9 years and he's never been! Well, this was the year we were FINALLY able to make it. And I am so glad that we did. My grandma's pushing 86 and has lots of health issues so it's quite possible this was her last festival. But tons of the family came in for it this year, and I think we made it really special for her.

We had an absolutely wonderful time. I even got John almost convinced to move to Iowa! Haha! I didn't take a TON of pictures, but I'll share a few here that I did take. Just another brief synopsis of our little trip to the Midwest. :o)

I had to take a picture of our SWEET rental we got. I'm definitely glad that John convinced me to upgrade. It was AWESOME!

Us, at the infamous Shuckfest. We helped shuck 17 TONS of corn that evening. How long did it take? About half an hour. Crazy, huh?? And yes, that is a corn necklace I'm wearing!

That Friday we went out on the Mississippi with some cousins and their friends for their annual Empty Koozie Day. 8 hours on the river. It was TONS of fun! As you can see we didn't make it back to the marina until almost sunset. So peaceful out there...

I thought this turned out to be a great picture of us. That's my super cute pearl snap shirt I got at Marshall's right before we left. Perfect outfit for a small town festival...I was just missing the cowboy boots! :o)

Every year at the Sweet Corn Festival my family has our annual "Axe Throwing Contest". Yes, you heard that right. Axe throwing. John was quite excited to compete in his first contest. In our family, we take our axe throwing quite seriously. :o)

Punta Cana!

Gorgeous, isn't it??

Okay, okay, so it's a tad overdue. What can I say? I been busy. What's important is I'm finally posting, right??

Here is a quick trip through our vacation to Punta Cana. Six days of blissful-ness with 2 awesome friends!

We snorkeled.

We rode horses.

We rode dune buggies...

...and got all muddy!

We played with monkeys.

Lounged by the pool.

Had dinner on the beach.

And, oh yeah, got henna tattoos! :o)

Fresh start.

Since I've been so swamped lately at work (and now have much more limited internet usage) and have been out of town so much, my Google Reader counter was through the roof! It said 1000+, but I'm sure it should have said like 2000+. I'm a little ashamed to admit it, but this evening I went through and just marked them all as read. I'm so sorry that I wasn't able to actually catch up on everything you guys have been posting in the past month, but I just needed a fresh start. I will be working quite diligently from now on to keep closer tabs on everyone and hopefully even start commenting again! Oh how I miss giving all my bloggy friends comments they all love to receive!

This is me, making a fresh start and I aim to be the best bloggy friend I can be!

Exciting news!

I got some exciting news from my husband a bit ago. Though I have no details what-so-ever. All I know is that he is no longer on the rotation for Brazil! So he won't be gone so much anymore! He won't be gone for 20 out of 30 days next month! I can say he is still on the project since he said he still may need to go down there for a few days for meetings, but that's all. But seeing as he sent me this info in a brief text, I have no other news about what actually prompted all this. So hopefully I can talk to him later and get the scoop, but for now I am a happy lady! Yay!

My Season

Okay, I had to steal this one. I love little quizzes like this. :o)

Your Soul Is Connected to the Fall

You are a somewhat sensitive soul with a tough exterior. You are street smart and wise about the world. You have the heart of a poet, but you're not too eager to let anyone else see it. You are very creative and deeply talented. You are still looking for the perfect outlet for your expression. You embrace change and think the cycles of life are beautiful. You don't shrink away from the darker elements of life.

What Season is Your Soul Connected To?

Now, I'm not completely sold that this is all true. I don't think of my self as very creative, but I do love the Fall!

Will it work? I sure hope so!

Like I’ve been saying for the last while, we’ve been reading The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People workbook at work. So far, we’ve been discussing our roles, goals, purpose in life…you know…deep stuff. While it's not really helping in making me more effective at work, it is having a positive effect (though not one that I want to share with my co-workers and my boss!).

Now, I don’t know if this would happen for everyone, but all this reading about what I want out of life and where I’m headed has really got me thinking about where I want to be in the future. And it sure isn’t at the job I’m at right now! :o)

This afternoon, I was reading through the next chapter to start preparing for our meeting tomorrow and I started putting a plan together for my life. The other day I talked about starting my own Etsy store. And with other recent events, I’ve decided on a plan that works great for me. (Now to just convince my husband!)

Here’s my plan:

Over the next few months, we’ll continue working on all those house projects we’ve got going on so that I can finally feel like I’ve moved into my house (2 ½ years later…). Once that’s all done, then I can really start to focus on making items that I would like to sell in my store. I can make more jewelry, practice my sewing, and maybe even come up with some new ideas! Then I can open my store. I’d like to get a few things made and start thinking of my pricing and policies and all that before I officially open up. But ideally, I’d like to open before the end of the year. That’s my goal. I’ll continue working at my current job and give up the new job search because ideally I’ll only have to keep working for another year or so. (That’s the last part of my plan) Once our first baby arrives (hopefully in the next year or so), I would like to then quit working my day job and have my only income coming from my store.

Now I know that my Etsy store won’t make me probably even a quarter of the amount I make right now, but I’m okay with that. I’d rather live more frugally than continue slaving away at a job I’m not super happy with all the while having some daycare raise my children.

What’s that old saying? “I’d rather be poor and happy than rich and miserable.” Or something along those lines. Hubby, of course, would rather be rich so he can spend bukoos of money and have all his “toys”, but we all know who runs the show around here. :o)

And hey, if hubby’s salary gets all the bills paid, maybe my little bit of extra on the side will be fine enough to keep us happy.

Now, I’m off to work a bit more on the guest room before I collapse into bed for the night.

I wish that I could write more, but with the new crackdown on the internet at work, it’s so much harder. Bare with me guys, I’ll try to post as often as I can!

When I say "can do"...

I guess I sure mean it!

Let me start by saying I had an awesome weekend. Want to know why? Because I made stuff happen this weekend! I'm super sore from it all, but it was worth it!

Friday after work I went to NY&Co to check out their BOGO free pants on tax free weekend with my $25 off $75 purchase coupon. I was a little disappointed, but I ended up leaving with a new pair of work pants, a new pair of jeans, and a new shirt for work. I was disappointed because they had some super cute button up shirts but I needed the torso of the XS and the arms of the S. Darn it. Stupid fat arms. After I got home, my mother and sister in laws came by and we all went to dinner. Then the hubby and I watched the last disc of Entourage Season 5 and called it a night.

Slept in a bit on Saturday, but after I got up, I went to work! I've been wanting to shampoo the carpets, but I had a lot of picking up to do before I could do that. I started in the guest room (because it had the fewest things to pick up). Once I got all the sheets off the bed (after my brother in law slept in there while watching our dogs) and picked up everthing off the floor, I decided that now was a better time than any to go ahead and paint the room! So I spent the rest of my Saturday painting. :o)

I still needed to shampoo the carpets, so after a pretty leisurely morning of blueberry muffins and 3 epsiodes of Royal Pains, I got back to work. I did any last paint touchups then put all the paint supplies away. Then I got to picking up things off the floor in the office (the main room needing shampooing since the dogs live in there). Since I was renting the shampooer from the grocery store, I worked on making a grocery list then hubby and I ran to the store, bought lots of food (I hadn't been to the store in a couple weeks) and after a minor mishap with the customer service booth, finally got the shampooer and got home. Hubby went to a soccer game with some guys from work so it was just me all evening. I cleaned the carpets in the office and upstairs hallway and the stairs. Ate my dinner, watched last week's Mad Men, then this week's, hubby got home and I went to bed completely and utterly exhausted.

Overall it was a great weekend. Hubby got the second doghouse almost completely built. He took down the fabric off the gazebo until hurricane season is over, and we got covers for our patio furniture and put those on.

I'm super pumped about my guest room. I can't wait until it's all put together and I can post some pictures for you guys. I can finally unveil my new bed set that I never put on! (and the matching curtains) I'm actually hoping to get a lot of it finished tonight, so keep your eyes peeled for an update!

Ah ha! It's genius! (I hope)

So my good friends Val and Bailey started thier own Etsy store. They've had a few sales so far, too! Well, I too, have always wanted to open my own business and Etsy seems like a great place to start. Granted, I'm nowhere near the point of opening anytime soon, but I had an awesome idea for what I could sell in my store this morning! I wanted to share with you guys to see if you think it's as brilliant an idea as I think it is. :o)

Let me take you back...

As you know, I have two bigs dogs. They both just turned 2 years old this summer so in the past 2 years we've gone through lots of toys/beds/carpet cleaner as they went through their peeing/chewing/eating stages. A while back I had bought 2 new crate beds for them. And if you have dogs, you know how expensive those bad boys are. I think for the both of them I spent almost $100 just on the crate beds. Crazy, right? Well, turns out Cocoa was not a fan of zippers, so she proceeded to eat the zipper off her bed and then started eating the foam out of the bed! (On a side note, she also ate the zipper off a big pillow of hers, too, which I proceeded just to sew shut instead.) Major, on the other hand, was fine with his bed, but he would have accidents every so often and pee on it. I of course just kept washing the bed lining and putting it back on the foam for Major's bed and just tried to keep Cocoa from eating anymore of the foam out of hers. These were expensive beds, I wasn't just going to throw them out! Well, after both beds got peed on, again, while we were out of town, I decided it was time to throw out the foam inserts, but I had plans for linings (since I just threw them in the washer and cleaned them up).

Val and Bailey have recently gotten me into doing more crafts so this past week I decided I was going to fix those two dog beds. I went out and bought new foam for both of them and bought some velcro to keep Cocoa's closed since she didn't like the zipper it originally had. (I'm also going to replace the sewn shut pillow opening with velcro so that it's easier to wash...) This morning, I went to work refurbishing them. I cut my new foam to fit Major's bed and stuffed it in the liner and that one was finished. Then I took the old zipper off Cocoa's and replaced it with velcro. Then cut the foam to fit that one, stuffed it, and presto! Two new beds! (basically)

WELL, the point of this story is, that while I was stuffing Cocoa's bed, I started thinking about how that foam is kind of expensive, but I was able to stuff two (pretty big) beds with one $16 roll. So, not too bad. That, of course, got me thinking...anytime I needed a new dog bed, why couldn't I just make my own? That's when the lightbuld went off! I could make homemade, custom even, dog beds and sell them in my store! (once I open the store...obviously...) They could be the same quality materials as the ones sold in the pet stores, but I know for a fact I could make them for way cheaper!

What do y'all think? Would it sell? Would people buy them??

And once I started thinking about that, I thought of all kinds of other things I could make to sell, too. Like aprons and other sewn things. I like to sew...I'd like to get better...but I like to do it. I have a sewing machine and a mother AND mother-in-law that are great sewers that could totally help me out in the learning department. How fun would that be??

I keep saying that I would love to stay home once we have kids, but I know that I'll get bored. (and my husband is worried about losing that extra income) I like to DO things. Maybe this could be my thing to do. I could stay home with the kids, while also making things for my store, and if people bought these things, I could also be making a little money on the side.

Would you buy something from my store? :o)

At a loss UPDATE

Okay, so you guys know that I've been a complete Indecisive Izzie lately. And I posted this for some advice. Thank you, Val, for your awesome comment! You bring up a totally good point. I do work for a good company (though some of their "rules" are really starting to grate on me) and I have some awesome co-workers. This post is mainly about the great people I work with.

With all the layoffs and such, we're down to just 3 estimators. The other two don't have quite as much going on as I do (partly because of the fact I've taken 8 days off in the past two months). Yesterday, I decided that I should go ahead and ask them if they could help me out with a few things to help me get caught up. I asked if someone would do a couple slabs for me. M responded that she had time and would do them. Then D came over a bit after that (since M had already gotten the slabs) and said if there was anything else I needed help with, he didn't have much going on and could help out. So I sent him a couple ECOs that I hadn't been able to get to yet. And because of that, I was able to finish my plan yesterday so I should be able to price it today (on time) and get my elevation done that I need to as well.

I am beyond grateful for these 2 people I work with. Selflessly offering to help me out when they're a little slow on work. I'm totally thinking of buying them lunch today because they're so awesome (and I won $20 at bunco last night!!).

I'm feeling much better about the situation. I really thought I would not be able to get all the things done I needed to do this week and on into next week. But with the help of my co-workers, I think it might actually happen. Maybe if I do actually get caught up on my work I will have that free time to work on bigger and better things. Maybe then I'll be more happy with my job. Maybe then I'll continue to show my boss that I'm a valuable team player. Maybe then (hopefully sooner than later) I can get promoted again (or promoted back up again). Wishful thinking for now, I know, because of this god-awful housing market, but hey, I'm looking on the bright side! I haven't done that in a while!

Goodness! 7:15am! I better ski-daddle before I'm late to a job I might like to keep afterall. :o)

Whoopsie Daisy

Yeah, I know I promised you guys a post about my wonderful trip to Iowa and then the aftermath of letting my little brother in law watch the dogs at our house for 6 days, but honestly, I'm just not feeling it tonight. Thankfully my eye hasn't been twitching quite as much today, but I'm still feeling quite stressed out and can't put my thoughts together well enough to write a decent recap of the events of the past week. Sorry. :o(

I've just got so much on my mind right now, (like this), it's hard to focus. I can't even tell if what I just wrote makes sense! Did it? Ah well...

At a loss

I could use some serious advice, y'all. I'm totally at a loss with my whole work situation. I'm sure, if you've been following my tweets, you know that I'm pretty unhappy with my job right now and have starting looking for something else. Well, being in the homebuilding industry, there's not a whole heck of a lot of opportunities out there right now, but I'm still looking. Even willing to take a pay cut to find something better. But that's beside the point. What I'm really at a loss with is what happened today at work. Here's the story:

I got back to work yesterday from vacation. I had a monitor so I was only in the office half the day and my boss was out the whole day so I didn't see him until today. Well, as usual, he calls me up about 10:30am and wants to see when we can meet to "go over some things". This is a weekly occurrence so I'm not too terribly concerned, but I am like completely overwhelmed with work at the moment so I'm really stressed about that and I know he's going to ask about it all. So I go in his office and he shuts the door. Uh oh. Now what?

He starts the conversation casually, per the usual...asks about vacation...how things are going. Then he starts in on what I've got going on. How do I feel about all this stuff. What can I do about it all. You know. Then he starts saying how he has been sensing that I'm getting frustrated and unhappy and overwhelmed and burnt out. Oh. Have I been that obvious? And he really wants to involve me in other things because I do great work and he values me as an employee and wants to see me grow...not fester. So I tell him that I would love to get involved in other things, but the responsibilities that make up my every day are really weighing me down and take up all my time and I don't have anything left to do anything else. And I don't know what to do about that. I can't not do my every day activities. I mean, I'm just at a loss. He wants me to do more, I want to do more, but I have too much other stuff in the way and no one else to pawn it off on.

Then I also start feeling a little guilty because he was completely right about me being frustrated, unhappy, overwhelmed and burnt out. I'm looking for a new job because of that yet here he is telling me he doesn't want me to go anywhere...he'd rather us work together to make a plan that will free up more of my time to do other things I'd rather be doing.

Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!

The kicker? So they just did this crack-down on internet using while I was out and sent out the report to all the managers about how much time people are spending on the internet and where they're going. Well, apparently, my time on the internet was like double other people's time who have to be on the internet all day as part of their job...AND I have sites like blogs and such. And he didn't even get on to me about it! Just told me to "be more cognizant" about how much time I spend. Really?? Now I feel even more awful! Here I am wasting time being totally unhappy and all he can do is tell me how great I am and how much I mean to the company. Great.

So? What am I supposed to do with this??

Peeved...

So I had this whole big new blog post to write today about our trip. Well, then I get to work to find we have been banned from the Internet at work except for "work related" business. Soooooo, doesn't look like I'll be getting that post done too soon since I'm typing this one on my phone and it's really difficult to do! Sorry guys! At least I am back from vacation and I had a great time. I'll try to post more later tonight!

New addresses

So, I'm making a new attempt to go a little more incongnito. You know, for the sake if the wrong people find the wrong things in my writings. SOOOOO I've updated my blog address and changed my twitter name. You can now find my blog here: journalingjules.blogspot.com and my new twitter: twitter.com/Texagjules.

I'll also quit referring to my family by name, but I have yet to come up with some good nicknames. So until then, I might just be referring to my husband as "my husband" or "hubby"...you get the picture. :o)

I'm also taking opinions on my new blog address, twitter name, and family nicknames! Just leave me a comment!

In his absence.

Now that my husband is off flitting about the world for 2 weeks at a time, I'm finding that I'm becoming way more independent. Don't get me wrong, I'm way happier when he IS home, but while he's gone, life still must go on and I may have to take on roles I wouldn't normally when he is at home. But so it seems, that I actually tend to get MORE done when he's GONE. Is that terrible? Case in point:

One side of our fence has been leaning slightly since the hurricane. John's been talking the past few months about just going ahead and hiring someone to come re-level it. Never actually happened. So when the neighbor brought it up again the other night (after I had already noticed it was leaning even FURTHER) I decided I HAD to do something about it. And since I work for a homebuilder, I have connections to fence people like that. (Score 1 for Julie!) Talked to my friend in Purchasing, got the fence guys number, and called him up and let him know what we needed. He went by the house and took a look, called back and said it would cost about $150-$200 (Score 2 for Julie for getting homebuilder pricing!), and they could be out to fix it on Monday. My reply, "Sounds GREAT." So after months of talk about getting the fence fixed, who comes to the rescue and finally gets someone to come do it, within the week, no less?? Yep, that would be me. (Score 3 for Julie for being so AWESOME! Haha!)

I mean, even the trash and recycling get taken out more consistently when it is I alone who must get the job done. While it is nice to delegate jobs to my husband, I'm coming to learn that said job gets done in much more timely fashion if I just take care of it myself. HOWEVER, I will not keep doing EVERYTHING around the house when my husband is at home. Oh no. He will soon learn to start doing the things I ask of him on MY time rather than his own and we will have much more harmony around our house. We've gotten to the point where we can't just keep "talking" about doing things. We have to start "doing" them.

Being more independent lately, I have become a "can do" lady! I will no longer make excuses for things I have not done. I'll just DO them!

I'm feeling so empowered! Maybe this feeling will get me through the rest of this miserable day at work!! :o)

So stoked!

As the day wore on yesterday, I more and more felt like NOT going to CardioSalsa class last night. I had promised myself that I would only skip class if I had a really good reason. Well, I convinced myself that watering the lawn, updating our budget for July, signing up for the 5k next weekend at the Sweet Corn Festival and walking the dogs was way more important than class. And yay for me for actually doing ALL of those things over the course of the evening! I watered the entire backyard which has been so thirsty. Got the budget done for July. Got the forms filled out for the 5k and put in the mail. Even walked the dogs for half an hour. (It was 9:45pm before we went for that walk, but hey, we still did it)

So what am I totally stoked about? Our budget! July was pretty darn crazy. John was in Brazil until a few days before we left for our vacation. Then we had vacation. Then John left for Brazil again just a week and a half after we got home. I don't think we had one completely normal week the entire month. So I was a little nervous to update our spreadsheet with July's results. After downloading our bank and credit cards statements, and making sure I entered in every last transaction, I was actually quite surprised by the results. Turns out we only spent $100 more than we took in during our crazy month of July...but that isn't even the truth. See...that's figuring in the entire $1200 we took out in cash for vacation. We still have about half of that left over in cash that I never put back in the bank because John took most of it to Brazil (but he gets reimbursed for that through work so it doesn't really count as being spent). So in reality, we probably spent about $500 LESS than what we brought in. After a super crazy month, I thought that was absolutely fantastic! We've had a surplus in our budget the past few months that I had yet to transfer to savings because I knew July would be crazy so I wanted it in checking "just in case", but after all was said and done, we have all of that surplus still left over! So that makes me really happy to know we didn't blow a whole bunch of extra money in one month!

Yeah, I know, it's not a particularly exciting post, but it was exciting to me so I just had to share! :o) Thanks for reading!

That long, huh?

Oh my good grief! I totally did not realize that I haven't posted in over a week! I'm sorry guys. I've been a complete mess since John's been gone this time. I don't know why this trip seems so different than the others, but it feels longer and I'm having a lot harder time with him being away. I've also been crazy busy.

My sister-in-law has been in Pittsburgh all summer on an internship and she came home the past two weekends so I've been doing things with the in-laws since she's been home. She's getting married next May and I'm a bridesmaid so the weekend before last we went to the big Bridal Extravaganza. That was fun. Then this past weekend we went and saw Harry Potter on Saturday and had a nice dinner for her fiance's birthday. Then on Sunday, the venue they're getting married at, the same as where John and I were married, was having an open house with lots of vendors so we went to that to visit with different vendors so she can start to find a florist, photographer, etc. She's trying to get a lot done sooner than later because her fiance is off to Pittsburgh next month to start his job while she comes home for her last semester and then heads to Pittsburgh herself in January...then back home for the wedding in May.

Oh, and my mother-in-law is making not only her wedding dress, but also the bridesmaid dresses. Guess what we both realized last week? More than likely, I'll be pregnant by the time the wedding comes around! So we'll have to wait until last minute to make my dress. And they're even looking at some different patterns than what they already have so that maybe she can find a nice dress she likes that has an empire waist, which would be better fitting on a pregnant lady. :o)

So I've hardly been home the past two weekends. And each night during the week I've been trying to work around the house (as I'm the only one there to work on it). Our house has been an absolute PIGSTY as of late. It was starting to totally gross me out. So I've been steadily working on that. Plus trying to work on the yard as well. I think I mentioned we finally got some new grass laid in the backyard and since it's been so freaking dry, I've had to remember to water the lawn every day when I get home. And the chinch bugs are killing our grass in the front yard so I went the other night and got some yard bug killer and spread that out last night and watered it in. Then come to find out that our fence is now starting to lean even more than it was after the hurricane so we REALLY need to get that taken care of soon. Thankfully while I was outside yesterday, the neighbor came out and mentioned the fence to me, which I had also noticed this week and she offered to help fix it...whatever we need from them. They're nice neighbors. I told her I was planning on talking to our Purchasing guy here at work to see if I can get one of our fence vendors to come out and fix it for a discount. I need to get on that.

Oh my! See what happens when I'm gone for so long?? I just keep talking and talking!! So sorry guys. And I haven't even mentioned work yet!! Okay, okay, I'll save that for another post. :o) And now my lunch is over and I've got to get back to work. Thanks for hanging in there and I hope to start getting back to more routine posting. John comes home Sunday, so that will help. Well...except for the fact that we're heading out on another vacation on Wednesday. To Iowa we go for the Sweet Corn Festival. Oh, it will be so much fun!

Oh yeah...I was leaving...right.