Happy happy joy joy!

I’m not sure exactly why, but I am in just a terrific mood this morning! So of course, I just had to share with you guys! Aren’t I the sweetest? Really, there could be numerous reasons for my gleefulness this morning…

It might be because I am so proud of my doggies. Yesterday, it was (supposed to be) raining and storming all day long. I really didn’t want to have to put the dogs outside in that kind of weather. They would be miserable and covered in mud when I got home! So, for the first time ever, I left them inside. OUT of their crates (which we’ve broken down and stored away). For the ENTIRE day. Now, I did contain them to the upstairs hallway, like we do at night, but still. I was very nervous to what I would come home to. Well, I got home, let them outside then went up to survey the damage. Or rather, LACK THERE OF!! No damage at all! They didn’t try to eat their pillows. They didn’t chew on the furniture. They didn’t even pee on the carpet!! Oh, I was but ecstatic! I even gave Major a hug. (He’s a good hug giver) And while they were cooped up all day and all night yesterday, they were still perfect little angels this morning as I got ready for work. I love my dogs. They’re the greatest!

You know, my good mood most certainly could be from the fact that I went to Bunco last night, at my mom’s house, with my best friend. It’s actually been a while since my best friend, B, and I have had some just us time. And it was great. She got me all up to speed on her pregnancy. Her new pictures. Her new due date. Her eating rules. What they’ve started picking out for baby. It’s all just so exciting! While I didn’t win anything at bunco, (though B did!) it was a great relaxing night with a fun group of ladies. And I definitely need that every once in a while.

Really, it could just be the weather that makes me so giddy. We had a cool front come through yesterday and I woke up to 52 degrees this morning! BRRRRR!!! The sky is crystal clear blue today with the most perfect cool breeze. I even wore a long sleeve shirt to work! I L-O-V-E this weather. That alone can put the hugest smile on my face! Though it would be even more perfect if I, you know, didn’t have to work. But hey, we take what we can get, right?

Also, I finally started rereading Twilight (again)!! Though I'm only two chapters into it so far, just the fact that I'm reading it again makes me smile.

Now, my last reason, is, well, a little controversial. I’ve been debating whether to post it. But I figured y’all would have the best advice, so here goes. I’m actually in a good mood partly because my husband is out of the country. Now, please don’t take this the wrong way. Let me explain. I love my husband dearly and I am sad when he’s away, but he’s been sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo super stressed lately and he’s bringing all this bad stressful energy home. I’ve been trying very very hard lately to simplify and declutter and relax my life. I stress out too easily. Even though he’s got about 1000 times more stress than I do, he’s not trying very hard to rectify the situation. And really, his stress and bad energy just ends up bringing me down with him. I try my hardest to get him to see the light and make changes, but he just doesn’t. And so, while he’s away, I feel so much…lighter. Like I can breathe again. It really does break my heart to see him like this. Who knows what I can do to help him out?? I want to be able to have these wonderful, carefree, happy feelings when he’s at home!! I want us to be happy and carefree and relaxed TOGETHER! Help a girl out??

Okay, okay…I really do need to get some work done today! I truly hope that all of you are having a super wonderful fantastic Friday!

Random thoughts on this Tuesday eve

Hey all! Have a good Tuesday? Mine was okay, I guess. Work is totally kicking my butt. We have way too much going on for just the two of us to handle right now. It's ridiculous. But good news, my boss is hoping to give a guy an offer this week (as long as his background check comes up clean) so while it will be another 3 months of training for said new guy before he'll be able to help lighten our load, I'll be happy that the position is filled at least.

I have successfully kept my Google Reader at "0" for two whole days now!! That's like, amazing! Now, the amount of work that was sacrificed to keep it like that? Well, we just won't mention that right now. I've been able to read all the posts, but I still haven't been able to comment as much as I'd like. Eh, I'll get there. Y'all understand, I know.

In "oh, by the way" news, Ward will be heading off to Brazil tomorrow night. And he just found out today. Love the way that works. But good news is he'll be back Saturday morning so it's a short trip. Also means he'll actually be home this weekend, which he wasn't originally. He was supposed to leave Friday night to go to the Auburn vs. LSU game with his boss, but now he won't be able to go to the game and he'll have to stay home with me. :o)

I went to my workout class this evening and I am REALLY happy that I did. I've been feeling kind of down and out a bit lately, and haven't really felt like working out, but as soon as we got going and I started groovin' with the music, I suddenly felt so much better! It's so true about exercise lifting your mood.

So, while I am starving since Ward's ribs he's BBQ-ing are taking for-ev-er, I'm in a great mood tonight! I think I'll go peruse cafepress.com some more and find me an awesome Team Edward shirt to wear to the New Moon premier. :o)

Speaking of meatballs

Oh wait. I didn't actually mention the meatballs in that last post, did I? Okay. Well. So...meatballs...

Last night for dinner I made spaghetti and meatballs. We don't normally have meatballs with spaghetti, but the new Kraft Food & Family had a super easy recipe so I decided to give it a try.

I tell you what. Those were some super easy AND super delicious meatballs! I might have to find more things to eat with meatballs just so I can make them more often! And here is the recipe so you can find out how fantabulous they are!

Meatballs

2lb ground beef
1 box Stove-Top stuffing for chicken
1 1/4c water
2 eggs

Heat oven to 400. Line 2 baking sheets (I used jelly roll pans) with foil and spray with Pam.

Combine all ingredients. Shape 1/4c into meatballs. (I did smaller and made 36 instead of the 32 it called out) place half on each baking sheet.

Bake for 16-18 min or until done. Combine half with a sauce for dinner. Let other half cool completely then freeze for next time!

Oh, and if you don't subscribe to Food & Family, get your butt over to kraft.com and sign up! It's completely free and has tons if great recipes!!

Enjoy!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

A few more steps

You know I'd been feeling pretty down about my lack of accomplishments lately. Well, I am feeling quite a bit better on that front. Yesterday I was able to get all the clothes washed, I cleaned the kitchen, I swept the floors, and I washed our towels. The only thing I didn't get to was changing my sheets, but hey, it's a start, right? And tonight I even mowed the lawn again!

The only reason I'm not feeling so great is because my husband had to go back to Brazil last night. So I'm home alone again this week. It's really starting to get lonely around here. But at least I have a cleaner house to be lonely in, I guess. I'm trying to keep busy though. Like tonight, with mowing the lawn. My workout class starts tomorrow. Wednesday a friend invited me over for dinner, but I would have gone to the library if she hadn't. Thursday is Bunco. I invited a couple friends over for a girls night in on Friday. And then I'll clean more on Saturday in anticipation of hubby coming home Sunday morning. So I'm trying to stay busy, but I'm still in a funk.

You know, I don't think I would feel so down when he's away if I were enjoying my job. It is seriously a struggle just to get through each day. At this point, I think I'm way beyond "burnt out". And I just don't know what to do. I started working on a couple new projects and I was excited about it...doing something new and different...but then I got a new plan to work on. I am just so tired of estimating. Which pretty much sucks since I'm a Senior Estimator. Don't get me wrong, I like working, I like my coworkers, I love the money. But I just can't stand the work I'm doing right now. And with this economy, it's highly unlikely that I'll be able to move to any new position in the near future. So I am stuck. And I don't know what to do about it. How do you struggle through the work day but still try to put on a happy face for your boss? It's becoming increasingly difficult and I just don't know how much longer I can keep up the charade before I just lose it. Hopefully until after Christmas so I can make sure all our holiday spending is covered. :o)

Sorry for the pretty uninteresting post. I tend to write pretty blandly when I write at night. Like I said the other day, I have so much more interesting things to write about when I'm at work, but don't get the chance to write them before I forget what I was going to say. So, I'll try to do better, but just try to bare with me while I work it all out.

I'm going to go let the dogs out to potty now and try to go to sleep. It's so much harder to sleep when I have to do it alone...

One step forward, two steps back.

Do y'all remember way back when I had become domesticated? Um, yeah...about that... I feel like that was ages ago right now. Um, what's the opposite of domesticated?? I'm afraid I must confess a few things.

Shhh...

I'm a good 5 or so loads of laundry behind. Poor hubby had to wear grey socks with his khakis and brown shoes today. I haven't cleaned the kitchen in, oh, 2 weeks, maybe. Haven't swept in about the same amount of time. Haven't changed my sheets in probably a month.

Good lord.

I sound like such a slob!! I promise I'm not that bad. I'm usually such a clean freak, too. On the up side I did mow the lawn last week and I put a load of laundry in this evening. ::needing a little reassurance here::

Wow, actually writing it all down like this makes me feel even worse about it. Well, poo. Okay, okay. I need an intervention! Unfortunately it won't get a whole lot better real soon. We'll be going down to the beach house on Saturday with hubby's mom to meet with the contractor who's doing some work on it. There goes at least half the day. Then hubby leaves again for Brazil Sunday night and will be gone another week. I seriously need to start planning out my evenings so I can clean up this mess of a house. I would be sooooooooooo embarrassed if a friend or family member happened to stop by and I had to let them into my house looking like this. Ugh.

And on that note, I am going to go start cleaning the kitchen now.

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)

I've been domesticated.

I’ve been feeling quite domestic lately. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’ve always been the one to cook and clean and do laundry and all that, but they’ve always been “chores”. Things I had to do. But lately, it’s more a need, a want, even. I want to cook a nice dinner every night with my husband. I want to do all the laundry so we can walk in the bathroom. I want to make the bed so it’s look nice and pretty when I get ready to go back to sleep. I want to sweep the floor instead of continuing to ignore the crackle of dirt against the tile under my shoes. I want to vacuum the carpet instead of refusing to believe that it’s covered in dog hair that I can’t see. I want to put things away where the go so the house is always tidy.

What’s happened to me?

John was gone Thursday-Saturday at a fishing tournament so I thought, great! I’ll have all this time to clean and read and the house will be spotless when he returns on Sunday. Saturday rolls around and I realized there really wasn’t that much for me to do! I did have lots of laundry, so I worked on that. I hadn’t vacuumed our room in a while, so I did that. I changed the sheets. I swept the floors downstairs. But other than that, which obviously didn’t take too much time since I was still able to read about 1200 pages in two books over the weekend, I didn’t have much else to do around the house. I had picked up and straightened a lot last weekend and I realized that I had kept the house tidy like that all week! That usually never happens!! But I was quite pleased with myself. That’s how I want to live! I want to keep the house straightened all week so I have less work to do on the weekends.

Could this have to do with the fact that we want to start expanding our family sometime soon? Preparing myself for baby, when I’ll have even less time for all my housely duties? Well, whatever the reason, I like it. I like knowing that if someone randomly stopped by to say hello, I wouldn’t be completely embarrassed for them to come in! And I sure as heck plan to keep it that way!

Yep, we're talking about bras...

I wore one of my new bras today. One of the new ones I had to buy a size smaller. A size smaller because of the 7 pounds I’ve lost and my (non-existent) boobs are the first to go. :o( The great news is the new bra fits great. Actually fits. The bad news? Do you know how hard it is to find size 32 bras?? I mean, really. I had no idea. Sorry I have such a small ribcage...geez. I know I'm not the only one!!

While shopping at Kohl’s (which I thought had a pretty good selection before) I wound up with only 4 options. I didn’t like 2 of them. Luckily one of the ones I found and liked was on clearance (only $6!!) and there were two of them. So I ended up getting 3 new bras, but two are identical since I really had no other choice. It was quite disappointing. But, on the bright side, I now have 3 new bras that actually fit me, which is a nice change.