Breathe...

I know, I know. It's been a month since I've blogged. Life's crazy hectic.

I don't even know what to say right now. Between working 35 hours a week and being in school for 12, and then homework on top of that, I don't have time to wash dishes, much less blog. Jarrod and I see each other for somewehre between 5 minutes and an hour on most days (with the exception of every third day, when I don't see him at all.)We are just learning to enjoy what time we have together, and to take life a day at a time. I make myself to a few chores every day so the house isn't completely trashesd, but there just aren't enough hours in the day for it to stay clean. And the remodeling? Ha! Maybe we might work on it over Christmas?  Life will slow down eventually.Looking forward to the days when we just have jobs, not school too.

Classes for both of us are going well. I am going to be doing a lot of observation this semester. I can't wait to see how that will fit into the schedule, but I will worry about that when the time comes. Jarrod is doing well too, and he got really good remarks on his evaluation today. He was so excited.

I am learning to like my new job. Let's just say the adjustment was rocky. And that's putting it very mildly. I've gotten to be a pretty good sales girl, and I like the girls I work with. I can handle it for a while anyway.

This blog is so all over the place. I thought about editing it, but I think I'll leave it. All over the place describes me right about now. I am more scatterbrained than ever, and I catch myself doing something stupid multiple times throughout the day (which makes me wonder how many stupid things I do that I don't  catch). I will probaly lose my mind one of these days. Just be prepared.

Sentimentality always gets the best of me

Yesterday was a complete whirlwind. Early in the morning, after I had just gotten to work, my boss approached me about other places I could apply, since after two weeks I still had heard nothing from Samuel's. At that point, it hadn't really hit me that I probably wasn't going to get that job, but it seemed to be clear to other people. I was embarrassed and confused. I had already applied at two other places, and they hadn't even arranged an interview. I didn't know what to do. I decided if I didn't hear anything about the job that day, I would call them myself.

Not even two hours later, I got a call from Samuel's. They want to see me in person. So I arranged to go down on my lunch break, assuming it was good news.  I told my boss where I was going, and he seemed excited for me. When I walked in, the manager was standing there with a stack of paperwork, asking one question after another, the stream of questions ending with "when can you start?" "When do you need me to start?" I asked. "Thursday." So I filled out a hundred pieces of paper, met the other girls, took a tour around the shop, and headed back to the office to break the news that I would only be working there for two more days.

I am a very sentimental person by nature. Before my freshman year of college, I walked around for days thinking "this is my last time to wake up and eat breakfast in my mom and dad's house," "this is my last time to have a sleepover at my mom and dad's house," and so on. It gets ridiculous.

This is no different. The funny thing is, I did not think I was attached to this job. It certainly isn't something I want to do forever. The people are so nice to me,  but we don't really talk during the day. Everyone just kind of minds their own business, and I sit on my computer pretending to be busy. Still, today when I walked in and said hi to everyone I couldn't help thinking "this is my last time to say good morning to my coworkers." and now it's getting ridiculous. A few minutes ago I thought, "this is my last cancellation notice to send to a client."

I am very excited to start my new job, and I am not really sad that I won't be working here anymore. I think I'm just nervous. This place is easy, and it's safe. The pay is steady, the schedule is predictable, and the people are understanding. I don't know what to expect with the new job. The pay is much better, and I'll be making more hours, so that's what I'm trying to focus on right now. I will be nervous tomorrow, but I hope I will enjoy it. Change is always hard for me, but I think this change will be good.

3 months in

I've been married now for almost three months. There were some living-together adjustments: deciding on a wet towel protocol, learning to share a full sized bed, attempting to synchronize sleep schedules, and a few minor marriage stressers: living in a construction zone, cram packed schedules (both of us are students who have full-time jobs), budgets. But I can honestly say that I am grateful for every minute. I have learned so much about myself and Jarrod during these three months. We don't feel like two separate people anymore. I absolutely could not imagine life without him.

Very few things about this marriage are what I thought they would be, but I don't mind a bit.
Things that surprised me:
1. Jarrod likes to cook! He helps me when I'm making dinner, and sometimes he even makes dinner by himself. This is where the domesticity stops though, the boy won't clean for anything. (That part didn't surprise me in the slightest.)

2. I don't miss him all the time. I was so worried I would be lonely when he was at the fire station, but I am grateful for that time. I get to see my friends without feeling guilty, like I should be home. I also have time to do some uninterrupted housework. And I love the morning when he gets off shift, when he comes home and wakes me up. Such a great way to start my day.

3. I always want to be home. This has never described me before in my entire life. I have always wanted to be going and doing things all the time. Now, home is my favorite place in the world. Sitting on the couch with Jarrod and Clara is as content as I could possibly be.

4. I want a baby. Now. This one is hard to explain. I know I don't need a baby. My schedule would not work well with a baby's, and we are not financially ready. I understand this fully, and I don't want to bring a baby into the world feeling that way. That said, anytime I see a baby, hear someone talk about babies, or walk past the baby clothes section at a store, all I can think about is how BADLY I want to be a mommy. I have wanted it my whole life and now it's actually something I could do...and it's so, so hard to wait. I already have names for 2 girls and 2 boys, and I have resisted the urge to buy baby clothes with fire trucks multiple times. They are just too stinkin' cute! Jarrod and my mother would appreciate me stifling this little obsession for a while, so I suppose I will.

Pet Peeves

In case anyone ever gets mad at me, and wants to upset me, I'm about to give you a list of things you might want to try. This list brought on by my favorite (not so much) customer who just walked in and committed pet peeve#1, but I have seen all three multiple times this week.

Pet Peeve #1: Calling random people pet names. If I don't know you, I'm not your "sweetie," or in this customer's case, "hun." Pet names are especially annoying in professional situations i.e. paying an insurance bill.  It's degrading and uncomfortable. If you are a teacher of small children or an old southern woman, you have immunity to this rule.

Pet Peeve #2: Sharing much too personal information on facebook, especially your facebook status. I have one facebook friend in particular who does this all the time. I haven't seen her since high school, and yet I know every detail of her love life. Statuses are not for discussing relationship woes or financial hardships, and they are certainly not for name calling.

Pet Peeve #3: Mothers who yell at or spank their children in public. I don't know why people are so mean to their kids. Most of the time when I see this one, the kids don't even get a warning. Moms just automatically yell at them, call names, and make threats. It's one thing if you've already warned them and they refuse to stop, but please go to the bathroom or your car or something. When you stop writing your check to spank the kid right in front of me, it just makes things awkward. And I can only imagine what the kid is feeling. Poor little guy...


Whew. I feel better. I know I'm not the only one who feels this way. I promise by the next post, I will have regained my positive outlook on life. I hope everyone has a lovely weekend!

Change is good, right?

Well, I have some exciting news. (I'm not pregnant, chill out.) I am getting a new job. I don't know where yet. As much as I love the people here, I can't be somewhere that doesn't let me work evenings and weekends (which ironically was a major factor in deciding to work here in the first place--nights and weekends off). I have classes in the morning and the afternoon, and I figured out that if I stay here all the way through college, I would eventually be bringing home about 30 dollars a week. That won't work. So, I have been weighing options.

Waiting tables- pros: TIPS, lots of hours available
                        cons: probably have to work every-or most- Sundays, stressful, could be coming home after midnight on a week night

Retail-       pros: I think I would enjoy it, commission (could be pro or con), lower stress, can work evenings  and  wekends but still be home by 10.
               cons: may have an issue getting hired if I am upfront with them about what my schedule will look like when I'm student teaching



That's really all I've considerred...playing with the idea of a video rental place or Nikki's frozen yogurt also...any ideas? I do have an interview tomorrow evening with a jewelry store. I think I would really like it. I just don't know that they'll like the amount of hours I'd be able to put in starting in January...I don't know how student teachers stay alive.

It's been a while

Tonight Jarrod and I are grouting. This will be the second attempt. Last week, I was SO excited that the grout was going down, and the kitchen would come back together, but the grout dried a reddish pink color. It looked nothing like the light brown that was on the package. I was pretty disappointed, and tonight is the first night my busy fireman has had free since then. I have high hopes that I will have a kitchen by tomorrow and I can start cooking again. I am so tired of fast food.

For those of you that don't know, Jarrod and I bought our house last August. It's been alomost a year, and I am so proud of the progress we have made. Going in, we were so haughty. Jarrod would tell everyone how easy it would be, and how it would be done in a couple of months. He was absolutely mortified when the house wasn't even in livable condition until January (and even then, I wouldn't have moved into it. Jarrod's brave.) And neither of us would have ever believed it wouldn't be finished by the time we were married.

The house was a bank repo, and that's the only reason we could afford it. The price was nice, but the damage the previous owners had done was awful. The carpet was completely ruined from the mess that several large inside dogs made, there were holes in the walls, one that was several feet long, light fixtures were either missing or damaged beyond repair, there was a rat problem, and the layout of the kitchen was quite interesting, to say the least.

Fast forward eleven months and the house is livable; it's actually starting to look cute. We ripped up all the carpet and refinished the hardwood that was underneath. We retiled the kitchen, the hallway, and the bathroom. Every wall in the house was painted (after repairs had been made to several walls.) Light fixtures have been replaced, the rats have been gone for many months, and the layout of the kitchen has been updated. It was a LOT more work than we had originally thought. We have had several setbacks, and as life goes on, we continually become more and more busy. The busier we are, the less time we have to work on the hosue. We have learned a lot from this process, but the end is finally in sight. I could not be more excited. The only big jobs left are the kitchen grout, and some kitchen wall repair. After that, it's just details. I hope to post pictures of the finished product soon!

Jarrod and I talk about what a stress this has been. As true as that is, I wouldn't think of anything else for our first home. If it wasn't a bank repo, we would have probably wound up renting for a couple of years, and had nothing to show for it. How many people are homeowners at 20 years old? This is a house that has the potential to last us 10 years or more. Our kids will be born into it. That makes me so excited. And in the rebuilding process, we got to personalize the house, and make it ours. The end result will be an reflection of Jarrod and I, and our personality and taste.

Here are a few pictures of the eleven month process so far:

Master bedroom before

Master bedroom after: painted walls, refinished floors, new light fixture

Office before

Office after: Painted walls, major wall repairs, refinished floors

New tile in our hall. Sadly, I didn't take a picture of the old tile.

Living room before (this was right after we had removed the carpet)

Living room after (minus a few details)

Adventures in Decorating

In high school I discovered this great little antique store in town. Every time I decorate a house I go there. Lately I have been working on my living room. This weekend my brother helped me find an interesting way to hang my new shelves on my wall, and today I went to the antique store and bought some cool vintage-y decorations. My living room is now decorated. Look!

Oh, yeah. I forgot to turn off the TV, so you will get a glipse of That 70s Show periodically.

 

And I also finally got to hang this awesome old mirror I got at an estate sale awhile back.

And here's the other side of the living room. I'm so glad it's come this far. Never take for granted having a place to go to relax. A month without one was not so much fun.



The Life of a Fireman's Wife

Jarrod worked Saturday. I hate it when he works Saturdays. I entertained myself by taking Clara to the dog park (which neither of us enjoyed -- too hot) and priming the living room with Abigail. We were supposed to go see Cars 2, but it was sold out. Around 10 o'clock I began to feel completely wiped out, so I went to sleep.

Jarrod was home Sunday, but I only got out of the bed twice. Once for two hours for my brother's birthday party, and once for about 3 hours to eat dinner and do some laundry. Other than that I was lying in bed, feeling miserable. What a waste of an off-duty day.

Monday and Tuesday he was at the fire station AGAIN. I was still home sick Monday. The doctor gave me some new asthma medicine, which did the trick for sure, but I think it gave me more energy than any caffeinated drink ever has. Hands shaking, foot bouncing, I decided I had to do SOMETHING. So I did. In about 4 hours' time, I made a trip to Lowe's, the bank, and the car wash, painted the walls in my living room, painted the ceiling and the vents (who would put a black vent on a white ceiling?) Cleaned my nasty hardwood floors, and rearranged living room furniture. The house looked like a construction zone when Jarrod went to work Monday morning: drop cloths everywhere, walls unpainted, furniture in the middle of the room, tools scattered all around. Now, for the first time since we bought the house, the living room looks like a living room! I am so excited. I can't wait to sit in there and watch movies. Now it only needs a new mantle (which Jarrod's granddad is building us) and a few new baseboards. And, of course, we need to move in the rest of the furniture and do a little decorating. Jarrod doesn't know I did any of this. Can't wait to see his face when he gets home.

Anyone who has seen my house recently knows what a huge improvement this is. Ignore the kitchen. It's got a long way to go.

Nighttime in our house usually consists of running around outside with Clara for a while, since it is nice and cool. This was not possible Monday night since I was still wheezing and feverish, and Clara did not understand. I took her outside and sat in a chair, but she did not run and play like she usually does. She just sat down in front of my chair and whined. I finally persuaded her to go play and seconds later found myself punishing her for chewing on the sprinkler. That was when genius struck. Seriously, this is one of the best things that has happened to me since Clara came home. I found a way to occupy her which does not involve me running laps around the fence or squeaking a toy endlessly. I simply connected the sprinkler to the hose, turned it on, and went inside. She played by HERSELF for over an hour. Huge milestone for us. She also did not wake me up once that night, also a first. (I still woke her up twice though. She was in my bed and I didn't want to wake up in a puddle.)

Clara Comes Home

Clara's adoption day has been long awaited. I first met her when she was only two weeks old. She had just opened her eyes and could barely walk. She could lie down across my legs and not take up my whole lap.

Precious, Right?

Anyway, Jarrod and I have been going to visit her periodically, and in between times we have been nesting. I always knew expecting mothers went through this process, but I did not know it also applies to expecting pet-adoptive parents. It does. I think we have dropped at least $200 at Petsmart in the past few weeks, and Miss Clara has everything she could ever need. I got excited the first day and bought her a tiny bed, because she was so tiny. I have to constantly be reminded that she, unlike the Yorkie at my mom's house, will not be a tiny puppy forever. 

She likes it, but it's not exactly the right size.

It's hard to believe how much she's grown in the three weeks we haven't seen her Below are pictures of our visit when she was 4 weeks old, and her adoption day, when she was 6 and a half weeks old. Pretty sure she doubled her size. She now weighs 13 pounds. 

Since her homecoming, Clara has been a busy girl. She has already gone to visit both sets of grandparents and met their dogs. Boo liked her the best (Jarrod's dad's white lab). We think she thought Clara was her baby. She was so excited. Clara and Toby (my mom's Yorkie) were not quite sure what to think of each other. Toby liked to tease Clara, and Clara fought back. She's anything but passive.

Things we have learned about her so far:

1. She does not understand what night is and what day is. We are working on this one. She thinks 8 o'clock is bedtime and midnight is time to wake up. Then she goes back to sleep, usually around 3 or 4:00. This girl's nuts.
2. She is afraid of changes in the floor texture. Seriously. Doorways freak her out. Anytime she has to go from tile to wood, concrete to tile, et cetera, she just freezes. She'll put her front foot out and test it first, and if she decides it's safe, she'll keep walking.
3. She loves the car, but only if you completely leave her alone and let her decide where she's going to sit. Sometimes she wants to be held, sometimes she wants to be in the seat by herself, and sometimes she wants to be in the floorboard. One thing is for sure though, if you put her somewhere, it will not  be the place she wants to be, and she will find a way to resituate herself or just cry and yelp the whole way. This is quite the independent puppy.

Here's a picture from last night. She stole Toby's toy because she loved it, and she fell asleep with it in the car on the way home. Sweet girl.



A Day in the Life

Today is a typical day in the insurance agency. One day I will write a book about this place. It continually amazes me how something can be so mundane and so interesting at the same time. I really enjoy psychology and all that it entails, so I am very interested in all of the people that come in and out of here.

Our office is located on the...less affluent side of town. The homes that surround the agency have cars parked in the yard and children playing outside in their underwear. We see police cars frequently around here. Naturally, our clientele demographic reflects our geographical situation.

 My absolute favorite customer's name is Maria. (It's actually not. I just said that in case someone she knows reads this, or my boss reads it and I get in trouble.) Maria is probably in her 70s, about 4 and a half feet tall, and hasn't bought new clothes in about the last 30 years. She has a thick Spanish accent, and she calls everyone mija or mijo. She's absolutely precious. Maria thinks this insurance agency is a bank. That's how it was explained to me when I started working here. I have come to learn that this isn't entirely true, but you would never know that by the way she interacts with us.I probably shouldn't go into specific detail, but long story short: this lady's hilarious. I love how friendly she is. And I love how sweet everyone up here is to her. She's kind of a VIP.

She is only one of the many people I enjoy seeing every so often. Another of my favorites, who I haven't seen in quite a while, is a self-proclaimed "book keeper." She is typically clothed in a spaghetti strap shirt (without appropriate undergarments) and a pair of cut offs. She is missing a few teeth, and once while writing a check she asked me how to spell the word "twelve." Like I said, this job is interesting.

Just to be clear, I really do enjoy my job. I couldn't ask for better co-workers or bosses. They work around my unpredictable college schedule, enable my caffeine addiction, and pretend not to notice my perpetual tardiness, and in return, I try to divert as much of the craziness away from their offices as possible (not as easy as it sounds.) In all seriousness, I take money from people and give them receipts. And when there are no customers, I am a couch...er...office chair potato. I spend my time on facebook, looking up recipes, playing internet poker (lame, I know, but I have to kill the other 5 hours somehow), and blogging. Life is good.

More VBS Adventures

The three and four year olds are starting to learn more in depth Bible stories, and some of them are a little confused. This reminds me of why I love children so much. Quotes from today:

"Jesus saw them and he said these words, 'Apple starts with A.'"

"Jesus loves all the children and that's why he had to get dead."

and my personal favorite:
"Nana's dead, but that's okay. So is Jesus."

Jumping on the Bandwagon

Lots of my friends have started blogging recently, and I really enjoy reading them. I have fond memories of xanga in high school (and some not so fond), so I thought it would be fun to start blogging again, with a slightly more positive and less selfish outlook on life.

Basically, I live a pretty boring life, but I do stay busy. I have learned that I am the kind of person who can't stand to sit still, so I pretty much fill my life with as much activity as I possibly can. Until recently I have been planning a wedding, and that took up every moment of time I had. But now, I find myself with actual FREE time. So, of course, I volunteered to help with Vacation Bible School at church. So I have the privilege of spending evenings this week with 16 children, ages 18 months to 4 years (yes, all at the same time), along with several mothers who can't stand to let their children cry for 2 minutes, so they tag along. I am enjoying it, but it's complete chaos. Yesterday a little girl decided to eat acrylic paint, staining her tongue and teeth a lovely shade of turquoise, I mixed up siblings that were 2 years apart and did not realize til the end of the day, and I wiped at least half of a can of shaving cream from a 3 year old's hair, clothes, and face. So that's life this week.

The wonderful thing about taking on too many commitments is that life is constantly changing. So, even though this little project is over on Thursday, I'm sure by then I will have volunteered myself for something else, taken on a new hobby, or both.

Soon to come: a blog about Clara, my baby yellow lab. She came home from the breeder today, and is currently spending the day with Jarrod while I am working...er...at the office (very little work actually gets done here. Let's just say if online poker was real, I'd be a very rich girl.)The next blog will have pictures, and maybe by then I will have figured out more about setting my blog completely up. This was just a quick introductory blog because I'm pretty excited about it.

Until then, stay classy, San Diego. (I'll work on that sign off too.)