The Good List

*I’m checking out Tristan’s new home today and we are moving him tomorrow.

*I’ll be turning 25 in 2 days!

*A family friend, Primo, has agreed to make a Southern style BBQ dinner for the wedding!  That means hush puppies and fried okra and boiled peanuts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! : )

*I’m going to Boise tomorrow for another wild Halloween with Hulie.  : )

*My mama has requested that I bring my current knitting/crochet projects.

*My cousin Mollie is going to help me figure out the perfect design for a guest book that is more than just a list of names I can’t even read.

*We’ve just about clawed our way back to square one and I can’t wait to start over.  I slept better last night than I have in a month.     

*My brother is coming home.  : )

 

Awkward Girl Loses her List

So I woke up this morning and decided to make french chicken bake for dinner.  Its a delicious, but somewhat time consuming on the front end, casserole and Carl had already forgotten having it at my mom’s, but he loved it.  : )  I took my little notebook that my mom had copied all my favorite recipes into when I went to college and brought it with me to work so I could write out a grocery list of the things we didn’t already have at home.  Throughout the day when the phones were dead I put my list together and then when work got out I went straight to . . . Ross Dress for Less! But that’s another story.  After leaving Ross I went to Fred Meyer and opened my purse to retrieve my list only to discover it was missing!

I looked all over the cab, under the seats, dug through my purse twice and finally gave up.  I could only remember two of the six or so things that were on it which was very disheartening and on top of that I passed two different pairs of people in the store only to have them giggle as I walked by.  Its probably that junior high thing where when people giggle as you walk by you immediately begin wondering if you have a booger in your nose or a giant pimple on your face, but I started to feel extremely awkward.

It wasn’t until I became so awkward that I put my hands in my back pockets (an old, mostly gone habit) that I found my list, not in my pocket mind you, but stuck to my rear.  I wouldn’t doubt for a moment that it had been there ever since I got off work, meaning it went with me in Ross as well as Fred Meyer.  Thanks, Awkward Girl, Friday just wouldn’t be complete without you.  ; )

 

I Miss Poems . . . : )

I’ve had poetry on my mind and here is one I’m happy with.  Its hard to find a balance in my thoughts when my life is so off-balance at the moment.  My best birthday present this year is going to be having all current issues resolved by the end of my birthday weekend.

catalyst

catapult me

into that other place

where you can’t sit on the the sofa

you’re staring up at

from the living room floor

I’d love to do this another way

but my eyes cling to their color

I simply am what I am

This is all I know of release

I tie a thought to every letter

then cast the words out of my heart

hoping they’ll fly

but they sometimes sink like stones

I sink like a stone sometimes too

where did all my courage go?

Bright yellow thoughts shine out

from these diligent digits

ticking away at compliant keys

they say only what I tell them too

and suddenly I want them to say more.

 

Quote of the Day

“It is unique! Because, no one else is YOU getting married!”   

                            Thanks Kate.  : )

 

The Lovely Bones

I finished The Lovely Bones last night and its been on my mind ever since.  I miss college so desperately right now it hurts!  I want to talk to Professor Hindrichs and hash it out with my literary criticism class.  But there’s no one here and the only book club I’ve managed to be a part of wants nothing to do with this kind of book.  Where are all the people what want to talk seriously about books???  I know you’re out there!

I want to curl up in our living room in front of the gas stove (which I lit for the first time last night!), hot cocoa in hand (with a splash of peppermint schnapps ; ) and talk books.  Sigh.

On the upside, the words are finally coming.  For some reason out of nowhere yesterday I was sitting at my desk and lines just started popping into my head.  : )

 

: )

~Yesterday we went furniture shopping and bought a beautiful bookshelf and even though its taller than Carl, it barely fits all our books.

~We also purchased a beautiful, wooden coat rack to try and make up for the closet space we lost to the beer/beer supplies. 

~I will post pics, but its going to be at least a few days before everything is truly put away.  Carl got the desk put together and if the fact that when I went upstairs to write awhile before bed, he was sitting in his man-cave on his Captain’s chair at his Command Center (aka desk) eating ice cream even though the computer isn’t even in the room yet is any indication, I’d say he’s thrilled to have an office.  : )

~This morning I got up and made our lunches, decided to make potatoe soup for dinner, left for work on time and managed to stay on course the entire ten minute drive!!!   I’m on a roll ladies and gents. 

~Last night Carl’s mom and sister came by with the baby to hang out for the evening.  We all went out to dinner and Debbie told me about an idea she has for our wedding cake.  Its basically the most awesome cupcake idea ever and I’m stoked!  Especially because she’s going to make them herself and out of Carl and I’s favorite cake batter.  Love me some Debbie.  : )

~I’ll be twenty five in just under 2 weeks and I have so much to be thankful for.  I can’t wait to go to Boise and see my mama and my papa and my Hulie and celebrate a quarter century of awful beautiful wonderful life.  : )

 

Newness

Its a glorious, sunny day and for the past hour or so I’ve been unpacking at our new place, daydreaming about all the great memories we’re going to make here.  I’m completely in love with this house.  We have a giant, old, clawfoot tub, a walk in pantry, wooden stairs and a big, inviting kitchen.  Each of our things has its own place to be and I’m starting to feel like I have a place in this house too.  Carl is making a man-cave out of the guest room complete with desk, computer, t.v. and nintendo and upstairs I’m turning our bedroom into my writing room.  There’s so much light up there and my writing desk fits perfectly in the corner beside one of the windows.

As excited as I am about a writing room, I decided to begin my unpacking in the kitchen.  The kitchen is the heart of a home, the heart of mine anyway. : )  My cookbooks are lined up on the little shelf beside the gas stove and I’ve filled the cupboards with our dishes.  The liquor is up on top of a ledge with the hedgehog my mother knit to guard it and I put Spiced Orange Harvest wax in my Scentsy wickless candle holder.  The wine rack is full of our table wines, while our special occasion wines stay in the wine/beer closet and our cleaning supplies are under the sink.  This is the first time I’ve felt like I am making a home.  I am creating a place where we can relax peacefully, entertain our friends happily and live comfortably.  Its going to be clean and smell nice and stay tidy. I love this feeling of newness and I’m so happy right now, my heart hurts a little. : )

 

Quote of the Day

“That’s why we have each other; it makes the hard times just a little softer and the good times that much sweeter.”

~Carl  : )

 

So Much to Say . . .

so little energy with which to say it.

~Work is going well and although I’ve made mistakes, I’ve made fewer than most and seem to be following a normal and accepted learning curve.  : )

~Thursday is our very last day in the old house, then its on to the new!  I know it sounds ridiculous, but I’m suddenly really excited about filling the fridge at the new place.  I have no idea why.

~Carl asked me to go through all our pictures and choose which ones I want on our wedding website.  Its so interesting watching us change over the past four years and even more interesting when you look all the way back to our teenage years.  We really have accomplished so much, but what I felt the most while clicking through folder after folder, was a sense of growth.  We have grown into adulthood together.

~I lost my phone again.  And found it again, but not in the driveway in the rain like last week.  This week it was in the bed of my pick up . . . in the rain.  Yeah, I know.

~I’m doing everything I can to keep my horse here with me instead of sending him home.  However, it looks as if there’s hope to at least keep him within a couple of hours.  Doug’s mom, Sally,  has a friend I spoke with at the art auction and when Doug told her my situation (long after I’d gone home and gone to bed) she suggested I take him to her place which is very to close to Sally’s.  It would be two hours, but two is a helluva lot better than nine!  Truly I’m hoping to find somewhere on the outskirts of Medford, but we’ll just have to see.

~I didn’t blog this the day it happened, but I thought of it today and it made me smile.  Last week, I got up early and was getting ready to leave for work, but I always go back into our room right before I leave to give Carl a kiss goodbye and tell him I love him.  On the days where he worked both jobs the night before, he doesn’t really remember this.  He sort of opens his eyes and stares at me like he’s not absolutely sure who I am, then after a minute he focuses in, and whispers that he loves me too.  But on this particular morning, I crawled on top of him in bed and the moment he opened his eyes he just looked right at my face and said, “You’re beautiful.”  It made my week and got me started on an idea.  Since my morale has been a little low about my new job, I decided to make Carl’s Post-it Quotes which are just things he has said to me that made me feel good.  I stuck them all in the bottom of my desk drawer and look at them when I’m cranky, frustrated, tired, etc.  So far I have:

“A long time ago I told you I would move the stars so we could be together.  Well, I’ve moved them Miss Jesse Kathryn Bynum.  Will you accept this star and be my wife?”

“Your hair smells like candy.  I want to eat you.”

“I love you because you make me do stuff.”

“You are my Zion.”

~As the weather gets more chilly, I get more and more interested in hot soup and my pen.  I look forward to getting all the way moved in this next week and finally having time to write with a little more depth than I have been.  The book I’m reading is bringing up a lot of words.

 

Currently Reading

I’m not finished yet, but this is an amazing novel.