Inspired

So today has been a day full of very adult things, Career Fair, in which I met with eleven school districts for the coming year and handed out resumes, and then paying bills. I am still dealing with quite a few things from that wonderful ER visit about a month ago, but thats how life goes. Thankfully God has provided by cutting my bill at least in half if not more. I will find out about the final bill's actual amount a week from Friday, but until then I am thanking God for providing so much already.

While taking a break before starting to fill out applications and work on homework, I went back to a few of my favorite sites, and felt inspired to share some of the things I have enjoyed.

Kevin & Amanda www.kevinandamanda.com is a fun blog I stumbled upon, and honestly I can't remember how! Amanda has tons of free fonts up for download. There are actually two sites full, broken apart into scrapbook and handwriting. She even has an explanation on how to use the fonts on your blog, but it was a little complicated so I haven't tried it yet. Here are a few I like, sorry if they are blurry that is me trying to put them in to a compatible, yet small file.
There are other fun things on their blog as well, like recipes and decorating ideas... I have wandered around it for hours and probably still haven't discovered everything yet.

Other things that inspire me are our newly rearranged bedroom and our ever-in-progress bathroom.



Bedroom (obviously)




Its not perfect, but it does look better than it did. I finally found a place to stow away the unmatched towels. We found some cute baskets at Walmart to hold our odds and ends on the shelf, and we bought the shower curtain in the window so that during the day we could have more light. For the bedroom, we only had to buy curtains, which actually aren't shown in the pictures (we already had the ones shown). I have been on a spree the last few weeks. I blame it on wanting to be productive, but not wanting to do school work.

Cranberry Juice and Birthday Celebration

This week started off pretty rough. This kids were crazy at work, and Wednesday I woke up with a pain in my side... You've got it, another kidney stone. I took some meds and went back to bed. Later that evening when I was talking to my mom she suggested cranberry juice, which I asked Joe if he could pick up for me... the above picture is what I woke up to the next morning... plus two more in the fridge. Sadly, I later looked up the benefits of cranberry juice on Kidney stones, and there aren't any. There have actually been studies that say that drinking too much can cause kidney stones... so I will drink in moderation, and I guess Joe will drink the rest ;)
Anyway, The rest of the week was rough, but got better as I was able to celebrate with the amazing man above. Yesterday was Joe's birthday! We celebrated yesterday with a fish fry with friends. We also tried out the new reeses ice cream cake from DQ, which was delicious. Today we went out to eat at the fish house in the Bass Pro Shop, but neither of us had fish. Joe had a buffalo burger, and I had a cajun chicken pasta dish. We stuck around a few extra min after we finished to see the fish feeding, and then headed off to dogwood.
This is what I "surprised" Joe with last night, and below he is showing off his gift he picked out today. Yup it is the same watch Chuck wears, without the communication device. His watch died early this morning... perfect timing to get an awesome watch that just so happened to be at Sams. It is solar powered, and it updates by the atomic clock. There are many other very nerdy features but I can't remember them all. Needless to say he was very excited.
In other news, this semester is killing me. I'm trying not to stress out but I really do feel I am doing things very halfheartedly. I know I need to manage my time better, but I really like being able to relax a bit during the week. I'm not sure if I am really going to be able to keep running normally right now, with everything else going on. Anyway that is what is going on in my neck of the woods. Enjoying the weekend.

Run and Freezer Meals

So I had my first run back since the stone and I guess since classes started. Five miles, five tough miles, but five tough miles outside in warmer than cold weather :). I can't believe I skipped two weeks, no wonder it felt tough. It was great to run outside again, it felt different but it was ok.

Now I'm watching the biggest loser and doing homework. About to throw a freezer meal in the oven, cheesy hash-browns. It has been so helpful to have freezer meals, I love just being able to defrost a great meal and throw it in the oven. it gives me time to finish up homework, go for a run, or take a nap. My next cooking day is going to be either Saturday or Sunday, so I'll try a few new ones and throw a few out. Anyway, I should probably stop procrastinating... back to the hw.

The Hundred Dresses

This semester I am in Children's Literature. In this class we have to read about seventy children's books through out the semester. All this to say tonight I read the first book I needed to read and summarize for the class, The Hundred Dresses. I picked up the book at Borders today when I was going to pick up Tuck Everlasting. It was a short book that was a Newbery Honor, met the criteria, and looked cute, so I picked it up. I didn't really know what to expect when I opened it up, but shortly after I started reading it, I became aware that it was a book about teasing. Most of the book if from a little girl's point of view who isn't really teasing but is standing by while her friend teases. The book was written in 1944 by Eleanor Estes, and it is beautifully illustrated in what I assume is watercolor pencil by Louis Slobodkin. The girl who was being teased ultimately moves away to a big city where their Polish name won't be made fun of, but it really isn't the journey of the girl being teased that we see. We see the sleepless nights of the girl that is not much better off financially and is scared that she might be the next butt of the joke, and so she doesn't step forward to tell her friend she is wrong. We see that everyone has talents and worth. We also see that sometimes thing will stick with us because we knew they were wrong and we can't take them back. For a children's book it sure does have a lot of truth to it. Am I standing by, while I know I can do something to stop what is happening that is wrong? Am I keeping my mouth shut so that I don't become the next butt of the joke? Am I seeing the worth and talents of even the people that annoy me? Talk about a heavy first book.

ER

At 4:30 this morning I woke up again in pain, same place, same intensity. I took some medicine and tried to go back to sleep with no avail. Hours later, still in pain, I ended up going to the campus nurse practitioner. To make a long office visit short, he sent me to the emergency room because of the place of pain (right trunk) and the possibilities of what it could be. I went to baptist's ER, which was without water... Little crazy. Anyway, after a long day in the er, we found out I had a kidney stone, and there are more in my kidneys. Thankfully now we know, and I can be prepared when it happens again. Needless to say the run is out for tonight. Please pray that this passes quickly and that I'll be able to sleep tonight.

Cooking day was a success, but...

Yesterday was cooking day... drum roll please.... I made 5 meals in 5 hours! I split all the meals in half. We ate half of a meal. Calculating... there are nine meals ready in the freezer! I also made a big pot of veggie soup the night before that is sitting in the fridge and we are eating off of it slowly. The only meal I forgot was the honey lime chicken, but it can wait for next time.

Here comes the but part... While cooking was a success, what was not a success was waking up in the middle of the night in serious pain! I woke up about three o'clock with a solid pain on the right side of my stomach and felt sick. I tried to deal with the pain thinking of anything it could be, anyway I took a Tylenol and prayed it would stay down. I finally fell asleep in the recliner. Thankfully the pain was gone when I woke up but I still felt queasy. I called in to work and stayed in bed all day watching the 6 hour version of Pride and Prejudice. My wonderful husband brought me lunch in bed and took care of me. Still have no clue what it was, don't think it was a kidney stone, but I have had one before... Hopefully I won't have to find out what it was because it won't happen again. Back to work tomorrow, off night for classes, and its a run night. Off to bed for me, goodnight.

Freezer friendly cooking day!

Today I went for a run (at the gym) and then braved the cold to buy food for our freezer friendly cooking day... It was in the 20's for most of the day so at least there was no worry that the food would spoil. So here is the line up for tomorrow's day of cooking:

Cream cheese chicken
Cheesy Ham and Potatoes
"So Simple I can make it- Vegetable soup"
Swiss Chicken
Italian Sausage and Pasta Bake
Honey Lime Chicken
Beef Stroganoff
White Chili (Joe's going to make)

I also picked up some easy meal ideas, such as frozen pizza, and tortellini. I hope I am not trying to take on too much the first time around... I'll tell you after tomorrow.