So About That Rain...

This morning, I was so pleased it rained.  I didn't watch the weather this morning.  If I had, I would have seen this:

There were reports of wind over 100 mph, hail two inches across, and tornado warnings all over the place.  The most severe part of the storm passed right over our house.

Upside:  plants are watered
Downside:  all of our mulch has washed out into our yard

Simple Pleasure Thursday

My simple pleasure for today is waking up to a drenched backyard.  Apparently, we had a thunderstorm this morning, and the ground is pleasantly soaked through.  Yay for not needing to water the garden!  We've had a number of heat waves this year.  We're not in a drought, but we have had less than average rainfall.

It's Been a While

Who would have thought that I'd blog less when I'm off of work in the summer?

I guess it's just that I'm not sure if I have anything to say that's any different than the last few things I've said.  Bearing that in mind, an update:


~The garden is doing fairly well.  We have a rather large crop of tomatoes right now.  The little lovely yellow squash that I was not talking about shriveled up and died before its time.  I'm now not talking about another friend of the yellow squash on a different plant.  We'll see what happens to him.

~I'm excited that I finally picked a wedding present from my grandmother.  She had been somewhat badgering me to give her an idea for a gift that 25 years later we'll still have and remember they gave it to us.  She's going to have my wedding dress made into a quilt for me.  I've wanted to do this for a while, but I wouldn't be able to afford it - even after the wedding.  It seems like the perfect gift idea to me.  And better yet, she liked the idea, too.

~*B* and I merged our finances a few weeks ago.  I thought it would make life a tad more difficult, but shocker, it actually made saving SO much easier.  We had had a hard time keeping savings for the wedding.  Our last prevailing thought was that we'd put expenses on my credit card and immediately pay it off so that we could get the rewards benefits.  But that means that all savings went directly to immediate purchases (my dress) and not long term expenses (the catering).  I am pleased to say that we have saved above and beyond the cost of our wedding!  Better than that, we have a great system in place for our married (financial) life ahead of us.  My insurance agent is also a licensed financial planner, and he helped us set it up for free.

Each of us have our own checking/savings account for personal things - hair cuts, food out, birthday gifts, etc.  We then have a joint checking/savings/money market account.  Our paychecks are direct deposited into the joint savings account.  We then transfer the money needed to pay bills into the checking account.  This means that anything we have left at the end of the month doesn't get used on something frivolous, it stockpiles in the savings account.  The money market account is currently used for wedding related savings, but in the future it will be for big items, like a roof, a nice vacation, or car troubles.  This is where we can put away our emergency savings. 

~We finally were able to take our FOCCUS test.  This is a test that the Catholic church has couples take in order to determine what things need to be discussed before the wedding.  It's 180 questions, and topics include religion, work distribution, sex, abuse, marriage readiness, finances, and others.  While I am pleased to say that most of it we had already discussed in great detail, there were a few issues whose absence in our conversations became apparent.  Number one of my list is the role of religion in our lives.  *B* and I have been going to church for probably a month now.  This is the longest stretch that I've gone to church probably since I was 6.  I might have gone this long once when I was about 14.  And I know for a fact that *B* has never been to church this much in his whole life.  He says he likes going to church, and I believe him, but I fear ending up like my family, where my mom took us to church while my dad stayed home.  Even as a young child, I knew that my dad thought church was ridiculous, and it was really hard to reconcile the two beliefs in one household.  However it ends up, I want *B* and I to provide a united front to our children.


I think that about sums everything up.  I go back to work next Monday, so hopefully I'll find much more to say in the coming weeks.

Simple Pleasure Thursday

My simple pleasure for today is being reminded of things from my childhood.  When I was about 10 years old, Chick-fil-a had a special kid's meal toy.  It was a cassette tape of Adventures in Odyssey.  AIO is produced by Focus on the Family, and features biblical themes, though they're not all Bible stories per se.  I think they came out with about 10 of them.  The stories all focus around a man named Whit, who runs an ice cream shop, and his friends and neighbors.  I loved them so, but God knows where the cassettes had gone.  I had thought about them randomly from time to time.  I finally stepped up the other day and googled them, and they're still going!  They have over 650 episodes now, and have been going since 1987.  They even have a mix of new and old episodes that you can listen to online.  For the past few days, while peeling peaches or making muffins, I've been listening to the episodes.  You can find them at www.whitsend.org.  Enjoy!

Freaking Out a Tad

There are 4 months and 13 days until I get married.  My dress ships on August 13th, which means I should get it before August 20th.  When I bought my dress, I bought it one size smaller than I was, and I had never seen it in claret, just in navy.  I'm not so much worried about the size (they said they can alter up to one size either side of the actual size), but I'm nervous about the color.  What if it looks odd with my skin tone?  Though I have color swatches from the dressmaker, what if it ends up looking more pink than dark red (like it does online)?  These what if's will kill me.

Finances seemed to have worked themselves out.  I suppose it was working two jobs this summer that did it.  Either way, I'm actually not so worried about paying for things - as long as our parents help us like they said they would.  If they don't, then I'll keep my second job longer.

I am concerned, however, about how many people will come.  We have to have (or at least pay for) 100 people in order to keep the whole restaurant to ourselves.  We have invited 108 people, knowing that 70 people are likely to come and 38 are iffy.  We didn't include "and guest" in either number though, so we might make 100.  If we don't, we're paying ~$900 for people that won't be there.  But then again, I don't want to lose the whole restaurant, because it might be weird to have total strangers at our reception.  But, it's $900.  I don't know!

*B* and I started dieting together this week, which has led to an initial five pound loss on my end of things.  Yes, it's probably water weight, but I'll take it at this point.  I had bounced within a two pound range for a long time.  This new program should also help with the dress fitting.  I don't have to start with alterations until the end of October, so I have some time.

Ugh.  I had heard that weddings were stressful, but I never believed it until now!

Intoxication and Addiction

No, I'm not talking about drinking or drugs.  When I was in high school, my father accused me of being "addicted to the internet."  Being about 14, I told him he was crazy, got all indignant and huffy, but accepted the new restrictions on the internet.  I remember being especially peeved that a few months later, he was the one addicted to the internet.  He was always downstairs in his computer room, and spent very little time with us.  When I told him what he told me, he got SO mad.

I was reminded of this when I read about James Sturm's Internet-Free Experiment on Slate.  In his first installment, Sturm talked about all of the guilt and shame he feels when browsing the internet.  I absolutely agree.  Though I'm embarrassed to admit it, the first thing I do in the morning and the last thing I do at night is check the computer.  I look at my four (four) email accounts, read the daily blogs, spend way too much time on Facebook, and troll for something interesting, occasionally just by hitting refresh over and over.  I once had a program that tracks your internet usage and creates reports for you, but I couldn't deal with looking at how much time I wasted.

I also am a multitasker.  At any given time, I have some form of audio on in the house (between the TV, NPR, or a podcast).  I generally also have a number of tabs up on my browser.  Many times, I've got something in the oven at the same time.

One of my happiest times is when we didn't have television.  We knew that we had cable upstairs (on a 9 inch TV), but had nothing downstairs.  *B* and I read, played games, and listened to the radio.   We cooked together, and we enjoyed nature more.  I'm || this close to unplugging the cable and pretending it doesn't exist.

Are there any non-standard addictions you have?  What do you do to remedy them?

The Upside

My face hurts.  A lot.  I couldn't breathe at some points tonight.  I coughed so much this evening that I tasted blood. 

Why, might you ask?   I had dinner with friends from high school tonight.  I smiled so much that my jaw aches.  I laughed so hard that I snorted and couldn't breathe for what seemed like forever.  I also laughed so hard that I choked and coughed and coughed and coughed.

I love my friends :o)