Hurry Home--Jason Micheal Carroll

I first heard this song a couple months ago, and instantly started crying. And then cried even harder when it got to the second verse. Please don't let the video sway you; the song is all about the unconditional love a father has for his daughter.

And I see my relationship with God when I hear it. How many times have I pushed away? How many times have I wanted to do my own thing? How many times have I thought I could handle everything on my own?

But He's always there to let me come home. As the chorus says: "It doesn't matter what you've done/I still love you./It doesn't matter where you've been/You can still come home./And honey, if it's you/We've got a lot of making up to do/And I can't hug you on the phone/So hurry home.

What about you? Do you need to call and say "Dad, I'm on my way."?

Setting goals

I'm sick and tired of being out of shape and being unmotivated. I'm tired of saying I'm going to do something, and then not doing it.

So, starting Monday, November 2 (I know, I'm posting this after I really started...my bad.), I'm doing Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred challenge. It's 25 minutes or so of strength, cardio, and abs circuits. There are 3 levels, and I'm supposed to do each one for 10 days. The levels get progressively harder. And it's kicking my butt. My arms haven't been this sore in a long time. But I'm going to do this. In addition, I'm trying to run at least 4 days a week before I shred. I'm not setting a mileage goal, but I do want to get my endurance back. I lost it this summer.

So far, I've done:
Monday: run 1 mile, Level 1 shred
Tuesday: Level 1 shred
Wednesday: run .75 miles, Level 1 shred

27 days left to go! :)

Oooh...two posts in one night...

A list of some of my favorite kitchen things, in no particular order

1. My hot chocolate mixer. Especially after Sean and I bought 5 boxes of Swiss Miss on sale the other day.
2. The dishwasher. Whoever invented it deserves a nobel prize.
3. The griddle. Because it's so nice to make 4 pancakes and heat up pre-cooked sausage all at once.
4. The crock-pot. It's just amazing.
5. The knife-block. Because of course I use knives regularly.
6. The microwave. Do I really need to explain?

What happens when...

the door knob turns but the door won't open?

Well, I presume that most people would go buy a new door knob. Easy, $10 fix, right? Sure. But not for us. It was the back door. The ugly, white with yellow trim around the glass back door. The one part of our house that really looked like it was from a trailer.

But no more. No, now we have a nice white fiber-glass door with a new door knob. In bronze (color, not metal!!). Now we just have to sand down the wooden door to the deck, and replace the front (red, rusting, paint chipping) door. Lovely, right?


And in other news, I think a mouse has taken up residence in the bedroom wall. At least I'm hoping it was a mouse. It sure was making a ton of noise. Maybe I need to borrow John's BB gun. But that's a story for another time!

A month later...

Things have been a little crazy since my last post. Where should I start?

1. Got water installed in the house.
2. I got the cats fixed.
3. Started work.
4. Moved in to the new house.
5. Replaced the starter in my car.
6. Unpacked.
7. Entertained two weekends in a row.
8. Ran a bad 5k.
9. Took one cat back to the vet for a booster shot.
10. Started doing work on the house.
11. Contracted a virus on my laptop. It's pretty much dead.

Needless to say, I've been busy. Too busy to do a lot of things. I leave home around 6:45 every morning, and get home around 6:15 at night. By the time I fix supper and straighten up, it's time for bed! But I'm doing my best to get back into a schedule of running, and relaxing, and spending some time watching tv and vegging.

And here's my funny story for the day. I get home, get changed, and step onto the treadmill. All well and good, right? I'm going to run. Except that Sam, the cuddle monster, decides that he wants to get on with me and wrap himself around my ankles. And then lay down. On the treadmill. I got off, thinking he would follow me. Nope. So what else could I do? I programmed it for the time I wanted, and turned it on. (Note: when it starts, it's only going .5 miles/hour.) He slid right off the back and stood there until I got it up to speed and started running. And then Alice, Little Miss Spastic, wedges herself in between the treadmill and some boxes and proceeds to chase my shadow for 20 minutes. But it wasn't going very far, so she spent a lot of time jumping back and forth onto it. And such is my life. Cats who get in my way when I want to run. (Another note: when I got done, they both fell asleep. Go figure!)

Answered prayers!

I've been job searching since last September. It's been a long, grueling process, and I've been pretty down about it. But the search has come to an end!

Last Friday, I interviewed for a social research assistant position at Western. Today, I got the call offering me the position, with the formal offer to come in a few days. I start on October 1! Needless to say, I'm pretty excited, and it just makes it even more imperative that we get moved in soon to the new house!

And...problem resolved!

Our water issue is being taken care of. After dealing with our realtor, she pretty much told us to go ahead and start paying for our tap and meter to be installed, and she would have to see if the agency would reimburse us. Uh, no way. (There was a tap and meter in our front yard already, but it seems it belonged to the house behind us, and not to us. Go figure.)

So, Sean called her manager and explained that we had a copy of the listing showing that it was listed as having public water, and that we would be calling the state real estate commission to complain. A manager called back and told us that the issue was being taken care of, and the first fees had already been paid.

Sean called them back this morning, and was told that the agency will be paying for everything, INCLUDING having the meter plumbed to the house. This means, of course, that my pretty front yard will have a trench dug in it, but I'm ok with that. Oh, and their expediating the process so we can get into the house soon.

All in all, all that is left before we can move in is patching a couple more sheet rock holes (I'm good at mudding!), and picking up some windows from the glass place. It's looking like we'll be moving soon! Finally!