Break from the paper!

Alright, I'm 12 pages into my paper on the reliability and validity of the MBTI test. It's simply enthralling. I don't think I can handle anymore of that excitement today.

So Jesse finally knows his new part time schedule. He will have Thursday and Friday off. Whoo hoo! That is the closest to the "real weekend" of Saturday and Sunday that he's ever been. I can't imagine actually being able to do social things again...wow! Plus, we actually have the same days off!! I can't believe it. And with the morning schedule, that means we can take N on Wednesdays, since the both of us will be done with work by afternoon, which means Jesse and I are actually going to have two full days off together with no other commitments! I can't even believe it. That has pretty much not happened since he started United. I am one happy girl.

It's raining here and chilly. I am so tempted to turn on the heater, but I feel terribly bad doing that, since we just had the a/c on yesterday. It's supposed to be 80 this weekend, so I hate to pump the house full of heat only to have to pump it full of cold tomorrow. I am all wrapped up and will try to think of something to bake instead to get some heat in here!

So for our little marriage mentoring deal, we had to take these tests separately. I guess it's to help your mentor see where you are coming from, and identify the strengths and weaknesses in your marriage. Anyway, so we both took our test, and now it's driving my control-freak self crazy. See, you take the test, and the scores go to the church, not back to us. Someone else knows our test scores. Someone else can see all of the areas we matched up in and all of the areas we didn't, which means someone else knows our issues potentially before we do. Jesse wasn't bothered by this at all, but I am really curious to see the results, plus knowing that someone else already has makes it much worse.

Anyway, I am starting to shiver in here now, so I better go turn on the oven and find a hoodie...

Not Much

Ah, a quiet moment. I've got some blueberry buckle baking and am not sure where to go from here. There are plenty of things I could (and probably should) do - start on my final paper for test and measures, haul some more rock to the backyard, or balance the checkbook. For now though, I think I'll just wait for the timer to ding and anticipate some yummy food.

On the vacation front, we needed to make reservations for our sit down dinners, which again seems so odd to us to be planning so far ahead when and what time we will eat each day. But, we don't want to not make reservations and then have to wait for hours to eat. Disney accepts dining reservations 6 months in advance - crazy! Anyway, we finally narrowed in on 3 of the places we want to eat our nice dinners (our meal plan gives one snack, one counter service meal, and one sit down meal each day). The three we decided on are Boma at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, Planet Hollywood at Downtown Disney, and Marrakesh at Epcot. Marrakesh is in "Morocco" and has belly dancers!! That will be too funny. Anyway, the 4th night we plan to leave open, and just see how we feel. If we have to wait, so be it. We got all of our confirmation papers in the mail, which made me very excited. I know it's still nearly 4 months away, but in my mind, it's just around the corner. Oh well, the anticipation makes it more fun anyway, kind of like Christmas - you just look forward to it for weeks and it makes you happy every time you think of it.

There really isn't too much going on for us right now. We have both been quite busy with work, which should slow down for the both of us soon. I am finally done with all of my trades at work, and Jesse finally got news about going part time, which will begin in just 2 weeks for him. Plus, we only have 3 weeks left this semester, so we will be getting even more relief when that wraps up. Jesse is looking at going to another school this summer, which is less than half the tuition of the one we are both at right now. That would make the student-loan-debt-o-meter very happy.

Jesse keeps making comments about "ripping", "destroying","tearing up" the bathroom. I am trying my best to hold him back until we are finished hauling the rock outside, but he is quite eager, and I imagine we just might have a big mess in the bathroom in just a few short days. I'm anxious to get going on it too. That is our last big project (at least that we can afford right now). We already have dreams for next year's tax refund that include adding another garage, putting a porch on the front of the house, extending the roof out, and....

Well, that timer should be dinging soon, and I guess I don't have much to blog about anyway so I will wrap this one up.

Rocks and Stuff

It's break time! I have 2 big papers due in just over a week and have started in on them today. It's been incredibly difficult to stay indoors, as the weather is just insanely nice. Plus, there is plenty I could be doing outside.

We had 4 tons of rock delivered here on Sunday and have been slowly moving it to its permanent home. Jesse has done the majority of the work, since it was his "weekend" and I was at work all day, but I did at least shovel and haul a few of the loads. We got the back corner done, as you can see below. The photo isn't the greatest...but at least it gives you the general gist. There are many "baby plants" around the swing, which will hopefully be strong and tall this summer, making it a cozy little corner.



I should probably find something to make for dinner soon. I have been living on bananas and cheese slices for most of the day. After that, I imagine I should probably get back to the books...ho hum....

My Boys

AABBBBEEEEE!

Abe also gives Boca Chicken Patties 2 thumbs up. He just ate mine. (Saw it sitting on the edge of the counter, and decided to help himself to the entire thing - pickles, mustard and all.)

I'm Scared

Okay, so I just booked our Disney vacation and I'm totally freaked out. I never plan this far in advance and it makes me nervous. (Plan is to go late August-early September). Last time we went, we pretty much planned it 1-2 weeks before. The only reason I booked this early is because they have a special deal where you can get the free dining plan if you book right now for the dates that we are looking at, and I figured planning in advance is well worth getting free food for our entire stay there. I've heard when they offer this, it sells out really fast, so I wanted to be sure that we could get the deal still. And I booked trip insurance, which I am debating if I should call back and cancel, because I always viewed trip insurance as such a scam that only rich paranoid people would do, but the only reason I booked was because someone told me we are going during hurricane season, so if our trip gets messed up because of that, we won't be out a thousand bucks. Speaking of a thousand bucks, what if we don't get enough saved up in time when our balance is due? Oh my. This planning ahead stuff is just too much....

But the fun part is....we are booked at the Caribbean Beach Resort. Check it out. We won't have to rent a car since we are staying on property. We got a 3 day park hopper pass. I can't wait!!!!

What Did I Do?!

So at work, we are still interviewing for another office person. When they come in, I can kind of tell how much my boss likes them based on how many tasks they have to do. If they make it through the intial first few questions, then he'll ask them to add up some numbers on an adding machine (you'd be surprised, but most people fail this task). If they pass, then they figure up some sales tax. If they get that far, then they type a paragraph. So, someone is in and she makes it this far, so my boss tells me to have her type something up. We just use whatever is laying around. In this case, I was reading my psychology book and had just flipped to a new page when this deal came up. So I just point to some random paragraph and tell her to type it. She does and prints it out, and off she goes with my boss for more interview. When they leave, I go back to my reading....and realize that I was about to begin a section on a sex study and had pointed to one of the paragraphs in it for her to type! I turn red and start laughing, pondering, Should I go over there and bring it up, make a joke? But maybe my boss didn't read it. It's not as big of a deal if the interviewee thinks I'm nuts...I can explain this ordeal if she gets the job, but I don't want my boss to think poorly of me...please don't let him read the paragraph, especially out of context like this..." In the end, I decide to just leave it alone. Thankfully, of all the paragraphs that I could have pointed to in that section, this one was the best. It really at most mentioned the "secondary sexual behaviors of the lower animals". Anyway, lesson learned: do not choose paragraphs from the psychology book for the interviewee to type.

Little Horton

Woops, I had saved this post as a draft for some reason, and never actually published it! Oh well....two weeks late is better than never!


It's been calling for rain for days here, but the rain just never seems to come, so I decided this morning to actually water the garden. Horton is just nuts about the hose. He goes crazy trying to jump in it, chase it, eat it, and if you keep him away from it, he cries and cries. Jesse was holding him back while I was watering the garden, and eventually we gave in to Horton's plea, and sprayed him with the hose for a few minutes. Meanwhile, Abe was hunkered down inside, for fear that we might spray him with the hose too. He hates being wet. So this little episode ends, and we go about our business in the yard. As we look up, there's Horton rolling in the freshly dug up dirt, just as happy as can be. I went to grab the camera, but by the time I got back out there, he had rolled in the wet grass and cleaned himself considerably. He was still cute enough to deserve a photo though!

Well Said.

Check this out. (And it was even a CNN headliner!)

I'm Not The Only One

I thought this was interesting, as I had just posted about seeing myself in a swimsuit in a mirror....there was a psychology study done in which men and women were both given 2 math tests that they had to take in front of a mirror. On one of the tests, they were issued sweaters to wear. On the other test, they were issued swimsuits to wear. The scores for men didn't change at all based upon what they were wearing, but the scores for women dropped drastically when they were wearing a swimsuit.