mini camping trip wknd update

Doug and I went "away" Friday/Saturday. But not too far.

why do 2 people going for one night need so much stuff?!

say hello to my little friend

the view from the back tent window

the view from the tent door, mom and dad's house!

I will definitely be returning to Ma and Pa's Campgrounds. The showers were hot, they even threw in a dinner on the grill and a pancakes breakfast! :)

It was just good to go away for a night.

The next morning Doug worked with Dad on some wood project he's trying and I made salsa and canned with mom.

That little mix made quite tasty salsa!

I also signed up for my RN -> BSN program, sigh, and started looking at the program/classes/homework online. After that we headed to a nearby town to see a hot air balloon festival. I think it wasn't really happening for several hours and it was starting to rain so we headed back home.

We were hungry so we stopped and got Thai to celebrate Doug's spontaneous raise he got at work, yay!

We ran a couple errands together and then settled in for a redbox. September is such a daddy's girl!

This morning was a new church, stillll hunting. And a friend's surprise birthday party. Then house cleaning/laundry for me, and Doug mowed and has been working in the crawl. He sanded the mud in the bathroom for a while, but we think we're going to hire his friend to do it, it's just not worth us being frustrated about it every day!

Yesterday we picked up this birdbath. We were at Meijer and they had stuff 50% off, the sticker said it was $29.99, so I thought, yeah I'd spend $15 on that. But then Doug checked out and it rang up as $29.99 and said it had been $59.99. Heeeeeyy! Shouldn't the tag say $59.99?? So I've got it set up, we'll see if the birds even come, or maybe I should just call and ask, I don't know. That's annoying though.

And in other news my new bible came!

Half.com had said it was in "good" condition so might have highlighting/marks, but it is perfect, and hardcover, and all for just $7.

Right now I've got another Sweet Corn and Zucchini Pie in the oven for dinner and baking a batch of Toasted Almond Coconut Granola. Mmmmm

this time with added green peppers from mom's garden

It's the best!

We've got a half work week ahead and then heading out of state for a friend's wedding!

bathroom mudding

Yesterday Doug told me one of his friends was coming over to work on our bathroom, um, yes please! Doug has been doing all the mudding, I haven't done anything yet! So for the mere trade of some breakfast, and we're getting pizza for lunch, our bathroom is getting the 2nd (or 3rd) layer of mud as I type.

I used some kale from my garden

made an omelet from eggs from my nursing school friend's chickens and side of oven potatoes

Yes ladies, he's single.

But seriously, he is one of Doug's friends I really like and is super friendly and a nice guy. Unfortunately he's in between jobs now (hope he can find something soon!) but the good part of that is he's spending the morning working with us out of the kindness of his heart, thank you!

And good for me as I maybe can skip this mudding step, and then I'll be back in for priming/painting. We still have a ways to go with tiling the floor and replacing the toilet, then all the little things like re-trimming everything, but maybe 1/3 done?

This afternoon sometime Doug and I are headed up for a quick camping weekend. I just want to get away for a little bit. So some sitting by the fire, sleeping out under the stars, and plain ol' sleeping in, sounds wonderful. There is some kind of hot air balloon festival thing nearby tomorrow so we might do that too, or a little kayak, we'll see! Kinda nice having no plans :)

weekend update

Friday... seems like so long ago. I think Doug and I planned on the whole day to work on our bathroom. We ended up just putting up the last shard of drywall. He made me breakfast in the am, we ran errands and went out for lunch, got new brakes put on my car, worked on the dresser, it was a nice day not working on the bathroom!

Saturday I worked till like 8:30pm, I was tired. I came home and Doug had his guy friends over, they were playing glow-in-the-dark frisbee. I'm glad he has good friends. I think I snuggled September and finished (re-)watching Eclipse.

Sunday was checking out Jill's church, I had kinda thought it wasn't for us but it is a really good church. Had a good convo with the pastor after the sermon. Turns out the Christian Missionary Alliance is super similar to the Assembly of God (Doug's background) with the one difference being the part I don't agree with about Assemblies of God! It was kinda crazy, the pastor was explaining the difference to us, and I was elbowing Doug. Anyway, the church is small, we don't want a mega-church, but we are hoping for similarly aged/situated couples to 'do life' with, amongst other church "wish list" things. After church we went out for lunch with Jill and then I went over to Rachel's to learn to make and can tomato jam. It was a really nice afternoon.

I came home and Doug had mudded all the nail holes and started papering the cracks!

tomato jam :) super delicious on crusty baguette and sharp cheddar... mmmmm

Monday was Jill's birthday. She, her bf, and I rode our bikes 9 miles to a mexican restaurant where another friend met us up for lunch. We were there some 2+ hours talking, eating, and laughing. It was fun altho I think Jill's bf was too overwhelmed by girl talk, he kept saying never again, haha. We biked back and I came home to make dinner for Doug.

I made the Sweet Corn and Zucchini pie again, again tasty, but this time I used just regular cheddar and provolone, and it wasn't quite as good as when I used the 'fancy' Irish cheddar

I made these no-bake cookies Liz has been making a lot (why do I even bother, mine are never as good!)

I had bought this coconut oil from Meijer, I hesitated a lot, because, well, Crisco, but it was organic (and on sale) so I got it. Liz sent me some info about coconut oil where the virgin one has the coconut smell/flavor, but one of the processes uses a lot of heat and chemicals to actually get the oil out, so it's not the most environmentally friendly oil. I can't actually remember which one was ok to get. I wouldn't get this one again, it creeped me out how it turned into these weird small globules. My TJ oil when it was below 76* would turn into a white creamy oil, this one looked 'unnatural'. Plus I actually like the hint of coconut flavor.

Lastly I prepped this dinner for one of my work nights, I had made pinto beans in the crockpot, and then just added sauteed zucchini and onions, topped with can of enchilada sauce and cheese and it's ready to bake!

Today was the last day of my 'long weekend'. I met up with a nursing school friend for breakfast, which was so nice. I really want to do some sort of discipleship thing with her, but I don't know how! And I'm afraid. And we live like 30-40 mins apart. But from talks during school I felt like she is somewhat open. I think at least start by trying to get together more regularly.

After that I went over to Liz's and we salvation army shopped for clothes for this little (big!) guy. This 3 month old is already in 9-12 month clothes

moody blues

I was crafting yesterday and I stopped and thought, I feel happy right now. And then I thought about how sad it was that being 'happy' was at home, alone, doing projects, and sad that I don't really feel 'happy' much anymore. I feel like I've been feeling like this for awhile, but nothing really concrete to pin it to. Things with Doug are good, disagreements and bickering (mostly from me) here and there, but no money issues or huge problems, we're working away on our house and it's getting cuter and homey, I do feel overwhelmed at work, but I'm mostly working part-time unless I pick up an extra shift, so I have time off during the week. I just don't know. At home I feel overwhelmed with cleaning, and what to cook. It's a struggle to get my exercise done and I was a person who exercised almost every day. Now sometimes I just lay on the couch for hours. Then some days I'll feel lonely here at the house but when Doug comes home I'm snippy and short tempered. I don't know what is wrong with me.

One thing I think is different is my relationship with God. I remember from my divorce class the leader was saying that one day you were going to look back and miss that time- because it was a time of complete dependence on God and being led and filled by Him. And it's true, I miss that, I miss Him. And I think of those little sayings, 'when you feel far from God it's because you moved, not Him'. And I did. But I want to come back.

One of my favorite verses, James 4:8, Draw near to the Lord and He will draw near to you.

It's starting to wear on me too, our church hunt. I want to be somewhere and get involved. But I do have the time to study my bible now, I just don't do it. But I want to.

It's kinda silly, for years I put on my birthday wish lists that I wanted the NIV study bible. I love the extra behind the scenes information. One year my mom got me the Women's study bible that had mini devotions. Another year she got me the Quest bible that had questions and answers in there. But why not just get me the one I asked for? This year I asked Doug to get it for me, he ordered it and we waited and waited, finally he checked and saw that the order had been cancelled. Am I not meant to have this bible?! I'm just going to order it for myself. And not that this will solve all my problems, but all that extra information makes it easier to understand and I like it, so I'll read more. Hopefully. I think it just comes down to discipline and habit. But I need to- God is the only one who can make me feel fulfilled, purposeful, 'happy', and change my attitude and heart with His love.

Anyway, Doug has been awesome. He helps me around the house when I need help, he's working so hard to make it nicer for me, he hugs me, gives me compliments, assures me of his love. I do feel really blessed.

And I do like crafting and making stuff (even though I'm really just a good 'copier' not an original thinker, and I'm ok with that). I like doing it, and I like making gifts for people.

So on that ever so smooth transition, I made some baby drool bibs yesterday. I have 2 friends having babies and they aren't finding out the gender. Boo! Hard to plan gifts. But I saw these on pinterest or somewhere so I thought I'd make some in case they are boys.

Bought some 'supplies' from the Salvation Army

I got a couple onsies to be the bowtie part of the design, but the knit fabric was jamming my machine. And I got a shirt to cut up, but then I decided I liked it for Doug to actually wear.

so I cut up this thin threadbare one from his closet

bib pattern

used an old towel for the back of the bib

all sewed waiting for the bowtie

used old scrap material for the bowtie and one is done. I think it's pretty cute.

It's been good having more free time during the summer, I have gotten lots of projects done and been able to see people during the day. But in the fall I'll be going back to school (online) for my RN -> BSN so I will be busier, and I do want to make it a habit to study my Bible, and be in an actual study with Doug and other couples, and still have time to cook healthy, exercise, and maintain relationships with family, friends, and of course Doug and I. Maybe part of it is also just learning time management at home and work. Pray for me!

Annie Homemaker

Today I went up to mom's to learn how to can. Mom had already started without me, but I helped can the rest of a half bushel of tomatoes.

It wasn't "hard", but time consuming, and uses a lot of water!

Oh my gosh mom's garden puts mine to so much shame. This is my first garden and all, but mom has huge tomatoes and the stems are so thick and hearty and mine are just not. Next year maybe I'll try the raised beds, but I just don't have the space mom has (and hard work drive?). Oh well.

She had one basil plant that grew like 4 feet tall and was overflowing with leaves, so we made pesto.

I followed some easy recipe I just googled, it was 1/4 c. toasted almonds (but I did toast mine a little too long :(, 1/2 cup olive oil, 2 cups basil leaves (I think my huge pile was more than that), salt and pepper to taste and a dash nutmeg all whizzed around in the food processor. Easy. I took home half the recipe and plan to have it over hot penne pasta tomorrow with some grilled chicken on top. Yum!

let there be light

Doug has been working putting up the drywall in the bathroom, and this last weekend he installed our new light fixture.

I really liked these clear seeded glass shades, except you could see some 3-4 inches of the lighting element, so I didn't really like that look

so we took those back to Lowes and got different shades, let there be different light!

(apparently I have different wattage bulbs in there)

I'm almost done with the repainting of the bathroom cabinets and we got a new top for our vanity. I had planned on saving the old one, but when we put it on the newly painted white vanity, the top looked really off-white, creamy colored and it had some dings that were bugging me anyway. So we found a new top at Menards.

The next step is the mudding and sanding of the drywall, we are planning to follow this YHL blog post, but let me just say I am not looking forward to it!

Other things around here, Doug and I went with some friends to the dream cruise this weekend, it was a HOT day! But we had fun with friends.

I have a sunflower bloom at last!

So tall! (our fence is about 6 ft and it is still taller than that) It actually looks a little droopy now though, hang in there sunflower!

I picked this cucumber, I had been waiting weeks to see if it would get bigger. Then I cut it up for Doug and I and it was so disgusting, I think those weeks I waited for it to get bigger it was just slowly rotting inside. It tasted sour and rancid, EW!

It finally is growing some more little friends, so this time I will pick them asap.

I had some time to relax in the hammock this weekend with this fancy chocolate Liz got me for my birthday. I finished my book club book, The Historian. It was good in the way that I did want to read and see what would happen, but when I was done I wasn't super happy that I'd invested all that time reading a 600+ page meh book. Not worth it.

Also for my birthday I got a new Jillian kickbox DVD and I did it this morning. Mixed feelings... I liked the music, I liked that Jillian wasn't super annoying and yelling as she is in her other videos, I liked that this time a "20 minute workout" was actually 20 minutes instead of 5 mins warm up, 20 mins workout, 3 min cool down. Plus one of her other dvds makes you watch this unskippable intro EVERYTIME. So that was good. I didn't love that it was only 20 minutes. I am a half hour exercise kinda girl. So I did 2 out of the 3 workouts together. I also didn't like that there are 8 some extra girls in the background. All I need is Jillian, and a beginner modifier girl and advanced modifier girl. I don't need all these extra back ups who are sometimes doing things wrong and just yelling and shouting unnecessarily. The last thing I didn't like about this dvd is that she doesn't switch legs at all! She does 2 sets of exercises so it seems like set 1 should be right leg, set 2 left. But she does both sets on the same leg. I hate that. Overall, the workout seemed pretty decent, seriously, how hot does she keep that room that those poor girls are dripping in sweat?! But I did feel a good hammy burn after all the kicks, and it was ok cardio.

(found those ratings online)