John, Big Brother and Thank You!

Sometimes you have a bad day. My poor husband is having one of those. He just doesn't feel well and yet he has to be at work all day. I felt so sorry for him at lunch because I could just tell how out of it he was. He wasn't even excited about Chick-fil-A (or the little black thing that we got for FREE that comes in a pink and white stripped bag from *that* store - courtesy of a coupon from Mom). But when I insisted that he not go back to work and call in sick for the rest of the afternoon, he wouldn't hear of it. He hasn't missed a day of work yet, and he wasn't about to. So my hope is that when he gets off work in about 30 minutes to an hour, he goes home and goes to sleep. He's got a nice little setup in "his" room upstairs - the bed is on the floor right where the air conditioner vent is... So when you lay there, the air just kind of flows over you, making for good sleep under the covers. I hope he enjoys it!!

Big Brother is on again tonight... Once again, I'm hooked this season. It's been interesting so far... Not quite as much drama as in the past, but it's gonna get there really fast seeing as how the "girl's alliance" is pretty much all the people that are left in the house. Gonna be fun to see how these girls (well, the girls and Will, the gay guy) turn on each other to win. I'm still rooting for Michael, the Okie. He may be a little slow, and not so manly as the other guys, but you gotta cheer for the ol' home state, you know. Speaking of TV, John and I watched that "Trading Spouses: Meet Your New Mommy" last night. WOW. That is quite the interesting show. Cracked us up! They took this blonde, low-carb lifesyle westcoaster and threw her into a lower middle class, overweight eastcoast family's house (and vice versa!!). Talk about some interesting situations! I told John today that I think my Aunt Stacy needs to apply for the show! They'd take her in a heartbeat - and the family would get $50,000 (or something like that). Well, that's about all for today.

Not too much is going on besides being at work. I need to write some thank you cards. ... ... ... blah.

Kitchen Demo and other stuff

We demo'd the kitchen this weekend. Boy did we make a mess! But our fridge is now nice and comfy in the corner of the kitchen where wasted cabinet space used to be (there was a cabinet area, but no door - it was just a big open space that was not useable). SO. I got home at lunch today and John had finished up the work that we had left last night. It looks great! I am so happy that things are getting done around the house. We also got our closet organizer shelves at Lowe's and organized our closets! They look SO MUCH better now - not to mention the fact that we have space now!! I still have a little organizing to go, but I'll get there. Not too much else happened this weekend. We worked our bums off! OOOOOH - just about forgot - John got his early birthday present... A GRILL!! He put it together Friday night and then we had hamburgers on it on Saturday. They were so good!! John did a wonderful job making them - they were perfect! HOWEVER, there was a not-so-fun part involved in the burger making... We have a pesky neighborhood cat (must be noted: John like this cat before the Saturday grill-day). This cat likes to rub up against me anytime I'm outside... I don't mind my cats; I don't mind John's cats; I mind OTHER PEOPLE'S cats. This cat likes to come up to me and rub against my legs (shedding the entire time). John likes to pet it and stuff, so he comes over whenever he sees us outside. WELL. John took the hamburgers outside (on a plate) and then ran back in to grab something. In the time he was inside (1 minute maybe), that STUPID cat got up on our porch railing and began eating one of the patties. This infuriated John. The cat almost died. But everything was fine - John just doesn't like that cat as much and isn't encouraging it to come over and be petted all the time any more. Lesson learned. =)

Starting My Blog

AHHHH... Been a while. A long while. Some girl on the Knot asked if anyone had a Blog and it made me decide that I need to come blog a little. So much has happened over the last months that I don't know if I'll be able to get it all into one installment. =) Subject One: Babies. No, we don't have any yet. No, we don't plan on trying for a little while. No, Kay you can't have any yet, either. Subject Two: Pets. We want a Jack Russell Terrier. Yeah, the dog that is hyper all the time! We both think they're cute, and they fit our personalities. BUT - we don't even have enough money for dog food right now, so... Subject Three: John's Job. John changed to "directv" this week. He's still a supervisor, though. He loves his new position - actually, he loves his new hours. Where he used to have to work 9-7:30, he's now working 6-2:30. He said yesterday it makes it feel like everyday is the weekend. I'm so glad that he's able to be home and do the things he's been wanting to do. HOPEFULLY he'll be getting bonuses with this new job, too. Subject Four: The New House. OOOOOOH. Where to begin. John and I have been working so hard to make this a HOME not just a house. We've now finished two rooms - my "green room" and his bathroom. Our bedroom still has some stuff around that needs to find a home, the bathroom still needs to have a wall fixed (the one we cut out to get to the pipes), the living room needs molding and paint?, the kitchen needs paint, a floor, countertops, appliances, and one blind. hehe. John's room still needs bookshelves and a frame for the bed. Pretty much after all that, we'll be done. Maybe. BUT, I do have to say that I am so very proud of my DIYer husband. I don't have any idea where we'd be if it weren't for all the work he's done (probably out about 2K!). His most recent DIY experience is his bathroom floor. He went to BigLots, found an area rug for $15, brought it home and cut it out to fit his floor PERFECTLY - we're talking around the toilet and everything! You'd never know that he did that himself. It looks like a pro did it. I need to get pics of it in my bio. He's just amazing. =) I think that's about all for now... I could probably go on and on and on, but it's 10 till 5, and I want to go home to my hubby in a timely fashion! Hopefully I'll get back into this and update my blog more often.

Singing John to Sleep

I got my hair cut!! It feels so great! So much lighter... And shorter. It's wonderful. John & I watched "Big Fish" last night... It's a super long movie, but it was good. Made me cry. I liked it. One of those movies that actually encourages you to use your imagination. John's got a job interview today. I know he's excited about it. It sounds like a good opportunity, but he hasn't actually gotten any of the particulars about what he'd be doing and exactly for whom. So we've got our fingers crossed and are just waiting to see how it goes. Speaking of John... Last few days of class. Next week is finals and then SUMMER! Wow. This semester has gone by super-dooper-music-looper fast. I sang John to sleep last night. Kinda funny, actually. I just started because he called me a teddy bear and so I sang "Teddy Bears' Picnic" with the little teddy bears (my fingers) marching all over his back and stuff. I got done and he goes, "The teddy bears can keep marching..." So I started singing all the "dumb" songs that I know - Rubber Ducky, Alice - Where Art Thou Going?, Don't Throw Your Junk in My Backyard, I Love You (a Bushel and a Peck), The Lady on the Crocodile, Six Little Ducks, etc, etc, etc... I know too many songs. I ended up putting him to sleep when I sang "The Sound of Music." Kinda made me wanna have a baby... I was thinking how my mom used to sing to me all the time and how cool it will be when I can do that to my kids. Of course, John was asleep, so I couldn't share any of this with him... Anyway... Not too much else going on... Work for me; school for John... Maybe I'll have an exciting day to talk about tomorrow... PS - Have $100 in gift cards to use at Dillards... Any ideas what to spend it on?!OH, OH, OH! I forgot to say "Happy Cinco De Mayo!!!!!!" Mexican for lunch anyone?

Spring Day at SDC

So we went to the 'ole "SDC" yesterday... It was not too bad of a day weather-wise when we first started out. Unfortunately, I'm a retard. I talked John and his dad into riding the "waterbogan." Let it be noted that two years ago when I rode this ride it was very much a not "you will get soaked" ride. It was more like a gentle spray. Ask anyone - it was somewhat uneventful as far as water rushing into your canoe goes. Anyway... We're on the ride and all of the sudden - whoops! - here comes a WAVE (I'm talking something like a tsunami type of water attack) of water into my lap. Oh, and there's another one on my left side. Oh, and one on my right, too. Didn't exactly escape dry. Not even sprayed. I was drenched. Let me say it this way, I could WRING the water out of every piece of everything on me. About this time in the day, it all of the sudden seems to get a little chillier. Was it just the fact that my BONES were wet, or that it was a funny joke from some deranged little nature fairy to make it cold? Guess I'll never know, but the walk back to the car to get some fresh clothes was all but fun. I can come up with some words to describe it, I'm sure. Let's try: guilt-stricken, chilly, disheartening, frustrating, painful, slow, embarrassing and ridiculously long. Not to mention the fact that I was apologizing profusely the entire way. Knowing that having such a bad experience is ALL your own personal fault is not the type of feeling that I wish to bestow upon any undeserving character (however, on that horrid little nature fairy...). And also not to mention the fact that we finally get changed and back into the park when lo' and behold that freakin' retard of a fairy decides to let the clouds break open and POUR out TORRENTS of blessings. Stupid fairy. As if 11" of rain in the last week wasn't enough... But we found John some hot chocolate and all was well with the world again. At least, it was once we got warm.

SDC & A Fairy

So we went to the 'ole "SDC" yesterday... It was not too bad of a day weather-wise when we first started out. Unfortunately, I'm a retard. I talked John and his dad into riding the "waterbogan." Let it be noted that two years ago when I rode this ride it was very much a not "you will get soaked" ride. It was more like a gentle spray. Ask anyone - it was somewhat uneventful as far as water rushing into your canoe goes. Anyway... We're on the ride and all of the sudden - whoops! - here comes a WAVE (I'm talking something like a tsunami type of water attack) of water into my lap. Oh, and there's another one on my left side. Oh, and one on my right, too. Didn't exactly escape dry. Not even sprayed. I was drenched. Let me say it this way, I could WRING the water out of every piece of everything on me. About this time in the day, it all of the sudden seems to get a little chillier. Was it just the fact that my BONES were wet, or that it was a funny joke from some deranged little nature fairy to make it cold? Guess I'll never know, but the walk back to the car to get some fresh clothes was all but fun. I can come up with some words to describe it, I'm sure. Let's try: guilt-stricken, chilly, disheartening, frustrating, painful, slow, embarrassing and ridiculously long. Not to mention the fact that I was apologizing profusely the entire way. Knowing that having such a bad experience is ALL your own personal fault is not the type of feeling that I wish to bestow upon any undeserving character (however, on that horrid little nature fairy...). And also not to mention the fact that we finally get changed and back into the park when lo' and behold that freakin' retard of a fairy decides to let the clouds break open and POUR out TORRENTS of blessings. Stupid fairy. As if 11" of rain in the last week wasn't enough... But we found John some hot chocolate and all was well with the world again. At least, it was once we got warm.

Jury Duty and a Joke

**John's been pestering me to blog more often... I don't know why... I mean, what kind of husband REALLY wants to know the thoughts of his wife? (wink.) **

I've been summoned for jury duty. This of course spured a whole rage of surfing the internet trying to figure out ways to get out of jury duty. I mean, come on, who wants to sit still in a room for hours every day listening - I mean actually paying attention - to people argue?! Of course I'll watch it on TV - you can get up and go to the bathroom, have you Dr. Pepper, talk outloud when you want, answer your cell phone, fall asleep, change the channel, etc. But real life? Dang, it's gotta be boring. How many quirky lawyers are out there like the amusing ones on Ally McBeal? My guesses are none (since I'm not practicing law). But then I found out that jurors get paid up to $18/day around here. That's a nice supplemental income (small, but enough to go see a movie on or something). This piqued my interest... What does a juror do? Would it be worth it? Maybe I'd get to do some really wacked out case that would take a month, and I'd get out of work PLUS get paid extra to do "nothing." It'd be like a vacation. And I'd get to be opinionated (oh, that's real hard for me)! Wow. Jury duty. Sounds like it might be kinda okay. Guess we'll see... They might not even call me to come in for the whole "voir doir" (jury selection) process. Then I would have stressed out about all of this for nothing. Oh well. That's how I operate.Okay...

Joke of the day...

G. W. Bush and John Kerry somehow ended up at the same barbershop.

As they sat there, each being worked on by a different barber, not a word was spoken. The barbers were even afraid to start a conversation, for fear it would turn to politics. As the barbers finished their shaves, the one who had Kerry in his chair reached for the aftershave. Kerry was quick to stop him saying, "No thanks, my wife Theresa will smell that and think I've been in a whorehouse," The second barber turned to Bush and said, "How about you?"

Bush replied, "Go ahead, my wife doesn't know what the inside of a whorehouse smells like."


AAAAAAHHHHH! Snap.

Later.

A story from first grade

So busy, so very busy. Today is Skip Day... John's at home; I'm at work. We would have gone to Silver Dollar City, but there are many various reasons why we didn't. It's gonna be a long day at work. I have to work overtime to make up for some time I took off yesterday. Not fun at all, but I'll manage, I'm sure. Mike's supposed to be putting Flash on my computer sometime soon... I get to learn a new program! Fun stuff. But really, I'm excited. I like learning things that are creative. I just learned something new about PhotoShop, and that made me happy. It's gonna save me a lot of time!

The reason I haven't been blogging lately is that I don't really have much to blog. I've been keeping my life/emotions low-key lately, so I'm not even worked up enough to put my thoughts down on computer.

Um... I'll just tell a story about myself... Pick an age, any age...

Okay 6. Something that happened when I was six...

First grade was a very educational year for me. I learned how to make jello pudding in a baby food jar... Make a mouse out of my thumb print... Grow bean sprouts in the closet (and EAT them!)... Clean my desk with shaving cream... Get fun things by reading books... I guess all I needed to know I learned in first grade. I also remember things that changed the way I viewed education forever. I was in a "gifted and talented" program. Every Wednesday at 1:00 Angie and I (and Chris and Josh from second grade) got to get out of class to go down to the library and learn "special things." Things like using photo exposure to impose objects onto paper. We learned how to use lemon juice and an iron to write "secret" messages. Lots of "scientific" things. It was great. Except for the other kids in my class. They didn't like the fact that Angie and I got out of class to go do things that they couldn't. I didn't see why it was a big deal - while we were gone, they would do things that I already knew how to do, and it bored me. It was the start of something that would stay with me all the way until graduation. Being smarter than everyone else isn't easy (and obviously not humbling, either). By fourth grade, the jealousy from my peers was so convicting that I determined that being smarter wasn't worth it. I began to hide my grades from people... I would even do less than my best just so I wouldn't be made a public spectacle. It's evident that I stopped learning as much, too. My IQ level actually DROPPED from Kindergarten to 6th grade. I figure that it's due to the fact that my peers convinced me that being smarter wasn't good. That I was a social leper because I was smarter. First grade. That's where it all started. I doubt that kids that young realize that they are having an impact on other kids that could last all the way up into high school. Funny thing is, I still graduated Valedictorian... But how much more could I have learned if I hadn't been influenced by negativism? Exactly why I'm a strong opposer to this whole "dumbing down" theory. There are smart kids out there... and they're probably in first grade.

About Me...

Got one of those cheesy survey questionaire things in my inbox... Figured I'd post my responses here:
1. What time is it? 9:15 am
2. Name as it appears on you Birth Certificate? (blank for internet purposes)
3. Any nicknames? Lou, Baby
4. Parent's names? Jim & Laura
5. Candles on your last cake? 25
6. Date that you regularly blow them out? November 1
7. Pets Dog and Cat? Neither
8. Favorite animal(s). ? I’m not a big fan of animals.
9. Tattoo? Nope.
10. How much do you love your job? Um… Well… When I have stuff to do, it’s okay. When I don’t it’s better. And when my boss is gone, it’s great.
11. Birthplace? (blank for internet purposes)
12. Favorite vacation spot? Anywhere but here. And usually any place with family (but only for a few days).
13. Ever been to Africa? No
14. Stolen any traffic signs? Nope. Never. But only because it wouldn’t fit in my trunk. (Giggle)
15. Ever been in a car accident? Well…Not REALLY.
16. Croutons or Bacon bits? Both!
17. 2 Door or 4 Door car? I have a 2 door, want a 4 door.
18. Salad Dressing? Ranch
20. Favorite Number? 22
21. Favorite Movie? ICK! Pick a favorite movie? How does one go about doing this? Sleepless in Seattle.
22. Favorite Color? Purple? I like to wear pink.
23. Favorite Holiday? Any day I get off work! Christmas
24. Favorite day of the week? Saturday
26. Favorite brand of body soap? I don’t use soap. I use body wash.
27. Favorite TV show? Pretty much anything on the WB (in order of appearance): Everwood, Gilmore Girls, One Tree Hill, Smallville.
28. Toothpaste? Colgate – regular.
29. Most recently read book? Well, John and I are reading “The Guardian” by Nicholas Sparks right now. FANTASTIC!
30. Perfume/Cologne? Can’t think of the name… But I love it.
31. Favorite Smell? Um… Someone cooking.
32. What do you do to relax? Sit on the couch and hit the “channel up” button on the remote continuously.
33. Favorite Fast Food? Taco Bell
34. Last hospital visit? I don’t know?! To visit someone else it’d be the day my dad fell through the chicken house roof. For myself, I think it’d be when Scottie Bahler dropped me on my face.
35. How many times did you fail your drivers license test? NONE!
36. Where do you see yourself in 10 years? Hopefully in a new place where John’s ministry is with 1-2 kids.
37. What do you do when you are bored? Pout.
38. Furthermost place you sent this message? North Carolina
39. Who will respond the fastest? I have NO earthly idea – I know most of you have done it before. But humor me, okay – I’m bored at work.
40. Least likely to respond? I have NO earthly idea – I know most of you have done it before. But humor me, okay – I’m bored at work.
41. What time is it now? 8:24 am

Yep.

Icky, icky. I guess I'm not as good at this journaling thing as I thought I'd be from my first few days' record. Oh well.

So I was in the shower this morning (ah, the bathroom - where ALL great ideas come to me), and I thought that I should write a book. I don't know about what yet, though. And I doubt it will ever happen. It was just one of those brief moments where I thought of the vast possiblities. (You know, quitting my job and such.) Ha ha. Yep.

I had a pretty crappy day last week. I got all emotional and stuff because of... well, I guess just because. I actually ended up taking half of Thursday off. Sometimes I go into these crying frenzies - John doesn't like it. I can't help it, though... It's like everything in the world is against me and all I can do about it is BAWL. Yeah, BAWL. I'm not talking sniffles and a few "tracks of tears." No way, buddy. Not me. I'm Niagra Falls. I'm talking racking sobs and headaches that last for HOURS when I'm finally done. Fun stuff, huh? Yep.

The weekend was fun, though. John's dad was here, and we all had a blast on Saturday. I got some wedding thank-you's done while the boys were out playing a round of golf. Then they came back and got me and I went with for the "back nine." (Which, ironically, is the same as the front nine, just played a little later. Welcome to the nice big world of the mid-west.) I enjoyed driving the golf cart while the boys drove their golf balls - or attempted to. I got sunburned... John got mad... John's dad got the ball to go more than 100 feet every once and a while. But I got my mexican food for supper, so all is well in the tummy of Lori.

Yep.I'm a bad friend, too. Don't answer my cell phone (ever). And hardly (ever) return calls. It's not that I'm too busy... I'm just too lazy. Yep.

Oh and one more thing... Boogety-Boogety-Boogety: Stupid crew chief... Hurt my Jimmie's chances of winning yesterday. Guess I'll just have to settle for the "good, solid top five finish." All I can say is I'm glad that Tony Stewart wasn't anywhere near there. I feel for John, though... Jeff didn't get that last burst of energy that he needed to pull of his top five finish - have to go with sixth. Not good for him when he was "supposed" to win... Guess that's what pot-holes will do to you. Listen kids - pot kills. Yep.

And that's where I'll leave you for today. Maybe I'll be better about writing this week. Maybe. Yep.