tired out...

Got up early with a splitting headache and gulped down some tylenol and surveyed the job ahead of me. The kitchen and dining room. The night before, Kate and I discovered that there was ugly brown carpet underneath the kitchen carpet. And underneath the ugly brown carpet? a hardwood floor that was definately not ugly. Will have to take all the carpet up first before we know what condition it is in, but from what we saw, it looked quite good. So we'll sand that down and refinish it - hopefully this week yet. Got the wallpaper down today, and Dad was over helping, and was there for a few hours after I left to go to work, so I'm not sure if the carpet was taken up yet or not. But next thing to do is get carpet up and stove moved and rent the sander and get the floor sanded. Then refinish, and I'll have to stay at Mom and Dad's while the floor dries, I guess -- because both doors are off of the dining room, so it would be a bit hard to walk around if you couldn't use the floor! :P Just about put myself in traction removing the wall paper today... I was up on the counter with the sponge, trying to get the wallpaper wet and pliable so that I could pull it off. MY hands got wet and then a bit gooey from the wallpaper paste residue, andI was trying to get down and slipped. I grabbed on the closest available item (before I went crashing onto the floor headfirst) and that happened to be the freezer door. So of course my weight was too much for it and it swung open, so there I am, swinging like a dang monkey, before precariously landing on the floor. Kate's mom was helping, and she thought I would be more hurt than I was, but I seem to be okay. The freezer door is less fortuntate, however, and doesn't close as well as it did. In fact, when you open the refrigerator door, the freezer opens with it. Ummmm... I hope we can fix that... Oh well, I'm glad I'm not in a body cast. That would seriously have hampered things on the house...

I've moved in!!!

Yay!! I'm finally in my new house. It's pretty cool living on my own. :) Am pretty tired today, though -- stayed up til 4:30 this morning gettng stuff done, and then had to get up by 8:30ish to get ready for doc. appt.

Monty was afraid to sleep by himself in the new house, so I let him sleep with me (which was better anyway, cuz then Iwasn't all alone in the big new house either... lol.

Yeah, I know, I spoil my dog... but he's my baby, and a big sweetheart. :) Ya can't help but spoil him.

Got a big day of work tomrrow though. Looks like Saturday is yard-work time... whoo-hooo!!! (Can you tell I'm totally excited?) Not...

Well, I'm tired tonight, but I get done with work in half an hour, so finally I can go home and believe me, I'm gonna sleep!!

Ciao

Happiness is...

Organized chaos... See, I have alot going on right now, but most of it is a lot of good stuff going on, and so its a good kind of busy. I was able to get a car for pretty cheap today - like $450 cheap, so that I have an inexpensive vehicle to drive to and from work every day without guzzling so much gas. Since our new house is about 45 miles from where I work, this will make a huge difference. :D Which reminds me.. I have to call the insurance agent...

Anyway, I love my truck, but I'm alot happier knowning that I'll be only chucking out about half of what I usaully pay in gas now...:P

Whoo - hoo!

okay, i'm back...

As you can probably tell from my last post, I got distracted like mid-thought, and had to go do something else. Alas, the pains of working... (yes I'm at work).

Oh, um, yeah, so I was saying I needed to get focused, because I was concentrating on the gloomier events in my life and not the good ones.

Namely, that I'm getting married in Decemember, and in about nine days, I'll be moving into mine and Nick's *new* house... and best of all, in less than two months -- NOVEMBER -- (drumroll, please) me and NIck will finally be toghether!!! :D Okay, and I have lots of really cool friends to outwiegh the one that confusing me at the present... Friends that make me laugh when I read their blogs like Andy , who blogs about blogging...

Don't ask.

Anyway, on a more serious note, my reminder to stop focusing on the negative things came from a family who's son is recovering from a horrible accident. The whole family is still remaining cheerful and positive and keeping their eyes on God.

I am in awe of their peace and serentity at this time. I tend to just freak out and calm down later. But when I concentrate on the good things God has done for me, I find I have much more strength, and peace to deal with difficult situations.

The job will eventually get better... My friend decides the fate of her own life; I cannot make decisions for her. I can't change her - only God can -- and she has to let Him. So instead of freaking out about it, I should just relax and let God take care of it. I'm quite certain he'll do a better job than I can, anyway. :P

Dazed and confused...

...Or perhaps just exhausted. Okay, so I'm tired today... I've been running around all weekend and already, the week has seemed to go on forever. One thing to cheer about: tomorrow is pay-day, and I can pay off some bills and that always feels good. :)

Got the tile for the kichen, bath and laundry room for new house today -- that was fun. Was also able to lock in an exceptionally low interest rate for the house, so I'm pretty jazzed about that as well.

I have a cold, so have been drinking tons of orange juice -- need to get my engery back, because when we close in a few weeks, I'm going to be VERY busy with house.. Got to sand all the hardwoord floors, paint and tile. Will keep me busy, hopefully most of the heavy projects are done before Nick moves in. I want it to look like our house when he gets here -- not someone else's. Its fun to make something your own. His parents are coming for the wedding, too; it would be neat if they could see the house when it is finished. :)

Will still have plenty of stuff to keep us busy, lots of yard work and projects in the workshop outside, so I think we'll have a busy fall/winter. Will have to have a big yard day, mowing and trimming and cutting grass, there's some overgrowth we need to take care of, but all in all, tis a very cute little place and not alot of work at all.

I love looking out the window at the beautiful big trees and I can't believe that the house is OURS. I feel like I live in a fairy tale. :)

Was talking to a co-worker today who was highly skeptical of a relative of his who met his wife online and can't figure out how they could have such a great relationship (they hardly knew each other, how can you know someone online?).

*Ahem* At this point, I cleared my throat and reminded him that Nick and I met online, and that WE were marrying as well. hehehehe...

Apparently, he's not impressed with internet relationships, but I am quite happy with the internet bringing me and Nick together, thank you very much. I adore him, and I couldn't be happier. :) Well... mabye if he lived next door, now that would be most wonderful. :D

At any rate, I'm pretty tired from all the running about, and am trying to keep everything straight. I keep noticing typos... grrrrr.... I have an excuse now --- I'm tired, and my brain is not functioning to its full capacity. Don't ask what my excuse was previously --- I'm known for my typos. :P

At any rate, I shall leave you to your wondering about the actual depth of my mental capacity -- I don't have time to ponder it; I've got to get back to work. :P

*Disclaimer*

In light of a recent email I sent out regarding overtime pay, some people are under the erronius impression that I am a Kerry supporter. Since I do not wish to recieve any more email blasts, I will say right now, that I am not, nor will I ever be, a supporter of John Kerry. He, along with Micheal Moore, can crawl back under the rocks from whence they emerged. While I may disagree with one of Bush's political decisions (such as cutting overtime pay), it does not mean I do not support him. I am simply trying to take action and DO something, instead of sitting and whining about how bad everything is. Alas, now I await the inevitable blasts from the left front. *sigh* I hate politics.

Close to Home...

In a town close to mine, there's a high-school senior named Aaron who was in a very bad car accident last Saturday night. He wasn't even able to get out the car, but he called his girlfriend to tell her he was hurt; his girlfriend's step-dad went out to find him right away. It was a good thing he did; by the time the dad got there, the car was on fire, and he just managed to get him out of the car before it went up in flames. Unfortunately, Aaron's back was severely damaged and he has no feeling below the waist, and he might never walk again. :(

I don't know Aaron personally, but my heart goes out to him and his family right now. Four years ago, Nick (my fiance) was in a bad accident as well, that left him with a broken back. Doctor's told him he'd never walk again, but he's living proof that miracles still happen. He's walking -- it wasn't easy, but he got there.

Anyway, I love Nick, but I still will never know what it was like for him to go through that. But I do know that he's probably the toughest, strongest, bravest person I've ever met.

But I know that such an event would be earth-shattering, and my heart really goes out to Aaron and his family. I just wanted you all to pray for this kid, that God will work another miracle. He needs all the prayers he can get.

You can check on his status at this site:

http://www3.caringbridge.org/wi/aaron/

(If that link doesn't work, then go to http://www3.caringbridge.com . Click on "visit", then "wi" in the directory section. and then type in "aaron" for the name.)

We will not forget...

... those who lost their lives in the terrorist attacks, or the brave heros who gave their lives trying to save them. All over the world, terrorism shows its ugly face -- from the constant attacks in Israel, to the bombings in Spain, to the recent horror in Russia, where terrorists actually targeted and murdered children. One never realizes how precious live is until one fathoms what has been lost. The richness and everyday joys that life has to offer, the simple pleasures that make us happy to be alive -- that was stolen from all of these victims. They had lives, and futures, and loved ones, and hopes and dreams -- all lost -- extinguished by the cold monster of terrorism.
There were men that never got to hold their newborn child, and women that never got to kiss their children goodnight, children that became orphans. Many of the children in Russia that died were so young that many of the simple joys of growing up were stolen from them. Some of them were so young they had not even learned to read yet. They died before they had a chance to fall in love for the first time, experience a first kiss, marry or have children of their own. It makes me angry that their lives were stolen from them; that they will never be able to live the lives they were meant to live. It should make us all angry.
Terrorism is a monster; the men and women who commit terrorist acts are monsters as well, there is no justifacation for the evil that they do to the innocent victims. There is no excuse, no matter how downtrodden they claim to be -- there is no justifcation for murdering innocent people to get the government's attention. To have so much disregard for human life is unforgiveable.

We MUST not forget. We cannot forgive such evil.

But we must not hate like the terrorists do; for that is how terrorism is bred -- through blind hatred and predjudices. We cannot be like them; we must fight terrorism where it starts and try to stop the anger and hatred in our own communtites.

This election year, there is so much of that -- but we're all Americans -- we should be United. That's what we are - the United States of America. Yet we let ourselves be divided, and our country is becoming bitterly divided in this war. And its a war against terrorism.

We need to come back together, or the terrorists WILL have won; a country divided will not stand. We must somehow learn to reconcile our differences and stand united and strong as ONE country, one Nation.

Let us not forget our soldiers, the brave men and women fighting a war that NONE of us want them to fight, but a war that some of us believe is necessary. We all want them to come home safely, and we must focus on keeping them safe and bringing them home safely. Too many have already died, not because of a president's policy, but because terrorism is still alive, and still threatens us.

That is why we must never forget. If we do, we do those that have died a great disservice.

okey dokey

IN 18 more days, I'll be living in my own house. Yay!!! We close on the 27th, and then the keys are mine (and Nick's). Whoo hoo!!!! I can't wait to get in there and decorate. :D

Life has loveliness to sell...

I have much of life's loveliness right now. An awesome fiance', a cool new house, (yay), and a wedding that is coming up in just a few months. :) Everything is going well on house -- the sale of Nick's house closed last friday, and the money will pay for down payment for house we are getting. We should close on that purchase in a couple of weeks. I'm so happy that its finally OURS. The house is so lovely. Lots of trees, and a few weeping willows, fruit trees, flowers, vines on the porch. Its like out of a storybook. :) I feel like I'm in a storybook sometimes. I've met my mr. right and we're going to live happily ever after in our little white house in the country. All we're missing is the white picket fence. hehehehe.

Work has been keeping me tremendously busy -- we are having an Italian Night this Friday for the residents -- should be fun. We're going to turn the dining room into an old style Italian Ristorante' and play the Italian music and stuff. I think we'll have a ball. :)

After that, I'm off to camp with my parents... lol, at the same campground where I took a dive into the firepit. Gosh, hope that doesn't happen again. :P I'll think I'll stick to the lit path this time...

Counting down the dyas til my honey gets here. :) Will be about eight more weeks, so hope the time flies by. I think it will -- I've got quite a bit to get done before he gets here, so I think he'll be here before I know it. :) Whoo-hooo!