Indeed

Well, last Saturday Jeremy got here and we've been trying to squeeze him in ever since-- we both just have too much stuff! I've got him a few hours a week at FBC working with me, but there's also a possibility of an opportunity at the Goodyear in town which obviously isn't exactly what he's looking for, but might pay the bills for a while. We're thinking that if he gets that, we'll look at some of the 1 BR apartments (carriage houses, in-laws suites, etc) around town because we need at least a little more space. Plus, the 1BRs around here have been on the market for so long that we might be able to talk them down a little in rent!

Work was kind of crazy this week, but it went smoothly, and hopefully will continue to go smoothly. I didn't get the job at Emory, which isn't a surprise (someone who was laid off in my mom's round of downsizing applied for it, so she had immediate preference), but I'm up for another one which would be great. It'd be really hard for me to leave AS, but I think Richard kind of understands that I do need to find something that will pay more of the bills.

Friday I racked up at a clothing swap with Meg, Sarah, Stacy, Amanda, Chris, and Tracy. It was a lot of fun, I really love Stacy's house, and it was great to go have fun with them. Michael and Jeremy watched Watchmen, which I'll have to watch on my own now, but c'est la vie. Yesterday, we went for Wade and Iggy's birthday dinner with our new second family, and then on to Iggy and Wade's to stomp muscadines for wine!

The pictures loaded in reverse order, but here are a few!

The grapes post-stomping-- tasty!

I'm wearing that stylish t-shirt because Violet puked all over me-- twice!

This is what 41 pounds of Muscadines looks like!

Violet loves Jeremy! Not that we're surprised :)

Driving Rain

As in, "Brings new meaning to the term..."

A LOT has happened in the last few days, I'm so exhausted I'm falling asleep, so I'll just post about the drive up on Thursday which was way less eventful than the last two!

I left at about 11a on Thursday, which was an hour later than I had intended since I wanted to get here early afternoon, but there had been a totally wicked storm on Wednesday night/early Thursday morning so I decided it would be better to sleep a little late and therefore miss the rain since it was supposed to blow through-- the radar looked totally clear when I left... SURPRISE! I got to Irondale (about 20mi outside Birmingham) and there was a mini monsoon! I could see about five to ten feet in front of me so I kept on going, but I didn't get out of it until I hit the city limits. Thank goodness I didn't have to go 20 through B'ham in that-- it's crazy enough on a clear day, and even worse on a rainy one!! Once I got through Birmingham, it was pretty clear sailing

...

Until I got to Tupelo where the rain was even WORSE! It got so bad, I pulled off and sat at a gas station for a few minutes to let it pass (and it just so happened I had to use the restroom and re-start my iTunes), it was so strong when I parked my car in front of the door that I couldn't even see the door from where I was sitting. Absolute insanity. Oh, and that was about 350mi of straight driving without stopping. I am a god.dess.

I got back on the road and filled up again past Pontotoc, and was totally stoked to see that I got at least 37mpg on the trip up! Yeah 12 year old beat up station wagon! I probably could have gotten 40mpg (I have once or twice before), but since the exits are a little inconsistent between Tupelo and Olive Branch on 78 I decided it was better safe than sorry.

Got to Southaven about 430p, which was just over 6 hours including the stop in Tupelo-- totally awesome time. I talked to Jan for a little while and got my stuff out of the car, then went to pick Sophia up to have dinner with Caro and Valisa. I got on the interstate and talked to Jeremy for a few, and then some nasty lightning started up over Olive Branch and then the rain came. More torrential rain up to midtown and all the way to Buffalo Wild Wings, but I did get to catch up with my babies which was really exciting! Also, BWW was totally yummy. I miss it. Though I have to say the service at the one in Southaven is WAY better. Mine and Fia's Blue Moons weren't served with an orange, and then when I asked for orange slices, the waitress thought we wanted them to snack on before our food got there or something. I told the manager on the way out; I don't care how snobby it sounds-- if you're going to serve premium beer, you need to serve it properly. Plus, it takes forever to get food there, the servers are almost unintelligible, and the last time Sophia was there, the waitress didn't bring them forks and when they did get someone to bring them silverware... she brought them one fork! For three of them!

Went window shopping with Sophia at Shoenami and Old Navy, then we went up to the brand new Target by Emily (the one I went to brunch with last weekend) which is big and shiny and RIDICULOUSLY AWESOME. I mean, we all know I love me some Target, but this one is probably the best of all Targets put together. Even if it doesn't have a cart escalator. (I was going to put up these pictures of Dill as exemplary photos, but the internet is being slow so I shall just link them one by one) I picked up Oceans 13 for Jeremy (which we saw like three times in theatres right before we started dating), The Essential Journey for myself (because if you don't love Journey, or at the very least "Don't Stop Believin'", you're just not human), and I found serving platters for the wedding on sale for $4 off!! There were only two, so I went ahead and grabbed them, though I should have picked up a couple of rain checks to make sure I could pick up two more if I wanted them... maybe I'll see if they're on sale at the Southaven Target tomorrow.

I dropped Fia off after that and headed home. About a mile from the house, my battery light and brake light all of the sudden came on and my steering got really tight, I pulled in to the driveway and turned the car off, and turned it back on to make sure it was still working and it was-- the solution to that will come with Friday's story. I also realized that I was supposed to go over my resume with Amy on Friday but had forgotten my jump drive with the whole kit and caboodle on it at home, but I had it somewhere in Gmail (love the search feature! and the saving of sent mail!) so I tried to get on the wireless... only to realize that even had my computer not crashed and wiped all the wireless settings, I had actually never USED this computer here. I left Jan a note to see if she had the wireless key and Marc a note about the strange lights in my car and headed to bed.

Coming Up: I cancel an appointment, shell out $140, and apparently manage to dodge death and stymie the JiffyLube boys!

Oh, Brent

Brent randomly sent me a text message just now with the lyrics to "Safety Dance" that old 80's favorite, which is kind of awesome because it was the one "classic" 80's song I didn't hear on my station tonight. And also awesome because it was just kind of funny and random.

I didn't really get anything done on my to-do list, but I did eat a little healthier which is a good start, I think. I made a yummy salad with field greens, baby portabello mushrooms and carrots and instead of eating more Reeses pieces this afternoon, I had a bunch of Quakes, which are the mini rice cakes Quaker makes. I had too many of them, but they're still better for me than chocolate and peanut butter! Tomorrow, I'm going to do oatmeal for breakfast, some of the Morningstar Farms "hot wings" and a small salad for lunch, and maybe some meatloaf for dinner to get some protien and some more veggies with the green beans and mashed taters. I also need to run a few errands, including finally mailing off the stuff for Ana-- last week just got so busy I didn't have a chance, which stinks because it also means I forgot to get Jeremy to sign a late birthday card for Valerie! C'est la vie, I suppose.

Started watching "Lie to Me" tonight, which is a pretty cool show actually. It's about a guy who is, in essence, a human lie detector-- he's a scientist who studies facial expressions and body language to tell if people are lying. Of course I'll admit I like anything that could be considered a crime drama, but the premise is nifty and the cast is great.

Time for tea and sleep, so more later. Ciao!

Oh, right, the organizing...

Now I just have to organize all my stuff in the new house... we're trying to figure out the heat because it's doing some strange stuff. Mine and Casey's side of the house is always hot, but Mom and David's side is always cold, which explains the thermostat wars we've been having the last couple nights. We think we're going to get a digital (programmable, hopefully) thermostat to put in so we know exactly what the temperature is-- right now, it's one of those tap the lever just so kinds that you can't really get any accuracy on.

I'm in a little better mood going in to this next week, but still anxious. I feel like my days are an exercise in futility at work, I just don't make that much money. If I make enough to do something to my car and do gas down to Savannah and have an extra $15, I may go to the brandy tasting. I may go anyway since dad's going and it's a nice neutral place for us to spend time and not worry about anyone getting bent out of shape. It's also nice to spend time with Jill, my boss, who rocks my world-- for the vodka tasting we got a free glass of our Prosecco (my FAVORITE of our new wines) which totally made my night! Emily might also get to go, so that would be fun. I need at least one night a week out, but I also can't afford to spend the money. I'll do Savannah this weekend (and may have to miss the staff meeting-- I mean, how often do I get to go to Savannah? Hint: Last time, I was wearing a green Girl Scouts uniform!), then Daytona at the beginning of March, and I need to get to Memphis hopefully by the end of March or April, but definitely in May for graduation-- All my babies are graduating! I can't believe my last little sis and my grand little are seniors!

I don't have any major expenses for the wedding coming up in the near future, but I need to be careful about making sure I save since there's going to be about $2k paid out between October and December. We've kind of come to the conclusion that I'll put my money towards paying down my bills and paying for the wedding, Jan and Marc are giving us some money that we'll use partially to pay for postage (insanely expensive, I tell you what!) and then put the rest in a high-interest savings account for our Singapore/Thailand/Japan honeymoon! Jeremy's money in savings will go towards paying for moving and a deposit on where we live, and then we'll combine our debts and try to pay them all off in the first 8 months after school. This should be utterly feasible with the exception of the student loans which could be done with in two years. Ambitious goals, but we really don't want to end up in debt. It might mean we won't have the fanciest place to live and we'll have to hold on to our dinky old cars, but we want to make sure we can pay for prenatal care when we have kids, give them a good house and get safe cars to drive them around in.

As for the wedding itself, I know TJ's (Trader Joe's) will give me a good price on the wine (sorry kids, no Nobul at the reception!) and there's a great place my friend Julie hooked me up with that will give me a phenomenal price on the beer (since I want to do all local brews- whooo Sweetwater!!) and I've been to weddings without a champagne toast before so I'm not sure it's necessary, and it would save us a couple, maybe a few hundred. I'm doing all the gifts for bridesmaids, family, and groomsmen by hand, and the parts that aren't by hand are either inexpensive or I can get a deal on them with Jill's distributor contacts. I got a Martha Stewart Weddings last night and I'm not that big of a fan; I liked the bit on bows, gave me some cute decorating ideas, and I did find a cool candy site, but everything was so expensive! Come on, this is supposed to be Wal-Mart's chic DIY queen! I think I'm just going to take it back to CVS and see what the other magazines look like. I also found a bunch of silver ornaments that my mom has packed away that are really cute and simple, so I've already got decoration! Next up, white tulle! HEY, DILL! WHAT TIME IS IT?!

As of now, and this will hold if we're living in Georgia, Jeremy's going to bake the cake, and I'm going to make some of Paula Deen's sausage balls and get my bridal party to chop cheese like there's no tomorrow! I think between Costco and the Farmer's Market I can throw a darn good party!

Anyway, it's bedtime. I'm trying to get to bed by 2/230a at the latest. I would like to work my way down to 1a, then to midnight. I'm thinking about getting a second job part time and need to get myself on some kind of regular sleep schedule! Hopefully, I can keep myself busy catching up on my teevee on Hulu (they're running this season of Battlestar Galactica!! Geek alert!!), running through my queue on Netflix, and organizing all the boxes that need to be unpacked!!

First of the Year

Happy New Year everyone! My favorite holiday next to Halloween, where we can spend our time with loved ones and celebrate a fresh start. Check out the links, they're pictures of and by me in Florida; the ones of the manatees at Blue Springs came out great!

Christmas Eve- flew down to Jacksonville where Jeremy picked me up. We took the long way back down to Daytona, stopped at a beach and took a stroll, and drove through St. Augustine before we got home. Relaxed for a little bit with the History Channel and ordered some Papa Johns for dinner. I'd brought down stuff for mulled wine so we cooked some of that up and had a glass (which helped with Jeremy's coughing nast) and wished everyone in Indiana a Merry Christmas on the phone.

Christmas Day- got up earlyish, put up the pictures I had printed for Jeremy and turned on the tree I bought. I started on a pot roast with onions and potatoes, which turned out fantastically. We ate on that for dinner, and watched a movie but I can't remember which one-- we watched about five or six the whole time.

Up Through New Years Eve- We also caught up with the Eiler's Christmas slideshow-- Analia just keeps getting more and more adorable! If they didn't live in Singapore I would offer long-term babysitting for free, she's got such a great personality for such a little girl. Went to the Bulow Sugar Mill and wandered around, it was a really cool place-- once the biggest Sugar Mill in the area that shipped out to St. Augustine, Jacksonville, and Savannah. On the way back we wandered around part of the loop and stopped to take pictures of the pretty bird. We went to lunch with Jeremy's classmate Ron and his wife Cathy the next day, really nice people and very funny. Ron and Jeremy have the same sense of humor-- no wonder they get on so well! Walked around the little shopping complex in front of Wyotech and then went for a ride around the loop. The next day we rode down to Waleka with them and went out to the dock and watched the water for a few minutes. It was so much fun to be back on the bike again, and now that I'm not stressing my joints at work it doesn't hurt to ride for more than half an hour! Stopped at a great little country restaurant called MeMa's where we had corn nuggets (which were amazing!) and I got a shrimp basket for $7 with 1/3lb of fresh shrimp in it! Yum!

We laid low over the next couple days, made a couple grocery store runs, talked wedding stuff, and planned for the next week. We went down to Blue Springs State Park where the manatees were to see what we could see and... there were manatees galore!! We got to see a mama and calf, and several others hanging out throughout the naturally warm springs. We're definitely going to go back this summer when the manatees are gone so that we can swim and maybe find a place to get tubes and tube up to the St. John's river. We got home to find that the USPS had put a "Vacant House" card in the mailbox because I'd put a letter for one of the old residents in marked "No Such Resident, Return to Sender" so even though they've been delivering mail for months for the people who DID live there, they decided they were just going to stop.

New Year's Eve- we just kind of hung out for most of the day, watched some silly TV and played some Wii (though I also just watched Jeremy get angry with the Wii tennis-- way amusing), drank our champagne and watched a movie on Netflix. At midnight, we cheered, kissed, and said, "Well, I guess we're getting married this year, huh?" Went to bed not too much later after that so I could get up the next day and cook!

New Year's Day- Cooked up a good ol' meal of collard greens, black eyed peas, and corned beef. I forgot to get cornmeal, so we didn't have cornbread, but the greens and peas were the important part. We ate plenty, so we ought to have plenty of luck and prosperity this year; I'm not usually superstitious, but I take my New Years seriously! Besides, we could both use a bit of each! Watched another movie, I think the one about Genghis Khan, and discussed how silly the USPS is. Jeremy did get it straightened out, so no worries on the mail.

Jan. 2nd- We decided to go up to St. Augustine because everyone said it was super cute and charming, and I wanted to see all the historical stuff... BIG mistake. Unless you're ready to fork out $25/person just for parking and historical stuff, not including food or even water, don't even step foot in St. Augustine. Drive through, ooh and aah at the cute buildings, and then drive right on out. The parking was hard to find and expensive, all the historical stuff charged, we couldn't find a coherent map to figure out where we were so we just wandered around for a couple hours, and since the whole city seemed out to pick our pockets, we didn't feel like stopping for food. Plus, the few historical items seemed crowded out by the kitschy tourist stuff. Totally awful. We left in a half-bad mood and didn't really feel like doing anything else-- we skipped Ft. Matanzas and came straight back to Daytona where we had leftovers for dinner.

We didn't do too much exciting over the last few days, attempted Outback and was overwhelmed by the number of people and lack of space (they never seem to have enough tables!) so we got takeout, leaving Jeremy with even more leftovers to eat on for the next week and a half! I got to meet one of his roommates, Jeff, who seemed like a really cool, laid-back guy and his girlfriend Natalie who reminded me of someone I used to work with. It was a nice, quiet, relaxing time and that's exactly the kind of time we like :)

Now, I'm working hard to save for the wedding-- we know what we want, or rather I do, so I'm pretty intent on paying for it myself and not having to depend on outside help for it. My mom said she might help with the deposit for the venue, but since we get that money back (and she likes my plan) it won't be a big deal. I'm really excited about the prospects, and I'll keep everyone updated as I get ideas. It's going to be really creative, really nice, and very classic. Yes, it's possible!

Anyway, off to bed-- I'm already ruining the fairly decent sleep habits Jeremy got me in to this week. No cold water, but he's not big on letting me sleep in; which, to be fair, I asked him to enforce. We're also moving soon, which is exciting, so I'm up early to try and start packing up!