Birthday

Today is my 27th birthday. So far it's raining but it's supposed to stop by this afternoon so I will hopefully get to see the fireworks tonight. Of course, I would stand outside in the rain if it meant seeing fireworks on my birthday. Mom will be coming up today and dad is supposed to stop by as well. Planning on going to church tonight and am looking forward to that.

Jenn is here and we went out and around yesterday. Got some good pics out on the old bridge. We couldn't go out on it last year because it was still closed down from the flooding.

Now I think I shall get some brunch or something.

Hmm, no title comes to mind...

The spare bedroom is all done. I posted pictures on my facebook page. I just have to take a few more pictures of it completely completed. I am very satisfied with how it turned out and was glad that the room is "green" in that I didn't buy any new furniture but used what I had. The only sort of exception was a chair that I bought at the Salvation Army in Quincy to use as a desk chair. I cleaned it and polished it up and it fits in perfectly. The room is very relaxing and cozy, it will be perfect for guests. We are planning on putting up the door this Sunday after we get back from church. Hopefully it won't take us as long as it did the last one.

I checked out PAW last week but didn't really find any dogs that I thought would work with us. They don't have a lot of small dogs right now, which, I suppose is a good thing because that means they are in homes. So we are going to go down to Rutledge in July and find a beagle or something of that sort. We are both really looking forward to having a pet.

I am taking a "vacation" from June 29th through July 6th. I will be off for eleven days in a row and I can't wait. Mom and I are going to paint the living/dining room on the 29th and 30th. It is the last area that I have wanted to paint and the biggest. With two of us, it should go well. I can't decide if I want to prime it or not, though I know I should. Hopefully Steve will help me tape it off and that will make it go faster. Jenn will be here on the 2nd of July through the 6th. And of course my birthday is on July 4th. It's going to be an exciting and busy week! I am going to go see Wil in Morton on the 26th. I will leave after work and then be back on Saturday, hopefully before church starts. Steve will be off that same week that I have off so that will be nice. I am definitely looking forward to July!

Poor Fishies

I got a call on Monday morning from my husband telling me that something had gotten into our pond sometime the night before and eaten our fish. We wondered at first, if they had infact been eaten. Then he found one of the fish minus its head laying in the yard and it was pretty much confirmed. So those pretty fish are all gone, all four of them. We are guessing it must have been a raccoon that got them. It's really the only animal with the dexterity and "tools" to have done so. I guess it at least takes care of me wondering what I was going to do with the fish next winter. I had already decided that I didn't want to have them inside again. The fish tank was just too much of a hassle to take care of (especially after the accident)and I think it made the house smell like fish. So now I am trying to sell the fishtank and get it out of the house. I might get some little goldfish to put in there but maybe not. I definitely am not getting any big ones again because I don't want whatever animal to think there is an available snack all the time.

We are talking again about getting a dog. I think I will stop by PAW today to see if they have any that jump out at me. We need something smallish because it will be inside most of the time. We will just have to see though. At any rate, I will look and see if one of the dogs gets my attention. I realy don't want something yappy so I don't know what kind of luck I will have.

I got the spare bedroom all painted and looking good last weekend. I wasn't sure about the color at first but decided that I would trust myself. I am glad I did because I love the color now. I just have to get a few more things for the room and it will be done. I have a desk up there that I will use for my sewing/crafting but I need a chair to put with it. Then once I get my bed from my mom's house it will all be completed. I was able to reuse all of the furniture in the room so I didn't have to buy anything new (except a chair which will likely come from a yardsale or salvation army). I just painted Steve's old desk and it looks great. I hope it will be a nice place for my guests to stay and for me to do my craft stuff.

A long night and early morning

So last night at about nine o'clock or so, I decide that I should make some dinner. I headed down to the basement to get something out of the deep freeze and discover that our basement drain had backed up, badly, and not just water, if you get my drift. So back upstairs I went and woke Steve up telling him that we had a bit of a problem. Bless his heart, he put his boots on and took the plunger and tried to unclog the drain. About a half hour later with no results, I told him that i was going to call a plumber. I tried one here in town that had an ad in the yellow pages claiming 24 hour service. However, I got the voice mail and hung up. I looked through some more and found another one, out of Burlington, that also had 24 hour service. That guy answered and told me it would be about an hour before he could get here. Well, not like I was going anywhere. So I puzzled and fretted about how much this was going to cost us, and what could possibly be wrong for about an hour. The plumber, a very nice man named Tim, arrived at about ten thirty and went to work. Steve decided that the plumber didn't look like a serial killer and thought it would be safe for him to go to work. I agreed. Finally at about midnight he was able to get through and the water drained. Apparently tree roots have gotten into the clay tile that is our sewage drain. So he informed me about how to get the mess cleaned up and sanitized and to attempt to prevent it from happening again. He only charged me a little over $133 which I thought was incredibly reasonable given the time he spent driving here and the time he spent fixing it. I would have gladly paid him twice that much. I managed to get to bed at about 1am which is really late for me these days. Needless to say, the alarm came too early this morning and I had a bit of trouble waking up. So that was last night...

Today most of my appointments cancelled so I was working on getting my licensing paperwork all together. I swear I was on the verge of a panic attack for about an hour while I tried to get all that stuff figured out. I have no idea what I am going to do if, for some reason, I don't have all the necessary classes to sit for the exam. I am trying not to worry about that now and just get all the paperwork done. I wish I would have been aware that EIU had a community counseling program that was aimed directly at what I am doing today. It would have been so much easier than going through the Clinical Psych program and I probably would have learned a whole lot more! Not much I can do about that now.

I went to go see my dad tonight and helped him staple new velco straps on his tray table for his wheelchair. That was entertaining. I did have an easier time with the staple gun than he did, but I do have more leverage of course. So now, I am trying to convince myself to get up and cook dinner and then call people about the church newsletter. If I didn't hound people every month I would never get the information that I need. Very frustrating!

Fighting the good fight

I have been insanely busy lately with work and life and everything else. Things are slowing down a little bit and I still have plenty of things to catch up on but I'm getting there. I will have a CT scan done on my chest on Friday to see what the damage is there. Hopefully they will find something that will explain the pain I am having and make the car insurance understand that it is legitimate pain. I don't think they doubt that and they have no reason to, but it would still be nice to have some "proof". At least I think it is improving and my neck is finally improving so that is a major bonus. I have a busy few weeks ahead of me and then I hope it slows down a bit. Nedra's benefit is this weekend and I got the quilt all finished and it looks great. I am hoping to finally get the spare bedroom painted next weekend since it is a long weekend with Memorial Day. Then the weekend following that we have a wedding to attend for Steve's cousin. Well, only the reception actually as the wedding is private. After that it should slow down a bit, I hope. I know there is a million other things going on but I can't seem to formulate them into words on here so I will leave it for now. Perhaps I will add more later.

Falling Apart

I am beginning to think that I am falling apart physically. I am still having quite a bit of pain from the car accident. My chest has been hurting especially badly the last few days. I have been gaining weight back that I was losing and that is especially annoying. But I can't even do sit-ups because it hurts so badly. Then today my ear has been hurting whenever I yawn so I am hoping I am not getting an ear infection. No such thing as growing out of those for me. But I am going to be going to see my doc on Monday so hopefully he can get me straightened out. I am not looking forward to the possibility of another MRI but if that is what has to be done, well I will do it.

Work has been super busy this week, and I have already billed 19 hours this week and it's only Wednesday! But I feel like I am doing my part so that is a good thing. The whole office went up to a conference last week and while the conference wasn't that informative, it was fun to go up with everyone. I am blessed to work with wonderful people.

So I am going to relax now and chill out now.

Almost Easter

I went to a wonderful church service this evening at the First Christian Church here in town. I never thought that I would like going to a DOC church because I honestly didn't like the one in Eureka that we had to go and sing at frequently. But, a friend invited me to go to the Saturday Night Alive service and I figured why not. So after a full day I went to the service. It was great and full of contemporary music and honest to goodness truth about God.

Otherwise we had a full day as well. My older brother came down last night and stayed here so he could go to lunch for my little brother's birthday. So I got up this morning and had to go to the bank and close out the savings account that has been open since I was like three years old. Unfortunately it's at a bank in IL and I rarely go over there on weekdays so it was dormant and they said to put money in or close it out. So I went over today and just closed it out. Then we went to lunch for Thomas' birthday at Pizza Hut. I can't believe how much my nephew has grown in the week since I last saw him.

When we got home, we cleaned out the goldfish pond out back. It was really gross with rotting leaves and nastiness. Steve helped me a lot since I can't pick up heavy stuff and we got it all scrubbed down and cleaned out and then filled up again. So it will be all ready for fish once it warms up a bit more. Then I went to the church service and then we went out to eat. It makes for a full day that has left me feeling quite accomplished.

Now I just need to buy some rocks to circle the tree out front, purchase some mulch to put around the trees, flower beds, and my rose bush. After I get my planters out and get those planted with flowers, and get my other plants in the ground, then my outside stuff will be pretty much done.

I still have quite a bit to do inside the house, and it's hard to not want to do it all at the same time. I have another room that I want to paint upstairs that will be a guest bedroom/my craft room. Then I have to do something with the stairway area. After the upstairs is done, I want to paint the living room/dining room. Sometime after that I want to pull up the carpet in that same room and redo the hardwoods under it. I also want to change the hardware (handles and hinges) in the kitchen and possibly repaint in there as well.

So that's my project list for this year basically. I love having projects to do and it really gives me something to look forward to. I have noticed that I get a bit bored/down when I don't have something to work towards. So I try not to move too fast so that I always have something to do and look forward to.

Tomorrow is Easter, a celebration and remembrance of the sacrifice that Christ gave for us on the cross. We have breakfast at the church at 7am and then church at 8am. While it is early, I look forward to seeing my family. My mom has Trevor tonight too so I will be able to see him again. Then we have the rest of the day to ourselves.

I hadn't planned on making this quite this long, but oh well. It's what's on my mind right now I suppose!