Casablanca Lily

Five years ago, i had my sweet violet bridal shower at my mom's that was thrown by by aunts. At this shower, my mom planted two huge white planters that she would give as a gift to TJ and me. We loved the white lillies that were planted in them. Every year we moved, we would move the lillies with us. They came with us to our first house and bloomed beautifully. It was a gift that would remind me of my mom every time i would see them, water them, and catch a hint of their fragrant gift. This year, TJ and i could tell that they were not going to do well. They weren't coming up like the rest of our lillies. I was heart broken. . . until one day i looked at the pots and there were lillies in them! I was so excited. TJ told me that he went out and bought lillies to replace the ones that had died. Although they are not the lillies from my mom, they stir in me the same emotion and now they remind me of my husband's love for me too. I recently cut some and brought them into our bedroom. The whole room smells so wonderful. Thank you mom and thank you TJ. I am so loved and cherished.

Pill box and Grilled Cheese

So, i now think it necessary to buy one of those pill boxes that separate your pills for the day. One reason is because i am an organizational freak and another reason is that i am taking 9 pills a day and i am having trouble keeping track of them all. Because i am too young for a daily pill box, i have set my pills on the ledge of the backsplash in the kitchen, so that i can keep track of what i have already taken. I am up to 500 mg of Glucophage 3 times a day, my thyroid medicine for my underactive thyroid, my prenatal vitamin that i have been taking for over a year now, my prometrium that i take twice daily, my alergy medicine, and soon i will add provera once a day.

I am married to a very good cook. He enjoys it and he is great at it. It makes my heart smile when he asks for a Lindsey Grilled Cheese. It is something that he is unable to replicate. He says they just don't taste the same when he makes them. That feels so good. They do turn out to be the perfect color, just the right crispyness, and with a touch of mustard. My dad taught me the mustard trick. They are really the best grilled cheese ever and i make them with the 2% milk cheese, so they are only 4 points on weight watchers. I love it when i ask if he wants one or two and he replies, "two, please."

Another Day in Paradise

As i walked my students out to the bus, it started to rain, and then rained heavier. I was bummed because we had plans to meet Marilee and Henry for lunch at Pekadills and then TJ and i were off to the beach for some sun, swimming and reading. I went back to my classroom and started to shut things down (yes, we finally have power) and then i watched for TJ to pull up. In the five minutes between me saying goodbye to the kids and greeting TJ the rain had stopped and white fluffy clouds arrived. Lunch at Pekadills was of course wonderful and the company was outstanding. Marilee is due to have her baby on Thursday, so that is so exciting. She is one of those perfect pregnant ladies. She is very tall and slender and just looks so cute and not at all uncomfortable! It was great to visit with her and to play with Henry, the soon to be big brother to a sister or a brother. He has the best laugh. He has this one corner of his blanket that he likes to stick in the various holes that is on his head. He stuck it in his ear and then takes it out and say "wax." Or, he will stick it in his nose and sometimes pull it out and say "booger."They call it the crusty corner, and of course they say it is yucky, but he loves it. They wash is several times, and he still uses the same corner every time it comes out of the wash.

Then we went to the beach. I was excited because i heard on the news this morning that there was a small craft advisory and big waves. There were big waves, and the water was fridgid cold. . . much colder than two weeks ago. We were there for about 4 hours. It was amazing. I love reading a book as the waves rush in and the sun beats down on me. TJ got, well . . . a little red. I don't know if i didn't notice it because i had my sunglasses on or if all of a sudden he got red, but any case he is sunburned. We came home and had fresh picked yellow beans and corn on the cob. Yummy! I could easily eat a pound of beans.

TJ is on His Way!

Well, as i write this, TJ is in an airplane coming home. I just realized that the air fair is going on. I hope he doesn't have any problems leaving the airport or flying in. I am excited to see him. He will be excited to see me and to see that i was able to get 3 pounds of the first picking of yellow beans. First picked are the yummiest! I also was able to get him his bib lettuce, fresh green pepper and then i got me fresh sugar peas, zucchini, and squash (which are awesome on the grill). I love the farmer's market. After going to the Farmer's market, Sarah and i hung out in Whitehall and Montague by going to Wanda's pet store, Book Nook and Java Shop and, of course, Pekadill's. Good Food! Good Company! Then we scrapbooked for a bit. I felt like i did more organizing than anything, but Sarah got two pages done. Three more hours and TJ should be home. Did i mention that i cannot wait?

Daisies might be my favorite flower

My Daisy Bouquet
Although daisies are not as fragrent as a stargazer lily, they look so very happy and cheery. I also love how they bloom for so long and there are so many blooms. I have enjoyed fresh flowers for weeks now, and there are double the amount of buds i see yet to come. Hooray! Next, i want to plant the shorter variety. I need to trim mine to keep them from getting leggy. There is nothing worse than leggy daisies. . . well maybe there is.

One week down, three to go

Summer school was taught this week without power in the building. It made for an interesting time. . . no fans, no copy machines, no overhead, no elmo, no computers, but there were students. Students who probably didn't have power at home either. So we decided to bring them in and at least read to them and with them, since a lot of them probably haven't picked up a book since school ended over a month ago. I am glad the week is over. I hope we have power on Monday.

I went to weight watchers this morning. I was down 2 pounds, which makes me 19 pounds lighter than when i first started. It comes off slowly, but it does come off and it is amazing the patience i have for things now. I'll show you Dr. David.

Tomorrow i am going to go to the Farmers market in Montague, so that TJ has his fresh favorites when he returns from Kansas. That will mean more to him than if i clean the house. It is funny how most guys don't notice dirt, grime, and dust. It is like they don't see it. I don't think it is that they don't want to see it because then they will have to do something about it. I just think they honestly don't see it. TJ could walk in today and think the house looks fine. . . i see all the mess, each little crumb of food, tiny whisker in the sink, a piece of cat hair on the duvet cover. Actually one thing that TJ is very observant about are the floors. That is what he takes care of. He is the best vacuumer i have ever seen. He moves furniture, goes over the carpet very slowly and thoroughly, and edges the walls. Maybe it is because he says "run the vacuum" instead of using vacuum as the verb, like. . ."I am vacuuming" as opposed to "i am runnning the vacuum." I think it is a Howell thing or maybe an Ellis thing. It is not a Michael thing, but i like it. It makes me smile.

Furry Companions

As TJ has been in Kansas this week, i have had some company during the night time and the storms, during nap times and TV watching. I just finished watching Oprah. Today some of the Grey's Anatomy cast was on talking about next season (which is going to be on Thursday nights at 9:00, so i can stay awake and watch it) and my Abbey cat jumped up and just wanted some love. She has to be the cutest kiity in the whole world. She was doing her "Abbey roll", licking my face, purring, crawling on my lap and nudging my hand when it stopped petting her. I cannot imagine the lonliness that would hang in the air if it wasn't for my cats. They definetly do not make up for TJ's absense, but they certainly help. I know they miss TJ too. They kind of stopped eating and seem to whine as they look up at me and ask "where is daddy?" I reassure them that he will be back. You non-pet owners are really missing out on furry companions (i found they have to be furry. . . fish and lizards don't cut it. Although birds do....hummmm)

A new appreciation for electricity

My brother recently blogged about how he loved the storm we had. I found it terrifying. With TJ out of town, tall spindly white pines surrounding the house, and no power i was miserable and a wee bit stressed. I quickly realized how much i love unnatural light, humming of appliances, and water being pumped into my house. It didn't take me long to realize that i was not in a good situation. At least i had my cats.

The morning after the storm, i had summer school. I had slept hardly at all the night before because i didn't have an alram clock with me that was battery operated. I had to take the old car because i didn't know how to open the garage door manually (although i didn't try to attempt it, i think i could have figured it out.) I took my toothbrush, washcloth, deoderant, and soap to school early. As i drove, i passed several down trees and tons of limbs in the road. I arrived at school only to find we were out of power there as well. What a miserable day this was going to be. We only had a cordless phone, so i promptly bought a corded phone. (a cell phone would have been handy, too) The freezer started oozing stuff from cracks and crevises. Meijers was out of jugs of water, so i bought bottled water to put in the cats' dish and for myself. I kept running up to meijer to use their bathroom. . . not the most pleasant experience i had, but i couldn't help it. Something was not right with my stomache. I came so close to locking myself out of the house. Normally i am not too concerned with this because we have a punch code for the garage door, but that wouldn't work without power. Our house key is on my new saturn key ring, but that was trapped in the garage. So, with my flashlight, i headed for the door with the Intrigue keys. Wiggled the door handle to make sure it was locked and started to pull it closed. Then, something. . . i don't know what, made me remember that i needed the other set of keys too so i could get back into my dark house. After that i decieded to unlock the basement walkout door, just in case i had a lapse in memory. I n the evening, i went to take a shower at my friends' house, ate chinese, wathced The Last Comic Standing as cool fans circulated the air, and then headed home. . . clean, refreshed, and fed.

Our power finally came back at about 11 last night. I cried tears of happiness as i walked around blowing out all the candles. I was able to fall asleep to the humming of power and the cool air from air conditioning. Life is Good.

There is supposed to be another nasty storm tonight. . .

My eyes want to close

I am not going to let them. Naps are bad for me. I don't quite wake up from them. I slept horrible last night. I think it was a combination of 1. diet coke at 8:30 2. Starting summer school the next morning with no class list or DRA scores 3. the worst of all, no TJ.

I tossed and turned, and worried, and of course made up horrible stories of what could happen at school the next day and at home while i slept alone. The house is so incredibly dark and eerie quiet. I couldn't even see my hand in front of me. Normally, i go to sleep while TJ watches TV in the livingroom. I thought about just turning on the television for some noise and light. Then at 3 in the morning, Abby decides she needs to cough up a hair ball. On my bed. I am tired, but i did have a fantastic time scrapbooking at a friends house with a group of friends.

I think i will wait for the return of my husband before i start reading my creepy book, Inkheart, again. Summer school tomorrow. Yuck. But, i am enjoying the air conditioning that summer school purchased!

Paradise

I spotted several out of state liscense plates as we pulled into our parking spot at White Lake and Lake Michigan. This is paradise and i live only 20 minutes of back roads from it. First we stopped at Pekadills to get a tasty sandwhich and eat outside in their garden, listening to the waterfall in the pond. Then it was off to the beach. Swimming was peaceful and refreshing. The sand and sun felt wonderful. We read on the beach, took a walk, a nap, and swam. Perfect.

Now that i am back home, rinsed off, and the cooler is unpacked, i am going to finish my blanket quilt thing that i started yesterday. The hardest part is finishing the stupid thing. I found that binding that is NOT satin is so much easier to work with than satin binding. So, i am off to sew and then spend some more quality time with my husband before he is gone for a week. I can still feel sand between my toes. . .

Hooray!

Look!

Ten Random events from my day

1. I slept terrible last night (full of icky dreams), so i decided not to go into school
2. I lost 4.25 pounds this last week on weight watchers, in spite of my daily dose of Muenster cheese. That puts me at a grand total of 17 pounds since i started it.
3. I woke up with a super bad headach, but it is gone now.
4. TJ seems to be feeling better
5. I am almost done with my blanket/quilt thing.
6. I finished The Penderwicks and started reading Inkheart
7. I went to Hobos and ate an incredible salad with carmalized onions, fire roated chicken, and mushrooms. Yummy!
8. I have a zit making itself at home on the weirdest part of my face (for a zit)
9. I cut daisies and two purple cone flowers for a vase in our house.
10. A ate a sandwhich today with Muenster

Our kitchen is a perfect sewing work station. I just carry my beautiful sewing box over to the table (its home is on the living room floor) pop it open and carry the tray around with me so i can have all my tools on hand. Then i can layout my fabric, cut, and pin on our island. That is perfect because i don't have to bend down at all. Then i can just move a little over to our table and sew away. TJ put a dimmer on the dinning room light for me, which makes it much more comfortable. Before he did that, i was feeling interrogated, now it is just a plesant work light.

Annoying

TJ has been unfortunately fighting a weird cold thing. He thinks he might have gotten it from one of the many kids he played with last weekend. Anyway, i have never seen him so worn out. So we stopped at Meijers (this could have been any store though) to pick up some cold medicine, and you can't pick the product up from the shelf, you have to bring a little card with a picture of the product you want up to the pharmacy. TJ hated this new michigan law when it first came out, before it even directly affected him, so he is not too happy now that it does affect him and he isn't feeling well. There was quite a long wait at the pharmacy. TJ was going to buy a bunch of boxes of cold medicine and make meth in our meth lab, but having to go up to the pharmacy detered him. So then he finally gets his medicine and we get a few other items and head to U-scan. TJ scans the cold medicine, that he could only get through going to the pharmacy, and the U-scan comes to halt and has to wait for cashier authorization and verification. Ridiculous! I felt like we were trying to buy crack or something. TJ is just a guy with a cold. Meth people will find another way. This won't stop them, it will just annoy the rest of us.

Mmmmm. . . Muenster

Muenster cheese is my pick for this summer's treat. I have a sandwhich with Muester cheese everyday. I used to use the 2% kraft american single, but for a point more on weight watchers i can enjoy a delicious slice of muester cheese. Two slices of potato bread (i don't skimp on my bread either), a touch of mustard, "just 2 good" mayo, lettuce (fresh from the farmer's market), tomato, turkey or ham, and, of course, Muenster cheese. It is a Yummy five points on weight watchers. The bread and cheese make it higher than it has to be, but makes it feel like i am treatig myself to a tasty deli sandwhich. If i really want to enjoy it, i cut my creation in half. . . diagonally is the preferred method and put a pickle next to it to crunch later for 0 points.

Feeling of Accomplishment

I don't have jury duty for the remainder of the week! :) TJ came to school with me today. I received a lot of great furniture for my classroom from my aunt who retired from teaching at the end of this school year. My problem is that i am spatially inept. I lost sleep the last couple of nights trying to figure out how i want to lay out my classroom this year, meanwhile try to just get it acceptable for summer school. I decided it was silly to try to just stick furniture in there and then move it around closer to the fall. I might as well just move it all now. That is where TJ comes in. I am terrible with knowing what will fit where and what would work. I forget things like the kids need to be able to push their chairs out to stand up, etc. He helped immensly, but he also go two meals out of it. We had to go to Pekadills for a light lunch in their garden(might be our favorite place to eat) and then we met Daddy-o in Ludington for all you can eat chinese (really good crab rangoon). That made all the sweat and hardwork worth it! Now, i will be able to sleep tonight, knowing that my room is just the way i want it for fall.

Look what is in our garage. . .

A decision was made! It is late. I am tired. It is parked in the garage, so i couldn't get a good angle. This shot makes it look very long in the front. I cannot believe i am one of those SUV owners. We haven't named him yet. Good night. . . i have my stupid civil duty of jury duty tomorrow. Yuck.

Torn

In my last post i mentioned that we test drove a beautiful 2006 red saturn vue. I really liked it. Earlier in the month we test drove Subaru Outback, Subaru Forrester, Passat Wagon, and A Toyota Rav 4. I, of course, liked the passat a lot, but i like the Vue almost as much and it is a lot less, plus i can use that GM in the drive discount from my uncle. I am not crazy about adding to the SUV population on the roads, but it is a compact one so it does get better gas mileage than a lot of the others. They are coming out with a hybrid in 2007.

The dilemma
We don't need a car right now. We are going to need one when we have a child. TJ's truck is functioning, except for the air blower that chooses not to work on the express way. It isn't the nicest ride, but he doesn't mind it. The 2006 Saturn Vue is 0% interest for four years right now. They are only running this deal for the vues that are 2006 and on the lot They have one on the lot that fits what we want (except for leather seats, but i don't know if that is worth the cost). So, do we buy it now and begin making payments on it when we are both employed, even though we don't need it yet? OR do we wait until we need it, when only one of us is working and hope there is a deal at that time? I wish God would communicate with me and say "Lindsey you will have a baby on _____" Of course, He would fill in the blank. That would make the decision a little easier. Hmmmm . . .

Is there a rewind button?

We had another Grand Rapids outing today. These seem to swallow up our whole day, but, for the most part, they are enjoyable. Today's outing required TJ's truck because he was thinking of purchasing a jointer (it's a wordworking thing that is rather large, very heavy, and requires a truck bed). Grand rapids has three woodworking stores that we (mostly TJ) likes to visit. I normally just walk around with him for a bit, then i head to the books to look for projects that i think tj needs to do! Of course, they are normally projects for me. Anyway, once i wandered around for a bit, i would head outside, manually roll the truck's windows down , put my prized Vera pruse in the driver's seat, put the keys in the filthy cup holder, take my shoes off and read "The Penderwicks" (an excellent book, by the way). I did this a couple times throughout the day. The last woodworking store stop (Woodcraft), i went outside to read my book. . . sat in the car for about 15 minutes, and then thought i would go see if TJ was making "the big jointer purchase" so i promptly put my shoes back on, rolled up the windows, grabbed my purse, locked the door, and went inside with my book, of course, so i could read in air conditioning for awhile. Tj was still putzing around, so i sat down at a table and began to once again devour the book. After about 15 more minutes of reading, mid sentence i lept out of my chair, spotted TJ's hat, ran over to him and blurted "Did you lock your door?" His response, of course, was "Ya" I replied, wide eyed, "i locked the keys in your truck."

Now, TJ could have asked how or why or told me what i should have done or got upset or laughed at me or rolled his eyes or anything really, but he didn't. I love that about him. I told him three hours later that i really appreciated that. He said he had to bite his tongue at the time. That made it even better. It isn't that TJ is some perfect human that radiates with pure goodness. He is not at all, he is just as filthy deep inside like the rest of us, but it is the choices he makes that i appreciate and love him for. To me, he does radiate with kindness and goodness because of his choices. Sometimes it is the words he doesn't say, just as much as what he does say. Sometimes, it is what he doesn't do that speaks louder than what he does do. He said "i didn't want to say something that would reduce you to tears. It wouldn't do any good to say those things to you." I love him. Maybe he had compassion since just last week he had lost our credit card in Grand Rapids. Perhaps we should stop going to G.R.

We headed outside to the truck. I don't know how many times i lifted the door handle, just to double check. We don't have a cell phone. We don't have anyone's number memorized. We are in Grand Rapids. We don't have AAA. But we were lucky enough to have Arlen working there that day. He took pieces of wood and squeezed them through the door and unlocked our car. Thank you Arlen!

Oh ya- and we test drove a saturn vue. I really liked it!

Cleaning Windows on the 5th of July

It is a rather frightening thought to me. I didn't think my windows and screens were full of such large amounts of filth. I knew they were kind of bad, but nothing that hindered them from doing their job. I was wrong. Dead wrong. TJ helped me clean them. I thought i could do it on my own, and if that was my only option, i could have, but he couldn't just stand there watching me try to juggle everything, so he changed his plans and aided me. I also cleaned the screens. I cannot beleive how much more beautiful, monstrous, and clear these windows and screens are now that they are clean. They can actually function as windows that one can see through and the screens actually let air through them. I figured now that we have grass, there is a lot less dirt and dust floating around, so it was time to clean.

It made me ponder as i was vigoriously cleaning the wndows, what else is mucked up, dirty, and being hindered by its unkempt state? What else am i ignoring or rationalizing into not being so bad. I don't mean physical things. What in my life has grown so filthy, that it ceases to do its job correctly? What is being hindered because i have not cleaned it in awhile? The first thing that came to mind is my prayer life. It is dusty and mucked up and it is hindering me from having a deeper relationship with my God. I think at times i ignore the fact that it needs repair, or sometimes i rationalize it by telling myself that i still pray. My prayers, though, have lost their meaning in a way. There is a distance there now, that there didn't seem to be before. It is so easy to just tell myself that things are fine, but i cannot imagine what it would look like after i dusted it off. God knows my heart, every little crevice, so at times i feel that is good enough. But i again realize that it is not. I cannot listen that way. I cannot learn that way. There is no emotion in that. Today, i pleaded and talked with God and listened to His quiet, peaceful voice. I needed that. I need to keep dusting off my prayer life, so i can see its beauty.

On a lighter note. . .
We went to Grand Haven yesterday for fireworks with Nate and Haras. It was very enjoyable. We got there about 2 and put our blanket down. There were already so many people there. We camped out behind this family that just made my heart ache for the kids. There was a baby that was just in diapers that they left in a portable crib almost all day, besides for like 10 minutes. The baby was crying and getting way too much sun. It was horrible. I just wanted to take that kid home. All the kids were so dirty and completely unsupervised. The four of us went shopping, ate, ate, and walked to the pier and of course watched the musical fountain and the fireworks. Here are a few pictures.

bellybutton

Can you find the bellybutton? At first, i felt really bad for whoever this is and then i realized it is probably photoshopped. . . i just don't think it is humanly possible. . . is it? Maybe i better stop having mint slow churned ice cream every night.

If it is a real person, who in their right mind would take a picture of her? If it is a real picture, who in their right mind would post it on a blog? Hmmmm. . . If it is a real person, i can see how one would mentally get to this point, but i can't see how the body would. I just don't think that is possible.

Cool as a cu-cumber, oh yeah!

it is hot and rather muggy today, but i have no fear. While cleaning inside, i was able to clean at a comfortable temerature because of this. . .
Thanks to teaching summer school this summer and to Robert setting us up, we are able to keep cool by purchasing this rather ugly box. :) Until just recently did it actually get muggy and hot enough to crank her on.

I still feel very unmotivated to clean. Sometimes, i get in my cleaning mood, but often i am so unmotivated, knowing it will only get dirty again. I did manage to clean the bathroom today.

I also managed to walk around and take pictures, since i was out there anyway taking the picture of the air conditioner. Here are some others. . .


I am not even motivated to write anything remotely exciting, so i am going now.