IT'S ON ...

And so begins the Advil Battle!

It seems over the last couple years that every now and then when Chad opens up the big Costco size Advil that he thinks there's not much left and how could we go through so much? We really don't use that much. I think the bottles are only so full to begin with and we forget how quickly time passes that it is possible to have used what we have. He says that I must be the culprit and I say it's him.

So. .. over the weekend we picked up a new container... not Costco sized but Target sized and split the bottle evenly into another bottle that was empty. We each have 80 pills and are on the honor system to continue use as normal (ie, no suffering from a headache or other pain to try keep our personal what's left in the jar count up when we really would take some) and we will see who really uses more!

We'll see how long it takes for the first bottle to be empty and let you know the "winner" of our little debate : )

BNSF BOUND

BIG NEWS! Our plan with moving to Texas is showing results! Here's the story so far.

After getting here Chad had another interview with BNSF (Burlington Northern Santa Fe) for entering into the training program to be a dispatcher, which is run through one of the colleges here. They take 15/16 people a time to train over 4 months and hundreds apply! His last round of interview had about 100 people and he was chosen as the 2nd alternate for the class. Which both bummed us out but we also knew he was on their radar. We were told the next class would be starting in June, which threw a major wrench into wedding planning... like, could Chad even be there if he's taking this intensive training?!?

We kept in contact with the person in charge of the classes to see if anyone hadn't registered or dropped out before the classes started and no one had. Monday the 31tst he got a phone call offering him a spot!! 3 weeks before the class!! We are thrilled. He started yesterday and has his first test tomorrow. Most of the first part of the training is in a class until the end of April. He'll get a little break - we're hoping to spend it in Montana - and then the last part will be more hands on training...June 6th should be his first day as an actual employee.

Looks like we'll be in Texas for awhile . . . .

JUMPING UP AND DOWN ON THE INSIDE

Most of you know that I'm a "selective" eater (very picky!)-- but I am so so excited about planning the food for our wedding. Talked with someone tonight about preparing an amazing menu and feel so much relief to have found her! It's taking all that I have to not wake Chad up to start coming up with ideas to give her so she can brainstorm from there. Seriously elated!

SHAVING SIMPLIFIED

image source

"ADVENTURE IS JUST BAD PLANNING"

This is what I came home to 11 pm on Valentine's Day. A deserted little table that looks like someone got stood up. In most cases this story would be sad, but with all the luck Chad has in trying to surprise me (this is the 3rd Valentine's mishap!) we thought it was pretty funny.

Neither of us talked about making any kind of Valentine's plans. We're going to some shows later this week and most of the time we want to do something special we just do it then. So babysitting for Valentine's Day isn't a big deal (and is paying for our concert tickets!) and I had a family ask about it weeks ago -- it's on the calendar and everything. Between the screwy schedule we have right now with Chad working so early and me not getting home until late I knew that I wouldn't see him until today (the day after VDay) when I got home from work. I even left him a little note by the door to find on his way to work to say "Happy Valentine's, blah blah, will miss you today, blah blah... see you tomorrow since you'll be asleep by the time I get home".

I did get to talk to him on the phone between work and babysitting, which was a good thing, because he was about to start cooking me a special little dinner for a surprise. Since we live in the tiny apartment he knew he couldn't hide everything he'd picked up to save for the next night without me catching on, he told me about forgetting I had plans and to not eat the chocolate covered strawberries in the fridge until he said so :)

So tonight was try number 2 and was not a surprise but every bit as wonderful. We ate at our card table turned bistro in the living room with music, flowers and candles, pasta and bread, wine, chocolate, strawberries and cool whip. I even put on a dress for our in home date!


Hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day -- whenever/wherever/however you decided to celebrate it!

12 ON THE 12th: FEBRUARY

1 - This was a tough call today. Limeade from Sonic (which I really really wanted!) or McNuggets at McDonald's? Since it was lunch time McDonald's won and I got a milkshake instead. I might just find my way through the Sonic drive through tomorrow at "happy hour"...

2 - Lake Worth ... so fortunate that Texas has some water around!

3 - Monopoly with a 3 year old. We really just played with the money. I really wished I had that much.

4 - We got a GPS as a Christmas gift and it has been my lifesaver! I've started to get a good grasp on places I go a lot, but it's awesome for first time visits to places, especially in the dark.

5- Netflix = happy surprise in the mailbox

6 - Starting to reorganize all my sewing. During our downpour (it's starting to sound like exaggerated fishing, the magnitude of the water becomes larger each time I talk about it) everything got jumbled up and ended up in different places. I think I've found most of it, but every now and then a random piece of a project is found here or there.

7 - Picture taken by my new 3 year old friend.

8 - Wedding planning! I've got so much of the "big picture" planned and am excited to start working on all the little details. Mostly in list form since there's not a lot of space to store it all once I get working on them.

9 - The orange sunsets are gorgeous. Wish I had a better camera to capture them with.

10 - Dryer from the blanket to cozy up with on the couch.

11 - My Scentsy pot just adds to my cozy evening.

12 - And cozy evening would not be complete without something knit in progress. I really want to start another sweater but have so many other things I should work on first.

MY NEW TOY

I got this surprise in the mail yesterday! It belonged to my grandmother who doesn't use it too much so she sent it to me. It's not brand new, maybe 6-10 years? I'll have to take it in to see if it needs any repairs and track down the manual for it, but it will do a lot more than my little Singer does :)

The weather cleared up over the weekend, we got out and went to lunch at PF Changs. Both Monday and Tuesday we had school, but today is another snow day! We were supposed to have the last of the carpet repairs done today. I am so anxious to get our living and dining room set back up, right now it feels like a cave with how empty it is. Hopefully the snow doesn't delay anything and someone will be here soon to work on it.

LIVING ROOM CHALLENGE

(I've a lot of time on my hands today - still stuck at home)

How well do you know your favorite home stores? Can you tell where these living rooms came from? Can you rank them in their value?

Each has a sofa, chair, 2 pillows, bookcase/cabinet, side table, floor lamp, clock, vase, art, curtains and a rug. Good luck!


I will post the answers right here in a couple days ; )

Answers posted 2.9.11


Here is what I would put together between the four. Total $3631.85

What would you do?

IS THIS REAL LIFE?

Over the last couple days I feel like that kid in the youtube video on his way home from the dentist. I'm borrowing a few of his lines!

"Is this real life?"
Since Monday we have gone from getting super incredible news about Chad attending training (more on that later) to having my 4th day off I've had from work because of the snow in Texas to our apartment getting a little rainstorm. This is all crazy. I can't take it all in.

"I can't see anything"
Wednesday night at midnight the pipes in the building burst. The fire department came to turn off the water as well as the power to avoid any other craziness. From 12 - 3 we spent grabbing everything we could to avoid water damage and moving it to our room and having to clear everything else out later for the carpet repair guy to start sucking out all the water.

"AHHHHHHH"
I thought after 2 days of being stuck at home - even though I have the day off, the roads are covered in ice so going anywhere is not really an option - that I was doing okay, that surely things would get cleared up. With our big mess Wednesday night confining us to live out of the bedroom until it all gets cleaned up (or at least until all the fans are gone, they are so loud that I have to keep the door shut to hear myself think at all) I'm starting to lose my mind. I woke up this morning and couldn't even tell you it's Friday because it's all starting to blur together.

"I don't feel tired"
My sense of time is gone!

"I feel funny"
The only thing left to do is laugh at this all really. Laugh because we are happy with all the BNSF things working out. Laugh because we think it's silly that we can't remember having a snow day in either Montana or Alaska. Laugh because after everything was as cleaned up as could be in our apartment and finally getting to bed there is one last spot in our bedroom that decided to drip. We were watching the spot and placed a bowl to catch the water under it, but not until we closed our eyes that it started to "drip. .... drip. ..... drip.... drip..drip.. drip..drip.dripdripdripdrip". What else is there to do but laugh?

"Why is this happening to me??"
It's not anyone's fault (except for whoever decided it was a good idea to put up uninsulated pipes :S) that we've had this nightmare -- but still... why!?!?! It's one of those things that you don't ever imagine happening to you.

"Is this going to be forever?"
Our future hope is to someday be back up in Montana, or as close as we can get. We know that the start of Chad's career will be here, that our first home will be here and that our kids will probably be born here. And we're excited for it .. but I think we'll always be dreaming of when it is we'll get to head back north. I'm also ready to have the tiny apartment back. It will feel like we get to spread out, maybe I will appreciate it more ;) Plus, it will be super clean after repairs and reorganizing. I know that everything will be back to normal, but not Monday (so we've been told). But for right now it's only Friday morning and there's a couple more days of bedroom living. Hoping for the weather to warm up and the roads to clear so we're not stuck inside for it all.

"UGH!"
exactly ....

DO DA DIPPITY

This commercial makes me smile every time it comes on!

VALENTINE FUN

I found this fun idea on Lu Bird Baby and thought it was perfect for a little Valentine's Day gift for those kids in Montana that I miss so much! The little mailboxes are from Target's dollar section right (found them the beginning of January) and the rest is from Hobby Lobby - felt and velcro. I sewed little envelopes and put velcro for a closure. The envelope also has velcro on the front to change the stamp and "mailing label". There are letters to put in there, but it will be fun for the kids to write their own notes too!