i'm fresh out of titles

probably because not much in my life is truly inspiring right now! but that's ok, uninspiring doesn't mean bad. my students have been hard to deal with because they're just not rising to the challenge. i've cut out the baby stuff and am completely holding them accountable for all the stuff they should have been held accountable for from the beginning, but now i feel justified because i know i have taught everything i'm asking them to do. unfortunately, just because i feel justified doesn't mean the parents think i am. the backlash is already beginning and parents are scheduling conferences... and progress reports don't go home until next week! (if you're a teacher, this all probably makes more sense to you.)

anyway, so the work side of things is a little sub-par, but the rest of life is going pretty well. megan and i are totally kicking ass at the gym, which is really exciting. monday i took a pilates class because i forgot my shoes (i know, idiot), tuesday i ran longer, faster, and better than ever before (yes, i am a super-hero), then megan and i killed ourselves on weights. and then tonight was yoga night (love, LOVE) yoga night. i was so stiff and sore from yesterday that stuff i could do last week, i could not do this week - which made me sad - but i did have one small victory in that i was able to actually do "crow" (or bakasana), a pose i have never been able to do before, for about 3 seconds before almost falling on my head. i was proud anyway!

then, i came home and made a smoothie with my new chocolate protein stuff. it was not too bad, and that is good enough for me when it comes to post-workout protein. and i even got to see the puppy, because as i was going outside, my neighbor was heading out, and there was the adorable little fuzzball. she's already grown and gotten a bit of an attitude, but she's so incredibly smart that she, in less than a week, has learned sit, down, shake, and sort of stay. i'm so proud of her little brain. 

all in all, not a whole lot of excitement, but small victories are keeping me smiling.

for your "moment of zen", as jon stewart says, i leave you with a picture of a much better crow than i have ever done:

Update from Dormia land

So I'm currently sitting at the purple Dormia desk in the Cary store squishing a block of memory foam to occupy my time. It's been a slow day. I've only had one "customer" and she was looking for a pillow that kept her sleeping on her back. Needless to say she didn't buy one. Yesterday was about as slow. The day before(Monday I think, I lose track of the days) I had a good sale. This woman named Roan came in and practically bought the legend without even trying it. Apparently her fiance is in Fallujah and found it online. Being the germaphobe that he is the all latex matress appealed to him. For those who don't know our beds are resistant to bed bugs and mites because they don't like the foam like they like regualr matresses. So that was an easy sale, aside from the fact that she got a flat tire while going back to her office to get some identification and papers she needed.
This was a funny exchange between my boss Pete and me via email. (For those who don't know, Moose is Will's nick name. He's the store manager in Cary.)

Pete,
I still have not received a paycheck for the pay period ending
1/15/08. I am signed up for direct deposit and have contacted Casaundra to
see if there are any problems. I have not heard anything back. Could
youlook into this and let me know what is happening?

Dude,
You want to get paid for working in Dormia land? Isn't just being in the
presence of the Moose enough? The first pay usually gets mailed to the addressgiven in your hire pack and its always later than sooner.I have forwarded you
pay concerns on to Casundra and will let you know if I hear anything.


Pete,
I just figureda little pay to put up with the moose was in
order. He's quite a handful sometimes

(His response) Hey keep your hands off the Moose!

monday gloom

i have had a hard time since giving the puppy away. it's weird, i only had her one night but i just felt like she was mine for real and like she fit in perfectly to our little home. it has really cast a shadow over me. 

i had trouble getting up this morning too, so i got coffee from starbucks (not something i've done much recently) and thought, this will be a good day.

that's pretty much where the good day ends. 

my kids at school decided to give absolutely no effort to their projects that were due today despite the two in-class workdays and extension i gave them last week - half of them didn't complete the assignment, and at least 20 of them didn't even bother to turn anything in. paige had the same kinds of problems with her classes, and we even held a "come to jesus" meeting during 7th period for the whole 6th grade to try and, i don't know, encourage them to do well or something... i don't think it worked. i'm so discouraged with teaching, sometimes i wonder if it wouldn't be better if i just quit for good. stupid teaching fellows loan.

and my wrist keeps hurting from when i punched chicken's beer can the other night.

and i forgot my shoes for the gym, so instead of doing cardio and yoga, i just did pilates and left.

and andrew worked until late... again.

and i tried making tofu stir-fry but it was crazy salty so i didn't eat much of it.

and now it's time to go to bed but i don't know if i'm ready to face tomorrow.

fleeting excitement - puppy for a day

yesterday at school my student, ginger, brought her 6 puppies in because she wanted me to take one of them. i was intrigued but knew andrew probably wouldn't go for it, so i told him if he didn't show up at carpool i was going to take one home. unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately (i'm not sure yet), we took one anyway.

one of my other students, jacori, told ginger's dad that his dad said he could have this puppy, the one i wanted. he said his dad said it was ok. jacori carried her around for an hour and wouldn't let anyone hold her or let any other families look at her. eventually, after he'd taken her inside, ginger's father left, drove off down the road, and then finally when his father came, his father said he could not have her. so we took her.

i was so excited and so was andrew, though we were really apprehensive about staying up for taking care of her and mostly about the financial obligation of another puppy, but she was so good and so cute that we just decided to take care of her but put our feelers out there to see if anyone else wanted her.

this morning, after getting her shots at the vet, i mentioned to my neighbor that "goober" (as i was calling her) was looking for a home... sort of. and my neighbor immediately seemed interested. i felt a sinking in my stomach as i took her inside. she and lillie and i snuggled and hung out and napped all day long. it was one of the best days i've had in a while, until the neighbor showed up and said she wanted her. we had to give her up - it was the right thing to do.

but to make it worse, when the neighbor took her, they brought her back outside to put her in the car... and she ran back to my door and put her face up to the glass and looked in at me like "please let me back home" - it broke my heart into pieces.

yoga and dog...ma?

no not really but i wanted to figure out how to get lillie and yoga in the title together.

so the dog part is that lillie got her annual checkup and a dental cleaning today! woohoo! you would be celebrating too if you had smelled her breath recently. her pearlies are all white again, and her breath is so fresh and so clean clean.

secondly, i have SOOO much work for school that i'm behind on that i almost didn't go to yoga tonight with my favorite instructor. fortunately though, at the last minute, i felt like a lazy blob, got off my couch and rushed over just in time for another packed class. literally there are like 50 attendants in this class, and our mats are about 3-4 inches from one another on all sides. apparently this horde of people became regulars in this particular class the same week megan and i did. fun because it's a great class, but kinda un-fun because you have to kind of kill people to get a spot on the floor. but, it was a fantastic, hard class that had me sweating profusely. i was really proud to be able to do so much more than just last week and to be able try some of the more difficult things. megan and i both left the class feeling strong and accomplished, which is great. as a sidenote, since i have begun drinking profuse amounts of water by direction of the nutritionist, i not only have to pee all the time, but the sweat factor was really out of control. i'm talking rolling down my face - groooosssss!

tomorrow night, pilates! stay tuned for the review.

food diary

but not in the fun sense. the nutritional counselor at peak has asked me to keep a food diary for the next 3 days. now the only thing about this is that i've already been making a concerted effort to have healthier eating habits since i began working out. additionally, i sort of feel like when you have to write down what you eat, you're obviously more conscious of being healthy. now, i can do this for the 3 days i'm supposed to, but how much do you want to bet that on day 4 i get a greasy cheeseburger with nasty french fries! ...i'm just saying, let's be honest.

but yes, let's recap the day shall we? i went in to work today and had a surprise observation YAY (can you feel the sarcasm?). not only did i have 1 surprise observation, but i had two people attempt to observe - at the same time! yes, while ms. lanier, the mentor coordinator, was sitting in the room observing me mrs. baker, my mentor, came in to observe. luckily, she left but unluckily, she plans to come back tomorrow. ugh. however, i left work on the early side and unscathed, so it was ok.

then, i went straight to the gym for my free consultation with the in-house chiropractor, dr. hall. she was incredibly nice, and though i am a huge skeptic, i really liked her attitude, and i find her to be completely competent. she says i am having tension headaches, found some reasons why, x-rayed my neck, got me a free 15-minute massage, and scheduled me for another free session. it was excellent, and i feel like there might be an end in sight for my neck/spine/shoulder issues.

after that, megan had her session and then we worked out. today was some cardio followed by weights. we both bought protein smoothies (which i think tasted like chalk) in order to "make sure our bodies aren't eating away at our lean muscle" ::gross:: and headed home.

tonight, andrew and i are going out to dinner to celebrate his second sale at dormia - go husband! and tomorrow lillie is going in for her annual and her first dental. exciting things going on in the korhonen household!

1 year anniversary...

of the day andrew proposed to me!

i wish i could be hanging out with andrew instead of sitting alone, but at least the dogs have been here to keep me company! i planned to spend the day grading papers, but i don't like grading, so instead i did nothing. yep, i'm a winner. after bumming around cary for a few hours with andrew, he went off to work and i pretty much ate and sat on the couch all day. megan and i were supposed to go to the gym this evening, but i didn't realize that tonight's class wasn't until 7:30, and by this point, she and i are both more into just sitting around than working out. i was toying with the idea of going alone, but i don't think that's going to happen.

on an unrelated note, there is one interesting thing that's been getting to me recently, i keep getting these (tension?) headaches in the afternoon. they start at the base of my neck and shoot to the front of my head. the only thing that helps is to go to bed... i'm wondering if they're some sort of migraine, but i know migraines usually involve feeling nauseous, and i don't. kim mentioned to me that she was getting ocular migraines, which sound somewhat similar in symptoms, but who knows. it used to be that i only got headaches when i was really sick or when i was dehydrated, so now the first thing i do is start drinking water or juice when i get a headache, but even that doesn't help anymore. any ideas?

sex at church?

this morning at vintage21 anyway!

andrew and i woke up and barely made it to church in time for the 9:30 service (luckily, we only live 3 mins away). we got our morning snacks of bagels and coffee/orange juice from the welcome table and went on in. i was excited to see my preferred worship team up on the stage. i'm beginning to think that this team works the 9:30 while the team i'm not as fond of works the 11:30, which is good for us if it's true because with andrew working on sundays now, we don't have time for the later one. anyway, back to the point. so the music began and was great, and then the pastor started talking "today we're going to talk about sex, specifically sex in marriage" OKAY!

the scripture for this morning was from 1Corinthians 7:1-7

1 Now for the matters you wrote about: "It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman." 2 But since sexual immorality is occurring, each man should have sexual relations with his own wife, and each woman with her own husband. 3 The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. 4 The wife does not have authority over her own body but yields it to her husband. In the same way, the husband does not have authority over his own body but yields it to his wife. 5 Do not deprive each other except perhaps by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. 6 I say this as a concession, not as a command. 7 I wish that all of you were as I am. But each of you has your own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that.

so he went on to discuss how sex is a gift and it's for procreation, fun, communication, understanding, (something else i forgot), and even worship of God. how it is integral in marriage for those things, how we have to submit to one another etc. he spent a lot of time on marriage and how to improve it and how to take care of one another and how we have to make sacrifices for one another. suffice it to say there was a TON more there other than just talking about sex, but i can't repeat it verbatim because there is too much info - and it was really perfect for us to hear that kind of thing about marriage and how every marriage has ups and downs throughout its course. i wish all my young married friends could have heard the sermon!

afterwards there was some more great music and a girl behind me singing harmony that reminded me of melissa :-) it was a good time.

after church, we went shopping for a little to pick up some work-out clothes and a cool yoga mat for me. i got one that was double thickness because my wrists hurt in class, and i'm a wimp. but it is orange with a cool moon design on it that reminds me of miss saigon. and now i must run because it's time to pick megan up for class!

if you can't have snow, have a snowball!

well since my terrible wednesday, we had a two-hour delay on thursday for no snow, i had quizzes for my classes on friday and then the snowball!

the snowball is a dinner/dance event for EWA teachers thrown by the board of directors annually. it's one of the things that separates this school from some others i've worked at. the fact that it is a charter school with a board of directors instead of just a public school under the direction of the school board gives us the opportunity to do cool things. it was certainly a lovely event that we all enjoyed.

the sixth grade angels

there was dancing, but those pictures didn't come out, so here's a picture of the decor

the obligatory couple pic :-) we danced a lot, too!

and of course... as all good company parties are, this one was much improved with the addition of booze.

today sucked

just to be honest. it ended better, but it still sucked. school was ok but very tiring and made me just want to go home. then, we were told we could wear jeans, which made me excited, until we were later told we couldn't wear jeans because we (the middle school team of teachers) don't have a "team shirt" and the memo only allowed for jeans with a "team shirt". i was pissed. i mean it's one thing to never let me wear jeans (normal at EWA) but it's just mean to say you can and then right before you leave for the day say "no, everyone else in the school can, but you can't". and i think the thing that upset me most was the way our asst. headmaster talked to us. oh well, i was going to the gym, and that would help, right?

so yesterday, when megan and i made our work-out debut, things went well. we enjoyed our time there, worked out at a nice getting-back-into-it sort of pace, left and felt sore but the good kind of sore today. we planned to go tonight and do a yoga class to work on stretching and take a day off the cardio-weight game. but last night the people from the gym called us, and were somewhat insistent, to make sure we took advantage of our "free consultation" with the trainers. free consultation my ass.

we get there expecting to be poked and prodded, to have our weight taken, and to be set up with perhaps nutritional advice or a work-out plan. oh no. we went in where a trainer, who did not know he had us scheduled, began our "consultation." we then proceeded to be pushed to our limits, though both of us were not planning on doing that yet for fear of injury or going too hard at it too soon. then, after being frustrated with the trainer, the situation, and myself, he left us to have some other guy weigh us and tell us our body fat percentages. this is where the day got awful.

i did not WANT to have my weight taken, but i did and was dismayed when it somehow was WAY heavier than a week and a half ago when i went to the doctor. then, after i was feeling bad about the weight, they used some electric charge machine to tell my body fat percentage. that took the cake. not only was it an obscenely high percentage, but i'm pretty sure, after much logical though and consolation, that it was wrong. at this point, i was crying while sitting in front of megan and a stranger who continued to tell me that i was pretty much obese and in danger of getting heart disease and diabetes. THEN he proceeded with the "consultation" which we finally realized was just a freaking SALES PITCH! so that's the way they get you to pay big bucks for a personal trainer, make you feel like shit and strip you of all self-esteem and then tell you that these personal trainers are your ticket to un-fat-ness. suck.

luckily, we still had the yoga class (original reason for going) to go to. the class was really hard, and megan is even interested in looking at other instructors because she prefers more stretching and less doing push-ups, but the instructor was positive and welcoming, and it definitely helped me to let go of the crap that had just happened.

so, while i know i'll go back because i have a year-long membership, and that i will benefit from the gym, AND that i'll probably eat healthier, look better, and be happier, i will NEVER recommend their trainers or their "consultations". blah.

endorphins are good

though i wouldn't know yet...

today i joined peak fitness for the low, low price of $275 for the year - whoo! (paycheck says ouch) megan mentioned, while we were out the other night, that she wanted to look into joining a gym, and peak had some $17/month deal going on. upon calling and much discussion, i realized this is like the way way limited fee, for those people who only want to go to one location and only want to work out on tuesday, thursday, and saturday. which seems silly for a chain-style gym with locations all over the triangle that's open 24/7. so i made an appointment for us to go check the place out and have a "consultation"... read: high pressure sales pitch similar to that of purchasing an automobile.

megan and i showed up at our scheduled 5pm meeting time... well, megan did anyway. it took me another 15 mins of driving around to find a place to park! (even more interesting because i live 3 mins away) i squeezed the scion in a teeny space in the gravel lot up the scary hill from the gym, and we went in for our meeting. we met with jannel, our very nice but not that knowledgeable or... shall we say... well spoken (i had to explain the word amenities to her) consultant. she showed us the chiropractor's office, where we can receive our free 15-min massage just for joining! the nursery/child care area, that we both passed hurriedly by, the ladies' changing room, complete with lounge, showers, and dry sauna, the tanning rooms (just another small additional fee!), the men's changing room (we did not go in there though), and then upstairs. the top floor has the cardio machines, weight room(s), a spin room, a ladies only weight room (probably where i'll be for a while), and the aerobic/group class room - not as large as i'd prefer, but jannel claims the classes don't fill up too much. there are also personal trainers, with whom you may have two free sessions, and then you have to pay the $50/hr rate (ouch!). the tour was nice, though i have to admit i've been completely spoiled by the wellness center in boone that was waaaayyy nicer and cleaner.

we went downstairs and sat next to the juice bar to look at membership rates. who knew one could negotiate the price of a gym membership? seriously, the only time i've ever had so much stress on me to make a large purchase was at the toyota dealership! and who knew there were different rates for coming this day and that day or everyday or just this location or all locations, and don't forget there's a new one being built in knightdale, etc. etc. etc. - before i knew what happened, megan and i were filling out paperwork and charging our credit cards. though i felt somewhat bamboozled by the whole ordeal, i must admit, i am extremely excited about this decision. we will begin our exercise regime tomorrow evening! we would have begun today but megan had to eat dinner and have her washer/dryer delivered to her new apartment, so we'll begin tomorrow, and that's just fine with me.

i think the most exciting part about joining peak and working out is that i have a buddy to do it with. there are so many times i've wanted to join a gym and work out, but i've never had a dedicated partner - yay for megan! and yay for joining a gym!

working woman, working man

andrew's been trying, for several months now, to get a job here in raleigh, and while the one he has now is (as of now anyway) temporary, it is still nice to feel like we have two incomes again. however, i guess i'm somewhat of an idealist and hoped that my husband and i could both be people who worked somewhat 9-5 jobs. i mean, mine is technically 7:30-4, and i sometimes have 7-6ish when i'm working at the vet, but at least that gets me home by around 6:30 most nights and off on the weekends (or when i'm at the vet, only working saturdays 7:30-12ish.

andrew, on the other hand, has always chosen professions that are in the off hours, working shows that take place in the evenings with load-ins and strikes on weekends, or now in this case, working retail where the best sales hours are nights and weekends. it's certainly nothing compared to those people who have significant others in the armed services or who go on business trips 3 out of 4 weeks a month, but it is already taking a toll on me.

i guess i'm just used to having him around when i come home and available to "play" on weekends, so i'm being selfish in wanting to have him here when i'm not at work, and i know i will just have to get over it, but it is lonely. and that is how i've felt today, lonely. so hopefully i'll be joining a gym, and that should help some, and i guess it'll give me more time to do things with friends, but right now i'm feeling down about it. i guess the gloomy, gray weather we're having isn't really helping my mood either. so sorry for the whiney post, but that's where i am right now.

blogger's block

this picture is for jackie.

the past few days i keep thinking about all the things i'm going to blog about, and this time i even took pictures, but then when i sit down to do it, i'm just uninspired to write anything. blahhhhh. i had a pretty good friday and a good saturday, but i don't feel like writing anything else.

here's a picture of my adorable husband at the grape:

water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink!

...or not.

as i was brushing my teeth tonight, i was reminded once again that i needed to conserve water. i've been trying to do my part, regularly wearing dirty clothes, only showering every once in a while ::wink:: not turning the water on full blast, not waiting on it to get hot before doing things, and (while i never let it run while i brush) making sure to turn water off asap when brushing my teeth. it is a tad scary to think of how little water we have left in raleigh. i pretty much ignored the idea of a drought before because we've been in one every year for as long as i can remember, or so it seems. but now i really feel the need to take it seriously. i guess i try to rationalize by saying i don't use much water anyway -- i mean i drink coffee, not water! -- but seriously, i am pretty conservation-minded in general, so i feel like compared to people who take LONG showers or huge baths everyday, or to people who have the means to really waste, i do a pretty good job, but now i'm quite concerned over the idea of not having water!

i am glad that raising the water prices by 50% did not end up getting passed because we would seriously feel that, and i am definitely trying to stay within my 25 gallon a day limit (though i have no idea if i actually am), and we brought in our high efficiency washer from the shed and put the old one that the landlords own out there instead, so that should help. the one thing, however, that i feel quite strongly against (and wonder how it would really help anyway) is installing two $90, 80 gallon "rain barrel" aka "glorified trashcans". i mean really, how will this help? we do not have plants, and if we did, i would forget to water them anyway, and you can't drink the water, and it's not routed to my toilet or washing machine or dishwasher, so how would collecting rain in an expensive garbage recepticle really help the city of raleigh? show me the benefits, and i'll consider it, but until then, i laugh at everyone who wastes their money! muhahaha!

in other news, i keep staying up too late and feeling like crap all day. then, i get home and am exhausted from working on no sleep, so i make dinner and lay around watching mindless tv for hours, leading me once again, to not only feel like a blob but to stay up too late and begin the cycle over! ugh! i need an intervention. maybe now that andrew is working some, we'll have enough money that i can join a gym and do yoga or something. we shall see. and now that it is past midnight and i must be up in less than 6 hours (further illustrating my point), i'm going to sleep.

I've got a job

at least for now.
Jackie hired me to work at the Dormia store at Crabtree. I will be fulling a gap that needs to be filled. I'm hoping it will work out and becomes a good job. I know I'll like working there. The atmosphere is great and I'll be selling a great product. I'll be going in for the first time on friday so more to come after that.

back to school

well the time has come that my long, three-week vacation must end. i was so bummed out about this last night while spending time with my hubby that i actually cried! i know, it's silly, but it's been great to get to enjoy spending time just being with andrew. it's one thing i think all the wedding hubub and moving and getting new jobs and stress has prevented us from doing, and it was just so great to have that time that i didn't want to give it up and go back to the stress of the "daily grind". i even stayed up really late to try and somehow prevent the day from coming (again, i know i'm silly), but somewhere around 1am, sleepiness and sense took over, and we went to bed.

i got up on time, but i'm out of the habit of moving at work-pace, so everything just seemed to take longer than necessary and instead of getting there at 7:15-7:30 like i'd planned, i didn't get in until 8:15 - eek! i was really worried that we'd have some 8am meeting that i'd miss, but luckily that was not the case. when i got in, i realized i hadn't graded the quizzes the students took right before track-out, so that took up some time i hadn't planned for, then i had to reorganize my room, and that took a little while, and then of course there's the distraction that you always have on teacher workdays where everyone comes by and chats for 5 mins or so but that all adds up to a LOT of wasted time. before i knew it, we had to rush off to lunch. after lunch, there were meetings straight through until 3:45, so instead of getting ANYTHING done, i pretty much started anew at 4pm... when most other people went home. however, i did get my syllabus done for the whole quarter for both classes and tomorrow's lesson plans done, so although i did not plan the rest of the week, i think i did enough. i went to make copies and realized that i was one of 2 people left in the middle/high school area - a tad scary out in the middle of nowheresville (aka zebulon) well after dark. i didn't actually leave the school until 6:15.

fortunately however, i got to rush home for dinner out with marc and lora, now mr. and mrs. edwards! we went to 518 West and enjoyed their 1/2 off wine bottle monday and some good food, and though our waitress was TERRIBLE, we had a really nice time. we got to hear about their wedding experience, and just catch up on life. it was a great end to a good day that i thought was going to be horrible. yay!

(sorry though, no pics :-/)

"stewardship"

as most of my diligent blog-followers may have noticed, the trends in recent entries have alluded to and bluntly stated my monetary stresses and frustrations. knowing this, i'm sure you can understand how when we walked into church this morning and picked up the bulletin entitled "stewardship part 1" that i was less than thrilled. i think the one thing that turns me off from church more than politics becoming the topic of the sermon would have to be money.

i settled into my seat rather bummed that i'd gotten out of bed in order to be guilt-tripped and leave feeling bad about myself and my spending habits. fortunately, the pastor decided to approach money from a more biblical perspective. he talked about how christians have been "giving" out of guilt and duty for years. how the church has become the master of manipulation, and how perverted the giving has become (perverted in the truest sense of the word, meaning 'to turn away from'). he addressed how the nature of money is neutral, neither inherintly good nor evil and how the important thing is the condition of our hearts. how giving should be joyous, and how we're not supposed to be giving out of guilt, duty, or even desire for profit but instead out of an attitude of submission and joy for the One who has given us everything. he ended with, what i think is one of the coolest things God has done, by reminding us that in malachi, God says, "test me in this" and that if we are giving, we will be truly blessed. (the pastor was also sure to remind us that that does not mean you'll get back 100x what you give, as some people have said, because God does not tell us HOW we'll be blessed, but that giving will lead to us being at peace with our finances. there were a lot of other things in there, but i don't have time to recompose the sermon - i'm sure that if you are really interested, i could probably find a recording or transcript for you.

anyway, i was thinking about how, to give 10% of my paycheck would not be all that much money each month... and how our car-payment is practically double that... which means it's like 20% of my paycheck, which made me very sad! but also i thought about how prior to marriage, i really didn't think about money too much because i always knew i had more than i was spending, but once you're two people sharing money, living for a while off one salary for a while, i have sort of let the money-stress become a part of my life, way too big a part, and what i'd love would be to wake up and not worry about money. so andrew and i are going to think and talk about giving, and i know that with thoughtful consideration, discussion, and prayer, we'll end up making the right choices for ourselves and with our money.

on a totally unrelated note, i guess i should recap what we've been up to since new years'. not a whole lot, really. i was sick and spent most of the week lying on the couch. i went to the doctor, where they deduced i had a sinus infection and medicated me heavily. i missed a couple days of work at the vet, but i worked again friday and had a pretty good time. yesterday, we hung out with my mom for a while and then went to my parents' house for a few hours. it's always good to see them, and especially good when mom decides to make rice krispy treats! after that, we went to meghan's birthday celebration and mostly hung out with kim. meghan lives in a really cool apartment complex in cary, one of the ones that looks like it belongs in a big city where rich executives have "flats" or something. we had the run of the clubhouse complete with movie theater, video game room (with guitar hero!), a gym, card room, pool room, and a business office. obviously, we didn't use the gym or business office, but i was still amazed with the place! we had a good time and ended the night watching a movie in bed. so far, despite the sickness, 2008 is off to a pretty good start, and i'm excited to see how it will continue to unfold!

2007 comes to a close

and with it, an extremely exciting year of my and our lives. there's been a rush of activity... pretty much all year, but especially right at the end here, and i feel like maybe i'm saying goodbye to 2007 but that i haven't really said hello to 2008. in daily catching up news, we attended marc and lora's wedding on new year's eve. we were able to get a ride there and back with mark doliner and emily caldwell which made the trip possible for us (since a hotel wasn't an option financially). the picture below is us at dinner before hand. with a 7:30pm wedding, one must plan ahead and eat before in order not to have grumbling of stomachs overtake the saying of vows. andrew and i, being late additions to the party, did not get to sit with rachel, mike, mark, emily, gabe, tommy, penny, and whoever else was at the large table, but we did get two of the last bar seats in the restaurant and enjoyed a private, date-like dinner there. the food was great, though very expensive, and it was good that we split everything, otherwise it would have been WAY too much. as it was, i wasn't very hungry for reception food until about 11:30pm.

though we discussed it in the car, i will mention how interesting it is that, along with my delineation of the color red, and how though it was used for 5 of the 7 weddings this year, each was individualized, tailored to its party, and beautiful, wedding ceremonies and receptions are the same way. each one takes on its own identity that represents that of its celebrants and what they stand for individually and as a couple. suffice it to say that though opposite in many ways of thomas and cindi's wedding a week ago, marc and lora's wedding was beautiful in its own. i think my favorite thing they said during the vows was something to the extent of choosing to love one another each day. that's really true, we do choose who we wish to love when we arise each morning, and i'm so thankful that andrew chooses me and that i have the privilege of choosing him for the rest of my life. also, though i have no actual photos of the wedding or reception, there were so many cameras going off during both that i have no fear of finding a picture to post sometime soon.

but back to the summation of the year...
i feel like this really has been a year of changes, and excitement, and i've had a difficult time trying to put it all into words or some kind of shortened version, but here goes.

in january, andrew and i got engaged in the lovely town of boone. i had just quit my first real job as a teacher, and i was working as a veterinary technician at oberlin animal hospital in raleigh. we were living in chapel hill in our glen lennox apartment. i'd made my first emergency trip to the hospital (for something other than a riding injury), and we were really excited about andrew's graduation from state and his impending job opportunities. at this point, we thought we might end up in atlanta or somewhere else for him to work in a theatre, and i was trying to wrap my head around those possibilities.

in february, i continued working at the vet while andrew worked at thompson theatre with dave and brittany. andrew began looking seriously into working for a theatre down in georgia, and we made a visit to see the theatre, the area, and even spent a few days looking at houses. we decided on this trip that the roswell area was not the place for us, and that andrew was very hesitant to leave the university theatre world for one that was inconsistent and offered no real full-time possibilities. we weren't sure what we wanted to do, but we didn't want that.

march brought more working at the vet on my part and more job-hunting on andrew's. the wedding planning began, we toyed with locations and dates, and melissa and i searched for dresses. jessi's planning for her wedding was well underway, and we helped her make decisions about that. we went out to dinner and had friends over at our place in chapel hill. it was an enjoyable time, with not too many stressors weighing us down.

april brought my birthday (though neither andrew nor i can remember what we did for it) and beginnings to rehearsals for relay-for-life with kim, jeremy, and shannon, and most importantly, andrew began looking at the mountains (blowing rock stage company and flat rock stage company) for full time employment.

in may, andrew was offered the job as the assistant technical director of the blowing rock stage company, and we had to move almost immediately. i quit my job at the vet, and found us a house to live in up in valle crucis. we moved much of our stuff during the end of may even though we were still in our glen lennox apt until the first of july. additionally, jessi and norman got married! lindsay and i threw the bachelorette party, andrew and i attended the rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, wedding, i was a bridesmaid extraordinaire, and late that night, while the couple slept at their hotel, kara, andrew, and i performed groomsman duties and decorated their car for their drive to the honeymoon!

june, for me was mostly comprised of driving back and forth from boone to chapel hill, packing, unpacking, packing, unpacking, crying some, and getting used to the idea of being in boone for life. i was unemployed and planned to take a break until after the wedding as we both thought i needed it. i unpacked most of our things into our new house, constructed a dog fence in our yard, and tried to make the best of isolation while andrew worked. and... andrew worked all the time, so i was alone a lot living at least 30 mins from any real activity, people, or domesticated life.

july brought with it a lot of stress. the wedding was fast approaching, andrew had been working all the time, and i was extremely anxious about everything. i began a job at appnet, deciding that i needed not only income, but a way to occupy my time. this was a good thing because by this point, andrew left the stage company after many attempts at making it work with non-receptive bosses and months of not spending any time with his fiancee. also, we found out my mom had breast cancer. july was not an exceptional month, but we did get to see a fawn nesting in our back yard!

august was a much better month! i continued at appnet, andrew began working for gum ridge mill making custom furniture and flooring from reclaimed wood, and most importantly, we got married! the wedding was great and the honeymoon even better. we had time to see family and friends we hadn't seen in a while and spend time together alone in romantic places. august was definitely a highlight.

september brought with it the sudden reality that boone was not going to be long-term for us, though we enjoyed the peace and quiet and the fun (free!) outdoor activities, we realized financially, socially, and locationally, we needed to be somewhere else. scraping by was not really going to be an option, nor was it going to help us achieve long-term goals. we began talking to our landlord and trying to figure out what to do to improve our situation. (to uh, moooove on up, as i'm trying to do in this picture)

october had us moving to raleigh once again, not to cary as we'd originally though, but to a nice little house in mordecai. welcome back to civilization, family! our dogs had a new back yard, we piled our stuff into our tiny new house, i found two jobs at once, and decided to start teaching again at east wake academy, and andrew began his job search. we no longer had the stars and the streams (and goats, chickens, horses, wild dogs, and other creatures) around us, but once again back to city lights and street sounds. a bittersweet but productive move, i think we'd both agree.

november had us growing accustomed to living in raleigh again. going out with friends, having people over for dinner, trying out different restaurants, seeing horse shows and cultural events, and visiting my parents became a way of life once again. my mom continued doing well with chemo, and despite our thanksgiving celebrations being somewhat delayed due to illnesses all around, i'd say it was a good month. i worked at oberlin during my time off from east wake, and andrew worked jobs around town at different theatre and production companies. though there were tons of adjustments, we were both positive that this had been the right decision for us.

during december, andrew both began and abruptly ended a job with meld, a "designer concrete" company, and he decided to do away with the idea of working for small businesses ever again. i agreed with him. i had a LONG (and much needed) break from school for our winter track-out, i worked at oberlin like i'd never left months ago, we enjoyed family and friends, weddings and dinner parties both at our house and at others. we struggle with not being able to go out and do as many "fun" things as we'd like, and andrew continues on the job search. i've been sick a few times, and i wish i'd gotten to take more of my vacation as a vacation, but we have a warm house, a cozy family, two working cars, two crazy dogs, both old and new friends, families who support and care for us when we need it, and enough money to pay the bills, and most importantly, we have each other. without a doubt, we have been incredibly blessed.

so with that said, i thank God for 2007, for its many trials and triumphs, and i say to thee, 2008 - bring it on! you have big shoes to fill.