It's all in my head.

 

Recently, I have written so many beautiful, eloquent, insightful and informative essays (in the form of blog entries)...I mean, honestly. Sometimes I just amaze myself with the things I come up with.  And to think, thanks to the wonder of the internet, I can share my thoughts with all the world!  What a great time to be alive!

Unfortunately, all of those essays (excluding the present) have been exclusively written in my head.  So the "beautiful, eloquent, insightful and informative" may be a bit of a stretch.  It's more like bits and pieces of occasional wonder and borderline brilliance that pops into my mind and ruminates from time to time, with the best chunks generally hitting me at the most opportune times (she says, the sarcasm so thick and tender you could cut it with a butter knife), like when I'm driving home from work, or trying to fall asleep.  

It's hard to remember everything a person needs to remember.

And so this is Christmas, and what have you done?

 

PSYCH! Happy April Fools! It's not Christmas, it's only September! 

...and I've been a most neglectful blogger.  "Neglectful" doesn't feel like the right word, but I'm going with it for now.  

September is my happy month: the month of my birth!  For 21 years it was My Month and mine alone.  And then, on my 22nd birthday, I did a crazy silly* thing: I got married, to my one true love, my soul mate, the man with whom I still want to spend the rest of my life, my best friend and (then future-)father of my child. Whose birthday is the very same day as mine.  Yep, in case you didn't already know, you read that correctly: my hubby and I were born on the very same day, in the very same year, and even in the very same city.  So of course we had to get married on that day!  The birthaversary. I've probably written about it before.  (*Just to clarify: the crazy silly part is that we got married on our birthdays, which means we celebrate EVERYTHING on the one day, and that's it.  If I had to go back and do it all over again, I would still do that, but sometimes my inner child throws a hissy fit because my birthday isn't a day all about ME anymore.  That's the "silly" part.  No matter how old I get, my inner child can still be a bratty, stereotypical youngest sibling sometimes.)

This year, we spent our birthaversary camping in the woods in northeastern Wisconsin with our dog.  We had our camper, but didn't have electricity or water hook-ups. We had limited running water (the camper has a solar panel but we basically only use that to try to keep the battery from dying so we can keep the fridge running) and very spotty cell phone service. The weather was just about perfect and we had a lakeside campsite, and no deadlines to meet or places to be.  Perfecto!  Couldn't have asked for a better time, even though I slept like crap every single night.  I'm getting teary-eyed thinking about it right now.  The relaxing fun parts, not the sleeping like crap parts.  I'd actually forgotten about that until just now.  That, and the fact that we didn't have quite enough sunlight to actually keep the battery charged, so we weren't actually able to shower like we'd planned...lol.  

And so I learned that my personal threshold for days I can go without showering is 4.  I don't know if my hubby would agree with me, I didn't ask him, but for my own personal comfort and ability to tolerate myself, it's 4.  😇  Granted, the temperature was under about 85*F for three of those days, and the humidity was also, I don't know the exact reading, but it wasn't horrendous for three of those days, so that number would change depending on the weather.  This wasn't planned; see, with the camper, and the solar panel keeping the battery charged, we should have been able to use the hot water heater and the shower and take "camper showers" for lack of a better term -- not full, luxurious showers like you'd take at home, of course, but a sufficient and refreshing cleansing of one's entire body (including scalp) with soap and as little hot water as possible.  However, our campsite had just enough shade that the solar panel didn't get quite as much direct sunlight as it needed, and the battery died about halfway through our stay.  Have you ever tried to take a shower with cold water?  I'm pretty sure everyone has at some point, for some reason or another.  If you haven't, count your blessings!  It's not fun. It's not refreshing. It's at least cleansing, marginally, but it's not something most people would choose unless absolutely necessary.  And in this case, it was not absolutely necessary.  For the sake of this story, there were other ways to charge up the camper battery so we could keep the fridge running -- by hooking the camper back up to the truck and running it for a while. Not ideal, because who wants to sit next to a running vehicle at their relaxing campsite? And who wants to just let their truck sit there and idle, knowing how much gasoline costs? Anyway, the moral of the story, kids, is that we really liked the campground except that the campsite was too shady. But that wasn't even the end of the world.  We had some food in the freezer that thawed, but it was almost the end of our trip anyway, and it wasn't a big deal.  The end.

But the shower I took after we got home and got everything unpacked was probably The Best Shower I have ever had in my entire life...oh, my, lanta!!  So nice. 

And now, in what seems like a few blinks of the eye, September is almost over.  The Minnesota State Fair has come and gone. It's officially autumn. The leaves are changing colors and falling off the trees. I'm pretty sure the hummingbirds have migrated away, the amount of feed in the feeder hasn't changed in over a week now and I should probably take it down before it starts to ferment.  The camper has been winterized and is packed away for the season (well, technically it's been un-packed away temporarily, so the hubby can put siding up on the new addition to the pole barn where the camper will live when it's not being used, but for all intents and purposes, it's packed away for the season).  

Speaking of packing and un-packing, can you believe we've lived here almost a year already?!  I was trying to figure out when exactly our offer on this place was officially accepted. I purposely didn't write about it on social media or in here, which has made figuring that out a bit more difficult for me, ha ha.  I mean, I could just look at the paperwork, because I know exactly where it is, but that would be too easy.  I'd rather stumble across it in a FB post or a blog entry so I can remember the emotions I was feeling at the time.  Or...perhaps I don't want to remember the emotions I was feeling at the time!  😁

It's funny, how many times we'll be driving somewhere and I'll randomly think, 'Hey, we looked at a house that was down this road!'.  We looked at a lot of houses last summer.  

But, I digress.  There actually was a FB post that came up in my "Memories" today that made me think the acceptance date is coming up very soon.  It was one year ago today, and I'd written, "Remind me to ask our realtor if we can invent a Buyer Anxiety Clause stating that the buyer has severe anxiety and needs to know ASAP if the seller is going to accept the fricking offer or not...#PrayingTheThirdTimesTheCharm".  I think, if memory serves (which is iffy), this was the third place we put an offer on, so this could very well be the transaction to which I was referencing one year ago.  Which still means our closing date anniversary is still two months away, but that, my friends, is another story...

I suppose I should sign off and get some housework done. My hubby is out of town this weekend, and I don't know why but I'm on a cleaning kick.  Actually, I do know why! Yesterday (Saturday), he had to be at the airport by 6:30-7am'ish for an 8am flight.  Bless his heart, he does believe in arriving way early so there is plenty of time to get through security and everything.  I grumble about it, but in my heart I appreciate it, too, because I tend to underestimate the amount of time needed to get places, and flying/going to airports heightens my anxiety three billionfold, so his foresight in planning is a blessing in disguise because the thought of missing a flight really sends my anxiety through the roof...but I digress.  The airport is about a 1.5 hour drive from our place, so we had to leave at 5am, so we got up about 4am, ON A SATURDAY mind you, and so by the time I got back home it was just before 8am.  Our Saturday morning Bible Study group meets (online) at 9am, and I didn't want to miss it, and I knew that if I sat down or laid back down I would fall asleep, so I started Doing Things.  Not normal typical things like the dishes or the laundry, I started Projects.  Like hanging up things on the walls. then I decided I was going to tackle the boxes that still need to be unpacked that are in the guest bedroom, which lead to some minor re-decorating in my office (since most of the things in the closet were framed photos).  Anyway, long story short, I ended up with one bag for the Goodwill, two bags to the garbage, a few more decorations thoughtfully placed throughout the house, and the huge satisfaction of ticking a long-standing project off of my To-Do list. Today I shall catch up on the housework I usually do on Saturdays, and I've already got a good start on that, and it's only 1:30pm!  Wow.  Despite being tired last night (because, hello, I had to get up at 4am!), I don't sleep well when the hubby isn't home, and last night was no exception. So today I somehow still slept in until about 10am, but I'm all groggy and discombobulated and feel like I should be cleaning and organizing instead of sitting here writing.  

So, with that, I leave you. For now.  See you next time!

Wake me up when September ends-- oh, that's NEXT month. Sorry.

 

August makes me sad. I don't want summer to be almost over!  July needs to march itself right back here and stick around a while longer, I tell you what.  I went to one of the local artsy-craftsy boutique-type places this weekend and while I was utterly delighted that the summer décor stuff was on sale (because that's what I was there to purchase), I wasn't ready to face the onslaught of fall décor yet.  I'm not ready for pumpkins and colorful leaves and apple cider and sweaters!  It's NOT fall, y'all!  It's still very much summer (it's supposed to be in the 90's this week, thank you very much) so I'm just going to pretend I didn't see all that other crap yet.  Fall will be in October.  It's barely August.  Hold your dang horses.

And before you start telling me that autumn technically starts in September: I know, I know.  But September is my birthday month and out of respect thereof, we shan't mention such things.  Capisce?

I took the hummingbird feeder down last week to clean and refill it, and haven't put it back up yet, and I swear they know.  Two times now, as I've been sitting here in my office on the computer, a hummingbird has come up to the window, hovered there for a few seconds as if looking in at me, and then flown away.  I should note that the window I'm sitting at is not the window where the feeder is usually located, and that I have never seen hummingbirds at this window before, either.  

Next year I need to get shepherd's hooks or something to get the bird feeder (the one that holds bird seed, not the hummingbird feeder) farther away from the house, though. To keep the deer from eating the hostas that are closer to the house.  Did I tell you?  I planted some hostas around the one tree in the yard, because I love the way it looks when there is a ring of hostas around a tree so I started a "ring" with like two hostas around one of the smaller trees in the back yard.  Anyway, that turned out to be a bad idea because the deer ate the hostas.  At first I was like -- Oh well, they ate the leaves, but it should still come back next year.  But do you know what those dang forest rats did?  They dug up those hostas and ate the roots and everything.  So no, the new hostas won't come back next year.  !!!!  Except the new striped ones I planted in the front yard next to the trees by the driveway.  For some reason, those are invisible to deer (so far).  And the ones I planted out in the front by the road by the fire sign, I'm pretty sure they ate those, too.  So what I've learned this year is, if I'm going to plant more hostas, I have to protect them from the deer.  There's not much room left to put them right by the house.  IDK.  I'll think on it and see.  

We planted some lilac trees, too, and I'm really hoping those take!  Otherwise I haven't really done much gardening-wise this year, just kind of watched to see what's come up and where.  We had a bunch of asparagus but by the time we realized it, it was too late.  (Did you know asparagus can get to be 6-8 feet tall?!)  We have a whole bunch of berries out there that I'm watching closely because I do love me some berries (raspberry and blackberry), but there are so many birds and deer that I don't think I'll get to them before they do.  

And...this is about what I've been up to lately.  Trying to identify plants and trees around our place, trying to keep up with housework (actually doing pretty well on that front!), working -- sometimes from home, sometimes making the trek to the office for the day.  I've discovered the absolute joy that is listening to audiobooks 😍 Yes, I'm a little late to the game sometimes!  I actually don't know why I didn't try this sooner, other than the fact that I just really, really love music.  It's not that I don't like books -- I do!  I love reading, and I've missed it, I just worried that it would be too distracting to listen to a good story while driving.  It's not.  I mean, I did try listening to some lectures on neuroscience and those are maybe not good to listen to while driving, because I did end up rewinding a lot when I missed an important part when traffic got bad or something.  But stories like the one I'm currently listening to (Where the Crawdads Sing) seem to be ideal. 

Alright, I suppose I should grab something to eat and then get back to work.  TTYL!

The incredible, edible egg.

Wasn't that just the best tagline ever? "The incredible, edible egg."  There's simply no better adjective for food than "edible".  And it rhymes with "incredible".  Win-win!

I don't like writing about my own personal weight loss journey, because it's been a two-steps-forward, five-steps-back process over the last 20 years.  Ha, ha.  

But a few years ago, I found something that actually worked.  Remember?  I lost around 60 pounds on a program that I won't name, not because I don't like it (au contraire, it obviously worked very well!) but because this isn't a commercial and it also wasn't a good long-term solution for me because once I went off it I, um, kinda gained all that weight back.  Easy come, easy go, as they say.  Only it was the opposite in this case. Easy go, easy come back.  

Anyway, I've found something that works again, and it's not a program that I won't be able to keep up this time.  Well, I mean, maybe sometime the effects will wear off, but hopefully by that time the better habits will be fully ingrained and I'll continue to make better decisions.  To be fair, the program I was on before had a component where we were supposed to be learning how to make better decisions so that we didn't gain all the weight back, but I glossed over that part because I didn't want to have to buy my food online from a certain website for the rest of my life.  

I'll tell you what started my current "program", but I don't recommend it for anyone playing along at home: COVID.  More specifically, losing my senses of taste and smell due to COVID.  When food stopped tasting right, it really made me stop and look at what I was eating and why.  Especially the junk food.  I used to hate the fact that I binged on junk food when I was stressed out because it only made me feel worse about whatever I was stressed out about in the long run.  But when I could no longer taste the yummy goodness of whatever I was bingeing on, it was really like, Why am I doing this?  This hurts.  I don't want to do this anymore.  

And pretty much just like that, something clicked and I stopped doing that.  Pretty much. I can look at junk food that I used to binge on and it just doesn't look appealing anymore, because I know that it won't taste good like it used to, and I know that it will only hurt me.  I can still have some sweet things (my kryptonite) in moderation, but I don't binge on them any more.  So far.  I'm always afraid I'm going get my old sense of taste back and relapse, but I'll deal with that if it happens.  One day at a time, right?

So, that's my secret.  That, and being on mood-stabilizing medications that also have appetite-suppressing side effects.  :D  And drinking lots and lots of water.  With food not tasting right anymore, I'm more mindful about what I'm actually eating.  It's easier to cut back on carbs this way.  I think I had to eat 10 dozen eggs to lose 15 pounds, but hey...whatever works. 

I'm not talking about it now to get attention.  I don't like drawing attention to myself. I just wanted to take a few minutes to write about the little things I'm noticing, like how my pants are fitting better again.  And my shoes, too.  It's weird, I know, but apparently I lose weight in my feet when I start losing weight.  I know, it's probably edema, but I'll take it.  And my elbows don't hurt anymore already. That's a new one, the elbow pain thing.  My elbows had NEVER hurt before, and it was starting to get annoying. So I'm glad that's starting to go away.  

I'm also amused by these little things I found on the internet that equate a weight in pounds to number of random objects.  That's the real reason I wanted to share.  15 pounds is the same as 10 dozen eggs.  It's a darn good start.  My birthday is in about 5 weeks, and I hope to be at 25 pounds lost by then.  I also hate giving myself goals like that, but, we'll see.

TTFN!

It's like a heat wave!

I just went to Google, searched on "current temperature in [name of my town]", then went to Images, and this is the first picture that came up.  

I don't understand how a cute little tiny baby deer standing on wood chips is supposed to portray how hot it is right now, but I don't feel like digging any further, so, there ya go.  It's so hot that little tiny baby deer (yes, I know they're called fawns) would apparently prefer to stand on wood chips than blacktop.  I wouldn't blame them.  It's hot.  According to the WeatherBug app on my phone, it's currently 91ºF outside but feels like 91ºF.  

I'll take their word for it. I'm currently working from home inside, where the thermostat is set to 78ºF which might sound hot but it actually doesn't feel hot.  I don't have the data to back this up, but I'd say it feels about 72ºF in here.  But that's literally just my word.  I'm sitting at the computer desk wearing shorts and a t-shirt and not sweating.  Max is sleeping on the floor in front of the fan and not panting.  We're good.

You know what's weird about COVID? Or should I say, post-COVID?  Sometimes everything smells the same, just in varying degrees.  This morning when I woke up, I could smell popcorn.  Not buttery hot yummy popcorn, but just plain, white popcorn with maybe a hint of salt.  I don't know how else to describe it.  I wasn't anywhere near food at the time.  It wasn't overwhelming or bothersome, it was just like -- oh, I smell popcorn. How interesting.  It varied in intensity for a bit, and now I just noticed that it's gone. I don't smell anything now.  

Sometimes I smell the correct things for a short time. Yesterday we were driving around in the rain and I could suddenly smell the wet earth. It was actually amazing!  It reminded me of how frustrated I was when we went camping Memorial Day weekend, and I couldn't smell the campfire. One of the simple joys of camping -- one of the simple joys of living, is the smell of wood smoke.  Anyway, for about 10 seconds I could smell rich, earthy, damp soil, and it made me feel alive and renewed, and then it went away.  

On Saturday, the hubby was frying fish on the back deck.  I couldn't smell a dang thing.  I sat about 10 feet away (or less) and could not smell a single solitary thing at all.  I'm not complaining about this one, I just like to prove that it's not such a bad thing sometimes.  Hee hee hee!

Also on Saturday morning, everything smelled citrus-like, for no apparent reason.  We don't have any citrus fruit in the house, no citrus-scented soaps or anything like that.  It was there for a while, varying in intensity, and I went to several different places Saturday morning where there were several different smells but all I could smell was citrus.  Until I couldn't smell anything anymore.

What the heck is going on in my brain!?!?

Anyway, I had my annual physical last week. I'm overall pretty healthy, at least according to my blood work. My lipid panel, hepatic panel, CBC, CMP, and A1C were all normal (except my fasting glucose level which has been annoyingly mildly elevated for the past few years).  My BP was even textbook normal, 120/80 on the dot.  :D  

Alright, time to get back to work.  TTFN!

 

Hmm-mm-mm-mm...

Did you know that hummingbirds are LOUD?

They are. I promise.  I know this personally.

I mean, they're not, like, "Oh my gosh, my ears are bleeding!" loud. They're more like, if you're sitting on your deck and they're half a deck below you at a feeder, you could hear them. And at first, if you've never heard one before, you might be like, What the heck is that?! It almost sounds like a really loud mosquito, but the pitch is off... it's actually more like a light saber, but... and then you might see the bird itself fly by and then you'd be like ohhhhhh, that's what it was!  Damn, that little thing makes a lot of noise!

Or you might not.

It's kinda handy if you're sitting outside relaxing in the vicinity of the aforementioned feeder, though.  As in, on the same level as the aforementioned feeder, and not half a level above it.  That way, you just have to listen for the humming and then look over at the feeder to see the tiny little helicopter bird, instead of staring at the feeder itself.

Yep.  It's only Tuesday and it's been a loooooong week already.  The hubby is out of town, out of state, out of his mind (ha ha, just kidding) chaperoning the church youth mission trip.  I've said it before and I'll say it again, I do NOT make a good single lady.  I don't like being responsible for everything.  I don't like making decisions.  I'm kinda looking around for the adultier adult...ha ha ha.  No, it's all good. It's going fine.  The house is still standing, the dog hasn't run away, and I've been getting some yard work done.  

And I've watched some hummingbirds :) 

I can't believe we've lived here almost, what, 8 months already?!  Going into the 8th month.  I definitely like summer out here better than winter.  It's weird, though, going back to the boy's place now.  (Which I still have to do because the horses are still there.)  He has a roommate now, so the house inside looks and feels even less like the home it was when we lived there.  Which I'm not complaining about -- that's the goal, right?  It's not my home anymore, so it shouldn't look and feel like my home anymore.  

IDK.  I mean, I do love where we live now, but sometimes I miss living on the little farm, too.  I miss my horses.  I miss the cats.  (This is NOT helped at all by the fact that, shortly after we moved, my cat Bo disappeared and hasn't been seen since.  I know, I know; he was a farm cat, it happens.  Plus, he had been diagnosed with feline leukemia a few years ago.  But he was my Bocephus kitten and I miss him, even if I was going to let him stay at the boy's place.)  I don't mean to sound like I'm sorry we moved, because I'm definitely not!  I think I just needed some quality time to make this place more our own, which I definitely got this weekend while working in the gardens.  Getting to know the land better.  Well, the landscaping, anyway.  I'm tempted to put my super-water-resistant wader boots on and go out into the back 4 again, like we did last winter, and see what the marshland looks like now in full bloom.  

Oh! The other night I was laying in bed, playing on my phone before falling asleep, and I heard an owl hoot!  It was SO FREAKING COOL!!  It sounded like it was right in my backyard.  I didn't get my glasses on fast enough to see where it was, but man, that was awesome.  I hadn't seen any owls since this winter, so it was nice to hear it.  I haven't seen any eagles for a while, either.  I need to find a way to identify birds by their sounds.  There's probably an app or at least a website for that.  It actually makes me want to go to the MN Zoo and hit up the local animal exhibits again.  I remember listening to the owls there when we were kids.  They sounded so cool, I never imagined I'd get to hear them in my own backyard, from my own bedroom window.  Elementary-school-aged me would have LOVED to have known that!

Elementary-school-aged me would have LOVED to have known a LOT about my life right now, most definitely.  

But, I digress.  Speaking of my bedroom window, it's just about time for me to go to bed.  Even though my hubby is out doing wonderful things God's name, I'm stuck here at home doing regular things in God's name.  Ha, ha.  Which means I still have to work.  Luckily, I get to work from home most of this week, including tomorrow.  So! I'm gonna sign off and get to bed.  Soon.  Adios!

Hello, sunshine...

One amusing side effect of being me is having bizarre, recurring dreams.  Once upon a time, the recurrenceness (if that's not a word, it should be) of them bothered me to what seemed like no end, but now I find it amusing. After all, it's not like they're prophetic, or anything; just the by-products of my goofy mind.

For instance, every so often I have dreams about going back to work at previous jobs.  Not every previous job, just specific jobs.  Namely the hospital, or Wards. I have had a dream or two about going back to work at the humane society, but usually it's the hospital or Wards.  Sometimes they merge together -- one of the last times I had that particular dream, the hospital was laid out just like Wards (like with the clothes racks and everything, and the cashier station was the nurses' station. It was too weird.).  Thankfully that was too bizarre to be realistic, obviously.  But some of them are realistic enough that I wake up feeling bad because I forgot to get room 1101 a new pitcher of water before I woke up...but wait a minute, where the heck would room 1101 even be?!? There was no such room 1101 when I worked there.

That's usually what the hospital dreams are like. I show up for report (usually late, which stresses me out greatly) and I can't find my favorite report sheets so I grab whatever I can find, but by then report is over and I'm running around trying to find out what my assignment is while everyone else is going out and starting their first set of vitals and assessments and meds and such, and I'm completely lost because I'm at the new hospital and I've never been there before and I don't know where anything is and my password isn't working and it's not day shift so no one is around to reset my password.  And I don't know anyone because I'm not a regular there anymore, I'm just a PRN.  Then, once I get my assignment, I don't know where any of the rooms are because the numbers don't make sense to me and I can't find the vitals on a sticks, and other people are asking for help so I'm helping them and the next thing I know it's meal time (so it must be PM shift, lol) and I haven't laid eyes on a single one of my patients.  That's usually when I either wake up, or my dream changes, although sometimes at that point in the dream I'll go down to the ER instead.  Which is even more of a clusterfudge because it's set up like a maze, literally.  

But then, when I end up going back to Wards, it's a clusterfudge, too.  But my password at least works there (WTF?!), I just can't remember which menu to go to for refunds or exchanges. And then when I get a quick break from ringing up customers and I look at the schedule, I get annoyed because the manager has me scheduled for daytime hours, and I can't possibly work daytime hours because I have my day job as a nurse, and I specifically told her I wasn't available during the day! 

Yep.  Dreams are can be fun.  

OK, so, I know I told you about the deer and the fireflies, but did I mention the hummingbirds?!  Oh em gee!! I had never seen a live hummingbird (well, any hummingbird, really) in real life until a few years ago, at our old place. I thought it was super cool and kind of instantly felt bad because I didn't have a hummingbird feeder.  So, my dearest darlingest son got me a hummingbird feeder that Mother's Day. And I never saw another hummingbird out there again.  :(  

Earlier this spring, we were working down in the basement (or outside in the back yard or some combination of the two, I don't remember) and you can probably imagine my excitement when I saw a hummingbird back there! I hadn't put up my hummingbird feeder yet, but that very day you better believe I did.  And it wasn't long before I saw an actual hummingbird actually using my feeder.  Which I still just think is the freaking coolest thing ever!  I never realized I liked birds so much, but man, I could sit down there and just watch them at the feeder (I have another feeder, one with bird seed etc. in it) for a long time. If it wasn't a construction zone down there, still.  Although, last week I did bring a couple of the chairs that were still on the deck at the boy's house over and put them down there, so theoretically I can sit down there now and watch the bird feeders and the back yard...but now I'm out of bird seed and also need to refill the hummingbird feeder... 

Anyway, our basement is almost finished and it's going to be awesome!!  Well, I mean, it was finished before, but it was one big room and now it's divided into one big room with a couple of medium-sized rooms.  And instead of the walls being dark purplish-brownish, they are a light, cheery, bright yellowish color.  It just needs new carpet. The carpet that was down there didn't look that bad, but man, once the hubby started pulling it up...I don't think there's a clean spot on it (the previous owners had cats, and I think a dog at one point, too).  Yecch!  So, nope, not going to try to save the carpet.  I tell you what, though, it is nice and cool down in that basement...might need to relocate my office once we get that bad boy finished...at least for the summer :)

Speaking of work, lunch break is over, I should get back to it. TTFN!

 

Happy Friday! Wait, what?

Such a creature of habit, I am. 

I usually go to my parents' on Thursdays after work.  
This week, I went on Monday after work.
Every day since Tuesday has, therefore, felt like it should be Friday.  

Hmmmm, maybe that's why I'm having such a good week.  I've subconsciously tricked myself into thinking every day is Friday, at least for a few seconds.  

It's a theory, anyway.  

Have I mentioned yet that there are a lot of deer where we live?  Like, a LOT of deer.  It's like that movie, Field of Dreams.  "If you build it, they will come..."  Someone named the town Deer Park, and allllllll the deer decided it'd be a nice place to hang out.  😆

Honestly, I've seen more deer in the last 6 months than I had in the entire 40-some years prior to that.  And the vast majority of them have been alive, much to my delight.  It's pretty cool.  The other morning I rolled out of bed (almost literally) actually kind of quickly because my bladder sort of functions inversely to the Maverick gas gauge: it'll seem fine, and fine, and fine, and then all of a sudden, BAM!, you (or, in both cases, I) better make alternate plans like now because it's either about to be really full or really empty, respectively.  So I sort of jumped up (yeah, right...I sat up a little faster than usual) and when I did, I saw a flash of tan and white go by my bedroom window.  I gracefully and smoothly placed my glasses delicately on my face (yeah, right...I fumbled to grab them from the bedside table and pushed them on my sleepy face on the second or third try as usual) and looked outside, and there was a deer standing in the yard, looking up at my window and flipping her (?) little tail at me like, WTF is going on up there?!  So what did I do? I layed (lied?) back down to see if it would come back by the window again.  

Yeah.  It did not.  It precariously walked away, flipping it's tail and glancing back at the house as if it had just seen a crazy person, or something.  Pfffft. Fine with me, I had to empty my bladder anyway.

(This is probably why I don't, or shouldn't, hunt. I would try to talk to the deer.  I would whisper, "OK, come over here, just a little more, no! Wait!  Come back!!"   It wouldn't go well.)  (I mean, it would go well for the deer...)

When I got back to my bed, though, there were two more deer in another part of the yard.  That was pretty cool.  And then?  Later that same day? (At least I think it was the same day...they are all blending together now, and there have only been three of them! And I know it wasn't today so technically there are only two of them!!) I was out in the yard with Max. This was on the super hot day, so it must've been yesterday. Anyway, we were doing the Perimeter Stroll. I was taking pics of plants to upload to the plant identifier app, and he was sniffing literally everything, as he does.  For once, I was ahead of him, and I got to the corner and heard a whoosh sound in the leaves followed by little hoofbeats running away, and I looked up and there had been a deer just on the other side of the trees from where we were -- maybe 20-25 feet away. Maxwell House didn't even notice, bless his little heart.

Yep, seeing deer is awesome. As long as they're not sliding into the side of my car.

Another amazing wonderful thing I discovered out here very recently is fireflies. Oh my gosh!  This must've been Monday night.  Now, usually I'm asleep by the time it's dark out (don't judge, I get up early in the morning! Not as early as my hubby, but still early, and a girl needs her beauty sleep!) but on this particular occasion, I had to, well, I had to empty my bladder.  (Yes, I do that a lot.  No, I'm not having urinary problems, I just drink a lot of water, okay?  I've cut way back on the diet Dew and am drinking more ice water instead.)  When I put on my glasses so I could actually see, what I saw out the window was just breath-taking.  It was literally sparkling outside with fireflies!  When I got back to bed, I kept my glasses on for a while -- I am quite literally blind as a bat without them -- just so I could watch the light show.  I tried to decide if I liked "fireflies" or "lightning bugs" better, and I decided I don't like either term, because flies are ewww and bugs are Volkswagens.  Actually, it just occurred to me now that Bugs are Volkswagens (shhhhh, don't tell my hubby or my Dad that it just occurred to me NOW) but still.  I can't think of a better name for them, so I guess I'll go with fireflies.  

The things you miss out on, living in the city.

I think that's all I've got for now.  I'm actually kind of tired today.  This morning I got up early, even though I was working from home, and went to White Bear Lake for a blood draw and a semi-doctor appointment. It wasn't a real doctor's appointment, but I still had to get weighed and vitaled and I got my 2nd Hep A vaccine, too.  Then I came home and worked from home, but it's been a gloomy, stormy day.  Storms give me headaches, now, so I've had one of those off and on all day, plus something I ate (I think it was either too much sugar yesterday, or the apple juice I drank this morning after having my labs drawn at the doctor...) disagreed with me. Whatever, you don't want to hear about that, so I'm gonna be like a tree and leaf.  TTYL!

One of those weeks...

It's been one of "those" weeks, alright, and it's only Tuesday evening!

I can't wait to see what the rest of the week brings!

You probably think I'm being sarcastic.  Because I usually am.  This time, though, I'm not kidding.  It has been a simply amazing week.  Literally.  There have been so many simple (as in small, non-dramatic, easily overlooked or taken for granted) things to marvel over in my little world, it's just...I don't know how to explain it yet.  

It's been a very nice difference, for one thing.  I've been feeling overwhelmed lately with life, and work, mostly with work, but that spills out into life because when I'm behind in work I spend more time there both physically and mentally, which takes time out of the rest of my life.  I know, I know; this was covered long, long ago in Adulting 101.  These things ebb and they flow and eventually the pressures normalize again.  

On Sunday, the hubby and I went out to breakfast at our favorite place by our old house, and someone paid for our breakfast!  I won't say who it was here, but I literally am still just completely touched and honored by their thoughtfulness and generosity.  And so very humbled.  That act of extreme kindness really has set the tone for the week.  THANK YOU "MYSTERY" BREAKFAST BUYER!!!  You are such a blessing!

Then, after that, we were at church. Do you ever just get hit with random thoughts at church that utterly and completely blow your mind and make you feel like crying out of pure joy?  If that ain't the Holy Spirit reaching right out and slapping you upside the head, I don't know what is.  As a little background here, I didn't grow up going to church.  I was baptized, and I went to Sunday School once or twice, but as a family we didn't go to church.  Come to think of it, I don't know how I even knew we were Christians (much less Lutherans); I suppose because I saw the pictures of my baptism and asked questions about it, and because we had a Bible and a decorative plate with the Lord's Prayer, and a few other various religious-type things around the house when I was little.  I went through some really crappy stuff in my teens that forced me to do some serious soul-searching, and that is when I guess I, as they say, "found" Jesus.  *shrugs*  I don't know, it wasn't like some big epiphany or anything, it was just that I needed my higher power and realized it was there all along.  Then, fast forward a few years or so, and I married my hubby who was brought up in an active church-going environment.  I started going to church on a regular basis after we got married. Actually, after our son was born.  I'm learning all of the stories and the parables and the "rules" if you will.  It's like my head has to catch up with everything my heart has known most of my life, if that makes sense.  

ANYWAY, for reasons I can't explain, we were sitting in church on Sunday and it just hit me like a ton of bricks (or a ton of feathers, take your pick) how utterly amazing it is that God forgives us of all of our sins; that He loves us unconditionally, no matter what we've done in the past.  I seriously wanted to just fall down and start crying.  There are so many times when I don't feel worthy, by He says I am.  So many times, even to this day, when I let the opinions of others hurt me or anger me; but why?  It's not worth it.  With all of the beautiful and amazing things in the world today, God also thought the world needed one of me.  I'm one of those beautiful and amazing things, too.  And anyone who doesn't think so can suck it.  *ahem*  Alright, alright, I can't keep the enlightened and sappy thing going for too long, or I really will start to take myself too seriously.

So. As I was saying...

Yesterday I went to my parents' house after work, for our weekly dinner date and errand running excursion.  (Which reminds me, I have to log off in a few minutes so I can order their groceries.)  I'm not sure why, but my Dad was having a tough day walking yesterday.  He's been doing great (for him) lately, but yesterday he could barely make it from the house to my car.  Anyway, as we were walking to the car, there were some young ladies (like mid to late teens? I'm such a bad age guesstimator, everyone looks 12 to me) going door to door, and they stopped at my parents' house and invited us to a block party happening later this week.  We did the polite thing of taking their flyer and listening to their invitation, and then after they walked away we kept motorvating toward the car.  A minute or so later, one of the girls came walking back toward us and . . . asked if she could pray for us.  My parents both looked shocked but I immediately answered, "YES!!" (hopefully not yelling it like that, though I felt like I was in my head.)  So this young lady, who was like 15-16 or maybe 17 or 18 years old, stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and prayed for us, specifically for my Dad, that God would heal him and take away his suffering (actually I was like WHOA there, could you rephrase that, I want to keep him here on Earth for a while longer, kthx lol) and watch over us all.  ALRIGHT I'M AN EMOTIONAL SAP NOW.  It was very touching.  You just don't see that, especially in their neighborhood.  I prayed for that young lady and the others who were working with her.  I also prayed that I might be more like her, more willing to share my faith with others no matter where I am.  

This seems like a good place to stop for now.  Time to go order some groceries! TTYL.

April, May...

Um, oooops! I knew I'd neglected this blog but I didn't realized it'd been just over two months.  Whatever the hell?!  And now I only have a couple minutes left to write, because I spent my lunch break boiling some eggs, doing some laundry, and letting the dog outside twice.  Oh, and actually eating lunch. And taking care of some personal business.  And logging into this website, twice, because I'm working from home today and thus had the EHR program open in another window and whilst I was ignoring it (because I was on break) it timed out closed and took the whole internet browser out with it, as it does.  

So! That brings you about up to speed for the last 45 minutes or so. Heh.

I didn't read the last blog entry I wrote in here, I just skimmed the title -- Soggy Spring -- and already I can tell you there is a huge, lovely difference in my environment since then.  I remember this winter when I wrote about how I longed to see the green grass, and all these trees full of leaves.  Well, to quote that one chick from Poltergeist, "They're heeeeeere!"  It is SO beautiful!  We can't see the neighbors' houses anymore because there are so many leaves on the trees, and when the wind blows (which it is doing often and muchly today) it makes the most relaxing whoooooooshing sound, and I could honestly just sit and stare at the trees and the sky and watch the birds and occasional other wildlife all day.  

Which is pretty much what I did all weekend, but not at home; we went camping for the first and maybe only time this summer.  It was awesome! But I'm blogging in the lightning round right now so can't spend too much time on one topic, so I'll table the rest of that for now because I absolutely positively have to mention...

...the a-ha concert(s)!  I keep thinking that was the beginning of May, but no, that was back in the beginning of April already!  Insert sad face here.  I could write for hours about that trip!  My 3rd and 4th times seeing them in concert, my first trip to L.A., it was all in all a pretty overwhelming four days as well.  But definitely memorable and definitely over much too soon.  

And on that note, it's time to go back to adulting. Catch ya later.