A Stye - Yuk!

So I'm not very happy this evening. I seem to have developed a stye in my right eye. My lower eyelid is very puffy, and this makes me sad. I picked up some eyedrops that are supposed to help with the irritation and swelling, so hopefully this horrid thing starts to shrink and disappear ASAP. Ugh - I really disdain eye problems...

"Messenger"

I found the third book in Lois Lowry's trilogy at the library. Started the book on Tuesday night, finished it Wednesday night. Good stuff. Not exactly what I expected, and the first book is still my favorite, but it is nice to have made my way through all three... especially considering the fact that they are such quick reads...

So for those of you who enjoy novels about the future and failed "utopias", I recommend the trilogy (The Giver, Gathering Blue, Messenger). Keep in mind that they are intended for young adults, so they are not extremely involved, and the foreshadowing is hugely blatant and obvious. :-)

Sunday

We went to morning and evening church yesterday. It was nice to be so close to the church so not much time was wasted in the car. A group went out for Chinese food for lunch after church - good stuff.

We spent some time chilling at the house. The boys spent some time at the nearby university hitting and then chasing a few little white balls while Kim and I walked to nearby stores to scope out some deals. It was really warm out, so we came home to cool off. Before evening church, Kim and I did a little more scouting for deals, but it was pretty quick shopping.

After evening church, some friends came over and Nathan grilled some chicken legs while the ladies who cook make some veggies and mashed potatoes. Good food. Then we just hung out for a while and watched a couple of funny videos on youtube.

Also, Kim and I had talked a bit about books we liked, and I mentioned the book, "The Giver," by Lois Lowry that I liked so much when I was younger. Kim happened to have a copy of the companion book that came just after it, so I read it and finished it this morning. I was bummed about the ending, b/c it seemed to just be starting, but then I realized that there was still a third book to read. I tried to reserve it at the library, but I realized that my card had expired since its last use. Bummer. But I will definitely try to make it in to the library when we get back home. I love young adult books - they are such quick and easy reads! I can actually finish them before I get distracted with other projects and activities!

It is now noon (1 PM eastern) on Monday, and not much as happened yet. We're contemplating being active, but it is so hot that activity doesn't necessarily sound fun. I think the boys are planning a trip to the auto parts store to buy a new serpentine belt for the Vibe. I think I'll just stay here and chill...

Saturday Night Campfire

So, our first day in Marion was good. Matt and his brother Nathan were able to check out the car and determine that a good majority of the work that our mechanics had suggested probably doesn't need to be done for a while. They were also able to figure out why the check engine light had come on. It's nice to be related to people who know what they are doing with cars and like helping out. :-)

After the boys were done, we all headed out to the house of Nathan and Kimberly's Sunday School teachers, who let lots of people use their yard regularly. They have a pond, and a huge fire pit. They have paddle boats/canoes, and all sorts of facilities in place just to make their yard a good place for large group hangouts. Nate and Kim regularly hang out there with friends from school/church. They still have friends from school in the area, so some of their friends also came along to hang out. We cooked burgers and made s'mores. Some people fished and caught a couple fish. We made a huge fire in the firepit and burned lots of random wood. And Nathan even killed a snake - probably the gross highlight of the evening.

I will have to tell more about the snake in person. The only camera I had at the time was on my phone, so I'll have to see if I can get the pics off of it somehow. I think everyone else knows a way... we'll see about getting that done after I'm home again.

Anyway - gotta get to bed b/c church starts at 9 AM EST, which means 8 AM Central, and I'm still tired from only getting 4 hours of sleep last night. Goodnight!

On the Road Again

We are about 3.5 hours away from our destination. It's sunny, and I'm excited that I discovered how to make my laptop screen brighter. Also, very cool thing about the Vibe is that it has an outlet that I can plug my laptop into. Basically, I have my entire office in the car now. Fun times. :-)

So - exciting news of the moment - Just before we left yesterday, Matt and I were able to stop over at Ali and Abe's new house for a tour. Very fun! We are excited that they will be living so close to us so we will be able to hang out more easily - that is as long as our busy schedules have some open spots...

So anyway, I'm not sure what the plans are for the weekend, so it'll be an adventure! I know that we are hoping to get some work done on the car, and Matt brought his Xbox and a TV, so they'll probably play some games. I remembered to bring my current crochet project and some books and magazines... We'll have to see what we end up doing. I'm definitely excited about having a 4-day weekend! If only gas weren't $4 a gallon...

All Packed!

This has got to be a record for me. I was done packing for the weekend long before bedtime arrived. Woohoo! It pays to take a night off.

Also, I have been slowly adding labels to my old posts, and as you may have noticed, I added a label cloud just under the recent comments widget. Very fun! (And pretty, too!)

Smoothies and Sundaes

Smoothies and Sundaes - wouldn't you say that this combination makes the best dinner ever? I would. And that is what I had for dinner tonight. Ahh, the cool, liquidy-ness of them both - it just makes my throat and tummy happy.

So apparently warmer weather makes me lose my appetite for real food... a glass of lemonade is sounding really good right about now... :-)

A Long Day

I finally left work at 7 PM, and I was just in time to check my voicemail and find out that I had missed my monthly dinner with my Guidant pals. :-( I had to hold down the fort this afternoon, and I didn't even have time to use the restroom. Let's just say that I'm looking forward to the upcoming long weekend in Indiana and the long car rides with my hubby and good books-on-tape.

The New Car

The Buick, as many of you know, is about to bite the dust. Well..... let's be honest here. I think it already has. Matt got a tip from one of the people he called about getting some cash for the Buick while getting it towed. The guy seemed to know all about this kind of behavior on this car, and he had a name for the part that was going bad... Not sure what that was, but it is interesting that after all our efforts, we may have found the answer from a very unlikely source.

Anyway, we got a *new* car - a 2003 Pontiac Vibe. Very fun. :-) More space than the Corolla, still good MPG rating, and this one actually has AC (unlike the Buick)! So, since many of you are not very familiar with this car, I thought I would post a pic. This may or may not be the car we bought since I pulled the pic from the seller's website, but either way, it is a good representation of what we ended up getting.

All in a Very-Early-on-Saturday Morning's Work

Well, here it is. Saturday morning. And the reason I am up so early? Well, we had a new person starting an assignment today, and I needed to make sure he arrived successfully. Results? I call the company - no joy. The new person is not there, and it's a few minutes before starting time. I boot up my machine and sign in to all my software gadgets so I can work from hom, and I look up the newbie's #. I call the n00b, and he says, "I can't figure out how to get in the building." Breathing a sigh of relief that I don't have to make calls for backups at 6 in the morning, I instruct him in how to get in. Believe it or not, I gave him this very same information the day before. I think the problem is that yesterday, the weather was so nice that everyone was too distracted to use their Listening Ears. Now let's hope that he can do a good job so I don't have to find someone else for tomorrow...

The Hunt for a Quality Ride

Tonight (Thursday) Matt thought he had found a great deal on a car. After work, I drove to Richfield to pick it up. A Russian family owned the car. The wife was driving the car, and the husband was a mechanic, so things were looking good despite the fact that the car was stated to have sustained some superficial damage a couple years prior. So I drove to our house for a quick dinner break and a chance to check out a CarFax report before heading to our mechanic in Blaine.

The mechanics looked under the hood before even beginning the inspection. They found a number of places where corners were cut during a variety of repairs, so they let us think about whether we actually wanted to do the inspection before charging us a penny. (Did I say I love this place?) We had taken the time to get the car, so we went ahead with the inspection. Good news? The frame looked to be in good shape. Bad news? Everything else had minor problems: Missing chunks of foam, pieced tied on with wire, low quality soldering jobs, break job needed, alignment issues, a major component filled with "Stop-Leak" that needs replacing, and overly dirty air filter, all 4 tires worn in an unusual pattern (indicating further issues), all 4 tires needed replacing, and the list goes on. So many corners were cut...

So we drove the car back to Richfield, dropped the keys in the dropbox, and headed home for bed.

Spring Cleaning

Yesterday was the first Saturday in a while that I had no plans. I really wanted to just do nothing, but thankfully, Matt talked me into doing some yardwork in the morning. We finished digging weeds out of the vegetable garden, pulled dandelions from our yard, cleaned out the lilies, sprayed weed killer on the edge of the back yard rock garden, and Matt even started working on weeding around the berries and remulching. Woohoo! Lots done.

Also, we made plans for shelves in the garage - more storage! I like being productive. And phone calls were made to Africa in honor of Mothers' Day.

But around dinner time, I needed to shift gears and change my blog design. I hope you all like it!

Planning for the Summer

So I have a huge, loosely defined list of things that I've been wanting to do for a while. While I was still in the middle of taking a class, I would think about something that I wanted to do, and then I would promptly forget what that thing was because I was too busy thinking about school/work/other business that was more pressing.

Now that I have some "free time", I really want to spend a while thinking about all of those things I want to do - things to fix up the house, things to organize the house and the rest of my life, things for personal enrichment, things for just plain, old fun.... I know I have a list somewhere in my thoughts. Now if only I could commit that list to paper or some handy, portable, electronic format...

I know what I'm doing this weekend...watching movies and brainstorming for my summer "to-do" list. Yay for summer break!

The end of the semester

Tonight is my last class! I have completed my final paper, and tonight I have one more mini presentation. After that, I will be free for the summer! Who want's to go play some tennis?