Life By Lindsey Rae

I bought my husband rocking chairs for Christmas. And, it was kind of a big deal for me because I spent many, many....many hours researching many, many rocking chairs before I bought them. Kind of like before I bought curtains. I thought about curtains a lot.
I have a very difficult time making decisions and as a result I often spend many hours researching things. Going to lots of stores, looking at a ton of websites...reading a lot of books (although I did not read any books about rocking chairs...a lot of things I get books from the library about). It is not easy to not be able to make a decision.

I really wanted to get what my husband wanted, which were extra wide chairs, but, I also wanted to make sure that they were somewhat modern looking and I really wanted black. Partially because I like black and it would look good with the house and partially because the neighbors across the street have white ones.
Eventually, though, all I could find in the proper size at a price that suited my cheapness (and I wanted to use my "own" money, 'cause it's more fun to buy someone a present when you don't have to ask them for money to buy it) were white ones.
I had decent expectations, since the reviews others had given these particular chairs were good, but, when they arrived on Christmas eve they were damaged! I was so upset about it! I really wanted to get a good present for J, because he always gets me such nice things. I suppose it is the thought that counts, but when you spend so long trying to find something and then it comes damaged on Christmas Eve...there is not much hope in replacing it in a timely manner.

Anyway, my husband liked the ones I got, but as they were damaged, we had to return them and decided to get something different. We recently found these at Sam's Club and thought we might try them. They are fairly wide (which was a requirement) and J thinks they are comfortable. They were twice what I paid for the others, so he sort of did have to buy his own present after all, but what can you do when you sit at home and build rock walls all day? (No, just kidding...I do other things to...sometimes...really. I also spend hours and hours trying to make small decisions. hahaha).


As you can see, these are not black. They are teak, which I think is probably the best for outdoors and will last a long time. But, I don't know if I like the color of the wood. I thought about painting or staining it a black, but, I don't know if you should stain teak.

So, now I can sit outside and watch the little lizards run by. It is actually a good spot, I think. I sat out there the other day when it was only about 35 degrees and read my mail and when the sun is out that location gets fairly warm.(To tell the truth, I think once it's summer I'll probably be scared to sit out there half of the time, because I'm too afraid of the bugs!)

I also want to get a hummingbird feeder and put it somewhere near this area. I have "my room" (my office/art space/mess) where that big window is, so I think it would be nice if I could look out the window and maybe see some hummingbirds...and bunnies. I only had one bunny in the flowerbed last year.

For Thanksgiving, Jerrod got me Cracker Barrel, which was pretty nice, because it's my favorite! hehe. Really. We brought it home, which was even better, because we didn't have to deal with all the people and could just hang out together and wear pajamas for dinner...or at least I could, since I didn't even have to go pick it up!

The weekend is over and I made out like a bandit with the sales. Nothing big and great; I mostly went to the drugstores and grocery stores and got a lot of free items with the sales. Actually, I profited on a lot of the things I bought, after I used coupons....In total, probably around $50-60. I mostly got a lot of hair and cosmetic products, soap, lotion, razors, chocolate bars, toothpaste, nail polish, cake mixes...those sorts of random things. I think in total, I got over $300.00 worth of free items and then got back nearly $130.00 in store reward dollars that are kind of like store coupons that can be used to buy any merchandise within the store....but expire...the unfortunate part. (The goal is to then take the store dollars and roll them into something else...by purchasing another item that will give you more rewards dollars. Only certain items do this that are special sales for the week or month. So, if they expire within 2 weeks to a month, and there is nothing that come up in that time, you end up not being able to roll them very well and not profit as much.) Anyway, anything I had to pay out of pocket (to cover tax on the free items or on the remaining balance on the nearly free items) I was able to pay with my gift cards that I had from store rewards for filling prescriptions at the pharmacy or by using previous rewards dollars that I'd saved up to use during the Thanksgiving/Black Friday sales.

I'm getting so sick of shopping! The problem is that I was sick of it before I started. But, what can I do? On top of the fact that there are things to get for Christmas, I also can't resist the fact that I now am aware of too many good deals and there is just too much things I know I can acquire for free or nearly free! I'd like to take advantage of that...it's nice to know you have extras of things you use so you don't have to buy it when you run out (and it's not on sale) and also, because I am hoping to donate some things to the food bank.
I read recently that the food bank is 80,000 lbs short on what they usually have or need to have or something like this. I don't know what it was exactly, but anyway, they need some donations.

But, I don't like going out in the traffic...and it's getting busy near my house, since we have the big retail area. And, I really don't like the customer service, or lack of it, that seems to be what you get at most places. I can only think of about 3 places that I actually feel they consistently have good service at. I feel like most places have more mean and grumpy people working there than usual right now! It's so frustrating to have to deal with that all the time. This makes a good argument for why a person should do their shopping online whenever possible.

Today at church, we sat beside someone who was a visitor, who seemed to be around the same age as myself. After sacrament meeting, we talked to him for a bit and asked him what had brought him to our church this morning. He said, he had found a copy of The Book of Mormon, laying there in a Goodwill store, and so he got it and brought it home.
He had never even spoke to the missionaries before or anything. He just found the Book of Mormon and had been reading it and decided to find the church and come! We introduced him to the missionaries after and I think they are going to be starting to teach him this week. We thought it was very neat. Jerrod and I talked after about how when these sort of things happen it shows us how the Lord truly does prepare people to hear the gospel and these things don't just happen by accident.
Jerrod joined our church when he was 18 because after reading The Book of Mormon, he gained a strong testimony of it's truthfulness. He felt that it, along with the Bible, really do testify of Christ. When he knew The Book of Mormon was true, he knew that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was also the true church. So, I think from his experiences, he really knows what a difference it can in peoples lives when they read it.

When we came home from our Arizona trip, we saw that one of our rose bushes had suddenly grown about 8 inches taller and was loaded up with lots more flowers. I took this picture about 2 weeks ago, but forgot to post it. But, most of the blossoms are still there, just not so vibrant as they were when they first opened.

Maybe it's just the Canadian coming out in me, but I'm so surprised to have so many roses still at this time of year! I had no idea that they could go so long.

This is a Kiss Kordana Miniature rose. (Although, it's not very small!) We have two of them that we bought this past year. They are really great! Such a nice color and since we planted them in May, they have grown into "monsters," as my husband says. I want some more for next year now!

***I started writing this about 10 days ago and never got around to adding the pictures and posting it until today. So, it's kind of late, and about 2 weeks after the fact. But, here it is anyway.***

We just got back from our trip to Phoenix a couple of days ago. I haven't written much on here lately, because we were away and I didn't have as much of a chance to get online.

We go to Phoenix usually once, occasionally twice a year to visit Jerrod's family. However, this was the first time we ever drove there.

Jerrod had been wanting to do the trip all summer and we had originally planned to go in May. However, with his busy work schedule, it didn't work out for us to go until recently. I was not really that enthusiastic about the trip because I wasn't so keen on the driving part and also, because I would have preferred to go when it was colder here in Tennessee. I have just been doing so much yard work lately, I hated to stop and wanted to take advantage of all the warm weather. And, I hate winter, so it would have been nice to go somewhere warm when the weather wasn't so good here for a nice change.

But, it turned out to be OK. I actually enjoyed the drive more than I expected...probably because I didn't do any of it. (I never do with Jerrod, as he prefers his own driving.) So, I just spent 3400 miles (which is 48 hours driving time) reading books, beading, hand stitching some letters on cards and watching movies on my new ipod that Jerrod bought me for the trip. I realized that it was actually quite nice because I didn't have to worry about doing much of anything the whole time.

We drove through West Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. Those are a lot of states...a lot of big states, distance wise to cover in the two and a half days.
When it's at these prices, it's a good thing the car is decent on gas.
(At least it was cheaper here...and more avaliable...than it was in the South at this time).



The first night we didn't leave until probably almost 8:00pm. That wasn't really the plan, but, being such experts on being late, (particularly myself) it just worked out that way. I think we had thought we would stop in Memphis that night, but ended up getting further. But, halfway between Memphis and Little Rock, it was getting pretty late and so we needed to stop and sleep for the night.

Stopping in Oklahoma: I get one of very few pictures on this trip. Not very exciting. Nice scenery, eh? haha.
Unfortunately, this puts a person somewhat in the middle of nowhere and options become limited. We got stuck at probably one of the worst places I have ever had the opportunity to stay in. It was just not good. You know when you first walk in and there is a gigantic killer-bug on the wall that is not a good sign. And then when you see more than one gigantic killer-bugs in your room, that is definitely not a good sign. However, for future reference I suppose we now know where NOT to stop.

The second day we made it to Amarillo, TX, and that was a bit better. At least that place was clean! And they had a good breakfast where I was able to make myself a waffle in the morning in a waffle maker the shape of Texas. Classic. Wish I would have got a picture of that. haha.

Then after Amarillo we drove onto Phoenix and arrived at a pretty decent time. We stayed at Jerrod's Aunt's house there for a week and like I said before, didn't do much of anything. Just visiting and hanging out mostly. Despite the fact that we had a pool and two hot tubs available to us at the Aunt's house, we didn't even end up using them this time! Kind of silly, I know. I even had two new bathing suits (that I got on clearance, super cheap right before we left) that I never got to use. It was over 100 degrees every day we were there I think I wasn't as motivated to go in, because they had the water at 85 degrees and that's a bit cold for me. Even though it was in the 100's, it didn't seem that hot, because it was so dry. We have been in the mid to upper 90's here in Tennessee all summer and it feels much hotter, because of the humidity.

We did go shopping a bit and got a couple of things we needed...and I myself got a couple of things on sale: Two Rose Bushes at a local nursery for $0.99 each! They are potted in half-gallon pots now. Pretty good deal! They're Christian Dior Hybrid Roses. Kind of a darker pink flower, I think. I would have got more if Jerrod would have let me, but he said we didn't have room.

On the way back we went to Albuquerque, New Mexico, the first night and then a place called Clarksville, Arkansas, the second. Over all, to me, the drive really didn't feel that long, for some reason. But, I guess it was, because it shows on my odometer now.

Stopping in New Mexico.
(I can't be expected to look completely wonderful in a picture after already spending 18 hours in a car.)

My poor Mazda3 only had 5100 miles on it when we left and now that has nearly doubled! I'm sad about it. I thought was doing so good by only having 5100 miles after 10 months of owning it. Then within two weeks, all my effort of trying to keep the miles off has gone to waste. It did get 35 miles to the gallon, which is pretty impressive. I really like my car.

After all the time I have spent out in the yard digging trenches...dragging rocks around, throwing rocks around...building walls with rocks and other various outdoor activities, I have finally injured myself. But, surprisingly, it was not from all that. I got my finger caught in the back door. Something a person is probably not supposed to do past the age of 3 or unless they are a dog.
I can't believe that I could potentially have dropped a 50+ pound rock on myself that many times and I ended up slamming my finger in the door.
It hurt so badly. But, I was anxious to finish the trench for the rocks to put the edging on my raised flower bed, so I kept digging. About 5 minutes later, I took my gloves off and saw about 1/3 to 1/2 of the nail had turned blue. So, no wonder it hurt so much.
Now that my finger is hurt, I wonder how I will finish my flowerbed by next week like I had planned. Knowing my luck, I probably will end up dropping a rock on myself now and re-injuring the finger, which will really hurt. I tried to look for a little splint type thing to put on it so it would be protected, but couldn't find anything. I guess either I must not work anymore and take the risk of letting the plants die if they can't go in the flowerbed or risk more injury.

I am wondering if it is beneficial to go to the Doctor for this sort of thing. Both Jerrod and my Grandma said that I may loose the nail, which seems a bit horrible. I wonder if I go to the doctor and get it drained to reduce the swelling if there is less chance of loosing the nail. It is still throbbing with a pulse almost 30 hours later and feels hot to touch...but going to the doctor for a bruise seems a bit extreme too. Then again, if I loose my nail, I will be upset and and might regret it. I can't imagine not having a nail. Jerrod said he'd poke it for me with a hot needle. Seems scary.

I meant to post this a first almost week and a half ago, but, it seems I have had my hands in too many projects (again) lately and so (again), I am late with writing anything.

After spending the summer working in Nashville, my cousin, Steven, has gone back to Canada. We were able to hang out a few times while he was here and it was really fun for both Jerrod and I. I really enjoyed having someone around from back home. It was also cool when he brought other people from Southern Alberta over. I think, sometimes, there actually is a bit of a "culture" difference....not sure how else to put it...but as much as I enjoy my home in Tennessee, there is something fun about being around people from Southern Alberta and being able to talk about things from home that normally I don't get to, because no one I'm normally around would know about it. Plus, I think sometimes, we just find different things funny.

Anyway, a couple days before Steven left, we went out to the shooting range to shoot some handguns. Steven is really into guns and Jerrod has quite a few. When I say quite a few, I really only mean around 5...I don't really know how many, but it seems like around that number. I say, "quite a few" because in all the time I have known him, he has never once used one. He says he won't go target shooting with just anyone...so, I guess he had no one he felt comfortable going with.

So, Steven had mentioned a few times that we should go shooting. I knew that if they were actually going to go, there was no way that I would be able to get out of it. I don't have any problems with guns...I don't necessarily enjoy them myself, but I don't care if other people like to go target shooting as a hobby....or even hunting if they really like the meat (although as some one who has been 98% vegetarian since the age of 3, that definitely does not have any appeal to me.) I have been shooting before...but it was always with clay pigeons out in the country and with a rifle. I think I really only grew up around "farm guns" as I would call them. I've never shot a handgun and never gone to a shooting range. I also realized later, that I hadn't shot a gun since high school.

So, for this reason, I felt nervous about it. I wasn't sure what to expect with the handgun, as far as the kick and that sort of thing. But, I had to go, or else I would have endured never ending harassment from Steven. I may have got around it with Jerrod, but Steven...I think he probably would have actually physically forced me to go somehow....I just know how those Osmond boys are.

So I shot some handguns. I shot the .38 and the .45. The .38 wasn't too bad. There isn't really any kick with it and so Jerrod says it's a good gun to teach someone to shoot with. I didn't like the .45 at all. Steven thought it would be easy for me to shoot, but after starting with the .38, it felt like too much and I only tried it about 3 or 4 times. Steven tried to get me to shoot that big "bear killer" gun, as they call it...(I think it's a .44) But, I would never! I could hardly even stand to watch them shoot it. It's ridiculously powerful and loud and I don't plan to have to stop a bear anytime soon, so, I don't think I need to know how.

I kept one of my targets to take home. The smaller holes on here I shot with the .38. Jerrod said I did pretty well with my aiming. I said I was probably just lucky, but he said he thought I actually really did a good job. I think the bigger holes are one's Jerrod shot with the .45.

So, that was a really long post. I hope I didn't make too many gramatical errors. I don't have time to check it now, because I have to go finish going crazy now...I mean...finish grouting the tile in the kitchen.

I have something important to share.
This has never happened before and will probably never happen again, so be prepared to be amazed.

So, back in June, I looked out the window and saw a lizard on the back patio. Jerrod was at work at the time and so I took this picture of it and emailed it to him.


He wrote back saying, "Did you catch it? I want to keep it as a pet."

I'm pretty sure he was joking....I hope. I don't think he really wants a pet lizard and of course, I would never touch that thing!

Of course, I am pretty terrified of all creepy/crawly things...mostly bugs, but I am not a fan of anything that isn't cute and cuddly. I have held a tiny frog in the past, but normally, I don't touch anything that does not have fur.

But, the other day, I was over at my neighbor's house, watering his tree's (because he lives in California half the time, we help keep the trees alive while he is gone), and I bent down and saw something moving in the mulch around the tree. At first I thought it was a frog, since we've had quite a few of those around recently, but then saw that it was actually a teeny, tiny lizard. It was only about as big as the tip of my finger! I never have seen one that small before.

So, I panicked! I wanted to show Jerrod really badly, since he had teased me about catching the other one I saw a couple months ago, but he was at our house across the street and all I could think to do was grab it!

I couldn't believe I did it! I touched that thing! I ran back to my house holding it and saying, "Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!"

When I got home, since I had it in both my hands, I couldn't open the door! So, could only kick it and ring the doorbell with my elbow and started yelling, "Jerrod! Jerrod! Come out here quick!" Unfortunately for the lizard and I, he was upstairs, with the TV on, so he didn't hear.

I kept thinking about how my mom used to say, "You can't yell like you are on the farm when you are in town!" And I felt I was embarrassing myself in front of the neighbors.

But, like I said, this was the first time I had ever done anything like this couldn't risk accidentally letting it go by opening the door. So, I just kept banging and yelling and holding my lizard.

You know, I always think that if you ring the doorbell multiple times, it makes the person inside less likely to want to open the door...they probably want to make you wait outside longer for being so impatient.

Anyway, Jerrod finally heard me and came out and of course, was irritated with me for kicking the door, ringing the doorbell multiple times and yelling at him. But, when I showed him what I got, he was pretty impressed and surprised. I told him it was a present for him, because I wouldn't have done it otherwise.

We took some pictures of me and my lizard. Please appreciate these, because it will probably be the last ones you will ever see of me with something like this. I don't do these things on a regular basis. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for you all.



We did returned that lizard to the neighbor's yard after we were done playing with him and don't worry...I washed my hands after about 10 times in a row.


Good story, eh? I bet you'd think it'd be a better story if I told one about having my CD finished, but believe it or not, that's far more complicated one.

This week we had a Relief Society (women's organization at church) activity with a "Christmas in July" theme. We signed up to do a craft thing ahead of time and I signed up for learning to do cake decorating (because it cost the least. Haha. So cheap.)

I did the poinsettias on these 4 cupcakes with an icing bag cut at the end, but no tip. It was pretty easy, I thought, but I was slow so I could get it looking good. Not too bad for a first try though, right?




I brought mine home and took a picture, but I don't really want to eat them, because I don't like that much icing. Jerrod said he would have one, but then he didn't. They've been in the fridge since Tuesday, so I don't know if they still will taste OK, but, the missionaries are coming over tomorrow and they'll usually eat anything...I always give the missionaries stuff I don't want! haha!

Speaking of Christmas in July, I am so irritated by seeing Christmas stuff already out in stores! I shop at Hobby Lobby a lot for scrapbooking stuff (and like to support them, because they close on Sunday's) but, it drives me crazy that they have had their Christmas stuff out for at least a month now...maybe even since June. It's ridiculous! I mean, it makes Christmas seem less special when it's around for more than half of the year! Who is really thinking about buying new ornaments and lights for their tree in the summer?!

As I mentioned previously, I was building a dry stone wall along one side of our property. I finished it about 2 weeks ago, but I still have a few small things that I want to do to improve it.

I still need to post pictures of my work! I have some now, but Jerrod took so many for me and I still have to go through them and pick out some good ones.

So, I was getting my rocks from a lot of the nearby construction sites, but those houses are getting closer to being done, and as they get closer to landscaping, they've removed a lot of the piles of dug up rock from the surface that made them so accessible.I gathered lots of rocks for my wall piled up around here.
And, even though my wall is finished, I really wanted to get some extra rocks for repairs that might need to be done as it shifts with the seasons or maybe for an edge on a flowerbed in the future. They have huge piles one or two blocks down, at the edge of the subdivision, but when you are carrying a wheelbarrow full of a couple hundred pounds of rocks and it's 95 degrees outside, you don't want to walk any further than you have to (especially on hills). So, I've got to take advantage of the ones I've got here now before they are gone!

My neighbors across the street are a retired couple who spend a lot of time sitting on their front porch smoking their cigarettes. I believe they have quite enjoyed sitting out there day after day watching me carry 50 lb rocks around. I feel like I provide a form of entertainment or something. They always are telling me that I "work too hard" and I'm "so strong" and this sort of thing, which I think is absolutely hilarious. They make sure to mention this to Jerrod too. And my cousin, Steven, when he was over. I'm sure then both totally agree! haha.

Tonight they told me that they are starting to worry about me now that I am still gathering yet more rocks.I pretty much broke the first wheelbarrow from putting too much weight in it. We got this new one, which works pretty well. It's still holding up! I tried to explain why I was doing this and they just insist that I am doing too much all the time, (again, haha) and that I am too tough and I am going to seriously injure myself if I keep lifting rocks. I told them I don't exercise and I am pretty scrawny, so it's a good work out for me.

I probably won't get more though, because I am running out of places to put them. I just think it's better to have them while they are available, so I'm stocking up! Searching for the best rocks for your wall becomes a bit addictive, maybe....when I see see good ones that have been dug up after the fact, it makes me want to rip parts of the built wall down and re-build it with better stones to make it more stable. After you've already gone to all that work, it's tempting not to! I had to make lots of rock piles around the house...and then get them moved quick enough that they didn't ruin the grass!
The thing is, after you put so much time and effort into something, it's hard to leave it alone when you know how to make it better. Now that I have made one wall, I think I know how to make the next one better!

Jerrod always gets after me for not answering my cell phone. A lot of times I just leave it in another area of the house and I don't hear it. So, since I've started working outside more recently, I thought I better keep my phone out there with me so he wouldn't be upset with me when he tried to call me and I didn't answer it. I was keeping it on top of one of the pillars on the front porch and pretty much forgot it was there unless it rang.
Recently, there was one night before I went to bed when I remembered that I had accidentally left it outside after that day's yard work. When I went out to get it, I realized that I had watered the flowerbed right beside it, and therefore, had also ended up watering my phone. It was sitting there in a little puddle.

I tried to use it and, of course, it began acting strangely. I had to tell Jerrod what I had done and he helped me to prepare it to dry out, telling me to not expect much; I would probably have to get a new one. This was a little upsetting, because I don't really like talking on the phone anyway and as cheap as I am, the last thing I want to do is spend a whole bunch of money on a new phone that I wouldn't have needed if I had a better memory than a gnat.

We dried it out and fortunately, it worked the next day! I was so happy. But, from now on, I keep my phone in a plastic ziplock bag whenever I go outside. It makes it a bit difficult to answer the phone when it rings, but at least if I do happen to forget I have it again, there is a better chance of survival.

Today was our third anniversary! Good for us!
Jerrod took the day off and went and ran some errands during the afternoon. He took my car and brought it back all cleaned out and had the windows tinted. He said it wasn't necessarily an anniversary present, because he had been planning to do it anyway, but, it was nice to have it today. I didn't really get Jerrod anything...which I felt bad about. But, the thing is, he said he couldn't think of anything I could get him and that we should just plan to get a present together (we are going to get some rocking chairs for our front porch once we find some we like). But then, he gave me a basket full of chocolates and also did my car stuff for me. I did make him a nice card that I put a lot of time, thought and effort into...but then I always make him cards that I put a lot of time, thought and effort into...so maybe that's not so great...I always like to do fun things for him and so in all my perfectionism, I will probably feel bad for the rest of my life that I could not think of some great, original and wonderful idea for him today. I said that if I came across something good in the near future, I was going to get it....but it will be a little late, won't it?
Anyway, as part of my contribution, I've decided to take it upon myself to find some good rocking chairs for us.

We went to the Melting Pot tonight. I think we have gone there every anniversary so far. It's a fondue restaurant we like to go to for special occasions. We are so full right now though. Its a 4 course meal and so there is so much food. But, it's so good...and so expensive...that you feel like you have to eat every last bit that you can. After we got home tonight, I found that I had gained 6 pounds since I weighed myself this morning. It's a good thing I'm fairly skinny.

I feel like it's really stuffy in here right now and it's driving me crazy. It's become suddenly more humid this week. It's like the intense summer humidity just started and it just dropped in and doubled overnight. I usually like humidity, but tonight it's bugging me. I'm stuffed up and feel like I can't breathe. Maybe it's some allergies that are bothering me, but the humidity is making it feel worse to my sinuses.

It's around 11:30pm and it's still like, 80 degrees outside. That's pretty nice. I much prefer the warmer weather....except for the fact that warm weather means more bugs.

There are too many bugs, and I'm afraid of them.
I really hate it.
Actually, we got some pest control from Steven this week. I don't know if I mentioned it here, but my cousin, Steven, is down in Nashville right now selling pest control as a summer job. So, we got some from him...in hopes that I would live in fear less and it would improve my quality of life if I see less bugs.

Steven and his roommates have come over about 3 times now and hung out with us at our house; had dinner and stuff. It's been fun. It was fun to have Canadians over because at one time there were four of us Canadians in the house and only American (Jerrod). I felt good about that, because Jerrod likes to tease me and make Canadian jokes, but with four Canadians against one American, it was fun to be able to gang up on him for once. haha. That's the most Canadians that have ever been in our house....suddenly I have also really noticed that they (we....I....) talk a little different and they have a little different sense of humor. It's weird that I never noticed it before, but I think this is nearly one of the longest times since I have been back to Canada, so maybe that's why I notice it more suddenly.

Still haven't got sleep study results back yet. It was supposed to have taken 3 days, but it's now been 2 and a half weeks. After talking to them on the phone numerous times and getting no results, I finally went into the sleep center on Tuesday to find out what was going on and spoke with the lead sleep technician (who did my study). She said that they were going to have it done that night and she would personally bring it to me the next day....which never happened. Apparently they had some problems merging the two different studies, because they usually don't have to do that, and it took them longer. I can understand that, but, they need to stop saying they have them and they will give them to me by the next day if they are not going to do that. I mean, this has happened at least 10 times that I have talked to them and they have given me that story.
And, they have already billed my insurance and so that bugs me that they are getting paid for a job they haven't finished.
Mostly, my concern is that I need these results before I can re-order my medicine. I get my medication through mail order through my insurance and so it will take about 2 weeks to get it. Plus, I may still need time to make an appointment to see my doctor.
I'm not going to spend a bunch of money ordering 3 months worth of medication that I may not be taking after I get those results back and talk to my doctor.
I'm running out of my medicine, so I really need to get this taken care of. I've explained this. But, still no results.
So, now Jerrod is going to have a chat with them. Somehow when Jerrod chats with people they always seem to listen. He's good at these things.

So, we have to do something with the walls in our kitchen, because, they are painted with flat paint and it's the same problem as in the bathrooms where the high moisture areas don't do well with it.
I was wanting to do a tile back splash because I think that the kitchen walls can get stuff on them so easily, even if they are painted with a glossier paint, having tile will keep it cleaner looking...and be easier to clean up. I mean, it almost seems necessary to have something on the wall: you just get one single small splash of something greasy up there and it's done for. If it's too oily, you have to re-primer before you re-paint.

I told Jerrod I thought it would be a good idea, but he didn't seem to care either way. Then suddenly last week he became convinced he wanted one. So, we did some looking around....I have done quite a bit of looking around, because I know exactly what I want (surprisingly for once!) and I'm trying to find something decent priced. I want a mosaic with a glass and stone blend. I need to have glass, because I do mosaic art and I am a bit of a glass freak. But, in the case of this kitchen, I think some stone it will look good too. The blended look is really nice. We actually found something, but it's more expensive than I had hoped. Now I have to do a lot of research to find a better price!

I was able to snag a sample today from a tile-shop downtown and it looks pretty good in in the kitchen. The above picture is the sample. More browns in it than I would have thought I'd want, but it seems to work.

I got my annual eye exam today. I knew it was going to be a year since I had it done this April and so I was debating on whether or not I should order more contacts before my prescription expired. (Because of course, it's cheaper to not have to pay for a new exam). But, Jerrod said I should go ahead and get a new prescription before I ordered new ones, so I made an appointment to see the doctor.

As it turns out, she said my eyes were "great" and there was not any change from last year. I was surprised because from the year before to last year, I had my biggest change in prescription ever, so I expected they would have got worse this time too. But, it was exactly the same!

So, after all that and $75 later, I could have done without the appointment anyway, it seems. Oh well, I guess you never know. At least I have some insurance coverage...it could be worse....
I am so cheap....

Now comes that hard part in finding a good deal on contacts. I love the Focus Night & Day that I wear so much...it's almost like not having them at all, because you can sleep in them up to 30 days. They are more expensive then some, but they never, ever bother me.(The first couple brands I tried as a teenager weren't very comfortable at all.) And actually, my eyes feel better with them in, because apparently, when you have allergies the contacts can kind of shield your eyes from what irritates them. So, I can hardly stand to take them out...which isn't good either, because the eyes need to rest sometimes, but, it's so difficult to wear glasses!

I just got home from taking Jerrod some supper at his work. He has been at his office late a few nights recently...until midnight a couple of times this past week. (If any of my Japanese friends are reading this they are probably thinking, "That's nothing, we do that all the time!")
Anyway, he has some big projects he is working on, so I guess that's why the long hours. I feel bad that he stays so late, but he enjoys what he does, so that's a good thing. He'd probably be doing it at home for a hobby anyway if someone wasn't paying him to do it!

We were talking last night about another certification the computer security husband is going to be taking soon to be a CEH (Certified Ethical Hacker). I was saying that if you tell someone that, that you are a "Certified Ethical Hacker" they will immediately just hear the word "hacker" and most people would think that's sounds pretty strange to have any certification for that. And, most people don't think of the words "ethical" and "hacker" going together.

Anyway, it's kind of fun to think Jerrod has all this knowledge that he has. I tell him I am constantly amazed at his smartness. haha.
Seriously though, he really knows too many things. Nothing gets past him and that makes it hard for me to hide anything!

Tonight I'm working on starting to paint a bathroom. The builder painted the house in one color, which was an upgrade (anything more than white is) but it is all in the contractor-grade, flat paint, so it does not stand up well to any moisture. Easy to touch up, but easy to mess up too.
So, we decided the bathrooms definitely needed to be redone, as well as the kitchen. After only 3 months, we already had some stains that show through that flat paint, so we need something that is more washable. I think I got some hair gel or something like that on the wall just after we moved in, and it wasn't possible to paint over it. It kept showing through. So, we also had to do some primer on those spots. Kind of a pain, but fixing it now and using a different type of paint will prevent those kind of things make it easier in the future.

We already did the master bathroom a few weeks ago and so now we are doing the guest bath. I thought I would keep the color the same in this bathroom, but at the last minute when I was buying the paint today, I changed my mind. That was quite amazing in itself, because I usually can't make a decision to save my life and I actually made one today.

I think these color chips aren't really that accurate from my recent experience...the paint always turns out lighter. Although, I had heard in the past that you should always expect it to turn out darker.

After this, I want to do the kitchen for sure to get rid of that flat paint and then possibly the dining room. But, the dining room mostly just to change things up a bit with a different color. I'm not looking forward to doing the kitchen though.....with all the cabinets there will be so much trimming to do and I am very, very picky about it. I just hate those uneven lines some people do. I am not happy with some of the spots in my own house. They should just be more careful! It's tedious but I do all edges with a small artists paintbrush. It's kind of crazy, I know, but at least it keeps it nice and clean...and that causes me much less stress later on.

(P.S. I'm not supposed to do any of my art painting inside...Jerrod thinks I'm going to get some on the carpet or something like this. So, this is the only painting I'm allowed to do in the house...I really don't see what the difference is.)

We've been thinking we needed to get some dirt to fill in some areas in the back yard that got trampled when the neighbors behind us put in a fence. The workers make huge trenches in our yard because it was rainy and muddy when they were doing it. We called the builder and asked them to come fix it, but they did a really mediocre job and we needed to do more to make it better. There is also a lot of water that runs back there into a drainage area when it rains so we needed to build up the dirt and work on re-seeding it to get the grass to grow after the damage.

We saw that some other neighbors behind us were putting in some new stones for a patio and they had dug up some of their backyard and made a pile of dirt. Jerrod saw them and asked if we could have it and they were very happy to give it to us, since they weren't sure what they were going to do with it anyway.
So, we spent awhile shoveling it into some wheelbarrows and hauling it over (not too far, thankfully, and closer than if we had borrowed it from elsewhere). It was just enough to fill the spots we needed, so it worked out pretty well. I learned that dirt is really heavy. Dirt in Tennessee is mostly hard clumps of clay and rock and is not easy to spread and break up...

It was good to meet these neighbors. They seem pretty nice. I wasn't really sure who they were, but as it turns out, they are a young newlywed couple. We talked with them for awhile and funny story, they told us that the night before when they were putting their patio stones in, they had some friends over helping them until late at night and had their cars parked on the street...so guess who got parking tickets?
They got three of them! $60 worth! They said they didn't even know about the no-parking-on-the-street-after-1:00am law. So, they were quite shocked and surprised to hear that I had recently got a ticket too.

I downloaded the GIMP software today and now I have another thing to distract me while I try to figure it out. It's pretty cool for being free and all. It's kind of Photoshop-ish, but it doesn't seem quite as difficult as Photoshop....(although it's been awhile since I tried to use Photoshop).
I used to do all my photo editing with Microsoft Digital Image Suite, which was pretty OK for what I was doing. It is fairly user friendly and I knew how to use it well enough to get things done fairly quickly (except for the fact that I am a perfectionist and everything takes me a long time).
We can still run Windows in a virtual machine inside our Macs, but then to use the Windows machine, I still have to switch back and forth. It's not difficult, but then not quite as convenient as just using one machine.

Speaking of pictures, I need to post some more. But, Jerrod is going to re-build my computer again in the next few days and I am not uploading much onto my machine until then...so when I get completely settled with my new computer, I will have everything again and hopefully will be able to post something more interesting with pictures and video!