Update on Life

I was doing better with blogging for a while, but I have been MIA for a while. I am sitting upstairs currently, in my "office". Right now, though, it looks kinda like a tornado hit it. Due to our renovation project right now, everything for the living room and dining room (or, almost everything) is either in the kitchen or upstairs. Ahhhh! It makes life a little challenging, but I know it'll be worth it. We actually have bought sheetrock to start putting up in the dining room. We still have to tear out the sheetrock in the living room from the outside walls, which hopefully will happen this weekend.

Other than the chaos that has been created by the renvoations, there's been lots of other stuff going on. On Saturday night, I drove to Portland to pick up my sister from Portland. She is visiting for the week, so that is lots of fun. Sunday we went to church, then we had a dinner afterwards with missionaries visiting our church. After this, we went home and relaxed for the afternoon. Then back to church for the evening service.

Monday I spent most of the day working my business, and then also made dinner for Naomi and Rich. Then we went to youth group as always. Naomi joined me for that while Rich went to do a college fair at UMaine. After youth group, I had a training call and then finally went to bed after that.

Today was not too eventful - back to work, went to my regular Tuesday Forum group for lunch, and then home around 5pm. My stomach was doing something funny this evening but it is feeling better now. I have gotten a lot done tonight, so that is good. Overall, things are going well although I am so excited to get the house project done so that we can put furniture back where we want it! We may even buy a new kitchen table and/or living room set now that we'll have a remodeled living room and dining room.

Well I guess this wasn't too exciting, just a basic update. I will try to post something more interesting next time...

Urgh!

Moxie is driving me crazy! I played with him, threw the stick, fed him, played with him, and so on. He rewards me by stealing my Teva Sandals (one of the pairs he hasn't ruined yet), barking at me, getting tangled around the trees outside, ripping stuffing out of the dog bed, and trying to steal trash out of the trash can.

Yup, I'm going crazy!

It's My Birthday...

Ok, so yesterday was my birthday. So I figured I should share my thoughts about that day. First off, if you haven't figured it out, my birthday is September 11th, which is also the anniversary of a tragic event in the U.S. It was a horrible day for our country, and I don't ever want to forget what happened 6 years ago. I hope that we all continue to honor and remember those who sacrificed on that day as well as those who were murdered by terrorists.

So, on to more upbeat topics. I started my birthday waking up to my amazing husband, and that was great. Then I showered, and realized that I was feeling much better than the previous few days. After that, I went back upstairs and received my birthday gifts from Scott, nicely wrapped in a New York & Co bag... OK, so I picked out my birthday gifts, but I did have to wait to open them. So I wore my new pants to work and felt quite stylish. Work went well, and I realized how happy I am to have this new job and the freedom to work part time.

After work, I headed home and played with the dogs. I also made a few calls for my business while waiting for Scott to get home. Once he was home, he shaved and got dressed up (!) to go out. I still didn't know what we were doing. We drove into Bangor and by the direction we were headed, I figured we must be going to Texas Roadhouse, Olive Garden, or Applebees. I thought we probably wouldn't go to the Roadhouse cause we went there recently, and I thought that if we were going to Applebee's, I'd have to kill him because that's his favorite restaurant, not mine.

It turned out that we were going to the Olive Garden. We had some scrumptious food (I tried a new dish - a shrimp and asparagus dish but I traded the shrimp for scallops) and great conversation. Then we went shopping at Target where we bought some great throw pillows (my choice) and a couple movies (Scott's choice).

Finally, I ended my birthday night by watching Big Brother - a very shallow but entertaining show!

So, thank you to everyone who called, emailed, or said Happy Birthday yesterday OR today (Jess and Steve). And, thank God for my wonderful husband, family, pets, friends, business, job, and so much more!

Attack of the Killer Bee

Today we had another "work day", and this time we had help! Kevin, Mary, and Pete came to help us. Pete fixed our lawnmower (yay!) and Kevin and Mary helped us tear out the sheetrock in our dining room. Very wonderful! It was pretty messy, but now it's all down from the entire dining room. Scott and I even got the insulation started after the others left.

So, you're probably wondering - where does the title of my blog come into this picture? Well, I made some very yummy pizzas for lunch to thank everyone for helping us. Since the dining room in not exactly usable right now, we sat outside on our camp chairs, lawnmower, and cooler to eat lunch. We were all enjoying our food and drink while trying to ignore the whining puppy, when a bee started flying around us. It started near Pete, buzzing around his head and even flying into the pocket of his shirt!

Just as we thought it was leaving Pete alone, it came back and started flying around Scott. It quickly left Scott and then came over to me. It started buzzing around my hair, and I tried to stay still and not freak out. Then, it flew to the other side of my head and stung me in the ear!!! I jumped up and ran inside to examine my injury and escape the bee. Mary soon followed, as she did not want to get stung. The guys then tried to kill the darn thing, but they couldn't get it. Mia even participated by barking while Kevin swung his hands around trying to kill it.

Meanwhile, I was checking out my ear, which was now turning red and swollen and also hurting quite badly. I applied some ice and finished my lunch. Once things settled down outside, Mary and I made our way back outside to have a little more to eat and enjoy the fresh air. I moved my chair over next to the dogs so that they didn't have to be lonely, and about 2 seconds later, the bee came back near me! I then jumped up and went inside for good.

We really don't know what was wrong with that bee. We did nothing to antagonize it, but yet it felt the need to attack us - especially me! I don't know what it is, but bugs and bees seem to be attracted to me. Thankfully, I survived the attack of the killer bee.

Renovation

Yesterday was Labor Day, and Scott and I took that seriously. We started on a project that has been long overdue. We bought this home almost 4 years ago. At that time, we did a lot of renovations that we much needed. However, one thing we were unable to do (due to running out of time and money) was the dining room and living room walls. We discovered, after buying the home, that the walls were covered in about 5-7 layers of wallpaper, with dark blue or dark green paint over it. Ugh!

So, finally (thanks to my earnings with my business), we have the money to do this HUGE project. Yesterday we began by ripping out all the trim in the dining room and starting on tearing down the sheetrock. It is not a super-easy task but I already know it's going to be well worth it. Once we have the sheetrock ripped out, we'll have to put up new sheetrock, mud, tape, and finally paint. Then new trim will need to go up as well. Finally, after painting, we will put down new flooring - Laminate most likely. Yay!

The hardest part of all this is figuring out what to do with the furniture while we work on it. Currently we've got the buffet table in the kitchen, the desk and bookcase in the living room, and the table and china cabinet in the middle of the floor in the dining room. After the dining room is done, we'll have to figure out where to put the couch, futon, entertainment stand, and everything else that's in the living room. Hmmmmm....

Well I'm sure I'll post some photos at some point - hopefully we'll be finishing this project sometime in September. This is truly my birthday present from Scott - cause he really isn't into it too much. But he's doing it for me!

Favorite Pasttime

Today I participated in one of my favorite pasttimes: whitewater rafting! It has been a while since I've gone, and it was so great to be back out on the river! I grew up in a family that was very "outdoorsy" - camping, hiking, biking, and yes, rafting. We would do these things whenever we had a chance - to me it seems like it was every weekend of summer, but I know in reality it wasn't. It's just that those memories are some of the best of my childhood.

My dad became a whitewater rafting guide when I was probably 10 or 11, and then he got his own raft. That meant we could go rafting anytime we wanted, which is much better than paying $100 a person to go. So when my father passed away, our friend Tim bought the raft from us. Tim had gone rafting with Dad a few times, and it became one of his favorite things to do as well. Now, Tim takes us rafting anytime even though it's been over 10 years since Dad passed away.

So today, Scott and I drove up to the bridge at The Forks, where we always meet before rafting. It turned out that the other couple Tim was bringing couldn't make it, and I didn't realize that he had room for us to bring 2 friends, so it ended up just being Scott, me, Tim, Michael (Tim's son), and John (Michael's friend). That was fine though, and once I was out on the river I was reminded of how great rafting is! It's not so much the waves and getting wet and everything, but just being out in God's beautiful creation! It's so freeing to just ride the current of the river and not have to think about anything else...

So, it was a good day and I am thankful for it.