Workin' Hard

So, today. Today I got up and did all the normal getting-ready-for-the-day stuff and sat down to start my paperwork for my new job. That's right, this one got a job! No, it's not the one I was interviewed for, I still haven't heard from them about that job. They did tell me, however, that they first need to hear from all my references. Hey, references... get back to my interviewers! But anyway, I received an email yesterday saying thanks for applying and here's some paperwork and orientation dates, just show up to one of them with all of this filled out and some I.D. Okay, I can do that.

Well, I got this email yesterday, and the first orientation date that applied to me was today. Ok, I'll just print it and fill it out quickly. Printer malfunction... printer malfunction... printer malfunction. What it is with modern technology today?? All it would print was random symbols at the top of page after page, and it wouldn't stop! When we hit the "stop" button, it told us, "invalid function." So we turned it off and turned it back on. It started right back up with the random symbols. Sometimes just one exclamation mark in the corner of the page. Dear printer, you were very naughty yesterday and wasted too much paper. You are now on probation.

With some help from that dear man I married we finally got the packet printed. Just about in time for bedtime. Yeah, nice. So I got up with my husband this morning thinking I'd get it done before orientation started and didn't get it done in time. Luckily, though, there is another session in a week, and I emailed the lady who sent me the packet saying I will be there for that one. I suppose this just gives me another week to see what happens with the other job. But either one is fine with me, they're both with the schools.

I did not use the day to slack off, however, even though I missed my orientation. By noon today, I had finished everything on my list of things I wanted done this week (and neglected to do until today). Birthday cake for my sister-in-law and husband's birthday extravaganza this weekend? Check. Bank account nearly $20 lighter, check. Cleaned the bathroom, check. Swept and mopped the kitchen, dining room, and bathroom floors, check, check, and check! Feed thyself, check. Yup... what's a woman to do when the housework is done? In this case, have free-time, will blog. Apparently.

Dinner tonight: Peppery pork chops! Couscous. Sweet potato fries (as a treat for my father-in-law). And steamed vegetables of whatever variety is currently in my freezer.

Here's how they turned out:

  Yum!

Enjoy another beautiful autumn day! Blog #7, done!

Yesterday

These are photos from the day of my Sunny Day post. As I said, it was a sunny day and so my Prince Charming and I went on a walk to Como Park.

It's so beautiful! I'm taking my sister there in two weeks for some of her senior photos. I promise to post some more pictures then.

I just love it!

Yesterday was an eventful day in this house. I had a job interview in the morning for the school job I applied for, and I will hopefully know by tomorrow if I have the job or not. Keep praying! I am a little worried that I'm not cut out for the job, it really is a lot of work, but if I get the job I know that's God saying I can do it. I know it will be fine. 

After that, I worked on one of my books for awhile, then my husband came home and we went grocery shopping. Why is shopping so exhausting? We were both so weary when we got home. But, I still baked cookies! And they're so good. My husband tells me that I make the best chocolate chip cookies, not that he's biased or anything. But I have to say... I wouldn't argue with him. I even had to remind my father-in-law to watch his cookie intake, because his wife calls him a chubby-hubby and he's been working on his weight. 

I also made a delicious meal. Chicken and baked potatoes, with a cheddar cheese sauce. I'll tell you my secret for delicious chicken, which I simply cooked on the stove-top in a frying pan filled with a little water (to keep the chicken from burning to the bottom of the pan) for about 30-45 mins. Here it is: ginger, sage, and a very little bit of parsley. Add a dash of salt before you take it off the heat and it's perfect! The only thing dinner was lacking was a vegetable, which I had planned to make but totally forgot about until we were at the table. But the cookies make up for that, right? Well, we thought so.

Tonight is simply chilli and corn bread, which is one of our favorites around here. Mostly because of the corn bread. Whoever came up with the concept is surely at rest in Heaven.

Blog #6, done! Enjoy this beautiful day.

God Bless Our Home

I have decided I will not commit myself to writing in the blog every day. You may have noticed, or maybe you didn't, and in the case of the latter, that's my point, but I haven't been updating every day. Wouldn't it be easier for you to keep up with me if I didn't write every day, so you wouldn't have to log on and read every day? I thought so. See, it's a win-win.

I will, however, commit myself to writing something every day. Be it in my notes journal, on Word, in this blog, on scraps of paper on my dresser, or an original thought on Facebook, it will be done. That's my promise to myself. To those who have promised to harp on me if I do not write, take to harassing me if it has been a week since my last post. Or just if you're really bored and this is somehow sadly your only form of entertainment and there is nothing new to read here for you.

Today is not a very exciting day. I stepped out to avoid the men coming in to measure for new windows (new windows in the fall? Right after it starts getting colder? Well, okay, but make it quick), and I walked to the Dollar Tree to get some wall sticker decorations for our boring kitchen. It now says "God bless our home" above the sink, which is much better than ugly, bare white wall. Not that our home is lacking in noticeable marks of being a Christian dwelling place.
Note: today became considerably more exciting this afternoon when I got a call for an interview tomorrow for the position I really wanted!!! Pray pray pray that I get this job =)

The hubby is home between classes to work on his paper, which he has to finish tonight. After lunch he'll leave, and I'll work on dusting and cleaning windows and mirrors, which I've realized we have a lot of. Anyone want to donate more window cleaner and paper towels? Or old rags, even socks? I foresee going through these very quickly.
Note: I actually don't have any window cleaner. How did that happen?

On the menu tonight: cheesy beef nachos! Mmmm, trust me, they're tasty.

Here's to you! Blog #5, done!

Sunny Day

In the past week, the sun has seldom peaked out, and when it has, only to taunt us before hiding behind the cover of clouds once again. When the clouds parted and released the sun late yesterday afternoon, I thought surely it wouldn't last. But it has. And how wonderful it has been.

Once the laundry is done, and my husband has sufficient research to start a paper, we will put on our walking shoes and fall coats and see how close we can get to Como Park taking the long route. It is so beautiful back there; a secluded quiet from the city buzz, I am excited.

Good news for you all: this blog has helped me get the creative juices flowing, and the stories that were once locked away in my mind and my heart and my very being, have begun to be put into print. It will be a slow process and I don't know if I'll ever care to share them with anyone but my husband, but it's still a relief to me to know that I'm capable of doing it.

Success. Blog #4, done!

Life On This End

Ok, so it's my third day of having a blog, and this thing keeps telling me that I need to follow other blogs. There is a function at the top of the page, you may be able to see it, that says "Next blog" so I clicked on it. It took me to another blog. I read one full post by someone, then parts of two others. And I realized something. Bloggers have the tendency to be whiny, self-absorbed, and conceited. Please please please, if you care about me at all, do not let this happen. If I begin to become whiny, conceited, self-absorbed, self-important, pompous, a huge jerk, annoying to read about, anything more than just writing to family and friends, and thinking what I have to say is really all that important, come over here and slap me. Or at least do it verbally over the web, but physically if absolutely necessary.

In short, don't let it get that far. I would much prefer pure, unadulterated thought in print. After all, this blog is for communication purposes. So here is the daily dose of update from me to you.

Last night was the first night of me cooking dinner for three instead of two. Having another person to cook for is not so bad. Having a father-in-law to cook for who is used to a much larger home and different cook is a whole other story. Not to mention he's just getting settled in. I had started dinner late because we were waiting for him to get home, and when he got here he started unpacking his new computer which had come earlier in the day. My husband, thinking he was being helpful, began helping him. The more that was unpacked, the more crowded I felt and the less success I was having getting dinner ready. I started asking them to just clean up and deal with it after dinner, but no, this was apparently much more important than oh, say, eating. I suppose they just hadn't realized they were in the way of dinner being made, but being that they were frequently in the kitchen to set things up (our living space is very tight and the printer is on what is supposed to be a breakfast bar), well, they were in the way.

We'll see how this being the only woman in the home goes. I suppose I will have to get used to the toilet lid being up, shoes being worn all through the house, a wet bathroom floor, boxes, papers, computers, cds, and mail being left on the dining room table, and never feeling we have enough space. I'm sorry, Doc, we're poor college students, and I know it's been a long time since bachelorhood, but it looks like while you're here, you'll have to adapt back to those times.

I hope and pray we can keep him happy here. Or at least, relatively comfortable. I feel better knowing he gets to go home and stretch out in his own large home when he is not needing to be close to work here. God bless him.

Dinner did get made, however, and was rather good. Open faced roast beef sandwiches with mashed potatoes, gravy, and peppers supplied by the father-in-law. Also, the computer did get set up, and so did the printer, and it did fit just fine.

Now today we are going to get our car cleaned, interior and exterior, for $9.99. We have a coupon. Being that it desperately needs cleaning, this is quite exciting.

Blog #3, done! Good day to you.

Day Two

So today I applied to three jobs simultaneously. I am really hoping this works out. The application process for the public schools in the area was all linked together so that this applying to multiple jobs can be done. It was a little strange, especially when it came to writing the cover letter, but they should know what they have done, so I shouldn't look like an unknowing fool, right?

I hope so. That's right, agree with me. It wouldn't help to disagree with me at this point and cause me to have a panic attack when it's only been 30 minutes since said application was applied.

That said, thank you Facebook for making the whole ordeal much less disagreeable. Do I care that you now choose which updates I see? Well, sort of, because I am now curious as to what I may be missing. But no, not while I'm trying to find important contact information in messages and such from my references and you keep finding pop-ups because it's oh so important that I know what's going on right this minute. Here's an idea, when you update at inconvenient times without warning, let me decide when I want to figure the new system out. Stop making decisions for us all, hm? That's all I have to say about that.

Well, family of mine. Dear friends. I am pleased to say that I successfully cooked a beef roast in the crockpot for the second time. I also made gravy, for the first time. And it worked. I think. Okay, so it could be thicker but I'm pretty sure since the roast was marinated in wine the idea was for it to be an "au jus", and not thick gravy. But I'll work on it. At Thanksgiving. So be ready to show me how.
Note: I figured out how to make a roux and added it to the gravy, it works, it's fantastic. Maybe I can teach some of you how to make gravy. Ha.

Anyway, that husband of mine loved it. And I think ate more than he could handle. Oh, I also made carrot cake, but without coconut and pineapple, at his request, and well, it didn't turn out so well. Turns out those are important ingredients, and if exempt, the cake is the consistency of a brownie. Still tasty, not fluffy. I don't feel bad, it was an experimental cake. Better luck next time.
Note: I ate some after my initial post. After having time to sit covered for several hours it was quite soft and very tasty, despite the brownie-like texture.

Well, I am off to maybe clean, but probably procrastinate on that a little longer and let the chores pile up more. Maybe I'll unload the dishwasher and call it a day. Netflix is calling to me, with that cute show I love that my man claims he can't handle any more of. I am also nearly done with Pride and Prejudice. The completion of the reading of a book, we all know, is very pressing and the highest priority of all. Right?
Still procrastinating. I'll have time to clean tomorrow and Friday. Plenty of time.

Well, that's what I'm saying for now. Blog #2, done. Love you all.

First time

I used to have an internet journal that my friends could read, before there was myspace, but that didn't work out so well. Hopefully, this will be more successful. A place where I can communicate without picking up the phone to fit the unpredictable schedules of my mom, mother-in-law, and myself.

This will also serve as a sort of practice tool for me. As Lady Catherine de Bourgh in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice insists, practice makes perfect. As a writing major on an involuntary leave-of-absence from school, I need to stay in practice in order to have any hope of surviving when I can go back (whenever that may be). I can't guarantee I will update this frequently, but if successful in communicating with my family, I will do my best to try.

So, here it is. Blog #1, done.