One Month Gone

Today marks one month since Hubby officially left home on his journey to the sandbox. What has happened and changed?

- The furniture in the living room is rearranged. My beloved sectional couch has been put back together, thus creating room for my ottomans to be replaced under the bedroom window. This has opened the foot of the bed back up for my morning ironing. I also purchased a floor lamp for the living room, eliminating the dark, cave-like feel until Hubby comes back and hangs the ceiling fan with light in that room.

- Have taken on the dutiful responsibility of driving Hubby's beloved car a couple of times a week, in order to keep it running in good condition while he's gone. Mechanical Emergency Number 1 - Why didn't he top off the power steering fluid before he left? That silly "Hicas" light keeps coming on and I'm totally baffled at how to read the contraption that calls itself a dipstick in the power steering thingie. Guess I'll find out when the next car club meet is and ask someone there to help me out. Grr!

- Scored a new job! It's a position kinda with the police department, so I'll be undergoing extensive background checks. They're going to fast-track it to get me in as soon as possible, though. The pay is a huge jump, and I'll be working with animals. Gotta turn in a mountain load of paperwork, get fingerprinted and take a polygraph. Holy cow!

- Survived Thanksgiving. Didn't have to cook…went to the grocery store looking for a rotisserie chicken and found out that they cook turkey breasts for you! SCORE!! Between that and the pre-prepared rolls, green bean casserole and mac and cheese, I may never cook Thanksgiving dinner again! Fred and I ate in style.

- Number of meals cooked: 0  (Note that I do not count frozen pizzas or baking a hamburger in the oven as cooking.)

- In an effort to appear Christmassy on the outside, have bought Christmas lights to hang on the eaves of the house. Took me long enough to find a style that I genuinely liked. Wound up with C9 sized bulbs (the big ones) in a frosted clear. They look really nice along the house. Also decided to hang cup hooks every two feet along the eaves…permanent fixtures so that all we have to do is hook our lights through them. One afternoon of work for years of laziness. I love it! I'm on the prowl for nice, simple and tasteful yard décor for the holidays.

- Accomplished the majority of our Christmas shopping. Ordered, signed, addressed and mailed off all of our Christmas cards (more than 50 this year!) For once, I'm ahead of the game, and it feels really good. Maybe I'll be able to keep up this new outlook. J

- Had our first medical emergency. Had to take Fred to the vet - his constant scratching has been driving me batty! Seems like he's having an allergic reaction to something, and a shot calmed him down after a few days. Also wound up pouring gunk in his ears twice a day for a week to clean them out. He was surprisingly cooperative.

- Hubby was gone four days, and I found three spiders. EEK! Called out Terminex to spray the house. Had them go ahead and spray for fleas, too…just in case. I really don't think that they're an issue, but Fred's constant scratching has really unnerved me.

- Planted my spring bulbs.  Black and red Tulips, Daffodils, Freesia and Aenomne (blue poppies.)  Can't wait to see them come up in a few months!!

- Have cleaned up and organized the office. Can finally vacuum in here! (Side bar - accidentally lost power to Hubby's computer, and it won't power back up…thus it is holding all of our photos hostage!) Got my scrapping nook organized and am ready to get down to some serious scrapping! Case in point - from November 4 until December 4, I matted and framed 5 photos and scrapped 124 pages. That's right - one hundred and twenty four pages! I've caught up from November of 2001 until April of 2003!! At this rate, I should be finished up with our European adventures in no time!! Incidentally, I've purchased two gorgeous parsons chairs for my desks…I'll be spending a lot of time at my scrapping station, and will need some cush for my tush!!