Adjustments

Well, this week starts the beginning of a few crazy weeks. Since Ashton has a new job, he gets to start a new work schedule. Although he found out Wednesday, he couldn't find the right moment to tell me until he started talking about it at the dinner table at Thanksgiving with his family. Why this was the right moment or why he needed a "right moment," I don't know. I don't overreact at all....umm moving on.

So his new schedule, while fairly normal Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays (normal being starting at 7 and getting home at 5:30), Mondays and Wednesdays look monstrous, both for him and for me, as he won't be home until 8:30, and yes that is PM. Going from 7-8 is going to be hard for him, although the break in the day from work to do school may prove to be helpful. It kinda goes without saying that it's going to make some very long and lonely days for me.

It's going to take some adjustments to make this new schedule work, but thankfully it won't last forever. As soon as this semester is done, he'll have a more normal schedule, or at least one that doesn't include working until 8. We even figured out his tentative schedule for next semester and that one looks much more do-able. Although a normal schedule is still a couple weeks and months away, it definitely gives me something to look forward to and that makes all the difference.

"Hi-ho, Hi-ho"...But without the incredibly vain witch...

...or magic apples or bickering short people. Or really anything that made Snow White such a classic Disney rendition.

After several weeks of suffering the effects of the strained economy (at least, that seems to be the scapegoat these days when people lose their jobs), I am back among the working class. Tomorrow is my first day at T-Splines, which deals in 3D graphic technology. There is evidently a lot of math involved, and I've got a lot of learning curve ahead of me, but I'm excited.

In the exuberant words of Bessie (pictured at the right), "Moo."

I've been tagged

(None of these listed are in any particular order)
My 8 Favorite TV Shows
1. Charmed
2. Friends
3. Dancing with the Stars
4. So You Think You can Dance
5. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
6.
7.
8.

My 8 Favorite Restaurants
1. Bajio
2. Gandolfo's
3. Panera Bread
4. Arby's
5. Olive Garden
6. Cafe Rio
7. Carl's Jr.
8.

8 Things that Happened Yesterday
1. Worked on Ashton's Christmas present
2. Listened to music
3. Did laundry
4. Wrote blog entry
5. Read
6. Eat
7. Clean
8. Breathe

8 Things I Look Forward To
1. Next Wednesday
2. When Ashton comes home
3. April - when Ashton graduates (Woo!)
4. Having my own house with a yard and garden
5. Giving Ashton his Christmas presents
6. Warm weather (it's not even that cold yet)
7. Having a real piano
8. Finish scrapbooking my wedding (Yeah, I'm far behind)

8 Things I Love About Fall
1. Pumpkin Pies
2. Turkey Day
3. Fall colors, especially in Maine
4. Crunchy leaves on the sidewalk
5. Eggnog
6. Comfy sweaters
7. Playing in leaves
8. Corn maze

8 Things On My Wish List
1. My own house
2. Get my dog
3. Have a family
4. Be a photographer
5. Have a garden
6. Spend a whole day out of the house
7. Get flowers from my husband
8. Having a baby grand or grand piano

8 People I Tag
(Kind of fun, but only if you want)
1. Lindsay
2. Tara
3. Stacy
4. Amaryah
5. Heather
6. Charity
7. Anyone else who reads this that wants to
8.

Music

I had forgotten how therapeutic music is for me. I used to play the piano all the time to express my feelings. It was so much easier for me to express myself in that way than to try to find the words to do it. It was a very useful tool growing up. Even when I went to college, I tried to take as many opportunities to play as I could. There's just something so satisfying to play sad music when you're feeling down, or banging out an angry tune when the mood calls for it. Of course, I also played when I was happy, but no matter what the mood, I'd always leave the piano feeling better.

I had forgotten all that though. Sure, I still appreciate good piano music and a beautiful looking piano. We have an electric piano, which is not quite the same as a regular piano, but it does the job for now. I just haven't used it in a while. There aren't many opportunities for me to play for other people out here like I've been used to. Even still, whenever I go home, there's some opportunity for me to play the piano or organ. I've simply gotten out of the habit of practicing.

That's changed in the past few days. I've been through a lot of ups and downs the past few days and I needed an outlet. It felt amazing to let that out. The piano is even still intact. There's just no way to describe how great it feels to play through whatever mood you're in, rather than listening to music. Listening to music is great and therapeutic as well. I listen to music all day. One of the first things I do in the morning is turn on some music. It's just much more intense and satisfying when I'm actually playing the music with my own hands or even when I'm singing.

On more update-ish news, Ashton has gotten a couple of job offers. We're still wading through the options and trying to figure out what's the best route to take. It's exciting, though, that he has options.

I Love Food

So, I've been told that I need to update our blog. For the most part, it's just been same old, same old. Job hunting, classes for Ashton, where do we spend the holidays, etc. We've had some good times this week though.

For one thing, I made pumpkin whoopie pies. They are amazing, hence why I made them. Well, I also made them because while I was in Maine, I was trying to make Ashton jealous by saying that I was going to have me a pumpkin whoopie pie. To my surprise and shock, he had no idea what I was talking about. Yeah, I was disappointed and had no idea how he couldn't know what a whoopie pie was, until I realized that it was a New England thing, particularly a Maine thing.

Well, I had to remedy that. Could not have my husband not knowing what a whoopie pie was. I mean goodness! It's like a little kid not knowing who Santa Claus is. It's just sad and wrong.

Thankfully, Heather has a friend who knows how to make them and we spent a night learning how to make these wonderful creations. So, I made them for Ashton the other day and now he knows just how good they are. He finally realizes what he's been missing out on his whole life. I'll have to make him some traditional chocolate whoopie pies though.

(For those of you who don't know what a whoopie pie is, I would describe it, but words cannot describe the glory that is whoopie pie. You can look it up on Wikipedia, but as warning, it tastes much better than it sounds.)

While I'm on the topic of food, I'm in love with cream cheese. Ok, maybe not "in love," but man do I love the stuff. I've put it on most of my food (french toast, sandwiches, corn bread...frosting...) and I just can't go wrong. Everything that I've tried it with just gets tastes better and better. I mean I can make a good sandwich, but man...add some cream cheese and it tastes amazing. It's my new addiction and I love it.

Give me back summer!

So, it turns out that today is going to be another one of those days. Dark, gloomy, and rainy. Usually I don't mind some rain, but I prefer it to be warm summer rain rather than cold rain that might turn to snow. Ugh, so not looking forward to snow. The first snow fall is pretty, but I'm just not ready to be staring at white for 6 months. Give me another year or two...I might be ready then.

Well, here's an update on what we've been up to. Ashton is still trying to find a job since this will be the fourth week his company hasn't had anything for him to do and so he hasn't been paid for four weeks. Yeah, never good. We're still hopeful that he'll hear back from some companies soon.

I'm also waiting to hear back from a lady about a nanny position. I should know this week whether I got the job or not, so I'm crossing my fingers and hoping!

We're also starting our "plan for the future" process. Or more specific, we're playing the "where should we live?" game. With April right around the corner, which means no more school for Ashton (hooray!) and that our lease will be up. To help in this process, we have a map of the U.S. and we've started crossing out states where we don't want to live. It's the best way to start when it's the only thing you seem to agree on, but it's also so fun to cross out states. It's almost as if they don't exist anymore. (Goodbye Wyoming!)

Hopefully after all the crossing out is done, we can find a few states that we can agree on, rather than only have one of us pushing for a certain state. Yeah, I'm sure no one has any idea which states we're each pushing for. Of course, the most important part of figuring out where we should live is figuring out where the Lord wants us. All the more reason to start now.

My favorite part though of figuring out where we should live is looking at houses. It's so fun to look at houses online and I've spent hours doing that for various states. I'm trying not to give away which states we're considering. Not exactly sure why. It's more fun for me to make everybody guess. Muwhaha yeah umm I don't know, anyways. There have been a few houses, that I've absolutely loved, and probably only one or two that has had everything that I want and that Ashton actually likes as well. Did we just agree? Forget the process...let's just move there!

Happy Halloween

Has the World Fallen Yet?

Well, the election season is over. Can't say that I'm happy about the outcome. Ashton and I were hoping for a different outcome, although we knew that it was not likely. I spent a lot of time in front of the TV, keeping track of which states went to who, yelling at the different people talking on the TV, and soon needed comfort food. So, I baked a pumpkin pie. Took too long to bake so I haven't gotten a chance to eat it yet. Looks good though!

We have a lot of worries and skepticism about our newly elected President. Socialism, to any degree, being one of the top concerns. We don't want to have to pay for other people's life styles. Ashton works hard for his money and I feel that if we want to donate some to charities, whether through the Church or otherwise, that's up to us. It's hard to save and plan for the future when someone is taking all your "extra" money (I'd like to know who decides what is extra) to pay for someone else who is either too lazy to improve their lifestyle or someone who's just hit hard times. If we really wanted to help people out, we'd create more jobs. (For other troubling policies http://www.ornery.org/essays/warwatch/2008-11-02-1.html )

Of course, we're always skeptical when someone is the "media baby." I don't feel that Obama was fairly tried by the media, and certainly not to the extent that McCain was tested. Although, that hardly matters now for the political race, as we look ahead, we're not sure that Obama will ever be able to do anything wrong, or at least that the media would admit. That to me is troubling, but we'll see how it turns out. Right now I'm just trying to be satisfied with Propisition 8 passing in California and hoping that San Francisco's appeal doesn't work. (Don't know how they can appeal with the general public voting on it.)

On other news, we woke up this morning to snow and a bit of a snow storm. Thankfully, it's stopped snowing and we only got an inch or two, but it's sad that winter has come already. I'm just not ready to only see white for several months. I haven't even taken care of my pots of flowers. Although they haven't died yet. They're strong little suckers.