October 2013 | Page 3 of 4 | Midwestern At Heart

The Saturday Post {18}

Top 5 Posts of the Week
1. Stuffed Jalapeno (with cream cheese, cheddar & bacon) Stuffed Chicken Breasts

How far along? 1 week…?

Total weight gain/loss: Dunno, guess I’ll do an initial weigh-in…

How big is baby? Your baby is still just a glimmer in your eye.

Maternity Clothes? Nope although I felt kind of bloated and wondered why my clothes felt tight.

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Snoring Cats, App Notifications & Happy Dogs

Here I am, Thursday morning sitting at my house. It’s quite different than most Thursday mornings because we’re on fall break. I’m not stressing about this has to be done today or that has to be done tomorrow, I’m just sitting here enjoying nothing. Sadly, I’ve been awake since hubby’s alarm went off. Not because his alarm went off because I can usually get back to sleep (we run a bit of a different morning schedule so I take advantage of sleeping in) but like clock work the cat comes and starts meowing. In fact, on Saturday and Sunday’s she comes in meowing when his alarm should go off and then again when my alarm should go off. Do you think she sets her own alarm? Or maybe she can read a clock?

So I woke up and watched “The Lucky One” with Zac Efron and Taylor Schilling. Then watched (or more listened to…) The Middle. Now the cat and I are watching The Princess Diaries.

So I misplaced my phone somewhere here on the bed a bit ago and I heard the cat snoring or something. It was the cutest thing but by the time I found my phone she quit. I’m not sure if she felt me moving or what. Darn! I really wanted to video it but didn’t happen. Maybe next time.

So once I found the phone it was sitting next to me and I got a pop up notice. Hubby recently downloaded an app called Memoir

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Cows Gotta Eat Too

First and foremost I’d like to wish my dad a Happy Birthday!!! Work has him busy so I won’t get to see him today, but don’t worry, I called him first thing this morning to wish him a happy Birthday!

So yesterday when hubby got home from work he told me to give him a bit and then drive over to his mom’s so I could pick him up. We’ve been needing to mow hay over there but fighting a rain storm every weekend for the past few weeks. Finally we got a clearing so we hooked up the mower and took off. He had to drive in to town for diesel in the tractor since we didn’t have any diesel tanks at our house. I guess he got quite a few looks driving a tractor down city streets… lol.

When he got to his mom’s house, he asked if I wanted to go over and work with Snookums (the original plan) or if we wanted to go ahead and start mowing hay at his mom’s house. We choose option B.

By the time we got the first field done, the son decided to start setting and boy was that view gorgeous. My iPhone doesn’t even do it justice. This was one of those moments I was kicking my own butt for not having my dSLR with me! We decided to go ahead and move on to the back pasture. This time we were mowing by the headlights on the tractor. The back light was trying to die so keeping track of the mower conditioner was difficult but we managed.

We did one huge round around the entire hay field and then broke it up into 4ths basically and got 1 4th of it mowed before we just totally lost daylight and the dew started setting in causing the hay to clump up and not want to come out of the mower quite as easily.

Here recently hubby was able to get a radio to put in the tractor so at least we can jam out while mowing hay. The camera on my iPhone doesn’t nearly take as good of video in the dark as my camera takes photos, but listen to the beautiful music I got to hear. Lately it seems like hubby hasn’t sang as much as he used to but he sure did last night! Music to my ears :). lol. I love that boy.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuiDmtApHsU]

Things I've learned…. School Edition

Here I am, Tuesday morning, sitting in the library waiting to go to class and all I can think about are the things I’ve learned since coming back to school…

I’ve learned where the library is. I must admit, working on my bachelor’s degree I had no clue where the library was.
People dress weird. Either that or I do….
British Literature is gory, especially Shakespeare.
I had to relearn how to write a paper. I’m still working on this fact…
My backpack weighs about 24lbs. No wonder my lower back hurts. Question, why didn’t it hurt my first time through? Less work or was it cause I was younger?
Laptops are the it thing to have. We were lucky to have desktops when I went through the first time. Man what have times come to in the last 12 years!
And on top of that, a lot of people have Mac’s. It kind of makes me giggle.
Kids today (no offense because I was probably that way) have no idea what it’s like to be in the real world. I love when they say, I’m not ready for this to be reality. School isn’t reality sadly. If only we all got summer breaks, fall breaks, winter breaks and spring breaks.
I learned that England had a pretty interesting history/past. And I’m only taking English classes.
Going to a different school for my Master’s than what I did for my Bachelor’s is also teaching me some things. In some ways they are identical and other ways they are totally different. I’m still learning.

Ok I think that is enough of a list for the time being. That and I need to wrap it up so I can actually go to class. Wish me luck, we’re watching Othello by Shakespeare.

Here Kitty Kitty

I’ve recently mentioned but kind of breezed over the fact that we got a house cat recently. I woke up one morning and scoped out Facebook when I saw that a friend was trying to help her friend find a home for this cat.

Now, Earl and Pokey have a cat that every time I’m at their house I take pictures of and talk to, etc. So the joke has been that they are going to get me a cat. I didn’t want a house cat and my dogs wouldn’t allow an outdoor cat.

I had a house cat once when I was younger, she actually lived in our basement but came up stairs when we were home to check things out. She peed in my bean bag chair more than once, she peed on my parents bed spread, she scared the crap out of my mom when she learned how to open the basement door. We had to pull her out of the Christmas tree more than once. She played with the fake house plants and about knocked them off the ledge. I loved the cat but at the same time that was enough for me to think I didn’t want a house cat.

Hubby though had been wanting one. When I saw Sarah post about this cat on facebook, the cat was spayed, declawed and 2 years old. So I sent hubby a message and asked if he’d like this kitty. She was pretty, and declawed. Declawed was my biggest thing that had to be done. So long story short, I saved her from going to the humane society and we have a house cat out of the deal.

Bella (I did not name her!) has now lived with us around 2 months. Here’s what’s happened so far.

The first night she stayed under our spare bed until we chased her out of that room and closed the door. Then she stayed under our bed until we chased her out of that room. From then on though, she sleeps on the back of the chair. She meow’s every morning the minute the alarm goes off. She expects hubby to sit down on the love seat and give her lovins before he’s allowed to leave for work, or trust me she gets PO’ed.

She took over Tbug’s Papasan Chair as her own.

She comes in and sleeps while I’m doing homework and will share the Papasan chair with hubby, but gives me dirty looks when I try to sit in it.

Her favorite place to perch when we’re trying to go to sleep is on hubby’s hip. Now she does have those pesky back claws and we learned the other night if I drift off to sleep and then startle awake, she will dig those back claws into hubby’s hip as she’s trying to get the heck out of dodge.

One night she thought that my side of the bed was the side to sleep on and wouldn’t let me lay down until I made her scamper away.

She eyeballs my milk on my cereal every morning but when I give her some in her bowl she scoffs at it and leaves it there to create science projects in the kitchen.

She’s not afraid to take the tv remote from you as hers and even change the channel.

And most recently she has decided to start redecorating the house. She didn’t like hubby’s belt wherever she found it so she strung it across the floor. My house shoes wind up all over the house. Who needs cords where they are out of the way? and Tbug’s stuffed animals don’t stand a change.

Oh and as of last night, she thinks of herself as somewhat of a scholar and decided to read my paper I was writing for school.

Ah, the wonderful, joyful life of a cat. Nope, I wouldn’t trade her for the world but she does leave me scratching my head from time to time.

The Saturday Post {17}

Top 5 Posts of the Week
1. Pumpkin Spice Cupakes {Low fat/Low cal}

2.You are my sunshine

3. Last First Kiss

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What have I been up to this week?

So you remember here while back I showed you this picture and said, just remember, I was the first one on her?

Well this week we’ve been busy working on getting Snookums broke to ride. One of those things, once you start, you kind of need to reinforce every day!

Dad called last week and told us no matter what we needed to come to his house some point this week, he had something to show us. Look what he’d been working on! Now after his debacle earlier this summer, my mom wouldn’t allow him to get on her so he called us in for help! She is our baby after all.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-HpPcGVM5g]

Now I couldn’t be showing hubby up so I allowed him to be the second person on her ;).
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bq1iepwuKUU]

Then it was my turn!!
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wD9Y5t965m4]

Now poor Snookums isn’t real sure about us getting on her after those first couple times. It’s quite the experience to say the least.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyMsavCEWq4]

Once hubby felt comfortable in the arena, then it was time to go out toward the road and find new buggers.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRP2e3UBjEE]

And of course after a long hot workout, it was time for a nice rinse off. She’s not real sure she likes this yet, but usually after a hot day the horses LOVE it. I guess she’s like a little kid who doesn’t like to shower yet… lol :). She is our baby after all!
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CdKbbT9e8g]

These videos are from different days. This is what we’ve been doing all week except for last night which hubby and I had prior plans made. So Happy Friday and here’s to the weekend! Only 4 more hours and my weekend starts!! Now off to go discuss a paper I wrote with the professor.

Last First Kiss

Have you ever been driving down the road in your car, by yourself, let’s say a fairly long commute and get to thinking? I hope it’s not just me!

Recently on my commute either to or from school (can’t remember which) I started thinking about last first kisses. When this idea popped in to my head, I was taken back to the movie Hitch with Will Smith. You know, the one where he is a relationship coach.

Then I got to thinking about this clip right here.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pMnaIz9XZo]

“Jiggling the keys,” postponing the inevitable leave that you know will happen at the end of the date. I’ve been on dates where I really didn’t want to kiss the guy at the end of the night and didn’t. He just didn’t do it for me apparently. Then I’ve been on dates where if a kiss happened, well it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world I guess. Now one thing to know about me, that my matron of honor pointed out at my wedding, is the fact that very seldom was I ever in short term relationships. Sometimes I was tied up in the long term even if I wasn’t really wanting to be.

Change is hard sometimes and unfortunately that’s why I think I stayed around. I come from a fairly small town (small being a relative word here). Funny thing about that though is only once have two guys I dated been from the same town. I kind of steered clear of my hometown, partially to avoid the drama I guess. You know what Miranda Lambert says, everyone knows your business in a small town.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xjy6EuMPGA]

I’ve mentioned many times that my husband and I were friends in high school, but even though he asked me on a date, we never went on one and I never kissed him.

July 25, 2009 was our first official date. I had just come out of a hard relationship and I wasn’t in the mood to date anyone at the time. In fact, the furthest thing from my mind was dating. I found hubby on facebook one night and after chatting back and forth he said we should grab a drink sometime and catch up. I hadn’t been on a first date in 5 1/2 years so to say I was a bit nervous would be a bit of an understatement. It was a scary thought. At that time I was involved in a group of friends who we had monthly dinners and referred to ourselves as Dinner club.

I thought this would be the most opportune time to invite him. If things didn’t work out so well, the most I’d be around him was the drive to and from dinner, otherwise, I could ditch him. What can I say, I was nervous. I might be one who tries to have a back up plan although lately I swear that isn’t even an option, but that’s beside the point of this blog post.

The point is I gave him a chance. It was a hard and scary chance, but I did it. After dinner was over and I got done dragging him to the mall (only because it was Evelyn’s idea) we went to my friend J&B’s house where I proceeded to make a memorable impression on him and then finally around 1am we decided to head home. (nice run on sentence)

So we got to his mom’s house (remember he was living in KY at the time) and I went to drop him off, but we stayed in my car and chatted for a little over an hour. By 3am I realized if I didn’t go home, I’d be exhausted the next day so I finally said I should go. I lingered as long as I could. For some reason, I don’t remember now, I wound up getting out of the car. Being the middle of July you wouldn’t think it would be chilly, but that night there was a nip in the air so I had my arms wrapped around myself trying to keep warm. He was standing next to me but finally wrapped his arms around me to give me more heat.

At this point I really needed to go, but I was doing what Hitch told Albert girls do, I was waiting. Holding on hoping that they’ll get their last, first kiss. What’s so funny is hubby knew my past relationship debacle and was trying to give me the space that I wanted. I kind of lost all hope for that night when he finally planted a kiss on me.

That kiss was butterfly induced, giddiness, excitedness, heart doing flip flops kind of kiss. Funny enough, it was brief but it was enough to know this guy was different. Obviously, I went on to marry him a little over a year later :).

So for anyone out there who has experienced that last first kiss, was it magical? For those of you who haven’t yet, I promise there is someone out there, your Albert is waiting for you! 🙂 And not saying my husband is the Albert in this movie, but I’m also saying, never write the Albert’s off in your life, they just might be the one!