Little less Stress Please...

Had lots of Stress earlier this month; I wasn't able to pass my exam that I needed to keep my job, my house deal ran into more snags, and christmas was fast approaching. Topping it off, because I wasn't having luck with my exam, I decided to study more and go see Ariel and Linzy less. This also added stress since Linzy was being a weenie all week teething (incisors).

So I unloaded stress by passing my exam yesterday (yay) so I get to keep my job(double yay) and I don't have to worry about studying all the time (triple yay) and get to go back to seeing Ariel and Linzy more (quadrople yay).

As for the house, the mold guys are trying to double the price of the work to be done, but my realestate agent has a signed contract from them for the first price they quoted me. So I'm letting my agent deal with them. We are trying to get another extension on the deal as well, since the mold guys are taking so long.

Ah Christmas time, a time of joy a time of stress...stress from trying to get presents delivered in time, stress from preparations, and stress from trying to find the right gifts. I think next year I will start shopping Nov. 1st....

Other news, Ariel got one of her friends who is a photography major to do our christmas pictures, due to bad timing with my schedule and Linzy getting feverish from teething, we didn't get as many as we would like, so we will be rescheduling for Jan. So, hopefully I will have some pics to send out a little later.

Linzy of course is in full blown terrible twos mode. She has a fit about anything and with her teething, she has been extra grumpy. Getting her down to naps is fast becoming impossible and just forgoing naps is worse. A cranky teething Linzy in her terrible twos is worse than just a Teething Linzy in her terrible twos. On the plus side she is still learning fast and I can distract her from her tantrums with just a few select words. "Ooo, Linzy look at this". I can point to a dust bunny and all the sudden its the most interesting thing in the room. Changing the subject always works to end her tantrum. Problem arises when she wants to play with the dust bunny...

See you soon.

Since we last... well, blogged...

Not too terribly much has happened since my last update. I purposefully waited til today to post becuase I knew I'd be recieving more news today. Where oh where to begin.... I'll start with the house... egad, the house.... its still tied up, the mold remediators just got the ok from the bank to do the work and now we have to wait for their schedule to open up. So ya, my plan to be moved in by January is out the window. I'll be lucky to close by Mid December.

Next up, my job.... egad again. I've been studying to take my RS exam so that I might keep my job, I have to pass the exam before my 1 year aniversary date, and I took it November 12. Today I walk into work to find that I failed... by 5%.... I now study more to try and get at least 14 more questions right the next time I take it on Dec. 3rd. Other than that, I just recieved an increase in my workload. See, there are 2 of us in the henderson office and we also have 1 guy come over once a week from Davies county to help out... rather we used to. Now with cost cutting in the state, we've done away with the extra help and the work has been divided between me and Tim, my coworker.... yay, more work...

Ariel is already in the Christmas mood... rather has been since 3 days after Halloween. She's decorated her parents house and has made comments about getting lights to put up on the house I don't have yet. She bugs me daily about a gift list, but I don't have time or space for presents. No room in the kitchen, no room in the closet, no time for dvds, no time for books... I might be a little spread thin... but I only do 3 things... see Ariel and Linzy, go to work, and go to bed... Anywho, her and Linzy are working on gift lists and I'll send them out when I can. Ariel has been tutoring 1st graders after class a few days a week as part of her degree. Her time ends in the next couple of weeks, but she thinks she will try and go see them even after that.

Linzy is a riot, a 1 baby army. She has been dry for at least a week straight now. Even sleeping with just panties on, she holds it in until we get her to the potty. We were at JCP the other day and she looked at me and said, "I need to go potty". So I picked her up and we ran to the nearest potty. She sings lots of nursery rhymes and at night she rambles to herself while she lays in bed waiting to fall asleep. I think she's practicing her words because she just knows them too well. We've been playing hide and seek lately in their basement, unfortunately, she has only one hiding spot, despite me showing her so very many. She does of course have her meltdowns still; when I don't carry her down the stairs, when I don't pick her up, when I don't let her go outside without proper clothes on, when I don't let her eat from my plate, when I.... seriously, I could keep going. Gotta love the terrible twos.

On a high note, Ariel and I are going to Gatlinburg for New Years. We'll be staying in a cabin on the mountainside close to a ski resort and placed just right, so we can watch the fireworks from the hottub on the porch. Ariel had the idea and we were lucky to find a cabin available that weekend. Hopefully I'll still have a job by then... :P gotta love my dry humor.

Other News

So no real news on the house... kinda in limbo until I hear back on the estimates for mold remidiation... The bank assessor for "mold" in a couple locations in the house, so the bank won't finalize the loan til it is fixed and the selling bank won't do anything to repair a foreclosed home. My choices are to pay for it myself or drop the deal....

Linzy is developing a 'tude' even managing to hit one of our friends when she was trying to play with Linzy. Needless to say "Timeout" is becoming more common. On days when Linzy is being real good at telling us when she has to go potty, she gets to wear big girl underwear over her pull-ups. Provides some good encouragement for her. She really enjoys wearing them.

Ariel is studying hard and will have to take the praxis (spelling?) test for her major so she can "officially" enter the education department.

I've switched over to working four days a week...in preparation to working on the house... so... obviously I have a nice extra day to relax now... while I wait...

BBQ Meatloaf... kinda.

At least that's what the recipe called it, though I didn't think it tastes enough like BBQ. The ladies at work all enjoyed it, though I though it came out a little dry. It is a crockpot recipe and though I should have cooked it on low overnight, I instead, cooked it on high from the moment I got to the office until lunch time. Cooking on high halves the amount of time you need to cook foods in the crock pot when it calls for say 8-10 hours on low, you really only need 3-4 on high. (ok so not perfect halves) Anywho.....

BBQ Meatloaf (Via crockpot)

Ingredients:
-2-2.5 lbs ground chuck
-1 can tomato soup (divided)
-1 egg, slightly beaten
-1 c. cruched Ritz crackers
-2 tbs honey
-1 tbs plus 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce, divided
-2 tbs dried minced onions
-1/2 tsp salt
-1/4 tsp pepper
-1/2 c water
-2 tsp prepared mustard
-2 tbs brown sugar

Prep: Combine ground chuck with half of the tomato soup, egg, crackers, honey, 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce, onions, salt, and pepper. Mix well and form into a ball. Place a crinkled length of aluminum foil in the slow cooker so that the ends extend an inch outside the pot. Place the meatloaf in the pot (the foil will make it easier to lift the meatloaf out and keep it out of the drippings).

Combine remaining soup, 1 tbs worcestershire sauce, the water, mustard, and brown sugar. Whisk together and pour over the meat loaf. Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours. Serves 4-6.

FallFest is over, Bring on the Harvest

The Fall Festival ended Saturday and while we were sad to see it go, we didn't waste any time moping around the house. Sunday was a beautiful day, so we went apple and pumpkin picking. We got lost going to one orchard, outdated gps maps, where we found that their season ended 2 weeks earlier. So, we drove to another about half an hour away. Linzy got to get herself a nice big pumpkin and we went out and picked about 3 ten pound bags of red and golden delicious apples. Linzy had a ball running about in the orchard though we had to chase her and keep her from going after the squishy ones on the ground.
It took us and hour to fill our 3 bags and it only cost us 16 dollars. We then stopped at the 'shop' on the way out of the orchard and grabbed a gallon of cider. (yay) After Linzy got up from her nap, we proceeded to peel and core some of the apples and cut them up for homade applesauce. Since we didn't have a food processor, we used a potatoe masher and an electric beater. The applesauce came out a bit thicker i think, though not with as small of particulates in it as the store brand. I did find out though that it tastes much better when its hot than cold applesauce does. We got almost 6 pints from 8lbs of apples.
With the rest of the apples we will be making applebutter and apple pie... maybe some more applesauce. Shannon, Ariel's mom, made apple butter with some store bought apples using mom's recipe and discovered that mom must make a double batch because we only got a couple pints from 3 lbs of apples.
Next weekend is camping at Lake Rudolph, the weekend after that is Baby O's birthday party (Linzy has been praticing singing), and then Halloween weekend, 1st weekend of Nov we have a birthday party in Nashiville TN to go to, and then the holidays approach...I'm going to need a vacation...

Fun Fun for everyone.

Many many to-dos lately. First, I am in the process of buying a house, no doubt mom filled you in already. I had the 'luxury' of showing mom, dad, glen, des, and a few members of ariel's family the house. (I warned them it kinda stank but they went anyway.) Yesterday, I had the inspection done on it, no real surprises there. I knew most of the things needing done already. It is a foreclosed home and it really needs a lot of TLC... a LOT of TLC. The bank listed it for 47500 and I got it for 35000. It is a 3 bedroom, 1.5 bath ranch stlye brick home with an attatched 1 car garage. The paperwork on the deal is now with the bank, they are in the process of appraisal and title work. Once that comes back, and I get a final approval on the loan, we can close and I can begin renovating. I hope to move in by January.

Linzy's 2nd birthday party was Saturday the 3rd, she really enjoyed her day in the spotlight. Along with some friends and Ariel's family, Mom and dad came and Glen and Des came with Gwen and Gavin. Linzy got a slide for her birthday, which currently is located in the family room at Ariel's parents, and she slid with the other kids quite a bit. She also got some much needed clothes for her wardrobe and a few toys. She's really getting into playing with her uncle's matchbox cars and has begun putting her dolls to bed. Anywho, her party was of course, Mickey mouse club house themed. and Ariel made linzy a small cake with a fondant Minnie on top... linzy loves fondant...I try to keep her away from too much sugar... because well... she kinda goes nuts. She's energetic as it is, but when you add sugar, she's ... kinda bouncing off the walls. Not that we ever were like that as kids. >.>
We did commit a terrible parenting sin that day, that will haunt us for a long time to come... we didn't get any pictures... none at all... zero... zilch... nada... goose eggs... With all that was going on and trying to make sure we saw everyone and that everything was going alright, we forgot all about getting the camera out and taking pictures.

The 88th Annual Fall Festival is this week in Evansville. It is the second largest street festival in the US, short of Mardi Gras. It comprises mostly of food booths, but has rides, games, talent shows, a couple parades, and some exhibits/contests. Ariel goes out there daily and so far I have gotten her to knowingly and willingly try alligator jerky and bison burger. Tonight I will indroduce her to elk meat. Linzy loved the Alligator jerky oddly enough.

This weekend we go apple and pumpkin picking, will take the camera, and my cousin Joe is coming out for the weekend, so it should be a fun time.

Such is life...

Conversation on the phone today:

Lady: "yes, I have been getting sick from my water. It has a bleachy smell and a bad taste."

Me: "Are you on city water or well water?"

Lady: "I don't know"

Me: "Well, do you recieve a water bill?"

Lady: "yes."

At this point I slap my forehead and want to ask her if she believes that a well can write/mail a bill.

Restless...

Title says it all, I'm restless. I work out 3 times a week and I read books. I go to Ariel's almost daily and play with Linzy and visit. It is not enough though, I still feel restless. I don't know if its because I'm in an apartment or that I grew up on a farm. I wake up during the night for no reason and just lay there, trying to get back to sleep. Work has gotten incredibly slow, I'm a month ahead on my scheduled work. I now hope to focus all this restlessness on studying for my RS certification test and to find a project to work on. I decided that since I'm looking for a house anyway, I should look for a 'project' house or as they say a house that is in need of some 'TLC' Whatever happens, I hope that I can find some way of getting a feeling that I'm accomplishing something, something to make me feel more content.... or maybe just working with my hands will tide my restlessness.

We are attempting to wean Linzy off her pacifiers. Ariel and I have cut off the tips of them and believe me, she noticed. She still demands them when she goes to bed, but they no longer stay in her mouth when she sleeps. Most of the time now, she takes them out of her mouth before she falls asleep. The down side though is that this seems to bring out her "terrible two" fits more and she seems to be more of a drama queen. Last few days I'm told she wakes up in the middle of the night and cries out for someone to come get her. Used to be we'd give her a pacifier and she'd go back to bed, but now that don't work and Ariel's parents have taken to putting her into Ariel's bed... Seems like they're kinda going backwards on that aspect.

Ariel is back in class, she's got 18 credit hours this semester and believe me, its bad timing with Linzy entering her terrible twos. Ariel has to do her homework between classes and before she goes to pick Linzy up from daycare, and then after Linzy goes to bed. This is because Linzy is going through some pretty bad withdrawls from not getting to be with her mom all the time like she did all summer. She literally demands all Ariel's attention while she's awake and sometimes will try to stay up to see her more.

I'll keep you updated.

Newsworthy...kinda

One of the gals at work made the crockpot recipe that I brought the other day. She tried it with some beef roast she had instead of pork to see how it would turn out.... It was good.

Ariel and I are planning to move into a verizon family plan together when I get my upgrade in september.

I got approved for a mortgage, but no luck finding a suitable house...did I not mention I was looking?

Linzy has gotten too attached to her pacifiers, so Ariel has poked holes into them all with a needle to reduce their appeal.

About does it...

Friendly neighborhood health environmentalist.

I made it under the deadline! (eyes the Bogles)

I made Patty's recipe she posted on the Southwestern Pork Roast and took it to work today. The office went nuts over it. Everybody was telling me how good it was and impressed they were that I actually knew how to cook. I had about 1 cup of it left by the end of the day, so there's supper. :P I used honey mustard and honey barbeque instead of regular flavors and that gave it a slightly sweeter taste and I used only 2/3 of the large onion. Needless to say though, for only having an ounce left out of 4lbs, I must say, it went over really well.... Just hope they don't expect me to cook more often.

Ariel and Linzy, along with her parents and best friend went down to Florida for a few days, Fri-Wed, on a little vacation. I decided to save my hours and take off a week at christmas. Linzy absolutely loves the beach, all the sand to play with and the waves that tickle her toes. She did get a little sun burnt though, not too bad, hopefully it won't make her itch much.

Maybe one of my sisters can teach me how to post slideshows/pictures on my blog sometime.

Linzy's 1st trip to the Movies and more.

We went and saw Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs... almost a complete success. Linzy watched the previews and then when they were over she thought that we were done and it was time to go. (so cute). She watched the first half of the movie with no problem, then for about the 3rd quarter of the movie she wanted down and to run through the aisles and play in the seats that flip up(she didn't weigh enough to keep the seat from flipping up) and then at the last bit of the movie she got interested again. On a side note, she ate half a bag of popcorn, the most I've seen her eat in awhile.

On July 4, Ariel's family had a party. when it started getting darker we went outside and started lighting the fountains and sparklers. Then I started firing off those 'mortar' rounds. Basically its a ball on top of a little cylinder, all wrapped up with a long wick. you insert it into a tube and then light the wick. Well, I had 2 in my hands. I placed 1 into the tube and the lit the wick. One of the sparks flying off the lit wick hit the one in my hand and ignited its wick. Upon seeing this, I threw it far away from me and dove for cover. Needless to say the spectators were a little surprised... and no, I didn't throw it towards them. Rest of the fireworks went off without a hitch. Linzy was sad that she didn't get to hold a sparkler or help me, she was kept back the whole tiem with nothing to do but watch.

Chicken Cordon Bleu

.... or some such spelling....

Anywho, I made some the other night and despite not having the right pans (i wanted to use a broiler pan, but had to skillet fry them instead) It turned out pretty well.

2 lbs of chicken breast (I got them with bones still in)
Thick sliced ham (not the thin sandwich slices)
Mozarella cheese slices
Wheat flour
Nature's Blend Seasoning

First debone the chicken breasts.

then butterfly cut them almost entirely across and lay them open.

Roll a slice of cheese up in a slice of ham and place it into a chicken breast.

close the breast and fix in place with toothpick.

Place in a plate and coat with flour and seasoning.

Coat bottom of skillet with cooking oil.

Fry in skillet on med-high until done. (the cheese will start to drip down to the skillet)

Enjoy.

I even saved the scraps from when I deboned the chicken and made some chicken tenders :)

Ok can't figure out how to post a slideshow: http://s194.photobucket.com/albums/z215/bladerunner_83/florida/?albumview=slideshow

Florida was great, we had an awesome time and Ariel just wanted to come back, get Linzy and then go back. We did a lot fun activities and yes I did forget my camera for much of the trip. We spent some time on the beach and yes we did get burned, spent 6 hours instead of 2... ouch.

I had fun despite being on a giant sandbar(florida). We saw stingrays swimming through the ocean and watched a few of them jump out of the water, some even did flips, which was pretty sweet. We went out one day and the waves were 10ft high, needless to say we didn't stay out too long that day.

Joe and Ashley got re-engaged while we were down there, I believe their wedding is set for 2010.

Strawberry Pickin's

I hope to get pics up on this when I return from training. Sunday, I took Ariel and Linzy strawberry picking. It was fabulous! We initially wanted to only to one tray, but we got it finished in no time, so I went and got another one. Linzy was initally a big help, (didn't eat any and didn't go tromping through the rows.) She carried the berries to the tray and even managed to pick some nice red ones. Like i said, the first tray went fast.

When I got back with the sencond one, we slowed down a bit. Ariel and I let Linzy eat a couple fresh strawberries as we picked them and of course, we indulged a few as well. Linzy soon became covered in the juices, her hands and face stained pink and her sleeves and shirt... even more so, but she loved it! Linzy also decided to see how soft some berries were by squishing them in her hands and walking through the rows (not between them) to go look at berries that caught her eye. And of course, right before we get up to leave, she does her business in her diaper. (lucky me)

We got the two trays paid for and went home. Linzy, after walking in the door, grabbed her pacifier and baby doll, climbed the stairs and went to her bed all by herself and without anyone telling her it was nap time.(she was of course still wearing stain clothes) Poor baby was pooped and we had to go visit with Ariel's grandparents yet. When we got back, Linzy slept at the granparents for an hour, I spent a little time cleaning and slicing up half of them before i had to leave to drive out to somerset for training. Ariel's mom had the rest done before Ariel got home from work that night.(she had a evening shift)

A great day outside and we got to eat strawberries, a nice weekend.

Link to Slideshow: http://s194.photobucket.com/albums/z215/bladerunner_83/strawberries/?albumview=slideshow

Rising of the Terrible Two's!!!!

It happens with every child, the dreaded terrible two's. When all you want is a little peace and quiet and all they want is their way. While she is not yet two, Linzy is quickly showing us how close 19 months is close to 24. The 'fits' have started developing their way into her behavior, ex. she will be told to stay away from something or not to touch something and she will grin and do it anyway. We of course proceed to pull her away from it or pick her up and move her away from it and tell her no again. She then proceeds to throw herself to the floor and cry. Or she will kick and scream. Great fun.

Our response to that is to ignore her until she stops or, if she screams, send her to the time out corner until she calms down. To her credit, when told to, she will get up, walk to the said corner, and sit back down without a hitch. Never fails to impress me how obediant she is when it comes to that sort of thing. Its like she is saying, "ok, I know I got out of control, I'll go"

A couple nights ago, I babysat Linzy while Ariel was at work. All was going as well as can be expected when she only had a half hour nap. (I was holding everything together, but it wasn't easy) Then Ariel called while I was getting Linzy ready for bath. Linzy decided she didn't want to talk to mommy and when Ariel hung up, (she was on speaker), it was end game for her. I mean the floodgates opened up. When Linzy realized that her mom actually hung up, she just fell apart. She kept pointing to the phone and begged me to call Ariel back, unfortunately that particular phone chose to malfunction at that exact time, so I couldn't call Ariel back. So I ran into my room and got my verizon phone (yes, I have 2). I tried to call Ariel on that phone, but she had already left her break and went back to work. So, I had to give Linzy a bath and get her ready for bed, the whole while, she just bawled her poor head off. Luckily for me, when I laid down with her on the couch, she went right to sleep. the poor baby was exhausted. We got up the next morning at 6am and played for an hour before I had to get Ariel up so I could go to work.

Work has been fine, i had a training session May 4-7 and I have another one the 18-22. Then I get memorial day off and I think my last real training trip will be june 8-12 . The exciting thing is that I will be on vacation the 30th-6th. Ariel, me, Joe and some of our friends have rented a house down in Panama City Beach, Florida for the week. Ariel is really excited about it, though she tries not to think about how much she will miss her baby, (Linzy won't be going). Ariel's birthday is the 26th and this trip is supposed to be part of the celebration. I'm not as excited about it yet, though I suppose it is because there is still plenty on my schedule between now and then.

Almost forgot, I saw a couple episodes of "The Legend of The Seeker" on tv the other night. Its based on a book series that I have. "The Sword of Truth Series" by Terry Goodkind. No dvds are our yet for the series, but i think that Dad would like it, he has read the books too...I would like them too, but as I said, no dvds are out yet...

The Evansville Wilsons (in a couple years anyway)

I've enjoyed being out of the classroom training, though I'm not busy at work. Due to the economy, people aren't building new homes, so I'm not getting many applications for permits and I'm ahead of schedule on my inspections... all in all, I have a lot of free time. My coworker recommends getting a side job, he buys and sells stuff, using his free time at work to research possible purchases and such. I'm not sure what I can do in my free time, but i'll look around to see if i can fill a need.

Ariel and Linzy are doing well, for the most part. Linzy has recently gone to the doctor and she hadn't gained any weight since the last visit, Olivia weighs more than her. The doc has told us to give her milk and get her to gain weight. So, we've stopped giving her juice and increased her milk intake. Hopefully that will help, but she is a bit of a picky eater. Sometimes it is hard to get her to eat much at all, and other times she eat piles of food.

Her potty training continues, we got her to use the potty for #2 for a second time. She is starting to voluntarily tell us that she needs to go potty now, rather than us just putting her on the potty every so often in hopes we time it right.

Ariel's getting pumped about our vacation coming up at the end of May/beginning of June. As the days go by I notice she's getting more anxious. I've never been to Florida and my concerns are more about the state of the US than about the weather or whether there are a bunch of jellyfish in the gulf near the shore.

Ah well, we're gonna have a good time, but that's another post.

Yay Poop!

Ya, not exactly the most exciting topic, though it does grab your attention. There are many things you miss when you travel away from home. Yesterday and today i recieved news about what I've missed at home. Ariel has had the fun and exciting experience of teaching Linzy to go potty. I say fun and exciting without any sarcasm, because, as I have said before, Linzy is super smart. This weekend before I left we had the potty chair out and linzy was enjoying sitting in it, she actually had me hold a book for he to look at while she sat there, she had her clothes on, but we were just getting her used to sitting on the chair.

See, recently Linzy has been telling us when she goes to the bathroom in her diaper, so we figured it was time. Then yesterday, Ariel had put her on the potty a couple times and said "Linzy go potty," and Linzy would sit there until she went. (voluntarily) Once she was done, she would stand up and say peepee and point at it. Ariel and her mom would clap and congradulate her.

Today, Linzy sat on the potty and didn't manage to go peepee, but she did 10 minutes later in the diaper. The exciting part is that Linzy went poopy today(i have to say poopy, you'll figure out why when your little ones get potty trained) Ariel noticed that Linzy was getting that 'concentrating' look on her face and so she quickly got the potty for her. When Linzy finished she looked at it and said "eewww" Ariel and her mom clapped for her though, encouraged her sayng she was a big girl now.

So Yay Poop!

I miss all the fun...

Training

March is my big training month for work. When I started this job, fall training was already underway and they couldn't get me signed in for training in time. So, they had me sign up for spring classes and until this time I was reading up on the codes and learning on the job. Last week I spent 3 days in Frankfort, ky for Pool training, which btw Ariel doesn't like , me being away from her for. This coming week I will be in Lexington for Soils Training and the next week I will be in Frankfort again, this time for Onsite Sewage training. After that, I have a few weeks before my next training session. Hopefully by some time in June I can take my RS exam for this job.

Linzy has become a monkey overnight. She has started climbing into and onto everything and today she walked almost a block out in this nice warm windy day before needing to be carried. When I come in after work, I'll grab a yogurt out of the fridge and she'll sit in my lap, and we will split it while we sit and watch tv. Afterwards, she'll climb down, by herself, walk over and get a book, and then climb back up into my lap. She'll do either this or play with her many toys for the rest of the night before I put her to bed before I leave for my apartment. I'm the only one it seems that can effectively put her to bed. Not sure why, but when Ariel tries to put her to bed, she just stands in her bed and laughes at her.

Ariel is on her spring break this coming week and has decided to travel to her cousin's down in Nashville for most of the week with her sister and Linzy. Which is good, because last week she wasn't too happy about me being out of town to training.

That's all for now... except that at the end of April/beginning of May, I will be switching apartments to save a little more money.

Recovery at Long Last

For the last 2 weeks I have been stuck in recovery mode. The ice storm that hit kentucky and basically destroyed the power grid in many areas, has kept me plenty busy. I've been working rescue shelter survelliance and running about as businesses regain power and reopening to make sure they throw out their spoiled foods. In my free time, I took phone calls from people about what to do with their food in their own fridges and recieved daily emails on the Samonella recalls from Peanut Corp of America products. At long last though, I see the end of the tunnel that is the storm recovery. Most shelters in my area are closed and people have returned home. Power is back in most areas and the phone calls have stopped... well, just certain ones have.
For now I am recieving more calls about other problems, dog bites, mold, septic overflowing and so on and so forth... yay me... and my coworker is out with pnuemonia...I am so lucky...

Anyway, who wants to hear about my work? Not me, my personal life is much more interesting. Joe Vancil came out this past weekend and we went to a gun show, it was nice but I didn't bring my FOID, so I didn't come home with anything new. Linzy loved it, all the little old ladies who tagged along with the old men, talked to her and she giggled and mumbled back. Linzy is getting big again, she lost a little weight a little while ago from getting a bug and then some ear and eye infections. She's gained the weight back now and then some (actually has a tubby belly). That coupled with her recent growth spurt has her finally moving out of the 9 mo clothes and more into the 12 mon clothes (she's 15mo now). Linzy is learning well, she knows that when she is sent to time out, she goes over to a rug by the door and sits down, though I think she gets in trouble on purpose sometimes as if it were a game. Though when she comes back from time-out she will listen, so I guess it still works. She's getting taller too, she can reach the counter on her tippy toes and she can almost get her leg over the rail of the crib. By summer she will probably be out of the crib and into a toddler bed.

Ariel is keeping busy in school, for some reason, she thought physics was going to be easier than chemistry. Altogether, her subjects are keeping her plenty busy. Between school and Linzy, her days are completely full. She even arranges so that when Linzy's dad takes her for the night, she will work on papers or study for an upcoming exam. So, I find myself going over there after work just to spend time with them.

Well in a nutshell, that's what has been happening with me lately. In winter, not too many interesting things happen.

Sickness

A few days after the big family christmas, Linzy got sick. We think she got it from a boy at the daycare. She had it coming out both ends. Soon after, Ariel, her friend Andrea, and her brother Cameron all got sick, They had been taking care of Linzy the most the first day or so. Then, Linzy's dad decided to try and help out by watching Linzy while Ariel tried to get better. Now he and his sister are sick.

Linzy is a bit better, her sickness is going away, though now she is developing a nasty cough. So the humidifier has returned to her room. Ariel and Cameron decided to try and go skiing this weekend, we had planned it out around xmas and they didn't want to miss out. While we were off skiing Saturday, Ariel's mom watched Linzy. Of course now, hew mom and dad are sick with whatever it is that Linzy brought home from daycare.

So far I've remained clean of it, I attribute that to all the immunizations I've been getting for my job. I hope I don't get sick, I would hate to miss my niece's baptism next sunday.

New Beginnings

Ah, January, a time for fresh starts in a new year. The newest being this blog, which can only be surmized as my new year's resolution. I resolve to blog at least once a month here, I say only once a month because I always find ways around my new year's resolutions. It has always been a vice of mine, betraying myself, giving in to excuses not to continue resolutions. The longest I have kept a resolution was about 3 months. Easy since it concerned ice cream and it was too cold in January and February for the frozen dessert.
My list of fresh starts goes on with my personal life. I proposed to my girlfriend, Ariel, on New Year's Day. It wasn't planned out all romantic like or anything, I didn't do it when the ball dropped and we weren't anywhere special. I had thought about doing something special and had tried before, but something had always come up and ruined my plans. So, when I did propose, I did it while we were getting ready to go out. Luckily for me, Ariel said 'yes'. Our Wedding will be in Nov. 2012
The list goes on to my new job. I moved to evansville to stay close to family while I worked on a contract as a Utility Forester, but the contract I was on fell through. Instead of moving back on the road, I chose to stay in town and find what I could. I got a job in security for a while, but decided that job wasn't meant for me. Luck found me a position in a local health department as an environmentalist. So far the job suits me well and it keeps me in the area, which makes my fiance happy.