New places, old faces

The last post was appropriately entitled, as that was my last post in the past few months. However, things have been super busy lately! In February, we moved from Missouri back to Indiana. It's been great! Stephen is less stressed in his new job, and we are enjoying being closer to friends and family. I feel like I am growing more professionally, even in a smaller clinic than L&B. I have the opportunity to see many different kids with different diagnoses, which is helpful and fun. My caseload isn't full time yet, but hopefully will be by the end of this year.

We also bought a house and moved in the first week of May. It's quite a fixer-upper, but we are trying to do little projects at a time until we can start saving for some of the bigger projects (kitchen, bathrooms, flooring, furniture....). It's neverending work having a house, but it's what we've wanted for a while after renting/moving every year for the past 6 years!! I love our lot and the fact that it's HUGE and backs to a grassy field...it's so nice not having to see your neighbor's backyard! :) I also love being in the subdivision that my great-grandfather developed some 30 years ago...makes it a little more special.

We have also added another doxie to our family. Stephen finally agreed to get another dog if I could find one to adopt from a rescue. So, after many hours of searching, I found Molly (formerly Lou Lou) in Cincinnati. She is a little over a year old long hair black and tan. Even though she is a long hair, she is trimmed short, but has wispy ears and a big fuzzy tail :) She looks more petite than Mackey, but she actually weighs 3 pounds more than him! They get along well. At first, Molly was unsure of him, but she has settled in a lot. She's getting more used to us being gone, though she does have some separation anxiety probably due to the fact that she was sold as a 3-4 week old puppy! :( She is a sweetheart though, and we love her!

I'm going to try to update this more frequently, hopefully at least weekly. I feel like things are finally coming together in the house as far as organization and unpacking goes, so I'm able to do more fun things and not be cleaning all the time. Today, I sewed 2 outfits for the dogs to wear at the Strassenfest Pet Show next week. They are so cute, and I'm happy to be getting back to some of my fun hobbies! The sewing machine got a workout and actually worked...it restored my confidence in my pseudo-sewing skills, haha!

Well, I think I've droned on long enough...tomorrow will be a fun day as we are having a cookout at the lake with Jane and Towns and his family who are visiting from Florida. It will be nice to see everyone again, and of course, to hang out at the lake. It's the center of most of my childhood summer memories, so the more time I can spend there (the property is for sale at the moment), the better.

Falling off the wagon

Last full week of January, and the resolutions have been going okay. Not stellar, not bad, just okay. With working at L&B until late each night, I don't often get to cook, so we've been making more leftovers and convenience foods. It's good that we are finally getting the freezer cleaned out (especially with an upcoming move), but it makes me miss cooking! Also, it's been hard for me during winter to eat as many veggies as I should. Fresh winter produce, namely squash, isn't that appealing to Stephen and I. We have tried it, multiple times, prepared multiple different ways, but just can't get it down. That's kind of the status of the "eat more veggies" campaign...not as much progress as I'd like, but I'm trying.

Last week, I decided it was time to bite the bullet and to officially pick a date for my certification exam...YIKES! February 11 is d-day, and I'm getting more nervous by the day. It's times like these that make me wish...

1) I put in the time earlier so I could be DONE with school/studying

2) I would not have started my job so soon, especially since my time management has been poor as of late

Ugh! I am tired of studying, but hope that I'm studying enough/the right stuff. I still have several chapters to wade through using my outlined review book. I made a study schedule to plan out the time I have left before the exam. So far, I'm about 2 days behind. Why am I such a procrastinator?! Life gets in the way of this studying thing sometimes. Short of staying up insanely late at night or getting up before the break of dawn, I haven't figured out a way to fit everything into a 24-hour period. Here's to hoping I figure it out soon...

One week down, 51 more to go!

The first week of 2011 has come and (almost) gone. I can say that I have made some progress on the resolutions, namely wasting less food. I had bought ingredients to make a homemade pizza for us. Some friends made for unexpected visitors for NYE festivities (which was perfectly fine...gave us the opportunity to use them up!) and I was able to use up ALL of the fresh ingredients I purchased! :) Unused pizza toppings became fritatta filling in the morning and leftover steak toppings the next day. Hooray for me!

However, my time management skills have taken a huge nosedive since the new year. Since starting the new job, I've been really bad at wasting my morning time before work...time that should be spent studying is being misappropriated (not *necessarily* wasted...sometimes I do housework, dishes, laundry, etc.). Ugh. As a result, I'm a few chapters behind on an already tight study schedule. I'm hoping to turn that around this weekend and this week by working through some more motivating chapters before having to go through the extremely boring ones. We'll see how this works out.

On another note, Stephen and I are looking at changing Mackey's food. I've recently become minorly obsessed with ingredients in dog food and found that the food he was fed as a puppy is an absolutely horrible food filled with all kinds of byproducts and fillers. The food he is on now is better, but the company is known for having subpar manufacturing facilities. Come to find out, more premium "natural" food is not that much more expensive, especially with as little as Mackey will be eating. I never thought, however, that I would do this much research on DOG FOOD. haha! We went to a locally-owned natural food store tonight and came home with a few samples. After a couple of hours of research (read: time that should have been spent studying......but in my defense, I did do quite a bit this afternoon!), I think I want to try a food with him that of course we didn't get a sample for. Of course! I'm trying to decide if we should try one of the other foods that we have a sample for, or just wait until we can go back in tomorrow to get a sample of the food I'd like to try. I've read so many reviews, etc., and this food seems to be one of the best. We'll give it a try and see how Mackey likes it. :)

It was nice to have a day "off"...well, except for 2 hours of ABA with my little guy. Tomorrow will be a long day with 4 hours at L&B followed by 2 hours of ABA. Yep, Saturday. Maybe I should get to bed...

goodbye 2010...hello 2011

I can't believe another year has already passed. Isn't it crazy to think back on 2010, let alone 2009, and how much life has changed since? 2009 brought so many changes in my life, namely getting married and setting up permanent residence in the st. louis area. 2010 started off with getting a new puppy, our ornery miniature dachshund, Mackey. I can't even imagine life without him now! He is such a joy and a constant source of entertainment. I finally finished formal schooling in may, and completely finished my degree just a few days ago.

2011 looks to be an even better year than last with a my first big kid job starting January 3. We're looking to buy a house in the area...so tired of apartment life! We'll set up shop here for a few years and then move back to Indiana when the time is right (hopefully at a time when Stephen can find a job easier). I'm so excited for the coming year! In accordance with the tradition of setting resolutions for the coming year, I've only got one: waste less.

Waste less.

It sounds so simple, but it encompasses all areas of life. Waste less food by buying only the things I need in the quantities I need. Waste less time by planning and being more productive with free time. Waste less resources by reusing and recycling as much as possible. I could go on and on, but I think it's a good start. It's manageable, so I will be able to stick to it! :)

Also, I'm going to continue to eat better by including more and more whole, natural, and possibly organic foods into our meals (especially meat). It's time to get away from the processed crap full of additives and who knows what else and back to what we were intended to eat. My favorite magazine, Cooking Light, is implementing 12 healthy habits...one each month for the coming year. January's is "eat more veggies." I'd like to think that I do pretty well with this one, but I'm going to start consciously implementing at least one meatless meal per week and adding more salads to our meals. We'll see how it goes, as Stephen is wary of "meatless" anything...just have to disguise it differently, I suppose.

And so, should old acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind? Of course not. wishing you all a happy and safe 2011.