Some Thoughts

I'm in somewhat of a pensive mood today so I thought I'd put type to blog (you know, like, pen to paper? lol) and see if it helps my thoughts.

Lately I've realized that I complain a lot about things. Maybe not "publicly" but I'll think them to myself, or constantly complain to Kevin about things. I've come to realize that I can be somewhat of a downer sometimes. Geesh! I am what you call a "thinker" and I with think things to death until I get myself sick , and I think the complaining goes right along with that. Sometimes I'll tell myself 'If you're so unhappy, then fix it!' but sometimes you're just not in a spot in your life where you can fix things, but rather fix the way you think about things.

For example, I am not thrilled about my job. I complain all the time about how I have nothing to do all day long. I could literally get all my tasks done before 11am, and the rest of the day I am bored out of my mind. I'm someone who always needs to be doing something, and I'll admit it, I need to feel like I have a purpose. And this job does not meet that need. Also, I hate how far I have to commute each day. I spend two hours of my life on a train to commute to and from work. That's two hours I could be sleeping, or spending time at home with my doggy and Kevin, or watching a good show. And of course, there's the all too common "I don't make enough money" issue.

So while these are the things I complain about pretty much all the time, I've started to realize that from all this complaining, and bringing myself down, that I need to give myself a little attitude adjustment and start finding the positives in every single thing that I complain about or things that I think negatively about.

So even though I have a job with nothing to do, I STILL HAVE A JOB! That is a TON more than a lot of people can say for themselves in this economy right now. I'm sure there are unemployed people out there who would give their right arm to be able to sit in a cubicle all day, with nothing to do, and get paid for it. So I am very thankful that I have a job and I'm not unemployed, and on the job hunt. Also, having all this extra time on my hands at work allows me to find new, and amazing blogs to read. I've come across so many blogs that have touched me spiritually, and I'm so grateful for that.

While my commute is dreadfully long, at least I don't have to be driving those two hours in traffic. The commute itself would cost me just as much in gas, but it saves the wear and tear on my car, and it definitely cuts down on the pollution that I'd be emitting if I were to drive to and from work. So I am thankful for the BART system and the luxury it provides me to get a ton of reading done in the morning and evening, and the ability to take a quick nap :)

And of course, money. That seems to be the root of all problems. Not really, but I bet a lot of people can say that they don't make "enough" money - and I'm definitely one of them. When I start to think about it though, what is "enough?" I make enough money to pay my bills each month, to put gas in my car, to put food on the table, and to sometimes have a little extra to go do fun things. Of course if I made more I could actually start saving money, and maybe update a few things in my wardrobe, or buy a new bedding set for our bedroom, but I get by with what I have. It's not like I have no food in the cupboards and I don't have enough money to buy a loaf of bread like some families. So I am thankful for the money that I do make, because I survive, and I survive very comfortably.

So those are some thoughts I've had this week. I've been doing a pretty good job of finding the positive in my negatives, and I will say that it helps to keep things in perspective for me. You'd think after 27 years I would have thought of this a long time ago, but I guess I take after my dad, in that I will usually only focus on what's wrong all the time, and never notice the good in my life. But I'm really trying to change this outlook on life and daily remind myself of what is good.

Anyways, I'm really looking forward to this weekend. I'll post all about it Sunday night when we get back from our trip. I also have tomorrow off, and I'm thankful for that and for all of the PTO my company gives us employees. See? I can be positive! Haha! ;)

Have a great weekend everyone!

Weekend Wrap Up

This weekend was pretty much all about savings – which I’m pretty proud of. I am usually never able to get things at a good price, or things that are at a discount. I guess you could say I’m an impulse shopper. But, this weekend I really tried hard to buy as many things  that were on sale as I could. And for some reason I felt like spoiling Kevin ;-) I guess I was feeling extra generous this weekend. Haha!

Friday: Work seemed like it dragged on FOREVER! I couldn’t believe how long it was taking to get to 5 o’clock. Don’t get me wrong, I’m very thankful I have a job, while there are people out there who would kill to be waiting at a job for five o’clock to roll around. But you know what I mean. After work I treated Kevin to dinner and we went to this pub in Concord called EJ Phairs. It’s a relaxed bar/restaurant that has a nice environment. Except this time! Oh my word! There was this group of 40-something's and the women were SO LOUD! I can understand people wanting to let loose on a Friday night after work. But these ladies were being obnoxious! Everyone in the place kept looking over at them and giving them dirty looks. It was ridiculous. I had developed a headache throughout the day, and I thought some food would help, but boy oh boy, those ladies’ screaming really made it much worse. Anyways, we ordered a couple appetizers and then headed to the movies. Shutter Island was a great movie by the way. It’s a little heavy, and disturbing in some parts, so you definitely have to be in the mood for a thriller/drama, but Leonardo DiCaprio did such a great job in it (as usual). I also treated Kevin to the movie ;)

Saturday: Kevin and I had been wanting to get this Keurig coffee maker for the longest time. I won’t go into details about explaining all the wonderful things about it, because I don’t want this blog to turn into a novel, but trust me, it’s amazing. Here’s a link if you want to learn more about this wonderful machine. Anyways, I decided I’d surprise Kevin with one. Really it’s for both of us, but he’s been saying for a while now that he’s wanted one. So on this day I headed to Antioch (which is about 20 minutes from Concord) and picked one up. All the other stores in Concord were sold out of the model I wanted to get (Keurig B70). While I was at Bed Bath and Beyond they had some cute stuff on clearance, so I picked up a couple things for the house. I also made a stop at Beverly’s Fabrics, which was kind of disappointing because they didn’t have what I was looking for. I did find a cute ‘Welcome’ sign that I just had to get though. Once I got home and showed Kevin his surprise, he was pretty stoked. I just felt like doing something nice for him since he’s always taking care of me and putting up with my whiny-ness all the time ;) Later that night I made spaghetti, Kevin went and picked up some frozen yogurt for us, and we settled in and watched “Zodiac.” I’m super interested in all things murder mystery, so I liked the movie. However, it was three hours long! Whew!

I got two of these placemats and coordinating napkins for a total of $5 (on clearance) from BB&B! Since I didn’t have any napkin holders I liked just laying around the house, I tied a black ribbon around them. These placemats and napkins sit over our regular, everyday placemats. That way these won’t get dirty and can just be for decoration.

And here is the island with the new placemats and napkins. We don’t have a dining room or separate eating area in our house, so this is where we eat. It’s not ideal, but we make do.

Here’s the ‘Welcome’ sign I found at Beverly’s Fabrics. I did pay full price for this ($20), but I liked it so much, and thought it would be perfect in the entryway, I couldn’t pass it up. You can see Kevin is thoroughly engrossed in his video game in the background ;)

This was on clearance at BB&B for 50% off! I printed out a picture of us from New Years. It’s black and white and I only had what we were wearing in color (Kevin’s blue shirt and my pink dress). I was pretty pleased with the way it turned out.

And this was also on clearance. It matches the colors in the living room perfectly!

Sunday: We took our time getting up today, and eventually made it out to get some shopping done. We had lunch at Nation’s Burgers – which was a little disappointing. I ordered a hot dog, and I guess I was expecting it to be Costco quality (yumminess!), but it was far from that.  Plus, the fries were $1.50 and they were the smallest order of fries I’ve ever seen! I guess I’m picky about my food ;)

BOO!

So from there we stopped by Bed Bath and Beyond so Kevin could get some more flavors for our new coffee maker. Then we headed over to Kohl's so he could find a new pair of work shoes that don’t bother his toe. While he was doing that I perused the baby section. I love looking at all the baby clothes! Kevin thinks I’m weird for doing this, but I told him that I just like to imagine what my fantasy baby would like like in the little boy/girl clothes; that’s all! So, with no such luck with his shoes, and after Kevin pried me away from the baby department, we went to find cables/chains for my tires because we’re heading up to Donner (a.k.a. Truckee) next weekend to snowboard and it’s going to be snowing this entire week and next weekend up there. So we go to Pep Boy’s and they have a set for $100! We couldn’t believe how expensive they were. So we didn’t get any and we’ll just pick some up in Sacramento, or somewhere on the way, that will be a little cheaper. It’d be different if we actually lived in the snow, and probably worth the $100, but if we’re only going to use them maybe once a year, we’re definitely not spending that much on them.

After Pep Boy’s we went to Any Mountain and I made out like a bandit for boarding gear! I got a cute pair of black boarding pants, THE cutest pair of pink goggles, gloves and a beanie all for…drum roll please… $162! Snowboarding pants easily start at $100 and go up, so I was pretty pleased with myself. Especially since Kevin threw down $150 for just a snowboarding jacket.

So that wraps up our weekend. You’re probably wondering what happened to my planned thrift store excursion and the Winchester Mystery House. Well, I just didn’t feel like doing any more shopping on Saturday and since it was raining this weekend, and Kevin’s toe still isn’t 100% (it’s not even 80% yet), we didn’t think walking the grounds at Winchester would be the best idea right now. He’s still keeping his fingers crossed that his foot will feel better come Saturday.

Hope everyone had a great weekend. I always love reading about what you all have been up to! Here are a couple pictures of our puppy – that we’re pretty much obsessed with ;)

She’s not feeling well today and only wanted to be on her heating pad all day.

 Kahlua being silly and laying upside down. She looks possessed!

Looking Forward to the Weekend

For a couple reasons. On Friday we're going to go see that new movie with Leonardo DiCaprio, "Shutter Island." I actually thought it came out last Friday and was all hyped up to go, and come to find out it doesn't come out until this Friday!That would be why we had to see that awful movie "Wolfman" last weekend.

Anyhoo, I decided that we need to get out of the house more and go explore the attractions around us. So on Saturday we're going to take a tour of the Winchester Mystery house in San Jose. I'm really excited about this because we've never been. I love homes so that's mostly why I want to go. And I LOVE things that have to do with the paranormal. Yes, I'm a little bizarre. But it intrigues me, so I'm excited to hear about stuff like that during our tour. We may go out to eat afterwords. Here's a picture of the Winchester house...
Other sights I want us to go see is Alcatraz (I've been, but Kevin hasn't), go to the place where people take all of those pictures in front of the Golden Gate Bridge (yes, we've lived 30 minutes away from it for the past 2 1/2 years and still haven't been there - pathetic!), visit the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) and the California Academy of Sciences. Oh! and Kevin also said that the only play he'd ever go see with me is "Wicked" so that's also something we'll go see at some point. I get some discounts through work to some of these places so that's always helpful. We'll probably try to do one thing like this each month.

Then on Sunday I'm going to a whole bunch of thrift stores in my area. I've only done some thrift shopping a couple times in my life, but I want to start doing more of it because it can not only save me tons of money, but I could potentially find some really cool things. I'm mostly going for things to decorate my house with, and maybe find some stuff to use for some projects. Who knows? The possibilities are endless!

Update on my stomach issue, it's still the same. Of course all my tests came back normal, but it hurt yesterday and I couldn't really eat anything. This morning I woke up with the most extreme case of heartburn I've ever had. I couldn't even take a breath in without having pain in my chest. The high dose of Pepcid that the doctor prescribed me doesn't seem to be doing it's job. So I'm going to wait it out until the end of this month and then contact my doctor again to find out what else can be done. It'll probably lead to an Upper GI or a Colonoscopy - both of which I'm terrified of. But at this point, give me any test you want just to stop all this uncomfortable-ness!

Kevin's also been having an issue with his big toe. He hurt it a couple times over the past 10 years (from football, basketball and doing dumb things in college), and basically it's completely been out of it's socket and it's missing some ligaments. I'm not really clear on the medical terminology. Last year he finally started going to a podiatrist, and they gave him a few rounds of cortisone shots which seemed to help a lot, but the pain is starting up again (literally a year, to the date - amazing!) so he has another appointment today. He already knows he needs surgery, but he wants to wait until next year so he can save up a little more money for the doctor bills afterwards. So he's hoping the doctor can give him another round of cortisone shots to hold him over, and that the doctor won't recommend surgery ASAP.

My goodness, it seems like we're in our 70's with these ridiculous ailments. But if you could keep us in your prayers that these pesky little health problems go away, we'd be so grateful!

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

A Girl Can Dream

I'm bored at work today (but still thankful I have a job!) and I saw this on someones blog and thought it looked fun. Yes, I'm a blog thief! Seeing as how I'm not even engaged yet, I still thought this would be fun to put a different spin on it and answer the questions about things I have planned in my head for my fantasy wedding. Yes, I'm a planner of everything!

1) When was your wedding day?
I hope it will be some time between May and September.

2) What day of the week was it?
I'd like it to be a Saturday. Friday's are usually too hard for people to take off work and Sundays don't really allow people to really have a good time at the wedding without worrying about how they're going to get home that night to make it to work the next day. (See? I told you I'm a planner!)

3) Did you get married in a church?
I'd like to get married outside.

4) How many in your wedding party?
There will probably be six bridesmaids and groomsmen. And of course a flower girl and ring bearer. I'm not big on "junior bridesmaids" (they don't make much sense to me) so there won't be any of those.

5) How many guests were invited to your wedding?
I'm thinking it will probably be in the 200 range. Kevin and I have huge families, and a decent amount of friends.

6) How long were you together before the engagement?
Depending on how much longer Kevin decides to take to pop the question, there's no telling! ;)

7) How long did you wait to tie the knot after your proposal?
I'm thinking somewhere between 9 months to a year.

8) How did he propose??
God only knows!

9) Did you register for gifts? If yes, where?
Okay, I would prefer to just have people provide us with monetary gifts towards our honeymoon (they have these things where you can buy the couple a dinner, or an activity like snorkeling or something on their honeymoon) because since we've been living together, we already have all the stuff we need. However, Kevin has said that he wants the gifts. So I'm thinking we'd probably register at Target and Macy's.

10) Who did you hire as your photographer & videographer?
I have no clue. I don't want to have a videographer though. Pictures are fine.

11) Did you have a DJ or a band?
We will have a DJ. We have a friend who is a DJ in San Luis Obispo and we both love him (Bryan "DJFlight" Sosa).

12) What was your first dance to?
Not sure. I'd love to have our first dance to a slow Tom Petty song, but I haven't heard any of his slow songs that are nice love songs. So we'll see.

13) Did your father walk you down the aisle?
Of course he will!

14) What color were the bridesmaids' dresses and groomsmen's vests?
Okay, the bridesmaids I'd like to wear black dresses; either halter or strapless. I'd like them to be knee-length and something fashionable so they can definitely wear them again and get their money worth. Along with that, I want them to wear a fierce pair of red shoes! The groomsmen will have black tuxes, and probably black vests. I'm not a fan of the matching vests to the wedding colors. It reminds me too much of prom. The wedding colors will be black, white and red BTW.

15) Did you have a bridal shower?
I'm sure I will.

16) What type of limo did you get?
I'm hoping our ceremony and reception can be at the same place, but for the afterparty we'd probably take a Hummer limo or something big like that.

17) What were your flowers?
I've thought about this a lot and I'm still not sure. Of course roses would be nice (red and white) but I'd like something a little more unique. Maybe something like red peonies.

18) What flavor was your cake?
I'm not a fan of cake, and neither is Kevin. We've joked about having pies at our wedding (because we both LOVE pie), but I'm not really sure about this one.

19) What type of wedding gown?
It's going to be halter, white and a-line. NO poofiness though. I'm open to sparkles and lace. ;)

20) What was the weather like that day?
Hopefully it will be beautiful. Not too hot and not too cold.

21) Did you have an open bar?
We'll have unlimited wine and beer, but hard alcohol the guests will pay for.

22) Where did you go on your Honeymoon?
Kevin has said he wants to go to New Zealand for our honeymoon. I'm up for anything really. My dream would be to go to Greece.

23) What was your favorite thing about your wedding day?
Hopefully I'll have a lot of favorites!

24) Did anything go wrong?
Oh, I'm sure things will definitely go wrong. And since I'm such a perfectionist, that will stress me out a lot. But, I'll keep reminding myself to take deep breaths.

25) How long have you been married?
Hopefully for many, many years!

Oh, I find it funny that Kevin and I have talked about all this wedding stuff, yet we're not even engaged yet. Oh well. It's fun to dream together! :)

I tag Rachel and Amy! Rachel, because I don't really know much about her wedding, and Amy because I'd love to hear her story about it; especially with the big family she has! Of course you two will answer the questions about your actual wedding - not a fantasy wedding. ;)
Okay you two, blog away!

Decorating

I came across this blog (Bless Our Nest) and I absolutely love the ideas that Shannon comes up with for decorating her house. She always seems to find great deals and has such a knack of putting her finds on display in the best ways possible.

So after reading through her blog today, I attempted to rearrange some of my knickknacks with things I’ve had laying around the house. I definitely want to elaborate more on these things, but until I find things I like, this will have to do for now.

Here is the area to the left of our entryway. I think it’s such a great space for things, but I’m having a hard time finding the right things to fill it up with. Ultimately I’d like to find items that are a little on the taller side so that the eye leads up to the nice arch that is above.

This is the entry way before. The picture frames to the left and right weren’t big enough to hide the speakers, and I wasn’t too thrilled with the fake roses either. 

 

This is the entry after. I placed a book under two of my favorite candle holders, and on the other side I put out a book of the “50 Most Important Things in Life” along with another candle holder. These things hide the speakers a lot better. I also placed the Orchid Kevin got me for Valentine’s Day in the middle. I’m not sure if that’s the best place for it to stay alive, but it sure does look nice!

Here is our plain living room table before. I have the hardest time trying to find something to fill all this space without blocking the TV. Right now the TV is staying where it is, but once we move and hang the TV, I’ll have a field day with finally getting to really decorate a living room table!

I wanted to put a picture frame on the table with a quote/saying. I love quotes and I’ll be on the lookout for some more as I start going to more thrift shops to find things. Anyways, I never really had this frame out before, and since our living room colors are red, brown, green and gold, I wanted to switch it up a bit. I took out the picture and put in a quote from a book of quotes I had laying around. The book itself is not very attractive, so I just took the page right out of the book and put it in the frame. As you can see, I also switched the ribbon. The quote reads “A smile happens in a flash, but its memory can last a lifetime.” ~Anonymous. I thought it was a nice quote to have displayed. And the cost? $0.00!

And here is the finished product, up close. I put a few of some old books I’ve had on my bookshelf in the back room, underneath a great container that was given to me by a friend, who also happens to be a Southern Living rep. As you can see I have a red candle in it.

Here is a picture of it from farther away. Kevin’s camera takes very blurry pictures if I don’t use a flash, so sorry for that. I need to get batteries in my camera and start using that instead.

Some upcoming projects that  I want to get started on in the next few months are:

1) Re-finish the living room table. It has quite a few cup rings embedded into the wood, and some random scratches and marks all over it. It lived with a group of college guys for about four years before it made it’s way to us. So I want to sand it and refinish it with a nice dark stain. Maybe a little darker than what it is now.

2) I love the desk in our office – even though it is ready to fall apart. But I’d like to paint some of it black. It’s hard to explain, so I’ll post a picture of it later so you can get an idea. But I’d really like to spruce up our office to make it a little more inviting. Right now it’s just a catch-all for everything, and I’d like to get the furniture we have in there to match a little better and decorate it a little more.

3) I want to refinish the silver lamps in the living room to match the other one (it’s in the picture above in the upper right). I want to refinish them so they look more like a rod-iron/brass look. I’m not sure how to do this so any suggestions would be appreciated. I’ll have to do a lot of researching for this.

If you’re in to decorating, I would definitely recommend following the blog above. She has great ideas and always refers to other blogs that have more great decorating ideas too.

All Better

Okay, after being a Bitter Betty earlier today, I’m feeling much better. I left work early and was able to get home in time to take Kahlua for a walk with Kevin. I also did a little rearranging of my knick-knacks. Decorating always puts me in a better mood, and I’ll be posting another blog about the decorating a little later.

I also just finished my tax returns and I’m getting pretty nice state and federal returns – and I don’t owe anything! So that has definitely made the ending of this day pretty swell! I can pay down some credit cards and maybe go visit a couple friends I haven’t seen in about six months.

God always has a plan in store for us, and I definitely think he had this whole day planned out to end just right. :)

Weekend Wrap Up

Here's a little synopsis of my weekend. I hope all of you had a great Valentine's Day, whether you're single and loving it, or you have that special someone in your life to share the day with. :)

Friday: I woke up extremely tired this morning. I was up far too late the night before writing my blog about Kevin, then I had to finish laundry, pack for our trip to Salinas, and finish cleaning the kitchen and I didn't get to bed until 12:30! Kevin was in Oregon for work that night, otherwise he would've have helped me out. So anyways, I woke up tired and my stomach was KILLING me! I've had this stomach pain for years; probably like 11 years. It started when I dated this loser-of-a-guy my Sophomore year of high school, and he wasn't very nice to me and stressed me out a lot. I also ate Altoids back then like they were going out of style. I'd seriously eat a can a day - can you say addicted?? So with that combination I started getting this intense pain in my stomach on the left side, right underneath my rib cage. It's not a cramping pain, but more like someone has stuck a knife right there, and will twist it. I went to a specialist about six years ago, and he just chalked it up to menstruation which aggravated me so much! I knew that wasn't it, but that doctor refused to look any further into it. So I've pretty much just dealt with it for the past 10 years, but these past two weeks it has been pretty unbearable. Not only is it painful, but I can't eat anything! I can barely be done with eating a meal and my stomach will get upset, or I'll be constipated for days (sorry for TMI). And I haven't had any appetite whatsoever. So anyways, on Friday morning and it was at it's worst so I called my doctor and they were able to get me in that morning. Since the appointment took a while, and I had to get lab work done and pick up a prescription, I ended up taking the day off because it wouldn't be worth it to commute to work for an hour and only spend three more hours actually working.
So I got done with that, went home and had an egg and toast (since that's pretty much the only thing that doesn't get me sick at this point) then took a nap until Kevin got home at 2 from his trip. We packed our things up and then headed to Salinas to spend the weekend with my family. That night my mom made meatloaf - which was to die for! I was only able to eat the meatloaf and broccoli, while everyone else also enjoyed potatoes. Now, if you know me well, potatoes are my all time favorite! But I have to forgo those for a while because they make my stomach hurt. I should find out this week what the problem is, and if I need any more tests.

Saturday: Kevin and I took Kahlua for a nice, long walk this morning. There are a bunch of open lawn spaces around my parent's neighborhood, so we'd let Kahlua off her leash and Kevin and her would run and run and run around the grassy areas. It's pretty funny watching her run because she's only four pounds and looks like this little black rat running super fast through the grass. The poor thing is so small that she has a hard time catching her breath, so she has to run, stop, cough and catch her breath and then get back to running again. LOL.

Later on my mom and I went to BevMo! because we had to pick up some things to make a few drinks. My mom, our good friend Margie and I do the bartending for a Women's Trail Ride each year in May. I think I've been doing it for about five years now, and each year we try to improve the system behind the bar and come up with some new ideas. So Margie came over and we brainstormed about some new drinks and some other things to make the bartending process a little smoother, come May. Since Kevin was a bartender in college, he was a big help with giving us ideas.
That night my parents, brother, Kevin and I all went to eat at this really great Chinese restaurant in Salinas. Oh, be still my heart! That place is SOOOO good! I don't care how bad my stomach was going to hurt after that meal, there was no way I'd miss all that deliciousness! After the meal, we were all pretty much in a food coma, so we then headed home for about 30 minutes to recover, then went back downtown to see that move "Wolfman." Definitely not the best movie I've seen. Even Kevin was bored during it, and he's a pretty big movie buff. But it was still a nice night.

Sunday: I made the Sausage Breakfast Pie, eggs and gravy this morning for my family. It turned out great! Even my dad liked it, and it's pretty hard to impress him with a new dish - he's very picky! Kevin and my dad headed over to Home Depot afterwards - more about that later. When they got back my dad had bought my mom a dozen yellow roses (poor guy doesn't know that yellow roses means friendship - but it's the thought that counts!) and Kevin got me a an Orchid. Very sweet of them! I'll probably end up killing it, but I'm going to try really hard to keep it growing and thriving ;)
At about 1 we packed up and headed back to Concord. I had to go back to Kaiser and finish up some blood work, Kevin mowed the lawns, then went to the grocery store. Meanwhile, I cleaned the living room and our bedroom and vacuumed and unpacked our bags. Afterwards I was SO exhausted. You'd think I just ran a marathon or something! Once Kevin got back, he started on dinner. We had steak and shrimp tacos that night. It was so yummy! Then we went and got some frozen yogurt (of course!) and settled down for the night and watched Transformers 2. I love action movies, and now that we have our new TV, they're even more pleasurable to watch.

A pretty nice weekend all around. I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful little family, and the fact that Kevin enjoys being around all of us makes things even better.