Friday, August 29, 2008

Band of Indians

So Mike bought tickets to a steak dinner/fundraiser for the local high school band that took place last night. We watched them play and at one point had this overwhelming wave of emotion as I realized how much I missed playing! I remembered how much fun we had in marching band and going to all the football games. Mike teases me about being a band nerd :) and I know that I was one (Really I was a nerd on all levels) but what all the "cool" kids didn't know is how much fun they missed out on.

Plus, adding music to your life can never be a bad thing. I think it makes you well rounded and exposes you to a lot more culture, IMHO. I had no desire to teach flute once we moved to Nevada and have taken a break from teaching for 2 years now. Last night I was proud of those kids and then realized the pride I felt for them as if they were all my students. I guess I took a lot more pride in teaching the flute than I realized. It was always rewarding and I was always blessed with incredibly talented kids.

I was also really surprised at how many band members there were! I was told there are 80 students this year and about 5 years ago there were 170! There's only one high school here and we're in a very small community. Pretty amazing!

Anyhow, I'm thinking about taking up teaching again though I haven't picked up the flute myself in about a year so I'm pretty rusty.

We'll see.

Friday, August 22, 2008

My Poor Emasculated Puppy

SO.
.
.
.

I'm sad. Dolce was supposed to be our stud dog and produce little Dolce Jrs, but that will no longer be possible. His little boys never dropped causing him to be sterile. Poor little guy had to go through surgery today so the vet could find them and take them out to prevent possible cancer or any other complications.

So that's all. I'm sad. Dolce's sad. And it makes me sad to see him all pathetic like and moping around the house. This is DEFINITELY by far the calmest he's EVER been :-)

*sigh*

The Final Ring (I HOPE!)

I really hope this works out because I'm sick of ring shopping and well...I LOVE this one!




YAY!! Hopefully this is the last you'll see or hear about my ring issue. Cross your fingers for me :-)

Thursday, August 21, 2008

It's Already Here!

SO the ring already came, that was super fast!! It wasn't supposed to be here until Tuesday! So I can't put it with my engagement ring until Tuesday because it's at the jeweler being resized. That's what happens when you get fat :-)

Anyway, you guys wouldn't believe what an amazing deal I got on this ring and it even came with a free gift! They sent 3 freshwater pearl bracelets with it. I'm not so much a pearl girl, but it's cute.

Of course, you'll get more pictures on Tuesday or Wednesday when I get my ring back and can put them together. YAY




Now back to knitting :-)

YAY!!

Yay for knitting! I wore my sweater yesterday I believe and was surprised at how many compliments I got! Even from the dept stores! It was very encouraging and made me feel awesome when they said "where did you get it?" and I said "I MADE IT! YAY!" haha I know, I'm a huge dork. My husband tells me everyday :-)

And it's official. I'm addicted. I'm working on a doggy sweater next. I'm sure Dolce is looovvvinnng that! ha! He will when he's out in the snow and shivering his little tushy off!

Anyway, so I got another wedding band. Don't remember if I already shared that and I'm not really feeling like going to back to see if I did. I was afraid that the diamonds might be a little too big with my soliatire, but as my friend Brenna says, there's no such thing as too big! lol I also have my engagement ring out to be resized so right now I have a very naked finger. And it feels so strange! I started looking for one of my other rings to wear on that finger just so it doesn't feel so naked but they're all too big. I get them both back on Tuesday! Another yay!

That's all for today. I think. :)

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Finished Sweater!

YAY! I finished my first sweater, my second knitting project! YAY!



I think I might try making socks next, I dunno. Maybe a doggy sweater :-) I guess I'll decide and share pictures when I figure it out!

Oh yeah and the ring! Does anybody actually care what I do about my ring situation? I don't care, I'm gonna tell you anyway. :) So I just returned the wrap and am going to order something else. I'm afraid it might be a little gaudy because it's a 1 tgw. We'll see. If it turns out not so awesome as I think I'll just return and continue weeding out my choices. Yippee

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Halo or Horns?

I think I used to be sweet. It was a characteristic I used to be proud of and a description I heard often in association with my temperment and personality. What happened??

I now very often feel guilty for having such mean thoughts towards people. Did I finally just grow up and realize that people aren't always so nice as I once thought? I always give people the benefit of the doubt and I really cannot stand pessimism. I don't like to be around it. At all. I want to think the best of others until they provide multiple reasons why I shouldn't and I don't want anyone to tell me otherwise!

I just have been feeling awful the last couple of weeks. Mostly due to tense situations rising at work. Some incredibly disrespectful, pompous, egotistical personalities have come to surface and I have been feeling very hateful towards them. I think my tolerance for lack of teamwork and responsibility at work has zeroed out. I have actually confronted a couple of people and everyone that knows me knows I stay far far far away from confrontation and confrontational people. But that is how far I've been pushed to my limit. And I can't even necessarily feel proud for actually speaking up for once because I feel bad and feel fuilty for the possibilty of making someone else feel awful. I didn't say anything hateful, just the honest truth and called them out on their mistake. This has happened 3 times this week! And it's not so much the action that I feel so awful about as much as the fact that I've been pushed so far to my limit that I'm losing my cool with just about everyone. SO incredibly unlike me. I don't like it.

I guess I'm just venting because this is really going nowhere. I wished I could take back my innocence and sweetness and see the world again through rose colored glasses.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

2 of the 4 Furry Children

So Cooper got a bath on Sunday. He's always the filthiest of all the dogs because he wrestles with Hubie ALL day long and usually ends up on the ground since he's the smallest of the big boys. :-) And he loves it! He will bark nonstop at Hubie until he plays with him, it's actually pretty funny. He stands inches from his face and barks and barks and Hubie just lays there and ignores him :) lol He adores his big doggy brothers.

Cooper is really our baby. I know it's not fair to play favorites but I get tears in my eyes every time I just sit and think about what a great dog he is. He's only 2 years old and I already get overwhelmingly sad when I think about when he's an old doggy. He is by far the best dog either of us has ever had. We never really trained him and yet he sits, he shakes, he is OBSESSED with fetching, he only gives kisses when we ask so he's not an annoying over-licker, he's incredibly affectionate, he's hysterical because he grunts and "talks" to us, he lifts his paw and "hits" you if you quit petting him :-) We never walk him on a leash because he never leaves our side. We let him come in the house and he sleeps in our room at night jumping up in bed between mom and dad every morning to wake us up. :) And even when he was a puppy he never really had accidents. I want to clone him!

Needless to say we kinda spoil him.





Dolce LOVES the big dogs. They don't so much love him :-) lol I think he's a little too hyper for their liking, even Coopers. :)

And this is my little yarn thief.




I made these doggy beds for the big dogs this past winter!

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Ka-Bobs

Remember how I mentioned that Mike is a fabulous cook? Well he experimented with ka-bobs some time ago and now it's the only way we ever eat it. The best thing about it (besides that it's way easy) is that it's such a healthy meal. It's light but very filling!

We always use skinless chicken breast, sometimes shrimp, and tomatoes, red/yellow/orange/green peppers. That's basically all we use. Then we just sprinkle seasoned salt on it and on the grill it goes!

This was our dinner last night and I've almost forgotten how good it is! Just wanted to share. :-)

It's such a great party dish too because it really goes a long way, it's so easy to cut up and grill, and it's pretty! :-)

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Bad Luck

So I'm seriously having bad luck with the ring thing.

Good thing I'm not superstitious!

Friday, August 8, 2008

The Continuing Ring Saga and More Knitting

SO. *pulling hair out* Zales would do nothing to help me out except to tell me that my only option would be to mail the ring back WITH my engagement ring. Umm excuse me?? ??? I don't freakin think so! If they lost my engagement ring, insured or not, they're not going to pay me the full value in place of it! Plus I have no guarantee they won't do something fishy with the diamond and switch it out or something. You guys have heard the horror stories.

So today I went to the local jeweler that I trust and he told me that it would cost $130 to fix it!! He also told me that the saudering (how the heck do you spell that?? It keeps saying it's wrong but I can't find it in the dictionary) job was absolutely terrible! Which I pretty much knew. You'll be able to see it in the pictures. Anyway, seriously $130 to fix it??? You've got to be kidding me. So I took it to the other jeweler and they told me $165! $165 to fix a bad resizing job! That's absolutely insane. At least it is in my book. Pretty sure if we weren't in Elko I'd have many more options with a lot more competition which would lead to much better competitive prices. Insanity.

Right now my options are to fork out the money (which is ridiculous) and fix it locally or send it back without the engagement ring and keep playing a guessing game until they get it right. OR I could wait until we went back next except that the goldsmith isn't even in the store. And no matter what the decision, I only have 30 days to test it out and return it if it turns out that I'm allergic to this one too. And we've already wasted a week. AHHHHH. Anyone have any suggestions?

Those are the two bands that they shortened so my band doesn't fit in. Look at what an awful job they did!




This is just an update on my knitting project and another picture of mommy's (ornery) little helper :-)




Thursday, August 7, 2008

The New Ring

I got my ring in today AND....it doesn't fit. Well it fits my finger but they managed to reduce the width of the sauder bands so that now my engagement ring no longer slides right in between the two bands. Nice huh?

So that basically means I've been on the phone with the store all day long trying to figure out what they can do for me since seeing as how they're 4 hours away and managed to make this uasked for change. Right now I'm expecting a return call because she's talking to her boss to see if they can reimburse me for a normal ring sizing fee so that I can just take it to a jeweler I trust here. Basically pay for the bill.

Anyway, here's a couple of pictures. It's actually prettier in person, but now you can see what I mean about it looking like a granny ring :D Feel free to share your very honest opinions. I can handle it :)





Tuesday, August 5, 2008

A True American Hero

I got this in my email and wanted to share it. I got the videos at the bottom from another blog where there are additional comments.

I could not quit crying when I saw this...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Navy Petty Officer Mike Monsoor

PO2 (EOD2) Mike Monsoor, a Navy EOD Technician, was awarded the
Congressional Medal of Honor posthumously for jumping on a grenade in
Iraq , giving his life to save his fellow SEALs.

During Mike Monsoor's funeral in San Diego , as his coffin was being moved from the hearse to the grave site at Ft. Rosecrans National Cemetery , SEALs were lined up on both sides of the pallbearers route forming a column of twos, with the coffin moving up the center. As Mike's coffin passed, each SEAL, having removed his gold Trident from his uniform, slapped it down embedding the Trident in the wooden coffin. The slaps were audible from across the cemetery; by the time the coffin arrived grave side, it looked as though it had a gold inlay from all the Tridents pinned to it. This was a fitting send-off for a warrior hero.

This should be front-page news instead of the crap we see every day.

Since the media won't make this news, I choose to make it news by forwarding it onto you guys. I am proud of our military and the men and women who serve in it. They represent the highest and finest values of this country.


The liberal media never reports this type of thing, please forward it to a few of your friends...

God bless the men and women in our Military.

GOD BLESS THE MEN AND WOMEN IN OUR MILITARY!!!!!!








Monday, August 4, 2008

I Did It! (Again)

We went to SLC on Saturday and I bought another wedding ring. Only this time I'm a little freaked out by it! See, I'm a little nervous about spending that much money on a band because I've had really bad luck with it. And this time I picked one out that is totally NOT me. I know. I'm nuts. BUT here's why it's not me: It's very ajama!! It's kinda of grannyish. At least I think so. I have a princess solitaire on a pretty modern setting and I picked a WRAP. I have looked at a few in the past because I have a hard time finding a wedding band that fits my engagement band. But I always decided I didn't like them because the ones I like are pave or prong settings and I don't like the curved looks though those are the ones that fit. But I actually found a wrap that FITS my ring! Perfectly! And maybe that was part of the attraction. My engagement band is also pretty wide so it doesn't normally work out. I only saw it for a few minutes and I've been looking for months (again) so we just sort of decided right then and there that we were getting that one. It was between two. I know you guys probably think I'm incredibly silly fretting over it, but obviously I picked it out because do like it. So we'll see. It's getting sized right now and then they're going to ship it to me by the end of the week. So I'll be sure to post pictures for your opinions. :-) AHH!

AND, I think Mike may have picked out another motorcycle. I don't know if I've posted anything on that or not. But I told him he could get a third one. A 3rd DUCATI you guys. AND, you will not believe how incredibly generous I am! Because he's had such a tough time deciding which bike to get because there's another that he really likes, I told him that he could get another one in a YEAR! I know. I'm like the best wife ever. So all of you that have his email...really you should write and tell him how lucky he is and make sure he knows what a wonderful wife he has. K? :-) Thanks!

So if we decide that's the one we're getting I'll be sure to post pictures of his new bike too. I guess we're kinda spoiled. Oh well. Life's too short not to be right?? :-)


On another completely different note (this is what my 3rd subject already?) I finally went through a fraction of my clothes. K, so let me explain a little about me for those that don't know. I'm kind of a clothes fiend. We have 3 closets, 3 chests, 3 dressers and they're all full. Not only are they full but I have a gigantic pile on the guest room bed because I have no where to put them. So last night I decided to finally part ways with my skinny clothes. And it was pretty depressing. Especially because I gained weight after we moved to Elko so I've done all my fat clothes shopping here and all we have is Penneys and Walmart. So all my skinny (size 0, xs) clothes are high end brand names and it was not only depressing to realize I'll never be a size 0 again but also because I saw how much money was going into those boxes. And even more depressing that we have no where to buy those sorts of clothes here. So I was getting rid of all my nice stuff and buying cheap stuff because it's all we have. DEPRESSING. And I haven't even gone through the closets yet. That one box just came from one of the chests. Eesh. So I brought a box to work and the other box is going to be donated.

AND, I'm going to tell you how retarded I am. I was SO embarrassed on Saturday when we went to SLC. I got all dressed up, wore a cute little halter sundress since I never really get an opportunity for that here. We loaded up and started driving and by the time we got to Wells (about an hour from home) I realized I had walked out without changing my shoes!!!!!!!!!!!!! So I was wearing this cute little dress with dirty white flip flops that I wear around the house. Oh my gosh. I walked through FASHION PLACE MALL, through Nordstrom and Macy's and Zales and also the Ducati shop with that on. I could not quit thinking about how incredibly silly I looked. Seriously. It was really embarrassing!

Friday, August 1, 2008

Pain, Stress and Fun :-)

So, today it has been 3 weeks since I had my wisdom teeth extracted. AND it still hurts. It's actually finally much better now but seriously? Annoying. Dry sockets suck BIG TIME. I had to have it packed THREE TIMES!! That's absolutely ridiculous! So good thing that was the last of em, because I would never do it again.


And I plan on spending most of next week incredibly stressed out. Just in case you wanted to know :-) I have NEVER been this far behind with so many important projects ahead at work. It's stressful and I don't like it. I loathe paper piles. And right now I have several on my desk. UGH.

BUT Mike actually has the next 2 days off and we're gonna go do something fun!! I actually get to see his face for more than a couple of hours. This makes me happy!! YAY!