Tomorrow is Columbus Day....I was originally supposed to have the day off, but unfortunately due to the government shutdown, our company is asking that we work so they aren't paying overhead holiday pay to every one of us. I don't mind working, but I will definitely be jealous in the morning when I'm getting up at 3:30am and Josh is still asleep!! And I expect that it will be INCREDIBLY slow, since everyone in the government who IS still working, will be off due to the federal holiday. But I really like the people I work with, and I love my actual job itself, so I don't mind at all. And we get to use the 8 holiday hours next month once the shutdown is (hopefully) over, so I think I'm going to use it for Black Friday and have myself a 4 day weekend!
Sooooo since I have to get up early, I was unable to go out and watch the Cowboys-Redskins game tonight, so I'm watching it here at home instead. But Go Cowboys!! Let's see....what else has been going on the past couple of weeks since I last posted. Well, last weekend was fairly uneventful, at least on Saturday. Friday night Josh and I went to see Gravity in IMAX 3D, the new movie with Sandra Bullock and George Clooney. It was very very good, although I didn't find it quite as intense as everyone, including Josh, thought, but I love most Sandra movies so I did really like it. Then Saturday, I got up and went to the gym, and then we went to lunch at Travinia's, the Italian place nearby, and sat outside since it was in the 80s and so gorgeous. After lunch, we went to Pinkberry since they had their new flavor out, hot chocolate! I had seen that it was coming soon, and we were intrigued as to how hot chocolate frozen yogurt would taste. It didn't taste much different than regular chocolate, but creamier, kind of like a Wendy's Frosty. I added Peppermint Bark as a topping, and it was SO delicious. Josh had graham crackers on his....add some marshmallows and you've got yourself a S'more! Very tasty. Next month will be Pumpkin flavor. I hope they still keep the hot chocolate though because I don't know how I feel about an entire cup full of pumpkin flavored yogurt. But December = Peppermint, which is my absolute favorite, along with Peanut Butter! That was about it for Saturday....I spent the rest of the night ironing, while Josh watched college football.
Sunday, we were going to get up and go to church, but Josh had been having a lot of pain in his back, like a pulled muscle or something, so we ended up skipping church so he could rest a bit. Then we got up and got ready, and went to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the Chiefs game. Josh is a big Chiefs fan, and they don't normally televise the games, so we usually go to BWW to watch. It was a really close game, but luckily the Chiefs ended up winning....they are undefeated so far this year, for the first time in YEARS, and Josh will not be happy when they lose. So the longer they keep up this winning streak, the happier our house will be haha. After the game, we met my parents out by the mall at Cheesecake Factory for an early birthday dinner! The 8th was my birthday, but my parents live 2 hours away so we usually get together with them on weekends. So they drove up here to meet us for a delicious dinner! I had my usual, the Tuscan Grilled Chicken, and of course saved room for some cheesecake. We eat there so often but rarely get cheesecake because the food portions are so huge. I was really craving a piece of Reese's chocolate cheesecake, which I've never had but always looks SO good, but I just could not bring myself to eat a 1,400-calorie piece of cake, so I was good and got the low-carb original instead...still delicious though! It was so great to see my parents, and we had so much fun.
The rest of the week was fairly uneventful, but Tuesday the 8th was my actual birthday, and my company gives us our birthday off as a holiday, so I had a nice little mid-week vacation! Birthdays at this age are much different than when you're a kid though...slumber parties, eating junk food, and watching movies all night have been replaced by getting up at 6:30am to take the dog to the vet, a few hours spent at the gym, a trip to the doctor, and hours spent grocery shopping and walking around town to prepare for a calorie-filled birthday dinner! But it was still really nice, and when Josh got home, we went out to dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, Firebirds, followed by another trip to Pinkberry for some more of that delicious hot chocolate yogurt! I get a free Pinkberry for my birthday so I couldn't pass that up! The only downside to my birthday was finding out that while the vet was doing Toby's routine teeth cleaning that morning, they discovered an infection in his tooth, and they recommend having the tooth extracted. So that really bums me out because my dogs are like my children, and I hate finding out that anything is wrong with them, or may possibly hurt them. We won't be able to get the tooth extracted until the Spring, but for now he is taking antibiotics twice a day to prevent any future infections. He doesn't seem to be in any pain though, which makes me really happy. I'm not at all excited to now be 29 years old, it is really weird for me to think about this being the last year of my twenties, but at least I have wonderful friends, great family, an amazing husband, and the world's best dogs to help me celebrate and make it a great year before I am officially in my 30s!
That was about all the excitement for the week. Then on Friday evening, Josh and I made another trip out to the movies...had a yummy Mexican dinner and then went to see Captain Phillips. Unfortunately we couldn't see it in IMAX because Gravity was still in theaters and taking up all the IMAX theaters, but it was still great regardless, even in a regular theater. I will admit I was so exhausted from the week that I nodded off a little bit during the movie (oops!), but Tom Hanks killed it and the whole movie was great. Very scary, imagining being on that ship and going through everything they went through! Saturday, I got up and went to the gym, then we had a late lunch, and literally spent the rest of the day lying on the couch and watching college football. It has been disgustingly rainy for 4 days now, and with it getting dark earlier in the evenings, we didn't want to do anything but be lazy all day.
Today, we woke up to, imagine that, MORE rain, but tomorrow it's supposed to finally clear up and be sunny again. So I'm really hoping the forecast is right, and next Saturday is supposed to be clear as well, which is good because we are supposed to be outdoors all day. Actually yesterday we were supposed to go into DC on a trip with our church class, to see the Franciscan Monastery, but a lot of it was scheduled to be outdoors in the gardens, and with the pouring rain, that was just not happening. So I'm crossing my fingers that we'll get a nice day next weekend! We went to breakfast this morning after missing church yet AGAIN (we got there late and there were no parking spots except a WAYS away down the road, and we didn't want to walk that far in the rain), our goal for next Sunday is to leave 15 minutes early because the 10:45am mass is always packed and we needed to plan way better from here on out. So we went to Bob Evans instead for some breakfast, then went to Buffalo Wild Wings as usual to watch the Chiefs game (which they won, so they are now 6-0, thank goodness!). After we left BWW, we came home and I spent about 3 hours cleaning, then Josh left to meet his parents at Buffalo Wing Factory (lots of wings locations for him today), and here I am, updating the blog with the puppies nearby, watching Kendra on TV and the game on the laptop, and about to head to bed! Like I said earlier, 3:30am will be here WAY too soon....6 hours from now, to be exact. I hate sleeping in late on Sundays because I'm never tired, and I know the longer it takes to fall asleep, the harder it will be to get up! Hope you all had a wonderful weekend, and a great week ahead!
Me
Sunday, October 13, 2013
Thursday, October 3, 2013
Almost a month since I've posted....what???
Hey guys! So sorry it has been SO long since I last posted....things have been kind of crazy! We've been trying to get in all our Fall activities on the weekends, and during the week I've been walking to and from town to run errands, while the weather is still nice enough that I can do so! I'm trying to get out of the habit of coming home and just plopping on the couch, but unfortunately that means my blog suffers, as you have noticed! So let's see, what has been going on....
A few weeks ago we crossed off the first thing on our Fall bucket list....we went apple picking! A nearby town, Bluemont, was holding a Cider Festival on the 14th of September, so we hit that up with our friends Melissa and Jay. There really wasn't quite as much as we had expected...the cider testings were just a couple of sips each, and there was no hard cider like they had advertised, so that's always a little disappointing for those of us who don't have kids with us! There was a LOT for kids to do though, but we didn't take Morgan, and they didn't take their daughter Autumn, so we couldn't really participate in a lot of the activities. However, we did indulge our inner children, and went to the petting zoo to see the animals, along with the big slide that Melissa and I went down! The apple picking part was a lot of fun though, and we picked up some yummy apple cider and apple butter on our way out! After we were finished at the apple orchard, we headed across the street for some wine tasting before dinner!
The following weekend, Josh and I had planned to take a road trip to Michigan from Friday through Sunday, and stay with my aunt and uncle, who live up there along with most of my mom's side of the family. We had tickets to see the Detroit Tigers play the White Sox on Friday night, and then Saturday night, we had tickets for Dane Cook's Under Oath comedy tour....he's one of our favorite comedians, and we haven't seen him live in 7 years. But unfortunately, a few days before we planned to leave, we received our personal property tax bills in the mail for both Loudoun County AND the Town of Leesburg (unfortunately we have to pay two sets of taxes here), and they were NOT small. So we ended up not being able to afford to go, no matter which way we tried. So we gave the baseball tickets to my aunt and uncle that we had planned to stay with, and gave the Dane Cook tickets to my cousin, who was able to find someone to take them. Super disappointing, but these things happen, I suppose! Welcome to adulthood, right? So we spent the past couple of weekends just hanging out here in town, and last weekend I did a big cleaning and put out my Fall/Halloween decorations. I have a couple last minute things to put out, and I want to mulch the front yard around my outdoor decorations, and then I'll post pictures of those!
In other news, I started a new job about a week and a half ago. Still at the same facility where I have been working, but I switched companies, from General Dynamics to Tenacity Solutions, and I am SO excited. A little bit of a raise money-wise, but the thing I am most excited about is my new health insurance. With GD, I had a $2500 deductible that I had to reach before I could simply pay a copay, so basically in the past 9 months I have not been able to go to the doctor. Basically, I was paying a large amount per paycheck for insurance that I couldn't use. Since I had to pay out of pocket regardless, I might as well have not had insurance, but Morgan has to be on two insurances, and Josh's was even more expensive than mine. And you know that if we had no insurance, then we'd have something huge happen that would cost $15,000, and a simple $2500 deductible would have been a drop in the bucket at that point. So now I have new insurance that only costs a normal copay per visit, and I am so excited. I have been needing to see a specialist for nearly a year now, but without being able to afford it, my symptoms are just getting worse, so I have an appointment with a new doctor on Tuesday, and I can't wait! Speaking of Tuesday, that's another benefit of this new job....it's my birthday, and I get 11 holidays off a year....the 10 regular federal holidays, plus my birthday! So I get a paid day off on Tuesday, yay :). And lastly, the new job actually focuses on more of what I want to do, which is information security. My official title is Information Systems Security Officer, and I am really excited about everything I've been learning thus far. It's all new and a little scary, but that's like any new job, right? Pretty soon (I hope), I'll be able to do everything like its second nature. So I started last Monday the 23rd, and so far it's been great. Only problem is, I work for the government...and as I'm sure anyone who isn't living under a rock knows right now....the government is officially shut down. Sooooo things are a little unsure as to the future of our jobs right now, but we are all keeping our fingers crossed that Congress finds a solution SOON, considering both Josh and I are government workers, and we do have a house to pay for and a family to take care of! So please be keeping your fingers crossed for us as well!!
Below are pictures from the cider festival; hopefully I will not get quite as behind in my next updates as I did this month!
A few weeks ago we crossed off the first thing on our Fall bucket list....we went apple picking! A nearby town, Bluemont, was holding a Cider Festival on the 14th of September, so we hit that up with our friends Melissa and Jay. There really wasn't quite as much as we had expected...the cider testings were just a couple of sips each, and there was no hard cider like they had advertised, so that's always a little disappointing for those of us who don't have kids with us! There was a LOT for kids to do though, but we didn't take Morgan, and they didn't take their daughter Autumn, so we couldn't really participate in a lot of the activities. However, we did indulge our inner children, and went to the petting zoo to see the animals, along with the big slide that Melissa and I went down! The apple picking part was a lot of fun though, and we picked up some yummy apple cider and apple butter on our way out! After we were finished at the apple orchard, we headed across the street for some wine tasting before dinner!
The following weekend, Josh and I had planned to take a road trip to Michigan from Friday through Sunday, and stay with my aunt and uncle, who live up there along with most of my mom's side of the family. We had tickets to see the Detroit Tigers play the White Sox on Friday night, and then Saturday night, we had tickets for Dane Cook's Under Oath comedy tour....he's one of our favorite comedians, and we haven't seen him live in 7 years. But unfortunately, a few days before we planned to leave, we received our personal property tax bills in the mail for both Loudoun County AND the Town of Leesburg (unfortunately we have to pay two sets of taxes here), and they were NOT small. So we ended up not being able to afford to go, no matter which way we tried. So we gave the baseball tickets to my aunt and uncle that we had planned to stay with, and gave the Dane Cook tickets to my cousin, who was able to find someone to take them. Super disappointing, but these things happen, I suppose! Welcome to adulthood, right? So we spent the past couple of weekends just hanging out here in town, and last weekend I did a big cleaning and put out my Fall/Halloween decorations. I have a couple last minute things to put out, and I want to mulch the front yard around my outdoor decorations, and then I'll post pictures of those!
In other news, I started a new job about a week and a half ago. Still at the same facility where I have been working, but I switched companies, from General Dynamics to Tenacity Solutions, and I am SO excited. A little bit of a raise money-wise, but the thing I am most excited about is my new health insurance. With GD, I had a $2500 deductible that I had to reach before I could simply pay a copay, so basically in the past 9 months I have not been able to go to the doctor. Basically, I was paying a large amount per paycheck for insurance that I couldn't use. Since I had to pay out of pocket regardless, I might as well have not had insurance, but Morgan has to be on two insurances, and Josh's was even more expensive than mine. And you know that if we had no insurance, then we'd have something huge happen that would cost $15,000, and a simple $2500 deductible would have been a drop in the bucket at that point. So now I have new insurance that only costs a normal copay per visit, and I am so excited. I have been needing to see a specialist for nearly a year now, but without being able to afford it, my symptoms are just getting worse, so I have an appointment with a new doctor on Tuesday, and I can't wait! Speaking of Tuesday, that's another benefit of this new job....it's my birthday, and I get 11 holidays off a year....the 10 regular federal holidays, plus my birthday! So I get a paid day off on Tuesday, yay :). And lastly, the new job actually focuses on more of what I want to do, which is information security. My official title is Information Systems Security Officer, and I am really excited about everything I've been learning thus far. It's all new and a little scary, but that's like any new job, right? Pretty soon (I hope), I'll be able to do everything like its second nature. So I started last Monday the 23rd, and so far it's been great. Only problem is, I work for the government...and as I'm sure anyone who isn't living under a rock knows right now....the government is officially shut down. Sooooo things are a little unsure as to the future of our jobs right now, but we are all keeping our fingers crossed that Congress finds a solution SOON, considering both Josh and I are government workers, and we do have a house to pay for and a family to take care of! So please be keeping your fingers crossed for us as well!!
Below are pictures from the cider festival; hopefully I will not get quite as behind in my next updates as I did this month!
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