Summer has been OK so far.  Hot weather, but that is to be expected.  I’ve had a bit of a relapse with my achilles, but I’ve so far managed to put off a trip to the doctor. I’ve got some big rides in a couple months, so I’m trying to put it off until then. I know that’s pretty stupid, but I never claimed to be that bright. =)

Speaking of bright, one of my dear friends has a pretty big charity ride coming up.  It’s something crazy like 150 miles to raise money for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.  Sounds like a lot of fun, and while I cant go ride with him, I can send along a donation to help him out.  If any of you would like to do the same, the website is: http://main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/aaron_mccann The ride is just a few weeks away, and I know he’s getting excited.

Aaron works for an Arkansas web design firm, so I may use this in trade for a new template!  It’d be super cool to have a fancy custom made site just for me.  I may call him and start the ribbing to get it going.  LOL!

My garden is doing pretty good.  I’d put up some pictures for you guys, but my digital camera got dunked a couple weeks ago.  Come to find out, they don’t work so well after being submerged.  Meh.  Maybe I could get one of those cool new ones that are really thin and small.  I think that would be cool so that I could carry it more places with me.  Or it sounds good anyway; I’d probably neglect to take pictures too! Not that I’m lazy or anything.

So I’ve got a birthday coming up too.  Tomorrow is the big day.  I’m not even really that excited, but the cards have started showing up early.  My friend AM sent me the best e-card from My Fun Cards that I ABSOLUTELY loved (hint,hint).  Nothing like a free cheesy ecard to brighten a girls day.  Plans aren’t set in stone yet, but I imagine there will be plenty of margaritas to go around.  I’d like to hit up the local indian hot spot for some grub before the drinking starts though. =)  It looks like Thursday at work might be a little painful.  Going out for some dancing would be nice too; I guess it will just depend on everyones schedule.

I visited with my paternal grandfolks a bit on Saturday.  I hadn’t seen them in a while, so it was nice to hang out.  My grandpa will be celebrating his 94th birthday in June, so we’re planning a weeklong shindig for them.  I’ve got family in lots of states, so this will make it easier for everyone to come see them for a bit.  The little town they live in (population of about 263) has a really nice hunting lodge that we’ve reserved for the entire week.  It’s really close to their house, so everyone will be able to stay a night or 3 without cramping them.  I’m really looking forward about it as some of the aunts/uncles I haven’t seen in quite a while.

While I was there, I gave them a bit of help getting ready for the upcoming digital TV conversion.  I’d ordered their new antenna and digital TV converter boxes, but hadn’t had time to get down and install them.  Fortunately, their little hamlet saw a bit of a break in all the rain we’ve been getting.  It ended up being barely long enough for dad and I to get the antenna put up and roughly aimed.  They’re a little old skool, so they were’t real crazy about our satellite idea.  It’s all gravy though.  I can totally see their side.  Their TV habit consists of the morning news show, the local lunch news program, a little basketball, wheel of fortune, and the evening news.  That’s one of the things that wowed me growing up.  They watched so little TV, but there was always something going on.  I was always worried about being bored during the summer, but there was always something to do.  Working in the garden, riding our bikes (they both rode into their early 80s), just going for walks, going fishing and more.  It was always a full couple weeks.  I really miss the slower pace sometimes.

so that’s the newest update.  Not nearly as rambling as some of the last ones huh?  I’m trying to post more and shorter so it doesn’t take up all ya’lls reading time. =) Luv ya Amy.

Little Man is doing great.  He is completely back to his nutso self, just like nothing ever happened.  He’s actually trying to take over my chair as I’m typing this.  If the stupid digi cam wasn’t dead, I’d get a pic.  Maybe I’ll get to that this week.

My achilles has felt good all week.  I’ve been stretching it a little bit more each day.  I hope that by the end of the month, I can start building up more time on the bike as being off is killing me!  Not to mention, this is the greatest time of year to get outside.

I also think I’ve got minor whiplash.  I was walking Kalli on Friday after work, and she saw a bird as we were coming down the driveway.  She took off, and when she got to the end of the leash it threw me off balance and I took a spill onto the driveway.  As soon as I landed, I felt a sharp pain in my neck, and it’s been hurting since.  Feels just like I’ve been in a car wreck.  Doc called me in some meds, as I couldn’t get in to the office on Friday.  I may run in tomorrow just so he can look at it.  Damn dogs…But I love her still.

It’s been raining so far this week, but hopefully, I’ll get out again Saturday or Sunday.  Hopefully, the weather will break by then.  I also got rid of my race entry that was coming up in a few weeks.  There is no way that I’d have been ready for a 50 mile bike race.  It’s a bummer, but Doc says “better your early season than all summer”.  He’s correct too.  I’d much rather miss now that to have my whole summer wrecked.  Sometimes, patience just sucks.

So Little Man is doing fine after his surgery.  It took about 24 hours for the anistetic to wear off after his procedure, but after that he was getting in to stuff just like normal.  I think that I’d have been curled up in agony if the same would have happened to me.  I will say that I’m glad we added him to the policy though as some of the local vets wanted $100+ to neuter him.  That’s unbelieveable.  Our other critters came to us pre altered as they were all shelter adoptions.  We just found Little Man as a stray though, so we were saddled with the entire price ourselves.  We actually had some money put back for it (part of our emergency fund), but since we’d added him to the pet insurance plan, we only had to pay our deductible.  $35 in our case.  That’s WAY better than the original quote we got from the vets office.  All I can say about it is thank the lord for cheap cat insurance.  We saved quite a bit.  Like I said though, he’s doing great.  Really back to normal minus a small shaved spot.  Poor kitty!

The garden is starting to look pretty green.  I’ve gotten in all of my plants now.  I’ve got 1 poor tomato plant that isn’t going to make it though.  No biggie though as I have a few more seeds, so I can just plant another one.  I also just found out that Mom has a friend that works at a local nursery, so I can have my choice of any of their older plants.  Come to find out, their suppliers make them destroy many of the plants after so many weeks.  He said it had something to do with the roots I think.  I’m not plant genius, so I’m not even going to play like I know.  I’ll just be dumb about it.  I just wish I would have known earlier as I could have easily changed my planting schedule for some free plants.  I mean I really didn’t spend a bunch this year, but a penny saved is a penny earned.  I also helped Dad start a few plant for Mom over the weekend.  She’s been wanting to try one of those upside down tomato growers things for quite some time.  So, being the great husband he is, Dad surprised her with 4 of the planters, some good potting soil, and new watering wand, and some tomato plants.  It was really cool seeing how happy she was about them.  I’ll say that it seems like a really cool idea.  We got them all planted and hung up; it was really simple to do.  It took longer to decide where to hang them then it did to actually get the plants in.  She decided that she wanted them placed around the outside edge of the deck so that it will be easy to pick them.  That made sense to me.

I went over to MM & AMs house on Sunday for some more Wii action.  I finally got over 200 for the top score of the night.  MM was upset.  He kicked my butt on boxing though (huge surprise there) so I guess it worked out.  I can also tell that AM has been honing her tennis skills.  That girl has got the serve hack DOWN!  It seems like if you hit the ball at a certain place that it goes ULTRA fast, and is almost impossible to hit back.  I haven’t figured it out yet, but I’m working on it.  Win or lose though it is lots of fun just to get together and play.  We all work different schedules, so goof off/catch up time isn’t as often as it should be.  How much more fun can you really have for the cost of a bottle of cheap wine and some pizza?  There was one death for the night though.  MM & I were playing baseball, and he tried for some crazy pitch he read about online.  It was going good till he knocked off his eyeglasses and they totally shattered on the floor.  OMG he was mad.  Not that I blame him though glasses are crazy expensive most of the time.  I don’t remember where he said he got them, it was just one of those one hour eyeglasses places like America’s Best or something.  I used to get mine at LensCrafters.  Like mine, he said they were well over $200.  It sucks.  Luckily, he had an old pair in the drawer to get him by this week.  I finally talked him in to placing an order @ Zenni Optical, so he could get some cheap glasses.  I think they should come in in a couple more days.  He’s excited about it.

Well, I guess that’s plenty of chatter I need to inflict on you guys for tonight.  Now that Dell has fixed my laptop, I should be able to post more than once a week. Thanks for stopping buy, and I hope to talk again soon!  <3 Amy.

Speaking of SO, it’s all about the same.  It bites, but I’m dealing the best I can.  We’re still talking everyday, but they are still gone and it hurts. I talked to SO earlier, and it appears that a health problem we thought we’d beaten may be coming back again.  That would be terrible; the disease feeds on stress & hormones, so it makes sense that it would show up now.  We’ve made a doctors appointment for Monday and hopefully, Doc will tell us that there is no need to worry.  I don’t think either of us wants to go back through THAT again.  I’m not sure how much progress we’re making in our personal situation, but I’m happy the lines of communication are still open.  I guess this may just be something that has to play out.  It makes me want to throw shoes though.  It’s just SOO frustrating that 2 people who love each other so much can’t get their shit together and be happy.  Talk about not being able to see the forest because of the trees.  Pffftt!  I’m hoping we can hang out tonight so that we can have some time to talk.  I really just feel like there is some hole in me when SO isn’t around.  I know it’s silly, but that’s really how I feel.  I don’t want to get up, I don’t want to sleep, I don’t want to do anything.  It really blows.

The garden has been uneventful this week.  I’ve got almost everything planted, so for the most part it’s just a waiting game.  I’ve still got some flowers to plant, but that will only take a few minutes.  I’ll also get some lettuce and more bush bean plants put in over the next couple weeks, but that’s pretty easy too.  That’s the nice thing about the square foot garden it that it doesn’t take much time to do anything.  I’ve only got 32 boxes, so I can do anything in just a bit.  Need to plant some beans?  Poke 9 holes in a square and plant some seeds.  Dead simple.  I can also weed in seconds as I can reach everything sitting down on a chair.  It’s the best.  Harvesting is easy too.  I can literally walk around the whole garden in 10 steps.  No space is wasted though as all the things are laid out in a strict grid.  This keeps the plants tidy so they are easy to work around.  I can kill the weeds very easily from my bucket which beats the heck out of crawling around.  LOL!  If any of you want a simple garden, it’s really a great way to go.  Or, I could be biased.  Ha!  But seriously, if you’re short on space it’s great for getting some fresh produce which are SO MUCH better than the stuff at the grocery store.

I guess that’s all for todays post.  Thanks for stopping buy, and I hope to talk again soon!  Love Amy.

Sunday ended up being nice though.  SO came over early, and we took the dogs to the park for an hour before the rain started.  It was a bit cool, but it’s all good.  Then, we went out for breakfast at Waffle House and just spent the day BSing.  It was really nice and made me feel good about stuff.  It’s still hard, but I really think we are making some headway into our relationship.  They’ve stayed at the house every night since then so that’s been great too.  I know it makes all the critters happy as well.  It’s kinda funny how much different the dogs act when SO is around.  I mean they love me and all, but I really think that they almost love SO to the point of being codependant.  It’s cute in a strange sort of way.

Got my green babies put in the dirt todya.  Tomatoes, peppers, spearmint, some lettuce and a couple bean plants.  The seeds I put in a couple weeks back have almost all sprouted.  Nothing much other that the first pair of leaves yet, but it’s not been very long so I’m not surprised.  I’ll get in a few more lettuce & bean plants over the next month or so.  I like doing this, because it spreads our produce harvest out some.  I’d rather get a bit of lettuce for a salad each day than I would get 5 pounds of lettuce in 3 days that goes bad before we can use it.  I’m really hoping that the beans will do better this year.  I only got a handful last year from like 4 squares worth of plants (36 total).  Pretty sad.  I’m trying 2 new vatieteys though so maybe that will help.  Having a few pounds to can or freeze would be super awesome.

SO just finished up another round (hopefully the last for a while) of dental work. Just 2 cavities filled this time and a good cleaning. Not bad, but the last 8 months or so have seen several visits for a root canal, crown, etc so it’s been EXPENSIVE. The dentist suggested that SO consider a teeth whitening program to get rid of some spots. SO had braces several years back, and you know what that does to your teeth. Our dentist was a great sport about it and said that we wouldn’t even need a “pro” job and suggested a site to us that had reviewed some of the best teeth whitener prducts available OTC. We’ve sent off for some samples, so I’ll let you know how it works out.

Guess I haven’t quite got the habit yet.  sorry for the lack of updates this week, I feel like my life has been dumped on its head.  SO and I are still somewhat apart, and that’s been KILLING me lately.  Tough on them too, this is really the type of thing that’s hard to hide.  sucks though.  We had dinner together this week and are still continueing to talk everyday.  I just keep praying that this will come to a good resolution.

I’ve got a follow up on my experience with trying to buy glasses online. It worked out GREAT! I ended up ordering from zennioptical.com and couldn’t be happier. It took exactly 7 days from the time I placed my order (I used to wait longer at my optometrist) and they arrived perfect. I got 3 complete pair (1 with clip on sunglasses) for $78. This isn’t any cheap crap either. I got anti-glare, anti-scratch, anti-UV, hi index lenses. All the glasses came wrapped in a microfiber eyeglass cleaning cloth and in a hard case. I saved SOO much over my last pair from LensCrappers it isn’t even funny.

It’s about time for my yearly eye exam too.  I hope that I can save some cash this year.  The last pair I got was over $300!!  I was really thinking about going to eye glass world, but the more I look, the shadier they seem.  I’d hate to buy solely on price and then get screwed with a crappy pair of glasses.  Then, I’d have to spend even more money to replace the screwed up pair.  That’s no way to be frugal.  And, it would really piss me off.  LOL!  I’ve seen several shops where you can order online, and a couple of my friends have tried it with good luck.  Maybe I’ll give that a whirl this go around.  At least then I’m only out like $20 a pair if they suck.

The work made for a pretty crappy distraction though.  SO came in from work Friday and said they needed a bit of time and space to work through some things.  That was a blow that I didn’t expect.  I mean we’ve been having some trouble lately but damn.  We’ve been together for 10 years (married for 5), so we’ve practially grown up together.  I just hope this all works out and that it isn’t the start of us growing apart.  SO is my best (almost only) friend, and I’m just not sure that I like the thought of my life without them.  Hope for me.

It sucks now just because there are unknowns.  That’s what has always been hardest on me.  Fear of the unknown.  I just keep praying that the phone will ring in 5 minutes and that SO will want to talk a while.  Perhaps have some suggestions as to how we can overcome this and come closer as a couple.  I can only imagine how it would feel for someone with children.  We’ve got a house (that neither can afford alone) & 5 pets to deal with and that’s hard enough for me.  Hopefully in a few days (or a week) we’ll have talked this through and will be moving forward.  SO has a big mountain bike race coming up and I’d love to be there to support them.