Veteran's Day

Quick Update: I would like to thank all the veterans and servicemen out there for being so courageous and awesome.  We wouldn't be America without you guys.  Special shout out to my brother Ian:

That's my brother.  He's in the Air Force.  He's some kind of mechanic/crew boss/something awesome dude.  As you can see he's obsessed with the Steelers.  As are most Pittsburghers...except me.

Anyway, if you know any veterans or servicemen give them some love.  They make our day to day lives possible!

Love you Ian!

Lifetime Skyrim Day

For those of you who don't know, my husband is obsessed with video games.  Because he is completely obsessed, I have also dabbled in gaming, and find that I quite like it.  But anyway, today is the release of one of the biggest games ever, that we have been looking forward to for months, that is set to be game of the year.  It's called The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.  Well, we are completely stoked to say the least.  Can't wait for this game to show up at our door this evening.  Who doesn't love amazon's $1 release date shipping!
So, for the next several days I will be watching Brett play Skyrim while I play one of my computer games or knit...yes, I'm a nerd...if you didn't know already, you do now.

In other news that makes today exciting, I am officially a Lifetime Member of Weight Watchers!  Yay!  I hit my goal weight, have maintained it for 6 weeks, so far, and now I don't have to pay anymore!  Who doesn't love that?  No one.

Unfortunately, some rules have changed.  As long as I weigh in once a month within 2 pounds of my goal weight, meetings are free.  If I weigh in over my goal weight, I have to pay that week...lame.  I also don't get e-tools anymore unless I pay $13 a month for them...which I don't want to do.  So I'll be free until I have a baby, then I'll have to pay to lose that weight again.  I mean, it's better than nothing, but at this point it's a little lame that I've lost the weight so early in life that I will still, hopefully, get pregnant a bunch of times, and have to try to lose weight from each baby a bunch of times too.  But I'm free for now, that's all that matters.

In bad news, it snowed this morning and basically ruined my life.  I hate snow.  I hate winter.  I hate being cold.  I may have left the house in a coat, scarf, hat, mittens, and tights even though it was 40 degrees.  I then had to sweep a bunch of snow off of my car in a skirt.  HATE IT!

But I will dwell on the excitement of the day instead.  Hope you have as exciting a day as I am!

Tuesday

Hey friends.  I had intended to blog when I got home last night but it was 9:30 and I was super sleepy, so I went to bed instead.  So here is what I did yesterday.

Yesterday morning I woke up at 5:30, like usual.  I got dressed, had some oatmeal, made my coffee, checked the weather, got re-dressed because it was warm out, and left for work.  When I got to work, Erin was already awake, for the second morning in a row...ach!  This girl just doesn't want to sleep.  Then Megan didn't wake up until I woke her up at 8:45.  The girls played all morning, then I took Erin to preschool.  After preschool we, Megan and I, came home and she took a nap.  Mike got home and I left.
On my way home from work I stopped to vote.  There wasn't a super ton of reason for me to go vote considering that everyone running in parma was unopposed.  But I went to vote so I could oppose issue 2.  It took me a while earlier in the week emailing or calling all of the people running to ask if they were pro life or not, so I would know whether or not to vote for them.  Not everyone got back to me, so I didn't vote for those people.  Call me crazy, but I'm not going to support any murderers, unless they repent and come to Christ for His forgiveness.  I'm just as bad a sinner as them...maybe worse.
Anyway, after I voted I stopped at Giant Eagle to pick up a few odds and ends.  Nothing too exciting, a butternut squash, that's cooking right now, gluten-free oats, "chocolate" chips, soy milk, etc.  Then I came home.
I did the dishes, cleaned up a bit, got out some yarn for my sister's Christmas present, and the appropriate pattern.  Then I got ready for Brett to come home and eat dinner.
After dinner I left again for "knitting group"/"sewing circle"/whatever you want to call it.  Ladies at church sewing/knitting/quilting/crocheting and talking about Jesus.  This week it was me, Jean, and Tina.  Small, but awesome.  I knitted and we talked about things going on at church, Jesus, and assorted goings on.  We took some time to pray for our pastors who are currently in Gaithersburgh for a conference.

After that fun, I came home and went to bed.

In unrelated news, I'm want to start a word study on "wait."  I know, it's crazy, after being a christian for something like 15 years, I've never done a word study before.  Where do I start?  Someone give me some advice please!

The Rest Of My Week

Hey friends, sorry for the hiatus.  It's been a busy few days.  Awesomely busy though.
So, on Tuesday I mentioned that Brett might not be able to go to the show on Wednesday night.  Well, his friend, Evan, I know funny right, offered to cover for him so he could come to the show.  YAY Evan!  He's a nice guy...I think, I don't know him.  But Brett works with him every day and doesn't mind him, so he can't be that bad.  He and Brett have the same job.  They're both the bosses of all the union mill guys in the BOF (basic oxygen furnace, (don't worry about anything else, it's boring and I promise you don't care)).

Well, we drove all the way to Ann Arbor, Michigan.  It is a pretty boring 3 hour drive.  But downtown Ann Arbor is super cuteness.  I kind of wish I lived there.  Anyway, the Michigan Theatre is beautiful.  The show was the best show I've ever seen...and I've been to a LOT of shows.  Milo Greene opened for The Civil Wars and they were incredible.  I had never heard of them before, but they were so good.  You should check them out here.  Also, if you don't know The Civil Wars, you should check them out here.  Well, I forgot the camera so I have no picture to show you...sadly.  But just believe me that it was awesome.  If you like folky, acoustic, awesomeness you'll love both these guys.

Anyway, we got home from the show at about 1:30 in the morning and immediately passed out.  My alarm went off at 5:30 and I thought I was going to die.  But I didn't.  I made it to work safe and sound and had a fairly uneventful day.  The girls are getting so big.  I actually had to give Megan a time out for hitting Erin.  I felt ridiculous giving a 16 month old a time out.  But she knew what she did and that she wasn't supposed to.  But, I digress.  I got home from work and passed out again.  That was about 1:30, pm this time.  I slept until about 4 then got up and made some dinner.  I had quinoa stuffed acorn squash and Brett had grilled cheese and green beans.  We went to bed at 9:15.  However, I didn't get to sleep until midnight.

Before you say I shouldn't have napped, this happens every night.  I have always had insomnia.  In college I wouldn't be able to sleep for days at a time.  It's not so bad now that I'm not so stressed out and depressed.  It's still irritating though.  It usually takes me an hour or two to get to sleep at night.  I've always slept better during the day.  However, most sleep medication has annoying, irritating, bad side effects.  Seeing as I am finally at a point where the only medication I'm taking is a vitamin and calcium, I like it that way.  It's been since high school that I've been on so little medication.

Today I got to sleep in until 7:45, which is late for me these days.  I went to weight watchers...I'll be a lifetime member next week!  After that I drove to Strongsville to go to Aerie since they were having a bra sale and I needed some new ones.  I also went to H&M while I was there and got 2 new shirts.  I have a severe lack of nice-ish and winter clothes that fit me right now.  I'm okay with that though.  After that, I went to JC Penny and got a shirt and 2 skinny belts.  Then I went to target and got 1% milk for Brett, flavored syrup for my coffee and lattes, hamburger buns for Brett's dinner tonight, and a few other things I can't currently remember.  Then Giant Eagle was my final stop for some Evan friendly food.  Coconut oil, brown rice bread, brown rice flour, turbinado sugar, organic orange juice, assorted other things.  Then I finally came home.

At that point it was 3:30.  I needed to start cutting potatoes for french fries.  Well they were baked not fried, but still delicious.  Brett's were coated in parmesan cheese, parsley, garlic, and onion.  Mine were coated in nutritional yeast flakes, garlic, parsley, onion, and cumin.  They were good.  He had burgers and I had eggplant burgers in a brown rice tortilla with enchilada sauce and fake cheese.  It was good.

But now, Brett is going to bed and I should be too.  But tomorrow is Saturday! YAY!  Exciting weekend plans anyone?

Repair Turn and Ticket Tuesday

So, Brett had a repair turn scheduled for today.  (that's when they spend all day fixing stuff in the mill and he has to work anywhere from a 16-20 hour day).  Then on his way to work this morning, he got a call telling him that basically everything died and there was molten steel everywhere (that's really bad, by the way).  So, he'll have to be working really late tonight.
The reason I bring this up at all is because I have 2 tickets to see The Civil Wars tomorrow night at 7:30 in Ann Arbor, MI.  Yes, I know that's 2 and a half hours away, but they're so good!  It's also the closest they're coming, except for Columbus, but that show is sold out...sad.  Anyway, things might be so bad at work that he might have to work late tomorrow too!  That would be awful.  Then, I'd either have to drive 5 hours by myself, which he won't like, or find someone else to go with me.  I'm just hoping, and praying, that he'll call any minute now and tell me that tomorrow will be a normal day.

I'm seriously going to cry if he can't come.  I mean, we just got these tickets last week, but I have been so stoked since we bought them.  They were also only $20 a piece!  I love not absurdly famous bands!  Yes, they're famous, but not like U2 or Dave Matthews, whose tickets are usually $50 a piece for lawn seats.  I hate that about shows.  They're always expensive.  I mean, I'll be making up the difference in gas, but whatever, they're my favourite band right now, and it's totally worth it.

In other news, I am working on a pattern for a messenger bag/purse.  I finally worked out my chart on graph paper.  Now, after fighting with excel for forever, I'm going to attempt to get it to function like I think it should.  Hopefully, I'll have it up and going soon.  I hate computers.  So, if anyone has any advice, do tell.

Did everyone have a fun Halloween?