Hi there, remember me?

Yesterday, someone left me a comment that I need a new blog up.  Ooops.  I politely emailed back that I have been busier than a one legged man in an ass kicking contest and I would add it to my to my to-do list.

So, here I am.

School, is back in full swing.  That's been keeping me somewhat busy.  After this semester, I think, I'll have 6 classes left to take, to reach my short-term goal.

My new position at work has been keeping me busy.  And this week has been keeping me even busier.  I won't bore you with the details.

Even the pups have been keeping me busy.  Oh speaking of the pups, I updated their page at the top of my blog.  Or click here.

Monday, was our anniversary.  We've been married for 3 years.  Sometimes it seems like 30, sometimes it seems like 3 weeks.  But, I wouldn't trade him for the world.  We didn't do anything special.  But, that's just what I wanted.  Just hung out, took a nap, and watched some TV.

We are going camping this weekend at my grandpa's.  It's getting a little cooler so I'm supposed to bring a crock pot of soup.  Not sure what kind yet.

There is one thing that I've been meaning to share.  I think it's super annoying when people take pictures of themselves in public.  Ask someone to take it for you.  You look dumb.  I guess it especially gets on my nerves when drunk people do it when I'm working at the bar.  In the privacy of your own home, feel free to snap away.  This may offend some of you but at least you'll know there are people like myself who find this annoying. 

So there you have it, my words of wisdom for the day.

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend!

MckLinky Monday

Today, I'm linking up with RHOK for the Monday MckLinky. The topic is to name and elaborate on my top 5 pet peeves. Only 5, that's tough. I have a ton of pet peeves. I guess you could say that I'm easily annoyed.



1. The saying "It is what it is" - No shit. If it were not what it is, it would be something else. I truly can not stand this saying.

2. Pop music - I think 99% of pop artists are no talent ass hats. Luckily, I can normally go with out having to listen to it. The only time I'm subjected to it is when we go to the bar. I'm thankful for my iPod.

3. Lack of manners while eating - I can't stand slurping or people who talk with food in there mouth. Seriously, there is a lady idiot I work with that talks on the phone to customers while eating. Gross.

4. Receiving a text that says "k" - At least give me a "yes," "no," or "sounds good". Not really sure why but this drives me nuts.

5. Liars - I especially hate when a person tells so many lies that they can't keep their lies straight. Also, people who make their life sound perfect. No one's life is perfect so stop acting like you shit rainbows.

Monday's are a great day to list my pet peeves. I could do this every Monday.

Happy Monday!

Pool

When we put the pool up a couple weeks ago, it was a tad not level. (Apparently, unlevel is not a word? It should be.) Over the last couple weeks, it settled more and more and became even more unlevel. Then it rained like hell everyday for a week or so, which made it even worse.

Last night, I was going to clean the pool out. When I got in it, I noticed that the ladder wasn't touching the ground. Sometimes I don't have the most common sense and I couldn't figure out why. I was using the vacuum thing on it and scooping leaves out with the net. Matt came home and I told him about the ladder. He told me that it was because two of the poles on the high end weren't touching the ground. Fuck

So after a bunch of what if's and we could's and we are idiots, we decided to drain the pool. This morning it was half empty or half full, depending on how you want to look at it.

I've already figured out where we can get some dirt tomorrow. So tomorrow we are going to get a truck load of dirt, try to level out the area where the pool goes, and fill it back up. I don't even care how much the water bill is. It's worth it.

I'm sure it will be like 105 degrees tomorrow when we are doing all this.

I linked up with Mimi @ Living In France for F Bomb Friday today. :)

Silver Bullet

First of all, a little background for those of you who don't know. In October, we bought Matt a truck and sold my sexy car. My baby. My eclipse. (That I never had any problems with) Gee I miss her. I now drive my hubby's old car. The silver bullet. She's a grand am.

Last night when I was coming home from work, I was at "the stoplight" in the town we live in. I hear a dinging noise. I though maybe it was the gas light because I have a habit of driving it until the light comes on. I looked down it and it was a light indicating that the temperature was high.

The bar I work at part-time is about a block and a half from the stoplight. Our house is like six blocks away. So I drove to the bar. By the time I got there, there was a ton of steam coming from under the hood. It was bad. Real bad.

I went inside and the bartender was out back taking the trash out. She came in the front door where my car was parked and said, "Hey Steph is that your car smoking?" To which I replied, "Yep." She come back with, "Uh, want a drink?" To which I say, "Yes, please."

So I called the hubby. He came and rescued me and called a friend of ours that lives in town and is a mechanic. He wasn't going to be in town for another hour so we had to stay and wait for him. He eventually showed up and told us that its probably a water pump. As long as that's it, it won't cost a lot.

Today Matt is taking off work early and hauling the silver bullet to our buddies shop. Then he's going to come get me and we'll pick it up. I'm hoping things go that smooth. This is just one more reason I love my hubby. I don't have to deal with it. He's going to take care of it all for me.

Not complaining too much, just sharing

We usually keep it fairly cool in our house. The thermostat is usually set at around 63 while we are home and 60 while we are at work. I don't mind it. If I'm doing stuff I don't notice and if I'm at my base of operations (couch) I just use a cover.

Yesterday when we got home from work it was 57 degrees in our house. The thermostat was set on 62. Matt turned it to off and then back to heat. It kicked on for about 2 minutes but never blew hot air.

So I called my daddy. You see, my daddy can fix pretty much anything. (Except for furnaces) He's a jack of all trades. He came over and used his wire tester and drank a beer while he and my husband stared at the furnace scratching their butts. (I was at school but, I'm pretty sure that's how it went down.)

Needless to say, they didn't get it fixed. I don't mind the cold when I'm sleeping but, when I was getting ready this morning, it was 55 in our house. The toilet seat was rather chilly. I called someone to come and look at it this afternoon so hopefully it gets fixed today.

***

Last night while I was at school, I received an email that the order I had placed for my brother's present was canceled. No explanation. Just canceled. I found something similar to it and ordered that.

***

This morning I get to work and I received an email that another gift I ordered was canceled. Out of stock. I found a place that has the same thing and I called to make sure they definitely had it in stock. They did so I ordered it from them.

I placed these two orders over a week ago. Uggghhh Why are they just now deciding to tell me?

***

I can't spell definitely. Every time I type it I spell it like this - definately. I noticed this a couple weeks ago. Maybe I'll stop using that word and use absolutely, I can spell that right every time.

Invite Only!

Short version babe short version.... That's what Matt always tells me when I'm trying to tell a story.

Last weekend we were supposed to go to Matt's mom's side of the family Thanksgiving. Well, you see, Matt didn't feel too well because he played too hard the night before. He said he didn't want to go and I didn't argue. His parents weren't going to be there anyway because his mom was marching in some abortion march or something. Who knows. We skipped out.

This Saturday was his dad's side of the family Thanksgiving. We never go to that side of the family anything. Not sure why we just don't.

Well his mom called his phone Saturday and he didn't answer. He didn't even listen to the voicemail till she called both of our phones on Sunday. They wanted us to come over to their house about the time we got the message to eat lunch.

We were in the process of getting my washer and dryer from my mom and dad's. We had plans to have my parents come over and hook them up. Then later, my brother and sister and Matt's buddy from the army that lives about a half an hour away were all coming over. I planned on making homemade pizza and we were going to watch football.

On our way back to our house, washer and dryer in tow, I told him he needed to call his mom. He called and talked to his dad and his dad asked if we were going to be home that afternoon/evening. Matt told them we would. They said they would come over about 3.

I was a little irritated because we already had plans to do the pizza/football thing. They came over and were there about 2 or 3 hours. His dad got a phone call from someone wanting to go hunting with him and his mom told him that they were going to go to a restaurant in town and get some pasta and eat it at our house. Like I'm unable to cook.

This is when I piped up. I told her that we already had plans to have people come over for supper. She got all pissy and said told Matt's dad that they weren't allowed to stay. She put her shoes on right away and then sat and pouted (Matt's word not mine) for another half an hour.

At some point, she asked Matt what he wanted for Christmas. He said he didn't know. So when they left she snatched up her pie she brought over and said, "Well let us know when we can stay longer."

Excuse me, I'll let you know when we don't have plans and you are invited over.

She also said that they probably wouldn't have Christmas since Matt doesn't know what he wants.

This may all seem like I'm a royal bitch but the situation is hard to explain. I don't normally write about how nuts she is or how much she drives me crazy or how if we let her she would try to run our lives for us.

After they left my stomach was in knots because I know she thinks that I'm the reason Matt doesn't want to talk to her. Which, by the way, is her own fault and I'm not going to go there.

I try hard to be nice to her. I really do. But damn it. Sometimes enough is enough and I have to stand up to her.

Christmas Decorating

We haven't done a lot this weekend but we did manage to decorate for Christmas. Here is the tree. I like blue lights.
Matt's favorite ornament.

My favorite ornament. My brother's girlfriend gave us this last Christmas.

I like this one too.

Ozzy's favorite.

Matt hung the lights outside Saturday. They look really nice. Not too much but just enough.

I hope everyone had a great weekend. I am ready to go back to work.

Entertaining the in-laws right now. They invited themselves over. It's great.

I need my coffee

There is something that has been annoying me for awhile. I get to work at 7:30. I do a few things and then check my email accounts. Then around 8:30 I will wonder to the break room to get a cup of coffee.

First off, I am very grateful that my employers offer free coffee to us. But, about 9 times out of 10 I go in there and there is half of a burnt up cup in the bottom of the pot. I mean come one. How hard is it to make a new pot if you take the last of the pot?

Maybe this is just common knowledge to me since I waited tables for so long. But I thought people would be a little more considerate. If I take the last of the pot, I always make more.

Sorry for the rant.

I'm a little bitter

I've been putting off writing about this because I thought once I wrote it, it would be true. But now I know, unfortunately that it is true.

Anyone who knows anything about the military knows that you can ask one person one thing and another person the same thing and get two different answers.

When my hubby was going through his clearing process, he was told more than one that I would be able to go to school on his GI bill. I called/emailed the veteran's advisor at the college I go to numerous times between the time I started school and last week. In the beginning, she gave me enough stuff to do to keep me out of her hair.

I called her again last week and told her that hubby has his DD 214 and we would like to meet with her to transfer his GI bill to me. She informs me that there are some very specific requirement that we must meet. He has to have served 6 years, in some way shape or form, and re-enlist for another 4.

He has served 4 and 1/2 years and is going to be in the reserves for another 1 year and 9 months. So basically after the 1 and 9 months (that he is non-deployable) in the reserves, he would have to re-enlisted for 4 more years (and be deployable). Neither one of us wants him to deploy again. Its not worth it to us. He did his thing.

I thought maybe she was the one who didn't know what she was talking about so I did some research, called some people, met with some people and find out that she was right. I'm not going to school courtesy of the Army anymore.

I just don't understand. He doesn't want to go to school. I do. What's the problem?

I did get to talk to a guy that is located between the old and new courthouse. (Nice guy. Very straight forward and wants to help us.) I told him that Matt had specifically had been told when he was clearing that I could use his GI bill. He said "Well of course they did. They will tell them anything to get them to leave happy."

I believe that.

I also talked to this guy about helping my hubby find a job. A job that pays good. A job that he likes. When he came back, he started working at the job he had before he went to the Army. Not because he liked it but because it was a job that would hire him right away.

He gave me the name and number of another guy who's job is to help veterans find jobs. He works in like three counties and is only here on Mondays.

Yesterday was the first day where Matt told me that he hated the job he has now. It makes me depressed that he hates it. I want him to be happy. If he's not happy, I'm not happy. I like my job. (I'd like it more if I got paid more) And I believe that he deserves to like his.

I thank God everyday that we both have jobs and we are both healthy. (Especially after going to the VA yesterday and seeing how big of a joke that is but that's another story and I'm not going to go there.)

As far as school goes, Matt doesn't want me to quit. I don't want to quit. But there is no way we can qualify for financial aid; we both work and don't have any kids. We aren't interested in student loans. We have a mortgage to pay.

Going to school makes me feel good about myself. It could partially be because I have a 4.0. So I'm doing great in school. I guess I will just take 2 or 3 classes a semester. I wanted to get an Associates in Business and do a tech program for Accounting all at the same school. Like I said, I have a job, a job that I'm not afraid of losing. But I want to have some kind of degree. Because I know I can.

Anyway, sorry this blog is all over the place.

Post #99

My next post will be my 100th post. I will be doing a Q & A post. So feel free to ask away. I will wait until Friday to do it.

Thank you for all your kind words and support on my last blog. I appreciate it. And do not regret sharing any of that with you all. Sometimes it feels good just to let it all out.

Matt and I went to Schuetzenfest 2009 on Saturday night. If you aren't from around here it is a German festival that involves drinking beer out of tin buckets, live bands, (even some polka bands), and shooting guns. They used to have shotgun shooting but now it is BB gun shooting. Something about booze and guns not mixing.

Our house is probably about 100 yards from the fairgrounds where this is held. We walked home. This was our first walk home from the fairgrounds. We walked through a bumpy ass field. Next time we will be taking the long way around, as to avoid tripping over the bumps. But it is nice to know that it is a manageable walk.

Yesterday I had one of my good friends bridal showers. I'm not a big fan of any kind of shower but it was a descent time. Good sandwiches and lots of fruit. She lives about 5 hours away but is getting married here, so it was nice to see her.

I have school tonight. I'm trying to stay positive but I'm getting slightly discouraged. I still have to take 5 classes that have nothing to do with my major. My major is Business. Then I want to do something more along the lines of Accounting. I just don't understand why I have to take a music or art class. I do play guitar but I doubt if knowing a few Zeppelin and Black Sabbath riffs will help me out much in a music class.

Anyways, I hope everyone has a good week!!!

Never again

We had our house warming party this weekend on Saturday and Sunday. A friend of mine made some awesome cakes for us. I don't have my camera with me but I'll put the pics on here later if you would like. She made one that was an anniversary cake and one that looked like our house. I decorated the garage in a red, white, and blue theme, as the party was a welcome home party for Matt too.

Saturday it rained all day. Which wasn't a big deal because there weren't too many people there so we stayed in the garage most of the time. A few (supervised) kids were there but mostly adult relatives and friends. Sunday morning I had to clean the house before more people came over. It was awesome and I was very happy to do so. (sarcasm)

Sunday there were a ton of people over. A few times I started to feel a little anxiety. I don't really like groups of people or being anywhere near the center of attention. Early in the day two families on Matt's showed up and between the two families there were 9 rug rats kids. And shortly after two more boy kids came over with their mom and dad. So that's 11 kids in our newly carpeted house, unsupervised. I never once saw their moms' or dads' go inside and check on them. They quickly found Matt's 1980's Nintendo in his play room and made themselves right at home. This is also the room with his prized antique toy tractors.

I would like to say that it was a great time but it wasn't. It was nice to see our friends and it was ok after I decided just to drink enough that I didn't care about the mess. I swear all I did before I had a buzz from the booze was clean up messes. I mean come on, we had two big trash cans available for use. How hard is it to throw a damn paper plate away? Seriously. And wipe your feet. We have plenty of rugs.

Sunday night before I passed out went to sleep Matt discovered that one of his prized toy tractor accessories was broke in half. Let me just tell you he was pissed off not happy. We might not be having kids after this weekend. I mean the little shits trashed our house.

I owe a big thank you to mom and dad for helping cook and clean all weekend. Most of the mud is out of our brand new carpet. But I was too hungover tired yesterday to vacuum all the carpets and clean the hardwood floors. I hate when the house is not clean. Especially since our stuff is still nice. So tonight I'll get our house back up to our standards before I go to school.

So, moral of the story... never again will we be invited all our relatives and their 57 kids over to our house. The only time we will be invited people over is if they stay in the garage or on the deck and watch their kids.

Don't forget that my 100th post is coming and you can ask me whatever you want and I will answer it in that post. Ask as many as you want. I have two questions now so if you don't ask more it will be a pretty lame post.

I'm in the Old Lady Group

At the community college I go to it seems as if most people fall into one of three categories: people 20 and younger, people 40 and old, or single parents. I fall into none of these categories.

Last night in my sociology class we had to get into groups of three for a group project. I sit by this one older lady in my class because she is in my other class and seems like a nice lady. So we decided we would be in a group together. Then the other older lady comes up to us and asks to be in our group. Ok no problem.

After everyone is in a group I kinda look around and there is one group of jocks, one group of preppy girls, one group on kids all from the same town, one group of nerdy girls, and my old lady group.

I mean I'm 28. Not 50. Am I a loser cause I'm in the old lady group? Do the other kids in class think I'm an old lady?

To make things worse old lady #2 in my group wanted to do our group project on the chapter on sex and gender, which involves transgender and hermaphrodites. She would not budge. That is what we are doing ours on. I mean I don't have a problem with it but its not something I wanna stand up and talk about in front of a bunch of 19 year olds.

MSIBTY Jane

One thing that is on my top ten list of most annoying things is people who always have a story better than yours or have to tell a story that relates to yours. You know what I mean? Say your telling a story about how you fell down the steps leaving your house. (This did not happen.) Then this person who I will call My story is better than your story Jane (MSIBTYS Jane) cuts you off and starts talking about a time they fell down leaving the house.

This type of behavior/communication has always annoyed the shit out of me. When it really started annoying me the most was when my grandma was suffering and slowly dieing from cancer. MSIBTYS Janes would ask me how she was doing only to end up telling me about how when their grandma/dad/cousin/dog had cancer blah blah blah.

Their are a couple of MSIBTYS Janes that I have the pleasure of dealing with. This morning MSIBTYS Jane #1 and MSIBTYS Jane #2 were having a conversation. It was one of the funniest/annoying conversations I have ever heard. Jane #1 one spout off a few sentences about her story and Jane #2 would cut her off and tell a couple sentences of her story. This went on for about ten minutes. By the time it was over I was sitting with my head in my hands praying for it to stop.

I try my hardest not to be a MSIBTYS Jane. Sometimes after a few alcoholic beverages I would say I could try a little harder. But for the most part, unless you ask me about my experiences with such and such, I will not be a MSIBTY Jane.