Making good on my promise

I promised that after summer school was over I would get better at blogging. Well, I know I haven't been great, but at least I'm trying. This time I will actually add some pictures too. I should get extra points for that!

Honestly nothing blogworthy has happened around here. If I wrote about what was really going on in my life, you would just get bored. I am working at my regular job during the day and going to my new job in the evenings. I am happy to say that I only have 12 more working days left at my full-time job. That is exciting and scares the heck out of me all at the same time.

Last weekend, not this past one but the one before that, Hal and I spent our Saturday doing some minor things around the house. I am finally getting around to posting the pictures. This past weekend Hal and I spent most of the weekend doing absolutely nothing!

Onto the pictures:

We rearranged our living room. I couldn't find the before picture, but I will tell you that the couch used to be in front of the window and the chair was to the left of the couch. I think this fills up the room nicely. (We have recently put up blinds, so this shot isn't exactly accurate)

No, we didn't get a new door. We added this adhesive thing that makes the glass look etched. You can't tell its just a sticker. My friend came over this weekend and thought we got a whole new door!

I added these pretty little candle holders to my empty dining room table. They were a great find from Old Tyme Pottery at the beach!
I have had this for a while, but I just had to show you my beautiful antique lamp that my stepdad got for me. Its one of my most prized pieces.

This was also a gift from my parents. A man at the beach made them, and I thought it would be a cute addition to our outdoor building. It adds some color, and breaks the monotony.


Well, I have to get back to my laundry. I will try to be a little better this week!

Did you see...

the PHENOMENAL performance by Josh Hamilton in the Home Run Derby last night?

Holy cow.

28 home runs in the first round, all averaging 445 feet. He hit over 2 miles of homeruns!

Read this for a better recap.

And to top it all off, in his interview with ESPN after he hit his 28 bombs, he gave all the glory to God!

Read more about Josh Hamilton here.

Thank you Lord!

Last night it RAINED here! It wasn't just a passing thunderstorm, either. It was a good, steady rain for about 2 hours! I think we ended up with about an inch!

This was a welcomed rain shower as our water company just sent out post cards yesterday asking everyone to only water their lawns on Wednesday and Saturday.

Thank you Lord for the rain!

Nervous

My nerves have been getting the best of me for the past few days. Coming home from the beach was the realization that soon I will be starting nursing school.

Its not the school part I'm nervous about. Okay, maybe a little bit, but not whats got my stomach in knots lately. I am quitting my job, and that scares the devil out of me. I gave my boss my notice on Tuesday, and my last official day is going to be Thursday, August 7th. Its only about 4 weeks away, and only 2 more paychecks.

I do have a part-time job lined up that I start next week. I am excited about it, but for a while, I will only be working 3 days a week.

The toughest part for me is going from two salaries to one. We have been doing well with saving and budgeting, but we haven't had to live with just one salary yet. We've always had a crutch if we needed it, and now that option is gone.

I know we are going to be fine. I really do. I am still nervous, though. I have put my faith in God that He will take care of us. I may not always have what I want, but I trust I will always have what I need.

Say a prayer for Hal and I as we embark on this journey!

What I've been wanting to tell you

Hal and I absolutely love our neighborhood. Its quiet, clean, and we have great neighbors...for the most part.

The very first day we started moving in our house, a cat from across the street walked over and adopted us right then. Now I am no cat lover, but man I loved this cat with all my heart. I am, afterall, an animal lover in general so I just couldn't help love him. He was the friendliest, coolest, funniest cat that I had ever seen. The minute I met him I feel in love with him. He belonged to the very old couple that lived across the street, and they just couldn't take care of him the way he should have been. One of them was alergic to cats so they put him outside and fed him and cared for him that way. (I don't think there is anything wrong with having an outdoor cat, though.)

Thats why he adopted me and Hal, I think. He wanted more love. From the beginning I named him Spook because I didn't know what his real name was. He would come over almost everyday and I would feed him, let him inside for a while, and give him lots of love. When he was ready to go he would let me know. I had fallen in love with Spook.

Apparently Spook was a roamer, like all outdoor cats are. Well one nosey lady up the street decided that the neighborhood cats were getting on her nerves, so she called animal control. Animal control came by one day unannounced and picked up Spook and 2 of our neighbors' cats. All 3 of them were someone's pets, and in one swoop they were gone. Just like that. No written warning, no citation, just gone.

When our neighbor called animal control to get their cats back they wouldn't tell them anything. They would give them no other information than telling them to check at the humane society. Two days after the cats were picked up my neighbor went to get their cats at the humane society and they weren't there. They went back 2 days later and they still weren't there. All 3 cats had been euthanized. Not one of them was EVER put up for adoption.

Trust me, I believe in pet population control, but we are talking about someone's pets here. The little 5 year old girl across the street who lost her cat still doesn't understand why her cat is gone. I still don't understand why they are gone and why they were euthanized so quickly. They weren't even given the standard time frame of 5 days for adoption.

I broke down into tears when I found out. I couldn't stand the thought of those animals being killed like that. They cannot even defend themselves. I wanted to go scream in the nosey old ladies' face that called animal control in the first place to mind her own business. This was just plain cruel and I felt so completely helpless.

I am so hurt by this and I want to do something to change it, but I don't know what I can do. I am just so frustrated that people can be so heartless.

this is Spook

I just have to brag

I really really really hate unpacking from trips. I will let it go for as long as I can before I actually unpack a suitcase.

Yesterday when I got home from work my sweet precious husband had unpacked all of our bags and even had all of the laundry done! The best part...I didn't even ask him to do it!

Is he great or what?

Back to normal now

We are back from our mini vacation, and you are going to hate me because I didn't take one single picture. Oops.

We left last Wednesday after I took my final exam and headed straight down the interstate to Myrtle Beach. My family has gone to Myrtle every single year since I was born during the week of the 4th. I really hated that Hal and I couldn't go for the whole week, but at least we got to go for a few days.

We stayed in Ocean Lakes in the same place that we have stayed all of my life. I love it! We ate at River City Cafe in Surfside on Thursday night. They serve the best burgers in the world! After we ate we walked out on the pier and saw 3 huge tiger (or what looked like) sharks swimming under the pier. All 3 of them were at least 6 feet long.

We had a really great time and ate lots of great food. Honestly I didn't want to come home!

Now that we are home, life is finally starting to slow down and get back to normal. All I have to do now is worry about getting everything together and finished so that I can completely focus on my nursing classes this fall.

Here is what I have to do to get ready:
- take healthcare providers CPR certification
- take an online orientation
- get a two-step TB test
- buy my scrubs and stethoscope (this is the one I am most excited about!)

Now that I have a little more time on my hands I am hoping to pick back up on my blogging too!

I hope you all had a great 4th!