That hurts

I've been having some pretty crappy luck lately.

First, I got bit by a dog - it took a bite at my leg as I climbed back into my car. We were just dropping something we borrowed off at a friend's house. Apparently, we should have kept it for ourselves! This is the bite about 10 days after the fact. That darn bite still hurts!



Then, I fell off my chair while teaching a piano lesson on Wednesday. How embarrassing, right? I don't even really know what happened, except that I fell, my arm hit the corner of the piano bench, and my butt pounded on the floor. My butt is bruised too, but I won't share that picture with you. :)

Fun fun

Having a baby is a lot of work, but fun for the most part. Lately, Isaac has taken to screaming like a little girl instead of actually crying. It's embarrassing in public, tiring when I'm home, and I'm pretty sure my ears may bleed at some point from listening to this...give it a listen {and watch} for yourself {yes, I am that mean that I let him cry {er...SCREAM} to take a 15 second video...}:

Much improved

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions on my gross hands! I couldn't find the udder balm at my local Target, so I invested $4.99 {with a $1 off coupon) in the new Vaseline Clinical Therapy lotion. I have been using it for four days now {the instructions say twice a day}, and it has worked wonders and provided sweet relief to my hands!

Before and after:

Gross

My hands look like this all over...I'm not sure what it is, but lotioning religiously is not helping. Also, when I put my eczema cream on it, the condition worsens...I hate my sensitive skin...

Life is full of beauty, and so is the farm

Saturday was a great day, and much needed. I helped my dad outside on the farm all day, and took some pretty inspirational pictures.

When I'm roaming around my parent's place, I often find myself inspired, yet sad. I always think of the history there. How all of my uncles and my own father grew up there, how my grandfather was born in our TV room; I really appreciate all of the history there. And then, I think of how more and more small family farms are either run out because they simply can't keep up financially, or they are bought out because some new industrial development would like their land. In the two block radius of my parent's house, my Dad recalled how there used to be about 20 dairy farms, and now there are only five. Three of the houses he remembered as a kid are no longer there, having been bought out and then torn down. The landscape is also completely different. We can see brand new houses being built on a far hill, the local gravel company has completely blasted out a hill for rock, and destroyed a farm in the process. There is a ridiculously large ethanol plant going up about a mile away, and the towering silos can be seen from our place. What used to be a view of the horizon as we drive up the hill has now become a view of cement and steel. The roads are paved (though our little section is still gravel, thank goodness!). I remember riding my bike around the entire block and having 3/4 of it being a gravel road. Now, there is only a small gravel section, which makes the rest of it easy riding.

How I long for those simple days again. No cement and steel, gravel roads, hills and farms where there are now holes and rubble, open fields.....I wish farmers and farming could still be as successful as it once was. What happens when we run all of the farmers out?

It's crazy to think the simple days that I long for are significantly different than the simple days my Dad longs for. I love my Dad.

My dad airing up some tires

What does this mean?

I had my second children's choir rehearsal today. Last week, 84 kids (!!!) showed up to see what my children's choir is all about. Long story short, it's a group of 4th - 6th graders who get together once a week to practice, and then they sing at church once a month. Usually, I end up with less kids than I started with (thankfully!), but today, I had 96 little children sign in (with more planning to come next week). AH!

This could mean several things:
1. The kids like me
2. They don't like me, but they like the occasional treats I bring for a job well-done
3. They think coming to church for an hour after school is cool
4. They like our accompanist, Mrs. Beckett, and like to listen to her tickle those ivories
5. I'm going to pull my hair out
6. I contemplate jumping off the balcony
7. They actually like singing....could it be?

If #7 is the answer, then I am doing my job. My entire goal when I took over the children's choir was just to help the kids understand how fun singing can be. Once they love singing, and have fun doing it, it's easy to teach them parts, songs in different languages, etc. They are loud and talk entirely too much (I'm working on that!), but when they sing, it's just like a bunch of little angels singing.....too bad their director is soon to be hairless, and broken-legged from a great leap of faith!

I just want a dress...is that too much to ask?

Every time I really want something, I can't find it. This week, it's a nice fall dress...something to wear to all of my upcoming fall weddings (one this weekend) that will keep me warm, but still look dressy at the same time. I would prefer something in a purple, blue, or brown color, without the crazy prints that make me look odd. The big trend seems to be those sweater dresses, but I don't like how they fit, or look for a dressy occasion. Boo. Jumpers are in too, but the last time I wore a jumper I was probably seven, so I don't feel "grown-up" wearing one of them! I'm also not willing to spend a ridiculous amount of money, which means that I'm pretty much out of luck. The cutest dresses I find on a sale rack are only available in a size 2...the only dresses available in my size are quite possibly some of the ugliest dresses I've seen! I pity the fool who actually buys them and wears them thinking they are pretty! Then again, one person's junk is another person's treasure.

This is frustrating.......

The other annoyance in my life is the waiting game which I spoke of in a recent blog. Click here to read it. Blake and I really like one house, only we can't make any moves until we know for sure if Blake has a job, and what his salary will be. It would help if Blake wasn't so busy and if the other Dr. wasn't so busy, and they could actually touch base instead of playing phone tag. Hopefully everything will work out. But, I am going to worry my pretty little head about it until then. To make matters worse, the house we like just had a price reduction and is having another open house this weekend! AHH!!! Well, I suppose the price reduction is a good thing from a buying perspective...but the open house sucks for us.

Sorting through life

Tomorrow, I embark on the first major step of our house-hunting process....and I am scared. Why, you ask? I am scared for a number of reasons, namely embarking on such a huge financial decision when we aren't even positive that we are going to end up in our choice area. I hate that I'm doing this without Blake. Instead, he will have to rely on the pictures I take tomorrow. But what happens if I find some beautiful cabinets, take a picture, and then realize later that the picture does them no justice? I worry that Blake has put all of his eggs into one basket, and that this one basket will provide us with no chicks. I wonder if enjoying yesterday's "Lazy Saturday" could have been better spent, or more pro actively spent searching or researching more real estate options?

I'm scared about the current state of the real estate market. Even though I know that our state has seen an increase in real estate transactions, I fear that we will not be able to sell our current home, and therefore be forced to bridge mortgages or fore go buying a house all together; at least for the time being. I'm scared that I won't find a home that I love as much as my current place. Sure, it's small, but it's cozy, comfortable, and perfect because for a short while, it was mine.....our own home.

I wonder many things: Will our family and friends judge us based on the purchase price of our home? The answer, of course, is yes they will. Will Blake actually have a job, instead of us talking about the possibility that he has been approached with? That, I don't know, though I wish, oh how I wish, we had an answer to that question! This process would be much less stressful and scary if we knew what we were working with. Will we even be approved for the mortgage amount we want? Again, I have no clue since we haven't looked into it a lot...again, because we have absolutely no idea about Blake's situation! Will we find a house that we like in the limited market we are searching in? It seems like anything we may like is either in a flood plain (NO), or way too expensive. When do we realistically put our home on the market? We were thinking originally November, but thought it may take more time to sell, so now we are thinking September. If our house sells too early, what will we do? Do I simply move away and leave Blake to stay with some friends and thus continue on the house hunting journey without him? What happens if we find no house at all? Will my parents just let us live with them for an unknown amount of time? Or worse, what happens if we hear from our mortgagor that we can't afford a house at all? Or at least, not one that is any more than our quaint 1,012 sq. ft. of living space! I fear that I will fall in love with a house that Blake won't like. But, if he had perhaps been there, he could have pointed out any flaws he may have seen before I fell blindly in love.

And yet, with all the fear, worry, and anxiety, there are small pangs of excitement. I am very much ready for us to move onto a different chapter of our lives. One where we are both finished completely with school, and the financial responsibilities can be shared, and a family of our own (yes, the little children running around) can become a reality. On the other hand, I really want to go back to school myself, which may put some of our plans back on hold. How beautifully stressful life can be. Only, I wish it wouldn't stress me out sometimes....despite its beauty.

something beautiful from my mom's garden

I thought I was savvy

I guess I'm not as technologically inclined as I once thought. I am having quite the difficulty figuring out this blogger thing. I guess it is just taking more time than I thought it would, particularly when it comes to posting a picture for my profile.

I am good with technology generally, so when I can't figure something out, I find myself easily frustrated. Sort of like music. I'm so good with music that when I tried to learn guitar, I was easily frustrated when I couldn't switch between chords because I understood the music so well, and knew what the music wanted me to do, yet, I couldn't quite get my fingers to do the actions that my brain was telling them to do. That spells some major frustration.

wah!