Am I Crying? Laughing?

Anyone in my family can attest to the fact that I used to (apparently still do!) start laughing and in a matter of a split second, be BURSTING with tears... anytime that happened, no one knew what to do- it always started out as a joke, so I would be laughing along with everyone else, but then I'd start choking/trying to catch my breath and in an instant be bawling... how would you react? Probably like 99% of my family... they'd immediately stop laughing and just look "bug-eyed" and start apologizing... for nothing. That 1% was my dear sister, who thought it was even more funny to keep laughing to see just how "rial-ed up" I could get with crying...

The last time I remember this happening was in college- Caleb, his friend, Zach, and I were watching tv, then out of no where I became their prey- you see, I HATE to be tickled- Caleb knew this and said something... then it was like they had this lightbulb moment and their eyes were glistening... I started laughing while being tickled but it all changed from full-out laughing to full-out crying... I kept yelling "I hate being tickled, I HATE being tickled!" When the waterworks started coming (yeah, I cry THAT hard) they stopped dead in their tracks and didn't know what to do... "are you laughing? Crying? Are you REALLY CRYING?!"... "Oh my gosh, she really is crying Z..." They obviously stopped tickling me and swore to NEVER do it again... and anytime it gets the "incident" gets brought back up, they chuckle a bit, more like laugh hysterically, and add "she really...really doesn't like to be tickled." No, I don't.

So, that was the last time I started laughing... then crying, that is, until last night. We went to a Haunted Corn-maze, forest, tent, and barn all rolled into one. We didn't go last year with our friends when we found out that it was $20 PER PERSON... no thanks. Well this year is completely different- we're trying to do everything around here that we've never been able to yet... and after BEGGING Caleb to let me go (he didn't want me going)... I found myself, Caleb, and our neighbors-Matt/Michaela, with us- standing amongst a group of KY people (in which Michaela admitted to being TERRIFIED of "hicks"... umm, close your eyes Michaela?) ;) After forking over a night of tutoring-pay, we waited until it was dark to FINALLY get up to the front of the field... the man in charge said it was "about an hour... hour and a half long"... I FREAKED- yeah, that's good b/c I juts spent my entire teaching salary for the WEEK (jk), but being seriously scared for an hour/hour and a half is totally not up my alley for a fun-night out... it honestly wasn't too bad... standing in line that is! The first scene into the field was a black-caped 10plus foot(?) body standing like a statue... until it stood UP and scared us... we even knew it was coming and still got scared... then walking through a house a guy with a chainsaw came up to us- with his chainsaw ON... (obviously due to laws the chain-part wasn't on, but WHO thinks about that when you can SMELL the gas from it!?) I started laughing (for a split second) then basically climbing up Caleb... and that's when it hit... I was laughing... then breathing hard (why is my inhaler NOT with me?!) ;) and crying... when we got underneath a construction light everyone saw my face was streaked with tears... "oh my gosh, are you crying?" Why... yes, I think I was/am... I would like to say that I made it through without having another "attack" but while walking in the field we heard a train-horn... knowing it was coming we walked by a brick wall with a tall arc cut out... then out of NO WHERE a train sounds/light shines/and moves towards us... it happened so fast I was crying/laughing/running at the same time (did I mention that I'm talented?) ;) Well... that was just the cornfield maze... then headed into a forest (where Michaela FREAKED out) because it was as if you landed in the middle of no-where Kentucky... it was a "hick village"... the barn was another event in itself where BOTH of our husbands were freaked- while waiting to enter the barn the guy outside said if you were "prone to panic attacks" not to be 1, 3, 5, or 8 because the walls move and take THOSE PEOPLE... and it you were claustrophobic NOT to go in the "crawl space" and tell the person there that you needed to go outside... when it was our turn to enter the barn he said (to our group of 4) that you didn't want to be the 2nd or 3rd person, JUST in case you were prone to panic attacks... Michaela and I shrieked that we were... and he smiled/pointed to the barn, while Caleb (the fearless leader) led us in... let me add that there was a crawl-space, wall that pushed against BOTH sides of us from air, a bridge that you walked across through a huge hamster cage spinning with colors (which made ALL of us trip out), a grotesque picture of something eating something, and then SPIT water/liquid out, and yet ANOTHER chain-saw person... by the time we entered the tent we were all done... and nothing scared us by that point... an hour/hour and a half later... we were all trying to walk to the car... admitting all of our "scariest" parts... I was still wiping tears from my face/dust/dirt... totally worth the $40 date night ;)

My HS Sweetheart

Last night we went to the Fort Knox Varsity football game... we never went last year- (they MAY have won one..two(?) games the entire season... getting absolutely slaughtered each game...) or for the fact that Caleb was gone in the field a lot last year around this time, and I wasn't going to go by myself. I LOVE watching football, but would so much rather be at the game- watching it... (maybe that's why I wasn't that good of a cheerleader- I was too focused on the actual game!) JK. We hadn't been to a game since Western, where we went to just about every game AND for 3 games sat in the Walmart Winners Section- I won 4 tickets like 3 weeks in a row for games... it was pretty cool ;) I didn't realize how much I missed being at a football games until last night... but what I really realized was how much of a memory it brought back... we totally saw ourselves in the students... and it brought us back to that "Parchment-small-town" feel, as I knew many of the students, and Caleb was pointing out people in the stands, most of them being Generals or Commanders, so I tried to keep my cheering to a minimum ;) ... I kept smiling because I was sitting at a high school football game with MY high school sweetheart... for those that know us, we obviously didn't start out that way- Caleb admitted to liking me after my freshman year, but I was so adament about not wanting a boyfriend at the time, and would constantly say that you couldn't find your "soul mate" in high school *boy was I wrong!*... after a year or so of being completely friends and Caleb still liking me (so glad he is such a determined kid!), and our best friends dating, we decided we could TRY dating, but I was still a little hesitant- Caleb and his friend Jake saw this, and decided to come up with a scheme- Caleb would "like" another girl and if I got mad, then we would probably start dating,.. well, we all know where that led... Caleb's "eye candy" for the day put me over the edge, and I ASKED HIM OUT... what a smart kid... anyways, after we started dating, we were inseparable... I remember cheerleading and WANTING to just sit with him and watch the game with him... then throughout college we went to the games with a bunch of our friends, in which I would mostly talk to the girlfriend/fiance/wife, or my girlfriends at the game... and I still never really got to sit next to Caleb and really watch the game with him... until last night- it was so fun- watching the game, looking at the students/parents, and trying to figure out who seemed like who at Parchment- some of the parents were VERY outgoing/yelling/"getting into the game"... it was a lot of fun, but definitely felt a bit weird thinking how far we've come in the past few years since high school!

Man's Best Friend

I apologize in advance for not keeping so "up-to-date" as I used to with our blog... my only excuse is that I am savoring every possible moment with my best friend that I can before December... so, I'd say that's a pretty good excuse. If it helps, I'm sure I'll be blogging so much that you'll get tired of me come January!

Over the past few weeks I have been completely lacking of any schedule... I have been sleeping during the day (when I don't teach) and staying up all night... or, staying up during the day, and late into the night (to stay up with Caleb/spend time with him)- only to once again wake up late (for me that is)... I will admit that some of the problem is due to medication that I am currently taking- with the list of side effects I'm amazed that I'm not more "under the weather"... this past week I have felt like I haven't accomplished anything (what's a "to-do" list?)... maybe that's why we're drying off with my hairdryer- all of our towels are in the laundry, that has YET to be done (TOTALLY KIDDING)... but really, I haven't been able to do much of anything, and I get upset if Caleb does anything- he shouldn't be doing the laundry while he can be hanging out with his friends/myself (I know- crazy right? Well, in the whole scheme of things I'm being a little "easy going" I guess on him- whatever- call me out on it, I don't care) ;)

Anyways... I was getting really tired (literally) of not being able to do much, so, this morning, I set my alarm and woke up early to get things done- JUST after 7:00 and I'm feeling great... and have already accomplished just about everything on my "to do" list for the entire week! The laundry is in, (already switched a load), dishwasher emptied, went for a walk/run, and am blogging... I went back into our bedroom to get something when I remembered my favorite site in the morning... no, it's not looking out our front window/door to see the sunrise over the golf course that has a dewy glow, and cloud of fog, AND the Gold Vault to the right... yes, that's a site to see that most people don't get to see everyday, but my favorite site is my husband sleeping in our bed... and Daisy and Panzer curled right up next to him... it's absolutely adorable... again, call me out on it for having our animals sleep with us- I'm sure there's a slue of "why we shouldn't have them sleep with us" but, my "list" is a whole lot longer as to why it's ok... one being that one of my favorite things is to look in our room, only to find that "my spot" on the bed is taken up by Daisy (yes, she even uses the pillows like a human) and Panzer is somewhere by Caleb's legs... I'm not sure why I love seeing this, but I do... Panzer and Daisy adore Caleb... (me too), but they have a special love for him... when he leaves in the morning for PT, Daisy can be found sitting at the door, or window, staring out, and waiting for him to come home... then goes back to either of our "spots" (probably because it's still warm)... and the first HINT of a car pulling into the neighborhood-regardless if it's him or not, she's right there, waiting for him... as for Panzer- he's not much of a sociable cat (probably because he's not really a cat...) but when it comes to Caleb, he makes an exception.

It's amazing to me to realize just how much a night/day can change things... I may be laying in our bed, trying to get to sleep, while Daisy is breathing heavily in my face, or in the middle of the night, when I'm curled up in a fetal position to make sure Daisy has enough room, or, my favorite is when Daisy is sleeping in between my legs, and when I have to get up in the middle of the night, only to find myself trying to get out of bed so carefully- moving one leg up to my chest, trying to get it around her, getting tangled up in the blanket, trying to remove that, all while trying to keep Daisy, Panzer, and more importantly, Caleb, asleep- it's quite a feat, but with my talent, and many nights of doing this, I'm just now starting to get the hang of it... getting back into bed is a completely different story, and I am thinking to myself how much I'm going to regret her sleeping in our bed each night, as I'm covered in her hair, my pillow is sometimes moist from her breathing so heavily, and our queen-sized bed seems like a twin at times... PRAISE THE LORD she never grew, otherwise I'm sure I'd be sleeping on the floor! But somehow, I wake up in the morning, like today, only to remember WHY I LOVE her sleeping with us... one, being the scene that unfolds in our bedroom each and every day...
1. Daisy-taking up the entire middle of the bed, while Panzer just curls up SOMEWHERE on it.
2. Daisy- making a flying jump/leap from our door to our bed (sometimes making it, sometimes not)- this may not seem like a big deal, but when I tell you the distance is around 4-5 feet, it's something...
3. Caleb and Daisy wrestling in bed (trying to get her to sleep), which sometimes backfires on us... while Panzer and I are just trying NOT to get involved in it...
4. When I'm sick, Daisy NEVER leaves my side... the other night was really rough and I was crying- Caleb was obviously hugging me/talking to me, but Daisy was found ON TOP of me trying to figure out what was wrong/how she could fix it... and started licking my face... how can one NOT start laughing? Problem solved- great job Dais!
5. We just put a tv in our room- only so that Caleb could watch it, and be with me at the same time while I slept (it was MY idea)... and Daisy is at the foot of the bed watching it with him...
6. NOT having to hear her whine while we TRY to sleep...
7. NOT having to clean up a mess as she does each time she doesn't sleep with us
8. Being that 8 is my favorite number, I'll stop here.. the #1 reason why I love it, is because I get to wake up every morning to her (and Panzer) scrunched up as close as can be to Caleb... and when he's gone, I know they both lay in his spot (missing him) and trying to make our bed seem like a twin, so it doesn't seem so big without him... anyways... I guess I'll let them sleep in our bedroom for a bit... I don't think I can pry them off of Caleb now! ;)

Hey Neighbor!

You know those mornings where you're running around and trying to do 15 things at once and nothing is getting done? Those are "my mornings" 80% of the time... I am a multi-tasker at heart. I have read countless articles that state if you focus on one thing at a time you can actually focus on the task at hand and finish your entire to do list... but you can't multi-task... do I listen? No way... I can't even try to do one thing at time- it's almost as if I like having 5 things going on at once... Agh. Yesterday morning I was going about my "to do" list while Caleb was at PT. I had already made cookies for my neighbor, worked out, started the 2nd load of laundry, vaccummed, let the dogs out, and put on a face mask-checked the time to see it was only 7:30am... Nice... as I was letting the dogs out while taking the trash/recycling out AND carrying the cookies for my neighbor (multi-tasking at it's finest!) ;) I saw our new neighbors (that I have NEVER met before)... I usually make muffins for the "newbies" but hadnt gotten around to it (too busy with all of my multi-tasking/never getting things completely done)... I dropped the garbage off at the curb, checked the dogs- who were a little bit farther down the street than they usually go... and gave my neighbor the cookies... called for the dogs who didn't listen and decided to walk further away from me... turned around to greet my neighbors and realized that... I STILL had my lime-green facemask on! In all honesty I was wondering why they were looking at me funny-"have you never seen a woman calling for her dogs and them NOT listening? Geeez..." Wow- talk about leaving a good first impression- did I mention I had never met these people yet?! That's when I heard Caleb pull in... I ran inside and told him to get the dogs... and since I didn't have to work until later that day, I decided to go back to bed and try to start my day over... ;)

"I don't know about this..."

We absolutely adore Daisy, but lately she has been having anxiety issues... after talking to some of our friends who had a similar problem, said our options were to either get another animal or drug our dog... I'm not about to drug Daisy, because knowing us, it would have the opposite effect and she'd go even more nuts than she already is, so... the animal lovers that we are found ourselves at the vet on post... we hadn't even gotten to look at all of the dogs in the kennels, when we met "Pistachio" (WHAT KIND OF NAME IS THAT?!)... Caleb fell in love with her (I was still at another kennel admiring this HUGE dog that looked like it had been in the dryer for a bit... next thing I hear, is "oh, babe..." "Oh, great..." is what I'm thinking- Caleb and I have very different opinions on almost everything when it comes to bigger purchases- houses, cars, animals, tech-stuff, etc... so I'm expecting to see some weird looking dog... I walked over and saw this sad-looking dog (I bet that's how he got hooked right away!)... I thought that the dog was laying down... but oh no, she was standing... her legs are just THAT short... well, I DID think she was cute, and when my husband falls in love with her, I start to crumble a bit... next thing I know we are outside with Daisy and her to see if they get along, in which they do... so then, we're in the office asking when we can take her home... she had to be fixed so we would have to wait an ENTIRE WEEKEND- Monday morning she had her surgery, and Caleb met Daisy and I at the vet to pick her up...

Within an hour of her being home, we heard several howls/somewhat ferocious (as ferocious-sounding as a knee-high dog can sound)- the playing got a bit out of hand... that's when Caleb said "I don't know about this... maybe we shouldn't have done this..." I reassured him that they would be fine- Daisy showed "Sadie" (we weren't too thrilled with Pistachio)around the house and followed her everywhere- then Sadie met Panzer (our bengal-cat) and they too fell in love with each other... that night we found ourselves in our queen-sized bed wondering where the other one was... in between Caleb and I were: Daisy, Panzer, AND Sadie... Daisy normally sleeps with us, but it was a HUGE slumber-party with all of us in our bed... yeah, so much for sleeping THAT night... and the next... and again, I heard Caleb say, "I don't know about this..." Throughout the next few days the dogs and Panzer played constantly- a few "big-ger fights" every now and then, but all seemed ok with me- they're siblings- siblings fight... as I said this, I kept seeing Caleb's terrified face- I haven't ever really seen him that upset looking... he was so worried that they weren't getting along... yeah, you definitely know who's the animal lover between the two of us! Every day since bringing Sadie home, I now have TWO dogs who whine at the door for a solid 5-10 minutes when Caleb leaves for PT in the morning, and have TWO dogs who race to the door/outside to greet Caleb home from work. After figuring out sleeping arrangements (Daisy continues to sleep with us) and Sadie sleeps on the floor right next to Caleb, and Panzer... we're still not really sure what he does at night (every now and then he comes in our room/on our bed)... after trying to figure out how to feed two dogs, or rather, how to keep one dog eating their food, while keeping the other dog away from the other's bowl of food... the two are inseparable... so, I guess we'll be keeping Sadie a little longer than our "trial period"...

Maybe we shouldn't have done that

I really do try to think through things before I say or do things, but easier said than done... this morning we had the tv/internet company come to install a tv box in our bedroom, so we thought we would put Daisy in the fence, but the neighbors were getting a fence put in and the garbage people were outside as well... so... what were we to do!? We have had Daisy for a year and she has never bothered to go downstairs... she will sit at the top, whine, cry, or pant while we're downstairs, but she hasn't taken that first step down... so Caleb and I looked at each other and said "why not?" Caleb carried Daisy downstairs... she LOVED it... we figured she wouldn't go back down because after a YEAR she never touched the steps... until today. She has just spent the last 10 minutes running up and down them... that was until she found Panzer's food and ALL THE STUFF downstairs... maybe we shouldn't have done that... we feel a little bad as that was Panzer's "safe haven" from Daisy (they DO get along, but you know how that goes with siblings... a little time apart is a good thing!)... we're now getting death glares from Panzer... and Daisy is still snooping around in the basement... while Panzer is eating his food on a shelf so Daisy doesn't eat it... maybe we shouldn't have done that... whoops!

A quick buck

I'm always up for making money... whether it's actually working or just picking up pennies... I mean seriously, who isn't up for making a quick dollar!? NOT Caleb... usually (who rolls his eyes when I bend down to pick up any/all change)- "you do realize that you have to bend over 100x to make a dollar right?" "Why yes Caleb, love of my life, I do... and since I'm able to bend down I'm going to take advantage of it!!". Many times I've had success making easy money, but sometimes it just doesn't turn out in my favor... for instance... when we were moving here we decided to have a garage sale to get rid of... anything and everything that we could to make some money... my quesadilla maker that I am totally in love with? Sure... the handle was chipped, so why not, $2... SOLD! Only later did we end up buying yet another maker to replace it as we are mildly obsessed with it...

When we got here we still had "stuff" that I thought I could sell, but with all the post rules/regulations I didn't want to hassle with a garage sale (again- QUICK buck is key!) so I took some items to the consignment store on post... about mid-November I brought our electric heater... and that's about the time I remembered that our bedroom has windows on 3 of the 4 walls... you can only have so many blankets on you before you get that panicky-clausterphobic feeling, so after a few nights of Caleb complaining we decided to go back to the consignment store... only to realize that they couldn't find our heater (but it hadn't sold)... so we SEARCHED high and low... for awhile... and still couldn't find it... and they said that even if we had found it we would have to buy it back from them... for more money than it was worth! AGH... so much for making money on that one!

What's even better than a quick/easy dollar? FREEBIES!!! I LOVE THEM!! Our neighbors moved, which meant they were getting rid of some "valuable junk"... I didn't want to embarrass Caleb so when it was dark (and I was sure no one was looking) I went over and checked things out... and found an AMAZING CHAIR and a headboard... I quick told Caleb we just HAD to have those items... he was hesitant... so the next morning I went over and HAULED/DRAGGED the chair in our house (it was literally like a month old!) and cleaned/vaccuumed it... then, went for the headboard, which is now in our garden- waiting for ivy to grow up/around it! Yes, I LOVE freebies.