sometimes sunday is the best day of the week

This weekend was absolutely gorgeous. P's mom came down and though she may not be my favorite person in the world, this weekend was still fun. I think I ate more this weekend than in the last week. Let's run through the culinary experience real quick.
Friday night we stopped by an art exhibit in Bexley where the daughter of a friend of P's family was having an exhibit. She is an AMAZING artist. She's P's age, 28 , and is infinitely better at art than I will ever be at anything. One of her drawings brought tears to my eyes because it reminded me so much of one of my own experiences. She has been selected to exhibit her art at the National Portrait Gallery in London for a full year...The drawing I liked sold for 1760. I am envious of those with talent. *sigh* While at the exhibit I was peer pressured by the wine porter to drink 2 free glasses of icy cold pinot grigio. Yum.

We took the MIL to Schmidt's Sausage Haus down in German Village after the exhibit.
This is an historic site in Columbus and German Village is exceptionally beautiful. It has cobblestone roads and ancient houses that sell for, and I kid you not, 799,000 dollars. We waited for probably 45 minutes to get a seat and when we finally did it was RIGHT next to the German band.

It was loud but SO funny. I will admit that the hilarity of it may have been influenced by this.
Don't judge me. My mother in law was staying with us for the whole weekend!!!
Saturday we slept in as much as we were able with the gorgeous sun shining into the bedroom. We got up and waited for MIL to finish getting ready and then took her to a diner in PickTown for brunch. I had what was probably the largest omelette known to mankind. It was "healthy" though! It had tons of veggies in it! Post gargantuan breakfast we drove out to Nurk so P could work his baseball game. I helped the student worker keep score while P entertained his mom a little bit and then I watched the game and got gloriously tan/burned. It was loooovely. They lost, but sometimes sitting outside watching people have fun is the most fun ever.

After the loss, we drove MIL around Buckeye Lake and showed her some of the gorgeous but uber expensive homes that P wants to one day live in and then went to Papa Boos for dinner and relaxation by the water.

While there we saw

and

AND

I get excited by the little things...like giant CARP!

After dinner we went to another historic site called Weldon's for ice cream.

P's mom left this morning and I spent the entire day outside. I got the rest of the flowers and veggies that I'm able to plant right now, came home and planted them. Then, I scrubbed down the back deck and put back our patio furniture. I shall post some pictures of the "halfway point" of our backyard construction later this week.
I have to say....today was The.Best.Day.Ever. I absolutely LOVE the sunshine and warmth. I feel like I have been fully dosed with Vitamin D and happiness :-)

3 blessings:
sun
sunshine
sunny days

What I'd Like To Say....

In which Ann Ominous writes about her inner monologue.

I'd like to say, that unless you call me, I'm not going to call you.
I'd like to say, that when I leave a voicemail, I'm not going to call again until you call me back.
When you do call...if you only tell me about all the bad things in your life, be prepared for me to tell you that your life is what you make it.
If you visit me...it's polite to act like you want to be here.
I'd like to say that if you feel obligated to invite me to go with you and your other friends...you should feel obligated to act like you're interested in me being there.
I'd like to say that you shouldn't feel obligated.

I'd like to say that I found your friend incredibly shallow and incredibly mean.
I understand that people think that those who don't care what other people think are funny.
But I'd like to say that people should care what other people think. It's called being kind.
Making fun of someone who had a stroke isn't kind. It isn't funny.

That's what I'd like to say. What I'd really really like to say.

What I will say....

I'll keep calling you because I care about how you're doing out there.
I'll leave you a voicemail and I'll probably call back because I value our friendship.
When you call me and tell me that your life's not going well, I won't say anything...I'll try to listen, try to help, because I know you need me to.
I'll say that you can visit me and still see your other friends, because I know you care about them and that they see you less often than I do.
If you invite me out with your other friends, I might still go...but I will tell you in the future that it's okay, I don't mind staying home with my husband. I like it here.
You really shouldn't feel obligated.

I won't provoke your friend, I won't tell you I don't like him....but I don't think he's funny and when he crosses the line, I will tell him.

I will not let people make fun of stroke survivors. My father is one. I love him and count my blessings every day that I didn't lose him 10 years ago.

I will continue to say that people should care what others think;that it is important to be kind. I will always care what you think and about how you feel. You are my friend. That is what friends do.

I'm aware that like most things, friendship is a two way street, and that there are things you probably don't say to me. Friendship isn't perfect, I don't expect it to be.

3 blessings:
my husband stands beside me when he knows i'm uncomfortable
my dad, a 10 year stroke survivor
my friends

angry

THIS makes me SO angry. If someone did inject those horses with something that killed them...that's just unbelievably cruel. Why?

One of my favorite authors said this once about his writing

I hope to make people realize how totally helpless animals are, how dependent on us, trusting as a child must that we will be kind and take care of their needs. ~Alf Wight aka James Herriot

Clearly...not everyone has read his books.

*outraged* and hoping that no one actually did this.

compassion and karma

I have been thinking alot lately about people in general. It seems that there are so many people who are dissatisfied with their lives, their looks, their everything. This dissatisfcation is everywhere, it has seeped into my friends lives, into the students I see...everywhere. I'm not talking about the people who are heartbreakingly depressed or anything. I just mean the regular people who just...aren't happy. Sure, everyone's got drama in their lives, but some people 'bounce' with it better than others. Others seem to just inwardly collapse into a steaming pile of disgruntlement. I won't lie, I've been there...it's a craptastic place to be.

The thing is though, we can do something about it. We can count the ways that we are beautiful, the ways our lives are blessed. Rather than remembering every single thing that's bad, start remembering the good. Rather than obsessing about why our lives aren't going the way they're supposed to, we can be thankful that we have a life to live the best we can. It's making a concious decision to be happy. That's the only thing that will clean up that steaming pile of disgruntlement that you may have fallen into. Drinks won't fix it, church won't fix it,your friends can't fix it, the gym won't fix it. Unless you change your internal behavior , the way you think...you're going to be stuck. Don't get me wrong, those things can help...especially friends and church, but you can listen to your friends and the Bible all day and if it doesn't sink in, if you don't change, you'll walk out the doors the same person.

I think one of the most important things is to learn kindness and compassion. When your life is low...start trying to be kind to others, find ways to show compassion for people and you'll find that you are lifted up. Find ways to be kind to yourself and show some compassion for yourself and what you're feeling and you feel better. One of the bloggers I stalk just had a quote posted that I love. This is the full text of it :

For Attractive lips, speak words of kindness, For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people, For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry, For Beautiful hair, let a child run their fingers through it once a day, For poise, walk with the knowledge that you never walk alone. People, more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed. Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you will find one at the end of each of your arms. As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself and the other for helping others." — audrey hepburn

I did not used to be so happy with my life. I changed. Learning to be kind, learning to show compassion for others, learning to stop obsessing over what I thought my life should look like helped. Learning to look at what my life was really like and what it could have been like really helped. Learning that Life doesn't just happen to you, that you can be an active participant in its course really helped. I love my life now. At nearly 31, I have found that I finally feel like I am where I'm supposed to be and it is not where I thought I would be when I was 21. But, I belong here, with my friends, my husband, my family.


So rather than posting 3 blessings today, i'm going to post 3 challenges for you...

1. take 5 minutes to day to look around at all of the simple things in your life that you may usually take for granted.
2. find a way to be kind to someone else today
3. make a concious decision not to worry about something that's on your mind for at least an hour. stick to it, and practice thinking of something else.

rain rain go away

Hello there! I hope you all had great weekends and spent some time with family and friends. We had a very nontraditional Easter Weekend at the Ominous Household. Friday night, P and I rented The Day The Earth Stood Still. It was interesting. Note, that I did not say "GOOD." It was an interesting concept, that our planet is vital and that it doesnt belong to us and that we're 'killing it'. A little farfetched in that the aliens come to eradicate humans in order to save the planet...but, who knows, maybe it isnt so far fetched after all. It would have been a better movie if it hadn't been so flat through the whole thing. You kind of wait and wait and wait for a surprising moment or that moment when the music gets real loud and things start happening fast. Yeah...that never happened. Even the ending was just like "oh...is it over?" Despite being kind of boring, P and I had a really good time watching the movie and eating good food that I cooked. It was very relaxing to just lay there and cuddle and watch a movie. We don't do that often. Saturday we got up and went out to Nurk (Newark) so P could do his athletic directoring at the softball game and then we drove straight to Dayton for Easter. It was a very nontraditional Easter weekend like I said. My parents were in Chicago celebrating their 35th wedding anniversary with some friends of theirs and P's dad and step mom were in St.Thomas for spring break. We were kind of left w/o family other than Ps mom and so since my little sister was also 'orphaned' we decided to spend Saturday with her. We met up in Dayton and we took her to our favorite ribs restaurant and then went to the Dayton Dragons home opener. It was different, but fun and it was so good to spend time with the Pig. She's hilarious and it's really runny when P gives her a hard time. He treats her like his own little sister and picks at her and teases her. She gets so frustrated because she can't retaliate :-) I laughed a lot.
Sunday P and I drove back, went to the gym and worked in the gardens. Some of my plants aren't looking so hot...i'm hoping the garden center was right when they said I could plant perennials now.... We'll see.

We took an extra day off yesterday and despite the rain hiked a 5 mile trail around a lake in one of the state parks near our house. It was SO MUCH FUN. It was rainy, but not really cold since we were moving and the view was pretty and the trail was just perfect...not too hard and not too easy. We ate lunch, went to the grocery and relaxed all evening. It was fantastic, add that to hanging out by the fire pit for hours Sunday night and our 'nontraditional Easter' and it was probably the best weekend that I've had in a long time.

I am a little sad that we didn't get to go to Church...but, neither my sister and I feel any ties to the Church my parents attend unless the parents are there. It turns into more of an awkward situation than a chance to worship because the pastor's a little odd and lots of the people know us, but we don't know them. So....we opted not to go but, it was good that despite not going, there are still things that remind you of the reason for the holiday. Christ is in us in our family and our friends and it was really a great weekend to remind me of how very much my life has been blessed.

3 blessings:

my sister is turning into a very poised and outstanding young lady.
my parents who, though it hasn't always been easy, are outstanding role models for what a marriage should be
taking the time to connect w/my husband and really talk about life while hiking and sitting around a campfire.

april showers bring....april flowers?

Last night, P and I took advantage of the gorgeous evening and worked in the yard. It's a good thing that we did since today is another miserably rainy, gloomy day in Ohio. I would say that overall it was a fantastic evening. P had another go with the hippie mower. He mowed the front yard, picked up dog droppings (yeuck..that's a boy job) in the back yard and then mowed. If he got the weed wacker out to do some trimming, our yard would look pretty nice...crabgrass and all.
While he mowed, I planted some perennials in our new flower beds out back. I think it's still a little early to be doing any planting, but, the lady at the garden center (a different garden center than the one that told me to buy the hardwood mulch that would later sprout fungus) assured me that they would be okay as long as I paid attention to frost. I also realized that I didn't buy enough of one plant and had to run to the Home Depot to get a couple more. One of my mother-in-laws says that one should always buy ones plants at a garden center or nursery because they are better quality. But here's the thing, Home Depot is like 5 minutes from my house, the nursery is like 30 minutes away. Home Depot sold me 6 plants for $35, the nursery sold me 4 for $40. I'm thinking that I like Home Depot. Just how superior can a nursery plant be anyway? It's a plant! We'll see.
So, here are the cutie pies that are growing in my yard right now...these aren't my pics, I just stole them off the internet because it was too dark to take pics by the time I finished planting last night. Not so much an exciting post today...but, it was just a nice relaxing evening, I wish you all the same thing today!

I'm beginning to think that our yard has more crabgrass than real grass... If you squint it's kind of pretty? Right?

Raspberry Swirl Dianthus (pinks)

Firewitch Dianthus

Tickseed! Yeah...I kind of bought these because I like the name. It makese me laugh.

3 things:
After 6 years of dating and being married, my husband still tells me I'm "cute"
For random sunny days in April
I get to see my sister this weekend :-)

The Curse

It's ironic that on Friday I was discussing with my sister the subject of our family curse. What? Cursed you say?? Yes. Cursed. **disclaimer** what you are about to read is an account of true incidents, but actual curse may be overdramatized for theatrical effect.

You see, my family has a long history of having random weird things happen to them that are just pure and simple bad luck. We have come to determine that it's really Karma's way of protecting the rest of the world population. You see, if it happens to us, it wont happen to you. We serve as the guardians of all other people's luck, because the bad luck bestows itself on us.

Case in Point: This weekend.

You all know that my husband and I dug out and rebuilt a flower bed last fall and after careful consultation with the garden center, we decided to use a particular brand of hardwood mulch that is designed to cut down on weed growth. Well, it's looked beautiful for the last few months and then all of a sudden on Friday, husband noticed these funny brown puffball looking fungi. Not just in a couple spots. All. Over. The. Mulch. We thought, Hmm...that's weird. I wonder what those are...and other random things. We went to the garden center on Saturday and bought some plants and went to put them in the flower garden and that's when I noticed it....the front of our house has all these little itty bitty black dots all over it. They look like this . Just like that little period...exactly that size though some are a little larger. WTF?!?!?!?!?!?!? SO, I head inside and check my trusty google website and find that more than likely the fungus is the culprit. WHAT??? SERIOUSLY??? The fungus is shooting polka dots at my siding.

You may read more about said fungus here: http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/d/d/ddd2/ I have not tried the Mr.Clean Magic Eraser yet, the soft scrub with bleach and scrubby sponge worked fairly well. We scooped up the areas of the mulch that contained fungus and threw it away. I am really disinclined to replace all the mulch as it is such a waste of $$. We shall see how the next few weeks progress with the fungus attacking our siding.

Sunday the curse continued in full and angry force. P and I slept in Sunday and got up and read the paper, ate cereal and drank coffee. It started off to be a great day. We went and bought some crabgrass preventer because the people who formerly lived in our house apparently never touched the yard and it's going to be a years long project to rid ourselves of all the crabgrass. We planted the new plants and then I went and showered and got ready to go do a floor set at Bath and Body works. I came outside to eat my lunch and talk to P who was still pottering about in the garden. He went around the side of the house and got the hose out and watered the new plants. Then he went back around the side of the house to untangle the hose. I saw him kind of.....shake the hose to try to work out a kink. And then I heard him yell "OH SHIT"....and then there was this funny noise...and some silence from him. Then he yells a few more expletives that I wont print and I ran over to see what had happened. The faucet, my friends, was pulled about 4 inches out of the side of the house and water was GUSHING, FLOODING, POURING down the inside of the wall straight into the basement. You know, the basement that we just finished. Thank GOD that P knows how to turn the water off to the house because if I had been home alone while it happened, it's quite possible that I would be treading water in my kitchen at this point.

It turns out that whoever "fixed" the pipes before we moved in, thought that it would be okay to just "make it fit". Long story short, you should never try to stretch a 90 degree angled pvc pipe to fit a slightly larger than 90 degree angle bend. Years of stress on said stretched angle and my husband's shaking the hose cracked the stressed angle right in two.

So, the family curse continues despite changing my name when I got married. It's too smart for us, it must have access to my social security number or something because it definitely is still present in my life.

The curse touches us in a multitude of ways, horses getting loose, mom falling into a 5 foot hole while walking through a field, my sister falling up the stairs in front of the entire Greek community of her college, dad burning a hole in the counter and backing the car into the garage door of the house they JUST BOUGHT that week....it's those random little "Slim to None chance" things that happen to us so that the rest of you can live awkward free and lucky lives.

I accept flowers, candy and credit cards as thank you gifts.

3 things:

That my husband knew how to turn the water off
That we own a wet/dry vac
That the rescue plumber was really nice and in a really good mood because his alma mater is in the championship game. I might have to be a UNC fan today.

suhhhweet.....

It's going to snow again. I am so very very over gross weather. I am tired of being inside. I want out. I am hoping that tomorrow will be nice enough that we can go outside after P comes back from golfing with his buddy from work. P did spend part of tonight and yesterday mowing the grass for the first time with our new hippie lawn mower. It's pretty cool...it doesn't cut quite as cleanly as the old gas powered one, but it's nice to know we're not killing the environment, relying on foreign oil and saving room in our garage at the same time ;-) I'll let you guess which one of those three things I'm most excited about.

I worked today til 3 and then took off early to drive to Dayton to meet with my horse's vet and update his vaccines and draw blood for the Coggins test. The people who bought my parents house are nice....but it's true what they say, you can't ever go home again because it won't be the same. The yard's a mess and they have unfinished projects all over the barn yard. They are first time horse owners and I'm trying very tactfully to show them how to do some things....like make sure the halter's not on so tight that it's rubbing the poor thing's face. They need to get their daughter in some riding lessons this summer and she'll learn how to do things properly...but geez. It hurts my heart to see the things that I used to take care of so well be so...haphazard.

Next step with the horse is to see if the old family friend will still help me move him up here....and then, the heartbreaking process of separating Colors from his little friends until he gets used to the new horses at the new stable. I will probably cry. It's going to be awful. Somebody tell me that I'm anthropomorphosizing (totallys pelled that wrong) human feelings into the horse and that he'll miss his friends but it's not going to break his heart???

***subject change before i cry***

Today at work was fun, we did a presentation for a large group and it was fun to see everyone's personalities come out in the way they present their pieces. We work well together and complement eachother well, I think. The rest of the day I chit chatted with my boss and told her that I'd like an additional assignment if she has any floating around...most of the other people in the office have something "else" that they do besides advise, so they have more to work on than just their allocated students. My 'appointment' doesn't come with any other projects, so I would like to either create one or be given one now that I feel like I know what the heck I'm doing. I may pick up more presentations this summer since I really do love public speaking. I may also help revamp survey class, though, I'm not sure that I'm really the most qualified to do this as I think I'm a TERRIBLE teacher. We shall see. She seemed positive about giving me more to do so that's good.

I also chatted with one of the other advisors about being at that age when you realize "oh crap...at some point I'm going to be the one that has to make big decisions for my parents" and questioning my ability to "be a real grown up." Sometimes I feel like I'm just 'playing' being an adult. I know P feels the same way sometimes though he wouldn't really make a big deal out of it like I do. I over react. Totally. Over.React. I get a thought in my head and let it spiral until it's this huge worst case scenario that there's no solution for and is all doom and destruction. It was really nice to hear from the other girl that I'm not a total nutcase and that she feels the same way sometimes.

Well, this was a random post and now that it's 11:00 and I do not have to get up in the morning, I am going to go upstairs and crack the windows to let a little cold air in, snuggle under my comforter and read Sherlock Holmes. I am toasty full of the delicious dinner my amazing wonderful parents brought me when they surprised me by meeting me at the horse barn, and a cadbury's hot chocolate with the new vanilla caramel swirl marshmallows on top. My husband just kissed the top of my head and I'm not alone in my neurosis and anxiety. I got to see my horse, my parents and I love my job. I'm pretty sure that that makes for a perfect day :-)


3 things:

Getting my horse to columbus is getting nearer and nearer
Classic Literature that makes me read slowly and absorb what I'm reading
I really do have the best parents in the entire world

before before

One of the amazing girls at work (She of the new link on the side of my page Blood Sweat and Beers...)told me that my realtor might still have the pictures from our house's listing back when we bought it. I emailed them, and sure enough they did!

Take a look...this is what Casa d'Ominous looked like before I got my paint brush and went color happy all over the walls...

This is now the office upstairs...eventually it might turn into a nursery again, but let's not get hasty. The basement was also this color....only worse because they didn't fully cover any of the walls so it was patchy and weird.
This is the guest bedroom. Those blue squares were painted on and they left the tape on the wall. Have I shown you what this room looks like now? My sister decorated it as she's the only one who really stays there and it's turquoise and black.
The backyard...asyou can see...nothing has really been done.
Kitchen
Living room...The living room had these giant window coverings. The wooden box kind with big heavy drapes. Does anyone know what they're actually called?
Master bedroom.
Front yard. This is where the bulk of our changes have come in...that tree is no logner there, neither are the bushes, the flowerbed was extended and shaped about 5 feet and we now have roses, a lilac tree and azaleas...I'm planning on planting more there when it gets a bit warmer.

This is the after....or the in progress.. can you see this link? http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2522520&id=12415426&l=4ce81fabbd