got a "new" car

Ok, so the car that Tim has has been slowly dying over the past couple of months. It is unable to be driven in OD now, has no a/c (even though that's not mechanical), and eats up gas like it's free. It wouldn't be cost effective for us to repair it. So we've been on the lookout for a different vehicle for him to drive but not having any luck. But I was driving home from work on Monday and saw a car in a parking lot close to home that said "runs great, a/c, must sell, $850" on it. I was going to go right past it and just go on home, but I decided to take another look. It was not pretty. It needs a paint job eventually but Tim wants to do part of that himself (there is a guy at church that has an auto paint sprayer) possibly. It also had a board in the backseat that was holding up the driver's seat. The tires were completely bald, and there were a few dents here and there. But it was a Nissan and Tim wanted a Nissan or Toyota since those makes have a reputation of lasting a long time. (Actually it is so old that it said Nissan AND Datsun on the back.) I called the # on the car and asked about the mileage and he said it was 164K. Which is not bad at all for a Nissan. I asked a few other questions then told the guy I'd probably have Tim call a bit later. When Tim got home I told him about it and he called the guy too. Tim worked on Tuesday, and the guy was moving to Florida on Thursday, and the only other offer he'd had was for $300. Tim made arrangements with him to test drive it that night after a few errands, then on Wednesday he picked it up (for less than the asking price) and got the tires and a few other minor things (spark plugs & wires, a seat from the salvage yard, etc). He is very excited about it. I even "got" to drive it for a little bit too and it didn't feel stiff or loose and didn't pull to the right or left or anything. It was fun. Tim is also excited that this car has a/c in it since the one he was driving didn't have it. He gets hot at work and then didn't have any relief on the way home. This car also has a CD player in it, and Tim is excited about that too so he can listen to some CDs now. :)

On a sadder note, I have been missing my daily walking for over a week now, since last Friday. :( Tomorrow I have big plans for my Big Organization Project so hopefully the work doing that will jumpstart my working out again.

visit interrupted my organization

Wow has it really been 10 days since my last entry? I need to get on the stick.

Work has been busy with callouts and mailouts and faxouts and stuff to promote our new catalog that comes out every March. I am pooped when I come home.

Still plugging away at toilet training the kittens. June 24th I'll have to stop calling them kittens for they will be "grown" by then. I have transferred them to a different kind of litter which is completely flushable, so now I don't have to scoop so often, I can just use my scooper to kindof urge the clumps into the toilet and then flush them away. I have saved the mixing bowl though, in case I need to regress. I have also taped up about half the hole since that or something has been discouraging Tux from going #2 in the potty. He picks the tub so at least that is fairly easy to clean up. And last night he did go in the potty so hopefully that will continue. I try to be very encouraging to him about that.

The visit that interrupted my organization was my mom and sister. They came in to my aunt and uncle's house over the weekend to watch a gynmastics meet on Friday night. Saturday I just did my normal errands (laundry and grocery shopping, etc) and then spent the afternoon and evening over there visiting. (They live in one of the next towns over). I got to feel my sister's baby kick and move several times so that was neat. :) I can't wait until he's born in July. And my sis looked great. Mom made me some flipflops while she was here, too. She took some normaly flip flops and crocheted some fancy yarn around the straps and now I have big feathery poufy straps. It is very cool.

pic of the kitties

Nothing news-wise to report today, but just thought I'd post a picture of Rainy (on the left) and Tuxedo.



Sorry it is kindof digitized... it was cropped from a larger snapshot. Here in a few weeks or so I hope to have a series of pictures of Rainy playing fetch that possibly will be a bit better quality.

four days in a row

Well, I managed to get up and do my walking video for four days in a row (Tuesday through Friday). I am taking the weekends off but may add them in later. I noticed that this walking started making me feel "crampy" (but it wasn't even that time of the month). Hopefully that will get better as I get in better shape and my body gets used to exercising. I know that when/if Tim and I are blessed with children, that being in shape will help me to have an easier pregnancy and delivery so I am using that to help motivate myself too. We still aren't planning children for quite a while yet, but no birth control is 100% so I need to keep that in mind.

The Big Organization Project is going fine. Today I'm going to go through the books, which won't take very long, and then probably do a room-by-room sorting instead of a project-by-project sorting. I'll need to work on the living room and dining room a tiny bit today b/c Tim's parents and brother are coming over for lunch tomorrow. When I did the paper sorting that helped a LOT but there are just still a few tiny things to put away. Tim's parents are also going through a Big Household Sorting and we are probably going to have a mutual yard sale in June.

The cat's toilet training is going OK. Right now I am a little discouraged. I had water in the mixing bowl under the sitz bath last week, but "something" (not sure if it was that water or not) made Tuxedo want to go in the tub instead of the litter. So I went back a step and took out the water, and so far I've caught him twice in the past two days going where he is supposed to, and praising him for it. I just hope they will let me put the water back in there someday. I know this will all be worth it in the end when my cats will go right into the toilet and I don't have any litter to clean up from being spilled or tracked around the house, etc., but my light at the end of the tunnel feels like a dim pinprick right now and the tunnel feels like it's 5 miles long.

i am in shape... round is a shape

Well, ok maybe I'm not really round, but I'm well on my way if I don't change my habits. I eat just fine, not overeating or eating too many bad things, etc. But I need to excercise. I have good intentions of getting up in the morning and doing my walking video for half an hour, but then the snooze alarm is SO tempting, and until this morning I've been succumbing to temptation. But this morning I got up and I walked. :) I was so happy. Now if I can just do it tomorrow, and the next day, and the day after that, I'll be on my way to getting in better shape. Probably next month (if I can keep up the walking this month) I'll add in weight training 3 evenings per week, too.

I think part of the reason it's so hard for me to stay on track and excercise is that I look at my big goal of getting in shape which is months and months down the road, instead of just taking one day at a time. A nicotine patch ad actually made me think of that. A girl had been on the patch for 10 days and was saying how she just takes it one day at a time, instead of thinking about the REST OF MY LIFE. So I will try those thoughts and hopefully develop a good excercise habit.

getting organized slowly but surely

Starting last week, I've been using my Saturdays to try and get a little more organized. Tim has to work most Saturdays so I have the whole day to do laundry, go grocery shopping, and get some things done around the house. Eventually I want to be able to move the computer into the living room and the bookshelf into the big bedroom (right now they are both in the little bedroom) to clear out that little bedroom so it can eventually be a nursery if we are blessed with children. We aren't trying for children for quite a while yet, but this Big Project of Getting Organized is going to take a while I think.

Last Saturday I started this major project with the bathroom. Before, I had all the cabinets full, and half the countertop had miscellaneous things on it (hair dryer, contact lens solution for Tim, etc). I emptied out all the drawers, the cabinets, and the countertop into the hallway and sorted it into piles of similar "stuff". I combined a few bottles here and there and threw out empty and expired products. Then I put everything back... and lo and behold I have a countertop now! It looks so much more pleasant than it did before. I am excited. :)

Then today I didn't know which other room to start with, because all the rest of them kindof intermingle, so I gathered up every single loose paper. Old bills, papers that Tim had printed off the computer, old church bulletins, junk mail, etc that had been accumulating in various places and put it all in a BIG box. Then I went through the box, filing what I wanted to file, and throwing away what I wanted to throw away, and leaving for Tim what he needed. Most of the papers were from the little bedroom. It is amazing how much more floor space I have now. :) Another thing I did was put all our decks of cards and other gaming accessories back into one box, instead of one box here and one box there and two bags over there.

If I don't change my mind between now and next Saturday, then the next "installment" of this project will probably be books. There are a ton of books we have that we don't use anymore, or don't have need of yet, that I need to sort through and box up and/or sell (garage sale, etc). We of course can't have a garage sale here at the apartment, but may do a joint one with Tim's parents later this summer at their house.

double vision caused by user error

I found out what was happening to my "disappearing" entries. I was seeing an old version of my page. I cleared my cache and now all my posts are showing up again. Woohoo. :)

As for my double vision, I had my appointment this morning and they said that my flap still looks fine and everything (no epithelial ingrowth like it was a month ago). My double vision is being caused by dry eye. I have been using those salty drops which suck out a lot of the water from my eyes, but they never felt uncomfortable to me during the rest of the day so I kindof slacked off on the lubricating drops, using those about 4 times a day. The doctor today said that my eyes looked like someone took a toothpick and poked at it to make a bunch of dimples. Yikes! So he urged me to use the lubricating drops once every hour. And I need to use the salty drops for one more week and then discontinue those. Next appointment is in a month. :)