Thank you again for the reminder of why I don't have kids

My cat, Berkely, is high. Has anyone ever seen a whacked out cat? If I knew that incessant vomiting wasn't going to follow I might be laughing a little harder right now. She just ingested Clorox. And reveled in the five minutes (or more or less...I don't know) she had in the sink all by herself with the glorious clorox while I forgot that this was one of those times I had to keep a close watch on her. Does everyone see now why I don't have kids? I would go certifiably insane if I had to 'keep a close watch' on them 24-7...which I've heard is true. The kids would get down a whole bottle of clorox before I remembered about it. Then I'd be charged with neglect and known throughout the world as the worst mom on the planet. No thanks.

For now I'll just be a cat mom and deal with the occasional slip up and stupidity on my part of leaving hazardous materials out for them to eat. Then I'll watch them be high and clean up their puke. And pray to everything that by the time we decide to have kids I'll have more of a mom instinct.

The old pissy guy behind me waving his hands and flipping me off is the best...

Even though I am in front of him, a car is in front of me, we are blocked on all sides and we. are. not. moving. Apparently that is MY fault. Who knew? Thanks, dude, for giving me a reason to laugh out loud for most of the rest of the drive home. Much appreciated.

The biggest downfall to having a cold...

I can't handle cold medicine. I take it and I feel stoned. I would probably get a DUI if I was pulled over if I have cold medicine in my body. I cannot walk in straight lines. I can't see straight. I can't focus. I feel woozy. My hands shake. I get hot. Then cold. Then hot. Then cold. This is not uncommon. Every time I get a cold I face the biggest dilema: to take or not to take cold medicine and if so, how much? Today I opted to take it simply because I knew I'd be in meetings all morning and if I didn't take it I would have snot all over my face, have blodshot eyes, and be sneezing on everyone at the table. So, I took it. The full dosage. Against my better judgement. I had the conversation with Tim this morning that I thought I should only take ONE tylenol cold instead of the recommended dosage of two because it's supposed to last 6-8 hours. He didn't understand why that would matter. Well, at least I proved him right. I totally feel like I'm on drugs right now. Definitely not how you want to feel when you are at work and you have to look somewhat competant. At least I can breathe.

It has to happen at least once a year...

I have a cold. Given to me by Tim. Nice gift. I want to know where the switch is that automatically turns on the second you get a cold to make your nose gush like a waterfall. Then I will proceed to turn it off along with the sneeze switch and the sore throat switch. Luckily the achy body switch and fever switch have remained turned off and hopefully will NOT turn on. Turning those two switches on is like pure torture. I always feel like I'm dying when I have a fever and my whole body hurts. I can handle a little cold.

By the way, has anyone heard of Airborne? People at work have told me about its wonders and we got some. It has like 1500% vitamin c, 1000% vitamin a, and tons of other vitamins and minerals (including echinachea which I usually take by itself to conquer the yearly cold). I bought some and took some...we'll see how well it works. I have to believe it will do some sort of good judging by all the good things it has in it!

One of the moments where we look at each other and think "Oh hell-this is either going to be one of the best or worst things we've ever done."

After meeting with our mortage officer the other day, listening to him speak in tongues, and then proceeding to sign away our life, I am still in a state of incoherence because of the foreign mortgage languages my head is still trying to process. One of the biggest moments of the day was when Mike the Mortgage guy nonchalantly said, "Assuming you pay off the mortgage in 30 years, don't refinance, and don't move, you will have paid a million dollars for this house at that point." That seems absolutely crazy to me. Granted, it's really not that much money in the grand scheme of the housing market-especially in 30 years-but considering the fact that we are 23 and 24, respectively, and in our first jobs, that sounds like a whole freakin lot. But hey, since we will have a house now, our payments and interest rates are reasonable, and we'll gain equity, we decided that signing a huge lump of debt into our names is bound to be beneficial. So, into suburbia we go...willingly but not fully knowing what we could be getting ourselves into. Such is life, eh? Life seems to be full of these blind jumps: marriage, buying a house, accepting a job, possibly in MANY YEARS having a child. Every experience has its own risks but in my experience (at least with marriage) the benefits have so far outweighed the risks. So, we will continue plunging. What fun is life anyway if you never take risks?

Weekend Update

We spent this past weekend in Orange County with Tim's family. We went to see a big cross country race that Aaron (Tim's brother) was running in. It was a lot of fun running all over the park to see him at various points in the race and he did really well, too! He got his best time ever: 17 minutes 15 seconds. He was fast! I wish I could run that well... On Saturday night it was really too cold to do anything so we just put on sweaters, hung around, and ate chili. And no, you cannot laugh. 65 degrees out is FREEZING to us now. It honestly felt like a December day in the midwest...weak, I know. Kind of funny though how you get acclimated to a certain climate so quickly. Anyway, being that it was cold, we stayed in. Beth and I were sent out to rent a movie for all of us to watch. Since Tim, Mark, and Aaron have been extremely depressed since the Yankees lost to the Angels in the playoffs, we thought we'd cheer them up by renting "Fever Pitch," (the movie about a huge fan of the Boston Red Sox, aka the Yankees biggest rival). I think they felt better after watching it.

The weather really was cold, gloomy, and rainy in southern cal but it was awesome because it felt so much like fall. We actually hit a few pretty bit thunderstorms on the way back to Phoenix and today here it has been really cloudy and overcast with sporadic rumbles of thunder, wind and rain. It's kind of a neat change from the constant sunshine, though... it really feels like fall and I love fall! October is by far my favorite month of the year. I was a little worried that I would miss fall but I haven't...October is still my favorite month even in Phoenix!

I can't believe I forgot!

In addition to the list I made on my last post, we FINALLY got our wedding pictures! We didn't get all of them but we got our album, several loose photos, and our engagement picture negatives and proofs. The rest should be on their way (per a lengthy apologetic letter from our photographer). I really can't believe we actually got them! AND, they are really good...an added bonus!!

A few jawdropping things that have occurred recently...

*I was stuck in traffic for an hour and a half this morning-a new personal record! But not something I'm proud of accomplishing...
*Tim has THREE doctor's appointments within the next month (the dentist for teeth, a physical because he hasn't had one for 7 years, and the skin doctor to check out his moles). This is astounding. I'm not sure he's seen this many doctors in his entire life. And that's not a joke. He hates going is the understatement of his life.
*Back to the car ride this morning...I was so bored, I pulled out old CDs from high school. I am publically admitting that I listened to the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears this morning. For the record, I can't believe I ever bought, much less LIKED either CD. Wow.
*I talked to my dad on the phone for over an hour the other day! Huh? Very cool but so unusual...
*We turned off our air conditioner on Sunday morning and did not turn it on again until today! It's been so awesome out here. It's not even bad today but they predicted 95 and we decided we didn't want to fry the cats...hopefully tonight we can turn it off again!
*I bought a shirt today at Target. And I like it.
*Emerson has not pooped on the floor for a REALLY long time. Like weeks.
*Tim and I have exercised consistently for the past week. We've played a lot of tennis and we've run/walked quite a bit.
*Mega peanut M&M's are awesome. I highly recommend them. I always think that nothing is as good as the original but these are great. And yes, they negate all the exercise I do now (that is not anything surprising).
*I like going to work. It doesn't feel like work.
*I tried to eat cows. TRIED. I still think they are disgusting.
*One last addition to the drive this morning: It took me an hour and 10 minutes to go what should take 20 minutes. Along the way, it was like a movie: I crawled at a standstill as the result of accident after accident (seriously) then finally got off to take the back roads. Bad idea. Old Faithful decided to visit Phoenix this morning. There was what I assume to be a water main break that was in the form of a 3o foot by 10 foot geiser directly in the path of me. Stupid Old Faithful. YOU SUCK.
*I haven't eaten ice cream for a WEEK. I haven't been able to not eat peanut butter, though.
*I made really good tacos the other night (Tim called it his reward for the trauma of making three doctor appointments).
*I really like Arizona.
*Tim answered his cell phone at work!
*I figured out an awesome new system of tracking our money and our expenses. I'm so excited about it...It's working amazingly well!!
*I missed Graceland the other day (something I really didn't ever imagine saying). College life sometimes sounds fun again...mostly, I miss my friends. I also miss the schedule...I think it is absolutely hysterical that I ever thought I was busy in college. Wow. 12 hours out of my day now are devoted to work and it often doesn't stop at home. Granted two hours a day are for driving but I count that as the work experience. People in college should definitely not take it for granted... they have it made!
*I decided that one of my new favorite things is orange-pineapple-banana juice. All of the health people always say not to drink juice but I drink shot glasses of it. And it's great. And I personally think they are dead wrong. I don't intend to give it to a kid but for my purposes, it's still fruit...at least the kind I buy!
*I've posted TWO DAYS IN A ROW. That is totally nuts. I'm done.