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Saturday, May 23, 2009

Busy, Busy, Busy

John said it best when he said, "Wow, we got a lot accomplished tonight!" That was last night and boy did we ever! We ended the week strong with a Friday evening full of accomplishments. When I got home from work around 4pm (thank you summer hours!) we did a quick clean of the downstairs and ran to Mackenthun's to pick up some hotdogs to grill for dinner because 6:00 we had the closing agent come over to our place to sign the paperwork for our refinance. Then we grilled up our hotdogs and ate our dinner. I mentioned to John that I wanted to get a workout program for our Wii system so we were off to Best Buy to pick that up and also a game for him . It was only fair since I was getting one, you know. Then we were off to Rainbow to pick up some ingredients for the pineapple ice cream we wanted to make for our family get-togethers this weekend. Once we got home I stirred up a batch of pineapple ice cream and also a batch of peanut butter ice cream for John. I think we did rather well overall and it was definitely a busy night!

Now I've got to get the custard in the ice cream maker. Hopefully you all get a chance to try it (the pineapple ice cream that is - I doubt John is going to want to share the peanut butter)!

Monday, May 18, 2009

Not Me Monday #22

Each week seems to get busier and busier, especially with summer knocking on our doors! I guess that's good so I don't get bored and that I have something to write about! I know everyone that's reading these posts has equally crazy and exciting weeks. With that said, please feel free to leave a comment with something that you "did not" do last week. It can be funny, sad, happy, embarassing - you name it. We're all friends and family here so we're in this together. Or, if you have your own blog, I encourage you to start your own "Not Me Monday" page! Here is what "did not" happen with John and me lastweek. Enjoy!

John did not get his two impacted wisdom teeth removed last Tuesday. This was not the first time he was ever put under. He was not nervous about it.

John did not still go to his softball game on Tuesday night despite the morning's procedure. Thanks, Kristin, for picking him up! Don't worry - he didn't play, just sat on the bench and did the books!

John and I did not chicken out of telling the rest of the All Saints bell choir that we were quitting after this year, even at our Old Chicago outing after rehearsal on Thursday. I guess they'll have to find out when the next season starts. So, last Thursday was not our last rehearsal and yesterday was not our last performance with the bell choir. I'm sure we're not done playing completely, just not committed to an entire season. If we sub that's one thing, having the full year committment is another thing. Who knows, once we join our next church we might join that bell choir. The bonus there would be the super short drive.

I did not grab 20 (free) Hershey calendars from work. Another YAC freebie. Anybody in a baking mood? There are some coupons and recipes for lots of nummy treats.

I did not discover that the external hard drive we purchased less than a year ago specifically to store all of our digital photos is no longer working. I actually feel pretty calm about this. Hopefully it's a good sign that the files will be able to be retrieved. If not, I guess I start all over. Luckily I still have my wedding dress... Just kidding! I backed all of those pictures up last week!

I did not spend over an hour at Schmitt Music on Sunday picking out new piano music for my students.

I did not walk almost 10 miles between Wednesday and Sunday doing road ditch cleanup on my Dad's roads. It actually didn't seem like that much until the last couple miles. John came and rode along in the Explorer while my Dad drove but Sunday he had to work. My mom and I did all of the walking...go figure! It was a pretty good time overall. Things we did not find on our outings: A single Uno card, a can for every brand of beer and beverage on the market, a carry-out bag for every fast food chain in MN, a bent shephard's hook, part of a car speaker, old fruit-of-the-loom briefs and T-shirt, milk jug, and a used woman's femine product (ewww, that was on my side of the road).

I did not go to work feeling super relaxed this morning thanks to my 9:30 start time. Thank you summer hours. I think I can get used to this schedule.

At the music studio tonight, Leslie did not tell me that the studio would probably be moving locations again. The new location would be close to the SA in downtown Chaska, right off of the old 212. It would be a little further drive from our house but we would have sound proofed studios. Hmmm, maybe this will make me want to teach a full year next year! We'll see. I can't believe I'll be starting my 6th year of teaching lessons at the CSM in June.

I did not just discover that I now have over 12 marigolds in the flower pot. I planted the entire packet and yesterday we only had 4. Hopefully tomorrow some more poke through!

I am not finishing up this post after my long day's work sitting on our patio in what's left of the gorgeous sunshine while drinking a cold one. Have a good week everyone!

Summer Hours - take 1

A few posts back I wrote that I signed up to work summer hours at work. It's not that I wanted to or wasn't busy enough. I do want to work and save my PTO and we are extremely busy as there seems to be new issues to solve every single day. The company simply has to reduce its spending and I am thankful that I still have a job. To elaborate just a little more, everyone was asked to either take 8 hours unpaid or use 8 hours of PTO each week for 13 weeks. I signed up for only 8 weeks since my AM is going on maternity leave the end of July.

Today starts the first week of summer hours. For the first week I am only doing reduced work days, for instance, today I'm going in at 9:30 instead of 8:00. Instead of thinking of this summer hours thing as a burden, I'm going to try and let it work for me. With going into work a little later it would be easy just to sleep in that much more. However, I plan to blog a little more, prepare some more homemade meals for me and my hubby, and just plain spend more time with John. Also, I want to see if I can dedicate one day to a certain area of our house and see how clean/organized I can get in the next month. There are definitely areas of the house that need some attention and a little TLC.

Stay tuned!

Wisdom Teeth

As most of you already know, last week was a big one for John because he got his wisdom teeth removed. He only had two wisdom teeth, both on the bottom and impacted. Last Tuesday we were off to the OMS for his 8:45 appointment. He did really well and this was the first time he was ever put under. After the surgery it took a little bit for the drowsiness to wear off but nothing too major. The entire bottom part of his mouth was numb, too, because of the novicane. I had off work for the morning but stayed home long enough to get his prescriptions and make sure that he was comprehensive enough to know when to change his ice packs (20 minutes on, 20 minutes off). It was neat that the doctors gave us this cool little headband that holds the ice in place as you can see in this picture.



He did great taking care of himself and later in the afternoon Kristin came over to visit and chat and bring him to his team's softball game. No, don't worry, he didn't play. He just sat on the bench and did the books. John had off work the next day, too, but back to work on Thursday. He said it hurt more on Thursday than the past two days and I think it's still a little sore. I'm sure it's just part of the healing process and will get better with time. He's pretty much back to eating solid foods now even though he can't eat them that fast. He ate plenty of yogurt, orange jello, tapioca pudding, ice cream, milk shakes, easy mac, soup, macaroni salad, and mashed potatoes the first couple days.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Not Me Monday #21

John is not having his two wisdom teeth removed tomorrow. He is not nervous about being put under. I know everything will go just fine. It's bringing back a lot of good memories from when I had my four removed at one time. All I can say is, laughing gas...

We did not make a spontaneous decision to go to the Twins' game on Friday night. It was a pretty good game overall - 4 homeruns (3 in one inning) so you can't complain too much. The only annoying thing was the group of people that shared our row had to leave in the middle of each inning to go get beer. John and I got our exercise just from standing up and sitting down throughout the game.

John did not have to work the overnight shift on Saturday and Sunday. It was not very fun going to bed all alone...at least John's getting a chance to use his key carrying responsibilities. He does not hurt because the nightly duties included hauling several hundred bags of fertilizers and dirt. My poor babe!

We did not have to break the news to Mrs. Hild that we will not be playing in the bell choir next year. We only have one more rehearsal and one more performance left. We did not tell Mrs. Hild because we did not want to tell Mr. Hild.

I did not go to Houlihan's for lunch with a group of co-workers on Thursday and the waitress had us take place in the 15-minute lunch challenge. It was pretty cool because we each got our lunches for free since they came out just over 15 minutes. Can't beat that.

I did not drive to Chaska to go to Kohl's on Saturday night just to use my $5 gift certificate before it expired!

John and I did not clean/reorganize the garage this weekend. I think it looks sooooo nice and am extremely proud of our efforts. Hopefully it stays like this for longer than a couple weeks. In our cleaning, we did not find a bag of Home Depot purchases from 2 years ago that were never used in my parents' remodeling project. I did not return these to Home Depot Saturday night for $30 of instore credit. (Don't worry....I returned it at the Chaska store!)

My curling iron did not decide that it wanted to stop working this morning. The light just kept blinking and it never got hot, bummer.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Not Me Monday #20

John did not get something caught in his throat during the softball game last Tuesday causing him to throw up on the field.

John did not just turn 29. Happy Birthday, John!

I did not just survive another headcount reduction at work last week. Good thing I signed up for summer hours.

We are not really close to refinancing our townhouse. Just a little paperwork to look over still.

I am not super glad that the wedding I was hired to play for is now over. I think it all went pretty well. However, the louder the violinist and I played the preservice music the louder everyone talked. Now, all I have going is a single bell performance left and piano lessons.

My sister just left for Romania with her college band. I do not now have two siblings in two different countries. Poor mom, only two kids home on Mother's Day!

My aunt, driving home from Rachel's band concert with my cousin and grandparents, did not get rear-ended. I think the damage is minimal, thankfully.

When out with the Lewis clan to Olive Garden celebrating John's birthday on Sunday, we did not find out that his dad eats the paper cupcake wrappers along with the last bite of the cupcake. Weird, but true.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Not Me Monday #19

John did not witness a little boy peeing on the floor at HD last week. John was helping his parents pick out a faucet when the little boy, squatting in the cart, just couldn't hold it anymore.

I did not let the battery of our digital camera go dead or I would have had pictures from my piano recital this past weekend. My 6 students did great and I'm so very proud of them. A couple minor mistakes, but over all it was a success!

I am not going to take 8 days of PTO (1 day a week for 8 weeks) from the middle of May through the middle of August because the new summer hours program they put into place at work. Too bad since we're already super busy - but if it helps me keep my job.....

I did not freeze my butt off while watching John's softball team's game last Tuesday night. It was soo cold out and probably won't be any better for the next game. This time I'm wearing my winter coat. The softball team didn't seem to care since they were moving around. Hopefully the team that they're supposed to play against shows up this time!

John did not have a breakfast sandwich miraculously show up in front of him at work yesterday morning. Since the Cheerios he at at 4:30am only lasted him until 7:00, the extra food was welcomed to get him to lunchtime.

I did not get told I couldn't use my BWW's coupon on Saturday night when we went out to eat. I wanted my free wings....oh well.

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Did You Know...

My Lakewinds purchase yesterday was put into a biodegradable bag made out of...you'll never guess...Tapioca!

I got 18 Kung Fu Pandas at work this week. Anybody have creative ways to use them? We've already given several away to families we know have small children and plan to use a few as Abi/Bella/Keeper toys.

John recently received keys to the EP Home Depot. Next week he will have the opportunity to be Manager on Duty for the night. Congradulations!

Our company got told this last week that we will be having "Summer Hours" this summer. It's not mandatory, but they are urging everyone to take a day a week off and use PTO or unemployment to make up the 8 hours of not working. Not sure how I feel about that since my Account Manager will be out on maternity leave half-way through the summer...

John and I are going to try and grow a couple strawberry plants on our patio this summer. If flowers won't grow, maybe we can at least get a little food!

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Spring Recitals

Yep, it's that time of year again. If you are in college and have anything to do with music you know that this is the time of year that music students have been practicing for all year long. Last night John and I had the privilege of going to see my sister's boyfriend, Bryan's junior bass clarinet recital. He did a fabulous job and this was officially the first bass clarinet recital I've ever been to. Click this link now to view more pictures from the evening and even a couple of videos of him playing. And yes, that is my wonderful sister playing the piano!





Now...if only my piano students will play this good at their upcoming recital. One can only hope! Anyways, there's nothing more I can do not - the recital is on Sunday!

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Not Me Monday #18

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter! I am so glad that spring has finally arrived. Driving with the windows open and sleeping with the wind blowing in through the windows is wonderful. Here's what we have been up to lately.

I did not have a bad cold over Easter. John and I were not running around like crazy Easter morning with playing bells for two services and then auxillary percussion (maracas and claves) for the choir piece in the second service. I was nervous about playing the instruments but it turned out great in the end! I guess that studying my part while I was blow-drying my hair one morning paid off!

We were not late for bells because because of a train. We had to make a left-hand turn and had to wait for 3 light cycles.

John did not have to terminate an employee at work last week.

I did not have one of my worst days of work yet this week. Don't ask - I have blocked it all out of my mind.

I did not have a great time at Rachel's orchestra concert Saturday. Too bad John had to work!

I did not make a chocolate cake from a box mix this weekend. That box cake mix had not been in John's possession longer than I had been in his live. John did not move back to MN from Iowa with that mix!

We did not make it to church extra early this morning because we had to make an early morning run to the Chaska Home Depot to get our two free CFL lightbulbs and faucet aerators. We did not go back to the HD after church to get another set of each and some BOGO seeds.

John called his parents after our first trip to the Chaska HD to tell them about the Earth Day freebies. They did not go first to the EP HD and then Chaska HD to pick up their sets of freebies.
When we transplanted our snake plants they were not really, really rootbound. The new pots look really nice.

I did not send John up on the roof to take down the Dish Network satellite dish.