State of the...Cooleys

I'm listening to the state of the Union while I'm blogging. This may be very bad of me, but the only thing I keep thinking about while listening is how good the guy on Saturday Night Live does imitating him.

We are going car shopping on Saturday. It really stinks that we have to start making car payments , but it will be nice to have new car. I'm even a little bit excited about it. I hope we can find a Hyundai Elantra at a reasonable price. It is a NICE car and I have a friend at work who gave me a ride in one the other day. She said she gets about 30 mpg!

Hope everyone is having a good week!

Quick Cooley Update...

So, Allen's faithful old Mercury Tracer, finally bit the dust Friday on his way to work. We will now be looking for a new car. We are probably going to go with a Hyundai. Allen is only getting the choice of few different 3rd shift positions for his permanent job. Unfortunately once he takes one he has to stick with it for one year. I'm really going to miss having him next to me at night, but this will give us some more together time in the evening. The good news is that there is shift differential plus it's a slightly higher paying position he is planning on accepting. We will make it through this. It's been a roller coaster ride. I want to ride the Ferris Wheel now please!

Forgivable Fish

So, Allen ate the fish for his lunch today and said that he thought it was pretty good. So, I decided to give it a second chance. I had the fish again for dinner tonight, except I made 2 whole wheat tortilla wraps with it and it was suprisingly good! I'm still never going to make it again, but the day old leftovers redeemed the recipe.

Today was SUPER busy at work for me because of the freezing rain early in the morning. A bunch of people called in, so the ones of us who made it had to pick up the slack on the phones. This weather is pretty crazy...and dreary...I can't wait for spring. Allen says he can wait on the allergies (me too) but he is definately sick of this nasty cold wet weather too.

Right now I'm waiting for Allen to call me on his last break so I can jump on the treadmill after we talk. I'm going to ask him if he thinks it's ok for me to put Penny in her kennel while I'm walking. I haven't seen her poop yet tonight and I know that the minute I get on the treadmill she's gonna make a bathroom out of our living room floor.

Something Fishy...

So, tonight I tried a new recipe. Blackened tilapia fish sandwiches w/ mango salsa and cilantro lime mayo. The recipe sounded great. I was excited because Josh was coming over to try it with me (and watch American Idol, of course). Well, it was FLOP! Not a good recipe at all, and I followed it very closely, too. I definately will not be making it again. Not only did it just taste like burnt fish my whole house now smells like burnt fish. Oh well. It was worth a try. I can't win with them all. I would probably feel bad about it if I didn't stick to the recipe, but since I did follow the recipe, I can just blame the recipe writer. Josh tried to be nice about it. LOL! When I asked him what he thought of it, he wouldn't and still won't admit that he didn't like it. His words are "I don't know. I can't tell if I like it or not." LOL!

So, I walked my two miles on the treadmill tonight! YAY! I did the majority of it at 4 mph, so I was definately sweating it up! I just wanted to give a quick shout out to my Grandma D! :) Josh told me that they couldn't find you today and when they did you were on the exercise bike! :) I'm proud of you! We can lose weight together! We should think of something fun to go do together if we can lose a certain amount of pounds, like a reward.

Work was hectic today, what else is new. Allen said the machines at his work were causing him problems all night. Today was Tuesday but definately felt like a Monday.

Week 2...begins

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Allen had to work today, but I had the day off. It's been a long day with out him, but it was nice not to have to go to work. We had a great time this weekend. On Saturday we were supposed to be having the weekly family dinner at our house. The plan was to make fish tacos. I had 10 talapia fillets thawed in my fridge, when my mom called to let me know my dad had the stomach flu. So you can imagine, Allen and I have had some fish to eat! LOL! Tomorrow night Josh is going to come over and we're going to have "blackened tilapia" sandwiches lime mayonaise. Hopefully they will be good. We went to our friend Bobbi's Saturday night and had BLAST playing a new game called "Curses". I laughed so hard I was in tears for most of the game. We will definately have to be on the lookout to purchase that game. Yesterday we had a pretty lazy day except for some normal house chores...dishes...vacuuming, and laundry. We decided to go ahead and redecorate the bathroom because it's soooo small, we figured it would be the easiest and cheapest place to start. We're not going to spend any money on painting, so, when we moved in and the bathroom was painted sky blue. We picked out a same color blue shower curtain to go with the paint and the blue floor mats that were already here. It worked, but it was very boring, and I decided I was tired of looking at it, so we bought new green rugs, and a shower curtain with bright orange and yellow daisies. Our bathroom is super tiny, but now it is super tiny with some character! LOL!

Instead of walking on the treadmill tonight, I did some aerobics from an online video. It's called Batuka. It's an hour long video. I didn't even make it through half, but it was fun and I will just have to work my way up to be able to do the whole thing. What it is, is some hard core Latin Dancing. People swear by it and I believe them. I was pouring sweat after just 10 minutes. We'll see if I can make it through the end of the video by the end of this week. Hmmmm....maybe I will shoot for the end of next week.

Thursday, the day before Friday...

I don't have anything interesting to say about today. It was a Thursday. I'm tired...work is hectic...I miss Allen...Penny's a little punk...and MAN am I glad tomorrow is Friday. Not only is it Friday, when I get off work at 6 p.m. it will be the start of a 3 day weekend for me, AND it's pay day Friday. Can't go wrong with a three day pay day weekend.

Going Bananas!

Got off work late tonight. Took a call at 5:30p.m. and didn't get off the call until 6:3o p.m. The phone call was from a man who really basically needed someone to talk to. It was one of those phone calls that made me realize how lucky I am to have my health and most of my family in pretty good health too. It makes me feel even more motivated to continue the exercise we've been doing. Oh, and I ate a banana for breakfast two days in a row! Can you believe it? I can't. Allen can't either. I have always hated bananas. So now, when I'm eating them the whole time I'm chewing I just tell myself "this is soooo good for you and WAY cheaper than oranges" it's my banana eatin mantra. LOL! Actually they aren't sooo terrible anymore. Maybe if I keep eating them I will acquire a taste for them. That would be good considering all the health benefits of bananas. I already knew bananas were a source of potassium and vitamin c, but they are also a good source of fiber, and vitamin b6. One of the things I just learned about bananas is that they also contain tryptophan which is an amino acid that helps the brain produce seratonin, the body's natural "happy pill". YAY! Nerdy fun facts about bananas! Wait! There's more! Bananas are grown in 170 countries of the world. (Which might explain why they are so cheap.) They are even grown in Iceland from the heat of geysers. Bananas do not really grow on "trees" , they are a giant herb. And a man from India once at 81 bananas in 1/2 an hour! I'm not making this stuff up. Check out http://www.chiquitabananas.com/ for more super fun banana info. LOL! Hmmmm....well, I hope you all have learned something not entirely useful today from my blog today!

Penny Poops Alot!

Josh came over to hang out with me tonight. We watched American Idol together. Allen is sad that he doesn't get to watch it because he'll be at work for the whole season of the show. I will just have to keep him updated. Walked a mile and half on the treadmill tonight. Last week I walked 1 mile each time, so this week I'm going to add half a mile and next week another half a mile and so on and so forth until I can manage 5 miles a night. It will be a while before I make it up to that. Last night I did NOT get to walk on the treadmill. I started too, but then Penny decided to poop on the floor!!!! I had just taken her out 20 minutes before and she pooped then too! I jumped off the treadmill and stopped her mid-poop and took her outside where she pooped some more! Then when we came back in, after I cleaned the carpet, I started on the treadmill again and Penny started whining. So, I decided no walking for me and we sat together and watched Conan O'Brien on TV til Allen came home! I can't believe how full of crap she was last night. She's been alot better tonight.

Well, nothing else to report. Allen says it's going to take him some time to get used to his work, that it's fast, but not too hard.

Lil AmberSusie Homemaker???

LOL! I'm definately not going to be slipping into the the perfect little homemaker cliche any time soon, but I sure do feel accomplished on the home front tonight. I knew we were gonna have to make some changes in the schedule to acommodate this opposite shift thing, but I don't think I realized exactly how much work it was going to feel like. I will eventually get used to it of course. So, far tonight I have taken care of the dog, cleaned out her kennel, made supper for myself, washed dishes and picked up the house, cooked "dinner" for Allen (he will eat it at noon, I will eat it in the evening), and made "lunches" for us both (which I will eat in the afternoon and he will eat at night). I still need to walk on the treadmill, which I'm going to do immediately after this blog, and then when Allen gets home we will take a shower and get ready for bed. WHEW! I'm worn out just typing it out. The whole meal planning thing is REALLY going to take some getting used to and some major planning.

I miss Allen alot, but it's not so bad yet. It will get bad once we get into the swing of our new schedule and I will start feeling bored. Jessica, you're right. We will have to hang out more. Maybe I can convince Jessica to come over to my house to do some of the goofy exercise DVD's I have with me!

Tomorrow night Josh is gonna come over for dinner with me and we're gonna watch American Idol together. What a good little brother he is! :)

Penny doesn't like this all of the excitement of this at all, in fact, I think it has her upset. She's been having a little bit of diarhea. Not bad, just a little, like she's very nervous. I don't blame her. All the wild energy in the house over the weekend and today is probably overwhelming her. Allen was SUPER nervous last night and today and I think Penny picked up on the nervousness.

Well, that's all for now. I'm gonna go jump on that treadmill. Love you all!

First Day

Today was a very busy, exciting, and stressful day. I finished my first day at General Mills. Started it off with a nice car ride in the snow. The main roads had been bladed about one time but our street still had the full 5-6 inches on it around 6:30 am. Got up early and gave myself an hour and 15 minutes to make it to Hannibal. Made it there early but not by much. When I got there I started orientation, which, I will finish tommorow. Right now I'm brain fryed. We got soooo much information about everything from health insurance to safety. It was alot to absorb. Im really glad to be getting this job. Some people had been waiting in the hiring pool alot longer than I had. Also, about 50% of the people there had been laid off from other companies after working 10+ years. I feel very lucky. Can't wait to get on the floor and start learning my job instead of looking at powerpoint presentations all day. Oh well, just one more day. Love you all. Hope you all had a good day.

The Clock is running out...

On my evenings with Allen that I've been enjoying for at least the past full year since he was put on days at Jiffi Stop. This week is the last week of it for a long time. He has orientation during the day Thursday and Friday this week, but starting Monday, it's going to be just me and Penny when I get home from work until he gets home around 11:30p.m. I know, I know, it's not that bad. It's just going to be a MAJOR adjustment for both of us. I'm really REALLY going to miss my time with him, but this is for our future and we will definately deal with it. We are very blessed that he has this new job. We will just have to make the most out of the time we do get to gether. He's getting pretty nervous. I don't blame him. I was SUPER nervous my first day at Blue Cross. I'm nervous about him starting too. Just because we haven't really figured out how we are going to handle our new schedules yet. Change is usually a good thing, in this case it's going to be a great thing, but it's definately nerve racking. Don't be suprised if this blog starts getting updated every day again, instead of every week. LOL! (Wink, wink, hint hint, that means Grandma, as of Monday, you can go back to checking the blog every day without being disappointed. )

This weekend we went to Sturgeon. Well first we had a New Years eve party at our house. Originally we had just planned on going over to mom's in Missouri, but she said she'd rather have the party at our house. Then, we invited some our friends over, but they had already been invited to another of our friend's house. THEN every one decided to come over to our house and great times ensued! :) P.S Jessica I had "Total Eclipse of the Heart" stuck in my head ALL weekend!!!!!!!

We had a great time in Sturgeon. This time we took Josh down there with us. He's going to be leaving for several weeks at the end of this month for his job, so we were glad to get to spend some extra time with him. He gets along with everyone so well, it was as if it was nothing out of the ordinary to have him with us, like we always bring him down there with us. It was pretty neat how well he fits in! He brought Caleb's guitar with him and he got to have some one on one lessons with Phil, which was cool. Josh really wants to learn and now that Allen has his bass strings , Josh and Allen can play together.

Tonight I made something for dinner that I've never made before. Stuffed cabbage rolls. Which, basically are little meatloafs wrapped in cabbage and covered in tomato sauce, but they were definately very good. I'm glad Allen and I like the same foods. Some people hate cabbage, but Allen and I both like it alot.

Well, that's all for now. Oh, one other thing, I was chosen to be able to work some overtime this weekend, which is pretty cool, because my company is being very tight with handing out overtime. I will take what I can get, even if it means working on Saturday.

Love you all!