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!

The after Christmas entry

Well, Christmas is over already. Can't hardly believe how fast this entire year has flown by. We had a wonderful holiday weekend. It was VERY VERY nice for Christmas to be on Friday because it made a four day weekend from work. We got to see all of our family and had a lot of fun. We ended up with some awesome gifts. We are very spoiled! Our big ticket items were 32 flat screen LCD tv , and a rockin speaker system for our computer. Both will be used ALOT. We got a lot of other really nice things to go along with the big stuff too! We got a camping propane stove burner, the game Scategories, cash, and food goodies. Separately, Allen got a very nice electric drill, pocket knife, a cd that he has had stolen from him twice in the past, and a knife sharpener. I received a very cool necklace made out recycled beads from an organization called beads for life , an amazing set of wind chimes, storage containters, a gardening book, an super nice spice rack and many other things for the kitchen. Allen really spoiled me this year, but I'm not complaining. Not one bit! :) He also bought me a fishing pole that is pink, which I love and a new tennis racket.

The weekend was so wonderful I never wanted it to end. But it's been back to work already...bleh, and the phones have been crazy. Allen doesn't have to start his new job until the 7th of January, but he has been busy around the house too. This weekend we are going back down to Sturgeon, because it's a three day weekend we will get to spend some extra time with the family for the New Year. I think Josh is going to go down with us, so it will be really nice.

Hope everyone else had a wonderful Christmas and that everyone has a great New Year. After January 7th I will begin blogging regularly again, as Allen will be at work and I will have some extra time to blog.

We love you all!

We're alive

Sorry we haven't been blogging. Like I said, these few weeks until Allen starts his new job are going to be crazy. We've been shopping, spending time with family and friends, and having a great time. Plus work..bleh! We can't wait to see everyone for Christmas. Hope everyone is staying warm. We love you all sooooo much. OOOhh and I know we've been lacking in the blogging dept for the past two weeks, but for next year, I'm planning on adding a few "blogettes" off of this main blog. So, there should be more to read, but don't expect it until after 1/7/2010.

JANUARY 7, 2010

This is the day that my wonderful hubby starts his job at General Mills! YAY! They called him today while he was at work and let him know that they want him to start on 1/7/10! So, it now we all breathe a great sigh of relief. I was worried , that with the economy going the way it is, that it would be a while before he started working there. He put his two weeks in today at work. Which means we're going to be able to fully enjoy the holidays with our family without having to worry about him having to go to work. THIS IS HUGE! It means that some major changes are headed our way! :)

It's about time...

I know, it's been a long time since we've blogged, and I'm just going to go ahead and say at least until January, the blog posts will probably be few and far between. We will of course blog when we can, but things have really picked up now, with work and trying to get ready for the holidays, it's pretty hectic around here. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. It was so great to get to see everyone. The food was awesome, as always, WAY too much of it. I can't even think about turkey right now. I didn't have my camera out this weekend, so no pics, but still great memories. Just wanted to let everyone know how much we love you all and how lucky we feel to have such a loving family and great friends. We are grateful for you always, but around the holidays, the feelings just seem to intensify. I know, I know, I'm getting all mushy on everyone, but it's true!

Well, we have our tree out and placed in the living room, but we haven't decorated it yet. We're gonna get that done tomorrow night. (Probably...) We did hang out mistletoe ball and we put some decorations on the door. Since we're having a holiday dinner party for our friends next weekend, this weekend I'm going to go decorating crazy! YAY! The hard part is there are sooo many beautiful decorations and not enough space (or money) for that matter.

We went out with Jessica and Alex and Josh. We all ate at Maya and then went to see Ninja Assassins. The previews looked great, but the movie...well, lets just say I REALLY wish we would have waiting to get it on Netflix. Oh well! It was still a good time with our friends and Josh. Plus it was cheap movie night. I might have really been upset if we paid full ticket price to see it. It's a good thing to get out of the house during the week every now and then. Takes away from some of the monotony of the work week!

Allen and I have been cutting out snowflakes to help decorate the house with. It's kind of a neat thing to do together. Speaking of snowflakes, I guess we had our first snow of the season today, although I didn't get to see it, stuck in my cubicle. Allen said I didn't miss much, that it wasn't a pretty snow.

Well, there are probably other things I could blog about, but we really need to be getting to bed. So, love you all!