Life with Gling

Ok…so I love that show…almost as much as I love American Idol. (But not quite!)

Anywho…lots of things have been going on….so let me update you on my so called life.

We had an AMAZING weekend. Jared’s sister and our niece, Chloe, came to visit us for a few days. We had such much fun hanging out and catching up. We made Shrinky-Dinks (forgot how much I love those), went the zoo (always better with a 5 year old and lots of rain), ate at Fitz’s (best rootbeer ever), etc. etc. Kristina also helped me get our bedroom painted. It’s now a pretty shade of “apple green” with fresh, white trim. I got a chance to put our furniture back together, and it’s looking pretty good. (Ok, Ok…I must admit…it looks better than pretty good!) Jared and I had been sleeping on the pull-out in the living room for a few nights (while the paint dried)…which is super uncomfy. (My apologies to any of our guests that we’ve encouraged to sleep there!) I’ll be excited to be back in my bed tonight…with all of the much needed support that it offers.

In other news, grad school is up and running. I completed my first discussion assignment tonight..and it wasn’t half-bad. Here’s what I figure. My last 2 years of college I averaged 17 credit hours each semester. Add to that at least 3 major papers for each class (by major I mean over 10 pages). Add to that the crazy-thesis I wrote (yes, all 80+ pages of it). With all of that together…surely I can tackle 1 management course at a time. Heck…my final paper for this class only needs to be 10 pages. Grad school….I can totally take you down! Bring it!

The weather outside is amazing…and I feel like I’ve already accomplished a lot today. We hung out with Pancho and Emma last night…and I fell asleep as soon as I got home…and didn’t wake up until 9:00 this morning. (Two most fantastically big thumbs up there…a great night’s sleep!) So this morning I got up and showered and cleaned around the house for a bit. Then I had to run up to the square for a haircut and a little local shopping. (Gotta love Mom and Pop stores!) Got home and put a few new things out on the porch and the patio. We have a wedding to go to this afternoon…where we’ll get to see some friendly faces from college that we haven’t seen in a long while. Then Kristina and Chloe are coming for the weekend…yay! Chloe’s at a really fun age right now…and we have a blast hanging out with her. So we have big plans ready for her….watch out St. Louis…here we come!

In other news…grad school starts on Monday.

So I think summer’s finally here…with all it’s humidity, cool breezes, and super sunny skies. I love summer. (Though…when it’s over 100 degrees in July…and the paint’s peeling off the walls…I just might change my mind.) However…for now…I love summer. It was so nice to be able to be outside planting flowers yesterday…knowing that this year I won’t let them die! (I bought a handy-dandy watering can to help with that.) It was so nice to be able to sit outside on my porch and enjoy my wicker furniture….which is perfect for this time of year. I had fun decorating outside…something that I like to do all year long…but especially in the summer. I gave my benches a new coat of paint (barn red) and hung up some new metal stars to match (cause I love shabby-chic stuff). Being outside gives me so much more energy. Nothing’s better than being able to run through my yard barefoot (though I have to watch out for acorns…cause they’re everywhere).

Yay for warm weather!

#1. Today I auditioned for vocal team at church…wowzers…it’s been a long time since I’ve sang in front of people…by myself. It wasn’t too bad though…and hopefully I was on key! I had to show that I could sing parts as well…which I can…very well…so that was good.

#2. I’m going to see American Idol Live in August! Woo-hoo!!!!

It’s only 5:00 p.m. on this lovely Saturday….but I’ve already done so much today! My mom’s been here the last day or so…so we’ve had a lot of fun hanging out…but she had to leave around 10:00 this morning. Anywho…my friend Jen and I took a fabulously long bike ride out of town and back. (Ok…maybe it wasn’t fabulous…and my bum is still aching!) She and I also watched the season finale of Grey’s Anatomy (we waited until today…so we could watch it together). It was a crazy-good season finale…and now I can wait for next season! After hanging out there for a bit…I came back home and started working on the landscaping around our front porch. We had a stack of all these great, old bricks that we wanted to us. So after a lot of weeding and digging…we laid all of the bricks and filled it in with new mulch. I have a few battle wounds (blisters)…but it looks MUCH better! I went out to Value City to pick up the mulch…and noticed a great sale that they were having. Buy anything in the store…get the 2nd item for half off. I then noticed the laminate flooring section…remembering that it was something we wanted to buy for our kitchen. So thanks to the crazy awesome sale…we ended up paying WAY less for our flooring. In fact…I walked out with flooring, a bottom layer for under the flooring and mulch….for under $150. I was super happy…especially because I’m finally getting new kitchen floors! So here I am…relaxing and getting ready for a hot date to the Globe to see Shrek the Third. Yay!

Last night Jared and I headed out to the yearly President’s Society Dinner at the college. (We get to go because we work there…but it’s mostly for people who give a decent amount of money to the college.) It was actually really nice…as always. Good food…and more importantly…a chance to be around people who are just as passionate about Greenville as I am.

Afterwords…the hubs and I stayed up way too late watching tv and playing video games…which is always a good time. It’s fun just to hang out sometimes! So yeah…up too late…slept in late…all good things. As soon as I’m doing with this blog…I’m packing our bags so we can go visit family for the weekend. It’s mother’s day…our goddaughter just turned 2…and our nieces have a dance recital. All of that put together with NO work on Monday. (Due to a most fabulous planned power outage on campus…woo hoo!) So yeah…that’s what’s up. Adios!

Yay for fun nights with “The Friends” along with yummy baked potato soup and yummy chocolate cake. Yay for silly old-school nintendo games. Yay for hearing GREAT news from a bff. Yay for my hubby looking great in a shirt and tie. Yay for silly cats that like to snuggle all night long. Yay for cleaning my house. Yay for a yard full of grass…and not weeds. Yay for a great weekend to come!

I start grad. school in like 2 weeks….ahhhhh!!!! I sure hope I still know how to write papers!

Side note…Alton Brown brown let me down last night. (You know…the guy from Food Network.) Anywho…I decided to try one of his Mac n’ Cheese recipes…because let’s face it….I love that stuff! Anyway…I decided to make his stove-top mac recipe…and oh my word…yuck! I had Jared taste it just to make sure…and yeah…double yuck. Thanks but no thanks Alton…I’m sticking with Kraft!

So finally…another post. A lot has happened over the past few weeks…work…Agape…family visiting…conference in Chicago…etc. etc. So I’m finally back home…and I finally have a few stress-free moments to type.

So this house a couple blocks down from us had an auction yesterday…and they left anything that they didn’t sell out on the lawn. Basically a free for all…if anyone wanted anything. So Jared and I walked by tonight…and spotted 2 shelves that we wanted. Instead of actually getting the truck and driving them back home…we attempted to carry them all the way home…which was actually successful. I also got a cool old chair that I’m going to sand down and paint for the kitchen.

This week I’m back at work after a week in Chicago at a convention with the other counselors. I’ll try to get some more updates later!