I've been unusually quiet for the past few weeks, and during this quiet time, there have been quite a few changes in our lives here in Hope Mills.
Normally Mercury Retrograde makes me crazy, but this time I have been able to do the *RE* things, ya know the REnew, RElax, RElease, REgenerate, REflect... I can honestly say, I wasn't a crazy person, OK, at least not as crazy as I have been during previous retrogrades.
I've gone through some boxes and removed some of the clutter I have been *hoarding*. Cleaned out the closet and dresser drawers, rearranged some of the kitchen cabinets, and most definitely cleaned out some of the trash on my computer. It was an amazing feeling to RELEASE some of the things that have been holding me hostage for a while. I think it's possible I have finally figured out, after so many years of wanting to hide during retrograde, how to make it a positive time for me and be a survivor instead of a basket case.
The beginning of the month, Jimmy went back to work. It is NOT the ideal situation, and definitely NOT what he wanted to be doing. However, it is employment with a good company and he is making good money. He's driving a truck again and this time the company took the time to actually *train* him according to their policies and didn't let him fly by the seat of his pants, which in the long run led to his failure at the previous company he worked for.
I am so thankful he found this job and agreed to accept the position he was offered. We are hoping and praying to be able to finally see the light at the end of the tunnel after being in the dark for such a long time. We have even begun a savings account and planning a vacation. Something we have never done before. So far the only major challenge I have found is in re-budgeting the income from having a weekly income to every other week. The next few weeks are going to make me crazy until I get everything worked out and can make sure each bill is paid on time. Thank Goddess, I no longer have to use two weeks income to pay the rent!
I'm loving having the house to myself, I can get things done in a more efficient manner and not have to worry that I forgot something. Then again, if I don't want to do anything, I have that luxury as well. Last night I sat on the couch, watched the ACM Awards (BTW, I am SO over Taylor Swift! How the hell she manages to win Entertainer of the Year time after time is beyond me. But as long as it's left up to the public being able to call or text in to vote, she's gonna win. There are TOO many teens who think she hung the moon. Me, I think every song she sings sounds exactly like the one she did previously).
My classes at Ashford are going great. Today is the final day for my ENG122 class. I've completed all the assignments, met the requirements for the discussion questions, and turned in my final research paper. So far my grade for this class is a 99.96, and final grades will be posted on Thursday the 5th. Tomorrow begins ANT 101 Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, I'm not sure what this class has to do with my degree in Alternate Health, but it's a required class, so I'm going into it with the mindset of * I will eventually need this information for something*, LOL!! From the information I have seen so far, it looks like we will be studying about the different social types of a variety of cultures... " primary mode of subsistence (how a culture makes a living) impacts many other aspects of cultural behavior and has been an effective way to organize thoughts and studies about culture" and will be looking at the cultures of the Basseri of Iran, The Batek of Malaysia, Enga, The Amish, Huaorani of Ecuador, Bedouin, Zulu, Kurds, Maori, Mbuti, Nayar of India, Semai, Navajo, Tikopia of Melanesia. It looks and sounds very interesting and since I have never studied anthropology of any kind, I'm anxious to see where this goes.
Ravyn is doing great! She's 10 months old and walking all over the place. Last week one of her upper teeth broke through and the second one is *this close* to making an appearance. She now has 3 and a bump, LOL! We have begun to feed her regular table food, some she likes (Like Abi's psketti, sweet tatoe FF and hamburgers), others not so much. She does NOT like the chunky type baby foods that are on the market, and if you try to get her to eat them, she throws them on the floor for the puppies to get, LOL!! The other day I bought her one of those little snack dishes with the top where she can put her little hand into it and get her snacks herself, filled it up with her snacks and don'tcha know, she figured out how to get her favorite ones out... she LOVES the freeze dried strawberry and bananas much more that the yogurt melts.
As for me, I've begun my weight loss thing again. Now that we have a regular income, I can shop for myself, which is MUCH different than buying groceries for Jimmy. He is a typical meat and potatoes guy and the more red meat or pork you feed him the happier he is. Me, I love me some veggies! the more I eat the better I feel. I'm a chicken and fish person too. Don't get me wrong, I love a good steak once in a while, but I honestly feel better when I limit my red meat intake and eat more chicken and fish. I'm drinking LOTS of water and limiting the *white* in my diet. The most difficult thing for me to give up is bread...
I seriously need to lose weight, I'm beginning to worry about the possibility of becoming diabetic. Both my parents are/were diabetic and so was my maternal grandmother. My *ideal* weight for me (OK, in my tiny little mind) is about 130lbs... this means I need to drop about 76lbs. I'm still working on the time frame of by the end of the year, so that gives me just about 40 weeks to get it done.
I am now the proud owner of an android cell phone. I was a dyed in the wool faithful Crackberry person, but found myself a bit limited with the things I wanted to do with my cell. So, last week I went to T-mobile where we have been customers for at least the last 11 years, (have I told you how much I LOVE T-Mobile??) and made the change to a Samsung Galaxy II S. With our plan, I just put down a little and then make a payment of $20 a month for 20 months, so that wasn't a big expense. I'm still getting used to all the bells and whistles, but the one thing I have done is added the free Kindle app for android. Now I have not only my Nook Color, which I LOVE, but I can also now down load Kindle books and read them on my phone. I felt I was missing out on some great books not available through B&N, and didn't want to put out the money for another E-reader. So far I think I have about 10 or so books from Amazon... thanks in part to a page I found on Facebook...Book Bub. They have a free download daily for either Kindle or Nook and sometimes for both.
On Friday, Jimmy bought me a Kuerig...OK, not a *real* Kuerig, but a Mr Coffee that is made by Kuerig. It works just the same, has the same features, but was about $50 less expensive than the basic Kuerig model. Since I'll be using it for flavored coffees I'm happy with his choice. This way I won't *contaminate* as he says, his coffee maker with flavored coffee, LOL!! I also found Kahlua K-cups and have enjoyed having a cuppa coffee in the evening. Now all I need to do is see if Starbucks has their Verona blend in the K-cups and life will be good.
We have also found a GONGA (slang from a commercial in AZ) deal on some furniture and it's going to be delivered on Wednesday. It feels like we are getting a whole house full, but in reality it's only a living room (sofa, love seat, coffee table, 2 end tables and a 40" LED Smart TV, I can now FB from the TV!!) and a dining table and 6 chairs (we haven't had a dining room table since we left AZ in 2002). I can honestly say, I feel like our house is once again becoming a *home*. When we moved to NC from MI we left everything that didn't fit into the 2 cars we drove down here, and NO one of them wasn't a truck. At the time, we had a 98 Chevy Malibu and an 06 Ford Taurus, moving 3 people, 2 dogs and 2 cats. The back seats of both vehicles and both trunks were packed full of clothes and necessities for just living day to day. All my furniture was left in storage and eventually *lost* because we weren't able to find employment as quickly as we had hoped once we got to Raleigh.
So all in all, March was a great month for us here in the Sandhills. There are still things we want to accomplish, the next would be to get our own vehicle so Tanya won't have to drag us around all the time, LOL!! And I promise you all we are taking things slowly and not rushing into anything until we check all the ins and outs of the situation.
