I apologize that I have not posted for a few weeks, but things are starting to look up. It has been a bit of a rough five weeks with Jarom gone. I miss him and I fell into my little hole off and on. It is a good thing he will be home in one more week and life can resume.

I did enjoy the short and sweet weekend visit with my Mom when she came down. We stayed up Friday night until almost 1am Saturday just talking and catching up. Satruday we browsed the vast variety of stores in the area and had lunch at Marie Callendar's. I made my herb chicken for dinner and we had salad. After dinner we sat out back and had a glass of wine. For dessert we had strawberries on angel food cake. On Sunday, we went to the first showing of Mamma Mia!, and we thought we'd beat most of the crowd, but we were wrong. There weren't many seats, so few that we sat in the very first row. We had a late lunch at Red Robin after the movie and then came home and visited for a few more hours until we had to leave to go to the airport.


I'm still working a bit on the house. My room is almost done and but together. I still have some things to find and put away. The garage is completely full still of boxes, but the main stuff is in the house and put away. I'm enjoying this clutter free living. I think we are going to donate the majority of what is in the garage. There are still some things I need like my craft books, Feorge Foreman grill and whatever Jarom needs. The items we need are already in and placed in thier new homes. I will post pictures soon...after Jarom gets home. He has the camera.

Finally, on another note I have an interview tomorrow with AdHoc Advancement, an advertising and marketing firm. I'm really excited about it and I hope it goes as well I feel it will. I love everything I've read about them. Everyone starts at entry-level and cross-trained in all areas, and they promote from within. Promotions are based not on seniority but performance. They have a range of companies in their portfolio.

I probably should get to bed. I'm so tired. Gus was sick last night and into the morning, so I was up with him. After he initially was sick he mostly just dry-heaved, but it scared and concerned me all the same.

I'm feeling better. My shoulder doesn't really bother me any more, but I'm still having headaches and my back/hip are bothering me a bit still. I can deal with the back pain for the most part, but today it bothered me more than i planned. I spent the day running errands, grocery shopping, cleaning the house and doing laundry. I was on my feet from 8:30 this morning until well about 15 minutes ago. I'm still working on some laundry but they are the dog beds and a few light lap blankets. The most important things was making sure the sheets were washed for the guest bedroom for Mom. I decided to wash our sheets too along with the comforter.
I think the headaches are the worst part of the reaminder of falling down the stairs. Tylenol just isn't working so I just have to let them run their course.

In addition to all the laundry, cleaning and errands, I got the guest bedroom ready for my Mom who will be here, well tonight, now, since it is after midnight. I just needed to put some things away and put the new clean sheets and clean comforter on the bed. Also, I gave both dogs a bath. Boy do they get dirty fast. It has only been two weeks since their last one, but they needed and I wanted to get as much hair off them as possible. They have been shedding like crazy. The only thing really left to do is the recycling. I have a box of it upstairs that I need to take down and sort and put in the bin for next week. I would have done it today, but it is garbage and yard debris day today and garbage and recycling next week. I guess it is good that it is a large bin, but I recycle so much that it fills up quick.

I went to work this morning, too, and turned in my resignation letter. Jack knew I wasn't going to come back that I need something less stressful and outside the church, especially since my depression. I just needed to make it official. I have to go back though, because I forgot my keys to the building and office and I need to return them. It was goo to see everyone and say hello. They even invited me to a barbeque on the 30th that they are having at the store. Elena is going to cook. I think I just might go so I can visit with everyone more.

I have no idea why I'm still up. I only slept a couple hours last night. It seems to be a pattern since Jarom has left.

I started back on my diet. I want to keep with the Weight Watchers format of points, but I'm tracking everything on SparkPeople.com. It is just the first day, but I did really well.

Not really much going on but that. I have just been resting my back and shoulder and loving the pups. The cats do their own thing. My mom is coming tonight and I'm excited to spend the weekend with her.

Today, was a peaceful day except for a bit of a stiff neck and sore shoulder. I slipped and fell down the stairs last night. My hip began to hurt a bit this evening. I spent the day sitting up in bed propped against three pillows with my book. I was only half through it and today I finished it. It was a pretty uneventful day except for Miss.

Her and Hope were in her with me and Hope jumped on the bed to get a drink of water from the water dish I brought upstairs for the dogs and Miss decided she wanted a drink too. Normally, she would have ran over and chased Hope away, but she didn't this time. She was incredibly sweet. She sat by the tub and waited for Hope to finish, she didn't even try to stare her down to make her leave quicker, either. When Hope finished and walked away, Miss got up and walked the few steps over to the bowl for her turn. I was just so inspired and my heart just swelled.

Finally, a while back my Dad had mentioned something to Jarom that I have been entertaining for a while, but today, my mind is swirling with ideas that I really need to organize and put on paper. Anyway, my Dad mentioned that maybe I should write a book. He loves to read our blogs and the ones I do for the 'kids'. Jarom mentioned it and I have thought about it a lot off and on. My preliminary thoughts are to write children's stories about two bulldogs, coincidentally Gus and Miss that learn manners and choosing the rigt decisions. I asked my cousin to think about illustrating it/them if I can get something written out and put on paper. I don't know what would become of them, but maybe one day they could be published. We'll see, my ideas are still rough and unorganized but I'll get there.

I fell into a bit of depression since Jarom has been gone. I have been sleeping a lot, but I have been trying to get it back together. I've done okay.

Tuesday, I moved boxes around and carried some upstairs, but I pulled a muscle or turned wrong or something, because I was sore quick. I ended up resting in bed the rest of the day and night. I rested most of the day Wednesday and even fell asleep this afternoon watching the Da Vinci Code, but when I woke up and ate something I felt better and decided to do some more work. It was a mistake to do and I pushed myself to far, because I hurt worse, now. But I needed to get a few more things upstairs and some laundry. I even put things aside for donation and made a list of those items. I got a few things moved from the garage into the house, but not much.

It has been really hot. Tuesday it was 110! Yesterday was 107 and today it is supposed to be 102. Even being in the house with the air conditioning on, it is hot. When I was working Tuesday and yesterday, I was dripping with sweat. It just made me feel gross. I think I showered twice each day. I think I probably should give my back a rest today.

Miss and Gus are still kind of mopy, but they are playing a little more each day. I know they miss Jarom as much as I do. I have put them up on the bed with me to sleep at night, which hasn't helped my back either. Gus has slept on Jarom's side every night and Miss, well she moves around. She starts off by getting comfortable wedging herself between my legs and resting her chin on one of my calves or ankles. At some point, she moves up between Gus and me. Her head is usually only inches from mine. It is pretty cute. If they are not on the bed, then Gus is either downstairs or snoring on the floor next to my side of the bed. Miss is either next to him in the hole where there is a drawer missing on my side of the bed. Or, she is under the bed down the middle between the drawers on each side.

Other than that, it is pretty quiet here. I'm counting down the days when my mom is here to visit for the weekend.

Poor Miss has not been feeling well and even had an accident in the house. I bathed her twice yesterday. Luckily, today she has been feeling better, but still sleeping a lot and kind of mopy. She is keeping hydrated though, so that is good. I didn't make to the bbq yesterday and I was still afraid to leave her today, but I didn't have to give her a bath today. I was up until 5am, so we have been napping together off and on today.
Gus was goo downstairs most of the day, napping and playing with a piece of packing paper on the floor. He is so content upstairs though and he is up here now, snoring as loud as can be. He did manage to get Miss to muscle up some energy to play for a few minutes.
I was bummed about last night and today, because I was looking forward to the company of friends, but Miss and Gus are my children and they have to come first. I didn't get to take my fruit salad so, I have lots of mango, pineapple, strawberries and raspberries to eat.
I haven't heard any firworks yet, it has been pretty quiet all day actually. Just a quiet holiday for us. I talked to Jarom and he didn't sleep much last night and was napping off and on today too. I guess we are pretty boring people--apart and together. He might go to Cape Canaveral on Sunday.
All is quiet on the homefront. Happy 4th of July!