A replacenment for our refrigerator!

Yesterday evening, after deciding that I would cook my chicken after going to rent a 99 cent movie at the movie rental store. Mondays are 99 cent days on all movies even new releases so we take advantage of it every Monday. We were heading out to get a movie called the Ultimate Gift when I remembered that we left our weekend movie at home that we needed to return. We turned back and was passing our landlady's house when I noticed her waving to me as if signaling to me. I shouted at Nathan to back up the driveway. Rolling down the window, I heard her say, "we're coming down the hill, we have a strong man to help with the refrigerator."

He was about Nathan's size only with more muscle than flab. (Sorry Nathan, it is true!:) So we drove down to our apartment and after moving furniture aside from the doors and after locking the cats in our bedroom so they wouldn't escape, I pulled everything out of the refrigerator and freezer in a flourish. Just in time too! Nathan and the muscular man, whom I figured was the Landlady's future son-in-law, had brought the refrigerator through the sliding glass door and set it down in the hall to make room for pulling the other refrigerator out of the way. I swept up cobwebs and dust that had gathered behind and beneath our old refrigerator and then took a wet rag to mop up old liquid residue.

After that, they had the refrigerator in there in no time and I was set to put everything back into the refrigerator after thanking them for everything. I am sure I was glowing by this time. I had a newer refrigerator and it was a lot bigger too! I have way more space than ever now. The only thing I don't like about it, is that the door opens the opposite way and gets in the way, and the top shelf on the door to the refrigerator has little egg dimples where eggs are supposed to sit. I think I prefer leaving the egg carton in there without taking them out each time that I buy eggs. I will find a use for it. And no, the egg dimples do not detach or I would have given it to the landlady for holding until we move out.

Finally I told Nathan I was finished putting everything in its place and was ready to go to the movie store. This time we grabbed the other movie before forgetting it again. We got to the movie store and waited in line for twenty minutes and asked for our movie that we had reserved for us for that day. Come to find out they didn't get it reserved after all. But the lady working remembered putting one on the shelving cart to be shelved. So we got to see Ultimate Gift finally after waiting nearly a month or two to be able to get a hold on one of the four copies that they own.

To end the day off Nathan and I watched that movie and thoroughly enjoyed it. I enjoyed crying at the same places in the movie with him and laughing together at the good clean humor in the movie. Not one single cuss word either. I highly recommend it! Great storyline too!

Well, Nathan will be getting home for lunch soon so I need to plan his meal.

My freezer quit on me...dinner time!

Well my freezer quit on me today and all my ice melted. I do not have a cooler that will fit everything that is in the freezer at the moment. And even then, I can't get ice until tonight when Nathan comes home from work. I think it may have been melting on us since last night when we got home and discovered that the ice had melted again. This has been happening for nearly three weeks now. I would notice the ice cube trays with water in it instead of ice and then they would freeze up in the next three hours. So it was working a little. My landlady still hasn't been able to get two guys together to move a fridge she has for me in the garage. I had cleaned out our fridge about three weeks ago in anticipation of an exchange of refrigerators. I was right. We are getting a used new refrigerator. I am grateful for this. Because I really didn't want to have a man in our apartment working on a refrigerator that is older than me and me be alone with him here and only cats that I could sick on him if I needed to.

So anyway, it has been nearly twelve hours since I discovered all of the ice melted instead of just the top two trays. And I am wondering, do I do chicken on the Foreman grill for dinner tonight or hamburgers? I have chicken breasts that have thawed in the freezer that need cooking, and then I have beef in the refrigerator that really cannot go another day without me cooking it. Nathan says "HAMBURGERS!!!!!" And I want chicken 'n dumplings. Or marinaded chicken grilled. And then I get Nathan telling me, "make a HUGE meal, and then heat it up tomorrow for more. " I can't have chicken and hamburgers for dinner tonight!!!! Oh and I also have a wedding cake in the freezer that I am scared to see what it looks like. Our top piece that we were saving there for our first anniversary. I think we will be using over the weekend for when the Greer's will be coming up. No sense trying to freeze it up again when it probably already has thawed out in the freezer.

Oh on top of this, I just got our electric bill and come to find out, it is higher this month that we have had it in the past six months because our freezer decided it wanted a helicopter's motor, to a freezer's compressor! Really! It sounded like a helicopter from in my bedroom with the door closed and with our fan on high. I could still hear it. And I really did think it was Big Mama, the hospital helicopter that belongs at the hospital that is walking distance from here. The freezer only made that noise when it was running. And that was usually every five to six hours. I counted. And then we no longer heard the noise for most of the time and that is when it began to die. Well our monthly bill we have worked hard at keeping it $50 for the electricity. And now it has gone up to a $70 bill. Yeah, we haven't used the heater at all in winter and haven't needed to what with cooking, neighbors who are old and cold in all seasons, computers, laundry room next door, and only one wall being an exterior wall. That has been nice. All winter long and just a $50 bill each month and sometimes lower.

I love to cook dinner, but am in a dilemma for what to use, beef? or chicken? I have so many ideas, but I really don't want to mix chicken with beef for dinner. I only want to cook one meat to go with dinner tonight, not two. Otherwise Nathan will gorge on more that he really needs. He is picking up hamburger buns, he insists, so that I have no excuse for why I can't make hamburgers on our George Foreman grill. Of course he would get buns if he wants it, but that doesn't mean I will make it. :)!!! Nathan is cute when he insists on getting a meal that he likes. He doesn't do that often, but when he does, he knows that is what he will get for dinner. LOL. I can't resist those big eyes and that face. When he asks for a meal, I have to give in and make it his way. Hamburger mixed up with seasonings and marinaded with Worcestershire sauce with mustard and ketchup smashed between wheat buns.

Well I need to plan the sides to go with dinner, but all of our vegetables are mushy from being in the freezer and thawing out!!!! Hopefully we will get our refrigerator tomorrow and no later! Nathan has volunteered to help move the refrigerator and so has our landlady's daughter's fiancee. The problem is it can't be moved before 6pm on any given day because they both get off work around 6. Otherwise it is an early morning before-the-crack-of-dawn exchange of refrigerators.

Hopefully, something will be worked out, or we are camping out in our own kitchen for another day.

Another chiropractic visit

Yesterday I went for my second visit to the DC (doctor of chiropractic) and had adjustments made to my spine, neck and hip.
Living two minutes away from downtown is a very convenient thing for me right now since I don't have a car and can't drive legally. I have found it can be enjoyable taking strolls through downtown or going to the dollar store and grocery store on days when the weather permits it.
Yesterday though I had an appointment to see my DC at 4:30. I planned my whole day around this time and made sure that everything I needed to get done, would be finished before at least 4:00. In case you didn't know, I have a fear of being late and prefer not to think of what would happen if I was late.
I was ready a long time before 4:30 and wanted it to come so that I wouldn't have to look at the clock constantly making sure that I didn't loose track of the time. Well 4:00 came and I was ready, but since it only takes 5 minutes to walk to the DC office it wasn't time for me to go yet. My instinct was telling me "oh it may take longer though because of the traffic lights and having to wait for the crosswalk signs to tell me to walk!" But I just had to ignore instinct this one time. I decided to place my tote bag at the door and then sweep the floor to pass the time. When I was finished sweeping the floor it was still only 4:10. I then decided to wipe off the counter tops for the second or third time in the past hour. By 4:13 I decided it was time to go.
I walked fast down the street and got to the two crosswalks in perfect timing. It was as if they both were in sync to my walking and changed right when I needed to make the crossing. Well this was great. I made the walk in two minutes getting to the office with 15 minutes to kill. Good thing I brought Johnny Tremain along with me. I read about two chapters into it after signing in and sitting in one of the waiting room's ergonomic chairs.
I ended up being admitted five minutes early only to talk for about ten minutes on the topic of the book I was reading. He happened to see me put the book into my bag while he was helping an old lady patient of his into her jacket and out the door and had inquired of what I was reading. It turns out that my DC has two children that are home schooled and that are reading through the Little House On The Prairie serious with their mother. She happens to enjoy reading out loud to them and Dr. Barnes happens to be interested in knowing what kind of books they would be interested in. He kept apologizing and trying to get on with asking me questions, but then he would ask again, "now are there gory details and battle scenes in this book?" I would assure him it was great for kids and adults and that it didn't describe gore at all. He was fascinated with my account of the book and couldn't wait to get his wife the book to read to his kids. I told him I would write down the name of the book and author for him.
Finally we got down to business and he took me to get three x-rays done of my spine. One from the side, strait on, and from the neck up front on. After they were developed, he spent time studying them and telling me exactly what he saw and the numbering of the lumbars. He then counted my lumbars and put pin marks on the ones that he needed to adjust so that he wouldn't have to recount them to find them.
It turns out that I not only have scoliosis in my lower back, but also a bit of a curve in the upper spine and then my neck is straight instead of curved with the top most bone of the spine, the atlas, being off to the side. The rest of the time he spent adjusting the pin marked bones and then asking me a little more about the book. I wrote down the title and author of Johnny Tremain on a business card of his.
It ended up that he was a bit concerned that Nathan and I would have trouble paying for the x-rays and decided that he would give it to me free and I ended up paying $24 for spending a little over an hour in the office, half of which was spent discussing books. I asked him how long he thinks it will take for my spine to be straightened out, knowing in the back of my head that I want it to be straightened out before a year is up, but not thinking it possible. He said he didn't know for sure and that it all depends on each person as to how long or short it takes. He knows that Nathan and I want to plan on having children, but he can't tell me an exact time period.
I told him I understood, but inside I was screaming to know. How long will it be? A year? Two years? My mind goes crazy with not knowing the unknowable. Only God knows. And only God can know. But still I wonder if a DC could know an estimated time based on experience. I will work hard to have our first child and I will promise to do whatever it takes. Exercising it half of the healing process, and the adjusting is the other half of it. But ultimately it is up to God himself.
I pray that I may have the patience I need.

10 Months

I sit here thinking back to the times Nathan and I had when we were dating and then when we were engaged, married, and life as it is now, and I see that God has truly blessed our lives! Today marks ten months of being married. Nearly a year now. I am excited and can't wait to celebrate our anniversary.

One of my favorite memories with Nathan were the ones where we were still dating and the excitement behind knowing that God had placed Nathan in my life for a reason. I didn't deserve this! Yet he still blessed me with him. I still think back to the circumstances in which we met. How his uncle John thought to put together a dinner for us to meet. And how it worked out beautifully! He and I talked the next day during the Sunday covered dish dinner and sat together. He opened the car door after I accepted his offer to drive me home. I was so giddy over the fact that he asked me in such a sweet and gentlemanly way. I remember being impressed that he actually opened the door for me. I laugh remembering my giddiness and how I took him the long way home so that we could talk longer. He told me he would see me again on Thanksgiving Day.

Thanksgiving was two and a half weeks away! That was a long time. But we gave out our email addresses. On Monday night he asked if he could call me on the phone, and I said yes he could. He called me up and we talked until midnight. This happened every night that first week only the time that we hung up got later and later until one time it was 3:00am and we decided to set a limit. Then we both got Verizon Wireless cell phones on that Friday after meeting. This way we wouldn't have to wait until 9pm when I could receive his phone call in order to get free minutes. And he could call me anytime he wanted. I remember watching for shooting stars at the same time over the phone. And we often saw the same shooting start. Well it was really just a meteorite shower, but we called them shooting stars. It was very romantic. By the time Thanksgiving came around, I felt like I knew him so well. And I had. We learned to love each other over the phone and learned to know each other very well. The only thing we hadn't told each other yet was "I love you!" We both would think it in our minds and hearts. But we couldn't say it yet. I was waiting for him to make the first move, and he was waiting for the moment when he got my father's blessing.
He asked my father on Thanksgiving night first if he could date/court me and then he said that he already knew that he wanted to marry me. And Dad said yes to both. We were engaged Decemnber 23,2006. I knew he would be asking me soon and just had no clue I would get it as a Christmas present. Nathan was my best Christmas present I had ever known. I had no idea, in the beginning of year 2006, what was coming, but I welcomed it with an open heart and arms.
Nathan truly has been one of the best things to have happened to me. And even though there are times when I am lonely and when I wish I had more friends up here, I know that Nathan will be here for me and will be an encouragement to me when I need it the most. I love him very much. I look forward to growing old together with him and wouldn't want to grow old together with anyone other than him.
I enjoy every moment I can get with him and miss him every time we have to say goodbye again. It is the hardest thing to say goodbye in the mornings and afternoon when he goes to work. But it is worth the waiting to have him come back home to me in the evenings with open arms. I thank God for him daily.

Chiropracttor visit today

I just came back from the chiropractor today and had discovered in depth about what is really happening with my hip and back. I have scoliosis, which an MD had told me probably happened when I was born, and I have a hip misalignment which happened around the age of 14 or 15 falling off a horse. Dr. Barnes my chiropractor as of today, was able to tell me a lot about my hip and back that even Dr Mitchell my former chiroprator hadn't told me.
I showed my year old x-rays to Dr. Barnes and he was able to take measurements and be able to tell me that my whole hip has been rotated so to say and that it is causing my spine to curve. He knows for sure that falling off a horse at the speed it was going (gallop) would cause my hip to do that and as a result would cause my spine to curve to make up for the hip being out of place. His first question after taking measurements on the x-ray was, "do you and your husband plan on having kids?" Of course we plan on it. I told him yes, we want kids. And then he told me right out, that it wouldn't be a good thing to have kids with the way my hips are right now. This wasn't what I wanted to hear, but I am glad that he had told me this. I asked him why an MD would tell me that it was fine and his response was, "because an MD isn't trained to do chiropractic care and doesn't have to know all about chiropractic work, so they are ignorant of a lot of what chiropractors are trained to know." I am angry that an MD would tell me that "yes it is ok to have kids, it isn't a problem." That gave me a false hope. And now I am glad to hear the truth even if it does hurt me a little to know that not only does our plans for having children rest on Nathan's job situation, but also on my hip and spine alignment.
The hardest lesson in learning this news is patience in waiting before we can plan on having children. My fear is that it will take longer than two or three years before we can have children. I live alone all day and have trouble dealing with loneliness because I only have Nathan. I don't have a car and can't drive yet. So on rainy days and cold days I stay home all day. I do have cats, only they sleep all day.
Please be in prayer for me.
I am very thankful that I was warned about the problems with childbearing with my condition. I regret that I didn't visit a chiropractor immediately after the accident, but I was ignorant of that kind of field of doctors and probably never had heard of them before. As Nathan told me recently, I probably would have been a completely different person at the time that we met if I hadn't had these struggles with my health. He is right I am sure. I learned to pray more when I was sick than when I was healthy. And when I was in pain than when I was subdued. I am reminded of Romans 8:28, "And we know that God causes all things to happen for good to those who love Him, to those who are called according to His purpose."
My prayer is that God will work in my heart through these times of bliss at knowing that we may have to wait longer than we want in planning a family. Also I pray that God will grant me peace to be able to bear being alone, during the days, for however long it takes for me to be physically fit for childbirth.

Cookie Monster!!

When Nathan arrived home from work last night, he was excited and animatedly told me about some strange caller he spoke to at work that day. He sat down in the computer chair and proceeded to talk until he noticed the arrangement on the table with the cookies being the center attraction. "Cookies!!"was his own personal interruption of his story. Grabbing one, he proceeded to chew and I decided to make fun. "Nathan, don't eat that! It is for a picture I am taking!" His eyes got big and remorseful. He took me into his arms and apologized ever so humbly while I tried not to laugh. I couldn't last long and laughed and told him that I got bored and decided to find something new to photograph. When I couldn't find anything interesting enough, a picture popped into my head and I proceeded to make cookie and find things to arrange around the cookies. So then I showed Nathan the pictures I had already taken and the blog. He laughed at me and then ate some more cookies and asked about dinner. He thanked me for the cookies and said that he had been craving them for sometime and that they were perfect and chewy in the middle just like he liked them.
Today I decided to make soup and photograph it. Nathan's lunch became my photographic experience and this time he had to suffer cold soup and nuke it a little in the microwave to get it to where the cheese would melt. Sadly enough, I forgot to take a picture of Nathan while he was eating it.

Tasty Morsels

Yep I can get distracted with taking pictures, but I decided to make cookies in order to have this picture taken. And, no, not all of the cookies were able to fit on the plate so I ate a couple! MMMM! Sugar cookies turn out nicely every time so I made these moist sugar cookies from one of my random cookbooks called "Where's Mom Now that I Need her?" I collect cookbooks and happen to have this one. Even though I didn't need Mom for much after I was married. I knew how to do everything. There may have been little things like which shaker does the salt go in. The one with two holes? Or Three? LOL. Yeah that was one reason I called Mom. Another may have been about bread. I had made bread a few times before and just needed a question answered that my book didn't address. Anyway here are some pictures that I had fun taking.

"Is your refrigerator running?"

Do you remember when you would get a call with that question asking if your refrigerator was running? And if you responded yes, the next line was, "well you better go catch it!" Well if I got a call from someone today asking if my refrigerator was running, I would say, "I don't know." Honestly, I am not sure half the time if my refrigerator is running or not. When it is running it sounds like someone is cranking up their car and trying to get it to stay cranked. I believe that the compressor is trying to quit on our refrigerator. I have to make a call to our landlady at 10 and tell her that our refrigerator is making really loud noises when it is running, and that the ice in the freezer melts and then freezes and then melts again and that there is water dripping from our refrigerator ceiling. I was supposed to call her yesterday, but was not feeling all that great and decided that our refrigerator will last another night. Yesterday, I decided that if I was going to call Jerry our landlady, then it probably would be best to clean out our refrigerator of past due leftovers.

Have you ever kept a leftover in the refrigerator for so long that when you go to take it out to clean it, you can't recognize or even remember what you had for dinner that night. I found a lot of those in our refrigerator. Cooked carrots do not look like cooked carrots when they have seen months in the fridge. And cream of chicken soup is no longer chicken soup, but something that died and decided to grow wings again. ICK!!!! I couldn't believe the things I found in the back of our refrigerator!!! I don't think you would believe it either. If it wasn't for Nathan, there would be no reason to keep leftovers anymore. He eats them for lunch now, so it isn't as bad. Before I started feeding him leftovers, the leftovers got pushed to the back of the fridge and forgotten until now. As I pulled out a leftover pasta, I thought to myself, "I don't remember ever making anything like that!!!" Although with the mold growing on it, it's no wonder I don't remember it.

OH the smells that I smelled that day!! I wish I had had a gas mask it was so pungent in the kitchen. I scrubbed hard and long on each gladware and ziploc container that I emptied of its deranged contents.

I don't own real tupperware so I use and reuse the gladware that contained food from our wedding day that we took on our honeymoon for snacking on. Whenever I bought deli meat, I bought it in ziploc or gladware storage boxes and reused them after using up all the meat for sandwiches. And recently I bought some more ziploc containers for storing home made salsa so I now have more than enough food storage containers for leftovers and salsa. We haven't had much leftovers recently, since I have been making less meat with dinner and more vegetables. We eat all of the meal each dinner and if we are still hungry, we eat salsa and drink a lot of water or tea. It has helped Nathan in loosing weight now that I have stopped making all the fattening beefy dinners I used to make and have gone to only one night of beef dinner and the rest of chicken and veggies. Also, it has been several months since he has last seen a dessert of mine.

Anyway, our refrigerator is now nearly spotless and looks strangely empty. I have room!!!




Our clean refrigerator and nearly empty too!



The freezer is also cleaner!



The ceiling of the refrigerator will drip and then freeze up and drip and freeze. It is a constant cycle.



It takes only two or three days for all this to build up in the freezer



a close up shot of where it drips when it melts

A visit to our favorite place (03-01-08)

My favorite place in the world. Where Nathan proposed to me
December 23, 2008. It is nearly a year ago that we were married.
Almost a year ago that we had our first kiss here. Two weeks
before our wedding on a Saturday we kissed on the spot where he
proposed. We didn't kiss until two weeks before, because we had thought
we wanted our first kiss to be our wedding kiss. Then I decided it
wasn't something that would be a romantic story for my kids when
I tell them our story later on in life.

I drove Nathan out to the lake Saturday the 1st of March. It was
pretty windy, but I am glad we went back there. We stood in our
spot where he had proposed (and I said "yes") and also where we
shared our first kiss. While standing there we hugged and stood
there talking about our moments while looking out at the beautiful
cliffs. And then we kissed again and both said how much we loved
each other. *Sigh* It is still as romantic now as it was then. We
Hope to live in NC always and be able to visit our favorite place
whenever we want.


Maybe next Saturday we will go back and actually get a picture of
of our exact spot of where we shared our first kiss and where he
proposed. If only I had a tripod. Maybe for a birthday present.