I haven't posted a lot lately, and I'm sorry.

I'm currently trying to re-organize my life.

See, I just acquired a whole bunch of furniture from my parents, who no longer needed it. It's going to make my life a lot neater, easier, and more organized....but until I get everything sorted, put away, cleaned and organized life is a little hectic.

How hectic?

Let's just say that my husband asks me what I've done all day, and when I say "I cleaned and organized {insert room here}" he looks at me like I'm crazy. Then I quantify with "But you can only judge me on this section of the room...doesn't it look so much better?" haha He doesn't find it amusing.

So, I promise to post pictures and better posts soon.

In fact, I can guarantee a post in the near future, because I've done a lot of online shopping, and have some really great things to share when I actually get a second to sit down and upload pictures.

Oh, and did I mention that I have 30 quilts at work? 6 are mine, 1 is my MIL's, but the rest are for clients. Yeah, been working late nights again. It feels like December all over! haha

Peterson River

Today we decided that our yard lacked a river.....



.....so we added one.


Okay, not really.


We are babysitting Sparky while Mike's parents are in Texas at the International Quilt Market (where Lola...again and her posse just won BEST IN SHOW out of 1200 booths. So go over to her blog NOW and congratulate her because this was their FIRST BOOTH EVER and they totally killed it :) Way to go Lola!!!)

Anyway, so we're babysitting Sparky, and he had to go outside. Mike put on his shoes and took him out on the leash. A few seconds later he called through the front door to me to get my shoes on and come look at something.

SURPRISE!!!

We had a river in our yard. It was flowing up from the ground around the spicket on the side of the house, inbetween us and our neighbors, on the north side of the building.

The neighbors got more water than we did, and I really hope they didn't flood their kitchen/living room. They weren't home.

The best part is, our landlord doesn't answer his phone on Sundays (which is stupid, cuz that's when the emergencies always happen). Our neighbor called someone at the city and they came by just minutes after another neighbor, who wasn't afraid of the bazillions of hornets who were pissed off because their home in the shut-off box was flooded, had shut off the irrigation main.

Fortunately, the city shuts off the irrigation on the 15th.

Fortunately, our landlord has like 6 months to find the broken pipe.

Unfortunately, this is gonna cost him a lot of money.....not just in repair costs, but in water fees, because we don't know how long it was running.

Actually, we wouldn't have found out if Sparky hadn't had to go to the bathroom. Cute dog solving our problems. That really would've sucked if we had flooded today.

So today's post is dedicated to Sparky and his knowlege that something was wrong outside. I should've taken a picture, we were out there for 2 1/2 hours with the flooding and the talking to neighbors and the swimming pool of a lawn.

Oh yeah, did I mention that the entire 15 foot side yard, sidewalk, parking strip, and street were flooded? Yeah, it was quite the river. :D It's finally sunk into the ground now, but it was fun while it lasted. Marshy especially loved jumping in the puddles and getting wet clear up to his waist!

The Battle

What a week this has been! WHEW! I am so glad it is almost over!

The week started out with a late night. I was up doing laundry. I started to fall asleep on the couch, so I decided to go up to bed. Forget about the laundry, it can sit in there overnight without a problem, right? What's the worst that can happen? It sours and I rewash it, right?

So, I get up, turn off all the lights, and head up stairs. Well, not really up the stairs. Just over to them. Didn't make it up the stairs because they were covered with......... wait for it...............................................................................................................................................................

PILL BUGS!

I am dead serious. I live in a split level, so when you come in the door there is a set of stairs going up and a set of stairs going down. The landing, where the door is, was also covered with bugs. COMPLETELY. It was so full that they were falling off the landing down onto my living room carpet. That area was also completely full of bugs. I am cringing as I remember how gross it was.

I started killing them with kleenex, toilet paper, paper towels, whatever I could flush down the toilet. Didn't really make a dent. I then made the, probably unwise, decision to start up the vacuum cleaner. It was 3 AM. Yes, that's right. 3 AM and I was sucking up hundreds of bugs. Mike wasn't too happy. Apparently I woke him up. Should've closed the bedroom door and turned the swamp cooler onto high before starting up the vacuum....OH WAIT! Couldn't get up the stairs. That's right.

Next morning, vacuumed up 100s more. Mike set off 2 bug bombs, 1 upstairs, 1 downstairs, while we went to work. When we came home, the ones inside were all dead, but the ones outside were still coming in! WHAT THE HECK?!

So, being a man, Mike heads off to Home Depot. (Where else? haha) He buys a new door sweep that goes on the front of the door. We had one on the back, but the plastic piece got ripped off by Marshall a while back (it was really cheap and started ripping 3 days after we moved in). We get home and take the door off, which was a struggle in and of itself because the hinges had been painted over.

So, door's off, we put the door sweep on and put the door back on, as it's RAINING, and the door doesn't close because the sweep is getting stuck on the threshold. UGH!!

Mike tries to take the threshold off, but the screws are rusted in. Can't take the whole piece out because it's cemented in on the outside and the tile grout was on top of it on the inside. Lemme tell ya, whoever built this place was pretty dumb to make it impossible to replace the door without ripping up the whole front of the house!

So I go off to Checker to buy an easy-out stripped screw kit, because the screws are not only rusted, but stripped. So lovely. I come back, and Mike has the piece out, but one of the screws had broken off during the process. We go BACK to Home Depot, return some things (shivs cuz he thought he could level out the unlevel door frame) and buy a new piece of wood, that's a little smaller than the old one, and head back home.

Take the door sweep off the door (now there are holes in the front of the door, looks really great with the crappy ancient paint job they did who-knows-how-many-years-ago) install the new piece of wood. Well, whaddaya know? It doesn't work! It's too small! Hmm....I could've told him that when we bought it, but did he listen? No. He's a man. I also told him before he did anything to call his dad. Again, did he listen? No. He's a man. "I can do it myself" he says. hahahahahaha

We jimmy-rig the door so that the bugs won't come in. At least, that's what we think. Funny enough, they still come in. At about midnight I went outside with a can of ant spray. Yes you read that right. It's all I had. I used the entire can and sprayed my whole front porch down. It worked pretty well. They actually are still dying out there thanks to the ant spray :)

Next day we go back to Home Depot. Again. We buy a whole new threshold. Never mind the fact that we can't get the old one out, Mike says he can use some of the pieces to replace the old ones. We go home, and he can't get the new piece in. Big surprise. He got so frustrated that Marshy and I left for a drive. We ended up doing some grocery shopping, forgetting a lot of things while we were at it.

Come home and find Mike finished. He put the new piece where the old one with the broken screw was. So now, after 3 days of he** we are back to square 1. Yeah, it didn't really make any difference. The bugs still come in. They die, eventually, thanks to the bug bombs, but now instead of vacuuming up live bugs I vacuum up dead ones. UGH!

Mike says he'll replace the strip of plastic stuck to the bottom of the door this next week. It involves taking the door off the hinges again. So don't wanna do that, but oh well. He figures the bugs are like ants. They always find a way in. He figures that until the landlord puts in a/c units in each building instead of the swamp coolers we will always have this problem.

Oh I can't wait until winter when I won't have this problem!! But then, spring comes too quickly and it'll be back again. UGH!

I am so tired of waging war, but I guess it will be over soon. Someone said to try boric acid. Someone else said to try Bounce dryer sheets. Someone else said fly paper. Anyone tried any of these before? Let me know. I think tonight I will try the Bounce, since I don't have boric acid or fly paper on hand. :)

I have HAD IT!

I feel like I am living in a horror movie. It would be called Invasion of the Pill Bugs.

Don't laugh.

I am totally serious.

I vacuum my house DAILY.

Why? Because of the pill bugs.

Yes, under the high chair gets dirty, and that would get vacuumed daily regardless, but my vacuum no longer gets put away.

EVER.

NEVER.

Here's why:

I woke up one morning and went downstairs with Marshy to get him breakfast.

There were 10 pill bugs running around the floor.

I quickly sent them swimming down the pipes.

When I walked back into the living room there were 10 more.

They met the same fate as their brothers and sisters.

When I walked back into the living room there were 5 more.

They are constantly appearing out of NOWHERE.

I guess I should be happy, because our friends who lived here before us had spider infestations.

(I HATE spiders)

We bought bug bombs to set off one day while we're gone.

I'm having a hard time with this though. They are kind of a pain in the butt to set up. Everything plastic or electronic or food-related has to be covered with newspaper, plastic sheeting, or a sheet.

I don't have nearly enough of any of those items to cover all of my crap.

However, after tonight, I am definitely leaning toward the inconvenience.

I picked a dirty dishtowel off the floor (it had fallen off the counter last night or this morning, not sure when) and shook it out.

50 pill bugs fell out of it. They were all still alive.

I tried really hard not to scream hysterically as they went flying across the kitchen floor and squirmed around trying to flip over from their backs.

EWWWWWW!!!!!!

Can you tell I hate bugs?

Any suggestions for what I should do, besides the pain-in-the-butt-bug-bomb?

My landlord probably won't spray the building. Our friends have flying ants and flies in their apartment on the other side of the complex. Of course, they live next to the dumpster. And when they lived where we live now, they had spiders.

Again, really glad it isn't spiders.

I saw a spider tonight though. The first one in about 5 weeks.

It's probably because I've been vacuuming so stinkin' much.

I'm sure you're all dying to know what's going on...

So, remember back in June how I went to court but found out my papers hadn't been served? Yeah, not so much fun. Well, here's what I know so far:

First, I had to reschedule the court date. It is now set for August 25th, giving the servers until July 25th to serve the papers.

Second, I called the process server company and they said that the server had been out there like a bazillion times. I have kept in rather close contact with one of the guys there, and he has been quite helpful. The server thinks that the person is avoiding being served. STUPID! They know it's coming. Why don't they man up and take what's coming to them? DUMB.

Anyway, so ..... the server saw a car and wrote down the plate number. They ran the plates. OH YEAH! They are her plates alright. WOOHOO!

SO, they switched from a man to a woman server. She went up the other day and literally stood on the porch for 40 minutes calling "HELLO?" and ringing the bell. Then she drove around the block, and the porch light was on and the previously open blinds were closed. The good news? If she sees her, all she has to do is say "These are for you." and she can leave the papers on the porch and VOILA! They're served.

I HAVE to have these papers served by next Sunday, or else I have to RE-FILE as per Utah Law. STUPID LAW. BUT, at least we are making progress in this issue. Obviously, she knows she has done something wrong, because if she thought she was innocent she would've just taken the papers and fought it out in court, right? That's what I thought! haha

So, stay tuned for more, but I'm really hoping that they get her next week. I'm going out of town for the 24th (Big state holiday here, ya know) and I don't want to have to worry about it. UGH! I am so frustrated! But, the servers are doing all that they can, so it isn't their fault.

They did tell me that if she refuses to be served they can do what is called due dilligence, and the judge will have to approve an alternate form of service, such as mailing the papers or posting a notice in the Legal Notices section of the newspaper. I'm thinking the newspaper option would be the best, as she has refused mail from me in the past. Plus, all you have to do is post the notice and then she has to go to court and if she doesn't show up I get a default judgment. Oh that would be awesome!

I'm a little nervous to get the bill from the servers. I'm afraid it's going to be crazy expensive, how many times they've been out to BFE where she lives. Oh well! She'll have to pay. It's part of the court costs, ya know, so I'm not too worried.....just as long as they'll send me a bill and not make me pay upfront. That would suck. Unless it's only $50. Then I'll be okay with it. :D

So, that's all I know so far. Stay tuned for further updates!!

Irritated

Our landlord has watered the lawn 5 times in the past 24 hours. That's just a little excessive, doncha think?

Thursday night at 11, when Mike went to bed and I watched SYTYCD, the sprinklers were on.

Friday morning at 6, when Marshall woke up, the sprinklers were on.

Friday afternoon at 2, when we came home to help Mike pack for his trip, the sprinklers were on.

Friday evening at 6, when Marsh and I left to get dinner, the sprinklers were on.

Now, Saturday morning at 5, when I am blogging because I haven't been to sleep yet because I have too much energy, the sprinklers are on.

Will someone please tell this guy that the dandelions don't need that much water! I hear that our neighbors in the back building get flooded because of all the water. I also tend to think it is a total waste of water to water the lawn in the middle of the day when it is 80+ degrees outside.


AAAHHHHH!!! They make the most irritating noise! I can hear them loud and clear, even with the windows closed.

Oh yeah, and will someone shut up those birds in that tree outside, too?!

LIVID

Have you ever been so angry at someone that you can hardly think straight, and it takes talking to like 10 different people to calm you down enough to put coherent sentences together?

Yeah?

ME TOO!

I got a letter today. Well, not so much a letter but an envelope with a check in it. The check was for $405. This was the "remainder" of our deposit for our old apartment. You're probably thinking "that's not bad. why so mad?" but when you hear the rest you'll freak out too.

We paid $1200 for our deposit. Yes, $1200. Our rent was $795 a month. Hmmm...freaky coincidence that that amount is what was taken out of the deposit? I think not!

Our contract stated that tenancy could be terminated at any time by either party as long as there was 30 days written notice. So, when we got our new place we immediately provided the written notice, sent it off certified mail, and signed the contract for the new place (which is so AMAZINGLY AWESOME compared to the last place).

Then, we cleaned the crap out of that apartment. Remember how I wouldn't get home until late in the night/early in the morning? Remember how excited I was when I was finally done with the place? I had cleaned the carpets, vacuumed 3 times, swept everything, wiped out everything, filled ALL the nail holes (including the ones that she left when we moved in), and replaced a set of blinds. I was glad to be out of that crappy place, and into a much nicer one.

Well, when we left the keys at the apartment (she "couldn't make it down to check you out of the place") we left a note stating that we would like an itemized list of any money coming out of the deposit, and also that the power and gas would be shut off on the 3rd.

I hadn't heard anything from her. The check was due by Friday, as the contract says she has 20 days to get us our deposit back. Well, like I said, I got the check today.... but only for $405.

Our theories:

Angel thinks she spent all the money and is just saying that there was $795 in repairs, so she would only have to pay $405.
Vicki thinks that she is charging us for March's rent (as do Mike, my dad, and myself) even though we vacated the premises by the 28th of February.
I also think she is just being a B about it, and kind of figured we'd have to fight her to get our money back anyway. I started to suspect back in May, but really started to suspect earlier this year, January 25th, when her MOM called us instead of her to find out if we were planning on staying after our lease ran up. After she found out we weren't, they turned a little hostile on the phone. And what the heck was her mom calling us for anyway? She isn't on the lease agreement! And Tammy was right there, because I could hear them talking to each other. DUH!

Remember when Marshy locked himself in his room? Yeah, we didn't get the keys until like September or October I think. I was going through the copies of all the letters I sent her (thank goodness I kept copious records!), and found one dated in August that said we still hadn't received the keys and could we get them soon please? CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT?!

Anyway, yeah, I'm still just a LITTLE livid about the whole thing, if you couldn't tell. Even though I've sent the letter off, certified, that requests return of the $795 as she can't charge us for that extra month's rent.

I really feel sorry for whoever purchases/leases from her after us. I just hope they know what they are getting into.

Random

SCHOOL: Finished radiology. And pathology. I think radiology was the hardest, dealing with all of those ARDS patient records. Now I get to learn about other medical departments, and their reports. I'm assuming along the lines of oncology, pediatrics, etc. Oncology might be a tough one too. We'll see.

WORK: Finished 1 quilt, and did 3 complete quilts Friday at work. And I didn't really get started quilting until around noon! WOAH! I totally amazed myself, because I was only there until 5:30, too. I must've had the quilting bug or something. Hoping to get at least 1 started, maybe even finished today (Saturday).

Also, started the two little duckie quilts for our friend in NY. I'm hoping to get the tops pieced by the end of the month, and then quilting them should be a breeze.....hopefully!

CHALLENGES: Just downloaded the new blocks for the Country Calendar, Verandah Views, and Basket quilt blocks. (See the sidebar for links). I still haven't done January or February. I'm hoping to get them started fairly soon.....as soon as I can find my scissors and buy some DMC floss! I have to make up for missing February's finish 1 project goal, so I'm hoping to get caught up on at least 2 of these BOMs.

Also, if you're looking for a fun challenge, go here and enter this quarter's challenge. You need to pick a partner, it's in the rules, but have fun with it! I called my mom up to see if she'd be interested. She sounded pretty excited. I think it's because she has a sewing room now. YAY for her! :)

HOME: Having a hard time keeping Marsh's room clean. He likes to throw his toys everywhere. I have discovered that if his room is messy he is less likely to go to sleep quickly than if his toys are at least in a pile in one of the corners! I only have 2 boxes and 1 laundry basket left to unpack, so that is good news. Then hopefully I can get pictures up on the walls. That would be nice.

CRAFTS: I made really cute silk floral centerpieces for Thanksgiving a few years back. Fortunately they look good year-round. I'm hoping to make a matching wreath for my door next week. The door really needs some major help!

ODD: In perusing my credit card statements, I discovered that 2 of the 4 payments I need to make are not due until April, even though I haven't paid in March. Why is this? Is this normal? I'm confused? Oh well, will definitely still make the March payment just to stay ahead. :)

Seriously?

Got our SF city bill today. Yes, the bill for a whole 6 days. Ummm....seriously? You killed a tree for this?

I can't believe I have to write a check for $1.29! Seriously? Can't you just roll it over to next month? What a waste of paper!

FREEDOM!!!!

I really should be studying right now, but I had to share my joy.

We no longer have keys to the old apartment! HOORAY!! HOORAY!! HOORAY!!

Seriously, I am so happy that I no longer have to drive up to Provo to clean until 3 in the morning and then drive back down to SF. I can now devote 100% of my "spare" time to cleaning and finishing unpacking....which needs to be done by Monday night because we are getting our new washer and dryer on TUESDAY!!!

Also, my parents came down from the SLC today, with a really great office chair and their old microwave. They picked up 2 gi-normous tupperware containers that I had packed my fabric into (barely) when we moved. Seriously, these are the huge ones that you can pack all your Christmas decor in. Yeah, sad. I have a lot of fabric.

I am so grateful to finally have a microwave again. Seriously, you don't realize how much you take it for granted. Last night we made rolls, and Mike went to melt a stick of butter in the ..... oh yeah, we didn't have a microwave. He had to put it in a saucepan in the oven for 10 minutes. Not anymore though. We have an awesome full-size microwave (that takes up half the kitchen, but I am totally willing to give up that counter space for a microwave!)

Speaking of fabric earlier..... I am now the "squeaky wheel" at our house. I have no where to sew, and it is making me sad. I am going through withdrawls. Mike says that this "squeaky wheel" won't get fixed if it squeaks enough though. I hope think he is joking. I'm hoping to find a remedy for this problem fairly soon, and am welcoming all suggestions. ... except for "use your kitchen table" because I don't have an actual table, I have a folding table and that won't work. :(

Well, it's off to study now, just had to share in all of my joy and excitement over the little things in life.

Done

I have realized that no matter what time of day you drive to and from Provo, there are always people on the freeway. Always.

It can be 3 AM and there will be people on the freeway.

Fortunately, tonight was the last night I'll have to spend there! YAY! We turn in our keys tomorrow at noon. I have to go up a little before to finish cleaning the bathrooms, just the floors, and pick up some stuff to take to the DI, but then I am done with that place.

Fin.

Finished.

Finito.

YIPEE!!!

So.....Very.......Tired......

It's 3 AM. Well, a little after.

I just spent the last 8 1/2 hours at our former home cleaning. I had to clean the carpets so they would dry overnight, and I could vacuum them again tomorrow and then be done. It took me 5 1/2 hours to clean 2 bedrooms, a hallway, and the living room. Stupid cat hair! Stupid landlady for not telling us she had a cat whose hair is invincible (our Dyson, which I used to vacuum 2 times before steaming the carpets, wouldn't even pick it up! And it's the Dyson Animal!!).

I was doing laundry, too, while I cleaned. I'm sure the neighbors were all so in love with me. Big loud steamer going. Big loud laundry going. And I had my headphones on with the Twilight Soundtrack turned up way loud on my Zune. There was no way I was gonna hear the door if they knocked. Too bad! So sad!

By 12:30 the last load of laundry was still in the dryer. What the heck? It had already been in there forever it felt like! I had to buy blinds, light bulbs, and some other random stuff for the apartment, so I went to Wal-mart. When I got back, the laundry still was in the dryer! It was still going!! UGH!

I swept the balcony, and the carport, and washed the storage shed door off. I wiped out all of the kitchen drawers and cupboards, and almost killed myself several times by nearly falling off the counter.

FINALLY the wash was done. I threw it all in the car and drove home. Like I said, it's a little after 3 AM. I still need to study. I don't think I will. I'm tired.

And the sad thing is I didn't get to do all of my laundry! I still have a load of browns/reds that needs to go in. :(

Oh well....too.....tired.....to.....type.....anymore.......

AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

I feel like tearing my hair out. See, we're moving on SATURDAY....as in TWO DAYS from today. I have been packing for 2 weeks. I still don't have everything packed.

It is 11 PM.

I have a whopping 3 empty boxes left to pack a bathroom, all my knick-knacks, and a closet full of random stuff into. Yes, I think I am short way too many boxes.

Did I mention it's 11 PM?

Did I also mention that my 2 year old is sneaking down the hall at this very minute, hoping I won't see him and put him back into bed?

Too bad for him that it is WAY past his bedtime...by upwards of 4 hours.

Too bad for me I gave him a melatonin last night.

Okay, I'm calm now. He's in bed....for the time being.... and I am going to veg on the couch now for a while. Maybe I'll pop a movie in or something. And maybe I'll eat some food. I'm kind of hungry. Couldn't possibly be because I've been packing and moving and lifting boxes since 7 PM.

I don't know when we'll get our internet hooked up, so you might not hear from me for a while. I will try not to go through internet withdrawls.

I HATE WATER!!!

I was going to start packing tonight, since I only have 16 days now until we move. I went into the storage room, thinking we had boxes in there. Nope, I put them out in the storage closet outside.

Went out to the storage closet. It was kind of dark, and the light above our parking space doesn't quite work as well as it should. I grabbed a box. It felt wet. I pulled it out. Yep. The roof had leaked during the torrential raining period last week, and not only did it leak all over anything that wasn't covered, but anything touching the back wall of the storage closet got wet. GREAT!! Thanks for telling us when we moved in to tarp our items so they don't get ruined! OH WAIT! YOU DIDN"T TELL US THAT!! UGH!! (I think I'll leave a note in there for the next tennants, so that they can be prepared and tarp their belongings. Sad thing is, we have a tarp, but didn't know we needed to cover everything up.) :(

So, instead of bringing in 1 or 2 boxes to pack up, I emptied the storage closet completely so that the boxes could dry. I am astonished at how much stuff I actually fit in that tiny closet, and there was still leftover room, but now that it's all in my kitchen....I'm wishing it could have stayed outside.

The kitchen is starting to smell like drying mold. YUCK! I'm probably going to have to throw most of the boxes away, and buy new ones. Especially the dishes boxes. Not sure I want to put clean dishes in a moldy box. Doesn't quite seem like a smart idea to me. Anyone know where they sell boxes for cheap?

Moving

Found out today that we're moving the weekend of the 14-15 of February. It's the 28th of January. Yeah, I have 2 weeks to pack everything up. Oh so fun! Also, I have to work the 14th (Valentine's day) at the floral shop. So....Mike might be moving everything himself...or hopefully with the help of my dad, my brother (and maybe a couple of cousins). Or, we might just have to move on Sunday. YIKES! Oh so fun!! :) Yeah....I'm not a little stressed or anything now. NO, not at all!

Apartment Hunting

We saw an apartment in SF, and I really liked it. I filled out an application, and have been freaking out ever since. Yes, the owners know my in-laws, but that didn't neccessarily mean that we would get the apartment.

Well...I filled the app. out on Friday. Here it is Monday, and I wasn't expecting to hear anything about it for a few weeks. I got a phone call today, and it was one of the owners. She wanted to let me know that we GOT THE APARTMENT!!! HOORAY!! We move in at some point in March. I am SO EXCITED!!!! It is such a relief to not have to worry about finding a nice, inexpensive place to live. I seriously feel like a lot of stress has been removed. Now I just have to start slowly packing up stuff. Woop-dee-doo. (Have I mentioned that I HATE moving? No? Oh, well I hate moving. But living in a nice place isn't too bad.)

Fun New Game

Marshy discovered this really fun new game tonight. It's called "Put the laundry basket on top of you and sit there until Mom makes you go to bed." Fun, huh?!
If you look closely in the picture above, you can see his toes peeking out through the handle hole.

You can easily see his little fingers in this one, but his head is a little harder to see. It's right there above the fingers a few inches, though. He was practically bent in half! Oh to be that flexible again!

Which reminds me.... how is it possible that I can work out for 5 straight days, but the routines are getting harder instead of easier? Shouldn't they get easier the more you do them?? Seriously! Major pain tonight was what I experienced. OUCH!

Also, looked at an apartment in SF, and LOVED IT! Turned in an application. Hope we get it. The scary part is that they ask you how much debt you owe and what your monthly payment is. When you lump it all together like that it looks really bad. Good news, though, with Mike's nice paycheck, and my added income from quilting (and soon to be added medical transcriptionist income as soon as I finish the class in June), we have been able to make more than the minimum monthly payments (and we've been paying a lot in rent for where live). So, hopefully we'll get this place, and since the rent is a lot lower, we'll be able to pay off even more! Oh that would be so nice!! :) Fingers Crossed!!

Hard

School has gone from being super simple to REALLY HARD all of a sudden! It's crazy. They're throwing words that sound the same at me, like ilium and ileum (which are two completely different things). It's nuts. The closer I get to actually having to transcribe something, the scareder (yes, it's a word!) I get!! I feel like my brain is giong through a mental overload at times. Also, I find that no matter when I study, I have to eat carbs whilst studying so that my brain will continue to function. As of right now, I am out of carbs!! I am so tempted to just jump in the car and go grab a Coke somewhere, but I have been 2 weeks without any caffeine. Do you know how hard it will be to quit again if I slip up and have one now?? This is harder than when I quit caffeine because I was pregnant. And that was hard! Back then I needed my early morning TCBY cappucino milk shake with whipped cream, caramel sauce, and a cherry to start my day off right. Ooh it was so tasty! And so fattening. But ooh it was tasty!

Can't.....Give.....In.....Must.....Resist......Urges.....Don't.....Need.....Coke.....Anymore.......

ANYWAY... It's a little after midnight, and I have to take a quick study break. Fortunately for me, I decided to browse housing on craigslist, and I think I've found a good place. 2 bed, 1 1/2 bath, $650 a month. And it's close to the family and my work. According to the ad it's 1130 sq ft, which is 30 feet bigger than where we are now. That must mean extra large living areas?? (we have a 3 bedroom, 2 bath at 1100 sq ft right now) The great part is that it isn't available until mid-March, and our contract is up end of March, so that would be PERFECT! I'm going to call on it in the morning. Oh please let it be nice (or at least not a rat-hole) and still available!!