Puppy Name Poll

It has come to my attention that my last blog post was almost 2 months ago. Please don’t take it personally. I’m not avoiding you. Really, I’m not!

I had no intention of taking a break from blogging.  But life happens and although I prefer to use my blog to document my eventful life, I’ve been having a hard time getting motivated to sit down and commit to an hour of rambling on about it.

But after two months and endless petitions and picketing outside my door, I have returned to the blogosphere, if only to appease you with an embarrassing story or two.

Eventually.

For now, let me give you a brief update on life for us in the past 2 months:

We are all settled into our new house and loving it! This past weekend we coated ourselves in OFF Deep Woods, donned mosquito-net capes, and set out to do some yard work. Tyler went all PaulBunyan on the wood logs that have been sitting out back while I took a chainsaw to hack at the weeds that were taking over the front of the house. I’m hoping that now our neighbors will be able to tell that the house is no longer vacant.

I decided to tear down the wall paper in the bathroom, and in doing so, ended up having to replace the toilet. I couldn’t paint behind the it without removing the tank, but once we got the bolt on the tank loose, we couldn’t get it all the way off or all the way back on again. So… we went out and got a whole new toilet! It’s very pretty and it flushes in a jiffy! It’s supposed to be “virtually uncloggable” and I’m really tempted to try dropping things in their to test it.

Meanwhile, our old toilet sits in the backyard as a garden decoration.

Hunny, what are you going to do with that toilet???

 *sigh*

I really think the neighbors are warming up to us.

At least their dog appreciates a refreshing drink when he comes over to visit.

Speaking of dogs… we ARE getting a puppy! Turns out that our cousins’ dogs’ mommy dog just had another litter of puppies and we are going to get one of them! It will be an Austrailian Shepherd/Border Collie Mix and we’re so excited!!! Ok, I’m so excited! Tyler is… ok with it! Which is saying a lot, for Tyler.

So whadaya think? Boy puppy or girl puppy? Most people seem to think girl puppies are better, but I’ve struggled coming up with a good girl puppy name. Tyler doesn’t like names that don’t sound like dog names (i.e. Hank or Susan), or dog names that are too common (i.e. Maggie, Spot, Fluffy), and I can’t see calling my dog by any name that repeats itself (i.e. Coco, Fifi, Rin-tin-tin). Any suggestions will be openly considered by me and less openly considered by Tyler.

Here’s what we have so far:

So, whadaya think? Any keepers there? I can tell you right now that only about 3 of those are Tyler-approved, so suggestions are welcome. I’ll keep you posted on any further decisions, and will update with future pictures of our furball.

In two months or less.

Customized Christmas Cards Decked Out in Bling… These Are A Few of My Favorite Things

My apologies for the long title, but I just couldn’t help myself.

Remember how I mentioned yesterday about how you can get 50 free customized  Christmas cards from Shutterfly? Well I gave you one sample, but that really didn’t come close to representing the diverse collection of cards they have to offer.

Just ask my mom (she’s the one who’s picking out the 50 free cards). I sent her the link to their site yesterday morning, only to get multiple phone calls desiring my assistance in helping her narrow her options down. Finally, she chose this design (Wisemen’s Journey):

She narrowed it down to this one in part because she liked the wisemen and the message.

And then I started customizing the card with this picture (remember I told you about our mall Christmas picture?):

Only to discover that she could customize the whole message too! When I called her to tell her the good news, she responded with…

*silence*

hee hee… She was happy about that, but now it made it even HARDER to decide if she wanted to stick with her original photo card design or use a different one.

Ya know, I really should just break down and get texting with how many times we called each other yesterday.

Maybe next year.

Anyway, personally, I really love these designs:

I just love snowflakes (Bright Blue Snowflakes Design)… where are you, Snow??? I’m sure you Michiganders will probably hunt me down with pitchforks after this post, but…

Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!

And then I love the picture possibilities of this design here (Most Wonderful Year Design):

I love how you can write a decent-length message in this one (Christmas Letter Design):

I love the swirly font in this one and the black and white makes it so… striking I think. Not at all your typical Christmas card. But I love that the real meaning of Christmas is the theme of the card (O Holy Night Religious Design):

Yeah… I’m glad Mom’s choosing and not me… too many good choices. Of course, it doesn’t help that they find the cutest darn kids to put in the sample pictures. I mean who really needs to customize it if the kids in the pictures on the front are already cuter than your pictures? Unless of course you already have a little one, in which case, send me your kids’ cute pictures so I can use them on my cards!

Although, come to think of it, some people might get the wrong idea.

Anyway… back to reality.

Here are some links to their products (they’ve got some pretty good deals going on this week… even for people who don’t have blogs!):

* Christmas Photo Cards (like the ones I showed you)  http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-photo-cards

* New Year’s Cards (including invitations – just don’t forget to invite me) http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/new-years-cards

* Photo Calendars (My friend Summer gets one of these each year from her husband. I love this idea!) (*cough* hint-hint *cough* Although I suppose they would only be pictures of myself since my handsome hubby is less than cooperative about getting his picture taken.) http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars  

So what d’ya think? Did ya see anything you liked (other than the glamourous mall family Christmas shot)?

I love this time of year! So many of my favorite things all packed into one month!

Happy planning!

DiScoMboBuLAted

As you can probably tell, I haven’t really felt up to blogging lately.

I know my comment que will now be flooded with desperate requests for me to keep blogging, but don’t worry, I haven’t given up on my blog just yet.

It’s just that the shock of the house stuff really set me in a weird mood… disappointed and lethargic.

And work last week was suddenly SWAMPED! We were so slammed, I was constantly scrambling to do 17 different things at once while carrying on 6.5 conversations at the same time.

Ok, so maybe I am exaggerating a little.

But only a little.

I was SO drained by the weekend that I just felt like collapsing.

Then on Sunday we went to church and then to meet my parents so that we could ride with them to my brother’s college so that we could go celebrate his engagement and watch his fiance’s mad volleyball skills in the school’s last conference game of the season. Whew!

Yes, my lil’ bro is engaged, friends!!! *sniff* He’s just growin’ up so fast, he is!

I mock-sniff, but I actually was quite emotional about it all… I just can’t believe it! And hearing him tell the story of his engagement??!! Wow… and seeing the looks on both of their faces? I’m so happy for them!

I think maybe I am emotional partly because I feel so far removed from their lives. They live 2 and a half hours away so I really hardly see Casey, much less Amanda (his fiance). I love my bro so much, but really hardly know him as an adult and that makes me sad.

Ok, adult-ish.

Anyway, I’ll wrap up the sappy stuff here for you. But I will tell you, given permission, the proposal story would make for some really great blogging material. He’s a romantic, that boy. I trained him well.

Anyway, all of this is to say that if my blog posts seemed discombobulated before, they would have been 23 times worse had I blogged anytime in the past week.

So… a couple more quick updates for you:

On the house: Nothing.

Actually, my attitude has (gradually) changed… who am I to question God, What do you mean you want to save us $16,000???

Really, Cheyenne? You’re complaining to God about THAT?! God has been so good to us and is blessing us greater still by providing for us in ways we didn’t even ask! 

On work: We have still been busier-ish, but it’s slowed down a little this week. I dreaded going into work a couple mornings, but this morning God woke me up 10 minutes early (4:30 am) and I read from my Jesus Calling book and then read the verses that went with it. I read Deut. 33:25, “As your days, so shall be your strength.” Amen. That was exactly what I needed. When we look ahead at the day and take inventory of the strength needed compared to the strength we feel, it just doesn’t match up. But God knows just how much strength we need and provides it as we need it.

I feel like I had something else to tell you about, but I just can’t think of it now… maybe it will come back to me so that I can write another post sometime before Christmas.

Second Annual Mother-Daughter Shopping Expedition

H-h-h-helloo out th-th-there.

Please forgive my chattering teeth as well as any future spelling errors which I will attribute to shivers.

It’s a bit nippy in our apartment right now. 64 degrees. But I just can’t bring myself to switch the thermostat to heat. It looks beautiful outside. If I didn’t know any better, I would guess 70 degrees. But I know better than to fall for Fall’s seductive powers. I know to at least bring a jacket when I give into her beckoning calls.

Meanwhile inside, I am sitting here anxious and waiting, wasting time on my computer that could be spent cleaning. Or blogging. Well, at least I am accomplishing something right now.

“Why anxious?” you say? Well, remember how I told you about that “pinball” interview I had at work? Well, I still haven’t heard anything. And waiting makes me anxious. And last time we talked, remember how I said we have two houses we want to look at with our parents? Well, that’s not until Thursday — a whole 2 days away still! And waiting makes me anxious. Oh, sorry, I guess I just said that. Now I’m repeating myself repeating myself.

Please excuse my quirky humor this morning. I just can’t s-s-seem to th-th-th-think straight in our apartment’s arctic climate.

Anyway…

How about an entertaining story to distract us all from the anxiety of pressing news and decisions that we can do nothing about at present?

Oh, good I was hoping so.

So this weekend my mom and I went on our second annual shopping trip. And by trip, I literally mean trip. Oh, well, wait, not “trip” like a drug reference, I promise no drugs were involved (though at times, things did get pretty trippy). I really, truly meant “trip” as in “overnight expedition.”

We started our journey at Pier 1 and I found some really cool float frames for really cheap. In preparation for our trip, I had researched every possible store we would want to stop at and scoured the internet for coupons. Saved me 30% at Pier 1. Cha-chinggg!

Then we went to the outlet mall and scored some serious deals. Surely you know by now that my absolute favorite store in the whole wide world is Maurice’s, right? Well, with my coupons, I managed to get everything for about half price! Sure, I may have purchased a super cute vest that my husband finds more hideous than last year’s fashion scarf. But that didn’t surprise me too much. I tend to not be much of a trend-wearer myself, so the occasional trendy item tends to be a turn-off to him. But I think deep down he likes to see me take occasional risks. As long as they’re occasional. Which I have no problems with.

The other store that made my jaw drop at the register was the Hanes outlet. Approaching the counter, I had in hand 1 of the most expensive sports bras, 2 pairs of running shorts, and a moisture-wicking shirt for Tyler. And would you guess what it cost me??? $51!!! What??!!! Yeah, that was my reaction too. Execpt with fist pumps and hollering and gradual de-escalation as I realized what a spectacle I was making of myself.

Ok, ok, so I didn’t actually physically act that out. But inside I was doing some major celebrating and would have acted it out if it would have been socially acceptable.  

I suppose you are wondering where the “entertaining story” bit comes in. Well… let me just tell you…

After the outlet mall, we hit up a fancy-schmancy 2 story mall in Novi, then programmed my Austrailian-speaking GPS, Richard, to take us to the mall near our hotel which had a Cinnabon. You see, I negotiated an awesome price on our hotel via priceline, but unfortunately it did not come with a free continental breakfast. The only Cinnabon near where we live is at the airport, so when I discovered this Cinnabon so close to the hotel, I knew it was destiny that brought us together. And, seriously, think about it… Cinnnabon vs. expensive continental breakfast… is this even a fair contest?

We made it to the Cinnabon with ease, then programmed Richard to direct us to our hotel. By this time it was 9:30 pm and we were starving. As we pulled out of the mall parking lot, I saw a Chili’s and started drooling at the thought of their fajita pita and french fries. Oh man, if I ever needed a fajita pita, it was right then. But we really wanted to get to our hotel so we could get settled and relax during out dinner, so we took note of the Chili’s and drove on. Richard took us right off of the main drag, then 4 grueling miles of traffic to turn right again for a mile and then left for another mile or so. At each restaurant we passed, we took note, thinking “this will be more convenient from the hotel.” But by the time we were on that last mile, all civilization seemed to be reduced to dark residential neighborhood. We were scratching our heads when in the middle of a stretch of houses Richard confidently announced, “You have reached your destination.”

Uhh…. I don’t know what hotels look like in Austrailia, Richard, but this isn’t it.

So we pulled into a gas station and called the hotel. The only thing we can figure out is that he took us down West Maple instead of East Maple, because we had to go quite a ways down that street to finally arrive at our hotel.

Thank goodness!!!

At the check-in desk, the lady handed us a paper with a bunch of recommended restaurants that were close to the hotel. And can you guess what was at the top of the list?

Yep, Chili’s!

I was so excited, I felt another celebratory spasm coming on. But I think my blood sugar was just too low for it to manifest, because all I could do was drop back into the passenger side seat with a dazed look of happiness on my face. The directions were nice and clear: turn right off of the street the hotel was on and another right onto the street Chili’s was on. It was a quick drive.

Now, I realize at this point my directions may have seemed a bit superfluous. But do you realize how many times we turned right?  Quite a lot, actually. And everyone knows that 3 rights take you right back to where you started.

And that is where we found ourselves. Right back where we started at the Chili’s that had first activated my salivatory glands. Why on earth Richard had taken us the long way around, I do not know. But he came dangerously close to getting strangled with his own cord, let me tell ya.

And it my steak fajita pita was bliss… pure bliss.

The rest of our trip went fairly smoothly. Other than the fact that we reserved the hotel by another 3 story mall (different from the one the Cinnabon was in) that ended up not opening until noon the next day. In an effort to return home at a decent hour, we chose to bypass this mall. Which meant we drove all the way to Troy (and all the way around Troy) for a Cinnabon! Mmmm… they were so good though. Maybe it was worth it.

Yeah, it was definitely worth it.

And Mom and I had a blast. We laughed and ate and walked and talked. Thank goodness the men in our lives are so gracious as to allow us to leave them to fend for themselves for a weekend (although Tyler did get all crazy and run 7 miles. And decide he wanted to start cutting his own hair – which actually turned out pretty good).

So probably the more accurate perspective would be, “Thank goodness the men in our lives trusted us enough to let us out for a weekend.”

So thankful for such a great time with my mom.

And I have to also add that my hubby looked pretty good today wearing the sweater and pants I bought him.

Success!