Bits and bobbs

So I left many of you hanging with our last post as to our recent addition to the house. While some of you may have been thinking something like a baby, dog, new car or something else really significant, I was talking about our new chair! It's a recliner!!!!

For Christmas, Dave and I asked mainly for money to buy some things to fill the bare spots in our new house. Well, we were extremely surprised at how much our families responded to our request. Our original thought was to get a dining room table and chairs to fill our empty dining room (right now there is just a china cabinet). When we realized how expensive they were, we decided to look for some other things now and hope for a really big tax return to get a table. Our living room was slightly bare. We needed some kind of shelf to display some pictures and books, once we took the wreath down from Christmas there was a huge bare spot above the fire place, and most importantly, when the tree was taken down, a huge hole was left. So we did some shopping, saving a certain amount for a chair and a certain amount for some odds and ends. Well, to make a long story short, we found the chair for way under what we had set aside for it, which left some extra cash that Dave said I could spend at some of the after Christmas sales. Needless to say, the chair is a recliner and is the perfect shade of brown to fit into our red, cream and brown living room. I have already taken several naps in the reclining position.

In other news, this week started what I like to call my "weekly school routine". I decided the best thing for me this semester was to take a "sabbatical" from working for McGraw-Hill. As much as I love my job there, the work is sporadic, and what I need most this semester is routine. So, I was able to work out a permanent schedule with my boss at Starbucks that will leave me 4 days a week that I can devote to my thesis and other school work. So here is my Monday-Thursday schedule:
7-8 AM- wake up, drink coffee, quiet time
8-9 AM- this is my hour for any kind of chore/house work/wife responsibilities to get accomplished
9-10 AM- exercise!
10-11:30 AM- get home, shower and clean up, get ready for the day (it doesn't really take me an hour and a half, but I gave myself the extra time in case I was running late)
11:30 AM-3:30 PM- SCHOOL WORK!
When Dave gets home at 3:30, I am finished with school work for the day and just enjoying my evening. I am allowing myself some flexibility between 8 and 10 AM. If there is some extra chores that take me a long time, or if I was up late the night before and need some extra rest, those hours can be flexible. Anyway....it is a little hard for me to realize that for the next semester all I have to look forward to during the days is 4 hours at my computer, but it will all pay off in the end. Think about me when you are all leading your exciting lives raising kids, taking breathtaking photos, working with foster parents, teaching eager young minds, counseling people through their troubles, selling advertising on the Internet, working in the garden or in the wood shop, creating new graphics for life insurance, or just having fun!


I leave you now with what Dave and I did for about 3 hours on Saturday morning. We collected all this....
To get some really good looking this.....

all for something that I will post about on our next blog this weekend (if you already know, don't spoil the surprise!) Oh, and my back is still sore from all the raking.