The "Other" Blog

I think I owe my husband a plug... so here it is.

Eric's blog: pruningspears.blogspot.com

Or "Children of Peace" on the blog roll to the right.

Nothing like mine... his takes actual brain power.

The Male Gender

What makes them so unique? Here are a few musings from recent weeks with my husband...

Tidiness is like a foreign term. Where Eric takes his shoes off, they will stay. They will NEVER make it to the closet. Same with the dishes. Where he finishes eating, they will stay. They seldom make it to the kitchen and rarely make it to the dishwasher. He recently told me I was "wasting my words" by asking him to put his dishes IN the dishwasher. What was I thinking?! And this morning there were 2 folded blankets on a chair needing to be put away. Eric wanted that chair and instead of putting the blankets away, he merely moved them to another chair!

The laundry... I will never understand this one. Eric will wait until the LAST second to do laundry. I mean to the point of having no undergarments left to wear. Then it's a huge rush to do his laundry. Let me quickly insert that Eric does his own laundry, and for that I am very thankful :) So this huge rush happens so he can have clean clothes and then what? THEY SIT IN THE DRYER FOR DAYS! Eric is now living out of our dryer. He also doesn't like his clothes wrinkled. A female would fold or hang her clothes to avoid wrinkles. Eric...? He'll just push the "start" button on the dryer and let them tumble a little more. His clothes will not disappear until I need the dryer and remove them myself.

On the clothes topic... Why is it that men have their favorite outfits that they wear again, and again, and again, and again while ignoring the rest of their closet? Eric has some nice clothes that he looks great it. Does he wear them? NO! He wears t-shirts everyday. He also has a wide variety of t-shirts. Does he wear them? NO! He definitely wears the same 4-5 t-shirts again, and again, and again, and again. By the way, he does the same thing with towels. He will only use HIS towel. What's wrong with the new ones that match our bathroom?

While I've dedicated this post to my husband, I need to take a moment to mention the positives.

• Eric cooks! He prepares the meat portion of our meals 98% of the time & I love it :)
• Eric is fun. Life is never boring or dull... he makes me laugh!
• Eric appreciates me. He is very loving, thoughtful and caring... and he tells me!
• Eric thinks. His favorite things are to read and study. He will not let his brain go to waist and he challenges me to do the same (I'm still learning).
• Eric cares about people. His love for humankind is contagious. He whole-heartedly believes that we are the glory of God and he lives that way.

I love my husband. While his nuances are frustrating, they do make me smile :) He is wonderful.

3.2

What is 3.2??

There this is this road, Franklin Pk, that Eric and I drive down almost every day. We've discovered it's a better route to downtown than the interstate. We're only on it for a few miles, but it's beautiful. The houses are set back off the street, some look like the plantations on "Sweet Home Alabama," they have beautiful yards, some are gated... exactly what you would expect southern plantations to look like. Most have garages larger than any home I've lived in, some pretty neat cars, and and a mystery to them. On our very first trip down that road I commented "I would love to see the inside of these homes." Not because they're huge, or fancy, but because they have history, personality, and a distinctness that makes them unique.

So I obviously have nothing to do with most of my time every day (I mean come on people, I'm crocheting!). A few days ago I discovered a website of Nashville tours that you can take. They drive through the "highlights" of Nashville, a tour bus full of folks gawking at all of the stars' homes. Okay, let's face it... if I could afford it, I would be on that bus! However, I am currently lacking an income, so I took my own "at home, on my computer" tour. And guess what I discovered? That road that I love (Franklin Pk) is LOADED with stars' homes. There are swimming pools shaped like guitars, and tour buses parked behind the houses... their own personal tour buses!

And the best news of all? Martina McBride! Oh yes, her house is closest to ours!

I LIVE 3.2 MILES FROM MARTINA MCBRIDE :)

Anyone want to visit???

Yarn Balls

A quick update on the crocheting project...

I bought a book titled "I taught myself to crochet" and it has worked quite well! I crocheted a sample of about 6 different stitches and then let Eric pick his favorite. (I decided to make a throw to match our new living room colors.) Then I made a pot holder of the favorite stitch. It actually turned out quite well, which led me to dive right into blanket making!

I am currently on my second ball of yarn, and it's going alright. Eric still thinks I'll stop with an extremely long scarf when I reach the right width. I am determined to prove him wrong! However, it might take me a little longer than planned... I need a job in order to purchase more yarn :)

When I find the camera cable, I'll post pictures.

Community Noises

We live in a new area. We're close to a fairly large city, and our complex is off a main street. The first noise you would expect to hear is that of traffic. You're right, we do hear a lot of traffic... but that's only the beginning!

We also have a hospital behind us... maybe 1/4 of a mile. We hear ambulances day and night. We don't mind them most of the time, I think we're getting used it. I just have to remind myself "It's the hospital, not the area we live in."

We landed ourselves in a predominately Hispanic area. Our neighborhood, the grocery store, international markets on every corner, signs I cannot read up and down all near streets... it's interesting. We don't mind it at all, and Eric speaks some Spanish, but it's still catches me off guard sometimes to hear another language that I cannot understand. There are definite perks to living in this area. 1. Pick up soccer, any time of day, in all open fields and parks. 2. A wonderful variety of Mexican restaurants that are very authentic. 3. Seeing God more clearly. "God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them." Genesis 1:27

But perhaps the strangest noise, and one that will take the most getting used to, are the airplanes. Much to my dismay, we live about 2 miles from the Nashville airport. I did not know this before we moved in (yes, poor research on my part). One will never be ready or prepared for the sound that comes with a landing airplane. It shakes our windows, rattles our ears, and temporarily suspends conversations. It even warrants a "pause" in movies while we let the plane pass. As you would imagine, it is especially annoying in the minutes before falling into a deep sleep. We experienced one of these moments a few nights ago. In our groggy, almost asleep voices...

Joy: I think that one is coming to get us.

Eric: I think it's gonna fly through our house.

Food

So I've been trying to eat healthy lately. It's been 10 whole days now of healthy eating with one "bad" day. Let me just say, it stinks!

It all started by going on vacation. Eric and I decided we would eat whatever we wanted that week, and it ended up full of pastries, coffee, pizza, ice cream, candy, snow cones, popcorn, etc. If it had sugar, we ate it! That was a glorious week :) Well then we visited with family in Frankenmuth and happened upon a bakery... and then we visited with family in Virginia and went to our favorite place, the Desserterie. By the end of 3 weeks traveling I'm sure we had both gained weight and I may have had a sugar addiction! After sharing my story with my mom and asking "Is a sugar addiction a good thing?" she suggested this "diet" of sorts. Yeah right!

So my mom came to visit us in Nashville and brought this magazine full of "eat healthy" advice and decided she'd do it with me for 3 weeks. At the time I thought it sounded like a great idea. Eat healthy, start exercising again, and feel good, right? Well after 10 days of absolute misery I'm ready to quit! All of my favorite foods have been nixed... ice cream, pizza, bread, ice cream, yogurt, pasta, ice cream, fruit, candy, soda, and ICE CREAM! Every day I wake up ready to quit and somehow talk myself into finishing "just this one day." So far, this battle has happened in my head every day except one. Sunday.

On Sunday we decided to have some friends over for lunch, so I had to cook a FULL meal. We had spaghetti, chicken Parmesan, watermelon, garlic bread and fruit pizza. It was AMAZING! I even had a glass of sweet tea to finish it off. The truth is, none of those foods are on my "approved" list :) It felt good to be rebellious on my little diet!

I'm sure you guessed it, I definitely gained weight with that one day's meal... boo! I suppose that's how I energized myself enough to kick it into gear on Monday. So here it is Wednesday. Once again I want to quit. I'd love to eat a nice greasy pizza for dinner... but I won't. Even more than that I'd love to have a nice bowl of creamy ice cream tonight... I'll try not to.

Thank goodness for support (thanks, Mom). I'll do my best to finish out my 3 week commitment. Only 11 days to go!

Welcome

So I'm creating a blog... I've recently moved to a new state, consequently have very few friends, have yet to secure a job, and... have some time on my hands! So why not share with you?

Today Eric and I decided to get our new licenses. Tennessee, yay! You all know how it can be sitting in line to get a license. Some of our friends suggested we visit the "License Office" in the city south of us, since the offices in Nashville are always over crowded. We took their advice with much appreciation and journeyed to La Vergne this morning. When we arrived we were told there was one person before us in line (despite about 15 people in the waiting area). Eric's number was B213 and I was B214. After a few minutes of paperwork, Eric's number was called. His procedure was fairly painless, despite the "office" worker leaving for lunch in the middle of transferring licenses and handing him off to the next guy. That's where it went sour... the lunch hour. Everyone working in the office went on lunch except one lone ranger. As we sat there for the next 45 minutes we watched the numbers climb... soon there were 48 people waiting in line. Oh, did I fail to mention that 3 other people had their number called in front of me? Not sure how that happened. I, however, waited patiently because I was staring at a poster on the wall that read "Thank you for waiting patiently, there are 17 people in line for an organ transplant."

At the end of our 2 hour trip, we have new, yet 80's looking licenses. They are a nice urine yellow color with the words "The Volunteer State" printed boldly across the top. I would have preferred to keep my pretty Illinois picture, but oh well. The next step is transferring my license plate... I think I'll wait on that one.

So I still don't have a job, which has made me kind of crazy. I freak out when one bowl is left in the sink, or when one black spot is on our carpet. I have nothing else to do, so why not have the cleanest apt. in town?! I've been exercising every morning, I've painted all that needs to be painted, I've unpacked and put away all possible things. Our laundry is up to date and our apt. is spotless. So today I decided to take up a new hobby... crocheting. :) Let's face it, I need something to keep me busy!

Until tomorrow...