Summer Flowers

My plants are doing pretty good. They enjoyed the miracle grow I gave them yesterday. :) However, the tree nearest to the road has died. I'm not sure what type of tree it is, but all of our neighbors' trees like this has died as well. The subdivision gave each house 2 different trees for their front yards to start out with. I've noticed them cut down the ones that are dead, so hopefully they will take care of ours. That way we don't have too.. We are hoping they will replace it as well, but we'll see!:)

Here are some flowers from the front and back yard:

For another hobby this summer, I've started crochet. Yeah, I started. The book I got to teach me how to do crochet was really confusing. I was able to get the chain stitch and the single stitch, but the other ones... not so much! My mom said she'd help me next weekend.

Jobwise, I'm still working for the private tutoring company. I've applied to some Christian schools as well, but I haven't heard anything yet. I did have an interview last week at very rural public school which was an hour away from our house. The interview went well, but the Principal said she'd call back in a week. She hasn't.. so I'm assuming I didn't get it. It's ok though. :)

I've heard that schools really start searching out teachers in August when they realize they have openings. I also know about 10 people who majored in education and they can't get jobs, so I don't feel so bad about it. Plus, I'd get paid about the same as I'm making now at least for a year. However, it would be much steadier work and I wouldn't have to drive quite so much. I calculated my mileage from January to June (It helps out with taxes because I'm a private contractor) and I've driven 2,300 miles so far for this tutoring job! So, we'll see where the Lord leads me. It's all in His hands.

I'm enjoying the flexibility with the tutoring job right now. I'm only working about 8 hours a week during the summer, but I'll be at 35 to 40 this fall with school starting back. I'm also enrolled in 2 accounting classes at a community college for the fall. The classes there are much cheaper than UNC-Charlotte. :) Who knows? I may like it. If not, I'll get certified in school aged children and teach Pre-K somewhere. Or just take some cooking classes for fun! I am starting to miss school alittle bit, but it is nice having more free time! :)

Well, Paul and I are going to go for a bike ride this afternoon after he finishes building my dad's computer.

Dear Ivy,

You are a great MOM! Because of this, you deserve to be blog about.

A) Because it's true

B) Because I love reading about all of your adventures with Oliva and Iza

C) Because you can't erase this (haha!)

D) Because mom, dad, John, me, Iza, Pa, Jojo, Iza, and Olivia love you very much and someone needs to tell you this!

E) Because when I have kids mom and you will be who I bother 24 hours a day 7 days a week for advice, no on else.

F) Because it's TRUE!

G) All of the above to infinity


Correct Answer is G!

Love,

Your Sister, Holly

Father's Day Weekend

I hope my dad had a good Father's day yesterday. He had a very good sermon Sunday morning.



This weekend:

Mom brought back some yummy treats from Poland, including some mint vodka.




At Paul's parents, we worked on an 1000 piece puzzle. This was when we had just finished it. It was a very difficult puzzle. Everyone helped out. Micheal and Grandma Laing helped out as well, but I forgot to get them in this picture.




Can you find the two pieces that Sophie (the dog) ate?

This morning:

After getting out of bed this morning, I did my usual ritual of checking my e-mail, facebook, foxnews, etc.... Right when I sit down, I hear a cat running up the stairs at full speed, claws digging into the carpet, and the sound of a plastic bag being blown by high speed winds behind it. Now, this wasn't that big of a surprise because I've heard this sound before. It was when Friskie got a bag stuck around his waist. Cats just freak out whenever this happens. Usually, it's the handle that causes so much trouble and that was the case with Honey this morning. She was flying at full speed with the handle of a plastic Walmart bag around her waist (It wasn't even on her that tightly. She was just making it worse running with it on). This makes a lot of noise! After seeing a quick flash of white plastic bag and a blur of orange fur, I see that she's in the guest bedroom. She runs over the bed, around the night table, then under the bed. I quickly go into the room and shut the door behind me, so that I can catch her and get the bag off. All I see is this white plastic bag shooting out one side of the bed and then to the other... popping in and out of the bed shirt. I also see a very fluffed orange tail from time to time! Finally, Honey runs out heading for the door and I grab her. She's totally freaked out! I then tell her "Calm Down". She begins to settle and I take the bag off noticing that the bag is covered in urine! She had peed all over the place while she ran around the guest bedroom.

For about 30 minutes, I went around the entire room with Oxyclean scrubbing up time little yellow spots all over the carpet. Thankfully, she didn't get it on the bed! However, she was one wet cat. I wiped her down with a wet paper towel to get the urine off, but it took her about an hour to calm down enough to lick herself clean. After rescuing her from the plastic bag, she's been around me all day so far. She won't leave my side, but she constantly stares into the guest bedroom as if that's where the evil thing still resides.

My Garden, a great place to shed dead skin

Since it's been so hot, I figured my plants would enjoy some miracle grow.



This is a really neat miracle grow sprayer I got a few weeks ago, so I've had some experience with it. The switch to go from water to miracle grow is annoying, but it works well once you get it started.



Anyways, I had just finished spraying the front yard, so I walked around the back. The hose was tugging a little because I was pulling it a long ways. Now, if you've ever had experience shooting a gun, you know that the handle (the grip) is shorter part and the barrel is the longer part of which you aim with and never point at anyone or yourself! I grabbed the grip and aimed with the long end (big mistake) turned the sprayer on (with miracle grow) and I soaked myself... My face and shirt was soaked. I quickly turned it off and looked around making sure none of my neighbors happened to see because that would be very embarrassing (why am I sharing this?).

After that, I figured I might as well finish spraying the yard, so I walked over to my azaleas and low and behold... There was a snake's skin wrapped around one of my azaleas. Ugh! I guess the snake thought they needed something organic!

I quickly threw it over the fence.



John wanted me to go get it and wrap it around my bushes for a better blog, but i didn't want to go down into the swamp behind the fence to retrieve it. I figured the snake was still there.




Here's Paul coming out to see the snake skin. The kitties are watching.


Maybe gardening is not right for me? I don't know.

I'm glad I drive a stick shift

This is to my dad. Thanks for making me learn to drive a stick shift because this skill is not known by that many, including carjackers! haha! Read the following story:

http://www.charlotte.com/breaking_news/story/667817.html

All to save $12.75

So... we all have seen the PetMed commercials about saving money on Pet medications, such as frontline or revolution. It always has a movie star hold 3 to 10 cats on their lap flaunting the fact that they save hundreds of dollars using PetMeds. The best part is that the medicines are delivered right to your door! I decided to save some money myself and not drive now 30 minutes to my vet to pick up the medicine. I went online filled out the order form for Friskie and Honey and the cost of a 6 months supply was $76.99. My vet (not anymore) charges $89.74.


I get to the part of the form where I hit submit on my credit card information and I get an error message. They say I have to call and talk to someone at PetMeds. I find out that the only way to get Revolution was to have a veterinarian give PetMeds a prescription. Not only did they have to get the veterinarians phone number, but also both my cats age, weight, breed, colorings, etc. I realized after getting off the phone with her that I haven't updated my contact information at the vets yet, so I quickly call the vets, just in case the vet says they don't have a client with that address. I get put on hold for 5 minutes and then finally I get someone who says "Oh, we don't do address changes over the phone. You will have to go to our website and sign up for PetPortals." click.. she hangs up. Now, I go to their website and sign up for PetPortals. After putting in my e-mail address, I get a message saying "please wait until we sent a username and password to your e-mail address before signing in."... I wait and no e-mail! (I still haven't gotten this e-mail with my username and password, so I haven't updated my information.)

All this occurred two days ago. I decided not to worry about it....until this morning when I got an e-mail from PetMeds. PetMeds said that they could not process my order because the vets office required that I come by and pick up the prescription and that I had to contact my vets office. I call the vet and they blame PetMeds for all the hassle. Saying "Oh, we have plenty of Revolution in stock, just come by and pick some up. PetMeds doesn't deliver to your house, so you'll have to pick it up anyways." After hearing this, I was like.. ugg.. Who cares about saving money, I told the secretary at the vet that I would stop by later to pick up the prescription for $89.74.

Then, I call PetMeds back to cancel my order and to yell at them for the lies! The lady I spoke to said "we called your vets and we do deliver to your house, but your vet didn't give permission for us to do that. Sometimes vets want to make a profit, so they won't give us a verbal prescription. That's why we couldn't' process your order." They also informed me that they had proof of this information. Now, I'm mad. It's not PetMeds faults, but my vets. So that my vet can make more money, like $300.00 bills after each cat visit isn't enough he still needs his $12 bucks! Friskie and Honey still have a few more months before their next yearly appointment. Believe me, I'm never going to back to that vet, expect for getting that 6 months supply of Revolution today.

So... I've learned that my vet is more greedy than I thought and that PetMeds must have a prescription from your vet to fill your order. They do have other options to get the medicine. For example, you can send your vet a nasty letter that PetMeds has prepared for these cases, so that your vet feels like they may lose your business if they don't give the prescription to PetMeds. However, I don't feel like that worth it. It's only $12.75. It's probably way more than that considering PetMeds would like to make a profit too.

My little bath tub kitties need their heartworm, so I'll pay more for it.

Mulching

Right before taking the photos below, I stepped out on to our front porch and I believe I forced two baby birds to fly. They have nested in a shelf up in our front porch for the past 3 months. I've never seen them fly before, but once I opened the door, they flew off slamming into the walls and then finally flying off in another direction. I feel bad... But hey! I was nice and let them stay there. When the pest control guy came out, he had a broom ready to prod the nest down. I told him no.. that there were eggs in it and I didn't mind. It's really neat hearing the babies chirrup each day, but they are incredibly messy. When do you think I can take the nest down? Do baby birds come back to the nest once they've learned how to fly?

Anyways, the real reason for my blog is that we replaced the pine straw in our front yard with some red mulch. It looks much better. I still have to get 2 more bags to fill in some missing spots. Mulch doesn't go very far.


I also planted two lilies and something that starts with a C. My grandfather has one in his backyard. I need to get a bigger fence for it to climb up.


Work as a tutor has died down a bit because of the summer. I only have to work 3-5 hours a week! I also got a 5% raise, so that makes driving 30 to 40 minutes to each client a little less of a burden with gas being at $4.00 a gallon now. I'm still applying to different positions. I'm also toying with the idea of getting an associates degree in accounting. lol! We'll see. I'm a very indecisive person. That's been about it here. I'm just enjoying less work right now. :)

Here is Friskie being his usual relaxed self.

Birthright

So.. I heard on the news today that Barack Obama would like for college to be a birthright. Well, I just got another high school diploma then, but I will still be paying on my 20,000 dollar student loan when everyone else goes to college for free, even if they didn't score high enough on the SAT.

Vacation

Clearwater, FL

On May 26th, Paul and I drove to Clearwater, FL. It was a 10 hour drive from Aiken, SC. We left at about 11PM and arrived at our condo by 10 on Tuesday morning. We stopped for breakfast and for an hour long nap. This added some time to our drive. Throughout the trip, Paul and I switched off driving. This photo is where Paul and I switch for the second time. We tried to do 2 hour shifts. I took the 1 to 3 AM shift and Paul had the 3AM to 6AM shift. For his 3AM to 6AM shift, Paul got a Red Bull to help stay awake!


After breakfast, I drove us through Tampa during morning rush hour (not fun when you are lacking sleep!) and into Clearwater. We realized on the drive that I forgot to pack our beach umbrella, so we stopped by Target on our way in. We got an umbrella and we also picked up the Wii Fit while we were there because they were sold out in Charlotte. :)

Once we got to the condo, we took a 3 hour nap. Then, we headed out to the beach! :) It was great! For dinner, we had hot dogs and mac'n cheese.



The condo management was redoing the balcony, so you can see the orange fence in the pictures. That didn't really matter considering the beautiful sunsets we got to see each evening.

For the rest of the time there, we just relaxed on the beach. Paul and I read quite a few books. Paul always read at a rate of 3 times faster than me. ;) I got through 3 books and started another, but it really wasn't that good so I read a different book. I read The Dollmaker by Amanda Stevens , To Live by Yu Hua (a book my brother suggested which was really good), and Lost by Joy Fielding (terrible!). The worst part about the book Lost was that the author didn't understand that people knew when a flashback or memory was about to occur. Instead of having a nice flow into a past memory, this author would say (flashback:.....) (memory:...) (snapshot:.....). She would put the flashback or memory into parentheses. This really confused me. Needless to say, I'm never reading a book of hers again. Also, the entire 420 page book was about a women who believed in befriending her children instead of being their mother. Even though the book wasn't very good, I enjoyed sitting back and relaxing. I haven't been able to read for fun in quite a while.

After 2 days at the beach, Paul and I both managed to get really bad sunburns on our backs, even though we caked on sunscreen (50spf) till we were white. This is a picture of Paul's sunburn.



We wore shirts the next day down at the beach, but somehow we got burnt through those because we had different red areas later! It was a really bad sunburn. It was hard to lean back in chairs. Finally, after 4 days it started to peel. Besides the painful backs, we still went down to the beach every day!!!! :)




On Friday, some friends of ours came down. They are a young married couple that live in VA (PR and Molly).



We stayed up late most nights playing cards games with them. I have forgotten how much fun the card games Hearts and Spades are.

Paul and I in our World of Warcraft T-shirts. haha!





Monday night, Paul and I took along walk down to the Clearwater Pier. They have all kind of craft displays. You can buy really neat beach jewelry, so Paul and I got some stuff. I got 2 anklets and he got a guy's beach necklace.

Tuesday morning, PR and Molly had to catch an early flight back home. Paul and I had to leave that day too, but we decided to spend a few more hours on the beach before driving 12 hours back to Charlotte.


This was our 3rd year staying at the same condo. It's really quiet there, not many people.

This was our tanness. Hopefully, it will last awhile.

After chilling at the beach one last time, we got ready to go home. We took more pictures in the car then when we were on the beach.
This is a really blurry picture of the anklets I got.

We got stuck in traffic coming out of Tampa. It was a parking lot.

This rain cloud looked like a tornado.



Travel food... (Always good to have food while traveling.. that's what survival shows say. ;) )


A sign we saw at a Florida rest stop. I think my parents should get one for their backyard.



My reaction to hour 6. This was taken in Georgia.


Here is a really neat rainbow we saw in Georgia.



Our car was stuffed.


We got home at 1AM on June 4th.


The Wii Fit

I figured it was appropriate to have a separate section of my blog for this. If you find workouts boring and repetitive, you should get the Wii Fit! It is so much fun! The Wii Fit is a game you can buy for the Wii. It comes with a balance board. After creating your own profile, the balance board will get your BMI. It takes your height and weight (of which it can calculate by your standing on the board). After this, it gives you suggestions for what games or programs to play. There is a huge selection from Yoga, aerobic, strength training, or balance games. The balance board makes sure you are keeping good posture while doing the different activities. Here is a photo of me doing the Tree pose for Yoga. It knows when you aren't doing it correctly!



I wasn't completely balanced here, so it was fussing at me. These are photos of Paul doing one of the strength training exercises (push ups and planks). The cats look worried about us.




The aerobics are the best. It includes jogging, hoolahooping, and dancing moves. For jogging, you put the Wii remote in your pocket and jog in place while your Mii character runs for you simulating how fast or slow your going. You get rewarded if you jog a steady pace. For dancing, you have to step on the board and step off when the screen tells you too.

Ok.. I will stop with my love for the Wii Fit. If you lack motivation, this is a great purchase!