Lucas's Goodie Jar

This post was first featured on my now defunct blog, M&J Hooray!

Happy Birthday Daddy! I haven't gotten to see him yet today, but maybe he will see this. Probably not. 'Cause he's at work. Jarred and I got him a cool gift, and we know he'll really like it!

On another note, I'd also like to wish Stellan a Happy Birthday. I've been reading the blog for almost a year and a half, even before I myself started blogging. So I remember the posts about your SVT back then, and it's sad to still see them now. I hope you do like before and fight this!

And on one more note, I have a classmate that I have gotten to know and she is celebrating her four year wedding anniversary today.

I brought home Lucas's goodie jar today. Wanna see?

Just a bit longer 'til Jarred and I get our Christmas gift!

Not Me Monday!

This post was first featured on my now defunct blog, M&J Hooray!




Such a love-hate relationship with Mondays, I have. They are the first day 'back to the grind' and I think everyone can attest that Mondays are pretty slow-going. But now we can look forward to Mondays just a little bit. MckMama has created the blog carnival "Not Me Monday" and now I am able to spill my guts without being too forthcoming!

Sunday got off to a bang! It wasn't me who got up to cook up some country sausage to put in biscuits. I did not sweat over a hot pan full of ground-up-somethin' with grease everywhere, just so Jarred and I could have a real breakfast. And by real, I do not mean unhealthy, full of fats and salt.

And it wasn't me who absolutely couldn't wait to get to work that afternoon!*

Today I did not talk to the guy who sits next to me in class and ask him about his fall break in Florida. When he told me he enjoyed eating at Chipotle's, I never even thought of laughing out loud and recounting a sketch from South Park introducing the As Seen On TV product ChipotlAway. He most certainly did not seem utterly offended by my remarks. Nope.

Short but sweet! There is not much I do that I am embarrassed by, but there are always a few times a week I get a little flush in my cheeks!

Tonight will be a good night for NO WORK and I will spend it relaxing. I am a little down right now from a phone call with a person I don't care for earlier today, and I'm going into the ophthalmologist tomorrow, but I am trying not to let myself worry. There are bigger things to be concerned with. Or maybe the saying should be, "Try not to have anything to be concerned over." Life is far too short.

Speaking of that, a prayer should be lifted up for Farhat, a girl in one of my management classes. Our teacher told us that she was killed in a car accident over break. I never spoke to her, but she always contributed to class conversation and she seemed very nice.

Hope everyone has a good rest of the Monday!


*This isn't even a part of my Not Me Monday. That's just sarcasm

Stir Fry

This post was first featured on my now defunct blog, M&J Hooray!

Just 'cause I love blogging so much, here's another recipe. This one is for chicken and veggie stir fry. I adapted it from a recipe in the church's cookbook.

Chix and Veggie Stir Fry

1/2 tsp of ginger
dash of pepper
1/2 cup of chix broth
1/4 cup soy sauce (don't use light soy sauce, yuck!)
1 cup baby carrots, sliced
1/2 of a zucchini, cubed
2 small potatoes, cubed
1/2 of a green pepper, cubed
2 chicken breasts, cubed
Oil

In a bowl, mix together the ginger and pepper, then gradually stir in the broth. Once stirred, add the soy sauce and set to the side. In a large skillet, heat just enough oil to coat the veggies. Put all the vegetables in the skillet and stir fry on medium-high heat for about 5 minutes, or until veggies are almost completely cooked. Take veggies out of skillet and set aside in a large bowl. Add a bit more oil to the skillet, then throw in the chicken that has been cubed. Fry until chicken has been cooked through. Add veggies back into skillet, then stir in the soy sauce mixture. Bring everything to a boil for around 1-2 minutes. Serve with brown rice.

This is an awesome recipe. I wolfed down my plate and I think Jarred liked it too. You could possibly add cornstarch to the soy sauce mixture to make the mixture a bit thicker. But I like the soy sauce to remain a bit more liquid so it will soak into the rice. Just use any veggies you have around the house or anything that is in season. I would have also added peas, but I didn't want to open up a bag from the freezer yet. It's an all-in-one meal and I love those. It's all you have to serve. You could substitute the chicken for any meat. It's great!



As I said in my last post, I am getting super excited for the holidays. I definitely want to go to the Hallmark store so Jarred and I can each pick out another ornament for our tree. We are starting the collecting young so by the time we are real old, we will have many ornaments and memories :)

Little side note: if anyone wants to have the most perfect paring knife, I would highly recommend the Quikut brand. These knives are actually under a dollar and are the sharpest and best paring knives I have used. I had to share my absolute joy at finding the most perfect paring knife!

Randomly, we are getting excited for Lucas to get here! I'm getting home a jacket (whether Jarred likes it or not) and taking him to the dog park in town. Yes sir, he will be styling and healthy!

Alton, Apples, Avastin

 This post was first featured on my now defunct blog, M&J Hooray!


Ah, Alton Brown. This comic suits him to a tee.
And thanks Natalie Dee for the comic. Be careful clicking on her website if easily offended. Some of her comics are rather crass.
I bring up Alton Brown 1) because I watch a lot of Food Network and 2) by watching a lot of TV, I now know that Good Eats is having its 10th anniversary.
And I just got done making his biscuit recipe. And they are deelish.
Jarred and I had a busy day since I didn't have to go into work. Yay! These are the only times I can get stuff done. We went to Kohl's to find Jarred some more dress pants and shirts to wear to work. And I got a cable-knit sweater and some long sleeved shirts. My winter wardrobe doesn't consist of much. I don't like wearing short sleeves during fall or winter, while Jarred is fine just slipping on a coat to go outside.
At the store, I tried on a faux-fur white vest. And then promptly took it off because of how ridiculous I looked.
I might have to go get some more cords for work when I get my next paycheck. I am running on two pairs and that just won't do.
After lunch, Jarred and I took a little trip up to the orchard. I thought it was freezing outside. There were so many people there, but at the same time, it wasn't bad. We bought a good amount of stuff. We bought a bag of Granny Smith apples for my bread recipe, 2 bags of Hoppin' John mix, Dill and Chive dip mix, Apple Cinnamon pancake mix, Xtra Hot Chow Chow, Apple Cherry Cider, Apple Butter, and a beautiful basket made by a village in Africa.
The Apple Butter made Jarred think of the Alton Brown program we had seen last night on biscuits and he wanted some. We were taking our weekly trip to the grocery store and we bought all the ingredients. Thank goodness we have some country sausage in the freezer, just for an occasion like this! We are going to have a good albeit unhealthy breakfast tomorrow!

On some not so exciting news, my eye is acting up again, and I am going to have to go through with surgery again. I don't need my ophthalmologist to tell me that, just confirm it.

I don't know if I've ever written a blog about what is wrong with my eyes. But just in case I haven't, here's the rundown:

Sophomore year of high school, I was taking an Algebra class. We were working with gridded paper. I noticed that the lines seemed a bit distorted, but I didn't think much of it because I'd always had 20/20 vision. I just assumed I was tired and needed more sleep. After about a week of distorted vision, I got scared because I knew something was really wrong. Mom took me to the optometrist. I don't remember what he found, but he sent me to a specialist. The ophthalmologist confirmed that I had OHS. It is caused by a fungus in the soil and dust that is inhaled. It creates flu-like symptoms (and yes, I did have the 'flu' in elementary or middle school). Histoplasmosis irritates the eye and created scarring on the retina. A weak blood vessel will leak into the scar and cause distorted vision.

And it sucks.

I have had quite a few laser surgeries to correct the problem. It would burn out part of my vision, but my doctor said since I was so young, my right eye would over compensate for my left.

Then the wonderful medical community found a better treatment (more like barbaric): Avastin. If you are easily alarmed or grossed out, stop reading now.
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Okay all non-squeamish, Avastin is a kind of liquid/gel/I'm not sure that is injected into my eye. With a needle. While I watch. It hurts. Like a mother. Like hell. And then my eye pops, and my vision goes completely black. It is so gross feeling. And then 15 minutes later, I feel another pop and my vision is back, but blurry. And the whole car ride home, I am in pain. Avastin is injected into the 'offending' blood vessel. It is pretty simple, but of course, it hurts a lot more than the laser surgery. When I had the Avastin injection my frosh year at PU, my parents came to be there with me. I was so scared in the waiting room. I cried and cried and cried. I don't know if I've ever cried that much in public before. I am pretty certain that has got to be something most people would avoid; getting a needle stuck straight in their eyeball.
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Alright, you can start back reading here, all weak-stomached. This is something I am going to deal with my whole life. There is no cure for OHS. It just depends on how often it happens. Another weak blood vessel has burst into another retina scar, so I will need some sort of treatment. Probably Avastin. Maybe I'll let Mom and Dad photo-document to show everyone how brave I am. Because I felt so brave after the first treatment, let me tell you! I can't tell anyone to pray that there's nothing wrong, because there is, and the distortion won't magically go away. I can only ask everyone to be thinking of me and I will give updates on when I get treatment.

The Office Wedding

This post was first featured on my now defunct blog, M&J Hooray!

This is why I love The Office. If you don't watch, maybe you should start.
I have a lot of respect for the writers who gave their fans the happy ending we've been wanting for four years. And I also love the cultural references. Get onto Hulu to watch the first part and second part.

Fuzzy Sister

This post was first featured on my now defunct blog, M&J Hooray!

Who wants an update on Baby? I haven't been writing very much about her since I don't see her very much. Tonight I had Mom take some pictures of me and the fuzzy sister.

I love her so much. She truly is a 'baby'.

Funnies Thing Today

This video is titled "Proof Women Are Born This Way".

I think Jarred and Dad would agree.

The Big Reveal

So who wants to know what all the hub-bub around here has been?

A show of hands?

Nobody?

Well, I'll tell you anyway. It may be a letdown to some of you all, but Jarred and I are so excited!



OKAY!


Jarred...... GOT A JOB! He is working in Credit and he starts on Monday! This means he is salaried and he is going to be making some gooooood money. We are so excited for him to start. We have already begun planning our summer vacation next year to FL because he gets off 2 weeks. We want to take a week to go to FL and just relax. But that's getting a little ahead of ourselves. But still.

Jarred now has an official job title. He is an adjuster for the Credit Department and I know he is going to love it there.

This is so exciting to us because this leads to other opportunities for us. And it is also nice to be able to be a bit more comfortable financially too. We're not struggling, but we're nowhere stable by any means.

But that all changes on Monday!

I know I've said it before, but I just can't help but remember this time last year. There weren't any prospects for him at all. He applied at places, but they took one look at his resume, saw "Degree in Criminal Justice" and said no. He was working part-time retail, getting up at 3 in the morning and working until lunch time and we were at a really low point in our relationship. After he left his retail job, it was a good few months (like almost 4?) until he got a job with the dealership. We are so thankful they took a chance on him and gave him other responsibilities besides for showing cars.

His interview went great and I think every single person in the family cried when we found out he had gotten the Credit job.

I truly believe that Jarred is the most deserving man alive and I love him very much. I am very proud of him and how he stuck through everything and kept on trucking, even when times were really bad. I know his dad would be so proud of him.

I am very thankful to have this blog to document our lives. We have come from living with my parents, Jarred working a retail job as a college graduate, while I am not in school at all, working a basic office job. Then we went to Jarred quitting the retail job, me working appliance retail and not having any money to our name. I have my parents to be thankful for because they told us we could like at home for as long as we needed. Then we were at a point where Jarred got a sales position at the dealership, me still working retail. We moved out of the house, into our own apartment, and have lost sleep many nights because of finances. We have been worried sick about how we were going to pay for things.

Now.

Now we are still getting used to living on our own (but still close to Mom and Dad) and I still have the retail job. But that's okay. Jarred quit his dealership job today and told them he had been hired to work for the Credit department.

I think we have come a long way in a year and a half. Jarred and I have been back home for a year now, and it is hard for me to think of how sad we were. We never thought we were going to be getting anywhere in our lives together any time soon.

But now.

Everything is coming together now. We are beyond blessed. God has really provided for us in the tough times. He never threw us anything that He didn't think we could handle. Everything we went through (heartaches over jobs and life) has made us all the more thankful for where we are now.

I know that this wasn't the news some of you all were looking for, but we are so excited for the doors this job will open for the both of us. Thanks for being faithful readers and always offering words of encouragement to us. I hope you will continue watching us as our lives change even more very soon!