while I'm thinking of it...

Working on some wedding stuff and realized that I'd never shared the local that we're getting married. Many of you have seen it, but my KC folks (and them canuks) never have..



I don't have a picture of the full lodge but you can see a small pic of it HERE This place brings back some fond memories as a kid. It used to be the building that you entered to go swim at the lake, and take showers there, rent swimming stuff (inner tubes). Grandma would take us in the summer when my cousins came to visit. They renovated into a shelter and kitchen/lodge. It's small (inside) but I've always thought this was the prettiest lake around.

I also wanted to share this website www.bedford-iowa.com with you all. It has some really neat information about Bedford and the area. Things to do, historic stuff, calendar of events. That morning (4th) there'll be a pancake breakfast and a parade at 10 a.m. if you'd like to come early. I'm trying to find out more details for you, but since no one believes in call waiting up there I guess, everyone's phone has been busy for 1/2 hour.

Happy Monday!

I'm happy. seriously. Tons of stuff to do, stressful stuff (including tax stuff), work on the unemployment stuff, work on the make some $$ stuff, and still, I just feel happy. That's so foreign to me... I went so long living my life feeling sad... or nothing.... that to wake up and just be happy is bizarre.

Maybe it's this guy....

Or maybe it's just me. Maybe depression really isn't forever.

Anyway, not much to report over the weekend, except for our NEW pet raccoon. No really, and her litter.. living under our house. Yeehaw country livin'. We've been seeing her, and knew she was around but we figured out sunday she has a litter under the house. Between the Critters R Us guy, and our live trap, we're hoping we can relocate her, or she'll relocate herself.

Still not sure of what is so great about here, but apparently she thinks it's pretty hot digs.

Raccoons really are cute.

OK, stuff to get done, still have lots of odds and ends to finish up today. Blah blah.. got some stuff out of the way that I hated doing (and took like 4 min so why I put it off I'll never understand). Other stuff probably won't be quite so quick.

Quick like a bandaid - rip it off!

Well, he's stuck now.

I was so excited, this is something I've really looked forward to... seeing our engagement announcement in the newspaper

Click to see a full image

I guess it's that it just makes it so real! Not that it wasn't before but you know, seeing it in print :)

I had intended to surprise Gene with it (well I did), but in that attempt, I put Olathe SOUTH. I was wrong. LOL. Whatever - I think it's idiotic that you need to put your high school in there when you graduated 20-30 years ago. I shoulda just left it out.

Did a dry run on our wedding cake yesterday. yeah, I'm going to make it. I wasn't worried about the frosting as I just wanted a taste of the cake (red velvet). I also made the topper for it which I *love*. I'm excited, there'll be one cutting cake, and then I'm doing individual cakes for everyone.

Started to work out my photography site yesterday and didn't get very far. I think I might be overthinking the whole process. I might just make it a simple 5 page site with a small gallery. I'm going to attempt a slide show, I've never done one!

Torrie and Tayen stopped by on Wednesday eve. She was grumpy (well, Tayen first, then torrie cuz of Tayen. LOL) She's sure a cutie pie.

Nothing else to advertise. Must get to work! I think I'll hit some friday garage sales today, I've not done that for AGES!

Project: sloth

My second day unemployed. It's weird. Yesterday I felt like a real slacker. I went to town to run some errands and had to go to walmart. I know it's strange but I kept thinking "why aren't you at work?" to ppl that I didn't think should be out shopping at noon on a Monday. I know.... rude.

I promised myself that I'd take 2 days to do *whatever I wanted*. Including watching TV, sitting in my pajamas reading blogs, etc.

So yesterday I hit every single blog, watched hardly any TV (which I'm finding out i'm not a huge TV watcher anymore), ran errands, and did some paperwork. Not very fun or "vacation-y".

So today I will continue the slacker theme. I'm thinking a bra sometime around 4 p.m. will be the plan :p

*just kidding - I have to go to town again.. no need to scare the natives* Already watched two DVR episodes of "Rich bride, poor bride". It's bad when you say "wow, only $20,000 for a wedding budget, that's really cheap". ACK. LOL. (Our budget its like $3,000 and I'm close to done.)

Going to finish the wedding invites today. They are HEAVY. And for REAL I'm so tired of cutting little tiny pictures. (think over 100 - BLAH) And I haven't even started on the reception invites yet.

I'm contemplating a "project". 2 years ago, I did "on this day in may" project. I just did it for fun, and it was! I took 25 pictures every single day with my CAMERA PHONE and emailed them tomyself and then made a scrapbook page of that day. Rules: at least one pic of myself, pic of what time I got up and what time I went to bed. I picked May because it was busy that month. Saw Gene twice, Torrie's Bachelorette party (I got sooooo sick! lol), went to California... etc etc etc.

No idea this time, not sure exactly what to do. I saw once where a guy took a picture of everything he ate for one year... and made a book... and it sold well! *weird* Sorry, I would get bored real quick. And everyone would get tired of seeing hamburger helper and diet coke. LOL.

ok, I'm over it...

kinda.

I told you I'd be back. It's slightly after noon.

Let's make this a quick story so I can accomplish other stuff today. I worked at Kenton Auto Glass for around 18 months. Gene worked there for almost 2 years. I really liked the job because I was *really* good at it. I jokingly told my boss all the time that I was really the boss and it was my shop. I was only half kidding. :)

I never realized that I'd be so good at glass. I loved the interaction with my regulars, helping gain new accounts by *just being myself*. I certainly made the company a LOT of money, especially the $31k past due accounts I collected for them in my first few months there.

So, the shop was in North Kansas City, and we're real north of that... do the math. It was about 1.25 hours to work but it really didn't seem so bad.... UNTIL.... they moved to Olathe. And then it was just too much. I still did my job the best I could, but I totally felt off my A game there. I guess because it was just different. I was more tired as it added almost another 1/2 hour *each way* to our drive.

Gene found a job closer to home at another glass shop, so we decided he should go with that, and I would leave as I obviously could not keep driving without him, halving our income yet still having that large gas bill.

So I gave notice too. I was really mad at them for a while, putting me in that situation. But when it got down to the last couple days, I realized that I didn't *really* want to go. I would miss *my* guys... and they were. I took care of them for 1.5 years and streamlined their jobs, my job and how that shop ran. To the point of wondering why they needed 2 CSR's to start with.

So Friday, time to go and Pat got me crying early in the day. not on purpose of course. Pat has always been wonderful to me and I absolutely adore him. Rob, which we call the absent minded professor, made me cry too. Who is going to make sure that he has his phone, his work orders, etc? And even tho I was really mad at Roy (the boss) for the move, I was sad to say goodbye, because regardless of the situation(s) I spent more time with him probably than anyone - including Gene so we were friends too. I will even miss grumpy Kevin. It took me a long time to figure out that his grumpiness is just a cover for the gooey creamy insides he really has.

I think the thing that makes me so upset is knowing they were not left in "good hands" IMO. I'm not sure the new office staff will be able to handle the situation, or be able to take care of MY guys.

BUT... all this is out of my hands. This weekend I took some time to contemplate that. All these decisions were made for me so regardless of me hating how it all went down, I went out honoring my two weeks notice, selling glass up to the last minute and making sure that all my t's were crossed and i's were dotted.

I did what I promised. I was more committed to them, than they were to me. Sad, but apparently true.

ANYWAY... I will not dwell on it any longer.

I'm trying to keep up some sort of schedule. I think I'll listen to Johnny Dare on 98.9 every day, just like I did before, and I'm listening to Dave Ramsey right now. In fact, I won Rockfest tickets this morning from HOME. I so rock :)

This weekend, we took a few min (almost literally) to try to get some engagement photos for the paper and for our invites. They were really some of the last things I was needing to get the invites done.

Thought I'd share:





I kinda like this guy. Can ya tell?

Stick a fork in me....

Going to make this a short post, it's 10:15 and I'm tired... it's been a hard day.

Today was our last day at Kenton Glass. Gene got a job at another glass company closer to home, and it wasn't feasible for me to stay... well, impossible. He really needed it, and since the shop had moved even farther from home, I was wearing out.

Today was long, and sad, and I didn't realize that I would take it like I did. I only cried about 9 times.. once in the boss's office. I think I even made him teary-eyed.

I really don't want to talk about it at the moment.

I'm giving myself until noon on Monday to "grieve" a bit because this is a loss of sorts for me. Then, I'm going to come here, tell you about them, why I feel the way I do and be done.

I don't want to sit and wallow in it for weeks and push myself back into depression. But I do feel like I did about 4 years ago when I ended up on welbutrin. I'm assuming this is just a temporary thing (I know it is, so don't worry).

I'll be back Monday. We'll talk about the past, and then we'll talk about the future.