So much to say....

My computer is sick. Sick meaning the hard drive went kablooey. Nothing survived. No pictures, patterns that I'd saved, music, nothing. Ugh. Most of the pictures were saved elsewhere. Not all, but most. The patterns....well, I can always download them again. Although some of them cost a few dollars, but I'll get them eventually. Really it's not so much the losing stuff as all the time it will take to accumulate all of it again. It's so completely overwhelming to think of all the time I would need to invest just to get everything back. And remember that it's not idle time spent in front of the TV or the few minutes while the oven preheats. Nope, no internet for me at home folks. For me to get online requires a hop, skip, and a jump over to Panera or some other WiFi hotspot.

I have composed many a blog post in my head, taken pictures specifically for the blog, and thought up nice comments to each of your posts. The only reason I'm typing this right now is I came to my parent's house for the afternoon and I'm stealing time on their internet. (Hence no pictures.) I have been able to keep up with my blog-reading on my cell phone, though it is one-sided. (My phone doesn't allow me to post comments for whatever reason.) I hate lurking. It makes me feel a little creepy, like I'm watching you all from outside the house, sneaking glances in a window. I'd much rather read the post and then happily comment about whatever struck me or things we have in common, or just whatever. Just know that if I usually comment on your blog and I've been curiously absent lately, I'm still here reading. I'm just on the other side of the glass. I miss my computer!!

Off-topic...wouldn't you all just love for me to be the new recipient of an ipod Nano? Don't you think after all this laptop drama I deserve a new gadget to make me feel all better? Don't you think if I have to re-download a bunch of music anyway I should get a shiny new ipod to put it all on? Thought so! SITS is having a giveaway this week for a new ipod nano. I don't know if signing up at SITS gets me any extra entries, but if you haven't already checked this website out you totally should. It's a great way to up your reader count and get lots of fun comments, and most importantly meet lots of wonderful bloggers. Of course the whole point of SITS is to comment, comment, comment and share the love and as of late I can not do that, but I love SITS anyway. Despite my lack of comment-ability I have been reading all the featured bloggers and their posts on my one-way phone and laughing my head off all the time. So, SITS mommas, if you are reading this....I'm still here! Just temporarilty disabled! Bench me for now, but I will be back around soon :)

To the rest of you, I will resume regular posting soon. I am slowly building up the blog fodder so I'm sure I will be super-chatty upon my return.

Happy 4th!

Happy Fourth of July!!

Not exactly....

...what I had in mind when I set out to capture a picture of a hay bale, but it'll do.

I've unsuccessfully tried to get a hay picture about a half dozen times in the past few days. We must have drove past about 5 fields full of them on my little road trip, but again...not quick enough on the draw. So when I saw this at a stop light I made sure to position myself nearby and snapped this picture just as the light turned green. Note: do not attempt! Taking pictures while driving is DEFINITELY not safe.

So may I vent to you, lovely blog readers, for just a moment? Thanks. I'll just lay down on the couch. Do you have your yellow legal notepad ready? Ok....I just want to go on record saying that my husband's work schedule sucks! I know that there are many, many women out there whose husbands are overseas and they don't get to see them at all, so I feel a little guilty for complaining, but this is really tough. Doug is literally working ALL the time. He picks up shifts as much as he can, most of which are overnight. When he is not working he is sleeping, so even if he is home I don't get to spend any time with him at all. This just sucks on so many levels. The most obvious being that I don't get to spend any time with him. But the thing I didn't think about when he started all this was how much his funky sleep habits would mess with mine. When he comes home at 4am to go to sleep I inevitably wake up, then I find it hard to go back to sleep. Then when it's time to get up to go to work 3 hours later it's very difficult to get up because my sleep was interrupted. I am tired all-the-time now. If I am home when he is sleeping I have to be careful not to wake him, which means I am very limited in what I can do. He is doing all this because we are struggling a bit financially right now and it's incredible what he is putting himself through so we can catch up. He is being so incredibly selfless so we can get on better footing. I know I couldn't do it. That makes me feel even more guilty for complaining, so I try not to complain to him because I know there is really nothing he can do about it. Summer is "our time". In the summers we enjoy every day to it's fullest, whether we are kayaking, going for a motorcycle ride, or just enjoying the outdoors. We haven't been able to do any of those things so far. Yesterday he came across an amazing opportunity that would allow him to quit one, maybe both, jobs and it would be in the direction he wants to develop his career. There are some hoops to jump through to make it happen, so we will see....but I am praying this all works out because we need some relief. So cross your fingers for me! Ok, selfish rant over. I feel better, thanks for listening!

Next post....a fun giveaway!

Road Trip

Just a quickie post. I'm out of town on a work trip, but I have a funny little story for you about our road trip on the way here. We came around one corner and right in front of us was the largest, orange moon I have ever seen. There were four of us in the car and we were all impressed. I started rumaging around in my bag for my camera so I could take a picture, but of course by the time I came up with it the road had curved and it was buried in the trees. So for the next twenty minutes I played hide and seek with the moon through the trees.

The longer it took me to take a picture, the higher the moon rose. As it rose it lost its color and eventually it wasn't worth photographing anymore. I reall wish I had been able to get a good picture to share because it was gorgeous.

It was pretty comical in the car though because I got everyone in the car in on the need to get a good picture for my blog. Melissa, who was driving, was slowing up and speeding down accordingly wih the gaps in the trees trying to give me a good shot. Tony took the camera for a few minutes when the moon was on his side of the car and Wanda was on moon lookout telling us when a good opportunity to take a good picture was coming. At one point I temporarily blinded Melissa with the red light on my camera that flashes when it is being focused. (No I didn't use flash.) Not good to blind the driver.

Fun times. Hope you all have a super weekend!

I won!

Has anyone else noticed that there are SOO many contests on the blogs lately?
Well, I won something! Kate hosted a fabulous giveaway on her blog and I won! Yay! I will take pictures when it gets here. I think I will pass along the Karma and have a little contest of my own, but I am going out of town for a few days so it will have to be next week. Check back!