Poll: Which do you like better?

These are the two doors in our bedroom. One is painted the same orange that's going to be in the living room, the other is painted the green color of the rest of the room. I can't decide which I like better. What do you think? Red door or green door?

Did you think the house ate us?

Red, with a hat on.

Well, it almost did. After two full weeks of chipping, filling, sanding, and painting and painting and painting and re-painting the trim since the original color really did look like baby-puke, believe me, I’ve seen baby puke recently, the bedroom is finally finished! When Stephan got home from work we trekked out to the garage and brought in the dressers. That was made especially exciting since it was pitch dark, and the yard is full of pot holes.

Next is the bathroom paint, which should go fairly quickly, if we both agree that purple is the way to go in that room.

Stephan has been working his butt off, almost literally. Last week his only day off was Thursday, and now this week his only day off is Wednesday. That’s a touch schedule for anyone, but he works from 5:30am to 7:30pm or later. Recently he’s admitted that there isn’t time for him to eat anything during the day. I’m having an IV put in him tomorrow so he can just take straight glucose into his bloodstream. He still does like the job, and especially the people, but he’s tired, and overworked, and tired.

I had a great day on Saturday at a Spirit of Women event. It’s a group sponsored by the hospital that educates women about their health, and has a ton of fun. I met a few dozen women, got 23 of them on the chair, and gave away a 60-minute massage as a door prize. Everyone was so kind and friendly, as if we’d known each other for years. AND I got to hear a lot of town gossip. I’m really excited to start taking clients. I got a phone call this morning that my LLC paperwork is ready to be signed- that’s exciting too! We still don’t have internet access at home, which is a lot less exciting, but they say sometime next week the guy will be over to hook it up.

The dogs are good. Besa is green on her right side, from deciding to lean against the wall and slide down it to get comfortable. And just today I saw that Red has orange wiskers. I can only imagine.

Trivia: (kind of) What are the answers to the following: “Never marry a parts man because________.” “Never marry a nurse because ____________.” “Never marry a teacher because ______________.”

Busy Weekend

Sorry that I left you hanging! We were so busy it was hard to fit in updates.

Friday: Off to the hospital to watch the fax machine and wait for the last piece of paper to send off his application for the NELRP scholarship. Bringing the final package with all the documentation and the Montana license number to the post office I was giddy. All that work and worry, and all of the sudden it was out of my hands. What a miracle. We later made a list of miracles that happened to help us along the way here. It's a very long list. Travis and Stephanie won the "Best Friends of the Week" award when we received Lou-2-Go Chicago Pizza in the mail! I was so excited I wanted to thaw them right away, but we decided to be patient and wait for them to defrost in the fridge... Off to the house to continue the plaster wall repair. It was a long day, with cabinet varnishing thrown in for good measure. Dinner at the Plevna Bar, and more work!

Saturday:Started at Cindy and Larry's farm where I fed a bottle to a newborn calf. I held a 3-month old baby boy for a while, while Stephan learned how to break a horse from Larry. I'm sure we'll be back there soon to learn more about life on the farm. Look for photos soon. More home repair, and our first dinner in our home, the wonderful pizza from the Harrisons!! We left that night to spend one more night at the Prince's.

Sunday:Packed up the rest of our stuff out of the Baker garage, painted the bedroom, and put together our IKEA bed. It was much easier this the second time. We slept there last night, and Stephan got up to work at 4:30 this morning. I'm putting together some promotional materials today, and finishing up some trim painting this afternoon. We don't have internet access at the Plevna house yet, so please be patient with updates for the next few days.

Since prayers and good thoughts worked so well for us the last few weeks, we'd like to ask people to turn their thoughts to our friends and family members who are having a hard time right now.

Bob-bob

I'll get to the calf in a minute. This morning, after a short nap, Stephan called the Illinois Department of Big Jerks Who Could Really Care Less About Your Question (and that's putting it nicely) and found out that the person who told me that his license would be processed in 2-4 days was fired. She was fired because she was wrong. There is no way, no amount of money, or urgency, that will get the Illinois Board to process a license faster than 4-6 weeks.

Then, we tried just applying for licensing in Montana (Montana, where you can be a licensed "Wrestler"). They need Stephan's test score sent over... from the Illinois Board, which apparently 'owns' the score once the testing center gives it to them. The testing center claims to not even have the score anymore. And quess what? The Illinois Department of Kiss My Butt will, under no circumstances, release that information to anyone. Ever.

Then, just for fun, I went with Laurie to see the house we're "moving into" tomorrow. Turns out that the previous tenant physically tore the washing machine from the wall and water supply, thus breaking the water line in a way that required the water supply to the house to be turned off. And then the pipe leaked. There's not much damage, but there is no water. Laurie's husband can fix it tonight if (seriously, I'm not making this up) the two cows he's watching give birth their calves by then.

Stephan promises that I will look back at today and laugh at everything that's happening. Once we figure out how to pay back his student loans without the scholarship, once we start moving into the house we've bought, once I've set up my corporation and get back to work, I will think that the birth of a calf being responsible for the water condition of our house is hysterical.

I'm not there yet. Not even close. After I dropped Stephan off at work (an hour early because they were short-staffed all day due to the snow storm) I sat on the couch. Elysium crawled up to me, wearing nothing but a diaper, and sat in my lap. She pulled a blanket over the two of us, and we watched Sponge Bob together. For 30 minutes there was nothing more important in the world than whether or not Patrick Star was going to get a driver's license and win a boat-mobile.

Trivia: What is the only North American gem to be included in the Crown Jewels of England?