Kitty!

Hey Heidi!

We cleaned your room!

Before:









After:






I know you love me! See you next week.

*Edit: Room occupant's mother requested pictures be put online.*

What day is your birthday?

Aaron usually is the one to take care of our finances (for other chores of Aaron's click here) and set up our financial accounts. Tonight, he got locked out of my retirement account online, so I called the web technicians to reset my password. The customer service rep on the phone asked me some security questions before resetting my password. What town did you meet your husband? Okay, easy questions. What is your anniversary date? Uh oh... Aaron is male and dates are not his strength and he set up this account. Hmmm... what would Aaron say?

I told the customer service rep it might one of two dates. We got married the day before my birthday which may have been a bad idea because Aaron has been confused ever since. I told him the 26th was our anniversary, but it might be listed as the 27th. The rep said it was listed as the 26th. Bonus points for Aaron!

So, we got to the part where I was to reset my password online and had to fill in all my personal info. I reentered the information several times and kept getting an error message. I tried dashes with my SSN# and first name with middle initial, middle name spelled out, nothing worked. After about ten tries the customer service rep asked what I was putting down as my birthday. I instantly knew what was wrong. My birthday was listed as the same date as our anniversary. Maybe Aaron figured he would get at least one date right if he chose the 26th. He is always wonderful about celebrating both dates, so I won't complain. However, for fun I just might ask him if he knows what it is he's celebrating.

Something so powerful should shake the whole wide world

Friday morning I awoke at 0437 to the sound of my bedroom door rattling. There was no wind, no storm. My bed was shaking. Somehow, I knew it was an earthquake-most likely because I was a huge nerd as a child and loved the earthquake exhibit at our local science museum. Instantly, I was out of bed and in the doorway prepared for anything.

The earth stopped shaking and I heard my mother-in-law sleeping upstairs. Everything else was eerily silent. I turned on my computer and checked the seismic activity in the region (as I said-nerd child) and saw that there had been a 5.2 magnitude earthquake in Illinois about 125 miles away. Fortunately, damage was minimal even at the epicenter.

The experience was a good reminder for me to stop and realize I am not in control of my life and anything can happen at any time.

A local radio station was playing this song when the quake began.

Beautiful News by Matt Redman

Joy is the theme of my song,
And the beat of my heart,
And that joy is found in You.
For You showed the power of Your cross
And your great saving love,
And my soul woke up to You.
I heard Your beautiful news;
Grace so amazing, so true...

Shout it out, let the people sing
Something so powerful should shake the whole wide world.
Make it loud, make it louder still;
Saviour we´re singing now to celebrate Your beautiful news.

There´s a God who came down to save
Showed the world His amazing grace
There´s a God who came down to save
And He calls your name

What The Cat Drug In (and ate)

While my mother-in-law was away, her cat managed to keep itself occupied with creative eating. Apparently, he has acquired a special taste for hair bands.

The picture below is what the vet surgically removed from Cheeto The Cat's stomach. I managed to get a good whiff of the contents before deciding double bagging was the way to go and nearly lost the contents of my stomach in the process. (collar not included)

Tatoo?

My mother-in-law just returned from a two week visit to her sister's house. Apparently, things got a little wild there because she came back with "Made in Japan" stamped on her backside (she was born there). I'd show pictures, but Aaron is traumatized enough as it is.

Funny Meeting

I was in a meeting today with various members of the college staff. One member is a crusty cashier with a dry sense of humor who tells the best stories. During our meeting we happened to notice that he had a dryer sheet hanging out of his sleeve. When we pointed it out he told us he was hoping to get out of the meeting without us noticing. He then proceeded to tell us about his niece's father-in-law who I will refer to as Bob:

Apparently, Bob was at some family get-together and his thigh was itching so he scratched it. He noticed there was something inside his slacks so he reached up and pulled it out. It was a pair of his wife's underwear!

Yogurt

I'm living with the in-laws for the next few months while Aaron is still training. Monday morning I was pretty tired from driving home from drill at midnight the night before. I grabbed a yogurt from the fridge as a snack for work. I glanced at the date and saw "May" so I put it in a plastic bag with a spoon and went on my way. I pulled the yogurt out later that day for a midmorning snack and noticed it was a little orange for peach yogurt. I took a bite and the texture was a little on the curdled side. My eyes scanned the label again... expiration date May... 2007.

I'm thinking it's time to clean the fridge.

Back to Work

I started back to work last week. I'm slowly remembering some things while other things are coming back instantly. There are a lot of new people around, so things are different. But, I expected that.