Why Microwave Safe Plates Break in the Microwave

There is a lot about life that I can't explain or even begin to understand. I usually at least try, or pretend that I understand, but that's really only because I like for everything to be logical and make sense. The truth is: I have no idea.

I have heard a lot of stories about people last week. It was a little strange, but I heard stories about people who had terrible life experiences where they just couldn't handle it and they ended up having panic attacks, or lashing out, or having a mental breakdown. All of these stories came from different people. I heard them all last week, which happened to be an absolutely terrible and odd week all together for me, personally. I have been through a lot of stressful life experiences (wedding) and have yet to lose complete control. I have come to the conclusion that it is because of my problem solving skills. A certain few people would disagree with this, but I still say this is the fine line between me and a breakdown. When I get stressed out, my mind goes into overdrive and I spend a lot of time over-analyzing the situation and trying to think of ways to make the situation better. I usually come up with something at least that will help me get through (retail therapy).

People deal with life situations differently. I do not look down on anyone who suffers from a panic attack or mental breakdown. Those are two very real, very serious conditions. Many times these occur as a result, or in the process of making a big, life changing decision. It's hard. I am on the brink of making many very large, important, life changing, decisions myself. That's what happens when you grow up (or so I've heard). I don't like it. I am just now starting a life with my new husband and we are trying to sort through all of these decisions. What makes these decisions easier is if we have full support from our family and friends. I know that in some scenarios, we may not all be on the same page and we may have bumps in the road, but we are going to make these decisions with the best of our ability.

I know that I am lame, but something reminded me of Pocahontas today. It was one of my favorite movies as a child and my room was once decorated in that theme (getting more and more lame, I know). I remember this song from the movie and I want to share the lyrics because I love it! In case you still were not convinced of me being lame this will; I knew all the words to this song without looking it up. ;-)

Pocahontas' Father: "Even the wild mountain stream must someday join the big river . As the river cuts its path, though the river, proud and strong, he will choose the smoothest course. That's why rivers live so long.  They're steady, as the steady beating drum." 


Pocahontas: "He wants me to be steady like the river, but it's not steady at all. What i love about rivers is that you can't step in the same river twice. The water's always changing always flowing. But people, I guess can't live like that. We all  must pay a price to be safe we lose our chance of ever knowing what's around the river bend. Should I chose the smoothest course, steady as the beating drum, should I marry Kocoum, is all my dreaming at an end...or do you still wait for me dream giver just around the river bend. "


Scary? Yes! I still feel like it's inspirational. Decisions are hard sometimes and sometimes your microwave safe plate breaks in the microwave, but instead of complaining, freaking out, or trying to figure out why (yeah I googled it...I have a problem) just except the situation and move on with what you have. There will be unfavorable life situations that we have no control over but there may be something really great just around the river bend. :-)

Responsibility

     I am writing this post from the couch where Josh and I have been sitting for at least the last two hours watching documentaries about September 11th, 2001. Some from the National Geographic channel and some from the History channel, all were very touching. Watching the stories of these heroes makes me strive to be even half the person they were/are. I don't know if I would have the courage to do what they did, but their stories inspire me.

 Here we are at the 10 year mark and it is hard to believe that much time has passed. We now have generations of children growing up without having witnessed the tragedy in real time as I did and many others. It makes me feel a little old, but it also makes me feel a level of responsibility to my nephews, my future children, and all the others who will come into the world not having witnessed this. All of us, who were old enough to realize what was happening, remember where we were and what we did on that day. I know I will never forget any of it. So, just like the generations in the past who have witnessed defining moments in history, and have carried on the memories and never let anyone forget, we have to do the same. I encourage everyone to take on that responsibility and never forget!

On another note, but staying on the topic of responsibility, I had one interesting weekend. On Saturday Caroline and I planned a panini day where we would make yummy sandwiches with my panini maker. We went to Fresh Market first to get all of the makings for the sandwiches and that's when my stupidity hit. We parked, I got out of my car and realized I didn't have my key so I started looking in my purse. My car doesn't have any springs in the door so it is very heavy and doesn't bounce back like many other vehicles do, so it closed. Were my keys in the car? Why yes they were! Where? The ignition! Why? Because it was still running!

 I called Josh first because he has the spare key and he was on his way to a Jags game. He informed me he had no idea where the spare was because it was in a box somewhere at home. Perfect! He sent me the number for roadside assistance, which we subscribe to every month because I seem to have this problem a lot. Fortunately, I didn't have to wait long and a lady came to unlock my car. Sigh! We made it home with the supplies and it was worth all of the trouble! Parmesan basil bread with smoked honey turkey and provolone cheese.

                            

I survived Saturday and spent today with family celebrating Kelli's and Todd's birthdays. It's always great to get everyone together. Here are some pics from today of me and my nephews, Connor and Cooper:

Alarming Habits

Getting back in the "working mood" after a nice four day weekend has definitely been my biggest challenge this week! Ughh. The name of this post may seem quite fierce and you may be expecting to read some sort of complaint about the regular newlywed habits that drive people crazy. You would be half correct if you thought that! I love being married and I really can't say we fight a lot or have problems. We dated for nearly 7 years before getting married so we are pretty accustomed to each other's habits, good or bad. Today I will talk about both, but  I will get to the bad part later.

First, I want to announce my "new" good habit.I recently had to have blood work done to get on Josh's insurance and I will be honest and tell you the results were slightly less than favorable. I am not unhealthy nor dying, but I do need to make small changes in my lifestyle to try to improve my overall health. Heart disease runs on both sides of my family and I want to do all that I can to prevent getting it. Hence; my new good habit. I have decided to exercise more and eat healthier. I am trying to cook better meals and I walk with a walking buddy usually around 6 miles a week or more. Here is pic of us right before we left for our Thursday night walk:

We have been walking briskly in the neighborhoods surrounding our apartment and mapping out the distance. It is enough of a workout that I definitely get something out of it. Hopefully I am making a lasting impact on my health. 

When I got home from walking I cooked a healthier version of chicken and dumplings. delicious!

Now onto the second part of my post. The actual ALARM! Before I explain what happens every morning at the Woods residence I will preface all of it by saying a lot of this may be due to the fact that I am not a morning person. At all. On a scale of 1-10 with ten being the highest I would say I am a negative 5. I just really don't like mornings. 

My alarm goes off at 6:30a.m. every morning so that I will be able to get ready for work, but most of the time I wake up before this. I usually wake up at 6:00a.m. (or earlier) due to Josh's alarm. He usually gets out of bed at 7:30 or after (unless he has to be at work early) but he likes to gradually wake up to an alarm. When I say gradually, I mean he sets his alarm for 6:00a.m. and sets it to where it goes off every 7 minutes. So, I get to hear his alarm (sometimes there are multiples)  every 7 minutes all morning until he gets up at 7:30. I try not to complain too much because I know this is some strange habit he has, but maybe, just maybe, he will "grow" out of it. I'll keep you updated. :-)

Labor Day with Lee

 We have spent this entire weekend doing absolutely nothing. I was fortunate enough to have Friday off, too so my weekend started really early. I spent Friday stocking up on groceries so we wouldn't have to go anywhere during the storm. I know we live on the Gulf Coast and most of us go through all of our normal, daily activities during a tropical storm, but I personally do not like to get out in the rain. I will say there were many people stocking up on water, batteries, gas and all of those "storm supplies". I guess you can never be too prepared?!

It started raining Friday night and ALL day on Saturday. Fortunately, it was the start of college football so there really was no need to leave the house. Josh picked up some steaks for the grill and we did nothing but watch college football all day. That was a bit difficult for me to do. I had no problem watching Alabama football, but I am the type of person that likes to go "do something" for at least an hour or so on the weekend. It is difficult for me to just sit around and do nothing for hours. I usually end up shopping.  Another reason I need a hobby!

Sunday was STILL rainy. We always drive down to Grand Bay on Sunday to see our families. It looked like Grand Bay and Pascagoula got some of the worst of the storms. We really didn't get much severe weather in WeMo. There were quite a few limbs down and reports of high winds and possible tornadoes. All in all, it was harmless rain and wind. It was nice to have an extra long weekend where we had absolutely nothing we had to do but listen to the rain. It was relaxing.

Today was Labor Day! We spent lunch with my family at my Granny's house and dinner with Josh's parents. Another great day with family. The storm has passed now and we are enjoying much cooler weather. It is a very nice change! I am hoping it will last a good while. I am very ready for cardigans, scarves, boots, hats, and coats. My favorite time of the year is Fall! Hopefully we will see it very soon.

A short 4 day work week starts tomorrow and I am expecting to be very busy! Rumor has it I have over 30 voice mails and an untold amount of emails. Bring it!!!

Here are some pictures from a nice, long weekend, including a special guest (kitten) that looks kind of like a Kuala bear. If you look EXTRA close to the last few pics you can see the small rainbow.

In the beginning...there was chaos.

  On July 31st, 2010 I was more excited than a kid with a cupcake. I got engaged! Many were not surprised by the news simply because Josh and I had been dating for over 6 years. Some of you still do not believe me, but I WAS surprised! Of course we had talked about getting married and I had even picked out a ring that I liked, but there were more than enough discouraging factors around me to keep me thinking it would be no time soon. We have been through so much together and it was just never a good time for us to get hitched so we waited and waited and waited. Our original plan was for us to get married after graduating college. Well, we graduated in the awful year of 2009. We graduated at the same time the economy tanked. Perfect! Neither of us could find a decent job and it was really hard on both of us. When we finally got engaged it was the absolute best time for both of us and the time I had waited so very long for, was going to happen. So, we planned a spring wedding, May 28th, 2011. This is the story of the perfect storm, our wedding.

I decided to make my first blog post about our wedding because that is when our life together really began. It is also a day that I try to avoid talking about or even thinking about. I will preface this story by saying this; No, it was not the best day of my life, but I don't regret getting married and I love my life. Honestly, I should have predicted the way this would turn out and I kind of did. So, Here goes...

There is really no good place to start in telling the story of my wedding, so I will just begin with the dreams or should I say, nightmares. Shortly after getting engaged I started having horrible dreams about my wedding. The types of nightmares I am sure every bride goes through. Mine were usually all the same, the dream would start on my wedding day with me panicking because nothing is done. I would end up having to walk down the aisle with whatever was not finished such as, having no flowers, no chairs for people to sit, no decorations, that type thing. They scared me really bad at first because I am the type of person that wants everything to run smoothly and I had been picturing my wedding for years. I had wedding magazines that dated back to before I was even dating anyone. pathetic much? I ended up using the dreams as motivation to get things done and make sure nothing was forgotten. Unfortunately the nightmares still came true.

There were MANY obstacles in planning my wedding. Most of them i can't even get into, mainly because this is a blog and not a novel. I know many other brides go through the same type obstacles so I didn't even let that get me down. I stayed strong and kept my cool (as much as possible) to keep from seeming like the cliche' "Bridezilla" , but it was extremely stressful. There were many times I asked myself why I was even having a wedding. I decided the only reason I was having a wedding was so I wouldn't be able to regret not having one. Literally the ONLY reason. I made it through all of the planning with only a few bumps in the road and I was still hanging tough.

All of a sudden it was the rehearsal dinner. All I could think about was everything. There was no one thing on my mind, it was all about how this wedding was going to come together. I was worried but I just focused all of that energy into being super woman or some crazy, neurotic, version of that. The rehearsal went fine and then it was off to bed where I was supposed to get some sleep. It didn't happen, but at least I tried. What bride gets sleep the night before her wedding anyway?

Then it was the morning of the big day. My wedding was at 6:30pm in a church and the reception was in a tent outside. So my morning, beginning at 8am was spent at the tent getting it ready for a long night. The only major problem there was the dance floor. Somehow we had under ordered and it was much smaller than what it should have been so I called the rental company and they were amazing! They came out within an hour and expanded it. Crisis averted, or so I thought. With the help of friends and family, we got the tent up and running at a decent time. I remember thinking how nice it felt to be on time and not have to worry about anything.

 Then it happened. I was on my way to the church when I realized i didn't  have my beaded sash or my veil. Upon hearing me say this, my mother started to freak out a little. I tried to stay calm and convince myself my Granny had both of those. She didn't. I still tried to stay calm and I got my hair all fixed and ready. When my hair was done, it was time to spring into action. My Granny had found the veil and was going to get the wrinkles out so I was searching for the sash. My sister and bridesmaids left to go search my Granny's house while me and my other bridesmaid and friend, Caroline went to ransack my apartment to look for it. It was literally my most favorite part of my dress. We never found it. We headed back to the church and i dealt with the fact that I would have to walk down the aisle without this beautiful, expensive, beaded sash I had special ordered from someone in Israel. It wasn't easy.

Then I got a phone call. My sister called me and told me she was on her way to my Granny's house because there had been an accident. She didn't tell me what happened so I prepared myself for the worst. I remember pulling up at the church with Caroline and telling her how much I didn't want to walk in there. I decided I had to. Scared for the worst, I walked in the room where we were getting ready and saw my mom. She was upset. I started to ask her what was wrong and she couldn't say anything other than "it was an accident". I was crying at this point and begging her to tell me what was wrong and finally my older sister pulled me aside and told me what happened. My veil had been ruined. It was burned during efforts to get the wrinkles out. Fortunately the hairdresser knew someone who had recently got married and had a veil similar to mine and was on her way to get it.

I felt terrible. It really wasn't the end of the world but it was such a dramatic incident on top of everything else, that i couldn't stop myself from breaking down. Fortunately I had all my friends and family around me to get through it. It took everything I had to get myself together and walk down the aisle with no pretty sash and someone else's veil. I managed to walk down the aisle with no tears. That was a lot seeing how only a minute before I was crying a river. It wasn't a great day and it wasn't my dream wedding, but it turned out exactly the way it should.

The actual wedding and reception was a great time for all and those are the moments I want to remember. I did find out later that the caterer got lost and was late getting set up, but I won't even get into that. Ha! Here are some pics to hi-light my no-so-perfect wedding. Starting with a picture that shows my sash.