-109- I Can See Clearly Now the Rain is Gone

Justin lovingly replaced my windshield wipers this afternoon. Thankfully the old ones worked well enough for me to be able to see through the windshield when it rained, but only just. Not that we've been having downpours very often as of late, but it's always good to be safe and prepared for whenever the sky does finally decide to release its waters upon us.

-108- How To End A Day

As we were driving on the highway today, we saw this beautiful sunset. :) Thank you, God!

-107- I Don't Know...

Apparently today wasn't eventful... because I forgot to take a picture... Oops!

-106- Healthy Snacking

I was in the produce section of Target today and, on a whim, picked up a bag of Clementines. I was hoping their easy to peel skins would inspire us to start snacking healthier. When I got home, I put some in this large Rangers cup and set it on our dinner table, as you see here. This exposure and easy access was also part of the plan.

Well, as a happy ending to this rather plotless story, Justin and I sat at the table after eating dinner, and we each grabbed a Clementine. Then another. And another. This left one little orange orb in the bottom of the cup.

I refilled the cup and hope my plan continues to work! I already have bananas on a banana hook, and I may soon branch out to other fresh fruits.

-105- Holy Hineys

Justin and I have spotted this sign from the highway a few times before, but I never was quick enough to snap a shot of it. This time I had my phone at the ready, but the zoom isn't as good as on my camera, so the sign is tiny. Anyway, it says, "Chairs 4 Worship." Apparently this place makes chairs specifically for churches! I thought, what a very particular business!

This leaves me with questions. How many seats have I sat in that have been produced here? Also, are there more of these factories? Finally, is this a profitable business???

-104- Come With Me Kitty

This is Chloe hating us.

We decided it would be fun(ny) to try to take Chloe for a walk.

So we bought a cat leash.

Yes - cat leashes exist.

Needless to say... she was not a happy camper. But hopefully now she hates the outdoors enough that she won't try to run out the door whenever we don't close it the millisecond after we walk in!

-103- Who Determines Your Fate?

My sister sent me something on Facebook that allowed me to access a RedBox code for a free movie tonight. So Justin and I quickly abandoned our 24-watching plans (for those of you who don't know, we both love the now extinct action/drama series called 24 and regularly watch the DVD sets we own) and headed to the RedBox across the street. There weren't any movies we were dying to see, so we just got The Adjustment Bureau because Matt Damon is in it and we both like him. Turns out, it was a pretty good movie with really interesting ideas about fate in it. I recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it who feels like watching a love/drama/action/suspense/near-fantasy type of movie.

-102- Hybrid Fans

Justin likes many sports, and when it comes to baseball, he has two favorite teams: the Boston Red Sox and the Texas Rangers. Fortunately for him, they were both playing in town this week, and we had the opportunity to go see them with some friends. Unfortunately for him, they were playing each other. We each had a piece or two of Rangers and Red Sox gear, so we donned a mixture of regalia and went to the game. The home team lost, but Justin still came out a winner.

-101- Trade In

Justin got in a minor car accident a couple of weekends ago, which caused him to have to take his car into the shop. (Don't worry - he's completely fine and the car wasn't damaged as badly as it should have been.) When he got it back, he noticed it was making a funny noise, so he took it back and set up an appointment for a couple days later when they had an opening. Because he drives a lot for his job and my job is less than 10 minutes away in-town, we traded cars for the day so that his bright red car wouldn't have to drive more than necessary before getting completely patched up. Let me tell ya, even with the funny noise, I felt like I was driving a luxury car compared to my older car that I'm so used to. I decided to capture our cars at rest at the end of the day, sitting next to each other in the parking lot right below our porch.

-100- Triple Digits

Today is day 100 of our marriage! On the one hand, it feels like it's been a really long time, but then on the other hand, 100 sounds like much longer than it's been! We enjoyed DQ Blizzards as a simple celebration of this event.

I love this man!!!! I can't wait for many many more hundreds and hundreds of days with him.

-99- Broken

At some point amidst handling hundreds of cookie and cracker packages this morning, my left pointer finger nail broke. Fortunately, I did not feel it, but it was a reminder to me that I needed to cut my nails anyway. It's strange because this is the second nail I've broken in the past couple weeks. Before that, I cannot remember the last time I broke a nail, because my nails have always been rather strong. I guess I'd better up my calcium intake!

-98- Man Cave

We went apartment hunting in the Fort Worth area today. There was this one office that had this media room right off the lobby. It is the manliest man cave I have ever seen: 5 recliners, all facing a big TV with a football game showing on it. I thought it was absolutely hilarious, especially the chairs.

-97- Insulation for My Lunch

This is one other the other things we bought at Kohls. I'm just really proud of it and I feel like the little girl at school who finally gets a cute lunchbox because all the other little girls have one - except in my case, it's that many of the ladies I work with bring lunch bags similar to this and the convenience of it made me want to get one. I had been using a plastic grocery bag, but those are really hard to control whenever you  have something that needs to stay right side up, so I got a cheap lunch bag. I love it!

-96- Mysterious Styrofoam Bite

Justin and I went to Bahama Buck's tonight after dinner as a sweet way to beat the heat.

After several minutes of enjoying our delicious shaved ice, Justin suddenly says, "Did you bite my cup?!"

Bewildered, I simply reply, "What?!"

He says, "There's a piece of my cup missing," and turns the cup so I can see this missing piece from the lip of his styrofoam cup. This was surprising since we both thought the cup was intact when he got it.

I thought it was really funny, because it really does look like someone took a bite out of it. I wonder what happened?

-95- Using the Hooks Otherwise

Justin randomly threw one of his shirts across the room this evening... and this is where it landed: on the jacket holder by the door (which has obviously - due to the extreme heat - been useless up until this point except to hold clothes on hangers that I'm going to iron).

This just goes to show what a goofy guy my husband is. I say this not to make fun of him, but because his goofiness is one of the many reasons I love him so much!

-94- Another Step Towards Independence

At the moment, my parents pay for my health insurance, which is quite expensive. I'm excited because shortly I'll be switching to my own plan through my benefits at work. I will be insured for medical, dental, and vision care for less than half the price per month as my parents are paying right now just for medical (and it's good coverage, too!). Tomorrow I'm turning in my enrollment form but it will be a few weeks before it kicks in. I'll be needing my wisdom teeth out soon and I think this will help out a lot!

-93- Resting Place

Last night at Kohls, we also bought a spoon rest. We've wanted one for a long time but could not seem to find one that we were willing to spend money on. Fortunately, Kohls was having a sale, so we got this one for just about 10 bucks. The stuff in the pot is leftovers from Saturday: broccoli cheese soup (not homemade, sadly, but still good). So, while there is still food in this picture, the point is that we now have a wonderfully convenient resting place for our stirring spoons.

In other news, today marks 3 months of marriage! Yay!

-92- Brush

We went to Kohls tonight to see if we could find anything to spend our giftcard on. We wandered through many aisles of sheets, ceramics, pots and pans, etc. While I stopped to look at a griddle pan, Justin picked up this rubber brush and started brushing my arm with it... weird, I know, but that's him. Now I realize the importance of washing your products before you use them!

-91- Laundry Day

This is this week's first load of laundry, all clean, dry, and ready to be hung and folded. At the beginning of our marriage, I did laundry on Wednesdays, just because I wasn't working and I had time during the day. Now I have to do it on Saturdays, which is today. I actually enjoy doing laundry, for whatever reason. I guess  I just like the routine of it all.

-90- Transfer

I finally got a new phone! We got a huge discount because I transferred my number from another network, so I basically got the phone for free, and then some. I'm really excited because this one will actually work! Ha! Anyway, I'm really enjoying it so far. It's a little overwhelming though, I guess, because it's the first smartphone I've ever had. Mostly I'm relieved that I don't have to go through the tedious process of telling everyone a new number.

-89- Food Day Tomorrow

Tomorrow is the last day for one of my new co-workers, so we are having a potluck eat-all-day kind of deal. I am very excited because a) I love food, b) I love making food for people, and c) it gives me an excuse to eat all day. Anyway, I realize that most of my posts are about food... but really that's the most exciting thing in my life right now. Ha! No really, I just enjoy it a lot. These are chocolate cookies with mint frosting... which is really just melted Andes mint. I baked nearly 100 of them tonight. They smell so divinely chocolatey when they're baking, and then so cool and refreshing when you spread the mint around on the top. They are excellent. I can't even remember where I found the recipe or why I made them (besides the fact that they sounded yummy), but I have made them several times and been very happy with the results each time. Also, people seem to love them.

-88- Google Auto Fill

I don't understand this... at all. Justin was looking up something on Google on his phone, and all he typed in was "Is" and this is the first thing that the Google Auto Fill came up with. I mean, what?! There are no words.

-87- Make Yourself Comfortable, Why Don't You

This picture makes it obvious that Chloe just plops her little self down wherever she pleases. I walked in the room and here they were like this!

-86- Monkey Cakes

I made breakfast for dinner tonight, and at Justin's request included bananas in the pancakes. I must say, they were very tasty. I thought the one on the left looked like a teardrop, so I took a picture of it. Obviously that was a maimed cake that found itself smooshed against the side of the pan. Anyway, this was the first time for me to try banana pancakes, but I will definitely be making them again... many times.

-85- Coffee and Cream

Tonight we went to the evening church service. Afterwards, I really felt like sitting at a coffee shop and just chilling. I think I was having Anna and Rebekah Saturday night coffee withdrawals (even though it's Sunday). So Justin and I went to Starbucks since we had giftcard money to spend there and just hung out for a while. I didn't have my camera with me so I took this photo on my phone and then took a photo of the phone screen. (Yeah... not high tech, but I have a cheap phone for now and couldn't be bothered to transfer the photo from the phone to the computer.) I was so satisfied after spending some time there and having enjoyed a delicious decaf coffee with cinnamon. Of course Justin had a strawberries and cream Frap... which really isn't coffee at all.

-84- Pinch Bowls

Thanks to Rebekah, we got these cute little "custard cups" at one of our wedding showers, and they have been so wonderful in the kitchen! I use them to hold measured amounts of spices or other small amounts of ingredients, and sometimes we even use them for pudding or other such snacks. Tonight I made lasagna from Justin's mom's recipe, and I held the garlic powder in this little cup. The lasagna was delicious, by the way!

-83- View From Above

I don't even know how many photos I have of Chloe, but I do know that there are several from above. This one I took tonight because I thought she looked especially lumpish. She looks like she's about 30 pounds whenever she lies down like this. So cute!

-82- Policies

Now that I look at it more closely, this picture doesn't accurately depict just how much information is packed into these packets and folders. I got all this yesterday and still haven't finished reading it. Basically it's county and departmental policies, procedures, and explanations of and applications for benefits. Fortunately, this should be the only "homework" I will have. What a change from the last 17 years of my life!

-81- First Day

This is me right before bed. Obviously, I'm very tired. My first day at my first full time job was very good! I'm looking forward to learning everything I need to know to do well in my position. I'm also looking forward to being busy for at least 40 hours a week. But first I need to get used to being up and around all day again.

-80- Substitute Cook

We didn't know what time I'd be off work today (my second day of Kraft training), so Justin decided he'd make dinner. I did get home early enough to make it, but my sweet husband went ahead and made what he'd decided to make anyway. Here he is, standing proudly by the stove and his Broccoli Cream Tuna Helper, corn, and green beans. It was the first time I'd had Tuna Helper, and you can be sure I will be buying some in the future.

Don't get me wrong - I love making dinner for us - but it was really nice to have someone else make it. :)

-79- Biscuits

I had my first day of training today with my part time job as a merchandiser with Kraft Foods. I begin my full time job with Denton County on Wednesday, but I will be merchandising for Kraft on weekends and holidays. Anyway, back to today's training. I deal mostly with the crackers and cookies (so basically the Nabisco side of Kraft) and I must say, I really wanted to eat the cookies I was shelving all day long. I also had no idea that there were so many varieties of Chips Ahoy and Oreos. I would say it's ridiculous if I didn't know they actually sold well.

It was SO nice to work again. I am so thankful that I finally found not one, but two jobs. My cup overflows!