Blah

So, today I am feeling really Blah. I didn't sleep well (I was freezing last night) and I can't seem to get myself focused today. I am on the verge of falling asleep. I am getting work done today, but at a very slow pace. I guess it is a good thing there is nothing pressing and that many people are on vacaction still so the building is rather quiet.
Tomorrow is my birthday and Matt wanted to know if I wanted to go to dinner with friends and family. Of course I would love to see everyone, but I am so tired that even the thought of going out tomorrow night makes me that much more tired. Then he wanted to know where I wanted to go. I have a hard enough time choosing places to eat when I am awake and fully aware of my surroundings, ha! I chose Olive Garden. It has good food, but I'm not sure many like it. Oh well, my Birthday right? Right!
I am sure I will be feeling better tomorrow, but all I want to do right now is shut my office door, curl up on the floor and sleep. Do you think anyone would notice?
I have practice after work for two hours and then we have a basketball game that starts at 7:00. That means I won't be getting home until 9:00 or so tonight. The thought of the long evening makes me just that much more tired.

Blogging??

I've never done this blogging thingy, and I think this will probably be my one and only contribution to the "Jones Joint"
So anyways, I love the snow, but I found out that having a large back patio and having a foot of snow compounded with having two shithead dogs pooping on the snow makes for landmine city once all the snow melts. I can't believe they did that to my patio. All the hardwork I have put in on that thing. To have it get pooped on a thousand times. Shamefull!!! I will have to have Jennie take a picture of the patio. It is amazing how much comes out of two small dogs. Small dogs are lazy, they easily could have gone to the grass to do their business. I even made little trails for them with little culd-e-sacs for privacy throughout the backyard.
I have made my contribution to this blog. It will forever be changed. The contribution I have made is so mind blowing that all of you that read "Jones Joint" will be demanding more work from me. I hope I don't break anyone's hearts.

Christmas is coming

The snow has slowed down a bit (after giving us 11 inches). We are now getting the house ready for our guests for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We both have tomorrow off and plan on spending the day shopping, cooking and cleaning. Sounds like fun right? Matt's family will be arriving tomorrow around 3:00 and we have to have the entire thing ready to go. I am so excited for the ham and fixings. I love this time of year. Usually I make my homemade pasta and sauce, but I'm not sure I will do that this year. It is a lot of work and I should have already done it. We will see how I am feeling and how much time I have tomorrow.
I was just informed that my department is having a mini holiday party tomorrow morning at 10:00, so I have to get my gifts here and join in the festivities at that time. I plan on stopping by on my way to shopping for dinner. So much to do and so little time. We still don't have a gift for Matt's youngest brother Dan. I assume it will just be a cash donation to his "still young and trying to make it" fund!
I am working today and did I mention that I love working around the holidays? Hardly anyone is here, not much work gets done and people feel the need to cook and bake and bring to co-workers. One of my co-workers just brought a large spread of food in for everyone. I love people like that.
Matt and I took our nightly walk with Jackson through the neighborhood and came across a girl who had managed to get her car stuck in the snow trying to park in front of her mom's house. Matt had to dig the car out. He got his workout in for the day!! That looked like hard work. Jackson and I stood by and watched! ha. Matt was thanked by the mom with a plate of freshly baked cookies!
Matt and I have decided that the Grand Cayman is the place for us. We will be booking our trip the first part of January. I am so excited. I have thouroughly enjoyed the snow, but I can't wait for the warm sunshine and beautiful beaches.
Until next time!

December

December has been a good month for us. We got our Christmas tree the weekend after Thanksgiving (so early for us). We had a good time picking it out. It actually only took us about an hour (a new record). My team went to their first cheer competition and placed 2nd. Our next competition was cancelled due to the SNOW storm. The past week we have had a lot of snow (a lot for us) and it is great. Although I don't enjoy driving in it, I love to see it. Matt and I have been taking the dogs for walks each night and even built a snowman (Sylvester the Snowman). Sylvester had a rough night and lost his eyes, mouth and started leaning a bit. Poor thing.

We are preparing for the winter storm that is supposed to hit tonight and is calling for another 6-12" of snow possible. I measured the snow on our back patio last night and we had 5.5". Not as much as I thought, but still a good amount.

My mom and I tried to go out and finish up some last minute shopping today. That was a mistake. We ended up being stuck in a huge mess of traffic and ice. I believe everyone in town decided to go out at the same moment. For everyone that knows me, knows that I have little patience and I was definitely ready to get home. Visions of ramming my car into others didn't help!

Christmas Eve is fast approaching and this year we are hosting Matt's family get together. We are happy to have them coming. We hope the weather clears up so they can make the trip from up North (Burien/Everett).

Christmas day will be my family at our house for Christmas brunch. Yum, I can hardly wait.

Matt's dad and Cindi surprised us with an offer to give us a week anywhere for our Christmas gift. Matt and I have been searching through all the tropical islands we can think of. We are planning on a March or April trip and we figure we could use some sun, white beaches and snorkeling by that time. Our top choices are Turks and Caicos (very hard to get), Grand Cayman and St. John. We shall see what we decide. Such a hard decision when we have so many options.

Happy Holidays!

Matt and Jennie

Matt is cutting me down at the tree farm!

My mom, sister and me at the tree farm!

Our snowman, Sylvester

Our house in the snow, my mom posing with the garbage can!

Catching Up

It has been a while since I last posted. To bring you up to speed . . .
Matt celebrated his 27th on Nov. 14th. A bunch of people went to the high speed go-karting track in Tumwater and had a great time. We then headed to Ballyhoo (local soccer pub) to celebrate. We had a great time with family and friends. Thanks for making Matt's birthday a great one.

Competition is just around the corner and we are in crunch time now. Only 7 practices left until our first competition and I am a bit stressed out. I know they will get it, it is just a bit nerve-racking at the moment.

Work has kept me busy as well. I have a lot of loose ends that need to be tied up and to top it off, I am having to take vacation. I know, I know, most would call me crazy for complaining about having to take vacation, but I am at a use it or lose it time at work. We are only allowed to accumulate 320 hours and I am there. I am taking a few days off around the holidays, but have so much to do at work that I will most likely find myself checking email and voicemail from home just to stay up on things.

Matt and I had a productive past weekend. We painted the dining room and entry. Still trying to decide whether I am happy with the dining room color as it is pretty bland for my usual color scheme. We shall see. Master bathroom is on the agenda for this weekend! I of course ended up getting pretty sick and haven't been able to shake it. Maybe I need to take these vacation days and actually relax to recoup a bit.

Who You Gonna Call?

Matt and I procrastinated, as usual, for getting our halloween costumes for the Roger's party last Saturday night (my brother would be so disappointed). We started looking at about 12:30 pm on Saturday. We searched several different stores and decided that we had some costumes at home that would still work. Well, my Dorthy dress was missing (just had the red shoes) and Matt had some pieces of his Don Johnson costume missing as well.
So, we then had to venture back out to search for costumes. By this time it was 3:30 pm (party starts at 4:00). We didn't have time to run to the West side again to get a costume (that we should have purchased earlier in the day), so we tried Wal-Mart (I hate Wal-Mart) and had no luck. We went to Target and ended up getting the last two Ghostbusters costumes they had that came fully equiped with blow-up proton paks. Of course they were One Size Fits All. Well, that doesn't exactly work for people like me. I am sure they didn't plan on a 5'5" girl wearing one of those costumes, but hey, it was all I could find. It smelled funny too. I have a huge issue with wearing things without washing them first. Ugh, I still get grossed out with the thought. Poor Miles had to wait for us while we figured out what the heck we were doing. So, after going back to the house and getting in our costumes (the crotch of mine came down to my knees - I was a thug ghostbuster) we headed to the party. We ended up having one of the best costumes at the party - aside from Miles' paintball guy (pretty sad). I told Matt next year we are planning a head of time, because I am not going through that again.

No really, the couch didn't fit!

My mom "officially" moved in over the weekend. She has been staying with us since June, but we finally got all her bedroom furniture, etc. from her house on Saturday. She seems to be a lot happier now and feels more at home. Her living situation wasn't all that great. She sold her house to be able to help out my aunt and uncle who moved in with her. They bought a house together that would accomodate my aunts wheelchair needs, but the negativity was too much for my mom and she moved in with us. So, this weekend was filled with lifting, hauling, arranging, re-arranging, etc.

Luckily my house is set up well for this sort of thing. Our master is on the bottom floor and we have three rooms upstairs. So, she has the upstairs to herself. We brought over her loveseat and made a second bedroom a sitting room for her. After taking the door off, removing the feet of the couch, the couch still didn't want to fit through the door frame. So, after much manipulation, the guys finally got it through and I went to buy wood puddy the following day to fix the damage.

My sister and mom were kind enough to help me hang some stuff on my walls to help make me feel like I wasn't losing half my house! Don't get me wrong. I really like having her in the house and Matt seems to be fine with it as well. It was actually his idea to give her a sitting room so she can get away from us to do her reading. How nice! However, it made me have to figure out where to put all the shit that had been stored in those rooms.

My mom and I then arranged the garage yesterday, took a bunch of stuff to the dump and even went to Home Depot to purchase Matt a shed for the backyard as a birthday surprise. This will eliminate a lot more crap from our garage. I have been feeling like my house is so cluttered lately. I don't understand how we accumulate so much crap so quickly, and we don't even have kids to blame it on.

Oh yeah, and I bought a new color of paint for my master bathroom. I am hoping that can be next Sunday's project as I really want to start personalizing my house. It has only been 2.5 years, you think I would have done something by now!

The World Hates Me

So, I finally went to the Dr. yesterday regarding my sinus issues and low and behold, I am just having a major allergy attack. Good news - It isn't an infection, Bad news - The world seems to hate me (that is actually what the Dr. said to me, ha). I guess about 4 weeks ago, the molds went crazy and I just happen to have quite an allergy to molds, so I have been paying the price. **Totally Gross Info Coming Up** When people have a severe allergy attack, the turbinades (those things up your nose that produce mucus) have blood pumped to it and then they swell and the flow of blood stops, which creates a bit of a problem. So, because of this one turbinade is violet in color and one is blue in color. I told my team last night that I really am the most spirited NTHS alumni since I am purple through and through!! ha. Anyways, yes, I have a purple nose (on the inside) you can't actually see it without some really cool tools. I have been placed on a short, low-grade dose of steroids (this time it won't make me fat) and nose spray every night for the rest of my life as well as antihistamine. Ugh, life is wonderful.

Wasting a Day

So, I have the day off (yay), except I am sitting at home wasting it away. Aside from the fact that I can't breath and my ear is killing me today (I would have still gone to work), I am waiting here for a worker to come and paint some of the drywall repairs that were done to our house back in MAY. Yes, our one year after construction home repairs have lasted almost a year and a half now. They drag their feet and put us off. I am sure they are hoping that we will forget about the items that need to be done and just go away, but alas, Matt and I are great at hounding them. So, here I am sitting here waiting for the worker that was supposed to arrive at 10:00 this morning to arrive. It is now 10:30 and still no sign of him. This is about the 10th day that I have taken off, since our move in date in August 2006, for these stupid repairs to occur. I am about ready to bill the building company my time.

And to top it all off, I get to take Jackson into the vet today at 3:30. What a great way to spend a day off. I really need a Starbucks.

Weezer!!!!

Matt and I headed to Seattle yesterday to see the Weezer concert. Weezer is one of Matt's favorite bands, but he has never had the opportunity to see them. After checking with my brother to get his opinion on how Weezer is in concert, Matt was still not convinced that they would be as great as he imagined. He was nervous they would not live up to the expectations and be a bit boring or be one of those bands that doesn't sound well live.

The show opened with Tokyo Police Club, a newer band of young guys that had the extent of themselves, about 1/8 stage space and a few lights. They weren't all that bad, just not a large production. Angels and Airwaves were up next. The lead singer (former lead singer of Blink 182) was a bit too theatrical for my taste. The band did put on a good show and I can see them becoming bigger than they are right now.

Then the real show began. Weezer played classics like Say it ain't so, Undone (the sweater song), Suzanne (which totally surprised Matt), brought some of Seattle's artists on stage with their various instruments to play Island in the Sun and Beverly Hills and then finished the show with the great, Buddy Holly. The show was not a disappointment. The band sounded amazing live and put on one of the best shows we have seen.

Matt and I decided we needed to do things like this more often. We invest so much time into our teams that we neglect to do things like this for ourselves.

Sinus Problems Blow

So, as most of you know, I have had some major sinus issues over the last few years. I lived with major conjestion for about two and a half years. I then underwent surgery, in May 2007, to clean everything out and hopefully start over. In that surgery they found that I had allergies, so I have now been undergoing allergy shots every week for the past seven months. They really seemed to be helping me, but since the weather change I have been miserable again. I can't taste anything, nor can I smell anything (which isn't always a bad thing). I am dreading going back to the Dr. as I know they will put me back on my steroids that made me gain so much weight (I have a trainer now and am finally starting to lose the extra poundage)! I wish for very simple things. 1. To be able to taste my food. 2. To be able to breath at night through my nose. 3. To be able to breath through my nose while eating so I don't look like an idiot with my mouth hanging open all the time. These are such simple things. Why do they seem so difficult for me?

Football Game Tonight

So, we have another football game tonight - It is Friday, you know! Thurston is off to Bremerton. We get our own bus for the away games this year, thank goodness. There is nothing more unpleasant than the smell of sweaty football players on the bus ride home. I sure hope the weather stays somewhat decent. There is nothing worse than standing in the cold rain for three hours. Just the thought of it makes me want a warm bath.

Competition, Competition, Competition

It is that time of year again, Competition time. I am getting ready to have absolutely no life. That means that my team and I will start practicing 4-5 nights per week for about 2 hours each day. Our first competition is in two months and I don't have music. OH MY GOD!! I am stressed to the max trying to come up with some good music. Until I have music, I won't be able to choreograph a routine. I also don't have our guys set for the team yet, so that is always stressful. We don't need them, but it is nice to have them since they add such a great dynamic to the team. I am hoping to have 3 - 4 this year again. Man, I need another Kyran to do my recruiting for me! ha. Such is life.

Reliving My Youth

This past weekend was Homecoming for North Thurston. As I do every year, the cheerleading alumni perform a cheer during half-time. This year was a bit disappointing with only seven alumni showing (some feared they would melt in the rain), but overall we still had a great time. My team, however; did an amazing job with their performance and I was extremely proud of all of them.
Saturday night was the Homecoming dance and like every other year, I am a chaperone. I love seeing my team in their dresses and tuxes. They all look so pretty dressed up! I get to tell kids to stop dancing dirty and stay in the upright position. What great fun it is. I love the kids that look at me like I am some old lady trying to tell them what to do. I AM NOT THAT OLD, yet. Ha. It brings back a lot of memories of my dances and the fun we used to have!

A Day of Cleaning

Sunday was a great day. I spent the entire day (well most all of it) cleaning. I know it doesn't sound like a great day to most, but I was in desperate need of cleaning. I had not seen my house sparkle like it does in quite some time! I am not one to enjoy cleaning at all (except laundry, I love doing laundry), but Sunday was a day that I think I needed. I was home alone (Matt was coaching soccer all day) and I decided it was time to do that spring cleaning that I never got to. I did a deep clean cleaning, scrub on my hands and knees kind of clean - and it was theraputic (I even bathed both dogs)! I can now sit back and enjoy the clean house until next weekend when I have to do it all over again!

Fall Came Too Fast

As fall approaches I can't help think of all the things that we did not get to around the house this summer. We still have an unfinished back patio, a messy garage and unpainted walls. My garden box never was built therefore, no garden was ever started. I did, however; clean out our clothes and boy Good Will must have been really happy with all the items they received. This fall is going to be a time of focus for me to actually paint some walls (if Matt lets me - as I am not really good at the trim part) and actually hang some photos/artwork. We have been in our new home for just over two years and I still have so much to do. Who said a brand new house is not a fixer upper?!

Happy 4 Years to US!

Today we are celebrating our 4 year anniversary. It has been an awesome 4 years and we plan on having approximately 84 more fantastic years (yes, we plan on living forever). Because of our busy schedules, we celebrated our annivesary last weekend with a day all to ourselves. We visited the Glass Museum in Tacoma and then Matt arranged for us to go to a local glass blowing studio where we were able to make our own glass creations. It was a lot of fun. We finished the day up with a trip to the History Museum, dinner at Trinacria, drinks at The Rock and a viewing of Tropic Thunder! All in all it was a great day with a lot of fun, but most important, we got to spend a whole day together!!

Welcome to our Joint

Welcome to the Jones Joint. Matt and I have never had a blog and we may not be all that great at keeping it up, so please bare with us!