(Semi) Wordless Wednesday

Today is one of those days where I both love my cats very much and am very aggravated with them at the same time. It's not that they really did anything wrong, it's just that they're annoying! We feed our kitties twice a day, once in the morning and again after getting home from work. If we fed them anymore, they would get so, so fat. Anyway, we sleep with our door closed at night and every morning at about 5-5:30 they start meowing and scratching at the door. We still want to sleep until 6. But it's pretty much impossible. Most mornings we eventually have to get up and put Seabass in his cage temporarily because he's going to destroy the carpet clawing at it.

We tried to use a timed feeder, but Seabass figured out how to get into it. If we were to use an auto feeder, I have no doubt that they would eat all the food by the end of the day and would get really, really fat. Anyway, it's just really frustrating. I'm tired of losing sleep because the cats want food. Shouldn't they have learned by now that their obnoxious behavior doesn't get us to feed them any sooner? Ha. I wish.

At least they're so beautiful and lovey, most of the time.

Anyway, any suggestions on how we can get a full night's sleep without the cats driving us crazy?

Cindy

In Need of Some Zzzzs...

You guys, I am so sleepy today. It was an eventful and very busy weekend. We ended up not going to the River Concert on Friday due to the extrememe heat wave we were having. They postponed the concert to 7:30 (versus 7:00) but it was still 95F with a heat index of 110F at 7:30. I don't do well in extreme heat (or cold for that matter) and Collin had been outside at work all day so we just thought it best to stay home in the air conditioning. We ended up staying up til midnight watching Benny and Joon. I'd never seen it before and I was glad we watched it. Anyway, we had the wedding on Saturday and Collin was an awesome DJ! I'll post pictures and blog about it tomorrow. We finally got home and to bed from that about midnight again (the wedding was almost 2 hours from home!). Then yesterday we had to get up early for church, then we said "see ya later" to our friends Chris and Bev who started their journey to Arizona. Chris got a teaching job in Phoenix and so they began their move yesterday afternoon. And then we had an ASP meeting and then saw The Musicman. We crashed in bed right at 10:00 last night because we were just exhausted. And then, much to my chagrin, about 12:30 I was woken up by a thunderstorm. It didn't scare me but it sure prevented me from sleeping because boy was that storm loud! And we have a basement bedroom that muffles sounds. There was SO much lightning it would make our room bright (and we have an egress window). I definitely did not get much sleep last night thanks to it being not only a loud storm but a LONG one... I was almost tempted to get out of bed and go watch the storm from the back porch...

Anyway, a better post will come tomorrow. Today I just need to rest.

Cindy

Image found on Pinterest

Dreams Bring Decisions

Two nights ago I had the strangest dream. I dreamed that I was basically nine months pregnant with a baby girl. I don't remember every detail of it now but I do remember being at the doctor's or the hospital and feeling the baby's heartbeat through my stomach; like how you would feel the baby kicking/moving but it was her heartbeat. But the strangest part was I had never felt her move or anything until this point, which is strange since I was close to full-term. In my dream though her heartbeat stopped and it really scared me, I thought I had lost her but then a little while later I could feel her again. I was walking around in my dream with my hands under my belly just feeling her heartbeat because I thought it was the coolest and most amazing sensation. I didn't want to take my hands off my belly for any reason because I loved feeling it. Then after I left my visit with the doctor I kept running into all these people I knew, I was at some outside festival type thing, and I was making everyone I ran into feel my belly and my baby inside me. I kept explaining to them that I had never felt the baby before inside me and so this was incredible! I woke up from my dream slightly freaked out and I could still "feel" the baby's heartbeat. I couldn't really but it was all just in my mind. It really freaked me out though because there is no way Collin and I are ready for children. Not that we don't want them someday, we're just in no shape financially to have a baby right now.

I just did a little research on dreams and what it means to dream of being pregnant and this is the general conscensus:
To dream that you are pregnant, symbolizes an aspect of yourself or some aspect of your personal life that is growing and developing. You may not be ready to talk about it or act on it. Being pregnant in your dream may also represent the birth of a new idea, direction, project or goal.

To dream that you are pregnant with the baby dying inside of you, suggests that a project you had put a lot of effort into is falling apart and slowly deteriorating. Nothing is working out the way you had anticipated.

I suppose that's pretty much why I was dreaming about being pregnant. I've been toying with the idea for a little while now of becoming a Vantel Pearl's Demonstrator but haven't signed up yet because I'm scared. I'm scared of not doing well, of not having any clients and being a failure. It would be a great opportunity for me because it would help us out a little bit financially. I could make my own hours and "work" as often or as little as I want to. But I've just been too scared to take the leap into this venture. I need to do it. I want to do it. So I think I'm going to stop putting it off and just join. Thank you pregnancy dream for giving me a kick in the right direction! =)

And maybe one day when I really am pregnant I'll have a pleasant pregnancy experience like in my dream. =) Have you ever dreamed of being pregnant? Was it as bizarre as my pregnancy dream?

Cindy

P.S. If you've never heard of Vantel Pearls visit their website here to learn more information. If you'd like to host a party or buy any jewelry send me an e-mail or leave a comment! I'd love to help you have a party. Also, if you're not in the general Southern Maryland/ Northern Virigina area and are interested in Vantel but don't know of a demonstrator let me know and I can put you in touch with someone in your area!

Weather and Running

Found here

I think pretty much most of the United States has been hit by the giant storm system that just came through. I know it was over in the MidWest on Sunday and we just got hit early this morning. Foruntately I wasn't aware of any awful thunderstorms since we live in a basement and there's lots of other noises going on in the house. However, I was rudely awoken by our county's severe weather alert phone call at about 4:45 am. I opted into this plan so I will be aware if there's a tornado warning. I was not pleased this morning. It was calling to tell us a severe thunderstorm warning had been issued. I tried to go back to sleep but then at 5:05 am another call came only this time it was for a tornado warning. I'm terrified of tornados. So even though our bedroom is pretty much protected since all we have is an egress window, I still made Collin go out into the living room with me where we were furthest away from any windows at all. And of course there was no tornado, it was just the National Weather Service issuing a warning because the thunderstorms that were coming through were capable of producing tornados. Silly weather people. Tell me if there's a tornado actually heading my way that way I don't freak out for nothing. Anyway... we usually wake up around 6 am but at this point there was no sense in going back to bed. I'm a little bit more tired today than usual...

I don't know why I'm so terrified of tornados. I've never even seen one let alone been in one so I really have no idea what it's like. I'm trying to get rid of the intense fear they cause. I know it's unhealthy and when I get scared I pray my little tush off but there's just this uncontrollable anxiety that just surfaces when the possiblity of one coming arises. I guess it will just take some time and some more intense prayer to calm myself and get rid of this anxiety completely.

Yesterday afternoon I did my first day of the Couch to 5k program. I was so excited and hopped on the treadmill and set to work. This first week starts you off with a 5 minute warm up walk and then alternating jogging for 60 seconds and brisk walking for 90 seconds for 20 minutes total. By about my third round of jogging I thought I was going to die. Not really, but I felt really, really out of breath and my heart was pounding. I am completely out of shape and this was proof. I was glad when the 20 minutes were up and when I stepped off the treadmill to do my stretches it felt like I was still moving! And I could feel my heartbeat in my head, it was the oddest sensation. Once I cooled down and my heart rate returned to normal I felt great, but I hope the workout portion gets easier the more I do this thing!

Cindy

There is no Smoke!

I wish we would have listened... I knew about that old adage, but I didn't think too much of it because I figured they'd been changed recently. Well, last night was miserable. Our smoke detector in our bedroom kept going off last night. This is not a quiet alarm either, it is ear-piercingly loud. And I knew there wasn't a fire because none of the ones in the rest of the house were going off and there was no smoke or anything in our bedroom. Though being jolted awake by the smoke detector did freak me out for a little bit. The first time it went off was at about 11:30 (we had gone to bed around 10), so Collin gets out of bed and goes to make it stop but it stops on its own. He gets back in bed and it starts again. So he gets back up and fiddles with it and it stops. Finally. He climbs back in bed and we fall back asleep. Then at about 4:30 this morning it goes off again. Only this time it's not stopping on its own and poor Collin was struggling to pull the thing down to take the battery out of it; poor guy was asleep and not functioning fully. He finally got it down but it's still screaming at us and he struggles to get the battery out and when he does it's finally quiet. Let me just say, that was NOT a fun night or a fun morning waking up for work. From now on I will be changing my smoke detector's batteries every time we change the clocks for Daylight Saving Time.

Cindy

Updated Stuff

I did a lot of updates to my blog yesterday! I changed the layout and look of it a bit. I changed the font a few weeks ago and I was just itching to change the rest of it so I did finally! I really like the way it looks. What do you guys think?

I also added a button! I figured out how to make one, or rather how to get it onto my site, and so I went to work creating it. If you'd like to add it to your blog you can find it on the sidebar or actually here's the link.

<a border="0" href="http://theotherdayandthat.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v315/piano_angel04/sunflowerfield-1-2.jpg"/></a>
I was also pretty pleased with how that turned out.

The only thing I'm frustrated about is the navigational tabs at the top of the page. I have a link to my homepage, a link to my About Us page, and then a new link to all my Friday Favorites posts, however, I want to have navigational tabs and not pages and I can't figure out how to do it. I want to be able to put a tab to my Friday Favorites label search page instead of how I have the page currently with a link to each of my posts individually. Am I making any sense? Does anyone know how to do it? I think the main thing I'm frustrated with it I've tried doing it and I've gotten it to work but the formatting isn't right with the way the tabs look at the top of my blog. And I love the way they are formatted right now. Can anyone help me with this or do you know of anyone who could?

On another note, I am so tired. I want to just curl up in a ball and take a nap. However, I hate naps. I hate them mainly because I hate how I feel when I wake up from them. I feel so groggy and out of it and almost sick-like. And it takes me longer to get out of the funk than I spent actually napping. But another reason I hate them is I feel like I'm missing out on so much when I nap. I feel like I have so much I should be doing instead of napping and in the end the nap isn't very restful. I don't think I'll take a nap today. I'll just suck it up and manage through the evening. I sure can't wait to sleep in on Saturday!

Cindy

Wake Up, Little Cindy

Found here

I have a confession.  Mornings are hard.  Granted, once I'm up and moving about I'm fine, but actually waking up and getting out of bed is hard.  And it's not an every day thing.  It's only on days when I have to get up before 7:30.  If it's after 7:30 I'm good to go.  But the big problem is, I have to be at work at 7 so every week day my alarm is set before 6.  This does not bode well for me, especially since the sun isn't even up yet!  I think there should be a rule that you mustn't rise before the sun.  =) 

Anyway... this not waking up easy thing isn't good.  Especially when you have a husband who jumps out of bed as soon as the alarm goes off.  The nice thing about our alarm clock is we have an iHome so we don't (always) have to listen to annoying beeping.  Unless we forget to put one of our iPods on we wake up to music.  But it doesn't matter to me.  If it's too early the music won't get me excited to get up.  But back to what I was saying, it really bothers Collin that he gets up with the alarm and I linger in bed when he doesn't have to be at work until 10 (most days, some days he has to be there at 7).  So I've promised him that I would do better, that I would get out of bed right away instead of being lazy.

This morning I succeeded.  The music went off; I had purposefully picked an upbeat song that I knew would excite and energize me.  After the song was over I got out of bed and went to the bathroom and brushed my teeth.  I then went downstairs and did a little bit of exercising and then headed upstairs to shower.  I got dressed and ready for work.  You would think that by getting up earlier than I ever do I would be in great shape time-wise for getting to work.  WRONG.  I was running a HALF HOUR behind.  How did that even happen!?  I don't know but it almost doesn't seem to be beneficial to get up early if I'm gonna be even later than I am when I lay in bed until 6:20.  No no... that's not true, it is good to get up on time but I just don't understand how I could run so late this morning.  Irony is such a weird thing.  Maybe like Collin said I should pick my clothes out the night before, but how will I know what I will feel like wearing the next day?  Some days I don't even know what I feel like wearing for that day, much less the next!

Anyway... do any of you have any tips on how to make getting up any easier in the morning?  I did succeed today and I must admit I was quite giggly and energetic, maybe it was the music (thanks Taio Cruz!) or maybe it was Collin rubbing my back during the music, but it was kinda fun being happy at 5:45 in the morning.  lol  I just want to know how to be happy every morning at 5:45.  =)  I think Collin would like "happy-morning Cindy" much better than "grumpy-morning Cindy".

*sigh* Changing habits is HARD.  At least this is a good habit to change to.

Cindy