Waiting on that "out like a lamb" part...

The end of March and beginning of April came in like a lion and it's still roaring. There were lots of issues that came up that unfortunately involve other people and I don't know if they would approve of me writing about the issues. Therefore, I won't. But I can go into some lighter, funner issues. :^) My 3rd nephew was born on 4/4/11 and we have had fun visiting him and Miranda while they are in town. My birthday was in there somewhere, we did our taxes in there, too, and Jon opened and closed Rent at The Joint in Catoosa. That actually marked my first time in a casino. I was prepared to spend between $10 - $20 in there and actually got bills for my $2 worth of coins. Somehow, I walked out of there having only spent someone else's $1. ??? Oh well, I suppose that's good. If you haven't been to a casino, I recommend you wait until nightfall or the weekend. During the day is a creepy, creepy crowd. Although it is fairly quiet with lots of open seats. So, I guess it's your call. Shelby and I went out for our combined birthday celebration (her birthday is 4/20/11) and got free desserts that...well...weren't great. But it was the thought that counted! I'm still plugging away with my phone. It's one of my favorite things. It's battery life is not. But I am amazed daily at all the little things it can do and what I let it do for me. Maybe I'll do another post on my newest phone lessons.

Jon is working on getting all of his loose ends tied up so that he can graduate on May 7th. We have no idea what we are doing after that. There are a few options on or near the table, but nothing is set in stone. Hmmm...that didn't seem like nearly as much as we've been through in the past month! Oh well, it's lacking the big stuff, so I guess that's where the bulk of it is. haha Until next time...

OH! I almost forgot the most exciting part! I got another new purse this past Monday because mine was dying...again....

It's my new favorite thing right now. :^D


-Mrs. Kreilaus

Babies and Technology (Completely Unrelated)

Babies: I took Friday off from work and Jon and I met up with Price, Sarah, and Baby David. This was the first time we'd met him. 5 months old. Then, after that, I took Jon to work and went to hang out with Shelby and her 1 month old Kingston. About a week ago, we learned that Joe and Miranda have the green light and have completed the adoption hoops course for a baby due any day now. And of course we all know that our nephew Dillon is set to have a baby sometime this year, too, making Jon and I Great Uncle and Great Aunt. I've only been doing this Aunt thing for about a year and a half now...wish I could have gotten some more practice in before moving into the Great realm! Oh, and Lyndsey is due to come to Oklahoma around the 1st of April, so I'll get to play with 10 month old Beckham then. WAVE O' BABIES!

Technology: A computer guru coworker of mine told me awhile back that Android 2.2 (FROYO) had been released and kept asking me if I had gotten on my phone yet. I kept trying and trying, but it kept telling me that I didn't have any updates available. Finally, a couple of days ago, I got a text telling me about it and gave me a link to go to. Well, that night, the link wasn't working. Of course not. Duh. So, I get it to work the next day and it was telling me that I was going to have to down FROYO onto my computer and then put it on my phone. Well, I had tried downloading directly to my phone the night I got the text message, but it, once again, told me I didn't have any updates available. Anyway, On Saturday (yes, while at work), I did the hoops jump and got it downloaded to my phone. It doesn't seem like too big of a change, but I'm still kinda new at it, so who knows. I don't really like its style, though...I would prefer a more streamlined look. Then yesterday (yes, at work again...) the same computer guru coworker tells me about a neat new feature on Facebook that I hadn't seen yet. He says something about maybe needing to have the new IE for it to work. So I get on Microsoft's website today and sure enough, there's an Internet Explorer 9 out and I have 8. Annoying. So, I download 9 after reading a little bit about it (Okay, so I read about it as I was downloading...so sue me...). It was talking about a streamlined format and putting the focus back on webpages. Yay...that sounds great. I thought 8 was a little cluttered looking and clunky leaving a very small window to view a webpage on my netbook. I get it downloaded, restarted my computer and fired up IE9. Ummm....there's an address/search bar (which they were making a big deal about, but Delli - my 2004 Dell Inspiron - had a combined address/search bar.....?), a tab showing the page I'm on, a home button, a favorites button, and a settings button....that's it. Now, I'm going to have to give you a little history here for you to understand how this made me feel. I've always been a "favorites" kind of girl. I even have folders in my favorites folder...that's how I roll. That is, until IE 8 came out on my Windows 7 netbook and introduced me to the favorites bar. Cute little mini-icons all sat at the top of my window reminding me to go check out my favorite sites. LOVED it. I was up to 20+ mini-icons and still had room for more. They were all my banking shortcuts, sites I go to once every few months, sites I go to once every few minutes, and everything in between. This devil IE 9 seemed to have eaten them. All of them. I didn't think to write them all down in case they disappeared. I frantically clicked the settings button...no favorites bar option. I then began to go to the more popular ones and "pin" them to my task bar at the bottom. It wasn't going well. Then, I realized that there was a lot of blank space at the top of the window and remembered that I'm on a PC...with the "right button o' magic". LUCKILY, I was able to add the favorites bar, but it was not easy to find it (I literally had to click on nothing...). So, I'm still a little jumpy after that, but I think this is going to work well. :^)

Well, I seem to be fighting a headache, so I'm going to go. Maybe I'll update more later today. See ya!

-Mrs. Kreilaus

Week Summary

Gonna have to sum it all up again:

Saturday 2/19/11 - My 2 dogs had a playdate with Shelby's 2 dogs and her mom's dog. It went pretty well and all dogs got tired out. (Success)
Monday 2/21/11 - Jon left for ACTF at Amarillo, TX.
Tuesday 2/22/11 - My BFF's little sister Shelby was induced to start having her baby this night. BFF Lyndsey also flew into town this night.
Wednesday 2/23/11 - We got our new baby grand piano moved into the house. Through a slight emergency, I actually had to come home with the movers to let them in the house. Through this emergency, I also had to tell Jon that the move was happening while he was gone. I had wanted to keep it a secret to surprise him. Oh well. Shelby had her baby this night, but I was already home (Mounds) and asleep by the time I got the news.
Thursday 2/24/11 - After work, I went up to the hospital to meet baby Kingston and of course hang out with their whole fam. Got to hang out with Lyndsey, too, one-on-one (Well, with her son Beckham). I think we both needed that.
Friday 2/25/11 - Was Sarah's birthday! I celebrated with her in my heart. :^)
Saturday 2/26/11 - Went over to Thomas and Shelby's house to try to help out as much as possible for the new parents. Not sure if it was successful or not. :^/ I really wanted to help, though. I helped with some chores, sometimes with the dogs, and tried to help with Beckham. Found out that Jon didn't win his competition. We were both kinda bummed, yet kinda relieved. At least it's done now and we don't have to worry about tweaking and taking it to Nationals.
Sunday 2/27/11 - Jon came home. :^D He took his piano apart and cleaned it while I watched for some of it and blogged for the rest of it. :^) Things are going back to normal. However, it seems as though I'm going to have to get one of these "kid" things if I want to fit in with my friends now...oh, peer pressure!

-Mrs. Kreilaus

Few notes from the past few days

On Saturday, I bathed the dogs.
On Saturday, I bathed my phone.
On Saturday, and still now, my phone still works.
I have christened my phone "The Unsinkable Molly Brown."
On Sunday, I went to work.
Sunday sucked.
On Monday, I got double bad news.
On Monday, I ate at Lanna Thai for dinner.
Lanna Thai was delicious.
Yesterday kinda sucked.
Today was a short day at work, but it was weird.
Today, I got my key stuck in the back door at work for 5 minutes.


I don't know...just weird things.


-Mrs. Kreilaus

I guess it snowed on Tuesday

Stupid (webs.com...) site ate my post...

Oh well...

Here are the pictures, which was my main point, anyway. Maybe I'll come back later and re-do the post.

-Mrs. Kreilaus

okay, okay...I'm back to chronicle the week we've had...


Monday 1/31/11: Knowing that the "end was near", Jon, Mary, and I ate at Zio's expecting it to be a "Last Supper" kind of thing. I wish that weren't so true...My boss even had me call off lessons for Tuesday before I left. Channel 6 made fun of us because we were their first call. Yay....So, after a someone normal, yet hectic, day at work, we all came home to settle into what was coming. I was just hoping that I had remembered everything I needed.


Tuesday 2/1/11 (THE BIG DAY): Woke up to snow. Woke up to a lot of snow and lots more falling from the sky. It was a pretty chill day and the "TAKE PICTURES!!!!" excitement was high. Lots of those in the link earlier in this post. Around 12:30, the electricity went out. A few minutes after that happened, but boss confirmed that school was closed. Without electricity, I still managed to get the word out to all of our media people and our teachers. This involved using the internet from my phone to post on one news site in particular. I was quite proud of myself. The dogs LOVED the snow. Well, our dogs. Walker and Missy were not really fans. Luckily the electricity was only out for about 2 hours, so we didn't have to really go into survival mode.


Wednesday 2/2/11 and Thursday 2/3/11: I honestly can't remember the difference between these 2 days, so I'll put them together. One of these days (or maybe both?) had sub-zero temperatures. Apparently, the dogs are not fans of this. Lyka moreso than Phaux. Their paws were getting cold (or maybe snow freezing to the hair on their feet?) and they had trouble going to the bathroom outside. There was also a potty incident with Lyka that I will spare you the details on, that we're still not sure what happened, but during cleanup she let out a huge cry. One of these days was the final hoorah for leash-free roamage as Phaux darted across the street to get the weather report from the neighbors. We started to shovel the driveway and it became really real just how stuck we are. At the highest we were knee-deep and about 6 inches...MAYBE....at the lowest. And we have quite a long driveway. I think Jon started feeling sick on one of these days, too...but maybe Tuesday. Luckily we have some antibiotics in the house, so he's treating whatever it is. On both of these nights, we weren't sure if we were going to close Saied's lessons. I was told to poll the teachers and see if they would be able to make it in. Very mixed results. But eventually, I got the call (text) on Thursday morning that Thursday was a no go. Gotta love waking up to making all the media calls. At least I got smart and mass texted the teachers the news. That was a lot quicker (after I learned that you MUST use the 10-digit number for all texts). Kim made it in to Saied's and said that the parking lot hadn't been touched and the phones were ringing off the hook the whole time she was there.


Friday 2/4/11: I got the text kinda late in the morning that the school would be closed today. I made all the calls/texts again. Apparently it was a hard call to make...even though there would be nowhere for our customers/students to park and if someone fell on our ice, it would be our liability. Today a couple of our neighbors came home (dad and son in the same family) and at one point they were both stuck in their separate trucks on our road. Jon and I went to be neighborly, but they were in their driveway without too much effort by that point. We helped carry their groceries inside. While we were doing that, a friend of Kim and Mary's came by to say hello and deliver horse oats. They got stuck in the middle of the road, but luckily, we had a neighbor on a tractor patroling the roads and got him unstuck. Then as he was waiting on his wife to put the oats up with Kim, 2 trucks came up behind him and got rude about moving out of the way. So he backed into a driveway, getting himself stuck again, to let the friendly neighbors by. However, we all got a chuckle that the friendly neighbors just go stuck behind another stuck vehicle further up the road, within our sight. (TEE HEE!) After the tractor pulled him out of the driveway, he decided that he would let his truck idle in the middle of the road until someone else needed by. This would allow so visitation time with Kim and Mary. Meanwhile, Mr. TractorMan plowed our driveway. Just as he was nearing done, a truck started down our road. I went inside to tell the friend that they'd have to move the truck and they had to leave in a hurry. I was told to deliver a message to Kim, who was across the street, causing me to walk by the to-be-passer-by. Of course he rolled down his window as he got near his truck, so I informed him that the truck was not stuck, it just had to get out of his way for them to get by. Somehow, this got interpreted as that guy backing up and pulling into our newly plowed driveway. Either way, the switch was made and we went back to seclusion. With more snow. It was snowing nearly all day again, with big flakes at first, luckily shrinking as the day went on. Our freshly plowed driveway is not so freshly plowed anymore. :^( And we didn't even get to use it because it got plowed so late in the day. Oh well. Maybe we'll try our luck tomorrow. Somewhere in the middle of the day, I got the call about lessons being closed tomorrow, too. So, I got to make those calls/texts as well. I'm lucky I've been able to get so many hours by just informing people that we are closed, but I am seriously hurting on hours overall. I don't know what's going to happen. I've heard some stations calling for more rain/snow tomorrow, then Sunday, and some all the way into Midweek. I can't believe that some people even have the nerve to complain about having to use their "paid time off" days for this. Well, you have PTO at all; I would start by being thankful for that. Those of us that don't aren't sure how the next paycheck is going to work out. Just throwing that out there. Anyway, you know I'll be back. I doubt we're out of here tomorrow or if we are it will be a scary, scary trip.


-Mrs. Kreilaus

Still learning DROID...and some other stuff, too...

DROID:
Wow. There is seriously so much to learn with smartphones these days. Just like iPhone, there is an app for nearly everything. Some are worthless; some are necessary; some are great until the company updates them; some have one single feature that makes them different from the next guy's app for that.

Facebook app for Droid created by Facebook is crap. At least, as far as I'm concerned. If I click "Photos," I want to see other people's, not mine. If I want to see mine, I will go to my profile. You know, like the real site. This was either already on the phone when I got it or I downloaded it because it was at the top of the list. I suffered on it for a few days (maybe even a week or so) until I found the Facebook app for Droid created by DROID. It is soooo close to the real site, yet in a tiny format for me to zoom around on it. It's perfect for me. And that's when I learned that not all apps are created equal.

I downloaded a mag flashlight app for my phone and it was a cute little app that shined like a flashlight so I could see in the dark. Then they "updated" it and it stopped being cute. My mag flashlight with a power button was now gone with a grey square in the place of the button. Uninstalled. Found a new flashlight app that lets me choose the flashlight color, has multiple other effect (like spiral and disco ball...), and the entire screen is one bright color. So far so good.

I also learned that the Android Market and iStore differ. I heard a lot about a game called "Angry Birds" and decided to try it out. Man, it was (is) awesome. I'm still trying to conquer that dern game...anywho...I introduced it to my husband. Of course he downloaded it, too, and loved it. However, his download was a trial version and he had to pay a buck to get the full version. I was able to download the full version for free and even found a booster pack thing for it, too. For free.

Sticky notes. I usually keep a running list of A) Things to do and B) Items to get/buy. Of course I want to keep these lists on my phone! I downloaded a cute little sticky note app and things were going pretty well. Well, this was when I had one list on my home screen....my "GET" list. Then I added my "DO" list.....things got sketchy. Since they were in the same app, anytime you clicked either list, it merely brought up the last list you had up! I don't need to go to my "DO" list if I click on my "GET" list....duh! So, the hunt was on today for a new sticky note app. Things I wanted out of it: able to post on my home screen, just posts title - not entire list, clicking on home screen list will take me directly to that list - not just app, customization would be nice, nice format. I seriously tried about 10 different versions before finding mine. And it seems a little overboard for what I need (why would you need a "paint" note where you draw on the screen?), but I got all of the other things I wanted out of it. Hopefully another update won't wipe it out....

App organizer. When you get your phone, your service provider will stick a lot of crap apps on there that you can't get rid of just so you get curious and try them. What can you do about this? Well, you can get an app organizer. I tried 2 and both worked great at putting your apps into categories (including a folder for all the apps you don't use!!!! - I call mine "zzzzzz"!), so you could find them easier and get "rid" of the ones you'll never use. There was also an app called "folder organizer", but I think this was for the more advanced user and I don't qualify for that just yet...

Soundboards. Want a collection of soundclips from Family Guy? There's probably an app for that. From Mario World? Oh yeah, there's an app for that (got it!). Do these really serve a purpose? No, not really. But the Mario one actually let me set some ringtones/notification sounds to it, so that was kinda helpful...and super fun. I get a coin everytime I get an e-mail. :^)

Games. Some suck. As usual. Some are really well made. You just kinda gotta weed through them and see. And some games that everyone loves, you will hate. It happens.

PDAnet. If you haven't heard about this little jewel, you should look into it. It allows your computer to steal intarwebs from your phone. Some phone companies will even block this app when you try to get it through them. Easy fix...just take your SIM card out (or maybe just switch to wi-fi mode) and search for it from another internet source. Do be aware that this uses up A LOT of your data package, so maybe shouldn't be used all the time, but it's good for a jam. (Computers just process a lot faster than phones and the keyboards are much more typable.)

Widgets. Widgets go on your homescreen and are like little shortcuts to where you want to be. Make sure you notice how often they are pulling data from the internet, though, because if it's a lot, then you're gonna be missing your battery pretty quickly.

Ringtone makers. Upon stumbling on this, I got super excited. I could finally make all of *my* songs ringtones! However, it seems that none of the free ones will work with Windows Media Player files, so my really really cool songs are still full length - and un-ringtonable. :^(

Banking apps. Pretty self-explanatory. It's always handy to zoom on your phone and check your balance before buying that cheeseburger. I just wish there were one app to rule them...I'm in a multi-banking family.

There you go...just some DROID I've learned.

OTHER STUFF:
Today was a strange, yet productive day. I managed to run our 4 loads of laundry, clean the bathroom, shower, semi-clean the dogs, proofread a paper (twice), search through all of our movies and rearrange some, talk to my boss about closing lessons this week, sweep upstairs, change contact lenses, and rearrange our bedroom (in a way). Of course it helped to know that this giant snowstorm system is coming our way and we may be out of power for the rest of the week. Definitely don't want any laundry to do! Yesterday was "beautiful", but beautiful days in the middle of Winter tick me off. I would rather save them and actually have a Spring season instead of one week of nice weather before turning either Winter-cold or Summer-hot again. I realized (or probably just re-realized) that Oklahoma only has 2 real seasons: Summer and Winter. Spring and Fall are about a month long spread in between the two. Football season is Oklahoma's third yearly season. Either way, me, the dogs, and the family enjoyed the nice day yesterday and the only household thing I got done was paying bills. Oh well. It was one more thing off the list. Oh! And I trimmed Lyka's foot hair (and Phaux's front 2 paws) and cut Lyka's nails. I learned a better way to cut the nails and was able to get them down to a decent level again. I was so mad at myself for not doing that sooner and not letting her nails get so out of hand (bu-dum-bump-chee!).

So, in conclusion, I heart my phone still and I've been busy, yet productive recently. Yay!

-Mrs. Kreilaus

DROID

After some soul searching and deep thoughts, I got a new cell phone.







Backstory: The ol' Impression was missing alarms and not giving me messages intermittently, so I decided after a year and 4 months, it was time to leave Impression behind for a newer, more awesomer phone. A month or more ago I swung by AT&T to look at the phones that were out at that time. I like the style of the Impression and it was overall a good phone. These made me want to stick to Samsung. Well, actually, I tend to stick to brands when I find one I like or at least one I can move around on with ease. So, when I was in there, the new Samsung Focus with Windows 7 was there. And it was shiny and unlike any other phone I had ever seen. I went over and fiddled with it. Boy, it was cool-looking. There was also an Android-based (Droid) Samsung on the other side of the display that I acknowledged, but I really coveted the Focus. I was only window-shopping that day, so I left empty-handed and with a Focus-sized hole in my heart. I began to research on the Internet in the days that followed.






It's important to point out here that I always looked down upon Droids. I hate the commercials; in fact, they kinda creep me out. And I hated the attitude of the people that got the first wave - so high and mighty. Alas, I began to read up on the two. Most reviews about the Focus were good, but it was so new that there weren't a whole lot of apps for it yet. Plus, many of the reviews LOVED how it synced with Outlook, Excel, etc. Ummm...I don't use Outlook...well, except at work....but it does not come home with me. I use Gmail. Droids are made by Google. Maybe Droids would make more sense. And then I started to morph the Focus-shaped hole in my heart to a Captivate-shaped hole. One final trip to AT&T would solidify this. I picked up both phones and I honestly couldn't get the Windows phone to do anything magical past the first *beautiful* tiled screen. And I wasn't sure how all of those tiles worked. As I tried to fiddle, I remember this was the exact path I took with it last time, but it was so new and cool that I had just tried to convince myself that I would learn it. Over at the Samsung Captivate (Droid), I was whipping around like crazy. I could already do many cool and fun things with it just by playing with it on the display. After a long conversation with a salesperson who actually owned one himself, the choice was clear: Samsung Captivate powered by Android. Here's my current little Samsung family: Samsung N150 Plus netbook, Impression on the left, and the new Captivate on the right.

I love it so much. Now, I'm not one of those people that's going to pretend it's the same level as iPhone. Mainly because I don't Apple and I don't know what the iPhone is capable of. But I am pleased as punch with this new phone and really enjoying it. It is lightyears beyond the Impression, yet with the comforts of Samsung that I know and love. Love my new "toy"!!!




-Mrs. Kreilaus

Happy New Year still?

When does the "New Year" turn into the "Old Year"? Must be one of the mysteries of English.

Anyway, not a lot to report, but I did have time to blog, so I wanted to!

Jon goes back to school tomorrow and I'm very uneasy about the new schedule. M-Th he begins classes at either 10 or 11 and gets done with classes at about 6 every night. That's cool. That jives with my having to be at work between 9 and 10 every day M-F. However, Fridays have thrown a huge ugly curveball at us. 8am lab. We're used to waking up at 7am at the earliest and now that is when we will have to leave the house. Not only that, but after I drop him off at 8am (best scenario), I will get to work at 8:30 and have to go until close at 7. Not cool. However, I REALLY can't have him drop me off on his way to school because then I'm at work at like 7:30am....ewwwww! I'm in talks with my super cool coworker to maybe get Fridays off, but I'm not sure that that will help. And I'm not sure that working on Saturdays is going to help me, either. I'm really really REALLY hoping his teacher is going to tell him that they don't really have to be there in person and that it is just stuck on the schedule that way for credit purposes. I've got a bad feeling that that is not the case, though. This semester is "only" 16 hours instead of the 18 Jon has been taking, yet it's looking like it's going to be the hardest one on us yet. :^(

Sorry to bring you down. I'll get my Debbie Downer self off of here now, I just wanted to throw my thoughts/feelings out there.

-Mrs. Kreilaus

It's a New Year!

Well, since the last post happened months ago - last year even! - I suppose enough time has passed to give a list of the "big" events in that time.

December 18th - Sallisaw Christmas with Kurt, Renita, their girls, 4 other boys, Greg, Angela, Evan, Rachel, Nathan, Noelle, Stephen, his girlfriend Samantha, Dad, Gaga, and Grandpa Clayton.
December 24th - Mounds Christmas with Kim, Mary, Joe, and Miranda.
December 25th - FTG Christmas with Mom, Bob, David, Georgia, and Grandma.

I enjoyed wrapping the presents and giving them to their rightful owners at all of our Christmases, or in the Sallisaw case, having people fight over a gift I brought.

December 26th - I went to bed and couldn't warm up for the life of me (I'm usually a little oven...), so I had a bad feeling about what the future held for me. Turns out I was sick (cold/flu/stomach bug...maybe combo of each) and had to call in the next day to work and try to kick this before it got out of hand.

That week was horrible at work, but there were no lessons, so I wasn't really in need to be at my highest mental capacities.

December 31 - I was a little bummed that Jon was working a wedding that night and I was sick. On top of that, I was going to be home alone because the in-laws were going to hang out with Miranda's family. I had a crappy day at work (well, at least the last 30 minutes or so....) and then I realized something. I had Kim and Mary's car, but no house key. I was going to have to at least swing by the party to get the keys before I could go home. It turns out that I stayed and hung out there after Brenda assured me that no one cared that I might still be contagious. We got home at about 10 and I rung in the New Years with Lyka and Phaux (and texts to and from my love).

And then this week has mainly been a meltdown at work, but I won't discuss that here.

Hopefully this quenches the thirst of all that wonder of our Kreilaus adventures! Happy New Year! Hopefully 2010 was great for you because no there's no going back and tweaking it!!!!

-Mrs. Kreilaus

Yesterday/Just a slice in our lives

Yep. Those happened yesterday. Why they're special:
Boots: I've been wearing the same *broken* boots since HS and finally got on the hunt for a new pair this season. WIN!
Long necklace: I've been on the hunt for a long, neutral-colored necklace for nearly a year to go with a few of my shirts that need jazzing up. WIN!
Planner: I've been looking for a new one for about a month now, but had no success until yesterday. WIN!
Shirt: Umm...well...it's so cute! And it was on sale! WIN, DANG IT!





Additionally, Jon got in at 3am and actually bought me a card. He felt really badly about having to work late and he missed me.

Also additionally, yesterday was Bedlam and, against the odds, OU won! (I will insert here that ABC is the one major station we don't get on the farm, so I actually was just watching one-line updates about the game on my phone...the 4th Quarter nearly gave me a heart attack!!) It was a little bittersweet though, because before the game some "over-the-top" OSU fans were saying how they didn't want to hear us cry when we lost and some were just basically adding a "W" to their belts. It was waaaaay sweet to win to show THOSE fans, but then some OU fans started being sore winners and that's where the "bitter" came in. I hate that. I hate sore winners and sore losers. OSU fans were MIA right after the game, but one-by-one a few started to peek their heads out on Facebook and still declare their loyalty. I hated that, too. I remember the week that both OU and OSU lost this year...OSU fans were MIA pretty much altogether, but OU fans jumped on to say "Well, that sucked..." or "Wish we would have shown up to the game..." ...things of that nature. I mean, football is just a game. Just because you lose doesn't mean you have to go cry in a corner or sulk in a bar. Life goes on. You can still party afterward... I don't know...Maybe those were just my Facebook friends. Overall--Bedlam just really irked me this year. I HATE trash talking. Anyway - final thoughts about Bedlam - it was a really close game, so hold your head high, OSU, and you overcame the odds again, OU, so good job there, too. Hopefully we don't blow it again this year in the Big XII or the Big Bowl. Odds are we will, though....let's be honest! Boomer Sooner!

In addition to also additionally, I did laundry, set up my new planner, balanced our checkbooks, changed over the dry erase calendar to Decembrrr, bought some more stuff not as fun as the pictured ones, looked at some kitties, and slept in socks last night!!!!!!!! If you know me well, you know why me sleeping in socks is so weird. I wish Jon got to come home last night, though. Stupid school...

And that was yesterday. From 3am to 3am this morning when I finally went to sleep!

-Mrs. Kreilaus

You are not forgotten, precious website

I have lots to say, and for once plenty of time to say it, but none of it is constructive, polite, or worth adding to a heap of dung that is already present. I just want to let everyone know that I do still think about this project and wish to add to it as often as possible, but I'm not going to gripe and complain about people in particular who don't deserve the time of day. It's amazing how UGLY people can be on the inside. Goodnight!

-Mrs. Kreilaus

Today

Jon and I slept in until noon.
Well, I had to get up with the dogs at 7 and 10, but we overall got to sleep in until noon.
Then we had lunch at a local delicious Mexican restaurant.
Then I held and petted puppies outside of a store.
I have caught up fully on Facebook.
Jon and I are still sick (I'm moreso getting over mine, but his is beginning), so we're resting today.
We are about to nap again.

GOOD DAY! :^) Hope you're having one, too!

-Mrs. Kreilaus

Suffrage

Today is Election Day and also "Day of the Dead" as observed in Mexico. Probably not a coincidence. I digress... This "right" began as a fight for anyone that was not a wealthy white male landowner and was a major victory in U.S. history. However, I think our forefathers would shed a tear or two at what their victory has been morphed into. I don't think our forefathers meant for elections to take quite the mudslinging turn that it did (No, they weren't innocent back then, but nowadays is 20 times worse). They would probably roll over in their graves if they knew that "straight ticket" was an option on ballots. And they would probably die all over again to hear that many (I won't say "most" because I don't really know the numbers...) of our voters haven't researched their votes at all. How many people have you heard say, "Then there was this section about if sew-n-sew should retain his seat as county judge...I voted that he should because I haven't heard anything bad about him..."? I'm guilty of this as well. I also hate how "Educated non-voter" is not a choice. If you don't vote, you are the devil. If you vote, you did your civic service, even if you have no idea who or what you voted for. If you wear your "I voted" sticker, you get applauded everywhere you go. Why? You don't know me. I may have just closed my eyes on the ballot or just voted for the same people my parents or friends told me to. It's not just elections that irk me, it's politics in general. Very rarely is there a candidate that has the same exact stance on issues as you do, yet you always have to vote. Most of the time people are voting for "the lesser evil". Really? If that is the drive behind your vote, why don't you just sleep in on election day? If evil is evil is evil, then how can you feel good about yourself for voting for ANY type of evil? The 2 Party system is so narrow-minded. There are too many issues out there to evenly split into 2 groups. Now, most issues are pretty easily split - Abortion (Pro-choice or Pro-life), Gay Marriage (Against or For), Universal Healthcare (Against or For), etc. But then you get grey areas on some...if abortion was completely outlawed, could you look a rape victim or a victim of incest in the eyes and tell her that by law she must carry her rapist's child for 9 months? Or how do you tell a Native American with free healthcare that their own tribe pays for with their own money that they will now have to pay the "white man" and go to other doctors now? I think these grey areas should convey a need for more than 2 parties in the U.S. They RARELY are black-and-white, clear-as-day, cut-and-dry issues with no middle ground. It's just life. I think we need a better representation of life in our political skeleton.

Now, to clear up any assumptions you may have just made about me, I DID actually get out and vote today. UNEDUCATED. That's right, I voted straight ticket for my party when I could. I kept all the sew-n-sews in the positions. I voted for the propositions based upon someone else's research (Well, except for one of the questions) and I winged the county question because I didn't even know there was going to be one. And guess what...I actually feel fairly badly about it. I wish I wouldn't have even voted. Don't worry, I will NOT do this ever again. I will either educate myself or not vote. But hey, everyone that sees me today will compliment me on my "I voted" sticker because I did the "right" thing. Right?

-Mrs. Kreilaus

Shopping for organization!

With the purchase of the deeper, bigger, more big girl purse, it was determined that a new system of organization was needed. The smaller purse system was not going to cut it:

Enters one snazzy looking wallet:

Jesus definitely smiled down upon me when I found the 3-pocketed wallet of awesomeness. Thanks, J!

Alrighty, I'm thinking 3 posts on here in one night is probably sufficient. Goodnight all!!

-Mrs. Kreilaus

Ardmore & the 69/75 Mystery

So, this past weekend I went to Ardmore to visit Price and Sarah before Sarah pops her little one out (She's due on Oct. 13th...). It was a good visit. I feel the need to inform everyone of the lesson I learned, though. I came to Ardmore with the route I know and it was pretty easy, since the OU/Texas game was about to start/going already. The roads were clear. I believe I made it in less than 3 hours. Route:

Easy peasy.

I caught the end of the game at a neighborhood watch party in their neighborhood and met their dogs.

Adorable. It's true. Sarah and I were on a search for a Thanksgiving outdoor flag in Ross when I discovered that I needed a new purse...like, in the next day or two. My handles of old faithful looked like they were going to fall off at any given moment. So, :

I know; it's glorious. And it's actually cobalt blue, not purplish like it looks in this picture. After cruising the town and dining in some local hotspots, it was time to leave. Sad...I know. Here is the route I was planning to take home so that I could avoid I-35 (OU/Texas traffic returning to Norman):

It was going to be a good route. Only problem I could see was that I didn't know if I should be looking for 69 or 75 signs in Durant. Sarah and her mom said 75, but my map reads 69. I figured that I was a big girl and if I merely followed all of the 75 signs, then I would make it home one way or another because we live off of 75 and clearly 75 runs all the way to Texas...in one way or another. So, I will share with you what I learned and then tell you my small story:
This is the Indian Nation Turnpike. Not 75, not 69, just Indian Nation Turnpike:

This is 69:

and THIS is 75:

Okay, so, somewhere on the way to McAlester/Savannah, in a little town called Atoka, I believe, I was driving along, minding my own business when a sign came up out of nowhere telling me to turn left to get to 75. Startled, I had to cut a car off to turn, but I made it. It was a 2-lane road leading west, when I needed to be going east. I thought that it might lead to a 4-lane highway soon. After going through some hills and some curves, another abrupt sign pops up telling me to turn right for 75. 75 is a two-lane "highway" through the middle of nowhere from Atoka to I-40. I promise. However, for the most part, it is a deserted highway for all that way, so good time is still possible as long as there isn't a tractor or semi slowing you down. To sum it up:

In Durant, I entered onto 69/75. In Atoka, 75 juts off west in 2-lane fashion, but still gets you to I-40. If you take I-40 E for about 10 miles, you can exit back onto 75 N and see it in its 4-lane glory. 69 goes all the way from Durant to Muskogee (and keeps going). For some reason, they decided to build an addition to 75 and call it the "Indian Nation Turnpike" and connect 75 to 69 in McAlester. But, anyway, mystery solved.

-Mrs. Kreilaus

Best Buy, AT&T, and iPhone

So, Best Buy kinda sucks and AT&T kinda rocks. At least, this is their status as of recently. Jon has been wanting to get an iPhone since they first came out, but especially more these last few months because his Motorola Q9 has been on the fritz. While in Best Buy, he asked them if his phone was ready to be upgraded. They came up with a date of October 9th and told him he couldn't have an upgrade (iPhone) until then. He was a little confused as to why he couldn't upgrade slightly early, but didn't push the issue. This is the day I met netbooks. Jon and I had been discussing schedules and we determined the only solution would be him doing his thing and me having to work my schedule to accommodate. This means, I would need something to entertain myself/something productive to do. Enter Samsung netbook, which initially caught my eye. I guess I'm just partial to Samsung after the last 2 phones I've had have really performed well for me.

Blah blah blah....I did a lot, a lot, a lot of research and determined that I wanted one. Badly. I read the reviews, I felt ready to make the purchase and upgrade (downgrade?) my life. We go into town. I go into Best Buy and investigate one more time. I'm ready. The salespeople get me my magic box after I ask a few questions and then I'm ready to check out. I should point out that one of the questions I asked was if Windows 7 Starter was the watered down version of Windows 7 Home Edition. The answer I got was "no". I start to check out and I am told that Word and Excel are only trial versions on my netbook, so I'm going to need to pay $100 to get the real versions. Say WHAT!??! I am also told that if I buy the real version today, it will be $50 cheaper than it usually costs to buy it. I figure, "Fine. Let's do this, but I definitely won't open it until I know for sure." I buy my items after feeling a little rushed and after adding a case, for my netbook Jon and I are out the door. He decides to stop by AT&T and see if he can get his iPhone yet. He leaves me in the car to play with my new toy and he goes in. 10 minutes later, I figure out that he's not just talking about the weather to an associate. He comes back out with his new iPhone and is as giddy as can be.

I don't remember when I figured it out, but I did learn that Windows 7 Starter IS a watered down version of Windows 7 (Ummm...I can't even change my desktop picture!!! I'm pretty sure you've been able to do that since Windows 95!!!!!!!!!!) and when I opened up Excel for the first time, I was specifically informed that it was NOT a trial version, but it did have ads and stuff on it. That upset me pretty greatly because I basically just paid $100 for PowerPoint....for a NETbook that has a miniscule amount of storage space...NOT cool. I go to return and after several people basically call me a liar to my face, they take the stupid $100 access code card back (Most netbooks don't have CD drives, so I was literally returning a piece of cardboard with some numbers on it...wow...).

Now, I still would have gotten my netbook if I had known that Windows 7 Starter is a watered down version of the Home edition and that Word and Excel were going to have ads on them. The point is, I specifically asked POINT BLANK and was basically lied to because they didn't really know. If you don't really know, tell me you'll look into that or that all netbooks are different, but don't lie to me. Or even put yourself in a position to POTENTIALLY lie to me. Not a fan. Oh, and thanks for smoking crack and telling my husband that he had to wait another month before he could get his phone. Shame on you, Best Buy. Shame.

Also, I was going to add pictures of our new toys, but I don't seem to have those pictures on the computer. Shame again! Argh!

-Mrs. Kreilaus

Wild Wedding (Anniversary) Weekend

Let's dive in, shall we?


Thursday: I made an appointment at Mazda to get Layla a 100,000 mile tuneup since we were going to Edmond for Shelby's wedding reception over the weekend. I dropped it off over during my lunch break and after a painful hour of explaining exactly what Jon and I wanted done, I came back to work. The courtesy shuttle guy (Nicknamed "Pops"....) that brought me back informed me that his last run of the day was going to be 3:30, so he'd have to pick me up them, along with another girl near the mall (right by where I work). That's neat because the guy I talked to at Mazda about getting my car done had just told me he would "try" to get it done by close (6:00), to which I replied that he'd better because that's our only car....This is also the week that my coworker and I are changing up our schedules a bit and having me close on Fridays so she can have a day off. This means I've had to really be keeping a close eye on my times and coordinating with my husband's class schedule. ANYWAY, I'm back at work and 3:30 is approaching. I haven't received a call about the shuttle coming yet. 3:30 is here. No shuttle, no phone call. 3:35 rolls around...I call Mazda. They inform me that they are nearly done and they would have "Pops" come get me and put me on the phone with him. I told him that I just thought he said he was going to have to pick me up at 3:30, but if he doesn't have to, I can wait. He mentions that he was just in the area picking up another woman and wishes he would have known to pick me up, too. .....?!?!..... Whatever...he picks me up (I'm just glad he remembered where he dropped me off at this point...) and takes me back to the dealership. Layla has been making a weird noise that my husband thought was the alternator and I told them to check it out for me. After paying them A LOT of money, they inform me that the noise is from the idler pulley and give me a quote for $130 for parts and labor. Ummm....no. Jon and I decide to check with O'Reilly's on the way home to see if they have the part and how much it is. Try $20. We get it and decide to put it in later (it's late). After I got my car back, I needed to go by my insurance company and change up some paperwork since I recently changed my car title. I walk in and wait about 15 minutes before anyone can even talk to me (which was fine...I was a walk-in...). Finally, I go in and start to tell the lady all the information that needed to change and she learns that the internet site she usually uses to make changes is down. So, she calls the phone number and gets a busy signal. Fabulous. She fills out a paper form for the most important changes, but she won't be able to do all of them. I get her business card and am told to call her the next day. Back to work. After spending so much money at the dealership and after hours of searching the internet for fun things to do in OKC (and coming up lacking...) and after hearing that my brother was going to my mom's (meaning his recently dog-attacked dog would be there - so I couldn't leave our dog-attacked dog there...ALSO that the one other person I know in the OKC area wouldn't be home while we were there...), I decided that our fun stay-overnight trip should just be reduced to going to the reception and then home.


Friday: I get to work around 9am and am prepared to work a 10.5 hour day to makeup for Thursdays lack of time due to the car. Oh, and I will be all by my lonesome. A little before 10am, when we OPEN, a gaggle of people starts to trickle in the side door. They ask where the meeting is being held. Ummm...what meeting??? I look on both our paper calendar and our Outlook calendar and we don't have a group coming in today. Luckily, after our store manager and I put some tables up for them and straighten some chairs and the kitchen, they have their shindig. Whew...that was a close one. After they finished their meeting, the main person came over and we put the rest of their dates on the calendar. After that, it was a painfully slow day. Then we hit the time when students were about to come in. A teacher that usually doesn't come to South was starting again with a new student. The teacher was not there 10 minutes before the lesson (like they all are supposed to be), but neither was the student, so I didn't start to panic yet. Then the student showed up 3 minutes before the lesson and the teacher was still not there. So I called the teacher. No answer. GREAT. I get to try to explain all of this to a student and parent who hardly speak English. I let them know the teacher isn't there yet and may have forgotten that the student started today. Finally the teacher calls me back and comes in 10 minutes late for the lesson...with a couple of siblings. After this, a student shows up before a teacher again, so I call to make sure the teacher is coming. "Ummm...no? I told Kim that I would be gone today and tomorrow." Actually, it was me who began this conversation with this teacher and it never was finished. I was only told the teacher would be gone Saturday. I then get to inform another student that their teacher won't be here. I have a sub ready by luck, but the student chooses not to have the sub upon hearing who it is. Strange, he's never had a sub at all, why would he not want a particular sub? This leads me to believe that this teacher is bad-mouthing another one of our teachers. Charming thought, but I don't have time to research this any further. The not coming teacher has another student after this one that hasn't been showing and is actually cancelled after today's lesson. I get another teacher ready to sub, but inform that teacher that this student probably won't show. Well, guess who shows up! Yep...another awesome miracle today. After a STELLAR day, Jon and I get home and he begins to switch out the idler pulley. He comes to bed at about 1:30 am, frustrated that he can't get the serpentine belt back on. Without the belt on, the car cannot be started. We go to sleep and plan to wake up relatively early to get the belt on and to head to OKC. ...


Saturday: I have help from a couple of furry creatures waking up pretty early and decide to take the dogs to a dog wash before we head to OKC. This will A) clean them...they haven't had a bath in months and B) hopefully tire them out so they aren't bouncing off the walls while we are gone. My mother-in-law and I take the dogs and do that with a few other errands. On the way home, we swing by O'Reilly's and pick up a tool to help put the serpentine belt back on. After several hours and numerous unsuccessful attempts, it was determined that the tool was not useful and it couldn't be done with the means that we had. So...

Layla had her first tow truck ride. It was sad, but I imagine it would be 1000000 times worse if she were wrecked. This was at 3pm and I had been planning on leaving at 4pm to make it to Shelby's reception early (It was listed as going from 7 to 9). She was only being towed about 30 minutes away to Jon's family mechanic, so I was still hopeful that he had a special tool and would just pop the silly belt on and we could pick her up 30 minutes after that...Well, that didn't happen. Our mechanic was supposed to call when the car got there and we still hadn't heard from him by 5:30. We tried to call him, but he didn't answer. Around 6 or so, we finally heard back from him and he hadn't gotten the belt back on yet either. He even took the wheel off, the wheel well, and dropped the engine a little and was STILL having issues. This was where I started crying. I feel like I've been such a flake to my friends and family because I am constantly telling people that I can't do this or that because of financial difficulties. I finally decided that I can't do that anymore because I will miss out on all of these monumental events and will never be able to make up for them. Then, it seems after a horrible past few days, I wouldn't even be able to attend my best friend's little sister's wedding reception...and I had already missed the wedding. Jon's parents offered us their car, but we were really skeptical about taking it because if anything happened to it, we COULD NOT afford to fix it. Eventually my emotions won and we decided to take the Taurus (I really don't like taking cars on long trips without a tuneup first). However, as we were going to leave, we realized that we had left the PikePass in the Mazda and we don't carry cash. Also, the Taurus only had 1/4 tank of gas. So, we knew we had a couple of stops to make as it was. Now, we thought we were clever because when I rented the tool from O'Reilly's, the guy told me to enter in my PIN number for my debit card and they would be able to give me cash back when we brought it back. So, we thought we would stop at Shell for gas in the car and foods to hold us over until we got to the finger food/candy bar reception and then stop at O'Reilly's to A) Return the tool and B) Get cash for the turnpikeS. So simple, right? Well, at Shell we were reminded that the Taurus has a sensor problem and doesn't like gas to be put into the car. The pump clicks off after about 0.82 seconds of pumping. Alrighty...I'll battle you, Taurus. I forced down as much as it would take and decided it was really full when on the final pump, it spit gas on my hand. Point taken, Taurus. Jon soon returns from getting food inside and we head to O'Reilly's. Jon runs in and only returns with a receipt and my card that made the original transaction...no cash. Awesome. So now we have to stop at QT to hit an ATM and get one of those stupid fees because it's not one of our banks' ATMs. GRRRR. Jon runs into QT and comes out with a $20 bill. I inform him that we should probably get change in case there were "coins-only" toll plazas. He goes back in and has to buy something before they will give us change. Finally, now we are ready to hit the road. It's 7pm. The reception has now started. We hurry hurry hurry (but not overly speeding because we didn't want to break the Taurus!) and after following the directions to the T, going through 3 toll plazas (one of which was "coins-only"...), and learning at about 8pm that our car was finished, we end up on a long road that for some reason has about 10 semi trucks lined up on it, blocking our view of the side of the road we are supposed to be looking on and blocking many of the turn-ins we may need. After spending 10 - 15 minutes trying to figure out that maze, we arrive at the reception...at 8:45....15 minutes before it was supposed to be over. I walk in right as Shelby and Thomas are cutting cake and feeding each other. After this, the weekend took a turn for the better. We celebrated there for about 30 minutes - 1 hour and then were invited over to Thomas and Shelby's afterward. There, we get to watch standup comedians (one was mediocre, one was hilarious...just like Shelby said :D) and hold Beckham (Lyndsey's nearly 4 month old son), seeing as he had been whisked away during the reception to try to induce...umm...some..."movement" that he hadn't made in the past 3 days. After that, we said our goodbyes at about midnight, came home a different FREE way (When did tolls get THAT expensive?!?!?! INSANE!!!) that I knew all too well and I got Subway at 1am from a truck stop. We were home by 2:30 and slept like babies. YAY!


Sunday: Today is our actual wedding anniversary, so we wanted to celebrate. We began by sleeping in (words cannot EXPRESS how much of a gift this is!!!!!) and then slowly waking up with no plans in stone yet. Jon's parents went to church and returned around noon or noon-thirty, about when Jon got up. We were eating when they got home, so they decided to go out to eat. It was decided that Jon would go with them and pick the car up. After they left, I still felt pretty tired, so I decided to try to go back to bed. When I was asleep, Jon sent me a text message: "I appareantly picked up an extra passenger, and had to turn around and take him back... I am on my way home now," complete with picture:

Interesting.... I go back to sleep. Jon gets home and gives me some bad news from our mechanic - He let Jon listen and the alternator is starting to go out. So, we'll have to keep an eye on that as well. Whatever...I can't deal with this today, let's deal with this later... Moving on...We decide to go to Fox and Hound for food before we went to see "Inception." I wasn't impressed when I saw previews, but we did keep hearing rave reviews and it was the best drama/suspense/action in theaters now. Food was good, but service was mediocre and then we were on to the show. Probably could have done without seeing one of Jon's exes who now works there, but we're adults, so it happens....whatever. (Plus it kinda helped to see her about 6 months pregnant and lacking a shiny ring on her hand...I'm terrible...I know...:roll:) In the theater, Jon and I recommitted ourselves to hating the general public because of the family that sat down behind us after we were there first. First thing I heard from them, "Hey, ___...is that a beef jerky in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?" to which the reply was, "It's always just a beef jerky, DAD, because I'm never happy to see you!" Umm... the kid was literally like 12. Parents of the Year. And I personally had to keep myself for jumping down the mom's throat who kept complaining about there being no leg room like Jon and I customized those chairs to lean back further than all the other chairs in the IMAX. ?!?! Whatever...anyway....Jon really liked the movie, but I felt like there were a lot of loose ends/fallacies throughout. Either way, it was good to have seen it, so now we can be part of people's conversations. Pretty good day.


Monday: Labor Day! I vacuumed out Mary's car and built a new corgi, while Jon washed doggy nose prints off the windows. We hung out at the house all day and made a brief exit for pizza and ice cream. Getting back to normal. This extended weekend has been eventful and I wanted to document it and also be able to direct everyone to it so I don't have to tell the story over and over.


THE END ...And if you made it this far, you must really want to know all about us. Thanks!

-Mrs. Kreilaus

Oh, timing...

So, I'm sure all of you remember the post from yesterday about the new credit card in the family. No? Well, scroll down and read it...okay, so, turns out that today Jon and I decide to take a trip to Wal-Mart to buy some essentials. He goes out to start the car cooling down before we leave...I look out the window and see him get out of the car and pop the hood.......CRAP. I hoped, "Maybe it started, but he's just trying to hunt down a noise it's making.".....NOPE. It's not starting. He tests the battery output and it seems fine. That leaves the alternator. He tries the alternator output. It seems fine. Now we're slightly stumped. We get a jump from his mom's car and we're up and running. Somewhere in there Jon mentions something about a "bad cell" in the battery and is pretty sure that's what it is. We head to O'Reilly's and we determine that Jon is right...bad cell(s). He also explains to me what this means, but I'm not going to attempt to explain on here, lest I most likely look like a fool. They give us a jump and we are off to Wal-Mart in Bixby for a new battery (hopefully under warranty). We get to Wal-Mart and they have to test it again, and they confirm what we just learned at O'Reilly's. We go inside to shop and assume they are looking up our warranty info and putting a new battery in. About 2 or 3 items from the end of our shopping list, Wal-Mart calls Jon's cell...they don't have the battery in stock. We'll have to go to another Wal-Mart and have them put it in. After another jump, we go to another Wal-Mart (the one near the old apartment....where we had initially purchased the bad cell battery....) and we (after a slow start waiting in a line...) get the new battery put in in about 15 minutes or so and are on our happy way. We still had to pay "prorate" on the battery since it was still a little over true warranty, but it wasn't as bad as paying full out.


Either way, it would not have been possible without the help of our special new plastic friend and, honestly, would have been a disaster if we discovered this little situation tomorrow morning while we tried to leave for work/school. If you want to get kinda crazy about labeling it, this was kinda like a little miracle. Realistically, we could have done without the whole ruckus altogether, but it is amazing how it worked itself out so beautifully.


Okay, Phaux tells me it is time to end my blogging weekend and get to "lights out" time. Goodnight!




-Mrs. Kreilaus

WOW.

So, my head is about to explode. Today, I just got my first use-anywhere credit card in the mail. I've had store credit cards, but they don't seem the same to me. I feel like I well-researched all of our options and chose the relatively best choice (We chose Discover because of the numbers, but I know that Discover is not accepted everywhere...). This came about after a recent event where we learned that we NEED a credit card for emergency situations. (I've always thought it was incredibly rude of vets to have a "pay all, right now" policy, seeing as they are in the life-and-death business...) I was raised with a "cash only" mentality and interest charges upset me greatly. However, I see that sometimes things need to purchased right away. And if you don't have the money hulled up somewhere, you need to get if from somewhere.


This also kinda ties in with a new school of thought I had: So many of my friends are getting married and having babies and I've had to tell nearly all of them that I couldn't join in ceremonies, bridal showers, baby showers, etc. because of a tight money situation. I recently had the realization that I've been saying this for years and if I don't start doing something about it, I will be visiting friends I knew as single and sailor-mouthed who now have 6 children and won't say the word "butt" in front of the children. This is NOT okay! I only have this one life to live and enjoy! Not to say I'm going to go buy my dream car and travel the world tomorrow (especially on my credit limit...hahahaha), but maybe my first airplane ride is due... Maybe I'll go to my friend's baby shower so I can say that I saw her pregnant. Maybe I'll babysit my best friend's baby and let her and husband go celebrate their 4th wedding anniversary. Maybe my husband and I will celebrate our 1st wedding anniversary in a different city.


I found out a few more of my friends are pregnant...one of which I just found out today and am really excited for her because she didn't think she could even have kids! I'd elaborate more, but I don't think it's fully public domain yet (even though I found out through Facebook...ha).


Today is my mother-in-law's birthday and just so happens to be the day we got our marriage license last year. I knew our anniversary was coming up, but now it's less than 10 days away! I'm starting to remember what these days felt like last year and I kinda feel butterfly-ey again. Aww...and now I just remember getting Brent and Lyndsey's wedding license with them...that's fun!


Oh, and for anyone who didn't know and wants to, I guess we had some dog excitement a week and a half ago. Walker (my parents-in-law's dog) and Lyka got into a teeth match and Lyka lost. She had a few holes in her from teeth and we took her to the vet just to make sure of how to patch her up, or if we even needed to. She got all her owies shaved (they had to FULLY SEDATE her...we were a little miffed about that...not sure how they came to that conclusion) and told us to take our drunk dog home (she was still WAY out of it when we took her home) and Lyka would heal herself up the best. Thanks. So glad we paid you to shave our dog and tell us that Lyka is the master of her own fate. At least they gave us antibiotic and powerful painkillers for her. They probably could have warned us that waking up out of anethesia is one hell of a trip, though. Maybe I would have been prepared to wake up every 15-30 minutes from 2am - 6am that night. With all of this said, I've NEVER found a vet that I like and I've pretty much just accepted this, but if anyone actually has a vet they like, please let me know. Well, if you live near me. A good vet in California is pretty useless to me. :^) Thanks!

This is how Lyka looks right now and Phaux demostrating how she's supposed to look. (Okay, really he's just jealous about the attention she was getting, so I took a picture of him, too.):




And there was a true blue update on the Kreilauses!


-Mrs. Kreilaus

Looking back, straight ahead, and toward the future

I miss you.
I miss all of our inside jokes and how we finished each other's sentences, but you never cared as much for our friendship as I did. I miss just being around you and seeing how you lived your life. At least I knew you; most kids don't get that much. I miss the adventures we would have together and how crazy they seemed. In the end, it was too much crazy and I couldn't handle it anymore. I miss playing video games with you until the wee hours of the morning and taking so many pictures together. I don't miss our arguments and how they never got settled. I miss being the one person that understood you the best, which is why you tried to hide from me. I eventually grew tired of hide-and-seek. I miss hanging out at your house and being silly. It really saddened me to not be invited to your wedding, but you'll probably never know that. I miss snaps with the four of us. I miss our hall from that year. I miss the tolerance I used to have. I miss my crazy life when I didn't believe my own stories coming out of my mouth. I miss you and your colorful sayings. Every time I say one, I think of you. I miss hanging out with you guys...I wish I had more time and thought about you more. I miss you and your intelligence, wit, and outlook on life. We need to talk more. I miss you probably most of all, but I know it's better you live elsewhere now. I miss you, pets of my past. I loved you all.


I'm sorry.
I'm sorry that my degree is in a different field than yours and I still know a heckuva lot about yours. I never said I was better than you, though. I'm sorry that I'm not around as much as I used to be. Some things have changed and I can't change them back. And I don't want to. I'm sorry that our lives even crossed paths. Things would have been so much more filled with joy and simplicity if they hadn't. I'm sorry I couldn't be there for you when you had your baby. I really wish I could have been. I'm sorry I wasn't called to be a missionary. I'm sorry I went through multiple church splits and I haven't gotten my courage up to jump into another one, just to crash into the same fate. Maybe we could still be friends if I did. I'm sorry my husband and I are not on the same course as you and your spouse, but I don't see why that means we can't be close. I'm sorry that I don't believe in gay marriage; people who do seem to catch no slack for their beliefs--I don't understand why I catch it for my beliefs. I'm sorry you had cancer, but I don't think that gives you the right to be a jerk to everyone now. I'm sorry that I don't do things the way you do. I'm sorry I didn't go on to get my master's degree, but I lost my way and didn't know where to go from there (still don't). I had also had too much school and needed a huge break. I'm sorry about our lost friendship. I know we could have been best friends under different circumstances. I'm sorry I ended our friendship, but I saw the path it was taking and I didn't want to end up on that dead end.


Thank you.
Thank you to my dogs for always be so excited to see me and love me unconditionally. Thank you to Jon and I's parents for always being there for us and helping us out. Thank you siblings, for helping shape us into who we are today. Thank you to everyone who came to our wedding to show your support for us (or even if you came for free food...)...that meant the world to us. Thank you, extended family, for being the limbs in our family trees showing variety and originality. Thank you for my job. Without it, I would be in a world of hurt. Thank you, Facebook. Through the snooping and stalking, you keep my mind sharp and always wishing to push further. Thank you, Jon. We're not the greatest couple to walk the earth, but I know you will never give up on me and I will never give up on you. I love you for all the big things, medium-sized things, little things, and things you did when you didn't know anyone was watching. You are one of few constants in my life.

-Mrs. Kreilaus