Welcome...

...to the first meeting of slackers anonymous. That's right - I'm the president and I'd like to welcome you to our (my) first meeting.

I've been slacking on the blog and I know it. My apologies. Because it has been a while, I can't think of a better place to start than with a little update:

1. Lonelytown, population 1.

That's me. David has been in Illinois for 10 days, and I am certainly ready for him to come home. He left last Wednesday to spend a few days at home, then he and his dad headed down to Shawnee National Forrest for a week of camping. Of course, Southern Illinois isn't exactly known for it's exceptional cell phone reception, so it has been nearly a week of little to no communication. Yep, I'm ready to have my husband home again.

2. Home is where the heart is.

Even though David left for home on Wednesday, I had to hold out until Friday. I took off a few hours early on Friday and made the eight hour drive home for the long weekend. It was so nice to be able to spend a few days at home with nothing to do. Well, I guess that's not completely true. Janell had a couple of jobs lined up for me when I got home. She wanted to wash and clip Buck and then take some new pictures of him for our farm ads.


Of course, I had already planned on taking LOTS of pictures while I was home (and I did - if you would like to see them all, log on to Facebook and check them out), but it was nice to get a horse out and mess with him.



Sunday, I spent a good portion of the day visiting with Grandma Shirley and Grandpa Don. I also drove down to the farm to see Nancy, Cheryl and Ted. It was so nice to be able to catch up with everyone. I also spent some time riding. Mom mentioned that there were a couple of young horses that needed ridden, but wanting to be able to return to Nebraska in one piece, I just rode Lucky. I thought my chances of staying in one piece would be best with Lucky.





3. No, I'm not pregnant.

So, I got home from, well, home, late Monday night. Of course, I had to get up the next morning and head to work. As I was sitting at my desk talking on the phone, I took my shoes off and pulled my foot up to rest it on the opposite leg. I looked down and saw that BOTH of my ankles and feet were extremely swollen.

My left ankle had been hurting - for no reason really - but, for both of my ankles to be swollen was really weird. I called mom to ask her if that had ever happened to her before, and of course, she had to ask the question: "Now, Rachel, I'm going to ask you a question. Are you pregnant?" To which I responded, "Nooooooooo Mmmmoooooooooommmm." The follow-up, "Are you sure??" The final answer, "Yyyyeeeesssss Mmmmmmooooooommmm."

I have no idea what was going. Three days later, my feet and ankles look much better. They're still a little swollen, but much less than before - I can at least get my feet into my shoes. The plan is to ask my endocrinologist about this strange occurrence at my next appointment next Saturday.

4. I might be the coolest person you know.

This is why I love my job: One of the girls I work with sent me an email today to let me know that we had a new testimonial lead to add to our list. This lady, Mrs. Brooks, lives in Tennessee and uses our products frequently. So, we may take a trip down to Tennessee to interview Mrs. Brooks about how much she likes our products.

Mrs. Brooks is married to Mr. Brooks. Mr. Kix Brooks - of Brooks and Dunn. Yep that's right. I might get to see their house and interview Kix Brooks' wife. I might be the coolest person you know.

5. We love visitors!

Looks like we're going to have more visitors headed out to see our place. Grandma Margie and Grandpa Dick called a couple of weeks ago and said they would like to make the trip out - the following weekend (which was Memorial Day weekend). I told them that the middle of June would work much better, but we still had to run through all of the weekends leading up to the middle of June. After all of that, it turns out that the middle of June really does work best. The circus begins the 13th.

6. I'm racking up the mileage.

I can't wait - next weekend, I'm headed to Waterloo, Iowa, to visit my four favorite boys. That's right, the legendary 2003-2004 Illinois Association FFA major officer team will be reuniting for one fabulous weekend. I can't wait to see my boys and catch up.

The following week, I'm headed to Oklahoma and Northern Texas for a few testimonial interviews for work. I love that area and I can't wait to go back.

7. There MAY BE light at the end of the tunnel.

David applied for a job with a newspaper in Beatrice (about 45 minutes south of Lincoln) a couple of weeks ago and finally heard this week that they would like him to come in for an interview. He's supposed to notify his supervisor that he is interested in the job - because both papers are owned by the same company - and then drive down to Beatrice for an interview on Wednesday. Pray, cross your fingers, work your voodoo - do whatever it is you have to do - to ensure that David gets this job.

Well, after that novel of a post, I think you should all know EVERYTHING that is going on with David and I. I'll try to keep you all posted - hopefully a little more frequently - with what's going on.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

And we have another one to add to the list...

No, not the "I love these things" list. This time, I'm adding to the "Things I don't so much like about Nebraska" list.

It has been a while since I've added to this list, so if you need a refresher it's understandable. Check this out for a complete listing of all things I dislike about Nebraska: http://racheltorbert.blogspot.com/2008_05_01_archive.html

Now that you've taken a little trip down memory lane, here's the latest addition. And, here's the kicker - I'm not adding this to the bottom of the list. No, this item has the distinct honor of now being No. 1.

Drum roll please....

1. Vehicle registration renewal.

Now, I know many of you are thinking the same thing: "Dude, I hate that, too, and I don't even live in Nebraska."

Well, my lucky Illinois friends, when you pay to renew the registration on your vehicles, you probably pay about $85.00 - if you're driving car. Here in Nebraska, they come up with a total based on how new your car is and several other factors. Which means, the grand total for Rachel is $359.00.

That's right, $359.00.

I think I'm going to get up early tomorrow and pay that @%#*$&% thing, but trust me, I'm not going to be happy about it. I can't believe I have to pay that much in registration - every stinkin' year!

Deep breaths....

Okay, on to something else. A couple of days ago, Aunt Cheryl sent me some pictures that really does prove the old saying, "Home is where the heart is."

A few months back, Grandpa Don finally bought something he had wanted for a long time - a team of Halflinger ponies. And, apparently, now that the weather is warm, he is taking full advantage of his new mode of transportation.






I'm hoping that I can make it home at the end of May for the Memorial Day holiday because I would love to be able to witness this for myself. However, I'm trying to get a trip planned for work at the end of May, and I'm just not sure I'm going to be able to work all of this travel out in a way that is efficient and won't kill me with all the driving I'm going to have to do. I guess we'll just have to see.

In other news, you'll all be happy to know that I have finally been able to stick to my workout program. For the past three weeks, I've worked out nearly every day, running between two and four miles and lifting weights. Now, to look at me, you wouldn't be able to see any difference, but I sure do feel good.

Other than that, David and I don't really have anything new and exciting to report. The job market still sucks and David is still working for the paper - hoping to find something - anything - full time.

But, David has the night off tonight, so we're going to curl up on the couch and watch some Deadliest Catch. Speaking of which, I think I have just enough time to jump in the shower before it starts....

Yours truly,

Needled in Nebraska
(A.K.A. - the Nebraska DMV is on my shit list)

"Tell me something, Norm. If you were a hotdog, would you eat yourself?"

"I know I would. I'd cover myself in mustard and hot relish - I'd be so delicious!"

All of you SNL fans out there will know who that is - Will Farrell playing Harry Caray. After going to the Cubs game at Wrigley this past Saturday, I just couldn't help but put that quote up here.

It was wonderful to go home this weekend and have a chance to catch up with everyone and do a few fun things. David and I got home Friday night and spent the night at my house catching up with mom and Janell then we got up at the buttcrack of dawn on Saturday (4:40 a.m. to be exact) to make the drive up to Metamora and meet Greb and Stephen to drive up to Wrigley for a Cubs vs. Marlins game. And, I have to say, my first Wrigley experience did not disappoint.

We got to Wrigley a little later than we wanted to, so there weren't any bleacher seats left. Lucky for us, we were able to find a great place to stand and watch the game. There weren't really any people in front of us and the sun was shining to make it nice and warm.

At the bottom of the 5th inning, some guy stopped where we were standing to watch the game. He stood right next to me (as in his shoulder touched my shoulder) and I thought to myself, "I know that guy...I know I've seen him somewhere." In my head, I was thinking he had to be from a TV show or something, but for the life of me, I couldn't understand why a TV star would be standing in the bleacher seats at a Cubs game.

Five minutes later, a girl walked up to the man and said, "Oh my gosh - I'm such a big fan of yours - can have my picture taken with you?" To which the man said, "Of course."

At this point, I knew he had to be on TV. However, when I got David (Mr. TV nerd himself - seriously, this kid could watch a show once and pick the star out in a different show or movie ten years down the road) he said he thought the guy was just a regular guy and didn't recognize him. So, for the next hour, I was completely irritated because I knew I had seen this guy on TV but I couldn't place him. Finally, after an hour of being completely annoyed, Stephen said, "Oh man, you're right - that guy is on TV. I think he's on The Big Bang Theory on CBS."

But, since we still weren't sure, David manned up and went over to a man that had taken a picture with the TV star in question and asked him point blank, "Hey - that guy that you took a picture with - is he famous?" Thus, our Big Bang Theory was confirmed. That's right, kids - I rubbed shoulders with an honest-to-God TV star. In fact, it was this guy right here...

To top it all off, the Cubs won, making it an all-around beautiful day. After the game, we headed home - completely exhausted!

Sunday, I got up early to go out and take some pictures of the latest Baum's Hilltop Farm babies - and boy are they cute! We have five on the ground right now and are expecting a few more. Unfortunately, my pictures didn't turn out too well for some reason. But, I'm thinking I might go back home at the end of the month because we'll have a long weekend with the Labor Day holiday.

Janell and I also headed over to Grandma Shirley's and Grandpa Don's to visit for a little while, but found out they had headed to Decatur to run errands. So, we headed over to Ted and Cheryl's and chatted with them for awhile. Then, I headed into to David's for lunch with his family and back home to see Grandma and Grandpa (Grandma left me a message that sounded like she was so disappointed to have missed Janell and I that I knew I had better stop by before David and I made the trip back home).

David and I finally headed West at around 4 p.m. With eight hours to drive, that put us home around midnight and we were both beat - especially after spending what seemed like the entire weekend in a car.

All in all, it was a wonderful weekend and felt great to be able to spend a little bit of time at home. I'm actually looking forward to the end of the month in hopes that I can make the trip again.

I suppose that's it for tonight - you know me, I can't spend too much time on the computer - it's Deadliest Catch night. Oh, Mike Rowe....