Brutal.

Does anyone else feel like they've been hit by a Mack truck? Seriously, the week thus far has been BRUTAL.

I don't ever remember Daylight Savings Time hitting me quite like this. I just feel like I am totally dragging this week. Maybe it's just a product of being old (stop shaking your head - I know I'm only 24, but ask anyone that knows me and they'll tell you I'm 24 going on 70), or maybe I just didn't get enough sleep leading up to/after the time switch. Whatever it is, hopefully tonight I can "fully recover."

In other news...

David and I finally talked with our wedding photographer. We sent her the list of pictures we wanted for our photo album and picked out a picture for our big wall print. I can't wait to see all it put together. I should also order some pictures before they go down next Tuesday, but I'll have to do some serious "money juggling" to get that done.

David and I have gotten extremely good at penny pinching. In fact, I have become "that girl." You know, the one in front of you at the supermarket that is fishing in this over-stuffed envelope for a coupon that will save her 40 cents off a jar of spaghetti sauce. Yep, I'm that girl.

With the economy and job markets the way they are, it pays to get creative with money management and jobs. David and I spend most of our nights at home, eating in and watching TV, which actually helps to save lots of money. I have also discovered "free money." No, it doesn't grow on trees. But, I have realized that I can sell all of those "college" clothes that I'm never going to wear again. It's like getting $150 for no reason at all!

David has also decided to spring for a second part time job. He's still working on his internship and for the Journal Star here in Lincoln, but was able to squeeze another job into his schedule. He has a job interview this week with Scheel's Sporting Goods. Hopefully, this will help hold us over until his dream, full time job comes along.

Aside from David's packed schedule, this month has actually been pretty busy. Last Saturday I had an appointment with my endocrinologist. Much to my excitement, my A1C has gone down significantly! When he did labs during my first visit, my A1C was 8.8% - much too high for good diabetes management. However, this time around, my A1C had dropped to 7%, and doc is very confident with a few more modifications to my medication, he can have me right at 6.5% where he wants me. To all of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, this is good news!

This weekend, David and I are extremely excited (insert annoyed eye-roll here) about heading over to HR Block to get our taxes done. I'm not looking forward to paying for it, but it will be nice to have the peace of mind that our taxes are done and have been filed with fewer errors than what would have been included if we would have done our taxes ourselves.

The weekend of March 21 is the big one - Jessica Lock is coming to visit! She's planning to head up to Rachel's place in Iowa on Friday night. Then, she and Rachel will head over to our place Saturday morning and spend the rest of the weekend here. I can't wait to be reunited with the JLock - Lincoln, Neb., better watch out!

I suppose that's it for the evening. Hope you all are having a good week thus far (and are feeling better about Daylight Savings Time than I am)!

Changin' things up...

Two nights in a row - that's got to be a record! Anyway, at the request of a certain family member (who shall remain nameless), tonight's entry will be less "philosophical make me cry at 7:30 in the morning" and more of a "laugh until I cry" post.

Ok, so maybe it won't make you laugh until you cry. Let's be honest, I'm not exactly a comedian. Instead, we'll try for an update so you all can catch up with David and I and our most recent excursions and adventures. Here goes...

The job hunt is still on. Every day we hear thousands of additional jobs have been lost, making it that much more difficult for David to find a full time job. However, the newest information is that David has started an unpaid internship for BleacherReport.com. It's actually a win-win for us because he doesn't have to travel and it's an internship within his chosen field, so it will pad his resume and gives him something to do during the day. He's working as an online editor, reviewing articles submitted to readers and subscribers and gets to write an article every once in a while. He's also still working for the Lincoln Journal Star.

Of course, I'm still working with the same company and am enjoying myself. I just got back from sunny, warm Scottsdale Ariz. I headed southwest for the Scottsdale Arabian Horse Show and definitely enjoyed my time out there. Of course, I still love my stock horses, but it was interesting to see how the "other half" shows.

We have also recently had a visitor: my mom finally made it out to Lincoln. And, her visit is the reason for tonight's title.

After living on a farm her entire life and spending all of her time recently working on the store, coming out here with nothing to do made life a little boring for her. Of course, she did some antiquing (poor David only had a little cubby hole to sit in when the three of us headed home to Illinois for the weekend), but she also felt the need to give David and I a little change. After a trip to the mall and some new curtains for our living room, Mom asked if I would mind if she rearranged our furniture - she had some ideas that might change things up a little bit.

Knowing that my mother's taste is infinitely better than mine, I gave her full lisence to do whatever she would like. When I left for work Friday morning, she was already hard at work, moving furniture. As usual, she made things look absolutely fabulous.

Mom moved some furniture from the dining room to the living room and moved some living room furniture to the kitchen. She also hung some new curtains and gave us some ideas for decorating later on. David was a little shocked when he wandered out of the bedroom after finishing his internship up for the day, but has decided that he does like the new changes.

Following Mom's visit, David and Mom and I headed back to Illinois Valentine's Day weekend. David and I hdeaded to Bloomington with a couple of friends to see Jeff Dunham (which was absolutely hilarious) and spent some time trying to catch up with everyone. Unfortunately, we weren't very effective because I never made it over to see Grandma Shirley - or anybody else for that matter.

This week, David's mom will be here to visit. She's going to drive through Lincoln on her way out to Denver and pick David up for his niece's birthday. David is so excited about going out there and seeing his "little ones." I swear, the three of them have Uncle Dave wrapped around their tiny little fingers.

I'm not sure when we'll be home again, but I have to say it may be a little while. After driving home every other weekend for wedding stuff, it has been really nice (and money-saving) to stay here on the weekends and just hang out.

Other than that, I can't think of any other new information. But, as promised, I'll try to keep this up in a more regular fashion.

Have a good night!

Without you...

...I'm a drift.

Now, before you go and yell at me for incorrectly spelling the word 'adrift,' you need to know why I spelled it that way.

I have a coffee cup. It's blue and it has a snowman on the front of it, with the words "Without you" on the outside lip. On the inside lip, it says, "I'm a drift."

Cheesy? Yes. True? Absolutely. I got it for David for Christmas one year, but I don't think I ever really took the phrase seriously (disregarding all the cheesiness of it can be difficult).

Tonight, I sat down on my couch with my favorite snowman coffee cup in my hands (full of delicious hot chocolate) and watched P.S. I Love You. I've seen the movie several times - in fact, after just watching it once, I had to go out and buy it. Well, actually, I requested it for Christmas (thanks to my wonderful husband it is now included in our ever-expanding DVD library). David won't watch it with me because he says it's too sad, but I still have to watch it every once in a while - even though I cry every time I watch it.

For those of you that haven't seen the movie, here's the story line:

A young couple live in New York City. They're madly in love (yes, I know we're still in cheesy territory). However, the husband dies, forcing the wife to cope with his death. Over the course of the year following his death, he arranges for letters he wrote to be delivered to her - letters that help her to move on and do things she would normally be too afraid to do.

So, the question remains: why would I put myself through this emotional torture? Because, the movie speaks to me. It reminds me of my own family and my Dad. And, it helps put my mom's life in perspective for me.

So many times, I think about how the loss of my Dad affects my sister and I. No father there for graduations, weddings and babies - the milestones. And, I'm sure my Mom thought of it in those terms, too. But, it was more than that for her - she lost a companion, friend and a piece of her soul. That piece can't be replaced by re-marrying. Of course, her new husband is wonderful and has made her so happy, but that piece that was my Dad will always be missing. Over the years it may change, but it will always be missing.

Now that I'm married, I think I understand that more than ever before. So many things about my Mom in the months after Dad died make sense.

Yes - I'm getting to the point. The point is, I'm adrift without him - or, I was for a long time. But, when David and I started dating, he helped to pull me out of my funk. I know that without David, it would be worse. So, tonight, I'm going to make sure I thank God for all of the wonderful blessings He has given me and try not to take them for granted (like I sometimes tend to do).

Are you impressed? You should be. Only a very special person (well, maybe just someone a few fries short of a Happy Meal) could get all of that out of one very sappy, chick-flick movie. But, hey, what can I say? I'm special.

With that, I'm going to sign off for tonight, promising to write again on a more frequent basis (just for you, Aunt Cheryl - I know you're the only one that reads this anyway), and leave you with this thought:

Life doesn't always turn out the way we planned, but sometimes it's the unplanned events that make life richer - harder, yes - but always richer.

I'm in shape...

...round is a shape.

So, you know how sometimes you look at yourself in pictures and you think, "Oh my gosh - I didn't think I looked that bad when I saw myself in the mirror this morning."

That's kind of the way I've been feeling lately. After the wedding, I let myself fall off of the workout wagon. So, last week, I decided it was finally time to jump back on and get moving. I've been trying to head down to the exercise room every other night or so. I'm gradually working my way back up to the point where I left off: two nights ago I ran two and a half miles on the treadmill and lifted weights for a little while. Not quite up to par, but it's getting there.

And, Cheryl told me that she just got two new Gilad DVDs for me to continue my affair with pilates. Gilad promises to get me bikini ready in 24 days. I suppose if I'm going to cheat on my husband, I might as well do it with someone that can make me look smashing.

In other news, David and I successfully made it through Christmas with our families - it wasn't necessarily easy, but...

Ok, so I probably shouldn't say that. Don't get me wrong - I love being home with our families and getting to spend some quality time with everyone. However, that just isn't a vacation for me. David's family has a million little kids running around all the time and all my Dad's side of the family wants to know is how far Nebraska is from Illinois and if my diabetes is still in check.

Aside from those few little things, though, we had a good time at home. As usual, my mom's side of the family provided the comedy with several "Santa" gifts (at our house, you don't want gifts from Santa).

After Christmas, David and I headed home. I took the Monday after Christmas off so I could catch up on some things at home and have a little 'break' before heading back to work. Of course, the New Years holiday was also that week, so I didn't spend two much time at work the week of Christmas or the week after Christmas.

That only means one thing: this week has been brutal! I'm not sure I remember how to put in a full work week! But, there are things to look forward to this weekend. Rachel is headed over to Lincoln to spend some time with me and her favorite redhead, David (actually, I think she just wants to see her boyfriend, but I'm going to pretend that she's just coming to see me), and I'm excited to hang out Friday night and spend some girl time together.

More big news: David has an interview for an internship next week. The internship is with an online sports writing company and is unpaid, but he also doesn't have to travel. David can do all of his work right here from home and has the opportunity (if they consider him to be a 'strong' intern) to work full-time at the conclusion of his internship. I told him he might as well go for it because, as of right now, he has the time to do it and it can only pad his resume and provide him with some extra work samples to send out in job applications later down the line.

Anyway, I think that's all of the big news I have for tonight (which, should be a lot considering how long it has been since I posted). Hopefully, I can get my other foot back in the workout wagon...

Oh, the weather outside is frightful!

Ok, as is customary, I will use the first line of my entry tonight to apologize for waiting so long to post! Life has been busy recently - of course, it took us a little while to recover from the wedding. But, we also had to decorate and get ready for Christmas, and....and...okay, so I don't really have any good excuses.

Anyway, the weather tonight really is frightful. Here in Nebraska were expecting a winter "grab bag" of crappy weather - i.e. sleet, freezing rain and snow. I know what you're thinking: "Oh my gosh - what could be better?" My thoughts exactly. David had to work tonight and of course the weather started getting really nasty about the time he had to leave. I told him to give me a call when he got to work and when he got ready to leave - hey, you can never be too careful.

Anyway, David and I are finally starting to get things all settled here in Nebraska. It took a while to find a place for all of those wedding gifts in this tiny little apartment, but we made it work. We also got all of our Christmas decorations put up (our thanks to mom and Chuck for sending the Christmas tree and Cheryl and Ted for sending the Santa Clauses). I've put up some updated pictures of our decorations and our apartment so those of you that haven't visited can see what things are shaping up to look like!

I just love having Christmas decorations up - I wish we could keep the Christmas tree up all year! But, I suppose that would take some of the 'excitement' of Christmas away.

Anyway, I suppose it's just more of the same old thing here in Nebraska. It's just as cold and wintery as it is at home - but, David and I are anxious to head home and see everyone for the holidays. I've taken a couple of days off, so our plan is to head home on Tuesday morning of next week. We'll have to head back to Nebraska the Sunday after Christmas.

Of course, when we come home, we can't wait to show everyone our WEDDING PICTURES! That's right - our photographer emailed me this week to let me know that the pictures were up and ready for everyone to look at.

The pictures look wonderful - I'm so excited that they turned out so well. Of course, I do wish that I didn't look like an Amazon woman, but there isn't too much I can do about that.

Anyway...in other news...David is still working for the Lincoln Journal Star and I think he enjoys it, but he's also really anxious to find a full time job. It's not that we can't make it work (it isn't easy - but, we can still make ends meet), I just think he feels like he isn't contributing enough.

I don't like it either - I don't think the situation is fair for him. I mean, he went to college, too. He has a degree just like I do, and I think he deserves the chance to have a full time job and put his degree to use, too. It doesn't help that the job market sucks right now, but he's been out here for almost five months and still hasn't found anything. So, he continues to look for jobs here in Nebraska, but he's also looking for jobs in other states. I told him that he should go ahead and look and if he finds something, then he should go for it. If he gets a job elsewhere, he can move out there and I'll stay here in Nebraska at least long enough to stay at my job for a full year. After that, I'll try to find a job in the same area and join him wherever he is. It isn't a great plan, but it's the only plan we have right now.

I suppose that's it from our end. Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a very happy New Year! Keep praying for David to find a job that he'll enjoy and will allow him to use his talents and intelligence....

Same old thing, different day.

I know it has been a couple of weeks since I've posted anything new on my blog - my apologies. I've just been busy with work, and...what else? I know there was something else in there....

Oh yeah....

GETTING MARRIED!

That's right, kids. We finally tied the knot! David and I got married in Clinton on November 15. Remarkably, everything went really well. We started on time and there were no major mishaps. The only thing that was a little off was our unity candle - and that actually turned out pretty funny. When David and I went up to light the candle, the wick was so short, I knew there was no way we were going to get it to light. After five of the longest minutes of my life (and actually, it may have been less than five minutes. But, when you're standing in front of nearly 200 people, 30 seconds seems like five minutes), we still couldn't get the candle to light, so we just left it. It did make everyone laugh, though.

Luckily for us, Chuck had a knife and hacked off the top of the candle for the reception. With a longer wick, we didn't have any trouble lighting the darn thing! The reception at the church turned out wonderfully - thanks to everyone who helped to prepare food and make everything run smoothly. And, of course, we had a good time "shakin' it" at the party at the end of the night.

I can't wait to see how our professional pictures turned out. Our photographer was AWESOME! She was with us from 10 a.m. until the last guest left at midnight and she took so many candid pictures of us and our guests. In fact, David and I got so many compliments from our guests saying they appreciated her friendliness and the fact that she wanted to interact with them and spend time with us at our wedding. Of course, we haven't seen our pictures yet, but if anyone living in central Illinois is looking for a photographer, David and I would highly recommend Julie Prochnow Photography - she was fabulous!

Once we have the link for the pictures, I'll post it here so you can all take a look.

Sunday, after the wedding, David and I left for our honeymoon. We went to Edisto Island, South Carolina. It was cold while we were there, but we still had a good time. We stayed in a condo just off the shore of St. Helen's Sound and watched the dolphins from our balcony every day we were there. We also spent one day in Charleston visiting Fort Sumter, the South Carolina Aquarium and taking a walking tour of the city.

After a week off work, I have to confess, I wasn't exactly ready to come back and spend my days in front of a computer. But, it was a short week this week with Thanksgiving. Plus, we had Janell staying with us after our honeymoon. Since we were planning to come back for Thanksgiving, Janell decided to ride back to Nebraska with us and spend a few days "out West." We headed back home Wednesday night after I got of work.

Today, David and I spent the day at Grandpa and Grandma DeMent's house for Thanksgiving and then headed back to David's house to spend the evening with his parents. As usual, my family was very entertaining: no story was off limits and Ted put cheese whiz in Grandpa Don's hair.

David and I both have tomorrow off and I think we're going to try to do a little bit of internet shopping to pick up some of the things we registered for but didn't get and use a few of the gift cards we received (thanks everyone!). Then, Saturday, we're headed up to northern Illinois for the wedding of a friend of mine.

I think that's it for now - hope you all had a wonderful Turkey Day and you are staying at home tomorrow instead of battling the outrageous holiday shopping crowds!

Sometimes it's just hard.

I could spend my time tonight dazzling you all with my political commentary (and I have plenty to say about yesterday's election), but instead, I'm going to go in a different direction.

Those of you that follow my blog or know me personally know that the past few months of this year have been a little challenging. A close friend of mine lost his father this year; another friend was in a serious car accident and nearly lost her life. Sometimes, it's just hard.

Five years ago, I lost my father for no reason at all. Actually, I'm sure God had a reason. Maybe he was just being selfish. I mean, my dad was pretty cool, who wouldn't want to spend time with him? But still, it doesn't seem fair.

He's been gone five years and still, sometimes it's just hard. This past weekend, while David and I were driving home from Nebraska, I looked out the window and noticed how clear the night sky was. I looked up and saw the beautiful stars and all of the contellations and remembered my dad.

On summer nights when I was little, if the sky was clear, Dad and I would sit outside and he would say, "Do you see it? There's the big dipper and there's the little dipper. Can you point them out? Where are they, Rach?"

As I was sitting in that car, looking out the window at the stars, I couldn't stop myself from crying. I cried the rest of the way home - I just couldn't stop. Sometimes it's just hard.

But, I think that's the way it's supposed to be. We don't like it. In fact, most of the time, we resent the tough times. Instead, we should embrace them and try to learn from them. I'm guilty of it too; we look at the small picture but forget that it's only part of the big picture.

Next weekend, I'll stand before God, family and friends and say my wedding vows to a man I love very much. And, while that makes me happy when I think about it (and happier than I have been in five years), there will be one seat noticeably empty in the church. Of course, I know he'll be there, but I still don't think it's fair.

Sometimes it's just hard. Sometimes it's not fair. All of the time, that's life. And life is what you make of it.