I love chicken.

I know what you're thinking. My list of loves is becoming quite lengthy (and, after that sentence, perhaps I should add alliteration), but I simply can't help it.

Of course, chicken isn't going to be near the top. The upper echelons are home to David, Mike Rowe, the smell of rain on a summer night, dirty emails from my mom (yes - the General forwards those emails that you know you're not supposed to laugh at but do anyway) and letters from Grandma. I mean, honestly (and those of you that have lived with me or are related to me know the answer to this) - how could chicken ever surpass a letter from Grandma Shirley?

"Hey kid. How's Nebraska? Watching any basketball? Boy, I sure hope those Illini win their next game. We got lots of rain this week. Grandpa's leg is feeling better. We're going to Iowa for that horse sale next weekend. What kind of pans do you use when you cook?"

Notice, there are no paragraph breaks. But, back to chicken. I grew up on a farm, and have always had an appreciation for production agriculture and the agriculture industry in general. But, I grew up with horses and dairy cattle, so most would think my favor would lean toward milk. Don't get me wrong, milk is wonderful. But, somewhere on my list between comfy underwear that maintain elastic instead of sagging and a worn out pair of square-toed boots, chicken has found a place on my love list - and for a couple of very good reasons.

First and foremost, David and I aren't exactly rich, so chicken has become a staple of our diets - mostly because we can only afford to look at steaks at the grocery store. But, that's okay because you can do anything with chicken. Think back to Bubba's explanation of shrimp in Forrest Gump and you can pretty much do everything to chicken that he lists when describing his love for shrimp ("Forrest, have you ever been on a shrimp boat?" "No, but I've been on a really, really big boat..." Sorry. Had to.). "You can bake it, broil it, boil it, saute it, barbecue it..."

Second, but equally as important, chickens produce eggs. And, as I told my husband this evening, I sure am glad they do because if we didn't have eggs, I wouldn't have anything to feed him. David loves breakfast - most often for supper - and eggs are always a staple of breakfast/supper. Not to mention they come in handy around Easter time when it's time to hard-boil three dozen eggs and hide them around the yard. Perhaps you can now understand my love for chickens.

In order to keep things even, though, I must add a couple of items to my "I don't really love these things" list.

Right now, these things would be the door frame to our bathroom and my knee. And yes, those things are somewhat of a joint item right now. All you need to know is that my knee, courtesy of the the door frame, is swollen up like a balloon and this means that I have not been able to get my normal two-mile-run-a-day in. This I do not love.

David can hear me typing in here and just wondered aloud, "How much can you really write about chicken?" I can't think of much more, so I suppose he's right. But remember, when you go to sleep tonight...

...thank God for chickens. And, ask him to make my knee feel better and to keep the bathroom door frame from attacking it again....

Bring it on!

I look out my windows here in Nebraska and the trees are starting to bloom (well, the ones that do, in fact, bloom) and the grass is greening up. I can FEEL spring...BRING IT ON, MOTHER NATURE!

And, of course, spring also means it's that time again. No, not time to get outside and work in the yard. It's time to sit inside on Tuesday nights and watch Deadliest Catch.

You're all all well aware of my love affair with Mike Rowe. Of course, I love to watch Dirty Jobs - I have never seen someone with such perfect comedic timing! But, one of my favorite things about Mike Rowe isn't his looks or humor - it's that voice. Yummmmmmmyyyy. And, who else would narrate Deadliest Catch but Mike Rowe. What can I say - it makes my life happy. Plus, I think this is going to be a kick-ass season.

Stop complaing. I don't care if you don't love Mike Rowe as much as I do. I'm obsessed. I've come to terms with it and it doesn't bother me anymore.

In other news, David and I finally parted with a few extra dollars and rented some movies (and yes, it was like prying the pacifier out of a crying baby's hand). Anyway, we rented several movies, among them was Fireproof.

Most of you that know me know that I'm a fairly religious person. Well, that isn't correct - my faith is very important to me - I don't think religious is ever the right word because it can mean way too many things. That being said, Fireproof is a movie that focuses on mending a broken marriage through faith and keeping God at the center of your relationship. But, even with that, we thought it was a great movie and one that every married couple should watch. Fireproof really doesn't pull any punches - it comes right out and shows you just how nasty a marriage can get. But, it also shows how rewarding and carefully maintained marriage can be. Apart from the not-so-great acting in the first few minutes of the movie, it gets four thumbs up from us.

Coming right up (in the next two weeks in fact), David and are I going to be making the journey home. Like usual, we'll plan to be home sometime late on Friday night and then on the road again early on Saturday morning - headed up to Chicago for the Cubs-Marlins game. I've been to a major league game, but this will be my first Wrigley experience and I'm so excited!

We hope to be home again sometime Saturday evening. I'm hoping the weather is nice because I am just dying to go home and have a few hours to shoot some pictures at home. We have some new babies on the ground and I can't wait to get the pictures - and practice my photography a little. Living here in town isn't exactly a great way to get the shots that I like.

I think that's all the news for now (I know - we're super-duper exciting). Hope you all have a great week!

Go Cubs Go!

BIIIIIGGGG DEVELOPMENT: David and I are so excited! We have officially made plans to head home the weekend of May 2 to watch some baseball. That's right, David and I are going to be cheering on the Cubs at Wrigley Field - and I just can't wait. I've never been to Wrigley and David hasn't been in about six years, so it's going to be fun to be able to spend Saturday afternoon at the ballpark. Of course, I'll be sure to post some pictures...

Speaking of pictures - we finally got our wedding pictures today! The album looks wonderful, but we also got a CD of all of the pictures that were taken at the wedding and you know what that means - they're going up on the blog and Facebook. So, for your viewing pleasure (or displeasure depending on the picture...)

Of course, there are about 812 more, but I didn't want to upload that many pictures. The point of the story is, if you would like a copy of one, please let us know. As I said we have all of them on a CD and I would be more than happy to send you copies.

Oh Mother Nature....

...You are such a freakin' tease!

Alright. I consider myself to be a fairly level-headed person, but I have to say, this weather has me hanging on by a thread!

Last week, I headed to Milwaukee for work. I flew home on Friday to BE-A-UTIFUL weather in Omaha. And, because David didn't have to work and the night was still young, we decided to drive on to Des Moines to visit David's sister. By the time we headed home on Saturday afternoon, the weather got all PMS-sy on us and changed its mood. David and I drove home, right into several severe thunderstorms and tornado warnings. But, of course, mother nature - never happy with her work - changed it up one more time. By Monday, it was 20 degrees outside and very, very windy. Tomorrow, we're looking forward to 65 degree weather.

So, to Mother Nature I say this: "Quit being such a woman and make up your damn mind! I want to wear flip-flops already!"

To all my ladies out there - my apologies for the above statement. But, to be fair, you know it's true.

Anyway, on to the update in the ever-exciting saga that we call David's and Rachel's life. As I said earlier, I just got home from a trip to Milwaukee. It was wonderful to see everyone up in the "big office" and to be able to put some additional faces with names. Working in a remote office is wonderful, but it can also be difficult because you only have the opportunity to speak with your team on the phone - and not face to face.

I also have a revelation this week: I have been in Nebraska for almost an entire year! It's so hard to believe we've been here this long. I suppose, that could be because we like it here - well, I do at least. I'm sure David would enjoy it more if he had a full time job. I told him he just needed to listen to the news more because Nebraska was recently named the happiest state in the union. In fact, Janell passed a link on to me proving the point:

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/rn=3906861&cl=12839723&ch=4226720&src=news

As Janell said, "Quit being a wimp and open the link - it's from America's most trusted news source - ABC!"

Anyway, David still didn't believe me...

But, things do seem to be looking up. Just today David told me that one of the guys he works with was just accepted to law school at Creighton in Omaha and will be leaving his job at the paper. David is hoping to land some of his steady writing jobs and possibly his beat with the Lincoln Saltdogs - Lincoln's independent minor league team. Talking about it this afternoon, he seemed very excited. And, of course, I'm excited for him! It's hard for me to watch David turn in resume after resume without any responses because I know how talented of a writer he is and how hard he works.

In other news - Easter is coming up and I'm ready to get my bake on! David and I really didn't plan to go home for Easter, mostly because it's a long trip home and because neither one of our families do anything special for Easter. So, we had originally planned to spend the weekend here at home, but since Tracie is now in Des Moines, we thought it would be nice to spend the holiday with her. After Denise found out we weren't coming home, but were heading to Tracie's, she thought she and John would just head up to Iowa, too.

And that just gives me an excuse to bake another cake! I'm thinking white two-layer cake with white icing and a raspberry filling...yum! We'll see how it goes - I've never made the raspberry filling.

Of course, the coming of Easter means it's also time to mark the six year anniversary of my Dad's passing. It's so hard to believe that it has already been six years since he died - sometimes it seems like it was just yesterday. But, I'm still looking forward to Easter. I'm not sure if it really was one of Dad's favorite holidays, but it always seemed like it was. I have so many memories of him helping us hunt for Easter eggs or pictures of us out in the yard all dressed up in our Easter dresses.

Hopefully, Easter will also mean the coming of spring weather. I'm ready for Mother Nature to stop being such a...well, you know the word I'm thinking of.

Visitors!

Whew! The past week and weekend sure have been busy with all of the visitors David and I have had at our place.

Last weekend, Rachel and Jessica decided to make the trip over while Jessica was on spring break. Of course, not to be outdone, Brian and Janell decided to join the party, too. So, with a full house, David and I entertained.

Brian and Janell arrived late Friday night after a little bit of "sightseeing" (yep, did a little extra driving when they missed their exit). After David got off work, we decided to watch some movies and, of course, sleep late on Saturday.

Saturday morning, Rachel and Jessica arrived to bring the party quotient up a noch. After some TV and much lack of decision as to what to do with our afternoon, we decided to make a trip out to Scheel's. Originally, we were looking for ladder golf (sounds dumb, but seriously is one of the most fun games to play outside in the summer), but when we realized Scheel's had a much overpriced version of the game, we decided to go with something cheaper. The game we ended up with is a college favorite and I'm going to leave it at that.

Of course, you know I love my pictures, and I have a few from the weekend, but those will also remain classified. Top secret clearance only - sorry.

Sunday was another sleep in day - for me anyway. When I finally got out of bed at 9, Janell, Brian and David were all up watching a movie and chowing down on some leftover breakfast. Following another round of breakfast (I needed some food and Brian didn't turn down seconds) we decided on a board game. Jessica and Rachel dropped by again and we all went out for supper. Following supper, we had a few mean games of UNO before Rachel and Jessica had to head east back to Iowa.

Janell and Brian had planned to stay until Tuesday morning, so they spent Monday exploring the city of Lincoln and then took me out of supper while David had to work. All in all, it turned out to be a top notch few days.

In other news, David heard from Scheel's and didn't get the job. But, he did talk with his boss at the paper and he mentioned the possibility of David getting some writing opportunities or even his own beat with the Lincoln Saltdogs - which of course, would be awesome!

Anyway, other than that, we're just doing the same old thing. David is working tonight and I'm watching TV and working on Mount Laundry that has taken over our bedroom. Woohoo.

Oh well, tomorrow should be a nice, lazy Sunday - can't wait!

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!