Meh...

This is our newest foster, Sky.  Sky is an Orange-Wing Amazon and she is approximately 27 years old.  She was given to the rescue we are volunteering for www.parrothope.org and has been cage bound.  While she is not aggressive she is very scared and fearful of anything outside of her cage.  We are going to work with her to hopefully make her life less scary and so that she can explore the world outside of her cage.

 

 

Posted by Amy at 05:57 PM | Permalink

My grandma, Alma, died today.  She was 93 years old.  My grandma was the most wonderful and kindest person I've ever known.  She never had a bad thing to say about anyone - even when there was a lot of bad that could be said.  Everyone who met her loved her and some adopted her as their grandma which only added to her 70-some grandchildren and great grandchildren.  She was a good christian for 80 years of her life. I know she is now in heaven where she has no more pain. She is now with all of those who have gone before. I love you grandma. I can't wait to see you again someday.

I take great comfort in the words spoken in 1 Thess. 4:13-18

13But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep,that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. 14For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 15For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18Therefore encourage one another with these words.

 

 

Posted by Amy at 02:53 PM | Permalink

I found this posted on craigslist.  I found it rather enjoyable. 

 

 This is appropriate for the number of people who keep putting their dogs up for adoption when they find out they are going to have kids.....

After two long years of being on a waiting list for an agility dog, we have been notified by the breeder that, at long last, our number has come up and ... WE ARE HAVING A PUPPY!!!

We must get rid of our children IMMEDIATELY because we just know how time consuming our new little puppy is going to be and it just wouldn't be fair to the children. Since our little puppy will be arriving on Monday we MUST place the children into rescue this weekend!

The kids are described as:

One male - His name is Tommy, Caucasian (English/Irish mix), light blonde hair, blue eyes. Four years old. Excellent disposition. He doesn't bite. Temperament tested. Does have problems with peeing directly in the toilet. Has had chicken Pox and is current on all shots. Tonsils have already been removed. Tommy eats everything, is very clean, house trained & gets along well with others. Does not run with scissors and with a little training he should be able to read soon.

One female - Her name is Lexie, Caucasian (English/Irish mix), strawberry blonde hair, green eyes quite freckled. Two years old. Can be surly at times. Non-biter, thumb sucker. Has been temperament tested but needs a little attitude adjusting occasionally. She is current on all shots, tonsils out, and is very healthy & can be affectionate. Gets along well with other little girls & little boys but does not like to share her toys and therefore would do best in a one child household. She is a very quick learner and is currently working on her house training-shouldn't take long at all.

We really do LOVE our children so much and want to do what's right for them; that is why we contacted a rescue group. But we simply can no longer keep them. Also, we are afraid that they may hurt our new puppy.

I hope you understand that ours is a UNIQUE situation and we have a real emergency here!!! They MUST be placed into your rescue by Sunday night at the latest or we will be forced to drop them off at the orphanage or along some dark, country road. Our priority now has to be our new puppy.

Posted by Amy at 11:51 PM | Permalink

So, a few new things. 

Ophelia the ferret got adopted to an AWESOME home. 

We're going to Indiana this weekend and then Mammoth Cave (with Andy's class) the next weekend.

Andy and I both got our hair cut today.  Mine was finally long enough to donate to Locks of Love.  It is now just a little above my shoulders which is kinda scary for me.  Andy really likes it though so that makes me feel much better about it.   Andy's hair is super cute too - its a little 4 inch fro.

 We donated blood today too.  We went to Chipotle for dinner and the Blood Mobile was next door, so after we ate we decided to go.  Unfortunately that made me lose track of time and I missed Wednesday night services which sucks.  At least it was for a good cause!

I think that is all for now.  

Posted by Amy at 08:01 PM | Permalink

We have a new foster ferret named Ophelia.  A person found her in their backyard when their dogs went after her.  She has a nipping problem, but we're working on that.  She has already generated some interest on petfinder so we're hopeful that she will find her new forever home soon.  She is a cutie.

 

 

 

Posted by Amy at 10:59 PM | Permalink

Well.  I'm not exactly out of the woods yet.  We are going to Gatlinburg with my parents for a week and when we get back I will only have a few weeks of work left.  I'm really excited about being and student only and not working and going to school at the same time.  I feel like I'm going to be able to do so much more.  I'll be able to do more schoolwork but I also will be getting us ready for our trip.

 Usually Andy does the getting ready since he has a pretty flexible schedule but this time I have three days off before we leave.  So, I'll be cleaning the house, washing clothes and getting us packed.  Andy has agreed to clean the car (which is in much need of cleaning). 

 Not a lot else is going on. 

Posted by Amy at 04:32 PM | Permalink

Well, I've been pretty worthless the past few days.  This is mostly due to the fact that the past week has been pretty stressful.
 
I've had more problems with the school (big surprise there) which included me, at the beginning of the week having my loan sent back (after getting shotty advice from the bursar's office) and owing the school $2500.00 and then in the end having it somewhat figured out thanks to Andy pulling some strings with getting me an extra class. 

And then my boss was a psycho lady this past week.  She was constantly nagging, speaking condescendingly to all of us and just being a real pain. Luckily she'll be on vacation this whole next week.

So, as a result of all of this I've just been basically laying around the house. I called off work on Saturday and I didn't even go to services at all on Sunday.  I think I'm just ready for a vacation.  I can't wait until we go on vacation only a few more weeks to go.   

 

Posted by Amy at 04:56 PM | Permalink

Well, it has been a week since I have started being vegan.  There have been a few slip-ups but overall I have stuck to my guns and have done very well.  I'm sure it will only get easier from here on out.  

Yesterday we went to a chili cook-off with people from church.  I made a friend's vegan chili which everyone really liked (we hardly had any to bring home!). 

 I have also found this shirt that I want.  It is a design by Moby (the singer/artist) and I like it a lot and it comes in my size.  So, it is meant to be.

 

Posted by Amy at 12:31 PM | Permalink

Well, I have been putting it off.  I seriously need to be a vegan.  In September 2006 I stopped eating meat, drinking milk or eating eggs.  But, I still eat cheese, and eat things with eggs/milk as an ingredient. 

A lot of things about the egg and dairy industry are worse than the meat industry.  The milk industry creates veal calves, puts cows through much stress and trauma and when they aren't producing like they should they are sent off to slaughter.  I'm not talking about your tiny dairy farm I'm talking about the factory farms who produce much of the milk for the US.  The egg industry is just as bad or worse with killing male chicks, cutting off birds beaks and then placing them in tiny cages stacked on top of each other to live in flith, produce eggs, and then die. I'm very passionae about animals being humanely treated and I cannot continue to ignore the plight of the animals in the egg/dairy industry.

Okay, I'm going to finish out the stuff we have at home and then no more for me (because we are poor and cannot waste the food we currently have - not that a whole bunch of it is unvegan anyways). I'm not ignorant of what goes on at these factory farms and I cannot, in good conscience keep supporting it.  And besides the moral implications not eating eggs/milk also has health benefits - so really, good all around. I'm just glad that Andy is on board with it.  He may not stop eating milk products himself but he supports me.  My family is going to be weirded out by it, but oh well, I'll deal like every other vegan in the world. 

 Okay, wish me luck and pray for me. I'm gonna need it - this is not an easy task.

Posted by Amy at 05:16 PM | Permalink

It has been a while since I blogged.  I guess not a whole lot has happened really. Just a couple of things I can think of.

 

My new job has been going really well.  Mostly it is like any other retail-type job but the people are really nice.  Although, I think I could get kind of tired of this particular job pretty fast so I'm glad it is only for summer.  I'm looking into during an education internship with them that would invovle taking education animals to schools and such.  I think I could really get into that. 

 School is going fine.  Although I did kind of screw up my summer classes by thinking that a class was in Summer 3 when it was really in Summer 1 and completely missing the first two weeks.  The prof has made me withdraw and I'm going to talk to the Dean of Arts and Sciences today to see if there is anything I can do to get into another class and make that withdraw go away so it doesn't completely mess up my financial aid. 

 We also found a new dog park in Stow.  It used to be a pond for people to go swimming in, but they recently converted it to a dog park which is cool.  It was already fenced in and everything, so why not?  Our dogs love it.  Especially Charley because he LOVES to swim and go after tennis balls in the water.  It is a lot of fun.  here is a picture of Charley leaping into the water.

 

Posted by Amy at 02:26 PM | Permalink

I got the job at the zoo!!! It isn't working with animals or anything like that - but it will still allow me to get some type of experience working at the zoo.  A guy at my church named Don works at the zoo currently and said you have to do the start in the mailroom type of stuff to get experience.

I just gave notice to my current boss this morning.  He seemed pretty indifferent about it.  Which, yet again, shows that he doesn't appreciate any of the stuff I do at my current job.  Oh well.  Doesn't matter now because I'm moving on. Yay for me. 

Posted by Amy at 07:46 AM | Permalink

Yesterday we went on a field trip.  I haven't been on a field trip in years.  It was for the Geography of Great Lake Eerie class that Andy and I are taking together over intercession (the time between spring and fall semester).  It is a three day class and each day we go to different parts of Lake Eerie.

The first day was pretty good.  We went to the Inland Seas Maritime Museum in Vermillion, OH.  They weren't ready for us when we got there so we went down to the shore and had a little lecture about the shorelines.  While on the banks of Lake Eerie we saw a few dead fish and a dead Sea Gull.  Kind of sad, but it does happen.  We also saw some Zebra Mussels which are a non-native invasive species to the Great Lakes.  

When they were ready for us we went to the museum.  It was interesting enough.  Our tour guide, the museum's director, was a bit long-winded and we ended up running over our time and had to cut our lunch break short.  While we were there we learned about ship building, ship wrecks and battles on the Great Lakes - of course, focusing on Lake Eerie. And Andy got to ring a huge bell which made him very happy.  

After the maritime museum we went to the town of Huron to have lunch.  Our choices were limited since the only things there were McDonalds, Subway, some local deli, or Burger King.  We went to Burger King because it is the most vegetarian friendly of all of the choices listed.  (Yes, you can get a veggie sub at Subway, but neither of us enjoy a sub made with just lettuce, peppers and some tomatoes.)  Burger King has a veggie burger and a bunch of sides that are vegetarian - none of which are very healthy, of course.  We're definitely brown bagging it next time.  

Our next stop was the Old Woman Creek National Estuarial Nature Reserve.  Here we went on a little hike to see the different plant life growing along the trail and to talk about the estuary (which is the part of a river that meets the sea and the waters mix together - sea does not have to be salt water).  There are two nesting Bald Eagles that live there, but we didn't get to see them.  Bummer.  When we went back to the main building we had a little presentation on estuaries and how to save them.  After the presentation they set out some free stuff for us to take.  I took a little rubber bracelet that says "wild ohio" on it, some temporary tattoos of local birds and fish, the entire set (24) of Ohio fish trading cards(!!!), and some booklets that told about Ohio's fish, butterflies/moths, amphibians and reptiles.  Very nice collection of free stuff.  

I also saw on their calendar that they are having a thing next Saturday where they will be hiking 2 miles to find salamanders to tag!  If next weekend wasn't so busy (parents visiting and dog adoption fair for Rose's Rescue) then I would so be there.  I would also have Amy go with me because we would have fun and I know she would love it too.  Maybe next year?  

The next stop on our trip was the Sandusky Fish Research Unit - Division of Wildlife.  It is a place where they study the local fish and keep track of them. They do things like radio transmitters on fish and they do some catch (but no release) to study how the fish are doing and what they are eating.  Through their research they set limits on what type and how many fish a person or business can catch. It was pretty interesting really.  

After that we packed up and headed home.  Pretty good day.

Posted by Amy at 08:40 AM | Permalink

I have an interview at the zoo! They called at the end of last week to set it up for this Tuesday (tomorrow).  I'm really excited about it.  I have been planning a career working in a zoo for years.  A guy at my church, Don, currently works at the zoo.  He put in a good word for me.  He also told me that you have to start at the bottom and work your way up if you want to work with the animals.  Not only do they want someone with a degree (which I'm slowly but surely working on) but they also want someone with experience.  So, I'm interviewing for a job in the gift shop.  I have a lof ot experience in retail and it should be a good fit for me.  It is only for the summer, which for the zoo runs until the end of September.  Of course, this will mean lots of days with a bunch of kids on field trips, but that is alright.  If it helps me in any way to get some experience I'm all for it.  And, if I do well, I will have a better chance of working there next summer as well.  

Andy has said that in the fall I could possibly not have to work and just go to school.  I haven't done that since high school! Right now I'm only taking two classes per semester because that is all I can really do with working 40hrs a week as well.  I will be the first to say that people who work full time and go to school full time are awesome.  I just know that I, personally, could not do well enough in school if I were going to school full time and working full time.  Even though I may not have to work at all I may look into getting a job 2 or 3 days a week on campus or something like that.  Or, if our financial situation will really allow it (we think it will) then I might try to do an internship at the zoo which would definitely give me more experience and focus more on the animals and the behind-the-scenes stuff.

Posted by Amy at 12:35 PM | Permalink

In other news, we had an eventful weekend:  

On Saturday we kind of went on a spending spree because Andy got a reimbursment check from going to San Francisco.  We needed quite a few things since we've been holding off until some money came.  We needed dog food, cat food, bird food, all kinds of light bulbs (got the energy efficient kind that last for 7 years), a weed eater (ours is broken and our landlord said we could buy one and he would take the price off of our rent), and gas for the lawn mower and weed eater.  

Saturday night we went to the drive-in.  It was our last weekend borrowing the van from the family at church, so we decided to take out all of the seats, put in coach cushions, a blanket and pillows and camp out to watch the movies.  We also took Charley who loves to go and hang out at the drive-in (at least he seems to!). At the local drive-in it is $16.00 per car (which is still cheaper than the two of us going to the local regular theatre) which includes two movies.  We saw Spiderman 3 and the first 45 minutes of Ghost Rider.  Spiderman 3 was good but not as good as the others.  They, of course, left it open to yet another sequel.  I really gave Ghost Rider a chance but it was a poorly done movie with some really bad acting.  Good luck another time Nicholas Cage.

On Sunday we woke up to a room full of eaten electric cords.  Luckily none of them were plugged in when Kody, our newest addition, decided to teethe (sp?) on them.  He killed our TV by chewing off the end of the power cord and also chewed up some connectors.  It really isn't all his fault though.  He is a 6 month old puppy in a room with no toys to chew on.  While he should know better, I can't stay too mad at him for it.  He was just being a puppy and puppies can be evil little beings.  

Later Sunday afternoon we decided to take Charley and Kody to go swimming or wading.  Charley loves to swim and Kody, as far as we know, has never been in water except for a bath tub.  A lady I talked to at the dog park last week told us about a little park close by that isn't usually busy and has a little lake where she takes her dog swimming.  We couldn't decide to go there or to our regular place (which is a little creek in a local park).  We decided to go to the local one we knew.  Unfortunately all the parking spots next to the creek had been taken and we couldn't find anywhere else even remotely close to park.  So, we decided to try and find the park the lady had told us about.  

We finally, due to Andy's great navigation skills, found the little park.  When we got to the lake, which was nice and far from the road, we discovered that there was a little league game going on.  Charley was too interested in the people across the little lake so we decided not to let him off the leash there for fear he might swim across and try to play fetch with the game ball.  So we decided to try the local creek again, where we found one open parking space.  I slipped on my aqua socks (which Andy reminded me were only cool in the early to mid 90s but I think are very practical for wading) and we took the dogs for their first swim of the season.  Kody wasn't sure about the water at first.  It wasn't until after Andy through him in that he decided he liked it.  Charley got to go off leash (since it is away from the road and hiking trails) while Kody had to stay on the extended 16ft leash because we can't trust him yet.  They both were soaked, gritty with sediment, tired and very very happy when we left.  We took some pictures.  I'll post them later.  

Other than that I really don't have anything going on.  Things are really slow at work and this week is finals week.  Of course, that doesn't matter too much because I am taking classes over the summer too. 

Posted by Amy at 12:34 PM | Permalink

It has been a long time since I have updated my blog.  Not that anyone reads it anyways, so I'm sure no one will mind.

What has happened in the past 6 weeks?  

Well, we did end up getting all the cars fixed, a nice little dryer off of ebay, and we got a great new vacuum.  The garbage disposal is still broken, but we'll deal with that soon enough.  At least things are generally working in our house and that is comforting.

The biggest thing is that Andy and I went to San Francisco a couple of weeks ago by train.  We went because Andy had an AAG (Association of American Geographers) conference and because we just wanted an excuse to go to SF.  You can read our travel blog and see pictures of the trip at twotravellers.theshears.com . I must warn anyone who reads it that the blog is really long.  No, really, it is ridiculously long. Andy wrote most of it, and I must say that, he did a great job at logging all of the goings-on.

The other big thing is that we adopted another dog.  Yes, we officially have four dogs.  I know that we're insane, and a little scary to say/type out loud, but that is okay.  I think people that have four or more children have to be a little nuts - so, yeah....  Our newest addition, Kody, is a 6 month old Boxer/Terrier Mix (like his big brother Charley).  He is amazingly smart (and cute) and already knows our routine and many commands including sit, stay, speak, shake, down and drop-it.  He is also almost completely house trained. He is going to be a smart little guy like Charley.  He gets along famously with the other three and brings out the puppy in all of them.   

Other than that we have mostly been working and going to school.  Andy is finishing up his last semester of classes. I am just taking whatever I'm able to, which amounts to two classes per semester, which is better than nothing.  After this semester Andy will be teaching a class over the summer and taking two (one of which we're taking together).  Then, in the fall he will be teaching one class and then working solely on his dissertation and other original research.  If everything goes according to plan he will have his PhD by next summer. I'm so proud of him!  I can't imagine getting my PhD.  He makes it look so easy (when I know, for a fact, that is an amazing amount of work) because he is so blessed academically.  Things just seem to come easily to him and he can remember the smallest details and facts.  Crazy boy!

Posted by Amy at 10:17 AM | Permalink

* WARNING: Long Post *

Not much blogging lately. Things have been crazy and I have been busy.  Also there is the whole problem in the fact that I am not supposed to be online at work anymore.  Apparently some "computer guy" told my boss that the DSL was somehow putting too much of a burden on the server and that we shouldn't use it anymore.  Although that hasn't stopped my boss from using his computer (which is also linked to the server) to get online in his office all day.  As my friend Kory said it is really terrible when "computer illeterate people are in charge of computers.".  My boss seriously has no idea about computers at all.  He has called me (at home) several times to ask me how to sign into the computer after it restarts because he forgets.  ::sigh::  Oh well.  

So what has been going on?  Well for starters it seems like everything we own is systematically breaking down.  First our cars broke down a few weeks ago and we got those fixed.  Well Virgil, the Volvo, decided he was going to crap out on us again.  He is running like crap and the check engine light is blinking which Andy found out on a Volvo forum means that you should not drive the car.  I'm going to attempt to make the rest of the long car story short.  We were offered a van to borrow from Nancy and Al at church (thank you!) until our car was back and running and we took them up on the offer.  We picked up the van almost two weeks ago though and our car still isn't working.  Why?  Well, we tried to get it towed using Andy's AAA card but apparently it had expired.  He has his AAA through his parent's account and they had to pay for my brother-in-law, Tim,  to go into rehab and didn't have the $200 and some odd dollars to pay off the AAA when it came due this month.  Needless to say I'm glad they are helping Tim, but we just had no idea we couldn't use the card and it was quite a blow when we couldn't even get it to the mechanic.    

So, we decided to look into how much it would be to have it towed ourselves.  We found out it would be between $60 and $70.  I called our mechanic to see if he had any ideas and he said that - that was probably the cheapest we would find it for.  He also suggested that we try and get a AAA card on our own, which could be the same amount of money but would give us a year of coverage.  I had not thought of this.  So, I called Andy and told him the plan.  He called AAA and eventually found out that if you want to renew your membership at our local office you can do so for $70/year for just him.  So, we decided to go for that.  But, Andy had to go himself and he wouldn't be able to get there before 5:00 (when they close) until Saturday of last week.  So, we had to wait until Saturday.  And now we have to wait to use the membership until the card comes in the mail (7-10 days) and it hasn't shown up yet.  I hate to ask Al and Nancy to use the car longer.  I doubt they'll mind though, but I still kind of feel bad for asking since they've already been so generous.  So, we're waiting to for the AAA so we can wait for the estimate so we can see if we can fix the Virgil.  I hope it isn't too expensive.  

So, next our dryer broke.  Kory and Amy thought that they had an extra dryer in their basement which is one of the most random things I have ever heard.  On further investigation they actually had an extra washer (just as random).  We did appreciate the offer though and are looking into eventually buying a cheap dryer if I can't find one on freecycle for free.  Then our vacuum decide to break down as well.  We have gone through 2 vacuums in less than a year which is very sad.  Unfortunately the first one we bought was a refurb and the second one we bought was a special at Wal-Mart.  Somehow we lucked out and both of them do not have parts made for them anymore.  Andy thought he found a generic part (they both broke their rollbar by the way) on some vacuum website but once we got it - it was almost 2 inches too long.  Andy tried to call them and e-mail them for a refund or a return but they would not return our calls or e-mails.  So, we're stuck with a $30 rollbar that we can't use.  I guess I should just put it on freecycle.  Maybe someone else can use it.   And lastly, our garbage disposal is broken.  This is both inconveinient and gross.  Gross because there was stuff in it when it broke and I don't think I was able to get all of it out and gross again because we kept forgetting it was broken and loaded it up with more stuff.  ::sigh:: So I put a little mesh drain cover on it, from the dollar store, to ensure we don't clog it up more in the meantime.  We just need to call the landlord to get the garbage disposal fixed but I really don't want him to come over when our house is overrun with laundry, because we have to hang dry it now in the basement which we hate, and our carpet has an amazing amount of dog hair on it.  In fact I think our carpet is officially pure dog hair now.  I just don't think he would really appreciate either of these things in his house.  

So, eventually we have to buy a new vacuum, new dryer, and get the Volvo fixed.  Everytime we think we are going to come out a little ahead financially it seems like everything breaks.  I guess it is a good thing that it breaks when we have the money but I've started to become less optimisitic about the whole thing lately.  I just figure that we're going to be struggling for the rest of forever and I should just suck it up now and stop trying to think we'll ever have a savings account or anything like that.  I'm just a bit jaded by the events of the past couple of months, but I think I have a right to be at this point. 

Posted by Amy at 09:55 AM | Permalink

While our cars have were out of commission Amy let us stay at her and Kory's house for two nights.  That was so awesome of her!  We would have never been able to go to work if she hadn't helped us out.  And our petsitter came over on last minute notice to let the dogs out since we couldn't go home to let them outside.

 Well Virgil had an ignition coil go bad, and Pedro has a leak in his breakline (which we had to pay for since it wasn't the mechanic's fault).  Then Andy found out that Virgil is about to have his brakes go bad (only 15% left on them).  So, we are hauling him out to the mechanic again next week to have him fixed. 

All in all, for everything we've had to pay out for this ordeal, it is going to cost us about $950.00. 

Bye-bye tax refund.  It was nice to see you in our account for a couple of days.  

The good news is that we will have two cars that are in good working order and we're still going to be able to get our used couch!  Andy figured it out and we can still get the used couch/loveseat from the place down the street.  So, at least that much.  I'm just glad this all hit while we actually had the money to fix it.  If this would have happened in a month we would have been in a lot of trouble! 

So, most things are back to normal in the Shears' household for the time being.  Well, at least we consider it "normal".  

Thank you again, to Amy (and Kory who I knew would have also invited us in if he wasn't in NY) for letting us crash on your floor and taking me to work for two days and fixing me awesome vegan stirfry!!!

 

 

 

Posted by Amy at 01:26 PM | Permalink

Wow.  Well, you may or may not read Andy's (husband) blog.  If you do you know that our 1997 Volvo 960 just threw up the "service engine" light and started running terribly.  So, we were down to one car because Andy has lost his wallet and did not have his AAA card and we didn't want to have to pay for towing to get it to the mechanic. 

So today Andy calls me and tells me that the breaks in Pedro, our 1977 VW Bug, just went out!  We just had his brakes fixed a month ago!  Andy was doing a half an hour drive to Canton and luckily they didn't go out until he was in the parking lot! Andy is okay and nothing was hit thank goodness.  Unfortunately Andy is stuck in Canton and I have no way to come and get him.  Ugh.  I'm not sure what we're going to do.  Now we have no car.  

Luckily Andy called AAA in Indiana and they faxed him a temporary card so he could get Virgil, the Volvo, in to get repaired.  Now, we're going to have to get Pedro towed to and somehow get Andy home. I have no idea how we are going to get to work tomorrow.  The bus lines don't run to our jobs because they are in a different county.  And we can't rent a car because Andy is the only one who is 25 (you have to be 25 to rent!) and he lost his wallet over the weekend!  They say bad things come in 3s.  I hope this is the last for a while.........

 ::sigh::

(Andy just called me and said the mechanic who fixed Pedro's brakes is going to fix them for free as long as it was something wrong with one of the parts he put in.. thank goodness..)

Posted by Amy at 03:29 PM | Permalink

We have gotten a lot of snow lately.  The dogs love it when it snows!  They love to run and play in it.  They really love the snow we currently have on the ground because it is deep.  They love to burrough in it.  Silly dogs.  Here is a picture of Lucy with her head in the snow (yes, she is standing up, the snow is just that deep!). I think she was searching for "treasures" in the back yard.  I wish we would have taken more video.

 

Posted by Amy at 12:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

This is day 2 of my new blog.  I'm still in the same boat as yesterday.  I still can't change anything.  I'm lazy and not very creative so I just want to use a pre-made template on my blog.  Andy put a plug-in called Stylecatcher on my admin controls but it doesn't do much.  I go and I select the template I want and I tell it I want to use it.  Then I go to "rebuild" my page and it screws it all up.  It ends up being obnoxiously large type on a white background.  He said he fixed it yesterday, but it still doesn't work.  Woo..... 

 

So, I still have nothing.  It is just the boring old template with some words on it.  I don't really like it.  It is supposed to be easier to use, according to Andy, but I just don't see it yet.  It is easy to post on, but I can't change much of anything else.  Oh well. ::sigh::   I'll just stick with my drab blog while Andy's blog gets flashier and flashier.  Meh.  I'm not bitter...........

Posted by Amy at 12:43 PM | Permalink

Well, Andy got this very interesting thing from Amy Schnebelin (I know I probably just butchered your last name Amy!!) to do our site with called Movable Type. 

It looks easier than our last program called Mambo.  I still don't know exactly what to do with it yet.  I have to write a paper today so I won't work on it until tomorrow or the weekend probably.  Bear with me, I'm very slow with this stuff! 

Posted by Andy at 01:24 PM | Permalink

Posted by Amy at 06:31 PM | Permalink

Well my job has managed to screw me over pretty bad.  To make a long story short the guy that owns the hotel I work at bought a lemon and now the business is going into the ground.  I feel like I'm on a sinking ship. 

The place is falling apart, dirty and he just did an early termination of his franchise (because he couldn't pay them their fees) and owes them a bunch of money.  His liquor license he bought from the old owner is now expired and they won't issue him a new one until he pays the $4,000.00 the old owner owes them (it transferred to him since he bought it) and pays for the new license.  We have no one staying here and the frats aren't using our ballroom anymore because they can't have a cash bar.  Either that or he is charing the frats almost $500.00 less to provide their own liquor (which probably isn't the brightest idea ever). 

So, since he can't afford to really pay us, for lack of revenue, he has taken on 5 shifts per week himself and cut all of the day people down by 1 day a week (because he doesn't want to work the overnight shift). 

So what does all this mean for me?? It means that I get paid $176.00 less per month (after taxes)!!!!  He really doesn't understand why I might be upset about this.  So, I have to look for a new job.  I applied for 8 last week and I've interviewed for one that I won't know anything about until next week.  I'm still going to stay on here a few days a week because I generally like the job (mostly because I do virtually nothing all day and just do my homework and play online). Although I would leave for a wonderful full-time job somewhere else but I don't see that happening so..... yeah.

We can't survive on almost $200.00 less a month.  I don't know what I'm going to do if I can't find a new job soon! Although I'm not going to let it get me down because God has always taken care of us and I know He will this time too.  I just have to keep working on finding a new job and be patient and not worry.  I'm doing quite well so far.

Posted by Amy at 07:29 AM | Permalink