Happy International Respect for Chickens Day

I'm all about respecting chickens, but really, who comes up with these observances?

Anyway...

The excitement about our new car vanished quickly on Friday when Tony went outside to check the oil and found the car wouldn't start. We had it towed to a mechanic who later called and told me that the car's problems were the type that no mechanic liked to deal with (too complicated). However, he said he was hopeful he could get it in working order by mid-week. Well, thankfully, this mechanic is awesome and is getting our car in working order. It should be done today or tomorrow. For those of you living in the Omaha area, I HIGHLY recommend Excellence in Auto on 84th and Blondo. The owner, Tom, is a great guy and will do good work at a fair price. A good auto mechanic is hard to find.

Also, my job is going well. I work every evening but Sunday and Wednesday from 6 to midnight. I'm doing payroll and administrative stuff, and the people I work with at the Census Bureau are great. Sometimes it gets a little tiring, but I'm glad to have a job so we can pay for our car troubles! It's hard to find the motivation to be productive some days (like today... I had to work until 1 a.m. this morning and didn't get to bed until 2 a.m....), but overall things are going well with the job situation.

We have a busy week coming up with Mother's Day, our anniversary and my birthday. We also have a goal to plant our garden and work on our yard all day tomorrow, since both Tony and I have the day off. I'll try to remember to take some pictures!

A mid-January Update

Hola, mi amigos.

These past couple of week have been jammed with busy stuff, so I haven't posted in a while.

First of all, Tony's semester at UNO started last week. He is officially a junior, and he started out taking four classes: business management, business statistics, accounting II, and junior-level conversational Spanish. After attending his conversational Spanish class twice, Tony's teacher said she thought the class would be too easy for him and recommended he move up to the senior level class, so he was happy about that. It will save him time and money. However, because the senior-level class is at 1 p.m., Tony has to work a split shift at work on Mondays and Fridays, meaning he works in the morning, goes from work to class, and then goes right back to work and closes the store in the evening. It will only last for a few months, though, so we will survive.

With full-time school combined with full-time work, Tony isn't home as much. He has to work a lot of closing shifts to accommodate his class schedule, so he misses his usual duties of giving Ruthie a bath and reading her bedtime story. Ruth also had a difficult time adjusting to Tony's increased absence and threw a lot of tantrums early on this year. She's starting to get used to the difference now, though, and seems to be handling it much better.

Also, since Tony has to do so much running around with school and work, I've mostly just been at home while Tony has the car during the day. Ruth is getting to the age where she gets bored at home, and I get stir crazy, too, so we are thinking about buying another car within the next month or so. It won't be anything fancy, I'm sure, but it will be nice to have another set of wheels.

Speaking of wheels, we had a lot of car trouble about a week ago. The temperatures here dipped well below freezing and our starter on our car died. It was an expensive fix, but our car is working now, and hopefully we won't have any more car trouble for a while.

I got a membership to the YMCA this month (no joiner's fee in Omaha for the month of January!) so I have been going there a few times a week. I want to get healthier this year and dip below 150. Last week I weighed in at 155 and I weighed the same this week. Hopefully, after a couple more weeks and some improved eating habits, my weight will start to drop. They have drop-in childcare, and Ruth enjoys going there and playing with the other kids while I work out.

We are moving in a month!!! I can't believe it. So far, everything is going well with our loan. Our landlords are sorry to see us go and offered to pay us $100 if we could find anyone who would move in and take good care of their house. So if you know anybody who wants to move into a 2-bedroom house and won't trash it, let me know!!! We have lots to do to get ready for our move, and I'm determined to start packing early this time. I waited until the last minute to pack when we moved from Grand Island to Omaha, and it was a nightmare. I've already made a list of all the stuff that needs to get done, and if I can divvy it out and do a little every day, I'm confident it will all go smoothly.

In other news, Tony and I are taking turns planning date night now, and last night I surprised him and took him to a restaurant called Peru, Mucho Gusto. It's on 77th and L streets, and it's believed to be the only authentic Peruvian restaurant in Omaha. Tony loved being able to eat the same food he had on his mission. It was super delicious, and we will definitely be going back.

Also, I know this is a little random, but Ruth started feeding Jack some Cheerios last week and it was really cute. Here are some pictures:



And here is another pic, this one of Ruth wearing her daddy's boots:



Ruth's latest words/phrases/noises are "please," "sit," "here it is," "yeah," "quack, quack," and "hoot, hoot" (like an owl), and "oooh, oooh" (like a monkey). She also really likes to sing and do the actions to "Twinkle, Twinkle" and "The Itsy, Bitsy Spider." Her speech gets better every day.

Hope you all had a fun weekend! I'll try to update more frequently. :)

-Meredith