He Was Right

A funny experience yesterday.

So, everyday we get a delivery of the Wall Street Journal. When Matt goes to pick it up, he first stomps the hell out of it - truly a funny sight to see. I once asked him, "Matt, why do you stomp on the paper before you pick it up and open it?" and he replied, "to kill the spider that may have crawled inside of it."

I always laughed at him and thought it was adorable, but not necessary.

Until I went to grab the paper off of the porch yesterday and was greeted by a spider on the front page, holding on for dear life.

So now I am stomping on the newspaper too. And, admitting: "Matt, you were right!"

Anyhoo.

Happy Friday everyone - as you probably can tell, Matt and I live for the weekends because that is when we can actually get some quality time together. We are both feeling well enough to try a go at a run, so I am excited. And, I got me some new running shoes! WOO!

I hope that we get to have some spring like weather this weekend, too. What are your plans?

Sickies

Matt and I have been down and out with colds. NOT fun, at all. It is hard to be home all weekend and have no energy to tackle any projects and housework. I love to do both, and instead I just stared at my to-do list...longingly wishing...

Matt came down sick first - in the second week of March. He barely scraped by at work and with leave time, but survived it. He still has the sniffles and coughs. Then, I came down Wednesday with his dreaded cold. I had it coming - I have the horrible habit of drinking out of his cups. Coffee, tea, juice, whatever - I sip out of it all the time! So bad. So, I deserved it.

What do Matt and Roo do when we are both sick together? We watch movies in bed, sleep, tell jokes to see who can make snot fly further and faster. You know, the usual. SO this weekend we watched "The Prince of Persia" (dude movie) and "Robin Hood" (mostly dude movie but I like it too - it is by Ridley Scott, so you know it will be better than average).

We went through two boxes of Puffs Plus, 1 bag of Halls, one box of EmergenC, Dayquil and Nyquil, and lots of fluids. So far, we are on the mend.

So there you go. Our exciting weekend. We are SO ready to get better and get back to our regularly scheduled programming: weekend runs, naps, good meals and projects!

Happy Monday all - and, happy SPRING! Woot.

Learning From Japan

Something has caught my eye as I have read articles on the earthquake and tsunami that took place this past Friday in Japan. Though they have suffered unimaginable loss and have had little to no food, water, or heat since then, they have remained calm.

..."polite demeanor"

..."lack of anger"

..."no looting or profiteering"

..."neighbors working together, helping make chopsticks out of bamboo and boil snow together"

What amazing dignity, class, and respect they have. I read a report of stranded train passengers, stuck overnight on a train. Can you imagine if that had taken place in the US? The train personnel would have been harassed. Store owners here? The price of water would go from $1 to $10 immediately.

One news clip really got me - it was a company owner looking for his 50 employees. He has found about half of them, and was desperately searching for the missing. He ran into one of them along the road and they embraced and cried. Do companies like that even exist here? If a tsunami happened today and swept me away, not one of my co-workers would come looking for me.

I saw a video awhile back on when a water main broke in Boston, and how total chaos and fighting broke out at a local store as people tried to get what water was left. It was embarrassing. We are so selfish.

I have taken many mental notes as I have watched this story unfold. Staying calm and cool protects your health - and has an effect on all around you. Pitching in, helping where you can (if you can) and thinking of others' needs as well as your own goes so far.

I just had to write about that today, for me. To remind my future self not to freak out when my world crumbles.

Praying for you, Japan. Thank you for your example!

Hope Chest Project - Completed!

It took me months to decide whether to stain it or paint my Craigslist hope chest find. Ok, well the weather helped as I was also waiting for a decent day to do this out in our garage :)

The before picture:
...and after!
Weird picture but a better view:
What is inside? 15 years of journals. And I recently added photos and other memorabilia from other life adventures from when I lived in Hawaii, China, and travels to Africa and such.
Matt was dog sick all weekend so it was fun to go through my items in storage and condense it down to what could fit in there.

Now, Matt just needs to look where he is going in the middle of the night when he needs to use the restroom! I really do love the outcome of this project. I followed step-by-step instructions that I found on Young House Love for painting furniture: two coats of primer, two coats of paint, and a coat of polycrylic protective finish. It was a fun experience to take something not too pretty and turn it into a beautiful, functional piece of furniture.

Matt finally make a turn on Sunday morning after being sick since Tuesday. I am so relieved to "have him back" again.

Now I need a new project!

I hope you all have a great day and lets all keep on praying for the heartache that Japan is experiencing. It is so unreal.

Whew!

I finally got some photos off of Matt's camera :)
This is from last Monday night when we celebrated his birthday.
I made a chocolate cake with cherries on top. A mini carton of ice cream and we were good to go!

The week was pretty tough. It was our first full week of Matt working 11-8 and I was so lonely! Still it was the same routine: work, exercise, make dinner, eat alone, clean up, pack lunches, then rejoice when Matt got home :).

I miss exercising together. Still managed to do it though. It helps to beat the blues and I sleep much better. By Friday I was so shot - it was a long, stressful week at work where everything just seemed to go wrong.

Saturday was gorgeous and though Matt had a massive final paper due, he went with me to the park so we could run a 5 miler along the river. It felt good to run outside! Then he started writing and worked straight until 11pm, poor guy.

So, since he was typing all day, I found some projects to stay busy with:
I decided to switch out the office and the guest room. The office is not used enough and was huge. So, now our guests will have more space!
New office...still in the works...
The living room was a wreck, but only momentarily!
Ahhh new guest room. With a fake wall - behind that curtain are hundreds of Matt's moms' dolls on display, and they freak me out. So they are safe behind the drapery :)
Matt typing away! He still is...almost done. Then we will relax!

Another project from this weekend? Don't hate me but....
I put on the first layer of paint onto the hope chest that I bought last fall. It took me THAT long to decide!
I will take a photo of the final result - all the coats of paint and protectant = lots of waiting...good thing I had other things to keep me busy.

I am exhausted...and now the weekend is over :(

I hope to get onto some blogs Monday - in the the meantime, have a good one!