Long Time no Post

2 weeks.  Wow.  Long time no post.

My life is so boring I haven't felt the need to even put down in words what's been going on.  Joe did not get any of the jobs he interviewed for.  I spend my time either crying about it or having complete and total panic attacks.  Neither are fun, for me or for Joe.  I have to admit I am losing hope that he will find a job. Like, ever.  I do realize how silly it is to think something like that but you have your spouse go 19 months without a job and then tell me how you feel about it. It is disheartening, to say the least.

I'm one of those people who likes to have something to look forward to.  A special occasion.  A holiday. A trip.  A concert.   Something. Well we've got nothing and  haven't for a while and it's bumming me out.  I have a couple of days off(a few actually) at the end of August and I had hoped to make it up North to see my sees-ter and my Nor Cal blogging buddies but it isn't going to happen.  It's just not in the budget right now.  I am sad and disappointed about it.   

I'm ready for summer to be over.  We have been incredibly lucky with the weather here and it has been a very cool summer but in the last week it has begun to heat up.  I hate heat.  Blech.  It's too hot to go walking so I end up sitting inside on the couch for long stretches of time.  Not helpful for my negative frame of mind.  We have made it to the pool to exercise a couple of times in the last week but it's such a zoo there some evenings that there is hardly room to move, let alone work out.  Plus I love Fall.  It's my favorite season.

We have really been isolating ourselves socially as well, mostly due to financial reasons.  We mostly keep to ourselves, and stay home and shy away from being other people.  Not that we have that many friends to begin with.  We don't really have any "couples" friends that we can hang out with.  We talk all the time about how we need to get out and make friends.  We would love to have a group of people to get together with and watch movies, or play board games with.  The question is, how do we do that?  Where does a couple in their 40's(almost), married, with no kids go to find friends?  The bar?  The bowling alley?   The park? We live in an apartment so we don't even have the whole "neighborhood" aspect.  No block parties and such.  It's hard for us to meet new people.

How do you meet new friends? I think having children makes it easier, as you have other parents at your child's school/daycare, etc., plus birthday parties and such.

Today is turning out to be another lazy day.  We are committed to get out and go for a walk later after it cools down and I have some laundry to do but other than that, nada.  Tell me something fun you are doing today. Maybe I can live vicariously though you guys.

Lazy

Yesterday was a pajama kind of day.  As in, I didn't get out of my pajamas or leave the house all day. Today is shaping up to  be the same, as it is 11:15 am and I am still sitting here in my p.j.'s.  I'm not sick or anything, so I can't put the blame on that.  I'm just really tired and my back is hurting.  I suppose those are good enough reasons to lay around all day in your pajamas but I still feel incredibly lazy.  We are going out later to check out a new hiking trail we have never tried, so at least I'm not a total sloth.


I'm trying not to spend too much time worrying about Joe's job interview.  If there is one thing I am good at, it is fretting about things. How did the interview go?  Did they like him?  How many other people did they interview?  How long will it take before they call?  What if they don't call at all?(I hate when prospective employers don't call, even if you didn't get the job. It seems like common courtesy to me to call and let the applicant know that they weren't selected but you would be surprised at how many companies don't bother).  And most importantly, Did he get the job???  That is by far the most common question running though my mind. Constantly.


That last paragraph made me sound like a total spaz, which I suppose is somewhat true.  No wonder I often don't sleep well at night.  Geez.


He has another job interview next week so I am trying to remain hopeful that he gets at least one of them.  Both are jobs that are part time and pay only just above what unemployment is paying us but the most important thing right now is that he have a job.  For both of our sanity.


Thank you for the prayers and good thoughts. It means a lot to me.


Off to enjoy the rest of my Sunday(and hopefully get out of my pajamas).

Dragon Boat Races, Day Two

I don’t actually have anything to post for day two, as I left my camera at home. I just didn’t want to leave you hanging. Day Two was actually really awesome. We placed second in one of our races, which is the best place we have placed, well, ever. I did mention we are a non-competitive team, right? We are the only team that has kids and adults in our boat. The other teams have either all kids or all adults and they practice for a much longer time period than we do (we only practice 3 months out of the year). What does this mean? It means we usually place last or second to last and we are happy with that. We aren’t “in it to win it”. We are in it for the exercise, and the teamwork and the fun (and also to share in our common bond of children adopted from China). So second place? It pretty much rocks. We were all so thrilled.




I’m not going to beat around the bush this time, I’m just going to come out and ask (beg) you all for (another) favor. Joe has a job interview on Thursday and we need to him to get the job. Badly. I’m at the end of my rope here. Emotionally and financially. All prayers and good thoughts would be so appreciated. Thank you so much.

Dragon Boat Festival, Day One

Day one of this year's Dragon Boat Races is behind us.  It is so nice sharing the experience with Joe this year.  In year's past he was there as my cheerleader but didn't have anything to do with the actual races.  We ended up not racing together, as I only raced in one race today.  I was supposed to do two but was feeling poorly so I pulled out of my last race.  No we are home and I am sore and sun burnt and contemplating an early bed time.  Round two tomorrow.

Women's race.  My only race of the day.

Drum leading the Chinese Dragons.  Sadly most of my pictures of them came out blurry.

Th crowd cheering the races on

Lisa's Visit Part Two Or the most picture heavy post ever

    This was the view from Lisa's hotel room.  No, I did not use the zoom.  That is actually how close the train tracks were.  Needless to say, she moved rooms after one night.

On Thursday we went to the OC Fair.  We were thinking that it wouldn't be crowded because opening weekend was over and it was a Wednesday.  Everyone else in Orange County must have thought the same thing because it was more crowded than I think I have ever seen it.

                                                              Wall to wall people

Cameron and Grace went on this ride. It went in a circle backwards and then this tent folded over you while you rode.  Not my cup of tea.  Cameron and Grace loved it.

                               Remember the pig that was pregnant last time?  She had her babies.

                                      All together now..........Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

                                     On Friday we went to the American Girl Doll store. 
                                        It was like the Mother ship was calling Grace            
                                                 home(love that quote from "Friends").

                             Pretty fountain at "The Grove" where American Girl Doll Place was

                            These kind of freaked me out.  Dolls that look just like you.
                                  One is fine.  But a  bunch of them together is freaky.

                                      The Hippie doll is my favorite.  I used to have that bike.

                                          
                                             Grace with her "twin" doll and matching outfits.

                                       Lisa, Grace and Cameron at American Girl Place. 
                                                          Cameron is displaying his
                                        displeasure of  the whole American Girl Doll experience.

                           On Saturday we met up with Stacey and the kids at Downtown Disney. 
                          Tony Hawk was there doing a  skateboarding demonstration.  It was gnarly.
                             (That's me trying to be cool.  I wasn't that impressed.
                             Although Tony is catching  some wicked air on that trick).

                                         Give me an "A".  For Cameron.  I don't know why.

Austin, Cameron and Ryleigh all had their pictures taken with their respective letters in the "California". Upon realizing that Grace had no letter on which to pose she said in her best drama filled voice "There's no "G" in California!!  Sob".  Heh.

Here we are compromising. "F" for friends!

C for Cameron

                                            A for Grace.  Again, I don't know why. Oh yeah.
                                                         There's an "A" in   Grace.

                                               The whole group(minus Joe).  C for Californians.

Somewhere in there we squeezed in a trip to Dave and Buster's.  Love how intent everyone is on driving their little cars around the tiny little track.  I think Cameron won.  Much to Uncle Joe's chagrin.

Grace's favorite game.  Doesn't she look like she is sittng at a slot machine?  Nice.  Way to go D & B's.

Black and White Wednesday

Lisa's Visit

Lisa and the kids have been visiting for the last 5 days and we squeezed a whole lot of fun into that short period of time.  There is so much to post that I'm going to have to split it into several posts.  On Wednesday DeAnn met us at the beach and took some pictures of Lisa and the kids(and dog), with a couple of me thrown in.  They really turned out great.  The weather was overcast and cold and the waves were huge.  It was kind of scary. The pictures turned out good regardless and you can't even tell that I was terrified the whole time that we were going to be swept away into the ocean to our deaths.  You probably think I am kidding but I am not. It was scary. 

                                                  I love the look on Grace's face in this one.

                                                  The ones of Grace came out so good.

                                                         Handsome Finn

The tide came in very quickly and we almost got stuck on the cliffs.  I tried to cross back over and a huge wave engulfed me and I got soaked.  Lisa crossed with Grace on her back, narrowly missing a huge wave and then DeAnn followed shorty after, when the set had gone back out.  It was at this point that I became very nervous.  I was shaking as I took these pictures.  Thankfully everyone made it safely across.

                                                       It  truly is a beautiful place though.
                                            Thanks DeAnn, for doing a fabulous job, as usual.

Day two coming tomorrow.

Not a Lotta

Going on, that is.

I snapped out of the blues but am still feeling blah. Thus no posts on this here blog.  I have one word to sum up my summer so far.

Booooorrrrrrring.  I guess boring can be good.  But it's also, well, boring.

We have not one trip planned this summer since we didn't go on our annual camping trip and nothing planned for the near future either.  I hate when I have nothing to look forward to.

Joe and I were talking about my upcoming 40th birthday(which is in exactly 6 months.  I don't want to talk about it).  He asked me if I wanted to do anything special.  I said No.  I want to forget it's happening.  He said he wanted to throw me a party but I laughed.  I don't even have ten friends that would show up if I had a birthday party.  So I told him I would like to go away somewhere, just the two of us.  We started talking about where I would like to go and I got all excited.  About a trip that is 6 months away.  I even started cleaning out my closet to find all my winter clothes.  It's 94 degrees right now.  I really need a life.


Here's another word that sums up my summer: Slow

We're slow at work.  Painfully slow.  Like, I might have to find a new job slow.  I'm so sick of the economy.  Who says it is getting better?  Where?  Not where I live.  I won't even go into how my husband still doesn't have a job.  Because it's boring for you and beyond frustrating for us.

I am slow moving.  My back still hurts.  I have not been cleared to  go  back to exercising yet. It is driving me crazy.  It has been 2 and a half weeks and I am going crazy.  Not exercising puts me in a foul mood.  The other day we went in the pool and I swam some laps and I can't believe how much better I felt.  We are going to continue to get in my exercise that way until I can start walking or biking again.  It has been too hot lately to do much of anything else anyway.

I did go to the fair with DeAnn on Friday, and that was fun.  We had a deep fried Klondike bar.  I was prepared for it to be really gross but oh my gosh it was so yummy.  Seriously yummy.

And Lisa and the kids are coming to visit for a few days next week, so that will be fun too. I know that will keep us crazy busy.  I already have Joe babysitting for a couple of nights so we can go out and have some girl time.  He is so wonderful about that.

Here are a few pictures I took at the Fair, before my camera battery died. (DeAnn took pity on me and gave me one of her old cameras since mine broke at Christmas and I have yet to be able to replace it)

We always have to have these fried potatoes.  The sign says you can buy them at Costco to make them at home. No thank you.  Once a year at the Fair is enough for me(and my stomach).

We always have to have the grilled corn too.  I don't know why these are so good.  I'm sure I could make them at home too but they taste so much better at the Fair.  I think it is the toppings they have there that make them so good.

Here are some of the other fried foods the Fair offered.  We didn't try any of these.

A Krispy Kreme BBQ'd chicken sandwich?  Uhhhhhh...........no thanks

This poor pig was due to give birth in 2 days.  She looked terribly uncomfortable.  I can't wait to go back and see if she had her piglets yet.  I'm a sucker for baby animals(and yes I do know what happens to them.  It's called denial and I am good at it.  :)

Ginormous sunflowers

The aforementioned deep fried Klondike Bar.  Dee-Lish.