Pirates Mad Libs

Ye can always pretend to be a bloodthirsty ambulance by cleverly working into yer daily conversations phrases such as "Avast, ye moose!" and "Shiver me geese!" Once ye have the lingo down pat, it helps to wear a three-cornered St. Bernard on yer head. The pirate flag was designed to scare the living roundabouts our of captains and crews. The red flag signaled that mercy would neither be asked for nor given - no universities would be spared. The captain ruled with an iron appendix. Any buccaneer who disobeyed the captain's orders would be put under lock and ceiling and fed only bread and cities for 21.3 days and zebras. Any oxygen who did not keep his or her sword light and musket read to usurp would be thrown over the UFO and fed to the spacemen.

Mmm, Coconut

So a couple of months ago we had some significant leakage in our 2nd bedroom closet. Although there was little damage, we had to move everything out of that closet and distribute it around the house. As that room is where we keep all our storage, our house has been a fairly huge mess ever since. Yesterday we finally tackled the back room, throwing away a ton of stuff that we don't need, shredding old paperwork, and vacuuming walls and windows. Our house looks and feels so much better now. My spirit feels lifted just walking into that room, now that I can wander around the whole room without tripping over everything we own.

Oh, and we went grocery shopping and I bought a coconut, which is one of my favorite fruits. Steve doesn't like them quite as much, so he grumbled a little bit about having to break it open for me, but he did it and I have been enjoying it since. So much better than the processed stuff!

This post is a downer . . . do not read if you want to stay happy.

So I imagine almost all of you skipped the warning in the title and are reading this anyway. That's fine. It probably won't be as much of a downer as I thought anyway, since the act of writing it is lifting my spirits.

Steve and I have both been feeling a little . . . discontented lately. We are wanting life to get moving to whatever is next, but time apparently is out to get us and keeps slowing down. I find I am getting a little jealous of the things my friends and family have (like families and houses). Then I feel insanely guilty for being jealous. And I remind myself of everything that I have, including the world's best husband. But I still feel anxious.

This particular week has been made worse by the fact that I feel isolated from everything that is going on. I keep checking my email incessantly, hoping that something will be there, and no matter how many emails I get, it never seems to be enough. I think I am probably homesick. It has been four months since we have seen our families (except for Mike and Charity of course). While we love Columbus and look forward to sticking around here for as long as we have work, it gets a little depressing sometimes to not be able to jump in a car and visit my parents or Steve's parents on a whim.

So I will continue to do the things that do make me happy: writing, reading, playing piano, chilling with Steve. I'll try not to focus so much on what I don't have and concentrate on all my wonderful blessings. And hopefully tomorrow will be easier.

More traveling

So last night we drove to Nashville, Tennessee, which makes the 12th state we've been to in the last 15 days. Whew! We are here in Nashville visiting my brother and his family, including their 3 great boys. Besides not having slept in the last couple nights, things are great.
Why haven't I slept, you may ask? Well, last night was just because we got in very late and woke up accidently early. The night before last, I didn't sleep because I was busy having nightmares. I am taking a creative writing class right now, which started this week, and for the first week's assignments, we had to read several horror stories.
I don't ever read horror stories, because they scare me and give me nightmares. And these ones scared me and gave me nightmares, so hopefully never again.