Ho, Ho, Holy crap Christmas is hard work!

These last two weeks have been especially busy. Ashley has been working 14 hour days and in order to even see her, I went to the Painted Clay Studio to help prepare Christmas ornaments, painted by local school children. Not really hard work, but definitely time consuming.
My Job has been going very well, I love customer service! I can separate myself from any problem the customer is having, and while I might not be able to tell them exactly what they want to hear, I can tell them exactly what I can do for them, and for that they seem grateful.
I've recently enrolled in another semester of fulltime Kirkwood classes. When moving down here, I had intended on taking classes at MTSU. I've decided to finish my AA at Kirkwood and maybe by that time next semester I'll know what to do.
Tiger has been a very lonely cat, he rushes to the door every time we get home, just to say hi. Thats all for now!
-M

Wow

Another month has slipped by without too many major changes. My Mom visited again, and she, Ashley, and I spent a majority of the time letterboxing. I can't remember how many we found exactly, but it was definitely in the teens somewhere.

I absolutely like my job, no not love, but it'll do just fine.

I'm in the process of enrolling in anytime/anywhere classes at Kirkwood, sos I can finally get a big boy job. I'll have one more semester to complete after this one for my AA, and another 2 years or so for my Bachelor's. Probably not a BA in time management though.

Ashley has a nasty cold, but still goes to work everyday, most of the time for the entire day. Wow

Thats it for now!

-M

Backpacking...

We have been talking for awhile now about investing in backpacking equipment. So, the other weekend we took a trip into Nashville to visit REI. After spending three hours in the store, we were driving home with backpacking essentials, packs, bags, and tent! Dying to use our new stuff we decided to go camping...

Yes, in our living room!
-A

The White Collar Amongst The Blue.

Our latest slow down of posting isn't due to a lack of subject matter, just a general flurry of other activity, which I will attempt to summarize now for any interested parties.
As many of you know, I hold a position with one of the largest companies in the world. When I interviewed for that position, I had dollar signs in my eyes. My options went something like this: Puleo's Grille, waiting tables on non-prime hour shifts barely making it, or taking a lucrative sales position with a fortune 50 company. Placed in that context the decision was a fairly easy one. What my mind failed to consider was my lack of TRUE sales experience. I'm new to the expectation of meeting quotas (although I have always been a hard worker). To consistently meet these quotas, though no one would ever say so, requires one to put aside their innate care for the consumer(Some have less than others). The idea preached there is, keep the customer's needs in mind when positioning a package, but don't forget about your own needs when doing so. To compound the issue your friendly computer sales representative can see, plain as sunshine on a summer's day, how much money the company stands to make in dollars or as a percent of the total value of the package. I'm sure anyone can see the conflict of interest this situation creates. After 3 months in my position there, I had had enough. I am not a salesman, and will never be again, ever. I'd like to meet a person that can, with goodness and truth in their hearts, and a solid foundation to stand on, rationalize the necessity of the salesman. Wow, am I ranting mad, or what? Please pardon my rant, I digress...
I was jobless for all of 3 hours, I took a position as a customer service representative with Waste Management. Yes, I'm a garbageman. OK, not really. I work in a call center still, but instead of being in a position that is always taking, I am now in a position that is always giving, and I feel much happier. To boot, I make nearly the same as I did when I was evil, er...I mean 11% less. Well worth peace of mind.
During training I was afforded the opportunity to ride-along with a garbage driver. I was in a roll-off truck We drove all around Nashville during a 12 hour shift starting around 5AM. We picked up and emptied 8 - 20, 30 and 40 cubic yard dumpsters, or as they say in the industry, containers. I've a new found respect for all of those on the front lines of carrying away our waste. The service they provide is taken for granted by nearly everyone, myself included, yet it is so incredibly important to our constantly consuming lifestyles.
I've said much about jobs, and maybe more underneath about society, and my head hurts a bit from thinking about it all. I hope that the next post will be much more light-hearted.

P S <--This is what part of the alphabet would look like if "Q" and "R" were eliminated.

-M

Yes...we are still ALIVE!!!

So what have we been up to for nearly 2 months? Good question, Matt and I are talking about what we should blog about. Anyways...

First, Rachel and Duane came down to visit us for a long weekend around the 24th of August. We showed them the usual tourist stops, painted pottery, and took them to Burgess Falls to swim at the base of the falls. This was apparently the first waterfall Rachel had ever seen in real life. Points for us! We enjoyed the weekend they were here but it was too short like always.

About 2 weeks ago, Matt's computer crashed and the hard drive had to be replaced. Luckily, a few days prior to this, he backed up every file on his computer to reboot the system. This is something that Matt hasn't done in years! So, the crash wasn't devastating at all. In fact, Matt found it to be quite enjoyable. He did all the repairs himself (with some advice from JD) something he hasn't had the chance to do on laptops.

Work? Matt is surviving day by day. He says his job isn't that horrible but the bad days out weigh the good days by a long shot.
I still love the pottery studio! It was rough for awhile because I had no employees. One of my employees took a break due to being 9 months pregnant and her due date approaching and my other employee quit due to pregnancy health reasons. I was glad to see the other girl go because she was calling in sick constantly! I would rather know I have to work all day everyday than have to work at last minute. So, I am left to run the studio with Teresa working most weekends. We just hired a new girl and things are looking pretty bright!

Other than working constantly, we have been keeping up with our Sunday hiking/letterboxing ritual, assuming that nothing else has taken up our Sundays. One Sunday was taken because I volunteered us to help move a studio from Atlanta and another was taken with Rachel and Duane's visit. We are up to 28 letterbox finds! Our plan for next Sunday is to hit Virgin Falls an 8 mile hike if the weather permits.

We have also been working on crafty Christmas presents. Of course we cannot tell you what we have been up to.

This past weekend, the Rila side of my family (Dad, Sherry, Grandma, and Grandpa) came to visit from Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. Their visit was enjoyable consisting of a General Jackson night cruise on the Cumberland River!
-A

Swimmy Sweaty Sunday

Sunday, Ashley and I decided to combine hiking with letterboxing. We planned a route taking us about 80 Miles Northeast of Murfreesboro. Our first stop was a Burgess Falls State Park (one more to check off the list). The hike was short, only about 3/4 Mile, but was well worth it. Along the way we encountered 2 small-ish waterfalls, and at the end of the trail one gigantic one! We took some pictures along the trail, which you can see here. We didn't find the letterbox we were hunting at Burgess Falls. We descended the trail to the base of the falls. When we got there we were all alone, save for a family of 3 looking down from the observation deck 250 feet above. Looking at the falls, and the pool at the base, we were overcome with a sudden and overwhelming desire to jump in, despite not having packed our bathing suits! As we swam in the warm water, families and hikers began to arrive. We ate lunch and went for a final dip before packing up and hiking back to the car. How perfect!
We continued onward to the second letterboxing/hiking destination. The Bridgestone/Firestone Centennial Wilderness Area. I know it sounds kinda weak, owned by a tire company and all, but it was amazing! We hiked about 1/4 mile down the Polly Branch trail to find our 1st box of the day, before returning to the car.
We continued onward past our intended destination (bad navigating on my part), and arrived at Yellow Bluff Trail. After hiking in about 1/3 mile, we came to an overlook. We could see the Cumberland Plateau laid out before us. The plateau is broken here by a snaking valley 1000 feet deep. Cut by a river that has since run dry. We found our letterbox, stole a last look at the valley, and continued on our route.
We arrived at Virgin Falls Trail. We are intending to hike this trail in its entirety, but thats for another day. We set off to find 2 letterboxes on this trail. We located the first easy as pie, and the second minutes later. We were set to head home, but walking on the trail back to the car, Ashley spotted something lying on the ground about 2 steps off the trail. She stopped dead in her tracks, and looked at what appeared to be a big black leather wallet, which I then also saw. We looked at each other, confused for a moment. My brain knew what it was immediately, I'd seen one like it before, but my reasoning was getting in the way. How could we just find one sitting on the side of the trail? In disbelief, she reached down to pick it up. We had accidentally found another letterbox. We guessed it had been pulled from its hiding spot by a squirrel or raccoon. The outside of the case had a few small punctures in the shape of a tiny mouth. What's more, when we opened the letterbox to stamp our logbook, the stamp itself was beautifully hand-carved in the image of a raccoon.

And we finally have a...shower curtain!

Going on 4 months and its finally done! Pretty ridiculous. But I guess we'd rather wait 4 months than spend $20 plus on a shower curtain when I can make one for around $10.
-A

The past 5 weeks...

Once again, sorry for not keeping up to date with our blog.

The week of July 9th, Painted Clay held it's 2nd summer camp. It was insanity! We had more kids than we could really handle. So the 2nd camp didn't get through all the projects we did in the first camp and the projects didn't turn out as well as we would have liked. Oh well, we survived. I was very glad for the end of the week to come.

--------OH RION!--------

The Friday camp ended, I went home, took a 2 hour nap, and packed the car for my solo trip back to Iowa. I left around 8PM and by 3AM I was exhausted. So, I pulled over, reclined my seat, and took a 2 hour in a hotel parking lot. Despite the long lonely drive I couldn't pass up this opportunity! Rion, our foreign exchange student was back for a visit! Kate threw him a bash, inviting friends, family and teachers. Many of these people we hadn't seen since high school so it turned out being a mini reunion. I was in Iowa only 2 days but it was well worth the trip.

--------This and That--------

Matt and I have been hitting the trails as well! Sundays have turned into our hiking days. Two Sundays ago we went on a 6 mile hike that was amazing. I got the crap scared out of me by a turkey that flew out of the tall grass just feet in front of us. We got lost half way through the hike because we didn't know where the trial went. We went tromping through the forest on what we thought was the trail only to find nothing but poison ivy. We eventually found the trail again by back tracking our steps and we are still fighting the poison ivy today!

--------CRUNCH--------

Matt's car is finally getting fixed! He couldn't get his car in to get fixed for 3 weeks because they were booked. We thought this meant they were a good place to go but it seems like it just takes them FOREVER to get things done! The car has been in the shop for nearly 2 weeks now. Not that we know too much about body work but man, it was just a crunched door! Apparently, they got sent the wrong door and are waiting for a replacement. Matt has been driving a rental, a Kia Optima. It is not a bad car but he is ready to get his car back.

--------Knock, Knock....Who's There?....MATT'S MOM--------


Last weekend, Matt's mom came down to visit us. We showed her around Murfreesboro and Nashville, made pasta and sushi, and went letter boxing. Letter boxing is a scavenger hunt type game that Mary came across and introduced to us. We recommend it to anyone who likes small adventures and crafts. You get clues from www.letterboxing.org that tell you were a hidden box is located. The boxes contain a small notepad, a rubber stamp and maybe an ink pad. When you find the box, you take the stamp from the box and stamp it in your personal stamp pad. Then, you stamp your rubber stamp in their notepad and sign it with the date. Most of the stamps have been hand carved. We took a stab at carving our own stamps and surprisingly enough, it was very easy to do.


--------Painting with the STARS--------

On August 8th, I had a pretty interesting experience. I went to Amy Grant and Vince Gill's house for a pottery painting party. Their construction guy suggested the idea to Amy and apparently she really liked it. So we packed up what seemed like half the studio and held the party for them. The party went well but it was very exhausting. We arrived at the house around 3PM and didn't leave til 10:45PM. Amy and Vince are very gracious people and act like you and I.

You know your in the south when you see....(Part 2)

These pictures don't really scream southern but they are funny and we thought we would share some more laughs!


This picture was taken on our way back from our hike at Firey Gizzard. Sometimes you just have to wonder what goes through some peoples minds.


This is a really bad picture so you will have to forgive me. It was taken out the car window while we were driving but it cracks me up. It may not be funny to you but TN has some pretty funky alcohol laws and surprises us that they would let this fly. This was taken in the same town as the airplane picture.


Some people just have too much time on their hands. We came across this sight in a small mountain town on our way to and from Hiwassee State Park over Memorial Day weekend.

Hope you enjoyed some laughs.
-A

Our first Weekend together

During the first 3 weeks of July Matt and I have the same work schedule. Working Monday to Friday 8 to 5ish with weekends off. This past weekend we took advantage of these 'free' days. We woke up early on Saturday morning to drive to the Nashvile zoo. It was a blast! The zoo's set-up was great; with a majority of the exhibits having a path between them, making everything less crowded. My favorite were the super-star parrots that squakked at us as we walked away, as if to say "hey, get back here we're cute!" or maybe the meerkats. Matt's favorites were the poison arrow frogs or the red panda. We walked around all morning until our feet hurt, but we didn't stop there.
In the afternoon we decided to visit Nashville's biggest local micro-brewery, Yazoo. They give tours on Saturdays so we were in luck. We met Dan and Kim there around 2, had a beer in the taproom, and took a great tour through the old Marathon Motorworks building, which now houses Yazoo's beer making equipment. Yazoo....er..yahoo!

As if we hadn't had enough walking and excitement on Saturday, we took a road trip to Tracy City, TN to hike the Fiery Gizzard trail in the South Cumberland Recreation Area. The trail is a TN secret. It is a 13 mile trail one way but we only hiked a few miles. We would have hiked more had we went prepared. We decided that we should go hiking without any water, wow, how stupid. So we cut the trail short and hiked back and had a picnic lunch. The trail hugged the edge of the Big Fiery Gizzard Creek, which cut a ravine into the mountain 200 feet deep creating beautiful waterfalls and chimney rock structures.
-M & A

Failed attempt at basil, or is it?

Matt and I decided we would take a stab at growing basil. We thought it would be easy but apparently basil is a little stubborn. Matt did his studying on the internet and was confident it was going to work. So we ventured to Lowes and purchased, a planter box, soil, and two small but healthy looking basil plants. The internet told Matt not to water the plants unless they were dry. So a couple days after we planted, he took out some filtered water and gave them a good bath. Mistake number 1, the next day the leaves had brown spots all over them, hmmm, that water probably had chlorine in it....oops! Mistake number 2, supposedly basil leaves do not like getting wet when watered...oops again! We thought that the plants were going to die but they hung in there and started some new growth. The brown polka dot leaves never bounced back and eventually died. We were excited about the new growth and tried to keep the plants healthy but the new leaves remained small and the stalk started turning brown. So we gave up.
We didn't get around to dumping out the planter box before we left for Iowa and when we returned home, one plant had some green growth on it! We decided that we should keep the plant around and see what happens. Its our new experiment! Is it going to survive? This is the plant today.

-A

You Know Your in the South When You See.... (Part I)

Matt and I decided that we should start a continuous series of images called 'You Know Your in the South When You See...'. We have seen some pretty ridiculous stuff since we have moved down here and we thought we would share the laughs with everyone!


This was the best thing we could come up with for sweet tea.



This is a 5th wheel camper that has been transformed into a home. The wooden porch is a nice touch! We saw this driving to and from Hiawassee State Park over Memorial Day weekend.


Yes, there is a dating site just for rednecks! The best part about is we get to see this truck daily because it is parked 2 buildings down from ours and NEVER moves. I wonder why?

Stay tuned for more images!
-A

Moving up the ladder!

I just got a promotion at Painted Clay Studio. I am now the manager, woo-hoo! Teresa, the owner is starting another business out of town and is requiring her to be out of the studio and she needed someone to run the place and that someone is me! Surprisingly, being a manager I am only picking up a few extra tasks like writing the schedule, ordering supplies, and making to do lists. I'm sure with time, I will be picking up more responsibilities.
And Matt starts his new job Monday, tomorrow!
-A

Home again

Last weekend Matt and I took the long 10 hour trek back home to attend a wedding of, our good friends, Elisha and Chad McMullin. The weekend was packed full of activities. We arrived home in Mediapolis at 3AM after battling heavy rains and driving 25 MPH the last hour of our drive. Friday night was rehearsal dinner, Saturday was the wedding starting the day at 6:30AM, Sunday was the gift opening luncheon and hanging out with my parents, Monday was visiting Matt's family in Washington and visiting the Rila side of my family in Mt. Pleasant, and Tuesday was visiting my Granny and driving home. Wow, what an exhausting trip!

To put some more excitement on the trip, Matt's car got backed into the morning of the wedding by the brides mom! Thank goodness it was morning and Matt was half asleep when I told him the news. He took the news very well, which was surprising considering that car is his baby! The damage to the car was less than we expected it to be which is good but the car will not be fixed until July 30th! Apparently the dealership he got the estimate at is the place to go in Murfreesboro!
-A

Camping...FINALLY!

We like to call ourselves campers but when we sit back and think about how many times we've gone camping recently, it's kind of pathetic!

We finally went camping for the first time in nearly 8 months over Memorial Day weekend. We camped out at Hiwassee State Park, which is in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. It was a 2 hour car ride to the park but it was worth every minute of it. While we were there, Matt took me white water rafting down the Ocoee River for my birthday. We were on the river about an hour and a half. What fun! I'm ready to do again!
-A

Dude, you're getting a Dell...job

After the ups and downs of waiting tables for 3 months, I'm considered a pro. While it's nice to know that I've mastered the art of serving food, yahoo (sarcasm), the job sucks horriby. In our endless searching for replacement jobs, Ashley came across an advertisement for a Dell career fair. After 2 interveiws they called me back to tell me that things went well, and they'd like to have me come up to the Nashville campus for testing. After the testing I waited, nervously, for a call saying things had gone well again; at that point I really wanted the job. I received the call from Sam, in talent acquisition, after about a week. He offered me the position but there were some problems. The first 5 weeks of the job are training, and I'm not allowed to miss even one day. With JD and Sara coming to town and fulfilling my duties as an usher in a wedding on the 23rd, I wasn't able to accept the start date he proposed. He told me July was a possibility, and that he was 90% sure I'd be able to start then. June 1st, 2007 Dell announces a loss in market share, and lays off 10% of their workforce globally, 8,000 people. AAAARRRRGHHHH!!! at this point I'm thinking, well at least I didn't take the job in June, only to get laid off a week later. On June, 5, Sam called me back to let me know that they had in fact approved a July class, and that he'd like me to be a part of it!
YAHOO!!! (no sarcasm) So, now I'm just waiting for July, so I can stop saying "Welcome to Puleo's, can I start you off with a Big Orange Belinni, a Puleo's pina colada, or a glass of our secret sangria?" However, those word will probably be replaced by some other corporate phrase...oh well.
-M

More Iowa visitors!

Looking back on previous blog posts, I realized that I never blogged about our second set of visitors...big surprise! We are trying to get better at blogging and if I do say so myself, I think we are improving.

Anyways, clear back in April a really good friend of mine, Kate, and her friend from college, Christina, came to visit us for a long weekend. We had a really great time hanging out. Unfortunately we didn't get to hang out with them as much as we would have liked because Matt and I had to go to St. Louis the weekend they were here. But they found lots of stuff to do and had some city experiences. They were in a parking lot and had a hit and run. Some woman backed into her car and sped off. Her bumper got dented but a short while later it popped out. Her bumper obviously got cracked but it is almost impossible to see. Then on their way back to our apartment around 10 pm they got lost in a shady part of town and wound up on a street with lots of police cars. Come to find out on the news the next day, they were right by a double homicide crime scene...good thing they drove by after the fact!


This week, JD and Sara, Matt's friends from Washington, IA, came for 3 days. They took a vacation that made a big circle around the Midwest. Many of their friends have moved away and decided to go visit them. We were their second to last stop. We showed them around the city and took them to Lynchburg. Lynchburg is the home to the Jack Daniel distillery. It's kind of funny that the world's best selling whiskey is located in a dry county. Even though we didn't get a free sample like many distilleries offer, it was still a great time.
-A

Watermelon toes

Today is my birthday and I want to thank all of you for all my birthday wishes and presents! It meant a lot to me!

Being my birthday, I thought I would treat myself and Matt by getting a take-out order of fried dill pickles. I have been craving them ever since we moved to TN. So, I called Toot's to place the order and 20 minutes later we were at home eating them for lunch. Big mistake!!! Being people who don't eat fried food and haven't even had a bite of fried food in 2 months, this was not good. Our tummies were not happy with us and we paid for it hours later. The fried pickles weren't even that good, too salty. What a bummer to have to pay for something that wasn't worth eating. Oh well, you live and you learn.

In an attempt to make myself feel younger I did something juvenile and I just had to share it with everyone. I painted my toes to look like watermelons...how corny! But it was fun and brought back some memories of the good ol' days.

-A

Oh, the month of May

Wow! The month of May has flown by. A couple of my good friends are getting married exactly one month from today and I have yet to finish their gift. I'm sure most of you know how that goes, 'oh it is a ways away, I can give it a few more days!' But now it's getting to be crunch time!

This month my time has be occupied by Harry Potter. I have had the first 4 books for years. I started collecting them shortly after they became popular but I never read them. I would always start the first one and never found time again to continue reading it until a year later. By that time I had forgotten what I had read previously, so it turned out to be a never ending battle and I gave up. Now, that I no longer have class and homework to do, I have rediscovered them. I love them and I'm reading the 5th book now. I haven't decided if I'm going to go on to the 6th book right away or wait until the 7th comes out on paperback, which is about 6 weeks after the hardback comes out. I hear the 6th book leaves you hanging. Anyone got any suggestions?
-A

Fall Creek Falls

Tuesday Ashley and I drove about an hour and a half to Fall Creek Falls State Park, the home of eastern United States' tallest waterfall, plunging 256 feet. The park sits at the junction of two largish creeks(almost rivers), Fall creek and Cane creek. There are miles of hiking, horseback riding, and biking trails (thankfully they are all separate) which wind through a moist Oak and Hickory forest.
We did 2 hikes on Tuesday. First the very scenic Gorge Overlook trail, which gives a few expansive views the northeastern edge of the Cumberland plateau, and then the 1/2 mile Cable trail, which descends 300 feet down a rocky face to the bottom of the falls.
After we climbed out, we were beat. We went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner and Margaritas, YUM!
-M

Pottery pieces

I'm going to start this post with a big sorry! We realize that we have not been the best at keeping this up to date, and we're going to try our hardest to get better at it.

I thought you all would be interested in seeing the pieces that Matt and I have painted at Painted Clay Studio (the place I work). Painting pottery is so much fun and surprisingly enough, it is a stress reliever!
-A

Handmade Ravioli

It's a wonder that we aren't huge blimps! We have blogged about food more than anything since we've moved. The portions are huge but 9 time out of 10 we can't eat it all. What can you say we love food!

Anyways, the other night, actually it was Easter dinner, we made homemade ravioli! We didn't want to spend $30 on a pasta machine to roll out the dough so we used a rolling pin instead. Wow, what a mistake! It was very hard to get the dough rolled out into thin sheets. After awhile, we decided that thin sheets weren't going to happen. So, we ended up with fat ravioli.

The pasta machine wasn't the only thing we didn't have. We looked all over town and couldn't find a ravioli form so we used a fork instead to seal the edges. Needless to say, our ravioli looked a little weird and none of them were the same size.

We made spinach ravioli with a ricotta, marjoram, and parsley filling with an artichoke, tomato sauce. Everything was homemade. It was delicious.
-A

Farkle, our new found love

We got a new game introduced to us last Christmas and wanted to share it with everyone. It is really easy and very fun! Thanks Mark and Sandi.

-A

A new decoration

In January 2006 Matt got this idea that he would make me a new decoration for the kitchen while I was in Mexico and surprise me with it when I got home. Well, he started the project but never finished it. It wasn't perfect so he gave up. I, on the other hand don't care that it isn't perfect and actually prefer it that way and wanted it done. So, when we moved we didn't really have a place to store it and I finished it!
-A

The ferocious Tiger

Upon request of one of our regular viewers, here are some pictures of our ferocious cat. Plus we thought everyone might enjoy the pictures as well.

Tiger survived the long journey and has settled nicely in the new apartment. He loves the staircase! His new game is to hide behind the highest set of rungs that are head height if you are standing on the lower level. He waits for one of us to walk by and tries to attach us through the rungs. His legs are too short to actually get us. Even if he did it wouldn't hurt because he is declawed in the front.

What a cute kitty!

-A

The really cheap purse...

Once upon a time there was a lady that worked at Family Video. Going about her regular routines. A customer came to the counter ready to check out.
"Can I get your telephone number, please?" said the employee.
"555-1978"
"Thanks Jennifer!"
"Your total today is $5.25."
Jennifer pulled her purse to the counter and the employee stared in amazement!
"Wow, I LOVE your purse," said the excited employee!
"Thank you! A local woman owns a business making them, here's her business card. And they are cheap!"
"Awesome, I'll have to visit their website!"
"Oh and be sure to tell her Jennifer sent you to her!"
"Ok, will do. Your movie is due back tomorrow before midnight."
"See you next week," Jennifer said as she left.
As she was leaving the employee noticed the huge ring she was wearing and thought to herself, I think her cheap is a lot different than my cheap.

The first thing the employee did when she got home was logged onto the Internet to check out the website.
"Holy...," said the fainting lady!
Sure enough, Jennifer's cheap was a $90 purse!
"That is WAY out of my price range, considering the most expensive purse I own was $20!" talking to herself.

Still looking at the purses, the ladies creative mind kicked into gear.
"I can make these myself," she thought to herself.
And sure enough she went to the fabric store a few days later to make one.

However, it wasn't that simple. She looked through a few pattern books and saw the purse she wanted to make with a few alterations that would be simple, found the pattern in the file and got the supplies.

When she finally sat down to make the purse it turned out nothing like she had hoped for. It was about 3 inched by 2 inches! "Wow, that won't even hold my wallet!"

Apparently, the title of the pattern, 'Mini Purses' was ignored completely.

So, fed up with the pattern, the lady made her own pattern with the help of her mother.

And this is what she came up with:

-A

We have jobs

We just wanted ya'll to know that we both now have jobs, so we are going to be able to afford rent when it comes due in June.

I got a job at the Painted Clay Studio. It is a place where a people can come to paint pottery in addition to miscellaneous other things. I am liking it very well thus far. It is a small studio with 4 employees plus the owner, so no corporate rules to mess with. The funny thing about getting the job is that I met the owner at Copy Express sending a fax of my resumes to various places and she gave me an application. It is just a part-time job for now but has the potential to become a full-time position, but we wiill see.
-A

I've started as a server at Puleo's Grille. I greet every table within 45 seconds as such: "Hello, welcome to Puleo's, my name is Matt, I'll be taking care of you this evening. can I start you off with a Big Orange Bellini, Puleo's Pina Colada, or a glass of our Secret Sangria?" all with huge cheesy smile and facial expressions. Then after the "45-second greet", I say "While you're looking over the menu, why don't I put in an order of our Fried Green Tomatoes, or Spinach Queso Dip with tortilla chips for you?" The whole thing is really lame, but I have to continue to do it or I wont get the good shifts. However, in all likelyhood, it's helping my tips anyway. While being gainfully employed isn't as glamorous as we imagine it is while unemployed, I will say this, it's definately more lucrative.
-M

Our first visitor!

We had our first visitor last week. An old co-worker of mine from Family Video came and stayed with us for 5 days. It was a relaxing yet busy week. Some things we did were played mini golf, rode go carts, went on a picnic, saw some of Nashville consisting of downtown, Opry Mills Mall and Gaylord Opryland Convention Center and hung around home and visited with one another.
To end the all day Nashville (downtown, Opry Mills, Gaylord Opryland) trip we visited Dave & Buster's, where Dan and Kim met up with us. Dave & Buster's is basically an adult Chuck-E-Cheese. It is was very fun! Here Matt, for the first time, experienced drinking and driving while on a motorcycle.

Another fun, memorable moment was eating BBQ chicken from the grill on our patio. It was so messy and we made fun of each other will all the BBQ sauce all over our faces. Yet another Kodak moment missed.
We would like to that everyone is welcome to come visit us at anytime. You will have your own bedroom and bathroom so you don't have to worry about paying for an expensive hotel room.
-A

Ichi-Ni-San Sushi!

One of our favorite meals to eat/make, Tiger's too. Just wanted to share the pictures since ya'll couldn't be here to eat it with us.
-M

Wild Garlic?!?

Matt and I were sitting out on the patio painting a project of ours and I smelled something peculiar. SO... my first reaction was "MATT, you stink!" He of course denied everything and we forgot about it, for the time being. I continued to paint and Matt continued to sand. A few moments later the smell came back and I commented that it smelled like chives. And it hit us, we have wild garlic growing in our yard. We thought it was green onions at first but did research and found out it was garlic. We don't complain because we have used it as green onions in some of our food. It seems like most people hate it and think of it as a weed, but we welcome it.
-A

Happy Birthday To Me!

Wednesday the 7th was, as you may well know, my birthday, yea! For dinner, we ate shrimp fettucini alfredo, garlic toast, and peas, all accompanied by a "fine" chardonnay. Ashley made a German chocolate cake for me, her first ever.
It was boring, but perfect. She got me a really nice pair of gore-tex hiking shoes, which I use every Sunday. Moron that later.
Friday the 9th, Dan(Ashley's brother) and Kim(his fiancee), took Ashley and I out for the night in Nashville, unfortunately we forgot the camera. We experienced the Frist art museum, featuring Mexican lithography and paintings from Picasso's blue period and several from Matisse, fantastic! Afterword we went to a Moroccan themed restaurant called Layl'a rul, they are well known in Nashville for their martinis and fine cuisine. We, the table, ordered nearly everything from their tapas menu, excluding only 2 or 3 items. Dinner was fantastic and I was overly stuffed. However, after dinner, Dan and Kim took us out for dessert and drinks. We went to The Melting Pot, a great fondue restaurant/bar, which has stoves built into the tables. We had a caramel fondue and a chocolate fondue brought to the table with two huge platters of strawberries, bananas, pineapples, cheesecake, fried marshmallows, and brownie pieces. Oh my stomach hurts just thinking about it again. Thank you Dan and Kim for the most extravagant birthday celebration I've ever experienced.
-M

Move in Special

Our townhome came with washer and dryer hookups and we were planning on purchasing some a few days after we moved in. Dan and Kim knew of our upcoming shopping and found a flyer "FREE washer and dryer. Must be out by Monday." So we called and it was true. They lived in the same complex as Dan and Kim so we had to rent another moving truck to go pick them up. Of course it's not as simple as that. We scheduled to go pick them up for 8 AM. We got up early, rented the truck and left Murfreesboro at 7:30 and hit the interstate to head to Brentwood, a suburb just outside of Nashville, we thought we were fine. Wrong, we hit the tail end of rush hour and an accident blocking 2 of the 4 lanes. It took 2 hours to travel 8 miles. That was an experience. But we eventually made it to our destination. The washer and dryer are old decorated in brown and tan. The dryer is missing a knob and requires vice grips, but they work great.

-A

We have arrived!!!

Well, goodbye snow, ice storms, cold weather, and corn. Hello, rolling foot-hills, warm weather, big city, and miles and miles of hiking trails. Oh yeah, hIll-billies, southern hospitality, and lots and lots of pick-up trucks too. After a restless night's sleep, Ashley and I awoke to more blowing wind, and ice and snow. We decided we had better leave anyway, assuming if it got bad enough we could get a hotel for a night.
Nonsense! 2 hours into the 11 hour ordeal, the wind stopped and the weather warmed up a bit. Things were looking up. We arrived in Murfreesboro around 9 PM and decided to drop the truck off at our new townhouse, even though we didn't yet have a key. We drove around to about 5 different hotels looking for a reasonable rate for a room...nothing, horse show in town that weekend. Instead we drove into Nashville to stay with Dan, Ashley's brother. Dan and Kim were also good enough to help us get unloaded the next morning. which took about 1 hour to unload, gas-up, and return the truck. Pretty good compared to 5 hours of packing it. Of course we didn't count on having the task of unpacking the boxes being a 4 day job!
-M

The moving adventure Part II

The day finally came when we were to pick up the moving truck and pack it up. Due to the crippling Iowa winter storm my father, who's a lineman for Alliant Energy, wasn't able to help us. So we called some friends the night before and convinced them, with food, to help us pack up the truck. As we started to pack the truck our neighbor, who we had said hi to a few times in passing came and helped. He said he had nothing better to do, which was probably true since he had moved out of his apartment a few days earlier and he would have been sitting in his empty apartment waiting on the carpet cleaners. What a nice guy! All in all it took over 5 hours to pack the truck. Most of that time was trying to figure out how everything was going to fit inside. Matt's motorcycle was the first item in and it took up A LOT of room, we were sure everything wasn't going to fit. We started figuring out what we could live without and Matt was sure we needed to return the 16 foot truck and upgrade to the 24 foot, but I refused. Surprisingly, as we put more and more stuff inside, the truck seemed to get bigger. We didn't have to throw anything out!
-A

PacknClean

Yesterday was a very busy day. Ashley's parents arrived here around 10:30 to help us pack and clean the apartment. We got some of it done however, the weather reports were all forecasting more freezing rain, sleet, snow, and wind. They left here about 1 so they could get home safely. Ashley and I continued to clean and pack until about 5:30, at which point, it was time to get out of the apartment, for at least a little while. We tried several resataurants, most of which were closed, until Hacienda Las Glorias. We ate some great mexican food and left the restaurant about 45 minutes after arriving there. I should mention, before going in, it had just been raining and sleeting slowly all day. The driving wasn't too bad, just a little slow moving. When we stepped outside, 3 inches of snow covered the car and parking lot, and was whipping through the air at 30 MPH! Visibility was 20 ft or less so driving was, um...interesting. we checked a friend's place 2 blocks away to see if she had power, she did, but only for about 2 minutes before it went out. The bar that I was supposed to be playing at at 8PM called and cancelled me, so our evening was open. On the way back home we started making plans for a powerless evening, only to find we still had power. We lost power for a short amount of time, but we had been at the restaurant then. All-in-all we fared well, Ashley's parents still don't have power. Blizzard! they were saying on the radio and on the internet, but all we got was 1/4" of ice and 3 or 4 inches of snow. HA, some blizzard.
-M

Relatively Speaking

It has been a lazy week, when compared with others. Valentine's Day was spent at home with steaks, shrimp, steamed spinach, and sparkling grape juice (no wine, I've got mono). After dinner it was card games and monopoly, very relaxing. Our remaining time off has been filled with finishing Season 1 of ABC's "Lost" on DVD.
Ashley and I talked today about our last remaining days at Family Video. She has 2 shifts left, and I have 8. It's very strange to be leaving a job after 6 years. I've gotten so comfortable with what needs to be said or done to fix a problem. I guess I'm just nervous about not being a pro anymore. Oh well, life can either be a comfortable bore, or a difficult adventure. I've always loved an adventure.
-M

The moving adventure Part I

Our last days at Family Video are approaching quickly, kind of scary yet so exciting! Mine is February 20th and Matt's is March 1st. We are starting the big task of packing but we have a long way to go. We have done so much planning but there is so much left that we feel like we are flying by the seat of our pants. We both have no jobs, yikes! But we have a place to live. We haven't seen the place in person so we are hoping the pictures on the internet portray the townhouse accurately. Check for yourself, www.mmcproperties.com/HamletSquare.htm.

A