"Paid in full"

I just got off the phone with the Student Loan Centre. I phoned them so I could pay off the balance of my student loan! What a great day! Woo-hoo! This is my last loan (when I graduated I had 4 different loans because they changed the loan system half-way through my degree). I've had this loan from the start and it was by far the largest. It has taken me just over 6 years to pay everything off (although I've been graduated for longer than 6 years, I've only been paying the loans for that long). Husband has been most understanding about my loans. He entered the marriage with zero debt, and willingly took on my student loan debt (and believe me when I say it was a lot of debt!) without complaint. At times I felt bad that his pay was going towards MY loan, but he would always remind me that it was OUR debt now (and besides, with my pay it would take me 10 more years to pay it off). Well, now it's no body's debt! It's gone (unless the person I spoke to is incompetent and screwed something up)! What a great feeling to know that my student loans have been "paid in full"!

This beer company ROCKS!

Bet you never thought you would see that title for a post on this blog eh? Well, I have to tell you all...oops! I mean y'all about our trip to Sea World. I am sure most of you have seen the pictures on facebook, so I won't bore you with those. I am adding a couple of videos at the end of this blog because they are fun! Anyway. As the title states, there is one beer company that totally rocks! Thanks to Anheuser-Busch's Here's to the Heroes program, husband and I were able to go to Sea World for free! Not only did we get in for free thus saving the $60 (each) admission price, we received a coupon for 30% off our purchase at any of the "restaurants" in the park. Now anyone who has been to any sort of park like this knows that food prices are out of this world expensive (example: one slice of pizza with a side of fries: $7.50!). With the coupon we saved almost the price of an entire meal. What a wonderful program and what a great way to say thank you to all those who serve in the military! Thank you, Anheuser-Busch! You ROCK!








Sea World video #1: Watch the sea lion on the left. He kept slapping the water, waiting for fish. Now, whenever Husband wants something, he slaps his leg. He thinks he's funny...

Sea World video #2: The sea lions were slipping and sliding like crazy! Right before I took this video, about 10 sea lions slid into the water! So funny to watch!

The Cookie Jar

A couple Christmases ago (Is that how you pluralize "Christmas"?), Husband bought me a snowman cookie jar online. When it was delivered, Husband realized that the jar was broken. He thought he would be funny and wrap it up anyway (When he phoned the company, they said they couldn't send a replacement, and gave him a refund). Christmas morning found me opening up a broken present. To be honest, I thought it was pretty funny, but I pretended to be sad.

My wonderful present

Our own Humpty Dumpty

Over the next few days, Husband painstakingly tried to glue the pieces back together. He spent hours on it. Then, Christmas break was over and he had to go back to work. The cookie jar was put in a box, and Husband promised he would finish it.

Trying to glue it back together (I think he inhaled too many super glue fumes before this picture!)

Fast forward 18 months: We are in the process of clearing out some of the clutter in our apartment. Last night, I came across the cookie jar, still somewhat broken and still in the box (you may recall that we moved about 18 months ago. That means that we hauled a broken cookie jar clear across the country. You may be wondering why we didn't throw it out. Well, I wanted to toss it, but Husband insisted that he would and could put it back together!). I pulled the box out and showed Husband. He started laughing and said "I can still fix it, you know." I gave him "The Look" and said "We are throwing it out." But before I tossed it, I had to get a picture of Husband's hard work from 18 months ago! I think he gets an A for effort.

"I can still fix it, you know!"

I'm not known for my subtlety

The other day I was at the Mall and I decided to have my wedding rings cleaned. While I was waiting, I noticed signs all over the jewelery store advertising a promotion they were having. When I asked about it, the salesman handed me a few fliers to take with me. When I got home I decided to place the fliers around the house so Husband would find them and get the hint that it would make a good gift. I also plan on putting one in his lunch and one in his work bag this week. I guess only time will tell if he gets the hint.

On his laptop.

On his thinking chair.

In his underwear drawer.

Is that a bird nest in my dryer vent?

A few weeks ago, I noticed that the dryer was taking an extremely long time to dry clothes. After making sure everything was attached properly, I determined that something was blocking our outside vent. Because we live on the second floor of an apartment building, our dryer vent is about 7000 million feet above ground. I called maintenance to have them come and blow out our vent. One week and 3 phone calls later, they finally show up, blow air through the vent and out pops a HUGE bird nest! But instead of pulling the vent flap (or whatever that thing is called) back down, they left it open, and guess what! The birds came back and rebuilt that nest! We could see them flying in and out of the vent while we sat in our living room. I think they were taunting me: "We are building a nest and there is nothing you can do about it". Stupid birds! Once again, I placed a call to maintenance, because not only was the nest making it next to impossible for our clothes to get dry, it was also a fire hazard. And I knew if our apartment caught on fire, a bird nest would be the least of our problems. After numerous phone calls over the span of 10 days (and one threat about calling the fire department to take care of the nest!), maintenance FINALLY showed up to remove the nest. Instead of using the blower thingy, they used a very tall ladder and their hands to remove the nest...bare hands! No gloves! I don't even want to think about what type of rash that guy may develop. Birds are dirty creatures.

What's the point?

I hate pumping my own gas...hate, hate, HATE it! I will do everything possible to avoid it. Thankfully, my car can go about 420 miles (675 km) on a tank of gas (thank you Toyota for making such a fuel efficient car!), so I don't have to fill it very often. However, I have come up with a few clever ways to avoid pumping my own gas. My favourite trick is this: When Husband and I have to go somewhere and I know my car is low on gas, I will convince him to take my car. Once in the car and driving, I will casually look over to the gas gauge and exclaim in surprise "Oh, looks like we will have to stop for gas". I am sure he knows my little trick by now (I've done it enough times!), but he just sighs and heads for the gas station. After he pulls up to the pump I always look at him sweetly (while batting my eyelashes) and say "Would you like me to pump it?" He, of course, always says "No, I'll do it" and gets out and does it (If he ever answers "yes" to my question, I'll send him divorce papers!). Well, yesterday, I took Husband's car to run a couple of errands and I noticed that he was low on gas, so low that he would have to stop on his way to work (at 6am) to get gas in order to make it. I thought I would be a nice wife and get gas for him. Now that you all know how much I hate to pump gas, you can understand that it is a big deal for me to stop and do this for Husband. This is definitely going above and beyond my wifely duties, but he has been working long and hard hours and I wanted to let him know I appreciated all his hard work. So, I stop, fill his tank (in 100 degree heat) and then go home. Later that evening, we get in his car to go out, and I am sitting there, hoping that he will notice the gas gauge is on F. He doesn't notice. I was a bit disappointed, but I didn't say anything. The next morning (Sunday), he had to go to work. After he left, I waited about 20 minutes (I figured that was enough time for him to notice his tank was full! Have I ever mentioned I'm not very patient?), but he didn't call me, so I called him. I say "I left you a surprise in your car". He says "Where? I don't see anything." I tell him to look at the instrument panel, and finally, he says "Oh, you put gas in the car....thanks." That was it. No mention of how great I am, or how I am a wonderful wife and he is so happy/lucky he is married to someone who is willing to make sacrifices and to go above and beyond the expected wifely duties. That's the last time I do something nice for him! If I have to tell Husband when I do nice things and make huge sacrifices, what's the point in doing them?

Mystery seed update

It's been almost 2 months since I planted my mystery seeds. I guess it's safe to say that no marijuana plants appeared. In fact, hardly any plants appeared. After weeks of watering and sunning the pots, this is what grew: One pretty yellow flower and some green thing that looks like the start of a bush. I was excited about the flower and hoped more would grow, but it didn't happen. I should also mention that the flower died about a week after it bloomed. I shouldn't be too disappointed: At least the mystery seeds didn't land me in jail!