Anyone ever done this?

We fixed baked potatoes to go with dinner the other night. When I went into the kitchen to check on them, this is what I found:

It took me a minute to figure out what I was seeing. The skin popped off of the potato on the left and landed behind it in the oven!

This is the empty potato skin. HOW CRAZY IS THAT?!

Prayers

I just got laid off, and Mike is still out of work as well. Please keep us in your prayers as we try to figure out what to do next.

Roadkill

This is Chopper's typical pose while soaking up some sun. His fur is very thin, and heat escapes from his body, so he LOVES to be out in the yard. I always think he looks dead.

Is this comfortable?

One day we were watching a movie, and I looked over to find Harley sleeping like this. Just had to get a picture!

A Wonderful Celebration

A couple of weekends ago, we celebrated my grandfather's 80th birthday and my grandparent's 60th wedding anniversary. It was mainly family, and I think my aunt said we had close to eighty people! My cousin put together a wonderful slide show of photos of the Strealy clan through the years. It was great to see my extended family, most of whom I haven't seen in more than 10 years.

Here I am with my cousin Jeff and my great-aunt Charlene.

Anna-Grace

Jack napped for the first hour, I think.

Jack and Anna-Grace in Mimi's backyard.

Everybody loves to play in Mimi's front window.

One final walk with Gigi before heading home.

Stolen Pictures

I stole these pics from my sister-in-law's website. It's my brother on the Jumbotron at a Braves game.

This is GREAT!

So I was randomly looking at strangers' blogs (friends of friends of friends), and came across this "game." Try it!

Down in the Dumps

Today I'm having a "woe is me" day. Mike has been out of work since the end of April and our savings is just about gone. I'm finally in worry mode. I'm the positive thinker in the family, and I'm running out of ability to stay positive for the both of us. How can I keep encouraging him if I'm having doubts myself? I just want to cry. I'm starting to think about finding a 2nd job again myself. I had really hoped those days were behind me. Please keep us in your prayers.

Before the 100 Degree Weather...

This was our yard before the grass started dying. I don't know what happened, but the area right in front of the flower pot on the left is now dead. Also, the sun has moved so the front yard gets more light and you can see the caladiums that are growing in front of the bushes in our flower bed. I'll take another pic this weekend for comparison. But I love our little house. We're the only cute little gray house. The other color choices were all earthtones, so all the houses look the same. And the only other ones who picked gray also have a lot of gray brick, so they don't look nearly as good as ours! Our neighbor to the right towers over us, but we don't mind because they block the late afternoon sun!! This really helps with our energy efficiency. : )

FINALLY

This was taken when my dad was a DJ when I was a little girl.

This was my dad and I at Disneyland.

This was a picture at my brother's HS graduation party at church, 4 days before we lost him and 14 days before John's graduation.

Memories

Today marks 10 years since my father passed away. I've thought about him a lot lately, partly because I can't believe a decade has gone by and partly because I just got married without him. It's amazing how life just goes on. You don't see how it can at the time, but it does. Time doesn't make it easier to think about, but at least you know you will make it through. I miss him and wish he was here, but I know that my life would not be what it is if he were. I doubt that I would have ever moved to Dallas and met Mike if he were, so I can't say I wish it hadn't happened. But I still miss him.

I will add some pictures when I get home tonight. This time I mean it.

A Great Way To Share Good News

Thought I'd share this. My sister-in-law sent it out a couple of months ago. It always brings a smile to my face!

http://secure.smilebox.com/ecom/openTheBox?sendevent=4d6a597a4e5449794f48777a4e6a55334d6a45320d0a&sb=1


Hopefully tonight I'll get some new pictures uploaded and show you all how our house is looking!

Until next year...

So I'm proud to say I mailed our taxes out on April 12th, thank you very much. He had absolutely nothing to worry about. And, we're getting a pretty big refund. That will be nice because I think Mike may have quit his job today. : (

He's been unhappy for a while now. He was hired in September as the shop manager for a lawn mower repair shop. But except for the first month, he has never really been allowed to manage. (I think he did it then just because the owner didn't want to be a man and fire some people so he made Mike do it.) In fact, the owner constantly questions anything Mike's working on. We're beginning to wonder why he was hired in the first place. Each day he comes home more and more frustrated and stressed out. I can't blame him for wanting to leave, but I don't know what we'll do until he finds something else. I'm praying he'll get to work and choose to stick it out until something comes up. I won't know until I get home tonight.

Keep us in your prayers.

Taxes, anyone?

Am I the only one who hasn't gotten around to doing their taxes yet?

Mike is really on my case to get this done. I keep telling him not to worry--I WILL have them out the door by the 15th. But when you're working 11-12 hour days, then still driving 45 minutes home, cooking dinner, giving the dogs attention, etc, it's hard to remember to find what I need to finish them up!!!

I usually don't wait this long, but with moving and getting married, I haven't kept up with my Avon expenses like I should have. I've got 7 days, what's the hurry? : )

(I'm just full of excuses, aren't I?)

This one's for you, Cara...

This was attached to a news article online this morning. I thought it was BEAUTIFUL!! I only wish I had taken it myself!! I love the springtime. I hope that we'll be able to go for drives this year to look at all the wonderful wildflowers.

(By the way, this is a bluebonnet photographed from above...)

Per your request...

Here are my boys: Michael, Harley, and Chopper.

Aren't they so cute when they are sleeping?

This is Chopper's favorite spot. We like to call him Parrot.

This is Harley's favorite position. Considering we never feed him when he does this, you'd think he'd eventually stop trying...

This is what they do when it smells REALLY good (like the can of tuna Mike's eating). Harley will start whining like he's starved to death.

And this is the madness at my mother-in-law's house when we visit. She has four, so there's six altogether. We tried to take them to the lake once. What a spectacle!

AND NOW FOR THE MOMENT YOU'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR...

...the much anticipated wedding photos. The photographers gave us 2 discs with everything on them. It's close to 900 pictures, so here are just a few.

I'm not really holding my boobs...

This is me with my stepfather, Ken.

Follow-up

So here was the snow at it's heaviest. Also, this is as far as the pups would go into the yard. And the last pic, you can barely tell, is the surprise Harley found in the kitchen on the coldest night. This was taken AFTER it was disposed of and moved out of the reach of curious doggies.

And Snow Again!

Today, it hit again! The flakes just keep getting bigger and bigger. An hour ago, it was maybe an inch in diameter, but now I bet it's 2 inches! I've tried to take pictures--that big blob on my glove is one flake. As I stood there waiting for one to land on my hand, it was landing all over the rest of me. It's like little snowballs falling. I wish I could get the pups out there so you could really see, but they won't. I'll keep trying. It looks like ashes from a brush fire. Stay warm!!

Snow!

So this is what it looked like the next morning!! I don't remember the last time I saw this much snow. It got back up into the 50s that same afternoon and yesterday!