Where did Spring Go?

It's one of those days that you do the dishes just so you can keep your hands under cold water. 

In other words, it's hot. Notably, not as hot as Mississippi and Alabama summer days can be but still hot. To save energy, we haven't turned on the A/C.  My husband isn't so happy about that. I'm used to suffering a bit in hot weather (my parents wouldn't turn on the A/C after either right before bed or if one of them just couldn't stand sweating anymore); however, he has grown in a much more comfortable home, where it's at least a bit cooler inside than outside.

Anyways, on a brighter note, his Paw-Paw gave us a little food money, and we used that to buy a little over two pounds of shrimp (about $14). We made four meals off those little buggers. Mmm. We grill shrimp skewers, made shrimp and grits, and boiled some for a low-country boil with sweet corn and potatoes (we made two meals out of one pot dinner). All in all, I think it was a good use of our money and made us feel a little special for a few days.

Well I guess it's off to a college softball game ($2 Tuesdays!). My husband gets in free since he's a student but we have to pay for me. Hopefully this evening will cool off. 

Adios. 

EDIT: Well that turned out better than planned.

First, some lady gave me a free ticket. Don't know why, but I'll take that any day of the week. =D

Sadly, my Alma mater didn't win but my husband's did. Funny situation, eh? Since it was a midweek game, we just sat where we wanted which were pretty good seats with no one sitting right beside us (I don't like being packed in).

Then after the game, we used his ability to get a to-go-box from one of the cafeterias to get me food. The best part though was getting free shakes from Arby's from receipts with survey codes.

Too bad the cool of the night didn't seep into our house while we were gone. So the A/C is on for a little while so that it will be cool enough we can at least sleep.

All in all, a good day. Sometimes that's all you can hope for.

Dark Clouds and Wind

The wind's picking up as the rough weather moves closer. Dark clouds loom, easily seen out my back door. 

Afraid? Not really. We have both the front and back doors open to allow air flow. I reckon you could call it our version of a redneck A/C, lol. We don't turn the air on until close to bedtime to reduce our energy usage.

Turning the heater off all the way was more troublesome since we feared the pipes freezing and busting (back in Jan. the water heater busted and that was more of a mess than I ever want to deal with again). We're also enjoying not having to bundle up just to stay warm. However, we're both extremely hot-natured, so it's a little bit of a struggle to not turn the A/C on (especially for my husband; he does not like being hot). 

Well, we did have both doors open. My husband just put the glass back over the screen on the back screen door. Since the rain will be here soon, he didn't want our kitchen to get wet before we noticed.

The front door is still allowing for a good breeze though. Plan to sit on the porch for a little while with my Jamie Oliver cookbook after I finish here. The rain will definitely end my peaceful afternoon. 

Hopefully the bad weather will pass us by. 

New to this, but here I go anyway.

Hi. So this would be my first blogging attempt (officially, but I have used sites like deviantART and even Xanga at one point). Didn't really realize Xanga was a "blogging community" myself. Oh well, those days are long gone anyway. Ya'll are probably curious about the photo above. It's a photo I took about a year a half ago when I was in one of my favorite college classes, Development Biology. It's a chicken embryo. That black spot is where the eye would have formed. To think, a human embryo looks pretty much identical. 

Anyways, I felt the image would be a fun way to introduce my newbie status. I'm here for a few reasons:

1) I get bored while my husband is off at school finishing up his engineering degree. (And no, not a technical homemaker. I have a B.S. in Biology and am looking at career options in this horrible economy.)

2)  It's nice to share at times, struggles and joys, with someone besides the husband. Besides, rants are much easier online, lol.

3) It seems like a fun way to document my life so I can look back on it in the future. I have a terrible memory. Somethings I'll never forget, but I seem to forget the things I want to remember. 

I'm 22 and a newlywed. Been married, oh, four months in five days. All the older married women are laughing. "You'll figure out it's not all it's cracked upped to be, deary." They're right. Older women usually are right (older men will tell you that, especially if the wife is around, haha). But my husband and I haven't any problems so far, no relationship problems anyway. That may have something to do with the fact we're almost twins. Our personalities are very similar. We don't care for lavish things, constant outings on the town,  or shopping. Actually, I think he could easily out-shop me if he wanted. Very rarely will you get me to walk around a mall for clothes. My own mother bribed my sister and I to shop with her by offering town-food (usually mall Chinese, sister's fave, or something like Applebee's). I consider the activity more exercise than fun; besides, if you don't have money to buy anything, how can it be fun? 

Oh how I wish I could go on those outings with my mama again with her paying for the clothes. At least then, I could get something when I went to town. Now, I leave on the bare minimum, and I mean bare. I guess I should do a quick recap of the last few months to get ya'll up to speed.

Dec: 

Got married. Parents so happy they don't have to shell out dollars anymore. I'd say the amount spent was closer to $2,000, so not bad in terms of a wedding. It was very small, mostly because my family is crazy (no, really, NUTS, but I won't get into that unless some of the crazier individual return into my life), simple, outdoors. Really, it reflected our relationship. We're just not "go big or go home" type people. We also went on a slightly pricey honeymoon (under $1,000) because we wanted something nice before we entered real life. (Good thing too, real life can be quite mean.)

Jan:

Now we've moved to his rental house. And, real life begins. First we got the main bills out of the way. We used loan money to pay off all the rent for five months (he knows the landlord, so he got a deal with no lease agreement). Tuition and his on-campus meal-plan are paid. He also had a grant so that helped. Then, he paid for books. If you hadn't realized before now, we didn't have much in the bank before this (a few hundred dollars before he got his loan money and grant money).  So, we started out the year with under $2,000 to pay the bills and for food for five months. I'm estimating because we were using his account, and I don't remember what we started with.

(Note: This does include my money. I wouldn't let us touch my stashes until we really, really needed them.)

Feb-March:

Life goes about. He does school work, goes to meetings, interviews for jobs. I feel terrible I don't have a job to help pay bills. Nothing is available in my field for such a short time (we would only be in town for a few months). There were a few waitress and minimum wage jobs open; however, I'm a little clumsy for waitressing (I trip on flat surfaces) and did not have a car to drive to any jobs that weren't within walking distance. It was cheaper to leave my car at his parent's so that I could go visit my parent's if I wanted, who were only an hour's drive away. Plus, I felt it was safer since my parents' are still paying the insurance; I didn't want to get into an accident far away. On the other hand, I don't spend money either. As I've said before, I don't like to shop, eating out is something I've always considered a treat, and I don't need my husband showering me with gifts (though his card and one bar of chocolate for V-day was wonderful). 

April:

Finally, back to the month at hand. My husband is still looking for employment (fingers crossed for the one he just applied for), but I learned I should have a job in late May. It's nothing permanent, just contract work, but I'm happy for the opportunity. The job will be almost identical to my college thesis project so it should be relatively easy but time consuming. Hopefully, whatever it pays (still no clue) will be enough to tide us over until my husband gets employment. 

You take your blessings where you can get them. Well, I feel I have chatted long enough.

See ya'll.