Randomishness

Check it out, man. It’s a picture of a laptop…with a picture of a laptop on it.  That’s groooovy, man.

2012 seems to be the year of change for us.  With our tax refund, we had our house levelled (as in set level on the foundation,  not torn down), got guttering, and I got a laptop because my computer went on the fritz. (These were all things we’ve been needing/wanting to do for years.)  It was happy timing for my old computer to die because we got our refund the next week!  So now I can blog on the road…if I ever travel.  And I do have plans for a girl trip with my sisters this summer, so maybe my computer will get to take a ride.  I already traveled with it to Abilene over last Sunday to share pictures on it with Den’s family.  That was so cool.  Especially the part where I carried it in a paper bag with a handle.  Who needs a laptop bag?  Not this redneck chick!

Painting trim before the guttering.

We also painted our trim for the first time since we’ve lived here (nine years!) but now the house itself is looking ready for painting again too so that will be on our “to do list” this summer.  A friend of ours, the same one that helped us with our broken pipe in the basement (Joe rocks our socks!) is going to help us re-plane our yard with a back hoe because right now, all the water collects in a pool in the middle, which doesn’t  help with our basement leakage problem.  They’re going to make it so the water drains off instead of pooling and running toward our house.  So happy about that!  Right now I only have before pictures but will share both before and after when we are done with both projects.

Also in the works is Dennis losing his current job and gaining a new one.  This is his last week with Convergys since United Healthcare is pulling out to open their own customer service department, and it is bittersweet because he loved his job there and loved his team (so did I! They always gave me honest feedback on my baked goods.), but he’s also looking forward to something new.  He went to the job information session for the 911 emergency call-taker job I mentioned, then they had him come to a 4-hour observation where he could see the call-takers and dispatchers in action.  He made a good impression because he asked lots of good questions, and they scheduled an interview for tomorrow morning.  He’s getting closer and closer!  Just a lot of hoops to jump through before he gets the job.  If he passes the interview, there’s still a three hour psychological evaluation.  This job is stressful and can cause post-traumatic stress disorder, so they want to make sure you can handle it.  But Den’s got this.  The man was made for this job.

We had a grand old time with Dennis’ family on Easter, basically just ate and chatted but of course did our Easter basket hunt as well.  Here are some photos, and a video of Lance and Carson (our nephews) pulling up after taking a ride around the property in Lance’s work car so they could cover more ground faster in search of their baskets.  Gave us all a good laugh! :)

As you can see, they have a large property, so perhaps you can sympathize with our nephews for taking drastic action to cover more ground:

Cracks me up!

Joan, my sister-in-law, found her basket first!

The yard goes on and on!

The Easter bunny had to hop really high to leave Richard’s basket in a tree!

Joan’s husband, my brother-in-law.  AKA Richard.

Here’s a short video of my mother-in-law, Phyllis, finding her basket since I didn’t get a picture of it:

The nephews, Lance (sitting) and Carson, going through their baskets.

My luck was not as good.  Dennis had to give me “hot and cold” signals to point the way.

I spy with my little eye, something pastel!

Score!

Check out what I found in my basket! Some bunny loves me and knows me too well!

Dog lover’s pasta in the shape of paws and bones! Could I love this any more? I don’t think so!  I’m so going to make this into pasta salad for Jessie’s 8th birthday party in June.

Before Lance took off, we admired his new hard-core Harley.

I’m not sure how widespread this tradition is, but apparently the bikers ’round these parts have a custom that someone has to buy you a bell for your motorcycle to “ward off evil road spirits” (it can’t be bought by the biker or it won’t work).  Joan picked the praying hands for him because she said that’s what she’s going to be doing a lot of!

And for the grand finale, I give you Lance’s studly exit by motorcycle:

For those of you who are still reeling over how messy my desk is in the first photo (I’m not going to lie, it’s this messy 90% of the time), just remember…