Jason and Keys don't mix

After 4 years of being married to a man with the short memory that rivals Dori from Finding Nemo, this stuff shouldn't phase me...but it does.

Last night I transferred all of my work stuff from the car to the truck (so that I could tranport that new changing table of mine home). I carefully made sure that I had everythign I needed for the next days work so that I could have an organized, relaxed morning. I placed my planner, files, cell phone, games, activities, wallet and jacket in the truck and then asked Jason to lock it all up because he had the keys and there's confidential stuff that needs to be locked up. He did so and when he came in the house I asked him to leave me the key to the truck. And he said sure. Do you see where this is going?....

Jason left at 6:30 am in order to be at school by 7. But me, I didn't have to be anywhere until 9am so I slept in a little because I pulled a 12 hour day the day before and gosh darnit, I'm worth it! Once dressed and ready I planned to eat a leisurely breakfast, do some devotions and then head off. I decided to double check my planner (because I'm always paranoid that I'm forgetting something and the morning seemed to be going just too darn smoothly!) That's when I realized it. No key on the table, no key on the key hanger, nope, no key anywhere! Sure I have tons of friends I could have called and borrowed their cars to get to work, but there's not a lot of work I can do without ANY of my stuff!!!! Oh I was freakin' out and pretty darn mad!My apologies to the receptionists at Bangor Highschool. They probably think that Jason's wife or close relative suffered a large medical emergency because the call went a little something like this:

ME: Yes Hello!? Yes, I REALLY need to get a hold of my husband, it's VERY important and he's not answering his phone! Can you page him to the office or find him or something!?

RECEPTIONIST: Umm, sure. What is his name?

ME: Oh, right, Jason York.

RECEPTIONIST: I'll try to get him up here, who is this?

ME: Oh, right, this is his wife. PLEASE have him call me at home immediately!

Jason called. He said the moment he heard that he needed to call his wife at home he was like, "What could that be abou...OH CRAP! I took the truck key AND I'VE NEVER EVER REMEMBERED TO GO GET A COPY MADE!" (Okay so maybe I added that last part but it's totally true.)

I will hand it to him. He was very apologetic and rushed right home to give me the key. And I have to hand it to myself. I took that 25 minutes that it took him to get home and told myself, "There's nothing you can do about this, so you may as well not stress. Just keep busy and he'll be here soon enough." Then I proceeded to make the bed, wash the dishes and have breakfast. And I didn't even chew Jason out when he got home!!! I told him I knew he didn't do it on purpose and I wasn't mad at him. So I guess I should give myself a little credit ;) I have made progress in the 4 years of marriage!

You'll never guess what just happened (I'm not making this up). My husband, bless his forgetful little heart, just walked in the door and said, "Guess where the car is? It's at Hanniford because I locked my keys in it." And that, my friends, is Jason and keys.

Expecting a Baby?

NOPE! (Ha! I knew that title would reel you in!) But if you visited the oil room in my basement, you might think so. You see, I'm quite the bargain hunter. I love getting things really cheap. The only thing I love more that that is getting things for free!

It all started about a year ago when I saw a (Kelty brand) baby hiking carrier for super duper cheap! (They retail for 100 big ones or more!) I thought to myself, whenever we do have a baby I know we'll be hiking with it and we'll need a pack like this. Who knows if there will be a deal this awesome when that time comes! I just have to snatch it up! I was unsure of how Jason would react to the proposed purchase, not wanting him to think the baby pressure was comin' on. Suprisingly he concurred with my frugel reasoning and agreed. And thus it began...

Since then I've racked up a baby bathtub, a baby bjorn carrier, some toys and a few clothing items (at no cost to me whatsoever!). "Having a baby is a major financial endeavor!" I proclaim in my head each time I'm tempted...."The more I can get now, the less we will have to spend when the time actually comes! How freeing it will be to already have stored up so much!" It seems so justified when I put it this way!

Well folks, it may be getting out of hand. It's true. I can hardly resist any baby related item that's discounted by even 5 dollars! I almost bought a crib the other day at Marden's for 75 bucks. I'm tellin' ya...it was a NICE crib and if I had had $75 dollars to my name at the time you can betcha it would've been in my trunk and headed to my house in 2.2! And today I added a solid maple changing table and a diaper bag (Eddie Bauer diaper bag no less) to my growing collection. They were free! How could I say no!?

Bustin' a Move

I am sorry to inform you that we did not go a dancin' this last Wednesday. Jason and I are both feeling under the weather and needed to rest so that we can get better, still go to our jobs and make money. Okay fine, perhaps we are also turning into a bit of old fogies. Because heaven forbid we be out bustin' a move until the wee hours of 9 o'clock pm! Then we wouldn't get home until 9:30 and surely wouldn't be in bed until 10:00, oh my!

But let me update you on last week. We continue to excel in our dancing. There are no longer two groups. There are three and we are in a group all by ourselves! (I guess that's not really a group then.) But I'm actually serious about this. The last session went like this: The instructor put us in a corner and we danced there by ourselves unless one of two things happened 1)She came over to teach us a new move, or 2)She came over to ask us to demonstrate steps for another couple so that they could advance to the next step (which is SO like...at least 2 steps behind where we are).

So the illness and break from dancing for a week will be good for all. It will give others a chance to catch up and make us not so bored at the sessions. I guess the one downfall is that there will be no one to demonstrate :)

Here is a list of the skills that we now know: a ladies underarm turn, a return (which we can do like a gazillion in a row of) and and an around the waist. In the waltz we know how to do the basic box, how to turn in the box, and how to do a hesitation. It's beautiful, we float around like butterflies (that occasionally step on each other's toes). It's quite fun and, besides the times that Jason has to take a break because he's getting motion sickness, we have a blast!

And lastly, the instructor told Jason that if she ever teaches a salsa or cha-cha dancing lesson he should come. (Now, I'm assuming she meant that he should come WITH me, but that was most definitely not verbalized.) I'll gave her the benefit of the doubt and chalked it up to a compliment not a come on. But then he explained that he didn't think he'd be good at that because of the whole thing where he can't move his lower body independently of his upper body and it looks as if his hips are fused in place. And she told him that he should come to one of her belly dancing classes! HA! Can you picture that! Wow, cracks my right up! Not that Jason would ever do that, but she better back off! ;)

I'm sorry that I do not have a picture of us dancing. I don't think that I'm brave enough to take a camera to class but perhaps we will cut a rug at home and have one of our friends snap one for y'all.

Columbus Day Weekend

We decided to take a little getaway because we both had a long weekend and it felt like forever since we'd spent any quality time together. We found a cheap little cabin in Rockwood, right on Moosehead Lake that allowed dogs and we were off to relax and do a little leaf peeping.

Well, it turns out that the cabin was cheap because it ended up being right on Rt. 15, BUT it WAS adorable, right on the water and had a gorgeous view of Mt. Kineo! It was also quite fun to watch the float planes swoop down around Mt. Kineo to give tourists a good view on their sight seeing rides.

The cabin also had cable TV. And anyone who knows me, knows I LOVE cable TV and since we don't have it at home (for the simple reason that I have no self restraint and would certainly sit in front of it all day long in a semi-comatose state) it is always a treat that I enjoy indulging in whenever we go somewhere that has it. And indulge I did. As it turns out there was an all day marathon on A&E of Designed to Sell and Flip This House. It was raining outside so I felt completely justified in sitting my little hiney in front of that TV from 1:00pm until AT LEAST 5:30pm, only getting up to go to the bathroom or get some more Mt. Dew. (Another guiltly pleasure that I feel free to drink unlimited amounts of when I go away on camping trips or vacations.) It was wonderful! (Above: The little couch my hiney sat on for 4 1/2 hours straight)

The next morning we rode into Greenville to have breakfast with our friends Sam and Tara and the cutest little diner around, Auntie M's. Jason and I were going hiking later and carbs don't agree with my stomach so I just had eggs and meat...getting in the protein. But I convinced Tara to get the Pumpkin French Toast because that's what I would have ordered had I not been going hiking. Sorry Tara! (Note to Reader: Reasons you should never get the pumkin french toast at Auntie M's diner: #1 They give you like 2 ittie bittie pieces of bread. #2 It really does not taste like pumpkin. And most importantly #3 They do not serve it sprinkled with powdered sugar.) Other than that it was a lovely breakfast and you'll be happy to hear that Tara's morning was salvaged when Jason told her that there was hazlenut capuccino on the menu and she ordered that with a heaping topping of whip cream.

Also at this meal, we discussed which trail to hike that day. It came down to Big Moose Mt. or Little Moose Mt. We did not want to take our whole day up with hiking so we were leaning toward Little Moose but weren't sure there was going to be a view from the top. But alas, our handy friend Sam, who is a forest ranger up that way, assured us that there was a view from Little Moose Mt. and so off we went.

Note to Reader: There IS NO view from Little Moose Mt. (Above: Pretty little slate steps at the beginning of the trail and Jason and Sarah in happier times, prior to aforementioned discovery.) Perhaps one handy little forest ranger, who shall remain nameless, should re-familliarize himself with Little Moose Mt. We hiked... and hiked... and hiked. We went up and down numerous little mountains and around one big old pond until we reached the peak of Little Moose, but alas, there was no view....only very tall trees. Perhaps it is just over that next peak we reasoned and hiked on....nope. Maybe it's just the next one and we trudged along....uh huh. We finally decided there was no view.

I was exasperated. I stomped my foot, planted myself in the middle of the trail and announced, "I am NOT hiking back on this ridiculously long, no end-reward, poopy view trail!"

"Where are you going to go then?" Jason asked.

"Right down the side of this mountain, to that pond I can see and then along the edge of the pond wich should bring us back to the trail." I declared with a huff. (I think I expected him to treat me like the tantruming little child that I was being and reasonably tell me that we could not do that.)

But instead he said, "I'm game. Let's go!"

And so we did. We bushwacked it right down the side of Little Moose and down to the pond. But when we got to the banks of the pond that we wanted to walk around we sank into quicksand like mud up to our knees and that mud almost stole my hiking shoe! So we back tracked to the woods and followed what seemed to be a nicely beaten down game trail until we saw huge footprints that Jason said was either bear or moose. Visions of accidentally startling a blackbear danced through my head and I made him stop as I thoroughly investigated the print. It was a Moose, a big one so we kept going. Then the game trail became too muddy so we veered away from that which left me being hit in the face with branches every two seconds adn finally, I got freaked out that we would get lost because we couldn't see the pond anymore. I kept having to ask Jason to wait for me. (I think he might have been TRYING to lose me in the woods at that point. But his concience got the best of him and he ended up waiting for me.) He brought us back to the water's edge which was now a little less muddy and, well, you all know we got out safely because I wouldn't be writing this if I had died in the quicksand in the woods being eaten by a bear!

This picture, I very much did NOT take. As you can see, this picture is of the sun rising behind the beautiful misty river. I am not usually awake for sunrises. My guess is that this picture is of Tuesday's sunrise. You see, I went home on Monday afternoon and spent some time that evening hanging out with my friends Tara and Steph while my hubby stayed until Tuesday (because he didn't have to be back to work until Wednesday) to fish with his friend Kevin. I don't really do fishing in the fall unless it's really warm. Otherwise, it's really cold to stand in that water adn my hands go numb after about 15 minutes. But as you can see, my man is tough and he cought fish! A little time together, a little veggin', a little hikin', a little girl time, and a little guy time. It was grand!

This picture is for my mom! (And by the way Noelle, maybe you don't care about Greenville, but this is all your gettin' until you put another post on your blog. Maybe then I'll tell you about the amazingness that was our second dancing class! :)

Move Over Fred Astaire!

Wednesday night Jason met me at the highschool where our dancing lessons are taking place with a contorted face that looked like a cross between a deer caught in the headlights and a person getting ready to go for a root canal. It was kind of pitiful....I felt a little bad...I actually thought about telling him we didn't have to do it...naaaahhhh! This opportunity would surely never arise again. He was here, and...er...willing. Carpe Diem baby!

You could tell that nervousness was growing in him as each second passed and he watched the previous class finish up. But alas, and amazing thing happened...you might even say wondrous! The lesson got under way and the instructor began with teaching the guys only. As she went through the basic swing step of slow-slow-backstep-slow-slow-backstep, a clear frontrunner emerged out of the 5 fumbling, waddling, rocking men.....and it was MY husband! Sure he was stiffer than a 6 foot pine board and he is incababple of moving his lower body independently of his upper body, but he was keeping up with the instructor, stepping with the correct feet and able to increase in speed as she did while the other men essential fell all over thesmeselves.

When the women joined the mix, I was the clear frontrunner as well. (It must be due to that tap and ballet I took in the third grade and always quit before the final show.) I'll admit, there is a spunky, curly haired woman that's not bad herself and nippin' at my heals to take over as best female dancer of the adult ed beginners class. I'll have to do some serious practice this week to fend her off, but if I do, I'm confident I can stay one step ahead of her! (Pun intended! And if you haven't noticed yet...I'm a competative person. I have a clear need to be the best at everything I do and WILL find a way to turn pretty much anything into a competition inside my own twisted little mind.)

And when we finally got to dance together! WATCH OUT GINGER ROGERS AND FRED ASTAIRE! Here we come! Sure it takes Jason 5 minutes to find the beat in the song and he has to concentrate so hard to keep it that he looks like he's constipated all the time...but I wait for him to lead....and bi-golly when he finally puts that left foot forward we're off and runnin'!

The teacher saw that she clearly had some stand outs and had to move the class into two groups. (She told the slow group not to feel bad and that everybody moves at their own pace, but we all know that she's just being nice!) It was us and this other couple (the one with the cute lady that's threatening my dancing status) that got put in the advanced group. (The teacher did not call it the advanced group, but I do.) She taught us women how to do a spin and the guys how to send us out. And then she taught us a return! And then we did a double return! And then Jason spun at the same time that I did when we were doing the return (which was a clear result of utter confusion and had nothing to do with trying new moves or attempting to spice it up) But apparently it turned out to be a really advanced move and she told him to slow down, because he was like 4 steps ahead of her! Oh! Music to my ears! The instructor even used Jason as an example (the good kind) once and she used me as an example MULTIPLE times! Yeah, the other people in the class may end up hating us and dropping out because of sheer frusration, but it sure is boosting my self-esteem up like 1,000 notches! And we still have 6 more weeks! My head will be so big I'll be floating like a hot air balloon!

But in all seriousness. It went really well. Jason said he had a much better time that he ever expected and was quite pleased with how well he did. We went into it expecting to be the worst and being fine with that and were pleasently suprised by how good we were. Jason and I were laughing and smiling and hugging through the whole thing. It gave me lots of opportunities to tell him how good he was doing and how proud of him I was and we left feeling more connected than I think we have in a while...plus it's great excercize and a super stress reliever! We had a blast. Y'all should try it!

Minor Detail...

Umm yeah, I forgot to let you all in on a minor detail....I'm not looking for other employment anymore....right now. Why? Because the situation at work has resolved itself, quite abrupltly and unexpectedly. I know, I know I sound so secretive! But I'm just trying to protect the innocent and not be gossipy. If you know me well, you probably know what I'm talking about. If you don't know then you can ask me and I'll fill ya in. But needless to say...YAY!

That's all for now...I'm bordering on being late for Ugly Betty! Yikes!

Stay tuned for details about how the dancin' went last night. I have a feeling I'll have a blog for you after EVERY Wednesday night! :)

Braggin' Rights

Yup, I'm gonna take some time to brag right now. Not about me...but about my husband.

A few weeks ago he asked me what the odds were that I could be in Bangor every Wednesday night by 7:30pm. I told him I could do my best to schedule sessions around that and inquired as to why. "Because," he said, "there is a ballroom dancing class at that time every wednesday and I wanted to know if you wanted to go with me to it." I'm pretty sure my jaw hit the floor and then my legs gave way and I fainted. It's all a blur.

You see, I've wanted to take dancing lessons with Jason from the time were were engaged, which is almost 5 years ago now, but I haven't mentioned in the last few years because he has always FLAT out refused. Now, don't hold it against him. He legitimately HATES dancing. He has no rythm... and I'm not just saying that. This is the man who cannot sing and clap at the same time. (So if you ever see him not clapping along to a worship song in church, it's not because he's not enthusiastic, it's because he'd rather sing the words and he physically cannot do both.) So now you get a small glimpse of what a huge deal this was for him to take the initiative and offer for us to go. My heart melted! How sweet!

So that settles it. I jumped at the chance and, starting this wednesday, we will be learning the basics of swing and waltz.

PS: Before you go writing him down in your book of saints, let me fill you in on this last little tid bit of info. He sheepishly admitted later, that his offer was in response to my going flyfishing with him and my new committment to do so several times a season :) But I'm sure not complaining! A little give and take, a little compromise, that's what marriage is all about!

The Smell of Sweet Success...

...smells something like apple jelly. Okay, so it did take two attempts to successfuly can my hommade apple jelly. And I did end up having to unseal and recan all 20 jars. And it did cause a fight that threatened the very fiber of my marriage...but I did it none the less!

Let me explain....First, I want you to know that I followed the recipe TO a T and that there is no reason, other than error on the reciper writers part, that anything should have gone wrong. I made 20....count them 20....jars of apple jelly. I also successfully sealed them all on the first go round! 'Canning shmanning! There's nothin' to it! Couldn't be simpler!' I gloated to myself as stood back to admire my handy work. After all, it had only taken all afternoon, dirtied every dish in my house, steamed up my windows and used enough water for a small country and enough sugar to keep every toddler in the world awake for an entire week. I kicked back to relax, but as the concoction inside the jars cooled, it seemed as if something was amiss. You see, it did not look like jelly. It looked more like applesauce colored liquid. It just needs more time. I tried to convince myself. HA! Wishful thinking! By the next morning when the "jelly" still sloshed around like juice, I could no longer deny the inevitable conclusion...the "jelly" was NOT going to gel!

Breathing deeply, trying to remain optomisitc and not get violent with the "jelly", I thought, I'll just have to redo it. But when I learned that you cannot reuse to lids and I would have to go buy more, that was the last straw. Believe you me, domestic, softspoken, patient little suzie hommaker is the LAST thing I felt like as visions of smashing those 20 jars to smitherines danced through my head.

Enter Jason....oh, poor, sweet, unsuspecting Jason. He innocently walks in. I explain what happened and the conversation went a little like this:

Jason: Ya know what I'm thinking?

Sarah (thinking to herself sarcastically): No, no I do not. Please enlighten me.

Jason: It would have been a good idea to try it in one jar before you did all of these. (And of course I heard, "You stupid idiot, why didn't try it out just using one jar since you're obviously incapable of making something that turns out right.")

Sarah (defending a non-attacking comment as well as defending why I did not take this very common sense precaution): I can't even believe that's the first think you said to me! Can't you see how upset I am about this! There was no reason for me to do that! I followed the recipe to a T! I know how to follow a recipe! It should have turned out right! I hate canning! That recipe is stupid! I'm going to throw them all away and never do this again!

Later that day....with some coaxing from Jason and my mother as well as some cool down time and a few apologies to my hubby, I regained my suzie homemaker composure and gave it another whirl. Jason helped by unsealing all the jars and washing them, while I got to fixing the jelly. It only needed a little more fruit pectin and a little more boiling. Then I resterilized them, resealed them and I'm happy to anounce that, after cooling, they are very jelly like!

A lot of blood, sweat and tears went into these jars. (Okay, no blood, but the sweat and tears are for real.) So if you get one of these babies for Christmas, know that you must be a VERY important person, and be warned that you better love every last bit of it!