For All Intents and Purposes

I would like to take this moment to announce to the world that, for all intents and purposes*, I am hereby DONE with my Master's degree!!!

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!

*This equals three paragraph-long discussion board posts. I have to wait for the other person in the class to post to them (not due until later this month and a couple times in March, respectively).

It still isn't quite sinking in (feels like I'll be starting another class in April or something). But co-workers have given me chocolate to celebrate, and husband sent me early-Valentine's roses at work, so I am sufficiently giddy. Here's to more sleep, a cleaner, more organized home, and more frequent blog-posting to come!!!

Apologizing for this Interruption in Service

I am currently on a roll with my schoolwork and tasting the I-could-be-done-next-week-as-opposed-to-next-month sweetness. Blog's going on hold until I can celebrate with you all. But I'm still here, and can promise exciting blog posts in the near future about such things as...

1. Husband's '69 Mustang project (I'm having him write the post - what the blazes do I know about cars, anyway??)
2. My crazy cat that treats me like a jungle gym whenever I do yoga.
3. My hatred of snow (well, I might not bore you with this one, but I could write a week's worth of blogs about it in my head)

I know, you can hardly stand the wait. Do your best to go on with your life until I post again. Eat. Sleep. Breathe in. Breathe out. Don't sue me.

You, Too, Can Break the Shackles of Indecisiveness

You may have seen in my 25 Random Things post how husband and I alternate date nights. I wanted to elaborate on this practice, since it really is the bee's knees. I don't know how many of you are indecisive out there (well, there might not be many of you that read this to begin with), but speaking from five years of time-wasting, I can tell you there's a whole world that you're missing.

How Friday and Saturday Nights USED to Go:
"What do you want to do?"
"I dunno, what do you want to do?"
"I don't really have a preference; I'm fine with whatever you want to do."
"Do you want to watch a movie?"
"Well, do YOU want to watch a movie?"
"I don't know."
"Me neither."
. . .
"But you probably do want to watch a movie, since you brought it up, right?"
"I didn't say that, I only thought you might want to watch a movie."

And on, and on, and on. We would waste at least an hour most nights, and sometimes wouldn't end up doing ANYTHING.

Then my co-worker told me about how he and his wife alternate Friday date nights. The thing is, he told me this a few years ago. I loved the idea instantaneously, and husband agreed it was wise. Hehehe. We only got around to trying it out a few months ago. Anyway, now it has changed everything for the better. I can't recommend it enough.

Here are a couple examples of what husband has gotten me to do on his Friday nights:
1. Work on our budget. Yeah, not your normal idea for a date night, but I had no choice, and he knew I'd whine otherwise. I still whined a bit.
2. Go to Sears to pick up a battery charger (are you seeing a pattern in all this practicality?). I promise that's not all husband chooses to do on Friday nights - we watch action flicks, go out to eat where he wants, etc.

Now for what I've gotten him to do on my Friday nights:
1. Watch Pride and Prejudice with me. The A&E 6-hour Pride and Prejudice. (Okay, not all six hours in the one Friday night, but we eventually watched the whole thing. And he didn't hate [all] of it!)
2. Clip our cats' claws (okay, sometimes I can be practical with my Friday night selections, as well. It had to be done, people. Buttercup is expert at honing perfect daggers out of her claws, and she loves demonstrating their sharpness, believe you me).

I don't want to bore you with all the other stuff we do - the key is that we DO stuff. It's lovely. I've heard that one of my aunt-and-uncle pairs trades off entire weeks of decision-making. That sounds a little intimidating, but I'm thinking of expanding our Fridays to include Saturdays and/or the entire weekend.

If you haven't tried this, I hereby challenge you to do so this weekend (don't put it off forever like we did!). Call or text your spouse right now and pick whose Friday this will be (toss a coin if this could otherwise start some sort of tiff). Then mark your calendar for the next few months of which Friday is whose. Then come back and tell me what you thought of it (no sooner than two weeks - doesn't really count if you don't experience both sides of it).

Off you go!

Hooray for Groundhog Day!

Thanks to my brother, for saving me oodles of time in today's Groundhog Day post; please, read his blog today (and every day - he has a highly entertaining blog). I echo most of his words, except I still like Valentine's day. Sorry.

But back to Groundhog Day. I just want to put an additional plug in for the movie, which is truly a classic. With each viewing, it gets funnier and I learn something new. It does a great job at teaching you to appreciate life, look outside yourself and serve others, without ever preaching. Seminary videos can't hold a candle to it, really. So even if you're not going to be throwing an extravaganza, do yourself a favor and start a tradition of watching this movie on the holiday every year. You can work up to the full-blown shin-dig (which brings to mind another Bill Murray gem...baby steps to watching the movie...baby steps to inviting friends and family over for an annual party...baby steps to taking the day off work every year...).

Happy Groundhog Day!!