Happy Belated Valentine's Day everyone!!! This week has been a pretty crazy one. From Chris and my outrageously busy work schedules, our recreational commitments, Chris' last minute trip to Austin, and Valentine's weekend, it's been hard to just get an hour of relaxation. As some of ya'll know, Chris' dad is going through chemotherapy right now. He is the hardest working man I have ever met. He is always moving around, building something, or tearing something apart. Well, since he has been on chemo, he has become significantly immobile. Chris has been pretty strong during it all, but Thursday night broke down. He went up to Austin (where his dad is being treated) on a last minute decision to visit him. His dad was having a surgery to insert a feeding tube, and Chris' sister told him that he had been pretty down lately. So Chris went up there, and spent some time with him. His dad isn't in dying condition, but is no where near his normal self.
That night was particularly hard on me. This may sound selfish, but whatever. I have never spent the night alone in our house, and going to sleep without Chris next to me was soooo hard. I talked to Chris on the phone, I talked to my mom, and even tried to get Matthew to come spend the night with me just so I wouldn't be alone. I eventually had to just suck it up and fall asleep. Well, around 3am, I heard a noise which startled me awake. It sounded like someone breathing. I was facing the door and looked around and didn't see anything. I turned around to look at the alarm clock, and saw Chris laying next to me. I didn't believe my eyes. I thought I was still dreaming, so I reached out my hand to touch him. He felt real. I was sooo confused and couldn't understand why he was in our bed, so I just fell back asleep. The next day, he told me that he realized that he needed to be home with me, so he drove back. That was really special.
Friday night Chris and I went to Zio's for dinner and we had SUCH a great time. He had the never-ending pasta bowl, and I had crispy shrimp scampi (which is VERY hard to say quickly lol). We had great conversation too, which reminded me of why we fell for each other in the first place--we are such good friends. We talked about our past relationships and how we grew from them, and how/when we knew that we wanted to marry each other. It was the sweetest thing.
Saturday, Chris had to work. He accepted a position at the bowling alley on the weekends as the director of the youth bowling league. He is already in charge of a league on Monday nights, and really has a heart for youth as well, so when this position was offered to him, he jumped at it. It's just another hobby he enjoys--Lord knows he's not doing it for the money.
Anyway, while he worked, I was able to sleep in a couple hours. When I woke up, I cleaned our WHOLE house!!! Ahhh! It took me until 3:30!!! Chris came home a little while later and we planted my Valentine's Day present from him! He bought me a Mountain Laurel tree!!! Mountain Laurels are my favorite trees because their purple blooms have the sweetest smell in the world. So we spent all afternoon and part of the evening planting that thing! It was definitely not your typical Valentine's Day. After that we made dinner together. We had steak, scallops, baked potatoes, veggies, and some great wine. Later on, I gave Chris my gift to him, but I can't really give any details on that. Lets just say that it got pretty steamy in the Shaw house last night! ;]
Here are some pictures of our first tree! Disregard my very tired appearance!
Last Night was Girls' Night! Nikki, Sharai, Megan and I went to BJ's for the evening! We had sooooo much fun and ate some yummy food. BJ's happens to be one of my absolute favorite restaurants...ask the girls, I think I have eaten about everything on the menu! HA HA BJ's brews their own beer and rootbeer, they have great food, and a really trendy atmosphere. Anyway, the girls and I had a great time! Here are some pictures from the night!
This morning I got an email from my mom. She sent me this video and said, "We watched this video this morning in a meeting. It is very encouraging. Grab a box of tissues." I wasn't able to open it at work, but I sent it to my home email and decided to watch it when I got home. I just watched it right now and WOW. It was amazing. Watch this video and stay encouraged!
I had a great day today. I, along with a couple of my coworkers, were treated to lunch at Salt Grass by our store manager for meeting our goals. I made six sales today. I also worked out with Nikki this evening. We did Bunny Boot camp and Kendra's work out (both from The Girls Next Door). It was pretty intense. Anyway, I came home, spent some time with my hubby, decided to delete my myspace account, and now we are off to watch LOST in our bed!
Last night, I went to bed around 11:30, and slept soundly until I woke up around 2am to shooting pains in the nape of my neck, and a pounding migraine behind my eyeballs. I get migraines pretty frequently, but I never really take anything for them. I usually sleep them off, throw up, and sleep some more. If they are unbearable, I will resort to taking some Aleve, and usually that does the job. Last night I just couldn't shake that migraine. I tossed and turned, I prayed, I wimpered, and CRIED. I finally got enough strength to slip out of bed and get some Aleve. I didn't end up falling asleep until 5am. That is completely unacceptable. If you know me, you know that I need AT LEAST 8 hours (preferably 9) of sleep to even function. I woke up around 8:30am and my migraine was gone, but my head was still really sensitive. I got ready for work, and as I was blow drying my hair, I flipped my head upside down, and immediately regretted that decision. My head felt like it was going to explode!!!
Despite the way I was feeling, I decided to go to work. I ended up get one of my coworker's to close for me, and thought it would be a great idea to get a massage today (Chris bought me a gift certificate to this fancy spa for Christmas). I called the place, and made an appointment for 6:30. When I got there, I had to fill out an information form, and then waited for my masseuse. The whole time I was waiting, I kept praying, "Dear God, please let me have a woman masseuse, PLEASE." I thought it would be weird and kind of uncomfortable to have a man give me a full body massage. And as luck would have it (if I believed in luck), Jordan--a male masseuse--greeted me by name and walked me down the long dark hallway to an empty room! He told me to undress and lay on the table, and that he would be back in a couple minutes. I was a little nervous, but did as I was told.
When he came back in the room, things totally changed. He talked to me about some things I filled out on the form, about my occupation, about traveling, and other things. It was completely comfortable and not weird at all. there was soft music playing in the background, and I had chosen some lavender aromatherapy. Along with the full body massage, I opted for some hot stone therapy (they were really hot). This made my skin, my muscles, and my body melt on contact. It was the most relaxing thing I have ever done. I also mentioned to Jordan that I had a migraine last night, so he focused a lot of the massage on areas of my body to ease and dissolve the tension I was feeling. He massaged my neck, the back of my head, my shoulders, and even my face. I left there feeling like melted chocolate!!! I am sooo happy I didn't try to get a female masseuse. He was soooo worth it; he had hands of GOD! Ha Ha Ha
Anyway, I am feeling much better now. I came home, took a bubble bath, and am now ready for some beauty sleep.
Oh, one more thing, before I left, Jordan also showed me some massages that Chris can do to me during a migraine. YAY!
I had to work today, and Chris did as well. I noticed that my inspection sticker on my car was expired so Chris offered to get my new one, the only drawback here was that I had to drive his truck to and from work. It shouldn't be a big deal because it is a stick shift, just like my Mazda 3, but it drives soooo much differently. The stick is much bigger, not to mention driving a truck is a lot different than driving a little car. I got over it though, and actually had fun driving it. After work, I went over to Mom's house, and Chris met me there. Chris spent some time with Rex, while I was able to run some errands with Mom, Mariah, and Yaya. It was really good just to spend some time with the women in my fam. When we returned to the house, Rex had dinner prepared, and Clara showed up. We ate yummy BBQ, veggies, potato wedges and had great conversation. Matthew was there too, and, of course, made us laugh like crazy. After dinner, Matt left, and we taught Clara how to play Mexican Train (a domino game). Needless to say, Clara learned very quickly, and she and Mom kicked my and Rex's butts!!! (Chris helped Mom and Clara, but didn't actually play). We had sooo much fun! We don't get to spend much time with Clara, so it was a treat to spend half the day with her.
Anyway, it was a great day, and I look forward to another great day tomorrow for the Super Bowl!
Chris and I went grocery shopping this evening! YAY!!!! We have not gone grocery shopping in almost a month and a half!!! :O (Well, we did pick up some milk, and butter, and bananas and stuff every now and then, but we didn't do our monthly shopping for over a month and a half.) I love grocery shopping. Chris and I ALWAYS go together and really have fun doing it. I usually make the list and check things off as we get them (I also have a bad habit of putting extra things in the cart :]). Usually we spend about $160 dollars a month on groceries, but tonight we spent $240!!!! AHHH! We NEVER spend that much! We had to buy some cleaning supplies, body wash, face cleanser, and other stuff like that which we don't usually buy every month, so its really no big deal. Also, we have been trying to buy better quality products and not just what is cheaper. A couple months ago, Chris and I started buying a different kind of seafood everytime with do our shopping. This is pretty neat because not only do we get to eat something yummy, but we are learning new ways to prepare the seafood. Last month we bought some scallops (MY FAVORITE SEAFOOD), and this month we bought some shrimp, and MORE scallops! I can't wait to find a new recipe!
ANYWAYYYYY, we had a great shopping excursion, and lots of delish treats to last us a month!
I am a LOST fanatic, so I was incredibly excited when my hubby finally agreed to watch the first episode of the first season of Lost with me. He liked it, I think. Tonight he even asked me if we were gonna watch the second episode! Yay! I will keep everyone updated on our Lost viewings!
Chris and I have been super busy lately with both of our jobs, his bowling, my working out, praise team practice, and still leaving a little bit of time for our friends that our schedules have been jam-packed! I love that we are so active, but I get sooooo exhausted! We have been cooking significantly less since I have been working, mostly because I wanna crash when I get home. So we ate 50 piece nuggets (the first time I spelled that, I spelled it "nugger" HA HA HA), and broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, and corn. Those were pity veggies, by the way, to make me feel not-so-gulity! FYI, we did not eat all of the nuggets!
I think it's funny that I just read Megan's blog which talks about her family's dinner for tonight. I used to be such a good house-wifey. Honestly, if I could still be a house-wifey, I totally would be. I don't think God's incredible plan for women was to work in a bank. I believe I have a much deeper calling....but what can you do when you are 30k in debt from school.
I am looking forward to this weekend. This will be the first Saturday I have off from work in a long time! YAY! I hope I can just sit on my butt all weekend and watch Snapped!
Yesterday, Chris and I attended our niece's first birthday. We left the party around 6:30 pm and drove home (separately because I had gone to the party after I got out of work). We were driving down a two-lane road, and I was just overtaken by the moon. It was BEAUTIFUL! It was full and yellow! It was so amazing that I thought it would be a good idea to take a picture of it with my phone. What I didn't realize, at the time, was that it is very difficult to focus on an object, take the picture and drive at the same time! I totally swerved into the oncoming lane and almost hit a car coming at me! Praise God that I saw his headlights in time. The things I do for a little bit of beauty! I looked at the picture shortly after that, and it was blurry. Crap.
The funniest thing about it all was that Chris was driving behind me the whole time, and when we got home, he was like, "Are you okay?" He saw the whole thing and thought I was crazy.
