Tid Bits, and Bits and Bits

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  We are celebrating the end of the (hardest) first six weeks of culinary school and All A's!!  with a bottle of Alexander Valley Vineyards Cab 2005 tonight! (Thanks Mom)
• Also, to add to the celebration, I made a new recipe:

                               *pour 12 oz. Trader Joe's ABC (almonds, blueberries, cranberries) Trek Mix

                               *Add 1 lb. of Nestle Toll House Premium White Morsels

                               *Shake!

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  I (didn't) cry when O'Neil won the car for Sunshine on The Biggest Loser this week.
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  I really wanted the girl in pink to win, but I guess us blondie's can't always have all the fun.
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  We still have ants.
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  A trapped mouse woke me up at 4:30 Wednesday morning. After 30 minutes of hearing panic and scrambling out of him, he went silent, and I thought he was put out of his misery. Later that morning, Ian threw him away...alive and kickin'.
• 
  
  Don't report us for animal cruelty. This mouse is obviously demon -possessed if he can survive 4 hours in a deadly mouse trap.
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  We're doing you a favor.
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  My new recipe is SO GOOD!
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  Yesterday, in order to save a swipe, Ian ate free salad bar and bread for lunch. Then he used 2 swipes for dinner and brought home a gourmet CIA dinner for me! Isn't that sweet? He saved a swipe for me!
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  Then, Ian came home from school today, after enjoying a Free wine tasting.
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  That he didn't have to spit out.
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  I'm not jealous.
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  I like my new job. It's not exactly what I had in mind. But it's fun.
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  Driving over the Hudson River is a GORGEOUS $1 commute.
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  I always look forward to Sundays.
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  And Tuesdays for Biggest Loser and Parenthood.
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  Car insurance is super cheap in New York.
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  I didn't need to get a food handler's card to work at Starbucks.
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  I can't decide if that's a good thing or a bad thing.
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  Today, a customer asked me if you need a college degree to work at Starbucks.
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  I can't decide if that's a good thing or a bad thing.
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  There is a siren that goes off everyday that I can hear from our house. Am I supposed to run for the hills?
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  No one has been able to answer that question for me yet.
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  When I was behind a school bus driving down Route 9G, I watched a high schooler shoo her peacock away as she boarded the bus.
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  I know, right?
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  Last night, I put Tide Washer Cleaner (NOT detergent) in our previously owned washing machine. It smelled heavenly. For a minute, I stood at the open washer...just taking it all in.
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  There is the BIGGEST Great Dane that lives down the street from us. We look every time we go by to see if he's in the yard. Just to get a look. We've also named him Princess. We LOVE him.
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  I'm glad Princess has an invisible fence.
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  We need milk.
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  Now that we've both been schooled on the importance of sustainability, (me in a soil conservation class at UW, and him in a gastronomy class at culinary school,) we're thinking raising a farm in Europe is lookin' pretty good these days.

Things have become very interesting around here in the last couple weeks. Don't be surprised if in 3 years, we are sowing crops, barefoot, and owning a tambourine.

In all seriousness, God has blessed me this week with a new level of perspective. I won't have health insurance for another 83 days, but He has kept me healthy and not in any need of a doctor since well before our wedding. We are both healthy, Ian is LOVING school. We aren't earning a comfortable amount of money yet, but we also haven't run out either. We appreciate your prayers and ask that you keep em' comin'. But also know that we are okay. (moms) Know that this is an amazingly hard time for us, but we have eachother, we have our faith and we continue to encourage eachother in our (exciting/crappy) endeavours. And really, this could be worse.

We've definitely both been sheltered up until now, but we are growing and learning each day. Proverbs 13:12 says that "Hope deferred makes the heart sick." Isn't that the truth? These measly 7 weeks have created a future and dreams that Ian and I both can be excited about together. The next 3 years (minus 6 weeks!) aren't going to be easy, and we really don't know where they will take us, but we know that they aren't forever. I really don't want to know where we are going to be after culinary school. Any expectation would elicit a count down, and I really want to enjoy our time here in the Hudson Valley. I have a hope that they will be with an all knowing, gracious, loving and forgiving God.