One Year Ago Today

My hubby and I tied the knot. It does not seem like a year at all. We don't have any special plans because we will be celebrating in July when I am done with school. We're going to Kauai for a week. We are both very excited about this trip and I keep trying to remember that the day after I'm done with school we will be on a plane to paradise. We honeymooned in a different paradise along with at least a dozen other newlywed couples. So, Happy Anniversary to us and Happy Easter to everyone.

Coffee = Motivation

I remember the first time I had good coffee. It was over 20 years ago and mom took the whole family to one of those gourmet grocery stores. They had a coffee bar/station where you could grind any flavor of coffee beans and then add any combination of ingredients. Michanne made me a cup and I remember the light caramel color and the dreamy, velvet taste. It was mostly heavy cream, sugar, and honey with a splash of coffee. I never have been able to make my coffee taste the same way again. I never drank coffee while earning my undergrad but I did drink coffee every day when I worked at Geico.

I abstained for many years after those horrible 16 months. Many of you are aware that I've had bladder and ulcer issues over the years (sorry for the clinical content but like I said, most of you already know) and coffee isn't the best thing for those kind of problems. I generally stay clear of caffeine. I did get on a daily latte kick over a year ago at work but it led to bladder problems again so I stopped cold turkey. Now I drink coffee every Saturday and Sunday. Honestly, I have no idea how I would complete any of my school work without coffee. Does it hurt my stomach? Yes. Does it cause acid reflux that feels like I have a huge lump in my throat and like I'm about to throw up? Yes. Is it worth it? Yes. Oddly enough I don't have any bladder problems and I do not drink caffeine at any other time except one 8oz cup of coffee on Saturday and Sunday. I'm partial to Green Mountain Hazelnut which I buy in K-cups so I can enjoy my still very cool Keurig. It's amazing how one cup of coffee will provide hours and hours of motivation. I add fat free original flavor Coffee-Mate and about 4 teaspoons of sugar so that might contribute to my energy levels as well. I don't need it to get ready for work in the morning and I don't want it in the afternoon but coffee will be my study-buddy until I finish school. I can give it up anytime I want, really I can, I just don't want to, yet. 

You Know It's Spring...

When Tractor Supply Company has baby chicks for sale. After a marathon session at work yesterday (7 hours working on my digital video project) Jeff met me at TSC so I could see the baby chicks. There's not much to do in this town. We went a few years ago and they had bunnies and ducks. No bunnies this time but they did have sweet little ducks.

There's just something about their little bills that I find adorable. They keep all the little fluff balls in tubs with warming lamps. You used to be able to walk around and pick them up but they were fenced off and to hold them you had to ask an employee. We saw three different kinds of chickens.

This last group are called bantam chickens. They had really unique coloring and were smaller than the other two. Jeff bought this new toy for the dogs.

Remy really likes the monkey and growled at me when I tried play with it this morning. He's growls at everything though. In other non-school news I saw the movie Butter on Friday night and watched Saturday night's DVRd Too Cute this morning. I was smiling the whole hour. I'm making progress on all my school stuff but I still haven't done my taxes. I may need some help this time around since I'm in school again. Anybody else still working on their taxes? I'm actually afraid I'll forget entirely this year because I'm so distracted with school stuff. Ordinarily I would have been done a month ago. And already received my money!