Being sick with intermittent fever, swollen glands, and clogged ears for going on 2+ weeks really stinks.  It stinks even more to have a husband who's just as miserable with clogged and runny sinuses for about the same length of time.  Go figure, we haven't swapped illnesses yet.  Let me tell you, we are just outright sick and tired of being sick and tired.  And the worst part is, it's one of those sicknesses that doesn't keep me from work, but at the same time does make work frustrating.  Especially on a late Friday afternoon, that also happens to be the third of the month (read: VERY BUSY DAY), and my brain is literally shutting down and ceasing to function.  No, seriously.  I'm amazed my drawer wasn't off by some bizarre amount tonight!  Silver lining, I guess...

Oddly enough, even though I've entered my home with nothing but a desire to eat and crash on my bed lately, I've still managed to be motivated in some things.  I tried my hand in making home-made pumpkin pie last weekend, and it turned out pretty good (I still don't like making my own crusts, but at least I don't despise it anymore).  Steve seems to be having the same thing going on with him, because he whipped up a GORGEOUS apple pie two days ago.  I made him take a picture, it looked that perfect.  It also tasted pretty darn good when I wasn't burning my tongue on it from having nuked it too long (by the time I got a chance to eat it, it'd been in the fridge for a few hours, and you just can't eat apple pie cold!).  The only thing missing was a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a tall glass of cold milk.

The lack of desire to do much has also left me with a decent amount of time to do some good reading.  I've pretty much devoured Mansfield Park.  I like it.  Somehow, it's got a bit of a different voice than Austen's other books, so it's been fun.  Another silver lining...

And, for the icing on the cake (no, really, I'm really excited about this), Steve just called to say that his "short night" has been moved to Saturdays!  Yay!  The result is that, every two weeks, he gets to come home at 2am instead of 6am, in which case there's a MUCH stronger chance that he'll be able to drag himself out of bed for church every couple weeks.  That is major huge for us right now since we've really been missing the ability to go together.  Sadly, I think the last time Steve went to church was in July on our vacation.

So yeah, being sick is a drag, but I guess it's not all cloudy in this house.

As many of you have not seen me for several months, you might be interested to know that today I noticed that my hair was long enough to sit back against.  Now, for most of you that might not mean much, so let me explain.  What it means is that, when I sit back against the couch or the seat in the car, I find that my hair is being leaned on.  That means that it has managed to get decently long.  It's been quite a while since I had the legendary waist-length hair of my high school and early college days, and I had determined to grow it out when I first moved here (in case I meet a guy and get married...haha).  It turned out it was a good thing I started growing it because it was at a reasonably styl-able length for the wedding.  Steve and I have a pact that I won't cut my hair if he doesn't shave his beard off.  He told me the other night though, that I can cut it in the future, as long as I only cut it up to where it is now.  Ha.  I haven't decided if I'm going to go for the REALLY long like I had it in college (remember the caving story?), or if I'll keep it trimmed, but I do know that it needs a trim soon because it's majorly raggedy at the ends.  The other difference is that I really have no bangs now.  This is the first time I've successfully grown out my bangs, and I think I like it.  I'm looking forward to when they're truly long enough to put back in a ponytail, but for now they're long enough to tuck behind my ear which is good for winter-time because I can leave my hair down and virtually not have to do anything with it.  It's quite a different feeling than when I felt the absolute need to put at least part of my hair up in a clip or ponytail.  What freedom!

In other news...Steve got a rejection letter for the probation and parole officer job he had applied for.  I think he was kind of disappointed, but I also know it wasn't the end of the world for him.  We've started talking seriously about a moving/starting school/having kids timeline, and I'm getting pretty excited.  It also looks like, although my attempt at holding us to a budget by using cash envelopes hasn't seemed to work VERY well, we're still managing to save a decent amount. 

Also, we have still managed to keep the house relatively clean!  The clutter is definitely under control (virtually none!), and the dishes have been washed regularly.  I just need to get the bathroom cleaned for the week, and we can say we've kept the house clean for about three weeks.  It's exciting.  The only problem is, that shoots my theory that I wouldn't be able to keep a clean house 'till I had enough room to sort things out and have a place for everything.  Oh well.  But maybe it does mean that it'd be EASIER to keep it clean in that situation.  I guess I'll have to wait and see.