A Lazy Day

Today hasn't exactly been productive - I didn't get much sleep last night as I had a really vivid, scary, weird dream and I kept getting woken up by my stupid period pain, despite having taken painkillers before bed. I hate it! I've been feeling like absolute crap all day today so haven't done a lot. We took the pug-pugs to the dog park when hubby finished work and Suzie had a good run and play as always. Gracie was a little more confident with people, she even went up to a random guy and let him pet her for a while. I think she's coming out of her shell more every day, it's great! The eating thing is still rather frustrating, she really has to be coaxed to eat. This evening I googled 'dog reluctant to eat' and got some tips - I tried one of them, which was to put something different in with the food. I broke up a beef jerky dog treat into lots of little pieces and mixed it in with the kibbles. It worked really well! I ended up putting another one in there because she stopped eating with about a third of her food left - she ended up eating the whole lot! I don't really want to set a precedent by doing that, but if it makes her eat a good amount then it's worth it. I made sure to give Suzie two of the treats too, so they're both equal! We don't want to create any jealousy between them, of course!

Right now I'm making rice pudding with our leftover rice (we had green curry for dinner) - I'll give the girls a little bit each, Suzie loved it last time. I suppose if Gracie doesn't eat it then Suzie can - she gets plenty of exercise at the dog park! At the moment hubby is laying on the big couch with the two of them, and it looks like Gracie is cuddling Suzie - it's so damn cute! :-)

Anxiety

Today has been a wet one in Phoenix - it's been raining pretty much all day! Tomorrow is probably going to be somewhat the same, too. Oh well, we can't complain - it's not like it happens very often!

My Dad arrives from the UK tomorrow. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet - I don't mean to sound awful, I am looking forward to seeing him, but I'm also kinda dreading it because he insisted on staying at our house and we really don't have enough room. He'll be sleeping on an airbed in the living room until Monday, and then he can sleep in our "second bedroom" which is actually hubby's office. He works from home and his hours are 7am-4pm so if my Dad's going to sleep in there he needs to be up and out of there by 6.50am... I'm not sure if that will happen, to be honest I really have my doubts. He can't sleep in there before Monday night because hubby is on-call all of this week and as usual he's been called at ridiculous times every day so far - 4am today, 5.30am yesterday. He has to get on his computer when they call him so we can't have anyone sleeping in the office while he's on-call.

The other thing that I'm worried about is that my Dad will probably expect me to pay for lots of things, like coffees and lunch etc. I'm lucky because I do get an allowance from hubby (his idea, not mine) so I do have some money I can spend, but not much. I've got good at making it go pretty far, but that's mainly because I don't go out very often! It won't go very far if I'm having to buy lunch all the time, or pay for admission into whatever places he wants to go to. Even a couple of coffees at Starbucks would end up using a decent chunk of my cash, because he'd expect a slice of cake or a muffin with it. I don't want to sound tight, but when you don't have a job you do have to be quite prudent with the money you have. I don't waste money on things like going out for coffee anymore, which is something I used to take for granted back in the UK when I was working full-time. Your priorities change when you're unemployed!

Finally, one last concern is that hubby and my Dad don't exactly know each other very well. I mean, hubby only came to the UK once while we were "dating" because he only gets 2 weeks holiday in a year and I used to get a lot more than that, so they've only actually spent a day together. I don't want to be pessimistic but I'm not sure how well they're gonna get along when they're thrown together for 10 days... It's probably going to be awkward for both of them, and me by default. I'm worried that hubby and I might get stressed out with the whole situation and snap at each other. Earlier today I explained that to him and he agreed - it probably will put us under quite a lot of strain, because of the space issue as much as anything else. That's without factoring in any personality clashes that may occur! Hubby is usually pretty laid back but my Dad can be quite highly strung and not very tactful - he's very stubborn and I think he's probably going to be a high maintenance, demanding guest. I hope that I'm wrong, I really do - I just can't stop feeling anxious about the whole thing.

Anyway... I've just cooked dinner (chicken fajitas) and done the dishes (for the second time today). Right now I have laundry in both the washer and the dryer. Hubby is soaking his elbow in epsom salts and warm water (for the 4th and penultimate time today) and pug-pug is chasing her squeaky gingerbread man around! I think I deserve a glass of wine and some chocolate... :)

A lazy day

I wasn't exactly very productive today - I didn't feel very well so ended up spending most of the day on the couch with our pug-pug. She's such a little sweetie, she loves her cuddles and so do I so it's a good arrangement! :)

Hubby and I just made tacos for dinner, they turned out great! We tend to cook most nights, we don't eat out very often. Before I moved over here, I couldn't really cook at all. It's surprised me how much I enjoy it now, and how well things turn out! I guess you just need a bit of confidence. Sometimes we cook together, sometimes it's just one of us. We make things like Thai green curry, pasta, Mexican food, grilled meat, mashed potatoes (hubby told me hand on heart that my mashed potato is way better than his Mom's - I'd have to agree!) ... all sorts of things, really. The only downside is the amount of dishes we generate, but hey, I don't have a job so it's all good. ;)

I think we're just about all set for Christmas now. We bought a small turkey (7 pounds) for Christmas dinner, and we've pretty much bought all the presents we need to get. I could do with getting something else for my Dad but I have no idea what, he's really difficult to buy for. Our pug-girl has the most presents out of everyone, of course! I'm just waiting on one last hubby-present to arrive and then we're good. I did most of my Christmas shopping online, which so far has worked out great! This last thing I only ordered yesterday and it's already on its way, so it should be here by this time next week.

Hubby took me shopping on Monday for my presents, he got me a bunch of lovely stuff from Bath and Body Works. :) I got to choose what I wanted, which in a way is a little boring I guess (no surprises) but also it means I'm getting what I wanted. Also, I thought if he was left to his own devices he might end up getting me more jewelry. Which of course wouldn't have been a bad thing, but I really didn't want him to spend a lot of money. You know, the fact that he's the only one working at the moment and he's paying out every month for my health insurance etc. Really, the best gift is that we're together for good. I couldn't ask for anything more! :)

Tomorrow we're going to my brother-in-law's house for dinner. It's his birthday on Christmas eve and hubby wants to take him out for dinner to celebrate on the day. Hopefully some places will be open! We're going to invite him to our place for Christmas dinner, because my in-laws don't celebrate Christmas (they're Jehovah's Witnesses). Normally we would go to their house for dinner on a Saturday, but tomorrow they're away at some JW convention or something and next Saturday is Christmas. We went to their house last night and took pizza with us. We needed to collect their air-bed for when my Dad visits. Anyway, we invited them for dinner at our place next Thursday evening, but apparently my mother-in-law won't miss a JW meeting so she wanted to come on Saturday instead. I pointed out that it's Christmas and therefore we're having a Christmas dinner, so that wouldn't work. If they celebrated Christmas, of course we'd invite them, but I don't want to have them come for dinner so that we can pretend it's not Christmas! Screw that! Then she said they'd come on Friday, but we don't fancy cooking 2 big meals on 2 consecutive days, and also it's my brother-in-law's birthday that day so if they came round we'd all have to ignore his birthday as JW's don't celebrate birthdays either. So no! Then she suggested the following week, but that's when my Dad is arriving so that wouldn't be convenient either. Finally it was resolved, and they're coming next Wednesday night. That'll work out much better. We're cooking tilapia, mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli. Yum! :)

The whole thing with my in-laws got me thinking about what will happen when we have kids of our own... I mean, the only extended family they'll have here is their grandparents and uncle. All of my family live in the UK, apart from some distant relatives who live somewhere in the US but I don't even know where! Anyway, we don't want to deprive our kids of birthdays and Christmas, and hubby and I aren't religious in the slightest. It'd be a shame for the in-laws to miss out on those occasions, and for the kids to not see their grandparents at those times, but I can't really see any other solution. The thing that really sucks is that it seems as though my father-in-law doesn't really agree with the whole JW thing, and just goes along with it for my mother-in-law's sake. I get the feeling he'd love to celebrate Christmas etc. Ah well, it's their choice at the end of the day. I spoke to one of my good friends back in the UK a few days ago and she seemed to think that when we do have kids, they'll change their minds because they won't want to miss out. I'm not so sure, I think my mother-in-law is so brainwashed that she's in it for life. She was even funny about associating with one of my best friends, who came over for the wedding, because she used to be a JW and then saw the light and left a couple of years ago. Despite the fact that both her kids (my hubby and brother-in-law) left as soon as they could, they couldn't stand it! Apparently "officially" she's not meant to have anything to do with them, either. I can't believe how anyone can become so indoctrinated that they would even consider abandoning their family for the sake of a "religion" (well, cult, if you ask me, but that's just my opinion). I'm also a little concerned that she might try to brainwash our kids... :(

Anyway, I got a little off-topic there! I guess there's no point worrying about any of that stuff, I'm not even pregnant so it's not like we're going to be parents any time soon! I suppose we'll have to manage the situation accordingly when the time comes. Maybe my friend will turn out to be right, I can only hope so anyway!

Right now hubby is playing his video-games to unwind, and I'm sitting on the couch with pug-pug. Our Christmas cactus is all lit up, and I'm burning our banana nut bread candle which smells delicious! I just tuned in to watch The Haunted on Animal Planet, but the listings must have been screwed up because this ain't it! I think it's "I shouldn't be alive" or something. There's never anything good on TV on a Friday night! I guess it doesn't matter which country you live in, it's a case of too many channels, nothing to watch, hehe.