Falon’s World

Before I met Eric I was a cynical, pessimistic and rather bitchy individual. LOL I can imagine people thinking “oh yeah, and what’s changed?” but things have changed!   I’ve worked really hard to be content with the things that I have – “It is better to want what you have than to strive to have what you want” – Ok, that’s not the exact quote but I like my way better. Anyway, I’ve been trying really hard to live that. I’ve been working on being more optimistic, giving people the benefit of the doubt and overall choosing to shrug off the little things and be happy with my lot in life. I think I’ve made a lot of progress and those that are close to me have noticed the difference and commented on it – which makes me feel good.

It’s especially noticeable now that I’m out of school and Eric and I have more “down time” to spend together – aka time where I can actually hang out and not do homework. He’s always been the laid back “nice” one and now I can see him grappling with the changes that I’ve made in myself. Not that they’re bad, but that they’re different. He’ll be braced for a certain comment and already be responding to it before he realizes that is not the way that I am actually reacting. It’s taking some time for us to work on this new balance – but I’m enjoying the journey because ultimately it’s leaving me less stressed and feeling pretty good about myself – something I seemed to always be against before…not sure why but I am sure it’s healthier this way.

These changes have led to me being truly happy for the first time in a long time. I don’t mean the fleeting happiness that comes with a surprise, or a job well done, but the kind of contentment that carries through even crappy days. I have finally achieved that…sometimes it still takes some thought to carry through, it is becoming easier with the practice, although I have by no means perfected it and still have my pessimistic moments (hopefully not as frequent as time goes on…).

It makes problem solving a hell of a lot easier – a side-effect I did not expect. Overall, life is good…and I have several people to thank for it – which I think is also important, letting those that are effecting you in such monumental ways know that it’s appreciated:

My Parents – for standing by me no matter what and for letting me grow the way I needed to.

Eric – for adapting and loving me for who I am, no matter how much that has changed or how difficult the process. For all of the support and for the optimism that I modeled off of.

Rebecca – for being my first true friend in a very long time and helping me find that line between happy and…dumb? lol.

My dogs – for being there through the ups and downs as I made these changes, happy to see me no matter what mood I was in and for always being willing to work for me, even when they thought it was stupid.

ETA: I’m also getting a decent handle on my temper – trying to not hang onto a mad without a good reason and to tamp it down to a reasonable level regardless – this is harder than it may seem because I have a wicked temper…

Every night when Eric drops me off at work, he wanders around downtown and takes photos. He definitely got some good shots – just wish the result wasn’t me getting left at work.

I miss sleeping in during thunderstorms or just being holed up all warm and dry at home…listening to it pour, but they seem to mostly happen when I’m at work…

Somehow, Mason held still long enough for Eric to get these nifty shots (taken at 2 am):

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I like to write to my Grandparent’s on my Dad’s side and have mostly been settling for cute cards for my words. I stopped at Meijer and asked if they had any stationary…and was led to the notebooks…like school notebooks. No thanks, been there, done that…in elementary school. Upon further searching it turned out that they didn’t have anything suitable so I settled for yet another card. Later though, I perused the options on Snapfish and decided to order a simple personalized notepad that would be nice enough for writing on. It came today and I’m very pleased (the photo on the pad is mine).

Upon starting working on third shift, I had to choose if I wanted to sleep right when I got home from work, later, before I went in (like I would do if I worked 1st shift) or some split sleep schedule. I decided to sleep right when I got home, which I’ve found is fairly normal for third shifters. BUT, as I talked to people I found that there were two main types of third shift sleepers – those that missed sleeping with their Significant Others and those that didn’t, and had adapted to the point of preferring to sleep alone even if the option to be with their SO was there. I thought that was interesting. What is your choice?

Today we slept a long time and when we got up we ran a whole bunch of errands – priced fencing materials, bought dog food, stopped by a coworker’s house, hooked up the air conditioner unit in the bedroom (thanks Dad!), fixed the leash rack and made a key rack . It was a good day!

The leash rack started like this:

After adjusting for the added weight, it looks like this:

This project turned out really good too:

I love working on projects like this!!

One of Eric’s co-workers asked me to help him in rescuing a dog. We had talked fairly extensively at our bonfire and I had warned him of all the money and time involved with having a dog (or dogs lol) and he said he was ready, his family had had dogs and he wanted a companion as he lived alone. I gave him some links to search on and he wanted to go to the Humane Society of Kent County.

We took a look around and he fell in love with a Mastiff/Rottweiler mix, 1.5 years old, neutered, house and kennel trained and already knew some tricks. His name is Jude! He’s a sweety – I’m actually a little jealous, I love big lovey dogs like this! Poor goof has been in three homes and brought back to the shelter seemingly because no one wants to spend any time training him and paying for what a big dog eats. After all the paperwork was filled out, we went shopping for all the doggy necessities.

I have to admit, I was a touch nervous with how fast things were being rushed, only looking at one shelter, not researching breeds at all, not having a preference for any breed/gender/age and wanting to bring Jude home that night without even sleeping on it. But, he’s been a dog owner in the past and I fully warned him so apparently he’s just that open-minded and prepared – I sure hope so!

I think he has the most striking, handsome face!

Plus, look at those adorable perky ears!

We’re figuring out a time he can bring Jude over to our place to play with our dogs

Eric leased the truck and then proceeded to drive it well over the leased miles, so now we owe a lot of money in overages. At my urging, he had talked to the bank and was reassured that we would be able to buy the truck when the time came through them. Unfortunately, when we went to actually turn the truck in, we were told this is not the case. We ended up frantically buying a minivan (dubbed Whitey) and now we are waiting to hear if they will work out a payment plan with us or not while we share a vehicle that is not exactly what we had hoped to have, but will do it’s job (*fingers crossed*). Hopefully we’ll be able to afford another vehicle by the end of the summer – this has really set back our summer plans

Cleaning out 3 years of accumulated dog hair:

It was sad for both of us, for so many reasons when we dropped the truck off…

I’m sorry baby!

This week is the CLS program of GVSU’s Spring Break. So, going with the routine of the program, we were required to give up most of our break to drive to Troy, MI and fund our way throughout the MSCLS Spring Meeting. Not only that, but we were required to go to a certain number of sessions, present our projects and write a paper – happy Spring Break to all!!! *sarcasm*

The event was actually pretty interesting, I enjoyed the conference but for the fact that I was forced to be there. The sessions were mostly interesting and the people very nice – we also got a lot of free stuff related to our career choice. I got a new purse on the way home that is absolutely adorable!

Tonight we had friends over for Group Dinner since Kelly is in town. It was delicious. From there we headed to Juke’s for some fun with Dirt Road Logic and Union Guns. We had barely arrived though and Rebecca called to say that she was miserable at a party with her selfish roommates and wanted to come home. I immediately left to get her. But, on the way there, the truck was making some horrendous noises and it felt like grinding under my feet. We made it back though and I met Eric at home. Where he told me that most of his friends had ditched out shortly after I had left so it was just as well that I did something else rather than sitting in the bar by myself.

ETA: The truck turned out to have bad wheel bearings and Jason said we were lucky the wheel hadn’t fallen off already – whew!

After a lot of discussion and research, Eric and I have decided to add a fourth dog to the mix, a Dutch Shepherd. When we adopted Kya, we had hoped for another agility dog, one that perhaps wasn’t as moody as Midas. Unfortunately, that is not to be. I have other hopes for this pup as well…but we’ll hold out on mentioning those until he’s older

These are his parents – Balen and Titan

They are so athletic and I’ve talked at length with the breeder and feel really good about getting a pup that will fit into our home perfectly – the landlord is also agreeable to adding one last dog