Spike + afternoon yoga = Giggle Yoga

So Spike and I were enjoying a lovely, lazy Sunday afternoon. I'd been reading Love in the Time of Cholera, which I was quickly falling in love with and Spike had been laying peacefully in my lap. About 45 minutes before Andy should be getting off work, I said to myself "wouldn't some afternoon yoga be nice before I finish making dinner?" I've been doing Gaiam's AM/PM Yoga for ten years now and have, for years, avoided the afternoon yoga portion, because I find it much more demanding than the morning routine. So, just the fact that I was willing to put in the afternoon DVD was strange. Who knew what would come next...

Typically I do yoga in the mornings, when the rest of my household is fast asleep. In the mornings when Spike would rise with me, I learned quickly that if I wanted to do morning yoga, I'd have to put him back in the bedroom because he was always instantly attracted to my yoga mat. The second I roll it out, he's laying on it, as if pulled to its center by the cosmos. This afternoon was no exception. As I sat, cross legged, with my palms together in the center of my chest, centering myself for the yoga practice, I felt my chest opening up and opened my eyes just the slightest to see Spike's face inches from my own, with his toy in my lap. The first giggle. Followed by "No, Spike. This is not play time." As I moved into downward facing dog, I looked to my left to see another downward facing dog (Spike's favorite yogi pose). The second giggle. As I moved into gate pose, I straddled Spike with my left leg, as he's decided that the left two-thirds of my mat was the perfect place to take a break. Another giggle. While in triangle pose, feeling my back open up and saying to myself "man, it's been a while..." I looked down to see Spike wiggling into the center of my mat, on his back, so that my hands were in the perfect place to give him a quick belly rub. The giggling continued. As I laid on my back, arms to my sides, legs crossed, listening to the instructor say "these next poses will usher you into deep relaxation" I opened my eyes after feeling Spike's paw on my chest, and then saw Spike, again, inches from my face with his toy on my chest. As I'm supposed to be relaxing, I had to quickly shield myself from Spike's maniacal toy tirade, as he shook his toy side to side ferociously. All I could do was giggle. Finally, as I straightened my legs and felt what the instructor considered the deepest relaxation of the practice, Spike settled down and curled up right between my relaxed arm and torso. After yet another giggle, I asked him "so now you're relaxed?!"

I thank God for Spike, because he's a tool for teaching me patience. And if I ever had the mind to set up a video camera during yoga with Spike, I'd thank Spike and God for giving me a scenario that was sure to win thousands of dollars of America's Funniest Home Videos.

The title of the article is "Act Now or Kiss Your Organics Good-Bye!" from Food Democracy Now! website.

http://www.fooddemocracynow.org/blog/2011/jan/20/act-now-or-kiss-your-organics-good-bye/

Ice Storm 2011

The Crowes have very interesting luck when it comes to winter weather. When we moved to UNI, we kept telling everyone that we were excited to see snow, complaining that we never got enough where we were living. Everyone gave us funny looks, but we shrugged them off. Then the first winter came and people politely said "oh, we haven't had winter THIS bad in years!" Then the second winter came and people said "wow, we're just having really rough winters!" And then the third winter came and as people tried to make excuses we just said "we know, we know. Unusually bad winters. Yea right."

So then we take jobs in Terre Haute and start in January (winter). We're telling everyone we know that we're excited to move south and that we are tired of terrible winters. And then people at work start talking about a storm that's coming. That was Monday afternoon. Tuesday and Wednesday I didn't see anyone at work, because I wasn't at work, because a massive ice storm came through on Monday evening and the university closed for the first time in something like 20 years. It was the worst winter weather I had ever seen. At one point 90% of Terre Haute was without power and by the end of the storm the local news stations were saying that Vigo County (where we live) was the worst county in the state affected by the storm! Luckily we only lost power for a little while in the wee hours of Tuesday morning. On Tuesday, in an effort to avoid having to chip two days worth of ice off our cars should we have to work on Wednesday, we started up the vehicles. They ran for over 30 minutes before we could begin scraping. The parking lots literally look like ice skating rinks.

Moral of the story: stop talking about how we're just going to LOVE this new area's winter weather to your family, friends, new colleagues, etc. Just keep quiet and hope for the best.

Budgeting templates

If you're looking for budget templates, I really like the FREE forms available from Dave Ramsey's website. We use the "Money Cash Flow Planning" form, but if you're new to budgeting, I suggest the "Quickie Budget" first, until you get your feet wet with the idea of budgeting. We like these forms because it forces us to put a dollar amount to everything and encourages a zero-based budget - every dollar is assigned to something.

All credit for the budgeting forms goes to Dave Ramsey, not me (hope it's okay to link and suggest other peoples stuff on my own blog...).

Also, just as another plug, I made laundry detergent on Oct. 3 and am still on the same batch. That's at least 75 loads of laundry and I bet there's another 25 loads in that bucket. DO IT! You can get more information on cost and get the recipe by reading our Oct. 3 post. I found the recipe on the Duggar's website. Someone did ask about using this recipe in high efficiency washers. Unfortunately, I don't know the answer to that question...but Google might! :-).

Also, another financial win - this week our local grocery store (which I'm totally in love with, but that's beside the point) is having a sale of frozen vegetables - 10 packages for $10. So, of course I ran over and grabbed ten bags. Each bag will probably feed us three times, so that's roughly $0.33 a serving (actually, $0.17, since "us" = 2). That also means that I just got 30 servings of dinner veggies for $10. Hello, entire month worth of dinner vegetables! I will admit that we don't eat a large serving of veggies with dinner, so my portions are pretty frugal. But, even if each bag fed us twice, that's still $0.25 a serving and 20 servings of vegetables. Not bad, huh? Especially since we prefer frozen over canned any day. Okay, enough talk about frozen vegetables for cryin' out loud...

Life in Terre Haute

21 days ago we packed a moving van (thanks to Scott C. Ronda L. and Claudia P.) and prepared to head to Indiana early the next day. We arrived in Terre Haute by the middle of the afternoon and were met by my sister and brother-in-law, who thankfully, helped us unload the moving van. The next day they left and my mom and stepdad joined us to help unpack the apartment. The following day (New Years Day) Andy, Spike and I headed home to Bedford to have Christmas with my dad and stepmom. Those were, to say the least, a busy few days.

Andy and I both started our new jobs on January 3 and are happy to report that, so far, we love them! I am really enjoying my time as an academic advisor and am enjoying the opportunity for hands-on learning (e.g. I learn as I work through stuff with students). I also really like the people that I work with and appreciate the relaxed atmosphere. Andy is enjoying his new job, too and is adjusting nicely. Spike has yet to start looking for a job, but we're hopeful he will find his motivation any day now.

Although we haven't had much time to explore Terre Haute, we like the city so far. Our apartment is in a nice location, giving us quick access to both ends of town. We're just down the road from an interstate and shopping area and I am about 15 minutes from campus (20 minutes, if I get stopped by one of the traffic lights that seem to occur every 10 ft. or so...)

By far, the best perk of moving has been our proximity to family. While it was fun and exciting to move to Iowa, we didn't understand then how important it was to be close to family. Now we have a new appreciation :-). It's so lovely to be able to take a day to see our parents, friends, siblings, etc. without having to worry about trying to plan a full-fledged vacation. What a blessing!

Once we get unpacked all the way and get some decorating done, we'll post a few shots of our new place.

With love,
Ashleigh and Andy

We're moving to Indiana!

Well, the Crowes are preparing to move yet again! But hopefully this time it will be more permanent! I've taken a job with Indiana State University as an academic advisor with the exploratory studies program. I'll be working in the Student Academic Services Center.

Andy is currently working on a transfer to the Terre Haute Sofa Mart and we're praying that works out! What a joy and testament it would be to both be able to move to Terre Haute with jobs lined up.

Our biggest burden at the moment is finding someone to lease our Cedar Rapids apartment. If you happen to know of anyone in the area, please pass their name along to me! Or have them email me at ashleighweddle@gmail.com. You can also guide them to our June 23rd post, which has pictures of the apartment!

In the meantime, we're busy! The semester ends in 12 days and we move in less than 20 days!

Buried

Haven't updated in a while. Very busy. Lots going on. Will update soon.