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Tuesday, December 23, 2008

i think the morning sickness is kicking in...

UGH. i don't feel good. i think that dreaded morning sickness is finally starting to kick in. i was never sick with my first pregnancy (miscarried at 8.5 weeks and was never even queasy once.) i am 8 weeks today, and for the past 3 or 4 days or so i have been just plain yucky in the mornings.

fortunately, i have not thrown up. haha, yeah, i know, all you people who have 3+ months of violent illness are hating me right now. i haven't thrown up... yet. i feel like i could.

i should be in the shower right now, getting ready for work. i have too many dang "points" (walmart is stupid, another long story i will tell you another time) to miss work right now without getting a "verbal coaching" which would go on my record and cause me to not get as good an evaluation in february. if you have a coaching on your record, you don't have a chance of getting an "exceeds expectations," which is a 60 cent raise, which would be really nice. otherwise, all you get is "meets exectations," which is a 40 cent raise, which is nice... but there are too many other people in my area who have gotten exceeds and didnt really deserve it, and i'll be pissed if i get a meets just because of a coaching.

enough about walmart and its stupid ways of evaluating people AND its extremely stupid point system. i guess i should try to eat something (we don't have any saltines, grrr) and take a shower and get ready for my job. it's awful, walmart at Christmastime. WHY do people wait until the 22 and 23 and 24 to come in and look for wiis, games, tvs, etc.? makes no sense to me whatsoever.

ugh, i don't feel good.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

playing catch up

i know, i'm behind on my blogging! it's been sort of crazy here these past couple weeks. working at walmart during the holidays is not exactly at the top of my "fun list." it's exhausting, more mentally than anything, because people just ruin the holidays when they come in looking for a wii and get all upset because we don't have any. EXCUSE US! this is only the 3rd Christmas in a row that it's been the #1 item, did you REALLY think that we would have loads of them stored away in the back? you should have come in this summer, when we had 200+ in stock.

many new things going on in the olmstead household. we got a new puppy, she is a beautiful boxer named bella! absolutely adorable. she and kodi are slowly making the transition to being full-time outside doggies, while baxter and zoe will be our indoor dogs. secondly, we're expecting a baby in august! stephen and i are very excited, but trying not get our hopes up too much, because of the miscarriage i had a few months ago. i was 8 1/2 weeks when i miscarried last time, and as of right now i am 7 weeks, 5 days. so, we'll see. assuming everything goes okay, we should be hearing the pitter-patter of little feet around august 5.

well, i'm off to get ready for work. have a wonderful sunday!

Monday, December 8, 2008

christmas is my favorite time of year!

i just love Christmas. i love winter. i love snow.

i love everything about the month of december. how i wish i could take a leave of absence from walmart every december. working there during december *almost* makes me lose my Christmas spirit. however, when i come home to my house, and see my TWO -- yes, two -- Christmas trees, i just get happy all over again. i wish i could take pictures of my trees and presents, but i can't seem to find my camera right now. i'll take pictures when i find it.

stephen and i got/made the CUTEST gifts for our parents and my brother and his girlfriend, britney. it's sort of a gag gift. ok, a really cute gag gift. i'll explain more later (after Christmas, because i can't ruin the surprise) but i am hoping that everybody likes them. i sure do. =)

we had a good weekend. friday night we went to the mena Christmas parade, which lasted a really long time, but was fun. afterwards, we went to janssen park to watch the fireworks show and the lighting of the park decorations. the show was great, and we were able to meet up with my parents and my cousins from out of town, who were visiting for the weekend. afterwards we went back to my parents house and learned a new card game called Nerts.

so, it's time for me to clean up the house. maybe i'll find my camera!

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

one long week


Happy first day of December from the Olmstead family!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with our family and friends. Our internet went down last Tuesday and was just fixed this morning. I am really glad to have my internet back up and working. I was going stir-crazy and missed reading people's blogs!!

On Thanksgiving Day we visited with my parents and brother (but didn't eat.) My mom took some pictures of Stephen & me with our children dogs. Today, I made holiday greeting cards in the photolab at WalMart and will be sending them out to our friends and family sometime in the next week or so. (Hopefully. I just finished sending off the last of our "thank you" notes from the wedding.) We ate a LATE lunch with Stephen's mother, and it was GOOD. Thankfully we had only eaten breakfast that morning, so we were plenty hungry for lots of turkey, cranberry sauce, rolls, mashed potatoes, gravy, and pie. We watched the Cowboy game that afternoon --apparently this is an Olmstead tradition that I am supposed to participate in every year. My sweetie husband ran home to get my laptop so I was able to get an internet fix while "watching" the game. =)

Saturday night Stephen and I held our first Texas Hold 'Em Poker Tournament. We had a $5 buy-in and several people came over and played, including my dad and Stephen's mom. It was a lot of fun and we're looking forward to doing it again.

Big News... yesterday - November 30, it snowed. In Mena, Arkansas. IN NOVEMBER. Now, for those of you who don't know, I LOVE SNOW. Most people really, really like snow. Not me. I LOVE snow. I was really excited when I married Stephen because my initials now spell "SNO," which just makes me really happy. Anyway, it flurried lightly all day yesterday and even some this morning. Not very much, but by 8 this morning a little bit was sticking to the grass and my car had a cute little layer of snow on it. Unfortunately, I had left my camera at work yesterday and couldn't get a picture of it. =(

My christmas trees (BOTH of 'em) are up and twinkling. I have my presents for my parents and my wonderful hubby, but I still need to buy for my brother, his girlfiend, Stephen's brother and his wife, and Stephen's mother. And I need to put together some sort of little gifts for our friends/co-workers. All of this without making my checkbook cry.

So, at that note, I am going to wrap up this blog and start shopping online to see what kind of deals I can find there. Wish me luck. =)

Sunday, November 23, 2008

musical genius

ok guys, i'm doing this. this is going to show how BEHIND i am on downloading new songs.
i will be updating my playlist, um, TOMORROW.

if you're cool, you will do this too. =)

Step 1: Put your MP3 player/iTunes or whatever on random.
Step 2: Post the first line from the first 30 songs that play, no matter how embarrassing the song.
Step 3: Post and let everyone you know guess what song and artist the lines come from.
Step 4: Put stars next to the ones that have been guessed correctly
Step 5: Looking them up on Google or any other search engine is CHEATING.


1. how can you see into my eyes like open doors
2. it's undeniable that we should be together
3. eleanor rigby picks up the rice in a church where a wedding has been
4. i look around me but all is seem to see is people going nowhere expecting sympathy,
5. i wanna drink that shot of whiskey, i wanna smoke that cigarette, i wanna smell that sweet addiction on my breath
6. there's a plane flying outta here tonight, destination new orleans
7. tommy used to work on the docks unions been on strike it's tough -- so tough.
8. gotta good reason, for taking the easy way out
9. she was staring out the window of their SUV
10. see your momma and the tears and roses see your daddy walk his daughe
11. if these walls came crumbling down fell so hard to make us loose our faith
12. you think you know me, word on the street is that you do
13. never win first place, i don't support the team, i cant take direction and my socks are never clean
14. i think i've already lost you, i think you're already gone, i think i'm finally scared now, you think i'm weak, i think you're wrong
15. i dreamed i was missing, you were so scared but no one would listen cause no one else cared
16. grew up in a small town and when the rain would fall down i'd just stare out my window
17. i've seen the storm clouds in your eyes but rest assured cause you were safe at home at last
18. it's a long trip alone, over sand and stone, that lie along the road that we all must travel down
19. how dare you say that my behavior's unacceptable so condescending unnecessary critical
20. this world will never be what i expected and if i don't belong, who would've guessed it
21. there's a place in your heart nobody's been, take me there
22. as i'm staring through this fire its too late to make you mine so far from where we started so far from what we wanted
23. turn around, every now and then i get a little bit lonely and you never comin round
24. hope dangles on a string like slow spinning redemption winding in winding out the shine of it has caught my eye
25. where is the moment we needed the most, you kick up the leaves and the magic is lost
26. i hate the world today, you're so good to me i know but i cant change
27. comin outta my cage and i been doin just fine gotta gotta be down because i want it all
28. underneath the trees we watched the skies confusing stars with satellites
29. we're both looking for something we've been afraid to find
30. nighttime sharpens hightens each sensation, darkness stirrs and wakes imagination

Saturday, November 22, 2008

something's gotta change...

okay, um... new diet starts today. i've done it before, i can do it again. motivation: favorite clothes that don't fit.

joinin' curves either tomorrow or monday, depending on what we do tomorrow. i'm a newlywed, so money's not exactly something we have alot of right now... so i really can't afford to go our shopping buying new big-momma clothes. i need to get back into my skinny jeans!

i'll try to track my progress on here... my intial goal is to lose... um... well i'm not sure how much i weigh. haha. i'll have to go find a scale (we don't own one) and then when i update again i'll post my goals!

Thursday, November 20, 2008

half down... half to go.

sunset from our balcony on the boat. beautiful, isn't it? i love the endless clouds, the sun, the water... gorgeous.

i cleaned half my house today... i always start in the kitchen, because that's where i'm weirdest about. i know some people who immediately clean the kitchen when they're done eating and can't stand to go to bed to a dirty kitchen... i'm not quite like that, i can go several hours (even overnight) without putting my dishes in the dishwasher, etc etc... but i always clean the kitchen first when i start cleaning house.

what's your housecleaning quirk? i think most people's is the bathroom, and strangely enough, when i clean house the place i end up is the bathroom, which means that my master bathroom is still gross and cluttered. and yes, my toilet needs to be scrubbed somethin' terrible.

so, my kitchen and my living room are as clean as they can get considering the extra furniture i have. the clothes are washed and put away, but i desperately need to clean my master bedroom, bathroom, and closet tomorrow.

my back started killing me after stephen's lunch break, so i sat down to watch some 30-minute meals with my good friend, rachael ray. when i stood back up, i could barely walk without my right leg giving out... i've had this problem for over a year now, but it's just started bothering me really bad over the last six months or so. its something to do with either my spine or my sciatic nerve, or both. i need to see a chiropractor or a doctor about it. so right now, i'm resting my happy rear on a heating pad that my wonderful husband picked up for me before he came home from work, since we didn't have one. =)

tomorrow i will clean my room, bathroom, and closet. and call in the entertainment center and tv to swap shot...

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

we're home!!!

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stephen and i are home from our honeymoon... and yes we've been married for six weeks already, but i actually liked being able to have a little while to move into our house and get settled. now i have to UNpack and get everything put up... and i have been procastinating since we got home sunday evening. which means that i am going crazy in my own little crazy OCDish world when it comes to my house being unorganized. i still have some extra furniture in here (a huge entertainment center and TWO televisions that i need to sell! note to self: put these items on swap shop...

the cruise was great, stephen and i had a lot of great time together relaxing, ordering room service, eating on the balcony, and reading harry potter. we read the whole 3rd book and the majority of the 4th during the 9 days we were gone. i've got him hooked. haha.

it was SO nice to be able to come into this every morning...
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and this every night... (that's a stingray towel!)DSCI0053


i loved the towel animals that our stateroom steward made for us
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in grand cayman, we ate at the hard rock cafe. fun, and yummy.
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we were very sad to leave the cruise...
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we had a wonderful time together and cannot wait to go on another, bigger group cruise in a couple years when we can afford it. i have lots more pics, but this is all i have the energy to post right now. goodnight!

Monday, November 3, 2008

an autumn afternoon in arkansas

i spent this weekend driving around and taking pictures of the fall foliage around town. we drove up the mountain, down the first streets in mena, through a cemetery... we got a late start so i didn't get to go very far out of town, but i caught some great pictures anyway.

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pinecrest cemetery


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love the color on this tree


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look at all the gorgeous fall color!!!

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loved this tree standing out by itself...


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beautiful trees on port arthur avenue


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this is a tree down the road from my house, i drive by it every day and its what inspired me to drive around taking pictures last weekend!

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looking down port arthur

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the maple tree in my old front yard.
my daddy planted this tree almost 30 years ago.


happy fall. =)

Sunday, October 5, 2008

i'm old!

so, yesterday was my twenty-third birthday. it was a pretty good day; it was rainy and dreary here, so we really didnt do much other than run to walmart and freds to return a few items. the night before my wonderful friends from work threw me a surprise party (many thanks to tabatha for her part on pulling that one together!)

stephen and i had planned on going to hot springs to do a little shopping for the cruise, play some put-put at pirates cove, and eat at central park on bath house row, but the weather kept us from doing so. that's ok, we're going to go back in a few weeks and go to garvan gardens when the leaves are changing. B-E-A-utiful!

i'm sitting here in my cold house (we need to get the gas turned on tomorrow) playing poker on myspace. stephen and i are both addicted right now. i am about to take a hot shower and get some food ready for stephen's lunch break. then maybe i'll attempt to straighten the house. i am so ready to be out of the moving in/just got married stage so that my house will be neat and tidy all of the time!

i just let the crazy dogs in, and they're going wild. worse than children, i tell ya!

Friday, October 3, 2008

so this is my life...

my name is stephanie olmstead -- formerly stephanie speer -- and i am a newlywed living in mena, arkansas. i was born and raised here, but my husband is from forth worth, texas. i currently work for walmart, but that is definitely not a long-term job for me. (i hate it, haha.) my wonderful, amazing, loving, perfect husband - stephen - works for walmart as well, and he hates it too. we are both looking forward to finishing college and starting *real* jobs.

we have three children... or rather, dogs. baxter is a silky terrier, kodi is an american eskimo, and zoe is a yorkshire terrier puppy who was my wedding gift. we are definitely dog people. =) we love game nights, movie nights, and casino nights -- those don't happen often though. we love just relaxing at home with each other. we love to travel, and can't wait for our honeymoon -- a cruise in just a few short weeks!

i'm planning on using this blog to record my newlywed years -- our hopes, dreams, wishes, and aspirations. our low spots, difficult times, trials and tribulations. i hope to faithfully write about our new life together, entertaining the blogging world with stories and photographs. wish me luck.