Overcoming Perfectionist Tendencies

Sooooooo….in an effort to get over some of these horrific perfectionist leanings of mine, here’s a before/after shot in which the “after” is not perfect.

Not TOO shabby, huh? So…this is a sampling of all that white trim I was talking about in previous posts. All those doors are painted, and all those frames are painted, too. I have a couple doors left, but they’re not in these pictures. LOL. Also, the hall light is still not changed out, the doorbell monstrosity hasn’t been updated, there’s no pictures on the walls yet, and the hardwoods have not been refinished yet, but that will probably be awhile. Still…perfection tendencies aside, it’s still a pretty impressive improvement in my opinion. After all, there was horrid wallpaper, UGH-ly carpet, and no doors at all in the “before” picture…LOL.

In case I haven’t said so before now…I absolutely ADORE our little housey.

I’ll have more to show later, when I get ALL my perfectionism under control. Baby steps, y’all. =)

Wrapping It Up

Well, I updated the ol blog for a happy new year. I flipped through my digi scrap stuff and picked things I liked, then I uploaded the new header….and realized it kinda matches our Christmas card this year. ROFL…obviously I’m really into black and white and red at this moment. Hahaha.

So it’s the end of another year. As always, I can’t believe another year is gone. It seems like we just started 2013 and now it’s time to write in a new date.

I’m actually quite proud of me…despite all the upheaval and transitions this year, not to mention spending all my spare time on so many things from house to school to church, etc., I’ve actually got next year’s planner all ready to go. And now I’m wrapping up the blog décor for another year. Plus, all the Christmas décor is down and I have an empty slate for bringing out everyday decorations…and I still have ONE day left of 2013. I’m SO proud.

Also on wrapping things up, while we’re not quite there yet, we’re getting VERY close to seeing some “after” pictures of several rooms in our house. I can’t wait to get those posted. Ya’ll have NO idea!

I LOVE finishing things. Maybe my project for 2014 should be getting out ALL my unfinished craft projects and finishing them, then selling the ones I don’t need anymore…lol. Seeing as how our new (smaller) house doesn’t have a space for a craft room (and I’ve already experienced the trauma of trying to work on crafts in our basement…did I tell you about that?), it’s probably way past time for me to take a stern look at my craft supplies and just ditch a large portion of it.

Huh. Something to think about. =)

Merry Christmas

Here’s a really poor quality (and slightly crooked) picture of a portion of our Christmas card this year. I took it with my phone, which explains all of the above. LOL. But Merry Christmas to all. =) Hope everyone had a beautiful, peaceful holiday. =) We sure did.

If you didn’t get our card this year, here’s a blog-edited version of it:

Dear Family & Friends,

Hello and warmest holiday greetings from our family. We hope this note finds you and your families happy and well. Every year it seems that fewer and fewer folks take the time to connect or be together (outside of weddings and funerals). Although we know that Jesus may or may not have been born on December 25th, we can celebrate His birth, life, death, and salvation every day of the year. This is just a good time to stop and send some greetings and an update or two.

Our MUNCHKIN is in fourth grade this year, and K-MAN is in second. They are both reading like champs now, from our second grade Magic Tree House fan, to our fourth grade Warriors (among many others) enthusiast. Neither of them enjoys the homework, but they love their teachers and classes at school.

We sold our house on SOME STREET in July. Unfortunately, we were not able to find another house to purchase before our closing date, but God worked it out for us to find a temporary rental house for the interim between permanent housing. The housing market in OUR TOWN seemed to experience a boom this year, which is great if you’re selling, but made it difficult when the houses we wanted were being sold before we could get in an offer.

We were very grateful to finally find a house in September. It needed a lot of work, and frankly, it still needs quite a bit, but we were able to get a lot finished before moving in on October 31st. It’s kept us very busy in the last few months (hence the lateness of this annual card and update), but we’re finally feeling semi-settled again and looking forward to staying in this one for a good while.

All in all, it just doesn’t seem possible that another year has gone by so quickly. It feels like we blinked and 2013 disappeared. We have had a very busy year, and the old saying rings true: “Time flies when you’re having fun.” We’ve truly been blessed this year, and we hope that you have, too. We’d love to hear back from you, and please stop in anytime you’re in our area.

All our love,
KC, Faith, MUNCHKIN, & K-MAN

And sounds like we’re ready to head off to grab some lunch, so this is it for today! Have a WONDERFUL day!

Bowchikkawowow

I am Ex. Hau. Sted. Millions of things running around in my head at this moment, but I wanted to stop and take a few minutes to update the (sorely) neglected blog.

Translated, this is what I do when I’m sitting at my desk trying to make homemade ornaments and I don’t feel like plugging the hot glue gun up for the few spare seconds before time to head to church…so I divert. Also, glitter and I have a love/hate relationship and I’m avoiding her right now, too. I figure divert is a MUCH better option for just before church than say hot glue guns and glitter.

And since I haven’t “diverted” to the blog in a while….like over a month (HOW HAS IT BEEN THAT LONG?) I thought it might be time.

Today was my last photography 110 class. Photography 115 and 120 start in January, but I’m going to enjoy the time off until then. I finished with a 98-A (yay).

Here’s a few assignments I had to do this semester that I don’t think I’ve shared yet….

Story telling assignment:

Lighting assignment: (diffused lighting and diffused directional lighting)

Depth of Field Assignment:

Composition assignment: (spot: the leaf; line: the stairs)

I really like class (although a couple of the classmates really try my patience—ugh) and even most of the homework isn’t terrible. I feel like I learned a lot this semester. Now when I take a bad picture, I know what I did wrong. LOL.

So in other news, the house is coming along nicely. I have Munchkin’s closet still to paint, and unfortunately, still some white trim that isn’t finished. ARGHHH. White trim makes me REALLY frustrated. Mostly because there is SO stinkin’ much of it that I paint and paint and paint and still don’t get finished. *sigh* The kitchen is functional (all but the microwave, some small trim, and replacing the electrical outlets and lights). Hopefully those things will all be fixed very soon. Also, we’re still looking for furniture for Munchkin’s room and we really need to go ahead and get closet organizers for both kids closets so I can unpack their toys and books. SOON…very soon…I hope.

I should have some before/after shots pretty soon, also. I just keep waiting for perfection…it’s just the kind of person I am. LoL. One day I’ll learn to get over that. Maybe.

Okeydokey…time for church. Later…whoever still reads this. =)

Whoa

Wow, the things I could say tonight…if I had energy to stay awake. This is the first day my computer has been opened in like…over a week, I think.

That is highly unusual, to say the least. I’ve just been a wee bit exhausted (as I am right now) and haven’t had the energy to find my computer and plug it up and open it. I’m not sure where I found the energy tonight, but I figured since it was open, I’d post a quick update.

The update is:

Our three month rental ended.

The house we bought didn’t get finished with renovating. We moved in last week anyway.

This picture is a small sample of life in our house at the moment:

I have no countertops, no finished cabinets to unpack anything into, no wall cabinets. But I only have one dirty utensil from supper. There are small benefits to not having a working kitchen. LOL…great excuse not to cook. Although, three months (going on four) of my kitchen packed in boxes, I’m actually looking forward to cooking again. I hope I remember how! LOL

Painting is my life story these days. Some day in the VERY near future (I hope), I will be back to share before and after photos! =)

There are so many other things also in my head right now but I have no energy to get them out. Goodnight. =)

Unpacking Stinks

I have to say though, it beats living out of boxes for 3 months like we’ve been doing.

And before you think it (or maybe you already have), no, we’re not unpacking boxes yet. Still lots of work to be done before we can move in, but the other kind of unpacking (like at the end of a nice weeklong cruise) is pretty much painful, too. =)

In case you missed that reference, yes, we were on a cruise last week, and it was beautiful. No, I wouldn’t have planned to take a cruise right in the middle of major time-crunched renovations, but we had it booked before our other house even sold. We had no idea when we booked, that the week of the cruise would be smack in the middle of trying to get our new house renovated to move-in ready status.

And we went sans-kids…a very nice mommy/daddy break. A break that was passive-aggressively protested by not doing schoolwork or bringing it home as homework when it didn’t get done at school for an entire week. Kids will be kids.

As far as cruises go, it was awesome. There were a few minor issues I could have done without (like a midnight ER visit right before getting on the ship the next morning, and then needing to drink lots of cranberry and take antibiotics and ibuprofen every few hours all week…yes…I could have TOTALLY skipped that…lol) but on the whole, it was a fantastic time! KC’s cousins met us in Port Canaveral and went on the cruise with us, and we all had a blast hanging out. Laughed SO much…it was great. I shared most of the pics on facebook, but for the few of you who wanted to see them but don’t have facebook, I’ll post some of them here for you. =) Love you, Aunt C! =)

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I spent more time having fun than I did taking pictures…but I still got a few I really liked. =) We went snorkeling off a catamaran in St Thomas, paddle-boarding in Coco Cay, walked around St Maarten a few minutes and then decided to go back to the ship and enjoy having it mostly to ourselves while 80% of the other cruisers were off doing excursions, rock climbed, played ping pong, read a few books, took a few naps….got really spoiled.

REALLY SPOILED.

*sigh* I love cruising.

And then it was like being tossed into a cold shower of reality. Piles of laundry. Homework. School. Housework. Obi had a messed up tail and had to go to the vet for prednisone. I had to go back to the doctor for another round of antibiotics because my little problem was still hanging around. Bills due ASAP. Mail to sort through. ON AND ON…and we can’t forget those renovations still need attention because we are another week closer to the due date. ACKKKK.

No more complaining though. Obi’s tail is perking back up again, and my tail is hopefully going to perk back up again, too. Everything else will (*fingers crossed*) fall into place as we go….

Well, back is hurting and eyes are drooping so I’m headed off to the sack. Night. =)

Reflections

I am caught up on homework. Ahead even. Hallelujah. Life is crazy at the moment and my head is trying to tell me it’s too much crazy by pounding like an axe into a block of wood. Totally an accurate comparison (blockhead=me). LOL. So true. But I could do without the splitting, although truthfully, even with a splitting head, I can’t complain. There are too many people I know personally with much bigger problems than a headache. So it’s all good.

Shot in Camera RAW and Manual mode today in class—two things that always really intimidated me before this class. I’m totally proud of myself. (although by no means am I going to let my head get too big—pride still goes before a fall…lol)

Our new house is progressing nicely (even if it does feel really slow because I just want it done already). The previous owners left us this beautimous old 1920’s player piano (probably because it weighed a few tons, was grossly out of tune, and would have to be restored to working condition again). We let it sit there for a few weeks, I called a couple of piano places to see if it was worth anything (they didn’t seem to think so), but anyway, KC arranged to get it gone and it was picked up today. One more thing off the list. 

Wallpaper removal is another one that is slowly getting done. Here’s an “in progress” shot…the left side has been removed and there’s a section on the right that you can sort of see the old wallpaper. This hallway is now wallpaper-less (both the wall AND floor, lol) and we’re down to one room (a bathroom) that still needs de-wallpapering. Closer than we were but not as close as I’d like to be. I really wanted to work today but my head is not working with me on that. 

When I left today, the crew was pouring concrete around the drain for the tile shower in the master bath. I can’t wait to get after pictures….it is going to look fan-TAS-tic!

I really really need to put this headache aside and go back over and do something small (like pulling staples out of the carpet padding in preparation for carpet removal) just so I can feel like I did something today. But it’s almost time for the hubby to get home from work and then I’ll have to feed the masses and get everybody out the door for church, so I guess I’ll just have to wait until tomorrow.

Moving on…lots to get done.

Have I mentioned that I have a FOURTH grader now? This kiddo gets to go on the overnight fourth grade field trip to the outer banks this year. I say that because one more thing on tomorrow’s to-do list is to go to the parent meeting for the trip planning.

I also have a second grader. I was a horrible, horrible mom this year and didn’t take first day of school pics. I meant to go back and do it on the second day….never happened. *sigh* Guess this year will just be a no-go on that. =( I still might stage it and pretend it was the first day…haha.

Something that really puzzles me though is that the fourth grader has pretty much NO homework, and the second grader has nightly homework that takes at least 30 minutes every night.

And now for a rapid change of subject…I think I broke my once a month record of posting. HA!

And just because I really like pictures right now, I’m going to leave on one. =)

Photo Field Trip

I am SO loving this photography program….it’s a lot to cram in my skull but boy howdy is it ever awesome to understand how my camera is doing what it does.

I’m shooting in Manual mode now and oddly enough, everything isn’t all black or all white anymore. LOL!

Anyway, our class took a field trip today out to an old mill to work on this week’s depth of field assignment. It was gorgeous and so fun!

Now my problem is to pick which photos to turn in because I have at least two options for each set that I really like.

Here’s a set I probably won’t turn in:

The lovely Ragweed

First photo is increased depth of field using short focal length (wide angle) and second photo is decreased depth of field using long focal length (telephoto). The first one is at 35mm and the second one is at 134mm.

I also got some really cool shots that don’t qualify for the conditions of the assignment, but I just couldn’t resist taking other pictures besides the assigned ones.

Ahhhhhh…I love photography! I love “loving” it again…I was totally burned out for awhile but this has gotten my mojo back up again. I’m so excited…I just can’t hide it…lol.

Sorry…I’ll quit gushing now. I could talk about that wallpaper….gushing immediately goes away then…rofl.

In other news, there’s a lot less of that wallpaper in the house now…but still too much for my tastes. *sigh*  At least we’re getting something done though. Could always be worse.

Later!

Monthly Post

Well….looks like this is just going to be the year for monthly posting. I just don’t seem to be getting around to posting more often than that. BUT—at least I haven’t completely abandoned the ol’ blog like some that I won’t mention. LOL =) =)

It’s been another busy month. I did have a few days rest during the rental only phase, but now we’ve closed on our next house and we’re living in the rental for one more month while we fix up the new place, so we’re back to the joys and time-sucking qualities of home ownership—but just not living in it yet.

We closed on Monday, and got the paint to get started the next day, but then we just keep running into road-blocks. The walls needed to be patched and sanded first, then we decided to remove the door frames and replace the interior doors while we were waiting on the patching part, but then the door frames are not standard sizes so we’ll have to special order those. Same with the replacement windows…special sizes. BUT the work crew already has the kitchen gutted and most of the family room that is going to be converted to the new master bedroom, so we are seeing progress from the professionals…it’s just we amateurs that aren’t getting anywhere. LOL.

ANYWAY…we did get all our stuff out of the storage building and stored in the basement of the new place, so we did get something done. It was kind of a crazy week last week. I got busy and didn’t get all my homework done until tonight. I hate last minute stuff. Just like over the summer, I’m really thankful I am only in one class…I’m keeping up my grade better this way. If I had more than one class with everything else in my life, I’d never make decent grades. Speaking of class, there are some people in there that have really tempted me to blog before now…seems like every single class I get stuck with a crazy. Praying for patience and the ability to keep my mouth shut.

Whatever. Some days I have it…other days….well, I have something, but I don’t think I’d call it patience. lol

Here’s some of my photo assignment rejects: I only turn in five photos for my assignment this week, and I had a couple to choose from on some of these, so these are the ones I didn’t turn in.

These were from the panning shot requirement…I had to take like five hundred shots trying to get a good one, and then I snapped ONE of the school bus going by behind the house and that ended up being the one I liked best. Go figure. These were my next favorites though.

Shoo. I’m exhausted. But all my homework is ready, I got a short nap today, and I have a giant bottle of Advil. I think I’m ready to take on the week. Here goes nothin’

While we’re talking photos, check out the horror that is also known as the kitchen wallpaper that we got to get gone this week:

Well anyway…wish me luck…I’m going to need it because they didn’t do no sloppy job with that wallpaper…it’s the good stuff and it’s glued on tight. *grumpy face* lol.

Later!

Ahem. Is This Thing On?

Whoops. I did it again. It appears that I have misplaced another month. LOL.

It’s been a little busy around here. I can’t imagine why I haven’t had time to blog. It’s only that since I last posted, we moved out of our ginormous house (and left it super-duper clean---a three day task in itself), made at least fifty trips to the storage building, moved everything that didn’t go to storage into an adorable little rental house (after I spent a few hours cleaning it), had VBS, started the process of purchasing a house to live in after we have to leave this little rental in another two months, got all the back to school shopping done, got caught up on the laundry that got behind while moving, organized our boxes at least fifty times to try to keep everything where I could find it in the interim between permanent housing, went to visit family in Georgia, got the kids and myself back in the school routine again…and on it goes. And that was a really long sentence.

I’m trying to enjoy this short period of relatively UN-busy-ness between permanent housing by taking a few short naps and taking time for fun reads. I say ‘relatively’ because it still seems like there’s an awful lot to be done every day, but it feels less busy because of those small things like not spending every waking hour moving boxes or cleaning. The beautiful thing about small houses is that I can tidy and clean the whole house in 20 minutes. Yippee! LOL

School is going good so far. I’m in Fundamentals of Photography this semester. I feel like I’m taking anatomy for cameras. If I can get all the technical terms straight in my head (and even better—remember them forever), I will be one happy girl! You’d think it’d be simple…but…not so much. I love it though!

The kids aren’t quite as thrilled to be back in class, however. I’ve already heard from my little numbers guy…on the first day of school, no less…”One day down, one hundred and seventy nine days left.” This from my same kiddo who went to meet his second grade teacher last week, and when she asked him if he had any questions for her, asked how many hours it was going to take every day. She said about six and a half. He nodded and seemed satisfied with her answer. He is going to be my little nerd. I can see it now. The other one is excited to be joining chorus this year. She’s not so keen on schoolwork, but she loves extracurricular activity. So now, one day a week, her little brother will ride the bus home by himself, and then he and I will go pick up his sister about 45 minutes later. Ah well.

I’m just hoping they don’t have any more bus-tastrophe’s this year. The very first day of school, they rode the bus home. They are supposed to be the second stop, but the bus was broke down and running late and then I sat on the porch and watched it go right on by our stop. I called the school, they couldn’t get the bus on the radio. Finally they called back and said they just missed the stop, and would be back by in about ten, so I waited. And waited. And then watched their bus go by on the street behind our house. And then the school called again and said the bus went to pick up the middle school load and my kids were still on it, and that they would be dropped off at the beginning of the middle school route. SO…more than an hour and a half on the school bus. I’m thinking it was worse for mommy than for them. The bus driver apologized all over the place when they finally stopped in front of our house. And the last two days they have only been on the bus for their normal less than five minutes ride.

Well, anyway, that’s about it for the exciting things around here these days. I’d promise to blog again soon, but I’m about to realize that I shouldn’t make those rash kinds of promises anymore. LOL. Especially since our next house is tentatively scheduled to close in about 2 weeks and then it will all be ON from there. =) I can promise I’ll do my best to not be so neglectful of you though, my dear blog.

For now…I have to get back to my to-do list…it’s shaping up to be a busy afternoon.

Time Didn’t Stop?

Whoa…I thought everything froze. Or maybe that’s just because everything is going so fast, it’s all a blur. I let a whole month go by without blogging…my bad. (SORRY AUNT C! =)

This was totally not my favorite month of my life. I am not good with stress and extreme busy-ness, but we’ve made it and nearing the home stretch now.

Our house is sold. Barring any unexpected problems, the new owners will be moving in our lovely gi-normous house on the 15th. Which also means that we have to leave our lovely gi-normous house before then. It’s been quite the rollercoaster (especially when we thought the closing date was moving up to this coming week—but wasn’t…whew!). All the inspections are complete and everything is good to go, so it’s just getting everything moved and cleaning up after ourselves now.

I was really panicking, because up until today, we didn’t have anything else lined up for sure. Thank God though, because somebody knew somebody and turns out we knew that somebody, too, we just didn’t know they had a house for rent in exactly the right spot for the right price at exactly the right time. We were all prepared to move in with my parents if we couldn’t find something, but lucky for them—and us (since their house is not ideal for four adults, two kids, three dogs, and one cat—and we’d have probably all been ready to strangle each other by the end of a week) this other temporary home worked out. =)

*big sigh of relief*

So now it’s just a long process of packing all our junk (I really thought we had gotten rid of a lot…but…NOT) and separating what needs to go to storage and what we need to use in the rental house for the next 2-3 months. Also, we’re still house hunting. We have to be out of the rental by November because there were other tenants already scheduled to move in then, but this gives us just the amount of time we need to find a home to buy. =) Couldn’t be a more perfect arrangement, I don’t think. =)

Also, in the last month, the kids wrapped up their summer swim team commitment, and did a really good job on the team. K-man learned all the strokes and was particularly good at breast stroke (even got a couple ribbons). Munchkin had a harder time this year, being the youngest in her bracket instead of the oldest like she was last year, but she still managed to win a heat there at the end of the season.

I finished my semester project with 200 out of 200 possible points (YAY…and thank you to Mom, Dad, Aunt E, and the videoed interview of my grandma who passed away awhile back, for all the information to make a successful paper)! I also went ahead and took the last few exams for that class and got a final grade of A (another big sigh of relief) from that class. I’m really glad I didn’t try to take any other classes besides that one this summer! That would have been disastrous with everything else going on. My next semester starts August 19th and I’ve got 5 credit hours in this one. Shouldn’t be too terrible awful. =)

Went to Ohio last week, too. I really didn’t want to go, with everything else going on, but I’m really glad we did now, because I totally needed the break.

Another thing in my crazy life – I committed to do pictures of a friends “outdoor” wedding a couple of months ago. I never dreamed everything would turn into the perfect storm and happen at the same time. Our house selling and us in the middle of moving right at the time of the wedding, the fact that it’s a wedding and I don’t particularly care to do weddings, it rained and outdoors became indoors, I want to work on editing but packing still awaits….yeah. Perfect storm. On the very bright side, it seems that I did manage to get quite a few good pictures in spite of the “indoors” thing. Another beautiful thing was the bride…she was SO laidback and not stressing about the photos or how they turned out at all, which makes my job so much easier. It was probably the easiest wedding I’ve ever photographed, despite the terrible, awful indoor aspect. I know it helped that I had a wonderful friend IN the wedding party who was TOTALLY helpful in organizing and orchestrating the timing for photos. It was just awesome! Hopefully, my lovely bride-friend will feel the same whenever I deliver the finished product to her. =)

Anyway, I was going to go to bed an hour ago, but I thought I’d blog for five minutes first. And this is just one of the many reasons the blog has been neglected for an entire month…because this happens every time! =)

These are just a few of the reasons behind the overwhelmed-ness of my last post. And by the way, thank you for the comments on that…you guys are sweet! =)

Love till next time! =)

O--

---verwhelmed. I need a hole to crawl in right now. Oh my.

I have nothing really important to say, just that I’m here. I’m still alive, but seriously…SERIOUSLY…overwhelmed.

And I’m hungry.

Some day I’ll come back and tell you all about it.  That is…if anyone’s still here. =)

Where To Begin?

The beginning would be the obvious answer, but it seems so very far away now. I’m not sure I want to go back that far.

So. How about May’s Photo a Day challenge. Here’s those:

1. 2. 3. 
4. 5. 6. 
7. 8. 9. 
10. 11. 12. 
13. 14. 15. 
16. 17. 18. 
19. 20. 21. 
22. 23. 24. 
25. 26. 27. 
28. 29. 30. 
31.

The list:

I’m working on a photo hunt for June, but I’m falling behind…worse than last time, so I am either going to have to play some serious catch-up or give-up. LOL

As far as what else is going on…I’ve done more pictures. I’m taking one summer class (Sociology of the Family) and already dreading the research paper I have to write for it. I have about a month before it’s due, so I should be working on it but…yuck. LOL. The kids are on the swim team so we’ve had practices for that. An offer came on the house, but not sure yet if our counter offer will be accepted or not. Of course, with the potential of downsizing looming on the horizon, I’ve been thinking about starting to go through our junk and get busy on clean-out, because there’s no way all our stuff will fit in the tiny fixer-upper we’re considering. And then I signed on to sell Thirty-One Gifts, (because I just ADORE their bags and organizers and I want to make enough to pay for my little addiction), but that’s not helping the DOWNSIZING idea, except that I can really use the organizers to make my life easier after I downsize all our other junk. It helps that Thirty-One bags and totes are so stinkin’ adorable and useful that they pretty much sell themselves. =) Don’t believe me? Look for yourself! =) Of course, in person they’re even more awesome, and naturally, I’d be more than happy to show you. ;-)

Anyway, that’s my very recent life in a paragraph. Of course, there’s tons more that doesn’t fit in one paragraph (birthday parties, graduations, bills, church, laundry, spray painting old folding chairs, yada yada), but we’ll just leave it at that.

I’ll try not to wait so long between blogs next time. =)