That Feeling

I feel like I’m really on top of things right now. Like I’m getting everything done, and oh, so productive. Like that busy little bee over there -->

But then I get that feeling.

You know the one. The one that says maybe you’re not that awesome. The one that says you’re probably forgetting something REALLLLLLLY important and you won’t remember it until it’s too late--and THEN you’re not only going to feel NOT awesome, you’re gonna feel like that squishy stuff that the dogs leave in the yard.

THAT feeling. 

I don’t know what to do about that feeling. I’ve made lists. I’ve checked them twice (even though they’re not naughty lists and I’m not Santa). I’ve even checked my calendar.

Hi, I’m Dory! What’s your name?

Okay, anyway. I finished my Entrepreneurship class today (a week early…hallelujah!). I now know how to spell “entrepreneurship.” I also know I hate writing business plans. And I’m 95% sure I will be finishing that dreadful class with a beautiful A. All’s well that ends well. I’m pretty sure I’ll be getting an A in Commercial Photography also, but Photojournalism has thrown me for a loop. I have my fingers crossed for an A in that class. I’m hovering just inside the A field right now, but there are a couple of upcoming assignments left that might kick my rear and that would make me really sad. I’ve learned from photojournalism class that I admire photojournalists greatly and I don’t think I is one. lol

Hi, I’m Perfectionist Dory. *goofy face*

I have so many things still on my to-do list, but I’m making great progress on---

Poo. I just accidently keystroke deleted a whole piece of post. And I don’t feel like rewriting. Also, I don’t remember exactly what I was blabbering about when I accidentally hit the wrong button.

Hi, I’m Dory.

Otay….so I’m going to get back to work on that list now. I have exactly one hour before church and I need to get about 5 hours worth of work done in that hour so…..I’ll probably open Facebook and forget that I was working on that list.

Yeah.

Dory…over and out.   

Going Grey

Yikes. I found more grey hair the other day. I wasn’t really surprised. Life is whooping my behind lately. If you didn’t miss me, I’ll just not point out my absence from the blog again. LOL. I cannot believe how fast this year has passed. It’s almost impossible to imagine, but Christmas is right on top of us again. ARGH!

*pause for a moment while I sit in the corner and weep*

Okay, I’m back. Current first world problems I’m sorting through at the moment include re-organizing my phone and setting everything back up (the microphone died and I had to get a replacement phone), trying to figure out how I’m going to get all my class assignments done before the end of the semester, working up the creative juices to turn a pile of fabric scraps into a lovely hairpiece for one of those aforementioned assignments, *gag* laundry, wondering what I shall do for a Christmas card this year, and having a meltdown because all these things are right on top of me and I don’t feel like doing any of them.

In better news, I now can talk on the phone without requiring the use of speakerphone. I am also signed up for my final semester of school. If I can make it till next Wednesday, I’ll get a few days off. One day at a time.

Also, I haven’t had a Dr. Pepper since August. I miss my doctor. But I’m really tired of quitting five times a year so I’m trying to make this “quit” stick. lol.

I can’t think of anything else right at the moment and I have piles of fabric sitting here demanding my attention. I’m ready for them to stop bugging me so I guess I’ll try to get them knocked out and ready for Monday. Joy. See ya in another month or so…lol.

Oh My Gourd!

Here I am getting ready to do it again. I don’t know how the month disappears like this. Okay, well I sorta do. It’s cuz I’m so stinkin busy. I wasn’t kidding, the third class that started up online is kicking my hiney. I despise that class. The other ones aren’t so bad, but they’re still keeping me crazy busy, too. Also, KC and I went on a cruise again. Then I had a girls weekend to the beach. I haven’t really been home much in October.

I know. I do it to myself.

I’m so ready to graduate…..one more semester…I can do this!

I’ve got to get back to work, projects don’t get done by themselves…but before I go…here’s some pictures I love from one of my last assignments when we were sent to a pumpkin patch/corn maze. Yes, my kids are in the pictures….they were out of school on a teacher workday and KC was out of town so I couldn’t leave them at home. LOL

How In The World

How is it possible that a month has already passed again since I blogged last? Whoa.

How is it possible that tomorrow my littlest kid hits the double digits?

How in the world did I ever manage to work a paying job and get everything done?

How do food bloggers not gain a thousand pounds from eating the delicious food they photograph?

Cause, dude…this is what I’m getting ready to eat:

My semester project in two of my classes is this bakery down the street from my house. If I don’t gain back every last pound I’ve managed to work off this summer by the end of this semester, it will be a complete miracle! Eek.

Must go do some ab workouts now. *sigh*

Brewing

So I love a good cup of coffee…most of the time I love it best when it’s drowned in sweetness and chocolate, but I was thinking about how the longer it brews, the stronger it gets. I’ve got a couple of blog posts brewing in my head and I’m a little worried that the longer they percolate, the stronger they’re going to be. I guess I’ll just have to throw lots of sweetness in there when I get around to blogging it. Hahaha.

In the meantime, I’m still slowly (very slowly) cleaning out my mess of an office. I’ve gone through a bunch of stuff and organized it, and got rid of a tub full of stuff I’m never going to get around to using. I’ve nearly broken my neck a couple of time from using this office this last week, thanks to the obstacle course I’ve created for myself. Step over this box, step across to that one little empty spot on the floor, hop twice, fall into the chair….that’s the idea. Anyway…I’m getting there. Hopefully I’ll get there before I break anything vitally necessary to living.

I had to take a break from cleaning and paint a canvas set for a baby nursery that a friend from church ordered Sunday and needed by today, so that was a fun little distraction. I was a little worried that I wouldn’t get it done in time, but I sketched it out Monday, painted the main parts of it yesterday, and finished the final touches today….in little moments here and there between everything else I have going on. 

I think it turned out pretty good. The nursery is superhero themed and primary colors so I hope these will be close to matching. It was quite a challenge finding a surface to paint on since every flat space in my room (including the floor) is pretty much covered…I used the computer keyboard at one point….thankfully I didn’t drip anything or make a mess…lol. KC would have killed me.

Anyway, that’s pretty much all that’s shakin’ around here these days. School is keeping me busy. My third class hasn’t even started yet…when that happens I’m REALLY gonna be busy. Yikes.

Time to get everybody moving for church now, so off I go…

No Excuses

Okay, I am not even going to comment on my utter failure as a blogger over the summer. Except…I kinda just did. LOL. I have been extremely busy, but that is a lousy excuse and I admit it. I’ve just not been in the mood to write anything that might be remotely readable.

Feel very sorry for my English teacher who had to grade a paper that I wrote while not in the mood to write anything remotely readable, you should. *faith makes a silly face here*

However, I still ended the summer semester with my 4.0 GPA firmly intact. Go self. Only two more semesters, both will probably be a lot more work to keep that lovely GPA, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. FINALLY. This semester is Commercial Photography, Photojournalism, and Entrepreneurship and next semester will be Business, Multimedia, and Portfolio II….then I’ll get to be FREE! YAY! *fingers crossed* that nothing goes wrong with the schedule to mess things up.

Kids went back to school yesterday. The PTDQ is in middle school now. YIKES. I hate it….the school, that is. I could rant for hours about their lack of communication and simple organization, but I won’t. I have too many other things to do today.

THIS……….. ^^^ ………is what I’m avoiding at the moment. I am sitting right now in the middle of that mess wishing it would organize itself. Actually, this picture was taken this morning before I removed everything from the closet to go through and weed out all my craft stuff….so when I say I’m in the middle of a mess, this picture is a slight understatement. I’m so not in the mood. I have too much junk. But it will be better when I finish so I really need to get back to it.

First though, my project yesterday…I have been meaning to make my own padded insert to convert a purse to a camera bag. I’ve seen all kinds of cute pins on this, and thought it looked simple enough….

Well. I did it. I am an awfully horrific seamstress so don’t look closely at the stitching but the foam is closed up in there and the camera is protected. And if you don’t look closely, it’s pretty cute, too. HAHAHA.
 
I was a bit bummed though because the purse seemed a lot bigger before I put the insert in….I may have to revisit this project with a larger purse because I was really hoping to be able to carry an extra lens AND a flash…along with a few other necessary objects. And as it is, I can carry one extra lens and the charger with the camera…nothing else. It will work for now, but I’ll have to keep looking for a better arrangement.

HUMMM…I just had a stroke of genius…my old camera bag that is falling apart at the seams has padding in it I could possibly reuse as a padded liner if I disassemble it completely and sew it into a new liner…..AHA! I won’t trash it just yet after all! LOL

Great. Now I have one more item that has to stay in this already overcrowded office until I can put it to good use.

Okay back to work. Now anyone who still reads this knows I’m still alive. And still a procrastinator. All is right with the world. HAHAH.

Have a lovely day.

In Which She Apologizes

Oh my word…have I ever been absent….

Absent minded as usual, but also absent from posting here for awhile. I got online to blog like 5 different times and then got totally distracted and got busy doing other things on the computer.

Things like…dreaming of vacations and googling crazy things I found on pinterest that will likely never happen in reality….

Like for instance, getting a $900-$2100 rooftop tent to put on our truck to go camping in….never gonna happen.

BUT LOOK HOW COOL!

I never even knew such a thing existed!!! Crazy, right?

Wanna see something even funnier? It’s a double never gonna happen….a mini cooper with a rooftop tent….but how funny!

In my adventurous other life, I’d totally do something like this and road-trip all summer long.

That would be so fun! But ah well…dreaming is fun, too. It just makes it difficult to get blogs posted. Hahah.

Other things keeping me busy:

English: Terribly disgusting business, that grammar stuff. On the bright side though, the teacher is allowing us to work at our own pace, which means I’ve already finished all but the last unit plus the final exam…and the class isn’t supposed to end until July 20-something. I wanted to get the entire thing including the last unit (which is a horrible research paper) finished before the kids get out of school this week, but I’m going to have to settle because I’m not going to have the time to finish that unit this week. It requires some pretty heavy thought and research (How does globalization affect photography?), and I can’t do any more this week. Some people are brilliant at this stuff, but even these comparatively lightweight assignments just kill me!

Summer planning: OH my word…the kids are swimming again this year, plus taikwando, plus band camp for my rising middle schooler (GASP…MIDDLE SCHOOLER!), plus basketball camp for my rising 4th grader, plus hopefully a vacation somewhere in there, plus mission team work week, plus photographing an event, plus….well, there’s the idea anyway.

Home maintenance and gardening: Well, that pretty much says it all, but to be more specific, we finally finished the destruction, cleaning, painting, and re-screening of the screen porch. Besides that, the basement clean-out, while slower than before, has still continued. We tore down the old mailbox (a job and a half) and replaced that, and added a nice little flower bed around it. It’s adorable. Then there’s the garden…it’s growing splendiforously, but has yet to produce anything major. Just a bit of lettuce so far, and a small crop of basil. The stinkin’ cuke plant has climbed its stick teepee and is almost taller than the house now, but still only has flower blooms…no cukes. Is there such a thing as too much fertilizer?

Back to the basil, the most wonderful herb ever invented. I have a little food processor now. I found it at TJ Maxx on clearance for $10. Best $10 I’ve ever spent. I’ve made homemade pesto 3 or 4 times now I think. It’s fantastico! I adore homemade pesto. Did I say ADORE? YES. SOOOOO good. Not even kidding. I got the general recipe from pinterest (of course) but I always add or leave out stuff, so it’s never exactly the same…but always brilliantly yummy!

Also in the subject of brilliant inventions: CONTACTS! YES! I finally have eye insurance, so I went back to get the contact fitting. Three samples and lots of trying again and again to put in and remove said contacts without stabbing my eyes out…I am a happy contact wearer! I love seeing without having to wear glasses!

So yeah. I’ve been a busy little beaver. Because you see, everything above is just the tiny tip of a huge Titanic sized iceberg.

That’s just a few little things. I haven’t even gone into half the stuff that goes on in my poor little absent minded brain.

I would apologize for that, but I think that deserves a “you’re welcome” instead! LOL

So I’m sorry for being gone so long, but you’re welcome for not un-loading all my crazy. ;-)

Have a lovely day…night…daynightdaynight….or however long it is until I make another appearance. =)

Holy Sha-Moly

Okay, so I haven’t blogged in forever. I have been slammed with a thousand things…mostly just trying to wrap up this semester and keep everything else from falling apart at the same time. You know how it is, trying to get semester projects wrapped up while staying on top of regular, weekly assignments.

Bragging for a sec though, I am so on top of it that I’m all but cruising through the next two weeks. No panicking, no stressing, all but the finishing touches on my last semester project to go…and I have a week to do it. I am SOOOO happy. I’m skipping Friday (a workday in Digital Imaging and I’m finished with that final project already—see the huge matted print over there to the right with my hand holding it for scale?), and I might even skip next Monday (the last workday in Documentary Photography) if I get the finishing touches on my Doc project finished tomorrow. I’m an overachiever and a perfectionist…I probably should be ashamed of myself.

But I’m not.

Because I’m usually a procrastinator and this time I worked really hard EARLY.

So I’m going to kick the guilt to the curb.

And then take a nice two week break between Spring & Summer semesters before I get slammed with horrid English. Because I’ve procrastinated as long as possible on taking that class and now it’s time to get it behind me.

Ah well.

Life is good.

God is good-er.

And my grammar better be better than that this summer or I will totally fail horrid English.

Have a lovely night. =))

 

Cheers

Here’s to all the projects that seem like they should be easy. But then they’re not.

My world is FILLED with these projects. But back to that in a minute…

So Easter was nice. The one family picture I managed to get had major glasses glare which bugs the snot out of me, but at least the moment is captured.

Then back to projects that should be simple but then are overwhelmingly not….my last project in Documentary Photography was to get six images that document yourself. I thought…yeah, simple. But then…how do I narrow it down to six?

  

Amazingly NOT simple.

Also not simple, my stinkin semester project in digital. I’ve reshot the thing twice now and still don’t have usable pics. I don’t know why it doesn’t seem to be working. So now I’m flat out refusing to reshoot it again, I’m going to do the same idea but with different stuff that I can shoot in a different location. We’ll see if that fixes it. It should be so simple. Ten images composited into one final image.

I’m not complaining…just noticing how there are so many things that SHOULD be easy.

Oil-based primer is another prime example. (LOL…I crack myself up)

“Just use this Mineral Oil to clean your brushes,” the Lowes lady says.

Thirty minutes and every surface covered in slimy gook later….NOTHING is clean.

Plus, I have windows open and all kinds of fans running and I’m about to pass out on fumes. All I can say is, THIS BETTER BE WORTH IT! If I have paint the PTDQ’s bathroom one more time, I’m going to be tempted to just gut the thing and put a whole new bathroom in there. :) Since that’s not in the budget right now, this crazy sticks to everything primer better do its job and keep the paint on the wall.

Whew.

On that note, I need to get back to work…if I can uncross my eyes long enough to photoshop my project.

Later, mater!

My Achy (but not breaky) Hands

These two hands.....are so tired they can barely move.

They've vacuumed a car, sprayed and wiped the car interior, washed and dried car exterior,  scrubbed/dried/trimmed nails on two giant dogs, painted a concrete wall with dryloc (thick as molasses and equally difficult to spread), washed 4 loads of laundry, chemically treated a concrete floor to prep for paint, mopped those chemicals back up (×3), used a caulk gun to repair 8 miles of concrete crack (FELT LIKE 8 miles anyway--do you know how much hand strength a caulk gun requires?!?!), and cooked supper (so these hands could stuff my face)

.....and that's just the major bits.

My hands--and the rest of me--is ready to collapse right about now. :)

but first...i have to go change the laundry again. 

Auuughhhh

Where's the Advil?

Hallelujah!!! (with a small side of Bummer)

So for starters…last night I had the normal kind of crazy dreams. You know, your everyday, basic, “the Russian’s are coming,” I’m eating apples in a tree house with some random kid from your childhood while someone you used to work with is mowing the grass, and I’m going to be late for something but I haven’t figured out what….kind of crazy dream.

No, I didn’t have that dream last night….it’s actually a compilation of several crazy dreams I (or someone I’ve known---hello KC’s Mom) has had, but it’s an example of the kind of dream I had last night.

COMPLETELY a welcome change from the, Oh My WORD, my heart is breaking, I can’t escape from this horrifying nightmare because it just keeps coming back in new ways, and I wake up exhausted even though I know it was just a dream, kind of dreams I’ve been having.

Yep. So hallelujah! Hopefully it is a trend that will continue. =)

Also another little hallelujah, I HAVE WINDOWS LIVE WRITER AGAIN! Blogging on my phone (while functional), just didn’t have the same ease of use!

And now for the small side of bummer…I noticed a class meeting today (in which a college BigWig, a cop, students, and our department instructors attended), and afterwards, heard from one of our friends in that class….Mr. Shows Up Late with Half-baked Work Who Threatened Students & Instructor…..

a. is going to be allowed to come back
b. will be searched before entering campus before every class
c. is required to be on time for all future classes (oh, duh, and here I thought that was the requirement all along!~)
d. is not allowed to threaten or verbally abuse any other students (again…a given, right?)

LIKE OH MY WORD!

Yeah, and I looked him up on the Public Records…it’s not hearsay that he is out on prob/parole. Sheesh! If I missed half as many days and came in late half as many times, I’d have already been kicked out of the program….without even threatening anyone! It’s unbelievable that he’s going to get to stay in the program (even on a probabationary status!) Mercy is great…free passes that infringe on everyone else’s rights are not.

Okay, it’s a LARGE side of Bummer.

Anyway, a short list of other recent work:

• designing for a bloggy friend some of you may know
• my semester project piece (which had to be inspired by the historical photographer we researched and wrote our paper about…I used this image by Hansel Mieth as my inspiration)
• and my inadvertent photo pun….from my advertisement project. Get it? Film ad…photo lab? LOL. Totally unintentional, but I went with it. =) I love my beautiful puppies. =) 

There’s obviously way more I could talk about (it happens when one avoids blogging), but I’ll quit there and go find me some lunch.

Have a very, VERY lovely day. =)

Mental UN-healthy Month

This month has been the craziest ever. I've avoided the blog like the plague, because I'm worried about what might happen if I get on here and spill what's in my nutty head these days.

I've had the worst dreams...over and over....it's been years since I've had horrible recurring dreams haunting me for weeks on end. It's making me crazy. And I can't seem to shake them. So weird.

The last time I had this problem, I was like 12 and had this one dream about my whole family being hospitalized that would come back night after night. This male nurse had given the rest of my family lethal injections, and was coming for me and I couldn't get away. It came in different variations, but same person and same general theme. I'm talking cray-cray dreams. So vivid and freaky that I remember the feeling this many years later. What made it freakier is that one day after I'd been having those dreams, I was in Walmart with my mom (cause I was a kid and that's what kids do), and I saw the male nurse from my dream. He was working in the pharmacy. White coat and everything. Scarred for life, I'm telling ya!

These new awful dreams are too fresh and horrible to talk about though, so I'll try to contain it and keep to mundane topics...

I'd sure like some peaceful sweet dreams  again though...these are driving me batty.

Anyway, mundane topics. :)

KC changed jobs, starts his new one on Monday.

We're getting back into house maintenance and upgrade mode again now that we know we're gonna be staying in this one for awhile longer. We weren't too certain there for a short time. Lol. 

Homework is going OK. I used spring break to get a little bit caught up and even a tad bit ahead, so now I've got a tiny window of breathing space before I feel it creeping up and threatening to strangle the life out of me again.

Nah, I'm not dramatic at all.

Although speaking of drama, remember that one dude that annoyed the snot out of me a couple of posts ago because he was too lazy to find a cologne bottle and wanted to use mine? I'm thinking his college days may be ending. There was extra security in the building today, and dude wasn't in class. Apparently, dude threatened a couple students after he blessed them out for disagreeing with him, then also threatened to shoot a teacher. I wasn't there, so it's hearsay, but I heard it from witnesses, so it's pretty solid hearsay. So yeah. Drama!

In other news, kids are still doing Taikwando. They tested for their yellow belts on Thursday and I think they did really well. I think I know almost enough to get my own yellow belt after drilling them and helping them practice for the test. Lol.

Any-ka-whoo. April is gonna be better. I can feel it. :) And today I woke up in a cheerful mood at 5 am (which never ever happens), in SPITE of having more variations of this latest terrible, awful, horrible, no good, very bad dream.

Of course, I later realized that March 20th is International Day Of Happiness, so I'm thinking my subconscious was somehow aware of this and decided to give me a little boost.

The boost has just about worn off now and the lack of sleep is kicking in. I think I'll go around the house and set all the clocks an hour ahead while the kids and KC are working/playing outside so that when they come in, we can all go straight to bed. As long as I change them all back before breakfast in the morning, no one will ever notice. And if they do notice, I'll just tell them it was an early April fools. ;)

Ahhh....sleep.....won't you be my friend again so I won't have to plot evil tricks in order to get some of you?

And there you have it. The state of my union address. Now you know (and probably wish you didn't--haha). Oh and yes, mother, I'm still taking my vitamins. :) is there a vitamin for sweet dreams?

Till next time....

Got The Blues

That would be the homework blues. It's not just mine either. What is up with third graders having to make a shoebox diorama of a land form with a checklist of requirements as long as some of my college homework checklists?

Don't they know that sending this homework home means that it's mostly gonna be the parent's homework? I prepped the shoebox, I mixed the modeling paste, I formed the Gulf of Mexico (and what was he thinking--choosing a gulf?!--why not an island or something simple? !), I showed him how to dig up moss for covering parts of the US, I told him which colors of paint to use to make it look more realistic, I helped him paint it. Now to be quite honest, he did a lot, but it was with major parental guidance.

I'm so tired of homework. My own homework is enough to drive me over the edge. Lol. But we're getting through it. Next week is spring break, so I'm hoping I'll have a chance to get caught back up again. Might be a long shot, but I like to dream big. Haha.

Snow Day

Finally a real snow day. And thankfully is one on my off day from school so I don't have an extra makeup assignment. Lol. The joys of student life. If I were smart, I'd totally be using today to catch up on everything.

Unfortunately, lazy is totally trumping smart today.

Too bad, so sad. And now that I've guilted myself into it, I guess I'll go do some laundry. :)

Stay warm. :)

Skinny Person Problems

Random thought of the day:
It's a little unfair that skinny people get laughed at when they gain a few pounds and talk about trying to get it back off. "Aw, you need to eat a few more  cheeseburgers," or "no, you really should GAIN a few pounds."

But nobody ever laughs when a large person complains about being so hungry they're "starving." Nobody ever says to them that it wouldn't hurt them to lose a few pounds anyway. Grr.
#notfair #nofilters

Better Days

So....not perfect days, but at least I'm not as close to spending too much time in orange jumpsuits.

Of course, now I have snow days and makeup assignments to drive me up the wall, so better days may not last long.

Speaking of assignments, here's the one I've gotten ready to turn in for Friday. And hey look...it's my bottle the other person wanted to hijack....

Alrighty then.

Moody Blues

Argh. I am all out of sorts today and nothing is helping. The kids are not helping. Crazy people are definitely not helping. I am so grouchy and it feels like a baby elephant is sitting on my chest, which makes me even more irritable.

Therefore, I blog. Probably not the smartest idea I've ever had, but I don't feel like ironing or doing laundry or cleaning house, so here I am. 

My problem is, I never know who might ever be reading this, so I hate to gripe about the certain people who make me mad on a regular basis because I would feel bad if they ever read it and way down deep inside, I really am a nice person and wouldn't want to hurt anyone's feelings.

However, I'm gonna go out on a limb here and bet that there's a few who will never stumble across this, and if they do, they can be like what's her face in The Help and deny that the story is about them. So I'm gonna rant for a few seconds and let the grumpy fly.

I get that people are at different levels of learning, but it bugs the fire out of me when people are lazy idiots and think they're geniuses that everyone should bend over backwards to accommodate. One of my friends and I were working on a sweep in the school studio...an open sweep...no one had signed up for it. But this person wanted it. Dude, no one signed up for it and we were there first. Get over it. I don't know everything, for sure, but if I ask to butt into someone else's studio space and time, I'm gonna do my best to not just be a taker. Then to top it all off, the person had the nerve to ask if they could use my cologne bottle that I brought in to use for my advertisement project--for their advertisement....in the same class. Are you kidding me? If you don't have your own bottle to use for the ad, make it an ad about the clothing the model is wearing. Make it an ad for shaving cream. Make it an ad for anything! Seriously, there's thousands of ideas without using the cologne bottle I just shot. Except that would be work. I almost forgot. I don't even care that you are going to do an ad for the same cologne as I'm doing....but for Pete's sake, get your own bottle!

Ok, I'll stop now. That was just one of the little things that set me off today. Most of the other things weren't quite as easily definable. A third grader with a clearly definable 8's times table who is determined to push my every last button, however, isn't one of the undefinable things. Grrrr.

Also, I just want to eat lots and lots of junk food and I'm trying to resist and it's making me very hangry. That's angry hungry for anyone who hasn't seen the ecard on pinterest.

Now I said I'd quit so I better leave before this venting gets too out of control.

And i know I'm supposed to finish blogging about the imaging conference, but I don't know if I'll get back around to it or not. I'm so over school this semester. I don't know how I'm going to get through another three semesters. *sigh*

Yes yes I'm leaving now. :/ deep breaths....it will all be okay.

.....right????

Back Home

And hallelujah, am I ever happy to be home.

It was a fantastic conference, but it's great to be back in NC again.

I'll have to come back and post the pics of the last couple days before I forget, hopefully. I tried to do it every night, but I would get through the days pics and then run out of steam because I was so tired by bedtime and the days were way too busy to fit it in during the day.

According to my step counter, over the last five days, I've walked around 30 miles. It's no wonder my feet hurt and I'm exhausted. Lol.

Anyway, I'm home, and it's great. :) hopefully more on the trip tomorrow. :)

Opryland

Oh my word. This is crazy. This hotel is insanely confusing.

It's in a circle. ....kinda like a clock....I wonder if this is where the concept of the arena of the hunger games originated?

Besides drama over room arrangements, our group is pretty much settled in here at Opryland. Imaging starts tomorrow and I'm pretty excited to see how this will go. Hopefully smoother than musical rooms. Lol.

Also, my computer bit the dust so all blogging is from my phone now and I can't get to comments easily. I see them but I can't reply...so in answer to last post comment, I use a hard copy calendar because I always forget to add events to my phone calendar. It's just that I occasionally forget to check my hard copy calendar. Oops. But only occasionally.

And because my computer died, so did my cool blogging app that let me move photos around in a post. Grrr. So. Oh well.
Time to go call the kids.

Later, y'all. :)

Hero to Zero

You know, as great as it is when it's the other way around and you go from zero to hero, it is almost a stronger feeling in the negative when one goes the way of the title.

And it can happen in the blink of an eye.

Everything was awesome  (hope you haven't watched the Lego movie, otherwise you will now have an annoying song stuck in your head for at least five minutes), it was a  lovely sunrise, I remembered all my stuff for school, my pinhole exposure turned on in my first try, I had time to get the oil changed after school, I fixed myself a mostly-low-carb lunch, the library had gotten in two books I was waiting for...everything was awesome.

Then the phone rang. I had two minutes until a med check appointment for the preteen drama queen  (PTDQ) (aka munchkin). An appointment that was 30 minutes away, and the kids were still on the bus, 10 minutes out. I completely and totally forgot it was today. It wasn't like I was busy, I could have totally made it if I had only remembered it was today. My bubble was totally popped. *sigh*

Hero to zero--just like that. 

Ever have that happen?

Optical Reader, New Photog Heroine, & Dying Computers

There. I have a title. (wink, wink)

First, and totally unrelated to the title, it is a GORGEOUS DAY! I just went out to get the mail and I want to sing and dance. It’s gotta be like 65 (although I didn’t consult a thermometer), but the sun is shining, and it’s brilliantly gorgeous. AND IT IS JANUARY. I’m sure that next week, the temperature will drop to –5 and school will be delayed for two hours. Welcome to North Carolina. We’re not crazy or anything. Much.

ANYWHO…back on track, have you ever heard of an optical reader app? It’s on my Samsung Galaxy.  I would classify it as one of those previously assumed to be annoying, bundled apps, that is permanently on the phone whether one likes it or not. Well, I just discovered it. And I like it. HOLY SHAMOLY. I just photographed 8 pages of this book for my research paper…it reads the text in the photo, converts it to editable text, and allows you to share it. So I emailed it to myself, then copied and pasted it into a document so I have reference from the book for my research paper, and now I can return the book tomorrow because I’ve got what I need from it. AMAZING! And I can copy and paste any quotes I need without having to type it all out. Best of all, and unrelated to my original intent, you can use the app to photograph business cards or contact info, and add them to your contacts. Hel-lo. Where have you been all my life, dear Optical Reader? Ah, yes. Hiding in that disgusting bundled app disguise. I can think of so many uses for this….whoa.

Moving on, my research paper is for my History of Photography class. However, in my Documentary Photography class, we have several small projects in which we must research and present a Power Point. So for my Documentary, the first presentation is a historical documentary photographer. Key word, historical. Yep, I’m using the same photographer for my research paper for History class. Why research twice if you can get by with doing it only once. LOL. Plus, I ended up with Hansel Mieth (whom I knew nothing about, because she’s not super famous like Ansel Adams), and after looking up all this stuff on her, I think I would have REALLY liked her, therefore, if I have to write a research paper on someone, someone you like is always a great option. That was a terrible run-on sentence. Good thing THIS isn’t my research paper. I’m sure I’ll talk about why I like her in another blog post when I get more of the paper done. Also, both classes require a presentation of a Power Point on the chosen photographer, and although History needs a couple of different slides, the main part I’ve already finished for tomorrow’s presentation. I’ll just have to make 2 or 3 minor tweaks. Hallelujah.

So, I’m collecting all my information and throwing it in a Word Document and even though the semester project isn’t due till May, I’m going to be so happy if I can knock out the worst of it now. The intro is drafted, and the works cited page is finished…two of the most horrible parts of a paper, so I’m already feeling better.

Research and Papers. Two things near the top of my Most Despicable Things list.

Speaking of awful things, my computer is on its last leg. (I’m sure there’s a more appropriate and punny comparison regarding computers and last legs, but I’m not geeky enough to be able to think of one) It’s a hand-me-down from KC (because he gets really nice computers and I talk him into getting a new one every couple of years so I can get a really nice computer without feeling guilty…haha) but the last 8 months or so, the power button has to be massaged, coaxed, and occasionally pounded to work; when the power comes on—the screen sometimes doesn’t…so you have to try again; and when it goes to sleep, it won’t wake up without a complete reboot. But it’s still working. However…the last couple of days it’s wanted to hang up and not start windows, then yesterday, I got a flat out refusal. After a few tries, I gave up and just closed it. Thankfully, everything is saved and backed up to external drives so it doesn’t make me panic when it hesitates to turn on anymore. LOL.

Today, I must have held my tongue right, or maybe it’s just not mad at me anymore because although it gave me the error message about windows needing to run in recovery because it couldn’t open on the last attempt, I said start it normal anyway. And this time it worked. YAY! I’m not holding my breath for the next time because it may never start again, but for the present life, I am grateful. I needed to get some of this homework done and now it’s farther along than it was. And I got to blog, so yeah.

That’s it for today. My dying computer and I will hopefully return another day. =)

PS I need some interesting ideas for documentary projects. What can I document in photographs this semester? My paper of ideas is due in 5 days and I can’t think of even one potential project for this semester. So even if I don’t use it for my documenting project, throw me some ideas to put in my paper. LOL.

Insert Witty Title

I really want to start just labeling my posts as the date because, as it has been since the very early days of this blog, my brain just has issues coming up with blog titles. Every single post finds me in this predicament. At one point I was just writing blog titles and then coming up with stuff that would go with the title. Isn’t that just sad? I think it is. I’ve lost count of the blog posts with the title of “Well.” or “Ahhhh” or “Wednesday” or “Friday” or….well, you get the picture of the bland-ness of my titles.

Grr. <—I have a few posts with that label, too. Hahaha. But really, I was just growling about my terrible title predicament.

Maybe I should start writing posts and then going to good ol Thesaurus Dot Com again to find better titles for them. I used to do that, but then I guess I just got lazy.

Lazy stinks. Lazy and her cousin, Busy, both stink. They are ultimately the reason for the sad state of my blog and the other bloggers I used to follow. Sad. Very sad.

And it all starts with a missing Witty Title.

Sunny Morning

Well, I got lucky blessed with a wee bit of sun peeking through the clouds when I drove up by the lake this morning in hopes of finding those landscape shots for school tomorrow. The rest of the area today stayed a little dreary looking, but for those few moments this morning, I think I was able to get what I needed for tomorrow.

The first one is easily my favorite. I didn’t even get out of my car, but I was on this dead end road with absolutely no traffic, so I didn’t hesitate to just stop in the road, roll my window down, and take my time getting the settings and composition right.

“Boat Out of Water” is my next favorite…it was just sitting on the side of the road. Totally out of context, which maybe is why I like it so much.

And the last two were down at the dock. Not as high up on my favorites but will still probably work for my homework assignment.

Anyway, I would call it a successful morning and I was thankful to get it because the sun was only there for a few moments before going back into hiding.

After that, I went to visit my hospice patient. She was sleeping for the first hour, so I worked on some of my stuff, but then she woke up and we chatted for awhile. She told me some interesting stories. She is definitely one of the sweetest little ladies ever. She has dementia and when we did the Alzheimers training, one of the things I learned about dementia was that it’s very common for people who have been wonderful and kind and sweet their entire lives to have this whole other personality come out because of the dementia and how it eats away at the brain cells that monitor one’s behavior. I’d have to go back and re-study it to be able to really tell about that in detail, but it’s fantastic to see wonderful, sweet, old people that are able to maintain their sweet personality even after their memory is gone. It was so funny today because she was telling me all about this couple who used to be friends with her. They were from the town I live in, which is, I think, what triggered that memory for her. But she was telling me all about this person who fooled them all because he was such a charmer, but he was cheating on his wife, so they got divorced. She told me to watch out for him since he lives in my town because I’m a pretty little girl and he’ll be going after me if I’m not careful. LOL. It was funny but not funny at the same time. I’m sure if the people she was remembering are still alive, they’d all be close to 90. But I told her not to worry, I don’t put up with any monkey business. It was just really sweet.

Anywho, that was my day. Pretty close to a perfect one. =)

Back To The Grind

Well, the month of January is rapidly expiring. I’m still trying to be positive but it’s getting harder to keep up. LOL.

One thing I forgot to do when I posted the pictures of the kitchen after I fixed the pantry problems…was post a picture of the inside of the pantry. So for future reference, here’s what it looks like when all the expired product is removed and the remainder is organized and grouped appropriately. Oy. =)

It doesn’t quite make me want to spend all my time cooking, but almost. =)

Tonight we’re having Spicy Chicken Chili, courtesy of the wonderful, glorious, crockpot (and Pinterest). If I should remember to take a picture of it, I’ll come back another day and share my version of the recipe. It’s one of the few chili recipes that I can get KC to eat. K-man still doesn’t care too much for it, because it’s just a bit spicy for him, but the rest of us like it. It’s more like a dip than a soup and KC actually eats it with Tostitos instead of a spoon. LOL Yummmm.

All my classes have started back now. This is the first semester that I’ve had a large part of my homework assignments to FEEL like homework. (as in, dreading the due dates from the very first day of class because they sound like way more work and way less fun…but I guess every semester can’t be all fun stuff, so I guess I’ll just start my research papers now and hopefully be done way earlier than needed. Haha)

I need some landscape photos by class time on Friday morning, so I guess on my day off tomorrow, I’ll drive around with my big camera and try to find some landscapes to shoot. I shot these last week, but my phone images won’t work for my assignments so it’s quite unfortunate that I didn’t have my big camera that day since the light was so nice there.

Oh well. Those are the breaks. It’ll all work out anyway. It usually does. Hopefully the sun will be shining in the morning and I’ll find some beautiful landscapes to shoot before Friday. =) Positive thinking…I’m so proud of me. Haha.

I had some other stuff I was going to blog about…but I can’t remember now what it was, so it obviously wasn’t that important. LOL.

One tiny little thing was awesome today though…the kids school was delayed 2 hours for possible ice (I know, right?!?) and strangely enough, MY school was ALSO delayed for 2 hours, so the kids and I got to sleep in this morning, AND also, because of the 2 hour delay, my 3 hour class became only 1 hour and we don’t have to make up any time. YAY! ~{♪♫♫♪ everything is beautiful, in it’s own way…la ti da ti da didida….♪♫♪♪♫

Anyhow, that’s all for today.

Cleaning FRENZY!

So Tuesday, I took the day off to recuperate after Monday night’s late night of sealing the floor grout. Me (just me), a tiny paintbrush, and 180 square feet….twice. It’s a sad story.

I don’t want to ruin anyone’s day, so I won’t tell it.

But I will say I slept in on Tuesday and I didn’t feel one bit bad about it. Not even a teeny bit.

I also slept in on Wednesday, but that was because it was my last Wednesday before my school starts back and I’ll have to be in class by 8 the rest of the semester, but anyway.

So my mother-in-law returned yesterday and helped me clean the living room from top to bottom. It’s not that it was THAT dirty, but little things like the pile of crumbs under the couch that never get picked up, the hairballs the cat left behind the couch that I couldn’t easily reach, the cat-sized fur shape matted on the curtains in all the places the cat likes to lay….all that little stuff that hides from daily cleaning got done yesterday. PLUS some. All the leather has been cleaned and conditioned, all the floor mopped, the windows washed, the curtains taken down/washed/ironed/rehung, every surface dusted….then we moved  into the kitchen and wiped, then polished, all the cabinets and table/chairs. Then we ran out of steam.

Actually, it would be more appropriate to say SHE ran out of steam because I ran out WAYYYY before we got the kitchen. But since I can’t sit and watch anyone work, even though they can run circles around me, I kept on going until she was ready to call it. LOL

That brings me up to the cleaning frenzy. Okay, yesterday was cleaning frenzy, too. We’ll call that part one…

Today was part two.

First, I slept in. No, I REALLY slept in. The weather was like artic chill last night, so school delayed two hours this morning an I didn’t have to wake up to put the kids on the bus, so that was awesome, plus, this is my last Thursday before my semester starts (HAHA), so I didn’t even feel bad about sleeping in again. (Tomorrow my semester starts, so goodbye, dear sleeping in)

Then I got the kids off to school and hit the kitchen. Evidently, the MIL left some of her steam here from the day before, because I was all whoopin up on that kitchen disaster.

I emptied all the pantry cabinets (they were the worst) and wiped them out and then returned ONLY the non-expired food back to the cabinet (after wiping all the dust off—yes, I probably should cook more often).

Here’s a photo of what it looks like when a pantry throws up in your kitchen: After I did all that, I kinda got crazy and re-organized most of the other cabinets, moving stuff around to make more sense. When we moved in, I put stuff where it fit, but I had bowls, serving dishes, pans, etc all spread out in different places…just where it fit. Now that I’ve used the kitchen for over a year, I know a little better how my brain works in this kitchen and I moved stuff to make more sense to how I use it. Hopefully more efficient and easier accessible.

Plus, I ditched a box full of stuff that I haven’t used in over a year. I know I *might* find a use for a tin with Gurgenshiem something or other written across it, but chances are, it’s a waste of cabinet space. Seriously. Ain’t nobody got time for dat.

So after I did all most of the cabinets, I removed every last thing off the counter…the pile of magazines, the 50 bottles of random medicines, the tray collecting random receipts and junk, the décor, EVERYTHING! Then I scrubbed the counters. And scrubbed them again.

Then I got sidetracked (hey, it happens) and moved to the fridge….there was lots of expired stuff and dirt in there, too. So it threw up on the now empty counters while I wiped it, sorted the contents, and then returned them to the now clean fridge/freezer. Then I had to wipe the counter and sinks again because the fridge stuff made them dirty.

But finally I was ready to return only the necessary items back to the counters. Would you believe the pile of necessary junk was a whole lot smaller than the pile of un-necessary junk? I didn’t think they were that cluttered, but obviously…

Well anyway. Here’s what a nice polished, organized (although you can’t really see most of that part), clean kitchen looks like:

Except there’s a couple of boxes of JUST expired things on the counter that I felt bad throwing away, so I left them there to use up tonight. And my celebratory Dr. Pepper and glass. And the small pile of things next to the door that came from the junk tray and need to be returned to the car….

Besides all that, it’s a lovely, uncluttered, kitchen. Way better than it was.

And it’s always lovely to run your hand down the counter-top and NOT encounter sticky masses or bread crumbs sticking to your hand from where the kids made lunch. (confession, it could have been from where I made lunch…but it’s more convenient—and also more likely—to blame the kids….lol)

After all that, I had to scramble to get supper (we had leftovers….go, me! cleaning out the fridge!) and get the kids off to TaeKwanDo.

Sometimes I hate being busy, but it sure makes time go faster. Not that I always want it to go faster, but sometimes it’s nice. Like this week, it’s nice. =)

Anyway, I’m wore slap out so it’s off to bed I go. Not to sleep…to veg. But I should sleep…because it’s back to the grind tomorrow! Ick. Yay! <---me being more positive. Like it? Bwahahahaha.

Told you I was tired. I’m stopping now. =)