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. =)

Five on Five

Well, it’s January 5th…here’s a few fives:

Five good things today:

1. My mother-in-law came to my house to clean. I never turn down anyone who offers to come to my house and clean. I have three rooms who’s floors have never been so shiny. =)
2. Speaking of floors, the re-painting/sealing grout project in the kitchen is progressing quite nicely. The paint has had several hours to cure and the clear sealer I just tried on a small section seems like it might be a much quicker and less painful process. Which is great, since my knees (although much improved) are still a little tender to the thought of crawling around on tile floors for another 11 hours. Also great because I don’t have 11 hours tonight, since I’d like to sleep at some point.
3. School’s back in session this week. Woohoo!
4. I’m blogging. Nuff said.
5. The hubby had safe flights (for business, not pleasure, unfortunately—because if it was pleasure, I’d be on the flights, too….lol), but anytime he’s going to be in the air, I always think about the airplanes that have gone missing and it makes me more thankful for every safe flight. I don’t worry much about it, but I’m still grateful.

Five just thinkings:

1. Yesterday’s sermon on David’s heart, and how he was a man after God’s own heart. It was the first of a series and I’m really looking forward to the rest of the messages. Bro. Nathan says it so much better than I could possibly sum it up, but I have never thought about how the point of the David & Goliath story is not to be David: courageous and fighting giants; but that we’re actually in the shoes of the army who needed a David to fight for us. The image is linked to the sermon….great food for thought.
2. Why are boys so goofy? K-man is in the shower and I think he must be having a song and dance plus tooting and belching contest with himself, as all I hear is thumping on the walls as he sings random song lyrics interspersed with farting noises, followed by a wave of silly giggles….then he starts all over. What is UP with that? I get the singing, but ugh….the boy noises and the fact that they tickle his funny bone….
3. I used to write all this stuff down in my scrapbooks and I need to get back into the habit of this or else start scrapping again or I’m going to forget all the good stuff. I said the other day that I found all those old scrapbook pages and as I read them, I was amazed at all the stuff I’d forgotten about. Obviously, the same could be said about some of my old blog posts as well, but there again…if I don’t get back into the habit of this, all my “just thinkings” stuff will disappear for good. Also, on the topic of scrapping, I’ve really been itching to get back on the digital scrapping train but I know I honestly don’t have the time to dedicate to it at the moment, I’d just really like to….for now I’ve got the itch controlled, but one of these days I may lose control and jump back on a team again. LOL
4. This thing I pinned on my Pinterest page the other day, sort of sums up my brain a little bit:
   
5. I wish there was a way to blog Pinterest ideas…I’m always finding things on there that spark my brain but I pin them and forget why I pinned them, so it would be cool if I could blog my pins. I know, I could just change the description and write my notes there, but that’s just too simple and organized-like. LOL.
6. Because I just didn’t feel like stopping at 5. My rule-following personality got lost there for a second.

And that’s it for today. Time to wrap up everything and get back to that kitchen floor grout project.

Happy January 5th. =)

Happy 2015

Wow, it’s here. And it goes so fast, I think if I blink a couple of times, I’ll be saying Happy 2016. My parents always said time flew, but when I was waiting for my 8th birthday, I didn’t believe them. Turns out…they were right.

Yep, I said it. Hope you’re reading this, mom. (LOL)

SO. I’m not making any resolutions this year. THAT’S my resolution. =) However, I AM going to try harder in certain areas. One of them being this poor, poor little blog.

It’s only been one day of 2015, but so far, so good. I’m also trying harder to be more optimistic. Haha.

We’ve been trying to get the basement cleaned out…I get this huge burst of enthusiasm by looking on Pinterest and psyching myself up, but then I walk down to the basement and boom. Optimism and psyched-up-ism fly right out the door. (or they would if they could FIND the door…it would probably be more appropriate to say they fly back up the stairs because that’s pretty much the clearest path…rofl). Anywho, during one short moment before discouragement hit again, I went through a couple of boxes down there and found some reminders of past life. 1: our kids were SOOO little when we got them and now they are SOOO big…how did that HAPPEN? Oh yeah, time flies. 2: My scrapbooking style back in the beginning STUNK. It’s only mildly better now. Also, I really need to get back to digital scrapbooking because the half finished albums really bother my OCD now that I have located them again and realized they do, in fact, still exist in their half finished condition. I was kind of hoping they would put themselves in order while they were busy being packed away. 3: I used to write lots more positive things. I’m not sure what happened, except that I’m going to try being more positive. And write more positive.

AND>>>it’s game day…the Bucks are playing Alabama, so KC’s gone to get pizza and we’re going to watch the game. Well, he’s going to watch the game…the rest of us are going to eat pizza and fall asleep, which is terrible for my diet, but I’ve got 364 more days to eat better. Realistically, my diet will probably stink for at least 300 of the next 364 days, but I’m trying to be more positive. LOL.

Pizza’s here so off for now. Happy New Year!