Positively Painful

Still not doing so hot at the blogging thing but I didn't get any backlash from my last rant, so I guess it's safe enough to come back and do it again. I'm also not doing so hot at being positive but I'm trying. 

Shut up, Yoda...I know there is only do or do not. I don't care. Hahah. 

We got a new dog...just one. She's not Obi and Ahsoka but she's sweet. She's an adult rescue named Rosie and she sheds more than our last two put together! Sheesh. LOL Lucky for me (and her) that KC didn't know she was going to shed that much when we rescued her or he would have never said yes to getting her! Hahaha! Now we're all attached, so she's staying, fur and all. LOL. We also got a black cat...it was supposed to be KC's cat, but it loves the dog, who is glued to me, therefore it has kinda ended up as my cat even though it missed the memo where I'm not the cat person in this house! I've nearly choked him several times...he really likes to climb all over us and meow and wake up the dog at 4am....and I'm pretty fond of sleeping at 4am...which is not the greatest combo. But other than that, he's not too bad. Haha! 

In other news, we got the Rona for my birthday...worst gift ever. Still dragging from that, although the worst part of it was just fatigue...kind of felt like having Mono again. It caused a hiccup in my cleaning job because that job requires a ton of energy and at this point (4 weeks later) I still barely have enough energy to clean my own house! But I've been able to go back to my other part time job that isn't as energy draining as the cleaning. 

The TDQ is driving now. She finally got enough saved to get a little older model car. Hopefully it will not get wrecked but I've rode with her a couple of times so far, and it will be a miracle if it looks as good as it does now by the time she gets done with it. I can't relate to her struggle...she can barely maneuver the car into an angled parking space...I was backing my parent's minivan out of the carport and pulling it up the driveway to the house for them when I was 11....kids these days. *insert eye roll* At least she has worked her butt off and put effort toward getting it. I'm trying to be patient and not freak out or get too annoyed with her latest obsession. LOL 

It is so hard sometimes. Patience is tough. Drat it. Teenagers will suck all the patience and goodness right out of you! I don't know how people do it. Two lousy teenagers and it's killing me...these people with a gazillion kids absolutely amaze me. How do they have that many teenagers and cheerfully survive? I must be doing something wrong. 

Anywho...then I got volun-told into doing the youth activities at one of the campmeetings I'm planning to attend this summer in NC...and then I volunteered to take like 13 of our youth girls from church here to the camp there in NC....evidently I'm just a glutton for punishment. Hah! On that high note, I'm out. 

Might make it back sometime. LOL

Cranky Pants

Blast it. I am in a fine, feathered mood. Clearly, it's not been a mood for blogging...as I have been absent for what feels like decades. 

2020 is getting on my last nerve. This year is so not my favorite. I was working on Christmas cards and I usually put a family update on the back for anyone who cares to know what we've been up to each year. This year I wrote about three sentences and then scratched off the idea of an update. 

No one wants to be depressed like that. Our senior dogs got sick and crossed the rainbow bridge this year. I've cried for months. No way to put a positive spin on that. Stinkin' virus shut-downs and quarantines delivered way too much time stuck at home with the terrible teens. Nope, that doesn't sound very nice. I am now working several part time jobs just to get out of my house and away from previously mentioned beings. Yeah, that's bad...oops. I feel like one of the rare few that disagrees with the logic of mask mandates...for multiple reasons, and yet I'm outnumbered even in my own house....which makes me question my own sanity. Am I really the crazy one? Don't want to talk about that. Politics...well that's really gone bonkers this year. Definitely better leave THAT alone. 

Sufferin' succotash. 

Also...I jumped off the "quit drinking soda" wagon. Three years of separation between me and my beloved Dr. Pepper. No more of that mess...we best buddies again. I'm literally a pepperholic. Hi, my name is Faith...

Anyway, this year's Christmas update consists of our new address and best wishes for a huge improvement of events in 2021. Best I could do. I'm a glowing ray of sunshine these days...NOT. I probably shouldn't blog either, but since the blog has been virtually abandoned and no one will see it, it feels like a fairly safe place to vent a bit of my cranky pant frustration. 

Lord help. I need it. 

Tickin Away

Merciful heavens. 

February to May...my poor habit tracker has had a blank spot in the blog category for wayyyyy too long! In my defense, I have been quite busy. But then again, we've had a stupid stay at home order for a couple of months now so you'd think I'd have had a chance to blog somewhere in there. Poor blog. So neglected. 

Well, I've been very quiet about the junk that's going on in the universe right now. This whole sickness thing has been so overblown, in my opinion, but that doesn't fit the fear narrative and everyone poo-poos on people who don't go along with it, so I've kept my opinions to myself. It's really driving me nuts though...I'm ready to go back to living. 

Well, after my foot goes back to normal that is....I had foot surgery to remove a cyst that decided randomly to show up a few months ago and has been causing pain and making it difficult to wear shoes. It's enough to make me realize I'm not going to be good at getting old. I've been off it for a week and trying to stay off it like I'm supposed to when there's so much to do....totally difficult.

Mom and Dad came up to visit this week, they wanted to help me get some stuff done so I'd stay off my foot but I had a really hard time sitting down and watching them work...it's not my style. LOL. It was really good to have them up though...quarantine made it a really long time in between visits.

One of these days I'll get around to doing before and after pictures of our house, but since everything virtually shut down right about the time we were able to move into our house, we've been unable to get things finished and buy furniture and stuff like we would normally have been able to do. We've been working on what we can though...there are still things to paint (like half the kitchen cabinets), and still things that need to be fixed (like the water damage in the basement from the flood that happened right after we moved in), but we're chipping away little by little.

The inside is coming along, but what I'm really excited about my secret garden...well, it'll stay secret as long as KC doesn't read this....hahahaha. I'm pretty sure he doesn't, so I should be safe. I don't have a garden plot ready for this year, but I really wanted some edible things growing, so I'm using the centers of some of the flower beds for my garden and planting tall flowers around the outsides to hide the garden in the middle. LOL. I also have a not so secret garden area in the back...it was all weeds, and no one sees it, so I weeded it out and planted all edibles in those...I'm so excited. The top section is lily of the valley...they are really pretty and weren't super weedy, so I left them alone!

We have a lot of property to maintain, which is awesome and also a lot of work. I think it will be more manageable after we get all of the years of neglect caught up, but getting there is tough. Especially when you have a gimpy foot that is holding you back from all the things you want to do!

Adulting Angst

angst

/äNG(k)st/

noun

a feeling of deep anxiety or dread, typically an unfocused one about the human condition or the state of the world in general.

…

Really I just wanted to use this word today. LOL.

HOWEVER….

I feel like it might be a fitting word for my life right now….the overwhelming-ness of life is getting under my skin.

Life is good. I’m not complaining. But I would positively love it if the to-do list would stop multiplying and burying me in self-imposed guilt when I can’t get everything done.

Grr.

Adulting stinks.

What’Cha’Ma’Call Crazy

I haven’t even looked to see when the last time I blogged might have been…my life kinda turned nuts.

Maybe I’ll do better.

Maybe I won’t.

At this point, I can’t make any promises.

We spent July in Florida. That was amazing. Also in July, we decided that we would be homeschooling the upcoming school year.

August…I’m not sure where it went. The PTDQ went to Seattle to visit her Aunt for a week. The K-man started playing football with the local optimist club team. We started homeschooling. We went to Wilderness in the Smokies.

September…I blinked and it was no more. K-man turned 11, I kept a bunch of kids several nights because he wanted a birthday sleepover. We are still surviving homeschool…and at home very little thanks to the tons of homeschool group activities that are available…lol. I started selling Thirty-One again…just to get my wish list of stuff….lol.

October is here already and the time for our annual cruise is creeping up fast! I am so excited. But I have so many things to do between now and then. *sigh*

Blog for the first time in ages – Check
Get to the rest of the to-do list – NOT checked!!!!

LOL. Later!

Friday Frustrations

Oh my word. It is so annoying to sit in class and hear people chatting while the teacher is teaching. I care not if people aren’t paying attention, but it’s just annoying to listen to people talking out loud (even though it’s quietly) in addition to the instructor’s voice.

I do pretty well with the “if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all” policy, I haven’t said anything…or even made any faces, but sometimes I just need to vent out my Friday Frustrations.

Mondays used to be my one dreaded day of the week, but this semester, it’s definitely Fridays. Class seems to be much more focused today, which is great. But it’s still business of photography, which is all slightly less interesting to me than the art of photography.

So this past Sunday, we hiked up a local mountain. It was a lot of fun…around 6 something miles of fun. And the view from the top was cool!

But a couple of days later, I have some kind of contact dermatitis. On both arms. And I don’t think I touched anything at all while we were hiking. The trail was pretty wide, so it wasn’t like branches were hitting my as I passed or anything.

Frustrating. So now, I’m having to find a family doctor who can see me and give me something for it. I’ve evidently not been to the family doctor in 3 years, so I’m off their records. Sheesh.

Then, the PTDQ tossed her cookies at school, so my sweet hubby picked her up. Thank heavens for my fantastic hubby being home working this week so I don’t get an absent from class.

And I’ve also apparently developed seasonal allergies. OH MY STARS.

Last night we moved the bed and removed one giant pile of allergens (also known as the rug that kept my tootsies warm when that dreadful time of morning arrived and I was forced out of my bed). I’m pretty sure all that dust and dander flying around when we cleaned up the area made my allergies much worse because today the coughing and sinus drainage are killer. Blech.

So there’s my Friday Frustrations for this week. Now I need to go edit some pictures and do some work on my photo sites. This semester is whooping my tail. Can’t wait for graduation!

Hope your Friday is more of a Friday and less of a Monday!

Row, Row, Row Your Boat

Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily….

Is today Monday? It feels like Monday. I’m all mixed up on my days. I woke up with one of the worst headaches I’ve had in a long while…the kind that makes you want to yank your hair out, throw up, or both. Then, faced with an 8 am class, I had no choice but to get ready in spite of the nausea.

Nausea, from the headache, not nausea from the prospect of class….although there are certain people in there that have holes in their face that never stop moving which is actually a bit nauseating at times.

THEN, my darling child, whose chore it is to walk the dogs in the morning, and who has a frequent tendency to rush the dog’s potty time because their own self dawdled and is now running out of time, brought one of the aforementioned dogs into the house, where it proceeded to finish its business. Because of this frequent tendency, despite being asked NOT to rush the dogs, this darling child gets to clean up business done in the house when it is directly due to rushing the morning walk. Consequence fits the crime and all that. Today it was straightforward and simple, not messy or anything. Just a simple tissue pick-up and flush. Easy peasy.

So my lovely, sweet, totally undramatic, child decided to make gagging sounds while flushing this 1 minute consequence of rushing doggy potty time. Ya’ll know that if you fake gag enough times, you hurl, right? Yep. It’s a fact. Mostly hit the toilet.

That didn’t help MY nausea any at all, but I swallowed down my gags so I wouldn’t follow suit.

Joys of parenting.

My headache finally went away, about halfway through class. Then I sat at the desk and it caught and ripped my favorite pair of totally broke in jeans.

Life is but a dream, people….

Sometimes it mildly resembles a nightmare. Happy Fri-Monday  

Rabbit Trails

OH my STARS. I am the first person on board with random. I LOVE random. But there’s a time to be focused. Like in class. I just had to listen to half an hour of ghost stories because someone showed a picture they took of an old house.

Rabbit trails. This is driving me nuts!

Plus somebody brought a friend to class and they won’t stop talking. Number one, people who aren’t registered for class aren’t supposed to be in the classrooms during class times. Number two, if somebody DOES need to be in the classroom, they shouldn’t sit in the front row and talk the whole time. ANNOYING! Especially since they’re right beside me in the front row.

And while I’m griping, it completely grosses me out when I go into the bathroom and a person exits the stall and then the bathroom without washing their hands. EW! That happens all the time here at school. No wonder all these people are always getting sick. Cooties! That’s why we have soap and water, people!

Okay, I think I’m done ranting for now. Break time is almost finished.

Also, I know I’m really bad about going down rabbit trails myself, but at least blog readers have the option of clicking away…I can’t exactly go anywhere until the next break. *sigh*

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. =)

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!

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. =)

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.

White Flaky Stuff

Not dandruff! LOL

So yea…we got snow! A lot actually. Wildness, because we hardly ever get that much white at once! It was pretty awesome!

Except that it really messed up my brain with the time warp of extra Saturdays in the middle of the week (days in which there was no work/school, when there should have been = time warp Saturdays).

Thankfully, the one bill that was almost late because my errand day got snowed out and my days were mixed up, wasn’t AcTUALLY late after all, since I was able to get it there on the next business day after the due date. Gotta love it when that happens. YAY.

Looks like Obi feels the same, huh?

Here’s a few more pictures for my non-facebooker friends. =)

Sniff sniff.

Fun while it lasted. Although, thanks to everyone being home for extra Saturdays, everybody got sidetracked on their chores and our house went from House Beautiful to Disaster Survival. Yuck. I tried to start picking it back up this afternoon, but it was too heavy, so I put it back down. ;-P

In other news, I am exhausted. I had really bad dreams last night that kept me awake from 3:30 until 6 and really irritated the fire out of me…on multiple levels. I took a nap after school, but it doesn’t feel like it was enough.

But I’ll survive. I’ve got some yummy italian chicken in the crockpot making the house smell fantastic, I did alright on my last few homework assignments, the kids have two snow makeup days—instead of being off and me having to find childcare for those days, and I heard that my last week’s missed class assignments might just get crossed off instead of made up. It’s all good.

Figures

Uhmmm…I think you had it right in your comment, Ryan…my last post SHOULD have been “Ugh, BLEACH, and Ew.” Lol. I obviously didn’t do my part on the bleach.

Little dude recovered…I thought we were safe. But no….today he didn’t sound quite right when he was reading and his throat sounded a little swollen. So I took him to the doc just to be on the safe side…

Strep.

Nice.

He has impeccable timing. The only days he gets sick are the on the THREE days a week when I have class. Four other days to get sick on, so that I can stay home and keep him from infecting anyone else, but those four days just don’t work for him. UGH.

And my throat doesn’t feel right tonight either…whatcha wanna bet he gave it to me and I’ll come down with it in a couple of days…on my next class day.

Pardon my little vent and whine…just needed to get that off my chest.

I think I might put myself to bed right after I tuck the kids in bed in about 20 minutes. I really might. =//

*sigh*

Junk Funk

I hereby declare a war on the junk funk in which this silly box of junk drawer mess from our last house has left me. I will destroy it. Destroy it all. And I have 2 hours to do it. I can do this. I can do this. I can…

So help me, if I didn’t know there were things in here I needed, I would chuck the whole box in the trash and forget about it.

But no….I must destroy it by….

ORGANIZING IT. :-/

 

 

UPDATE: 1 hour, 40 minutes later:

Junk Funk: DEFEATED!

Well, mostly. There is still one small container of “Tiny or unknown junk” that is bugging me…it’s the things I wasn’t sure if it would be safe to throw out or not….lol. But it’s in one container all nicely labeled. I can live with that.

Also, FYI, this is a nice “after” of the closet in the bedroom that is currently utilized as office/storage. Unfortunately, I don’t have a before picture of the closet, because it didn’t occur to me to take closet pictures when I walked through with my camera. I can tell you that the paint job in here made it look 110% better though. We just used leftover paint from each room to paint it’s closet instead of buying more paint. =)

I wonder if I could get all the school supply boxes unpacked and organized into this closet really quick, too….HUMMMMMMMM…..

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. =)

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! =)

		Pro Images VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

 

My Images VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

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. =)

Holy Macaroni–Part 2

Well, I’m back. Took me longer than I expected, but here I am. =) I feel like I need to wash my ears out…those “extra grace required” individuals didn’t drop out of class like I thought they did a few weeks ago. Last class, I made the mistake of being too transparent and letting a “look” cross my face for just a second, and when I was asked about it, I just asked if they knew any other words. Bad idea sometimes, to say what you’re thinking. So today, they came in with an agenda. I went in with my poker face and ignored all of their rudeness, but ew... I have a pretty high tolerance for a lot of things that I don’t agree with, but when every sentence for an entire hour contains more vulgar words than the point words of the sentence, it’s way over the top. UGH. I could say so much more, but I don’t want to sound like I’m being all judgmental, because I’m not. Anyway.

Back to where I left off the other day.

Okay, so I forgot to mention that the brackets DID go back up on the wall with no problems and seem to be as sturdy as ever. (Thank the Lord for the little things, right?!)  And then when I got back from painting at my friends house, I took a 20 minute siesta before jumping back into the pile of closet junk. Late nights and early mornings just caught up with me. LOL.

Went through all the closet stuff and reorganized it all…got rid of some junk…had to re-iron all of KC’s shirts that had gotten wrinkled in the bathtub (oops), hung everything back up…wowza….it was a job.

And yes, I was anal and color coded the hangers. Some of the clothes may have also been hung back in shades from light to dark. lololol

 

As much as I tried to have it all finished Tuesday night, I didn’t get it all done until right before KC got home on Wednesday. I had to stop working on the closet about 8pm Tuesday night because I had to get my neglected homework finished before Wednesday morning’s class, but by the time I finished my homework, it was nearly midnight again. Then I had to get up early so I could go into the school early to finish working on my paper before class. It’s not due for another week, but I knew I was going to be missing class today because Munchkin was getting a good citizen award at school, and my instructor is out on Monday, and then the next class my essay will be due, so I wanted to have it close enough to done that I could run it past the instructor and make sure I had enough time to make any major changes if necessary before it was due.

Thankfully, it’s pretty close to good enough, so I just have to make a few minor changes and collect/print all the source pages and drafts to turn in. *whew*

I’m probably a nerd, but I actually like school and learning, even if some of it is stuff I already knew a little about…lol. I could totally do without the EGR people but I guess that comes with the territory anytime you’re dealing with the public. Ah well.

Now…I have an hour before the kiddos get off the bus, so I’m gonna take another little siesta. I worked my tail off at the beginning of the week, so I’m rewarding myself now. =) =) lol