Happy January!

Oh my word, I was going to do so much better at the end of last year…I failed. Miserably.

We had a great Christmas break, spent our 15th anniversary in the hospital with KC’s mom (surgery, but she’s recovering well). We did get a moment to eat at Red Lobster (the one restaurant without a wait) sans kids before going to stay with his mom at the hospital. Gotta get those date moments in while you can, right? =)

I’m just thankful…we are so blessed. Things could always be worse. Like, the gunman who killed 5 in the baggage claim of the Ft. Lauderdale airport…if he had done that two months earlier, when my family of four was in that same baggage claim getting our stuff and preparing to take a cruise, things could have been a whole lot different in my story.

We also just watched the movie, Sully, and it made me realize how many times KC has flown from NYC to CLT in winter weather, safely. So many things we’ve been protected from, we’ll probably never know all of them. So I’ll just be grateful. For everything.

Even the snow that we got today. LOL It was so cold and my hands were in terrible pain at one point, but I’m thankful for a warm house.

And cardboard games. This one is sequence…a card/board game. Sounds funnier to call it a cardboard game though. Haha.

And last, but DEFINITELY not least, my super fun bullet journal…it’s like a journal, sketchbook, AND planner…all in one place. I am REALLY liking it. I’ve got to figure out a way to pare down on the pen collection though…I love colorful pens, but they’re taking up way too much real estate around here.

I’m nowhere near pro at this thing, but pinterest got me interested, and now that I’ve finally tried it, I’m totally hooked. You know all those times you make to-do lists and write things on them that are already done, just so you can check them off? Then you throw the list away? Well, now I have a place to put all those lists and instead of throwing them away, I can have them forever as a record of having done them. LOL. I know…I’m a little crazy. It’s okay.

Know why I’m blogging right now? Because I put it on my list in my bullet journal that I need to do it more often. So now I’m going to go check it off of today! *insert maniacal giggles*

Later!

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. :)

San Diego Pics

Wellllllll….I finally made it back to post these. I didn’t take a terrible lot of pictures…but here’s one from instagram, one from my phone, and then an album of scenery from my big camera. 

SanDiego2014 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

An absolutely awesome trip. =) Can’t wait to go back someday. More to blog about but will leave this post alone so it will stay on topic. LOL. Later!

Stuffed to the Gills

#1 – my belly…

And on that topic, let me just say that it’s a skinny girl problem that when you gain a few pounds and it’s pretty much only noticeable by you, you really don’t get to talk much about how you need to work out and get that jiggle back off, because everybody just hates you. No, I’m not fat, but when I gain ten pounds (and I have), I feel it just like everybody else does. I’m smiling. =) So. I ran that 5K back a couple posts ago (or a couple months, but who’s counting) and I survived. I even ran a few miles a couple mornings in the following weeks. Then I kinda fell off again. BUT…a couple of us girls get together and walk anywhere from 2.5 to 4 miles through town a couple of days a week, so that’s something. And then I thought that was good enough but the jiggle wasn’t going away, so when we girls were talking, my friend was telling us how she had started doing a Jillian Michaels 30 day shred video on YouTube and it was killing her even though she didn’t think she was in that bad of shape…

Yep. I decided to try it. And…I’m not in shape either. Holy sha-moly, my abs and legs are KILLING me. I’m on like day 3 and the jiggle is getting better already. But then I sort of ate at a buffet tonight. And now….oh my belly. I’ll be good again tomorrow. =) =) Here’s a picture I forgot to share from a few weeks back when we were at this same buffet for the Munchkin’s TENTH birthday! Oh my. And yes, she has one candle and zero more candles…that stands for 10.  hahahahaha

Before I move on…today was my first Dr Pepper in like, weeks! I am so proud of me. It’s only my 53rd time quitting. ROFL.

#2 – my suitcases

Okay, they’re not stuffed to the gills right this moment, but they are sure getting a work out in May/June. So far in May, I’ve went along with Munchkin’s fourth grade class to the Outer Banks on a school field trip and then to Myrtle Beach with my family. My friends on FB have probably already seen most of the pictures in this post, including this one, but I’ll share here anyway. =)

This one is from our family trip to Myrtle. I didn’t take a ton of pics on this trip…I was too busy trying to recover from the terrible awful field trip chaperoning the week before…haha.

Here’s a couple of pics from the chaperoning weekend…

On the bus:
During the 45 minutes of beach time we got for the entire trip…lol.

And a couple from Munchkin’s camera:

#3 – this blog post

Because that’s what happens when you don’t post frequently enough to update everything in a couple of small paragraphs. LOL.

And here’s where I just jam everything else in:

Father-in-law wanted his antique crosscut saw painted, so I painted it for him for Father’s Day…gave it to him tonight. =) I think he liked it. It looks cooler in person than in pictures, but it was a pretty fun project.

I finally cleaned the kitchen up really nice and took pictures to compare to the before pictures of this project… (in case it’s not obvious, the second ones are the AFTER photos…lolol)

My last studio lighting project for school. Food photography…totally fun!!

And I think that’s PLENTY for one post. I’d promise to come back more often, but June is INSANELY booked, so I better not promise NOTHIN. LOL.

If you’re still here, still reading, wow, you’re awesome. Have a lovely evening!! =)

Where To Begin?

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

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

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

The list:

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

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

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

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