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

Patience

A virtue of which I am evidently lacking. Otherwise, I don’t think mine would be tested quite this often.

Life in the basement is getting to me. Actually, it’s not the basement at all. It’s the under 18 people that occupy said basement with me. This basement isn’t big enough for that. I don’t know how previous generations survived to adulthood living in much smaller houses with much larger families. Seriously!

Anyway, KC told me to find a hobby, so I’ve dragged out and re-subscribed to the ol Photoshop, and today I was blissfully engaged in redesigning a friend’s blog for practice. Oh my goodness. SO FUN! Made me want to redesign mine even though I like how it is now. HAHA. At the very least though, I’ve got to get back to blogging. I put it back on my habit tracker in my bullet journal in hopes that it will inspire me to do it more often. LOL.

I like how my long abandonment has led to zero site traffic here. I am way more comfortable spilling my guts. Okay, not entirely. My personality doesn’t allow me to be entirely comfortable with that. Hahah.

I’ll wrap up this post with a Thursday Thirteen, I haven’t done one of THOSE in forever!

Thirteen Current Things:
1. Praying for: a house
2. Listening to: the dog breathing, my in-laws conversing upstairs (can’t hear the conversation, just the murmur of voices), K-man’s music from the back corner of the basement (again, can’t hear clearly, just enough to be annoying – like everything he does these days)
3. Reading: Misleading Miss Verity by Carolyn Miller
4. Eating: too much junk food (I’m definitely eating my feelings…I should probably add that to the things I need to pray about)
5. Working on: A Little Bit of Insulin
6. Missing: the hubby (he’s traveling for work *sigh*)
7. Wishing for: a bigger kitchen
8. Needing: A bigger house (see a theme?)
9. Singing: Blessings by Laura Story
10. Digging: my amazing hair products that knock shampoo days down to 2-3 times a week (usually 2…I LOVE IT)
11. Watching: realtor.com like it’s the hottest reality show…seriously…I check it like every 20 minutes. *eye roll* reality is, it’s more like watching paint dry than an exciting tv show, but I can’t stop myself. lol
12. Playing: Toy Blast and Scrabble
13. Need to Stop: worrying =)

So what’s on your list?

It's About Time

Well, it only took three years, but I finally updated the aesthetics of the dear neglected blog. For future reference, here are the before and after images, since they’re not that much different.

This time I got smart. I planned ahead for my problem of staying current. Now it’s the year dash question mark. That means the next time I get around to updating it, it might only be KC and me on there…but who knows…except the question mark makes it all okay! LOL!

Well, now that this is done, it’s time to get back to blogging again. I have so many thoughts running through my head, but most of them won’t make any sense without a little backstory since I’ve been so absent from the blog over the last few years.

I’m not sure how far to go back, since I don’t remember where we were when I lost track of blogging, but I guess I’ll just go with 2018.

We sold our NC house at the end of 2017 (it was like our favorite house ever…*sigh*), and moved to FL for KC’s job in January of 2018. We lived in a rental for 3 months (holy cow is it ever hard to transfer addresses twice in less than a year…I’m still trying to get all of the mail switched over). Anyway, we hated renting just like I knew we would, because we HAVE to be able to paint! LOL. All beige walls with patches showing from previous renters was totally KILLING us. Yeah, it’s a first world problem. I shouldn’t complain. But I was still really happy when we were able to move into our own place and start painting. Haha. I’m a professional at this point.

So that was March. Then we had a ton of visitors from back home (which was AWESOME, because living in a new town without all your old friends is pretty sad). Going to the beach and pool while all your old friends are still wearing hats and scarves is fun and all, but it sure doesn’t make up for all the missing them! =)

Summer was busy, the TDQ turned 14, the K-man turned 13, and just like that, we don’t have any kids in the house anymore. Just loads and loads of hormones. And also, they don’t want me talking about any of it anymore, because it’s so embarrassing, which is another reason it has gotten harder to blog. Teenage kids just don’t do the cute things little kids do, and even if they pull off something cute, they (or their friends at school) can pull it up on the internet and read it and be mad at you for ruining their life! So yeah, at least 60% of the things I like to talk, vent, brag about are gone…just like that.

Total rabbit trail, I did ponder for a few moments last week if I should delete all photos from my blog history, after finding out that the TDQ has someone with stalkerish behaviors that somehow found my blog and sent pictures from here to other kids at her school. Obviously, I’ve never posted anything bad, but I *THINK* I’ve addressed the problem and it shouldn’t happen again. Either way though, I decided to leave the pics alone and just hope that legal action doesn’t ever become necessary. Seriously, the things you never think would become necessary to think about!

Where was I? Oh yes, school! So the TDQ started at a private charter school which has been AWESOME for her! The K-man started back at Classical Conversations again, but about 3 weeks into it, I realized we had reached the end of the point where homeschool was beneficial for him, too. Sadly, we were too late to get him into the same private charter school as TDQ (well, the middle school version of it anyway), but we joined the waiting list and continued homeschooling.

October and November were total blurs on the calendar…I have it all written in my bullet journal (of which I am still totally HOOKED) but that would be the only way I could remember what all happened those months. We were just busy! Thanksgiving, KC and I took an early anniversary cruise while a friend from back in NC flew in to stay with the kids for Thanksgiving. That was awesome on so many levels. Our kids will want a friends-giving every year now. Haha.

December was another insane month! Our family was all over the place at all different times that month…that’s another unexpected side effect of having teenagers. They can sometimes travel without you now, so you have to manage four individual schedules instead of them always being part of yours. Anyway, we had Christmas Eve in Ohio with KC’s family, and Christmas Day in NC with my family. I wish we had had more time in both places so we could have seen ALL the peoples we miss, but time was too short to catch everyone. Hopefully we can catch more in the next trip north, but that will be awhile yet.

Anywho, so now, January! We finally got a call from the private charter middle school, and K-man is finishing out the year there! Hallelujah! I’ve already seen a huge difference! He just needed more of a challenge and something to occupy more of his time. And although he was incredibly nervous the first week, he is doing AWESOME. Hopefully he won’t kill me for saying this much. LOL. He is way more easily embarrassed than the TDQ. I try to be understanding although I’m not sure he appreciates my herculean efforts! LOL!

There it is. Update complete. I’ve now burned an entire morning and the laundry still isn’t finished.
Till next time! =)

Angry Birds

So I’m looking for something to practice the Illustrator Pen Tool on….and this bird just fit my mood. This is my rendition of a pixelated little graphic I found on the internets.

Not that I’m angry, exactly…just in a bit of a mood.

The original had a bit more depth of shadow in it, but I mostly wanted to practice the pen and outlines.

As far as mood…sometimes it feels like I take two steps forward and get shoved twelve steps back…sometimes that gets aggravating. S’all right though. Still blessed. *takes a deep breath* Sometimes trying to stay positive gets aggravating, too!

Tomorrow K-man gets to have his first Orthodontist visit. I thought we were going to get by without anybody needing braces…but nope. He’s nervous and not thrilled, but the dentist said his bite is really off, so we gotta do it.

Homeschooling is keeping me hopping like a frog. Maybe that will be my next practice with the pen tool…a froggy clip art. ahahaha. The kids are doing pretty well with it, but it is a LOT of work and takes LOTS of patience. I’m not complaining though, the flexibility and convenience is amazing! =)

Anyways, I’m taking my grouchy little birdy self off the computer now…need to get ready for bed.

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!

Homework Time

For starters, now that I’ve graduated, it’s time to get some actual home work done…my poor house has suffered in my excessive busy-ness. LOL.

Also, it’s literally homework time…kid number 2 is sitting in the floor (don’t ask me why…we have perfectly good desks) doing his vocabulary homework with the dictionary, while mumbling the Lord’s prayer. “Our father, which art in heaven…” and occasionally interspersing this mumbling with, “why can’t I just use the computer? Google’s faster!”

“Yes, son, but faster isn’t the point here…you need to know how to use a dictionary.”

LOL.

So yesterday I did a room swap with previously mentioned kid and my office. His room was originally directly above the hubby’s office downstairs and as much as I would like him to do everything with prayer and supplication, his typical method of doing things is with thumping and tapping. As you can imagine, it can get quite annoying to be in the office beneath him trying to work.

Although now that I’m working in his old room, he comes in here to do his homework at my feet, with the usual thumping and tapping, so I’m not sure the whole room swap could be considered entirely successful.

On the other hand, his room was turning into maggot-ville, since he’s very much boy, and now that everything has been pulled out and cleaned in the process of transferring it, I feel like at least part of the process may have accomplished some good. Maybe I should room swap everybody so that all our rooms will be that clean. Haha. Not that it will last long…lol.

Anywho, back to work for me…looks like my photos have finished exporting…time to get this batch finished.

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*

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.

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!

Blog Clean-up…

Yay for updated blog headers before halfway through the next year! =) LOL. I don’t know what my problem is…to be so on top of things like that. Hahahaha.

Speaking of cleanup, the old slow-mo computer is cleaned…it’s not completely wiped and fresh, because it’s so old and problematic that it won’t even let us completely reformat it…..BUT. It’s cleaner than it was…and running faster…so I can work with that until we get around to upgrading again.

And while I was updating and cleaning, I found the last four headers:
OH my. =)

Yes…I decided to revisit 2011’s design. =)

And look how the kids have grown….WOW. It doesn’t seem like 2011 was that long ago.

Anyway, this wraps up my gearing up for another year. Hope you’re more ready than I am…LOL!

Lonesome

Well, I’ve puttered around today and not done a whole bunch of anything. I’m kinda lost without the family home. I forgot to mention yesterday that Munchkin is off with Mawmaw in the far off land of Ohio at a campmeeting all this week, and the boy has science camp all day every day this week, so I’ve had a little too much time to think, since life doesn’t speed up and get crazy for me again until Thursday. I don’t know how other people do it.

I don’t know if I mentioned that the Munchkin left before I got home from the mission trip, so all together, I won’t see her for two solid weeks! I kinda miss the little booger. ;) lol.

I keep thinking I can’t wait till they grow up and go to college but now I think I might just be sad about that. hahaha.

I really should go do laundry or ironing but first I think I’ll see if I can redo my headphone décor since the yarn I did the original knotting with has gotten pretty frayed. =) Mine sorta looks like the picture over there right now, only with a different type of knot and gray yarn. It works great, no tangles, but now I’ve got some awesome teal nylon thread I’m going to redo them in. =) And maybe I’ll listen to some music while I’m working…get some chill time in before everything kicks back into high gear again. LOL. =)

Well, that's it for now. Later!

Persevering

I don’t even know when I last posted. But I think I’ve been swamped ever since the last post. No joke.

I mentioned that my suitcase is getting a workout, I just got back from a week in Oklahoma (just outside OKC) on a mission trip with a team from church to help in the rebuilding effort after the tornado. It was an incredible trip. Parts of it I wouldn’t want to repeat, but overall, it was wonderful! Our team rebuilt several fences (or parts of fences), laid tile, installed lighting/fans, did some yard work, and other things I can’t recall right at the moment. I got to know a few people just a little bit better, we got stranded on the way out when our van’s transmission died, some of us played a few card games in the evenings, there were some sunburns and lots of sweat, and overall, just an interesting trip.

June has been insane just like I thought it was going to be though. So far, I’ve spent a week preparing for our yard sale, then had a yard sale, then went on a mission trip, then took some senior pictures, and it’s only half over. Whew. I’m exhausted. Exhausted isn’t such a good thing either. The other day I was so tired, it was like I was drunk and I lost all the filters on my brain and said something I totally shouldn’t have said. Nothing exactly bad, just repeated in the wrong company. I’m still praying that no one heard me or caught that. That’s the last thing I need right now.

One of the good things about not posting very frequently is that a lot of people don’t drop by to read me anymore, so I can feel free to say more of what I’m thinking. LOL. Obviously, I’ll still keep most of my mental filters on since it is still a public blog, but it might take just a bit more of a turn toward being a personal journal. LOL.

So on a personal note, I’ve been a bit down for the last couple of days…just events and junk that’s really bothered me and got me down, but today was really nice. I’ve stayed busy so I wouldn’t think too much, and it seemed like every song on the radio was so appropriately encouraging. That’s just awesome. I don’t know yet if all the situations have worked themselves out completely, but at least for the moment, I’ve got a little more peace about it. 

Well, I think the kid is back home from science camp, so I’ll chat more later I guess. =)

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!! =)

Don’t Know How

Another month has escaped me (and my blog). LOL. I don’t know how it happens, but it just keeps doing it. Ugh.

I don’t really have a whole lot to say. I’ve been working like crazy on school stuff and trying to stay on top of home and kids and schedules. Another thing I haven’t figured out is how in the world mom’s do this and work…or homeschool…or anything. Sheesh.

Another kid is getting glasses. K-man doesn’t have quite as bad of vision as the Munchkin but still needs a little help in the vision department. Joy. He’s super cute with glasses though, just like she is.

Speaking of she, she’s been off the charts lately. Enough to be getting in trouble at school again. For such a smart kid, she doesn’t seem to make the smartest choices. =/ This too shall pass. This too shall pass. <---that’s me, talking to myself again. LOL.

Shoo.

So anyway, the kids have loved my semester project for one of my classes because I’ve had to visit several parks to find what I was looking for…lol. My project was to pick a theme and then find letters of the alphabet in my theme. So I picked “Found on Playgrounds” and we had to go hang out at several of those while mom was looking for her letters. LOL. (And thank you, Jules, for the theme idea when I was drawing blanks…lol)

Here’s what I’m planning to turn in…

The letter “F” earned me a nice knot on the head, too…I had to crawl underneath a platform and I miscalculated the distance when I reversed back out….lolol. Clocked myself real good and had to sit down for a few minutes to recover. Only me. =0

I think it turned out alright but I found enough flaws, that I’m sure the instructor will have to count off points for at least a few of them. Oh well. Just gotta get through this semester.

And that’s it for today. Don’t know if I’ll be back before another month passes or not…haha. We’ll see.

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*

Ugh, Blech, and EW

This was NOT in my plans for today. I think it’s a conspiracy....between the dogs, the cat, and the boy-child, I've cleaned up 9+ puke/hairball/backside excretions that didn't make it to the appropriate receptacles, listened to the lovely sounds of upchucks at least seven times, and had to endure the smell for at least an hour total between the occurrences and the cleanups...and that's just in the last 8 hours.

Conspiracy is working...I feel very queasy.

No fever, no signs of sickness (other than incessant vomiting), and everything was just fine last night…until like 1:30am.

And then it was on like Donkey Kong. All at once.

And go figures that KC would be out of town and miss all this fun. I just hope he doesn’t bring back another plague like the last time he came home from a business trip. He and I and K-man were out for days with that one. The Munchkin keeps getting passed over in the sicknesses…I told her she was just too ornery to get sick. Lucky dog…I’m going to have to up my own ornery-ness. LOL.

And there’s your super lovely peek at what’s going on in my world today. Now I have to go see if I can get online and work on any of my schoolwork from home since I had to miss class today. =(

Also laundry. Lots and lots of laundry. =/

Rewind…

Back to Christmas…before it turns into NEXT Christmas…

A few pictures:

Christmas Morning:

Christmas Afternoon:

And last, but certainly not least: Uncle R’s birthday:

KC’s mom decided Uncle R’s birthday this year should be celebrated in style disguise:

So she wrapped up all these little gag gifts for him. She almost couldn’t stop laughing long enough to explain the purpose of each “gift.” LOL. It was funny to watch! LOL

And he was an extremely good sport about it, too. LOL!