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. 

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?

Random Insanity (part II)

Okay, where did I leave off? Oh yes, my countdown backwards from five ended at two, when I looked at the clock and realized I was supposed to be at the church in ten minutes and wasn’t even close to ready to walk out the door. When I get in a zone, I am terrible at keeping track of time. So that was numero dos.

Finally…last one.

WARNING: If you’ve ever said in your head (or out loud), “don’t show me your dogs!” then you should click away NOW!

Also, I’m not sure we can be friends. But since I’m a kind person who loves dogs, I’ll try not to hold it against you if you don’t. LOL.

Anyways, for the last bit of random: a selfie. =)

 

These guys are the most loyal buggers….

and let’s face it, I’m a sucker for sweet puppy dog eyes….

What’s NOT to love?

Okay, you got me, when they’re sleeping with you at night and a turd accidentally slips out and leaves a nasty mess because you’re all asleep and don’t find it until it’s squished on the bed at 4am…..yeah, THAT’S not to love.

But the fact that they are faithful, loving, and loyal, no matter that it is 4am and they just got kicked out of their warm bed and scolded for reasons they don’t even understand…well…I can only hope that someday when I’m elderly and things come out of MY rear that I’m not aware of, that I’m as cooperative and loving and loyal to whoever drags me out of my warm bed and scolds me for doing things I didn’t even know I was doing. LOL. 

Anywho, it’s been a full day (starting at 4am…lol) and I’m nowhere near finished with everything that needs to be finished, but I’m pretty much mentally finished. I’ll deal with the rest later. I probably shouldn’t have spent so much time blogging. LOL. On that positive note (haha), I’m out.

See ya around!

“Don’t Show Me Dogs”

But. What if I really. REALLY. like dogs?

Did you know that dog’s feet smell like fritos? Well, not if they’ve stepped in a chocolate surprise, but any other time.

Find a dog and smell a paw. I dare you.

Double DOG dare you.

Just make sure it’s not a paw that has recently been dipped in chocolate surprises.

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. =)

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.

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.

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. =)

Thirteen Favorite Instagrams

I love the Instagram app (except for my goofy phone has flipped the camera so it takes all the pictures in this app upside down…durrr…oh yes, and it doesn’t give me the option to share anywhere except Facebook anymore, so I have to upload there and then come here and link if I want to blog it…other than THAT, I love Instagram.)  Haha

Anyway, so here are 13 of my recent favorites that I don’t think have been shared here:

1. July 28, 2012 – Being naughty at Chick-Fil-A

2. July 31, 2012 – Sitting on the airplane waiting for our flight to leave for Haiti

3. August 12, 2012 – Ahsoka piled in my lap in the front seat of KC’s truck

4. August 17, 2012 – My nemesis, the devil cat…2 hours after this picture, after I was asleep, she picked the bed as the best spot in the entire house to have a giant hairball, resulting in a middle of the night change of the sheets. 

5.  August 18, 2012 – This is what happens when I crave chocolate!

6.  August 19, 2012 – My sweet dog, Obi

7.  August 24, 2012 – Hot towel mask treatment: the tootsies feel SO fine!

8.  August 25, 2012 – K-man at a neighbor’s birthday party…awesome plane!

9.  August 26, 2012 – Our “beach” (the sand where the patio stones will go)

10.  August 26, 2012 – This was like the PERFECT swim day…then it rained.

11.  August 31, 2012 – He’s camera shy, don’t ya know?  (Bwahahahaha)

12.  August 31, 2012 – I am, too…it’s so obvious, right? 

13.  September 3, 2012 – The dogs hanging out in my craft room…quiet company.

And that’s it…hope you enjoyed…and maybe got a smile out of one or two of them…lol. 

Mini Gardening…

SO I think these lovely herbs will be super for an end of year teacher gift…I helped the kids make them today.  I did the hot-glue parts of course…and they picked out the pieces they wanted to use and put them together.  Both mini-gardens are in $1.00 dishpans from $1-Tree (so approximately 10x12 inches in size…)

This is Munchkin’s:

And K=man’s:

I’m not sure who had more fun putting them together…lololol.  Probably them…because they were less perfectionists about it than I was…lolol.  Oh well.  They both turned out adorable! 

OH yes, and all the plants are edible herbs except the one that looks like rosemary (it’s actually lavender and I’m not sure if it’s edible or not…it was just pretty and scented, and they didn’t have any rosemary left…lol).

I ended up having to work on mine a little more, too…the dogs ate the swing.  Twice.  The first time, I fixed it…but then I gave up…and crossed my fingers that the missing wires from the swing fell through the cracks on the porch and didn’t end up in their intestinal tracts…*sigh*  crazy animals. 

ANYWAY…speaking of the crazy animals, I have to go walk them again and it’s almost past my bedtime again…so

Goodnight. =)

YAH…Progress!

Okay, so as much as I wish I could say I have “AFTER” photos…this is the next best thing…

Progress. 

And can I just say I’m REALLY glad that the sanding step is done? 

That is just one stack of the doors that I was working on sanding last week. 

And here is a random puppy picture.  They were enjoying the sunshine on the day I was sanding out on the back deck.  LOL. Ain’t she gaw-geous?  Yeah, I thought so.  Obi was, too, but he’s more difficult to get a good picture of…lol. 

Back to home renovations…doors off the cabinets and everything sanded…almost time to paint….

And now primer is on, and three coats of paint.  Cabinet frames are pretty much finished unless we just happen to see a spot that needs touch-up.  Ta-da…

Woot…getting there.  K-man prayed tonight that God would please help mom and dad fix the kitchen….and please put the doors back where they belong. 

I literally laughed out loud.  (After I left the room, of course…hahahaha…he was too serious about it to laugh when I was standing there listening to him pray….ROFL). 

Anyway…I’m exhausted and KC’s already beat me to bed, so I’m off.  That’s the update in a nutshell…

Oh, yes, and I’m losing my marbles…and other random objects that have various levels of importance in day to day life…but that’s not really an update…since ya’ll probably already thought that about me…hahaha. 

Also, I really have not been very good about my levels of Dr. Pepper intake…this kitchen has driven me to drink.  Dr. Pepper. 

And I was leaving…I almost forgot. 

A Quick Pic Update…

Or…maybe quick.  We’ll see how wordy I get.  I have both dogs and a computer in my lap, and typing is a challenge…so quick is a DEFINITE possibility. 

Okay…one dog moved.   

So to recap….if you haven’t seen our kitchen, it used to look like this:

And honestly, the tile was likeable…but not in this kitchen and not for a countertop and food prep area.  The whole kitchen had the same color going on…cabinets, counters, floor…all honey colored.  And the counters were discust-o.  No matter how much you scrub and disinfect and wipe, they always felt nasty.  I am SO ready for smooth, easy clean, countertops. 

By the way, both dogs moved.  This post just got longer.  Haha. 

Anyway, now we’ve got the first stage of ripping off the backsplash (which took the sheetrock, too).

Then the picture I put on the other post….yow city.  By the way, the counter here, we took off with the tile still on it.  KC and I carried them out to his truck.  They were so light, I really didn’t even need KC’s help to get them on the truck…hahaha…I’m totally being sarcastic!  In reality, we nearly broke our backs…and various other pretty important body parts (fingers, necks…come to think of it, they are all pretty important when it’s a question of which one you’d want to be broken…lol).

Dogs are back.  Anyway…here’s after we started putting new sheetrock back in…

Here’s the room next to the kitchen….aka…the room the kitchen threw up into….

And the dogs who are currently in the recliner with me…

And finally…

No, it’s not an after.  It’s just where we are now…sheetrock is back up on this side of the room and first layer of tape and putty is on…yippee. 

Next stop, the desk area on the other side of the kitchen which still needs sheetrock…

And then counters.

And then paint (ugh)

And then backsplash….

Dear heavenly father, help us. 

Honey, I’m HOME!

Yep….we made it back!!!  I popped on here to delete this post that I wrote last Sunday and scheduled for this coming Monday (in the event that we didn’t make it home) and then I decided…lol…I’ll just share it anyway…except I AM home safely (thank the Lord).  So for what it’s worth, this is what I was worrying about before I left home last Monday morning. 

In the unlikely event -- that something should happen to me and I should not return from this trip…

I am pretty sure that my kids will be taken care of because lots of people love them…but nobody likes my dogs, so Mom…or somebody, can you please see to it that somebody will love my dogs the way I do…even if it’s not you? 

And I shall schedule this post for the future…if it posts, it must have been my time, and don’t cry about it.  Much. =)

Or it’s possible that I might have forgotten to delete this post…in which case, never mind all that. 

But perhaps I should just let it post so whenever my time DOES come, ya’ll know that I really want somebody to love my dogs.  Cause they’re God’s creatures, too…even if they don’t have souls. 

OBVIOUSLY, I worry about my kids first, and we’ve got guardianship papers and power of attorney stuff, so in case of emergency, that stuff should be all in order, but dogs don’t really qualify in that sort of thing, so…

Please…love my dogs.  Let them stay inside and be your babies and let them visit my kids (if you’re not the one who has the kids) every so often and let them love you back and sleep with you and guard your house for you.  For me.  Okay?  Thanks in advance. =)

By the way…I love all ya’ll.  Mean it. 

AnyWHO.  Now, I feel rather silly for even being worried but I’m very grateful for safe travels and that our kiddies were safe here at home with the in-laws. 

But we spent all week with no internet or phone (it cost TWO arms and TWO legs for that stuff on the boat) so now I’m trying to catch up on everything.  I don’t remember if I mentioned where we were going, but we took a cruise ship to Mexico for our 10 year anniversary.  Celebrating a little early since our anniversary isn’t til next month, but we didn’t want to miss Christmas with the kids…so all week, we were on THIS:

And by the way, the above picture was NOT color enhanced in photoshop.  That’s straight out of the camera (just a slight sharpen action and that’s it).  That was on the dock in Costa Maya.  I have tons of pics but I’ll make that another post later this week. 

Also, don’t forget, if you’re interested in getting into the digital scrapping thing, the giveaway for that ever so fun and helpful program ends tomorrow…uh….I guess tomorrow night since I’m usually too busy on Sundays to get to that before then.  So…CLICK HERE and leave a comment on that post. 

Oh, and one more thing before I go….

Ain’t we cute?  This was formal night on the cruise…they had photographers set up in like 10 different places taking photos…but we only bought two.  Notice, you only see one arm on each of us in this picture…that’s because it took our other two to buy the two photos.  HAHA.  I’m kidding…sort of.  LOL. 

So…more to come.  Stay tuned (or if you don’t care to see any more, then I guess it’s more like “be warned” hahaha)

Oh and BY THE WAY…it’s not quite our ACTUAL anniversary yet, but I still really like this post I wrote on our fifth anniversary…and if you’re a nerd like me who likes to see then/now photos, there is a THEN photo of our wedding day on that post…I love that sort of thing.  LOL.  Okay…leaving for real now…