Note-Keeping

Guess my brain assumed that since I have been taking notes in my travel journal, that one method of recording is enough. Despite seeing it in my planner, completely spaced on writing my usual Sunday post. Bah!

Thursday: Dragged my sorry behind out of bed and made sure I had everything set to go. The SO took me to breakfast at McDonalds on the way to the airport because their hashbrowns are one of the few good reasons to be up before 10:30 in my world.

Flying was fairly uneventful and found myself in a pretty positive mood. That doesn't often happen but maybe there had been just enough stress going on that the chemicals in my brain just snapped and were deliriously giddy.

Landed in Dallas about twenty minutes ahead of schedule, which was extra awesome because even after I hauled butt across the airport to my next gate, there were a mere ten minutes before my next flight began to board.

Also, thank goodness for traveling with just my backpack as my carry-on because it meant that I was able to board both flights pretty early on!

Picked up by my brother and dad at the oh so humid, warm, and damp airport. Opted for a calm and quiet dinner at home of homemade beef stew, continued planning out the weekend road trip, and had six inches of my way-too-long-for-me hair chopped off by my mother. Yep.

Went to bed super late because of time differences and having a ridiculous lack of self-control.

Friday: Woke up late and start going shopping with my brother before meeting up with one of my best friends at our local hobby store to pick up two card games: Fluxx and Star Munchkin. My friends and I are now obsessed. Have been looking forward to picking up a couple of games for weeks now and it was way too exciting for me to be with nerdy people again.

Played a few rounds before packing up to head to Orlando (a 3.5 hr drive since we avoided rush hour) and made it to my other best friend's house at 10:30pm. The joys of youth. We played more rounds of both games with her and her sister before heading to bed.

I am so grateful to have been able to see her while we were both visiting the same state for a limited amount of time. I don't know why the stars keep aligning like that but I am not going to question it ever!

Saturday: We all did our best to get up early and head over to Cape Canaveral (1.5 hours away) to visit a dear friend who was in the same area of the state at the same time. Yeah, there was a lot of planning and re-planning involved the 24 hour prior to all of this. It had been years since we had all been together. Had lunch seaside hoping to see some dolphins.

Dear friends' parents have the best condo there. It's paradise for sure! We hopped into the inflatable kayak and were surrounded by manatees. Yes, that place again! My brother and I kept being pushed back out by two manatees and I have some great pictures and video clips that I will upload this week. When the other two went out, they saw big jellyfish in the bay waters beneath them.

Played more of the card games together (told you: obsessed) before heading back to Orlando with my dear friend in tow a few hours earlier than initially planned. That gave us enough time to take my best friend's sister out to dinner and we could all catch up and be goofy.

We left to make that 3.5 hr drive back down to our hometown while watching the Super Moon and it only rained right when we entered town again. We dropped off my friend at her house, where I promptly left my wristlet containing my camera, phone, and wallet things in her bathroom, and got home just past midnight.

I was so incredibly close to not leaving behind something at someone's house. Sigh. It's been a problem for me since forever. Go figure that, despite how careful I was this trip, I would screw it up at the finish line. Yup.

Sunday: Brother and I headed to church the next morning after finding out that our mom canceled our day together. She's just too cool for us. :P It was the whole reason why we had rushed to get home the night before. Sigh again. Did a little more shopping and grabbed lunch with my dear friend again and hung out at her place since we were in the neighborhood. That and I needed my wallet back. XP

Helped her clean her pool before grabbing some delicious Italian Ice from a hole-in-the-wall shop down the street. We all went to the hobby store again to hang out. Watched some people play player versus player games (like arcade Street Fighter-style) on a screen behind the counter from the moment we entered and were talked into trying out a new card game by one of the guys who worked there.

It was called Sentinels of the Multiverse (just looked it up) and we each were assigned a superhero and given the coordinating deck of powers and abilities to work together and defeat a villain deck coupled with an environment deck. It was slightly overwhelming and intimidating when we first started out because we were getting out butts whooped by the cards, but we managed to survive and pull off a victory in the end. Surprised us all, including the mastermind of it all.

Eventually, two more of our friends were able to join us and we window-shopped before heading to my dear friend's house again to play a few rounds of Fluxx, Star Munchkin, and Dokapon Kingdom. It has felt so good to have friends willing to try and enjoying all these games again. It's one of the best things about coming back to visit.

Numbing

I realize that my blog has gotten extra boring this past year with the format I've chosen to use. I apologize that the day-to-day updates are not insanely entertaining, but it's more of a record for me to use later on with my scrapbooking. That and to keep myself accountable towards the goals I set for myself. I'll be able to look back and see what I valued and spent my time on, etc.

Monday: It's Memorial Day and we spend it low-keyed and quiet. It was a nice change. I've had much more exciting things in the past but looking back on the past years (mostly thanks to this blog), I can see how things have changed for me in terms of family dynamics.

I can see that I've gone from hopeful and open, to angry and resentful, and now I think I'm drained and numb. That's definitely going to change because it needs to.

To lighten things up a bit, I did use this tutorial to do this to my nails! I'm so glad I tried it out.

Tuesday: I volunteered to go back to work to help FMIL pack up her classroom as I have done for the past few years. It's a mind-boggling time for both of us. I'm still in denial about all of the changes that are going to happen next school year.

Afterward, she and I brainstormed a gift package for one of our friends that we'll see this weekend. The window-shopping has begun in earnest!


Wednesday: My work schedule gave kitty a strict timeline in terms of feedings and his stomach does not want me to sleep any later than 7am. You are lucky that I love you to death, my furry little boy. it works out for me to get up, grab him some food, and turn on the evap cooler at the same time. I'm trying to go with my body's timer and stay awake when I get up early.

I'm getting bored with all of the things I've used to kill time lately, so I'm trying to channel that energy into productive things like catching up on purging, cleaning, organizing or picking up practicing cooking again. Heck, I haven't worked on Project Life in... a month. Holy cow.

I haven't been taking many pictures either so I'm trying to make up for that too. It goes with my current mental state of being jaded and numb. Unacceptable. That has got to change for me and those I care about. It's probably best if I don't sit down to make a plan how to get out of this funk because then it'll just be over-analyzed and worried over. Let's just do stuff. Will definitely keep you posted on that! : )

Oh! Again, before I forget any longer, this is a picture of the bats that FMIL and I saw coming out from under a bridge at sunset last Thursday. So cool.

Summer Vacation

I've already started losing track of the days. Sigh. That and there's a to-do list that has been staring at me for the past two weeks and it is not pleased.

Thursday: Rough and long day at work. It was the last day for the students and there was a lot to clean up. I thought I would be more upset and saddened by the year coming to the end, but guess I was too worn out or preoccupied with getting through the day to let it hit me.

Friday: Grading day except the grades have already gone home. Nearly half of the staff are moving on next year, so there was a whole lot of packing up going on. Lots of changes are going on next year and I'm having a difficult time processing it all. It's hard to imagine that place without the people who I have come to deeply respect and taught me so much.

Saturday: I was reluctant to wake up early for a brunch-luncheon with a few ladies, only to find that the SO was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for some breakfast burritos. It was a long day, but I'm glad I got to hang out with so many cool people. I don't think it's really sunk in that it's summer vacation even though I've nearly shouted it from the rooftops.

Sunday: I finally slept in sort of late and it feels good. Kitty didn't super appreciate his breakfast being a little late. A friend of mine boosted one of my characters and I have really enjoyed playing Diablo 3 again on my own toon. It's been a pretty relaxing day for kitty and I while we try to stave off the heat. I'll have pictures next time, my camera battery is charging right now.

Tomorrow is Memorial Day. Please stay safe and remember to thank all that have served for their sacrifices. <3 br="">

Bits & Moments

Friday: I was so relieved for it to be the weekend, but it was a long day. Lots of stuff to try to tie up at work because next week is the last week of school. I'm pretty darn sure that the adults are much more ready for this vacation than the kids are. :P

It was also the night of our office party and that is always fun! I love the house that it's been hosted at, I've gushed about it plenty of times. This will be the last time though. We had so many people retiring and/or relocating. My gut is wrenching at the thought of how the dynamic is going to change next year. So far, I do plan on coming back, we're just not sure what my title will be.

I am all about the passive sentences. Apparently.

Oh! I've taken pictures that are decent enough to share! Remember when that was a regular thing? This is a peek at my outfit for the party. A friend wanted to see my boots, so I took these to show her online. I really love these. They are so comfortable!

The contorting and brain power it took to take these... Oof.

Saturday: I crammed in some last minute house cleaning for last minute company. Ended up being volunteered to cook dinner as well. We had Beef and Broccoli using leftover BBQ tri-tip. I was proud of my efforts, it's the second time we've tried this recipe and it's still a keeper.

Served over steamed white rice. The SO added Sriracha to his.

I bought my tickets to visit my folks and friends in Florida (finally). It's costing us more than ever but we really wanted to have this time together with my dad having had his health scare these past few months. Money well spent.

Sunday: I've been stressing out about trying to make myself relax. It sounds dumb, I know, but it's the kind of stuff you deal with when dealing with a nervous person. I recorded a garden update vlog but it's not ready yet.

Through the weekend, I've been helping out with my friend's social media project. It's just going to get worse when summer hits. I need to learn to reign myself in.

Wow, do I enjoy the night time's peaceful quiet. Just a few more days... Got to keep focusing on the good and happy moments to get myself out of this mental funk.

Not Caught Up

Oh yeah, I said that I'd make a real post today. Oof.

Monday- Thursday: I'm just trying to get through these last few days of the school. The kids have a severe cases of senioritis and it's taking all of my brainpower to figure out how to keep them on task and learning.

By the time I get home, my brain has been mush and I haven't gotten much else done around the house. Whatever energy I have left has been put into helping my friends in their live stream which has had a few special events that have gotten out of hand in terms of publicity. Maybe this will be a good thing?

Something's gotta give and change by this weekend. Let's hope that it's for the better.

Step Behind

I was hoping to have another garden vlog update today, but I'm feeling pretty nauseous or dehydrated right now. Gonna keep this short today.

Monday: It's Teacher Appreciation Week, so there have been snacks and goodies all around hidden in the work room, office, or lounge for us to find. Finally got a hold of my cousins and it looks like we're on for at least a week in July to reunited after a bunch of years. Ticket prices are the highest I've seen them in years but my folks are helping me out.

Tuesday: I was pretty out of it all day and game home to work a few extra hours on social media management again. That's typically only on the weekends but there was new content added and a bug that was exploited, and it's been a virtual disaster. My job mostly consisted of answer the same 3-5 questions every single time they were asked. With an average of 700 people watching the live stream, that's pretty darn often. Aspirin was desperately needed after a few hours.

Wednesday: After a yummy lunch of homemade tacos for Teacher Appreciation Week, I made a spur of the moment decision to walk home. Kind of a mistake. I haven't been feeling well and was wearing a dark long sleeved shirt. Ingenious. I trudged home and haven't felt well since. Should just head to bed early.

With Universal Studios confirming the expansion to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando, here's a Draw My Life video.

All The Sleep

I was all pumped about staying up late and doing all of the things that I wanted to do for me (stuff I find fun) and all that I've managed to do is sleep or want to sleep.

Cannot even begin to explain how that works. Maybe I'm still vaguely sick. I don't necessarily feel like it, but the body temperature has been slightly elevated for more than two weeks now. Don't you just love how I said I couldn't start to understand what has been going on and then trying to justify it? Yep. That just happened.

Thursday: It was FMIL's birthday, so we tried to cater to her. When we finally got home, I tackled the dishes (it sucks that the dishwasher has been broken for months now), and then set off to make a taco pie recipe she had found online. That was interesting and the first time we used ground turkey.

Friday: My class performed at a school assembly today and our schedule's been out of whack this week because of all of the special events. Next week isn't going to get much better, lol. Oye.

Came home, ran some errands, and then went to Happy Hour to celebrate FMIL's birthday with a few friends. After, I wound down with some video game livestreams.

Saturday: I woke up disgustingly late. More catching up on online media. It was International Scrapbooking Day and I had planned to bunker down and tackle a bunch of my PL 2011 album. Yeah, I barely made it through the first two pages. The body was overtired for 90% of the day. I did spend some relaxing time with the SO.

He teased me about how gung ho I was about the weekend on Thursday night, wanting to do all of the things and by "all" I had meant "sleep". :P Have been a tired pup I guess.

Sunday: Today, I got up pretty early for a weekend day. I have been hanging out with friends online trying to have a laid back day. Worked on the scrapbook pages just a little bit. It's a bit mind-boggling to be able to more or less remember what I was doing on a particular date/ week for three years.

Side note, my hair has gotten really long. It's nearly at my elbows and that's pretty rare for me. If it's not cut before my visit back to Florida, my mom and I will probably hack a good 6 inches off of it. She's right. I don't know what to do with this much hair!

Here's a video about rants because we all have those kinds of days. :)

Cooler

The weeks are getting longer as I'm looking forward to summer vacation despite the severe financial strain it'll put me under. We'll figure something out. Sigh.

Monday: I hadn't written any goals until a few days later. Must have been that tired. There was an incident at work and I got injured. Nothing too serious, but because it broke the skin and the nature of my work, I had to go to urgent care to get a tetanus shot.

That took a couple of hours and I'm super grateful that the SO was able to come pick me up because I (again) began to hyperventilate while getting a shot. I hate shots. He also took me to get some yummy food after.

Only it took hours to be able to eat it because phone calls to file work incident reports had to be made and then my mom wanted to hear more about what had happened. I didn't sit down to start my winding down routine until 8pm. I really love/need that time to reset my brain.

Because it had been pushed back so long, I completely lost track of time while virtually hanging out with friends and the SO let me know how late it had gotten when he realized I must have had no idea.

Tuesday: Was pretty tired (duh), but it was a better day. My injuries are pretty minor, the dozen or so bandages had been taken off, and the arm isn't too sore. Ate tons of soggy leftovers and my brain was mush by the time we got home from work.

All I remember is trying to stay awake while catching up on reading blogs and watching videos before I gave up and went to bed around 9pm. Still waking up a few times in the middle of the night for undetermined reasons. The SO has not been sleeping well/ much either. We're a cranky pair.

Wednesday: It's the beginning of May. Holy cow. I was still tired, it has been uncomfortably warm in the house, and still have a cough and drippy nose. What the heck?

Had a follow-up appointment right after school and the SO made time to take me. We also shopped around for a present for FMIL. Her birthday's tomorrow and we should be going out to dinner with a few friends this weekend to celebrate.

After more errands, we came home took a deep breathe, and got up on the roof to condition and prep the evap cooler for use again. It's been in the mid to high 90's lately and my room by far the warmest in the house with the two walls being shared with the garage (including the laundry machines), and then the backyard.

Didn't do much this time around, just sat on the roof hanging out as the SO worked on it. He was too tired and short of the extra patience it takes to explain how to do these steps. Well, explain it to me and my slow processing skills (which only worsens when tired). No one fell/ was pushed off of the roof, so we're good. :P

So, right now, there's a clean ceiling fan rotating above me, the cooler's pump churning behind me, and a working floor lamp beside me again. Summer is pretty much here. Besides the whole waking up at the crack of dawn part.

Here's a song that I wasn't very fond of at all until I began to listen to covers of it: Demi Lovato's "Heart Attack"

Spring Cleaning

This is to expand upon my thoughts from yesterday. : )

I've been trying really hard to par down on collecting junk with keeping a future move in mind. Been helping others organize and sort through their decades worth of stuff and I don't want to get to that point. I'll never be as simplistic with my stuff as the SO or my folks are, but I'd like to find a happy medium. I've done pretty well with using up the supplies that I have, but I kind of need help.

Using it up with others is motivating in a fun way and it draws my loves of sharing and teaching into the mix. One of these days, I'll have more friends who are actively interested in such things. I have a bunch that have expressed interest but crafting just isn't a priority for them as it is for me. Totally understandable and I love them all the same. It just makes crafting a bit lonely.

Got rid of about half a dozen boxes, recycled a bunch of papers, and sorted the keep pile items into where I'd want them to end up.

However, those spots don't quite exist yet. The nice big boxes that I want to use are holding more junk still. It's hard to figure out what to do with decor items when you don't have your own place to decorate and what to do with those random kitschy items you get as gifts.

I don't want to throw them away because they were pretty recent gifts, but at the same time, I know some of them were given to us just for the sake of giving a present ("Oh, we about to see them. Should bring them something. Uh... what about this random thing? Yeah, we're just going to go with that.").

If we're moving out of state, that'll be a good enough reason to part with them. Take pictures to remember the moment and let it go. For now, those will just end up in their own box.

Another group of things that are taking up a lot of room are memorabilia type of items. I'd love to scrap parts of them to honor them, but for those types of items, I'd need a bit more money to spare. not happening anytime soon. Started writing the year I receive greeting cards (I keep them all because I don't get that many, let alone handwritten stuff from my loved ones) on the back to remember. Wish I had done so sooner. My memory is so bad.

Put a date on everything.

Unless you are one of those people that are really good at remembering where things came from using context clues. I can barely do that on a test.

My cleaning looks so much worse than when I just have a mess. I need/ use up all of the available surrounding space when I'm re-organizing. Just oye.

It will be nice to have everything sorted and contained. Then, I can really tackle parring down my stuff in one way or another. I'm thinking a bunch of giveaways to friends, donations to school or whatnot, re-gifting seems out of the question, and tossing out the rest after documentation.

Oh man, we should revisit the boxes of stuff we packed 2-3 years ago when I first moved in here. I think we were pretty good and it was mostly kitchen stuff I had brought from my apartment. My filed papers and books are still hidden away at my folks' home. At this point, that stuff could fit into a car and driven over. I've squirreled away quite a bit in my multiple trips to visit.

Another visit is being planned for this summer! I'm doing my best to only be excited about that.

Got to stop rambling in a nervous panic-procrastination. :P

Doing It!

Made this weekend about me (or rather the stuff that I want to do for myself) because I was feeling too cruddy to help anyone else. Killing two birds with one stone while resting up. Big update coming up because I haven't addressed it this week.

Monday: Jeez, it's April now. Gotta get back on track for the goals I wanted to accomplish this year. I took some kids I was babysitting to the movies and saw "Wreck-It-Ralph" and loved the junk out of it!

Afterwards, I sent a care package to my best friend and one to my cousins containing a physical copy of the infamous FL scrapbook. Wrapped up the evening by helping another friend convert an old office into a bedroom for one of her sons. It was the last day of Spring Break.

Tuesday: School started again that is what it is. We got the car back from the shop and of course there's a laundry list of issues to prioritize and address. I got to catch up with my brother and my mom and that was great as usual.

I am really looking forward to visiting this summer and those plans are starting to come together. I'm diligently working little by little on my Project Life. I'm on May 2012 right now and it's an extensive set of pages because that involved my last trip to Florida.

Wednesday: I wrote about what happened the day of, so you can check that out. : )

Thursday: Got home late from work, so I was mentally worn out. Caught up on YouTube subscriptions and tried out POP Pilates by Blogilates. Barely made it through the first few seconds without quivering, but getting into shape is something I'd like to start tackling. My middle is feeling way too squishy for comfort now and I have little to no upper body strength anymore. It's gotten pathetic.

Friday: During errands today, I ended up buying a new yoga mat. My original one is back in Florida and this one came with a foam brick, belt, and DVD for beginners like me. After trying to use a beach towel on the floor last night, this sounded like a much better idea. At least I know how to work on doing power (aerobic) yoga and can start there.

Saturday: I'm all about watching a video game streamer, Lethal Frag do his weekly cooking broadcast right now. Once I'm feeling better again, I'm going to practice more basic cooking skills again. The household's pantry areas are getting a little out of hand and nothing is being used because it cannot be easily found under the rubble.

Sunday: It's nice to listen to that for future motivation and Hank & Katherine Green (Vlogbrothers) play Super Mario Bros. for the Wii while steadily working on my Project Life. I'm happy to report that I'm already working on August 2012! That's the third quarter of the year and so close! I'm squealing and screaming with delight. Just so proud of myself.

I was feeling super discouraged by what I felt was not enough progress, but realized that I'm moving much faster with this scrapbook to date. A ton of time is being covered in a relatively short amount of time and that's something great! I'll be working on previous years in no time!

Oh wait, that suddenly doesn't sound like a good thing, lol.

Self, it is a good thing because you want to get as many memories as possible recorded. Then, you'll probably feel comfortable scrapbooking about the current year.

I can feel my anxiety rising. :P

Meeting The Desert

The visit with family is over and we are wiped. The flurry of activity and massive amounts of extra sun (the temps spiked to the 90's) have taken their toll on us. Now, I just want to sleep for an entire day. Cannot imagine how they feel coming back to 19 degree weather and snow. >_< We're thinking of moving there, why now? :P

Thursday: It killed me to be at work for a full day while they arrived mid-morning at the house. I got to briefly say hello via speakerphone during a break but missed out on ideas being hashed out. Mostly. They hung out until their check-in time of 3pm. I don't think I've ever heard such a late time slot.

The SO was sweet enough to give me a ride into work because FMIL took the day off to spend with her family. I got to sleep in (every minute was needed after nerve-induced insomnia) since I didn't have to walk.

I was going to hang out with a friend going through a rough patch after school, but it was canceled at the last moment and I rushed home to run errands with the SO and then more or less did my normal wind-down routine and helped a bit with dinner prep.

We had everyone over for one home-cooked meal of Chicken Divan using a family favorite recipe. I was probably more quiet than I should have been but realize that I was more tired than initially thought after work and general stressing out. FMIL left that night to stay with her family up at the hotel.

Friday: It was grading day and nice to get a lot of stuff done at school sans students. Got to grab a quick lunch with some of the ladies and then was able to head out early (not as much as originally planned) to run a few more errands before heading up to the resort to hang out poolside. They wanted to soak in as much sun and heat as possible while they were here. Understandably so!

For dinner, we reconvened and went to a hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant for some authentic Southwestern "cuisine". Afterwards, we hung out at the house until the boys decided that they were going to check out the bar scene downtown while every one else headed back to their rooms. Grandma put me in charge of watching them and they were pretty good. Got back by midnight and we hung out playing Wii bowling together.

I have managed to sneak in some journaling on my April 2012 pages. There's an extra set of pages due to my shenanigans with Flat Stanley at the local plant nursery almost a year ago. Phew, time is weird.

Saturday: I dragged the boys and myself out of our beds, grabbed some breakfast on the way out, and met up with the rest of the family to check out "Traildust Town". It has re-enactments of cowboys dueling and whatnot, but it turns out that the hours for the shops have been drastically cut down in recent times. So, that was a bust.

We didn't want to do too much driving to see anything else while the moms went to visit other relatives, so we checked out the same downtown area and visited some shops before grabbing delicious sandwiches for lunch. Then, it was back to the pool to reunite the group in the sunshine again. For dinner, we went to the hotel's on-property fancy restaurant for great food during a windy night. Dessert was had around a fire pit and it was just nice to spend so much time getting to know each other retelling those embarrassing family memories.

Sunday: The family had to leave by the afternoon in order to drive upstate and catch their flight, so there was brief pool time again (thank goodness that this place isn't all that far away because we live on the outskirts of town) before eating at the hotel's grill for light lunch. We said our goodbyes and were good about keeping tears to a minimum while half-planning a trip this summer to meet again.

There will be more tomorrow and some pictures. Too exhausted to think much more.

Grumble

I nearly forgot that today was Wednesday and therefore blog post day until I finally checked in on my beloved Google Reader (I blast through about 150 posts a day) to find that the service is being retired in July. Ugh.

It's been a long day, but I'll get to that later.

Monday: The SO and I have really been into the new SimCity. Depending on who you ask, it's the fifth or sixth installment of the franchise. We've been watching some streamers play and we had some fun money saved up and splurged. I think I mentioned that on Friday.

I'm trying to clear out some of the food storage that has gotten a little out of hand and that's been... fun. On the plus side, I had chicken nuggets and tater tots as a treat to myself for making it through the long day. Planned out the next few days of cleaning and did some chores. Nothing too interesting because I was wiped.

Tuesday: It hit me mid-day that the relatives were coming in and I finally started to panic. I've finally caught up on all of my "Water Later" videos on YouTube! I was behind three weeks and it was starting to feel like I would never catch up and then start missing videos. Net-nerd problems, I know.

I treated myself to a nice long warm shower with plenty of pampering and guess what? I worked on some Project Life pages! Nothing is fine tuned, but I slapped the desired pictures onto the pages and all that's left is doing the journaling and editing the photos just a little bit.

It felt good to crank out a few more pages after envying gorgeous and most importantly finished layouts on my blog feed. I will get it done! Sigh. I haven't even gotten much of this year's stuff done... Bah!

Wednesday: It's crunch day. The family arrives tomorrow mid-morning while I'm at work :( but at least everyone else will be available. The SO got a haircut for the occasion and I will forever be jealous of how easy it is for guys when they need a trim. He picked me up from work and we ran some quick errands like filling up the car and cleaning it out just in case we split parties sometime this weekend.

I dusted before heading to work, finally finished making the new labels for the garden, swept the front and back porches, we've cleaned the floors, the bathroom is cleaned, and put the finalizing touches on every surface. There's just a lot of stuff to work around/ through/ over.

Every day of this week just seems to be dragging on and my energy is drained at work. Definitely needed the extra caffeine boost early this week.

I think another part of me is panicking because we have only one activity that's partially planned during this visit. That's it. There are tons of ideas floating around but nothing resembling an itinerary and that is making me flip out. It goes against so many grains in my body.

We had planned one tour to the bat cave at Kartchner Caverns, but SO's grandmother (who is almost 93!) has already been (she's been to nearly everything touristy here in her many past visits) and didn't think she could make it through. That's fine, it was the only activity that really required advanced notice and would probably be one of the most expensive things we would partake in.

I'm just so used to having some sort of plan for a jam-packed visit. Remember "Vacation Boot Camp"? It seems more of an epic saga in that blog post rather than the intense work out that is portrayed in the scrapbook I ended up making about that trip. Man, I love that book and scrapbooking. Just need to do more of that.

So my mom called all excited today. She left a voicemail about how the new Pope has been selected and how much she thought I'd like this one. It was terribly amusing and just a quintessential interaction between the two of us once I finally got a hold of her. My thoughts are: "We'll see." I'm glad that the church is being a bit more... progressive with their choice. At least, on paper.

Wow, I just want to sit and relax/ sleep. If I could somehow manage to do both right now, I so would. Cannot wait to update you on our shenanigans. I hope this meeting goes well and that we make plenty of good memories and everyone has fun and... yeah. Lol. Gonna try to calm my nerves before going to sleep.

Round Two

Chúc Mừng Năm Mới! Happy New Year (of the Water Snake)!

It's been the second round of a head cold for the SO and I, so we've been pretty pathetic in our room. Well, in retrospect it seems a tad sad, but we did what we could to take care of one another. Especially me returning the favor after a solid month of being almost out of commission.

We were able to get some errands done yesterday. There are new sheets on the bed after our old ones suddenly tore down the middle. They are now the wrong color for the rest of the bedding (whoops) and a heavyweight flannel which was so good to burrow into last night. It kept the warmth so well and that's been great on our joints in this recent cold front.

The Northeast got quite a bit of snow over the past few days, but with a bit of preparation, it seems that most people are sitting tight until the shovels finish their work.

The SO and I have been snuggling up with our tissues, watching some shows online, and I've played on his computers while he's been resting up. Oh, we also got kitty some new grass, a test kit of four types of cereal grass seeds, and some new turkey-flavored treats. He's been kind of spunky and cuddly lately. This has distracted me from working on anything else.

His cat-cousin is back to living at this household again. That makes three cats now that should be kept separate and let out to roam the house at different times or in shifts. Sigh. More and more company keep coming.

It's been half-days, but I've ended up working longer hours than usual, but it was broken up by an impromptu lunch date and SIL's Ladies' Happy Hour that was just us at a local place with great food. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to make it, but the stars aligned and I'm grateful for that time.

Like I said earlier, it's the Lunar New Year but we're continuing on our streak of toning down and scaling back on the celebrations. We ordered some takeout and barely made a dent with all of our hacking, lol. I may do something with the kids at school this week, but probably not go all out like I had last year with my dressing-up and doing presentations for all of the classrooms what with my hours this year.

I want to believe that this will be "our year" but am finding it very hard to keep that faith, mostly within myself. Maybe if enough of that builds up, I'll react by pushing it aside and making something better and towards the life we want to live for ourselves. Kind of feel like Eeyore with that raincloud that bores down always with all of this heavy and serious hovering above my shoulders.

All The Food

The day started off with a slightly surprising discovery: my coffee tasted terrible. I could taste the fact that I hadn't bothered putting in any milk or cream this past week! It's the first time in a while that I could taste anything and I was so excited.

The sense of smell and taste are not quite there, but they are starting to come back and that really carried my spirits today. Last night was also the first night that I didn't wake up in the middle of the night hacking or sneezing violently. I've been doing some breathing treatments and it's been breaking up the gunk deep down in my lungs so it can finally leave my body in whatever way it pleases. I don't care, it just needs to be gone.

With my reclaimed senses, I started to eat everything in sight the moment that I got home from a long day at work. All in celebration.

I almost have enough energy to get going again. Mentally, I'm plotting and raring to go. Sometimes I make the mistake of trying to tackle something with gusto and then suddenly reminded by my knees giving out or the rush of light-headed-ness to just rest already. Fine.

The SO's birthday was this past Monday and we spent a quiet night at home but plan to go out to celebrate that and the Lunar New Year this weekend when I'm feeling better.

Chatted with my mom today and my family is recovering well. With each passing week, they are reaching little milestones back towards normalcy. Erm, as normal as it's going to get for the next year or so. Long-term health issues are scary.

In better news, I've finished with March 2012 and am perusing my photos and notes for April! Still maintaining excitement for Project Life.

"Super" Sunday

It's the day of that big football game (49ers versus Ravens) and Beyoncé concert. My typical tradition as established my my college years is to have a ton of finger foods and snacks around and watch the game, commercials, and play Mario Party whenever we get bored.

Instead, I'm somewhat miserable in bed nursing this head cold. I'm tired of being sick. My cat has been giving me so much guff about this illness. Every time I sniffle, sneeze, or cough, he's chatting at me and giving the stink eye.

Needless to say, I haven't had much energy to get much done this weekend. We've gotten the minimum of errands done, laundry should get done but probably won't this weekend, and tackling clean-up and organization is put onto hold until I can taste food again or breathe through my nose.

The SO has been helping me out, but he's tired of me being sick too. So many tissues and bouts of hacking coughs in the middle of the night. We've played some video games together, watched some shows, and I'm nearly done with March '12 in Project Life. Haven't taken much pictures lately. Hm.

The garden looks so despondent. There are some baby plants but I'm not convinced that their not weeds. Haven't gotten rid of those in over a month and there are so many now with the random light rains we've had in the past two weeks. Well, so many for the desert, I guess. I think I'll take pictures of that soon.

I guess the only other thing to report is that I finally fixed my blog signature so that it's relevant again! Hooray! Hopefully, I'll be much healthier with more things to report later this week.

One Step Closer

I think next month, I'll start blogging three times a week. Maybe.

I'd test it out now, but there's too much activity going on in the household that needs to be taken care of immediately. Life is just reminding me that it takes precedence when it wants to in the most stunning of ways.

Went to a clinic last night. I have strep on top of the flu, so I'm banned from school for another day until the antibiotics kick in. I'm very fortunate to have the SO to check in on me and help me stay accountable for myself when my energy starts to run low.

With the somewhat new challenges that the holidays have brought, the SO and I continue to have our heavy discussions about our future. While at an unhappy stalemate now, it seems that there will be many big changes for us this year. Can't wait to take you along that journey.  ^_^

It's been super cold here, with temps getting down to 18 and soon to be 70's. Sigh. I think my garden has had it. The wind keeps blowing off the covers in the middle of the night and with so many freezing nights... I think they have all been done in. Going to keep caring after them in the hopes that spring will bring renewal, but looking at the stems is not promising. I took pictures but have too much to do around here to post them today. Maybe a bonus post tomorrow?

I'm doing my best to lock everything down before an impromptu getaway-sleepover for a while. Kitty cat and all. Not ideal, but we're doing the best we can. Today's my first day out of the oven of my bed. I miss it already.

My dad's doing better. Sorta. He's getting many visitors now and will be going home to rest some more soon. Pretty sore but still looking better each day and we all know he'd rather get out of the hospital as soon as possible. It's driving him crazy and therefore the rest of my family is being driven crazy. Another step down.

Maybe that's what I have to keep thinking about- there's no use in getting so angry or crying about it anymore, just do what needs to get done, one step at a time. If I have more energy for all the extra stuff I like to do, then great- go for it- otherwise, it can wait because it's not necessary.

^_^ We're definitely focusing on taking care of us and honoring the values that matter the most to us. This ordeal is bringing us one step closer to were we're supposed to be.

One After Another

You know how I had a cold for the duration of winter vacation (and for a week prior)? Yeah, I had barely gotten over it this past week (tiny bit of residual cough).

Well, I got the flu and it hit me hard on Friday.

A cold front had come in, so the building was pretty cold and I was trying to keep moving to stay warm but noticed that my knees were starting to ache. Unusual for me. I powered through the rest of the day, while looking forward to Ladies' Happy Hour at a place that I've been so excited to try. When we got there, much of our party was running late, so we were just chatting for a while.

My throat was starting to get sore, so I ordered a strawberry limeade and noticed it was getting more difficult to swallow. We started to order appetizers and by the time it got there, I was feeling more under the weather and thought that the food would help. However, I was increasingly light-headed. More people arrived, I tried nibbling my fries but it was too much. The other ladies started getting concerned because after coming back from the bathroom, I guess I looked pretty pale.

My SIL wanted to run next door to Steak 'n' Shake to grab me a milkshake to soothe my throat, but the wonderful people at the place even made me one off the menu. They were so kind and my food smelled so incredibly good. I nibbled at it while the SO was on his way to bring me home. I had gotten him a pita gyro and the bite of lamb I tried from that was delicious.

I had a bit of a temperature, began to hyperventilate, but couldn't stay warm. I've been in bed getting as much rest as possible. My throats been swelling and killing me, there's the sinus pressure, the aching joints have subsided, and very dry cough. I really hope to be in some shape to go into work tomorrow, but there's a flu epidemic going on that our state has recently been added to.

In other news, my father went in for his big surgery on Friday. The procedure went according to plan and he's a little worse for wear. I have received some updates and even a picture of my dad in the hospital. It'll be a long recovery road but hopefully, it will only go up from here. I hope all of my family gets some much needed rest as well.

Midway

I've really want to sit down and relax after work and get down and dirty with Project Life lately but over the past three nights, I've collected about a total of about seven hours of sleep. Not exactly fun for my body. Or my brain for that matter. So, I've gathered all of my supplies around me and promptly zombie'd out until trying to go to sleep.

Spoke with my mom for a bit today. My dad's surgery is was squeezed in and is scheduled for Friday afternoon. He'll be in the hospital recovering for about a week if all goes well. From what I gather, the main surgeon's not terribly concerned about the severity of the procedure. Still doing my best to not over-worry about things that may never come to fruition, let alone within my control. Deep breaths.

My family's doing their best to keep on keeping on with their usual business: cleaning up after the holidays and getting back into the general routine of things (despite doctor-specialist visits every other day, it seems). Again, it's just going to be something weighing heavily on my mind over the next few days. I really should take after their example in action as well as in my talk.

Cold front coming in on Friday and so is our monthly Ladies' Happy Hour. That'll be a local Greek restaurant that I've heard rave reviews about but have yet to try. So, I'm quite excited. It's also partly a going away party for one of FMIL's friends. She's moving a day or so after.

I can feel my brain wandering off, so I'm going to lay down. : )

Day Trip

Today, we got an early start for a day trip up North to visit a family friend.

Her daughter and respective betrothed were supposed to join us too, but they have been battling the icky illnesses that have been plaguing many of us. I can totally relate.

We started to run late, then tried to change the meetup spot to one closer to our car's location, then that restaurant's hot water heater broke, so we headed towards another place that was supposed to be about a mile down the road. We were still on the highway trying to get to the spot when our friend reported that she could not find any such recommended restaurant so we agreed to the original spot.

However, while we tried to figure out a "new" meeting place, the SO and I ended up driving way past any of the choices and had to turn around from highway to highway to highway. A joy indeed, lol. Adventure! Have I mentioned that I completely suck at directions? Hardcore. The SO is peachy with them, but I managed to somehow counteract that and win in the worst way today.

Either way, we eventually made it and our friend is a patience and great lady, lol. After having Mexican food, we did some card readings with Angel cards and Medicine cards to set us off on the right foot for the new year. We often meet up with her once in December or January and have done something similar, so she had recordings of those past outcomes.

We also traded belated gifts and spilled some drinks while opening them. Afterwards, we headed back home with a few heavy things to think about in terms of our future. Needless to say, we smothered the bejeezus out of kitty upon our return. We missed him so.

I love taking trips, especially with the SO. It was a nice quick, slightly stressful, yet somewhat peaceful break from our normal. It ended up raining and becoming really cold upon our return and tomorrow we may get slushy sleet! Still no formal plans for tomorrow night. That actually might be a good indication of a quiet evening- which would be phenomenal. Not holding my breath. :)

Stone-Dead

Currently enjoying one of the gifts I got for the SO with him right now: a dvd of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. 

We've been getting ready for our day trip tomorrow and I had a good time on a Skype date with a dear friend tonight. The reprints of the Florida digi-scrapbook came in today but the book and pages themselves have yet to arrive.

I really wish that this dry cough would go away already. It's been at least three weeks now and I'm tired of waking up in the middle night because of it.

Still working on the review of this year and thinking more and more about doing the digital version of Project Life. With how I seem to work in general and with scrapbooking, it makes a bit more sense. Currently installing the software that came with my graphics tablet onto the SO's computer in hopes that I can actually use it to its full potential.

I want to buy the digi-supplies right now but I realistically have little to none of the materials ready, even virtually. This is major motivation to get back onto the that train though.

I think I'm going to be much better about piling on the projects. I won't accept anymore that I cannot finish in a timely manner while finishing up any outstanding projects. Namely organization. I want to get things done this year and from now on.

Alright, no more getting ahead of myself tonight!