Wrap Up Begins

This week has been sub-par so far. My sleeping hours are screwed up beyond reason and my mind's checked out for a few days now. It's gotten ridiculous.

Monday: Photo-a-Day project is all jacked up now. There was supposed to be a picture of me but I was an absolute wreck and not feeling well. I'm sure I could have gotten creative the day of, but I think I want to use a picture I took a few weeks ago instead.

While I cringe at not fulfilling the assignment "properly", it was to help motivate myself into taking pictures again, right? That part has been successful.

I have done nothing of note, it was a pretty pitiful day.

Tuesday: I was determined to get something done today- anything. That would give me more points than I earned yesterday in a game that no one is playing/ counting. Except me. Sometimes. Does anyone else do that?

The normal chores of cleaning up the massive mess I've made on the table, laundry, other errands and chores. I'm trying to force myself into a routine again, especially in the mornings because my auto-pilot functions better than the normal guy. Trying to eat better too. Way too much junk in the past two months. Well, year really. More about that next.

Wednesday: Sheets are washed. Hooray! What a good way to reward myself for getting off of my butt and computer to do stuff. Making more plans for the first weekend of my trip to Florida. It's about a week away now and I'm starting to get anxious. Change of subject- quick!

Needed desperately to switch the hot-cold weather wardrobe since I use about 1.5 foot wide of space in a closet and three narrow drawers to hold all of my current clothes. I can fit so much more in the summer months when the temperatures make me feel like I'm melting.

In doing so, the SO and I rearranged furniture and I cleared a piece of luggage that I typically store clothes in but also often travel with. The rest will go in a bag and back into the garage until I return.

Still in the midst of purging and using up my stuff, so there's a lot of things that are not put away (aka strewn everywhere). Hesitating to just shove it away somewhere because I'm afraid of more "out of sight-out of mind" shenanigans happening. I either have to move+think fast or deal with that fear because either way, it all needs to be not around while I'm gone. As per tradition.

Okay, enough of that! Here's an update from the garden:

Early To Bed

I've cut back on my caffeine or when I have it so while I have been enthusiastic about staying up late, the reality has been falling asleep watching shows in an office chair. It's been a few times that I've laid down and joked around about just resting and instead waking up five hours later still in my regular clothes. Yup. Getting older, lol.

That's why this post is a day late. Kitty has taken to waking me up so I can turn on the cooler. That clever little boy. :P

Monday: This day was a blur. I've been working diligently on Project Life 2011, staying up to date with all of the vlogs I watch, and working on a fox scoodie. I'm working on doing a Photo a Day challenge from Fat Mum Slim for June 2013.

It was kind of hard for me to find a list even though I see a bunch of people participating it in the scrapbooking blogs that I follow. Kind of bizarre. Maybe it's because it's seems to mostly be a Flickr group activity-community.

I'm being very lenient on myself on when the photos are taken. I try to do my best to take at least one photo a day and it has already been helping my motivation to keep documenting everyday life again since it has become suffocatingly stagnant. It helps me remember that, "It'll be okay. There's still time to fix everything and make life better."

Here are some that I've taken so far. I won't be sharing the challenge here because Picasa's been a jerk with Google integrating it into its network completely and it would go against my personal policy of not having people's faces on my blog.

 "1. B is for Bandit". I laid out an outfit to go out, left the room to eat breakfast, and came back to this little boy refusing to let me have my clothes back. He had even made a little nest out of it which is all stuff he has not done before. Silly boy.

I was debating using this for "2. A moment" because the SO and I had banded together to make this ramen. We rinsed off the original waxy water, tweaked the broth to our own taste, I tried a new way to make hard boiled eggs (I never liked them growing up so was super rusty), and we used up some leftover shredded pork. It was just a nice experience in a couple-home sorta way.

Ended up using a sweet picture of the SO and his kitty instead.

Tuesday: I was up pretty darn early for a babysitting job that was canceled 30 minutes later. It was way too hot for me to go back to bed (It reached somewhere between 103-107 degrees. Bluck!) Again, I worked hard on Project Life and I'm almost halfway through 2011.

There was not a whole lot of documentation or pictures but I'm making myself okay with that.  Heard a quote in one of my scrapbooking videos that I've been using for motivation: "What you get done is more than you had before."

While I love gathering the photos and kind of making the notes (maybe that's from my love of lists), I really love having a finished project. "It doesn't have to be perfect." Which is great to remember because I am never satisfied with my creative work so its going to get there anyways.

In other news, since I was up so early and had a few "extra" hours to burn, I was checking on the greenery and found this:

It's hot. We're all wilting.

 You can barely see it, but in the bottom third of the picture towards the middle are the tiniest of green sprouts. These are the seeds that I planted last Thursday.

Wednesday: I had plenty of chats with so many people today. I had conversations with my mother, my brother, and three of my dearest friends. All unplanned and I think that's what made them that much more appreciated and special. Miss them all.

There was a lot of rearranging in my Project Life June 2011 pages and it just reaffirms my choice of going purely digital with my scrapbooking. I so desperately love the embellishments of washi tape, enamel dots, wood veneer, and flair buttons that are so big right now, but that's just way out of price point for me.

I'm not giving up on traditional scrapbooking but it's going to be put way back on the burner for now.

Yes, I could always get digitized versions of these bits and bobs, but I miss the feeling of playing with the actual goodies. Plus, my biggest weakness is embellishing to make my pages feel complete. Bah! Silly realistic expectations.

I'll just save that dampered obsession for the next time I make a mini-album. Project Life with its photos, texts, templates, and cards are working very well for me to get these stories done.

Oh yeah! Look at what I found a day after:

 

Those squash seedlings in the upper right are reaching the top of the box lid. Oof.

Dusting It Off

Guys, I haven't bought anything from Michaels or Joanns in several weeks. I would say months, but I think I needed something for a gift or school project around the holidays. I cannot remember but wouldn't put it past myself.

Let's get to the week's recap.

Thursday: It was a very windy day again and I went to help a friend organize and begin the packing process.

Friday: I found my camera after examining the bed area. That's where I remember seeing it last when I was trying to pass out from exhaustion. It had fallen between it and the wall but is still working fine! Hooray! Ran some errands for the cooler and whatnot.

Saturday: We're trying out Star Trek Online. It's a free MMORPG and we are fans of the franchise. There is so much text to read in the beginning areas, it's borderline ridiculous. I really want to like the game.

Another big thing I tackled today was going through my 2012 Project Life pages and applying a double mat as the background. It's a pretty effect, simple technique with the free template, but tedious as heck. It's done and I learned some tricks about recoloring and resizing elements in Photoshop Elements.

Sunday: Weekends are supposed to be my chance to sleep in/ catch up on sleep and I've done a terrible job of it. It's namely the early morning heat that has been waking me up. We definitely need to set up the evaporative cooler soon.

I just dusted off the ceiling fan in the dining room and turned it on. It's the only working fan in use in the house right now. This is going to be an uncomfortable spring.

With the "extra" time I had, I started tackling a task that has been on my resolutions list but I hadn't worked on yet- sorting through and getting rid of the clutter from my "Miscellaneous" boxes. They are stashed around the house, out of the way, and vary in age from two years to two weeks.

I'll ramble more in a later post.

Here's a garden vlog I filmed this weekend once I got my camera back!

Urgh

I'm slightly miffed for two reasons tonight.

1) I've had a head cold going on two weeks now and it keeps my body perpetually tired-sore.

2) My camera has been misplaced yet again in this haze of being groggy all of the time. As we well know, this aggravates me to no end. What is going on?!

I didn't even realize that I posted the same cover music video twice last week, but I don't think I'm going to change it. It's been a while since I've posted pictures, don't even know where to begin. Let's just get the mid-week review out of the way.

Monday: Despite having an elevated body temperature, I finally used my new yoga mat and dug out my hour-long Power Yoga DVD and heaved my way through the entire routine. Oof. I loved the feel of my new yoga mat and will definitely take a picture of it once I find that danged camera.

I tried to do some work on my PL 2011 and managed to mull my way through creating the title and last pages of the 2009. 2010. and 2011 albums. I was just using the prescribed cards in the exact matter recommended, so it should not have been as hard as it ended up being. Blame it on realizing that last year had the least number of photos out of the past 4 years.

Why did I ever think it was going to be possible to combine 2010 and 2011 into one book? Something must have possessed me that day. I also realized that I had only scrapped the first two months of 2009 in my first full-length scrapbook (our first year of dating). Meaning that the year I moved across the country would have no more documentation. Derp.

Had to re-evaluate which Project Life kits I was going to use for which year for simple cohesion. That and giving myself less options and more encouragement to just get it done. This is going to take a long while.

Tuesday: I managed to slap pictures on the first two pages of PL 2011 January. Picked my common "theme" for the album and stuck on a few journaling cards. My cousins in Germany got their physical copy of the infamous Florida scrapbook plus a Perry the Platypus messenger bag for my youngest cousin there.

I was so wiped in the evening that I just crawled into bed sometime around 9 o'clock. That's a solid three hours earlier than usual. It was so good but I still need to catch up a little more.

Wednesday: Stampin' Up! released their latest retiring products list, so I went through my catalog and marked everything that was being discontinued. Made myself a sandwich that I usually only have when I visit my family, briefly chatted with my mom after a week of phone tag (her phone still died 15 minutes into the car-ride conversation), and caught up on some YouTube subscriptions. 

I may or may not have unburied one of my garlic plants because I could not figure out if they were ready to be harvested. Long story short- no. I have small bulbs of garlic growing though! I snapped a picture with my cellphone and put it back into the dirt. I'm so excited.
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That took longer than I was expecting. So here are some photos from this past month. There's not a lot, let alone much that I'm good with sharing on the blog.

 So there's a few Walmart markets being built and opened up in town and that's the Pharmacy drive-thru. Something's not quite right...

This little mister has been so lounge-y with the increasingly warmer weather.

This was at the park where FMIL and I went to an astronomy-teacher party. That's the little river that probably ate all of the papers the dust devil stole from us.

This was the pile of tree-bush branches I went crazy and hacked away from a wall in the back yard. It'll make nice smelling kindling for the next bonfire. 

 I think this is the first time that this Amaryllis has bloomed. I shopping-enabled FMIL to get the bulb from our favorite local nursery last spring. It was at least twice the price we would normally pay but it's definitely different from all of the other ones she has!

Urg Again

So FMIL has strep and I'm getting sick again. Didn't we just do this?

We're struggling to rest up and recover so we can make it to the Ladies' Happy Hour tomorrow. It's a place downtown that FMIL has been vying for a while now. Bah.

Rough week at work and I'm trying really hard to not complain aloud too much. It's nearly painful but will lead to healthier relationships with those around me. Maybe. You know, If I don't harbor as much anger inwards either.

I'm working on a plan. The SO is helping me out too.

Monday:  I finished the bulk of my Project Life 2012! I feel a little odd that I started with the most recent year and then planned to work backwards. Instead of seeing how my style improved over time, it would nearly be the opposite.

Well, only partly, because I wanted to use an older kit for the older years. I'm sticking to one kit per time period to reduce my choices. It really helped save time but I didn't enjoy only using my top three preferred journaling cards. 

I think I plan to revisit and refine the 2012 album after I finish the 2010-2011 album. They will probably be together because I don't have nearly as many pictures or notes. Once all of that is done, I'm thinking about indulging in more than one kit for this current year.

Still cannot believe I have an entire year done in a matter of a few weeks of chipping away at it! That is the beauty of these products.

Tuesday: Late night at the office, made the cover page for the next PL album, and then went to help a friend sort through her big ole book collection. She's moving in the next couple of months so it was preliminary packing and purging. Mixed in with furniture rearrangement for the same reasons.

Wednesday: Alright, here are the reasons why I was too cranky-tired to write yesterday. The laminator at work has a jam so badly that the rollers won't budge. I'm first in line to try to fix it because we've bonded. That led to a late night of very little progress. Still haven't been sleeping well, so was already cranky-tired when I came home.

I watered the garden but then attacked a row of overgrown bushes in the backyard. It makes it inconvenient to spray for bugs in that area (by FMIL's bedroom) and we got her blessing to get rid of what we needed (its roots are probably responsible for her bathroom shower drain not working for years now). Attacked it with a vengeance with the clippers and saw. It had desperately grown untamed in so many wonky ways for so many years that just clipping off some dead branches left odd-looking gapes a few feet away.

Didn't really care thought, I just wanted to destroy something and was trying my damnedest to channel my energy in a positive manner. I shall post pictures when I'm feeling better. I also did a ton of overdue laundry, tried to cook something new for dinner, took a relaxing long shower, and moderated a live-stream chat for a little while. Did I feel relaxed and calm after all of that? Nope. Only marginally.

I gave up and went to bed.

Thursday: Woke up today feeling cruddy in my head and throat. So many of the kids have been getting sick from the intense wind, allergies, and fluctuating temperatures. Only a matter of time until it hit us again. Tried to fix the laminator again and just hung out in the video live stream moderating chat for the past few hours because that meant I could help someone out without leaving my chair. :P

Here's a cover-song I just love right now (to make up for my ranting):

Re-evaluating

My mood was significantly subdued today after a late night of intense discussion within myself and aloud with the SO. Not that it was a bad thing, just draining in more ways than one.

Going to reflect upon my attitudes and subsequently influenced behaviors, especially how they are interpreted by others (as well as how it has affected them).

Thursday: I worked from the moment I woke up until when I dragged myself to bed early that night. Lots of various projects to work on for a few different classrooms and I was determined to get them done and out of way. It's yearbook time, there's standardized testing all of next week, and we're in the final stretch for the school year. Tensions are running high.

Friday: I had a rough day and did some of my social media assignment when I got home. Been trucking away at my Project Life 2012 and am well into the autumn season. We ran some errands that day too.

Saturday: The SO and I went out to lunch as an early celebration of our fifth anniversary of dating. It really does not seem like that much time has passed and we were both avoiding talking about how different we had imagined our lives by this point. It's disappointing, but there's not much use in griping about it. We'll continue to figure things out in the real world while daydreaming about our dream lives.

I attended a Project Astro picnic with FMIL across town. It was a few hours long but really fun. It's a partnership program between local teachers and astronomers and there was much fun to be had. We learned a few interesting things that we hope to bring to our school next year and saw some amazing celestial bodies during a one-hour Messier scavenger hunt. Telescopes were set up in the field and the random teams had to find as many objects as possible from different tickets. Nerdy fun is the best kind of fun.

At the very beginning, we found ourselves literally in the middle of a dust devil that tore up one of the tents and carried tons of the informative paper work and flyers at least 50 feet into the air. We saw it coming our way minutes before it hit and I couldn't do much more besides cover the top of my drink and sidestep behind the pavilion column and close my eyes. I just have a light scratch on my hand from some of the debris. We couldn't recover any of the papers, they were probably dropped off into a small rushing river once the dust devil hit the dense desert brush.

Welcome to the desert, where even the air is trying to kill you.

An exaggeration, but you get the idea. Sigh. It was kind of cool if it weren't so much of a bummer to the enthusiastic and kind astronomers present.

Sunday: The SO and I stayed up all night having in depth discussions about the future of humanity, the present state of things around the world, renewable energy, our lives, the crud in our lives, our personal future plans, the human psyche, and so much more.

It was intense, had its ups and downs, but I am ever grateful that we have the right kind of patience and thoughtfulness with each other to have such discussions. I appreciate being in a relationship that challenges me on a mental, physical, and spiritual level. All the other ones too. There are way too many to list, lol.

We're some of the lucky ones.

In other positive news, I'm part way through December 2012 with my Project Life and feel that my next step will be tackling 2010-2011 after. I do not have nearly as much documentation, memorabilia, or photos from those two years, but will do the best I can to get as much recorded as possible. Or at least something recorded. Something is better than nothing! :)

Trying really hard to change my attitude. I have been full of anger for several months now, as continuously recorded in this blog. That's not the person I am or want to be. At least, not anymore. I need to get back to where I was at my highest, so as to continuing growing as a person from there.

Just to share a song that's been stuck in my head, among other ones:

Garden Vlog: Springtime

I knew that it had been a while since my last garden vlog. (Holy cow, September!) I took one during the winter but never ended up uploading it, I guess, because it was just all too depressing in the garden. So, here's a "bonus" post because I can never resist posting about my garden once I take pictures or videos of it.

I think once we're in our own place, I'll start more seedlings indoors over the winter. That way, I'll have some sweet little green leaves to bring a smile to our faces during the cold weather, plus they would hopefully have a good head start for when it's time for them to go into their "forever" homes. Just imagining it is calming in its own way.

I took this footage two days ago, when I went to water this morning, the jalapeno plants have been completely devoured as well as the pea plant. Of friggin' course. At least I went through and did the worst wedding job ever in my garden. The ground was dry and hard, was working with one glove, and I was cranky at other stuff and taking it out on those weeds. :P

Much The Same

Hope everyone has had a peaceful Easter weekend.

Not too much has changed in the past few days.

I'm doing the same things and have questioned more and more why I chose this way to spend my time- helping someone else completely and leaving no time for myself. I have really just spent the majority of my spring break helping everyone else and not doing anything just for me to enjoy. As proud as I have been for my work, I feel a bit empty.

Often have taken the need to be needed too far. Tomorrow, I don't have to go in for work, but I'm  working side jobs for the extra money and again, to help others. Starting to freak out about going back to work again because I know it's just going to get increasingly draining from here on out.

Thursday: We were car-less since early this morning because "Hank" is at the mechanics until further notice. Had to wake up at what felt like the crack of dawn to sneak in a called in walk-in. I did some cleaning before back to my social media work.

Friday: I spent the afternoon getting to know a little boy that I'm going to start baby-sitting. He's the grandson of a friend. The SO and I ran some errands too, so I loaded up on a lot of cravings-snacks.

I also was asked to participate in an online brawling tournament due to lack of entries by my online coworkers and then co-hosted the rest of the broadcast after having my butt handed to me. That was nerve-racking and the SO felt bad for helping convince me to go through with the public spectacle, but I'm glad it was entertaining because my teammates humored my awful performance.

Saturday: I spent most of the day baby-sitting. I did make a little time to work more on my Project Life. I have finally finished that pesky April and am in the midst of May 2012 when I visited Florida for a wedding. Another intense month, lol.

I've tried really hard to add a little of something to my work. I just never feel like I have enough time. Or maybe it's the lack of continuous support/ encouragement. One of those things that feels as if I'm going at it alone and only the finished project will remotely be appreciated by anyone else. Only problem with that is that point is pretty far down the road.

Sunday: I tried really hard to bunker down and work on my own stuff today. Was pulled away often, but that's how life is, right? Irks the junk outta me, lol. I'm one to fixate as we well know here. We had an Easter dinner with the family here. I think it's the first holiday meal that I haven't taken a picture of. It would resemble every other one and I felt increasingly detached as time passes.

You'd think this dissatisfaction would be enough to fuel me to change my circumstances. We'll see. I seem to enjoy being angsty...

Did more of my recent usual and now here I am. Man, I have been sneezing like crazy for the past two days. What kind of pollen is in the air?!

To lighten the mood, I have found this hilarious:

Cleanse

I actually haven't done much cleaning but have been tidying up like mad for the past few days.

The SO's relatives are coming in this Thursday afternoon and I'm going to still be at work. FMIL is taking a few days off and I was going to do the same until I lost a few days pay due to my recent illnesses.

At least this week also contains a Payday Friday. I'm hoping to get out early that day since it's grading day and there will be no kids to directly care for. Gonna work my butt off to get as much prepared as possible in my classroom.

I don't have too much to do left. Tackling the bathroom, doing some dusting, tidying up the storage area in the garage that we're using, and doing some laundry is pretty much it for me. We'll be mopping but the vacuuming has been done and FMIL has been tackling a lot of the clutter in the living room.

Thursday: Spent much of this day waiting around for Friday. I felt extra guilty for this because I want to adapt the attitude of tackling every day like a challenge, not wasting a moment. Stayed a little late after school to help a few other teachers, Skyped with a friend, and attempted to make a Brownie in a Cup after reading this article: 50 Life Hacks to Simplify your World; #34's fault.

The results were... well, I was sitting there with a cupful of disappointment. The advice I got was to not use olive oil. Plus, I think I nuked it for too long when I thought there was too much moisture in the cup. It ended up caramelizing the sugar halfway through me trying to eat it.

All of my ingredients.

 Sadness.

Friday: Finally have some energy back this weekend and thank goodness because it was a crazy day at school. With state testing this week, we lost a lot of time for our usual academics and didn't think it fair to test them today. Plus, we had a fire drill and bus evacuation drill along with the monthly school assembly. Yeah, it's hard to compete for attention during that kind of day. Plus, it was really windy out as a cold front was coming in and everyone's allergies and sinuses were unhappy.

Right after work, the SO whisked me away to kitty's vet appointment. It was a wellness visit and he was so scared. :( While we were waiting for the doctor to come in, he was trying to melt into his daddy's sweater. Thankfully, he was so good with the vet and assistant when they gave him a rabies and upper respiratory vaccine because he was due.

Afterwards, we dropped him off, spent some time with him, and ran some errands including getting some fish oil to help with his dry skin and some pet grass. He seems to have a bit of cat acne lately for the first time, so we'll ease in the fish oil with his food. 

There was Ladies' Happy Hour at a location we've been to before but had been replaced by a different restaurant. There was a nice turn out and the sweetest waiters. Handsome too, lol. The food was good too.

Got a care package from my best friend today too! We chatted on Skype as I opened it and subsequently freaked out. The three sodas I had at dinner may have had something to do with that. It was just too perfect and so "us".

Look at the cuteness!

There was a gift card to Target and it's one of our favorite stores, a Dove chocolate bunny for Easter (my mom used to get me one every year), a handmade card with the supplies I've been sending her, the funniest squishy blue seal that lights up when you bop it (I cried I was laughing so hard- the SO calls it a "Police Seal" because the lights are red and blue), Pez dispensers of Phineas and Ferb because she knows I love that show, a squishy Valentine's lion-bear-dog and she has the coordinating giraffe, and a glow stick wand. I don't know when I'm going to get a good reason to use it, but I'll make an occasion if I have to! 

Saturday: I spent a lot of my day organizing the majority of my paperwork and files, drawers and cabinets, and art supplies. Doing this helped me clean up a bit of the clutter around the house in preparation for the relatives coming this week. Not too much purging going on, which is something I desperately need to do (as discussed with my resolutions and goals for this year). 

 I've mentioned that I really like office supplies, right?

Tapes, sticky notes, paper clips, and miscellaneous supplies in towards the back, normal pens and pencils are in a mug next to the bajillion staples I have in that silver-pink tube, highlighters and specialty markers are in one half of a checkbook box I turned into a container, colorful pens are in the container next to it, and scissors are next to that because we grab them the most.

This does not include my color pencils, coloring markers, or colorful permanent markers. Those are with my craft supplies. I stored a lot of my paper crafting supplies in the art bin beneath my bed since I've begun to stray away from card-making and paper-crafting towards the digital goodness. Still just as easily accessed so it's all good.

 

Our kitty (and his sister) turned 7 years old today! So big! Even saying that now, I just want to get up and go squish hug him. Love that little boy so much and we are ever grateful that he's pretty healthy. They are now older than their mom was when she passed away from kidney failure. It's probably what's going to do them all in one day, so we're sensitive to that sort of thing.

 Had to deal with this nonsense again. Right when I wanted to relax after organizing so much of my stuff, too. Grr.

Sunday: It's pretty been playing the new SimCity and hanging out with the SO since he was feeling under the weather again.

 This was a beautiful sunset. I don't remember seeing the mountains get this red and bright before.

I also got to playing with some of my older crafting supplies too. I made these metallic and holographic lucky stars after dragging out my origami collection to show the students (we didn't get a chance to on Friday but I'll try again this week). They have been really wanting to see it after having a brief unit on Asian cultures.

I'll show more of my crafting supplies soon since they're even easier to get at now.

Not Short Enough

Today was supposed to be a short day and it was not nearly short enough. My patience for nearly everything is pretty much shot and I'm pretty unhappy with myself because of that. I've been so frustrated and flustered that I'm not even sure where to start in order to gain any positivity back from myself.

I know I just had Rodeo Break, but I did freelance work then so I'm ready for Spring Break where I hope to be completely selfish. That probably won't happen, lol.

Monday: Speaking of that social media management work, I did more of that when I got home from work. Eventually I was distracted by reorganizing my digital photo storage. I had it listed in folders by year and season, but a few years back I changed what qualified for what season.

It was weird and I don't know why I suddenly switched, let alone why I didn't make the folders consistent. I like having them chronologically and ended up ignoring which three months actually made up the weather/ calendar season and went with dividing the months into quarters.

So, now I have October, November, and December photos in say "2012 Q4" versus December, January, and February grouped together in a "2012 Winter". Yeah, that system must have been a late night backing-up organizational kick decision. It's all better now and that decision was made during lucid hours. This process took two evenings because I enjoy sleep.

Tuesday: I'm still catching up on my YouTube subscriptions, I'm just past the halfway mark with February videos. I finished up the photo reorganization and we ran some errands. Not much to report.

We've really enjoyed when they meet great critters on the SciShow with Hank Green of the Vlogbrothers.

So pretty for something so scaly.

The noise that it makes is out of this world.

Wednesday: That pretty much covers it. I tackled a broken laminator and soundless computer lab today after hours. So exciting, lol. I may have started counting down the days until the end of school. Terrible, I know. I am super grateful for finally having stable work, just wish I had more joy in it again. Going to try to relax and hang out with the kitty and the SO. ^_^

Completed

I feel good having finished a book for leisure for the first time in way too long. I was the type of kid that got into trouble for reading too much.

Yeah, it sounds dumb but I would become obsessed with my books and not put it down. I'd try to read in the tub, while eating, and walking across the street if I could get away with it. My punishments were more for life preservation purposes.

Again, there's the link to the book on Amazon. It's my dear friend's first published work! I have poured over the manuscript for years but I still did not want to miss a single detail. The notes and discussions we've had trading questions and details back and forth kept replaying in my head. I cannot wait until more people finish it so that I can discuss it with them!

Thursday: Bah, I'm falling behind on taking notes of the mundane things I do from day to day and it's really hard for me to remember lately what I did a few days ago.

All I remember is talking to my brother for a bit that day because it was his birthday and hearing his excitement after he unwrapped my gift to him. It arrived just on time and was perfect. I ended up getting him the Finn's old sword from Adventure Time. He already had the hat and backpack and found a Jake onesie so this is rounding out the costume collection.

That and I ate a lot of hot dogs.

Friday: It was pay day, so the SO picked me up from an exhausting day at school after I started doing some work in the lab about fixing the headset-sound situation before having to shut everything down for networking work that the district wanted to do over the weekend. We did a bit more grocery shopping and then I remember just wanting to sleep or at least rest. As much as I wanted to get back to Project Life, I just caught up on my YouTube subscriptions and hung out.

Oh wait! I did end up reactivating my World of Warcraft account and spent some time getting re-accustomed to the controls. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be and has been in the past. I think that's namely because I didn't have anyone waiting for me to show them the ropes after figuring everything out on my own first (while there would be tons of bugs and server maintenance) and I had been playing on the SO's account for a while now.

Saturday: I was feeling pretty under the weather and FMIL and I took a CPR-First Aid refresher course with a co-worker so we could renew our certifications. It's been about two years I think. I took a nap after we got home and eventually talked to my brother again. It was the night of his birthday celebration with friends and it had not gone well.

They were going to keep it low-key and eat at a local Japanese restaurant before heading to my folks' place to hang out but twenty minutes into dinner, they found out that one of the kids' cars had been broken into and their stuff stolen.

It's a well lit and busy area but the driver window had been shattered and the backpacks of three of the kids stolen from the trunk containing an iPad and two laptops. I felt so bad for them, so did my brother and all of their friends. While half of the group dealt with the police, the rest headed to my folks' house and the rest of the evening was pretty subdued. Poor things.

Sunday: Like I said before, I spent today resting and reading. Snuggled with the kitty and everything. In a two weeks, the in laws are coming into town, so I'll be tidying up quite a bit during that time. We also have to plan out a few excursions and I've been championing those ideas since Christmas. I also made more steak tonight and that was quite satisfying. I tried my best not to look at the recipe to see if I had learned anything from earlier this week. The food came out well, my memory was decent.

My goals this week are to finish up April 2012 in Project Life and to at least gather up the majority of my loose papers in preparation of organizing them.

It just felt really good today just putting everything aside and just reading.

Oh Yeah!

I opened up my blog because I was finally settling down to finish my Project Life layouts for April of 2012 and then I remembered it was Wednesday. Hooray! I had remembered all day long and let my brain go to mush the moment I got home. Wonderful.

But, I'm here!

Monday: Uh, I think I was just getting into the swing of things and happy that I made it through the first day back after a long weekend.

 Little Mister has loved his new trick of asking for help to get under the covers. I uncovered him from this warm pile of fuzzy pink robe.

Tuesday: We ran a few errands today and I wasn't in the greatest of moods (while forgetting my bits and pieces all over the place), but I took that bug that the SO somewhat planted and wanted to cook something new.

After being distracted by the internet, I decided on a pan-seared steak because I really wanted a steak. We've been discussing my strong desire to get a little grill. I miss grilled food so much from my mom and the SO is great at it but we haven't had access to a grill in over a year. I'm a meat-lover, need I explain more?

 

 I bought two steaks, but I ended up having enough to chop it into three bits and shared some with FMIL too.

 This was supposed to be a shallot and parsley butter sauce and it ended up being red onion and chives because that's what we had. Plus butter and a hint of lemon juice. I tried it on its own and was super skeptical, but drizzling a bit on each piece of steak was quite pleasant!

Now, I feel like I can passably cook steak. Whoa. There's still a whole 'nother one waiting in the fridge. I'm hoping to save it for Friday or the weekend as a reward for making it through the week. :D

Wednesday:

My baby brother is turning 21 years old tomorrow and I'm having a mild freak out. It's not that I feel as if he's not going to be responsible, he's much more level-headed and calmer than I am and we both don't enjoy partying, I just can barely process that he's pretty much a grown-up. I stopped counting how old I was after 19 and he's perpetually between the ages of 9-12 for me.

Talk to my mom for a bit tonight and we're still hashing out the details of what's happening for the rest of the year in terms of travel. 

I will be working on Project Life this week! Rawr! Been catching up on YouTube, still weaning myself off of the social networking marketing I was working on, and have been reading my friend's book.

Also, I've been obsessed with this concept and being brave enough to dance a happy fool in public. This playlist has made be laugh hysterically despite being so cranky lately.

Really Now? Really?

Twice in one week I forget to post on the proper day. *head-desk* All I've wanted to do is sleep whenever I get home. I'm getting enough, maybe not restful with the cold front that came back.

Friday: There was the meteorite wreaking havoc in Russia. The SO and I spent a few days helping a friend move and rearrange some furniture. We ran a few errands and I ended up picking up a few new seeds. I think I know what I'll be up to this upcoming long weekend!

Saturday: I spent some time with old virtual friends by accident but it was nice to be in familiar settings. Honestly, I slept a lot of this weekend. The SO did too and his head cold is almost gone. Our kitty is acting a bit out of character, almost as if his body is making him uncomfortable. We're keeping a worried and watchful eye on him.

Sunday: I chatted with my momma today after half a week of us playing phone tag again. Dad's back at work, her car is back from three weeks in the shop, and... *drum roll* one of my best friends published his book- The Sacred Texts: The Book of Azrael (v.1)! Squee! You can click on the image below for an enlargement and to read the back cover!

This is the project that I've hinted at helping out with for more than a year now. Here's the Facebook Fanpage and the Amazon page! It's available in paperback and on e-readers and will come soon to Barnes & Noble. I'm getting my copy signed when I visit this summer. Cannot wait! Gotta go finish up laundry. Oh, laundry.

Off The List

We've been having a hard time getting a good night's rest lately (besides on weekends) and I think it's starting to really catch up with me. Memory is getting a bit blurry.

Past two days have brought wind, rain, and cold weather upon us and it is driving every one a bit bonkers. I think I'm getting better at keeping work at work and enjoying my time at home and having a life outside of that. Slightly feeling under the weather and lethargic but I'm plotting in the mean time.

At least we got a few things done and off of the checklist today. Took care of an old botched tax return, just in time for this year's paperwork to come in. Joy. I took care of my current wardrobe, more rearranging than re-doing. Well, minus putting away those sundresses. Haven't tackled the stored stuff, but that can wait until I need to switch to warm weather again. Even got started back on Project Life 2012 March again last night.

I'm struggling a bit with how to balance the stories I want to tell because I can't seem to plan out the big picture in my head. I don't want to just scrapbook what's happened in the past few years, I want to scrapbook who we essentially are. I think the biggest problems with this are that there isn't much documentation of who we are prior and that I'm still very much defining myself to myself now.

So far, I'm treating it as a challenge and trying to not be so hard on myself if I don't get every single historical epic saga on the very page I'm working on. Could endlessly talk about myself- not that you knew that already or anything. :P I'll fit in the cute details and back stories in eventually. If they're important enough to me or us to tell over and over again and remember, then they'll always be there and relevant again. For another day, another page. It'll all make it's way onto those pages some how.

The other little issue is having images to go with these stories, events, and memories! Ahh! I thought I've taken so many pictures, but going through them now- not even close! At least, it doesn't feel that way. But, from what I've read, the more experience I get with photographing, scrapping, and living, the better I will get at them all. Man, I'm going to be an expert at this stuff by the time I get to start my own family. *Snort* Like it's going to get any easier when to document while changing diapers, packing school lunches, or cleaning up barf in bed.

I think the next projects are sorting paperwork and cleaning up the residual mayhem from the holidays. Also known as, everything I grabbed out in a hurry for everything that happened and didn't have the energy to put away in the aftermath. Mostly bring what order I can to my stuff again. Before purging as much as I am comfortable doing.

Found these two videos today. They make me sigh in exasperation but giggle at the same time. Enjoy!

Almost Back To Business

Finished my last bit of penicillin treatment earlier this week. That's a relief. I think it was taking much more energy out of me than I initially thought.

Still having dry coughing fits, the weather has started to warm up significantly, and kitty and I are still finishing up our resting period. While I haven't quite started up on PL just yet, I did take a look at where I left off. I did, however, finish up my Garden section for 2012. Woohoo!

I'm thinking the only thing I'm going to care for, if the Hogwarts had gone kaput, are three cherry tomatoes with some filler-cover plants like I had planned. SIL is interested in taking the potential abundance of fruit off of my hands.

If my garden has finally all called it quits with this year's big frosts, then I take it as a sign that de-cluttering my life is a good step. Especially if it is in preparation for a big move. Less stuff to store/ take. Yeah, I'm trying to look for a silver-lining. I guess it was as good a time as any for something like this to happen.

You know, the dramatic and turbulent time during which I was super angry with most of the world and I shut down caring while turning up the resentment dials to near maximum due to high levels of betrayal. Yeah, that.

I'm getting back more energy each day and planning out a course of action. In the meantime, there's been lots of quiet and simple bonding with SO, the kitty, and I, which has helped a ton. It reminds me of what I actually care about no matter how much garbage the rest of my life may throw down.

We're talking about daydreams and things that we haven't talked about in a long time and stuff that we used to talk about when we first met more than five years ago. It's been really comforting to check-in with one another and see what page the other one is on with some issues and if we're still on the same page with others. Just a different way of reaffirming that we've been making the right choice with being together for all this time through all of these trials and few successes.

My big goals to start this upcoming week are organizing important papers, construct a better wardrobe for this cold weather (for some reason I kept out half a dozen sun dresses and not enough pairs of thick pants the last time around), and (of course) Project Life.

Good Idea

I'm working more on having a work attitude and a home attitude. Keeping them separate is a big part of that. I think that would lead to having a healthier and more positive outlook on both.

Doing much better with my sleeping patterns but am still lacking the energy to keep up with life. That I find a bit dumb. I'm doing a bit of catching up since coming home, but once that's all settled, my goals are to systematically de-clutter my collection of collections & hobbies.

That and get back onto Project Life! I have some pictures and stories to add to the current year and I was really on a role with last year's album. Kind of amusing because I made it to February and that's just around the corner again. Keeping a positive attitude about reminiscing. While I may not record the nitty gritty and gripes I had at the time, I can remember by looking at the happy pictures. In time, those good and everyday moments will be much more appreciated. I can live the lessons I learned from all the accompanying crap, lol.

Made it back home on Monday afternoon, spent the rest of the day resettling and then all I wanted to do was sleep in my own bed. Kitty has been grateful to be back in familiar surroundings and is drinking well again, thank goodness.

It's been back to work as usual and readjusting to that early schedule again. I don't think my body was meant for waking up before 10am. That's just my natural timer when it comes to the sun. If I could somehow find a school that started later, it would be awesome. One could dream, right? It's right up there with flying unicorns that shed glitter that's easy to wash off.

Taking it one day at a time still and getting pretty tired of dry coughing for a month now. I did see a video about the current flu epidemic that I thought was informative and fun.

This is also a song I recently happened upon and am in love. The lyrics don't necessarily apply to me right now because the SO and I have heavily bonded within the holiday madness, but I deeply appreciate the raw emotion Pink puts into her music.

Oye, I just realized I need to change my signature soon. :P I think that my kitty has the best idea right now about snuggling up in our bed.

Oh Boy...

What a great way to start a new schedule for the new year, right? Missing the second post. Awesome.

At least it's only by a day.

I had full intentions of posting yesterday. Then, I realized the great amounts of anxiety I had about going to work again today. I dreaded it. I was questioning the darkness in humanity over it.

Luckily, I was proven wrong. Mostly.

We're going to rewind back a few days first.

We did go see The Hobbit all together and it was pretty fun. While I didn't fangirl over the film, I would like to see the rest of the parts right about now. The SO is a big fan of the stories, so he had much more specific critics but was overall satisfied. Well, minus the amount of poems and songs they could have included, but didn't.

The last bit of my vacation I spent holed up in my room with my kitty working on a digitized Project Life. It's been a challenge and fulfilling and I can't wait to keep on working. So far, I'm going against my initial plan and starting, by accident, with the current year. There wasn't much when I realized I meant to start on last year's memory-keeping.

Many events were still fairly fresh in my mind with the recent review post, so I kept on keeping on despite having all of my notes and intentions picking up where I left off last with scrapbooking: 2009. Oh yes.

Right now I'm most of the way through February. I added lots of extra information about the state of Arizona and what had gone on with the family dog. I'm not quite sure how big the font actually is on my small screen. I should probably figure that out before printing full 12x12 pages. One step at a time. :)

The company is continuing to release new and exciting information regularly with crafting season still running on high right now. You can check out founder, Becky Higgins' blog for all of the last drool-worthy shenanigans.

I would be more super-enthused if it weren't for the fact that I'm running on no sleep right now. Not for lack of trying, but readjusting my schedule suddenly and my general anxiety often leads to no sleep by any natural means. I've already taken a sleeping aide tonight after developing a headache.

I'll be sure to have an "extra" post this week because I just remembered that I spent a few hours in the garden yesterday. Nothing terribly impressive, just mostly seasonal maintenance. With pictures!

New Schedule

Erm... I didn't quite process until earlier today that it was Wednesday and that posting today would coincide with the new schedule I set myself with the resolutions I talked about yesterday.

Lol, it doesn't quite feel like I'm not posting daily yet, does it?

Got up early for the second time this vacation (not voluntarily this time) and set to work hunkering down and backing up all of my documents and photos. It's been a few months since I made the time for something that's so important to me.

The last time I completely did it was March of last year and I did the bulk of my miscellaneous files (of which I have money because I haven't completely categorized them yet) back in June and July of this year. That's kind of scary since I would be torn if I lost these files.

Being more diligent with keeping my information safe should probably go on that important list, hm?

My family and I cannot believe that I've had this brand new big ole external hard drive for a few weeks now and haven't gone crazy with it yet. What I've worked on today was backing it up onto my original external, then I'll transfer the organized files from there onto the big boy. Hmph. That... doesn't sound quite right. >_<

I remembered to start avidly using my planner today. It's only two days into the new year... Whoops. I'm doing something new with having a side of each day dedicated to my To-Do list and the other side for my To-Done list. Lemme tell you that I like the latter side much more. I'm recording memories there too so that'll help match up with pictures when I get around to scrapbooking this year.

Maybe one of these days I'll be caught up. That's keeping in mind that I want to retroactively scrapbook the past few years with Project Life. I can feel the apprehension creeping up on me and am mentally beating it back with a large studded stick.

This song has been stuck in my head for the past day in between the Big Bang Theory clips that I've been watching online. It pretty much sums up the more positive spin on how I've been feeling.

Later on today, the SO and I plan to see The Hobbit movie later with most of his family. He's been very much looking forward to seeing it and it's been ages since we've been to a movie together. I should probably load up on caffeine prior. I'm proud to have not needed any yet! Started the day off with a bowl of fruit, yogurt, and cereal mixed together. It was a delicious snack that I had last night too.

The Beginning Again

I said that I'd want to talk about some resolutions as per tradition, but I was much more excited about it several hours ago.

The caution and discouragement sets in quickly, eh?

The SO and I continue to have serious conversations about our future together and where we want this year to take us. By take us, I mean what we are working to actively accomplish this year. Either way, it has been quite grounding.

For some mild accountability, I am going to mention a few things that I've thought about for the past few weeks.

I'm going to downsize all of my junk. Namely papers and crafting goods that I've accumulated in the past few years. I've come to focus more on wanting to document my life through scrapbooking because it has yielded the greatest reward as time passes, but it just makes more sense for it to be worked on digitally. The piles are getting bigger and I'm not making the time to sort through it all so it makes sense that I should not possess more than I am willing to work through keeping organized. It adds to making the world a better place environmentally, helps me stick it to our capitalistic natures, and the SO and I enjoy less clutter anyways.

Along those lines, I am determined to document more of life- be it everyday and when we find ways to make creative special memories. I think it will help me remember how many blessings are in my life and appreciate them in the moment versus when I have to sit down at the end of the night and think really hard in order to calm down. Or at least focus on them more than the negative. Hopefully, that will be a great help in getting me into a better mindset again.

Everything is pretty standard but I'm going to do my best to not take on any more projects I cannot reasonably finish in a timely manner (say two weeks?), learning to eat healther and cook more, and actively work towards my dreams of having my own home. Much less griping and spewing anger because it's not helpful to anyone. I will not be blogging daily this year, but it will be at least twice a week minimum. I'm thinking Sundays and Wednesdays. Then, it's whenever the mood strikes. The rest of that documentation energy will go into scrapbooking where I can be much more candid.

Wishing you all many more blessings and the strength to attain your dreams! <3 br="br">

2012: Year In Review

It's finally here. The end of 2012, when the world was supposed to end about half a dozen times. We're battered and weary but still here!

Here is what I had to say and share at the ends of 2010 and 2011.

I wanted to focus on, well, focusing and just doing. Big ole flop due to unforeseen bouts of absolute rage. I have been very blessed by karma and good fortune out of many a rough spot this year too. However, resolutions and whatnot will come tomorrow. Time for the nostalgia!


Here is Pantone's page about the Color of the Year: Emerald and here's the press release page about it.

DJ Earworm has cranked out this mash-up of the top songs of 2012- "Shine Brighter":

JibJab's Look Back on 2012:

 YouTube's Top Videos of 2012:

Also, two articles: New species of animals discovered in 2012 and Weird News from my home state of Florida. Cannot say that I'm terribly proud of the hot mess-ery.

I commend you for carrying on after this point as it's time for my monthly reviews! These are in no particular order and obviously vary in importance and meaning. Looking back on a lot of this there were time that I didn't document exactly what was going on in my life, but it reminded me of what was happening. It made me much more determined to document the realities with my scrapbooking while I cut back on putting up a sugar-coated front.

January: 

I took down my cherry tomatoes, perfected my cake pop- Oreo truffles techniques, and tried to make some resolutions about limited myself to strict time periods (what a laugh). I worried about how to streamline every aspect of my life, was still working for Stampin' Up! for a few more months, and started delving into my family's vacation scrapbook in earnest.

I discovered my blog's issues with Picasa's photo storage that took weeks to sort through and fix, harvested my herbs that were going wild while starting off some new seeds, planned my own Lunar New Year of the Dragon dinner, and did cultural presentations in each of the classrooms.

I also started working on classroom websites and now am the school's webmaster, began a mild obsession with beauty products and YouTube beauty gurus, and I created a system of organizing and keeping receipts this year.

During a brunch with a dear friend, I pulled three Angel Cards to reflect upon for the year: "Exploration" - "Balance" - "Forgiveness". While I kept that in mind for a few weeks, I totally lost track of that later on in the year, and looking back now- It was incredibly relevant and poignant. 

February: 
I was immersed in the BoardMaker program at school making communication schedule booklets for several students, worked my butt off helping out with the annual spaghetti fundraiser, learned about Project Life, vaguely watched the Superbowl while playing Mario Party (as per tradition), and started crocheting food-themed treats and made candy-treats for the staff for the snowy Valentine's Day we had. That was also Arizona's 100th birthday.

While working in the garden, I discovered two types of bug eggs popping up underneath the leaves of my plants, and started planting beans and peas. My best friend, baby brother, and I started getting back into an old favorite game of ours- Maple Story. My brother turned twenty and I flipped out just a little and I became mildly obsessed with RuPaul's Drag Race. Our cat's grass obsession reached an all-time high and there was a leap year.

My family's dog was lost but found and rescued after a week-long of turmoil. She is with a great new family now that loves here very much.

March: 
I made Simply Adorned inserts for a friend and was super grateful for random acts of kindness at work. There was the anniversary of two years of blogging around which I reorganized the tabs and features, spring had sprung in the garden while the lettuce was ravaged by some critter, and we added strawberries to the mix.

The SO's bike was made road-ready again, we worked on various plumbing and other household repairs, there were tornadoes across the middle of the country, and the NCAA tournament was lackluster when our home team was knocked out of the running very early on. We also splurged on updating some computer parts and I got a graphics tablet.

Seed catalogs rekindled my hope in the garden followed by flowers appearing, we took care of a pesky wisdom toothache, I went to zoo on a field trip with the kids, and I crocheted armies of cupcakes with my best friend when we started the battle of the care packages.

April: 
We were obsessed with Sims3 and some expansions, our kitty's sister got into a fight with a feral cat, the peppers were being eaten from my garden, the herbs flourished, the lettuce was thinned out, started garden vlogging, and celebrated Easter with my sister-in-law with some deviled eggs shaped like baby chicks. I was itching to reorganize my room (amongst other things) and celebrated four years of dating with the SO at a fifties diner

I started working and volunteering more at school, becoming the guard of the laminator, made a Flat Stanley display about plants and cultivated a front display all about the beloved book character at school, it reached 100 degrees, there was a volunteer breakfast, and we treated ourselves to luxurious haircuts.

There was a mini garden haul, an attempt to reseed a few old favorites, and while planning out my trip to Florida and FMIL's birthday celebrations, I was reprioritizing my life yet again.

May: 
I tried to make my first crochet project from scratch- a hooded kitty scarf, finished up some classes, vlogged a little bit with our kitty, and took FMIL to Kartchner Caverns.

Then, I headed to Florida for the majority of the month during which I took off to Cape Canaveral the next day, then to Tallahassee where I attended the wedding of two friends from childhood, the drama of someone else's family showed up on our doorstep, my brother and I took field trips around our neighborhood, had a reunion ten years in the making with middle school friends, went on a road trip with my brother to visit friends around the central part of the state, and then headed back to Tucson.

June: 
Switched around my wardrobe, we became obsessed with Diablo 3, reorganized my beauty storage, had a few wolf spider visits, replenished my card stash with newly released color products while planning out this year's Christmas cards in earnest, and we prayed for those affected by the wildfires in New Mexico and the flooding in Florida. 

We played a lot of Mario Party, got up to 110 degrees, cat-sat for our sister-in-law while she was away, and nearly blew a gasket over our internet issues. I thought out my collection of earring storage, learned about my one of five love languages, the garden was picked on by quails, realized that pain was a big part of adulthood, started making clothing accessories out of yarn, and helped a friend reorganize her office.

I also kept plugging away at that family scrapbook, FMIL went to visit family, and we Skyped with them. All of us kept the victims of the Colorado wildfires in our thoughts.

July: 
I began a obsession with crochet oceanic creatures, started playing with my Nintendo DS again, and freaked out when my brother had car issues while my folks away on their first cruise. Our Independence Day was the coldest we've had in a while, we found a snake or two in the yards, I made a file of my friends' favorites, we discovered Twitch TV for online game streaming, and had a fun discussion with my sister-in-law about rock-climbing.

We also found a bunch of bugs inside and ended up taking care of that, harvested peppers as they ripened, became obsessed with Terraria, and the monsoons started. I embarked upon organizing the family recipes here, there was tarantula that kept coming back, and a new classroom fish and kitten were introduced.

Our hearts dropped when we heard about the movie theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado.

August:
The pets were introduced to each other, the garden began to recover with the monsoon rains, our internet issues continued as we said goodbye to one of our new friends, I was obsessed with learning about the Vlogbrothers, and we watched the Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity, land on the red planet.

I started subbing again at school, we got ringworm, the garden began wilting in the heat, was sick during my birthday, digi-scrapped a whole bunch, moderated stream chats, and I was hired on regularly has a consensus aide. That initially led to lots more communication booklets and making a bug observation book for the kids.

The tropical storm Isaac neared Florida and I started to fret a little with the media hype but my friends there reassured me that everything was going to be fine.   

September: 
I crocheted owls, finalized plans about our Christmas cards, our kitty caught an upper respiratory infection, realized I was working for free for the time being, the tomatoes and peppers continued to ripening, and I continued stockpiling yarn gifts again. 

Skyped more with my closet of friends, reaffirmed my thoughts on marriage, finished up the Florida scrapbook album, reflected upon an end of era with my WoW playing as the new expansion came out, and went on fall break.

I found out that one of my high school mentors, who inspired my degree, had passed away after battling cancer.

October:
We had to get a new fridge, the weather began getting chilly, I finally made the Christmas cards, had my hours doubled at work, reorganized my beauty and nail polish storage, wrote up a story for my Flat Stanley adventures in Florida, and reorganized around the house some more.

I began extensive note-taking inspired by my new obsession of Project Life, updated the garden monthly summaries tab here, and watched tons of shows on Hulu with the SO. There was a field trip to the Sabino Canyon, I gave my teenage self some beauty advice, assembled the Florida album, created a master plan about growing up, carved pumpkins at the last minute, and created a bunch of cards.

The hurricane- super storm Sandy devastated the New England area.

November:
I started finding something different I could be grateful about for each day of this month, started walking home as part of my bigger plan to grow as a person, harvested the last of the major bits of peppers and fruits from the garden, went to a fun baby shower, became determined to document more of life, largely failed at my walk home, and majorly bonded with our kitty.

I found some of the joys of using Evernote, began to receive and send packages, worked earnestly to control my temper, lined up a ton of creative consulting jobs that nearly all fell apart, reviewed a bunch of beauty products from throughout the year, wrote the Christmas cards, and went to two Thanksgiving dinners- one of which was vegetarian. 

The garden was prepped for winter weather, started up some new seeds indoors, and obsessed over dancing musical Christmas light videos online. Walking home got easier with a simplified route that came with long phone conversations with my brother and mother, and thought extensively about what I wanted to do in the new year when I got my new planner.

December:
I got sick more often (it happened to coincide with when the students would get ill, imagine that), began to winterize the evaporative cooler on my own, finalized the cards and wrapped up the gifts as they arrive, and commenced cooking new recipes again.

I went to the bi-annual street fair, began getting gifts early on, the SO and I began planning out home renovations in the next coming months, made cake pops for the staff, went to the staff holiday party, and learned about a family illness and the appointments, fretting, and treatments that go along with that.

There was a terrible shooting in Newtown, Connecticut at Sandy Hook Elementary that rocked the nation and the world. 

There was much baking of holiday treats, was sick for much of my vacation, watched many YouTubers participate it in Vlogmas, played many hours of Dokapon Kingdom and Super Mario Galaxy with the SO, spent Christmas with the in-laws, the SO and I went on a road trip to meet up with a friend, and wrapped up the year by reflecting upon the past twelve months.