Closer To Acceptance

I seriously dreaded writing this next post.

It meant that I would have to further put in writing the awful news we got on Monday. Deep breath and here we go...

Not going to do the daily recap that I've started to do lately. I've spent many more hours awake than originally thought. Working a bit on Project Life but most of my time I've poured into this social media management project.

We learned that one of FMIL's former students had suddenly passed away on Monday night. We had stayed in touch with the family and this little girl was very special to us and everyone she met. Needless to say, we were heartbroken when we heard the news.

I'm still processing everything and while it was to be partially expected- nothing ever prepares you for the moment it comes true. A part of me really cannot believe that she is gone, even if it's to a better place.

Her family was in the midst of a fundraiser to purchase a wheelchair van and her mother wrote about their story on that page that better describes the situation prior to what happened that awful day.

 "Hello everyone! My name is Samantha, mother to the fabulous PAIGE! Let me tell you about her! She is, first of all, AMAZING!

Born with a neuro-muscular disease called Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) Type 1, Paige has been a brave girl her entire life; diagnosed at the age of 1 month when she stopped breathing, up to the "old lady" she is now at age 8. When she was first diagnosed I was told that SMA kids do not live past age 2! She was unable to swallow by age 6 months and received her g-tube to supplement nutrition. As SMA effects the respiratory system, at age 8 months Paige received a trach and ventilator to assist her breathing when she was no longer to do it on her own. 

I know, I know, a lot to put on a little girl who wasn't supposed to be here right? The hard and terrible thing about this disease is... she's not effected mentally at all and is actually very bright and advanced for her age- like most other SMA kids. She is unable to move or eat at all, but uses an augmentive communication device that she uses with her eyes to voice her needs and wants- just like other kids, some of the things out of her mouth just blow me away! haha! 

Paige has been to the hospital off and on her entire life, but has not (knock on wood) been hospitalized for over a year now! And seeing as Paige is having no plans on leaving me, our next obstile is transportation. Medical appointments, wheelchair adjustments, therapies or just plain-old-going-out is becoming more and more diffucult. At this time I have to transport her in a car seat with a homemade adaptive head strap- NOT the most ideal- but as independent women we need to be able to travel at will! 

As she has grown into my lovely big girl, I am reaching out to the public for assistance. I have done a lot of researching and am looking for a newer handicap accessible van that I can use to transport her for many years to come. The additional need for safety while traveling has become more prominent then ever and Paige traveling IN her wheelchair is the safest option. Even if I modify my van for a lift or purchase a used wheelchair van the price is about the same- crazy right?

Any donation is wonderfully generous and much appreciated! Thank you for taking the time to read about my perfect Paige. Even if you don't donate, I'm so glad that I could share her story and get the word of Spinal Muscular Atrophy out there- #1 genetic killer of children under 2.

       Thanks again! Samantha and Paige"

 

She was a phenomenal little girl that I had the honor of knowing with her sassy personality and quick wit.

 

I loved watching her tease her mom and nurse (and anyone else) with her state-of-the-art eye-gaze talker. She'd be so patient with me as I tried to figure out how she was communicating with me with her eyes and vocalizations. 

 

My heart dropped and ached for her every time we heard that she was in the hospital again. It would always been for weeks with too many close calls.

 

Her passing was still a surprise, but from what I understand, it was swift. I would hate to think of her suffering with some illness that dragged on. She was always such a fighter. We're all thinking of her dancing the way and keeping an eye out on her mother, unborn baby brother, and rest of her loving family now. We'll be attending services next week. My first in person, let alone for a beautiful child. Nothing else to do but mourn, pray, and love in her honor. 

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.

Appreciating Friendships

So.

I'm the butthead that just checked out yesterday from the moment that I woke up and for twenty-four hours after.

Yesterday was Pajama Day at school and that's one of my favorite days of the year and I completely forgot. I was even gushing about it the evening before and still blanked out when I picked out my clothes for the morning. Sigh. So many kids participated and it was adorable. We tied it into the "Love of Reading" week by inviting family members to come in and read with their students in the afternoon all snuggled up with small stuffed animals and their pj's.

Uh, the Pope retired. Didn't know that that was a thing. A state of emergency was declared in Mississippi after huge tornado ripped through and that is so tragic. Closer to home, we have some good news: it's about one month until I get to meet the SO's grandmother and some of this other relatives- in person! There are so many italics going on in this post. There's going to be a lot of media too. I'm trying to make up for yesterday.

Happy Valentine's Day, by the way. Here are two related and sweet pictures:

 

This is a big red velvet cupcake that FMIL got for me. Not the best picture of it, but I'm saving it for the end of the work week tomorrow. There is fine edible glitter sprinkled on top. Yep, it's that pretty.

 This is such a sweet story I saw on FB and shared. Made me tear up and a few of my guy friends too because I have some of the greatest friends.

- - - - -

Part II of this post is showing you what previous hobby I'm starting to delve into again- friendship bracelets. Yeah, it's been about what... two years now? I brought my collection in for my friends at work to choose from. Nothing like a friendship bracelet to show that I appreciate their friendships on Valentine's Day! :D Well, that was my line of thinking anyways. I have so many crafting hobbies, my coworkers have trouble keeping up.

I want to share my crafty collections on the blog, so here's the first installment! I realized that I never showed how I ended up reorganizing my strings after talking about hunting down the "perfect" storage solution. Cue the V8 smack to the forehead.

 Found this stackable and lockable container at a big box craft store. Was looking for one of those clear tall pails but this has worked out so well for me.

I sort many things by color and stocked up on the floss holders which have been so good to me. There are a ton of pinks because of my Breast Cancer Awareness promotion-line.

 I used to keep a cheat sheet note card in an envelope for each pattern I used to sell in my old Etsy shop.

 I have a bunch of bracelets that I deemed "Unusable" set aside for ones that were an odd length or from when I was figuring out what was the best way to fasten the bracelets.

  Sometimes, I'm determined to break out of a color rut and blindly grab the needed number to see what comes out. Often, it's not my cup of tea, but a customer would just fall in love with the hues.

 I have so many of these because I made a ton as part of a promotion-campaign thing for a previous Valentine's Day. Kind of a pain to make, but they always look so sweet.

One of the newer patterns that I incorporated into my main line.

 This is my favorite pattern. It looks so good from the front and the back.

 I ended up making one for myself using colors that would remind me of the lessons I should focusing on learning this year. I don't know if this was the right color scheme, but am wearing it on my ankle now. The orange and white are my favorite part because it looks like a fox tail. More about that at a later date.

 

Not quite macrame, but I like to use my scraps to make these.

 My two latest additions to the main line. I call the first one Waterfall and the latter Blaze. They require much more forethought and attention to get into the rhythm of making.

 My Awareness Ribbon pattern that included a donation to related causes. *Note* I do not claim that any of these patterns are my own.

This is one of most popular patterns, especially once people see it in person. I've made and remade (once they have fallen off and been lost) so many of these.

 

These are a few patterns that I was testing out. That middle lime one is an outline of a butterfly.

 Older patterns that I had completed from a book but decided not to sell. I'll make them if someone really loves them.

 More patterns that I had considered selling once I stocked up a few.

This is the collection of it all after sorting out the jumbled mess I had ended up with when I shut down my store.

Right after taking that last picture, I sought a better way of keeping the finished bracelets organized. Now, they are all on their respective paper clip and the clips are on a d-ring. Hopefully, it made it easier for the ladies to sort through them all to find one that they liked today.

I can show my colors of embroidery floss in another post, but that collection of colors changes so often. I seek certain shades when requested, but I often just oogle the selection and grab colors that I find are gorgeous at the time. I started getting into seasonal collections and that was tons of fun to shop for. I would love some outside inspiration for new color combinations now that I'm dabbling in this again.

Sigh, someone needs to take some of these off of my hands, lol. As long as they go do a decent home, I don't mind it at all.

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.

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.

Minor Recovery

Oh yeah! I have some pictures from the garden before I left it on Wednesday. I'm thinking it's all kaput.

 Oy.

 At least the thinned out seedlings are doing okay. I'm not convinced I'm going to use any of them this year. They're not sturdy enough with the lack of light.

I was able to go back to work on Thursday.

Guess I should have felt a bit better about having an involuntary two-day work week but I was just filled with guilt and exhaustion with an undercurrent of anger. It happened to be the 100th day of school! That means just 80 more to go. Wow.

After my usual day of scrambling to figure out where to pick up with my usual students (the school doesn't get substitutes for consensus aides like me >_<), I went to help out with the kinders. I made a 100th day crown and had some delicious "Gorp".

It's a mixture of 100 pieces of this and that, pretty much the most unhealthy trail mix ever thanks to some nut allergies in the classroom, from each of the students and their families. Many of the families sent the rest of the snack after counting out the designated pieces, so there was plenty of Gorp to go around all week.

Mom sent another care package for me on Friday. The amount of them has tripled in the past two months. I guess the holidays were more difficult than I realized. Well, looking back on how I felt at the time, I felt every bit of that angst, but that superficial frustration had died down to reveal the deeper stuff.

The package included two super fluffy and long robes. Just what I could use/ wanted in the time of this prolonged freeze. I wear them over my pajamas and over my regular clothes whenever I'm at home. Brings me comfort on multiple levels. I'm grateful for the mother-daughter bond we have.

My dad's back at home now and they are starting to receive visitors who were late to the bandwagon-party. At least my mom got the week off to rest at home too.

I've spent the rest of the weekend trying to relax and take care of my boys while recovering myself. Not my idea of a good time over a long weekend, but we're trying to make the best of it. I've been helping out with cleaning around SIL's house, spending time with my kitty-nieces, playing Pokemon Black again, watching various Star Trek episodes, and going to bed early. Slowly but surely, we're getting accustomed to a somewhat quiet life again.

Our kitty (on the bed) seeing his sister (outside on the window). The reunion has been bittersweet. :P

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.