Nerves

The title says it all. Sigh.

Monday: Last minute errands before my trip. I'm talking more and more with my brother and friends as we try to cement initial plans. It seems that the weekends are booked solid while the weekdays are wide open to spontaneity and relaxing. If that's ever a thing when I'm there, lol.

Tuesday: I have been rearranging my garden after chatting with a few people online about their gardens. In a video game stream, what a venue. :P

I've gathered the miscellaneous bits and bobs that I plan to bring with me. Those are always the bulk and what gets packed first. My silly priorities.

I'm busy panicking mostly despite not having too much left to do. I got some news today of events that may transpire while I'm away and my heart just dropped into my stomach. I guess it's for good reason that I'm the last to know because of being the raging worrywart, but this was so disheartening that I'm genuinely scared to leave now.

The trip will go as planned, I'll just have to pray really hard that life here will be uneventful and not as crazy as it has gotten every single other time in the past. Okay, I lied earlier. My heart's either been dropped down into my stomach or it's been in my throat.

What will I come home to in three weeks? :(

Wednesday: Gonna finished up packing, but it's all here. I just have to make it look nice and be able to cushion my makeup. I'm dreading the early hours tomorrow and in subsequent days.

For reals, I've not been able to fall asleep until about 6am on average but 2am at the earlier. I'm going to need all of the caffeine tomorrow but it might be nice to pass out on the plane to calm my nerves.

Here's the last garden vlog for a while! I have pictures but those will be saved for the comparison shots when I return. Lol, the epic plant post is pretty much becoming an annual thing!

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:

Burnt Out

It's hot, there are bugs everywhere, and kitty and I are not having it.

Thursday: I wrote briefly about it during my last post and not much more happened after that. I hung out/ chatted with a few friends and passed out in bed early again. Maybe it's the heat.

Oh! I did find a free pattern to crochet this mug cozy. Super cute, quick, and handy. No pun intended. :P

Friday: FMIL, two of our friends, and I went to visit a former student in the children's hospital a week after the poor thing had major surgery. That's another downside to working in special education, they seem to run a higher risk of having these scary things happening to them.

Fortunately, we were all pleasantly surprised to see the patient up and walking around and drinking for the first time in about a week of being in the ICU. Almost home!

Did some business downtown, helped beta test a chat moderating bot, worked briefly in the garden, and kept playing with polymer clay.

 Holy sprouts, Batman! Right?

Saturday: Laid-back day with the SO. A lot of the same stuff.

Seriously? What am I supposed to do with you guys?

 Monk characters from Diablo 3 game. I burnt the male and am not satisfied with the female at all.

 The SO found this juvenile wolf spider on the back patio. Wicked looking pattern!

Sunday: Started to clean up the aftermath/ supplies of all the "brilliant" ideas that I've had pop into my head for the past two months. The table that I've commandeered is a huge mess and I need to start getting things rearranged and ready for when I leave for Florida in a few weeks. By a few I mean about one and a half weeks. Bah!

Woke up late, worked a little bit more on the scoodie, spilled a mug of soda on my lap, watched Tabletop with Wil Wheaton on Youtube, and have this garden vlog. :D

Filled

What I should have done was posted a bonus blog on Friday because I had enough material to do so. Instead, today's going to be chockful of media.

Thursday: I was a bit frustrated today, so instead of my usual internet shenanigans, bunked down to tackle a couple of budgeting issues now that it's summer time. There were also bits and pieces of important grown-up paperwork to take care of and I had been putting it off long enough. Not the most fun way to start off my day.

Rewarded myself with some work in the garden. Here's a shaky vlog (sorry in advanced) from that day and the promised pictures.

  FMIL had some extra seeds from her classroom so I planted some of them with some extras of my own.

Here is the order that I planted them above. They are living in a box where the original garden corner used to be.

Lucky Bamboo is doing well. The onions are doing really well seeing as how they did not reach the top of the jar originally.

 The strawberry plant on the patio rotated, watered, fed, and surrounded by yet another batch of pea seeds.

Friday: I've finally caught up with two weeks worth of YT subscriptions and started crocheting a fox scoodie. Finally! Really though, click that link. I'm trying to make it the proper size for me and once I figure this out, just watch out for the silly creatures I'll make! 

I started tackling Project Life again and it took me the evening to figure out where I had left off and get back on track. I spent the night hanging out with the SO and going through his old CD collection. Lots of reminiscing on his behalf while we jammed out.

It's times like these that I really wish we had our own place so we could blast music without worrying about waking up anyone else (given that the neighbors are far enough away too) and that we really notice our age difference.

It's funny when he tries to figure out why I didn't know a particular popular hard rock song and then we realize that I was in elementary school. It just wasn't my scene back then.

:P

Saturday: I finally slept in Worked a bit on PL 2011 before getting ready to head to a surprise retirement party for one of our (now former) coworkers. It was throw by her family and I'm glad to have been a part of it.

She taught and helped me so much these past few years. I cannot imagine school without her there and it hit me as FMIL and I put the final touches on her present. We both teared up. She's a great friend.

Time to reveal the pet project that FMIL and I have been working on this past week: a fairy garden kit! We are officially obsessed and are dying to make our own when we come back from traveling this summer. One (well two) less thing for the SO to take care of while the womenfolk are gone.

Our friend and her husband have a extensive succulent garden and it gave me the idea that we could give them the accessories to build one with her new little granddaughters. Here is what we came up with, keeping in mind that we have to save them some of the fun of finding their own treasures to add.

 

 

 

We packed tiny pieces in little mesh pouches and everything in a wide bowl-shaped pot. We included a sheet of fairy garden photos for inspiration and I made a miniature coloring book to go with the gift. She and her granddaughter opened it together and the white bottle was instantly broken, but that's okay.

Today we got text messages from her saying that we've created a monster because they are all very excited to get started and knee-deep in researching beautiful ideas on Pinterest. 

Sunday: It got really hot outside today and I ended up doing another garden vlog for comparison in the future.

I think my brain was melting a little by the end. I promptly went inside and had a drink and lunch.

One More Day

Doing my best to deny the fact that we're nearly halfway through this year. Yup.

Monday: I keep making new friends online and it just feels nice. I feel a bit more normal being my goofy self with people who have similar interests. I know for some this is how socializing has always been, but this is relatively new to me. We're all planning how the rest of the week is going to pan out. Keeping our fingers crossed.

Tuesday: Haven't been sleeping well, so after coming home late, I didn't do a whole lot before heading to bed. Felt lightheaded, made myself some pasta the moment I got home, and took over an hour to eat a single serving. I really hope I don't get sick for school to end.

Wednesday: I wanted to be more productive at home today and got home from work three hours late. Yeah... There goes baking and such. Oh! I did say that I had a vlog to share. One more day with kids!

Slow Sunday

To steal from my FB:  

Happy Mother's Day to anyone who has stepped it up to wipe the noses, hug the tears away, share proud moments, and love unconditionally without being asked.

Not posting a picture from the 80's/90's of my mom because she's not on FB and would just as quickly take me out of this world as she brought me into it. 

I know plenty women who either don't have children of their own or are mothers to children that are not theirs, then there are the dads who have stepped up to the plate and learned to braid a little girl's hair or sing bedtime stories to their kids on their own. They need to be recognized for being the nurturing parent everyone needs.

Thursday: I've had a lazy-mentally stressed out week the moment that I get home from work, so I don't remember doing much this week. Plus, I was feeling well the day before so my to-do list fell by the wayside. I did, however, manage to shoot a garden update!

Things are hanging in there! Right after I took the footage, I went through and snipped off those infected leaves and flower buds. 

Friday: Super not much done besides rest. We ran the usual errands and I am hoping to cook a few things in the next couple of days. I've talked to my brother a lot this past week because he's in between classes right now. He and my dad went on his first cruise this weekend. 

More social media management work, it's been a rough week for them. I did get to Skype for a long time with my best friend! It's been a while and she's about to do some traveling and it may be super hard for us to see each other during that time, so we're cramming it in now.

Saturday: This was pretty much the same besides the fact that I actually managed to sleep in. I'm really lacking the motivation-energy to scrapbook or even catch-up with my YT subscriptions. I wonder what's going on with my head/body. I did get to spend a lot of R&R time with the SO and kitty. It was nice to have all of the cuddles.

Sunday: It's been a quiet and laid back day. I was on Skype dates again and getting ready to go out later. I have a bit more energy today and am tidying/organizing odds and ends. 

Step Behind

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

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

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

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

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

All The Sleep

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cooler

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

More Music

I have been pretty bummed out over personal things this weekend, so I can barely remember much more than that right now.

Friday: FMIL and I were going to go to Ladies' Happy Hour, but she ended up getting Strep and I'm sick yet again. I guess it's been a few weeks since I could breathe. It could be severe allergies thanks to the gunk being blown in the air. Not sure, a bunch of the kiddos at work at suffering from terrible coughs, extended headaches, and plenty of tummy aches. Can't remember what else I did that day besides crash when I got home.

Saturday: My head was really stuffy, but I did some yard work before the SO sprayed the house perimeters for bugs. I also worked in the garden and I promise that there will be a photo round-up sometime this week. My friend was ending a 125 hour live streaming marathon with two other hosts and I tuned in to help for the past few days.

Sunday: I have just had a quiet and overall sad day because it happens. For a number of reasons. Kitty has been very comforting and sweet company. It wasn't until the late evening that my spirits lifted a little again. I'm a little sore in odd ways thanks to the yard work I've done this week on top of being sick. Hope it ends soon.

Here are some videos/ songs that I've been obsessed with this week:

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):

Little Bit Of Color

It's been a long and cranky day, so my normal post will be up tomorrow.

In the meantime, here's a update from the garden!

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:

Being Consistent

I'm trying to get started with garden journaling on MyFolia.com and as many reviews that I've read about it being great (and many about it being user-friendly), I'm struggling.


Monday: It was an extremely windy day and I felt bad for any kid that ventured outside and got blasted in the face with the pollen and dust. It was awful. I got home late that day and decided to plant a green bell pepper and zucchini that I had gotten from a co-worker. I merely chopped them into bit and stuck them into the dirt because I still have little to no idea what I am doing and the internet's answers were not coming quickly enough.

I also re-sowed... well, I'll just show you the vlog. :P

Tuesday: Pretty tired, worked only a tiny bit on Project Life despite thinking about it all day long and mostly zoned out to my YouTube subscriptions and watching the SO play some video games.

Wednesday: Back to what I had mentioned before, here's were the confusion is happening:

There doesn't seem to be a "Getting Started" tutorial, the Help section isn't well organized, and I'm a bit overwhelmed with how to get my plants entered in. I just wanted somewhere else to dump my plant-parenting mild obsession into and I don't have a smart phone that could track progress with a simple app. Oh, the havoc I would wreak.

I wonder where my energy has gone, it hasn't been a particularly rough week at work, but I guess my sleep has been broken.

Have I mentioned that I'm using an old spare keyboard plugged into my laptop right now? It's like we're slowly but surely adding enough stuff to make a different computer. Sigh. I love this thing though. It's nothing special, but I love the feel and even the sound that it makes. I am a pretty big nerd-dork.

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:

Vacation Mode

I'm on Spring Break right now, so time and dates don't mean a huge amount to me.

Thursday: I don't remember much from this day. I didn't write anything down like I have been trying to do each day. Chalking it up to being worn out after a long day at work and looking forward to Friday. Pretty sure I vegged out to YouTube videos and watching the SO play some video games before turning in early.

Friday: I was super excited that it was the last day and was very inspired by watching some of the classes perform what they've learned in their Taiko Drumming class. Was holding back tears of joy during the entire presentation. I began to hunker down with tackling some more social media management with the free time that comes with being on vacation.

Saturday: Woke up late and delved into my freelance work of reviewing YouTube videos and making sure things were kept consistent. Got to love Skype meetings. I did a tiny bit of Project Life. Better than nothing, right?

Sunday: Spent all day working on a live stream. Did take a break to have dinner out with a friend and the SO so I'm full of yum. It doesn't make for great blogging but it took up a lot of my time lately, lol. Here are some music videos that have made me happy lately!

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. ^_^

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.