Has summer finally arrived?

We've all been complaining about the lack of Spring. The past couple days of nice warm sunshine has definitely turned everyone's spirits. (Thank goodness!)

Its been a busy couple days around here. Thursday I went to work for another client of mine, he needed help in the garden, a few things around the house and some computer stuff.  We had agreed on rain or shine.. and unfortunately, that rain showed up.  But I managed to get all the flowers into the beds despite the downpour.  That night, DH had ball and I opted not to go, only because I'd already spent the day getting wet and cold.

I had begged him to skip, but he said they needed him, so I puttered around the house while TK and TKU played Xbox 360 upstairs.  When he got home, I convinced him to play the board game I'd set up earlier in hopes that he'd stay home. As soon as the game was done, he leaned back on the couch and in mid-coherent sentence, his eyes rolled back in his head and he completely fell asleep!  Sometimes I think he's narcoleptic.  LOL.

I really have no idea how anyone can fall asleep that quickly.  It's the same when we crawl into bed at night.  It isn't always because its late when we get there either.  But really.. under a minute and he's completely out and snoring.   At least I managed to get him off the couch and into bed within about 30 mins. That might be a household record for shortest time.

Friday was a good night.. despite the bits of arguing with TK about what she could do.  Usually she and TKU like to go swimming, but the deal was that she couldn't go unless her room was cleaned up AND her homework was all done. She was home by 3:45... I got home at 5:30 and neither was done.  So my answer was no.  Along with the conversation that homework had to be done at the very least.  however somewhere in that - it turned into complete refusal and a promise to do it Saturday.

Saturday I had to go to work and the girls were left to get their chores done for the couple hrs that everyone would be out working.  DH got home to find them outside lying in the sun and painting their toes.  No homework even started. *sigh*  I called and talked to her at 3 and she said she wanted to do her homework with ME.. (huh?) So obviously when I got home - no homework in sight. I managed to get her to do her reading for English at least.. so we set up the tent in the backyard - and the two of them slept in it ... all night! I was pretty surprised actually.  I figured TK would be up for it, but TKU chickens out - so I expected she'd be bailing before midnight and opting for her own bed.  But they managed to stick it out all night and have a good time.

Ahh.. Sunday - my day off... got some things tidied up around the house, laundry folded and put away and all of a sudden, it's like noon.  Where does the time go?  DH had ball.. 1:30 and 4:30 games.  So after MUCH arguing with TK that she had to come, we managed to all get out and to the field in time.  With the double header the team does hot dogs for lunch.  We packed three of the water guns too, and during the second game TK found a couple boys to play with.  That was a bunch of fun for sure! I had to make a run to the store and we passed a yard sale.. so TK and I stopped to check it out.  She scored a pair or Heelies - those runners with wheels in the heels for $5, and a game for her DS for $4.  I was checking out some funky glasses, and a lovely set of 6 coffee mugs that I really would have liked to get, was a little more concerned about how much cash I had on hand for her stuff.. so I didn't get them.  When we got in the car, TK asked why I didn't get them - "They're only $1.50 mom!" as we drove on to the store and proceeded to count out the rest of the small change in my wallet stating that indeed, I could get them if we stopped on the way back to the park.

So .. we stopped, and she headed out with her mit full of dimes and nickels that had been badly weighing down my purse... to get what I THOUGHT were my coffee mugs; only to come back with the funky curvy glasses instead. LOL! (somewhat like this, only frosted and I think they're a little more bent)

I'm pretty sure these AREN'T what I expected to come back, but they're not bad either.  I could have used the coffee cups though. lol  I guess this means I have to do some more yard sale-ing to find myself a set of 6 matching coffee mugs that I'd be willing to take home. *smirk*

We got home, the girls had a water balloon fight, then a water gun fight that included TKU2 as well.  Figured out something for dinner and I turned on a movie - Julie / Julia. TK decided she wanted to watch too.  Apparently DH had a very important meeting with the inside of his eyelids because I don't think he got all the way through half of the movie.

I got TK to bed, with some cuddle time, and managed to peel DH off the couch and pour him into bed too... And just as quickly as Sunday arrived.. it was gone again.

So .. this morning being my second day off and not having anyone home to distract, annoy or otherwise get under foot - I have plans.  BIG plans.

Laundry, dishes, recycle, bottle depot, clean the bathroom, tidy the back patio and rearrange things, and possibly get out to the back flower beds to get some weeding done so we can try to plant something in there to make it beautiful.

Here's to plans becoming reality!

how was YOUR weekend?

Almost June...

Wow.. what is UP with this weather.  Mind you - I can remember back into my younger years and remembering the odd freak snow fall in May..this isn't really that bad.

Just finished another of the courses for my Interior Decorating Diploma. YAY! So far, what have I taken.. Hmm let's see...

This is what I've taken so far.. 166 hrs of req'd 340

CORE - 60 hrs
Basics of Design – Prerequisite to all decorating courses
Color
Light

ELECTIVES - 100 hrs
Apartments & Condominiums
Fibers to Fabrics
Furniture Selection
Space Planning
Accessories

SKILL ENHANCEMENT
Decorating with a Green Attitude - 6 hrs


Just over half way. Not bad.  Hoping they put in a couple more that I need/ want and can get those done in the fall. YAY! :) 




What you been up to?

Have I told you lately?

I know I know... so sue me.   I've been busy too.

We're nearing now two months since we moved in here. The place is a HUGE space difference.. which makes a completely different impact on our lives.   The master bedroom is small..I mean - I'm sure Rachel's last room was bigger.  But we make due.  Its all about enjoying all the other places in the house too, right?

I'm sitting here.. at nearly midnight - trying to build my friend's 40th Bday video for her party tomorrow... not sure I'll get it done..  but I'll do what I can and do my best doing so.   No one had any YOUNGER photos of her. I had to get her hubby to infiltrate the storage room and find me one.  Luck - but so much later years ones .. and people sent a lot of wedding ones.. (like I wouldnt have those?)  .. ah well.. it will be whatever it is... the girls are doing a FAB job with the decorations and planning. I cant wait to see it all do down tomorrow. :)

okay .. there you've heard from me... :)    I'll be back.   I apologize for my lengthy absence.

Packing on Monday

Welcome to Monday again!

It's my "Sunday".. so I get to putter around the house pretty much by myself on Mondays.

Part of the morning I spend farting around on FB... playing Zuma, catching up with my friends and doing a little 'fb house cleaning".  Today I got up and did a little of that, but it's Spring Break, so TKU came down with pancakes for the two of us, and we bantered about not much, she helped me pack some dishes, and we played with the Dr. Ho machine.. LOL .. (she won't try it herself yet.. LOL)

For now, she's gone out with her mom, and I'm out of life on Zuma.. so I thought I'd come and update here.

Packing is ... well.. I guess I'd say half done.  There are still a number of small things that have to get packed, but a lot of big things you can't do anything with and will get moved "as is".. but its coming along.  I'm REALLY glad I started packing March 1.  The bonus is that there are still other things to pack, but most of the nagging stuff is out of the way, and it FEELS like I've made progress.

Last weekend we realized that the UFC was on this weekend... and it was our turn to host.  There are 4 'families' of us that host each time its on and we take turns.  2 are in our house, 2 are in another house down the street from where we are now... same set up - upstairs suite / downstairs suite.   We ended up with 12 people in our little living room this past Saturday night, and it worked out pretty well!

So all the boxes that I've been packing up until March 18 got moved into the storage space under the stairs, and emptied out pretty much every box we've packed so far... and looking around, it felt like NOTHING had been done yet.  Its interesting how perception works.  No boxes all stacked up everywhere basically told my brain that nothing had been packed yet... and I felt a little bit of a panic!  So yesterday I packed a couple more boxes, today I've done a few more too... and I'll probably get a good chunk of all the little things done - and THAT will be great.

I was lucky enough to have a friend who just moved who was happy to donate her boxes to our cause.  And when we're all done, I'll store a fair amount of the boxes for next time, and donate to some to another friend who will be moving too.  I know that new place will have enough storage that I can keep a lot of boxes after we're done.  Somehow I feel better knowing I have enough to start again when it comes time.  But I am looking forward to actually going through each and every box and bin that's packed right now and getting rid of stuff, or putting it out to use.  Very little is going to be "stored".  It's no wonder the off site storage places make so much money... everyone's got 'stuff'.. and they plan to keep it!  I will have a couple boxes that are memory/keepsake things, but it won't nearly be enough that if we didn't have as much storage as we're moving to - that I'd have to get an off-site storage locker.  That would make me crazy!

We find out on the 23rd what exactly is going on with the move.  The owners are moving back east and the husband is there now finalizing details etc.  I assume on a job and / or their new home.  I'd like to hear on the 23rd that they're leaving that week and we are welcome to move in a bit early.  Gotta love not having to move everything in one day with a mad rush to get out of one place and get it cleaned on time.  And there will be a fair amount of cleaning to do here before I'd tell the landlord that we're out.  Hopefully we have a couple days to just clean empty space.  But we'll deal with whatever we get.

Anyway... I guess that's it.  I should get up and pack some more so I have a little less to trip over...  :)

Yours, Mine, and OURS....

I can't help it...

When my friend breaks up with someone that I've befriended just because of him/her ... when that relationship ends... I am 99% likely to end any and pretty much ALL friendship with their now "ex".

Kim and Ben are dating.. I've known Kim for a while, and she introduces me to her man Ben...  Ben has an account on facebook... she has access to his account, or he just adds me as a friend... blah blah.. I've met Ben a few times.. we've invited them out or over to our place.. visa versa.. so all goes... until Kim and Ben are no longer together.   Ben is pretty much deleted from my fb friends.  That's kind of it for me.  And I'm having a hard time figuring out WHY some of my friends insist on still being 'friends' with my ex.  Not just facebook..  but that's a pretty good start...

I mean.. do you talk to my ex all the time?  Did you before?  Probably not.  You comment back and forth on statuses.. or pictures... and still... you probably wouldnt go over to his place if he invited you for dinner with his new g/f...  but it's okay in our mind, to be his friend on fb.  I don't get it.

Maybe I'm just really loyal to my friends over the benefits their ex is going to give me.  Sure, I'm friends with my current b/f's ex wife on FB.   I am, because if I have pics of the kids to send her, I want access.  If I have things going on in our world I think she might benefit to know .. there it is.  But don't get me wrong... we are not "friends".  She'l blocked from all kinds of things.... and we don't sit and gab about whats going on in our worlds.  .. and that IS completely different from what Im getting at here.

Last count... the 5 people that are closest to me, or that I consider closest to me are still fb friends with my ex....and it bothers me, and it makes me mad.. and I am hurt.  And I really am not quite sure why Im harbouring the drama of it all.

(sigh)... Must sleep... tomorrow is a new day... right? =)

Future prospects...

So ... something that has been dancing through my mind for the last little while popped its head up tonight.

J came downstairs after spending a few hours talking on the phone to his brother back east - to tell SO that they could have work back home for more than they make here.

Ontario is a long way away from BC.  Sure.. it's just a 5 hr plane ride.  But at the best of times that flight is kind of expensive.  So it makes me think about what's here for me that I think I need to stay for...

• my daughter
• my job
• my friends
• my family

Those things are what make it difficult to just jump at the change of scenery.  But that's all. 

I wouldn't miss paying way too much just to keep a roof over our heads. I can't say I couldn't get a job there.  I wouldn't say that it would be hard to make friends.  And I still have the power of the internet to keep up communication with family and friends wherever I am or they are.

So, the only thing that makes this a really tough decision (which isn`t something I have to really consider right now anyway) is TK.

Sure... there`s that underlying agreement that at the end of this school year she`s supposed to go live with her dad full time.  But if everything worked out the way its supposed to... it would make SO`s life easier being closer to his kids and his family.  Especially right now - there is definitely more time needed for him to spend time and energy with his kids right now.  and come next year - his family will be renovating their home and they`ve asked me to come help.   I also have my gf in New York that would like me to come out to help her decorate. And I don`t doubt that working with both of those homes will bring me some word of mouth referrals - which would be great.

Still...   its a BIG move for me, and for TK.  and I am pretty sure her dad won`t let her move there.  that`s just way too far and too much for him.

Its not something i have to think about too much right now.. but its on the table... again.   *sigh*.

Changing ground

Well - we went to see a house last nite, and quite simply - it was the very last option.  We have seen so many homes with all the right details, in all different areas that we'd be comfortable to live in, but that was in February, when most people wanted them re-rented for March 1... not April 1 when we would be able to move.  I saw this ad on February 4th, and managed to run across it again by fluke STILL available.  I emailed and was happy to find that the family was not yet sold on new tenants yet.

We went last nite - the WHOLE family was able to make it - and everyone fell in love!

I had been talking to TKU on facebook earlier and mentioned that I was excited to go see this place and that I was really hoping everything was good because I just wanted to know that we had a home, get packed and moved without any issues.. and that's when she said

"I'm not living there. Just saying.  We are just looking." ...

I just about lost my mind.  Ya know, kid, I love ya, and I understand that moving away from your friends and school and all that is hard sometimes, but I'm really hoping that you don't have nearly as much pull on your parents as that. All that flashed through my mind was the potential nightmare for her parents and their sanity for the same thing - we just want to know that we have a place, it fits all of our needs, and we can afford it.  We all needed the peace of mind of knowing.

We already know that TKU's older sister is moving back home again. (she went back east to live with her dad a couple months ago if not less than that - and it didn't work out the way she'd hoped - so she called and said she wanted to come home.) .. and we already know that she's not going to be thrilled with the new location because she wanted to go to a specific high school.. that is now too far.  I'm not saying its not possible, because my best friend did it for Gr. 12.  We were already in that school and her family had to move back east for her step dad's job.  She moved in with her aunt out in Ridge and commuted every day to school for the last year instead of changing schools.  That just made sense.  But she was in grade 12 and had her license and a car to get herself there and back every day.  TKU2 will have to be driven every day.

I of course, got the address and google mapped it, checked it out on street view, and was delighted to see that it wasn't scary at all!  I got an email from the landlady along with pictures.  She said the house was staged in January, and those were all she had.   What I noticed was missing was the living room / kitchen downstairs photo.  Since that will be my family's space, I was curious to know if the set up there was going to be any better than what I am currently fighting with.  She very nicely replied that they live in the house at present, and it's their son's play room.  Its an open concept space sharing both living room and kitchen areas together. And that it would be easier to visualize when we came to see it.

When we got there, it was of course, the first thing I needed to see. The home is well kept with laminate and ceramic tile throughout.  The only installed carpet is on the stairs and the two downstairs bedrooms (but not the 'den').  I stood in the middle of the open space kitchen/ lrm area and tried to picture our table and chairs there.  It would work for the time being, but it would have to change.  I immediately started 'building' an island with a breakfast bar instead.  Indeed, the kitchen is small, there is about the same amount of counter space as there is here (with all the appliances that sit on the counter).. so an island would be smart.  increases counter workspace, and if the right kind of set up is done, it would definitely work for more cupboard/storage.   The living room being right there would be fine.  The furniture we already have in our current living room would all fit just fine.  

Down the hall to the two bedrooms for our suite - they are side by side. I wasn't sure I wanted TK's room right beside ours, and I can't really see the new armoire fitting into our room at all.  The 2 bedrooms are small.  Smaller than what we have now.  The closet in the 'master' is even smaller than we have right now. This means we'll be doing some more reconfiguration on where our stuff will go.  This is about the time we figured that the den will probably end up being TK's room.  It's up at the front of the house (the other bedrooms are in the back), but in either room, she would be away from the noise of the tv - which she isn't right now.  

Honestly, if I were looking at this suite and it was JUST the downstairs - as in, we weren't renting the whole house - and we didnt know the people upstairs - I wouldn't take it. But because we're looking at the whole house, and all of the amenities, it will work, and we'll make it work as best we can.  I joked and said it was great and we'd be happy living upstairs, and M laughed and said NO WAY! lol... 

The yard is huge.  There's a workshop in the back - and its one of those long buildings where there's storage space in the back half that's separated from the front.  The guys are already planning setting that front space up as their Man Cave.  lol 

Upstairs is lovely.  The layout is good, there's plenty of space and it's well used.  The dining room furniture they have will fit nicely without being crowded, the living room space will do well with their current furniture too.  The master bedroom, walk in closet, additional closet with shelving and en suite are all well planned out too.  It is cozier - meaning the space they have upstairs now is HUGE and spacious - but for no real reason.  All that extra space just screams for laundry and miscellaneous storage things to pile up.  I can already see M planning out decorating it properly as soon as they're in there.

Both kids rooms upstairs are like ours downstairs - right beside each other.  One is slightly bigger and TKU has already laid claim to it.  And honestly, for TKU2 the extra space would just give her more room to pile things up too.  

The landlords are all ok with our pets and our kids, they're nice people that have already said they feel comfortable leaving the province with us in their home.  (who wouldn't? we're pretty great tenants!)  So.. now we wait until March 23rd  to hear about posession date etc.  Promise I'll share pics when we're in.

It's stuck...

You know those days you wake up and have a song stuck in your head? Sometimes it's not a bad song... and other times, it's one of those downright annoying ditties that sometimes also comes with the visual enhancements.

Right... all day... randomly odd moments and it starts playing in your head like the iPod on repeat.



What about words or phrases?

'Necromancer' .. 

nec·ro·man·cy

   [nek-ruh-man-see]  Show IPA

–noun

1.

a method of divination through alleged communication with the dead; black art.

2.

magic in general, especially that practiced by a witch or sorcerer; sorcery; witchcraft; conjuration.

'pooping out a garden gnome' ...

(Good heavens.. WTH??? Where did THAT come from and WHY?)


Or words that when you say them.. they sound like they aren't really a word.   'oven'


I was at work one day discussing things you rarely clean... out came the word 'oven'.. and for the life of me, for the rest of the day, I could NOT get the word out of my head - nor would it sound right when I heard it. Odd.

Today I woke up with a couple songs mashing themselves together - and they weren't making sense.  Like one line from an Eminem song, and the other from something a la Taylor Swift.   I'd tell you - but thank heavens - it's gone.

(are you still bouncing to Numa Numa?.. sorry.)

Got something stuck in your head you want to pass on?  They say if you share it, a lot of times it leaves you.

Have a great day!

Yummy, yummy goodness...

McDonald's makes Cinnamon Melts... little, bite sized morsels smothered in absolutely delicious warm, melting, frosting...

I had to at least tell you about them, even if I can't (and might not actually) share them with you.

They remind me of high schoool - they used to have cinnamon buns in the cafeteria in the morning - and if there was any left over.. there would be some at lunch too.  *yum*

Speaking of 'yesterday', a couple days ago someone I have thought of quite often over the last 15 years made a reappearance! .. and WOW was I excited!  .. and anxious. 

So far so good. We've had a few emails back and forth and I would have given her a call last nite if it weren't so late.  In my world, we don't phone people after 9:30 unless they specifically ask.  Also, calling her would have been possible if I wasn't doing three other things at the same time.  I have realized that I am somewhat less multi-functional in the evenings, and I'd already felt that I blew someone in the house off who came to chat about house stuff.  Yesterday being March 1st, I knew there should be some new postings on Craigslist for places for rent, so I was checking all the bookmarked sites I have for anything new and fresh.  Plus I was fielding emails about the upcoming Hot Lunch menu for the school, whilst trying to create said menu over again, because somehow I absent mindedly deleted 2 years worth of previous menus... and listening to SO play Zuma. *lol*

I'm looking forward to catching up with her... it's been a very long time.  I happend to catch a video a mutual friend of ours posted.  After watching the video I realized just how much I've missed having her in my life and how pleasantly surprised and happy I was to see that she sent me a friend request on facebook. 

This morning on my drive into work, I was thinking about other classic and classy friends that have come through my life and are no longer around for some reason or another.  Time and life change each of us; we encounter things along the way that take us to new places, shape and help us re-shape our perspectives, and all in all help to create the people we are. Those people have definitely helped to create and change me to who I am right now.

It's pretty interesting how our friends take their own paths and can become less and less involved in our lives.  Sometimes they up and just vanish completely... and of course, there too are some people that you'd just LIKE them to vanish -but somehow THEY manage to stick around... LOL!

So for all those people that have been a part of, influenced, and helped to shape me and my world to how it is today, I wanted to say Thank you! <3 

Holy rain drops batman!  They warned of high winds and heavy rain and possible snow.. and now at 12:30pm the wind and the rain here.   Hope you're somewhere inside, warm and dry today.  And hope you're smiling along with me.

Irritated yet?

Yes.

Why, you ask?

I think the number one thing that irritates me is when I can't connect to the wi-fi network.  Primarily it's when I'm at home ... but when my lovely little mac says "Yup! There's a signal here and YOU can connect to it!  Look! It's boasting a nice 3 or 4 bar connection and EVERYTHING! C'mon.. you wanna just jump right on here!"

So I click on it, and I wait...
and wait..



and wait.

*s.i.g.h.*

and the longer I wait, and the more times I have to click the 'connect' button... the MORE irritated I get!


And you know - that's the moment I'm trying to complete a task... anything!  Look something up, read or reply to an email that I would consider urgent at that given moment... and unfortunately for the rest of the people in my world... they TOO are now going realize how completely and irrationally irritated I am over this.

One morning, I was in a rush to get out the door, get TK to school and help with Hot Lunch.

Side Note: For those of you that aren't aware of what Hot Lunch is, at school, once a month, the Parent Advisory Committee (PAC) puts together a fun menu of food items from somewhere like McDonald's or other 'fast food' vendor and charges a little bit more than the rate they get in order to raise funds for the school fun stuff. ...  My jobs on this team over the past three years have been the computer person - the one that creates the menu into print form that is sent home with each child to order from, create and manage the tally sheets - the accumulation of the entire school's orders that is the main source of information for the ordering and delivery of each and every lunch ordered - and then to help on Hot Lunch day in the kitchen with a few other moms.  Sorting out each classroom's ordered items and helping to get them delivered to each child that placed an order.

Now.. its hard enough to get TK up, ready and out of the house without much fuss.  On Hot Lunch day, there are fewer chances - as I must also get myself up, showered, and human before we can walk out the door  - which is much less than I have to do any other school day.  Those days, I can get out of bed, get her ready, and take her to school with my unbrushed hair and in my pyjamas because I simply drive to the drop off loop, let her out, and come right back home again.

So this particular morning, I realize that I didn't print off the extra copy of the tally sheets - each and every classrooms order sheets.  I realize that they are sitting in my email - which is online.  I don't have an email program that downloads my emails so I can look at them whenever I feel the need... I have to log on, sign in and go see them there.  This requires an internet connection.

And without an internet connection.... I can't get this done.  Fighting with getting online is pretty much the most frustrating thing I could need first thing in the morning before school.

TK on this particular morning, is less than cooperative.

I'd be more accurate to summarize this particular morning as to say she was moving slower than molasses in the middle of winter.  And my ability to GET on the internet was going just about as well.

And the more the internet was going to keep screwing me around ... the more TK was doing just about ANYTHING else other than get ready for school.

*face.palm*

When I finally got my stuff printed, got us both ready and out the door and off to school, I could NOT contain myself when encountering my fellow volunteering mother friends in the kitchen...

I must say that I did learn from this particular morning... that I need to let go of that extreme frustration and NOT share it with others. The looks on their faces when they asked the one thing they didn't realize until it was out of their mouths was the absolutely last thing they wanted to ask... "Wow, you're a bit later than we expected... Is everything alright?" The look on their faces was "How could the woman that seems normally so organized and easy going all the time - be so completely unglued???"

Yup.   Unglued, unhinged and at least one other 'un' word that you would deem 'scary or fragile' (depending on how you're seeing this right now.. lol)


Tonight I wanted to write a few blog posts and get the train of thought on the track to come back to later... but do you think I could get online?   N.o.p.e.

And in all that time of waiting to get online so I could start some of those blogs... I lost a few ideas completely, and almost all of the rest of them lost their rails.  *sigh*

Ahhh... tomorrow is a new day... and hopefully tomorrow morning I won't need to get online for anything.. at least until I get to work.

Feeling like a grown up again.

It's been 8 months since I broke up with my ex and moved out.

When my husband and I split up in 2003, he knew that I needed to keep a fair amount of the furniture etc. since I was keeping our daughter with me full time.  We discussed and shared the furniture as best we could so that neither of us were really "without".

When I moved out 8 months ago, I asked for one of the three couch sets, and a coffee table/end table set.

I didn't get any of them.

So, since moving in with SO, we've slowly realized that we need to (and have been) upgrading the stuff he had.

We bought a futon to go under TK's loft bed.
We bought a brand new sofa and loveseat set.
We bought a headboard for our bed.

And this past weekend - we bought a dresser/armoire .. which luckily matches quite beautifully with the headboard.

Being home for the past 2 wks with the sick one - I've been looking around our house, and even SO said it too.... I'm starting to feel like a "grown-up" again.

I'm not knocking what he had.  But it's like going from this...

to this..

ok, ok... lol ...  yes,  I know, an exaggeration.. I'd love that.. but its the best way to describe the feeling.

But really... at least it's not, and has NEVER been something you'd see at http://uglyhousephotos.com/.



Alright.. 

Here's the new armoire / dresser piece.

I don't have 'old' pics of the bedroom because.. well ... just go back and imagine the mismatched couches  as a bedroom.   *smirk*

I broke my blogger...

I have been thinking over the past couple weeks about blogging.. I even mentioned it to my S.O...  "I feel a blog in that right there.."

But I didn't do it. 

Nope.  Not once. 

Didn't even log in and attempt something and just leave it in the drafts for later when I felt more inspired / had more time to to devote to the train of thought behind it..

So that of course, got me wondering WHY!?   And got me coming around to figuring it out.

Gossip.

The past week and a bit with my being home with the sick one, I've had a bit more time to talk to a few of my friends.  And I've heard a few things that have upset me. 

Even right now, as I sit here, I can feel that I'm angry with one of them for the way she's been making a few of us feel; that what we consider our 'crafts' isn't worth the monetary value we put to them where she's concerned. That if she were to recommend us and our craft to another of her friends in need for our service, that she would also recommend that they not pay full price for receiving this service from us. 

Huh?

So for example .. say I offer the service of story-telling, and her friend the librarian is looking for a story-teller - she'd tell the librarian that my rate of $35/hr is NOT what she/the library should pay. 

[insert gasp here]

What's really not fun is that the librarian told me that my friend told her not to pay full rate.. but instead she paid me MORE than even what I expected to charge. (Which was a 'YAY' moment... but sure made me question my 'friend').

About a week ago, another friend said that she needed to "talk" to me.  But right that moment wasn't a good time for either of us (too many people around etc..) ..and you know that line is just a kicker for your brain right?  OMG!!!!  Did I do something wrong?  Do I smell funny?

So when I finally got a chance to pin her down so we could talk - she said that a mutual friend shared a confidential conversation between her and I that made my other friend feel like I wasn't being completely honest about something we're dealing with together.

Okay.. really?

I'm not a fan of gossip.

When friend A tells me that she's having issues with, or mad at friend B, I don't go running off to friend B and get in the middle of it.  And I don't go off to friend C and tell HER all about it either.   I think I have a pretty good handle on the difference between someone having a need to vent to me, and someone telling me something about someone else.  Ick... and I usually don't really absorb it.  Sure, it's kind of interesting to hear about what so and so is up to... but it's still just heresay.  And somewhere along the line... gossip tends to hurt.

And that's where I figured it out.  I realized that *I* wasn't blogging because someone in my world just MIGHT have an issue about what I write - and either make me feel that it's of lesser value than I put on it, or turn around and decide that they should SHARE it with someone else!!!

So I hadn't written a single thing. And I could feel how something that only a few short weeks ago was freeing my brain of some junk that needed to be sorted out and cleaned up and making me feel really really good - was being controlled by an outside force that shouldn't have anything to do with what or why I blog.

So .. to those feelings I let sneak into my subconcious and get in the way - Out you go, and good riddens!

 

Home time...

Been hanging at home with my 'sick' kid the past couple days... I think she's fine to go to school, but I can tell she doesn't feel all that great. Wouldn't want her to go and try to be at school and feel crappy anyway. I feel bad for her, and there's not much I can do other than tell her to lie down and relax.  There's too much going around at school anyway... a number of kids in her class and the student teacher are m.i.a.  so I can't really ignore it either.

But whatever it is she's got on tv right now... is annoying.. because I'm not watching it with her, I'm trying to do some work for a friend...

Sorry I haven't posted in a bit... I promise I'll have something for you right quick. :)

How's things with you?

Anti-Bullying Flashmob January 2011

Random things our kids find...

the kid and the kid upstairs  Hereby now stamped as TK and TKU..

and our ALL time favorite!

Keenan Cahill..

*insert WTF face here*