Last Post of the Year

Tonight we say goodbye to 2013 and ring in 2014, What's this mean well for about a month all the gyms all over the place are going to be super freaking busy because of all the people making their New Years resolution to lose weight but give up and break it shortly after making it. For me 2014 is going to be interesting, or well at least the month of June that is. June brings with it a few milestones, hubby and I will celebrate 10 years of marriage, we will have a lot of his family up here around that time so big dinner is to be had, We will also be holding a celebration of life for Richards dad 2 days after our anniversary, then on the 27th of June marks 20 years that my own father has been gone. Hard to believe it's only been that long, it feels like it should be a lot longer. Crazy how time flies huh?

A quick recap of 2013, This summer was freaking HOT, we got up into the 80's for a few days, which is bloody hot. I turned 30 and was sick for most of the summer with some weird thing that we could never really figure out what the heck was going on with me.  But I was on antibiotics on and off all summer and even steroids to get it under control finally.  Richard celebrated one year of working at Brown's this spring and is still enjoying being the delivery driver for them.

Then October hit, Richard turned 30 then got into a car accident, missed work, we started going to Color-Me-Mine more often and became VIP members, I got sick again with a cold that wasn't all that bad and went away with out me having to go to the doctors. We got my mom's old truck since ours was totaled in the car accident and mom got a new one. Then things calmed down a bit or so we thought.

November was just a bad month for a lot of friends of mine and for us. A good friend of ours lost his dad to cancer the day that Richards dad went into the hospital then dad passed the following day, another good friend of mines mom died not even a week after dad passed and then her dad passed away two weeks after her mom. So November just sucked.

We however are ending the year on a fun note, we are going to an Aces hockey game, we always have fun there. This one is special cause it's Boomer, the mascots birthday. Free cupcakes! Should be a fun game to watch.

Hope your New Years plans go off with out any problems and if you drink don't drive and if you are driving don't drink I want you all to make it into the new year safe and sound.

See you all next year!
Love,
Me

Where's the shut off switch

My brain just wont shut off tonight, so here I am writing a blog in hopes that this will be the key to shutting it off so I can get some sleep. First off let me just say we are all doing well and life has gotten back to the new normal as much as possible. I am thankful that in a way we get the first main holidays out of the way so soon after dads passing. Just seems to me like it's a blessing that way so we don't have to have an entire year to wait and have a painful holiday, though next year will be tough when that day comes around I have a feeling we will all handle it like champs.

We had a major snow fall this last weekend, it started snowing on Friday and didn't stop till Sunday morning. We needed the snow after our two thaw outs and rains. Everything looks so pretty and fresh and we will have a white Christmas this year. Though now it's freaking cold out cause it cleared off. I rather have the snow falling (sorry mom ).

  I'm once again on antibiotics, I came down with a cold the week before Thanksgiving and got over it by the 22nd besides my ears. My left one plugged up but I was able to get that one to clear up on it's own, then the right one decide it was going to plug up. I tried my little trick and known cure for my ears and it just didn't work, I did this for about 2 weeks then caved and asked to be taken to the doctor. Man was it ever hard to get me in to be seen, not because the doctor was busy but because mom was working crazy long hours at the hospital and not getting home till the wee hours of the morning. I was finally able to go on Saturday, that's right in the middle of the snow storm. I was diagnosed with a sinus infection and fluid behind the ear drum and put on meds for 10 days. I am already feeling better and can even hear better then before.

Other then that Richard and I have just been going to Color Me Mine twice a week, we both have so much fun there and find it relaxing. Plus we love the people who work there, they are a great bunch of people and are pretty funny to boot. I have a few great ideas for up coming projects, just got to find the right pieces for each project. In fact I just came up with a great idea for a gift for my brother that I can paint there. I guess you could say I'm addicted.

Well I'm starting to yawn which means that this was the right choice for finding the shut off switch.

November 24 2013

Why is November 24,2013 the title of this post? Well very simply put it was the day that my father-in-law passed away unexpectedly. Dad was found on the 23rd by Richards mom and sister and it was a total fluke that they had found him at all. He had called them and asked them to meet him up at a friends house just up the road from where they live out in the valley. They got there and he wasn't there yet so they went to go get their pizza that they had ordered and went the back way and spotted dads truck. When they found him his lips were blue and he was unresponsive, he was rushed to the hospital and we were told that he had massive bleeding in the brain, probably caused by a stroke and or an aneurism. Richard and I drove out Saturday night and stayed out there and Sunday morning dad took a turn for the worse and passed away shortly before 1pm on the 24th.

  Dad will be greatly missed by us all, he was a very unique man who loved to talk and make people laugh. I will never forget one of his favorite sayings, you would ask how he was and he would respond "I am 10 feet tall, armor plated, bullet proof and stubborn as as jackass" If he told you that, that meant he was good.  We are doing a celebration of life sometime in the summer as to not totally destroy peoples holidays cause he would kick us in the ass if we did that.


R.I.P. Dad, we love you

Random Facts About Me.

Thought it would be fun to share some random facts about me.

1. I love reading
2. I am a tad O.C.D. certain things have to be certain ways or I go bonkers
3.I am dyslexic so much so that it's annoying
4. Every once in a while I do a random act of kindness for a complete stranger like paying for their order at a drive through
5. I don't know how to swim and am in fact afraid of big open areas of water
6. my cat doesn't let me use the bathroom alone
7. I watch daily vlogs on youtube by Katers17, Dudelikehella, Shaytards and CTFxC just to name a few
8. I have almost been frozen to an outhouse toilet, no I'm not kidding and no I will not share that story here :-)
9. I am a casual gamer
10. One of my closest friends I have never met, but we talk everyday
11. I don't pronounce Library correctly, never have prob never will
12. I suck at math
13. I can clap my feet
14. When I was younger I once thought we spoke Japanese
15. I also used to think what if we are in fact dolls living in a doll house and someone much bigger then us was in control
16. I scare easily
17. My mom doesn't think I'm funny except rarely I do get a chuckle out of her
18. I have a new found love of painting ceramics
19. I'm bored at the moment
20. Teaching myself to sew with a little help from my mom
21. I recently have gotten into a lot of different crafts
22. I fall a lot in the winter. Heck in general it has been said I trip over color changes in the carpet

Hope you enjoyed reading these.  

Cutting fingers, getting rigs, and Coloring with a few odds and ends thrown in for fun.

Saturday I had my first run in with my rotary cutter, and it still smarts. I was cutting up a pair of Richards carheart pants for his Halloween costume for a party that night, and cut into my middle finger a tiny bit with it. Dang those things are sharp, it took a bit for the bleeding to stop and had mom come down and look at it. Lucky for me no stitches are required. The bad thing is I am having to hold off on doing any more on my sewing project till I can use my finger with out it hurting.

Richard and I have a rig again, We got mom's truck and she got herself a spiffy new one. It's nice to be mobile again with out having to borrow a truck. We have had it for about a week now. On that note, Richard has been back to work for a week now as well. He is doing better but is still hurting and having to go to the chiropractor 3 times a week. But at least he can work now, so I don't have to hear him complain about wanting to be at work. Trust me it was getting old, real old.

A dear friend of mine has asked me to sew a blanket for her 4 month old son using his favorite fabrics, we had a bit of a miscommunication but have figured out what to do to fix it for the most part. Now to just figure out how to make it up and having it looking good. This too has to wait till my finger heals up more,(stupid finger) plus I need to get the rest of the fabric.

Oh I have yet again changed what I'm making for my brother for Christmas, I swear, this is the final time, I hope. But you guessed it, it too has to wait for my finger to heal.

Everything is on hold all because of this stupid, stupid, stupid teensy weensy hurts like mother trucker cut. I'm so annoyed with myself for doing it, I know it was a stupid accident but still I can't believe I did it. Oh well hopefully it heals up quickly.

I'm going to end this with pictures of what we painted at Color Me Mine, while Richard wasn't allowed to work.They are out of order of how they were actually painted. The down side is the Dragon Richard painted over the year broke, but they fixed it and are keeping it there at the store and they have ordered a new one for him to paint on them.

Bellow is my Chubby Dino, I think she is too stinking cute, Her counter part is down lower in the pictures

My Princess Bride cup, 

 I put my favorite quotes from the movie on it.

 It was a ton of work, had to put a base coat of white down then, figure out where I wanted the sayings and put them on the cup in stickers then paint over the stickers with 3 coats of paint.

 Once the third coat of paint was dry but not too dry I had to use a pin and peel the stickers off. But I do love how it turned out, I might, just might do another cup like this in the future.

 Richard took an easier approach to his cup and just painted it 3 different shades of blue, But I like his just as  much as mine.

 While I painted the chubby dino, Richard painted this Unicorn bust in a few different shades of purple. I think it looks pretty cool.

 I really love how my pumpkins turned out, The top one is painted to look like it is frozen solid, the middle one is not quite there and the bottom one is just starting to freeze.

 The pumpkins were the first thing I painted this go around, I painted them while Richard finished the dragon that broke. Oh they also light up, how cool is that!

 Richards skull he painted, kinda creepy in a cool way.

 While he did that I did this chubby unicorn.

 She is the counter part to the chubby dinosaur

 Kramer also likes Color Me Mine, or well the bag at least

Sewing Fun

 Above is the first thing I used my sewing machine on, I had to fix a seem that had given out, it's the one below the red pen.

 Then I made a catnip pillow for Kramer. I took the owl fabric and folded it over and sewed up the sides, turned it so the pattern was out, then I took an old sock filled it with catnip sewed it shut cut off the excess then stuffed it in the pillow case and then sewed it shut.

Today I measured and cut fabric and sewed it together and got this 9 square. It took me quite a few hours to do as I had to rip some seams a couple of times. It's not perfect but for being the first time it's not bad either. 

I am really enjoying my sewing machine and can't wait to use it more.

What A Month

This week started out super amazing and by Wednesday it had gone to hell and then decided to get worse from there. But let me take you back to September for a few brief seconds. A few days before mom left on vacation I was sitting on the couch here at home and was resting my hand on my chest when I found a lump in my left breast.  I called mom, she came over and confirmed it was indeed a lump and that she would take me to the doc in the box the next day. Needless to say they told me I needed a mammogram done but they felt it was either a fatty lump or a cyst and to not be worried.  We made the appointment for October 7th and so I waited. I didn't want to post about it on here till I knew what was going on and if it was something more serious then we thought or if it was just what we thought.

Flash forward to This Monday Oct 7th, which was by the way Richards Birthday. Richard and I went to Snow City Cafe for his Birthday Breakfast cause he really wanted to go, they have AMAZING food. Then we were off to my mammogram and unbeknownst to me ultrasound. Can I just say I rather have a mammogram done then get my blood pressure taken by one of those automatic ones any day of the week. So I get done there and off to ultrasound I go, then the Radiologist comes in and gives me the good news, it's just a cyst and that I don't have to come back in for another 10 years. WOOHOO!

After we left the hospital, we went to Color Me Mine where I finished a pumpkin light I had started a week before hand, and Richard finished up painting his Dragon he had been working on for a year. I really do enjoy going there, it's fun, we can take our time and it's really not all that expensive. After we were done there we came home had some lunch then went to out to pay the electric bill and I convinced Richard to take me to JoAnn's so I could buy myself a sewing machine, after we were done there we stopped by to see a friend then went home. A few hours later we went out to dinner with mom at Ramono's to celebrate Richards birthday. What a great day we had.

Tuesday went off with out any problems, we went to Paint the Rink Pink and watched the Aces lose to the Cyclones 4-2. Then Wednesday happened.

Wednesday Richard was in a 3 car, car accident on his way to work and he was in the middle car. So as I like to state he was in the middle of an I hate you sandwich. I called a very dear friend of the family and asked if he could pick Richard up because our truck was dead and leaking fluid and then bring him home and he did  Needless to say Richard is missing a few days of work and well our truck is totaled (ugh!).

Thursday went off with out much a problem besides poor Richard being sore.

Today, it was my turn to be in pain. at 5 something this morning Kramer (the cat) decided to attack my left arm, and attack it he did. The upper part of my arm is scratched to shit by his teeth and claws, I have a very nice, lovely bruise forming, it is all pretty much just flesh wounds and no none of them are infected, I have been keeping an eye on them all day today.

So that basically wraps up our week, we are car less till we find a new used truck or SUV which means Mom and Richard are sharing moms truck. We wont have a way around town this weekend as mom is on call and needs her rig, which is fine cause we are both going to be home bodies cause on top of everything else my body decided I needed to come down with a cold.

Can this month be over with?

Heating up the work days sewing machine

I caved today and turned the heat back on in the apartment. I actually lasted longer then I thought I would as I wanted to turn it on on Monday but Richard talked me out of it. He can't talk me out of it today though. I am pretty cold at the moment as I just turned the heat on about 5 minutes ago. I did everything from putting socks then slippers on and curling up under a blanket and still couldn't get warm. So the heat is now officially on for the long Alaskan Winter. Still no snow on the ground and hardly any on the mountains but that will change as we always tend to have snow for Halloween.

Poor Richard is going to work 6 days straight before getting 2 days off. He was supposed to have yesterday off but the guy that covers the morning run when Richard has a day off called in sick, this is after calling in sick on Wednesday and before that on Friday the week before. I really don't like this guys work ethic and am sick of him doing stuff like this to Richard. I was pretty mad when Richard got called into work yesterday morning but I am also proud of him because he is proving to his boss that he values his job and the company he works for by being willing to come in on his day off and work. It proves he is a hard worker.  Plus on Monday they can try to call him in but it wont happen cause we have plans that can't be cancelled. So at least he gets a weekend off somewhat.

That's pretty much everything from here for right now, not much going one since I am home alone all day, excluding the cat. Here shortly it will be time for Holiday Bazaars which are always fun to go to, even if it is the same stuff every year, gives us something to do during the winter.

Oh still no word on the sewing machine, which makes me wonder if they just decided to wait till mom gets home and back to work or if they don't even know whats wrong with it. Hope it gets figured out soon cause I would like to be able to sew stuff, mind you the first stuff I do manage to sew wont be amazing works of art or perfectly done but hey gives me something to do while home during the day besides sitting at the computer. That is if I ever get a working machine. 

It's Snowing Sewing Machines

As some might remember, months back I was complaining about a sewing machine and how it was evil and didn't like me and wasn't working right. Well mom got around to getting it from me and gave it to someone to have them clean it up and see if they can't fix the problem. She did this before she went on vacation so I'm just waiting to hear from them to see if they fixed it, if it's a lost cause or if in fact I'm the problem with the machine. My money is on my dyslexic self being the problem.

In some fun news it snowed today, it's not really sticking but it definitely snowed. In fact the day after mom left there was a little termination dust on the mountains, needless to say there is a lot more now. The temperature has also dropped and hasn't gotten out of the 40s since she has been gone.  Winter is fast approaching now. We have all the windows closed but have yet to turn the heat back on, I'm hoping to make it to October but it the temps drop any more I will give in and turn the heat on. For those of you wondering our apartment is at about 65 right now so it's not bad.

Some sad news, my very first Dyson has kicked the bucket, I have had that thing for about 6 years now. It has been used and abused over those 6 years too. It makes this horribly loud noise and we can't figure out what is causing it to do so. The brush is clean so it can rotate without a problem. When we get our PFD's on Oct 3 we will go buy a new Dyson as I loved my first one and it's the only one I have ever had that has lasted this long. I might keep the old one around and use it for when I vacuum out our truck cause the hose part of it still works. haven't decided about that yet though.

That's pretty much it for now. I'm still healthy (knock on wood) and just chilling at home. Richards birthday is coming up in 2 weeks and so is Paint the Rink Pink. (GO ACES!!!) so I have a dinner out to look forward to and some hockey. Plus of course the return of mom from her much needed vacation. I hope she is having fun as I haven't heard from her since she got there, but that's not unusual for her.

I'm addicted to video games

I am happy to report that the last set of antibiotics did the trick, my throat is perfectly fine now and I haven't been sick in weeks. Of course I also haven't hung out with my friend whom uses the Doterra oils since before the last post so still haven't solved what caused my throat to get so bad. She has been busy with work and school.

Richard is no longer on 2 different jury duties. He was called in yesterday for trial jury, so all he has to do is finish off this week and he is done, instead of having to call in till the18th of October for district jury duty. I bet this makes his bosses and work happy too cause when Richard doesn't work they have to have 2 people do his job. Basically one guy does the morning runs and then another does the afternoon runs.

I haven't updated much here cause I have been playing a lot of video games as of lately, ok a single video game but been playing it tons. It's just this stupid game for the Nintendo 3DS called Animal Crossing New Leaf. It's a great way to kill a few hours when I have nothing better to do. I have gone as far as putting my 3DS in my purse so if something comes up like a long wait to be seated at a restaurant or stuck at a drs office waiting to be seen I can have something to do.

I also knitted mom a blanket on Saturday. I started it earlier in the week but worked on it all Saturday and got it finished. This blanket is made by knitting 5 strands of yarn at the same time, that sucker is heavy and warm. Mom really likes it and used it yesterday while working on a crochet project. Her cat Data even seemed to enjoy it as he was laying on her while she was using it. Now all I need to do is finish up the one blanket I'm making for a friends little boy, and a cross stitch pattern for a different friend and get to work on my brothers gift. I still also need to make a pair of fingerless gloves/wristlets for a different friend of mine. GAH so much stuff to do!!

In some fun only to Alaskans news, tomorrow we find out how much our PFD's are going to be this year. We get them around Richards birthday which is fast approaching which also means Aces Hockey is just right around the corner as well. WOOT!!!!!!!!!

Mystery Diagnosis

I am once again on antibiotics for my throat, I had the added bonus this time of being on steroids for the first three days of meds as well. This was due to the fact that my uvula was severely swollen and I was basically swallowing it, every time I swallowed. I am half way through the meds and am feeling fine again.  The troubling thing about this is that I have been plagued with what ever this is all summer.  I get off of the antibiotics and am fine for a week or two then my throat starts hurting a little then it gets to the point where it hurts to swallow or talk and I'm miserable and off to the doctor I go. I have baffled the doctors office that I go to when I can't get into my E.N.T. Doc.  The last time I was in there which was last Monday he said that if it comes back I need to make an appointment with my specialist because he doesn't know what is causing me to have this problem and it would be cheaper for me to go to the E.N.T. and get tests then to do them there at the walk in clinic.

I have a theory of what could actually be causing me to get so sick. A really good friend of mine uses the Doterra essential oils and swears by them, they work for her and she is allergic to almost everything under the sun. She only started using them earlier this year. You are probably wondering why I told you this, well it's important to my theory that's why. I realized after getting sick this most recent time that I had hung out with her and her son literally right before I started getting sick and thought back and every time I have gotten this blasted throat problem I have hung out with her.  SO I wonder if I could be allergic to the oils. But then I think ok if I'm allergic to them wouldn't my symptoms go away after being away from them for a while? to which I counter with well yeah you would think that but remember Stephanie you are your own kind of special  when it comes to getting sick.  Plus like I said earlier my friend only started using them earlier this year and every single time this summer I have been around her I end up having to go on antibiotics because of my throat. I at first maybe thought because she has a kid that I was just picking up germs from him but wouldn't I get something different every time and not the same thing? I talked to her about it, and she says they have never heard of anyone being allergic to the oils like this, just with skin irritations so she doesn't think it's the oils.

Anyways I asked her that the next time we hang out if she could please make sure not to have put on any of the oils, that includes her son as well, just to see if in fact it is the oils that is causing this problem or if indeed I have some weird infection that I just haven't killed completely with the antibiotics so it keeps coming back. Hopefully she remembers but if she doesn't and I get sick again well I guess that proves it too.

Back to Normal

After months of the apartment looking like a tornado went through it I finally have it looking good again. When I get sick it's hard for me to convince myself to keep up with the chores of the apartment because I just don't feel good, so I slack off then the next thing you know it's been 2 months and we are having to dig through garbage bags to find clothes to wear cause I haven't folded the clean laundry. But all that is behind me now and I hope to keep it that way for a while and even if I do get sick to try and at least not let it get so bad.

 It's August which means in just a few short weeks it will be time for the State Fair, which also means the rain has come and trust me we needed the rain. It also signals the end of Summer and the start of Fall. Our days are getting shorter not by much but it is now getting dark around 9-10pm. We are slowly getting to my favorite season, when the temps get cooler and I start making crock pot dishes and warm hearty meals again. Oh and tons of Taco Soup. Mmmm Taco Soup man that sounds good.

I have been reading a bit more which is nice, I haven't really wanted to read for a long while but now I'm getting back into seeing as how I am doing it just for me and not to see how many I can read in a year. I find myself gravitating back to books if I'm bored or don't want to do anything else. I even started a group on Facebook called Whatcha Reading? Where you basically tell other members of the group what you are reading, in hopes that it will give someone else an idea of what to read next. It's just a fledgling group not many people in it but hopefully it takes off and helps people decide what to read.

Birthday Month is Ending and Sickness Galore

Today is my brothers birthday, which means I don't have to cook dinner cause we get to go out to eat where ever my brother wants, so we are going to Sourdough Mining Company. Great food and Korn Fritters!!!! This is also the last of the birthdays we get to celebrate this month. The next birthday we get to go out for is Richards and that's in October.  I love July for the reason that we get to go to 3 places we don't always get to go eat at. It's nice, the only drawback is that moms birthday and mine are a week apart so I have a hard time choosing where to go and can't decide till after mom cause a lot of the time she has the same idea of a place to go eat as I do. Like this year Months ago I thought of going to the Double Musky for my birthday dinner didn't tell anyone besides Richard that it was an idea and that's where mom wanted to go for hers. On the bright side I still got to eat there and got to choose someplace else equally good for mine.


Now I bet you are wondering why I mentioned I don't have to cook dinner, well it's because it's to freaking hot in general so cooking in the kitchen just makes our place that much hotter. Yes it's still getting hot here, this summer has been CRAZY HOT. We got maybe a week of cooler temps and they jumped back up into the upper 70's. We have to have 2 fans going in our bedroom just so we can sleep at night it's that hot in our place. We have all our windows wide open but no breeze so it really doesn't do any good. This has been the warmest summer in a very long time. I miss the cooler ones. The ones where I could leave my hair down and be fine. I know mom isn't going to like what I'm about to say so sorry in advance mom, But all this heat is making me want winter to show up sooner rather then later. I have always stated I rather be cold then hot. I do good in cold weather besides the constant colds.

Speaking of constant colds this summer has had it out for me with a vengeance: June I got a rather nasty cold that ended up giving me an ear infection got meds for it and got over it besides my left ear not completely unplugging. Tried to get it to unplug on my own with no luck so went to the walk in clinic was told I had wax on my eardrum and that they could get it off with flushing it out with water I told them no because I have a hole in that eardrum was put on more meds to see if it would work, it did to a point but if I stopped taking it my ear would plug up. Made an appointment with my ENT Doc for the Tuesday that just passed  but before I got to see him I managed to get some kind of infection in my throat, so back to the walk in clinic aka Doc in the box to get treated for that, I'm almost done with the antibiotics for that and was told by my ENT doc to go ahead and keep using the nasal spray I was using before that was working but would stop working if I stopped taking it and to be on it for 2 months straight. If I'm not better in two months to come see him again. On top of all this is my seasonal allergies YUP this summer has had it in for me from the beginning. 

I'm 30!

This past Thursday I turned 30 and had a blast doing so. I had a family dinner at Lone Star Steakhouse, we all ordered the ribs and cheese cake afterwards. I do believe this is the first time all of my close family ordered the same meals with just slight variations. Earlier that day I got a call from my brother to let me know my birthday gift was in my email and that no it wasn't just an e card. He gave me a computer game that he had me try out the month before and that I liked playing. I was so shocked I couldn't believe it, it's the first time in years I have actually gotten a gift from him. I have played the game a lot since getting it too.

Friday was my party and the pool hall and I had a nice small gathering of 4 people show up besides Richard and I and the owner of the pool hall Chris. Chris actually surprised me and had bought me a cake for the party. He was going to get one that was personalized but he ran out of time to get it ordered so it would be ready so he just picked out a cake that looked good. It was really very sweet of him and totally unexpected.

Sunday Richard and I went out to the valley to hang out with our friends Stephanie and Jason. Before we hung out with them we went to his parents place and played with the boston terrier puppies, then went up to our friend Sarahs place to say hi and wish her son a happy birthday. Then we got together with Stephanie and Jason at a local park out there, then walked to Wendy's for lunch then they took us on a tour of their house that is being built. We had a great time visiting.

That pretty much sums up my Birthday weekend.

Birthday Party Rant

Thursday is my birthday, so I figured I would have a get together on Friday with friends. So last weekend I made an event page on Facebook and sent out invites hoping people would be into hanging out with me and help me celebrate turning 30. The only people to confirm they are going is my husband and the owner of the place I'm having the get together at. I have 2 maybe's one of them being my sister-in-law. So I put a status update inviting everyone I know to the party. Not a single person said they were going to come. I gave ample notice for people so they could try and make it. 

I will wait and see who actually shows up if anyone. I also have Richard inviting a couple of his coworkers whom I have met and like so hopefully they show up. But if no one does I'm going to be extremely hurt. I go out of my way to make it to events that friends invite me to and if I can't I let them know I'm not going to make it and that I did try to find a way to make it. But even if no one comes and it is just Richard and I, I will still have fun and not let them get to me too much. 

Baby on my mind

One of my dearest friends had her baby boy today, I am so happy for her. I know she will be a wonderful mom and I can't wait to be overloaded with baby pics. At the same time the green eyed monster called jealousy is rearing his ever loving mean head again. Not as bad as I thought it would be so that's good but I want a baby. I have been wanting a baby for years now but just can't seem to get motivated to lose the weight to see if I can even have a baby. Maybe one day soon I will get the kick in the butt I need and will stick to it.

I have been noticing A LOT of pregnant women lately, they seem to be everywhere I look. I understand why too cause winters are cold and dark and people stay home and what better to pass the time then doing the bedroom olympics. Sometimes it feels like a slap in the face other times it just a oh wow there sure are a lot of pregnant women around. I guess it just depends on my mood.

I know, it's all in my hands and I have the control to lose the weight if I just try, cause I have done it before but I dunno I just can't seem to get into the groove. I KNOW I NEED to, my health isn't getting any better in fact I am starting to find I have more problems now then before, especially with salt. But these are my problems and I have no one to blame but myself, and the people who enable me, the ones I know how to work to get my way and what I want. Who knows maybe turning 30 in a matter of weeks will be the kick start to me doing better. Or better yet maybe the fact that we will by no fault of our own have less money next year so we will have less food so we will have to make it stretch will be the kick I need. I just know that nagging me to do it isn't going to help. I just need to start out small and build from there.

Sorry for the rant just needed to get all that off my chest and for people to see.

Singing HOT HOT HOT!

So far this June has been very nice and hot we have been in the low to mid 70's most days. Now I know a lot of people in the lower 48 are thinking you call that hot? its like 90 here! YES up here 75 is HOT! You don't believe me feel free to come up here and try it out. It is a very intense heat. I'm not really complaining to much about it getting to 75 I can deal with that here in Anchorage cause I lived out in Wasilla and they tend to run 10 degrees hotter then here and yeah that's not fun either. But poor ole Anchorage is about to hit the 80's. It's not unheard of but hasn't happened in a very long time. Our last couple of summers have been cool and rainy this one seems to want to be hot. Which isn't good cause it's Wildfire season up here.

  Our apartment is like a sweat box in the summer, when it's 70-75 outside it's at least 80 in here, that's with all our windows open and fans on. It only cools down in here after midnight then starts warming up again around noon. You say well you didn't mention that your front door is open why not open it to get some air in? Well we don't do that because of Kramer, he is an indoor cat that wants to go outside, and we don't have a screen door soo yeah escape cat. Now if he has melted to the floor and isn't moving I will open the door for a few minutes with me sitting right next to it so I can stop him if he decides to try and get out. The only draw back to this is I let the evil mosquitoes in. They are bad this year and I react badly to their bites and have already been eaten alive and it's only JUNE!

I'm writing this blog because there is actually a Severe Weather Alert for us because it's going to get into the 80's in the next few days. 80's! which means our apartment will be like 85-90. I will be melted on the floor next to the cat!  My poor albino self will burn outside, prob even with sun screen on. It's a good thing We get to go food shopping today, we are going to get a bag of ice. We don't have ice trays so we just buy bagged ice. I will be putting ice in the cats water dish to help keep him cool.

Pool Shark

Richard and I celebrated our anniversary on Wednesdayby going out to Ramonos for dinner, the food was amazing! They gave me so much food I had to bring some of it home and ate it Thursday for lunch. We both didn't want to go home so Richard ran the food into the apartment and came out with our pool ques. We haven't played pool in over a year and it just sounded like a lot off fun so off to Beluga Billiards we went. We ended up playing for 6 hours and didn't get home till after 1am. We had such a blast.

Richard was supposed to have Thursday off because he works tomorrow, but he got called into work from noon till 6pm. I got to hang out with two friends of mine at La Mex for about an hour. Richard met up with us then when we all parted ways him and I went and played some more pool. Not as long as the day before but we still had fun. I think we will be going more often now as it's not all that expensive to go, 15 bucks total and no time limit.

Tomorrow I will be hanging out with mom while Richard is at work, not sure what all we are going to do but it will be nice to hang out with someone. She has been working way to much lately so we will prob be taking it easy. Then Sunday I think at least Richard and I are going to go to a baseball game, mom and my brother might come too. Which is cool cause I know my brother likes to watch baseball on tv so he should enjoy going to a local game.

I Can Knit Daisies!

Knitted Daisy

I have been looking for a pattern for knitted flowers for months now, one that was easy to do as I am still quite the beginner with knitting. It is actually rather hard to find knitted flower patterns to begin with, I found tons of crochet ones but then finally found 2 patterns for knitting on Pinterest, that seem pretty simple/easy to follow/do.

I decided to try the one for knitted daisies first as it seemed like it would be less work and faster to complete. So I wrote down the instructions/pattern for it since I don't have a printer and got to work. My first attempt went wrong as it didn't look like it should. I thought I had counted wrong when binding off in the middle of the row. So first I called mom at work but she was busy so I took to the internet again. Found out I did in fact count right, so I went back to the blog where I got the directions from and read them from there to see if I somehow missed a step while writing it down. I didn't, I then went to the comments and someone else had had the same problem so the author of the blog went into more detail on one of the steps. I then figured out where and how I goofed up. So I started the project again and nailed it on the second go around as you can see from the above picture. It is in fact super easy and super quick to do. I can see myself making these for knitted projects in the future.

I have another pattern to try out but I will attempt that one a different day as it is a bit more work then this one is. I will post about it once I try it out.

Yes I know two posts in one day, very rare thing to happen here but I just had to share my success with all of you who read my blog.

9 Years and Almost 30

Tomorrow Hubby and I celebrate 9 years of marriage, I can't believe how time flies. I am truly lucky to have him in my life, he is my best friend and soul mate. He gets my sense of humor, even when my family doesn't which I don't understand seeing as how I have dads sense of humor. It's crazy how we think so much alike and are always cracking one another up. We are very much two peas in a pod and I wouldn't have it any other way.

We are going to go out to eat tomorrow, nothing to special as we can't afford much, but this will be the first time in probably 7 years that we have gone out to celebrate. On the plus side he has Thursday off so we don't have to worry about staying out too late. He has to work tomorrow but that's ok and doesn't bug me at all, and since he has Thursday off that means he works Saturday, so hopefully mom doesn't have to work and we can hang out and do something fun.

In 5 weeks it will be my 30th birthday. That's right I'm turning 30, I can still remember being I believe about probably the age of 7-8 and talking to dad and how I didn't believe I would be alive in the year 2000. How that was soo far away and I would be 17 years old and that was old. Now here I sit about to turn 30 going wow 30 isn't all that old really. Amazing how your thinking changes as you get older, as a child you can't wait to be 10 cause then you are in double digits, then 13 cause you are officially a teenager, then sweet 16, then 18 because you are considered an adult and can vote. Then the magical age of 21, you are now responsible enough to drink then you have nothing to look forward to, cause you are just getting older. Or for some staying 29 for the rest of their lives. I for one can't wait to see what being in my 30's is like, prob just like every other age I've been. I'm not dreading it at all I say Bring it!

How to handle me and my hearing loss

I have a slight hearing loss, I'm not deaf but depending on what's going on around me I might not catch everything that is said to me, or none of it at all. When I'm sick it's worse because my ears are plugged. I have had to deal with this all my life basically and have had to deal with people who don't understand or just don't care and get frustrated with me if I don't hear everything the first time. My hearing loss is due to having multiple ear infections as a young child. I thought I would share some things to make it easier for people to deal with me, kind of a do this not that list. I have been thinking about doing this for months now and in reality I should of done this YEARS ago. So strap on your seat belts and here we go.

Don't talk to me while walking away from me, I won't hear everything you have to say.  The farther away you get from me the harder it is for me to hear everything. My mom is particularly bad about this, she will ask me to do something as she is going to another room, I might catch everything she says and then again I might not.

Make sure you have my attention before you start talking. This one is important especially if we are in an area that is very noisy. Background noise makes it very hard for me to decipher if someone is actually talking to me. Best way to do this is make eye contact with me or tap me on the shoulder.

Don't get mad if I don't answer you, I probably just didn't hear you. As I mentioned before background noise plays havoc with my ability to hear, so if you call my name and I don't respond I'm not ignoring you, I just didn't catch that you called out to me. My husband doesn't call out my name to get my attention anymore cause I didn't respond a lot of the times but if he whistles I will hear it and stop and look around for him. The downside to this is if someone else is whistling I automatically stop and look around for him even though I know he isn't with me.

Please repeat yourself if I asked you to. I know it's annoying to have to repeat yourself but if I didn't catch everything you said I will ask you to repeat yourself or say what? Sometimes I might have to ask 2-3 times before I get everything you say, if this is the case especially if I am battling a cold please be patient with me

Don't say Never mind. I hate when people say something and I wasn't paying attention so I didn't hear it or I was paying attention but just didn't catch it and ask them to repeat what they said and they say never mind. Please tell me what you said, if it was good enough to say it once please say it a second time.

Treat me like you would any other person. If we are meeting for the first time you might not know that I have a slight hearing loss. If I need you to speak up, or repeat yourself I will ask you to. Don't tease me about it once you find out about it either. I have an older brother who does that for you already. I let him get away with it for the most part because he is family, and I know he is just teasing to tease and not cause harm.

 Oh a good way to know if I have a cold and my ears are plugged is the volume of the T.V. if it seems louder then usual it's because I have had to crank it up so I can hear. At that point it is ok to speak a little louder then normal to me so I can understand you.

Oh to Drive

It's days like today when it's beautiful and hot out that I wish I could drive. I would be out maybe walking at Potters Marsh or just driving or even find a cool place to investigate with my camera and take pictures. Instead I'm in my apartment with a melted cat, daydreaming. Yes I could go outside and just sit but that gets boring and where I live there really isn't a good place to do that, with out being bugged by the kids in the daycare wanting to know what you are doing. I could go for a walk but, I have seen it all around here and there's no real place to walk to besides either a gas station or Safeway. Plus I am a very social person so I want to be able to hang with friends while doing said stuff.

I wish I had more friends too, don't get me wrong I have friends but I only have a few close ones that I actually hang out with, and one whom lives in a different state. The ones I do hang out with are busy so I can go weeks if not months without seeing them.

I'm not really complaining, it's just hard sometimes being by myself all day and wanting to do something but not being able to due to the fact that I can't drive. I have tried and tried and tried the job thing and they never pan out. I get so sick while working, or I'm not the right fit and get let go. I just wish there was an easy way for me to go places that wasn't public transportation. I don't have anything against public transportation besides the fact that it costs money and is a pain to get to from where I live. I need like a golf cart, or a segway (however it's spelled) so I can just take off and get away from the apartment for a bit during the day.

Ok complaining is done. I have more important things to do like washing dishes.

Grown Up

 I find myself feeling like an adult today, not that I don't feel like one everyday cause I do but today it just kinda hit and I think it has something to do with the fact that I'm wearing a polo shirt instead of my regular go to T-shirts that have funny sayings on them. I feel like I am out growing them, that they don't suit who I am anymore. I'm not saying that I'm totally going to give them up but I find myself wanting more "grown up" clothing. Like a T-shirt with a funny saying is ok every now and then but I don't want my shirts to be all of that and nothing else, if you get what I mean. I even find myself wanting to own and wear *gasp* dresses. The last time I wore a dress was I believe at my wedding. I have worn a skirt once or twice after that and didn't really like it but I want to start wearing them again. But that's not going to happen any time in the near future so my tomboy ways are safe for now. That is unless I lose enough weight that dresses actually start looking good on me then watch out.

Record Breaking Winter and other fun stuff

Last year we broke the record for snow fall this winter we I believe broke the record for longest winter. It snowed Friday into Saturday. It has all pretty much melted now except for a few spots that are in the shade and it didn't snow all that much. I wonder what this next winter will bring and I'm in no hurry to find out yet either.

I am pretty much back 100% from the blasted sickness. I have a little bit of a cough still and a little bit of hearing loss due to plugged ears but I got them to pop while making dinner tonight and I can hear even better then I did this morning so things are looking good there. I know mom is happy cause she hates my cough because its annoying. I'm happy cause now I don't have to listen to her complain about my cough, plus it's no fun being sick, I should be fine till this fall. Well besides allergies that is.

Since I'm now feeling better I am going to start a cross stitch project for one of moms friends. Her friend wants me to do a birth announcement one I guess you could call it. She saw some of my cross stitching on Facebook and asked me if I would be willing to do it for her. I put it off till I was better cause I didn't want to goof up on it cause I wasn't thinking straight, or was tired. This thing is pretty big and will take me a while to do it cause I want to take my time and do it right.  All my other projects will wait until I get this done, well besides the one for my brother which I haven't even started yet, so it has now become his Christmas gift and I need to come up with a birthday gift now. 

Difference in Opinions

I was reading a friends blog the other day and couldn't believe what she wrote. I firmly believe that everyone has their own opinions and that no one is right or wrong in their own opinion but I have to disagree with her on what she thinks. Basically she thinks it's stupid to wait to have sex until your married and that if you do that, that you could end up being cheated on, be the person who is cheating, or both people being miserable. I don't think this is true in all cases, some yes but not all. She made it sound like every marriage is doomed if you don't do it before you get married.

I am proud to say that I didn't give it away until I was married, that was my choice. I chose to wait because I wanted to know that the guy I loved, loved me and wasn't just trying to get into my pants. I wasn't going to let sex be a bargaining chip, it wasn't even an option. Now I'm not saying waiting is for everyone and I don't look down on people who don't wait, cause to each their own, but to say that if a person decides to wait till they are married that their marriage is doomed is just in my opinion wrong. I have been happily married for almost 9 years, neither one of us cheats and we aren't miserable.

that's all I'm going to say on this matter. Besides the fact that I hate when people lump everyone in to one big group and say they are all doomed, or all of them act a certain way. That's not true and you can't prove it so why say it?

Queen of the Sickness

Here I sit sniffling, sneezing, coughing, wheezing and feeling like someone is stabbing my ear. I get winded just standing up and these dang rubber bands around my chest aren't any fun. If you guessed I'm sick yet again you win an internet cookie to be delivered never. :-) That's right yours truly is sick, this time with Asthmatic Bronchitis and an ear infection. This all started Thursday with a nasty sounding cough and morphed into what I described earlier. The bright side to all of this is the mild fevers I was throwing from Thursday night to Sunday Night are now gone. So I no longer go from freezing to death to sweating to death in .005 seconds. I am however still pretty miserable. I have crowned myself the queen of sickness cause when I get sick it's never anything simple.

Richard has been a real champ through this whole thing so far, I have pretty much stayed in bed so I can pass out and not have to worry about anything. He has brought me drinks and food and switched out the discs in the dvd player for me so I can just rest. Last night he even slept out on the couch for me so I could try and get some better sleep last night. I still woke up every half hour or so but I didn't have to worry about being quiet and not waking him up with a coughing fit. I am truly a very lucky lady to have such a caring husband who feels bad that I feel like crap and tries to make it better for me any way possible. He was even willing to call in sick today to take me to the doctor if I wanted him to. Which he didn't, I had mom take me after she got off work and she even forfeited her lunch to get out earlier so she could take me sooner. I am very blessed to have both of them in my life.

I'm now very much on the dead side so off to the bedroom I go.

Geeking out on post 300

I just saw a movie poster for  Thor: The Dark World and got instantly excited that it would be coming to theaters in November of this year. That being said I guess I am going to have to admit that I'm a geek. I love pretty much all the movies based off of comic books. I also love the Lord of the Ring movies and The Hobbit and can't wait for the other 2 Hobbit movies to come out. I read a lot, I play video games, I play mindcraft but that is more of an artistic outlet for me. I'm not a hardcore geek but I guess you could say I am on the geeky side and you know what? I'm ok with that. It's one of many parts of me that make me who I am. I wouldn't change it for anyone.

I'm also not afraid to say that I love Twilight, love the books and the movies, I also love Harry Potter, The Inheritance series and many other books. Though mom and my brother give me a hard time about Twilight, mom saying there was just to much teenage angst for her liking (she never finished the first book) and my brother (who has never read the books nor wants to) thinking it's stupid that the vampires can go out in the sunlight and all they do is sparkle, he calls it gay and stupid. I think the author did an interesting twist by making it so they can come out during the day, so what if they sparkle get over it. She had an idea went for it and was very successful with it. I don't give him a hard time for liking Steven King, though I can't stand his writing cause I find him boring and very wordy and very descriptive, to descriptive. But my brother loves his books. Good for him. It's just interesting to me that I get picked on/made fun of for what I choose to read. I like a lot of V.C. Andrews stuff and again my brother gets this look of disgust on his face when he sees me read one of her books. Which I haven't read in a very long time mostly cause I don't like the newer stuff. I read almost a bit of everything, there are a few genre's of books I refuse to read cause they just don't appeal to me like romance novels (brainless fluff ), SciFi books for the most part bore me, history, biography's and manga just to name a few.  But just because I don't like them means I'm going to give people a hard time who do, well ok besides sorta teasing mom about her brainless fluff, but she likes reading them so good for her. The only reason I tease her about them is because she will complain about not having anything to read and when I offer up books I think she might like she turns them down because they will make her have to think.

Anyways, there is a small snippet of part of me. I truly didn't mean to go on a tangent about my choice of books but sometimes when I sit down and start writing I just go where my fingers take me and that's where they took me in this post. Hope you enjoyed it.On a side note this is entry #300! I think this is by far the longest I have kept up with an online journal. I know not a lot of people read this but for those of you who do thank you for putting up with little ole me.

Sheeple

I see this "trend" on Facebook about sharing pictures or statuses that are put out there to shock, terrify you or disgust you or worse enrage you. Like mindless sheep people share the post over and over and over again without in fact verifying that it is true or not. They range from Facebook getting ready to charge you to use their website, to KFC using mutant non chickens for their food and anything else in between. over the last month or so I have seen one about drinking from a soda can and getting so sick you end up in the hospital because there was dried rat piss on the can. Anyone who drinks soda knows that the companies don't stockpile the soda in a warehouse for months on end. It gets sent out to the stores to be sold right away.  Or about a new kind of spider that hangs out in dark places like under a toilet seat and then bites your butt and you get sick and could die or something to that nature. These posts spread like wildfire through Facebook.  We all have at least one friend who shares these pictures if not more then one and at one point in time we might have even shared them on our own pages. I know I'm guilty of that from way back when, then I started thinking well wait I'm going to do my own investigating on this before I post it and so far every single one of them is a fake, or mixed with some truth but describes it in a way that it would never happen. I now don't even look it up cause well whats the point when I know what the answer is going to be.

 I just have a hard time believing that people can be so stupid no gullible and believe this stuff. Like just because it's on the internet must mean it's true! Just because it's on Facebook and so and so posted it, I will share it too cause I have to let my friends know to watch out for this, or boycott this place and so on and so forth. How hard is it to fact check? Come on people we don't need to be sheeple! Don't be blinded by the butt in front of you! I mean if we stop sharing these totally ridiculous things, maybe just maybe they will go away. Then more important things can be shared and Facebook can be used for a thing of good, more then it already is. Now I'm not saying to stop sharing funny pictures or videos but stop sharing the stuff about mutant chickens, Facebook charging for their services, dried rat piss on soda cans, or stories about the new ways people are robbing or kidnapping people. Fact check first, if it's true share it if it's false don't it's as simple as that.

Energy Energy my Kindgom for an Energy Drink

I have a feeling energy drinks will be my friend today and tomorrow and possibly Friday but not sure about that day yet. I have been getting up at around 6am this week so Richard doesn't have to try to be quiet while getting ready for work and to help make sure he keeps track of the time. No he isn't in trouble just think of me as an extra alarm for him, one he can't shut off. Anyways so since I'm not used to being up so early I have been relying on Monster energy drinks to help me adjust to my new found early morning hours. once I start getting used to them which will prob be next week I will cut back on the energy drinks and start only having them if I just need a little pick me up cause I didn't sleep so well.

Today however is going to be a 2 energy drink day. I didn't sleep well last night thanks to a small gray fuzzy thing that I shall not name *cough* Kramer *cough* I usually would only dink one but I have the added bonus of babysitting a 5 month old later today for 6 hours. I am doing this for a coworker of moms, it was kinda funny how it came about cause I called her to tell her about  Annette Funicello passing away and as mom picks up the phone to answer it I hear  "Here she is" she knew it was me cause the phones have caller ID now. She asked if I would be willing to babysit for I believe his name is Mat and I said sure and talked to him. Turns out his significant other has class and he has to work at the same time and I guess their usually babysitter can't do it for some reason. So I said I would be happy to help him out. I will be getting picked up at 12:15 and wont be done till after 6. Looking forward to meeting this little girl, I'm sure we will get a long cause all little kids love me no matter what age they are. It's my curse/gift don't believe me ask my mom. 

Tomorrow is going to be shall we say kinda busy. Mom leaves Friday night for Chicago for The ASPAN National Conference. Which means Tomorrow is, food shopping and the dreaded clothes shopping. Both mom and I agree that going clothes shopping for one another is horrid. Though I think with me it's a lot easier cause I'm not as picky as she is. Thankfully we are only going pants shopping which isn't so bad. Or well at least that's all I think we are doing, things have a way of changing.  I remember this one time years ago we went shopping for clothes for her for conference and moms friend Pat was with us and was trying to convince mom to buy Capri pants. Mom thought they would look horrid on her but she just randomly grabs a pair to take to try on. Mind you she grabbed a pair way to big for her. we go to the dressing room she tries them on and I just start laughing and laughing because of how ridiculous she looks in the over sized pants that made her look like grandma. I'm literally on the floor of the dressing room in tears I'm laughing so hard. Pat tells me I shouldn't be laughing and comes to look and even she starts laughing. Mom did actually end up buying a pair of Capri pants in her size and she looked fine in them but I wont forget how goofy she looked in the first pair. 

I'm not quite sure what the plan for Friday is yet, other then having to take mom to the airport at night, oh and helping her pack, we have this ritual we go through while she packs. This time should be fun cause we also get to deal with Flynn or as I lovingly call him Agent Orange, and yes the name totally fits him. 

In other news, a house literally houses down from moms was on fire the other night, I had been in this house thousands of times growing up, cause my friend Little Steph lived there till we were in high school. I found out via FaceBook and informed mom of it cause she had no idea. All the damage is basically in the roof or prob the back half of the house. Mom drove by it yesterday and said you couldn't tell by looking at it that there was any damage to it.

Spring needs to Spring and New dishes

Oh how Mother Nature loves to play pranks on us, it had been beautiful, and warm and MELTING all week that is till Friday when it decided it was going to snow from then till last night. She does this every Spring up here lets it melt and get warm and gets our Alaskan hopes up then knocks us back down. We prob got about a foot if not more in some places of town of snow. Mom is gearing up to go to Chicago for a national nursing conference, every year it's held somewhere different and it's always in April. While she is gone is usually when Spring finally sticks up here. 
 I have been working on a cross stitch project this week that is going to take a lot of time to get it done. This one is by far the biggest one I have done. I goofed on one spot but it is staying cause I didn't realize I goofed till after i finished that area and well it won't be all that noticeable and this project is for me so I could care less and nothing is ever perfect. The project is a bunch of clocks and says time flies on it. Time really does fly while working on it. What amuses  me about cross stitching is you can sit there for hours on end and only get a tiny little spot done, but that tiny little spot holds a lot of work. It's a bit of a challenge for me to do sometimes because of my eyes but I find it relaxing and I never realize how long I have been at it till I stop cause my eyes are tired and look at the time, then I look back at what I have done and it looks like it only took me maybe 20 min to do but I have worked for 3-4 hours on it.

In other news, two weeks ago my dishes decided that it was time for me to get new ones. They decided this when I was putting them up from being washed. I had put them all up, besides the glasses and took a break for lunch, Then while walking back into the kitchen I open up the cabinet door to start putting the glasses up and the shelf that holds half our bowls and the glasses decides it isn't going to stay up and hold them so it crashed down onto our plates and the other half of the bowls which shot dishes out at me and realizing I couldn't save this I dashed out of the way while everything fell. Not a single dish was left whole out of all the ones that we still had after Richard and I had both broken some over the last couple years which was only 3 plates. So now I have broken dishes all over my kitchen takes me about a half hour to pick it all up then I realize well crap I have no dishes. Mom was nice enough to help me get new dishes and I love them way more then my last set which I did in fact like but caused me a ton of problems because they were square and bigger then normal. The pic below is of my new dishes, What I like about them besides the fact that they are bright and colorful is that no two are exactly alike. they all have the same colors in the same pattern but the thickness of the stripes and the darkness of the colors varies just a little from one to the other.

Sewing Machine from Hell

Last September I got a sewing machine from mom that she bought off of a friend who didn't want it anymore/moving out of state, I made the comment of wanting a sewing machine and so she gave me that one. I have regretted taking that machine ever since. The dang thing has caused me problems and frustration every time I have used it from the freaking get go.

The first time I used it, which was shortly after getting it I was practicing on a scrap piece of fabric to just get a feel of the machine I was able to do a line of stitching then when I went to do it again it jammed on me so freaking bad that I ended up breaking the needle to get it unjammed. I call up mom have her come over and she fixes the problem with the needle cause I couldn't get the old one to come out and runs fabric through a few times with no problems. I put the machine up cause it was best for me to just walk away from it for awhile because of how frustrated I was with it. So it sat untouched for MONTHS.

Flash forward to Wednesday of this week, when I decided to drag it out to make a small wall hanging quilt to get some practice in for making my brother his birthday or Christmas gift depending on when it gets done. I cut up the fabric all fine and dandy hook up the sewing machine and get ready to sew, get two pieces put together and sew to only have 1. the thread come out of the needle and 2. to have it not sew the first half of the fabric together. No big deal, I can thread a needle by myself after all I do it all the time while cross stitching. Wrong I can't get the thread through the needle to save my life. I try for what has got to be 30 minutes getting more and more frustrated as time goes by. I give up and at that point mom calls to say she is off work and on her way home so I ask her to come over and please help me. She comes over and in seconds has the damn thing threaded and working. She gives me a few tips on how to work with this very stubborn machine. The main one is starting in the middle of the fabric to sew then once done flip it over and go the other way so it can all be sewn together, the other is to have a longer then needed tail of thread so it wont come out of the needle again. I start sewing again and all is going amazingly well, until the bobbin runs out of thread. So I quit for the day, taking it as a sign and pack up the machine for another day.

I pull the sewing machine out today cause I'm bored and figure why not see if you can get the bobbin refilled and back in the machine and continue on sewing. I pull the bobbin out to find out that there was thread on it of a different color, that the previous owner just put a different color on top of it so now I don't have to worry about trying to put thread on a bobbin cause I can just use whats on there. I amazingly with just a little difficulty get it back in and get it how it's supposed to be and am now ready to sew. I grab my practice piece of fabric cause I don't want to ruin the fabric I'm using for the quilt  and get it set up to sew on. I put my foot on the peddle and start it up and WHAM instant jam. So I get the fabric unstuck with out breaking the needle and see if I can see what the heck the problem is, fix it or so I think and try again, BAM another jam worse then the first one, get the piece of fabric unstuck again and again with out breaking the needle. Take apart the machine to get to the bobbin area and see that the thread from the needle some how is getting caught up down there. That's it I have it with this sewing machine from hell. It obviously doesn't like me and wont work for me so screw it. I called mom at work and told her she can have the dang thing back I'm never using it EVER again.

I will finish up my project at mom's house on one of her other sewing machines, probably the one I have used before which is her older one. Which I'm fine with cause I know those ones actually work. But I refuse to let my experience with this one keep me away from sewing.

Beloved Stuffed Animal Flash Back

I read a blog post about beloved stuffed animals and the writer asked if we had a beloved stuffed animal growing up and if we still had them. I told them a story of my stuffed animal and figured I would share the story on my blog as well, cause it is a rather funny story. Enjoy.

Growing up I couldn't sleep unless I had my cookie monster stuffed animal, you could say he was my security blanket. I remember throwing a fit once when I was admitted into the hospital cause we had left him at home and begged and pleaded for him to which I think my dad finally did come back with him, which I'm sure made my mom happy cause I wouldn't shut up about not having cookie monster. But that hospital story is for a different time.

 This story is about how Cookie Monster got shot, yep you read that correctly, my beloved Cookie monster was shot, or well looked like he had been shot. When I was younger I suffered from nose bleeds, they would just randomly happen. I would be sitting there and BAM nose bleed (thanks for that dad). Anyways apparently one night I got a nose bleed while asleep and didn't wake up from it, and when I woke up the next morning poor Cookie Monster looked like he had been shot cause he caught all the blood from the nose bleed. I took him downstairs to show mom what happened to him she was the one that said he looked like he had been shot and was laughing about it. Needless to say he went through the wash and there was no more evidence of a crime being committed against him.

I still to this day have Cookie Monster, he is safely tucked away in a box for safe keeping, he has had to have his eyes painted back on a few times and I believe at one point he might have held a cookie but I don't remember that, I just remember him as I have him with his arms open wide. I have no clue who gave me Cookie Monster, I just know he has always been around.

Did you have a beloved stuffed animal growing up and if you did do you still have them?

Jumping catapus

I am going to share a story with you all that I have kept to myself since last summer, mom doesn't even know this story so this will be new to her as well. First let me tell you what made me decide to share this story, last night I had a heck of a time falling asleep I was awake till after 3am then woke up at 6:30 this morning not tired at all. I have drank a rockstar, and am now working on a monster to help keep me awake so I wont take a nap and screw myself out of sleep again. As mom knows if I nap after a certain time in the morning I'm up late. While talking with a friend I said why can't this stay up till all hours of the night thing happen when I need it to, instead of when I want to sleep. Then I told her the story I'm about to share. Thankfully mom can't get mad cause well we made it home in one piece and Richard never had any problems it was all on me.

 Last summer Richard and I went down to Homer to see a play that his sister was the director of, mostly cause we had never had the time to go down to see her direct in the past and it was a good thing we did go cause months later she ended up moving up to Wasilla. We were originally going to stay with her the night and head back up the next day but Richard decided he wanted to come home after the play and after hanging out with his sister for a few minutes when she got home. So we started back home at like 11pm and it's a 4 hour drive back to Anchorage from Homer. which means we wouldn't get home till 3am if we went straight through and didn't stop anywhere, which we did stop so we made it back at like 3:30-4. We stopped to get energy drinks, snacks and to of course use the restroom. We get going down the road probably about half way home I start getting super tired so I start fidgeting and singing along to music to keep me awake and that works for a bit then all the sudden I start seeing a jumping octopus body with a cat head on the side of the road, then it starts showing up in front of the truck. Yep I am 100% hallucinating, I'm that tired. But I keep forcing myself to stay awake cause I need to make sure Richard stays awake so we don't crash and die on the Seward Highway.  So I roll the window down and get shocked awake by cold air. I keep seeing my jumping friend till we make it to Girdwood which is about 45 minutes away from Anchorage we pull into the gas station there I get a rockstar drink it and am awake enough to not see my jumping friend anymore and make it into Anchorage and into my bed where I passed out as soon as I hit it.

I have never been that tired before, and I hope to never be that tired again but I wish on that day that my body had decided that I wasn't going to sleep cause it would of made that trip a lot easier. Of course less memorable. But there ya go.

short update

Wednesday I ended up falling down due to snow and ice at the local mall. I hit the ground pretty hard too, thankfully I am not seriously injured just really sore and today I am actually doing better. My right hand still hurts pretty good so it will be in my brace for the next couple of days to help it heal.  I was too sore yesterday to make it to the gym, plus I didn't want to risk going and hurting myself worse cause that wouldn't be a good thing to have happen at all. Depending on how I feel  through out today we will be going back tonight.

Richard is working tomorrow so I will most likely be hanging out with mom all day. I do believe she has this weekend off. What's really nice is it somehow almost always works out that when he works a Saturday she isn't on call and when she is on call he doesn't work that weekend. January was one of those rare months where they both ended up working on the same Saturday and let me tell you  I was so stinking bored that day. It majorly sucked.

The days are definitely getting longer now, Richard now comes home in daylight, which is a nice change. It's weird that in the winter once it gets dark I really don't want to go do much cause it feels like once it gets dark that we need to stay home. In the summer at like 6-7 I will still be like ok lets go do this and will have no problems convincing other people to come along.

Haven't really been creative lately because I don't really have the power or the will to sit still at the moment. The plus side to this is that the apartment is looking pretty good, the down side is the apartment is looking pretty good so I'm running out of things to keep me busy and moving. 

Glasses and Sweat what a combo

I have my new glasses and am actually able to wear them! I have had them for a week now, the first few days I had them I was getting headaches at night but that was it. I'm happy to finally have new glasses, and mom is happy too. I still have my old ones hanging around just in case something happens to these and I need a back up pair, but I also have sunglasses so I would prob go to the sunglasses first then the old glasses. But anyways YAY to new glasses!

On Saturday Richard and I joined the gym again. We had both separately been thinking about it with out bringing it up to the other. I brought it up last week saying that I missed actually going to the gym and he agreed and so we signed back up. Yesterday was our first day back and I gotta say it felt great going, now I only managed 13 minutes on the treadmill but that was at 2.3 mph and I went half a mile. Plus I'm in very old shoes and am just waiting for the tax return to buy myself a new pair of shoes. We will be going M-F and taking the weekends off. For the first two weeks of going we will just being doing cardio to get used to going back then we will start lifting weights on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, Tuesday and Thursday will be just Cardio days. On the weekends when it's nice out and well summer we will go out and walk or do something outside just for fun and to keep active so as to not die on Mondays when we go back. We have also started watching how much we eat,  and drinking more water. Now mind you I prob wont talk about this much on here unless I hit a milestone in weight loss. But just wanted to share to let you all know that I am getting more active and this should help with my cabin fever.  Oh the whole reason we stopped our membership this last time is the lack of funds to keep going, Richard had lost his job and we decided that paying our bills was more important then the gym.

That's the update for now, more when I have more to write about. 

Cabin Fever Super Bowl Glasses

Not much has been going on here, it's the same thing day in and day out, Richard goes to work I sit in front of the computer all day, he comes home I make dinner we go to bed and repeat. I have kind of hit a slump, I want to be creative but I got nothing. I hate when this happens, I also want to get out and be active but it's still winter so I guess you could say my cabin fever is setting in finally. It happens every year about this time, I want winter to be over with so I can go outside and not be cold. I still got a couple months of winter left though so I go a bit stir crazy.

Tomorrow Richard and I are going up to mom's house to watch the super bowl like we do every year. This year we are doing it a bit different with the snacks though, I am going to stick to mostly carrots and celery with some dip and we also have a bag of chips. Our drinks of choice is water. Both Richard and I have given up soda. We are also watching how much sugar we actually eat, we have cut way back. In fact if I have a drink with a little sugar in it even if it's just a sip of like power aid I get a screaming headache a few hours later. This is a good thing cause we really don't need as much sugar as we were eating, so we are slowly getting healthier.

I am also waiting on my glasses again. I went back to the eye doctor almost 2 weeks ago cause I just couldn't get used to the prescription in them. He took me out of the bifocals saying that it prob wasn't the best idea he had putting me in them and changing my prescription as much as he did, he also backed off on it a bit too saying that this new prescription should work if I give it time to get used to it. So now just gotta wait for them to come in and try them. I swear I have never had such a problem with my glasses as I have had this time. There was one other time I had issues but we only had to change them out once.

Preppers

Forgive me just this once but I have to go off the topic of my daily life and talk about something that fascinates and scares me all at the same time. I watched an episode of The Simpsons today called Homer Goes to Prep. Basically what happens is Homer is led to believe that he needs to "prep" for a day when the end of the world as we know it happens or we lose all sources of power like in Revolution. Homer of course goes right along with it cause he is so gullible and starts stocking up and hiding all the food his family will need behind a false wall in the basement. Then of course the unthinkable happens and an EMP (electro magnetic pulse) wipes out all the power in Springfield and Homer takes his family to the preppers compound to live with all the food he has saved up. Marge tells him that he isn't acting like the Homer she married  and they go back into Springfield with all their stuff to share with the rest of the town only to realize that the power has been restored a few days prior to their return and that's basically the end of the episode.

Now I know there are some whack jobs out there that believe all of this and that there are actual preppers out there, along with survivalists and of course conspiracy theorists. I just can't seem to grasp how people are so gullible and so easily brainwashed to believe they need to stock up on so much stuff that you don't know what to do with it. Now don't get me wrong I'm all for being prepared for a natural disaster like hurricane Sandy or Katrina, or a power outage that lasts for more then a few hours or days but where do you cross the line from being prepared to being a nut? More so where is the line drawn from being prepper to being a hoarder? Some hoarders, well hoard food just like a prepper does, The sad thing is, there is no getting these people to change their minds either, they believe whole heartdly that they need this stuff for when the SHTF (shit hits the fan) and TEOTWAWKI (the end of the world as we know it).

I know someone who is in her own words is "kinda a prepper" and has decided to start making her own flour and bread and save a few things here and there cause according to her if something major happens up here all the store shelves will be empty in 3 days and all hell will break loose. This person also in the past couple of years has gotten very religious as well, not saying there is anything wrong with religion but this is just very odd behaviors combined. This is all I'm going to say about this friend because she is a mutual friend of mine and others whom read my blog and I refuse to name names as I have stated before.

What I guess scares me the most is all the websites and actual books devoted to prepping and being a survivalist, or even just explaining what they are and the difference between the two, not there there is much of one.  here is just one website I found explaining preppers click here to go to article  .

That's all I have to say on this subject at this time, it just blows my mind that people actually do this

First Post of the new year

So far can't complain about this year, I am finally 100% better after last months sickness, thank god! Just in time to probably get sick. Other then that just been reading a lot of books, I have read 4 so far taking a break for the rest of the night and then picking up a new book to read tomorrow. I am finally working on getting my collection of books down to a more manageable level again. Seeing as how I hardly read at all last year I got way far behind.

I need to go to get more puffy paint so I can finish off a project that I have started, the ones I have don't have a small enough opening to do what I need them to. I think I will also get some more canvas and paints cause I have another idea of something to make, just hope it turns out as cute as I want it to. I just have to wonder where the heck all this creativity is coming from and why couldn't it show up when I was oh say in high school art class? Oh well at least I can be creative in some art forms now.

That's it for now more at a later date.