Oops I Did It Again......

I have challenged myself once again, this challenge is no soda or desserts for 1 whole year. I started this on Monday so this is the beginning of day 3. I was inspired by a 10 year old boy in one of the many vlogs on Youtube that I watch who gave up sugar for a year. I'm not going that dramatic cause well sugar is in everything! But I figured if I gave up desserts that I'm giving up a lot of sugar. What do I classify as desserts? Here is my answer, candy, cake, brownies, suckers, ice cream, cookies, pie, donuts, basically all kinds of sugary junk food. I am allowing myself to have sugary cereal if I want it, gum, and lemonade, the occasional juice though I am not much of a juice drinker. Other then that my drinks of choice are going to be: water, tea, monsters (the one I drink has no calories or sugar) and like I said before lemonade, maybe even crystal light, and sparkling ice (fizzy flavored water with no calories). A really good friend of mine says if I make it the entire year he will pay me $50.00, which was unexpected and cool of him. So January 27 2015 will be the end of my challenge hopefully I can make it, I think I honestly can.

Richard in his own way is doing the challenge as well, though his is a bit different then mine, he is limiting his sugar intake. Basically right now he is trying out sugar free options of candy. He is I wanna say a bigger sugar junkie then me so if he just limits how much he eats I will say its a success. He is supporting me in my challenge though and says he is proud of me for even just trying to do it and will be proud of me even if I do fail at it (which I wont).

In all honesty after a year with out soda, I might just give it up for good or just have it on a really rare occasion. We will have to wait and see what happens a year from now.

Thinking About You

It's been 10 years and 2 days since I lost a really dear friend of mine to cancer. She started out as my freshman year math teacher and from there our friendship grew cause she saw me at my truest self and I showed that I could handle bad news with grace and dignity. It took a bit for her to realize I was able to handle what was going on with her and that I wasn't easily scared away just because she was diagnosed with cancer. She was diagnosed my sophomore year with breast and bone cancer and moved down to California to receive treatment, that's when our friendship took off cause we would email back and forth pretty much daily.

She made a few trips back up here but then it got to the point where she couldn't travel anymore because it was just to difficult for her. Part of my Christmas break my senior year was spent down in California visiting with her, she had asked for me to come down, I went down with a teachers aid whom also was friends with her and we got there on New Years Eve and I was greeted with a gift from her of a necklace and I loved it. I still have this necklace and for many many years I refused to wear anything but it. Now I switch between it and other necklaces because if I was ever to lose it I would be heartbroken. I am in fact wearing it again cause I haven't worn it in a long while. In fact I have gone through a few chains for the necklace because they have given out or broken over the years.

While down visiting anytime I was introduced to one of her friends I got so you are the famous Stephy we have heard so much about. Turns out she talked about me all the time, everyday she was updating her friends on me and how I was doing in school and that I had a heart of gold and that I was as sweet as can be. This is when I was informed that she thought of me as the daughter she was never able to have. Talk about high praise and feeling almost famous.

I was able to make it down to California one last time before she passed away. She didn't know I was coming to visit it was to be a surprise for her and boy was it ever. Her mom picked me up at LAX and as we drove to her house, her mom told me don't feel bad if she doesn't act surprised or shocked no one has ever been able to surprise her. We get to the house, knock on the door and walk in. She was in the computer room with her back towards the door so I knock on the door frame and said "knock, knock" She turns around stands up, starts crying and just says over and over again "my girl" I was the only one to ever surprise her. Exactly a month to the day that I visited she passed away. I miss her dearly and do keep in touch with her mom and brother through email, not as much as I should but every now and then I will write them and update them on what's going on.

Just thought I would share a little about my friend, yes I left her name out for a reason and I know at least one person who reads my blog will know whom I'm talking about.

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