My Christmas List

I’m linking up with From Mrs. to Mama for these posts.  If you don’t already read her blog, check it out!

At first I had no clue what I wanted for Christmas.  I have my little man, and I felt/feel like Christmas should be all about him now.  I really couldn’t even think of anything at first.  But I have now.  I have even received two gifts from Hubby already!  Do I care if I don’t receive everything on my list or any of it at all for that matter?  No.  I never expect Christmas gifts.  I never expect anything from anyone for any occasion.  But if anyone is going to get me anything, these are the items I would like to have:

1. New fancy phone that I can use apps with so I don’t have to steal Hubby’s iPhone anymore.  (Hubby got me the HTC Wildfire S on Black Friday, half off, so now I have a cooler phone, I actually have texting and internet access, and the cell phone bill will be about $12 less per month now that we switched my service to Virgin Mobile.)

2. Newest Harry Potter movie along with the ones I’m missing to complete the set.  (Hubby also got me this.  Found a great deal on Amazon on Black Friday – the entire 8 disc DVD set for $40, free shipping!  Now I have some duplicates, but we would have spend more than that on just the missing movies to complete the set.  I never did get to see the newest one in theaters this year because it was out shortly after I had Bean, and by the time Hubby and I could get out to see it, it went out of theaters that week.)

3. Bigger memory card for my new phone.

4. New CD player to use for baton practice.  My parents got me a nice little one about 2 years ago for Christmas, but it’s not loud enough at all for practices.  My louder one is finally dead.  So I need a new louder one now.

5. New pants/short sleeve pj’s.  I have a couple pairs, but 2 of them are really old, 1 is a hand-me-down from my mom and is actually a little too big, and one pair is too long, and I just never got to hem it.  I have plenty of warm pj’s at the moment, and even short sets, but the in-between sets with pants and short sleeves are a little lacking/off sized.

6. A car charger for my new phone. I am notorious for having a dead phone and forgetting to charge it. I don't think that will happen with this phone, but it would be nice to have a way to top off the battery while on the go.

7. A case for this phone. I tend to drop things a lot. This phone has already seen the floor twice. I need a rubbery case to protect it from myself.

The rest is nothing anyone can purchase for me.  I’d like a night where I wouldn’t have to get up with Bean, but that won’t happen because I wake up anyway and I would still have to pump once overnight since I am still breastfeeding.  But sleep would be nice.  A family friend even got him a onesie that says “All Mommy wants for Christmas is a silent night.”  So true.  I miss undisturbed sleep.  I’d also like more time to get things done.  More time to blog, more time to create and craft things, even just more time to do laundry and clean!  We have so many photos of Bean, and I haven’t gotten many printed yet for photo books and frames.  We even would like to make an appointment with our wedding photographer to do a family photo session (we have a free session from them to use sometime!), and I wanted to do that to be able to have photos for Christmas gifts, but that won’t happen at this point.  So just some time would be nice.  I love spending time with Bean, but I also would like to do things that need to get done, or things just for me.

That’s pretty much my list.  Of course I wish for a happy, healthy family as well!

Seriously?! Thursday

Seriously?!  USPS – I have a PO Box for my craft stuff, and for my Tiny Twinkle Toes business stuff (in order to keep my home address unknown to strangers).  Apparently my renewal on it was due by the 31st of May, and I don’t keep track of that enough to just know all by myself with no reminder.  Usually I get a reminder e-mail from them of when it is due, ahead of time, as well as a notice in the box.  This time?  An e-mail telling me it was overdue/late and if I didn’t pay in the next 4 days, they would close it and it would no longer be mine!  I double checked my old e-mails from them, and the box itself – I usually got a payment reminder early…not this time in either case.  I use USPS because otherwise, what else am I supposed to do?  But seriously?!  They aggravate me to no end a lot of times!

Seriously?!  I bought a new watch from Wal-Mart, since my lovely Eeyore one got hit with a baton and cracked the crystal.  A “big girl” watch as Hubby called it, since it didn’t have Eeyore on it for the first time in many, many years.  I read the instructions on how to set the time, date and moon phase.  I set the correct time, the correct date, and checked the moon phase so I could set that appropriately.  When I tried to set the moon phase, it moved a little, then stopped moving to the next one.  Broken.  I’m not paying full price for and keeping a semi-broken watch – so I had to take it back.  Problem is, when I bought it, it was the only one like that that I saw.  Now what do I do for a watch – I’m very picky with what I wear.  Seriously, just my luck…

Seriously?!  I had my sizing ultrasound last night at just one day short of being 38 weeks along in this pregnancy.  When I scheduled the appointment, the woman told me I had to drink 32 oz. of water an hour before the appointment time.  What?!?  I had to do that before when it was earlier in the pregnancy, but at 38 weeks??  I can barely hold 8 oz. of fluid for even just one hour, not an hour plus the time it takes to do the ultrasound!  That’s just ridiculously impossible…it was unbearable when I went for my 20 week gender ultrasound.  Turned out that I didn’t really need to have anything in my bladder, which is good, because in waiting for the tech, I just couldn’t wait for the bathroom any longer!  I was also expecting to be told that the baby was measuring somewhere around 9 pounds already and to expect to birth a 10+ pound baby – estimates can be up to 12 oz. off in either direction, but it looks like Bean is measuring around 7lb. 9oz. (gestational age at 38w3d)!  Not so bad!

Seriously?!  The heat.  It went up to well over 90 degrees today, and tomorrow is supposed to be worse, with 50% humidity.  I have things that need to be accomplished outside, and there’s no way it’s getting done in weather like that!  Also, the baton group has a performance tomorrow evening (where one group of girls will be performing a fire routine!) – I hope we all make it through and no one passes out!  I am going to try to remember to take some ice packs and cold squirt bottles, but I tend to be forgetful lately, so we’ll see if I actually do that.  My ankles are definitely going to be swollen tomorrow night!

I think that’s all I have for this week.  Hope you all have AC or cooler temps where you are!

Favorite Kitty Pic Friday!

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I didn’t get to put up another post this week before today, and I don’t even have any good excuse.  I’ve just had no energy or motivation for anything these days.  I guess that third trimester fatigue set in.  I still haven’t really gotten into the whole “nesting” thing yet.  I know there are things I want to do, but most days I just don’t feel like getting out of bed, and when I do, I end up on the couch most of the day, taking cat naps here and there.  Yesterday, however, we had to get up early-ish (early for me, considering my usual wake up time has been 10am lately!) to go to the OB, and for some amazing reason I actually had some motivation to get things done!  I didn’t accomplish a lot, but anything these days is an accomplishment over nothing at all.  If I can sit here comfortably, I might try to at least start some other posts and schedule them.  Sitting at my computer lately hasn’t been exactly comfy for a long period.
So, here’s my choice for this week.  This picture was taken just a couple days ago:
Please don’t mind my tired, dopey-looking face.  I was tired, I don’t wear makeup (unless it’s a party or special occasion) and it was chilly in the house.  Jasper can not pass up the opportunity to lay on a blanket, but usually on the recliner he likes to go under the blanket, and then Dusty just likes a lap in general, and will sit on top of Jasper whether he’s under or on top of the blanket.  (You may remember this post.)  So, I had a full lap of kitties, and for a while it was so nice to have all that kitty snuggling.  After a while though, my hip started to hurt and I had to get them off so I could move my legs. 
I hope you all have a nice weekend planned.  I will be at a yard sale a good portion of the day tomorrow, and then I will be helping out to organize a performance for the baton group in the late afternoon.  The director won’t be there, so hopefully the show goes well!

Decisions, decisions…

Wow, I’m actually getting a post in before Favorite Kitty Pic Friday this week!  I scheduled that post for tomorrow very early in the week in order to make sure it got posted this week since I didn’t get to do it the last 2 weeks.  But I thought about something I wanted to post, and I figured I better do it now or it will fall to the wayside.

I have made some decisions lately, and there are still a few decisions I have to make.

1. I have decided not to peek at my baby registries.  This is very hard for me because I’m so curious and would love to know what kinds of things we are getting and what necessities might be left for us to purchase.  I did end up seeing a couple items that were purchased because it was early on after shower invitations were sent out and I was still adding/removing things from the registries.  Also, my mom can’t really keep a secret, so I even know who the one item is coming from.  Which is one of the reasons I know about my shower as well.  It was never planned as a surprise, because we had to coordinate scheduling with the out of town in-laws, but she would never have been able to keep it that way anyway.  She says she would have been able to, but she blurts out everything at some point, and I’m absolutely sure I would have figured it out somehow either way. So – no more looking at the registry.  We’re done adding things to it at this point anyway, and I need some surprises from this shower!

2. I have decided that the “joys of pregnancy” are not always so joyous.  Sleeping is becoming more difficult since I have to sleep on my sides and apparently want to sleep on my back more than I ever thought I would want to or ever did in the past.  My hips hurt so much throughout the night and it feels like I’m a beached whale when I try to get up for middle of the night bathroom trips or even (especially!) just to roll over to the other side.  I have reflux issues.  I’m somewhat of an emotional person, but lately, “somewhat” emotional doesn’t even begin to describe it.  I notice I get irritated sometimes at stupid things, and so much more that I watch on TV makes me cry.  The show “One Born Every Minute”?  I bawl during every episode.  I used to be able to watch those shows in peace, but now I just cry all the time.  What am I going to be like when I finally have Bean??  One emotional mess coming up!

3. We have decided to have a 3D/4D ultrasound done.  This was up in the air for us at the beginning, mostly due to cost and the fact that it wasn’t a necessity, but furniture and such is.  Well, since we are well furnished now and it was all gifts, we decided to go for it and get a peek at Bean in there.  I have to schedule it yet, but I’m hoping to do that tomorrow and will hopefully have it done in about 2 weeks – depending on appointment availability.

4.  We have decided to take on the biggest paint job of our whole house in about 2 weeks.  Due to the layout of the house, we kind of have to use one color for the front living room, entry, entry hallway, staircase, and upstairs hallway.  It’s such a huge undertaking that we have recruited my dad’s help for a weekend, and Hubby will even take the week off work to continue and finish the job.  We decided we wanted to get at least this paint job completed before Bean arrived, because after that who is going to feel like taking on that huge job, and it will be done for when he starts crawling around and can touch walls with messy hands and such.  Right now those areas are still painted with contractor grade paint, which is not scrub-able at all.  If we get it painted, it will be easier to clean, and our house will finally start to look more finished.  We will still have some more rooms to paint yet, but those are smaller easier rooms and can be done anytime then.

5. We decided to go on a trip in August.  The baton group that I teach for is going to one of the Jersey shores for almost a week to perform on a stage right at the boardwalk.  I’ve taken this trip many many many times, but this will be our first with a newborn, and depending on when Bean decides to arrive and how he ends up entering the world, we’re not sure if this is going to be ok, or not such a great idea.  Guess we’ll have to wait and see!

6. We decided Hubby should have his wisdom teeth removed last week.  He had it done last Friday and is still in some pain from the one extraction site.  That particular tooth hadn’t really come up through the gum much and was actually sideways in his jaw.  I feel really bad when he’s hurting because I told him he should have it done after hearing all the reasons from the oral surgeon why it would be a good thing to do now, even though they weren’t bothering him now.  He goes back tomorrow to have things checked out, so hopefully his pain is all normal and there are no infection issues or anything.  I can’t remember how long I had pain when I had mine done, but I seemed to luck out with my surgery – no swelling or bruising, and I don’t remember the pain being that bad or lasting longer than a couple days.  So, hopefully everything is ok with his mouth. 

And for the decisions yet to be made:

1. We have a first name picked out.  Everyone seems to like it.  We’re still not 100% committed to a middle name though.  At least, we have not both said we are 100% committed to it, though I have a feeling we will end up going with it.

2. To circumcise or not to?  That’s the big question…

So, that is all for now.  Look for my Favorite Kitty Pic Friday post tomorrow, and next week I might have a video for it instead of a photo, if I can figure out how to add in a video that has to come from Hubby’s phone.  It’ll be a funny one though!

My Weekend…

I totally skipped my weekly Friday post of my kitty pictures, but I was hardly home at all that day, and the rest of the weekend was the same.  Saturday we went to Babies R Us to buy the crib mattress, ate lunch with my grandmother and uncle, I had a baton lesson to teach, and until all was said and done for that day, it was late, I was exhausted, and my hips and pelvic bone were hurting very badly.  Sunday we went out of town to a “Planning for Baby” show, where we learned a few good things, but I was having other issues that day, didn’t sleep well the night before, and in the end didn’t really think it was worth my entire day with the discomfort I was having.  We were supposed to get a FREE gift (supposedly worth about $139)…yeah, big gimmick there.  I expected things along the lines of free pacifiers, bottles, blankets, diapers, samples of bath products, etc. and maybe some coupons to fill in the value.  Our “free” gift was 3 vouchers to send off to receive different coupons.  These were not gift cards you would receive, just coupons.  AND YOU HAD TO PAY A MINIMUM OF $15 IN SHIPPING FOR THEM TO SEND THEM TO YOU!  I’m going to pay $15+ dollars to receive unknown coupons I might not even be able to use?!?  I don’t think so!  The point of the seminar was to explain crib, highchair, and monitor safety and products, and of course, try to sell you the products he was promoting.  We knew it was some sort of sales pitch going into it, but we wanted that free gift, and weren’t doing anything else that day.  They were trying to sell Babee Tenda cribs, feeding tables, and some other brand of motion monitors.  I never heard of this brand before, and apparently you can only buy it through these shows or on their website, and it’s a company that’s been around for many many years, but the whole day was not worth the discomfort I ended up having, especially since we weren’t buying anything anyway, and our “free gift” was that ridiculous.  I ended up with so much discomfort (not pregnancy related – other issues I’ve been dealing with for years) and nothing seemed to be helping last night, that I didn’t sleep well again last night, and after a previous night of wrecked sleep and an hour lost, I am exhausted today.  I hope to have a very good night of sleep tonight with as few interruptions as possible!  So, that was my weekend.  If you receive an invitation for a “Planning for Baby” show in your area, where they will offer you discounted items and a “free gift” worth $139, check into it more before you go, and unless you want to purchase Babee Tenda items, stay home!

Favorite Kitty Pic Friday!

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Hello! It’s the end of the week again, and I hope you all have something fun or relaxing planned! I’m having a busy 2 days – I’ll be at what is probably PA’s largest craft/gift show all day today, and tomorrow hubby and I have a few things to do before getting ready for the baton twirling group’s annual banquet. It’s always a nice night to get together outside of the practice or performing setting, but I am having a really hard time figuring out what to wear. I have nice dress pants that still fit me, but I’m having issues with tops – all the ones I currently own are a little snug for my liking, and I bought 2 new tops tonight, both the same size, but one is still snug and the other one is so huge it totally drowns me! How does that happen?! I really liked them both, but now I have to try to exchange them for different sizes, or shop somewhere else altogether on Saturday morning and hope to find something. I’m frustrated in the clothing department right now.

Anyway, back to what today’s post is really about:

Jasper just loves the blankets! This brown one seems to be his favorite, but the gray fleecy one we have will do just fine if the brown one is not in sight. He usually only snuggles up on your lap between your legs if you have the blanket. He drags this blanket from the couch in the family room all the way through our kitchen and dining room to the front living room or through the kitchen and hallway. Every night. He’s not usually snuggled under this blanket, like above, but if you put it that way he doesn’t seem to mind! My poor boys had their yearly vet visit tonight along with their rabies and distemper shots. Dusty was shaking and scared, Jasper just crouched low, but overall they did well, and seemed unaffected by the shots this evening. I remember when Cody would go to the vet, and they would have to throw a towel over his head because he would hiss and spit, and try to bite the vet and techs! I’m so glad my boys aren’t like that. You can tell they don’t want to be there, but they are calm and quiet.

If you’d like to share your favorite kitty, please grab the button above and create your own post that you can link here in the comments section, or just leave a comment with a link to your photo somewhere online.

Have a great weekend!

Monday Madness

So, remember the post titled “Monday, Monday – so good to me…”?  Well, today was not so good to me.  I can’t say it was horrible, but a little weird.  I slept the best I have slept last night for a while, but I was woken up at 6:30am.  I heard incessant digging on the carpet, and I was so afraid it was Jasper getting ready to pee on the floor (not that he does that, but he likes to pee on towels…).  I got up and turned the light on to discover Dusty trying to bury a piece of poop in the middle of my bedroom floor!  Thankfully hubby is not home, because he certainly wouldn’t have liked that wake up.  I dispose of the issue, and while I was in my own bathroom, I heard more incessant digging in the hallway bathroom (they share a wall).  So I go to check it out, and what do I find?  MORE POOP!  Only there was a lot more of it, and it was smeared…  Wonderful – just what I want to be doing at 6:30am.  I have no idea what happened, or exactly who’s poop it was (though I have a sinking feeling it was Jasper’s, and Dusty is super prissy about keeping things clean and buried), but I could really never have to deal with that again and be happy.  I also had to remove something from Jasper’s hiney today…something else I never thought I’d have to do since we never use tinsel or anything for that reason…but today I had to, and he was not pleased with me.  Another thing I will be happy to never have to do again.  And, thanks to him, I now have to spend my afternoon at the laundromat tomorrow washing my comforter – yep, you guessed it – poop remnants got on there too!  The comforter definitely needed a washing, but thanks to that I now have to do it immediately tomorrow.  Just didn’t get there today, and unfortunately it’s too big and fluffy to fit in my machines at home.  Just what I feel like doing tomorrow…

I did do something good today though, and yet somehow that seemed to turn bad on me too!  I decided to finally start keeping track of my food intake again.  I need to eat healthier again, it’s a must.  I also walked on my treadmill for a half hour today too.  But when I got off, a few of my little toes on my right foot were hurting big time.  They are still hurting, and making me gimp along when I walk.  I have absolutely no idea what caused it, since they didn’t hurt at all before I went on, and gave me no issues while I was walking.  Hopefully tomorrow will be better because I have to teach at baton practice tomorrow night, and a sore foot will not make for a good practice.

I’m also having some other issues again.  I have these problems periodically, more frequently than I’d like, and I certainly won’t get into it on here, in e-mails or comments, so please don’t ask.  But just know that these issues cause me a great deal of discomfort or even pain sometimes, and I’m currently having quite a bit of discomfort.  I’m hoping it resolves ASAP, but if it’s not gone by next week, I may be checking with the doctor again.  I may have to anyway – I’m still losing clumps of hair daily, more than my usual shedding, and thyroid tests came back normal.  So that will need to get figured out sooner rather than later.  I read it could be some sort of deficiency or hormone imbalance.  It might even be my scalp I guess, but I go back to that doctor in 2 weeks, so I can have him check things out too.

So today has not been such a great day.  I’ve had worse I guess, but I was hoping to get things done today that I didn’t, and now I’m not sure how much I’ll get done tomorrow either with an afternoon at the laundromat and baton practice with a lesson beforehand in the evening.  I’m at least hoping for another night’s sleep like last night though…that would be awesome.

Monday, Monday – so good to me…

Please Note: This post was supposed to go up last night, but the internet went out and I couldn't add my pictures and get it posted, since it was very late, and the internet didn't come back on until 2:00am or later...sorry if it seems confusing!

Those lyrics just popped into my head when I was trying to start this post. The rest of the lyrics don’t really pertain to me or this post, but it just struck me as a good title. (If you don’t know this song, it’s “Monday Monday” by the Mamas and the Papas)

So, as much as I was against it before, last night for some reason I decided to sign up for Twitter. The name “Twitter” actually annoys me a little, and I always thought it was kind of ridiculous, especially since I have Facebook and really like that social network. But, I know so many bloggers who have Twitter accounts, so I thought maybe it was about time for me to give it a try too. Expand my horizons and such… I don’t really understand it all yet, and I don’t really know if I like it. I’m only following 4 “people” so far, one of which is Dr. Oz, lol! So, if you would like me to follow you, let me know how to find you, and if you’d like to follow me, you can find me @SSgherza.

I made today as productive as I could. I had to call my doctor to try to get them to order a blood test to check my thyroid. My hair seems to be falling out a lot more than my usual hair loss, or even my typical season changing hair loss (I swear, I’m like a cat!). Hubby says it didn’t really feel thinner to him at all, and I had a hair cut on Thursday last week, and my hairdresser didn’t seem to think it was much thinner, but when I told her I felt like I was losing a lot of it recently, she suggested I have my thyroid checked. I have definitely thought about it recently, and taking into consideration that thyroid issues run in my family (my mom had Grave’s Disease, and both her mom and brother are currently on thyroid meds), and my hairdresser even recommended what I had already been thinking about, I decided to call today and try to get the test ordered. I had it tested 2 or 3 years ago when it was brought into question then, along with diabetes testing, and everything came back normal then, but now I got a little worried about it again. So, hopefully I will find out tomorrow what’s going on with that, and hopefully there’s no problems! But after spending a good portion of the afternoon even trying to get through to the nurses due to their phone line issues, getting the blood test, and then stopping by my Grandmother and uncle’s house to drop off some cookies, I finally got home and got started on my to-do list for today. I got all my Halloween stuff up now (finally!), my kitchen floor all cleaned up, vacuumed the family room, and dealt with some laundry. I had some other things I wanted to accomplish today, and didn’t get to, but there’s always tomorrow, since it’s late now and I'm feeling pooped!

Jasper is finally feeling better today it seems. He sneezed a lot less today, and when he actually did sneeze, it was just once and done – no more sneezing fits of 10 in a row! His eyes were a lot less goopy and watery today too. He even got feisty with Dusty for the first time in a week, ran around the house, and played with a couple toys for a little! He still isn’t quite 100% yet, but he was definitely better today, and that made me feel a lot better. Looks like we won’t need to call the vet now anyway, thankfully.

I had a really good weekend. I know I totally skipped Scrapbook Saturday this week again, but I didn’t think to create it earlier in the week and schedule the post, and I was really busy this weekend, or when I wasn’t busy I was tired and didn’t feel like doing much. We went to the PA Renaissance Faire on Saturday with my dad. That always makes for a good day. The weather was a bit windy at first, but the sun was bright and warm, and when the wind died down it was beautiful. I froze after the sun went down though, and was getting very uncomfortable on the benches at the Globe Theater, so we had to leave before the finale in song was finished. We never stayed that late before either, so it was nice to see at least some/most of the finale for a change. The best act of the day: The Dandy Pirates. Two guys singing hilarious songs, some about “being a pirate sucks”, one about being gay (one of the pirates was supposedly gay, but was sleeping with the other pirate’s girl), one about a girlfriend who ended up being a guy…definitely not a show for the kiddies! They were the funniest act I ever saw at the Ren. Faire though! Another funny show was a new one this year – The Duo of Woo’s Quest for the Perfect Wife. Definitely another show not suitable for young ones! They did it like a game show and took 5 women from the audience as the contestants. The women had different things to do, and each “level” eliminated one until they had only 1 left – and she ended up with some gift certificates for some of the fair vendors totaling $35! We have been going free every year, courtesy of my dad’s employers. I look forward to laughing hysterically at the Dandy Pirates again next year!

Sunday was a performance for the baton group. The small group of girls I teach now (which started at 5, went down to 4, and now will be up at 6, possibly 7!) performed the routine I taught them for the very first time yesterday. It’s to the song “Fame” from the 2009 version of the movie. I was nervous for them, they were nervous, but overall it wasn’t too bad. They still have a lot of work to put into perfecting it more, and the routine isn’t even completely finished yet, so they have more to learn, but for a first time with some girls who have never twirled before this summer, it was pretty decent. I still have to review the recording, since I didn’t get to watch the entire show, so we’ll see what I find on playback. They have another show coming up in the beginning of November, so I’m hoping for an even better go at it then. I love being a part of this group – I joined as a member when I was 5, and they are like a second family to me, always have been. The group has changed somewhat over recent years, but it still feels great to be a part of it, and I absolutely love being able to teach now that I can’t really perform anymore. I also have picked up private lessons on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, so I get to do what I love 3 evenings a week now! :) I’d love to post pictures, but I don’t really have their permission or parents permission, so I will refrain from upsetting anyone, just in case.

Hope you all had a great weekend too! Looks like we might have more rain tomorrow and Wednesday…wonderful.

(PS – I actually typed this post out much earlier today, but wanted to add the photos, so I didn’t post it right away, and now that I was ready to post it I had to change a lot to reflect on my day, not list what I wanted my day to be like. I also didn’t think Jasper was better earlier, and thought I was seriously going to have to call the vet today – but luckily that changed too!)

Thursday Thoughts

1. I have a sick kitty.   :(   He’s been having sneezing fits since yesterday, and you can just tell he doesn’t feel well.  My poor baby, I feel bad for him.  I don’t think it’s time to call the vet yet, since he’s still eating some and drinking, but once I see that he’s not eating, I will put out the wet food (they can smell it better and will eat more when they are sick) and call the vet to see if he needs any antibiotics.  See, not feeling well:

Hubby put his blanket in the corner by the bookshelf in the office, and I know Jasper likes blankets, but this is a little unusual for him.  It doesn’t help that it’s chilly, and and the heat hasn’t been on yet.  2. Speaking of heat and chilly weather – I’m so tired of the rain now!  I know we had quite a dry summer here, and needed some rain, but I’ve had enough of it now.  I have outdoor things to do – fertilize/weed kill the lawn, plant my daffodil and tulip bulbs so we can finally mulch the planting bed around the patio, and I’d like to use my brand new fire bowl some evening before winter hits and make some s’mores.  We’ve had some nice days, but the nice days have either been too warm to plant the bulbs (I was waiting until the temps got cooler and stayed consistent – now that we’re there, I feel like I can’t get enough dry days to plant!), or busy with other tasks and errands, and lately we’ve gotten a late start to dinner, so it gets a little too late to sit outside around a fire for a couple hours.  I was supposed to have a baton lesson today, and that got rained out.  Tomorrow is supposed to be nicer, but windy, so I can have the lesson tomorrow, but the wind might be too much for a fire.

3. Oh, and as I was typing this post, the heat did get turned on.  Everyone is warming up, and so far I haven’t heard the clicking from the vent in the bedroom.  I don’t think it’s quite cold enough for the clicking to start yet.  Yet another stupid issue with our brand new house – the vent coming up through the garage/family room wall, running along the floor of our bedroom and coming to it’s opening in the back of the bedroom is made of aluminum, and expands and shrinks when we use the heat.  So, the result is we hear a clicking/pinging sound on really cold days when the heat kicks on.  When there’s no heat blowing, the vent “shrinks” since it runs through the one garage wall, and gets very cold, and then when the heat blows it starts to warm up the vent causing the metal to expand, which creates the noise.  Kept me awake and irritated soooo many nights last winter.  We were told that it sometimes is an issue in these houses, and they need to fix it by cutting into the garage wall, replacing the aluminum duct with a plastic flexible duct, and fix up the garage wall again.  If it’s a known issue, why don’t they make these houses with the flexible duct in the first place???  But no, I have to deal with the noise and have them cut holes in my home to find the problem and fix it.  My issue is that I don’t think the expansion problem is coming from the garage wall area, but where the duct runs between the family room ceiling and bedroom floor.  If that’s the issue, they might have to cut open my whole family room ceiling!  Really not looking forward to dealing with all that this winter…

4.  Back to my sick kitty – if you’ll notice in the above pictures, he is quite a tubby cat.  We have tried switching to light food, and now even strictly measure out his daily amount of food.  We don’t regulate the food bowls overnight, because if we did, we wouldn’t sleep at all!  But we are trying to get his weight down, and I don’t think we have been successful yet.  So, I saw this fun little toy, and thought it would be a super success!:

Not so much…  I figured I’d fill it with some of his regular kibble (not treats, as if he needs anymore of those ever!), and make him work a little for his food.  He’d get some much needed play and his food would be the reward.  He would still be able to eat a lot of it from his regular bowl, but I was trying to incorporate some mental and physical work into his feeding.  He hasn’t figured it out yet…  He looks at me like I’m playing a cruel trick on him.  Maybe someday he’ll finally figure it out.

5. I have things to do that I just don’t feel like doing.  I have to hem a pair of costume pants for one of the girls in the baton group.  I offered to do it so I knew it would get done and hopefully come out well, but I really never feel like hemming pants…  It’s tedious and boring.  I don’t want to fertilize the yard.  It needs to be done, and seems pretty easy, but I just don’t want to do it.  The basement and garage need some major cleaning, and I really don’t want to do that!  I have some crafts I really want to finish up, but I’m at a tedious and boring part of the process for some of them, so I keep pushing it off.

6. Along the lines of crafts, I made these on Tuesday as well: 

Swirly Blue Chandelier Earrings:  I have not added these to my Artfire site yet, because I have to figure out their cost and selling price.  There we go again with the tedious part of a craft that I really dislike to do!  Hopefully by tomorrow I will have them priced and added.  The ear wires are a different style for my typical selection, but I really like them and think they make this pair look more elegant.  The blue beads are leftover from my Beachy Blue set, and I bought the swirly chandelier parts a while ago, but just got around to using them.  Look for them there soon though!

7. I’m a little disappointed about some things.  I have yet to make a sale from any of my shops, and I hate to admit that to anyone reading this, but I don’t get it.  I think I make/create some cute stuff, and my jewelry and other crafts are priced right around what other people charge, if not less, but yet still no takers, no orders…  The stuff on my Cafe Press shops are slightly expensive, but I promise I don’t mark them up a whole lot – most of the cost for them is Cafe Press’ base cost for the item.  I even have my Breast Cancer Awareness items that I’m donating profits to the American Cancer Society, but sadly no takers on that stuff either…  So, I hate to do this, but I’m going to be a little shameless here – go check out My Style Crafts on Artfire, My Style Crafts-Photography Gifts on Cafe Press, and My Style Designs on Cafe Press (currently all breast cancer awareness designs on this shop with ALL profits going to American Cancer Society – changed from a portion as stated before) – if you like anything, buy it!  :)  Christmas is coming.  ;)   If you have any questions or would like to make any special orders, feel free to contact me!  I love to craft a whole variety of things, and I have some cute ideas for future projects, but struggling to get my dance business going, and not working otherwise, it gets hard for me to spend money on more supplies when I haven’t gotten any returns from previous projects.  It just makes me feel disappointed that I can’t seem to get anywhere with this stuff, and I have no idea why.  I know people are looking at it – if you have comments about anything, please send them to me!  I don’t know how to better my products or services if I get no feedback!

I think that’s all for today…I’m very tired because I hardly slept last night.  Jasper woke me up with a sneezing fit, and then there was just no going back to sleep after that.  So, at 5pm, I say goodnight!

Catching Up

Wow, I am finally all caught up on my Google Reader for the blogs I follow!  My vacation at the end of July put me severely behind on my reading, and posting – I have finally gone from 300+ unread posts to 0! 

My weeks have either been really busy or really lazy since returning too.  The busy weeks didn’t allow me much or any time to post, and the lazy weeks were just that – LAZY!  I didn’t feel like doing anything at all, and in most instances, I didn’t.  I’m hoping to finally get back on track with things now.

I started a private dance lesson with a new student the week after coming back from vacation.  If I refer to her by “name”, it will only be “K” since this is a public blog and I do not have her parents permission to use her real name or anything else personal on here.  K lives in a not-so-great area of the city, which makes me nervous, and parking has been a real pain, but I’ve had 3 lessons with her now, and it’s been going great!  She says she has fun, she’s outgoing, and a good listener for the most part.  :)  This month I stuck to summer and Hawaiian music, and we’ve even begun a real hula dance!  It has been fun for me so far, and I look forward to hopefully continuing lessons for a long while.

My cousin also contacted me to ask if he could have a family get together here at our house (which happened on the 15th), since we all live all over the place and he was coming up from Florida that week to visit.  I agreed, as long as our backyard wasn’t under construction for our patio, since I planned to keep everyone outdoors for the entire time, or at least as many people outside for as long as possible.  My patio hasn’t been started yet, and unfortunately it rained – and poured – that day, so everyone was stuck inside.  I had spent the entire week before that cleaning my house from top to bottom.  It was time to do all the cleaning anyway, but I also care about how my house looks to other people, and I knew there would be family wanting to see it all for the first time, so I wanted it looking perfect.  I expected people in and out for the bathroom, a tour of the house, etc., but I didn’t expect to end up with 19 people crammed into 3 rooms, tracking mud, grass, and food all over my floors.  I was very stressed about the whole thing, and the only person from my cousin’s bunch that said a sincere thank you and related to how stressed I was was my other cousin’s wife.  The cousin that asked me to have it here, and his parents, brother and SIL (other cousin and wife mentioned above) showed up 2 hours late and stressed me out even more.  The cousin that asked to have it here decided it would be fun to joke around that he spilled red wine on my white carpet (he really did not, but thought it was hilarious to joke about it).  I also did not provide the wine, as I didn’t really want any alcohol here with the mix of family that came, but one of my aunt’s brought it because my cousin told people to bring whatever they wanted, never got a list of what people were bringing, and didn’t tell me that he told the rest of the family to bring stuff.  Long story shortened, I was kind of mad at that part of the family, happy to see other parts of the family, and have learned my lesson to never offer my house as the gathering location for something like that ever again!

My friend had her second baby last week and I’m excited to meet him and visit with her.  She teaches baton in the group I’m involved in too, but with having the baby and the week before having the baby, she hasn’t been at practice.  I’ve seen pictures, but I’m hoping to get to meet him in person this week and deliver her baby gifts!   :)

We haven’t gotten our patio started yet, but they have now marked the whole property where utilities are located under ground.  We are set to begin work anytime after tomorrow, so now it’s just up to the landscaper to get started – I’m very anxious for that!  I can’t wait to have that done and hopefully enjoy it as much as possible before the fall turns too cold.

So, that’s my catch up for now.  I finally took pictures of my new jewelry set I made before vacation, so I would like to do a post with those, and I definitely have more vacation fun to share.  :)

Vacation and Motivation

So, hubby has a lot of vacation time, not including the days he can carry over into next year, and has been told he better start figuring out when to take it. His birthday is coming up in about 2.5 weeks, and he has been saying he needs a vacation. The problem with this is in order for it to be a real, relaxing, fun vacation, we actually should go somewhere – hubby works from home now, so just taking a week off and sitting around the house isn’t much of a true vacation. We’re missing out on a beach vacation this year that we would have taken in August, since the twirling group I teach with isn’t doing their annual performance trip to Wildwood this year, and even though neither of us are much of a beach-goer, I was a little disappointed that I wouldn’t get to take that trip this year. So, I thought about trying to find a beach destination that would have enough other stuff for us to be occupied with, that was affordable, and that we could book for the week of his birthday, which is very fast approaching now. We’ve pretty much settled on Ocean City, MD, since there is also Assateague nearby and the town has free activities almost nightly. I have never been there before though, since I missed my senior week trip in high school for my dance recital, so I don’t know anything about the area, the hotels, the boardwalk, the dining, etc. I think I might have found a good hotel deal, but looking at all the different available hotels and packages offered, I feel overwhelmed! So, I’m hoping to get this all booked within the next two days – have any of you been there, have any recommendations, tips, info about parking, dining, etc.? Feel free to comment and let me know!

I also went to a craft show on Saturday to see my friend who was set up selling her handmade bags, purses, pillows, and other sewing crafts (she doesn’t have a website yet, but is looking into it now with some suggestions from me (: ). I did buy a purse from her (very cute little hand tote that’s blue and white striped with some silver sequin accents – sorry no picture at this time), and after walking around, got a few other ideas for some new crafts to add to my craft menagerie (don’t know if I used an appropriate term there, but it sounds great to me!). I also realized that I’ve been in a craft slump lately, and haven’t started or finished any projects in weeks! This prompted some motivation to get things done and accomplished this week. I have a very puny collection for sale on my Artfire site, and even though I have yet to sell an item, I have a few projects already started, a few that need starting, a few projects that I was asked to make as gifts for people (no income though – just materials reimbursed or given for free) and lots of new ideas that I’d love to buy supplies for and get started, and I’d love to add to my shop on there. I wanted to start a “Scrapbook Saturday” post to motivate myself to work on my personal scrapbooks that have to be finished, and haven’t done that yet either. Overall, last week was pretty blah I guess – I didn’t do much of anything, and I didn’t even post much of anything on here. Now I’m motivated to get things done this week – here’s hoping for some productivity! I’ll try to update on my progress this week!

Thursday Five!

Happy July!

Happy

Giddy

Joyful

Excited

Appreciative

 

My five “happy’s” for the week:

1. The baton twirling group I was a member of from the ages of 5-26, and now help out as an instructor, had a performance tonight.  I didn’t get to watch much of the show, but I was helping out with the behind-the-scenes and “stage crew” stuff, and that feels good.  It gives me a sense of feeling useful and accomplished.
2. I got to see my athletic training mentor at the show tonight too!  I haven’t seen her in at least 4 years, and I didn’t really get the chance to go have a conversation with her, but I found her on Facebook, sent a friend request and a message, and maybe we can get her adorable little girl to give the group a try and sign up!  I was nervous to see her before, when we first moved back to the area, since I’m not in the sports medicine field anymore, but I have come to terms with my life and decisions, and I don’t feel so nervous to talk to her now.
3. I will be collaborating on a new baton routine with another instructor for some of the newer members (high school age group), and I am super excited to start that (as well as very appreciative for the opportunity)!  I’m not used to working with that age group for a group routine, but they are good girls and eager to learn, so I think they will end up with a great routine and will shine in the shows just like all the other members.  I’ve been helping out in practices as needed, but haven’t had the chance to really be creative since I came back, and now I have that opportunity.   :)
4. It was a beautiful day today – warm, but not sweltering, with a very nice breeze.  It’s the first time I’ve had my AC off in a little over a week, and it’s nice to be able to feel comfortable while saving energy.  My hubby has off tomorrow to go to an appointment with me, and is off on Monday for the holiday as well (even though it’s really on Sunday)!
5. My Topsy Turvy tree is finally starting to produce some produce!  LOL, sorry, had to go there…  I have quite a few plum tomatoes started, there’s a few flowers blooming on the zucchini plant, and I have one pepper started with a bunch more developing flowers.  I had to spray it for bugs the other day, because my herbs were starting to look like swiss cheese, so I can’t use any of the herbs for another 2 weeks now, but I’m happy to see less destruction and no more bugs!

As you can see, most of my happy’s this week pertained to the twirling group.  I missed being a part of it so much while I lived in NJ, and being back has felt good.  This week especially felt great!  This is a post all about happiness, so I will only speak of that part of this week.  I did receive some bad news at the beginning of the week, but it’s definitely not something open for discussion or comments on here, so I’m concentrating on all the good things from this week, as that’s what this post is all about!

Hope everyone has a fun-filled 4th of July weekend planned!

Frazzled Excitement

So, I have a long to-do list this week, and all of it is stuff I really want to do (not like cleaning or other chores), and sometimes I get the motivation to do this stuff, but I don’t know where to begin, or I feel really scattered with it.  This is my frazzled excitement. 

So far, I’ve at least started a few things.  As you can see, I added yet another new page to this blog – Photography.  There’s only four photos in it right now, but I definitely plan on adding more as I continue to watermark them.  There’s just a lot I want to add, so it will take me some time, but at least I have four to share with you so far.  Go peek at them, you know you’ve been waiting for it!   ;)  Well, I know you haven’t really been, but I hope you enjoy them anyway.   :)

I got my time and abilities sheet from my church a while back.  This is the sheet where you sign up for all the stuff you want to volunteer for.  I never fill mine out and send it back, especially considering I lived in NJ for 3 years, and the church is in PA (but they were still sending me stuff in NJ!).  I haven’t been to church at all since, let me think…my wedding day!  That was 3 years ago, and wasn’t even a church service.  I’m surprised they still send me stuff and haven’t ex-communicated me yet, lol.  But all kidding aside, I’m not an extremely religious person.  I do believe in God and Heaven and all that, but I don’t necessarily feel you have to go to a church every week, and give all your money to them (after all – God isn’t the one needing my money) in order to have your beliefs.  I apologize if I offended anyone here.  To each his own.  This time, however, instead of just throwing the form away, something made me look it over.  Now I’m thinking of signing up for a couple things.  I love working with kids – they are looking for vacation Bible school helpers (and I even just told my hubby the other night how much I used to like Bible school).  And who ever knew my church has or is starting a dance group?!  Obviously I love dance, I’m even trying to start my own dance business (which I offered classes to the church’s preschool, but was sadly declined), so definite check mark on that one!  However, in typical fashion of me, I am late in returning it.  So now I have to write a note to add to it apologizing for my tardiness, and find out what that dance stuff is all about.  Really?  Dance group in a church?  It also got me thinking maybe I should go to church more often, especially if I’m volunteering.  I’m not a morning person though, and I am not a fan of the long, drawn out services on a Sunday morning, so I’m thinking of attending some of the Saturday evening services.  Maybe I’ll go with my Grandmom.  Anyway, I filled out the sheet, now I just need to write the note, send it back, and see where to go from there.

We have new members to Thunderbolts, and I have been working with them a little.  I have been wanting to work on a routine or at least help out and collaborate with another instructor on one, and I mentioned this to the director.  I don’t want to step on anyone’s toes in the group, since they’ve been around all this time, and I went away for 3 years.  But last night I got asked to get together with one of the instructors to work on the new routine.  YAY!   :D  So I’m excited about that.  I even stayed up way too late last night listening to music and trying to find some good ideas with that twirling ear of mine.

I am thinking about starting a “Scrapbook Saturday” post on here.  It might not be every single week, since some Saturdays get busy with other activities.  I have a TON of scrapbooking stuff to work on from the wedding, bridal shower, honeymoon, etc., that I bought but then never got around to completing.  It’s still all here, and all of those events were 3 years ago!  It’s about time I get to it, and I thought some motivation might be to do a post on here.  I would plan to create at least one page (more if the creativity and time allows), and post it on here every Saturday (or every possible Saturday).  So, hopefully I’ll get started on that this week and you’ll see something by Saturday night (or “Scrapbook Sunday” if I only work on it Saturday and finish late).

So those are a few of the major things I’ve been thinking about, trying to start, or need to work on.  But those things, along with a never-ending to-do list of other things, makes me feel all frazzled.  I just don’t know where to begin, or I want to work on 3 different things at the same time because I’m excited to, and I get all “aaaahhhhh!”.  Ever feel like this?  I’m sure all you moms have…