A scary day…

 

Hello again!  I know I said I wanted to post more, and that really hasn’t happened.  I’m not going to apologize.  I’m trying really hard to find a balance between life, my Scentsy business, blogging, cleaning, relaxing….EVERYTHING!  I finally bought a planner to try to organize my tasks for everything and make myself make time for each thing.  I’m slowly working on it…

I saw From Mrs. to Mama’s post today, and thought this would be a great opportunity to get a post in.  So, here it goes…what’s been on my mind lately.

This past Friday was a somewhat scary day.  Forgive the crudeness here, but I have been having irritation in my one armpit (that’s the crudeness…no other way to best describe that area though) off an on for about a month now.  I couldn’t see anything there, so I was just attributing it to skin irritation from shaving.  I had to buy a new brand/kind of razor around when this all started, so I thought maybe I just nicked myself, or was having sensitive skin issues from this new razor.  Well, on Thursday, it started to feel the worst it’s felt since it started.  I told Hubby about it and he said he would check it out for me if I wanted.  Well, that night was busy, I didn’t have him check it out, and Friday morning I woke up with it feeling even worse.  I asked him to check it out that morning, and when he felt around the sore area (which was so tender!), he said he felt a hard lump where I was hurting.  My first thought was, “oh, I have some sort of cyst…no big deal, probably just needs antibiotics or something”.  Hubby’s thoughts went in a different direction…a direction that had crossed my mind, but didn’t really sink in.  I was trying to think positive, minor.  If you don’t already know this, you have lymph nodes in that area of your body.  Then it hit me.  I have two aunts that were both diagnosed with breast cancer in the past year, and another person very dear to my heart and family who has battled cancer twice now in the last 3 years, first time being breast cancer that also came with tumors in her lymph node area.  I kept trying to tell myself that this had to just be some sort of infection or something, but truth be told, I was worried.  Worried enough, either way, that I made a call to the family doctor that morning and got myself an appointment for that afternoon.  If it was just an infection, it needed treatment now.  I could hardly move my arm without pain!  IF it was something more serious, we had to find out…

Appointment time rolled around, and we all headed to the doctor.  You better believe I wanted Hubby along just in case I got bad news, just in case there would be painful tests done, I needed support.  I was so nervous and anxious the whole morning, I broke down and cried at one point, and as we were driving there, I started to feel sick to my stomach from it all.  I was thinking about the dear family friend and what she has been through.  I was thinking about all the what if’s.  I was nervous about what might happen in the doctor’s office that day (would needles be involved, would he biopsy, would he tell me things I didn’t want to hear?).  We finally get there, I fill out the paperwork I need to fill out, and we wait.  And wait.  He’s a good doctor, but there’s always a wait.  Luckily I had a toddler along to distract me a little bit during our wait.

Finally at around 1:20/1:30pm (our appointment time was actually 12:45pm), the doctor comes into the room.  I tell him what’s been going on, describe how it was feeling, and that we made the appointment right away because Hubby discovered the lump and we got worried.  I was hoping for a more immediate answer of it just being a cyst, or maybe an infected lymph node.  First thing he asks is if I have done a self breast exam in the last month, or ever for that matter.  No.  I have not.  And also not the direction I was expecting him to go right away.  That made me more worried about what it might be.  Especially after informing him that I have a family history of breast cancer, among other cancers (skin and colon).  So, after instructing me on how to perform one, he goes ahead and checks out the lump.  Ouch!  He then explains that it is definitely a lymph node.  But apparently you have clusters of them in that area, and this particular one was pretty far towards my back for him to think it was related to the frontal area.  He did know about the razor and what I thought the irritation was from.  At that point, he said that he only ever had 1 case where the lymph node was sore and it turned out to be cancerous.  Almost 100% of the time, the lumps are not sore.  So, with the knowledge of the new razor, and the location of the VERY sore lump, he diagnosed it as just what I was hoping it was – an inflamed/infected lymph node, possibly from a cut from my razor that I didn’t know I had.  He prescribed antibiotics and moist heat compresses and said I should start to feel better by Monday.  If I was not feeling better by the end of the antibiotics and the lump was still there, then I have to call back and he will order photo imaging tests. 

Well, it’s Monday.  I have been taking the meds and (almost) diligently been applying moist heat compresses 3 times a day, as instructed.  I will say that I do feel less pain today than I did on Friday, but it still is pretty sore, and I still feel that lump there.  Even though the doctor told me not to lose sleep over it this past weekend, I’m still not “out of the woods”.  I keep trying to tell myself that I have 3.5 days worth of antibiotics to take yet, so I can’t get too anxious until they’re done.  But I would be lying if I said it’s not on my mind at least twice a day…

So, I’m waiting.  Watching.  Doing what I was told.  And we’ll just have to see what it’s like on Friday when I’m done with the antibiotics.  Hopefully it will be gone, and my worrying will have been for nothing.  But for now, I wait.

 

And as a side note, I wasn’t really going to write this particular post until I was done with the medicine, knew for sure what was going on, etc.  But after reading From Mrs. to Mama’s post today for this link up, about writing what’s on your mind, getting it out of your mind and on paper (or computer in this case!), I decided this would be the perfect time to make that time for me, for this post.  If no one else reads it, I wrote it for me.

Change is coming….hopefully.

I last posted, I don’t even know when, about wanting to blog more now that Bean is a little older and I was able to put the Blogger app on my phone.  We see how well that went! 

I really do want to blog more again.  I want to be able to make something of this space again.  But, I also think I need to revamp things a little.  I started this blog before we had Bean (who will still remain nameless and be called Bean, for now).  I titled it “Steph’s Creative Life” because it was meant to share my life in general, my homemade crafts, my photography, and anything else creative I could come up with.  However, since having Bean, I don’t get out to take photos, my beads are shut away in their container in a cabinet, all the crafts are out of sight.  With extra time that I have, I focus on my new Scentsy business (that’s been almost a year now since I signed up to be a consultant!).  Yeah, never got around to telling you all about that.  If you’re interested in Scentsy, you can check out my website – https://ssgherza.scentsy.us  (Enter shameless plug…)

So, I believe some change is necessary for this blog.  And I think changing things will make me more motivated to post more often as well.  Also, making time for it at least once a week and utilizing the little “Schedule Post” button will hopefully be of help.  I’m looking to do a new background (if you actually come to the blog page and don’t just read through Reader), and even a new title!

Here’s my issue – I don’t want to change my blog name suddenly and lose any readers I may still have left (thank you if you are still reading this and have stuck around, or if you are new and checking it out for the first time!).  Other Blogger peeps – is there a way to change the name of the blog and make it automatically change in everyone’s feeds/Reader, does it do that automatically on it’s own, or will I completely break and screw up everything??

Thanks for the input and keep your eyes open for some new things!!!

Project 365: Week 7 (I think…)

I had to double check on the week.  I got so far behind in posting before, and time is really flying (Bean will be 8 months old on Thursday!), I had to check myself on what week we were on.  Plus I am really really tired as I type this post from a not-so-great night last night.  Here are my photos from this past week:

Day 43 (part 1): Some peek-a-boo fun in bed first thing in the morning.

Day 43 (part 2): Not as cute as the first shot, but a little brighter and easier to see.

Day 44: Bean's slightly early Valentine's gift from his Great Grandmom. He absolutely loves this giant monkey - it's bigger than him! :)

Day 45: Happy Valentine's Day! Sadly, this was the extent of hubby and I's celebration this year. Just came on a busy day, and we're boring.

Day 46: Just hanging out with me on the couch, watching a little Chica the chicken puppet on Sprout TV.

Day 47: This is where he sits when I take a shower (yes, he's strapped in). It was pushing naptime as I was finishing up in the bathroom, and all of a sudden I realized he was quiet. He decided to just take his nap right then and there.

Day 48: Feeding Bean has become a ridiculous event. We have to watch Sprout TV, play with a toy, and I have to sneak the bottle in around the toy....

Day 49: Out to eat with all Bean's grandparents and his uncle. First time in a restaurant high chair! :)

 

I hope you are all having a great weekend!  If you are here from Laura’s blog, welcome and thanks for stopping by!  As you can see I don’t get to blog too much lately, but I am still looking for guest bloggers if you are interested!  I’d like to keep more content on the blog than I am able to post lately, so that my current readers and any new readers still have something to come here for!  Please message me or leave a comment if you would like to guest blog for me.  It can be about anything you want, I just as that there not be a lot of curse words or anything else offensive (also, no politics – I don’t discuss politics to begin with, and I don’t want it on my blog).  Thanks for stopping by!  Have a great week!

Calling all bloggers!

I have never done this before, but since I don't get to blog as much as I would like to lately, but would like to keep the readers I have as well as get some new traffic to the blog, I'm opening up to guest blog posts. If you are interested, you can write about whatever you want - from recipes, parenting, crafts, TV, etc. I only ask that you don't pick a topic that is too political or controversial, and no major profanities. Sound like something you want to do? E-mail me to let me know, and as soon as I get responses, I can figure out a good posting schedule. Looking forward to hearing from some fellow bloggers!

There's an app for that...

I love that blogger released the iPhone app! As I said, I don't get to sit down at a real computer much these days, but I am constantly using Hubby's iPhone for facebook and the Internet in general since it's handheld and I can type on it with one hand. Apparently this is a new app, just released the other day - it makes me happy! Now I might be able to blog a little more often!
Fortunately I can add photos from the phone with the app, but unfortunately not video, so you'll have to wait a little longer for that.
We're off to look at cars now. More on that later.

Favorite Kitty Pic Friday!

<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="http://stephscreativelife.blogspot.com/"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHe-niZhfEaKY6MAUwqTd_3c5MQp501sz1jPEA_seJhPXG5ie1W1Z5sDhRHez3qg8fxQ1pmHfTRhFpjhGosOx733H7zggKjzU-ITHwvDXF6GRfizjAP5E2LfAOUqKJ60KARciSZzt74vM/?imgmax=800" /></a></td></tr></table>

This post was previously scheduled, because yesterday, June 23rd, was my due date!  On Wednesday morning, I could have sworn my water broke, but apparently it was other stuff, my fluid level looked good on an ultrasound, and I wasn’t dilated enough to warrant admitting me, so I was sent home.  All the rest of the day, however, I began to actually notice some slightly stronger contractions (and I seem to be experiencing back labor…), but again, they were few and far between, so I scheduled this post then, in case anything did happen that evening and I wouldn’t have the chance to blog at all.

Here’s my choice this week:

Dusty hard at work – or hardly working!  LOL   I’m leaving him in charge of my blog during this time of very early labor and/or childbirth, so if things are quiet, you know why!

Have a great weekend!  Hopefully the next time I get to blog I will have Bean to show off!   :)

Serioiusly?! Thursday

I’m linking up with Mrs. to Mama again this week.  If you haven’t checked out her blog yet, please go do so, and link your own post to this fun weekly blog link up.

Seriously?!  Hubby and I ordered a new video camera.  It was a very quick, on the spot decision, but it was a good deal from Amazon, and the purchase made a lot of sense.  If you’re interested, we got the Kodak PlaySport camera.  That way, once Bean does make his appearance, we have a small, cell phone sized camera that we can constantly keep charged and take with us everywhere to record those silly moments and milestones.  However, USPS will be delivering it.  If you read my previous Seriously?! Thursday post, you know my dislike/hate relationship with the postal service.  This issue comes down to our delivery guy – he’s the laziest, most careless postal worker I have ever seen.  I won’t get into everything he does that irks me, or else this post would be way too long, but let’s just say I’m hoping the camera gets here in one piece.  Seriously?!  Why do they have to ship expensive items like that via USPS?  Though, UPS hasn’t been great with their deliveries to us lately either – we’re lucky if the packages even make it onto the front porch…luckily the delivery guys seem to have good throwing arms to get it that far!

Seriously?!  I’m now a week away from my due date.  On Sunday I got hit with some sort of head cold/congestion.  It’s a little better today, but I’m still not 100%.  I get so stuffy I can’t breathe, my ear was so clogged I felt like I only had 50% hearing, and I called the doctor’s office on Tuesday to see what I could take for relief, and they told me plain Sudafed.  Sudafed wasn’t quite doing the trick, and can raise my blood pressure.  Today, the doctor recommended switching to an antihistamine, like Claritin.  I took one earlier, and I can actually breathe at the moment!  But really?  I went the whole 9 months without even a sniffle, and now right before I’m due, I get hit with this!  I want the baby out now, but I don’t want to make him sick either.   :(

Seriously?!  Bad, stupid drivers.  Enough said.

Seriously…  I haven’t done Favorite Kitty Pic Friday in at least 2 weeks.  I have just been very busy and it slipped past me.  I will try my best to get one up tomorrow – I make no promises though…

Seriously…  I’m as ready as I’m going to be for Bean’s arrival.  He can come out any day now.  I’ve been so done with this pregnancy for weeks now, but this last week is frustrating.  I’m tired of not being able to do stuff, being uncomfortable, and feeling like I’m going to be pregnant forever.  I thought Bean was going to be a boy before we knew for sure, and I was right.  I also thought at the beginning that I would go late, but I’m really hoping I’m wrong about that!  And since I know you all want to know  ;)   I just may go late, and have to be induced.  My check at the doctor today revealed I am effacing well (didn’t get a percentage number), but not dilating much.  He said the effacement is good and shows that I would be receptive to induction if it becomes necessary.  I just hope that’s not the case.  If Bean doesn’t come on his own, we’re looking at the 28th for induction.  I do have to go for a non-stress test on Tuesday, and then I have my regularly scheduled appointment on Thursday.  Apparently, even though he has been saying my BP has been good, today he felt it was a little high, and though he only ever told me the lower number was good, apparently my upper number has been borderline high.  So, with little progression, no contractions, and borderline high BP, off to the NST (unless Bean decides to make an early exit!).

Seriously…  Whether Bean decides to come now or by force on the 28th, I will have a baby and be a mom in less than 2 weeks!  So surreal…

Well, Hubby and I are off to Red Lobster tonight to celebrate our 4 year wedding anniversary!  Today we have been married for 4 years, and in July we will be together as a couple for 12 years.  Happy Anniversary Hubby!   :)

Painting While Pregnant

I believe I mentioned on here before that Hubby and I were going to tackle the biggest paint job of our entire house last weekend while we had my dad’s help to get started.  Well, after a (slightly longer) weeklong process, we finally have all the walls in our front living room, entry, entry hallway, staircase, and upstairs hallway painted.  All that’s left to do today is the touch ups.  I started off this project, with some of Hubby’s help, one week and two days ago by sanding rough spots on the walls, spackling any divots and imperfections, and fixing nails pops that got missed on the first go around.  That fixing didn’t end completely until this past Thursday.  The walls were terrible!  Every time we thought we had things pretty fixed up and prepped for paint, we’d find more to fix.  So, last Saturday the upstairs hallway got painted, on Sunday the staircase got painted, the entry hallway was done on Monday, and then the front living room and entry were finished up between yesterday and the day before.  Hubby did end up doing the majority of the work, because painting that much surface area at 28/29 weeks pregnant is even harder work than normal.  I feel bad about that because I wish I could have helped more, but my body just couldn’t take any more than it withstood already.  He had taken this entire week off for this project and a few appointments we had scheduled, and now he says he’s actually looking forward to starting work again on Monday because he will be more physically relaxed.  Except for now we have to clean a majority of the house by Friday afternoon and I most likely will need a lot of his help for that too.  The house is a mess to begin with, but adding in all the painting and sanding we’ve had to do, it really needs a good clean up.  And I say it has to be done by Friday afternoon because his parents are arriving that evening to stay with us for the weekend since my baby shower is next Saturday.  So, needles to say, it’s been a very busy and tiring week, and the next week isn’t looking much better for me.  Between the painting and the appointments, and the location the appointments were in, I need a good break, but I probably won’t get that until Monday the 18th!  The appointments we had to go to included my 3D ultrasound, which was an hour away, and Hubby’s last oral surgery follow up, which was also an hour away.  Both trips took us to good shopping areas as well, so we ended up doing some of that with our time too.  I know I missed my Favorite Kitty Friday post, as well as Getting to Know YOU post (I also missed some big blog hop party this week too), but some days I couldn’t even tell you what day it was, and when I wasn’t helping with the painting task, we were not home, eating, or sleeping.  I will be very happy when this is all done and I can relax a little more.

To give you insight as to how behind I am on things, my Google Reader count is up to at least 625 unread items, there are at least 40 unread e-mails sitting in my inboxes, and I missed doing those posts this week.  Hopefully I will be able to start catching up on things, like trying to do at least 2 posts this week.  I would like to do a post about my 3D ultrasound too, but we’ll see how the week goes along.  We also started our Prep for Childbirth classes too, so that’s been thrown in there as well.  I can’t wait until Monday the 18th…

One last thing before I forget – I read this blog:  http://www.lifeofsaucyb.com/  Every Monday, she does a “Make Me Laugh Monday” post where she posts a picture of her cat, and accepts caption ideas.  On Thursday of that week, she will pick the commenter who made her laugh/who’s caption she likes best, and this past week my caption was chosen!  As a reward, she has my blog button featured on her sidebar.  Please check it out, and enjoy her blog!

My Ventures

I know I have gotten a few new followers recently, and I’m guessing at least some of my followers read my posts through Google Reader and don’t actually see my blog page often.  I don’t typically like to “brag” as I might call it or really push things on people, but I guess it would really be considered “marketing”.  Since there are new followers and probably some Reader people out there, I was feeling the need to “market” myself and remind everyone of some of the ventures/sites I’m associated with to allow me to try to earn some extra income for my newly growing family.  We’ve been lucky with baby gifts so far, but there’s a lot more to buy and pay for as the year continues, and since I currently don’t work and will be a SAHM, I felt the need to try to earn a little something where I could.  So, for any of you interested in any of the following, here’s what I’m trying:

1. I have my own Artfire shop called My Style Crafts with my handmade crafts listed.  If you have never heard of Artfire, it’s pretty much exactly like Etsy, but without the fees for listing an item.  Right now I currently only have some jewelry pieces listed, but as soon as I try out a printing service, I’d like to add some of my photography prints, and whenever I decide to sew again I could offer items such as catnip cat mats, cat toys, and kitchen towels.  I currently do not have any candle making supplies, but I love to make candles, and at some point would like to add some of those to the listings or at least take custom orders.  I also decorate picture frames, but unfortunately due to some of the materials I use to create them, that particular type of item is on hold until at least summer since I can’t use those materials while I’m pregnant.  So, like I said, there’s currently only jewelry and one set of wine charms listed, but the other items mentioned are ones I’d like to add at some point when I have the supplies, ability and time to create them.  If you’re interested in something, or would even like to inquire about a custom order (which may or may not be able to be fulfilled, depending on the item), please check out my Artfire shop at http://www.artfire.com/users/MyStyleCrafts

2. I have 2 Cafe Press shops.  One shop is called My Style Crafts – Photography Gifts.  I have created a few different items with some of my original photography printed on them.  Items include coffee mugs, note cards, and tote bags.  You can check out the items available at http://www.cafepress.com/MyStyleCrafts

     The other Cafe Press shop currently only has one design on a few different products, but it’s called My Style Designs.  I created this shop during Breast Cancer Awareness month in order to try to raise some money for breast cancer research.  I would eventually like to create some different designs to add to products, but for now all items (which is still everything at the moment) with the breast cancer awareness design will have all profits from sales donated to The American Cancer Society.  This shop can be found at http://www.cafepress.com/MyStyleDesigns

3. I am a Say It On The Wall affiliate.  Say It On The Wall is a great place to find some awesome gifts or home decor items created using vinyl.  They have items such as subway art, wall vinyl sayings, door greetings, decorated glass blocks and so much more.  You can even create your own vinyl saying through their website.  If you are interested in seeing what they have and helping me out as an affiliate, you must go to their site via my link listed in my sidebar on my actual blog page.

4. I am also part of the Amazon Associates program.  I have a shop through Amazon.com where I categorize and list products that I think are wonderful from personal experience or would just like to offer potential shoppers because I think the product seems worthy of promotion.  The store is called Steph’s Creative Life Store, since it’s associated with my blog.  I currently only have a “Baby” category and “Music” category (all Glee mp3’s listed at the moment), but I plan to add categories such as electronics, household items, home decor, crafting supplies, and more.  Look for those categories and listings to be added over time, and if there’s anything at all you want to buy from Amazon.com and would like to help me out as an Associate, but don’t see the item listed in my store, please contact me through my blog and let me know what the item is so I can add it to the store for your purchasing needs.  If there is any issue adding the item to the store, I will let you know, and you will also be notified once the item is listed and available for purchase.  You can get to my store to see listings through the widget on the sidebar of my actual blog page or by clicking this link:  http://astore.amazon.com/stepscre-20

I have also been thinking about becoming an online Tupperware consultant.  I don’t like to do home parties certainly as a consultant (not even a host!), but they have a way you can just sell via an online store, or even create online parties for hosts so no one has to deal with the in-home party.  This is still up in the air yet, because in the past I thought about being a consultant/sales person for other companies (Avon being the major one), but I know a few people who already sell for the other companies and thought I might not succeed at it for that reason.  So, I found out about Tupperware’s opportunity, and I haven’t made a final decision yet, but I’d like some feedback from you.  If I had an online way of purchasing Tupperware or hosting online only parties, would you be interested?  Would you come to me for your Tupperware needs or do you already have a consultant that you buy from?

That’s all I have for now.  If you are interested in any (or all!) of my ventures above, please check them out and help me succeed!  Feedback about the Tupperware opportunity will be greatly appreciated!

My Christmas House

I feel very behind this Christmas.  I almost feel like I’m not enjoying the Christmas feeling as much this year.  I felt very Christmas-y before Thanksgiving already, which is really early for me, but now that it’s upon us, I feel like I’m missing something.  I think my grandmother’s passing has a lot to do with it.  I still feel a lot of sadness…

But with that aside, I did get my house all decorated.  It’s as complete as it’s ever going to be this year.  I wanted to share my decorations with you, even though these pictures are from last year.  The decorations are all in the same spots this year, but my house currently looks like a tornado hit it with shopping bags full of gifts, and one ornament tub that still needs to be packed away, so you get to view last year’s pictures of this year’s decorations!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My grandmother made my stocking, probably about 5+ years ago, and I will cherish it always.  As I said, she never had much money to give big, expensive gifts, but I always cherished everything she ever gave me because it came with a lot of thought, and straight from her heart.  Last year’s gift from her was a set of dessert dishes because she noticed I didn’t have any at Thanksgiving, and even though they aren’t fine china or fancy, I love them and they are some of my favorite dishes.  She also gave me an ornament that she personalized for our first year in our new home.  I have to admit that I forgot about the ornament until I pulled it out this year, and it brought tears to my eyes.  It has an up front and center position on the tree this year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The newest edition to the decorations this year.  Bought this angel at a recent craft show.

 

 

Forgive the setup of this post if everything looks out of place.  My blog writing program and Blogger don’t always match up and look the same.  This is the majority of the decorations.  We do put up a mini tree in the bedroom and hubby decorates his desk with lights and such, but I didn’t get pictures of them last year, and it’s probably not happening this year either.

We did get a brand new camera for ourselves.  Mine has been acting a little funny lately, and BJ’s put one my dad has been eyeing for a year now on a sale for the cheapest we’ve seen it from anywhere, so we decided to go for it and have a very good camera.  My dad finally got it too, so now we have identical cameras!  I haven’t really been able to give it a good testing yet, but I’m excited to, and I’m hoping to start to get some really good shots that I can turn into prints to sell in my Artfire shop.  That won’t happen until next year, but look for them hopefully by summer!

I’ll have my Favorite Kitty Pic Friday post up this week yet, but I don’t know about any others until New Year’s then.  It’s crunch time now to get all my last minute gifts purchased, handmade, wrapped, and baking done.  It will be a busy week and a half, since my Christmas won’t end on Saturday!  We’re have a get together with some friends on Tuesday next week, and then we’ll be heading to the in-laws for a night or two after that.

Hope you’re all staying warm and sane during this crazy Christmas week!

My Life Lately…

I have hardly been blogging at all for at least a good 2 weeks now.  I was hoping to break the trend with last week’s Kitty Pic post, but obviously that didn’t happen.  So, I figured I’d take a few minutes and write something in a post now, at least let you in on my life lately.  It’s not all that interesting, but here it is…

Two weeks ago hubby had to go back to the main office for work for a week.  He left on Halloween, and since my parents don’t like to stay at home on Halloween for trick-or-treaters anymore, they came down to my house to keep me company and play some Wii games. 

The next day, Monday, I decided to do something healthy and walk a half hour on the treadmill.  I know I mentioned this in a previous post, but I managed to hurt my foot when I stepped off the treadmill.  It hurt even worse on Tuesday, and by Wednesday that week I could hardly put weight on it.  Since I couldn’t get into the orthopedics office for at least another week, I ended up having my mom take me to the ER to get x-rays and find out what was wrong.  Apparently, I just sprained it, but I could hardly walk, so they gave me a surgical shoe to take some of the pressure off my foot, and I ended up borrowing a pair of crutches from my mom so I could just do partial weight bearing.  Let me tell you – it’s not easy at all, and definitely no fun to hobble around your own house on crutches without any help around.  I almost fell on the stairs twice, and if I needed to carry something, forget the crutches – hello pain!  I ended up sitting around all day on Thursday, only to get up when I absolutely had to, so by Friday I was feeling somewhat better and was at least able to go out and about with my parents and no crutches.

Hubby came home that Saturday, and brought me these really interesting and beautiful roses.  I did take pictures, but I don’t have my camera here at the moment, and that’s where the pictures are, so I will have to post them another time.  They were 2 toned pink striped, and they came with these little purple baby’s breath type spray.  Most awesome flowers ever!

Since then, I’ve had absolutely no motivation to do anything.  My house is a mess because I’ve had no energy to clean, and I haven’t even crafted anything new because I just haven’t felt creative.  Same with the blog.  I’ve been feeling more tired lately, and I really dislike losing sunlight so early in the evening.  It really exacerbates the whole motivation and sleepiness issues.  So, I tried to make today somewhat productive.  I had higher ambitions than what actually got accomplished, but washing 2 loads of laundry, folding 2 different loads of laundry, washing the dishes and putting away the clean ones, and calling my dermatologist for a different prescription is quite accomplished for me lately!

So, I’m hoping for more accomplishments tomorrow.  Hubby is going to have to help me clean the house starting this weekend for Thanksgiving, so tomorrow I’m hoping to be crafty and get some of that stuff accomplished.  OH!  I almost forgot!  I sold my first pair of earrings from my Artfire shop on Monday!  Thank you to my first buyer – I hope she enjoys them as much as I do!  I was so happy when I got that notice.  I have re-listed the earrings, but when I priced them I unfortunately forgot about taking into consideration Paypal’s fees and the shipping envelope, so I had to increase the price by 50 cents – that’s not too much of an increase, right?  She still got them for the original price, but I apologize to any future buyers who have to pay the slight increase.  So, I have more jewelry and wine charm stuff, and I have really cute winter/Christmas ribbon that I’d like to create more items with to add to the shop ASAP so there’s more of a selection for holiday shopping.  Please check the shop, and check often since I hope to add more very soon, and see if there’s anything that catches your eye.  I am also interested in custom orders – if you don’t like anything in the shop, but would like something created just for you, please e-mail me through Artfire and I will see what I can do for you!

Hopefully more posting to come now…

Link Ups and Updates

So, I was apparently wrong about my new blog design.  In yesterday’s post announcing my new design I stated that it didn’t quite look like I thought it would.  I also don’t have a widescreen monitor on my desktop computer, so when I looked at it on the laptop, it did look like it was supposed to!   :)   That made me very happy, because I really liked how the whole background looked, and was a little disappointed when I wasn’t seeing it on the other monitor.  So, if you have a widescreen monitor, you will see the appropriate/full background design, otherwise you might only see a portion of it, which does not do it justice.

I linked up my Artfire shop and my blog today to this blog party/blog hop/whatever you want to call it (I get confused about what to call these types of things):

If you haven’t seen Sumo’s Sweet Stuff’s blog, check it out now.  It’s really cute, and she does a lot of cool, creative stuff.

I did get in contact with my doctor’s office today, and I got started on some antibiotics, so hopefully it helps and gets rid of this issue quickly.  I have never gone through this before, and really hope I never have to again!  And the last update is that this crappy rainy weather here needs to go – my knees have been sooo stiff and achy since the beginning of last week, and it’s really getting to be bad.  I know we needed the rain, but I think we got enough last week…now we have another 3 days of rain in store!

Hope all of you have nicer weather wherever you may be!

New design!

So, I finally picked, tested and applied a new design to my blog!  If you’re reading through Google Reader, as I tend to do, go check it out!  This one might not be permanent either, as I would really like to learn and figure out creating one from scratch on my own someday, but thanks to The Cutest Blog on the Block, I got this free background to pretty up my blog.  I always love seashore/seashell stuff, so that’s why I picked it.  It doesn’t quite look like it did in the sample they provided, which I really liked a lot, but some of it shows, enough to make it nicer than the kind of drab theme I had before.

I’ve had a pretty lazy weekend – but I haven’t been feeling my best, and even though today was much better than yesterday, I still need to call my doctor tomorrow.  I won’t go into it much more than that on here, so if you really need to know TMI, feel free to ask (but leave your e-mail address, because I won’t explain in comments on here either)!  I wanted to make these Caramel Apple Cookies this weekend, but that hasn’t happened yet, and probably won’t now until I get in touch with the doctor tomorrow and figure that whole issue out.  I’m cutting down some of the calories though by making mine with the Splenda Brown Sugar Blend and regular granulated Splenda, as well as egg substitute, so when I do have them made and taste-tested, I will let you know how mine came out and will try to come up with the calorie counts.  Thanks Smashed Peas and Carrots for sharing this recipe – they made my mouth water and I can’t wait to try them!

So,  what do you think of the new design?  And how about those cookies??  If that isn’t a fall recipe to love…   :)

“I feel like I’m taking crazy pills!”

Quote from “Zoolander”.  I’ve never seen the movie, but I will give you some insight as to where this came from.

My hubby has caught a cold.  Not a great time to be sick either, and I’m really hoping I don’t end up with it too.  But today he said he was feeling lousy, and I asked if he took any medicine.  When he said “no” and that he didn’t know what to take, this is parts of the conversation that followed (we were chatting back and forth via IM, since he was upstairs in the office and I really didn’t want to move from the couch at the time):

ME: what are ur symptoms?

HIM: feeling lousyness, stuffy, sinus congestion, my throat was sore, but I think that was post nasal drip from over night.  my brain feels cottony

ME: the box of red and green capsules on ur night stand, take those

ME:  that’s daytime sinus congestion medicine with some tylenol in it for ur cottony head

HIM:  merry christmas!

ME:  lol, the color of the pills?

HIM: yeah, my present from pharma clause

ME: lol, let me know if they start to help at all, cuz if not, i will see if i can find something different when i go out later

(some time later) 

ME: any effect from the medicine yet?

HIM:  I dunno

Then we began discussing some patio stuff.  The guys started today, and I was concerned about the size, location, etc. since a few changes had to be made from what the landscaper painted for the outline.  I told hubby before that I might need to go out with a tape measure later to measure everything and see for myself.  That’s just how I am with all house related repairs, additions, etc.  It takes all I have not to stand right there when things are being done so I can see and question everything – I drive myself crazy!  (Maybe I need the “crazy pills”, lol)  So this is how the convo continued from there:

ME:  the screening goes on tomorrow, that’s the sand-like stuff.  he said the black edging will go on tomorrow too, and they should be able to put down the charcoal border.  do u know about the black edging?

HIM: yes, cause I asked him my "why don't the edge bricks just fall off" question yesterday and he told me

(our patio is actually being built raised up due to the slope of our property, not dug down into the ground and made level with the rest of the grass like usual – hence the concern of the edge bricks falling apart)

ME: ok, u'll have to explain to me then, cuz i didn't know anything about that, but i nodded and smiled and said ok great

HIM: lol, "I don't know what your talking about but okay great!!!"

ME: lol, yeah, pretty much

HIM:  thanks you, you cheer me up

I then ask him if he needs anything else when I go out for other things.  Earlier for lunch, he said he wanted something else, more food.  After I told him what snacks were here, he said he wanted “chippies”.  Now, usually when we say “chippies” in this house, we mean nachos – tortilla chips covered in melted shredded cheese and bacon pieces.  So, when he said “chippies”, I immediately went to that kind, and told him we didn’t have the ingredients, to which I got the response that that’s not what he meant, but thanks to me, he now wanted that, and I was mean.  So when I asked if there was anything else he needed while I was out, this is what followed:

HIM: ingredients for chippies...

ME: and is that what u pick as ur side dish for the chicken? chippies and cucumber salad?

HIM: YES!!!  Chippies!

ME: lol, oh my

HIM: *dance dance*

ME: should i really buy real bacon or use the bacon crumbles?  and what cheese?

HIM: BACONSES!  Delicious CHEESESESES!

ME:  oh my…

HIM: What were in these christmas pills, pharma clause?!

ME: lol, y?

HIM: I feel goofy... I guess you couldn't tell.

ME: this is so getting a blog post!  lol

HIM: …I’ll need to review it before you publish it  :p

ME: lol, y?

Which brings me to the Zoolander quote:

HIM: I don't want strangers on the internet thinking I'm taking crazy pills!http://www.moviewavs.com/php/sounds/?id=gog&media=WAVS&type=Movies&movie=Zoolander&quote=crazypills.txt&file=crazypills.wav

I told him he’s taken these pills before, and asked if they always made him this goofy, but apparently he was just being his normal goofy self. 

So this is the story of the Christmas pills, and how I became “Pharma Clause”.

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 (Preview)

Well, I did say I would try to at least get one post in before the regular Kitty Pic Friday post, so here it is. A photo preview of my vacation in Ocean City, MD:

Sailboats in the inlet.

Very expensive houses and condos along the inlet’s “Stinky Beach”.

View of the beach from the speed boat ride (see those impending gray clouds of doom on the right? We had to turn back and go a different time…)

Not the speed boat we took, but one I managed to snap a picture of on one of beach afternoon outings.

A hummingbird moth we caught zipping around outside in the tropical area close to the beach when we visited the Carousel Hotel. See it at the bottom next to the orange flower? Best picture I managed to get of it. I originally thought it was some sort of moth, hubby thought it was a hummingbird – then I asked what hummingbirds had yellow spots on their sides, and it turns out to have really been a hummingbird moth! Hubby looked it up.

Assateague Island from the shoreline. We did see a group of wild ponies from the boat at a distance, but my camera unfortunately died right after getting on the boat, and I forgot the extra batteries at the hotel. This is from hubby’s phone camera.

More vacation posting to come! I feel bad for neglecting my blog so much over the last couple weeks month, but it has been a busy and tiring month, and I haven’t had much time for blogging (my Google Reader currently says 207 unread items! I had it down to 75 just 2 days ago – what happened??). There’s quite a lot I haven’t had much time for recently, and I’m not even exactly sure where my time and energy have been going! I hope after Sunday’s shindig I’ll feel a little more free and clear and be able to catch up and get back into everything.

Check out Favorite Kitty Pic Friday tomorrow, and have a great weekend! :)

Sorry for my absence…

If you read my blog, thank you for sticking around in my absence! I just realized (literally 30 seconds ago) that I have only done my Favorite Kitty Pic Friday Post for the last 2 weeks. I have been extremely busy distracted by a week long vacation to Ocean City, MD, a day trip to Bethany Beach, DE for a baton performance, and starting my first private lesson student for dance. I got the call for these lessons a few days before we went on the vacation, so as soon as we got back I had to get to form creating, lesson planning, and music. I felt very frazzled last week because I had a lot to do and not enough time to do it, plus I was nervous about the lesson. The lesson turned out pretty well – the little girl said she had fun and she was enjoyable to teach. I’m not fond of the area they live in, as the city of Reading makes me very nervous, but overall it went well with no problems.

Since we got back from vacation, I have been very tired too. I haven’t felt like doing much. And if I was tired before, this week is really going to kick my butt. I created a cleaning to-do chart for myself, that I have decided to do the first week of every month in order to keep a clean, orderly house and make the cleaning less miserable of a chore, since it will be done more often. Since I didn’t accomplish that last week due the the day trip, lesson planning and jewelry making I had to get done, I will be tackling it starting tomorrow. I have a shorter to-do list for every single day of the week in order to break up the chores and make it a little less daunting. It works out that this is the cleaning week now anyway, because I will be hosting a family gathering this Sunday. My cousin called and asked if he could have a gathering here of everyone that would come from my dad’s side of the family…I said OK…what have I gotten myself into? He managed to pull off a miracle and get all the aunts and uncles to come, and already we are looking at a total of 22 people! That’s only including a couple of the cousins, so imagine if they all came with their spouses and kids, we’d probably end up having to rent a location! So, I’m feeling stressed about that. My cousin keeps telling me not to worry about things, but it’s my house, I feel like the hostess (even though he is supposed to be handling most of it), and I care about how my house and my hosting skills are presented to whoever is here. I also was asked by hubby today if it’s ok if his parents come for a visit the weekend after that, so I said ok. Normally that frazzles me and gets me in a cleaning frenzy, but luckily all of that will be done already, and I’m feeling like that will be a breeze of a visit compared to one afternoon with my dad’s side of the family.

So, I apologize again for my absence and thank you for sticking around. I do have more to share with you, such as vacation posts, my new jewelry set, and I’m sure after next Sunday there will be more, but I have been busy, distracted, tired, and stressed out, and the next week might be more of the same. I will try my best to get at least one other post in this week, if not more, but I felt the need to explain my absence a little more and ask you continue to bear with me and continue following.

Have a great week – hopefully I make it through the week and next weekend with my sanity!

Week #2 Ending and Catch Up, plus AWARDS!

I feel like I’m playing catch up now. My hubby came home on Saturday afternoon after his week away in NJ, and I really didn’t feel like spending more time with my computer. I enjoyed my weekend with him, and now I have a lot of bloggy stuff to catch up on!

Week #2, Full Day #5 – I hadn’t slept well all week, mainly because I would put off going to bed until I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore since the bed was very lonely and empty. Friday morning I finally crashed. I didn’t get out of bed until 11:30am that day! Needless to say, I didn’t get that much accomplished on Friday before heading out to dinner with my parents, grandmother and uncle. After dinner we went to my grandmother and uncle’s house to play Wii games. That was pretty much the extent of my day.

Week #2, Homecoming! – Hubby came home Saturday afternoon at around 2:15pm. It was so nice to finally get a hug, and he even brought me a surprise:

The last time he came back, I also got flowers. Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures of those. He always knows how to make me smile. :)

After he unpacked, we ended up getting pizza (I know, bad me – I was hungry and didn’t want what we had here, so pizza won the hunger battle…) and just spent time together watching TV and relaxing. :) It was a very nice day.

Sunday – We slept in that morning, relaxed a little in the afternoon, then went shopping for a few things and had my parents come over in the evening. My dad and hubby put our new grill together, which took a lot longer than expected, and we tested it out – grilled chicken with light BBQ sauce, veggie kabobs marinated in soy sauce, ham for my mom, and low-cal cucumber salad with cantaloupe for dessert – yummy! It was the first time I ever used a grill, and of course it got late, so I had to grill in the dark! I had some light from the rear yard spotlight, but I will definitely not be trying to grill in the dark again. Everything came out awesome and delicious! The chicken was cooked perfectly, the veggies were done just right, and now I have grilled ham to try later in the week for a leftover dinner. Clean up is a little time consuming, but the grill is great and may just become my new favorite way of cooking this summer! :) (Picture from Lowe's website - this is our grill)

I also found out on Sunday that I received my first TWO blog awards! The first is this (love it!):

The Rules:
•Thank the blogger who awarded it to you.
•Sum up your blogging philosophy, motivation, and experience using five (5) words.
•Pass it on to 10 other blogs which you feel have real substance.

I’d like to thank NYC Island Gal for this award – I was honored to receive it, thank you so much!!! If you haven’t seen her blog yet, please check it out, she has a beautiful blog, a great spirit, and is working her way from island life to NYC!

My blogging philosophy – not really sure what that would be…I began this blog to write about my life, share my creativity, and connect with other people. I’m still unsure of a lot of blogging stuff, but I’m working on it, and hope to continue this for a long time. I guess I just like sharing and talking…sometimes maybe too much! But I was supposed to only use 5 words, so I guess this would be them – creativity, sharing, friendship, fun, and slim (for the experience part). So now I pass this on to these bloggers:

• Army Wife Life
• Fake It Til You Make It
• Making Stuff is Fun…
• MannLand5
• The Crafty Hippo
• Newlywed Adventures
• Alabaster Cow
• The Glamorous Life of a Housewife
• The Very Best Housewife
• Little Miss Scatterbrained

Hope you all enjoy this award!

My next one was not specifically given directly to me, per say…but I will certainly take JoJo up on this!

She “broke the rules” a little by passing it on to all her followers instead of just the seven required, and as I am a follower of hers, I will certainly take it! :) The rules for this award are to list seven facts about myself and to pass this on to seven other beautiful bloggers.

1. I was terrified of dogs when I was little, didn’t matter how big or small. This all started when the little mini poodle down the street used to chase me on my big wheel (remember those?? mine was a Smurf one!), and knocked me off one day. Yes, a mini poodle knocked me off my big wheel… I am better with dogs now, small dogs are totally fine, big ones are ok for the most part, but sometimes they strike the fear in me a little again. I would even love to have a Pembroke Welsh Corgi someday, if I ever got a dog.
2. Sticking to the fear issue – I am also terrified of birds! Seagulls are the worst! I’m not sure how that started, but to this day, I dodge the birds on the boardwalk and freak out whenever one flies near. I know there’s a picture of me when I was about 3 or so with a bird sitting on my head at the shore – maybe that’s when it all began…
3. I loved high school, and miss it a lot sometimes. I hated college. For most people it’s the other way around.
4. I used to have an iguana, a hamster, guinea pigs, hermit crabs and a betta fish. Not necessarily all at once, but I’ve owned all of the above at some point in my life.
5. I used to play the clarinet. I wasn’t the best in the concert band, but I played from 4th grade to 12th grade. Haven’t touched it since…sometimes I wish I would have continued.
6. I played an island girl in my high school’s production of “South Pacific” when I was a sophomore. I have red hair, and they cast me as an island girl…then wanted me to die my hair black! The director would not allow wigs, and I was not about to turn goth, so they hid my hair with lots of flowers. There’s a pic of that somewhere too, but I’m not in possession of it right now. Hello! Where was your brain when you casted?!?
7. I used to love camping when I was little. A lot of my fond memories of my grandparents are from when I went camping with them. I slowly grew out of my love for camping, but when I was little I liked it a lot.

Now I pass this on to these lovely bloggers:

• Army Wife Life
• Fake It Til You Make It
• The Glamorous Life of a Housewife
• NYC Island Gal
• Josiah’s Nest
• Dear Lizzy
• Gerber Days

I hope everyone enjoys their awards, and sorry for the long post, but now I feel all caught up and should be able to continue with my regular stuff now! Have a great week!