Terrible blogger. That is me.

Weathermen lie.

Just sayin'.

Gradually remembering to write...

While I breathe in the last remaining moments of autumn before the turn of seasons to all thoughts Christmas, I was thinking about how I am living for weekends. Although that makes me sad, because I want to live IN THE MOMENT, at least I have weekends to look forward to.

It's not that I don't love my job. It just happens to be draining right now. Not due to the work, but the energy it requires in terms of people. They need to vent, they are stressed... I am there for them and they sense that so they stop by my office and dump a little stress... but when you have 30 teachers and many more paras and other staff, each time they stop by to drop off some stress, it seems to just fill up my tiny office. I seem to take it off their shoulders and place it on mine. For some reason, I absorb the negative energy, the problems seem to be MINE to fix, even though they are not and truly, I am usually powerless to fix them anyway. But one of my strengths and weaknesses is empathy. So I truly FEEL for these people. I completely understand what they are going through and I feel it too.

And my energy level gets drained and I have to go home and plug into my loving husband to recharge... but I wonder if I am draining him? He gave me some great advice this week about pulling my own energy back into myself - my creative energy, my loving energy, my own energy - so that I can save some for myself. I'm trying to be more mindful of that and kind of let the stress swirl around but not let it land on ME. Just let the wind take it way, not store it in my head or on my shoulders. (The source of pain for the last few weeks)

Today is a beautiful autumnal day (I LOVE THAT WORD and YES, I INTENTIONALLY found a way to include it in this sentence!) and I am going to spend more time with family this weekend - shopping, playing, visiting, laughing, loving - LIVING.

I am ready to come back to writing again...

Andrew doing his Harry Potter impression...


I've spent a long time using Facebook. Various reasons... the most of which is that it's the fast food of blogging. I can type a line or two, upload a photo MUCH quicker and easier than on blogger, and still satisfy my need to connect with family and friends about life.

But I do miss having the floor, so to speak, that comes with blogs. With facebook, you are limited in who, how, what, etc. (My own self-editing, I am sure) But I do miss putting a special poem or quote here with photos that I've taken. There is the notes feature on facebook which is good but still... I spent many years creating and maintaining my blog and I don't think I'm ready to give it up yet. Who knows, a week from now I may change my mind. That's the beauty of freedom. Ironically - on Veteran's Day.

So I'm going to test the waters... I'm going to see if Blogger is going to be kind and not take 20 minutes to upload a photo and let me change fonts, etc. and make this thing pretty, like I imagine.

Here we go....

bring blogger back...

I think... I am not sure why I stopped writing. I looked at the date of my last entry and it was the near end of the school year and all of that frenzy that makes me crazy and sleepless... so maybe that's it. Or I am just lazy.

I've also been using facebook a lot but it really is like fast food of blogging. One line and you are done. Quick and easy but not as fulfilling as a full meal or blog entry....

I do like that photos are much, much easier to upload on facebook and all of the most recent photos are there. I guess I should load some here as well. If only it were quicker and easier to log in and upload here as it is on facebook, I might get back into regular blogging.

I have a ton to get done today... cleaning, really, as well as grocery shopping, cleaning out the fridge, etc.

We just got back from Vegas... 5 days, 4 nights and it was a blast....

Altered appearances...

This was the headline....

Mariah Carey radically altered her appearance for the critically acclaimed film "Precious," which got its international premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on May 16, 2009.


Under this photo...



Which was funny because I actually think it's more like she alters her appearance when she looks like this...



but whatever...

Speaking of altering appearances... we are still working on the dining room. Here are some photos of the now finished chair rail and picture frame moulding. There is so much more to do yet (hang lights, beadboard is still not up, finish the edges of the floor, etc, etc) but it's looking good.

Kitchen Redo

The kitchen in the photos looks much better than it did in person. I was sick of the orange-y oak cabinets. I had some inspiration photos from the decorating blogs I visit and a vision. We took off Friday to have a three day weekend to work on it all. Thanks to remodelingguy.net, I was inspired to finally try my hand at the kitchen. We removed the glass rack under one of the cabinets. We always felt compelled to use it although the glasses hanging there were always in the way! We also demolished the "appliance garage", freeing up more counter space. It was a good day on Friday!







Then we got to work. We used spray paint, auto primer first! Yep, it seemed pretty easy! But then we thought, hey! Let's spray paint the vent over the stove! That was a disaster! So we decided to take it down and get another one. It was over 15 years old. We ran back to the store. They wanted $200 for a stainless one. For another $50 I could have an over the oven microwave! I kept telling Sparky, "I believe in you!!!"





Then we pulled down the ugly southwest inspired tiles that I had super cemented to the wall more than 10 years ago. We had to use a crowbar and hammer to remove the tiles. This resulted in a LARGE hole in the wall! In fact, several holes. Oops. Ok, back to the store for a patch and spackle. Bob did a grand job fixing that up. Hanging the microwave would prove to be a difficult task...


Bob tried to escape out the window at one point but I just kept saying, "I believe in you!" After he used painter's tape to shut my mouth, he was inspired to become Bob the Electrician. He did it!!!!! He made me take a close up of the electrical box thingy he installed for the microwave. I was actually quite impressed!!!! We may appear to be seasoned DIY's but we are not so this was most impressive. THANK YOU SPARKY!!!

There is still more to do. The diningroom needs another coat on top and bottom, the chair rail needs nailed in and the picture frame moulding will go below that. The lighting in the kitchen will be replaced as will the curtains and possibly the blinds (sshhh, I haven't mentioned the blinds to Sparky yet!). We are also going to place beadboard along the sides of the cabinets and under the cabinets as the backsplash.







But it's almost done!