Tuesday--the last day of January

Can you believe it--another month has gone by already?? It seems like only a week or so ago was Christmas and the new year, not 30 days ago. Where does time seems to go? Tomorrow is February--and here, the temperature feels like March into April, and we haven't seen a drop of rain in over 100 days. With my luck a spring deluge right when they open our existing roof to build the addition. If that happens--you all will hear about it! :)

Other excitement for the week, not really anything. Just hanging on and waiting for the weekend.

It's over

After several weeks, and one really maddening week of real work-9 hours, work at (or on) home--5 hours--the appraisal is over. OK--so you ever get the feeling of being let down. There has to be more to an appraisal then... "I'm going to take some pictures, measure the house, and then I will be done." I need some praise..."Your house looks great...love the colors...something." I would even take "...like the flowers." But nothing. All I got was, "this house is completely square", as he was measuring my back patio. OK--yes that's right we live in a completely square box.

Either way, the house looked super. Especially with clean carpets. C and I started a trend to take off our outside shoes at the door, and put on slippers "that you can only wear in the house" on. Hoping that trend continues.

Other positive things that came out of this appraisal...

• De-cluttered my house. Threw out, gave away, or disposed of absolutely everything that we haven't used in at least six months, not to mention years.
• Organized my house. Yes, that's right. Put everything where it belonged, or created new bins, etc. if it didn't really have a home.
• It's manageable--now I just have to keep the house up. As both C and I work things get way out of hand at times. If I just take 15 minutes in the evening, and clean something, anything, I am hoping everything won't get so out of control.

I should now go around the house and take the "before" pictures. That way, once the construction starts and finishes over the next six months, I can remember a completely clean and happy home. Post the pictures up here over the next week or so.

Sunday and all is good

Its Sunday, and all is good. The house is completely put together for the appraisal tomorrow. So everyone keep your fingers crossed that we only have to do this once, and we can get all the things constructed all at one time. I went to Trader Joe's today, and these flowers just screamed out at me, "Buy me, Buy me, and I will make you happy." A quote from Ali..."these flowers make me happy." They are bright, but there colors are very, very rich. I tried a couple different settings on my camera to try and capture the vivid yellow and rich oranges. Hope you get the idea. Thought I would share...Have a great week.

One final thing...

Love the fact that I have so much ribbon...but one final nail in the proverbial coffin for the Tuesday...towels that I hunted for all over the city and finally found on the internet were delivered last night by a hot UPS man. These towels are perfect for my bathroom--I have the hand towels, but I wanted bath ones too. Found them on the internet--ordered, and then they showed up last night--so happy, and a great ending to a horrible day. Try again. Opened the package, and the tag said the exact towel that I ordered, should have guessed because of my day...but they weren't the towels I thought I ordered. The picture on the internet didn't match the towels I received. That figures, and now they go back, and for this pleasure I owe $6.95.

Today was much better though...

Yesterday

Don't you ever have one of those days when you tell the world to stop, so you can catch up? I had many balls in the air, and many of them came crashing to the ground yesterday. So, let's summarize:

• Monday night, 8:30 pm, appraiser for the refinance called and wanted to show up at my house the next day. The answer: No, let's try for next Tuesday.
• Next morning, 10AM, loan processor calls, for some additional info. I tell her about the late phone call, and idiot appraiser. Her response, is how rude, but you do need your home appraised by the 23rd (the absolute latest) because we need ten business days to complete, otherwise you owe more money, and your rate can't be locked in. So what is with this 30-day lock in rate when I have to have everything completed within 15 days? Panic mode sets in because my house is in no condition to be appraised--that appraiser would be laughing, " you want that much for this dump?"
• 11AM, husband calls, claiming he has a deathly illness and will die by sunset. Men...why can't they just suck it up? I threw up for four hours on Saturday night from some mysterious illness, and the next morning I ran all my weekly errands and housework. Love my husband, hate the helpless person he turns into when he doesn't feel well. There goes any chance of slave labor for the day.
• 2pm, boss says, the $2.6 million project I have been madly trying to finish over the last week, needs to be completed because the $30 million project needs attention. Not to mention, another co-worker promised a set of documents for this project with a VERY unrealistic deadline to the client, and she didn't consult me on the timeframe--I was playing hookie that day, but that is besides the point-- I am the one that will complete the docs--and she can't help me.
• 4:55pm, one of my subconsultants on the $2.6 million project has now gone MIA. He is the one holding me up, and I can't get a hold of anyone in his office of 20 people, and that's not for a lack of trying. Didn't anyone realize that 4:55pm is still 5 minutes away from 5pm, and the receptionist should still be answering the phone?? Hello??

So, to summarize my day--it just sucked. So to finish off the day, I spent the next five hours at home scrubbing walls, fixing little dings (so they can be painted today), and threw out five garbage bags of crap. My motto last night: haven't picked it up in six months--then it gets thrown out--don't even look back, and don't second guess yourself.

I ended up organizing my scrap room last night as well--and who knew I had so much ribbon?

Days like this...

My mantra for the day is the serenity prayer...please let this day end...

More later...

Buddy

Well, this weekend was going to start off wonderfully. C and I were going to get up and get this house together to be appraised. We need to have the house completely put together, so our refinance and expansion plans can proceed with at least no financial hiccups. That was until Saturday morning at 7:15 am. I fed the cats as usual, but when I went back into the house, and back to bed to lay down for another half a hour, I was brought back to awake by my oldest cat crying outside. I thought that was strange, so I got up and went back outside to see him crying in pain. I inspected his back leg and notice a huge gash in his skin on his back leg by his tail. To make a long story short, C found an emergency vet, and I quickly bundled Buddy into the cat carrier and off we went. A half an hour later, the vet told me that Buddy has had this wound for several days and it was severely infected. He didn't think that he could save his tail, not to mention his life. Buddy was almost twenty years old, and I had to make the decision to put him down. I hate those decisions. So, if you ever met Buddy, he was just a friendly cat that just wanted some attention whenever you were around. He was happy just following you around the yard, and sitting in the shade watching you do your yard work. We adopted him two years ago, and he walked into our little family, and he will be greatly missed.

TGIF!

This week is the best and worst of all weeks. The holidays are over--insert small cheer here because the "family time" is over with, but the week at work after the holidays, to put it in one word--sucks. Time drags slower than molasses, and yet you work on so many things to catch up but you can't stand sitting at your desk more than 10 minutes at a time. Go figure.

On the house front, C and I finally started on the road to refinancing. We are totally excited, but have lots of work to do on the house to make it presentable to the appraiser. UGH. Forgot about that part. So its cleaning and minor fixes for us for the next couple of weekends. Once that is over with we can sign the papers for the remodelling to begin. YEA!! Keep you posted on that one.

Other than that, have a great weekend. Gotta get back to work and finish the hour or so.

Back at Work again...

I have survived the Christmas at my brother's house. Actually, it was fun. The kids were great, and our gift to my nephew went great! All we heard for the remainder of the visit was: "Uncle C, Uncle C will you be my train engineer and build me another track?" He is such a cutie. Promise to upload a picture or two when I have a chance this week.

I can't believe another year has passed. It was twelve years ago since I graduated college--can you believe that? It feels like yesterday in some ways, and in others literally 12 years ago. My life has changed so much in those years, and for the better. I have a wonderful husband, and a kick-ass job or a job that kicks my ass (depending on the day), three wonderful pets, and a house that is planned to go under some major overhaul in the spring. There is only one thing missing--and I don't know if that will ever happen--so I will be happy with what I have.

So, I believe I have experienced something new...

I can never think of a Christmas that I haven't spent in the state of Arizona. I know that sounds impossible, but its true. Whether it is at my parents' house, my house, or my husband's family I have always been in Arizona for Christmas. This year is different. OK--I have to admit but I am a little excited to spend Christmas where we might even get snow on Christmas Day. Where it is actually cold, and no one really spends time outside...quite a different concept for a desert girl.

One thing that I don't appreciate in this mad rush and flying back east is the idea of shipping presents for Christmas Day. I am leaving my gift-giving ability up to unknown people that "assure me" that my gifts will get to their destination on time. That is quite a leap of faith for this control-freakish type of girl. And UPS, regardless of their very cute delivery men, has caused me issues today. The gift that was to put Aunt Karent (he always puts a "t" at the end of my name) and Uncle Chris on the gift-giving pedestal for the day, went AWOL. UPS's little tracker system said it wouldn't arrive to Indianapolis until December 27. I stared at that little piece of information on my computer screen for several seconds before realizing my problem. How can I give a little boy the "best gift" ever on Christmas Day, when the package wasn't going to be there until two days later?

Well the total control-freakish girl I am, called UPS and told them they needed to deliver the package before Christmas--no excuses. OK, so that didn't go over very well. So a few hours of panic, a couple of scenario building sessions later, I went back online and discovered that the package was upgraded, and will be there tomorrow. Fantastic, my "queen & king for a day in a little boy's life" was just made possible by my no so friendly or convenient friends at UPS. But its getting there, and that's all that matters. Now, this better not jinx it.

Otherwise, this is probably it for posts until next week when I back from the great space known as the mid-west. Until then, have a wonderful Christmas.

So, it happened again

Another two weeks flew by, and its all a blur to me. Mainly because I had a HUGE project submittal that needed most of my attention. Now, it over thankfully, but its left me with a head cold. I started feeling not so good last Tuesday/Wednesday, but willed myself to keep on going. And I made it through it all.

We leave for Indianapolis on Saturday where it's a high of 20 and a low of 4. Found that out this morning watching Al on the Today Show. Right now I am asking myself, why are we going where it is FRIGID, and do I dare tell my husband how cold it really is. (He was in the shower during the weather on TV). My family will be there, so yes we are going, and I don't think I will tell him.

Do you remember...

Before I begin...yes Carrie do plan for a visit next year!! Either the whole family or just you--we will have a guest room + my scrap room to play!! YEA!!

OK--onto my topic for the day. My dad passed away over eleven years ago now, and rarely do I dream about him anymore. Memories, no matter what, typically fade all too quickly over time. And my memories of my father are very precious to me, so when I start dreaming about him coming back into my life it's bittersweet. It's wonderful having his memory come flooding back to me but those same memories tend to leave me out of sorts for the next few days. I rarely mention to anyone when this happens, as I am not very good about opening up with these things. Anyway, didn't mean to depress anyone, and this will end on a happy note--promise.

I love soundtracks, and my latest one I purchased was "The Wedding Planner". You know the cheesy girl movie with JLo and Matthew McConnahey (spelling not my strong suit--People magazine's 2005 Sexist Man Alive). Well this soundtrack has an equally cheesy song by John Denver called "Annie's Song." For some reason I chose to put that on my iPod. Listening to it last week, a memory came flooding back to me about my Dad. I remember sitting in his boat of a car (blue Cadillac Coupe de Ville circa 1976) all pimped out with the latest 8-Track player and his John Denver 8-Track. I have no clue why Dad had an 8-Track of John Denver, but that's not the point. I think I was between six and eight years old, and I remember making my Dad replay that song over and over again because I thought it was such a pretty song. He must have grown so sick of it. I had completely forgotten this until last week when after hearing the song for a few days, then memory popped back into my head.

The mind is a wonderous thing...lots of my memories of my father are fading away, but one obscure song, by John Denver, caused my brain to go into overdrive and not only bring that memory back to me in vivid color, but triggered my dreams about him. I miss him still to this day so much it still hurts to talk about him, but Dad and I will still have this funny, pretty song together.

So many interesting things out there...

I decided to add a few new links to my blog--for inspiration. I followed links off of Carrie's blog, to Marirosa's blog, to someone else's blog...and then lost into the great big world of scrapbooking blogs. So many things to see and read about. I am missing tons, and would love just to sit here at work (6pm) and search through everything, but I do have to head home soon and dinner is calling. I started this whole thing because my CAD program I was working in decided to throw me out, and I didn't have the energy to go right back in. So I figured where I was ended up being good enough for a day. So blogging was an answer I thought I would enjoy.

I found a blog called "Self-Portrait Tuesday," SPT for short. What a cool idea--you post a photo of yourself on every tuesday and every month has a theme. It's reflection this month. I think I might just join in on this.

I also found Angie Pedersen's blog. She is the woman who published "Book About Me." I started one on myself about six months ago. It's difficult at times to do, but it will be worth it. and the SPT might help with that as well.

Gotta go home now. See ya all later.

Holiday Week

Well, I did what I said on Monday--sort of. I took Wednesday off, but didn't scrap at all. Instead, C didn't do any work either and we ended up shopping the morning away. Go figure--I have a husband who enjoys the "Pottery Barn" look just about as much as I do--just not the price tag. But, occasionally we walk in to see what they have, and wouldn't you know it but they have a coffee table on sale that's wonderful, and goes with our game table we bought last year. So we splurged, and bought it. It looks great at home, and I am excited to have more hiding spaces for magazines, remotes, and everything else that clutters a family room.

I did get around to scrapping a bit on Saturday morning in the form of finishing my sister's housewarming gift. Yea!! One thing down of about a half dozen that I want to complete before Christmas. Next up...Christmas cards. Ugggghhhh....

Pre Holiday Monday

Hi--

So its Monday--half the office is gone on PTO--and I don't want to work. Its after 5pm--I am allowed to say that now. It something to do with the short week--I want to make it way shorter than three days, say two days, and just scrapbook for a day. Sounds wonderful doesn't it? I was able to scrap a bit yesterday--I am trying to finish my sister's housewarming gift. It's a book for her to keep all the important house information in one place--like utility information, neighbors' phone numbers, take-out menus and reservation numbers, etc. Its just a little 8x8 book, and I am going to bind it using the wire GBC comb and my new-to-me binding machine. I hope it turns out.

Other things going on, not much. We get to see the plans for the addition hopefully by next week. I am looking forward to having more space. Especially since C is seeing where he went wrong by offering to vacate his computer stuff out of the extra bedroom. Somehow I knew that wasn't going to last for too long, but hey got almost a year out of him. So, once the addition is complete, our bedroom now will be turned into the office for both of us. My next idea is to get him this really cool desk that will fit his computer, paperwork, etc. but leaves me the majority of the space for my stuff. If I am able to find a desk that he likes, maybe he won't notice I am only giving him a quarter of the space we have set aside for our office. hmmmmmm......

To keep up...

I have been reading a lot lately so no blogging lately, but I will keep trying. The reading thing goes in waves. My recent trip back east got me started on my latest "binge". I just finished reading the second of the two latest Patricia Cornwell books with her re-occuring character, Dr. Kay Scarpetta. LOVE those characters. There is one more that I have to read, and then I am all caught up. I just read the reviews on the last one, and they weren't glowing, so I may have to wait for a paperback in that one.

Then I will just resort to switching to one of my other favorite writers, Elizabeth Peters. Her characters are eyptologists in the 1920's through 1940's (so far). They are mysteries with a touch of romance. Stories pull you in...and the new book is called "Serpent of the Crown." So I may just have to pick that one up.

Otherwise, it's eight days to the new Harry Potter movie.

New Links

OK--thanks to my friend, Mara, I have linked to a couple other blogs from other well-known scrappers. You know the likes of Donna Downey and Heidi Swapp. I am hoping by reading their blogs that a little creativity rubs off on me. I love all their items, and each one has such positive force as you read their entries, how can the good creative karma not rub off.

I had the pleasure of meeting Heidi Swapp last spring at the CK Convention here in Phoenix. I will never forget what she said over the microphone, "I go all out, and I don't know what is appropriate at these things (meaning crops) but I tend to overdo things..." She had such electricity, and she did "overdo" it for the good--Everyone ended up walking away with product, or project that they worked on with her, or some other memory of a fabulous night. Her blog is the exact same--you can feel that energy coming through.

Donna Downey's blog has challenges to her readers, which I think is great--that should get my creative juices flowing. She is another one that you can just feel her energy. I keep saying energy but its true--I love to scrapbook, and you can tell these women do too; therefore it's easy to pick up on--now if just the immense creative talent they have will transfer the same way. Ha-ha.

TGIF!

So, we have reached another end to a week. When you are little you think the weeks drag on and on; but the weekends go fast. I am convinced that as you get older the weeks fly by, and the weekends are just a blur. Where does time go?

For instance, we are interviewing contractors for our major home improvement, and I keep saying to myself, "Next week, I will get it done then. Hopefully, have a contractor on board by Christmas." Now, I will be lucky if it happens by February. Time should go as fast as you want it to, not as fast as it is. Right now, I would like it to slow up just a bit, so I can get a little more done.

My purchases 

Coordinating Papers with Basic Grey!