Sunday, January 28, 2007

I am so proud of ME

This is where I throw out the stupid comment that I made and forgive myself, move on. Just move on!

I did good today! I got home and started by unloading and reloading the dishwasher, sweeping up the pile of crap on the floor, picking up all the stuff in the house and vacuuming, picking up all the laundry (last load is IN!) washing sheets, doing the cat litter (ugh - can they just pee once a week from now on?), emptying all the garbage in the house, taking it out and throwing away the ESD signs from November6th (yes, I said Nov 6th!), picking the diet coke cans out of the flower beds, and then cleaning off all of my most used surfaces - the side tables in the living room, my bedside stand and my couch basket. Then I went to dinner, and came home and made the bed and rebooted laundry. And, now, I am sitting here, in a little funk, and trying to remind myself of all the good things I did. I believe in myself.

I believe in my ability to be a little better everyday. To take care of myself and my home and my world, and to give love. My Mom loves me. My sisters and brothers love me. Mac loves me. Life is good, I just need to focus on the good parts. I am strong, and capable, and I can do this. This life thing.

Saturday, January 27, 2007

An Evenong with Me

I have spent a relaxing evening listening to DIY, doing a little scrapbooking and watching the cats run by. Got a call for a grass fire, it was suppressed by the brush truck guys by the time I got there. M is working on the Elrod's, so he has been gone all day, wierd day at the station without him. Driver operator class was as expected, a little disorganized, a lot boring. It was a good day with the boys, though, everyone was in fine spirits and goofing.

I did an excellent LO for HOF! I used the shark tank picture, that phenomenal one with the shark turning and the slide in the background. I intend to work on a few more this weekend, hopefully we'll get out early tomorrow and M will understand that I just want to scrap. (Yeah, right.) Let's see, I have one layout done, one partly done, one planned and one that needs some serious putting together. That is 4 out of ten. Ugh. I still have to do my monochromatic LO and my journaling and something

....sidebar - listening to the radio while drinking hot chocolate can be nasty - "subject has vomited and is having diarrhea" is not what you want to hear when looking into the murky depths of the cocoa cup....

anyways, and something with that gorgeous picture of Katie, something stunning. I want to hook up my printer so I can get ready for a couple of shots done with varied colors, like those ones of Mom with the colors that clash, redo them in gray-blue shades or something. My scanner is hooped, but I think I already have them digital. Still can't find the card with Mom and I's vacation on it. I need to back up my hard drive, by the way! I would hate to lose these pictures. Must get on that.

What day is February 10th? Let's see...if the 5th is Monday, the 10th must be Friday? No, I know it is Satuday because Tracy will be missing Driver-Operator class for Denton's test, and we only have D-O on weekends. That means I have all next weekend to scrap! WOOOOHOOOO! I can finish over the week and weekend and then send it out Monday or Tuesday, priority mail. YAH! There is still hope! No pressure, though. If I don't make it I don't make it. No big deal. The journey is part of the destination, right? Or whatever. No pressure. :)

Ok, I am feeling a little bit of pressure. I need to do a development schedule and a floorplan for the station by Wednesday night for the FD. Yugh. Too many cooks are spoiling that broth. Although, I probably won't have to go to El Paso this week now that Scott is there - thank goodness. But, I will have to work my asterisk off to get Beaumont done by Friday. I believe in me, I know I can do it. Life is ike this sometimes.

Anyways, I went in to turn on my binky and I guess I left it on all day. It is nice and warm already. Ooops. I must get to bed so I can get up in the morning.

Saturday, January 20, 2007

The cats are Mad!

So, a family of squirrels has moved into the attic. The pear tree, which has not yet given me a pear to eat, is now towering over the house. It's branches (along with the Cottonwoods (or garbagewoods, as the boys call them) allow the squirrels free rein to the roof. I have always looked on with benign neglect, which I will continue to do, since actually doing something about it would take too much effort. :) In the meantime, the cats hear all the noises in the attic and run around the house looking for a way up there. You know what? I may change my neglect theory and take some nuts out to the backyard and spread them around. They may as well be happy little home invaders. Maybe they won't eat my Romex if there is a good supply of peanuts for them.

I am getting ready to pack up for some cropping action this evening, looking forward to a little HOF work. Seems like I get more done when I am away from home, but the packing up is a pain. To be expected, I guess. Off to get at it!

Sunday, January 14, 2007

Excitement

I cropped tonight, finished 3 LO in Patrick's book, and put together one of the Prima Wood vase projects I was working on. My cropadile did not let me punch a hole in a bottlecap - the bottlecap wouldn't fit under it. :( I will have to think it through and come up with a plan B.

Big plans - I went to WalMart for cat food and litter, I am now going to clean up a little and focus on my Vases before I go to bed. Maybe start a load of darks and get some clean jeans going one in my world. M said JD invited him for a spaghetti dinner tomorrow night, and said I should expect an invite. I have been missing a lot of calls lately, I must start gettin' up for the late nighters. I bought an electric blanket at WalMart - $20. It is only twin sized, but I couldn't resist. If it is an icy day tomorrow I will snuggle in and have a good relaxing day. Why is it that I go to Wal-Mart to spend $30 and always leave having spent $100+? Yikes!

ML asked me to do a book for him today - he had emailed me and asked me where I had gotten the book and I sent him a link to the HSN kit. He said he had noticed a little difference between what I showed him onlne and what I made Patrick! Uh, yeah. :) He offered me $5. I told him I would make him one, but he had to wait a little while because I also had to do Mac's and mine. I may as just well start making multiple LO of the common stuff and do one for Phole, Gerry and JD as well. All my boys will ask for one sooner or later, if I know them. I think i will get them all to do their own 8 x 10 and 5 x 7's of their faves, that'll help me personalize it for them as well as scrap cheaper! SO much love to give, so little time.
a

Thursday, January 11, 2007

So 35 is not looking good so far...

APPARENTLY....

- You can wake up late and decide to make it a good day despite missing your flight, but that does not mean you will get on the next flight.
- You can get on said flight with an expired license, since your birthday was three days ago, and noone , including yourself, is the wiser.
- You can have a rental car reservation and there still may be no rental cars in the City you have flown to.
- You can wait three hours for a car to show up, but the expired license certainly does *only then* make it impossible to get a car.
- You can sit on a chair to decide what to do...for an hour - all the while worrying that you are for-sure going to be fired for this one.
- You can be given the advice by the car girl that you could just go to the DMV and get a new license.
- You can spend $50 on cab fare just to find out you need a social security card to get a new license at the DMV.
- You can get back to the airport and rebook your flight to go home two days early, but that doesn't mean they will let you on the plane - they ask for an unexpired social security card to go with your expired license.
- You can get on the plane, after going back through the airline's long queue for a "Special" boarding pass that gives you the added experience of a "Special" TSA fondling search.
- You can be seated in the middle on the airplane beside a stinky perfumed woman who keeps reaching over you to contact the man by the window, and passes her jewelry to him for inspection no less than six times, invading your personal space and subjecting you to a running dialogue across the front of your magazine with her Merlot breath of how "Indian made" jewelry means made in Pakistan and the indians on the 'res' are broke and penniless...and when you ask the steward to reseat you, his hearing impairment means you have to yell that you wish to be reseated because the lady beside you is rude, making you seem like the rude one.
- You can head home from the airport and miss the exit on the freeway, leaving you 20 minutes south on the highway before you notice that you are on 121 not 114.
- You can get to the corner of 407 and 377 and see firetrucks headed for your house....
and believe it or not...
It was not on fire yet! Just the grass.
Wow, what a great day.
A day in the life of the Ande.

Sunday, January 07, 2007

M took me to Macaroni Grill for my birthday dinner and then we watched "The Break Up" on Pay per View. It was cute, but he talked through the entire thing. He has headed home, so I thought I would check in here before heading to bed. Tomorrow is the big day, so I have been contemplating what I will do.

Last year I went to the Kimball, but I may just stay home and save myself the drive. I am going to go out for ice cream cake, that is one thing for sure. And I will definitely mess around in my scrapbook room. I am working on some fun crafts right now, I have been making Christmas ornaments since November and I see no need to stop. LOL. I also have an shopping mall estimate I need to finish for a 26 acre property in California, so I will have to put in a few hours of quality time on that. (ugh.) I have a project in El Paso that is without a superintendent so I will be spending most of my week there, which cuts down on my desk time and makes it hard to do my normal work at work. Oh well, that's what they pay me for! Besides, when I went to the El Paso City Hall last week I noticed an Art Museum, so I may sneak away for a long lunch one day and check it out.

Not much new here, the natives have been remarkably well and there haven't been many fire/EMS calls, although we did get a funny one tonight. It was toned out as a structure fire, which is an "All-hands-on-deck, drop-what-you're-doing-and-speed-to-the-station" call, and the dispatcher's additional information was that the "Woman states her husband was at the neighbor's house, poured gasoline on it and lit it on fire". To which the natural response is "Is PD (Police Department) en route?" But of course, when all was said and done it was the neighbor's BBQ grill that said husband had lit on fire, not the house. People say the darnndest things.

I'll try to check in tomorrow and update my day.
me

Friday, January 05, 2007

Two days until my 35th birthday!

And someone is getting antsy. Nope, not me, but you know whom! He is so worried about it! Lack of planning on his part has made him make a few last ditch attempts this week - Want to go to Shreveport overnight? Arkansas? Let's go look at houses?

I love him just the way he is. Besides, how could he ever top last year's gift? The electric rechargeable toothbrush? LOL! I know, I know, but I love the toothbrush, and I love that man.

Monday, January 01, 2007

Scrap Goals for the New Year

1. Scrap 104 layouts (2 a week), one inspired by Elsie's 52 weekly challenges which I had to have and now can't find on the floor of my scraproom. Develop my personal style.
2. Set up a "to-go" bag with a couple planned layouts to carry in my truck in case the urge strikes me on the way home (I drive by the LSS with the free open cropping time every day!)
3. Stop trying to completely organize my scraproom before I can "start" scrapping - this method has been proven NOT to work for me. Instead, I'll spend fifteen minutes a day (a la Flylady) and just jump in where I am.
4. Instead of stressing to make a calendar for this year, I will make 2008's calendar out of my 2007 kit - the pages aren't numbered!
5. Make a new, fun address "book" on a stand. And send people a card when I finish their pages.

I think this is do-able!

JOY walks here... PEACE follows... COMFORT saves...

This is where life should be lived