iPhone Style Update

I'm not sure if I've mentioned it yet, but my life has gotten quite hectic lately and I'm not sure how I'm holding up. Part of me thinks I'm doing great, because I've caught on so well to my new job and love how fast the time flies at work because I'm so busy. But then another part of me feels like the house is a wreck and that if I didn't have a 3-day weekend to catch up I might completely lose my mind...but other than that I'm great!

I've taken to using the camera on my phone to document any tidbits lately because that's all I have with me. Even then I rarely think of it because I'm so busy while at work. I did take a moment to document my great new mug (T.J. Maxx $3) with my cute "J" pencils (courtesy of Michelle) in it. Previously my pencil holder was an ugly, black, plastic cup so this is a 100% improvement and the only bit of personality I have on my desk space since my desk is really the whole school's desk. Surprisingly no one has swiped my cute pencils!

I have been so busy that I haven't really been able to stop for lunch. I can sometimes eat a string cheese and some wheat thins at my desk, but even that is done one at a time when I get a chance, so the other day when I got home (with a raging headache) I fled to the cozy and ate my lunch then.

I was able to sneak in a couple 15-minute lunch breaks in my car this week and enjoyed the peaceful moments of reading, though I feel like I can still hear the phone ringing in my head and had to check to make sure I wasn't still wearing my earpiece since I always have it on. Craziness.

The good news is that yesterday when I was dropping Whitney off for orchestra I pulled in next to a friend from church and it turns out her daughter is in Whitney's class (but hadn't been there on Tuesday so we didn't know) and we're going to carpool! This is so great, now Whitney will take her viola to school with her on Tuesdays and Thursdays then catch a ride with them after school and I can come home from work and be home for an hour and 15 minutes before it's my turn to pick them up. This is a huge improvement and gift in my life. Woohoo!

**How was your week?

Is your house a wreck?

What are you doing for the 3-day weekend?

What's your snack of choice?**

Comment Window Tidbit: My nice camera has been having trouble for awhile now but I've been able to turn it off and then on again when it acts up to get it to work, but yesterday at Landon's soccer game I think it gave up the ghost for real! I called a repair shop and it's going to cost $180 for the new part...I don't see that happening any time soon.

Denver Trip Day 6--Thursday

I spent the morning of day 6 blogging about the other days of our trip, so I didn't take any new photos. Kristi spent the morning getting things ready for their trip to South Dakota (they were leaving that evening), so I just did my own thing and stayed out of the way.

For lunch Kristi took us to this awesome sandwich place (which we conveniently had a gift card for).

The kids were a little skeptical about going to a sandwich place since they're both rather picky, but they quickly caught the vision of this place and ended up loving it; they both ordered pizza sandwiches.

Sweet fancy Moses, this is the glorious sandwich I got! It was roast beef on a toasted white roll with lettuce, pickles, tomato, onion strings, mustard, ranch and mayo. It was glorious...seriously a sandwich to dream about and remember...I'm salivating as I type this...it was beyond good.

After our scrumptious lunch we walked a few doors down to this frozen yogurt place because we also just happened to have a gift card for there. They have like 10 flavors of yogurt and you can sample them all and then serve yourself.

It was a major hit!

Landon wanted to add another jumping picture to his stash. He has them in a file on the computer and likes to watch them as a slideshow.

Randy chose to do some glorious, guest-suite napping because he could.

The kids watched Nacho Libre, they all know it by heart and love to quote it to each other.

When Jeff came home Randy showed him the target he and Landon used to sight Jeff's pellet gun (aka Rabbit Exterminator) for him.

I'm sure Jeff will put this in a very special place.

Annie Kate and Landon finished the 1000 piece puzzle!

This is the only photo I took of the kids all together during the whole trip, I'm not sure how this is possible.

Jeff and Randy said goodbye with a movie quote, "Brothers don't shake hands, brothers hug!"

Whitney is sort of a reluctant hugger.

I had their family pose in the laundry room doorway as they were leaving for their trip. It was kind of funny that we were staying at their house while they were leaving, but they wanted to get half their road trip done on Thursday night and we weren't leaving until Friday morning.

Peace!

We stood and waved goodbye and then Landon race the van down the street. Good times.

We went to a nearby pizza place for dinner after they left. It's the same place they took us to last summer, so I knew it going to be good.

Our last beautiful sunset sky of the trip.

Landon had Randy take this jumping photo of him while lying down on the ground, he's always thinking about jumping these photos.

Our time in Denver went so quickly. We felt totally relaxed, welcome and spoiled so it was bittersweet to have to get everything repacked to go home. 

**Can you quote Nacho Libre?

What do you get on your pizza?

Are you a reluctant hugger?

What's your favorite kind of sandwich?**

Sweet Fancy Moses

This afternoon I experienced my first burst of energy in 23 days! (Which have been the longest 23 days I've ever experienced.) With this new sense of well-being I was able to get some groceries and gas, unload them (this is no small thing when you've been without energy for a long time), did some laundry, documented my recent good mail, dusted, called Lori just to talk (I've been anti-phone through all of this), called my dad for his birthday, vacuumed the house, AND went for a walk with Landon! What in the world?!! I am so excited! I'm starting to remember that I like to do things after all. It feels miraculous!

Side note: While on our half hour long walk Landon and I saw at least 6 cats, a huge pheasant, 4 deer, numerous horses, several dogs and two goats.

Comment Window Tidbit: I really hope this burst of energy is going to be a permanent thing!

Wordless Wednesday

Comment Window Tidbit: It's amazing how glorious it feels to have 3 extra days since I'm not starting my job until Monday! What a gift, woohoo!

Creative Friday--THE RETURN!!

Sweet Fancy Moses, I hadn't even dared to hope Michelle and I would be able to get together for Creative Friday before the New Year, but she called me Wednesday night to see if I was up for it and of course I said yes!


Oh happy day, the Creative Friday table is full of our stuff once again!!


Michelle provided chocolate-chunk cookie and a cheese ball, what the? They made for some festive and tasty snacking, I told her she was back with a vengeance.

Tasty lunches have returned!

I addressed a huge stack of envelopes for our Christmas cards (which don't exist yet) and cut out some good mail labels. It felt great to be so productive again!

Michelle made the world's cutest tags, no one would ever have guessed her paper-art skills have been lying dormant for 3 months!

Eva was incredibly chatty today and spent most of the time at the table with us, but eventually ended up donning her Santa hat and playing the wii.

The return of the Creative Friday self-portrait.

**Have you done anything creative lately?
Are you pro cheese ball?
Does anyone in your house wear a Santa hat?**

Comment Window Tidbit: We finally started our Christmas cards. No matter how good our intentions are we never seem to get them mailed out before the 20th!

Roots Be Gone!

This is what roots look like when it has been 100 days since they were treated! It has not been pretty and has had me looking in the mirror channeling Stuart Smalley "I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it, people like me".


It's a wee bit ironic that trying too look pretty comes at the cost of sitting in front of a mirror for two hours (never a good idea for me) looking like a human antennae. My hair covers my face for much of the time, so I don't wig out too much, but it has taken me years of practice not to spiral into an existential funk involving how my face came to look this way, why I have so many chins, the injustice of thin Irish lips and having no profile to speak of. It's best for everyone if I don't have too much mirror time.


Voila, the finished result! I am root-free, my greys are covered or camouflaged and my hair is 3 inches shorter. Ahhh, I can leave the house without a disguise, and am upgrading my status from heinous to just unsightly since my left eye is still red and weird.

**Does too much mirror time wig you out?
Can you believe how bad my "before" picture is?**

Armoire Unveiled

Sweet Fancy Moses it's here! After being on my wish-list for so many years, the armoire is finally here!


Randy and Jared went to pick up last Saturday, but since the girls were here and their stuff was everywhere it didn't feel like it was officially in place (with the room cleaned) until Monday afternoon.


We're still adjusting to having it in the room, because though it freed up space horizontally, it is taking a lot of space vertically. This is a good thing, except that since the room is so small it kind of feels like an extreme presence right now.

This is what it looks like inside on the top with the doors open.

This is what it looks like inside on the bottom for now. We have a ton of videos and dvds, but need to have baskets or something to put them to make drawers out of those shelves. Randy just put these overflow movies in there when we emptied out our old entertainment center (it turns out it held a ton of movies and books, so now I have a large amount of homeless books as well).


This is the view from the front door. The blue chair recently got bumped from Lori's place to ours since she doesn't have room for it. It's not what I would pick, but I've always wanted a chair in that corner so it's okay for now. I just don't feel like the room is as homey as I'd like it to be. I had imagined that I'd put things on top of the armoire (ala Michelle) but it's so high to the ceiling that I fear it would look ridiculous. We also lost a lamp in this switch, so that side of the room is rather dim. Please help, I need advice!!

Happy Birthday Jen!!!

**What do you think?
What do you advise?
Have you crossed anything off your wish list?