Monday, November 30, 2009

productivity!!!

~i love being productive.

~it might take me a while to get there, but when I do...lookout!!

~we returned from VA on Saturday afternoon and I promptly got to cleaning the house (what a mess!) and then O took E to the grocery store with him (after telling me that I don't know how to grocery shop)....while they were gone I completed my on-line test for my Wed night class and thankfully I am officially done with that class.

~i then listed that text book on Amazon for sale and it was sold within just a couple of hours. Hooray!

~thankfully I can put all my scholastic energy (which isn't much) into prepping for my Stats final.

~on Sunday I managed to assemble (ALONE) a nifty storage-like piece of furniture for my office, make TWO crayon roll ups for a lovely bloggy friend and then also cut some fabric in prep to create my 2nd quilt. I sure hope the lady that is quilting my first one calls me soon. I can't wait to see it.

~now if school would just be over with, maybe I'd have MORE time for fun stuff...like sewing!

Thursday, November 26, 2009

thankful

today I am thankful for...

~that I don't have to deal with all the nasty people i've met through the years working in Corporate America. Good riddens.

~that i'm celebrating with "new" family...a positive to my parents divorce...a blossoming relationship with my step-siblings, particularly my sister in Virginia. Good times!!

~taking O's company truck to VA & sparing my vehicle the mileage & wear & tear (for once!)

~great blog friends!!!!!!!!

~the semester is almost over. one on-line exam & one (dreadful) stats exam 'til I'm FREE for 5 weeks.

~the opportunity to go to Dallas the week after Christmas and meet up with friends...old & new.

~what have you been thankful for today?

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

videos!!!


~the one where E does his animal impersonations~


~the one where E rocks at the Hard Rock~

gobble gobble

~E walks around saying "gobble gobble" - it's pretty funny.

~I'm hoping we get out of work early today.... I have too much to do at home.

~We are headed north to VA tomorrow bright & early.

~I have to bake TWO desserts...one of which has many steps...ugh.

~Even worse, I will likely not taste either of these two desserts.

~I refuse to fall off the WW wagon this week.

~Thankfully, turkey & other typical Thanksgiving foods are not big temptations for me.

~Here are 9 reasons why I'm crazy addicted to the world of quilting & fabrics in general...

1. hop, skip + jump!, 2. animals quilt, 3. Lovely-ness, 4. Basted - Back, 5. Ducky Day Front, 6. Red and Aqua quilt, 7. Red and Aqua quilt, 8. Putting on the Pink Quilt, 9. Denyse Schmidt Hop, Skip & a Jump Quilt

~Happy Thanksgiving to you!!

Monday, November 23, 2009

sew fun!!

~i found a new hobby. that is NOT a good thing. I don't have time for more hobbies...

~i made this Crayon Roll Up last night...fun!!

~i'm also dropping off my quilt top TODAY to a lady to do the actual quilting of it for me. when i get it back it will only need to have the binding put on, which i've heard can be difficult...i'm a bit frightened.

~i'm totally 'addicted' to this quilting/sewing thing...it's fun to look @ all the fabrics...makes me want them all!!



Friday, November 20, 2009

friday randomness

*random posts are my favorite. they are easy to read too!

*i'm at SBUX relaxing in the cafe 'til I can pick up E...he's napping right now.

*i'm clearly missing something on this "glee" show...I watched a few minutes of it a couple wks ago and I don't see the attraction. oh well. to each his own. i don't have time for more TV shows anyway.

*i finally received my magic yellow paper from the school district which states that i'm cleared to be a substitute teacher.

*i went to FOUR elementary schools today to get put on their substitute list.

*i'm hoping i get called soon to sub on a few mondays & fridays. it will help offset the daycare costs and maybe even buy a few Christmas presents.

*i don't know why i'm excited for Christmas...probably for E really because otherwise, there is no reason...I have NO money, I hate life @ home most of the time & we are spending Christmas day with my mom and her husband...and well, her husband is NOT my favorite person & I hate pretending I like someone when I really don't all that much. it's a long story & i have repeatedly tried to like him. just when things are looking up, something happens that resets me to my 'not-liking-him' point.

*i was going to go back and temp at the Talbots call center this year...but I would have spent my ENTIRE weekend in training (9-4:30 both days) and when i calculated how much little money I would make, I decided it just wasn't worth losing the time with E.

*i feel like crying on a daily basis lately. that sucks.

*i ran (& walked) 4 miles @ the gym today. I also did some weights & a brief 10 minutes on the elliptical machine. I should have done more as I later realized I won't get to the gym at all next week. oops!

*on monday E and I are going to meet up with his girlfriend and her mommy for a playdate (hence no gym for me). we haven't seen each other in about 3 weeks. he'll only be at daycare for 2 days next week and the best part...we still get to pay the full week's tuition. damn that hurts!!

*SBUX has THE cutest Christmas plush characters...a reindeer & a teddy bear. love!

*i'm still rocking the WW diet. i even restrained myself to only a TALL Chai while here at SBUX (4 points). i'm looking forward to weighing in on Monday. my scale @ home has me down about 2lbs but i'm hoping (& praying) for at least one more...that would put me at my lowest weight post-baby. I would still have about 20 more pounds to go though. If i'm down 10lbs by Christmas I will be SUPER happy!!! And I think it's totally do-able.

*there are really some interesting characters at SBUX right now. great for people watching.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

it's beginning to look a lot like...

Christmas!!

~not sure why i have so much Christmas spirit this year, but i've been enjoying getting out the decorations a bit early. Maybe it's simply because I did not decorate AT ALL last year, no tree, nothing. It's like Christmas for me just opening my storage containers and seeing everything in there...I always forget what I have and I have WAY TOO many Christmas decorations. Four FULL storage boxes & that doesn't count the ornaments I have...eeks!!

So anyway, I'm not the best decorator & I'm limited with what I can do & still keep the house childproof, but I thought I'd take a few pictures to share with you. Enjoy the holiday tour!!

I just added a few items to my this table. I have to put NON-breakable items here since E can reach everything on it now.

This is the top of the entertainment center. Clearly I have an abundance of plush Christmas decorations.
And here's the mantle (so far). Somewhere I have 2 other stockings which I'll hang up as soon as I find them. This is the first year for the reindeer as I purchased them TWO years ago at 50% from Pier One!!
Lastly, here is a shot of the entire (tiny) living room. Don't mind my pathetic window treatment...it's supposed to hang there draped as in two scallop shapes, however a certain pair of hands OFTEN pulls on it and i'm tired of fixing it everyday.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

the eternal student...

~yep. that's me. the eternal student...

~i will attempt to make this post as brief as possible but it is somewhat of a cumbersome story with potential to be confusing as well. enjoy...plus if you read to the end, there's a giveaway...

~i have been planning on graduating in December 2010, specifically December 10, 2010!!!

~yeah, well, that probably won't be happening, at least not on that day.

~while i only have 1 class left to take (after this semester), but I still have to do my Practicum (a mini-internship) which I will do in the Spring. It requires 100 hours working in a school enhancing counseling skills etc....essentially working as a school counselor for FREE. After I complete the Practicum, I will only have my Internship left, which cannot be done until Fall 2010 (no school in the Summer). It is a 300 hour requirement...same objective as the Practicum, but more intense.

~originally i planned to do my Internship in one semester which boils down to a 40hr-a-week job...so that means quitting my GA position. all along I thought this would be the best route to go so as to get done with school & back to the real world. as i've pondered it more and more, graduating in December is less favorable than in May when seeking to work in the school system. while there CAN be positions available mid-school year, there will likely be LESS positions. Additionally, leaving my GA position means NO income, NO health insurance and NO FREE tuition...all expenses I would incur. Now, I had been planning on this so I did set aside some monies from the lawsuit fiasco, but in a perfect world I wouldn't have to spend it just to live.

~so to run the numbers...health insurance (for just Aug-Dec) would cost AT LEAST $1000 for the semester...and that's for me and E. (O's job has crappy yet expensive insurance so that's not an option.) Tuition would be $2538 PLUS fees...so let's just round up to $3K. And then there's the loss of income, which would be a whopping $4400. I don't care telling you what I make...if you look hard enough, you could find the info yourself on the school website. So that's about $8K and that's barring any emergency spending that may present itself along the way...which you know, would be bound to happen. just because.

~and so, my friends, it seems the wiser choice is to split my Internship up over two semesters - which, honestly, is what the majority of students do anyway-and that way I would work 20 hours as a GA and 20 hours in a school every week over the course of the two semesters.

~there are many other positives to doing it this way-with the exception of dragging out my graduation date until May 12, 2011...which seems like an eternity...oh and which happens to be my very first boyfriend's birthday...ugh - where did that come from & why do I still remember that?

~so the positives are: less stress during the Fall 2010 semester. word on the street is that it's quite a challenge to get all the internship hours completed in one semester...like you can't be sick...ever...and we know how well that worked out for me this year. i'm thinking with a 2.5 year old by then...i'm gonna be sick...or more likely, he's gonna be sick & i'll have to stay home with him.

~another positive: continued income & free health insurance & free tuition. also, since i'll be sticking around, i'm thinking i may take an extra class or two which I could eventually apply to my EdS...and that means FUTURE money saving. hooray!

~another positive: regardless of splitting the internship, technically I would still be "employable" in the school system come January 2011 and if i were fortunate enough to be hired, that would mean i'd finish my internship concurrently while working & getting paid for a FULL TIME job. that would rock my socks off. it's happened to quite a few of my classmates, so i'm going to be (gasp!) hopeful for that to happen. and if it doesn't, i'll still have my GA position.

~if i were to do the internship in one semester & be done in December 2010 and then unable to find a job for Jan-May 2011...i'd continue with NO income...or insurance...you get the point.

~so unless I win the lotto or O decides to put on his big-boy pants and go find a better paying job (and they DO exist right now)...then this is the route that I *must* take...and by *must* I mean *the wisest & more grown-up* route...and now i'm off to change my graduation countdown...adding another 150 days or so...oh joy!

~and let's end this on a bright note...i recently won a bunch of scrapbook stuff from another blog and well, it's basically a bunch of stuff that really isn't my "style" or that I'd use and so I vote for re-gifting it...leave a comment...something positive preferably to help keep me afloat while I cope with this 150 day graduation delay...maybe even something to the effect that taking SIX FREAKIN YEARS to finish a Masters degree really is OK...ha!! Actually you can say whatever you'd like in your comment (within reason) to be "entered" into this little giveaway. I'll do the random number generator thingee - sometime on Monday. Also, if you comment and DON'T want to be considered for the giveaway (like you don't scrapbook), tell me so in your comment and I'll just keep generating numbers 'til i get a winner.

~and here's my positive picture for the day...it's on my tumblr too...which by the way...is crazy fun and very addictive. I recommend you check it out. lots of good stuff there!!

I Want Wednesday...

I have lots of "wants" this week...
OMG! How cute is this pincushion!!! Now that I'm "quilting"...well, I really need one of these.

This has got to be the neatest quilt I have EVER seen! Want!!

Super cute lamps from Pottery Barn!

I have wanted this phone from Pottery Barn for years now...

Oooooh and this lamp...this lamp...major drool!!!
I love this little necklace tree...from Red Envelope!!
Yes, folks...I still want an iPhone. The obsession was subdued for a while when I realized there is really NO way on God's green earth that I can afford it right now, being a poor graduate student and all...but it doesn't make me want it any less. the worst part..it's not really the phone that i cannot afford, but the $60-70+ per month to pay for service. right now we pay $34 per month for TWO phones...

And last but certainly not least....
I miss my Wrangler desperately...and a little more recently since Chele went out and got one for herself!!! Lucky gal!!! All this talk about Jeeps makes me want mine back. Mine was just like this one sans the winch & add some side steps & well, it wasn't a Rubicon but I did have some nice big 'ol tires. Someday I WILL have one again!! Hopefully sooner rather than later.

Monday, November 16, 2009

WW - week 1 weigh in

~I have been on WW for one week.
~I lost 4.8 lbs this week.
~I'm pretty darn happy about that.
~I worked hard & did not cheat.
~There's no reason to cheat on WW though.
~I've never felt like I wasn't able to eat something on WW.
~You just have to count the points, easy as 1-2-3.
~The first week typically yields a bigger loss.
~Next week will likely be more around 1-2 lbs
~I'm going to be hopeful and aim for 3 lbs.
~SBUX Iced Grande Chai have 5 points!
~I decided that Monday afternoons will be when I indulge in one of those.
~On to week two...

Thursday, November 12, 2009

post by numbers

1-wednesday night class left, then just a take home 'quiz' & that class will be complete pre-Thanksgiving! Woot!

2-times i've been puked on by E. as a result, i have realized that i prefer being pooped on vs. puked on...the smell is MUCH more tolerable. really, it is.

24-WW points I can consume each day.

4-bottles of water consumed each of past two days.

64-ounces of water consumed each of past two days.

7-days i'll be spending in Dallas in December & I am super excited.

13-days since i last ran. *gulp*

5-pounds i hope to be down on monday. that will put me down into a lower "decade" range.

7-hours left in the workday.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

annoyed!

Disclaimer: I tried & tried to come up with some fun & positive things to write about, but alas I fail there once again. So here is a list of some recent things that really annoy me...most of which are not life altering in any way, shape or form...

~i am annoyed when a particular friend who is a stay@home mom recently tells me that being @ home or a working mother are equally challenging and then posts on her Facebook how she enjoyed a 3 hour nap yesterday. WTF? I don't get to take a 3 hour nap when I'm at work. equally challenging my a$$!!

~i am annoyed by the frenzy that the stupid media is causing about all this H1N1 hullabaloo. so much so that I was treated like I had the plague when I came into work last week for a whopping 6 hours. and I wasn't contagious AT ALL. nor did I have the Flu.

~i was really annoyed when my own mother would not take me to the student health center last week because she feared catching something prior to her departure for Hawaii.

~i was annoyed when a family member sent me an email that should have gone directly to O, thereby leaving me to be the messenger...you know...the one that gets SHOT. nice.

~i am annoyed that because I allow my cats free range in the house, Milo chose to walk on my pillow while I slept on Sunday night & as I went to push him off the bed, he used my face, right below my eye, to brace himself...and he has back claws. now i'm sporting a nice gash under my right eye...looks beautiful.

~and that is all I am able to muster up for you...I'm sure there are many more things that are annoying me, but my memory is failing me...and well, THAT is annoying. :)

Saturday, November 07, 2009

whole bunch of nothing

~as you can probably derive from my recent lack of blogging...I'm just not feeling the blogging thing lately...well, and I've been sick....but we all know that one can blog from bed if one really wants to. i didn't want to.

~i'm not even keeping up very well with most of my blogs. sorry. i'll get back to it eventually.

~i'm pretty stressed about these last few weeks of school coming up. now that i missed last week, that puts me at more of a deficit and adds some work to my plate (oh joy!).

~i'm still fighting off this cold...not quite feeling normal yet...hopefully soon though because I'm really tired of feeling like this. i feel like i missed out on a week of "life" geesh!

~well, that's it. i better try to make a dent in my "makeup assignment" for my Wed night class....apparently I'm in high school again...not grad school (make up assignment..wtf?) maybe I just should have gone to class & puked there instead.

Tuesday, November 03, 2009

checking in...

~if you are on Twitter, then you know I've been sick since last Thursday. No, it's not the Flu and it's not the Swine Flu either. Just a cold that is kicking my butt! I even stayed home today in hope that additional rest/sleep would help me. Not sure I feel a whole lot better but I must go to school/work tomorrow, so I'll just have to tough it out.

~I haven't been this sick since pre-pregnancy days. Thankfully I do not get sick often (knocking on wood now)...Ethan was also sick, although he is doing better than me at this point.

~It's likely he brought home some bugs from the daycare...although hard to say entirely. He's only been going for 2 weeks so this was bound to happen. Many people warned me, but on the bright side it's building up his immunities right?

~I'm loving the daycare and I hope it stays that way. His teachers are sweet and we already have 3 art projects hanging on the fridge. I love it!

~I'm hoping by this Friday I am feeling 100% and able to go to the gym and enjoy a lengthy, non-rushed workout and run. Fridays are officially "my days" now that I have 5 days of childcare, although I won't deny I feel slightly guilty at dropping E off and then heading out to do things on my own. I know he has fun there and is learning tons -you wouldn't believe how his vocabulary has flourished- but regardless, I feel a tad guilty when he cries in the morning.

~Halloween stunk here. It rained. And rained. And rained. We went to a total of maybe 5 houses & headed back to our friend's house. It was more fun afterwards as we watched the Vols football game and just hung out. E enjoyed himself, although I do wonder if the rain had a negative affect on our health as that night he woke numerous times in coughing fits. Poor guy!


~a flower for mom...he picked it himself!!



~the most beautiful pumpkin EVER! he painted it @ "school" (daycare)


~the cutest doctor ever!