Christmas Decorating

 

FRIDAY after Thanksgiving we were still at my parents house.  Many years ago my mom was given a country inn village piece.  Ever since this has been a growning village with them adding pieces and expanding the village.  It now is so large it takes nearly a whole day to set up and fills an entire room.  A fun thing about the village is that it’s different each year.  Added pieces, being put in a new room and different arrangement of the pieces keeps it exciting to see each year.  Each year it’s put up right after Thanksgiving so this year was to be no different.  I began unpacking the pieces and dividing them as country or town pieces while mom began setting up tables and my dad was cutting boards to make table extensions.  We actually left before the whole thing was complete so it will be fun to go back closer to Christmas and see how it was finished this year. I don’t have any pictures at this time but I’ll try to get some posted sometime.

This began inspiring me to decorate my own place for the first time in years.  We were in a town the past 3 years that was 5 hours from home.  Noone would ever come visit (we always came home for a few weeks for the holidays) so there was no real reason for me to decorate.  This year being we live closer and having family that lives in the same town as us, there’s a chance we’ll have visitors so I’m going to decorate. I havn’t decorate in years so I’ve kinda forgotten a lot of what decorations I have. Also at the end of the holidays last year our friends were planning on going with a new theme and getting new stuff for the next year so they graciously gave us some of the decorations they were no longer going to be using.  Some of our stuff is still in storage at my grandparents and since decorating I’ve realized I’m missing some decorations so my decorations are a little sparse and only mostly in the living room area but they make me feel merry for the holidays. Here are some pictures. ENJOY!

 

The front door and catch all shelf. Joel complains about the santa hat blocking his view of the clock but I thought it was too cute to take down.  He was also disappointed to find that cookie tin was for decoration only and there were no cookies in it. He He!

The telephone shelf in the hallway between the two bedrooms

  

The backdoor/dining room/kitchen entry. The wreath was made by my mother from handprints of my students from my very first preschool class in 2006.

 

A few snowmen to smile at as I wash dishes

The sun makes it a little hard to see but it was too dark to take pictures at night. It’s a simple strand of white lights with silver tinsel. 

 

Despite the fact that we don’t use our dining room table, I really wanted to display these dishes.  It’s actually convenient since we don’t use the table I can keep the display set up at all times and don’t have to move it for meals.

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season!

THE THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY

 

GATHERING #1

Every year for Thanksgiving my grannie’s (maternal grandmother) family rents out the building my hometown neighborhood uses for community events. It’s a big open one room building with an old fashioned pot belly wood stove.  It was a large buffet table down the middle for tons of food which tends to be covered every time I’m there. This was one of our low number years with just over 30 people there.  We have some family from out of state that weren’t in travel health so we missed them this year.   I try my best to be good and not over heat but it’s so hard. since we do the meal pot luck style I want to try a little of it all. After the meal there are games and stories and picture sharing. Always a good time.

GATHERING #2

At the same time as my grannie’s meal is my husbands family meal.  This year we decided to split up.  I went to my family and he went to his.  After mine started slowing down I planned to leave and join his family.  Unfortunantly I didn’t get out soon enough and by time I got to town Joel said his family was going their separate ways.  So I just went to his grandparents house and was able to visit with his mom and grandparents for a while. Just visiting, no eating.  Probably not a bad thing, allow my stomach to rest. But knowing I had another meal to get to shortly I didn’t indulge in the desserts at my family meal planning to eat that part at his families gathering.  Oh well, though my sweet tooth suffered my tummy was probably thankful.

GATHERING #3

In order to accommodate all the other family gatherings my mom and dad saved their meal for supper time.  And because there would be so much turkey eating mom decided to go in another direction.  My sisters boyfriend planned to bring teriyaki wings he made so mom went for an Asian thanksgiving themed meal.  We had wontons and   It’s THURSDAY-maternal grandmother family, husbands missed but visited, my parents/sister,

Well I was too busy eating and visiting for any picture taking. Sorry.  But as always here’s my babies.

Bella chewing on her bone.

Chip chewing his bone and holding one in reserve LOL

The Week of Thanksgiving

Ok So I warned you in the last blog that it would be a while before I blogged again due to the Thanksgiving holiday and being away from the computer. I have made notes to myself to remind me what I can blog. I think I’ll break it down into a few shorter smaller (who are we kidding they will be lengthy) posts.  Please comment.  I want to know who (if anyone) is reading.  Are they too long, boring,tedious? I need some feedback.  If your comment doesn’t show up please email or Facebook me and let me know so I can fix things if there is a problem.

The SUNDAY before Thanksgiving I did some grocery shopping and bought some bottled water.  Ours tastes nasty.  My grandpa calls it “turtle tracks”. So we have been taste tasting various sources of water to find the best tasting. My “big” project of the day was rearranging the lights in the living room for optimal lighting. As I have stated before I’m a crafter and a tv watcher.  I have to have light pointed directly at me from behind so my hands don’t make shadows on my work. From “my spot” in the corner of the couch where I can rest my right arm on the arm rest the light leaves a terrible glare on the tv.  So I have moved the tv into the corner of the room at an angle and have added some lighting.  In order to get the best light behind me in the middle of the couch I had to do some creative set up.  Can anyone figure out what I used as my behind the couch “table”?

    

     (Bella in corner, TV mid wall)                           (Bella mid wall, TV in corner)

                               

(“table’ behind couch, tall lamp farthest from “my spot”, small lamp directly over my left shoulder, 3 bulb lamp over right shoulder)

MONDAY started early.  To be off for Thanksgiving Joel’s work has revamped their hours for the week.  He is working 3 days for 10 hours starting at 6 a.m.  We live about 20 minutes from his work, and he’s a slow riser so that mean up at 5 every day this week.  Thank goodness I was able to go back to bed. LOL since the schools are closed this week for the holidays.

The weather was forecasting rain but it was only a light drizzle so I ran out to take care of some business. My luck that was when it began to pour. I could hardly see the road, wipers going like crazy. 

I have no notes from TUESDAY and it’s been so long I can’t remember what I did then. Probably nothing much.

As soon as Joel got home WEDNESDAY afternoon we were heading home for Thanksgiving with our families. I spend the morning getting the house ready to sit empty for a few days.  Early afternoon I started packing. We had intentionally not said anything to the dogs cause they go crazy. Well still not saying anything, only getting out the suitcases they knew something was up.  They kept looking at me as if to ask “What’s going on?  you don’t use those things much.”  As I got several things packed and began stacking them in the Living Room to go to the car, they got the idea and started going crazy running around the house.  They knew we were going on a trip.  Though they hate the trip no matter how long or short they love the idea of “going”.  We were able to head out shortly after 5 and we were only going 2 hours away.  Much easier trip than the 5 hours we’ve done the last 3 years.  however due to the time change it’s dark by 5.  Our entire trip was in the dark which made me tired and made it feel like a 5 hour trip.

                     

(I couldn’t get a good picture of their crazy running around, this was the best to show their eagerness to head to Grammie’s)

 

Well this is long enough so I’ll put the holiday/vacation festivities in another blog. Catch it too.

Bella

I realized there wasn’t a picture of Bella in this post.  If I didn’t come back and add a picture of her I don’t think I’d hear the end of it from her Grammie.

Why did I bother planning?

SATURDAY- We had a nice but short visit with my grandparents. Shortly after they got here they said they wanted to do some shopping  and wanted me to chauffer.  Being a bigger town there are more store options and some competitive pricing for items.  The thanksgiving turkey was bough here because of the lower cost.  We got in from shopping just in time to watch the Razorback game.  I made supper while Grannie hemmed some of my pants that were too longs  and Joel and Pop watched the full game. I listened and watched while things were cooking.

(This is a picture from Saturday night of Chip begging to get out of the bedroom and see my grandparents. He cracked me up so much I can to get my phone to take a picture.)

SUNDAY-Since I had worked so hard Saturday cleaning for the grandparent visit I decided I was doing nothing Sunday.I stayed in my PJ’s all day. We left briefly to put gas in Joel’s truck and get a newspaper so I could cut out the coupons.  Only to discover they take out the coupons if you buy it from a stand and are not subscribed. Bummer.

MONDAY- I didn’t have any work scheduled so planned to have some computer time then get to house cleaning.  Just as I was finishing up on the computer I got some personal news that upset me and I spent the rest of the day in a haze between crying and trying to work out and fix the issues.  Needless to say no housework was done.

TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY- I was back in preschool.  It wasn’t a bad day but it wasn’t great. LOL  not to far into the first day I remembered why I left preschool to begin with. It was nice to have a fairly easy schedule with playing in centers, PE time, and a long nap the day sped by.  The downside is it’s preschool.  Lots of tattling, very little attention during the lesson and they had no concept of walking quiet down the hall in a line.  Yes to some that’s not a big deal but to my very particular and organized self it all grated my nerves and I came home each day wore out and with a huge headache.

   

WEDNESDAY- I only worked for the morning and had planned to come home eat lunch and clean house. No such luck I was wiped out I came in took a nap and just watched tv.  I did go hang out with my cousin for a little bit.  We didn’t do much a quick trip to SAMS CLUB then just chattin.

THURSDAY- I was not scheduled to work anywhere so had all plans to clean house this day but Wednesday evening I got a call from the Elementary school to sub. As much as I needed the day at home to clean, grocery shop and cook I had to work.  #1 because I can’t turn a day of work. Any bit to add to the paycheck. ( I got my first paycheck for the half day that went in this pay period and it was a whooping $22.) #2 I’ve been desperately waiting to sub at the Elementary school. That is 2,3,4th grades. Exactly where I want to be.  I was in a 3rd grade classroom. This confirmed my thoughts.  If I teach I want 2,3,or 4th.  I felt it was a chore in preschool but this experience was great. I absolutely loved it. I actually had 2 classes because at this school they chance between 2 classes. I had my homeroom  for like 15 minutes then they went to a teacher for Reading, Spelling and English. Then switch back to their home room (me) for Math, Science and Social Studies.  I hope now that I’ve been there once they will call me more often.

Well despite working a full day I felt pretty good when I got home. Since I had the energy I had intentions to finally get on the house cleaning.  Well as this post is titled, “ Why did I bother planning?” I came in, change out of my work clothes and got the the kitchen to get started.  Only to find a water main was busted and we had no water til 7 p.m. Yet again no housework done.

FRIDAY- I worked all day at preschool and it was physically agonizing.  They were having a safety fair where the classes rotated around the school meeting and learning from the local police officers, forest rangers, fire fighters and ambulance drivers.  By the end of the day my head was throbbing so bad I wanted to cry.

SATURDAY- Finally got around to cleaning house. It needed it, I would have been so embarrassed if anyone had come by. The thing is it didn’t even take me all that long to get the work done.  In about an hour I had a load of laundry going, the dishwasher loaded and running, another load that I hand washed the bed made and the newspaper strewn around the living room end tables picked up.  I then was able to watch some tv and get back to crosstitching. Got a nap and a shower in before the Razorback game started.

 

So here I am on the computer and watchin the game.  Searching the crowd for my too lucky cousin who got to go to the game. After blogging and checking email and facebook I’ll do some coupon searching.  After the game I’ll go pick up a few groceries for the short week.

I’m still not used to the idea of taking pictures of things to post.  This week I scrapped up some stuff offline to color up my blog but I’ll try to get better.

We will be in our hometown next weekend for Thanksgiving so probably no blog til the following week.  Until then….

Feeling the need for some routine

 

SUNDAY-I was laying in bed this night and felt the room shake a little.  It was odd and I remember thinking if we were on the top level or had before felt unsteadiness it would be understandable but neither of these are true.  I joked maybe it was the earth a shakin.  Low and behold I later found out it was indeed an earthquake.  First I’ve ever experienced. My grandparents are coming to visit next weekend.  My grandmother knows I am into crafting and I’m sure she’ll ask to see my progress. I have been crosstitching a lot lately preparing a Christmas present for my her.  So to prepare something to show her I have jumped in over the weekend and will continue this week with doing some other crafts that I can show her.  Hope it’ll work  and I don’t have to say ‘look don’t you remember what you always told us as kids that around the holiday’s you just don’t ask too many questions?” I hope she’ll just be impressed with what I’ve done so far and I can get her distracted in that.

 

           

                   (over flowing craft basket)

MONDAY- I’m going to try this week to not go back to bed after Joel goes to work to get me a bit of a routine going.  It was a good thing I got up and began doing my housework early on.  My dad is in town at my “Texarkana grandparents” (his mom and dad/my step grandparents). He called and asked if I wanted run around town and do some errands with him.  I don’t spend much time with my dad, and I knew if I stayed home I’d just finish my house work and sit around crafting and watching tv so out I went with dad. Nothing spectacularly interesting for me.  He is setting up a home business of welding so we went around town so he could do some price checking. I got home a little after noon, ate lunch, napped and did my form of relaxing, watching tv and crafting.  I’m making good progress on my crafts for Christmas presents. 

TUESDAY-I finally got completely set up on the substitute website with 2 local districts. As well as expanded my sub availability to the preschool and middle schools in hopes to add some jobs. I’m not getting as much work at this point as I had hoped and something’s got to change.  Other than this my day was pretty routine, well my current lazy version of routine. LOL The afternoon/evening did get a little rocky with the weather turning bad.  Nothing bad where we are at just rainy.  But there were tornado’s south of us heading in our direction and wasn’t sure where it would stop. Also a tornado was near enough our home town that they held the kids from getting on the busses until the weather stabalized.  I never heard anymore so I guess things didn’t turn out too terrible anywhere.

WEDNESDAY- I had my first experience at middle school today.  It was so so. Being middle school the students do change classes so the nice things with that is that I only had each class for 45 minutes at a time.  The teacher had left work so basically I just passed it out and monitored that the students were on task.  The morning classes were really good. The afternoon classes were a little more talkative and disrespectful.  However I stood my ground. I let them know I was boss and they were going to treat me with respect and accept what I say goes and not grumble at me. Despite really not doing a lot of activity as you would with elementary level I was wore out.  I came in, popped a frozen pizza in the oven an sat on the couch just staring at the tv for a few hours.  I didn’t even craft.  I was in bed by 8:30 that night. 

THURSDAY- Well again I stayed up after Joel went to work. Yeah me! However, I didn’t go farther than that to actually get real work done.  Since I didn’t have any out of the house work set up for the day I thought I had time to get things done later.  I ended up watching tv and playing around on the computer for hours until my dad called to come use my printer.  I jumped up, dressed and started straightening up a little.  We have been doing really good keeping the house clean. Usually after supper I don’t do much so being that I’m not working full time I take care of things the next morning.  Well since I worked Wednesday the house hadn’t been “cleaned” since Tuesday. I felt it was a mess, though it must have not been that bad because once I jumped in and tackled it I was done within an hour. This not working full time out of the house on a regular basis I’m falling into a lazy pattern.  I must get myself in a better routine so when I do work it doesn’t kick my tail.

(Clothes folded but still on the kitchen table, mine and joel’s lunch boxes, my school bag…AAAAGGGGGHHH! the mess)

FRIDAY- Today I was back at the Primary school (K-1) in PE. This was a good subbing experience. Nice because I had lots of kids not just 1 group all day.  The rough parts were-- it’s little little kids ,2 classes at a time so 30-45 kids at a time, for a whole hour, in PE. I am one of those structured, organized, ordered teachers.  (My teacher friends reading this don’t hold it against me)  The wildness that comes with PE was  um..different for me.  Also I’m used to teaching all subjects so what I do all day is different.  When you teach just 1 subject it’s a repeat all day of the same lesson, recitation, and exercising. REDUNDENT for a teacher used to variety throughout the day. However I do now know that a coke is 150 calories and has 3 times more sugar than children need and even 2 times more than an adult needs. I also got further proof in my belief that rote memorization/ recitation does work in some cases. Each week they have identified another bone of the body.  Every PE session (2 a week) they recite all the bones they’ve learned to date.  I was amazed at how many of these kindergarten and first graders could name and locate so many bones.  Many that I myself couldn’t even name.  A plus of being in PE I was VERY active.  I did a lot of walking around that big gym tying shoes, encouraging kids to participate and quail arguing. I don’t know if it was the force to be out of the house and going, the physical activity level of PE, or that my body is getting more into routine but I came home and was not dead on my feet.  It was nice.  Now if next week will be as good.

SATURDAY-Now that I have spent plenty of time on the computer I must get up and do some deep cleaning. My grandparents will be here in a few hours.  I want it to be spic and span (or Mr. Clean, or Fabuloso, or Lysol--whatever cleaning supplies are in the cabinet lol)clean in here, and have some food prepared.  I also hope to have enough time to continue adding to my craft supply so grannie doesn’t question what I’ve been doing with my free time since I can’t show her my original craft project.  So I must get off the couch and get going.

Until next week…

 

  

(Bella telling me to get off the computer and take her out and Chip just looking cute)

Luck is coming up! So is my crafting bug :)

MONDAY- My great aunt doesn’t work on Mondays so several times since I’ve moved to the area we’ve gotten together on Mondays. This week we went to a flower nursery down the road for her to get some plants, wondered around kmart for a while then headed to a near by consignment shop.  It’s a cute little shop just around the corner from my house and has some nice things.  I held my self back from getting clothes I don’t really need right now but I did find some black dressy flats that I’ve been needing for work. Came home but had gone too long without eating I guess and ended up with a headache. One of those that even napping wouldn’t shake and I couldn’t do much more for the rest of the day.

TUESDAY- Nothing much today. I picked up a few things from Walmart for a few meals. Got another pair of dressy flats, these brown to match the rest of my “business casual” color scheme. For supper I planned to make this french bread pizza that we enjoy. It’s super easy and really yummy.   After pulling it out of the oven I realized I skipped the tomato sauce that goes between the bread and the cheese.  So instead of pizza we had cheesy bread sticks but it was still good.  We just dipped it into the skipped tomato sauce.

WEDNESDAY- Got up early today to get the house cleaned because the water would be turned off for a few hours due to maintance. Finally got confirmation from my second district I’ve been working to sub in that they had approval and were setting me up in the online system. As a teacher I was always sure to leave PLENTY of work when I was gone.  But I know many subs don’t.  So I want to be prepared with my own “sub bag” of activities.  I plan to make up a bag with some fun color/activity sheets, age appropriate academic worksheets as well as a list of my educational games that I can input their current work to play.  I’m also taking a few books with me.  There is so much you can do with a book that should fill time if needed.

THURSDAY- Well there was no sleeping in today either.  For one my family thinks since they are all awake and at work (despite me not having work) that I too should be awake.  So once they all get to work they text me.  Mom, husband, cousin.  All of them. LOL I was just about to doze back off and maintance began banging around.  The man that lived upstairs has moved out and they are now cleaning up and fixing things. Thumping on the floor, dropping things, hammering and even using a hand saw all right about my head.  Yeah right, no more sleep for me. Did the usual around the house, pick up, check facebook and computer, then watched tv and worked on my crafts. After Joel got home to take over puppy duty I went out on the town.  I met my cousin and we went shopping.  Well mostly we just looked but we did pick up a few things.  I was needing some jewlery to go with my “business casual” work attire.  Found some I’m really anxious to get to ,]wear. We also stopped in at my new favorite store Hobby Lobby. I looked, dreamed and bought a few things.  Nothing for me though.  In hopes to reduce the heavy costs that Christmas entails, and to scratch my craft bug, I am attempting to make me of the gifts.  I was out late but as always I had a good time hanging out with my cousin.

FRIDAY- When I got home Thursday night my husband said he had looked on my substitute website and found me a job for half day Friday afternoon.  I was so excited I had my first job. Naturally as my luck works, I got a call from the school early Friday morning wanting to know if I could come in for a whole day sub.  Unfortunately because I’d already accepted a half day I couldn’t’ change. My luck that all this time nothing and basically 2 offers in one day.Well since it was only a half day and my first day I thought I’d go ahead and wear my heels.  MISTAKE! I came home with screaming feet. They hurt so bad. The sub job was good though.  I was actually subbing as a teachers aide. I’m excited to be back to work and in the classroom only if it’s a day here and there and with various classes.

SATURDAY- Well I had hoped after a nights sleep my feet/legs would be better but no such luck.  So therefore today will mostly be spent on the couch.  Not out of laziness as usual but in hopes that staying off my legs the pain will ease up. I won’t complain.  I have Christmas crafts to make and a DVR to empty.  (I’m at over 90% full.  Must empty a bit before next weeks shows start.  ) 

I’m not ready to put up pictures of my craft projects, though I am taking pictures of before and during to post with the after pictures later. I took pictures of my new shoes on my cell phone then had to send it off for repair so oops forget those pictures. Took a picture of the puppies cuddled in blankets on a chilly morning but it was too dark you can hardly see it.  So sadly this is a picture less blog today.  I must try to find my charger for the real camera so I’ll be more apt to take pictures.

--Until next time, have a good week!

Busy week; Fun Saturday; Lazy Sunday!

Monday-- Started off slow.  As most days have lately.  Joel has to be up at 6 and leave by 6:30 to make it to work.  I get up with him to make his lunch and see him off for the day.  Being that I have nothing specific to do I can’t convince myself to stay up so I tend to go back to bed for a few hours.  However this makes me sluggish and takes a bit for me to get motivated to get some housework done.  To try to get myself going and in an exercise routine I’ve started doing a Pilates DVD.  The extra challenge today was the the dogs thought I was in the floor to play with them. Doing some extra twisting to avoid play with them and still work out I must have pulled something in my back because I was having some pretty harsh pain in my lower back later in the day. Luckily the pain didn’t come around till the afternoon so I was able to get stuff done around the house in the morning. Though it didn’t look it by time Joel got home. We having been having problems with our sinks filling up with water when we use the garbage disposal or dishwasher so I called apartment maintenance to come fix it.  Since this had occurred over the weekend I was unable to do dishes and just used another pan when I needed to cook, thus making a huge pile of dirty dishes.  In order to fix the drain problem I had to clean out all the stuff in the under the sink cabinet and pile at the side of the kitchen.  By time it was fixed my back hurt too much to fix things back up.

Tuesday -- Well the morning started much as any other day slowly lol.  But I did get up with minimal back pain so I got the kitchen back in order. My big project for the day was fixing the problem we have with our dogs looking out the bedroom window and barking at other dogs or people going by.  Most of the time that bedroom door stays shut but Joel seems to forget to close it behind him sometimes then gets upset when the dogs start barking.  So to fix the problem I put longer curtains in there and taped some poster board on the bottom in hopes they can’t see and distract them from barking at outside activity.

Wednesday--Well I have been almost 5 months now without a job since I left my last one and was unable to find a full time this year.  In an attempt to stay in my chosen career field of teaching I have been putting my applications in at local schools to substitute this year.  I make calls every few days to check in with the schools but havn’t gotten much response.  They say I’m in the processing process or they are reviewing applications.  Today not excluded.  Well I get really down in the dumps about it thinking this isn’t gonna work out and need to look into something else. Just as I’m starting to get depressed and start the job hunt I get a call from the 1 school I didn’t manage to call today.  Lo and behold they need me to come in to finish paperwork so I can start working for them! WHOOPEE except that Joel has taken my car to work and I can’t drive his stick shift truck.  I have no transportation to get to my first job opportunity. Ugh.  As I’m chatting with my cousin on facebook I complain to her being the sweet doll that she is offered me the use of her car to get my buisness done.  GREAT COUSIN TO THE RESCUE.    I zip to the school get my paperwork finished up and set up for fingerprinting tomorrow to hopefully be in the online substitute system to begin working by next week.  (My outlook and mood has greatly improved)
Thursday--Got my fingerprinting done, stopped by my cousins work to say hey, did a little grocery shopping then headed home because it was on and off rainy and I didn’t want to get caught out in it.  Oh I forgot to mention I made a stop by my new favorite place, Hobby Lobby)  I’ve never lived in a town with a Hobby Lobby and am loving it.  Don’t worry joel for sure keeps me in check to not spend too much money but I can pass lots of time just looking too.
Friday--So the new thing with fingerprinting I guess is electronic fast track.  They said the results should be back in 24-48 hours.  I called the school today to check on something else not thinking my prints would be back yet.  But the human resource lady said she just got my prints back and was getting me in the system right now.  Within a few hours I’d should be able to access the website and start setting up sub. days.  For those of you in AR that probably aren’t familiar with the system,  here the substituting is all computerized.  Teachers get on this website to say they are going to be out and need a sub.  I can check the website at any time see what’s available and chose what I want.  No phone calls involved.  Pretty good system from what I can see so far.  Not the old standard accept the first call you get cause you might not get anything else.  I can see the options available and pick what I prefer. Super excited I may be able to start working again real soon.  Later in the day my cousin called to ask if I want to come have a “movie night” with her.  She is house sitting for her grandparents.  Her husband works til midnight and she didn’t want to be alone.  So once Joel got home to take over puppy duty I went to hang out with her for the night.
Saturday--Saturday started out slow and lazy at my cousins grandparents.  We lounged around, made breakfast and she cleaned house while her husband and I watched the Razorback game. My husband is at home across town so he and I are texting the whole time reviewing the game.  That evening Joel came over, we got all fixed up, and met some of their friends and ate out at Chili’s. Afterwards we went to mudfest.  It was interesting to say the least.  Probably the best part was the foot race they had all these crazies um.. people racing in the mudpit for $100.  The funny thing was they were taking off their socks and shoes and rolling up their pants.  As though this would protect their clothes.  Did it not occur to them they would likely fall down and get the rest of them muddy?  Guess not.  Well we had a good time the 3 couples visiting with each other.  Defiantly must all get together more often! The event did produce a good picture of Joel and I.  (As my mother can testify we have very few pictures of us together.)

Well as indicated in my title it’s been a good week.  Despite the house is a bit messy I’m thinking today will be a lazy lounge day.  So far no work for tomorrow so I can clean house then LOL.  As you can see by the pictures the rest of my family is liking the idea of LAZY SUNDAY!

Updates from the past 2 weeks

So my intention is to blog weekly.  However I have already messed up that plan. LOL  It happened that my first weekend after starting the blog we were out of town and I didn’t get a blog worked in.  Therefore, I’ll catch up this time and try to do better being weekly.  I am so terrible with remembering things and if I go too long I’ll forget what I had to share.

Being I’m so forgetful and nothing major is happening in my life at this time I can’t remember anything blog worthy from 2 weeks ago.  But last weekend we went back to our hometown for the weekend.  We visited with our families but our main reason for going home was for my 10 year High School reunion.  I really can’t believe it’s been 10 years.  An honestly it didn’t feel any different from High School.  The same people that snubbed me in HS still didn’t talk to me.  The same crazies from HS were there acting just the same as 10 years ago.  Though everyone I spoke to replied and I did chat with a few people, I spent most of my time catching up with Sarah and Frank Gibson. Sarah and I were such good friends in school.  We were together most weekends I believe.  I even made a point to become the soccer photographer for the yearbook so I would be able to go with her on all trips.

Now on to this week…I have now been jobless for about 5 months now.  At first it was great having a break.  Then once we moved it was very convenient to not be working to have a chance to unpack and set up house.  But now I’m starting to get restless being at home all the time.  I am getting a lot of time to work on my craft projects and watch some tv.  In the past Joel would made fun of me for having so much tv and always being way behind on watching.  But being home so much and watching so much I’ve stayed on top of it. So I have discovered a new show to entertain me.  House Hunters and HH International on HGTV.  This is very interesting to be able to see so many places and foreign countries.  Its also beneficial in helping me to see what’s important and not in looking for a house to buy for future reference. However sometimes it blows my mind how picky some of the people are when the houses are BEAUTIFUL! And the price points are astonishing.  Common seems to be $500 thousand and a million for the budge. I think ours would be maybe like $1,000. LOL  Guess we’ve got a few years to go before we are anywhere close lol. By the way I have my applications in so hopefully I’ll be getting some job calls soon.

So what do you think?  Does my husband need to work on his parking ?

          

Thankfully this is my car and his truck so we don’t have any upset neighbors but still….

And finally I can’t have a blog with a picture of one or both of my babies.  Here’s Chip protecting his bone I suppose.

                     

Well until next weekend…have a great week!

Introducing the Certuche's

Hello and welcome to my blog. Let me start by telling you a little about us, The Certuche's.

My name is Destinie Certuche. I'm a 28 year old woman just making my way through life. I try to make the best out of every situation, learning as I go, with the goal in mind to make my family proud and enjoy my life as it is. I am educated and certified as an elementary teacher. However, was unable to find a teaching position in a desirable town, near my family. So this year I'm taking a step back and substituting for a year in an attempt to get a permanent position in the future. I have a great love for reading and try to read atleast a few chapters before bed every night. My mother has always been crafty but I never thought I'd really get the bug. Well the time has come. My hobby of crafting is specified in crosstitching and my most recent addition has been dabbling in quilting. These are enjoyable hobbies which can easily be done while participating in my other "hobby', watching TV.

In 2008 I married Joel Certuche. Joel works in a warehouse that supplies the local army depot. In his free time Joel enjoys watching sports. If he's not at work or watching sports you can find him playing his XBOX. Somedays I'm not sure which he loves more, me or the XBOX. lol

Since we have been spending the last few years searching out our spot in this world we have chosen not to have children yet. We have plenty of stuff to move from house to house, town to town while we try to find a place to settle. Adding a baby and all that comes with them would be insane. So to fill that spot in our lives and give us some practice of having kids, we have 2 dogs. They are our babies, my puppies though they are both over a year old. We have now had Bella (4.5 years old) for almost 4 years now. We found her in a shelter and though she was bigger than we were wanting we instantly fell in love with her. She is a springer/spaniel mix with white and mahogany coloring. She loves us dearly but isn't super cuddly. After 2 years I still wanted a sweet, little cuddly baby to hold and love on so we began entertaining the idea of having another puppy to add to the mix. It so happened my sisters dog had puppies so we were able to get Chip (1 year old), a black and brown miniature pinture/rottweiler mix. He is smaller than Bella but still not tiny. However he loves being close to his mommy. Occasionally he likes to lay in my lap and be held but most of the time he just lays up against me. Be it curled up against my thigh, curved in my knees or cuddle against my tummy, he must be touching me somehow. If I move he just moves with me to get up against me again. I love it. Close and cuddly but I still have my hands and lap free for my crafting.

Well that's a little background on our family. Follow our blog to get to know more about us and our life. My desire with this blog is to journal our lives to later review and relive our experinces. I hope family and friends will follow the fun and exciting as well as boring and mundane activities of our life. Us, The Certuche's. Our life, Certuche Style.