December 2012

Well I’m behind again here but I’ve finally gotten a chance to write about my December.  Maybe my new years resolution should be be a better blogger.  But I don’t want to put a goal that I might mess up so um ya we’ll just say I hope to do better. Anyways I had a pretty busy December, lots of exciting (to me) things.  I ended up working 2 whole weeks subbing in the same classroom right before Christmas break.  I really enjoyed it, thankfully I had a good group of kids. This kept me busy and very tired.

 

I don’t actually remember if it was early December or sometime near the end of November but I went to the park with my cousin and her best friend to take pictures of them and their families.  I had such a great time.  I’m no photography genius but I think it’s fun finding great shots.  I don’t care for the posed “stand like this, smile, say cheese” pictures.  I prefer random candid shots.  Much more natural and sometimes great unplanned shots or even some rather humorous ones. Here are 2 of my favs. 

                                                                                       

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mid December I went to stay the weekend with my  cousin and her husband at their new house. This is the second time I’ve driven to her house in pouring rain, good thing I have a good time and it’s worth it.  On top of driving in rain it was a Friday after I had worked all week so it was late afternoon and I was tired.  Friday we went to a great pizza place in their area that I always want to go to when I’m there, then we just went to their house and watched movies.  Saturday we got up early and went shopping.  In and out of store upon store oh yeah and it was still raining.  It happened to be like 2 weekends before Christmas so needless to say places were CROWDED.  We circled the mall for 10 minutes looking for a parking place and found none.  Not even way back in the far edge of the parking lot.  We ended up watching someone come out the doors and following them to their car and waiting while they put away all their shopping bags AND a baby just so we could get their parking spot.  Here’s a few shots from my trip.

 

Picture 1: Notice the dog she’s using as a pillow and cuddling up to. Chip lays up against my leg and sometimes in my arms if I’m sitting up but no way would he let me cuddle like this.  He always moves when I try.

Picture 2:  Resourceful James.  The restaurant didn’t give us silverware so he used his fries to put mayo on his burger.  Hilarious but smart!

 

 

The Sunday before Christmas we headed to our hometown for Christmas festivities with our families.  Sunday night we got to gather at my parents with my brother, sister and their families.  We just ate and did gifts for the kiddos this year.  Since we only had 2 little ones there and one was less than a year old this year this didn’t take long but we had a good time just being together. Monday morning we got together at my maternal grandparents house with my family and one of the cousins. We decided this year to do a brunch and a white elephant gift exchange.  When discussing with my cousin my grandmother suggested household useful things that anyone could use like toilet paper.  My cousin mentioned that would be good she needed toilet paper.  Soooo… we “pranked” her and all got her some toilet paper.  Bet she’ll watch what she asks for next time, or atleast be more specific lol!

                                                                                                                                                                                                       

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday evening we went to Joel’s uncles for Christmas with all of his family.  We were suppose to have venison this year but something went wrong and we ended up having Christmas pizza.  Not your traditional holiday meal but I love me some pizza so I wasn’t complaining.  We only do gifts for the kiddos at this get together too.  This one was a little longer and more fun because there are 3 kids and a baby on the way in that family so the paper was flyin.  I enjoy watching their excitement.

 

Joel had to be back to work the day after Christmas but the dogs and I stayed for the next week and a half to spend more time with my mom and grandparents.  We just had a complete do nothing vacation.  We played games with my grandparents and uncle, watched tv, played on the computers, and worked puzzles.  We are doing barn puzzles so I can glue and frame them and put up as decoration in my house.  Being I want them for decoration we needed atleast the majority of the pieces, so we ended up having 2 false starts with too many pieces missing to continue.  We did get started on one but decided we needed a second one going to give our brains a break from that one picture.  The snow barns picture we had a couple restarts on because the dogs kept getting on the table and messing it up.  We got about half of the snow barn puzzle done before I left and maybe 1/3 of the other one.  We left them set up and mom said she’ll work on them a little bit and they will be available next time I go visit and we don’t have to start all over.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And of course being back in my hometown and the holidays I saw my niece Jesslynn.  She’s 5 months now and so much fun.  She stayed Sunday night at moms so I almost got a full 24 hours with her.  Then mom and I went to her house one a day later in my 2 week visit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Despite this getting long and having LOTS of pictures I can’t end without atleast one picture of my sweet four legged fur babies.           

                                                                                                                  

October/November recap

OMG!  I didn’t realize it has been mid October since I’ve blogged.  Oops!  I have been working a lot through October and November and when I wasn’t working I was busy either getting the house back under control or resting up lol.  I may not have been good about blogging but I have been pretty good about taking pictures of things.  So I will listen to Christmas music and catch you up.

 

 

 

This is our bedroom window, shattered.  I was working one day and Joel text me saying he woke up to hear shattering glass and the dogs barking.  We aren’t really sure what happened.  It wasn’t able to be fixed that night so it was boarded up til the next day.  Unfortunately for us that night happened to be one of the cold ones and it was freezing in the bedroom.  Thankfully we have a hide a bed so we “camped out” in the living room that night.  The window is now “hidden” in case Chip was the broken glass culprit. 

 

 

 

Every month or so my mom comes down for the weekend to visit. We rarely plan much besides a few little minor crafting projects. Well I’m not even sure how we came up with the project but we ended up deciding  to rent a rug shampooer and cleaning all the carpets in my house which then led to rearranging my living room.  Wow what a project! I love having mom around but geesh I work too hard when she’s around.  I think I wore her out too because she’s not talking about coming back to visit again til February. (This was the beginning of November….)

 

 

 

 

 

So while mom and I worked our tails off moving furniture and scrubbing floors and such this is what everyone else was doing.  At the bottom of the picture by the arm of the couch is Chi Bug my mom’s dog, who aligned herself with the resting crew.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chip got a little sock monkey of his own. We tried (successfully for a little while) for it to be just his and not let Bella play with is because she gets a bit rough. It was so cute how Chip took it everywhere with him and kept it close. When we’d go to bed he’d even go get his monkey and bring it to bed with him. After a while we felt bad not letting Bella share so we started letting them play with it together and well as you can see from this last picture …poor monkey.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We started feeling bad that it was like we got Chip a toy but not Bella so I bought her a penguin. She too kept it very close but as you see in picture 3 she likes to chew on them, hence they don’t last long. Picture 4 Chip has Bella’s penguin and she’s trying to get it back. Needless to say neither toy has a squeaker or any fluff anymore. They are just limp pieces of cloth but the babies still like and play with them so it was well worth it. I sure enjoyed watching them play with and protect their toys.

 

 

 

 

 

 

                 

We traveled to our hometown for Thanksgiving.  Despite that we are way closer to home then we were a few years ago we still don’t go home often, I just dread the 2 hour drive of just sitting there.  If I have to be in the car I prefer to be a passenger so I can read and entertain myself.   Here’s partly why I hate the drive.  This is how my copilot handles the trip.  To his credit this is us driving about 8 a.m. Thanksgiving morning and he had to work the night before and didn’t get home til about 3 a.m. But still……

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For as long as I can remember my maternal grandmothers family gathers for Thanksgiving.  Some years we don’t have many and other years we turn out a pretty good crowd. This year we had about 35 people.  Many from my local hometown area but my grandmothers brothers from Texas, Oklahoma, and California were able to make it in.  Its’ nice to be with family for the holidays and these gatherings are special not only because it’s a family tradition but sometimes this once a year is the only time we see these family members from out of state.  

 

One of the biggest highlights was getting to see my Jesslynn.  She’s 4 months old now and starting to get fun to be around.  She is getting so big and starting to babble and dancing around.  Here she is with Aunt Daniele and Bailey then a close up shot while sitting with Aunt Destinie.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And below is the prize shot of Jesslynn with Uncle Joel.  It is such a prize because Joel and a baby in his arms is a rare thing.  Jesslynn is 4 months old and this is the first time Joel’s seen or held her.  I think he held our other niece (his sisters daughter) like maybe twice ever as a baby.    I love how they are both sizing each other up!

Making and spending the money

Well school has been in session long enough now they are starting to need subs and I’m working quite a bit.  I’ve worked 9 days so far and already have one scheduled way in advance for next month.  I’m feeling pretty good with things.  I love getting to go to the different schools and various grade levels.

 

 

 

 

 

Heres a shot of my desktop screen.  On the left is the jobulator, the program that I pick up jobs through.  On the right is my interactive calendar I use to keep up with my jobs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Being that I’ve started working and making some money it is only natural order that I have a shopping trip and spend it.  Last weekend I went to my cousins in Little Rock and we went shopping.  I needed some good work shoes.  I’m on my feet so much and need some comfortable support for my feet and unfortunately my wonderful tennis shoes don’t go with my work clothes.  But most dress shoes I find don’t have the support and my feet hurt.  We spent the whole weekend and went to many many stores searching for the perfect combination of comfort/appropriate/cute.  I’m very pleased with my pick.  They are pretty comfortable on their own but I intentionally got a bigger size so I could add some super cushiony insoles.  Feels like I’m walking on clouds!

 

 

 

 

 

The shoe store was having a sale and I couldn’t pass it up so I decided to get some boots.  They seem to be the in thing, I swear everyone I saw was wearing some kind of boot.  Now I have no excuse for buying the ones I bought except they looked hot and caught my eye.  As bad as my feet are I don’t do heels, EVER!  So these nice things are basically for looks only. You know straight to the restaurant for dinner and back home when there’s not much walking required. LOL  For some insane reason I decided to wear them to work one day this past week.  HUGE HUGE HUGE mistake.  I don’t really remember anything about that work day except for thinking how bad my feet hurt.  I took them off as soon as I got to my car and drove home barefooted.  I just knew my feet were raw and bleeding.  Thankfully they weren’t that bad, only a little stone bruised.  Fortunately I didn’t have a job the next day so I was able to keep off of them most of the and get them to feeling better.  So defiantly for looks only, not for long walks.

 

 

 

It’s the beginning of a new week and no work has been scheduled yet but I’m not worried.  I know something will come up, it always does.  In the mean time I’ll try to be prepared for an unexpected work day by having meals atleast planned if not precooked and keep on top of the house work.  In the down time I’m stitch, stitch, stitching away working on Christmas presents.

 

 

 

Here’s a cute picture to leave you with.  Chip has already gobbled up his carrot and is watching Bella eat hers in hopes to get another bite.

What have I been doing?

Oh geez it’s been like a month or something since I’ve posted.  My intentions are to post during the weekends but I’ve been busy or sick every weekend lately so it hasn’t gotten done.  Though I don’t have a full time job I don’t just sit around at my house doing nothing this is far from the truth. My husband works nights so I spend the morning cleaning house, wake him up then make lunch and spend early afternoon with him then I spend a few hours on the computer catching up on facebook and talking to my mom then I rest and watch tv before bed. Usually even if I’m “resting” and watching tv I’m doing my crosstitching which though it is enjoyable for me to do I don’t just do senseless work.  I’m making gifts for people for birthdays and holidays and such.

So here’s a visual over view of what I’ve been doing, not necessarily in any particular order.

      

Getting my hair done and an after picture with my cousin who did it. It’s a long process and painful at times as well as takes upkeep maintenance but my cousin says platinum is a good color for me.

     
The fair was in town and they had a demolition derby.  Joel and I don’t go out and do things together often. #1A car on top of the trunk of another. #2 That’s fire above the wheel. #3  Is that bumper suppose to be that high? #4 Hood crunch.

      
A high school football game we went to.  The local high school are the Razorbacks so we root for the Razorbacks Friday nights and Saturdays.

 
#1 My new purse! I’ve been wanting one for a while now. #2  A healthy snack.  Trying to eat some healthy snacks between meals so as not to over eat.  On this last shopping trip I bought no sweets for me.  Only fruits and vegetables. #3 The subbing school year has begun for me.  So far I’ve been in first grade, 3rd grade, and 2nd grade 3 different days.  This is a picture of what my last two days in 2nd grade were like.  I was with a bilingual class. Thankfully they only did all Spanish work for the first hour and the rest was in English.  I managed through and the kids were great but I often felt lost in translation literally.

 

#1 Right after I burnt my hand.  I even had a pot holder but I guess not in the right place.  #2 The burn the next day. #3 The pile that seems to accumulate by the front door on a daily basis. #4 The truck wouldn’t crank so we’ve messed with it for many days trying to jump it or put it the battery on a charger but finally gave in and bought a new battery.  Ugh

My niece Jesslynn got to spend the day with my mom last weekend.  Mom did share the baby with my grannie for a little bit.  ( This is my Grannie holding her in these pictures.)

And last but not least pictures of my babies. One being used as a pillow by my lumberjack husband.  I should have gotten an after picture because shortly after this picture he (the husband) got a hair cut and shaved.  Looks way different LOL.