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2/3/04 Tuesday the Toad |
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Laments --- Spanish 4 - the killer, sadistic class that strikes fear in my heart. After waking up in the middle of the night scared
sh*tless (actually - quite the opposite) I've decided to look at it like this - it won't harm my GPA, it won't prevent me from attending graduation ceremonies in the spring, she can either GIVE me the C or I'll earn my F. Either way, this class is not going to erode my life for the next few months. The saddest part in my mind is the fact that I truly enjoy learning this language but this course is really harming the taste in my mouth. After spending 4 hours at Chili's on Sunday with my Spanish 1&3 prof and tonight I'll be at her house at 5...I'm doing my part and it is all I can do. I have 4 other classes that will require at least a little attention.
I found this interesting:
ADVICE - Advice is like snow; the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper it sinks into the mind. -Samuel Taylor Coleridge
I find this so true. My calm, loving husband explains his POV in such a reassuring way that he could convince you of anything. It seems that the way the message is delivered makes all the difference in the way it is received. This can be applied in many ways of my life - not only on a social level but also in my career. Being an Advertising major which is communication....works for me.
Nothing on the knitting/crocheting front - I didn't touch anything last night except for my dear GB. That is the best there is...in the whole world. |
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How bored are you? |
| | 2/1/04 Time Flies....Is it February already? | 
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How true is this? My life in a nutshell. |
Here are some pics of the boys from last weekend. We had grandbaby and my nephew, J. They get along well and hubby took these pics of them. What baby dolls. It is sweet to see them play so well together. J was the baby of the family (at least here in Texas) until Brendan came along - our two little ones bring us great joy.
Been pouring over my Spanish - I think it is winning. My Spanish 1 and 3 teacher, Cheryl, is going to call me this afternoon so I can meet up with her early this evening and go over my troubles. I called her boo-hooing about the work, what I don't know or am unsure of ~ she says she'll help where she can. She has very little free time but she's jumping in to get me through this class. When I work on Spanish, I feel good and bad. Some of it is plain as day and then other things are like Greek. One thing I have noticed when taking these Spanish courses is that I feel very unorganized. For instance: when I'm reading something I feel I have to keep looking up words (requires the dictionary), feel the need to have the conjugation hints in front of me (requires my Spanish 1-2 book or a note card), I find that it looks familiar (makes me want all the paperwork so I can scan them), this is in addition to the sylabus, notes, papers, etc. that I've gathered for this course. I get overwhelmed with the amount of material required to continue. It is like trying to do some work and your desk is messy - you have to stop and reorganize. I just haven't come up with the correct way of organizing my thoughts, papers, books, etc. and it makes it almost impossible for anything to penetrate the old brain. I keep telling myself that I just have to make it through this class and it is only for a few months.
Onto another subject: my hobbies. I found some red fabric at a yard sale yesterday ---- I may make some more hot pads for Valentines day. The lady at the garage sale was hilarious. Hubby and I kept cracking up. When we got out of the truck, she proceeded to jump our ass cuz we weren't wearing a jacket and she told us that we HAD to buy one of the sweaters. She was selling one of those umbrella hats which she demonstrated. Then some guy came up and wanted to know if she'd take less for this set of VHS tapes - she turned to him and said "can you say please?" Everyone there died laughing and the man giggled and uttered "please?" I found a butt load of the cutest baby girl clothes at one of the garage sales. These should fit my cousin Tracy's newborn - I have them washed, boxed and ready to mail. She's moving to a new place so I have to get it sent out immediately. I also found another wool sweater I can felt and put in the stack of sweaters that'll be made into an afghan or a rug. I'm plugging away at hubby's hat. I pulled apart the double thickness and started single to save yarn but he didn't think that'd be stiff enough so I'm back to doing double stranded. I was working on this last night while watching Starz channel which had a movie filmed in Austin "The Life of David Gale." It was cool to see all the old haunts of Austin - the movie was pretty intiguing although I didn't care for the ending - but it did make me stop and think.
Also, found a cat carrier (almost new) at that old lady's garage sale. Was like new and she only wanted a buck and a half for it. Yes, ma'am - I'll take it. I still want to make the bag/carrier for the cat(s). I'm making myself work on my Spanish instead of working on the crafts/hobbies.
Spent a shitload of money at the mall yesterday. Hubby's work has an inspection on Tuesday plus he has to travel this month for work - so, he needed a suit coat, Dockers, etc. He absolutely HATES wearing dress up clothes - says it reminds him of church and he feels dirty. Well, I got his ass to the mall and we shopped Foley's and Penney's - found him some pants but couldn't find "round boy" a suit coat that would fit. We looked on the mall directory for Big/Tall shop but all they had was Mens Wearhouse - so we headed over there. BOY - do they have great service or what!? They picked out two sports coats that we were happy with, they matched his pants with 3 shirts and two ties...out we walked with some fabulous clothes. We found him some matching (comfy) dress shoes and socks - you gotta see my sexy man in his dress clothes! It seems that men (most) never get these type clothes but they always seem to need them for different occasions. He feels like a million bucks. He modeled each of them for me then he took all the tags off so I know he's pleased. He kept saying (proudly) how everyone is gonna think "man he's got money" and "man, isn't he handsome?" I am happy for him and it was worth every penny. We hit Lone Star Cafe afterwards and had a few beers and margaritas. I was flying. He found a "blasting site, turn off 2 way radio" sign at the restaurant so off we went - him with new clothes and a sign for his shop or porch. Pleased as a fat toad.
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| | 2/1/04 Time Flies....Is it February already? | | |
| | Here are some pics of the boys from last weekend. We had grandbaby and my nephew, J. They get along well and hubby took these pics of them. What baby dolls. It is sweet to see them play so well together. J was the baby of the family (at least here in Texas) until Brendan came along - our two little ones bring us great joy.
Been pouring over my Spanish - I think it is winning. My Spanish 1 and 3 teacher, Cheryl, is going to call me this afternoon so I can meet up with her early this evening and go over my troubles. I called her boo-hooing about the work, what I don't know or am unsure of ~ she says she'll help where she can. She has very little free time but she's jumping in to get me through this class. When I work on Spanish, I feel good and bad. Some of it is plain as day and then other things are like Greek. One thing I have noticed when taking these Spanish courses is that I feel very unorganized. For instance: when I'm reading something I feel I have to keep looking up words (requires the dictionary), feel the need to have the conjugation hints in front of me (requires my Spanish 1-2 book or a note card), I find that it looks familiar (makes me want all the paperwork so I can scan them), this is in addition to the sylabus, notes, papers, etc. that I've gathered for this course. I get overwhelmed with the amount of material required to continue. It is like trying to do some work and your desk is messy - you have to stop and reorganize. I just haven't come up with the correct way of organizing my thoughts, papers, books, etc. and it makes it almost impossible for anything to penetrate the old brain. I keep telling myself that I just have to make it through this class and it is only for a few months.
Onto another subject: my hobbies. I found some red fabric at a yard sale yesterday ---- I may make some more hot pads for Valentines day. The lady at the garage sale was hilarious. Hubby and I kept cracking up. When we got out of the truck, she proceeded to jump our ass cuz we weren't wearing a jacket and she told us that we HAD to buy one of the sweaters. She was selling one of those umbrella hats which she demonstrated. Then some guy came up and wanted to know if she'd take less for this set of VHS tapes - she turned to him and said "can you say please?" Everyone there died laughing and the man giggled and uttered "please?" I found a butt load of the cutest baby girl clothes at one of the garage sales. These should fit my cousin Tracy's newborn - I have them washed, boxed and ready to mail. She's moving to a new place so I have to get it sent out immediately. I also found another wool sweater I can felt and put in the stack of sweaters that'll be made into an afghan or a rug. I'm plugging away at hubby's hat. I pulled apart the double thickness and started single to save yarn but he didn't think that'd be stiff enough so I'm back to doing double stranded. I was working on this last night while watching Starz channel which had a movie filmed in Austin "The Life of David Gale." It was cool to see all the old haunts of Austin - the movie was pretty intiguing although I didn't care for the ending - but it did make me stop and think.
Also, found a cat carrier (almost new) at that old lady's garage sale. Was like new and she only wanted a buck and a half for it. Yes, ma'am - I'll take it. I still want to make the bag/carrier for the cat(s). I'm making myself work on my Spanish instead of working on the crafts/hobbies.
Spent a shitload of money at the mall yesterday. Hubby's work has an inspection on Tuesday plus he has to travel this month for work - so, he needed a suit coat, Dockers, etc. He absolutely HATES wearing dress up clothes - says it reminds him of church and he feels dirty. Well, I got his ass to the mall and we shopped Foley's and Penney's - found him some pants but couldn't find "round boy" a suit coat that would fit. We looked on the mall directory for Big/Tall shop but all they had was Mens Wearhouse - so we headed over there. BOY - do they have great service or what!? They picked out two sports coats that we were happy with, they matched his pants with 3 shirts and two ties...out we walked with some fabulous clothes. We found him some matching (comfy) dress shoes and socks - you gotta see my sexy man in his dress clothes! It seems that men (most) never get these type clothes but they always seem to need them for different occasions. He feels like a million bucks. He modeled each of them for me then he took all the tags off so I know he's pleased. He kept saying (proudly) how everyone is gonna think "man he's got money" and "man, isn't he handsome?" I am happy for him and it was worth every penny. We hit Lone Star Cafe afterwards and had a few beers and margaritas. I was flying. He found a "blasting site, turn off 2 way radio" sign at the restaurant so off we went - him with new clothes and a sign for his shop or porch. Pleased as a fat toad. |
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1/27/04 Tuesday PLEASE PASS A BULLET! |
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I continuously amaze myself - reading the KnitList (or was it NETA?) caused me to think about all of my fabric stash and how I can use some (hopefully most) of it up by making bags. Well, I got to think about making the fabric stiff by using some sort of iron-on interfacing so I made a run to Jo-Ann's. Always a fatal mistake on my part but I went anyway in hopes that the flyer in my back seat contained a valid 50% off coupon. No on the coupon but in the store I went. What do I see? 99 cent McCall's patterns....hmmm. Gots to look through the books and see if they have some cool bag patterns. Being such a pack rat/hoarder/buy it all kind of person, I made myself stop at four. Cool patterns that originally cost $15 and up. Hello? Who has that kind of money for a pattern? That is why I wing it almost all the time. Darn, just thought about how I shoulda grabbed a pattern for jams for my son. He wants them made from fleece football fabric. Anyway, stopped by the remnant bin (HELP!) and found 6 I couldn't live without + grabbed 2 more "bonus packs" of bobbins. Luckily, I only spent $18.45 ----it would've been $95.19 before taxes so I saved over $78! I just really can't justify spending any more $ on fabric crap when I have a closet full. My poor nephew had eyes like saucers when I had him peek in the closet after he mentioned all the yarn I have around the office and I told him "oh honey, take a gander at the closet." My Seester suffers from a different sort of insanity so I'm sure DN really wanted to stand there and scratch his head.
Last night was so fun. I picked up GB since DD had class until 10. I was on the cell phone with Jessica since I helped her land a job in SA and GB is hollering in the back seat "where are we going?" He got all pouty when I told him we were going home and I asked him "why?" He said "I have just got to get my Inja Turtle costume." The poor baby has been wanting an "Inja Turtle costume" since November (notice AFTER Halloween) and since it didn't arrive at Christmas he decided that Valentine's Day would be ok too. I couldn't take it any more and we headed over to Party City. Precious baby - I try to give him a little freedom and independence and when we walked into the store, I didn't insist that he continue to hold my hand. My idiot....he was so excited looking around that he ran straight into the concrete pillar - this brought him to his knees with huge tears rolling down his face. Here he is, finally getting what he's wanted for months.....and this crap happens. There is no justice in the world, there's just us. Well, we nailed the costume which luckily was the blue turtle and then we had to decide on a sword. Oh yeah, gotta have it all! They run from $2.99 on up and yes, I mean up - he settled on a $3.99 sword and when we got it unsheathed at home....the blade part is blue! It was so cute walking from the back of the store to the front - he told everyone "I got an Inja Turtle costume." At the checkout counter he kept saying "I'm so happy, I'm so glad for me." The ride home was equally entertaining - he would take it out of the package, put it back in, put the package in the bag and repeat the process. Too hilarious to watch. Chipper, chipper. It makes it all worth the $28 it cost. Geez. Of course he had to dress up and run out when Granddad got home. It really is the small things in life....
Guess that is it for my day ~ I'm gonna check out my new patterns and see what notes/lists I can take since I'm in that kinda mood. I cleaned out my desk and wiped down all the surfaces - sure wish this effort was going into something at home.
Until then... | |
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1/26/04 Monday...Knee deep... |
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....in Spanish and it is creeping over my head. We have a list of about 100 words and phrases to study for a quiz - yikes! My brain is so fried and this is the last push - I have to keep telling myself "it is almost over, you can see the end." I guess the scariest thing is the papers she gave us where we have to go around the class and have the classmates ask us a question from the list and if we answer in correct form, they sign off. We have to get 5 students and 2 teacher signatures on each page. I know she's trying to get us to think on our feet, in Spanish. Just this one last Spanish class - sure wish it came easier to me.
Well, I finished painting the kitchen - I only have to do touch up on the woodwork and do the second coat around the window over the sink. Come to think of it - I need to look at the window seat.....I think I red/greened that area so will have to do white or brown there. I finished this yesterday - had GB and DN J on Saturday night ~ it is always a fun time with the boys.
I met a wonderful Kitty on Sunday. DH, DS, DG & I went to the VFW rummage sale and they had a darling, stray, orange tabby running around. Very friendly with a nice motor. I wanted him but the problem was the HIM....seriously doubt he'd been neutered and I'm sure Alexandra would have no part of that. Plus, I don't care to have a sprayer in/near the house. I sure hope he found a good home - he is a really sweet kitty.
Work is going ok ---- outside of the health problems a co-worker's husband has right now. Last year they took out a 7.5 pound tumor from his chest...after he developed pneumonia. Of course, the tumor came back and he's been going thru chemo. They ran tests again and gave them the news on Friday...the less than 2" tumor is now over 5" - no response to the chemo. It doesn't look good but all they can hope for is that the new treatment(s) will work. What pressure for a family to go through! I know others have and others will - just hard to watch and pray it doesn't ever hit your family. I'm sure MK is messing her drawers thinking about being alone - they were high-school sweethearts and have been together a couple hundred years. She's been pretty strong and the diversion of coming to work seems to help her. I guess everyone deals with things differently. No telling how I'd be. It surprised me the way I came unglued for a couple of years after my Mom had a stroke. Looking at and know me - you'd never think it would affect me like it did. I guess I don't have a lot of skill with this sort of thing since we've never had a death in our family that was extremely close....no illnesses....nothing. I remember acting fairly similar when my Seester had back surgery at age 13 - it affected me very deeply. I jumped right in and took care of the family so that Mom could be there with her. I took care of the house, cooked supper, got everyone up and off to school....I was 16 with a newborn. I knew when it was time to pony up and act like an adult. I knew that she'd be alright if I did my share. Luckily it worked out for me or I'm not sure how I'd be at this stage of the game. Some things touch you very deeply - that was one of those times.
I finished a set of felted crochet slippers from the pattern by Marlo's Crochet Corner. I should have used a much smaller needle than recommended - the slippers were huge and luckily the growing boy, DS was able to love and wear them. I used 4 skeins of Reynolds Lopi when she said she got 3.5 slippers from one skein of Lion Brand wool. That should've been my first clue. I didn't have even two skeins of the same color, let alone 4 - so, the slippers are denim blue/purple and green/dk purple. DS didn't care - he'll just be running around the house. I think I'll make another pair - much smaller which will also use less yarn. I may have to adjust her pattern. I only took a before picture - dumb me = dummy.
I also started pulling out hubby's hat - I'm gonna try it with 1 strand instead of 2 and also not increase it as much as I did. The felting of slippers let me know that I don't need to allow for THAT much shrinkage. Was a good test and a relatively easy one while I waited for more yarn to head my way. I thought I'd need more since I was already used two skeins and had JUST started down the top. We'll see. Guess I can use any extras on some slippers. Warm feet - here we come. Maybe I can make some for Seester - she needs warm, fuzzy feet.
Guess that is it - nope, didn't clean out those cupboards but I did add to my list...that nasty, cluttered garage needs a good going thru. I ought to be ashamed. | |
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1/22/04 Stupid thoughts |
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I need to hire someone - do you know of someone who will come in to my house on a weekly basis and straighten out the tufferware cabinet? Or, more accurately, the plastic Cool Whip bowls and Chinese take-out soup containers. I really need to take some time to clean out my kitchen cabinets. I have a lot of cabinets and most of them are a jumbled mess and I haven't a clue where anything is located. And what is up with the idea of placing storage cabinets on the floor? Like anyone would enjoy bending over in order to nicely place something under there. I've never met anyone who was able to keep their cupboards neat and straight. Yeah, I know - cabinets, not cupboards. Sorry, I gots raised by a cupboard lady. Seems no one around here knows what I mean when I say cupboard. Kinda like the difference between a buggy and a shopping cart. I gots raised with buggy but I've since dropped that terminology. Either way, the kitchen storage needs help and I need someone who is willing to open the door, catch what jumps out at them...and then make it so I don't cringe when I have to open the door. Oh, I forgot to mention, what a nicely designed kitchen it is ---> if you open the dishwasher door, you've now blocked off two of the bottom cabinet doors so forget about putting things in there for the time being.
Hubby has a 10 a.m. follow up, secure the job, talk about salary, interview today. I'm hoping he comes out with more $ than they offered him over the phone so that I can get the cc bills paid off. He's a spender and I'm a thrifty spender ----- both add up to more money going out than is coming into the household. My car just turned over the 179K mark and I'm sure she's gonna be coughing soon. I really want her to last thru my schooling before replacing her - just hang in there until May baby. She has very minor old age symptoms so I'm thinking she'll be ok until then. That'll give me time to get the cc's paid off and get the savings built back up to a comfortable level. Of course, I have a list of big ticket items I want to buy - I don't think that'll ever end. My first goal is the cc's and the savings. I'm putting it into b/w so it'll reinforce my goal. I mailed one "paid in full" payment on Tuesday. Always feels good to get it into the mail cuz there is no turning back then. If I let it sit, I may have an itch to rip open the envelope, void and send out minimum payment. How did this turn from plastic food containers to my bills? Plastic = Plastic ----yeah, I need to quit correlating everything in my life.
Classes are going well. I've only attended 3 of the 5 cuz two are independent study and those profs want to meet up with me next week. I've fretted about this semester and all the fretting seemed to help cuz the classes really aren't too bad. My biggest concern was the Spanish 4 - I've been out of the Spanish loop since a year ago and I know that I've forgotten a lot. Well, prof seems to understand cuz she was telling her story of starting to learn English at age 17 and only being in this country for 3 years - she says that she still misses words of conversations and doesn't always understand and doesn't always have the ability to phrase her sentences correctly. I saw this during her lecture but you still feel like an idiot when you know you sound like one. The text and the workbook are user friendly and not intimidating at all - that eased my mind a lot when they arrived in the mail.
The other two classes that I've attended aren't too shabby either. One of them doesn't even require a book! The other requires two but they're interesting reads and the subjects of ethics and law interest me anyway. I'm at the point of learning about the business and the need for ethics - guess they're trying to make us respectable citizens. So far, I think I've accomplished that in my life ----> I've never been handcuffed or jailed. Never even had to pay a speeding ticket. Yeah, I'm not lilly white but I guess the crap I've pulled were paid for in other ways. I'm just looking for that job that pays loads of money and is way fun. I'll let you know if I find it but in the mean time....would you come straighten out the plastic in my life? Yeah, the plastic in the kitchen and the plastic that involves monthly bills.
Enjoy the link but make sure you don't look at it while at work.
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A day of play... |
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1/18/04 Sunday....Yesterday we were in the 70's.... |
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....and today Alexandra snuggles by the fire. It is 40 degrees here today - with a northwest wind making the windchill factor at 33 degrees. Brrr....says Killy Murray.
Finished the 2nd of GB's blue pair of slipper sox and one of J's. I have the cuff of the 2nd finished for J so I'll be finishing this up soon. I got a little stalled on it since I had to resize the green blanket we have on our bed. I had hubby help me flip and make the bed and he suggested I cut off some of the side so it doesn't hang over so bad. I ended up having to take off 10" - not sure why. It is a cotton, Ralph Lauren blanket that I paid about $80 for...not sure why it was so wide. I zipped up the side of the extra 10" and figure I'll use it as covers for 2 rice bags. Everything has a use.
Found some old pictures and things from my childhood today - from a couple years ago when my Mom unloaded all her things on me. A couple of the things went onto the wall in my office and I pulled out some of the pictures - I found 5 good pictures of "Unc" which was a fabulous man - maternal great uncle. I want to make a collage of him. I also found 2 Christmas pics with Santa - one of my daughter and one of my youngest two brothers and a cousin by love. I want to set these out at Christmas and figured I'd find some frames and get them into the holiday decorations box for next year. I also pulled out two of my rattles from when I was, obviously, very young. I need to have Seester go through the pics and see if there are some that she'd like to have. I also need to offer my brothers their pictures. I pull out what I want but they should have their pics to give to their children. Their pics mean something to me but that would be as far as it would go ---- anyone inheriting my things wouldn't think anything of tossing them. They need to be in brothers/sister possession so that their children will have them. It is pretty cool to look at the pictures - remembering the clothes and knowing "oh, that was his favorite shirt." Just was a feel good day for me.
As Adam says, "I'm off like a prom dress." |
Beauuuuuuuty.... | | | Go To Page: [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46] 47 [48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60] |
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