Overdue April 22, 2008

Where do I start? Let’s see, my in-law’s where here as scheduled and we had a really nice visit. One day I took my MIL to a local garden place (owned by the county) and we spent 3 hours there. I took over 300 pictures! It was beautiful and we had a great time. The next day we went to a gallery store and looked around there for a couple of hours and had planned to paint pottery there but their studio had gone to private parties only. So we went to another one in town and by that time is was noon. So we met up w/ Dave, his dad and Max who were trying to get in a golf game (unsuccessfully), and had lunch across the street from the pottery place. After lunch we went our separate ways again- girls to paint, boys to golf. We had a nice time. Samantha painted a rabbit, Madeline and Elaina and my MIL painted a small plate and I painted a small vase. Samantha had so much paint on the poor rabbit by the time we left that it was dripping. LOL Elaina made a mess of her plate- but she had fun so that is all that matters. Madeline painted a ‘horse’ on her plate (I use the word “horse” loosely), my MIL painted a flower on hers and I painted my vase blue w/ a star fish on one side and a fish making a kissy face on the other side. One thing I discovered- None of us are artists! But we enjoyed ourselves. If it wasn’t so expensive, I’d go a lot more often. My MIL paid for one of my girls’ plates and herself and I paid for 3 people. All together it was nearly $70 just for the pottery, plus a $5 paint fee per person!! Yikes! But it was a once-a-year treat and we had fun. After we were done we all met up at the beach and walked around for an hour or so. I ended up w/ a bad headache by the time we left so my MIL kindly paid for a fast-food dinner so I wouldn’t have to cook. I know- fast food=bad for you. But, I didn’t have to cook!!! We rented movies and watched them until late. The kids went to bed at 8 and we watched a movie until 10 something then stayed up for a while chatting. They ended up leaving Thursday morning. We had a nice couple of days with them, I was pleasantly surprised. )

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We filed our taxes a couple of days before the 15th and got a small refund. Dave spent a big chunk on tools that he needed and had been lusting over for some time. I splurged on a pricey cell phone. I looooove gadgets!! I bought the HTC PPC6800. I bought it off eBay actually so I wouldn’t have to mess w/ renewing contracts w/ Alltel. I am expecting it today. I’ve got my eyes peeled for UPS. I only ended up paying $16 more for the phone than I would have ultimately paid through Alltel, so I got a good deal. Considering they are going for waaaay more than that regularly, I’m pleased. It was a frivolous treat for myself.

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My eBaying is going well. Some things sell better than others I’ve noticed. I started going around my house looking for things to sell and I ended up selling all of my Sims 2 games (9 games) for $90 and I’ve listed other games and a house remodeling program that I have. I’ve listed books, too, that I never use. I am not doing too badly selling things. Actually, I have some interesting news. I discussed it with Dave and he agreed- I offered to buy the remainder of the fabric from the woman I was selling for. She agreed (!!!) and now I have a little more than 20 black trash bags full of fabric. I am going to sell it all on eBay. I have seen what I can make with it and I know that I will recoup what I invested ($300) plus lots and lots more. Fabric sells on eBay, very well. I’m thrilled and the slightest bit overwhelmed. I don’t have any storage set up for this stuff yet so I have trash bags all over my office, some piled waist high. I will buy shelving this coming weekend and start sorting through the fabric. The sad and weird thing is- I bought 2 bags from the woman with plans to make lots of things for my girls for summer. But I ended up selling fabric for this woman and now I own all the fabric she had. So I don’t have time or room to sew anymore. I actually put my sewing machine up on the closet shelf. It’s very odd how it all worked out. I look at my own fabric stash and feel a bit sad that I won’t be sewing for a while because of eBay. But, I am thrilled that I will be able to make a decent amount of money for myself and my family for a few months. That’s awesome! I’m self-employed!!

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I have been thinking about my camera and have decided to try and upgrade to a DSLR finally. I have an awesome camera, no doubt about it. But it is limited in what I can do with it because it’s 99% automatic. It does have manual controls but they only do so much and I can’t get it to do what I want most of the time. I want more control over my photos. I can see what kind of picture I want to capture but can’t get my camera to cooperate and end up with something less than stellar most often. I am looking at Nikon D80’s on eBay (where else?) and I plan to buy a used one so I can afford it. I will be selling my camera to help pay for this expensive new one. I will also be using money I get from an accident settlement I’ll get in the next couple of weeks. The settlement isn’t huge but it’s more than nothing. I’m taking $500 for myself and the rest I’m letting Dave pay bills with. Considering I was the one to suffer through the accident and pain and mental trauma, I don’t feel bad taking the $500. I wish I could take more (since it really is mine) but our family’s needs trump my desire for more gadgets. And Dave wants to pay some bills. I understand that. But the irresponsible side of me wants to just use it to get whatever I fancy. But I have to be all grown up and responsible and all that crap. Ugh!

I think I’m all caught up on what I’ve been up to the past couple weeks. I will try and post a few pictures later today. I’m going to take a shower and hope UPS doesn’t come while I’m in there. Knowing how it usually goes for me, he will. LOL

Procrastinator April 7, 2008

WHY do I leave everything until the last minute??? My in-laws are coming tomorrow afternoon. We’ve had such a crappy weekend that we didn’t get much done. So the rest of it has to be done tomorrow. That includes: folding and putting away about 10 loads of laundry, washing another 4 loads, scrubbing the ‘kids’ bathroom, cleaning the kitchen, sweeping and mopping floors, vacuuming the living room, hallway and my bedroom, rearranging and straightening my bedroom, cleaning out the fridge and trying not to kill the children. The kids have been difficult lately. Constantly bickering and whining, tattling, antagonizing each other and generally being total pains in the butt. With them home it will be so hard to get everything done that is on my list. By the time Dave’s parents get here I’ll be passed out on the floor, drooling into the carpet. And the kids will be grounded to their beds for a month. I hate that I left everything to the last minute but last week was a tough one for me emotionally and mentally. I was unable to find the motivation to do anything. So tomorrow I will kill myself and possibly throw out my back trying to rush and get my house mostly presentable. I suppose you are catching on here that housekeeping is not my forte’. My talents lie in other areas!

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Want to see pictures of my sewing room? Well, technically it’s half my room, half Dave’s room. But to me, it’s 90% my room and Dave can bite me. Since I’ll be spending a good portion of my days in here, I figure I get to be the boss.

Just a warning: this room is a disaster. I felt sick most of the day today and got next to nothing done in here. I need to spend a couple hours straightening it all out. But it’s low on the priority list right now.

Please don’t judge me! (Ok, deep breath. You can do it Mandi…)

Standing behind the door in a corner:

Dave’s desk area:

This is my side of the room:

To the left of the table is the closet. The rolly-bin to the left has the 2 bottom drawers full of remnant fabric. Less than 1 full yard stuff and stuff I got out of the remnant bin at Joanns:

The area behind the door:

And, my favorite! The fabric!!

So, there you have it. I’ll have to take and post some after pics. When I am actually proud of what this room looks like!! And I’ll do a house tour when the house is sparkley. Not that I have anything to show off but house tours are fun for others to see.

Sooo tired April 6, 2008

We have company coming on Monday evening. We also wanted to do some room rearranging before they got here. Of course we wait until TODAY to start it all!! LOL We played musical rooms. We have a room that was once (years ago) the garage. Now it is just a very large room and the washer and dryer are in there in a closet. We were using it as part office for Dave, part laundry dump for all things dirty and part room where you put things that have no place but you don’t want to get rid of them. Oh, and there was a futon in there, that we need for company. My sewing table was in my bedroom because it gets the best light in the house (I have issues with dark rooms) and since I’m selling fabric on eBay, it’s been overtaken by 100 pounds of fabric. I could not stand it anymore. So!! Here was our solution: Futon got moved into Max’s room. While Dave’s parents are here, they’ll use his room. After they leave, Max can use it as a comfy seat to sit and read, do homework, whatever. We had to move his furniture around first but, no biggie. Next, we moved Dave’s office stuffs out of the ‘front room’ (as it’s called) and cleaned out all the crap out of the closets. We moved the girls out of their bedroom and turned the ‘front room’ into ‘the girls’ room’. Once that was done, we stopped and breathed heavy for a while. After their room was done, we moved Dave’s desk and a metal shelf unit (it’s nice, not industrial) into what used to be the girls’ bedroom. And we moved my sewing table and all things ’sewing’ into the room w/ Dave’s desk. Now, we have an ‘office’, a room that belongs to us. I think I’m going to put a sign on the door that says ‘Parints ONLY!! No cidds alowed’ and ‘Cidds have COOTEEES!!’ They’ll have to know the secret password in order to come in.

I am thrilled with this arrangement. Now, I can put all my fabric on the shelves, use the closet for storage of my sewing ’stuff’- I don’t feel crowded anymore. And I have a place for my ‘girl’ now. I bought a dress form for myself on eBay. I need to think of a name for her. I vetoed Dave’s vote for ‘Breasty LaRue’. I can’t think of what I should call her, so for now, she’s just ‘My Girl’. I love having a girl. She makes me feel a bit more like a professional seamstress! I feel like I need to make something quick-like to cover up her girly bits. Her boobies are all exposed. It’s just wrong!!

I hope to, one day, buy a second table for my sewing. One table to sew on, and to hold my laptop and printer. And one table to use for cutting out patterns. It’s very frustrating to have to constantly clean off the table in order to cut out a pattern and then turn around and put everything back on again. The table I have cost me $50 and I love it. I want to get a second one. Only problem I have is space. This room is small. We live in a 3-bedroom ranch (1600 sq ft) and the bedrooms are on the small side. I keep looking around and coming to the conclusion that my second table may very well not happen!!! I can not complain though. I know it’s a luxury to even have my ‘own’ room for sewing and such. This is the first home we’ve ever lived in that afforded me this luxury. I do love this arrangement. I’ll have to take a picture of my fabric shelves. Piled high with tons of fabric. My own little store! Love it!! Although, it occurs to me that very few people would share my joyous feelings. LOL

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I broke down and decided to refill my anti-depressants this week. For some reason I just started really falling into a depression this last week. I slept a LOT, could NOT stand the kids at all (AT ALL!!), had no motivation to do anything whatsoever. And I was really starting to feel the self-loathing coming back rather strong. Those feelings lead to thoughts of suicide for me. So, yah. Bring on the drugs!!!! I take Wellbutrin. First depression medication that I just love. Some side effects but nothing that interferes with daily life, like all the others I’ve tried over the years. My biggest complaint would be the stomach aches. Some days my stomach just hurts so bad. It kind of sucks but I deal. It’s waaay better than the severe exhaustion I dealt with on all the other meds. And it has actual good side effects. If you can believe that. One is that it can be an appetite suppressor. That is good!! Very good! And two, it can make a person actually want sex! Imagine!!! Actual desire! For actual sex! No longer muttering ‘Just hurry up and get it over with!’. LOL No, I haven’t said that since I was in my child-birthing years. And those years are waaaaaay behind me now. But it’s nice to feel, uh, amorous once in a while. So, now you know more about me than you would ever, ever want to. Ever. You’re welcome?? LOL

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I must go to bed. I have 2 more days worth of major cleaning and laundry folding ahead of me. I wanted to mention real quick though, if you want to see any of the fabric that I have for sale, just let me know. I’ll point you in the right direction. I have tons up and will be listing tons and tons more in the coming weeks. You can get good deals on very nice fabric. And I may be listing trims, books and patterns soon too.