Routine

I seem to do the same things, all the time.  I work Monday through Friday.  We eat out on Friday nights.  I do chores and some socializing on Saturday.  And I go to church Sunday.  I am routine, predictable; and I am fine with it.

Mr. R is home, which means I get real photos.  He suggested going outside, and I happily agreed.  This is our back fence, with our clothesline and our newly sprouting peach tree!  Oh...and me.

Am...blind...cannot...see...outrageous...sunshine!

Phew...got in the shade.  What I'm wearing: black lace cami tank, Walmart, maybe 4 years old.  I think it was $3.  Weird animal print dress, Goodwill, 2011, $6.  Trotters shoes, $90.  Most expensive shoes I've ever owned.

The back of this dress is kind of sexy.  I like it quite a bit, but it limits the camis I can wear with it.

Almost completely recovered from the awful outbreak of last month.

Had to take a quick snap of the hubby and our kitty, Nutmeg.

I said to Mr. R, "take a picture of my hair!"  Gosh, it's hard to even think about cutting it when I get a picture as pretty as this.  Literally, I have no products in my hair.  This is just a comb through.  No mousse, gel, wax, paste or spray is in my hair.  Although I think it could use some color correction.  But wow...not to be bragging, but I think my hair looks beautiful here!

A quick pose by the overgrown rose bushes.  I want to you all to know, I suffer for my art.  I got a thorn in the butt for this picture!

How was your Sunday?  Do you stick to a weekly or daily routine?  How is your weather in your area?  Today, it was about 83, with bright sunshine and a decent breeze.  Absolutely lovely!

"My Warriors Are Back In Business!"

This was the text I received this morning from my honey, who finally got the phone call back from the doctor who performed the vasectomy reversal.

It worked!

Now, I just gotta get pregnant.  Unfortunately, March was not our month.  Poo.  I would LOVE LOVE LOVE!!! to get pregnant in April, because that means we'd have a Christmas-y baby.  And with Mr. R's 40th birthday being Christmas Eve this year, well, I can't think of a better present to give my man! But like I also said, I do not want to be depressed every 28-30 days if I don't get pregnant.  So I'm trying very hard not to think about it, although I am paying close attention to ovulation schedules and letting the Hubs know when would be a good time for him to head home.  However, spring is the busiest time of year for my guy.  You see, he delivers plants up north.  And after the very mild winter the north had, many businesses are already ordering their plants.  So while I know that a good time would be from March 30-April 4, there are no guarantees, and this time of year, no promises about when he can or will be home.  It's simply the luck of the draw.  And with him making 50% of his pay during these 3-4 months of the year, you don't turn it down.  I'll conceive in God's time, not mine.  But patience is a hard lesson for me to learn!

Bluesy

I love this dress, but I look awfully pregnant in it.  And since I'm not pregnant yet (that I know of...trying not to look at the calendar, but I'm coming up on my normal cycle and so far, my skin is clear and I'm not craving Pepsi, so we'll see!) this dress needs to be banished back to the closet unless I layer a shirt over it or belt it.  I forgot I bought a belt from Torrid a week ago; maybe I will try it again another time.  Anyway:

Dress: Target, but shortened by my wonderful Mommy!  Black flats, Target.  Gray tank: Target, but it's a pajama top.  Oh please, like you can tell?  Jewelry: handmade by my Mommy!  She's so talented.

My trouble area(s) is definitely my midsection.  But this dress is such a pretty blue, and it will be great as maternity wear hopefully soon.

Hair: getting long, and no cutting it.  And now you can see the jewelry my Mommy made!  Isn't it pretty?  The blue gray color matches my eyes exactly.  Oh, and you can see my skin is still healing.  It will take some time.

Look who got a hair cut instead of me!  Bucket got a "faux-hawk."  I think he looks great!

It's Not A Kitchen Remodel, But It Will Do

Recently, Mr. R got on my case about how our plasticware collection was lying in a container on the floor of the freezer room.  (I'll tell you what THAT is in a minute.)  Poor Mr. R was trying to take some food with him on the road, and there was cat hair in every single container.  Tis true, we have completely run out of storage in our tiny, TINY, kitchen.  I love my house, but from the day we moved in, I have emphatically hated the kitchen.  I call it the "Manhattan Kitchen" because it's so small that it belongs in a studio in NYC, not in a family home in Florida.

The room which you are about to see is what I call the "freezer room"  or the "weird room." It is a stupid room with basically no purpose.  It lies directly between the master bedroom and the kitchen.  It is "supposed" be a dining room, but it is so small that no real table can fit in it, plus actual chairs.  If you push back from the table, you will either fall into our bedroom, slam into a wall, or end up in the kitchen.  I consider it an architectural FAIL.  It has a window, a door to my room, an opening to the kitchen, and then is open to what we're using as our dining room, which is SUPPOSED to be a family room.  We also keep my husband's drum kit half in the freezer room, half in the dining room.

Now, our garage is another architectural FAIL...as the room where most men like to spend time working on projects, and whittling around, has one electrical outlet...ONE!  It's the most inane thing ever.  So I said to Mr. R about five years ago, "Why don't we put the deep freezer into the weird room?"  (because the weird room with no actual purpose has four electrical outlets...please explain this to me!)  The deep freezer fit just fine, and it is more convenient to go into the room right next to the kitchen to get extra items anyway.  So the weird room became the Freezer Room, and I started storing extra kitchen stuff in there because we are bursting at the seams.  First, I moved a small white bookcase which had been in the garage back into the house, and kept cereal boxes on it, plus some large appliances like our crockpot.  See?

There is also no place to put a garbage can in our house.  I refuse to put it in the pantry with our food.  I mean, Ewwww.  Gross!

This is the door that leads to our master bedroom.  As you can see, hubby's drums are located right next to it.  This slim bookcase is the only barrier.  I keep lots of stuff on it; bread, baking pans, the foodsaver, the juicer, a lamp (not sure why that's there) extra bowls...I really  just don't have any space in here!

Can you see how narrow this room is?  There's my bedroom door again.  And the freezer.  With all the plastic bowls on the floor, because I just had no space for them.

This is the room from my bedroom door.  Looking into the Manhattan Kitchen.

So I decided that I was going to find another bookcase, to keep the plastic ware off the floor, and also put other things which are stacked on top of my refrigerator, like my KitchenAid attachments and such.  Seems simple, except that I couldn't find any.  I didn't want new; I wanted to find used so I could spend less money.  I have it in my head that someday, I'm going to have the money to remodel the Freezer Room by knocking down a wall and extending the kitchen.  So I wanted to go cheap on this.  I went to my local Goodwill and was horrified to find that for a beat up, broken bookcase with a kid's name carved into the side, they wanted $80!  I walked away from that, and decided that I'd go yard saling on Saturday.

I am not a yard sale person.  I feel so bad if I don't find something I like and have to drive off.  As my sister said, it's like telling someone that their taste sucks.  I love thrift and antique stores, but I haven't done too many private sales.  I went to five different yard sales and none of them had furniture until Number 6.  This guy was moving to a smaller house and he had a lot of furniture to sell; and I saw the hutch buffet, and I thought, THAT'LL DO.  While he was selling his sofa, I drove home, grabbed Tiger, and had  him help me put the seats down in my Durango.  Then I drove back and bought this thing for $60.

Forgot to take a picture before I started loading it up.  Yes, it's antique white crackle paint with chicken wire.  Mr. R is going to HATE IT.  But...it was $60!  And can be repainted.  And is Broyhill, which I know is a good brand and sells for about $600 retail, if I'm not mistaken.  Score!!!

So I moved the freezer in front of the window.  And moved the tall bookcase into the corner where the freezer used to be.  And put the new hutch by my bedroom door.  And started loading her up.  I grabbed all my cookbooks off the entertainment center (because there was no room in the kitchen for my cookbooks!), dusted them all off, and started arranging the top part which is open and so I wanted it to be pretty.  I put my red KitchenAid bowls, my Pampered Chef glass measuring pitchers, and our wooden salad bowl, plus our antique waffle iron.  Filled the rest in with my cookbooks.  The plastic ware is in the bottom, still in baskets, but away from kitties.

Nutmeg!  Get out of there!  What part of "away from the kitties" do you not get?!?!

Finished, for now.  I may change some things around, but I'm quite pleased right now.

Doesn't the open portion look really nice?

Pampered Chef glass measuring bowls.

Mostly finished, but this is the final placement of furniture, with a few things left to put away.  Plastic ware is being run through the dishwasher, I threw away anything that didn't have a mate.  This will have to do until I can afford the $20000 remodel I keep imagining in my head.  Do you like?

I Put Shoes On, And I Go Outside!

One of my coworkers is moving back to her home state of Pennsylvania and so we had a goodbye party at the Chili's in Altamonte Springs for her.  I brought my camera, then had so much fun that I forgot to take pictures.  I'm goofy like that.  There was only decent shot of my outfit, and I'm standing in front of the TV so that way poor Tiger wouldn't actually have to GET UP and take a picture.

Navy blue Avenue cardigan, bought in 2011.  Kiyonna sequin tank top, bought in 2011.  Svoboda jeans bought in 2009.  Target flats...2009?  Screamo video behind me; courtesy of teenage son.

Bucket was not happy that I left.  He sniffed "Mama, where you going?"  And I said, "Out with my friends."  He looked utterly confused and said, "Who are they?"  Yeah, I don't get out much.  Thanks for reinforcing my agoraphobia, kiddo.  When I arrived, I heard screams:  "Sarah's wearing PANTS!"  Who knew I was so famous for my dresses and skirts?  I had to laugh.  It's better than being famous for your bad breath or for being on Hoarders.  Speaking of, does anyone watch that show?  I love it, and I'm not a TV person.  Whenever I'm done watching it, I get up and clean something.  You too?

Horrifying pimples finally going away.  I tried to put makeup on them, it really doesn't help.  But hey, look!  Nice hair day?  Have I finally turned the page on this awful hair?  Has it grown out enough to finally have a bit of weight, so it's not a huge poofy mushroom head? 

My Stress Overfloweth

I am NOT a 13 year old girl obsessed with Justin Beiber.  No.  I am 36.  36 years old with a massive breakout.  I feel RIDICULOUS.  And this covered in make up...trust me, it looked far worse.  Hey, my eye makeup came out nicely and I just did my brows last night.  Too bad my hair is still a wreck.

I went to church by myself.  The kids just couldn't get up and I decided to be kind and let them sleep in.  I came home to mayhem.  Guess I taught myself a lesson.  Being nice to teenagers rarely works out.

I love weather.  One of the few things not controlled by humans, and I love its raw and wild beauty.  This is my neighbor's yard directly behind me.  Nice cloud bank!

Swirling clouds, never turned green, never heard the siren noise.  Phew.

This is the view down my street. 

I worked 46 hours last week.  I know it's Sunday, but I'm about to change into my pajamas and try to work for about 3-4 hours.  I intend to work about a 9-10 hour day on Monday, but on Tuesday, I have a going away party to attend, so I can only work an 8 hour day.  One of the girls I work with decided to move back to Pennsylvania to be with her kids and grandchildren.  I don't blame her one bit.  I will miss her terribly, especially since our department hasn't hired anyone to replace her (that I know of) and they're going to split up her work and just give it to us.  So my workload is about to increase...again.  I'm seriously trying not to cry just thinking about how awful this is going to be.

My hair: pulled back completely when I'm sick of it.

Liked my outfit, hated my skin.  Have to wear another colored cami under this top; it's very close to my actual skin tone!

My hubby...my goodness do I just love him.  Although I wish he'd stop wearing camo.  Kinda over that.  I'd love to give him a makeover, but that will never happen.  Do any of you girls help your husband/boyfriends pick out their clothes.  I do not even attempt.  My guy is set in his ways.

Is That Smoke? Because My Pants Are On Fire!

I lied.  I lied really, really, badly.

I applied for two new jobs that popped up.  One is for "practice coder" which is a beginning coding position which actually asks for the certification I have, which is a CCA (certified coder associate.) Normally, that certification is not really good enough (so I've learned) so when I saw this, I decided to just do it.  The other position is for "release of information specialist" which I'm sure has something to do with releasing clinicals to insurance companies to obtain auths; quite similar I think to what I do now, but we'll see.  I said to Mr. R, "What if I get it?  What do I do?" but I guess we'll cross that bridge if and when it comes.  I want a baby more than I want a new job; but I'm not sure how much longer I can last in this position.  I'm exhausted; not physically but my brain is just TIRED and I'm sick of the level of stress if stuff doesn't get done.  I feel like a very poorly maintained machine right now.  I've been on overtime since late last night and I could fall asleep at any minute.

I don't know if applying for any other jobs is really helpful at all.  But is sitting here complaining about the job I have now any better?

Oh, The Pain

So I got snazzy new running shoes, and then hit my proverbial brick wall.  Dealing with immense pain in my left heel, I went to my pcp today to rule out anything diabetic.  Lucky for me, she thinks it's bone oriented, like a stress fracture or heel spur.  I have a script for an xray of my left foot, but didn't have time to go today and hoping I can go tomorrow on my lunch break.  The pain is so bad I can hardly walk on it.

Work has been...intense.  Unlimited overtime available due to incredibly high volumes at work.  I've taken advantage of it for the past three weeks, although not horribly so; about 3-5 hrs per week.  With adding te extra work, three things have happened:

1) I broke out into massive pimples all over my chin.
2) I started having headaches directly behind my left eye.
3) I started having my left eyelids fluttering, driving me insane because I have long eyelashes which keep poking me in the eye.

Dr. V's diagnosis?  STRESS.  Her prescription:  Take time off work.  HAHAHAHAHAHA!  It's only Wednesday night and I've worked 29 hours this week, and will probably close out at around 50 by Friday.  Thankfully, Missy's drivers ed class is over so I can sleep in this Saturday, and you bet I will.  Oh...this also means that my daughter is now a licensed driver.  She is already bugging us to buy her a car.

Pictures lately are awful due to massive pimply break out.  I took pictures and hated them all:

Please do not attempt to connect the dots.

Too old for a balloon, but he got one out of the teacher anyway.

"Jesus Loves Me...and look at these guns."

Nutmeg the Kitty approves this blog post.