88 Days...

That's how long Jason has been gone.



The last few weeks have gone by in Groundhog Day fashion, another day, same as yesterday.

The weather has been dreary, cold and windy, with sporadic bursts of sunshine; typical of Utah this time of year.  Even with the crappy weather, we need to spend more time outside. I think I will make that a priority starting today.



I am behind on my photo project. I do have reasons, besides lack of motivation. First, our 6-year-old computer started acting up. In a really bad way. (Please keep your fingers crossed that it doesn't crash on me. It just needs to last a few more months. Thankfully, I have everything backed up on hard drive if it does, but it would still be a big pain). Then I had one of those moments, and stuck my memory card into my camera backwards. It shouldn't have even went in, but it did. I had to use pliers to get it out. Ugh. Between the two of those events, I've lost about a weeks worth of pictures. Thankfully, nothing monumental happened during that time, and I think I can patch my photo project together with other pictures that are on my computer and my phone. Remember...the Groundhog Day effect, or SSDD for those so inclined.

On the bright side, we are almost halfway done with this deployment! And in less than a month, my parents (aka: Nana & Papaw) will be out here and staying for several months.

It will be so great to be with family again.



Until then,
Just keep swimming...

Behind

Hello everyone!  It's been a few days since I've been around.  A really busy week plus being on the verge of coughing up my lungs doesn't leave much time for blogging.  And as my title suggests, aside from being behind on blogging, I feel like I am just off kilter all around.  Which when I think about it, is kind of silly.  Because really, I don't have any deadlines, and the only things I have to do in addition to the day to day normal stuff are my art and painting projects.  Maybe I just have too many of them in the works at the same time.  More on them later.

So really, I just wanted to hop on here to let you know I am still around.  I have lots of pictures to go through and edit, and when that's done I will have my Deployment Project pictures from last week, valentiney goodness, and Brennan's birthday to share.

Here's a peek at the birthday, which is also my favorite picture of the week. : )



xo,

What can I say today...

Today I have a picture to post, but not really much to talk about.  I'm sure as I type something will come up.  I can't guarantee it will be profound, but it will be something.

Here's my picture of the day...well, so far.  I downloaded my camera memory card earlier thinking there weren't very many pictures on there. Not very many = 81.  ...And that's since Sunday evening.  And we've pretty much just been hanging out around the house.  Hello, my name is Heather, and I am a photo-holic. : )



Like my new coffee mug?  I found it at Paper Source.  I ordered Brennan's valentine cards from there and couldn't resist it's cuteness.  I will show you Brennan's valentines when we get them put together.  I'm even contemplating hauling out my sewing machine and making him a shirt to match.  I can still get away with having him wear valentine shirts for a couple more years, right?  I'll take advantage of it while I can.

Speaking of Brennan, (like I don't already do that all the time, ha!) I have been gathering goodies for his birthday.  Remember last year his only request was a party hat?  Well, this year, it's a pinata.  I don't know where the idea came from, but I'll go with it.  While I have mad pinata making skills, ( i.e. 25 penguin pinatas, complete with scarves and hat, that I made with my Mom years ago) I think I will just be buying one and skipping all the mess.  Target has a great star shaped one in their party section.   Oh, and I have to share my cleverness with you. Where am I hiding all of Brennan's birthday presents you ask?  (Just pretend you asked.)  I put them all in Jason's empty dresser drawer! How's that for finding a little silver lining. : )

Let's see, what else.  How about what am I reading on my kindle? (Again, let's pretend you asked.)  Right now I am 74% through Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.  With everything going on, I hadn't read any books yet this month.  Gasp!  Last week I was inspired by this post by Lemonade Makin' Mama, and since I had never read Pride and Prejudice before, I thought it would be a good place to start.  I lookied back and also found that it was the #1 book on my 100 books list.  Just maybe this will be the first step to finishing up that list this year.

Well, looky there, how's that for not having much to talk about?  I think it works for me. : )

  

Spidey Sense and Other Randomness

Recently, we bought a shelf and hung it over the couch.  It looked perfect and made me happy, and I filled it up with goodies right away and loved it.

Unfortunately, there was an unforeseen dilemma with my decorating plan.  Every time someone is sitting on the couch it freaks me out a little.  I don't know why.  Maybe because it's a floating shelf that doesn't look like it should be able to stay up?  A trick of the mind, even though I was the one who hung it up, and my mind should know that it is securely anchored to the wall and fastened to it's metal cleat?


(This is like the fourth arrangement of things I've had up there.  I was hoping I could convince myself it was just the contents of the shelf, and not the shelf itself.  It didn't work.  Also, the shelf really is centered over those ceiling tiles, it just doesn't look like it in this picture.  Anyway.)

Understandably, Brennan being the boy jumping bean that he is, could knock something off.  But even when I am sitting on the couch, being still, all by myself, that shelf makes my head tingle, like I've developed spidey sense all the sudden. I have since read that hanging a shelf above your sofa is bad feng shui.  Apparently I have a feng shui sensitivity.  I had no idea.  So it looks like my new little shelf will be looking for a new place to hang, and I will have some big holes to patch.  Not to mention that now I have to figure out something else to hang up there.  Boo.

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I posted awhile back that it was about time for me to invest in some warm boots.  My trusty rain boots just weren't going to cut it for winter wear this whole season.  (Even though I still wear them often.)



So now I have not one pair of new boots, but two!  The first ones are snow boots.  With fuzzy stuff in them. I've worn them several times, and they are so warm.  Great for building snowmen and for all the snow shoveling that I will inevitably be doing in the coming months.



The second ones I found yesterday at Famous Footwear.  They were 50% off and  I had $5.00 off in reward points.  Oh yeah!  But...   I have no skinny jeans or leggings to wear them with, and my old standby boot cut jeans just don't look right tucked into them.  So they are on the sidelines at the moment waiting for a wardrobe update.  I can't wait to wear them!



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Last week we went treasure shopping at an architectural salvage shop in Salt Lake City.  There was so much old stuff...chippy paint, weathered wood, and it all had a history.  As soon as we walked in I fell in love with two pieces.

They came home with us.

A leaded glass mirror from the 1800's.

There are not words.  Except I already think of her as another family member. : )

& Co. Sign.

We bought this complete with bird poop on the back.  And FYI, there wasn't a discount since it had been pooped on, ha.  It really bothers Jason that it doesn't say anything before "& Co."  But that's why I love it so much.  What happened that the end of this sign got cut off?  What happened to the rest of the sign?  Was there a big blow up fight and a breakup, or did someone die, or retire?  Hmmm...we will never know.

We also got a wooden shutter, but a picture of that will have to wait for another day.  It needs a little work, and I don't know yet where it is going to live in our house.  You just never know, it might end up above the couch. : )

I Think I Have Found the Perfect Time to Blog...

It's 4:30 in the morning, and I am awake and blogging.  What?!  It's so nice and quiet.  Nobody is running, yelling, barking, needing to pee, fighting, banging Tonka trucks into my chair, wanting drinks or snacks, scaling cabinets, slamming doors, or wanting to sit in my lap.  Ahhhh...

Really, I am sure I am going to pay for this later today.  Hopefully, my insomnia from the last couple of nights doesn't continue, but while it's here I might as well blog, right?

I think I will break out a numerical list and blog about lots of things.  Wow!  I know, fancy, right? ha : )

1.  A Little Bit o' Happiness: Last Minute Lavender

Our lavender bush decided to send out a few last flowers before winter.  They don't smell as strong as the Springtime flowers, but they're still just as pretty.

2.  Soccer is Over.

I'm glad.  As it turns out, being a "soccer mom" is not my most favorite thing in the world.  I think Brennan got something out of it, though, so I guess we'll have to do it again next year.  

3. I forgot to tell you, I had a good birthday.

Jason took the day off, which was a great present all by itself.  To top off the greatness, I even got an ice cream cake.  Yum!

4.   The ducks and geese were still at the farm.


A few more farm pictures.

John Deere Brennan

I wish you could have heard his tractor noises, too. : )

Checking out the chickens.


The John Boy goat.

My Grandma had a much larger version of this kind of goat.  They all answer to John Boy.

Petting the Horses


The farmhouse.

Can I move in now?

6.  Hmmm...My OCD self really wanted to finish this list on an even number, but I can't think of a 6, so just pretend I did. : )

 Happy Friday!!
(Hopefully mine will include a nap.  I'm sure I will need it!)

Hello Blog Readers...

I thought I would just check in.

I wish I had something really wonderful to tell you today, but Brennan and I have just been hanging out around here doing nothing very exciting.  Spring/Summer is finally upon us (today anyway), and the temperature gauge says it 64 outside.  Yay!  Of course this is following a week of almost nonstop  rain, so we'll just be glad for today, and see what tomorrow brings.

Only two more days and Jason will be home!  I can't wait, he's definitely ready to be home, and Brennan asks everyday if Daddy will be home today.  Jason texted me earlier with news that he had just finished his speech, the final thing he needed to complete.  Tomorrow is graduation, and early Friday morning he will be Utah bound.  Whoo Hoo!

This weekend our plans mostly revolve around food.  Jason has been eating bachelor style for six weeks, and  he is ready for some home cookin'.  Our refrigerator and pantry are stocked and ready for feasting.  : )  We also have big plans to go see and ride Thomas the Train.  Shhhh....Brennan doesn't know, it's a surprise.

So though it's been pretty slow for the last few weeks, we have lots of fun stuff coming up!

Tuesday Randomness

Putting together several random thoughts constitutes a blog post, right?  I say yes. : )

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Bathroom Mystery...

I don't know what it is.

Perhaps the gravitational pull in our bathroom is just immense.

This is the scene I come upon at least once a day.

Dang towel super gravity.

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Life with a boy....

This has become a permanent fixture on the back of my desk chair.  Oh, and the hard hat is a required part of the "uniform." Safety first!

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Upcoming fun...

Jason and I will be celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary in July.  Yay!  We've got some plans for a getaway in the works.

Here's a little hint.

We'll be hoping to see some of these.

{Image source}

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Brennan-isms...

As Brennan's vocabulary grows, he comes up with some often funny ways of expressing himself.  I thought I better write some of them down before I forget.

A lot of them revolve around Panda.

Who's Panda?

We got Brennan a Pillow Pet for his birthday.

It's the first thing he really ever asked for, and actually he started asking for one back before Christmas, so we got him a panda.

Panda and Brennan were inseparable from day one.  Actually, he is already looking a little dingy and it's only been 2 1/2 months.  Brennan drags him everywhere!  Panda is usually the first thing I see most mornings.  Brennan will climb in our bed and shove Panda in my face and say, "Good Mornin' Mommy, Panda says Good Mornin' too."  Of course there are some days that I just want to send Panda sailing across the room, but I'm a nice mommy and don't.

According to Brennan, Panda is silly and sleeps a lot.  He also keeps me constantly appraised of Panda's emotional state.  Just a few minutes ago I was informed that, "Panda is happy."  Thank goodness, we can't be having any mopey pandas around here!   

A few more:

- After he yawns he says, "I'm just a little bit tired."

- When he sees the FedEx truck, "Look Fox!" (It took us awhile to figure that one out.) :)

- When he wants to take a nap, "Brennan needs to go take a little sleep."

- Blueberries and Strawberries are "Blue Boggies."

- Any time we're outside he has to point out every school bus, UPS truck, FedEx truck, mailman, concrete mixer, trash truck, motorcycle, bicycle, balloon and American flag we come across.

- American flag comes out "A-mark-a-mark-an flag.

The computer is the "com-puke-a-pew-ter."

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And last but not least, it's a big day...

Happy Birthday Andrew!

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As for the rest of our day, it's all overcast and looking like rain outside, so we have big plans to watch Mary Poppins and to do some laundry.

Have a Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious day!

A Series of Events and a Few Pictures For Nana

I've been pretty scarce in blogland for the last week or so.  There was a reason.

I moved the living room furniture around last Monday.

No it hasn't taken me all week to move the furniture, but moving the furniture led to a sudden burst of project ideas, and I just had to go with it.  I got a lot accomplished and it has made me so happy.  Some of the stuff I finished were projects that have been sitting around half finished or stuff I wasn't quite happy with, and I was just waiting for the right solution to present itself.  Like our faux fireplace mantel and those brass lamps I got during my thrifty shopping trip.  Both of them got a makeover this week and now they are beautiful.  Well, actually I still have to work on one lamp, but at least I finally figured out what it needs to look like when it's through.

This week I have some sewing to do just as soon as this new fabric comes in the mail.
Another something for the living room.  Can you guess what it will be?

Besides being busy with home projects there hasn't been anything too eventful happen.

It has rained or snowed for most of it, so we haven't spent much time outside.

Brennan's been happy to wear his rain boots any chance he gets.


The Easter Egg Hunt was ok.
It was so cold that morning, and I didn't really get any good pictures because there were so many people there I was too worried about Brennan getting trampled or lost.  He was happy.  He got 8 eggs and a goody bag.


We made rainbow cupcakes.


Brennan still prefers just to lick the icing (or the batter) than actually eating the cupcake.


The Easter Bunny left a basket of goodies and lots of eggs to find.


His favorite thing was his new piggy bank.

It took a look of convincing (with lots of whining, tears and pouting) and a broken piggy leg for Brennan to realize that the pig wasn't a toy, that he just had to sit on his bookshelf.  Don't worry, I glued him back together and now everyone is happy.

At school last week, the theme was "Cowboys and Cowgirls."

Brennan was in Wild West heaven.  Copper not so much.  Brennan has decided he's a horse.  Copper doesn't agree.

Speaking of Copper.  He's turned into Mr. Destruct-o since Jason's been gone.

Because who doesn't want to deal with dog confetti first thing in the morning?  I bought him some new toys today.  Hopefully that will help.

So I think we're all caught up.  I made myself a "honey do" list list morning, so it looks like it will be another busy week.  I might even get my flowers planted in the next few days.  It got into the 60s today.


Whoo Hoo!!







p.s.  I turned anonymous commenting off today.  I've been getting some spam and some weirdos.  So from now on if you want to comment you have to log in or just email me.  That seems to be the favored way of doing it anyway.

This So Happens to Me...

You Can Usually Count On Me...

..not to have a post ready for Monday.  Bummer, but that seems to be just how I roll here lately. 

But today, I thought I would surprise you all and give it a go!  So far it's been a great day.  Number One: The sun is shining, and the snow is melting!  Number Two, Three, Four...Reference #1.  Yay!  I don't know how long the weather will stay nice, but I'll take it while it's here.

So, though it snowed all day Saturday, and then was gloomy yesterday, we had a great weekend.

It started out kind of slow, for Jason anyway.  He had an appointment Saturday morning to get the extra accessories we ordered put on the Jeep, and to get the undercoating applied.  Brennan and I would have gone too, but they told Jason ahead of time that it was going to take 3-4 hours.  Brennan pent up in a auto dealer waiting room for 4 hours would not have been good, so Daddy went by himself and we stayed home.

Brennan was happy, he got to sit and watch cartoons without any interruptions for Fox News.  While he was occupied watching Super Why and Thomas and Friends, I spent my time trying not to have a brain aneurysm talking on the phone with the Sirius radio people.  That has got to be my all time least favorite thing to do. ever.  And it doesn't matter why I have to call them, it still ends up the same.  This time I was calling to switch service from one radio to another.  Apparently, the radio I was switching to wasn't compatible with the one I was switching from.  Long, long, blood boiling story short, they decided to send me a new radio for free, and give me a year programming for $70 bucks.  I guess we'll keep them around for another year.  Unfortunately, when our new radio comes in, I'll have to call them again to get the programming switched over.  Gah!


You must wear the proper apparel while watching  Thomas the Train.

Yesterday we went Target shopping, and found some really good deals on meat.  We stocked up our freezer with sirloin, pork chops, pork loin, chicken breast, and whole chickens for about $100.  We counted it up, and we ended up with about 23 meals worth.  Way to go, us!

After we got home, it was time to make some cookies.

I didn't get any pictures of the cookies, but here is the cookie makin' helper.

So silly.

So I guess that brings us to today.  Brennan was so happy this morning that Spring Break is over so he could go back to school.  I hope he always feels that way about going to school. : )

I have one of the chickens from our shopping trip yesterday roasting in the crockpot.  Mmmm....smells good already.  Anyway, I hope I haven't bored you too much with my Monday post.  I've gotta run, time to go back to school to get the little man.  Maybe I'll live on the wild side, and wear my flip flops when I go.  : ) 

(Isn't it sad that 47 degrees is so exciting?)
Hugs,

Spring Starts in March, Right?

I have had this sign hanging on our front door for weeks.  Weeks! 


I am so ready for Spring!

Just a few things on my "Spring Ready" list:
Brennan asks to wear his sandals everyday.
I have three pairs of new flip flops that haven't seen the outside yet. 
I just gave myself a pedicure.
I have been working on my Jergens Natural Glow tan.
I have lilies to plant, and planters that we keep dragging in and out everyday.


Obviously, Mother Nature just can't take a hint.  That, or she has a mean sense of humor.

This is what was happening yesterday evening.

And this was just the icing on the cake after a gloomy day of rain, sleet, and hail. (There's snow on the forecast through Sunday! boo!!)

But, at least with the snow came a little hope.

Well hello, Mr. Robin!

This little guy and his buddy were hanging out in our yard.
Though, I don't think they looked too happy to be here.

"Hmmph...I think we took a wrong turn in Arizona."


Happy Weekend Everybody!