Happy Easter 2016

Happy Easter!

Of course I saw this video on Colossal.com, where I find everything cool. The video is from Jiri Zemanek, check it out, it's a lot of fun!

Egg courtesy of Babs

So this month has been a bit crazy, and I realized just how crazy when I looked and saw that my last post was over a month ago. By this time next week I will be in a new home. Still renting; the house is not new, but it's new to me.

My sister in law messaged me on a Tuesday asking if I could be home to show the house to three realtors on Saturday, and it's been a whirlwind ever since. It's been a bumpy ride, and I was originally under the gun to get things ready for an open house on the 26th, but thankfully due to circumstances with things that had to be repaired before it could be shown, all of that will be happening in April.

The biggest surprise was that I was able to find a place to move to fairly quickly, and I can have the cats. HUGE thanks go to my boss Kelly for helping me find it. It was probably a good thing that I made a big push at the beginning of the month to get things packed and into a storage unit and out of the house so I am not doing all of it at once.

I am doing better than I thought at looking forward and not looking back too much. For as many things that frustrated me here over the years, there are still things I liked about this house. There are pros and cons to everything it seems like, but I am going to make the best of it.

I am going to miss the hens from next door. It was really funny - Friday when I came home from work I found an egg on the front porch. I took it over to Teggart and we were pretty sure it was from Babs, the little Bantam, and my favorite. He gave me an egg from one of the other hens, and I made an omelette for breakfast yesterday. Then in the afternoon she laid another one on my porch! It was just as perfect and small as the first one, so I knew for sure it was her.

Breakfast!

The other funny thing from this weekend was yesterday morning when my friend Jo and I came back from taking a load out to the new place and saw this garage sale sign taped to the light post across from Haggen on Meridian. It reads "Our crap, could be your crap!" Jo spotted it first, and we both cracked up! Big thanks go to Jo for emailing me two Saturday's in a row asking if I wanted some help, because I still feel too guilty and awkward asking for it.

Our crap, could be your crap!

I always knew I had a lot of stuff, but having to pack it up and move it just confirms it! So this next week is going to be crazy, and by the end of the day next Sunday I should be completely out of the house on Queen St. and into the new place. Hopefully it won't be another month before I post again, but I know I will be busy unpacking and figuring out where everything goes!

What Does 2016 Have in Store?

I don't make New Year's resolutions because I know that I will break them in no time. And I don't always get overly reflective heading into the new year, but I have been over the last few days.

It started two nights ago as I was transferring dates from my 2015 calendar to 2016. I always do it between Christmas and New Years; writing down birthday's and adding a year. I also have the year that loved ones have passed, both family and pets. I got a bit melancholy looking at how many death's were noted, and how old the rest of us are.

This has been a very difficult year for me; I have shed more tears than anyone knows. I have my good times for sure, but I have also experienced a lot of sadness and loneliness in the last twelve months. Don't get me wrong, I am thankful for a lot of things about my life, but am equally unhappy about some things I have always wanted that I no longer have any hope that they will ever come to be.

A few days ago, I saw on the next block up the little blue house that has been empty for over a decade is in the process of being torn down. There are a few guys salvaging what they can from it before it's demolished. It made me very sad - I hoped for the longest time that someone would come along and buy it and bring it back to it's former glory. It's a sweet little craftsman with a bay window and picket fence. It brought out the romantic in me; I saw what it could be, not what it was.

Seeing that house being ripped apart was just another sign to me that there is less and less that connects me to this neighborhood and the house that I will have to leave after almost 18 years. I am a little scared (to be honest) about where I will end up next, and can only hope that it will not be worse than where I am at. There have been many changes on the block that make me glad I am leaving, but there are still little things that make me wish I could stay.

This is not going to end with me saying something deep and insightful, I don't have it in me right now. I am just going to keep trying to do the best I can, and try to stay as positive about the future as I can, and know that some days that is a real struggle, and others not so much.

Merry Christmas 2015

I hope everyone had a great day. Quiet one for me here - I took a relaxed approach to the day. We got a bit of sunshine later in the afternoon which was much appreciated after all the rain we've been having.

I roasted a chicken with stuffing and will have my pumpkin pie in a bit. I took these pictures of the cats all snuggled up last night. Boo & Munchkin snuggle a lot, but not usually in that chair. And Tom Cat always looks so sweet when he sleeps. Happy New Year everyone!

Happy New Year

Like the rest of the country we have frigid temperatures to ring in the new year. It was 22 degrees when I went to work this morning,  and 36 right now and will drop into the 20s again after the sun sets.

I'm going downtown to Steve & Naomi's for a party she is putting on for Steve's 60th birthday today. We were joking about it on Christmas Eve that she is having it early so they can get back out to Lummi Island and settle in before it gets too late!  On that note,  I found this meme and thought it summed my life up pretty well. Happy New Year everyone

Happy Thanksgiving 2014

Happy New Year!

As 2013 comes to a close I am quickly nearing the end of our annual two week holiday break at work as well. In our last team meeting we talked about setting a goal for the break, and mine was to complete at least one sewing project. Technically I did, but it was no where near as complicated an item as I was aiming for. But I may still make it, I still have the rest of today and tomorrow to work on a black wool skirt. Even if I don't complete it, I won't feel bad because I have been busy working on something every day and have not just been sitting on my behind watching TV. I also cut out a blouse to start sewing next after the skirt is finished. Gotta keep the momentum going!

One of my other goals was to stay active, and walk at least every other day. With only two exceptions I accomplished that. Walking more is part of a larger goal of improving my health that I have been working on all year. I am working to get healthier and fit in admittedly small but sustainable ways. I am trying to be more realistic about what is going to work for me long term so that I don't end up giving up like usual if I don't see results right away.

I have never smoked or drank, food has been my vice. It has been hard to admit it, but I gained weight from eating partly as a way of building a wall around me, literally and figuratively. Part of that whole issue is that I am also working very hard to stop the self-defeating internal dialogue that I have had going on for years. That is a much harder battle to fight, but I'm trying. In that vein, I decided to treat myself to some flowers today to ring in the new year and bring a little color & cheer into my life. Here's to a Happy & Healthy New Year in 2014!

Winter Color

My Christmas Cactus are blooming before Thanksgiving - situation normal. I do love the colors though, so it really doesn't matter when they bloom, I appreciate the bright colors indoors during the winter.

We have had a week of cold temperatures at night here in the 4th Corner. It was 26 degrees yesterday morning, before 8am anyways. The upside to the cold is that it is at least partly sunny.

Today's Memes

Happy Halloween!

We are dressing up at work, and I came up with the idea a few days ago for a costume. I printed out some of my favorite animal memes and strung them together to hang around my neck. I'm going as "I Can Haz Cheeseburger"