last night.

We got in bed and Ty fell asleep almost instantly while I watched Jimmy Fallon. I was still awake when the TV timer went off. So I rolled over to try to sleep.

Suddenly my brain was going a million miles a minute. 

School's starting soon and while it was tough to figure out what to work on a couple weeks ago, now I have a metal list a mile long.

And it kept growing as it crept closer to 1:00am.

I literally laid there until all hours of the night continuing to think about what I can do with THIS, and how I should go about THAT.

Any time I rolled over to try to find a position that would put me to sleep, Ty began talking in his sleep. Some of the more memorable things he said:

"Oh man...really?!"

"I'm so confused right now."

"I can't right now. I've gotta eat something."

I looked at the clock at 2:55. And then again at 4:00.

So I'm pretty sure I might have slept for at least part of that hour. After 5:00 it was smooth sailing though, and I slept until around 9:30.

So then I got up, showered, checked all social media, and sat down to start working on some of the stuff on my mental list that I added to ALL night.

And apparently I should have started writing it all down as I laid there, because now I can't for the life of me remember even a quarter of what was on that dang list. 

What a waste of precious hours of sleep.

I will now keep a note pad on the nightstand.

And probably nap today.

UGH.

cleaning up shop

The other day I got to work on the craft room to-do list. Step one: CLEAN the craft room.

I didn't take a before picture--because let's face it, that would have been embarrassing--but here are the afters.

Just cleaning up my table was a task in itself. There was crap all over it, and hardly any room to do any work!

See how much space my paints take up? That's why I said I need some kind of paint shelf/organizer.

Oh! And Ty and I were running around Saturday and ran into a resale shop. Ty found 3 packages of the foam brushes with the red handles! So naturally he got me all three. And this isn't even all of them. I put most of them away in a drawer for when these get yucky.

I decided I think I need a rug. I used to have one in here, but then Abby ate an entire box of Fannie Mae Mint Meltaways (what a waste, right?) and then she threw up all over it. It was gross, stained, and smelled like minty vomit, so I threw it away. And now I need a new one. (Also, do you see your painting you gave me, Dad?)

And this doesn't really have anything to do with anything...but how perfect is this sign next to my nail polish?

And if we're on the subject of more things I need, I need another nail polish organizer like this one. I have a ton of polish that's in a basket because it won't fit.

Okay that's all.

xoxo, wife.

one of those moments

You ever have one of those moments? You know--one of those moments where you just look around and go, "whoa." I had one of those this evening.

I took Abby on a walk. Normally when I'm walking, I'm walking fast to try to burn some calories. But tonight I decided to slow down and just enjoy a nice evening walk after a storm earlier this afternoon.

The temperature was perfect. There was a beautiful breeze. I was listening to great music. We narrowly avoided being eaten by a ferocious beagle. And I looked up and saw the sky.

And I just had one of those "whoa" moments. Where I realized again how amazing life is and how blessed I am that God chose to share it with me. And the entire rest of my walk--the exact same route I take almost daily--was filled with gratitude to Him.

Whoa.
Nothing I saw on my walk today was extraordinary...in fact it was very ORDINARY. The same stuff I see all the time. But what an amazing experience. I love those moments when I'm reminded of the beauty of life. And how content I am.

{And I only got 8 mosquito bites!}

xoxo, wife.

deck update

We moved into our house 3 and a half years ago. And we should have stained our back deck 3 and a half years ago. But we didn't.

So this past weekend we decided that it was time. And we spent the entire day on Sunday (me: 9 hours and Ty: 11 hours) staining that son of a gun.

The worst and most terrible part of the whole thing was staining the spindles, or as Ty now calls them, "porch bitches." Around hour 7 he told me, "If I end up in Hell, this will be my punishment. I'll be staining 'porch bitches' for the rest of eternity. Every time I turn around, they won't be finished yet." 

But alas, after 11 hours, 1 bowl of spilled stain, gallons of sweat, a butt splinter, and lots of complaints, it was finally finished.

Did you get a good look at all those spindles? I mean, seriously.

After we let the stain dry a couple days, we put everything back where it belongs.

And then a bird promptly pooped on it and ruined the whole thing.

It looks soooo much better!

And I hope it doesn't have to be redone for many many years.

xoxo, wife.

thoughts on working at home.

So I mentioned the other day that I was beginning to work on some school stuff. On Monday I had started working on Essential Questions. It's a looooong and tedious task. There are 4 questions each week for 4 subjects for 40 weeks. I'm not sure how many questions that is (I don't do math like that over the summer. Heck...I don't do math like that ever!) But it comes out to a 153 page document.

Here are some thoughts I had while working on this dang project:

-Hey working from home is awesome. It's fun to work when you don't technically HAVE to!
-This sucks. Why am I working on this during the summer?
-I'll be so glad this is done when school starts!
-I gotta pee.
-Okay...the TV is too distracting. It must be turned off.
-I wish I was watching TV.
-This is so boring.
-OK! I'm done with the first semester...and it only took me...2 days. 2 days and I'm only half way done?!
-Who ever invented Essential Questions should be locked in a room of unsupervised and sugared-up kindergartners for a week.
-Oh good! The laundry's done...now I can go fold to get a break from this nonsense.
-I can't believe I'm now working on this for the 3RD day.
-I love this song!
-Okay, now I just wasted 3 minutes of work time belting out that song.
-I've gotta finish this soon...I have stuff that's sooo much more fun to work on!
-Yes! Another great song!
-Okay...the music must be shut off.
-I gotta pee...not really...but I have to take a break.
- I'm definitely selling this document on Teachers Pay Teachers...and people better buy it!
-I can't believe how looong this is taking.
-Maybe I'll stop for the day.
-NO! Keep going and just finish it, dangit!
-OMG...OMG...I'm finally finished! Hallelujah!
-I can't believe I worked on this until 10:26 pm.
-I'm so glad this crap is over with!

Now to post it on Teachers Pay Teachers. People best be buying it from me!
3 days of work...I should probably sell it for $100.
Or $4.00.

xoxo, wife.

monday.

I feel like monday was kind of a wasted day.
I started out by walking 2.25 miles with my mom, and then took my shower and got ready for the day.

I decided that I should probably get my butt in gear and start working on some school stuff.
I made a list of some stuff I want to get done and things I want to purchase for the upcoming year.
Then I spent about 4 hours on Pinterest looking for some great ideas...and came up pretty empty.

Then I ate lunch and did some laundry.

Then I finally figured out something I wanted to work on.

I promise I won't go into details about what "Essential Questions" are. But I will say they're becoming very important. I wanted to have them all typed up and printed so that each week I can easily get them out and post them on the wall. I worked a couple hours on this and got the first 10 weeks of questions done for reading, writing, and math. I'm hoping to finish up Science/SS tomorrow.

Then I did some more laundry.

And read back through some old blog posts. I'm not sure why I did that...but once I started, I couln't stop.

Another hour wasted.

Then I did my Bible Study. (This was NOT a wasteful time...just wanted to make that known, God!)

Oh...then it was time to do some more laundry. 

I'm sure I've complained about it before, but EVERY item of Ty's clothing is always inside out when I go to fold it. And that bothers me. However, if I listen to good music while folding, it's not quite as bad.

It was around 5:00 by this time and it was time to start dinner. So I did that. Once Ty got home it was time to eat. We then proceeded to watch THREE episodes of Big Brother that we needed to catch up on. Yet another 180 minutes wasted. 

And then of course it was time for American Ninja Warrior about 30 minutes after that. (If you're keeping track, all we did was watch TV for about 5 hours.)

Then it was time to play piano on my phone (on an app.)

Then switch some laundry from the washer to the dryer and bed.

BORING.

xoxo, wife.

sammy's baby shower

My little cousin is having a baby boy in September, and this past weekend was her shower.

My grandma is letting Sammy borrow this bassinet. All 5 of her kids used it, and so did a bunch of my cousins and I when we were babies. Now the 3rd generation will sleep in it as well. So special!

 It makes me feel old to say that I can remember holding her when she was a baby, but I can. I remember one specific time I got to hold her. It was my 5th birthday. I had just had stitches taken out of my forehead from an accident and had a big scab-like thing right in the middle of my head. Since it was my birthday, Aunt Jenny and Uncle Joe came over that evening and brought their new baby who was only about 4 months old, and I got to hold her as a birthday treat. It was a pretty big deal, since I was only 5 years old and I was getting to hold this tiny baby.

And now that baby is having a baby. It's crazy to think about. I'm looking forward to watching her become a mommy. Even though we live in different states, I'll be keeping tabs online to see how things are going. I pray that God blesses Sammy with a healthy remainder of her pregnancy, an easy labor and delivery, and a healthy baby boy. I also pray that this baby brings her lots of love and joy, and that being his mommy is everything that she hopes it will be.

xoxo, cousin.

fitness.

I recently saw a picture of myself. Not a selfie, or a picture taken from the neck up. It was also not a picture I was smiling and posing for. It was taken candidly, as I was sitting in a normal position not trying to look nice. And I was taken aback. I knew I was overweight. But I never see my whole body as I'm doing the day-to-day things. And this was a shocker.

To top it off, a couple days later I had a not-so-pleasant doctors appointment in which she told me some hard facts to hear about my weight, and numbers that I need to see on the scale to be considered "healthy." That's when I decided I needed to do something about this. I've let it get way too bad, and I need to make a change.

I had played around with an app called My Fitness Pal a few times over the last year or so. It tracks all the calories you consume and burn throughout the day. I began to log every single thing I ate during the day, and I have to tell you...it really makes you think about how much you eat. Is it really worth it to have that handful of M&Ms if I have to enter it into the app and see those precious calories go up? The answer is no, it's not worth it. I've cut my eating practically in half, because I don't really snack anymore. I've almost made it a game with myself. I'm allowed 1700 calories a day, and I try to make sure I always have calories left at the end of the day. If I'm in the negative, I'm disappointed. I'm not about to go on a crazy veggie-only diet. But I'm doing better, and that's what matters.

The other part of losing weight aside from diet is exercise. In my whole life (even when I was thin) I NEVER exercised. I hate it. I get anxiety when I'm out of breath and feel like I can't breathe. That's a problem. Well I've had to suck it up and get over that, because I HAVE to exercise now. I'm taking it slow...mostly speed-walking or doing the elliptical trainer (since I got such bad shin splints from trying to run). And unfortunately, I'm not seeing the pounds fly off the scale at lightning speed like I'd like to. But I feel stronger. And I can workout for longer periods of time then when I started. And that's what matters too.

Yes...I sometimes force my dog to burn calories with me. She likes it though, because she gets ice cubes after.

The My Fitness Pal app that tracks my calories consumed and burned throughout the day. At the end of this day, I had over 600 calories left that I didn't consume. That's what I like to see. 

xoxo, wife. 

i got a new toyyyyyy.

I got a bonus at work this year.
About stinking time!
I've been waiting patiently for three years for them to notice that I'm worthy of one.
Well this was the year!
It wasn't a TON of money, but it was enough.
And the most important part was being recognized for my hard work.
I've known I was getting the bonus for about 6 weeks, so I had lots of time to figure out what I was going to do with it.
There were lots of options. (Most of them involved shopping sprees at clothing stores.)
But I decided that I should get something practical.
So I decided on a new laptop.
My old one was getting pretty old and outdated.
The other night we headed to the store and got my new baby!

It's so light and thin! I love it!

I'm looking forward to sitting down and getting some stuff ready for school now. 

(Working is a little more fun when you have a cool new computer to do it on!)

Cheers to bonuses.

And cheers to working hard again next year to get another one!

xoxo, wife.

4 of July weekend recap part 2

On Saturday (the 5th) we started out at my cousin Tommy's graduation party. I didn't get any pictures, but it was nice to reconnect with some family we hadn't seen in awhile and catch up. Ty and I stayed a couple hours eating and chatting and then headed home to get ready to go see our annual 4th (5th?) of July baseball game with my parents!

The stadium changed owners in the past year, and I have to say that they've done a really great job with the place. Very family-friendly and fun!

We had some great seats: first row by home plate.

My mom didn't want me to use this picture...but I couldn't resist. However, I will also include the nice one.

Swoop!

The festivities came to an end on Sunday after our family cookout (man we spent a lot of time with my family...).

My mom and I found this bright yellow spider...crazy!

And Ty got a really nice new camera with some bonus money from work. The pictures from the cookout were taken with it!

And now, alas, summer vacation is officially halfway over. It's been a pretty good time so far, so I'm looking forward to the rest. 

Just please don't go too fast!

xoxo, wife.