Fa la la la...

No.. I have not decorated yet..  but I'm planning.  Pintrest has been my crack and there is no getting off of it.   And to make matters worse.... I got my kid on it!!
We agreed she could use my login on her kindle so I can see what she's pinning.  Its fun to look at what she's pinning.  Often, she's off in a flash to the craft drawer looking for something.  "Mom, I need your little scissors!!"

You can check out her 1st board here.

She also found tons of Perler patterns as that is her new addiction as well.   Oh the mind of a 10 year old is funny.

HOLY CRAP!!!

Its done!!  The great 2013 Purge of the Dining Room is DONE!!  Only 1 injury.  Lots of "Hey Hon... do we need this?" and even more of "Nope..  ditch it".

Next.. the family room.  That will be a bit harder because I will be contending with the girl's stuff.  And some electronics.  But it will be done. It has to be..  that is where the Christmas tree will be going.  Its really only one section of the room..  so maybe Sunday...  buhahahhahahahha!!!

Post Purge

I've done as much as I am going to in the Dining room and all that is left is the table.. the great black hole of stuff that I'm note sure what to do with.  Toss or keep.  If I keep, where?

I tossed an entire bag of craptastic fabric yesterday and still didn't have room for the good stuff.  I either have to start making stuff with what I have or part ways.  I also found a shoebox of Tapes..  yes.  Tapes.  I think we have most of them in other formats so I really want to toss them.  But I was stopped "just in case we don't" .. so I have to do a bit of documentation before I can ditch them.  I don't use the tape player in the car for tapes at all. its just there.

But significant progress has been made.  It will look sweet for Thanksgiving.

Purging - Part 3

My dining room is slowing returning - things are going into their proper places.  I even bought a new bookcase for my "hobby".  I have some 2 dozen books dedicated to Medieval Manuscripts, and paints, and a paper..  they needed to be in one spot.

I tried the Restore for a bookcase - no luck so Valu Home Center sale was my option.  Its coming together.. 

But lesson learned today... Make sure you have enough Garbage Bags and a pace how much you throw out.  My garbage tote is almost full and its Tuesday.  Garbage pickup is Monday..  

Here are some progress shots..

The table is the holding spot of doom right now.

This corner was where the hobby shelve were (a crappy wire shelf unit).  Now its just the chair and by basket.

the Purge.. part 2

Note to self..  WEAR SHOES!! When doing the whole Purge/Clean thing...  wear shoes.  Why you may ask?  I was doing a quick clean/purge/move this morning during my lunch.  I emptied one of those tall hard plastic cabinets and started to move it back to the laundry room.  Down on the toe it went.

The big toe is now black and blue..  and the whole foot is throbbing.

WEAR SHOES.

How to Purge stuff

With the upcoming holiday season and that looming dread of "where do i put everything so I can get the tree up" I made the decision to start the Great 2013 Purge.  It started at my mother's house - bags of baby clothes that just needed to go. 5 bags. All donated from my mom's house.  Yes, I know, I could have held a garage sale, made a little cash but really?  I'm not doing that at in November.

And we instituted a new rule - If you go into the attic, something must go.  For good. I have 3 bags of kids toys that need to go somewhere for donation. I'm on a hunt to find a good home for them.

So how do you purge?  Here are some things to keep in mind..
1) Have you used it in the last year?  No- purge it
2) Does it make you money?  No- purge it
3) Is it Broken?
4) Do you love it?  No- purge it (If you loved it, why didn't you use it in the last year silly?!)
5) The whole "well we might need it later" crap has got to stop.

That is where we started.  Several bags of clothes from us and a big bag of garbage.  My challenge if getting rid of the extra baggage, the crap, the "why the hell did I keep this" is underway.

The cool thing I did find in the attic..  french  soup style crocks..  I own them.  will I ever use them?  I don't think so.  But I may come up with a great gift basket idea.........

One day more.........

I've been humming One day More from Les Mis this morning.  Today is the kid's last day of Summer Vacation.  Last night, her nerves kicked in.  Poor thing.  New school, a class probably 3 times what she is used to and new teachers.  We just need to get through this week.

I need to get through this week.

Can I has nap now?

We are finally home from our family vacation to GenCon.  What is that you ask?  4 days of Geekdom - gaming to be exact.   Role Playing Games, board games, card games, video games...  you get the idea.  The 3 of us went and we ALL went full  on geek.  Here's some of the highlights.. more to come as I am so freaking tired.  Indiana is a long way from NY.

Damn Travel

I'm home finally after 4 weeks of travel since the last week in June.  2 clients (3 visits total) and a corporate meeting.  One thing that I have the hardest time with while traveling is eating.  Most of the hotels have a comp breakfast or in the case of our corporate meeting, we had 3 meals a day plus a snack and booze.  I tried really hard to be good but 1)the food was really good 2)I had to eat and work at the same time 3)I was working in my down time so exercise didn't happen (running through the airport doesn't count).

What is a girl to do?  I would love to try those shakes they advertise from the various companies but I just can't put my faith in a product that costs so much money.  So I went shopping today and picked up Strawberries, cantaloupe, bananas, celery and carrots.   I would love to say no carbs but HA!  that won't happen.  I start clean this week.  No ice cream, no pop, no munching at night.  Water or iced tea (unsweetened stuff I make) only.  Coffee only in morning.  No sugar.  Minimal carbs and walking after dinner.   Lets see if I can get back on track for fall.

4th of July cake

We are heading over to our Niece's house for a 4th of July get together.  I wanted to try something new and here's to hoping it turns our ok.

Strawberry Shortcake Flag cake

The idea is this -- Take some premade cake, some strawberries and blueberries and cool whip..  and WHAM!!  A cake.
Here's what you need.

Cake - I used pound cake. You could use the Standard Strawberry shortcake cake.. or angel food.  I used Sara Lee as it was handy.  1 cake worked.

Cut the cake up

Then layer it in the pan. You may need to get creative to cover the bottom like I did

Then make sure you have enough strawberries to make your flag.  I laid them out to make sure I grabbed enough.

Take the rest and smush them.  I used a quart.  I added some sugar to sweeten them up a bit.  They are not local Berries so wanted to make sure they sweet.

Now, pour them over the cake and then spread the Cool Whip on top.

Lay out the Strawberries to make the Red stripes on the flag

Now, use the blueberries to make the field of blue.  

Pretty huh?  Happy Fourth everyone!  

UPDATE:  It was good.  Not too sweet, just the right amount of strawberry.  Kids even liked it.  Its a keeper.

Really?

I think the kitchen in my room is bigger than the one at home.  I think the Residence Inns may be the way to travel.

are we there yet???

We are in the home stretch for the end of school...  and this is how E and I feel..  

There are 3 full days left (including today) and then 3 half days next week.  On top of it, work is really busy and I have trips coming up.  AND.... we are in full blown Tech month for her end of year performance.

so tired......  so very tired...

All I got in VA was this damned cold...

I spent the week in VA for work and came home with a new laptop and  cold.  I feel like crap.  Everywhere else I have gone I haven't any issue...  but VA.. every single time.  Sick.  Doesn't matter the airline either.

So today I send the kid off to a friend's house for the night and enjoy some adult time with my hubby and friends.  Cider is in order most certainly and a box of tissues.

Recap and lots of Stess

We survived Ohio.  Barely.  I had a wonderful time with my Mom, Husband and kid.
I got my mom drinking :)  Hung out in a hot tub with my friends and drank.  Road a few Water Slides...  and drank.  The whole purpose for going the Kalahari resort was for a dance competition.  A mini Vacation.

I made a new friend in the lobby

Husband found me entertaining 

Rhino..  just because

A bronze Gorilla.

Wave pool...  

Kid in the wave pool

"mom... what are you doing?"

"Don't drop it!  JUST TAKE THE PICTURE!!"

The Kalahari is African themed.  Our beds in the room.  Each bed only had 2 pillows.  so sad

Dessert on the first night.. . most delightful Cheesecake

Even better chocolate peanut butter thing......

The kids just before hitting the stage

My doll.  She worked so hard.  She ended up having several full blown panic attacks that week.  The stress of having to perform for a Grade threw her for a loop.  She didn't want to disappoint anyone and was terrified she would mess up.  Many many trips to the bathroom to throw up and gage... not my ideal vacation but we finally got it out of her.  She was nervous.  

The anxiety issue hasn't stopped either.  We have hit the official busy season - School is ending and she's not getting along with her student teacher.  The final show is coming up, plus the Showcase show and another Competition.  AND... I'm traveling soon.  The poor kid is just so overwhelmed.  

Mornings are the worst but we are getting through it.  Breathing helps and a good cry today seemed to help. I think hormones may have started in as well.  Oh boy.. i'm in trouble.

 

Hello Ohio!!

Shameless plug for a friend

Go Support my friend!!
Artsy Edibles by Barb is a wonderful Mom business and her stuff is gorgeous! Yummy too.  She's having a giveaway for 6 homemade chocolate suckers.  Who in right mind  wouldn't love chocolate!!??!!  And she does My Little Pony stuff too...  how stinking cute!

I love supporting local small businesses and friends braver than I  am to do such wonderful things.  Now, go like her page and go to the Giveaways section.   Thanks!

last minute homework...

Erin asked me if we have photos of my Grandparents and the Husbands Grandparents.  How fortunate she is that we right around the corner from my Mom's house.  I think she planned it.  So Mom graciously lent me some photos.  And I scanned them.

My Dad's Parents and My Mom's Parents

I am such an old photo junkie.  I need to scan the rest of them I have and save them to disk.  They are so fragile now.  

Spring = Ants

This is an ant pile.  In my drive way.  About 9 inches wide.

Its spring so that means ants.  We live in a house that is on a concrete slab.  So, when the weather starts to warm up, my little friends here start to come out and say hi!  They greet me in the kitchen.  Say hello in the bathroom.  And even sometimes get some reading in with Erin.  One of the big downfalls of the area is the ants.  We can usually get it under control pretty quick.  But this lovely little pile of doom showed up this morning.  With all of the rain the last few days, the tunnels under the driveway were flooded so up they come.  And Out I went with the Ant killer.  I understand that every animal and creature has its place.. but damn it, not in the middle of my driveway or in my house.  

Boston

It was 4:20pm when I found out about what happened at the Boston Marathon.  Erin summed it up best
"It could have been a lot worse".  It could have been.  My heart goes out to those in that area and all the families who have been touched by this event.

“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, "Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”

― Fred Rogers

Nasty

This is what I woke up to.  I don't even want to know.

so confused

I used to watch General Hospital all the time when I was in JR and SR High School.  I haven't watched it in a looooong time.  It got crazy and well, I lost interest.

The TV is on right now, providing background noise to down out the sound of the wind and rain.  I happen to have on that channel.  All I can say is Wow..  freaking wow.  Still crazy, still off the deep end.  When the hell did Anna come back??

What the...

My job changed a few months back - It was either go on unemployment or join a different team, be a consultant and then travel. I chose the latter as health insurance and paying bills became my priority.  But this led to the family discussion of me being on the road.  We knew going into this adventure I'd be on the road for a week at a time, maybe once a month depending on what was going on.  In July, I will be gone 3 weeks in a row.  3!  Texas, downstate NY and Detroit.  So I told the child about this as she'll need to be in some sort of camp during those weeks.
Child:  Mom, I don't like your job
Me: I don't like my job either.  Why don't you like my job?
Child:  You are never home

Wait what?  I work from home.  I was last on the road in February for a week.  Nothing in March.  And I travel at the end of April and a week in May.  Then I'm home all of June and out for 3 weeks in July.  Now granted, this is kind of extreme and I really don't want to do it either but it is what it is.

Wow.. I'm boring..  not an interesting bit today at all.  Sort of sad if you think about it.  Even my dinner was blah.  Forgot to eat lunch... maybe I'll be entertaining tomorrow.

so for now I'll give you my hubby, rocking out.  'Cause that's what he does