Last chance for April

I was thinking today about how few times I've written a blog this month and realized I better write one tonight before April is over!
I'm just going to share a few things that I'm grateful for.

I'm grateful I have a job in this unstable economy. I'm grateful that I work with people that are pretty much easy to get along with. I'm also very grateful that it is temporary.

I'm grateful for the mild weather we've been having lately and that it hasn't been too hot or cold. I think I really enjoy 60 degree weather the best now.

I'm grateful for the small storage of food that I have right now. If it comes down to a pandemic in this country and we have to be quarantined in our home for awhile, I think we'll be okay.

I'm grateful to be accepted to all of the schools that I applied to. Even though I received a rejection letter many years ago, I forgot that it isn't usual to be accepted to every school you try for.

I'm grateful that my brother and sister-in-law have been back in the area for a year, tomorrow. I'm grateful that they have put up with me while I wasn't always patient or understanding during this year of transition. I'm grateful for the rest of my family putting up with me as well.

I'm grateful for my husband and his willingness to change our life so that I can pursue my dreams. I'm grateful that I have the freedom to make these changes.

I'm grateful for the freedoms and the choices we have now and I hope that my fears for the future do not come true.

So frustrated

As I sit here and write this and hear the unknown visitor staying at our neighbors place, clomping up and down the stairs and banging in and out the door, I am so frustrated. Although I know there are much bigger problems I could be having and that others DO have, I'm still frustrated. There is a lesson that is suppose to be learned from this, but I don't know which one it is. Should I learn to live with things I cannot control and try to ignore them? Should I learn conflict resolution with people that drive me crazy? Should I take this as a final straw that we should move? Or is it some other point that I'm missing entirely?
I'm so tired of living in a place where you have no idea from one moment to the next who is going to be staying around you and how noisy they are going to be and what times they will be making that noise! It's so unsettling and most of all very hard to get a good night's sleep. I feel like I'm living at a Motel 6 much of the time.
I am very, very, very grateful though that we don't have bedbugs. It could always be worse, I know.
Most of you that know me have heard this all before, many times. Sorry to bug you. I just need to get this out somewhere and I had the computer on.

Oh look, it's now midnight. Happy Easter everyone! I'll try to put my frustration in the tomb with Christ and hope that it will disappear with all the other problems he died for. What a weird way to talk about Easter. Anyway, goodnight.

I have the computer to myself!

Finally! A chance to use the computer at home and write a blog!

I went back to work 3 weeks ago and I use the computer all day long and I don't really feel like using it in the evening after work too. My husband also believes I get to be on the internet all day, so I don't NEED to use the computer at home either. So not true, I usually only check my e-mail for a few minutes.
Work has been good. Quite a change from the previous three months of nothing I'd had, where the big event of the day was taking a long walk. Surprisingly going back to work hasn't been that big of an adjustment as I thought it was going to be. I went back to my old job and after 18 months of being away, I was able to remember almost everything. Was a nice boost for my self confidence. Now in my 4th week, I am remembering why I quit (I was very bored and not challenged) but it's only temporary and I'm so thankful just to have a job.

I have not been taking pictures this year like I had been the previous year. I just now created an April 09 photo folder that has a total of 3 pictures in it! So different from last April! It's okay though. It was fun to document every aspect of life for a year, but after awhile it gets tiring.

I do have a few photos taken on my cell phone camera and I will use some of them to tell what has happened to me over the last few weeks.

My husband and I went hiking early in March and made our own trail through this wall of poison oak. My husband got it really bad, and I didn't get one blister. Still not allergic to it, yay!

Fun with shadows on our hike.

I took a walk to "my tree" the Thursday before I started work again as a final "goodbye". I knew I would walk there again, but it put an end so to speak on that chapter of my life. It was bittersweet. It's been good to have so much free time and to work on all my Math classes, but the 18 months was full of a lot of depression too.
On my second day of work, I went to try to velobind a report and found that the "arm" was very difficult to push down to punch the holes. I tried to pull out the tray and it was so full, it almost didn't budge. Obviously nobody had cleaned out the tray in over a year, because what you see in this picture is the pile that fell out of the "machine" after I had emptied out the drawer!! I also had a similar experience with the moistener on the postage meter. Nobody had ever cleaned out the water reservoir since I had left, so it was positively green with mold! Glad I could come back to do those jobs if nothing else!!
I have been on some long walks since I've started work, but not as many as I was taking before. This was taken on very beautiful Saturday
Later in the afternoon on the same Saturday I was on the way to the grocery store and was rear-ended by a very young tourist driving a very large vehicle. Not much damage, but I was very shaken up. As you can see, the bumper did it's job.
The following week I met up with an old friend who has moved away and we went out for a great dinner and great conversation. This was our dessert, Brioche with Pumpkin pudding and vanilla ice cream. Kind of kicks the pants off of pumpkin pancakes, more like really fancy pumpkin french toast. I will be definitely trying versions of this in the fall!
Last Saturday my sister spent the night at our house and we had lots of time to hang out. We took a walk on the beach and I was joking around getting a picture of the surfer that was checking us out while we were sitting for awhile.

There are some fun and exciting things ahead and I will blog about those when I come to them. For now, it's work, work, work and wait, wait, wait. I should probably pray in the middle of all of that was well!

A Kaffe Skirt

Here it is, the finished project. I sewed again and it wasn't too frustrating. I was rebellious about the sizes so I just cut the pattern to the size that I thought I should be, not the actual size I am so it fits pretty tight. The pattern also specifies a stretchy acrylic material, not cotton quilting material, but then again I've never been one to really follow directions. I might wear it this Sunday with an oversized shirt and I might get a photo of myself wearing it. We shall see.

Getting out the Kaffe fabric

I've been thinking about doing this for awhile, but yesterday I finally brought out the Kaffe Fassett fabric that I've had stashed under my bed for years. When I worked at the quilt store, these were some of my favorite designs. Between my dissatisfaction with that job and some other sewing mishaps, I have been very reluctant to sew again because it just brought back bad memories. Well I guess that 4 years is enough of a break. I wonder what ways I will find to use these fabrics? Stay tuned!

Sharing the Sunshine

I went to a different part of the country last weekend, hoping to experience some "real" winter weather. I did get a little taste of some cold air and some snow, but mainly experienced blue, cloudless skies and 40 degree temperatures! I guess the Sunshine follows me wherever I go. It did rain a little bit on our trip back home, but not enough to be real bother.
It was a beautiful trip, despite being sick with a cold for most of it and driving 3 days to spend one day in our destination. I find myself missing it now and I want to go back when I'm feeling better to get an accurate idea of what it was really like there! We may travel to a different State in the same region in the next couple of months.
Here are some of my favorite pictures from our journey. Our pictures aren't the greatest this time, due to laziness and time constraints.
View from our room the first night.

Arizona
80 mph in Utah!
Heading East on I-80
We have snow in Wyo!
Use that wind!
The University
Prexy's PastureDino!
A nice street next to the University.
Overview of Laramie. The two tallest buildings are the Residence Halls and are the tallest in the state.
Greenbelt area next to the river. There are 5 miles of bike trails.

Almost a whole dollar cheaper than at home. Note the name of the gas station.
Our home for two nights.
Took a short side trip off the Interstate.


Now there's some snow (and a train)
Sinclair refinery.
Rawlins
Rock Springs
More interstate driving

Green River. The origin of the Powell Expedition.

Railroad roundhouse in Evanston

View outside of our room the last night in Utah.
Almost back home.

What is going on today

There is a lot going on today and I will share a little bit about it for everybody. For me, I wanted to take pictures to remember what the weather was like today. In a couple of days it will be quite different. For those who know me, I wanted to share some of my preparations. For those of you reading from other parts of the continent that I don't know, there's a beach picture just for you (since I'm pretty certain that is why you are reading my blog!)

FOR ME
My mountain with the tiniest bit of snow left from the last storm.
Me and some of the first wildflowers of the year.
Blooming lupines and dormant willows. (and not so dormant willows)
The salt marsh. I think it's confused as to whether it is winter or spring!

Such a pretty day

FOR YOU
Jackets waiting to be worn.

Some of our food stash.
Pasta salad that I threw together this morning.
The purchase from the local hardware store I made this morning that will probably be my last. So sad, their lease was up and the greedy landlord raised the rent to an impossible amount. They will be greatly missed in our little community. I don't know what we will do without them. I looked for these ice packs at 3 other stores before I finally found them there.


FOR THEM
The beach! The air is very still today so the water was very flat. Kind of a blah looking.


Time to get back to "work". I will post again in a few days.