Life.. on a whim?

My youngest sister phoned me yesterday morning and informed me that she needed a favor. I thought it would have something to do with feeding the cats or dog, since they were on vacation on Tybee Island. Nope. She needed extra money. This resulted in me having to drive almost two hours to deliver it to her.

The day just flew right on by. I had to rush over and let the dog out to “potty” and then had to make sure the dog and cats all had food. Checked the house for “accidents” and found one, from the dog, and cleaned it up. Made sure the doors were locked and off I was.. almost. I then had to get gas, since I was nearly on empty. After getting gas I had to make my way to the bank for the money.

I decided after all of the hard work I should stay. I was already tired by this time and didn’t want to drive another 2 hours. Anyway. They were on the beach, so I stayed down at the beach with them for a bit. They wanted some pictures of the boys playing in the ocean, so I took a few.

And a lonely seagull, before they ran up behind it and made it fly off.

I enjoyed what little time I spent with them on their vacation, but I’m glad to be home. It was so rushed, and so last minute.. but worth it.

Now I’m trying to get caught up on some work and emails.

By the way, don’t forget today is the last day to enter for a chance to win a gorgeous apron by Bella Bee Designs.

OK, I think I need to bathe in some aloe. Shame on me for not putting on sunscreen (something I always do since I’m so fair skinned). Oops.

As I wait for the baked chicken I made for dinner to finish cooking, I decided to upload a few of the photos from the festival this weekend. While it was exhausting, it was also a lot of fun. The only things I attended myself were the street dance, fireworks and the airshow. It rained off and on all weekend so I didn’t really want to frolic around the arts and crafts show or the carnival — it was pretty soggy out there from what I heard.

Here’s a warning though.. lots of pictures to follow the first few (Blue Angels, parachute fellow, and some of my nephews) , click to view the rest of the entry to view them all. These aren’t the best photos of the Blue Angels by any means, but heck.. they’re hard to keep up with at their speed, ha ha!

Read the rest of this entry →

I have been thinking about getting my food/recipe blog back up and running. I have so many recipes I want to share. This past weekend my mom asked me to cooking a french toast bake for all of us (my mom, my aunt P, Tam and myself). I was originally going to cook the blueberry french toast bake found on $5 Dollar Dinners. They said they’d rather have plain french toast baked in the oven, and while I still intend to try the blueberry french toast bake, I did as my mom asked. I must say, between the french toast, the homemade whipped cream and homemade strawberry topping (chopped strawberries and granulated sugar)… it was heaven!

I’m visiting with Jess today, and baby Frost. She decided to try something different tonight and made a delicious turkey alfredo. It looks similar to sausage gravy in the photo, but trust me, it was way different. I’ll have to get her to write up the recipe so I can share!

I think I will reopen that cooking blog in the near future. I actually enjoyed blogging there and sharing the recipes! For now though, I have two installations to do and need to finish the final touches on another design. Back to work.

I’m taking a short 15-20 minute break from design work at the moment. I haven’t really updated here (other than a couple of the more private entries last month).

Last month we got our first, and only, snow of the year. Prior to then it’d had probably been nearly 10 years since it snowed this far south… and actually stuck. At 31 years old I felt like a child watching it fall and catching snow flakes in my hand. It started really slow, which bummed me out a bit because I was hoping it would snow in south Georgia like it did when I lived in Newfoundland (like that would happen). Anyway, after an hour or so it really started coming down and sticking. Exciting! My nephews really enjoyed it too. They wish for snow every winter, and this year, their wish came true! They built snowmen (and one snow woman that was a little NSFW), had snowball fights (one of which resulted in my being tag teamed by all three of them) and made snow angels. It was nice to see them enjoying something like that, that’s so rare in this area.

This is what it looked like the morning after the snow fell.

Let’s see.. what else.

I decided to change my hair a bit the other day. It’s had quite a bit of static lately, which is pretty annoying at times, but I guess that happens to the best of us this time of year — winter. It’s also starting to grow out (have been missing my long hair since I cut it late last year), finally. I thought about going either black or really dark brown. Instead I went with a golden brown, which is only slightly different and when the light or sun hits it just right, it doesn’t look all that different from the red shade it was before. I’m not sure if I like it just yet, but I’m sure with time I’ll grow used to it and like it more. It’s kind of in an awkward phase.. a little wild and free, doing whatever it wants regardless of how much I try to tame it. Ha, ha.

There’s a bee in my bonnet. I guess it’s because we’re so close to spring now, I’ve gone straight into this mad cleaning mode. My back is a little sore today because of this. All of that bending, pulling, pushing, moving and lifting wasn’t very kind to me! I spent the last two nights with my mom, helping her clean her house. Thursday’s have always been “cleaning day” in the house of Joyce. I got a jump start for her Wednesday night and helped finish up yesterday evening. I don’t know where this sudden surge of energy came from, but man it would be nice to have it every single day of my life. Oh the things I could accomplish in each 24 hour day.

Well I have quite a bit of work to finish up today.. before I can call it a day. I’m going to dive back into it now.

I’m getting really bad about updating this sucker, huh?

The last few weeks have been rather hectic to say the least. I’ve dealt with watching a sick nephew that came down with the flu, then I came down with it myself, a lot (that is an understatement) of family drama, getting caught up on work and that whole redoing my bedroom thing. I’ve been busy.

Before I get too far in my venting session, I’ll share a photo or two of the changes I made to my bedroom. I apologize for the poor quality of these — thank my cellphone.

BEFORE;

AFTER;

NEW DESK;

In other news;
Today would have marked my 10th wedding anniversary. It just dawned on me about 30 minutes ago. Like I’ve mentioned before, I’m glad it’s not going to be celebrated. I do feel a little.. off.. about it all though. I guess that’s normal. Sometimes it all seems so new, but it’s been over 10 months since the decision to divorce was made. I know in time I’ll gradually let go of all of these mixed emotions. I just wish I could right now, this moment.

I’ve been dealing with a lot of stress lately, and emotional garbage (not just from what’s been noted above) but also because of some family stuff. I know I’m rather sensitive at times, but I was really hurt last week by something someone I thought I was close to had said. Actually, a lot of things this person said. Frankly, I’m insulted and a bit enraged by most of it. I’m not going to get into the details, but I will say this — I have lost every ounce of respect for this person, and can say without a single doubt that I’ll never look at them the same. There’s just no way I could ever go back to the way things were now. I have forgiven people for a lot worse, so I know in time I’ll forgive her too.. but I will never, ever forget.

I have to cut this short now. I need to do something with my hair (which by the way, has been chopped to chin length — I am not crazy about it yet). I’m taking my 3 youngest nephews to the park this afternoon for a picnic because I lost a bet with them. Hey, I never thought they’d ring those two shots during our basketball shoot out!