Three months... no blog. Bad blogger :P

Thought I'd make a list of things I'm loving right now

Parasol Proctorate Series by Gail Carriger
I picked up the first one "soulless" on a whim. It was was an amazon recommendation, I read the description and thought it sounded fun. It has supernatural and steampunk and the main character, Alexia is delightfully snarky. I'm about 3/4 through the second book. The first one I have passed on to two different friends. Reading it has made me want to wear more steampunk stuff as it's gorgeous, but dont' really know how/when/where to wear it without looking like a goober. I do think I'm going to get some steampunk-esque pants though.

BBC Sherlock-
I didn't know what to expect when we pressed play on Netflix streaming. I don't watch a lot of the Masterpiece theater stuff. I knew this had been getting good buzz and that Steven Moffat was involved, so we gave it a go. I didn't know it was set in modern times (Hubby gave me a "duh" look). I really enjoyed the 3 episodes of season one and hope to catch season 2 when it's on PBS

Planning scrappy quilts
Yea.. haven't even sorted my fabric yet, but I want to make a string quilt, maybe a bottled rainbow and then I found these wonderful books (material obsession 1 & 2)... that I want to make... oh everything from. This says nothing of the list of t-shirt quilts I've now said I'd do, or the quilts i've started and need to finish...

Isitcomicconyet
I find it hilarious to say, on a near daily basis to hubby "is it comic-con yet?". To which he laughs or rolls his eyes. He told me I should make that a website. But it is fun to speculate and try to hunt down info and obsessively check website and see movies that they talked about last year.

Hooping
I've done about 6 classes so far and I love it. Unfortunately there aren't any more classes in my direct vicinity until August (that may be good with the heat however). I'm not really good at it, but I have fun doing it and that's what counts.

We have E's high school graduation this weekend. Kind of strange. I'm hoping all goes well. My high school graduation was sort of a mess because of divorces and remarriages and adults not acting like adults, so I hope that doesn't happen for E's.

Books

G got her nookcolor today... I'm sort of jealous, it's pretty neat. H and I were talking about books and she was like whats that series that you read... after playing twenty questions I realized she was talking about the Jessica Darling series. I showed her Megan McCafferty's site only to see... she has a new book coming out! Yay! I would love to win a copy.

cool interview with her

http://dearwriter.tumblr.com/post/3734129280/want-to-win-a-signed-arc-of-bumped-before-it

A little time out with Dr. Horrible sing along blog songs and squeeze fruit can make a day seem a little better.

It's not really a bad day, per se, just busier than I expected and I have a headache and feel sort of emotionally mixed.

Today is E's 18th birthday!!! I called and left her a message bright and early. I can't believe my hubs has a grown child. I don't ever think of her as being that old, she's technically an "adult'. She doesn't exactly act like it... so I probably treat her younger (not in a mean or purposeful way). I hope she has a good day/weekend. She was suppose to have today off, but they had to make up an "ice day" at school. She does get monday off, so ya for her for three day weekends.
My dad is in town this week, mostly so he can attend an art workshop thing. I wish I could have taken the whole week off to hang out with him. I did get to take tuesday off and hang out, and I got to get my memorial tattoo for my mom.
I love the www.offbeatmama.com site... and this week they had a story about someone loving these hipster mormon mama blogs. I'll admit it, I've spent too much time today already reading some. I'm a little jealous. They're all super cute and trendy, but not in an obnoxious way. They have adorable babies and husbands and are like 6 years younger than me(!!!). They look pulled together and stylish. I feel akward when I dress most of the time. For work, I feel like I'm a child wearing work(ish) wear and that I look sort of sloppy. Their bedhead hair looks cute and purposeful, mine looks like bad bedhead. Some of them have gorgeous short hair I wish I could pull off (without looking like a boy). It's fun to look, live a little vicariously. They do all seem to have massive disposable budgets (I discovered Shabby Apple --- I wish I could shop there), and photographers that follow them around, and sponsors for the blog. THey look like an ad for Urban Outfitters/Anthropologie (minus the UGLY stuff they have in both those stores).

So as not to feel like I'm complaining and don't have little things everyday that make me happy, I'm going to make a little list

~Singing LOUDLY in my car. Showtunes work well for this (Hello Wicked Soundtrack and John Barrowman).
~My celeb crushes. Easy way to cheer up, or spend some time. I can pop on an episode of Firefly or Torchwood and it makes me smile. They're awesome shows, but when the good-looking leading men smile or do something swoon-worthy... *Sigh*
~binging on DVDs of shows
~fun nail polish colors -- I hadn't painted my fingers in forever, but found this perfect grey shade, and then I bought the Glee polish (I really should have just bought the slushied color not the whole pack,it's my favorite).
~Thinking about Comic con. Getting tickets has been a nightmare, but I'm still excited to go.
~Planning a weekend to hang out with K and the cutie baby L

I can't believe it's february already. Time seems to be going fast. I'm staying busy at work. I sort of miss my open afternoons -- but the extra money to pay off bills and such is good. They had a mini comic con thing here this weekend. It was neat. A good 'taste' for G about what San Diego comic con might be like. I got an awesome Bones Jeffersonian patch.
We went to Jimmy Eat World last night, David Bazan (who we really like) opened. I thought Jimmy Eat World was fabulous. Hubby thought they were ok, but they're not really his cup of tea.
Comic Con tickets go on sale (finally!) this weekend. Hopefully that will be a painless experience and we can start booking the rest of the vacation. I reserved a vehicle, and we don't have to pay til we pick it up, so that really helps out. A lot of the hotels really jack up prices for that weekend. I was joking with hubby we'll need to bring a powercord because of all the electronics we'll have between all of us and hotels lack a lot of plugs (at least 1 laptop, 3-4 ipods, 3 cell phones, cameras, nook or 2, nintendo ds --- thats a lot to charge).
E's 18th birthday is coming up. I got her a cute tanktop, the first season of Black Butler and ordered the Art of Tangled (Which is backordered EVERYWHERE). I think I'll get her a manga for valentines and then send everything off this monday. For hubby, I got him some awesome star wars art, and plan on getting a cool metal Big Daddy (bioshock) sculpture) and maybe tickets to Jazz Fest to see Decemberists. For G I have some monster high clothes, a pokemon plush and will get the new pokemon game when it comes out.

I'm doing pretty good at remembering to take my vitamins everyday. Working out, however, is another story. It's 5:15 when I get home, and lately Ron already has something cooking, so once I eat, I really don't feel like working out. I guess I'm going to have to force myself anyways.





We watched the first season of United States of Tara last week. I really enjoyed it. Sure, it requires a certain suspension of disbelief (especially if you have a degree in psych) but it was fun. I have the second season in the Netflix Que already.



I read I am Number Four. It wasn't bad. It wasn't spectacular, but it was a good read. It reminded me of the show Roswell (what I remember of the show anyway). I dunno about the movie. I might see it. Hubby saw the commercial and was like "meh, it looks like twilight". I finished Hunger Games last night. It was good. They could have made that the only book if they wanted and it still would have been satisfying. I started on Catching Fire.

G got all A's on her report card. She also was offerred to apply for the Elementary National Honor Society. She does so well in school, I really don't think she should switch and go to school in TX with her mom. She's decided that she wants a colornook and so she's saving up towards one. If her mom sends her money that she has saved at her house... she's only like $40 short. Her birthday is in March, so if people send her B&N cards, she'll be set.
Speaking of birthdays, darn near everyone I'm related to has birthdays in February and March. I covered my friends K and B. Hubby's sister's bday is on Feb 4th. I got her a cricut cartridge, it just needs to be mailed. I need to get valentines for the girls (probably new books,a manga or something), SIL's anniversary is valentines as well, E's bday is Feb as well, and so is Hubby's friend T. Hubby and my sister are both in march, so is my brother, G and hubby's friend J. I have picked up a few things here and there. I have a cool lego art piece coming for hubby. I think G is getting some Monster High clothes and one of the new Pokemon games. I dont know what to get my older sister. My twin said that older sister mentioned she likes Supernatural, so I may pick up a season of that or something.

I was looking at IKEA last night lusting after the new sofa I want to get. Something to look forward to.

So This Is The New Year...

I survived the holidays. Better than I thought. I really wasn't feeling it. Things went ok with E here. A lot of the time when we have both the kids, and they aren't on a routine, things sort of devolve into chaos and I get really stressed. I did get a little frustrated with the messes and wanted to rant about working on scholarships, but I did minimal. Handed her scholarship sheets, gave her a list with due dates, made some suggestions to streamline, and then went over the list last night to see where she was. I just marked done or not, didn't ask "why not, it wasn't hard", just marked it. She's flying back this afternoon, so last night we ask if she's got all her flight info, ID (which has been a fight with her mom -- just get her a state issued id if she's not getting a driver's liscence), etc. She says that her mom got her the "unaccompanied minor" status (she has never done this in all of the times E has flown). She thinks it must have been by mistake. Me and Hubby are like.... no, it's because she won't get you an ID, and thinks she's proving some point to your dad by not, but security at airports has increased and you're almost 18, you can't mark it by mistake, you pay extra. So I ask if she has her birth certificate, so she can do the 'unaccompanied minor' thing to which I get a blank stare. In retrospect, I should have kept my mouth shut, let them go to the airport, and not be able to fly, so that her mom would have to come get her and then maybe get her a damn ID. I'd like to point out the following, that makes this so laughable and dumb -- the flight itself was less than $100, she had to pay an extra $50 for the unaccompanied minor.... getting a state issued ID is less than $25... and she's going to have to go to the DMV in Feb to renew her permit (and get an ID) anyway because E turns 18.... so why not get the ID in October (and november and WAY back in July when it was first suggested? Because -- crazy ex thinks hubby is controlling saying that E needs an ID, and she'll just get her the driver's liscence (which E is, btw, no closer to getting than she was last year). Logic eh?

Back to the New year. I have some Goals/resolutions/whatever you want to call them. I guess writing them here is as good of place as any (I planned to put them in a notebook - but haven't done that yet).
1. Become Full-time at work (started January 1) --- technically I didn't have any control over this one, but it was a goal none the less.

2. Start savings account(s) - G & E for school, plus some for possible fertility stuff and some for whatever (vacation, emergencies, etc)

3. Get tickets for Comic Con 2011 and pay for half the trip (can't accomplish this one till they let us buy the damn tickets!)

4. Exercise 3 times a week. This is going to be harder working full time, but I'm going to try, even if it's the wii fit or a walk on the levee.

5. Take vitamins everyday. I should be in this habit because it's good for you... but also working in a hospital setting, I'm exposed to a lot of funk, so extra protection is good.

6. Go to the dentist twice a year (signing up for dental insurance this week...)

There were other things... but now I can't remember darn it

I can't believe Christmas is in a week and a half, seems like Dec has flown by. I got stuff from my 12 days of christmas craft swap (finally), and I'm a little disappointed. She got extra time because she sent late. Some of it is pretty... but its not really my taste. I know in a swap you can't totally cater to a person's interests if it falls outside of your crafting abilites, but it seemed as though she just really wanted to use her cricuit machine. I got, as a small a set of scrapbooking cutout, "green living" themed. I don't scrapbook... or have a particular interest in "green" themed stuff. They're perfectly cute, but nothing I'm at all interested. There was a nice torchwood theme bracelet, and she tried on a tardis tea wallet and a tardis tote. My "big" item was a skirt (I had asked for a skirt to wear to work). It doesn't fit... i might be able to tailor it. I understand when you can't have the person try it on as your making it, you have to guess. However, the waistband isn't finished and it isn't lined. I'm hoping I can maybe salvage it. She made me a cute half apron... but it wasn't something I asked for. She had asked me all of these questions about my quilting.... but nothing was quilt themed. Lesson learned I guess. I can't do these christmas swaps, I've been disappointed both time. I put a lot of effort in and got things that I did't feel took as much effort back.

2 weekends ago, K and B came down and hung out. It was really nice and I got to talk about a lot of stuff with them (which inturn let me talk about some stuff with Hubby) and made me feel somewhat better.

Trying to not kill E about school stuff. I know teenagers are "irresponsible", I'm sure I was to an extent, but difference was, I didn't screw about about school stuff, I knew my parents couldn't pay for it. I think she has it in her head that her dad and her mom (HA!) each have more money set aside than is reality. Or that she'll get given money through colleges. Umm... newsflash, you usually have to APPLY to get things like that. Also, she's middle class, white, good grades -- in a word, average. Not that it's a bad thing, but in terms of college money, she doesn't stand out -- she's not a minority or the first in her family to go to college, she's not valedictorian or plays sports.

I have another hour of scanning (its one of those weeks at work) then I'm going to try to swing by the mall to fuel G and my sister's Monster High habit.