Overwhelmed

Well, it's been awhile since I've blogged. We got back Sunday night from a week long trip back home to Arizona. I will post some pictures later this week.

I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed so far this week, but I guess that is normal when you come back from vacation.

My photoshop class started last week, and I am struggling in it. Most people in my class are graphic design students, which means they can draw. We were given a simple assignment, to make an ice cream cone using photoshop...either hand drawn or mouse drawn. And my ice cream cone looked like something a 3 year old did. I had to use the brushes to make it. I was going to turn it in, but then I looked at everyone else's assignments.
They went all out. Their cones were amazing, and were much more than cones. Our big project, is a huge ad campaign for an ice cream company, complete with logos, slogans, ads...things like that. So they all took their incredible work and then turned it into the beginning stages of an ad or a logo. The stuff was incredible. And it made my triangle with a half circle on top look pitiful.
I am feeling very out of my element. And I wish I could draw.

Want to see just how incredible my classmate's work was:





Now, don't even THINK you will see what I did. Just picture what your 3 year old would draw, it looked like that.

My next class, if I survive the photoshop class, is advanced scripting.

Also, we still don't have the padding for our carpet replaced downstairs, our back gate somehow broke while we were gone...a huge slat of wood, is just laying on the side of it....we came back from our trip to discover that ants are starting to take over our front room, and we still have an a/c problem.

We are headed to Home Depot now to resolve that issue. I am tired of it being 89 degrees in here all day long.

Okay, this is such a downer post, I am sorry. I am just sharing what is on my mind at the moment.

I will post another one soon about our trip...It will be a happier post and filled with fun pictures.

The Real Me

***<<<*WHAT?*>>>***

What is your biggest dream?
Honestly, my biggest dream, was to be a mother. And I have that. I have been blessed so much!

What is your biggest success thusfar?
Being a mom.

What is your ideal job?
My ideal job would be something that would bring happiness to others, spread the love of Christ and allow me to do something I love. So, I would LOVE to be a Christian recording artist. But there are so many other things I could also do, that would allow me to do the three things I listed.

What was the most important thing you learned from your parents?
To work hard.

What do you look for most in a friend?
I like them to have my same beliefs and values....be someone that I can talk to....someone who I can relate to...someone who will accept me.

What is your philosophy of life?
Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.
Mother Teresa

What's your biggest fear?
It's always been being attacked, killed, harmed by a psycho person..like who breaks and enters or something. And the fear has grown beyond me and to those same type of people hurting my children.

What's your biggest joy?
Jesus!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh, how great is His love, His peace!!!!!

***<<<*HOW?*>>>***

How would YOU describe yourself in three words?
Empathetic, Generous, Loving

How would someone else describe you?
I would hope in the same way.

How do you measure beauty?
Beauty is from within....it is in the genuine smile...in the loving heart....in the warmth of a caring hug. It radiates from within and it also spreads. A person's true beauty can be seen by the beauty it brings to others.

How important is family to you?
Family is very, very important.

***<<<*DO YOU?*>>>***

Do you believe in regrets?
I believe that regrets exist. I believe that it is easy to get hung up on them. I also believe that they can be damaging. The past shouldn't be focused on. All you should do is learn from the past, grow from it...and see where all those choices we regret, brought us.

Do you believe in second chances? why or why not?
I believe that you can't truly forgive without giving a second chance.

Do you believe in love at first sight?
I believe in an attraction at first sight. But love is so much deeper than a glance.

Do you belive that true love lasts forever and conquers all?
I do think that love conquers all. Look at Jesus' love. I think that the love we have in our lives can conquer all, but it does take work.

***<<<*ARE YOU?*>>>***

Are you trustworthy? trusting? How do you show it?
I am very trusting, always have been. And I do think I am trustworthy, although I have struggled with gossip in the past...I am outgrowing that thankfully.

Are you independent? Or still dependent on someone?
I feel that I have always been independent. And sometimes I think I can be too independent in that I don't even let God have control. It's a real struggle for me.

Are you willing to change for someone else?
I am willing to work on things if I know that I am doing something that is hurting someone else. For example, if I react in a stressed out manner in a situation and someone who that effects asks me to work on it, then yes, I will change that. But I will not change my beliefs and things like that for someone else. I will not change the values and beliefs that are a part of who I am.

***<<<*IF?*>>>***

If you could leave one life lesson behind to the younger generations, what would it be?
To realize how much you have...and how little so many others have and to keep that in mind always and strive to make a difference in the world. Share the love of Christ. Show His love to all. And help the oppressed.

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be and why?
How controlling I can be....or I try to be...mainly with my hubby. I seem to back down around friends and what not...try to make everyone happy and accomodate them. But with my hubby, it's like I feel it's my way or no way. It's not nice.

If you could have anything in this world, what would it be? why?
The opportunity to go to Northern Uganda and help out. But I may still get to do that....my life isn't over yet.

If you could change one thing about your family, what would it be?
I don't have a very strong relationship with anyone in my family from my parents down to my Aunts and Uncles. So, I would change that. I wish I knew them.....meaning knew who they are as people...what their life experiences have been..things like that.

If you had everything you've always wanted, would you be happy?
No..because sometimes the things we want...or think we want, don't bring happiness, but bring just the opposite. It's hard to remember that at times...especially when in the moment, we focus so much on what we want and how much better it will make our lives...or how much better we think it will make us. And oh how wrong we are. So, I say, I hope that I am able to have all the things God has for me to have, because He has my happiness in mind. He knows the desires of my heart. But he also knows my lustful desires as well. And I am better off without those lustful ones. So, I say God...give me the true desires of my heart....and I will be soooo happy.

Pictures

Well, here are some pictures from yesterday, as well as some that have been stuck on my camera for awhile.
Not many from last night really came out well.

About a month ago, the day care kids did a Green Eggs and Ham theme. So for lunch at the end of the week, we had green scrambled eggs. I can only serve eggs at lunchtime...not for breakfast...weird, huh? Here is the miss when I told her to make a gross face with her eggs. She actually did eat them all up.

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While in chicago, I walked past this ad and told my photographer friend that it would make a silly picture. I jumped several times and it did get some attention of those walking by. They were looking at us like we were weirdos. And just so you know, I hate the socks I am wearing. I had to buy them in the hotel gift store...they were men's ankle socks and huge on me. We had to leave most of our luggage behind on the way to Chicago.

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And here are some pics from yesterday, the 4th.

Ooooo's and Ahhh's

Well, we went to the Air Force Academy this year for fireworks. And it was only open to ID card holders, which we felt was nice and safe.
The miss was so excited to see fireworks this year and had been talking about it for days. Last year, they scared her, and she spent the entire time with her head buried in her daddy's arms.
But this year...she smiled brightly. She said, "WOW", over and over again. She loved them. The mister enjoyed them too. He watched them pretty intently and just smiled.
It was a fun night. I did take pictures, but I didn't have my picture card in the camera. And I had lost the USB connector that goes to my camera, weeks ago. So, I need the correct USB cord in order to access the pictures. And we purchased a 5 pack with all different sizes, and not a single one fit into the camera. But I am going to check Best Buy tomorrow. So, hopefully I can share the pictures soon.
I hope you all had a wonderful 4th.

De-humidify Yourself

Oh my! I went into the basement this morning to throw some clothes into the wash. I was smack dab in the middle of all the monstrous machines, which are down there to suck away all the moisture. And within 3 seconds, I felt all the moisture leave my face. It was the strangest feeling ever. What's worse however, is it depleted my contacts of all moisture. And so far, I haven't been able to rememdy the situation. I may have to take them out and have them soak for awhile. I used rewetting drops and everything. But my contacts feel as hard as rocks. I am dreading going back down there to put the clothes into the dryer. Ha! Maybe I could just sit them on the basement floor, they'd dry up in seconds.

The Last Three Days

So, I wanted to share with all ya'll what's gone on over the past few days..complete with pictures...so this may be a long post. It isn't all that exciting, but I know some of my family members will appreciate the story. Although, the pictures are minimal. I left my camera at home yesterday, which actually would have been THE day for pictures. Oops.

So, on Saturday, I threw my good friend, Tiffany, a baby shower for baby #4. And, it was a successful surprise shower. YAY! I am an Usborne book consultant, and I told her I was having an open house. So, she came with her Usborne catalog in hand, ready to order some books. And she was so clueless...even when some guests arrived after her with presents in their hands. I even handed her a drink in a cup with a baby on it, and she still didn't get it.
So, here she is once I told her that she was here for a surprise shower.


Tiffany doesn't know the sex of her baby, although she is fairly certain she knows what she is having, so I had to find a theme that was unisex. She also loves the color green. So, I found some cute party stuff that was a pea in a pod theme. I thought it was pretty cute. So, my wonderful friend, Sara, helped me make prizes and favors that we think looked more like boats and corn husks. But, oh well. She also made a delicious chocolate strawberry cake. YUM.
Here's our cool Pea-bombs and candle boats...LOL..which really are supposed to be pea pod bath fizzies and pea pod candles. Sara and get quite ditzy whenever we attempt to do crafty things together...and Friday night, while working on the favors, was no exception. We thought we were pretty funny. But my hubby probably thought we were tipsy. LOL.


And here's one last photo of Miss Tiffany with a handmade blanket she received as a gift.


Then later that night, I watched Tiff's kids for her, so she and her hubby could go on a much needed date night. So, needless to say, Saturday fleeewww by.

Then Sunday flew too. Sara invited my family, Tiff's family and our mutual friend, Cari, over to her house for a barbecue / swim party for the kids. All of our kids play together very nicely. It was a lot of fun. The kids spent many hours outback in the pool, and yes, they were supervised. And us adults had some fun playing Wii sports and also Karaokee star. Well, the boys at that point played WoW. But us gals had a blast with it. We didn't leave their house until 8:30 P.M. So, again, it was a day that flew.
And I left my camera at home and didn't get any shots of the kids at play. But they sure had tons of fun!

Today has been super busy. We had our water heater leak last weekend. So last week, we had it replaced. I put a call into the insurance company, because the carpet near the water heater had gotten pretty damp. They will be out tomorrow, but told me to have a mitigation company out this morning. So, I called one up and out they came. I had to shoo the kids upstairs with some play-doh to try to occupy them, while I followed the mitigation dude into the basement, which is also used as the day care playroom. I couldn't believe how much of the carpet was showing up as wet. It was even in our walls and baseboards too. He had to rip out some of the padding, but thankfully, we won't have to replace all of the carpet.

He had to also fill the area with dehumidifiers and other equipment. We have to leave it on 24/7 until they tell us that it is dry. Then they will replace the pad and clean our carpet. It will all be good as new. Of course, it's costing us our $500.00 deductible. YIKES!
And, the kids can't go into the playroom either, because this is what it looks like down there.


So, I've had to improvise and things.
It sure was a crazy afternoon, while the mitigation dude was here. Yes, I call him the mitigation dude. I was downstairs trying to go over everything with him, while the kids upstairs were trying to kill each other over a musical note cookie cutter type playdoh toy. Geez oh Pete.I had to keep running up and down and up and down. Wore me out. I also had to clean out all of the junk that I had let pile up near my washer machine, because the baseboards over there were wet too. So, I was a busy bee...and meanwhile the kids were screaming like crazy.

So far, nap time has gone well. Even with two of them sleeping right behind me. They are usually in the play room sleeping.


I think I need a nap!

Lifted High

Well, I had a few quirks to work through, but last week, I finished my first official butterfly kisses blog design for Christina over at Lifted High Check out her blog and find out the meaning behind her chosen header and blog name.

It was fun working on it, but I learned that I have so much more to learn. It's so frustrating when you work on a site in Internet Explorer and everything is fine, but then you switch over to firefox, and it's all a jumbled mess. But as frustrating as it can be, it's also what makes it so much fun. It's like putting together a puzzle and when the pieces all finally fit together, you just feel like you accomplished something. I also love how it allows me to be creative. It's fun!