The Past Two Months In As Few Words As Possible

Let's see if I can summarize the past two months of my life into a post that isn't miles long so that I can feel ok with getting back to regular blogging.  Those two months happened and I can't feel ok with just letting them slip by without saying something.

So...

At the beginning of June, I helped Dodger with a job for 10 days.  It was nice to get to spend that time with him.  We finished listening to Robinson Crusoe via Librivox on an iPad app (we started it way back last August on the FL job).

Here are a few pictures.

Entertainment center (before).
The primer didn't stick so we had to sand the entire thing! Ugh!

Entertainment center (primed).

Entertainment center (after).

Kitchen (during). I, unfortunately, didn't take any before pictures.
Everything was an ugly off-whitish faux finish before painting.

Bottom part. My job.
Screwed up my wrist and forearm doing this job. It still hasn't healed.

Lovely brown.

During that time, Dancer had summer dance lessons, tennis lessons, and dance company practice.  So, many days I was helping Dodger, then running home to take her to her things, then going back to help him when they were done.  She even helped us on the job, the last day we were there, after one of her practices.  (He is, by the way, still working on this job as of 8/3.  There have been unforeseen issues with the top cabinets and the "clear" coat that was put on them to protect them.)

All of the doors got put in the trunk of my car and brought home so we could work on them here instead of taking up space in the clients garage.  So I got my garage cleaned up even more so that there would be space to lay them all out while they dried.

The rest of June and the first part of July was filled with more of running Dancer around to her classes and dance company performances.  During the summer, her dance company performs for daycares in the area.  The kids really seem to enjoy seeing them dance.  There is, on rare occasion, one little boy or girl who's just not into it but for the most part I think they all have a good time.

Dancer has also been helping my mom and step-dad fix up the house they just bought.  So many of her weekends have been filled up with that.  She also been golfing with my dad on the weekends, too.

Towards the end of July, Dancer turned 17.  She had a bowling party at Spare Time Lanes on one weekend, thrown by my mom and step-dad.  She chose a bowling party this year because it's always so darn hot on her birthday and she wanted something inside and something for everyone to do.  My dad got her a bowling ball as an early birthday present, so that she could have it and use it at her party.  Then the next weekend, we had a birthday party for her at my dad's place.

 

She also had math club on Tuesday afternoons a few times in July (we still have one more scheduled this Tuesday).  Math isn't her favorite thing but I asked her to do it for a few reasons.  1. it was helping out another homeschooling mom who is using a specific program for this and is doing it to test it out and give feedback to the creators of the program.  2. she hasn't seen this group of friends since Halloween and that's just crazy because they all get along so well.  3. she needs to get out of her comfort zone and better to do it amongst friends.

Right now we're on a break from activities until dance starts again in a few weeks and tennis should start up again soon, too.  I've only had to leave the house to grocery shop or run to the back and that's been really nice.

Dancer is going golfing with my dad this afternoon.  I cleaned up the pile of books and folders that were on my recliner a few days ago but now it's filled with a stack of fabric, so I think I'm going to set up the sewing machines and do some sewing this afternoon.  I've got some clothing repairs to do and fabric from my friend, Sarah, to make her cloth pantyliners.  I told her that I'd make them for her because I think the prices online for them are just ridiculous.  I think I'm going to have to print off the pattern again, though, because I'm not sure where I stuck the one that I already printed off.

I Got Up Off the Couch... and I'm Getting Stuff Done!

Since I'm still trying to figure out what to do with myself today, I thought I'd work on a blog post.  It's been a week since I last posted and I've resigned myself to the realization that for the time being, once a week is most likely as often as I'll be posting.  I've been keeping busy with doing work on outside projects daily and it actually takes more thought and energy to put up a blog post than it does to just throw on my work clothes and gloves and head outside for some hard work.

Right now, It's too sunny to pull off siding.  I don't like to be in the sun very long.  Until the garbage comes on Tuesday, I can't really pick up any more shingles because I'm out of old 5 gallon paint buckets to fill up.  I could fill up more grocery bags, though. I don't yet have a blade for my sawzall, so I can't cut up any of the old wood roofing.

Here are some pictures of what I've been working on all week...

A small pile of shingles bagged up in grocery bags.
They are just too jagged and heavy to put into garbage bags, as is.

More trash and bagged shingles piling up and ready to set out on the curb for Tuesday's trash pick-up.

All of the clear space was covered with old shingles and wood.

Got even more done.

Some of the old wood from the roof.

The neighbor behind me needs to do some work, too!

The space behind my garage is now clear.
Remember what it looked like a few weeks ago?
The space back here it perfect for a garden!

The mess of branches I cleared from what was hanging over into my yard from the back neighbor's yard.

The mess along the side of the garage that still needs cleaned up.

Dodger pulled off some siding on the side of the house to get me started.
I have pulled off more since this picture was taken.

Dancer's summer activities started this week, so I'm back to running her around 3-4 nights a week.  We're both glad that tennis was offered in the evening as well as the morning this summer.  Neither of us are morning people and it worked out that she was free to do Monday evening's lessons.

I've been working a few hours every day getting our property cleaned up.  I've even managed to keep up the cleaning inside the house at the same time.  When I first started in on the garage this week, I felt very overwhelmed but then I remembered that line that you eat an elephant, one bite at a time.  So I just started in, did what I could, and have been working daily to conquer the mess.

Time and consistency conquers just about every problem.  We've got to do something differently if we want different results.

Dancer is out golfing with my dad this afternoon.  Dodger is at work.  I'm going to throw on my work clothes and gloves and head outside to see what I can do today.

Sewing Like a Fiend and Catching Up on My Week

So, it's been a week since I've posted a true daily account of my days.  Let's see if my brain can remember my week up till now.

Sunday was the last dance company performance of the winter season.  Here are a few pictures from that performance at Fair Havens Christian Home.  Dad came to watch.  He rarely misses a show.

Dancer went to my mom's afterwards for the evening, so Dodger and I had a lovely evening sans kid.  Dodger made fish for dinner.  It was super yummy.

Monday, mom dropped off some things for Dancer's gardening in the afternoon.  Some dance friends dropped off Dancer's tap shoes that she left behind at Sunday's performance.  I did a bit more work cleaning up the mess of overgrowth, shingles, and wood behind the garage.  Then Dancer and I went over to mom's to have dinner and play a little Trivial Pursuit on the Wii.

Tuesday, I got the sewing machine out.  I needed to get a few patches sewn on a uniform for my friend Sarah's son.  Once I got those done, then I started sewing on a project that I started last year before my machine got super noisy and I had to stop until I could get it serviced.  I'm making a denim bedspread for my nephew.

Here are a few pictures of the work in progress.

Dancer's last tennis lesson of this session was this night, too.  She'll have a week off and then summer lessons start.

Wednesday, was more sewing and much work done on Dancer's next study term schedule.  That was the day I took the pictures of my piles around the house.

Thursday, it got cold and rainy.  I ran errands in the afternoon.  I needed to get a few groceries, make Dodger's truck payment, and get Dancer registered for summer dance classes and dance company.

I sewed and cleaned up my piles.  I also did some repair work on a few of Dodger's work pants and of some of my lounge pants.  I had some holes in my lounge pants and sewed patches in some areas.  Saving the money of buying new, the annoyance of shopping, and keeping the comfort of well worn items, was worth it to me to patch them up.

Dodger wears holes in the knees of his pants.  Well, in the right knee area because that's the knee he bends down on when he's working.  I put some old t-shirt fabric behind the worn out, thread bare, spots and then sewed zigzag stitches back and forth to patch up and reinforce those spots.  I got two pairs done.  I have two more to do.  I have to rip out the inseam a bit to be able to get to that spot, too.  He has some really worn spots on the back pockets where he puts his billfold.  I might have to take off the pockets to be able to repair them.

Knee holes repaired.

Today, I'll be trying to finish up the rest of Dancer's schedule for the next 12 weeks of study.  I'd like to get the third term worked on, too.  I probably won't finish the third term but getting it started would be good.  I will work on getting it finished next week, though, because that way I won't have to think about it again except maybe to make any changes before that term starts.

Taming the Beast

Before.

After.

The limbs I could break.

The ones I couldn't break and the ones Dodger cut up for me today,
minus the ones I already added to the yard waste bins.

Crazy huge limb.

Still to do.

Today, I was up before 10 am but then let myself get side-tracked playing Castleville for too long and by the time I wanted to start my workout at 1 pm, Dodger got home early.  He thought I was upset that he was home.  I had to make it clear to him that it just surprised me that he was home early and that I was frustrated with myself for not getting to my workouts soon after I got up.

So, I ended up doing a one mile Leslie Sansone walking workout in my bedroom and then decided to go outside and work on the mess of limbs back by the old swing set.  He and his brother cut them down last spring when they reshingled our house and garage.  I worked on them last year but there were still a bunch left before winter hit.  They're all nice and crisp now, too, which makes them a ton easier to break with my hands and feet.  I don't have to use cutters on them now.

It won't take me much longer to finish up with the limbs that are left, then I'll be able to weed whack the weeds and mow.  It's highly possible that there's a mess of old shingles behind the garage that I'll have to clean up, since there's a mess of them on the other side of the garage that I still need to finish cleaning up... and inside the garage that they dumped down in there when replacing old rotted roof boards.

My feet are really on my nerves lately.  Even though I work very hard to keep my workouts low-impact, by the end of the week they are killing me.  For this very reason, if nothing else, I must stick to eating right and eating in a way that is conducive to weight loss.  I can't lose weight with exercise alone and keeping my eating clean will help me to speed up the weight loss and thus take less weight off of my poor, tiny feet.

Dancer had another dance company performance this evening at Hickory Point Christian Village.  Dad came to watch.  I didn't take any pictures or video because the spot they dance in there was just too small and crowded for us to sit in a place that would work well for that.  Then the three of us went to Hometown Buffet for dinner afterwards.

Now that I've got my blogging done, I'm going to ice my feet and watch some more Netflix TV.  I just finished an episode of Bones.  I might watch another or maybe I'll queue up Weeds again.  I'm not sure.  I really should start to dive into the Ambleside schedule and work on my workout schedule for next week, too.

No Woman No Post

Most of the advanced ballet class goofing off for the camera.

When I don't post, you know I'm extra busy or my mind is focused on other things.

It was a busy weekend with two nights of spring dance concert performances and then dinner and games at my mom's on Sunday for Mother's Day.  My brain just shut down.  I didn't want to think about blogging or keeping up with the #BEDM posts.

Dodger and I sat in the audience with my dad and uncle Steve on Friday night.  My aunt Veronica and cousin Rebekah came to watch, too.  We went out to eat with dad and Steve at Perkin's afterwards.

Saturday night, I didn't have plans to sit in the audience again but Dancer is in high school and most of my dance mom obligations are over with at this age.  So without telling anyone I was going to do so, I bought myself a ticket up in one of the last rows and sat by myself to watch.  It was far more enjoyable that way.  ;)

Mom and my step-dad came to watch, so we went out to Steak-n-Shake with them afterwards.  We never make it to a cast party because of family but Dancer seems ok with that.  Divorce always makes things a little messy and far more drawn out.  Grandma Joyce and Matthew came to watch, too, but they didn't come out with us afterwards.

Sarah and the kids also came to watch on Saturday night.  I was so glad they could come.  It always makes Dancer happy when friends come to watch her dance.

Then Sunday the three of us went to my mom's for Mother's Day.  Mom grilled steak and chicken and we had it with salad, broccoli, and cottage cheese.  It was all very yum yum.  I got mom some fabulously smelling handmade soaps that my friend Penny makes.  I was a little jelly that I had to be giving them away.  They smelled soooo goood!  My mom loved them.  She likes that kind-of stuff.  :)

Dodger scared me to death, though, because we left the house at the same time.  I drove and he drove, so that he could leave early.  And he didn't show up and didn't show up and didn't show up.  At some point, I started to worry because even if he did stop at a store to grab some Wild Cherry Pepsi it wouldn't have taken him that long to get there.  My mom's place is only like 10 minutes from our house.  I called him like 6-7 times right in a row before he finally answered his phone.  He was off in la-la land in his head and ended up driving all the way out to my dad's.  My dad lives in a little town northeast of where we live and it takes a good 25-30 minutes to get there.  lol... goofball.  I was just so glad that he was alright.

Today, I didn't do much.  Dance lessons are over for a few weeks, then summer lessons start.  I did my workouts and reviews.  I seriously loved the kickboxing ballet fusion workout!  Now Dodger and I are getting cleaned up to go eat some Mexican food.  Mexican food is my favorite food ever.  So, so, so good but I'm not getting the Spicy Fajitas this time!  ;)

Dancing In the Rain

Sometimes I skip a day of blogging, not necessarily because I forgot but because I just didn't have anything to say and my day got away from me. By the time I could have gotten around to it last night, I just didn't want to.

Dodger can work... he has plenty of inside jobs right now but he has started to schedule in some of the outside jobs and he won't be able to do much with those until the rainy weather has passed.

Don't get me wrong, I like rain.  It makes everything grow and with two summers of drought here for the past two years, the extra rain is good for our local lake and water table levels.  It's just that it will eventually get in the way of the way we make our living and what goes on inside these walls is of first and foremost importance to me.

Last night, Dancer had full dress rehearsal for the Spring Dance Concert which starts this evening at 7pm.  She's at an age where I don't need to stay.  So I went in and paid for the DVD and for pictures and then I headed back home.  We're just across town (about 15-20 minutes, depending on the traffic and how I hit the lights), so it's no big deal to come back home when she's going to be there for hours.

I watched the rest of season 4 of Fringe on Netflix yesterday.  Now I have to hunt down season 5 online.  Hulu has about half of the season available.  I'll have to find the other half elsewhere.  Being that I'm busy using the desktop during the day for other things, I'll have to load them up on my slow-ass laptop a few nights coming up.  I tried watching one on my iPad Mini last night but only got halfway through it before it stopped loading.

Today, I am thrilled that someone on the Google chat boards finally posted the proper fix for the server error issues I've been having when trying to sign-up and into the Google Apps account that comes along with purchasing domain names through them.  I had issues with both this domain name last month, which never resolved itself, and a few days ago with my workout blog... which is what I was so stressed out over.  So I'm a happy camper because I was finally able to get access to my domain information for both sites and get my workout domain routed to my blog.  It should have done it automatically but with another error that popped up, it didn't do it so I had to go into my DNS settings and do it myself.

I had a fabulous workout today.  I loved both videos that I did and got my review done on the one that I hadn't previously done.

Now it's time to finish getting ready to head out to the first night of the dance concert.  Dodger and I are watching tonight with my dad and uncle Steve.  Dancer's in 7 dances, so Dodger won't be too bored sitting through the whole thing.

Daily Quote: May 6, 2013

"Dance is your pulse, your heartbeat, your breathing.
It's the rhythm of your life.
It's the expression in time and movement,
in happiness, joy, sadness and envy."
~ Jaques D'Amboise

Vampire Feathers in Doc Martins, Oh My

Super cute socks my sister got me for Christmas with my old school Doc Martins.
Just part of Saturday's outfit.

Now that my workouts are finished and my reviews complete, I can get to blogging here, which is the most enjoyable.

I had a busy weekend.  Dancer had dance company performances Friday night, Saturday afternoon, and Sunday afternoon.  She didn't go to my mom's any of those days.  Booooo.  That means Dodger and I didn't get an evening without the kid.  Booooo.

We went out to dinner with my dad after Friday night's performance and he came with us (us being most of the dance company girls and parents) to Cherry Berry on Sunday. Dodger came to her performance on Sunday but didn't come to Cherry Berry afterwards.  He just doesn't know what he's missing!  But he did pick us up Hardee's on the way home, so we had something to eat besides frozen yogurt.  ;)

She wouldn't smile, so I turned her into a vampire.

Did you catch my A Day In the Life post on Saturday?  I recorded myself throughout the day on Friday.  It truly is what a typical day in my life is like.  I wake up, do housework, exercise, blog, run Dancer somewhere, watch TV, and then go to bed.  You pretty much got the jist of how I live.  :)  I like it.  I have a lot of freedom.

Last night I spent most of my night working on my weekly workout schedule for this week.  It can take some time to track down and view videos to see if it's something I think I might want to try and if it will work with my physical limitations.  I also had a bit of a Fringe marathon.  I'm into Season 4 now, which started off slow after how Season 3 ended, but it's picking up.  I don't think Netflix is going to have Season 5 on there before I'm finished with Season 4, so I'll have to watch it online.

I did take a break in there to stretch my legs and do some straightening up around the house.  If I let things go for too long, they just pile up and then it takes more time to get it back in order.  So I try to be sure to be sure things that are just tossed around get picked up each day.

I also did some mending, sewing, and crafting for Dancer.  She had some things she wanted me to do.  I needed to sew a button on a pair of capris that I picked up from a thrift store recently.  I also needed to stitch up a hole that was starting in one of her pairs of dance tights.  Then I had to attach elastics to a new pair of soft ballet shoes.

After I finished those, I started in on creating the headpiece she wanted me to make her for her jazz routine in the upcoming Spring Dance Concert.  She had my mom pick her up a package of red feathers and also a big red flower barrette.  I managed to put the two together and make a really cute headpiece that will flow back the side of her head and bun.  I just needed some hot glue and strategic placement of the feathers.

What do you think?  Pretty cool, huh?  I think so and Dancer loves it.  :)  She doesn't love so much that I turned her into a vampire.  Maybe next time she'll smile.  ;)

Dancing Your Cares Away #BEDM

Yesterday's performance at The Glenwood.

Today's #BEDM topic is Health & Fitness but I'm going to put that off until tomorrow because we don't have Bank Holiday here in the states and I also don't work outside the home.

So enjoy a few videos of Dancer's dance company performance yesterday afternoon at The Glenwood Assisted Care Home.

Dancers have more fun.

An Evening of Dance

At Tanglewood Village last night.

Just a few videos from last night's dance company performance at Tanglewood Village Retirement Home.

A Day In the Life, Keek Style #BEDM

Yesterday's #dailyselfportrait on Instagram.

As all of the #BEDM bloggers know, yesterday's theme was A Day In the Life.  I spent yesterday recording my day, literally, so I waited until today to post it.  Yesterday, I posted today's theme My 5 Favorite Blogs, so be sure to check that out.

So, yes, I literally recorded my day yesterday via the Keek app on my iPad Mini.  It's a really cool app that allows us to record really short videos... like 36 seconds.  You don't need the app to view the videos, I've embedded them below.

So follow along with me to see what a typical day in my life is like...  [unfortunately, Keek shut down and I've lost the 15 videos that were posted here {cry cry cry}]

I had a blast documenting my day like this.  I hope you enjoyed watching my Keeks.  :)


I'm a Keek.  I'm a weirdo.

Spring Is Here... for now. #BEDM

A lovely cluster of dandelions blooming in my jungle of a backyard today.

Another day of blogging in May.  I was blogging almost daily in April, so it's no biggie to me to add a few days.  I just liked the idea of the themes to give myself a little more flava to my posts.  ;)

So today's topic is Spring Is Here.  It is here in the states (I know lots of BEDMers are blogging from across the pond) for the most part, though I did hear something on the radio when I was out running errands yesterday that some people up in Colorado were expecting snow again.  Goodness!  Doesn't that suck for them!

We've had 3 lovely warm days here in a row now but rain is expected by the weekend which will bring the temps down again.  Booooo.  Hissssss.  I do so much better in the warmer weather.  I do love myself a good thundershower but not the lack of sunlight or the colder temps.

I just love the way everything comes alive in the Spring.  Everything just glows and has so much energy.  And there's so much green everywhere!  I love green.  It's my favorite color!

I finished up the last of my spicy fajita innards with scrambled eggs this morning for breakfast.  I caught up with a few friends on Facebook while I was eating.  Then I got straight to my workouts for the day because I got up late, again.  I don't know what my problem is with sleep this week but it's all out of whack.  One video was awesome and the other was very meh.

I may have my first alterations job coming up soon.  My friend Sarah's son, Gavin, is in Civil Air Patrol, and their commander needs someone to sew on patches and hem up pants.  She asked if I'd be interested and I think I'll give it a shot.  It's not like either of those things are hard to do.  It's basic sewing skills 101, pretty much.

Dancer's last Jazz class before the Spring Dance Concert is tonight.  They're meeting for an extra hour tonight just to finalize things and get some of the others, who miss a lot of classes, caught up.  She says that she loves this routine, so I can't wait to see it next weekend.  :)  They're letting us come in and record during dress rehearsals, so I'll post those videos soon after I take them.  I know some of you all like to see her dance, too.  :)


Bring it on!

Spicy Weekend

Me, without glasses and slightly flakey skin from the tretinoin cream.
Instagram #dailyselfportrait April 25, 2013.

It is a lovely 74 degrees out right now at 4 pm.  This day has gone by far too quickly because I got up far too late.  I like to be up by 9:30 everyday but today I had a tummy ache and I didn't feel like getting out of bed before 11.  The reason for the tummy ache will be explained below.  I got my workout done earlier, after getting up, and did my workout review.  Now, while laundry is going, I'm making time to blog.

Just a few pictures from outside my back door this afternoon.

Thursday was the last day I updated, so let's catch up on the days since.

Friday evening, Dancer had a dance company performance at Imboden Creek Living Center.  I have those videos uploaded to my YouTube, so I'll embed them below.  Dad came to watch.  He comes almost every time.  Afterwards, she went to my mom & step-dad's and Dodger & I had a late starting date night.





Saturday was a pretty lazy day.  It was rainy and chilly, so I decided to start working on my workout schedule for May.  I made up some printable scheduling forms and uploaded them to my workout site.  Dodger called in the afternoon and asked if I would come help him clean up at the job he was working on so that he could continue painting.  So I went out there for a bit to help him.  Then that evening, I began searching YouTube for videos to fill up my workout form.  I got the first week schedule done that night.

Yesterday afternoon, Dancer had another dance company performance, this time at McKinley Court Care Center.  Dad came again because he couldn't be out in the fields.  It was too wet from the rain on Saturday.  I don't have any pictures or video from this day.  I just wasn't the place for it.

Afterwards, we went out to eat at the Mexican restaurant down the road.  My belly started hurting right before we ordered.  Then I got brave (and stupid) and ordered the Spicy Fajitas.  Oh my.  It was spicier than I was expecting.  My brain and taste buds were having a war while my mouth and lips were on fire... and my nose running... my taste buds were saying, "this tastes good," while my brain was saying, "ouch, ouch, ouch, this is hot!"  I had my dad laughing pretty good.  It was so spicy that I had to order a glass of milk before I even finished my first fajita.  Yes, I'm quite aware of just how funny this is.  :P

Last night, I spent more time looking for workout videos on YouTube.  My biggest challenge is to find low-impact workouts because of my plantar fasciitis feet issues.  I filled in a few more blank spaces in my schedule and got my playlists organized.