Villa Mirabilia

Here is where I'm at as of 1-1-09:

2009 Goals

Yet again it's been forever since I've posted. I'm going to try something new for the next year - setting 2009 goals.

Personal Goals
- Stick to the budget W. and I have come up with
- Start paying down our debt.
- Increase our savings cushion.
- Save for one big family vacation this year.
- Blog once per week at least.
- Do a personal journal entry once per week at least.
- Continue looking for growth opportunities at work.

Stitching Goals
- Finish Villa Mirabilia (currently about 1/2 done)
- Finish Lady of the Mist (currently about 1/4 done)
- Start Venetian Opulence
- Start Share the Love
- Start any TW (The Guardian maybe?)

Reading Goals
- Read ALA's Newbery Award winners
- Read 50 additional books on my Good Reads 'To Read' list.

Billy,

You turned seven years old last Saturday. I can't believe I'm the mom of a seven year old! We have been through so much together, and in some ways it seems like you just got here. You constantly amaze me. You are so sweet and loving with everyone you meet. You are amazing at science and math, and not so great at reading :) I'm hoping you'll learn to love reading like I do. You love to help with your baby sister, and you are the best playmate for your brother.

You are not only learning, you are teaching as well. You are my first born, and every day you teach me how to be a parent. Everything always has, and always will be new with you. You have taught me compassion, patience and how to be a better person. You have made me dream and reach for things I never thought possible. You challenge and amaze me every day.

I love you Bubba. You are my son-shine, and I couldn't be prouder of my beautiful boy.

Momma

Wow

We went to the wedding last night, and all I can say is OMG. It was gorgeous! Amazing, beautiful, awesome. When you first walked in there was the reception line and a living sculpture. A woman was dressed as tree and was handing out drinks. It was strange yet fun. The cake was in the ballroom and was absolutely gorgeous. It was covered in white fondue, with black scroll work. I think there was 6 or 7 tiers. There were beautiful red roses on the top. The bride and groom had everyone get their pictures taken, and they are going to be sending copies of their pictures to the guests. I'll be sure to post the copy once I get it. There was a bar room, dining room, lounge area, tent and porch as well.

I was afraid of not fitting in, of making a fool of myself. The dress I picked out actually blended in beautifully. All of hubby's coworkers were gracious, sweet, funny. We actually gave a lift to one of his coworkers, and she was just about the sweetest girl. The bride's dress was a gorgeously beaded sari with white, gold, and red. The food was delicious, hors d'oeuvres fantastic, the band was great and I had an amazing time! The had this garlicy cheese puff on toast that was to die for. I told hubby that a part of me wished I knew how to make it, but it would probably take hours to do and I could eat it in about 5 minutes. All in all I had so much fun :) I'm so glad hubby found this job, and I hope he keeps it.

WIP's

Sorry the pictures are horrible, but I've been saying over and over I was going to get some up, so I took some quickies. The first is Mirabilia's Lady of the Mist:

Then we have Doop Design's My mother My Friend.

Boredom

The one issue with a peon job is boredom. I have been at my current job for almost two years. I am so freaking bored. It's a struggle to get through the day. A part of me wants to find another job, but then a part of me doesn't want to give up my vacation time. The department I'm in has a huge turnover rate because the burnout is tremendous. I'm just frustrated and feel trapped.

On the upside, my baby brother and his family are coming to visit in August! I'm going to get to meet my niece for the first time, and they will meet my daughter for the first time as well. I'm really excited. I grew up surrounded by family and it's very important to me. The only reason we moved to this state was to be close to my mom, but my brothers both live in the state I grew up in. I miss having them around. The older we get the better we get along. I want my kids to know their Aunts, Uncles and cousins like I did.

On a parting note - if you haven't tried Ben and Jerry's, "Imagine Whirled Peace" go and get thee some. It's to *die* for.

Well now

I'm trying to quit smoking. Again. Seeing as how I've never been very succesful, I'm not that optimistic. I haven't blogged in forever and I'm kind of at a loss as to where to start. I'm trying out blogger again because it seems like it is a little more friendly for those of us that aren't HTML wizards. I wish it had the ability to password protect posts, but I haven't really used that feature. I guess I'll reevaluate if that need comes up again. I've got a ton of pictures of the kids, you can see them on my Flickr. I'm also going to try and take some pics of my WIP's. I've got a Miribilia and a Doop designs.

I'll be getting my mothers day present next week. Hubby got me a mother's ring now that we are done having kidlets. They are custom setting and sizing it, hence me getting it after the day. I'm really excited.

We are going to a big fancy wedding reception for W's boss. I'm completely scared. I'm a blue collar girl and the idea of a society soiree makes me want to puke. On the other hand, I got a gorgeous dress for it! I got it from Igigi and I love it. They exclusively cater to plus size women, and the clothes are beautiful. I can't rave enough about the fit or the workmanship. I feel pretty wearing it. I'll have to post pictures after the event.

I'm going to close out for now, but hopefully I will get back in the blogging swing.

Ok...this officially sucks. I'm thinking of closing this down permanently. If you would like to continue reading, please see my new wordpress blog

Trying something new

In a couple of ways :) First new thing: I've gotten a laptop!!! Yay!!! Ostensibly for school, but a little fun can't hurt. Secondly, I've signed up with a loss support board. Hopefully this will help me deal with the anger I've been feeling. Let's hope I don't choke on the 'babydust'. Third and final, I'm trying the new blogger beta. Let's hope I don't end up hurling new laptop across the room in frustration.

School for me starts Monday, for B. on Tuesday. Wish me luck!

It's that time of year again folks! Yep school starts in these parts next week. So I spent my day yesterday in a flurry of school supply purchasing, with one distinct difference. I bought supplies for my baby to start Kindergarden. I am so not ready for this. He's my baby! My itty bitty! My tiny five pound boy that I brought home *only* five years ago! (Never mind that he's over 60 lbs now. I don't care ) I guess the important part is that he is completely excited. I got all of his supplies, including a new Spiderman backpack. He has a Dora one we bought last year, but I didn't want the kids to make fun of him for a pink and purple backpack, so Spiderman it is. One item on the list shocked me. They required him to get a pair of headphones for computer work. In Kindergarten! I didn't touch a computer in school until my junior year of high school. My typing class in high school was on typewriters!! (stop laughing, I'm not even 30 yet) My vague memories of kindergarten consist of fingerpainting and storytime. My son will be on computers and have homework. Wow. Well to console myself I got a new backpack for me too :) Nothing like retail therapy to help offset childish pouting. While I am excited for him, I just want him to be *mine* a little bit longer. I know it's completely cliche, but he is growing so fast. Oh well.

I found this cool service and thought I would share it with the book lovers out there :) at www.librarything.com you can create an online catalog for your books. It is so, so simple to do. It gives you an area to look up the books, I've been doing it by ISBN number, and compiles a catalog listing. It only took me 15-20 minutes to enter in 65 books. (sadly, not even a dent in my collection) So check it out if your interested!

In other news, is there a company anywhere out there where there isn't catty backstabbing and general bi*ching? Is it that unusual to not want to be a part of that? I really, really don't want to deal with this crap. I don't have the time to! Yeesh. Can I say again that I am so glad I work the night shift and only have to deal with said bitchy backstabbers for an hour a day? Good gravy.

A little over a week until school starts. For me and my baby. Eep. (My *baby* is going to school?!?!? I did *not* authorize this people!)

Oh and I've noticed that the new template looks like crap in IE, but it looks great in Firefox and that's what I'm using. And since I don't have any idea how to fix it, I guess y'all are stuck for a while :)

edited to add: I read to fast to keep updating that durn side bar but lets see, in the last couple of days I read Shades of Earl Grey by Laura Childs, A Quiche Before Dying by Jill Churchill and finished Queen of the Damned. Can you guess what I do at night when the calls slow done to nothing?

Which Flower are You?

You are an Iris:You are logical, analytical, dignified, and wise. You are studious by nature and may prefer books to people. You tend to be a serious person but are capable of making others laugh with your dry sense of humor. Friends always benefit from your advice.Symbolism: Over the centuries the iris has come to symbolize faith, wisdom, hope, and promise in love.
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What Kind of Princess are You? - Beautiful Artwork

The Noble PrincessYou are just and fair, a perfectionist with a strong sense of proper decorum. You are very attracted to chivalry, ceremony and dignity. For the most part you are rather sensible, but you are also very idealistic.Role Models: Guinevere, Princess Fiona (of Shrek)You are most likely to: Get kidnapped by a stray dragon.
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Things you do when you wake up way to friggin early:
1. redecorate blog (check)
2. remove any trace of your family's name from said blog because you're a paranoid weirdo (check)
3. clean the house (umm, yea, I'm working on that, really)

I'm so tired right now. I'm sitting at work, with an hour and 10 minutes to go trying not to fall asleep. I don't even know why I'm writing a blog except for the fact that possibly by forcing my fingers to move I may be able to keep myself awake. The drive home should be a blast.

I miss my kids. I had W. take them to the sitters when he went to work just so I could get enough sleep. I think it's the fact that 99% don't want to talk to a CSR at 10:53 at night. I think my husband has multiple personalities. He goes from being a sweet, loving, engaged human being to a complete friggin ass hole. I go from swearing that as soon as I'm done with my education and have a good job I'm leaving his ass and taking my kids with me to hey it would be a great idea to have a third kid (if I can even get pregnant again, and assuming I can carry the child anywhere near 40 weeks)

I so need to organize my books. I have less than a month till school starts, so I'd like to read some more fun stuff before I'm back in my $4,000/semester prison. I got my parking pass today, so at least that is taken care of. Well I think I am going to take my fried brain and go have a cigarette. yea.

This day has been slowly going to crap. It started off this morning with A. shoving a pebble up his nose. Yes. Up. His. Nose. I tried prying it out with my fingernail, but he shoved my hand out of the way and shoved his finger (which fits much better than mine) up his nose. The pebble got shoved so far up that I couldn't get it out at all. yay.

Later I get to work and my mother e-mails me that she is going to be a grandma again. More yay. My brothers marriage has been rocky to say the least, and my would have been due date is in 6 days. I read the e-mail and promptly burst into tears. I know I'm being stupid, and oversensitive, but that just pushed me over the edge. So now I'm a teary weepy mess and all I want to do is curl into a ball and cry. I can't wait for this day to be over with.

well color me fing freaked out.

I put a tracker on this blog a while ago, mainly just to soothe my curiosity. I was looking at it the other day, and someone googled and found my blog by typing in my entire name (maiden name). Now most likely it was someone who knows me. I don't know because they didn't leave a comment. So as a precaution, I have temporarily removed my archives, and will be combing through my blog to remove names and such. For some odd reason, I don't care if my 'stitching buddies' know everything about me, but someone from my past trolling the internet for information about me (especially when they don't have the balls to leave a comment or e-mail) freaks the ever loving poop out of me. Please bear with me through this poop.

*yawn*

I'm *so* tired. Bone aching exhaustion, but in a good way. After I accepted my new job, I turned in my two weeks notice. My second week would have been last week. Because my former employers are cheap freaking bast.... oops I mean, intensely focused on the most cost effective mutually beneficial solution, they decided to make it one week. (Truth being they didn't want to give me any holiday time for the 4th. They did the same thing to another women who quit) Because I had already said I would start my new job on the 10th, I got a week of vacation =)

We took the boys to the Cleveland Zoo. It was a lot of fun. Now I had heard that Cleveland was a pretty cruddy, run down place (Zoo included), but I was very pleasantly surprised. Very clean, lots of animals, 'trams' to the outlying areas, lots of picnic areas. It was a really fun day.

As soon as I found out I got the job, I reregistered for the fall. For day classes!!!!! So now I've
got French 1, Intro to Sociology, Music as a world phenomenon, and Basic Learning Processes. I'll still be finishing off all electives (except language) and I got an upper level psych class. Yay!!!! Although could someone please explain why I am now paying double the cost of an evening and weekend parking pass, yet I am not allowed to park anywhere near my classes? What kind of B.S. is that?!?! Do they not realize I am old??? And fat???? I am almost nearly a third of a century old and that is far too old to be hauling my tubby butt around campus, thank you very much. Let the young, nubile children frolick to class. If I'm paying $110 for the privelage of parking, I think that privelage should include parking near the classes I will be taking. /rediculous rant off.

So although I will be taking the night shift, I have to come in during the day for training. Hence the exhaustion. I am by nature a night person, so on the week off I got used to staying up till 1 am, and sleeping in. I am now up at 6 am to drive the hour to work. The work seems fun, and challenging. And a bit overwhelming. It's in an industry I've never worked with before, but doing what I've been doing since high school. From what my trainer said, I'm doing very well so far. I'll be on the phones the next couple of days, which supposedly doesn't happen normally until the 2nd week or so. I hope it works out, the people seem nice and the atmosphere is so much more relaxed than the pit of evil was. So now I just have to get used to getting up early again (in time to switch to my evening shift =) ) So I think that's it. Once I've been there a couple of months, and my brain unfreezes I should be ok =)

EEP

I GOT IT!!!! I GOT IT, I GOT IT, I GOT IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! More later when there isn't an 18 month old on my lap.