The Smell of the Seasons
There is a certain something that goes with the burning hazelnut candle on my coffee table, cuddling in a warm blanket and watching a dark movie like Interview with a Vampire with the lights down and the feeling of fall all around. I have a peace that I have not felt in a long time, hubby is at work and I can’t wait for him to get home and join me in this wonderful mood.
It is that amazing time of year where the feeling of everything starts to change, the trees take on the colors of fire and their leaves fall like snow, the smell in the air is one of spices and autumn and the holidays are coming around. We will have Halloween coming very soon with all of the childish fun and excitement it brings, kids dressed in cute little outfits, tons of candy, fun decorations and scary entertainment. I have movies picked out on netflix set for a movie marathon should that be the choice for Halloween night or I may go to a party or out with friends, there are so many options. Then there will be Thanksgiving, the first Thanksgiving with my husband in Washington as well as the first I can do anything. Last year I had my wisdom teeth pulled the day before but this year our shop is thinking of getting together and having a shop Thanksgiving meal for those of us not going home. A fun group gathering for our odd little family. Then the smooth transition into the winter holidays, the subtle change of scents from cozy heavy smells you want to wrap yourself in and make you hungry to the wintery fresh scents that make you feel like you are walking through a pine forest or unwrap presents under the Christmas tree. Christmas will be a wonderful experience I hope. This will be one away from my family with just hubby and I creating our own traditions. we can decorate our own tree and unwrap presents with just us on Christmas morning. Family is always nice to have around but there is something to be said about a nice Christmas with just the hubby and I. Can we all tell that I am excited for this time of year? Summer used to be my favorite season but I think I have grown into a lover of fall and winter, I think I am equally in love with each.
I have been doing laundry on and off through out the day and cleaned up a bit here and there. The house still looks cluttered and a bit messy and we still have boxes all around and have way too much stuff but we are finally making it a home. It is really the little things that make somewhere a home, just small things probably different to each person that makes a place feel comfy and lived in. Hopefully over the next bit of time we can sort the boxes, donate a bunch of stuff and really get everything settled. We are so close and that just adds to the awesome feeling.
We also had a minor epiphany not long ago. It is something that we had vaguely realized before but it really hit home recently. I was in Hawaii for just over a week and while I was there had no real reason to spend any money. When I got home I realized just how much was left in my bank account and how much we screw around and waste money. I got back and we could actually do things and have fun! We went out yesterday to see Jo Koy perform because I found out the day of that he was in the area and actually had money for tickets. We had the money to buy lights and a coffee table to help with our home, we could actually do what we wanted without being afraid that we couldn’t pay bills! It is a great feeling and hopefully one that can keep up. When we discovered how much extra there was we did the calculations and saw how much we could have, not enough to be rich by any means but enough for us young adults to live a life and enjoy it. Now I am planning to settle in tonight and budget and hopefully get a lot of our old debts paid faster and get rid of them and still balance everything and have fun, that is the goal at least. I think I will also start cooking a bit more at home, or maybe strike a deal with my husband, he cooks the 2 days he has off, I cook the 2 I have off and we can eat cheap food or leftovers the other three days. With us living so close to work we are already saving a ton on gas, especially since he works really close to me so we have managed to cut down a decent amount of spending so far. The whole idea of getting things paid off and potentially having money really makes me happy and excited and that excitement seemed to have finally hit my dear hubby.
Hawaii
I am chilling in Hawaii and I have to say this trip is interesting. I was looking for a nice relaxing trip and this is falling somewhere in between with ups and downs. I love my family but sometimes they stress out and stress me out a lot more than is really needed. I am currently hanging out on the big island which is new for me and it is pretty fun. Unfortunately it hasn’t been as sunny as I had hoped but it is apparently enough to burn. The other night we went snorkeling with manta rays which was kind of fun and yesterday we went snorkeling in a few different spots which were pretty but (to me and my strange temperature perspective) the water was really cold. Yesterdays snorkeling adventures resulted in some very strange sunburns, apparently the sun in Hawaii doesn’t care what you have done to avoid strange tan lines, you will get them. Oh well, hopefully eventually all of the strange tan lines will even out to a nice look, maybe. I also spent a lot of time on the boat yesterday and the result seems to be that I still have a very strong feeling of being on the boat, I thought it went away but I am still teetering a bit even if I am just sitting down.
Now we get to pack and go on to the next part of this adventure. This afternoon we fly back to Oahu and then hopefully fully relax though I can almost guarantee that won’t be the case. My mother is Matron of Honor in her friends wedding and I believe I will be roped into helping prepare. I’m not looking forward to it but maybe it will be better than I think.
Congrats Grad!
So my sister graduated from college last week, yay to her! I went home and spent some time with my family and actually had a pretty decent time. I went to some restaurants that I love, got to get my nails done, and got to visit my cousins bakery and got some awesome cupcakes. It was surprisingly relaxing over all, there were a couple of iffy moments but they passed and all was good. Honestly it went better than I expected and I am very happy with that. I plan to go back I am just not sure when would be best, I have a baby shower I can try to go to at the end of the summer, my mom is coming out in December for her own thing so I can go down then, or I can choose an entirely different time, I’m just not sure, I will worry about it later though.
Now it is back to work tomorrow and for now I am in the same spot I usually am, I should really be doing schoolwork. I only have a couple of weeks left and really not as much done as I would like and yet I just don’t feel motivated to do it. In art I am at least at the point where I will have a C and yet it would be so ridiculously easy to get 100% of the points. Communications is as ever struggling, I just cant find motivation for it. I have at least gotten a bunch of the quizzes done and then I have to do a bunch of journals and papers that I just don’t want to. I am guessing I will probably be working on it while I am at work like I have been and hopefully then come home and do some and get it all taken care of…we will just have to see.
Silly People…
So I just got my second part of the month’s check and I am trying to get a hold of someone to verify that my travel plans have me home for fun festivities but no one is answering! Very frustrating, I have called my sister and my mother as well as emailed my sister. I want to buy the plane ticket because prices for now seem to have dropped and I want them before they go up again. Saving money is always a good thing for me. I am about to buy the tickets and just hope that I don’t miss anything fun but I want to hold off if I can. Silly people, making things difficult.
I was also supposed to get my books today in the mail but they haven’t shown up yet and I am a bit bummed. Today would have been the perfect day, hubby is stuck at work until 8 so I am home and I have already cleaned up some and I still have a couple of hours. It would have been a really good time to start the classwork that I need to do. Oh well, guess I will just wait and hope they show up soon, I guess I can also check the office before I take off to pick him up too, maybe the delivery guy is just late.
I’m Done
I have family issues. I have spent the past however many years bending over backwards and biting my tongue and even groveling and apologizing for things that aren’t my fault and hurt me so that I could keep peace in my family. I have spent a lot of time jumping through my mother’s hoops so she can be happy with me and we can have a decent relationship and with her hoops comes her husband’s. The fact that I should have to jump through his hoops at all is stupid but I did it. Now, I’m tired of it. I have reached my limit. We finally got it set, the former room mates have no problem with my husband and I staying at the house, great, all should be good because that was the only issue. Now? Guess what, dear mother’s husband refuses to attend if my husband attends…really??? My husband can suck it up and tolerate the dude if he has to, he can be civil and he can deal with it but this supposedly grown man is going to stomp his feet and say I’m not going if he is….ugh! I don’t want to make my sister’s graduation a battle ground, I won’t do it, I will not have her be upset about the day like I am about my wedding but I am also determined to do everything I can to be there. I am broke so this may be a struggle and a very short trip but I want to go to be there for her. I sent my mother an email which quite possibly will start a war between us but I think at this point even my father would agree that I have done more than enough to try to keep the peace, I have gone to extremes and sacrificed myself and my happiness for her and her stupid little husband…I’m done.
Sorry if you get dragged in to this sister, I am trying to keep it all separate, if she calls you just tell her it isn’t your problem and you are staying out of it…
Snowboarding woot!
I went snowboarding yesterday for the first time…ouch!! I wasn’t originally planning to but I needed to get out and do something. It ended up being more expensive than I thought (stupid goggles) but hopefully that doesn’t really bite me in the butt later. Overall it was good times. Originally we started out on the nice fluffy hill, it had been snowing pretty much the last 3 days so it was all fresh and soft so at first it didn’t hurt to fall and I actually did pretty well on that hill. Well once we finished one run on that hill the guy with us who is actually good at snowboarding wanted us to try the next hill, it was supposed to still be easy just a bit longer. It wasn’t, it hurt. It was a more used hill so everything was smoothed out and it was steeper so I went a lot faster…I didn’t want to go fast, I wanted control first and to learn the basics then go faster. I fell on that hill a lot and I fell hard since it wasn’t the same fluffy stuff. It was painful, I landed on my wrist because it is natural reaction to catch myself and it hurt. I took a few tumbles and my butt hurts so bad right now. I think I lightly bruised my tailbone since I hit it pretty hard but hopefully overall it should be pretty quick to heal. My muscles are sore but I am happy about that, apparently snowboarding burns a lot of calories and since my muscles are sore hopefully it helps with my toning goals too. All in all and awesome but painful day.
And now lets check on the budget. It’s tight. I have goals for my money and I am down to the point where every penny counts. I need to get enough money pooled together so I can make it out to Cali for my sisters graduation. I also need to gather more info, I wish my mom would just tell me that of course I can stay at the house but she wont. She used to tell me I would always have a place there and she would love me to come and visit and yet as soon as I left that space was gone, especially once the husband actually decided to stick around there was no place to come back to. Unfortunately that makes it almost impossible for me to visit. I don’t have money for hotels, the plane tickets have gone up in cost not to mention food and the rest of the stuff that goes with a visit. I won’t be able to get a rental car so staying at the house meant I wouldn’t need one and I also wanted some extra money to hit up the theme parks out there. They just brought Captain Eo back to Disneyland and I really want to go! Plus I haven’t been able to get to Six Flags for a while even though I intend to every time I go back. Too much stuff, I am trying to plan it all out but without those extra bits of info I can’t decide how long I will actually be out there. If I can’t stay at the house then this will possibly turn into a quick almost overnight trip, if I can then I can actually use a bunch of leave and have time to hang out. I really want time to hang out but blah. I guess if this doesn’t work out I will still get to her graduation and save extra leave for when I do have money and I can use it to go somewhere crazy. We will just have to see.
Tsunami worries…
I am 136.7 pounds! Woot! I love actually losing weight, it feels so good and what is even better is actually being able to see a difference in my body. I didn’t used to feel like I could see much of a difference, at least not where I wanted there to be but right now, I see a difference. I am super excited. So to mix in with losing the weight I have started something for toning which will also be helping lose weight…my secret? Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred…it is kicking my butt. I have had it for three days and unfortunately I have only been able to use it for 2, the other day time just didn’t allow for it at all, but just in the 2 days I have lost more weight than before and I have been hurting! It is quick 20 minute workouts that you look at and don’t think they would do too much or hurt too bad but they do. I am just using level on for a bit then I will start level two and probably mix in one and two to keep my body from getting too used to anything. I really like Jillian Michaels and I stumbled across the 30 day shred a couple of times but this last time I actually checked it out and saw nothing but positive reviews (ok, so there were negatives but they were from people who hadn’t actually tried it and were just upset about trainers in general being on DVD’s and saying they never work and are just stupid, I don’t count those) and the reviews talking about people who after 2 or 3 weeks had seen big changes and were losing inches already. It wasn’t just one person who said that, it was a bunch so I figured I wanted to tone and I wanted a good workout and all it really needed was hand weights so why not? I am so far glad I made the choice. Even hubby was watching the workout yesterday and he was surprised. We ended up scrolling through the other exercises and he is going to try it, he is going to adjust it to make it harder, use level 3 first then just start doing all of them together, but he still thinks it will be something good to try. He is only going to use it for about a month until he can get a hold of his P90X but the fact remains he is going to try my girly DVD so it obviously can’t be too bad.
As ever I am broke. I am tired of being broke but hubby has said that he will start chipping in more to me since I am paying our bills. He can’t afford a lot but at this point anything really helps. He is kind of bummed because it means he won’t really be able to save but part of that is because of a big payment of his we have to make, hopefully after that final payment in June we will both actually be able to save. We also hopefully are still on track to have the stupid extra car payment paid off by November which will give us a lot of extra money so I am excited. I also have a debt of mine getting paid off in June, it is small, only $50 a month but even that little bit helps. Part of the problem is gas…gas money is killing us. We have to get me to work and then also take him to work and switch the car in between somehow because he usually gets out way later than I do. I usually end up just getting off of work and going to his work and just hanging out at his shop for a couple of hours until he is off so I don’t use a ton of gas going home. Luckily he is at a shop that is in the mall so I am going to start bringing a change of clothes so I am not spending all of my time in uniform and then I will go wander the mall or something. I can’t really shop but hopefully I can keep myself busy for some hours. There are game stores and electronics stores and housewares stores and I am still trying to hunt down a kitchen store because I could lose myself in one of those for a long time but there doesn’t seem to be one. I am also reading, yay books! I have missed them.
Speaking of books…I finally have time to read them! Can anyone guess why? I finally took the stupid test! I no longer have to study for it! Unfortunately I only got an 85% and I really was hoping for a 90% minimum but I still passed. I just was so angry about not doing better, the practice tests I was taking I had been getting 95% for the most part and I was confident. It seems that review questions should give a person a fairly good idea of areas they actually need to study and some of the important things and yes they did that a lot, however, a large chunk of questions were out of absolutely nowhere. There had been no real concentration on them or even vague mention of them, I was asked them on the test and wondered if they had even been in the books! I was really unhappy at myself for not doing better but it is done now and I can relax. Now I am looking toward taking some college classes and getting my CCAF associate’s degree. I have kind of missed college classes so hopefully it will be fun plus I should be close to my associate’s anyway with the classes I took before. I have to wait a couple of months for my transcript to get sent in and for them to process it and once that is done I can really see where I am.
And now the event of the day: I woke up this morning to a call from hubby saying call your mother, there was an earthquake in the Pacific and they are going to get hit by a tsunami (further search of the news it was an 8.8 in Chile if anyone hasn’t heard yet). Wonderful! (sarcasm people, I don’t actually think it is wonderful so don’t take it wrong and think I am horrible) So I try calling my mom and her phone goes straight to voicemail so I call her house. Her husband answers and let me know she is at her new apartment building but very nicely without me even saying anything he tells me they are not really in a tsunami area and should be safe with no worries. I was happy to hear it and thanked him but called my mom anyway. She said pretty much the same thing, supposedly her part of the island hasn’t really gotten hit badly before and she isn’t worried about it, there are sirens going off on the Marine base but that is about it and it makes sense for the military to be on high alert with something that could be so potentially damaging , they need to be ready to offer assistance if necessary. As I said, my mom wasn’t worried at all, I got off the phone with her so she could go on about her day and the construction on the apartment. After that I called hubby back who tells me there is warning all across the west coast, awesome! (sarcasm again) so I flip on the news check out the internet and it looks like anything that hits the coast shouldn’t be too bad, mainly they are worried about harbors and the boats and whatnot in the water. Whatever the case I sent a text to my sister telling her she had better be ok since she is so close to the water and to let me know especially after 1235 which is when they are saying it should be the last time for the tsunami to hit. Who knows, it is Saturday and she may be asleep and she might just sleep through it, here’s hoping it really won’t be that bad.
Happy almost Christmas Eve!
It’s almost Christmas Eve and therefor almost Christmas! I am excited though nervous, I have no idea how this whole cooking Christmas dinner is going to go, hopefully well. Tomorrow my mom is cooking tri tip and somethings for a good tasty family dinner. I am excited, I haven’t had tri tip in a while and it is one of my favorites. We went shopping today and bought all of our stuff for tomorrow’s dinner as well as Christmas dinner and I have to say it is a lot of food. The menu my mom set up for actual Christmas dinner doesn’t seem too hard, mashed potatoes, green been casserole, turkey, stuffing and cranberry stuff. Sounds tasty so hopefully it turns out just how it sounds.
Other than the Christmas stuff things are pretty good. Hung out all day with my mom which was actually pretty fun. Obviously we did the shopping but afterward we went to get our nails done and then hung out at the house and watched some TV. We didn’t fight or stress and it was nice and fun. Tomorrow I think we are hanging out again though I may have to switch that so I can go buy her some stocking stuffers. I have no idea what to get, I need cheap but still good and I just cannot think of anything. My sister has tomorrow off as well so maybe I can run off with her at some point and she can help me find stuff for both my mom and her husband. I also would love to get something for my husband but that won’t be happening. I am way too broke and technically I already got him something, I just gave it to him early. He can deal without a gift, he will probably appreciate it, he doesn’t really have money to get me anything either. Instead it will just be trying to get time together before I head up to Washington. He is staying here for another couple of weeks so he doesn’t leave people at work hanging during their vacations. After that he should be packing up and heading up to me. I am really excited, I can’t wait to get us out there and see what happens.
Kicking The Habit
I have finally kicked the habit. What habit is that? Waking up so darn early. I have gone a couple of days an managed to sleep in (and I mean really sleep in, to about 11) each time. I think my body has officially realized that I have no reason to be up at 5 or 6 in the morning now, yay!
Went to Disneyland yesterday, knock one off of my list of theme parks. We went on a Walk in Walt’s Footsteps tour which was actually kind of interesting though I am not sure it was entirely worth it. It was a birthday gift from my mom to her husband and he didn’t seem very grateful or really interested at all honestly. Oh well, she was excited about giving it and he wasn’t being really mean about it so maybe he was and he just has his own way of showing it. We went on lots of rides, had lots of food and watched some shows. That’s pretty much what there is to do at a theme park, right? Sister only ended up working for a couple of hours instead of four which I was super happy about because for some reason time seemed to really slow down when it was just my mother, her husband and I. We wanted to see the fireworks, it was one of the big things of the night but unfortunately about a third of the way through they got canceled, it was a bummer but it still snowed. Maybe I can see it all together next year or something. I also lucked out when her husband was actually willing to leave early. Usually he won’t leave until the park closes but last night, whether it be because of a very grumpy set of sisters or my mother’s poking, we made it out about an hour before.
Overall it wasn’t as bad as I expected it to be and so far the time with my mother isn’t going too badly. There were a couple of moments where she said something that could have really irritated me but it was less than usual and I just had to let them go, or at least bite my tongue. I expected this trip with her to be a lot worse than it is turning out so far, it is far from over but hopefully it doesn’t get bad.
California!
So I got to Cali a couple of days ago and things are interesting to say the least. The family dinner was not nearly what I was expecting, not the happy fun it usually is. This year was an interesting one and we just have to see how they go next year, hopefully they stay good for some and get better for others. Talked with hubby, been talking with him. I don’t think I am really going to post anything until it is all finally set by my standards but at the very least there is a lot of stuff to work through for both of us. This will be an interesting few weeks I think. Other than that not too eventful yet, today should be visiting the house and starting to decorate for Christmas while my sister attempts to cook some random thing I stumbled her online. I will of course leave the decorating occasionally to peak my head into the kitchen, talk to her and keep her company as well as make sure she doesn’t burn the house down. We were discussing some of her cooking experiences last night and have decided she has an odd knack for creating new creatures…blobs and things that jiggle and move all on their own, lol. I will definitely be carefully watching.
