Project

So, as some of you may know, or have seen...I have been working on a cross-stitch of the above picture for...quite a few years now. I pick it up here and there, depending on which crafty mood I am in at the time. But technically I started this the summer of 2002.

I am almost done. Hopefully. See...I set myself this goal that I would get this done by October.

FYI - I have found that if I have a time limit in my head...I get these projects done much faster. Like all the birth announcement ones I have done for my sister's kids...I set a goal to finish it around when I will see her next, or I want it to be done by her birthday so I can send it as a gift...etc. It has always worked and I get these things done. (BTW - I am the one in my family anyone contacts to finish off cross-stitch patterns...mom and A just never have the time.)

Now since...October is on Wednesday...and I am not that close to finishing it...I have given myself till the end of October. And I'm thinking of adding in I'll just be done with all the cross-stitch work...outlining in back stitch will take more time.

I have the trees done, all the background blues and greens and that city walls of Jerusalem done, and intermitent colors in the bottom half of the picture I have finished. Mostly I still define it as I have the top half done...and part of the bottom. Pretty much I have to finish the path, the two up close sheep and Christ.

Now, I'm just fearing that I am not so serious about my time table in my head. So now I'm asking for recruits. When you talk to me this month...if you can...ask my how my cross stitch is coming. I need the pressure. I'm telling you...this will help me get it done. And since it's been six years...I'd like to get it done all ready.

Now, not to fool you into thinking this is a small picture...this is the size of 15 x 17 picture. Very detailed and way more intense in the colors and patterns than I have ever done. If you can please help motivate me...I will take a picture of the final result and let you all see my project. :)

Thank you for all your help...if you are willing to annoy me. :)

Conclusion

It turns out it was a maintenance man who saw D on Monday morning. Poop Machine did his biz...and D went in to get a bag to pick it up. Dumb maintenance man did not wait to see her come right back out and pick up the "biz". So all is well...and I am vindicated! So is D! :) It not our fault...just some stupid man who is impatient. Go figure. Violation removed...way to go D!

So overall...Poop Machine kept on producing...in his cage especially...until Friday afternoon. At which time D was back and started to see what she could do to resolve this...poopy problem.

Fun times.

I would rather have a poopy diaper than clean a poopy Poop Machine cage. For even though he had the talent to successfully bury most of the "evidence" in the towels within the cage with him, it was still quite a...shall we say smelly and smooshie experience. Many "eeewwwwws" were said by all. :)

I hope Poop Machine will get better soon!

Frustrated with Poop - Help me!

So, as some of you know I am dog sitting this week while D is out of town for business. A full work week. Should be interesting.

But as of yesterday afternoon I am thinking of calling Cody the Poop Machine instead of his name. Wonder if I call him it enough he'll start answering to it? :) jk.

So, my poop frustration started yesterday afternoon when I got home to D's apartment. There was a notice on the clip by her door. We got a citation for not picking up the Poop Machine's poop. Now I got immediately mad....I ALWAYS pick up that puppy's poop....no matter how runny or gross it is.

The problem only compounded when I went inside to let him out of his cage to go potty...as I call it...and he had pooped all over his cage. GROSS! I then had the wonderful job of cleaning that up...smelly.

But that was the end of it...or so I thought. This morning while getting ready I could tell he was farting a bit, so I was keeping a watchful eye on him. He then went to the door (the signal that he needs to go out "NOW!") I put down my makeup brush right away and removed the gate from the bathroom door (I block it so he can't get in and tear apart the toilet paper roll) and then turned around and put it back (he's a quick sucker and I really didn't want him getting in the bathroom). When I then fully turned towards the front door...seriously thought I was moving fast...Poop Machine had already moved to the corner behind the TV and pooped a huge pile of...crap.

So...in a way it's my own fault that I apparently didn't move fast enough this morning...but I'm seriously thinking he's just trying to see how far he can push me. I really hope he doesn't get much farther with this.

So...so far this dog sitting experience is...poopy.

I'm just seriously hopeing that whatever is in that puppy's stomach that is bothering it so much...is out by now.

Okay, please...tell me one of your poopy stories...and help me get my mind off being mad at the dog for something he can't control totally yet. Be it a pet or person poopy story...I just really need to laugh to get over this frustration.

THANKS FOR YOUR HELP! :)

High School Tag...Your IT!

Your High School's Name-Marquette High School

High School Colors- Blue, Green and White

High School Mascot- Mookie the Mustang! hehe.

Did you date anyone from your school? Umm, yeah. Mike Tayloe - freshman year, Tim Greco (kinda, we both liked each other and did dances and group things but no one on one dates) - sophomore year, Jeff...totally can't remember his last name (we were more like kissing buddies for a couple of weeks than really dated) - senior year, and Steve Boss - senior year (another one that only lasted a few weeks.

What kind of car did you drive? My Smurf-mobile! Little two door 1993 Geo Metro that was a light teal color that in street lights at night looked like the color of the smurfs. :P 3 cylinder little thing...also called it my putt-putt car. Going up hills, especially with the A/C or heater on was more like driving a golf cart than an actual car. :) But it was small and allowed me to do a lot of zipping in my driving which i love to do. I got rearended my Senior year taking my friend Dominique to school cause her car was in the shop...we both at complete stop and car behind me took their foot off the gas when they shouldn't have. It then totalled my car. So the last month of school I had a 1994 Mercury Topaz that my mom now drives.

It's Friday night where are you? Freshman and Sophomore year I was either at a school football game, or probably out to the movies or the mall with my friends. Junior year and Senior year I was working at Steak'n Shake or at Football games, or out to movies or the mall with friends. :)

Were you a party animal? Not necessarily, but kinda. I had a large group of friends and we'd try to get a bunch of us together whenever we hung out, so sometimes it was always a party. But I did love it when we threw actual "parties" which did happen pretty often for someone's birthday or just randomly. There were only a couple of "drinking" parties that I ever knew about, but they only happened Senior year and I never went, and was only invitied cause they knew they'd be talking about the planning around me and didn't want me to feel excluded...but they knew i wouldn't come cause I don't drink.

Were you considered a flirt? I have no idea. I love to talk with guys and stuff...but even now sometimes I don't really realize when I flirt (it's not really a conscious effort on my part). But overall, no I don't think I was considered a flirt. When I did flirt, it was with someone I really liked at the time.

Were you in band, orchestra, choir, or any other group? nope, not really. Last two years I worked so much I didn't really have time.

Were you in any clubs? Same as above. But I was in Latin club and Senior Women Club. Neither really involved tons of attendance.

Did you ever get suspended or expelled? Nope, I was the eternal "good girl". Never once got detention, suspended or expelled.

Can you still sing the fight song? If we had one I don't remember it. Pep rallies were bad enough...we were a relatively new school and school spirit hadn't been bred that strong for any of the students yet. :)

Who were your favorite teachers? Mr. Ebert - senior year english writing, he let us talk with friends and the class a lot. and I had my two BF's in there so it was always fun. That is also where "Butt Boy #2" was found. (my friend Heather and I are kinda butt girls...and Butt Boy #2 sat right in front of us....and it was always great to watch him sit down. hehe.) Mr. Marsh - Government and history class. He let Heather and me put out our starburst rappers turned into sailboats as decorations in his room. Mr. Faulhaber - Sophmore and Junior english... a lot of free time where we all sat and chatted. Mrs. oh goodness I'm totally blanking on her name. my pre-calc teacher. She was a blast. Silly and yet so totally smart. literally...she had genious testing scores on mutilple things. :)

Where did you sit during lunch? It depended on the weather and time of the year. If it was nice out, we'd sit outside near the outdoor bridge leading to the entrance of school. If bad weather we always had one long table commendeered in a certain place. I always bought my lunch so I just went whereever my friends had sat. :)

Who did you go to Homecoming with? Mike Tayloe, Tim Greco, Eric (tall guy), and Mike (from work...different one than Tayloe) In that order.

Who did you go to Prom with? Matt B., Adam Dowell, Adam Dowell. (Senior year I asked Adam from church to go with me and he asked me to go with him to his. So that year I went to Marquette's and Parkway South's proms)

If you could go back and re-do high school would you? Nope. I had a blast while there but I would not go back.

What do you remember about Graduation? Umm...Carpooling with D, getting flowers from my mom, actually enjoying the speakers :), and the All night party afterwords on school campus. They had caracature artists, games, casinos with fake money and a hypnotist. Then door prizes for everyone there. It was pretty darn awesome. Next day was hard though, met my dad, step-mom and grandma for breakfast and was literally falling asleep on my plate. Then could only sleep for a couple hours after that cause my sister and mom were going to a wedding of one of A's friends from high school and I stayed home to watch Rylee. I was exhausted.

Do you plan on going to your 10 year reunion, or if you already went what was it like? Umm..I don't know. It'll be next year if we even have one. The one guy who was supposed to organize it just wanted the title for graduation since he didn't make valedictorian and said he'd never actually organize a reunion. So if we have one...maybe...depends on my schedule. but most of my good friends i still keep in touch with or i've now found a lot on facebook. :)


I tag anyone else who wants to do this!

Balloon Glow

So, every September St Louis holds a balloon race. Where balloonists enter a race to follow this ginormous Energizer Bunny Balloon, and whomever drops some sand bag closest to a landed Energizer Bunny wins the race. It's quite fun to watch. Anyways...the night before they have a balloon "glow". Where every ballon to be in the race is sat side by side and tied down. They then inflate the balloons and keep them up by running the burners...which causes the balloon to glow. :)





When there there are tents, vendors and tons of people there to see it and give away/sell items off. I went with Dominique and we brought Cody to get him out and see how he'd do in a large crowd.







It was absolutely way fun, and totally insane! We had to park about a half a block from the edge of Forest Park...which really is the only public land area big enought to hold all these balloons and the people who would like to see them up close. And then had to walk to the middle of the park. Past the golf course, boat house, art museum, and up a pretty steep Muny hill to get to the field where all these balloons were. It took us 45 minutes to and from our cars. Once there we got some funnel cakes and put out our blanket and vegged.

I wanted to get out and view the balloons up close and personal, but by time we got the the field, stood in line 30 minutes for a funnel cake, and ate them...while dealing with a rambunction puppy...they were deflating the balloons. oh well. We then stayed for the fireworks and took the long treck back to our car.

My goal for next year...head to the ballon glow early, have eatten dinner, and get some good up close pics of those awesome balloons. :)

Crafts

So, personally I love to do crafty things. The act of creating something out of a bunch of random things and turning into your own personal piece of art is just so...inspiring for me. And, if it's something I've never done I'm in total awe of those who can.

So I have this old roomie (she's not old, we just haven't lived together for going on 6 years now) who lives in Arizona and makes these awesome bags...that I use for purses and scripture totes. I even gave one to my friend Fishy and we have matching cherrie scripture bags...which unfortuneately are too small now for all the stuff we both have to carry to church.

Anyways...so my old roomie...Lizzy (as I want to call her) has finally posted some for sale online Craigs list. YAY!!! So happy...cause I really have had quite a few people ask me where I got these and said they'd be interested in the bags as well. So now is your change to get some of your own!

Aren't they cute?! Anyways...here's the link to her craigs list listing:

http://phoenix.craigslist.org/evl/art/842554622.html

So if you'd like one of your own please contact her and she'd be more than happy to send you some. :) I got her to make me a couple personalized purses...I like a lot of pockets. They commonly come with two, but I wanted three on the inside. You can also ask for different patterns, I have one with dragonflies on it and another with a pretty magnolia on it. I'm thinking of asking her if she can find a cute frog pattern as well. :) They really are totally worth it, and stand up to a lot of abuse...not cheaply made at all.

Enjoy!

I love YouTube!

So, there are these videos on youtube where it shows a big group of people freezing...in the middle of a public place. I've seen Grand Central station in New York, Trafalgar Square and here's another one I found...inside a Taco Bell. I do so love my Taco Bell. Though you might enjoy it as well. :)





Here's one in Paris:





Oh, and the Human Mirror is pretty funny as well:



Saved the hilarious one for last:



Okay, so really I love improve...but since they post on YouTube I'm all happy. :P Happy Friday!

9/11

This is one of those days that you never forget, like Pearl Harbor, the day Kennedy was shot, the day man first walked on the moon. One of those times the whole country unites in its feeling...this one of horror, grief and sorrow. But no matter how many times I see these pictures, read the different accounts or remember what that day was like in my life, far away from the action, I can't get desensitized to this whole thing...I still cry like a baby. And I don't think I ever should get desensitized.

Ironically, I can't remember for sure if I actually cried that day it happened. I do remember watching any and all reports I could on what was going on. Sitting there up at school watching the horror unfold before my eyes watching in shock at the anger and hatred of the terrorists take so many innocent lives. I really just remember being in shock pretty much the whole day. I do remember crying watching the President announce we were going to war after that, all ready mourning the lives I knew would be lost and imagining the pain our country would continue to go through.

Hard times suck, but it's the only way we learn to truly appreciate what we have and grow stronger...together.

Matt's Birthday

Today is my brother Matt's Birthday! YAY!!!!

(He's turning 32...hehe.)

Even though I know he won't read my blog I had to wish him a GREAT and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

We aren't doing the family celebration till tomorrow night. So today I have to remember to call him and sing him happy birthday. And call him an old fogie...just cause I can. Sometimes I do so love being the youngest. :)

I hope that all of you....that actually read this...have a great day on my brother's birthday...cause if you do than it's all thanks to him. And if you have a crappy day...sorry, but can't blame it on Matt. :)

I know I'm Weird

All of this started with FHE last night. The first part of the activity was get a partner and then we would draw each others profile...with our foot. :)

Now mine actually didn't come out too bad...I actually got quite a few compliments on it...but I've had practice.

Now onto the story part of this...

You know how you always want what you don't have? Well, in my family we have some lefties and some righties. I kinda wanted to be ambidextrous. So, during Church on Sundays I would practice writing with my left hand...you know...in case I ever like broke my right hand and couldn't write...I still wanted my writing to be legible. :)

Anyways...so sometimes when playing with my siblings...or at least Luke...we would even practice writing with our feet....cause you never knew when both hands would break and you just have to write something. So we would turn it into a competition and see who could write the most legible with their feet. So...I got early practice in my life on how to hold a writing utensil and actually make it write on paper. Yes, yes...this apparently is weird. :)

Side note...apparently I must have been a foot child. Cause even when I was young...I don't remember sucking my my thumb much...But I clearly remember constantly sucking on my big toe instead. I would hold my foot, or do it with no hands...but I just preferred to suck on my big toe...either foot. So, at least I've always appreciated my feet. :)

So now my challenge is to you: What is a childhood memory/activity that you used to do...and never thought was odd...but now clearly puts you in the "weird" category?

Please don't tell me I'm the only one! Pretty, pretty please!!!! :)

Relaxed

So, I finally had a somewhat relaxing weekend. Friday I got dinner and a movie from D as payment for dogsitting. Then Saturday I went to a wonderful baptism of Katrena which was fun to go to. Then came home did a few batches of laundry, did some shopping for my brother's birthday which is this next week, then came home and cross stitched and watched TV to my hearts content.

Only bad thing was Sunday morning I woke up with like this pinched nerve around my right shoulder muscle. In some positions it just sent shooting pain up my arm and it would like paralyze my arm and i'd have to force it to continue it's motion. I can get a few more positions now without the shooting pain, but it's still there...and a little weird. It was entertaining to conduct the music in Sacrament. I just had to keep my elbow tucked into my waist and it didn't hurt....otherwise it was shooting pain. Fun times.

But at least now the typing position doesn't hurt so I can definately go to work if this doesn't go away while i'm sleeping tonight...which i'm really hoping that it will.

The picture above has nothing to do with what i'm talking about, but to me it's a relaxing pic of Sardine Canyon on the way to Logan, UT from my trip on Memorial day. I miss the mountains...they are so peaceful to me.

anyways, I hope you all had a great weekend...and maybe sometime this week i'll actually have something interesting to write about. :P

My Imagination

So all of my life I have LOVED stories. Whether I was reading, writing, watching TV or listening they have always captured my imagination and pretty much take over my thought process until the story has come to an end. Even in college I took a Storytelling class...which was a blast. :)

I don't know what it is about stories that captures my mind so much. I swear I even learn things easier in a story format...once I hear it, it's in my memory for awhile. I mull it over, rehash all the details twists and turns, and evaluate how the overall outcome made me feel. And all the while, I can picture it all in my head. I'm very visual in my mind...which is why details of anything medical makes me nauseous and light headed (I picture it, then imagine how it would feel...feeling pain of others, or reliving my own is soo not good for my constitution).

And if I have to leave something in the middle of it's story...my mind will still focus on it when I'm doing other things. If I haven't skimmed ahead and read the ending to make sure what happens...I will seriously sit there and evaluate and re-evaluate what has happened and what my imaginiation will come up with on what could happen. My mind does not rest until I have completed what the author has put in front of me and seen where they wanted to take it. Why I don't know...but that is how my mind works. I'm wierd.

Anyways, yesterday I was finally in the mood to start the Twilight book series. (I saw a preview for the movie on this first book to be released this December 08 and wanted to read the books...so I bought all 4 online in early August. They have just been sitting there waiting for me to be in the "mood" to read them.)

In one day alone I read all 428 or so pages of this book (30 minutes before work, 50 mintues during lunch, then after I got home from work) as well as the 264 pages from the Midnight Sun story that was leaked online then the author posted online cause now she's even debating finish it at all. (Twilight from Bella's point of view, Midnight Sun from Edward's point of view) BTW - I liked reading both of these together...it really helps the whole story flow well...seeing inside the mind of both characters.

So overall I read a little more than 700 pages yesterday...and I swear I wasn't skim reading at all...I was engrossed in every word. Stephenie really is such a good author. I couldn't put them down...even though I read the whole plot online Wikipedia (and I have for each of the books in the series) I just had to read for myself how the story unfolded and what was to happen next.

Once I was done...I felt like I was finally back in the real world. And I also felt that I had pretty much missed the whole day...I blocked out what I did normally because I just couldn't put down that book.

So...I have now decided that I can't keep doing this to myself. I swear my brain won't work right until I finish each book if I keep on reading. My resolution: I can only continue this series if I read on weekends...when I have more time to ignore the world and engross myself in the books world.

This is going to be hard. I wonder...does anybody else get this caught up like this with anything? Or am I the lone weird person? :)

Dog Sitting

This is Cody. My friend D was out of town for the weekend in California...an old roomie was getting married and she was in the bridal party. So from Friday right after work until around 11:00 Sunday night...I was dog sitting Cody. Fun, Fun :)

FYI - Cody is a mutt...we are thinking a bit shepard, lab, beagle, maybe even doberman in him. Now Cody is only 5 months old. Still has his sharp puppy teeth, and definately still being trained...mostly in manners. :)

Sneaky look huh? Fits his personality pretty well. :) He knows what is bad, but of course had to test my limits and see if I would really punish him like D does. (Time outs in his kennel) Every Day.

Poor baby in time out. Not really. This time he'd tried to bite my thigh, well, it was just a little nip but the intent was the same. Since still in his puppy phase...his bite's are just trying to get some attention. It's not a hard bite, kinda like a love nip...with his sharp puppy teeth. :) Never punctures skin...just annoying and a bad habit D is trying to break him of.

Anyways, by Sunday night he finally learned that I meant what I said and we were getting along pretty well. So I was trying to wear him out and play with him a bit...so he wouldn't be too high energy for D once she got back from a long day of flying. (didn't work BTW...he still so happy to see her he seemed to go a bit berserk, hehe.) But while playing I was also trying to take pictures of him and get in some good head shots...everyone wanting to know what Cody looks like.

So I hope you enjoyed meeting Cody! I had fun spending the weekend with him...but am also pretty glad to be home with no one demanding my attention. :)