Text Time 11

Kwiddens: I'm at Wal-Mart and there's a line for the blood pressure machine
Me: Lol random

Kwiddens: You should call my work and tell them there's a family emergency
Me: Ok what kind of an emergency do you want?
Kwiddens: Dad in a car accident or something.
*insert fake, frantic phone call here*
Me: Are you going to be able to come help? Wink, wink, nudge, nudge?
Kwiddens: Yes. THANK YOU
Me: Love you a million!
Kwiddens: Love you more!

Kwiddens: I hate when I have to force myself to stay awake until a decent bed time
Me: I know EXACTLY how you feel

Me: You should really see a doc...
Mim: Been hoping to see a plastic surgeon...romantically. For Valentine's an eyelid lift, for my BDay a tummy tuck...!

Bob: A chemist and a mathemagician/philosopher. This ought to be good. Do you have a large white board yet? I expect a formula that balances out all of life's problems! It should include moles, k, pi, constants, infinitives, reason and purpose. Ready, set, go.

Monday Musings

Last night at about 2:00 a.m. Scott and I were woken up by people yelling outside our window. Scott got up and looked, and it looked like it was just two people yelling, but not physically fighting or anything, so he just got back in bed and ignored it. BUT, after a minute or so, the woman started screaming bloody murder "Help! Help! Get away from me! Help! Let go of me! Help! Help!"...basically what I would be yelling if I were being attacked, so Scott got up, grabbed his gun just in case (concealed, of course), and went outside to see if he could get a better look and make sure nobody got murdered right in front of our house. Meanwhile, I called the police.

They sent a few officers our way while I described what was happening to the emergency operator. While the police were on their way, Scott went out toward the fighting couple as soon as it was apparent that there wasn't any physical violence. They talked a bit, and the man seemed upset and was pacing around, but nobody was yelling any more. I just stayed inside the house, watching what was going on, but unable to hear anything at all.

Two cruisers showed up and one cop went to talk to Scott, while the other went to question the two people who had been yelling. A third person appeared seemingly out of nowhere (he had been inside a car parked on the street) and soon enough Scott headed back inside and told me the whole story.

It turns out the two of them were insanely drunk, and had come from a party down the street. They were bickering, and the woman was overreacting to the man following her. She had left the party, claiming she was just going to walk home (but she lived in Ogden, around 15 miles away) and the man had followed her to try to get her to come back so their designated driver (the guy in the parked car) could take her home. So, really it wasn't a big deal. We did find out that the guy had fallen pretty badly at the party and had a few broken ribs, so the police let them go and take him to the hospital.

We seem to attract trouble. I suppose that's what we get for being the unofficial neighborhood watch.

The gym I go to is closed on Sunday, much like many businesses here in Utah. Saturday I got in a really good workout (I'm still sore), and then spent the rest of the day with Kwiddens. Sunday morning I woke up and the whole day I just felt...blah. I really missed working out! It's only been two weeks, but every day I wake up and don't even have to debate with myself whether I'll go to the gym or not; it's always a yes. It's only a matter of when I can fit it into my day.

I am really loving my X-Biking classes, so I invested in a gel seat cover, which will hopefully make it easier on my derriere. I also bought some new shoes, since the shoes I have been wearing are really old and slightly too big. I wanted to pick up a heart rate monitor watch, but they cost more than I'm willing to spend right now.

We went to a new Chinese restaurant that opened recently a few blocks away from our house. I wasn't impressed. The worst part, however, was the CHRISTMAS MUSIC. It's SEPTEMBER. Also, Wal-Mart was putting up Thanksgiving stuff even before the Halloween stuff.

We bought more tombstones for our Halloween graveyard and materials to make a creepy rickety fence to go around it. We went to a seasonal Halloween store in the mall to check to see if they had anything that would add to the effects, but we were very disappointed to find almost the entire store dedicated to costumes, and just a tiny corner had decorations, which were all overpriced or cheap-looking (or both) anyway.

Halloween this year is on a Sunday, and for Utah that means that everyone will go trick-or-treating on Saturday. This would be fine with me if everyone in the community who wanted to participate were Mormon, or some other religion that prevents things like that on Sundays, but that isn't the case. So I'm not sure if I'm going to have to do Halloween on Saturday and Sunday, for the Mormons and non-Mormons, respectively.

Saturday when Kwiddens came over we tried to dye my hair back to my natural color. I'm tired of the pink streaks. We picked out a color that matched my own, applied it according to the directions...and it didn't work. The blonde bits are still blonde...you would think they would pick up the color just fine and become brown but NOOOO, that would be too easy. So I think after work today I'm going to head over to the beauty school and have a new color put on, just one color all over. Maybe I'll go a little bit darker for fall. We'll see.

That's about it. It's a Monday. The end.

Text Time 6

Today's Text Time is brought to you by Jaxon, who is Kwiddens's nephew. He isn't very smart and his parents don't really parent him, so interesting situations arise...

Kwiddens: Jaxon is having Count Chocula and pistachios for dinner.

Kwiddens: I seriously can't understand a word Jaxon says.

Me: That's because he's made of goo.

Kwiddens: He's like "Pennin nee dot".

Me: Is he talking about penguins?

Kwiddens: Jaxon is wearing underwear and a heating pad.

Me: Um yeah that is super awesome. And sad...

Kwiddens: I can't believe his mom and grandma think he is normal...

Me: Well it's not like they are normal!

Kwiddens: Jaxon is still in his pajamas and Rachel's like "No he's wearing that as clothes today!!"

Kwiddens: I'm sick of hearing Jaxon fake cry and having Isaac's mom coddle him. Every time he fake cries, if Isaac tells him to stop, she makes an excuse for him.

Me: Pathetic.

Kwiddens: I'm seriously going to live in a box behind Wal-Mart.

Kwiddens: I got chewed out for saying "Jaxon, that's a fake cry."

Me: You need to get out of there.

Kwiddens: I know. I'm going to go insane. I took lortab and benadryl and only slept for 3 hours. I was so disappointed.

All of my Projects!

I apologize in advance...this post will be super long and has LOTS of pictures.

I thought it would be fun to go through all my crafting stuff everywhere in my house and see what unfinished projects I have lying around.

Here we go!

So several years ago I bought a book (the first of about 20) with patterns to crochet lace snowflakes. I thought I would make lots of them and give them to Mim as Christmas ornaments. I had such a blast making them (and she loved them, by the way) that I decided to make some for me! When I moved into my first apartment in college someone had left a Christmas tree in the closet, so I have a tree (crappy, but free!) and after I made enough snowflakes to cover it I started making other things, like garlands and icicles and angels and even a tree skirt. Here are just a few of the hundreds of ornaments and notions that have gone into this project:
And I still pull it all out now and then and make a thing or two before I put it away again. I have been toying with the thought of making more of this and starting an Etsy shop. Maybe I could make a few dollars doing something I love. Who knows?

And here's another one:
One of I think 5 squares I've made so far that I started a year ago to put together to make a centerpiece for Naomi as a thank you for helping us with money (we were so freaking poor the first year we were married...it was like, "Honey, don't spend any money, we only have ten dollars left!" SAD.) and I was chugging on, making a square every week and then something shiny flew by and my attention was pulled elsewhere...oops. Maybe I'll finish this someday. But I'm not in the mood now.

Here is a throw I am working on for Li:

I started this this past winter and the goal was to finish it before she left for Taiwan, but that wasn't going to happen because, you know, life happened instead, so the goal now is to finish it by the time she gets back from Taiwan, which should be...next September. SWEET, I have another year! (It's really almost done, I just need to get my rear in gear and make a few more squares and then put them all together and make a border, really only a week's worth of work...LAZY LAZY ME)

And then I was feeling REALLY ambitious and started making a bedspread to go with Mim's comforter set for her CALIFORNIA KING I AM NOT EVEN KIDDING I AM THAT INSANE:
Filet crochet with size ten crochet cotton. Yes. It's about eight inches wide so far. Yeah. I was tempted to frog it when I realized how HUGE this project was in REALITY (where I clearly wasn't), but Scott convinced me to hold on to it because, hey, you never know. There may come a day when someone will say, "Hey, I'll give you a zillion dollars if you'll make me a bedspread for a Cal King!" And then won't I be glad I already have eight inches done.

A peek inside the basket with the sock:
Notice it has been pulled off the needles again. I was online today at work (surprise, surprise) and found a method I haven't tried for making smoother joins in colorwork, so I may be able to make these stripey yet!

I just can't believe I still have this:
It's a counted cross stitch I started when I was ten or so. A 13-year-old UFO! Sad. I pulled it out the other day and actually worked on it and it was fun! I like the sentiment, "Families Are Forever", which is ironic since my family was forever ripped apart recently. Fun times.

I want to learn to tat. So far I have bought the stuff. Nothing since then.

Here is a counted cross stitch I ordered online. I intend to finish it eventually and give it to Scott's mom as a present for a birthday or Christmas or something, but with all the stuff I am up to (see the list??? It's growing!) it will be her birthday present in ten to fifteen years:

Here is another pair of socks I'm {not} working on:
The pattern I intend to use is Outside In. I think they will be super cute. Some day.

And of course, the finished back piece of the new blue sweater:
It's going to be so cool. I started the front the other day.

Here is the birthday present for Em that is now overdue:
Elbow length fingerless mittens with a striped underbelly! And the buttons have skulls on them. All I need to do at this point is tack the sides down and add the buttons and they will be done. The other weekend I had her try them on and they fit perfectly, thanks to the frogging and reknitting and frogging and reknitting...yeah.

Now, I bought more yarn, because I really needed more. Here are two mohair blends:
They have the prettiest halo of fuzz around them. The one on the right looks gray, but it's really a mixture of blacks, whites, and grays.

Beautiful soft sock yarn with some nylon in it for added durability:

And this stuff is way fun! I couldn't get a good picture because I pretty much suck at photography and also because I have a camera that I bought on sale at Wal-Mart (Still MAD at Wal-Mart). But it's a really fun spring green cotton with a colored viscose thread going through it that turns pink, purple, and orange. It sounds garish, but it's actually very festive, and I'm sure I will find some fun use for it eventually.

So, there you have it. I have too many things I am trying to do. I am so glad all this calms me down because anything else in this volume would stress me out and I would spend days hiding in my room on Klonapin.

I have to post a picture of Buster, it's the law:
Eating a bone he stole from Wayco (Allene's dog). Good boy, Buster (I don't like Wayco...)!

In other news, I found a "used" treadmill on KSL (I say "used" because it's only been used like two times and it's nearly new) and I went down Farmington to take a look at it, and it's perfect! And less that $200! It wouldn't fit in my car so we have a friend with a truck and he will help us pick it up tomorrow after work.

So back to getting in shape.

I actually had a lady tell me I was tiny today and it felt SO GOOD.

I Freaking Quit

I love my job.

Most of the time.

Today and yesterday I have just really had it with everything, though. Both of my instruments give me crap on a daily basis now and for CRYING OUT LOUD it's not my fault. It's beyond ridiculous at this point. I shouldn't have to take them apart and fight with them for TWO HOURS every day just to get them to work, and then get results that I don't really trust.

And then people have the nerve to freak out and ask where the results are. Seriously, do they honestly think I am sitting around, doing nothing? When you ask for results ASAP I am already doing it. If it isn't done yet, there's probably a reeeeally good reason.

I almost cried several times over the past two days and I am so frustrated that I wanted to quit and find another job. It's THAT bad. But, I need this job, and I am just trapped so I will continue to go to work in the morning and stress out the entire day and come home and not have the energy or willpower to do anything at all.

Then there's the added stress of having other people living with us (not that we don't like them, it's just that it's a change and we all know how changes stress me out). Also, we are getting our mortgage stuff ready and it's stressing Scott out and when Scott stresses I stress. Also I am having a bad self-esteem week and I feel horrible and my feet hurt and I haven't been sleeping well (but I just took Nyquil so hopefully I will be able to sleep better tonight...we'll see).

WHOOOO. Ok, pity party over.

So I am THIS close to finishing the back piece of my sweater. I had to frog a few times because of stupid mistakes and also because the pattern had a TYPO. Fortunately I can add and I figured it out on the second pass. Either way, I learned my lesson early and placed lifelines every 20 rows or so just in case, and they came in handy twice so I am glad I did it. This sweater isn't using nearly as much yarn as I thought...actually will probably use less than half so maybe I will make a matching one for Mim! That wouldn't be dorky at all...

We are planning on having a giant garage sale on Saturday. We have been going through all the crap in our whole house (you know, when we moved into this house we had about enough stuff to fill up about a third of it and now our stuff has multiplied and replenished the spare rooms and we're stuffed to the brim now. WHERE DID IT ALL COME FROM??) and Allene is going through all her and her son's stuff too, and Kwiddens might come and bring her crap and Mim said she would come too but we'll see about that.

I went to the store today to get stuff for the sale (stickers, posterboard, etc.) and HOLY CRAP LET ME GO ON A WAL-MART RANT:

I love Wal-Mart. It's probably my favorite store. Now, I know this is not exactly "classy" and I know it's definitely not politically correct, but there are reasons.

1. It's like a mile from my house.

2. It has everything. Even knitting needles.

3. It's all so affordable.

4. It always has everything I need in one place so I almost never have to go to any other store, except when I want hearts of palm and I can only find those at Target. Stupid Target.

5. I go there out of habit.

6. Ours is so much cleaner than any others I've ever been to.

7. I'm sure there are more, but I'm upset and beginning to feel the Nyquil so I can't think of any more.

But here's the deal: they're renovating. EVERY STINKING TIME I GO I START HYPERVENTILATING. They MOVED everything around and so I don't know where anything is, and neither does anyone else, so everyone takes longer to shop and doesn't know where they're going and have you ever been in a store where people don't know where they're going? It's awful, let me tell you. So it's super crowded and everyone is pushing the carts around like absolute MORONS and I hate stupid people and I hate being confused so when you put the two together, it's like presto, PANIC ATTACK.

Stupid Wal-Mart.