Playing Catch Up

Okay...obviously I've been gone for a while. To be honest, it's been even longer than intended since I've kind of been avoiding this whole explaining my absence thing. It's not a bad thing, it's just a complicated one. So I'm going to do my best to sum crap up as quickly and painlessly as possible. Bear with me.

About two years ago, my life basically started imploding. My husband of nearly a year (and partner for nine) decided to have another affair. We won't get into the backstory or the details, but yes...another. It wasn't a good period of time. I was a wreck. I felt worthless, humiliated, and broken. I tried to work through it as best I could (we decided not to do counselling this time around --- probably a bad choice, but it is what it is) and I decided to start living a little more for myself and a little less through him.

At the same time, I was dealing with the increasing issues that went along with an apparently progressive neurological disorder which the doctors couldn't (and still haven't been able to) diagnose as anything specific. All I knew was that I was getting weaker and dealing with constant pain, which was destroying my ability to enjoy a good majority of my hobbies and was causing issues with my ability to do my job without experiencing distracting discomfort.

I went back to school (something I'd wanted to do for quite a while) and learned that I did still have the ability to learn and experience new things. I was happy for the first time in quite a while. Weird how it took homework to do that... At the same time, I was struggling to keep things together financially for my family since I had to reduce my work hours at the recommendation of my doctors and (being self employed) I wasn't always able to bring home a paycheck.

Crap more or less hit the fan last fall. I was online chatting with some writers and met a few incredibly nice people who were taking more interest in me than my own spouse. He was taking a lot more time "working late" or spending time on a computer game he enjoyed. I started to realize that I deserved more. Our relationship was crumbling and there was nothing I could do. I tried a few desperate things to save it, but it was too late. My ability to trust him was gone and (based on things that had been happening in the previous few months) I knew that additional affairs were not only likely to occur, but most likely were already occurring and/or had come and gone during the prior year.

I gave up.

That's not typically like me. I fight hard for nearly everything. But after ten years of fighting to keep a relationship healthy and happy, to keep afloat in a profession that was slowly killing me in both spirit and a physical capacity, and to keep our finances from eating us alive, I felt too overwhelmed to continue.

Over the next six months, I asked my husband for a separation, started dating someone new, watched my husband sign up for online dating services while begging me to give our marriage another try (something I would have likely done if he hadn't been on Match and Tinder and ... Ashley Madison), and finally filed for divorce. It crushed me to do so, but I needed to save myself.

I also gave up on saving a house that I could no longer afford and that was falling apart around me. I closed a practice that I had been operating for 12 years. And I moved half way across the country.

It's been a long twelve months. I sank inside myself, I felt disappointed in myself, I hated myself, and then I realized that I wasn't living. I was being smothered and suffocated by all of that stress and worry and it was time to let go. Yes...I have had some failures. Yes...I have made some bad choices here and there that led me to those circumstances. I wasn't always the hero in this story and I wasn't always the good guy. But I didn't have to be trapped and punished forever. So I gave myself permission to lump my failures all up and toss them away. They still hurt, don't get me wrong. But I left them behind so that I could maybe, just maybe actually enjoy my life. And I'm getting there. I'm still dealing with aftermath and trying to figure out who/what I want to be, but it's better. There's less stress. There's less constant worry. There's less pressure. There's more me.

So that's where we are now. I no longer live in Idaho. I live in the northwoods of Minnesota. It's frightening. I know nearly no one (both a blessing and a curse). I can't get many places without relying on Google Maps. But I'm more at peace. Life is better. And most importantly, I am living it.

And now it's time to suck it up and get back to being who I want to be. I've missed this space. I've missed the people who surround it. And so I'm coming back. I won't be the same and it won't be the same, but that's okay. I'll be working on revamping the blog and getting it to where I want to be. But most importantly, I'll be working on getting myself back.

Sick and Tired...

Well...I guess it could be worse...

Today I'm sick. I HATE being sick. I'm pretty sure I was contaminated by the kid, who apparently spent a day or two in bed at his mom's place last weekend. The day after he got back, I got a sore throat. I figured it would pass easily and was pretty elated when my throat felt better the next day. Then there was a resurgence. It started off as an innocent drippy nose...then last night at dinner I started getting a bit congested. By the time Collin & I got home two hours later, I was in purgatory. I was in bed by 9, asleep by 11. For someone who historically stays up until 1 or 2 in the morning, that was quite the early night.

I have my arms full with school, which has been running me ragged. I got two quizzes and two tests under my belt this week, but have another 2 big tests and a paper to write for next week. I definitely don't have time to be sick. Thanks to the crazy hours I've been keeping though, I think my immune system just decided, "nope". I'm now relegated to take a small break and get myself back together so I can focus on the fun that will be studying for finance this week. The test will apparently be comprised of quite a bit of true and false. I'm miserable at true/false questions. They, just behind group projects, are the bane of my academic existence.

And yes...there is a heavy dose of whining in this post. I'm taking advantage of the situation. In all likelihood, I will bounce back a bit by tomorrow and spend the remainder of my weekend making up for lost time. Next week, I'll be pulling double duty, trying to take on all of the work I need finished by the following Monday before Thursday evening so that Collin and I can enjoy our anniversary/my birthday weekend trip without the constant interruption of homework deadlines.

But for today...I'm sick. I'm going to stay bundled up in this cozy bed with the laptop, the iPad, my Nook, and a cup of tea for the duration. There may also be a nap involved. Homework will just have to wait...

NaNoWriMo...I'm Writing. Are You?

http://nanowrimo.org/

Today, I'm sharing a different kind of project. It's still technically a craft, but I don't have photos for you or a tutorial. It's about creative writing, something I've done for years, but never really been dedicated to (outside of what I do around here). This month, that has changed. And I wanted to talk about it. So I am.

This year, I'm participating in my first NaNoWriMo. NaNoWriMo is a shortened way of saying National Novel Writing Month. It's when hundreds of thousands of writers (over 310,000 participants in 2013) get together to pledge a goal of writing 50,000 words towards their individual novels during the month of November. The whole thing is hosted over at NaNoWriMo.org, where you can register (for free) for your own dashboard to track your progress. You can also network with other participants, including writers in your own area.

There are motivational speeches from celebrity authors, there are mini-activities to get the juices flowing, and there are write-in events. These write-ins are both local and virtual, a means to get together with other writers and just write. There are a lot of motivational tools. NaNoWriMo is also active on Twitter, with the hashtag #NaNoWriMo trending several times this month already. On Twitter, there are mini-sprints where you try and write as many words as possible within a given amount of time.

The biggest goal of NaNoWriMo is to get your words down on paper (or in electronic format) rather than having them swirl around in your head. The goal is to write, not to edit. It doesn't have to be pretty and perfect, you don't have to worry about spelling, grammar, or punctuation. You just have to get the ideas out and let the story come to be.

There are writers of all genres, all ages, all nationalities. It's amazing. I'm having a great time already, just because of my own progress and hearing about the progress of others. I haven't done much in the way of socialization, but I have felt like part of a community and I have been inspired to keep going on my own work.

And just how is my own work going? Well...I started a couple of days late and to be honest, sometimes I just let myself walk away without meeting my daily goal if I'm not feeling it, but I'm making more progress than I really thought I would. The novel I am working on has gained over 13,000 words so far. It's addicting to watch my little dashboard progress bars grow and so easy to push myself to get 100 words more, 200 words more, just to see my goal indicator turn from orange to green for the day.

I honestly don't know if I'll make the 50,000 word mark, but I do know that I'll be happy with wherever I end up as long as I feel like I've made a good effort. To me, a good effort is making progress every day. And so far, I've done that. It's amazing to feel that I have this ability in me. The novel may never go anywhere big and huge, but it's there...my words...written and at some point ready to share. It's one of those little things that I'm quite proud of.

And it's not too late! You can sign up for NaNoWriMo at any time. You can head to the site now and get rolling. If you have the itch to write, don't be scared or timid. You can do it!

And by the way...this can definitely be a "by the seat of your pants" thing. I had a loose plan for my plot when I started, but major planned events/characters have already changed twice. Not only that, I honestly can't tell you write now how my novel will end. I had a plan for it when I started, but now it seems that I have more than one option for my conclusion. My novel has taken on a life of its own! The fun part right now is just waiting to see what manages to falls into place. Of course, it could end up being something totally different than anything I expect right now. Who knows?

Are you a writer? Are you participating in NaNoWriMo? How is your progress going? What do you like best about it?

The Very Inspiring Blogger Award

I learned a couple of things today:

1. My "contact me" link apparently wasn't sending those contact forms to my email like it was supposed to.
2. I look like a huge jerk for not responding to the two messages I had.
3. Karsyn made me a freaking awesome button (because she is also freaking awesome). It is now over in the side bar.
4. Diana over at Strahbary's Fields nominated me for a blogging award...a month ago. Stupid Google Forms.

So...a big THANK YOU to Karsyn and Diana. I'm SOOOO sorry that I didn't see your messages until today. I think I fixed the problem. I hope.

And now I'm going to do my duty and follow through on the award that Diana so thoughtfully nominated me for. I first found Diana's blog during the A-to-Z Blogging Challenge this year. She's a self-described geek and her first A to Z post was on Alice in Wonderland. That was all it took. (I just so love Alice.) Her blog is an entertaining hodgepodge of books, cooking, and miscellaneous geekery. It's fabulous. Go on...check her out.

With any blogging award comes a give and take...so there are rules. These ones are pretty simple. Ready?

Rules

1. Thank and link the amazing person who nominated you.
2. List the rules and display the award.
3. Share seven facts about yourself.
4. Nominate 15 other amazing blogs and comment on their posts to let them know they have been nominated. 
5. Optional: Proudly display the award logo on your blog and follow the blogger who nominated you. 

Seven Facts

1. I would trade my big house on a little bit of land for a little house on a big piece of land. I crave wide open spaces. I've tried several times to convince Collin that we should move to Montana.
2. Collin and I are both small business owners. We're both self-employed. This is not always awesome. It's also why Collin keeps telling me that Montana is not in the cards. Drat.
3. When it comes to literary things, I am freaking crazy about anything Alice in Wonderland. Seriously. I love Alice. I've read several books simply because they were modern tellings/adaptations of Alice. It's my own little personal fandom.
4. I love to craft and write. I've contemplated going back to school several times to get my English degree. I have several novel starts in progress. None of them are Alice based. :)
5. I am completely asocial. Seriously. I love my blog and other bloggers because the web-based world lets me be more open and friendly. I'm actually kind of a hermit. I have social anxiety and I don't do well in large groups. Even my best friends (of which there are few) will tell you that I'm socially awkward and avoid get-togethers. It drives Collin a little nuts.
6. I have a ridiculous sweet tooth. I'm a dentist in "real life" so this is a total contradiction. My young cousin (who I gave a gigantic rainbow jar of Skittles for her 8th birthday), told me "You're a dentist! You can't like candy!" Well...I don't like candy, I love candy. I allow myself to continue this tomfoolery since I've never had a cavity. 
7. I drive a big truck. It's big and black and lifted. I look ridiculous trying to climb in when I'm wearing a skirt. Other than the gas mileage issue, I love driving it. I like being up above everyone else when I'm stuck in traffic. Keeps me from getting claustrophobic.

Awesomesauce Blogs You Need to Check Out

(Oh, also...you guys are nominated...)

1. Crafty Little Secret
2. Enthralling Reads
3. Finley Jayne's Going to the Library
4. Flood-Proof Mum
5. In Search of the End of the Sidewalk
6. Karsyn's Kickass Jocoserious Kooky Jannock Book Blog
7. Mom, the Intern
8. Muslin and Merlot
9. Rachael Turns Pages
10. Tea & Knee socks
11. The Book Monsters
12. The Loony Teen Writer
13. There Were Books Involved...
14. Things My Mother Taught Me
15. Two Frogs and a Grasshopper

Thanks again, Diana!

Oh...and Darian and I will be back in a couple of hours with another read-a-thon update!

Reorganization Phase I - Feedly Purge

Every once in a while, it comes time to do a little reorganizing. Some purging, some realignment. It's about that time. In oh so many ways.

I have had the week off for a little bit of a staycation. Really that's just a fancy word that people use to say that they couldn't afford to go anywhere awesome for their time off from work. Yup. That's the case. But while Collin continued to be stuck at work for the Monday through Friday grind (and Saturday and Sunday in his particular case), Darian and I had a nice week of doing nearly nothing. It was grand.

But along the week, I came to realize that I'm totally getting behind on just about everything and I have messes nearly everywhere. So it's time for some reorganization of me. Yup...me. I kind of go willy nilly with my time and have difficulty keeping focus on tasks at hand with regularity. So I need to buckle myself down a bit.

I'll be breaking it up into a few posts, starting with this one. After today's post, I'll also be reorganizing my weekly schedule (including chores and hobby time), reorganizing some pieces of the house, and doing some purging. Right now I'm planning on at least four posts, but that could grow. We shall see. The posts won't necessarily be back-to-back, but the reorganization bug has hit...so plan on reorganizing posts in some capacity for the remainder of the month.

Ready to join me?


Feedly Purge

A little over a month ago, I mentioned that my blog feed had grown unbearably large and it was time to thin the herd. I just can't manage reading through 200 blog posts a day. It's not really feasible without totally losing all of my free time or not really paying attention to the posts at hand. And so, even though some pieces of me hurt to do it, it's time to rip of the band-aid and toss some blogs.

When I started the endeavor, I had 207 blogs in my reading list. I'm slightly embarrassed to admit that during this purge time, I actually added two blogs to my Feedly. I just. can't. help. myself.

The goal was to remove the blogs that I just don't read or those that have become inactive (because some haven't really posted for 6 months or more). Before the final purge began, I had already marked 64 blogs for saving (not including the 2 new blogs). These were not only the blogs that I read during the thirty days with regularity, but also that had posts that caught my interest in some way. There are no free rides in this stage of the game.

Now there were 143 blogs to evaluate.

Phase One...

Evaluate those who haven't posted in more than thirty days and determine which are likely dead and those who have moved on to another site that doesn't dump to my Feedly (i.e. broken links...because they totally happen). Save or eliminate the rest based on interest.

This is a pretty easy task. I simply click down my blog list in Feedly and it brings up each blog with the most recent post. If it's older than 30 days, visit the page, see if there's any notification of a move and then either delete or add the correct feed. If the blog is still active, evaluate if it's something I still want to read.

Stats after this phase:

79 blogs saved

4 blog links corrected

43 blogs eliminated

It's progress.

Phase Two...

This is where things start to get difficult. Now that I've taken care of those who haven't posted in over 30 days, it's time to evaluate those blogs who did post within the 30 days that I've been evaluating.

It's time to get brutal. Now it's "cake or death" time. I need to start being honest about the situation. If a blog really isn't jiving for me and isn't really catching my interests, then it has to go. It doesn't mean it's a bad blog, it just means that it's not my style anymore. This is the final gauntlet. After this, the trauma is all over and the final count is ready to roll forward.

To do this, I visited the blog pages for all blogs that haven't yet been saved or eliminated. This means 89 blogs to evaluate, one at a time. Let me tell you, that's a long time. It can be easy to get distracted (not that that would ever happen with me...). Thank goodness I only do this every year or so. I just have to keep reminding myself that it's a long one, but it will be worth it. The feed will be cleaned up, streamlined, and hopefully less daunting.

Final stats:

136 blogs saved (including 2 new blogs added during this process)

73 blogs eliminated

About the Eliminated Blogs...

I will admit that I am a little bit of a hoarder with some things. Blogs apparently is one of them. Out of the 73 blogs that I eliminated, there were a handful of blogs (5-7) that I really had a hard time letting go. So why did I eliminate them? These were blogs that have obviously died. The writers haven't posted for at least a year (in some cases nearly two years) and show no signs of returning. But I loved those blogs so much that it hurt to say goodbye...even though they had disappeared long ago.

Of the remaining 73 blogs, there were a few traits that I found made me lower the blade a little quicker. This became a nice little lesson for me in things I want to make sure I don't do with my own blog. First off...truncated posts in the Feedly feed. I get it, you want to protect your content, blah, blah, blah, but there are other ways to help this and this honestly really irritates me. 

You want to truncate your posts on your homepage? Sure. Fine. I'm totally cool with that. It makes sense to me that you want potential readers to be able to see a lot of samples when they pop over to your page browsing. But when you have regular readers who also have a large handful of other blogs they read, clicking over to another page everytime they want to read one of your posts is totally annoying. This frustration is increased in the case where the post does not have a photo header for the item it is about. Picky? Yes. Honest? Of course. I'm being somewhat brutal here, but I hope that this will serve to help other blogger see what things can turn off a reader.

That being said, there are a few blogs that I have been reading for a long time that I adore and don't mind clicking over for once in a while. I left them in my Feedly because their content is totally worth it, but I still do find myself mildly irritated.

The next thing that turned me off on a blog most often was very inconsistent posting. Now I'm not talking about the case where you took a week off on vacation and didn't post for ten days. I'm talking about those blogs that did a post in October, another couple in January, and then maybe showed up again in March and May. That's too infrequent for me to stay interested. I need to see you posting at least a couple of times each month. I'd probably even give you a free pass if you only made it onto the blog once a month if I love your content. I get that people have lives (I sometimes have one too), but if you want readers, there has to be a little consistency...and frequency.

Because I use Feedly, blog design, hosting choice, font choice, color of page/text, and all that design stuff didn't matter. That evened the playing field pretty well. If you're a frequent blog reader and don't already do so, you need to find a reader for yourself. I like Feedly, but I've heard that Bloglovin' is pretty good as well. There are other choices out there, I just know literally nothing about them. Whatever works for you. Just find something that will help streamline the job for you. 

Additionally, since you're going to be using a reader, give bloggers a break. Some like more color on their pages than others, some have overly crowded sidebars or their menus are in odd places. Whatever. This really shouldn't matter. Look for the content. This is what will be seen in your reader anyway. If you like the content, read them. Don't let silly design choices take you away from someone who has a real talent.

Reflection...

Now that it's all said and done, I'm really glad I took the time to do this. It took a LOT longer than I thought it would, but I think it will save me a lot of time when it comes to reading blogs and I won't feel so overwhelmed or start to feel burnt out (which was a real possibility there for a bit). The other nice thing is that it will allow me to feel like I have the time to pop over and comment more often. As a blogger who loves comments, this will be a good thing. A little spring (or summer) blog cleaning can be good for the soul.

Just a Little Updating...

It's been a different few days and I kind of blew off Summary Sunday. Oops. The good news is that most of the "different" was a good thing. So in lieu of a Summary Sunday (since it's obviously a little late for that), today's post is just going to be a loosely organized update of sorts. That's a semi-fancy way of saying that I'm going to be rambling. Better that than nothing, right? Hopefully?


Where I've Been:

Last week I was home all alone for a small string of days. I spent that time getting a double case of pinkeye, watching episodes of House, wishing I had something more interesting than pinkeye, trying to keep my contagious mess to myself, and cursing the fact that I couldn't wear my contacts. I also managed to avoid cooking a single meal for five solid days. Amazing. Sometimes it's nice living like a college student for a while. (I'm also proud to say that I survived the week without resorting to eating Ramen noodles.)

Instead of hanging out here in the blogosphere, I spent my weekend hanging out with the newly returned home Collin. He'd been spending his week in a couple of small towns on the Nebraska/Colorado border teaching a specialized first aid course to a bunch of wind farm workers. It's a seriously crazy job. He always brings home awesome GoPro footage from the tops of those ridiculously huge and tall windmills.

We spent two days doing little more than watching a lot of Netflix. We finally finished off Rescue Me. That only took us about seven years. We're also caught up on House of Cards and just a few episodes shy of finishing off Weeds. Super productive weekend, let me tell you. But it was SO nice...and SO needed.


What I've Been Up To:

For the last couple of days, I've been spending my free time working on a memory quilt. It's a custom order project for a local lady who has a young daughter with an upcoming birthday. She's asked me to piece together her daughter's clothing (and a few blankets) from birth to age 2. I've been cutting and squaring fabric for the last couple of days and should be able to get the front side layout figured out by tomorrow evening. It's been a fun project so far and I think it should turn out pretty darned cute. It needs to be finished by the 19th, but I'm fairly certain I'll be finished with it with a handful of days to spare. I'll be checking with her, but I should be able to put pictures of it up here on the blog when I'm all done. It's nice to have a good creative project.

What else? Let's see... I finished another superhero cape...this one for Abigail. I still need to put the letters on it and make the "M" emblems for Marley's. (Marley informed Nana - my mother - that she could't very well have a superhero cape if it didn't have her "m" on it. Duh. Silly Auntie.) I organized my felt stash onto the baker's rack in the crop room and I'm currently working on moving in some desks from the storage unit to help me revamp the rest of the room. We'll see what happens with that.


What I've Slacked Off On:

I have totally fallen behind on reading. That's what happens when I craft. One hobby gets temporarily ditched for another. The good news is that I have vacation next week and will have some increased time available for reading. The bad news is that I'm supposed to be reading The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand...which is nearly 700 pages long. I'm not super excited. I'm also a week behind on my Deal Me In challenge because of this darned book. I may spread out my reading time on the other four, yes four books on my currently reading shelf. I also have five library books that need read before the 7th (there may be a few renewals) and a book loaned to me by Patti that needs to make it into rotation soon. I'm slightly drowning in books at the moment.


What I'll Be Up to Over the Next Few Days:

The quilt work will continue, but I'll be wandering away from that project here and there to keep myself from burning out. We'll be doing 4th of July with the family and then having a belated birthday party for Darian (who turned 12 last week) on Saturday. I will hopefully be making some progress on the crop room and my reading.

I'm going to be deciding how exactly I want to tackle this month's blog theme of vacation. I have a few things jotted down, but I'm mildly flying by the seat of my pants. I'll be using my vacation week next week to work on a few projects for that as well as getting some darned hand puppets finished for the Etsy shop. Now that the felt has been wrangled, that task will be easier.

I'll be checking in again this week with a (hopefully) more organized post. For now, I'm headed to edit/update my challenge pages for progress and then maybe wrap up the evening with a little bit of reading. Most likely not from The Fountainhead.

I hope you're all having a great start to your July!

I Was Nominated for a Liebster Award!

A couple of weeks ago, I received a comment from the lovely Alix over at Kreativ77. (Go check out the stuff she and Chelsea manage to come up with over there. It's pretty darned good.) She was nice enough to nominate me for a Liebster Award. I was actually initiallly nominated for this award a couple of years back, but things have severely changed over here at EPJ since then, so I jumped on the chance to accept her nomination. I had to delay posting it for a bit since I was wrapped up in my A to Z challenge, but now the time has come.

Checking In...To Give You Some Things to Check Out

So...I have good news and I have bad news...

The good news is that I have been totally crafting up a storm. The bad news? You don't get to see any of it yet. I've been working on a pile of projects in preparation for my wedding next month. Holy crap...seriously...NEXT month. I have so much to do!

I've been traveling the internets in search of good ideas and have come across more than I bargained for. In addition to finding great DIY ideas and other genius for my wedding, I've come across some good books, some great blogs, and learned that you can totally spend all of your time finding wedding ideas on Pinterest instead of actually getting your projects done. Beware.

I decided that the least I could do is to share some awesome things that I've come across over the last couple of months. Because we should all try new things and enjoy them.

Ready for randomness? Because my wedding will be on the 13th of September (and because 25 turned out to be far too much work), here are:

13 New Things

1. ReStore

Do you have one of these? Because seriously...awesome. ReStore is quite possibly a DIYer's heaven.

What is ReStore? Well...direct from their website:

"Habitat for Humanity ReStores are nonprofit home improvement stores and donation centers that sell new and gently used furniture, home accessories, building materials, and appliances to the public at a fraction of the retail price.  Habitat for Humanity ReStores are proudly owned and operated by local Habitat for Humanity affiliates, and proceeds are used to build homes, community, and hope locally and around the world."

What does it mean for you? Well...if you're like me, it means a cart full of random wood pieces, some tile and supplies for projects that will totally keep me in craft heaven for a while. And all for $25!

2. Ben & Jerry's Stephen Colbert's AmeriCone Dream

.

Okay...umm...yum. Collin brought this home for me the other night while I was in the midst of invitation creation. It is fantastic! I could totally go for a diet solely of this product. Mmm...

3. - 11. New Blogs!

I am a connoisseur of blogs. I love them. I love reading the brilliance that comes out of the minds of others. Sometimes it's a bad thing...as I frequently end up with hundreds of unread blog posts in my Feedly (which BTW is my blog reader of choice since Google Reader went adios). Most of the time though, it's just awesome. I find new ideas, new crafts to try, new recipes to make, and new books to read.

If you're on the lookout for some awesome blogs to read, I keep a blog roll of my favorites over there. -->

To make things even easier though, here are a few that I have come across in the last couple of months thanks to the Summer Lovin Read-a-Thon and the search feature on Pinterest.

There Were Books Involved

Tumbling Books

Vintage Revivals

Diary of a Crafty Lady

So You Think You're Crafty

Bibliophile Sisters

Disquietus

and most recently...thanks to her posting of a comment right here on my own blog...

Confessions of a Bibliophilic, Craft Novice, Nursing Student

All of these bloggers have great ideas and great are super fun to read. Creative minds. Ah, I love them.

12. A Hilarious Video

Last week I went to a conference for work. Yup...snooze... But the presenter for my pharmacology lecture was not too shabby and had a pretty good sense of humor. The best part of the day? He played this video for us...I felt the need to share...

13. New Job Opportunities

Are you looking for a new occupation possibility? I have recently discovered a career path I didn't think existed. It's only right that I share my enlightenment with you.

In case you're confused at what you're seeing...yup...it says "certified equine massage therapist"...as in horse. So, if you're looking to have a romantic evening with your pony, maybe you can go ahead and schedule up a nice couple's massage.

Hope you found a few good things in here. At very least go check out one of those fun blogs. As for me, I'm off to have a nice snack of AmeriCone Dream (which I found tucked in the freezer this morning -- Collin must have picked me up some more at some point). Ta ta!

A Little 'Splainin to Do

I figured I should write a quick note to let those of you who read my blog know that I'm still around. I know I've been MIA for a couple of weeks, but I promise I'll come back.

This week was Spring Break and I had planned to use my whole week off of work building up a supply of product for my new Etsy shop as well as doing some tutorial posts. Well...as usual, life got in the way. I am dealing with some rather stressful and time-consuming issues at the office, so I haven't really had the free time or the energy that I had planned.

The good news is...I'm finally official! I received all of the paperwork needed for my DBA and so the Etsy shop can now really open. Once I get a few things made, we'll be ready to roll. I'm really looking forward to that.

It's looking like I'll most likely be fairly tied up for the next two weeks. I'm going to try to get up at least one post next week just so this blog doesn't look so darned dead. I have things to write! I have projects to share! One of these days life will return to (semi)normal and I'll be able to be back at it again.

So...hang in there for me. I hope to be back soon.

A Little Nerd Math

A couple of weeks ago, I read a post over at Padded Cell Confessions. I've been reading Maggie's posts for a while and she's always quite entertaining. It seems that she and her husband had been having a discussion on how many guinea pigs it would take to haul a person in a cart. 

Well...I'm one of those oddballs that thinks about strange things when I really should be sleeping. So...of course I was contemplating Maggie's guinea pig situation. I decided that I needed to solve the problem using math and physics. 

Now...keep in mind that it's been double digit years since I've taken either physics or math...so bear with me. I had originally posted the following comment on Maggie's post:

"I am in agreement with the more than 100 comment. I think they're pretty wimpy. Most of the ones I've seen don't do much more than lay around and stare at things."

Well...it turns out that guinea pigs are a lot stronger and faster than I gave them credit for.  However, they also apparently have really crummy back structure. One website suggested that you can train your guinea pig, but that you shouldn't train it to "play dead" as the shift in weight can cause damage to the spine. So...the mathematical answer is probably just a bunch of hooey, as there are really a lot of other factors at play. As my brother stated, they would probably run in different directions. You'd have to hook them up reindeer style.

But...let's take a look at my math and go from there...

For the sake of this argument, the guinea pigs will be pulling three different shopping carts, on concrete. The first cart will contain a 70 lb. child, the second a 130 lb. woman, and the third a 185lb. man. An average shopping cart weighs 40 lb.

So...the basic physics formula at work here is: force = mass * acceleration. If you figure out how much force each guinea pig can generate as well as how much force would be needed to move the cart, then you should be able to figure out how many guinea pigs you need.

The average male guinea pig weighs 3 pounds, females weigh an average of 2 pounds. So I figured on a mix and put the average weight at 2.5 pounds. Of course, everything needs to be completed in metric, so this is equivalent to 1.14 kilograms. Tada! Mass solved.

The tricky part is the acceleration. And this, honestly, is where I may have gone wrong. If we have any guinea pig experts out there who know the average acceleration rate of a guinea pig, I'd be happy to redo the math...but this is how I figured out my estimated acceleration:

According to the interwebs, the average domesticated guinea pig can run at a rate of 19.5 mph for long distances. However, apparently they have clocked "wild" guinea pigs at a rate of 41.16 mph (for up to 8-15 sec). I took these two numbers to guesstimate that a guinea pig could reach a speed of 30 mph in 15 seconds. This gives an acceleration rate (using change in velocity over change in time) of 2 mph/sec. Convert this to metric again, and you get 0.894 meters/second/second (no...i don't know how to get superscript on here...let it go).

Using this rate of acceleration and the mass calculated earlier, this means that every guinea pig should be able to generate a force of 1.019 Newtons.

Now...obviously, pulling a shopping cart with smooth wheels on a smooth surface will be easier than pulling say a wooden wheeled cart on sand. So...we need to use a coefficient to accommodate for the different friction present in the situation. Since we're dealing with wheels, we're using a rolling resistance coefficient for hard rubber wheels on concrete...a value of 0.01.

Using this coefficient, as well as the force of gravity holding each object to the ground, I calculated the force required to move these objects from rest. Based on that answer, I then divided by the force calculated for a guinea pig. Obviously, partial guinea pigs will not be helpful here (unless we're dealing with zombie guinea pigs), so I rounded up from the devised answer.

So...according to this math, it will take 5 guinea pigs to pull a child, 8 guinea pigs to pull a woman, and 10 guinea pigs to pull the adult male.

Honestly, I'm still not sure I agree with this. But...the other answer I came up with doing it a different way required over 1500 guinea pigs...which seemed rather excessive. So, I'm waiting on that guinea pig expert. Does anyone know how fast a guinea pig can accelerate or much weight a single guinea pig can pull? I don't feel like performing this experiment in real life. (Though I'm sure there is probably some fraternity somewhere that has tried it.)

A Bit of a Smorgasbord Sunday - Preview for the Remainder of 2012

No finished projects for today, but we were super busy around here. In fact, Collin helped me work on four different projects. Three Halloween projects and one little girl birthday present. He was extremely helpful and I feel like we got a lot accomplished.

But...I can't share any pictures just yet or even let you know what I'm working on. Such a sad situation. But I love a surprise.

I am somewhat sad to admit that one of the projects should've been finished last week. And I'm even more embarrassed to admit that it would've been done a few days ago, had I not been an idiot. Ya...kind of overlooked the need to sand a piece of wood before progressing with the rest of the project. I went to peel of the stencil that would leave the project 100% complete...and...peeled up both layers of paint with it. Son of a...

I also recognized one other slip up today. Apparently, when I was counting the pumpkins that we needed by going through my sketch book...I overlooked a page. Oops. We are currently five pumpkins short. Crap. So I'll be going back out tomorrow and grabbing five more. So stupid. Honestly. I think I even double counted. Dumb.

Also on the agenda for tomorrow...dog food. Ya...we kind of forgot to get some yesterday and I didn't remember until a couple of hours ago. In the meantime, our dogs have been wildly spoiled with chicken, tuna, rice & egg. They're currently thanking me by wildly barking in the yard and annoying the neighbors. Ugh.

So...so much for my day off tomorrow. I'll be shopping and working on projects. I really was planning on reading for most of the day so that I could do some freaking catching up. I'm about ten books behind for my Book of the Year goal. Nothing like being consistently behind. And since I brought that up...a little preview for the rest of the year...

The rest of October will more or less dedicated to Halloween crafts and pumpkins, pumpkins, pumpkins. (I will have you know that I actually first wrote "the rest of Halloween will..." It's pretty much all that's on my mind right now). I'll be working on sketches on the pumpkins during the week...potentially giving a few sneak peeks...and then gutting starts Friday afternoon, with yard assembly starting on Saturday and actual carving beginning either Saturday or Sunday. It's going to be nuts for the next ten days. Seriously...nuts.

Once the pumpkin extravaganza is all over and done with, November is all about the books. I'm behind on book reviews by...oh...SEVENTEEN. That's horrible. So I'll be putting through about three to four reviews a week. Continue the craziness. As a reminder, the goal is 64 books for the year, with my 2012 Book of the Year to be revealed in January 2013. There are some pretty good contenders so far.

While all that good stuff is going on...I'll be putting up the 2012 Christmas Project Countdown in about two weeks. The plan is currently being developed. I'll be checking off the gifts as I finish them, just like I did last year. I won't be revealing any of those projects until next year, but I will be putting up some tutorials for gifts I made last year during the month of December. Two words: sock. monkeys. You're welcome.

Wow. How was that for rambling? That's pretty much how I've been all day. In about eight thousand places at once. And now...back at it. Happy Sunday!!

Take Me Out Tonight... Part 2 of 3

Every couple needs some time together. But sometimes coming up with new and fresh ideas is difficult. If you're anything like me and Collin, you end up in a round of "I don't know...what do you want to do?". Ugh...I find that terribly annoying.

So...I came up with the idea of the date box.

In part one, I gave you 160 ideas for some fun (and maybe kind of quirky) ideas for a few good date nights. This time, I'm going to show you my pretty little container. We all need something pretty.

Don't worry though...I kept it in man-friendly colors. We both have to be happy with it, right? I'm so thoughtful and nice.

I started with something kind of boring, but still something that I love...

Yep, it's just a shoe box. But this is one of my favorite shoe boxes. Why? Because the shoes that came in this box are A-W-E-S-O-M-E. They are probably the most comfortable shoes I've ever worn. I love them.

See...cute, right? You need these shoes. Seriously. They're comfortable, they're pretty decent for easy hiking and they are awesome in water. (I wore them when we went to the beach on our summer vacation and they did great for climbing around the tide pools.) Even better? They're not that expensive. I found mine on sale for around $20. I love a good deal.

I may have gotten a bit off track there. How about we go back to the task at hand?

So...I took my freakin' wicked shoe box and measured out some patterned paper to fit. I started out by using my ModPodge to adhere the paper to the box, but it really just irritated me. The edges wanted to fold up all over the place. I wound up bust out good ol' reliable, Elmer's glue. Hey...if it's good enough for the judges on Craft Wars to praise, it's good enough for me.

It was a multiple stage process that required a lot of patience. I'm bad at patience. I glued in about five stages. First was just getting the paper on each side. Some of my measurements weren't uber precise, but I had some plans...

Once the paper was on, it was time to do a little embellishing. I added the decorative strips across the bottom and the lid. Next, I went to work bending the corners in and adhering some fat blue ribbon from my scrap stash. I love it when trash becomes treasure.

Opening and closing the lid seemed to be causing some issues at this point and the paper was bending on itself, so I trimmed the paper with an X-Acto knife and instead lined the back seam with some embroidery floss. It's not perfect, but it does allow a little more flexibility in the open/close without revealing too much of the cardboard underneath.

Last, but not least...it wouldn't be a project without a little OCD...everything needs a label. I busted out the Pazzle and cut myself some letters from blue cardstock. I adhered them using my Xyron and then fancified it all with a nice coat of glossy ModPodge.

It's not super fancy, but I like it. Even better, I like the wonderful things that it will hold...stay tuned for part three, where I show you the individual cards and the final project all put together.

This post is part of my 31 Days of Creative Crafting series. Click here to see part 1 of "Take Me Out Tonight" and get 160 ideas for your own date night.

This Isn't Really a Post...It's More of a Chat

So...I just feel like talking today. We should have a little chat. But...I think mostly I'll just chat...okay, it'll be all me. Does that make me sound conceited? Because, to be honest, I'm not sure I'm bothered by that.

I haven't been blogging much lately and it's really been for a few rather large reasons.

Number one...I haven't felt like it. Oy...that's horrible, right? But...I find that my craftiness comes in waves. Sometimes my energy is just devoted to other things. I will make this sound slightly better by informing you that the scrapbook room is a disaster with the progress of a current project...one I hope to have finished by this weekend. So at least I'm doing something.

Number two...I haven't really been the most chipper girl. I'm dealing with a lot of personal junk right now and the stress levels are high. Because of that I've really just been in a crummy, self-absorbed mood. And my rule of thumb is that if I can't say something nice then I won't say anything at all. No one comes to a blog to get more depressed. Ugh. So I've been quietly keeping to myself instead...but it's okay...I'm bouncing back.

Number three...I have been attacking the office policy manual. This has to be the most draining activity ever. We have an employee policy and general procedure manual that is freaking huge. It details the steps of everything that needs done around here. But...it hasn't been revised in 5 years and some things have been changed. Plus, the way it's organized right now there are a lot of policies that get repeated in a bunch of sections. Super annoying. So I've been trudging through it, rewriting as I go. Out of the 14 sections that I need to complete, I'm on number 3. That sounds kind of daunting. Maybe I should say it like this...Out of the 14 sections that I need to complete, I'm on number 3!! There...see...I've accomplished something and I'm proud of it.

So there you go. Those are my excuses. But I'm coming around. I think I'll be back on task here shortly...I am currently being heavily distracted by the Olympics, I won't lie. Plus, I have a pile of fun recipes ready to give you and some book reviews. (I discovered the other day that I am currently 9 books behind for my year's goal...I need to get cracking.)

And...for those of you who have read through all of this blah, blah, blah. I have a surprising new development. I was on my way home for lunch yesterday and saw...a sign...in the neighbor's yard. I'm not sure whether to be shocked, sad or ecstatic, but it would appear that crazy neighbor is moving. I'll miss his antics - he was out swearing at the car a couple of days ago...again - and I'm kind of nervous to see who we'll have moving in, but...it will be super nice to sleep in on a Saturday morning without power washing and cursing at 6am.

Alrighty then, I have sufficiently talked your ear off. Back to the grind. Let's get some things done! Onward and upward.

Every Day Should Be Vacation

Well, my hiatus is officially over. I went back to work today. It was really nice to have a pile of days when I didn't have to do a darned thing.

We took an RV trip as a family and more or less toured Oregon. We hit up a pile of museums, saw the ocean, the Redwoods and Crater Lake, and visited a super cool animal safari.

I am currently uploading my 1425 photos...no joke. Maybe I'll share a few later on this week.

The relaxation does still continue somewhat. I have to go to work, but my duties at home have been lightened. Darian is spending a couple of weeks with Grandma Carole. It's nice to come home and fix dinner whenever I darned well feel like it. (And I don't have to share the Wii.)

I was really hoping that my pictures would download super fast while I was typing this so that I could at least share a couple. Umm...nope. It's currently at picture 283. The computer might need a little "me" time.

An update on the 4 month meal plan...I am sailing along. In fact, I have "added" an extra two weeks' worth of meals since I am apparently a horrible estimator of how much we will have in leftovers. Our fridge is constantly stuffed. So...I've frozen some veggies and moved a few things out until the end. (I am experimenting with some of the freezing, so I may give out some tips on that in the next couple of months.)

At the current rate, our 4 month meal plan will end up extending through most of November. (That's six months!!)

There have been some casualties. I've learned that I got too greedy on my produce and didn't space out the purchasing enough. I have lost a few tomatoes, pieces of green peppers, an avocado and some green onions. I figure it's about $5-7 in lost produce this far. Drat. But hey...I'm learning. Next time I'll be a total rock star at this.

Well...I've blathered on as much as possible, but the photo uploading isn't even at 50% yet. So...I guess I'll save that for another day. Now...I'm off to play Zelda. With the kiddo gone it's all mine.

Oh! I almost forgot. There was a bit of a catastrophe a few days before we left. I got sick of my dirty dishwater blonde and decided to dye my hair. Collin has worked for years to get me to dye my hair black. I finally relented. But...the black I bought was actually violet black. I decided I wanted a little shiny tint. Uh...ya...I got a LOT of shiny tint. Apparently my hair decided that the black portion of the dye should be omitted. And so...purple hair. Seriously. There was panic.

The color has now tamed down slightly - I'm now at kind of a dark reddish brown - but it's still not what I would consider "normal". I'm not sure what I want to do next though...so I guess it will stay this way for a while. I'm debating on a major cut.

And now...for your viewing pleasure...purple hair. (The picture was taken with my iPhone and then posted to Facebook, so it's not the hottest quality. But...you get the gist.)

Summary Sunday: Prepping Edition

BIG post coming tomorrow. The big shopping trip has been completed and I'm going to share all of the details with you. Because I'm saving all the info for tomorrow, today's post will be somewhat short. (And by short I apparently mean kind of normal sized. Geez.)

This week was hectic as usual, with Collin working weird hours and Darian having three days of field trips. (I'm going to let him do a post about his trips next week, but I haven't told him that yet.) I spent the majority of the week prepping for the shopping trip as well as the shopping trip aftermath. This evening I also managed to repair our dryer and located the problem with our washer...which I'm hoping will be a cheap fix.

Now on with the other stuff I did...

Posts I Posted: With all my time being used up, it was a quiet week on the blog. But...I did share a review of the best book ever by the woman who has become my girl crush. I also finally got around to showing another week of Project Life...a project which is haunting me from the corner of the scrapbook room. The guilt of being behind is killing me.

Books I Read: I finished reading The Hypnotist's Love Story by Liane Moriarty and will be reviewing it soon. I have to say, it surprised me. I am now reading East of Denver by Gregory Hill. Both of these books were Goodreads wins.

Recipes I Tried: I did some crazy work with croissants this week that I'll be sharing in a few days. I don't know why I didn't think of it earlier!

Projects I Finished: I fixed the flipping dryer people! It has been getting worse and worse, taking more and more cycles to get our clothes dry. Collin and I pulled it apart once before to try and repair it, but my hand couldn't reach far enough in the vent to pull out what we assumed was a lint blockage. Carole sent us a brush kit a couple of months ago and I kept asking Collin to help me...but he's rarely home. Tonight Darian informed me that he had NO pants for school tomorrow. Apparently half of his jeans are missing. What the crap?!? I knew I didn't have time to deal with our crap dryer so I pulled it out, took it apart from both inside and outside and cleaned the vent from both directions. Voila! I just pulled out a dry load of jeans after ONE cycle. I'm pretty proud of myself right now.

And that's it. That's all you get. Well...that and this...

I saw these yesterday while Darian and I were at Target. I was sorely tempted to buy them. Now normally I'm pretty boring and conservative about my clothes - nothing too flashy. But these spoke to me. I tried them on with my jeans. So much fun. I think they just might be on my wishlist.

2012 BOTY: Girls in White Dresses by Jennifer Close

Source

There are some books that I am super excited to get to read and then I just can't put them down once I start. This was not one of those books. This book was...how do I say this...blah...blah...blah. I was excited to read it. In fact, I'd been trying to get my hands on it for a while. But it turned out to be one of those books where I seriously question how in the world it got so popular. 

Girls in White Dresses by Jennifer Close follows the lives of a group of friends as they go through years of watching their friends get married. Oh so many weddings....and oh so many girls. That's pretty much it. Seriously...I think I just summed up the entire book for you. You're welcome.

On Goodreads, this book is described as "wickedly hilarious". Someone seriously needs a shot of fun in their life if they found this wickedly hilarious. This was dry toast. I just had to check to see if the author was from England to make sure I wasn't missing some dry British humor. Nope. She's from Chicago. She might need some friends who are not shut-ins or Amish to help her discover what a good time really is.

I didn't give up on this book because - honestly - I kept thinking it would get better. I kept holding out for that moment when it would improve. It would start heading in the right direction and then...blah...all over again.

Here is an excerpt of my texts to Patti while reading this book. I think it will give you a pretty good idea. (Don't judge my grammar people, they're texts) :

"I'm just sitting on the couch reading possibly the most boring book ever."

"I've been excited to read it. But I'm on page 32 and so far it's a snore fest."

"I'm just trying to figure out why so many people are reading it when no one that I've heard from has even liked it."

"Every time this book starts to redeem itself it goes back to crap. Ugh. The boredom..."

At this point, Patti interjects with, "Why do you torture yourself?" My response: "I'm going to finish it. It's nowhere near as bad as the one I quit." You may recall the incident of Notes from a Small Island. 

"It reads fast...its one redeeming characteristic."

and finally... "Torture over. Next book..."

And there you have it. I rest my case. I'm sure you won't be surprised to hear that I rated this one fairly low. Girls in White Dresses gets 2 out of 5 stars. (Yes...you were right, Erin...)

Now please tell me my post wasn't as boring as the book...

Please Don't Make Your Child Afraid Of Me

I don't typically write about work on the blog. In fact, I rather like to keep it separate from what I consider to be my "fun". But...there have been some experiences at the office lately that have made me realize that maybe a little Public Service Announcement is in order to help some clueless parents wake up. The basic premise of this post - think before you speak and follow the golden rule (you know, do unto others as you would have done unto you).

In my practice I see a lot of kids. A LOT. I would say nearly 80% of my day is filled with patients under the age of twelve. I enjoy that. Kids are usually a really fun part of my day. What I don't enjoy is when an ignorant parent ruins the child's experience with me before it even gets started, making it more difficult on everyone involved.

Nearly every child has some form of an innate fear of or nervousness around medical professionals. That's just the way it is. Things are foreign and scary. I expect that. But that small level of fear is typically easy to work through by building a little trust. In our office, we call this tell, show, do. Basically I tell the child what I'm going to do, show them what I'm going to use (sometimes demonstrating on my hand or theirs) and then we actually move forward with the procedure. This takes away a lot of the unknown and a good majority of kids learn quickly that we are there to help them and that sometimes it can even be fun to go to the dentist.

But...then there are the other, let's say 10%. These children are ruined for me. I will never gain their trust. I will never be able to work on them with everyone in the room being calm and comfortable. In fact, I may not be able to work on them at all. I may have to refer them for sedation dentistry or it may take me years to get them to trust me enough to even lay back in the chair. Why? Because these children have parents who have increased their fear and made the dental office a bad place to be.

There are three typical scenarios for this problem :

1. Mom or Dad had a bad experience as a kid or is phobic as an adult - and they share this with the child.

Okay...you had a rough time at a prior visit. Maybe you couldn't stay numb. Maybe you had a tooth that was in a lot of pain before getting worked on. There are unfortunate bad experiences out there. But please don't poison your child's idea of what it will be like.

Don't tell them "when Mommy was little it really hurt to go to the dentist and he/she was really mean." Really? Your kids trust you. They're going to believe you over me. If you're telling them that dentists are mean before they even meet me, what are the chances they even want to let me lay a finger on them? I'll tell you: slim to none.

2. Parents threaten their child with a trip to the dentist if they don't brush their teeth.

Please, please don't threaten your children in order to improve their oral hygiene. Don't tell them that if they don't brush they'll have to go to the dentist and get a shot. Are you kidding me? How would you react if someone said that to you? Imagine going in to see a physician for some ailment that needs treatment via surgery. What if the physician said to you "this procedure is really going to hurt - a lot. You're going to be totally miserable and I'm going to be really mean to you"? Would you want the surgery done? Of course not! You'd be reluctant and nervous.

THIS is what happens when you threaten your child. If you want to motivate your child to do a good job on their oral hygiene, help them, teach them and reward them. (All children under the age of seven need some assistance from adult. Some children will need help or "checking" into their preteen years.) Teach your child why it is important to have good oral hygiene. Let them know that leaving food on their teeth can let tooth bugs make holes and that once the bugs have made those holes, the tooth won't heal itself. It will be broken. Let them know that they need those teeth for many years to eat all the foods they love and they have to keep them safe. Don't threaten them with a painful procedure.

3. Children are incorrectly prepared for having treatment.

If I diagnose a cavity and you tell them on the car ride home that they're going to get a shot and it's really going to hurt, it no longer matters what else you or I have to say. All they have in their little heads is that the next time they set foot in my door, I'm going to hurt them.

I am not sadistic. I do not get pleasure out of torturing my poor little patients. I do not relish in their pain. Quite the opposite actually. The philosophy of my office is to never force a child to do something they don't want to do. The very rare exception to this rule is if I am involved in the procedure to a point where leaving things as is will cause them harm. At that point, we have to finish. But if we're seeing a patient for a cleaning and they are terrified of leaning back in the chair, we work with that. There is not force, there is no threatening. There is only reward. Positive reinforcement is the way to go. If a patient is a helper for me and we finish what we have planned, then they get to pick a prize. Most of my patients love that. The prize is a good motivator. Help me by doing the same. Use praise, not fear. If a child does get a cavity, it's not the end of the world. We'll fix it. They just have to work harder on keeping their teeth clean next time. Healthy teeth are happy teeth.

The key to keeping your child from being afraid of the dentist (or other medical professionals) is to talk on their level. If you're going to talk to them about a procedure, use what we call "soft language". Sure, you can prepare your kid for their filling appointment. But tell them that we're going to give their tooth some sleepy juice or that we're going to give it medicine to make it numb. Think before you speak. Don't say we're going to use a needle to give them a shot. Honestly, when I hear this come out of a parent's mouth, I just want to smack them across the face. Thanks. You've now managed to ruin the appointment for your child, my assistant or hygienist, and myself. We have done this hundreds of times. We know what we're doing. Trust us when we tell you how to approach these things.

Bottom line - do you want your kid to be happy or terrified? The majority of the outcome is up to you. Is there the possibility of a bad experience? Of course. Unfortunately they do happen. Are there still going to be some children terrified of the dentist even if the parents have done everything right? Yes. This does happen and sometimes it is very hard to work through.

I can't speak for all other providers, but I know that in my office we work very hard to prevent bad experiences. We listen to the child. We let them guide us in what we can do. We involve them, we teach them and we encourage them. The end goal for me is always a patient who will have a lifetime of good oral hygiene and good dental experiences. Having happy kids in my chair is what really makes my day worthwhile. There's nothing better than going to get a six-year-old from the waiting room and having them yell for everyone to hear "I love the dentist!" (And yes, this has happened.)

Time Out.

After a week of crazy project creation, I'm taking a break. Picabo and I will be enjoying all of the blog posts that I missed last week and then I'll be finally finishing up Mercy. This darned project thing put me three books behind so I need to get back on it.

But...don't worry...I'll be back tomorrow. I have another batch of projects that needs to be finished by Saturday. Get ready for another whirlwind week!

Sleepless in Seattle...well...SeaTac

So I'm really glad to be home. The last few weeks have been super tiring. After getting back I worked for a couple of days before heading off to Seattle. My little brother got married in Snoqualmie on the 6th. It was a cute wedding and Collin went with me. It was a fun but quick trip. Then came home and worked for one day before hopping on another plane for San Francisco. Another quick trip, but not as quick as we had hoped.

We flew into SFO on Monday night about midnight. Got our baggage and our rental car without a hitch and made it up to Marin county. After that...things started heading south. I had made reservations for us at the Sheraton...a hotel I had stayed at a few times before without problems. Turns out things weren't going to be as easy this time. The hotel is currently under construction so only a handful of rooms are even available. We had reserved a non-smoking king. We checked in, got a key and proceeded to our room. Turns out he gave us a double queen. Not what I wanted. So...we treked back to the front desk. A really long walk. We finally got back to the front desk and the concierge apologized and gave us keys for a new room. Again, a long trek back only to discover that the room had not been cleaned. Awesome. At this point I was perturbed, but tired. I just wanted a damn room. We took the keys back again and he apologized again. Then he informed us that the only other rooms he had were smoking. That pissed me off so I cancelled our reservation and we left. It took another hour of driving around until we found a hotel room at 2am in Corte Madera. Turned out okay because the hotel was nice and it was really close to the office we needed to meet at the next day, but was an exhausting thing. Needless to say my reservations will not be at Sheraton anymore.

So...the trip started going better for a while. It was exhausting, but we were doing okay...after all...we were together and we always have fun together. Wednesday afternoon we returned the rental car and went to the airport. We got there 2 hours early...seems that security at SFO is nice and streamlined. It took us no time to get to our gate. So we sat there for two hours until they boarded our plane.

Once on the plane the fun began. Turns out Seattle (our layover) had a freak snowstorm and they were deicing and plowing the runways. We sat on the tarmac at SFO for 45 minutes with engines shut down until we went back to the gate for refueling. At that point they had located another flight for me and Collin. We got off the plane only to find out that they couldn't get us our bags. So...we got back on. (Collin had accidentally packed the car keys) We finally got cleared to take off and headed toward Seattle. But...they put us in a holding pattern over Portland. We circled there for another 45 minutes until they cleared us to continue on to Seattle. We finally made it there...with snow still falling heavily...and sat on the SeaTac tarmac for another 45 minutes waiting for a gate. By this time I had called my employees to tell them to cancel patients for the next day. No way I was making it back for work the next day. We got into SeaTac at 11:30pm...a full 5 1/2 hours after boarding at SFO. Of course we had missed our connecting flight by this time, so we were booked for the next morning at 6:40am. Oh, and a million other flights had been delayed or cancelled, so all of the hotels were filled with other passengers. We had nowhere to stay. Awesome.

Luckily, there was one last restaurant open in the airport. Collin and I grabbed a bite to eat and a couple of beers each (in hindsight we should've drank more). Then we tried to find a place to spend the night. We wound up in a corner with Col on the floor and me on the bench. We were both wearing our coats and using airline blankets as pillows. Airport sleeping sucks. The lights are on all the time and every five minutes you get the little security announcement stuff. Then at 3am some buzzsaw decided to lay in the corner near us and disrupted what little sleep we were able to get. I wanted to punch him in the head.

Morning rolled around and we hit the Starbucks for a little jumpstart. Then we walked back to our gate to find that our 6:40 flight had been delayed until 7:30. That was great news. We sat and people watched for a nice long time until it got delayed again...to 7:45. Ultimately, the 8am flight to Santa Barbara boarded before we did and we finally got on the plane around 8:15am. So...instead of arriving back in town on midnight Wednesday, we actually got home at 11am on Thursday. Tons of fun. Really not a fan of SeaTac airport anymore and I don't think we'll be making any trips there soon.

So...here I sit in my super comfy sweatpants nice and happy to be home. It's nice to just kick back for a few days. Too bad I just have to go back to work...wouldn't a real vacation be nice. :)

Life is Beautiful

Okay...so like a lot of other things in my life this blog seems to have taken a backseat for the last couple of months. But rest assured...I'm still alive. Things have been very busy since I last wrote back in early November. I moved into my new office building on November 17th and am now piecing together my own little establishment. Even though I've ran my own business for the last two years, adding the building has created a whole new scheme of complications and headaches. I've lost staff, hired staff, fired staff...it's been interesting. But things move forward and I love my new space. As always, with work I do not play well with others...so being out on my own has been a welcome release. If the finances hold out this will be a wonderful little trip.

My personal life has been insane and great. I am still happy...just as I was in November. As a matter of fact...I'm very very happy. C...okay Collin...and I have been dating for a while now and we're living together. Our life is very complicated, but it's good. I never tire of him. We are together 90% of the time...basically apart only when he has to work. He's wonderful and loving and sexy and just plain fun. We're always laughing.

Oh..and correction from earlier...his eyes are blue, not green.

So Collin and I are still finding that we have a lot in common, even given the age difference and the different environments we had growing up. It's interesting that even though we've had completely different roads in life we've ended up together. He's the bad boy who likes to push the envelope and who knows himself inside and out. He's confident enough in himself to not really care what others think about him. He's realized that as long as he's happy in life that's what matters. And he says he's happy...so life is good. Me...I've always been the good girl. I've always done what everyone else expected of me. I've followed all the rules and done what the perfect child should do. But since the separation I've been inching away from that way of life. I feel like I'm completely freeing myself. I'm getting to know what I really like and dislike. I'm not the good girl all the time anymore, but I'm okay with that. I've probably disappointed a few people in the last six months or so, but I don't care...I'm very happy. I'm learning to be okay with me and I'm learning that it's okay to do what I want and what makes me happy...not what will make me look the best in the eyes of others.
So...in addition to Collin...I've also had other changes to my little household. Seems that when I started dating Collin I gained myself a little mini-family of sorts. Collin's son now stays with us on alternating weekends. He's a great kid and I really enjoy having him around. After spending three years in a loveless marriage trying to start a family that my ex-husband didn't seem to want, it's nice to feel like I have a little sense of home. And while Collin and I have no plans to make ourselves a larger family anytime soon, it's nice to know that I'm finally with someone who has that path in mind. He's a great dad...a very dedicated dad. I love that about him. Watching him be a father just gives me a whole new level of respect for him.

As I said earlier, I'm starting to become a new me. It's really quite fun. I spend a lot more time outside of my house and I feel like I'm actually living. Collin and I go out a few nights a week to hang out with friends or my brothers. I've learned to enjoy going to the bars rather than thinking it's a horrible waste of time. We don't go to get plastered...we go to socialize and it's a ton of fun. Collin has also got me snowmobiling. As a matter of fact, we bought a snowmobile for me for Christmas. We now try to go up to the mountains as much as we can to go sledding. I'm learning, but I'm awkward. Collin is a good teacher though and he makes me feel better about how retarded I am with the sleds. He used to be a racer for Polaris, so I'm sure I make his riding a little slower and more boring than it used to be, but he never complains. We actually just got back from a little vacation in Island Park tearing up the powder. I wimped out after a few hours each day, but Collin never made me feel guilty for bringing us back in. Like I said...we always have fun. He's great.

Anyway...enough of that. It gets you somewhat caught up and lets me feel like I'm not completely irresponsible with my little fledgling blog. Things will get better...I promise. And posts will get shorter...I promise.