Day 114: December 19, 2009

Quote of the Day: “You left, and my heart is a ceaseless sermon of loneliness.” ~Jaesse Tyler

You know, I am so irritated with my crazy cats that I could just throw them all out the window!  Last night before bed I got all those stupid squares cut out, and arranged them all nice and neat on the living room floor so that I could start sewing it together today.  Well, for some UNKNOWN REASON the cats all decided that they should practice the Indy 500 in the middle of the night or something! I got up this morning to find pieces scattered all over the living room!  I was so mad! So I took two hours to put it all back the way it was supposed to be, but then I had to leave the house for a little bit. And then, when I got back, I found that they had started on it AGAIN! GRR!!!!  So I re-did it again, then stacked the pieces in rows and had to iron them before I could even start on it.  I did manage to get two whole rows sewn tonight, though, after fixing my sewing machine from letting Damien use it.  Well, technically I did three, but I sewed the entire first row before I realized that a rag quilt isnt sewn the same way normal things are, and that you have to sew the pieces with the outsides facing each other.   So I'll have to completely undo that first row and start over on it.  But so far it seems like the sewing is going a lot faster than I expected. So there really is hope that I might be done with it by Monday!

And then, also today there's the fact that I realized I did a major boo-boo. I went to the USPS website after mailing Ron his packages to order boxes and customs forms delivered so that I could have them on hand to ship things to Ron, instead of having to make a trip to the post office to pick up boxes and then go back again to mail them. Well, I guess I didn’t read the fine print, because I ordered ten.  What I got was ten boxes, all right.... ten BOXES of ten boxes!!! LOL  So I guess I'll have plenty of boxes to ship things with, huh? Another total blond moment from Carmen.  Gee, it's starting to become a habit!

I did go this morning to my friend Sherrie's house this morning to take pictures of her and her family for their Christmas family photos.  We must have done about a hundred and fifty pictures! It was actually kind of fun, and the kids were all having a pretty good time. Well, until the little ones got tired, but for little ones they did really well. I can't imagine what it would be like to have young children, though, now that mine are grown.  It's been so long since I've had to have that much energy.  What am I going to do when it comes time for grandkids??? How will I ever keep up with them? I guess I'd better get in gear with getting in shape, so that I'll be able to keep up. Right?  Because heaven knows I've been tired all the time lately.  I can't imagine what it would be like to actually feel energetic again. I'll bet it would be wonderful!

Day 113: December 18, 2009

Quote of the Day:   "I hate being without you, because it’s so easy to be with you." –Gayle Lapekas

I watched a movie tonight that finally, finally was decent. After sitting in front of the television all day long cutting out fabric squares for the quilt and having to sit through one horrible, boring, irrelevant show after another, I finally had something decent to watch at 9 o'clock tonight.  Confessions of a Shopaholic.... it's a movie which I have repeatedly passed by at the movie store every time we go to rent movies, because it simply didn't sound all that great to me.  However, after watching it, I have to say it was a decent movie.  It was about this girl with a chronic shopping problem, and the troubles that it causes her.  And the ever-mounting debt. Of course, that really strikes home for me because I HATE having debt. And heaven knows we seem to have enough of it around here.  They say that the "average" American family has a credit balance of $50k, and that probably isn't too far off the mark. Everyone I know pretty much has one form of debt or another. Us included. And sometimes it feels like it is strangling you, even if you're always current on your payments.  And yes, they really do avoid telling you that the money you owe now you might finally pay off in sixty years if you only pay minimum payments and don't use the cards ever again, right? Or does that not really matter when most people seem utterly convinced that the world is going to end in 2012? You know, the same people who thought the world would end because of the Y2K thing. Hmm... hard to tell. Wonder if they'll let you into heaven if you have outstanding credit card debt? Or does that fall into the "greed", one of the seven deadly sins? Just a random thought.

I finally finished the quilt squares, so it looks like it's time for me to start on the sewing part of it.  Isn't that scary? I can't believe that it took so long to cut them all out!  It probably would have been a lot quicker except that it's impossible to mark on black denim and be able to see it well enough to cut accurately.  I'm a little nervous about it, to be honest, because I haven't really had the greatest track record with sewing. But I guess giving it a try is worth it, right? At least I'm not so afraid that I simply refuse to sew anything. I'm just glad that I don't have to do this whole thing by hand. THAT would be very, very painful on the fingers after the first few squares. I'll try to take pictures of it and put on here when it's finished, but if it doesn't turn out well all bets are off.  It'll just be quietly put aside to be used on cold days when no one else will be around to see it! HAHAHA

Day 112: December 17, 2009

Quote of the Day: “No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it to anyone else.” - Charles Dickens

Is it really nearly midnight? Wow, where did the time go?

I have spent almost all day long cutting out quilt squares. It's amazing, when I sit back and realize that I started at around 7am this morning, and am STILL not done. I have a ways to go still.  Wow... this quilt had better be something special, huh?

While I was working on the quilt squares I sat and channel surfed, and was amazed at how much junk there is on television. How many old movies that no one really cares about anymore.  A couple of them were alright, such as when I caught the tail end of "Broken Arrow", from back when I really had a thing for John Travolta.  Those were the days! But it got me thinking... how many of the "hotties" from my younger days have really aged? Almost all of them, and most of them not well. And geez, not even just the hotties, but also the actors that I really liked for their acting. You know, guys like Tom Cruise, Kevin Costner (oh, wait... I think he was a hottie), Robin Williams.... the list goes on and on.  Some of them I don't even recognize anymore when I see them in a movie.  And it's not just the guys, either, though they're the ones I paid attention to so it's more noticeable with them.  So what does that say about ME? Am I really, REALLY getting THAT OLD??? Am I going to be the old hag soon? Yikes, nothing like watching movies from your junior high and high school days to really make you feel decrepit. Where's my walker, anyways?

Cody spent this evening at his friend's house practicing, they want to try and start a band. I think it's really cute, but at the same time I'd sure like it a lot better if he had his own mode of transportation and I didn't have to play Mom's Taxi all the time. It sure makes it difficult when you've been working on something long enough that you get into that "zone" where everything starts to just glide along nice and smooth, and then you have to drop what you're doing to go pick someone up. It's hard to get back into it again when that happens. 

Maybe something more will happen tomorrow, because today was all about TV and cutting out little four-inch squares of denim.  Not exactly prize-winning entertainment, is it?  Then again, it's my break from school - it's supposed to be low-key.  And on the plus side, I finally came up with a color pattern for the quilt that I think I like.  I'll take pictures of the squares all laid out tomorrrow for you, so that you can see what I hope it will turn out like. For now, I'm going to go drop into the bed, because I truly didn't realize how late it was, but now that I do I feel like I can barely keep my eyes open. So goodnight for another day, and I'll try to write about something interesting tomorrow.

Day 111: December 16th, 2009

Quote of the Day: "Anything God asks us to do he supplies us with the energy and grace to do." -Author Unknown

I came to the decision last night that I am going to make a rag quilt out of old blue jeans.  I've been wanting to make another quilt for a long, long time but have never had the chance to when I actually thought about it. I'd always say, "I'll have to do that after A, B, and C are done."  Well, I've been thinking about it for so long, that all of a sudden the image came in my head of what I wanted and now I'm going to do it.  I figure there's no way I can't get it done in a month.  So I went through my closet and found that although my jeans are too big for me now, I'm scared to get rid of them in case I gain my weight back. I know it will be a while before it happens if I do, but I still would like to have them on hand just in case.  After deciding that it was pointless to use my own I got in the car and took a drive down to Goodwill to see what I could come up with.  And MAN, let me tell you, I lucked out like you wouldn't BELIEVE!!!! They do this thing where on certain days certain colored tags are on sale, and today it was yellow tags were buy one get one free, and green tags were 99cents!  So I stocked up on like twenty pairs of jeans!  And I ran into an old co-worker from Lowe's and another old co-worker from the hospital while I was there, which seems to be happening more and more frequently lately.  I guess I'm finally starting to get to know more people around here or something.

When I got home I started cutting them apart, and it's now eleven o'clock and I've barely started cutting out the squares to make the quilt. I forgot what a pain denim is to cut... my fingers are blistered and raw and about as bright red as a cherry tomato! Ouch!  But I can still type, so it's all good.  No different than what happens to me when I use a rake or shovel, except that it's on the top of my fingers and not the pads where the skin is thicker.  Maybe I should buy a new pair of scissors? I went to try and sharpen these, but somehow our yellow knife sharpener which has been in the knife drawer since we moved into this house has turned up missing.  And magically, neither of the kids knows where it is.  BOTH of them said they didn't know we had a knife sharpener. Uh-huh. So where is it then? Did it get bored and tired of waiting for me to use it and decide to go on vacation to Tahiti?

All in all it's been a fairly quiet day. I am kind of dreading getting up tomorrow and starting cutting out squares again, but at least the hard part is done. Well, the hard part on my fingers, anyways. The rest is just time-consuming.  But hey, anything to keep busy and be productive, right?  But sure can't wait to cuddle up under this quilty with my most important person in the world! I just hope I can have it done by then.  You know me, always have things happening to distract me.  I also will be working on laundry tomorrow while I'm cutting the pattern, so that should make it a little less tedious.  And I'm pretty excited to be trying my hand at sewing again.... maybe I'll actually do a halfway decent job this time? You know, since it's really the only class I took in school that I didn't quite do all that well in.  I think I remember that my teacher told me I'd be better off taking woodshop than home ec. HAHAHAHAHAHA Yeah, maybe... I don't really enjoy sewing as much as a lot of my friends did. And you gotta love power tools!  I'm seeing a Tim Allen moment in my head right now.  Good thing that there aren't THAT many things which I could destroy around here, huh? 

Day 110: December 15th, 2009

Quote of the Day:

"Accept the challenges so that you may feel the exhilaration of victory." - George S. Patton

The whole day wasn't bad, really. I got registered into the classes that I really wanted for the last semester of nursing school. I completed my project and have to wait 72 hours for it to cure.  I got all the bills paid up and current. However, for everything good there has to be something bad, right? So, of course, that means that I have about a hundred dollars left after paying bills to buy food, gas, and Christmas presents with. And Damien, bless him for being soooooo considerate, took care of the rest by wrecking his car... AGAIN.  This time, he says the person in front of him stopped quickly and went to do a U-Turn in front of him, making Damien veer off the road and into a barbed-wire fence.   This is only four months after his OTHER accident in his newer car... that we just bought in July.  Our insurance premiums shot up when we got this stupid car, then shot up again when he got into his first accident, and now this! So they're either going to shoot up yet again, or our insurance company is going to drop us.  It's so frustrating!  I swear to God that some people just were NOT meant to operate a vehicle.

He says that when he hit the barbed wire fence it messed up his bumper and headlight, and then when he had to reverse to get out of the fence it tore it off completely.  LUCKILY, the fence itself was fine (figure THAT out?). And the other car? It left the scene. So the cop accused Damien of lying about the accident.  Sigh.  Thankfully, the cop didn't issue him a ticket, even for the expired proof of insurance in the car from us not remembering to print new ones off.  Now all we need to do is yet AGAIN come up with the five hundred dollar deductible, on top of everything else we have been dealing with.  And someone once said that children aren't really THAT expensive! Right! If it weren't for these two, we would have three grand in our savings account right now. We could have taken a family vacation!

Day 109: Monday, December 14, 2009

Quote of the Day:

"If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day so I never have to live without you." ~A. A. Milne

I've had a pretty long day today so far.  I got one of my smaller projects mostly done, and just have a few finishing touches left on it.  I cleaned, I vacuumed, I dusted.  I think tomorrow, if it's not too cold outside, I'll take care of the plants, since I didn't get around to it today.  If it's too cold I'm just going to stay indoors working on some of the indoor things off my list. You know, like planning or painting or something.  ANYthing to keep busy.  I did get a little more laundry done today, though, so I only have a load or two left now.  I'll work on that tomorrow as well.  And maybe, just maybe, I'll start on my closet when I get back home tomorrow from registering for classes.  This is it.... my very last semester that I'll have to struggle to get through before I will be able to take the test to be a licensed nurse.  I can't WAIT until May... graduation time! WOOHOO! It'll make the last two years of nursing school worth it.  Although, when you think about it, those two  years sure have flown by.  And smacked me right in the face as they went, too. I know.... I have the new wrinkles to prove it!

The water heater is fixed now, and chugging right along. Didn't really do it myself though, because I could not for the life of me figure out how to get the clamps off the darn power cord without cutting them, and I really did not want to do that if I could avoid it.  So I called our old neighbor and friend Rick and asked him how to do it. He helped Ron out when we were working on the Westwood house, so I knew he was trustworthy.  I guess he didn't understand what I was asking so he said he'd come over and take a look at it. When he got here, he just went ahead and did the power cord part for me. I'd already taken the thing apart and put in the new case and circuit board, so it was quick. He did end up cutting the wires, too.  But he left all of it hanging out of the top of the water heater box so that Ron can fix it the way he wants it when he comes home.  Which is fine with me, the wires will stay cool that way, and they're all covered in electrical tape so they can't hit anything and short out again.

All day long I've been thinking about Ron coming home, and it's making me nuts that it's taking so long. They days are endless now since I don't have school to keep me busy. I've got all sorts of plans and things to work on, but the problem with that is they all give me plenty of time to think while I'm doing them.  Not a lot of thought involved in any of it. I'm wishing now more than ever that I could just crawl into a cave like a bear and just hibernate the time away.  I found the letter I wrote to him the day after he left, and re-read it, and nearly lost it. I still feel mostly the same as I did when I wrote it, but have learned to deal with it now.  I would post it on here for you, but I really don't want anybody to start bawling their eyes out or anything, so I'll just keep it to myself. There's so much more to write about, anyways.  And we're down to less than 3 months now, so we're past halfway there.  Just two months, three weeks, and five days give or take, and I will be launching myself into his arms and hopefully never letting go again.  I can't wait!  It's fitting that it is winter while he's gone, because that's how it feels to me. And would even if it was the heat of the summer out.

Day 108: December 13, 2009

Quote of the Day: "Every parting is a form of death, as every reunion is a type of heaven." ~Tryon Edwards

It's so hard to believe that I've been on my own for SOOO LONG! You see, that's not normally a bad thing for most people. Most people know how to take things like that in stride. They go about their daily lives and get things done that need doing.  The problem with me being on my own is this: WAY too much time on my hands.  Too much time to think, and to come up with all these marvelous ideas that could potentially get me into a serious jam for time. Or maybe it's just that I'm too creative? Probably!  I finished part of Ron's surprise today, and I have to say that I am definitely fighting myself to put a picture of it on here and show him.  But I keep telling myself that I'll be ruining the surprise if I do that. I have several scenarios about how I'm going to do the big "reveal", so I'm going to try and narrow it down over the next two months.  Some of the ideas I've come up with are rather ingenious, if I do say so myself. ;)

The only thing I did today that I CAN talk about is some laundry. Oh, joy.  And of course, I messed around on the computer a little bit, and picked up around the house.  Tomorrow I'll finally go up and fix the water heater, and maybe pull out all the dead summer plants we had around the house.  The elephant ears and dahlias both gave up with the first frost, and the morning glory has all turned brown and gone to seed, so it's time to get that out as well.  Amazingly, my rosemary that I babied all last winter to keep out of the frost and decided to heck with putting it into the garage is still moving right along. No frost damage at all.  So looks like it may be fine without being babied.  THANK HEAVENS!!!  Then, if I have the time, it's going to be time to prep the kitchen tile for paint.  That's going to be a three to four day project all by itself, so it should keep me plenty busy.  And in between cleaning and coats of paint maybe I'll get to a couple of the smaller things on my to-do list. I'm hoping that when Ron comes back home there isn't a list a million miles long of things to do, so that he can actually enjoy his time home.  That's the plan, anyways... we'll see how the implementation goes.