Thursday, July 29, 2010

Feeling lost

So apparently I'm really no good at updating...partly I blame this on the fact that not much happens in my life that is worth blogging about, but mostly I'm lazy.

Life has been pretty blah as of late. I go to work, come home and see Ryan for a few hours, go to sleep, and then get up and do it again. I haven't seen any friends since early May; I felt like life was on pause for so long, now it just feels like I'm stuck on repeat. I'm bored, I'm feeling a little lost in life right now. Ryan is the only person over 6 that I talk to anymore; and lets face it neither one of us really cares what happens to the other while at work, which lends itself to a lot of one-sided conversations.

I need to do something artistic again, I need to create something (does that sound lame?). It's become almost like an itch that I just can't scratch and it's starting to drive me nuts. I've never been out of art classes for so long; I didn't think I'd miss Rosemont, but I'd LOVE a printmaking studio, a ceramics studio, or even just a room to paint in right now. I want to paint, I've wanted to paint, for months now, but 1) I have all these ideas in my head that involve crazy things like transparencies and overhead projectors and 2) there is no room in this apartment for me to do anything. We need to move like yesterday.

I'd like to be out of this place by October, rent is ridiculous. Ryan's been talking to a realtor, now all we have to do is find a house we want to see and we can go look at it. Hopefully it won't take real long...

Sunday, May 23, 2010

baby pictures

EDIT: So it turns out the first pictures I got were just the girls, she forgot to send the pictures of the boys. Jethro is one of these two puppies, just not sure which one yet.


Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Jethro

I got an email yesterday from the breeder we're getting our new dog from. She sent two pictures of the puppies, unfortunately they are still so young that their eyes aren't open and they aren't moving around a whole lot yet. We'll have to wait a week or two more before we choose which one we want.

I don't know which two are the boys and which two are the girls, but I, of course, have the two cutest ones picked out already....

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Big news!

I apologize for not keeping up with this lately. April was not a good blogging month, but hopefully May will be better.

In house hunting news, Ryan went to the bank last week and got pre-approved for a loan and we've found a house that we really like with 3 bedrooms and a HUGE backyard. We're just waiting to hear back from the real estate agent to find out when we can go look at it.

But, the BIG news I got today is that Jasper is a big brother! I got an email from the breeder today saying that Lucy, Jasper's mom, had 4 chubby little puppies on Wednesday, 2 boys and 2 girls. We'll be getting pictures of them next weekend so that we can choose the one we want. Jasper doesn't seem all that excited yet, but he doesn't really get it yet, I, on the other hand, am super excited!

Friday, April 9, 2010

Super cool blog

So check out this awesome blog I stumbled onto kiniart.blogspot.com

She sells her stuff on a bunch of different websites, including cafepress and inktastic, both of which will print the designs on ceramic tiles. Ryan said that once we get a house I'm allowed to get a bunch of the tiles to redo a bathroom! I'm super excited.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

House hunting

Ryan has been looking at real estate since we were in college, just browsing through listings when we weren't really looking to buy anything was fun, which made me think actually looking for a house would be fun. I was wrong, house hunting is hard, and it costs so much more than you first think it will. You set a budget and think, if we pay this $xxx for the house then the mortgage will only be this $x a month and we can do that no problem. But then you have to add in the property tax and mortgage insurance and all this other stuff. Which in turn brings the budget down and makes it almost impossible to find a house with the number of rooms that we want that isn't in a 55+ community.

We thought we found a good house, it only had 2 bedrooms, but it was 1,700 sq. ft. and right on the Perkiomen creek. Unfortunately the yard was minuscule, even for Jasper it would have been too small and when we get another dog there really wouldn't have been any room for them to run around. Plus Ryan crunched some numbers and it turned out it would have been too far out of our price range anyway. Also not working in our favor is the fact that there are practically NO houses in this area for sale that are anywhere near our price range, I think there is one and its a little smaller than we would like.

So we've been looking at foreclosure listings and bank-owned homes. There is one in particular that we really like, at least from the outside, we haven't seen the inside at all yet. We're gonna talk to a realtor and the bank that owns the house and hopefully we can get it for lower than market value. Plus it has a ton of land and lots of trees, so fingers crossed that this one works out. The only thing that I feel a little bad about is, there are still people living in the house, even though it was foreclosed and the bank owns it, so if we bought it, we'd have to kick them out :(

I've also been watching a lot of HGTV, so I really want to paint some walls, or tile something, it's getting a little ridiculous.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Jasper's Birthday

My little boy is two years old today!








Thursday, March 11, 2010

People friendly dessert

Let me do you a favor and tell you about this amazing new sorbet and gelato that I happened across in the grocery store last night. Talenti:

I had read about this on a random blog that I found in my wanderings around the blogosphere. I never actually thought I would find it in the store though. When I saw it in my Giant last night I figured I would give it a try, it's a little more expensive than what I would normally spend on a pint of ice cream, but its about the same price as a pint of Ben & Jerry's, so its not too bad. Plus its comes in this sweet clear plastic jar with a screw top lid, so the container can be washed and used again. The best part though, is it is delicious and people friendly. Definitely worth the $4 I spent on it. I had the Roman Raspberry sorbet, there are only 6 ingredients, all of which are pronounceable. It is all natural, gluten free, dairy free, fat free, vegan, made with pure cane sugar not high fructose corn syrup, and its kosher. It doesn't get any better than that.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Tired

Ryan is gone for the week, he left around 3 this afternoon and he won't be back until sometime Friday night. He's out a the Penn State campus in Clinton county, wherever that is, taking a course on pesticide maintenance or something like that. Basically he's gone all this week, then he comes home for a few days and has to go back out there next Tuesday to take a test. Once he passes the test he will be certified to spray pesticide on trees, which is good be cause that guarantees him a job year round (or at least its supposed to, we'll see if that actually happens) and he should be getting a raise as well.

In other news...I'm tired. Tired of work, tired of this apartment, tired of crocheting (though I am determined to get this blanket finished on time), basically I'm tired of life at the moment. Money troubles and real estate disappointments have been weighing me down lately. Especially since every car we own seems to be broken, even the new one is having problems, and since Ryan hasn't been working I've had to manage paying all the bills by myself, not something easily done....

Being an adult is not an easy thing, and mostly I think its over rated.

Monday, March 1, 2010

Dreams and new pictures

So I had a dream last night that got me thinking...I miss my friend, I haven't talked to him in a long, long time. I was going to send him a message on Facebook, but apparently he no longer uses Facebook, and I have no other way to contact him. I've tried emailing him before, but he claims he never got it...he shares an email address with his wife....I have a feeling someone got my email, it just wasn't the person it was intended for, though I have no proof of that. I think my dream has something to do with this song. I had the CD on in the car and it repeated a couple times....

In other more interesting news Ryan's car died a couple weeks ago, and since my car died in September, we were left with just the truck. So Saturday we went and got me a new (to me) car so that I don't have to drive the truck to work anymore, and Ryan can leave the apartment during the day:
Ryan's parents were nice enough to buy it for us so that we can pay them back and not have to worry about bank loans and interest and what not. Though apparently that is now causing problems...Ryan's mom called this morning saying that his dad is 'pretty put out' that I didn't say thank you, which I did, and he's 'pretty put out' that I'm still afraid of him. It's not that I'm afraid of him per se, its more that he just makes me uncomfortable....what exactly am I supposed to do about that? I can't control the fact that some people make me uncomfortable, it happens, I'm not the best people person, especially with adults (yes, I know I'm an adult, but I mean older adults).

Also, less depressingly, I am making some progress on my brothers blanket. I just need to pick up the pace a little since I have to have it finished by the 2oth.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Number 2

Tell me this isn't the cutest thing you've ever seen.

Ryan and I have made the executive decision that we need another Westie. Jasper has become too attached to Ryan since he has been home so much the past couple months and we think getting him a friend will help his dependence issues. Also, I really want another one. We don't know for sure yet if we will be getting a boy or a girl, but we have names for both, Jethro or Alice (maybe Fiona, I'm not so sure I'm set on Alice yet). Unfortunately we have to wait until we are able to move out of the apartment we are in at the moment since we are only allowed to have one dog here. We are hoping to be able to get our next Westie from the same breeder we got Jasper from since he turned out so well, but I have yet to hear back from her as to whether or not they will be having a litter of Westies anytime soon. Fingers crossed that they do, I really want to get one from the same people. :)

I will keep you all abreast of the situation as it continues to move forward

Monday, February 22, 2010

My B-day P-arty


My birthday party was Friday night, unfortunately I was ubber busy during the party so I didn't get to take any pictures until after everyone had already left, which is why there are no people in my pictures. It is not because no one came ;) Lucky for me Greg and Erika were able to come over an hour early to help get the apartment ready. They hung all the streamers, pictures, and labeled all the bottles of Butterbeer for me while Ryan and I tried to salvage the cake and got the food stuffs, and I got the front door ready. I have to say, probably my best birthday ever, I got some pretty cool presents and a good bit of birthday cash.


Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Birthday activities

So while I'm supposed to be using my free time this week to get ready for my birthday part, instead I have been using it to make some head way on my brother's birthday present. David's 22nd birthday is the end of March, so I have some time but not A LOT of time. I decided while I was making Ryan's mushroom hat last week that it would be cool to be able to crochet a bunch of different things from Super Mario. This is where the idea for my brother's present came from.

When we were younger David used to play Super Mario Brothers 3 all the time, so naturally I have very clear memories of all the little things from the game. Like the Super Leaf that game Mario raccoon ears and a tail, or the green boot that Mario would jump around in, things like that. What I didn't think through was how long it would take me to crochet enough of these things to make the blanket I had started planning. But I have finished 3 large squares and 5 little squares and hopefully I will be able to finish enough to make a full blanket by the time David's birthday roll around. Here's a look at some of what I've got done so far
:




Thursday, February 11, 2010

Look what I did!

I just finished this little dog. I've been working on it for a little over a week, I would have finished it sooner, but I ordered the eyes and the nose off line and I had to wait for them to be shipped to me. It's not as good as I would have liked, but I'm learning :)




Snow Day!

We've had so much snow lately its ridiculous. They were predicting another big storm for Tuesday night through the day Wednesday so on my way home from work on Tuesday I stopped at Wal-mart to pick up some more yarn. I wanted to make sure I had enough to keep me busy during my impending snow day. I found this cool patter for a beanie hat here and thought I would try it out so that Ryan had a hat to wear while he shoveled us out. I managed to finish it Tuesday night, but unfortunately it turned out like this:

It looks good, but the hook I used was too small, so it wouldn't fit Ryan's head. It's more little boy sized than adult sized.

I started it again on Wednesday (since we did indeed get quite a storm and I was called off work!) but this time I used a bigger hook. Half way through the hat I took a break and went outside to play in the snow with Ryan and Jasper. Poor little Jasper has to either hop from one of Ryan's foot prints to the next or practically swim through the snow on his own. As you can imagine, forging his own path takes him a little while; but he can hop pretty fast so he usually stays right behind Ryan. When Jasper got tired we let him back in the house and Ryan and I made a snow man:
Apparently this is the first snowman Ryan has ever made. When he was little he would just make a big pile of snow and call it a 'snow ghost'; how creative ;) This guy ended up being taller than me, but unfortunately he has no nose....Oh well, maybe next time.

Once I came back inside and warmed up I finished Ryan's hat:
I think it turned out pretty good the second time around. Ryan was wearing it when he left this morning a little after 8. He's somewhere in Trappe shoveling, he's been there for a while, but he's making $20 an hour, so we can't complain too much. Hopefully his hat is keeping him warm.

Now I'm off to continue my project for my second snow day, a hat for myself :)

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Catching up

Well, I haven't been updating every day, but I think I've been doing pretty good, considering how often I used to update....

Anyway, here's a picture of what Russell and I did one day last week:


Everything in the picture was drawn, cut out, and glued on separately; the bed, the boy in the bed, the blanket, the teddy bear...everything. The people in the picture are gingerbread men, in case you were wondering why they looked like that. Notice the little details too, like the teddy bear and the glass of water that had to be put next to the bed, in case he got thirsty in the middle of the night, of course. This took us most of the morning, which was nice, I didn't have to worry about keeping him occupied.

All of the invitations for my birthday party have been sent and received, so it is safe to talk about the theme now that everyone invited knows what it is. I am having a super cool 24th birthday Harry Potter party. I already have all the decorations, now I just have to work on the food. I don't want to say too much about it, I want most of it to be a surprise for the people who are coming, but I will post pictures afterward. Here is some of what I have been getting ready:

Pygmy Puffs!


And this is what I woke up to a few days ago:
He was still in this position after I came back from the bathroom....

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Super excited

I decided about a week ago that I wanted to throw Ryan a super cool birthday party since he never really had one as a kid. Ryan, however, hates it when people call attention to his birthday. He hates it so much that for the past 10 or so years, with the exception of last year, he has made sure he was in another state on his birthday so that no one could do anything about it. Ridiculous, I know, but I figured that if I throw a REALLY cool party he can't complain too much.


Unfortunately, Ryan's birthday is not until July, so I was getting all excited about it now and couldn't do anything. Then I realized that MY birthday is next month, so while I wait for July I can throw myself a super cool party. And let me tell you, it will be SUPER cool. All my party supplies just got here yesterday, balloons, streamers, plates, cups, tablecloth, napkins, invitations, it's all themed and I'm working on other decorations and themed food items. Every time I think of something else Ryan just shakes his head and laughs, but he is agreeing to let me do all of it, and he even said he would help with some of it. I SO wish it were my birthday already, I'm getting super-duper excited about it, but I still have to wait a month. But my party is going to be so rockin' that people from other states are coming....I CAN'T WAIT!!


p.s.- I would tell you what the theme to my party is, but it's kind of a secret until all the invitations go out...

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Fabulous bread pt.2

Finally... here is what my Fabulous bread creation looks like:


I also made a dragon, but I don't have a good picture of that one.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Fabulous bread

Today the kids and I made "Fabulous Bread", its cool, but it sounds much cooler than it really is. For Christmas Anne (the woman I babysit for) got a book called "1,4440 things to do with kids", fabulous bread is the second activity we've taken from it. The first was "Magic Mud", just cornstarch and water, that however didn't go over too well with Evan, who doesn't like getting his hands messy. Fabulous bread is more like homemade clay, so he was a little more excited about it. It's super easy to make 4 cups of flour, 1 cup of salt, 1 1/4 cup of water, just mix until its the consistency of soft clay. Then I rolled some out and let the kids use cookie cutters to make the shapes that they wanted. I did something a little more advanced, but I'll wait til tomorrow to share that so I can have a picture to go with it. Then you bake it at 350, 1/2 hour for thin pieces, 1 hour for thicker pieces. After it cools you can paint it. The kids shapes turned out pretty cool, but their dad came home before we were able to paint them, which is good because now we have something to do after school tomorrow.