Holiday Shopping, Already Thinkin' Bout It.

Was reminded of this by Matt the other day as we were discussing Christmas time. Don't know if anyone has heard of other sites like this one, but this one seemed the most helpful. It's called Black Friday and you can find the site here bfads It basically collects all the data from almost any store you could think of and shows you all their Black Friday Christmas shopping ads. Better yet, they let you buy them over the internet from the comfort of your home for those of us who can't get there sorry butts out of bed at 4am the day after Thanksgiving like myself. All I did was pick out all the stuff Stella talked about through the weeks and started figuring out who had the best prices. Then when I heard about this place, they had the ads up ahead of time and I began shopping. I was even able to had things held at Walmart and just waited till things chilled out at the stores and picked them up from the store when I felt like, that way I saved on shipping too. I am definitely gonna do that again next year. And, I know how all you ladies like a good deal.

Sorry, all this snow lately has me thinking about Christmas, not feeling festive AT ALL, just thinking. Come on spring!

Vicodin Good!

OK, this is sort of fun. Hopefully it is coherent, I just took a vicodin. Today I woke up and I couldn't stand up straight without pain. I didn't think too much of it but as the day wore on, I still couldn't stand up straight. I have never been to a chiropractor but something in me said, you really should go, so after about 7 hours of slumping over I carted myself and Stella to Dr. Jary. Of course my lovely HMO is not accepted, but luckily they only charged me $40 for my x-rays and $10 for my appointment. So, I really expected them to say nothing was wrong, but to my shock, I was informed that I had a pinched nerve in my back. The doctor asked me if I'd been in a traumatic accident and I couldn't recall any, until later when I talked to my dad. I now remember about 8 years ago I was rear ended in Plymouth on Ann Arbor Road in front of the Einstein Bros by a DTE cube van and it pushed me onto the front lawn of EB and my seat broke and I fell backwards. At the time, I was not hurt and nothing happened after that. Well, apparently until today. So, anyway, I need to go to the chiropractor 3 times a week, I can no longer sit on any comfy chairs until I'm healed and I have to put ice on it 3 times a day for 20 minutes and I can't lift anything over 15 pounds. What a pain in the ass. Not that I wish anything on Matt, but damn, can this be it for me for a while. Also, I can't sleep on my stomach anymore, this is my preferred position if you must know. The neat thing though is that tonight about 8pm, the doctor called to make sure I wasn't in too much pain and that I understand what he wanted me to do. That just never happens anymore. I would recommend this guy to anyone. The thing that sucks though is that I'm only 30, I thought this was the time in your life where your supposed to feel your best so that you know what your missing when your in your 50's and dealing with back pain and heart disease and glaucoma just to name a few. I really feel like I'm being jipped or something. So, bout half an hour ago I popped a vicodin and I am feelin good. I think however that my painting expedition that week and a half ago aggrivated it and made it come to life. The doc said that he was surprised that at this stage I wasn't having tingling, numbness and shooting pains in my legs. Scary! Also, this was an interesting tidbit I learned at the doc today. All those nerves in your spine basically tell your body what to do, so if one of those nerves is pinched, then parts like your sexual organs, bladder and what not don't always work properly. Now, the bladder thing made sense, but the sexual organs??? The woman who did my x-ray said that a patient of theirs was having difficulties getting pregnant, they found she had a pinched nerve and once it was corrected, she went on to have 4 children. This was interesting to me as Matt and I have been trying for about the last 8 months with no success and possibly even a miscarriage last September. So, this gave me some hope that there is another baby in our future.

Tonight I watched two movies, Disturbia and Premonition. They were good, I think Distrubia was the better of the two. That's all I've got for now it's time for beddy bye.

New Opportunity, Maybe You Should Try It Out.

Just so everyone who does read my blog knows, I have been accepted as part of this amazing new site called Pay Per Post located at www.payperpost.com What I am hoping that it will do is really just give me more income and as you all have read, we can really use that right now. My co-worker emailed me about this woman who has multiple blogs and she runs multiple things on her blogs that earn her extra money. You will notice new content in my blog such as product reviews and general chit chat about different subjects than I have tackled before. The cool thing about Pay Per Post is that this has so much potential to earn EXTREMELY great money. I am watching a video and they have a panel of Pay Per Post bloggers talking about all the money they earn. One woman has earned something like $17,000. I find that truly amazing and if I could earn a $1000 I would thrilled. So, if any of you would like info on this, please contact me and I will fill you in. I guess my goal for taking this on really is to 1. either pay my car payment each month, or 2. heck pay my mortgage each month. So, hope that I will not disappoint anyone, but I can't wait to see where this opportunity takes me!
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Lesson Learned and Lives Passed On.

So, the other day I decided to kick my new job hunt into full gear, mostly due to panic. I am 30 years old, with 8 years of graphic design experience, there is no reason for me to be struggling this much. I have experience in web, print, marketing and illustration I should be able to find a good job! Not to mention worry about being able to make my house payment. So, I decided to look at all the job boards I could find, there are more out there than I knew of just by googling. Well, to tell you the truth, there aren't many jobs out there for graphic designers that don't have both print and web and flash and html experience, which actually isn't totally fair as all those jobs require specialty training and skills. However, due to Michigan's current economic status, many companies want an all-in-one kinda employee and to be honest, they don't want to pay for it. Sadly, in my current job, I have positioned myself to have much flexibility and decent pay, enough to be the breadwinner of the family and pay the bulk of our bills. But, when suddenly work drops off and because I'm working mostly from home, it becomes a case of out of sight, out of mind with my boss. Don't get me wrong, he's a nice guy for the most part and he's really come a long way in the organization department but you just simply can't make a life on 20 hours a week, not with any kind of home and certainly not in Michigan these days. So, as I said I was looking on all those wonderful job boards and decided to return to old trusty Monster. I hadn't updated my resume on there in a couple of years and decided to go ahead and do that. Well, let me just tell you, not that it's been a complete turn around, but companies have been looking at my resume left and right and I have been contacted by 2 recruiters for ACTUAL JOBS THAT REALLY EXIST TODAY, RIGHT NOW, NO KIDDING! To me, this is so exciting, I was starting to really worry that nothing was out there for me, but I have been redeemed. There is hope out there, at least that has been restored. And, just a tip, to get your Monster resume back at the top of the pile, make small changes to it and save them and that updates them as if they are new and more new employers will see yours. Good tip huh? Got that one believe it or not from my MIL who has never used the internet, but talks a hell of alot with the ladies that work at the dentist office. Thanks mom!

On a different note poor miss Stella is dealing with the croup again, uh, and so is mommy, not daddy so much as it is momma. We are on day 4 of this wonderful thing that is causing me, to have to sleep in her bed, which is ok, but I bought a cheapy mattress from Ikea, which works just fine for her, but for me on the other hand, I'm so worried I'm gonna ruin it because of my weight, not sure of the weight limit. So far, so good. Also, on Wednesday, I was heading to my MIL's late as usual but today we were going to her fave scrapbook store, so it was OK. I was supposed to be at her house by 10:45, which would mean I would leave our house at 10:30. Well, we didn't end up leaving our house until 11:15 but in the process of trying to take our normal path, we were blocked off by police cars in that direction due to some horrific accident. All I said to Stella was "God, I hope there were no kids in the car." A few hours later, our neighbor Cindy is knocking on our door with a card in her hand. I invite her in our home and she proceeds to tell me that the elderly gentleman that lives across the street with his wife, died tragically today in a car accident. I was paralyzed, I said "don't tell me it was the accident I saw this morning right off our street?" And she confirmed that indeed it was. By her understanding, he was hit head on and died on impact. It took the paramedics 30 minutes to remove him from his vehicle with the jaws of life. So sad, I didn't know Mr. Price much at all, but Bob and Cindy did, and Bod was Mr. Price's buddy. Always over there from what I could see, no matter the weather. Matt wonders if maybe this Spring and Summer, Bob may wander to see him if he's muddling in the garage, I think he really wants a "buddy" so this would be good for Matt. It's just scary about the accident, because who knows if it could've been Stella and I that got hit if I'd actually been on time that morning. I think my lesson here, at least to me is find the signs in your life that indicate that you need to slow down, it may just be the thing that saves your life.

Here's just a little before and after of Stella's first real haircut.

We've Been Busy.

This was my weekend to be creative. I felt the urge to decorate. We moved into our house October of 2006 and pretty heavily painted all available surfaces. All except the bathroom, our upstairs bedroom and our little hallway. The bathroom because I haven't been able to decide exactly what I want to keep in there, just ugly fixtures, our bedroom because we are exposed due to a stairway with no doorway (I like it that way), don't feel so closed in and our poor little hallway because I just didn't know what to do with it. So, this week I decided to do something different. I wanted to create an area of interest in our itty bitty house that was like "oh wow, that's interesting." So, I decided to do a faux finish, keep in mind, this is my first time working with a faux painting product. It's definitely not to everyones taste, but in our house, we just do things and aren't afraid of color as anyone who has been in our home can tell. Living room = army green, kitchen = burnt orange, my studio = cranberry, Stella's room = dark purple and now (drumroll) turquoise with an opalescent white glaze over top. It came out nice I think and Stella and I have decided to pretend to swim when we sit in our hallway now because it reminds us of an oasis. Also, I created the light fixture from an object I found at the Ann Arbor Reuse Center, spray painted it white and Matt geniously created a thing with cut and bent hangers that wrap around the existing light fixture flesh with the ceiling. GENUS!! Here are those pics. The next project was the light over our kitchen table. The previous light was purchased from Ikea and we just found it to not really filter light well and to be honest we'd just grown out of it. So, be unconventional as we are, we took a paint can and Matt cut into the bottom, bent back the rough edges and I poked holes into the can all over to filter the light. I then took it outside and spray painted it white. Voila, weekend "This Old House" complete! Here are those pics as well.

Testing Testing S-T-E-L-L-A

So, at this moment, my DD is sitting in her room for what I have dubbed "Quiet Time." This is a test that Matt and I have decided to try due to the fact that since she was little Stella NEVER, NEVER, NEVER napped for us. If we were lucky, we could eek out like 45 minutes maybe 3 times a week when she was real little, but after about 1, it went to nada. Currently our biggest issue with raising her is that wonderful thing known as the inability to listen until about attempt #5 when your blood is boiling and now you're actually yelling at them. So, today was the day I was to start the process of blissful quiet time. I informed her of it yesterday and again reiterated it today before we left for dance class. We came home and watched some TV, had lunch and the usual. I had already decided that for Valentines Day I was going to get her one of the Hannah Montana CD's. After about 15 minutes of explaining to her that it was music for her room and not something to put on the tv she was like OK, but can I get a doll house??? Oh, wait, I missed a step, she also proved to me today that she can spell her name. I asked her periodically throughout the day and each time she stated S-T-E ell ellayyy. Yeah, so I then told her that I was taking her to Target to get her a prize for learning to spell her name, knowing full well that it was really for Valentines Day. When she promptly asked could she get a doll house. So, here we are, back from Target, Hannah CD in the player and other than the din of melodic tunes, I have a quiet, albeit messy house. I don't care, I'm gonna enjoy this time.

Here's Meez.

*EDITED*

Ok, so I fell prey to creating a Meez for myself. You should check it out, it's pretty fun. I will leave her, er me, up in the corner for a while, and maybe change her up a bit. Some who haven't seen me in a while will say, "but that doesn't really look like you!" Ah, but it does. I gave myself bangs the other night for the first time in like 10 years and my hair no longer appears as blond as it once was, more of a brunette now.

Can someone tell me how you can go from being EXTREMELY excited and motivated about an idea to AH WHO CARES in the matter of a few hours? It sucks, and I think it stems from WAY TOO MANY to count nights of staying up WAY TOO LATE that my lack of sleep causes my motivation to just go out the window at around 5:30pm during the week. I feel like I work a hell of a lot, but lately my paycheck reflects otherwise. Maybe for me, I need to work when the feeling strikes me and then get back to the doldrums of the other work. Anybody else have a time that the creative bug strikes them? I'd love to hear how your brain works.

*I removed said MEEZ because 3.5 year old said didn't look like me. What can you do?

So much can change in less than one day.

I never know how to be perfectly gracious, but at this moment I feel overwhelmed by kindness. You never know how people can reach out to you when you are in need of some compassion. Matt and I really put ourselves out there this time and people were very responsive. The morning started out with a massive headache, but also with a little bit of hope. On a whim I sent out the email about our desire to get our Prosper loan funded and can I just tell you, within a matter of about 7 hours, our loan went from 61% funded to 100%. It really took me by surprise as this was my third and final attempt at getting a loan. Aside from all that, the outpouring of concern, understanding, sympathy, comfort truly warmed my heart. A special thanks goes out to Mars for the continuous daily support during such a stressful situation, Michelle with a very generous gift that I WILL be paying back and of course Jenn, my coffee clatcher, fellow mother, understanding dear dear friend whom I completely unloaded onto and then laughed quite loudly when she suggested a prescription for Zoloft. Only such a great friend could suggest you taking medication! Love ya Jenn, guess you do think I'm a little nuts. *Mental Note:* burn those naughty notes you naughty naughty girl.

Feelings of Change.

Well, it's been too long I know, but at least I am back. So much has transpired since the last time I blogged, but alas, nothing of great importance. Had an interview, thought it went well, was denied. Very familiar story for me, but it only makes me stronger. I am more focused now with a passion and drive for who I am. I've been trying to really search myself to find out exactly who I am, and pull myself out to reveal to everyone. Ok, a little mellow dramatic, but it's really how I feel. I honestly feel that in order to be successful, you MUST do what you truly love and designing of scrapbooking materials is where I feel the most passion. I may not be up to par in that arena yet, but I WILL get there, you haven't heard the last of me people!! Here is just a little something I was working on a few days ago. I wanted to achieve the feel of the ocean, but in a really graphic way. Also, I love just using basic geometric shapes, it feels so real to me. So, here is a sample. Soon, I will add more. Also, on the DWP front, we are slowly getting our S#*t together. What do ya know, 3 awesome chicks are trying to start a business and we're all procrastinators. Not really, but sort of, just have tumultuous lives at the moment. But, just you wait, you WILL NOT be disappointed. We will be taking over the world.