Random Cute Pics...Stolen from Sherry's Blog! Thanks!!! :)

 

What Busy Looks Like!!!

With everything that's been going on in the last couple of weeks--crazy days at work (some longer than they should be as the spring semester gets rolling) and boot camp every morning I find myself with barley enough time to make it from one place to the next! This particular day I knew my gas gauge was low and my car said I had 20-some miles left before empty on my way to boot camp and I had every intention to stop at 6am on my way home so it'd be full for my drive to work. One problem though, in my haste to leave by 5am I forgot to bring my debit card and I didn't have any cash in the car so getting gas after class didn't happen. So my next plan was to get ready as quickly as possible so I'd have enough time to stop before work. One thing lead to another and once again I found myself without enough time...as I drove to work I watched the miles count down closer and closer to empty. The gauge said I had 17 miles left and work is about 13-15 miles away (I've never really clocked it) so I figured I'd make it. I knew that if I made it there were 3 gas stations right on the corner by school so I wouldn't need to go far after school. I drove into the school parking lot with 2 miles left according to my gauge and was relieved! After school Kim and I walked to the parking lot together when she realized she'd parked in the front lot that day and asked if I'd drive her around (of course I said yes, but admittedly I panicked a little to myself!). The gauge clicked down to one remaining mile as we arrived at her car and I told her to keep an eye out for me on the side of the road, because I may need a push into the gas station! I said goodbye quickly and made my way to get gas. As I pulled into the station my gauge clicked down to ZERO! So as you may have guessed, I did make it and was amazed at how accurate my car monitored my gas levels. I put $50 dollars worth of gas back into it and it STILL didn't fill it up! Note to self, make time to get gas sooner because it's not worth the stress on me or my fuel injector I'm sure! :)

Secret Survaillance Rig--For Bootcamp!

Recently, my friend Vanessa called and asked if I'd join a Fitness Bootcamp with her and because I'd already been working toward getting back into better shape since about Thanksgiving I thought it'd be the perfect thing to boost what I'd begun. We were planning to start on Monday, January 10th 2011. Class was scheduled for Mon-Fri @ 5:15 am and we vowed to attend every day! I felt bad about the idea of waking up at 4:45am and having to kick the dogs outside into the cold out of a dead sleep. So...prior to the first day of class I did a couple trial runs on Sat. & Sun. by getting up by 5 (yeah, I know--I'm nuts but whatever!) and leaving the girls in my room (praying Ginger wouldn't eat her way out)! Saturday I only left the house for a 20 minute jog around the block and when nothing was in shambles I thought, hmmm...maybe she'll be alright!? Sunday I borrowed a video camera from Kim (my friend and co-worker in the Deaf-ed dept. at work) and I rigged the camera up in my room on top of my dresser mirror. I wanted to "SEE" what Ginger did while I was gone because if it caused her more anxiety to be locked in I'd rather put her outside where she's used to being while I'm away. I again left around 5am Sunday morning but this time I extended my absence to 45 min. After returning home I reviewed the video and she did freak out a little in the beginning by whimpering and pacing back and forth and standing by the door drooling but didn't shred anything! I didn't want drool puddles on my new flooring so Sherry and Matt who were planning to go to Costco Sunday afternoon picked me up a rug (that matched the one I'd bought a few days earlier to put in front of the sliding door) so I could put it by the entry door as a drool catch. Monday morning was the first BIG test because I knew it would be a bit longer than 1 hour due to having to arrive a bit early for waiver signing! I pushed record as I left and when I arrived home a bit after 6am things still looked good—nothing outta place in the bedroom so I was happy! I continued video taping her for the whole first week and by Friday the video showed that she barely even got outta bed after I left. Her anxiety of me leaving seemed to have dissipated and she'd become used to the routine (which Baylie of-course figured out by the second day of the trial) but I was super relieved and crazy proud of her!

Anyway, I've cancelled my gym membership because quite honestly I don't go by myself and after the 3 consecutive weeks attending this bootcamp class I'm trying to figure out if I can afford signing up for a year long membership! I know it's a bit crazy but I LOVE it! I leave feeling like jello and sweating enough to instantly fog all the windows in my car afterwards but I also feel super accomplished everyday! The class is crazy intense but it is fast paced and runs in short circuits so just when you can't do anymore you rotate! I also like that everybody regardless of skill level is struggling with the same exercise...they just may be lifting a heavier weight or jumping up onto a larger box but everybody grunts and sighs together! Plus because it is from 5-6am all the girls come in naked-faced ready to workout instead of ready to pick up dates in perfect hair and full face makeup like at the gym which is so nice!

Everyday has been different so I haven't gotten board ever! Not only are the exercises different but so are the rotation times...some days we do 60sec work with 20sec. of rest/rotate and others 30/30sec with no half way breaks and yet others we stay in one place for 8-20sec. rotations with 5 seconds to breathe between each of the 8 rounds and then rotate to the next torture station within 10 sec.! Each morning is a surprise that I actually look forward to!

Broken Basketball Hoop

The kids that live behind my mom's house often play basketball in our driveway and have an understanding with mom--as long as there are no cars parked in the driveway they are allowed to play. For a few years now this agreement has been respected and there hasn't ever been a problem until this particular day! Mom said that it was a little after dark and she could hear the ball bouncing and the kids talking and laughing from the office (which is the closest room to the driveway)where she was checking her email. All of the sudden she heard the loudest, strangest noise followed by a reverberating crash and silence. She knew the sound was way wrong and started toward the door when the front door bell started ringing incessantly. When she got outside she couldn't believe what she saw! The basketball hoop had literally snapped in half and was bent to the ground in a triangle hanging on in the middle by a thin piece of metal and right next to it laying flat on her back was the 11year old girl! Come to find out that it didn't just spontaneously break the boys had "helped" it by jumping from the top of the fence to the rim and swinging like monkeys. After a few jumps the basketball hoop that had been around for more than 15 years couldn't it. The pole cracked in half with the momentum and came crashing down towards the concrete hitting the girl on the head and knocking her to the ground on the way! The girl was crying and my mom was trying to see if she was bleeding when the boys finally quit ringing the doorbell and came back around. Mom sent the boys to get their parents and once they arrived it was determined that although there was no blood she had a headache and wasn't feeling well. Her parents decided to take her to the ER just to be sure. The next day I went over to Mom's house to deal with the 4 foot portion of the pole that remained with jagged edges. After a phone consult with Wayne I took a hacksaw to the pole being careful not to go deeper than the metal because Wayne said making contact with the concrete would instantly ruin the blade! I sawed around about half of the pole as near to the ground as possible without grinding off my knuckles and then took a sledge hammer to the pole! It was great for anger management although it took a few tries...sawing, sledging, sawing, sledging and finally success! I then took the sledge hammer to the last half inch of the pole to curl the leftover edges so that it was as low to the ground and as smooth as possible so it was not a tripping hazard. As we were making a ruckus the kids from next door stopped by and the poor little girl said that she was alright but she definitely had a black eye and cheek and said the doctors diagnosed a mild concussion. Luckily nothing a bit of Tylenol and an ice pack couldn't cure! The boys were very apologetic for breaking the hoop and using it

incorrectly. We were glad no one was

truly hurt by this crazy incident but

also glad that it was caused by horseplay because the kid's parents were apologetic about the broken property. The basketball hoop was of-course the least of our worries because in the back of our minds we worried about getting sued as it happened on mom's property! So all is well that ends well...there just won't be any more half court press in Mom's driveway.

Ugh! Ignore the date posted--It's WAY ahead of me!!!!

So, my last entry put us nearly to August and at that point I'd claimed to be getting a handle on catching up...as you can clearly see by the lack of posted events, that never really happened--my apologies!  As I mentioned before, it was the Internet breakdown in spring that originally messed up my promptness in blogging but that was directly followed by the fast paced ending of the 2010-11 school year which was quickly trumped by the whirlwind I call summer school and then finally summer break!!!   During summer I got into painting the house and other big projects (noticeably blogging wasn’t one of them) and then in August I decided to open a profile on a dating website (or two)...and from there things got hectic and stressful.  The next thing I knew, the 2011-2012 school year started which is always crazy enough on its own but this time I was attempting to balance that schedule and dating life at the same time! October soon rolled around and I was lucky enough to contract Mono which felt a bit like hitting a brick wall or repeatedly being run over by a Mac truck--super fun (insert sarcasm)!!!  Next it was the holiday season followed by the winding down of the first semester and although time was flying by it seemed as if NOTHING ever got done to a successful completion (especially blogging)!  This brings us to Christmas break (where I am now, chronologically anyway)...and my New Year’s resolution is to get caught up with everything (including blogging) and STAY caught up (if that's possible)!  Before I get too ahead of myself, allow me to backtrack a few months (almost 6--yikes!) and fill you in on what happened from spring (give or take March) to August and then I’ll continue on with the stories that got me from August to the end of 2011.  Thanks again for bearing with me...it's been a busy year!!!  

Fancy NEW Bedroom Floors!

After finally deciding on a color (well not really, I picked 3 different colors that they are going to mix and pattern together to create my new faux wood laminate floors) I set the installation appointment for Friday, December 31st, 2010! I was so excited that Carpet Outlet Plus was open and able to get my job booked during my break so I didn't have to take any time off work! On Wednesday the 29th I went and bought semi-gloss paint because my bedroom was done in flat paint that was impossible to keep clean and I figured if my floors were going be shiny and new so should my walls! I splurged on the low odor paint and by the time I finished it looked AWFUL! I was so upset and sore...I'd never seen paint go on so poorly--it was streaky and looked matte in some places and glossy in others!? So Thursday morning (now running out of time to paint and let dry before the workers show up on Friday) I went back to Sherwin Williams and told the guy that for a high quality paint it was lousy! He had me describe my problem and then tells me that because they use a spray gun to apply the flat paint they only do enough to cover the drywall and don't use primer at all! So essentially I'd used really good paint as a primer--So frustrating!!! The guy assured me that if I do one more coat everything would cover evenly and look great. Thank goodness it did because I probably would've gone postal on the guy if it didn't! The second coat was on by early afternoon and I'd pulled all the tape off that evening and crossed my fingers that it would be dry enough for the workers! I woke up early new year's eve in anticipation of the workers coming and then the guy calls me and says they won't arrive until 10am (when I'd expected them by 8am)! I found myself with time enough to finish cleaning out my garage so that they could work in there and have breakfast! Once they showed up it seemed like they had everything torn out in seconds and the blue underlayment put down! I tried to stay outta the way but snuck down the hall or through my sliding door (from out in the back yard) to get pictures every once in a while so that I wouldn't miss out on the progress! At the same time, I found it hard to watch because I had chosen 3 different colors (a dark almost black, a chocolate brown, and a honey colored laminate) and I was worried that I'd scrutinize the pattern! In the end, I walked into my room and LOVED it instantaneously (which was a good thing considering I'd already paid for it)! Before I moved back all my furniture I wanted to go around and re-paint all the baseboards so they too looked shiny and new! Painting the baseboards terrified me because I didn't want to ruin my new floors with paint so it seemed to take me FOREVER! When it was all said and done everything looked great! Thanks to mom for helping with the painting--she did ALL the cutting in (a part I don't enjoy doing) and then while I painted baseboards she went around and got all the door frames! By Sunday everything was dry but there was one board that I wasn't happy with (it had a funny streak all the way down the board were the gloss looked dull) so I was afraid to put the furniture back until I knew how they'd fix it. My installer called me back on Monday and assured me it'd be fine to put in the furniture because if he needed to replace the board he could take it right out of the middle. It took over a week for him to "fit me in" but amazingly the streak rubbed out with a pink eraser?!?!? I was happy that it was a simple fix because I'd already tried cleaning it to no avail and was sure he'd have to cut it out and glue in a new piece! I'm now enjoying my new floors and with a simple sweeping it comes clean and I use my little mini-vac to suck up the debris. I only need to use the cleaner about once a week to really get the shine back! Now it's time to save my money so I can do more of my floors! :)

Belated Christmas with Carter...

So for the majority of the Christmas Break Sherry, Matt, and Carter were in Texas visiting Matt's family. Once they got back we chose Thursday Dec. 30th for our mini-Christmas get together. Carter had a good time opening gifts and although he wasn't really in the mood to be photogenic he spent time playing with each present! he looked through each book he got and danced to his new Yo Gabba Gabba DVD that grandma gave him.

Carter spent time looking through each and every book he received. I got him some puzzle books that had colors and numbers and Grandma gave him some Yo Gabba Gabba books.

Carter LOVES shoes and his new favorite TV show if you haven't noticed yet is of-course Yo Gabba Gabba...which is these crazy costumed characters that dance and sing and teach good morals and habits. Shows about eating, and sharing all have fun songs that make it easy for kids to memorize. Grandma got him some Vans shoes that had each of the Yo Gabba Gabba bunch pictured on them and

the minute he opened the box he ripped off his other shoes to put on his new ones. Matt then put on the DVD (which you can see in the background)

and carter started

dancing and clapping to the

music--so cute!

Uncle Wayne got Carter an electric guitar that played a bunch of different pre-recorded sounds when each button was pushed. This particular gift was one of the last of the evening and we were creeping up on his bedtime so he played for a few minutes and then Sherry took over! Who knew she could make THAT face--almost scary, but all in good fun! :)

Matt and Sherry had made homemade Oreos to celebrate Mom's birthday and Carter helped blow out the candles. By the way...these cookies were SOOO good it was hard to only eat one!

Crazy Rain & Flooding in Bakersfield!?!?!

So here we are, it's my 2-week Christmas Break and the stinking weather is forecast to be rainy THE WHOLE WEEK!!! Luckily there were a few days of reprieve now and again which was just long enough for things to dry out a bit before the next downpour hit! In a matter of a few days Bakersfield got record amounts of rain and we almost attained our annual rainfall estimate within these 2 short weeks of December! Our canyon roads were blocked due to massive rock slides...down south they were dealing with unbelievable mudslides and all around workers were busy trying to keep roads clear of water and debris. The city was handing out free sandbags for people who couldn't keep the water away from their homes. I was lucky, my backyard was a daily lake that would eventually soak up into a sponge-like marshy consistency when the rains stopped, but it stayed away from the house. Mom's house wasn't so lucky...her drains just couldn't keep up as you can see in the photos! On two or three different days I went over to help sweep the water away and twice we had to let water out of the pool because the rain had caused it to rise so much that it was almost overflowing! However, on Thursday Dec. 23rd (the one in the photos) the water on the patio came all the way in and ended up about 4 inches deep! On a previous day we'd moved all of the patio furniture as far back as possible but it was not far enough for this day! We'd gotten over an inch of rain in about an hour and it had been steadily raining prior to that! With the ground already saturated the water had no place to go and after that 1-hour downpour all the planters were overflowing, the pool was overflowing, the neighbors' yard was overflowing into mom's yard and the patio was already underwater! So we opened the main drain in the bottom of the pool (which then sends the water out to the street through a big hose) and got all the water out by sweeping it from the patio into the pool. The pool ended up looking like a swamp but we figured we could fix that later and besides...the planters had been overflowing dirt and worms into it for days now! Our plan had worked--the water was gone and the forecast actually called for a partially sunny Christmas Eve with rain expected to return Saturday afternoon for Christmas. We all decided that Friday the 24th would be the best day to drive to Exeter to visit Grandma Nita & the cousins to celebrate Christmas because we wouldn't have to wonder if things were flooding while we were gone! Then on Saturday the 25th with the help of Wayne (really we just helped him) we dug out some of the drain pipes to see why they couldn't move the water out...and what we found was unreal! Wayne cut a section of pipe and with plenty of brute force pulled out a snake like clog made of roots, dirt, and God knows what that was a full 4 inches in diameter and at least 3 feet long before it broke! Clearly that anaconda of muck was the reason water struggled to pass through! He got out as much as he could from the pipe that went underneath the cement slab and then replaced the pipe we could get to with a thicker pipe in hopes the roots wouldn't penetrate and grow inside of it again!