Going on

First Munchin go to projectworkingmom.com this is the site that I got my scholarship for medical transcription and it really was easy to get the scholarship and once I get it done I will be able to work from home, just an idea.
Next I will not be able to come down to the city for the next couple months Mr Man has decided that the pass has to much snow on it and the temps aren't getting high enough for me to drive over so no visiting for the next few months till the average temperature gets over 40 degrees. This means that Little man and I will be alone for 5 days starting Wednesday. What fun oh what fun. I will figure out the business tax stuff hopefully. I have to call our business account bank and find out where our money went. Its there I think just in the savings account.
Well that's the short so unless I can get someone to come get me I can't come over no diving for me thinking of asking my step dad but drought that will happen since I can't pay for gas.

Hows it going

Well how is everyone doing? I like the new look of the blog very fall and we already have some color changes up here. I'm trying to get photos ready for the festival thing we are enrolled in this next month. I had a job interview at a Karate school as an office manager I don't think I got it but I will call him Monday and find out. Well that's the down and dirty about me. SMILE.

Fuzzy

Everything in my life (including the kitchen sink)

What's new with me...?

Well, not too terribly much. I'm inundated with obligations, as usual. :)

I'm glad to hear that the business is moving along! Thanks for being the primary on this one, because I don't know if it would be humanly possible for me to take on more right now. I've been assigned room configuration for the Annual All-Hands Meeting at work next week (tables, chairs, setup, take down, A/V, etc., for all 40 participants). I'm still frantically trying to pull together a PhD advisory committee and application, and figure out funding. We've had funding cuts, and some additional drama at work, that has meant a higher up has decided to cut parts of the tuition funding option at work--I may be on my own for half, and up to all, of the tuition cost of school. Get this: after doing the math, I still make more money keeping my job and paying 10K of it to school than any other option (lottery aside). I'm mid-semester, taking 4 classes, and in another group project (yay.).

Mr. B's health is up and down, and we recently started to seriously investigate a move to the North West. Sure, I would lose my job, and the PhD option, but we've had some issues with family lately--his mother misses him. So we've spent the last 6 weekends in a row with them (not an exaggeration). She's upset about his health and puts him on a major guilt trip every time he says we're too busy (or we want to spend time together...alone). I'm trying to gently get her to understand that she's doing real harm to my marriage because we're straining to accommodate her needs. We need out, and we like the rain, so we figure Washington state might not be terrible, and as it turns out jobs in both our fields are plentiful there.

But enough of the serious: here's some fun and quirky.

Mr. B has recently discovered audio books, and likes to listen to them on his long commutes. We check them out from the online 2 week downloadables at our local library. He's now listened to Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead, The Golden Compass, and a few others. We're discussing books together, a long-held dream that I never thought would be reality. We're considering an Audible account in the future, but right now the library is working out really well (FREE!).

We watched Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog at the last movie night, and it was truly AWESOME. Anyone who hasn't seen this 45-minute short film needs to. It's about an aspiring super villain and his bid to join the Evil League of Evil.

Yesterday was the one year anniversary of getting our cats. They're a year and a few months old now, and having left their kitten years, they're now teenagers discovering who they really are. They've discovered that now that they are able to sit still long enough, watching birds out of the kitchen window is a really fun pursuit. And where they used to run themselves until they passed out wherever, they are now more selective in their sleeping habits, and discovering certain preferences for location and position:

My garden continues to grow. It survived despite a recent, near apocalyptic, hail storm. It hailed marble-sized hail for a solid ten minutes, and it looked like snow when it was done: everything was 3-6 inches deep in white. It pummeled one of my birdhouses to the point of actually breaking it (repairable). But the wind direction just barely saved my garden, and the peas are doing very well.

My niece was cast a Bell in a kid's version of Beauty and the Beast, and she remembered all of her lines (pretty good for a 7-year-old!).

My diet is back on track, and I've finally lost all of the hospital weight I put on during the first 4 months of the year--the Wii Mr. B got for his birthday is helping. I think I'm going to give myself a 6 month grace period to finish my yearly resolutions due to all of the craziness this year.

Oh, our kitchen sink disposal also needed replacing recently. It was old, and it sprung a leak and I didn't figure it out until after cleaning out the fridge and putting it all down the drain (messy).

Alula

Attack

Well my three injuries have happened glad to have that over! I massively sprained/bruised by foot and ankle falling down some stairs. Fell over some bricks in my front yard getting a nice slice in my other leg probably should gotten stitches didn't, and then I had a girl scout land on me when I was running the climbing wall at work completely messing up my back those girls need to listen to directions like telling me when they are coming down. Well that's over we will what the klutz comes up with next! Working on the online store not as fast as I would like but I am trying I promise. Little man and I will be visiting this weekend to have some fun and do some business stuff. Oh and little man decided to see if an entire roll of toilet paper would flush down the toilet guess what it doesn't. And my fish are trying to eat each other for some reason I just can't figure out which one is doing it and no I don't know their names. And my plants are dieing because I have no Garden to put them in because Mr Man is working 12 hrs a day 6 days a week so he has no time to help me. And it just rained for 2 days straight and the river is running even higher here come the floods. Well that's the down and dirty on my life what everyone else up to? See who I will see this weekend.

Fuzzy

Yet one more awesome thing to do online...

Scrapbooking: Check out the free software offered by Scrapbook Flair, and additional reviews here. There are a lot of these free album-creating softwares out there now, and I think they're totally awesome because they play to my need to be creative with photographs without the need to buy and store a bunch of stuff. Also, the templates, backgrounds, etc., are updated regularly and downloadable. I made the following scrapbook page using this program (this is an exported .jpg image--the actual scrapbook page is much bigger):

Lonely...I'm so lonely...

I'm sitting here listening to my Blue October channel on Pandora, being lonely. I looked through a friend's wife's photo album of their kid born last July, and suddenly realized, I think, why people have kids. Damn she looks happy.

No, I do not want one anytime soon. (Nor am I drunk right now. Yeah, I can see you thinking it!)

But I am is sick of school. My give-a-damn's broken, as it were, and I think I'm okay hitting an 80% for my final projects this semester--none of them are particularly inspiring to me.

However, I have been given a lovely opportunity at work to beta a really cool product that's getting released to the public on December 3rd, and that really has been inspiring. I swear I love this job so much it's the only thing keeping me in school through these rough times.

Today we had the first big Christmas craft sale of the season, and Q really raked it in yesterday. Today was a bit of a bust due to heavy snow last night and this morning keeping the crowds away. We collected a bunch of cards and I had personal conversations with some of the crafters, getting email addresses for our online site. Fuzzy noticed early on these people don't like the word "consignment", because those businesses "screw them over." All in all, a pretty successful endeavor, as it looks like there is a lot of interest in such a site.

But I am now in an overly sentimental mood and my husband leaves again tomorrow. Poop.

And I have homework to do. Double poop.

I'm going to write a book this week. And I'm probably going to put up the Christmas decorations on the site early. I'm sorry if this annoys anyone; read my post on Slacker Productivity for the reason why this happens every finals season, and doubly so during holiday sentimentality.

There was SOOO much snow...

Ladies (especially those of you not living where I am):

I let the cats out to play in it when there was 6 inches yesterday. When I suggested going out today, they just gave me sarcastic looks:

This is my birdhouse out back (it is under there, I promise):

We lost power for nearly 45 minutes last night, resulting in a scramble for the candles and nearly 15 degrees drop in temperature inside the house. At my house, we have about 2 feet total--you can kind of see it on the table in the courtyard behind the cats. My work had an early dismissal yesterday because they were worried about people getting home (like my boss, I elected to work from home at about 8 am anyways). My school closed early yesterday too (though I didn't have school that day). I was supposed to have class today, as the school was open, but my neighborhood roads haven't been plowed and it's still falling.

How much did everyone else get?

Alula

First Freeze

Today is the last hours of summer and the first of fall--and it's frickin' freezing out!

Wonderful!

As tends to happen to me when fall rolls around, I'm experiencing my annual moment of clarity in direction. Several weeks ago an opportunity came up at work (still in the air--a possibility and not a certainty) where my temporary position might become a career position if I got a PhD, which tuition costs would be reimbursed on.

So for weeks now I have been agonizing over whether to do it or not, and if I did, what PhD program I would go into. I thought about doing one in Computer Science for the bankability factor, but the idea that they would probably make me get a (3rd, good God) Master's along the way gave me ulcers. I am so ready to be done with on-campus school and beyond ready to be in the workforce full time.

I considered Geography, which is the preference of my workplace, but it just doesn't seem to have many cross-field applications. I considered linguistics, but my program there is not making me happy lately--no one is available to meet with me about completing my program. I considered doing more information management and library science, but what's it good for if you're not going to teach?

Well, yeserday I just knew. I just knew--it's information management and library science. When the time rolls around and if it's still possible, that's what I'm doing. It's good for me to build a career where I am, and will give me a leg up over other librarians in the future if I were to ever leave (...and I could always teach at a university). Plus, it's a lower stress career than others I have considered, so more time to focus on my writing.

The New Job

The new job is great--for anyone that thinks I'm being too sad about a new job, I am. I still get to walk downstairs every day and see that place on the cupboard where the rat cage used to be and isn't anymore. I just haven't been in a mood to be happy--I use my happy at work so I can do all of my coping on my own time.

It rained today, which made me happy. Rained last night too, and I got to listen to thunder and pitter patter on the roof. Amazing.

But seriously, the job is fantastic and I'm really happy there. I started my projects today and for anyone that the government is inquiring to for background check, please don't comment on it here. It's between you and the government, and thanks for doing it.

What can I say about the new job...? I have my own cubicle. I have a flatscreen monitor. I have fantastic coworkers, whose names I almost have down. I really like my boss and my supervisor, and I'm totally in love with the position. I got an assignment from class over the weekend where I need to create an information architecture project plan for an existing or made up site; when I asked my supervisor if I could use the department site and send my plan off to the web team when I was done he said it was a fabulous idea. In fact, he said he encourages me to crossover as much as I can between work and school in this manner because it helps my education and improves government resources at the same time. Now I'm really hoping my professor at school approves the idea, because I will probably wind up sending off some suggestions to the web team anyways. I'm way into my web development side right now; for those of you who want to check it out, the school notes site I set up as an assignment for class is here: Words and Information.

I'm tired as all get out because as anticipated, Mr. B still does nothing around the house. In the morning he wakes up and gets ready for work, and I have to shower the night before because he "needs the bathroom in the morning." I wake up and make the bed, make the coffee, make the lunches, put in a load of laundry, unload and reload the dishwasher, check school activities, and then get ready for work. Yeah, it's bull. But someone will adjust or something will give.

whats new

first I don't know any chicken recipes that are actually good just bleh. Sorry about your rat Alula and congrats on the new car Q hopefully its good for you. Well lets see for me whats new I really want to quit my job because it is horrible but I need to stick with it for a little longer just a couple more bills to pay off then I can quit and Mr Man said he would pay my insurance and all the bills because that's still cheaper than paying for a babysitter. And bills paid or not I will have to quit come hunting season because Mr man has trips planned for California, Idaho, Nevada and a few other places this fall. Next month he will be going to Florida to go deep sea fishing with some buddies, shark meat is supposed to be really good. My mom is planning to come up for that week to be my babysitter because her daycare kid is gone for the summer and Bug will be at camp, plus it gives her an excuse to make Bugs dad act like a dad for a while. I'm still hoping I can find an online job that I can do to earn a little money but most of the ones I find look like scams. Little man is doing great decidedly a little boy loves being outside though it has rained for the last 3 days giving this child cabin fever. Yesterday was a little nice so we all went out on the ATVs with Mr mans little brother. Of course as newtons law requires it started to rain and hail on us at the top of the trail we were on. So just because I felt like it I called in sick today actually I called in my kid is sick though he is doing fine. My schedule had me off for two days work one day and off another two days well I don't like that idea so I called in. OK little man is demanding attention so I have to cut this off now.

fuzzy

Avoiding All...

Well ladies, I believe that God would like me to continue a love and hate relationship with him. The reason I have come to believe this is true goes a little something like this.

A Couple days ago I was ALL set to start my laundry (I feel your pain on doing it DoHP, I hate putting it away too). I have all my cloths sorted into piles and ready to start the 5 loads I need to do, when all of the sudden I go down to check out the spider my brother is trying to catch and I see a spill in the floor of his basement bedroom. I proceeded to ask him what was on the floor (it looked like one of my dogs had tried to do him a favor and clean his carpet with their urine). He to me, "Oh, it's just water." To which I proceeded to tell him that when there is water underneath the carpet soaking it, there is no such thing as just water. We frantically found the leak area and best we could while I called my favorite plumbing company (the one who gave me a new pipe in February 2008).

The plumber arrives and finds the leak quickly because there is a loud drip. We watered the front lawn about thirty minutes before we discovered the leak. Obviously this was the problem, so we now have a new from faucet. Here is what the old one looked like:
That split you see is about half an inch long and was an eigth inch buldge on the side view of it. Now you may be wondering what caused this massive burst in our faucet, I assure you that no one but God Almighty could have done this. Every winter including the last we remove our hoses like good little children, as we did this winter. This being said, the pipe with the burst in it you see above is "freeze proof" and it froze and burst. Just our luck, we can even freeze a freeze proof pipe so we spend all my money. Thanks so much God, for all your love and good fortune... after all I didn't have to do my laundry that night, it was the perfect out.

~Munchkin

Its officially spring!

Hey Ladies!
Its officially spring I stepped on my fist Gardner snake yesterday! If you do not know this already, I have a curse! If there is a Gardner snake in a fifty foot radius I'm gonna step on it. I swear to you they slither out of now were and I find them under my foot!

Woot!

So Mr. Munchkin and I are now married. That was the most excellent day of my entire life. I can't wait to ge the pictures so I can post a few for everyone to see. We started the day out with rain... supposed to be good luck right? I think so, but it didn't stop at the rain. After the rain we proceeded to hail and snow, I consider this to be a sign of the best luck possible. I mean who else honestly gets every type of precipitation on their wedding day? Before the ceremony began we had an uninvited guest named Tom, Tom Turkey. Yes folks I had a Wild Turkey (not the alcohol) at my wedding. Tom feasted on my environmentally friendly alternative to rice, wild bird seed, with gusto after many bags of it were thrown at Mr. Munchkin and myself.

The day was spectacular. DoHP helped avert crisis, and the best man arrived in time for the wedding. It snowed during the ceremony, one of the many reasons I cannot wait to post some pics. After the ceremony I did my bridal photos outside and the flakes were bigger and even more beautiful. I am sure we have some spectacular images. Anyway, I must get back to watching movies and enjoying my honeymoon. Thank you too all who made that day possible!

~Munchkin

Blizzard Conditions

Hi Ladies. I think this pretty well explains it:

8:00 AM

10:00 AM

Noon

Currently

I'm not going out front to get a picture of the house, but I'd imagine it's similar. There is a three foot snow drift just below the bird house.

Also, I would like to formally log a complaint. Q told my husband the other day that she would raise our kids (we're not having any) for us and would even "throw in a little democrat." Then she stated that producing offspring would allow my husband to have someone to talk at all the time. Mr. Borealis sat me down to a formal meeting two days ago to say that he "liked the image Q put in his head" and now he wants kids someday. Thanks a load, Q.

Mr. Q, I would like to state for the record that your wife's life plan is currently to force my husband to get me pregnant and then use the money you earn to raise the product. Be advised, or we're both going to get screwed over here.

Alula

Men!

Hey Ladies !
I put this out there to all men! Its nothing personal but when there is 8 inches of snow, a its coming down so hard you can not see your neighbors house number. Get you lazy butt out there and shovel! Don't make the woman do it because you will get it later! Yes it will be there but there will be a foot on top of it! Its so much easier to take care of when you only dealing with 5 inches at a time. I am so tired of this argument. I do not know about the rest of the women out there but I know its gonna be like pulling teeth to get the cars dug out. And what if there is a emergency? Are we gonna spend 2 hours digging out the car, as we have a family member dying in the hospital! Seriously!
It makes me so mad. And I always end up breaking myself to shovel what the man in the house should have helped me with. That's right Mr. Q I do not except you to do it alone. Just help your crazy wife that needs to be able to get to her elderly grandmother at the drop of a hat.

So as some of you might have guess I just came in from shoveling, after arguing with Wetpaw about helping me. Apparently we have 24 hours to do it once it stops snowing. We have the chance of getting close to 2 ft of heavy spring snow. And the guy that will not even pull in the empty trashcans is gonna take care of it tomorrow.
MEN! SNOW! Humph!