Video Blog: Our Picnic

Here are the two video's I promised from our picnic trip yesterday.

The first video is of these fish eating a pretzel that we threw into the water. We couldn't believe how they just attacked it until it was all gone. Who knew fish liked pretzels!?

The second one is, brace yourself, mushy, but I love it. He's so sweet to me, I just had to share!

Enjoy!

Picnic

Hey there blog friends!

So yesterday, while Phil was out at his physical therapy appointment, I decided I was going to do a video blog, and then the camera decided to die on me right in the middle of it. Oh well...I didn't have anything important to video blog about, just nonsense.

When Phil got home though, we went on our first picnic. There is a huge park about a block away from us called Desert Breeze. There is a big fishing lake and and a train that runs around the whole park on the weekends. When my cousin JJ was just a little guy we would take him over there and I would ride on the train with him.

So with our cooler packed with sandwiches and goodies, we headed over to the park and found a nice place to sit. The weather was a little hot yesterday, but not too bad, better then it has been this summer. There was also a ton of fish in the lake and I got on video these fishes tearing up a pretzel we threw in the water. It is crazy!! There is also another, very mushy video, that Phil took, which I think is adorable and whether you like mush or not, I am going to post it along with my pretzel-eating fish video shortly, or as soon as I am able to get around to loading the videos.

My parents came by this morning for a little bit, and it was nice to see them, I miss them a lot. Once they left Phil and I had lunch and then were going to head back to the park to go fishing. After we ate, though, I needed to come online to take care a few things, and he was watching some TV. He came here, into the bedroom, when I was almost done, and laid down on the bed talking to me. Next thing I know, he is snoring! Now, I am not sure if I should wake him so we can go fishing, or if I should just let him sleep. Hm...maybe I will just see if he wakes up on his own...

Well, that's about it from my end right now. I need to upload the videos I made yesterday to YouTube so I can post them on here, and I also have some pictures I will share with you. I decided that video blogs don't always have to be me ranting in front of the camera, they can be of anything that I take video off in my daily adventures.

Video Blog: My New Haircut

*Seriously, I think Youtube hates me, which is why they make me look like a boob in the first frame before you click play*

And then there were two...

Last night we lost another one of our lovebirds, Tweety. During dinner she started showing signs that she was going to pass, sitting at the bottom of her cage, all puffed and sleeping, stumbling about when she walked, and her breathing was labored. I had seen the signs before with other birds, so I knew that during the night she would pass. When we went to bed she was still sitting at the bottom of the cage, and this morning when we woke up at 5:30am, she was gone.

So now I am down to just two lovebirds, the original two I had before I started getting others (I've had 7 in all). I've been checking on them today and they seem to be OK, they know their friend is gone, but seeing as they are flock birds, they tend to get over it quickly. I am doing OK with it too, because I had all night to prepare myself that this morning she would be gone. I said my goodbyes before I went to bed.

I've decided as much as I love my lovies, I just don't think I am going to get any new ones. All the lovebirds I've gotten from Petsmart have died, and unless you get them from a breeder, who raised it from birth, you never know what diseases they have, and they show no sign of illness until the last moment. Plus, I get so attached to my pets, that I don't need to get attached to anymore. The two I have left, Baby and Pooh, I have had for 3 years, and Pooh I've had since he was a baby. I just hope that I have a lot of time left with the both of them.

The video blogs stay!

I've gotten some good responses from the video blog I did on Friday. Those who have written me about it seem to say they liked it and wish for me to continue. I even had a few people, that I have known online for awhile, say it was nice to actually hear my voice and put it to the words that I write. So for now, the video blogs will stay. I'll do a combination of both, regular blogs, and video blogs.

I hope your all having a great weekend. I was finally able to get out of the house yesterday. Phil's back door of his Jeep has not been able to go up, meaning that we haven't been able to load my chair back there. Yesterday morning he went back there with all his manly tools and somehow got it working again. So we met up with my parents to get the ramps needed to load my chair into the van, and off we went.

Today we are spending the afternoon at my mom and dad's. I haven't spent a good amount of time with them since we moved, seeing as mom had a terrible infection in one of her teeth, but is not feeling better after having the tooth extracted. It will be fun to hang out with them, and cook with mom again.

Speaking of my mom, her birthday is coming up in Thursday. Originally, I was going to spend the day over at their house, but now I invited mom and dad to come over here for lunch. It will be my first time really entertaining in my new place, and I am looking forward to it. I am going to make a lunch and also a birthday cake (lemon with vanilla frosting, at the birthday girl's request). The only thing I wish I had was a couch, so I could finally get my living room together, so people have a nice place to sit.

Well, I'm off to get started on my day. Phil is sleeping in, so I am going to take this opportunity to look up some recipes for the week, and write down things we need when we store by the store later on the way home from mom and dad's. I am really getting into the cooking, I've always loved to it, and now I can try all sorts of new recipes. Have a great weekend!!

My first video blog....Human Nature

So the newest thing in the blogging world is to create what is called a "Vlog" or video blog. Instead of typing out your thoughts, you sit yourself in from of you video camera and talk to you audience.

Surprisingly, as much as I love technology, and the chance to use the video camera on my digital camera, I have never tried this before. But since I had no work left to do today, and Phil won't be home from work for awhile, and I had an idea for a blog, I decided to try it. This is what happens when your bored and home alone.

So enjoy!!



(Why does Youtube find the most unflattering pose of you and stick that as the first image??)

Back to Work

I've started working for my friend Cindy again. I used to do her bookkeeping for her and her husband (he is an independent contractor), and she needs help getting her invoices organized again. So I spent yesterday getting the system I used set up again, and she faxed me over some work. It was so nice to be working again, it makes me feel productive, instead of just sitting here during the day after my morning chores, bored.

Phil would love to get started being an independent contractor, he is so talented with carpentry, and can do so many things. And we could really make a lot of money doing it. So I have started researching everything he needs to do to get licensed and bonded and get a contracting business up and running. I would love it because while I am here during the day I can run the office part of the business; scheduling appointments, taking calls, keeping track of invoices, and the like. It is fairly simple to do, and I absolutely love office work. I'm not sure why, but when it comes to running an office, I can do it with my eyes closed. I suppose its just a natural talent.

Alone Time

When Phil and I first began apartment hunting, I knew during the work-week I would be home alone while he was out working. During our first week here, I had a lot to do during the day, from unpacking and getting everything organized and put away. I really didn't notice the alone time, it seemed like I was so busy, he would be home from work before I knew it.

Now that the unpacking is done, and we're about settled in, I don't have as much work to do around here. I wake up in the morning, shower, and attend to my little chores, such as making the bed, starting some laundry, and making sure the kitchen is clean and the birdies are cleaned up. Once I finish this, I have the rest of the day free to just do whatever.

I have to admit that I do like my alone time. I spend a lot more time online chatting with my friend Ryan, which I wasn't doing much of before, and her and I have to have our girl time. But I love being online, I don't know what I would do without it. I spend more time online then watching TV during the day, in fact my TV is usually off until Phil comes home from work. But I notice that at times, I get restless. I wish I had a car, so I could run errands or just go visit my parents or even just do a little window shopping. I look forward to when I know Phil will be home because then I have someone to talk to. But this is nice, I have to admit I enjoy having the day to do whatever I like. When Phil gets home from work I get busy cooking dinner and at night we spend time together, so this is like my time to just relax.

I have found though, that I am doing a lot more of those silly myspace bulletin surveys, to pass the time. I think there should be a survey anonymous!

Has it really been ten years?

My ten year high school reunion is going to be on Oct. 6th. I can't believe it has been ten years already. Looking back, I had such a different view of where I would be in my life, and although the grandiose ideals of a 17 year old seemed wonderful, I am very happy with where I am in my life right now, even if I haven't fulfilled any of the goals I had back for myself when I graduated.

I have been wondering though, the past few days, if it is even worth it to attend the reunion. First off, it is $60 per person to attend, meaning I need to fork over $120 for the two of us to go to a four-hour event, where they are only offering appetizers and drinks. If dinner was happening, then maybe I could see paying that price. Plus, I have better things to spend my money on. Unfortunately, I just don't have that amount of money laying around to spend on an event where I may not even care about seeing any of the people that happen to attend. I didn't have much friends outside of the band room frankly. And now, being that I am in a chair and unable to walk, I don't want to deal with an evening full of people asking me why I am in a chair, and getting fake sympathy in return. I'm not sad about it, I just don't need to pay such a large amount of money to discuss my health condition.

I wonder if I would regret it though, if I don't go. Then again, I've gone ten years without caring about seeing any of these people, so would I really care if I miss this night? And the people I would like to see, most live out of state and won't be able to attend anyway. And reunions are all about bragging anyway...look at how much money I have, look at my family, my house, my car, look at where I've traveled. I could care less. I'm happy with where I am, engaged to a great man who I just moved into a very nice apartment with, I have a great family. I don't feel the need to brag about it.

Weekend Review

I hope you all had a great weekend!

I saw my parents this weekend, on Saturday, for a few hours. My mom has a terrible toothache and an infected tooth, so we didn't stay for dinner as we had planned because it was more important for her to get her rest, and I wished that I was there to take care of her, but I know my dad is doing a good job with that. Hopefully she is going to the dentist today to have the tooth pulled, because that will bring her so much relief.

Yesterday I was finally able to get my desktop computer hooked up, and also set up the cable modem. I haven't been using my desktop in months because I could never get an Internet connection to it wirelessly, and when I did, it would kick me off after a few minutes. So now I am directly connected to the cable modem and this thing is lightening fast. I am using it now, actually, while downloading music on the laptop. Ahh, how I love my technology.

Things are the apartment are really starting to take shape. My bedroom is pretty much done, except for the closet, which needs to be organized a bit better, and I have a few clothing bags I need to go through and put away. And in the living room all I need is a couch to get everything looking like an actually living room (all I have is a recliner), and then I can put my coffee table and end tables where I want them. Today I am going to finish organized the bookshelves, and unpacking all my fragile things, so I can put them around. It drives me crazy looking at things unorganized. Luckily the kitchen is all done and looking good, thanks to my grandma's coming over last week. It's starting to look like home around here, which is nice.

Kimbo the Housewife

My parents came over yesterday afternoon and it was so nice to see them, and to be able to show them around my new place. I miss them a lot, I am so used to seeing them everyday, so this is definitely an adjustment, but I have to admit, I do like being able to have space to spread out my things. I also find that I can't wait to wake up in the morning so I can putter around here. I have all the boxes unpacked, now I am just working on organizing and decorating. I'm getting into a new routine around here, waking up in the morning and showering, then making sure the kitchen is clean, maybe do some laundry, straighten up anything else from the night before, and then work on getting things put away. I'm like a little housewife, and I have to admit, this is definitely my thing. I have always been a homebody, and a nurturer, so I find being able to have a home of my own and take care of things fulfills a need I have always had.

The one thing I am enjoying is checking out all the different people that live here. I've seen people in very bizarre outfits and behaviors, and I am getting to know which people are my neighbors, even though I haven't met any. Human nature is very fascinating.

Phil should be home from work soon. He had to be at work at 3am today, working all the way our in Avondale, which is about an hour away. So he was up and out the door by 2am. I thought I would have a had time sleeping when he left, being that I am still getting used to the place, but I slept really well. I've been working hard around here, so at night I am very tired. I know that when he gets home he is going to be so tired, so he will most likely take a nap for a few hours. But he was excited to see football will be on tonight, and plans on making his guacamole for the game. Its fun to be able to do that sort of stuff together. Last night, Drum Corp World Championships was on and he watched it with me, so tonight will be football night. We make a good team, I am a very lucky girl.

OK, time to start folding the laundry and working on getting my desk put together and my desktop computer set up. Have a great day!

Settling In

After all the moving we did this weekend, yesterday was the day to tackle the next hurdle: unpacking. Phil stayed home from yesterday, he had pulled some muscles in his chest lifting boxes and furniture for three days, and being that is a carpenter, and his job consists of lifting materials, he knew he would be no good. So he spent most of the morning in our bedroom, putting things away and moving our bed to where we want it and our desk. And both my grandma's come over and helped me unpack all my kitchen boxes and helped organize my kitchen, and get some other living room boxes unpacked. When they left, we looked around and saw just how much we got done, and how much better it looked around here. And I made our first dinner here, since my kitchen was all unpacked, so that was nice.

There is still a lot to be done around here, so while Phil is at work today, I have work to do. Its good to be able to keep busy though, today is the first day I will be here alone and it is actually nice, very quiet. I get a lot of work done when I am alone, not sure why, probably because I don't have someone around to babble too lol.

So I am off now to get in my shower and then start working. Phil will be home after 3pm today, so I have plenty of time to make a dent in some of the unpacking.

Happy Labor Day!

I hope you all had a safe and happy Labor Day, and that you were one of the lucky ones to have the day off.

As for me, this weekend was spent moving into our new apartment. Saturday morning, while Phil was out dove hunting, I packed up the rest of the stuff that was out and then spent the rest of the time moving things from out of my room into the living room to make it easier to pick up things and load them in the truck. Once Phil got home I went over to Cindy's and picked up the kids and brought them back and then it was time to load the cars. It was very hot, but the kids worked hard and so did Phil. It is thirty miles from my house to my parents house, one way, and we made about 3 trips, so that was a lot of driving! Around 7pm we finished unloading the truck and stopped to pick up some dinner for the kids before taking them home. We then picked up dinner for us and came home, ate, and fell asleep.

Sunday morning, I was up early, thinking of all the things we needed to get done, and Phil was up early too, so we headed back over to my parents house to take a few more loads of stuff. This time, we didn't have the kids, so Phil was left to move everything from the house or garage, and into the truck. It was another very hot and miserable day, and after the second load, we headed over the grocery store, as we had no food whatsoever, and did some shopping for the week, and headed over to the $.99 store where we were able to pick up a lot of stuff we needed. Its amazing how much good stuff they have in a store like that. We took the truck back to my parents house and talked to them for a bit, then headed home. It was after 10pm when we got back to this side of town, so we picked up some sandwiches and again ate and went to sleep.

This morning, I was up around 8am and decided to get started on some laundry, and putting away all the groceries that we bought the night before. I was able to get everything into the pantry we have and get it organized, and also unpacked our silverware and dishes and ran them through a dishwasher cycle. Then we headed back over to my parents and took two more loads of stuff, plus stopped by his storage to get some of his kitchen things. We got the truck back around 7pm and since neither of us felt like cooking when we got home around 9pm, we had some pizza delivered. Now, we're just sitting here, relaxing. Its been a long ass weekend and we are both wiped out.

My grandma's are coming over tomorrow, they offered to help me unpack and get my kitchen organized, and I am very happy for any help that I can get. So I will be up again early, but this time I don't have to make any long trips back and forth, I can stay here and start getting this place cleaned up. There is just boxes and bags everywhere and seeing as it is just a 720 sq.ft apartment, its pretty crammed in here. But despite the size, it is actually very nice and spacious, and cozy. We really haven't had a chance to sit back and really enjoy our new place, and we haven't even been able to cook a real meal here yet, but its our place, and its so nice to have a home I can call my own.

Moving Day

When Phil came home from work yesterday, we hopped in the car and drove over to the new apartment and signed the lease and got the keys. It felt good, and it felt right that we were going to be living there. I haven't been to the complex since just the first visit, so this time I was able to look around. The whole place, once you drive in, looks like you are in the mountains, very rustic looking, very cute. The apartment is very nice, albeit on the small side, but it is just the two of us. And the whole area around us is residential, so it is very quiet.

When we got home, we ate a quick dinner, and then I decided to tackle the rest of the packing. Mostly everything is packed, but it just seems that everywhere I look, there is crap that needs to go into a box. And no matter how much stuff I put into a box, there seems to be more crap lurking somewhere else. I am at the point now where I am just throwing whatever is out in a box to deal with later, as now it is just odds and ends. My hope was to get it all done last night, but around 10pm Phil looked at me and said get in this bed and let's get some sleep.

So today is the big day, moving day. I'm showered and dressed and it isn't even 7:30am yet, although I have been up since 4am. Today is the first day of dove hunting season, something that Phil waits for all year, and he had to be at his friend's house by 5am, as they were heading down to Casa Grande. Of course, I started thinking about everything that needed to get done this morning, and couldn't go back to sleep. Frankly, I would have much rather he stayed here today and helped me finish the rest of this packing, and then pick up the boys early from Cindy's and start moving so we can avoid doing a lot of this stuff in the heat of the afternoon, seeing as they are forecasting it to be a high of 113 today. With an extra pair of hands, I wouldn't have to scramble around getting everything done. But then, if I didn't let him go today, then I would have to deal with a crabby man all day and since moving is never fun to begin with, I'd rather him be happy with me then pissed off. Plus he's been waiting for this day all year, and he can only hunt until 10am I believe, so he'll be home early enough (hopefully).

My plan this morning is to finish getting everything into the few empty boxes I have left, unplug all the computer equipment, and get a little box together of all the things we will need tonight and tomorrow morning, like our toothbrushes and shampoo and soap. Then I will go pick up the boys and once back here, load up both cars with as many boxes as we can, and head over to the apartment. Once we get back here, hopefully Phil will be home and he can start loading furniture. Phew, just thinking about everything that needs to be done today has me tired.

Speaking of which, I better get a move on. My mom came home from work not too long ago and is taking a nap, so when she gets up I want to be all ready to head out and pick up the boys. I am hoping that I will be able to pick up a WiFi signal at the apartment tonight, so I can at least come online, since we won't have cable until tomorrow afternoon. If I can't though, then I won't be back online until sometime tomorrow afternoon. So wish me luck and next time I blog to you, I'll be blogging from Chandler!