Where has this year gone?

I can't believe it is December!!  Also that this is only my third post of the year!  What has happened to my blogging ways?  Just a few highlights of what has happened since my last post.

In August, my niece went away to college.  She is about 3 hours away but loving the big city life!  I could see me slipping right into big city life easily.  Also in August, I meet with a dietitian which helped validate the way I have been eating.  I was glad we were on the same page and she gave me good tips.  I still need to come up with a good meal planning routine.

Then in September, I donated my waterbed!  I have missed it since it has been cooler.  I have also noticed a big difference in how I feel with good mattress!  My back doesn't hurt me as much.  After my body adjusted, I love my new bed and mattress!!

Phoebe at the Dog Swim 2013

Then mid-September, I got the stomach flu.  I had to call into work and everything thinks I am dying since I rarely call in.  The last time I called in was March of 2010.  Then I had 5 days off to get better.  I hadn't been that sick in a long time!!!

October, I ended up with a sinus infection after starting to feel better from having the stomach flu.  I took Phoebe to Pets & Pumpkins.  The most exciting part was a 2 week vacation!!

On vacation, my sister and I went and visited my niece.  She showed us around the big city.  I really enjoyed our adventures we had!  I really hope to go back to have more adventures.  :)

Then in November, I went to a crop with a friend of mine.  I even made more friends!  It was a great retreat and hope to be able to do that again.  I had no internet or cell phone service for a couple of days.  It took more planning ahead.

Something exciting that I learned earlier this month was I was spied by Imaginisce!! My layout that was spied My layout is of my pug Phoebe with the paw prints going across. I really like the first layout posted! I love all the curvy lines. Fun!!

I will have to see what December has to bring!  So far, I am trying to reorganize my house and get my living room ready to put my tree up.  

I had started this post at the Mudhouse.  I was hanging out with my younger niece and we were having fun!  It was super foggy for the drive home.   We made it!!

 

I miss Fleck!

My favorite game on my iPad shut down the servers on August 16. Here is a video that was posted. I can't get the video to play but I added it anyways!

I am tired of being a grown-up!

The last couple of months has been rough in the grown-up department. I am a homeowner and was quite excited when I bought my house. I teased my parents that I was going to move into the basement of their new house. Then I got over my homeowner woes and thought of a solution then another homeowner woe came along. It wasn't an emergency like the first one but still another thousand's of dollars type of repair. ::sigh:: I have been wanting to refinance for quite some time. I had the bright idea of doing a cash out to pay for these thousand's of dollar's repairs. I find out this week, I am unable to do this. Home values have went down since I bought my house and it has affected my plan. I wish I had known this months ago when rates were a little lower.  I would have started this process sooner but I was under the impression I would need an appraisal.  I wanted to do a few things to my home prior to this.  Drats. Now I am stuck with a huge payment from these home repairs. I miss the days of calling a landlord! On the bright side, I will be saving money on my house payment with my refinancing.

Then last night, I got out of Wal-mart and I noticed I had a flat tire.  I call roadside assistance and they put my spare on my car.  I was happy that it was included in my car insurance so no charge.  But a screw was in the side of my wheel which they can't repair, the tire has to be replaced.  I went to Sam's and they told me I needed two tires, not just one.  The reason was they couldn't find a tire to match my other tires, it would mess up the balancing or whatever.  It was going to be over $200 for two tires!  He asked me what I wanted to do and I said I want my keys.  I waited for 2 hours to get nothing done to my car.  GRRRR!  I hope I can find a tire that will match my other tires to save money.  I don't have the extra money right now for all this craziness!

Just a little vent on the last couple of months.  I am redoing my budget and all will be good again.  Please, no more unplanned repairs, big or small!

My pug in action!

Created with Gifboom

My niece is always showing new apps I would have never searched for. She introduced me to this app and I made a gif of Phoebe.

 

Looking for a REAL man!

In the last month, I have been stopped by three different men to tell me I am beautiful. One was at Wal-mart, the second was downtown (the rose panhandler), and the third was while walking down the street today.

I went to the C-street loft walk which I try to go to every year.  I just love seeing the different lofts and how people decorate their lofts.  I have a few ideas of stuff I would like to do.  One loft I went to I recognized a guy in the pictures and it was his girlfriend!  I like their loft the best with all the decor.

I was walking back to my car and this guy driving down the street was staring at me.  He parks his car down the street, not far from my car and approaches me.  He introduced his self to me and then preceded to tell me that I caught his eye while walking down the street.  He was wondering if we could go out and have a drink to see if there was a spark between us.  Very flattering but he just didn't seem like my type.  I was curious his age because he seemed younger than me by quite a few years.  He asked for my number but I asked if I could have his number instead.  I could tell he was a smoker which is a turn off to me.  I could just smell it!

The guy I meet at Wal-mart seemed like a decent guy but he didn't ask for my phone number.  He just told me that my husband was very lucky to have such a beautiful wife.  I was shocked and didn't say I was single.  He might have been a real man but I was to shy to say anything.

I am hanging out at the Mudhouse and looking forward to go home and see Dexter!  I am interested on how this season will go!

Summer is winding down

I can't believe that summer is technically over!!  School is back in season and the weather is cooling off a little.  This summer was too HOT!!  We had about 2 months of 100+ weather.  I like summer but this was a bit too much.

In June, I had a 3 week vacation that was great!  I went to St. Louis for CKC and also got my first out-of-state geocache.  I also had a goal to get at least 30 geocaches in June and I got 35!  My nieces and I went geocaching for a day and we found lots of ticks!!  We decided to wait on crawling in the woods till tick season is over.

July brought lots of sadness for me.  I lost my cat Chloe.  I came home from work on morning and she was dead in the hallway.  She was just fine before I left for work that night.  She had been fighting hyperthyroidism but her levels were finally in optimal range and she seemed to be doing better.  It was quite the shock for me.  I have been wanting to make a blog post in regards to this.

Navy Pier

Then in the middle of July, I traveled to Elburn, IL to see my Scrap Jammie friends!  One was traveling all the way from Australia!  We even took a day trip to Chicago which was a blast!!!  I need to order pictures and get to scrapbooking them!

I got back from my trip and my A/C wasn't able to keep up with the 100+ weather.  It is leaking freon and I need a new system.  They at least got it working for me but I need to start saving $$$$ for a new unit.  Ugh!!  At least the weather has cooled off to the 80's to 90's which is nice.

August I have been working on getting my house better organized, especially my extra bedroom!  I made good progress but still have lots to do.  I have lots of stuff I just need to get rid of.

I am hanging out at the Mudhouse trying to stay caffeinated!!

Thanks for reading and have a great day!

Getting used to blogger changes

I noticed about a month ago that blogger has changed how you post a blog.  My dashboard is all different and a little confusing.  I am trying to get used to it.

I would like to give my blog a lift but unsure what to do.  If things look funny, that is why.  I might try out a few looks and see what happens.

Zombie apocalypse here?

I walked into my favorite coffee shop downtown and the barista was talking about this in the news:

How the Zombie Apocalypse starts!

You can find several other articles along with youtube videos of this incident.

Then doing more searches on zombies online I found this.  Hmmmm . . . . .

I did watch a special once about zombies I believe from the History channel.  They say that the zombie virus was a mutation of the rabies virus and they are trying to do this.  Why?  I am not sure.  I believe I need to get prepared and read my Zombie Survival Guide!!

I took this photo when in 2010 when zombies came to my town to dance to Michael Jacksons Thriller!