Bad Blogger! Bad!

I'm not a very good blogger.  As much as I enjoy it, sometimes it starts to feel like just another thing to do. I don't like that. So, I'm back for now, and only when it's fun, and only when I want to. So what have I been doing over the last year or so? Pretty much the same stuff that I was doing before. Interesting right? I am still a full time student. The only change with school is I now attend the University of New Mexico.  I'm a senior, but the way the credit system is at UNM, I'll be a senior through 2014. 

I saw the ocean for the first time ever last year.

So did my boys. They flew for the first time too. It was pretty awesome!

Ocean Beach San Diego

Chad... and my husbands knuckles.

Chad and David

David loves the tidepools

Some of you may wonder how one can go 34 years without ever seeing the ocean, and the answer is simple, I am poor and the closest ocean is 800 miles away. 

We went to San Diego, and we're hoping we can make it again. 

In June we went to Galveston for a family reunion.

Galveston... a lot of seaweed. 

I went from never seeing having seen the ocean, to twice in one year! Pretty exciting.  Galveston was not near as pretty as San Diego, but the water was really warm and the kids loved playing in the Gulf.  Galveston is nearly a thousand miles away from Albuquerque. We Drove... With 3 boys (we took my nephew) crammed in the backseat of my moms Prius. She loaned it to us. We drove for 18 hours one way, and that car only needed a fill-up twice. That's four tanks of gas for nearly 2000 miles! 

My Grandma is still living with us. Her dementia has gotten quite a bit worse, but otherwise her health is surprisingly good, for a former drinker, smoker, and serious eater. She attends a center twice a week and loves it.  She didn't at first. She even tried to fake sick, but now she doesn't want to miss a day. I think she would love to go more, but the center doesn't have space to fit her in right now... I think we have to wait for someone to die or something. Seriously... I think that might be the cases. 

I had closed my etsy shop for a while so I could focus on school. It's open now, but there's not much new stuff. It's one of those things where you have to sell your old stuff so you can make new stuff. I really don't hold out a lot of hope for it. I don't re-post for views. I don't advertise. I just let it sit. I'll give it a few months,  and try to decide if I really want to continue. If not, then I've got some jewelry I can keep for myself, and that's okay too.

Explorers

Today we went on a hike. We went in a cave and emerged from it covered in ocher dust. We picnicked on a mountain that over looked a sprawling valley. We peed in the woods and followed tarantulas and found fossils and chased children and played with cousins and ate sandwiches and came home filthy. Today was a good day.

Bananas

This is Bananas. She's a garden spider in our Rosemary bush. My husband catches bugs for her and we all get to watch her wrap them up and eat them. We love Bananas.

Where I wish I was today

Instead I'm at school. Wouldn't it be nice if we could do whatever we wanted all the time?

I accidentally erased these

Haven't quite figured out all the ins and outs of my blogger app.

A cold and an exam

I have a cold. I'm kind of a snot monster today. I'm drinking the Vitamin powder my mother in law brought me. Ira thought about helping himself to some. I also have an exam. My first exam in my abnormal psych class. The exam that will tell me how much to study for the next exam. It's an online exam... So the snot monster gets to stay home today and drink her vitamins and use toilet paper to wipe her nose and never get out of her pajamas. Hooray for the snot monster!

head hurts

Is it bad when you take an exam and have no idea if you answered ANY questions correctly?

Meet my misery.

I question myself everyday. 

Why did I take Chemistry? I could've taken Environmental Science.

The thought running through my head...

Please grade on a curve, please grade on a curve, please grade on a curve!

I wanted an A. I'd be happy with a B.

I'm praying for a C.

Birthday!

Thirty-three years ago I emerged from my mothers loins! Gross right? 

Well in celebration of my birthday I ditched 3 of my 4 classes. Maybe not the brightest idea but hey, it's my birthday.

  

My Awesome Hubby Got me this cupcake!

I make better cake, but the mocha frosting was outstanding!

Anyhoo, March has been a good month. 

I've been invited to take honors classes at the community college and that will enable me to take honors classes at UNM in the fall. 

My Boys report cards were awesome! 

Grandma is still alive. 

My husband is hilarious as ever.

The weather is warm enough to go for lovely walks.

I've been super productive with my jewelry making! I made some super cute post earrings this weekend. 

I made molds of vintage buttons to make these. I like the way they came out. What do you think?

Working My Fingers To the Bone

It’s Spring Break time, so of course I have a sinus infection. But most importantly I am getting to spend lots of time with my sweet boys! Yesterday we went to the library and watched a turtle demonstration, where an angry woman told everyone that turtles are not for children. I thought it was amusing because the presentation was in the children’s section of the library. Tuesday I took the boys to the zoo where we got to watch a male elephant hump a tractor tire. Unfortunately I was unable to get a photo as my camera only works sporadically. Monday we took the boys to the craft store which is always a good time.  So I suppose that is my week in reverse.  One of the things I’m most excited about this spring break is I finally had plenty of time to work on jewelry! Hooray for me. I’ll be uploading lots of new things over the next few days, so please take a look and tell me what you think.

 

 

 

NEW WALLET!!!

It’s awesome. I’m in love with it.

Look at all those card slots. Also there are three pockets perfect for bills, checkbook, and receipts, and a zipper pocket for change!

Look for it here!

timewarp

I fell into a time warp for the last few weeks. Homework, Kids, Grandma, and Husband's sometimes combine and cause a rift in the space time continuum. That's what happened to me. With this in mind I am posting a bunch of older photos I haven't looked at for awhile. Some cute, some weird, some pretty.

Mostly weird.

Mornings

Caring for the elderly and demented is rough.  

I have classes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:30 am.

Tuesday, Thursday, Late Friday mornings, and Saturday& Sunday Mornings

I take Grandma her breakfast and begin the hunt. 

What hunt?

The hunt for dirty bathmats and nightgowns.

She hides them.

You see, Grandma is accident prone. 

We have bathmats in front of her bed to "catch" her morning accidents.

We have bathmats in front of her rocker for similar reasons.

If I don't search her room regularly

the whole house will begin to smell.

She can't smell it. 

She does wear her special briefs most of the time.

She absolutely will not wear them to bed.

She gets up in the morning and well...

Gravity does the rest.

I'm just glad she has control of number 2.

But like I said, 

caring for the elderly and demented is rough.

Scorpion

 Where did I just find a hibernating scorpion with my bare foot? 

In my garage

In a bag of clothing

That I've been meaning to donate

That I stepped on.

My foot is tingling.

It's not that bad really.

Better then getting stung by an ant. 

Now I'm too frightened to donate the clothes.

What if I end up donating a bag scorpion covered clothes?

I'm afraid my donation will now be going in the garbage.

Sigh. 

It Took All Day

No joke. I had over 20 pieces of jewelry that I had not photographed and uploaded on to my etsy shop. All day. Photographing. Editing. Entering. Uploading. It's finally done. Feedback on my new items please! I would really appreciate it! follow this link! 

Our Gang

Last night my husband and I found ourselves absorbed in TCM's Little Rascals marathon.  We were watching the 1931 series where a 3 year old Spanky McFarland  stole the show. Now I don't know much about the Our Gang kids. I've heard they got financially screwed by the motion picture companies and never saw a royalty check, but no one can deny the appeal and hilarity of those sweet little faces

At 3 years old, little Spanky looked more like a one year old with a very advanced vocabulary. every time little Spanky appeared on screen I giggled and wanted to squeeze him. Of course this could be because he reminded me of this baby...

Who now look likes this big boy.

.

hello!

The holidays are almost over and as of the day after Christmas, the baking has ceased.  Well, not entirely. I still make bread weekly and sweet potato bran muffins, but that's it! Because too much of this....

I'm getting fat.

Recipe here

The first time I made this pie I found that I couldn't get the lemon slices thin enough, so when I set the lemon slices aside to soak the sugar for the suggested 24 hours they got a bit tough and chewy. That said the flavor was so amazing that I had to try again. When I made it the second time, I zested the lemons and cut off the pith instead, then sliced the lemon. I also squeezed the juice of an extra lemon in the sugar lemon mix. I took this to my BIL and SIL house for a Christmas gathering and it was a huge success. My FIL said it was the best lemon pie he had ever had. No joke. 

I hope everyone has had a lovely Holiday! 

Snow Day

It snowed last night. I know I know, it's December, but I live in the desert so it's a treat when it snows. High desert by the way. Way different then the low kind. I worked in a tourist spot once, and people from cold places would say, "I thought it wasn't supposed to be cold in the desert?!?" I'd smile and inform them that they were thinking of Phoenix, not Albuquerque. It gets cold, but we don't get much snow.

The boys were so excited! they had to make a snowman and have a snowball fight. I made them warm biscuits and hot cocoa.

They had a two hour delay, but we kept them home anyway. It's the last day before Christmas break and we figured why not? 

They were so happy!

Birthday Cake

I made a cake for my mother in law.

It was her birthday.

It was a delicious cake.

I got the recipe HERE

I"m not saying how many candles were lit.

But it looked like a forest fire.

Let me introduce you to my Grandma

Grandma has dementia. She thinks it's funny to flip the bird.

She likes my boys. She eats a tub of margarine a week. She used to smoke.

Once upon a time she was sharp as a tack. She was one of the first females to be ordained an Episcopal Priest in the 1970's.  

Now she sits in her room and knits all day long while watching TV.

She lives with us. It's not easy sometimes.

Sometimes she is like a broken record.

Sometimes she can carry a conversation. 

She can't remember that conversation for more then 5 minutes.

Incontinence is a bitch.

  My house smells funny now.

But mostly, 

I'm glad she is with us. 

I'm glad we can take care of her now. 

We might not be able to do it forever, but we will do it as long as we can.