11 Things

I've been in a... mooood. Which is just a dramatic way of saying that the sun has gone away, and for some reason I was in denial that it was going to happen, so now I'm suddenly having to scramble to do all my winter-mood stuff so I'm capable of being a nice, cheerful, fun person. So, as a side effect, I have been having a really hard time staying motivated to write here, and coming up with things I think people might want to read. So... since I'm out of ideas, I'm going to do one of those question-thingy-deals in hopes that it might bring me out of my mood.

1. When was the last time you cried? And why?
     Wednesday night. I was having a serious talk about family and love and life and... well everything with my                  dad, and I always cry when I have a serious talk with him! To be fair, he usually cries too, and my grandpa cries whenever he feels any emotion strongly (happy, sad, angry, anxious, excited, etc) so it's basically a family trait. We cry easily.

2. What are your 5 favorite TV shows?
     Currently I love: Supernatural, Doctor Who, Bones, The Walking Dead, and Teen Mom. I know Teen Mom is trashy, but I just feel so connected with those girls and their struggles because of everything I went through... the TV show started right after I had Buddy and was going through a whole lot of stuff so I will watch it through till the end!

3. What is your greatest accomplishment?
     I think probably raising my son. Obviously there are things I wish I had done differently, but my kid is usually respectful, kind, cheerful, creative, smart, full of faith, and unbelievably loving and accepting. Those are all amazing traits that I like to think I had a hand in nurturing!

4. Morning person? Or night owl?
     Night owl. For sure. Which doesn't work that well with my lifestyle! Generally, I get to sleep around 2am and wake up at about 6:30am. Then I'm tired and crabby ALL DAY until it hits about 6pm, at which time I'm all of a sudden AWAKE!!!! and ready to be productive until 2am again.

5. How much cash do you have on you?
     $6. I'm not a cash person.

6. Household chore you hate the most?
     Dishes. It's disgusting to have to stick your hands into old food. Yuck. Conversely, my favorite chore is vacuuming. Although I now live in an apartment with all wood flooring, so I never vacuum anymore!

7. If you could be fluent in any other language, what would it be?
   Currently, Hmong. Since I work primarily with Hmong students, and whenever they want to say something inappropriate or tell a secret or be mean they switch to Hmong so I don't understand them!
 
8. List 5 songs you know every word to:
     Lonesome Road by James Taylor, Wannabe by the Spice Girls, every song from the musical Rent, Bobby McGee by Janis Joplin, and Gravedigger by Dave Matthews Band.

9. Who was your first crush on?
     Haha! Dan Archiquette. He was in my class from 2nd through 6th grade, so when I started liking boys he was an obvious first choice. I grew out of it by Junior High, haven't seen him since high school, and haven't thought about him in years either. I wonder what he's up to these days?

10. What are three things you cannot live without?
     Food, water, shelter. Obviously. But as a less literal answer, my son, my cell phone, and my daddy.

11. Name one thing you wish you did better.
     Had confidence in myself and my abilities. I think it would really help me to be able to interact more comfortably with people if I didn't so often feel like everything I do and say is the "wrong thing".

Is there anything you are just dying to know about me? Leave me a comment with the question, and I will do my best to answer it :)

Give Thanks

No words necessary.

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

... you look like a monkey, and smell like one too!

The last week of October/first week of November is always a stressful one around these parts! It means that we have to do Halloween and Birthday within a span of 3 days, which is always tough on everyone.

So, Buddy decided (much later than usual, since he usually picks out his Halloween costumes by mid-summer) that he wanted to be a vampire. And it was really fun, since he was super excited about the accent and the fake teeth, and he kept fake biting everyone which was hilarious.

Also hilarious was the fact that there are apparently no fake vampire teeth that come in children's sizes. At all. So this was his face the whole time he wore the teeth! Also also hilarious, trying to spray paint a squirmy blonde kid's hair black. As you can see, it SORTA worked. Also also also hilarious, trying to put makeup on a squirmy kid. Anyway, the whole thing was just funny!

We went with his new "best friend" from school and the best friend's father. And oh man, that family is a whole 'nother blog post, because I'm having some serious issues with clinginess (theirs) and I don't know how to get out of it all! But again, that's for another day.

After Halloween (a measly 3 days after) comes Buddy's birthday, so he decided he wanted a costume party so he could wear his costume again. And I got all perfectionist-y and decided I had to have all sorts of fall themed treats, and fancy cupcakes, and cutesy organized activities for the kids...

None of which I needed to do. The kids showed up (sort of) in costume, then proceeded to run around the backyard playing "good guys vs. bad guys" and chaining each other to trees for the majority of the party. None of my preplanned activities happened at all! Basically, the kids ran around outside, the grown-ups sat inside drinking beer and gossiping, and great fun was had by all. Never again am I stressing that much about the perfect themed treats, since it obviously doesn't matter AT ALL!

The "vampire cupcakes" that Buddy begged for got finished literally 5 minutes AFTER the first guest arrived :)

Nice picture of the boys

Obligatory silly picture

Birthday presents! You have to wear the hat if you want to open the presents :)

Mani Monday

This is what I do while hiding inside my house. I do Sudoku puzzles, draw doodles, or paint my nails. Obviously, the longer each activity takes the better. Which is why my nails are ridiculous recently. Although actually I haven't even taken that many pics of the crazy designs I've been doing. Except today, in a fit of anger about all the stuff I want to accomplish but haven't, I CUT THEM OFF! It may not look like my nails are that long, but my stubby fingers kind of hide the length of my nails. Anyway, they are gone at least for a week or 2, which will hopefully help me concentrate on more important things. As will uninstalling Sudoku from my phone. And the 3 1/2 hours I spent writing (remedial) notes on old chapters in Statistics today, since apparently I only understand concepts for the time that I am totally focused on them.

Last Minute Crafting :)

What do you do when your kid (probably looking to stall bedtime) starts BEGGING to do art with you?

This:

I had no time to come up with anything good, so I just had him take white crayon and draw a pumpkin picture ("Push REALLY hard, Buddy! It's OK if you break the crayon this time!") and then we painted over it with watercolors.

Quick, easy, not very messy, and turned out cute! What more could a girl ask for :)

Drawing the 'secret picture'

Adding the first colors (I think it's hilarious that he was wearing his blanket on his head at this point!)

Starting to see the picture!

He takes after his mommy, and he's OBSESSED with his 'new' camera from Uncle Ryan!

Anyway, super easy, a great craft to do after a long week so we could unwind and have some fun without too much stress. I like it.

And I think he did too!

Fall

The weather has officially turned fall-ish here. Last weekend I had to go to Target and buy a new hat and gloves for Buddy, since his old stuff was too small, and it was lucky I did! That same day we got a few snow flurries and it was windy and cloudy and cold.

But we went out to Harvest Fest (a local kiddy fall festival) anyway, and enjoyed ourselves (mostly)!

Blah.

I'm having a tough time finding anything to write about. You all know me by now, know that I obsessively take pictures and document every moment of Buddy's life...

Well, I haven't been doing that. Honestly, I don't even see Buddy very much right now. I wake him up around 6:30am, drop him off for school around 7:45, and that's where we say goodbye for the day. Then I work until 7pm, so by the time I get him home from his dad's house or another babysitter it's at least 7:30. His bedtime is 8.

I feel like I don't have any idea what's going on in his life. I don't like it at all.

Added to that, I've been really depressed and anxious lately. It's hard for me to leave the house. Most days after I drop Buddy off for school, I crawl back into bed and just lay there for an hour or 2 before moving to my computer, to sit and do mind-numbingly easy homework for hours. I sometimes manage to do some housework, but not very often. Most weeks the only social interaction I have is at work, and that's with preteens.

Sorry if you've been enjoying following me here, but I just am not feeling the greatest and don't want to write a bunch of posts about how shitty everything feels right now. I'll pop back up in a few weeks I'm sure, and then you'll get crafts and field  trips and cute kids again.