365 Photos Day 358

358/365

We did the extended family Christmas thing today. It was odd getting together on Christmas Eve. Usually we reserve that for our family; Steve & Amanda go shopping, then we have dinner, then we open presents at 7pm. After that, we play with our new toys, and eventually go to Midnight Mass.

Today, though, we did the extended family Christmas, came home, tried to recuperate from that, didn't have dinner, opened presents at 8pm, and are now all playing with our new toys. We may or may not end up going to Midnight Mass.

Just another odd day in the life.

Winter Solstice

I'm not a big fan of winter. Never have been.

However, I am a big fan of Winter Solstice.

Why? Well, because it's the longest night of the year, right? Meaning, there'll be more and more daylight...which means we're on the way to summer.

My Mom celebrated Winter Solstice, and I do too, albeit not quite like she did. I may or may not light a bunch of candles (depends if I remember or not), but when I DO light the candles, I say this:

For half the year, day by day,
Slowly, the world had grown darker
For half the year, night by night,
Slowly the dark has grown longer.
Tonight that ends and the wheel
Turns us back to the light.
[Light Candle]
The Darkness was never complete.
A spark was always waiting to return
And burn again.
The wheel is turning and light’s returning.

-Winter Solstice Prayer

No, I haven't a clue as to where it came from, if it was something my Mom found, made up, or whatever. All I know is that it seems right to say, and so I do. And somehow, it eases my mind that yes indeed, there WILL be warmth again, and that there WILL be longer days.

Happy Winter Solstice.

365 Photos Day 291

291/365

Kid: It's 64 degrees in here. No wonder it's so cold.
Me: Hey, a couple months ago, we'dve been paying good money to have that temperature going on.

[20 minutes later]

Steve: It's down to 64 degrees in here. How much lower are you going to let it go before you turn on the heat?
Me: What?!?!? I've been waiting for YOU to decide to turn on the heat.
Steve: [sighs and walks to the thermostat]: There. The heat is on.

Ah, heat. Maybe I don't need to go find my long pants today after all (yes, I'm still wearing shorts. It's only 43 degrees outside, no big deal).

365 Photos Day 281

281/365

I've been having fun creating things from my Pinterest boards this weekend. I've also been having fun using power tools of all sorts. I'd call that a win-win kind of situation.

365 Photos Day 238

238/365

18 years ago today, I walked down a hallway lined with prisoners handcuffed to benches to a courtroom where I said, "I will" to the marriage vows I repeated to become Steve's wife.

No, seriously. We got married at the county courthouse; our 2 witnesses were one of Steve's friends, and the legal secretary of the judge. And apparently, court was in session when we were there, hence the prisoners. Do I find it odd that was how it happened? Not really. Just another day in the life.

That day was crazy hot. We hadn't quite figured out the air-conditioning in the apartment, so for dinner we went to the only air conditioned place in town (the gas station was air-conditioned too, but I have an innate distrust of gas station food), which was the Dairy Queen. It tends to make most people raise their eyebrows and give us weird looks when we say that yep, DQ was the wedding dinner that night. But somehow, considering the rest of the day...it makes perfect sense.

So, even though it wasn't nearly as hot outside, we went to DQ for dinner tonight.

Here's to 18 (pretty much) fabulous years married to my favorite husband. I think we make an awesome team, and I'm pretty sure the next 18 years will be as entertaining.

365 Photos Day 233

233/365

I love late summer days like today. It was the first Fall Ball games (a shortened softball season that lasts until the end of September), and a gorgeous day.

I like that Fall Ball is more relaxed, somehow, even as it's usually only the die-hard players that play, so it's a bit more competitive too.

Or maybe because most years*, it's so so so lovely outside that it's not a hardship to sit and watch the games without overheating from all the humidity.

*The first year she played, it rained EVERY. FREAKING. WEEKEND. I told her & Steve that I needed a better umbrella if she was going to continue to play. That Christmas I got a really nice golf umbrella.

365 Photos Day 232

232/365

Smoke detectors are really super great to have, especially in a larger house.

What's not so really super great is being woken up by a strange voice saying rather garbled-like, "Battery is low" and not knowing where in the world it came from. (we obviously figured it out. Eventually.)

365 Photos Day 231

231/365

Iz (the orange cat) is absolutely fascinated with the washer when it's filling up with water. She'll sit on the edge until it's done, and then when it's time to close the lid so that the clothes can, you know, get WASHED, she's very sad.

Tonight, for whatever reason, Dart (the grey cat) decided to see what she was looking at. I was just hoping that nobody would get pushed in.

365 Photos Day 230

230/365

Painting done, now to move everything back in. Why I seem to think 11pm is a great time to do this, I haven't a clue. I worked until 1am, and gave it up. I also don't know how I'd gotten everything to fit in my office before. Either that, or since it's been in the hallway, it's all expanded to double in size.

But I'm loving the light color and the way it changes throughout the day. It'll be even better once I get my desk area (which is still mostly in the middle of the floor) back in place and organized.

365 Photos Day 229

229/365

Getting a new camera because the old one finally gave up the ghost has been great because now I can actually take pictures. However, the Kid likes the camera too, so getting my pictures from said camera onto here may be interesting.

Anyway...

I'd forgotten I had this handy-dandy tool until I cleaned out and reorganized the basement.

This is a lifesaver when I don't exactly get enough paint for a room (which is most all the time). It's a roller scraper/cleaner. When I really crank on it, I can usually get enough paint to do a quarter of a wall, which is fairly impressive.

It's now with the rest of my painting supplies so that I don't have to re-discover (re-re-re-re-discover?) it again.

365 Photos Day 228

228/365

My painting crew and I painted my home office tonight. They are SUCH a big help, I can't even begin to thank them enough.

The color I went with is Martha Stewart's 'Magnolia Grandiflora'. Partly because I really liked the color in all it's variations throughout the day, and partly because I liked the name of the color.

What? Doesn't everyone pick paint colors by the names? I judge books by their covers ALL. THE. TIME. so this really isn't any different.

I'm just glad I got the first coat on and that it covered as well as it did. I didn't want to have to do another coat of primer. I wanted to get cracking on painting the real color so that I can get all my bookcases & books back where they go so that I can traverse down the hallways without feeling like I'm running through an obstacle course.

Steve wasn't too sure about the color when I started painting. He said it looked just like the primer. Nah. If anything, it's kind of like the ceiling paint I like that goes on pink and dries white. Except this went on pink and will stay pink. One hopes.

Tomorrow I'll put on the second coat and see where it's at.

One step closer to a 'new' office.

365 Photos Day 226

226/365

Oh what a weekend it's been...

Summerfest is always physically tiring for all of us because we're all involved with different facets of the festival. This weekend had the added emotional component with Amanda running for Winsted Ambassador.

Only 3 out of the 6 candidates were crowned.

Amanda was not one of them.

However, I couldn't be prouder of her than I am. From not wanting to do it at ALL, to reluctantly signing up so there would be 6 candidates in order for 3 to be crowned (it's Winsted's 125th anniversary next year so they wanted to make a big deal of it), to deciding to give it her all and not have any regrets...she's been a trooper through it all.

This picture was taken when she was answering her fish-bowl question (something that lets the judges see how well the candidate can spontaneously think on her feet and come up with a coherent answer) which was, "What obstacle have you had to overcome?" (or something like that)

Amanda thought for a few seconds and answered as honestly as she could, "One of the obstacles that I've had to overcome was being made fun of because I'm smart." (I can't remember what else she said, but that's the gist of it.) And it's true. For awhile she tried to dumb herself down so that she could fit in...we're talking at 7-8 years old here.

Until I figured out what was going on and had a, er, "discussion" with her about it. I told her to NEVER EVER EVER EVER play dumb to get people to like her (especially boys); that it was BEYOND OK to be smart, and that someday she would be in a place where LOTS of people are smart like she is; and that most importantly, if being smart was her gift for this life, it's better to honor it and use it wisely rather than attempt to try and ignore it. I didn't know how much of that lecture discussion had sunk in until today.

When she realized that she wasn't going to be crowned as an ambassador today, I was so proud of the way she held herself--not as someone who was bitter and mad about losing, but with grace and dignity. The judges had asked the ambassador committee if they could crown 4 instead of 3; when they were told no, just 3, all of them made a point to come up to Amanda at the end and strongly urge her to run again next year, which they certainly didn't have to do (her response was one of my stock ones, "We'll see", which usually translates into, "Ahahahahaha, no." So we'll indeed see.)

She came home, got changed into street clothes, and went back up to the festival with her head held high. She congratulated all the new royalty and talked with them for awhile. Apparently there were a few people who were surprised that she was up there, but I'm not sure why. We've raised her to be a gracious winner AND loser, plus that's just who she is.

So I don't know if she'll run again next year as requested, but I do know that she is an amazing young lady, and I'm very glad I can be along for the ride.

365 Photos Day 225

225/365

One of my favorite Summerfest things is the Dunk Tank. Mostly I'm working at it, so it was fun to be able to stand back and watch the Kid get dunked. Repeatedly.

This is her last dry moment before she went down...officially 44 times, unofficially, well, it was cruising up on 70ish (We let little kids come in and hit the lever sometimes; she also stayed in for 15 extra minutes because the candidate who was supposed to go in after her wasn't there yet).

Sometimes I look at her and wonder where in the world the time has gone, and why did it have to go so dang quickly.

I'm really enjoying the young lady she's become, and it's pictures like this that makes me really wish I could turn back time sometimes.

365 Photos Day 224

224/365

Today was the first (official) day of the town's Summer Festival. It'll be a busy weekend for all of us, but especially Amanda as she's fulfilling her ambassador candidate duties.

I love Summerfest for lots of reasons: it's warm outside; it's a 3-day festival; people seem to be in good moods; the fireworks; the annual fireman's pancake breakfast; the parade; the dunk tank...

But most of all, I love the feeling of having that one last hurrah before the reality of school starting, fall sports starting, and the hurry-up hurry-up that seems to come with all of that.

365 Photos Day 223

223/365

These two were just headed off for the National Night Out festivities here in town. Steve as a Reserve Officer, Amanda as an Ambassador Candidate.

I know. I am sooooooo lucky to have these nuts in my life. Really.

365 Photos Day 222

222/365

Unfinished projects drive me nuts because the house gets all wonky because things aren't where they should be.

Currently I have 4 FOUR projects going (the laundry room, pictured here, the upstairs side closet, the inside launch pad, and my office). This does not make for a happy me.

I know, I know. Finish one before going on to the next, which is great advice. But sometimes I think, "Oh, while I'm waiting for [some component] for this project, I can get started on this other one..." I'd like to say it works for me, but no.

Ah, home improvement season. A good time had by all.

365 Photos Day 221

221/365

My home office has informed me that it is NOT a blue kind of room. In fact, it's not anywhere on the blue or green spectrum, which kind of negates my entire (rough) plan of what I thought that it should look like.

One thing I've learned since choosing paint colors for rooms is I have to let the room be what it wants to be, rather than what I think it should be. Yes, I'm aware that rooms don't speak out loud, but they do speak. How many times have you gone into a room and thought, "You know, something's not quite right with this room..." but you're not sure what. Sometimes it's the decor, sometimes it's the paint color.

So, I thought about it for awhile and figured out it still needs to be in the red spectrum of colors, but a bit less saturated than the red it was previously. And then I went to Home Depot to get some color sample cards and hung them up. I think I can discard a couple immediately, but I'll leave them all up for a couple of days so that I can see them in all sorts of lights.

Then maybe, just MAYBE, I can paint the walls and put my office back together (which in turn will make me very happy indeed).

365 Photos Day 219

219/365

I've been (rather badly) trying to fend off an anxiety attack for most of the day today. I haven't a clue as to what the actual trigger is/was/might be, which doesn't help. I'm certain that forgetting to get a refill for the anti-anxiety medicine that I take didn't help either.

All I can do at the moment is remember to breathe and try and stay OK, which is quite enough to do.

And to put a post-it note on the door to remind me to not pass Go, not collect my $200, but to go directly to the pharmacy and have them fill 'er up.

365 Photos Day 218

218/365

I've been working on priming my home office all day. I had to do 2 coats to make sure all the red was covered.

I'm pretty sure I've hit the Point of No Return.

It'd be a pain to repaint the red (and at $64 a gallon, there's NO WAY that's going to happen), so it's onward and upward.

365 Photos Day 216

216/365

Disapproving Dart is disapproving.

Apparently me moving everything out of my office but my desk is not to his liking.

This could be a long weekend.