{Not} Living Vicariously

Miss Cranky Paws

I'm very behind in my blogging and wanted to spend some time this evening catching up - creating multiple posts that could be staggered - be very creative and productive. And I can't get any of my photos to upload. It is probably me . . . but I've tried all the fixes I know and nothing is working. So I'm going to crown myself Miss Cranky Paws and go do something else instead. Hope to be back soon with creative output.

Updated: Typepad finally put out a statement that they were having issues with their new version and Internet Explorer. I tried their suggestions of deleting cookies and removing the compatability mode, that didn't work. So I downloaded Firefox at their suggestion and that seems to hve done the trick. I'm not thrilled with having to change browsers, mainly because I'm required to use IE at work and I'm lazy enough that I like to use the same programs between home and work (if that weren't true I'd so be on the Mac platform at home!). At least I like the Firefox browser. And I'm very glad to know that my issues were not due to my ineptitude. The last few weeks have been very frustrating on the blogging level due to the images not uploading. See you soon with pretty pictures!

Dratted Weather

So one of our trees is having seasonal issues . . . and has put out these lovely little blooms . . . way earlier than it should.

You know this means we're going to have huge amounts of insects this year, having it so warm already and without any good cold snaps. I really don't like having lots of bugs around, unless they are nice ones like ladybugs. I've already been dive bombed by a fly at work. I'm so hoping for a good cold snap to come kill them.

Please purple martins and bats - come hang out in my yard this year and eat lots of mosquitos!

Whelmed

Chastity: I know you can be overwhelmed, and you can be underwhelmed, but can you ever be just whelmed?
Bianca: I think you can in Europe.
10 Things I Hate About You

I am definitely feeling overwhelmed lately.

I volunteered to make some food for a ladies' tea at church this coming Saturday. It turned into me being in charge of creating the menu, finding and organizing volunteers to help, and shopping for the food we decided to purchase. Luckily I have Aaron and his mad skills. We are making 240 scones, homemade devonshire cream (the cheating type), and fruit salad for 70.

Once we get past Saturday, I have a co-worker who just had a baby and I promised to bring her dinner Monday night to help out. Well, that and to meet the baby also.

My parents and brother are coming to town sometime next week and I'm not sure what day my parents are arriving or what time my brother's flight comes in on Friday. However I know there will be some memorable meals while they are here.

In addition to all that, I do have this full time job which is being a bit more than full time right now. Ten hour days are not unusual and a couple of new contracts thrown into the mix as well as some people out (see co-worker with baby and someone who just gave notice) means we are all hunkered down. Luckily I work with a great group and no one person is being asked to carry the workload.

Needless to say, I'm overwhelmed and just trying to breathe. (Do you think this has anything to do with me choosing to focus on abundance this year? Was that a jinx like asking God for patience?? If I change my focus word now will I feel guilty???)

Credit Reports

We did a Dave Ramsey FPU through my work last Spring and one of the objects of class is to get your credit report and check for errors. However, I get my annual one in August so had to wait to do so. Turns out I, like so many others, had errors on mine. None of them were what I consider to be Major Issues. There was at least one closed credit account on each that still showed open (one actually had four) so I've disputed those . . . which I should have done several years ago when I first closed the accounts and knew that they were still showing open. But I was lazy. Now I've put effort into action. However, I also had another error. In each case they had a wrong name attached to my report. When I got married, I dropped my parental given middle name and legally made my maiden name my middle name. Each of the credit bureaus shows my maiden name, my married name, and the erroneous first middle new last name. Two of them let me dispute that online as well - the third is making me call it in. I'm not sure if this is or could be an issue, however, if I'm going to all the trouble to have things made correct, I should follow up here as well.

The nice thing about all of this is that you can now dispute most of it online without mailing in paperwork or calling people. However, until the investigations are complete and I see the results, I'll hold judgment on whether or not this actually works. (In other words, I may still find myself going the paper route if I'm not satisfied with the results.)

It feels really good to have marked something off the to-do list this week. I should do this more often!

Chocolate helps . . .

Remember this post? Well, I haven't been doing such a good job this year of celebrating the little things in life. I'm not going to go into all the "woe is me" (or I) pieces of the last several months. I'll just say that things definitely do not always go according to plan. However, Aaron brought me a piece of chocolate and I am being sent a message!

 

And since we still can't find the camera, so this picture has been shot using an iPhone, plus (hello!) it is on a piece of foil - let me spell it out for you and me:

"The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate. Love, Dove"

I think I needed that reminder. I'm off to go find some things to celebrate . . . be back soon.

Writer's Block

I'm having writer's block with both blogs these days . . . it isn't like we have nothing going on. We're still living and we're definitely still eating. I'm just struggling to find anything that inspires me to actually sit down and write. I've been here before - will end up here again. However it is times like this that remind me why I've always called myself a reader not a writer. I rarely have the discipline to write through the block. Which would be what this post is, an effort to write through the block. So for those of you who are looking for my cheery nothings, you won't find those today. And for anyone looking for something worthy to read, not going to find that either. However, for those of you who look just to make sure we're still around, well that we are!

April - in like a lion?

Okay, this has been a crazy day! We had beautiful weather this weekend and today we've had wind advisories, hailstorms, and tornado sirens going off. Officially my building at work was never evacutated to our safe place, however the building across the street did have those on upper levels come downstairs and Aaron's building in downtown Nashville did end up in the basement. Traffic heading home was crazy as well. I was going to run errands after work. I opted out of that and came home to hang out with my pooch who hasn't been the same since lightning struck a tree in our backyard many years ago. She is definitely glad to see me and staying close.

And I'm just hearing stories that April is gearing up to be a very bad month weather wise. This girl needs some nice weather soon . . . I'm going stir crazy!

"springing" forward

While I love being in Daylight Savings Time . . . I do not like how we get here! And every year it gets worse. I don't stay up late, especially not on "school" nights. So losing that hour of sleep shouldn't be as hard as it is. But boy is it ever. This year has been particularly rough and it is only now . . . a week later . . . that I'm starting to feel like my body is in tune with what the clock has to say.

Now while I love getting that extra hour of sleep (notice for me it is definitely sleep!) in the Fall, I'm not sure it is worth it. I think I'd be perfectly content to stay in DST year round. Anyone want to join me?

Feeling Puny

So much for that optimism of my last post. I promptly turned around and got sick . . . being the fifth of at least six people in my department to fall victim to the "crud". It seems like I've been fighting something or other ever since we got back from CA so I did go to the doctor this time and they prescribed an antibiotic. I don't like taking antibiotics, they usually do a number on my system. However, in this case, I was showing signs of infection so I agreed to be a good girl. I was out of the office both Thursday and Friday, plus pretty much out of commission Saturday and Sunday. I did go back to work today, and let me tell you I could not wait for the day to end. We'll be eating dinner soon and then it will probably be time for me to curl up in bed with my book. I lead an exciting life y'all . . . I'm hoping to be fast asleep prior to 8 pm tonight!

While I was at home, and after I was no longer able to sleep 22 hours of the day, I did indulge in a little playtime. We finished putting together a puzzle - I love doing puzzles in the winter and this was the first one we'd pulled out this year. Santa brought it for us.

 
I also watched a bunch of movies from a set borrowed from a co-worker: The Great Detectives Anthology from A&E Home Video. If I have to be sick . . . I don't want to use my brain in the ways I use it for work, but I don't want it to get lazy. Puzzles and mysteries, my idea of fun!

Now if I can just kick all of this and actually be healthy again, my husband and my dog (probably even the cat) will be happy and I can start practicing my "word" again - CELEBRATE.

It's not freezing!

I am so tired of the cold and the snow and the ice and the cold. And yes, I live in TN where we don't have it nearly as bad as people up North do. But we're having our coldest winter in years and it is starting to wear on all of us. So imagine how thrilled we were today when we reached almost 50 degrees and tomorrow it is supposed to be 52. I'm doing happy dances all over the place. And can't wait to walk the dog tomorrow. 1 mile? 2 miles? 5 miles? We shall see!