Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans

Yeah... so, a month ago, I rolled out what was going to be a new feature here on Sanity's Overrated and followed it up with... silence.  It's not that I didn't have the plans, or even the photographs and the info for I Made it From Pintrest.  No, instead, life decided that online blogging time was just not something it wanted me to have.  Between getting ready for Halloween, children that were deciding that now was the time to misbehave and my depression giving me the full-court press, blogging was the last thing on my mind.

I'm still feeling a bit drowned, but I'm starting to pull myself up a bit.  Or at least, I'm trying to.

Here are some of the highlights from my life (both good and bad):

• Halloween didn't go exactly as planned, but it wasn't a disaster either.  Both my boys decided to wear the same costumes as the year before, so no extra purchasing was needed.  I even dressed up for the Halloween Special Pokemon Pre-Release Tournament.  We went trunk or treating at my son's PDO the Sunday before Halloween, then tried to have trick or treaters in my complex but failed.  We did, however, go over to the front office and enjoy a little of their celebration then went over to one of the local churches for their annual trunk or treat.  The boys came away with plenty of sugar and I was glad it was over for another year.
• I have been able to maintain a clean house for most of the last month.  I'm not sure what clicked, but something did and I've been keeping on top of things.  Some days need a little more work than others, and the amount of clutter in places like the bookshelves and the closets still need to be addressed, but I'm not ashamed to let maintenance workers in or have company come over.  It's a huge step for me, and I'm feeling really good about it.  It's great to be able to spend more time relaxing than cleaning because it's been kept up with.
• I'm trying to learn how to deal with having a 4 year old in the house.  You'd think I'd know.  I mean, Teddy is almost 7.  I lived with his 4 year old self.  But Pete as a 4 year old is completely different.  I think part of it is because he's the youngest and he likes being the baby.  I'll often have my friend, Becca, come over.  She has a 15 month old that I'll watch on occasion and it makes Pete really jealous.  There's been a lot of backsliding baby behavior.  I know one of the things I need to do is enforce that he's a big boy and stop calling him my baby.  It's meant as a term of endearment, but I think he's taking it as fact.  He's been having a few more problems at PDO than usual because of temper tantrums when he doesn't get his way, or them trying to get him to keep his hands out of his mouth.  I'm trying to deal with it, but it's just one more thing on top of a lot of other crap that's happened this week.
• The biggest thing that's happened, and one of the things that's pushing me further and further down into depression, is that my van is in the shop.  It started with a bit of a clattering noise.  I was going to have my dad take a look at it when I went up to help him with some errands on Friday.  But on our way back from his errands, before he had a chance to look at it, the serpentine belt shredded and the power steering locked up.  Then (of course) the alternator light came on and the temperature started to rise.  We got to his place and it looked like the tensioner pulley had gone bad.  We had Rich come up with his car, picked up the parts we (thought) we needed and worked on getting it fixed on Saturday (with Rich heading back Friday night because he had a test and a meeting on Saturday).  While we were fixing it, we found out that the water pump was also bad.  So Rich came up on Sunday and we got the water pump and the idler pulley.  Fixed that, thought everything was ok.  Headed home and not a mile from Dad's, the temperature started to rise again.  Brought it back - the thermostat was shot.  Went out to get that part, fixed it and headed home again.  1/2 way home, the temperature started to rise once more.  I called AAA and had them tow it to my local garage (whom I love - and if you're in the Nashville area, I can't recommend Custom Auto highly enough).  They looked at it Monday and found that the head gasket was cracked.  $1,200.  My in-laws said they'd pay for it, since we didn't have the money.  Yesterday, they called me to tell me that as they were pulling apart the engine, they found that one of the pistons had melted into the engine and it was shot.  A brand new one would be over $4,000 and a used one with 51,000 miles would be $2,600.  Again, my in-laws came to our rescue and they are paying to have my van fixed.  I honestly don't know what I'd do without them.  But a part of me is waiting to see what else is going to go wrong.  I know it isn't the best way to be thinking, but the way it's been going, it's kind of hard. At least I should (hopefully) have my van back by Thanksgiving.  That's what Custom is shooting for for me.
• On the good side of things, though, I've been doing more baking.  Ok, maybe it's not ALL good.  After all, baking needs to be eaten.  But I love baking and I haven't felt that my kitchen was clean enough for me to do so in a long time.  Now it is and it's making me feel so much better to be able to have the smell of baked goods wafting through the apartment again.
• I tried to write for NaNoWriMo, but haven't gotten very far.  Mostly because of the above problems. I'm hoping that next week, I'll be able to spend a little more focusing time on it.  We'll see.
• I'm also hoping to get some recordings of me singing a few things acapella.  That's something else I've found myself doing more of lately, something I've missed.  Little bit by little bit, even with all the bad happening around me, I'm pulling the things that I enjoy back into my life.

Right now, I'm gearing up for Thanksgiving.  Today, I'm joining Peter at PDO for their annual Thanksgiving Pot Luck.  His class had desserts as their request, so I made pumpkin bundt cake last night (and broke my whisk doing it).  Next week, we'll be joining our friends Becca and Lewis at their house for Thanksgiving.  My dad (whom we usually spend the holiday with) has the chance to go visit my step-brother and his family in Florida this year so we were just going to do something here ourselves.  But Becca has been wanting to do a big celebration at her house, so this is the time.  And I'm making dessert!  Go me!  Rich and Becca will be taking care of dinner (since I hate cooking - though I have been doing a bit more of that lately).

For now, let me leave you with a few pics that I've managed to take over the last few weeks.  Enjoy!  And please, stick around.  I'm hoping to ACTUALLY be back soon.

The baked ravioli I made from a recipe found on Pintrest.

I love to look at carpets of leaves - especially since I don't have to rake them!

Beautiful fall colors in Tennessee.

Me, as Fennel from Pokemon

Teddy and Pete as Ash and Pikachu, the second year in a row.

I found this rock with the spots of dirt on it just like this and thought, "It's a happy ghost rock!"

Picture Time!

I finally managed to get my pictures uploaded to my Picasa.  So here are a few of them from recent weeks that I hope you enjoy.

My favorite pic of Pete from his birthday weekend.

Rick and the boys at Gentry Farms.

The boys and our (meager) haul at Gentry Farms.

My favorite pic of the boys from Halloween - Ash and Pikachu.  Looks like Pete's saying "Pika pika?"

Teddy at the Celebration of Cultures in Nashville.

Believe it or not, he actually LIKED having his face painted for this!

I always have called him my little pumpkin!

Lots of pictures to come

I'm in the middle of transferring all of the pictures I've taken over the last week from my camera to my computer.  And it was quite a few.  Between pictures and movies, I had 270 bits of media on my camera.  I've got to go through quite a few of them, delete a few, rotate some others... I suspect it's going to be a bit of work.  Which means it probably won't get done tonight, but tomorrow is another day.  I suspect I'll be posting a majority over at Facebook with a link here going back to the FB page.  I'm definitely going to put a few choice pics up here though.

The Trunk or Treat/Fall Festival at the church where we get our Angel Food was the best Halloween event that we'd been to yet.  There were a lot of people there, all sorts of costumes and all sorts of fun.  We took the kids through Trunk or Treat first.  There were about 50 cars, all decorated in different ways.  Teddy took off, anxious to get candy, and Pete tried to follow him, almost missing out on candy.  If it weren't for Mommy, he wouldn't have gotten anything.  (Yep, just thinking about my boy, that's me!)

Once we were finished with the Trunk or Treat, the boys went to bounce in the Bouncy Castles.  They both were having a fantastic time.  From there, we got our free food (hot dogs, cheese balls and cookies for the kids and I, chili for Rich) and sat on hay bales in the parking lot listening to one of the bands play.  I was in my happy place because it was four part male harmony.  And I LOVE 4 part harmony!  From there, Teddy threw balls for a dunking game (they were dunking the pastors) while a bunch of the kids got in line for the costume contest.  And there were definitely some cuties there too!  We let the kids play in the corn pool for a little while (pictures coming later, I promise), stopped and got some kettle corn and then headed home.  It was, most definitely, the best church-related even we've been to this season.  There are a lot of times that I tell Rich that I wish we were Baptist instead of Catholic because I WOULD go to The Donelson Fellowship. They're such a warm, loving, wonderful group of people.  They've known us for 3 years now, only see us once a month or so for Angel Food, but still remember us and remember our kids.  There aren't enough good words in the world to say about the people at TDF.

When we came home, Teddy wanted to eat the kettle corn and watch The Wizard of Oz.  He's seen parodies of it (The Wonderful Wizard of Has from Veggie Tales and "The Wizard of Odd" from Phineas and Ferb.)  So when we talked about it last night, he was ready to see it.  Unfortunately, last night was too late so we let him watch it today.  And, much to my surprise, he was interested in it the whole time!  Granted, he did fall asleep partway through, but the boys never got naps today, so this didn't surprise me.  But he stayed interested, which is something unusual for him.  I love being able to share classics with my boys!

I finally finished up one of my swaps tonight too.  I have Amanda's Journal Swap finished and ready to be mailed out.  I'm really pleased with how it came out.  I haven't had a chance to get pictures yet but I will before it goes into the envelope. That'll probably be a few days to post as well.  I still have a few more swaps that I need to work on, but none of them are due while I'll be out of town, so I've got a little time on those.  It's feeling good to have so many things going out, though.

I managed to get my LJ Idol intro post written and I've gotten some good comments on it.  I suspect we'll be getting the actual week one topic tomorrow or Tuesday.  There is voting going on for it, but the voting doesn't count this time around.  Still, if you're interested in seeing my LJ Idol post, it's here and if you're interested in reading the intros for the other contestants/have an LJ and want to click some clicky boxes, that post is here

I suspect I'm going to be turning in early tonight.  It's been a very, very long weekend and I'm finding I'm a lot more tired than I would have expected.  Besides, tomorrow is going to be a really busy day because I've got a little shopping to do, a little packing and a lot of cleaning.  And the more rest I get, the better I'll feel.  Though, knowing me, I'll probably be up just long enough to post the pictures I've downloaded.  It needs to be done and I'm anxious to see what people think.  I'll probably post one to my twitter, so if I don't get the link up here tonight, look over to my twitter roll and look for it there.

Another Full Day

I'm starting to think that Full Days are becoming the norm.  As much as I'd love a chance to sit down and actually rest, that doesn't seem to be something that's allowed lately.  I blame myself fully, since the things happening are all things I'm taking on myself.  But there are times I'd like to take a breath for about 30 seconds.

We did have a relatively relaxing morning this morning.  The boys played quietly in our room, letting one of us sleep until around 7 (and, since it was me that they woke up, I let Rich sleep until around 8:30).  I spent time coloring for one of my swaps - and I'd forgotten just how much I LOVE to color until I started on it.  For the swap, we had to color one "girlie" picture for each of our 3 partners.  Me, being the overachiever that I sometimes try to be, picked four pictures for each person, trying to find something that the people in question enjoyed.  For one, I did butterflies.  For another kittens.  And the third (because they really didn't have anything specified), animated movies.  Plus I chose a Pokemon to color for each one.  I colored 3 out of the four pictures and left one uncolored for my partners to color on their own.  I'm actually pretty pleased with how all of it came out.

We had to go to the library this morning.  Along with books that were due, I needed to get an audio book to listen to on my trip to IN on Tuesday and on my way home Wednesday.  I picked out Any Which Way But Dead by Kim Harrison.  I've read her novels before and enjoyed them, so I think it will be a good choice.  From there, we went to the church where the kids have PDO and went to their Fall Festival.  It was pretty neat.  I picked up a couple used books (a couple mysteries) and a couple Advent Calendars.  The kids got to play some games.  Then we made a stop at a Gyro place we've been wanting to try for awhile.  And it was gooooooood.  If you're in the Antioch area of Nashville, definitely check out Sam's Gyros on Murfreesboro Road and Edge O Lake Drive.  Yummy yummy yummy Gyros!

We had Ruby's 5th birthday party out at Cane Ridge Park today at 1.  Me being me, I managed to get lost - even with the GPS.  Of course, that part wasn't my fault as the Park wasn't listed IN the GPS and I had to try to remember the general vicinity after I left the house.  But we did find it and did find Becca, Lewis and friends for the party.  The kids all seemed to have a blast and the Squinkies that we bought for Ruby's gift were the hit that I knew they'd be.

Once we got home, the kids took their naps and I got settled in to work on more Swaps.  I managed to get three swaps out tonight and that makes me feel like I completely, totally and utterly ROCK!  I even got my spreadsheet updated.

I may bring some of my Swap stuff up to IN with me next week.  I don't expect to have a ton of time - I'm thinking that I'll be spending quite a bit of time with Carm and Robbie while there.  But if I do have time in my hotel room, I'd like to be able to work on some of the things that I need to get done, like working on a few of the Journals that I'm going to be doing.

Tomorrow is going to be another fun filled day.  I think I'm going to try to work on some of the craftier Swaps, in the hopes of getting them out in the mail on Monday.  I've got 2 more pages to finish in my one Journal swap (a page decorated with tape and writing about my job with pictures), 2.5 more entries to write for the 5 profound events swap, and my squash book to finish.  I managed to find a lot of stickers that will fit with the theme of the Squash Book, so I'm finally feeling ready to actually do it.  If you look below, you'll see some of the other swaps that are upcoming.  I may work on them tomorrow as well, depending on how much else I need to do.  Or I may take the rest of tomorrow off.

Rich and Teddy will be going to Church in the morning while Pete and I sit at home and relax.  I've got to do a bit of shopping as well (maybe I'll let Rich take Teddy in the car to Church and I'll take Pete shopping....?)  I need to pick up shoes for the interment on Tuesday and I need more ink for my printer.  In the evening, we've got our last Halloween related activity - Trunk or Treat at the church where we get our Angel Food.  My kids are gonna have a blast, I think.

I've got plenty of pictures that I've taken over the last week for Halloween and other Halloween-type-events. But I think I'm going to wait until Monday to upload them.  That way, I can get it all done at once.  I've gotten some pretty cute pics of my kids, and I suspect there will be more cute pics tomorrow night.

So that's the busy life of an Amber.  I've still got to get my Intro post done tomorrow for LJ Idol too.  I've got an idea for how to write it up, but I'll need the help of people reading this blog.  Ask me questions - any questions.  And those will be what I'll write about in my intro post.  Of course, if I don't get any questions, I'll have to fall back and use my own imagination.  But I suspect I'll be able to get it done.  At least, I hope I will.

Oh, and I'm still working, slowly but surely, on my 101 in 1001 list.  This, at least, doesn't have a Sell By date on it, so if it takes me awhile to finish it, that's ok.  Keep an eye on this space, though..  When it finally does get finished, I'll be posting it here.

Plus, I'm going to try to watch as many of AFI's 100 Greatest Movies of All Time, 10th Anniversary Edition, as I can by the end of the year.  I've got a head start, as I've seen some of them before.  I'm actually about 1/4 of the way through..  So I'm going to try to watch the other 75 over the next few months.  Not sure where I'm starting yet, though Teddy does want to watch one I've seen before - The Wizard of Oz.  He's never seen it, but it makes me feel really good that he WANTS to watch some of the classics.

And now, hopefully, time for sleep.  Tomorrow will be a long, albeit good, day, and I need to be well rested for it.  Have a great night, or a wonderful day.... preferably both.  And thanks for reading Sanity's Overrated.

Another curve around the corner

Tuesday morning, my phone rang at 5:30 am.  It was my best friend, calling to tell me she was on her way to the hospital for her mom.  Mom B had been in the hospital for several days and had been getting worse.  Carm was scared, and so was I.  Even though Mom's health had been bad for a long, long time, she'd always pulled through.  It didn't look like it was going to happen this time.  And, unfortunately, it didn't.  Carm called me a bit after 9 to let me know that she was gone.

Mom B had been there for me a lot after I left college.  She welcomed me into her home, had no problem with me calling her Mom and just WAS like a mom to me.  So her loss has been devastating to me as well.  Not as bad as it's been for Carm or her husband, but still very rough.  Her funeral is this weekend, but I won't be able to make it there.  Florida is too far of a drive and I don't have a lot of money.  However, her internment is in Indiana on Tuesday.  That's only a 5 hour drive, so I'll be driving there Tuesday morning, spending the night and driving home on Wednesday morning.  I suspect I'm going to be a bit quiet at that time.  Of course, considering my spotty posting, people might not miss me.

I've been trying to keep busy with swapping and reading.  I've got to get a few pictures of one of the journals I'm working on.  I'm pretty pleased with how it's come out.  I've been doing a bit of crafting in it, which has come out pretty good.  I've got a lot of online swaps going as well - Halloween cards, Cheer Up cards, things like that.  I've still got a bit of bookkeeping to do with several of them.  But I'm surprisingly on track for everything.  Part of me is wondering when that will fall apart!

I also decided I needed one MORE thing on my plate and I've picked up crochet again.  I used to do some when I was younger, mostly chain stitching, and I needed something that I could see when I finished.  So.... crochet it is.  I've started doing bag.  I'm 3 rows into it.   I'm hoping to work on it some while I'm in Indiana.

I also have been working a bit on my 101 in 1001.  Still need to get all those figured out and written.  And I've got an intro post that I need to write for LJ Idol.  That one has been a bit harder because I just don't know what to day about myself or how to say it to catch people's attention.  I'll figure it out, I'm sure.  Before the end of the weekend.

This weekend is going to be as busy as last weekend.  The kids have trick or treating at PDO tomorrow (which reminds me, I need to make up the bags to hand out there), then I'm giving blood at 12:15.  The kids are out of school at 2, we're coming back to my place to hang out for awhile with Becca and her kids and then going to my church for the Fall Festival.  Plus we'll be making a stop at IHOP because they have free pancakes for the kids.  Saturday is library, followed by the Fall Festival at the kids PDO, followed by a birthday party and possibly trick or treating at one of the malls in the evening.  Sunday is church and trunk or treating at the church where we get our Angel Food.  Plus I've got to work on getting things cleaned up, clothes packed and to be ready to leave early on Tuesday morning for my trip.

Will time calm back down again?  Probably not.  But this is probably for the best.

And in another off-hand remark, I'm watching Clash of the Titans on BBC America.  I've never seen it before.  I think I'm going to have to borrow it so I can watch without commercials.  Now I'm off to do a bit more brain work.  Keeping busy is a good thing.  Or so it seems.

Quick Change of Plans for Halloween, and other Saturday things

Today was supposed to be a fairly busy day and, in that respect, it didn't disappoint.  In other ways... not quite as good as I would have liked.

We got a bit of a late start this morning, thanks to the boys letting us kind of sleep in.  (Is it sad that 8 am is sleeping in?)  We had to be at Donelson Fellowship between 9 and 10 to pick up our Angel Food and wanted to get the recycling done before that since it we were going to be in the general area of the recycling area.

As we were starting to get ready, my best friend called.  Her mom is in the hospital and, along with updating me on how she was doing, she needed a friendly voice, I think.  She's really worried about her, which is understandable.  Mom is quite a bit older and Carm's an only child.  I just wish I could be down there for her.

After I got off the phone with her, I gathered our books that needed to go back to the library (out 3rd stop of the day) while Rich got the recycling in the van.  He was still working, so I got the kids ready as well.  It was about 9:30 when we left the house.

First, we got to the recycling center, which happens to be at a High School.  And it looks like the high school was hosting a Marching Band competition.  And, of course, all the buses and several of the marchers were standing over near the recycling center.  We would have said forget it if it hadn't been for the fact we knew we'd need the space for the Angel Food.  So Rich managed to slide in there, empty our recycling and slip back out.

There was a nice surprise when we got to Angel Food.  Usually we have to bring our own basket/box/whatever to put the food in, but this time, they had everything pre-boxed.  It's a nice change.  Most Saturdays, we're running around the house trying to find something to empty so we have something for the food.  We chatted with the people at Angel Food for a few minutes - they were glad to see us, since we hadn't been in since July.  They're doing a Trunk or Treat next Sunday and are looking forward to seeing the boys in costume.

The trip to the library was pretty typical, the boys picking out books, me chatting a bit with the librarians, Rich looking around himself.  The really exciting thing was that The Lost Hero had come in for me and I couldn't wait to read it.  I actually opened it up to start reading it as we got to the car.  And I'm loving it.  Expect the review in the next day or two.

We had a quick stop at the apartment for Rich to put away the frozen food, which meant more reading for me.  Then a run to Wal-Mart to pick up a few things I wanted/needed, followed (finally) by lunch at a local Chinese Buffet that has dim sum options on their buffet.  We have friends that live near by (they're actually the ones that introduced us to the place), so we gave them a call to ask them to join us.  Becca and her daughter did, because her husband and son were just settling in for rest.  We had a great lunch with them with lots of yummy food.

As soon as we got home and the boys went to bed, I put the hats/gloves and socks in the washer to dye them.  What I failed to notice (as I learned an hour later when taking them out) was that the hats and gloves were 100% acrylic.  The dye didn't work on them.  Which means I don't have a majority of the parts for Teddy's Munchlax costume.

After some talk with Teddy and Rich, we decided to try making Teddy a ditto instead.  It seemed fairly easy for me to make - a pink garbage bag (which I expected to find with it being Breast Cancer Awareness month), pink temporary hair dye and pink face paint.  Teddy and I went to Wal-Mart to find the supplies we needed.  And.... I only found the pink hair color.  I was going to spray paint a garbage bag pink but Rich pointed out that garbage bags don't hold paint well.  So I couldn't think of where to go next.

But my husband, being the brilliant man that he is, came up with the perfect idea.  Teddy will be a Pokemon Fan.  He's going to wear his Pokemon shirt, the Ash Ketchum hat that I made for him earlier in the year for something at school, carry his Pokeballs on his belt and carry a few of his stuffed Pokemon.  I think it'll be perfect.  So I didn't really need to buy anything there after all.  I did, however, come home with a few stickers and a laptop lap desk that was on clearance.  The old lap desk was cracking and pinching me when I had it on my lap.

So I'm feeling much better about all of this now.  Both boys will be ready for our first Halloween event tomorrow now.  I don't get to be quite as creative as I wanted to be, but hey... maybe I'll come up with better ideas next year.

Tomorrow has several things on the agenda as well.  Rich and Teddy have church in the morning.  I need to wash Teddy's Pokemon shirt and Pokemon so they're nice and clean for Trunk or Treat in the evening.  I have to work on my 5 Profound Events journal for Swap-Bot (due to be sent out next Monday).  I also need to work on my journal for Amanda's journal swap.  I think I'm only a few days behind on that one.  Plus, I need to make time for finishing The Lost Hero.  And the Trunk or Treat is at 5:30.

I'm hoping for a bit of a rest come the 1st.  I think that's when things will finally slow down.  Or so I hope!