Cheating

Nothing to blog about so I'm snagging a song from youtube.

Lets all be easy like Sunday morning.

It is what it is.

Not everything is the way I would like it to be. That's ok, it is what it is. Sometimes it's not pretty but you take what you can get.

I just hope since someone is paying for this cake they aren't as displeased with how it looks as I am.

The pies didn't look too bad though.

Apple, dutch apple, cherry, strawberry rhubarb or pumpkin. Which one would you like a slice of?

ENT

OVR ( office of vocational rehabilitation) approved an appointment with the ENT to be checked for hearing aids. I had my appointment on Monday. We discussed the different options and now she will be submitting the request to OVR. Time to wait for another approval from them. At least it's making forward progress.

While I was there I saw the physicians assistant who checked my ears, and looked at my test. He told me I have about a 50% hearing loss. I told him that would explain why I can only hear people half the time.

Came home from work yesterday and had to mow the lawn again. This time I was able to get the riding mower started however I couldn't get the parking break off. It was back to the broken push mower. I really hate that thing. I can only hope that there are not too many more mowing days left before winter hits.

Family dinner day

This past Sunday was another family dinner day. Amanda cooked this time and she made Chicken Cordon Bleu. She brought everything to my house and cooked here

Gibbs gave her some pointers and supervised the whole thing.

Of course there had to be pictures of Presley.

And, oh look, Presley and I color coordinated our outfits.

It's looking a lot like fall part 2

Today the rest of the fall decorations I put out.

A bouquet, fall bear and pumpkin to sit on my dining room table.

Another bouquet along with a candle sitting on one of the extra dining room chairs. I have six chairs but when I don't have the leaf in the table there's only enough room for 4 chairs. The other two sit off to the side. One holds a plant the other I usually put something like this on.

The buffet has this cute little fall angel along with a pitcher that has some fall flowers in it.

And finally my toilet paper roll pumpkin. Those of you who have been around a while may remember when I made this a few years back. For those of you who are new, this is jute twine wrapped around a roll of toilet paper to make a pumpkin. This is sitting on my coffee table along with some leaf shaped votive  candle holders.

I may look around and see if I can find anything else that I can put out but I believe I got rid of a bunch of stuff last year or the year before. I also still have a few Halloween and Thanksgiving thins I can put out closer to the days.

It's looking a lot like fall part 1

Saturday, I spent the last day of my vacation cleaning my house and putting out some fall decorations. Since the temperatures were only in the high 50's it seemed appropriate. I took a lot of pictures so I'm breaking this up into 2 posts.

Pumpkin votive candle holders on my kitchen window sill

A fall wreath hanging over the table by the front door.

A fall picture and a leaf bowl to drop my keys into when I come home.

My mantel. I temporarily took down the wolves to hang the wreath

On the left hand side next to the basket is a tart warmer that had a cinnamon scented wax tart in it. My house smelled really yummy.

Bad dog

I've never had much of a problem with Gibbs chewing on things. I can't recall one pair of shoes that he ever ruined. He has however occasionally grabbed a washcloth or paper items. 

Perhaps his favorite thing to do is to jump up in my lap and climb onto my desk to see if there's anything interesting he can steal. If he jumps back down quickly, I know he found something. Usually it's a water bottle cap or a note I left laying.

The other day I had been using my sewing machine and I had to change the bobbin. Instead of putting the other bobbin away I left it sit. You guessed it, Gibbs found it. I heard a crunching noise and when I turned around I see a thread sticking out of his mouth. He was not about to give it up. I had to bribe him with a treat to trade me for the bobbin.

Bad Dog!!!

Pennies or peanuts

Wade always saved his change. At the end of the day he would throw it all in a dish and the pennies went into peanut jars. The quarters, nickels, and dimes he would roll and use but the pennies just kept collecting.
Now, considering my current financial situation, I kind of look at these jars as pennies from heaven.

I sat down and rolled pennies the other day. I only got one jar done. Any guesses on how many pennies were in one jar? I'll give the dollar amount after the picture.

I rolled $12.00 and there was maybe another 20 or 30 pennies that I threw in one of the other jars.

Hello fall

I played in the craft room just a bit again yesterday. It worked out perfectly to use as a welcome to fall.

First I started with plain white cardstock and I used cotton balls to rub on different shades of ink to cover the entire area.

I did the same thing to a smaller square piece of white cardstock which I then embossed and rubbed the raised areas to highlight the embossing.

Then I put it together with some colored cardstock and ribbon to make a card.

I forgot about protecting the back of the card from the ink that was all over the mat I was working on. Oh well. I guess the back has some decoration too.

Just another day

Well my craft spree was very short lived. I did not get back to it yesterday. I did however return to the pretty much of nothing routine that I've been following for the week. In the morning I went to pick up my paycheck, stopped at the bank and then to the store to do grocery shopping for Gibbs. After that it was back home for lunch and some reading.
I did pull out the vacuum and thought I would do some cleaning but after vacuuming the rugs in the living room I decided it really wasn't going to happen.
Later in the evening I went outside with Gibbs and I could hear the marching band practicing at the high school. It was a nice night so I grabbed my camera and did some playing while I listened to the band.

This was with a flash and you could just barely see the tree.

I wondered what auto correct would do to it.

My most unique picture of the evening was with a very slow shutter speed.

I don't think I'll be quiting my bakery job in search of a job as a photographer.

It's a start

Well it wasn't the most exciting day ever but I added to my daily routine of napping and reading. I actually skipped the nap and went through some old pictures and uploaded them to Facebook.  I also added a wee bit of crafting in the mix.
They aren't done but I did a matching set

And here's one that shows the inside of the tablet folder

I added a tag to the inside pocket. I'll decorate that but I don't know how yet.  I'm also going to add a magnet to the back of the post it note clipboard

Whine or wine?

This just may go down in history as the worst vacation I have ever had. I have no energy, no ambition, and I haven't spoken to, seen or gotten a text from one single person in 3 entire days. Yesterday I was feeling bored, lonely and a bit sorry for myself and that's when the crying started.
I think I'm going to need another box of tissues.

Too bad I don't have any cheese to go with this whine.

Read, nap, repeat.

Yesterday was another lazy day. I read until I couldn't keep my eyes open, then I napped for a bit. When I woke up I would read again until I couldn't keep my eyes open again. I went back and forth between reading my kindle and reading blogs. You know, so I had a little more variety in my day. It was one of those kinds of days that was perfect for it. Sort of dark and dreary with a little bit of rain thrown in.

There was one other thing I did yesterday. I did a little playing around with a new picture of Gibbs.

This is the original.

I took out the white cord in the background then darkened and blurred it. I sharpened Gibbs and gave his eyes a little bit extra pop.

Then I thought I would try cropping it in closer.

Then I tried it in black and white.

He doesn't appear to be happy with any of them.

It's a good thing...

...I didn't make any plans for this vacation. So far I have done nothing. I'm feeling like such a slug because I have absolutely no energy or ambition to do anything.

At least I convinced myself to get a few more pictures ready for a blog post. Back to the parade.
There were old cars

Old tractors being driven by old men.

And of course there were marching bands.

There used to be several school bands that marched in this parade but the last couple years there have only been two. The one pictured isn't the local school band. This is from the next town over. The kids from the school here were wearing black shorts and shirts and these kids looked more like a band so they get to be on the blog.

I also heard that there was only one girl who ran for fair queen this year. I can't help but wonder if our little fair isn't losing it's appeal.

Day 1

Other than the parade, day one of my vacation was very uneventful.

There was no clowning around whatsoever. At least not by me.

Notice the sign on the side of this ones shoe shine box. She had a flashlight that she shined on your shoes and that was her super shoe shine.

If that doesn't get your goat maybe this will.

You can't tell by the picture but not only is this goat pink but it's a glittery pink.

The rest of the day was spent snacking and napping. A headache set in after the parade and I had no energy to do anything.

I have more pictures from the parade, maybe I'll show  you more tomorrow.

Oh what a feeling

Walking out of work at 2:00 yesterday was the highlight of my week. I had considered going to the fair last night but after I had my dinner I just didn't feel like doing much of anything. I did however take a walk down to the fair on Thursday. I made one trip around and then sat and listended to the band that was playing.

This morning will be the parade so I'll be sitting out in my front yard with my camera. After that who knows what I'll do.

I've been thinking

Yeah!!! It's Friday. The best part about this Friday is that at 2:00 I start my vacation. I've been thinking about what I want to do while I'm off. I'm not really making plans because that never seems to work for me. Instead I'm making a list of options that I can choose from each day.

Looking at Pinterest I found a couple things.

I could make these from clothespins and stover burner covers

I have some ground turkey in the freezer I could make this

I could also start painting some of the upstairs rooms that need it.
I could check out another park I heard about.
I could get some much needed cleaning done.

Any other suggestions for what I can put on my list?

Night shots

Today is day 3 of the fair and I've yet to go. I was too wiped out after mowing on Tuesday and last night by the time I got done working my back was killing me and I just wanted to veg on the couch. I'm thinking I'll probably skip it tonight too. Friday sounds like a good day to go and maybe another trip there on Saturday.

So the other day I was out on the deck shortly before I went to bed. I noticed there was a lot of lightning and so I grabbed my camera to see if I could catch any. I didn't do so good but at least I tried.

The first few pictures I took my timing was really off and this was all I got.

This was as good as I could get. Maybe if there wouldn't have been so many clouds I would have gotten actual lightning instead.

No clever title

It's hard to come up with a good title when your post subject is rather boring. I need to start doing crafty things so I have more to blog about.
You know this is fair week so here is the cover of this years fair book.

Everything ever wanted to know about the Albion fair is right there in that book.

If you follow me on Facebook you may have seen my post yesterday. My lawn looked horrible and was way over due to be mowed. I can never get the rider started and the push mower is still broken. I can use it but it's a workout pushing that sucker. I bit the bullet and mowed when I got home from work. By the time I was done I was ready to drop. I skipped the front yard because it wasn't all that bad.

How long has it been.

Yesterday morning I woke up to discover that the electricity was out. I wondered how long it had been since it was out and more importantly how long before it would come back on. I mean seriously, a girl needs her coffee when she get up in the morning. I think the power came back on around 7:30 and that first cup tasted heavenly.

It was chilly and rainy all day so I spent the majority of the morning on the computer playing around or reading. When I was making my lunch it occured to me how disgusting my refrigerator was getting. When I got done eating I decided it was time to clean it out. II started on the inside then the outside and oh my stars when was the last time I bothered to clean off the top. Last but not least I moved it and cleaned the floor underneath.

The history of my job

I started working where I'm at now in 1997. I had unexpectedly quit my previous job and needed to find something. I started part time in the deli at night. Within a few weeks I had been trained as a cashier and a few months later the bakery manager position was offered to me. I gladly took it since that would mean going from part time to full time.

I'm throwing in a random picture to break things up. One picture 3 ways. Starting with the original and cropping in closer each time.

I don't recall how long I spent in the bakery before I was offered a store manager position. There were 3 of us at the time and I worked mainly nights. Although there were parts of the job I liked, for the most part it stressed me out too much.

When Wade and I got married in 2006 I told my boss I hated the job and wanted to go back to the bakery. That is where I've been ever since.

Last week during my 11 day stretch, the daytime manager was also on vacation which left the boss to take care of the office on top of all his other work. He handed me the keys to the office and said I could take care of it. Some of it I remembered and some I needed a slight refresher on. It certainly made the days go by quick since I was running most of the day. While doing my work in the bakery, I also had to run to the front of the store when they called for a manager.

This week is the dreaded fair week. Although I complain about it a lot, I've gotten quite organized with it over the years and it's really not as bad as it used to be. Mostly it's just a lot of extra work and a bit hectic. The bright side is that my reward for making it through the week is that I'm on vacation all next week.