Just A Quick One

Okay, I'm back. Things in my life are INSANE right now. Just freaking insane. But I wanted to update to tell you I didn't make the top 10 in the room makeover. :(

I did want to say THANK YOU SO MUCH for voting for me and trying to help me out! I so appreciated the love!

If you want to REALLY do me a favor though, would you just pray for us that everything will close on our house soon? That would be fabulous.

Funny Words

On my post about my Oregon trip I asked how you would pronounce "tillamook" and it got me thinking about other weird words where I live. You see, Washington has a lot of Native American influences and so a lot of the cities and things have Indian names. So I came up with a list for you! Yay!

First up, I wanted to set "tillamook" straight, its pronounced: till-uh-muck

I went to high school in Puyallup, its pronounced: pew-all-up (not as hard as you'd think right?)

Issaquah: Iss (like hiss)- uh- kwaw

Snoqualmie: snow-kwall-me

Steilacoom: still-uh-come

Cle Elum: clee-el-um

Yakima: yak-uh-muh

Quillayute: quille-ute

Sequim: skwim

Wenatchee: when-at-chee (not that hard but you'd be surprised!)

Chehalis: shuh-hay-liss

Kennewick: ken-uh-wick

Sammamish: Suh-mam-ish

Tulalip: two-lay-lip

Nisqually: nis-kwall-ee



Okay, I might have gotten a little carried away; but there's even more than that and I could keep going on and on and on. But I'll stop. I just thought it was interesting! So how did you do? Would you have pronounced them how I said? Do you have weird city names that you don't usually realize are weird until someone visits and can't say the town you live in? :)

Remember that Makeover??

Just a little reminder to go here and vote for me--PRETTY PLEASE!!

I'm #5 and just below my picture is a star with "vote" next to it, just click it and you're done! You can vote for me every day for like...I don't remember...I think just one week. :)  The top ten will be chosen by most votes, wild card and random.org.

I'm going to be honest here, I haven't been seriously blogging for a bit now--I know I don't have a ton of followers. So the odds that I'll get enough votes to qualify for the top ten is low (seriously, there's over a hundred entries!). BUT I still want to try, so if you love me, or hate me, or feel anything past "meh"--PLEASE GO VOTE!!

Thanks. I really want to win this. Really bad.

really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really...bad

Next Time I'll Eat Less Crap

Guess what guys?! I went on a trip. Alone, without my kids! Or my husband. But seriously, it was AWESOME!

My sisters-in-law put together a girls trip for labor day weekend and we went down the Oregon coast. First we stopped in Portland and got some "Big A** Sandwiches" (it was on a Food Network show, so we had to eat there) and then we walked around the corner and got some "Voodoo Donuts" (also from the food network). Then we drove down to the beach and shopped all weekend and played games and stole sand and shells off the beach (did you know that was illegal??). The weather was perfect, and sunny and wonderful (its always a little cool on the coast, windy and such--but seriously, still gorgeous weather). Then on the way home we stopped at the Tillamook Cheese Factory--I'm curious how you guys would pronounce "tillamook", please tell me in the comments! :) The only real bad thing about the trip was that I ate so much junk food I was pretty sure my body was going to revolt and cause some serious damage to...myself. It was getting kind of scary. (And now I have a few pounds extra to work off...but it was worth it. Probably. Not the revolting body...but...I'll stop now.)

Here's a couple of my favorite pictures! :)

In Which I Shamelessly Beg

So I LOVE craft blogs, and probably the one craft blog that I really connect with as far as style and projects and usefulness, would be Vintage Revivals. I've pinned, I've made plans, I've been ready to decorate my house for the last 11 years. The problem? Well, we haven't owned a house since we've been married. For about five years we lived in my husband's grandpa's house, and we could paint and stuff, but we were super poor so...yeah.

So I died last year when Mandi did her Epic Room Makeover--the results were so awesome, and I pretty much loved the entire thing. And now, guess what? She's doing it again!!

And you know what the even better news is???

WE'RE BUYING A HOUSE THIS WEEK!!! We're scheduled for closing on thursday and moving in this weekend!

The sad part is because of the timing and extra expenses that have come up (septic pumping, a whole new freaking roof, etc.) we don't have a lot of extra money to do all the fun projects I wanted to (especially the flooring, gosh dang I wanted to get rid of that carpet...), and we'll probably have to wait awhile before we can really do anything. (This sucks BAD, by the way.)

Have you ever wanted something SO BAD and had to wait ELEVEN YEARS for it?! If you have, then you know how hard that is. If you haven't had to wait eleven years for something, than go say a little prayer and be thankful for how lucky you are. ;)

Anyway, Mandi's doing another Epic Room Makeover, and this time I can actually apply for it! How freaking cool would that be?!

So here's some pictures of our house so you can see:
(the room I would makeover---oh gosh, so hard to choose!!--would be the living room)

These are the MLS listing pictures:

This third picture, in the left hand corner, thats the front door. So there's a bay window--thats fun right?!--and old gray berber carpet--not so fun I know--and high ceilings and plain white walls.

Of course, right now its empty. BUT I do have this great couch that will go in there:

Okay, I know this is a crappy picture, but I'm in the midst of packing and I'm lazy. (Yes, thats a two year old sleeping on the other couch.)

Oh and I just dyed a slipcover the other day a light turquoise for a chair, so it shows I can do decoratey things too! :)

Here is where I plead my case, and look as pathetic as possible:

I have spent the last week and a half packing my brains out--with no help from my husband because...well, he's dumb--I'm tired, I'm stressed, I got in a big fight with my husband last night and hardly slept at all. Feel sorry for me. I have four kids and my husband's in the military, I had my fourth baby alone (except my sister was there...and you know, the doctor) because my husband was at basic training, my kids are crazy, I'm sort of crazy. I don't even have an iphone. Am I laying this on too thick?

Okay, other reasons why it would be awesome if I was chosen:

I'm hilarious--right?! I'm super fun to be around. I don't work outside the home and I'm a night owl so I can work as late as we need to (just don't ask me to get up early...). I love thrifting, I hate spending money, I am ALL about do-it-yourself. We would have SO MUCH FUN!! Also, I live in Washington, which isn't too far from Utah and did you know that Washington is BEAUTIFUL?! Plus I would take you to the Space Needle if you wanted. Or to the mountains, whatever blows your hair back! Ummmm, what else....I definitely don't want the same look as everyone else, I like unique, I like fun, I HATE matched couch sets. I'm really good at painting--both walls and pictures. I have a really nice camera. I have a mac and a wii. Whats your favorite movie--I bet I have it! I REALLY WANT THIS.

Okay, pray for me friends.

Memories Can Be Confusing

Do you ever watch a movie you LOVED as a kid, but as an adult you think to yourself:

"That is not AT ALL how I remember this movie..."

My husband and I watched 'Forever Young' the other night. Ya know, with Mel Gibson--who I have to say, was very handsome--anyway, I remember we loved that movie when I was a kid; and my husband couldn't really remember what it was about, so I made him watch it.

But you know what? I remember thinking it was such a great movie before, and by the end of the movie, I was like, "that was really, really depressing."

I mean, the man's sweetheart gets in a car accident and is in a coma. He is so overcome with grief he decides he needs to cryogenically freeze himself until/unless she wakes up. Well, the guy who's supposed to be in charge of it dies just a few months in--and THEY FORGET ABOUT HIM. He's basically stuck in a warehouse for 50 years. And THEN when he DOES wake up, he finds out that the girl he loved woke up from the coma, got married and lived a nice happy life--without him. And now he's aged 50 years in three days. But hey, they can be together NOW. You know, for a year or something before they both die. They could've lived their entire lives together, but NO. No big deal.

So yeah, sort of weird.

Other movies that are different from my childhood memories:

~Goonies

~Dirty Dancing

~Space Balls

~The Legend

~Labyrinth

~Crocodile Dundee

~Superman

...okay, pretty much most movies I watched as a kid...

What about you? That ever happen to you?

Finding Balance

I know last post I wrote, I said I wasn't going to read comments anymore and then I just went and did the exact opposite. I'm a bad person.

I keep telling myself that I'm easing out of this slowly, that I'm not a cold turkey kind of person. But the thing is: I sort of AM a cold turkey kind of person.

Whenever I've struggled with something in the past, let's say a tv show for example (something easy), I'll just not allow myself to watch that show at all anymore, I will even try to stay away from that whole tv channel if it helps. I can't just watch every once in awhile or take a break and come back to it, I have to STOP and never watch it ever again.

I think I've explained this before, but I have a sort of obsessive personality. When I do something--anything really--I am super focused on it for until...I don't know, I can obsess over something else. It makes life difficult sometimes.

But this is my problem: I don't want to quit my computer time cold turkey. I want to learn how to moderate my time on it, I want to be able to see its been long enough and to go do something else already! How do I learn this? I don't know, but I'm trying. And by trying, I mean, I really suck at this. But I AM trying, even if to others it doesn't look like a very good effort. (Tell that to my husband, please.) ;)

I'm also really hoping for a big change to happen in our lives very soon and maybe that will be like a kickstart for changing my schedule, plus school will start soon; all that HAS to help right?? Kind of like when you do a detox or whatever to kickstart losing weight. I don't know what that means, but it relates  I think.

Okay then, my computer time is over... (see progress!)

I have on my Angry Eyes

Oh my goodness guys I'm feeling so ranty!! I don't know whats gotten into me lately but the normal filter I usually have is cracked or something.

Why is it so hard to see a comment on a news article or on YouTube or Facebook or WHATEVER and just let it go? It doesn't really matter, if I comment its probably not going to change a dang thing or anybody's opinion and YET it is so hard to walk away from! I don't want to argue with people, its just maddening not to share an opinion when you feel you have something to say. (Thats right and they're dumb.) ;)

I usually try really hard not to comment on things. I might type up the comment and then delete it. I might spend a lot of time writing up what I would say. But usually I'll just delete it because halfway through I feel like its just not worth getting sucked into.

BUT every once in awhile I do it. I type up a comment. I hit post. And then my hands go numb. And my arms start shaking. And I start obsessing. I can't stop thinking about it. Is someone going to reply?! Are they going to be horrible to me?! When should I check for replies?! Oh man do I get worked up!

Is it not ridiculous that I get that much anxiety over this?! The person isn't even standing in the same room as me. I'm alone. And yet here I am, heart beating fast, getting all worked up like someone's about to hit me.

So silly.

Because of this, I've been trying really hard not to read comments anymore. Have you guys noticed how bad comments have become?! You can't click open a picture of a kitty cat playing with yarn on Facebook without almost every comment on there being negative. Its crazy!!

I'm really getting tired of it--and yet, its hard to look away. I go in all innocent and then there I am, sucked into the comments. AGAIN. How do I stop this?

I think the answer is to stay away. Its tough since I LOVE social media, but is it worth all this anxiety and negativity? I really don't think so. I need to be more disciplined. I need more will power. Mostly I need some energy to do something else than veg in front of my computer screen. I need to get out of my house. I need a change.

I haven't been on here in forever. I've been having ups and downs feeling like I'm in control of my computer time. I was doing good, now I'm feeling not so much. :/ I am vowing here on out to get control of my schedule. No more of wasting my time feeling crazy and upset and angry over what perfect strangers are saying and doing--especially when I have plenty of real life people in front of me to do that. ;)

Cross my heart. Wish me luck.

Bits and Pieces

Okay friends, its been awhile and I'm finally back with updates and all kinds of greatness. Maybe. Probably not. Did I say greatness? I think I meant mediocrity.

My husband's out of town, its been almost a week, with a little less than two weeks left. One of the worst parts of him being gone is that I CANNOT GO TO SLEEP!! Its really bad, like I've been staying up until after midnight, more like 1 am--and THEN right when I'm about to fall asleep my two year old wakes up and screams for half an hour to an hour. Seriously. Just kill me. The whole thing is this crazy bad cycle, where I stay up late, am cranky all day long, have no patience for my kids, want to stay up after they go to bed to "get stuff done" and have some peace; lather, rinse, repeat.

The weather has been FANTASTIC the last few days--FANTASTIC!! Yes its been so nice it deserves to be yelled TWICE! (!!) And yesterday we went to the park twice because it was just too beautiful not to be out in. And I was totally pitting out through my shirt, but I didn't care because there was SUNSHINE!!! (lots of twirling with face upturned toward the sun going on here...)

I recently started reading this blog: Mimi G. Style and I adore her!! She loves to sew and has awesome style, and even shares tutorials on how to make some of the stuff she does! So I was inspired to make a skirt for Mother's Day (remember how I made a list of 30 things to do before I turn 30? No? Seriously??) One of my goals is to do some sort of crafty thing every month, so thats what I did. Here's a terrible, low quality picture, but its going to stay that way because I don't want you to see in high quality all the mistakes I made on it. ;)

So yeah, I'm pretty much awesome now. 

Like I mentioned before, my husband's out of town; so Mother's Day was pretty much how it is when he's in town...aaaaand thats all I'm going to say about that. Except, I LOVE YOU DEAR! xoxoxo

We're trying to buy a house. That should be super exciting (and it is) since its our very first house (been married for over 10 years, so I think its about time already). The thing is, since we've never bought a house before, we have no idea what we're doing and all the ideas I had in my head of what it was "going to be like", were completely out in la-la land (shocking--thats never happened before...). The first time we went to look at houses, we had two on our list to go see and I thought FOR SURE we would buy one of those houses. From the pictures they seemed GREAT! We get there and all my expectations are blown away, why are people so gross? Anyway, we just put an offer in on a house last week, but even thats not very exciting since its a short sale and who even knows whats going to happen. At least I know there will be lots and lots of...waiting. Plus our agent just called and said they wanted to counter a few things from our offer--like that WE have to pay $1200 for the septic tank to be cleaned and inspected since they haven't done it AT ALL since they've lived there for the last 10 years. Awesome.

Well, thats about all I have time for, its "homework hour" and all the joy that brings me... Later.

I Wrote This When I Was PMS-ing

I've been a loyal Facebooker for years now. YEARS. Like four years. Thats longer than half of my children have even been alive. And in that four years I would say I've put up with a lot of stupid things.

Here are some of the things that just in the last day or two have irritated me about Facebook:

1- when my Mormon friends put OMG. Come on guys, you have to know what that stands for, why do we teach our children to not use the Lord's name in vain, and then you turn around and do it on Facebook just because you don't  have to type out three more letters. Its annoying and I hate that I have to still read it that way in my head. Stop it. (This also reminds me of the youth on Fast Sunday that continuously use the drinking fountain. Hello?! Are you not fasting? Well, you just told the whole world. And stop tempting me.)

2- The people who threaten they're going to quite Facebook. "Hey guys, I think I'm done with Facebook, I just never use it and I'm going to delete it tomorrow at 5:30." Never happens. If you're going to delete it, just do it and quite teasing us.

3- The people who's over the top needy comments just make me want to punch them in the face. Face...book? Anyway, you know the comments where the person is basically begging you to give them attention? And its not just once in awhile because that I get, but EVERY time they post, its needy and feel sorry for me and annoying and you just want to tell them that their life is just not that bad and quit it! Instead, I'll just block their updates.

4- The people who use Facebook as a platform to slam The Hunger Games. Hahaha! Okay, I was a little annoyed by this. The best response to the whole, "Its children killing each other!!!!" was: "Did you not know what it was about before you saw it??" Seriously though, did you not? If it sounds horrible to you, don't go see it. And please for the love, DON'T take your little kids!

5- Worst offenders for Facebook are the bandwagon jumpers. I'm going to be mean here (I know what you're thinking, I'm just starting to be mean--what about the rest of the post?? Yeah well, whatever), but the big thing going around Facebook this time is 'Justice for Trayvon Martin' and I'm not saying its not a horrible situation and sad that this boy was killed, it IS, I'm just saying-- do you REALLY think a man walked up to a 17 year old boy, shot him in the chest and that he wouldn't be convicted of murder? REALLY? Please people, think about these things. Does that make sense?? Its like Stop Kony all over again, my gosh! Why do we have to jump on these things and get all riled up and freaked out and indignant when we don't even have the facts?

(So, I wrote this and saved it because I wasn't sure if it was too mean. Now that I'm off my period, I think its hilarious! :D So you can laugh at my irritability from my hormonal imbalances too!)