Winter Review

Wow it's been another long while since I've written. I always think about it but never get to it :( Ugh, I really want to try to update every weekend!

So here's a recap of my winter:

Tristan is FOUR now and very proud of it. He still likes to tell people that's he's four. I ordered his birthday cake this time and insisted on buttercream icing, NOT whipped. Apparently the lady didn't care what I wanted and thought that I should have what she and everyone else loves and gave me whipped icing anyways. I was so mad. I will never order from them again that's for sure.

I spent my Thanksgiving break away from my family here and went to Troy to wrap up my most important wedding plans. The Hayner decided to seriously screw me out of the Solarium I had picked out, AFTER I had made the trip just to do so. So I ended up with the Study and it worked out much better. A few people showed up that I didn't think would actually come, Kelle canceled at the last possible minute, and MumMum and Colely pulled off everything. I seriously could not have done this without them!! I do wish it could've lasted longer though.

There were SO many presents on xmas morning! The best part was Collie's reaction to the huge stuffed dog that she got! I'm pretty sure that moment can never be topped and she still loves her Goggie :D Her days and nights aren't complete without it. I think we need another one!

I dyed my hair dark again on New Year's Eve. It's lightened up quite a bit now and I'm thinking about adding black tips. Maybe pink. New Year's Day I FINALLY opened a shop on Etsy! I've gotten a lot of views so far but only a few favorites.

Tim has started his second full semester of school. We are both looking for jobs because his unemployment runs out this month. I hope that Tim finds something before I do because I really need to be the one to stay home and continue doing everything that I do here. I do most of the cooking and cleaning, and all of the parenting. None of that will be taken care of if I'm working outside of the house. Plus I'm trying to maintain an art business. It's been very steady so far but I have no orders after my current one. Though it will be nice to take a break for a couple weeks and just work on my own personal projects. Then I will be able to get a few new things in the shop :3

As grateful that I am for having this place to stay while Tim goes to school, getting our own place just can't come soon enough. Tristan is constantly being put down, and most of the time I am expected to find it funny. I don't. At all. Nobody cares?? I FUCKING CARE. I made this little person with all of his personality. And in the rare instances when I broke down and spanked him, running up next to me and repeatedly telling me I'm doing an "excellent" job while it's happening is in absolutely NO way appropriate. That's disturbing. I'm not proud of it, it's not a good thing, and it's definitely none of anyone's business but mine. Keep your hate and impatience to YOURSELF.

So overall, winter this season has been amazingly mild with very little snow, and I am really looking forward to spring! I have already seen baby Daffodils at the grocery store and I get excited and want to buy all of them. I can only resist for so long :D

Shopping and Painting

Saturday Tim and I got a chance to go out for a bit! First we went to a Japanese restaurant called Masaru to eat some sushi. It was really good and I definitely want to go back there. The plating was so pretty that I need to take pictures next time! After eating we went to Target and Toys R Us to get all of Tristan's birthday presents and most of his xmas presents too. There are a few more things that I want him to get so I may go back out for those or let MumMum get them if she wants since she was asking about it. I know what I want to get for Collie and Tim and then I should be set for xmas presents since I have no clue what to get anybody else :(

I've been feeling better about Karla since my last post, but I am still very sad. The rescue group keeps posting about her every other day since she is the one dog that has been with them the longest. I don't understand that though...how can no one be interested in her?! She is so cute and beautiful. I just hope that she finds a good home soon.

I've been painting a lot lately! I have quite a few of my own projects that I want to get done so I can open my Etsy shop but they keep getting pushed back for my friend's mom who keeps ordering stuff from me. That's great, but she doesn't give me much to go on and she sent back that last set for me to completely redo because she didn't like the colors AFTER she said they looked awesome. She just ordered more stuff for me to work on, and yet again, has not given me much to start with. Colorful bugs. Nothing in particular. Just lots of colorful bugs. UGH!!!! You HAVE to give me more than that! Especially if you didn't like my colors last time! If she doesn't like how they turn out when I'm done with them, then I am just going to have to put my foot down and tell her how it is...nicely and professionally of course. She wants wooden letters this time and those are harder to do than the simple canvases. I will show her each letter as I'm working on it to get her approval, but if she decides that she doesn't like the final product after I've sent it to her, then I just have to tell her that I am not repainting it this time. Don't give me freedom over a project and then complain that it's not what you wanted. I hate to be that way but it might come to that. But I hope not!

Yesterday I finally created a business page on Facebook for my paintings after a friend talked me into it. I only have four Likes so far and I honestly don't think that anyone is really going to care about it. I will give it a little time but I will probably end up taking it down. There's no point in having it up if it doesn't serve it's purpose. I guess we will see...

Avail-a-bullies

This is Karla. She is a gorgeous pitbull at a local rescue organization.

Ever since we lost Blaze over moving to Japan (HUGE regret) we have wanted to get another dog. Recently a friend of mine started watching a rescue group on Facebook and they just happen to be in my area. I got excited and started following them and another local group as well. I looked through dozens of photos of available pitbulls and read all of their stories, but none of them sparked my interest. Then the other day this picture and bio was posted. Immediately I felt "she's the one...that's my dog." I was hopeful that we might be able to foster and and then my family would warm up to the idea of letting me keep her. But the house we are living in right now isn't ours, and there are other animal residents to consider. The house is pretty full already with six humans and four cats. I talked to Tim about it a little bit but told him that I just couldn't ask his parents about it. I didn't really want him to ask either. I already knew the answer.

I have been really upset over this and I don't know why. Depressed and crying. This is ridiculous. I have been living with the fact for the last three years that we won't be able to get another dog for a long time, and understood when we got back to the states that it would still be a few more years before we could even think about it. Why is this one dog, this photo of a dog that I have never met, getting to me so bad?! And I realized that I am hurt over the thought of someone else adopting her. I just want to slap myself and snap out of it! I am completely overreacting and I feel stupid.

Well the local rescues are getting together at the end of October to hold an Awareness Day for pitbulls and I want to go. They need volunteers, which I love doing with animals, so I will go to help out or just meet all the dogs and support them. I will see if my friend here, Jen, wants to go with me too. It will be fun!

Etsy

I can't believe that summer is almost over! I'm sad about it but it means that great things are coming! Tim starting school, Tristan's birthday, FALL, and our wedding!

So not much new has been going on, but I have been painting more and working towards getting my Etsy shop set up! I've been wanting to do this for about a year now. I am so nervous about it but I won't know how it will turn out until I just jump in and try! Here are my two current works in progress:





I wish I had more time every day to work instead of just late at night when I'm too tired to do anything. Hopefully I will get these done soon. I have so many things that I want to paint right now!

Father's Day

Another important day today. For most people. Here it was just another day for the most part. Spent some time by the pool finally and got just tad too much sun. Unfortunately the water is way too cold to swim in and enjoy, but it's still nice to have around and they should be getting a heater put in pretty soon.
I came inside for a minute to get a drink with Tristan and didn't have my glasses on and Collie was not quite sure about me at all! She definitely clung to daddy this time which was really cute. She knew it was me by my voice but just couldn't get past me looking just a bit different I guess. She wouldn't let me hold her and she cried. So we went back out to the pool for a little while longer.
Tim and his dad went out to dinner at Olive Garden. I was a little sad about it because I wanted to cook one of Tim's favorite dinners for him, pork chops with chive sauce, since we never get to eat meat anymore. Was going to make some green beer for him too because he didn't get any on his birthday. I also thought that it would have been nice for them to take Tristan too but of course that didn't happen either.
He said that he will take Tristan to McDonald's tomorrow...

Birthday Bean!

Yesterday was Collie's first birthday! It was a pretty normal day. Tristan did some pretty bad things throughout the day, like eat almost a whole box of granola bars and get into the cake that I made for Collie. He made a big hole in the middle of it but luckily I was able to fix it so you couldn't tell. Nicole and Jason came over for most of the day. Everyone just hung around not doing much. I made avacado burgers, which I forgot AGAIN to take a nice picture of. After dinner we all went to the living room for presents!













She loved the sea horse and the smart wheels the most. Then of course after the presents it was time for CAKE!! We had been talking about how excited we were for this moment for months. She absolutely loves to eat so we knew that she would dig right into the cake like Tristan never did.





And she did! Of course then it was bath and bed time for her. She went to sleep with her new glowing sea horse lullabying her to sleep <3

Red Headed Woodpeckers

There is a small pine tree right on the front side of the house between the two offices. A couple of Red Headed Woodpeckers frequent this particular tree and it is lined up and down with small holes. It is really neat to watch them work away on the tree, as they seem to not even notice.

Yesterday I saw that one had perched on the window sill and was taking a nap with his head tucked under his wing.


Then he moved over to the other office window and I decided to try taking his picture from outside.



I don't know if he was sick, old, deaf, or just REALLY sleeping, but he did not even twitch while Tristan and I stood only about a yard away taking pictures.



Tristan was even yelling at him and pounding on the wood. I think I could have walked right up to him and grabbed him. But seeing as how sensitive birds are to shock, I probably would have killed it x___x



I am absolutely loving all of the fauna and flora here. A few species that you rarely get to see back home in Ohio. But I am still waiting on this bear to show itself!