happy halloween

Happy Halloween everyone! No special plans for me. Cary is at Guard this weekend and in this new apartment complex I'm not sure if we even get Trick-0r-treaters. A little bummed about that. Might stop by my parent's and see if they do. I love seeing little kids all dressed up and excited!

Speaking of excited...I'm SO glad it's a friday and I have NOTHING to do this weekend. The last three weekends have been so busy and it's nice to have the apartment to myself with no plans. Though I do miss Cary when he's gone....I can do WHATEVER I want!

Here's what I'm hoping to do:

• groceries. I know. Not excited but I love grocery shopping.
• not get the cold that is going around. Not feeling great today...I will fight it!
• go to my LSS with thier 30% off coupon. Hmm...what will I get? So many ideas.
• work on my summer 08 mini book.
• buy a 12x12 album for Cary's family book he is asking for. He wants a place to put some photos he's recently collected as he tries to reconnect.
• go to an art gallery opening with my dad for an artist we both really enjoy.
• go to the apple orchard and pick up some cider and apples.
• clean. Hopefully Cary finally brings back the living room chair and bookcase from Maine so we can get rid of the giant plastic tubs of books we have stacked in the bedroom...then I want to pick up the coffee table a friend is giving us when he gets back next week.
• order Sept and Oct photos and get those pages ready in my 2008 album.
• Run on the treadmill tonight or tomorrow.
• Laundry
• Buy a new set of sheets and a few other small things we need at Bed Bath and Beyond...where I have a coupon.
• take some PHOTOS!

Probably a little too ambitious...but I'll be happy if I even do half of these things.

Happy Friday!

halloween cards

Here's some cards I made last night. Cary asked me to make some for his family so he could deliver them when he's in Maine for guard this weekend....Halloween is his favorite. I had fun with these...I've never made a Halloween card before!

Stamps are Memory Box and Inkadinkadoo...papers are various patterned papers. Also used some yellow stickles for the creepy owl's eyes and hand drew leaves on the ground and a pumpkin in one of the cards...

Thanks for looking!

the weekend

Times Square, NYC

• A day trip to NYC courtesy of my college's alumni assoc. My mom, sister and I spent Saturday doing some early Christmas shopping and enjoying the day in NYC. We left Boston at 7am and the bus arrived around 11ish. We left the Big Apple at 6:30 pm and got back to the quieter city of Boston at 11pm. Tired!
• Today was spent catching up in the apartment and with errands.
• Groceries...some special treats like Ghiardelli Hot Chocolate mix...
• Cooking a baked chicken, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy and (by Cary's special request) cranberry sauce.
• Baked an apple cake. Smells so good!
• Took at trip to my LSS for some Halloween treats. Cary asked if I'd make some Halloween cards for his family to take when he goes to Guard this friday.
• A trip to Home Goods for a few things for the kitchen.
• Laundrey...really needed to do 4 loads but only had a enough on the little pre-paid card to do 2 loads and one load in the dryer. Hopefully they all dry. I hate when the clothes come out slightly damp. Then the apartment looks like a mess with clothes hanging everywhere!
• May go out later to pick up a coffee table a friend is giving us...

Hope everyone had a nice weekend!

cookies make everything better

Good news...our program is staying open! So, no money freak-outs for me again today! But this does re-motivate me to really get back to finding a new position. Maybe something entirely different for a change. I really am burntout where I am currently. I've been there 5 years and need a change to compliment my teaching. Maybe within my field. Maybe not. I feel this responsibilty to stay in the field right now since I'm teaching it at the college level but I need a break. Maybe I can find a place to do one art therapy group per week and work a fun, regular job the rest of the week in addition to teaching? We'll see. I just always feel this huge sense of responsibility and have trouble with change and worry about making mistakes constantly. But every "risk" I've taken up to this point in my life have brought some of the most wonderful things into my life.

This has really been an overwhelming week and I need to just relax. I get so stressed out too easily. I am also still processing everything that happened this weekend and re-evaluating my priorities. I want to be happy and enjoy where I go each day. Life is just too short not to.

As for other stuff...I just finished making chocolate chip cookies. When we went to Maine, Cary's step-mother made him his favorite cookies and he was begging her to pass on the recipe to me and she did. They are soooo good with a secret ingredient to make them almost cake-like. Cary keeps teasing me since so many people at this funeral were asking about his intentions with me...marriage, etc. He was teasing saying, "She's applying for the position." He was joking today that the cookies are part of my application. But...in all seriousness...I hope they are half as good as his mom's! Tough competition! We ate hers during the 6-hour ride home and they were good...

when it rains

Leaving Presque Isle, ME

When it rains it pours. Thanks to Deval Patrick's major state budget cuts I could be out of a job. I am trying to be positive. It might be the best thing for me. A change. We'll see. Just not liking the added stress level at an already high intensity place. I want to be back at the 300 acre apple orchard I saw in Canada this weekend. Still trying to keep things in perspective. Life is short. There is no point being miserable. I WILL BE POSITIVE.

• Today my parent's celebrated 36 years of marriage. Ups and downs but they are a team.
• My family is healthy.
• I am loved.
• Cary bought me a present today. A pumpkin head Pez dispenser. Made me laugh!
• Cary is home and not in Iraq or Afghanistan or somewhere dangerous.
• I need a change. It might be forced. But I need it badly.
• I saw forgiveness and openness this weekend.
• I am enjoying some Oreo cookies (double stuff) and "Tension Tamer" tea.
• I'm taking a day/bus trip to NYC this Saturday with my mom and sister.
• I am a beautiful apartment and food in the cabinets.
• I have my health. Physical and mental. I will be ok.

Thanks for reading! Hopefully more upbeat posts to come with good news instead of sad :)

not my story to tell

Well. We are back from Maine and New Brunswick, Canada. We attended Cary's (half) brother's funeral. Too young. Too complicated. Too sad. It was a long, exhausting, sad weekend. I met many people I hadn't yet met...and wished I had met others...including his brother. It is a complicated story and one I won't go into. It isn't my story to tell. But it reminds me to not wait until tomorrow to say what I need to say today.

I will hopefully post more later. And I want to catch up on everyone else's world today. Including my own.

too short

Cary found out some news about a family tragedy last night. I won't go into details but today I'm reflecting on how short life is and how important it really is to appreciate the now. We spent some time together which we haven't really had a chance to do recently. We went to the apple orchard...watched the baby ducks, the giant pig and the horses. Bought some apples, cider and a buttermilk maple pancake mix. Comforts it seems. Mainly we enjoyed each other's company. I drove my sister to and from work today as a favor to my parent's. After dinner and Cary left for work I ran on the treadmill. Appreciating that I can run. I can breathe, run, see, love...all the things I don't appreciate enough. Why don't I? I want to make sure I hug each of my family members the next time I see them. Appreciating that they are in my life and always have been. Appreciating that they are here now.

scenes from the weekend...so far

The Topsfield Fair...a yearly favorite for me...

A beautiful clysdale getting a bath.
A peice of art in sand....sand castle.
Cows. Cows. Cows.
Riding the rides. Not an attractive picture but so much fun!
Girl's Night at my house last night. A costume party!

Off to visit my parent's, hopefully unpack winter sweaters and pack up summer clothes, maybe stop at AC Moore and make some cards to prep for the craft fair next Saturday.

Happy Sunday!

6 secrets

Sarah tagged me for "six secrets" - I share six secrets about me and then tag 5 other bloggers. I found this really hard! What to share...hmmm...

1. I was a complete slob as a kid. I remember "cleaning" my room and shoving stuff under furniture and slamming the closet door before things could fall out...it was bad. No-one now who knows me and my OCD-like tendencies would believe it...except my mom who was a witness :)

2. I am a World of Warcraft player. Yes. A computer game. Cary got me into it. I haven't regularly played in a few months but it is fun. An complete escape from reality that everyone needs at times.

3. Vacuuming doesn't happen until I get desperate and need to. My mom used to tease me when I was in college. I am so neat and organized in every other area of my home but vacuuming....I'm not good about.

4. I love plants but the only kind I can take care of are unkillable. And even that isn't always the case. My signal to water my plants is their wilting...crying out for me to water them before they die!

5. I hate peanut butter & jelly sandwiches. I used to eat peanut butter & butter when I was little. Gross.

6. I have no idea what to put for a 6th secret. This is hard. Hmmm. I won a bike in kindergarten and had a wierd premonition that morning and knew that I was going to win it. I'm not really a superstitious person but I have never forgotten that wierd, calm feeling that it wasn't a surprise to me that I was going to win it. Makes me sound like a freak!

This was so hard but fun! I'm tagging......Heather, Pete, Sandra, Toni,and Jen. Thanks Sarah...this was a fun challenging challenge!

lucky week

So far this has been a lucky week for me!

Yesterday I had lunch with an old student and it was wonderful! So nice to have a great conversation with a girl who I know will be an awesome art therapist someday. She is currently applying to grad school and I am positive she will do great. I'm proud to be a part of her training.

Also, yesterday I got word that Cary and I won the "early bird" raffle at our apartment complex...every month if you pay your rent early you can enter. That means $100 off our rent next month! I feel like I won the lottery.

Then today, randomly while cooking dinner I got a call from a job contact I made almost a year ago. Originally I had applied for a part-time Activities Asst at a local nursing home. I did so knowing I was very overqualified for that position but I wanted to see what opportunities might be available. Obviously, I couldn't take that job at the pay rate, etc. they offered. However, at the time the Director was very interested in seeing how he might be able to incorporate my art therapy skills and experience if he could get budget approval.

Well...fast forward almost a year and he called today.

The person in that original position left for a full-time position. There is new upper mgmt and he said he is very possibily going to be able to advocate to pay for my services! And...he said if that isn't possible there is another home in the same system nearby that may be able too if he can't. Awesome! The elderly is a population I did internships with and really always saw myself working with eventually. Cross your fingers! The hours would be a few less than I have currently but if they could at least match my current pay I think the change would be well worth it.

I have been working on building up my endurance running on the treadmill. I'm following a run/walk training schedule. This week I'm up to: walk 2 min, run 9 min, repeat 3 times. It is getting easier! I'm so excited. This has been a very long term goal of mine.

Well...we will see what else the week brings!

I'm looking forward to getting the summer pictures I ordered through scrapbookpictures.com. I got a few enlargements to frame. I also got some photos developed for a small mini-album that will be "the summer in review." I'm excited...full of ideas from Ali's new book that I got this weekend.

Off to read some blogs and download some running music for my ipod...

this weekend

So...just made chocolate chip cookies and I was wondering why they looked so different from the last time I made them. Flatter, larger, greasier. I re-read the directions. 1 stick (1 cup) of butter. Well. There was my problem.

I put 2 sticks (2 cups) of butter.

Good Lord!

Otherwise...I had a fun, productive weekend.

Last night I made these...to keep the Serenity Prayer in my mind...

...with some $5 frame finds I got at Home Goods - where has that store been all my life? I was in heaven! I used some carstock and patterned paper and printed the words right onto the paper. The frames were cool and had double panes of glass with a painted matt on each. Gives a real dimensional look.

I went to my LSS last night also...got Ali Edward's book about mini albums. Love it so far.

Ordered a whole bunch of photos online to scrap. Some are going in a mini album about this summer.

This morning, I went to the apple orchard. My favorite place in the fall. Loaded up on cider, apple wine and apples for a pie I'm baking Friday for my Girl's Night. (I will have to hold back on the butter)

Made some of these to sell at the craft fair in a few weeks....

Simple card with a rusted-looking metal snowflake charm hanging in scalloped window

"Christmas Magic" with some buttons and pattered paper.

Ribbon flowers anchored with a brad - got the idea from Nov/Dec Memory Makers

Simple card with a sparkly tree "button" and a the negative left from a star punch on a peice of cardstock. Added a little light blue chalk behind the star opening. Stamped "Peace on Earth" in light blue chalk.

Ended the weekend by making myself some Stuffed Peppers for dinner..hmmmm. Back to work and reality tomorrow. I have a love/hate relationship with Sundays.

fun

The start of some Halloween decorations. When Cary comes home the apartment will be decorated for his favorite holiday! Had fun checking out some costumes too for my Girl's Night that I'm hosting. Someone suggested dressing up which hadn't even ocurred to me. But they are too expensive...I need to get creative.

remember to just play

photo of the "Fishermen at the Wheel" taken a few weeks ago - Gloucester, MA

No new photos. I have really been neglecting my camera. And all the trees are turning beautiful! I will make a point to take time out this weekend to appreciate them and photograph them. This has been a long, but ok week. Today was interesting. I took a walk at lunchtime and when I got back I was talking to my boss...I leaned back in my chair and felt a burning sting. A yellow-jacket had gotten stuck in my shirt and he didn't like it. Ouch! Stung at work. The hazards of work!



Last night I was really wanting to do some painting. Not sure why. I was never really a painter. Took my classes as an undergrad art major but haven't really done much of it since. A few years ago I got a starter set of water-soluable oil paints. They are awesome because they eliminate the need for turpentine and worrying about the rags/towels you use being combustible and the fumes. I learned about them in college when my professor had a company rep demo them. I'm really just playing around with them...we'll see. I'm really trying to just enjoy the process and not worry about the end result. Not easy for me. Just play...



I'm so proud...this week I have been working on running on the treadmill. A long term goal of mine but I never thought I could. I am working up my time. I've been able to run 20 min without stopping but decided to do an 8-wk plan I saw online instead. I started 1/2 way into the plan since I'd already started conditioning myself. So...this week I have been walking 2 minutes then running 8 minutes and repeating this cycle 3 times. It is getting easier!



This weekend Cary has guard so I have the apartment to myself. Need to do some prep for my Girl's Night next Saturday. Cary also requested (he's a goof) that I decorate for Halloween. His favorite holiday! Oooohhh....actual permission to (a) decorate, and (b) buy a few decorations!



My goal this weekend is to HAVE FUN and PLAY even when doing chores and errands!



Hope everyone has a nice Friday!