Retail Therapy

I had a rough week.

So today I went to Ross and spent $80 on clothes.  I cannot tell you the last time I spent that much money on clothes for myself.  I normally hate clothes shopping but between the shitty week thing and the fact that I've been feeling kinda frumpy in what I usually wear to work, it felt . . . necessary.

And since it was Ross, I got 4 work shirts, two sweaters, and a pair of shoes, so really it was a good deal.

I'm so glad it's Friday.

Things That Are Bugging Me Right Now

1.  How much I slept today.

2.  How much I ate today.  (Because eating an entire Little Caesar's pizza is most definitely a good decision).

3.  How little motivation I have to do ANYTHING around the house.

4.  The fact that I still haven't found a new doctor.  Blech.

5.  That tomorrow is the 2 year anniversary of the break up.

6.  Cramps.

7.  All the things I've been putting on my TO DO lists over and over and over again and putting off over and over and over again.

8.  That Benji's gone.

9.  That my sister lost her cell phone in Mexico.  I honestly do not understand how we're related.  You are a mother and have a job that literally requires you to save lives but you can't keep track of a freaking cell phone when you're on vacation?  It is mind boggling.

10.  Cramps.  Again.  Because they are just the worst.

Don't get me wrong.  I'm generally pretty happy with my life right now.

I'm also just annoyed about some things and I needed to get them off my chest.

Galinas Tank Trail Hike

I don't know if I ever mentioned it, but starting today I have a four day weekend from work.  The clinic is closed for Memorial Day on Monday, so I took today off to give myself a little mini vacation (I requested this off back in, like, February).  Initially my plan was to go down to Kingman to visit my family, but my sister is currently in Mexico and Austin is at his dad's house, so I decided to just chill out in Flagstaff.

By a random stroke of luck Jerbs also had today off (she did end up having to go in to work for a few hours but she was home by noon so it wasn't a big deal . . . plus her boss felt bad about her getting called in so now she's off tomorrow too!) so we decided to load up the dogs and go on a hike!

We set out to hike Bismark Lake Trail and find Bismark Lake.  We had directions but after awhile it became clear that they weren't completely accurate (we'd gone a lot further than the directions were said we were supposed to and still hadn't seen the turn off we were looking for), so we ended up just finding a random trail along Hart Prairie Road and hiking that.  It ended up being a really lovely hike.  The trail was easy and we had a beautiful view of the peaks in the distance and we were hiking through aspen trees.  About a mile in we found this abandoned/dilapidated old house off of the trail, which was really cool!  The trail skirted around this tall hill, and we decided to be intrepid and climb it; it was definitely a work out but worth it for the view!

The dogs, of course, had a fantastic time being off their leashes and running ahead of us on the trail.  Max surprised us by  being totally into it--he's not a very adventurous dogs and doesn't usually seem to care for long walks except to pee on things, but he was just all over the place today.  I was so proud of him!  He actually made it to the top of the hill first.  I'm glad to know I'll be able to take both of them out with me on more hikes this summer.

The view of the peaks from Hart Prairie Road on the drive out.

Aspen trees.

Aspen and flowers just off the trail we were on.

The front of the old house we found.

Stone steps ups to the front door.

The foundation of the old house.

The view through the front door from inside the house.
Because of course I went inside.

The house from the side.

The back of the house.

A view of the peaks from the hill we climbed, plus Hollie
looking very majestic.  Max is in there too, he's just blending in.

Max and Hollie were so worn out!  This was
roughly 10 minutes after we got back in the car.

After the hike we had lunch at Beaver Street Brewery and wandered around downtown for a little while.  All in all it was just a lovely day.  It made me feel very grateful that I live in such a beautiful place.  I'm looking forward to more summer adventures.

Summer Project: Jewelry Holder

So this is a project I've wanted to do for awhile now, I just hadn't had time or been able to find the right supplies.  I finally did when I was browsing at Michael's with Austin over the weekend.

It was really easy.  I just sanded and painted the frame until I got the look I wanted, then took out the plastic that would go over the picture and stretched fabric and netting across the frame backing.  The background fabric is just a fat quarter that's sand colored, and the main fabric is this netting kind of stuff that was with the nautical fabrics at JoAnns.  I initially wanted to do lace, but I thought the netting worked a little better with the nautical/seaside kinda theme I was going for.  For the posts at the bottom, I cut up a dowel and drilled holes to slide them into.

Like I said,really easy.

And here it is in action.  I haven't put many of my earrings on it yet but still.  Also the posts don't give quite enough space for my rings/bracelets so I'm thinking of either adding more posts or maybe making a smaller, matching piece to hang beside this one for additional storage.  We'll see.

At any rate, I'm really, really happy with how it turned out!

A Saucy Weekend

Yesterday my sister and Austin went to a Diamondbacks game in Phoenix; one of Jenny's good friends rents the pool at the field and invites all her friends and their kids and it's becoming a tradition.  One of my sister's friends and her boyfriend, who live here in Flagstaff, went with them this year, so Jenny and Austin got to spend some time in Flag before and after they went down to Phoenix.  Which, of course, meant I got to spend lots of time with that sweet little nephew of mine.

We went to Michaels and JoAnns, did arts and crafts, played with Max and Hollie, and fed the ducks at the pond.  I didn't get any pictures while we were at the pond (because supervising Austin, carrying all our stuff, and holding onto two dogs--one of whom wants nothing more than to throw herself into the pond after the ducks--made it a little hard to take pictures).

He colored with Auntie Jerbs.

And painted a pirate ship birdhouse.

And of course cuddled Max.  Because they're besties.

I love getting to spend time with this child.  He just makes my heart happy and I am so grateful that I get to be a part of his life, even if it's from a distance.

Allergies

Disclaimer: I took Benadryl a few hours ago (and by few I mean almost 7) and am still a little drugged up.  So keep that in mind if you're reading this.

So this morning, I woke up for work and my face felt all swollen and puffy.  It didn't look that bad except around my eyes so I figured it was nothing and went to work.  It got progressively worse as the day went on, and it was freaking awful.  Then in the afternoon I started getting itchy.  I had already assumed I was having some kind of allergic reaction based on the puffiness, and the itchiness basically confirmed that.

I tried to suck it up and stay at work but I was miserable.  I ended up leaving a little after 3:30 (and only lost an hour of work since I hadn't taken a lunch).  I came home and took a Benadryl and just woke up a little while ago.  I feel better; my face still feels kinda puffy but I'm not itching, so that's good.

Seriously WTF?  I know it's allergy season and with the wind we've had lately it seems like everyone's reacting to something that's blowing around, but I have so rarely dealt with allergies that this just irritates me.  I know it was the summer of 2009 that I ever even remotely thought I had allergies, because it was right after Jerbs and I moved to the east side of town.  I didn't have anything like that once I moved back to Kingman in 2011, but it seems like the summer allergies have gotten progressively worse since I came back to Flagstaff almost 2 years ago.

Conclusion: I am apparently allergic to something that blooms in Flagstaff but not (or just less) in Kingman.  Lovely.  And as I have yet to find an allergy medicine that doesn't completely knock me out for hours on end, I'm going to have to just deal with it during work hours.  Fabulous.

And now that I've recorded this lovely bit of drugged up rambling, I'm going back to bed.

A Lesson In Patience

About a month ago, I decided that my hair had gotten far too long and that I needed to get it cut.  I was (and am) sick of the split ends and the drying time and just the general blah-ness of it.

But I absolutely hate getting my hair cut.  I don't know why but I hate going to a salon and making awkward small talk with a stranger while I wear that awful cape thing that makes my neck look ridiculous.  There's just something really unpleasant about it to me.  Plus I like being self sufficient (which is why I learned to do my own nails, because I hate getting that professionally done too).

So I googled cutting layers in your hair at home and, after watching some YouTube videos and reading some blogs I found this thing called the CreaClip.  It's basically a guide thing to trim your hair and it looked pretty cool, but it cost $40.  But I'm resourceful so I looked for it on eBay, and found the same exact thing for $4.99.  It was in Hong Kong, of course, but $4.99 and free shipping makes the wait worth it.  So I ordered it, and I waited.

And waited, and waited, and waited, and of course started to get impatient.  Because that's just how I roll.  And then after conversations with Jerbs I convinced myself that it had somehow not made it through customs and that it wasn't going to come.  But I still didn't want to pay $40 plus shipping for the real one, so I looked it up on Amazon, and found the exact same thing for $13.94 with free shipping in California.  I ordered it last Thursday.

Then today, I got home and checked the mail.

And there were two hair cutting guides waiting in the mailbox for me.

So thank you, universe, you've made your point.

TWO hair cutting guides.
Because why not?

122 Days

It's the first of May!  And in my mind that means it's officially summer.  (Not that you'd have thought that if you went outside in Flagstaff today, but whatever).  I used to dread summer something fierce, and even though I'm not looking forward to the Arizona heat, I am kind of excited for summer this year.

I think of summer as May 1st to August 31st.  That's 122 days, and I have high hopes for those 122 days this year.

I am going to go outside.  I'm going to hike and swim and bike and be active and get fit.

I am going to take the dogs on lots of long walks and adventures.

I am going to paint my nails awesome summer colors.

I am going to wear my giant sunglasses and drive around with my sun roof open and my radio set to the country station.

I am going to hang out in Kingman with my family, and with friends in Phoenix.

I am going to read and write and paint and sew.

I am going to save money.

I am going to find a new doctor and get back on track treatment wise.

I am going to get a tattoo.

I am going to climb a mountain (like last year!).

I am going to take lots of pictures.

It's going to be awesome.

Weigh In # 5 (2014)

Weight: 186.4
BMI: 33.0

I lost 1.6 pounds in April.  So not super fantastic and not the most I'm capable of but . . . well, a loss is a loss, right?

April was pretty much like every other month this year.  I started out all determined to do well and kick ass and then I repeatedly failed.  I hate that about myself and I just don't understand why I do it.  I feel like it's probably some random little offshoot of my mental health issues that, for some reason, I just haven't been able to resolve yet.

I will say, though, that even with such a tiny loss, I feel like I'm getting smaller and more toned.  I didn't have time to take my measurements this morning so I'm not sure where I stand inch wise.  And even though my April challenge didn't go as well as I'd intended, the little chart thing I made to track it did help.  I mean, I can say I'm disappointed in how I did all I want, but seeing how little I worked out and how much I ate fast food and went over my calorie goal written out in black and white is pretty eye opening.  I can't really look at that and be terribly surprised at my results.

I am setting the same goals for May that I did for April: Work out 4 times a week, eat out once a week, reduce the Dr. Pepper, and focus on staying within my calorie goals.