Art Project '09

Today I am very proud of myself! Honey-do and I are in the process of making the house ready to "show" when we put it up for sale. I bought new bedding for the guest bedroom and my mother-in-law purchased some great used furniture for the room as well! I don't have pictures of the new furniture, but it will be black and the bedding is white, with black-and-white throw pillows. I'm adding a drop of red to give it a bit more color! 

For art for the room, instead of purchasing pre-made art or pictures I did it myself!! :) This is a little project I saw on HGTV!! I LOVE THAT CHANNEL!!! :) This is the before:

and this one below shows the finished projects!!!! :) They may not be perfect, but I am happy with them!! 

Bad, bad Monday

They always say Monday is the worst day of the week. This week that statement holds true to me. 

Matt, my best friend from high school, had bad news when he got up this morning. His dad suffered a massive heart attack and died on the way to work this morning. 

News traveled fast. Our mutual friend, Telia, called me to let me know and I called Jeff, another good friend, right after. Apparently, Matt isn't doing too well. But of course, would you expect him to be doing good? I would be a basket case if I found out my dad died. I feel awful that I can't be there for Matt, but he knows that I am here. 

Second bad Monday affect: my mom's favorite boss ever died this weekend. She was really good friends with his daughter, and I used to be close to his granddaughter. 

Third bad Monday thing: I found out a friend from college, Kayla's mom, Lana, suffered a stroke a couple weeks ago. She's still being fed through an IV and is still not walking. The doctors don't know what caused the stroke and are still doing tests to find out the cause. Kayla has put college on hold to stay home and take care of her. 

Fourth thing: Honey-do came home from work worried about his job. His company is performing its first round of layoffs this week. :( Not the engineers yet, but the marketing, PR, HR, and call center positions. He said that if they don't pick up new products soon, the engineers could be next. :( That is scary for us. 

Hopefully, things will get better. All this and it's only 1 p.m. Surely, nothing else bad can happen today. 

Just another manic Monday...

Boy howdy... I'm tired. Going back to Oklahoma for the weekend really wears me out. (And I'm not that old.) It's about a 6 1/2 hour drive from my house to my mom and dad's. And that drive is long. I don't know how anyone could live farther from their parents' without becoming frequent flyers. I told Honey-do he should get a pilots license and small plane to take us back and forth on our quick trips to our parents' houses.

I had a great weekend at the parents'. It was really a fun time. It began with a fun baby shower for my college roommate! I can't believe that in less than a month our little Hunter will be here.

This is Mandy, my best friend, and Nikki, her future sister-in-law and shower hostess.

This is the best picture of Mandy! Really shows her true colors! Doesn't she look awesome for an eight month along pregnant girl! :)

After the shower I got to visit my grandparents and go to dinner with them... always a fun time.

Then, Sunday. A beautiful morning! Remember now, I work for a livestock publication. So, I thought I would get up that beautiful Sunday morning and go take pictures of the cattle and try to get some really good shots for the magazine. However, I didn't realize that my talents would be need elsewhere. I was roped into helping doctor the babies. They (dad and Matt) lost two baby calves to scours. So we needed to give the remaining babies preventative medication. —That's right PETA people, we animal agriculturalists love our animals and take care of them when they are sick. (Whoa, sorry. I can easily turn that into another post too!)

This is brother. Isn't he adorable?

This is brother wrestlin' a heifer calf.

This is brother all cocky! But isn't he a cutie! Watch out girls! :)

Then, I had the most wonderful brisket lunch at my other grandparents! My grandma makes her own barbecue recipe — once I try it I will post the recipe and photos — and has FINALLY shared it with me! :) I think that she is finally coming to terms that I am an adult now. And she told me how proud she was of me and my husband. I got a little teary-eyed. It's not everyday that woman says something like that to me. In fact for years I thought she despised me. (That could be another story too! I think I could write a novel about my screwy family!)

But overall, this weekend was a great one. I miss my family but am glad to be back home to KS. And all weekend there were no talks of my weight, no worries about work (another day folks, another day), and most of all no stress. I was able to relax. It was nice.

But now. It's Monday.