Dying

Of boredom.


I have 16 adults/teens and 5 kids coming over on Sunday for Easter. Tons to do. BUT I'm stuck at work still for one more hour. I have mostly just wasted the day away because I have no work to do here. Makes the day long and painful when you know ALL the stuff you need to do at home. I'm pretty sure everyone thinks we are closed since the phone has hardly rang.


I have of course been procrastinating on getting things done at home. Between not feeling all that great and finding more fun things to do,  I have a ton of cleaning and weeding to do still. This is definitely going to be a "good enough" year.


Yesterday I went to Subway for lunch. I had a sandwich and soup,  and that for some reason killed my stomach for the rest of the day. So instead of working in the yard I worked on making some slip cover type things for my outside chair cushions. I finished around 11 something last night. Whoopsie.

I just raided my collection of old sheets to find something bright and happy looking. I made a pillow case style closure so I can just take them off and throw them in the wash when they get dirty. Now to tackle the lawn swing cushion. Which is really just a roll of batting since I took off the disintegrated cover last year. Hopefully Scott didn't toss it since he gets a weird look in his eyes when I ask him if it's in the shed.  If he did he better fess up quick ;)

I have to go to the grocery store after work which is going to be SO FUN! haha. I'm sure there is going to be a million people in there. Costco too. I wonder if they'll have some good samples out.

Still crossing my fingers that the jumpy house that I order will show up. I think the little kids will have a great time in that. We are supposed to have fantastic weather on Sunday. Hopefully the wind doesn't show up and ruin it all!

Yard Work

Well I didn't win anything at Bunco last night. I did get 2 Buncos pretty quickly though so that was exciting.

Yesterday, today and tomorrow at work we are at a retirement training. I'll actually be able to retire with full benefits when I'm 62. That's nice to know I thought I'd have to work until I was 80. Makes the idea of maybe changing jobs not quite so great. Lots of info that would have been nice to have when I first started my job. These are the things I thought they would tell us about at the "New Employees Training" that I went to. Instead we toured farms and stuff. Also a good HR department would have been nice.

I didn't have any plans after work and it's beautiful outside so I pulled weeds for a little bit. I am now totally exhausted. My antibiotics had me feeling better but I definitely knew it was time to stop. I took a couple pictures to share my sad looking yard since someone asked me about it. Obviously my yard has not been my first or tenth priority lately lol. Mostly it's been a "oh shit people are coming over get the big weeds out" priority. Obviously we live in the country so we don't have the whole "gotta beat the neighbors" thing going on.

Might just try using roundup on the front this year. I hate using round up but it takes me a week to pull out all those little weeds.

Scott for some reason decided to just put the bricks in that little area without actually doing it the way it's supposed to be done. I don't even want that area for what we had originally designed it for now since I had plunked that little hedge down it kind of ruined the original plan. (Only waited about 6 years for someone to get the gravel and sand for me and it never got done..)

This are has pretty much all needs to be dug up and deep weeded again. I am thinking about putting some plastic down and rocks with just a couple areas of drought tolerant/self seeding plants.

This side doesn't look too bad if you don't look too close haha. The alyssum is all filled in so it looks like I meant for it to look that way ;)

Yeah definitely going to go with the "good enough" weeded yard for Easter. With my luck it will be 50 mile per hour winds on Easter. (so far the forecast looks amazing but I don't want to jinx it!)

I need to make myself a schedule to work out there at least half an hour or an hour a day when the weather is nice. I love working out in the yard once I actually get out there and do it.

Bunco Night

Oh my gosh I'm so tired. Seriously wanted to call into work today but I called in so much last week I feel like a slacker. I woke up with my whole body just so exhausted and my head congested still. 

I went to work and made the latest Dr. appointment they had available, which was 2:45. I was supposed to be at a retirement training but just had to duck out early. Too bad to because it was super interesting. It's for another whole day tomorrow and part of the day Wednesday so I'm sure I can catch up on anything I missed.

Went to the doctor and now I have a Z Pack since I have a sinus infection. He didn't say what I had but I know that's what it is. Nothing else is wrong with me it's just "all in my head" lol. My face just hurts! 

After I was done there I went and picked up Trevor, he rode his skateboard over to see Scott's mom after school. I didn't go inside since I don't want to get her sick but she walked outside. Sigh. I'm like don't get too close! She is letting her hair go all gray and it's shocking. Needs to just cut off the non gray stuff and have a short pixie instead of the long straggly two color bit. I feel like she looks like she is neglected.  She doesn't want to go get it cut though. At least not the last time I offered to have see if my sister in law would come over and cut it for her. 

Anyhow, picked up Trevor then went and got a massage at the mall. I swear those guys give the best deep massages. Usually I do a chair massage but today I layed on the table. Next time I think I'll go back to the chair since I think they can do my neck and shoulders better that way and that is where I get all the knots. 

Went to pick up my prescription when I was done and now I'm just waiting for my taquitos to get warmed up. I'm taking those to Bunco. Everyone breaks snacks and it's like a little feast at the halfway point. It's a lot of fun. I'm glad my mom is coming too. I got her to join up to get out and hang out with some different people. She needs more fun people in her life.  I'm also making myself some coffee since I'm exhausted and cold. Maybe I can not yawn all night. 

Also then you can remind me tomorrow about why I couldn't sleep at 3am. 

Marian

One of ladies in my book club is named Marian. Marian is 91. Which, in itself is awesome that she still is getting out to book club. She doesn't ever read the books anymore but she comes and has a couple of glasses of wine (no idea what meds she's on but I bet she sleeps great later) and whatever food we are having. We basically have 2 sides of the neighborhood (Club) and she lives on my side.  So lately I have become her ride to book club.

Today I picked her up. Her neighbor next door is named Linda and I hope someone is slipping Linda some money for taking care of this gal. She runs over when I drive up and helps Marian get into the car. When I get back she runs out of her house, comes next door and helps her back into the house. Marian gets along pretty good for 91 but likes to have an "arm" on one side to balance out the cane on the other.

Every time I pick her up/drop her off she points to metal flamingo in her  yard and says "See that flamingo? They were popular in the 30's. I love it!"  Today she asks me who's house we are going to. I tell her Traci's. I'm sure she doesn't even know what my name is but she gets in my car haha. By the time we are leaving book club she's asking who drove her there.

Today at book club she told us that she had been a twin. She said her sister was mongoloid. She said that's what they called people back then. I think she said her name was Maureen and she lived to be 35. She said Maureen went to school with her and would color and such all the way until 8th grade. She started crying when she was talking about her.

When they got older their mom went to work and Maureen went to live in home with a woman who took care of several children. She said this woman was a Christian Scientist and they found out that she beat the children so they took her sister back out. She says who would think that someone that was a Christian would treat people that way.

She said after that her sister went to another place in Santa Cruz that was much better.

Last month at book club she was telling us how her mom would paint the rooms in the house and when she was done she would mix all the paint colors together and that was what she painted the bathroom with. Always some god awful color! She seemed pretty repulsed by the memory of the bathroom paint color :)

In between last month's book club and this months she had gotten sick and had to go to a care home facility. She was there for about a week I think. When I picked her up today she was telling me how it was nice there that there were so many people around. I think she gets really lonely in her house by herself.

After book club was over I showed her where we were having book club next time, at Carol's house.  When we drove up to her house she pointed out the flamingo and asked me where we were having book club next month.

It makes me sad that she can't remember but she was pretty good up until a couple years ago. I guess if you can make it to about 90 before you start losing your marbles that's pretty good right?

Sick Day Accomplishments

Home sick today (Thursday) just like I thought. My head is all congested and my eyes are watering. JOY! I have something very important to do tomorrow morning so I better not get a fever.

This morning I booked a jump house for Easter. The guy said they don't come out to where I lived but I asked if they'd do it for an extra $25 and it worked. Wohoooo So excited to have it for all the littles on Easter. I think they will love it and it will wear them out.

I also ordered some prefilled toy eggs for the easter egg hunt. That is so the way to go. Usually I'd go to the dollar store and find things that will fit in little eggs but that's a lot of time . I do want to do some with candy though so I'll still have to do that. This is my one holiday I host at my house so it's like my gift to all the little kids :)

Now if it could just stop raining so we could work in the yard.. Everything is such a mess outside. One side of the front yard doesn't look TOO bad since the alyssum is all blooming there so I mostly just need to clean up the other side so that it doesn't just look like a giant weed patch. We'll see if it gets done or if we just take the mower to it like we did the last time we had people over.

Debating on giving away my lawn swings or taking them to the dumps and buying a new one with nice cushions. I could recover the ones I have but sadly it's cheaper to buy new.
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Spent most of the day sorting out some fabric to try and sell, didn't end up selling much, I think it got lost on the Facebook page I was selling it on.

Then I made a Giants key fob for a coworker to go with a Giants mug cozy. She asked me to make them for her husband's birthday.

After that I got to work on the big pile of mug cozies I had cut out and matched up but hadn't actually sewn together yet. At midnight I decided I should probably go to bed haha. Just have the buttons to put on.

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It's Friday morning and I'm just puttering around a bit before I go take a test for a new job that I have applied for. Thank God my head isn't as stuffed up today! The test is at 9 so I have about an hour before I have to leave. A bit nervous but I know what I know so if I don't know it I guess that's that haha.

Well Poop

I thought for sure I'd had dodged the sick bullet. hahahaha. Ugh. Currently sitting here with tissue shoved into my right nostril because that's easier than wiping it every few seconds.

Today I actually got to work on time. Woohooo! They totally came out and filled all those nasty pot holes. Hey maybe I should call the county more often instead of just trying to avoid them.

I went to the thrift store on my lunch and got a nice fat pack of fabric scraps for $4 plus some other pieces they had rolled up. Also a vintage Peter Pan sheet that will make a really cute bag or something. Hmmm. Of course that has to hit the washer and dryer before I can bring it in and play with it.

At work we had a baby shower for the boss in the other department. It was really nice. The gal that put it on made it a surprise which had her freaking out for like 2 weeks all worried about the logistics. I just do not work that way. Why go through all that bother, just tell her you're having a baby shower for her. We have parties for everyone so it wouldn't be that big of a deal. Save some stress!

Anyhow, look at this cute banner that she made.

I was thinking something similar would be cute for my booth to put my shop name on. The girl that did the lettering just used a sharpie or something similar to do the letters.

After work I went and met the car guy that had commissioned me to make some stuff for him. I was so glad to get done with his stuff last night. I was totally stressing on it all. I was thinking he was going to be uptight about stuff but he was so laid back and chill. Nice! So got that stuff off my plate.

He had this idea for making phone cases but I told him I'd rather not make anymore. He was ok with that and paid me for what I had made. He is in a Corvair car club so he had this fabric that he stamped. I found the printed fabric online, it was a bit expensive but it's really nice if you are a Corvair car guy!

So now that that is done. On the way home I was driving past a thrift store and found two nice vintage sheets. One is a print I already have and use for a table cover a lot so I think I can combine the two to make a nicer real tablecloth or two. The other is a cute print.

When I got home I ran inside and took a cold pill real quick and took the dogs out. Doesn't matter who is home and how recently they went out, they think they have to pee when I get home. 

Then I went down to bingo where I won THREE games on one card. I won a whole $8 lol. Living it large in the river club.

I need to start working on cleaning up for Easter. Of course it's going to rain up until a couple days before Easter (so far). I'm going to try and get a bouncy house for the kids to play in. My friend's daughter rented one for $100 and all the littles are just the right age to really enjoy it. 

I'll probably be home sick tomorrow if I still feel the same as I do right now. Don't want to be snotting and sneezing all over everyone. 

All Flat

So today started off nice, enough, I don't have a fever (all my kids have had/have the flu now, I just got a little cough). Trevor was staying home from school again today since he's still coughing up a lung. I was ready to go a bit early so I left thinking I can get in an extra half an hour! Nice since I stayed home sick yesterday.

I get just a ways down the road and BAM! I hit a fucking pot hole. My low tire pressure light comes on immediately. Mother trucker. I pull over and get out and yep. Flat as a pancake. Luckily the wheel is still on straight though, after that I though for sure I had bent something. So I pull up the AAA app and it finds my location, says someone will be there in like an hour. So much for going to work early. Also, this new car has no spare tire. So this is going to be a long day.

I text Scott and he tells me to cancel AAA, we have coverage with Kia, they will tow the car to Kia and replace the tire for free, remember we bought that extra coverage since Julie likes to hit curbs and such? Ok cancel AAA, get out so I can read the phone number on the sticker on the car window. Get back in the car. Hey maybe they should put that so you can read it from the inside, that might be nice.

Call Kia, takes 5 minutes to get through all the push 1's, sends me a text for something I can't remember what, finally lands on a person who asks me all the things I just pushed 1 for. She can't find where I am. I don't have an address I'm in a country intersection. I'm getting so annoyed at this point I tell her my home address and which way to follow the map to get to where I'm at. Ok she's got it.

Finally she says she's done and I'll get a text message saying how long it will be. I hang up. Five minutes later no text. WTF? How many hours am I going to sit here. I've already wasted 1/2 an hour on that phone call. I call back and get someone else that I haven't been slightly rude to (God how hard is to to find an intersection by Google I do it all the time-I did apologize to the first one too and told her I was a bit stressed). New gal finally gets it to send me a text. Ok someone is ACTUALLY coming to get me.

Tow truck driver calls me tells me he's in Banta (cool that's like 10 minutes away). I tell him where I am thinking he's a tow truck driver, he knows the roads. 30 minutes later he finally gets there.

Of course now it's starting to rain. The tow truck driver is this skinny tatted up man child with one gauged ear. I wonder what happened with the other one. Did it rip and he had it fixed? Didn't want to commit? Needed that ear for the phone?

He's super nice and tells me I can get in the truck. Yeah!  It takes him about ten minutes to get the car loaded up and then I give him directions on how to get to the car dealership. No GPS needed with Julie in the car..

As we start driving back towards my house I have to pee so bad. I asked him if he minded stopping at our little corner store so I could use the bathroom. He's like oh yeah sure no problem! I go to the bathroom and come out and he's buying 2 Monsters and a pack of powdered donuts. Yep, man child lol.

On the way to the car dealership we start talking about dogs and then he says he has a pug. I tell him I have a pug too! We bonded over pugs for the rest of the drive. So funny.

When we get to the dealership I go inside and am instantly greeted by Mr. Jackass Service Man. I tell him what happened and ask about how long it will take to get the tire fixed. "OHHH we probably don't even have those in stock!" WTF. I mentioned if I had know that I would have just had the car taken to the tire place. He says oh well I just have to check, you know, we can't stock all the tires! Well why not? Why can you not stock all the Kia tires? Makes no sense to me. The tire store stocks them and MORE!

I mention that I have a tire plan on my car from when I bought it. He tells me I probably don't. Something about how you usually only get that when you buy 4 tires. I'm like I bought 4 tires and a whole fucking car! Left out the fucking out loud but GD he was making me angry.

So after he gets me bristled up (but I'm still being mostly nice, I haven't unleashed the angry Julie yet), he says he can get a tire by 3 and he'll find out if I had the tire coverage after the other department opens. If I don't it will be around $130. Ok. I can do that. I just need my car.

I called Jess since she was the closest to where I was and she picked me up and dropped me off at work. On the way I got a call that the tire is covered. Thought so jerk off! I finally get to work 2 hours late. So much for being early.

I called and filed a complaint about the potholes. The woman who answered the phone was the nicest woman I've ever talked to. She sure is good at her job! No way you can be angry with someone who talks so sweet.

I didn't bring a lunch so I asked my coworker if she could give me a ride since she usually goes out to lunch and she did. That was nice of her. By the way she has light beige interior in her car. The inside of my car is black and it's still dirty! I don't know how beige is even possible.

My mom had said she'd give me a ride home so I took her up on it. She picked me up and took me to pick up the car. TG I have family around or I would have been doing Lyft.

Got my car picked up and I didn't have to pay anything. The final bill would have been $171. Whew glad I added that extra protection that only cost me about $2 more a month.

PS Looking into getting a spare tire for the trunk. A donut kit is like $200. Ouch.

Handcrafter's Boutique

Saturday I did the Handcrafter's Boutique in Manteca again. This is the most organized craft show I have done. The gal the runs it does a great job. BUT when it's supposed to rain they get it mixed up a bit. Which of COURSE it had rain in the forecast. So I got there and they said I could pick a spot with a stick and a number, bring back the stick. I pick a spot then go get my stuff, go back and someone else is setting up there. WTF. So then go pick another spot. So this was my first time being in a row instead of on the end but it was still ok. I should have set up my cozies on the long row instead of the short one. I did sell quite a few key fobs and tissue holders though lol. Several bags too.

I like the white tent a lot better, it measures the same size but it is bigger.  I think maybe because the other legs were more slanted? Someday I'll actually make some tablecloths that look nicer. I keep meaning to do it then forget or get too busy. 

I ended up taking one strip of elastic off the mug cozies so they'd be easier for people to look through. I got a lot of compliments from people on my boards. Must have been people that also had their stuff fly off  the tables! 

The morning was super busy. I was wishing I had one of my girls there to help but then it was lunch time and it slowed down (and the girls showed up lol) and at 2 it started to rain and pretty much died down except for a couple sales. 

My next show I've signed up for is back by the movie theater April 14th. Hopefully it won't be windy or rain!

Lazy Friday

Good morning my friends! I took the day off work today so I am enjoying my coffee with Snookie on my lap. Braless. Ah it's the finer things in life.

Tomorrow I am doing a craft show so that means it has been raining all week and most likely will rain tomorrow.  Effening rain! Always raining on my plans.

I got a new canopy, which is actually the canopy that my mom had bought at the same time I bought one. Originally we were going to go halves on one but now I'll just pay her back for it (or trade sewing :)) since I will be using it all the time. I also bought some weights to put on the legs. Scott is going to pick up some sand or small rocks to fill them with today for me. I'm so paranoid about the tent flying away now.

I don't think I shared the boards I made to keep my mug cozies from flying all over.

I think they turned out pretty well. Now to see how they actually work out. I used elastic to hold them on so that they can still be slipped out to look at. I'm pretty sure I also want to make some more so I can spread out the themes a bit. Or maybe I'll just sell a ton so I have more room haha. I probably have about 100 more cut out that just need to be sewn together. *not an addict. *maybe

I keep praying I am not going to get the flu since I hung out with Jessica for most of the evening on Wednesday and ended up taking her to the ER because she couldn't stop coughing and her chest was hurting. While we were there they did a flu test and it was positive for type B. They gave her some tamiflu and she's been doing ok. 

Tomorrow is going to be such a busy day. Craft show, then as soon as I get back we have the St. Patrick's Day dinner at the clubhouse that I might have just skipped but the kids want to go. I also got drafted to help with the cake booth. Tomorrow is also the one year anniversary of the day that my father in law passed away.  

So off to read some blogs while the day is young. Good thing I had to take the kid to the bus this morning or I'd probably still be wasting it away in bed!

Trevor's 15th Birthday

Trevor turned 15 yesterday! He's counting down the time until he can get his driver's license permit. I'm counting down until I will have to pay even more for car insurance!

We went to dinner at New China in Ripon.  I was trying to find somewhere to go in Tracy but every place has horrible reviews. New China wasn't all that great but the lady that works there was fantastic so she made it fun. Next time we'll just have to save up so we can eat at Dave Wong's in Stockton. I KNOW that place is good.

We just had our little family for dinner since Scott wasn't feeling well, Melissa was supposed to have class and Jess had been in Monterey. Somehow we all made it to eat.

Trevor and Melissa had fun folding the cloth napkins. They are looking at other ways to fold them on the phone.

The crew, our little family which looks not so little and Jessica's girlfriend Brooke.

This gal was so cute. She said it was her birthday too!

So 6 months and he can get his driving permit. God help us ;)