It's a Monday, that's for sure

The sun is out (FINALLY!! YAY!) but I think the change in weather caused some behavior issues with many of the kids at school. They were very wound up and would not stop talking or fidgeting around. They weren't "bad" per se, but were definitely distracting each other. I'm mentally exhausted right now. I used to have a teacher that said that she noticed a direct correlation between changes in barometric pressure and changes in kids' behavior. I don't know how accurate of a statement that is, but right now I'm a believer.

Anyhow, the weekend here was pretty quiet. We got a little bit of snow on Saturday but it didn't stay long. I got the roosters stitched out and got the color chart made but still need to do a little project of some sort and do all the website stuff. My sewing room has a little bit of extra room now since my mom moved out a bunch of stuff that I was storing for her... I was thinking about looking for a simple cabinet or maybe some bookshelves. It's a fairly large room (about 14x23) but there is only one small closet that's cram-packed with fabric. All of my books take up one bookshelf and I'd like something that I can put miscellaneous "stuff" in without it being all crammed. I can't spend a whole lot of money on a cabinet or shelves but whatever I buy should help keep things organized and neater-looking.

Dinner's going to be a little late tonight since DH has an away basketball game. He should be home by 7 or so but I don't want the pork ribs to be all dried out so I'll wait a little longer to start dinner. It's definitely not the healthiest meal but right now I could handle a little comfort food :)

Not working but still busy

I haven't been working at school yesterday or today, but it's just as well since I went with my oldest son to a couple of doctor appointments. He's a freshman in college and is fairly independant but we weren't sure how he'd feel after a couple of tests he had to take yesterday and today so that's why I went with him. We found out that he's allergic to grasses, which isn't a huge surprise, but he'll have to take a few extra precautions before mowing lawns for people. He also took a methacholine test to see if he has asthma and thankfully it came back negative. That's been a huge question mark for a long time and it's good to have it resolved. He's got some decisions to make regarding school and work but there is no rush on any of that. He's on his way back to school now. We probably won't see him for at least another 2 weeks since he works most weekends but hopefully he'll be home for his dad's bday on feb. 7th.

As for me, there's really nothing new going on. I got the hat hoop attachment for my embroidery machine yesterday :) I need to find a permanent place to put the mounting jig and also need to order hats so I can have some on hand. No, I haven't stitched the roosters yet... hopefully that will be later this afternoon or sometime this weekend.

In the meantime, I have a pile of dishes in the sink to wash and a mountain of laundry waiting as well. School will be getting out soon so I better enjoy the quiet house while I can.

Tuesday afternoon...

Well, 7:30 this morning came and went and I figured I wasn't going to get called in to work. WRONG (Don't get me wrong, I love working at the school)! I got the call at 8:00, when I was still sitting here in my chair, actually working on some designs. I hadn't showered or even eaten breakfast yet, since I figured I had all morning to do that. The plan for today was to finish working on the designs I had been puttering around with, get them stitched out, finish up the laundry and clean up the kitchen. I had to get to the school asap since they were really short-handed and knew I wouldn't get home until close to 4:00. It was a busy day at school, which helps make the time go by really fast. The schedule was a bit different than what I was used to, but the students I worked with were all good. I was asked just before leaving if I could come in tomorrow... sure! It's great for the 'ol paycheck and I really enjoy my time there, but I'll have to figure out when to get the designs finished up.

Those designs I mentioned are kinda cute, if the image on the screen is any indication. Some are designs that I have to donate to OPW mall, for their MOC program. It's just 3 designs due at different times of the year, but I'd rather get them done and out of the way all at once.

The other designs are some cute little roosters. They're not realistic-looking, but more of the cutesy, stylized sort of look. My mother in law would like them (she decorates her kitchen/dining area in roosters), so maybe I'll stitch up some towels for her whenever I do get around to doing the actual embroidery. There are only 3 roosters in this artwork so I guess they'll just be a mini set. I keep meaning to put together a newsletter announcing the little Valentine alphabet I've uploaded, but there again I'm running into a lack of time. We'll see if I'm not too tired later on tonight, maybe I'll have the gumption to do it then. I'm not a night owl at all (nor much of an early morning person) and it's hard to think when I'm tired... especially after a long day at school.

It'll be time to go pick up DH in just a few minutes... he's a high school teacher and also coaches middle school students in the afternoon. My DD is away at a bowling match (high school) so it's just DH, me and our youngest DS, who is 13. Instead of just cooking for just the 3 of us, maybe I can talk DH into going out for dinner :)

Finally linked to the website

I hope everyone has had a good weekend. Since tomorrow is MLK day, we (meaning my DH, kids and I) have the day off tomorrow so it's an extended weekend here. Tomorrow will probably be spent catching up on housework (YUCK!!) Today we had a family get-together with DH's side of the family to celebrate the January birthdays. It's kind of a neat thing that my inlaws do... that side of the family is pretty large and it's easier to celebrate birthdays all at once for the month (of course the birthday person does whatever they'd normally do to celebrate on their actual birthday). It's a great time for all of us to catch up on how everyone is doing, what the latest family news is, exchange the family b-day cards and of course eat lots of good food :)

Anyhow, since we were gone for a good portion of the afternoon, we missed the first football game. Bummer. Oh well, we were able to watch the 2nd game and will definitely be watching the SuperBowl in a couple of weeks!

After we got back home, I thought I'd try to figure out how to link this blog to the main website. That turned out to be a bigger hassle than I originally thought! The shopping cart program I use is very powerful but it's not always user-friendly on my end of things. I have a couple of good tutorials, can get to a really helpful forum, but what I wanted to do wasn't spelled out anywhere that I could find it. Anyway, after searching for instructions on how to add an external link in a specific box for about 4 hours, I finally figured it out by trial and error. Of course it was one of the simplest of things I've done yet (AFTER I tried a dozen things!!), but it's done now. I told my DH that it was actually an easy task after all that searching, and he just chuckled... he said he tells his students at school that many times the answer to a problem is the easiest solution. I didn't need to hear that at the time but I just let it go at that.

We'll see what tomorrow brings besides laundry. I have more computer work to do but that's best left until DH and the kids are back at school. I never know when I'm going to get called into work so it's hard to plan from day-to-day. I'd like to just put my audiobook on (DH got me an Ipod Touch for Christmas :) ) and start knitting another pair of socks but we'll see how things go.

And here we go....

Finally I am sitting down to start a blog! Yes, I'm a little behind the power curve :) I've been wanting to put one up for quite some time but up until now it's been on my never-ending "to do" list. Life and work get in the way (darn work!!) and things for other people almost always take priority over things that I want to do for myself. I'm sure most moms can relate to that!

Anyhow, I love how these blogs can help people stay in touch, or just to let people know what all is going on their lives. The small details of life are what get in the way but are also the same thing that can make our lives interesting (even though it may not seem like it at the time!). I know these small details of life are what keep me from promoting my business like I should (which isn't so good for the bottom line) or they get in the way of making that phone call to a relative or friend I haven't talked to in too long.

I try to keep the website as professional (but still friendly) as possible, since it IS a business, but my idea behind starting this blog is to help "personalize" things a bit more. I'll probably be talking about not only digitizing and sewing, but also about working at school, hobbies or family life. All of those things are part of who I am and I can't imagine doing something like this without at least mentioning them. There are no concrete plans for the blog so we'll just see how it goes!