What I Haven't Been Up to Lately + More

I know some of you are shocked as can be that you're reading a post from ME!
I have been MIA off and on for about a month now.
The reason being?....March has been kicking my ASS!

My tooth ordeal is finally about over but I've also had a major case of not giving a crab about anything.
Nothing on my To-Do List has gotten done.....and I don't really care.

I've physically felt like warmed over manure for more than a month.  I'm swollen and can't breath and I need to get up to the dr.'s to have some tests run but I have the energy of a slug and can't seem to get myself organized enough to do that either.
Can I add that I am sooo tired of this Winter weather?!  We had snow on the 1st Day of Spring and here it is March 25th and it's snowing.....AGAIN!!

I sit and psyche myself up, and I try to concentrate on one goal and can't get that done.....I just keep spinning my wheels, get tired and give up.

I haven't even been to the grocery store in more than a week.  I just send Hubs or one of the kids to pick up a few things.  Depression and sickness do keep you from going out and spending unnecessary money, don't they? So it can't be all bad, right? lolol

My oldest son graduates college in a mere 6 weeks from now.  He just found out he's graduating Magna Cum Laude too.  While I am thrilled for him, the thought of having to drive out to the school and attend the Commencement makes me just want to crawl back into bed and hide.  I so don't want to deal with the crowds and hassles.

Add in the hijinx of the youngest kid lately, hijinx being code for "he has been making my life miserable", and I just want to call a taxi and go somewhere nobody knows me.

Do you see all the loveliness I have saved you all from by being quiet this past month? ;-)

The ONLY thing I stayed on top of was the Secret Sister Swap.  I had fun filling my swappee's wish list.  And I hope she enjoys it and posts about it when she gets time.

So let me close with the "Secret Sister Swap" package I received.....

I got mine like super SUPER early.....the end of February early.  So I held off posting it until the mailing deadline.

I had to email Carla just to be sure that this WAS my swap package, since the swapper didn't mention the swap at all in little handmade card that accompanied the package.....

I am assuming my swapper made that card...it's so crafty.

And here is what Debby sent me.....

A sewing project.  It's a pattern for a quilty-like casserole "cozy" and all the fabric pieces cut out and labeled.  All I have to do is just make it.
Thanks for sharing your love of crafty, quilty sewing things with me Debby.
Just don't be looking for me to actually attempt this one anytime soon, as the pile of my sewing projects(sewing clothes)is stacked quite high. ;-)



 Sluggy

You Can Go Your Own Way

I am stealing Mark's "Use a Song title for a Post title" gimmick today.

Well it's Thursday of the week my Daughter came home for Spring break.
Do you know what my first thought this morning was?
I should have started drinking this week long before today!

My week has been that good.....so far.

It hasn't been bad, it's just been strange.
I have lots to do around here but the daughter's current state of affairs just has me spinning my wheels and wondering what is coming next.
I just sit here all day doing genealogy research(looking for some stability in my past perhaps?), playing free cell, listening to Pandora, reading blogs and contemplating writing something.
I only get up from the computer to go sit in front of the tv or deal with an immediate need like making a meal or dealing with the dogs or doling out money to needy teenagers.

Oh, I did spend some time outside yesterday as it hit 60 something here.
But I hardly even noticed anything.

So daughter has been going to doctor appointments and filling up prescriptions(5 so far!) and using all the gas in my car.  Heck, I don't even have to leave home to spend money lately, do I?lol

Add in that #2 Son has been moody as hell and not very pleasant to deal with this week.  He and Daughter do NOT get along at all and haven't for the last few years.  And he is taking the opportunity with my being preoccupied  with her stuff to fall down on his chores even more than he already does.
#2 is suppose to load/unload the dishwasher.  Here is what I found in the kitchen when I came down this morning.....

Needless to say, I am not amused.....

Daughter has had a chat with the community college folks this week and she goes today for another chat with the baby Penn State folks(one of the many PSU satellite campuses around PA).
Then we sit down tonight and hash it all out and try to figure out what she wants to do after she finishes this semester at her current school.

It's not helping me not feel on edge about all this since the few in real life I have told(mostly family and our physician who she job shadowed with)are surprised and speechless at first.

I have to keep reminding myself that it's her life and no matter what I think and no matter how much I worry, I can't make these decisions for her.   I may feel she is making a mistake by choosing what path she decides to go down but I have to let her go her own way.



She needs to make mistakes and learn from them.  I just hope she takes to heart the lessons they present and that we don't regret the financial hits this will cost hubs and I......and her.

Sluggy

They are Back!!!!!

New readers will need to get up to speed HERE before reading further.

That's a link to last September's post about when I finally set about cleaning digging out #2 son's bedroom. Yes, I let it go for months, NAH!....Years!
Out of sight, out of mind and all that.

        A Before shot of part of #2 son's room from Sept. 2011

I figured eventually cleanliness would kick in but my fear of his room turning into an episode of Hoarders kicked in sooner.
So we shoveled it out and turned it into a clean thing of beauty.
Or so I thought.....

Last weekend he spontaneously went through his dresser and brought down a large sack of old clothes too small for him or too raggy to be worn in public, for me to get rid of.

Here is what I found when I opened that garbage bag of clothing.....

Dear Lord!
Either we didn't get them all the first time and they are reproducing in the dark recesses of his bedroom or he has recommenced his plastic spoon kleptomaniacal behavior......

Throw it on the pile and call it 55 spoons now......*sigh*

Sluggy-who needs a spoon intervention for her son

Last Weekend & The Stockpile Sale

Last Weekend was the end of Hubs week off from work.
He decided he wanted to go to the monthly Chess Club Tournament held somewhere outside of Philly.
So he was gone all day on Saturday.

While he was gone, Daughter and I held another Stockpile Sale.  It was the same set up as the one I held in July...one day for 4 hours with big neon green signs saved from the last sale, posted on the roads leading up to our house.  Man, those signs just draw the regular yard salers in like flies on a garbage truck.lol

We opened the garage door about 15 minutes early this time and there were no early bird/dealers sitting waiting for us to open to pounce on all those copies of the Declaration of Independence for a quarter we were selling....don't they wish!
I put out some of the old/vintage/new in the box toys I had earmarked to send to Salvation Army that were still lying around the house as well as the toiletries.

It was slow at first but picked up by 9am and we had fairly steady business until almost noon.
With the slow start I didn't think we'd make near what we made in the July sale, but in the end, we finished up with $335.50.   That makes our total $682.50 for the year's sales.
And a good bit of what we sold was the old toys and collectibles.  I was shocked by how much of that went really!

Good sellers.....toothbrushes, mouth wash, shampoo, soap, cans of coffee, nail polish, diapers, Olay stuff, batteries, Lysol spray, deodorant, vitamins.  Anything I put into the crate marked "Everything 75¢".lol
Stuff that sat.....high end shampoos, men's razors, women's bladder pads.
This go round a wider range of items sold well, so there wasn't much that I didn't sell some quantity of.

We've been using our Garage Sale profits to purchase college needs for Daughter this week.  That was the deal I made with her--if she wanted me to buy some of this college stuff, she had to help me hold the sale and raise some cash.
The rest of the profits will go toward food buying and/or the extra gas we'll be using hauling kids and their stuff back to two different colleges later this month.

I'll be boxing up the toiletries that are leftover and deciding whether I have enough to do the flea market in September.  Just eyeballing what is left, it looks to be that I've sold about half of the extras I started with so it's worth the trip to hit the flea market and make a little more cash.  I just dread getting up at 4am to get there in time to get a spot to set up in.

Also, since the toys sold so well, I am pondering whether I should hold a Toy Sale the end of September before the weather turns bad.  I still have a LOT of toys in the storage unit and I'm thinking I can get people to buy for Christmas presents, as the end of September is close enough to the Holidays to get them spending on toys.  I'd prefer to do this in October, but the weather would be too awful by then.
Not having the Toiletries Stockpile will free up room for items in the garage as well as what I can put on the driveway.  I'm still indecisive on this idea though as it's a lot of work digging all the toys out in time and setting it up.  It's not like I don't have anything else to do with my time.lol

So the rest of Saturday was a couple of errands and a nap.
Hubs didn't do very well at his tournament unfortunately.  He usually wins them but not this time so he wasn't up for doing much that evening.

Sunday Hubs sat around and relaxed mostly.
Daughter got to drag my tired ass around stores for 3 hours, to start spending all that stockpile sale profit on college shopping.  Go me! 8-P
Though it rained most of the day, the sun came out long enough for us to take a dip in the pool later.

Today Daughter reneged on painting the powder room for me for pay.  She decided after sanding down one wall, she doesn't want to do the prep work(sanding, spackling, priming)on this massive 8'x4' room.
She only wants to slap paint on the walls.
So now the room won't get painted.
We'll have been in this house 11 years next week and this powder room is still the mess it was when we moved in.
Can you tell I am pissed?
I wonder if I return all the shit I've bought for her to go to college if she will find her passion for work again?

8 more days until she leaves.
And yes I AM marking them off on the calendar! ;-)

Sluggy