Days 279-285

Hey guys,

Sorry for the incredibly, ridiculously, embarrassingly late posts.  Hopefully I'll get back on track with these pretty soon.  This is a great indication of how I get easily overwhelmed and shut down.  It's amazing that I've made it this far on the project without giving up entirely. :)

The following pictures are for the week of March 7-13.

Day 279: Playdate?

Some cute cards my friend Kimmy gave me for my birthday last year.  They're so cute, I don't have the heart to use them. I know it's silly, but I'm weird like that.

Day 280: Pre-spring sunset

One day I might count how many sunsets I took at work during this photo challenge...I bet it's in the double-digits.

Day 281: I'm toast

Trying to get creative with bland-looking food by putting pretty plates underneath it.

Not sure it worked.

Day 282: Reading Party!

We like to have reading parties in our family.  They mainly consist of us all sitting around in silence, reading different novels.

...It sounds cooler than it is.

Day 283: Snow-capped Mountains

Some days I'm just struck by the beauty of this place!

Day 284: The Chocolate!

Coolest little bakery I've ever been to!  I'm going back.  Soon.  Who cares about that stupid, "no sugar" rule anymore.  Life after this place will never be the same!  There is so much I want to say about it...the awesome pictures on their website, the quaint atmosphere of the shop, the friendly staff who know how to joke around with customers, the AMAZING vanilla cake with chocolate ganache, the TO DIE FOR hot chocolate with spices in it that really make you feel like you're drinking Christmas in a cup all year round...

SO GOOD!

Day 285: My Triumph!

Inspired by that awesome bakery from yesterday, I decided to make a cake of my own...

After a fiasco with the first cake, Christine made a great red velvet from scratch so I could still use all of the awesome decorating stuff I got for my birthday.  This is what we made as a result!  I'm so proud!  I can't believe it looks almost presentable!  Cake decorating is easier than I thought it would be!

Days 272 through 278

Day 272: Inundated

This is the pile of mail that greeted us when we got home last night.  It's about half as big as the pile of paperwork on my desk when I returned to work.  I am thoroughly overwhelmed.  I have no idea where to even begin with everything I have to do now that I'm home.

Help!

Day 273: Glory in Imperfections

I got this penguin at the flea market in Cabo.  I picked him out amid a bunch of other, better looking, trinkets because I liked his little gimpy fin.  Being unique is something of which we all have the capability.  But here's the secret: you can't be unique when you're trying to be.  You can only pull it off when you are truly yourself - when you are no longer concerned with how you compare to others.

That is the challenge.

Day 274: The End of Something

Month 9 is complete!  That's right, I only have 3 months left!  The end is near...finally.

Today as I took pictures of the sunset, I was sad to know they would be the last pictures I took with this awesome lens I rented from Borrow Lenses.  I rented this same lens last summer for my family reunions, and I can't express how much I wish I didn't have to give it back.  It's too expensive for me to justify the purchase, but if I rent it any more times I will completely nullify that excuse.  The rentals aren't cheap, and soon I'll have paid the same amount in rental costs as I would have if I'd purchased the dang thing.

One day...

Day 275: The "Little" Things

I'm so glad RoseAnne came over tonight for our regularly scheduled girls night!  She was all dressed up for an appointment she had before she came over, and she looked so cute!  Jack was his usual adorable self, chasing the cats around the house in his speedy crawl, making faces at us, and being generally captivating for the camera.

I really love my family!

Day 276: Red Trees

I'm used to seeing trees turn red during the fall, but I'm not familiar with red trees with no leaves.  I saw these today in a parking lot and had to stop and capture them.  In the slanting winter sunlight, the bark on these trees shone a vivid red - almost fuchsia.  I wish I still had that lens I rented because it would have been able to capture these better.

Ah, well.  No use thinking about it.

Day 277: Note to Self

Note to self: put makeup on before taking an extreme close-up of your face.

If I had taken any other pictures today, I would have posted one of them instead.  This picture required an obscene amount of touch-up to make it even slightly acceptable, when all I needed to do was dab on a bit of cover-up and eyeliner before I hit the shutter button.  I guess I'm still shell-shocked from my return to work this week.  I can't believe how busy I was, and yet how little I got done!  So frustrating!  I guess all I can hope for is to do better next week.

Day 278: The Old Standby

Whenever you see a picture of my cats on here, you can almost be certain it's because I forgot to take a picture until right before I went to bed.  The cats seem to be my last resort subjects.  If I'm too tired to think of something original, I just run upstairs and snap a few of the cats and call it good.

I need a new standby I think.

Day 262: Packing and Stuff

My suitcase...all packed!!

I'll right, it's finally time!  The long-anticipated, much-talked-about Cruise is finally happening!  We leave for Cali tomorrow morning and then I'm off for 8 awesome days!  I should probably take this moment to point out that I will not (on purpose this time) be posting anything until I get back.  I've been told the internet access on the ship is really expensive, so I'll just do what I did this summer when I was camping and write my blog posts on my laptop until I'm home and can post them to the blog.

I'm so excited!

Oh, and don't you just love the cat hairs stuck to the suitcase?  Awesome.

Day 257: Confetti Stuff

A close-up of a cat toy.

Today I felt better than I have all week.  It's like the cloud lifted a bit and I can see the end in sight.  Maybe it's because we got so much done yesterday, or because I caught up a little on my blog posts tonight.

In any case, I'm glad for the respite.  I'm glad to feel happy and excited about my upcoming vacation, and I'm glad to go to bed! :)

Day 256: Bullseye

My parents' magnetic dart board.

The last Saturday before our cruise and we totally killed it on our chore list!

To Do Today:

*Grocery shopping

*Write packing lists and start packing

*Dress shopping for formal night

*Beauty prep

*Laundry

*Blog posts

Now, to get the second half of the list complete by next Friday!

Day 253: Brought to Light

A light fixture at Paradise Bakery

Tonight I almost had a mental breakdown.  Well, I kind of did have one.  I wasn't feeling good when I went to work this morning, and I told my coworkers that I'd probably leave early because of it.  I delegated as much work as I was able, to facilitate my early departure, and then started on my huge stack of invoices.

I tried my hardest to get those things done swiftly so that I could leave even an hour or two early.  The longer I stayed at work, the worse I felt.  And, try as I did, I still left work an hour later than usual, with a half-finished stack of invoices.

When I met Christine for dinner on the way home I was beside myself.  All that work and all that pushing when I felt rotten - and it didn't even make a difference!  I felt like a failure.  Especially since I had a meeting with my boss earlier in the day where he told me (at my own request from a week prior) that I needed to improve my work habits, particularly my swift completion of invoices, and that people had noticed that I took too long to get them finished.

I was devastated.  I was crying my eyes out all the way to the restaurant.  I couldn't face life anymore and expect to remain sane.  I felt like my handle on my life had slipped from my grasp and there was no hope of trying to pick up the pieces.

I was so dramatic!

After dinner I felt much better - emotionally anyway.  I drove home feeling a little foolish at my breakdown, but still feeling quite worried at how my day went.

I wasn't planning on making this my picture, but my outburst at dinner threw me off so much that I forgot all about it until just now...so, there you go. :)

Day 250: Breakfast for Dinner

My dinner (part of it)

I don't know what's wrong with me lately, but I am so stressed out!  It's not like I have a great excuse as I did at Christmas when everything was hectic.  I mean - yes - I'm swamped at work, and I have my church calling that I'm behind on, and my vacation prep that I'm behind on, and my household chores that I'm behind on, but all of that is the result of me being stressed to begin with.  I'm behind on everything because I couldn't face half of it at the time - for no good reason - so, of course that means that I'm even more stressed now because I've let everything slip and because I'm just playing catch-up on everything.

But how did it start?  What made me so wary of my every-day tasks in the first place?

It's things like this that unnecessarily keep me up at night.

Day 248: Wizater

My sister's car

Tonight the three of us went out to dinner and a movie - a typical Friday night.  We exited the movie theater to find the world covered in a light sprinkling of powdered sugar.  That's about the time I realized I hadn't taken a picture yet.  I panicked a bit...until Ryan walked over to Christine's car and wrote the word, "Wizater" on her rear window.  

"There," he said, "take a picture of that."

So I did.  I took quite a few pictures of it because we kept writing things in the snow on the trunk of the car.  It was fun and very cold.  My hands ached for a little while afterwards, but it was worth it. :)

Day 243: De-Junking

A pile of junk from my closet.

My sister and I planned this big clear-out day on Saturday.  We were going to get rid of all the clutter and haul it all to the thrift store.  We were going to get so much cleaning done.

We put it off until the end of the day, and quickly filled up these few bags of stuff within an hour before bed.

I still haven't begun to go through my closet, let alone my out-of-control bathroom.  Maybe if I take it one section at a time I'll actually do it.

Day 239: Typical

Me and my wet hair

I knew it was time for another self-portrait, but I didn't want to deal with thinking of something clever.  So I took a bunch of shots of myself around the room and this is the one I ended up with.

Typical.

Typical facial expression.
Typical hair shot.
Typical editing job.

Whatever, I'm too tired to care now.

Day 232: Cheap Shot

My lame attempt at capturing the sunset cloud.

So tonight on my way to the temple I noticed the awesome pink cloud domineering the sky.  I was pulling out of a parking lot so I didn't have a lot of time to take a picture.  Still, I whipped out my camera as fast as I could and snapped a few quick shots without checking the settings.

The pictures turned out like crap.

Luckily I like to edit the heck out of every picture I take, so I was able to salvage at least one of them.

Day 223: Games I Don't Play

My parents' game shelves.

Today I finally put to paper my resolutions for the new year.  One of them is to go to bed on time every night. I'm already late.

Therefore, this will be brief.

This game cupboard is full of games I never play because I don't usually like games.  But it's well placed and I like the way it looks.  Also, when I'm feeling in a really good mood, I like to join my family for a quick game or two.  As long as I take board games in small doses I usually enjoy myself...and I'd like to keep it that way. :)

Day 216: Words and Work

Bananagrams

Today was my first day back to work after a 10-day break.  It wasn't as brutal as I was anticipating, which is really nice!  It makes going back to work a happy thing instead of a dreaded chore.

Also, I'm glad to get back into routine.  I'm not very good at maintaining routine, but I always feel better when I try.

Now, if only I had something interesting to report on for a change...I'll work on that and get back to you. :)

Day 215: Month 7 is Here!

A button I have that says, "Kiss me before another year goes by!"

So, month six is complete, and we are on to month seven!  I don't know if I should be counting myself as successful on this little project or not.  I may have taken a picture every day, but I was horribly neglectful with the blog posts last month.  Sure, I made excuses, but they weren't very good ones.  I have resolved to be better this month and the rest of the project.  Let's hope that resolution lasts.

Day 212: Menthol

Cough Drops

This image sufficiently portrays the day I've had.  This stupid cold that I've had for the last 8 or 9 days has finally gotten the best of me.  I've hit the cough-up-a-lung part of the cold, and it's wearing me out, so...

This is what you get.

Goodnight!

Day 205: Fake Flowers

My mom's plastic poinsettia.

Such a hectic day!  Today was the last day before my office shuts down until the new year, and I was scrambling to get everything done in time!  And now that I'm home and able to put work stress out of my mind, I'm freaking out at all the stuff I haven't done yet for Christmas!  How am I going to fit everything in before Saturday!?

Aaack!

Day 204: Colorful Darkness

Our front windows.

I'm so sorry for such a long absence.  I've been so stressed out trying to get everything finalized at work, and get all the presents ready for Christmas, that I've actually gone and made myself sick again.  This time it feels like the beginnings of a head cold, but still...quite possibly the worst timing ever.

So the next few posts will probably be short, since I don't have a lot of time.  But then again, by the time I get around to posting these, I'll probably have time to add a few lines.

We'll see.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Day 200: Rain, Shopping, and Work (Updated)

Day 200:  Rain, Shopping, and Work

Rain on my windshield.

So I had to work almost all day today, and when I finished working I had to run and do some long overdue Christmas shopping.  Unfortunately, I forgot my wallet at home.  So after an embarrassing scene at the checkstand, I had to wait for my very nice sister to drive my wallet from Orem to American Fork.  That's when I took this picture, while I waited in my car to avoid the uncomfortable looks from the checkers at Target.

****UPDATE****
This was originally posted as four days in one, but I didn't like the look, and so broke them out into individual posts.  Sorry for the confusion.

Days 198 and 199: Catch-up Begins

Day 198: Knitting

My knitting yarn.

So because of a few cut-backs at work, I'm short on funds this Christmas.  Not the worst thing in the world.  At least I still have a job, and at least I'm single so no one else is really affected by my lack of funds.

But in order to give gifts to everyone on my list, I've had to come up with a few creative ideas.  One of which is knitting.  Not the best idea, I realize.  It's kind of a hackneyed Christmas present idea, but it's something I had the resources for, so there you go.

The problem is, knitting is not a fast process, and I didn't start soon enough.  I'm now scrambling to get all my projects completed in time for Christmas.  We'll see if I succeed. :)

Day 199: Christmas Candy

A candy jar.

I don't remember much of today because I was so busy playing catch-up at work and home.  In fact, I forgot to take this picture tonight until after my midnight deadline (at least I'm not freaking out about it like I did last time), but it's close enough for me to not despair at missing an entire day.  Hopefully this weekend won't be too crazy.  I'll have to work tomorrow to continue to make up the hours I missed from Tuesday and Wednesday, so I'll be even more crunched for time.  

Day 192: Weekend Wimp

Some more Christmas decorations.

So, another weekend is upon us, and I've put off my posts once again.  I would say more on the subject, but what else is there to say?

I actually don't have much of anything to say lately.  It seems I'm just going through the motions each day, waiting for something interesting to come along.  I could try to create something interesting, but I'm pretty sure we all know that isn't likely to happen.  Maybe one day I'll get brave and do something crazy that I can write about.

Until then, we'll have plenty of boring posts like this one. :)