CAUTION: Woman In Progress

You can find part one, here . This past Friday on my afternoon walk around campus I happened upon even MORE pumpkins. This time they were scattered around behind the union and the buildings up and down a couple of streets behind the drill field and library. Once I spotted one that day, I was a woman on a mission. I ended up walking 1.48 miles, up stares, across streets and up to the doorways of buildings. Fortunately, the "kids" were still all gone on Fall Break so there weren't that many peeps around to witness my crazy. ;-) The first one I spotted was up the stairs on the porch of the English and Administration building. Just a plain run-of-the-mill Jack O' Lantern. Then when I got behind the union there was...BATMAN!! Across the sidewalk from Batman was this statehood pumpkin. Once I rounded the corner onto the street beside the union I spotted this guy. He's kinda badass. This was the tag on top of his head. Thought it might be good to...

Because Trix asked for it... The Cake!

Ethan is 4! His actual birthday was yesterday but we had his party Saturday. It was Monster Truck themed because he is into all things rough, big and automobile.     I actually started the night before in prepping. Somehow I ended up doing most of the food. Well, all of the food except for the cake and a bowl of goldfish. I was up late making truffles (chocolate chip cookie dough and cake batter) Friday night. Then got up early Saturday morning and baked chocolate chip cookies. After lunch Saturday, I got in Sis2's kitchen and made jalapeno popper pigs in a blanket. Mama did the cake per Ethan's instructions. And I do mean instructions. He told her exactly how he wanted it to look and he was THRILLED with the outcome.Mostly because it had two big monster trucks  a "ramp" and "dirt" that he enjoyed driving the trucks through. An interactive cake! lol    He had a pretty good turn out with about 7 kids/friends and several a...

I'll have pics and stories from Efan's birthday party tomorrow. But for tonight, I wanted to share one of my favorite scenes from yesterday. The part of the drive home that meant I was almost to my house and Libs. Love to love on my babies but I love going  home, too.

If you're reading me from my actual blog you may notice a little something different. I've changed templates! Just felt like the place needed a little bit of a face lift. I wish I could afford to have a header designed specifically for me like the professional bloggers do, but since this here blog is not exactly making any money to pay for itself, that ain't gonna happen. ;-)

One of the sororities on campus had a little fun around the Drill Field this week. I think they were using Jack O'Lanterns to advertise one of their causes. Whatever the case, they were a fun surprise yesterday. This one is in front of the library. Our "reading man" finally got a reading buddy.  Then there was this guy in front of one of the engineering buildings. Silly.  The business building got a little school spirit with a cowbell.  Not sure what's going on with this one, though. But I love the backdrop. This one in front of this statue looks like it's had a hard time.  Poor thing. It's fall break on campus so it was fun walking the Drill Field searching for 'em. No students around to get in the way or make me feel weird. Just me, my phone and a handful of staff strolling around enjoying the peace.

Silly slow dirt bike. At least I'm calling it a dirt bike. Because if this thing is considered a motorcycle, I'll bet it needs therapy. And did I mention that it was slow? Because it was. :-/

Sometimes the commute to work ain't so bad. 

So. This weekend. Friday night I stumbled across some very sad news that still haunts me. I was scrolling through my fb newsfeed when I spotted a photo a friend of mine had been tagged in. The message attached to the photo read, "In loving memory. May she rest in peace." My stomach dropped to my knees ya'll and all I could think was, "No. Not possible. This does not mean what I think it means." So I immediately clicked on her page and...and...it was full of memorials and RIPs and a link to the obituary. I just, I couldn't and can't comprehend how this happened. Unfortunatly, this is one of those friendships that I made through the Harlequin community and we'd never actually met. Most of my on-line friends are like that. Just so happened, when we both drifted away from Harlequin, she and I maintained our friendship on MySpace and then Facebook, though we hadn't actually communicated directly with each other in a little while. If I hadn't s...

Ten things I love about living alone. 1) I can be weird and not have to explain myself to anyone.  2) The remote is mine all mine.  3) Eat what I want when I want with no explanation or judgement.  4) I can cry my eyeballs out for no real reason in total privacy. 5) Read whatever I want with no teasing or annoyance for ignoring a significant other.  6) Crank up the stereo as loud as I want and listen to whatever floats my boat.  7) Can sing at the top of my lungs without disturbing anyone.  8) When I can't sleep I can play on my phone or read a book or write in my journal without leaving my bed. 9) No one fusses at me if the house is a mess. 10) No pants! And no one to traumatize or excite by this. There's plenty more but that's just the top ten. A single friend of mine has been whining for AGES about hating being alone and wanting a man in her life and being lonely. And sure, men are fine when they're not making you miserable. But they certainly do not gua...

This is the filtered Instagram version but it's not too far off from the original and what I saw with my eyes. We were passing by a small lake with steam rising from it just a touch and with the sun rising in front of us. The filter just made the blue in the sky a little deeper. Photography on the fly is one of my favorite benefits of the iPhone. And Instagram...I think it's quickly becoming one of my favorite social media sites/apps.

It was redder than this when we first left for work but I couldn't get a good shot. Still pretty though. Look out for some rain tomorrow!

I actually enjoy having Daddy on FB. He's really fun and one of the few people on there who "get" me. Same can't be said about some of my other family. :-/

So I've been keeping busy this week. Busy with walking and eating right, but also busy preparing myself (and my office) for my new supervisor. Yep. My new boss starts next week. Wednesday. I'm getting my office in order and tidying up so I can make a really good first impression. I'm hoping that he'll be so impressed with my efficiency that any thoughts he had of micromanaging will disintegrate. The last thing I need after three years of pretty much self-supervision is a new boss hanging over my shoulder yapping orders at me and critiquing everything I do. But we'll see how things shape up. This time next week I'll let you know! haha I don't have much beyond that. Oh! Except new TV shows!! Yes! I'm really enjoying the new season! Thank goodness for Fall television. ;-)

So Sis2's birthday was last Wednesday. Well, her "party" was Saturday. Sis1 and Emmy came over Friday night and I cooked supper for everyone. It's not something I'd normally volunteer for but since I was off work anyway, I figured it'd be a nice break for Mama who's usually stuck with that chore. I agonized for DAYS on what to cook because, while everyone else in the family will eat pretty much anything (that's diabetic friendly, at least) Daddy is a hard sell. He's the pickiest eater in the family. My first thought was pizza. But we eat pizza all the time. And I didn't figure he'd like the crust I make. Then I thought, pizza casserole. But he's also anti anything casserole. I think that's a man thing, though. So I really didn't know what to fix. It wasn't until I was in the grocery story Friday morning that I decided on Parmesan crusted chicken for the ladies and pork chop for the man of the family. (He's also not a c...

And so did everyone else. haha Edited to add: Be thankful that the post I thought I had published prior to this one didn't actually publish because it was an ugly cry PMSy post. haha 

So, I weed eated today. Partially, anyway. Stupid batteries on the weed eater died before I could get it all.  Meanwhile, my arms are still so weak that even picking up a glass of water is shaky. I know. First world problem.

So yesterday was Sis2's birthday. I took the day off work to spend it with her as has become the tradition. I do this because A) she's my best friend and B) if I didn't make a big deal out of her big day ON her big day, no one would. Goofus is kinda slack in the whole "making a girl feel special" area. We started the day off at Chick-fil-A for breakfast. She had to have her driver's license renewed and wanted to do it early so we ate breakfast and Efan and I played in the play area while she went and got her license taken care of. He's such a fun kid with a big imagination. The rest of the morning we sort of vegged at the house until lunch. We did do "school" pics. It was picture day at Lyssa's school so we had to do them with the boy, too. His are probably way more silly than Lyssa's.  Then it was off to lunch with the parental unit. We met at a local deli type place that has amazing bread and the best sammies.  As luck would wave it, I ...

Weird dreams in Jana-land lately. Well, one weird/scary nightmarish dream last week wherein I visited and sobbed at the grave of someone I love dearly who isn't dead in real life and whose name I will not mention for fear it will speak the dream into reality. In no way, shape or form do I remotely want this dream/nightmare to really happen. I'd be devastated, to put it mildly. But this weekend I had some really weird dreams that really absolutely felt REAL, y'all. Yes. REAL in all CAPS. !!! And because I like to document all the weird dreams that I actually remember y'all get to hear all about 'em. So. The first dream. I was sitting in church--the church I currently attend--and all these people started showing up who had done me, my family or someone I love (and in some cases, all the above) wrong. The kind of wrong that Christians are notorious for because it involves hypocrisy and the kind of ugly that only Christians can do to each other. These are all real...