CAUTION: Woman In Progress

I think I've done fairly well in keeping busy in this last week before Christmas Break. I've shifted books around. I've read and marked newspapers. I've gone to long lunches and attended Christmas Carols in the Chapel. I've answered questions and assisted patrons and tried to solve the problem of the full to bursting stacks. But alas on this last full day of work before the break, I am at the time in the week where my mind has shut off all work related problems and has entered the "do nothing" zone. To motivate myself into actually doing something useful, I dismantled the departmental tree and packed it up to go back into storage. As I was removing the ornaments, one of the supervisors (not my direct supervisor) came in, stopped and with a crestfallen face asks, "You're taking down the tree?" Why wouldn't I take it down? I put it up and since I will only be working 2.5 hours on Monday, I wanted to get it out of the way. And I can dang...

You know, there aren't many times in my life when I wish fervently that I were married. I mean, being single isn't necessarily something I chose , per se. It just sort of worked out that way. And I've learned to be more than just content with that. I like my space. I like my alone time. I like not answering to anyone in my personal life. Heck, I like sleeping alone and cooking only when the mood strikes me! At this point in my life I honestly don't think I could be married. But there are those rare moments that I wish I had a husband. A partner to share the burdens of life with. Someone who could take care of things like malfunctioning field lines and low tire pressure and job stress. Someone to help make the tough decisions and encourage me when the decisions are strictly my own. Someone to hug me in random moments and tell me that everything is going to be alright. I'm blessed that I do have a great support system in my family but at the end of the day, they...

Not a lot going on here in Jana-land but it's been a bit since I last updated with anything life-like. I'm going to go head and say I'm 100% done with my Christmas shopping. I ordered Daddy's yesterday and pray it comes in on time and that's that. I COULD get Emmy a little something else but I'm not going to stress about it. She's 16. Chances are good she's not going to be thrilled with anything my measly Christmas budget can afford anyway. So I'm sticking a fork in this madness and calling it done. Sis2 and I did our annual sister shopping day this past Saturday. I picked her up and we went for a leisurely "breakfast" at Starbucks. Normally we do the big breakfast at one of the breakfasty places in town; Huddle House, Denny's, etc. But this year I had a gift card to Applebee's so we decided to save the big meal of the day for lunch. We ate petite vanilla bean scones and drank Caramel Brule lattes and chatted at Starbuck's l...

It took us three days/nights to get the tree together. Well, five, if you count how many days the tree sat in it's box on the dining room floor before I took it out and put it together. We--and I use the term "we" loosely  here because Libs mostly just pouted while I worked--put it together and strung the lights on one night...Tuesday maybe? and decorated it Friday night. It's a miracle it got done at all because I am totally Scrooge/Grinching it out this year. Not feeling Christmas at all.     I'm not really sure WHY I'm not feeling Christmas much this year. I wasn't really all that into it last year, either, if memory serves. Maybe it's that I'm getting older. Or maybe I'm just over the whole commercialization of it. Or maybe I'm just tired. Or could be that I'm not into much of anything anymore.   I could probably get by without going the whole decorating/putting up a tree route. I mean, in all seriousness, nobod...

I went slightly insane yesterday and chopped of all my hair again. Still trying to decide if I hate it. Oh well... Hair grows, right? 

I haven't dropped off the face of the planet, I swear. I've just been super busy. But since I finally got my desk cleared of the biggest portion of junk, I figured I'd take a moment to catch up on all the Turkey Day shenanigans.   Last Saturday, the Saturday before thanksgiving, my mom's side of the family gathered together for turkey and fun. We haven't had Thanksgiving with everyone on that side for at least three years, so it was pretty cool that we finally got together.   It was a gorgeous day outside so we escaped to the patio to get away from most of the noise. See that plate of food in the front and center? That was mine. And I cleaned that puppy GOOD. haha     It was a little windy, though, so Ethan decided to try and use the Force to calm the wind. It didn't work. The Force was down that day or something.   The following week was a crazy mixed up week. Monday I took off work early to drive Mama to a doctor's appointment...

Spent yesterday at home getting the septic tank pumped because Adulting . Thankfully, the bill wasn't all that bad. Coulda been worse. But the bigger bill is coming. Trouble with my field line which requires a bit more $$$ and a contractor. Bleh. It's times like this that I miss renting. :-/

So maybe I'm a little late with this, but I can't NOT post my yearly installment of Jacks on campus. (questionable description? haha) Unlike the previous two years seen here ,  here and here , the walk of Jack-o-lanterns wasn't all that spread out. They were grouped at about three buildings instead of all over campus. Somewhat disappointing but with the warmer temps this year, they put them out late and didn't keep them out long, anyway. These guys were hanging out in front of the chemical lab building. Not all that impressive, but, meh. I'll give 'em an A for effort. Ignor the one on the left. It was having issues known as ROTTING. lol But the one on the right is sorta cute...in a disturbing way.   The two on the bottom look like they were having a blast! You may notice the wiring in the one in back. A lot of them were wired to glow. Unfortunatly, some of the wiring gave way to the soft mushiness of the wilting pumpkins. (That would make a gre...

Small sampling of some terrible photos from my phone. Enjoy!   Mostly all you can see is the dried up, mostly flattened sweetgum balls on my concrete driveway. but if you look dead center you can just barely make ou the fiery red ant shaped insect. I'd never seen an insect that looked quite like it. Shaped like an ant, bright read and as big as a wasp but without wings. #ZoomFail   My goal here was to capture the very grown up crossed legged sitting. But the lighting was all wrong and at the time I did not notice Nana grinning creepily into the car window. #OverallFail   That beautiful sky...the trees just beginning to change color, the scenic dirt road. Annnnd you can see the hood of the car. #EditFail     The goal here was to capture Libby begging for pie. But the cutest shot turned out with Libby all blurry. #TimingFail The goal was to capture how sweet Libby looks when we're napping on my bed. But the angle is weird and the ba...

We got bored Friday night and a little jealous of everybody else's fun Halloween posts on social media so I dug out this old wig from back when we used to take Emmy trick or treating. That last photo was Libby's reaction when I first walked out in it. lol Meanwhile, two other kiddos were totally fabulous last night... And then there's this guy... All in all a fun time. :-) Happy November first! 

My baby boy is six! What the what? His actual birthday was Tuesday but we celebrated his birthday this past Saturday in a Darth Vader/Star Wars party. Yes. My sister is raising a Star Wars geek. haha He started out innocently enough with Star Wars Rebels but by now he's seen the three original films and LOVES them. His favorite character is, of course, Darth Vader. He is all about some dark sides. Can't decide if we need to be worried or not. ;-) So their swing set is mostly toast by now. the monkey bar part is the only part still hanging on. Lyssa has decided that it's a swing. Silly girl. Their other grandmother gave them a basketball goal as an early Christmas present and Goofus set it up so that the kids could enjoy it during the party. Alyssa claims she made 42 shots throughout the day. Pretty sure he's contemplating steeling one of the marshmallow pops. We called these "Angry Snowmen" and Nana got her feelings hurt. D'oh! Na...