Red Pencil Diaries

I wish I could get over this stomach virus. I felt sick on Tuesday night, then felt much better Wednesday and Thursday. Then woke up this morning feeling oh so sick. Dave is sick today too. We’ve sort of been taking it easy today. Zack is napping at the moment. So I’m reclining on the couch and watching landscaping shows and wishing my yard looked so nice. I also just realized that this is the end of the month! Wow… June has gone by fast!

Mine would be a dark comedy? Uhm… yeah. Like Royal Tenenbaums or American Psycho. sigh I’m always just a bit too far over that edge, aren’t I?

The Movie Of Your Life Is A Black Comedy

In your life, things are so twisted that you just have to laugh. You may end up insane, but you’ll have fun on the way to the asylum.

Your best movie matches: Being John Malkovich, The Royal Tenenbaums, American Psycho

I just tried something new and I really liked it, so I decided to post about it here. It’s the Celestial Seasonings Tea Dreams non-dairy “ice cream.” The flavor I tried was Vanilla Ginger Spice Chai. It’s made with Rice Dream instead of milk or cream, but it was really creamy. Dave said it was “too gingery,” but it does have a “ribbon” of ginger snaps and ginger in it. I love chai, and this stuff was nice and spicy and gingery and creamy. I think I might have to try a new flavor next week. It was lower in fat and carbs than regular ice cream, so when I have a craving, it’s not so bad for me. Yum!

So on Monday night, Zack started puking. He had other stomach issues all day Tuesday. Then he finally started eating a little bit last night. He was drinking liquilytes and juice yesterday. And this morning he ate 1 and a half pop tarts and a sippy of milk. He refused lunch, but he did drink some apple juice. He also refused his morning nap, but he’s (finally!) napping now. Last night at around 2 am he woke up screaming. I tried to calm him and then so did Dave. We finally got him back to sleep. I think he was teething on top of the whole stomach thing. But I feel so tired today. I just laid down and tried to take a nap, but for some reason, I can’t get to sleep. I keep thinking of things I need to do. We’re having my family over for the 4th and there’s tons of stuff to do to get ready. sigh Why is it that I never have much going on, but I always seem to be preparing for that one thing that’s gonna happen a week from now? It takes me much longer to get things in order these days. I need to get more organized. I’ll be glad when we get at least the first floor of this house completed. Then maybe things will have more of a permanent place. Will that make me more organized? Somewhat. But I’m sure I’ll still take days to prepare for entertaining.

Not too wild. I’ve just felt the need lately to do something outrageous and fun. Something not typically me. Something more like I would have done in college. I dunno. I think it’s just been too long since I got out and went partying and dancing and feeling carefree. Although, it’s quite difficult to find time and/or takers for such an endeavor. Oh, and there’s the whole “needing a sitter” part, too. sigh

I guess it’s the summer time weather that makes me want to get out and be crazy. Oh, that along with the fact that I’m going to be 35 in a few weeks. Ugh. I hate even typing out that number. I don’t feel 35 (not that I have a clue how 35 should feel). I feel more… 28-ish. Anyone got any brilliant ideas?? How do I get over this “mid 30s” crisis? Do people my age go out and do silly fun things anymore? A girls’ weekend in Las Vegas or New Orleans? A night out on the town? Would any of those things get this out of my system? Oh well.

Well, we had one crazy yard sale today. Dave made me a yard sale sign with two full size bedsheets with the words painted on them REALLLLLLY BIG strung between a frame of PVC pipe. People were joking that they could see my sign from the moon. We live on a busy street, so it was good that people could see it from far away and know where to stop. Plus, I think some people just stopped because, hey, it was a cool sign.

We had tons of stuff to sell, too. My mom, my sister, and two other friends brought stuff to sell. Overall, we made over $300, but my part was around $100. They day started out cloudy, but then the sun came out. We put up the patio table umbrella, kicked back in some lawn chairs, and had a decent day.

I had meant to take some pics of the setup, but I forgot. I do wish I’d taken pics of the sign at least. It was too cool. Dave did an awesome job. Oh, and we had people in the driveway lining up at 7:15 am when I didn’t even have everything out yet! People were grabbing stuff out of my boxes and helping me unpack them. We had cars piling up in our huge driveway. It was a great success. We had crowds nearly all day—and my last couple of yardsales weren’t even half as busy as this one!

But the sun and sales wore me out. I’ve been up since 6:15 and I’m tired. I’m glad it’s over. And we sold a lot of stuff! Yay!

I found this list of things to do before Labor Day on MSN (it’s mostly geared toward men). So I decided to make a list of things I would like to do before Labor Day. I’ll count them down as the days roll by (if I get to check anything off this list…). Ok here I go:

1. Go to Holiday World
2. Go camping
3. Have a yard sale
4. Have a day off to go shopping in Cinci
5. Have a girls’ weekend
6. Go dancing and partying with friends
7. Get our backyard into shape
8. Have a big grill-out party with friends that lasts late into the evening and is kid-friendly
9. Lose 15 lbs.
10. Finish painting the kitchen cabinets
11. Start painting my laundry/craft room
12. Do more crafting and jewelry making
13. Start writing for fun (and maybe profit)
14. Teach Zack to talk more
15. Clean my carpets
16. Explore and learn more about the area we now live in

I’ve been using some recipes from this site for the past week. The writer is really awesome. He explains a lot of how things work and shows excellent pictures of the processes and end results. I found his “tests” on cooking bacon to be very enlightening. And his article explaining fats, transfats, fatty acids, and cholesterol is very much worth reading!

On Saturday, I’m having a yard sale. I am a pack rat, and so is Dave. So we are trying to finally purge some of the excess clutter from our house. We still have boxes in our closets from when we moved in over 2 1/2 years ago. I went through a lot of those boxes and have gathered a ton of stuff to sell. I also have a few people bringing stuff by to add to my sale—maybe draw in more people.

I’ve always loved yard sales. Usually, I love buying more than selling. And with other people bringing their stuff to sell at mine, I will undoubtedly end up “buying” something from them or “trading” something of mine for something of theirs.

But this time, I’m absolutely excited to have this yard sale. It’s probably going to be HOT and HUMID outside. And yet, it will be fun to sit in my driveway and try to get people to buy my junk. I guess it’s linked to my latest desire to own my own consignment store. I think I’d be a good salesperson/owner. And it might help curb my desire to bring junk home—then I’d have a place to deal with housewares junk!

For now, though, I’m going to have to settle for yard saling. And maybe I’ll make a few extra bucks from it, too!

This is my favorite picture of my guys:
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This pic says it all for me: Dave and his son.
Happy Father’s Day to all you dads out there! We love and appreciate all you do.