Wow, that was a long break...

Sorry I've been gone for so long. I haven't really been in the mood to blog and things have been pretty busy lately. This past year has been stressful and instead of sounding like the sad violin (panda) I've chosen to blog less because that's what's been on my mind. I know I am very blessed and that my standard of living is pretty good which also makes me feel bad for feeling like I don't have enough and worrying about running short. It also makes me not a lot of fun to be around when I talk about it. (Yes I realize this).

But anyways, things are looking up. There is so much that I have done that I haven't blogged about and I can't find my camera (frustrating) so there will be few pictures. None of them taken by me. Hopefully when Isaac cleans out his truck he will find it because that's kind of my last hope.

So for starters lets get the unpleasant out of the way. We were unable to sell Isaac's business and it came to the point where we really didn't want to anymore. We also still owe money to the business but we are having a positive attitude that we can do it, and so we shall. This has been a great point of stress for many months now, but it's getting better and I am so thankful.

Okay on to the good. Kelly and I took another road trip and this time the lovely Stephanie came with us when we went to Vancouver, BC. Besides a rather disgruntled border guard we had a great time. It was supposed to rain 2-4 inches when we were there for the day and man did we luck out. Not only was there no rain (our rain boots looked kinda silly) but we even had the most perfect sunset. Kelly was an amazing navigator and she got us all around the city on a little map. Kelly and Stephanie were very patient with me in finding a yarn shop (I now know where it is for the future) and then we went to the Aquarium and explored the park surrounding the aquarium. Sorry, like I said no pictures, can't find the camera.

Another bright spot is that Isaac got a second part time job (two nights a week) with South Seattle Community College. It's for six months and it will help us out a lot, I'm really excited for it but I also hope it's not too much for Isaac to handle.

And last but not least Isaac got me a kindle for my birthday/Christmas. I figured my birthday had passed I could open it. :) And I'm really excited about how I'm going to dress it up (keeping my fingers crossed it will work). These are the only pictures you'll get. The silicone cover is partially see through like frosted glass so I'm really hoping and I believe that the image will show through the back giving it a really nice effect. I should get it today and I'm excited to see if my conjecture will be right.

Oh, I so did not see this coming...

I don't know how I could have known or even perceived that this would happen... again. And I've been in the throes of it for two weeks now because I've been meaning to blog but I couldn't pull myself away from it. Any guesses? Sadly, it's Twilight, again.

I'm a little bewildered by it. Two Saturdays ago the thought popped into my head "Hmmm, maybe I should reread Twilight. That sounds like fun." Wha?! And so off I went. It's been a lot better this time, obviously, it took me two weeks to get through all four. I've been able to watch t.v., listen to music, oh yeah, and sleep. Granted I'm keeping those things to a minimum (except the sleep part) as I'd rather be reading but it's so much more sane than last November. Last year if I wasn't reading I was irritated, it was all I wanted to do and anything that took my attention away from it was unacceptable. I've been doing all the same things this time too but at a much saner pace. It's almost over, I think I'm going to reread it once more and then save it for next year. Because, obviously I am prepared, I now know that November + Twilight = my new normal fall activities. I'm not going to be taken off guard again.

My number one wish with this series is that I could somehow erase it from my mind so that every time I read it it would be like the first time. Although I would probably be a crazy person if I got my wish. My second wish even though I am satisfied with the series as is would be to have more books in the series to read. That's how irrationally I love this series. Okay off to start the first one again, er, I mean work.

Ode to an Element

I wrote this last week on 10/13 but I lost track of time and am finally getting to it now.

Pictured above is an actual picture of my Honda Element and as of 11 am this morning I received the news that I knew was going to come and it's that she is totaled. I have never been so happy to hear that a car of mine is totaled. I know, it sounds oxymoronic. But I'm pretty sure that even if they had been able to fix it I wouldn't feel comfortable driving it.

She was a good little car and rarely gave me trouble. I will miss her but I will not be replacing her with a matching copy. I am instead getting this:

SO FRICKIN' EXCITED. I should get her tomorrow. :)

New Beginnings

So supposedly 10.10.10 signals a new beginning, I just wonder if mine took a few extra days to kick in. Because people, things are (hopefully) starting to look up. The insurance company of the guy who hit me finally yesterday afternoon took responsibility. Yay! But man has there been cat drama.
I know that Isaac and I have had a lot of stressful things lately and I know that the cats have picked up on our stress which makes them stressed and I know we have had shorter fuses. Not anything too bad but we can't handle as much complaining from the cats (read Finn). So Luna has been peeing on a towel I keep in the hallway for her and she has pooped twice on the bathmat. This is on top of peeing on the pillows on the love seat (we rarely use it) that's in the kitchen and rare usage apparently makes it fair game. On top of my stress this has been super annoying because it's just adding to the list of crap I have to do on a daily basis. Well, I caught Finn peeing on a pillow and I didn't know Luna was doing the other stuff because when she's stressed she doesn't really show it, because she doesn't do the behavior in front of you. So Finn has had some behavior modification and we were, this close, to finding him a new home but Isaac didn't have time. Which I guess is good because Finn has gotten a lot better. But now I think Luna will be the one going to a new good home. She had a rough babyhood, being born feral and having her ear clipped by animal control has made her really high stress really easy. And she hasn't stopped peeing on things so yesterday morning I tried to corral her into the downstairs bathroom and it didn't go so well. She was already stressed out and she freaked. She gouged me pretty well in a few places, freaked out Finn and Liam but I finally got her in the bathroom, so I'm hoping at least a few days in there will calm her down and then (I feel really bad saying this) we can relocate her. I can't correct her behavior because she sees it as I'm being like animal control when they grabbed her and clipped her ear.
Normally I get an instance of peeing on the pillows (only one of pillow) once every few months. Part of me is saying ride it out but it also feels like I can't break out of the cycle of the stress because so much is still unknown and the cats feel it and act out upping my stress. I don't know what to do. Because I also know that keeping Luna secluded causes some stress on both sides for the cats. Finn and Liam want to know what's going on in her room and vice versa, but I know letting her out into the house will totally increase her anxiety because there is so much space and she doesn't know what to expect around each corner, even though nothing has changed.
Not to mention that I worked a market for Isaac on Sunday and came home to Finn with a fishing hook in his lip (hello surprise vet surgery bill) which I'm sure added to the stress level on Sunday. I also found that Isaac's canopy window was pushed out in once place which was not by anyone breaking in. It would be too hard of a place to try. So I had to take off work early yesterday to get it fixed, it was an easy fix but just something else to add to my list of crap to do.
I'm curious as to what they say the state of my car is. I believe it's totaled but we'll see. I just know what the damage that I can see it and it's seems pretty major.
Please send your good thoughts my way! And pray that things calm down! :)

I don't have a problem...

Do you think? :)

And my next purchase?

Its so pretty isn't it? It's already on its way.

And for Corey. I meant to post this after I took it because it was the same week she posted about a double rainbow. It's kind of hard to see but in the left corner is the second rainbow.

And an update. I finally saw a Chiropractor today and I only have minor whiplash. It will take about 6 months to get my spine back in alignment so I'm looking forward to that. Bruises are appearing but I feel very lucky, I know how much worse it could have been. I had to stop and get a few more things out of my car today and I found out today that my automatic door unlocker doesn't even work anymore so luckily they had the key. Most of this post is because what I forgot was about half of my lovely lovely rings above. On another note, the other insurance rep called me today and while I was unable to answer my phone she left a much nicer message than yesterday. Yesterday she was telling me that basically it wasn't their fault and if I really wanted to get this going I could go ahead and go through my insurance. Today her tone indicated to me that she was understanding that none of this was my fault and that she was trying to get the claim moving so I could get through this process. Yay! I'll let you all know more when I do.

Oh the difference a day makes...

Or even a few seconds I guess. Last night I was driving home as normal and the lane I was in had slowed to a stop in front of me. So I slowed too and was almost at a complete stop, the car behind me was proceeding the same way because I was looking at in my rear view mirror. Then all of a sudden behind that I saw smoke and the next thing I knew I was being spun in a 360. I guess two cars behind me the guy only saw the person in front breaking hard and his two options he told me were to jump in the HOV lane or hit the person in front of him. So he jumped in the HOV lane barely missing another car and scaring the bejeezus out of them and at that point this person is so out of control of their car that they actually slam into me and we start turning in a 360. After talking to the state patrol that arrived on scene I now believe that I was struck by another car that did not stay on scene. I say this because the back rear passenger trunk side window is smashed out and the metal beneath the window is sheared through. The driver of the other vehicle hit me in the driver rear side and then by spinning the front driver side too. And guys, my car won't start, and I'm pretty sure it's totaled, if it's not I think it would be a miracle. The firemen when they arrived on scene tried to drive it over to the shoulder but had to end up pushing it. The person that hit me they ended up driving their car over to the shoulder. The good thing is I'm not really hurt just a little sore some bruising and some welts.
There's a lot of silver lining here. No one was seriously injured, and their were first responders (that weren't even our first responders) in traffic behind us so we had a lot of help before anyone that was called to the scene even came on scene. I was close to home so Isaac was able to come get me. Probably the funniest part is that currently when you turn my wheel the horn honks all on its own and I do believe the windshield wipers start going, which means the steering column is probably pretty messed up. My rear drivers side tire looked tilted (not a good sign) and my gas tank was smashed in. Not to mention how smashed in the front drivers side is.
So if the car isn't totaled then they will repair it and if it is I have GAP insurance and I can go get a new car at this point it's just a wait and see. Wish me luck and whomever was stuck in traffic yesterday because of the accident, sorry you had to sit in traffic, I know how much it can suck.

Apple Farm!

So this weekend I picked up Kelly and we went to the Apple Farm. We found some cows along the way and I totally forgot my camera at home but luckily Kelly brought hers so she was able to take a lot of cool pictures. We took a tractor ride of the farm and one of the owners John was really funny. He had this portable sound system that he was having the guy giving the tour use and since Kelly and I were at the very end of the tractor he was the most concerned if we could hear. The funny part was we were trying to tell John that we could hear without the sound system but we weren't getting through to him at first. He finally came up to our cart because we forgot to clip the rope across the entrance (oops) and said if we couldn't hear to throw a rock at the guy giving the tour. I told John I didn't have a rock so he bent down and grabbed a piece of gravel and gave it to me. There were also quite a few really cute little children on the tractor ride. There was one specific girl in the cart in front of us and she kept watching us so we waved and smiled at her which I think just increased her fascination. She was very adventurous and precocious and so much fun to watch. We picked up everything apples and some honey roasted peanut butter.
After the Apple Farm we were on to checking something off Kelly's list which was eating at a Chick-fil-A.
Apparently Kelly has done her research and the one and only Chick-fil-A in Washington State is in Bellingham at Western Washington Univ. Well we were only a few miles away and after being led astray by Google we found the one and only Chick-fil-A in Washington State. So nummy, I haven't had Chick-fil-A in years.
After that our day wound down and we headed home beneath sunny skies. We had such a great day! We clicked immediately and nothing ever felt awkward or out of place. Here's to many more trips in the next few years to come.