Storage Solution Number 1

So, I had to run out to renew my drivers license today. Yes, in the snow and slush...oh and while I was cleaning off my car, someone drove past me and splashed me with the now black (from dirt on the street) slush. It was a great start to my day. But then...

I decided to make my day a little better and went to Michaels (plus I had a 40% off coupon from a previous purchase that I needed to use before I go see the boy tomorrow) and bought two of cropper hopper vertical storage value packs. I knew it was going to make a difference, but I didn't know it was going to make that much of one.

Here's the before (note that both sets of drawers are full with patterned paper - either in packs or single sheets):

Here's the after:

Here's what they look like next to one of the storage drawers that were full (I had two):



I was able to clear off the top of the hutch of my desk too that had another drawer set that was full of other random things too. So the cropper hopper stuff is up there now, I'm getting another two from a lady on split coast stampers who is kind enough to sell them, some clear stamps, and some heat and stick powder as well. I've been wanting the heat and stick powder forever, and even though I'm a demonstrator, I just couldn't see making an entire order just for that! I figure once I get my tax money back I'll buy some of the stuff out of the new catalog, and if the heat and stick powder works well, and I use it a lot, I'll buy some more of that too!

I'm still waiting for the clip it up to get here. I'm so excited it feels like it's taking forever even though I know it's not. I made room for that up on the hutch of my desk as well. The mess that's under the before picture up there is my attempt at organizing my alphas, stickers, rub ons, etc so that things are a little easier for when I get my clip it up.

My next big project (other than getting the other cropper hoppers organized and putting my stuff on the clip it up) is new ribbon storage. Right now I have a rolling drawer cart that holds a lot of adhesive, random tools, etc and my ribbon. I never end up using it because it's a big pain in the butt to search for it since it's all just piled up. I'm looking for something to buy or make that holds a lot, isn't wall mounted, and is small to medium sized. Preferably something I can stick under my desk.

I start school on Monday, and also go to do paperwork and such at my new job. Then Tuesday I actually start. I'll be busy busy once school starts, but I'm hoping that first weekend I'll be able to knock out some of these projects and then instead of spending the very little free time I'll have organizing, I'll be able to spend time crafting! Sounds good right?

Tomorrow I'm going to visit the boy (hopefully the weather will let up a little bit so that I can get there safely and quickly). I'll be taking my lap top since he'll be at work all day on Thursday and I need something to occupy me, but I probably won't be on much other than that. So I wouldn't expect another post until Sunday or Monday!

Well, I'm off to start laundry I should have started about oh....3 hours ago!

Phew!

Well where do I start. I'm not at the old daycare anymore, my friend and I told the truth to a parent and we both got told we weren't "needed anymore" even though we were already quitting. Its okay though, because the parents believe me and we know the truth, and now so do other people. Not to mention, it's like a little vacation for me. I get to sit and do nothing for the first time in what feels like forever. Plus I'm going down to visit the boy earlier than originally planned. So it's kind of like a much needed break. Thank you daycare for attempting to screw me over.

I finally finished my class. So far, I have a B. That's with the final exam already counting against me, if you know what I mean, so whatever I earn on that will just up my grade basically. It's out of 50 points, and I don't think I did that bad (I freeze up on tests), so I would imagine I at least got a 50% (that's the lowest I think I'd get) and even that would add up to an A for me. So yay!

I do have a review set up. I just need to take a few more pictures and type it all up and what not.

I'm still waiting for my clip it up to get here. I'll have to take before and after pictures. I know its going to be a big difference. I can't wait.

Well I'm off to just lay here and spend some time with my poor puppies that I feel have gotten the short end of the stick recently because I've been so busy. Then maybe today I can tackle some things.

And the call came.

I got the call last night...I GOT THE JOB! I'm so excited. The girl seems like such a sweetheart (I hope I'm not going to eat these words, but I don't think I will). I gave my "2 weeks notice" today. I put that in quotes because it's not going to be two weeks. My last day is next Thursday (the 29th). I feel bad, but I needed to do something for me. School starts the Monday after that, so this is the last time I'll be able to go and see the boy for longer than like 2 days. With him getting deployed and training about 75% of the time, I'm trying to see him as much as possible. My boss is less than thrilled and her and the district manager kept trying to get me to stay, but it's not going to happen. Sorry, but it's time I do something for myself. More pay, less gas, more time at home vs less pay, more gas, less time at home... hmmm which to take? It was an easy choice for me.

Anyway, I have a review lined up, pictures ready to go, I just need to get some other stuff done first. I have to type up the progress reports for my kids at work, not to mention laundry, etc. I finished every module and every assignment for school except for the 4 projects. I'm determined to do at least half of a project a night until the weekend, which will be used to finish them all. I'm going to try and get one observation done tomorrow night, and then another one on Thursday and then I'll leave the other two for Friday and the weekend. It's going to be a busy few days. Tomorrow, I go to work until 5:30, rush to school to take my final exam at 6, then rush back for a parent-teacher conference for one of my kids. The other two are Thursday. I really want to tell my parents then that I'm leaving, but apparently I'm "not allowed to" until management writes some sort of stupid letter. I'm half tempted to do it anyway. I mean they've screwed me over too many times to count and I've dealt with it without saying anything, so why can't I do it to them?!? Except I don't think I'd even be screwing them over. I don't know yet. I probably won't do it, but who knows. It might slip out if the parents say something about the future.

Gamsol and colored pencils

So, here is my first "review". It's not really a review, as much as a "you have to try this technique" and sort of a tutorial. After reading some posts on Split Coast Stampers, I decided to ditch my aqua pen, inks, blender pen, etc, and give Turpenoid, paper stumps, and colored pencils a shot.

I went out to two different stores (I'm lucky enough to live very close to AC Moore, Michaels, and Joanns) for different things. AC Moore had everything I needed, Micheals had at least the paper stumps and colored pencils (Prismas). So, to begin with, I bought Derwent colored pencils (I couldn't see spending that much money on Prismas if I didn't know if I'd like this coloring technique), ProArt blending paper stumps, and Odorless Turpenoid (not pictured). Under the reccomendation of one of the girls on SCS, I looked for Krylon Matte Spray, but couldn't find it. I ended up buying Krylon Crystal Clear Acrylic Coating (1303). It seemed to work just fine to me! The spray prevents the paper from soaking in the gamsol and helps your color blend more smoothly. Thank you Kathy (stampin8mom) for that tip!

First I stamped my image. I was in a bit of a rush, and could have chosen a better stamp for this technique I'm sure, I chose the dotted butterfly from Stampin Up's Flight of the Butterfly set. I stamped it in Jet Black StazOn on Whisper White cardstock from Stampin Up and let it dry for a few seconds. I then sprayed Krylon Crystal Clear on it (I'll warn you I had my window opened and sprayed it out the window and still nearly choked on the fumes. This is one you want to spray in a VERY ventilated space, or better yet, outside). I let that dry for a minute or so and then sat down and began to color. I only did four, and this was one of my two favorites. Sorry the picture is blurry. I don't really like the left wing, but the right wing looks well blended when looking at the actual paper.

The other one I like is this green one. I definately added too much dark green outlineing on the left wing. I learned to add less color at first, and as more as needed. Of course, all this was the first time I did any of this so I still need some more practice. For anyone who ever wanted to try this, and is hesitent, I really recommend it. It's really easy and with a little practice I'm sure you could get it! It's relatively cheap too, depending upon the colored pencils you buy. The paper stumps cost $2.19 for a pack of 2, and from the limited coloring I've done, it didn't seem like it was going to wear away really easily. The Odorless Turpenoid cost under $8 but again, I really don't think it's going to be used up fast. The Krylon Crystal Clear was around $5 I believe. The colored pencils were the most expensive, I think they were between $15 and $20, but I can't remember.

I'm seriously considering spending some money on the prisma colored pencils that everyone likes and buying them in all the colors. Or I might buy the full set of the Derwent ones, they work well for me. I think I'll be using this technique more than watercoloring! Well, I'm off to (of course) finish up some school stuff!

Shopping

So, being typical me, I chose to go shopping instead of sitting down and doing homework. I really am planning on doing some tonight and getting as much as possible done.

Anyway, I ended up spending too much money and came back with all of that. Paper (that I ended up already having...), thickers, lots of adhesive, a book, two magazines, a glitter/embossing powder tray, paintbrush, tweezers, stamps, craft mat, pink palette, and all the necessary things for coloring with gamsol as well as things for a new label maker. I'll do a review on both coming up in the next week.

I'm excited about using all this stuff. Not to mention I can't wait to get my clip it up from Samantha. It will hopefully eliminate a whole set of sticker/embellishment filled drawers for me.

Well, it was a "short" post for once, but I need to go and do some of this homework. I'm going to try and get at least 4 modules (basically sections) of this class done, and then another four tomorrow, and so on until I'm done.

PS - Still haven't heard from the prospective new job yet. She's dealing with the loss of her mother though so I know I'm not top priority right now. I sent her a "thank you for letting me interview" email, so maybe that will generate a yes or no.

Waiting...

So, I had my interview this morning. Now it's all a waiting game. The interview ended up being with the daughter of the woman I've been talking to. She said that her grandmother (her mom's mom) had died, and that's why she was doing the interview. That was fine, I sat in a room and filled out an application that I think I bombed a little on. I couldn't think of just the right word I wanted to use for two of the questions they asked ("How do these qualities affect working with children" and "What is your personal philosophy in regards to a child care center") so I don't think I got the point across that I was trying to and I don't think it quite made sense, but nothing I can do about it now. The daughter (who also works there) was very nice and seemed genuinely interested in what I had to say. It sounded like I got the job with some of the things she said. I asked when I could expect a call and she said probably today. I'm hoping it's really soon since I'm leaving in an hour to babysit.

I'm getting a Clip it Up! Thanks to Samantha at The Everyday Scrapper. She was selling hers (the bottom tier) so I bought it from her, and then I'm going to be on the hunt for the upper tier once I hang up as much on the bottom as I can. I really need to get some better storage/organization going on. See, my crafting space isn't in a separate room. It's in my bedroom. So I can't let it take over everything (although I would love to), since I have to be able to sleep and get ready for work in there. Not to mention store all my 500 school textbooks and other teaching materials. Plus my dogs sleep in their crates when we're all asleep or when we're all at work, and their crates are in there too. A picture would better show you what I mean, but my room is a mess right now, so we're not going to go there. I think I just need to get rid of my dresser since I really only use one drawer anyway, but then where would I put my TV and DVD player? I need a smaller bed too. I know, I know, it's not that often that you hear someone say that, but I have a full size bed, and a small room. I'm starting to think I need to turn my bed diagonally. Okay now I'm just rambling.

I wish I could make that (organizing) my project for me tomorrow, but my goal is to finish literally ALL of my classwork for my infant/toddler class, except two projects. Then I have all of this coming week to finish those two projects and take the final exam. Then I'll be done with this class. Of course, it'll be just in time to start up the next semester at school. It's going to be so busy next semester too. This is what my schedule will look like starting in February.

6:30 - wake up, let the dogs out, get ready for work
7:30- work
12:30 or 1:30 - hour break, come home, let the dogs out, eat lunch
1:30 or 2:30 - back to work
4:30 - off work, home for like 30 minutes.
5:00 - driving to school
5:45 - Class
8:45 - Out of class, driving home
9:15 - Finally home, doing homework, eating dinner, etc
10:30 - Sleep.

And that's if I want just 8 hours of sleep each night! Can you tell I'm wishing it would stay January for a little bit longer?!

Well, I have to go get ready and get some caffeine in me to prepare for a night with a 1 year old and a 4 year old! I'll update when I know if I have the job, which will hopefully be really soon.

Excited.

I have the hiccups. They're driving me crazy. I can't get rid of them.

Anyway. I'm excited. After many emails back and forth, I finally have an interview set up for my potential new job on Saturday. It's at 10:30am. I have my resume typed up and ready to go. I just need to type up my references. That will be easy though. I'm so ready to get away from the place I work now. Too much drama, too many people that don't care about the kids and just want to socialize or talk on their phone all day. Don't get me wrong, I like to talk to my coworkers, but the kids come first. Not to mention the benefits this job will have (closer to home, more pay, more relaxed setting, etc) compared to the job I have now.

So yeah, I just had to share my excitement about it being only two days away and hopefully I will know if I can put my two weeks in or not. After that I get to "relax" (aka doing things for this class I'm taking) Then I'm babysitting my two favorite girls, Morgan and Taylor. Although Morgan has been grouchy recently (I blame that on the two molars she's got coming in though) they are probably two of the best behaved and best all around kids I've met. When I first started at the daycare all Morgan did was sleep. She'd wake up eventually to eat and be changed, and then go right back to sleep. Now she's down to one nap a day and crawling all over and about to start walking. I'm going to miss them when I leave, but I figure I'll still be able to babysit. Maybe I'll tell their mom and dad they should take a date night once a week! Ha!

Well, I have got to finish this observation write up for my class, so that I can do the second one tomorrow night or over the weekend. I still have to find my Ravens jersey to wear to work tomorrow as well. It feels so much later than it really is, probably because I didn't get anywhere near as much sleep as I needed last night. Can you tell I'm procrastinating yet?!? Alright, here I go. I'm going to force myself to get it done. Hopefully, I'll be back on Saturday with a happy update telling you about how much I'm going to love the new job I just got hired for ;D!

New Job?

Well, as you can see from the title of this post, things may change soon. Things at work have been going okay, but they could be better. We aren't supposed to discuss our pay, and this is probably why, but I found out that people were being hired with absolutely no experience and/or certificates and making the same amount that I do. I have all but one certificate, and I'm going to a class to get that right now. I wouldn't be getting a raise until March, and it would probably be like 30 cents, which is what everyone has been getting recently. So after some other drama that happened, I realized that I needed to make a change. I really need to get away from that daycare for reasons I won't discuss just yet. I looked on craigslist and replied to a bunch of ads for people looking for daycare employees. There's some sort of clever little saying that basically means don't get ahead of yourself, but I can't think of it right now. So I'll say what I'm hoping will happen.

One of the ads I inquired about sounds pretty promising. They'd start me out and at least a dollar more, probably even 2 dollars more than I make now. The place I work at now is 20 minutes away (with traffic), this place is probably 5 -10 (At absolute most) minutes away from me with traffic. So I'd be spending less on gas, plus making more money. The woman I've been speaking with is one of the two owners. One of them is always on site, so I don't have to worry about getting everything "ready" for the owner to come visit, since one is always there. The woman also seems to be in it for the children, as opposed to most, or should I say, a lot of owners who are more about profit. She already seems genuinly interested in my life and what I want out of this job. There are a bunch of other good points but I'll spare you the detail. Basically, I'm waiting for her to respond (by email) with a good day for an interview and we'll go from there. I'm not trying to sound too...oh whats the word... optimistic maybe? But it looks pretty good so far. We'll see after the interview.

Well, in case she wants to interview me tomorrow (she said we could do a quick interview and tour of the center in the morning - like 7:30am - sometime this week) I need to get my resume and certificates together and in order. Wish me luck! I'll update when I find out more.


PS- I promise, I will (hopefully soon) put up some craft related stuff!

New years resolutions

Well, it's not exactly the first of January, so I suppose I'm making these resolutions a little later than most...but hey, better late than never right? Anyway...I'm hoping to make this year a big one for me. I'm going to try to do things a little better than I did in 2008.

1. I'm going to lose weight. I'm not going to put a number on it, I just want to look better in my clothes. I don't care if it's 5 pounds or 10..just enough to make me feel comfortable in them and not be so worried about things popping or peeking out that shouldn't be.

2. I'm going to do better in school. It seems like every semester my grades drop a little bit more. I need to get my GPA up to where it was when I first started. I want to do better in my classes. I want to be able to remember what I learned, not try to cram it all in a minute before the test starts.

3. I'm going to save money. It's like I don't even know where it goes. I mean obviously a good chunk every month goes to my car payment, insurance, etc. But it seems like a lot just vanishes. I'm thinking part of it is I don't realize that a ton goes to food. Not that I eat every 5 seconds or anything. I eat the standard 3 meals a day..but instead of making my own food, I eat out. Which gets costly when it's all the time. Anyway, I need to be conscious of where it goes and start making small changes to save more than I spend.

With the boy (and yes, I'm going to continue to call him that throughout the life of this blog) going away for 7 or so months, I figure I'll work my booty off in school since I'll have more free time..I hate to say it...don't get me wrong I absolutely do not want him to go, I wish he didn't have to, but while he's gone it gives me some extra time to focus on things for myself. I don't have to worry about not getting my homework done because he'll be here. Of course he wants me to do well, but when he's home I just want to spend time with him and homework can slip my mind. The spending money thing won't change with him gone, since I don't spend any more money when I'm with him than I do when he's not here. I think I'm trying to think positively of him leaving now, but I know it's gonna hurt when he goes. All the songs I listen to will suddenly become more sad than they seemed before, random things on TV will upset me, couples holding hand will hurt my heart. When he was gone for a year, boy did songs get to me. Far Away by Nickelback, When You're Gone by Avril Lavigne, and Home by Daughtry to name a few. I don't think there was a time when I heard Far Away that tears didn't come to my eyes. Now I hear it and I'm okay but I'm sure those songs or others like them will get to me while he's gone.

Alright enough about that, it's making me sad just thinking about it! I gotta get going. I'm exhausted. It doesn't sound like I did a lot today (work, home for break, back to work, the teaching store, home, grocery store, home) but I feel like I did. The boy is sick with something, and I'm pretty sure he gave it to me. While I was there he was saying he didn't feel well and his body was hurting and sure enough the day after I got home mine started to. So far that's all it is, and I have a healthy breakfast and lunch as well as a Vitamin C waiting for me in the fridge so I can eat it tomorrow. Hopefully that will help fight it off before it gets to be more than just a body ache.

Back from NC

Well, I just got back from seeing the boy in NC. The drive didn't seem as bad as it usually does. Probably because I actually did the whole thing during the day. Normally I either do it all at night when I get off work and don't get there until midnight or later, or I end up doing at least half of it at night. I won't see him for a few months at least. Hopefully I'll see him again in early March. I hate this stupid training crap. He's already going away for 7 months why does he have to train somewhere else for the 3 months before? Why can't he train while he's at work on his base?

Anyway. I'm so exhausted. I'm waiting for my textbook to get here so that I can start doing my school stuff. She said she sent it about a week ago, so with any luck it'll be here tomorrow. I was hoping it would be here when I got back from the trip so that I could knock out a few things now, while I actually have some motivation. Plus, it's easier for me to get things done on the weekend. After working all day with my babies, I'm tired as anything. Not to mention, I have to come home and take care of my dogs who have been in their crates all day. Oh well...I'll just keep my fingers crossed I guess.

I'm determined to make at least one thing scrapbook/papercraft related by the end of next weekend. I have one week. I'm going to make it happen!