This Was My Weekend!

I worked in the yard. Got the grass cut. Trimmed the top of the willow tree with Todd holding the ladder after giving it a major hair cut last week as high up as I could reach or climb. These pink flowers are some the kids picked out & I planted last weekend.


This is our bush outside the kitchen patio that has grown big enough to take over Texas. I'll trim it back after it loses all the blooms. They're so pretty, I couldn't stand the thought of cutting them all off right now.
My girl child contemplating the pros/cons of running through the sprinkler with big bumble bees in the backyard. In the end, the fear of the bees kept her rooted on my lap or by my side. I told her they didn't sting and they didn't have teeth to bite, they just lick (they're just big ole pollinators) which made her laugh. Maybe next weekend.

A glimpse of my new haircut through the sun speckles. I got close to 6 inches chopped off in the front. Chloe is still pensive about the bees.


Still looking out for the bees, but at least I caught her beautiful smile :)


And the temps got above 90. I LOVED it!

And a little time on the torch. Not as much as I'd like, but my time will come in another month and Todd will owe me big. Right now, he is playing tennis like a fiend. Seems like every team he's on is either in the playoffs or going to the State Championships. So he's playing tennis ALL THE TIME, which is great for him. And I'm enjoying more of the one-on-one time with the kids. They have helped me pick out a TON of flowers these last two weekends and helped get some of the plants in the ground.

Hoping to get some new beads listed in Etsy this week. We'll see. Depends on how hectic work is & what kind of free time I find in the evenings or if I take lunch hours.

No climbing poles for me!

Here is my only shot at climbing phone poles...training in Dallas two weeks ago. While the union did not come to an agreement with my company on a new contract, they did agree to continue business as usual until they do come to an agreement. For me, this means I do NOT have to go to Oklahoma to work as a field technician (ie. climbing poles, descending into manholes or installing/repairing phone lines for the locals).

I have spent 300+ hours over the past several months taking 57 training courses. It has been stressful working 50+ hour work weeks for months on top of my normal job, as well as thinking of the possibility of leaving my family for an unknown amount of time to perform strike duty. My time on the torch considerably decreased as a result to spend my evenings in online training. My beloved torch and source of sanity renewal, oh how I have missed you! I am extremely thankful that the union agreed to not strike and that I may stay home. With my family. With free evenings to now return to my torch or my husband's side on the sofa when he's not playing tennis. I can get caught up on 24 and American Idol. I can again make commitments on Etsy and know I can fulfill them. On time.

It is the simple things that I am returning to and that I am now running toward with open arms. I have been doing heel clicks all day in thanks & happiness :)

And an added bonus? My Dad can finally stop singing Wichita Lineman to me everytime we talk!

My Honeys

Yesterday afternoon as my husband and I were instant messaging back/forth on Yahoo, he typed the most romantic thing. He told me we were meant to be together.

Now granted, it was after we had been discussing what to have for dinner and we simultaneously suggested grilled cheese samiches and soup. But still. He said it. He meant it. And I'll take it. I love this man more than anything!

On another note, I have been completely swamped with getting my training completed in case our union goes on strike and I get shipped off to Durant, Oklahoma. Swamped equates to 12 hour days in front of the computer learning about test sets, ground faults, dial tone generation, pole climbing, aerial lift trucks and 37 other courses. Yes, I really have completed 42 courses. I have 8 more to go and they will likely take another 50 hours of my time. Sadly, this means no torch time for me. And really, not any blogging time either.

But I was going mad with training and I needed (yes, NEEDED) to take this five minute break and share with everyone about my wonderful husband.

We're Going Back to Cali. To Cali. To Cali.

It was a stressful trip, or rather a much dreaded event for the two weeks leading up to it. In my stomach, I knew I would not be returning home to my family. My flight was canceled last Sunday (as were all flights leaving Atlanta) when the Blizzard of 2009 hit us with 4-6 inches of snow before the afternoon had barely arrived. I arrived at John Wayne airport in Orange County on Monday morning after catching the first non-stop out of ATL.

Training ended early and I found that Amy was instructing a class in a nearby town only 20 miles away. We had previously agreed to meet for coffee one afternoon, but finding out about her class and that it had an opening was an unexpected thrill. I have admired her work ever since I started up my Etsy shop a year ago and have enjoyed exchanging tweets with her on Twitter. In her class, I learned how to make a toggle clasp out of glass. My efforts aren't that pretty, but then I was focusing more on technique than color combinations & decorations. I'll post pics tomorrow. Before I left, Amy gave me one of her signature droplet beads :)


When driving back to my hotel after the class, American Pie came on the radio singing to me that this would be the day that I die. A quick push of the seek button to the next radio station landed me in the middle of a rage on Revelations from a Christian radio station. Off went the radio and the hands gripped the 2 and 10 positions on my steering wheel for the next 30 minutes.


During the course of my training class, I learned how to use various test sets for finding troubles on phone/data lines in the field. I climbed down into a manhole and I raised myself 40 feet in the air on a bucket truck extension arm. The view of the San Bernardino mountains was awesome, although I didn't have my camera with me.


The highlights of the trip were taking Amy's class (was totally unprepared for any torch time!), hanging out with her for a coupla hours in Starbucks the next day, driving to San Clemente down the Coastal Hwy (all the above pics were taken on my drive to SC or on their pier), dinner with Level 3 friends of Todd's in San Clemente, training ending a day early and getting a 3 hour layover in Salt Lake City where my best friend from the 2nd grade picked me up & hung out with me over dessert. This was the first time I have seen Becky in 25 years. How fun to catch up face-to-face after so many years and now be moms.

So. Very. Thankful. To. Be. Home. Safe.

With my husband and kids. They are the absolute best things I have going on in my life!

Arizona

Ok, a quick post with a few pics from our trip because I know some of you want to see :)

My two favorite guys when we ate lunch at the Farm in Tempe. Great little sandwich shop in the middle of a pecan grove. They also had a great artist's studio & small farm for produce & chickens at the end of the orchard. Fun afternoon!

Who knew midgets from my family would ever be able to jump on their own to reach the monkey bars?! My boy did and he was able to swing his way all the way across!!!

The kids took turns sleeping in our room or on the floor with the Grandparents in their room. Bean insisted on moving the sleeping bag into the closet when she slept with us in our room :)

Owen playing the archeologist at the Southwest Science Museum in Mesa. He had fun brushing aside all the rubber pellets before finding several 'fossils'.

Uncle Mike with my Grandma Eloise

Home Sweet Home

We were in Arizona for a whole week and loved every minute of it with our family in the warmer/drier temps. The grandparents (Todd's folks) spoiled the kids rotten with love and daily trips to the swimming pool. Todd and I got plenty of time to rest & get our health back from the flu. We shared delicious dinners with my Uncle Mike, Aunt Gail and cousins on several different evenings. And my cousin Jesse schooled Owen in the fine art of winning at Super Mario Kart.

We (all of the girls --> moi, Chloe, Grandma Eloise, Grandma Sharon, Grandma Suzanney and Aunt Gail) went to the Great Fair in Fountain Hills yesterday where there were 400+ vendors/artists. It was a lot of fun and great weather for walking around all afternoon. Chloe picked out tie-dyed hats for Owen & herself, but I didn't find anything to buy other than Dippin Dots, Funnel Cakes and Ginormous Hot Dogs. It was a fun day! I wish I had a pic of the fountain that went off for ten minutes at the top of every hour. I'm betting it shot up a couple hundred feet into the air.

We are home now and the kids are in bed. Glad we have a day to rest & unpack before getting into the daily grind of work & school again. Although it would be nice if we had another week of vacation to spend in Arizona with our fam or just chilling on the homefront. It has been close to 3 weeks since I've been on the torch and I am suffering serious withdrawal. First on the agenda tomorrow is to change out propane tanks when I run up to the grocery store to buy milk & cereal for the kidlets.

I am determined to get a coupla hours on the torch tomorrow making beads with new/different techniques. I have long been wanting to make black beads with white dots covered by transparents. Those have been on the mental To Do list for months (ok, years) and I just haven't gotten around to it. Not a particularly difficult technique, but they look so cool. I want to make some new color combo twisties. And I want to play with more of my frit that I bought a month ago from Val Cox.

I just bought a TON of frit last night from her and I'm so excited because Sabrina said she was shipping it out today. She ships Priority USPS, so it might come Monday if I'm lucky or Tuesday at the latest. I can't wait!

After I get the camera unpacked & pics downloaded, I'll post a new blog with pics of beads made by ASGB (Arizona Society of Glass Beadmakers) artists that inspired me. :)

Raising Arizona

We made it out to Phoenix as a family, without eating our children on the plane. Todd was just too exhausted and I worked on blocking out the five screaming bebes in the surrounding rows. The girl child is back to her normal self and the boy child ditched his fever as of this morning. Both make a concerted effort to tell me their strep throat is ALL GONE, so they don't need to take any more medicine. Granted, if I was having to chew up those fowl smelling amoxycillin tablets, I'd be campaigning an end to the meds, too. Todd is still hacking & coughing and my fever disappears for only a few hours before returning. Blech. At least we are with a wonderful set of grandparents to help watch & entertain the kids while we crawl back into bed and sleep.

In spite of remaining under the weather, we have immensely enjoyed the excellent Phoenix weather and spending time with family. Sunday night we went over to my Uncle Mike & Aunt Gail's home for dinner and hung out with the cousins. Yes, that's my Aunt Gail on the very left in the green shirt & specs who taught me how to melt glass back in 2005. She was the instigator of my addiction to playing with fire and making beads....I can't thank her enough for igniting this passion! My cousins and J's girlfriend are on the left. My Grandma Eloise (she doesn't look 90, does she?) and my Mom are front/center with Uncle Mike in the middle looking over Grandma while we're holding up the squirmers on the right.

We got massages tonight which were awesome. If you live in the Mesa area, or even within a 45 minute driving radius....you should make an appointment at Simple Cure Massage Therapy. Their hour long massages were forty five bucks and the massages were really an hour long (ok, both therapists went closer to 70 minutes with both of us). It was a small shop with only two massage rooms, but the therapists delivered phenomenal massages!

Leaving On a Jet Plane.....well, maybe

our bags aren't packed and laundry has yet to be completed. This is typical the night before leaving on vacation.

But Todd caught the flu, spiked a 104+ fever on Monday, got rid of it on Tuesday, it came back to 103+ on Wednesday leading to a trip to the doctor for a shot in the butt and a 5 day supply of Tami-Flu. Last night, the girl child revved up a little fever and earned herself to a trip to the doctor's office this morning and a positive Strep Throat test. Tonight, the boy child sported a temperature climbing over 100 and a sore throat. I have felt like crap since Monday, with sporadic fevers and negative energy, which surprisingly returned today (perhaps from drinking all of Mary's highly touted Hot Lemony Pledge...aka TheraFlu). All of the above health issues one on top of another....not so typical. Vacation or not. None of it typical. Todd NEVER gets sick. Never.

How on earth are we going to all make it to the airport tomorrow evening to fly out to Phoenix for a week??? That remains up in the air. In the meantime, please think good thoughts for us with better health and safe travels.

Counting Down the Days

Just eight more days until we head to Phoenix for a WHOLE WEEK with family and I am so excited! I can't decide if I'm more thrilled about the warmer temps (in the 70-80s!!!) or seeing our fam....I'm leaning toward the latter, but the 80s are a close runner up if you know how I freeze, dress in layers and blast my space heater every year when Atlanta weather drops into the 50s or below. I'm such a wimp.

Here is my Bean child from last weekend when she wasn't sporting hives. Which is to say, she hadn't been at school that day because it was Sunday. The hives have reappeared every day after being in her classroom for a few hours. Every day since Jan 26th, the girl child has popped unbelievable hives from eating pineapple in her fruit cocktail (school didn't realize the new brand had pineapple in it). She got a double whammy that day because her teacher brought in a fresh pineapple, chopped the top off it and stuck it in a petri dish on one of the kids tables. Anyone who knows four year olds think that they would be inclined to touch something new? Didn't think so. Four year olds just don't touch new items. I didn't see that until Tuesday night, so she had a good two school days to soak it in and play in it. Gah!I think all of the kids rolled in it & then touched EVERYTHING in the classroom. Kudos go to the assistant teachers for cleaning EVERY surface in the classroom to help get rid of the pineapple & stop her hives. Tomorrow I take her to my doctor who eliminated ALL of my food and animal allergies through accupressure. Yep. All of them. They haven't come back in over four years.

Crazy Kidlet Hair

I had to share my kids and their crazy hair. Or what is attempting to pass as hair. Owen has been involved in raising money for a fundraiser at school the past two weeks. Each day as he has brought in more pledges and donations, he has accordingly brought home special prizes. The best so far was this blue, rubber helmet with red spikes sticking out.


Pay no attention to the Christmas wreath still hanging on the window behind my boy. Or better yet, let's pretend these pics were taken before Christmas!

And here is my Beanarina. Home from a birthday party where the Special Attention-Getter was a woman who used pipe cleaners, colored hair spray and ribbons to doll up each of the little girls. Chloe's hair-do was a good ten inches above her head, twisted up with pipe cleaners, flowers, and other gift-wrapping accessories. She thought she was the bomb.