Completion of Goal!

You should be proud - because I actually completed my goal of adding new pictures. Although I still didn't get any new pics of people :P But that's only because the pictures I'm showing today are actually significant in terms of the animals.

So we've been babysitting "Buff" for the past few days now - we'll have him until Tuesday I think. He's a bundle of typical Boxer energy. Him and Belle play like crazy outside. We've also had a few interior scuffles as well so we have to keep a close eye on him at all times.

 

When Belle does her cute cozy thing though it's pretty cute!

 

 

And then there's Lady. Poor Lady. 

 

Ramin and I got home Friday evening and fed the dogs as usual. Then when Chris came home he noticed the huge mat of red fur on Lady's face. I freaked out a bit and went to the bathroom and tried to detangle the mat. At this point I was thinking either her and Belle got into a fight during the day (we keep Buff looked up in his crate) OR that she had scratched at her mole too hard. As I cleaned away the fur and blood I realized it was probably her mole because I could clearly see a hole in her face. The hole wasn't bleeding though. It was weird. By that time it was too late to go to the vet and I didn't think it was super serious so I left it be and trimmed her fur around her face so she'd be presentable at the vet on Saturday.

So Saturday comes and I couldn't take her to the vet until 5 pm (earliest time they had available). Once we got there I explained the story. They took her to the back operating area and shaved the fur around the spot and dematted the rest of it. Yep, it was her mole/absess. She really just must have scratched at too hard. 

 

 

So apparently they don't clean out that sort of thing. I asked them if they were going to and they said no. Hmmm ok. Anyway, they gave her an antibiotics shot and then gave me some pills to give her twice a day. I also have to inject this stuff into the hole of the mole twice a day as well so that it will help the thing heal properly. It is rather disgusting and I know I'm fond of posting about wounds on my blog, but this really was the major event of the weekend for me. 

 

I'll keep watch over it this week and see how it heals. If it starts looking worse they told me to come back to the vet, and that's just what I'll do!

Goal

Goal: Take some kind of picture of my current life sometime this weekend and post it on here :P I haven't had many personal pictures of my life since Christmas so I figure its about time!

Need....to....see

Dunno why, but this seems to be my style of movie. I absolutely ADORE the trailer music - all of it must be good because it's nominated for a Golden Globe. I really want to see this! It's called "A Single Man" and it stars Colin Firth and Julianne Moore (love them both!)

Updates

I'm exhausted. Physically and mentally. I've been this way for the past 2 weeks, essentially since we all got back to work from the holidays.

Work is just ridiculous. It's so incredibly crazy busy that I cannot even go into detail to try and explain everything. It feels like I'm always saying that work is busy and tiring, but this time it's like a thousand times worse than all of the previous times.

We have a new boss and he's great but our group is only 5 people big and we've been tasked with some majorly HUGE projects at eBay. I mean MAJOR! There is so much to do! I won't be surprised if I put in 50-60 hour work weeks through the end of the month through February. Don't get me wrong, I love having lots to do and the overtime isn't awful either, but it's just really mentally stressful.

I woke up last night at 1 am (after going to bed at 10 pm - I was THAT tired) and I had a MAJOR headache. It was so bad I could barely lay in bed with my eyes closed. I got up and took some Tylenol - it took an hour for it to kick in. I'm not the only one on my team having sleeping problems, we're all plagued by them lately.

I also started school again on Monday. Thank goodness my load won't be hard for the next few weeks. I think I'll be ok cause school is sort of an outlet for me and a mechanism to get away from work. I'm not worried about it, but it's just another stressor.

I just wanted to let everyone that I am alive. I am fine and happy....I'm just BUSY. I'll try to keep up on correspondence but please don't be worried if you don't hear from me in the next few weeks :)

I've Taken The Plunge

So over the last few weeks I've been spending all of my spare time sewing and crafting and creating these cute little pin/brooches made out of felt, beads and sequins.

I'd spent months and months prior to actually making anything just looking at Etsy.com and wondering if there was something I could make, because I really liked the idea of it. I'd realized through time that Atmina and editing the photos and going to photo shoots just wasn't what I wanted to be doing. Don't get me wrong, it can be fun, but it wasn't fulfilling to me like it was to Jill. So she's taken over the reins completely and while I'm still here to support her, she is managing all of it now on her own. But I still wanted some sort of creative outlet of my own that actually would have some purpose.

If you've never been to Etsy.com before, you should check it out. It's a marketplace striclty for handmade and vintage items. I absolutely LOVE it. I've literally spent months reading the site and all of its features and looking through all of the items and sellers. I wanted to make sure I was totally comfortable with everything before I actually started doing anything.  And then I saw all the things you could make with felt!

Who knew felt was such a great material! I wanted to get into working with something relatively cheap and easy to handle, and felt is just that! In the past I've dabbled in cross-stitch and other forms of sewing, so I already had a lot of the supplies I needed. I went to some craft stores and bought all colors of felt, more embroidery floss and lots of sequins and beads. It's been SO MUCH FUN!! I cannot even tell you how relaxing it is to me to sit in my little craft area and just sew things together and be creative with them - I especially love embellishing them with the beads and sequins.

Anyway - I finally got my store up and running and it can be found here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/EnchantedCastle

I decided to keep with my "enchanted" theme because it's been one of my favorite words my entire life :) I also created a new blog for myself, just relating to my new endeavor: http://www.jennsenchantedcastle.com/

I hope you'll check it out and spread the word to anyone who might be interested. For now I'm just focusing on pins/brooches but I eventually want to make ALL sorts of things from my felt collection.

I don't plan on this being something that will replace my career or anything. This endeavor is very different from doing Atmina because I don't have to rely on anyone else's time other than my own and I'm in complete control of everything...which is really what I've learned I need to have in order to feel good about things. Hey, if times get tough, I can just pair down what I have in my shop. When times are easy I can fill the store up. It's all dependent on me alone and I like that :)

Happy New Year 2010!!!

It's always a little sad when the New Year rolls around because you start thinking about the previous year and things you did or didn't accomplish. I'd say 2009 was a pretty good year for me school-wise because I did finally graduate. But I also started up Grad School so in a way my graduation was kind of negated because I went back right away :P

I do like to make resolutions. I know everyone says you never stick to them or they only last a few weeks or months. But for me I've got some pretty good goals I've been planning to accomplish in 2010 for a very long time. Here's a run down of some of my goals:

• Lose 20 lbs by March just in time for our Dubai trip! I gotta feel confident about myself for the biggest trip of my life!
• After Dubai, continue weight loss throughout the year. Goal of 130 lbs by the end of the year (VERY doable!)
• Pay off all of my credit cards! I've been working on this already of course. Since August I've cut my credit card debt in half and Ramin is super proud of me! This goal is REALLY important to me because once we're more financially secure we can really start planning for marriage and babies :)
• Think before I judge! I've learned a few of these lessons lately and I've been challenging myself to think about people or situations FIRST before I actually judge them - because honestly, many times things aren't always what they appear to be at first glance. 

So those are my main goals. The biggest of course are weight and debt :P That seems to be the
norm for most people, but honestly I really don't feel like my goals are like anyone elses. The key here is that I've ALREADY been working on these goals. It's not like I waited for the New Year to start them. My Resolution is just to continue working at them and keep up my motivation :)

Hope you've got some Resolutions thought out - or not!

Happy New Year 2010!

Christmas Day

We had a great Christmas Day. As usual my Mom, Bob and Taylor came over to our house. This time they came over around noon because we don't have any anxious children awaiting their Christmas gifts ;) We all figure we might as well take advantage of the easy going Christmases before they disappear in a few years.

Anyway, there are no pictures of me here because I was the one taking all of the shots :P Some of the highlights of my gifts were a new Cricut Expression machine, the Sims 3 computer game, Seinfeld Monopoly board game and a cashmere sweater!

Below is a run down of some of the other highlights of Christmas Day ;)

Here is Chris with his Butt Station tape dispenser :P

It's a tradition in our house to put all of the bows on Bob's head. This is just the start of it.

Chris is opening a board game from one of his best friends. It was wrapped in a movie poster.

Taylor got a new computer - built just for gaming and built by Chris. Taylor loved it!

Ramin and Babak look deep in thought. Babak is reading about Chris' new board game. Ramin got some Florida Gator gear.

Mom got a Chia Herb Garden from "Santa" - she's laughing so hard because it matches the SpongeBob Chia pet Bob got from Chris ;)

When you have loose ribbon it can't really stick on your head, so it went on Bob's wrist :P

I got some Terracotta Warriors straight from China for Chris. He was super excited about them!

Ramin opened his Millsap jersey I bought him. Go Millsap!!

And mom's gift from me was the finale of the day. I'd already given her some smaller frames with pictures of the family in them and this was the icing on the cake :)

Also, as a side note, I got the exact same 16x20 frame and put the same picture of the family in it as well and I hung it up near our picture wall. So now we have the same picture in our houses :) I'll take some pictures of the picture wall soon so you all can see it.

Remember the Letterpress?

So remember the Letterpress I posted about a few weeks ago? (Just scroll down a bit)....well now they are GIVING one away for free!! So I'm totally entering the contest.

Here's a link to their awesome blog: CLICK HERE

Wish me luck!!!

Big Snow in Utah

It snowed pretty much all day today. I snapped these pictures earlier in the morning when the snow flakes were gigantic! I don't think I've ever seen snowflakes as big as the ones that fell this morning. AMAZING! We had a good couple of inches are our house today and it was so cozy watching the snow fall while I listened to Christmas songs on the stereo. Cheezy I know, but it was fun. I especially loved listening to The Nutcracker Suite.

Anyway, I think we're slated to get more snow tonight and tomorrow. I'll take more pics if it's good enough ;)

Christmas Time!

I only have one more day of class left for the semester! Wooohooo I made it through my first semester of Grad school :) I just have one paper to write but I don't think it will be too difficult. It's MAJORLY cold in Utah right now. When I was driving home last night the car temp read 7 degrees outside. YES, 7 degrees! We have lots of snow and it's super cold but it seems rather ok. I'm saying that now of course, I'm sure in a few weeks I'll be sick of the snow :P

Anyway, on to the happenins. Over Thanksgiving we had the chance to babysit a dog for one of Ramin's friends. This friend actually was the one who gave us Belle and he watches her sometimes when we go out of town, so it's only fitting that we watch their dog. OH MY GOSH - this dog was the cutest, cuddly little thing alive! Her name is Kitty and she's a Shih-Tzu. Keeeee-utest thing ever! I LOVED watching her cause she cuddled with me ALL of the time. I got some cute pictures of her before she left our house. Ramin thought she was ugly but I don't care what he thinks, she's super cute.


Also, I'm not setting up my tree this year. I'm just not into it I guess. It's just so much work and I don't think anyone really cares hahaha...it would be one thing if we had kids to decorate it with and they could have it for memories, but with just us (me, Ramin, Chris and Babak) there's really no point because all of those guys really don't care and I'd have to do all of the work so I just didn't feel like it. BUT, I did do something, I decorated the entrance table and I did put some lights outside around the door and railings. So I did something and I feel good about that because it's all we really need ;)


So next week I'll officially be DONE with school - not that I have much to complain about. This semester has infinitely been the easiest semester of my life and I have no idea why. Possibly because the work was actually fun and they give more leeway to grad students? I dunno.

Oh yeah! Ramin and I are going to Dubai in mid-March!! His cousin is getting married there and a lot of Ramin's family from his mom's side will be there too! We are both super excited for this!! In preparation for this, I have been on a strict diet for the last 3 weeks. Well I'm in my 3rd week now. I started it the week of Thanksgiving (crazy I know)...but so far I've lost 4 lbs which is 2 lbs a week. My goal is to lose 10 lbs a month until the trip. I could go all into my plan for how I'm doing it but I won't right now. Just know that this time it's working and I'm super pumped and excited because every day I make a little more progress!!

Ok thats all for now!