Hot, Hot, Hot... and how I found my motivation

It has been HOT here.  I finally borrowed a window unit for my bedroom, and my new A/C is in my garage.... it will finally be installed Tuesday.  It's made getting hot projects accomplished a little difficult.  But never fear, I found my motivation!

First up, no pictures - finally finished unpacking the guest/hobby room and office.  Made it through the boxes in the garage.  I'm so excited to see clean spaces!

My first project - painting the back doors.  Dad added a screen door with doggie door, but they have needed some paint.  Waiting for the A/C to get fixed to paint the inside parts - I don't want to let buggies in the house when I take the screen off!

Ah, the project that lead to a 2nd degree burn on my index finger (seriously, like the whole fingerprint.  Ask me how it is in a few weeks - right now it can't take any pressure without serious pain!).  This is the mirror from my dresser.  It was plain Jane white.  I painted the channel to match the other two walls of my bedroom, then we added shells.  I love the way it pops, and it adds to the beachy feel of my room.  Worth the burn?  I'll decide when school starts!

And.... a project I've wanted to do for years.  I've had the same furniture for at least 20 years, probably longer.  It's white, which is classic, and matches well in a blue room.  But.... you see that flower decal?  It's on all of the top drawers.  And after so long, I don't love it anymore.  So, I'm sanding all the drawers, removing the decal when necessary, and painting them light blue!  You can see in the top shot the demo of what it will look like.  I'm pretty excited - it's the same blue as two of the walls, but I think it will really pop against the dark blue.  Mostly, I'm excited that the flowers are gone!

It took a while, but I'm motivated to get things accomplished around the house.  Well, I have been.... my Kindle came in this morning! (and I got it free, even better!)  I might have to set limits on how long I can play with it....

SocialSpark - an update!

If you haven't yet, you should really check out SocialSpark's sponsored blogging.  It's one of those things that truly sounds too good to be true: you choose which companies/causes you are ok with, write a post, and bang! 30 days later, if it's still active, you get paid.
I'm here to tell you - this is for real.  They ask you to wait until you have $50 to withdraw (you can do less, but there is a fee).  I waited until I had a little more than that, just because there were a few things close together that I wanted to be able to withdraw all at the same time.  I'm here to tell you - the money was in my paypal account quickly after I withdrew from SocialSpark, and was in my bank account today.  It really works!

They do have some restrictions - your blog has to have been active for so long, etc, but it's really easy to do.  Just another way to earn a little extra money in your pocket!

When one goes, they all do....

You know how sometimes, the avalanche starts and all you can do is sit and watch?  That's what happened at my house this week.  The air conditioner went out (and we're under heat advisories).  It's dead, I'm going to have to get a whole new system.  My lawnmower won't start - and it appears that it's never going to.  My electric fence for the dog was all tangled up... but Dad did manage to fix that.  My front outside lights won't work... tried changing the light bulbs, but apparently that's not it.  Someone bashed my mailbox in... for the third time since I moved in.... it's currently being held together with duct tape.  The door that keeps my garbage can hidden from the dog busted yesterday morning... so he made a huge mess while I was gone.  Josh not only helped me clean it up but fixed the door for me.

After a week like this, I just want to say "I quit!"  It's so frustrating that I can't fix any of it without just throwing money at it.  Hopefully things will turn around soon!

Exercise Log 5

I'm excited about what I did the rest of the week, so I have to share it!
Thursday: 40 laps in 25 minutes - lost an earring back, spent one lap looking for it, which is why I slowed down.
Friday: 70 laps = 1 mile, and I did it in 45 minutes!  It's 3 minutes faster than my last mile, so I'm very excited!
I also did yoga again on Friday - I am NOT flexible so I definitely work hard while we are there.

Exercise Log 4

Mon, June 20: 40 laps in 25 minutes, plus 2 more laps
Tues, June 21: 40 laps in 24-25 minutes
Wed, June 22: 50 laps, 35 minutes
Thurs, June 23: Swam a mile (70 laps) in 46 minutes
Vacation week - June 30: 20 laps before the pool was too crowded.  Lots of swimming in the ocean and walking during the week though.

Wed, July 6: 50 laps in 32 minutes. Made 40 laps in 24, so that compares pretty well.  Also did a 30 minute yoga class with my mom.


I do pretty good the weeks I'm home.  I just get up EARLY (5:10 this morning) instead of sleeping in like I want to.  Sometimes the hardest part is just driving out to Batesville to get to the pool.  I am not seeing a difference in numbers, but Josh says I look more toned.  I'll take anyone seeing a difference!

Oh, hi there

source

I'm a little ashamed it's been so long.  So much has happened, let's start with some quick pictures from the Cumberland trip.

Was such a great weekend.  I felt like summer had started, even though I still had two more days of school.  Then I went and saw Megan, attended Hilary's wedding, Josh and I attended an old friend's wedding, and I did this.

I was Miss Gloria Rasputin in "Bye Bye Birdie".  What, you don't see me?  I'm hidden under that huge blond wig :)  I absolutely had a blast doing it.

There was Josh's cousin's wedding reception (they got married in CA, we went straight to the reception from a performance!) and my trip to FL.  Panama City Beach was fabulous to me, it was nice to just do nothing for a while.

That pretty much sums up June... 4th of July weekend was of course busy too.  Party at our friends' house Sunday, complete with me learning how to shoot a gun.  Monday was a party at Josh's, which meant lots of time in the pool.  And yesterday we did a lot of NOTHING!  Watched some movies, caught up on TrueBlood, and worked on crocheting blankets.  I have 2 out of 3 done, so I'm pretty excited!

Now you're up to date again, and I'm going to try to do better!  Exercise log in a short bit.