{ Grocery Haul, Cosplay, Blood Work Results and some GREAT News }

I did my usual grocery shopping on Friday morning.  At first I had mentioned sharing the haul and maybe doing a video and so on, but I decided against it, matter of fact I had already made the video and was rendering it when I cancelled it.

Here's the thing, I'm a blogger, I write.  I am not a vlogger, I never will be and I really don't much care for videos or putting myself on camera.  I tried and I have done it a couple times, but it's just not me.  So I really don't want to pursue that.

Anyway, Friday morning I headed to the commissary and did my grocery shopping for the next two weeks.

I will say that I am now quite sure my grocery budget needs to be adjusted and increased, because the past two grocery runs have cost about $300.  Not surprising with the prices of everything going up.

I had a really busy day though, right after the grocery store, I came home and had a quick bite to eat since I was the only one home and had to run back out within the hour.

After lunch and putting all the groceries away, I went to pick up my kids, brought them home and then had to get right to work on finishing up Jasmine's Cosplay Gun.  It was done but not until the last minute, we were still hot gluing pieces and doing paint touch ups.

This morning, Jasmine, Curt and I headed to the Animania Convention.  It was the first time it was being held here in town so we were quite looking forward to seeing how it was.

Jasmine looked absolutely beautiful in her D.Va Cosplay, who is one of the characters from the game Overwatch.

I have tons of pictures, but I'll share my favorites and if you want to see the rest you can just head on over to my Flickr Album.

Did I tell you Jasmine wants to pursue a career in Performing Arts and Theatre?  Yeah, that's what she wants to do and I am quite certain she would do really well :)

We didn't stay for too long and were home around 1:30pm, we were supposed to return but Jasmine's feet were really hurting and she didn't want to go back anymore.  I spent the rest of the afternoon editing photos, doing laundry and basically relaxing after a week of rushing and hours on end making a gun out of foam.

On the topic of blood work, I still don't have my allergy panel results back, I think I'm actually going to call them on Monday morning to find out what is going on with that.  Everything else came back as normal, the urinalysis, and my cholesterol and diabetes, everything is just right so I'm very happy with that.  Cholesterol and Diabetes runs in my family so I've been very blessed to not have either.

And lastly, the big exciting news is about my husband's job.

You know that we moved to Texas so that he could take a job as an Instructor at Sheppard AFB.  But, this job was as a contractor, which means that every year, the contract runs out and is up for auction again.  There's always the worry and fear that another company will win the bid, come in and fire the previous employees and rehire new ones.  The past two years, Curt has worked for 3 different contractors.

We've been blessed in the sense that he was able to get a job, but we also had to deal with him being laid off last year.  All this time, he had been putting in for a GS position on base which would make him a federal employee with benefits and a secure job.

He kept being passed up for others with more experience, or others who had friends in the know and so on.  It was frustrating, it was scary, it was worrisome for us, and we even began wondering if making the move to Texas was a good idea.

Of course as always, it's all about God's timing and not ours.

We found out about 2 weeks ago that one of the GS jobs he applied for, he was chosen for.  I couldn't say anything until now, had to wait until it was all official and so on.  He starts on Monday and we are both beyond thrilled and so happy.  This means a secure future and we can finally start building roots and looking into buying a house in Texas.

So there ya go, that's what has been happening the past two days.

I'm off to bed, cause you know, I'm such a rebel to be staying up until after 9pm on a Saturday.  Be jealous friends, be very jealous :)

{ If only Bella would let me sleep }

Ok, it's been 5 days since I've had proper sleep, I feel a little zombified at this point.  You know when you haven't slept well for a while, and you get to that cranky, yawning every five minutes, nobody must look at you, stage????

I'm there folks.  I actually got irritated with myself earlier because I'm so cranky and irritable that my own voice was getting on my nerves.  Haha

I've mentioned it before, Bella is very old and for the most part she is doing well, but she goes through these phases every month or two, where for 3 or 4 nights she is restless, walks around, whines and cries and keeps us up all night.  This just so happened to the be that week, so I'm struggling to make it during the day, and on top of that I have Jasmine's cosplay weapon to finish for Saturday, was dealing with the sinus and allergy thing, and my usual responsibilities around here.   So yes, just a bit of crazy hectic week for me.

Curt came home from work the other day with more fresh farm eggs for me.  How beautiful are they?  And yes I said beautiful, I always find them to be the most prettiest of brightest yellows. 

I also received my Blog Book for 2007 and again I'm so impressed and happy with the results.  It makes me so happy to see the actual book in my hands.

I've only quickly paged through it.  I was going to read the books, but then I decided that I want to wait until I have all my books, and I can sit down and just start reading from the very beginning.

I worked on my menu plan today.  I am trying to keep to the budget which has been hard to do lately, everything is getting more and more expensive.

My last grocery trip two weeks ago was $320.  I about died right there on the spot, I have NEVER, like NEVER spent that much on groceries for 2 weeks.  Everyone keeps saying to me, that's nothing, my actually still cheap for groceries, and I guess I need to take a second look at my budget and up the food total, but golly, I wasn't expecting that.

I'm not going to go crazy and throw caution to the wind and all that.  I still plan on trying to stay under $300.  Let's see how I do this time around.  I plan on doing a Grocery Haul for you all.  Not sure if I'll do video or just photos, but there will be one tomorrow for sure.

Jasmine's weapon is coming along.  It's giving me headaches, making me question my sanity at times, and wanting to just say forget it.  But I like a challenge and this is definitely in that category. 

I took that photo yesterday, it looks different already today as I've started adding the final pieces and details, but I'll wait until it's complete to show you.

As I was saying though, it has given me a bit of a run for my money and at times I have to stop, step back and go do something else for a bit. 

I've finished Part 4 of the Atlanticus, and I'm really hoping I can finish Part 5 this weekend (need to pick up more yarn though).

So yeah, that's what's been going on around here.  It's almost 9pm and I'm going to go ahead and brush my teeth, take my meds and try really hard to get some good sleep.  :)

Done and Dusted!!!

It seems like it's taken years to get to this moment, when in all actuality it took just a few weeks, but folks, I'm so happy to report that the craziness surrounding and following our move to Texas, has finally died down.

I can say that it's done and dusted.  What you may ask?

Well, all the commitments we had, either with family happenings, or friends, or whatever we were involved with, and now I can sit back and get back to just making this house a home, taking care of my family, and working on getting our finances back on track. 


So what brought this all to a close?  Our trip to Dallas, which let me tell you, I am so glad is over and done with cause I'm absolutely SICK of that place and the nasty traffic, the bad drivers and the long drive.  I don't plan on going down that way for a really long time.


Curt, Nick and I headed down to meet up with Jasmine, her boyfriend, his brother and their friends Sarah, Blake and Lucas, who were all staying at the Sheraton for the Anime Convention.


What should have been a 2 and half hour drive, turned into 4 hours as we battled construction and the usual traffic congestion in the Dallas area.  Nerve wrecking and annoying, to say the least.

Anyway, let me show you the finished product of Jasmine's armor that she wore to the convention.

It was so much work, I really worked hard for weeks getting it all done and it was down to the last day when I finally put the finishing touches on her boots and called it good.  Keep in mind that it is all made out of foam and fabric.

;

Adorable!!!!

She's already got a huge list of other outfits she wants to wear so I know I'll be super busy again in the future, but I'm also looking forward to it because I've learned so much in making this one.

So yeah, this convention was the last big event we had to worry about.  We went, we saw and by the time we headed home the sun was setting and all 3 of us were more than happy to see Dallas in the rear view mirror.  


Right, moving on......I'm sure you've noticed I have a new template?

I wanted a new template to motivate me to get back on track and blogging and I think this one is pretty enough to do just that.

Now that I am done with everything I had to concentrate on, I can get back to what matters and what I enjoy.

You know I actually hadn't been to my Feedly account in over a year, probably more.  I pulled it up yesterday and was reading all the old blogs I used to follow, and it brought a lump to my throat.

Some bloggers have stopped blogging, some have had babies who are almost 2 years old, some have moved, some have kids in college now, some are no longer with us, and others are exactly the wonderful bloggers they have always been.

That may sound so dumb to you, but I don't know if it was just because it took me back in time, or because I miss blogging regularly, or whatever, but it was quite bittersweet.

Anyway, knowing that I have a pretty free schedule is going to allow me to get back to homemaking, crocheting, cooking, decorating, crafting and taking pictures, which is something I've actually lacked for a while.  I remember when I used to have my camera with me everywhere I went, but I haven't had the time to do it lately so that's something else to look forward to.....and then of course, getting ready for Fall, to decorating, to hosting our first big Thanksgiving Dinner at our house, and then Christmas etc. 

So yeah, pretty happy right now.  I think I was going on adrenaline because the past 2 days I've just kind of passed out on the bed and slept all night long and without waking up even once.  I'm so tired all the time, and it only came about after I finished what I had on my list.

I think my body knows that it can finally breathe and relax.

Right, I'm going to go watch some youtube videos, take a shower and once again have an early night.

Wishing you all a wonderful Labor Day weekend!!!!