Bat Fit 2017 Update pt 1 and Falling in to place

I thought it was time to update my progress with Bat Fit this year. While not all areas have some progress, some do and I think they are important enough to note.

1. Health aspect: 

Living/ house wise

Somethings in our house are finally starting to fall into place. After both of us being sick for a month and really having a slow recovery, I managed to pick up a cold. I'm on the upswing of it, I think, but poor Amanda is beginning to come down with it. However, we have managed to get some cleaning done- cleaning that really fell to the wayside while we were sick. Amanda did a huge majority of it, like moving the things that I can't move and helping me out with the dishes. I cut my finger pretty bad a few days ago right where it bends, so every time I bend my finger, the cut keeps getting a little bigger. It doesn't need a stitch, just some time to heal. I've got it wrapped in two band aids to keep it kind of stiff and straight. 

Weight wise

We haven't managed to start the hypnotherapy or start yoga just yet. However, I noticed on the community bulletin board, when I went to check the mail, that the health advocate in our area is doing a "Walk with your neighbors" sort of thing for an hour every morning. I thought I might try it, at least until my friend Chris can join me for the Yoga we want to do together. I probably won't be able to go far or fast at first, but that is okay. I asked my friend Tsuki if she would like to join too but she looked at me like I had grown a second head. Her choice.

We've been experimenting with food. We tried a black bean spaghetti. It was over 5 dollars a box and while it tasted fine, it was like chewing rubber. I'm never getting it again. 

We made crepes with  mixed berry sauce.

Yes, crepes have sugar in every part of them, but I am going to tinker with the recipe to cut some of that down. Also, they are surprisingly filling and I can eat two and feel full.

When I was shopping in Winco a month ago, I stumbled upon Gyro meat while in the deli/ meat and cheese section. They sounded so good and it had been awhile since I have had one. So, I planned to get the stuff to make them this shopping trip. I make a meal plan every two weeks to fit a 150.00 dollar budget (that includes laundry soap, toiletries, cat food and litter, and so on). So, I had to wait. Anyway, while I like the sauce I bought at the store, I want to make my own. Amanda doesn't really like the cucumbers so I told her that I could make her chicken gyros with mayo like a fast food chain back in Wichita does. She seemed to be okay with that. Also, a gyro and a very small salad or a an apple seem to be quite filling for lunch as well. 

Back to this two week's shopping trip, I went to three stores. Wal-mart for laundry soap and toilet paper, Winco for the bulk of our shopping, but we went to Yoke's Fresh Market for their Fresh Friday sale. I bought the majority of our fruit and veggies there but the primary mission was the 93% lean hamburger meat. It was on sale and I bought two three ponders to section off smaller and freeze. I also found a roast that should feed us for three, if not four meals, and I can make various things with it. 

Beauty health. 

I was inspired a little by a friend's post about her hair and skin care regimen. Mine is no where near as natural as hers. There are things she does that I know are better and healthier that I just can't seem to make myself do. Point of fact, while I know they would be better, healthier even, I can't handle the texture of some of it. So in lieu of that, here is what I do use. 

I have really sensitive skin that has often been subject of chemical burns by certain products, so I generally test stuff before use. I also have a skin fungus (that sounds so gross, I know) where I develop brown spots under my boobs, neck, and pretty much anywhere I sweat a lot. It doesn't hurt or itch or anything like that. So I use Dial anti-bacterial body wash most of the time and when the spots decide to develop- which is not very often thankfully- I have to use a ketokonozole shampoo. But sometimes I get to use body wash from Bath and Body Works. I tend to use their perfumes and lotion too because they don't bother my skin. Plus, B&BW stuff is kind of a treat to myself.

Winter scent

Spring and Summer

Fall scent

For my face, I've been using baby wipes to clean off make up. I bet there are some people who will scream, but they do the job nicely and are more cost effective. The same things that are in the make up remover wipes I used to buy for double- almost triple the price, are i the baby wipes I use. After that, I use a homemade toner made with rose water and witch hazel. I follow that up with moisturizer. I pretty much have to, not because I have removed some oils from my face, but because I have stupid combination skin that's really dry in some areas and stupidly oily in others. 

Okay, I know this has gone kind of long, so the rest will be in part two!

We bought spaetzle, I've been catching up on some things, and I made a thing!

A couple of weekends ago, I was talking with a friend about house cleaning stuff. She mentioned a couple of blogs for me to go look at and while I didn't read them in depth, I did skim lightly over a few. I intend to go back and reread them now that I am officially out of school. However, I had heard about zone cleaning before in a vlog one of my favorite youtube vlogers did. So, I implemented that sort of thing "my way". I'm sure my mother would have a thing or two to say about this list in as far as adding several dozen more little nit picky things (her OCD and I had many a fight while I was growing up). My mother is the kind of person who will dust, wash, and polish the baseboards. I don't have that kind of energy or time, so a quick sweep (or a lick and a promise as my Grandma Evelyn sometimes says) is all they will get. 

But more to the point, I made a zoned cleaning list. Amanda was less than enthused because its a chore list, but she does like the creativity I put into it. Instead of calling it a chore list or cleaning list, she calls it a "caper list". I suppose that's her way of making herself like it and be on board with it. So, here it is. I know the font might be hard for some to read but the important thing is that I can read it.   

Castle Nacht (night) is what I am calling our house. I have different parts of the house broken up into zones. 

I themed everything! I also split the cleaning list up into daily, weekly and monthly chores.

Obviously some rooms have more chores than others but at different points.

I think if Amanda and I take turns with certain things, it will help break up the monotony of certain tasks. There are a couple of things I am primarily in charge of and some she is in charge of that I'm "not supposed" to do on account of my back, although sometimes I will do them and regret it afterwards. 

I added a seasonal section for taking down and setting up seasonal decor, de-cluttering per se, and doing certain chores that only need to be done every few months. This list will change as needed and will most certainly change when we get a house. 

So that was the thing I made. Aside from doing that on my first official day of personal vacation, I have done blissfully nothing! Well, I've watched a few things that I wanted to watch and sat on my sofa just relaxing in the otherwise quite, dark, and cool living room. I didn't brush my hair for two days or even really get dressed, certainly didn't put on a bra- until after my shower today- and just enjoyed some quiet time alone while Amanda was at work. We did meet a friend for dinner tonight and we were supposed to go to a library function out of town but missed that. I was a little sad, but it is something I can catch later. 

I am behind on my August break stuff again, but I'm not too worried about it. I planned to take some time tomorrow and do a little catching up with it and also maybe even do some catching up with my pagan blogs. 

Lastly, Amanda and I went to Fred Meyer on Sunday. We never shop there because its a bit more expensive than the grocery stores we usually frequent, but I wanted to look at their international section and see if they had some German stuff. They did! While I didn't find the Bavarian style mustard we'd fallen in love with, I did find spaetzle! I've pinned a few recipes on pinterest for it and will be making something soon. We also found a pesto spread and I bought a garlic sourdough bread for it. We don't typically buy bread, but every so often I want a sandwich or toast. We also picked up a few other things and I found a make up setting spray that I thought I was going to have to go to Ulta to get. Amanda and I also saw the new Monster High dolls and hate them. We decided that we will just get the ones we still want to get from before this hideous change and then ignore the new ones.  

Narcisa is staring at me. She's curled up on the desk behind my laptop, but I can feel her eyes. She's telling me to go to bed. If I wasn't tried and didn't have a couple of appointments tomorrow afternoon, I'd ignore her. 

This fish is disgusted, her Majesty is happy, house cleaning and the damn dill

Aveline by myworld1

Let's get the nitty gritty out of the way first. My period finally, finally stopped. I can't really celebrate because my body is a bitch and likes to play that "I'll give you 2 or 3 days every few months" game then slam you extra hard to make up for it. But, I did take advantage of this small reprieve and actually went swimming last night with Amanda, Aine, and Rachael. (Some of you may be asking why I don't just use tampons- I do, but mostly there are 3 very good reasons why I don't.) 

Anyway, so I left my glasses at home and I can't decide if that was a good thing or not. When we got to the pool- it is an indoor pool- it smelled weird. At first, I thought maybe it was because someone was smoking outside and one of the windows was open. Then I thought there was a strange kind of paint smell but that wasn't really it either. We decided that it was like an algae smell. I think the paintish smell I was getting was from the chlorine. The hot tub smelled worse, so we went back to the pool and that's when we noticed the hair. There was a big floating clump and when I got out and looked back into the pool, I noticed there was not one but two. *shudder* I know it is just hair, but bleh! Needless to say we rinsed off and came home. Amanda is so sad because she knows how squiked out I get and this was the first time I have been able to really go swimming in months and that was the condition of our pool and hot tub. We pay for that in our rent. Lovely. I think when the office opens, I am going to get dressed and head down there to talk with the manager because that was disgusting and this fish isn't happy.

Her Majesty, Narcisa A. Frog, is a very happy kitty. Her Mommies cleaned a majority of the house this weekend, moved some furniture to vacuum, and found all the toys she'd lost. Of course all those that were found are already hidden and or lost under furniture again, but whatever. We also moved her bed to sit in front of the patio window. I told Amanda that I think Chris doesn't think we spoil her enough because Chris bought her a bag of treats despite the fact that I have two bags in the pantry and some wet food. Amanda was inclined to agree. 

We painted the baker's rack Birdy gave us black to go with everything else in the living room. We also reorganized where we put the craft stuff on it. Everything is easily accessible to me now, Yay! I am tearing apart an old set of black curtains to make a cover for our mantle, a runner for the entertainment center, and two side table runners. I am also going to finally make the damn dining room curtains I've been talking about. I just have to work up the energy and motivation to do it today. Maybe after I take a nap, I got up with Amanda this morning because she made coffee and breakfast and because I wanted to spend some time with her before she went to work.

We have discovered that dill is whimpy, which is strange because for all the years we grew it when I was a kid, I don't remember it ever being so. Then again, I may not have paid too much attention to it in favor of growing my flowers and tending to the various beans, tomato, and other various vegetable plants we had. Anyway, our dill plan can't seem to handle the sun beating down on it. I feel bad for it, I wouldn't be able to withstand the dreaded day star all day long either. So, since it is going to be 97 degrees F, today, I am going to keep an eye on our little garden and keep our stuff watered. I need to be careful though, I don't want to accidentally steam them.  Oh and I need to do some research into what the hell is eating the pumpkin leaves and the sage. I can spray the pumpkin leaves with peppermint oil water but not the sage. So, I need to figure out what I can use on the sage that isn't a pesticide and won't alter the flavor of the sage later on.  

Finished for this week, time for myself.

This last week has been eventful. Last post I said Amanda's parents went to Seattle. We had one night to ourselves. It is our fault, of course, and I am not complaining because it was a lot of fun, but afterward, I was really pooped. Still am but I will get to that in a bit. 

We had our neighbor over once or twice more. We never did get to go over and have drinks with her, it just didn't work out. My friend Chris came over for a night. We watched movies and talked, I made Cavatini for her. Fiona was here the whole time and we got to do a lot with her. Unfortunately she had to suffer through mine and Amanda's homework with us. Fiona also bleached and dyed my hair for me again. She missed some spots in the bleaching and some in the dyeing process, but that's okay. I really like it. I sent a picture to my Dad and his reply was that he isn't a fan but go big or go home and if you're going to do it, this is the way to do it. My Mom loves it. My Grandmother thinks its terrible. Meh, she's 86 and has never wanted me to dye my hair any color- never mind that she used to dye her hair all the time- and she's always wanted me to have short bob haircuts. Yuck! The only thing I didn't appreciate when she and I were discussing my hair was the comparison between me and one of my cousins in Nebraska. I love my cousin, but I hate it when Grandma starts in with how cute she looks and how successful she is. I am happy for her, really I am, and I wish her the best. I just wish Grandma would stop using her as a way to poke at me for not being "normal" or what she wanted. Sorry Grandma, I can't help my physical maladies any more than you can help your age. And quite frankly I may not be perfect, but at least I call you. 

Sigh! Moving on. Amanda and I had the main part of the house clean while her parents were gone and we had it clean when they came home. Cathy came home with a lot of stuff from Aunt Barbra, which was cool but she just sort of dumped it everywhere, like she usually does. It didn't bother me until Amanda was talking about how we had the house clean before they came home, she was in the middle of teasing her mom and Cathy pops off with how the "house wasn't that clean". Excuse me? Ungrateful much? I did as much as I was physically able to do and had to have help with a lot of other things. No, the house will never look like a home, it will never look spotless. Nothing matches, furniture is scuffed and scratch and most of it is second hand. But then again this is just another of those instances where I thin Cathy doesn't like to admit that I might actually do something better than she does. Which is fine. But I am done. I'm not going to lift a finger unless it is in Amanda's and my bathroom and bedroom or pertains to us. I've had it with the ungrateful attitude. 

I've had a lot of trouble lately staying awake. I thought that it was just fatigue from fibromyalgia and fatigue from my ridiculous period. It's playing the stop, start, stop, start game with me these last couple of weeks, which is throwing everything out of whack. Anyway, the day after Amanda's parents arrived home, I slept most of the day and woke up for a couple of hours in the evening. Then I slept all night. I have been really tried and have dozed off and on. Yesterday I fell asleep reading my textbook in the library. I was talking to my friend Chris and she said I should get checked or talk to my doctor about chronic fatigue syndrome. I think I will because this is crazy. It's part of the reason why I didn't go to the Out and About Earth Day celebration over in Spokane yesterday. I would have loved to sit out in the fresh air doing crafts with friends and talking to people about the IEPG. They had a booth set up. But I was a little too worried that I would fall asleep and be too tired to drive home. I also had homework to do. 

Speaking of homework, I managed to finish it this week. Some of it was late but my paper was on time. I could start on next week's homework but I really need a break. I am with my neighbor at her college library for the afternoon. I decided that I needed to get out of the house today and at least I am available if she needs help with something. She's going to school for something different but she's doing some things that I know a little bit about and can help her with. 

Lastly, we had to get new curtains. Narcisa pulled our previous set down too many times and when I was trying to put a blanket up to cover the spot that our curtains didn't quite cover, they came down. So we bought two sets of the white ones in the picture below and a new curtain rod. So far so good. However, the pesky little shit of a cat found a rubber band yesterday and ate it before anyone could grab it. Amanda and her Mom even had a hold of her and tried to get it out of her mouth but she swallowed it. We are keeping an eye on her and we've already threatened to bring her back from the dead and kill her again if she dies. 

Adult Swim is tripping out!

I don't know what the hell is going on with Adult Swim. For the last 10-15 mins they've shown nothing but psychedelic animal/nature stuff and now they are just showing strange nature stuff with some random people. It's very strange and I wouldn't mind if except there doesn't seem to be a point. Perhaps that is the point. Of course I wouldn't know about this if I was sleeping.

For some reason tonight, I am just wired in a weird insomniac way. I don't even feel tired. I've done my laundry, run the dishwasher, folded laundry, and watched two movies. I have one more left to watch before I return it to Redbox. I've even wiped down the kitchen counters. On top of that, I think I was bit by an earwig. Or maybe I was stung? I am so grossed out about them in general that I don't really want to go look that information up for fear of seeing a picture of one. And this, of course, happened while I was finishing up a movie. I flicked it off of me but I don't know where it went.

I know that these disgusting little things are a naturally occurring... thing, but that doesn't mean that I have to like them. They creep in through cracks in the front door and in through the dryer exhaust vent. Eww! Dare I say it, I think I like the occasional jumping spider over them.

Oh well, in half an hour I will be dressed and heading out to Starbucks. Apparently they open at 5 am and since the sun is coming up and it's currently 4:27 am, I figure a cup of coffee won't hurt. I'll probably read until the caffeine wears off and then happily crash for a couple of hours.  

Retreating to the library Wabahhhha!

We are playing Edward and Alphonse Elric today!

We, my Girlfriend and I, are sitting at the City's public library because that atrocity called American Football is playing on TV today and my girlfriend's Father, of course, loves it. As you can probably tell, I hate it! Sorry Football fans, I just can't stand sitting there for 4+ hours watching people run into each other. It's too hot in our room to hide out in there and both of us doubted that we would really get any peace to do what we needed to do. Which for her was to work on her college essays for Grad school and for me, plan our anniversary, work on plans for Halloween, and work on my first post for my craft blog. Oh and I need to get my vocabulary word of the week for the Detangled Writers blog I am part of/ working on with some friends.

Yesterday I overdid it. Again! My back was bothering me but I was kind of on a roll. We went to the Wal-mart to pick up white thread and a seam ripper (I am making a quilt for my Grandparents), veggie dip and yogurt, and managed to get two free parring knives for listening to a Forever Knife demo. I'll tell you what, the man giving the demo looked so bored and tired of doing it. I think he's doing it all weekend and I know he was there doing it Friday as well. I felt bad for him but I didn't have $50.00 to buy a set of knives. Besides, I only listened to the demo because my Girlfriend was interested.

After we finished at the store we came home. My Girlfriend, ugh, I'm just going to refer to her from now on as Skoora because that's who she is on the net. Anyway, my girlfriend sliced up the bell peppers we bought at WinCo the other day. Then I was in the kitchen for most of the day. I did two loads of laundry, made three pies (apple, blackberry, and peach) all from scratch, dinner, and ran a load of dishes in the dishwasher.  I also picked up the living room since it was clear that no one else was going to do it anytime soon and the mess was driving me nuts. I was so tired, worn out, and hurting so much when I was finished that by the time I sat down for dinner, I kind of wanted to cry. But I managed to stay awake long enough to watch two movies!

This morning I harassed Skoora out of bed to work on the dining room. She ended up doing most of the work because my back is trying to tell me to 'fuck off ' today. I took a pain pill and now I'm here at the library.

Tomorrow morning I finally get my MRI. I'm kind of nervous about what it will show and also I am claustrophobic and fat and I don't like lots of loud noises. I am sure I will be fine though.