October/fall shenanigans

Amanda didn't want October, our Anniversary, or even Halloween to be uneventful this year and I think she was also trying to erase some of the negativity I still have left over from last year and our wedding disaster. I mean let's call it what it was, a disaster. Nothing worked out right and I was hurt pretty badly and still haven't managed to really get over it. Even with all the good stuff that did manage to happen around our wedding, all of which I am incredibly thankful for, I still have a hard time with the bad. Moving on. 

So, we both planned some stuff to do. Amanda's was more successful and exciting than my idea. I don't think she really liked mine too much. I wanted to drive up Mt. Spokane for an afternoon and see what we could see, explore a bit. I thought it would be fun to find places to have picnics and sit in nature, forest bathe, and so on. She was in a mood that day and when we found out that to go up was going to be ten dollars for a whole day, she was less than thrilled. Mostly because a discover pass is thirty dollars and gets you into all the Washington State Parks for a whole year. So, we turned around and came back down. 

But at least on the way I got to see a few things I didn't know were out and along the way. And I got some cool art reference photos.

On another day during October, Amanda got a groupon or something for tickets to go on a Haunted lake cruise on Lake Coeur d'Alene. Our friend Fiona was coming for a visit, so we went to pick her up and went to the lake early. I put my foot in the water to see how cold it was and decided swimming in the lake in October would be great for thirty seconds and only if I had a nice warm car to run to with hot cocoa waiting for me. 

I love how clear the lakes are here compared to the ones back home in Kansas. 

Rock!

I thought this view was really pretty and managed to catch the sun beam.

A picture of the Coeur d'Alene resort from the boat.

One of the lovely sunset photos I got.

I thought this one was very gloomy and pretty.

And my camera still didn't do the blazing pink in the sky justice.

A zoom in shot.

Some fall trees 

A pretty leaf.

The Twins took us to Silverwood for our anniversary and because they really like going with us. It was a lot of fun and I did get some pictures and even some video, but I think they are all over on my Instagram. Meaning, I was dumb and deleted them from my phone. 

Also during the month we went to see the Hobbit house in town. The owners of this big house and the little Hobbit house put on a free Halloween "come and see" and partnered with some trick or treat group that, if I remember correctly, does a safe neighborhood kind of thing. Anyway it was free to go to and you could see the Hobbit house for free with a donation of a children's book for needy kids.  We took a couple and it seemed that a lot of the people who came did the same.

This is a poster for the group they were collecting the books for.

A ring wraith, this guy managed to sneak up and scare the crap out of me twice! 

Just some of the cute decorations. In fact, each decoration had a little story to go with it. We didn't realize that until after we had seen the Hobbit house and I was cold and worn out. There were a lot of people and we stood in line for quite a while, both of which are hard on me. 

And here is the little Hobbit house. It is so cute and yes, that is a dragon above it.

a barrel!

I loved this metal door decoration they had.

I wanted to get more pictures of the interior and take more time to look around but there was still quite a long line behind us and I wanted to let the kids have time to get in and see the place. It was getting late and a lot of the kids were little, and we all know how cold, tired kids can get cranky. 

Some of the outside. I loved all the little decorations. 

Moving on to Halloween...

Here is some of the Halloween decor we had in our house

Amanda found what she calls her 'opera singer' at walmart this year. It's a tree topper and we kept it out to put on our Xmas tree.

We had candles aplenty and I decorated two jars I found at the dollar tree, not that you can seem them that well.

I found this pretty Witch tree topper at Ross. I've always wanted a 'pretty' witch. People seem to think that witches needs to be green or old or look like creepy old ladies, but that's not the case. So when I saw her for a reasonable price, I snatched her right up and brought her home. She too, was kept out and is hanging out in the office. 

Narcisa was hanging out on the kitchen table with me on Halloween night. This was before dinner and after our trip to the Campbell house here in town. They were a rich family and their house is a historical point of interest and museum. I didn't take my phone with me so I will just have to go back and get pictures another time. It is a beautiful Victorian era house and I pretty much want live there. But back to my house...

My friend Felicia gave me this cute cat and we set him on one of our pumpkins!

Amanda's luminary made from card stock, tissue paper, and a big pickle jar. We made them with our friend Rachel two years ago.

Here is mine. 

I had made little cauldrons for friends for something that got cancelled. So we enjoyed them over a couple of days.

I really liked this project and want to do it again, especially since I know how 

I did have more candy in them, it was just under the cotton candy. 

And here is me, I was a demon. I had black wings, my horns, and had done my make up.

This was just a beautiful display at Fuego in the mall. I loved the masks and would like to use them as inspiration for making some of my own. I've made a mask before and really loved it.

One day I went to work to see Amanda and took a picture of one of the halls in the old chronicle building. I love the decor.

This is a poster Amanda got me of Shiro from Voltron. It was done by Missy Pena and you can find her on twitter.

This was the very last bit of the Halloween Season activities. We went down to Moscow, Id to visit the twins and also go try out a spooky escape room at Puzzle IQ. What we learned was that I will look in a bucket of icky water and know there is something in but not put my hand in and make someone else do it. That Amanda moves stuff she's not supposed to, and that when they say look at everything, Amanda and I take them very seriously and go as far as taking apart furniture to look for clues. LOL! They told us we didn't have to take apart the furniture. Also, that the Twin, Amanda, and I actually make a pretty good team when doing this. We each find things the other miss. So we managed to do the escape room without a single hint with 16 minutes to spare. The total time we were allowed was 45 minutes. It was a lot of fun and needless to say, we are hooked. We've been looking at other escape rooms around, checking prices and themes and such.

Lastly, on a more recent trip down to visit the twins, we stopped in Potlatch, Id. Along I 90 there is a little dinner called Dad's Diner. It didn't used to be called that. Back in the 1940's my Grandmother's Dad's cousin worked out in the area and his wife worked in the diner. At some point the cousin died and eventually his wife bought the diner and ran it for many years. That was the cup "Ireland's Inn" that was in another blog post. Anyway, her son, my Grandma's cousin, apparently still lives in Deary. Which is kind of cool. The family doesn't own the place anymore, but it's really neat to see where my family has been and walk where they walked. 

Background nostalgia, angry sass, and what the fuck was that?!

Lately, as in within the last week or so, Amanda and I have begun our mornings with coffee and watching NHK World. Generally we get half an hour of news and then half an hour of whatever program comes on before or after it- just kind of depends on when we turn on the TV. Then she heads off to work and I leave the channel on in the background while I either take a nap or begin puttering about the house doing whatever it is I need to do. Sometimes I just sit and watch it for a little bit. But I was trying to figure out why I like having it on so much, I mean other than the channel having news I can actually stand and some interesting programs about Japan and Japanese culture. While I was in the bathroom today, I could hear it and realized after I had an odd memory tug, that it is nostalgia. It is summer, the air conditioner is making the house pleasantly cold, and the sound of a news caster filling the house reminds me of summers growing up. My Mom used to watch the news at noon before her soap operas came on for the afternoon. Our house nearly always felt cold and it was nice because I could curl up with a blanket and pillow and just be. So, in this sense, I suppose its a comfort.

This weekend I let some of my normally restrained sass out. I was saying all manner of things. It happens when I get pissed. Aside from hurting my knee, my heel cracked, and the damned neighbor kids were driving me nuts. Now, instead of just ripping up the grass and throwing it and twigs at my patio door, they are banging on the glass. All day the other day they were doing it no matter how many times I asked them to stop. I told them they could look at the kitties but they had to stay off the patio. I was ignored. After about three times of asking them to go away, I snapped at them. It didn't help. The lady who watches them wasn't doing anything and at the advice of Chris, I will be filing a formal complaint. My agitation continued througout the day and into the next. I also had some weird ass dreams that unsettled me and I don't remember why. I know that the Queen of England and Benedict Cumberbatch was in one dream and there was something to do with WW2, and a table in a room with markers and construction paper. I am still bothered by it. 

Yesterday was better. Amanda and I had a bit of a lazy day. She did some laundry and made us breakfast and we both made dinner. I made some no bake cookies with sunflower butter and we watched a comedian on Netflix. I started an anime but ended up turning it off to go to bed early. By that, I mean I laid on the bed and played with Thorin for a little bit. That's where I got myself into some trouble. Amanda came in and wanted me to move so we could put the clean sheets on. I had been laying on my stomach and as I rolled, sat up and started to slide off the bed (our bed is up high) I had one of the most horrible pains throughout my middle that I have ever felt. I can't even really describe it except that it was so bad I wanted to vomit and got that cold clammy pass out feeling. It subsided a little after a few minutes, but I was so sore after that I could't get comfortable in bed. I ended up sleeping on the sofa, which sucked. I still don't know what the hell happened. I feel better today. My friend Chris thinks I pulled some muscles. Could be. 

The good news for today is that I did my hair and make up today. I haven't felt up to doing either in awhile. I also signed up for Fat Girl Yoga, the first class is free. I figure that will give me enough of an idea of whether or not I can do it to see if I want to continue on and register for more classes. I also figure it will give me an idea of how best to position myself so I don't hurt myself. Other than that, my friend Chris is coming over for dinner tonight and we may or may not paint. 

Important lessons, nursing dark chocolate, pain, restlessness

I made a toner recently. I thought that A) it would be good for my skin and B) because I have been wearing more make up, it would help soothe my skin. My toner is made up of 3 parts witch hazel and 1 part rose water. I use it in the morning after I wash my face and again at night when I have removed my make up. Except last night, for some reason, I thought it would be a good idea to use it on my eye lids. Sometimes, I'm not very smart. Sometimes I forget that I have very sensitive skin and my the area around my eyes is no exception. (I also sometimes forget that I gave myself a chemical burn with Nair once while trying to remove some of the eyebrows. It was a disaster by the way.) Thankfully, while I didn't end up with a chemical burn, at least according to what I could see, the area along my eye lashes certainly felt a bit stingy itchy, and kind of burn like last night. I told my friend Chris about it and got an almost Mom-like almost scolding. 

My eyes felt better this morning and good enough that I decided to try wearing make up. So far so good. I'm a tad peeved because it took me an hour and a half to do it and all I want to do is curl up somewhere and take a nap. I was rudely awakened by PCOS problems around six this morning and since Amanda had to be up shortly anyway, I just stayed up and made breakfast and coffee. Because of the PCOS problems of today, my back, my hips, and my legs have this incessant dull ache that is driving me crazy. This sort of pain is so draining, forget that I'm bleeding like a stuck pig, and they we add the energy drain from the fibromyaligia... I'm not a happy camper. But, I'm still going to get dressed and I am still going to go visit Chris today. I may just end up curled up in a chair with a small cute dog for cuddles. Chris is house/ dog sitting for a friend of ours and you know what, my friend's dog cuddles me more than Narcisa. *sigh* 

Speaking of my kitty cat, we got her a small box from the store. It was just something that had had cans or dry goods in, not a flat, a box. She loves to sit in it and Fiona and Amanda were sliding her back and forth across the carpet. Narcisa seemed to enjoy it. So, yesterday, I decided I would play with her like that too. Only I didn't have someone to push her back to me, so I was pushing her with my foot. That was fine until I sent her into the ottoman face first. She was not happy with me. Honestly, she was fine, just a little miffed. 

Anyway, I am feeling a bit restless today. There is plenty of house cleaning I could do and there are several craft projects I would love to do but don't have the time or quite the amount of energy for. I think I will stick to something simple, easy, like coloring since I am going to leave at some point today. And until lunch time, I think I will visit my fox cookie jar and nurse a small piece of dark chocolate to soothe my temperament.

Weird urges, football cupcakes, and holy crap do I have a lot of laundry!

Today, while taking a break from homework, I checked my facebook and a cousin had posted some really dumb ass article about what every basic white girl does. I think I only actually do three on the list of I think it was 20 or maybe 27 and only a couple others were things I would like to do. Standing in line for the next Iphone is not one of them. Sorry, I'm not on that bandwagon. I've had the same phone for the last several years and while I will one day replace it, it will be for another Samsung (but that day is very far away). Le gasp! Anyway, on to the point. Somehow, while looking at the blurb about fall hair color, I ended up on Pinterest, looking at someones board and ran across this lovely picture of "Everyday is Oktoberfest" nail color. Oddly enough while ogling this pretty color, I started to get the urge to paint my nails. But it didn't stop there. I actually looked at "fall hair colors" and make up and nail polish ideas and thought about perhaps trying out some fun make up. I have an eye shadow pallet with 88 shimmer colors that Skoora bought me for Christmas last year so I thought about this...

and this

I think I have all of these colors too. I probably won't get up and do this tomorrow morning, but I do like to play with my make up now and then. It seems to be time again. I probably won't do my nails until this weekend, maybe. 

Skoora and I went to the library today. We used her parent's car to get there. It was pretty much an essential trip. Skoora can't write much at all when at home. Her parents pushed for her to go back to school but then they don't want to turn television volume down or stop talking long enough for her to actually get anything done, much less leave her alone. Granted Skoora is one of the biggest procrastinators I know, but still, her parents have bothered me enough that it's hampered me as well. I mean you can only turn up the volume of your music so loud before it hurts or you can't even think yourself. And having someone actually try to carry on a conversation with you despite seeing and knowing you have headphones on, not taking the hint what so ever, is really annoying. But what really makes me so angry I couple spit nails, is that her mother refuses to own up that she a huge hindrance. She almost never stops talking, she is always calling for Skoora to do things, and there's more, but she had the audacity to say "don't blame me because you can;t do your homework." Let me tell you something, I wait to start my homework in the mornings until after Skoora's mother leaves and I try to get as much done before she comes home. 

So needless to say, I clamped my mouth shut tight, and hurried from the house with my homework and laptop as fast as I could because I am in such a way, that if I did say what was on my mind, no one would have accomplished anything. Feelings would have been hurt, and I might have had to call my parents to see if they could get gather enough money between themselves and my Grandparents for me to move back home for good. Seriously, I have had it. Actually, I've been at the end of my rope for a very long time. Skoora is finally reaching that point too. And today, I told her, while on the way to the library, that I know there have been times when I needed her and kept her from getting as much homework accomplished, but at least I admit it and have been really trying to not be such a bother.

After the library trip, I drove us to Wal-Mart for some treats. Yeah, I know, I really shouldn't have but we don't get treats that often any more because I am trying to push us toward healthier food. But today, I just needed some damn chocolate and since I crave salt all the time, some potato chips. We still have some food stamps so that's how we were able to afford these things. We ended up with some chips, a discounted batch of brownies with little football rings on top (not that I care two shits for American football, I like European and Liverpool is my team if I have to have one -oh the days of Michael Owen before he was traded to Madrid), I got Ding Dongs for Skoora, two bottles of Ginger Ale because I wanted a soda fix. But I did choose to get a few marginally healthy things, one being a can of ravioli, two boxes of lean pockets for when we run out of sandwich stuff, and the only granola bar I don't have to make myself and it's pumpkin flavored! It also has lots of seeds and less granola, which makes me happy. And I managed to only spend 20 dollars of our food stamps. It should all last us several of days if we really thin it out and only really eat this stuff for a snack or a very small treat. 

When I went into our room to hide our treats (I have the strongest will power out of anyone in the house and I find that a little frightening), I really looked at our laundry situation. Holy fuck! I think half of our clothes and all of our towels are dirty. I really need to do laundry and I will, if I can get someone to help me carry the baskets into the laundry closet. I'm getting stronger, but I'm not that strong.  As much as I don't like admitting that I am not house wife extraordinaire, I know my limits.