Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Weather sucks...but we're OK.

OK, so anyone who might be reading this post knows what's going on with the weather in Western KY. Well, our power was out all day yesterday, starting conveniently right after Jason's alarm went off. So I wasn't late for work or anything, but spent all day worried about Lucy being cold and if it didn't come on soon, I'd be cold too. (The way I knew my power was still out was by calling the house. If it rang and rang, that meant the power was out because the answering machine didn't pick up.) I called my friend Shawn to see if there power was on and she said they were at a hotel. If worse come to worse, we could pile up in their room. So, I call and get the very last room at Days Inn. So, I'm happy. They still have power and we've got a room. Well then I call Jason and let him know. He gets mad at me and tells me he can get a room at Baymont, which is closer to our home and we can get home to Lucy quicker. So, we decided I would cancel the room at Days Inn. When I did, she said, "You realize this is the last room we've got, right?" I say yes, I realize that. We've got reservations elsewhere. And we did...on paper. Our card was charged, but the hotel said they did not have any rooms available. I called everywhere, and I was at my wits end. Days Inn booked the room probably as soon as I got off the phone, so even that was out. I even checked Murray Plaza (which anyone that knows Murray knows that its a No Tell Motel). Even they were booked. So, it looks like we're shackin' up with the Johnson's.
So, we get all of our stuff and pack them up a flight of stairs to their room. We move beds around, blow up an air mattress to sleep on, bring food, etc. We are there about an hour, hour and a half, something like that, and I think to check our house to see if power came back on. I got the answering machine, so I was stoked!! I was gonna get to sleep in my bed afterall. SO, we pack back up most of our stuff, saying we'd get the rest today. So, I get to go home, play on my computer and get the internet (which I was unable to do at all at work yesterday as the internet went out and I didn't feel right asking them to come fix our internet when lots of people were without power). So, I was a happy camper. I get in bed around 10:30 or so, after turning on the electric blanket and am diggin' it. Well, evidently, my sleepy time medicine worked because Jason said the power went out a little after 11. And he said , "Well sh*t! The freakin' power just went out." Luckily, it didn't wake me up and he didn't try to since he could tell that I was out, so he just left me alone and let me sleep. Now this morning when I woke up, I realized the power wasn't on and he told me what happened. So, I ask him to get me another blanket to go on top of the comforter to try to get warm again. Finally, after a little bit, I get up and get dressed. Jason decided if we drove around we'd be warm. So, that's what we did. We decided we'd drive by my work to see if there was power. Nope. Then we drove over to his work. Nope. Then we go to the animal hospital to see if we could pick up Lucy (as we couldn't bring her into the hotel). They had a note on the door that said due to power outages, they were closed. It also said that someone had come by this morning to take care of the animals and that they were in a warm place. It also said that we could do pick ups from 3 to 4, so that's what we intended to do. We drove back to the Baymont to check on Kris, Shawn and Peyton. The power was out there too. We sit there chatting as its still warmer there than outside or at our house. We decide we're all gonna jump in the car and start driving south to look for a generator. This was around noon I guess. Nobody had them, so the wild goose chase began. We ended up in Nashville and still wasn't sure we were gonna one anywhere. So finally around 8 pm, we go to IHOP to eat and it's the first meal we've had all day. All of the sudden, Jason's cell phone rings and says that they've got a generator at Home Depot. The one that was directly behind the IHOP. So Jason and Kris go to get it, leaving Shawn, Peyton and me there. It was fine until Peyton dropped a deuce and Shawn left the diaper bag in the car. I offer to walk over there and get it. By the time I got over there, the generator was in the back of the car and they were getting ready to come back. So, now we've got a generator, but it was getting close to 10. Shawn has a great friend Jennifer who has a big three bedroom house in Nashville. So, this is where I'm posting from. Yep, NASHVILLE! We've all bathed and put on clean clothes and are currently washing the clothes we were wearing today. We still haven't been able to reach my parents or sister. I've tried my bosses, but couldn't get through to them. Jason got a hold of his boss luckily. They are saying that power will be out for 5-10 days, but in reality it will probably be two weeks. We're hoping the generator will be able to get our house semi-warm with the space heaters we have. I love the way everything looks as it looks very magical, but I hate being without power. SOOO, if anyone is reading this, we (us and the Johnsons) are OK. I talked to the Sizemores yesterday and they were without power, but had a generator. I think everything is going to be OK eventually, but it's been rather nerve wrecking today. Having a baby and a drama momma with us has not helped the situation. Luckily, the baby's been pretty good as is his momma.

So, I'm signing off. Hope everyone is well. ~Kim

Saturday, January 10, 2009

New Years Resolutions & random babbling

OK, so I'm a little late on this. I haven't made any resolutions until now as I wasn't sure what I wanted to accomplish this year. Kara and I were discussing resolutions, and that got me to thinking. I definitely cannot make resolutions without writing them down. And if I list them here on my blog, maybe it will keep me accountable. (This blog really got me to thinking about this and is the final push to making these resolutions.)I will make life resolutions and crafting resolutions. Not sure if any of them will be easy to do, but here goes:

Life resolutions
1. Purchase a house and move.
2. Start watching my diet better and lose 15 pounds.
3. Start exercising...again.
4. Learn to manage stress better.
5. Spend more time with my family.
6. Start journaling my diet/weight/meds/moods, etc. again.
7. Try to get off of most of my pain meds.
8. Live life to the fullest.

Craft resolutions
1. Make three cards every week.
2. Get crafts organized and set up where I can sit down and create whenever the mood hits me.
3. Make a rag quilt.
4. Complete all projects that I start (or that are halfway done now.)
5. Get all Christmas stuff (cards, presents, etc.) completed before December 1st so I can concentrate on the season and all that it stands for (family, friends and celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ).
6. Decorate my new house (provided that we get one!)
7. Learn one new craft or technique each month (this can probably be accomplished at stamp club as Tonya always has good stuff for us to try!)
8. Record all of the details of the cards I make, so if I get good enough and have the confidence in my abilities, I can submit cards/projects for publication. Here's a link of Cammie's article with tips for publications.
9. Along those lines, I'd like to become a design team member for a stamp company. I love all of the stamp companies and it seems like I'm finding new ones every day. I'll keep my eyes open for design team calls and hopefully I'll be right for one of the. The idea of free supplies is something I love!! Of course, I have to get good enough to achieve that goal too.


I guess that is all for now. I should probably resolve to not buy so much crafting stuff (random stuff to alter, paper, dies, etc.) as I haven't been using stuff, just buying. But if I stick with my crafting goals, maybe I'll NEED to buy more stuff! :)

OK, hopefully soon you'll see some cards. I never posted my Christmas card or any of the cards that I made at Tonya's Stamp a Stack workshop. I am without my wonderful portable studio, so I'll have to wait until I get it back to take the pictures. But I really will post some crafts soon.

In other news, Spellbinders is holding a contest to win the new Nestibilities releases. You have to send an email everyday with the featured die name in your subject. I hope I win! Of course, I've got four sets of Nesties and never use them (hard to use when you don't make anything!)

Something else I've been meaning to do is show some blog love. I subscribe to several blogs, but I have one in particular that I LOVE! Debbie is so creative and always an inspiration to me. I've seen her projects in magazines, so she's famous in the crafting world. But she's also very nice and has emailed answers to my many questions regarding a certain card she made. Anyway, I've been meaning to share this info for a while now, but never got around to it!

Thursday, January 8, 2009

I'm still alive!!

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. Before Christmas, I was too busy trying to decide what to do for Christmas presents and all that. Then Jason got sick on Christmas Eve, so we missed out on getting together with family. Then, on Christmas morning, I had it and felt like crap. He passed the bug along with me!! So we didn't go to my parents house OR see my dad's side of the family! I was really bummed. We did go to the Greater Cincinnati Area the day after Christmas. We didn't leave Murray until late afternoon as I was still feeling a little poopy until then. Plus, we had a leak in the tire that had to be fixed. So finally we made it! We had a great time up there with Jason's family and had fun with his sister, her huband and their kids. Then, we came home on New Year's Eve. We were so tired, and didn't want to go to anything. But for a long time now, we have a tradition of getting together on New Year's. I couldn't break tradition. We laid around from New Years until this past Sunday. Then we both started getting the Sunday afternoon blues!!

Well, not too much has been going on in my crafting world. I did sit down and make thank you cards to send to all of my friends and family who gave presents to ous. I can't show them on here as I may have one reader or two who will be receiving them!! So, for now I must sign off as I'm a sleepy girl. I'll post copies of the card once they are in the mail. Toodles ~ Kim