A Sister's Positive Influence lol

Today we were waiting at a light to turn left behind a really tiny yellow car (size & color irrelevant lol). The light turned green & the car didn't move so I said something to the effect like "let's go little car". The next thing I knew from the backseat I heard Bentley say..."Move, little dumb rat". :o

That is how you know he's been spending time with Kensington Cali. (:o <---- I thought it was Ken but discovered it was Cali who goes around saying that all the time!haha)

Turbulent Weekend

For starters I am sick. I have the flu or something with a fever. My eyes hurt as well as my head and I can't stand up for long.

Last night Ken & I were watching The Devil Wears Prada downstairs and she walked into the kitchen and felt something leaking on her head. She found water leaking from the ceiling. Immediately she knew the washing machine (that has been sounding like a barking dog for a few days) must have caused it...

I ran upstairs to find the laundry room flooded (not too bad). The pan under the washing was full and overflowed some onto the tile. I brought the wet vac in to suck up the water. Dumped it into the bath tub...

Clogged the bathtub. Ken went to the store to buy Drain-O. Today, Sunday, I am needing to clean the bath tub and the laundry room and take the wet towels to wash them somewhere.

I remembered while eating breakfast that I put a Diet Coke into the freezer last night to cool and forgot about it. It exploded. I thought it would be best to plug our deep freezer in the garage back in and move the freezer items out there so we could defrost and clean out the freezer inside. I had unplugged the deep freezer a few weeks back to defrost. Now there is a puddle of water on the bottom so I need to take the wet vac out there and clean it with bleach.

If you give a mouse a cookie... and I don't feel good.

Speaking Teenager

Conversation I just had with Bella...

Me: Obvi the plans aren't for sure yet... I did say "probs", not "def". 

The End

I turned in my last final late this afternoon...

That freed up some time finally to actually go to the grocery, clean up the house, mow the zebra stripes in the front lawn, actually cook dinner, eat dinner at THE kitchen table with everyone, and watch Modern Family in my bed while painting my nails. <3 <3 <3 haha 

Seriously, I think it's ridiculous that Cali mowed the lawn two nights ago and I didn't even realize that there were patches left un-mowed. The side of the fence by the main road had three stripes mowed and the rest left undone. Then, the rest of the yard had mohawk lines. 

I was feeling so inspired by the rush of happy energy that I had the idea to put my energy into giving up Diet Coke again. That was a great idea that was followed by a Diet Coke at dinner and one for dessert. ;) 

Finished this semester with 1 B and 3 A's. That B was in oceanography and I think it's pretty awesome considering I didn't read the curriculum at all. :o No time for that.

Barely Hanging On...

I am working full time, trying to keep my vinyl business from taking its last breath (literally), doing school full time AND it's the end of the semester. We have been doing double data entry at work-work (<--- real job reference) and sleep-sleep has abandoned me. I am exhausted. Like true tired, as in my body is reaching low blood sugar levels and I am jittery and my head is foggy conditions. All due to lack of sleep.

I sat down at 6:45 to figure out what my Friday night assignment is for philosophy (World Religions). Assignments are always due at 8pm and I know/knew that. I discovered upon logging in to school that I was supposed to watch a 90 (NINETY lol oops) minute video and write a short paper on it. It's super fun (and shocking to me that I don't stress out anymore at the thought of doing all this in about an hour) on a Friday night. ;)

Wednesday I did a writing exam in one hour. No anxiety and no stress at all. THAT is something I've acquired this semester. It is amazing and super helpful!! :D Only one hour... nbd!

Here's a meme I saw on Facebook a minute ago and it perfectly sums up my life currently:

"Pond" is a relative term. Ocean is a better description.

The Answer to Everything

Sleep.

Six Years Old

Is it acceptable for me to sleep in the aisle of Barnes & Noble?? 

Social Media Shares/Transfer of Posts

I love this picture. I love the legs behind us. Lol

The Unexpected Storm that Could!

We went to bed that Sunday night expecting some rain but that was it. I slept through the first tornado warning going off on my phone but woke up with the 3am alarm. The thunder was so loud. I watched out the window for a few minutes and said a prayer to know if I should wake the kids up to move downstairs. Within a few minutes I was gathering my babies and moving them downstairs. It was terrifying. Hurricane Ike and the storm in San Antonio last year that had us under a tornado warning were the only storms scarier than this one.
At least the kids were good sports as we laid in the living room away from the windows. They were in a good mood and we laughed a lot. I was prepared to move them into the food pantry if needs be. By 4am it had died down enough, and we received notice that school was out for the day, that we headed back upstairs to sleep.
We were not prepared for what would come the following days. It had rained so hard, so quickly, that there was major flooding and wind damage. A tree fell on my friend's car and the roads looked like a hurricane or tornado moved through. There was debris everywhere. The only damage we suffered was a fence post being knocked over. We were very blessed. School remained closed the entire week due to flooding.

Here are some pics of that week.

Cali with her friends serving those in the Wimbledon neighborhood.

We worked from home Monday because there was no power in the shop and the storms were pretty bad still that morning. My internet went out halfway through the day (while I was taking a test for school) and I didn't get any work done. Tuesday Mark hooked up power to my office & Michelle's office via generator so we could work. The photo above is a funny joke because we had to get creative for potty breaks that day. By Wednesday, power was back on and life started to return to normal, again.

End of Semester Struggles

It is normal for clean laundry to pile up to look like mountains.

It is normal for cereal that fell out of the bowl to remain in milk puddles on the table for a day or so.

It is normal to not wash your hair for three days.

It is normal to use knives to stir your child's chocolate milk mix because spoons are always dirty.

It is normal for weekday morning alarms to be set between 4-5:30am. It is rare for them to be set after 5:30. 

It is normal to cry at the end of the day in exhaustion.

It is normal to turn your head at near everything in your home that is "less-than" you desire because you know you're doing the very best you can.

It is normal to feel a happiness that I've never before known. I believe there is a correlation between hard work and happiness.

This semester has been challenging in finding balance for all my responsibilities. My heart has not been 100% in school. I have started exercising and working more and my heart is spread out over multiple things. I have been content in that. I am pulling 3 "A's" and 1 "B" this semester. Awesome! That B should have been a C with the minimum effort I gave (oceanography).

I am excited that I have one more semester at Lonestar to finish my AA then in January I am starting at UH for my Bachelor's program! Sweet!!

Now to get through this last 1.5 weeks! Oh baby!