Seeking changes

My current project is really one I have been dragging my feet on and I need to stop. Now that Joshua and I have the house in our names, the next goal is improving our credit and getting us both into careers instead of just jobs. This plan pretty much means I'm trying to find something new. This is not news. I've been looking for something other than retail for a while.

Joshua keeps making suggestions that I'm sure I could do, but they all involve one thing. Nursing? I need a degree. Teaching? I need a degree. I worry that nursing is not going to stay the booming career path it seems to be now. As for teaching, the schedule would be great, but I know the pay isn't and I'm not looking to relocate.

I told him today that the simplest option, as far as a fast start and immediate money, would be setting the house up as an at home daycare. Getting certified through the state isn't difficult, but getting clients in a teeny town like Blanket could be a challenge. The other option, as has always been there, is writing and self-publishing, but even that isn't guaranteed money. I've looked into work from home jobs and, for most of them, our internet is too slow. My experience is almost all customer service, so I'm largely stuck applying for customer service positions. And now I'm through fussing and ready to start researching. I'm sure if I look hard enough and work hard enough, I can find something that lets me work from home, get the benefits I need (even if this means paying out of pocket), and ensures I make the amount I need to. There's got to be something out there.

A potato tradition

Joshua and I have a tradition and that tradition revolves around potatoes. Yes, that most humble starchy root vegetable is a cause for celebration at our house and here's why.

Over a year ago, on April 8, 2016, we officially moved in to our house. It was, as my previous blog entry states, a mess. And adding all the boxes of our (read: mostly my) belongings on top of everything already there was...a little much. So, we're in the house, we've been packing and moving and driving back and forth all weekend long with little more than the briefest breaks for meals. We had been working so hard. Finally, it was around nine pm and we had brought the very last load of belongings: the pets. Once the animals were relocated, that was it. We were done. I had Chip, our lab/chow mix, in my car with Andy, our tabby cat, and Franklin, our red eared slider, safe in carriers in the backseat. Joshua had Bruno, our Rhodesian Ridgeback, in his truck, with a cat carrier full of chickens in the bed. This was it. This was the last step.

We unloaded, got the animals settled, and poured ourselves into chairs at the tiny green kitchen table I'd bought for my little apartment two years back. Then, we realized neither of us had eaten for hours. Okay, what is there? Answer: nothing. With the move, we didn't know how long it would take to get utilities run, so we ate all we could and passed the rest around before the move. Very little refrigerated food. Everything canned is in a box and the can opener is in another box. Nothing is open in this town of 400 this late at night. Neither of us want to go anywhere, not just cause we (read: I) don't want to leave the animals alone. We've got to figure this out.

Finally, we found two potatoes, some butter in the fridge, two bottles of water, and the salt shaker. I popped the spuds in the microwave (because the electricity was hooked up) and started them cooking while Joshua dug for silverware and dug out another plate. Ten minutes later, we had a very simple meal: baked potatoes with butter and salt and water. We relaxed, unwound, and just took in everything that had happened in the last seventy-two hours. We had uprooted our entire lives and relocated to a house that we were buying. It was all a little wild in that moment. There was no going back to our old house. We were home.

This year, on April 10th (scheduling prevented the tradition beginning on the anniversary date of the 8th as it should have) we recreated that meal and began our tradition. Every year, we will have baked potatoes and water. One half of each potato will be exactly as it was that first night: butter, salt, nothing else. For the other half, one topping will be added each year to represent how far we've come. This year, we added cheese.

Does your family celebrate any unique traditions? Where did those traditions come from?

Back to writing

And it feels so good!

Yesterday, I went over some of the "broad stroke" changes that have happened in my life. Today's entry will be another one bringing my readers up to speed. (Are any of you still out there?) Even if I'm doing nothing more than shouting into the void, I'm going to try and keep doing it. Here goes.

As I've said, my husband and I are buying a house in Blanket, Texas. The house used to belong to my step-dad's cousin and was built in 1904. When we got it - there's no way to be really nice about this - the place was a mess. We spent the first month getting two rooms cleared out. Not functional or fully set up. Just getting the trash out, setting aside important paperwork, and getting things swept and clean. At one point, we hauled a literal ton of trash out to the local landfill. And only two items in that ton were furniture. When this happened, our king sized bed was still set up in the dining room - the only room with enough empty space to put it.

After we got the rooms set up to bare functionality we started feeling the struggle of being home owners. First, the plumbing went out. Joshua spent almost a month getting new lines run just to the bathroom. Then, we had to replace siding. It is so difficult to find even original looking siding when the design you need isn't made anymore. We had to have it specially ordered. All the while, we were still taking baby steps on getting the house in order. Clearing trash out of the yard, mowing til the mower broke, pulling old carpet from one of the bedrooms and peeling up the old tile in the kitchen.

The list of projects and work we have done goes on and on. We've been in the house for over a year and we finally have it in our names. As of right now, our remaining big projects are: running electricity to the attic and living room (the rest of the house has been successfully re-wired), painting the nursery, painting the dining room, painting the exterior, replacing two windows in the attic, getting the bathroom sink to work (this may never happen short of a full replacement), and removing a wall between the pantry and the living room. I'm sure there's something on that list I'm forgetting and that's without all the stuff that needs done outside.

All in all, I'm proud of the work we have done. We have a decent looking, hot in the summer and cold in the winter,  two bedroom house with an attic. Given time, we plan on adding a wrap-around porch to the front and possibly converting the attic into a master bedroom and a library/gaming room. Photos to come. Maybe. If I remember. For my next entry: a tradition about potatoes.

So many changes - and a reboot

So much has changed since I was last in this little corner of the web. Let's run down the list.

I'm very happily married to the love of my life. We've been together almost four years and our second wedding anniversary is next month.

We are in the process of buying a house in Blanket, Texas. The town is exactly as small as you'd imagine - maybe smaller. ;)

We got the house transferred to our names this week So excited!

And...the big one.

WE'RE PREGNANT!

I'm fifteen weeks along. This is my first pregnancy and we're having a little girl. She is due to join us in late September of this year.

My plans now are to revive this blog and get back to writing. Starting CPR now.

Foundations

Well, a lot has changed in the last two days and I am so excited! My husband and I are working on buying a house. I also got my own car! The car isn't much to look at, but no vehicle I've owned has ever been very fancy. The house needs a lot of work. It'll be a few months of cleaning before we can move in, but I am so excited! More updates coming soon with, hopefully, details on the cleaning and setup and renovation.

Too many ideas

I have been writing more often in this blog, my new blog, and some fiction ideas. As far as the blogs, I am not sure which I want to focus on yet, so I will be copying posts between the two until I decide which to stick with. The fiction writing is what I want to talk about tonight.

I'm working on a few scenes, adapted and stretched out from D&D sessions my husband and I have been playing. These scenes are a lot of fun to write because they were moments that spoke to me during the game. They are also challenging for many reasons. Firstly, I have to come up with character appearances and setting because those are things we don't always elaborate on around the gaming table. Because no details were given in the moment, I have to provide them out of nowhere. This isn't always my strongest suit. The second challenge is keeping to the source material without using the source material. I need to describe and tweak, for example, the effects of D&D spells without naming them because I don't want to get sued. I currently have no plans to publish any of these small scenes, but see no reason not to plan for it either.

Then, there are the random ideas floating around. I have about half a dozen of these and some of them have been sitting untouched and unstarted for months. One idea I got tonight has some potential because I took some storytelling aspects that I like reading and decided to put them in a story. I haven't settled in to write it yet, but that's tomorrow's goal. 

I've also been teaching myself some new languages (Spanish and French) on Duolingo. Things are going slowly, but moving along well. What new venture are you trying? How do you make a decision when there are too many options?

Today, my brain didn't work right

This morning, I was scheduled to work an opening shift - and my alarm didn't go off. I woke up an hour late, quickly got dressed, and got in the truck. Once I got to work, I saw that the store was already open. One of my co-workers had misread the schedule and thought he had the opening shift. I explained my lateness and showed him the schedule. He then offered that we switch shifts, giving me the day free. I agreed.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

I returned home, having been awake and moving for less than twenty minutes. This had to be the moment my meds kicked in because I remembered why I had requested the opening shift today. It was my father's birthday party this evening. And, now that I had to work the closing shift, I would miss the get together.

I did more than mentally kick myself as I called Other Mom and made my apologies to Poppa. My parents understood, of course, but it didn't stop me from feeling lousy about the whole situation. When I got to work for my closing shift, the miserable feeling continued. Yes, I was beating myself up, but not (as much) about the missed party.

Instead, I was miserable due to my new schedule. After working tonight til 10:30 pm, I have to be up tomorrow and at work by 7:30 am. Yay. -.-

All of this I blame on two things: technology and my ADD. Technology is to blame because my alarm did not go off. My phone shut off while on the charger last night. Kicking myself number one. ADD is to blame because I forgot about the party that my family had made sure to arrange around my work schedule. Kicking myself number two.

Yeah, it has been a fun ADD day. Hoping tomorrow will go better. Stick around to find out.

Have you ever forgotten a big, important event at the last minute? How did you cope?

Ideas lead to ideas

Life is going crazy. I am dealing with stress at work and trying to plan my wedding at the same time. The ceremony is in May. Two months and change to get everything figured out. Yeah, I think I am going a little nuts.

I finally finished fighting with the insurance company at work and, hate to say, lost the fight. My health insurance is now coming out of my own pocket. Not cool, but necessary.

I am also getting back to my writing. Sitting in the break room at work, I was roughing out a chapter for my current WIP when, inevitably, I got another idea. So, while working on my current big project, I will be jotting down notes for a side project. If I can pull it off, things should be interesting. If I can't pull it off, at least I am writing again. There is never a time that doesn't feel good.

What is a long lost project you have come back to? What are you working on that's new?

Pursuing my passion

Whatever writing bug has bitten me, I am thrilled to announce that my drive has not lessened. With the internet down, a lot of my work was put at a stand still for the moment. Of course, the internet malfunction also means I don't have a lot to do with my down time but write. I love productivity excuses like that!

Right now, I have a decent number of projects going. I'm continually adding to my novel in progress. I'm working on some short fiction and some articles. These days, if I'm not working or cleaning, I'm writing - and it feels great!

There's some news

Oh yeah. I started a story forever ago over on my writing blog. There is all of one entry over there. Maybe I should add to that. Whoops.

Well, I am slowly getting back to my writing and my blogging, as evidenced by this entry. Honestly, I'm loving it. The tedious hard work part of it is kind of agonizing as ever, but that's because I have to make myself work. Once I get started though, I just feel this instant release. I am so happy I am finally back to writing. Not only am I back to my writing, but my boyfriend is fully supporting me. I swear he has asked me three times today how many words I have written. Until now, I had to admit that my count was at zero. I got in from work, kissed him on the cheek, cuddled for a minute, and now here I am, typing up a blog post.

My biggest piece of news, other than the writing (do I ramble about it enough?) isn't official news yet. My sweetheart and I are trying to buy a house about fifteen minutes from where we live now. It is the next town over and a little bit of a commute for both of us, but that's not so bad. Especially since this house will be ours as opposed to a rental.

The house in question is next to his aunt and uncle and across the highway from my grandparents, so we have a small support system out there. We will also own a few acres of land. My sweetheart is really interested in homesteading and living off the land, so that is what we hope to establish out there. Right now, a lot is riding on hope. And the waiting is killing me.

Is there something you are waiting for that you want terribly? Have you recently recaptured a dream or set a goal? Tell me about it.