Category: Randomness

Some of you have heard about this ship. Chuck's grandpa built it. This thing comes in a flat kit. He put everything together. From shaping the wood, to tying all the knots in the rigging. It's amazing to look at. Chuck and his dad worked many hours perfecting the case that holds the ship. They took wood straight off a tree. This was rough wood, so they had to make it smooth, glue pieces together for the right size…this isn't wood you buy at the local hardware store! Chuck has also been working incredibly hard on a lighting system for it. He finished it yesterday and it looks wonderful! Just like something you would buy in a store…but all hand made, of course! So this is our newest piece of furniture in the house. It's going to be quite the conversation piece!

Chuck builds so many cool projects! He put together a website to write about them. This way he can remember what he did when he looks back. What a handy guy I have! I attached the link below if you would like to see it.

Project Website

As you can see, I have done a little reworking to my site. I love it. Hopefully I will be able to keep it looking this way for a while. I am a habitual theme changer. So we'll see how I do at keeping it without changing anything….at least without changing anything too major!

I went to Chuck to see if he could fix one little problem I was having and we ended up spending a few hours on it. Upgrading, fixing things, etc. So, thank you dear for spending hours making my site look pretty!

I met with a friend who is a career counselor at Hamline and am starting to figure things out. I am very excited and think I may have the tools I need to do something that will fit me and make me happy. I have a bunch of research to do, but as I am learning…that is something I really enjoy, so this should be tons of fun! I have a handful of jobs to look into and do research on. So, the moral…I am making progress and I will keep updating on my continuing discoveries and revelations!

I also was given a book to read from another friend. It's called Feeling Good by David D. Burns. I have barely started it, but I like the idea. I hope to learn many things from it and hopefully be a happier person because of it! We'll see what happens! I have good friends!

I have decided it's time for me to do some job hunting and career evaluating. I am working on being a more positive person and having a better outlook on things. I love my crafts, but it's really a hobby. I have come to terms with the fact that it is just that…a hobby. I am trying to decide what I am really passionate about and would like to do with my life. This might involve going back to school for something different than my degree (Sociology) or maybe going toward something more related to my field. I need to do this for myself to just feel happier and to be a more productive and worthwhile member of society. If you know of any jobs you think might fit me, let me know. If not, please bear with me as I search for what I was meant to do!

I am also going to allow comments on this post in case there is anything people want to suggest to me.

I have done a little bit of reworking on my Simply Whimsical site. I put some more recent cards there, upped prices slightly (because these cards take much longer to make), and also added a few pens to my site. I just wanted people to know about it because it had been so long since I had put any work into it.

I also post to my craft site, Crafts On A Whim, almost daily with cards, projects, and other crafty things. I also started a “Featured Crafter Friday” post. Each Friday I feature a different crafter with a little about them, have them answer a few questions and post some pictures of their work. Now, I know I only have about 5 readers on this site, but I wanted to be sure I mentioned these to you as well!

I am also going to try to post more things on here, too. I feel like this site has been on the back burner because I have been working on my craft sites. So, get ready to be sick of all my random posts!

This is the reason I don't usually read in bed. I have a tendency to fall right asleep. I think I got two pages read this night, though! When Chuck came in to go to bed, this is the way he found me and had to take a picture! I don't blame him. This is just funny. And man, did I have a kink in my neck when he woke me up!

We recently got back from a great skiing trip to Vail, Colorado. Chuck's dad, step-mom, sister and sister's boyfriend went with us. It was a ton of fun and we had nice weather. I spend the first day relearning how to ski because I get all nervous when I first get out there. By the end, I had learned a few things they had been telling me to do for years. I pointed my skis a bit more downhill (which means I go a bit faster) and make less turns (which means I don't have to work so hard) so in turn I am not as tired. I had way more fun when I wasn't working so hard! Chuck also took a couple videos of me skiing. It's so fun to watch them because you see what you look like skiing. I look much better than I felt like I looked. So I had a lot more fun this year and was much less scared!

We didn't take too many pictures this year, but HERE is the gallery with the photos we did take as well as the videos. Enjoy!

In a few days we are headed to Vail for a ski trip and Paige wanted all of us to have helmets. This is the one I picked for myself.

I am sure you aren't surprised by the “pinkness” of it! I also got some boot heaters installed in my ski boots. It's going to be a new experience to feel my toes while I ski. I am hoping it's much more enjoyable. I am very excited.

Chuck and I also both picked up a couple new pairs of shoes at REI and I can't wait to wear them! I got a kids pair of tennis shoes and a kids clearance pair of keens. I love that I fit into kids shoes! What a good deal!

We just got back from our trip to Mexico. We had a wonderful time and even more wonderful weather. It was in the 80s and sunny and it only rained for about 2 minutes one afternoon. We stayed at Barcelo Maya Palace. They have a number of resorts at Barcelo and Maya Palace was the newest addition. It was just gorgeous there! There aren't any doors on the hotel. It's all open when you come in. This is the same where the rooms are. It's like an outdoor mall everywhere. There's one restaurant that is open like that, too…just huge windows open to the outdoors. And they even have an outdoor theater. There are tons of fountains everywhere. Even outside the rooms! There are covered grass walkways…those were my favorites!

I thought I would include a few pictures. I could have added a lot more, but I had to stop somewhere!

Here's a picture of us next to an enormous waterfall wall.

This is a picture of the lobby when you walk in.

This is behind the lobby desk. It's all tiled and it's a big dragon on the wall. There was tile everywhere! It's probably the easiest to clean. They were cleaning the floors all the time with all the sand around, but you never noticed the floors being sandy!

Chuck, his dad, his grandpa and his cousin went golfing one day. They lost a lot of golf balls, but had fun! A few of us went to Playa Del Carmen for some shopping one day. 11 of us went snorkeling one day (Grandma and Hannah stayed back) and had grilled steak and lobster on the boat. The guides put a couple poles out and caught a barracuda. That was very cool to see!

This is a picture of the barracuda the guide caught while we were coming back from snorkeling.

And this is a picture of a barracuda that was HUGE and swimming around when Chuck was snorkeling. Thankfully he didn't see it. I didn't get my camera turned on fast enough when he was right under me, so this is a bad picture. But I promise that is what it is!

This map cracked us up! The red arrow says “you are here” but we are actually standing where Chuck's finger is! How funny!

We spent a lot of time just hanging around the resort, sitting by the pools, playing in the ocean, kayaking, sailing, snorkeling….and of course eating!

Chuck had a lot of fun climbing around on this big inflatable iceberg out in the ocean. I was no good at climbing it! And no this isn't Chuck on it, I just thought you might want to see how big it was!

Another picture I wanted to point out was the following. It was pitch black out and Chuck took this with some setting on my camera. I didn't realize it was so dark out when he showed me the picture! We took lots more of these that night!

This was in the dark, too but this gazebo was lit wth blue lights.

I had to throw in one picture of the grass covered walkway that I loved so much!

There are more night photos on pages 10 & 11 of the gallery that I really think are cool!

This is a painting we got on the last night we were there. It's an oil painting the guy did with his hands on tile.

On the last night we were there we went to a show at the outdoor theater. It was a very interesting show with great costumes. It was called “Mexico Prehispanico.” The part that was horrible ( and made at least 2/3 of the people leave) was a whistle that a guy was blowing all the time….into a microphone. On the last page of my gallery, there are two videos at the very end of this show if you want to see it. And we did end up leaving the show as well.

Oh, and the title is from one afternoon when I was napping in a hammock. One of the activity people wanted me to play Bingo. I told him, “No, it's nap time!” He says, “No siesta, Fiesta en Mexico!” Since it was so amusing I had to use it as my title!

I will post my gallery of the trip below and after the rest of the family get their pictures uploaded, I will get them added here as well!

My Mexico Photo Gallery

One of the boys on Chuck's hockey team quit and his mom was our team manager. I volunteered to take over the job. So this makes me the Mound/Westonka Pee Wee C Team Manager! How fun! I even got myself a pink binder to keep my stuff in! We have lots of games coming up, so I'll be busy! I am excited. I am at almost all the games…I may as well be involved!