Ego Boost

Here is a collection of everything I've done in the past 8 months. Because this is my blog and I get to brag about all the things I've done.

Knitting Arm Warmers

Birthday Hair!

New girls in JADED

I learned how to use this

Mirrors

My first Looping Performance

Bedroom Art

Made a stone path

knit a super chunky scarf

#igrewthis

#igrewthis

mowed my first lawn

Art IRL

homemade pickles

reformatted bedroom

better bathroom storage

NEW LAUNDRY UNITS

Sang for Bernadette Peters

Built these

Got good at staining wood 

Built that too

Compost Pile

Relocated plants

Ate so many tomatoes
I may have acid reflux now

Made friends with that guy

#igrewthis

Had a job interview at the
Monterey Bay Aquarium

Built a bookshelf with
my family

Not dead Love Pear

Directed/Produced
Home Free Music Video

New Couch

Photos IRL

relocated plants

Five More Days

Let's end this on a positive note shall we?


I'm very excited for Jeston to come home this weekend.

It's been a long 8 months and I am so proud of him for doing so well at his job. His entire company has praised his hard work and are looking forward to his return. I am proud of him.

I look forward to seeing him each morning. I look forward to holding his hand in the car and wrapping my arms around him pretty much anywhere I can imagine.

I am very excited for Jeston to come home this weekend.


It's still a possibility that he may get the Duke job, the position is still open and he still hasn't gotten confirmation for his second interview. And I recently was contacted about my application to join the Center for Instructional Technology at Duke University. It would be a great step towards my Ph.D, towards a career as a leader in educational reform.

I look forward to making more money. To be able to make larger strides to getting out of student loan debt. To finish remodeling our home.


I am very excited for the future.


2015 is going to be good. My mom and I are already planning our trip for next year. Peru, I think. If Jeston sticks to the Carnival job in March, I hope that I can join him for a cruise for my birthday next year. I think I want to spend some time next holiday season in Lebanon, if the political drama settles with ISIS. I hope that I knit enough items to be able to sell something at a farmer's market next fall. I'm planning on Jaded taking stronger strides towards performing and EBoard to release a single or two.

I am very excited for the future.

I am very excited for Jeston to come home.

<.Deep Breath.> Five. More. Days.

Ten More Days

In ten more days, Jeston will be home.

November

I am. Unsure. Uneasy. Underwhelmed. And under a little pressure.


Did I accomplish my goal of remodeling the house? Was I successful at being able to handle a long distance relationship? Am I happy that soon I will be with him again?

unsure

I've had a lot of odd feelings this month surrounding Jeston's return. And the majority of them have nothing to do with Jeston, or even his return. They all surround the stuff that comes after. The part where we get to go on vacation together...in a cold climate (ugh...more cold weather). The part where we get to live together in a home again...but only a few months (4 months together). And then the part where he gets to leave again...for another 8 months...on the west coast of the US...where it will be harder for us to be together...again.


uneasy

Yellow Chunky Scarf for KLo!

It's difficult. Because I want nothing more than to be happy he is coming home. I want nothing more to look forward to holding his hand and watching TV on the couch with him and writing music and eating foods and sleeping together. I want nothing more to feel good about all those things.


But there is this unsettling cloud just a few feet behind me that's overshadowing all those good feelings. I just wish there was a way to chase it away. Tell it to come back in 10 days. When I don't have to face these feelings alone, but with him. Because honestly, I've done a great job at taking care of myself these past 8 months. I'd really like it if I could work with a team.


This isn't the most positive blog update. But that happens in life. Un-positive days. Most of the time days like these go hand in hand with the conversation..."well, what are you going to do about it? how are you going to fix it?"

....

I would rather not face that conversation alone right now. I'm afraid that the outcome would be unappealing. And that would be unfair to Jeston, me and our relationship. And it's just 10 days.




Needless to say. The next ten days will be hard. So here are some photos to distract you...and me.

Stone pathway is looking better

Brussel Sprouts & Beets!

I grew a carrot!

A bunch of rocks and dirt

The before

This weekend I attempted to make a stone path in my backyard.


I may not have been as successful as I had originally intended, but its a path in the ground, covered in stones. So I guess I can call it an accomplishment.

I originally had started using the hoe to dig the path but then the ground started being difficult so I found that using the shovel at an angle, was much more effective.


Which was great, until I realized how uneven the depth was between digging with the hoe and digging with the shovel. Thankfully, I have a lot of different sized stones so the larger ones will go in the deeper sections while the shallower stones go into the shallower area.

That shallow digging hoe

But the path has been dug, and the stones are starting to be placed.

The stones were boring though. So I had a rock painting party. Only to find out that the paint that I had originally bought was washable and came off when it rained.

So I had to redo all the stones. It was exhausting and I felt bad asking my friends to come back over and redo the rocks with me. Which means that it won't look nearly as awesome with just my mediocre painting skills.

Finished pathway

Eric teaches the ground a lesson

With all the dirt that was dug up from the path, I was able to even out some of the backyard a little bit more. Technically, I just sort of dumped all the dirt in an area and spread it out haphazardly. I hope that with some rain and wind it'll erode into a more even area. Because it definitely isn't even right now. If not, I'll deal with it after the snow leaves.

Dirt in a new home

I also did some fall harvesting and planting while I was out in the backyard this weekend. The lettuce patch has been growing something fierce. I have collected so much lettuce, spinach, arugula and basil that I officially can't eat it all. Thankfully the staff at work took a bunch of it off my hands. It was much appreciated. I just hope that next year I'll have just as plentiful a garden as this year was. 

MY FIRST BROCCOLI!

Unfortunately, my tomato patch made friends with an ant colony. So that whole bed needs to be cleared out and redone. Blargh. Not something I'm excited about. The tomato crop was great this year, a little out of control, but great nonetheless. I just hope when I redo the bed Jeston can help me make a more suitable trellis for the tomatoes to grow on. 

The next bed was supposed to be Broccoli, Brussel Sprouts, Beets, Onions and Potatoes but only a few made it all the way to the finish line. Onions, Brussel Sprouts and Beets never sprouted and I think it might be because of the weeds growing in from the bottom of the bed. It was a sad sight. I all expected those leaves that were sprouting to be delicious veggies....no, they were weeds. But I did get a good batch of purple potatoes and this little broccoli!!

I'm pretty stoked about that broccoli that I went out and bought seedlings for beets and brussel sprouts and am going to try growing them again this month. Fingers crossed.

The final bed was my green beans, which have been fine but I think I'll switch from bush beans to pole beans next spring, and my sweet potatoes. HOLY SHIT THE SWEET POTATOES. I had no idea. I wasn't ready. There did not stop coming out of the ground. It felt like I was a midwife and I was pulling baby sweet potatoes out of the earth filled womb of that raised garden bed. 

Seriously, 18 large sweet potatoes. And the few that I kept, were delicious. Cooked up so quickly, super sweet, beautiful orange coloring on the inside. 

I win at potatoes. In case anyone was concerned. 

LOOK AT THE FALL HARVEST

So, we're down to 54 days until Jeston comes home. I've still got a few more projects to finish up around the house before I feel like I've accomplished my goal of house remodel while Jeston has been away. I had hoped with Kristin moving in this past July that I would have a buddy to help me out, but it's been a bit hard to make that work with our schedules. But I did plan on tackling this project on my own, so having to actually do it on my own shouldn't really set me back at all. The last few things are:

1. Bookshelf for the TV wall

AND THATS IT! OMG! I did save the biggest project for the end, but that's what you do. Hail Mary and what not. I may even not attempt the bookshelf until Jeston gets back and have him make it for me. Who knows. Anyway. That's it. Goodbye. 

LAWN ARMS

So I bought a lawn mower. But one of the old school kinds where you just push it and it cuts the grass. No bag to collect the cuttings, no motor, no gas, no electricity. ALL ARM POWERS!



To be fully transparent, I grew up in an old-school household. Ladies were in charge of laundry, mopping, sweeping; you know, womanly things. The guys took care of the yards, outdoor exterior issues, taking out the trash, and any major interior malfunctions.


Yes, I know that I was born in the 80's and not in the 50's. And no, I'm not at a disadvantage for having my family's gender roles defined a certain way. It was just the way we grew up. Now, I was a bit rebellious as a kid so it's very possible you could have found me in the backyard doing yard work with my dad...shirtless, because that's how he did it.

(cool it guys, I was like, 8 years old)

Although it would cost me $50 to get someone to come and cut the lawn in 30 minutes with an actual power mower, I like doing things myself. And I also hate working out my arms at the gym. WIN WIN! Granted, I bought the mower a week ago and have only been able to mow 1/5 of the backyard. Not that the back yard is huge, but that the grass is VERY TALL. And I didn't realize that I had spent the whole first day mowing with the mower set to the lowest cutting height. 

Lesson learned. I changed the height and am ready to get this yard taken care of. 

It's taken about a week to get it managed, but I've only been able actually mow a few hours twice during the week. This week has been fall move-in at Duke so our offices are putting in a bunch of overtime ($$$$) to keep things running smoothly. So I've been working 11-12 hour days and full weekends.  Also...rain.

But. I am persistent. And I am stubborn. So that lawn is not going to get the best of me. I've still got a few corners and edges to tackle, but I'm getting closer to completion each day. I guess all those times my parents made me redo my homework or chores until they were done right (regardless of how meaningless it was at the time) has made such an impact on my personal will power that I will not stop until my tasks are done and done right.

Thanks Obama, I mean, mom and dad.

I've also cut my grocery spending in half because of this amazing garden that keeps producing food for me. I've also had to give a lot of food away because I can't eat it all.

I guess that's a good problem to have.

Eating the backyard

Here are some pictures of the things I've been eating!

SPINACH AND RADISHES!

Tomatoes...so many tomatoes

Cucumbers, potatoes, onions, beets??

Green Beans and Sweet Potatoes!

Parsley, Rosemary and Basil...the rest is still sleeping

Sad little Raspberry sapling. 

Got to spend 36 hours in Florida. Saw the family, spent time with Jeston. THIS IS MY AWESOME BROTHER!

Also got another canvas print for the house/for sale at this Duke Employee Art Exhibit. Hopefully someone will buy it.  It's called 'Hurricane Season' because it's a photo of gooseneck barnacles that have attached themselves to sargasm seaweed and fishing line.

I'm into the wood frame.


Excited to get more prints done in the future.












Another exciting project that may be my goal for August or September....WALL OF SHELVES!


Right when you walk into the house, you walk into the living room, and the door opens pretty much right up against the TV wall. So I'm starting to do the planning stages for how to build around the door and TV so we can have a full wall of shelves.


Something similar to this:

Ahh pinterest, how you inspire me.