This is who I am

and I don’t have to be to work today 😆

I managed to make a dent in the “to-do” list I posted on Friday.

The swim went great for me. I managed to push myself 100 yards further than the last trip, plus for the 1st time I managed to swim 100 yards twice without stopping. The second time I had to roll over and backstroke a couple of times, but I did NOT stop. This is a great breakthrough for me as it shows me that I have not been pushing myself hard enough. Kahuna is convinced I need to be swimming everyday, and I’m going to ramp it up a little this week. I don’t know if that means going more yards per trip, or more trips. I’ll be playing it by ear.

Saturday I got my hair cut….short. She even shaved my neck, which I’ve never had done in my life!! I’m not sure I like the cut. It’s really the same as I’ve had, just shorter in the back. My hair grows in a circle around my head and with it being this short, it kind of wants to do the fuzzy chicken thing unless I mess with it a lot. I’m not the sort of person who wants to mess with her hair much. I got it cut short for less messing with. I’ll see if it “grows” on me. I love the way it looks, it’s just a little more work than what I’m wanting. I also went to a new stylist, who was 50% cheaper, fast, great – and pregnant. Why is it I feel like I find someone I like, they’re never around for long? I didn’t ask her if she was going to return after having the baby (her first). I’ll go to her again in about 6 weeks and I’ll talk to her then. I’ve also found myself a new manicurist, who’s also 50% cheaper than my last one. I wasn’t going to continue having my nails done but the swimming just destroys them, and while I don’t keep them very long, I would like for them to look nice. Both ladies work at the salon on the base which is 5 minutes from where I live. Amazing the great resources you can find when you take the time to look. But you realize that I’m moving right? 😆

During all this beautifying Kahuna was surfing, and then he had a cycle/run brick which left me at the house working in my office. I think it was 3 before we left the house to do our errands. I went to Joann’s and got the fibers picked out for Hannah Beeby. I am really happy with my choice and am looking forward to the stitchalong starting the end of March. I’ve decided on DMC 839, 3863, and 224 on Lambswool Linen.

I haven’t decided on 28 or 32 count, but am leaning toward the 28. I just need to see if what I have is large enough. I also picked up a pair of embroidery scissors, a thread holder for my sewing machine and a couple of other little things bringing my total to less than what I would have paid for the scissors full price. Yay for sales and coupons. I neglected to get a new bulb for my OTT though and I have a 40% coupon for that, that I really need to take advantage of, since the lighting by my sewing machine is next to none.

I went through my pantry Saturday and made a menu and grocery list around what was in there. I’m determined to get us back to eating better and not break the bank doing it. I spent less than my budgeted $75 on groceries Sunday, and only forgot 1 thing. Woohoo!

The rest of the day was spent doing a whole lot of not much. We really enjoyed Daytona 500. I would have been happier if Dale Earnhart or Casey Kahne won, but it was great that Tony Stewart or Jeff Gordan did not! 🙂 The rest of my time on Sunday was spent on and off in my office. I made great headway with my desk and got my keyboard and printer moved and almost everything put where I want it OFF the desk. I have some photos to be framed and moved around and I’ll be tickled with my desk setup.

Stitching? Well except for playing floss toss for Hannah, I didn’t have anything to do with stitching on Saturday or Sunday. That will be different today though. I am running out to town to see about the above mentioned picture frames, and to hit up Costco for some bread (but will still be way under budget). The rest of my day will be spent doing laundry, stitching, and catching up with the stuff I have recorded on the DVR. I only have 1 small thing to stitch on the RR that I want to mail out tomorrow and then I’ll be working on Ann Holewll. I’m going to have to piece together some qsnap components for it, but am planning on using some of the money I get from selling my stash to buy another set of rods for my Handi Clamps.

I would like to get the fabric cut for Houses of Hawk Run Hollow today, but if it doesn’t happen I’m not going to worry about it and just put it on next week’s “to-do” list. My poor French Alphabet Sampler is probably going to be ignored today as well since I really need to get caught up with Ann Holewll.

I wanted to stay off the computer over the weekend and except for cleaning out some old emails and emptying my camera chip, I did pretty good! I managed to sell several of the Shepherd’s Bush items I posted so was on the computer getting that squared away. I didn’t do any posting of The Silver Lining stuff, but that’s because the box they’re in is sort of out of reach right now as I work my way across my office cleaning and sorting and selling. I do need to get them up though.

I didn’t get anything done on ebookdrop.com either. I could probably do that from work, since I’ll have to haul them in for mailing anyway. I know the prices won’t be much, but they’ll be more than just sitting in my office taking up space and collecting dust. I’m almost to the point of throwing things away so I don’t have to move it or clean around it so if I can get some money for it, that’s better. I also want to look into cashduck.com for a bit more income. I think I’d rather go this route for now and not increase my hours at work until we decide where we’re going to live. I may increase them by 15 minutes a day though in a week or so. We’ll see.

I’ve decided to split whatever extra I have coming in equally 3 ways:

Training – Kahuna is building me a bike from components he’s selling on one of his bikes, and I want to contribute. This money will stay in paypal, since he buys a lot of components from places that accept paypal.

Stitching – I love my hobby. I have tons of money invested in it. I have lots of beautiful things to work with without buying more so I’m trying to buy only what I need to stitch from my stash. The first item will be the 14” bars for the Handi Clamps I mentioned above. I’ll probably also use this $ for finishing. I have a savings account I don’t use that I’ll keep these funds in.

Debt – While it won’t be much, the last 1/3 of my extra income will go toward getting my debt paid off.

I thought I would feel deprived while I worked on getting myself out of my debt fix; however, I have taken the advice of several blogs I read and made sure to have some “wants” budgeted for (like my manicures). It’s working and I almost feel like I’m playing a game seeing what I can accomplish with what I have. I’m also trying to get out of the impulse spending that I practiced in the past. I’m doing pretty good! I also have my wonderful hobby that entertains me which helps a lot.

I didn’t mean for this to get so long, but I guess I had a lot to get down after all my thinking this weekend. I guess I’d better say “The End” to this novel and get on with my day.