The days just keep slipping out from under me. Oy.

Buggie’s almost finished with her first term of college. She comes home in a week and a half, even though a large part of her does not want to. She’s met a boy out there. Well, sort of. She’s in Idaho. He’s in Utah. They met online, and I think they’re meeting in person this weekend because he’s going to be in her town (or a nearby one, perhaps) for a family event. I also know that she loves the independence, the scenery, the overall vibe, the quiet. So it’s not just the boy.

Speaking of college, I’m getting ready to go back to college myself. I’m going to get my paralegal certification, which is an associate’s level degree. The local community college is certified by the American Bar Association and is a heck of a lot less expensive than the online self study programs friends have referred me to. I’ve got my application for financial aid already in progress, and I’m planning to register for either 2 or 3 of the prerequisite classes for the spring term, which starts in January. Yeah, just a few weeks away. Yikes.

Mini’s doing well. Still making steady progress at school, still straddling the line between little girl interests and wanting to be all grown up. She’s very recently decided that she wants to be baptised, so we’re also getting together with friends from the ward on Saturday mornings to go through the missionary discussions and prepare her for that.

I finished a crochet baby blanket in October. I’m still slowly working on the Nauvoo sunstone piece, and I’ve been crocheting hats during church rather than starting a new blanket. I wish I had money to get a mannequin head (or styrofoam form, whatever) and room to store it, so I could effectively block and shape these hats when they’re done. But I need to be weeding out stuff, not adding more.

Speaking of adding more stuff… my sister recently lost her job. She’s breaking her lease and moving in with our aunt because her landlord is not as understanding and accommodating as mine is. She just gave me a box full of yarns and another box of Ball jars. And if I can figure out how the heck to get them home, I’m also getting her Billy bookcases, which will replace the Walmart bookcases I currently have in my bedroom that have less capacity. I’m already in the process of ripping all of my DVD movies to digital files so I can put the actual movies into storage somewhere and not damage the discs further, so the tentative plan there is to put the Billy cases where my DVD racks currently sit, move my food storage and paperbacks out of the bedroom onto those shelves, and rearrange my bedroom to take advantage of the now-bare inside wall without a baseboard heater.

I also finally finished reading the books that have been published to date in the A Song of Ice and Fire series. Yes, I know GRRM is still working on them. With the TV show on HBO, though, I decided to go ahead and get started anyway. While working my way through those, though, I realized just how much slower I read on my Sony Touch than I do on hardcopy. I had to renew the library loan on each book…. three times on Dance. The e-book loans are only 2 weeks instead of 3, but still. Three renewals means I needed at least 7 weeks to get through it. Sadly, there isn’t going to be much time for entertainment reading for a while after school begins.

Whoa. Has it seriously been six months since I’ve posted here?

I’ve had all kinds of craziness going on around here, although looking back now it doesn’t seem like so much. Maybe just because the day-to-day insanity gets hidden in the rear-view mirror.

Buggie’s doing the pre-college thing now. We traveled to Utah and Idaho during spring break to check out the schools she was accepted to, and she decided on BYU-Idaho as a result of those tours. She graduated high school with honors (which is absolutely no surprise at all to anyone that knows her). She received a maximum grant from Pell and was offered a couple Stafford loans as well. She may have to get a job out there to help with living expenses, but we’ll see.

Mini’s emotional status has been stabilizing and we’re working to wean her down on her meds. She broke a tooth on the playground during summer school, which we had to get bonded. It looks great, and it’s caused her to be more aware of the need to brush her teeth regularly, which has been an ongoing problem. She’ll be in 8th grade when school starts back up. Five more years before I have to figure out whether college is for her, and what options are available.

I’ve been at my job for about 16 months. Finally in the last week, we were able to file our initial documents on the few properties remaining out of the massive batch that was why I was hired in the first place. Sadly, the ones we couldn’t file on are dead in the water for one reason or another. The client thought they had a half million in accounts payable owed, we’re down to about 75 thousand. Yes, the client is looking into a malpractice suit against the attorney that started all this work.

Meanwhile, at church, I’ve been called to be the secretary to the children’s program. I’m working with about 60 kids, and at the time I was called, I knew the names of maybe 10% of that number. It’s been about 3 months and I’m definitely getting better with names, I’m probably up to 20-25%.

Yes, I’m still crafting, but not as much as I would like. I’m still plugging away at Nordic Needle Rose periodically. I’ve been working on a crocheted baby blanket at church, only about an hour a week. I haven’t touched the sewing machine in months, but I really need to get back to that as well.

So, yeah, I’ve been a little busy lately. [sheepish]

Work is great. I’ve got lots of little catch-up type projects for when we don’t have an active deadline. Boss was without a secretary for over two years, so there’s a lot of maintenance type stuff piled up LOL.

I haven’t been doing as much cross stitch, but I am doing a lot more crochet, especially during church while listening to talks and lessons. And I’m slowly learning to knit, which has been on my someday list for a long time.

There’s been a lot more cooking and baking from scratch going on, largely because the budget is so horribly FUBAR right now. I’m making about half of what I did at the downtown firm and I’m anywhere from 6 to 18 months behind on several bills. There’s been a ton of juggling going on, and I am so thankful for the welfare program available through my church. It’s definitely led to some interesting meals, but most importantly, we’ve had food on the table every night.

Buggie has her driver’s license at last and is doing housework for my mother to pay for her portion of the insurance and gas. She also babysits for neighbors and friends from church. Mini is still catching up at school at her own rate, and is definitely more social and better controlled than she was a year ago. I would not be surprised to know that regular church attendance is helping with that as well.

So, yeah, still here, still struggling, but still doing reasonably okay. And still looking forward to what each new day brings.

Work is going great. The boss has been letting me loose on new projects with little to no instruction, which honestly feels wonderful. The old boss never would have given me the kind of freedom I have here. Of course, Boss looks over everything after I’ve done it, but since it’s all going out over his name, that’s only natural and expected.

School is now done for the kids. Thank goodness, because I don’t know how much more of Buggie’s horribly terribly awful attitude I could have handled.  I do remember how bad Junior year was, and I didn’t even bother with ACT or SAT testing because I knew I was just going to end up at the local community college if anything. So I was sympathetic to the stress, but dang.

My calling at church is going very well. We’ve planned several good workshops and seminars for the next few months, and we’re starting to think about our big service project that we’ll do with the young women near the end of the year. Sadly, the charity I was really hoping for, Feed My Starving Children, is currently booked through about February of next year. So I’m keeping my eye open for cancellations, just in case.

The kids are doing well. Buggie ended up getting a 29 on the ACT without knowing any physics or finishing the written portion. Yeah, getting into college won’t be a problem for her. Paying for it, however, looks like it will be a big problem for me.

And I am stitching!  I’ve been working on the Christmas fairy during work and a crocheted baby blanket at church. Of course, I don’t have easy access to my camera for status pictures… LOL

I’m baaaaaaaaaaaaack!!

It’s been an insane couple weeks here, mostly because of figuring out new routines and then having them all immediately tossed out the window when Spring Break hit.  Just a few more days of that left, at least.

I have even been stitching! Not as much as I would like, but still more than I had been.  I’m mostly working on Chrissy the Christmas Fairy on my lunch breaks and occasionally working on Autumn Sunset at home. 

As for work, I’m in a nearby suburb.  My boss owns the building we’re in.  The office is on the second floor of a downtown building with lots of huge windows that face to the south, so lots of sunlight, and a Starbucks below me.  I love the smell of coffee but not the taste, so its proximity is only a small temptation because of their peppermint hot chocolate.  And a raw chocolate boutique is in negotiations to move into the currently empty first floor space next to Starbucks.  I don’t know if that will be dangerous, the sample they brought in yesterday didn’t interest me much, but I think I need to check out their website to see what else they might have.

I’m not sure if the RSS is actually updating afte rall. That last post never did show up on my reader.  So I may have gotten excited about that for nothing. If anyone out there using WordPress has suggestions, I would appreciate it.  I would also love to get my dashboard to showme all tags and not just my “most used” ones.

And right now I am SOOOOOOOOOOooo loving this Akami spam filter system.  Yeesh, I wander away for a little bit and come back to 35 spam comments plus 5 new spam user sign-ups.

The RSS feed is actually updating now!! yay!

In other awesome news, I have a job at last!  Not the one I interviewed at last week (still haven’t heard back from them after leaving a follow up message on Wednesday) but an attorney who’s local to me and was a second-generation referral from church. I met with him yesterday and he put me to work immediately.  Woot!

Also, my dad just got confirmation that he’ll be working for the Census Bureau.  NOT as a census taker (the people that go door to door when you don’t send in your form) but as some sort of supervisor. And it’s a government job, so that opens up major doors for hi.

I managed to complete 4 hats and 1 scarf in time for the church auction for Girls’ Camp.  I also added in the baby blanket I made back in September, just because.  We’ll see how much actually sells and how much comes back home LOL.

Another interview this week. They’ll make a decision next week and plan to have someone start approximately 4/1. I’ll be following up with them and with the tax attorney from a month ago on Tuesday.

We’re having a fundraiser at church next weekend for girls’ camp, and I’ve been churning out crocheted hats and scarves to add to the auction. I’m hoping to get one more hat-and-scarf set and maybe another 2 hats done, and then maybe I’ll see about doing some little beaded pins as well.

Buggie’s been doing a ton of babysitting recently, which is great. At least someone is working, and she doesn’t have to keep asking me for money when she wants something. Which really isn’t often anyway, she’s definitely learned how to be self-controlled and frugal over the years.

I had an interview yesterday with an attorney in a nearby suburb. The job sounds great, he sounds like he’s interested in me, but he’s not planning to have someone start until after tax season. The office is very sterile, and that concerns me because I work much better with music and he does not like having music playing in the office (I asked because of how bare people’s desks are). I’ll take it if offered and I’m still available.

I then had a phone interview today – yes, on Saturday – for a work-from-home typing opportunity for an attorney downtown. He’s temporarily displaced from his office because of an environmental issue, and his assistant recently relocated to another state. So there’s a possibility of an office position once things get settled down in the building. It almost sounds like I’ve got the work-from-home portion clinched, at least, but I’m not counting on it because that’s just the way things seem to go for me.

I also have a potential interview for next week with yet another office. The coordinator at the staffing agency called on Friday to feel out my interest level, she’s trying to get more info and has my availability so she can go ahead and schedule the interview for me without further delay.

And I’m stitching! I spent a little time on the Christmas Fairy while at my parents’ house last week, plus a couple hours today on Autumn’s Sunset Sampler while playing an online game with my father.

The import old posts project is on hold at the moment, mostly just because I had other things that were grabbing my attention. I’ll get back to that sooner or later.

And odd, I’m now seeing an RSS error on my dashboard… “XML Error, out of memory at line 1, column 0″. Make any sense to anyone?