[150] A Week (more like two) In Review

On Labor Day, I rode up to DFW with my dad and baby sister. We were meeting up with my sister (and her little family) to pick up our mom from the airport. She's been in the Philippines for the last three months and was on her way home. We arrived at the airport an hour before her flight was scheduled to land. Three and a half hours later... we find out she had a 15 hour layover in Tokyo and wouldn't be in until Tuesday morning. I made the mistake of staying up ALL NIGHT LONG so I could nap to and from DFW. (Bad idea!) To cure all the crankiness, we stopped for lunch at Chili's before heading back to Wichita Falls.

Later in the week, a friend of mine sent me this with the message, "Quick! Before your mother finds you a zombie!" Hahaha! I'm about 102% sure I have found a non-serial killer. Success!

A cold front rolled in... rolled out... then rolled back in and brought some rain.

With the rain, came a few wrecks. As I was coming home from my parents house, I noticed a bunch of sheriff's were pulling onto my street. I took the other entrance to my street only to find this car parked in our driveway. After a few mumbles and grumbles I decided to carefully pull into my driveway (by jumping the curb).

While staring at the unfortunate accident of this Sheriff's vehicle (who happens to work with a friend of mine... small town!)... Mackenzey and I hear the impact of two vehicles. Unsure of what caused this particular wreck, I decided to go take a look. Their airbags had deployed and it was obvious their car was totaled. All we could do was look and think to ourselves, what sort of distraction caused this wreck? It's unfortunate that this happened on such a bad weather day, but it seems as if they made it out okay. Possibly a little upset at the situation but they're both alive.

Everything was cleared out before I had to be at work at 3pm, but it certainly is entertaining living on right off of a very busy street.

[149] Crafts: Handmade Halloween Accessories

Halloween is creeping up! I'm looking forward to browsing through all the decorations popping up in stores all over town. AND throwing a Halloween party at some point. I shared this on another blog last year and figured it was time to share it again for any crafty readers out there. ;)

Do you dress up for Halloween? What will you dress up as this year?!
I'm planning on being Robin Hood. :)

Homemade Halloween costume hair clips: Pichu Ears

If you're on a budget around Halloween (whether you're saving up for Christmas time or you just flat out don't have the income to throw money at a full costume) making homemade costume pieces is a budget friendly way to celebrate without setting yourself back $50.

Want to know how to make your own Halloween accessory hair clips?

Materials Needed:

• Printed image for reference (optional)
• Scissors
• Ultra Fine Point Sharpie
• Ruler
• Craft felt: 1 sheet in black and yellow is more than enough.
• Needle
• Yellow (or white) thread
• Cotton balls
• Hair clips (These no-slip grip clips are nice and sturdy.)

Start out by sketching the shape of Pichu's ears.

The black felt ears measures:

• 2.5" from the top point to the bottom edge
• 2" wide (point to point)
• 2" from top point to side point
• 1" from side point to bottom edge

The yellow felt ears measures:

• 1.5" from the top points to the bottom edge
• 1¾" wide (point to point)
• 1¼" from top point to side point
• ¾" from side point to bottom edge

Begin assembling your ears. Layer, yellow-black-yellow, and sew them together, leaving the bottom edge open for cotton stuffing. You should be able to fit 1 jumbo cotton ball in each ear. The extra piece of yellow felt will be used to close up the bottom while also providing a flat surface for the hair clip to be sewn to.

When choosing a pair of hair clips to sew your ears to, try to match your hair color as close as possible. And you're done! You can use this tutorial to make a variety of different creature ears.

[148] Moving on up!

I moved out of my parents house! I have been on the hunt for a place to live for the entire summer (since becoming employed). The one thing that kept me from moving into an apartment was the mere fact that I'd be paying $550-700 for a one bedroom. (That would leave me with very little money every month.) I really got lucky with this. I'm living with two girls. They're sisters and we grew up in the same neighborhood just a few streets away from each other. A couple of lovely ladies, if I do say so myself.

Plenty of PROS with moving. I went from driving 11 miles to work, down to 1 mile to work. (Gas prices have gone back to being outrageous!) I used to live on the north side of the city, away from every thing. Now I'll be closer to plenty of the places I visit on a regular basis. Not to mention, being able to sleep in a little bit longer and only having to leave 10 minutes before work instead of 20-30 minutes. I'm living with the one person that has been the only 'constant' in my life since moving back home. I truly love that.

Moving back home is hard. You grow apart from people, whether you like it or not. You can make comments here and there on social networks, but the truth is that people become distant. I'm in better contact with people I met playing World of Warcraft than I am with people I've known my entire life! It's sad, sure! But hey! People go through changes and that's just how life is. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. I'm just pointing a few things out. Just call me Madam Observant.

Anyway. I'm back to unpacking boxes once again, and I'm excited to decorate another living space. (With tons of natural light pouring in my windows!)

I'm going to enjoy this entire experience the best I absolutely can. :)

[147] Shop my AVON store!

Yeah... I'm getting hot and heavy into Avon. I've been a representative for a whole week now. Woo! I'm surprising myself with how much work I've put into it thus far. I have been known to say I'll do something and never get into it. But I'm really interested in learning more about Avon products, both as a customer and a representative!

[146] Busiest of the Bees

I am going to be INCREDIBLY BUSY this entire week. Let's recap the weekend starting with Saturday, shall we?

I had the day off. Woo! That rarely happens, but my boss offered either Saturday night off, or Sunday and Monday off. I took the Saturday night option so I could have a date night with Dustin. I'll get to that later.

My sister, Jeanine (who is 23 today! Happy Birthday little sister/best friend!) came by the house so we could run a few errands. Well, it happened to be the same day as the Hotter N Hell Hundred, which runs directly by my house. Sitting at a stop sign for way longer than anyone would ever want to, just hoping for a gap in bike riders so I could make a right turn and cruise at a low speed along side these riders (except that one guy who was riding comfy cozy in the left lane... ugh). Anyway! I had to follow Jeanine to run some errands.

We had to stop by El Norteno's 2 to pick up some food for Kirk (my brother-in-law). While Jeanine ran inside to get the food, I had to entertain Khloe before she could even start to scream her head off. As most mommy's know, once you're out of sight... your kid will probably freak out. That's exactly the case EVERY single time Khloe is left alone with me. So, I had to act quick! What's one thing that calms her down?? Jeanine's cell phone. CHECK! With the lock screen featuring a picture of her carrying her two woo-woo's (puppy stuffed animals)?? CHECK! She's absolutely adorable when she picks up an iPhone. Just like her mommy; push the home button, slide to unlock, tap messages, starts typing to the last person Jeanine messaged... which happened to be Kirk.

Khloe, working on very important tasks and sending out messages. Her sidekick, Diesel, taking a nap.

Jeanine and Kirk gave Khloe a new puppy. She loves her woo-woo's! While we were driving back to the house, Diesel decided to curl up around my gear shift for a nap. He'd stick his face anywhere that was covered with shade and take a little snooze. Cutest little dude. I definitely took advantage of handling him while his dander levels are very very low. I'm sure within the next few months this German shepherd and pit bull mix will cause my allergies to go crazy. When that happens... I'll keep a bottle of Zyrtec everywhere I go.

After a very long shopping trip with both my sisters and my niece, we finally ventured back home around 5pm. Even though it was date night for Dustin and I, we hadn't set a specific time to go to dinner. He had a late lunch and I was still satisfied from my lunch at Cotton Patch Cafe with my sisters. We ended up going to dinner around 830 or 9 o'clock. Even then, we weren't really starving. As planned, we went to Red Lobster for the Endless Shrimp. Only able to order one refill each... amateurs!

I ended my night by going out with a few friends while Dustin stayed in as he had to be up at the crack of dawn. The country night club I went to was holding a "Best Chest" contest for men... way too many shirtless dudes for my liking. I prefer them clothed and not awkwardly shiny, but I guess that's just me. Haha! It was followed by a bikini contest, which a friend of mine entered. Being the good friend that I am, I got a group of strangers behind me to help cheer her on. She may not have won, but she looked damn good out there!

On to Sunday... Kirk dropped off Jeanine and Khloe so I could take them to church with me. Father Rogers is by far one of the best when it comes to the sermon. You can tell every single word comes from the heart and definitely not something he's typed out the night before. With that... sometimes he loses track of time, haha. We were cutting in close as I had to be at work by 1230. Service ended around 1145 at our tiny church in Burkburnett. I had to drop off Jeanine and Khloe, and make it to work before 1230 so I could do all my pre-opening procedures. Somehow, I made it in 5 minutes early, going the speed limit and obeying traffic laws. *FIST PUMP*

After work, I made my way home to change clothes, relax, and straighten Krystal's hair for the first day of school. She had her hair cut rather short when she came back from a 2 week vacation in Virginia and it just hasn't been straightened properly since it was cut, dyed, and styled at the salon. I started out as I always do... brush and blow dry. With her short length, it ended up in a big fro, hahaha! Although she asked that no pictures be taken or posted anywhere... she broke her own rule by posting it herself. Only after I told her she should text her friends asking if she should wear her hair like this on the first day. Nobody said yes... hmmm, I wonder why? Haha!

After an hour of straightening those curly/frizzy locks... I was finally done! But not before taking a picture of the process. If you look closely, her straightened hair in the back lays flat, while the frizzy fro hair in the front sticks straight up. Hahaha, endless laughs on my end.

Today is Monday... First day of school for all the children and college students. I don't even want to begin to check how many friends posted about it this morning. Too many! Good luck to your kids and to those college students.

Anyway. This week will be jam packed with work and packing. That's right! My friend officially asked me to be her roomie. The thing is, I don't have a day off until September 3rd, the day we pick up my mom from the airport. Somehow, I'll have to manage hauling my stuff across town and get myself settled in (and most importantly, out of my parents house).

Time to go get ready for work and write out a to-do list for the week!
Happy Monday! (Sorry for the wall of text!)