Life By Lindsey Rae

The last week has been very busy and exhausting.I only have a moment to write, but I thought I better write something since it has been over 10 days since the last time I did.
We closed on our house on the 21st and we have been moving the last 5 days. We have got most of the stuff we need at the new house, but there are a few things left at the apartment as well as some cleaning to do and some of my unfinished projects. (I finally finished grouting my mosaic table this afternoon!)
We also don't have any internet service at our new house and won't have any until January 2nd. (This is because of a combination of having to wait for an appointment to get it set up and also what seems to be a minor problem between the service provider and the builder and not getting the wiring out to the new neighborhood like they should have.) We have our computers at our old place still and not having any internet and TV at our main residence makes me feel like I am camping.
Christmas didn't seem like it normally does yesterday. We spent a lot of the day sleeping then unpacking, opened a few presents...and more unpacking. Kind of strange for me, but I think next year will be better. You do what you can do at the time and if you have to move on Christmas, then you have to move on Christmas.
Our new house is nice...but in chaos right now as we are attempting to organize. I am going to try to post new pictures of the finished place when I get the time and the internet back!

Today I gave up my Jetta for a new car.
It is a '97 was at almost 100,000 miles and Jerrod doesn't like to keep cars after they get that many miles on them, so it was time to get something new. It was a good little car for me and I knew I would be sad to get rid of my car, because I liked it. But, at the same time, I think it was better that we got something else before it got over the 100,000 mark, because it is easier to sell/trade it while it is under and before it has any problems.
I think the reason I felt so attached to that car was because Jerrod bought it for me when we were first dating. We had known each other just about a month or two and I had been in an accident and totaled the car I was driving. I was a poor student who had to travel a two hours to school and back home everyday and was in desperate need of something drive. Jerrod found this car and bought it for me to "use" but, had basically handed it over to me as the sole driver. It saved me at the time and it was pretty amazing that he had been willing to do that for me. (That could have been a bad situation if our relationship had not worked out!) But, he must have liked me or something, because he was sure helped me out a lot.
Anyway, so, I always really appreciated having the Jetta because of that especially. But, as much as I love my Jetta, today we traded it in on a new car. I got a Mazda3, which I quite like. I really love the body style of this car.
Of all the ones I looked at, I think it's one of my favorite, (except for maybe Jerrod's BMW, but I can't drive that anyway, because it's a standard and I wouldn't want to even if I could, because I would be waaayyy too nervous touch it.) And it has a lot of nice features and is bright red...which means I might be able to find it in the parking lot, finally. Hopefully this will mean no more walking around Wal-Mart's parking lot for 20 minutes searching for my car. I'm so nervous to drive it though, because it's new and I don't want to hurt it or get it messy....not that I didn't try to drive carefully in my old car, but the new car is...new...so that gives me anxiety! Plus, I promised to try to keep it cleaner, and so I really have to do that. It's a challenge. Not because I don't want to or don't try, but I'm a artist, I'm always late and I have ADD. I just don't pay attention to those things some days! But, I'm going to try harder for the sanity of my husband.

Our house is almost finished. Jerrod went by yesterday and it was fortunate that he did, because when he got there he saw that they had put the wrong carpet in! And they had finished it throughout the ENTIRE house! It was actually the original standard carpet we had picked, but then at the beginning of September, before anything was really started, we told them we wanted to upgrade our carpet to something different and a little bit better. Initially we had thought we didn't want to pay for the better stuff because we don't plan on living in this house really long term, but after thinking about it, we decided the upgraded carpet will probably last longer and we won't have to replace it when we move out after 5 years like we might with the cheaper stuff. We thought we'd rather enjoy the carpet rather then putting in new stuff later for only someone else to enjoy.
Anyway, for whatever reason, the design studio did not pass that information onto the builder and so they didn't know that we had paid for that upgrade and they just put in the standard stuff that comes with the house. So, now they have to rip out the entire thing and replace all of it. Sucks to be them! Good thing we go by often enough to notice these mistakes to get them taken care of ahead of time, as our closing date is going to be the last day before Christmas; its tight for time. They had also put in a track light that we had requested they not do, because we are going to install our own (that we got for $11.98 at Lowes, regular $78. Good deal!) and so we asked them to take that down and re-patch some of the holes it left on the ceiling. It's better to have them do it so we don't have to. I think that was a message that was supposed to have got to them around the same time as the carpet, so someone, somewhere, didn't pass those things along. Oops.
Oh, and when I went to my house today it had lights and heat for the first time. It was sooo nice. I actually had to take my shoes off when I went in (as opposed to usually walking on the concrete floors that sometimes had mud and dirt and dust on them.) I'm always cold and in the last little while it's been a little chilly for me. But the new heated house is much better!

This video made me laugh out loud all the way through it. Jerrod even came into see what I was making so much noise about. I don't know why, but I just found it so funny. This hamster is so interested in the piece of popcorn he has that he is paralyzed by it. He even has a piano played underneath his head and doesn't seem to notice But, as soon as he looses his popcorn he suddenly comes back to consciousness and freaks out that he has lost his prize.

Yesterday I went up to our apartment Christmas party to get myself some free food. I always appreciate anything free. I guess that's why we pay the big bucks to live here. So we can get "free" food once a year. While I was there, I did see my neighbor, George, who is the elderly guy that lives in my building whom I mentioned a few weeks ago. Last time I saw him he was being carried away in an ambulance, and I hadn't seen him since, so I wasn't sure if he made it or not. But, I saw him yesterday and he told me that he had just spent nine days in the hospital from a staph infection. He didn't looks so good. He also seemed to have his speech slightly slurred, so I was wondering if maybe there was something else wrong with him. I didn't talk to him very much though because he said he had to get going so he could "talk to all the other pretty girls." And then he ran over my foot with his wheel chair.
As it turns out, tonight there was once again an ambulance, fire truck and two police cars that were by our building, I think come to take George back to the hospital. It's too bad.

Tonight was another free supper with Jerrod's work party. It was at the Opryland hotel once again this year. They did have a thing where they had a photographer taking pictures of everyone to give as a memento and you could pick up the printed picture after a few minutes. After much persuasion I was able to convince Jerrod to take a picture with me. Unfortunately, we both didn't think we looked good in it and now I am afraid I will never have any hope of getting Jerrod to take a picture again. Seriously, it's a concern. I don't know why it has to be so difficult, but it is.
When we were leaving the party, I saw my friend, Manami, working at the front desk of the hotel. I hadn't seen her in awhile and so I was really happy to run into her. I know she has been working there a lot, but hopefully when she has a day off I can get together with her again soon.
(Manami is from Japan and has done translations for my Japanese songs for me.)

Speaking of food, we also bought our fridge today. This is the one we got, excpet in black.It's an expensive little purchase, but it seems to be a necessary one. We got a Samsung with french doors.We were going to get the side-by-side originally, but decided on this one because there is more room for bigger things with French doors. Like, you can't really fit a large pizza box in the side-by-side. Although, I do prefer the side-by-side because it has the water dispenser on the outside of the door (along with lots of blue glowing lights). Ours does have the water filter/dispenser, but it's inside. Not as convenient for someone who drinks water all day like me, but I guess unless you have endless funds and can get your own custom made refrigerator, none will be absolutely perfect. You just have to balance the pros and cons with these sort of things.

But, only because I finally had to. I knew I needed to do it, but I kept thinking, "Oh well...I'm moving soon anyway, I'll just do it then". But now that time has actually came. I had to start packing because I am moving and therefore I was given orders yesterday that my task for the day was to clean my closet: Summer clothes in one bin; winter clothes in another bin.That's what he said.
And then, I felt pretty good that I could show off my newly cleaned closet after one day, when Jerrod had expected it would take at least two.Now that I'm on the closet subject, Jerrod and I are going to be sharing a closet at the new house. Does anyone get the same feeling as me that this could be a problem? Not so much for me, but...maybe for someone who might be on the side of slightly very organized...

Why does Sunday always come so quickly? It seems like as soon as we get home from church one week, it is almost time to go back again the next day; like the week always disappears somewhere in between.
We went over to Providence for a few hours this weekend and had a little lunch. (Cracker Barrel!! My favorite!) And then we also spend a few minutes window shopping. I went to TJMaxx/homegoods store and Jerrod ran over to Best Buy. While I was there I saw a Japanese family and heard them speaking Japanese. I decided to get brave and asked them if they spoke English, "eigo hanashimasuka?" And the Mother replied, "yes." So we ended up talking for awhile about then and me. I told her that I am a singer and she suggested she might like me help her daughter with some singing lessons. I told her that I'd also like to help her with English if she'd just speak Japanese with me. I need native speaker friends to practice with.
So, I gave her my card and will hope that she calls. It would be fun to meet to new Japanese people around here again!

Here's the all wonderful house pictures....kitchen is getting to look quite a bit like a kitchen. I really love the counter tops. They are almost my favorite thing! Kinda dirty right now, not too much to see, but anyway...

We went to our house today and saw the builder while we were there. He said that we will be able to close on our house this month after all. It will probably be either the 19th or the 21st. It's really soon! I can't believe we are going to be moving in 3 weeks!
This past week they put the cabinets and counters and some flooring in and were working on more of that; including pluming fixtures today.
We had also paid for extra outlets in our cabinets so we could install some under cabinet lighting ourselves later on, but as it turns out, they made a mistake on it. This is good news for us because and so now the builder is going to install and give us our lighting for free. (Normally it's not an option they offer.) So, that will save us a few dollars that we were going to spend on that. I don't know if it will be exactly what we would buy ourselves, but I'm all about getting the free stuff whenever possible.

Overall, it was a pretty uneventful holiday. We didn't really do any big dinner thing. We hadn't really planned anything and didn't get any invitations to anyone's house this year, which has been the case for me in all the years I have previously lived here. Although, we did go over to Reco's in the evening so Jerrod could help him set up some stereo stuff that he is selling to him and ate some of their leftovers.
Speaking of Thanksgiving, I did not realize that Americans took the holiday so seriously until I moved here. Of course we have Thanksgiving too, but in some ways I think that they made a bigger deal out of it than they do Christmas. At school, people would ask me if I was going home for Thanksgiving and when I would say no, that I was not planning on going all the way to Canada for a one day holiday, (which by the way happed more than a month ago in my country) they would be absolutely shocked.
Earlier in the day we went over to Providence and saw our house. Amazingly enough, it has been painted! Well, partially. The first layer. The trim has been put up and painted also. I think that next week the cabinets are supposed to be put in. Jerrod talked to the builder last week and he said they are still attempting to close in December.
It's so crazy to me, because every time I think about moving, I can't even imagine it. I feel like I have lived at this place forever and the idea of moving in less than a month is just really unfathomable. There is (almost literally) a million things to do before then. All the packing and organizing. I am hoping to downsize my stuff and go through and get rid of what I am not using, which will definitely be a project. Then there are all the art things and the daily music stuff, recording, etc., to keep up with. It's overwhelming to think of it. A person needs to pick and choose their battles, but it's hard to choose when they all seem necessary.


On Friday, I did get up and go do the Black Friday shopping thing. I didn't buy much of anything, but I got to the mall early enough to get a free $10 mall gift card. Actually, the stores were pretty dead, all things considering. Looked like a kind of normal day at first. However, I think the real evil is when you go to places like Best Buy and people are trying to snatch all those limited quantity big-ticket electronic items. Some of the other stores really don't do any better on their "biggest" sale than any other sale, in my opinion. I really wish everyone would just rebel against this whole early morning thing too. I mean, why can't they have a sale that starts at 10 am rather than 4 am? Wouldn't it just be better for us all?

Today we went on a drive down to Birmingham to pick up an eBay auction that Jerrod won last week. It's some high-end audio that was being sold on behalf of someone by SnappyAuctions and they had somewhat mislabeled it and were charging a huge shipping fee for it, so Jerrod ended up finding it and winning it for really cheap. He has some of the stuff already and is going to re-sell it. Since they wanted so much to ship it, we went to pick it up. It's about a 3 hour drive. We pretty much went there and then turned around and came home. We did stop in Franklin and did a little shopping and looking around in Cool Springs on the way home. Not that we can't do that anytime; it's only 30-40 minutes away, but we don't go over there a whole lot because it's normally out of the way for us. But, it wasn't coming back from Alabama.

Our house is coming along further. We now have drywall and siding too and a finished ceiling too.
We stopped by today to take a look at it and take a few pictures.
This was all supposed to be done last week, but apparently there was some kind of siding shortage/delay and then, they couldn't put any drywall up until the siding was on to prevent moisture from getting in. So they said that put them eight days behind. We may now be closing in January instead of the targeted December 19th. They said they will still try to push it through, but, we'll see. We'll just have to wait until we get closer to know for sure.

I have always really enjoyed learning about history, ever since I was little and if I'm going to read something, I like to choose historical type writing. I recently discovered a very good author who writes historical non-fiction that reads like a novel. She is a British author named Alison Weir and she writes on English history. Her writing is so good because it is historically accurate and detailed as non-fiction should be, yet as entertaining as fiction is.
I actually like to listen to audio books a lot, when I am driving further distances across town or when I am working on my scrapbooking or art. So, I am very excited that I finally found someone who writes exactly the kind of stuff I like to learn about.
So, yesterday, I was looking at her website to see the list of books she had out and on one page, saw that she said that she had written that she really appreciated hearing from people who would take the trouble to write to her. So, I thought, since she appreciates it and I appreciate her writing good history books, I will write her a note to tell her so. I have never done something like that before, but I thought it would be nice. So, I sent her an email to tell her I thought her books were great. She promptly replied back to me today and said,

Dear Lindsey,

Thank you so much for your email and your very kind words about my books - it`s always really encouraging to get such great feedback. I am touched that you have taken the trouble to write to me.

Warmest good wishes,

Alison Weir.

So, that was really neat! I felt good that she replied back so quickly to my email...or replied back at all, and that she appreciated it. I always appreciate people who are appreciative.

In my appartment complex, I had 4 people there used to talk to around here and it seems they are all disappearing.
First there was Mari; who was my good friend. She is Japanese and lived here until May before she moved back to Japan. We used to hang out quite often and she made me lunch and I liked that a lot because she was a good cook. I really miss having not having a Japanese friend near me.
The other three people I just talked to. One I don't even know her name, but I know she had a pug dog named Coach...I guess mostly I just liked to see Coach. But now Coach moved away.
The other was a girl who lived next door to me and has now moved also. I liked her because she liked my art and always came over to me when I was working on projects to tell me she was jealous of my creativity and that I inspired her to make a scrapbook, so that was nice. And finally, I talk to George, who is an elderly guy who seems to not be in good health. He has a motorized wheelchair and he zooms and I mean zooms around on that thing; driving up and down the street several times a day. For exercise he says. (I find that so funny because, obviously, it's the chair, not him, that's doing the moving.) He carries an oxygen tank with him as he zooms around. Funny thing was that I always saw him so often. Even when I was going over Vanderbilt, on the other side of town. As it turned out, we had the same physical therapist. Anyway, tonight a firetruck and ambulance came and took George away. So, I hope he will be ok. They weren't moving too fast though, so I was a little worried that maybe he had passed away after they got there. But, we saw they hook an IV up through the ambulance window and Jerrod said that was a good sign. So, hopefully he will come back and I will see him zooming around again. I'm a little worried about him now.

Until I moved to the U.S., I don't think I realized that Remembrance Day isn't celebrated here. I know they have Veteran's Day on November 11th, but it's not really as big of a deal as you would think it would be; they being so patriotic and all. They don't even get the day off. I guess I was just surprised when I realized this, because it is a more important holiday in Canada and we are not as military oriented as they. I mentioned something about a poppy last night and Jerrod had never heard of such a thing. So I started explaining about how we wear the little plastic flowers and saying the In Flanders Field poem (which of course, every Canadian hears yearly, from the time they are in elementary school) and he had never even hear of it.
Speaking of Remembrance Day and thinking of war veterans, one thing that I often wish is that my Grandpa Suddaby would record his life history. He spent 5 years fighting in the war and I'm sure there are lots of things that he could tell about, but I know that he doesn't like the talk about those things, because they are bad memories for him. However, I also think it would be a shame if those things about his life were lost when he died. No one will know about them and all that history will be gone. There has been a few times in the past where he has said a couple of things when I asked him, but never too much and I think think these things need to be written down or recorded to be preserved. Maybe I can get him a little recorder for Christmas. I wonder if he'd use it. I will have to check out eBay and see how much I can get one for.

I am very diligent when it comes to taking care of my jewelry. I get my rings checked every 3-4 months because I love them and I am paranoid about having any loose stones.
In church last week Jerrod took my ring off me to look at it and noticed that the center stone on my 3-stone Tiffany ring was moving.
I am a little bothered by this...and Jerrod is more bothered by this, because I just had both my engagement ring and band checked two months ago when I was in Denver. And so, he is asking me how I possibly can have a loose diamond already when it was fine 2 months ago. I guess I must have hit my hand on something.
Both of my rings are very nice and have high clarity diamonds in platinum. I take good care of my them. I don't think I do anything with my hands that would cause a lot more damage than the average person, so why do I always seem to have loose diamonds? Or is that I just check them more often so I find them more often than the average person?
Anyway, since I had to get my ring checked I had an excuse to go to Tiffany & Co. Luckily there is a store in Nashville now. However, they don't do any repairs in store, so they still have to send the ring to New York to get worked on. So, now, I am at least a week without my rings. I'm hoping it won't cost too much, if anything. If they just need to tighten it, they may not charge, but if they have to re-tip prongs, it could get expensive. I guess they will let me know for sure what it will be sometime next week. I guess, even if they do need to re-tip it, that would still be better than loosing a diamond in the future.

So, this morning, we had (what was to me) a very early morning with an 8:30am meeting with our builder. It was a pre drywall meeting where basically you do a walk through of the house before they do the drywall to make sure they have everything right in your house.
So, as I was trying to figure out what I was going to wear today, the thought crossed my mind that I maybe should be more casual than usual and wear my running shoes in case we were outside of the house at all. It's still kind of hard to walk around there because there are a lot of big rocks and dirt piles and this sort of thing.
But then I almost wore heals anyway. I have probably 50-60 pairs of shoes and only about 4 or 5 of them are flat shoes. I don't like flat shoes. I don't care that I am almost 6 feet tall...and definitely am over 6 feet when I put my shoes on. I also don't care that my husband is at least 2 to 4 inches shorter than me at any given time. (Although he does). I just think my high-healed shoes are cuter. I saw a few minutes of that Victoria Beckham "Coming to America" show a few weeks back and in it, she mentions that she is also anti flat shoes. There was one scene where she is out practicing driving before going for her driving test and she gets pulled over by a cop in the process. Afterwards, when talking about the incident she says, “I was completely shocked and devastated because I was wearing flat shoes." I thought that was the funniest quote, because I've often tried to explain to Jerrod that this is how I feel when I don't wear heals, except, I never could explain it quite so dramatically.

Anyway, I finally did decide to go with my running shoes. The thought crossed my mind: "There will be another person there. If I am crawling around a construction site and injure myself because I a wearing high-heals I will look really stupid." So I wore the flat shoes.
Jerrod bought me running shoes when we were at Disneyworld. He thought I was going to get blisters if I walked around for so long without proper shoes for this sort of thing. He forced me.
But, I guess they come in handy for times when you have to crawl around construction sites, right? Not so true actually.

It was all fine until after the meeting when we were done, Jerrod wanted to walk across the street to the neighbors house to see how far along they were. When we came out and walked out the driveway, there was a pile of gravel they had poured in the driveway and I slipped on the gravel, with my flat running shoes and fell completely backwards. I hit the edge of the curb, smack down right on my tail-bone.
It really hurt. I cried. I thought maybe it was broken. Maybe it's ok, but I am sore. I have fallen on concrete before (in a choir concert, in front of all the people) and on ice, but none hurt so much as falling on the edge of a curb, actually.

So, the point of my story is that I am completely shocked and devastated that I was wearing flat shoes and after all the times I walked around there in skirts and heals, it was the time I was wearing jeans and running shoes and purposely tried to prevent falling that I actually fell!

The last couple of months my allergies have been surprisingly not so bad. Still there, but not so bad. The headaches have become less severe too. I have them maybe only 3-4 times a week as opposed to all 7. I think maybe it was a combination of getting my allergy shots 1-2 times weekly for the last 10 months and also the migraine medication.
However, the seasons are changing now and as it gets more fall like out there, I feel them coming back more. Not so intense as before, but bothering me more than they did a month ago. I'm allergic to a lot of molds, so I wonder if maybe it's not because with more vegetation dying, that brings more mold around. We don't get much wind, so I think that most of the time things doing get moved around and away. They just sit there and mold.
Anyway, although I find that my allergies are not really seasonal at all, I think I do remember last year when the weather was colder, I did have more pain in my sinuses.
I hate winter.
Not just for that reason. I just hate winter all together. It's cold. It makes me depressed. I hate fall because it means winter is coming.
At least the cold season is short here. Except for last year....last year was cold for so much longer than usual! (And so now I can't believe in global warming!)

Yesterday I learned some very good news. As I have mentioned before, Jerrod and I LOVE the show Meerkat Manor. It's basically a narrated documentary type show on the daily lives of these families of Meerkats living in the Kalahari Desert. Unless you have seen it, it's difficult to really explain why it is so good, but....it's good. It's really just good.
Anyway, what I learned is that there is going to be a full length Meerkat movie coming to theaters in 2008! It is made by the makers of Meerkat Manor and is going to mostly revolve around the life of one of the main characters and most popular meerkats who died this past season from a snake bite. (I know, sad).
This is so exciting for us since we love them so much. I can hardly wait to see it.
Here are a few good meerkat videos. They're advertisements, but they are funny.

I went on a mission today, hoping to find some cheap beads for some wedding pages I am scrapbooking. After a trip yesterday to one of my favorite stores, I discovered that I was not able to use my 50% off coupon there like I had hoped. (Long story, but basically I'm mad at them for sending of 50% coupons but then discounting everything in the store 30 or 40% and then not letting me use the higher discount...It's a trick to get you into the store and so I decided not to buy my beads there if I could get them cheaper elsewhere).
Anyway, I tried looking at the flea market, because they always have lots of jewelry there and I thought maybe I could find some premade things and then take them apart for the beads and that would be cheaper. I am always looking for the best deal, no matter how or where it comes...even if I do have to drive accross town to go to the flea market to find it. Well, I didn't end up finding anything worth purchasing there, but one fun thing did happen.
I overheard this girl talking to an antique dealer about how she was an actress and did some TV work and such.I don't know why I started listening at first, but I was interested. And she also looked somewhat familiar to me; I thought she looked like a girl I knew from church. Well, I kind of continued to ease drop and then the antique dealer asked her what she had done in the television realm and she said, "Have you heard of Grey's Anatomy? I am on that show sometimes." Right away my ears perked up because that is one of my favorite shows (that I never miss!) and looked at her knew why I recognized her then and said, "Hey! Yeah, you are!" And she said, "Yep, there you go."
Anyway, she is the girl who plays Dr. Sydney Heron, that really perky, happy and annoying Doctor. She doesn't have a main role, but she is on there. I've added a picture: Do you know who I'm talking about?
I wished I had brought my camera so I could have taken a picture with her to show Jerrod, 'cause we just watched her on the show the night before. Jerrod just said, "What was she doing at the flea market?" He always makes fun of me when I go there because he said it's redneck. So, I don't know why she was at the Nashville Flea Market, but she is apparently from Memphis, so maybe this is sort of her neck of the woods. And why the flea market, I don't know. But, even actors from the most popular show on TV still might like good deals.

On Saturday we went to Providence to see our house. And to our surprise there was progress- substantial progress, to see. About a week before I was so discouraged because I had driven by seen that there was once again WAY more done on all the neighbors houses rather than ours. (Even though we were supposed to be one of the first 5 finished). I was doing the math in my head and with the amount of time left until December 19th, when they said was the latest date we would close and then calculating what was actually done and how long they said it would take to complete the next steps, it was not physically possibly that it would be done. In fact, I could not figure that it would be done anytime before mid to the end of January. So, I sent and email to the builder and asked about this.
He replied back and said that it had taken longer to get the building permit for our house because we are beside an empty wooded lot, but that he still thought it would be possible to close by the 19th of December. I don't know how...the math still doesn't add up. Maybe they plan to work faster then usual.
When we went by this Saturday, the house was standing! A week before it had been only a foundation. Now it is a completely framed and even had a roof. Next time we go by, there might even be siding.
I took some pictures, and here they are.

(We are a little dressed up because we were going to a wedding after. I try not to dress like this while walking around new construction. It is surprisingly hard to climb up to the house in shoes like I wear.)


Jerrod upstairs in the (his) bonus room. I say "his" because that's one of his rooms he gets to "decorate." Decorate will include putting the TV, speakers, cables and stereo stuff...basic boy things. I think the Meerkat painting will also go there too. :) He also gets his office and the garage and I think the kitchen. haha. But I think I will put some nice things in the kitchen (when he's not looking.)



Standing in the hallway. The kitchen and dining room are to the right and a closet and bedroom are to the left...you can pretty much see everything when you don't have walls.


Me in my room: My place where I will put all my scrapbooking, art and music stuff...and attempt to keep clean....more so than I do now...that's what I'm saying.


Looking out the back door. So I guess that's what the backyard will look like...sort of...except hopefully a little better with some grass and without construction materials in it.


Living room windows. It looks so nice out them with the trees for neighbors. Very excited about that as always.


More potential walls. I know, it's just a bunch of boards and only exciting to me and Jerrod, but I'm showing it anyway, because it is exciting for me after many months of wishing to see a bunch of boards.


Hard to believe that we will be able to live here in two months. I am happy. My neighbor upstairs is not nice and I want to move! It's not so great to be stuck waiting in your apartment and having to pay an outrageous amount of money for month to month rent, especially when you have walk on egg shells around your mean neighbors.

I saw this today, which lays out the whole left/right brain thing nicely. Although many days I feel like a "no brain" with my ADD and terrible memory problems, from this list, I see that, for the most part, I am definitely a right brain person. My husband is definitely a left brain. But that's good. This way we get a full brain between us. hehe.

The Right Brain vs Left Brain Test If you see dancer rotating clockwise, you are right-brained (creative), counter-clockwise, left-brained (logical).

RIGHT BRAIN FUNCTIONS
uses feeling
"big picture" oriented
imagination rules
symbols and images
present and future
philosophy & religion
can "get it" (i.e. meaning)
believes
appreciates
spatial perception
knows object function
fantasy based
presents possibilities
impetuous
risk taking

LEFT BRAIN FUNCTIONS
uses logic
detail oriented
facts rule
words and language
present and past
math and science
can comprehend
knowing
acknowledges
order/pattern perception
knows object name
reality based
forms strategies
practical
safe

This Saturday we had a pizza party with the kids from our church class that we teach. We had been telling them since the beginning of the year that we were going to do this; it was a motivation for them to do their scripture reading assignments. Every week I give out a reading assignment, which is really too easy...usually only a verse or two, and then the next week they are supposed to bring back their assignment and show that they did it. Well, let's just say the easy assignment has proven to be difficult for most, as we usually get less than 50% who do it. Each week they do it, they get a sticker on their chart and after 10 stickers they get a prize. And they are good prizes too. Then on top of the great prizes we said that once enough of them got 10 stickers we'd have a party.
Anyway, when we were asked to teach the class, our Bishop had encouraged us to maybe have some kind of activity with the kids outside of church. He actually suggested we have them over to our house for a party, but that wasn't going to happen...our place is definitely not childproof...and it most definitely would not be possible to have that many kids in here. Somebody would have got hurt...either from doing something like bumping their head on my stained glass table or by Jerrod wringing their necks.
So, we planned a pizza party at the church. We had 6 out of 8 kids who were able to come. All the parents told us that they were really excited beforehand.It went pretty well, all things considering. A little crazy, a lot of running around, but overall, not bad. Jerrod's work cell phone did get a glass of pop kicked on it, but fortunately he had it in a case and so it didn't get anything on it...although at first he thought it got wet and was a little upset. (That would have been the second work cell phone to be destroyed by pop that he's had.)
I also made up a treasure hunt and hid treat bags at the end. They liked that and we liked watching them have to walk from one far side of the building to the other far side many times. (I made sure to hide them as far apart as possible as to extend the length of the game, wear them out and it was entertaining for us to watch. haha.)
Then we also played Jenga, basketball and some of us (not me) ran around half the time.
So, that's one thing accomplished for this year. We have only a couple more months in the ward. Even though we are looking forward to moving, I want to stay in Primary though. I like it because primary is a good place to be if you have ADD. It really helps to stay focused because there is so much going on that you have to take care of all the time: I teach, go to singing time and spend the rest of the time telling kids to be quiet and stop poking each other. So I keep busy.
And also, I really like doing this with Jerrod. We get to stay together the entire 3 hours of church and that's really great. I'm so glad that they are doing the team-teacher thing in primary now. And, I also think that it's really fun that this is Jerrod's first time being in Primary EVER, since he didn't join the church until he was almost 19. It's kind of cool that he is going to primary now for the first time and we are going there together. :) Oh, and this picture of us is at our party...I can't believe I actually got a picture. As you can obviously tell Jerrod just loves to have his picture taken. Doesn't he look thrilled?

Two things actually.

First: The dollar! The Canadian dollar is actually worth something! Basically equal to the almighty American dollar. A few years back this would have been great news for me and SO helpful when I was getting my money for student loans and trying to convert my Canadian money to American. I could have actually not lost money on it. However, now that I am paying them back, with the American dollars that we make, it would benefit me a lot more if the US dollar were stronger, because I could get more out of every dollar I pay back.
Why does that happen like that? It's like totally opposite of what I needed. Funny how things can work out totally backward. And unfortunately, it's one of those things that nobody can do anything about.
But it's just crazy that a few years back we only got like $0.60 on the dollar and now they are practically equal!

Another thing that I finally did was paint! I have been thinking and scheming about these paintings I want to do for months now. I have changed my mind about 300 times about what I was going to do...what colors....what size...so much, that I was terrified to actually start something for fear that I would finish it and then think of something better after it was done. These are really important to me because I want these to be for a big wall in my living room and they are going to be a focal point of the room. So, I was so nervous about actually making a decision, since I had so many ideas; I couldn't figure out what it was that I really wanted.
But on Wednesday night Jerrod had to go to Florida for an overnight business trip, so I decided that this would be a good time to work on my paintings...in the house...in the living room. (What Jerrod doesn't see will not stress him out. haha) So, since I had the opportunity to make a mess, I was forced to finally made a decision. First,I got 3 canvases...on sale for $10 each, 30"x40". (When I am done my total size artwork size combined will be 90"x40" which will be really cool, 'cause that's huge.) I started, but then I got a better idea and changed my mind again! But I think I finally have it. And I am almost finished one of them! I think I could have got more done if I hadn't changed my mind about it in the middle. But, anyway, I was finally able to mix the one right color that I wanted and I am very excited about that. I tested it a bunch first and finally I got the perfect shades. Color mixing is very, very difficult. I got some good colors though and I am just so glad that I finally made up my mind about what I'm going to do so I can stop worrying about it. I really do drive myself crazy. I love being an artist, but sometimes I think it's a curse because it can make your head hurt. I really do understand why so many creative people had/have mental disorders.
I would post a picture of what I made, but I need to finish a little more first. I have to go buy a little more paint tomorrow, since I wasted more than expected while experimenting.

So, in our class in church this Sunday, we were talking about how Jesus loves everyone the same all over the world and how The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is exactly the same every place in the world. We were asking the kids if they had been to church in any other places and if they saw how it was the same as in Nashville. Of course, they all said yes and we went around the room with each telling us where they had been to church in other places: The answers were, "Utah...Arizona....Georgia..." etc. When it was Jerrod's turn he mentioned that he had been to church in Canada. "What?! Really?" they said.
Now, I'm not so sure why this was so shocking as I have said many times that I am from Canada and my mom just sent stuff for them from home a few weeks ago. But I reminded them, "Yes, I'm from Canada. And we got married in the Temple there, too."
And the next comment was...
"Really? Was it made of ice?"
I just have to shake my head. Only in America.

I am going to have a photo shoot this weekend to get some pictures done for my website, so I have been making many, many shopping trips to look for clothes for this. This is taking up SO much time. It's so hard for me. I have a lot of anxiety and worry with this because I have to factor in being a person who is very tall, needs to be modest and who is extremely cheap! Plus, whatever I choose has to look good and be good in pictures. There are a lot of things to worry about. Believe it or not, I, (who usually buys everything on clearance and can often find full outfit that could have cost less than $15 from head to toe), has actually even bought somethings regular price recently! I have tried so many options! And I really only need 3 or 4 different outfits, but I am such a perfectionist when it comes to things like this that I feel are going to me/my music, that I am driving myself crazy. Really, the pictures on my website will probably be a first impression of me/my music for a lot of people. So, that's stressful to think of it that way. So, when this week is over, I will be glad. Hopefully I won't have to worry about finding these "perfect" things anymore...or at least for awhile.

I am SO behind on SO much stuff. It seems like I have been behind since March and I don't know if I will ever get caught up. But. maybe when I don't have to go shopping so much I will!
I've been looking for clothes so much recently I can't even remember when I last went shopping for scrapbook supplies...now that is a worry!

Tonight after Jerrod got off work we went over our subdivision to take a look at an empty house, that is the same model as ours, that hasn't closed yet. It didn't have any upgrades that we wanted to look at, but it was the same floor plan and layout, so it's kind of nice to see the completed house without furniture.
Afterwards, we drove past our lot to see if any progress had been made...not much of anything, but they did have the building permits posted.So, I guess that is promising. We walked around to see what we could see...check out the neighbors foundations, look at the lumber...you know, fun stuff like that. I was able to catch Jerrod in a few pictures, which was exciting, because he will never let his picture be taken. (I've gotta sneak up on him when he's not expecting it.) Of course, most of them are from the back, but once and awhile I do get one where he shows his face, which is nice.





I also am more excited than ever about the wooded lot beside us. I went over there and looked down into it (it slopes down and is full of trees) and it just made me really happy to see it. I like having that little bit of nature there in the middle of all those houses and streets and that stuff. And actually, the house we walked through today was on a lot we had initially considered buying for a few days. Today we saw that their big living room windows open up to the side of the neighbors house and at the neighbor's bathroom window. Ours will open up to this:
Well worth the extra money for a premium lot! The other house definately does not have a good view! And this one is going to be so nice for us...and for the next person for resale. Maybe we could have got into the other house sooner, because it is in the previously opened section, but this location is much more appealing for me.

About 30 seconds down the road is the new retail area, so went over there to have some supper and then went to a movie. I haven't been to a movie in a long time. Jerrod goes more often, but I like to watch things at home, because I like to keep my hands busy while I'm watching things and I can get more done with my scrap booking stuff that way. And it's also always so cold in those theaters! I brought a sweater because I know that, but I was still freezing the whole time!!! I hate it! Not, that I'm not freezing at home too, with Jerrod blasting the air conditioning and all, but it's worse when I'm out and about. I really hate air conditioning.
Anyway, we saw 3:10 to Yuma. It was good. We liked it. We like westerns and it's not very often that you see them in theaters anymore. It will be nice to have so much of the retail, restaurants and this sort of thing so near to us when we move.

Well, it seems that our house will finally start to appear soon! We had our construction meeting with our builder this week so they can now get things going. We couldn't get started until we had the meeting and we couldn't have the meeting until a lot of other things were accomplished (things that were out of our hands, such as: getting streets and curbs in and approval by the city and then getting building permits from the city).
So, we had to basically make the final decisions on everything we want for the house and then also pay deposits on certain things. So, it was a little expensive meeting too.
They said that it will take about 10-14 days to finish the foundation, because it is a slab. They are supposed to be starting that this week. The one concern is that they said that they would only be working on 5 houses in the neighborhood at a time...and ours would be one of those 5...but, when we drove by our lot afterwards, we saw that at least 6 or 7 of the neighbors foundations had already been started. We were a little bit bothered by that because we are really hoping to get in ASAP. And we should be one of the first to get in, since we were one of the first to purchase our lot and sign our contract, back in April. So, I don't know why they have already started so many others if they are intending to only do 5 at a time. I am going to have to ask about that next time we talk to them. We are desperate to move as quick as we can, because our lease is up this month and so we are going to be paying month-to-month from here on out. Month-to-month means much more expensive....
Anyhow, I guess some other people must have been able to get their construction meetings first. How unlucky is that? We've been waiting for months and then as soon as we go out of town they get our building permits. That would be very disappointing and I would be mad if that were to put us behind.

I am home after 10 days away. I wasn't able to access the internet as easily as usual....or could, sometimes only from my PDA, which has a slightly small screen and is slightly inconvenient to type on. Although, I will say it's still better than no internet. Anyhow, I didn't update this much.

We spent the 10 days in both Denver, Colorado and Cheyenne, Wyoming. This was Jerrod's trip because it is where he grew up and where some of his family and friends are. So, we spent most of the time visiting people, going to eat at the places he likes and doing a little shopping at some of the stores we don't have in our area. (High-end audio store for Jerrod and scrapbook store for me.)

We got in this afternoon and I am very happy to be home. I like my home because it is a peaceful place and I miss it when I am gone for so long. And, I also like having all my stuff around me.....By that I mean that I like having all my art supplies and scrapbook stuff around so I can do my creative projects whenever I want to.

Good news came a couple of days ago that we will be having our construction meeting for the house on Monday. This is very exciting because that means that something can actually be constructed! We have been expecting it to happen "any day" (to quote the builder's people) for about 3 months now. I guess they just got the building permits from the city. This meeting will finalize the plans so they can go ahead with it. We need to move since our lease is ending, so, let's hope that this thing gets going soon and quickly. I told Jerrod that after this trip I was staying home for a week, but I may make a sacrifice to go to go to the construction meeting. It will probably be worth going out to finally get the house started! Actually, I am going to be very busy getting caught up on things that I haven't been able to do while I'm away, so staying home might not happen anyhow.

I think one of the worst things about being gone is when you come home, you have no food. Because, of course, we try not to leave to much in the fridge if we know we are going to be gone for awhile and it will spoil. But, now, it means that I am going to be drug to Wal-Mart and pushed around the store for an extra long grocery shopping trip....and I really hate grocery shopping. It's so exhausting (and boring) for me. I think I am allergic to Wal-Mart. I'm not kidding. There is something in there that makes my allergies bad. It's always a terrible experience. When I complain, Jerrod always says, "Well, do you want to eat or not?" But really, I'm not sure if it means I have to go grocery shopping....

There's one thing I forgot to mention. I remembered it was coming up, but forgot about it on the actual day: August 19th was my 5 year anniversary of when I moved to Tennessee. I can't believe it's been that long. In some ways, it doesn't seem like it's been that long. However, when I think back to all that has happened since then, I guess it really has been 5 years. Jerrod had his 5 year anniversary of moving here about a month before in July. Strange that we both moved here at almost the exact same time and probably passed each other at many a church singles activity, but never met until a couple years later.

Anyway, I was just remembering when I was younger and I wanted so badly to move here. I planned it for 5 years before it actually happened and now it has been 5 years since it did happen! I could never have imagined that this day would have come back when I was 14 years old and first got the idea that I should move to Nashville. And now we are even building a house in Nashville! It makes it seem that we are even more settled here. Sometimes when I am driving places I think to myself that I can't believe I actually know how to get where I am going around here (with my bad sense of direction and all). But then I remember I have lived here 5 years!

I have felt very good about living in Tennessee for the most part. I mean that, I have always felt at home here. So, I am very glad that we are here and very grateful that Jerrod has a good job gives us another good reason to stay...and very relieved that I have my permanent residency so that I actually CAN stay! The only other place I might want to live would be in Osaka...but that's another thought for another day.

I'm realizing that most of the stuff I have been writing about lately has to do with my primary class...I guess that shows where the majority of my social interaction has been coming from.

This week's lesson was on faith. So we talked the scripture in Alma 32 and about faith being like a seed and like a seed if we plant it and nourish it, it will grow. So, I got this wonderful idea to do the thing where the kids get to plant a seed and all that. I remembered that I had these tiny little terracotta pots that I had got somewhere at one time and I could paint those up all nice and then give them seeds to plant in there and they could take it home.
Only problem was the seeds...at least, I thought that was the only problem. I didn't expect there be a big selection of seeds this time of the year, but I thought I might find some left overs of something. I didn't really care what...just wanted to find some seeds. I looked at 3 stores and called around, but had no luck. Even Wal-Mart and Home Depot didn't have any. Finally, I found a few packs of vegetable seeds at a discount store. I ended up getting lettuce seeds because that was all they had that would work.

When I went home, I washed all the pots out and then prepared them by filling in the cracks in the surface, sanding them, and then started to paint. Well, after days of dry, 100+ degree heat, at the moment I started to spray them...and I am not even kidding about this...it started to rain. Not a lot, but enough big drops to mess up that nice wet paint. It was too hot and humid out and I couldn't even get them to dry. So, I had to bring them in and ended up hand painting all them. Everything was working against me. Plus, I have a cold and I felt horrible yesterday, so the last thing I wanted to do was to be running around looking for seeds and trying to fix a messed up paint job.
After those were dry, I painted a quote from a primary song around the rim of the pots: "Faith is like a little seed. If planted, it will grow." Then I used scrapbooking rub-on embellishments to put their names on each one and add little flower decorations on the outside.
This morning I got up and filled them with dirt and boxed them up to take to church.

After we taught them the lesson, Jerrod and I helped everyone plant their seeds in the pots. They all wanted to know what kind of seeds they were. I didn't want to tell them I could only find lettuce seeds, so I kept saying, "Faith seeds." "Yeah, but what kind of seeds are they?" "They're faith seeds!"

One of the girls really liked her little pot a lot and was very excited about the color she got; she was excited to put it in her window. I was happy about that. She is one of the only ones who ever says that she appreciates the stuff I do. I appreciate that. However, I don't know if any of them ever said thank you after all I went through to get those little things done for them! I want them to appreciate it, because I think it's important they should learn to show gratitude. Maybe the next class they are in won't be so fun and then they will start to realize that our class was better than they thought! I try to do fun stuff, because I know that it's hard to sit through church sometimes and I want them to enjoy being there and look forward to being there.

The primary presentation is coming up. They are having quite a few kids do little solos on the songs, which I thought was different. I offered to give a free voice lesson to any kid who is going to do some singing in the presentation. Not that I will be able to do much with a 4 or 6-year-old in one lesson or even two, but I figure it's good for them to get practice and build up their confidence. And, it's something I can help out with that I don't mind doing.

I found this picture and I thought it was kind of funny. It's also a little sad though...but kind of funny...

Sunday seemed very stressful. Mostly, because Jerrod had been sick since the previous afternoon and so I had to go to church by myself...which meant I had to teach our class by myself.
This was the first Sunday since May when almost all the kids have been there. We've really only had about half of them during the summer, since everyone is always gone on vacation while school is out.
But today, I think maybe because they were all there and there was so much to talk about after so long, they were very wound up. And of course, being that I was by myself, it was more frustrating to keep them under control. They pretty much drove me crazy.
Usually, I prepare and teach the lesson and Jerrod helps answer questions and keeps them under control. Especially the boys, since they tend to have a harder time sitting still. They all really like him, but he also doesn't let them get away with anything.
After I had asked the kids to pleasestop talking, poking each other, moving around, etc., about 50 times, I finally said, "guys, seriously, you are really not being reverent and I've told you and told you too many times that we are in church and you need to act like it. I can't handle you all being like this all by myself! What would Brother Barrows do if he were here?" and right away one of the little boys who was being most obnoxious said, "he'd kill us!"
So, they are obnoxious, but at least they know it. I guess that's a start.

After I was thinking about the kids, I realized what the problem is: None of them are troublemakers and they are pretty good kids all around, but there is not a shy one in the bunch! So everyone has got to be saying something all the time! Oh well, I guess it could be worse. I know I sure went to Primary with some kids that were worse.

Jerrod is still not feeling well tonight. He is going to stay home from work tomorrow too.

Today we had a baptism for three of the kids in our primary class. Jerrod gave a talk, I sang 2 songs and then I gave a talk...so it was a little bit of a Lindsey and Jerrod show. haha.
It was actually a really good baptism and I really felt the spirit there. It was also a very big baptism...enough people that they had it in the chapel, so it kind of felt a little bit like church. (We figured that meant we were done our duty for speaking in church for awhile!) We also drove the missionaries and then took them out for supper after.
Jerrod spoke on baptism and I talked about the Holy Ghost and told the kids about one experience that I can remember when I listened to the Holy Ghost when I was younger; their age or a little older: I used to like to walk around the farm and down to the dug-out to see if there was anything interesting. One night I noticed a bunch of little flowers that were growing by the water that I hadn't seen before, so the next day I was going to go there to look around again and pick some. I was going to ride my bike, but, when I went to go, I had a feeling that I shouldn't...that I should walk instead. So, I listened to that feeling and decided to walk.
When I got to the dug-out, I saw that there were some baby ducks. As I went to look at them, the mother duck jumped out at me and started to chase me away. She kept chasing me as I ran, all the way back to the barn, almost to my house. That was a pretty far distance for her to keep going after me. It was one determined duck! After, I realized that if I would have taken my bike, I wouldn't have been able to get away fast enough. I would have set it down and then panicked and had to leave it when I was trying to get away from the duck. Also, I wouldn't have been able to ride very easily over the bumpy ground and the hay that was growing. So, later, I felt that the spirit had told me to walk instead. That probably saved me from getting attacked by an angry duck! 'Cause that duck wasn't going to give up!
Anyway, that was an experience I had when I was smaller, but I told the kids that when they get older and have to start making big decisions about things like moving, college or getting married and all that difficult stuff, then they will appreciate even more that they made the choice to to the right things when they were younger so they can have the guidance they need when they really have things to stress about. haha. I really hope that all our kids stay good. It would be disappointing to see one of them go astray.



I kept looking behind me and something like this was what I saw! (except only one angry duck.) It's actually more terrifying than it may appear.

Today the temperature got up to 104 degrees Fahrenheit, which was supposed to be close to record highs. I knew it was hot, but it wasn't until I read the temperature in Celsius that I realized just how hot....That's 40 degrees!
The rest of the week is supposed to be close to the same 36, 38, 39. Pretty warm out there.

Last week, I had a special day where I was able to meet up with one of my friends that I knew from living in Osaka. My friend Wakana and her husband are living in the US right now, while he goes to grad school in Indiana and so they came for an overnight trip to Nashville and also brought her parents, who were visting from Japan.
We went to a coffee shop in the hotel they were staying at and were able to sit and chat for about 2 and a half hours. It was so fun to be able to see someone from Japan here in Nashville. We hadn't seen each other for about 5 years, so it was a nice little reunion and so nice to be able to talk about so many different things that have happened in life since we last met.

It amazes me sometimes how small the world really is and how you can unexpectedly end up meeting people from so far away, so close to home.

(First picture: Wakana and I at the live house in Osaka, 2002. Second Picture: Wakana and I in Nashville, 2007.)

It is around 3:30 am and I am awake...so I was making a little snack. I burnt my toast. Again. And I'm not even sure how. I was trying to watch it to make sure it wouldn't burn. Not too long ago I actually burnt 6 pieces...not at once, but in a row...like with 6 different tries. I blame it on that new toaster oven. It's hard to get used to because it takes so long to heat up and then with in seconds it gets so hot it just burns.
Now I am worried that the smoke alarm is going to go off and wake up Jerrod and maybe even the upstairs neighbors.

Anyhow, once again, I have reaffirmed my thought that I hate cooking...I shouldn't be cooking....If you can call making toast cooking.

And, if it can get this disastrous with a toaster, imagine what I could do if I tried to really make something?! Yes, it could get much scarier. So for all the people who ask who cooks at our house or when I'm going to start learning to cook so I can cook at our house.....just be glad that it's Jerrod who does the cooking at our house. Don't question...just understand it's for the best.

(But I promise I really can make a few things, which sometimes I do! I'm not totally useless around here!)

Thursday night was the long awaited Nashville Zoo benefit auction. As I wrote in a previous post, I had heard about it a couple of months ago and we really had wanted to go to get a Meerkat painting.
There was quite a few different paintings there by a variety of animal "artists." I had only seen Elephant paintings previously and would like to get one of those someday. Those are actually really neat, because they elephants have a really distinct style and their paintings actually look like something, since they teach them to use a paintbrush.
Most of the paintings were animal footprints on paper. But there were some different styles too. They had one where they put paint on a horses whiskers and he put his whisker prints on paper and another where a cow had made tail prints on paper. I kind of wanted a cow painting too.

Anyhow, our goal was to get a Meerkat painting and there were 3 for sale. It was a silent auction. We bid on all of them. Jerrod wanted to get all of them, but there was a girl who was wanting 2 of them and she sniped them by sitting beside them in her wheelchair until the end of the auction. She kept watching us and was very irritated when we came over and bid them up. Fortunately for her, we had won our painting a little earlier and so we let the last two go...we thought the one we got was the best anyway. But, that other girl was lucky to have won hers because I get pretty competitive with auctions, so I might have kept on bidding just because I want to win! Jerrod wants to go back next year and possibly get another painting and build a collection. It's for a good cause, I guess. And, it's very original art!

A couple of nights ago, I was out in the garage working on a mosaic table. While I was breaking glass with a hammer on the floor (Jerrod's favorite thing to see. haha) I happened to have my head up for a moment an saw a furry tail in the air. My first thought was that it was a neighbors cat come to annoy me again, and in the moment I would have gone to try and get it away, I realized that it was actually a skunk! As I was sitting in my garage, a skunk walked right in and sat down almost beside me. I panicked! But, silently, thank goodness, because the usual kind of loud panic I usually have when I see a bug or something would have not worked out well in this situation.
I ran into the house to tell Jerrod about it and he said to just stay inside and that it would go away. But, I said, I don't think that is a good idea, because he might wander further in and decide to hide somewhere and then when won't know where he is and when we need to close the door later, we have no way of knowing if he is locked in!

So, Jerrod said to go watch him. So, I had to go watch him. I went out and stood in the driveway, behind the car and tried to keep my eye on him to see where he would go next...hoping it would be out. But, he wasn't in any hurry to leave. He made himself quite comfortable curled up in a little ball in a corner. It was in this moment that I realized that I had never before thought of how to deal with an intruding skunk. Because, trying to make him leave could be disastrous. So, I was more annoyed then anything because of the fact that he interrupted me while I was hard at work making a mess with glass.

After a little bit he finally did waddle away. I was pretty glad about that. I have seen skunks around in the flower beds and stuff before, but they have never actually tried to come inside. He better not come back though. Not that he would really care what I think and I'm pretty sure he would win if we ever got in an argument about it.

Below is a picture of the table I am working on. I get stained glass scraps and broken glass and break them with a hammer to shape them closer to how I want them. I also put silver leaf on the backs of a lot to add a metallic shine and to lighten up the color. That takes a long time. Then. I arrange them, kind of like putting a puzzle together and glue them down and then after that, do the grout. It's got a way to go until it will match the previous one I made, which is below this.
These are a few pictures of a coffee table I did last year. Unfortunately, the pictures really don't show what it truly looks like because it's almost impossible to capture the look of stained glass and mirror in a photo. It looks much better in real life...but this is a little bit of an idea.


And a few other things I made with my broken glass....The first thing I tried was this mirror covered box. I got a wooden box, painted it and covered it with broken mirror. The mirror was all free because I ended up getting a ton of it from some people on craigslist who gave me some old broken ones for free! This was an experiment to see if I would like doing mosaics.

These "Love" letters were done on letter forms with mirrors and black grout.

I found this big pot and plant stand at my appartment...someone didn't want them, so I claimed them for free! I painted the stand with textured paint and then did the rest in mosaics with the matching pot.


This globe was another Craigslist find. It was a regular globe, I got for $4. I sealed it and then got tiny pieces of glass and covered each country with a different color.
I really liked it the best before it was finished, but now wish I had not done the ocean area with mirror. It reflects too much and takes away from the colors of the stained glass. I don't like the white grout either, so I might try staining that. It has become a very heavy globe. That's a lot of glass on there!