Goodbye 2009

Is is the common practice to do at the end of the year I'll reflect a bit on what has happened. 2009 was an alright year for us. It had some great highs and a few lows but nothing I would say made the year "awful" or that I'm happy to see it over.

• This year I got to watch my son go from a baby to a toddler. :)
• Even in the tough economic times I kept my job and we were always able to pay the bills. :)
• We bought out first home. :)
• Had some family difficulties that are still on going. :(
• Have continued to battle fairly severe depression to no outside assistance. Post partum was very difficult and then just when I began to stabilize hormones go for a whirlwind again. :(
• We learned we're expecting baby #2 in July of 2010.

While saying goodbye to 2009 some of my hopes for 2010.

• Pay off all of our credit card debt and finish 2010 with a balance of zero.
• Buy a 2nd car with cash.
• Continue working on the house.
• Move 'Lil R into a 'big boy' room.
• Have a healthy baby #2.

There are loads more things I hope to accomplish in the next year but that's a good start. For now, I hope everyone a Happy New Year!

Can we just have a Lazy Holiday?

This is our first holiday season in our new house and as such we've been trying to make the most out of it. We decorated the house inside and out. In the process spending way more money then we'd put aside for the year to cover holiday expenses. Next year should be less right? For some reason I doubt that so we'll now be setting aside more money per paycheck to cover the yearly damage. Even though next year we'll have another small one to buy gifts for they'll only be about 5 months old so I don't think it will be anything extreme. 

Besides financial things through the holiday season is that we're also hosting the family dinner. Originally my husbands family was also going to be coming down but due to unforeseen issues with his sister's job they had to cancel. It will just be my brother's family, us and my father. So not too much but we'll be hosting my dad for two days. This is a first and I'm a bit nervous about it. I've always been the apartment dweller of the family who didn't have the room to host any events so I was always the guest. This is my first big dinner. I'm just a hair bit nervous about it. I had a trial run last Sunday when my Mom came over but I just made a large lasagna for everyone, not turkey and all the fixings.

An update to my crafts to do list. In the picture is our dog Belle sleeping on the tree skirt I finished. I also finished Lil' R's stocking and I'll take a picture of that later, maybe after Santa has filled it up.

I do declare Saturday to be a lazy day for leftovers and TV watching.

Growing Family

One reason I've been absent for a few weeks is that other than just busy life my efficiency rate has dropped severely. The reason why? TaDa....

Yep, we're expecting another little addition to the family who should be arriving around July 20th. I don't have my first doctor's appointment until after the first of the year because we have new insurance starting so the due date may change. Pregnancy hormones are definitely screwing with me, I'm exhausted always and I can't focus on anything for very long it seems. Getting through a work day competently takes almost everything out of me it seems. Ugh.. So now other than hearing about my adventures in crafting I'll also be sharing the adventures on having a 2nd little one. Any advise from those of you out there with multiple little ones already?

Busy Busy

I've been slacking, I know. I haven't written anything in a bit but life has thoroughly gotten in the way. The school semester is over with though and I should be done FOREVER! Yep, I should be receiving my diploma for Master's degree shortly. I know there was doubt I would finish working full time and having a family amidst working on it but though it did take longer I still finished.

Okay so just a filler to apologize for not having written. Working on the next few blogs already. Have a couple topics ahead.

Holiday Crafting Time Is Here

One holiday down a few successful crafts done, some cute spiders and ghosts I might say. Now the biggie looms ahead. Yes I am referring to Christmas. I need to quickly get my act together and my fingers a working. Before I even think of New things to make I need to finish those I didn't last year.

• I started 'Lil R's stocking, it is a stocking but it is still lacking his name on it. That is a high priority.
• In the after xmas sales we bought a lot of women ornament picture frames to paint and put in pictures of 'Lil R for the family.
• Also bought in those same sales are a few cross-stitch decorations to finish.

Other items to be made that only exist as ideas are:

• Paper fireplace to put on the wall to 'hang' the stockings above for the kids.
• Amigurumi decorations, a snowman, reindeer, Santa
• Loads of others I haven't thought of yet.

Anything anyone else is planning to make specifically for the holidays? I'm always looking for more ideas.

Technorati Tags: crafts,christmas

We've Returned

Life has finally begun to return back into the normal swing of things since we returned from our long vacation. A week away in the woods at FPG was good for us all but now it's back to the normal day to day.

A recap of what has occurred since I last posted. Lil' R had a blast on Halloween. He had a blast with Daddy going from house to house. We under-estimated the number of children we would have come by the house and ran out of candy. Next year we know to get another 2 bags. We also had friends over prepping for the camping trip by pre-cooking many of our meals. Amidst the cooking around 9:30pm the power for the entire neighborhood went out, including the nearby Super Walmart. It took almost 2 hours for it to come back on. Luckily for the sake of the food we were only simmering a pot of beef stew at the time so it survived perfectly fine. Overall though it was a wonderful night to be had spent with friends. Actually for the entirety of my vacation we were constantly surrounded by people and that was a great change from our normally very quiet life. By the end of it though I was happy to just come home and catch the Season Finale of Tool Academy with the Hubby.

While out in the wood of Ocala National forest we did enjoy ourselves. We got to see some wildlife, including Sandhill Cranes, a black bear, and heard tale of an alligator in the lake but no one ever caught site of him. There was also the normal friendly visits of the camp dogs. Two of our good friends were married whilst we were out there and it was a beautiful ceremony and boy what a spread of food did they put out. All and all we came back with loads of wonderful stories. We spent some great time with some of our dearest friends and got to connect a bit better with a few other people. I already can't wait until the next one in May.

Happy Friday the 13th Everyone!

Technorati Tags: Family,FPG,Halloween,Friends

Vacation Time!

In just 2 and a half hours <<crossing my fingers>> I'll be starting my more than a week of vacation. I won't be returning to the office until November 9th. This will be the longest vacation I have ever taken since beginning working full-time and not counting maternity leave. Crazy as people think I am I only took 3 weeks off. Our plans are fairly simple, on Tuesday we'll be heading out to go to Florida Pagan Gathering to celebrate Samhain, attend a wedding, enjoy the great fall weather and spend time with friends. I'm so anxious to be a gettin' with the fun but there is so much to do in the next few days. I'll be sewing like a fiend again tonight as I'm making a cloak for the hubby. I need to finish the brooches for my Viking Apron dress. All sorts of business tomorrow with Halloween PLUS I need to work on my take home midterm for my graduate class. Plan to post tomorrow with pictures of the finished clothing projects if all the Halloween events don't get in the way.

Halloween Traditions

Everyone has their holiday traditions and as kids we remember them so fondly. As a child my father put together a hay ride that would take all the children around the neighborhood. One year it got so large that there were three different tractors with trailers driving around. It was like a hay ride bus system. It was such a wonderful experience that I would love to be able to pull off something similar in the future for Lil' R and any future sibling(s).

Us having just bought our first home and this being Lil' R's first Halloween we can participate in we've just started trying to think what Our traditions will be. Right now our only standing traditions are decorating and going trick or treating. I learned the other day about a tradition called being Boo'd where you leave a basket of goodies at 2 neighbors houses and a ghost to hang from their doorknob (to let everyone know they'd already been Boo'd) along with a note in the form of a poem asking them to do the same for 2 neighbors. The key is it must be done anonymously. We're considering trying to start that next year.

What are some of everyone else's family Halloween traditions? Or what were some traditions that you celebrated as a kid?

And now for some gratuitous pictures of Halloween decorations I made.

 

A felt spider with pipe cleaners as legs and googly eyes. Also a ghost made from stiffened cheese cloth over a styrofoam ball with googly eyes,  a black ribbon.

The Knight is here

On Friday I finished all of Lil' R's Halloween costume. I think it came out really well and I have to attribute the chainmail like fabric choice to the hubby who I believe is beginning to really get into this being creative thing. I'm sure I'll make some form of crafter out of him eventually. At the moment he's turning out to be a great sounding boards. The pieces included in Lil' R's costume are a:

• "chainmail" helm
• tunic with the dragon
• "chainmail" belt
• shield candy bag
• foam sword (not pictured)

We're still trying to get a really good picture of him all dressed up. At only 16 months he really doesn't care to stand still for long. Over the weekend I also altered the hubby's robe so that it now fits much better. This could be the basis of the wizard costume if he chooses to do that. Or is it better to say if he agrees?

Will continue to try for better pictures of the wee bambino.

Fall is in the air, it means time to look busy!

Fall often becomes an extremely hectic time for our household; with the weather becoming cooler there are often an immense number of activities to do. This year is no exception and actually it's possibly even more true with the addition of our new home.  So on top of the normal fall activities such as creating Lil' R's Halloween costume, he's going to be a knight this year and the dog a dragon, there are outfits for an upcoming event for the hubby and I, Halloween decorations and decorating and the multitude of household things.  The picture to the left is of the tunic in progress. I hand stitched the dragon to the front of it. I'm incredibly proud of how this costume is turning out. It isn't going to be too complicated comprising the tunic, a hood made to look like chain mail, a belt, and his shield which also will hold his candy. I've been debating on pants, even having started a pair but I may just put him in jeans. A sword is still in the works and I'm sure we'll just get a plastic one from the store. I'm contemplating dressing the hubby up as a wizard to travel around with Lil' R as he trick or treats. We'll see how well that one goes over later.

Among the multitude of household things that we would like done within a reasonable time frame is replacing/repairing the screens for many of the windows.  Next time the weather drops to 80 as the high I want to be able to open the house up and enjoy! The list of all that needs to be done for the house is astronomical so I won't even begin to list it. I'm sure everyone will hear about it soon enough.

I hope to have more pictures of Lil' R's costume in progress tomorrow.

Who is this nutty person?

So yet another blog has popped up in the blogsphere and I'll admit this isn't my first attempt. I've suffered from too high of expectations which result in less than stellar results and eventually discontinuing my attempts. I finally decided I'm just going to write and try to connect with others that are doing the same. No current aspirations of making any money from this venture or spinning off a sellable brand. If that is to come in the future I'll let it come naturally. I've just come to realize I need some form of outlet, so here it is.

First of where did the name Finagling Life come from? We all know trying to name something isn't easy and I went through a lot of different names before this one came to me. The thoughts behind it through is that's how I feel at times about how I life. I feel that I'm constantly finagling things to keep the day to day functionality of my life going. I'm both a geek and an engineer so I often imagine this as an act of MacGyver getting out of any situation with just his brains and a few random items. I'm sure everyone feels that way from time to time. Possibly more often now with the current state of affairs.

I'm often finagling a lot, often just trying to get everything done. I'm the primary provider for our household working as an environmental engineer while my husband is a stay at home dad taking care of our toddler son. We're still working on how the responsibilities at home work as I was raised by a stay at home mom myself and find many domestic activities to come naturally to me. I'm also an avid crafter. I love creating things and seeing raw material become something more. I hope to show off some of my creations here from time to time.

Until next time.