It’s all paint chips all the time over here, and some of the work has finally begun. A project three years in the making (since purchasing the house) is being worked on as I write this. Our house is getting painted! I am so freaking excited about that! I have tons of before pictures, and I’ll take plenty of afters too to share next week.

That means that this weekend we spent some time ripping the cable off the outside of the house. We don’t have cable, and it was a major eyesore. I also trimmed all the bushes back from the house at least a foot. We’re also still battling the hornet/wasp problem we have. Found and destroyed the 7th nest over the weekend. Hopefully the painters won’t be bothered too much.

Additionally, paint colors have been finalized for the guest/basement bathroom, and now that we don’t have any upcoming guests, it’s possible I could start scraping away at the peeling paint. However, I should be working on what it takes to get my license… A girl needs a variety of things to keep her busy and interesting, right?

I thought I’d picked out a paint color for my bathroom, but now I need to go look at shower curtains before deciding.

Also, the egress window in the family room is finally painted. That was a huge pain to do. The next step for that room is to get the last coat of poly on the built-ins so we can assemble and install those babies, and then we can install the trim. The the room will be mostly done.

Our gardens are finally making some significant progress, though they are far behind where they should be. Bunnies ate most of the sprouts we planted at the end of May, and we didn’t get new seeds in the ground until early July, so I’m not sure what kind of harvest we’ll have before frost comes. I suppose that depends on whether winter comes early or late. But our irrigation system is doing wonders for the plants. I have pictures, but that would require getting off the couch, and I’m supposed to be hard at work on stuff for my license right now, so I’m staying on the couch. The less distracted, the better (thisoldhouse.com proves to be all the distraction I need these days).

As a last note, though I haven’t done any sewing since January, I have recently made some jewelry as a way of sating my need to be creative. I really need to get my butt in gear and clean up my crafting room so that I can do more. I have finally, I think, “recovered” from student teaching. My sleep patterns are much improved as of a few weeks ago, thank goodness, and I am feeling awake during the day, not sluggish. I also feel like doing stuff with my time, instead of just sitting on the couch, which I felt was my just reward for all my hard work (not just student teaching, but those 6 years of school, too). Time to get back to the activity of life.  I have very much enjoyed all the time spent doing nothing with , however. Doing stuff usually involves not being with him, so you can understand my reluctance.

At any rate, I’m home from work today and tomorrow, supposedly working on some stuff for my license. If I can get past the video part, I think I could work on the rest without needing so much set-up and concentration (two computers, one for the video, one for writing). That’s the plan, at least.

Dear women everywhere,

Leggings are not pants. Please do not wear them as such. I should not be able to see the exact shape of your butt, nor do I want to. Please cover up. Thank you.

Dear friends and family who have sent me graduation and birthday cards and presents,

Thank you so much! I am sorry that I haven’t written any of you back. If it helps, it’s nothing personal – I owe everyone letters. Your thoughts and rememberance were definitely appreciated and brought many smiles to my face.

Dear Clarks of England,

Please continue to make awesome shoes. Three out of the last four pairs of shoes I’ve bought have been Clarks, and I now own 7 pair. They are wonderful! Sidenote: If you could please make some grey shoes that are actually grey (and not taupe-y), that would be awesome. I’ve been looking for a pair of grey heels for several years now, and my grey dress slacks have a blueish tint, not a yellow/brown-ish one. All in all, though, keep doing the good work!

Dear 10 pounds of squish that have settled in.

You are not welcome and I would like you to leave. I see that you’re making yourself comfortable, probably because I’ve done absolutely nothing to discourage you or actively make you go away. Regardless, it would be nice if you’d left on your own. I don’t have time or the will to deal with you.

Dear newly-flying house finches,

I am glad that you were born in the oak tree near our driveway. I loved watching you learn how to fly, from the tree to the house, from the house to the fence, from the fence to the tree. I loved watching the four of you (two brothers, two sisters) play tag and loved listen to you sing. Now that you can fly better, I wish you’d stick around and still visit. We (me and probably your mother) miss you. I set out suet just for you, you know.

Dear Downy Woodpecker,

Thanks for coming over for breakfast this morning! I hope you enjoyed the suet. I wish I could have taken a picture of you with something other than my iPhone – you are very pretty, so I hope you come back again so I can get a better shot. You are always welcome.

Dear high school students that I student taught,

I miss you. You are much more fun than adults. I hope you will be just as good for me if I get a chance to be your sub this next year.

Dear school districts near me,

I wish you had job openings. I understand; money is tight, people aren’t retiring…. That’s OK. I haven’t done all the work I need to in order to get my license. If you could arrange for some jobs to open up in the next year or so, I’d really appreciate that. I think I would be a great asset to your school.

Dear house painters,

I am very excited for you to work on our house next week! This has been a long three years in the coming, and our house will look so much better once you have done the job. I can’t wait to see our house a pretty blue color, and without the peeling/cracked/patched spots.

Dear co-workers,

Thanks for being so supportive of me and my career goals, even though they will take me away from you. Your support continues to amaze me and encourage me, which is especially helpful as I will continue to work there until I find a teaching job, and it seems that may take some time. Please don’t be offended by my note above to the high school students; my skills and talents are much better suited to that environment then they are to this one; we all know I’m not very good at the “support” part of support staff. You all put up with my attitude because I’m good at what I do, and I appreciate that leeway.

Dear readers,

I have dearly missed you. Work has been busy, and I have gotten into the habit of composing blog posts in my head and never going anywhere with them. I have several drafts actually composed in WordPress, but they are not ready for posting just yet. I haven’t read any of the blogs that I used to since the beginning of February; Google Reader is about to send out a search team. I have become active on other social networking sites, like Pinterest and Tumblr, and read Twitter and Facebook daily, so I’m not out of the loop per se, just out of the blogging world for the time being. I do hope to get back on track with that soon; perhaps life will be less busy in August, or I’ll have things that are worthy of blogging about. Until then, I hope these short letters keep you entertained.