Playing Catch-Up

Finally, things are returning to normal. I've gotten all my vacation pictures downloaded, edited, and uploaded. I've balanced my checkbook and paid the bills. The laundry is down to a manageable pile. My craft room is a bit more organized. I'm working on my week update blog. But, there's still a TON to do! I need to get organized and stay that way. When will I ever have time to sit down and catch up on my magazines?? Here's what I've been up to over the last week:

Tuesday - All I had on the calendar today was photo class. I, of course, hadn't done the homework, so I had to work on editing my photos all day. I burned several of them to a CD, and headed to class. Although, I had great subject-material in my photos for class, I was very nervous about my first critique because absolutely everyone in the class is a professional photographer. In addition, the instructor seemed to have something negative and nit-picky to say to every person, so I was ready for it. And.... he liked my photos! He had nothing he would change about them! Whew! No idea how that worked out.

After work I met Adam at TGIFriday's for dinner. I just had French Onion Soup and fries. He only got fried macaroni. (Of course we both got strawberry milkshakes.) Then it was more photo editing all night. As you can see, I neglected all cleaning and unpacking. And I couldn't help but notice that Brutus was being as cute as can be.

Wednesday - This morning I taught my Click-A-Trick class at work. Then I headed to tutoring. Finally, I stopped at home to get the boys and take them to agility class. They're both doing so well now that Brutus realized the joys of jumping!

It was "Ghost Hunters/American Idol/Moment of Truth/UFO Hunters/International Ghost Hunters" night. We enjoyed those shows for a while (while I edited more photos) and eventually fell asleep in front of the TV.

Thursday - Happy birthday to me!!! I woke up to see the kitchen and stair banisters decorated for me! (Part of it was still up from Adam's birthday, haha!) I worked until 5:30pm today. One of my co-workers, Marilyn, brought me a card and gift... how sweet! Work actually went well. I felt helpful and the students were all very nice today. They must've known...

After work, I met Adam at home so I could open my presents. :) He got me everything I wanted: a tri-pod, The Starting Line's CD, a logic puzzle book, "The Lovely Bones" book (need to find time to read this), cell phone charger, a Garmin case, a huge card, a dozen roses, and my favorite gift - a personal website for my future photography business!!! He bought a domain name, and whatever else is involved with that. He has been spending a ton of time designing it (almost as much time as I've spent editing photos). He's so sweet and creative - I never would've guessed! I can't wait until it's up and running, then I'll share it with you! But it's a secret until then... :)

After gifts, we went to dinner at O'Charleys. It was delicious, but my stomach started cramping up after the cheesy soup. I took the rest of my food home... still sitting in the fridge. We had a piece of carmel pie for dessert. Then I spent the night editing away while Adam slept on the floor in the family room.

Friday - It finally hit me that my family was visiting today and our house was in shambles. I got up at 8:30am just to clean. I did laundry and swept the whole house and picked up the main rooms. I also had to run to the grocery to get food for Saturday and Dad's card and gift. I got home just in time to unload groceries and head to work. I worked a few, short, easy hours at CSCC. When I got home, Mom, Dad, and Allie were already here. We spent the evening catching up and chatting about our vacation. We decided we were all too tired to go out, so Mom made my favorite chicken and macaroni casserole for dinner. It was better than any meal I could get at a restaurant! I worked on (you guessed it) editing photos until dinner was ready (I was sooo close to being finished!).

After dinner we had cupcakes (hauled all the way from Taste of Elegance) and homemade pumpkin pie. Dad and I opened our gifts. Allie got me an OSU shot glass for my collection. Mom and Dad got me an apple lightswitch plate cover, subscription renewals to Good Housekeeping and Us Weekly, a pawprint purse, a photo album Mom made of me at each one of my birthdays, and money to shop for bedding. Then we had nearly a two-hour slideshow to get through all 450+ photos from our trip and to look at our souvenirs. Then we were all ready for bed (Dad had already snored through half of the slideshow; that was to be expected).

Saturday - I woke up before everyone (except Dad) and worked on getting a big breakfast ready for everyone. I made spinach/veggie/cheese omelettes, bacon, and cinnamon rolls. It was a great breakfast. Mom did dishes and helped me clean up some boxes from my computer room that were never unpacked when we moved. Thank goodness we finally got through those. We found some things we forgot we owned! Sooner that we knew it, it was time for an early dinner, we had been too full to eat lunch. We ate at BJ's Brewhouse. It was really good and the menu was so extensive... we'll have to eat there again. My family headed home from there, and Adam and I headed to Target to spend some birthday money. I was on a mission for a new bedroom set and curtains, a new clock, and a shelf for my craft supplies. I found a bed-in-a-bag set and body pillow to complement the set. There were no curtains that matched, we forgot to look at the clocks, and I didn't find a shelf. However, I'd still consider it a successful trip. I also found a Franklin Covey calendar planner. Yay! No more printing of sheets of computer paper for my "calendar." I stayed up really late printing photos and doing more catch-up things, and as you may have seen, updating my enormously long vacation post.

Sunday - Today was just pet training all day. It was busy, so the time went by fast. I started two new classes and seem to have really good students. I also had a graduation to end the day. Those are always fun. All the doggies somewhat willingly wore their graduation caps. Now it's the Superbowl (please end soon!), then a special "House." I will try to stay a little more caught up on the Blogger this week. Not that there's anything exciting in my life to post about, but we'll try! P.S. Today is the first day I forgot to take any photos!! :( Shame on me... (However, technically the photo of our bed-in-a-bag was taken after midnight on Saturday... does that count?)