busy bees.

Painted my fingernails a calm shade of fall grey yesterday to celebrate the coming of my favorite season. How can you not love fall?? I think it wins out over the other three in most of our minds...

This week has been just as busy as the 8 before it. I am trying to be intentional about my time with my family so blogging has taken a back seat for a while. We have a friend coming in this weekend and we're gonna love on our nephew this Saturday so I think it is going to be a good weekend. Sorry for the quiet but really - I'm not. The little time I have in my day to spend with the people I love is far too valuable...

What is your favorite season and why?

the british...

The British are coming! The British are coming....oh no wait, it's just my mom. And she isn't British. Sorry.

But she is coming! And I am super-de-duper-de excited about it. We have lots to do this weekend - might even sneak in a visit to the aquarium tomorrow. I love me some penguins...

More later!

change.

I think a big change is coming around on the blog. I have been pondering it for a while...stay tuned for more details.

i think i'm an addict.

I think I am addicted.
It isn't all THAT harmful. I can stop whenever I want.

Isn't that what all adicts say?

Pintrest. I hate you.
Anyone want to go to rehab with me?
Nah, just kidding.
I'm not ready to quit.

quiet.

It has been a little quiet around here lately. Things are so busy with work and keeping life together that I don't often have much time for written words.

I'm not working this weekend which is a serious blessing so I am doing some stuff around the house. The amount of Gwendolen fur on the floor is embarrassing, I think I spend my life unloading and reloading the dishwasher, and dealing with the constant pile of clean clothes on the bed. And yet, somehow today I am unbothered by it. It is an overcast, cool fall day and I am going to get stuff done then hang out with my sweetie - who is out running a 16 miler this morning. Sound like fun?

So happy that fall is slowly arriving...

it's coming!

I realize that we are barely into September yet but this past week's rain and a few cloudy days afterwards have cooled things off so pleasantly that it makes me yearn for REAL fall. I know it is coming so I am waiting patiently.

Sorry it has been so quiet on the homefront this past week. It is just that time of year, I guess. Busy with work, projects around the house, things to do! I went to a school this morning for a recruitment (still helping with that when I can), I worked from home today, and I have a meeting tonight an hour away in Pikeville. I hate that I will be so late getting home but I am earning some time to take off another day.

Going to work on writing a training that I have been working on for literally days. I have never written a training before so really I don't know what I am doing. It is a new skill to learn for sure...

a new day.

I'm still not sorry about what I wrote yesterday but I think I have a much better perspective on it now.

I am working on a couple of craft projects...two for babies that are coming in the near future and one that was for me (that I've already finished...a super easy bag made from a Girl Scout t-shirt. It was a fun shirt - it says "Every cookie has a mission...to help girls do great things." and I just made it into a bag.

Chad is back out at the fire location this morning but not to fire a fire. They apparently left the bulldozer in the woods last night because it was so far in and in such a bad spot that bringing it out in the dark was not an option. He says it will take them a couple of hours and some winching to get it back out and loaded on the transport truck. Oh well - we got about 5 minutes of strong rain last night and I am hoping that is enough to tide us over until the rain we are supposed to get Sunday or Monday arrives. Praying that I will get to spend some time with Chad over the next few days.

Going to clean bathrooms and work on crafts.

soapbox.

If you don't want to read a serious rant, skip today's post...because I am about to lay it down!

I realize a work a lot. I've written about it multiple times and how I struggle to find the balance between work and home things and my personal life. I know there are a lot of nights when I am out at work and Chad is home without me, fending for himself for dinner and getting things done around the house. But this week has been a whole different story and is grating heavily on my emotions. I have worked a lot this week but it has been a fairly normal load for me. I had daily regular work and worked Tuesday and Thursday nights for meetings. I was lucky enough to take all day Wednesday off to hang out with my sister which was a MUCH needed break. Chad, on the other hand, has worked some serious hours this week. His week started when we got back to Chattanooga on Sunday with a call out to a fire about the time we got in bed. He pretty much worked sun-up to sun-down Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and most of Thursday (meaning he left home before the sun and got home around midnight. Literally.) He was on overtime by Wednesday.

He finally got a day off today and worked around the house all morning. He cut down trees and hauled them off. He is hot, tired, and a week of terrible sleeping hours and hard physical work (not to mention all the smoke he inhales all week at work) has worn on him. I was seriously looking forward to a 3-day weekend of hanging out around the house and running some errands and I have been praying that would actually happen and fires would stay at bay. No Luck. He just got called out - literally 20  minutes after I got home this afternoon.

So here is my SOAPBOX (you probably just read something similiar on my FB page...but it limits your status words and boy did I have more to say.):

Here's to all the Idiots...
To the people who were raised poorly, trained terribly, and don't care about others,
To the people who throw cigarette butts out their car windows onto drought stricken land,
To the people who don't know how to properly put out a campfire so it doesn't catch acres of precious woodlands on fire (the Girl Scouts have a FREE class for that - I will teach it myself.),
To the supremely selfish and classy folks who think arson is an appropriate solution to their problems or that it should be used to cover another crime,
To the uneducated and somehow unaware public that doesn't realize we haven't had rain in over a month and a half and that you need a permit to burn your trash or brush - which won't be issued because of nationwide drought conditions,
I salute you.
Carrying my garden hose and my watering can and wearing my Smokey the Bear ballcap,
I salute you.

Because you, my friend, are the people that put the people I LOVE in danger because they have to come clean up YOUR mess. Because of you, my husband and his coworkers inhale more fire smoke than could ever be considered healthy. And you carelessly remove any chance I might have of spending some quality time with my hardworking, dedicated, wonderful husband. Why do they do this? Because it is their job - their barely-pays-the-bills-and-yet-they-are-still-dedicated-job. They do it to protect YOUR houses and YOUR land from burning up. They do it to protect YOUR crops from burning up. They do it to protect the land YOU want to hunt on and ride your stupid ATV's on.

I'm not sorry for saying this.

Edited later to add: Chad just called and said it was raining where he was on the fire. I know that prayers are always answered and sometimes how and where we least expect it. God is good. But I'm still mad.