Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Whoa! Who's That Chick?!

Whew! It's been a bit of a whirlwind since I posted that I wouldn't be blogging for awhile.

After the break-in it was rather jarring and hard to calm down and be excited about anything.  But it was really easy to be upset about a lot of things. So here is a re-cap of the good and the bad things that happened since I last blogged.

After the break-in we were scrambling around to protect our identities because one of the laptops that was stolen had our recently completed taxes on them, as well as some other documents that were useable for stealing identities. We also had to clean up the mess they left behind, then the mess the police made trying to help catch the guy.

Adam had recently decided to leave working on his PhD full time and find a job. He was on an interview when the bastards broke in in February. A month later he was offered all three jobs that he interviewed for, and he accepted the place he was most excited about. I'm very happy to report that he loves his job and he can't imagine being anywhere else.  He can't believe that he's been there 6 months already.

In March I was selected to interview at a non-profit. At the end of March they offered me the job and I accepted. It is a great job, a new position, and I love it. It's a very small office but we are doing good work. I've been there for 5 months and I can't believe it either! We're doing a lot of exciting things and hopefully there will be room for even more expansion soon!

Around the same time however, we learned some bad news. My Dad had been diagnosed with cancer. Cancer sucks. They caught it very early and he's going to be fine. At his last check he was cancer free. So, he's been cancer free for close to four months now.

Once Adam accepted the offer for his job, we started looking for a house.  We found one, made an offer, then another, the second offer was accepted and after many issues with our loan officer being incompetent, we closed on a single story ranch house with a full basement in a suburb of Lansing on Adam's birthday. It is a fantastic house and we love living here. How we moved in was very complicated, because we had planned to stay out our lease at our rental house on Lansing's east side.

And then it was burglarized again.

The second burglary happened the Monday after Adam's birthday, which also was the Monday after we closed on the house.  We didn't spend another night in the house. We stayed with some friends in East Lansing for two weeks, and moved out the Saturday after the second break-in, and into a storage unit and into the sun room of our new house. The former owners were kind enough to let us move a bunch of our stuff into the sun room while they were still living here.  After two weeks with our friends, we decided we didn't want to impose on our friends for too long, because we weren't sure when we'd be able to get into the new house. So we moved into a dog friendly hotel near our new house for two weeks.

Thanks to my father-in-law, we had installed a security camera system after the first break-in and were able to give the footage to the police which aided them in catching the kid who broke in. I can't say anything else because the court case is still in progress.

It was a very stressful time in our lives and we are glad to be past it.

We've been living here for four months and I think it's starting to sink in that we get to be here, that this place is ours (and the credit union's) and we just can't believe it. We are close to being done with furnishing the house, and there are curtains and shelves up and as many candles as I can get in!


Unfortunately, during this time, I also learned that a childhood friend was losing her second battle with cancer. This has been incredibly hard on her, her family and friends and I am kind of in shock. You don't expect to lose friends when you're 25. I hope that she beats this thing every day, but I cry a lot about it too, when I'm not in numb shock. Cancer really sucks.

That pretty much sums up the highs and lows of the last 6-ish months. I am hoping to get back on a regular schedule of blogging, but it won't be 5 days a week. I also have to fix how this blog looks in Chrome on Mac, because it looks funky.

Hug your loved ones, and tell them you care.

Here's a cute picture of Tesla.


Tuesday, February 21, 2012

A Break for Awhile

I know that I haven't been posting a lot lately, and no where near as much as when I first started Fondant is Gross.  Life has been kind of crazy for me and I haven't quite managed to find a balance yet.

I also need to have some time to re-think about what I write about and what I put on the internet in general.

Three weeks ago today, our rental house was broken into.  Many things were taken, but we were relatively lucky. No one was hurt, and Tesla is fine even though she was loose in the house when it happened.  We also have several family things going on and it's just time for something to give.  I am tired of feeling guilty for not updating this more, so, I am taking a break from blogging until I can get my head on straight.

I will still update my weight stats when I can and I hope to be back soon doing full posts.

Take care of yourselves and we'll talk soon.

Jenny

Friday, January 27, 2012

Pinterest, where have you been all my life?

I recently decided to find out what Pinterest is all about and asked a friend for an invite.

Huge mistake, I am now addicted.  ADDICTED I TELL YOU.  It's such a wonderful way to keep ideas in a fun way.  I don't know about you, but I bookmark stuff in my browser and pretty much forget about it. Like, immediately.  But not only do I go through and pin neat stuff, but I go back and do them.  And, it spurs my own creativity!   I love it!

For example, I have seen a number of re-purposed canvas shoe organizers.  One that was used to hold cleaning supplies and one that someone used to grow an herb garden!  Both of those ideas are so smart and made me start thinking.

My house is 400 square feet.  This is not a joke. So space is prime real estate.  We have kind of been collecting an amalgamation of sorts on top of the spice racks.  Which are on top of the microwave.  Which is on top of the fridge.


This is after I cleaned everything up.  I did not want to unclean it up for a before and after picture, sorry. (Say hi to Adam who's finishing submitting a paper, "Hi Adam!")

After seeing genius re-purposing of shoe organizers, I had a brilliant idea of my own!  We have three doors in our kitchen. One to the back deck, one to the basement and one to the bathroom.  The back of the door to the basement was just sitting there, a blank canvas, waiting to be useful.

So.......

(How do you like the quilt batting shoved into the crack on the right? Keeps it much warmer upstairs!)

Ta-da!

I took anything that was in a random place in the kitchen and put it in here.

All of my Weight Watchers snacks, coffee filters, our asinine amount of tea, equally asinine amount of popcorn and many other things are all neatly labeled and in their spots. I felt so accomplished! Usually, for some reason, I leave my organizational COD at work but I brought it home and I don't want to stop! As full time work still eludes me, I can only do it a little at a time. Also, the basement is not a finished basement. And it's winter. In Michigan.  So it's cold and I don't go down there for long periods at the moment.  But, I will get there, and you will know it when I do!

The floppy pieces of paper are only temporary.  I tried making my own adhesive plastic cases to stick on each pocket, but the contact paper wasn't sticky enough. So tomorrow I am headed to Jo-Ann's coupons in hand (50% off, woo!) to get some thin plastic that I am going to be sewing on so that it's as easy to change the label on the pocket as it is the contents.

I leave you with more pictures of my DIY, of which I am so proud!

A liiiittle closer

Oatmeal!

See? Asinine amounts of popcorn.  And my lunch bag.

Temporary labels fastened with paper clips.

Aaaaand what I came back to find after taking pictures.  Stinker.

If you would like to join me in my addiction, shoot me an email through the contact me link in the side bar.

Love and hugs!

P.S. To all of the traffic coming from sopastrike.com, welcome, and I hope we continue to be successful in shelving SOPA and PIPA.  Poke around and I hope you find something to keep bringing you back.


Thursday, January 5, 2012

Think before you rate

There are so many places to rate things in today's world. You rate apps on your smart phone, products on Amazon and store websites, music in iTunes, Amazon MP3 and what have you.

I think it's great to have so many places for consumer reviews about things so that if there is truly something awful about a product, others should be saved the same problems and pains that the reviewer had.

However, there are several things you should keep in mind when you are rating things.

1. Never, never, never, NEVER give something a low rating because the app or product does what it describes but not what you wanted. That is lame and low.  And stupid. If it's an app, then e-mail the developer and say, "Hey, I think this app is cool, but it would be cooler if it would do _______." Most developers I know like getting the feedback and just want to be able to give the customer what they want. But giving them a 1 star rating out of 5 because it does what it says, but not what you want it to, is lame and it skews the overall rating which might lead to someone who might benefit from that app or product to not buy it because of the overall rating.  Which leads me to number 2.

2. Don't buy something based on the overall ratings.  Read the reviews. Especially the bad ones to see if the low star rating was actually something that deserved a low rating or if the rater is being stupid and not following rule #1.

3. If you truly have an issue with a product or app, don't just give it a low rating and not say why. That's the chicken's way out. And, you know those little buttons that say "Send Feedback" or "Give Feedback" or "Holla at me bro!"  They really mean it.  So send them feedback! I have sent feedback to many developers, including Astrid and Google - and they fixed the problem!  It's not shocking, they want their customers to be happy!

4.  Just use some common sense. Some of these "big developers" are just individual programmers trying to make a product for people to love and use, and maybe supplement their income while in school or working a low or non-paid internship.  If you wouldn't say it to their face, don't say it in type. Which is a good rule to live by in any case.

Now get out there an leave thoughtful reviews that help everyone!

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Happy New Year! 2012 Edition

I guess I'll follow suit and write about the New Year today....

I am so glad to kick 2011 out the door.  There were some wonderful highs, but mostly the year was a turbulent ride of lows. In the last few days of 2011, various memories of the year were flashing through my head, and to say good bye to 2011, I want to share a few with you.

My Dad, next to my Mom's hospital bed, holding her hand, just looking at her, watching, make sure she would get everything that she needed.

My Mom, standing up at my graduation when they asked all the parents of the graduates to stand!  I love you, Mom!

Finally finishing college and earning my second degree!

Many, many memories of my wonderful trip to Ireland. My first flight, the gorgeous landscape in Doolin and the busy streets of Dublin. What a wonderful trip, and I look forward to doing more travel in Europe in the future!

Moving into Spartan Village (bad)

Moving out of SV and into our house (good!)

A friend of mine being diagnosed with cancer for the second time.

My maternal grandpa having some health issues.

My paternal grandpa being diagnosed with cancer for the third time.

Running in my first official 5K!

Adam passing out on me after crashing his bike.

Riding my first 100 mile ride (century)!

Courtney got married!

Making my 10% weight loss (again)!

Being unemployed

Finding a temp job that I love!

And adopting the mostest adorablest dog, evar!


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Now that that's done, things I hope to happen in 2012!

I am within range that if I stick to it, I will be at my goal weight sometime in 2012.  Probably not by my birthday, but close.  I am so excited. Even though many people think 135 lbs is too low for me, it is smack dab in the middle of my healthy range for my height. I plan to try to get to 135 lbs, and if I can't maintain that, then I will be more than happy to gain a bit to stick around in the 140s.  Unfortunately, I will probably be able to gain that easier than Adam is able to put on the weight he needs to put on...

And job stuff. That I can't talk about yet.

No hospital visits needed for anyone! (Except birthin' babies, that's ok. And no, I'm NOT pregnant)

Some monetary goals that Adam and I have.

Also, Lions should win the Superbowl!

Just have fun.

2012, let's have some healthy, good, old-fashioned fun!

http://departments.bloomu.edu/solve/img%5CKidsFun.jpg

"Every day is full of opportunities, how will you make a difference today?" -DB