When Life Gives You Lemons, Say I Like Watermelon Better

Life has really been kicking me in the ass lately. I'm trying not to complain too much about it, because some pretty good things have been happening too. There are always three ways to look at things - positively, negatively and obliviously. I am trying to keep positive, but sometimes that can be really hard to do.

The past couple of days I've actually been in a pretty good mindset. Thursday I started staying at my house alone (I will get to why after) and spent some "me" time on getting some things ready for work and catching up on tv shows. Friday I put my tree in and decorated it, while also having it fall on top of me in the process. It really did look beautiful after it was completed. Saturday I woke up and got ready to head of to the annual Christmas Market that is held in our community every year, I spent alittle cash and headed home with a bag full of goodies. Once I arrived back home, I got this fantastic urge to clean. I re-arranged my pantry and cupboards, cleaned my kitchen, porch and laundry room. It didn't take me long and I felt awesome about what I had accomplished, I hadn't cleaned that much since I had moved in. 

Living alone has really made me not only bored, but it has seemed to free up some of my time. Instead of always cuddling on the couch watching tv shows, I'm wandering around the house looking for something to do. 

Now about why I am living alone. It's not something that I want to elaborate on too much, but most people know that Justin and I have our fair share of problems in our relationship, but we also have our own individual problems and issues. He is manic depressive and suffers from anxiety with a touch of bi-polar and I'm OCD with depression and weight issues. But we want to be together and we fight for and work together or try to atleast. Justin has an addictive personality and I have a high novelty seeking personality. So I am always searching for a change or something new when he is stuck on one thing. So he's gotten himself into a bit of a mess with alcohol and it's really become too much for me to help him control. I have a bad temper and because I don't understand why he can't just "stop" we always end up fighting and when he's been drinking, his temper isn't that great either. He's moved back to his parents so that he can hopefully get past this problem and we can eventually go back to living together. But with alcohol came the sneaking and the lying, which is something that I hate the most. I HATE lying and although I do it on occasion because I am not perfect, my guilt will eat me alive about it. But most of the time I just don't understand it, if a friend asks me to lie to someone for them, most of the time it ends up hilarious because I can't wrath my head around the reason someone would want to lie and then I can't come up with anything that would make sense to say. That's beside the point though, because of how many lies have been in our relationship lately, my trust is just about gone and it really hurts me to say that. I used to be such a trusting person and now I barely trust anyone. 

I stayed with my mother last night because of a life changing event for her, she got her very first computer...and I had to teach her how to use it. Although training has just begun, she does have an email, facebook and pinterest account and can work all those herself. So day one of training went well. I stayed tonight because today was a very "blah" day, I slept most of it and when I went home my beautiful christmas tree had fallen down and a bunch of ornaments were broken and I just was too aggravated to be home, so I locked up and came back down to my mothers after standing up and tying the tree off. Atleast I get to go through the fun of re-decorating my tree. 

Some good things that I've got going right now other than having my house clean and teaching my mother the ways of the "current world" I am working on a new project for work. As an educator in a daycare, we have to document what the infants and children do and learn, how they live their lives at daycare. It's my favorite thing about work, because I get to use my photography and photoshop skills at my job, which I didn't think I would get to use much, but I bring quite a bit to the table when it comes to documenting. Right now I am working on video documenting, when I quit art school to move back to my hometown I was learning about video. I had been really excited about it until the worst of my depression had hit and I stopped going to school or even getting out of bed. So I'm starting to teach myself and working on a few projects. The BG Club has video equipment, so maybe as I learn more I can start using some of their tools later on. 

My biggest news of all and probably the reason that I haven't given up after all this alcohol craziness (which by the way has made me hate booze and I have been sober myself since August, whoop whoop go me!) is TomTom. TomTom is a cerebellar hypoplasia kitten. A litter of kittens that the St. Stephen SPCA took in were affected by the disorder. Most of the kittens are mildly affected with very little displays of the condition, two of the kittens are moderately affected, TomTom being the most affected. What is Cerebellar Hypoplasia? They also call it drunken sailor or wobbler kitten, it affects the cerebellum in the developing stages in the womb. Sometimes if a pregnant cat is vaccinated during her pregnancy it can cause this disorder in her kittens, or if the cerebellum is damaged somehow during a kittens term in the womb. The kittens motor skills are affected and some kittens may have only mild tremors, moderate walking troubles or some kittens can have CH so severely that they will never walk. The one thing to remember about these kitties is that they are in no pain and don't realize they are any different from their fellow cats. Sure they do feel it when they bump into the wall or fall, but I don't have CH and I probably have more bruises and cuts than this kitten. 

I didn't plan on adoption another cat for a couple of years. I just took in a kitten from a local family and she was infested with fleas, so after cleaning her up and getting her back to a healthy kitten state. I said no more cats. Then I read about TomTom and it touched my heart in a way I can't explain, maybe it's because I've worked with special needs kids or on some level believe I'm kinda "special" myself. But I just had a feeling that TomTom was for me. I emailed right away, but felt the need to make sure that TomTom was adopted by me that I called the SPCA, you know I am serious about something when I pick up the phone and actually speak to someone. I HATE phone calls. So after waiting for paperwork to go through and cheques to be received they finally told me a week later that TomTom will be mine :) 

I was so speechless and excited when I found out. Yes my house is full of animals, yes I like it and no I don't care that you think I shouldn't have four cats, a dog and a giant bunny, but I do and I love them all more than I like most people. These days I have become a home body and keep to myself alot, those four cats, a dog and a giant bunny are my family. We share a 3bdrm house and although they don't pitch in on chores, I don't mind cleaning up after them, cause I love them. 

Here is a photo (right) and a video of TomTom. I am not sure what I am going to name him once he moves in, so I am just calling him what his name is at the shelter, I don't mind TomTom and maybe it will even stay that, but I want to meet him first before I decide on a name. For more information about CH cats visit HERE.

So far he has been able to take 10 steps without falling over, hopefully with practice and muscle development he will walk alittle farther as her grows. If he doesn't thats okay too, we'll love him anyway :)

Stay Happy! <3 and don't be afraid to adopt an animal with special needs, read up about there care and understand what they are dealing with, don't go over your head either! But animals with special needs deserve loving homes too :)

Home Owning Life

I have been living without internet for the past 30 days and I've actually lived to talk about it. The good part is that I have been so busy that I really haven't had alot of time to waste on the interwebs anyway. But I really have missed blogging. I'm going to make a quick but good post about how things have been before The Walking Dead comes on.

I've been working alot and taking some curriculum courses away. I was away this weekend for one and spent the night at my aunts house, which was really nice. I always love going away to spend some time with her and my cousins.

Work has been so awesome, I have to be honest that it was alittle stressful at first because I didn't have much experience with infants and toddlers, but now that I've been working there for almost 2 months those buggers are really growing on me. I find myself missing them all the time and I'm almost excited to get out of bed and go to work.

These pictures are of me and a little girl I work with, she is so smart and loves my iphone. She'll take it out of my pocket and try to unlock it to get to the camera, then she climbs up in my lap and sits on one side of me so that I can reverse the camera and she can see us and she'll push the camera button. She likes to do funny faces and nice smiley ones. She's such a sweetheart!

 When I'm not working I'm at home cleaning. I spend so much time cleaning and doing housework now, but I will give Justin some credit because he helps me alot on his days off, which I am very thankful for. There is still so much to be done in the house, but it is coming along as I have time to work on it. I finally got my bedroom set up alittle bit more today. I hung some stuff up and justin and I worked on the walk-in and got our clothes all organized. I think my next project will be the downstairs bathroom, because my father and stepmother generously bought me a great housewarming present :) a dryer. I am so thankful for it too, the dryer that was in the house has got to be from the seventies and the belt is gone in it and I can only put a handful of clothes in it most days. It makes doing laundry take forever! So when I take the old one out and put the new one in, I think I'm going to take up the laminate that is covering the hardwood up. I do not understand why people covering beautiful hardwood floors...even scractched hardwood is better than the orange/yellow laminate that is currently on the floor. This room is also the room that needs to most cleaning and organizing. So I'll make this the next to-do. Hopefully I will be able to afford it.

Here are some before and after photos of the master bedroom.

BEFORE 

BEFORE

I think having the bed this way makes the room feel so much bigger! 

I love my room. It feels so nice to just have it ready, it's just a different atmosphere when it's not completely wrote off.

And for those who live away and might not know what my house looks like here is a photo :)

I have so many more things that I could talk about, but time is getting close for me to curl up in the livingroom of my mothers and watch the walking dead, then I have to go back to my internet-less house and go to sleep so I will be refreshed to go into work tomorrow and not get home til 10pm because I have first aide courses until thursday :(

I'm hoping that my modem will be here soon so that I can blog from my own house haha

Stay Happy!

What Happened To Free Time?

I have no internet and even if I did I feel like I wouldn't have enough time to use it. I am and have been so busy lately and it's driving me alittle insane.

Lately I have been working full time, traveling 6 hours, for a 1 hour and 15 minute course, taking photos and editing photos, babysitting and trying to put my house together and sell stuff that is in my house. All of this is turning me into a zombie I believe, I can't even feel my brain anymore. 

I really really really want to post photos of my house, but I haven't even got it looking nice enough to take photos of. I guess thats the fun of having a house. I'm currently at my mothers using the internet because BellAliant won't allow anymore new costumers for internet on the island. I had to pay a good chunk of $$ to get them to transfer the internet from my mothers to my new house 5 mins away. I really think that the fact Bell is refusing us islanders internet needs to be brought to someones attention. Don't be a provider of internet for a select amount of people on the island or atleast work towards fixing it! 

I have to get back to being a lonely home owner now! Who hopes to have internet by next week, even though she was told it would be the first of this week...stupid companies. 

Stay Happy! 

Oh and did I mention that I don't have a free weekend until Christmas?! I don't even know if I will be able to throw myself a house warming until months after I bought my house! 

Talk About Exciting!

HOLY SWEET LOVE MUFFINS! is my heart racing or what?! The past week has been so crazy, but the past three days have been absolutely intense. Where do I begin...

If you've been reading my posts, I've been blogging lately about growing up and trying to move my life forward because I'm a terrible procrastinator and when I'm not pushing myself I'm a lump on the floor. I've taken charge of my life and I'm going to make the most of it. I also blogged about my options for the future. Last week I was planning on building onto my mothers house next year to have my own spot, but then I thought more and realized I don't want to spend 50-75 thousand dollars on my mothers house until I save up enough money to get a place of my own AND pay off that loan. SO then I was left with buying land and building which means big $$$$ and just buying an existing house.

I started surfing the web and just checking out properties around the island and there were two specific ones that I was thinking about for next year. I made an appointment with the realtor to see my favorite of the two just for fun and hoped it would motivate me to keep saving and keep my focused. Instead I found out that they had dropped the price a significant amount and there had been others looking - which I had already saw because the house in on my way to work, that was on thursday. I got some information on what I would need if I were to put an offer down. Turns out because of my hate for credit cards ( which I think is a good thing ) isn't good for my credit, that meant I needed a co-signer. This is where my dad came in. On friday he went to view the house with me and was against my plan because he didn't want me digging a deathly hole of debt, which I completely understand. But I was persuasive and asked him to think on it over the weekend. On Sunday, I called again and he told me no again. Which I was even more upset about, but I did understand why he would say no, but at the same time just wanted the chance. I budgeted everything out to high prices of expenses and low incomes, not including savings and I still have money left at the end of the month. I really just wanted the chance, because I know that I'm not going anywhere, I moved away for three years and didn't really enjoy myself and ended up back here. This place is my home. After him and my stepmother had talked they decided I deserved a chance.
Yesterday I went to the bank with my Dad, got approved and then put in an offer for the house, signed the papers with a belly for of butterflies and began the wait. I've been going absolutely bat shit crazy waiting. And my realtor is definitely getting a kick of my enthusiastic behaviour toward all this and the fact that I want them to leave everything in the house, because I even love all their stuff - I am still hoping they will leave a pile of it behind because I love vintage things and it's basically all vintage.

So yeah, today all I've done is wait and get nervous, and then overly excited and then anxious because even if I get the house I can't move in until october, which just means MORE waiting and I don't think I can handle that. But I did get word that they do want to move the closing date forward if they accept my offer. I was supposed to get a call at 8, and it is now 8:01 and I'm typing like crazy just to keep my mind of it.

It's an old house, but I love old houses and it's all I've ever lived in and all I ever even looked for in an apartment. It has 9-10 foot ceilings, 2 acres of land that connects to my grand mothers property, a barn, a gorgeous lawn, a spiral stair case, 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.

To help save money I have come up with the idea that I would take on a renter. Who might this be you ask? None other than my bio-bro, Jackson. I don't think I have come cross anyone except his mother that has thought we can pull it off, but I agree with her and think he deserves that chance and definitely needs to learn some responsibilities. I am not afraid to teach him some lessons haha. I think it will be pretty fun on the days we aren't fighting like real brother and sister. He is definitely a character and it will be a hard adjustment, but he's a good kid and I'll teach him the ropes for sure.

OMG it's 8:06 and I still haven't got a call. I also want to make an awesome shout out to all my family that has helped and supported me financially and mentally/morally. I'll post more about the actual house when I know for sure that it's mine. I probably won't even publish this until I know more.

8:09

It's 8:15 and I just bought a house!

Stay Happy!!!

ps. did I mention it has a walk in closet!!! bonus!

Happy Canada Day!

I am definitely proud to be a Canadian and this weekend we did lots of celebrating as it wasn't only canada's birthday but my cousin was also celebrating her 17th birthday this weekend with the whole family. It was an awesome get together and for once we were all present for most of it. My family is pretty close and what I mean by family is my grandparents, mother and her two sisters and all the grand kids. I also had a BIG yardsale that I went to, I mentioned in another post that I had been to a yardsale not too long ago and bought some really nice glass bottles and some other items, I may not have mention and meant to. I am a huge yardsale fanatic and would seriously buy everything I needed from a yardsale rather than new from the store, most things anyway. I'll post some recent yardsale finds in this entry. 

So appreciative that a few parents have given me permission to use photos of the  kids for work!
They are all sooo adorable. The art work is something the kids put together for summer
 this past week, some pretty flowers and busy bees! 

Friday night a bunch of family and some friends got together to celebrate Megan's
birthday! Top: My aunts and I, Tonia- or as I refer to her as BioDad, Claudine
and then Myself.  Bottom: a few of old friends and family with a
couple of new friends. 

Top - Bottom, Right to Left. Matt building us a fire, Papa enjoying a s'more, Megan and Abbie, Papa setting off roman candles,
everyone sitting around the fire, again - we did this for the past three nights. Everyone out for a family walk at sunset, and today
we moved couches in the heat and BioDad was a bit crunched up in the back. 

Fireworks in the yard! :P don't worry we had a fire fighter in the family haha

There was alot of food involved this weekend.

We like to do a lot of things together as a family, including walks, lamp lit grass basketball and
shaving heads. Megan and I took it upon ourselves to shave Jackson's head, neither of us have
done it before. How hard can it be? It's not like we could mess up haha

My Dog T-Bear shed's awful! He's a ShepardxHusky and the hair just falls off him all year. He looks
much better after the brushing! 

A neighbor and friend has a ton of kittens at their house that are just tooooo cute. I wish I could take them
all or even one but I have too many animals. The little white one is the runt and she is so dainty and cute,
 then this guy on the right is a little fluffy thing but has a rat tail :P I'm excited to see how it looks
as he grows up. 

Mayor is a bit of an escape artist so when he got out again we decided his
new cage NEEDED to get built, so my mothers boyfriend was so nice as
to build out. Right as it was finished we got a tip of where Mayor had been
spending the afternoon and were able to catch him. 

Tinka is re-united with her bestie in his new pen! He likes it and hates it
at the same time, at first he thought he could go right through it, but has
given up on that now. In the bottom picture you can really tell where
his ear was broken, probably from being picked up by his ears as a baby

The first photos is the bird feeder that I bought at the yardsale for $2. I brought
it home as a project and wanted to do it right away. So I painted it up and
hung it outside of the house :) 

Bought a bunch of old camera equipment :) I collect this stuff if anyone has things they don't want!
Just hinting :P 

I love colored glass and I couldn't resist these beautiful bottles.

The photo doesn't do the plates justice. They're from Egypt but I don't know anything else about them. 

Those are some of my yardsale finds, but there are LOTS more that I've collected over the past couple of weeks. This weekend I also bought two cushioned chairs and an antique baby crib. I have a bit of a problem when it comes to buying things at yardsales. Some stuff I buy to fix up and sell, now to later. 

Overall I had a great weekend of festivities and spending money. 

Stay Happy! 

Lets Just Say I'm Loving Life

So compared to how dreary I was considering life to be back in February, life right now is pretty freaking awesome! I have been working with kids at the boys and girls club for a little over a week, and it's going to pain me if I have to leave. Those little guys are the cutest, they say/do the cutest and funniest things you could hear.
I've been working with an autistic child who happens to be the most interesting and cutest kid. I have a real respect for autistic children/people, I had never really known anyone or spent a large amount of time with an autistic child until I started dating my boyfriend 4 years ago. His little brother has autism and down syndrome, but is high functioning. He really took to me and he's been my little buddy since, more then than now, because believe it or not he's a whooping 11 years old! Definitely not the little cuddly 8/9 year old who used to sit in my lap.
The little boy who I have been working with is 4, and I can't help but watch him throughout the day and wonder what he's thinking. He loves to repeat words that I say, and when I repeat his noises that he makes he loves it even more. Maybe I look or sound funny, but it's been a real breakthrough in our relationship! Today we mostly made zebra noises at each other and he really liked how I pronounced tent, because I annunciated my "t" on the end, so we repeated back and forth for a couple of hours, while we played a board game and played in the costume bin. I also taught him to say "AR YE' MATEY," he liked that, another worker also flipped a large coffee can over and made him a drum, not sure if that was a good  or a bad thing, but I think he enjoyed it alittle more than the workers ears did haha.
It's days like today that I love working with autistic kids, it's the breakthroughs in relationships and connecting that really make me love it. Connecting with kids in general is an awesome feeling, but connecting with special needs kids is a whole new level of fantastical warm feelings. I actually got a kiss before I got off work!! Now THAT was my best end of the day gift.
It's been a complete learning experience the past week. Justin's little brother doesn't do much therapy for his autism, but the kids I have been working with and around have all these cool routines and therapies to help them throughout the day,l ike the brush down, vests, diets, and stretch bags, even languages. It's been alot to learn, but I think I did quite well for myself in the short amount of time that I've been there. I'm the youngest of the workers so I've really been the most playful and energetic person around.
I think the kids have really taken a liking to me, because I'm not afraid to get down and dirty, or let them hang off me or be alittle rough with me. Today I was doctors patient, a massage client, a bongo drum, a victim of pouncing and jumping children, I was half buried in pea-gravel and I came out of it alive and smiling.
I really have a new appreciation for children and I hope to work with them alot more in my future :)

Ps. look forward to new photos from my photo shoot. I'll be posting one or two on here, but more on my photography blog, the image owl!

Stay Happy!
-Robyn