I just got a great idea!

So Jon's folks have one of those old beat up pop up campers that's been closed for a decade....Tiny house? I think so-oooo.

Seriously, I am obsessed. I can't even count the number of times I've picked up magazines or read articles on these small homes. I'm obsessed with storage. Not very good at it, I must admit. But my house is also gigantic. I really am considering applying this tiny house theory to my gigantic house. I mean it's not really that bad when you consider 3 families live here. It's not wasted space. Once I can get the funds together to make the improvements to make it efficient it will make more sense.

I sent Jon a text to ask if we could make a tiny house out of the camper. He didn't respond, yet. Either way it's something fun for me to think about :)

Weekends, Mondays, Tiny houses?

This weekend was awesome. So awesome that I'm not entirely bummed out that it's Monday, morning, and my kidneys still hurt.

I played Friday Lazy. I had to recover from my fantastic Thursday night dinner with the in-laws at Taste of Texas BBQ. Outlaw potato=love. And these kidneys, they're driving me insane. Or back. Or whatever it is they figure out is hurting me this week. Went to dinner. Bought last mine pres for last min b-day party in the AM.

Saturday was pretty fine. Jon worked. Aubs had a last minute B-day party. Got veg bag from CSA. Mom came over to help me tidy. Mabel slept for many hours. Jon slept for many hours. B-day party for Besties dad, final hugs before they go back to England till whoknowswhen either they come back or I scrape together the funds for passports and airfare for the fantastic four. Sigh.

Sunday, another pretty fine day. Cookout at the park for friend's bday, with ample veg food :D I have to say, it's so nice to have friends that eat veg food too. Although I have had chicken a couple times this last week. I'm supposed to back of the spinach and soy till they figure out what's up with the kidneys. I just have to find something else I'm excited about. Black beans, most likely :)

So anyways. A weekend of many distractions. Much much needed distractions. I've been anxious about today for over a month now. Custody battle for 5 munchkins is to be decided today. We are, or at least were, part of a family action plan to house said munchkins, and BIL, if he has custody and has to leave the military. No idea if any progress has been made. Just waiting for the call. Meanwhile, we had to take control of the 2bdrm apt upstairs, in the event he has the kids, they will need a place to live. The big odd family strikes again. Now, we wait.

The idea of having a family of 6 move into our apartment has helped to feed my latest (officially as of this weekend) obsession....TINY HOUSES!

Oh. My. Goodness.

I've been stalking them a while. I've been reading blogs, magazines, news articles whenever they come up. Jon saw one on yahoo over the weekend, and suggested a tiny house we could tow pending I opt for out of state residency when school's over (long shot, but it's fun to plan a 1 yr relocation to the midwest :) )

Well, I had this idea. My house, well, it's far from tiny. It's gigantic. Inefficent. Old. I LOVE it. What if we made it tiny homes? Like revamped the apartments, the attic, tiny house style? That'd be sweet. I'm really thinking on it.

We need some major work done first, siding, roof, insulation. I've been having a hard time with these because if I'm paying an arm and a leg I want to be able to do it the way I want. I want it to be efficient. Sustainable. For lack of a better term "green". We are eligible for some grants, but they don't seem to fund the type of work I'd want to have done. So I've been torn. But wouldn't that be fun? I think it'd be sweet.

If your not familiar with the tiny house idea...here's some links and pics...

This is one of the blogs I'm obsessed with:
http://tinyhouseblog.com/

This is the place that was on yahoo the other day
www.tumbleweedhouses.com


Anyways, back to cleaning. Long and random, but that's what I've got.

Ok. Finally. Dusting it off.

Well, I had intentions of getting back into the blogging a couple of weeks ago. Clearly, it was just intentions...hahahaha...Ooooh man...But, having reached a point where my "done" list for the semester is about the same length as my "to do" list, I figured now works. Hopefully my 2 or 3 followers aren't expecting much :) SO...in summary...

School: Well, just under a month left. Spent this past Tuesday on a bus to Albany advocating for the profession (Sticking to that was quite the task, mind you. Much advocating to be done these days) and the remainder of the week trying to guilt myself into studying for yesterdays P&T exam. Which, by the way, never seems to work out (intentions again, I suppose). There's just so much else to do. Turns out the exam was near impossible anyways, with questions that really could have been answered only by actually memorizing some charts we were handed. I mean, really folks? It's ok. I can accept that. I can also accept my choice not to spend my time on that. I am completely confident in my ability to look up that information efficiently and apply it when needed. As I said, it didn't really seem to make a difference. The kids in class that skipped Albany day and all of the rest of the days classes leading up to the exam had more negative things to say about it than I did.

Family: Mabel's been sick for the better part of a week, finally getting over a cold and her teeth are about to bust through. Poor kiddo's gotten at least 4 teeth in the last month, looks like a couple more are coming through in the next week. I do not envy her position one bit. She's been a pretty good sport. And, words are forming. Well, sounds with meaning, at the least. Sure, Jon's been getting the AhDa and DaDa for a couple weeks now, but this past week I got the MaDa a couple times. Cute. We also have Up and Ba. And she hisses at Auburn sometimes. It's totally OK if she holds off on that whole forming big words thing for a while though. And the walking thing. Although I know that is getting close. Goodness the munchkin jumped so hard in her pack n play that she busted the board in the bottom. Gotta love it. Like Auburn, I imagine she will wait till her legs are strong enough to just run. Auburn is living it up, got a new bike, we've been taking LOTS of bike rides! Which is good, cause she's about the only bike rider I can keep up with. Her room is clean cause I hired it out to a friend who needed work..but that was a week ago and it's still tidy, so that's pretty good for seven. Jon is working. Goooodness I miss having a house husband, although it is nice to be able to pay the bills. And, we'll even have health insurance. And, most importantly, he doesn't hate his job. They treat him nice. All you can ask for really.

Work: I am so lucky that my boss gets how important my time is to me, and lets me work when I can during school. Waiting to hear on when the intern program starts up this year, so I can work more hours. Heavily debating on if I want to actively pursue getting enough hours together so that I can take my part 3 early. That's the compounding/wet lab portion of the boards that NY makes us do. The thing is, if I take it and for whatever reason don't pass, I have to take it again to get my license. Whereas, if I get a residency either in or out of state, and then come back to NY never having failed the part 3, I can get my license without having to take the part 3. I think I might just apply to the residencies that I want and take what I get, and if I don't get one I still have time to sign up for the part 3. I think. Haahahaha. Well, a year to tease out the details, I guess. Either way, I'm thankful to have a job I like.

House: The apartments are rented out, and nothing *knock on wood* is broken right now! I have a purple dining room (good choice) and a new mattress (not so good choice, so hard to get up) and I'm gearing up for some maaaaajor yardwork and cleaning. Discovered that birds can access my attic last weekend, I would have thought if they were up there often they would have annoyed the who out of the tenants by now, I think the attic is more their hang out than home, and I think I may have blocked off their access. I hope, anyways. Some minor house things to do still. Oh, and I guess I ought to finish painting the living room at some point. It's not a bad shade of whiteish, but, it's a shade of whiteish. But, having a too colorful living room might be overkill with the furniture, and color combos I have in the other rooms. Plus, I like that you can still experience the textured wallpaper underneath it! Yes, I painted over wallpaper, but, since I hardly have time to paint in there, I think replastering or drywalling was a little bit of a stretch.

In laws?: I won't be posting on the in-laws here, at least, for the time being. Not that they read this, or what I would type would be a slam or dig or without evidence or due cause. Infact I think that there are MANY lessons that can be learned from this, from a relationship and communication stand point, and I would love to share those. Just haven't figured out a way to do that yet. Keeping them out of my posts, updates, and all else in a last ditch effort to save at least the formal relationship for the kids. I will say though, that conflicts cannot be resolved, generally, without open dialogue, respect, and a willingness to admit your own mistakes. And I will say, that it has been really difficult, for all of us. And I will say, I broke my rule and gave out more than 3 chances for resolution. So, now it's back to wait and see. Sigh. I'm so stubborn sometimes.

Other randomness: Other things the past while has included, which will likely get their own posts as time provides: A 10+ hour road tip to Rangeley, ME with the peanut and the women of the Coleman clan, earring making experiments with Auburn, my proposed WSOP dress code challenge for next year (cowboy shirts only), curling (yes, curling!), a springtime dirt road ride to Maple syrup in the scooby, and lots of thoughts sent towards how on earth I might think I will ever find my place in the realm of pharmacy practice. I lost 20 pounds in the boot camp challenge, and kept it off (so far) despite not going to the gym since. I got my 2nd choice for my summer rotation. I'm excited about springtime. And so on. Mostly good things. :)



I think that about sums it up.