Where! is! my brain!!

Hmm. I missed two pics from yesterday, earlier.

AND I DECIDED THAT I HAD TO POST THEM BECAUSE THEY SHOW PICTURES OF EVEN MORE TARGETING GOODNESS!! *whimper*















Here is the couch. With Nancypants on it!! More window panels in the back. And you can see the corner of yet ANOTHER Targeted (Global Bazaar!!!) ottoman. (This was from 2006, though, hee. Wait. Possibly even 2005??? What!! I've been Targeting for so long I can't even keep the years straight anymore!) The book is Rachel Ashwell's Shabby Chic, though. Hee. That one came from the outdoor antique market. Lovely!! I went this morning, as well.

And those white shelves, with all the scrapbooking paraphernalia? Target.

The scrapbooks on the bottom shelf are TOTALLY from Target.

As are the pink and green notecard storage folders, and the 2 pink photo storage boxes, all on top!!!! And the other ribbon box! And the Snapware containers!! They are all small and in the way corner so you may not even be able to really see them. Still. IT'S FROM TARGET!

TRALALALALA!

I am turning into such a materialistic fiendish PIG!!!!!

However, that corner up in the right is now dominated (DOMINATED, I say!) by a the giant massive dresser/chest/drawers/workstation that I bought.

Thank my lovely young neighbor for helping me haul it upstairs. Good thing Shabby Chic stuff works with dings in the wood and extraneous scratches and scuffed up paint because I am SURE we scraped that thing along SEVERAL railings dragging it upstairs.

I think this is a nice picture which shows a little more of the living room ... and more obsessive Targetation!!!

1. Pineapple glasses - totally Target. 2006.
2. Pink straws - from this year's Valentine's clearance!
3. Brown paisley Isaaz Mizrahi tray. Some random endcap find, I'm sure.
4. Brown storage ottoman - I remember this was 50% off! And some woman stopped me in the store and asked if there were any more because that is EXACTLY what she was looking for for her son! Sorry, lady, better luck next time. :/ I know they had them this year, though. :)
5. Glade Scented Oil Candle! Ok, they had them at Target, but I actually got this one at Goodwill. Because I support good causes.

And finally.

I ADMIT IT! My t-shirt and shorts are from Target, too, come to think of it. Hahaha!

Anyhoo. What all this shows me? Is seriously. I am way compulsive. And compulsively detail-oriented. Like, who cares? I don't think anyone cares quite as much as I do. And that's OK.

Because this blog is by me! About me! It's my world. I just let you guys come visit sometimes. :P

The first posted pics of my new apartment!!!

I invited several dear friends over to see my new place yesterday and they were kind and gracious enough to come and warm up my cushions for me *simper*.

Seriously, I really do love entertaining and having people over. I just don't feel like I do it very well, yet.

Which means I must do it more and more and more!
Practice makes perfect!!
Repetition in search of mastery!!!

We had a GORGEOUS little afternoon tea at Miss Hillary's divine find - The Vintage Tea Leaf in downtown Long Beach.

Whee and *cheer* for ridiculous hats.

And then we all drove back to my place!

All the while I was carting around a MASSIVE giant 15-drawer chest that I got at a garage sale early in the morning, along with an 18-shelf letter sorter (still in the neato van, btw!!) for the classroom. Seriously, though, the thing is beautiful.
I'm surprised I didn't explode more gas.

But y'all will see pics soon!

ANYway.

They all came over and had a lovely time (I hope) and it was GREAT impetus and spurring motivation for me to clean like a whirling dervish dust cloud. Yay for actually being able to see the carpet.

Please ignore the mess which hovers perpetually on the floor!!!

And can you spot the Target? :)

1. 3 window panels (whee, Shabby Chic!)
2. Floor lamp
3. Table lamp
4. Candlestick
5. Candle
6. Chest of drawers
7. Black ottoman
8. All four cushions!!!

And you can't see the wicker trunk hidden behind the couch on the floor, upon which the table lamp resides.

Also, I love my couch. That was not Target, though.

And the glider and ottoman Miss Cheri is sitting on were ...

(And I am so flabbergastedly astonishingly proud of myself)

Only $3.93 (no clue why they decided on that ole 93¢ there, really) at the thrift store across the street from my landlord's office!!! (Do you people even BEGIN to see why I am entirely so addicted???)

And it came with nasty pink fuzzy/stiffy-chenilley raggedy sprung open threadbare gross stained cushions, but I just had them thrown out and I slapped on my ... TARGET-EDNESSES!

And my bedroom looked GREAT! (Even relatively and comparatively.)

The walls look awfully blank though, eh?? That's what comes of living in an apartment and having to PAY for busting holes through the walls. Because seriously, I swear. It's not like I'm hurtin' for things to put up on the walls. Really.

Let's play "Spot the Target Item" again, shall we?? Okay.

1. (You can't see the) 6-compartment mini set of blue ticking fabric-lined baskets in little shelves on the
2. (Hidden by our bodies) Shabby Chic bath 2-shelf (bookcase-looking) stand that I use for a nightstand with the
3. (On the bottom shelf) set of 3 Classic Winnie-the-Pooh nesting baskets and the
4. Simply Shabby Chic British rose lampshade!! (75% off!!)
5. Simply Shabby Chic porcelain/ceramic rose lamp base (75% off!!)
6. Simply Shabby Chic sheets and pillowcases (75% off!!)
7. Bamboo cloth pillow (50% off ...)
8. Simply Shabby Chic throw pillow (85% off!!)
9. Simply Shabby Chic quilt (boo hoo, only 50% off)
10. Set of 2 shower curtains that I use for drapes!
11. Set of 2 shower curtain rings that I jabbed into drapery hanger thingies!
12. Simply Shabby Chic bolster (75% off!!)
13. White silk button-tufted and beaded fringe ottoman ... 90% off!! (Glorious Christmas seasonal clearance!!!)

Okay, now I officially feel CRAZY.

Totally crazy lady.

Crazy Target lady.

It's an .. unhealthy obsession.

How I totally just HAD to post all the unnecessary extraneous details of my compulsive shopping...

but it came together so wonderfully!

And now that I officially SCARE MYSELF, I will stop. And take a break and drink some water and come back to post some more.

But can I please just say? I went to 2 Targets after church today (looking for ONE specific item, I'll have you know!!) ...

And I didn't buy anything.

What WILL the American economy do without me???

Freaking technology.

Hello, friends!

So last time, I said I was going to do the dang dumb New Zealand pictures, right??

And I TOTALLY was.

And then seriously, like, all the power cut out. The computer just went ppffffffffffffffffffffffff-BZZZT *dead*.

It freaked me the heck out. Because it sounded like a power outage except ALL THE LIGHTS WERE STILL ON.

CREEPY!

It took about 20+ minutes of puttering and checking and second-guessing to finally figure out how to reset the fuses because apparently SEVEN of them blew. Like, the computer - dead. TV and VCR - dead.

But the lights were on!!

And it was semi-raining, so I honestly didn't have a hohum clue what was going on in this lil goldurn haunted house.

Now I'm back on my weekly visit him and will internet till I pass out.

:)

Is this thing hard to read??

What can I say. Those of you who don't know me well, listen to ye olde imminent public service announcement:

I TOTALLY work in spurts.

Thus said, I have a brief survey for all've'y'all.

I've noticed that the print is just a little small on this dang screen.

So please comment!!

Is this easier to read ...

or is this easier to read?

Can I change the size/pt. on this cotton-pickin' thing.

Ooh, it appears that I can. Is this helpful?

Would this be even better? Excessive, maybe? Yes? No?

I feel like a monster.

And yes, a wee bit hyper. But I really do wanna know, for all those lovely personages who bother to come and while away some hours/minutes/nanoseconds.

Hit me up.

April Is Almost Over!!

Wheeeeew, wushuuuu, what is UP.

Last week was crazy. I still feel jet-lagged. And this is one week later.

MAN! Frikky tikky.

I was runnin' 'round last week like a daggone nappy-headed chicken with its beady-eyed greasola chickenhead done cut off trying to get ready for OPEN HOUSE!

I try not to stress - just to think carefully, and prepare - over these things anymore because SOMEHOW they always get done.

And God bless my dear old ex-Spanish teacher, MS. Murney Blades, because something she said not a few times still rings in my head:

"All work and no play is not the way to go! Your work will EXPAND (or shrink, as it were) to FIT the time you GIVE IT."

Hello, this be my life story.

If cleaning the classroom only GETS 2 hours, then it gets DONE in 2 hours, by golly!

I had a relatively spartan classroom set-up for Open Freaking House (Arrest), but a turnout of 14/20 wasn't too bad!! Somehow I always get through it! Praise Jesus.

So this post is basically a warm-up wind-up. I'm jiggering freaking WIRED from cavorting last week and stressing about being VISIBLY late to work while the PRINCIPAL is on the playground watching me run and hustle to my dang class that got taken in already, and waking up at 3am or 4am every night, and having NO fun whatsoever trying to huck my heavy fat backside outta bed at a time remotely resembling 7am every morning.

Le puke.

But it is officially over! And now I gotta crank out some test prep! And then try to do REPORT CARDS?!?!? again so freaking soon I can't believe it.

And then the year will be over and I have lofty great intentions of deep-cleaning most thorough this tossed-together approximation of a classroom.

Goals. I definitely have goals for my work environment this upcoming year.

I intend to be a force with which to be reckoned!! (Clumsy syntax, in my opinion, but heyyyy, the grammar Nazi/fascist in me refuses to allow any other.)

Next up: pics of New Zealand.

Maybe some vids, if you're lucky. Then again, are other people's videos really usually ALL that interesting? Especially with unintelligible sound? Hmm, dunno.

Don't even REMIND ME about all the stuff from Europe '06 that I still need to post.

Whee.

*huggies and smoochies to all who come here and pay attention to me*

New! Zealand!!

Is a frickin' great country, man. Seriously.

So I've had internet access here at my looooooooooooovely amazing wonderful kind generous fun and froofy host family's house, but I've just been too gosh-darn knackered running around the place being carted from here and there stuffing my face and taking in the sights.

This place is SO gorgeous!!!

So now that means I am monumentally even more behind in trying to blog and post and write and show all the wonderful things that I have gotten to experience in the past yeeee-ah.

"Oi kin toh'k loik i' N'Seelinda n hev m'sef hapes n hapes've hohhht cheeps n fizzee soh'ft dranks!!!!"

How's that for phonetic intonation. Mark Twain/Samuel Clemens, I LOVE you and you are my inspiration!!

The vernacular here is quite spectacular.

So! Brief overview of whirlwind schedule:

Saturday:
Arrive at 4:45am IN AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND!!! and get off the plane. Retrieve my luggage. Declare my contraband like a good girl, yet still experience that uneasy tinge of fear, dread, and loathing, as I encounter - THE OFFICIALS OF NEW ZEALAND BIOSECURITY.

We then actually wait around a bit in the airport because I think we were slightly earlier than anyone had anticipated - and the FIRST meal I had in New Zealand was a McDonald's Egg McMuffin (nummy) and hash brown (seriously NOT even the same as in the States, weirdly enough ...).

And then my mom forgot about ONE peach that she didn't eat (as she had planned) on the plane, and was fined!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oy vey, what a day. My mommy, the subversive bio-terrorist. Haha!!

Then we arrived to our lovely host family's place - freshened up - ate at a super nice Chinese restaurant, and met more churchy peeps.

Went to a water park - neato!!

And had a potluck dinner at another church. (I think. It's getting fuzzy now, been over a week!)

Sunday:
Went to TWO!! Church services - EFC of East Coast Bay and EFC of North Shore. And honestly I forget what we did on Sunday night. I'll take a look at our schedule another time. But I must say - the second church had a hugely hot sanctuary. Good thing I was close to the window!!

Monday:
Ordination service for a pastor that used to be at our church in Orange County!! Huge lovely potluck afterwards, as well. No clue what happened that night. Something lovely, I'm sure.

Tuesday:
We headed off for the youth camp up in Maungewatetitau!! Okay, it's not really called that, but it looks like that. It was Epworth Camp in the ... Waikato region, I suppose? 3 hours south of Auckland. :) Fun day that first day. CHICKEN!!!! (was my team's mascot and I'm proud to say we won the first competition of the week. Thank you, thank you.)

Wednesday:
I get up ridiculously early to walk at least a half mile significantly UPhill to play with the sheeps and cows. That landscape was GORGEOUS!! Unbelievably. I remember thinking I should have brought my camera, but you know - just experiencing running with stampeding cows (yes indeedy, I started the stampede!!) was quite glorious. It was a good walk in the morning and I also smelled apples and cinnamon and got cravings.

Okay, wanna know something else completely amazing? At the entire camp, throughout our stay, there were three gobsmackingly awesome Chinese peeps WHO COOKED EVERY MEAL AND A LATE NIGHT SNACK for 160 people EVERY DAY!! I was hearing they got up and started at 6am and finished at 11pm - for 3 days. And they do this EVERY camp! Because it was all Chinese food, too. Man, I was duly impressed.

And then the daughter of my host family came down with wretched horrid allergies and I stayed with her in the morning but she ended up going home!! Pooh.

I also roused myself up to play some of the outdoor games in the afternoon and was rewarded with grass stains on the knees of my only pair of jeans, a gigarntic abrasive "grass burn" (according to one lovely individual named Tim) on my left elbow (yaaah, it looked seriously harsh), a bruise on my inner right knee to go along with the bruise which mysteriously sprouted on my inner left knee during the course of New Zealandish events, and bug bites on my arms. And I don't even know if we won. I have no idea, because I left earlier to go and freaking shower. :) Besides, that game was like unlawfully hard. AND THE OTHER TEAM LIKED TO CHEAT!!

Thursday:
I think I slept in. We had our things to do - and then in the afternoon we had STATION GAMES/GAME STATION! That was SUPER fun! And I KNOW we kicked some booty on some of those games but we did dirt-poorly at the first one which was supervised by one of our own!! It was a good game, though. We are just somewhat less than ideally coordinated, I suppose.

Then we did a skit at night and I got to act like a goofy ole drama queen. And we had testimonies that were GREAT! And also went on for like 5 hours.

What can I say.

Chinese people - SOME Chinese people - really. really. REALLY. Like to talk.

Friday:
We left! So sadly!! Or - "We reft. So sadry, we reft." And ronery, I'm so ronery - ronery and sadry arone. ;)

We saw some NEAT places - and had honey ice cream at THE HONEY SHOP! in Tirau. And went to Rotorua which smells of hardboiled eggs' yolk!!

I saw one of THE most amazing things ever, in my life - an actual spring of fresh water coming from who-knows-where - it was AWESOME! I've never seen anything like it in my life - I'm massively deprived, I think. And it roils out 1,000,000 gallons of water an hour, apparently.

And we went to a Chinese buffet!

And I got to cuddle the little munchkin!

And went to a Polynesian Spa, which was quite impressive.

Saturday:
Ran all around Rotorua and went to a a geothermal park and a beautiful waterfall and Lake Taupo and our frickin' youth pastor went bungy jumping. HAHAHA! He completely caved to peer pressure!!! But it was cool.

I also LOVE LOVE LOVE Miss Wendy our resident doctor and a wonderful travel mate. Man, she's cool! I've seen her for well over a dozen years at church but never had much of a chance to talk to her and now she is officially one of my favorite people. :)

Sunday:
More church and dinner at Denny's and hanging out with host daughter Megan!

Monday:
Probably time to go, eh. Mate. :P

Ciao for now! See you stateside!!

Big news, people!!!

Well, gosh darn it!!

This post started out a response to my most recent comments, but knowing me, it exploded into a garrulous unstoppable flood of verbiage, so it's morphed into an actual post.

And I am sad that I got distracted and fiddlefaddled and missed posting on the last day of March. Something about me wanted to post on that date.

Yeah. But I guess that's what happens when I try to wade through the maze of links and technical schmoo as I attempt to file my taxes and GET MY MONEY BACK!

But now I get to tell everyone ...

That I!! Miss Mimi!! Am TOTALLY!!! Pregnant!! I only just found out on Friday and I am beyond excited because now I get to practice my classroom discipline on my OWN child! Who will excel ineffably for ever and ever and always, of COURSE!! I won't say who the father is, because that is a big ole secret. And I'm only a couple months along ...

Since I moved out and got my own place. Which I love living in. And I am still trying to make things "just so" - and getting a crazy, inexplicable thrill - about cleaning - oh yeah, maybe because when I do, it SMELLS so much dang better - and I will try to get pics up of all the unstoppable, assailable, cathartic cuteness, very very soon.

I also had a weird little episode/vision that something would happen (yesterday) but I don't think it did. So now I need to officially stop listening to what are ostensibly demonic and unprophetic forces swirling in my cranioids. And yes, intentionally, there are no details on such expectancies forthcoming. Hee.

Therefore -

Yaaaaaaaaay Tiffani!

These comments are like a veritable Los Al mini-reunion. And I LOVE IT! Can't believe it's been a year and a half since THAT.

Glad to see you around, Tiff, I've been wondering how you were - let's get together sometime!!! I've talked with a couple of friends and I would loooooooove to throw a little scrapbooking party. Yayness! Just get together and bring out stuff and work on pages together. Would you be interested? It's just more fun doing it with people and I need some more creative ideas. Truth be told, however, scrapping takes mondo time and the productivity level (in my opinion) is relatively looooooooooow. But the finished product always gives me a warm dribbly gushy thrill inside.

So I have a camera and will try to take pics this week. Then I will take pics when I go to New Zealand. :P And then I also really really need to - and want to - actually POST all my amazing pics from Europe!! Speaking of pics ...

I also cannot freaking BELIEVE ye olde BRETT EGAN also posted!!!

So I admit. I was like ... Brett? Brett? Do I know a Brett? Who the heck is Brett?? I was picturing some tall skinny blond mid-Western swimmer, for some UNknown and inexplicable reason ... and then I had to go back and check where I had somehow managed to post about a Brett ...

and then!! Not only EGADS! BUT EGAN!

Brett Brett, thank you SO much for commenting because that is just stinkin' hilarious!! I'm glad you enjoy reading the ramblings of a mentally fractured, discombobulated, public-institution-situated child herder, because at least I am not the only person who finds myself seminally entertaining.

And I guess I did make you sound pervy. But the thing about perviness is ... it's so much more admirable when it is carried off with a flamboyant, flippant, panache!! You have my permission to OWN the pervingation.

Besides. You are not an OLD lech ... yet.

*cyberhugs!!!* I will email you soon. :) And may I remind you that I still remember a conversation we had in the media center where you told me about playing soccer (yes, you were SUCH an athletic stud!) except your cleats (borrowed, perhaps?) were WAY too small and they TOTALLY bruised your toes! Seriously, dude, it did not look cool. Every last joint and knuckle on your toes was PURPLE. And I think your toenails had gone black!!! And you showed me because you were wearing the slip-on sandals, heh. "And thank goodness my feet were not sunburned because THAT is honestly just the most painful thing ever, it simply KILLS." Yes, Brett, I remember that.

(Also, Google-ing yourself? Are you serious?? HAHAHAHAHAHA. So then I did it, just to see how far down my page was - pg. 9, thankyouverymuch!)

Oh yes. And as for Catharine - yes, I think she looks utterly lovely and remarkably good. Remarkable not in comparison with 10+ years ago, but remarkable in a vaguely Hepburn fashion. Just my 2¢.

Lauren!! We must definitely do the scrappy thing together as well. I have totally fallen into a new phase and bought sooooooooo much stuff lately - it started at Target, and now, Michael's, really, it is da bomb. You can get 40% off of any regularly-priced item just for asking, basically. Crazy!!

I also totally wanted to check out Scrap Depot (by yummy Sango) today but I forgot to. I talked with one lady, once when I was at the checkout line at the Target on Bellflower ... and she said Scrap Depot seemed to be out of stuff a lot. I am actually on the hunt for some of the Tim Coffey 12x12 vacation papers, so I will check there! Or, would you like to meet up sometime and check the place out??? "Call me!" :P

Last. Speaking of - along the lines of scrapbooking.

Y'all SERIOUSLY need to pray for me, please please please. Because I feel clutched in the scaly, emerald green, dragonesque golden claws of plain and simple stifling GREED.

I went to Michael's because they had the 40% off - and the new line that I love - Die Cuts With a View's Once Upon A Time stuff.

So I HAPPENED upon ... a mat stack ... (for those not in the know, basically like a stack of printed cards, 4.5"x6.5" used for matting and backing pictures) ... and it was shrinkwrapped in a pack of three.

And I KNEW it was "not supposed to be" sold like that ... and I took it up to the register anyway ... and aaaaaaaaaaaalmost got away with it ... but I was never outright dishonest!! I really wasn't!! I was just ... hoping ... to profit ... from another's ignorance ...

Gah. In the end, I would have saved a total of basically TWENTY BUCKS. Yes, I counted. It's bad. I just got big ole greedy fairy tale eyes. Yowzers. So I am now confronted with the incontrovertible fact that I am completely - inconveniently - painfully - yes painfully! Honest. Man, it's a bummer sometimes. Sorry, but it's true.

:)

And I should REALLY. Head to bed now. Crazy goyle.

P.S. Kids. If you ever. For one second. Really and truly believed. That I. Miss You-Know-What. Could ever. Get herself knocked up.

Foist uv all, yew obbveusly have NO idea what my shedjule is like as a dadgum grade-level-changing-every-year-schoolteacher-who-is-simultaneously-attempting-to-force-some-semblance-of-order-on-her-new-digs-while-eating-boiled-spaghetti-every-night-trying-to-pay-off-her-as-yet-interest-free-credit-card-bill-from-galavanting-about-last-summer.

Secondly, I KNOW baby Jesus would not be proud of THIS mama. So it ain't gonna happen.

How's DAT for da trufe.

Have a happy goof-proof day!!