2023 Is almost over!

 Well, again I totally forgot about this blog. Tumblr I'm forgetting as well from time to time, but that one still has more up-to-date stuff than this blog does. Good luck finding my Tumblr haha!

Weather:

So this has changed drastically since the last 2 years. We had 2 ice storms and one the whole city of Austin was at a halt. Roads were icy and not able to drive through to them. We had a weeks worth of not able to go anywhere and a couple of days of our power going in and out. We made it, obviously, but we are fearing it might happen this coming winter. We literally had to make or warm up some food by candlelight and stay wrapped up in blankets. Most of us couldn't even work since the power kept going out every 5 minutes or more. After this happened, well the weather went back to normal for Texas... which means heat. Then we had another somewhat ice storm the year after, but not as bad as the last one. Texas has or still is working on "fixing" the power grids since we're only are attached to our state alone and not with another near us. Back home, we never had to go through those type of issues when a blizzard hit, so I found it kind of strange going through it here. Then 2023 summer here was extreme. We're always extreme with our summers or just weather in general, being in the heat. We hit records of consecutive days straight in a row of being over 100 degrees, sometimes even 110 degrees, but that's humidity for you in the mix. My husband is worried we might get another harsh winter and so we have prepared as much as we can.

Work 

Not sure how far back you guys know of this subject with my husband and I. So was working for a call center and in 2019, we got laid off, my whole department. Been there for 5 years and it was a pretty easy job, but it became boring and no calls were coming through from time to time, speaking from my experience though only. Was treated like crap by my supervisor and she kept an eye on me and one time even placed me to sit right next to hers. Talk about very supervised and under the microscope. I think she did it to use me of the information I knew in how to run the team, since she was new to that type and any aspect of it and what we dealt with. Got written up several times for stupid things and I fought for it. When we got the news of laid off, I was happy and yet sad at the same time. Most of the people there were just there for me, not really friends and others were friends. At that point I decided to take some time off and not work for however long it took me to find another job. Took about 6 months honestly and during those 6 months, it was relaxing, but at other times hell since I had to find things to do and keep up with a list of jobs I applied for. Yes, I went into unemployment. 

Currently I work for the same company that let me go, but direct with them. They bought or joined with another pharmaceutical company and became one. I have been with them now for 3 years and under 2 different departments by now. I was happy when I got hired since the pay was way more than I was being given in the last one and yet almost quit this one. There was so many different things to learn and retain that, till today, I am surprised my brain can keep everything in and remember it all. After things were changing in that department and I kept being dismissed with other tasks, I decided that I didn't want to stay there for another year in that same department and my skills and talents being overlooked and so I applied for a different department. A department that I knew of and knew that they took more responsibilities for the company and yet I told myself that I didn't want to go to another department that handled calls. I wanted to be offline and taking emails; there's too many people out there that think they are privileged and should have everything then and there. That's not the case and not how the real world works by the way. So I took a risk, applied, and got the position. I was stunned, but happy. I told myself I will try my best to not snap at people on a call when it came time to do that or how the call went. I got my training and when training was close to the first end of the week of it I got good news. I was going to be in the offline team; I was ecstatic yet again. After training was over and I was handling cases, even more good news, the whole department was going offline. No matter if I got moved to a different team or what I was going to do, it was going to be offline and purely answering email requests. I have been doing this since February of this year and hopefully I will stay here for another 2 years or more.

Projects/Photography

My photography has been steady, if you would like to call it that. With this new position at work and bonuses they were giving us while we were catching up on tons of emails, there were tons of incentives that they were giving us and so I treated myself with a new camera and a drone. I grow nervous when working with the drone, but my husband will be the one using it more since it feels and looks like he can handle it more than I can. Since I bought myself this new DSLR camera I decided to make a project which includes photos of bridges. This project is almost complete and why bridges you may ask, well the first photo of a bridge that I took got me more into photography. Yes, this project includes that first bridge I took in it. I will possibly announce the completion of this project in my Facebook Digital Blu page. Another upgrade I did was that I bought a domain and created a website with GoDaddy. The last provider I was using for that started to become more restricting, lack of storage and I was unable to add more content without removing and buying a plan of theirs. I know I have a blog dedicated to my Digital Blu page and website here in Blogger, but I'm not sure anyone else in the world really keeps up with updating those type of things and I don't think others bother to read/see mine honestly. If you would like to see my new website, go here. I may try to find a 30 challenge that consists of using my drone, but there's very few to none of those type for drones currently. Currently I am only focusing on landscape and automotive photography, but I might dive back into Product photography and my other project I was starting with my The X-Files items I have collected throughout the years, but we shall see when and if I have time for these. Plus I need to figure out how to use a new program my husband bought me to edit my photos with.

Slice of Life

Well, besides the obvious from what I already mentioned above, there's been tons of new things in our lives. We moved out of our first home we bought and are renting it out currently. We moved in with my mother-in-law and then they moved out into another home. I believe we lived with them for 2 years after moving out of our home. The taxes and them fluctuating and the city growing rapidly with meaningless stores just killed it for us to live there any longer. I miss my first home, that's all I can say that. Yes, I did cry when we had the last of our things out of it and into a storage unit, but we do visit it from time to time to check on it and if there's anything of repairs wise to do to it, from the outside of course. I got a new job, liked the department I was in, but rapidly grew to hate it due to seeing others that make mistakes or don't look into the finer details and them getting more tasks or responsibilities that come with being observant and looking into details getting these tasks. I was being overlooked in my opinion and didn't think it was fair and just and so, I decided that I needed to get away from it all and onto another department. That happened and I'm glad I am offline and working from home remotely ever since I got hired by this company.

During that time I finally decided to visit a doctor to check on my health due to a time period, while unemployed and before I got let go, that I wasn't myself and I do believe depression hit me very hard. The hardest it has ever hit me and the last time I felt close to the same way was when I was in high school, but this one wins a trophy. I never want to get back to that moment and feeling the way I did and I haven't since then. Yet due to this episode I decided to visit the Doctor for regular checkup and was told crappy news. This is why I never wanted to visit them by the way; barrels of bad news at times. I have fibroids. I got recommended several doctors which lead me with more recommendations of others and finally, I had the time and guts to do something about it all. I am scheduled for surgery on Oct 13th. There are so many rules and restrictions I need to follow for it prior to the surgery day that I understand why they are in place, but my goodness there's a lot. I fear the surgery since I've never had any general surgery and me being put to sleep, but it has to happen. I need to feel better from it all. Hopefully all goes well that day, for me. I'm just glad my parents will be visiting the week after my surgery to help us since I will not want to be walking around, full of pain.

So, we took over my mother-in-laws house and they moved out. Basically we like to look at it as we kicked them out; just kidding! We bought the house that one of my sister-in-laws was living at and they decided to move back to another state. That did not work out well for them at all and they had to move back home. They moved in with us with the children having their own rooms and their parents in an RV next door to us. That lasted about half a year and well, not well. My husband mainly has PTSD from this experience now and has lost the relationship he had with his nieces. Before that happened, the husband and son decided to go to another state and figure out if living there will be best for the whole family. I think that lasted less than a year and everyone, besides the son, moved back here, but with my mother-in-law this time. The son decided to get his life together by getting an education and degree in Job Corps. At this point, I know the parents both have jobs (miraculously for the mother) and the kids just stay put most of the time. Our relationship with them has been severed and we just don't speak with them cause they don't with us. I just wish this didn't happen for my husband's sake mainly, but it's all we can do, nothing.

During these times living with my in-laws and then gaining their home we added to our family, with furry children. We first found 3 kittens in our property next door during some rainy weather and decided to keep them. Then about a year or 2 later, we gained two more little kittens. They both were in bad shape and with colds and so we decided to keep them as well. The momma now has had 2 litters and this most recent one, she had 4 and they are all running and living around our property. Their older siblings, the first litter, the ones that we rescued from batch, are still coming around as well. At that time she had 5 kittens in that litter. We had other adult cats come and go and some we got enjoy their company with, but we haven't seen anymore and may have passed. We do have a tom cat that comes daily and let's us pet him, we named him Tom. Get it? No, well we're sometimes not clever with names haha. We also seen some racoons and opossums come by; sometimes they are a nuisance since they eat all the cat food we provide. I'm not sure what else has been new to add here besides the obvious, if you have me on Facebook, but I'm just nervous for my surgery and hopefully it goes well. See ya all!

2021 say whaaaat?

Well I just would like to say, welcome to 2021 everyone who still reads this. I do apologize that I haven't updated it in such a looooong time. Quite honestly, I forgot about it and well decided to place more personal stuff that I am going through in my tumblr. So if you have one of those or were following me there before, then you have been up to date with my life than in this blog. I will keep the format the same in this blog and no I will not be linking my tumblr here. So if you it or know me and can find a way to get to it, then I bid you good luck on it. A lot has changed since my last post here and no I'm not saying because its a new year, but honestly a lot has changed and happened.

Weather

Since my last post, the weather was decent after. Your typical Texas weather of being hot and dusty were into play. Once we hit close to the New Year, we got the cold weather. Literally a day or two before the new year hit we got rain and cold winds. After the new year, we did get tons of mixed weather. We did get one Snow day here during a weekend and then it left. We accumulated about 6 inches of snow and that hasn't occurred since 2014 or so. I can't recall what the weather channel said, but it was coming down non-stop. Everyone had fun that weekend and making snowmen and snow angels and your typical snowball fights. The next round of snow came in February and it was nothing anyone was expecting, honestly. All of Texas was in a severe Snow Storm warnings and what came first was the sleet with rain. That made all of our roads be very dangerous and almost inaccessible. Then came the snow, a whole bunch of it on top of the already icy snow and sleet. In all technicality, Texas was shut down due to this weather. Everyone's power went out or flickered, to possibly return 3-4 days after or a whole week after, then on top of that many people's water was frozen and inaccessible and under a boiling water notice.

For our household we only experienced was our lights flickering in and out and being gone for more than 5+ hours and increasing that number every time it went out. We never experienced the water issues and we found ways to cook our food and now are trying to prepare in case it happens again by buying supplies and thinking outside the box for these types of situations. I believe that Ercot, the main company for our light source in all of Texas, is going to go through some changes. I believe some people were already fired due to this negligence we all experienced. I know for a fact when I was living in Illinois, we never had this issue occur. Maybe through thunderstorms we did, but that's a whole different story and situation. Alas, it only took us 4 days total to get "back to normal" regarding with this storm. Others weren't so lucky in a short time frame. Even after the storm was over, they had no electricity and no running water. This time I will we will be prepared since my husband hate not being prepared for situations like these. As of right now, we're in a Spring type weather and a couple of rain clouds here and there, but nothing to major like this we had. 

Photography

I definitely put this on pause since last year. I wasn't able to go anywhere nor take any other portrait sessions of anyone. I believe I did have one last year. It was for a family member wanting to have a Senior graduation session. Other than that I haven't been to any conventions or any other events due to Covid still on the rise with numbers. I'm not sure if I will pick this up again or if it'll simply be a hobby for me. I did wanted to expand my business with this hobby or at least my small business with this, but Covid just threw that out the window literally for me. I'll take some of small events or trips my husband and his family might do, but that might be all.

The Corner

So in my last post, I did mention that my husband and I moved into his mother's house. We were able to clean up the house with help, we were able to find a realtor to put our house in the marketplace for leasing and we did find tenants we liked. We did fire our first realtors we were with, company wise, due to fact that they weren't listening to a single word we were saying. So we found another company, got our house fixed and cleaned to their standards for leasing and got a family in there already since October or November. Somewhere in between those months; they moved in a day or so earlier than planned. They signed the lease for 2 years and we've been back in the neighborhood a couple of times to check in on it. Been through bumps on the road with it, but made it through and I miss it so. I did cry most of the times we stepped in it before they moved in, but it will not be sold... ever and that is a guarantee my husband gave me. I did mention that I was going through a depression of sorts in my last post and taking over the counter medicine that I found online. I do believe in fact that I do have PMDD from time to time and the pills that I was taking for it, I stopped taking them. I stopped due to the fact of not seeing any difference with being on them or not. I did start taking Brillia pills that help with anxiety and stress. I believe those pills worked better than the others, but I also did start taking my multivitamin pills daily along with vitamin d3. I figured out a dosage for the vitamin d3 that is working out for me and did start in the highest recommended dosage for Brillia, but then cut back on it as well within time. 

If you know me I don't like visiting doctors and such, but I told myself that this year, the new year, that I will be better with that and I have been. I went to see the dentist first and took care of some cavities I had. Then came the OBGYN for the yearly checkups there and all came fine, except of having Fibroids. I have decided to hold off on having any type of surgery for this until after July of this year - for personal reasons. I also got my eyes checked and all is good and went back to the prescription that I had when I first started wearing contacts, which threw me off completely with that, but its good news. I also got hired for a company I used to work for before and have been with them since August and its already been 6 months. I almost felt like quitting due to my anxiety being on the high rise and holidays coming up, but I didn't. I was doing all of my checkups purely because I was thinking of quitting my current job. It gave me anxiety due to so many rules and lines of businesses I still deal with currently, but I have learned to manage it all without my head exploding and my husband being on my side on whatever decision I made, to stay or quit. 

I decided to stay and in the department I'm currently in for a year. I thought to move departments as fast as I could once I hit my 6 month mark and find another department that's more fitting for me and asked to shadow other departments. They were informative, but I decided to stay where I'm at for a year and see how it goes. My supervisor always tells me that I'm doing a good job and I recently got a raise with a bonus. I learn new things every day with this company and department. I'm also taking classes my job offers me regarding with excel and any other program like it and I dont need to pay for them. The company pays for them. I need to figure out what other class I need to take while they're offering them. 

As for the property or land we bought, next to my mother-in-law's house, we have done a bunch of things to it. So far we have cut down a bunch of trees already and there was a storage building that was made and we knocked down most of it as well. We still need to haul a bunch of stuff that was inside the storage, so that's another project in itself. We still have more trees to knock down and deciding to buy a storage building to add to our land and move our items into it to save more money. We currently have our items in a storage place already. My husband wants that to happen soon, like in 2 months, but we need to clear out the land and time to do so. Maybe we can do that this coming weekend or so, who knows. I think so far I have updated this as much as I can here. Hopefully I don't forget to update this one and bring back some more interesting news.

3 busy bees!

Weather

Well, Texas has not been bipolar now. We're in the summertime now and boy is it hot! Not only do we have to deal with the heat, but the pandemic and the Sahara dessert's dust coming in the air. From what I heard, Illinois got some of that dust as well and that hardly happens. Seems during the week we just might some rain and I hope its more than an hour worth of rain. A whole days worth is what Texas needs of rain!

Photography

I have put my hobby on hold for now. With this pandemic and now lack of room in the new location we're at I wouldn't be able to do any of it. It does not mean that I completely stopped taking photos, it just means I'm putting a pause on it. If someone still needs me to take a family portrait or a product and if I stumble upon a beautiful location then I will snap a photo of it. I may need to take refresher courses to remember this, but it's ok maybe something I didn't know now I will learn then.

Texas

As we all know, or don't, Texas is one of the places in this COVID-19 that the numbers are rising. It doesn't help if the people who don't think it's real walking around without masks or the new term being tossed around as The Karens or Karens. We don't need you to preach of what lacked or what went wrong and that you're privileged; simply we just don't need your drama during this time and well any time, its pointless and you're in the wrong. This virus is real and no one wants to catch it! Everyone has family that they want to see over the coming years, so if you don't have any family or friends and don't want to wear a mask then stay home. At least keep your distance if no masks! Hopefully we can come together to fight this pandemic and get this state out of that "banned" list or quarantine.  

The Corner

So since my last post, my negativity has been dormant. I haven't had much of this going on, until yesterday. Yes, I am currently taking my Go with the Flow pills and at one point I stopped since I didn't have any and figured that I didn't need them at the same time, but I did have a small episode of just a lot of things on my plate and I crashed. My mother-in-law gave me some vitamin d3 pills and talked to me for a moment to calm me down and I was fine the day after. Yesterday, a thought of not loving poured into my mind. Why? I asked myself and I know its not true so why have this type of thought in my mind and consuming it. With things like this is frustrating and you need to figure out the source to make you think this way. I have not figured that out yet and it's irritating. Another feeling that I'm having is being irritated. I would like to play the blame game, but I know I can't do that every time or every month and I figured these pills should've helped at least 75% of this. I guess I get like this every time I know some things aren't done my way or I get forced to do something I don't want to do or a lame routine. I don't know, I just need to know what the source is and well bite it back.

At this point my husband and I have moved in with his mom in order for us to save money. No, we didn't loose the house and we're not selling it. We're actually renting/leasing it out and we're fixing it for the new tenant. So far the flooring for majority of the rooms are going to be fixed and in the process. Next will be the paint in some of the rooms and then the fridge. We really need to fix that ice maker in it and hopefully with the parts we already got it will do that. After all this is done, get someone professionally to clean the whole house and pest control as well. I think we may have someone to rent it out, a friend of mine, but we will need to see if they were talking serious about it. Everything is falling into place with the house and hopefully by August we can start saving up. The property/land will be next with cleaning it and then finding a house for us. The house is a slow process since I need to find the right layout, kitchen wise, but we have time for that. Another thing that is falling into place is me finally getting a break with a job. Ironically its with the same Pharmaceutical company I worked with before. They bought another Pharmaceutical company and well it'll be remote. So very soon there will be 3 people working from home by the beginning of August. Other than these changes or blessings there's nothing else to mention here. I will work on this specific thought and see what makes me think this way, but it all can be hormonal. 

Adjustments!

Well I haven't written here since.. January, wow! So, many things have changed and gotten fixed, in my view that is. Weather has not been cooperating with us in Central Texas. We have been getting lots and lots of rain and some flooding has occurred in certain parts of Central Texas sadly. We do need it around here, but not to that extreme.

Movies
Well, we have seen a good number of movies. Some through Netflix and others in theaters and whatnot. We have seen from what I can remember are: Deadpool, The Boy, Jenny's Wedding, 10 Cloverfield Lane, Hush, Sinster 2 and Lord of Illusions. Most through dvds we bought or Netflix. It seems we're really into Horror or Suspense movies, which I don't mind since there aren't many out there that do it correctly anymore. All of the ones I have listed thus far are highly recommended to watch if you haven't already! I'm sure I have missed some to add to that list, but these are the ones I could remember for now. I think there are some movies that are still being waited on to be seen in theaters by us like: The Forest, The Darkness, X-Men: Apocalypse, Alice through the Looking Glass, The Conjuring 2, and you get the picture. Most have come out already or are in not the distant future, so we will see!

House additions
Well the house patio is coming along, but we always have to come to a halt, due to weather. Things have been getting even more organized and keeping it that way. We do have a garden going on in our backyard and that is a plus. One of our apple trees is already growing apples and its own apples is weighing down the branch. We do have a new addition to the family, in the form of a pet dog. We have had him for close to 2 months if not already getting there. He is a trouble maker, but he is getting well adjusted with us and a routine and loved. He knows several tricks and is getting there with other training, which is always a blessing. Car is also getting a makeover with parts soon, I hope, to be added once the weather cooperates and hoping to add more to it. One step at a time to add things here and there to our house and car, all things that are needed.

Wizard World
I can't wait till I get to go to this convention back at home. I will be able to finally get to meet my favorite actor, David Duchovny. He, along with Mitch Pileggi (Skinner) and William B. Davis (Smoking Man) from The X-Files will be there. I will get a VIP pass to see David Duchovny and yes a regular pass for my husband, so he can meet everyone as well. I will have the chance to take photos with all of them and well just an autograph from David. If all fails through, we will have fun anyways with my family. I just can't wait and so stoked or excited, whichever you prefer, but I can't hide it haha.

Fans, fans, fans
I'm sure I have good friends, close ones quite possibly, who like reading my blogs. I'm also sure I do have other people reading this blog as well.. one's that aren't an acquaintance nor a friend, not even anywhere in between those two. Some are called fans and others are "fans". Now there is a difference between the two. One is actually caring for you and want to know of your successes and strive for your best. The other is people who are just jealous, who follow, a pack of people who just want to put you down behind your back or in whatever way they want to and always have a negative view and tone of you and your world. Let's just say I'm talking now to those people who are the "fans", the jealous ones. I like how I have a "fan" base because guess what, their lives are obviously that boring to go do such things. Jealous of my life? My right way of doing things? Jealous that I actually have a man who cares for me that much? Jealous of my house or that I actually have one? I feel sorry for you and that you go on to check on this, that is if you do still, but it's your fault for going in the path you're on now in your life. I worked hard to get where I'm at and WE worked hard together as well, my husband and I. I'm sorry for you for not having an honest caring man, a stable roof over your head, and your life just giving you curve balls. Maybe you should reconsider everything you said and done negative and who you make friends with next time because look at where you are now. Do you like it? Quite possibly not, but whose fault is that? Only you are to blame. Thank you though for being my "fan" and dipping into my life and reading it out loud like a story book. At least it's that popular of a book to read and not pathetic. Just proves to me what type of person or people you are and the life you have. Least I am a leader and not a follower. Continue or not reading, but at least I know where I'm at and stand at. Bless your little hearts! For those fans who are the complete opposite, of who I spoke of first, thank you for caring the right way.