week in my life

#megsboringlife: Surviving Summer

August 7, 2014 by Meg Bateman 4 Comments

Hey there! This site is no longer being updated. I'm leaving some of the content up just because. If you'd like to follow what I'm currently up to, please head over to my new site. Thanks! – Meg.

Well, it’s safe to say my pocket scrapping project is still dead, but who knows? Maybe it’ll get revived soon. But, I felt like I should at least blog about what’s been going on in our life so far this summer.

Not much.

Jeff doesn’t get any time off from work, and since we share a car, our weekends are like get-all-the-errands-and-shopping-done-or-die.

Here’s the last few weeks, in a nutshell, thanks to my instagram feed. Plus, there’s something big coming soon 😉

It’s hot. Really hot. Riley has discovered the awesomeness that are fans. It wasn’t even that hot the day I took this photo, but it was hot enough to make folding all that laundry miserable… so I’m glad she solved that problem by laying on the pile of clothes.

Jeff broke the NO GLUTEN EXCEPT BEER rule, and brought home some bacon orange chicken from Panda. I think everyone was impressed that I didn’t kill him, with me being all celiac-y and unable to enjoy such sweet nector of the fast food industry. Maybe I’ll attempt to make some myself, but that’s not happening anytime soon.

He also broke his diet to eat that Panda, because he’s currently obsessed with body building and body builders don’t eat that crap. He wont let me post photos of all his competition poses, maybe when his muscles are bigger. Yeah, he has poses.

The guinea pigs have gotten really really bold. And demanding. Instead of being office piggies like at our old house, they’re now sitting room piggies… and loving it! They SEE ALL THE PEOPLE and pop corn like crazy whenever someone walks into the room. Especially if they have a tomato. But as you can tell from this photo, they still refuse to have close-up photos done.

My parents & grandparents took my youngest brother and sister back to the UK for a family reunion with our cousins, and to show them where they get all their craziness. I thought it was interesting how they raise prostate cancer awareness on their postmarks over there. Wouldn’t it be awesome if we could get the same over here for Parkinson’s Disease?

Jeff and I ran a 5k, because we were all… hey! it’s only five dollars! why not??

Oh yeah… here’s a few reasons why not:

The last time we ran a 5k was early May, at night, in the dark, and somewhat cool weather.
It was 106F
In direct sunlight
With only one water stop
and I was in denial that I had a summer cold.

Not the smartest thing we’ve done this summer. Really.

We’ve been eating a lot of pork, but pictures of carnitas aren’t as exciting as pictures of big-ass ribeyes.

A few days after that 5k, I realized I really FUBAR’d my good knee, so I loaded up on collagen. My UPS guy totally sympathized with me when he delivered it. Oh, and I also got a weather station… because the “official” weather for Fresno comes from the airport, in the somewhat central-east-ish area of the city, and we’re in a completely different area near the river… so, weather is never the same. And I’m obsessed with knowing how miserable I’ll be on Riley’s four daily walks.

Oh, I cut off all my hair, and I still haven’t taken a decent photo of the new haircut. Just this sweaty, opps-I-ran-errands-right-after-my-cut-and-forgot-to-take-the-after-photo!

There’s been less nail polish purchases than usual. Well, until recently… when I discovered Sally Hansen’s Miracle Gels and that Target had put all the Color Foils on clearance.

Did I mention that it’s smokey here? We’re just south of two major forest fires, and it’s pretty terrible. Yeah, that’s smoke, not clouds. Jeff has it worse at work in the mountains, he’s coughing up his lungs from it.

I restocked on my favorite essential oil blend, “Relieve” from Native American Nutritionals. It’s really come in handy with all the headaches from the terrible smokey air.

Riley received a new dog tag from Lofted Designs, she loves it! Even though the different noise on her collar bothered her for a little while 🙂

Jeff and I braved the heat on Tuesday night to see Angel Pagan and Hector Sanchez do a rehab game with the Grizzlies. It was an insane game, but not because of the score…

Last but not least, I’m working on something pretty awesome to wrap up this summer… the bulk of which will land on August 22nd. Mark your calendars, subscribe to the newsletter, follow on facebook… all the safeguards you can get so you don’t miss this!

Week In My Life – Day 6

October 27, 2012 by Meg Bateman 1 Comment

Super short post today. I woke up feeling great and dove into work.

Got a lot of work done!

And now my GB is spazzing again, I have a migraine, and hay fever.

It’s actually been a very interesting day, I will share tomorrow after my work is done!

In the meantime, here is Bubbles enjoying her new sleeping bag from Ellen Cho on Etsy!

Week In My Life – Day 5

October 26, 2012 by Meg Bateman Leave a Comment

Short post today :-\ I documented what I could, but I’m so under the weather that I don’t feel up to doing my usual long post tonight.

My gallbladder is still super upset, and I just want to go to bed and sleep through the pain. No, I don’t have stones. Yes, I’ve tried to have it taken out. No they wont. It runs in my family, and these days surgeons apparently try NOT to cut. Even though I’m regularly in severe pain!

Oh well.

Onto today!

I actually woke up feeling a bit better. My gallbladder wasn’t hurting anymore!!

Half an hour later I was doubled over again :-\

I made a cup of peppermint tea to calm my stomach and got to work, I couldn’t let work go un-done no matter how much pain I was in.

Riley supervised. She’s the best CEO/CFO a company could ask for.

Once those reports were done, we went and returned them to the clients. She loves riding in the car any time of year, but fall & winter are her favorites because of the tooshie warmers in the car seat LOL!

Then I pretty much laid on the sofa for a couple of hours until the UPS guy appeared with one of Jeff’s guns, freshly repaired from the warranty gunsmith up north. The strut pin was locking the hammer? That’s what the guy said even though both Jeff and I saw the problem was with a completely different portion of the gun…

… regardless, it was working again and Jeff decided to make sure it was oiled up before returning it to the safe.

The UPS man must of driven around the block and came back, because a few minutes later I got a text from Amazon that my new bluetooth mouse had arrived.

And riddle me this… why do so many electronics manufacturers insist on making giant map/poster-like instruction guides instead of a booklet??? My entire desk was covered!

I finished more reports, returned them, and picked up more… and decided to munch on some saltines for dinner.

My gallbladder was calm for the moment, and I had the Friday night scrap & chat to lead at GingerScraps. Unfortunately, my gallbladder reared it’s ugly head again only an hour into the chat and we had to end early 🙁

Walking around the house a bit, stretching my arms to lift my ribcage off my gallbladder and liver helped a little… enough to sit up and write this post! I’m going to try doing a BRAT diet over the weekend… even though the evil thing is just a spaz and not triggered by food… it’s worth a try.

Oh! I got some awesome goodies in the mail today from recent etsy purchases, I’ll have to share them tomorrow!!

Week In My Life – Day 4

October 25, 2012 by Meg Bateman 3 Comments

I’m still here — past the halfway mark! Who’s still in the running for bets on when I’ll give up??

Thursday.

Ack.

Thursday kicked my booty. Woke up with a massive headache and not wanting to get out of bed, but I had to.

It didn’t help that someone else wouldn’t get out of bed either. I don’t think she rolled out of bed until after I finished my first report.

Jeff got out of bed and went for doughnuts, since I insisted they would cure my headache. Apparently the rest of the area had the same idea, because this is all the shop had left… well, minus the ones Jeff had… he was too quick.

Work.

Lots of work. Thursday are always a busy work day, because I have a lot of stuff to get done for new product releases on Friday.

Riley was insisting on sitting on my lap while I worked… regardless of the fact that I wouldn’t be able to work with her on my lap. So, I got out her favorite blanket from last winter and set her up on my reading chair. She was able to watch me and the guinea pigs when she felt like it, but she mostly slept.

While I worked, Jeff got stuff done around the house. He cleaned all the dust from the fans, did laundry…

Then I got a random gall bladder attack and had to pass out for a couple of hours :-\ Riley curled up with me in bed while I slept through the attack. Two years ago I never thought I’d be able to sleep through the pain, but now it’s become my only way to cope since I can’t take anything and the surgeons wont take the evil thing out!!

After I recovered, I was able to hit up Target with Jeff. We were desperately out of uh… everything essential? Right before leaving the house, I used the last of our toothpaste! So, we stocked up and surprisingly stuck to our shopping list! Jeff remarked that it was a minor miracle that we stayed under $100.

When we got home, my gallbladder was back to spasming. I couldn’t fall back to sleep, so I just stuck it out.

Unfortunately the attack didn’t stop, but I was eventually able to sit up without getting sick… so I got more work done. I arrange all my creative team’s layouts in this side by side template to credit them in my new release blog post & newsletter.

At least Thursday night brings Grey’s <3 so so happy for Grey’s! LOL! I honestly hope the show ends with this season :-\ but I have a feeling I’ll be addicted no matter how long it runs. After finishing up the work that I could do, I tried to leave love at the other WIML blogs before Grey’s started… but I ended up lying back down, just couldn’t handle the pain anymore.

I ended up finally starting The Canada Party’s Manifesto – America But Better. Yes, I will be voting for the people of Canada instead of a least objectionable millionaire. Honestly, it’s like reading my own “manifesto” about everything that’s wrong with our country and system, but funnier!

Riley also decided to start smothering me for attention. She’s so needy!

Well, Grey’s is on now — time to wrap up this post and give those doctors my undivided attention! My friends on the east coast tell me this episode is MUCH better than the other ones this season. I also have to wake Jeff up soon and shove him out the door to work!

Tomorrow I have work to catch up on, then I’m going to get supplies for a craft exchange 🙂 I’ve finally decided on my project!

Week In My Life – Day 3

October 24, 2012 by Meg Bateman 2 Comments

Wow – Day 3 and I’m still doing this! I’m shocked LOL! Maybe I will be able to at least attempt NaBloPoMo? I definitely have a ton of half finished posts that never got published… And tons of recipes… Hmm…

Onto today!

I’m glad Jeff’s home early from his trip, it means I get both of my cuddle bugs on these cold mornings.

There they are — still passed out under the covers when I got up to make my breakfast and exercise.

No photo of this morning’s breakfast, but it was pretty much the same as yesterday’s but spiced apple cider instead of chai. I always get a protein rich – but light – breakfast in before exercising. I react badly to low blood sugar, so I never exercise on an empty stomach.

I’ve actually been taking a break the last several weeks from my weight loss plan. I got burnt out from constantly giving my 110%. So, I needed some time to enjoy food and stuff again LOL! I was too focused on the numbers instead of the ultimate goal – being healthy, fit, and happy.

I had the healthy and fit parts completely covered, but I wasn’t happy with the slow progress on the scale. But now I’m happy knowing that on the inside I’m fine (even shocked my cardiologist during a stress test – I was too fit and beat the machine!) I just needed more patience for the outside to reflect my fitness level.

This morning I just put in time on my manual treadmill while watching last night’s Covert Affairs, then I did some strength training with my resistance bands. 477 calories burned in just under an hour — I was actually taking it easy since I’m still recovering from a cold that’s been making my heart defect act up.

I love the manual treadmill – I can power walk and get a full lower body workout while in my target heart rate zone! Since I’m the power to the treadmill & it’s at an angle, it works my muscles more than just walking would. I completely ignore the “computer” on it though — it said I only burned 65 calories, when my heart rate monitor clearly shows otherwise LOL!

After showering and getting dressed, I decided to go ahead and roast the pumpkin seeds and get the soup started for tonight’s dinner.

Until buying Not Your Mother’s Slow Cooker Cookbook on a whim, I never would of thought of making butternut squash in the slow cooker. It’s freaking easy and amazing! I use curry instead of brown sugar for seasoning – and even Jeff loves it!

I forgot how easy it was to open and gut pumpkins! I was done in no time at all! We’ll probably also eat them in no time at all LOL

I got the dishes unloaded and re-loaded while the seeds were roasting. Then it was time to make lunch – beef & barely soup with sourdough toast. Jeff had leftover stroganoff (also a fave slow cooker recipe) and we watched last night’s NCIS LA again… Since he slept through it last night.

After lunch, I got some work done. All those little things that add up when you’re not looking.

Once the butternut squash was ready the in the slow cooker, I finished making the soup. It’s so easy and so perfect for fall weather!!

While I finished the soup, Jeff did his workout in the back yard. Those muscles…

Ahem.

Back to the living room for me to debate what work to do next. I ended up pined on the sofa by a cold Riley wanting cuddles. So far, I didn’t have any appraisals to process… so I did some more hacking away at my to-do lists. I honestly didn’t get much done, my cold started to hit me again and Riley was really tempting :-\

When Jeff got home from running some errands, I decided it was time to get the chicken ready for dinner. Simple — lemon pepper seasoning with onion in the cavity & in the pan. I decided to roast it like my mother in law does – upside down. No need to fuss with trussing, the breasts still come out moist… even if they are a little flat.

Roast chicken is one of the easiest, healthiest, and cheapest meals to make — and one of our favorites. The (few) leftovers are great for salads and sandwiches the next day!

When I was cleaning up the kitchen after the bird went in the oven, Jeff thanked me for staying in the kitchen “all day” and “cooking for him.” I then asked him to hit up the grocery store for a bottle of Old Crow for me LOL!

Which he did! and got me some gin! He even went back out for ice!

I kind of got absorbed in finishing up some work stuff & a phone call from my Dad, that I forgot to check the chicken after the timer went off. Whooops… but it still turned out great & moist! I had a breast half with a bowl of the butternut squash soup and a gin old fashioned 😉

After dinner Jeff went back to playing his video game with his brother, and I decided to catch up on responding to comments on my blogs & facebook. I’m slowly working my way around to all the other WIML bloggers! I was set up in the living room and channel surfed in between comments, and settled on Coast Guard Florida… these guys look the same as my 14 year old brother!!! Jeff’s going to be ancient when he joins the reserves LOL!

And then Riley decided that she needed my undivided attention, or that she wanted to skype with one of her aunties LOL! Just when I started finishing up today’s post :-\

So I had to finish writing this post with her pinning my right arm down, and her rump on the left side of my laptop.

—————–

I’ve been getting a lot of questions from friends & readers as so how I’m managing to get these posts done while uh, having a weird “schedule”… if you can call my day to day life a schedule!

Well, this week obviously hasn’t been my busiest because Jeff’s home from work, since he had planned to be camping & hunting… but the weather killed those plans. But, regardless… here’s how I’ve managed my time & keeping up so far:

My iPhone 5!

Seriously — it’s my lifesaver. I haven’t picked up my DSLR once. I’ve been using mostly Instagram to process the photos, instead of spending time in LR or PS. I’ve also been using PicFrame to do all of the collages (but the last one – that’s a Pugly Pixel template since the photos were taken on my MBP.) The pictures aren’t the best — but taking awesome pictures isn’t the goal, the goal is documenting!

I use the Momento app to port all my social media feeds into one area, and take miscellaneous notes throughout the day. Like Jeff’s random outburst at the bar last night.

And with the WordPress app, I’m able to work on my post draft in between random little things… like stirring the pumpkin seeds while they roast, or waiting while the chicken rests. I don’t use the app to upload photos, I instead use the Photo Stream feature of iOS 6 & iPhoto to upload at the end of the day.

Basically, with my phone full of apps — I make the most of minutes during the day that normally would be wasted.

Well, I really have to sign off now — Riley’s starting to block my screen again!!!!!

Week In My Life – Day 2

October 23, 2012 by Meg Bateman 8 Comments

Tuesdays are typically my crazy work day, especially since Jeff’s out of my hair all day working a rare day shift. With him gone all day, I’m usually able to get everything done on my neglected to-do lists along with all my work.

Of course, this Tuesday wasn’t at all like normal. Again, nothing went as planned!

It started with me not being able to sleep at all last night, and past midnight I was reading old articles in pocket. Fortunately there was one on the upcoming election that bored me straight to sleep LOL

Needless to say, I didn’t get much sleep. I’m used to having Jeff home on Monday nights, and I kept waking up wondering where he was. I almost got out of bed at 5am to go ahead and start the day… since I wasn’t sleeping anyway… but then I remembered my contacts had another hour of soaking 🙁 So, I ended up falling back to sleep on and off until about 8am.

When I wake up in the morning, I usually stay in bed and clean up my email – getting rid of all the newsletters I just glance at, automated stuff from facebook, etc. Then I respond to things that can be responded to quickly, emails… facebook… twitter, etc. Then I waste more time by doing things like updating my apps and checking all my social media feeds. This morning there was a nice surprise – Etsy’s app has been updated for iPhone 5!!! Woohoo! Etsy has become my new pinterest… I don’t have much time to repin anymore, so I “like” things on Etsy LOL! Plus with Christmas quickly approaching (insert panic attack here) it’s helping me a lot with ideas for gifts for everyone.

After getting things done on my phone, it was time to get out of bed. Much to Riley’s dismay… here’s her pitiful “Come back to bed, Momma!” look. It didn’t work… it was incredibly tempting. It was very chilly this morning… I only got out of bed because I had work to catch up on 🙁

It was around this time – 9:30am – that I heard from Jeff, calling from the pay phone at the campground. I was quick to assume that he also slept in since he was calling so late in the morning, but turns out he was up at 5am… freezing his tooshie off! Poor guy’s fingers and toes were just too frozen to sit out at his hunting spot. Since it was forecasted to snow through his entire trip, he elected to save money and just come home. He was miserable, it was a comedy of errors really. He’ll have to do his own post sharing that experience — he definitely has tons of snowy pictures to share!

After my shower it was my breakfast of champions – a Jimmy Dean De-light sandwich and a Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Chai Spiced Latte… mmmm! If I had more time… I would of made a sunnyside up egg and piece of toast. Oh well.

So, I got to work. The guinea pigs immediately threw a wrench into my plans to get things done as quickly as possible before Jeff got home.

Bubbles and Sparkles were fighting over their breakfast, so since Bubbles was hogging the lettuce, she got scooped up to sit with me while I work!

When I put her back, Sparkles continued to goose Bubbles, even though food wasn’t an issue anymore. I guess she just woke up on the wrong side of the cage this morning! So, Sparkles was next to help me work — but I was too focused on getting stuff done to take a picture.

Fortunately I was able to get all my reports done by the time this handsome man got home around 12:30! He’s still wearing his hunting bib I got him for his birthday 🙂 A TOTAL steal! I caught it on clearance AND while a store was moving – so it was about 60% off! It’s one of those Columbia Omni-Heat bibs, it’s rare to find them for so cheap unless you’re at an outlet!

Ahem. Back on topic — Today.

While Jeff put away all his gear, I ran some quick errands. Delivering finished reports to clients, depositing payments from clients…

Well, since our Tuesday was shaping up to being more like a Monday… we decided to go out for sushi for lunch. It had been awhile since we had any sushi… it was either that or another famous Japanese staple food, ramen LOL!

Next we hit up Sur La Table for some window shopping, watching for any little tool that we needed but was cheap. We use the Amazon and Red Lazer scanners to make sure we’re not overpaying — especially since most things are usually overpriced at Sur La Table. This potato brush & eye remover has been on my wish list for a while, and I found it there for half of what it’s priced on Amazon! Squee! Now that it’s fall and “potato season” to me — this is going to get a ton of use! I’m kind of really OCD when it comes to washing potatoes.

When we got home, Riley was shivering from sitting in the window watching for us to get home. She was glued to my side and wouldn’t stay under the blankets on the sofa if I wasn’t with her. So, I relented and we both crawled into bed. Since I had so much to get done still, I only planned to stay in bed until she fell asleep… but uhhh, turns out Momma needed her rest too LOL! While we napped, Jeff cleaned the guns he took on his trip. They got wet during the brief hour he hunted this morning.

I swear, Riley acts like such a little human! She definitely demands to be treated like one LOL!

After our nap (Jeff eventually joined us) we decided to head to the bar for dinner. We don’t normally eat out this often, but we both didn’t want to stay home, especially since Jeff had expected to be out hunting still.

Jon made me an old fashioned using Death’s Door Gin. I had it a few weeks ago with their whiskey — it was great too! Sorry for the extreme blurriness… still getting used to Hipstamatic.

I had a risotto with mushrooms and artichokes <3 love love love!!!!

Jeff’s discovered he really likes Blue Moon — so he ordered a few of those, along with a mixed drink that Jon randomly came up with. We have fun letting Jon & Josh just pick a drink for us — Jon’s the reason I am now having a love affair with bourbons. Sometimes they make a standard drink — sometimes they just randomly make one up.

The one Jon’s working on in the photo involved uhhhhh… tequila, crème yvette… and I can’t remember what else. It was interesting, Jeff liked it… but the crème yvette reminded me too much of cherry cough syrup.

It was around this time that Jeff got one of his incredibly inappropriate philosophical ideas he usually gets when he’s had a few drinks. Tonight he was pondering why Breast Cancer Awareness Month is October, when it’s “turtleneck weather” and July has “bikini weather”… I can see his point, but oh my…

I started thinking about what I wanted to do tomorrow… because Jeff really wanted to have some fun since he had the day off still. He honestly wanted to take off for Monterey! Then I remembered it’s been a few years since we roasted pumpkin seeds. So we hit the grocery store for some medium pumpkins and a chicken to roast. I think I’ll also make some butternut squash soup in the slow cooker 🙂

Now we’re… well, I am… Jeff’s snoring in his chair… watching the new NCIS episodes! I’m going to browse BBC News and Discovery News next to save articles to my pocket to read in bed tonight 🙂 Have I mentioned I love that app??

Two days down LOL! That’s two days more than I expected myself to survive!! Maybe I’ll try to take on the NaBloPoMo challenge!