It's so much nicer, using my laptop on a desk instead of the coffee table! Alex organized the office this weekend, so now we have 2 desks set up! Yay!

So today we invited my parents over for dinner and I made a frozen lasagne and garlic bread and a huge salad with avocados, grape tomatoes, onions, green olives, scallions, and kippers in it. Yes, the salad was my favorite part. I think I've been salad depriving myself. I made a dessert that didn't quite work out, but was still so-so. Then after my parents left, we went out in the backyard and made a fire in the fire pit. I moved the wrought iron furniture down to the firepit and put blocks under it so it won't sink into the ground--basically I made our little 'living room' outside, the way we used to have it. We roasted marshmallows and then I sat and played with the fire for a good hour or so after. It was SO nice. One thing I do need, I need to buy some more torches to put around the yard like we had before. The holidays are coming up, and I want to be able to light the torches & go out and have a fire if we want to.

Happy Birthday Steven!!!!!

Yay for etsy gadgets!!!!

Etsy: Your place to buy & sell all things handmade BlueSunshineCompany.etsy.com

Ice cream with pie crust in it is YUMMMMMMMMM!

Alex and I went out to shoot some pool tonight... had a good time.

This is where I live:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=226+college+ave+panama+city+fl+32401&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=41.089062,51.679688&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=226+College+Ave,+Panama+City,+Bay,+Florida+32401&ll=30.152352,-85.630834&spn=0.001373,0.001577&z=19&layer=c&cbll=30.152381,-85.630988&panoid=kmYiaq9FmP_nuFOSCmgNBg&cbp=12,94.79,,0,0.56

Zoom all the way in, if it's not zoomed in already.

I still can't believe we're back in our house. The Happy Heart House. There's a lot of healing to be done here.

We picked up the keys last night, and are moving on Saturday!!! Nikolena is so excited she's packed up her room already. Though she had to unpack her alarm clock at the last minute before bed last night. Funny kid. She doesn't use it for an alarm, I wake her up every morning.

We went through the house again, looking at every detail, seeing what's changed and what is still the same. I'm so excited!! I can't sleep--it's not even 5am and here I am.

I started out with bath salts. Then I added bath bombs. Then bath melts. Then shampoo. Bath gel. Lotion. Friday, I made my first soap!

I love soap. I'm getting more stuff to make more, and I'm about to do all sorts of variations on the soap--different shapes, formulations, etc. The soaps I made the other day were just your basic clear glycerin, but I'm going to do some other fun things this week.

I'll take pictures. I did put some up on my etsy store-- www.bluesunshinecompany.etsy.com

Check them out, if you want.

My next venture is well on it's way... I decided a while back I just don't want to work for anyone else for the time being. But I'm still going to need to make some money. So this weekend I filled out the papers and did the online class to become a Notary for the State of Florida. I'm going to place ads for A AAA Traveling Notary and Wedding Officiant. Did you know a notary can marry people? Yup, they can. Alex and I were married by a notary I found in the yellow pages. She's the person I got this idea from--she is a traveling notary and makes her whole living from going around to offices, from law offices to realtors to mortgage companies, etc, doing notary work, and also officiating at weddings.

I'm totally doing this. Next up--the yellow pages ad. Yes, it's going to be expensive. But it will be worth it.

Or, you can make them happen...

If you have been following at home, you'll know that we had to move out of the only house I've ever loved, the house Alex and I were married in, last year. I cried, having to move out of this house. It was everything I'd ever wanted. But we'd lost our jobs, and even after getting new ones, we just couldn't afford to stay there. So we moved. Then the house was foreclosed on, and the people we were renting from lost it.

It was on the market for a while... it was originally listed for $249,000. It sold for $119,000.

When I found it it sold, my heart sank. I had asked my parents if they'd help us buy it... they could not. We tried to get financing ourselves...our credit was too poor. I'd hoped it would stay on the market long enough for us to get our credit scores up, but it sold quickly after the price was lowered so far.

Coincidentally, Nikolena's school moved this summer--to a school building 2 blocks from the house. Again, my heart ached, wishing we were back in that house, so I could walk her home from school in the afternoons.

The other day I went to pick her up from school, and drove past the house afterward. I didn't know it had sold and my heart sank when I saw a car in the drive and carpet that had been torn out. I thought I'd lost my chance to buy it and live in it again.

On a whim, I decided to stop and talk to whomever had bought it. I knocked on the back door...no answer. Knocked on the front door...no answer. Went around to the office, where big windows allow a view into the office and partial view into the living room. It didn't appear that anyone was living there! There was some furniture scattered around, but not like people were living there!

As I was about to get back into my car, a lovely tall boy with pretty eyes came out from one of the upper apartments to see who was creeping about. He told me his stepfather had bought the house. He was renting from his stepfather...and told me that perhaps the stepfather was going to want a tenant for downstairs as well!! I called him immediately, only to find out that normally he buys houses like this, fixes them up, and then flips them for a profit. He said he never rents them. I didn't ask about the stepson living there, but I told him how much I'd loved the house, and how I'd love to be able to rent it from him until we could buy it from him.

He said he'd talk to his wife and call me back. His daughter was also interested in buying the house--of course her wants would come before some stranger on the phone. I can understand this.


A few days went by. I called him and left a message on Wednesday, just checking back with him. Yesterday, he called me back, left me a message, AND TOLD ME HE WOULD RENT THE HOUSE TO US!!

We will rent until we can get financing to buy. Best part is, the rent he is charging us will be $150 a month LESS than we were paying before, and he is giving us water/sewer/garbage included in the rent, (before we had to pay w/s/g for the whole building--$70 a month). So that's even less we'll pay, compared to before.

We can start moving on the 15th.

I AM SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Went to see "My Sister's Keeper" tonight at the dollar movies. Cried a lot. Hard movie for me to watch. Should have remembered that basic rule: if the child in the movie has cancer, she will definitely die. duh.

I'm so hooked on Torchwood. I downloaded it after seeing a couple of posts about it from my friend In_Frequency... Am now all the way thru the first season and 3 eps into the 2nd season. I just want a Jack Harkness/Gwen Cooper sandwich!

While I was sick with the flu, I got deep into another dark period. I felt like I had no purpose here on earth, I felt like nothing I did or could do or would do, mattered. This was miserable.

I'm coming back out of it, thank goodness.

I'm making things again, which is a good sign for me.

The other day I made some AWESOME pico de gallo to go with the fish tacos I was making. You might say, "fish tacos? gross!" (that's what I thought, before I tried them), but they're really good.
You take crispy breaded fish, put it in a flour tortilla, sprinkle with pico de gallo, and top with pineapple coleslaw. I got the idea from a Mexican restaurant here that makes them, and I have to brag a little, mine were just as good as the restaurant version. ;-)

While I was sick I had the opportunity to order 1 oz fragrance oils online for only $1 each!!! So I ordered 20 new fragrances and then was frustrated for two weeks because I was unable to smell any of them. :-\ Now I can smell again though, and today I bought unscented lotion, shampoo, and laundry soap, to scent for my desires. !!! How cool is that?!? I LOVE it. I made Sandalwood shampoo for me, peppermint and wintergreen shampoo for Alex (he tends toward oily hair), made Claire Burke Original scent hair gel for me, and sandalwood rose laundry soap for me. I have two more jugs of laundry soap, one to scent for Alex with whatever his preference is, and one for later.

I LOVE making yummy scented things for myself and others! I mentioned the bath bombs and Blue Sunshine Company at my pharmacists, and the owner and his employees were very interested in seeing them, and maybe carrying them in the store. I'm having a pretty great day.

And I'm making tacos for dinner (regular beef ones this time, requested by Nikolena), so I visited the Panaderia and bought a pound of handmade tortillas.

I didn't realize how much better I was feeling until I wrote this post...now I see I'm really feeling MUCH better.

After dinner tonight, I'm going to package all the bath bombs I've made in the last couple of weeks and then tomorrow I'm going to take them out and try to sell them.

I hate being sick. I've had this cold/flu/thing for more than two weeks now and it's driving me seriously batshit. I'm on Keflex and decongestants, but I'm still miserable. just yuck.

what is normal, anyway? does such a thing really exist?

i feel so off the grid.

I hate being sick in the summer.

I just finished possibly my FAVORITE bath bombs ever!!

LOVE SPELL

Rose, blended with dark bitter chocolate, and a bit of dragon's blood.

It is YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

I have stock to sell, more exactly. I have bath bombs, tags printed with a little sales pitch and ingredients on the back, clear bags and ribbons to tie them up with, business cards to give out, and a pretty pink case to carry it all in. Wanna see?

I knew you would!