Eve of the Eve of Hallows' Eve

Who knew this was a thing? But yes, my work team and I are definitely focused on the Eve of Hallows' Eve because tomorrow is our last day in the office for week and we have to celebrate Halloween a day early!

No spoilers. Just know I had to work a few connections to get part of my costume. And then, naturally, count on Amazon for the rest! Hubby rolled his eyes pretty heavily when I had him take a photo of me in costume last night. He just doesn't get how fun Marketing people can be!

Of course in the back of my mind, I've already moved on to what sort of costume or "accents" can help my twin sister and I when we perform our annual Opening Act this weekend? Well, I had a mission to find one thing (times 2 that is) and failed. The Halloween shelves are mostly empty and, facing them on the opposite side of the aisle, are Christmas items already!!

I get that people turn to my favorite holiday as early as they can. But, since Jim golfed this afternoon, I can't quite wrap my head around merchandising something that is 2 holidays away.

Also, that's why I'm a writer for a living and not a numbers gal.

And, although there was slim pickings, I did manage to get some treats in case any ghosts, goblins, ghouls, princesses or dinosaurs show up on our doorstep Friday.  Like Motel 6, we'll leave the light on!

Right Brainers Unite

I don't even know if it's scientific proof or just an old myth that left-brained people are pretty logical and fact-focused – and right-brained folks like me are imaginative and artsy. But I can see a trend among us folks in my Marketing Department. 

Sure I bring the trifle... but look at today's options between our writing and creative (design and video) teams.

First Melissa (aka "Pinterest") brings in these delightful treats she made this weekend. All inspired by Pinterest, she said, but it must have taken forever! Love it! And oh my, the pumpkin spice cookie sandwiches with cream cheese frosting (second from left) were a-maze-ing!

Then we had Andrew's pumpkin seeds...

There were 3 different flavors and we could vote on which flavor we liked. AFTER voting, we could look at the cheat sheet of the ingredients. No surprise I chose spicy No. 3 which actually had Sriracha as an ingredient.

How fun!

Of course, I was thinking I might have an entire week off from creating a trifle, but my 27th annual sister weekend is coming up this Sunday-Tuesday (hey we'll call it a "weekend"), so I'll see if I need to do one on demand or not.

For now, my right brain is focused on our work team Halloween costumes for Thursday. 

Just so many brain cells on this side of the brain!!

Productive Crop

It was such a nice 4-day weekend at the Wisconsin Lions Camp in Rosholt, where both the totem pole of creativity and...

Louis the Lion were the guardian of scrapbookers everywhere – but especially at Croptoberfest!

We had about 40 of us ladies for the weekend this year...

And of course my fave scrapper was my high school BFF who came up from Madison area to join me. Leave it to us to wait until day 3 and no showers to take our selfie. We know better. We will be better. But we still had a fabulous time catching up on life and fueling each other's creativity.

My first goal was to finish our 2017 "family memories" book, which included nephew Colin and Amy's wedding.

And family season-SKOL time, too! Some things just need to be documented!

Was thrilled to finish my slightly over-thick 2017 album before going to bed Saturday night.

So Sunday I got to see the 'Tober part of Croptoberfest and get my second half-hour massage. It's quite necessary actually. I also had to say goodbye to Julie. Then got a lot of 2018 pages done, including...

Family visiting central Wisconsin for junior high basketball tournament...

And a winter drive not far from our house! 

Thanks to horror movies, I had a bit of a stressful evening sleeping in a cabin by myself since the others weren't staying until Monday. Survived, for the record. Then when I got to my table I realized how one empty 8-foot table on Friday can explode into scrap overload during the weekend. We do require a lot. Don't ever question it.

Since I forgot to order additional 2018 pictures, the only thing I had to do this morning was shower (finally), pack up my cabin stuff and my scrap stuff. So I spent a few hours organizing (and tossing) some of the heap of stuff above. 

Overall I am happy with my progress for the weekend – into May of 2018 when I return for Camp Crop-A-Lot in February!

Will I ever catch up? Who knows? Though at one time this weekend hubby suggested I should do this monthly. No argument from me!

One More Sleep

Who's so excited for her scrapbooking weekend that she had her car packed LAST night? Apparently, THIS girl!

I was missing a few key items that had to wait until tonight/tomorrow morning... like my clothes for the weekend. Even though I'll wear the same thing probably all 4 days. And the food and snacks – which half are in the fridge right now.

Including my Pumpkin Spice Spice Baby Trifle I whipped together after work! 

Now I just have to throw my clothes together and hopefully I'll be all set to hit the road at 8 a.m. Must make the most of 4 days! Ha. 

I don't know if I'll have time or connectivity to blog at all. I'll be working to finish up my 2017 "family memories" album and get a good start at 2018. My high school BFF Julie will be joining me again (yay). Sometimes we get more distracted chit-chatting than scrapping. But you know what? I wouldn't change that for anything. 

So no judging on my productivity (or lack of it). I really need these 4 days out of the office!

Plus, reliving memories is so fun and healing. Today my dad would have been 98 years old. Logically, I know he wouldn't have made it this far. But that doesn't make me miss him any less. I scrapbook to preserve moments in time that I want to cherish from this day forward. 

I mean if you can find a hobby that's both fun and therapeutic, you gotta grasp it and hang on!

Find Your Happy Place

Love Chuck's good advice! I sort of did embrace this concept today. At the end of the work day I was talking with a co-worker who had a question. I said "That didn't come up in yesterday's team meeting." She's like, "That was this morning." My response: "Today has been 3 days long!"

We've all been there.

I had a very last-minute rush project come in right before lunch. Let's just say there were a few ways I wanted to react. None positive. Instead, I said, "I'm going to leave the building and go to my happy place over lunch to reframe my mind."

Sometimes my happy place is a golf course or the front deck or even King Cone. Today it was Hobby Lobby. Did I need anything? No. But I found a big multi-color pack of fine tip markers ON SALE to use at scrapbooking camp this weekend! 

And that was all the happy elixir I needed.

I will credit yesterday's speaker for some of that. He pointed out that there's this space in time when receive information and when we react to it. Try to make that space wide enough so you make a wise choice in your reaction.

Frankly, yes, it IS hard to do. 

Thank goodness there are happy places only 10 minutes away!

Find yours.

Step Aside: I'm a Pro

I was so excited at work today that I got another opportunity to meet and hear inspirational words from Paul Wesselmann – The Ripples Guy. Refer to last year's blog when he first visited my workplace. 

Today's 90-minute session was called "Thriving with time, energy, and focus." Basically, I figured it was going to be about time and stress management. But as usual, he spoke to me in so many different ways. So much to unpack from that, but I'll share a few tidbits that hit home first.

When he started talking about procrastination, I was like whoa, how does he know I'm not just a regular crastinator, but a PROcrastinator?!

Part of the reason we procrastinate is because the task facing us is DUST (fitting for my housekeeping procrastination):

• Difficult – so we feel overwhelmed
• Unclear – so we're confused
• Scary – so we're afraid or it triggers fears
• Tedious – it's too boring to do

Which totally makes sense. Honestly, it is not an issue at all in my professional life. But personal life... yup, I would say most things are in the D category because I am overwhelmed... and it usually involves D-cluttering efforts. You know what I mean? (If you don't, you don't need to read anymore – unless you want some ideas how to address it.)

First, the fact that we can recognize why we're acknowledge that we are actually procrastinating is a good first step. That means we realize there's something we're pushing aside and maybe we can figure out why.

Second step is to forgive ourselves or, as he put it, "unjudge" ourselves for not doing the task sooner or letting it get out of hand so that it's overwhelming. We're human! (That step will be a journey for me. I can't help but think negatively about myself any time I look at my office a.k.a. Scrap Cave a.k.a. Oh My God Room. I don't want to be my parents when it comes to clutter chaos, yet here I am.)

Third step is reframing how we're thinking about procrastination. It is actually a good thing we are taking time to figure out how to address this. It's good to consider the emotions involved instead of just thinking about it as "poor time management."

When we sat at our tables, we discussed his suggestions for resolving or overcoming procrastination. My favorites that I feel I could apply are:

Baby steps: Break the task down into smaller segments so you can actually feel some productivity and sense of victory. We'll get to the WHOLE thing eventually.

Get rid of distractions: If you're on your phone for a minute, you're probably on it for an hour. How much time each day does this take away from tasks that need to be done or, more importantly, here-in-the-now time with loved ones?

Meet your future you (I love this one): Develop a relationship with your future version of you. What can you do today that your future you would thank you for?

It wasn't necessarily magical advice. I just needed to hear it today. And since hubby's out of town, I did the "not as overwhelming as I thought" task of cleaning out the fridge for garbage day tomorrow. Simple: Check expiration dates on things and toss as needed. 

Now I just need to assign little baby step tasks for a few other things. 

P.S. If you want to sign up for Paul's amazing weekly inspirational email, sign up here. It's always a great way to start your Monday! 

Close Encounters With Book Club

Well we finally had book club tonight and could discuss the book Imminent: Inside the Pentagon's Hunt for UFOs by Luis Elizondo. 

As I mentioned previously, we don't often do nonfiction and I never would have thought to pick this one up. But it was fascinating so I'm glad we did! 

We met up at el Mezcal and talked about what we used to call UFOs (Unidentified Flying Objects) but now label as UAPs – Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena. These are unexplained objects or phenomena observed in the air, sea, or space that display unusual behaviors or performance characteristics not attributable to known technology or natural causes. In other words, they do more than just fly!

While the book was somewhat focused on how the U.S. Government has known about dozens of these encounters and has not shared with the public, there were a few fiction-turned-nonfiction moments to talk about too.

Like people – with either healthy intuition/perception or a Cherokee heritage (not kidding here) – are more susceptible to have an interaction with or receive an implant from one of these UAPs. This book just touched on so much of so many things.

Good meal and good discussion. Now hopefully I can quit overreacting to strange lights and sonic booms!

Close Doesn't Count

The good news is that both hubby and I made it to church and sung in our choirs and coughing wasn't an issue! About time.

The bad news is that some things didn't go quite as we wanted after that.

I've been batting a thousand at BINGO this fall. Two wins in two sessions. But today this was the closest I got with one to go during Ring Around The Free Space.

There goes my streak! The only saving grace (besides having fun with my BINGO babes) is that no one won the Progressive Jackpot in the last coverall game so that'll be up to close to $4,000 in November! I'll just keep crossing my fingers!

The other negative, of course, is that while I was betting the odds, my Vikings were just odd. Ugh. I hate losing by one score! But since I didn't watch it personally, maybe the dirty Eagle were just stinkin' good. I have no excuse.

Unrelated... My undefeated Swedish Chef Mafia fantasy football team is sitting at a 99% chance to win. So there's that.

The WIN though is that I took a few pictures of fall colors yesterday. Because today we had so much wind the trees are quickly turning naked!!

And Jim was on the mission to bag them up! We may need one more round in about a week, but that's fine. This is the only case today where "close to being done" actually counts.

The Leaves Are Always Orange-r...

It's one thing to be envious of the green grass on the other side of the fence. But sometimes in the fall, we swear our neighbors' trees are way more orange, yellow, red, etc, than ours ever will be. I learned today that's not always the case...

Today was a gorgeous day and I was so excited to check out the TriNorse Ski Club's Fall Colorama especially because our neighborhood and everywhere around us was popping with color!

Well, a couple things weren't part of my plans. First of all, I couldn't get to the club road because there was a "bridge out" on Highway 13. So I thought I was taking a detour but ... because our GPS doesn't always know better, I ended up transversing down a mile of a muddy UTV trail that was once marked as a normal road, I'm sure. I just yelled and prayed that whole time that I wouldn't get stuck somewhere! Knowing full well I'd need a car wash after that.

Disclaimer: No photo because I was literally zig-zaging my way through that. And made it, thankfully.

The Colorama event at the ski hill was amazing. They had live music and vendors outside and raffle baskets and a chili contest inside.

As I boarded the UTV to ride up the hill I kind of forgot until I got up there that I was afraid of heights. But there was more to go.

Yup. Like a lot of steps up and that led to the ski platform – and one more platform beyond.

In the end I decided my love of leaf-peeping trumps my fear of heights! Not the easiest of things to do.

After we got down to ground-level, boy was that Pumpkin Bar good! I also am waiting to hear if I won any basket raffles!

After that, I of course had to head straight to the car wash for that UTV mud...

It seemed good until I checked in a parking lot and realized that UTV mud found a place to stay.

I'll get rid of it eventually!! The actual worse thing that happened today was me realizing all the brilliant color is in my neighborhood! Why did I even leave?

I'm pretty sure I noticed. But as usual, thought maybe a ski-high view would beat a front deck view.

Trust your autumn instincts! 

Positive Pink Vibes

As I mentioned earlier in the week, Thursday night was the Pink Out night to raise money for cancer treatment at the Royals volleyball game. 

I worked from home Thursday with my stupid lingering cough, but I think those meds finally started kicking in. I was feeling OK enough to capture photos of the volleyball match (hey, the zoom lens is like socially distancing) and, well, win a raffle basket, of course! More Royals merch. What I need know that my kid has been out of school (gasp) 9 years. WHAT? Also, they raised $3,292 for woman I told you about with stage 4 colon cancer. Nice work!

Last night I had the best night of sleep in 2+ weeks. Hardly any coughing. YAY.

Since today is Friday I was already working from home. So no special exceptions needed. Didn't cough much all day. I think and hope hubby and I are both at a turning point for the good. But I shouldn't jinx that any further! 

Since we don't have a football game tonight, we're both hanging close to home. As in sitting in recliners shortly and cheering the heck on the Brewers! Come on, guys! Even non-Brew fans want this for you!!

Hope we all wake up with something positive on our minds in the morning!

Waiting For The Magic To Happen

 

I almost titled this blog "Ditto" because not much has changed from yesterday. The Magic Pills we finally got late last night from the pharmacy didn't exactly kick in and cure everything. Or much.

Yet.

We are terrible patients with no patience. 

So for caution's sake, I professionally distanced myself from work and stayed in the home office today. I socially distanced myself at choir practice, sitting 3 pew rows back during practice. (Jim tackled practice at his church tonight as well.) 

And maritally distanced myself as both Jim and I pretty much stayed to our own offices/separate rooms. Based on our back-and-forth hacking heard across the house, we're still on the Respiratory Struggle Bus. Where is that darn next bus stop so we can get off??

Thanks for the kind words and prayers. We're adults. We've got this. I just happen to have a blog that allows me to whine about it. SORRY!!

Be careful out there!

Get In Line

The beautiful sunrise commute inspired me this morning as I made my way back to office for the first time in a week. To be honest, my body was not ready to return but I wanted to deliver that darn birthday trifle. 

Another night of coughing (for both of us) so I was pretty exhausted. I think that's our unfortunate current state of existence.

I did give it the old college try though and made it until lunchtime before deciding to drive home and work remotely for the afternoon. Since hubby had went back to the walk-in clinic this morning and got some prescriptions, I figured I better head over there, too, as my first order of business.

Turns out we are not the only ones with respiratory predicaments. Get in line! Thank goodness they had the Hallmark channel on in the waiting room!

My appointment took forever and, turns out, I have some prescriptions of my own. But here we are 6 hours later and the pharmacy doesn't have them ready. According to my app, they are super busy and "Sorry, we're running behind schedule." So we'll see what time we get our goods. 

And how quickly they produce any results.

I'm not going to be a birthday hero or any type of martyr tomorrow, that's for sure. If my coughing is the same as today I'll just stay put. I feel super blessed that this is something I can do with my current job. 

Hope you all are escaping the fall crud!

This Is Why We Go Through Crappy Mondays

While I was clearly griping and whining about my second round colonoscopy prep going like the first (Up-Chuck City), I came across the announcement about our Royals Volleyball team's annual Spike It To Cancer night...

The recipient of this year's fundraiser is the woman the exact same YOUNG age as me – and she's battling stage four colon cancer. Wow. That was a wake-up call.

How dare I complain about my literally crappy Sunday and Monday and this is her "every day"? Please help spread the word so we can fill the gym and help support Christine. JV game starts at 5:30 and Varsity game will be at 7 p.m.  Basket raffles and 50/50 will be drawn during the Varsity game. We should all be feeling lucky about right now. 💙

As for my experience today, they did do the procedure. Thank God I didn't feel anything this time (another nightmare). And they only found one thing they gotta get tested. Was home by late morning and took a little nap on the recliner.

Our Hack-A-Thon in this house did not take a break during this other crappy drama. Right now I feel like my cough got worse. Dang!! I did manage a second nap and will go to bed early with actual cough syrup I can now have that my procedure is over.

I did have one task to get done this afternoon. No worries. Did not work at all. Wise advice. I did however promise to whip together for a birthday at work tomorrow. 

First I masked up because no one needs what we've got going on here!!

Secondly, I followed doctor's orders and did not operate heavy machinery. My mom's rolling pin was the heaviest!

The result...

The ugliest and most sloppy-looking trifle I've ever laid claim too. All my layers are merging. Ugh. Maybe the anesthesia hasn't totally warn off. I mean, they'll still probably eat. Hopefully I'll have more normal stomach and appetite back tomorrow so I can too!

Have a great week. Hope to some of you at volleyball Thursday night! 

Getting Pumped Up Around Here

Yesterday was a gorgeous fall day so I finally got little pumped up and pumpkin-ed up with holiday spirit.

Yup, headed back over to our neighbor's Pumpkin Shed. When I purchased the painted witch one up top – the one I call my self-portrait pumpkin – I had idea for some even smaller pumpkins...

Ta-da! Halloween decorating is done! Of course when these giant alphabet stickers do fall off, I may have to give painting a try. At least bring out Mr. Sharpee.

Yesterday was also a beautiful day to watch OTHER PEOPLE run! The Wisconsin Rapids high school hosted a cross country meet and our Royal Runners were taking part. Our girls team finished in the smaller school division! Finish strong. It's playoffs time1

Speaking of playoffs... to congrats to any friends who are Brewers fans! Onto the next round!

Today was even cooler than yesterday. Hubby and both stayed home from church. Him with his cough and me with cough – but mainly getting pumped up... with colonoscopy prep stuff. Trying the pill form instead of the yucky drink. But so far I have not kept any of them down. Not good. I start round two in an hour. Hopefully that goes better. Hate for them to turn me away in the morning. I've sacrificed so much already!

Alright I gotta keep this short so I can stay much closer to another room in the house! 

Hope you had a good fall weekend. Let's have crap-free week, shall we? (Yes, I had to go there.)

TGIX

TGIX? Well that means its XC or cross country day! Actually, just a normal Friday with an afterschool cross country photo shoot of our amazing seniors. Gotta admit, it was a hoot!

And taking pictures outside meant I could just click and not worry where my next cough would land. Also good that another day into recovery meant fewer coughing spells anyway.

Mostly I was surprised that many of these super YOUNG LADIES were actually seniors now. I hate when time sneaks up on me like that. But I also was incredibly happy to see them not shy at all about showing off their personalities. 

Thank you, class of 2026 leaders for reminding me why I appreciated so much that my son was in cross country and we created amazing bonds as parents and fans!

Airborne for the Win

I rarely do any type of product endorsements here, but about mid-morning when I remembered we had this in the medicine cabinet, it was a win. I worked from home again to not spend the day coughing on co-workers.

But that magical effervescent tablet in mid-morning was really the cure for me. (Unfortunately not for hubby so much.)

So I got through work, got through a middle school volleyball photo shoot, and fake suffered (LOL) through an always wonderful Girls Night Out (with Mexican food) that I hoped would clear up my sinuses. Pretty sure it helped, at least.

Now if us non-Brewers fans could just help them win tonight. Hey, when our teams are out, the Blue Jay Drive team is like "go, Wisconsin!"

Home Hack-A-thon

So here's an interesting fact. Large companies like the one I work for often have huge IT departments and they occasionally have a "hack-a-thon" to test our company's cyber security. This week, though, it's been a bit of a different kind of hack-a-thon between hubby and me.

He wins. 

Or loses really. Coughing so much it's insane. I think I'm a day behind on this. So today I worked from home with my stuffed up head and sore throat while he went to the clinic to see what the heck was up.

All we know is that we are COVID-free. Sometimes we forget that's still an option. And there's just "crap going around" that we'll have just have to "let it run its course." Which according to Dr. Not Helpful could be 7-14 days. Boo.

Anyway, so here we are stuck at home after work. No golfing for him and no choir practice for me. Just trying to cheer on the Brewers in the post-season. But that didn't turn out so well. Sorry, friends.

Now we'll just see what we should eat for supper. Since stuffy noses lead to no taste. But don't feel sorry for us. Neither one of our teams our baseball teams are losing the playoffs.

Mainly because they've been eliminated! LOL. 

Yeah, someday I'll find humor in that. For today, just welcome any prayers for good health!

Pumpkin Spice Spice Baby!

 

Much to the relief of thousands of fans, Trifle Tuesday is back! Hey, I can't control the work team birthday calendar!

But throw in the month of October with some Pumpkin Spice Spice Baby – and you've got a winner!

And this one is sort of fraud since hubby and I have been coughing and dealing with stuffed noses. So no oven was turned on at Blue Jay Drive to create this. Instead here is the latest made-up trifle recipe...

The cake layer was something called Pumpkin Cake Bites, which makes total sense. My pudding layers were one layer of pumpkin spice pudding and the other layer of Cinnabon pudding snack packs.

Yes! This brings out every fall flavor, in my opinion! And yes, all 6 little packs went into one layer.

As for the crunchy layer (which I always require) I took my momma's rolling pin to a gallon-sized Ziploc bag of a combined cookie packet of Pumpkin White Chocolate, Gingerbread Cream Cheese, and Brown Butter Cinnamon Bun cookies. This time, courtesy of Wal-Mart.

Even though I do have some Pumpkin Spice Eggnog in the fridge, I just wasn't willing to sacrifice it for this trifle. But... now you know another option to add to this trifle mix. 

Happy October. And good luck!