Where Did March Go?

Let me start by just saying I can't believe it is already April!! I had every intention of posting more often, but as you can see...that hasn't really happened. I wanted to say thank you to those who helped with my jean dilemma. About 2 weeks ago, I decided it was time for attempt 3 or 4, or whatever number it was. I am happy to report that I was successful! Maybe a little too successful.... I came home with 4 pairs of jeans!!! I got a really good deal on 3 of them, but of course my favorite pair was the one that was most expensive. I was only going to keep 2, maybe 3, of them but couldn't really decide which pair to take back. I think I've decided to just keep all of them. My reasoning is that it was such a headache to find jeans that fit and I spent so much time trying to find them, not to mention that the other jeans averaged out to only $33 a pair! I'd say you can't beat that!

There's not much else going on with us.... I've been working quite a bit the last couple of weeks - I'm definitly not complaining after all the bad weather we've had recently. Last week was a really good week! I actually got 42 paid hours + 8 for Good Friday! For those of you who missed my post on how I get paid, that is really, really good! I don't know how to link to it, so I'll give a brief explanation: I am an hourly employee and I pretty much only get paid for the time I'm in the airplane, unless it is a ground lesson. So, each flight that I schedule is a 2 hour block but actual flight time is only 1-1.5 hours. So, I could be at work 10 hours, but only get paid for 5-7 hours. So like I said, last week was really good! I told my mom I should stop calling it the weekend (because I've been working 6 days a week) and just start saying my day off! Hahaha!

As for Easter, I don't have any cutesy pictures to post of our matching Easter outfits or Easter egg hunts.... I didn't have a chance to go buy a new Easter 'frock' (that's what my dad says) so I just wore an outfit I already had. We went to church and then I attempted to go shopping for a new pair of tennis shoes Sunday afternoon, but the malls were closed. I was shocked that they were actually closed, but impressed. That pretty much sums up our day.

I'm hoping to be better at posting more often. It is difficult when there's not a lot exciting happening... but I'm going to try! I hope everyone has a wonderful second half of the week!

Jean Dilemma

This was going to be a post about my amazingly wonderful weekend visit with my best friends and an update from the past month or so, but that was before my longer-than-it-should-have-been attempt at finding a new pair of jeans. I spent about 4 hours this afternoon trying on jeans and I could not find a single pair that fit properly!!! The search started at Old Navy because they had their jeans on sale for $19 this weekend. Their jeans used to not fit right, but then about a year or so ago I found a pair there that fit nicely. So, I was hoping I would be able to find some more. No such luck! I should have counted how many I tried on, but NONE of them fit!

I decided that I would try Aeropostale because one of my favorite pairs came from there. I got one of each style they had and in the size of the ones I have already to try on. I tried all of them on, but again NONE of them fit. They were all too tight and too short! So, I went back out and got the next size in the 2 styles I liked. They were better length wise, but the waist band bulged out in the back. They've apparantly changed their jeans since the last time I bought some.

The next stop was J C Penney. It had been a while since I'd gotten jeans from there, but a few months ago I got a pair of skinny jeans that I absolutely love. So, I thought I'd give it a try. I lost track of how many trips I made to the dressing room! Each time I would tell myself that was the last trip (I didn't listen very well!). Once again, they were tight in the thighs and too short. So, I'd try the next size and the waist band would bulge. On one trip to the dressing room, I passed by a rack of misses' jeans and thought maybe I should try those to see if they fit differently than the juniors. Well, they were exactly the style/cut I was looking for, except for one thing - they were mid-rise which made the crotch a little saggy. I really debated buying them and seeing if I could get them altered, but I wasn't sure how easy that would be.

So, I would love to hear some suggestions on where I should look for jeans. Where do you buy jeans? I really didn't want to pay a lot for them, but I think I may have to if I want to find some that fit really well. Please help!

Cube Cuteness

First off, is anyone else having a hard time believing we are half-way through January?!?!? Yes, HALF-WAY!!! I can't! Where has it gone? Anyways, I just wanted to point that out.... I guess 2010 isn't going to slow down any.
So, after having my cube decorated for Christmas, I decided that it was going to be pretty plain after I took down all the decorations. While we were in TX, my mother showed my sister and I how to deco-podge (I'm not sure that's a word, but I'm going with it!) When I learn something new, I kind of get addicted to it. So, I was dying to deco-podge something of my own. I came up with the idea of doing the word 'Fly' to hang in my cube - after ruling out my name or initials. I got all of the necessary supplies from Hobby Lobby and got started on my project. It turned out really cute, if I do say so myself! I hung them in my cube and here they are:

Basically all I did was buy some wooden letters, scrapbook paper, modge podge, and ribbon. The letters I bought were already white, but you can paint them whatever color you want. Next, cut out the paper in the shape of the letters. Then put a coat of modge podge on the letter and then smooth the paper onto it. Wait for about 10-15 minutes and then put a coat of modge podge over the top of the paper. The last thing is to attach the ribbon to the back of the letter. I just used hot glue. Wait for that to dry and they are ready to hang!

After I got them hung, I was looking around my cube and decided that it still needed something else. So, I got the idea to make something to hang my clipboards on. I have one for the current week's schedule and one for the next week's schedule. I took another trip to Hobby Lobby to see what I could come up with. By the way, they really should have some sort of warning about things disappearing once inside the store. I go in and before I know it, time (sometimes hours) disappears and almost always my money disappears! Anyways, I wound up going to Hobby Lobby every day last week except Friday!! Luckily, all but once I spent $10 or less, so not too bad. What was really bad was the fact that the weather wasn't very good last week so I wasn't able to work much, but I was going shopping everyday! Oh well, that's why I save, right?! Back to the story... I was supposed to work Saturday, but the weather wasn't good so it gave me all day to work on my project. With a little design help from my mother and sister, I got it finished!

For this project, I bought a piece of wood from Hobby Lobby and used the same process as above to put the zebra print paper on it. Then, I attached the feather trim around the edge on the back with hot glue. I cut pink circles out of scrapbook paper and used the modge podge to attach them. Once that was dry, I used scrapbook sticker letters and some embellishments to finish it off. I attached ribbon to hang it up with and the hooks are just the ones that you can screw into the wall for keys and such.

 

I also read online and taught myself how to make tissue paper flowers. They are really easy and fun! Beware though, they can be addictive!!! Here are the ones I made for my cube (well, I made more, but it was a little too much):

I was going to try to explain how to make these, but I don't have any pictures of the process. So, I will do a separate post on these - after I make some more!

Here are a couple pics of my whole cube:

It is definitly more enjoyable to go to work everyday now that my cube is decorated!!! Now I'm trying to think of where else I can put some more of my craft projects... Well, I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend, and hopefully it won't be so long next time!

Thanksgiving & Christmas

I realize it's been over a month since I've updated.... but in my defense, we've been really busy!!! I guess I'll start with Thanksgiving.... We went to AR this year.  We left on Thursday morning and had lunch with my father's side. We hung out a little and then had dinner with my mother's side. Cari, Mark, & Calloway didn't get in until Thursday afternoon.

On Friday, Cari and I took our cousins, Brianna & Lauren, shopping. Wyatt & I were going to meet my friends for lunch on Saturday, but the whole Campbell clan was sick so we only had lunch with Steph & Josh (& baby Cadence). It was so good to seem them!!!

We headed back home on Saturday evening. Then it was December! Mostly, we were busy with work and school (for Wyatt). The weekend before Christmas, we headed over to AR again. I took Brianna & Lauren shopping Saturday morning for their Christmas presents. Then, my Aunt Susan hosted a congratulations party for my Aunt LeAnn Saturday evening. We are all so proud of her for completing her degree!!!  Afterwards, Wyatt and I had dinner with mom & dad and headed back home.

For Christmas this year we decided that we would drive down to TX. Cari & Mark weren't going to be able to spend much time in NWA and they were going to be making a 2-day drive to Mark's family in NC. So, mom & dad and Wyatt & I decided we could save them the extra drive and get to spend more time with them. We headed down on Tuesday afternoon. Cari and I had a day of shopping planned for Wednesday. Then, mom & dad would be there Wednesday afternoon.

Wyatt and I went to IKEA Thursday morning. It started snowing while we were out and about. It was so pretty!!! I couldn't believe we actually had a white Christmas! We had Christmas with his family Thursday evening.

Then, Friday morning we got up and drove to Cari & Mark's for Christmas with my family. We got there mid-morning and Calloway was already ready to open presents!!! We had so much fun with her this year. She was so funny!!! The first is a gift from Nonna & Poppy. The second is from us for her Christmas & birthday.

After we opened presents, we had a little bit of a late lunch. They were in the process of changing Calloway's room from a nursery to a little girl's room. So after lunch, Mom was working on painting a tree on the wall and Cari & I worked on redoing the letters to Calloway's name that hang on the wall. Mark was playing on his laptop (I think), dad did Sudoku, and Wyatt took a nap! We headed back to Wyatt's grandmother's house that evening and just took it easy. We got up on Saturday morning and headed home. We were greeted with a lot of snow and ice!!!

We had a safe drive home, but we did have one close call. There was an explorer getting on the highway and started losing control on the on-ramp. Both us and the car in front of us had to maneuver to avoid the SUV. We were both successful and I think the driver of the explorer got it under control too. A few moments later, I was saying how scary that was and that I was glad we weren't as close as the other car. About that time, we pulled up beside the other car and the guy's jaw was still dropped open and his hand was over his heart! Wyatt and I both just busted up laughing 'cause it was exactly how we felt!!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas!!!! (& sorry this was so long...)

Update & More Jewelry

I've been making some more jewelry lately. It is so nice to have a little time now and then to have a little hobby. I've made another necklace and earring set and two bracelets. Here are some pics:

This first one is blue and green. I already know exactly what I am going to wear it with and can't wait!

Here's a close-up... I had to make the bail out of a butterfly. I think it turned out really cute.

This is the butterfly bracelet. Hopefully I can wear it with a lot of different colors.

And last but not least, the green and purple bracelet.

Other than the usual work and school (for Wyatt), we've not been up to much. Wyatt did go on a 5 day fishing trip and just got home today. I really missed him and am glad he's home! The first day or two was nice to have some me time, but that didn't last too long. I know the dogs missed him too because they were so happy to see me when I got home each evening. They were definitly ready to go outside too!

Last Saturday, I received a letter from Trans States Airlines saying they were taking voluntary recalls. I got a little excited about the possibility of going back to the airlines and flying jets again. Unfortunately, they did not get the additional flying they thought they were going to get, so they aren't recalling any furloughed pilots after all. It's a little disappointing, but right now isn't exactly the most ideal time to go back to the airlines - with the holidays coming up and all. Also, it would/will be a paycut, so it's not going to be an easy decision to make, when I have to make it for real!

That's about all that's been going on with the Wagners.... I hope everyone has a wonderful week!!!

Memphis

Every now and then one of my students needs to do a long cross-country flight as part of their training - one of which has to be 5 hours long. It works out just about perfectly to fly to Memphis, TN. I've made the flight several times, but it's never worked out for me to meet up with Steph, one of my best friends who lives there.

Well, I had a student coming up on the cross-country lesson and got the bright idea that we would do it last Wednesday when Steph was scheduled to have her baby. I wanted to surprise her with my visit, so I contacted Josh, her husband, and got all the info. I needed. As it turned out, we didn't get the airplane and the weather would have prevented us from going anyways. I was really disappointed and sad that it didn't work out 'cause it would have been so much fun and just perfect. I called Steph and admitted what we had been planning and she was surprised, but said it was definitly the thought that counted. What she didn't know was that we had already rescheduled the flight to make another go at it!

After clearing it with Josh, we got it rescheduled for Tuesday. They made the schedule Sunday and we got the airplane!!!! Then, Tuesday came and it was looking a little iffy, but turned out to be good weather! So, my student, his girlfriend, a friend of their's, and I loaded up and headed toward Memphis. We got there a little before 7 and I called Josh to let him know we would be there in about 15 minutes. He told Steph someone from church was coming over. We got to their house and I knocked on the door. Josh opened the door and stood to the side so she could see who it was. The look on her face was priceless!!!! We had succeeded in surprising her!!! It was so good to see her and baby Cadence. We had a really good little visit. Here are a few pics:

After we left their house, we headed downtown to eat at Rendezvouz. Apparently it is world famous for its ribs, but I had never heard of it. It was pretty good, but I wouldn't say it was the best barbecue I've ever had. Then, we had the long flight home. I didn't get home until about 2:15 Wednesday morning and boy was I tired for work on Wednesday! It was definitly worth it to get to see my girls!!!

Art & Jewelry

I didn't realize it had been so long since my last post... I have been meaning to post something, but I get busy or forget and then decide I'll do it "tomorrow". So, here I am trying to play catch up. We haven't been up to much, just staying busy with work and normal, every day life.

This past weekend was just about perfect. We met up with one of my best friends from high school and her husband for dinner and a movie. We went to see Couple's Retreat. It was hilarious!! We had such a good time and are already planning our next get together.

Then, Wyatt left early Saturday morning to go on a 2 day fishing trip. I slept in until I woke up; it was so nice to not have to set the alarm. I pretty much lazied around all morning. I watched a couple of movies and just took it easy. I didn't even take a shower until 3!!! I started painting a canvas for the guest bedroom. I got the four side ones finished Saturday evening. I worked on the middle one Sunday, but didn't paint it until tonight. I think it turned out pretty good for my first one!

I can't wait to hang it on the wall and see how it looks!

A few weeks ago, I was in the mood to make something. So, I pulled out my beads and made a necklace and earring set. I used to make stuff all the time, but just haven't had the time to lately. I plan to make some more jewelry in the coming weeks, so I'll be sure and post pics of those too.

Anyway, I thinks that's all for now... Hopefully it won't be so long next time. Hope everyone has a good second half of the week!