Where does the time go?

My hubby is at his new job applying for his gaming license. You have no idea how excited I am. Even though it's not the jobs he's used to, including hours and pay, we're so excited. He's been a Stay at Home Dad for a year and a week now. It's apparent that he's had some good times, but overall that wasn't what he'd had in mind. However, in a terrible economy even highly educated people with lots of experience have a difficult time finding a job. With this new year, comes new changes to our lives and daily routines. It might get a little complicated here and there, but we're willing to make it work.

On this last day of 2010, I think about resolutions. I have the usual ones everyone has. Eat less and more healthier, drink less, exercise more, read more, work less, save more money, and make more money!! I hope that in this new year, I can spend some more time with my son. It's great to watch him learn and grow while teaching him new things. He's most attentive when I teach him new things. I'm not sure why this is so, but it's true.

Last night was the first dry night Talon had. He woke up in the middle of the night to go to the potty. I'm so proud of him! At less then 2 and a half years old, he's potty trained. We've been working on it for the last 6 months, but all of the hard work has paid off, and soon we'll even be free of diapers overnight. It's the little things that excite me, folks.

On another note, I must get ready for a balloon drop play date at Little Sport. I always find myself making a plan, but then I get caught up with tasks at home. For instance last night I had plans to get a drink with some of my mommy friends, but cooking got into the way. The grilled octopus took way longer than I thought to stew... Hence the tortilla soup came out better with a longer stewing time as well. There will be other nights... It's unbelievable how messy and dirty a house can get when you have two adults, one toddler, and two dogs. I can hardly do anything at all. I suppose the dirty house will wait for me, but now I've also sacrificed showering before we go out today. I suppose there's always time for that later too. Another resolution could be to plan my time more efficiently.

There are more original resolutions that have been flowing through my head that I'd like to share. We'll be doing more Organic gardening this year, but there are a few different things that I'd like to try. Heirloom seeds are what I'm hoping to get to start my own seedlings instead of commercial GMO seeds. Then I can collect my own seeds, and have them ready for seedlings next year. Vertical gardening will also be employed in this years gardening adventures since our space is small. My neighbors are going to love the tall PVC pipes with holes cut out of them and plants sprouting out of them in the small back yard. Hopefully we'll be composting too, and we can start using our own fertilizer. In addition, my goals are to utilize as much local food as possible. We'll be visiting 7th heaven farm on a regular basis to purchase our local grass fed meats. Perhaps I can persuade my family into eating more goat and lamb. Maybe goat is pushing it. We're also going to continue using our CSA Organic farm share despite the spike in price. My determination is to act globally by shopping locally. If I can help other people to do so, I will. Please ask me if you have any questions or want to do some gardening together. These hobbies excite me. I love cooking and good quality food in addition to trying to lessen my carbon footprint as much as possible.

Although we're not doing anything special in the adult department tonight, I'm satisfied with being home. I'd like to wish a Happy New Year to everyone out the in cyber world. Im not sure if I'll even be able to muster the energy to stay up to midnight when the ball drops. It's been years since this old lady has done that. There's always next year!

Home, home on the range

This traveling tattoo mom is home again, but I've been on the road so much that it hardly feels like it. Every time I go on a guest spot, I have such a great time. Then I want to move there, however it's not that easy. "Home is where the heart is", and my two hearts are in southern New Jersey.

Those two hearts presently have some kind of virus that's causing them vomit amongst other things. They've been in the clear so far today, but who knows if germs are still lingering in their systems. Besides food shopping this am, I'm probably staying in with the family until I have to work on Sunday. That actually sounds good to me even though we had some other exciting plans that had to be cancelled. I can cook and clean, and perhaps organize this toy cluttered house of ours. Domestication is so pleasant for me. Cooking (and eating) is on I'm trying to get creative reinventing a large pork roast into dishes for the family so it doesn't go to waste. I also purchased a thawed octopus at the market so I'm wondering what the heck to do with it. Over linguine sounds nice, however, we'll see. I might be the only one eating it.

On a good note, my husband is applying for his gaming license tomorrow. If he passes the rigorous background check of all of the last three years bank statements, jobs, parking tickets, underwear drawer etc, then he'll have a new job as a Security Manager at a local casino. Cross your fingers for us, kids.

So good riddance to this past year. It had it's up and downs, but I'm not looking back. 2011 here we come!

Not so merry Christmas Eve

This trip is bittersweet. So far the money has been good, and I had a fantastic time at the parks yesterday. The Wizardly World of Harry Potter was great despite the insane crowds. You had to get a ticket to come back for an entry time. I got my ticket at 12 for 3:30pm. Wish I would've had the "heads up" on that one. I even got tattooed last night by my old coworker. The work days have been long, and I'm tired from a long day of partying. Universal is a magical place. Even though I went alone, I ended up chatting with some people.

On the flip side, I miss my family dearly. My husband planned a Christmas dinner at our house, and I'm not going to be there. It's like buying dinner for a bunch of people and not going. Ah well I hope they have a merry time. I really do, but I'm jealous What a bummer. Then I tried to video chat with my son, which has never been successful. Of course he didn't say a word the whole time. Then he proceeded to turn his head and not even look me in the eye...

Originally I was supposed to stay until Wednesday morning, but the schedule comes out week to week. I'm waiting to hear back from the manager to see if I'll be on the schedule Tuesday or I'm coming back then. Or Monday. I don't want to stay any longer if I don't have to. It's fun getting in some "me" time, but I've been on the road so much lately that I could use some family time.

We shall see. Until then, I'm going to attempt on getting some fancy Christmas Eve dinner by myself...

Merry Christmas

I know it's only the 20th of December, but it's our big day of celebration in the Beyer house. So that makes last night our Christmas Eve. The work day dragged due to a cold attacking my immune system. My second client could not make up her mind. Well she would, then she'd change her mind and repeat. After sending her away to digest on the different images and ideas, I ended up escaping a little early.

We attempted to have a home cooked meal, but a low sugar halted that to a stop. My husband was out of it so we trekked over to our local wannabe country restaurant equipped with a train that circles the dining room. After putting the excited little tyke to bed, we sorted through the many children's gift's, and I even opted to remove some from the repertoire to my husband's dismay. Although after everything was opened this morning he gave me reassurance that he was in agreeance.

Now that I've used the word "agrreance", let's side track a little bit to rewind in time. A few years ago when I was a big bellied pregger, I used that word in a sentence while in the presence of my my mother in law and husband. They lol'd at me for an extended period of time telling me that the word didn't exist and as if I was making up I know the word. Little did they know that the word wasn't my own invention. It's an oldie, but it's out of date since the 1700's. However, it's still widely used in Australia and New Zealand. Now after reading the urban dictionary I'm not sure it's actually considered a word presently... Discuss in comments, please.

Anyway back to our Christmas Day. Talon had a great morning merry go rounding on each toy or some combination thereof. Josh and I exchanged only a few gifts, but he did good. On the other had, I always feel like my presents to my husband aren't adequate enough. Not that I don't know what to get the man who has everything, but he's a giant that's practically impossible to buy for. Seriously, he's almost a foot and a half taller than I am. I want to buy him lots of things, but in duress of ordering him the wrong size I digress.

Tomorrow Ill be working at Hart & Huntington Tattoo Co, Universal Studios Citywalk, Orlando, Fl. Come on over and say "hello" if you live there!!!

xo,

Tegan

Our Christmas Eve is tomorrow.

That means Santa's coming to town a little earlier than everyone else. We have VIP passes this year since I'll be all the way down in sunny and warm Orlando for a guest spot at my former employer, Hart & Huntington . I'll be there Dec 21 - 28. Let's hope that weather is warming up since it was colder there than here in South Jersey last week. Although I'm in no particular mood for it to be summer hot and humid, some nice weather is welcome to warm my lonely spirits that week.

It seems like taking a gamble this time around. If it's slow, paintings will be made. Body Graphics Portside Parlour is having a "Brotherly Love" themed art show next month, and I'm determined to create at least one for the show. I'm not a big gambler so hopefully I get lucky and make some bank next week. I'd love to do some girlie stuff like flowers and victorian fillagre stuff, animals, pin ups, portraits, birds, names, stars, whatever.... Email me at teganink@mac.com if you want to get tattooed.

I'm going to miss the heck out of my family. I already miss them just thinking about my absence for eight nights. This is going to be tough, but it'll surely be easy to get some much needed "me time" in. Perhaps I can even get some rest through the night. I'm going to set up my hubby with his ichat account stat so I can keep in close contact.

I also wanted to mention that my full night appointment cancelled tonight at No Ka Oi Tiki Tattoo, so I'm wide open from 5pm - 12am.

ugh...

Yesterday was one of those days that I wished that I could've cancelled my trip. The traffic was miserable from NJ and New York. A usual 5 hour trip took me 8 hours to make. I had to reschedule my first appointment, and then my last appointment too. I did have fun tattooing besides my back hurting after a while and then my stomach began to get upset. Then after work I began dry heaving. A hotel room was acquired so as not to get my twin expectant hostess and her husband sick.

Today I got to do it all over again except in the opposite order. Tattoo, pack up, and then drive. There's been talk of snow on the television, but I'm too lazy to look out the window. There's also a head light out on my car, and I have to get it fixed since it's too difficult to get to. It's difficult to muster the energy to get out of bed. There's a full plate ahead of me, but I don't know if I have it in me. Well I can't sleep anyway since there's a few people speaking loudly in a foreign language in my hall for the past 10 minutes...

Time is running out1

Turkey Day revisited

Finally today I got to recreate the turkey left overs into new dishes. First, I threw together some turkey croquettes and fried them up for lunch. I also got to break out the vaccuum sealer which was exciting. Second was the Turkey pot pie including a home made butter crust still baking in the oven. Lastly, I whipped up some curried turkey salad with dried cranberries. I'm not sre if anyone will be a fan of the last dish, but I sure will. In fact, everything on that list is palatable to me. It's tough pleasing a toddler and a "meat and potatoes" husband, though.

Last night my mantra was "living clean". There were good intentions of exercising and eating healthy especially since hubby and I spent two consecutive nights at sporting events - The Flyer's vs Bruin on Wednesday and the Eagles vs Texan's last night. We ate copious amounts of junk food and drank a bunch of beers. Then today I decide to whip up some high calorie and fattening comfort food. Oh well. The only exercise I got today was cleaning the house, pulling 135 lbs of children around the yard on a boogie board, and walking after my son who is now tricycling up and down the street quite fast. I surely broke a sweat, but didn't get to use the new to us elliptical.

The Holiday decorations have started to creep out of hiding, and we're slowly decorating the home. Of course I had to clean it first since it was a disaster after the week of hellish travel, work, and play. My husband put up the outdoor lights so the holiday mood is taking over. Hopefully we can go pick out a tree if my son decides to wake up from his 4pm nap... However it's already 7:21pm.

It will be sad to actually miss the holiday due to my guest spot at Hart & Huntington at Universal Studios Citywalk, but we'll do our own thing. It's only a date anyway. Now let's hope I can make a bunch of money while I'm away so that I can purchase some nice gifts for my family and myself of course. Things seem to be looking up since my other half had an interview the other day that seemed to go well. He also has another one planned on the 16th. There also seems to be other opportunities for him arising at this time. Let's just hope and pray that he lands a job, and I can finally take a break for a little while. I miss spending consecutive days off with my son and going to play dates. I miss my mommy friends. Hopefully soon I can be in the loop once again.