Need to keep up better

Still trying to remind myself to do this blogging thing.  In all honesty if I'd just found the time in the last month or so I would possibly be a little more calm about things than I am.

My last posted spoke of my father in less than well condition in the hospital.  He passed away December 15th.  My brother whom works over seas and his family came in and stayed with us across the course of about two weeks.  It was really wonderful getting to see my youngest niece.  She was 15mo old (16mo now) and almost walking.  We think she will remember who we are now on future skype calls.  Brother and wife kept their fighting/bickering to a minimum and their stay was far more pleasant than the last.  These were of course very different circumstances.   His service was lovely and packed the house to the point of standing room.  The preist was my brother's child hood friend who was the third son and my third brother for many years.  He grew up without a father so mine was a very special person in his life.  It was good getting to see and visit with him as he grew up and faded off from our lives.  My father's best friend of many years spoke as did one of my younger cousins who thought the world of my dad. 

Christmas was not as hard as I thought it would be, but he was still missed greatly.  I started my Christmas shopping early this year and everyone's presents went over quite well.  The nieces and nephews made out like bandits and love their presents.  

Sadly this was the last Christmas we were able to spend with my husband's father.  Christmas came and new years passed.  He began fading faster than any of us could have imagined.  He celebrated his first anniversary with his dear second wife Monday the 14th, not much celebration due to his physical state, and around 1:30am on January 15th he passed away.  Mom called all the boys a little before midnight and all of us came.  He was surround by his loving wife & his three sons and their wives.  The boys all shared stories and we asked him to say hello to loved ones and good friends (and especially to his hero John Wayne).

His service was yesterday and the church was packed.  We've gotten to spend the last few days with all of his siblings (our aunts and uncles).  It has been very good to see them and get to spend the time with them that we have. 

Step-brother-in-law was able to get his tickets moved forward to come and be her for his mother and to be here for the memorial service.  We've also gotten to spend some time together, which has been great, and I feel like we've all bonded a little more as well. 

Most out of anyone, one of the uncles has been staying here with us at Mom's place.  He drives a truck and drove in last week.  We have enjoyed every moment of having him.  Husband thinks the absolute world of him and this is the first time they've ever gotten to spend this much time together.  We've played board games, watched movies and just had some great times.  I really really look forward to having my own place so hopefully we can offer a guest room to him in the future when he rolls through like this again.

We're all doing fine, but I want to be done with all of this death business. 

In between all this I dnd end up getting some doll commissions done.  People send me dolls/heads the first week of December so I ended up taking longer on everything than normal but the owners definitely understood.

Fairyland Minifee Scar Shiwoo

 

Luts Minifee Elf Shiwoo

These two commissions were done for Den of Angels user DeadLegato.  I still have another comission that's not quite complete.  Finished the face-up, but am in the middle of working on a scar on the body.  Will post it when completed.

I'm still off from work tomorrow and will probably be spending the day doing just whatever with a combo of family and friends.  Husband is cooking a divine smelling dinner right now!  Looking very forward to it.

Everything's Gone South In A Handbasket

There are those moments when something goes wrong and you think nothing could possibly get worse.  Well everything continues to happen and keeps getting worse.

Let us start last Friday.  I came home from work to the news that my husband had been layed off from his job.  Well that sucks, but at least he's got a severnce package until mid January. 

Saturday we go ahead and have our scheduled Christmas/Yule grilling party with our friends because whilst we were a tad bit depressed we'd been planning it for weeks and it was great to see all our friends.  We did have quite a smashing good time.  Bad news on that night was that it's official, a store run by some friends of mine is closing up as it's not being profitable enough.  Always just sad news.

Sunday I don't remember much about to be completely honest.  I know I read a bit of a book, worked a bit on my DMG manga project (which has a next week deadline OMG).  I believe we did some shopping and then we had a really nice big family dinner my dad cooked.  It has been so long since he cooked stead and gravy (everyone's classic favorite meal).  Bad news of Sunday was letting my friend Kelly know that Logan was layed off and apparently her husband found out Friday his division he work for is being sold off so he may be out of a job soon as well.

Monday I was off work and enjoyed my day off.  Did a little DMG work in the morning then went to go get my friend Jasmine and we went up to Denton to visit with Kelly for a bit then we headed on up to Baubles & Frills, our friends shop that's closing.  Bought a few things, mainly a wig for my newest doll.  I ended up picking up a dollzone Lankui from Denver Doll when they posted them for sale.  I swear something stink about Monday but I just don't remember.  I just have to say I seriously regret so harshly being gone so much of Monday.   Came home stayed up till about 1 or 2am working on manga.

Was awoken Tuesday morning to my mother beating on the bedroom door asking my husband to go wait outside for the ambulence.  She woke up to find my dad sitting on the floor yelling at her but not speaking clearly.  Paramedics picked him up (it was quite a task as my father is a rather large guy, and really hard to watch) and took him to the hospital downtown.  We all rushed on over afterwards.  I called my brother (the local one) and we all met down at the hospital.  Spent pretty much the whole day there.  Came home for a few hours to get things for my mom so she could stay the night.  My dad suffered a stroke.  He is paralyzed on his right side and cannot clearly speak.

Went to work Wednesday and find out a coworker (mind you I didn't know her very well) passed away over the weekend.  I worked my day, told my tale becuase people can tell quite obviously with me when I'm not okay.  Went to see Dad later that night.  They had moved him to his own room and set him up as best they can.  On the way back home my husband informs me of the news he received from his father.  The cancer is kicking his butt and the chemo they had him on has done more harm than good.  At current he has 30-90 days.... 

Work has been a nightmare all week by the way.  Thursday was a day of no bad news.  I worked, then went to the hospital again and Daddy was looking a bit better.  Was able to move his right foot around a little and all the hopes and optimism were looking good.  When he was in ER Tuesday they did a CT scan which turned up clean, and then Thursday they'd done some sonogram tests which turned up clean.  All we could think is that this is great news, but something caused it so they set up an angiogram for Friday.

Worked today, finally getting a little caught up on things.  Came home to an amazing dinner cooked by my husband.  Went to see dad and the angiogram found the problem.  His left carotid artery is blocked.  My mom told the news of the results pretty calmly and went about as usual this evening.  We had brought her more stuff and brought her some bills that she needed to write checks for and everything.  My cousin Jo was there and had been visiting most of the day.  We arrived in time to chat with her for a bit and then she was headed off to stay with another local cousin.  Since the hospital is downtown and not the greatest part of town mom made Logan walk Jo to her car.  During this time Daddy was really active and trying to tell us things and in turn getting really upset when we were having trouble figuring it out.  He saw mom doing the bills and thought he forgot to pay something that would be late.  Then he was trying to tell us something else and we figured out the location but still couldn't figure out what it was.  So after staying a while me and Logan left.  After we left he told me what Jo had told him.  We both know from Logan's mother's stroke and passing how serious that clogged carotid artery is.  Basically as it stands there are only two things they could possibly do to solve this problem, both very high risk for my fathers condition (including age and other health factors).  She stated what I also feel to be true that my mother is in denial about the situation and still keeps insisting we're going to do everything possible to get him through this so he can eventually get around himself and come home.  As things stand while surgery is an option, it's a risky one and in the end we might have to find a care facility for him where he will spend the rest of what time he has left with us.  The reason he's paralyzed on the right side is becuase the lack of blood flow to the left side of the brain.  The right side is trying very hard to compensate, but that can only work for so long.  When we got home the only bill we could find that might be late is one that had a zero balance.  In the place he was specifying there was a box.  At one point we thought he was saying something about forgetting a Christmas present and it had something to do with me.  What he was telling us was basically "Mom don't forget Melanie's Christmas present.  It's on my desk up on the top next to the clock" and that it was okay for me to go find it.  So we called mom when we found the box and she verified that the box was my christmas present.  I'm feel really horrible that that's something he was worrying about.  Mom asked me to bring it with me tomorrow.  It's this horribly fun looking blue Chinese dragon.  Dear lord I will keep and cherish it forever now.    I even think I found the name for my new doll with everything going on now.  Jesse, my dad's middle name.

I have broken down and bawled so many tears tonight, trying to get out as much as possible so when I see him I don't have any and can just stand there and hold his hand and tell him I love him.  We've had so many tiffs over the years and he's whined at me that I don't come over often enough, but he's one of the best dads ever.

The universe has a cruel sense of humor.  People always talk about being in the right place at the right time.  I can only think that this whole slew of events that placed us living with my parents since last June all happened the way it did leading up to everything that's happened this week.  I'm really hoping I don't go away from 2012 hating Christmas.

Up until 3am baking cookies for a Christmas party with friends tomorrow.  Chances are high I will break down and bawl my eyes out at any given point.  I just really want to see my friends right now and try to do something cheerful. 

Wishing the Sick Away!

Been icky all weekend, but now am completely full blown sick.  Woke up this morning feeling a little better than yesterday then started coughing and thought maybe I should call in to work today, take another to relax and get better since everyone death glares you if you walk into the office with a cough. 

Did fine for a few hours then started getting chills and a headache.  So now have been running a fever for a few hours.  Husband was off work today getting in his end of year vacation days and has been taking care of me.  As well he should be since I'm 99% sure I got this from him in the first place.  He's had the ick, but not gotten this bad (which is normal for him).    He's been the best though.  Keeps checking in on me and made me lunch.  Ramen & pot stickers.  I tell you what though, saltine crackers are the best by far. 

So totally sick and doing the right thing.  Resting, eating saltine crackers and drinking water.  I did before the fever hit get some work done editing a podcast I'm working on with friends.  I do still really hope to finish that up before the end of the day.

This whole Thanksgiving thing.

I think last week I was one of the very few people in my building at work that wasn't off at least one day other than Thanksgiving proper (everyone got that off).  I spent my whole work week covering for people who were out and we were aweful busy. 

Thanksgiving itself was great.  Spent time with my husband's family.  The whole family because Mama Lynn's whole bunch came over as well.  Was happy I was able to help Faythe through some panic attack issues.  We spent a lot of time talking.  My social anxiety issues have never run nearly as deep as hers, but having had them I have a lot of understanding.  My niece Ella and I talked more American Girl talk.  She's going to spaz when Christmas comes.   Sad to hear it seems they haven't been able to find/haven't un-packed any of their books since they moved this past summer.  She was talking about wanting to read them again.  Food was good, company was great, and best of all no drama (at least none that I know of or heard). 

Woke up Saturday morning and seem to have caught the ick that's traveling around.  My mom and Logan have had it most of the week, though it seems I pushed past and nipped the chest congestion in the bud and it's all moved into my nose/head.  Got medicine put in me Saturday and went up to Paris to see Dad's extended family for more Thanksgiving.  More than half the bunch (almost 50 of us) had the ick.  Good to see everyone, even if I'm not very social with any of them.  And as usual always great to see my grandmother. 

Today, as I said, the ick moved all to my nose/head.  Glad not to be caughing, but my head has been baloon like most of the day.  Went out for lunch for pho, then did a little more Christmas shopping.  After packages arrive by the end of this week I will have the rest of my overseas gifts and will hopefully ship them out next weekend.  Had to do my mom's shopping for Pimmy because she wasn't going to send her anything because the shipping is so expensive to Thailand, and I'm all like "Who cares!".  I would have sent her something last year except right before Christmas was when all that terrible flooding happened and so she wasn't in a place I could really send anything since everyone was evacuated from their homes.  I let her birthday slip up on me last year too.  I really have loved having conversations with my sister in law how she thinks Pimmy would love me becuase we seem to have a lot in common (tom boyish girls who like nice dolls).  She wanted a blythe, but she's going to have to settle for a Dal.  I'm thinking if she thought she liked Blythes, that she's going to really love Pullip dolls.  Since I shopped for my mom she's getting one of the Littlest Petshop Loves Blythe sets that comes with a couple pets and a couple changes of clothes for the little Blythe doll.

Other than some Christmas shopping online and off today, I've been sitting around trying to get better, watching Kpop and working on my assignments for DMG.  I think I'm cutting it a little close on one of my DMG deadlines, but the time has just been terrible for me.  I didn't know when I took my current assignments I'd be moving and all the other mess that's gone on.  Anyways not much else to go on about.  Need to get back to DMG work, so off I go!

Well I did go away a moment then I remembered other things... I got the newest member of my doll family this past week.  My SOOM Goss, his name is Torrance (Tori for short).  I also was super thrilled on Black Friday.  The only place I shopped was the US H.naoto web store in which I picked up a couple new tops, a pair of socks and some earrings.  I was soooo stupidly thrilled to get a shirt I've been eyeballing for almost half off.  I look forward to getting it becuase it's just so pretty....  Okay, that that was really all my other exciting news.

Long long weekends...

It's been quite a while since I've really updated and a lot has gone on.   Due to circumstances I don't really want to talk about, 90% of my things are in a storage unit and the husband and I are currently STILL living with my parents instead of moving back in our friends house.  We are currently now seeking a 3 bedroom place.  Aiming more toward a condo or townhome, though a house is not completely out of the question.

Had some good doll things that have been keeping me rolling pretty strong and have helped out with stress.  I recently received my Asleep Eidolon Yao who is named Derisa.  I really love him and can't wait until I find the time to get a face-up on him.  The reason he doesn't have one already is that I've been working on a commisson on a Volks Kohya head, sadly just a little bit at a time between getting everything packed and moved and all the crazy stressed out and fatigued days.  I still technically have to put a face on Kataega, our Migidoll Miho vampire, before I can get to Derisa.  Finished the Kohya head today but next up is a Hujoo Wings commission.  So much work to get done, but I'm really happy that the official move actually is done and now the house hunting can commence and honestly I feel like I'm finally gonna have a little extra time.

Though I do also still have to get caught up on my work for Digital Manga Guild.  I don't think I'm completely behind, I just wanted to have more done by now.  Deadline for first book is up in about a month so I think so long as I get more diligent about it I won't be too bad off.

I'm having a good day just de-stressing even if it's meant we spent a bit more money than we really needed to eating out this weekend.  We had our sushi dinner at Sapporo we wanted Friday night, had QT corn dogs for breakfast Saturday, then we fed our whole moving crew decent cheap Chinese food, then went out with another friend to Chili's later that night.  We actually did breakfast at home this morning, then hit a Carl's Jr for lunch, then our fave pho place on the way back from seeing a friend this afternoon for dinner.  Then we went to target and shopped... We ended up with far more than what we went in for, but many of them are useful.

Got home just in time to catch Walking Dead.  Tonight's ep was gorier than most others.  Last week's ep was sooo freakishly emotional I just didn't know what was going to happen this week, but as usual they leave us hanging.  Only show I watch and follow at actuate air times these days and I really do enjoy it even if it mildly creeps me out and I have to find a few things to watch or read to "buffer" between the show before going to bed.

Speaking of reading, went on a hunt to a few B&Ns today in search of Bakuman vol 16 without any luck.  Know it came out this past week, but couldn't find it.  However got and devoured Blue Exorcist vol 8 that showed up from Amazon Saturday.  

On notes of shipping I'm waiting for 2 doll orders right now, one from Dollmore which has been stuck in customs in Chicago since last Sunday & another from SOOM that arrived to the same customs office yesterday.  Now I'm just waiting to see which of them actually gets released first.  I've never had customs hold onto anything for so long as long as it has been with this dollmore order.  Me and everyone else on the order would really like our stuff. 

Anyways, I suppose that's about enough rambling for tonight.  I'll seriously try to keep better updated in the future, but meh, this always seems to happen with me and blogs.  Off to read another chapter of The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms then go to bed.  Tomorrow is Veteran's day which means my job will be a bit light because it is a postal holiday and most of my projects are mail that comes in from the usps.  However there's another project that we will get that comes in through fedex and they don't stop operations for it so yay?  Wish me luck, Tuesday will definitely be hell-ish.

Sooo much going on...

Other social media has pretty much ruined me for blogging.  I remember before Facebook & Twitter I used to log onto livejournal all the time.  Sometimes once a day, other times 5 or more.  It was rare for me to miss a day of make an entry to my blog.  If I missed more than 2-3 days without saying I would there were friends that would express general worry for me to make sure I was okay since I hadn't posted.  And this was back in the days when I was a 14hr college and 32hr retail worker.  So I always ask myself where did all the time I used to spend blogging go?  I still haven't figured this out.  But for sure it's when there's weeks like the week I've had.

There were some major changes put into place this week on one of the projects I work on at work and boy what a mess it was.  We finally got things mostly sorted out by Friday and are going into next week with a better game plan.  I pulled 6 hours of overtime last week mainly based on this project becuase there were still other projects that got exported out later than they should have been because of it.  All the same I feel like we're going to do better at this next week and my paycheck next week should be nicer than usual.

On the homefront, we've officially been at my parents house for over three months while things are slowly getting fixed at Richard's house where we normally rent our bedroom from but things are still going at an amazingly slow snails pace.  We have 75-80% of our things in boxes becuase of this.  We're pretty much ready to give up and if this situation is not resolved within two weeks we are serious apartment hunting.  I feel like we've already really taxed my parents enough with this and I'm so loving that they've put up with us for this long, though they have seemed to genuinely enjoy having us around.  Our own place again would be nice, especially now that we can afford something far better than what we had the last time we lived in our own apt...  though apts have gone up in price even more from the last time we looked and rented as well. 

I think I've warned several people that a complete meltdown from me about this whole housing situation is pretty immanent pretty soon.

In dolly news, our Migidoll Miho vampire boy arrived last weekend.  He's quite handsome and I can't wait until I'm able to give him a face-up.  Right now the weather has been so unpredictable and had a lot of humidity so faceups have been a no no which is terrible becuase I still have this commission that I've technically had for 3 months now too.  She's been started on and I warned the girl of our situation and that this was definitely going to take me longer than normal since she sort of mailed it to me without me telling her it was okay to.  Glad I seem to give the feeling of a trustworthy person via the internet.  Since I'm thinking about that though I really should pull her out and make sure I hae progress pics to show.  I was wanting to do a bit more before sending her some, but she's been waiting so long now and I really don't know the next time I'm going to get the chance to work on her girl.   We did actually have to go over to Richard's place to box and bag up all of the dolls since there will be painters coming in and we don't even want there to be any chance of a doll related painter issue.  Edo ended up coming back home with us so now we have 4 dolls at the parents place.  Though I really want to run back over and get a set of clothes for the miho...he's still all naked in his box.

This weekend is hopefully going to be pretty chill.  Was supposed to attend a jewelry party across town for one of my friends, but if I still feel as worn out as I do in a couple of hours I'm just going to cancel.  We've been so super active the last couple months of weekends.  Need a serious chill.  Still going to take Brittany to go see Tricia to get guinea pigs though.  I feel sort of way too awesome for being able to connect two people to help one of them give away the guinea pigs she can no longer manage the time to take care of and helping another friend to add to her amazing home zoo. 

Double Dolly Con Weekend!

This past weekend I attended two doll conventions.  BJDC in Austin & Blythecon in Grapevine.  In the end I came home with doll clothes for BJDs and the little ones (blythe and pullip). 

Went to Austin Saturday. Husband came and we also took friends Jasmine and Allison.  Stopped in West for kolaches on the way down.  Ran into friends in Austin.  I got to get my doll Hoshi back from Elissa.  She was doll sitting for a while (since March).  I was really starting to miss him though so I was happy to get him back.  Jasmine carried him for me most of the con and apparently he was quite popular.  She said she kept getting lots of comments and at one point just started saying thanks instead of having to go into how it wasn't her doll.  It was pretty hilarious to hear about since we weren't together the whole time.  Ended up buying a dollheart dress set, a msd ajumapama dress, and a 2 piece top from musedoll for SD.  Afterward's we went to Phil's Icehouse and had awesome burgers for lunch.  Logan did a bit more shopping at Dragon's Lair (the game and comic store).  After that we headed back home (well Jasmine's home as we pretty much stayed with her for the weekend).  Stopped in West again to pick up some more goodies then got home around proper dinner timeish.  Went to Target to get some stuff and I sort of broke off from the group and went clothes shopping.  Found a tank top, a new t-shirt, and orange courderoy pants.  I picked the pants up technically for cosplay.  They will look great for Takagi from Bakuman (though they might be a teensie bit bright, but they'll totally work).

Slept and then woke up again and got ready and the husbands dropped us girls off at the Gaylord Texan for Blythecon.  I don't think any of us knew what to expect becuase we were all more than sort of overwhelmed.  I was cursing myself for buying the dollheart outfit the day before becuase there was a vendor there selling stock dolls for less than online pricing.  In the end I blew all of the rest of my cash and picked up a handful of cute and pretty things.  Craziest thing is I'm probably happiest about the little card case I bought for myself.  It's got an adorable print of a sheep being followed by duckies and a hedgehog.   Sort of threw away $20 on raffle tickets and won nothing.  Our friend Heather we met up with there won something in the afternoon raffle, but nothing for the rest of us.  We weren't really upset about spending money on the tickets, we just felt like we wasted our time especially since we came back fro the night raffle after dinner. 

I think if I'd posted about this maybe last night I would have had more to say.  Other than what there was to say though I have some photos.

Stuff I bought from BJDC:

I finished Rosa in time to take her mostly complete to Blythecon.  This is what she looked like going in (sans the necklace cause this pic was after the con and I bought it at the con):

 

This was all the stuff in my goody bag for Blythecon (plus my badge):

And this is all the fun stuff I bought:

And since some of it was for Rosa she got re-dressed.  I'm definitely going to need to get her a different body.  Her little arms don't quite make it through the sleeves.  Oh well just need to order the next size up pure neemo body.

 

That's al for now.  Bed time for me tonight.  Work has been very busy the last two days so I'm hoping for a better day tomorrow that will hopefully leave me a little less brain dead feeling when I get home.