I blinked my eyes and this weekend was already gone. Back to getting up at 6 am tomorrow morning. I felt pretty "blah" the past few days and I don't know why. I think it's just the stress from school, work, and the cold weather...Although I did hear it's going to be in the 60's on Wednesday. Saturday afternoon was pretty nasty. I ran out to get lunch for everyone at work and froze my butt off. The car was cold and the clouds were spewing out some misty rain that felt like a thousand knives piercing my face. Brrrr!! It's not always the best job being the lunch runner!

I've been extremely tired lately, and it was even worse this week. Like I said before, I think it's just stress getting to me. I have so many projects due soon, papers to write, art projects to finish and I always have some kind of errand to run. I don't get much time to sit down, and when I do, I don't know what to do with myself. I seriously think I have lost the ability to relax! HaHa. I actually feel guilty for watching TV once in awhile. I am so used to being on the go that when I have a second to myself I always feel like there is something I could be doing, like cleaning my room or bathroom. Or one of my biggest procrastinations, finishing the paintings on the bean bag boards that my dad made in the spring. I started some murals on them and never finished...but now that bean bag season is over I guess I have all winter to finish that. Maybe on our week break from school in December I can catch up with it.

On Monday John and I went to the hospital to see his cousin's new baby boy, Zack. He is SO beautiful! And the best newborn I have ever seen. He sleeps peacefully, hardly cries, never fusses and is just an all around good baby. John and I went over to see him on Saturday as well. That's when the pictures were taken...it was also the new dad's birthday. I'd say having a new baby boy is one of the best birthday presents he could have ever asked for! :) We didn't stay really late on Saturday since I had been up since 5:30 a.m. for work...so, I was ready to crash.

The only day I got a little extra sleep was Thursday morning. I had to work at 1, so that means I couldn't sit around in my PJ's all day. Sometimes, I would rather work early and get home early than relax in the morning and have to stop doing whatever I am doing so I can get ready to go to work. It's right smack in the middle of the day when I work 1-5 so I can't really make any plans that take up a lot of my time. I'm kinda tired of the crappy afternoon hours and trying to balance my work and school schedule, but it's things like this that help me stay focused. I know it's hard now, but if I keep trudging through I know that one day I will get my diploma and hopefully have a great job that I love.

I was a little aggravated on Friday though with something school related...I have a group project for my computer class that is due in 2 weeks. Before Friday we didn't have any work done yet, but I wasn't worried....I knew we would get it done if we worked hard. The bad thing is we don't have time in class to work on it, so we had to all meet at 9 am on Friday, our day off. Not exactly what I had in mind but with everyone's crazy work/school schedule it was the only time we could all get together.....WELL 3 out of 5 of us showed up and did more than 50% of the work. I'm thinking I would like to permanently make our group only 3 people! We'll see what happens tomorrow in class...

I posted some pics of my Mom, John, and my Dad painting the living room today. I love the way the color turned out. I however did not help at all! :( I feel bad but Sundays are my only days off to relax a little...or try to at least! I just worked 6 days in a row AND went to school, so I really really did not want to do ANY physical labor today! My neck and right shoulder have been bothering me a lot lately too...any kind of stress to those muscles seems to aggravate it, and it leads to a tension headache. I think I did some damage from painting murals for two years. Holding my right arm up for long periods of time without stretching first might be the culprit. I'm ready to get the heating pad and some tylenol and call it a night!

Well time to unwind on a Sunday night and talk about my week. My Dad's first cousin, Tina, and her son Chris came in this week from West Palm Beach Florida. I asked them if they were crazy for leaving sunny 80 degree florida for drab and dreary November in Chicago! Before I get into all that's been going on with them, I'm sure you want an explanation for the goofy pictures I posted...

I'm come to the conclusion that I have the power to make almost anyone I know nearly pee in their pants with these photos....and I didn't even post some of the really bizarre ones! I bought a new Mac computer back in March, and I absolutely LOVE it. I hated the Macs when I first started using them for all my graphic design work at school, but I have learned to love them, and I don't think I would ever buy a PC again. Not that anything is wrong with PC's but the Mac does so much cool stuff...like making bizarre photos! Well there is a program that was installed on the computer called photo booth, and it works with the camera that is built into the monitor. When you open up the photo booth it shows a live image, and you can take your picture. It has about 18 different filters that you can click on, and that's where the fun begins.

There's "bulge" which is how I got my eyeball to pop out, "x-ray," "squeeze," which is how my dad made himself look like he's got a shrunken head, and even things like "thermal camera" and "stretch" which makes almost anyone look like a frog, and numerous others that you can play around with. The effect is centered, so as you are looking at the live pic, you can move your head/body around until you get the desired effect you want, and then you can take your picture. Every time I have a guest in my house who has not seen it before, I bring them up to my room and let them have at it. I currently have over 230 pictures of friends and family with these distorted and bizarre photos, and we've all laughed so hard our stomachs hurt. You can sit in front of it for hours and try different effects, and the great thing is, it's instant! No Photoshop required! 

When my Aunt passed away this summer and my Uncle came to stay with us the week after her funeral, he was feeling pretty bummed out, and I would too if I lost my spouse/best friend of 30 years. We knew that using my computer would lift his spirits, and it sure did! We had so many good laughs after pinching his face, blowing his forehead out of proportion, and even making him look like an alien! I never expected him to laugh as much as he did that day, and I'm glad it gave him something to smile about. Around that same time is when I made my famous eyeball picture, which has been e-mailed to MANY, MANY people!! All I did was write the caption "I have some slight swelling in my right eye" and I sent it out. I got so many responses about my crazy sense of humor, but everyone loved it! I even pulled a prank on the ladies at work. There's a picture of the good looking guy from "Prison Break" hanging on the wall by the area where we dip our strawberries in chocolate. I decided to print the picture out really big, and swap that with the photo of the guy.....when they finally noticed it they sure freaked out!! Then it became a big inside joke about how they'd better watch out because "I have my eye on them!" I actually made a little "bubble" out of white paper so it looks like the comics when someone is talking, then I made a new message on it with everyone's name... like, "Donna, you better make a nice arrangement because I've got my eye on you!!" They all got a kick out of it....

Well enough of that.....hope you enjoy the pics. So we didn't get to spend a whole lot of time with my family that's in from out of town because I had school and my sis, dad and I all had work, plus the fam had plans to do things downtown and to meet some friends, but we did have a good time last night. We went downtown to Ron of Japan, a restaurant with the Hibachi, where they cook right in front of you. It sure was crowded though, and I got really cranky because I was starving. John told me that he's going to keep food in the car for me so he can feed me when I start getting cranky! The bad thing is I know when I am cranky and it's hard to control until I eat something. I guess I was just tired too. I worked all day saturday and I took a little nap when I got home, but just when I started to fall asleep I had to get up to get ready to go. Plus, the traffic was bad and some of the streets were closed because they had the parade where they light the Christmas lights, so there was about a million people downtown. After I ate I felt better, especially after I had my green tea ice cream, but I just wanted to go home. So that didn't happen and we all went to my sister's house and watched the movie Rat Race. It is so ridiculous and silly but that's what makes it so hysterical!! After getting home at about 2 am, I crashed and spent this morning relaxing. But of course I can never really relax on Sunday since it's my only full day off...that means all the stuff I didn't have time to do during the week gets done on Sunday, like cleaning, homework and projects. Oh well!

I sent out engagement announcements at the beginning of the week, and it's just been really nice getting all of the responses from everyone wishing us lots of luck, happiness, and congratulations! It's been an exciting week for me, and I've been really upbeat. I've been waiting so long for this moment, and it's finally here!!