I painted stripes in my new bedroom. I really thought it would lend an elegance to the room, especially since they are only on one wall, the wall I see when I wake up in the morning.

I’m not a professional designer or painter, but I like them. I like them a lot.

Our old house was a project house, a place constantly under some sort of chaos disguised as renovation. The end result was pretty awesome, but we spaced out each project in an order that put our master bedroom last on the list. So I never had a “finished” bedroom until about a month (maybe two) before we moved. And since I was picking out carpet and paint colors for our bedroom knowing it was more for the sale of the house and not really for my enjoyment, I didn’t really get into enjoying the finished product.

Now, I’m putting stripes on the wall and getting ready to buy new bedding (once we get a bigger bed). I’m going to find that elegance for our master bedroom and enjoy the finished product.

This isn’t an “I’m sorry for abruptly ditching this blog” post, just a way of typing out my justification for going MIA. It’s more for me.

If you have ever watched the web series “The Guild” then you know there is a character called Clara who is a mom who loves her online gaming. If you haven’t watched it, then I suggest you take about an hour or two out of your day to begin at the beginning and check out the series. (The episodes average 10 minutes or so.)

Anyway, Clara is an extreme caricature, but she scared me. As a mom who has (had?) an online life, I could never become someone who neglected her kids that much or alienated her husband due to the computer, but I wondered if those observing me saw me as a Clara-type mom. (For the record, Damon has assured me I am not Clara.)

In the past few months I have also seen the scales tip from balancing online life and real life in favor of real life for other reasons- one being the attention Tebow needs/ demands. While Clara is a character I dread becoming, in the episode below, starting at the 4:18 point, should demonstrate the tornado effect Tebow has when I am on the computer during his waking times. (To not watch the entire episode, just let it go through the commercial- that I don’t get money for- and the pause it to let the video load. Once loaded, you can drag the play point to 4:18.)

What those three kids did to her computer was about what one Tebow can do to mine. Or my mom’s, where Tebow recently turned off her computer while she was in the midst of typing an email.

So, I need to find the new balance point if I want to step back into online life. These two reasons are my biggest reasons for being silent until now. And it is kind of uncomfortable because I miss it. I’m going to try again… I really have no reason not to at least try.

Within hours of its return, the laptop was sitting on the dining room table and I was turned into a work-at-home(-except-its-really-your-in-law’s-house)-mother.

On the day my laptop turned into a brick and I had made my peace with losing the things I actually hadn’t lost, I secured some freelance work that I suddenly couldn’t do. And on the day I got my laptop back, I started working 4, 5, and a few times 8 hours a day trying to get a fast turn around on the project because I wanted to finish before returning to Chattanooga. Which turned out really well because we didn’t go back for a week after I sent the invoice to the client.

Yeah, that’s where the story goes… laptop dead, laptop raised from dead, start working hard, and then get an extra week of lakeside living which was really hard to enjoy knowing my husband was back at home working his butt off to get the house ready for our return.

In the end, we were away from our house and fourth family member for a month. If I had spent my time blogging every day the blog posts would have looked like this:

I love the lake but I wanna go hoooooooooome. I missssss my husband. I want to curl up next to him and help him with this last big project. I was made to be a helper and suddenly I can’t heeeeeelp. Wah. Wah. Wah.

And even though I think the first post like that would have been ok, the internet probably would have gotten sick of the homesick theme after the third post. Heck, I was sick of it before I posted anything.

But the story doesn’t end there. We returned home on Valentine’s Day (kind of romantic, kind of not) and I actually got my wish to be a helper in this project called home renovation. I’ve been taking stuff to storage, I’ve been painting trim (and have a hand cramp to prove it), and there have been more trips to Target and Wal-Mart than I am proud of (and I need to go back to Target to return something. Again).

I haven’t been sharing my story with the internet because I have been busy in a way that doesn’t spin itself into blog posts but exhaustion. And since we currently are sans TV (that’s another story), I have been trying to keep ahead of the exhaustion by going to bed at early to bed times.

And yet the story doesn’t end there because the story is still going… today I have to conquer clutter and possibly take another trip to storage. I have to roomba, steam mop, and whatever else in order to feel ready to meet with a Realtor tomorrow.

See, the story doesn’t end… it just takes a dramatic twist. And I think I just felt my first chest pain.

Well, at least it will be virus free.

My laptop has had viruses before, but never this bad. We’ve used home remedies to patch it back up, but on Tuesday, it was obvious a professional had to take over.

My stomach was in knots of frustration. I couldn’t think clearly. My usual tech guy was back in Chattanooga trying to talk me through steps on the phone (love you, Damon!). And wouldn’t you know it, I was got a bit of freelance work just as the computer got ill.

Hopefully I get it back today, along with the pictures I have from our temporary relocation. And hopefully my stomach will unknot itself.

Please, just tell me it will be ok.

I accidentally skipped last week’s SPS, I had a picture, but I spaced.

I have decided to start a linky with SPS so others who want to participate can sign it and we can blog hop to see other’s self portraits. To play along, just post a self portrait on Sunday on your blog. The picture doesn’t have to be shot on Sunday (the one above was captured on Friday).

Take the code below and add it to your post. I’ll try to post this on Sunday morning, but I’ll blog hop in the afternoon, after church.

Technorati Tags: Self Portrait Sunday, Mcklinky, digital photography, blog hop

I love how this came out.

Other Wordless Wednesday pictures can be found via the linky on MomDot!

Technorati Tags: Wordless Wednesday, raclette

Getting this in under the wire (it is due by 9 p.m. Central)* Here is my submission for this week’s I ♥ Faces challenge. The theme is I ♥ Faces“We are family!” and I took this picture today at the nursing home in Auburn where we visited with my Great Aunt Margery. We were all in the dining hall where some of the residents were bowling with a plastic ball and hitting plastic pins. It was great fun to watch. Fuller loves bowling and he really wanted in on the action (despite the look on his face in this picture).

I think I have mentioned in the past how I get my photography gene from Aunt Margery. It is difficult to see her without her camera around her neck, but I know she is feisty enough to get the work done to get back behind her own camera.

Check out the other links at I ♥ Faces, there are plenty of family pictures to go around!

*Well, I haven’t changed the clock on my computer and I actually have an hour to spare. The Central time zone has really messed me up.

Health- The 2010 picture of health will be the main focus for the first quarter of this year. This is because I’m having surgery sometime this month (more on it later, and it isn’t what you might think) and I hope this surgery will help me meet some other physical health goals I have for my life.

That surgery was supposed to happen today. But about two weeks ago we received some good news in another area of our family and after taking a quick look at our immediate future*, it was obvious my surgery** would need to be postponed.

Which is how I find myself sitting lakeside of Lake Martin in Alabama. Last week the boys and I traveled here to take refuge under the roof of my in-laws while Damon remained at home to begin the final stages of renovation of our home.

But this line haunts me a little:

The 2010 picture of health will be the main focus for the first quarter of this year.

I’m trying to figure out ways to keep health (specifically weight loss and lowering my cholesterol) at a premium. I can’t work out the exact way that I want, so I ordered some Earth Shoes to help while I walk (an exercise I can actually do). When we return to Chattanooga, I hope the Wii Fit will be part of my daily routine (I refuse to buy more Wii “workout” stuff until I do Wii Fit for 30 days), so at least I make myself move more.

So 18 days in, I have changed the path, but the goal is still the same.

Technorati Tags: New Years Resolutions, change, health, weight loss, Wii Fit, Earth Shoes, Exer-Walk

*I know I’m being cryptic, but the internet doesn’t need to know everything, right? If you know us in real life, then we are fine sharing some details. The internet will find out in due time.

**Again with the vagueness. And because I’m talking weight loss, you might have an idea of what the surgery is. But I bet you are wrong. I’ll tell you right now, it isn’t gastric bypass. It isn’t lapband surgery. And no, it isn’t plastic surgery of any kind.

This week, as they get their birthday celebration going, they ask for our “Best Face Photo” taken sometime in the last month. Well, I happen to have this sweet face on my computer from last Friday:

It’s Elsie, my friend Esther’s precious living doll! She woke up from her nap and I took out my camera to get a few shots. She even smiled for me, sweet little thing.

Check out the other links at I ♥ Faces, there are plenty of best face photos to go around!

Technorati Tags: I heart faces, portraits, digital photography