TO DO

Ah the "To Do" list. I enjoy it. I know most people would find it odd that a list of things you must do could bring joy but it does. It helps me focus and feel organized. And what can be more fun and rewarding that scratch things off when done. I use to make a house list every week and a daily one at work. But lately since the babe, I have slacked. Yesterday though I just was overwhelmed with things running through my mind. I made a list, 15 "to do's"!!! It seemed like a lot and even my mom rolled her eyes when I read it to her and scoffed at my intent to get them done. But by the time I went to bed 12 items had been scratched off!! 12, that's pretty good for one day. That doesn't count the little extras that got thrown in to. I showed off my scratched up list to my husband like a child showing off a good report card, he offered the appropriate congratulations and a little peck on the forhead even. After yesterday's success I made myself another list today. Only 7 items today but some are more time consuming. So far I have crossed off one, in the process of another (laundry) and headed out the door for a third as soon as the munchkin wakes from his nap. Steady progress considering it is not even lunch time yet. I will admit though I am waiting with much excitment to cross off #7 on the list, written in all caps with three exclamation points..."Watch GREY'S!!!". A new episode finally airs tonight, yipee! If you are a fellow McDreamy lover you have been waiting in anticipation also, and if you are not you should be! On that note I am off, I wonder what will be on tomorrow's list...

IT'S JUST A BUBBLE SHEET

So I have been on the hunt for a part-time job for some time now. It's not easy and their isn't a lot out there that doesn't involve food prep which is somewhere I don't want to go. Not that I think any less of those in the food services industry, in fact I am thankful for them b/c on nights I don't want to cook dinner I don't have to b/c we can go out. However I don't think I would have the will power to not nibble, nibble, nibble all day while at work if I was around yummy food. Back to my point, I am sort of being picky about what jobs I do want b/c although I want to work I don't want to spend too much time away from my little guy. I would still like to be able to take him to Toddler Gym, have family dinner, put him to bed etc. I actually turned down a job b/c it was too many hours and I wouldn't be able to do 2 of the 3 things listed above, but after last night I am questioning whether that was a good idea.
Last night I went to take a test for a job I applied for as a Service Specialist at the Police Dept. The hours are great, the pay is great, and usually a city job has great benefits and such too. I was pretty excited about it until I showed up for the test. There were already 30 or so people in the room and another 20 filtered in! I told myself to remain calm, maybe they give the test just once for all open positions b/c it is a test all city employees have to take. The lady in charge stood up and asked "Is everyone here for the Services Specialist job....(in that pause I was waiting for additional jobs to be listed) alright great let's get started." WHAT!?!?!? All 50 of us were there for the same part-time position with only one opening! At this point I can only comfort myself with the fact that I saw the check in list and even with 50 of us we were only 2/3 of those invited to come. I wish they would have narrowed us down even more by stupidity. The test was a bubble sheet test, now if you can't figure out how to fill out your name on a bubble sheet you really should just be tossed out on your bum b/c all other office work will be way beyond your capabilities. But I kid you not there were many, many, many questions about how to fill out the front page of the bubble test with your name, date, birthday!!! HONESTLY, can you not spell your own name and shade in bubbles with the same letters!?!?!?! And if you don't know your own birthday you must have had a very sad childhood. They could save themselves some time scoring tests if they had just tossed those folks out then and there, and what's worse is there was another test, again bubble sheet and people STILL had questions and it was the same thing!!! The first test was not hard it was just about phone skills, we watched a video of fake phone calls and had to answer questions which wasn't difficult except for the fact that two women were hacking their lungs out the whole time and that made it difficult to hear but oh well at least everyone had that disadvantage. The second test is a different story, it was hard. I consider myself smart, I got good grades, have a Bachelor's degree and scored well on my ACT but that was over a decade ago so I am a bit out of practice. But honestly the second test was like a mini-ACT I was just getting up to leave when they called time which is my only comfort that at least I was one of only a handful to finish before they called time which may or may not help me. I think I did okay on the math and coding but oh the enemy that is spelling! I am not a good speller. It's embarassing even in my scrapbook there are some pages that are mis-spelled mostly before I was married b/c now my wonderful husband checks my pages for me. But even though I am an avid and voracious ( I just checked that on Dictionary.com! ) I am a bad speller and not so great in the grammar department either. So finally after 2 1/2 hours of testing, which ironically caused me to miss family dinner and putting my baby to bed, we were free to leave. Needless to say I was very deflated and cranky when I finally got home, hungry too. I am not holding out much hope for a call back and have resigned myself to at least a few more weeks of searching for a job. But at least there is one bright spot in my day already this morning. On "Sesame Street" they played one of my favorite songs spoofs, REM singing "Furry Happy Monsters" to the tune of "Shiny Happy People" so with that fun little ditty in my head I am off to face the day. "Furry happy monsters being glad... Monsters happy monsters...."

GOODNIGHT MOON

Last night as bedtime was rounding the corner we started our usual routine. We pick up toys and then as I get the bottle ready my husband scoops up the little guy and heads upstairs to get him ready for his bath. However this time my husband took a detour. The blinds were still open on the back window as it had been and still was, though quickly fading, a beautiful blue sky and sunshine day. He stopped at the window and proceeded to to say "Goodnight sunshine, goodnight grass, goodnight trees, goodnight froggie (we have 2 frogs living in the backyard)..." and my favorite that made me go from a sweet "I-love-my-family-and-have-the-best-husband and-cutest-son-ever smile to actually letting out a giggle, "Goodnight fence!" I am not sure why that made me laugh, obviously in the book they say goodnight to much more odd things such as "nobody" and "mush" but saying goodnight to a fence was just amusing. But it was so wonderful to just feel completely content and at peace with the moment. To finally feel like all is right and I am making it as a mom. There were many months of struggle and questioning whether I was good enough but now playing with my son and seeing the smile on his face and feeling the love he has for me when we snuggle I know that even though I am not perfect and we still have our rough moments at times that they are shorter, fewer and farther between and the days of smiles and giggles and sweet memories are abundant. And of course we did read "Goodnight Moon" last night before bed, twice haha. I am truly blessed.

JUST CALL ME YOGI IN TRAINING

I have attended a few Yoga classes in the past but usually was not impressed with the class, didn't break a sweat, got annoyed with someone telling me to relax or all of the above. Today however I went to a new yoga class at the gym. Whoa! Although I always wanted to be able to enjoy yoga like others do I just really thought it wasn't going to happen for me but today's class was a turning point. Obviously I am not a Yogi yet, nor will I be any time soon but for the first time I broke a sweat and could really feel my muscles working. It was so nice. And the teacher is not one of those "breathe, relax, feel the bad karma flowing out of your toes and welcome the new energy with your next breathe blah blah blah...." I am sorry but I can't handle that, if someone tells me to relax each part of my body I just want to smack them. Not very patient or kind I know, but unfortunately true. This teacher however did not do that. No visualization just breathing, that I can handle. Plus she was very patient and helpful for newbies such as myself. I am sure I was the worst one in the class, there were some moves I couldn't do quite right. I am not as limber as I used to be, but still I did surprise myself with some of the things I could do. Of course I was next to the best of the class, honestly this lady did some moves that the teacher even had to clap for! Therefore, now that my little one is on a pretty set schedule and sleeping better I am going to try and get to the gym and lose the rest of this baby weight I have been carrying around. I have a good incentive too. In July we are headed down to San Diego for vacation with my husband's brother's family and I do not want to look like a beached whale in all the photos so "Hi Ho Hi Ho, off to the gym I go." On Wednesday I am trying the pilates class, wish me luck!

HE IS RISEN

"But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive" (1 Corinthians 15:20-22).

SHARING FAVORITES

So today my husband and I got to spend some time together, just us. We went Mini-golfing, haha! I know that sounds lame to some, but if it wasn't for mini-golf we might never have gotten married. Now you may be wondering how mini-golf leads to marriage, well it doesn't exactly. However after a few weeks of hanging out as just "friends", we went to play a shared favorite activity: mini-golf. There we made a bet that the winner had to take the loser to dinner anywhere they wanted. Well I lost, and my "friend" chose to have dinner at a really nice and fancy place neither of us had been too but both had heard about. It was at this dinner that my "friend" proposed, no not that proposal, but he did ask if I would like to date. I promptly felt queasy with shock, my dreams don't usually come true so I was unprepared for something I had secretly been wishing for to be something he had been wishing for also! Within two weeks of dating we decided to get married and voila! All thanks to a round of mini-golf.
Our round of mini-golf today didn't lead to any grand results, at least thus far, but we did have fun. And I have to say my putting skills have improved, just call me Happy. Sadly I lost, but not by much. My DH kindly says that I beat him on the front 9, while he won the back 9, but overall I still lost. He is sweet for trying to make me feel better about it though.
We don't share all the same favorites, in fact our absolute favorite pastimes couldn't be more different. His: mountain biking and hiking/camping. Mine: scrapbooking and shopping. But we make an effort to support each other. He will help me find the perfect sticker at the scrapbook store and I will strap on a Camelback for a hike up a mountain. And we have found many things we enjoy together: bowling, mini-golf, reading, music etc. Tonight though, as the day was winding down and the baby was sleeping, I was emailing, DH was going through some papers while "Friends" was on tv we had a fun little epiphany.

DH:"You know I never thought 'Friends' was that funny until I married you?"
Me:"Of course it's funny."
DH:"Yes it is, but I only watched it once or twice before I was married to you and now it's one of my favorites"
Me:"Yeah, I knew who Jack Johnson was but I didn't listen to him before I married you and now he is one of my favorites. Being married is great."
DH:"Yeah, sharing favorites is good."

So I guess what I am trying to say is that sharing favorites with your honey is a fun perk of marriage. Whether it's the favorites you both enjoy like bowling, the favorites you endure because you love your honey like sleeping in a tent, or the favorites you introduce and then share with your honey like the beauty of a little song called "Banana Pancakes". I look forward to many more years of sharing favorites with my husband and hopefully we will share some with our little guy too.

MY SO-CALLED LIFE

Like most people I would not like to live through my high school years again. It wasn't horrible but it wasn't the best time of my life either. Mostly angst: boy angst; body angst; parent angst, friend angst; oh and more boy angst haha! There are things that I wish I could change but mostly I wish I had been different, more confident, taken more risks with less fear of what other's may think. It would be interesting to see how the me now would handle high school, I am sure it would be very different. Still given the chance I would not return, once was enough. However there is one thing from my high school times I am happy to relive or rewatch actually, My So-called Life. It was only on one season and that was much too short-lived. There has never been a show that more closely mirrored my life. No I didn't dye my hair "crimson glow", I wasn't brave enough to do that though I wish I had. But all her thoughts, her insights, her feelings about life it's like watching me in high school all over again. If you added the sarcasim of Mtv's Daria you would have a good idea of what I was like. And thanks to the joy of Netflix, I have been enjoying all the ups and downs of high school again, this time from a safe distance of more than a decade plus a husband and baby later! But I still think Jordon Catalano is a cutie!

Just a few quotes I loved then and still do:

Angela - "It just seems like, you agree to have a certain personality or something. For no reason. Just to make things easier for everyone. But when you think about it, I mean, how do you know it's even you?"

Angela - "Things were getting to me. Just how people are. How they always expect you to be a certain way, even your best friend. Like with boys, how they have it so easy. How you have to pretend... you don't notice them... noticing you. Like cheerleaders, can't people just cheer on their own, like, to themselves.

Rayanne - "I think part of him is partly interested in you. Definitely. I mean, he's got other things on his mind."

Angela - "But that's the part that's so unfair. I have nothing else on my mind. How come I have to be the one sitting aroundanalyzing him in like microscopic detail, and he gets to bethe one with other things on his mind."

Rickie - "That is deep."

Rickie - "Did you ever try to protect someone so much that it, like, hurt?"

Patty(mom) - "If Rayanne's not seeing you, and we're not seeing you, who is seeing you?"
Graham(dad) - "And how much of you?"
Angela - "Dad!"
Graham(dad) - "Oh, I'm sorry! I asked a question about your life, didn't I? Woah, what came over me?"

Jordon - "I have all these dreams where I know exactly what to say. Then you tell me... you know... that you forgive me."