Looking Back/ Looking Forward

2007 flew past me. It seems like 2006 was just yesterday and here it is the end of 2007. I started out the year on maternity leave with my new baby son. It was a happy time, but also a very stressful time. I had many goals for the year. Because I spent the first few months of the year on leave, I got comfortable with the free time I had and didn't really think about how I was going back to school and work soon. Some of my goals kinda flew out the door.

One of the main things I wanted to accomplish this past year was getting my money in order. I started out the year with virtually no savings and had stopped putting money into my stocks for quite a while. My goal was to have money in my saving account and have my stock purchasing program turned back on. This goal I accomplished. Not only have I gone from having $10 in my main savings account; I've managed to save over $400 since July of 2007. I turned my stock purchasing program back on and opened up another money market account with them. This one is great because the interest is just slightly higher than my main savings account and it's an account I don't look at. I have money going into it each month, along with money being put into and spread throughout my stocks. Because I don't stress over my stocks, I'm not touching the savings account. I go in and look every couple of months, but basically leave it alone. So my main savings account I can use for emergencies and the other account is for long term savings, and with that account I've managed to save a couple hundred dollars so far. All this with almost no extra money after each paycheck. It's amazing what you can accomplish when you pay yourself first. I never thought I could do it, "I don't make enough money" I thought; but I did it.

My other goals for the year included getting my apartment organized (haha...ha...haha)and losing the baby weight. I lost almost all the baby weight. I gained-I hate to say-about 60lbs. with Baby G. I've got about 10 or 15lbs. to go still but I've lost about 45lbs. this year. I'd say I did a pretty good job there. Now, getting the apartment organized kinda went to hell. It's actually worse now than it was at the beginning of last year. I don't know why I couldn't get it done. I only work full-time, am in school full-time, and have a baby; it should be no problem to clean out and organize an entire apartment all. by. myself. (can you feel the sarcasm seeping through?)

In 2008 I have some new goals.

1. To finish school (I'll be done at the end of May)

2. To quit smoking (which I will set out to accomplish after school)

3. To organize my apartment (which I will start after I am out of school as well)

4. To learn more about jewelry making and increase my skills. (This is ongoing)

I'm not planning to start anything until after I am done with school. School takes up so much of my free time most days that I've just stressed myself out trying to accomplish everything all at once. I may turn my apartment organization task into a blogging series here. Maybe that will help keep my momentum going once I get started, that is if I can bear to show the world my messiness.

Anyway, I hope that you all will have a wonderful New Year and are able to accomplish your goals this year. Let me know what they are so I can root for you!

Christmas Sickies

I finally have a day off; no work, no school. I get to spend it trying not to move as much as possible with a one year old (Thank you Seaseme Street). I am sick. It started with a sore throat on Christmas Eve and then went into full head cold. Wednesday morning I woke up in a pool of snot with snot still running from my nose like water. Today, it's moved into my chest. I haven't had my coffee yet because I'm trying to drink lots of water and juice. So now I have a headache too. Hopefully it will be mostly gone by tomorrow when I go back to work.

Christmas was nice. Baby G woke up around 6:30 am. We opened gifts shortly after and then laid around all day. I was sick and fell asleep on the couch in the mid afternoon and after I woke-up I offered to make dinner. Aaron is usually the cook so I figured, even tough I was sick, I'd give him the night off from cooking. We had roasted chicken breasts with yams, stuffing, and peas. I'll post some pictures later when I have the camera back. For now, I'm going back to doing nothing....

Merry Christmas!

Back on the Mulit-task Wagon

Aaron and I have this thing where every year for our birthdays we give each other Amazon.com gift certificates. His birthday is in November and mine was just a few days ago. So last night I went to Amazon knowing exactly what I was going to get, and I got it. The day before I had tried to get it, but they sold out while I was hemming and hawing over whether or not I wanted that particular one. I decided I did and *poof* it was gone. So last night when I went back...there it was again and only 5 left in stock. I quickly added it to my cart and paid for it. Now, it's on it's way. What is it I got? This:

Motorola H500 Bluetooth Headset

In Pink.

Most people hate these things, and out in public I do too. But I like to make phone calls from my home and I like to do things while I'm on the phone, like dishes or laundry. I also have a little one that I sometimes need both hands for, and my neck is not happy with me at the moment. This will be the perfect solution for my multi-tasking needs.

Favorite Words

Got another tag from SavvySuzy to post here. The rules for this one had me somewhat stumped so I'm doing my best here. The rules are as follows:

* what are your favourite words, and why?
* what does that tell us about you?
* write about it on your blog and invite other bloggers to write about it.
* link back to this blog (change therapy at www.moritherapy.org, and i’ll
gather the words and contributors in a list and publish it
* stumble your “favourite word” post (as long as they meet my stumble criteria, which shouldn’t be difficult with a post like this)

Without further ado here is a list of a few of my favorite words:

My Favorite Words

1.Vesuvius – I need to get this one out of the way first. This has always been one of my most favorite words. I know it’s a strange favorite word to have being that it’s a place name, but I have always loved just saying it; vuh-soo-vee-uh s.

2.Awesome – I had to add it as it’s a word I love saying apparently because I say it all. the. time. I also have not mentally matured since High School, ha! Dictionary.com defines Awesome as
1.inspiring awe: an awesome sight.
2.showing or characterized by awe.
3.Slang. very impressive: That new white convertible is totally awesome.
My use of the term ranks at number 3 in that list. Everything is very impressive to me.

3.Neurotic – I am neurotic and I like saying neu•rot•ic.

4.Wonderful – There are some words that describe good things that I like as well. Wonderful is a wonderful example of a word I say often that sounds nice.

5.Crafty – This is a word I have been saying a whole lot lately. I've always been crafty, but I’ve been on a particularly extreme crafty kick for the past couple years and being crafty, or saying crafty has become an everyday thing for me.

So, what do these words say about me? Vesuvius shows my interest in things far away and exotic sounding, Awesome shows my fun side, Neurotic lets you know that I am comfortable with my neurosis, Wonderful shows you that I can appreciate the good things in life, and crafty lets you know that I have a strong artistic side to me.

Hope that came out well. You who are reading this blog are hereby tagged. Let us know what your favorite words are and what they reveal about you.

Tag, I'm it!

I’ve been tagged for the Birthday Month Meme by SavvySuzy. Here are the instructions:

Twelve Months
1. Mention the person who tagged you and create a link back to them.
2. Copy-paste the traits for all the twelve months (for the complete list, see it here.)
3. Pick your month of birth.
4. Highlight the traits that apply to you.
5. Tag 12 people and let them know by visiting their blogs and leaving a comment for them.
6. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve done it!

I’ll be bending the rules a little bit on this one due to time constraints and computer death. Anyone who reads this post is hereby tagged.

So here is my December profile:

DECEMBER: Loyal and generous. Sexy. Patriotic. Active in games and interactions. Impatient and hasty. Ambitious. Influential in organizations. Fun to be with. Loves to socialize. Loves praises. Loves attention. Loves to be loved. Honest and trustworthy. Not pretending. Short tempered. Changing personality. Not egotistic. Take high pride in oneself. Hates restrictions. Loves to joke. Good sense of humor. Logical.

Usually my astro descriptions are fairly accurate and this one is no exception. I am usually generous and extremely loyal. I’m very active in games on the Playstation, GameCube, Computer, you name it. Love the RPG’s and I’m a D&D player from way back. I could also probably kick your butt at RISK, hehe. I am somewhat impatient, but not with other people, just myself, which makes me hasty. I think I’m fun to be with, at least I used to be before school and baby took over. I’m not very good at socializing actually, I can not small talk; I’m usually very quiet in groups of people I don’t know very well. Who doesn’t love to be loved? I am very honest and trustworthy. I’m usually honest to a fault. I sometimes get myself into trouble because I can not lie, especially on the spot, but the alternative trouble I would get into by lying would be worse. I hate pretending. I am very short tempered, but get over things just as quickly. I think I have a good sense of humor, though most people don’t get it.

Well, that was fun! I don’t have a baby picture to post because our computer died and all my pictures are on the hard drive that doesn’t have a home at the moment. I also don’t have the scanner hooked up to my laptop yet….

A Special Gift

Last year, in the wee hours of the morning on December 17, 2006 I went into labor. It was the day after my birthday. I knew that he would be coming soon and I thought I had worked out with him to wait until at least the 18th so that his big sister could be there when he was born. But he had other plans. The night of my birthday the nesting instinct hit hard and I had to have the apartment spotless. I was exhausted, but could not stop cleaning until everything was perfect. I even shined the mirrors. Around 9pm that night I declared the apartment perfect and went to bed. I couldn't sleep and decided to play on the computer for awhile. Aaron was supposed to be leaving around 7am to pick up Sara. I wanted Sara to be with me when her little brother was born. I wanted her to be a part of the experience. Around 5am I started feeling little cramping pains. I felt like maybe I was going into labor. I started timing the pains and they were definitely coming at a set time apart, but they didn't hurt, they were just like a little nudge to tell me something was going on. I told myself I was imagining it because I was worried about going into labor while Aaron was gone. He was suppose to leave at 7am and he would have been gone for 8 hours. At 6am I got back into bed. I hadn't really had any sleep yet, but my mind was racing and I just couldn't sleep. For the tenth time I told myself I was just panicking because Aaron was going to be leaving soon. Just before 6:30am my water broke, the doctor was called and we were on our way to the hospital to bring our son into the world. At 3:39pm on December 17th Baby G was born.



As a December baby myself I have always had to experience the "birthday/Christmas" gift all in one. Sometimes I was resentful because my sister's birthday is in August and she always got the separate gifts. I got over it as I got older and now it doesn't bother me so much.... All this to say that Baby G is the best Birthday/ Christmas gift I have ever received. He is such a happy baby. He has brought me so much joy, and I just can not believe how gosh darn lucky I am to have this beautiful, happy person in my life.



His first birthday is on Monday. I'm so busy right now I wanted to get this up while I had some free time. Tomorrow night, on my birthday, we will be having a party for him. For now here is a special slide show I put together celebrating his first year with us.

The Week From Hell

This past week was one of the worst I have had this year. I survived, but I'm exhausted. I am hoping that it was just a small blip in my life, forgotten in a few weeks. Here's a lovely bullet list recapping the highlights of my week.

* Monday: 2000 word paper is due. I have the day off of work after the manager meeting. I see I have 10 hours to complete the paper and get it turned in. Most of my research is done and I even have about 500 words complete; I've been working on it since Thursday. Baby G has other ideas; ideas like "let's not take a nap today," "let's run around a scream at the top of our lungs; just for fun," "let's get into to everything that Mommy didn't notice I could get into." 10 hours later Baby G is in bed and I'm am wiped out. The paper is only at about 600 words is due now and I see no way of getting it done, even late, because I will have no more free time until Thursday for homework. I'm frustrated and tired and I cry.

* Tuesday: I try to get some more of my paper done. Another sleepless night and no progress on my paper.

* Wednesday: I'm tired, have only had 6 hours of sleep since Sunday. My day at work is going okay until during the last hour I get the customer from hell. She brought in food from another restaurant (just so you know - don't bring food from a restaurant to eat in a bookstore's cafe Health codes apply there just like anywhere else.) She was told she couldn't have it in our store. She leaves her sodas from the other restaurant next to the trash can opening on the condiment bar. She leaves the store. She comes back to the store and now wants a discount on our products because someone threw away her sodas. Geez I wonder why they did that?! I try to tell her as nicely as possible that "no" she can't have a discount for bringing in food from another place and leaving by the trash and leaving. "My employee was doing their job and keeping the cafe clean." She's pissed I said no and calls the company's customer service hotline on me and the employee who threw away her sodas. I am so angry at people like her who act entitled and I am tired. I can't let it go and ruminate over it for two days.

* Thursday: Thursday is my one good day. I still haven't finished my paper, but at this point I'm thinking "screw it." I take the day for myself. Have fun with Baby G and get some cleaning done. I also manage to make a necklace.

* Friday: Everything seems to be going okay until late that night when I get a call from Aaron. Aaron is working on a major project that has a good possibility of generating income in the future. He's on the last page; almost finished, when the computer dies. Dead. The computer is dead. Luckily we have two hard drives, the one the computer boots from does not have his project on it. Currently he's trying to extract his project from the other hard drive. After I got home that night, I did a little homework (on my laptop which is not dead, thank you) and decided it was time to go to bed. This is around 12:30 in the morning. Baby G decided that he didn't want to be asleep any longer. SO, no bed for me just yet, or even until 4 in the morning; I have to be at work at 9 am. I have to get up by 6 am in order to get everyone out the door on time. I got a whole two hours of sleep.

Because I was sleep deprived I spent the entire week stressing over my paper and that stupid customer. I couldn't let it go. Which just made the small things seem that much more horrible. Looking at it from this perspective, it doesn't seem so bad. Sleep will be had at some point, and hopefully Aaron will be able to extract his project off of the hard drive. Also hopefully, I won't have to deal with another uber-entitled customer until next December when they seem to ooze out from under their rocks.

A Timely Email

This arrived in my inbox today. Just when I am at the end of my rope after a night spent crying because I spent 10 hours straight trying to work on an assignment that was due last night, but couldn't because I also had to chase a one year old around the house for those 10 hours. I still have not finished that assignment. I am frustrated. I am tired. I want so badly to just give up. But how stupid would that be? Ya, very. This was just the little reminder I needed today.

*****************


Dear NANCY:

As a working student, you may feel there's too much to do and not enough time—especially with the holidays coming. You're juggling your job, your friends, your family and your studies. Feeling overworked, over extended and overwhelmed, you may think of putting your education on hold or giving up on earning your degree altogether.

But stop and look back at your life. Haven't there been times when you thought "I can't do this!" But you persevered. You did what you thought you couldn't.

Now, picture that day—and believe it or not, it will be here before you know it—when you stroll confidently across that stage to receive your diploma. Imagine the incredible sense of pride you'll feel. And your friends and family, too!

Soon, you'll enjoy the University's regularly scheduled holiday break. But if at any time before or after that you feel you cannot complete another class, please give us a call. We can review options for arranging your class schedule to better meet your needs. Please keep in mind that any change in your schedule can impact your student loans. You'll want to talk with your academic representative before making any decisions.

Remember, everything worthwhile is worth working for. Earning your degree could be a milestone on your journey to living the life you deserve. In these days of seemingly too many commitments, I hope you'll keep an important commitment to yourself—the commitment you made to complete your degree and pursue your dreams.

I salute you on your hard work and decision to earn your degree. Above all, I look forward to seeing you on graduation day.

Opportunity to Muse

So my babysitter called this morning to say she was sick. I've got no other babysitting options so I had to call my boss. I seem to be on my boss's bad side lately so I was dreading this call. I told her what was going on and asked if I could come into work late. She said "okay" in that voice that just oozes irritation and hung up a little too fast. So, I'm home from work until Aaron gets home and can take over. I was scheduled on a late shift anyway so I'll only be 3 hours late. Oh well, I can see my review next year going down the toilet as I write this...ugh. At least I get to spend a few extra hours with this handsome mug:



and that just make it feel so much better.

It also gives me more time to contemplate how to stay home to work. See my post from this morning at Nancy Kay Creations? Can I do it? I don't know. I'm so random in my creativity. I'm going from one thing to the next so quickly that I really haven't mastered anything to the point that I feel it's good enough to charge people money for it. Or, am I being to hard on myself? What are my other options?

Thanksgiving, Late 11 Months, and Black Friday

Trying to get 3 posts in one here.
I'm late, yet again, getting Baby G's monthly post up. He's a little over 11 months now.

In just about 3 weeks and he'll be a whole year old. We've been really bad lately with getting pictures of him. I'm enjoying my time with him so much I just don't even think about grabbing the camera. He's developing into such a happy, sweet little boy. He's been walking for almost a month now. He's gone from a quick thrusting forward of his body to get where he wants to go before falling to running through the house waving his hands in the air and screaming "nah nah" which I think means no, which is something we've been having to say a lot lately. New foods this past month have included pasta, beef, and tofu.

Thanksgiving was fun. We went to my sister's early in the morning and had a huge breakfast, watched some movies; the blob (1958) and Hot Fuzz, had Hot Buttered Rum, and ate a huge, delicious Thanksgiving dinner. My daughter was able to make it for dinner before she had to jet off to another function.


Can you believe those are both my kids?

And my daughter and sister got crazee:


After dinner, Aaron, myself and one of my nieces played D&D. My niece had never played before and Aaron really wanted to teach her how to play. That was a blast. My character had an intelligence of 8 and a charisma of 14, I played up the Paris Hilton fighting goblins a little too well.

Today is Black Friday. Black as in retail stores going positive in cash flow for the year today, or for me and my fellow retail workers, Black as in a deep dark black hole of pain and agony. This time of year I would love to be able to remember the nice customers, the ones who are thankful for your help, the one's who understand that they like everyone else must wait their turn for help, that know that the person behind the customer service desk is human and can only handle so many questions at once, and that no matter how much you yell at me that you need something "right now" it's not going to make it happen; try ordering your gift early next year. I'd love to remember those nice people, but very few of them exist. I'm off to deal with the other people here shortly. I just keep repeating to myself "It's only a month...."

Irritation

Things that are irritating me right now:

1. The headers for my blogs won't stay up. I have to keep going into my layout and resaving them to get them to show up. I do not have time to do this every day Blogger people!..how can I get my headers to show up and stay up?!

2. I took a day off of work yesterday specifically because Baby G would be at the babysitters; so I could get some things done, like cleaning and baby proofing. I got absolutely nothing done yesterday, other than dishes and getting some foam on sharp corners. Why? Because we have too much crap in this house and there is absolutely no place to put any of it. I kept trying to go through things and would be like "okay I have no where to put this, um...no where to put this. Ya, no where to put this either." I can only go through and throw out stuff so many times. I've exhausted my stash of stuff...everything I now own, I need.

That's it, just needed to vent somewhere....Thank you very much!

Sharing

Okay, its the middle of the night, I'm exhausted beyond words, and I really want to sleep, but I can't; I have a short story to finish writing (so why am I posting on my blog? I don't have an answer for that). Because I am so tired, and because in the middle of the night I like to be spontaneous and crazy, I figured I'd go ahead and share one of the poems I wrote for class. It's a sonnet. Don't laugh. I haven't gotten my grade back or feedback on this yet, so I don't know how well, or unwell, I did. It's changed somewhat from the original, and I'm still not sure if I'm happy with it...but I put it out there regardless.

Love’s Fire
By Nancy

In the beginning love is red
The fires do burn hot
A chemical cocktail your brain is fed
Sweet and pure, it’s not

The honeymoon is over
Love’s fire does still burn true
Sweet and pure, love may now hover
A precipice looms new

Years go by and children come
The fire beings to die
To life we have succumb
In despair we heave a sigh

Love’s fire must be stoked
Or pain and loss provoked

OH MY GOD!

I am such a dumbass! I thought I was making changes to another blog, but didn't realize I was in the HTML editor for this blog. I just lost EVERYTHING! I've got this template until I can fix this and get my old blog back...ugh.

Update 8:33am: Found the old template. Now I just have to put everything back the way it was. Hopefully I can find, or remember, some of the code.

Update 9:10am: Slowly, but surely it's coming back together. I think I may have lost a few things for good though. I can find my back up of some things, so I will be trying to remember where I got stuff from and then seeing if I can find it again. Something doesn't seem right though. My blog doesn't feel as clean as it was. I don't know...maybe I'm just going crazy now or something...ugh.

Update 9:21am: I think I am done for now. I've got tons of other things to do today and my blog is back for the most part. I'll continue to work on it randomly until it's back the way I want it. Right now I want to get back to working on the other blog that I started to work on this morning. Thankfully I've had all this time in peace in quiet because Baby G has been napping.

It's Halloween

My favorite holiday of the year. What am I doing tonight?
1. Being a Momma.
2. Being a Momma.
3. Trying to write the last two lines of a sonnet I have to turn in to my learning team tonight.
4. Being a Momma.
5. More school work.
6. After Baby G goes to bed I'll celebrate Halloween in my own way by remembering lost loved ones, and thinking about the past year; all the great things it has brought into my life, and all the things I'd like to see next.

I hope everyone has a wonderful, fun, and safe Halloween, no matter how you celebrate it!

Scary Movies

Another meme. Love the memes, and this is another I found at Zoot's. She picked it up from Hollow Squirrel. This one follows the same guidelines as the book meme.

Bold those you’ve seen.
Italicize movies you have started but couldn’t finish.
Add an asterisk* to those you have watched more than once.
Underline those on your To Watch list.

* The Shining - Saw this years ago, scared me to death, though I don't know if it would scare me as much now.
* The Exorcist - When the Exorcist finally made it's television premiere, my parents had the cable shut off because they were going out for dinner and didn't want my sister and I to see it. I didn't see it until years later. Ya, it was scary, but I don't know if it would still scare me now.
* The Texas Chainsaw Massacre - Couldn't finish this. I'm not great with gore.
* The Silence of the Lambs* - Loved this movie. Not scary really, more of a keep you on the edge of your seat thriller.
* JAWS* - I had recurring nightmares of sharks when I was 5. When I finally saw this movie, it scared the crap out of me.
* Halloween - Never saw the whole thing.
* Psycho* - One of my all time favorite movies (love Hitchcock. Not really scary now, but when I saw it as a kid, I didn't take a shower again for a loooong time. (I did take baths though...ewe.)
* Seven - Yes, very scary...eeek.
* Rosemary’s Baby* - Scary when I saw it, not so much now.
* Poltergeist* - Still scare the begeebus out of me.
* A Nightmare on Elm Street* -Scary when I first saw it, not so much now.
* Friday the 13th - Never saw the whole thing.
* The Thing - Great scary movie.
* The Evil Dead - I know I've seen bits and pieces (no pun intended).
* Carrie* - The end of this movie scared me more than anything.
* Night of the Living Dead - Zombie movies don't really scare me, they just gross me out.
* The Omen* - Scary
* An American Werewolf in London - Never saw the whole thing
* Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer - Haven't seen it yet.
* The Hitcher - Have only seen parts of it.
* Lost Highway - I think I netflixed this last year, but never watched it.
* The Blair Witch Project - I'm one of the few people (maybe the only person in the world) who never saw it.
* Pet Cemetery - The book was much better.
* Saw - Never saw it; don't intend to. I just don't like gore.
* The Ring - Scared the living crap out of me. One of the scariest movies I've ever seen.
* Scream* - Not scary, very silly.

One movie I am surprised is not on this list: The Amityville Horror (the original, not the new one). That movie scared me so badly when I saw it, I had to stay the night with my friend because I didn't want to be alone; I kept having visions of the walls bleeding.

10 Months

This is about two weeks late, but wanted to get it up before the end of this month. Baby G has grown extraordinarily over the past month in every way.
He's gained another pound and a another inch or two in height. He's learned to imitate and can clap and hold conversations.


He still loves his time at the park, what baby wouldn't. The swing is his favorite.



The big thing this past month is his new ability to walk by himself.



Just another month and a half and he'll be celebrating his first birthday. Time goes by so quickly.

Baby G is Walking!

Baby G decided to start walking on his own today. I don't have the video uploaded yet, but as soon as I do, you can bet I'll be posting it. I'm so happy, and excited, and a little sorry to see the "baby" start to go away.

New Look

So, what do you think? I wanted something a little less "colorful" without getting rid of the color; does that make sense? I wanted a little bit of a cleaner look, and didn't have a lot of time to create the graphics of my dreams. I think I like this though and will maybe stick with it awhile. Less work for me and I don't have to freak out at the end of the month because I don't have a new header ready. I have a couple new posts I'm working on and still need to get things going over at Nancy Kay Creations.

So Much

Lots going on now. Tuesday my new class started; Creative Writing. I've always wanted to take a creative writing class, I could sure use the help in learning to write better, and I needed to take some electives to finish up my degree, so I decided to finally take the plunge. It should be interesting and I hope that I will be able to share some writing here.

I joined a book club. JennyH., Princess of Quite a Lot, started a book club after she participated in the book meme. We are reading A Confederacy of Dunces, which is by the way, quite funny so far. She's calling for more people to join...head on over and check it out.

I'm working on a completely new look for my blog. I'm tired of the clutter and need something new. So keep your eye here for something new soon. I've got my other blog, Nancy Kay Creations to work on as well. I need to post more projects over there and give it a new look as well.

Baby G (who's full name I almost typed out, eeek.I don't know why I won't use his full name. I'd love to share it as its a very cool name with an interesting story behind it. Maybe one day.) turned 10 months yesterday. I don't have pictures loaded yet, so I'll get to that post later.

Right now, I need to get working on all this stuff I have to do....

Book Meme

I was over at Miss Zoot's this morning and saw this book meme. She had gotten it from Average Jane. I just had to do this too. I'm a bookseller (for almost 9 years now!) and have a great love of books and reading them. I have spent the majority of my life reading. I spent most of my childhood locked in my room reading. I'm interested to see how I stack up here.

Bold those you’ve read.
Italicize books you have started but couldn’t finish.
Add an asterisk* to those you have read more than once.
Underline those on your To Be Read list.


Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi: A Novel
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick
Ulysses
Madame Bovary
The Odyssey
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre
A Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the Fates of Human Societies
War and Peace
Vanity Fair
The Time Traveller’s Wife
The Iliad
Emma
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway
Great Expectations
American Gods
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
The Canterbury Tales
The Historian
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Love in the Time of Cholera
Brave New World
The Fountainhead
Foucault’s Pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
A Clockwork Orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King
The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible
1984
Angels & Demons
The Inferno
The Satanic Verses
Sense and Sensibility
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Mansfield Park
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
To the Lighthouse
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Oliver Twist
Gulliver’s Travels
Les Misérables
The Corrections
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Dune
The Prince
The Sound and the Fury
Angela’s Ashes
The God of Small Things
A People’s History of the United States: 1492-Present
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere (does it count if I saw the BBC miniseries?)
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-Five
The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
The Catcher in the Rye
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
The Aeneid
Watership Down
Gravity’s Rainbow
The Hobbit
In Cold Blood
White Teeth
Treasure Island
David Copperfield
The Three Musketeers

(After going through the list I can see that I read the majority of these when I was a child.)

Moo, Baa, La La La

A few days ago Baby G started really using his sounds; Ma, ba, ra, and combinations of the three. A couple days ago I picked up a couple more books for him. One of them is Sandra Boynton's Moo, Baa, La La La. He liked the book immediately. Last night before bed I picked it up to read to him. I showed him the cover and read the title to him "Moo, Baa, La La La!" He giggled, so I did it again and he went into a full belly laugh.
This morning after his first nap, he was a little bit cranky and I just said "Moo, Baa, La La La!" He laughed and laughed, so I did it again, and agian he laughed and laughed. It's just the cutest thing, at least to his MaMa. I grabbed my cell phone and got a video of it to send to his Daddy at work. I figured, why not post it here too. Baby laughs always make me feel good. Enjoy.

Something Fun

Grayson is trying to take a nap(read: Mommy says it's nap time, go to sleep), and I am just bumming around the net trying to put off all the things I need to be doing because I am tired and worn out. I just wanna play, and sometimes you just have to play. So I stumble across this:

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Her Excellency Nancy the Sanguine of Much Madness upon Avon Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

I think it's a great title.

Nancy Kay Creations

I wasn't sure when to post this. I'm hoping that I don't jinx myself by posting this now. You all know how often I come in here apologizing for not posting for soooooo long. How will I ever keep up? I just decided, "what the heck!" I've created a new blog that showcases my creative endeavors. I make jewelry, knit, take pictures, paint, and many other things, but I'm not an expert in anything and sometimes feel that what I create just isn't good enough. I need to get over that big time!. But regardless of my expertise, or non expertise, I love to create. So here it is Nancy Kay Creations. I hope that this will be a way for me to put myself out there, to take a leap outside my comfort zone a little and share a part of myself that I get really self-conscience about. Maybe it will lead to my sharing more here. Who knows? I hope that you will enjoy it.

No Sleep For You!

I'm working on so many projects right now and am really excited. Here's a sneak peak:



How did I know that would be the answer to my question. Ha! It's after 12 am I need to get to bed, but I'm working on a project. The creative process takes precedence once again.

Ch Ch Changes

For the past two days I've been running around like a chicken with it's head cut off. We got a notice on Sunday that our apartment managers and maintenance would be doing walk-throughs this week. We are slated for today. Considering the state of mess that my apartment is in, I about had a heart attack. After work for the past two days I've just been cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. Everything is "clean", but I still have so much clutter, and it's going to take a lot of time to get rid of it all. I feel like all I've been doing lately is chucking things. Just this past two weeks I've gotten rid of two large boxes of books, 4 large bags of clothes and a small bag of junk that was just sitting around.

On the blogging front, I've been working on trying to come up with some new colors here for fall. The color theme may change from time to time until I come up with something I really like, which of course I will find right before December when I'll want to change it again, ha.
Also, I've been working on getting my very old website, rhowan.com, back up and running. I found a new host, and hopefully by the end of this week, or next, I'll have it up and running again. The website is very 1.0, maybe even an earlier version, but it's like my baby. I spent five years working very hard on it; hand coding the pages for a couple of years, and making my own graphics. I'm excited to get it going again.

Still in school. School is kicking my butt right now, I keep falling behind. I'm getting great grades, but the perfectionist in me is not happy with some of the work I turn in because it isn't always my best. Most of the time I am turning my papers in late, but I'm still getting A's. And now that I've said that I'll end up failing my current course, right? Ugh! I'm so looking forward to April and my last class.

I think that's it for now. I'd love to say that I will try to get in here more often to update, but every time I say that I end up waiting longer and longer to post. So, ttfn. I'll be back when I can.

9 Months

Another month has almost passed since I last posted. Baby G turned 9 months last week.



He's been growing so fast. He's 24lbs. and 29 and 1/2 inches tall; in the 90th percentile. He has two teeth now and is starting to take baby steps. He's gotten pretty good at standing up on his own.

Now that he's a little older he's enjoying time at the park. He loves the swing.



Yesterday, Aaron wanted to take him to the park, but realized that he no longer had any hats that fit. It's still really sunny here, and hot. So he stopped by the store on his way. Everyone is out of summer clearance items so he had to choose something else. He had a choice between the Spiderman stocking cap and the Skull and Cross-Bones.



I think he picked well.

My Year of Books

*WARNING* This post does not include any information about babies.

There are some series of books that I have been reading over the past few years; The Harry Potter series, Terry Brooks' Shannara series (of which I have only read the first book and a new book in the series), Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series (I can not recommend this series enough), and the Looking Glass Wars series by Frank Beddor. I have eagerly awaited the next book in each of these series for what seems like forever. Well, this year is my lucky year. Every one of these authors came out with the next book in their series this year. So far I have read the last Harry Potter book, and Jasper Fforde's First Among Sequels. I'm now reading Seeing Red by Frank Beddor and am eagerly anticipating the Elves of Cintra by Terry Brooks. I highly recommend all of these authors, but if I had to chose one series of books among all the others that I would recommend most, it would be the Thursday Next series. Trying to describe the books is difficult. One of my coworkers finally took my advice and picked up the first book in the series, The Eyre Affair; she was hooked and went through the entire series in less than a month (there are 5 books in the series). If you are looking for something new and different to read The Eyre Affair is your book. Check out Jasper Fforde's websiteand see for yourself what fantastic craziness his books are all about.

8 Months and Ranting

I'm a few days late with this post. I guess that's better than last month where I missed almost the whole month. I've been feeling really overwhelmed - I just can't seem to get it together. I keep trying out different ways of organizing my time, and nothing seems to be working. Aaron and I get absolutely no time together unless I skip homework, which hasn't been good for my grades. How do people do it? I know there are other people out there that are working full-time, raising kids and going to school. Am I being to hard on myself thinking that everyone else is doing it better than me? I continue to plug away at my responsibilities everyday hoping not to crack in the process and also hoping that everything will be worth it in the end. On to the fun stuff....



This little guy is growing so fast. In my last post I mentioned his tooth coming through, well it tricked us. It decided not to show up after all. But yesterday? Yesterday it finally cut through. He has a very sharp little tooth poking through his gums now and the tooth next to it is looking like it wants to join its neighbor.
Baby G isn't walking yet, but his cruising ability is growing. He can get pretty much anywhere in the apartment that he wants to now, so we've got the living room sectioned off and barricaded so he doesn't wander where he isn't supposed to be if we turn our head for a second. He is fast.



He is eating 3 meals a day now. We started him on just lunch when he first started solids, due to our scheduling that worked out best. Then when we added another meal a day, we added dinner. Now, he's ready for three meals a day so we added breakfast last week. He is enjoying the new food options; he had oatmeal, yogurt and peaches for breakfast today. We have yet to get him started on meat. We tried egg yolk (hard boiled) a couple weeks ago and that did not go over well, so we'll try again soon. The other big change for him was finally moving to the big people bath tub. We tried transferring him to the big bath tub a while ago, but he was just too scared so we kept giving him baths in the little tub. Baths in a baby tub with a baby that weighs at least 22lbs. are difficult to say the least. He seems okay in the big bathtub now, he doesn't cry now and he likes to play with his toys there. I think that's it for now. I'll be back when I can. I have a post I wanted to put up soon about books so hopefully I can get that up very soon. Baby G is napping now so I must try to get some homework done.

Updates

I have no schoolwork due, Baby G is sleeping, and I've finally gotten my pictures uploaded to Flickr. Wooo! I realized today that I missed Baby G's 7 month posting. Let's see;

Crawling - check!
Cruising - check!
Into everything - check!
Whining all day - check!
First tooth finally deciding to make it's appearance - check!

Baby G is one busy boy, and momma is one tired momma.





He's a beautiful boy though, and I am so happy to have him; it's worth the tiredness to see his beautiful smile everyday.

Our trip to Seattle was short, but fun. We went for a friends wedding and then hit the Sci-Fi museum, the Experience Music Project, and the Flight Museum. The Flight Museum was pretty cool. I admit, I thought I would be bored; Aaron is the plane/ jet enthusiast, and I figured we'd spend an hour looking at planes and leave. We spent 5 hours looking at some cool planes. The highlight for me was getting to go on the Concorde and Air Force One.

I'm closer to finishing school. All of my core classes are done, I'm just left with a science requirement and some electives, and I'm done. It's been really hard, especially since Baby G is not sleeping well lately. There have been days that I've started falling asleep at work. and the apartment is just horrendous. I wish I could afford a housekeeper, even just one day a week.

I finished Harry Potter 7. I cried. I didn't expect that. I'm a fan, but geez. I balled my head off during a couple of sections and then when I finished the last page.

If I can think of anything else, I'll pop back in. For now, I need to get a few things done while Baby G sleeps.
I don't have time now for better editing. I'll come back in and add links later.

Harry Potter

How can I, as a bookseller, go without at least one post about Harry Potter this week. I am a Harry Potter fan, I've read all the books, seen all the movies, and am excited about the release of the last book. We are gearing up at work for the big release at midnight Friday night/ Saturday morning. I'm kinda bummed that I don't even get to be at the party that night. I'm only working until 8pm and then I have to be home to take care of Baby G and be back at work the next morning. Right now, I'm supposed to be making snitches to hide around the store (one of our many activities for the party night), but it's not going well so far. I tried spray painting a Styrofoam ball, but as you can see above it just melted the Styrofoam. I've got tons of homework to do and a house to clean. The house cleaning I would normally wait on since I've got other stuff going on, but someone is coming over tonight to get a blood sample from Aaron for his life insurance application. The house is messy enough right now that I would be embarrassed to let anyone see it.
So, right now I really need to figure out how to make balls of Styrofoam with feathers attached to them look like snitches.

I Swear I Haven't Abandoned My Blog

I just realized it's been almost a month since I last posted. Life has just kept me super busy and I haven't really felt like doing anything other than sleeping with my limited free time. I'm on an upswing again and hope to get in here more often. I may just have to schedule in blog time - like I do with my homework. We got back from Seattle this week and Baby G will be 7 months old next week; so I have tons to post about. I'll try to get back in here soon. I also need to update my header...though I wonder if it's worth it since the month is half over, ugh.

6 Months

Baby G is 6 months old today. He's growing so quickly! This past couple of weeks he has been practicing his crawling, and he's getting better at it, but still not quite there. He's got his leg movements down, but still hasn't figured out how to move his arms forward yet. The rolling over is now not a problem for him; we wondered if he would ever roll over, now he won't stop. He's gotten really good at getting himself around the living room. He's also waking up in the middle of the night on his hands and knees.



Baby G is a bundle of energy. Most of the time he is so happy, but sometimes lately he has become quite the whiner. The poor thing has a tooth coming through and he is fussy a lot.

He's made tons of progress with solids. He's now eating avocados, pears, sweet potatoes, sweet peas, carrots, peaches, apples, and bananas. Tomorrow he'll try prunes. That should be fun. He's gone from regularly drinking 40oz. of formula a day to about 30. With that change and the constant exercise he should start thinning out soon. The boy is huge, 22lbs. and has moved out of his infant car seat and into the big boy convertible car seat. I wish I had more pictures to post, but we've all been so busy that most of our free time is spent trying to catch up on sleep.

We'll he's whining right now, so I need to go play with him...and I've got to go to work...ugh.

Still Alive

Yes, I'm still alive - just barely. Things are still hectic and crazy and life is "full" (a positive spin). My daughter has finally taken our advice and decided to move here. Yippie! So we are trying to figure out the logistics of that to make it work out for everyone. We can't move in to a two bedroom apartment just yet, so three adults and a baby in a one bedroom is going to be quite fun, ha. Tonight we are going to see a financial planner (for free) to help us look at stuff and figure out how best to save money we don't have. Sometime this weekend I'll be getting Baby G's six month update posted. Wow, 6 months already! Right now I've got an apartment to clean and homework to do and a baby to watch. Just wanted to get in here and say "I'm still alive!"

Rockin and Rollin

Ha! I got the June header up right on time. I was determined not to forget after forgetting last month's header for almost two weeks.
Time is flying and so much is going on. I'm still struggling through work/school/life; trying to juggle it all. My daughter should be here tomorrow (yay!) and Baby G is developing so quickly.
Baby G spends his Wednesdays with another baby (another Baby G) who is 3 months older than he is. So he is watching the things this other Baby G can do and wanting to do them as well. Yesterday we saw him try to get up in a crawling position for the first time; the other Baby G is crawling and I can only imagine my Baby G watching this and thinking "I wanna do that too!" So he's lifting his butt up now and trying to rock back and forth and is moving himself backwards a lot. It's so darn cute!
We got our new cell phones in the mail today. LG CU400s So far we like them a lot. Nice big key pad for my clumsy fingers and they take video so we can show of video of Baby G when we are out and about.
Work has been major sucky and stressful. I wish I could go into more detail, but I can't. Home life is really stressful too so life in general is, well...stressful.
What I'm looking forward to is our trip to Seattle in July for a friends wedding. I haven't been to Seattle since 1992. I went up there looking for a job and to set up life there at one time. It didn't pan out, but I ended up in San Francisco, so that was okay by me. I did like it up there, except for the weather; it rained every day I was there, for over a month.
I should be in bed sleeping right now. Baby G will be up in just a few short hours. I have so much to do tomorrow, ugh!
I'll be back to update again, soon I hope.

P.S.
The pictures in the header were taken in San Francisco (duh) in July of 2005. A typical summer day in SF. We played tourist that day and hung out at Pier 39 and took the ferry ride around the Bay, under the Golden Gate and by Alcatraz. Tons of fun doing things you normally wouldn't do living in the area.

Blessed Quietness

I'm just home from work, Baby G is at Grandma's, Aaron is at work. I'm at my laptop doing homework (technically I'm posting here and not doing homework, but Word is open and I have an outline for my paper written), the apartment is wonderfully quiet! Ahhhhhh! That was a happy sigh. I have been so stressed out trying to juggle everything. 40 hours a week at work that are all over the place - 7 to 330pm one day 11 to 730pm another day and 230 to 11pm on another day and it's different from day to day and week to week (I so need a 9 to 5 job), a baby (need I say more), school (ditto), and a fiance that needs some attention sometimes. I feel pulled all over the place with no time for myself. Hobbies? What are those? Aaron and I have our work schedules set up so that there is a very small amount of time that we need care for Baby G and so that we are working on the days that we can get care for him. This means that we are working opposite shifts and have opposite days off. We have pretty much no time together, which is not great for a relationship, especially one where there are new roles that need to be established after bringing another person into the relationship who needs all of our attention. I'm trying to hang in there with school because I am so close to being done. I have less than 30 credits left, some of those will be wiped out with some exams, and then I will finally have my bachelors degree. I don't want to give up on that. I need to prove to myself and others who think I can't do it,or am not worth it, that I am worth it and can do it. I'll be the first person in my immediate family to get a degree higher than an AA. It's taken a long time for me to figure out that I am worth the good stuff in life. If I can just hang in there for the rest of this year, I will have some free time again. I will have free time, I will have free time, I will have free time.
Anyway, I'm so happy to have this quiet time right now....

5 Months

Baby G is 5 months old today! Time is flying and he is growing so fast!



He's eating solid food now. So far he eats rice cereal, barley cereal, avocado, banana, and carrots, yum.

He giggles a lot. He still screams all. the. time.

He has finally started to roll over from his tummy to back.

He loves his feet.



Daycare is still somewhat of an issue. Most places we've called have not called back or are full, or do not have a schedule that meets our crazy retail scheduling needs. He spends Wednesdays with a friend and her baby. He loves babies! He is very social and just loves to interact with others. He can also sit by himself and play quietly for a short period of time, which is great when Mommy needs to get homework done.

Baby G is still so precious and full of joy. I feel so blessed to have such a happy baby!

Cinco de Mayo Pedicures

So, last Saturday, the 5th, Aaron and I both had the time off to visit my sister. She only lives about an hour and a half away, but we usually have to time visits for when Aaron and I are both off of work because I don't drive. Anyway, we went to spend time with my Sis and nieces and celebrate Cinco de Mayo. How do you say "a great excuse to drink tequila and eat lots of cheese" without being offensive? I drank Mikes Hard Lemonade and ate lots of chips. Anyway, I was admiring my sister's pedicure. She exclaimed "A ha! I've been trying to figure out what to get you for Mother's Day. This is perfect! Wanna get one? Now?" Exclamation points were included. My sister is awesome!

So off we went to get pedicures. I wasn't expecting this; I wasn't prepared. I hadn't shaved my legs in about a month. I was mortified, so totally embarrassed. I've been through worse enbarrasment though, so I just tried to relax and enjoy the experience while trying really hard not to feel sorry for the girl that was rubbing down my hairy lower leg. It was my first professional pedicure, and I loved it. The results are beautiful:



Thanks Sis, for one of the best Mother's Day gifts ever!

Oh Jeez!

Just visiting my blog here to see who has stopped by and noticed that my header still says April 2007! Today is May 10th! Guess I better get busy. I have to be at work at 11am and I have homework due today that I haven't finished. I have like 2 or 3 posts that I have been wanting to get up as well. At least I got some sleep last night. As soon as Baby G's eyes closed, I went to sleep myself and got a full 8 hours. So nice.

[Update: Finally got the May header up today, 5/11/07. Better late than never I guess.]

More Tummy Time Blues and Being a Slacker

We are still battling through the Tummy Time Blues. This is one very happy baby I have, but tummy time brings out the raging, fussy beast. I can't really blame him though, I hate being on my tummy too.








That toy is one of his favorites. I call it Mr. Flashy. It looks like a Zebra that dropped a little too much acid back in the day. But, Baby G loves it. Yesterday, before I took the above pictures, Baby G finally rolled over. He's been fairly advanced in almost everything else, but that rolling over from tummy to back has been a hard one for him. I got out the camera in hopes he would do it again, no such luck, all I got was more screaming. So we'll try again this morning after he wakes up and has his morning bottle.

Right now, I'm supposed to be writing a paper for class, I have one due every week. I got up early just for that purpose; to have quiet time to write while Baby G sleeps, but instead I'm here...bad Nancy.

What was nice about this week was that I had our new sitter come by a couple days this week to watch Baby G so I could get things done around the house. That is the epitome of indulgence for me right now. I got my laundry room and kitchen spic and span, got dishes done, got clothes folded and put away, and was able to vacuum. My apartment is livable again, *sigh*.

And Baby G is waking up now....

Seven Years

On April 22nd, Aaron and I celebrated seven years together. For our anniversary date we got a sitter and went out to dinner. It was a very short dinner because Baby G was having a really bad time due to having tried oatmeal that day and it wasn't agreeing with his system. So we came home a little early. But I got to have a strawberry margarita after not having had any alcohol for a whole year!
This past Saturday we had our traditional celebration in which we relive a fabulous day we had very early in our relationship. On that day seven years ago, we decided to go up to Mt. Tamalpias.We had a great time walking the trail around the mountain



and seeing the view of the Bay Area.



We walked more trails and I ended up with a really bad sunburn because I am always to lazy to cover up my extremely fair skin with lotion, blah. Anyway, when it was time to head back home, only around 2 in the afternoon, we left; but Aaron took a wrong turn and we ended up on a very long, but beautiful, road trip through redwoods. We ended up in Fairfax. Neither of us, with our long history in the Bay Area, had ever been there. We fell in love with it right away. It's a nice small town with small family owned businesses; a very artsy atmosphere. This is the home of Anne Lamott and according to Wikipedia, also Van Morrison, Frank Herbert, and Dian Fossey.
Well, by now we are starving. We've been walking all day and haven't had anything to eat. Nothing is open. We spied a pizza restaurant and noticed that we had an hour before they opened. So we got a newspaper and a soda and sat down on a bench and watched the residents and goings on. Once the restaurant opened we ate and then headed out to find the freeway exit and head home. It was a great day, one of the best I've ever had. I love getting lost and finding new things and this time has become a memory that Aaron and I treasure. So every couple of years we go relive it. We did this again this past Saturday. I look forward to doing it again with him in a another year or so, and continuing for years to come.

I Haven't Fallen Off the Face of the Earth...Yet

Ya, I've been super busy. This week I've been working odd shifts and I'm supposed to be writing a strategic analysis for class. For my team project due next week, I have to do a SWOTt.

Baby G is making huge leaps in his development. He is now sitting up on his own, and can look around at his environment while keeping his balance.


He's also eating solid food now. So far just the rice cereal. He didn't take well to the oatmeal.


We have lucked out in the short term for child care. We have a friend who's between jobs who will be watching him until she finds a new job. Aaron starts back to work on Tuesday.

I miss my blog and my wonderful readers and new friends terribly. I hope I can get in here more often. I also miss doing a craft post every week. Once things get situated, I hope to get back into all of this. Thank you for visiting and for your patience.

4 Months

Baby G is 4 months old today.



He's been working hard this past month. He's trying to pick up everything he sees.



He loves standing up and walking around the apartment with us.



He goes out a lot. He loves going on car trips.
Mostly he goes to the store or Post Office with Dad, or visits Mom in the Bookstore, but he's also been to Japan Town in San Francisco and he's been to the park.




He's been eager to use his hands to hold everything he can get them on.



Recently he started holding his bottle by himself. We don't let him do it too often, otherwise he'd never get any food.





Today he had his 4 month check-up and received another set of shots. We also got the okay from the pediatrician to start solids. We will probably start him on them tonight.
He's learning and growing so fast. This morning he started to sit up on his own, and has recently been trying really hard to get his feet into his mouth. Mommy and Daddy are super proud.