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?