New Year, New Things

It's January 1 which means it's a new year.  I'm glad 2013 is over.  It wasn't a bad year.  Not at all.  But it is nice to start fresh.  I will turn 30 this year.  I have been scared of turning 30 for some time, but as I get closer I am getting more excited.  I hear your 30s are the best decade of your life.  So cheers to that!

I went to a church dance last night to ring in the new year. I haven't been to a dance in like...3+ years.  It was good.  I showed up at 11:15 pm and left just after midnight.  That is about all I can take of dances these days.  haha.  I then went to a "waffle party" that a girl in my ward was having at her parent's house.  Something like 45 people showed up.  I think her dad was having more fun making waffles than anything else that was going on.  Awesome!  I checked out at 2am and headed home to sleep.  It had been a long day of flights and traveling.  It was nice to sleep in my own bed again.

2014 is going to start off with a bang.  Somehow I have managed to squeeze a 4th family into my babysitting cycle.  It's already sort of stressing me out to shuffle this many people around. But I'll manage.  My job at work is changing a little bit.  My company decided about a year ago to off shore some of our workload to India (something I don't really agree with, but they didn't ask me.  Rude!).  My new job will be a "supervisor" over a team of 8-ish people in India.  I will monitor their work, audit them, answer questions, etc.  They will still have what's called a "team lead" at their office in India that will do other managerial type things like making sure they are at work on time, approving days off, etc.  My new position will be a nice change of pace from the usual.  So that is nice.  Hopefully the next step will be a "real" manager at my company.  We will see.  I will also start my Painting Training at the end of the month, and I am excited about that.

I haven't officially made any new years resolutions, but I plan to as some point.  This year it is probably going to have to be a little different from years past.  The next 4+ months are going to be jam packed.  I'm sort of exhausted just thinking about it.

Christmas was good this year.  I got to spend some time with my new baby niece, Madeline Noelle, who was less than a week old when I saw her for the first time.  She is amazing and has that intoxicating baby smell that I love.  She and I spent a lot of time snuggling and I loved it.

 Yeah, I do!

I got a Roomba for Christmas from my mom.  Do you know what a "Roomba" is?  Well, if you don't it's the little vacuum that goes on it's own.  You just push the button on top and off it goes!  Haha!  I love it.  Apparently you can program it to pop off it's port at certain times to vacuum whether you are home or not.  i.e. you could set it to vacuum every Friday at 3 pm.  Awesome!

Here is a video for your viewing pleasure.  (This is neither my cat, nor my Roomba, nor a video I took, but you get the idea.  Also upon further inspection of the instructions it says you are not to allow anything to "ride" on top of it.  hahaha)

I also got a new shower curtain for Christmas (which I haven't hung yet).  The old one, that I made got ruined when I tried to wash it.  Oops!  I guess it was time to retire it.  Sorry Amy and Nicole.  That means the blue fabric decorations that you made for me no longer match in my bathroom.

I also got a new phone.  It is shiny and perfect.  I love it!  Thanks Mom!  I got lots of other fabulous gifts that deserve mention, but you would be bored if i did that, so I will refrain.

Also, it was sad to say goodbye, but I had to let go of the "AL-SHAG."  It was a rug I made at Nicole's apartment in Lafayette on July 14, 2007.  (Happy Birthday Amy, haha)  It was made out of place mats that I sewed together.  It has been through many apartments with me, but sadly it is faded and stained and it needed to go.  RIP Al-Shag.  RIP.  Note: Nicole made that tag.  I looked much better before it was so beat up.

And some more pictures, just because:

The Colts jersey I made for Madeline

 The painting I did for my brother. Hinkle Fieldhouse (the basketball stadium at Butler)

 Lucy, my parents dog.  She is wild.  And when I say wild, I mean, she is completely out of control.  But still cute!

 Note: I call her Lucy Lou or Lucy Goo.  She loves me!

 This is pretty much what we did all week at my brother's.  That's what vacations are for though, right?

 My mom and Juno both asleep.

And then of course Juno sleeping in the most comfortable positions. Haha...Dogs!

This is the baby's nursery.  Adorable, right?  You know you love it!

And that's it for now.  Happy New Year!

The Longest Post Ever. You're Welcome.

I have been in a poopy mood lately.  I can't say that I am out of my funk yet, but I have, at least, reached a point where I am acknowledging my mood.  This is something, I suppose.  It all started like 2...maybe 3, weeks ago.  I think my life just got to be too much and then everything fell apart.  Remember this post? I talked about when I have too many balls in the air I get tired and for whatever reason I don't just put one ball down and juggle with less balls, but I just quit and drop everything.  Well, that's what happened a few weeks ago.

I don't want to bore you with the depressing details of my life, nor ruin any Christmas cheer you may be feeling this season.  Instead I will tell you about the fun and happy things that I have done or seen in the last few months that I never got around to posting about.

First, the following are paintings I have done since October.  The first is acrylic paint.  The rest are oil, except the last one which is watercolor.  (My first ever watercolor.)

As it turns out, I can paint.  And pretty well, I might add.

I might be bragging.  I don't care.

Second, I am taking a training class in February to become a painting instructor, which is pretty much the most awesome thing ever!!  I am excited, and nervous, and terrified, and pretty sure I will fail miserably at it all in front of lots of people. I've decided I don't really care.  Fail or not, here I come.

Third, I am going to be an aunt any day now.  I can't wait!!! I keep my phone by me every second these days and you can expect me to flood your Facebook with the news when he/she decides to come.

Fourth, this is my team at work in our costumes at Halloween.  lol  We were minions and my manager was pretty much the perfect Gru.

Good stuff!

Fifth, on my painting trip I learned from a professional how to build a legit sandcastle.  His full time job is to teach people how to build sandcastles.  True story.  He was really awesome.

This is the process.

Build a rocky bottom so excess water can soak down in it.

 Next you build the bottoms with really really wet sand, and pat the top to get out all the air bubbles.

 You pull the buckets off and you get this.

 Then you make "pancakes" to build up your tops, including arches

 Continue to make pancakes

 Then you begin sculpting,

 making doors, and windows, and stairs, and cobblestone, and bricks...etc

Pretty legit, right?

Sixth, (are you still counting with me?) I made onesies for my baby niece/nephew.  Check out this cuteness!

Brace yourself.

Shut your face with that duck!! haha

Seventh, my dentist sent me a pie at work.  Yeah.  A pie.  So weird, right? 

Yeah, I thought so too.  But I guess they were doing some customer appreciation thing and delivering a pie a week to people at work.  

As a side note, she might have picked me out on purpose.  I have certainly given her a lot of my money lately.  *sigh*

Eighth, my parents got a DOG!!! If you know my parents you know why this is worth 3 exclamation points!!!  Her name is Lucy and she is a French Pug.  My mom got her for free.  Their cat, Sam, is not pleased...to say the least.  He tried a hunger strike.  That lasted for 4 days.  Then he tried to run away.  That lasted like a day.  Then he tried hissing a clawing at the dog.  That one hasn't gone away completely but he will now sleep in the same room as the dog as long as she doesn't get too far on his side of the room.  It's a work in progress, I suppose.  If Sam could do any real damage I am sure there would have been a mass homicide at my parents house on about day 2.  

With my brother's dog, Juno.  They're already besties.

Ninth, I finished the NaNo this year and also my book.  I will probably write a separate post about that.  But yay for finishing my book!

Tenth, I went to the Community Nativity held at church this past weekend.  It was amazing.  Oh and there was a real baby at the "Live Nativity."  A one week old baby.  I wanted to snatch "baby Jesus" up and take (her) home.  I am told that is frowned upon in most parts of the world.  

Whatever.

The lady at the bottom, taking a picture, has her hand in the way of "baby Jesus", but there was the sweetest little baby laying oh so quietly, looking around and cooing sometimes.  *sigh* Adorable.

I guess 10 is enough things.  

I certainly have enough blessing in my life to be in a much better mood.  I'll work on it, alright?! Geez. You are so pushy. 

My Thought Process

You know how sometimes you start out thinking about something and then 5 seconds later you realize you are thinking about something completely off topic.  Like, you went from A to Z in 5 seconds and you have no idea how you even got to thinking about whatever thing is rolling around in your head now.

Sometimes, when I am bored I like to go back and try to figure out my thought process and how I got from here to there.

Today was one of those times.

To preface the story: Today I decided to do my hair curly (or wavy as it typically ends up).  When I looked in the mirror I was trying to figure out what kind of curls my hair had...and if I liked them.

Here was my process:

1) My hair is curly today
2) They look pretty good (I'm looking in the mirror)
3) What kind of curls are these?
4)They aren't tight curls.
5) I wouldn't even call this curly hair actually.
6) It's kind of like when girls have wavy hair in the summer.
7) What do they call that look?
8) Beach curls?
9) Beach waves?
10) Beach hair?
11) Hmmm...beach hair.  Is that the name?
12)Why does that phrase sound familiar?
13) Maybe just from the type of hair.
14) No.  That's not it.
15) What is that phrase??

And then it hit me!

(Check out these videos)
BEACH HAIR!
And more Beach Hair!

And then I busted out laughing.  All of those thoughts happened in probably 5 seconds and then I laughed at myself in the mirror at work for a good minute or two.

The Dark Knight

Dear Kit,
We have been friends for some time now.  I felt like we had a good relationship.  I had your oil changed regularly and your filters replaced.  I even had your brakes cleaned after you decided to jam a rock in them and not work right.  But never mind that.  Clearly you were listening when I told people that I was going to pay you off this year.  And I still plan to, next month, I hope.  And clearly you are not happy about that for some reason.  But let's try to work this out like adults.  Really, I know we can.

I know I pushed you a lot when we first got together, but you were young and wild and I thought we made amends for that.  And I know I drove you all over the freakin' country last month, but really you missed those long rides together.

I just don't think it is nice the way you are acting right now.  What can I do to make things better?  I would like to not have to pay the mechanic hundreds of dollars to rip apart your face and retrieve the CD you sucked in and won't give back now.  And it's really not funny that I have bought 3 auxiliary cords now because I just thought they kept breaking when really you just refuse to switch over to aux.  What do you have against my iPhone?

Really.  Lets talk about it.

Sincerely,
Your owner

P.S.  I had no plans of trading you in when I paid you off, if that's what this is all about.  But if I have to take you in to the dealer, I might just go home with someone else.  Think it over!

I Live in Texas

Shocking, I know!

(P.S. if this is new information to you...then we clearly haven't talked in a while.  lol)

I have been a resident of the great state of Texas for over four years now.  I like it, but I sort of feel like it's just like any other place.  I am sure there are Texans dying in streets as I type that "Texas is just like any other place."  They would probably argue that there is no better place in the world.  Yes, "the world."    But really Texans aren't that dramatic most of the time, and neither is the Lone Star state itself.

Most of the time I just live in a city much like any other city of 100,000 people.  There are restaurants and movie theaters and a library.  Outside of the smorgasbord of businesses, apartment buildings, and neighborhoods, the landscape is nothing special.  Not particularly hilly, or flat for that matter.  Neither overly green or solely brown.  It just is what it is.  A city.  And only once every few weeks or months do I see a person dressed up in a full getup of cowboy boots, jeans, plaid shirt, and cowboy hat.  I think only once since I have lived here did I have a conversation with anyone (who was dead serious I might add) about Texas succeeding from the rest of the country.  I also don't see all that many trucks with gun racks and a gun hanging there as they tool through town.  When I talk to people, they talk much like I do.  I hardly detect an accent, and when I do, I notice that most other people notice it too because it is out of the ordinary.

And maybe that is because I live in a city and not in the country.

And then eeeeeeeeevery now and then I get reminded that I do in fact live in Texas.  The gun-shooting, Jesus-loving, truck-driving, Levi-wearing, Republican-voting state of Texas.

It was announced the other day in church that there would be a "gun shooting" activity in our ward.  We were told "bring your guns 'cause we're goin' shootin'."  It was just for target practice out on someone's property.  It was the first time it occurred to me that I might be in the minority when it comes to gun ownership in my ward.

Then there was the time I went to church with someone (non-LDS) and everyone wore Levi's to church.  Not jeans, but Levi's.  Now that doesn't mean that everyone wore Levi brand jeans, it just means they had on denim.  And denim to these particular people is ALWAYS called "Levi's."

There is also the fact that it is November 11th and I used the air conditioning in my car today.  Yep, sure did.

Or there are the moments when I am stopped at a light behind a truck and it says "Texas Edition" under the model name.  What does that even mean?  I mean, what about Texas means that this truck needs to be different?  I have yet to understand this one.

Also, if there is a flag pole with an American flag anywhere, you can bet your life there will be a Texas flag flying right next to it.  I have yet to see an exception to this.  True story.

Anyways.  I live in Texas and as it turns out, it is just like any other place.  :)