Top Ten

I chose not to participate when all of the blogs I read, or were created at the time, did a 101 in 1001. Basically 101 goals to accomplish in 1001 days, or about 2 years, 9 months. It's been three years since then, and bloggers are updating where they are on their lists, and what has evolved in their lives since then. Turns out you can't predict life and the honey-do list was the only consistent.

I would like to bandwagon.

Only I don't want to meet the requirements. I just want to make a list of TEN things. I don't need to write down that I want to go on vacation, or that I need to clean my house on a regular basis. I will choose to do those/ not do those as they come. And I will go on vacation whether or not it's on the list, as budget allows.

So here's the list I'm working on:
1. Get my degree. (I feel like this needs all caps, but I should be screaming at me, not you.)
2. Re-evaluate the family situation after completion of goal #1
3. Completely paint the inside of my house and be happy with the decor
4. Have a successful garden established
5. Hm... make a list (haha)

So the list is things that I are consistently on my radar, and obvs I don't beed this list to get them done. However the time-marker is nice. Also, I would LOVE to be able to check anything off, and know that my life is in motion.

So, about that...

Apparently I have the attention span of a gnat. Huh, imagine that.

The biggest thing going on in my life right now is that I got accepted to St Edwards University. WooHoo!!! It took me forever to get there because I would get anxiety about going to a "real" school after the community college. In all fairness, I blew off a lot of classes at ACC during my ups and downs, so I didn't even know if I could get in to a for-real accredited university. With Kevin's encouragement, I met with a counselor and really felt like St Ed's was right for me. They have an amazing program that fits my needs and availability perfectly. Plus it seems like the antithesis of preppy-party-college schools, *score*. My coworkers pushed me to get my essay done, and whaddya know, three weeks later I got my acceptance letter. After I turned 21, I never thought I'd seen one of those.

So, maybe I'll remember to update this blog again sometime about how it's going. :)

Day at the Park

Last Sat (2/6/10) Kevin and Aaron wanted to to go a dirt bike track they'r recently heard about- Hidden Falls Adventure Park. Since Christopher was planning on staying the night, I asked Kevin to throw my mountain bike and Aaron's smaller bike into the truck with their dirt bikes.

K&A headed off to the trails.

Christopher and I took off and road around the park for a few hours. I didn't take any pictures during the ride, (:()but we went through some deep water, up some pretty steep hills and had a good ride all-around.

At one point we stopped to hang out at a waterfall.

And of course we had to take a picture together...

I think Christopher had a blast. At the end of the day, his white t-shirt was no linger white. That's okay, though. He told me "Mom won't care as long as I told her I had fun". =D

:::sigh:::

What a week. We moved last weekend (as in December 11-12th). It was a crazy weekend with lots of help and little sleep. Since then I have been "recovering" while unpacking, decorating for Christmas and finishing the actual shopping.
This past weekend I was finally able to unpack a few boxes. Our bedroom furniture was delivered Sat afternoon so I started with those boxes. As I was emptying my nightstand box I found a gift certificate from my mom with her handwriting on the front. I lost it. Full-on sobbing. There was nothing I could do to control myself so I just stood there, crying. Kevin came in and was just there for me. I'm so thankful for him. It wasn't until a few hours later that I realized it was 12/19- the anniversary of losing my mother. I don't know if I knew subconsciously, or it was all of the stress from moving/ Christmas, or probably both, but my goodness I needed that self-indulgence. I felt sad but somewhat refreshed and ready to move forward. Everytime I see that gift certificate, I think about taking it in to see if they will accept it, seven years later, but I love to just have it, in the envelope with her handwriting, and know how much it meant to her to give me that as a gift. It goes along with the old-school popcorn popper and gravy boat I will never get rid of, right sisters? ;)
I am thankful for my husband and my sisters- all of them. We will all be okay. I think. Mom is the constant reminder of how important family is and that we stick together even when we don't like each other because according to mom, "someday we will".
Merry Christmas, Mom.

A story of meltdown

I have become such a control freak that I no longer handle change well. I can't remember if I talked about it previously on here, but I think growing up my life was so damn out of control that as an adult I hold very tightly to my routines and rituals. Either that or I was born with it and no amount of therapy will help.

Every Friday for the past 4-5 years I have stopped at Starbucks and gotten the same drink and same food in the morning on the way to work. If I didn't work Friday, I would go Thursday. About a year ago they opened a new Starbucks that is on my route to work. Yay! So I started going there and ordering the same drink and food.

Now that we have Aaron every other week and he's going to Bowie, I have to drive out of my way to take him to school and then figure out the coffee route. This morning I tried something new: I went to a new Starbucks. I drove up and there were probably 12+ cars in line for the drive-thru. After finding a parking space and walking back to the store, the whole patio was covered with soccer moms dressed in workout clothes. (They were only kidding themselves; they just didn't want to get dressed this morning.) Going inside, there were at least 20 high school students waiting in line for drinks. The girls in their skinny jeans, Ugg boots and horizontal-stripe long sleeve t-shirts and the boys wearing jeans and Aero/ Aber t's. I didn't even get fully inside the store. I decided I couldn't handle this much change at once. Not only was it a new store, but it was a whole different group of people, very different than the mellow Oak Hill Starbucks with a few people inside reading the paper and chatting and the standard 4-5 cars in the drive through, or the S Lamar store with the perpetual Pop-A-Lock guys hanging out outside and the weird laptop dude that only people-watches.

So I did what any other not-sane person would do: I backtracked halfway home to go to my Oak Hill Starbucks. I added about 20 minutes to my commute, but that's okay, this is worth it. Then lo-and-behold, there were two new people behind the counter. Any other Friday that may not have been huge, but I was still trying to recover from my anxiety of the last 20 minutes and I almost wanted to cry. Almost. I kinda tried to tell the new guy what happened (kinda) and it didn't really make sense, so I ordered my usual fare and went over to wait by the bar. Then I saw the girl who usually takes my order smile and wave, so it was maybe not so bad. My Starbucks had not been completely invaded by newpeople.

I got my fare and left.

I think I need therapy because this is pretty much not-okay.

Bouyancy

I have been noticing more and more that my attitude and responses are negative. I bitch about more things than I appreciate, and my sarcastic comments aren't always well-received. I think negative responses have become a habitual thing. More and more I am okay with not-nice comments and thoughts. Not that the world needs to be popsicles and butterflies, but there's really no reason to be a cow all the time. Nobody really likes that person.
Appreciate the life I've been given and bring others up instead of down.
I went to lunch today with some friends and we were talking about this very issue. S brought up an article in the New York Times that mentioned that bad habits spread at least two steps. If I'm grumpy, it makes her grumpy and then her fiance grumpy. The same goes with social behaviors- drinking, smoking, weight gain, whatever. (of course it's true- it was in the Times!)
I don't know if it's been me or Kevin, but we both have been progressively pessimistic lately, especially about the new house.
I think it's time to start a new trend. I have some friends that are extremely nice, thoughtful and aside from an occasional funny comment, very positive. I am going to take a cue and make some changes. I don't think there's a need to lecture Kevin. If the article is right, it should be contagious, right? We'll see how it all goes.

Randomness

• I cannot focus as well with my hair down- it has to be pulled up, even if there is nothing but a binder clip to keep it there. Same with watching a movie.
• I eat everything seperately. A hamburger and then fries, a vegetable and then the meat. I eat all of the cucumbers out of a salad, then the broccolli and so on until just the lettuce is left and then I eat that. If I'm feeling adventurous I'll mix it up.
• Speaking of food, I almost always leave a small portion on my plate when I'm done. Most of the time it's just a bite or so. I didn't notice this until my stepmom pointed it out and said my dad does the same thing.
• I drink the exact same coffee from Starbucks every Friday. Any other day of the week I get my alternate and I very rarely cross the two.
• For some reason I'm obsessed with getting a degree. But when I talk to school counselors I get anxiety and walk away again.
• Kevin and I split everything. We drink out of the same glass at home and always share a plate when we eat out. Habit, I guess.

That's all for now- I'm sure I'll update later.

Updates

Here we go...

We sold our house- WooHoo! We are now renters, at least for the next five months. We haven't met the buyer yet as she was unable to make the closing, but she seems like a very kind person that will really appreciate the work we have done to our home. It was written into the contract before closing that we would lease-back for 5 months for a really great price while we figured out our next step.

Next step...

Remember this house? Or at least I posted a similar one awhile back. They created this plan after we requested a shrunken version of the bigger plan. Our options include culinary kitchen, 3rd car garage, study, flex doors, newport shower. We had picked the floorplan, options, and lot, signed the contract and put $ down. Things fell through and we walked away. The week before we closed on selling the current house, we decided to drive through the subdivision. Lo and behold, they were building our house, with our specs on our lot, and were halfway done. We made an offer and negotiated the next day. They did a stop-work so we could make changes, but the rock colors had already been chosen. I took this the day we signed:


Since then, they've rocked and stuccoed. I need to get a newer picture.

We made a few changes, and now the're getting ready to start the sheetrock. Kevin and I go to the design center Thursday to pick out the finishes. Here's hoping it goes well and we can stay in our price bracket. : /

Also, Aaron started high school yesterday, and he's going to Bowie. Yay!!! He's excited to finally be in high school. He signed up for Ag so that he could take the mechanics classes. I hope he has a lot of fun and really enjoys high school, while keeping up his grades. Next week is the open house where we'll get to meet his teachers. We'll see how that goes...

Kevin went back to school as well. I'm glad he's working towards something, but at the same time anxious to wrap up my degree. I wouldn't be surprised if we got them at the same time.

As far as the grill goes, I have even more ridiculous gear now. With the latest gold additions we're getting pretty blingy. I'm looking at the beginning of next year to get them off. God I can't wait.

Wordless Wednesday

(no, believe it or not, that isn't Daisy)

What are you gonna do?

I try not to put an "compromising" pics out on the internets- you know the kind that sneak up and bite you in the ass when you really don't need it. But I need to come to terms with the fact that I'm not a politician, never will be, and really, these aren't so bad... (at least the ones I'm posting). So here's a few pics from back in the day:

I love you, Kristi!