Winter Break for me

I was away from work from December 20th through January 1st.  I thought today would be really hard, but it really hasn't been.  Highlights with pictures...because everybody loves a multi-picture post, right?  Amiright?

This may not have been during break, but it cracks me up.  Lyka stole "his" spot and he didn't know what to do with himself.

Pajama pants were made after my only 2 pairs of pajama pants died.  I salvaged the waistband, pocket, and cuffs off of both pairs, but a strange size difference kept me from adding the cuffs to this one.

I was able to put the cuffs on this pair.  Oddly enough, I wasn't feeling this pair as much and it took me longer to get motivated to finish them.  It was like they were not playing nice with me.

So, of course, they split the day after I make them.  They are currently in my "think" pile.  Angrily.

Completely unrelated, this is Lyka's "worried" face.  She is the most sensitive dog on the planet.  You can see how Phaux is affected by things.

"Worried about what?"

I don't mean to end this abruptly, but...well...that's it!  More pictures to come! Office project in separate post.

Picture Explosion!

Thank goodness I'm a photo-taking-fiend or else I would not know what I have done in the past few weeks!  Or maybe I would, but it wouldn't be as entertaining.  My world:

New bath towels and hand towels happened sometime in November.

Memories of the sickness...round 2 for this season.

Barefoot in mid-November...no big deal...

Someone has the middle initial pi.  SO JEALOUS.

One of my brilliant ideas.  Works like a charm!  (And it's festive...double win.)

Pink garbage truck!

Tackled these bad boys on the 1st of December!  But now they're back...le sigh.

Okay, I guess those were mums behind the garage.

December has been and will be pretty wild.  This is just my work calendar.  (Family/friends birthdays not listed...)

Pie my coworkers and I won for winning the Halloween Costume Contest.  It was pretty good!

Same coworkers plus more decided to decorate for a decoration contest.  These are "post-it" sized squares that we taped to our windows.  I designed the Kwanzaa candles, penguin, and dreidel.  And I actually put up most of the penguin and half of the dreidel.  Festive to the max!

Oops, I lied...NOW it's festive to the max!  My "ugly/tacky Christmas sweater" submission.  It lost.  :-(  Ah well, I still got lots of remarks on it and showed it off around campus as our company broke into groups and did a campus-wide scavenger hunt....which my group won!!!!!  (Yay, $5 Starbucks gift card!)  PS, I sewed this after designing it.  I literally searched Google for visual ideas after thinking that this is what I wanted to do and I found zero.  None.  That is very rare for Google.  I think this was a true original!

Alright!  Seeing as the costume thing just happened today, I think I'm caught up!  See you next time!

10 positives about my current situation

1) PERFECT PRE-HOLIDAY DIET.
2) Opportunity to sleep all day (Stomach Monster willing).
3) 30 minutes of cuddly puppies...then they revert. 
4) SAVING SERIOUS $$$$ due to lack of eating and/or going anywhere.
5) Hygiene is considered a luxury.
6) Saving the planet by lowering water and electric usage (dishwasher, washing machine, stove, etc....though, I will note that the now overuse of some bathroom devices [appliances?] may lower my planet-savingnesscity…let's skip the fancinesses...the toilet and sink faucet should call OSHA on me...)
7) I'm available to call 911 if anyone in the neighborhood needs it (and shouts loud enough for me to hear).
8) I'm able to do about 1 chore per day during an "upswing."  Give me 3 weeks and this house will shine!  And gleam!  And other clean/sparkly words!
9) I get my work e-mail on my phone so I can still respond to those non-overly-important e-mails and probably make my coworkers feel that I'm just skipping out on the day before a holiday.  Nearly the whole week, really.  But, I assure you -- I'm not.  Don't ask me to prove it.
10) The "Bazinga!" moment I have when I start feeling worse later in the day and I had thought about going to work earlier.  I was right, Self!  I win again!

A Collection of Photo Stories

This is poo.  It landed right in my line of sight as I was driving to work last Tuesday.  This was one day after a bird pooped on my arm as I drove my car through a drive-thru.  Wednesday was a very uneasy day, but it was uneventful.

Salad WIN.

Wet, yet happy dog.

Wet, yet not so happy dog.

Potluck at work!  I was the only one that put a sign on my dish...kinda awkward, but it went over well!

This classy mom cut me off in traffic, so I got to enjoy her car art. Right above "Tahoe", is a pink magnet that used to say Suck Feisures....but she corrected that.  You can't read the magnet to the left of her plate, but it says something about being a smart mom.  Her 4 children (and either one of them is dead or a 5th is dead) must be so proud!  I am not a mom, but I can assure you that my children would not be allowed anywhere in or NEAR this tackymobile.

These precious children were standing in the middle of our yard playing their Gameboys (or whatever the new hot thing is right now...I have no idea...) when I got home from work.  They watched me pull into my garage, shut my car off, and come talk to them.  "You guys waiting on someone to come pick you up?"  "No."  ...  .... "So, you're just not going home yet?"  "Umm...uh...*mumbling*" ... "Well, okay then."  I shut the garage door, let the dogs outside and check on them several times.  They stayed in the yard playing their games for about 5 more minutes before the started to leave, as pictured.  Kids need their parents' phone numbers sewn into their shirts.  I definitely could have used a complaint line.  Who raises kids to do this!??!

Thought Soup

I'm going to coin that...anyway, I would like to share my soup with you:

I'm thinking about not voting for President.  I do not like either candidate for the major parties and I don't think our state allows us to vote for any other than them (BTW, there are more than 2 people running...look it up.  You can start here to get the names.  I haven't actually looked up what their platforms are, so I may not even vote for one of them even if they were on the ballot...ha). 

I just found out that my upcoming sleep study costs over $4000 without insurance.  That sure took the sting out of the $250 that I will have to pay (my deductible, apparently).

I need to find a way to make more money.  I want to be chipping away more at our debt.

I wish thinking about losing weight didn't make me hungry(ier).  Husband wants to try Insanity, but I was told that you basically need to be in P90X shape to even start Insanity.  Awesome.  And diets...I have never been on one and don't want to.  I've seen how they fail and I know they would fail for me, too.  I want to focus on portion control and eating the right amount at the right time of day, not cutting certain food/drinks out of my life completely.  I like salad, but to make your own you have to buy so much stuff and I am unable to eat it all quickly enough before it goes bad.

I would kind of like to start walking our neighborhood, but I don't feel like that's a safe idea.  I feel like our neighborhood is safe, but then I remember it's Tulsa and bad stuff can happen even in good neighborhoods.

Pretty sure we have a dead squirrel in the attic.  It smells like it, at least.  It's so bad.  I'd love to go get it out of there so it stops smelling, but Jon thinks (and probably rightfully so) that opening the door to the attic will just release the smell into the garage and into the house directly.  I wish I knew how long the smell will last.  It might be worth 2 days of gut-wrenching gross as opposed to 3 weeks of musty, light spray of death.  Sorry.  I hope you aren't reading this over lunch.

Where do adults meet friends?  I don't feel like I have many in town and I don't really know where to meet people without being weird.  I had lots of friends in college, then they all moved away (and I guess I did, too).  I like talking to them and keeping up, but sometimes I just want someone to go to dinner with me.  Coworkers are always weird because you spend all day with them, so you probably don't really want to hang out with them at night.  I feel alienated because I don't have kids, so all of my friends with kids have different schedules and needs than I do.  And I have the dogs, so I'm not exactly living fancy free either.  And while I have Jon, we work very different hours than each other, so "double dates" or whatever aren't really an option, either.  PLEASE NOTE that I do NOT wish I wasn't married, didn't have our dogs, or that my friends were single and/or without children.  I don't want our family to be an island - I would like to be in a chain of islands.  :^)

Speaking of children - we still aren't ready for them.  I had thought it was because we didn't feel financial secure enough for them (and I still feel this way), but I was recently told that kids don't really change anything.  If you had $20 left in your bank before, you'll have $20 left in your bank after.  And though we haven't had children, we have felt this effect in our lives already, too.  The more money you make, the more you spend.  This simple statement made me realize that it's not just the money part keeping us from having kids right now.  We both just don't want them right now.  And maybe it turns out that we don't have kids.  I think I might be okay with that.  Disclaimer #2:  These are all "mights" and "maybes" right now.  Apparently these are strong words, so don't take it that we are saying we will absolutely never ever ever have kids....that's not what I'm saying.  Do know that we are not attempting to multiply anytime soon, though.  I think everyone knows that, though, and that's not the tear-inducing statement...we won't go there unless we decide for 100% sure.

Mmmm...that was some good soup, wasn't it?  All gone!

Snapshots of Our Busy Lives

Where I spend 8 hours each day.

Some sort of storm tracking truck

Phaux was humiliated by a bird.

Sylvester the Cat's head fell off.

My birthday at OU! (Cat card not pictured)

My birthday at Saied's!  (Another cat card, oddly enough...)

Children playing near the street at midnight at Jack in the Box.

Danielle's birthday!  Her favorite color is purple, by the way!

My car clock is lazy now...telling me 'bout what time it is.

One of these is mine.  $0 if you guess which one.

Siegi's "medium-sized" beer

Lamborghini in Tulsa...shut your mouth!

That crazy Astoria - half bobcat/half regular cat

Danielle has mad baking skills and was still badmouthing this cake....(Koo Koo!)

Phaux LOVES his new toy.

Sleeping with one eye open...

Dad gave us a loveseat...more seating!  Whoa!

New TV stand.  It's much prettier in person....and in better light....

T.HANKS for checking out the blog!

I'm not gonna apologize for not blogging all that often.  I'm living my life!

Imperfection

I hate that I continually fail at life, but all I can do is keep trying.  I often re-evaluate my life and see what changes need to happen.  That part is easy.  The actual change is the hard part.  I got a strange motivation that I wasn't looking for this morning at work.  On an evaluation, a trainer asked his class, "What will you do with the time you have been given?"  Most evaluation responses are job focused and rather short, so the sheer length of this one in particular caught my eye.  Then I read it: "I will help others, be the best husband and father I can be, and also have faith in my Lord.  I will learn from my struggles and others, and I will encourage myself and others to pray every day.  Learning my purpose is still ongoing, but I'm willing to take this time I have and listen, understand, and help."  I'm not the only person in the world that keeps failing and having to regroup.  Thank goodness.  I was so wrapped up in failing that I forgot what the "solution" would be - perfection.  If only I never screwed up again...that would be cool.  I needed a reminder today that I'm just human - wasn't sure if anybody else needed that reminder, too, so here it is, just in case.

Setting smaller, more attainable goals is my new goal.

The End of Procrastination (until next time)

Too much stuff is happening; I've got to put it on here or the list will just keep growing!

So, on a Sunday somewhere back there in January (Fine, I looked it up...the 29th), Jon and I went on a slight spending spree:

We didn't actually buy this, but look how huge this chair is!!

Dyson.  Guilty...bought this.  It was on sale though and our old vaccuum stopped working.  So, there.

Also guilty of buying this crazily cheaply priced 55" TV.  Seriously - it was priced crazy low.  I believe also on sale.  Don't look at me like that.

By the way, Thomas and Shelby gave their couch to us somewhere back there, too...forgot about that...

Okay, so there are the incriminating pictures.  I must tell the vaccuum and TV stories, though.  But quickly...Jon and I went shopping for normal household things after trying out a hibachi grill that's new to town (It was pretty cool, by the way) and we ran across this huge TV in Target (71st & HWY 169).  We decided to go home and check it out on the Internet before we made such a huge decision.  We decided it would probably be a good buy.  We want to price check though, so we go to Best Buy (71st & HWY 169).  This is where I met the Dyson.  Since it was $100 off regular price (and everybody knows their reputation), we decided to get it.  Seems they are out of this model, though.  Oh, and the store closes in 30 minutes.  We get word that there is one available at the 71st and HWY 75 store across town and run to the car.  We get there with 10 minutes to buy the vaccuum and make it happen.  There just so happens to be a Target across the way over there.  We go in there to see if we can get the TV.  The very "attentive" electronics person, when only asked directly for help, told me that they were out.  I then asked if he could check the system and see if one is available nearby.  He says all of Tulsa is sold out.  I then told him about the one near HWY 169, he checks his computer, and tells me it is out, too.  I had a feeling it was still there.  So, we zoom over there and, wow, look at that, there it is.  +1 Tabitha.  Somehow, Jon, a Target employee, and maybe even Jesus got this beast in the trunk of the Mazda (Thank GOODNESS we switched out the Mini when we went home earlier....) and we got it home.  Thanks to our neighbor/friend/landlord, it got setup and it was watching movies that very night.  To spare you another story, it nearly took an act of congress (Not capitalized on purpose...) to get the silly thing to receive local channels, but after a week, that got resolved and here we are!  (And this was the story that starting all my procrastination!  SO glad it's finally typed out now!!!) 

Alright, now to backtrack a little.  A few events and circumstances led to me resolving to look for another job other than Saied's.  I won't go into details, but I made a pact with myself that I would constantly be on the lookout.  I found a job on the OU website on January 8th and applied, feeling pretty good about the job.  I felt I was very qualified and could easily do the job.  If memory serves, I got a call on January 24th from them wanting to set up an interview.  I went in for said interview on January 26th and left not knowing how it went or how I felt about it all.  It was the first interview I had since my Saied interview.  They said they would let me know by February 3rd if I got the job or not.  On January 31st, one of my old bosses called to say that they got a call checking references.  The next day, my coworker told me the same and I also got offered the job later that day.  The pay and benefits are significantly higher.  The hours are better.  The opportunity to work up within the company is much more likely.  Other than leaving a job I have come to dominate, and leaving a family that I have shared blood, tears, and laughter with for nearly 2.5 years, I had no other reason to say no.  And so, I didn't.  My last scheduled day at Saied's was February 10th and wow was that last week a difficult one.  It was pretty funny how much stuff came my way that week, yet it was still very hard to say goodbye.  And I guess in a way I haven't yet.  I still plan to be there at key points in the upcoming months and I will probably cover my former coworker when she leaves the country for 6 weeks. 

My OU (In affiliation with The College of Continuing Education) job at the National Resource Center For Youth Services (NRCYS) in the Runaway and Homeless Youth Training and Technical Assistance (RHYTTAC) area [Gonna be honest - it's painful explaining exactly where I work and what I do] started yesterday, February 13th, and in some weird way God knew to schedule a snow storm for the night before and all I was thinking about was if my old job was covered (I had a huge hand in the school closing process) and how I would make it to my new job in time.  I e-mailed my old boss an updated manual about how to close the school.  On the morning of the 13th, I was ready to walk out the door at 7:30, fully aware that the news was saying that OU-Tulsa opened at 10am (I wasn't sure if that included my new job or not and the only contact info I had was work numbers/e-mails).  I got an e-mail right before I left saying not to come in until 10am.  So, partial snow day on my first day....RAD.  I took that time to put together my valentines for my Saied people and went to Saied South to surprise Karrah and Kim.  They weren't in.  I left my treats with Lance and ventured to Saied Midtown to drop off more of my treats to a couple of my friends.  After meeting with my best friend from the other sto', MMYT, I left for OU.  I killed some time in the parking lot and then headed up a little early.  Most of the day was filled with orientation stuff and me learning things here and there.  I felt like a broken leg to my supervisor (and I guess in some respect to the company) because I could sense the urgency of my department to reform, but I didn't have the knowledge to really help out.  So, yesterday was frustrating and today was only a little less so.  That and I had "freezing fog" to worry about on my morning commute today.  Yikes, Mother Nature.  I just want to figure out when I can leave in the morning, on a NORMAL day and how long it takes to get to OU from here....it that SO much to ask????  Any way, this is all normal and par for the course, so I've just got to push hard and make it happen.  The environment, even with the sense of urgency abounding, is not nearly as stress-inducing as Saied's was for me.  Removing the walk-in customers has really taken a huge weight off my shoulders that I wasn't really aware was so large for me.  And I haven't had any nightmares or even really thought about OU after leaving work each day.  I don't really remember when those started with Saied's, but I don't think I will have that here.  And my goodness is that nice.  I think this will be a good fit for me.  BOOMER SOONER.  :^)  >>>Last minute add-in:  I asked my supervisor what my hiring process looked like and she said that they don't know how many people applied because OU gets first look before sending them to NRCYS, but they interviewed 4 people for my position (2 people had a language barrier situation...) and one wasn't as personable as they would have liked.  They also were technically interviewing for 2 positions, but they didn't fill the other one yet because there weren't 2 candidates that they liked.  They also liked that I didn't have my Master's Degree because they felt someone with their Master's would just be in the position for a limited time before moving to the next big thing for them.  I understand where they are coming from there, but in a weird way it felt kind of insulting to me....haha.  Basically, I wasn't just the best in the batch so they picked me, they actually felt I would be a good fit.  For some reason this knowledge is important to me and I've always been a bit bummed that I didn't know my Saied hiring story.  I tried asking my boss once or twice, but the story changed and I didn't really know what questions I wanted answered.  Anywho...I just wanted to throw that out there to be documented for all time also.

Oh, and finally, I was washing dishes earlier and I made a tone on a wine glass!!!!  I've never been able to do that and I totally did it by accident earlier!  It made my day.  :^D

Happy Valentine's/Phauxentine's Day!  (We swooped in and got Phaux 3 years ago today!)

Wow, that's a lot of stuff.  I'll never procrastinate ever again!  .....  (hehe)

Actually, let me throw these pictures in and that will make my slate clean!!!!

Phaux during "the standoff" a few days ago.  Ask for details, if you wish....

Lyka watching a program about raccoons, enriching her mind.

Where I make my new magic happen...for now.  (Will move sometime...probably....maybe)