I Heart Weekends :)

Friday - 9:45 AM
Since I have off on Fridays, my weekend begins now! My favorite part of weekends in general, and Fridays in particular, is getting to catch up on all the sleep I’ve missed throughout the week.

Today I wake up to discover that one of the actors in the Vacation Bible School dramas I’m directing needs a ride to rehearsal later that afternoon; since I only have room in my car for two people, and Maggie will be riding with me, I call another actor to see if he can give him a ride. He can – problem solved!

Friday mornings are my time to do little tasks and relax. I wander around downstairs greeting my family, then I put away my clean laundry, write emails, make my bed, and generally tidy my room. I think about breakfast but lack the motivation to fix anything real so instead I snack on low-point things from my fridge – nonfat string cheese, blueberries, etc. I go to brush my teeth and take a minute to spray the upstairs bathroom with cleaner to make it easier to deep-clean later.

I also get my first “Good morning!” text from my best friend, Robin, who lives in Alabama. We make sure to keep in touch via text and phone call throughout the day – it makes us feel more connected even though we’re hundreds of miles apart! We text back and forth for a while about our plans for the day.

I realize I’m free tonight and text another friend to set up a dinner date – we’ve been meaning to get together to reconnect for weeks but this is the first time both of us have had free time! We plan a meet-up for 6:00.

12:00 PM
Time to get dressed. I’m in a quandry, since I want to be comfortable for rehearsal but also look nice for dinner. I try on various outfits – it’s one of those days. In the middle of my “fashion show”, Maggie comes in to ask my advice on a project she’s working on. Once she leaves, I choose a long denim skirt and fuschia polo – bingo!

12:45 PM
Time to leave for rehearsal. Maggie and I load into my truck and discuss where we want to grab lunch. Strangely, both of us are craving McDonalds (something I NEVER crave!) so we make a pit stop for Chicken McNuggets and a grilled chicken sandwich.

On the way to rehearsal, I get a call from one of the actors, saying he’s running late and will be at the church “in thirty minutes.” I’m confused, since rehearsal doesn’t start till 2… right? There is some momentary confusion but we eventually confirm that yes, rehearsal starts at 2 and he is in fact running early.

On the way to rehearsal, Maggie and I run through our scene together several times, getting the dialogue right. I was originally going to only be directing, but one of our actors needed to be relieved and I discovered that I had read the part so many times that I knew 90% of the lines anyway. Now I’m just trying to get the other 10% down.

1:55 PM
Four of the six cast members are already here, and while we wait for the other two members to arrive, we start an epic discussion, topics including but not limited to: whether the Lord of the Rings books are waaaaay better than the movies (definite yes, although we all agree the movies were well done); whether anyone can rival Tolkien in creating the most far-reaching fictional worlds (possibly George Lucas’s Star Wars galaxy); whether you can really credit George Lucas with the development of the Star Wars galaxy since so many people have contributed to it (at least a lot of credit – he was a definite before-his-time visionary); whether George Lucas has lost his filmmaking talent (we’re split here, with half of us saying “No way!” and the other half saying “Yes”); whether Steven Spielberg ever HAD any filmmaking talent (again, we’re pretty evenly split on this issue); whether “aliens” can be used as a catch-all plot twist to solve any and all gaping plot holes (believe it or not, we’re split on this issue, too); whether the newest Indiana Jones movie was good or ridiculous (slight majority says “ridiculous”); whether George Lucas should remake Star Wars with a younger cast (only one person dares voice this, and he’s loudly booed); whether Tron: Legacy was any good as an extension of an older movie (yes).

By the time these important issues have been hashed out, the rest of the cast is here and it’s time to rehearse.

4:00 PM
Rehearsal is over – time to get Maggie to her OTHER rehearsal on the other side of town. Since she’ll be in rehearsal till late tonight, we stop to get her a sandwich.

5:00 PM
I drop Maggie off and head towards the bank to cash my paycheck. Our bank is sooo slow, but I still have a few minutes until I have to meet my friend, so I duck into the nearby Kohls in search of some summer shirts. The sales are great and I find several nice shirts. By the time I get through the checkout line, it’s time for dinner.

6:00 PM
I meet my friend Becka at a local Asian cuisine restaurant and we pore over the menu – everything looks so good! In the end, she orders veggie lo mein and I get an order of dumplings and an order of water chestnut pudding – soooo good (kind of like crème brulee)!

7:15 PM
We have a lot to get caught up on, but by now we’re ready to stretch our legs, so we head to the nearby Marshalls to do a little window shopping. We have fun trying on clothes in the dressing rooms, checking out the housewares department and imagining decorating our own little apartment someday, and hitting the clearance aisle, where we find: a plastic bunch of grapes, a glass artichoke...


...and a ceramic taper candle holder than looks like a lumpy avacado.

We head to the checkout line and make a quick stop at the bookshelf, where I pick up a book, skim through it, and am immediately sucked it. Arg! It goes in my cart. We go back to my truck and listen to a few songs from Jackie Evancho’s “Dream With Me” album – love!

8:30 PM
Time to go pick up Maggie, but I arrive with a few minutes to spare, so I pull out my book. I love little quiet moments like this in a hectic day!

9:07 PM
Maggie is out! I’m craving an IceFlow slushie from AMC, so we pull in.

9:27 PM
This may be the longest I have ever waited for a slushie, no matter how good. I snag a few more moments of reading in the drive-through line.

9:37 PM
Slushies in hand, we head home.

10:00 PM
Maggie fixes a snack while I chat with my parents. I remind them that I am taking Maggie, Anna, and Ruth with me to the movie theater to see Cars 2 with our cousin tomorrow, and I get handed ticket money (yes! J). I head upstairs to my room. I want a shower, but Maggie beats me to it. J I relax on my bed with my issue of Rachel Ray Everyday magazine that came today. I see an article about doing Disney World with children and make a mental note to pass it on to Abby’s parents.

10:30 PM
My turn in the bathroom! I finish my magazine in a warm bubble bath.

11:00 PM
I comb out my hair and let it air dry while I light my favorite sandalwood candle, relax, and use my computer to journal the day. A friend texts me with a list of books she needs for an upcoming college course, so I hop up to check my bookshelves (the upside of being an English major is that you can locate almost any book in your personal collection). I have quite a few on her list, so I text her back and set them aside for her.

12:01 AM
Time for bed! Where did time go?!? :)

Love List

Maggie and I headed up to the mall for our weekly sister date this week. I wanted to go because my fav pair of boots need to be reheeled, and I'm desperate to be able to wear them again with the cold temps we've been experiencing. Once we'd dropped them off and received assurances from the hispanic cobbler that "[I] will be very, very happy with them!" :) we headed over to the food court for dinner, then took a leisurely stroll around the mall to see the sights. My Christmas shopping is all done, so it was nice to get to walk around without feeling pressure to hit so many stores in search of gifts. :)


We ended up at the jewelery section of one of my fav stores, Forever 21. It's hilarious that this is my fav store in the mall, because I don't think I could fit into any of the clothes there (at least, not yet)! :) But this place has the greatest jewelery - very unique stuff, stuff that looks like it was collected from around the world and brought back, and probably has a story to tell. It's inexpensive, so I don't mind picking up a few pieces whenever something catches my eye. And I always get compliments on their jewelery when I wear it. In fact, that night I was wearing my large owl pendant that I'd bought from them, and I'd been getting compliments on it all day - from the mommies at gymnastics, from the lady at the counter who took my dinner order, from random strangers on the street who stopped to tell me how much they liked it. :) Jewelery like that is priceless, folks! I love how a unique piece of jewelery attracts people - not neccesarily compliments, but just draws in people who have a similar eye or style, that you might not bump into otherwise. :)


There's pretty much every style of jewelery at Forever 21, from the softly sentimental...

To the holiday festive!

And if it weren't for the rhinestones, the little guy below would definitely have come home with me!!!

I loved this piece, love the layered chains and the big dragonfly pendant.

And have I mentioned I've been wanting a fish pendant for ages now? Well, I have! I especially like this dangly one, but they had several styles.

Of course, I'll admit it... the real draw for me is that Forever 21 has a seemingly unendless supply of owl necklaces. See?

The one above was in the store, and I came thisclose to bringing it home with me... I love it to pieces!

Speaking of owls, I was in Target yesterday and found this little guy! Isn't he cute?

I went through my purse this week and threw out a ton of old cosmetics... one of the victims was my hand cream. :( I needed a good replacement, so while we were at the mall, I ducked into Bath and Body Works and picked up a tube of the True Blue Cashmere Hand Cream on sale. Nice stuff! The ONLY bad thing I have to say about it is that it smells just like a freshly baked sugar cookie, and makes me hungry. :)

One last thing - a year ago this week I quit my job in retail to have a couple weeks off with the family before I began working as Abigail's nanny. I was glancing through the blog posts from that week and I thought y'all might enjoy comparing my life lately to my life a year ago. I have to say I think it's a big improvement! I'd sort of forgotten how miserable I was! Anyway, feel free to check it out - Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.

A Week In My Life - Friday

Friday is my favorite day of the week! :) I wait all week for Friday night!

Abigail and I went over to my house today so I could do school work with the kids. I called ahead to let them know I was coming so they'd have breakfast, chores, etc done before I got there and would be ready to start, but it seemed like everyone was off in a million directions when I arrived. Grr! Don't get me wrong - I love homeschooling and the laid back vibe it accomodates - but I am getting frustrated lately with the lack of structure. Everyone is so far behind in every subject, and we have so much to accomplish, and the lack of a schedule just seems to compound my frustrations. Lol, can you tell it has NOT been a good school week?!? Any other homeschoolers wanna commiserate?

Despite a rough start, we got a lot done today. We started off our day in math; we began studying equations earlier this week, so today we used equations to convert tablespoons to teaspoons and back again. We're finally back together again in our spelling book (it makes giving tests so much easier when both twins are in the same place). Lizzie writes in her journal daily, and Allen is currently working through a language arts book; both twins read for 15 minutes a day out of an assigned book (Lizzie is reading Tom Sawyer and Allen is tackling Journey to the Center of the Earth). Apart from the daily reading/writing/math routine, we tackle one other subject - literature, science, history, or health - each day. Today was "health" day, and we were taking our first test of the semester. I had really low expectations, but both twins surprised me - they each missed one question!

While I worked with the twins, Abigail played right alongside us! We brought up a basket of toys for her, and she also liked climbing up alongside the kids to draw. After the kids finished their schoolwork, they took her outside to pet the cat, feed the rooster, and generally explore our little hobby farm. She didn't want to come back inside!

I fixed pasta salad for lunch, then Abigail and I headed back to her home so she could nap. :) She slept for the rest of the afternoon and was still sleeping when her mommy got home.

Since I got off early, I was actually able to take a little cat-nap before Maggie and I headed out.

On Friday nights, Maggie and I always go to our favorite Asian restaurant, Teariffic, and then go shopping. Tonight we went to JoAnn Fabrics since Maggie was on the hunt for some picture frames that had just gone on clearance. I had been in the store last week and had fallen in love with a ceramic owl, but I wasn't about to dish out upwards of fifty dollars for it! Tonight I found my owl on a clearance rack for $9.99, so "Harriet" came home with me! My room is taking on a totally different vibe than I'm used to lately, but I kind of like it. :)

At WalMart I scored a gift I've been looking for, a dress from the new spring line (at last! a tangible sign of spring!), and a hoodie clearanced for $3. It was so funny at the checkout line - I got my total and I was sure the cashier had forgotten something since my total was about 1/2 what I thought I'd be paying, but it turns out there were simply a lot of markdowns that hadn't been stickered yet. Nice!

Maggie and I came home and fell into my bed to watch a few episodes of Stargate: Atlantis (Joe Flanigan: are you seriously dissing Stargate: SG1 in your behind-the-scenes interview? Because if you'll notice that SG1 became the longest running scifi show EVER and you... well, you became a joke. A loveable joke, but a joke nonetheless).

I am totally wired on green tea right now, so instead of sleeping, I'm blogging. :) I'm also contemplating a massive redo of my room, this time with a plan and a budget and (hopefully) a unified outcome. With space for a rather large ceramic owl, of course. :)

A Week In My Life - Thursday

I don't know why Thursdays are so hard... everyone else hates Wednesdays, I hate Thursdays. I don't know why. They just seem to be bleh days.

Yesterday after work I decided that I was just going to accept the fact that I am tired lately and work around it, so I stopped in the grocery store and picked up some microwaveable breakfast foods so I can sleep in a bit longer in the mornings (I know, I know, this is not a good long-term solution, but I'm pretty sure my being tired isn't long-term, either, so there). This morning I zapped a Smart Ones breakfast sandwhich, filled up my new thermos with juice, and off I went. Nice.

Abigail and I hung out at home for the first part of today, playing with toys, coloring, singing, watching Curious George, etc. I put her down her her nap just a bit earlier than normal since we were going to meet my sisters and Grandfather for lunch to celebrate Maggie's birthday, and she still slept past her normal getting-up time! Lol! Since she was "taking so long" everybody stopped by the house and ended up playing on the WiiFit to pass the time. Lunch was so much fun - Abigail is so good! When I first began watching her, I was terrified of taking her out because I was sure she'd just go into spontaneous meltdown mode and I wouldn't know what to do. I've become so much more confident over the last few weeks; I have taken her to run errands, go shopping, go play at my house, etc, and we've never had a problem. To be fair, she's an angel. :)

One funny thing happened today - she was sitting in a high chair to my left, and my dad was sitting on my right, and after she finished eating she wanted to climb into the booth with us, so I lifted her out and set her down between us. My dad smiled at her and said, "Hello, Abigail!" Her eyes got as big as saucers and she immediately threw herself into my arms while staring at the strange man who dared speak to her! Lol!

We had a birthday dinner tonight with my grandparents, which is always fun - lots of laughter and jokes. I can't believe it's only 8:30 - I can barely keep my eyes open!

A Week In My Life - Tuesday

Tuesdays are the day I teach up at our church's homeschool co-op... It's definitely one of my favorite times! :) I love teaching, and I have an amazing class this year filled with incredible students.

I normally wake up earlier, but I was so on the ball that I got all my prep work done earlier last night, so I knew I could afford to sleep in, since, despite going to bed really early last night (8:30ish?) I was still tired this morning (but cheerful, which is a much better combo than tired and grumpy, lol). I got up, got dressed, etc, and as I was walking downstairs to put on makeup and run out the door, I glanced over into my sisters' room and noticed that Anna, who goes to co-op with me, was still sleeping soundly in her bed!

Now, Anna is the on-the-ball one, the one who has her lunch packed away, her books together, her clothes on and teeth brushed, etc, and then waits patiently for me to get my act together, so I was pretty surprised. So was she, when I woke her up (with ten minutes to get out the door). Apparently her alarm didn't go off. The good thing is that we try to arrive an hour before our first class so that I can make copies, help out at the info center, etc, so even running late we had plenty of time.

I teach two classes: "Film and Television" runs from 10-11 and "Composition and Literature" runs from 11-12. In film class, we are working on a short film combining stop-motion photography and regular footage. I had hoped to finish up our storyboard today but alas! it was not to be. Hopefully we can get started on the actual filming next week. In lit class we are seven chapters into Animal Farm, and I am loving every minute of it. I have always loved Orwell's works, but I am especially having fun teaching this novel, as it is so relevant to today's world. Last week I gave the kids an in-class assignment, in which they were asked to formulate a plan to take over the world using one aspect of culture (music, film, law, education, etc). Today we finished our discussion, then moved on to talk about some of the main characters in AF and their real-world counterparts. I can't wait to finish the book this week and start the essay-writing process!

After my two classes and lunch, Anna still has two periods to go, so I help out at the info center and chat with other teachers/parents.

Anna and Maggie have voice lessons, so I take them over (mom usually picks them up) and get a few minutes at home to breathe. :)

I'm about to go help get dinner going for the family, then I hope to jump onto the Wii Fit for awhile tonight, and make it an early night (again? apparently I need the sleep). :)

A Week In My Life

As the first of the month landed on a Monday, I thought it would be fun to do another "Week In My Life" (This time, hopefully, with pictures!) and show how my life has changed in the last few months. :)

My alarm clock goes off at 6 this morning... normally I would be up a bit earlier but I was kind of goofy last night and I didn't tuck myself into bed as early as I normally do. I get up, get dressed, grab breakfast (blueberry mini bagels from Target - my aunt and uncle have completely hooked me on the new food section), and I'm out the door.

Abigail is just getting up when I arrive, so I get to help dress and feed her. She's extra-giggly in the mornings. :) She didn't really want much breakfast, just some yogurt (she's turning into a light breakfaster lately) and then she made it quite clear that she wanted to watch Curious George on TV. When I started this job, I would pop in the Muzzy DVD on occasion, more to give myself something to watch then for any actual entertainment value on her part, but in the last few weeks she's gotten quite an attention span and now likes (and asks for!) Curious George and Muzzy and occasionally the last few minutes of Martha Speaks (which comes on before Curious George and has lots of dogs, which Abigail likes, lol). We watched Curious George, then we colored, played with some of her toys, and then she decided she wanted a snack. As soon as she was done eating and I lifted her down off her high chair, she ran into the other room and brought me her shoes.

"Whatcha doing with these, Abigail?" I asked, laughing. She's been in a dress-up kind of mood lately, likes taking her clothes out of her closet and carrying them around the house, so I figured this was part of the same thing.

She looked at me intently, ran off, and came back with her hat. I laughed again and asked, "Whatcha doing?"

When she returned with her coat, I was beginning to get the message. "Do you want to go out?" I asked her. "D'Oh!" she responded enthusiastically ( - although she does occasionally say "Yeh," "No" and "Yes" are usually "No" and "D'Oh". Don't ask me why, I do not know. :)).


I always feel guilty when she asks to go out, since I know she thinks we're going to see the cousins, and nobody is home on Mondays, but I did have a shopping list that I was going to complete after work, so I figured I'd take her with me. Abigail seems to like riding in the truck - she runs up to it and slaps the "Ford" emblem, laughing. :) I'd gotten her some things for my truck over the weekend, a mini Etch-a-Sketch and some coloring books from the $1 rack at Target. Apparently, however, I removed the singalong CD's (I have no memory of this, but I couldn't find them anywhere, so I must have put them in my room). Abigail was saddened by this, as we normally sing while we're driving.



Target was our first stop - we were on the hunt for some gift bags, tissue, and birthday cards for some upcoming birthdays! (More on that later in the week.) We took a quick detour through the newly-stocked $1 rack and picked up some more Elmo books for the truck. Abigail seemed to enjoy the shopping trip - we "talked" about all the things she saw (i.e. she pointed excitedly and I talked about whatever it was she was pointing at). The store was pretty empty since it was still early (9:30ish?) and I had several people pause to say "hi!" to Abigail.


We ran into the dollar store afterwards, where Abigail decided she needed a multi-colored flower pinwheel, so it came home with us. :)


We got home and she had a snack, and then we heard tires on the gravel.

Could it be?

Yes! It was Granddad AND Meemaw - a double treat! Granddad pops in often - at least once a day or more, lol - but we always enjoy seeing Meemaw too!


We had a great visit, but as soon as they left it was definitely time for Abigail to take a nap! I am so proud of the fact that she doesn't fuss for me when I put her down... I always try to do the same things in the same order - brush her teeth, change her diaper, sing the ABC song, find her binky, turn on the music and humidifier - and I don't know if that's the key, but she's only cried for me twice: the first day I had her, and the day that daddy was home with us. Other than that, Abigail is pretty serene about the process. She goes into her crib without a fuss, smiles while I sing the ABC song, and waves goodbye afterwards. :)


While Abigail naps, I take care of some little tasks (checking email, changing my phone plan, etc), do the first part of my new Bible study (more on that later), eat lunch, and watch Court TV. :)


Abigail wakes up two hours later, all smiles and giggles again. :) She's ready for lunch, so I feed her some yogurt and a PB&J sammie. After lunch, we watch Muzzy, sing along with all her musical toys, and go outside for a short walk to watch her pinwheel spin, which she loves.

We are singing along to our CD when daddy gets home, and shortly after, so does mommy! :)

Whew! What a fun day! I'm tired! :)

I head home and update my Girl In Skirt Blog, then do dinner with the family. Nothing very exciting.

Now I'm about to go take a nice hot bath, finish my study, and collapse on my bed for an early bedtime... with possibly a few episodes of Stargate: Atlantis thrown in (do you know I've had season five for all of two weeks and I STILL haven't finished watching it?!). :)

Life As It Is

A few weeks ago I wrote about how happy I was with my daily life, but how it didn't feel "real" or "normal" yet. I realized this week that I think I'm finally back in the groove of things.

Abigail is forever on the go! :) She is very thoughtful most of the time, and at 20 months is definitely already her own person.


She likes having her picture taken but gets confused about when to smile - she smiles big right AFTER the flash has gone off! :)

We love playing with the blocks, Etch-a-Sketch, musical teapot, talking Elmo, and bouncy balls. We also love to color.


She likes to eat, but seems to get bored with the same foods easily. I took her out to run errands last week and realized that I'd forgotten to plan for lunch (we were out rather later than I'd thought we'd be), so we went to Chick-Fil-A. Abigail made it quite clear that she knew what Chick-Fil-A was, and got very excited until I got her nuggets cut up! I think her attention span hasn't quite caught up yet, so she gets bored or distracted before she's finished eating and wants to get down. Once in a while she will ask to watch Muzzy while she's eating and she seems to eat more. Yogurt is still her favorite food.

We definitely know what "meet the cousins" means, and Abigail will run to get her shoes and coat if I tell her we are going to meet them. :) She enjoys shopping with us; she gets carried around by the kids and likes to look and feel different materials in the clothing sections. But the best part about going out is still the playground, in her opinion. :)

I always pack her own food when we're going out, but she is starting to notice that everyone around her is eating different food. She can't understand why anyone would take time out just to eat when there's a perfectly good playground just a few feet away!

Visits from Granddad are always exciting, and he makes sure to stop by often.

As for me, I can't wait for fingerpainting, playdough, and springtime with nature walks and afternoons in the pool or sandbox! :)

A Day In My Life - Friday

So I actually DID finish cleaning my room after I got off the computer last night... I pulled out ALL the furniture, dusted EVERYTHING, vacuumed the floor and molding, cleaned my beautiful bamboo rug, etc.

And then... as I was putting the furniture back... I was just struck with the need for change, so on the spur of the moment I rearranged everything, and I'm quite pleased with the result! The old arrangement was very cute and much more mature, but it created these "dead zones" where there was a lot of wasted space. I don't subscribe to Feng Shui as a religion/life practive, but I remember picking up a decorating book a few years ago and reading about the concept of "energy flow" and how you should seek to arrange your furniture so that the energy didn't "puddle" (i.e. it should flow evenly throughout the room). Well, I pretty much thought this was garbage - and rightly so :) - but if we substitute the word "pathways" then this concept is right on... the old arrangement made it hard to walk around some areas, and those areas went unused. This new arrangement really opens up the room. Granted, it feels much less formal and more kicked back and mod, but on the other hand, that's sort of my attitude, so it's all good. I want to post a "virtual tour" of my room later on, so keep an eye out for it!

Nothing really on the agenda for today... I have to run out to drop off some gifts in a bit, and I have a very few cleaning/organizing tasks left, but mostly I think I will spend it keeping warm (lots of snow supposed to fall later on!). There are presents to wrap, hot cocoa to make, holiday movies to watch (I still haven't pulled out any of the animated or stop-motion classics, save The Grinch), the kids to play with, etc. I also have a few creative projects up my sleeve - stay tuned! :)

A Day In My Life - Thursday

So my cellphone alarm went off this morning at 3 AM. And I'm not a morning person AT ALL, much less when I have been woken unexpectedly in the middle of the night. My thought process went something like this:

"My alarm is going off... Should I get up? I thought I got to sleep in today... maybe I dreamed it. No, wait, I switched shifts with Andrew and don't have to be there til 6... right? Right, cuz if I were working my own shift I'd have off today. Right. Right."

So I shut if off and snuggled back under the covers, only to discover that the hard work of figuring out when I had to get up had woken me up. It took me enough to time to get back to sleep that when my alarm clock went off for real at 5, I promptly hit snooze and rolled over to go back to sleep.

When I did get up, the first thing I noticed was how truly cold it is... I am almost ashamed to even mention the cold since some people have it much, much worse, like Kyla of Blue Collar Catwalk, but compared to what we've been experiencing, it was really cold. So cold I could feel it through the walls, even though the room was fairly warm. An odd feeling, but true. Despite the weather, I bundled up and went to work. :) The local radio station announced that it was 29 degrees but felt ten degrees colder because of wind chill.


In keeping with the theme of this week (read: CLEAN!) I stopped at the little self-serve car wash place on the way home to clean out my car and get it vacuumed. I was only there for maybe fifteen minutes at the most - five minutes to clean it out, five minutes to vacuum (it's only a teensy truck with an eensy cab), and five minutes to put everything back in - but my hands ached from the cold. It looks nice, though!

Maggie and I had made plans for this weekend, but guess what? The forecast is calling for snow and lots of it, and our destination was an hour away by the scary highway, so we decided to rethink and go out tonight instead. It feels like Friday to me since I'm already in "weekend mode" but the crowds were noticeably thinner (no long waits, crowded places, etc). We started out at Tearrific for some Teriyaki Chicken for Maggie and some Sweet and Sour Chicken (hold the sauce, please!) for me. I also tried Hot and Sour Soup for the first time today and I loved it (even though Maggie, who is usually the adventurous foodie, thought it was disgusting. Go figure). We noticed when we were coming in that Fashion Bug had sale signs up all over the plaza, so we ducked inside to see what we could find. The verdict? Lots of good stuff, but no really exceptional prices. I passed on everything I tried on, prefering to wait for a better sale, but Maggie picked up an adorable sweater for under $15. I also had a return to make at Best Buy, so I ran in to take care of that while Maggie went next door to Ross. We ended up spending a few hours in Ross, trying on clothes, wandering the art aisle (oh Ross art, how I long to fill my space with your funky forms!), checking out the Christmas section, etc, etc, etc. We also picked up a few great deals on gifts (but I'd better not post them up here! :) ).

Home again now... I should really go vacuum and dust my room, since that's the 'task' I was originally going to tackle today if we hadn't gone out... on the other hand, I have tomorrow off, I might just do it then and curl up with Stargate and a cozy blanket tonight. :)

A Week In My Life - Wednesday

Today was another frenetic day of accomplishments. Up at 3 AM to be at work by 4 AM, but I got off at 10 AM so not a bad shift. The area manager was touring the area with a "bigwig" from corporate headquarters, so everyone was a little edgy, then we got the call that our external service auditors were also spotted in the area, and the stress level just exploded. Luckily I was about to get off anyway. :)

Came home and considered taking a shower and napping, like I did on Monday, but 1) I was nervous about pushing my luck on the whole non-groggy-napping issue twice in week, and 2) my siblings were getting ready to go help my grandfather cater dinner for his church, and I felt guilty about not going but definitely not awake or alert enough to go. Bleh.

Instead, I worked some on the ever-continuing quest to clean and organize my room to spotless perfection :), and got some tasks out of the way, like finally packing up baby clothes to go to my best friend Rebekah in Alabama.

Oh, cool story, this. I found out that Reb was expecting a boy (and was basically going to need everything, since this is her first), and the next day I went to work and a coworker asked me out of the blue, "Could you find any use for three big bags of baby boy clothes?"
I was so stunned, I asked him, "Why me? I'm not married, I'm not pregnant..." and he shrugged and said, "You just seemed like the person who would know someone who was expecting."
No kidding. Anyway, I sorted them and they've been sitting in a laundry basket in my room for a few weeks, waiting to be packed up and shipped. Well, I got the packing out of the way (three of the ugliest, lumpiest looking packages, lol) and it turns out Reb's bro is coming up to Maryland for New Year's, so I don't even have to pay shipping. I'm telling you, I live on an incredible plane where my needs and wants are met before I myself am aware of them.

Anyway... packed up clothes, put more stuff into storage bins, and then I sorted out my hair products/tools bin and my cosmetics bag, and noticed I was running low on some "neccessities" (also I had a shopping list of little things that I never think about unless I write them down) so I headed into town, ran through Target, couldn't find half the things I needed, and went to Wal-Mart, where I also couldn't find many of the things I needed, but got distracted by the Christmas card aisle. :)

I picked up some green tea from Tearrific Cafe (if you are in my local area or are ever passing through, you must MUST MUST stop in at Tearrific and eat dim sum and drink jasmine green tea with kiwi. You must) and took it to Maggie and Anna, who both share my obsession with this incredible drink. I stayed awhile to rest and chat with my Uncle Chris, who was helping with the cooking, but I was nodding off despite my green tea kick, so I drove home pretty soon so I wouldn't fall asleep while driving.

At home, I sat and chatted with my mom for awhile and got caught up in all the drama of life :), then headed upstairs to read a few blogs and post here. Now I'm off for a hot bath with bubbles and the latest issue of my fav educational magazine, then to bed, where I get to sleep til 5 AM. Life is so awesome. :)

A Week In My Life - Tuesday

Compared to yesterday, I barely did anything today. :) I did get to sleep in, which was incredible considering my sleep-deprived-ness of the past few days.

Mostly I spent the day doing low key day off sort of tasks, like 'uploading' lots of stuff into my new storage bins, making labels for aforementioned bins, pinning two dresses I'm altering for my sister, starting a crochet project (a curly skinny scarf - I'll post the pattern later), and updating my blogs. I also did a little online window shopping (see the previous post).

The family has gone Christmas shopping tonight - I can't go, have to work - and the house is eerily quiet. Tomorrow it's work at 4 AM, then who knows what sort of adventures I'll get into? :)

A Week of My Life - Monday

This week is important because it's my last week working at Wawa until at least May (and quite possible forever). I have really enjoyed my time there, and the company has been good to me as I've been in school, but it's just time to move on and I've been offered some neat opportunities that I want to pursue (I'll post a little more about why at the end of the week).


However, since I always enjoy looking back at the journals I've kept during various parts of my life, I thought I'd chronicle this last week for old time's sake (and also since it promises to be a killer week :)).


Anywho...


This is something I will not miss, getting up at dark-thirty to be at work by 3 or 4. :) Normally I'm good at tucking myself into bed early so I'm not a complete zombie the next day, but our store Christmas party was last night and I stayed out a bit later than I meant to (but we were having so. much. fun.). I woke up this morning at 2:30 AM, which was unfortunate since I didn't actually have to get up til 3 AM and I couldn't really go back to bed.


I worked til 10 AM, making breakfast sandwhiches and manning our hot-to-go warmers. Everyone was moving pretty slowly today after partying last night, so my own wacky sleep-deprived state pretty much fits right it. :)


After work I drove home and literally fell onto my bed and slept til 1:30. I almost never nap but apparently I really did not get enough sleep to get by on last night. Usually if I do nap, I wake up groggy and can't seem to get started again, but today I got a second wind and I am truly amazed at everything I got done today. One of the things I do every year is to clean out everything in my room, car, etc, before New Year's Eve. I usually push it off until the week (or occasionally the day) before New Year's, but this year I started Thanksgiving week. I've already tackled a couple of the organizing tasks I dread (like going through and organizing my filed -eh!) so hopefully the rest of the cleaning and organizing should go really quickly.


When I woke up, I took everything out of my closet, my dresser, seasonal storage, etc, and began organizing and cleaning out my wardrobe. I wiped down the insides of the dresser drawers with bergamot oil (bergamot is that elusive but distinctive scent in Earl Grey tea - mmm!), which took maybe 15 minutes but is so worth it - whenever I open the drawer now I'll get a whiff of that scent, not to mention now all my clothes smell lovely. :)

Last year at the beginning of the year, I went through my closet and threw out everything that wasn't "perfect" - i.e. didn't fit right, wasn't a color or style I loved, needed altering or repairing that I wasn't willing to commit to, etc. It was kind of a leap of faith since I didn't have all that many clothes then, but it was so nice afterwards because literally everything in my closet was wearable. Why do we have clothing in our closets that we can't use?!? Is it guilt or wishful thinking? I don't know... but I know that inevitably they do creep in. Anyway, that was last year and in the twelve months since then, I have outgrown stuff, my style has changed, I've been given clothing items that didn't work perfectly (but were free! so somehow I feel like I 'have to' make them work) and some stuff has simply worn out or been damaged. Everything in this category went yesterday! I literally tried on everything I own, and if it didn't work, it went into my "depart from me" pile. :) The uplifting part about this whole process is that I actually 'discovered' some pieces that I haven't worn (or haven't worn in awhile) that I am really looking forward to wearing now. Even some pieces that I had thought before were maybe unflattering, I now know exactly how I'll style them. It's totally true, that when you want new clothes you should 'shop' your own closet first! (On the flip side, I do now have a rather large pile of clothes - dresses, blazers, I think some skirts, accessories, even a few pairs of shoes that I never wore - that are up for grabs, if anyone is interested).

Once I had chucked a lot of stuff from my wardrobe, I went on a sewing/mending rampage - I had shirts that I loved the fit of, but that had 3/4 length sleeves (bah! humbug! I hate 3/4 length sleeves!), a skirt with a broken button, a button down that needed hemming, etc, etc. I even darned my down comforter that had developed a hole that was being held together by a safety pin (yes, I know, I know). The sewing machine whizzed! It hummed! I must have used at least seven different colors of thread! On the flip side, I can now wear some of those shirts after I've hacked off inches of sleeve. :)

What else did I do? I went through all my purses and cleaned them out... why do I stick a purse on a hook with receipts, gum, lipstick, etc still in it? I don't know. I'm lazy. I also chucked quite a few pairs of shoes that had worn almost to the point of disintegration because I hadn't yet figured out how to buy shoes for my large wide feet.

Then I did something which was truly monumental. I have always wanted to use the 36"X58"X14" shelf space above my closet for storage bins... yes, I know, Rubbermaids look industrial and plastic but they will be tucked up and away in my closet, not displayed in my room (I bought beautiful storage boxes last year for visible storage, and I love looking at them). I always think to myself, "it will be too expensive," "I will bring them home and they won't fit," "etc, etc, etc," but today I totally just went ahead and did it. Armed with the dimensions of my space and a measuring tape borrowed from the hardware department (I usually carry a measuring tape with me in my purse, but I don't know where I've misplaced it), I bought eight mini Rubbermaid bins and two ultra short but very long bins for under the bed. I now have enough storage to store the world. I even have growing room. :) Just getting everything put away and stored and not laying in piles or stacked on my bookshelves is such a boost!

I took the twins with me (Allen and Lizzie, 13) and we had a blast on our "midnight run" (lol, it was actually more like 8 PM but it was super-dark and felt much later) to Wal-Mart. Best of all, we discovered a few last-minute gifts that were truly incredible, and finished getting everything for Christmas morning stockings (this is an important tradition around here).

I came home from Wal-Mart, installed my new finds, and completely crashed. I had given up every last bit of energy I had, and I was ready for bed. :)

Despite my extreme pessimism about this week, despite the fact that we launched a massive new ad/sale campaign this week, despite the fact that I have not quite gotten enough sleep... things are really going so well!

Monday
On Sunday, the producer of our church's summer musical program took over rehearsal so that I could stay home and get to sleep before being at work at 3AM. I was dreading this... but amazingly, I popped up awake and mostly alert and went to work for the first day of our new promotion. It was crazy busy, but we found out yesterday that out of all the stores in our area, we were beat out of first place in sales by only two sandwiches. Not bad, especially considering that our contending store is on the highway to D.C. and we're in little ole' SOMO.

Because of my early arrival, I got off around 11AM and headed home to spend a few hours working on my lesson plans for my two classes, then poured myself into a hot tub to soak and read some... I did dutifully read my chapter of Silas Marner (I always enjoy this novel while I'm reading it... but for some reason I never seem to look forward to reading it. Odd) but I also indulged my inner child and non-English-major alter ego by reading... this. *sigh* Mock away - I can't help myself! :)

I hung out for awhile and I think I rolled over and turned out the light around 9...

Tuesday
Ok, to be completely fair, if there has been a "bad day" in my week so far, this would be it. Even though I spent so much time preparing my lessons, I then left all my printed materials - handouts, homework, etc - on my dresser and left without it. I didn't realize this until after we'd gone halfway there and made our Tuesday morning coffee stop, so I had to turn around and go back for it, thus arriving only 15-20 minutes early instead of my usual hour. That incident just kind of set the tone for the rest of the day... I felt like I was putting out fires most of the time.

It was a nice surprise to find out that voice lessons had been canceled, since I felt a bit like a dishrag at this point. I ferried Allen off to his biweekly Tang So Do session, came home and read through a few of my blogs, and trundled off to bed around 7.

Wednesday
For some reason, I don't tend to sleep well when there's a full moon. I don't know if there really is some magnetic connection between the chemistry of the human brain and the moon's gravitation, as some of my physics-smart friends have claimed, or if I just don't sleep as well when there's more light in the room, but I just tend to sleep really lightly during the days directly before, during, and after the full moon, and I dream really intensely about what is going on in my life. Even though I went to bed early, I kept waking up every few hours feeling unsettled, and at one point I couldn't go back to sleep until - you guessed it! - it was 2 AM and time to get up anyway. I was not a very awake person today at work, but at least I was off in my own workstation so I wasn't in anybody's way. :)

One of my co-workers was also getting off at 11AM, so we went to lunch together, and I did a very little bit of shopping afterwards, more looking that actual buying (I'll share my few finds with you later on this week). In the afternoon I lay on my bed watching Stargate: SG1 (I am so addicted it's not. even. funny.). Dinner with my family, then I read through my favorite blogs, wrote the weekly emails for my classes, and wrote this post. Now I'm off for a shower and probably I'll rewind with just one more SG1 episode before I get to sleep in... all the way to 5AM. Am I pathetic or what? :)

The rest of my week should be *knock on wood* fairly easy compared to the first half of this week. I don't have to be at work any earlier than 6, and my list of weekend projects is small. Plus, I have something to look forward to - babysitting my cousin Abigail for the first time!