72 posts tagged “life”
Each day when I open up my 'lil Macbook, I see the Vox tab, open along with iGoogle, Facebook, and several others, and I think, "I should write a bit today."
But coffee, and walking, and working, and schlepping together dinner, and then finally falling into bed...then doing it all over again - and again! - seems to spirit my time away.
It probably hasn't helped that I am doing a lot more writing at work. I love that, as it taps into the creative side of me that was largely unused when the majority of my day was full-up with mindless data-entry and "How may I help you?" phone calls. I am a firm believer that this blogging thing shouldn't be a have-to. So, I've stepped back a bit, and I am okay with that.
Have I missed it? Yes. And no. I miss the rolling chronology of thoughts and events that routine blogging brings. But giving myself license to not write as I've given myself license to write has been good, and very good.
This morning I awoke thinking about some things I've learned - or perhaps re-learned - in the past few days and weeks. Then all the stuff that accompanies a Saturday morning happened, coupled with a lunch date with out-of-town company, which then precipitated a lovely nap.
And the blog was cast aside again.
When I later realized that I was just mindlessly browsing some of the aforementioned sites, what surely resembled a thought bubble appeared above my head:
Why don't you write something in your blog, silly?
And so, here I am, with what has become a rather long and blathering introduction to some bullet point ah-ha moments. I was going to share them all in this one post, but you know, then I might not come here for another month or two.
Not to mention that would be one freakin' long post.
So, without further adieu, here's the first:
Bullet point #1: Never underestimate the power of a grandma.
The out-of-town company I mentioned above is Rob's mom, in for just under a week to visit us. Wait; who am I kidding? She's here to visit the grandkids.
But that's okay. She should be here to see the grandkids, and thus far the whole lot of them are having a glorious time as she spoils them (and us too - I haven't had to cook dinner for two days now). Yesterday, she took The Daughter shopping. Rob and I came home and just about tripped over two large trash bags full of the child's clothes. Post-mortum of said shopping spree, MeeMee and The Daughter had sorted through her entire room.
I can't tell you how many times I've asked the child to go through the mounds of clothes she had in her room and toss or give away what she no longer wears. To no avail.
The power of the grandma.
Ah, but Nicole, you said they went shopping. Good catch. They did, and they got some great deals on some new clothes - but no where near as many as will go to the thrift next week. And the best part?
Well. For months and months and months and nigh on forever, Rob and I have had a battle with this child over her jeans. Yes, the typical why-can't-I-wear-these-spray-painted-on-blues-whose-zipper-won't-go-all-the-way-closed-anymore jeans.
MeeMee comes to town, and The Daughter senses a possible ally. She begins to model pair after pair. "Don't they look nice?" she inquires, to which MeeMee wrinkles her nose and says, "No." To pair after pair after pair.
Guess where the jeans are now?
The power of the grandma.
Next time:
Bullet Point #2: Change-agents are always seen as the enemy by those who prefer "but we've always done it that-a-way!".
Okay, so I couldn't think of a creative way to title an entry that will likely be all over the place since I haven't written much about the happenings in the life of Nicole in a while. Most of my recent brain power has been used gathering, sorting, revising, and composing policies and procedures for work. Rip-roaring stuff, I know. But the crazy part is, I actually don't mind doing that kind of stuff. And I got to work from home for two days. With Rob.
Rinse and repeat one day next week as well.
What would likely make others feel as if someone was slowly pulling off their toe nails one by one actually energizes me. But it also saps all my mental energy by the end of the day, which means I got nothin' to give here.
So, in an effort to at least be somewhat organized and coherent in this post, I will give each section a nice generic heading and attempt to hit the bullet points.
Work
As aforementioned, I've been working on a project with Rob, revising the Policy and Procedure Manual. Perhaps that should be creating, as they have never actually had a church-wide P&P manual. What they have had is a bunch of policies and memos in various places. Our job has been to grab those, figure out what's missing and write those, then bring them all together in an organized fashion, create one succinct manual, and then a few "for public consumption" guides that will be accessible to the volunteers.
It is a lot of work, to be sure, but as it is work I enjoy, it made the two days spent on such fly by. Tuesday we will have another go at it (yay to working at home again!), and hopefully at least have the employee handbook portion ready for the Lead and Executive Pastors to review.
There are also some upcoming organizational changes that I am not at liberty to discuss yet, but if things go as I hope, I am very excited. The shifts should better utilize folks' strengths and giftedness, including yours truly.
Home
Rob finished his first grad school class last week (with an A!), and the next one doesn't start until mid-June, so the plan is to work on a few projects around the house during the lull. We are having new windows put in on the addition, and we took the cover off the pool yesterday. For the latter to be ready, we still need to add more water, shock, and vacuum it. But the yay factor is that what water is still in it (had to lower it about a foot to put the cover on) is clear.
I'd also like to get some of the painting projects done, such as finishing the study and our bedroom. We added a pet door out to the garage a few weeks ago, which allowed us to move the cat boxes to said area (woohoo!), but we still need to finish organizing the space (we've given up on the idea of actually using it as a garage since it is quite narrow) and moving the bins from the screen porch into the garage and/or shed. My wish at that point is a glider or chairs or a pair of rockers for the screen porch, but so far the spousal unit has simply rolled his eyes at me.
And then there is a project that is quite daunting to me because it is so not in my skill set: landscaping.
When the previous owners were getting the house ready for sale, they were also prepping it for rent - whatever came to pass first, they were going to run with. This totally worked in our favor, allowing us to rent for a month while our house in DE sold. The downside was that they prepped the house for long-term tenants - meaning not only did they paint every wall with semi-gloss (gross!), they also stripped the yard of anything that might be high maintenance - or any type of maintenance - save mowing, weed wacking, and edging.
We had a company come out and quote re-vamping the yard with lovely shrubs and perrenials, but I about fainted when I saw the cost.
By the same token, Rob, nor I, have ever planted a shrub. Nor have we ever really had an interest in doing such.
But I also hate the nakedness of our front yard.
This could provide some interesting blogging fodder in the weeks and months to come.
Kiddos
The school year is winding down to the final weeks, praise God! I am quite frankly tired of nagging motivating the children to stay on top of their assignments. The Daughter continues to struggle with her honors English class; however, we did see improvement last marking period and the teacher is working closely with her now, so if we can get her through it with a C, I will be quite pleased.
She took her SATs the first weekend of this month - not sure how long it takes to get those back. She chose the four colleges to send them to - two local, one in western VA, and one in DE. Her plan at this point is to take one of the two years of cosmetology training via the tech school (free!) next year, since she only has to take 4 academic classes to graduate. This will also allow her to explore her interest in cosmetology at no cost - then if she does like it, she can pay for the second year of training. Following that, she plans to use her cosmetology certification to help her through college - either business or pre-law.
The Middle has been doing quite well with his classes, so we allowed the reinstatement of xBox for one hour on school nights ("I've been getting all As and Bs for a while now, Mom!). But alas, that was short lived, as his Science grade dropped to a C this week because he got a big fat goose egg on his homework ("I lost it...").
He continues to do quite well with his guitar playing - he picks up new songs quickly and easily.
The Youngest had his final strings concert of the year on Tuesday - I am amazed at how far these 5th graders have come this year. He can't decide if he wants to stick with violin or switch to cello next year. I am just happy he wants to continue with orchestra.
With some trepidation, I am not looking forward to next month when his best friend moves to TX. These are the kinds of hurts that I wish we could shield our babies from!
The Cruise!
I am still spending an inordinant about of time reading cruise boards and reviews for our ship. It officially moved to Baltimore a few weeks ago, and I have been eating up any and all info posted about the move and subsequent cruises. Overall they have been positive, save some embarkation and debarkation issues, which will hopefully be resolved by the time our vacation is here (just over 100 days from now!).
I think I have decided on what excursions we will do. I am leaning toward just going with the flow in Grand Turk, since they have a nice beach and cruise center with shops, Margaritaville, and a pool. I know we can safely take a taxi out to the lighthouse for some photo ops as well. And since Rob and I plan to purchase our own snorkeling equipment, the teens can give it a whirl in calmer, shallower waters within our view in prep for a snorkeling excursion later that week.
Next stop is supposed to be a private island in the Bahamas, so another beach day, which is fine by me! The boys may do a sting ray excursion, but The Daughter and I have no interest in that, so we will stay behind and work on our tans.
In Nassau, I am hoping to book a snorkeling excursion with Stuart's Cove (if they would ever email me back!). They have good reviews and go to 2-3 different sites. And it's only a half day, which would allow us time to have lunch on the ship and then still go into town and shop a bit if we want.
Our final stop, Freeport, doesn't get a lot of positive reviews since you basically dock in an industrial area, so I plan to book a dolphin encounter. We are all really excited about this excursion - I hope it lives up to our expectations.
I think that about covers it....for now. I am going to post this before I accidentally delete it; I can always go back and fix the typos later, eh?
It would seem that no matter how many times I lament my lack of writing, how many times I declare that I miss my good neighbors, how many times I say that I need this place and really need to make blogging a priority...
Life happens and a week...two weeks...who knows how many freakin' weeks passes, and I haven't so much as read a post let alone typed a word of my own.
It's been so long since I posted anything of significance here that I can't even remember what I've talked about and what I haven't.
Once upon a time, coming here was as craved as those two morning mugs of coffee (I'll take those with two tablespoons of light cream and two packets of Splenda thank-you-very-much) or that weekend glass of vino sipped luxuriously as the sun sets.
And now, each day, I look at the tab always open in Firefox, gently beaming "Vox", and I think, "Eh. Maybe later."
The problem with later is that later never seems to come. Instead I pop into Facebook at the end of a long day, post what I hope is a thoughtful or witty status update, and go my merry way.
I so want to figure out how to once again make this a very real and present part of my life. Perhaps not daily, but with some semblance of regularity.
Blogging mojo? Come out, come out, wherever you are....
I am still here, though I am woefully behind in reading and posting.
And I miss you all!
Perhaps this weekend...
I've decided that if nothing else, I will try to pop in here some time on each Saturday and write. I feel like life - nothing great and nothing horrible, just life in general - is sucking the creative juices out of me. By the time I get home from work each night and finish the tasks to be ready for the next day, I am too tired to do much more than read a few blogs and look at my facebook newsfeed. Then Friday rolls around, and I am running errands while trying to take a "sabbath" of sorts and just recoup.
Saturdays really should be spent working on the many projects I would like to accomplish in this house. Some times that happens; sometime it doesn't. But regardless, I am realizing that I need to stop and write. Just because. Just for me.
And if for nothing else than to allow me to process the week's events and be ready to tackle a new week head-on come Sunday morning.
Sometimes I think I hesitate to write here because there is nothing exciting to talk about. Life has settled into a basic routine, and there isn't a lot of drama - which is a good thing! But it doesn't make for many interesting entries.
Then this morning, it hit me. While it is fun and encouraging and a real charge to receive comments and feedback on insightful or humorous entries, that shouldn't be the main motivation to write. As "boring" as my day-to-day activities may seem right now, one day I will enjoy looking back and reading what I was doing, where I was, what my goals were. We have one child on the brink of adulthood - in a few years, I will enjoy reading how she dove into the world of licensed drivers and prepared for her SATs, though today it just seems like something every kid eventually does, so-what's-the-big-freakin'-deal?
All that to say, feel free to check out at any time for this one - this entry is for me; it is my attempt at grasping back the enjoyment of journaling and writing just for the sake of it.
About two weeks ago, I, with much trepidation knowing that this past winter had not been kind to me in the arena of diet and exercise, tiptoed on to the scale. My fears were realized - the tightness in my jeans was not a mere fluke.
So, I logged back into "My Plate" at www.livestrong.com and started logging the things I eat each day. The weather has still not been very cooperative when it comes to running or walking in the mornings, so I started utilizing various exercise "videos" on-demand.
I also started eating a lot more fruits and veggies each day. When I want to crunch on something, I am trying to reach for carrots or a colorful sweet pepper, rather than pretzels and chips. I've been taking a multi-vitamin in the morning, washed down with some non-fat milk. When I get home from work, I make myself a green tea latte rather than gulping a diet soda or making another cup of coffee.
I already feel better. To the point that when I ate a bit too many "white flour carbs" on Thursday evening (still within my quota for the day, but heavier than I've been eating at one meal), I immediately felt over-stuffed.
I am not necessarily looking to lose a lot of weight. I did that 6 or 7 years ago, and when I look back at the photos now, I wonder why I thought I looked healthy. Sure, my legs and butt were super-trim, but my face was narrow and drawn and my arms look skinny and scrawny to the point that even Rob got worried.
I am not interested in being there again.
Certainly, it was a charge to see those numbers click down and down and down into teenager-levels. But it wasn't healthy for a woman of my age and height to be able to wear a size 3. I don't care what the magazines and America's Next Top Model seem to say.
My goals this time around are simple:
1) Trim a few inches, especially in the area of the badonkadonk so that my summer clothes fit well and I am not embarrassed to wear a swimsuit on our cruise at the end of the summer. This will likely also mean the loss of 10-15 lbs, however, I am not so much concerned with that if everything is trim and muscular.
2) Make eating fresh fruits and veggies a normal part of life, not just something I am doing while I am working on trimming.
3) Have exercise be an integral part of my life, with 20-30 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity 3-5 times a week being the norm.
Ways to realize you are getting old in about 10 seconds flat?
Your eldest turns 17 and starts driving on her own, your "baby" turns 11, and your spouse is rapidly approaching his 40th, all within the span of a month and a half.
Honestly? I don't really *feel* older - or that I could be just over a year till my 40th. Except when I look at those dratted thighs, but as previously mentioned, I am working on that!
All of those events make me feel like I *should* feel old. And so sometimes, I think, "Man, Nicole, you are getting old." Then I immediately respond (though not out loud - yet - ha!), "But I don't feel old". And I look in the mirror, and I think that I don't look so old either.
Sure, I haven't been carded in a while, but just last weekend, I was told that The Daughter and I look like sisters - to which my darling child replied, "Does that mean I look older or she looks younger?" The kind stranger responded, "She looks younger."
(I am happy to report that I restrained myself from hugging and kissing the woman.)
I used to think it silly and cliched when folks said age is a state of mind. Now I understand.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Speaking of 40th birthdays, yes, indeed, Rob will be 40 next month. And we are having an 80s party for him next Saturday. I am so excited! We are having a best-dressed contest and trivia games, and hopefully dancing...there will be 80s music playing, of course, so we'll see if folks indulge.
I am going to try to make a PowerPoint of my guy through the years to run on an endless loop - I think folks will get a real kick out of it.
We were going to keep things low-keyed with just a small get-together here at the house. But the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to celebrate with something silly and fun.
Pictures will be forthcoming, I am sure.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
It seems there was something else I wanted to write about, but I am drawing a blank. And seeing how this little entry is quickly turning into a book....
Oh! That was it! Books! The reading challenge!
So, the short of it is, I suck. I am still on book 2!
But I have just one chapter to go. Will try to finish that today and return some time this weekend with a review.
I am probably not going to get 26 books read this year, but I am going to read those 26 books, no matter how long it takes me. Reading is another thing I love-love-love that I have not been taking the time to do. And I really need to.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
So there you have it: what happens when Nicole hasn't written any thing of substance in over a week.
If you've made it this far, feel free to resume your weekend now.
I have been very neglectful of this little blog space. Not just writing - also reading. I did catch up today - lost count of how many unread pages were in my little neighborhood! Good thing I haven't added anyone new in ages - I'd be so, so lost.
Life's just busy. And when it gets busy, something (or things) suffers. As of late, that's this little writing spot and my reading challenge.
(I am woefully behind with the latter!)
I know I need to come to this place to help me decompress, but I also have a home and a family to see to.
I also know me, and without some solitary writing time, as well as time to read about what's going on with other folks (I am an ESFJ, and for those who understand that, you know where I get my energy from), I start to get grumpy and impatient with the ones I live with.
So, how do YOU balance everyday life and taking time to recharge your own batteries?
I haven't participated in "Things On Tuesday" in I don't know how long. But, the brain is a bit fried from trying to scrunch two days worth of work into one (love a paid holiday; hate the backlog it creates), so we are going to need to keep it simple tonight.
Suckage:
- The Ravens losing on Sunday. And McGahee's tumble scared the crap out-o-me.
- Weather that is too cold for morning runs.
- Clutter.
Lovins!
- Seeing today's inauguration. Amazing stuff.
- New heating vent in my office.
- The almost daily discovery of grade and high school friends on facebook.
- How a lot of hard work on Monday has paid off into having a comfortable and serene study.
- An old favorite book whose reading is like pulling on a worn and comfy pair of slippers.
- Hot tea!
Of course I woke up at 5:30 AM. Looked at the clock, gleefully remembered that I didn't have to get up, and promptly went back to sleep until 9:30. What bliss.
Got up and got ready and went out to breakfast with Rob. Indulged in the greasy spoon that is Waffle House. Where else can you get more than you can eat biscuits and sausage gravy for three bucks?
We then proceeded to Sam's to purchase a 2-drawer file cabinet that doesn't really look like a file cabinet. It wouldn't fit in the car, so Rob had to call a buddy to bring his truck to tote said cabinet home.
We then proceeded to muddle through almost 5 months of paper work - filing, chucking, and shredding. This took many hours, but oh, my word! What a weight has been lifted from my shoulders. Every time I'd go into the sunroom where said piles and piles of papers were residing, I'd start to twitch.
From there we enlisted the help of our free child labor and began switching the rec room with the sunroom. When we first moved in, I thought the sunroom would be the perfect retreat room. We made the tiny "formal" diningroom the rec room. It didn't take long to realize that this tiny room with no door could get annoyingly loud, what with three children each doing different things (think: one on the computer, one playing video games, and another playing guitar).
The sunroom not only has a door, it has a door with windows since it is an addition to the original house, and they left the exterior door intact. So, sound dampening, but with a way for parentals to spy on childrend. So, now that room has been deemed the "media room" and the the tiny dining room is "the study".
I love it.
Alas, there are still guitars and amps in my living room and much disarray in the media room as we tweek how to arrange everything, but the study? It is open and neat and just makes me sigh with pleasure.
Sometimes it's the little things, you know?
Saturday, October 11, 2008
When we booked our cruise, we decided to fly out of an airport an hour south of us. As most of you know, we have since moved. That meant that we had to drive 5 hours to the airport. And our flight was early enough in the day that we had to get up at the butt-crack of dawn to insure that we arrived with enough time to check our baggage and get through the security lines.
The latter were surprisingly short and we made it with some time to spare...
Sunday, October 12, 2008
J & E just moved into a lovely apartment with incredible views. I unfortunately didn't think to take any photos of the outdoor mall where we had dinner on Saturday night, nor the lovely rooftop pool and lounge area where we sat and talked until way later than we should have.
Little booger.
I guess since he knows that his dad speaks Spanish and that is his first language, he just wasn't going to be bothered with English. What a stinker!
After enjoying an amazing lunch prepared by E, we headed back down to Fort Lauderdale and Port Everglades. We boarded the ship, Crown Princess, around 3:00 PM, breezing right through the check-in process. We went straight to our cabin, meeting our room steward, Henry, who gave us some instructions, answered questions, and confirmed our dining (we'd had a huge mix-up thanks to an unfortunate error on the part of our TA, but they managed to get it all fixed without a moment to spare, and we were confirmed for the late seating traditional dining room).
We went back to our cabin and started unpacking until we heard Captain Andy announce that we were leaving port. We journeyed up to one of the upper decks and joined the crowd as our ship slowly pulled away from the city.
It felt like a dream.
We spent some time exploring more of the upper decks, then wandered into one of the buffet restaurants where I bought a "coffee card" (it gave me 15 specialty coffees and unlimited brewed coffee - very important since the free stuff was nothing more than a coffee syrup added to water: blech), and then grabbed a pre-dinner snack, since our seating wasn't until 8:15 PM.
What a spread - the sheer amount of food available on a cruise borders on the obscene. The embarkation night buffet was chock-full of yummy seafood, and I especially enjoyed the plethora of shrimp. I also discovered what would become my cruise-crack: fresh pineapple.
Oh. My. Word. That stuff was like candy. I think I
We wandered about the ship a bit more, then headed back to our cabin to prepare for dinner. In order to eat in the main diningrooms, one is required to dress "smart casual" (think business casual), save the two formal nights. At first, I wasn't sure if I would like that, but I actually enjoyed gussying up a bit for dinner each night.
For those unfamiliar with cruising, traditional dining means you will be sitting at a table of 6-8 people who you usually don't meet until that first night. I have to admit, I was a bit apprehensive about who our table mates might be, but thankfully my fears were unwarranted. We were seated with a family (mom, daughter, and son) who were onboard to celebrate the mom's 81st birthday. Best of all, they were all experienced cruisers (the son having cruised over 100 times!), and they graciously answered our questions and gave us great tips and ideas.
Our servers were Florin and Renata from Romania. Florin reminded me of PeeWee Herman before he turned out to be a creepy freak. Renata was sweet albeit a little over enthusiastic at times. She also pronounced her "Rs" as if she learned English in the Bronx (which Rob found particularly humorous, for some reason).
After dinner, we did some more exploring, still trying to get our bearings on where things were and what the ships' nightlife had to offer. We saw the very last bit of comedian Phil Tag's act in the Theater. We turned in soon after...I think we were both a bit overwhelmed and not a little exhausted from the previous week.
Stay tuned for Monday, October 13th - Princess Cays (the Bahamas)!
It's crazy here.
Crunch time to get ready for our cruise, and work isn't slowing down one bit. I am so glad I like my job, or this would be a very frustrating week!
I have lots to blog about (of course!), but no time to do it.
Suffice to say, I am healthy and well, but really tired. A lounge chair on a cruise deck is not too soon in coming!
Three more days...
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