Happy Birthday To ME!

Today is (was) my 27th birthday. Ever since I turned 25 and had Jacob, I have kind of forgotten my age. I frequently forget how old I am. It's certainly not on purpose. I look young enough that I'll never lie about my age. I will still look 30 when I'm 45! Score!

I have never been one for lists of goals I should accomplish by a certain age, especially since I have a knack for saying "I won't ever..." and a year later, I'm letting Jacob watch DVDs in the car on a thirty minute drive from home.

So here are somethings I would like to do this year!

Make another quilt. Specifically, this one.

Potty train Jacob.

Make enough grocery bags that I can stop using the plastic ones at the store.

Sew a skirt for me!

Get married.

Get pregnant again.

Go to Las Vegas in December with some friends.

Make homemade marshmellows.

Pay off one of my credit cards.

Have date night once a month with CS.

Create a photo wall of pictures I have taken. Make sure all of them are framed.

Have family photos taken.

Finally read the book I won about learning how to use my fancy camera.

Create enough that my Etsy store has more than two pages of items for sale.

Try to sell more Market bags at the local You Pick Farm (Happy Apple, Penrose CO).

Own a serger.

Run a 5K.

Cook outside the box. I've been very boring and predictable lately.

Try and see movies in the theatre more. Maybe combine this with date night?

Start writing stories again. I'm very caught up in creating with fabric but I would like to write down some of the stories in my head before I lose them.

Teach Jacob his ABC's.

Go to the hot springs in the middle of winter. It's so luxurious to sit in a river in your swimsuit when snow is falling down around you.

Talk to all my grandparents on the phone more.

Write letters to my college BFF every week.

Insist on a One Hour Limit of TV Time for Jacob. It's very hard to do this when I am working! I know! So bad!

Go see a play. A good one, in Denver.

Create awesome, matching costumes for me, CS, and Jacob.

That's all I have for now. I wouldn't call it a Mighty Life List, but it's a start. My real life list is much shorter and full of trips to places across the ocean.

Bullet Points Before Bed

*I got fabric today. I have a quilt to make for my mom. Never mind the fact that MY quilt isn't finished and I can't get the quilting part down. I think I have to take mine back and get a different one, I'm pretty sure what it's doing isn't normal.

*I made cookies yesterday and somehow the oven that's never warm enough burnt a whole pan of them.

*CS's brother made a snide comment on Facebook about how hard it is to see a dirty pan sitting out when it needs to be cleaned so he was going to put it into his bedroom and store it with the knives that we are no longer allowed to use. I'm refraining from commenting back about the linguine and sauce he left sitting on the counter for a few days because that's just bitchy. But I will be going to the storage unit tomorrow and getting my own pots and pans and knives out. Which I will then leave on the counter, dirty and taking up space for at least three days.

*CS and I went geocaching today and it was oddly exciting. It seems like it's a nerdy thing to do, but really it's not. We are looking for treasure! And today, we found two matchbox cars for Jacob. That's some pretty sparkly treasure right there. One car was a Mercedes! Score! (However, I suck at reading coordinates)

*I'm leaving for Ohio in a week and I'm getting very nervous. I wish CS could come with me, because I'm sad he doesn't get to meet everyone and I'm a little terrified to leave him. Things have been really good and there is no reason for me to think that he will do anything I wouldn't approve of but I'm nearly incapacitated over it sometimes. I've always had a hard time leaving him, mostly because I worried he wouldn't be able to take care of himself and the dog but now I have the added stress of wondering if he's going to be at the bar and after the bar, will he go home and what if she texts him? It's hard and I hate how i feel. I wish I could lock my emotions into a part of my brain and not revisit them but I am not like that. I feel everything.

*I have an interview with the principal of the middle school for a teaching position for 7th grade language arts. I am worried because I have to describe my perfect classroom and explain my ideas and policies. I have no idea if they will even consider me without a certificate but I'm going to try. I have to get a few letters of recommendation and I think that will be tricky since the Hobbs teachers are probably trying to deal with their end of the year stress and asking for a letter as soon as possible isn't very nice. I knew I should have asked before I left New Mexico.

*Jacob is getting his second two year molar. Maybe this explains some of his crab claw-ness. He also cried for two hours in his crib the other night and refused to sleep unless he was next to me. I really didn't think he would be able to cry it out for that long. Boy is stubborn.

We Did It! We Did It!

I made my ten orders for my party. Of course, my friend who does the business put in an order to get me through those last two orders and CS's brother's girlfriend totally saved my ass at the last minute. Thank goodness for the magic of Facebook and status updates. I got to ten and made the dollar amount of $500 for the company so I get $150 in jewelry. Which if you are familiar with the jewelry? Doesn't get you very far. So I'm trying to decide if I should get two pieces that I would never buy on my own or get three more affordable pieces.

I guess there is always next time! I can throw her another party in a few months and see what I can get at that point. Right before the holidays is either a good or a bad time for having a jewelry party. I totally convinced my brother to get his wife a ring based on Christmas presents alone. He thought maybe he should get her something more useful and I told him that no man can go wrong with getting his woman a piece of expensive jewelry. Find me that woman who hates jewelry and I will convert her. Good jewelry is one of the best conversational starters EVER.

Oh, which means that I just talked myself into getting the HUGE blue sparkly ring that I have been coveting. And maybe the pearl necklace. If only I could just use my credit card and buy all my favorite things. I mean, I am closing my Wells Fargo card this week since they want to raise my interest. Don't I get to use it one last time, for old time's sake?

Soccer! And Why I Don't Play

I have a fervent desire to see Jacob play soccer when he's older. I don't know why, except maybe because it's the only sport I have ever enjoyed playing or because I think kids playing soccer is the cutest thing ever. I'm sure CS has his own desires to watch Jacob play football or softball or wrestling but I don't really like any other those options. I also want him to take dance or gymnastics because it's good for kids to be flexible! I feel that I have a strong case for his first sport to be soccer as my friend gave him a soccer ball before he was even born and I don't think they even offer other sports for little children besides teeball.

But mostly, I just like this picture because he looks like he's posing. My little soccer model!




I was never into sports growing up. We did softball and for most of the time I was in the outfield, with my glove over my face like a mask. Or catching pebbles with it. I didn't see much action until my parents were the coaches and I got lucky if I was assigned a base. I believe 2nd was my favorite. In high school, we were required to play at least one sport a year so I signed up for soccer. I was really bad. Only worse than one of the Korean girls on the team, and I never started a game until someone got hurt. I later realized that I had horrible shin guards that gave me shin splints but I didn't realize this until after college. The cleats caused me to run really awkwardly, with my back hunched over. I had a big enemy on the team, who later became my best friend even today and she told me that I ran so badly that even the coach thought something was wrong with me. I saw a video of it once during the senior year in review video they play at the end of the school year and I finally realized why no one liked me. I looked damaged, in the head and body. I haven't played soccer again.

But I have great faith that Jacob will be just fine. I'll make sure to get him the good cleats. But I will be keeping CS from telling him to sacrifice his body for the game. I don't think they have much of a concept of that at 5. And I'd like to keep him injury free for most of his life, so let's keep the pep talks to a minimum. Ok? Good.

Armfuls

I have a lot of books.

Really, this shouldn't surprise anyone as I have a degree in English and I was a librarian for two years. I also took as many English classes as the University would allow, occasionally taking a class under a different code so I could take even more English classes. I was a Humanities minor, guess I should throw that in. Of course, I still have all my books. What? Maybe someday I will want to read Dante's Inferno (again) or Wilkie Collins novel or maybe some Russian literature.

Doubtful. But at least when I put them all on my bookshelves in my library in my house, I can say that I've read them all. Never mind the yellow USED stickers all over half of them. I was never the type to buy things brand, spanking new. Why bother? You're just going to write all over them anyways.

When I moved to New Mexico, I left many, many books behind. I took only a few that were most interesting to me, most likely to be re-read when I was looking for something to occupy my time. But then I bought more books while we lived there, and my mom gave me some for Christmas. Then I got pregnant and picked up more books along the way. My mom sent me more books. It's a cycle, really.

Now that I am back at her house, I decided to read a trilogy I own, for about the third time. But first I had to find them. Since my mom foolishly thought I had moved out for good and she packed all my things away. But not all in logical places. I went out to the shed and looked in one plastic bin and found some books. Not what I needed. I looked in the bin underneath that bin and I found some boots, purses, and more books. Not the trilogy though. I called my mom and asked her where the books were. She said in a cardboard box on the top shelf. I got that box down, maybe damaging a few things in the process, that shit is heavy. Found loads of books. Also, a dead mouse. Not with the books, but on the floor near where I was looking. So three boxes of books and I'm still missing a substantial amount of my collection. Finally, I found them in yet another bin. A very heavy bin that takes two people to get back into place.

I really need my own library.

Because I'm Helpful Like That

I tend to find a lot of things I want online. A LOT. And I show many of them to CS. But I don't really show them to him, rather I pick my computer up so he can glance at the item I want before turning it around again and searching some more. I don't always mean that I want something when I say I want it, which is why I don't give him ample time to gather all the necessary information that he would need in order to actually get me something I want this holiday season. Thus: My Online Wish List. (I have other things that are not online but online is just so much easier when you aren't close to civilization and you work 60 ish hours a week.) And for those of you not playing "What to get Jess for Christmas" just enjoy the link love. I've spend hours and hours searching the Internet for things I want.

Jess's Online Christmas List. In no special order.

1) This Etsy shop has a few Stacked Necklaces that I like. Like this one.

2) Also from Etsy, I love this but with a purple stone, not that bright pink one. The main site is here. And I wear a size 6.

3) If I ever decide to start knitting the mountains of yarn I purchased back in June, then these would be lovely to work on. I really wish that they made non-garish wooden ones, but not yet.

4) Yes, yes, I know I just bought sheets when we moved in here. But they are already falling apart and I know what I'm getting to Christmas and this will go just perfectly. Or rather, if that set doesn't come with pillow cases (as I suspect it doesn't) I like these too.

5) These are on sale and I think I need them.

I'm sure there are a lot more things I want. Need. Must HAVE. But I'm tired of looking. If you have any questions, I'm right next to you. Most likely. Or email my mom. She might know.

24

I really liked the Golden Brthday year of 23. But it's a lot nicer to say 24. Something about even numbers. I like them.

So 24 things about me:

1. I like to eat bananas with peanut butter from the jar.
2. I only use salon products on my hair. I was a receptionist at a hair salon when I was 16 and I got hooked. Plus, I have great hair.
3. I got Hunter because I wanted a big, male dog. Now, I want a Great Dane. Black female, with droopy ears.
4. I get wistful when I think about Europe, and I've only been to London once. I think it's because all the novels I read are historical fiction and they are set in London, Paris, Rome. Someday, I need to go see all the things I've read about. And maybe move there.
5. I love peacocks. I even taugh JBelle to mimic them.
6. I don't budget on a computer. I write everything down on a piece of paper from a tablet, subtracting each bill from the amount I've been paid. I do this multiple times a pay period.
7. I'm going to start teaching English tomorrow. As a sub for three weeks.
8. I have NO idea how to teach.
9. I'm sort of nervous. It's for upper Middle School and the Freshman High School. Halp!
10. I love trail mix. Especially the kind from Wal-mart, Sam's Choice Mountain Trail. Dear lord, it's wonderful.
11. I fold my underwear into neat little squares. I really don't mind folding and putting away clothes. It's kind of mindless and organized.
12. I've read Dolly Parton and Reba McIntire's biographies.
13. I used to want to be a country singer.
14. I have a good sense of direction when it comes to driving around in new places.
15. I don't function well if I don't shower daily.
16. I tell everyone Hunter is a pure Lab, but I have my doubts. Our vet thinks he might be part Doberman, because of his markings. I think he looks a lot like his dad, but maybe that's just the evil, yellow eyes.
17. I've raised pigs for about half my life. It started for 4-H, then it was just for the bacon. And, man, is that bacon good.
18. I don't like "cheap beer" but I love me some microbrews!
19. I'm about a year yonger than all my OWU friends. Which is nice, as they will always be older than I am and I can never feel "old" around them.
20. I want to make a quilt someday.
21. My first shot when I turned 21 was a Chocolate cake one, and Damian lit the sugar on fire. I wish I would have worked at a bar that made those kind of shots. You know, the good ones.
22. I want my first child to be a girl. And I might want to stop after just one.
23. I like to take the little cap on the faucet off to clean out the debris that collects inside. And I can never get it back on properly.
24. I'm obsessed with the Food Network. I watch it all the time.

My Bangin' Suit

Me: Jayden, what are you wearing?
Jayden: My bangin' suit.
Me: And did you put sunscreen on?
Jayden: Yeah, I put sunscream on.

She would also like a Princess Shooting Gun. Thank goodness her birthday is eleven months away! I don't know if we could find a shooting gun in a Disney princess theme. I should google that.

Speaking of banging suits, I'm having issues with my body. Last night at Wal-Mart, I weighed myself on a scale in the bathroom aisle. And it read: 140. Where I yelled "Ew" and pulled another one off the shelf. 140. I am not happy with this weight. In my body's defense, I did spend about two months with limited exercise and a very bad diet. Only in the past two weeks have I settled into a routine that involves walking 2.5 miles a day and healthy eating. And this is also the "rebound" weight from having my tonsils out. I didn't want to stay at the 120 I was three weeks post surgery, but I didn't want to put on 15 pounds. Although, I did weigh myself at night, rather than in the morning, so I bet at least 5 pounds could be taken off for that. Right?

In any case, my bangin' suit needs some hard work out time. And a yoga DVD.

Phone Interview

I'm currently on the phone. Speakerphone, actually. But I'm not saying a whole lot. Just listening.

My grandparents are driving up from Oklahoma and due to the insane winds of the past few days, they had a late start and decided to stay the night in Lamar. They set up their RV on the south side of Lamar for the evening. Right now there are three people in their RV, and I make an invisible fourth. The third person is CS.

All evening long, my mom kept telling me that my grandparents were in Lamar and was CS going to go see him. I told her he would if I told him about it, and she didn't believe me. So I told him and he did. I called them and told them he was coming just in case that wasn't ok. (Even if it wasn't ok, I think it would have been fair to send him over since Grandpa went on and on about how they saw him at dinner with a red headed woman and four kids.) CS sent me a message right before he knocked on their door and I could hear him over the phone. I'm very amused. I'm sure my grandpa is tickled pink. He likes that kind of courteous behavior. I suppose I do too, or I wouldn't have sent him over. It was good for a laugh though.

Tomorrow's my last day of work. Of course, I'm excited. But it's going to go by so fast. And of course, I'm stressed out about leaving because I have two little red rashes on my stomach and when I showed them to my mom she gasped and said "Oh no! Are you getting shingles again?" Which, THANKS. I wanted a more, nonchalant answer. Like, "oh, no it's just dry skin. Put some lotion on it." I'm sure I'm not getting shingles, those spots hurt the last time. And I'm sure it's just dry skin and I need to put some cortisone on it. But it's not really something you want to think about right before you lose your health insurance.