at least he's honest...

Watching Fleet Foxes on Austin City Limits last night with the family.  Fleet Foxes, if you've never heard, are a pretty awesome indie folk band.

Fleet Foxes wardrobe choices are a little on the quirky side.  I expect that from them, but on this episode their clothes were a bit ill-fitting.  It just looked like they tossed their clothes in the dryer too long and lost some serious inches in the pant length department.

"It looks like one of the members (male) is wearing a pair of too-short mom-jeans and weird sandals." I commented.

 GQ quickly agreed, then added "Yes, they look like mom-skinny-jeans.  Skinny moms wear those, not moms like you."

Shocked pause here.  Jaw dropping.

As I give a not so thrilled glance, I responded  "That's awesome, GQ.  You don't always have to say everything you think..."

"What?"  GQ said smiling.  (little shit)

I'm glad he's honest but I guess we now need to work on honesty and keeping opinions to yourself.  ;)

save the drama for your mama...

Wait.  I guess he actually does save the drama for me.  I should be thankful, but this mama needs a break from it.  Who knew 7 year old boys could be so dang moody sometimes?  "Some people piss me off.  Sorry, mom, I know I shouldn't say that, but they do."  At least he knows pissed isn't an everyday vocabulary word, right?

I'm thinking it's growth spurt time.  I'm hoping that's what it is.  GQ is hungry ALL.THE.TIME. He's whiney because I think he needs more sleep.  He disagrees, he wants less.  Bedtime is still 8pm, I'm not budging.  Pants are getting shorter but I don't know if that's growth or the dryer.  Time to get out the measuring stick...

deep thoughts...

OK, maybe random thoughts...

Man, GQ sure can put the food away!  Good thing he seems to have the metabolism of a hummingbird.

50 mph wind gusts do not make a day 'breezy', I think 'windy' is more appropriate.

I love the way my finger nails look when they're painted, but I'm not sure if all the work to make them pretty is worth is.  A few days later and they're chipped and need to be done again.  I still think I might like them painted enough to deal w/having to go through the process every few days.

I love a freshly dusted and vacuumed family room.  Makes me feel like I've accomplished something even when the rest of the house might be a disaster.

Little boys sure can be moody, but thinking a moody seven year old is better than a moody 13 year old.  Hopefully he grows out of by the time he's 13!


We have a pretty awesome pooch!  She's just the right amount of spunk, love and orneriness for our family.

Cuddling with GQ is the best!  His hugs and snuggles are pretty perfect.

I need a few highlights in my hair.  I'm too cheap to pay a salon to do it and have considered letting the husband do it for me.  Then I come to my senses and just figure I'll go w/out until I get to visit my sister and have her do them.

It's so cool to see/hear GQ reading pretty much everything now.  It's annoying when I'm reading or typing something and he's over my shoulder reading it out loud or asking questions about it.

I'm pretty lucky to have a low-maintenance family when it comes to dinner.  It's nice that salad or soup or smoothies will do.  I save so much time not having to plan/make a daily dinner.

I need new sunglasses but hate to pay for them.  My current pair are scratched and getting to be in bad shape. Pretty soon I'm going to have to break down and buy a pair.

I miss Ohio but have to say a winter in the desert has been pretty nice.

GQ is learning a little bit about history watching his new favorite shows...Pawn Stars, American Pickers and Storage Wars.  It's been nice not having to DVR the cartoons he used to enjoy.

 Elementary school projects are cute but they sure do pile up at home!  I hate to toss but storing them just isn't an option, by 6th grade I'd have enough to fill a small storage shed.  Time to take pictures and toss most of them, saving just the extra-special projects.

Words With Friends is cutting into my reading time.  I need to stop playing and finish my book.  It's a fun brain game and GQ likes to help.  It's good for his vocabulary and spelling. 

I have a list of about five movies I'd like to see but I'm a horrible movie person.  I feel like there is too much to be done and I don't have the time to sit and watch a movie.

I said I'd never do it, but this season I've broken two of my fashion rules.  I now own a pair of Ugg boots and some leggings.  Both of which I am wearing today.  Can't believe I was missing out on the comfort all this time!

I still need to practice my photog skills.  I've yet to take photos in manual and I'd really like to get to that point.

please don't laugh at me...

You might get a good chuckle from this, the sales girl at Verizon sure did, but I have a feature phone.  *gasp*  Yes, a feature phone, not a smart phone. 

My current feature phone is not doing so well.  It's not sending/receiving text messages like it used to.  I'm having static phone calls or it will just drop a call.  It's about three years old and really it should have lasted longer, but you have to take into account all the times I've dropped it and the phone flew one direction and the cover and battery went another direction.  I don't think that's good for a phone.

I looked around online at phones to find one or two I was interested in.  I want a touch screen but I also want a keyboard.  It limits me, I know, but I found two that worked.  Wanting to feel the phone before I commit I headed to my Verizon store.  Guess it has been a long time since I've been in any phone store because I looked completely lost as I wandered around looking for their display of feature phones.  Do you know what they don't display at Verizon any longer, at least at this particular store?  Feature phones.  There are walls and walls of smart phones, but they keep the feature phones hidden.

Why do they hide the feature phones?  I'm guessing because nobody would want to be caught with a feature phone now-a-days.  We're all high tech, aren't we?  I guess most of us are.  Not me.  Why?  I'll tell you why, I'm too cheap to pay the data fee.  Plain and simple.  I'm at home most of the day with the internet at my service, so I just don't need one.  To a phone company that probably makes huge money on data plans, they just don't get that.  So I had to ask the sales girl to pull a feature phone out from the hidden cabinet so I could touch and feel it before I committed.  (I'm sure she wondered how she lucked out with me as a customer rather than the guy coming in to look at iPhones and accessories.)


The one feature phone Verizon had hidden in a cabinet wasn't one that fit my needs.  No problem, I can look online.  I did and found my phone.  It's due to arrive today!  Exciting.  Not too exciting but I'll be glad to have a more dependable phone again.  GQ is going to be very excited because my new phone has a video camera option.  Right now he depends on dad's iPhone when he wants to make videos of his Lego creations.  GQ is always bummed when he has something made and dad isn't home, which means his phone isn't home either. 

After looking at all my options (or lack there of) as far as feature phones go, it makes me realize, this might be my last one.  If my phone lives out the two or three years I expect it to, the mobile phone companies just might have them phased out by the time I want to upgrade.  Crazy to think that, but I can see it happening.  We've come so far with mobile phones over the past 30 years, from these gigantic phones that you carried in a bag to little computers that fit on a holster on your hip or just tossed in your pocket. 

Gosh, that last paragraph certainly made me sound old....I'm going to end this now before I age myself any more.  :)

happy 2012...

A couple days late, but hope you're all having a wonderful 2012 so far!

The new year is always a time for reflection and new beginnings.  Lots of people glad to say adios to 2011 and have big hopes and big resolutions for 2012.  I don't really fall into either of those categories.  2011 wasn't a horrible year and I'm not a resolution-maker, I feel like I set myself up for failure by making resolutions like losing weight (who doesn't want to?) or saving more (again, who doesn't want to?)  If I screw up in the days after I make those resolutions, I've failed, and early in the year, so I should just give up on the rest of the year, right?

In years past I've chosen a theme and/or word to help guide me.  Simply, Moments and Execute.  Each word could mean a million things to anybody, but they were great words to help guide me in anything I wanted to accomplish.  This year, I'm slacking, I haven't had much time to think about my word, but I think I've found it:

or·gan·ize

 verb (used with object)

 

to systematize: to organize the files of an office.

to give organic  structure or character to: to organize the elements of a composition.

Now that I'm working out side of the home, I need organization more than ever.  I have a feeling I need to become a "to-do" lister.  When I was at home, doing most of the household chores, etc I could keep lists in my head.  I now require the husband to help me out and since he can't read my mind, I think making lists will help.  I'm thinking once central place to list monthly, weekly and daily lists.

I'd also like to be more on top of thinning out GQ's toys and clothing.  I did this on January 1 and will be dropping off donations this afternoon.  I was shocked at the amount of stuff AKA as plastic junk the little kiddo can acquire and he wants to save EVERYTHING.  That drives me crazy but as long as it has a place in his room, I'm sort of OK with it.  After making room for recent gifts he received I realized he has way more of that junk than I realized.  He also had a bag of rocks he collected, which weighted about five pounds, that's a lot of little rocks.  There were pine cones, too.  I'm lucky I didn't find bugs.  So I'm not longer out of sight, out of mind with his stuff.  It is going to need a quarterly thinning.  I think it will be good for us to thin out our closets and random piles, too.  As good as I think I am at keeping what we acquire to a minimum, "stuff" seems to show up and pile up every time I turn around.  


My biggest organizational task for the year is to go through GQ's stack of projects and artwork he's brought home from school in kindergarten and now 1st grade.  It's about 18 inches high, not exaggerating, so I'm going to photograph items and toss them.  It's just too much to store and will GQ really want all of them when he moves out of the house?  No.  I'll keep a select few and the rest will be photographed and compiled in a photo book I'll have published for him.  I'm hoping to take really great pics of these projects, so it's going to be time consuming.  I think I'll get out my light box and try to make them studio-looking, if possible.  I guess I found my #1 on my "to-do" list.  


No matter what your resolution or goals, if you were happy to kiss 2011 good-bye or excited for what 2012, I hope you all had a wonderful time celebrating our new year!

newest time suck...

Words With Friends...have you played?  Tons of fun, you really should give it a whirl if you have the time. 

What is this Words With Friends you ask?  It's sort of like Scrabble, but a little different.  You play on your own time.  A game can move as fast or as slowly as the players like.  And you play it on your smartphone, tablet, computer or e-reader via Wifi.  I think you can play via Facebook, too.  

I'm not a game player.  Most don't interest me.  Angry Birds is fun, I do enjoy that, but really any other video-type games don't interest me. 

Until...Words With Friends.

I think my fascination with my game will end when I beat the husband at a match.  We've played several times and so far, he's kicked my butt.  Every time.  The first time we played he wiped the floor clean with me.  Since that first game I've paid more attention to strategy and play smarter.  Our scores are getting closer and closer to each other, it's not a constant ass-kicking, but I am determined to BEAT him in the near future.  It would make the win even better if I could win huge!

Wish me luck.  And if I am slacking here it's probably because I'm challenging the husband to a Words With Friends game.

I need more hours in my day...

Two weeks ago I went back to work.  Full time.  It's seasonal work, so in a couple weeks I might not have a job, but they could also ask me to stay on.  Not sure yet that I'd like to stay.  Some days, yes, some days, no.  Guess it doesn't matter what I want until they'd actually make an offer to become permanent and I have to make a choice.

For seven years I've been a stay-at-home-mom.  I had a part time job for a few months at a scrapbook store.  That was for fun.  And I helped another friend at her scrapbook store, but that was just whenever I could go in and if she needed me.  Then last school year I worked as a substitute teacher for our local elementary schools.  A job where I could say "yes, I'll work today." or "not interested, call somebody else."  Now, I have a job and a 40 hour/week work-schedule.  I'm expected to come in and nobody calls me to ask me if I'd like to work today.  I punch a time clock.  Weird.

Jumping into the working world from the non-working world has been hard.  Harder than I thought it would be.  I wanted to go back to work, to do something, but when the time actually came...I wanted to change my mind.

My first day at work was rough.  It was the first time since GQ was born that I had to leave him.  I don't have any problem leaving him with his daddy or a sitter, but I think knowing that I wasn't going to be home to chat with him about his school day or put him to bed...man, that was really overwhelming for me.

I cried when I talked to GQ on my very first break.  Silly.  But, I missed him.  I missed our routine.

Part of my uneasiness about going to work is giving up control of my house.  If you know me, you know I'm a little on the particular side.  Some would call it a bit on the OCD side.  I like things in order and everything in it's place.  I have special way I load the dishwasher, fold clothes, vacuum, dust, keep papers, routines with GQ.  Letting hubby help with some of those chores and letting them be done to his standard and not mine...that would be tough, so I was just going to do it all.  But I found out, there just aren't enough hours in the day. 

I tried to do it all and for two weeks laundry has piled up, things haven't been cleaned and the house has become cluttered.  I've slept when I could and done enough to make evening routines easy for GQ and hubby.  I haven't asked for help but today, I gave up.  I finally admitted that I can't do it all.

So tomorrow, my day off, I am going to make a list of chores for hubby to do while I work.  I'm going to let him help around the house.  I have no idea what I'm willing to give up control of yet.

Dishwasher?  I really like how I load it, every dish has a place and there is a right way to load it.  Maybe I'll just leave him in charge of unloading?

Laundry?  I really like the way I fold the shirts and hang everything in the same direction.

Vacuuming?  That's my favorite.  I think I'll keep that one; I love seeing the fresh lines in my carpet.  {I told you was particular.}

Dusting?  All his...HATE IT!  Maybe I'll give him ironing, too? 

Bathrooms?  As much as I don't like cleaning the bathrooms, I'm particular, so I'll take that. 


Are you getting a good picture of why this is difficult for me?  Since I can't add more hours to the day, sharing chores is how I can make working work.  So, either wish me luck or help me figure out how to gain an hour or two. 

having a hard time with holiday spirit...

It's December 1st and my holiday tree is still in a box in the garage.  Decorations are, too.  And I have no desire to put it up.  Odd.  Any other year, I'd have it up the day after turkey day.  In all fairness, this year that wasn't possible because we were traveling for turkey day weekend, but the day after we got home, I didn't even think to get out the tree.  I sit here looking at the spot where I'll put the tree and I still sit, I don't go fetch that tree.  Just not feeling it this year.

No idea why I'm not feeling it this year.  I haven't started shopping for gifts yet either.  I'm making a list in my head, but it seems too early to head to the store and buy.  Maybe it's the weather?  We're in the desert and today was our first chilly day.  Leaves are starting to fall off trees but it just seems like fall, not December.

I did remember to put G.Q.'s advent calendar.  That's what they're called right?  Those things that countdown to the big, jolly-guy-in-red's visit.  So that means 24 days left until everything has to be done...tree up, shopping done, gifts wrapped.  Not much time when you think about it.  Holiday cards, too.  I have to get started on those.

Can we turn back time a little and give me an extra week to maybe perk up a bit and put a dent in my list?

thankful...

I am thankful for so many things in my life, but most of all, I'm thankful for my family.  With out them, I wouldn't be me.

Happy Thanksgiving...

sharing...

...a blog post.  Such a great post and so well written.  Click here to read and make sure you read all three pages.