Traditions

Some traditions, you begin and continue without much thought. It doesn't take much thought for me to avoid even leaving the house on Black Friday. I have no desire to get out there in that mayhem, so I don't. Instead, we have turned the Friday after Thanksgiving into "decorate the house for Christmas." There was some discussion on if we should even decorate. Our furry children have tripled since last Christmas and so there is a LOT of attention being given to the new set up. Blue has taken to climbing the tree. Lucy has taken to removing the ornaments and leaving them around the house. And both of them have a new enemy. Enter, Mr. Snowman.

Lucy went ballistic when we first put out the snowman. She was growling, barking, jumping toward it and then away from it. Even taking it down and letting her sniff it didn't seem to help much. She was convinced that she needed to be on the alert or the snowman would attack. Even Blue approaches the Snowman as a stealth hunter: crouching low and approaching ever so slowly. We'll have to see what the future holds for Mr. Snowman. I'm not holding out much hope for him....he is fairly defenseless and full of the stuffing that Lucy enjoys eating so much.

Hole

In the past two days, two of my friends have had babies. And then this morning, another friend posted on facebook that she is going to have her second. My facebook newsfeed is filled with baby and ultrasound photos. I'm so happy for all of them, but alongside of that happiness is sorrow, and it honestly feels like there is a hole. I've tried to fill that hole with my husband, work, furry children, and most days I'm ok. But then there's days like yesterday and today where I have the constant question going through my head, "why not me?" And yet I look at my life and I can't imagine fitting children into it all. And yet, I guess I wish I had the chance to find a way...

Full Steam Ahead

I believe I've mentioned that I've gone back to working full time. I received a promotion at work and am really honored to be trusted enough to be a part of the Development Team at the Museum where I work. We have some ambitious goals for this year and basically, when I started full time again this past Tuesday, I literally hit the ground running and haven't had a chance to look back. I've gotten a new office (it actually has a door on it!!!!), new responsibilities, and a new boss. Truly a whirlwind of a week! Not only am I hitting the new job full throttle, I am continuing to cover my old position as well until a replacement comes on board and they are fully trained. Needless to say, the day flies by and I'm almost breathless by the time it's over. I'm not sure how you can achieve breathlessness sitting at a computer all day....I guess I'm just gifted or something....or REALLY out of shape!
Speaking of being out of shape, I've signed up for a run. As I've mentioned before, I have been debating signing up for another run for months. I decided that what's most important is not what I've done in the past, it's starting fresh and going at it again. When you fall off the horse, you're supposed to jump right back on, isn't that right? And although it's taken me a few months to jump back on the "horse" I have done it. The Holiday Hustle will be held on December 3rd in a nearby town. I'm very thankful that it is going to be in th elate afternoon vs. the early morning like most races are! December 3rd will be downright chilly in this neck of the woods....oh yeah, did I mention it? We had our first snow yesterday.I was actually able to see it from my office because my new office has a huge WINDOW!!!!! 
Although winter is fast approaching (ie: here already) things are on the up and up!

Oversharing

I tend to overshare. I've decided that it's my parents fault as we had weekly family meetings to discuss who knows what and I had a mother that when she was overemotional would explain her cycle to us. I would die or pray for death when these conversations were taking place when I was a child, but now I see myself doing it as well. However, when you are on the opposite end of an overshare it can be a bit odd. I had that experience yesterday.
I forgot to change my phone from vibrate to ring and forgot to plug it in to charge Sunday night. I took the charger to work Monday morning thinking I'd plug it in and literally was so busy I never had time to even plug the darn thing in.  I don't know about you, but when the plug is right next to where you are working and you literally do not have time to plug it in, that definitely means you are having a busy day. By the time I left work the phone was deader than a door nob. So, I plugged it in when I got home. When I was finally able to turn it on again I saw that I had three missed calls and two messages from Sunday evening. I listened to the most recent one first:
"Jenna, this is Nicole from New Wave. Our driver can't find your house and you need to answer your phone."

I listened to it twice because I really wasn't sure what I was hearing, but sure enough, she said "New Wave." I've never heard of New Wave, but I was afraid that it was some company that was trying to deliver Christmas gifts.

Then I listened to the first message:
"This is Daryl. I'm the New Wave driver and I don't know where you live."
I looked at the timestamp of when these calls were made and they were made on Sunday night around 8:45 pm. It seemed like a very strange time to deliver Christmas gifts, but I thought I'd make sure.

"New Wave Chicken and Fish" the man said when he answered the phone. I explained that I had two messages from this number from the night before and he said, when were the calls made? I explained they were made around 8:45-9:00 pm. He said, "oh, well that explains it. The girl we have answering our phones is cross-eyed and gets numbers switched around at times."
uh...excuse me?
"Yeah...oh don't get me wrong. She's real pretty...she just has crossed eyes."
ok. Thanks for clarifying.

Very odd conversation, I must say.


On a side note, I begin full time today. Hopefully my mind will continue to work after 1 pm!

Switcheroo-Chango

In July I switched from working full time to part time. There were lots of reasons and the time between July and today, I have had every afternoon to accomplish all of the amazing things that I never had time to do when I worked full time. Instead, what I have done is a WHOLE lot more TV watching. I'm now completely addicted to The Closer starring Kyra Sedgewick. Don't get me wrong. I didn't sit at home every afternoon and eat bon bons.  I was able to clean the house, go grocery shopping, and make every doctor appointment without ever having to take time off from work....and still fit The Closer in each day... :)  When I went part time, sacrifices were made. We agreed to make our trip to Pittsburgh our birthday and Christmas gifts to each other, and I went on the grand adventure of coloring my own hair. I know that penny pincher experts say that is a "no-brainer" area to cut costs, but after doing this since July, I beg to differ. I have not found that coloring my own hair has resulted in the amazing effects that I receive from Pam at the salon. In fact, I haven't colored my hair in about 5 weeks because that was when I first started to hope and pray that a full time position would become available and I didn't want to get a position and then have to put off getting my hair colored because I needed to allow my hair to recover from a self-dye job.
An opportunity has come my way that I just can't pass up. A full time position has come available that will provide me with an amazing learning experience, a great challenge, and a fantastic resume builder.Since I quit teaching, I've had a job. Now I'm looking at building a new career. And I'm incredibly excited about it. And after calling Nate and my parents, I called Pam, my hairdresser, and made the first appointment possible to turn this wooly mammoth mane I'm currently sporting into something more tame. Unfortunately, Pam is on vacation and will be for the next two weeks. So, wooly mammoth it will be until November 19th. The new job starts next week!