Wednesday, May 31, 2006

grad photo

grad photo
grad photo,
originally uploaded by tragically unhip.
This is an old picture of my hubby's high school graduation. He's the one on the right. No, that's not me in the middle. Yes, I know they have dorky haircuts and dorky clothes but hey, this was the 90s. And we were dorks. :)

Why I might just lose all faith in humanity

Man, I can't even read the news anymore. I just can't!

This guy took his 13-month-old baby out of her crib, realized she'd spilled something on herself, and put her in the dryer and turned it on.

Could you imagine?! Good God.

On a lighter note...

I've worked in my crappy part-time customer service job for about six and a half years. Part of my job is to take customer returns.

I'm always saying that, with all the crazy stuff we see coming in, I'm going to write a book and make tons of money off of the crazy crazy people. And I've decided to start telling you all about it for free! Don't say I never gave ya nothin! :)

So yesterday was SUPPOSED to be my day off but I got called in anyway because one of my coworkers--oh, let's call her Ma, cuz that is, in fact, what we call her at work--forgot she was supposed to be closing that night even though she writes the schedule for our department and came in for the opening shift by mistake.

Holy run-on sentences. Anyway.

As is usually the case when you're NOT supposed to work but end up working anyway, it was a crappy night. I had the craziest people. Like one guy? Returned a huge $2000 flat screen TV that was a freakin year old. Why? Because he wanted a newer one, of course!! And being the store that we are, we happily gave him the refund so he could upgrade his television. He'll be back in another year to do it again.

I can't believe what people return. Another woman returned a rose bush that she bought last year. It never blossomed so she dug it up and returned the dead dry mouldering stump. I mean, I can't blame her for wanting some stinkin roses for her money but ew.

And another guy had his watch--his relatively cheap, $50 watch--for 3 years and when it stopped keeping the correct time did he buy a new battery? No, he just returned it and got a brand new one! And the lady with the cordless phone. She had it for a year and the battery died. Did she buy a new rechargeable battery, since they do occasionally need to be replaced? Why would she?! She returned it and got a new one.

Then there are the people who return and re-buy stuff they dropped out in the parking lot, the people who keep salad for two weeks and then wonder why it's all wilted so return it, the people who repeatedly return computers the very day before the return policy ends so they can upgrade...

This stuff happens all the time. I've stopped even trying to care, although I don't know where these people get the balls to return this stuff. We take it all back, and it's not my money, so I just have to keep my mouth shut. I like to think of what I'd say to these people if it were my store. :)

Wouldn't you like to know where I work?! Unfortunately, while I do hate my job, I still need it for a while longer so I won't be telling you. :) Sorry.

melodramatic me

ugh, OK. I don't want anyone out there in blogland to get the wrong impression of my hubby, or our marriage. When I wrote that post yesterday I was upset and disappointed and mad and, while I'm not apologizing for how I felt, I just want to say that I have a tendency for melodrama when things don't go my way.

Hm, that might even be an understatement. :)

So please don't think my hubby is a total jerk--would I be married to him if I was?! (Um, no.) We're a pretty good team, him and me, and we very rarely row. It's just that when we do, I go all j.lo on him. (What do you mean there's no sparkling water in my dressing room?!)

Oh and do I have to mention that he doesn't read this blog? I mean, where would I vent then?! :)

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

the birthday party that wasn't

OK, so imagine you're my husband, a very family-budget-minded fellow. My birthday is fast approaching and I have taken a day off of work to throw a party. I call you from work and say, "Hey, honey, I have the Saturday before my birthday off from work, would it be all right with you if I threw myself a party?" You say, "Sure, why not?"

Am I WRONG in thinking it's OK for me to throw a party? Am I wrong to start inviting people to said party?

So why would you, as my husband, come home today and tell me that maybe it isn't such a good idea to be throwing a party, since we've been trying to not spend money?!

Here's a little background; see, we've been trying to pay off our debt so I can quit my stupid job and stay home. And I'm really looking forward to being home and not worrying about balancing schedules and missing fun weekend stuff and all that. This is a noble goal to which I am dedicated. But the whole POINT of me CALLING to ASK if the party would be an OK thing was this very point! No, I didn't say, "Hey, honey, do we have money to throw a party?" but I figured it would be ASSUMED that that's what I meant. I mean, HELLO, what else would I mean? Did he think I was just asking for the hell of it?!

So now I have to cancel the party and uninvite all the people I've already invited. Sure, you say, I could make a budget and try to see where the money would come from but I don't want a bare-bones tiny little shindig, I want a huge, loud, fun blast! So screw it, I'm just going to cancel the party so I don't have to listen to the complaining. And while I'm at it I'll just ask to be scheduled for that Saturday after all so I don't have to be home remembering why I had the day off in the first place. And we'll just forget I'm even having a birthday.

Saturday, May 27, 2006

quick post

Ok, I don't have much time to write right now, I'm off to work in like, 5 minutes, but I just wanted to share:

Clerks II is coming out in July! I didn't even KNOW they were making a Clerks II!!

I LOVE the view askew movies. They are SO funny as only Kevin Smith can do funny. And Clerks is, I think, my favorite one. So I'm so excited that they are making a sequel. It's not going to be the same--for one thing, it's in color--but I'm sure it'll be great.

I watched the preview today on youtube and it had Jeff Anderson and Brian O'Halloran and...they look so...OLD! Well, you know, not OLD like gray hair but oldER. I mean, I know that's what happens after 10 years but it's just weird...well, anyway.. I have to get to work. Fun fun! :)
Ok, so, I'm new to the whole blogging experience, right, so I thought it would be fun to check out other peoples' blogs. Specifically other blogs by fun young mommies like me. So I click on one, I read that, it's funny, and then I click on one of the links to the blogs she reads, and that's funny too, so I click on a link to a blog that THAT girl reads, and on and on, and instead of reading them all right now I'm reading a little and then bookmarking them for later.

And my bookmark list is growing and growing...

And then there are all the links to other kinds of stuff I didn't know like, what's a blogroll? and how can I get a cool background for my site? and where should I host my blog? and this and that and finally I've got a list of sites to visit that is SO long, I'm never going to read it all! I'm totally overwhelmed! Aaaah!

So then I remind myself to breathe. I do this a lot--get caught up in something and get ahead of myself and get overwhelmed. So I just have to take this blogging thing one step at a time. Like, let's try actually posting something with some regularity, before we start worrying about making it pretty or where to host the dang thing. :)

anyway...

I was at the gym today (something else I totally get overwhelmed about; I really have to stop reading fitness magazines before I go crazy) and there was a reminder about high school reunions. Then it hit me. Holy cow I have my 10-year high school reunion this fall!

Hubby had his last year, and we didn't go. I was hugely pregnant and no one we knew was going and it seemed like too much money for something we weren't too thrilled about. So I don't know if I'll end up going to my own reunion, especially considering I hung around with a lot more people from his class then my own.

And...well, ok, I'll admit it. I'm a LITTLE reluctant to go to my high school reunion as a stay-at-home mommy with a no-brainer part-time job. I mean, I went to college! I was going to have a CAREER!

This never bothers me except when it comes to seeing people I went to school with. I'm GLAD I get to stay home with the kids all day; it's the choice I made over getting a full-time job. And sure, I hate my job, but again, it's the choice I made that allows me to be with my kids. But when I see people I knew in high school I get all insecure. I'm sure that they must be thinking awful stuff about me. I don't understand it; I am SO not like that!

At least it's getting better; the first year or two out of college was the worst. I guess that becoming more comfortable with my position in life must come with old age. ;)

Speaking of old age...my birthday is coming up in a month!! whee, I'm throwing myself a party! Every year I say I'm going to do something fun for my birthday and every year I get caught up in whatever and forget all about it until it's too late. But not this year baby! I took a Saturday off in June and I'm planning a big barbecue. Now I just have to convince hubby to do some grilling! Shouldn't be hard; a man and his grill is a beautiful thing. :)

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

celebrity baby names

for cryin out loud, are these people trying to outdo each other?!

Geri Halliwell's daughter is going to have to go through her life with the name Bluebell. That's the name of a freakin COW! Do celebrities TRY to outdo each other with the baby names just to get their names in the tabloids? Don't they even stop to think about the poor kid who has to go through life with that name? Poor kids. At least they won't go through the confusion of having the same name as ten classmates every year, I guess.

babies forever

you know, on some days, like today, i feel like i'm going to be changing diapers and nursing and burping and rocking forever and ever, world without end, amen.

i didn't sleep last night--my own fault, of course, but anyway--and then today miss r. was so fussy! i could NOT make her happy. she doesn't want to eat, doesn't want to sleep, won't burp, doesn't want the swing...

we were lying in bed, she's obviously exhausted, rubbing her eyes, and i'm staring at her as i'm nursing her, thinking "go to sleep. go to sleep. go to sleeeeep."

i'm trying the gas drops next. i was nervous to give them to her, she's only 11 weeks old, but i'm at the end of my rapidly fraying rope.

by the way, my four-year-old? has been on nickjr.com ALL DAY. i'm SUCH a good mommy.

and if anyone suggests that i should "enjoy this time while it lasts cuz it goes by so fast" i will seriously scream.

here duck ducky ducky

here duck ducky ducky
here duck ducky ducky,
originally uploaded by tragically unhip.
um, hi, i'm still not in bed. i think i'm addicted to blogging. yeah, that'll wear off in a week or so. it's that whole, good at starting, bad at finishing thing.

anyway, let me introduce you to our pet ducks. most of the houses on our side of the street--all of them, in fact, except for ours--back up to a little pond. from that pond came two little ducks--a mommy duck and a daddy duck. our neighbors think they're looking for a place to lay their eggs. i'm secretly voting for our yard. how cute would that be?! :)

the ducks started coming by a couple of weeks ago. we fed them some bread and then they started coming by every day. :) they were SO cute, waddling side-by-side, quacking to each other.

sadly, only the mommy duck has been coming by lately. i don't know what happened. do ducks break up when it's time to lay eggs? i almost hope that's the case cuz if not, i have to assume something happened to daddy duck. :( does anyone out there know anything about ducks?

miss d. is so funny; she loves the IDEA of the ducks, but when they get close she freaks out and runs away, screaming, like they're going to peck her eyes out. ew. not that i can blame her. i swear, if they thought there was bread inside, they'd come right into the house.

ok ok i swear i'm going to bed.

Monday, May 22, 2006

next february

ok, i know, i really need to get my butt to bed but i just remembered something i wanted to write about! i'm so excited, i can't believe i forgot to mention it earlier!

sunday, in church, we found out that the missions team is putting together a group of people to go down to louisiana in february to help out with the aftermath of katrina. i am not sure what it will be like in february, 18 months after the storm, but i am very excited about the opportunity. since starting at this church in '03 the desire to perform on some kind of missions trip has been growing on my heart. but i'm not sure uprooting my family and moving to zimbabwe or something is quite right for us. so when i heard about this trip i got pretty excited. and guess what? when i mentioned it to the hubby he said he might want to go too!

hm, that means we have to get someone to watch our three kids for, like, four or even five days. the flier said a minimum of a three-day commitment was requested but i don't know if the group will be staying longer, especially since they are DRIVING down to louisiana. anyway, if we split up the time between my mom and hubby's parents and my sister, it might work, especially since miss r. will be almost a year old, and out of the baby-baby stage. i am so excited!

the other thing that i'm excited about, besides the chance to help people and maybe witness to them, is that this trip is motivation to get my big rear end to the gym. i mean, what help will i be on this trip if i can't even keep up, y'know? SO...i just got together my clothes for tomorrow so miss d, miss r., and i can head out to the gym after miss j. goes to school. whee! :)

my crazy job

hm, i'm beginning to think i need to shut up at work. cuz, you know, my lousy customer-service job really sucks and in order to make it somewhat pleasant, i chat up any customer who seems in the least bit chat-uppable.

well, last night i mentioned to someone who was returning some san pellegrino bottles that i keep meaning to try the stuff, but at about ten bucks a case it's a bit pricy for me when i can buy the crap at the supermarket that comes in the PLASTIC bottles.

yes, well. this gentleman proceeded to tell me how AWFUL plastic bottles are for me and do i do anything good for myself like reading up on nutrition? and well i should check out this site and this site and read this book and his wife is this amazing nutritionist-slash-chiropracter and he used to be addicted to all kinds of paraphernalia until he met her and now he's a healthy athletic superman, and i swear he had me pinned there for twenty minutes! and my dear coworker? just kept on taking customer after customer around me, not bothering to catch my "help me" face, which just figures cuz she NEVER does any work until i actually need her!

man, i gotta stop talking to people. :)

oh hey speaking of "crap," my kids were cleaning up the playroom (after i asked for only the fifteenth time) and miss j. found a bracelet she'd been looking for. i asked her where it was and she said, "oh, under some crap." LOL i almost busted a gut but of course, as her mom, i'm not supposed to laugh so i said, "under some what?!" and she said, just as nonchalantly as the first time, "under some crap," only this time with a little impatience, like, hello ma, didn't you hear me the first time? now, if this was my fifteen-year-old or my 12-year-old or even my 10-year-old, the use of the word crap would not have so offended my delicate sensiblities, but this is my seven-year-old we're talking about! so i suggested calmly that next time maybe she might say "under some STUFF." then i promptly called my mom so we could laugh about it. :)

crap, i'm hungry.

hey did anyone else read about britney spears? her loser hubby wanted to sell info to the tabloids about her new pregnancy but she told before he could sell the info.

that poor girl. she reminds me of some girls i work with who keep going back to the same loser guy, or who are trying to get pregnant so their boyfriends marry them, who basically don't realize they're worth much more than that. i get so frustrated with girls like that--i just want to shake them and yell in their faces, "you don't need that guy! get your own life! step back and take a look at what is going on!!"

sigh... sorry; normally i don't go on about what celebrities are up to (unless that celebrity is johnny depp, then i could go on for days and days...lol) but i have a spot for people like that. :(

ok i am off to bed. hey, remind me to take some pictures of the kids and stuff. i'm being put to shame because my flickr account only has like six photos. :) i need to get a more portable camera...so if anyone wants to get me this for my birthday next month (in vivacious violet, please), that would be ok.

Sunday, May 21, 2006

rebelling

ok, i think i want to get something pierced. probably my eyebrow. this was something i always wanted to do in high school and college, but i never had the money, or i was afraid of what my parents would say, or i didn' t want to scare off my conservative boyfriend (now my conservative hubby!) or i didn't know where to go, or whatever.

but now i have the money, i don't need to worry about getting grounded by my parents, my hubby is stuck with me for richer or poorer, pierced or unpierced; i can easily find a place to go...so now the only thing i'm worried about is if my church family will flip out on me. :)

i might have mentioned that i'm a born-again Christian. normally us christians don't go around piercing ourselves; it's seen as self-worship to care that much about your apperance, i guess, or something like that. but i seem to be having a little rebellion problem lately, it's so bad! the rebellion first masked itself as doubt in my faith, but to be honest with myself, i can no longer doubt God's existence; he has simply made himself far too clear to me. but it's like i wanted to rebel in that way, and now i want to get my eyebrow pierced. i've been praying for this rebellious feeling to GO AWAY but apparently it's just changed focus. :)

so...i'm still thinking of doing it. maybe for my birthday. i'll call up my sister and brother and get them to take me as a birthday present.

then, of course, there is the issue of what kind of example i am setting for our children. i want to tell them that, as an adult, i can make decisions on what to do with my face. i know that is irresponsible though. grr, i KNOW it is but i want to do it anyway!

well anyway, stay posted and we'll see if maybe this just goes away. my birthday is in a month, so i have a while to mull it over.

by the way, i was researching online and i cannot BELIEVE some of the things people get pierced! i mean, MAN! :)

Friday, May 19, 2006

and another thing

while i'm waiting for pictures to upload i just thought of something else to write about! yay!

i love TV. i don't get to watch much, mostly just kids' stuff and what i catch while on break at work, but i have my shows i'll watch if i can. one of those, will & grace, just ended tonight, and i missed the finale! wah! i LOVE this show, love debra messing (she being a sister redhead dontcha know), love the laughs, love the show. and now its over! it ended so sweetly too--i got to see the last two minutes or so. will & grace parted ways and didn't see each other for years and years--i think cuz grace got back together with leo or something. anyway i came in on the part where will's son and grace's daughter meet at college (SO cute--the kids looked just like their parents), they go to get coffee and then will & grace meet up while they're bringing in their kids' stuff. SO cute. so sad to see it go.

the other show that just ended for the season (not for good) that i like is america's next top model. i have no idea what got me hooked on this show, i am so not a reality tv person, and hello, models? who cares, right? well, i LOVE this show! and i am so excited that danielle won! she and joanie both really deserved it, they are both so beautiful but danielle is just a great personality. i was so happy for her; so many times i thought she'd go home cuz of that crazy southern drawl. good for her though, she'll do well!

OK serioiusly? i NEED to go to bed. do you realize it is 3:40 in the MORNING?! what am i doing? just when miss r. starts sleeping, i start not? zzzzz.....

me

me
me,
originally uploaded by tragically unhip.
i'm trying to get this as my profile pic. you know, before i started blogging, i never realized how very computer illiterate i've become. i never USED to be this bad...must come with being old and out of school. :)

copying off some other blog

ok i saw a bunch of other bloggers doing this and since my blog is new i thought i'd take their idea. we used to call that "biting" like, i am so totally biting this idea off those other blogs. do they still say that? oh i'm old. :) anyhoo:

I AM: a wife, a mom, a daughter, a friend. an evangelical christian. a pain in the butt. a redhead. an ex-mensan. a geek. ticklish. a big fan of coffee and chocolate.
I SAID: I'd never drive a minivan. well, i'm no psychic.
I WANT: my children to grow into well-adjusted, kind, fulfilled, healthy, thoughtful adults
I WISH: i could lose 50 lbs by eating chocolate. that'd pretty much rock out loud.
I HATE: people who give christians a bad name. people who blow up abortion clinics, shoot up gay bars...those people are not truly christians but they become what most people think of.
I FEAR: that something will happen to my hubby or our girls. sometimes this fear is near-crippling in its intensity. life is so great right now...sometimes i feel like job right before the bad stuff.
I HEAR: my baby girl on the monitor. she's a-fussin'.
I WONDER: what my kids will be when they grow up. sorry, i know that's a lot like one of the other answers!
I REGRET: nothing
I AM NOT: motivated by money
I DANCE: like a white girl. no, worse; like a white GUY. a white guy with no rhythm.
I SING: in the car, as loud as i can. and then i laugh at the people from the other cars who see.
I AM NOT ALWAYS: obedient. sometimes i just wanna go out and get something pierced.
I MADE: some dang pretty kids. well, i had help. ;)
I WRITE: like i talk, which is good sometimes and bad sometimes.
I CONFUSE: my husband when i argue with him sometimes just for the sake of arguing.
I NEED: to lose 50 lbs. :)
I SHOULD: call my mother more, and my friends
I START: lots of things
I FINISH: a lot fewer things than i start. NOT a good trait in someone who wants to work for herself i might add.
I BELIEVE: in God
I KNOW: a lot of stuff but have no common sense.
I CAN: climb a tree, hike a mountain, put on a staged swordfight, say "do you have your license with you?" in spanish and sign language
I CAN’T: whistle
I SEE: very little of my hubby. we work opposite schedules to be home with the kids.
I BLOG: because i want to get back in the habit of writing, and because i believe keeping some kind of journal again will help me stay sane and not drown emotions with food.
I READ: harry potter, stephen king, my bible (niv and the message), blogs by other young moms like me
I AM AROUSED BY: my hubby; he knows just what to do...
IT PISSES ME OFF: when my boss tells me to do something just cuz he doesn't want us to see how incompetent he would be at it
I FIND: amusement in simple things
I LIKE: being alone sometimes
I LOVE: my little family.

first post

It is almost two o'clock in the morning, what the heck am I doing up? I got it in my head to start this blog while I was at work tonight and I've spent the last 3 hours trying to find pictures to model the design after. I'm looking for something retro, and I know the look I'm going for but I just can't find it. Why can't I be artistic? Then I could just draw the design my damn self! :)

Anyway, speaking of work, tonight was the easiest night I've had in a while. Every year my bosses ask me to make a display showcasing our graduation cakes and every year I make a really great-looking display, if I DO say so. (Well OK, last year's kind of sucked, but I was rushed, OK?! You can't rush genius!) And every year they throw my display away after all the graduations go by, so the next year I always have to make a new one. Ha, like I'm complaining!

So every year I get to spend pretty much my whole entire shift shopping for supplies at the party store and the craft store. Did you hear me? They're PAYING me to SHOP. And I actually have the nerve to complain about this job?! So that's what I did tonight. The only sucky part is walking in, through the store, with all these balloons and shit and the LOOKS I get from my (extremely jealous) coworkers! MAN! I didn't ASK to be sent all around town for the fun stuff. I didn't ASK to be somewhat talented in the creativity department and thereby become the go-to girl for any type of anything that needs to be made around here. It's just the way it is.

I do think maybe it's about bloody time I started charging for my creative services. I mean, sure, I make good money for my job, but this kind of stuff is kind of above-and-beyond, don't you think? :) Let's say $30/hour for whatever I'm doing on company time, $50/hour for whatever I end up taking home to do. Cuz it's SUPERfun trying to build my display in the bloody breakroom with all the jealous coworkers making snarky comments.