I actually have no idea what I want to say, but I just have the urge to write a post about a little story about my husband at work.
Let's just hope this is short.
John rides his bike to work everyday and wears a helmet, so when he rides up to work, he puts his helmet on the back counter and does his nerdy banking stuff. He has done this for well over a year. The other day, a coworker said, "John, if would be nice if you could find a place to hang up your helmet". John said, "yeah, that would be nice", thinking that it really would be nice, but there really wasn't any other place to put it. Over the next few days he noticed that someone kept putting it on the floor. Then finally John asked another coworker why his helmet kept being placed on the floor. She said that there were complaints about his helmet being on the counter and she also added that he had been asked several times by the assistant manager to put the helmet somewhere else.Well, that's not exactly how it went down. He was told once, and it wasn't even direct, it seemed as more of a suggestion.
The point of this story is wouldn't it have been easier the first time that it grosses someone out to say "yo Johnny, put your helmet somewhere else, it's gross on the counter"? Did they think that John would have been offended or had his feelings hurt if someone said it directly? The sad thing about this story is that I'm almost positive all of his coworkers were complaining about it for months before anyone told John. That's just a lot of bitterness building up before the breaking point.
That story sounds pretty lame. Hopefully you can read it with my intonation so it doesn't sounds so bland.
What's the point of talking behind someone's back about something that bugs you? If it is something that can easily be fixed with a suggestion, why do people wait so long to say something about it? Doesn't that just build up anger?
Oh, and please people, just be direct. My sister reminds me constantly that I'm fat instead of saying, "have you ever thought about eating more veggies? How is that Zumba going?" No. From those phrases I don't understand that I'm fat. Just tell me. Get it? First of all, I know it and if there is something that might hurt my feelings in the beginning, that's okay. I'll get over it within the hour.
Sunday, April 21, 2013
Monday, April 8, 2013
Loving the "To Do" list
FYI: I just bought tickets to see The Piano Guys in Rexburg! I love them and I'm glad they decided to come before we moved.
Do you want to be updated on my "To Do" list for this year? Here, let me first show you how organized I am:
This is my Daily planner/life list binder. As you might be able to tell, Olivia took a yellow highlighter to it. I have it separated into several sections:
1. My daily planner (so I can remember to buy my piano guys tickets)
2. 2013 "To Do" list
3. My Life List "To Do"
4. My Life List "To Go": separated into Foreign, National Parks, States, and Temples.
5. My Life List "To Read"
6. Extra Paper
This all seems pretty normal to me, but now that I type it all out, it sounds pretty nerdy.
Here are a few things that I've already done on my 2013 "To Do" list:
1. Make a craft. Done!
2. Read 50 books: I'm a little behind. I'm only on #15 and I haven't read a book in 3 weeks. I'll finish probably 2 this week.
4. Go to the Zoo: When I wrote this, I wanted it to be the Idaho Falls Zoo, but w went to the Sacramento instead. That works.
5. California Road Trip: Done
12. Make a quilt: On my life list, I want to make a quilt sewing everything by hand and since my sewing machine is not working, I thought that my first one (without my mom's help) would be perfect. Now, the quilt is not perfect. There is no measuring out or straight lines, just sewing a bunch of old shirts together then making it into a quilt. I even sewed Olivia's old bootie to a corner that looks really messed up.
17. Buy and wear a pair of non-maternity jeans: Now, I wrote jeans, but by jeans I really meant any pair or something that goes on my lower half that isn't a shirt. So I bought capris. You can see them in most pictures of me since I hate wearing pants. I figured I won't buy any jeans since I'm moving to Texas.
23. Run in Teton Dam 5k: Signed up! Doing it whether I want to or not.
26. Fairy Tale Town in California: Done!
28: Index 1000 English names: I'm pretty sure I completed this a day after I blogged about it the first time.
30. Do a mormon.org profile: I actually completed it, but I want to edit it through the year.
That's it! There are a handful of others that are almost done and most of the "to go" things are planned. I'm not sure if we will have enough weekends to go where we want to go before we move, but we'll try or find something similar in Texas.
I'm excited to finish it! You should make a list too and blog about it! That way, if I'm too lazy to do anything on my list, I can gain inspiration from yours.
Monday, April 1, 2013
Is it Really THAT Big of a Deal?
We didn't get a Christmas Tree, I went to bed before midnight on New Year Eve, nothing special for Valentines Day, Olivia's birthday was a small family party and no gifts from her parents, don't even remember St Patricks Day, Easter? I made a cake, but no family egg hunt or baskets of candy, and today is John's birthday: no presents no cake.
So I don't make a big deal out of holidays and birthdays. You can call me a party pooper if you want to, but there's a reason why I don't do that much crazy and wild celebrating.
As many of you know, John is getting ready to go to grad school this fall. That's 16 months of no income from him, but at best limited income from me. We're saving money. Wild celebrations cost a lot of money or at least will if you just think that the money that we spend now is the money that we will need to borrow with student loans and pay a bunch of interest on later. Yes, that 10 dollar box of Valentines day chocolate will end up costing 80 bucks in a few years because of student loans. (That's an exaggeration, but you see my point.) And those little things add up.
But that's not everything. I just don't see the point of making a big deal out of everything. I know kids will love it, but growing up, my parents never did anything crazy for each holiday like doing a holiday craft and buy new outfits for everyone or a leprechaun scavenger hunt, but we did do things. We always had a small family party for birthdays and Christmas trees and celebrations, but we never reserved a party hall for a 1-year-old's birthday party. I never felt deprived. Plus Christmas and Easter were about Christ's birth and resurrection, not about Santa and the Easter Bunny.
For Olivia's birthday we had cake and I bought her some shoes for her gift mostly because she needed new shoes. I asked that nobody buy her toys because she already had plenty. Of course grandparents bought plenty of clothes, bed sheets, and even a book, but I'm glad that they didn't buy Olivia and toys. Some people would say, and have said that I am depriving my child of her childhood, but really now, do you really think I am? Doubt it. Is she going to look back in 3 years on her 5th birthday and tell me, "you know mom, my childhood has been awful so far because you only bought me shoes for my 2nd birthday"? Doubt it.
I guess what I'm saying is just leave me alone. So we don't buy physical gifts to celebrate holidays. It's okay if you buy your 6-month-old a Valentines Day party basket. I think it's a little ridiculous, but if you think that's what will make your baby happy, go ahead and do it. I prefer to take my family on spontaneous trips to California, or go to the zoo, hit up Yellowstone, play in the park all day, find small unknown nature trails, bake cookies, do laundry, read a book together, sing silly songs, snuggle to Dumbo. See I do stuff too.
So before you ask me what I got for John's birthday, just forget it. I didn't buy him any gifts, I'm not making a cake (it's not a part of our healthy lifestyle to have an Easter cake then 2 cakes this week for our birthdays), but I guess I could put candles in his salmon tonight.
I don't mean for all this to sounds negative. I sound angry, but I'm not. I just do things a little differently. Big deal. However, I do love myself some Thanksgiving. It might come as a surprise that I love to cook since everything I make is usually burnt or has no flavor, but I love cooking for Thanksgiving. Now, that holiday I will go all out for. Well, no decorations, but certainly a bomb diggity menu.
So I don't make a big deal out of holidays and birthdays. You can call me a party pooper if you want to, but there's a reason why I don't do that much crazy and wild celebrating.
As many of you know, John is getting ready to go to grad school this fall. That's 16 months of no income from him, but at best limited income from me. We're saving money. Wild celebrations cost a lot of money or at least will if you just think that the money that we spend now is the money that we will need to borrow with student loans and pay a bunch of interest on later. Yes, that 10 dollar box of Valentines day chocolate will end up costing 80 bucks in a few years because of student loans. (That's an exaggeration, but you see my point.) And those little things add up.
But that's not everything. I just don't see the point of making a big deal out of everything. I know kids will love it, but growing up, my parents never did anything crazy for each holiday like doing a holiday craft and buy new outfits for everyone or a leprechaun scavenger hunt, but we did do things. We always had a small family party for birthdays and Christmas trees and celebrations, but we never reserved a party hall for a 1-year-old's birthday party. I never felt deprived. Plus Christmas and Easter were about Christ's birth and resurrection, not about Santa and the Easter Bunny.
For Olivia's birthday we had cake and I bought her some shoes for her gift mostly because she needed new shoes. I asked that nobody buy her toys because she already had plenty. Of course grandparents bought plenty of clothes, bed sheets, and even a book, but I'm glad that they didn't buy Olivia and toys. Some people would say, and have said that I am depriving my child of her childhood, but really now, do you really think I am? Doubt it. Is she going to look back in 3 years on her 5th birthday and tell me, "you know mom, my childhood has been awful so far because you only bought me shoes for my 2nd birthday"? Doubt it.
I guess what I'm saying is just leave me alone. So we don't buy physical gifts to celebrate holidays. It's okay if you buy your 6-month-old a Valentines Day party basket. I think it's a little ridiculous, but if you think that's what will make your baby happy, go ahead and do it. I prefer to take my family on spontaneous trips to California, or go to the zoo, hit up Yellowstone, play in the park all day, find small unknown nature trails, bake cookies, do laundry, read a book together, sing silly songs, snuggle to Dumbo. See I do stuff too.
So before you ask me what I got for John's birthday, just forget it. I didn't buy him any gifts, I'm not making a cake (it's not a part of our healthy lifestyle to have an Easter cake then 2 cakes this week for our birthdays), but I guess I could put candles in his salmon tonight.
I don't mean for all this to sounds negative. I sound angry, but I'm not. I just do things a little differently. Big deal. However, I do love myself some Thanksgiving. It might come as a surprise that I love to cook since everything I make is usually burnt or has no flavor, but I love cooking for Thanksgiving. Now, that holiday I will go all out for. Well, no decorations, but certainly a bomb diggity menu.
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