Pinterest, You've Changed Me

First of all, Shout out to Jewel (wow, I called you by your first name) for reading my blog.  Hers is pretty hilarious!  This is one of my favorite blog entries that she has written and it's not because I'm completely self-centered and it's about me.  Unfortunately the story is not exaggerated at all.  But you seriously need to take time to read that story if it's the last thing you do today.

My friend Kate signed me up for pinterest years ago, but I never signed back in and never used it.  I recently started using it because I was copying and pasting all the websites and ideas that I liked on a word document that I never saved anywhere else.  After going through several laptops, I lost all the stuff I wanted.  Now, I'm pretty sure pinterest is one of the greatest internet things ever.

I'm a changed person.

Here's some background about me:

1.  I'm not a hoarder, but I have hoarder tendencies.  My husband is what I call and anti-hoarder.  If he doesn't plan on using something within the week, he'll throw it away.  We actually make a great team.  If he hadn't married me, he would only own 2 shirts and a pair of shorts.  If I hadn't married him, I would still have my size tiny jeans that I will never fit into again.

2.  I had some old mission pictures that were doubles that I already had in my mission album and digitally and backed up on a bunch of electronic stuff.  Point is, I have them and won't lose them unless the internet ceases to exist and California falls into the ocean.

3.  I have 21 days to pack up the house, do the last finishing touches, and clean it.  Oh, and I have 2 children and a husband that already has a ton of homework before school even starts.

So what do I do?  I can't throw away my mission pictures because I'm a boarder-line hoarder.  Then again, I do already have several copies of each pictures.  And I look nasty in most of them.

I cut them up!  Into fourths.

Then on the back of each strip I wrote down a task that I need to do before I leave.

I've been doing the whole "to-do" list thing, but frankly, it's so long it's really overwhelming.  So here's my jar:

Would I have done this before I discovered pinterest?  No.  

Here was my first task:

Yep.  Vinegar my shower heads.  Done and the strip is now in the trash.  Boo ya!

I have to admit, I think some things on pinterest are a little over the top, but I do think it's a great way to organize all the things that I want to do.  Addicting?  Can be.  But I feel like I am so much more productive because I have all the ideas organized that I can just look up quickly for Olivia and Jocelyn to do.  We keep our schedule pretty well and they are mostly happier little girls.

And I want to follow you on pinterest if you are on there.  But I still don't know how to find people, so tell Kate (my bff: "it's a tier"-name that quote) and she'll add you for me.

Pet Peeves: Just Keep it to Yourself

I feel like I've been a really boring person lately.  I've been so busy that I don't read anymore, sleep, blog, exercise (which is the worst), or even cook.  We were going to leave for California yesterday, but decided to change our plans because we have so much work that we have to do before we move.  I never thought that making a long distance move and getting a house ready to rent would take up so much of my time, but it does.

I have nothing really to write about.  Nothing has been bothering me; nobody has stolen my identity; I just don't have anything to complain about it.  Isn't that what I usually do on this blog?

I'm happy all the time, even though I'm pretty tired.  I'm neglecting a lot of people, but not because I want to.

Then I started thinking really hard.  I still do have a lot of thing that really annoy me, but I just don't think about them anymore.  It happens and I don't give it a second thought.  But here is a pet peeve of mine:

Did you know that people with no children give the BEST parenting advice?  NOT!  It doesn't happen very often but it does happen.  I have been told everything from when I should put my kids to bed, when I should potty train them, how they should act in public, what my kids should eat, how much they need to drink, I should hold them less.  STOP.  That also includes old people that had kids but no longer do.  Most of the time I just wonder if they even remember what it is like to have children.  Let me clarify this mostly has to do with strangers and even friends, not so much family members because they know my children better.  Oh!  Also when I just state a fact like "Olivia doesn't like to take naps anymore" and then people start giving me advice about how to put her down for naps or what I should do, or lecture me on how important sleep is for small children.  I get it.  I didn't want your advice.  I just said something that I wish I never said so I wouldn't waste an hour listening to unwanted advice.

That's about it with the pet peeves thing.  I also hate it when people are shocked or even angry that something happened that are out of my control.  I don't want to give specific examples, but for example someone telling me not to get sick when obviously it's not something that I tried to do and could avoid, like smoking.

On a more positive note, I am moving to another state.  I don't feel like I'm moving quite yet.  We did put our house up for rent and, I'm not going to lie, the property management guy quoted us way more than we thought we could get for renting out our house.  I don't think we'll get that price, but I hope someone falls for the trap.  Oh no, I hope whoever reads this blog doesn't find out that they can rent our house out for less and doesn't take the higher bid, but I doubt my sister, the Thiots or Keltzie Smith will ever want to move to Idaho Falls.  Yep, you guys are the only 3 that read this blog, unless you've stopped...

I have been getting pretty boring.

Just to ramble on a little more, I have recently discovered pinterest.  After years of Kate Goodman wanting me to join, I finally did.  Pinterest is just a good way to collect and organize things that I want to do.  It's not as addicting as I thought it would be, then again, when I get started, I just want to surf the internet for neat ideas.

Okay.  I think I'm done.  What's happening to me.  I feel like I use to write about almost interesting things.  I know I never did, but at least my sister thought I was funny.

Gossip, Gossip, and Bitterness

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.

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.

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.

I'm A Slob, Yet So Terrified

I have a problem and I'm willing to admit it.  I actually think a lot of people know about it, at least people that I grew up with or roommates in college, but maybe not everyone I know.  I am a slob.  Well, that one everyone who has ever stepped into my house know that one, no surprise there.  But I am majorly terrified of germs.  I've decided to blog about it because I can never say it in person and I really hope I don't offend anyone who has ever done any of the things that I am about to say.  It's not you, it's me, but at the time, it's you.

I think everyone knows that I am a germaphobe.  I'm not sure to the extent of how bad it is.  Here are some examples:

1.  I wash my hands a ton.  After each step when I am cooking, I wash my hands.  If I touch someone, I can't touch anything else until I wash my hands.  In fact, my hands are so dry that there is a visible line on my wrist where I stop scrubbing my hands.  My mother-in-law even said it looks like I am always wearing pink gloves because my hands are just raw.

2.  In college, I had 3 anxiety attacks within a week of each other.  I was doing the dishes, but I just pictures the germs on the plates spreading around my kitchen.  Luckily I talked to my psychologist brother who gave me a few tips and breathing exercises to help me get over it.  I told the doctors that I saw that I must have been stressed from school which must have triggered it.  It was really germs.

3.  I hate public restrooms and I hate public people using my private restroom.  There is a reason why I have an upstairs bathroom and a downstairs bathroom.  Down is for guests, up is for me.  The other day, I have a good friend come over, but the downstairs bathroom was out of TP (I don't go in it very often), so she went upstairs.  I had to wait 5 hours until Olivia went to sleep so that my toilet could be bleached before I could go to the bathroom.

4.  At church, I am the assistant Achievement Days leader which just means that a bunch of 8-11-year-old girls come to my house and do an activity.  Yesterday they came over to do pedicures.  They soaked their feet then exfoliated and painted their nails.  Several of the girls asked if I would paint their toenails, but I just said "No, I'm not good at that".  What I really should have said was, "no because I don't want your toe fungus germs to crawl up my arms, don't want to have to bleach my hands, and even worse, don't want to breath in dead skin cells."  Even worse, their foot-soaked-water-bucket water was poured down my kitchen sink even though there were a few dishes in there.  (I baked several cakes and watched 5 children all day yesterday).  Then I couldn't use the kitchen at all until I bleached my sink.

Those are just a few examples.  Embarrassing, yeah, probably.  But, I guess this is my way to say don't use my bathroom please.

Facebook for Everyone!

It kinda bugs me when people refuse to "give into peer pressure" and get a facebook page.  It has only been very recently that I just wished everyone I knew had a facebook page because it's actually can be more helpful than harmful.  Yeah, it can get addicting sometime.  I went through times like that.  I think I blogged about this before.  I'm having flashbacks, but here are some recent examples about how great facebook is.

1.  I love to google stuff.  Googling a question that I have then finding an answer makes me feel smart, but it also takes a lot of time because I have to read the same thing on 4 or 5 different websites before I believe that it's true.  You know how much time that takes!  Too long when ya got 2 kids under 2.  When Jocelyn was first born, she was colicky.  Posted it on facebook asking for advice, went to bed, then I woke up in the morning and had a billion different answers.  It was pretty awesome.

2.  Our pipes froze when the temps dropped in the middle of the night to the negative teens.  Did I know what to do?  No.  Posted it on facebook and within 30 minutes, 4 people from my ward called to see if they could help, and my home teacher was already over fixing the problem!  First of all, I have a great ward, and second, I was able to shower and brush my teeth by noon!  Thanks facebook.

3.  Someone in my ward just adopted a baby, but it was totally a surprise.   She doesn't have any kids so she didn't have any kids stuff and I think by the time she found out that she was getting and actually having the baby didn't give her time to go out and buy stuff.  Someone made a group on facebook to get this lady baby stuff and she got the baby shower stuff she needed without the baby shower.  Just a few years ago, that would have taken many phone calls and obviously too much work and human to human communication for it to be successful.

I'm not one that posts a bunch of stuff unless I need to.  But I do like to find out who is having children or getting married without actually talking to them.  I wish we could utilize it a little better.  For example, if my ward could have a facebook group, we could have all the activities posted and links to the lessons at church on Sunday.  See.  It's pretty awesome.  Yeah, I agree that it pushes some people into reclusive activity, but you gotta get bored of facebook stalking people sometime.  Right?