Proud to Be an American

Today, Barack Obama became America's President Elect, nominated to be the 44th US president.

I voted for John Mccain.

Why am I feeling so proud to be an American? At the end of the day, I listened to the heartfelt speeches delivered by both candidates, and I was truly touched. They were amazingly gracious, and each of them clearly love this country in a way that I don't believe the average American has felt since 9/11. We seem to have lost that spark, that love affair with our great nation.

And tonight I felt that again.

I honestly don't know what the future holds, and I am of course (as a conservative christian) worried about America bringing about her own destruction as more and more concessions are made in the name of equality and human rights. I fear that there will be no end, and that in time, all things will be acceptable in our society. But I love this country, and I love my countrymen. We all struggle with different things, different ideals, different values. But I believe John Mccain said it best when he said that we are each united as Americans.

If we could each be passionate about our positions, while still respecting one another in the manner that Obama and Mccain did tonight, then I know we could finally cross party lines, demographics, classes, races, etc. to truly unite this country.

I look forward to seeing what the future holds.

No Wisdom Anymore!

As many of you know, I had my wisdom teeth removed yesterday. I have been putting this off for YEARS and YEARS, but I was thinking I would just ignore it as long as possible. Well, it was no longer possible, and I had to get it done. Thankfully, I have a fantastic dentist who really did a great job for me. But I had no idea that it would be such a barbaric process! Most of you have probably already had it done before, but I was pretty shocked at the amount of force needed to remove those little buggers. It was like tug-of-war in my mouth. But I was a trooper, and the dentist told me I was the first one to clap when it was all over. Unfortunately, the pain afterwards was HORRIBLE for me. I am not a pain wuss by any means...I've had 2 children, one with no drugs at all and the other an emergency c-section. And I can honestly say this was the worst pain I have ever experienced in my life. I was out of my mind with it, and the ibuprofen they told me to take was not cutting it.
Anyway, I got it under control with some more doses of Tylenol and ibuprofen, but I think the whole experience has left me somewhat traumatized. Speaking of, time for more meds...

Back to Blogger

I suppose I have to admit that I have been blogging over on MySpace for the last year or so, which is why there haven't been any new posts here. The problem for me is that there are just too many online communities to join, and each one has their unique pros and cons. I even joined Facebook (finally) after realizing that many of my MySpace friends were there as well. *sigh* How does one keep up? So, I am thinking that I might just post my blog in three places in order to maximize exposure. Or whatever. I think the real problem lies with me, and this need that I have to participate completely or go home. Hence the reason why my blogger account has been so sadly neglected. But the discovery of all of the new nifty templates out there has re-inspired me, so here I am.

I don't really have time for a whole mouthful right now, but I will try and post some recent pics and updates tonight after the little ones are in bed. I am looking forward to it.

Pasadena: Day 1

So I accepted the job with Mimi Maternity. It is bittersweet. While I am happy to be making money and contributing to the family, as well as getting a chance to get out on my own and away from baby life for a little bit, I am pretty sad about it all as well. It is so hard to be putting Henry is in daycare and its also difficult to face the fact that I wont be home or see my family as much. But allow me to fill you in...

I flew to LA for my interview on Tuesday and it went very well. (I got the job after all). They are paying me a quite nicely too! I have to be able to afford daycare and the commute. Because there is no store similar to mine in the area, I ahad to fly down to LA and then drive to Pasadena, CA in order to spend a week down here training. I am still having a hard time realizing that I wont get to see Mike or Henry until next Sunday, a whole week away! I have cried plenty today, let me tell you.

So I had a nice flight, very uneventful. I was picked up by the District Manager of the area and she took me to the hotel. Turns out that I wasn't notified that I was expected to pay for my own hotel and I would then be reimbursed. Well, I don't have $1500 just lying around, so the Regional Manager had to come and pay for my room. She was really sorry that I hadn't been informed, so it was ok.

The hotel itself is very nice. Easily the nicest place I have ever stayed. The soaps and shampoos are even from Bath and Body Works. Awesome. I smell like coconuts and brown sugar. Yum.

I get to expense all my food, which means I can get room service if I want. It feels so decadent to me. I don't want to take advantage.

I decided to go for a walk and see how long it will take me to get to the mall in the morning. It was a nice walk. There are a lot of neat shops and SOOO many nice restaraunts! Too bad they aren't the kind of place that you go alone. Maybe some day Mike and I can visit this area together. I decided to stop and get some dinner at Subway. I was surprised to find that even though gas is 50 cents more expensive per gallon here, Subway was a buck cheaper! Woot Woot! I stopped and chatted a few minutes with some guys that were handing out Bible tracks. They were nice guys.

So I took a shower and watched some TV. Now I am getting ready to go to bed and start my new job in the morning. Wish me luck!

Oh man, I miss my family so much already!

New Laptop!

WOOT WOOT! I got a new laptop! My very OWN I might add! One of Mike's coworkers was selling it for a really great price seems how she just got a new one. I am really excited about it. Now I'll have something to take with me on the plane ride down to LA.

In other news, I have an interview on Monday with the same company that my sister works for. They are looking for a manger for their new senior housing project in Silverdale.

We'll see...

Back to the Grind

Well, its almost official - I am heading back to work. I am uncertain how I feel about this. One side of me is pretty excited - I would like the chance to get up and get dressed in nice clothes and commute to my job where I get to be a grownup for 8 hours. The other side of me is really going to miss this weird sort of rigid freedom that I have as a stay-at-home mom. While I have to respond to Henry according to his schedule, I am still able to hop in the car and go to the store, or turn on the television, or go outside - whenever I want to. I was really looking forward to this spring when Henry will be walking and it will be nice outside. I want to work on my yard! So I am very torn when it comes to my feelings about all this.

Why go back to work then you ask? Well, Mike was finally offered a permanent position with ArenaNet (Yaay Mikey!), but because of the many great benefits they offer, his take-home salary is 15% less then it was before. That combined with the fact that my unemployment benefits expire soon leave us with a financial pickle to solve. The only immediate solution is for me to go back to work.

I have found many amazing opportunities though! Right now, I am considering accepting a position with Mimi Maternity as the Store Manager of their Bellevue Square store. It means commuting a pretty good amount each day, but the pay is so much better over there. It's just not even in the same league as Kitsap County. However, when I went to check out the location, I was a little surprised. It is the top money-making store in the district (and maybe even in the country I was told) and yet the store itself looks like a clearance store or something. And it really sticks out in a mall like Bellevue Square where stores like Coach, Barcellino, and Sephora are decked out to the nines with beautiful displays. I am hoping that the store lo0oks that way because it is being run by an assistant manager right now as the store manager position is open. We will see.

I like the idea of this job because it fits so well with what I am trying to do with my business as a childbirth educator and labor doula. I am currently studying for my certification and a job like this would afford me never-ending supply of clients. However, I have to pass a credit check and although Mike and I have excellent history for the last 4 years, we didn't before that, so we will have to see. I am hoping to hear back sometime today.


In other news, I am going to be painting a mural for a friend of my Dad's that will be done is sections here and then assembled down in Arizona. I am excited about the opportunity to really see how well I can do this. I am hoping that it comes out really nice.


Henry just turned 10 months old! I can hardly believe we will be having a first birthday soon!


Our dog Gracie is getting BIG! She is going to be ginormous when all is said and done. She is a good girl though, and Henry likes her.


Well, that's all I can type for now. Henry is grabbing my legs and crying - I think someone is tired. Bye for now!

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

I was sitting in the house feeding the baby this afternoon, and I kept hearing this strange noise outside. I couldn't really figure out what it was. After a little bit, I realized that it was what I thought was hail. On closer inspection, it was more little round snowballs. And it just kept coming and coming.

So of course I had to get out the ol' trusty camcorder (thanks Mom!) and I scooped up Henry and we watched it for a while. It didn't take long though for me to notice that it wasn't slowing down. Suddenly I realized that it was snowing! Woo Hoo! Well, what is a self respecting Mommy to do but bundle up the baby and head outside!

I was shocked to see that cars were already getting stuck on my street's slight grade. Everyone was leaving the school across the street and there were almost a couple accidents. Some were just being too over-confident in their vehicle's ability and those people almost hit the more cautious drivers.

Henry and I spent 15 minutes or so outside taking video and pictures before we headed back in. He looked like a little blue starfish sitting there in the snow!

Poor baby kept trying to grab the snow and check it out, but his hands were inside his suit to stay warm. It was quite comical! I am hoping that we can go outside and play some more tomorrow, as it was already starting to get dark when were out there. There is even more snow now, as it kept coming down for a couple more hours, so we should have plenty to play in tomorrow. Poor Mike though! He is stuck at work and thinks he is going to have to stay the night at work! I think that's a good idea because the roads are really really bad. There is no way he could make it home in the Mustang.

Henry and I also enjoyed a nice walk outside today.

We just went a few blocks away to the local grocery store, but it was a beautiful afternoon, although quite chilly. We had a good time! By the time we got home, my little guy was sound asleep, all cozy in his stroller.

On another note, I am very excited about moving forward with my business. I would like to enroll in Childbirth International's diploma program as soon as possible. It will help potential customer's to trust my knowledge if I have the certification. What I like best about their training is that they allow me to develop my own teaching style and my own lesson plans. I have been fleshing those out for a while now. I am not interested in teaching some standardized version of childbirth education. I have a pretty clear picture of the topics I want to cover and the direction I want to take. I also have several product ideas that I want to develop, so I have been researching how to do that. Its very exciting stuff!

Oh! And I discovered Rhapsody's music service today. So far, I like it better then iTunes, and certainly more then eMusic (they have a terrible selection of music that I like). I would compare Rhapsody to the Microsoft Zune service, which I really liked. Too bad Mike and My Zune's wouldn't work on our computer. (No known reason either. Even their techs couldn't figure it out, and they told us to return them.) I've always known about Rhapsody, but now that I have an iPod, I am searching for that perfect music service. It has a really nice interface, and a great selection.

Well, that's about it for now. Henry is in bed, so I'm gonna make some dinner, kick back and relax. I hope none of you are out there driving in this craziness!

Oh Oh Oh! I almost forgot! I am COMPLETELY salivating over the new Apple iPhone!

I cannot WAIT for it to launch in June! Come to Mama! Oh yeah! Check it out here.

OK, I'm signing off for realsies now.