• Q:  How are you?
• A:  Good

• Q:  How’s Work?
• A:  Good

• Q:  How’s the family/wife/husband/kids?
• A:  Good

COME ON!  There is so much more to the story.

Earlier this week, a dear friend came to visit and when she asked, “What do you WANT to do?”  I started to say “I donno” and change the subject, as usual.  Then I stopped.  I did know.  I just didn’t know how to translate it into a job.  So instead, I just admitted this and a relatively short discussion reveled that she actually has a friend who helps folks find the experience for the job they want, embedded in the stuff they’ve already done.  KINDA IMPORTANT don’t you think?  If I had only said ‘I donno’ I would never have learned this.  And now, I have some butterflies in my belly at the idea of making a shift in 2012

Answering questions thoughtfully, listening and asking questions in return can lead to really surprising information.  (ok this particular frend probably would have told me I was lying and we would have gotten there eventually, so good friends are also a good idea. Listening and asking questions also leads to good friends.  Go figure.)

And also?  VERY EXCITED FOR 2012!!!

Just thought I would mention that

And even more than that – all that new and fresh and interesting motivates me to do the same. 

i need an update!

Thank  goodness it’s so close to January – the legendary month to kick off updates!

So I have decided in these last few weeks of December, instead of stressing over not really following my own challenge (hey, I tried!  Be quiet, Yoda) I will plan for my own update.

So far I have:

1. Write more and hit that blue ‘publish’ button even if i think it’s not good enough
2. Encourage even more people to do what their hearts tell them.  (seriously, nothing is more soul satisfying!)
3. Eat more veggies! (even us veggies sometimes get stuck in a carb rut)
4. Be thankful and enjoy
5. Buy some new clothes already! Yesh! so over the frump.
6. Sleep 8 hours a night, preferably uninterrupted (hahaha i think i need to inform the baby about this one)

Ok that’s all I have so far.  What about you all?  Anything exciting I should add to my list?  Inspire me with some ideas please!!

apparently I eat more fried food than I would have liked to admit.  

There.  I said it!

However, I also figured out that I don’t really care all that much about fried foods – I don’t seek them out.  Which is likely why I never really realized I ate that many.  If it’s there I eat it, which is not a good thing, obviously.  Now that I am aware, this whole ban of fried foods for November thing is turning out to be rather educational. huh. (aka “funny”, see above)

Last night we went out to dinner and I avoided fries and other various unhealthy options.  But then I got the Caesar salad.  Not sure if that was a healthy option, but I figured it was better than the mac and cheese!  Of course, I added an alcoholic creamy beverage.  so um.  maybe the fries would have been better?

Really though, while my partner in crime over at SingleishMom might be losing more weight, I can’t really complain that during my halfassed attempt this week, I lost 2 lbs.

What? oh yes, you read that – 2 pouds buh-bye.  Now let’s just see if that was water or if the scale continues it’s downward trajectory this week.  I will also claim that she has more online support with twitter and what not.  (yes, twitter on my iphone will not work, nor will it allow me to install iOS5.  Whole other annoyance on that issue).

Now that I will have a full week of no-fried foods and OK FINE I will take the stairs more and keep other crap to a minimum.  maybe. ok I will try. goodness those hairy eyeballs are frightening.

Your turn – what do you plan on changing this week?  Are you avoiding fried foods too?  It’s comfy on this here bandwagon, you should hop on!

food is DELICIOUS!

However, since I apparently don’t melt in the rain, I have to try another tactic.

My friend over at SingleishMom and I were talking about this and came up with a way to make it kind of fun to change things up:

We are going to try giving up one thing a month for the next 6 months.

We figure this is a lot easier than trying to give it ALL up at once – FOREVER!  That is so not gonna happen.  This way at the end of the month we can determine if we want to add it back or not.  If nothing else, it forces us to change our habits and shake things up a bit!  And likely, lose some weight.  At least that’s the goal.  Plus it’s a little bit of a creative outlet for me – I loooove trying new foods and recipes!  I may also be doctoring some old favorites to see if I can make them healthy AND delicious.  I do like a challenge.  A delicious challenge is even better.

SO

November – we are in you already.  A little bit of a late start, but for November we are giving up:

*drumroll*

FRIED FOODS!

What does this mean?  We are not eating ANYTHING deep fried. Until December.  Pan frying/sauteing does not count. I am all for enjoy a sauteed onions and seasoning in butter or olive oil in whatever is required to make yummy food.  However, battered onions in 3 inches of oil? a polite ‘no thank you’.

We may have strategically selected fried foods because of Thanksgiving.  Maybe.  No fried turkey!  But then, I don’t eat turkey anyway, so more veggies for me

If this inspires you – JOIN US!  Let me know in the comments or write your own post about it and link back so we can add you to our blog roll.  I can’t wait to see what people come up with.  Of course, you are also welcome to sit there with your french fries and your fried crispy turkey leg and mock us.  But really?  It’s only 28 days.

1. You have lists on random pieces of paper all over the house, in your purse/pocket, in your car, at your desk – basically everywhere
2. You have electronic documents  lists in google docs and/or your phone
3. When using electronic lists, you wonder if you want bullets or numbers, which is most appropriate for this particular list?
4. Other people make fun of your lists and you didn’t even realize you were making one
5. You start to twitch when you have a lot of things to get done – and no pencil/paper/iphone with which to make a list

It’s funny how list people and non-list people marvel at one another.  What I find so surprising about non-list people is that when given a list, they just generally follow it.  Me? When I make a list I am editing, rearranging, reorganizing, prioritizing… it changes CONSTANTLY making last minute substitutions, and then sometimes  don’t even follow it *gasp* (sometimes).

Ok so mostly that’s at the grocery store when i decide that $6 is too much to pay for hummus thankyouverymuch.  That one will wait for a coupon!  Of course that goes on the list, don’t be ridiculous!  This blog however, has not been on the list – obviously.  But ahh I feel so much better now, it is not only on the list but getting up there in priority ranking.

So, what I really want to know, is how do non-list people can function?  How do they hold all the stuff in their heads that they want to get done?  Do they not want to get things done or are they just better at not needing to write things down?

I really am curious – are you a list person?  If not, HOW do you do that?  I’m getting all twitchy just thinking about it!

This time i kind of have a good excuse.  April 25th I woke up at 12:30 at night in horrible pain!  And it came and went every 5 minutes!  Yeah, I was in labor  And a short (if you can call any labor short) 6 hours later, my baby girl was born!

Now that she’s three weeks old, I figure I am so behind on sleep it might make for interesting blog posts.  Or at least entertaining for me to write.  I have a feeling i will regret this decision once I get some sleep.

It’s kinda crazy, our son (who will be 5 in june) is now the Big Brother he always wanted to be.  Specifically, he wanted to be be Big Brother to a Baby Girl.  He might be spoiled because he has gotten exactly what he wants, but I dont care because he i so sweet and umm will do anything i ask in the name of Baby Girl.  I may or may not be exploiting this new development.

So the day before she turns 3 weeks old, Baby Girl met another newborn milestone.  Her very first blow out.  awww isn’t it cute?

no, no it isn’t cute.  It’s a big stinky mess, actually.
But it happened while she was in a bouncy chair, so not ON ME!  Score!
And my husband picked her up and discovered the explosion.  Score AGAIN!

So all in all, it’s been a pretty good month.  Now to just keep up the writing!

If there is betting, please publish odds in the comments.

So yesterday, I had a fun little diversion from the mundane!!!

Around 1:30 I got a call from Business Services (aka the mailroom) to say I have a package and they cannot find me.  It’s a big building, so I give them directions to my little cube.  About 3 hours later they find me.

It’s a big building, but 3 hours?  Really?

So finally around 4:30 the nice guy finds me, hands me a FedEx box and asks me to sign the tracker thing.  Sure!  fun!  A package!
I remark to the delivery dude, while giving it a good shake for emphasis, that for the size, it feels light.

We laugh politely, if not awkwardly.

He finally leaves and I tear it open, all excited to see what treasure has come my way unexpectedly!  I know you are wondering too, what did I find?

Nothing.

Yes, literally NOTHING was inside the box!

I looked around nervously, half expecting people to jump over cube walls, pointing and laughing… nope…

Just me, alone with awkward weirdness.

I poked my head in the box again, felt all the edges – maybe i am missing something?  Nope, it’s most definitely empty!

Finally, I looked at the label and it’s addressed to my company, first name, last initial and my department (not my whole name?  what?) and is from Overstock.com

I figured, eh, I have time, I can figure this out!  The only number I had to go on was the tracking number on the label.  I went to FedEx.com and entered the tracking number.  Simple, right?

Wrong!  I get ‘invalid number’ !!!

I look closer at the label and realize it’s a UPS label on a FedEx box!!

ARE YOU EVEN JOKING?!  This is more fun than Facebook any day!

Of course, all UPS tells me is that yes, in fact, the package was successfully delivered!  yay!

Ahem.  So um… still no idea what I was supposed to do with an empty box…

To Overstock.com it is!!  Their little web chat help application is fantastic.  I spoke with Ashley P and she was super helpful – not even any scritpy fake interaction either!

I explained the situation and she tried to look up the order with the ‘to’ information.

Guess what?  NADA!  I just hope I won that days ‘weirdest issue’ award for her.  She was at least able to pass on to the shipping folks that MAYBE they would want to keep UPS labels on UPS boxes and FedEx labels on  FedEx boxes… maybe.

Now all I can do is wait for someone to ask if I received their ‘special surprise’ to which I can respond “Well I got a box that fully entertained me for 2 days, is that what you sent?”
Hopefully they will follow-up with whatever was supposed to be in the box.  Or not, depending on what it was (what?  I’ve had my fun, I do not need a chia pet!)

Either empty boxes really are more entertaining than you remember as a kid or I am easily entertained.

You’re right, probably the latter.  (but remember, this is why you love me, I laugh at your jokes even when they aren’t that funny!)

Any excitement going on at your office this week?

UPDATE:  The mystery has been solved!  One of our other divisions had sent something for the holidays to my team via me – only someone at Overstock shipping put the shipping label on the wrong box!  They are great though and are resolving.  I did thank the team for the beautiful box of air and then shared with the team

As much as I want this adventure, I am not sure I want the instability of not knowing where we will end up.  But that’s part of the fun, I tell myself.  Daily.  Actually after a while it all starts to feel normal.  Like the counter tops have ALWAYS been cleared and the house clutter-free!  I just have to remember that all our decorations, crafty things, etc. are in storage.

The best part has been doing this in the Fall.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE the Fall!  So it’s been easy to make LOTS of weekend plans so people can come see the house.  There are literally more Fall activities than you could possibly attend every weekend!  Even Johnny is calmer when out and about because, well, what else are you going to do?  Can’t go home!

Our next door neighbor is a home-brewer (as in, brews 15 gallons of beer almost every weekend!) and checks out who is looking at the house and chats with them a bit about the neighborhood.  He is a friendly guy and, well, who wouldn’t want to live next door to the guy who makes beer and SHARES?!  Yes, we do keep trying to talk them into moving next door where ever we end up, why do you ask?

So would you buy a house decorated with tons of Halloween decorations?  Because our 4 year old is getting into Halloween for the first time this year!  Who knows, maybe some ghosts and jack-o-lanterns and witches will brew up some buyers.  If not, we will have a haunted good time!  muahahahaaa

And said “You ARE painting this right?” so I chuckled and said “well of COURSE!  We can’t sell it looking like this!” thinking I was being funny.  Without even looking at me, she responded “Ok good.  What color are you painting it?” I believe my exact words were:  *blink*

Now, I really would be repainting the kitchen and I realized I had no idea what color would work.  WHAT TO DO!?

ooh right, ask for help.  Crazy idea!

So I asked Nancy for suggestions, and do you know what her brilliant idea was?  You will NEVER GUESS:

Nancy:  Just paint it the same color as your living room
Me:  The light tan color? (as I peek around the corner to make sure I had that right)
Nancy:  Sure, it’s neutral and will make the white pop
Me:  *blink* never thought of that

So we painted.  I can’t even pretend it was really all that hard since it’s a rather small (and ok OLD kitchen) but it was a hell of a lot more fun when my neighbor Catherine came over to help!

I never knew I would like tan in my white kitchen with green counter tops… the consistency with the living room is fantastic.  Yet it still looks different and fresh and new in the kitchen.  All I had to do was ask!  Frankly, I wish I had asked Nancy about 5 years ago.

Funny how sometimes in life that nagging question about  what should you do next is just the same thing you have done before, applied to a different part of the room, situation, you.  Light shines differently on the old thing re-applied to the new space, now it looks like something new and exciting with the added comfort of familiarity.  I’m pondering this nugget of wisdom as we decide what to do after we sell.

What are your next steps?

No, we are not helicopter parents.  Maybe.  Ok not in this case.  This time, we were just both as excited to go visit the National Museum of Natural History as the kids were!  Of course, they have no idea what it is, but figure it’s something exciting.  I haven’t been there since I was a little kid myself.  Which is kinda sad considering I have lived around DC for the last oooh 10+ years.  (ok REALLY sad)

The museum is HUGE so we only did a few parts, mostly extinct creatures and bugs.  It is amazing how crowded this place is for a random Tuesday morning in August.  I cannot even imagine over the weekend.  I am not sure I want to find out, which is probably why I haven’t been there in a few (a lot of) years.  We did have a really nice picnic lunch outside under the shade trees – and the kids literally ran around and around and around and sometimes in a figure eight and sometimes chasing pigeons staying juuuuust out of reach.

The really fun part was riding the school bus with short seats and no leg room through AM rush hour traffic.  And then on the way home, add exhausted kids to that, the bus driver honking at crazy drivers (seriously, who cuts off a school bus in traffic?) and keeping your eyes open.  Once we got back, kids were crying and it was general chaos as they were supposed to have a nap and finish out the day.

My husband and I, however, had grand plans to head home to work on the house.  We have a list of about 25 items that need to be done before we can list the house for sale.  The plan was to tackle at least 2 or 3 of them before it was time to pick up the 4 year old.  Unfortunately, once we got home and had a nice long drink of water (did I mention it was 100 degrees that day?) we made the fatal mistake of sitting on the couch “for just a minute” and promptly fell asleep for an hour and a half.

Why YES!  It WAS refreshing!  And no, not so productive.  But there were boxes!  And packing material!  Which are still strewn about the dining and living room.  This weekend… oh this weekend there will be progress made!  And possibly before and after pictures as motivation to keep on going when I want to just give up.