17/30 Things: Great

17. What is something you wish you were great at?


     I guess it's a combination of being a concert violinist and a singer.  I have a beautiful voice...according to A LOT of people.  But there are so many other people out there that I believe have so much better voices than I do.  I would even settle for just having a local band that plays in pubs around town.  But, sadly being an asthmatic seriously hampers my ability to be in a bar for long periods of time...and most bands here in the river valley are male bands. 

     I could probably be a concert violinist, but only if I picked my violin back up and practiced for hours everyday to get back to the point I was in high school.  I guess realistically if I could just start a music guild in my SCA Kingdom of Glen Abhann that would be enough for me.  To play period pieces and be the person in the kingdom to go to for music would be such a great accomplishment...I think that would satisfy my wish.

16/30 Things: Accomplished

16. What are 5 of your greatest accomplishments?

1. Being ranked 15th in the state in All State Orchestra. 

It was and always has been a high light of my life

and one of my greatest accomplishments.

2. Meeting and Marrying my Prince Charming.

Russ and I's lives before meeting weren't a walk in the park by any

stretch of the imagination...and I had serious commitment issues (just ask several previous boyfriends.)  But I allowed myself to just "see where it goes" and to trust that God knew what he was doing when he planned for me to meet Russ.

3. Staying really tight with my best friends.

Lyndsey, Tiffany, and Ashley have seen some pretty dark days with me and are still around to giggle, laugh at and with me, and still love me unconditionally because of them.  These three women are not only my best friends, but my sisters.  Just think of the movie Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood...and that's what we're like.  (YA YA!!!)

4.  Having the compassion to forgive.

There are several times in my life that family or friends have done things that are inexcusable...I have overcome those obstacles to save my relationships with them.  This really wouldn't have happened if I hadn't started to trust God and give every thing up to him.

5. My Strength.

In high school...I wasn't strong...I wasn't even remotely close to having the strength to be a rule breaker or change the course of my life that my mother had set out for me.  But going through said hardships that gave me the courage to forgive, and placing my trust in God, gave me strength to follow what God wanted for my life.  Leaving a church that my mother raised me in that didn't feel right for me. 

15/30 Things: Animal

15. What animal would you be and why?

I guess I would be a panda bear.  They are big...fuzzy...stylish in their black and white...cuddly...the list goes on and on...but instead of me waxing poetic about panda bears...just stare at these cuddly photos and wanna be a panda bear with me!



2 Cubs







14/30 Things: Strengths

14. Describe 5 strengths you have:

1.  I am a great listener.  Again...sometimes horrible advice, but I listen like a boss....(I can't believe I just used that term!)

2.  I am a great wife!  Sometimes I doubt that I please my husband and pray that he doesn't leave me, but deep down I know that I am a loving wife and take care of him the best I can.  Sometimes that means not cleaning the house for 3 weeks and then deep cleaning in the middle of the night while he's asleep and I'm awake.  Or planning a BBQ spur of the moment cause we both have the time off.

3.  I am great with the public.  Like everyone sometimes I get disenchanted with my job and the people that come with it, but for the most part I am really great working with the public.  

4.  I am compassionate.  There are times when I just want everyone and everything to go away, but for the most part I cannot go through a day when I am not helping people.  Whether it's finding them a hotel that better suits their needs than mine or easing some financial burdens or even just being a shoulder to cry on when someone is hurt.  

5.  .......

I guess whenever I figure out the last one...I'll post an edit. 

13/30 Things: Weak

13. Describe 5 weaknesses you have.
 

1. I worry about the most trivial things.

I don't know why I worry or why I can't stop worrying, but I know that it's unhealthy and not what God wanted for us.  It says several times in the bible that to be good children of God we shouldn't worry, but give it all to God.  Why I find that this struggle is one of my hard parts...I don't understand.

2. I fear the untimely demise of my husband.

Yes, my husband is considerably older than I am, but he is in fantastic health.  But that doesn't stop me from freaking out on him whenever he drives like a moron or when he does something with his friends that seems particularly dangerous.  I've had dreams where he's killed in a traffic accident when I am pregnant and since then I've been extremely distressed by the idea he could go before he's an old man.

3. I am obsessed with food.  
Food has always been my go to comfort.  I am currently in a battle to take the emotion out of eating and have been on a diet for six months now.  I am currently still struggling to break a barrier, but I am already healthier than I have been in a while and make better choices daily.

4. I give up too easily on things.
Sometimes when it comes to things like hobbies and changes in my life I quit too easily.  Things like if I start a reading plan in my bible I start out great and then slowly lose focus.  I've gone months without going to the gym.  I start life changes and it's like I get A.D.H.D. and the changes stop.

5. I turn into a hermit in cycles.
I tend to go through these cycles where I don't do anything but work and home or call any of my friends.  This inevitably leads to hurt feelings and people feeling like I'm pulling away, but it's just something that I've always done.  I can't explain it;  whether it's a depression thing or if its just some hormonal imbalance, but there you have it...only a small accounting of my many weaknesses.

 

12/30 Things: Day

12. Describe a day in your current life:

Okay so I'll start out with my schedule is right now and then show you how different it was up till about a month ago.

Get up around 9 am and have breakfast which normally consists of 2 medium eggs cooked some way...(hardboiled, scrambled, or fried, but not fried cause I'm on a diet really don't know how else to say it.) with either a slice of toast or some sort of fruit.  About this time it was normally 40 calorie slice of honey wheat with spray I can't believe it's not butter or manadrin oranges without sugar.

Around 10 am I was either going to gym or heading to weigh in appointment.

Back home about noonish to catch up on some DVR stuff and wait for Russ to get home.  During this time I would normally do laundry or try to pick up the house...more often than not though it really didn't make a huge difference cause it was like spot cleaning.

Russ got home around 1:30 pm and we would lay around a talk till I started getting ready for work.  Sometimes if life wasn't particularly interesting we would just do some chores around the house or he wouldn't even come home because he was washing a plane at work.  In which case we wouldn't even see each other.

2:00-2:15 I would start getting ready for work because I liked to get out of the house before 2:30-2:40.  I have to go through 2 school zones to get to the interstate to work and sometimes if I leave too late traffic is super bad.

Work from 3pm to 11pm which is very self explanitory...

Come home and normally hit the hay around 12:30 to 1 am.  During this time I would get groceries at walmart...bake a little...do some more chores...and watch DVR things again.


Here lately because of a shift in my schedule and I believe health reasons my current schedule goes as follows...

Bed around 1 am

Wake up around 1 pm

Work from 3-11...

or if I work Night Audit

work from 11 pm to 7 am

sleep around 8 am to most times 4 or 5 pm...

get up for food around 5:30-6ish...

take a nap from 8 to 10

back up to get ready for work by 10:15-10:30ish...


As you can tell...I really want my old schedule back...I was more productive during the day and right now I just feel like poop...plus...my husband gets mad at me because I'm sleeping all the time.  He says its because he knows it's not good for me...and I know that too...but when all your body wants to do is sleep...how do you fight that??

What's up Buttercup?

Ah...so we have to get caught up on the life of me...my husband reminded me today that he's still reading my blogs and he's catching up on my post.  So my goal today was to bang out several blog posts and then each day refine and proof-read then release...but I realized that I hadn't just blogged about everyday things for a couple of weeks and some interesting things have been happening.  So where to start???

I guess I'll start recently and go backwards:  This past weekend I took a three day weekend...YAY FOR MY AWESOME BOSS AND HER AWESOME MANUEVERING OF A REALLY SKETCHY SCHEDULE SO I COULD HAVE THOSE THREE DAYS OFF!!!!  Sorry...had to give mad props where they were seriously over due!!!   Anyways...we went camping at Camp Taloha outside of Pine Bluff, AR.  But its wasn't just any camping...we were SCA camping.  For those that don't know...my husband and I are part of a group called the Society for Creative Anachronisms.  Basically, the SCA is a group of people who get together and recreate the Medieval Ages...it's all the fun stuff, dancing, singing, fighting in armor, without the icky stuff like bubonic plague!!!  Most get really into it by creating and registering persona's which have been documented.  They take names that appeared around the same dates and make them historically accurate down to the age, place, and spelling.  Some even create their garb and go so far as to stitching it like they would have back in the day.  The boys did a lot of fighting.  My Russy pretty much got his butt handed to him, but he's seriously out of practice.  (They haven't fought in three years!!)  But his best friend Daniel did really well!!!  (But he's also been working out fanatically for a couple of months before hand.)  But I am so proud of my Russy because we all went to see a friend get Knighted and they had a competion anyone could fight him and if they won they got a coin from him in court.  Now this is pretty big cause most a never recognized in court.  Anyway...the weekend was fun and semi-relaxing.  Now if I can get a new air mattress before we go camping a Ouchita I think I'll be okay.  (Our current air mattress has the life span of 3 hours.  From firm to flat where your butt and lower back are on the ground and your sleeping jack knifed. Very unpleasant!)

My husband persona: Early Germanic- Alaric Hildebrant

Russ & Daniel or Alaric & Tristan suiting up for a day of fighting in the Lists.

Russy/Alaric receiving his coin from Sir Marvin (in red in the background.) Wanted to include this because you can see the how court is and the Royal Pavilion.  Russ/Alaric is on the right in the reddish tunic and John the Bellringer to his left.  They were the only ones out of 13 people who were able to beat Sir Marvin in a fight.

Before that nothing super duper has happened.  I went out to dinner with my Grandfather and cousin which we will be doing once a month now.  Had a lot of fun...and laughed like crazy.  Other than that I have been working my hiney off.  Going between two shifts isn't too easy.  I guess since I have gotten older sleep is more important to me.  I actually for the last three weeks been sleeping 12-14+ hours a day and waking up just in time to go to work and I still feel wrecked.  I'm thinking I need to see the Doctor about my thyroid cause all the signs point to it, plus with all the thyroid issues in my family..it never hurts just to have it checked out. 

This weekend is a hope I don't sleep too much cause I have some cakes to make weekend.  My co-worker/wonder twin Chris' little butterball Cullen turned one last week so he commissioned me to make him some cakes.  He's the cuddley bear for work so of course I am making him bear cakes.  I have a 3D bear pan that I am making tonight...hopefully I'll have it decorated by Saturday.  Then I have miniture 2D bear pans that will be the personal cakes for Cullen and for the out of this world WOW factor...I am making a 3D gummy bear...it'll be my first time trying it so I am hoping that it turns out...so wish me luck and also pray that I can stay awake tonight to bake them and get up early enough on Saturday to decorate them or else I will have to miss church to finish by Sunday and I really don't want to do that!!!  I will now leave you with a photo from a movie coming out that I am completely excited for!!!  And it doesn't hurt that the main character is right in line with my persona for the SCA!

Princess Merida