Q&A A Day

January 1st, 2014

What is your mission?

I want to be more on top of things. Everything sort of dumped on me at the end of the year and I felt floundered and crazy. So my goal is to be more productive, proactive, and responsible in every aspect of my life. To do so, I will live by my planner and all the things I create to help me stay organized. I also will keep moving, take small breaks, but don't stay idle for too long. These qualities should help me stay on top of the hard year in front of me. And in doing this, I will be more prepared for nursing school. I hope...

I also want to write more. I would like to rewrite my first book for sure, at least twice, finish two-to-all of my other books I started and send the one of them into publishers. These things need to be revisited weekly and a list of the steps and areas I need to work on is a MUST!

I NEED to keep in better contact with family. It's so easy to get stuck in your own universe, and sometimes it's a wonderful thing to be able to do. However, I want people to know that they are cherished by me, that I listen and understand them, and that I want to be a part of their life in any way I can. One of my first craft projects is to create some sort of calendar system that tells me when birthdays are and to get everything ready for each person. And though it sounds so disingenuous I want to create a list of everyone's names and cycle through it to make sure I can be a part of people's lives. The reason I would do it this way is because, though I enjoy spontaneity and freedom, strict structure is paramount for me to be successful in my endeavors.

Remember the good times in the midst of the bad. I tend to allow things the ability to bother me at a deep level. They always seem to be those things I find lacking in myself. Most of the time it's that I try so hard and all I see are my failures. I want to be able to look back on all the positives while dealing with the dark thoughts about myself. For example, I study for hours/days, and only get a B. I'm not sure why, but that's normally where the spiraling begins.

Those are my missions (I like that word better than "goals"... It sounds less cheesy and moved like its GOING to happen), now let me know about yours!!

Q&A A Day

I bought this book to remind me of how much I changed and grew over the years. It's Q&A A Day - 5 Year Journal (the picture is below). I answer a random question every day of the year for 5 years. My goal is to get back into writing more and being more comfortable and creative with it. I also wanted to try and get back to the blogging scene so I will post the question and then my answers for every day. Hopefully, it's enjoyable and actually works!!! I'd LOVE for everyone to post their answers as well!

.........

Heeeeeey!! We just got new phones so I'm playing with mine by getting on here!  But its probably only because pinterest isn't working for me.... booooooooo

Countertops Before and After

Here's some pics of the before and after of Kitchen Countertops (Week 1 of 52 weeks of Organization). Some of the before has lots of after cooking stuff... though... it was sitting around for a while before I took the pics... oops! ;)


Before!

 ooops! :)

Mailing station... another lovely mess

that was from lunch. haha. there's an espresso machine behind it too.

ewwwww... this has been bothering me for a while

Our dish soap

hand soap

                                                        under the sink loveliness

did I say lovely?

yay

 After!

 so this fell off, so I'm going to think of something else. I'm going to try again before I start using old kleenex boxes

I modge podged the color :D blue and pink.

52 Weeks of Organization-Kitchen Countertops and Sink

Hey!! Long time no see :)


I figured I'd try to write again and what better way to start than posting my mom's and my project of 52 Weeks of Organization! It's basically trying to get your house organized in 52 weeks. That way you don't over stress yourself, or if you do, it's only that one week that is the pain in the butt. This is the first week so if'you'd like to start with me that'd be cool! If not, you can either start later (since this isn't a "New Years" thing) or you can just watch and hopefully be jealous :D. I can only post my stuff since my mom is in a different state but if she sends me pictures I can upload! I know she wouldn't even dream of writing me a blog to post or doing one herself (she's not a fan of reading/writing, does enough of that all day to do for leisure). This is really good for people who have a problem getting rid of things, or keep things they've bought replacements for, or even those that just have multiples of good things they could give to goodwill (aka... me and my mom). Craig will be so happy afterwards if everything has a home and is of working and good quality


This week: Kitchen Countertops and Sink

My goals:

• shred all the stuff in our "shred box"
• find or create a hand soap and dish soap dispenser (thinking mason jars)
• find a home for excess counter stuff (ipod player, our knives, maybe even the coffee syrup)
• mail organization. it's not functional anymore. It was when we weren't married and I didn't take over paying all the bills, so we opened separate mail. Now, one is more for storage and the other is overflowing... It might be that I create a bill paying schedule to coincide with Craig's payday schedule.
• Junk Drawer: everyone has one, I'm going to put things in baggies and use a desk organizer I've had for a long time (bought it because it was cute and used it at work) and doesn't have a home. Hopefully I can give it one in there.
• under sink: it needs a redo... 
• sink: baby oil it up to shine it
• stove: figure out how to clean it

My mom's goals:

• clean all the counters
• wipe down the kitchen aide with an old toothbrush
• de-clutter
• go through the utensil container on the stove and take out what she doesn't need

Next week: kitchen cabinets and cupboards. this one will be easier and more of an asthetic appeal for the whole kitchen (for me) since we just moved and got rid of a ton of stuff that was expired or we no longer needed.

See the pattern, not too hard and easy to follow (until you get to what's really been aching you... for me, the garage, and 2nd bedroom)

Pictures to come in later posts (before and afters)

Woops!

Yeaaaahhh, it's been a while. So long in fact that I don't know about this new Blogger setup... 


We celebrated our 1 year marriage anniversary and 7 year together anniversary earlier this month. We celebrated with an extended weekend (because of a holiday... man we picked a great weekend to get hitched!) of doing nothing. I think we walked to Coldstone for some ice cream at some point. Our idea for this year's celebration was: cheap. We made dinner at home, we stayed home except for walks, we did lazy things, normal things, and the reason for that is because we are saving to buy a condo.


In fact, we just signed the papers to agree to the terms. Escrow will start soon and we will have a new place with 2 months to make it live-able to our standards and move out of our apartment. Well, when I say: "live-able to our standards", I don't mean it's a piece of junk. Quite the opposite of that. We saw another condo in the same complex for $4,000 more and it was a piece of work. The major things were holes in the walls (the big kind) and it reeked of dog piss. It was terrible. There was no way we were going to bid on it.. unless the one we did bid on decided to turn us away. But they didn't. Yet. We still have to wait for their signature on our final papers before we can start the Escrow process.


I'll talk about the whole searching process on my micromanaged blog.... man it's been a while. haha.


Craig's favorite part about the place... 2 bathrooms (full) and even though it's a condo, our only neighbors are on our back wall, so we can be as loud as we want because they won't hear us. No one is underneath us, unless you count garages, which, no one lives in their garage... not in condos at least.


My favorite part is that the kitchen is completely open to the living room and dining room. That was always a hard thing to find, especially in a condo. I'm not sure what it is with California homes but they really like to close off their kitchens. So condos are the same. 


Our lucky part is that it's walking distance to Craig's work. Craig can ride his bike now (it was just too long of a trip to work that he was sweating before he got there). Also, if his truck decides to kick the bucket then we can be a single car family for as long as we are there. (to save up for his beamer of course)


Anywhozle... That's our year and some change update on our life!

Week... ??? Crap

I know, I know, all my millions of adoring fans would love to know how Craig and I are doing! ha! Well... let's see if I can remember (highly doubt it). Or I can just look at my planner to see what I at least PLANNED to do :D


Hmmm...  We went to the dentists.... Craig's teeth are perfect (besides a little dyed, the jerk). Mine were not so perfect. BUT! I didn't have as bad as last time. They didn't grind down their stuff enough on one side, so of course I don't go back in. I've had to chew on the right side of my mouth since February 14th... YAY! haha.


OO OO!!! We finally went on our Honeymoon!! We went to Florida the 16th of February and didn't come back until the 22nd. OF COURSE we made our first stop The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios in Orlando. The first sight of the place is surreal. It's so exciting. I wish I became a giddy school girl who just saw the hottest guy walk by with his shirt off. AND he winked at me. I seriously wish I could have bottled up that feeling and kept it for the next time we went there. I think what helped the first time is that we hadn't gone to Disney yet. I've been to Disney before, but the last couple of times I went down to Florida we only went to Universal (Islands of Adventure to be exact). It's always been my favorite, and since it has Harry Potter there, it still is. However, the second time we went there on this specific vacation, we had been to Disney the past couple of days and you just can't compare the feeling of happiness from employees that Disney has with any other theme park. And it's all of Disney's parks. Plus I felt like Disney was just able to do so much more. And that got me wishing Disney was the one who produced HP (as long as nothing would have changed in the movie) so that they could have both Diagon Alley and Hogsmead. Oh well, I can't wait to go back.


That was February. March contained a doctors appointment. We finally found "our physician" and scheduled all the necessary tests... for June! geez. I got on antibiotics because while we were down in Florida I picked up some virus the 2nd day and was sick for 2 weeks with no hope for a non-sick future. It didn't kill it. It ended up going away another week after I had to finish up my meds. Craig's birthday was that month! we got together with friends and just chilled.


I started playing soccer too!!! First time I've ever played soccer. Craig's been training me and they needed another girl... just to have an extra body. So I played! eek! We play on the worst team in the worst league. And yet, everyone on the other teams whine, bitch, and complain. geeez.


I also felt the most excruciating pain in my life in the month of March. First was the incessant migraine that just kept on giving. As in, it didn't know how to calm down it's silly little throbbing... it only understood: pain... and lots of it. Then I went to the Urgent Care in Folsom to see what I could get to help my migraine... they gave me Imitrex... in the arm... just under the skin and not in the muscle at all. That was absolutely painful. I don't know what to compare it to. Besides what you would think chopping of your arm without painkillers would feel like. Ironic... the painkillers felt like you were going without painkillers while someone's torturing you. yay! haha. It made me nauseous as it traveled from my arm to my head (yes I felt it all the way up) and the nausea pill they gave me to ease it left the nastiest taste in my mouth for a month. Everything tasted different, for the worse. ick. He gave me vicodin and a different (less fast acting) nausea pill for when I'm at home and I can't get rid of them. He also suggested I got Excedrin Migraine or drink caffeine.... not joking, doctor's orders to drink coke! muahahahaha.. Coke hasn't helped, Excedrin Migraine helps for a while but the migraine comes back before I can take another one. And since I can't take more than 2 in a 24 hour period and you take 2 at a time, it scares the crap out of me to take. So I try sleep, or showers, or Craig rubbing my head before I try that. But I try EVERYTHING else before I try that stinking vicodin and nausea medicine. The first time I was down for 2 days. There was no getting up for work the next day. Forget that I took the meds at 6 the previous night. I couldn't function until 6pm the next day. I'll only take it if I don't have anything to do the next day. Which usually only works out fridays and saturdays, which those are the nights I usually like doing the "fun" things ;).


It's really weird with this migraine thing though. I haven't had any for almost a year, then all the sudden I start getting them. It wasn't hot out yet, the season was still pretty rainy, which it had been for months. I hadn't changed my diet or my schedule. The switch just flipped randomly one day (double vision, tunnel vision, having to drive 30 miles home on a constant construction zone freeway... awful awful feeling. I had to throw up the whole way home, and once I knew I was in or apartment and didn't have to do anything else, I let my vision go and I was blind... yeah, it was bad) I went terrible. Then I started getting them every day. They're at least a headache (just the background constant hum of slight pain. And every once in a while I'll get some migraine intermixed with it (the pounding of nails in my brain, beneath my skull where I can't rub softly to get rid of).


That was March!


April started out with us going to San Jose to watch our Seattle Sounders take on the San Jose Earthquakes. that was... a little scary. We've never been at another team's stadium before. Plus, Seattle is known for it's awesome fans, so it was scary to be in an unfamiliar city, at an unfamiliar field. I even got boo'd! Craig said that it's because I'm a hottie. hehe. Because he didn't get boo'd. Which, I did get checked out before the dude boo'd me, but still. haha.  Then the next week we drove to L.A!!!! Well, Craig mostly drove, I tried, but I couldn't do much of it without Craig getting frustrated with my driving. But then, I drove fast and he drove slow(er than the speed limit!!!) so I was getting frustrated with him. I think driving my car all the way down there he finally realized how annoying that stupid stick shift is. Anyway! We went to L.A. for me to compete in the Mrs California Pageant. I blogged about it on my micro-managed blog. Let's just say it was a completely different experience than the Miss (not in a bad way), and I was the second youngest one. The youngest brought her friend with her everywhere, so I reaaaally didn't have anything in common with anyone. And I was too tired to put out the extra effort. The woman who won, I was super happy about. She was one of my favorite 2. She definitely deserves it! I'm still thinking on if I'm going to do it again next year. Maybe I'll wait until after school.


Which brings me to my next point... Craig and I are going full force with school now! well, me going to school. For nursing. He's been helping me study math when I just don't understand something, or don't understand why MY answer isn't correct. When I first took the test I didn't realize that the time limit meant that anything I didn't answer inside that time limit was wrong. Because when I took the English tests, that was how it was scored. So, I was placed in Math 30. I was super upset, so angry I just needed to punch something. That something was the sofa. Craig was able to talk me down so we could both go to sleep. The next day, I called the assessment testing  office and found out that the unanswered were incorrect. So I went back (today) and got placed into Math 100!!! yay! I only missed 5 questions out of 50. And I'm pretty sure that those 5 I was pretending to know what I was doing or blatantly guessed.


So that's where we are at now. I get to sign up for school May 16th, then once I do that, I get to turn in my 2 weeks notice. I'm secretly hoping they'll have me train a new person up in Washington so I can go visit friends and family. But I would miss Craig terribly. And he would just miss my company.... probably. hopefully by the time I get back he'll be missing me ;). He's better at prioritizing and realizing that there's no point in wondering what someone's doing if you cant actually do anything with them or about the situation. Men... way too logical ;p