Mother's Day

Today is Mother's Day and, as I am a mother, I received some extra special treatment. Neal made me pancakes for breakfast, Sally was rather better behaved than usual during sacrament meeting, I got a vase of fresh cut flowers from my front yard, and Neal got me a cool kitchen scale (something I had requested) and made me a card. Not exactly a day where I got everything I wanted without having a lift a finger (as my bro. in-law expressed the day should be in his sacrament meeting talk that he proudly shared), but a nice day nonetheless.

I love being a mom and I am so grateful that I get to raise Sally (and hopefully other children in the future). Being a mom has enlarged my capacity to love and serve and is teaching me lots of valuable lessons (such as how to be patient when I feel my patience has already been tried to the max, how to laugh when I feel like crying, how to cook one handedly). My attempts to describe how much I love being a mom sound really cheesey, so I'll just say that I'm so glad that I get to spend each day with Sally and watch her learn and grow.

I wanted Sally and I to match today, and I think that we looked cute.

Frustration

Posting anything takes me FOREVER! Every time I upload an image, all of the formatting that I have done in the post is screwed up, and the picture comes in at the very top of the post, not in the place where I specified (oh, and on top of that, it takes SO LONG to upload the images). I am not able to copy and paste text. Moving around text or images is almost impossible. Does anyone know how to get around these problems? Posting anything but plain text gives me a huge headache. I consider myself a very computer literate person, so I hardly think this is my fault. I have cable internet that is pretty darn fast, so I doubt that the internet speed is the problem. If anyone has any advice, please, please, please pass it on, or I will end my brief experiement with blogging in order to preserve my sanity!

To Work or Not to Work

That is the question...

I recently received a call from a former co-worker at Quintiles who left the company about a year after I had started there. He wanted me to apply for an opening at his new company, but I passed because it was a full-time position and I am not at all willing to work full-time. He then asked me if he could pass my name along to his brother who works at another company in the same line of work (the statistical programming aspect of clinical trials) but that offers a lot of flexibility. I gave my permission and his brother contacted me a few days later.

I met with the brother today for lunch and learned more about the company and my options for working there. It sounds like a dream come true. If I work there, I can:

choose my own schedule (and it doesn't have to be consistent from week to week)
choose how many hours I work each week
choose if I will work at all on any given day
work at home or in the office
turn down or accept projects that come along depending on my interests

Before I met with this guy he told me that they are looking for someone to work about 10 hours a week on a flexible schedule. That is exactly what I've been thinking that I'd like to do, but I didn't think it was possible.

Over the past several months I've thought a lot about my future job needs/desires/prospects. I worked 20-30 hours a week from home after Sally was born and had a mostly bad experience with it (I was only supposed to work 20, sometimes I did more than 30). It was stressful and not very flexible, and I was frustrated with my manager and co-workers much of the time. The management team had put me in a position that they admitted to me was really supposed to be held by a full-time office-based employee. They overloaded me and while they were apologetic about it, they didn't do much to ease my load. What I did like about it was that I was bringing in some income and keeping up/expanding my skills.

Keeping up my skills and having some avenue for my time and energy outside of what I do at home and church are the main motives for me to go back to work. Salary is somewhat of a factor, but much less so. When I talked to this guy briefly about salary, he asked me what I would ask and then told me that I would get at least quite a bit more than what I had requested.

So...where is the catch? It seems too good to be true. I'm going to have a trial period with this company to see if I want to become an employee, but so far I see nothing bad about it. Some of my former Quintiles peers now work at this company and love it. I'll let everyone know what comes of this opportunity.

A Few of My Favorite Things

It's time that I posted something about my sweet little baby (toddler now, I guess). Sally is starting to develop quite a personality. Here are a few of her favorite things:

Books:

"One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish"

"Go Dog, Go"

Toys:

Strollers

Baby dolls

Songs:

Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree

The Wise Man and the Foolish Man

Foods:

Oatmeal

Cheese

Other dairy products

Clothing Item:

Shoes

Activities:

Playing outside, esp. in the dirt

Going on walks in her stroller

Climbing on mommy

Hiding from mom and dad

Words:

More

Shoes

Person:

Mommy

When I'm Not Blogging

Several months ago I promised I'd explain why I'm a bad blogger. Since I've received several hints lately that I ought to do something with my blog, here is a token post about all of the things I do when I'm not blogging:

• Looking through cookbooks
• Looking for recipes on the internet
• Cooking
• Cleaning up after cooking
• Cleaning up after Sally
• Cleaning up after Neal
• Laundry
• Planning for Primary
• Sleeping
• Playing with Sally
• Playing with Neal
• Watching movies with Neal
• Doing crossword puzzles with Neal
• Reading
• Organizing my house

It is probably quite clear from this list that I do a lot of cooking and cleaning. Am I neurotic about keeping my house clean? Maybe. Do I like having a clean house more than having a cool blog? Maybe...probably...yes.

The most honest explanation I can give as to why I don't blog much is that I am paranoid of spending too much time on the computer (like my husband does). I am about the only one of my family members or friends to not have a Facebook account for the same reason. Looks like this post has taken me about 10 minutes. That's way too much time I've wasted on the computer. See ya!

Tagged

If you haven't figured it out by now, I'm a crummy blogger. I'll explain the reasons later. Anyway, I'm trying to get into the swing of blogging, and the game of tag is an easy place to start. So, here are my responses to two different games of tag (I'll admit, on the second one, I wasn't even tagged, I just did it because it looked fun and got me thinking).

Game 1: Lucky 8's

8 Shows I Watch (or used to watch, going back a long way):

-Crusoe (the only one on this list that is current)
-Jeopardy
-Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman
-Wishbone
-Early Edition
-Who’s the Boss?
-Saved By the Bell
-20/20

8 Things I Did in the Last 24 Hours:

-Taught Sharing Time in Primary
-Sang “The Wheels on the Bus” in nursery
-Vacuumed
-Gave Sally a bath
-Ate apple pie (twice)
-Danced to Christmas music
-Wrote a note to a friend
-Went to ward choir practice

8 Places I Like to Eat:

-Panera
-Chipotle
-Korma Sutra
-Jack Stack
-Home
-Wheat State Pizza
-The Cheesecake Factory
-Macaroni Grill

8 Things on my Wishlist:

-Granite countertops
-New carpet
-A new mattress
-A long coat
-Privo shoes
-A cute purse
-A draft-free house that stays warm
-Neal getting a residency in San Antonio with the Air Force

Game 2:

I am: still figuring out how to handle my current phase in life.
I think: about food and cooking way too much.
I want: to make other people happy.
I have: a sweet baby girl and a great husband.
I dislike: rude people.
I miss: my family.
I fear: not being loved.
I feel: nostalgic.
I hear: the ticking of my clock.
I smell: nothing.
I crave: chocolate.
I cry: every time I watch Mr. Kreuger’s Christmas.
I usually: go to bed much later than I plan to.
I regret: many stupid things I say that embarrass myself.
I search: for Sally’s binky way too often.
I wonder: where Neal will do his residency.
I love: laughing.
I care: about what people think about me more than I should.
I always: make things more complicated than I need to.
I worry: way too much, mostly when I’m trying to sleep.
I am not: lazy.
I remember: more than I wish I did.
I believe: in the power of prayer.
I dance: with Sally.
I sing: in my ward choir.
I don’t always: remove the “hangies” from raw eggs when baking like I used to.
I write: an email to my little sister every Sunday.
I argue: with Neal when he wants me to be sassy.
I win: only about half of the time when playing games with Neal.
I lose: every time I have a thumb war.
I wish: that Sally would let me play the piano more often.
I listen: to NPR whenever I’m in the car.
I don’t understand: why anyone would smoke.
I can usually: do what I put my mind to.
I watch: Crusoe with Neal.
I need: a haricut.
I forget: to change my contacts every 2 weeks.
I am happy: most of the time.

One whole year!

Sally is now 1 year old. I can hardly believe that I've been a mom for a whole year. At this time last year, I was wondering how I could possibly survive 1 year of nursing. Now that I'm done, I actually kind of miss it. Sally seems more like a toddler than a baby now. She is great at walking and running, crawling up (and down) stairs, and she is starting to climb things, such as overturned laundry baskets and the couch.



Although I had some misgivings about it, I gave Sally some cake for her birthday and for her birthday party (two days later). She loved it, and we now have a cute video of her stuffing her face. She still eats her veggies, so I suppose that we haven't spoiled her good eating habits. It's funny the things that I worry about that now seem so insignificant.