Cleaning
Posted on December 29, 2006
I hate it. I don’t know why. I am so bad with cleaning it’s horrible. I get into this funk where things will pile up and I know I should get to it, but it’s so much I don’t even know where to start. Its mostly the dishes and the laundry. The other stuff isn’t really a problem, but the dishes and the laundry never end. I will always have them to do. Todd is wonderful and he takes the dishes for me, but I can tell he feels the same way because they pile up after a few days. And no, we don’t have that fancy new age contraption…what do you call it? Oh yea, a dishwasher. I’ve never in my life had one of those. Believe me when I tell you I would give my right arm for one of those. Well, maybe my left arm. Oh but the laundry. I think I’m just going to throw it all out and buy new clothes. It’s easier. Washing them isn’t the problem. That part is easy. It’s first sorting all of it and then folding it all and then putting it away. It is truly the never ending chore. I’m almost embarassed to say that if I had the money, I would hire a cleaning lady. It’s not only hating to do it, it’s not having enough hours in the day. Of course, I could be cleaning instead of blogging. But then I couldn’t bare my soul and I think a clean soul is better than a clean house. Okay, I’m making excuses. I suppose I could find the time. I just don’t want to. I’ll get to it all eventually. Most likely an hour before I have company. Then it all gets thrown into my bedroom. You know you do it too. Meanwhile I’m going to have to put it all off again today. I have about 800 pictures I have to go through, a CD and a DVD to make, pictures to sleeve, and an album to do. So, yea, there is my excuse.
Who even reads these??
Posted on December 19, 2006
Lol, seriously! I hear of people reading my somewhat daily ramblings, but I don’t know who actually reads them. I know a few people comment, but lately I haven’t gotten any comments, so I’m wondering if I’m just writing to a deep void out there. Or maybe this is a sane way to talk to yourself. That’s interesting. Well, if you’re reading and you’d like me to keep ‘em coming, leave a comment under this post! I’d love to see who could possibly find me interesting! 
Mrs. Scrooge
Posted on December 17, 2006
Bah Humbug. That’s been me for the past…8, 9 years maybe. Let me spell it out for you. I worked in large retail stores and photography studios from my senior year in High School until 4 months before my daughter was born. Christmas was always hectic for me. The stores were always filled with frantic shoppers and not so merry customers. A few of those years I worked customer service counters. I can’t tell you how many times I was called colorful names because I was following store policy and not giving people things for free because they were inconvenienced. It seem especially prevalent during the holiday season. The good cheer we are supposed to have is just a front. People become insane cruel maniacs during the holidays. They will stop at nothing just to get that silly toy for their kid. Knocking people over with their carts, mothers fighting over the last Elmo. OK, I never did see things get that out of hand, but that’s because I didn’t work in a Toys R Us. But, sadly it really happens. Didn’t someone get shot in Chicago while standing in line for a PlayStation 3? Merry Christmas.
Then there were the photography studios. I think that was about 6 years of my life and every year I would say “I’m not doing this again next year.” We would fill the schedule with people who wanted their holiday picture. We had 15 minutes per customer. 15 minutes to get the perfect shot. Of 2 year olds. 15 minutes. We, of course never were able to accomplish that goal. We would end up taking a few extra minutes with each customer trying to get Timmy to stop crying and sit on the stupid chair and smile. It doesn’t happen folks. If your kid is crying and doesn’t want to do this because he is scared, don’t do that to him!! I always thought it was mean and cruel to force a kid to take a picture when he or she was scared. Or even to force them to do it again if the previous smile wasn’t perfect enough. For a stupid Christmas card?? Why would you do that? Keeping up with the Joneses? I had to walk out of one sitting because I had gotten several good pictures of this little 6 month old baby, but the mother just didn’t think they were very good because it wasn’t her normal smile. I spent about 30 minutes with this woman who was practically panicking over these pictures. The moment she picked up her baby, yelled at her to smile and slammed her little butt back down onto the table, I had to walk out of the room before I punched the woman. Meanwhile the lines of families and screaming kids waiting to show other people how happy they are at Christmas time grew and grew and grew. Christmas time in a photo studio is insane.
Hence the reason I hate Christmas time. It’s not even celebrated for the real reason. In fact, if you do celebrate it for the real reason (Christ’s birth, in case you have never seen A Charlie Brown’s Christmas) it’s considered offensive now. If you work in a retail store, you have to say “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas” so as not to make anyone gasp in horror. Everyone puts it on their Christmas cards now too. I did it this year and I think last year too. I’m regretting the decision though and I think next year I will have cards that say “Merry Christmas” on it because that is why I celebrate Christmas. Why should I worry about offending other people with what I believe? I’m surrounded by people stuffing their beliefs in my face and yet if I mention “Jesus Christ” to anyone and it not be a swear, it’s wrong. Well, I’m offended.
But that’s a whole other blog in itself. The point of my blog is that I’m being visited by the spirit of Christmas. Christmas past haunts me, but present and hopefully future will be much brighter. I don’t have to surround myself with all the craziness of the secular Christmas. I’m not saying that I’m going to give up the whole Santa thing and not give out presents or anything. I think that part of it is American and I will celebrate the wonder of that with Ava. But I’m not going to immerse myself in the whole we must get TMX Elmo, gift competing, who’s house is brighter with lights, Christmas frenzy this year. It’s ridiculous. I just want a nice quiet Christmas with my husband and daughter. I’m going to enjoy it this year because I’m not going to be a part of the commercialism. It’s going to be a good one!
So MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone! May God bless us every one!
Genius child!!
Posted on December 12, 2006
Yesterday at my family’s holiday get together, Ava gave me a nice little gift. She counted to 10! I couldn’t believe it! Everyone was opening presents and my mom was over by the coffee table with Ava. My mom came up to me and said “Hey, did you know she can count to 5?!” I just looked at her a little dumbfounded and said “No…” I didn’t really believe her. Then she set up some plastic ornaments and started Ava counting with one. “On, two, ree, foh, fi…” I had tears running down my face as I listened to her. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Then (and this part gets a little muddled because I was so happy and amazed) I think Todd came over and helped her start again. “On, two, ree, foh, fi, si, dede, eee, ni, teh!” I was just so happy! But my baby is growing up soooo fast!! Of course we did not get it on tape, except for a few numbers. I’ve been trying since and she seems to avaoid the camera. But I swear she did it in front of a room of 17 people!! We’ve been working on numbers and letters and colors, but I think a lot of it has to do with Seseme Street. She loves that show as much as I did when I was a kid. And it really helps teach them the basics! So, maybe TV isn’t so bad after all!
Nervous wreck under it all
Posted on December 8, 2006
I realised this the other day when I went to meet a bride. I am completely nervous when I sit down with them to talk about my work. I put on this front, and apparently I’m pretty good about hiding the fact that I’m scared they won’t like me. I tend to speak up, seem really confident, bubbly and happy. I’m not worried about messing up or anything like that. I tend to work through things like that pretty easily. I’m afraid they won’t like me. That’s basically it. I’m not like this around family or friends either. It’s just new people I meet. I was talking to Todd about it this morning and he said that when he was taking his speech class, he was told that everyone, whether you are a kid in school or the President of The United States, is nervous before they speak. It’s just human nature. He said I hide it pretty well because he’s seen me make my shpeals and he never knew I was nervous. But I have to put my finger down on the pages when I point to something so they can’t see that my hands are shaking. I think I fidget with my clothes and my hair too. I know if I wear my hair down, I play with it a lot, so I’ve learned to keep it tied back somehow when I go to meet a bride. But the whole thing is kind of silly really. Who cares if they don’t like me? I don’t know why I’m so nervous about that. I guess it might stem from my high school days when I felt like an outsider and that no one liked me. I was so shy then because I was constantly made fun of. I just kind of went inside my shell and I would clam up when I talked to new people. People thought I was stuck up or rude because I just didn’t talk much. But it was because I was scared to death! Since I met Todd, I’ve been so much more outgoing and confident. He gave me a lot of confidence and I think I’ve shed most of the shyness off. So much so that I find it strange that I’m nervous. Maybe it will always be there. I don’t really mind it too much, I guess it’s just a part of who I am. I’m really this shy nervous little girl under all the loud confidence.
Sick as a dog
Posted on December 7, 2006
Why is it that when Mommy’s sick, the world doesn’t stop? Oh that’s right, because we can’t stop. Its so weird. Its like I wait for everyone else to get better before I come down with everything. This always happens to me! Ava or Todd will get sick, and give it to the other one. One will be sick for about a week and then there is a period where they are both sick, and then the other one has it for a week. And of course, I baby them both and the world usually stops because they are sick. Then, about 5 days after the last one was sick, when they are both perfectly fine, that’s when I can rest at ease & then BAM! I get hit. But for some reason, the world doesn’t stop for me. It can’t. I have to keep going. It’s a little bizarre, but it’s the same for almost every mom I know. Oh well. I’m off to go run errands now with a headcold the size of Texas. Nothin I can do about it!
Taking pictures of 18 month old girls is hard
Posted on December 6, 2006
If that isn’t the most obvious statement, I don’t know what is. Then again, Ava is pretty good about it. But, try taking a family picture on a timer with no tripod and an 18 month old girl in the picture. Now THAT’S hard! I’d like to say I was succesful, and technically I was. But, I didn’t like ME in the picture! Figures, right? No, I’ve gained so much weight since Ava and the angle I took the picture at, my hip pretty much took up a third of the picture. Can’t have that. So, I’ll have to try again later. Hopefully Ava is as cooperative. She was running around, but she liked to sit down on the backdrop and peek in the gift prop I gave her. Which is exactly what I wanted her to do. She even went up to the camera a few times and said “CHEEEEEESE!” Ok, so who taught her that?!? I know I didn’t! Maybe it was Todd, but it sure wasn’t me! It’s cute as all getup but as a photographer, cheeeeese = completely fake smile. Lol, anyway, it’s still funny when she does it. Well, we’ll see if we get this picture out this year. Maybe I’ll have to steal a photographer friend. Wish me luck!
Potty training…from The Boo View
Posted on December 1, 2006
Ok here goes! We’ll see how well this works. She has a potty chair and she knows what it is, but I’m not sure she gets the whole concept. Today she said “Potty!” as soon as I took off her diaper off. So I took her in the bathroom to put her on the potty and she sat there for a minute. Then she got up and proceded to pee all over the floor! I grabbed her and put her on the potty and of course by then she was done. Or so I thought. She sat there for a minute and then got up and peed again on the floor! So I sat her back on it and tried to explain and show her how. She said “all done!” So I got her up and she took off towards the living room. By the time I got around the corner, she had already peed on the diningroom floor. I went to go clean it up and then of course by then she had already peed on the living room floor too! (Diaper first, then clean- got it) So, looks like this might be a bit of a challenge, but I’m ready. Here’s to hoping she surprises me!