expectations

Here are my goals for my trip to Alaska:

1.  Take lots of pictures.

2.  Post said pictures on Facebook or blog when I get back.

3.  Spend time with people I love.

4.  Do not sleep in past 9:30am so that I have a better chance at accomplishing #3.

5.  Feel free to stay up until the sun sets (around 2am) or later if it means accomplishing #3.

6.  Drive to the places that I always think of when I think of being at home.

7. Take pictures when I arrive at #6’s destinations.

8.  Be patient with the parents.

9.  Spend minimal time on the internet and avoid watching pointless tv (watching a movie with family isn’t necessarily pointless).

10.  Spend lots of time outside.

I’ll let you know how I do.  Or better yet, you”ll hopefully get to see pictures and then you can judge how well I did.

winding down & gearing up

I can’t believe that tomorrow is the last day in June.  It went by really fast.  But looking back I realize I did so much and had a good time throughout it.  Three cheers for June!

I just got back from cheer camp on Saturday.  It was by far the best camp I’ve taken my squad to in the last 5 years that I’ve been a coach.  It was a fairly small camp because some other schools that had been signed up were still in school due to making up for snow days.  Can you imagine?  Still in school during the 4th week of June?  Ugh.  But it made camp nicer for the teams that did make it because we got a lot more individualized attention.  And the girls did great!  I think 16 (out of 21) of them were nominated for All American and 6 actually made the All American team (I think there were only 12 total for the entire camp).  One of the girls was named Top All American of the camp for the second year in a row (and she’s only going to be a junior this year).  One of the seniors was “apped” at the end of the camp.  That means that the NCA staff thought she was good enough to try out for their staff next year and she got a special application to do so.  The team as a whole won the “Top Performance Team” award and received a Nationals bid.  And the other coach and myself won a “Been There, Done That” award acknowledging our commitment, knowledge and dedication to our squad and to cheerleading as a whole.  All in all it was a fabulous 4 days.  Except for the mattresses we slept on in the dorms – we called them our “cement slabs”.  It was seriously an adult version of a crib mattress.  And there was a ginormous hill that we had to go down and up 3 times a day.  Which was never fun, but at least I felt like my legs and butt were getting a good workout.  Makes up for all the cafeteria food we ate there (which was actually pretty tasty).  And now I have a break until August!!!

On to other summer plans.  I’m leaving for Alaska this Friday.  I’m going to be there for about 10 days, but already I’m wondering how I’m going to cram in all my plans.  There are a lot of people to see.  Last time I was there it was for a short trip around Thanksgiving so I didn’t get to see a whole lot of my friends for very long.  I’d like to be able to spend a little more time with everyone.  And some of my other out of state friends will be up there because it is our 10 year high school reunion and we’re all heading back for it.  (Can I just say that I’m so looking forward to the day after the reunion?  Not because I’m nervous about seeing anyone, just because even the idea of planning this event has caused me anxiety for the past year and now I won’t have to think about reunions again for another 10 years.)  I also get to help with one of my best friend’s younger brother’s wedding.  He is getting married to his high school sweetheart who I actually knew when she was just a wee toddler.  And I’ve known the groom since he was in middle school.  Whenever I think of him I just think about him doing calf raises on their stairs because he wanted to get stronger so he could make the 8th grade basketball team.  And now he’s getting married!  And of course I’m excited to see the neice and nephew.  I sent a card to my neice to tell her that I’d be coming and that I hoped we could have a sleepover.  My mom told me that she was very excited about this prospect and had already decided we’d do it at Granny and Granddaddy’s house rather than her own (I have a feeling that’s because she gets spoiled more there).

Anyway, lots of blah blah blah here in this post.  But I’m excited.  Excited about what this past month has brought my way and what’s coming around the corner.  And thinking a lot about how blessed I am.  And that I have a good life.  And that I’m a lucky girl.

staycation

I took last week off from work.  And the week before I was very diligent about getting my hours in so I didn’t have to work on Friday.  Which meant 9 1/2 days of non-work bliss.  (The reason for the 1/2 day is because I had to work a few hours this last Sunday evening for an event but at least it was fun.)  And let me tell you – I could get used to not working real quick.

I didn’t go on a big trip.  Instead I stuck around town and got lots of stuff done.  The first weekend I got so much organizing done that I was pretty much able to do relaxing stuff the rest of the time.  Some highlights were:

*Going to Friday Harbor with my roommate

*Getting a pedicure and a massage on the same day (fancypants, I know)

*Going to the Abbey Garden Tea Room.  This is one of my fav places in town.

*Helping my friend with his videography business at a dance recital he and his wife were taping

*Going to the Deming Log Show with an old college friend and her sister.  And one of my cheerleader’s dads was the announcer!

*Lazing around the condo a lot

But now I’m back at it at work.  You would think that after having so many days off at home I’d be ready to get back, but the adjustment isn’t so easy.  The thing that’s the hardest so far is just sitting at my desk all day.  Luckily cheer camp is next week and I know I’ll be ready to get back to the office after being GO GO GO for 4 straight days.  With screaming high school cheerleaders.  Yep, the quiet of my office will be a welcome thing.

awake

I should be getting ready for bed right now.  Actually I should be in bed and have been asleep for awhile.  And I’m tired but I’m not sleepy.  My brain is still whirring from the day.  And not about anything exciting.  Tuesdays are just my really long days right now.  I go straight from work to a 3 hour cheer practice to the grocery store to grab something quick for dinner and then on to my small group (always arriving at least 15 minutes late) and then finally home.  So thoughts and ideas pile up all day and I hardly have time to process anything until the time I should be getting into bed.  I’ve found that I’m definitely someone who has to sit in front of the tv and watch something inane before I can even think about falling asleep (tonight it was 8 minutes of Friends, an episode of Sex and the City, and about 2 minutes of House Hunters International).  I don’t like that I have this habit.  Mostly because I don’t like that I depend on tv to help shut me down.  That doesn’t seem to be the healthiest thing.  I think right now I just need a break.  Good thing I’m taking next week off of work!  I’ve been feeling anxiety slip back into my mind/body/soul and it scares me because I know how paralyzing it can be for me.  And while I can see where having some concern about different things coming up or going on in my life would be okay, its the sense of dread and negativity always at the tip of my brain that just wears me out and gets me in a sort of state of nausea.  I think at the moment a lot of this stems from cheer (random different parts – it is by no means all bad right now) and I’m so looking forward to July just because we’ll be done with camp and we won’t have practice or many events until at least mid August.  It is reminding me a lot of my first 2 of years coaching when I’d wake up with worst case scenarios running through my head and then I wouldn’t be able to fall back asleep.  Its not at that point, but I fear that it could get there.  Ok, I had no idea this post was going to get all deep and troubling.  Apparently that’s what’s on my brain that I hadn’t processed yet and can’t shut off yet.  Ugh.

looking ahead

Yay for June!  I can’t believe how fast this year is already going by, but I am excited for this coming month for a bunch of reasons.

1.  I’m taking next week off of work.  Our PTO runs from July – June and we have to use it all up in the year or else we lose it.  For some reason this year I had a quite a bit left over and had to figure out what to do.  But I’m already going to Alaska in July so a trip up there seemed silly and I didn’t have anyone to travel with somewhere else.  But I do have a bunch of stuff I’ve been either putting off here at home and stuff I’ve just wanted to do but haven’t had time.  So I decided to stick around town and take care of it.  I’ve got a big list of stuff to do and I’ve got to make a plan so that I have at least half a shot at actually following through.  I am really hoping that I get my act together and take advantage of this time rather than just sleeping in and watching tv all week.

2.  My roommate and I are planning to go to Friday Harbor for a day next week.  Its her finals week and she’ll be done with tests pretty early in the week so our time off timing worked out well.  We went last year and it was so beautiful and we had a great relaxing day.

Friday Harbor

 

3.  I get to see my friend Danyeal.  But only because I’m mooch and needed a place to stay in the Seattle area and called her out of the blue to see if I could stay at her place.  But luckily she is a very gracious person and immediately said yes.  It’s only for one night and I have to be somewhere pretty early the next day (thus the need to be down there in the first place).  Anyway, I haven’t seen her since November so I’m excited to get to hang out with her even if its just a short time.

4.  Cheer camp is at the end of the month.  I’m looking forward to this for 2 reasons.  First, the girls always learn a ton and even though its tiring and can be overwhelming it is always a good experience on the whole.  And second, once we’re done with camp I’ll have a break for about a month and a half!  I love coaching, but having time away always makes it better when we get back at it.

5.  So You Think You Can Dance is on TV.  Okay, so technically this season started in May, but it’s about to get to my favorite part (basically anything past the auditions).  I grew up dancing and this show makes me wish I was 17 again and dancing all the time and could go and audition myself.  And this time some of my friends are coming over to watch along with me which always makes it more fun.

middle school shopping spree

On Monday I took my 13 year old cousin shopping.  I had stopped by her house on Sunday to drop something off and my aunt asked me if I would be willing to take her.  My aunt and uncle are really not into shopping – especially at a mall.  Like it’s the very last thing they would like to be doing.  It probably falls behind getting a root canal.  But my cousin had apparently been saving up for an iphone (um, what 13 year old needs an iphone?) and then changed her mind and decided she wanted to get new clothes instead.  So on Monday, we headed to the mall armed with quite a bit of money (it looked like she was pretty close to being able to afford the phone).

We hit Kohl’s first because I thought it would be good to get her in a department store setting with lots of options and I knew they usually had several sale racks.  At first she was like a lost little bird who had fallen out of the nest.  She wasn’t aware of the need to look at the sizes before she took something off the rack and I think the amount of racks to go through was intimidating.  So once we got the sizes figured out I helped her pull some pieces to try on.  It’s funny how styles have morphed since I was in middle school.  There were skinny jeans everywhere and I don’t think you could have paid someone to wear skinny jeans when I was in 7th grade.  Later on in Pac Sun we did happen upon some brightly colored jeans that did remind me of my green and purple jeans I used to sport.  My older cousin had a bright red pair.  We looked GOOD.

Anyway, back to the trip at hand.  We go to the dressing rooms and she starts trying things on, coming out to check my opinion on a couple of pieces.  And here’s where I about died for the first time that day – she came out in a size 1 skinny jean and asked me if I thought they would be okay if she wore them with a belt.  They were too big for her!  The size 1 skinny!!!  Oh, to be 13 again (or more like 9 in my case!).

From there we hit a lot of other stores and she scored in basically every one.  Old Navy – polk dot bikini (we had to search for the XS).  American Eagle – cute hoodie and shirt.  Aeropostale – a hoodie that she gasped over because she loved it so much and some more cute shirts.  Anchor Blue – jeans and a cool belt.  Target – a “non-blue or green” shirt (blue is her favorite color to wear and she’d gone a little overboard at that point).  By then she’d done so well that we left.  We did all that damage in just under 3 hours (including eating lunch).

My favorite parts of the day were seeing the balance of little girl and teenager in her.  It was really fun to help her find things to try and teach her little things about shopping (like what a jeans tag that says 1/2 S means – she kept saying “half S”) and it was cool to see her handle her money and make good decisions about what she should buy and what she should just leave on the shelf.  When we went into Wet Seal I was relieved that she was a little overwhelmed by the sheer trashiness of it (when did it get so trashy anyway?  or maybe I just got old?) But she was so excited to go into the Pink part of Victoria Secret even though I told her that if I let her buy anything there her dad would kill me.  Thankfully she didn’t.

And she was sooo thankful about me taking her.  She kept saying thanks over and over again.  Very sweet.  We’ve got plans for another go round before school starts again this fall.  I wonder if the skinny jeans will still be everywhere.

6 Month Check In

This past Sunday was my half birthday.  I know most of you are thinking, “What?  A Half Birthday?  That’s absurd.”  But my mom always celebrated our half birthdays growing up – no big deal stuff, but when my brother and I were little she would make a half of a round cake for dessert that night to celebrate.  Anyway, the half birthday this year reminded me of my birthday post from this past November where I made a list of 27 things I wanted to do this year (27 because I am 27 years old) and I realized I should check in and see what I still need to get crackin on.  I’m nervous because I’m pretty sure I still have about 23 1/2 things to get done and that’s pretty embarrassing.  But let’s see.  (My updates and new thoughts are in blue.  And sorry it’s so dang long.)

27 Things I Want to Do This Coming Year (as of 11/17/08)

1. Go to Alaska (this one’s easy – I’m going next week). Yep, I went right after my birthday for Thanksgiving and I’ll be heading up again in July.

2. Get my passport renewed (this has been on the to do list for almost 2 years – I’m ridiculous) Umm…still have NOT done this.  Ridiculous.  Ridiculous!

3. Go to a foreign country. See above – no passport means no foreign country.

4. Read the books from my current “to read” pile before buying any more I’ve actually been pretty good about this.  I’ve read from my pile (which is still quite large) and I’ve been going to the library instead of buying books.

5. Oops, except for I want to read Twilight so that I can see the movie in the theater if I end up liking it. Yep, saw it in the theater twice.  And I’ve seen it on On Demand too.

6. Downsize the amount of stuff I own.  Have sort of done this, but can do a whole lot more.  The one thing I’ve been doing well on is using up stuff like toiletries that I seem to just collect and then not finish before moving on to something else.  Plus I have big plans for cutting things down more in a couple weeks when I’m taking the week off work but not going anywhere.

7. Take more ballet classes.  Nope.

8. Actually go to the gym.  Maybe twice?

9. Celebrate at Naomi’s wedding.  Yep, in December and it was a lot of fun!  But we’ve been playing phone tag ever since.  Seriously.  Have not actually spoken to her since then.

10. Watch my cheer squad compete for the first time (and hopefully a second time if we qualify for state).  Check and check.

11. Take more pictures.  Haven’t been too good about this.

12. Blog on a regular basis.  Would like to do more.

13. Stop eating out for lunch so much.  Not so much.

14. Get my 3rd full body scan to check for any more skin cancer.  Appointment is set for September.

15. Figure out a next “step” in my life. Actually decided to just commit to working at my current job at least through December.  But nevertheless, this is always on the forefront of my mind.

16. Drink more water and less soda.  I’m drinking more water but not really less soda.  Basically my fluid intake is just up.

17. Go to my 10 year high school reunion (which I might have to plan ).  The word is out and yes, I had to plan it.  Its the reason for my trip to AK in July.

18. Volunteer at a food bank.  Not yet.

19. Do a better job keeping my room/house/car from looking like a bomb went off.  Actually I have been better at this!  It helps that we got another cat and I needed my room to be clean enough to let her be in there during the day without worrying about her knocking crap all over the place.

20. Take time to actually enjoy coaching during basketball season.  Totally happened.  Was probably the season I’ve enjoyed most so far in my coaching.

21. Continue to send birthday cards to friends and try to keep in better touch with them overall.  Sort of, kind of.  In different ways than I expected.

22. Write more thank you cards.  Unfortunately, no.

23. Try out yoga.  Not yet.

24. Clean out my email inbox (how boring am I on this one?!?!).  Done.

25. Spend more time with my Grannie.  Yes, but sadly because she broke her hip and was in the hospital and is now at a care facility.  So I’ve gone much more often to see her – especially when she was in the hospital and it was just about every day.

26. Not allow my social life to disappear because coaching and work take up too much time.  This has sort of happened, but sometimes I feel like my friend group here has drifted apart regardless of my own schedule keeping me from joining in on things.

27. Work on focusing on the positive and trying not to allow anxiety to get the best of me.  Always a struggle, but I’d say I’m doing better on the whole.

Ok, so I’m going to say I’ve got about 13ish done or at least incorporated in my life regularly.  Not quite as bad as I originally thought, but there’s plenty to get working on.

being domestic

People, I made bread recently.  Homemade goodness.  And yes, while I was the Food & Consumer Science Student of the Year my senior year in high school (an honor I’m not quite sure I deserved – I only got it because I was the home ec teacher’s TA during the last quarter and reorganized her entire office – but I still like to tote it out randomly just to show off), I am not what you would call a great cook.  Mostly because I’ve just been cooking for myself for about the last 10 years (except for freshman dorm food and sophomore year when my roommates and I actually made meals to eat together) and I’m lazy, so I typically eat snacky things and then make something random like a piece of baked chicken with no seasoning except Lawry’s salt on it.  Hmmm…maybe something could be gleaned from this to explain my current nutritional status….or maybe we’ll save that for another time.  Anyway, I had a yearning to bake bread after reading about a fellow blogger who’s been making bread every week.  So I procrastinated doing other somewhat more important stuff and spent an afternoon baking.  It turned out to be really yummy and just a little too crumbly.  But Mrs. Slaughter would be proud.  And yes, that was the name of my home ec teacher.

Feeling Accomplished

Finally I got some stuff done.  Finally!  Yesterday I had a productive day at work and then I went to our first practice with the brand new cheer squad and then home for a short break while eating dinner and watching my dvr’d Greek and then lo and behold, I cleaned my room, my bathroom, did 2 loads of laundry, sorted through and dealt with a big pile of paperwork I have, and paid bills.  Finally.  It felt really good to just get some stuff out of the way.  There is of course much more on the to do list, but that doesn’t matter at this moment.  Instead I just need to bask in the glow of feeling accomplished.  As I read other blogs (mostly of strangers) I’m always amazed at those people who can just go, go, go every single day.  They get up before 5am and hit the floor running until they go to bed after midnight.  At least that’s what it seems like.  My body and mind just do not function that way.  In fact I’ve found more and more that sometimes I just need a whole day to completely veg out.  Which is what I did on Sunday.  Maybe that’s why it was much easier to get stuff done yesterday?  Anyway, whatever the reason it felt nice.

Our first practice was fun.  I’m looking forward to getting to know the new girls and it’s always fun to see the girls who will be cheering their third year step up into leadership roles.  Every year I have the sense of things going by so fast and I can never believe that my little babies (which is what I lovingly call sophomores) are already going to be seniors.  And it’s always funny to watch them when there are no older girls in the room – they definitely realize that they are top dog now and they definitely like that feeling.  I also noticed that I felt really comfortable in my role.  I think that comes with this being the sixth squad I will have coached but also the relationship I have with this senior class is much different than any other senior class before it.  I think I’m finally getting old enough to feel the distance between us and that makes me feel more comfortable because I know they can’t question my authority as much.  Not that I’m a crazy domineering coach, but it can be hard to discipline a girl who is only 5 years younger than you (like my first year coaching).  Anyway, enough about all that.  It was good and I’m looking forward to seeing how this year pans out.

Friday Night Plans

I’m going to this movie tomorrow night, but only because I love Jennifer Garner.  I used to like Matthew McConaughey, but now I feel like he’s just been making the same movie over and over again just to get a paycheck.  Whatever happened to the Matthew who made movies like A Time to Kill?  But I could watch Jennifer Garner anyday.  My roommate and I have been watching the second season of Alias lately and I still love it just as much as I did when it first came out.  So anyway, this movie could be a real toss up (or as my friend Julie put it, “maybe just too cheesy”), but we’re still gonna go.  (Except for Julie – she really did decide it was just too cheesy and bailed.)