new year resolutions

I can't think of one time where I made a new year's resolution I intended to keep.  Sure, I've made some I thought might be nice if they worked out (i.e. losing weight, getting in shape, all that cliche stuff) but never did I put that much effort into actually achieving such goals.  Actually, very rarely are resolutions even made because nothing is more disheartening than having a list of goals that are never met.

Once my dad made us (my brothers and myself) come up with three resolutions.  This may or may not have aligned with a premature midlife crisis that partnered with a discovery that my grandma had lung cancer that gave my dad all the motivation he would ever need to 'perfect' his/our spiritual/physical health.  I remember one of his resolutions for our family was to never skip Sunday school again, much to the dismay of his children.  I can't actually remember what my resolutions were.  Probably lame crap like stop getting into fights with my brothers.

Anyway.  All this to say I am thinking about making a resolution for this year.  I mean a serious resolution, as in intending to see it through.  Mostly because I feel I need to have something to work toward since life is pretty stagnant right now.  And yes, it is probably going to be something cliche like getting into shape.  But then I'd have to renew my gym membership.

:)


In other news, I seriously need to find a light-hearted book to read.  I just finished The History of Love and am in the middle of Let the Great World Spin and neither made/are making feel too good about life.

P.S. Still loving this lens.  Unfortunately I'm going to need an extra flash to stop these shadows.  So fun though!

blah.

I never know what to write on here.  I should probably tell Rob not to make me my very own blog.

Anyway.  On Monday Paige and Jarrod came over and we stayed up until after two o'clock playing Mario and Sonic Olympics on the Wii.  I am still recovering from that one.  My body severely punishes me every time I stay up too late.

Also, yesterday we finally went back to the Apple store so Rob could get his iPhone replaced (luckily) and we ran into this guy I slightly know from school working there.  While we were waiting we were making small talk  about Christmas activities and whatnot and he made some comment about wanting to stand Rob next to an ex-boyfriend (some people suggest they look similar) and then just looked at me like maybe he didn't say anything that was weird.  I'm still not sure why that offended me so much.  Or why I felt it was worth mentioning.

Nothing else to report except maybe a bit of post-Christmas depression and the fact that I need to clean my house.

Bleh.

christmas day

Today was our very Christmas as husband and wife, and it was a really great day.  We started out the day at Rob's parents and then in the afternoon headed to my parents, and then came home and exchanged our gifts with each other.

I don't feel like we spend enough time with either of our families so it was an extra-special time.  Also it was way fun to have Christmas with Ethan, who is probably the sweetest baby boy on earth currently.

I got a fisheye lens from Jess & Dan.  Sweetness!

& Rob got me a tripod!  So we attempted to take family portraits in front of the tree.

And we finished out the night drinking coffee out of our Christmas mugs 

and watching Lord of the Rings :)

Merry Christmas!

vom, etc.

Yesterday was a little questionable.  Within two hours of arriving at work, little girl had vomited all over me, herself, the carpet, and various spots along the path I carried her on the way to the bathroom.  I felt terrible for her.  Little girl can't seem to catch a break; she was sick over Thanksgiving too.  She has such a good attitude when she doesn't feel well.  Every time she spewed, she asked me, "What I do?" and I said, "You puked", and so she went around the rest of the day saying, "I kuped!" Close enough.  I was worried that I would now also be sick, considering I was covered in her germ-ridden bodily fluids.  However, over twenty-four hours later and everything appears to be all right.

Luckily this morning she was holding down food, and I brought her a Christmas present.  I thought it would be really easy to pick out a gift for her, even considering her main interests at two and a half are robots, dinosaurs, and vampires.  It proved to be a bit more difficult, and I ended up getting her a washable stamp set and this snake-shaped magnifying glass she always goes for at Joseph Beth.  She seemed pleased enough.  Though it probably could have been an empty box and she would have been just as happy, since her main joy comes from tearing wrapping paper.

I got to leave at 1:30 and I am still super pumped about the fact I have free time during daylight hours.  Little girl's mom took a day and a half off before Christmas and gave me a week's wages for Christmas, along with a copy of The Count of Monte Cristo and a package of assorted decaffeinated tea (since I'm trying to cut back) .  Holy crap!  Ballerrrrrrrrr.

Now I am getting ready to take a glorious, glorious nap and hopefully when I wake up Rob will be home and we can go do awesome stuff.

Two days!

my life is a perpetual caffeine crash.

Seriously.

Why did I ever start drinking coffee?  And tea?   And drinking pop on a regular basis?  And taking vitamins with caffeine?

I can't win.

It's like I have to keep intaking this drug in order to keep my "alert" high.  Tea or coffee in the morning.  With the caffeine vitamin.  Get to work.  Have coffee.  Possibly tea later on.  Then come home and have Dr. Pepper, which is basically like crack to me.

Once I tried to cut caffeine out of my diet.  This worked for approximately three days.

It's not even like it provides me with energy.  I'm tired all the freaking time.  I have to consume these things merely to function at all.  Sad.  I should probably judge drug addicts less harshly.

Ick.  What a waste of health.  And money.  I don't even want to think about how many ounces of caramel brulee latte I've consumed since the beginning of the month.  What delicious, delicious poison.

On an unrelated note,

Christmas is in five days.  Holy cow, where did this year go?  So many changes.  New job, new car, new husband, new home, new state, new name...and this was all before the end of June.  Life is finally starting to feel "settled" and perhaps more in a way like this is how it has always been, and that's a good thing.

I like my job.  And my car.  And my husband.  And my home.  Ehh, not so much my state.  But I like my name.

I am interested to see what new thing await us after the new year.

OMG

Today as I was driving to work, on the corner of Marburg and Erie, I saw the most beautiful dog I have ever seen.

It was a Siberian husky, and this dog was gorgeous.  It may have been the most perfect dog every created, and I am currently coveting it.

So, if anyone wants to donate at least $500 for the purchase of my newest aspiration, I'm accepting.

:)

But srsly...plz?

christmas, etc.

Gah.  Christmas shopping makes my head spin.

But I'm almost done! Also, I did something for the very first time ever in my whole life.  I signed up for a credit card.  I made it 25 years without getting sucked in but alas, Gap with its savetwentydollarsonthispurchase bribe, got me.  Gap.  Really?  I'm an idiot.

It's Tuesday, so that means I'm sitting at home alone, and today I'm watching the Grinch on ABC family.  What a genius movie.

Favorite: 

The nerve of  those Whos. Inviting me down there on such short notice!  Even if I wanted to go, my schedule wouldn't allow it.

4:00 - Wallow in self pity

4:30 - Stare into the abyss

5:00 - Solve world hunger; tell no one

5:30 - Jazzercize

6:30 - Dinner with me - I can't cancel that again!

7:00 - Wrestle with my self-loathing

...I'm booked!  Of course, if I bump the loathing to 9, I could still be done in time to lay in bed, stare at the ceiling and slip slowly into madness.  But what would i wear?!

Jim Carrey, you are a moron, but only you could have made this so perfect. 

'tis the season

I am in the process of making lots o' animal ornaments for our tree.  It's fairly unnecessary, but so much fun!  I like coming up with simple patterns and seeing what works.  It started with the owl (because I am obsessed) and is slowly growing to include other members of the animal kingdom, mostly at Rob's request.  Hey, it gives me something to do during all these evening hours when X-Files is on.

Beaver!

Owl!

 Mouse!

uncareers.

Let it be known, I am a college graduate, who obtained and saw through its expiration a provisional license for early childhood education, and am currently a nanny.  A nanny making $2 less an hour for doing the same thing I did before I graduated.

Don't get me wrong: kids are awesome.  And yes, I am a normal person who complains about my day, but I love being a nanny and overall I am not worried about what I make, as long as I can pay my bills and save a little, and I've been blessed to be able to do both of those things thus far.  I just know that I could have done "more".

Does this make me feel like a failure?  Sometimes.  But I'll be real with you, I never even applied for ONE teaching job upon graduation.  I would be lying if I didn't admit that some of it had to do with my consuming fear of rejection, but also having student taught for Oyler School in Cincinnati Public, and performing most of my observations and classroom management in the same, as well as substitute teaching in a few more schools for Cincinnati Public, it is fair to say I became disenchanted with the profession.

My decision to not pursue a career in teaching was (is) a disappointment to many people, chiefly my parents, who funded that endeavor.  Sorry mom and dad.

I am still trying to figure out what I want to do with my life.

Rob really wants us to do a business together, and we came up with a company we call Two If By Sea Designs for a project back when he was still in school.  In this notactuallyexistant business, Rob and I would provide multiple services including web design, graphic design, and on my end, photography.

Because yes, I would love to do photography.  Unfortunately, there is so much equipment that I would need, and I would want to take classes, etc etc etc.  And it would be so freaking expensive.

Also, doesn't it seem like everybody is becoming a freelance photographer nowadays?  It's kind of annoying.

And of course there is that ever-present part of me, that tells me that it wouldn't even be worth it, because there are so many people that are and always will be better than me, and who am I kidding?

But seriously.

Why do people feel like they have to have a career in order to be successful?

tuesdays

are spent alone. Rob teaches a class on top of his regular work day.  I know it is a long day for him, but he also really likes teaching and also likes the guy that he is teaching with, so I don't feel so bad for saying that I love all the time to myself

On a different note, Christmas will soon be upon us and there are still many gifts to buy.  However, Rob has already received his.  I finally broke down and allowed him to order the iMac that he has wanted.  Sometimes I feel very sad knowing that I could have made many car payments with this money, but we are looking at it as a business investment, hoping that Rob can soon start some freelance work, and all the programs he needs to use require a Mac.  SO, if you need some web design work done, or any design work really, Rob is your man!

I am still trying to think of some other little things to get him, but all he wants is expensive technology.  Sorry Rob.  Only one overly irresponsible financial move per year.

 But I am very excited for our first married Christmas!

hi.

So, before John Robert Chipman and I exchanged vows and entered into holy matrimony, I had this idea that I was going to keep a real-life daily blog to document our first year of marriage. Then years later when we were extra old and had children and junk we could look back and read what it was like in the beginning.  However, seeing as how we passed our SIX MONTH (gasp!)  milestone yesterday...fail.  Rob promised he is going to build me my own blog, but to get a little practice I decided I might as well try at this.  I already feel awkward.

Um.  I had a blog once.  Remember xanga?  Yeah, that was embarrassing.

Also, what do you call a blog?  I chose A Secondary Color for now because the blog is supposed to be about two people trying to mesh into one life, like the way two primary colors make a, well, secondary color.  I don't know what I want to call my *real* blog so I am accepting ideas.

Still feeling awkward.