recent happenings

I feel like I need a more organized way to approach this blog, as I never feel I put anything that worthwhile and that it is too random for even me to enjoy.  So, until that day comes (which is likely a long way off), I will give you some random updates on events that have occurred recently:

1. Little girl starts preschool next week.  At first, I saw this as a decent opportunity to quit.  Then I started thinking, why would I quit?  I have been doing this a year and now I am being presented the opportunity to keep my full-time pay, with less hours and I calculated the 3 days she is at school, I will only be working an average of 3-4 hours per day yet being paid for the full 8.  I know that is a pitiful way of looking at it but for right now, it is worth it.

2. An awkward event in my life needs a bit of a back story: little girl's family lives in Oakley, and Hyde Park Plaza is behind their street.  We frequently walk to different places within the plaza (Bigg's, Michael's, Panera, Starbucks) and always have to pass by Bob Sumerel tire shop.  Well, we have become a certain amount of friends with several of the employees, guys who know our names, that I am little girl's nanny, and wave, sometimes engage us in conversation and little girl enjoys seeing.  Anyway, about 2 weeks ago I walked to Panera to get lunch after little girl went down for her nap (remember, her mom works from home so I did not leave her there alone) and had to yes, pass by Bob Sumerel.  This is the first time I have done this without little girl.  The 'friendliest' of the mechanics waves hello to me as I passed and asked where little girl was, and I told him she was napping and I was just grabbing lunch.  That was that...until I came back.  I saw him walking from the parking lot and coming toward me, trying to get my attention.  He started out by saying, "I probably shouldn't say this..." (oh dear, oh dear) "but there are a few guys in there who talk about you" (stop, please stop) "and we kind of figured you had to have a boyfriend since you seem pretty indifferent.  Do you have a boyfriend?" (...what? 'Umm...I'm actually married') "Oh, you're married!?  How long?" ('A little over a year') "Wow!  How is that?  I'm 38 and I've never been married!  I'll probably never get married.  I don't like change" (...umm...'I think it's pretty okay if you find the right person...'?) "Yeah, yeah, that's true.  Just so you know, it wasn't me who talks about you!  Just so you know!  I'm just nice to everyone!  I'm from the country and that's just how we are!" (...what is happening right now?! k...well bye!)

Yes, that is pretty much verbatim.  It was a lot less awkward than it could have been, I think, because I never got creepy vibes from the guy before and I believed him when he said it wasn't him.  Anyway - I told little girl's mom the story because I thought it was funny, since no guy has said anything like that to me since, well, I guess 4 years ago when I met Rob, and little girl's mom was upset about it!  For real!  She was all, "I'm going to go talk to them about it!" and started speculating as to which of the guys she thought he could be talking about and I was like, "I really don't think he was trying to hit on me!  It was just kind of awkward and funny" and she was like, "Well I'm going to say something next time I see them."

I thought she was kind of joking, except I seriously haven't seen any of the guys since that day!  They are never hanging out by the back door where we pass anymore, and today we finally saw the guy who inquired of my relational status, and he totally saw us and did nothing.  It was way more awkward than being asked if I had a boyfriend.  I should ask her if she said anything, because if so, that is humiliating.  Also I'm afraid they got in trouble or something.  Ugh.  Anyway, my life is awkward.

That was long.

3. On a completely different note, we are now in the market for a dog!  I worked up the guts to talk to mon pere about it and he did not seem thrilled with the idea (he thinks it is unfair to leave a dog home alone all day)  but he said that if we wanted one, we could get one.  If you are unaware as to why I feel the need to ask my dad permission to get a dog when I'm married and we live on our own, it is because my parents are our landlords.  BUT YES.  A DOG!  Finally!  Though we are abandoning our first plan to get a specific dog from a breeder because (1) though I would love a puppy in the breed of my choice, we just are not around enough to give it the proper care and training it would need throughout the day and (2) a rescue dog is in much greater need of us and (3) is cheaper.  Tonight I asked Rob if we got a female dog could I name it "Genevieve" a la Madeline's Rescue, which has been my dream since I was a small child.  He said no.

If you are unfamiliar with the book, the plot goes something like Madeline falls into a river and everyone's freaking out but then a stray dog saves her and Miss Clavel let's her keep the dog and she names it Genevieve.  Rob denying this request literally crushes a childhood dream.

4.  I finally made my first nanny friend!  One of the hardest parts about being a nanny is the lack of peer interaction.  The places I take little girl put me in the circles of more stay-at-home moms than nannies so I haven't really made any friends.  Except now!  She's not exactly a nanny, but an au pair from Germany!  We met a couple weeks ago at Joseph Beth Booksellers in Rookwood and exchanged numbers.  It was completely inconvenient timing though, as the two boys she cares for started school this week and little girl starts next, but we are hanging out officially as friends this Friday!

So...that's an update on my life.

parks and recreation

not feeling too hot.

I totally had it in mind this week that I was going to try and take control of my schedule so I would stop feeling so stressed.  I had this stupid theory that if I went to bed earlier and got enough sleep, and then woke up in the morning with adequate time to prepare for my day before I headed to work and actually made it on time, that I would perhaps have a less stressful week.

Well that was only a theory.

Because, here it is, Wednesday, and I am about to curl up in the fetal position.  

So, just to get it off my chest, a list of complaints in my life (in no particular order)

1. My back.  I get it fixed, then I move furniture, and now it is destroyed again.
2. Period.  Yeah, I said it.  Period.
3. Nannying for a work-from-home mom.  GAH.

4. Wanting to quit but having absolutely no idea where to go from there and also not wanting to screw over my current employer.

5. Going to my brother's facebook page and seeing a whole slew of flirty comments from dumb, skanky teenage girls.

6. My stupid driveway that is crumbling apart.

7. The wrinkles starting on my face and I'm only 26.

8. Speaking of, the fact that my entire body is aging like I'm 10 years older than I really am.

9. All the dumb things I see and hear every day that somehow make me 20x more irate during this special time of the month.

10.  I don't know, probably something else.  But I felt like I needed 10.

Rawr. 

weekend summary

I cured my bad mood on Friday while Rob was off at a show with our friend Sam at the Southgate House by spending the evening watching Parks and Recreation (LOVE) and crocheting fun little pieces from my new book I got in the mail:

This book totally caters to my desperate need for visuals when learning a new crochet pattern.  So if you enjoy crocheting, I would recommend this book.  I am pretty slow and have a pretty limited skill set but still came up with a few:

Saturday & Sunday count as mild successes.  I had been wanting to clean the hardwood floors for weeks now but finally got around to actually doing it.  Saturday morning I did make it out to the chiropractor and he fixed my cursed shoulder and then I went about undoing his grand work by moving furniture and mopping for three and half hours.  So things did look about like this for half the day:

Ooh, ooh - and perhaps you noticed in my photo of the crochet motifs, I found a new little friend this weekend:

I know that I really need to get over this owl thing, and I don't want to be one of those people that has a house little stuffed with owl trinkets, but he was just too precious I couldn't pass him up.  Also I found him in the Halloween section at Hobby Lobby of all places?   

Well, here's hoping I get my stress under control this week.  Hope you had a great weekend!

an end to a long week.

This week has felt like an eternity for me.  My back has been hurting so badly for the past month and I have had literally zero time to go to my chiropractor.  At this point falling asleep takes hours and when I do I don't sleep soundly because it is so uncomfortable.  Sitting in soft chairs with no support for my lower back is a joke.  And the fact that I am in pain and running on little sleep has been making me..how shall we say..snippy?

I hate the feeling of carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders.  Seriously.  When I get like this it feels like some super-strong giant person is pushing down on my shoulders and all I want to do is scream.  It's the stress that really gets me.  I am completely and utterly incapable of managing my stress, which, apparently, comes from nowhere?  The smallest thing and trigger me into hours worth of bad moods and make my body tense up so tightly.  Yesterday I went on a 50 minute walk by myself after flipping out at Rob to try to take the edge off of the tension in my shoulders.  BLAH.  Luckily my chiropractor is in tomorrow and maybe I'll get a bit sorted out.  Though I could really go for a massage.  For an hour. Or forever.

scattered thoughts for sunday

+  I am attempting to organize the bathroom closet tonight, it is mission: impossible I'm pretty sure but whatever, I'll try again.

+ There was a meeting for people at church interested in teaching today.  I went.

+ Today my mom gave me some random wooden household knickknacks so I could paint them.  I used to love picking up old furniture from thrift stores or garage sales but since the bed bug scare of '09 I avoid used items (that I don't know where they came from).  Seriously.  I for a fact know of someone who had bed bugs in their house and all the clothes and furniture they got rid of were DONATED TO GOODWILL!!!!!!!!!!  Also I had a friend pick up a couch from a yard sale only to find out it had bed bugs. Too risky these days.

+ I love that I haven't had to run the air conditioning this weekend.  I think I have expressed here before that open windows are my favorite.

+ I made dinner tonight and felt proud so I took a picture of it:

+ Also, this song has been playing on repeat in my head for the past week:

+ Um...the end.

thursday, thursday

The truth is, I'm sitting in the dining room eating chocolate ice cream straight out of the carton.

(I don't feel bad about it)

Also, the weather in the Cincinnati area has been marvelous today.  In fact, Rob and I had dinner outside on the deck, something we haven't done at all this summer due to disgusting amounts of blazing humidity.  Now I have shut the air off and actually have the windows open!  And there is a glorious breeze!  My favorite!  Now all I need is a pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks and we'll call it autumn.

Hopefully this weather, or at least lack of humidity, sticks around a while.  It would be an excellent weekend to go to the drive-in.

Well, my ice cream is gone so I guess I better get up and walk it off.

tuesday chipotle date

Today Rob met little girl and me for some Chipotle dinner.  Her mom is out of town on business so we have had some extra hours the past couple evenings waiting for her dad to get home.  As you can see Rob acted as mature adult and put his chip bag on as a hat.  Little girl followed suit, except she put it on upside down and spilled chips everywhere. 

sunday photos

Today my lovely cousin Hannah and I went on a photo adventure.  These are a few pictures I snapped during the day.  She's such a natural beauty.

some things

I definitely feel like I need to make this serving tray at some point in my life.  Along with about a zillion other projects from Design*Sponge.

Um.  I totally bought these Fossil beauts tonight.  I suck at budgeting so bad.  Now I just need Rob to take me on at least 100 dates so I can wear them and justify the money I spent.  But seriously, they are perfect. *swoon*

I was informed by two parties today that Death Cab for Cutie is coming to Cincinnati, at the end of September, after our hassle to get to Columbus and see them last week.  What the?!  Oh well, I guess that means we have to go again.

I get that this rug is intense, but I have already informed Rob that I will probably need it at some point.  I'm a little too into the whole zigzag/chevron action that's going on in the design world.  Courtesy of West Elm, of course.

Lastly if you are looking for a quick read that makes you think then I would recommend this book.  The lady I nanny for recommended it to me from her bookshelf and I read it in a few hours while little girl was napping.  It definitely didn't see it as the "cute" book that she thought it was, but I felt mildly introduced to the re-education craziness that they did during the Chinese cultural revolution, which I knew nothing about.  

So yeah.