Happy Anniversary to me!

Today is my anniversary... with blogging. It was one year ago today that I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't sleep so I started writing. And appropriately, I couldn't sleep at all last night. I should have gotten up and written this post then. But here I am now. I really can't believe that I've been doing this for a whole year now. But at the same time, I can't believe I haven't been doing this longer.

Going back to that first blog entry, I really do feel that I've grown over the past year. (Granted, I did write it in the middle of the night.) But I hope that's evident in my writing and not all in my head. I'm at the point now that I really want to do more with it. I'm not sure of the exact direction that will take at this time, but I'd like to make sure it's at least moving forward.

I see that last year, between this time and the end of the year I wrote 19 posts. I'm going to make it my goal to write that many in the next month. So far, the most I've written in a month is 9. But like I said, I want to start pushing this forward!

Not all of them have to be full blown blog posts. But I plan to post something for each of those days. I think that'll be a good start. It'll make me think about it more often and push me to write, even if I don't have anything in particular in mind to write about. It'll be a bit of a brain exercise as well. We'll start this off at the beginning of September.

...this is gonna be fun!

A bouquet of newly sharpened pencils

"Don't you love New York in the fall? It makes me wanna buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address."
-You've Got Mail

Ok, so it's not New York and it's not quite fall, but I still love this line. This is how I feel about Back to School day. Going back to school makes me want to buy pencils and notepads and erasers! (I'm such a nerd, I know.) I miss that excitement of the first day. You're excited about seeing everyone and how they've changed over the summer. You spend hours picking out your best outfit for that first day. You look forward to seeing what the teachers have planned for the year. However, that's about where it stops. Once that first day is done, it's time for summer again! 

My wonderful cousins started school today for the first time in North Carolina. I'm really excited to catch up with them this weekend and hear all about it! Mariah started her first day of high school. I can't believe how grown up she is! That first day of high school was so BIG. Even though it wasn't quite as big of a deal for me as for others since I was in the same school as I was in middle school. But 8th grade was such a hard year for me since I was sick, so being in high school was a time to start over. Taylor began 7th grade today and Katherine started 4th grade. They are all growing up so fast! I'm so glad that they're here now so I can be a part of it. 

But I miss that excitement of starting something new. I love starting new things. Having a chance to reinvent yourself. That's what each new year always brought. That's what going off to college meant. That's what starting that new job did. I haven't had that feeling in a while. I've taken some big new steps, like getting married, but I don't consider that in quite the same category. I don't feel that you "reinvent" yourself when you get married, even though it is an exciting new stage of your life. It makes me really want to find something truly "new" to start. I guess for now, I'll have to live vicariously through my cousins... and take a stroll down the school supply aisle every now and then.

Wordless Wednesday: Baby Jordan and Auntie Stephie

My first earthquake

Well, like many of you out there, I experienced my first earthquake today. I've lived in North Carolina my entire life, and have never had anything like that happen. My mom probably thinks we're all a bunch of pansies because she grew up in California and knows what a "real" earthquake feels like. But after our little tremor here along the East coast, I'm satisfied with saying that I never need to feel that again.

Jarrod and I have been talking about refinancing our home. I know we've only been here a year, but the rates are so much lower now and we've been looking into moving to a 15-year mortgage and saving ourselves a boat-load of interest. So I was on the phone with a mortgage broker when it happened. It was funny, because she said, "I think we're having an earthquake," and I sort of laughed because I knew she was working from home and figured her kids were running around and she was making a joke. But no. Then, my house started shaking. Nothing too major happened here, but enough that I was trying to figure out what was the most valuable thing I should grab to make sure it doesn't break. But the shaking didn't last long enough for me to actually make a move to save anything. I could hear the glasses jingling and see the metal piece that we have on our mantle shaking. It lasted somewhere from 30 seconds to a minute, I'd estimate.

Immediately afterwards, I hopped on twitter and saw my feed lighting up with, "Was that just an earthquake?!" Then the news organizations started chiming in saying it was a 5.8 (or so... I'm hearing conflicting reports) out of Virginia and it was felt all the way to Canada. Now I've realized that commenting on anyone's Facebook status was a mistake, because I'm getting tons of emails of the "also commented" type.

So there's my story. My first (and hopefully only) earthquake. Mom, please don't make fun of us too much.

A day off

It's 10am and I'm sitting at my kitchen table at home. I have the day off. But don't get too excited for me, I have to work Labor Day in a couple of weeks, so I suppose it all evens out.

But since I have a free day, yet nobody else does, I'm hoping to be very productive today. Actually, I already have been. I've already accomplished a couple of big things on my list. One - I'm not quite ready to talk about yet (the suspense is killing you, isn't it??) and Two - I got a crock pot full of NC BBQ simmering on the counter.

Now onto what's next... I had planned to make a trip out to the outlets in Mebane today, just because I can, and because I want some new Yankee Candles, but I think I've decided against that since I'd prefer to save the gas and the money I'd spend once I got out there.

I have a couple of craft projects that I need to finish and/or start on, so that's my main goal for now. I started painting one of the cabinets in my kitchen, just to bring in a little color (since they're all white), but never finished. Right now I have one random square of Oyster Bay colored paint in my kitchen. So finishing that up in priority #1.

Secondly, I've decided that my wall photo collage that I put up in January is not working for me. I love the way it looks, but at the same time, it's a bit of a pain because the pictures are constantly getting out of whack. Which is very hard for someone as anal as I am about my house. Plus, I accidentally broke one of the big frames and I just don't think I like the whole thing enough to replace it. So I'm working on a new wall project and I have a couple of ideas of what I actually would like to make for it. I'm so not a crafty person, but I'm feeling more and more so this week. Let's hope it lasts! Or it may just be delusions of grandeur...

OK, now it's time to actually get to it. Onto project #1!

Insomniac

I have been having the most difficult time sleeping for the past week or so. Getting to sleep, staying asleep, getting back to sleep... all of it. It's so ironic, because you'd think with how tired you are because you haven't been sleeping, it'd be a lot easier after a while, but it's not.

 

I have even been good these past couple of days at getting to bed on time in order to help make up for it, but I'm still waking up constantly and having trouble getting comfortable at night. Last night in particular, I woke up around 2am and couldn't fall back asleep for what seemed like hours, but who knows. I didn't want to check my clock because I was afraid it would wake me up even more... and probably discourage me when I saw how late it was.

 

I'm not usually one to sleep through the whole night without waking up at all. My internal clock has officially reset to my schedule and I wake up EVERY day, without fail, at 4:30am. I suppose that's a good thing in case my alarm doesn't go off one morning, but at times when I'm on a different schedule, it can get a little annoying. However, still when I do that, I tend to roll over and look at my clock and fall right back to sleep. This week, I've been waking up about every 2 hours. Sometimes I fall asleep quickly, other times it's like last night when I just lay there for a while.

 

An afternoon nap could be helpful, but I've had no time for it this week and don't see that happening over the next day or so either. Next week, however, I'm back on the early morning shift for a few days. Maybe that will help... Otherwise, I may have to pull out the melatonin again.

Awesome August

Here we are again, at the start of another month. I've always been told that time goes by faster and faster the older that you get. Well I can't imagine what it's going to be like in another 10 years or so. Especially with celebrating my first anniversary and realizing that I've officially been married a whole year!

But this has been an interesting month for me. I've posted before about my schedule changes, which have made for me being pretty tired this month and in desperate need of a vacation. Then on top of that, I've had two bouts of this bug that's kept me in bed for a couple of days each time. I'm just getting over the most recent. Thank God I had taken today off as well! It's given me a chance to recuperate. But then tomorrow, it's back to the grind.

But now, I'm really looking forward to the month ahead. It's the first month in FOREVER where Jarrod and I have pretty much nothing planned. I'm so excited! It's time to relax and hang out with our friends and just enjoy our time together.

And now my computer is about to run out of battery, so instead of getting up to plug it in, I'm just going to wrap this up.

I honestly feel a little lost as to goals this month. I've been sort of out of the loop between vacation time and feeling a little under the weather, that I'm not even sure which way I'm going this month. But a few things I know I want to do:

• We should finally be getting the office set up the way we'd like! That means it's time to get busy with working in a slightly more professional environment, rather than on the couch.
• I've fallen out of the habit of setting up a meal plan, which is great for knowing what we'll be eating and being able to make sure the meals are balanced and not spending too much at the grocery store. I'm starting that back up this month.
• Finally, as I said before, it's time to relax. I think I really need it. 

And last month:

• Get things moving on this project with Rea. Not like I'd like. Moving this on to this month.
• I've been working on changing some of my lifestyle and eating habits (I'll post something on this later in the week), so I really want to stick to them this month.
• Celebrate the most amazing year of my life with the most amazing guy in the world!