Reeling

Today was a nonstop day at work. I feel "dizzy" and exhausted.

Too many calls and interruptions when there is deadline and today didn't start that great anyways. Not to mention I forgot my glasses at home. Yay me! Haha!

Truly it wasn't that horrible, I've had worse, but such a tight deadline takes so much out of you. At least tonight is Dani's swimming lessons so that will be relaxing and fun. :)

Thirty-Day Blog Challange: "Day" 6: A Blog

Recently I have found that I am loving more and more fashion. I have the fashion bug. I want to buy new clothes quite frequently and I have to say this blog is partly to blame: College Fashion.


This blog shows great ways to make outfits, sometimes with one main piece (i.e. a summer dress) or just different looks and styles. What hooked me to this blog was a series they did on the Disney Princesses. I was googling "Tangled" for Dani, looking for the soundtrack online and found this blog post.

Fabulous right? I love it! I could spend hours on this blog going through their archives and finding new ideas! Gotta find good pieces from Salvation Army or Ross or somewhere cheaper than the actual items they list!

http://www.collegefashion.net/inspiration/fashion-inspiration-walt-disneys-tangled/

30 Day Blog Challege: Day 5: A Person I Miss

This didn't take me long to figure out. Right away a name popped into my head: Jaimie.


Jaimie is one of my best friends. We met at college and became fast and close friends. We had a tradition of a certain day of the week we would study, watch Alias and have goldfish and Dr. Pepper (and sometimes jerky). *sigh* Wonderful times. We both love movies, though her collection far surpasses mine. Probably by 500 or some crazy number like that. I remember once she sent me a list of all her movies. It was at least 3 pages long single spaced! I want to buy her movies all the time, but who knows if she already has them!


After I went home from college we talked almost everyday on the phone. And we kept that up for a very long time. Things slowed down a lot after Dani was born. Eventually it slowed down to nothing sadly (phone-wise). We email back and forth occasionally, but it isn't the same, and we both know it.


I keep hoping that I can save up money and see her during the summer, since she lives down south. So far it hasn't worked out. I saw her for an afternoon when my family was driving back home from Disneyland, but it wasn't enough. I think the main problem is that I am not taking enough time to keep in contact. I get too distracted by other things. I keep on trying though and I don't think I will ever give up staying in touch with her. She just means too much to me.

Thirty-Day Blog Challange: "Day" 4: A Goal

OK. This is going to sound so silly, but it is a goal.

I will bring lunch from home for a straight week.

Sounds kind of anticlimactic right? Yeah, I know. But I tried to think of a goal that isn't too huge, but one that I can get off my checklist as it were.

Working Downtown is fabulous. Love the area, but it also comes with a gazillion restaurants. Let me name a few for you: Flavor Bistro, Mary's Pizza Shack, 4th Street Market, Thai House, Tex Wasabi, Mac's Deli, Mom & Pop's Shop (Formerly Mr. Pickles), Sift (though that is dessert), Starbucks (they have more food now), and La Vera's.

Plus there are other taqueria's, chinese food, indian food, pubs, and the Plaza is a block over so there is the food court there too. It is crazy hard not to eat out at lunch! Even if I bring lunch from home I have a hard time not thinking about what other food I could get. Especially since I know Flavor's sandwich days and Mondays, Wednesday, and Thursdays have my favorite sandwiches. *sigh*

The problem is that these all add up. I am doing alright with it financially, but then I think about the type of money I could save if I didn't buy lunch so often. Grumble.

So what I really need to do is plan my meals, make stuff ahead of time and just stick with it. I might even lose some weight if I brought my own meals from home!

So there you have it. My all exciting goal. Hopefully it will get easier after I complete a week and then I can go for weeks....and maybe treat myself once a month or something....maybe. :)

Stuck

I am stuck in a rut. I am tired all the time. I want to be at home. I want to sleep or just play with Dani. I'm really glad it is Friday, but I don't think my weekend is going to be slow enough for me. *sigh* Can I just take Dani and go off for a week? I would love to take her to the beach or on some sort of mini-hike. I would also like to do some crafy/artsy projects.

Time is not my friend, and it is taking a toll on my shoulders.

Photo from http://sophisticated-simplicities.tumblr.com/post/8819214602

"You and Me Makes We"

Dani and I at the Lavender Festival in Kenwood 2011

30 "Day" Challenge: Day 3: On My Mind

Something on my mind. Sometimes this is hard to pin-point because my mind runs around all over the place, it even makes me have a hard time going to sleep at night because it is so active. I picture my mind having all these files and it is as if my brain thinks I have to look at each file before letting me relax.

Anyways. Today, and lately, I have been thinking about getting debt-free. My sister and I took the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace class together a little over a year ago at my church. I highly recommend the class to everyone! Great class, great habits to form. During the class I remember being so discouraged because I had only a 10-hour a week job and didn't know how I could possibly pay off my loans, be able to send Danika to private school, etc., etc. Regardless I started working on my budget and staring my emergency fund.

Later I got my current full-time job. This enabled me to fully fund my emergency fund and start the "Debt Snowball" process of paying off my loans. I have worked hard to keep up with it and through God's provision have paid off all but one loan in a year. This is my biggest loan of $9,000 from school but because of my living situation I am able to pay rather large chunks at a time.

Here is the biggest thing on my mind: I like to calculate how long it would take me to afford/pay off something to decide how much I should allocate my budget. With the way things are right now, and if no emergencies come up (which I know can), I can pay off my last and final loan in...drum roll please......

Fifteen months. If I paid the regular base payment it would take me 9 1/2 years! I am so excited and passionate even about paying this off. That way I can save for a house or whatever else we need. It feels like such a huge step to me and it has taken a lot of work. God has blessed me very much. I'm praying that I can keep on this path and then when I am debt free to not go on a big shopping spree (a big temptation, lol!)

30 Day Challenge: Day Two - A Hobby

Disclaimer: Obviously, consecutive days are out of the question. I try my hardest not to use the computer at home and I always want pictures to go with my blog posts, so both of those make my posting much much slower.

A hobby.

As I mentioned in my Day One entry, I love art. Painting is one of my outlets and most definitely one of my hobbies. I have been drawing and painting for as long as I can remember. When I was in elementary school I remember I made an "art class" with a few of my friends and "taught" them how to draw some of my pictures. One was a cartoon horse if I remember correctly. :)

In Junior High/High School I was tutored by RVC's art teacher, Laurie Reynolds. She taught my friend Shannon and I. I have two favorite art pieces that I did from those sessions. One was a transitional art piece where a paint brush turned into a California Poppie. I'll have to take a picture of it and include it in this post. I love how whimsical it is. My second favorite piece was a self portrait that I did. What was really fun about it is that I covered the entire page with charcoal and then removed it with an eraser to create the image. Very messy, very fun.

Lately my paintings have been landscape and floral. I'll have to take pictures of some and include them as well. My most recent painting I did a month ago or so. It is an old tree with the four seasons on it in sections. My mom asked if the painting was for her and I told her that I wasn't sure if I would be giving it to anybody because I like it so much, haha!

I hope to continue painting and to be able to give them to friends and family. I just have to allow myself to make mistakes in them and incorporate the mistakes to make something beautiful. It is my way of recognizing how God works, we make mistakes and mess up, but God uses it to make something beautiful.

30 Day Challenge: Day One

Me.

I am a single mother of a beautiful 3 year old little girl. She is the love of my life. She also has made me remember the simple joys in life and to live not only for myself but for others as well. I have found that I live my life through my heart more than my head. Sometimes this causes troubles, and yes heartache, but I wouldn't change that about myself. I have to work very hard to keep my balance of head-and-heart thinking. I love the Arts. Art and music have been an outlet of mine to express how I am feeling when words cannot suffice. Some of my best paintings have been done when I am overwhelmed and even upset. Sounds kind of odd, but I think the slow movement of composing the piece calms my spirit and slows down the many thoughts in my head. Despite my love of art and my emotional self, I work in a law firm. I never thought of myself as a highly analytical person, like the people who work in the legal area, but I have actually found a good fit in this law firm. I tend to be the buffer, for the clients as well as the attorneys. I have had to learn to have tougher skin when people get upset. Given that one of the attorneys I work with does bankruptcy, we can have upset and anxious clients (and rightly so). Its not easy working full time. I find myself wishing I could be home more with Danika, even wonder if I am being a good mom by working full time, but I know that God provided this job for me. So I try to just trust that this is the right thing for now and wait and see what comes next. Knowing that God goes being my expectations and the joy and love of my daughter, I know that it will be great wherever we are lead.

Thirty-Day Blog Challange Introduction

I cannot believe it has been a over a year since I last posted! Wow. So much has happened and I feel like I need to devote a whole post to just that. ...Unfortunately, that post will not be this one. I will have to set aside a specific time for that later.

My sister and I have been talking about doing a blog challenge for a while now...probably over a month and she started hers so I thought I probably should start mine. The challenge is as follows:

Day 1: Yourself.
Day 2: A hobby.
Day 3: A thing that is on your mind.
Day 4: A goal.
Day 5: A person you miss.
Day 6: A blog.
Day 7: A picture of you when you were little.
Day 8: A pet peeve.
Day 9: A show.
Day 10: An insecurity.
Day 11: An actor.
Day 12: A thing that worries you.
Day 13: A list of favorite memories.
Day 14: A bad habit.
Day 15: A wish.
Day 16: A picture you took.
Day 17: A secret.
Day 18: A thing you are afraid of.
Day 19: A recipe.
Day 20: A picture of your "crew".
Day 21: A dream you had recently.
Day 22: A think you do everyday.
Day 23: A "meme".
Day 24: A topic that makes you think.
Day 25: A song.
Day 26: A think you want to do before you die.
Day 27: A think that makes you mad.
Day 28: A quote.
Day 29: A place that gives you wanderlust.
Day 30: A future.

For each day I will write at least one paragraph about the topic. Should be interesting!