Aloha Kisses – Wordless Wednesday
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Monthly Archives: August 2007
Preparing for the Greatest Job in Life
I’m a sucker for these “tags.” I am not sure how exciting this is to anybody, and most of my readers, well my family and friends at least, already know my complete resume. But the mere fact that Colleen tagged me, means I cannot say no. So here are eight of the jobs I’ve either had or are currently holding down:
1. Writer and photographer, Leslie Local. The now-defunct newspaper was a 8-ish page, weekly newspaper, chock full of small-town news. I worked there throughout high school and during summers while in college.
2. Bookseller, Waldenbooks. A during college, first-married, help us get by kind-of job. Actually, I LOVED this job. Got to work around books, and people who loved books, and people who wanted to buy books. All. Day. Long. Also took advantage of the added perk of “borrowing” the books, like my own personal library. It was heavenly.
3. Marketing Specialist, D2K. My first “real” job, straight out of college. I started doing whatever the Marketing Manager needed help with; writing, planning trade shows, getting everyone coffee, etc… and then found my niche and started learning graphics programs and design, all on their time. Designed my very first website for them.
4. Art Director, LetsTalk in Miami. Eww…this was one of those jobs. Had a horrible boss, worked a ton of hours, never got the help/money/materials/resources we needed. But the title looked great on a resume and helped me to get the next job.
5. Design & Publications Manager, SF-based law firm. The law firm isn’t there anymore, but it was a pretty low-key nice job. Worked in a building right on the bay, under the Bay Bridge. It was a pretty sweet gig.
6. Creative Strategist, DigitalThink. The company has changed hands and changed names, but this is the job that I think defined me as a “professional” being. I worked with huge clients like Circuit City and Schwab and designed some pretty cool on-line training for many companies. I met most many of my SF friends and a lot of people I freelance for now at DT. It was one of those jobs that you give your “all” to, and occasionally you’ll get some recognition and satisfaction from it. I started there and was employee #12, I think, and when I left it was a publicly traded, an over 200-employee company. Pretty drastic difference, and one crazy ride. I feel very fortunate to have lived it. And happy to be done with it, as well.
7. Design Freelancer. What I’m up to “professionally” these days. I have a few long-term, regular gigs, and am constantly picking up little jobs like logos, websites and invitations. I actually really enjoy being a freelancer. It allows me to pick-and-choose what I want to do, still contribute to the family income, keep up with my skills, and manage my own time. All of which allows me to do my absolute favorite job…
8. Mommy. I really feel that doing all of #1-#7, before I had the girls, is what makes this particular “job” my favorite and makes it the job that I have been most successful at. The other jobs taught me perseverance, persistence, patience, effective communication, creativity, time management, and an appreciation for the best things in life. All of these skills get tested and used each and every day as I plunder about, trying to be Mommy to E. and A. Both of which are two very demanding clients.
But really what better job is there in the world?
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So now the rules state that I must *tag* some other bloggers. Since I have a whole bunch of friends who have recently forayed into the blogging world, I will “tag” the following and help them get some traffic, too! If you are so inclined, leave a comment letting us know you are playing along, too.
Looky here!
Someone thinks I’m “nice.”
Hee.
Sweet, sweet Christina has bestowed this award on me, and I graciously accept. I mean it when I say that *meeting* people like Christina, is a great example of one of the cool things about blogging, and I so wished she lived close to us, or at least in the same state. So thanks, Christina. I will work hard to uphold the “nice-ness” and do the award justice.
Now I, in turn, will bestow it on two of my girls that I was actually friends with long before this whole blogging thing – but they both deserve the nice badge as well, Kim and Kimmer. (Must be something in the name Kim, huh?) Now, you two go forth and play nice!
Right. Now. 999…
If you are following along, you know what that means.
Quick! Send something.
—Edited—-
Ding, ding, ding….and with the last comment in our Crafty Tuesday, Kimmer is the 1,000th commenter! Congrats, Kimmer you are the new owner of an iTunes gift card (or Amazon…if you prefer!).
Thanks for playing along and for letting me know you are all out there still reading.
Crafty Tuesday
I have two different layouts of Ad’s “in progress” right now, well, really in pieces. I have all of the photos and papers I am going to use for her 1st Halloween and 1st Christmas, but I just haven’t had a minute to really put them all together. They are spread out all over my desk, (ha! I will not be taking pictures of our craft/playroom today.) just waiting patiently for me to get around to them.
Are we still on track? Hmm…we have 2 1/2 weeks before Ad. turns 2. Yikes. I think we’ll be close though. I have the major holidays, Halloween, Christmas and Easter to do still, and a few others. I need an all-day Saturday scrap and I could be done, I think.
I have been craftily (is that a word?) trying to plan Ad’s birthday party, though. Here is the invite I got done last week.
(click to big it…as always)
If anyone has any good ideas for a cake or “kippy” type foods, let me know! (1000th commenter gets a prize – don’t forget!)
I have also completed an invitation for a pool party for some neighbors and a few different flyers for others, so my crafts have been all computer-based the past week.
But my friend Elisa has been sharing her craftiness with me, but she doesn’t have a blog, (Yet! She needs one, so we need to work on her.) but you can see her layouts here and here. She did these albums for her son, John’s coaches. Each player has their own page. Pretty impressive, huh. Yeah. I’m off to get some more done on mine. Check out Kim – I’m sure she has some cool stuff to show today, too!
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Updated: Check out Kimmer, too! She has gifts that she made my girls. They have not left Em’s feet since we received them. Ad loves hers, but can’t get them between the right toes most of the time!
Little Bloggy Milestones
This is my 250th post on Barely Controlled Chaos! I can really only count when I switched over to this, my official blog, because my old journal didn’t have handy little stats pages. I guess I could go back and *count* them, but I’m far too lazy for that.
Just happens that I also just hit my all-time high in visitors for the day. (Yahoo! We still have half the day to go, too!)
AND we are nearing the 15,000 visitors mark. That just really blows my mind. 15,000. I had always assumed I had 20 faithful reader or so…but even at 250 posts, that is only 5,000 visits. So me thinks there might be a few other people lurking out there. And speaking of *lurking,* I am really close to hitting 1,000 comments. Hmm…I’m thinking maybe I’ll have to have a little contest for my 1,000th commenter. I’ll think of something to maybe help some of you “de-lurk!”
But, I really just wanted to say thank you to all of you who consistently come back to read about our exploits, laugh and cry with us, and ooh and aah over the cutie photos of the girls. I started this as a journal really intended for our family to keep up with my pregnancy and the growth of Emma. Nearly five years later it has turned into this! Pretty cool. So thank you.
I have so enjoyed writing, crafting and creating these fun memories and being able to share them with you. I hope you have enjoyed it as well and come back often.
(And maybe leave a comment to win….you know I so love comments! I’ll give you a little help, we are at 974 right now.)
Sandy Bottom – BSM
Okay, I just have one more favorite from the beach this weekend, then I’ll give it a rest.
I can’t put my finger on why I love this photo as much as I do.
I love the hint of the pier across the top (and it’s reflection in the sand), I love the perfect curl of the wave just starting to break. And of course, I love, love, LOVE that sandy-bottomed, determined little girl.
Sometimes the pics where they girls are running away from the camera are the ones that make me long for them even more.
Run over to Tracey’s to see more Best Shot Mondays!
Humor me…
I have a post in my drafts about our Arctic Tale adventure and my new tree-hugging devotee, but I haven’t been able to finish it. It is important and I will be posting it, but for now…will you just go and sign this petition?
Tell BP that it is unconscionable to be dumping anything in Lake Michigan, especially their toxic ammonia and sludge. And if you are really angry about their serious environmental infractions, boycott their gas stations, too!
I have all kinds of opinions on this and other environmental issues…stay tuned.
(Thanks DJ and Nik for the heads-up on this one.)
Surfer Girls
We spent the morning at the beach. J. and a bunch of guys from work decided they would *try* to learn how to surf. Not really sure that was accomplished, but we had a lot of fun.
Surveying the ocean…”Do you think it is cold?”
“Oh, yeah. It is still chilly!”
Little surfer, little girl…
And…what is better than one sandy, surfer girl? Two!
I think going to the beach is one of my all-time favorite ways to spend a day. I just wish it didn’t take so much effort and work. We have THIS in our backyard…we need to take advantage of it more often!
Hope you are having a great weekend. Hang ten!
Brownie Nightmares
Today was Em’s last day of school. So she is “home,” for all of three weeks, and then the Fall Preschool starts.
It was a little anti-climatic, I think, but nonetheless, they got to have a little party. Plus she will more than likely have a different teacher next time around, so it was goodbye to sweet Mrs. McCoy. She was a wonderful teacher for Em’s introduction to the whole wide world of school.
Last week there was a little sign-up sheet for their party today and I asked Em what she would like to bring. I was reading down the list, “water, cheese and crackers, cut-up fruit, brownies…”
“BROWNIES! I want to bring BROWNIES, Mama,” she screamed.
Ah, a girl after my own heart. So we signed up for brownies.
Then last night we went over to the neighbor’s house to get the “scoop” on their kitties and fish, since we are taking care of them while they go on vacation. (We also get to “take care” of their pool for the week, yahoo! And it is a really, really nice pool!) So we were swimming, (the kids were, at least) having a glass of wine, (that would be the grown-ups) and visiting. And time kind of got away from us, so I didn’t get the girls home and in bed until nearly 9:00. And yes, paid for it all day today, cranktankerous girls!
As I was quickly hosing them down in the bath, Em pipes up, “Oh, Mom! Don’t forget we have to make brownies for school tomorrow!”
*#@%!. I had forgotten. Of course.
So I shuffled them off to bed and ran downstairs to make a couple batches of brownies. Pulled them out, ran to bed myself and thought all was well.
And then I had “brownie” nightmares. The entire night. In between Emma waking me up (a grand total of 7 times) I would get back to sleep I would have some snippet of a dream that involved those stupid brownies.
The first dream was that the brownies had nuts in them and made half the class sick. After I woke up with a start, and then realized I had in fact, NOT, put nuts into them, I drifted back to sleep.
I think Em woke me up once or twice in there, and then I had a dream that Ad had knocked the whole plate of brownies on the floor, and I had to “smoosh” them back into squares because I didn’t have time to make any more.
And, cue Em, who wakes me up because she had to go the bathroom, then I realized Addie hadn’t been anywhere near the brownies, so it was, just a dream. All is still ok.
And finally in that early-morning, kind of “floating in-and-out” sleep, I dreamt that I had entirely forgotten to make the brownies and was running around trying to figure out what to do.
As I woke up from that one, and reassured myself that I did indeed make the brownies and they were ready to go, I tried to figure out why all this stress over some cocoa, sugar and eggs?
I came to the conclusion that I so want to be that Mom who can do it all; bake brownies, have a fantastically clean house (where I can serve brownies off of the floor!), look all pulled-together – you know that calm, cool, collected Mom that seems to just have her crap sorted out. I want to be her, but it is just so hard. And it has been especially hard this week.
It isn’t an earth-shattering conclusion, I know, but I think I just need to let something go. I feel like I strive on having a “full plate.” I seem better organized and I love being able to look back on the day and really feel like I accomplished something, if I have a looming “to-do” list. But really is it worth it?
I mean will Emma remember that I made brownies for her to bring into her “Last Day” party?
Well, let’s not answer that. Because knowing the memory on that girl, she will.
Maybe I just need to find a good bakery where I can buy a decent batch of brownies and pass them off as homemade, and call it a day.