Category: Uncategorized

Today Nikki went to see a friend for lunch. She gave Nikki a small bag of baby presents, and in this bag was a set of four bibs with website names embroidered on them.

Me, thinking it was a cute cross-marketing attempt, decided to visit the sites.

This company didn’t buy the domains they are printing on the bibs!
Why? Why would you do that?

Two of the four were purchased about three years ago by two different individuals. The other two were purchased by me, just now.

The free advertising they are giving me should more than cover the $7.50 I paid for them.

A couple of weeks ago, we had an event at work, and at 7 months pregnant, I saw several people that I haven’t seen in…oh about 6 or 7 months.  This made me want to write a post explaining a little something about myself. 

For those who didn’t already know, I’m not a “scream it from the rooftop” type of person.  I’m can be very quiet and reserved and even shy at times (I know, this is shocking to some).  Don’t get me wrong, I was very excited to tell close friends and family we were expecting (and engaged when that happened), but I didn’t feel the need to blast Facebook (just the opposite with the baby news), rent a billboard or anything like that.  I don’t Ohh and Ahh at showers, parties, and the like, and I, like most of my family, don’t get very outwardly excited ever.  Yes, that means it takes a lot of energy for me to do parts of my job, but it does not mean that my gushing thanks is any less sincere, on the contrary, because it is such a stretch for me to be so enthusiastic. 

I wish my co-workers from the spring of 2007 could tell you about how they found out we were engaged.  Let me preface it with, there were 3 people in our building, so we were relatively close for the 3 months I’d been there and I might have been the most extroverted one- and I’m definitely an introvert.  So, we got engaged over the weekend. I went to work on Monday with my new, shiny ring on and went about my day.  Hours later one of our regular clients came in, noticed it, and inquired.  When he left, I remember turning around and Craig was just staring at me and Vanessa had her hands on her hips.  They were surprised I didn’t tell them first thing, and Vanessa said I should have walked in the door with my left hand on my forehead to tell the world.  I told her that just wasn’t me or my style. 

Some may say “but you had a big wedding, doesn’t that mean you sort of are a more ‘scream it from the rooftop’ type?”.  I did, but that wedding was Adam’s, not mine.  Don’t get me wrong, I wanted the big dress and I picked the flowers that I really wanted, but, having a wedding like that was what Adam wanted, not what I wanted.  (And yes I am awesome for planning that wedding for Adam and yes he knows it!)

I’m not sure where I’m going with all this except to say, writing is easy for me, but topics and putting it out there is hard.  I get easily overwhelmed with lots of attention and I’m generally a very level person (I’d like to think I’ve had only few exceptions to that, even during pregnancy, so far) and it takes a lot for people who do get outwardly excited to perceive me as excited, because I don’t show it like they do. 

Now, don’t take any of this the wrong way, both Adam and I are super excited about our baby, but you may think he’s more excited (and maybe he is, I’m nervous about it too, and a little overwhelmed with the holidays-  but, I’m also a realist, that’s another post) because of his behavior as compared to mine.  Really, we just have different personalities and different ways of feeling and showing emotions.  Neither of us does it the right or wrong way, just different ways. 

There is a lot of evidence that goal setting helps people be more productive. I did it last year for a couple of things and was fairly successful in my endeavors. I set two very specific goals and met both of them. That’s the key: specific….and written down.

Next year is going to be a little bit different for us since Ben will be here in February. It’s hard to tell what’s a reasonable goal and what’s not since we don’t really know how much things are going to change. Casey took all the low-hanging fruit in the leisure time category–or so I like to tell myself. So here are a couple of small things I want to get accomplished in 2012:

• Finally build a CNC router. I’ve already ordered the expensive parts, and they should be here by mid-January. I hope to have this finished by March.
• Have an Affiliate Website making $1000 per month by the end of the year. I made $90 in December on one of my blogs and it was the first time I’d ever made any money online. It was kinda cool. I’ll be happy with $1000/month in passive income from any source, but that’s too broad to be a good goal.
• Run a 5K. Maybe the Purity 5K in April. There are lot’s of Couch to 5K programs out there and I ought to be able to find one that I can work with. Casey will probably help, although the couple of times I’ve decided to start jogging with her on the leash she’s been very confused and began to jump on me.
• Find a local church and begin attending regularly. We really liked CrossPoint when we lived in West Nashville, but it’s too far for us now.

That’s probably enough for me. One other key point is to not overwhelm yourself by trying to do too many things. There has to be a balance between “so easy that it’s not a challenge” and “so hard that you can’t possibly finish.” In those extremes you get discouraged.

Despite the 11,000 things on my to do list, today has been a fairly lazy day so far. We’ve been sitting on the deck talking, reading, watching Casey play, yelling at Casey to get out of the flower beds with her freshly bathed self, and doing somethings online. It’s been really nice. Soon, the sun will climb high enough in the sky to encompass the entire deck in it’s heat and we’ll go inside to be more productive…maybe. One load of laundry is done (2 more wait), the meal planning for next week is done, the grocery list is near complete, now to finish the laundry, go to the grocery store, and clean the house. Oh well.

It’s been a beautiful and moderate morning. It’s been lovely to sit outside the three (then 2 of us when we realized we were getting onto Casey a lot, because she’d been up 3 and a half hours, so it was nap time) and enjoy our coffee and each other’s company. Now, we’ll soon have to rejoin the world of our to do lists.

We talk a lot of blogs in our home, but rarely of this one. We both have readers that where we subscribe to many blogs (ok, I subscribe to several, Adam subscribes to a ton), but we haven’t really discussed the direction of this blog. It’s been rambling so far and includes much of Casey and her growth and antics, but what should it be? We have some examples of people who work full time and have families and still find time to blog many times each week, then we have other examples of people whose full time job is to blog. We’re much more in the former category, but we’re still trying to determine our subject and the direction this will go.

What do you think? What should we blog about?

Those of you who know us, know that we are busy and that we have always been busy ever since we started dating. Adam will tell you that it’s because I over schedule us because I can’t say no and try to please everyone (all of which are partially true). I usually say because we (yes both of us) like to be social and like to do a lot of different things. This made us schedule “us weekends” where we don’t make plans with anyone and have a date weekend once a month.

Then, in November, Casey Jayne (if you don’t know how her name was chosen, that’s a story of it’s own) was born and in January she came home to live with us! Since then, busy has been ridiculous! We haven’t seen many of our friends (and really only have seen those who have called and said how about we go do x on date y – hint – if you’d like to see us in the near future this is a good plan) and we have been exhausted. Someone…Casey…likes to wake up at 5am and requires a lot of attention. She has a strict schedule that makes sure she gets enough sleep to play and run around like she likes to (all while hopefully not getting so tired that she gets bitey…or mouthy as her favorite groomer calls it…it sounds nicer that way).

We are very excited that her baby teeth, aka razor sharp needles, are gone, so now those who do see us will notice I don’t have nearly as many scratches on my arms. Instead, she has fairly dull adult teeth, and I have bruises instead., She doesn’t bit like she did, but when she does, she likes to pinch with her front teeth. Most days I think it hurts less now. Also, this is the signal for bed time, so it doesn’t happen all that often.

So, now instead of running around town like chickens with our heads cut off, we run around the house and the yard like chickens with our heads cut off. We go on walks around the neighborhood, we play ball, we throw sticks, and we practice Casey’s training. We new our schedule and life would change drastically when we got a puppy, but I know I didn’t completely grasp just how much change it would be (sounds like some kid advice we got a while back, thanks Meggie #1).

I guess what I’m really trying to say is, we’re busier than ever but in a very different way. Casey is a very playful girl and loves everyone. If we haven’t seen you in a while, we’re just busy and you should call/text/email/facebook and let us know when you’d like to do what with us. We’ll try to work it in. Our schedule is further complicated by Adam’s job transition that requires him to travel for several weeks in May and June for training. Please understand if we just can’t right now and have to push out to August. We’re just busy, and Casey is a little baby (almost 6 months old!) and still has a strict schedule to keep us all sane….well, saner than we she gets off her schedule.

Or is it?

I’ve been telling myself for, oh, since my last blog post that I should blog regularly, whatever that means. I’m not sure if it’s weekly, daily, every other day, or what, but it’s certainly not every few weeks. I’ve started a couple of blogs and quickly forgot each one and I don’t want to do that again (and I thought Adam would post too). So, here I am weeks later, because I feel like I have no time. But tonight I’m making time.

In reality, I understand that I have the same amount of days, hours, and minutes as everyone else. I feel like I cram more things into those hours and minutes than I should, but I’m trying to make the most of it…right? Sometimes my hours are too full for me to appreciate them, like yesterday. I had 3 meetings back to back to back (this was mostly self-inflicted) and I just felt rushed all day. Nothing was wrong, the only thing that didn’t go well is a co-worker lost her phone, it was just rushed and I felt like a rushed mess throughout the day.

A co-worker recently said that things feel much slower here than where she’s from (up north…a huge metro area). I want to go there…where it feels much slower, where I feel much slower.

Tonight Adam is out to have dinner with a friend, and Casey and I are home. Normally, I’d be rushing to make dinner so we could eat, then Adam would rush through the dishes so we could get Casey out, then we’d rush through something else to do something else, then one of us will just give up and go to sleep.

Eventually, one day, maybe, I’m going to learn to quit rushing. Hopefully, that will be about the same time that I stop complaining that I have no time and learn to prioritize appropriately. Rather than doing every little thing that “needs” to be done, I have to figure out what needs to be done and do that, and learn to say “no” what doesn’t need to be done.

How do you determine what needs to be done? How did you determine when and how to say “no”, especially to yourself?