Holidays

So, Christmas is over. New years is in just a few days and then life is back to normal.

Martha got her first ear infection on the 23rd. Scared me and Chris to death. She was burning up, shaking, and just wanted to lay in my arms and cry. Her 103 degree fever finally came down after some tylenol and sleep at 4:30 AM. She's an early bird...that's for sure. I went into labor with her at 4:00 in the morning and now her first time getting sick (other than a cold) was at 2:00 in the morning. She had a double ear infection confirmed on Christmas Eve. She was feeling pretty good by that night though after 2 doses of antibiotics. And then we woke up Christmas morning to her first tooth poking through! The very next day she had her second tooth pop up too!

She got a lot of toys and clothes from family. I think she had a good first Christmas.

Chris and I kept it pretty low key this year. We both went over the budget we set for each other, but it was worth it. We only had about 4-5 gifts for each other, but they were good gifts.

I'm happy that all the traveling and gift giving is over. I can take a break from having to do anything for a few months. Maybe I'll stop yawning at some point.

Martha is really starting to show her personality more and more these days. She's still not crawling, but she gets around by rolling. I feel like crawling is just around the corner though. She just has to learn how to move those legs! She loves to talk (she says "ba" a lot) and scream. Just this week she's started to be really sweet and lean over toward me with her arms out if she wants me to pick her up. It's nice to feel needed.

You're never too busy to respond to a text message.

Whether it be immediately or an hour later, you're never too busy to return a text message. I challenge anyone to prove to me that they cannot possibly find 30 free seconds in their day to click a button, type a sentence, and hit "send."

In the case of The Person That Needs Your Response vs. The Person That Does Not Respond, the Plaintiff wins. Judgment is awarded in the amount of $me thinking you're a bad friend. Case closed and sent to archives.

Let's be honest. There's a lot of selfishness in someone that thinks they're too busy to give away a minute of their time. Out of the 1440 minutes in the day, you should be ok with giving at least one of those to another person. No matter if you have 2 kids, a spouse, a job and homework. .0694% of your day IS available, I promise you, to spend on someone else. Especially if you've already taken the time to read the text message. At that point, you've simply just decided to not respond. And THAT, my bad friend, is not being too busy.

Double fail!

My back up plan became too difficult as well. Looks like I'll be turning to my third choice, which is not nearly as crafty as my first and second choices. At least I finally have all my supplies. Now it's only a matter of finding time to do this stuff. I always put too much on my plate!

Fail!

I started working on part of the extended family's gift packaging last night. It was a massive failure! It would take countless hours to do and it was very sloppy. I can't send out sloppy work, so it's back to the drawing board. I have a back up plan in my head, but the wheels are still turning. We'll see how this idea pans out...

#30

This is the last of the "30 Days of Truth" thing.
And I'm totally not even going to do the prompt. Because it's stupid.

Write a letter to yourself, tell yourself EVERYTHING you love about yourself.

See? It's stupid. And it uses the word "yourself" too much.

So, instead I'll just talk about what I want to talk about, which is Christmas. It is my absolute favorite day of the year. When it's over, I get kind of sad. I've pretty much finished all of my shopping (except for 2 things that I've yet to find time to go out and purchase).

For extended family in Nashville, I have a special project that I'm working on. It requires a little more of my time, so I've got to get going on that soon.

I'm also working on gift wrapping ideas. Something different than just wrapping in regular wrapping paper. But, we'll see. Right now it's just an idea in my head.

#29

Something you hope to change about yourself. And why.

I've said this a thousand times in my life, but I really hope to change my weight. For there to be less of it, in particular. Since I was about 17 years old, my weight has gone up and down and up and down. Right now, I'm the heaviest I've ever been. Only 10 pounds of that is weight I gained when I was pregnant. So really, there's no excuse.

It's easy to become complacent and just say, "This is just how I look." Sooner or later, you just accept that this is the way you are. Every now and then you see pictures from when you were thin and know that it's possible to be that thin, and kind of wish you could get back there, but man, that requires a lot of effort.

I can use every excuse in the book....too tired, too busy, blah blah blah. Really, I just don't have the drive that I need. To get that drive, I need to see results, but without doing anything, I won't see any results. So....there you have it.

I WANT to lose weight. I plan on doing it. I just need to get rid of the excuses first.

#28

What if you were pregnant or got someone pregnant, what would you do?

Oh man, that would just be soooooo horrible (in an exaggerated sarcastic tone).

Come on! It would be awesome to get pregnant again. I hate the actual being pregnant part, but I love the baby result. And I do plan on having at least 2 more kids. Honestly, I'd love to have another baby right now, but I'm just not sure I could do that to our finances and my mom who so selflessly watches both Cohen and Martha every day for free. Plus, we just packed up the baby swing the other day. That thing was a bitch to put up.

The current plan is to have another baby after Cohen is in preschool, as to not have to ask my mom to take care of 3 kids every day. I feel that would be unfair. So, maybe in a year or so I can get pregnant and by the time I have the baby Cohen will be 4 and in preschool. 4 is when they go to preschool right? I don't really know much about that stuff yet.

Anyway, that's the sorta-kinda-barely-talked-about-it plan.

I do find it kind of funny that I'm writing about this today since I feel like the worst mom in the world because Martha rolled off the bed this morning while I was getting ready for work. She cried for literally 10 seconds. There weren't even real tears. I think the 3 foot drop to the carpet just kind of shocked her. She's 100% fine and I've been reassured by several parents that it's common for that to happen and most of the time it's no big deal. So, thank goodness she's ok. I'll be putting her on the floor from now on.

#27

What's the best thing going for you right now?

I mean, what's NOT going well for me right now? I have a wonderful husband, little precious snugly baby girl, a roof over my head that only leaks in a few places, a job that pays me all the monies, an incredible family, two crazy but awesome cats, a car that works, and a little extra to buy me things that I want but don't necessarily need.

What is the BEST of them all? Well, I just can't pick one thing.

I need a new business card.

Shaunna "Making It Happen" Turner
Getting Shit Done Professional

Seriously though...I can get some shit done.

My most recent accomplishment is selling my parents kitchen table and chairs on Craigslist within 2 days and for more than they thought they'd get for them. Also, I finally heard back from the people at work that run the blood drives. I'd pitched the idea of doing a Be The Match drive here a few weeks ago. (It's a bone marrow donor program.) Someone I know has recently started treatment for cancer and has been promoting bethematch.com. Look into it if you don't know about it. I became part of the bone marrow registry early last year when they changed sign ups from $25-$50 to free. So, I'm officially in the registry bank. Anyway, I thought it would be a good idea to do a donor drive at my work along side of the Red Cross blood drive that we do every few months. So, I talked to some people and they finally got back to me today. Looks like it's going to happen! They just have to check with Be The Match and Red Cross to make sure they can work together since they want to do them on the same day.

These are just two more things that I can add to my list. The list is long. (Did I mention I found homes for 7 cats within just a few weeks?) If you need something done, I can do it.

Is there a market for people that can make things happen? Because I feel as though it's my calling...